Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / WASHINGTON SPIRIT WIN 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup 🏆 Hal Hershfelt + Tara McKeown "Thug It Out" v Orlando Pride

Transcript

WASHINGTON SPIRIT WIN 2025 NWSL Challenge Cup 🏆 Hal Hershfelt + Tara McKeown "Thug It Out" v Orlando Pride · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:06
Okay, welcome to the channel podcast from Liberal Women's
0:10
Football. I rehost Dude Suspicious, and as
0:11
always, I'm joined by my host, Mr. Grant Angle.
0:14
What's up, man? I'm feeling all right, buddy.
0:17
And I gotta say, until that intro, until the tenor of that
0:20
intro, I didn't realize you would be a little down after the
0:23
result, even knowing that you're an Orlando Pride supporter,
0:26
because you are such an intrepid, impartial journalist,
0:29
getting facts, talking to the players and the management over
0:33
there that I didn't even, I forgot about your fandom.
0:36
Your journalism was so on point yesterday.
0:38
You know, you go into it feel like you're going to be
0:40
objective, just kind of like very facts based, very data,
0:43
data-driven. But you know, once you get in
0:45
there and you know, everybody's hooting and hollering, the press
0:47
box is a little little loosey goosey down here in Orlando.
0:51
So so you know, it was, it was a great match up.
0:54
You know, obviously it's a it means a lot.
0:56
And then it also doesn't mean that much, a little bit of a
0:59
disappointment, but a great, great football match.
1:01
I would say didn't feel like a preseason match for sure from
1:04
the Washington side. Yeah, I hear that.
1:06
So it's not a preseason match. A trophy was handed out.
1:10
I'm feeling pretty all right. And you should be too, because
1:13
obviously, like you said, it means a lot, but it doesn't mean
1:16
that much. Just like these beers, they mean
1:18
a lot because it's nice to have one, but you know, you can go
1:21
without when you need. But if we're talking about
1:24
football, why would we go without him?
1:26
Cheers to you. Cheers to the Challenge Cup.
1:28
Yeah, cheers to the spirit. They got it done.
1:31
Cheers to Yono. Held his feet to the fire a
1:32
couple different times over the last couple days, but he's a
1:35
toughie. He came through just fine, so
1:38
cheers to the football. Absolutely.
1:40
Seems like that guy kind of knows what he's doing.
1:42
We can maybe talk about that later, but turns out that dude
1:45
knows a lot about football. Yeah, definitely.
1:48
I had to ask them a couple questions over the last couple
1:51
days, one specifically last night, which he gave me a very
1:54
illuminating answer about with regards to second-half
1:56
adjustments. I had to listen to it maybe 14
1:58
or 15 times to really wrap my head around everything we're
2:01
saying and at home. If you want to watch it, go
2:04
check out our YouTube pages. We we threw those up on YouTube
2:06
as well. Got a lot of great content from
2:09
from the post match presser A. 100% And you know what, I'm
2:11
actually glad you said that because I also watched it at
2:15
least a dozen times to try to pick up all the technical
2:18
Nuggets that he was he was giving you in that answer.
2:20
So I know all our pals who enjoy this program typically like to
2:24
talk about the tactical side of football.
2:25
So Geraldes gave Dino a really sharp answer with like, it felt
2:30
like 5 different things in the span of 90 to 110 seconds.
2:34
I thought, you know, all I got to do is learn as much about
2:37
football as, you know, Geraldes, and perhaps I'll be better at
2:39
this show. Yeah, good luck.
2:42
We won't hold our breath. You're doing just fine at this
2:44
show. Appreciate it.
2:46
All right man, Where do you want to get started with this one?
2:48
All right, so obviously Washington Spirit defeated
2:50
Orlando Pride 4/2 on penalties to win the 2025 Challenge Cup
2:54
and left the first trophy of the season.
2:56
I thought the match had a lot of the qualities you'd expect from
2:58
like the first contest of the year, but play really picked up
3:02
in the second-half. But before we even get there, as
3:05
I alluded to, you were in the building.
3:08
Can you please describe to me, because I was very jealous of
3:11
this, what were the vibes like? What was the atmosphere before
3:14
the match and as the match got started?
3:16
So the vibes were, the vibes were pretty positive.
3:19
I would say there was a little moaning, groaning when you see
3:22
that Trinity Rodman's not playing.
3:25
She was dressed though ula SAR not in the lineup.
3:28
So it kind of did take the stance of like a like a
3:32
preseason feel early. I'll definitely say that right
3:35
around the 50 minute mark, the media guys in the room handed
3:38
out the MVP voting sheets. And at that point it was one
3:41
NIL, you know, like Orlando look fully in control of the match.
3:44
I mean, not for us to fill out, but just kind of have on our
3:46
seats and stuff. Sure.
3:48
But at that point, you know, there was a lot of chatter
3:51
about, OK, well, who is it? You know, and I'm going through
3:53
my head. I fell to the same trap.
3:54
I'm like, all right, well, you know, OK, who had a good game or
3:57
Angelina's been playing well, Ali Watt, I thought she's been
3:59
surprising. She was going to ride at Casey
4:01
Krueger. I thought she had a really good
4:02
game. And then obviously earns the
4:04
free kick. You know, that becomes the half
4:05
a goal early. Some people were talking about
4:07
Anna Morehouse. So, you know, the vibes were
4:09
like, I don't want to say not locked in, but we were not as
4:13
locked in, up in the press box as the Washington Spirit were
4:16
down on the field. You know, it had to be a
4:18
preseason feel somewhere in that stadium.
4:20
So, you know, maybe in the beginning of the match for the
4:22
players, it's always it's pre season for us to, you know, cut
4:25
us, cut the media some slack a little bit.
4:28
One of my kind of early takeaways was like, OK, well,
4:31
we're getting some real physical play early, which is usually
4:34
like a a sign of like maybe the timing is off a little bit on
4:37
some of the challenges. The NWSL officiating sure is
4:40
back. That was that appeared to be in
4:42
mid season form. I think we'll talk about that in
4:45
a couple different spots in this match.
4:47
I thought early the pride, we're able to kind of find some joy.
4:51
They're playing long passes, they're finding some pockets in
4:54
between the defenders and the midfielders, and obviously just
4:57
Benda over the top remains terrifying for all defenses all
5:03
over the world any day of the week.
5:05
Yeah, absolutely. I think Jonah and his answer to
5:08
my question talked about the importance of keeping 2 on
5:12
Banda, like at all times. And I think, you know, Tara
5:14
McKeon, she played really great. Esme Morgan played really great.
5:18
Banda didn't really have a ton of like a lot of times last
5:21
year, Benda would kind of like earn position, you know, body,
5:24
body, body, and then the ball would come over to the top and
5:27
then she could spin either way, right?
5:29
You know, and then she spin and you were cooked in this one.
5:32
They had the body on Banda and then somebody was right there.
5:35
So it's like, all right, even if you spin off or you know, can
5:37
you kind of like get a little head of steam, There's, there's
5:39
really somebody right there and then a third defender not too
5:42
far off. So they were pretty committed to
5:45
not letting Banda beat them. When you look at the stats,
5:48
Banda only has 21 touches in 82 minutes.
5:52
That's one touch every 4 minutes, you know, for maybe the
5:56
best player, but maybe the best player in the league.
5:58
You know, I'm not going to throw the best player in the world for
6:01
sure. Definitely not from an attacking
6:02
standpoint. So to be able to keep Banda
6:04
under those tight wraps, I thought was really impressive
6:07
from Washington defense. Yeah, it's a great point on, you
6:09
know, doubling Banda. I I have in my notes here.
6:12
It was it was right before the half.
6:15
There was one of those exact moments where Benda was really,
6:18
really getting her positioning on Mickey own.
6:21
The ball goes over the top. She makes like a really clever
6:24
kind of spin move to get around Mickey own and just flies by
6:27
her. But credit to Mickey own who who
6:29
was able to recover and get back.
6:32
It was like one on five bend on on the entire spirit defense,
6:37
but Mickey own still got back there and was able to kind of
6:39
clear it out and get rid of the threat.
6:41
I mean, I guess I'm forcing us to bounce around a little bit,
6:45
but it seemed like Washington came prepared to, like you said,
6:51
always have two on Benda, but always just have some kind of
6:53
backstop there to stop that, that counter attack that Orlando
6:57
can just slice you up with. Yeah. 100% they played very,
7:00
very responsible football. Yeah.
7:03
And you know, I was close to asking sub Heinz about this, but
7:06
I didn't really want to like take it to the personnel
7:08
standpoint. It was really more question I
7:10
was knocking around in my head. I was like it's not really
7:11
appropriate to and asked about after the match, but I thought
7:15
Adriana moving on. We joked about okay, she's
7:18
getting her bag and definitely enjoyed watching her.
7:20
I think a player like that was really, really missing
7:24
yesterday. A player that could out in
7:26
space, just cause trouble away from the play, away from the
7:31
runner, play somebody that could just come through the back door,
7:34
through the side door and provide the spectacular.
7:37
So, you know, obviously those minutes, at least last night
7:40
were taken up by, you know, the Aliwa, Julie Doyle, really good
7:43
players, really solid players. Summer Yates gets in the game.
7:45
But but we really were missing that other that other counter
7:49
punch once Benda got shut down. So I I found myself thinking a
7:53
lot about Aliyana last night and thinking, OK, like, does this
7:55
team need to make a move to figure out, OK, how can we get
7:58
another curveball into the mix to kind of keep defenses on
8:01
their heels? It's a great point and so I will
8:04
share for you from my perspective watching the
8:06
broadcast, our guy Mike Watts on the call for Amazon Prime,
8:10
joined by the absolute legend, Double L, Lori Lindsay.
8:13
When Ali Lemos came onto the pitch, Lori Lindsay was quick to
8:16
mention that Orlando Pride is really looking for a leap from
8:19
her in her second season with the club.
8:21
So she is a midfielder who can offer some things.
8:24
Now, are there a lot of players that I would expect Orlando
8:27
Pride to be bringing off the bench?
8:28
Who's going to offer what Adriano's able to offer?
8:31
No, because that would be unreal.
8:33
I think that would be unfair because I'm especially a young
8:35
player like Limos. But if you can get some kind of
8:38
facsimile of that, I think you might be right.
8:40
It's going to bear monitoring throughout the season.
8:42
Can they replace that? Yeah, 100%.
8:44
That's definitely something we're going to be tracking.
8:46
And I think, you know, you asked about the vibes pregame.
8:49
The vibes postgame were just kind of like business as usual
8:53
from from the Orlando standpoint.
8:54
We're like, OK, well, I mean, lost some penalties, you know,
8:57
kind of a disappointment, but they led a good chunk of the
8:59
match. They, you know, they definitely
9:01
won the XG battle. Yeah, more shots, more shots on
9:04
target, more shots from inside the box, about 35 more passes in
9:09
the final third, more accurate from a passing standpoint.
9:12
And a lot of the football stats, you know, Orlando kind of, I
9:15
think was in control most of the match.
9:17
If you go to my boxing, my boxing scoring, Orlando edged
9:20
them out. But the Spirit definitely won
9:21
the last couple rounds there for sure.
9:23
Nice. A couple stats that I love.
9:25
And you know, I love these fouls. 18 to 12 for the Spirit.
9:30
Yellow cards, 2 to nil. Also to the Spirit.
9:33
Yeah, when you talk about the chippiness, it definitely felt
9:35
one way chippy. You know, from the from from my
9:38
vantage point in the press box, it felt like Washington was
9:41
hungry. They were physical.
9:42
They were going to make you feel them.
9:44
Even 17 year old Chloe Ricketts was out there just kind of
9:46
mixing it up. Shout out to her who was who was
9:48
really balling. I mean, I think I definitely
9:50
left an impression on me after that performance.
9:53
Yeah, absolutely. I'll say like a couple of the
9:55
ones that I noted, Haley McCutcheon had a little bit of a
9:59
questionable one for your pride, balls clearly going out over the
10:03
in line, neither her or Hirschfeld.
10:05
We're gonna get there. And Mccutchen had a little
10:08
something for Hirschfeld as the ball was going out of bounds.
10:11
I thought that was a little questionable, but that's that
10:15
one. Didn't notice that one.
10:17
In my notes, yeah. Weird.
10:20
Yeah, didn't make it in on the Chloe Ricketts foul.
10:23
Here's what I have directly from my notes in real time.
10:26
Bad challenge from Ricketts on Sam's.
10:28
It has to be a yellow card. Come on ref.
10:31
Let's understand how the fucking game works.
10:33
And this is in the 52nd minute. And then I later I for some
10:36
reason I feel the need to justify this to myself and my
10:39
notes. I don't want to be the guy
10:41
asking for yellow cards. Don't put me in that position.
10:44
Just do your job and give a yellow card for that outrageous
10:48
challenge like that was, you know, I understand what Rick
10:51
Wickets was trying to do. That was way late, way reckless.
10:56
Has to has to has to be a yellow card.
10:59
The refs definitely pre season form.
11:01
I think they they missed quite a bit and even when you think
11:04
about the Nurumi Mira free kick that she earns soft against an
11:09
Angelina challenge. I mean Angelina, I think I think
11:11
Laurie Lindsay mentioned it because I did catch some of the
11:13
highlights. Oh, nice.
11:14
Angelina was there. She's she's body, she's in
11:17
position. Mira just swings her leg into
11:19
the back of Angelina leg that's already there, you know, and
11:23
then, you know, just kind of does the the flip and roll
11:27
credit to her is her smart play from Yura.
11:29
You know, once you see that the refs are, you know, having a
11:31
little bit of a wobbly performance.
11:33
And then the Laci Santos goal was I mean, when she steps up to
11:36
that one, it was it was really awesome because we got both
11:39
goals on the press box side because Orlando scores in the
11:42
first Washington scores in the second.
11:43
So press box is a little a little tucked into the corner of
11:46
the of the stadium and it but we got to see both with a great
11:48
vantage point and just watching Santos, who I thought was the
11:51
the best player maybe from both teams in the match.
11:54
And I'm interested. I want to hit you with the
11:56
question because it's always different.
11:58
You're watching it there versus the telecast.
11:59
But I thought Santos was incredible.
12:01
And I'm just like, Oh my God, 70th minute from that position
12:04
with, you know, time to take some breaths.
12:06
Like this is like the worst player, like, you know, to be
12:09
staring at and and just hoping that something some defensively
12:14
kind of happens. But she stuck it.
12:16
I mean, an incredible free kick. And I wasn't super surprised.
12:20
Yeah, I'm, I'm with you. I thought she was the best
12:22
player on the field also. I mean, you could obviously make
12:24
a pretty good argument. Aubrey Kingsbury had some, had
12:27
some good moments for spirit and goal, but yeah, I mean,
12:30
absolutely perfect free kick. You know how I think we both
12:34
feel about Morehouse? I think she should be the
12:36
starting keeper for England. I think she's the best, probably
12:39
the best keeper in the NWSL. She just had no chance at it.
12:42
It just upper 90, it curves in there.
12:45
Everything about the free kick was perfect.
12:47
I did think the the call was a little soft, but that's, you
12:50
know, that's kind of just how how football works sometimes.
12:53
The call to to initiate the free kick like you mentioned.
12:56
But yeah, I mean, even when Orlando Pride kind of got off to
13:00
that quick start, there was a moment from Laci Santos in the
13:03
ninth minute where you could tell she had her eye on goal
13:07
from the very from the opening whistle.
13:09
And she kind of she hit a shot from the left wing that went
13:11
just wide. I do want to I do want to tell a
13:14
quick anecdote from that. I'm curious if you picked it up
13:17
from the press box. So Santos takes the shot in the
13:20
ninth minute. It goes wide.
13:22
Morehouse, Speaking of what a great goalkeeper she is, she
13:24
dives to protect the broadside of the goal, the open side of
13:28
the goal, the far side of the goal.
13:29
Pardon, Pardon me, but she knows she Morehouse is smart enough
13:33
and instinctive and instinctive enough to know how far to dive,
13:37
knows that she's covering the goal, but then lets the ball go
13:40
out for a goal kick. Then you he we heard very
13:43
clearly on the bra on the Amazon Prime broadcast.
13:46
Some dude in the stands screams whose house and then the rest of
13:51
the the rest of the crowd answers, as you might expect,
13:55
Morehouse. And so I don't know if you can
13:58
hear that, but that brought me great joy.
13:59
And I don't know if it's the Orlando Pride Supporters club,
14:04
the Black Swans Drinking Club, but I started to do some
14:07
research into this. Not really any real research,
14:10
but I just kind of started looking at the Black Swans
14:13
Drinking Club website as a supporters group for Orlando
14:16
Pride. And I got to tell you, we got to
14:18
figure out a way to get some representative from this, from
14:21
this supporters group on the show.
14:23
They look extremely badass. Everything about their website
14:26
is cool. Their mission is cool, their
14:27
chance are cool. So, you know, hopefully if
14:30
anybody out there, maybe add Astra, know somebody, any of our
14:33
Orlando Pride pals, let us know how you can connect us to the
14:37
Black Swans Drinking Club because they seem cool.
14:41
Love that. Yeah, full cosine for me.
14:42
I'll do a little bit of research on my end too.
14:44
We'll see if we could piece this puzzle together and figure out
14:47
how to make it happen. Little side note too, we got a
14:52
we got a mention on Blue Sky from the newest ITC Hall of
14:55
Famer Carol Thomas, who was very appreciative of the honours that
14:59
she enjoyed the episode. No way, I didn't see that yet.
15:02
Let's. Go.
15:04
Go check that out. All right, back to the
15:06
silliness. Well, I guess let me let me ask
15:09
you. So for my vantage point, I
15:11
thought Orlando was in control of almost all the first half.
15:16
The 1st 10 minutes I thought were were were pretty impressive
15:19
for the spirit attack. And I remember, I definitely
15:20
remember that Santos chance as being for sure the best chance
15:23
of the match to that point. But but zooming out middle of
15:27
the second-half early in the second-half felt like the tide
15:30
started to turn a little bit. Spirit maybe kind of look like
15:32
the better side. They definitely changed a few
15:34
things. Jonah talked about closing that
15:37
gap between Marta and Angelina where Orlando was finding, you
15:41
know, a lot of good positivity there.
15:43
They definitely got that done. Banda, you know, couldn't
15:46
couldn't get on track I think at all during the match.
15:48
Is that is that what it was like on the telecast?
15:50
Like maybe Orlando early, you know, the spirit here they come
15:53
like what was the game flow like for you kind of like watching
15:56
that's. Certainly what it felt like, I
15:58
mean, you know, the execution on, on Orlando's free kick, you
16:02
know, shortly before halftime, that felt like a big, you know,
16:06
momentum boost for Orlando. Maybe not even a momentum boost.
16:10
Let me backtrack on that. It was kind of like the
16:11
culmination of Orlando playing well in that first half to your
16:15
point where they were kind of dictating the terms a little
16:17
bit. Heraldas gave comments to Amazon
16:20
Prime, like going into halftime saying that he was disappointed
16:24
with the defense. And I thought that was
16:26
understandable. And, you know, from from my
16:29
vantage point, from the broadcast vantage point, it did
16:31
seem like they just needed some more resistance kind of in like
16:35
entering the final attacking third of Orlando, like in in
16:40
Washington's defensive third. They just needed to like just
16:43
stop the ball like a little earlier.
16:46
That makes sense. And I'm just thinking back to to
16:49
the the presser the day before the match where Yonah and
16:53
Kingsbury go on stage together and you know, I asked about this
16:56
multiple times. I was like your your guy's vibes
16:58
was like super duper ice cold. Like, you know, is that what it
17:02
was like, you know, kind of getting prepared and then you
17:04
see how chippy things get and then obviously it goes to PKS.
17:07
You know, there's a ton going through everybody's heads during
17:09
PKS, but the more locked in team wins the penalty kick shootout,
17:13
you know, so it's like, all right, maybe it's maybe it's
17:14
over thinking maybe it has no correlation, but that's that is
17:17
essentially what happened. But in the presser the day
17:19
prior, it felt like every Jonah answer, every Kingsbury answer
17:23
ended with, so we'll see what happens tomorrow night.
17:26
You know, like it was like it didn't matter what they said.
17:27
Like if they just were like, we'll see about tomorrow night,
17:30
you know, like they they were ready and they were like kind of
17:32
fully locked in. So it's awesome.
17:33
Wasn't surprised to see them claw their way back into the
17:36
match. And then once it goes to
17:38
penalties, like, I mean, I had the feeling that it was like, I
17:40
I don't see, I don't necessarily anything could happen.
17:43
But Washington had all the momentum.
17:45
And then you see the two misses from Orlando, Summer Yates and
17:49
Ali Lemos, and it it just kind of fell right in line with like
17:53
the way that the the match was tracking.
17:55
Yeah, I think that's totally fair.
17:56
And you know, to to be fair to Seb Hines and and Orlando, which
18:01
obviously we always are, we're not biased at all toward the
18:04
Orlando Pride. You know, when Benda goes off,
18:07
well, she gets taken off in like the 70th.
18:10
If if I. Recall 82. 82 OK, so when he
18:13
brings Benda off in the 82nd minute when the match is
18:17
trending toward penalties, I'm like, OK, Like it was evident on
18:21
the broadcast. I don't know how how clear it
18:23
was. I gotta imagine it was very
18:24
clear in person. Chilufia Prisca Chilufia,
18:28
Zambian teammate of of Barbara Benda is fucking lightning fast.
18:32
Good God, she's fast. Yeah.
18:36
And I was like, OK, well, obviously you get to try to go
18:39
for the goal here. But if you're not saving Benda
18:42
for the PKS, you're more thinking long term.
18:45
Look, I'm not going to run everybody into the ground for
18:48
the Challenge Cup match. You want to win a trophy.
18:50
But we got bigger. We have our sights set on on
18:53
bigger things. So I I agree with you, going
18:55
into the PKS, kind of looking at who was out there, who was
18:58
available, definitely seemed to favor the spirit a little.
19:01
Yeah, and I think Spirit also, you know Shorthander as
19:04
mentioned missing a couple players, they only make 2 Subs
19:06
Subs. They do bring on though, Rebecca
19:08
Bernal, who is high intensity and really good.
19:12
Yeah, and McKenna Morris, you know, just really good players
19:16
to to have at their disposal. Wanted to kind of look at a
19:19
couple stats here. I thought Hal Hirsch felt was
19:21
awesome. You look at kind of her passing.
19:24
She was involved in so much of the action right in the center
19:26
of the park. 36 of 3992.3% of the passes.
19:30
She connected on 100% of her passes in the final third.
19:34
She was just rock solid. I mean, I think when you think
19:36
about Orlando on the other side, you know, like Banda, 82
19:40
minutes, 21 touches, what went wrong there?
19:44
You know, there's only so many times you can go over the top.
19:45
And if that's all you have, when the defense knows what you're
19:48
going to do, you become a little bit easier to defend.
19:50
And I think we saw a little bit of that.
19:51
And to have a player like Herschelt on the other side just
19:54
kind of dominating the midfield, distributing, winning balls
19:57
back, just kind of like being in the right place, serving as an
20:00
outlet for other players. You just kind of really saw
20:03
Hershfelt's impact in this one. No doubt.
20:05
I thought I totally agree with you.
20:06
Hershfelt was fantastic, Lori Lindsay mentioned on the
20:09
broadcast. We talked about it weeks ago
20:11
when the acquisition was made. Hell, Hirschvelt and Narumi
20:15
Mira, that's a very, very good combination.
20:18
And if, if this first match is any indication, they're going to
20:22
play really well with each other.
20:24
It appears that their styles seem to complement each other
20:28
perfectly. Yeah, I mean, Mira's so good.
20:30
So smart too. Yeah, so good on the ball.
20:33
Very crafty. They fit like a glove, those two
20:35
for sure. And then you think about, OK, no
20:37
Rodman, no Ulay SAR, no quote on the team, Yeah, no Quasi.
20:43
I mean, we've got our NSL preview coming up this week, so
20:47
I'm not really quite ready to make a prediction.
20:49
But this team at full strength with that manager, I mean,
20:52
pretty terrifying. Yeah, they have to be.
20:54
And Mike Watts mentioned on the broadcast that Kroy Bethune is
20:57
trending toward coming back soon.
20:59
I forgot. Something to Bethune.
21:01
Well, I'm saying, well, that's The thing is that, you know, she
21:04
kind of disappeared off off the radar.
21:06
And if I remember, I don't want to totally misquote Mike, but
21:10
you know, he'll yell at me over e-mail if I if I do.
21:13
Obviously Mikes watching what's up.
21:14
Like, like I he, I think he mentioned that there was some
21:19
discussion that she might even dress for this match.
21:22
So she appears to be trending toward coming back relatively
21:25
soon. So, yeah, I think they're going
21:27
to be they're going to be scary. I mean, we had talked about it
21:31
when they when they made the Narumiac acquisition.
21:33
They're going to challenge for for two more trophies as the
21:36
year. Goes on.
21:37
That's wild. You know, I got to I got a
21:38
chance to go down to the field to see the team lift the lift
21:42
the cup along with Michelle Kang.
21:43
And then like you're just like, Oh my God, this what a freaking
21:46
genius. This is like just pulling the
21:47
strings like this team basically with all the names we rattled
21:51
off like like an idiot. Forget maybe the most exciting
21:54
young player, kind of taking the feel of a little bit of the
21:58
Barcelona W, you know, maybe, you know, with Michelle King
22:02
trying to make that happen within the NWSL, which would be
22:05
insane, but not impossible. You know, with what they've been
22:08
able to collect there, including the coach, want to shout out
22:12
Tara Michigan as well. I mean, defensively, kind of
22:15
everything kind of starts with her.
22:16
She was super sharp. Yeah.
22:18
Involved in chippiness, in the physicalness, steps up, hits the
22:21
last pedal to kick, gets that great moment, you know, kind of
22:25
slam the door shut in the Challenge Cup, which is very
22:26
cool. And, you know, we mentioned
22:28
Hershfelt earlier. I got a chance to catch up with
22:30
both Tara Michigan and Hal Hershfelt.
22:32
So I want to play a little clip here.
22:34
You'll hear Tara first and then Hal second, so we'll go to that
22:37
here. Quick question about the vibe.
22:39
So Jonah and Aubrey at the presser yesterday, the vibe was
22:43
like very ice cold and like super locked in.
22:46
That's what it seems like from the outside.
22:47
What is it like, sort of like behind closed doors in terms of
22:50
the attitude going into the air? I think we were all really
22:53
excited and excited to start the season off this way.
22:57
One game final. Like people want to play for
23:00
trophies all their life. So being able to play for a
23:03
trophy in one game and win it, I think yeah, we were really
23:07
excited coming into this game. But yeah, we we like to keep a
23:11
stone cold face on the outside. Yeah, for sure.
23:15
I think honestly, like just the way that we compete day in and
23:19
day out, we were kind of confident in ourselves.
23:21
We were just like, like she said, it's really one game.
23:23
We just kind of fuck it out. It's one game, we win the cup
23:25
and we move on. So I think we kind of hit it
23:28
with that approach and it worked.
23:29
Thug it out. Love that.
23:30
Yeah. Fuck it out, quote.
23:34
That already done, yeah. So quote.
23:39
That. Quote that is 10 out of 10.
23:41
Thug it out. It might be 13 or 14 out of 10.
23:44
Unbelievable. And you don't get to hear
23:46
because it's just audio. But Hal's like dug it out with
23:50
like the the punching of the inside.
23:52
Oh wow, even better. I was like.
23:54
Oh shit, let's back it up. That's amazing.
23:58
I mean, that is a plus reporting.
24:01
That's a plus vibes reporting. Like, you know, I'm, I'm glad
24:05
we, we talk about the Optus stats, we talk about what we
24:07
saw. Obviously Jonah gives us great
24:09
tactical analysis. You can't buy that kind of
24:13
vibes. Reporting on how these two
24:15
players feel empowered to go out there and play their style and
24:19
play a winning style of football.
24:20
Yeah, I mean, it was, it was really cool to see the
24:22
juxtaposition of like the seriousness of it to that moment
24:26
because like, you know, you always hear it's like, Oh yeah,
24:29
OK, well, we'll enjoy this one tonight and then tomorrow it's
24:31
back to work or whatever. I think.
24:32
I think somebody might have asked about that.
24:34
And from what I recall, it's an official day off tomorrow for
24:38
Washington, but it's so it was so interesting to catch him at
24:41
that moment. We're like, we're not really
24:42
worried about the rest of the season right now.
24:44
We're like just off the field, still in our kids, like we're
24:47
here just reflecting on on the positive vibes in the moment.
24:50
And like shout out to them for giving me a little bit of time
24:53
and some epic quotes. I think for me from both of
24:56
them, I think I would Remember Remember both of those excellent
24:59
punctuators from a couple of professionals.
25:01
Fantastic. It was good to talk to them too,
25:03
obviously, because I, like you said, they both had a a major
25:06
impact on the match. I thought Mickey own too in in
25:09
typical Mickey own style, she had a couple a couple tricky
25:13
spots there. Like in the first half.
25:15
She's like she's one-on-one with Marta running at the goal and
25:19
Marta's just trying to put her in the spin cycle and does a
25:23
little bit. But Mickey own is like really
25:24
fighting to to get back and try to at least cut off an angle.
25:28
I mean, just her toughness. I mean, you know, she was she
25:32
was one of the 7:00 or 8:00 somewhere in that ballpark.
25:35
Iron Women from last year's NWSL season, like she's got that dog
25:39
in her. No fucking question about it.
25:41
And it would appear that is very quickly just from personnel
25:45
decisions and just from organizational culture.
25:47
Leanne Sanderson talked to us about Geraldes is just overall
25:50
competitiveness. His players talk about his
25:53
overall competitiveness. That feeling of, hey, we're a
25:55
bunch of dogs out here, we are coming after you.
25:57
I know it's a cliche that is very obviously permeating
26:01
through that roster. Yeah, when I asked Kingsbury
26:03
about, you know, the the general tenor of what it was like, she
26:07
said it all starts with Jonah's competitiveness.
26:09
He's a, he's an insane competitor.
26:10
And I was like, no, that checks out for sure.
26:14
Well, like we mentioned, Congrats to the Spirit.
26:16
A lot happened in this game, for sure.
26:19
I don't think Orlando is too crushed.
26:21
You know, they obviously wanted to win, but they've got their
26:23
eyes, I think, on a little bit of a bigger picture here.
26:25
And then, yeah, the other thing that I'll walk away with is the
26:27
Spirit are just going to be very tough to deal with once they get
26:31
to full strength. But, you know, obviously it's
26:32
football. Anything can happen.
26:34
I want to shift gears just one more time because I forgot to
26:37
mention this up top, but Raffaele in the lineup at center
26:41
back next to Emily Sam's, Kylie Nadan are out wide.
26:45
Cariabello on the other side, formerly Kylie Strom.
26:48
Congratulations on the nuptials. That Orlando defense with
26:51
Raffaele back, they're somehow going to be even harder to score
26:55
on is my prediction, because they looked absolutely
26:58
suffocating. And to be able to keep Kylie on
27:01
the field and just slider over somewhere else and now you've
27:03
got 3 Terminators back there just shutting everything down.
27:07
I mean, I wasn't surprised at the the way that Washington
27:10
scored was off the Santos free kick.
27:12
That's probably your best bet against this Orlando defense.
27:16
But yeah, again, credit to the Spirit who won on the margins.
27:19
That's what they came to do. That's what a good manager and a
27:22
good approach and a good game plan can create for you is like,
27:26
all right? When it's in the balance, you
27:28
know those little intangibles sometimes are enough to kind of
27:30
push you over the edge. When you have Hafaela Nadener
27:35
and Sam's out there, you are kind of running a three center
27:39
back type of look out there. Even a bellow.
27:42
I think let me make just quick Fact Check live on the show to
27:45
make sure I'm not lying to myself.
27:46
I think a bellow has seen time at at center back too.
27:49
So I mean, you have you know, you're almost Seb Hines is
27:52
almost running like a Pep Guardiola type.
27:54
How many center backs can I put on the field at one time?
27:56
And just to kind of get all the those qualities out of them, you
27:59
know, I think that's going to be really interesting to watch.
28:02
And I'd be remiss if I did not mention Corey Dyke was
28:05
questionable for for this match. She sat out and she apparently
28:09
has a thigh injury. Hopefully that's not too
28:11
serious. I would I would think that
28:13
because she was questionable, it is not too serious.
28:15
So speedy recovery to the ITC Hall of Famer, our pal.
28:19
But I mean, remember how she had some big moments in the final
28:24
against Washington, just, you know, going out there to contain
28:27
the attack back out on the wing. And so, you know, getting Corey
28:31
Dyke back is going to make a real difference.
28:33
I don't think anybody is overreacting to this match
28:36
because it would just, it would just be too silly.
28:39
Even on sports social media, even in in general punditry.
28:43
Anybody who would think, OK, now it's time to start doubting the
28:47
Orlando Pride's ability to win either of the next two trophies.
28:51
That would just be a fools errand.
28:53
This team is competing for both trophies moving forward and
28:57
really for the foreseeable future.
28:59
As long as Bend is on the roster, you might be lifting a
29:01
trophy that season. And again, if Orlando squeezed
29:04
out a second goal or that that foul mural, that Angelina mural
29:08
mix up doesn't get called, I mean, there's so many different
29:11
ways where this game feels a lot more far apart.
29:14
But then I think we would have kind of reverse engineered the
29:16
OK, well, no Rodman, no Bethune, no SAR.
29:19
So I agree with you that I don't think we could look at Orlando
29:21
and say, OK, this necessarily means something for this season.
29:24
But on the flip side, I think we absolutely can look at
29:27
Washington and be like, this team is for real.
29:29
This team is legit. They're not messing around, not
29:31
even a little bit this year. I think that's that's the
29:33
perfect read on it. Both of these things can be
29:35
true. It was just it was a great
29:37
performance from a short handed Washington Spirit side.
29:40
It was an OK ish performance from the reigning double holders
29:45
and we have 26 matches to play in the regular season.
29:50
Absolutely. All right, man.
29:51
Quick look ahead. Later this week, we will be back
29:53
with our NWSL full preview. We've done like a couple little
29:57
mini previews along the way, this one probably included, but
30:01
we're going to go way, way deep on all 14 teams.
30:03
We're going to make some predictions.
30:04
I don't know, maybe some tears might happen.
30:06
I don't know. Could we squeeze a draft?
30:08
I feel like there's a it's time to think outside the box.
30:10
We've got a couple days before we record that bad boy, right?
30:13
So that's coming up later this week.
30:14
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
30:16
I. Think we did it, man.
30:17
I mean, I I'll save I'll save my var overhaul conversation for
30:23
another show. I think we've gone long enough
30:25
on this. It's just like headline version.
30:27
I'm so fucking sick of our just get it out of my in my life.
30:30
I don't I don't like if you're not going to massively overhaul
30:32
it. I don't I don't want it anymore,
30:34
but OK, I'll I'll, I'll relax. Sorry, I think, I think we've
30:37
done it. You're like, I'm not going to
30:40
get into it, but I'm going to get into it real.
30:41
Quick for you, of course. Of course Stu got the.
30:44
Interview I appreciate that this has been another episode of the
30:48
channel. Thank you for hanging out.
30:49
If you enjoyed the show or love ones of all as much as your boys
30:52
do, make sure you're kicking it with us every single week,
30:54
especially now. And if yourself is back to
30:56
fucking go, like if you like, subscribe, follow YouTube,
30:59
Spotify, ale podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
31:02
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast.
31:04
A we want to hear from you. We love hearing from you.
31:06
Links to all of our socials except when in the show notes of
31:08
this episode. And a big thank in my coast, Mr.
31:11
Grant angle. If I'm lifting a trophy, I, I, I
31:14
need my guy right next to me. We're lifting that trophy in
31:17
tandem together. That's how we do it here at the
31:18
ITCI. Appreciate you bro.
31:20
Likewise, buddy, you know I wouldn't, I wouldn't lift the
31:22
trophy with anybody else. We do the hey, hey, we do all
31:25
that kind of stuff. And obviously if we're doing
31:28
that, all of our pals who rock with us, you'd be right there on
31:31
the podium with us, no doubt. We appreciate you guys for
31:34
checking out the show and we will see you for the NWSL
31:37
preview.