Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Stoney out at SD Wave; KC Current, Orlando Pride, and Washington Spirit continue to impress

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Stoney out at SD Wave; KC Current, Orlando Pride, and Washington Spirit continue to impress · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
0:09
football. Before we hit the pitch, if you
0:10
enjoy the show or love ones football as much as your boys
0:12
do, cupcake it with us already. Let's go do this every single
0:15
week, sometimes twice a week. Subscribe to follow YouTube,
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Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen
0:21
links to all of our socials, every single one, all available
0:24
in the show notes of this episode.
0:26
I am your host Dino suspicious and as always, I am joined by my
0:29
Co host, Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:32
I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. This was a very good week in
0:37
NWSL football, one that I think worthy of an adult beverage.
0:42
Or two perhaps? Oh, look at you.
0:47
Oh, wow, almost. The synergy, the alignment.
0:51
That's what I'm talking about. Cheers.
0:53
Cheers to you buddy. Yeah, man, as you mentioned,
0:59
tons of great, great football to talk about.
1:01
I've got takes, I've got thoughts, I've got feels, I've
1:04
got emotions, a bag, if you will, of things that I want to
1:07
kind of unleash on today's episode.
1:09
But I want to kick it right back to you.
1:11
Little 1-2 action to start off the show.
1:13
Where do you want to get started?
1:15
We are recording this on Monday, June 24th and there's some news
1:21
of the day that came out. So let's go into the news.
1:24
We're reviving this wonderful segment.
1:27
Not so wonderful for Casey Stoney though.
1:29
Casey Stoney out as manager of the San Diego Wave.
1:33
The club announced today that they are quote parting ways with
1:36
manager Casey Stoney. I was surprised.
1:39
I'll just get right to that the The Wave.
1:42
As you might recall if you have a memory longer than 10 months,
1:46
The Wave won the 2023 NWSL Shield.
1:50
They started this season by winning another trophy when they
1:53
won the Challenge Cup over Gotham FC.
1:55
Now it is also worth pointing out that they lost a home
1:58
playoff game to the Seattle Rain last season, and they currently
2:01
sit at three wins, 6 draws, 5 losses, and 9th in the table
2:07
with a roster that probably shouldn't be there.
2:10
You know, I I did feel bad for Casey Stoney as well because we
2:13
see this in other sports. You break out the checkbook,
2:17
make a lot of big moves and Rio Sanchez move, obviously a huge
2:19
one. They had a lot of offseason
2:21
moves as well and then big name marquee players on that roster.
2:25
And I think we've kind of been on it the whole season.
2:28
You know, there's something just looked very, very off with this
2:30
waveside. I even commented last week going
2:33
to that Houston match. I'm like, all right, you're
2:34
playing the dash bottom of the like a like a like a proper
2:37
bottom of the table type team, even though they're pesky.
2:40
And I said I'm like, I think they have to get a win.
2:42
They have to get 3 points and for a stretch, they look like
2:47
the better team. But for huge chunks of that
2:49
match against Houston, they looked on Houston's level.
2:52
And it's in some spots, like the last 1520 minutes in particular,
2:56
they did not look. I mean, obviously it's tough
2:58
because they played the midweek match as well, going to Houston,
3:02
contending with the Heat. Great friend of the pod at Iron
3:05
Gazi, Stan checked in to confirm that the Heat was a sitch.
3:12
It was not not a thing. And they couldn't get it done.
3:16
You know, there's a zero bite to their offense.
3:18
I'm not sure how much of that is Stony, but you know, from the
3:21
outside looking in, looks to be like also a leadership vacuum
3:25
there. Yeah, I think you're right.
3:26
I think it's, I think time will tell.
3:29
You know how these stories always kind of start to
3:31
matriculate out after a manager or any kind of coach leaves or
3:35
even sometimes when a star player leaves, you start to hear
3:37
the stories, you talk about potential leadership, vacuum
3:40
them kind of looking a little just like stagnant on the pitch.
3:44
Sometimes. I'm saying this, I I don't, I
3:46
have not done any reporting on this.
3:48
I don't have any inside information.
3:50
But you commonly see that they, yeah, the results weren't there,
3:53
but maybe there was some other stuff going on behind the
3:56
scenes. You know, I think sometimes
3:58
people lose track of the idea that this is a job for these
4:01
folks. And these are people with
4:03
personalities. And you think about, you know,
4:05
workplace dynamics and who blames who when a project
4:08
doesn't go well, who blames who, You know, when Alex Morgan's not
4:12
standing in the right spot or, you know, just her picking her
4:15
out of the sky as an example. But I think it'll be very
4:17
interesting to see how you go from 10/6 and six in your first
4:23
season in the league and finishing third in the table as
4:26
an expansion franchise to then winning the NWSO Shield, to then
4:30
sitting at three wins, 6 draws, 5 losses and you're fired after
4:33
14 weeks. I think there is more of this
4:36
story to be told. You're probably right about
4:38
that. The reason I kind of brought up
4:40
the example of what we see in other sports is somebody ends up
4:45
being accountable, you know, and I'm not sure, obviously the
4:48
mechanics behind the scenes there, but the team as an
4:51
organization decides to bring in a bunch of players.
4:53
Those moves don't work. You know, whose fault is it?
4:56
No way to tell. You know, it's a fault pie.
4:59
I'll just like break out the pie that you like to kind of
5:01
introduce. Everybody's got a slice of the
5:04
fault pie to some degree. But with that said, you know,
5:08
you look at the extremely soft edge of this offense.
5:11
Just twelve goals over 14 matches, That's brutal. 6
5:15
assists total this season. So Cory Bethune has eight, whole
5:19
team with six. And then for every goal that
5:23
they scored, it takes them 13.6 shots this season.
5:27
That's second worst in the league.
5:29
I don't think it helped them that Jaden Shaw also was like
5:33
extremely hyped coming off some like insane USW and T matches,
5:39
right? That really just kind of fueled
5:41
maybe like some larger expectations than were
5:44
warranted. Sure.
5:45
But either way, things were way, way, way off in San Diego.
5:49
I think, you know, it's something we've talked about
5:50
quite a bit on this show. Sucks to see for Sony because I
5:53
think, you know, she is a good manager from what from what we
5:56
can see. But I'm with you.
5:57
I wouldn't be surprised if stuff starts to trickle out here.
6:00
Yeah, it's probably only in a matter of time she can count her
6:03
lucky stars, though I doubt she'll get the VLATCO treatment
6:06
with the full documentary, so she can rest easy knowing that
6:10
that's not coming out. But yeah, you know, I wish her
6:12
well. I I just think the Wave haven't
6:14
won a match since May 8th, and that was at home against Utah
6:18
Royals. In that span they are zero wins,
6:21
5 draws, 2 losses. I think if you're not the shield
6:26
winning manager from the previous season, I don't think a
6:29
lot of people raise an eyebrow if you get fired after a stretch
6:32
like that with the talent on this roster.
6:34
I just go back to my caveman brain where I'm just like man,
6:37
they got a lot of good players and this coach just won and they
6:41
didn't start particularly fast last season.
6:43
So I will say I was surprised, but the more like the numbers
6:47
that you went over 12 goals in 14 matches, 6 total assists with
6:52
that kind of skill level on the field.
6:54
Even if I've seen some people say that they thought like
6:56
McCaskill has been like a little disappointing as one of the
6:59
additions that they got. And obviously you had Sanchez
7:02
late and she you got to integrate her into the offense.
7:05
Even still, I think the points you made about their stagnant
7:08
offense, I could see why management made the decision
7:11
they did. Yeah, for sure.
7:13
And we'll obviously keep an eye on Casey Stoney where where she
7:16
lands next. I'm sure that franchise will be
7:18
very happy to be able to to be able to bring her in.
7:22
And then for San Diego, you know, we'll see how much of the
7:25
issue was the manager. I think we're going to learn a
7:28
lot. On one hand, it feels like the
7:30
season's still sort of brand new, but the reality is too that
7:33
we're already in the back half of the season and that was part
7:37
of our big wave dash preview from last week.
7:39
It's like we're getting into deep ish waters.
7:42
It's very risky to be kind of like mulding around.
7:45
It's not like this team's like fifth or six, right?
7:47
You know, they've been pretty consistently in the bottom three
7:49
or four of the standings. So it's it's more than just off
7:53
track. This kind of feels a little bit
7:55
broken and maybe trending towards somewhat of a lost
7:58
season for San Diego, but who knows, Still a lot of football
8:01
to be played. Maybe this serves as a kind of
8:04
like a a galvanizing event for them.
8:06
You always look for the new manager bounce, so it'll be
8:08
interesting. They are at home on Friday
8:11
against the Chicago Red Stars and then the following week on
8:15
July 5th, they are in Portland to play the Thorns.
8:19
So always interesting to see in any sport.
8:22
What kind of new manager bounce are you going to get?
8:24
You see it in the Premier League all the time.
8:26
A club will fire a manager, but right before like the softer
8:29
part of the schedule, there's like a almost APR thing that
8:32
they're doing there being like, hey, look, we we got the right
8:35
person. I do not think playing the Stars
8:37
and then playing the Red Stars, pardon me, playing the Red Stars
8:40
and then playing the Thorns. I don't think that's the soft
8:42
part of the schedule. So it'll be very intriguing to
8:44
see how that works out. Totally, totally agree.
8:47
I want to shift gears here because this weekend was a big
8:51
weekend for the contenders. We've talked about, you know,
8:56
top three. We've talked about a top four.
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Should we have expanded to a top five?
9:01
Three teams really shined very, very bright this weekend.
9:05
I want to start with my hometown, Orlando Pride, who
9:08
looked absolutely unstoppable. They are right on Casey's heels.
9:12
They're even on points. One goal separates them with
9:15
regard to goal differential. For me, this was the most
9:18
thorough, most impressive win of the season for any team.
9:20
Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, six NIL is pretty
9:24
convincing, even if it is against the team at the bottom
9:26
of the table. Utah kind of was living
9:29
dangerously in the in the beginning of this match.
9:31
I think Mike Watts said as much. He may have used that exact
9:34
term. I think somewhere around like
9:35
the 30th minute when the Pride were just continuously
9:38
threatening. But I think once they get that
9:40
second goal right before halftime, it was like, oh, there
9:43
goes the dam. It's completely broken.
9:45
I didn't think it would be to the tune of six, but I mean,
9:49
they can just score from anywhere and they just turned
9:51
defense into offense so fast. We've used the reference before.
9:55
What's another high flying offense we can use?
9:58
That's maybe not the Greatest Show on turf for you guys, but
10:01
you guys are looking like the 1980s San Francisco 49ers or
10:04
maybe the Dan Marino Dolphins with Mark Duper and Mark Clayton
10:08
or something like that. Like you guys just score from
10:11
anywhere, whatever you want, yeah.
10:12
A little bit of 2007 Pats baby baby Moss.
10:16
That's a in the conversation I would say I want to rewind back
10:20
to the match that I covered against BFCI, asked Seb Hines in
10:23
the post game presser. Specifically my question was,
10:26
hey, lots of offensive talent in that match against BFC, 25
10:29
shots, just the one goal. And then my question was, hey,
10:33
what's the plan offensively to cash in a little bit more?
10:36
I went back to revisit what his answer was to that because I
10:39
think that was a little bit over a month ago and they had the two
10:43
draws in there, but they've looked explosive since.
10:46
He mentioned a couple things. He mentioned decision making and
10:49
execution the final third. He also expressed optimism
10:52
saying, quote, we're getting into the right areas, getting
10:54
into good positive positions, End Quote.
10:56
He also said there's a lot of competition within this group of
10:59
players as well. I think Seb may have found his
11:02
eight attackers. So one thing that I noticed in
11:05
this one, they had eight players that were just go forward all
11:09
the time, foot on the gas, just go Banda, Marta, Adriana, Julie
11:14
Doyle Mccutchen, Carrie Abello, Brianna Martinez, Summer Yates.
11:17
So you mentioned that summer Yates goal before halftime.
11:20
Here's how all the link UPS went for the goals for the six goals.
11:23
Abello to Banda for the first one.
11:25
Summer Yates off a turnover, Marta on a cross in from
11:28
Adriana, Banda off a turnover. So it's two, two players that
11:32
converted turnover into a goal unassisted.
11:35
Marta again, Bond on the assist and finally Aliwatt another
11:39
assisted Banda. So like you said, every
11:41
direction, whatever way you want it, you know, Bond is like all
11:44
right, I'll score 2 and then I'll just get 2 assists before I
11:47
get out of here, hit the showers.
11:48
Just, you know, just. I'm glad you lay it out that way
11:51
because it's, it's funny, you know, we, we watch these
11:53
matches, we cover these matches. And like, just like my
11:56
overarching feeling is like, God, you just never know where
12:00
the offense is coming from. And then you spell it out like
12:02
that. It's just got to be a nightmare
12:04
for every opposing coach. Like, what are you trying to
12:07
limit in that case? So because you know, you're not
12:10
taking away Banda, that's off the table.
12:12
You're not taking away Marta. No chance.
12:14
So OK, do we try to limit Banda? I don't even know if you can
12:17
limit her now. Now you have all these other
12:19
players with such great quality who can, who can play passes in
12:22
but can also score. I mean, they're just a, they're
12:24
just a complete nightmare and we haven't even yet talked about
12:28
they have a smart organized defense right behind those those
12:31
other attacking players. Oh yeah, this is their second
12:33
straight shut out. I I brought this eleven goals
12:36
allowed stat. I think it's been a few weeks
12:38
where I'm just like, Yep, 11 and like every every week it takes
12:41
up one match. So it's like, Yep, eleven goals
12:43
allowed still in 14 matches. What's interesting, though, is
12:46
statistically they're in the middle of the pack with regard
12:49
to almost all of these major defensive categories outside of
12:52
goals allowed, you know, they're not really taking the ball away
12:54
at a high rate. They're not really, you know,
12:56
tackling or intercepting or block like they're sort of top
13:00
four somewhere between 4:00 and 9:00 in most of these categories
13:03
except goals. When you watch them though,
13:06
they're smothering everything. And I think you're so afraid of
13:10
of like the counter or the fast break, however you want to think
13:13
about that, that it really messes with teams minds.
13:16
And I think when you think about what they're able to do
13:19
offensively, in their last six matches, they're averaging 18.1
13:23
shots per game. That's insane.
13:26
Yeah. That's, that's a shot every 5
13:28
minutes roughly against Utah. I know it's Utah, but 27 shots,
13:34
12 on target, six goals. That's that's off the charts.
13:38
Doesn't even put it into into the proper context in terms of
13:41
what we saw and. I just want to I want to go
13:43
through Utah's last five matches.
13:47
And so I'll I'll start back on May 17th.
13:50
They lose at North Carolina, one nil.
13:53
They lose at home to Kansas City, one nil.
13:56
They lose at home to Washington Spirit one nil.
14:00
Then they get A1 nil victory over Bay FC and then they lose 6
14:04
to nothing. So like, you know, they haven't
14:06
been giving up in in that run of games.
14:08
They're giving up 1A match essentially.
14:10
And then Banda and company stroll into down and you just
14:14
get run off the field. Yeah.
14:16
I mean, Banda specifically, you know, she was torturing Tejada
14:19
and just running Pat like there was just no, no, she just did
14:23
that thing which just runs around you.
14:24
It's like I'm not even going to run parallel to where you are
14:26
because I don't want you reaching out and grabbing me and
14:28
fouling me. Just going to loop around.
14:29
And I know that I've still got enough speed to get to where I'm
14:32
trying to go. But yeah, to your point, the
14:34
Royals coming into this one giving up 21 goals in 13
14:38
matches, roughly a goal and 1/2 per match over the entire
14:41
season. So given up six.
14:44
Not really on anyone's bingo card, I would say.
14:47
I actually thought their goalkeeper Amanda Hot was not
14:50
bad. Actually, I think they could
14:52
have given up this. Could have gotten maybe shade
14:56
under double digits if Hot had had an off night, made some
14:59
saves, made some plays. This one could have been even
15:01
worse, I think. I think she's a solid keeper.
15:03
I think last I checked when we were doing the the MVP episode
15:08
and I was looking at some goalkeeper stats, I think she
15:10
leads the league in saves. Now, part of that is that she is
15:13
being pelted with shots from Utah.
15:16
Admittedly not awesome defense, but you see it in those numbers.
15:20
We're talking about the last five.
15:21
She's not letting in a lot and she's under a lot of pressure.
15:25
So I think you're right on the assessment with her.
15:27
I've seen her make some really great saves.
15:29
I think in their opening match I thought she made like two or
15:32
three brilliant saves and like their inaugural well, I guess
15:37
their return match back to the league.
15:38
So you know, tough spot for her. You know that left footed Marta
15:42
strike that like she tucks into the lower corner.
15:45
It's like I I don't care what goalkeeper you are, you're not
15:48
saving that. That's a great point because
15:51
Orlando was going to score on anybody on that on that night,
15:54
you know, and for them to kind of like just cash in on three
15:57
more goals, you know, the last what, like 10 plus minutes of
16:00
the match, just it's insane. It really is insane.
16:04
And then juxtapose against the wave, like again, we opened the
16:08
show with just twelve goals of the season.
16:10
Orlando puts up half of that in in just 90 plus minutes.
16:14
I want to shift gears one more time to match it.
16:19
I was pretty pumped about Gotham FC hosting Washington Spirit.
16:23
This one went down Sunday. I think they moved the kickoff
16:25
time back a little bit to combat some of the heat.
16:28
Yep, Washington looked pretty solid.
16:30
I think they probably shelled out some extra cash for the
16:33
quiet car and those first class of seller tickets 'cause they
16:37
look nice and rested and just mentally prepared to take on
16:40
this Gotham side. I mean, you were right on it.
16:43
You told people to look out for a Rodman game.
16:45
To everybody watching the show, we appreciate you.
16:48
We appreciate you. That's why you watched the show
16:50
for those kind of Nuggets from Dino.
16:52
He he's out here. Drop you.
16:54
You knew it. You're a seer, you're a sooth
16:56
Sayer. You you saw that Rodman was
16:58
going to have a game. And I think we just talked about
17:00
it on the very short list of teams you don't want to play on
17:03
short rest. Washington spirit is is right
17:06
there. The intelligence of Bethune, the
17:08
quickness of SAR and Rodman and their play making ability, the
17:12
fact that they never make anything easy on you.
17:16
As it started to play out silly red carded refereeing decisions
17:20
aside, that almost felt a little bit.
17:25
And please tell me if I'm I'm doing revisionist history or
17:27
like benefit of hindsight here. It felt a little bit like a
17:30
scheduled loss, but it's a scheduled loss because the
17:34
Spirit are so damn good and you just, you wish you had a more
17:37
level playing field against a squad like that.
17:39
Yeah, I mean, I kind of went back and forth a little bit in
17:42
my head. I was like, right, well, is
17:43
Washington this good? Or is this Gotham's second game
17:46
in five nights, Right? Probably somewhere in the
17:49
middle, probably, but I probably would lean towards Washington.
17:53
Is this good? I think they are kind of the
17:55
better team. Gotham sorely missed Lynn
17:58
Williams and Esther Gonzalez managing just two shots on
18:01
target. Even still, with a solid lineup
18:03
of creative players active and available.
18:06
To just kind of have those two on target, that's really tough.
18:09
I did kind of want to get a little bit into Cory Bethune.
18:12
So she has that run early. I mean, she's basically not even
18:16
a super. She's a quantum computer at this
18:18
point. I mean, her brain is just
18:19
operating at a different level. So in that first run, she draws
18:22
3 defenders even though Courtney Brown is running free as can be,
18:27
just right in the middle of the park.
18:29
You know, just totally unmarked 3 on Bethune who still finds a
18:33
way to get the ball to Brown. One touch and fire from Brown,
18:36
one nil spirit. They're off and running.
18:38
The way she curled that pass around those three defenders
18:42
directly into the path of Brown. I don't know.
18:45
I mean, we just you can't say enough about this young player.
18:49
I did my very sports radio talking to soft voice and then
18:52
compare her to some of the great players in the game.
18:55
I stand by it. I mean, you know, as much stock
18:58
as we could possibly buy. We started buying it early.
19:01
Just keep on buying it. I mean, it's it's maturing very
19:04
nicely. She's already like we talked
19:07
about, we put her in our MVP mix.
19:08
She's absolutely one of the best players in the league right now
19:12
today. Yep, and there's not a good
19:14
argument against it. Not at all on this on the second
19:18
goal. So the second goal featured a
19:21
pass that might have been even better than the first pass.
19:24
So Bethune jukes Delaney Sheehan pretty much halfway off the
19:26
screen, slices a ball ahead to Casey Krueger that dissects
19:30
Crystal dud Mandy Freeman with basically 6 inches on each side.
19:34
Just like the narrowest of margins, perfect ball travels 20
19:39
plus yards on the ground and not only does it hit Kruger in
19:42
stride, but it also reroutes her to like a more direct path
19:47
towards the goal. Like Kruger's like kind of like
19:49
looping in a kind of a roundabout way.
19:51
But Thune puts the ball, it's like, no, no, no, bring it back
19:53
in. Bring it back in.
19:55
Maybe 3-4 touches from there, from Kruger.
19:57
She finds Rodman. You know, your boy was all over
20:00
it. I think you also I wasn't sure
20:02
if it was this match or the KC match where you suggested that.
20:06
The groundskeeper batten down the the hatches on on the on the
20:09
goal posts that Rodman one was top two this weekend.
20:14
We'll get into the the the other contender, but that one was a
20:17
she detonated on that one. Casey Krueger has been awesome
20:22
on this team. And you're totally right about
20:24
the way very Patrick Mahomes ask of like, no, no, I need you to
20:28
go this way. And Casey Krueger very Travis
20:31
Kelsey like, Oh yeah, yeah, I got you.
20:33
And then I'm gonna do the exact a perfect amazing thing to get
20:37
where I need to go. I mean, what Krueger carries the
20:40
ball on that play 30 plus yards, 40 yards, whatever, you know,
20:44
whatever it is. She's just been awesome with
20:46
Krueger and Gabby Carl back there.
20:49
I think Tara McCown has been really good this year too.
20:52
Like they just got a lot of stars on this team.
20:55
Like like actual like Bethune and Rodman and SAR.
20:59
We might be talking superstar players.
21:02
I think with Rodman, that's established.
21:03
With Bethune, she's walking right into that.
21:06
I think, you know, with SAR as well.
21:08
But we have superstars and then we have also players who are
21:11
stars in their role. I didn't even mention Andy
21:13
Sullivan yet. We got a title race buddy.
21:16
We got a title race, and I definitely have to correct you,
21:19
Corey Bethune is absolutely a star, right?
21:22
She is absolutely in the conversation of best player in
21:25
the NWSLI mean, you know, I think she's creeping up that
21:29
that MVP ballot in a very, very legit way.
21:32
I mean, if this team wins the shield and Bethune is, I mean,
21:36
she's having the best season for the spirit side.
21:39
She's automatically a top three top four candidate just based on
21:43
what she's doing. And I think you were on this a
21:46
couple weeks ago. She is the hub of the offense.
21:48
Like they're looking to find her very quickly, as evidenced by
21:52
that second goal. And I totally cosigned the
21:54
Krueger point. She's been awesome.
21:56
You know, we mentioned this as well.
21:58
She knows what she's got up front.
21:59
Yeah. So for her, it's grab go.
22:02
And she's the kind of player that knows that the path to
22:05
winning is finding one of those awesome, awesome attacking
22:09
players in stride with something very clean.
22:11
And. And that's exactly what
22:13
happened. I think at this point we've had
22:15
a lot of Olympics discussions. Can Emma Hayes keep Croy Bethune
22:21
off this roster? As an uncapped player, and I
22:24
was, I was also just glancing at the roster again because I knew
22:27
I left somebody off. We haven't even said the name
22:29
Hal Hirschfeld, yet, another rookie who's playing fantastic,
22:32
who was on the main roster these last set of friendlies while
22:36
Bethune was one of those like, training players for those South
22:40
Korea matches. I always say, and I've said it
22:43
for a long time watching football, is that your club form
22:48
has to matter when you select the national team.
22:51
It's one of my great pet peeves when national team managers are
22:54
like, well, this player has played well for us in past
22:57
tournaments. And I'm just like, OK, what
22:58
about the player who is playing great and in super form right
23:02
now? Yeah, God.
23:03
I mean, she's uncapped. So it's it's it's a thing.
23:07
It's not nothing that she hasn't played real minutes with the
23:10
rest of the team. I just don't know how you leave
23:13
her off. She's too good, like you're
23:15
saying, like she's one of the best players in one of the best
23:18
leagues. The other thing is that it's not
23:20
like she's a player. I'm not going to call anybody
23:23
out by name, but sometimes we see players that kind of right
23:26
place, right time. They're on good teams, they're
23:28
on super teams. A lot of poachers type goals,
23:31
sure. So they rack up good, impressive
23:33
numbers. But that's not what we're
23:35
seeing. We're seeing somebody like
23:38
mentally dominating the game, physically dominating the game.
23:42
I mean, I'm going to go one more cross sport comparison.
23:44
She kind of reminds me of Luca in the sense that, oh wow, she
23:48
goes at her own speed. She sees the entire field.
23:51
She knows what everybody's going to do.
23:53
You know, she totally baited everybody into following her
23:57
away from goal to kind of open up that space for Brown and then
24:00
has the skills to slide that pass through four legs, you
24:04
know, because like, two of the defenders were sort of
24:07
positioned in between Bethune and Brown.
24:09
Yeah. And no chance going at that
24:11
speed. You already know the ball is
24:13
going to find its way to Brown and she's able to cash in.
24:16
And like, that's that's essentially the game.
24:19
I thought that was one more kind of cool moment. 90th minute
24:22
Aubrey Kingsbury sort of a statement save on the Katie
24:25
Stengel PK. We knew where it was going, had
24:28
a beat on it and maybe wanted to send a message a little bit To
24:32
me, it kind of feels like Gotham FC is kind of covered a little
24:35
bit like the Yankees, the Lakers, like, oh, well, you
24:38
know, we already know that, you know, this team like kind of
24:41
sleeping giant. And it's like, all right,
24:43
they're they're good. They look good when they look
24:44
good, but at their best, they don't look a cut above any of
24:49
these other three big time contenders.
24:51
That's I think at their best, they could be at the level, but
24:55
kind of felt like wanted to make a statement.
24:57
And I think they I think they really soaked up that moment of
25:01
being like, we came to your house and red card aside, we
25:05
didn't give you anything. You got nothing.
25:07
I love it. I mean, who doesn't get hype
25:09
about a saved PK? That's like a piece of
25:12
information players put in the back of their mind moving
25:14
forward to where it's just like, OK, we know Aubrey's got us back
25:19
there when we need it. I think it's just going to be a
25:21
matter of how often are they going to need it with the
25:24
offensive firepower and the way they they're able to hold the
25:26
ball and kind of play that style.
25:28
So yeah, weird one for Gotham. Short week, you get the red card
25:33
on just kind of a, a set of bizarre circumstances.
25:36
I don't think if you're Gotham, I mean, you're you're right now
25:38
you're 4th in the table. You're 4 points behind, behind
25:42
the spirit. It's definitely not panic time.
25:44
There's a long way to go. You're going to get Lynn
25:47
Williams back. You're going to get a stare
25:48
back. So you don't love this one
25:50
because you you know, you're going to need some wins against
25:52
kind of that top six to really maneuver yourself on the table.
25:56
But it was the Spirits Day and they celebrated as such.
26:00
Yeah, I think that's on .1. Last thing on this match, Leon
26:03
Sanderson. Shout out to Leanne.
26:05
She was on it as well. Katie Stingle had a chance early
26:08
that she sort of knocked around a little bit rather than taking
26:11
first time. And Leanne really got on her.
26:14
She's like, you know, you got to be ruthless out there.
26:16
You're just like very odd brand. But it was very prescient, you
26:20
know, because it was it was a chance.
26:22
The window closed. Obviously you mentioned no
26:24
Estera, no Lynn Williams. You got to take those
26:26
opportunities, especially on short rest.
26:28
You got to kind of steal a goal here, get a big save on the
26:30
other end and like, you know, turn it into a little bit of a
26:33
scrap. That chance for Stingle.
26:35
And I think it was like maybe 7 or 8 minutes later when Brown
26:38
gets on the board and you really felt it's kind of like a two
26:41
goal swing. Not that you know, you know
26:43
Sting was going to finish it, but she turns 1/2 chance into a
26:45
a zero of a chance. So I thought Leanne was really
26:48
on point there. You know, she knows how to be
26:50
ruthless and take her chances. The legend herself.
26:55
I mean, you got to take that seriously.
26:56
Yeah. Rough night for Stengel later
26:58
gets the PK saved, but you know you're going to have some of
27:01
those from time to time. It wasn't really much of A
27:04
Lavelle game, which I think you got to credit the spirit and
27:07
that too. So they'll keep it moving.
27:09
They're going to get their players back.
27:11
I'm really interested to see how they treat the Olympic break.
27:15
We should credit Sandra Herrera from CBS on this.
27:18
But what we shall call the Copa de Fuego or would it just maybe
27:21
be just Copa Fuego? I'm not sure what Copa de Sol, I
27:24
think was one of the other names that she threw out, but the the
27:28
NWSL Liga, Emeke's Cup or whatever, like the Super long
27:32
name they gave it, Fire Cup. I'm very, I'm very interested to
27:37
see how Gotham FC manages those matches.
27:40
And with the Olympics and them having so many US women's
27:44
national team players on there, so long way to go for Gotham.
27:47
Nothing to be ashamed of yet. But on the flip side, I think if
27:50
you're Washington, you take a lot from this and say, OK, we
27:53
can we can go into those buildings and win these matches.
27:55
Perfect. Yeah, I love that point.
27:56
Big win for Washington if you're Gotham moving.
28:00
Exactly. Let's jump ahead to the third
28:03
team in that top three mix. Maybe maybe the maybe the first
28:07
team in that top one mix depending on how you look at it.
28:10
Kansas City current going into the weekend looked like a tough
28:13
one going to Portland. Sophie Smith was going to be
28:16
back Rd. match. That KC defense looked a little
28:20
gettable. I I think I was preparing myself
28:22
for a real knock down drag out. Not what we saw.
28:26
It was not now, no Sam Coffey in the starting lineup is a
28:30
contributor to that. I would also say no Olivia
28:34
Moultre not helping. But like you said, they had Soph
28:38
Smith back and they're just a good team.
28:41
So I expect and they're playing at home.
28:43
So I expected this one to be a lot closer than it was.
28:46
But three goals in the course of 10 minutes near the end of the
28:50
first half pretty much put this one to bed and was just a great
28:54
indicator that this is another team that they can kind of get
28:58
their goals from anywhere on the field.
29:02
But more so than anyone in the league, as we have previously
29:05
discussed from anyone on the roster.
29:09
It's borderline comical right now.
29:11
They got their seventeen different goal scorer with
29:14
Balasagar scoring in the 38th minute.
29:16
What I got a kick out of though, 2 minutes, 12 seconds later,
29:20
Jill Lloyd and is still pretty much describing the Balasagar
29:22
goal right when this happens, low Labonte runs on to one and
29:27
just absolutely steals Portland soul.
29:30
It was a great call from play by play announcer Joe Malfa.
29:33
But after his announcement of the goal, 12 full seconds of
29:37
silence from the commentators after the Labonte goal, like
29:41
Lloyd comes back with a really great are you kidding me, which
29:44
I loved. But yeah, they just must have
29:46
been as shocked mouth of gape as pretty much everybody watching
29:50
in that moment. I believe Low Labonte hit that
29:52
ball roughly 1,000,000 miles per hour into the back of the she
29:59
smoked that thing like to the point where I physically did
30:05
clutch clutch my chest or as if I was wearing pearls and just
30:09
went huh, she drilled that. I covered my my son, my son's
30:15
eyes, my two year old son. I'm like, look away.
30:18
Yeah, it was that was, he's talking about ruthless.
30:21
That was about as ruthless as he.
30:22
And she had the she had the run up to charge at it and just all
30:26
the way blast through the ball. No and and perfect placement,
30:30
just like just video game stuff. This Casey current side, they're
30:35
basically the Carolina Graham Hanson of NWSL stats.
30:38
They're they're first in goals, first in XG goal differential,
30:42
shots, shots on target shot creating actions, goal creating
30:45
actions, successful take ONS and blocks.
30:48
You talked about, uh, Tele chewing the sort of upper crust
30:50
in that blocks category, but as a team they lead the league in
30:53
that category as well. So they're just flat out
30:56
dominating. Even with Orlando's six nil goal
31:00
spree, they're still one goal short with regard to goal
31:03
differential. So that kind of tells you all
31:04
you need to know about the current and then last out there.
31:08
37 goals for them in the season. Second, place the Spirits at 29.
31:12
Amazing. Let's talk about we've talked
31:14
about the three major squads. I apologize while I look at my
31:18
second screen here. It got me thinking about this
31:21
title race, Buddy, this is a proper, proper title race.
31:25
I don't think we should get past these five teams so that the
31:29
five teams at the top of the table right now, Kansas City
31:32
Current, Orlando Pride, Washington Spirit, Gotham FC,
31:35
Portland Thorns, they're separated by 9 points.
31:38
Kansas City Current sitting on 32, tied with your Orlando
31:41
Pride, but one better on goal differential.
31:42
As you mentioned, Portland Thorns are on 23 points, a lot
31:46
of time left to go, but what I want to bring up here is that I
31:50
mentioned the NWSL and Liga Emekis tournament that's going
31:53
to start I think roughly around like July 20th.
31:56
We have two league matches before we get into that
31:59
tournament. Friday, June 28th.
32:02
Kansas City current plays at home versus Houston Dash, your
32:06
Orlando Pride play in Los Angeles against Angel City FC,
32:12
Gotham FC plays at home against the Seattle Rain on the 30th,
32:16
the Thorns play in Utah against the Royals and the Spirits next
32:21
match is at home against North Carolina Courage.
32:25
But what's that second match? Why did I wait?
32:27
And why did I not say what that second match before the break
32:30
is? Because on Saturday, July 6th in
32:34
Kansas City, we have the current versus your pride.
32:39
That my good man. That's a football game.
32:43
So I thought a lot about this one based on this past weekend,
32:46
because obviously Friday night I'm flying high.
32:48
Orlando just looks unstoppable. And then you watch KC, I think
32:53
too to Portland, you're just like, OK, that's going to be
32:55
tough to deal with. And I mentioned last week on the
32:57
pod, I was like, all right, let's see how these defenses
32:59
hold up. Obviously, Portland's kind of
33:02
not up to level. KC holds Portland to just the
33:05
one goal, Sophia Smith from distance.
33:07
That's going to happen. So it could be that Casey
33:10
defensively has got some stuff figured out.
33:11
But I think even still, I really, really trust that
33:15
Orlando team defensively to be able to kind of at least slow
33:20
down that Kansas City attack just because when they do pack
33:23
it in, they're very disciplined defensively.
33:26
They are very synchronized defensively.
33:28
They do a great job covering and rotating to make sure that they
33:32
don't give up anything easy. Again, just just the eleven
33:34
goals, two straight shutouts for Orlando.
33:36
And then I think offensively, you know, this looks like a
33:39
different team. You know, it does look like, you
33:42
know, Seb Hines just said, hey, you eight players that are not
33:46
our two center backs, If you get the ball, go because I think
33:49
Banda is just dangerous enough where it's like it doesn't
33:52
matter whether it's a bellow on the left or Martinez on the
33:55
right. One could go, one can stay.
33:57
And I think when you have whatever Martinez, Sam's and
34:00
Strom and Morehouse and goal, you kind of roll the dice.
34:04
Kind of feel good about that if what you're trading it for is a
34:07
bellow like driving and then basically the entire midfield
34:11
and those 3 attacking players up front making themselves
34:14
available, being creative, being unselfish and just kind of
34:18
manufacturing goals. But you know, with that said,
34:21
Casey's just fucking terrifying, man.
34:23
Like the Lola Bonza two goal performance kind of reminded me,
34:27
I don't think I've ever told you this story, but I played in a
34:29
very competitive kind of adult basketball league in in in
34:32
Brooklyn. We had one guy on our team who
34:34
left our team because he got signed to play for AG League
34:38
team. So he's like, all right, I got
34:40
to go, you know, So I was like, OK, he's good.
34:42
Like like a really, really good. It is prime player and I'm in
34:45
like in my late 30s at this point, but I'll never forget.
34:48
This is a very competitive league.
34:50
I was not a good player. I was probably like a bench
34:53
player, like a 6th or 7th man on this team.
34:55
Just kind of like a sort of a spot shooter.
34:57
And I think I made like, I don't know, like 3 threes in like the
35:00
first half or something. And he was telling one of our
35:03
other teammates that I heard him because it was like kind of
35:05
within the air shell. He's like, right, well, if Dino
35:07
is hitting today like they're in trouble basically because like
35:09
our team like these teams are really loaded.
35:12
And I kind of felt the same about like Labonte.
35:14
I'm like, all right, if Labonte is going to be doing this, you
35:16
already have have to contend with Debina and BIA and Chiwinga
35:19
and Cooper, who also is coming on.
35:21
Labonte obviously a great player, but how many, how many
35:25
players can you like, throw extra attention to until just
35:30
kind of like your, your defense turns into Swiss cheese?
35:32
So incredibly fired up about that that upcoming matchup.
35:35
I'm dying to hear what you expect to see when those two
35:38
teams lock up. I'm really interested to see how
35:42
cagey they are at the beginning. Exactly what you're talking
35:46
about of like the pride not being afraid to roll the dice.
35:49
Like maybe you come out at first and you're like, OK, let's hold
35:52
off on that and let's see if KC he accidentally runs into one of
35:55
our traps, like because we have a good enough defenders to kind
35:59
of stop them and now they're caught off guard and we can
36:02
catch them on the break. I'd be very interested to see.
36:06
I mean, obviously I'm excited to watch the entire match, 1st 20
36:10
minutes. I want to see that and then kind
36:12
of like isolate it and be like, OK, is this 1st 20 minutes
36:16
significantly different than the next 70?
36:19
Or are they? Are you just walking in and
36:21
saying this is the game plan? Match the gas pedal on this game
36:24
plan for the entire match. I love thinking about the game
36:28
in terms of segments. You know, this one I think you
36:30
introduced to me and I think the 215 minute segments that I've
36:34
gotten the boast attached to are the 15 before halftime and the
36:38
15 after halftime. Hell yeah.
36:40
Well, actually it's the 15 before halftime and then the 10
36:43
extra minutes that you get. So it ends up being, you know,
36:45
25 to 28 minutes that we have to get to watch.
36:49
But that last 15 before halftime is really when it's like, let's
36:53
see how sharp you really are. Because like in the 1st 10/15/18
36:56
minutes, like even Utah, Utah looked like they were going to
36:59
stand up to the pride. And I think that's kind of what
37:01
Mike Watts was saying is are, oh, but now that they want to
37:03
play like this, this is going to be interesting.
37:05
But once you get to the back half of the first half, you
37:08
really start to see, OK, can you hold your concentration when we
37:12
get to like 44495254? You know, before you get to
37:17
halftime, you see Yasmine Ryan get the red card.
37:19
Well, I mean, that's 54 minutes into the first half, you know,
37:22
So it's like you really have to lock in for nearly an hour first
37:26
half, nearly an hour the second-half and then the 1st 15
37:29
minutes after halftime, you know, do you come out ready or
37:32
do you come out like, all right, well, let's, let's work up a
37:34
sweat. And still, still 45 plus, kind
37:37
of like crawl back into this one.
37:38
And I think that's when the good teams really just come out and
37:41
smack you. 100% I mean, you saw what KC did against Seattle a
37:45
couple weeks ago. They were able to come out and
37:47
score two goals in 90 seconds. They came out after half time
37:50
against the Thorns and chewing got one in the 47th minutes.
37:53
So I think you're 100% right about that, where the best teams
37:58
come out and they go, OK, that was that was 15 minutes to rest
38:02
our legs, start your engines. We're we're going to come out,
38:05
we're going to run right at you again.
38:06
Totally. So yeah, we're gonna be locked
38:08
into that one You mentioned. I think you were on this on
38:12
Twitter over the weekend. I wanted to kind of resurface
38:15
it, the Chiwinga Minutes discussion.
38:17
So you had some great stats on our MVP episode talking about
38:21
how available Chewinga was. And obviously she didn't start
38:25
the first match. I think she just came out for
38:27
five or 10 minutes or something, something of the sort.
38:29
Maybe it was a little bit more, I think maybe it was more like
38:31
2530 and had a goal involvement pretty much a minute.
38:35
We already do what time it was. She steps up to the field and
38:38
and already is making stuff happen.
38:40
But her minutes obviously a four to one victory or a four to one
38:44
lead on the road. Sophie Smith, you know, to to
38:47
our earlier 15 minute segment discussion.
38:50
They're already down four nil. She gets a goal in the 70s, not
38:53
too much to be afraid of. It's not like you're going to
38:56
fall behind six to four where you need chewing, go to come
39:00
back and, you know, grab a couple back the other way.
39:03
What was your take on on on having her in so deep into the
39:06
match? Yeah, friend of the show at
39:09
Morty MO under score on Twitter pointed out.
39:12
Like how many minutes has Temwa Chewinga played?
39:15
And I knew I remembered I had had the research like on hand
39:18
from the MVP episode. So I, I, I chimed into our to
39:22
our pal Morgan there to say at that point Chiwinga had played
39:26
1083 minutes. Now you add 90 to that, 'cause I
39:30
think Chiwinga didn't get taken off until the 90th minute of
39:33
this match. Chiwinga has played 1173 minutes
39:36
out of 14 matches played. Thirteen of those are starts.
39:40
I gotta imagine that is good. She was there with 12 full 90s
39:45
played. I think that's going to bring
39:47
her to 13 full 90s played throughout the season.
39:51
I have been accused and I fully raised my hand to this.
39:55
I think somebody on the YouTube comments once called me a Sissy
39:59
for being concerned about player injuries.
40:01
That's fine, I'll wear that I guess.
40:04
Yeah, I think he should. I think Flacco should rest her a
40:06
little more. She is a majestic athlete, one
40:09
of the absolute at worst one of the best 5 athletes in the
40:12
league. I think we could probably say
40:14
that. Yep, her ability to score and
40:17
pass at pace is is unparalleled. Motor never stops.
40:21
We talked about the blocks. She plays the full field.
40:23
That's great. And yes, I want that player on
40:27
the field for as much as possible.
40:29
I also don't want to be Tom Thibodeau to to throw in a
40:33
another basketball. So yeah, 1173 minutes played.
40:37
I think when I mentioned that in the MVP pod when I was doing the
40:40
research, it was Chiwinga. I think there were a couple
40:43
other position players in the top ten, but it was like 6
40:47
goalkeepers who were leading in the minutes.
40:50
And I was just like, OK, well, you know, maybe this forward who
40:54
gives you all kinds of sprints up and down the field, maybe a
40:58
little more rest might be helpful.
41:00
A little different not playing the same game.
41:02
Exactly. I thought that was a very fair
41:05
point. It's interesting because like
41:07
you got the stretch run for. Well, let me ask you this.
41:10
Do you think that there is some variance with regards to some
41:14
teams prioritizing the shield, some teams prioritizing the
41:18
playoffs in the cup? That is really, really
41:21
interesting. I don't think I've ever thought
41:24
about it in those terms. And I don't know, like gut
41:27
reaction is like, well, what manager would play like that?
41:30
What what manager has a team who would want to play like that?
41:34
Like if you have a team full of Americans, do they look at it
41:37
and say we need to win the NWSL championship?
41:40
That's more meaningful than the Shield.
41:44
Or do you have a bunch of Americans who grew up watching
41:46
European football and say, no, no, the best team is the team
41:49
that that wins the most matches throughout the regular season.
41:52
So that's a really good question, man.
41:54
I got to think there are some, right?
41:56
Like there are just too many. There's such a diversity of
41:58
things and experience. Yeah, for sure.
42:01
And I think you mentioned Portland.
42:03
Yeah, right. They're nine points back.
42:05
At some point they're going to say, how about we figure out how
42:10
to make sure that we're maximizing our talent pool going
42:13
into the playoffs versus are we going to catch Kansas City?
42:17
Are we going to catch Orlando? And then at some point and then
42:20
it and then it just kind of like trickles up the standings and
42:22
then at some point it's Gotham and then perhaps it's Washington
42:25
or maybe, you know, we do have a three or four team pile up at
42:29
the top. But either way, I think there
42:31
has to be kind of some variance. And then you have your teams
42:33
like, you know, your Louisville's and your Carolinas
42:35
or that like they must be firmly thinking playoffs at this point.
42:40
Anything can happen. We saw what happened last year.
42:42
So just something to keep keep an eye on.
42:44
I'm going to be interested to see what a team like Casey or
42:47
kind of like what those 3456 teams on the standings like kind
42:51
of how they approach the back half of the season and if we
42:54
were able to see anything with regard to alright, are they
42:57
tipping their hand a little bit? So we'll keep an eye on that.
43:00
One more match to cover. You were in the building.
43:03
Seattle rain one racing, Louisville one.
43:07
Seattle rain Sitting right now in the league at two wins, 3
43:12
draws, 9 losses. Maybe they're saving it for the
43:15
NWSL Liga Amekis Cup, who knows. Maybe maybe you've alerted me to
43:20
Laura Harveys strategy this whole time and she's just been
43:23
waiting to unleash the offense. Laura Harvey knows I'm going to
43:27
say this. And like she looked me right in
43:30
the eye when she answered my question to her.
43:32
I was watching her on the sideline during this match.
43:35
Laura Harvey knows that they don't have enough talent in the
43:38
attack. They don't have nearly enough
43:40
talent in the attack in the early portion of the match.
43:44
Within the 1st 10 minutes, Phoebe McLaren from the defense
43:47
plays a great pass over the top middle of the field to Jordan
43:50
Heightman who gets dragged down by Aaron Wright in the penalty
43:53
area. It's first ruled a penalty kick
43:56
and a yellow card. The referee goes and looks at it
43:58
because of our turns out it's a dog.
44:00
So denial of a goal scoring opportunity.
44:02
Red card Sia Aaron Wright. Bethany Ballser makes the the
44:06
penalty kick makes it look easy, says to keep it the wrong way.
44:08
Nicely taken by Ballser. That ball rolls over the line
44:12
and goes into the back of the net at I think 1005 on the
44:15
clock. You now have 80 minutes of run
44:18
of play where you are at a player advantage over your
44:22
opponent and they couldn't do a damn thing.
44:26
They let me walk that back a little bit.
44:29
They could get the ball into the attacking third.
44:32
They could play triangles and rectangles and get up the field.
44:36
Jess Fishlock is an amazing professional at getting the ball
44:39
up field from the defensive midfield.
44:41
She runs up. I thought Ryan Brown, who is
44:44
listed as a defender. There are parts of the match
44:46
where Ryan Brown who is playing left back while Claudia Dickey
44:50
had the ball to play it forward. Ryan Brown is standing at the
44:52
halfway line where she is playing way, way up the field
44:57
through spurts. They were able to maneuver the
44:59
ball up there. But every time, just like Laura
45:02
Harvey has been telling us for weeks and weeks and weeks, they
45:05
do not have enough quality in the final third to string those
45:09
final passes together. They either wait too long for
45:13
defenders to converge on them and take the ball, or they rush
45:16
themselves when they could have otherwise had time.
45:19
And they're playing passes into the middle, right into traffic,
45:22
not giving hike to my even a chance to finish it.
45:25
There are other times where Haitama just doesn't appear to
45:30
have the strength to finish some of these chances and you end up
45:33
with it with a disappointing draw.
45:35
Yeah, you'd been on kind of like the Haitama going down a little
45:39
easy. Yeah, you know, track.
45:40
And I think you you just kind of see it reminds me a lot of San
45:43
Diego. Like they're able to kind of
45:45
work the ball forward and then it just, it's almost like
45:48
there's nobody up there even though they're players, like
45:50
either they're marked or their positioning's off or when they
45:53
get it to your point, that decision making's not really on
45:56
point. Found some tough, tough stats
45:59
for for Seattle. So they're shot on target rate
46:02
28 1/2 percent. It's dead last in the league.
46:05
That's rough. Only 3.3 shots on target per
46:09
92nd worst in the league. And it's taken the Reign 12.7
46:14
shots to get a goal that's also tied for second worst 12.7
46:18
shots. That's rough when you only
46:20
average 11.8 per 90. So that's gonna make a tricky
46:25
little bit of a silver lining here.
46:27
The rain leading league and aerial duels won.
46:30
So for anyone who needed firm confirmation that that that's
46:34
that doesn't matter or doesn't necessarily correlate to
46:36
winning, here you have it. There you go.
46:39
In this match, Rain had 60% of the ball.
46:42
You expect that when you're you're up a player for 80
46:44
minutes. They had 13 total shots.
46:47
Three of them were on target. They had four big chances
46:50
throughout the match according to Foot Mob.
46:52
Three of those big chances missed, as you might guess.
46:55
But if you look at the second-half specifically where
46:58
you should be wearing down your opponent who you have an extra
47:01
player then on the field, they had 7 total shots and three big
47:05
chances in that second-half. They did not put a single shot
47:08
on frame in the second-half. There was a point right around
47:12
the 80th minute. Let me make sure I because I put
47:14
this in my notes because it really it jumped out to me after
47:17
yet another squandered opportunity where Quinn passes
47:20
the ball to let's go, Let's go kicks it out to Vander Yacht.
47:23
Vander Yacht over to Huerta on the right wing where to into
47:26
let's go back in the middle right near the top of the 18,
47:29
Let's go hits just a loose pass that is too soft before it gets
47:33
to Quinn. It's easily intercepted.
47:35
You will know this motion. I know that each of us have
47:38
likely done this motion in some situation at least a few times
47:42
in our lives. Laura Harvey, I'm so I'm up in
47:44
the press box and I'm obviously sitting manager and bench side.
47:48
I look down at Harvey as that balls getting in.
47:51
It's very obvious it's going to get intercepted.
47:53
I look down at Harvey who is standing there and she does that
47:57
jump where you jump and do a complete 180 because you cannot
48:01
bear to look at what you're looking at.
48:05
She jumps and she does the thing where she jumps.
48:07
She it's just like I slam my fist down on to nothing,
48:11
exclaiming something. I I could not read her lips and
48:13
I could not hear from where I was in the press box.
48:16
But the frustration was so palpable throughout that match
48:20
as they just this pass is too soft.
48:22
This pass is is too much. This first touch is too heavy.
48:26
It's just mischance after mischance after mischance.
48:30
So, and let me, I guess I shouldn't glide past this set
48:34
piece end of the match 90 plus whatever the the the rain, give
48:41
up this give up this free kick. And let me just give credit to
48:44
Louisville keeper Katie Lund, who I've seen from the the
48:48
Louisville matches that we have watched, I think is a pretty
48:50
good keeper out there. The foul is committed just past
48:54
the halfway line. Katie Lund runs up, spots the
48:57
ball about 5 yards beyond where where the foul took place.
49:01
The referee goes no no, waves it off, walks back, draws the
49:04
little line with the magic with the magic spray and and makes
49:08
Lund place the ball, turns around and then like an Acme
49:12
cartoon or like a Looney Tunes. World Wrestling.
49:15
As yeah, totally WWF style. As soon as the ref turns around,
49:19
Katie Lund just throws it like 3 extra yards.
49:22
The crowd boos. The ref is completely unaware of
49:26
what's happening. I'm not saying those.
49:29
Yeah, he's just like, all right. He's like, you know, whatever.
49:32
This keeper's really not popular here.
49:34
I don't know what he thought the boos were coming from.
49:36
So he he's none the wiser. I'm not saying the three yards
49:40
made a difference, but I just a savvy play from Lund.
49:42
Lund plays it way down the field.
49:44
Really nicely placed ball right on the head of Jalen Howell, who
49:47
probably isn't marked nearly well enough and she plays it
49:51
across the face of the goal and Rylan Turner pokes it.
49:54
Roof of the net one one. It's destined to end in a draw
49:58
in that case. In the post game press
50:01
conference, Jess Fishlock talked about how they didn't mark well
50:03
enough, they didn't have their concentration, they didn't get
50:05
set fast enough and now you lose 2 very important points if you
50:10
are looking at any kind of way to to salvage the season.
50:14
Yeah. Pretty much a Backbreaker for
50:17
Seattle. And we talked about this last
50:19
episode or maybe the one prior, but just basically Seattle's
50:23
lack of elevating in the highest leverage parts of the game to
50:27
turn a draw into a win or a loss into a draw or a loss to a win.
50:31
And in this one, you're sliding the other way.
50:34
You know, you're turning a win into a draw against the short
50:36
handed side. The last stat I and I hate to do
50:39
this to you was you know, it's my my duty as a part time
50:44
journalist here February and that we saw Louisville the only
50:46
team that played on Wednesday that didn't lose this weekend.
50:50
All three others lost Louisville salvages to draw.
50:53
And it's hard not to think about the parallels between like a
50:57
Casey Stoney, that situation, Laura Harvey, this situation a
51:01
little bit different when you look at the personnel and the
51:03
investments made into players, salaries, your roster, all that
51:07
kind of stuff. Maybe Harvey gets the benefit of
51:09
the doubt. Obviously, you know, big, big
51:11
addition this week that that was announced.
51:14
It's got to get some some rain fans excited.
51:16
But yeah, ultimately, it's got to happen one way or the other.
51:19
You know, if Seattle's going to kind of stay even tangentially
51:23
in this in this playoff conversation, they're going to
51:25
have to make some big plays down the stretch of these matches.
51:29
And they just seem, like you said, they just seem to be
51:31
trending in the opposite direction pretty.
51:33
Troubling. It definitely is troubling for
51:36
the near term. I think you hit the nail right
51:39
on the head. You You alluded to the report
51:41
from Sandy Herrera, previously mentioned of CBS Sports, and the
51:46
report was later confirmed by Jacob Cristobal, who writes for
51:49
a great Seattle rain blog called Ride of the Valkyries.
51:52
Go read that blog if you are already not and you're a Seattle
51:55
Rain fan. Jacob confirmed Sandia Herrera's
51:58
report with the club that Nerlia Mondesir, 25 year old Haitian
52:03
striker, left winger who's been playing with Montpellier in
52:08
Division One Arkema is likely headed to Seattle on a
52:12
three-year deal with a one year option.
52:14
Obviously the the transfer window starts August 1st.
52:17
Montesir had five goals, 4 assists in her nineteen starts,
52:21
22 matches played for Montpellier last season.
52:23
She's the captain of the Haitian national team.
52:25
Played super tough in the World Cup, scared England a little bit
52:30
and typically played left wing with Dumornet in the middle.
52:33
And this kind of leads me back. I mentioned the press
52:36
conference. I mentioned Laura Harvey looking
52:38
me directly in the eye when she answered my question.
52:40
And what that question was, was I wanted to approach it with
52:44
caution. So I kind of couched it and I
52:46
said, coach, I understand this is a tricky subject, but you
52:50
have mentioned for weeks the lack of quality on the field,
52:54
especially in the in the attacking third in certain
52:57
spots. Is that something you're going
53:00
to have to address in the August transfer window?
53:03
And she looked me right in the face and let me make sure I
53:05
transcribed the quote correctly. She said yes.
53:12
End Quote. End Quote.
53:14
And the thing about that is in the NWSL, you are allowed a
53:20
maximum of 26 players on your roster.
53:23
On the roster sheet for the Seattle Rain Football Club,
53:26
there are 27 players on there. Now Bluani is on loan to Madrid
53:31
over in Liga F, so they are at the full complement of 26
53:35
players on the roster. So when the manager looks me in
53:38
the face and plainly says yes, we need to address this in the
53:42
transfer window, that would lead me to believe that some players
53:47
contracts may be up for sale. I think is very, very safe to
53:52
say and I just want to throw and now this part I do not have
53:56
direct reporting on. I will say one of the other
53:58
journalists in the post camp press conference asked Laura
54:01
Harvey, what specific positions would you target?
54:04
I think it was a worthy follow up, but there's no chance
54:07
Harvey's ever going to answer that.
54:08
She basically, she basically just said, you know, we're
54:11
looking at adding quality to the side and we we have to explore
54:15
those avenues. And you touched on it also, she
54:18
mentioned the close of the sale being a factor.
54:22
So let me just say one of my pet peeves is in any kind of sports
54:27
media or sports fandom where you basically have, I'm going to,
54:31
I'm going to throw the Lakers under the bus here.
54:33
And not because this one hits, hits home in any kind of way,
54:36
but I love hearing, I love hearing these things of well,
54:40
yeah, the Lakers, they could get Darius Garland from the
54:42
Cavaliers. They could give them D'Angelo
54:46
Russell and a draft pick and whatever other fucking bum they
54:51
have on their roster. And there you go Darius Garland
54:54
and I'm like, OK, so if I'm the Cavaliers, I'm going to give you
54:58
a known good player for your trash.
55:01
So the what I'm saying, sorry for that mini side quest there,
55:06
But what I don't want to do is then say, OK, well, the rain,
55:10
they're going to sell some players who don't play.
55:13
What I think is going to have to happen if you want to add real
55:16
quality to this roster, I think you're going to have to look at
55:19
players like Phoebe McLaren, who's played well.
55:22
I don't think it's off the board.
55:23
Alana Cook, who's been a good defender in the league for a
55:26
while and who has national team experience.
55:28
I don't think you're shy about looking at her, especially with
55:32
the emergence of Ryan Brown. I will say I've talked about
55:35
Haitama in the past, but she is young and she has good size and
55:40
she's played well for Canada. There might be an opportunity
55:42
where other teams might say, OK, they're not getting it right in
55:46
Seattle. But I think for Seattle fans, I
55:48
think you should brace yourself because Harvey is visibly
55:52
frustrated. And if you're going to try to
55:54
sign some good players and I don't know their salary cap
55:57
situation, because I don't think anybody knows anybody's salary
56:00
cap situation where media is kind of in the dark in the NWSL
56:03
about that. I think you might have to
56:04
prepare yourself for the club to sell some good contracts in
56:09
order to try to bring some some more attacking quality into the
56:12
side. I could definitely see that and
56:14
obviously we're we're playing a little part time GM here, but a
56:18
player like Haitama obviously shows flashes.
56:21
You know, she's she's looked really good for for Canada 23
56:25
yeah, young, but not quite the player to put the entire attack
56:31
on her shoulders exactly. Like I think if you see a player
56:33
like Haitama on a different team or she's one of two or three
56:37
options and she's kind of flashing in and flashing across.
56:39
And but I mean with the Seattle side, it's kind of like, all
56:43
right, if you, if you got her as sort of like that, that tip of
56:46
the spear focal point, she's a little bit easy to take out of
56:49
the game. You know, you mentioned she is
56:51
tall, but physically she's a little bit slight.
56:54
And you don't want to mention about hitting the weight room or
56:55
anything, but like that's maybe not the worst idea, but I think
56:59
it maybe it's just a bad fit. And I think ultimately,
57:02
hopefully the ownership situation, Monsieur coming in,
57:05
these are things that I think could be pointing some things in
57:08
the right direction. So definitely something we'll
57:10
keep an eye on. Yeah, I just think when you get
57:12
the new round of investment, you have a set ownership group, the
57:17
best way for that ownership group.
57:19
And you know, they that group runs the Sounders, They're
57:22
committed to the area. I think one of the first
57:24
announcements they made was like, yeah, we're not moving the
57:27
club out of out of Lumen Field. We're not moving them out of the
57:29
city of Seattle. That buys a lot of good faith.
57:32
This match against Louisville was the third highest attendance
57:38
of a standalone regular season game in club history.
57:41
I think the standalone part, I did not ask for clarification on
57:44
that. I think sometimes they do these
57:45
like double headers with the Sounders.
57:47
So I think a standalone match is like a non double header with
57:50
the Sounders. We don't disrespect the men's
57:53
game on this on this show, but I will tell you Jennifer and I
57:56
have gone to one of those double headers and did not stay for the
57:59
Sounders match. But shout to them.
58:02
You know what the MLSI understand a lot of NWSL fans
58:05
are are fans of the MLS, not your boys, but.
58:09
Primarily that one's football. Exactly.
58:11
Primarily about women's football, so, and sometimes the
58:14
NBA. Or my men's adult league.
58:16
Experience. Hell yeah let me wait.
58:19
Let me rewind to that real quick, just so the viewers of
58:23
the program know Dino took the piss out of himself a little
58:26
bit. My man is all of a stout 63, is
58:29
an absolute Hooper. You were a little older playing
58:32
in that league. I stand by your hooping skills,
58:35
my good man. I appreciate that, man.
58:37
Yep. Lifelong Hooper through and
58:38
through. You already know what time it
58:39
is. I've got my camera a little bit
58:41
elevated, so not the not the most flattering angle.
58:44
But yeah, Grant is correct. You're also a tall guy as well.
58:47
A couple. Yeah, we've got some tall guy
58:49
bias here at the ITC. You know, I 6/1 and 1/2 I, I,
58:52
you know, I, I gotta, I gotta make sure that, that I'm
58:55
representing. But yeah, I mean, real hoopers
58:57
know, I I recognize your game. It's pretty awesome.
59:01
You played, you played with a guy who made it to the G League.
59:04
That's pretty rad. Was he was a lot better than me,
59:07
a lot better than I ever was, for sure.
59:08
It's a very good player. But you know, we shared the
59:11
court and I shared some laughs and on my best day I was a low
59:15
La Bonza of our adult league. Team we do a lot worse.
59:21
Absolutely. All right, man.
59:22
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
59:23
I think we covered it, man. Two matches until we get to the
59:26
NWSL league, Ameki's tournament. We got some bangers on the way,
59:30
like I said. I mean, it feels, you mentioned
59:33
we have three primary contenders in a proper title race, but we
59:36
got these two on the periphery in Portland and Gotham, two
59:39
teams that have championship DNA.
59:41
What a league. What?
59:43
Just what a phenomenal league this is.
59:45
Absolutely, the playoff race is going to be very exciting.
59:49
Hell yeah. The chase for the Shield's going
59:51
to be exciting. Transfer window.
59:53
I mean, there's just going to be a lot happening the the Fire Cup
59:56
go by the Fuego. However, we'll work on the
59:58
branding. Sandra, let us know if you if
1:00:00
you updated, if you updated anything there and we'll give
1:00:03
you the proper credit and, and ride along with you with
1:00:06
whatever direction you want to take it.
1:00:07
With that said, I think we did it, man.
1:00:09
There's been another episode of Into the Channel.
1:00:11
Thank you for watching, listening, liking, subscribing,
1:00:13
following. We appreciate you rocking with
1:00:15
us. If you're at OG, we appreciate
1:00:17
you continuing to rock with us. Remember, like if you liked and
1:00:20
subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
1:00:23
podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen links to all of
1:00:26
our socials and the show notes. And a big thank you, my Co host,
1:00:29
Mr. Grant Engel for never making me do that 180° jump, spin and
1:00:35
disgust. It's all smooth sailing here at
1:00:38
the ITC. Man, I appreciate you.
1:00:40
You know, we we got an offense hum in here, buddy.
1:00:43
The the chemistry. Maybe we're a Chiwinga
1:00:46
Biazanarato. Maybe it's a Julie Doyle.
1:00:49
Maybe it's a maybe it's a Marta Barbara Banda situation.
1:00:52
Hard to hard to throw out Marta. She's like the greatest of all
1:00:55
time. But you know, we're we're
1:00:57
trending that way. The Young Marta Could be could
1:01:00
be the title of the podcast. Well, I'm, I'm in the same Marta
1:01:04
age, age stratosphere. So I'll take, you know, 2024
1:01:09
Marta for sure. I'll absolutely take that.
1:01:11
Yeah, that's a good point. Just like Marta, we are in our
1:01:14
extended prime and we were looking forward to extending
1:01:17
that prime when we see you guys next time.