Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Orlando Pride wins the NWSL Championship

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Orlando Pride wins the NWSL Championship · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to A championship edition of Into the Channel, a
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podcast primarily about women's football.
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Before we hit the pitch, if you enjoy the show or love women's
0:14
football as much as your boys do, come kick it with us
0:16
already. Subscribe follow YouTube,
0:17
Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
0:20
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
0:23
Appreciate everyone who's done that to date.
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Links to all of our socials in the show notes of this episode.
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I am your host Dino de Sespedes and as as always I am joined by
0:31
my Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:34
Oh, I'm feeling good, buddy. Championship edition, indeed.
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Congrats are in order for everybody involved, everybody
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who made a contribution on the pitch, on the touchline, in the
0:45
front office, on a podcast or two perhaps.
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Maybe they get a little credit as well.
0:50
I don't know. I'm not sure what for but or
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something. I'm ready to get into it man.
0:55
But I mean, can I just first say congratulations to you and all
0:58
supporters of Orlando Pride. Thank you.
1:01
You guys earned it. Unbelievable.
1:03
I have a beer ready want to show want to get it in the camera a
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little bit. I got a purple one.
1:08
It is called Beach Cowboy. It has some mango, some passion
1:13
fruit, some pineapple. It's a fruited sour beer that
1:16
felt like Orlando ish Florida ish vibes to me.
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And it's brewed in Yakima, WA, which is often called the
1:23
Orlando of Washington state. And everyone knows this.
1:27
Yeah, I think everybody heard that.
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Let me join you there. Please do, it's delicious.
1:36
Cheers. Cheers to you and.
1:38
Congratulations to you as well. How about my guy?
1:41
He's been telling you for weeks, possibly months.
1:44
The double is on. And how about a score prediction
1:46
for my guy as well? One nil to the pride.
1:49
I appreciate that. Thanks for pointing it out.
1:51
And you know what, just so everybody knows, roll the tape.
1:55
I am going to pick as I have continued to say the double is
1:59
on. I think it's going to be a nail
2:01
biter. I definitely I don't think I
2:03
don't think the Pride walk away from it, but I think the defense
2:06
shows up. I think they're going to be some
2:08
moments. But give me Orlando Pride one
2:11
nil in the final and they win the double.
2:14
Marta absolutely cemented the greatest player whoever lived.
2:18
Putting the show on his back, my guy, right there.
2:22
All right, so let's let's talk about the match, please.
2:25
Let's do it, Mr. Great Angle. Where do I get started?
2:27
The first half, man, the first half of this match, the 1st 20
2:31
minutes specifically, Washington Spirit looks good.
2:34
They came out ready to kind of snatch control the match.
2:37
They were holding the ball, they're passing it around,
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they're able to kind of get through Orlando Pride's midfield
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and different stretches. It felt like they had two pretty
2:47
clear directives. One, try to get some of those
2:49
defenders in foul trouble, if you will, to use A and try to
2:53
get the ball over the top and use aerial passes into the
2:57
danger area. It felt like Washington thought
2:59
they had an advantage there. They looked to do that pretty
3:03
much all match, I think. I think they kept going back to
3:05
it. Obviously that was how McKenna
3:08
Morris to Hershel, that's how they got here.
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And I'm not going to say that that's a weakness for the pride.
3:13
I don't think it is. But it was very clearly an area
3:16
that hid Aldez and the Spirit wanted to put some heavy focus
3:19
on. Yeah, and you know, they were
3:21
able to execute some of it. And, you know, I think we got to
3:23
get her name in the in the show pretty much close to the top.
3:27
Rosemont Kawasi was awesome in this whole match.
3:30
I mean, she played absolutely great.
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You can I think you can make a legitimate argument.
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She was the best player for the Spirit throughout the course of
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the match. And you know, she was kind of
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weaving from side to side and she presented a big challenge
3:41
for a friend of the show, ITC Hall of Famer Corey Dyke.
3:43
But she was Kawasi was in the middle of the field.
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She was doing everything really she could.
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But those 1st 20 minutes notwithstanding, Orlando was
3:52
able to kind of get back into it.
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We've talked about their shapeshifterness in the past as
3:56
they kind of started to get their legs under them.
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They're like, OK, yeah, I guess we could just play counter
4:00
attack football. If we have Marta, Angelina,
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Adriana and Oh yeah, Barbara Banda, maybe some counter attack
4:07
football could work pretty well. That seemed to be the game plan,
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but The thing is, Orlando's happy to sit back and defend and
4:14
rough you up and just make it impossible.
4:15
You look at the shots in this match, so it was surprising, not
4:19
surprising, but it was a little bit of an eye opener last week
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when the current outshot the pride 19 to 13.
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This match, though, 26 to 9, the shot advantage for the spirit.
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So they definitely got shots off, but when you looked at the
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shot quality, it was they made it impossible.
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They only managed 5 on target. And I pulled this this one Lori
4:37
Lindsay quote because I thought it was very prescient towards
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the end of the match. Rosamund Quasi, who you
4:42
mentioned, sort of takes a chance early.
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You know, she doesn't have a great angle.
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She takes a hack at it and Lori Lindsay's like, well, you know,
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I don't know, maybe in that spot, you know, kind of pull it
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out and recycle it. I mean, I love the legend.
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She's always touched tight to my heart.
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But I think in that moment, you have to realize that pulling it
5:01
out and recycling only ends in a worse chance.
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Like I think this happened over and over and over again to the
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point where if they weren't quick and decisive, put a ball
5:10
in the air, let somebody get a head on it.
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Ashley Hatch had a couple good looks.
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If that door closed, chances are the opportunity would get worse
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and worse. The XG smaller and smaller on
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that possession. We talked about with Barcelona,
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one of the other greatest clubs in the world.
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Maybe we'll have that discussion at some point during this
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podcast. Who knows?
5:28
You're out. You're out here on Twitter, not
5:31
signing your tweets, just throwing out big takes about
5:34
Orlando being the greatest, the greatest.
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Club in the world? I know I love it.
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I think it makes sense because like we talked about when teams
5:41
play Barcelona and when teams line up against this Orlando
5:44
defense, they can feel you can they can like physically feel
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the windows closing on that XG or just like even practically
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like what my real chances. So sometimes you feel like you
5:54
got a fire. And when we're watching on
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television, it's like you never had a chance to to score that.
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But in their mind it's this is this might be my only chance.
6:02
Yeah, this is the best look I'm going to get in over this in
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this possession. And I mentioned the five that
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the Spirit were able to put on target. 5 up, five down, Animal
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House 5 saves, some big ones, some challenging ones.
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She played great there. There was a moment that I marked
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in my notes right around the 60th minute.
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I think Krueger's putting a cross.
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She comes up the left hand side, She puts a cross that she's
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trying to kind of put over the top.
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I think it was either a Rodman or Santos out there on the right
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hand side and Morehouse just straight Calvin Johnson's.
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It elevates, snags it with two hands.
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And I've never mentioned this on the show, but one thing I've
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noticed is in the women's game, the keepers are much more likely
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to punch. And to my eye, it looks like a
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little bit of a disadvantage because it's a lot of ways to
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get the punch wrong. You have to really nail it.
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And, you know, obviously, I played football in high school.
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It was a tight end. So for me, it's like, no, you go
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and you snatch it. So to see Morehouse do that,
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sure handed a tough stretching grab to kind of end a legitimate
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break. The Spirit was definitely going
7:03
to get a look on this play. Love to see Morehouse, you know,
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play that kind of decisive goalkeeping, grab it, extinguish
7:09
it, keep the door locked on that Spirit offense.
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And a Morehouse is 6 foot one. She is a keeper with size.
7:16
This is such a good point by you.
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She has great athleticism, really good hands.
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She goes and she high points the ball to your point, the Calvin
7:23
Johnson in it. And she is brave about it
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because I think what it's good that you point out, she goes up
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and high points it and she's coming down.
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She's going to get hit in the midsection.
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She's going to take some shots in the ribs.
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Like she's like falling over players holding the trying to
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hold the ball up to make those catches.
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And so there are things that can go wrong in those scenarios too.
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But I think if you trust your hands, you trust your athletic
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ability to go up and get, I think you're right.
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I think it's better than a punch.
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Absolutely, yeah. And I think it was also
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indicative of just how assertive the Orlando defenders were.
7:56
You know, I I love that you called out a quasi because last
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week we were talking about, OK, well, Corey Dyke, if she kind of
8:01
held Chewinga somewhat in check, what chance was quasi and have
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quasi I think was a little bit of a tougher matchup today than
8:08
the than the presumptive MVP was.
8:10
But again, that Orlando defense just I mean, they get into every
8:13
passing lane. They just make it really,
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really, really difficult and to basically force 21 of the
8:19
spirits 26 attempts off target, that's an incredible feat in and
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of itself. Absolutely.
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I mean best defense in the league.
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You know, they give up those seven goals in the in the final
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three matches that I think you really smartly pointed out kind
8:34
of turned into like exhibition pre season matches toward the
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end. I don't think the seven goals in
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the final three matches were really indicative of just how
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dominant that defense was for months on end throughout the
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regular season. We've gone slightly over 10
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minutes, me and you yapping about this match.
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Let's talk about the goal. Let's do it.
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What was your take on the goal? I think Angelina, you know, when
8:54
I'm watching it live, you see her fight off Laci Santos.
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She gets the ball forward to Banda.
9:00
When Banda gets it on her left foot like that, there's a range
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of things that could obviously happen.
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I mean, it's Barbara Benda, so most likely it's going to be a
9:08
goal. But her ability to strike the
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ball, keep it low and to the left, Kingsbury's like a she's
9:14
not quite like police screened, but she's not.
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She's just not going to have time to get her hand down there.
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It would have had to been a kick save.
9:21
If anything. It's just an absolute bullet
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pass. The goal is genius by Banda.
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You expect nothing less from her.
9:27
But I get the feeling that your question is maybe a little more
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about the beginning of that play than the end of it.
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Could be, could be. What was your take?
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Did you think it should have been called back or where did
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you land on that? I don't think it should be
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called back and I, I know people get annoyed by this and I, and I
9:44
don't blame folks is that it's not called in the run of play.
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It was close. I think you, I've definitely
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seen less called for a foul during the run of play.
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There was still a lot to happen. There was like 30 yards of
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running by Benda. She had to cut it back.
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You know, she had to make the goal happen.
10:00
I think once it doesn't get called on the field, you know my
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feelings about VAR in general. Don't VAR back a goal like that
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because a hand hit somebody's face at the halfway?
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Line totally agree with that and the legend Double L Lori Lindsay
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agrees as well. She had a quote on the telecast.
10:17
Sometimes calls are going to go your way.
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Sometimes they're not End Quote. Don't they agree?
10:22
Again, if it's called in the moment, it's called.
10:25
But you know that push that shove is not always called.
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That's the reality. Like the game is pretty physical
10:30
out there. They're knocking around and the
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refs aren't stopping play every minute or two for physical
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activity like that just so happens it becomes a goal.
10:38
But yeah, I totally agree with you.
10:40
Banda going at Morgan one-on-one.
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Morgan unfortunately was on skates.
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It's an impossible position for Morgan there.
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And the finish Kingsbury from, once she gets in that close,
10:50
there's no way Kingsbury's going to be able to get down quick
10:52
enough. Benda knows this.
10:54
It's almost like you can't really fault either defender
10:57
because it's like Morgan's at a disadvantage, Kingsbury's at a
10:59
disadvantage in that spot, and Benda just made a play, a
11:02
massive play in a massive spot. What else is new?
11:05
And yeah, the Pride go up one nil right before the end of the
11:08
first half. Yeah, you live with arguably the
11:11
best #9 in the world. I mean, at worst, the third
11:15
best. I mean, maybe when Sam Kerr's
11:16
healthy, you just got to live with, yeah, she might, she might
11:19
take a chance and score one on you.
11:21
It's it's all about how you respond.
11:22
But credit to the Washington spirit because I thought they
11:24
fought back pretty immediately. You know, they come back.
11:28
They look dangerous on those set pieces that we talked about
11:30
earlier. They clearly thought aerial
11:32
balls were going to work for them.
11:33
Great delivery by McKenna Morris.
11:35
We got to start playing a drinking game where you take a
11:37
drink every time. We say that because McKenna
11:38
Morris is clearly an excellent passer.
11:42
You know, she delivers a great corner kick.
11:44
Ashley Hatch nails the post with the header.
11:47
The ball ricochets and it's just one of those that the ball comes
11:50
off the post and it just comes up on Terra Mickey own too
11:53
quickly for her to get over it. That's why she kind of skies it
11:56
over the crossbar. I mean, they could have
11:59
equalized pretty shortly after that goal and then you just have
12:04
a totally different football game.
12:05
But that's why football is the sport it is.
12:07
It doesn't go in. Do you got to kind of try to
12:09
claw back from there? Yeah, either that Hatch header
12:12
or the quasi chance in the second-half or probably the
12:15
spirit's two best looks, one saved by the post and Morehouse
12:19
gets the other one. When you look at the XG battle
12:21
in this one, 0.4 for the pride, 1.6 for the spirit.
12:26
That's four times the XG for the spirit.
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But again, they don't give away trophies for XG.
12:32
This is a real G Enterprise pride.
12:34
Take this one one nil. But I think what makes that
12:37
interesting is Seb Heinz's fingerprints are kind of all
12:40
over that because in this matchup, you know, you can see
12:43
Seb say, all right, let's be a little bit more, not a little
12:46
bit more conservative, but let's own our defensive third.
12:49
Yeah. And let's just be dominant
12:51
there. And the counter, you're not sure
12:53
where it's going to come from. It could go over the top to
12:56
Adriana. It could be Adri and Marta.
12:58
It could be Marta and Banda. It could be Banda one on 2/1 on
13:01
one, whatever. And I think the goal when
13:03
Angelina wins the ball back and finds Banda super wide puts
13:08
Morgan in A1V1 defensive situation.
13:11
You have to imagine that that is or was the game plan.
13:15
A spirit gets their chances, they get shots up.
13:17
But ultimately, when it comes down to it, the game gets broken
13:21
on the exact trap that Heinz set for the spirit, which is we're
13:24
going to sit back, we're going to counter and we're going to
13:26
take different angles. We're not going to just run up
13:28
the left hand side every time or the right hand side every time.
13:30
And it's not going to be the same couple players every time.
13:32
We're going to mix it up depending on, you know, where
13:34
the ball is AT and and where that that long passes is going
13:37
to be originating from. Yeah, 100%.
13:39
I mean, we've given credit to Seb Heinz multiple times,
13:42
obviously the manager of the year in the NWSL this year.
13:44
I think it goes back and we've talked a lot about over the past
13:47
few weeks, talked about it with Corey Dyke herself.
13:49
Orlando's identity showed through in this match.
13:53
That defensive identity of we make everything difficult for
13:56
you, that it's like no easy buckets.
13:58
Again, to use some basketball parlance, Carrie Abello, Kylie
14:01
Strom, Emily Sam's Corey Dyke back there, just playing tough,
14:04
playing physical, and then if you are lucky enough to maybe
14:08
hop over them and get a header, you have Anna Morehouse back
14:11
there to clean up anything else. Washington Spirit had somewhere
14:14
north of 60% possession in the second-half.
14:16
It felt like they were operating in the attacking half for most
14:20
of that time. It was just a time for Orlando
14:23
to be compact and to make sure they were putting hands on
14:26
people, hand checking, pushing them off their spot, whatever
14:28
kind of defensive term you want to use.
14:31
And they were able to do it. I mean, they had timely blocks
14:33
when they needed to. So the ball wasn't even getting
14:35
to to Morehouse to kind of make the save.
14:37
They just grinded the game away. And like we've seen in a lot of
14:41
Orlando Pride matches that we've watched this year by like the
14:44
80th minute, I think Spirit looked tired out there.
14:47
Yeah, I mean, they make it. They make it's so tough on you
14:50
to get any kind of decent quality look.
14:52
And then even in the dying embers of the match, you see
14:55
Banda defending like I basically at at Max intensity that late in
15:01
the match. And obviously the notion that
15:02
all 11 players are responsible for defense is like real shit in
15:07
Orlando. There was a funny halftime
15:09
comment that I jot it down in my notes.
15:11
I'm not sure who said it because I think they had our they had
15:13
already gone to the shots on the field, you know, and they're the
15:16
halftime Mans are just doing voice overs.
15:18
And I think one of the last the last Nuggets was Washington
15:21
spirit need to deny service to Barbara Benda.
15:23
I was like, OK. Yeah, yeah, It's a it's it's a
15:26
good idea. I mean, in practice, it's hard
15:30
to execute. So, yeah, on the halftime show,
15:31
I think Laura Harvey had mentioned it.
15:33
And then both Darian Jinx and and Lola Banta, they all agreed,
15:37
which, you know, obviously those three know infinitely more ball
15:40
than the two of us could ever hope to know.
15:43
But I think they also know. Yeah, you say that to your
15:46
teammates. You say that to your players on
15:48
the pitch. Good luck making it happen.
15:51
It's funny because it's kind of like saying don't let Michael
15:53
Jordan get the ball. It's like, right, you know, this
15:55
is this is, this is the sport, you know, like, and I think, you
15:59
know, Benda is probably the best player in the NWSL.
16:01
We've been talking about that all season.
16:03
So easier said than done. I think the, the answer was
16:05
probably, it's just like, I mean, she's so inevitable that
16:08
like holding her to one goal is probably within winning range
16:12
for, for, for a team, But you, you just cannot hold her with
16:18
one person. And I think it's, it's so much
16:20
less about denying her the service because she can spin off
16:24
you, She can out muscle you, run past you, run around you like
16:28
there's no, there's no not letting her get the ball.
16:30
I think if you think tactically, they probably just needed to
16:34
shade a little bit more defense her way.
16:37
I mean, I think that there should have never been a
16:39
situation where Benda beats 1 defender and then she's on with
16:42
the keeper. You know, again, I'm speaking
16:44
from an Orlando perspective where there's just two massive
16:47
walls of defenders and that's before you get to Anna Morales.
16:50
It's just such a comfort knowing that your team could defend like
16:53
that. I do want to talk a little bit
16:54
about the GOAT, though. Got to Marta.
16:57
I just keep seeing her chase one of the balls down.
16:59
I think it were early when when Banda put, you know, a ball into
17:02
her path, it would it might have been like A2 on three break and
17:05
I'm like, oh, Panda out kicked her and Marta still runs it
17:09
down, you know, puts in 90 plus minutes, continues to dazzle.
17:13
And I think the real question is when do we get started on the
17:16
March of statue? We've talked a lot about Haley
17:19
Carter on this show and kind of what how we've viewed her from
17:22
afar. I got to think somebody who
17:25
plans like that and is that good of a leader may have already
17:28
reached out to some designers, let's say.
17:30
I got to think it's in the works.
17:31
It has to happen. Yeah.
17:33
So we're probably in the concept stage.
17:35
I think we were looking at some some stills and we're kind of
17:38
like figuring out some, some placement outside Intern Co.
17:41
I totally agree with you there. I'm a dummy I'm sure.
17:43
I'm sure it's already way in motion.
17:44
I did also put in my notes that Hayley Carter and Seb Hines
17:48
maybe the new Riley Spoelstra. Let's go.
17:50
That's that. That's absolutely fantastic.
17:52
And real quick, back to the Marta statue.
17:54
I don't know how much of the post match you watched, but you
17:57
can then unveil it when Marta and Seattle rain come to town to
18:01
play because Laura Harvey offered Marta a contract when
18:04
Marta said she wasn't sure what she was going to do in the
18:06
offseason during that postgame show.
18:08
So good job, Laura. I believe I you could also hear
18:12
there was some chatter going on, but I think Laura Harvey just
18:15
said name your price when talking about this potential
18:17
contract to Barta, which you know what, God bless open
18:20
tampering over the airwaves. I love it.
18:23
Yeah. What you gotta do, Coach?
18:26
I mean no stone unturned. I mean, she's out there giving
18:29
100%. I also want to give the Spirit a
18:31
shot out, of course, because I think at full strength, ULE star
18:35
Croy Bethune, you look at Andy Sullivan, I think this is a
18:38
completely different match. I'm not sure if the outcome is
18:41
necessarily different, but maybe you can't do exactly that.
18:45
That same pack the paint strategy that Orlando played
18:49
against that much firepower won't end up being like a huge
18:52
what if, you know, because injury is just part of the game.
18:55
But I did want to mention that that I thought, you know, my
18:57
picks and the kind of like my my confidence going into the final
19:01
totally takes into consideration that injuries were a real thing
19:04
and the spirit were hit pretty hard this season.
19:06
Yeah, of course. I mean, and, and also pre final,
19:09
you know, your confidence was built on the fact that your team
19:13
was invincible when they lifted the NWSL Shield.
19:16
Like, you know, we're winning an awful lot of matches there.
19:19
You come into the playoffs, beat Kansas City, who I know you
19:21
viewed as the second best team in the league.
19:24
They're at worst the third best team in the league.
19:26
You know, I, I think all that made sense And and you're you
19:29
know, you live in Orlando. We're obviously objective
19:31
journalist. You get your thoughts and feels
19:33
on the pride. I thought, I thought your
19:35
confidence was warranted. But I think what this showed,
19:37
even with those injuries, Speaking of the credit we need
19:40
to heap on to this Washington spirit squad, it's just hard.
19:44
It's so difficult. And this is probably basic
19:46
analysis in itself. It's just really hard to win a
19:49
final because the other team is going to come in there.
19:51
They know like, you're not going to get these chances very often.
19:56
At least you don't think so. And now maybe Yonit and Heraldez
19:58
would look at me and be like, yeah, buddy, we'll get these
20:01
chances plenty. And I'm sure Trinity Rodman
20:03
agrees. But when you're there and you're
20:05
in the moment, it feels like we got to win this because nothing
20:08
is guaranteed if you think about injuries and the way things kind
20:11
of go. And so I thought Paige Mateer
20:14
handled herself at about as well as you could at right back.
20:17
Terry Mickey own has been good all year.
20:19
Excellent. Washington Spirit, Esme Morgan,
20:22
We talked about McKenna Morris, Hal Hirschfeld, Lacey Santos.
20:25
I thought toward the end of the match I wanted to see more of
20:28
Rodman and Santos on the ball, especially in those in that last
20:32
stretch from like the 80th minute on.
20:34
I didn't think they were getting the ball enough.
20:36
But you know, again, easy for me to say, you know, Rodman's been
20:38
dealing with that back injury for weeks now.
20:41
It's just a lot of things to consider.
20:43
I will say, even though I've already said twice, you don't
20:46
know if you'll get back. Something tells me, call it a
20:48
hunch, that this team with Roy Bethune, Hal Hirschfeld, Trinity
20:52
Rodman and all those other great players we named probably will
20:55
be in the mix for this title moving forward.
20:57
I mean, no argument here, super loaded, super loaded.
21:00
And I think the one thing that I was worried about was he dialed
21:03
as his creativity in a game plan.
21:05
Yep. And I thought I thought the game
21:07
plan was was right on for them to rewind real quick one last
21:11
point on Haley Carter and Seb Heinz.
21:13
I did kind of lament not going for the undefeated season.
21:16
And obviously like they they raised the shield undefeated.
21:19
They win the three straight to win the NWSL championship.
21:22
It's hard not to go back to those couple matches and be
21:24
like, how? But what if they, you know, kind
21:26
of like put it together? But then the other side of my
21:28
brain says, you know what? This final was nip and tuck.
21:32
They you know, they win. They're in control for good
21:34
chunks in the match, but spirit definitely have their chances.
21:38
Orlando, safe to say, was pushed pretty much to the brink.
21:41
Oh, yeah. And then when you think about
21:43
those two matches and getting a couple weeks off, taking your
21:45
foot off the gas a little bit, going out there, working up a
21:47
sweat, you know, and, and maybe not not being super worried
21:50
about the scoreline. You have to imagine that that
21:52
was the absolute right call when you see how close this final
21:56
ends up being. Fellow Kent State University
21:59
alumnus Brian Wynhurst, the NBA reporter, often says when you
22:03
win the trophy, you never have to say you're sorry.
22:06
And I got to say, Wendy, that's a good call, man.
22:08
Because I think, yeah, I think you're right on this.
22:10
They get to look back at it now. And we talked about it felt like
22:14
Orlando had a little bit more juice in those last, like, 1520
22:17
minutes of this match. Is that juice in the legs?
22:21
If you're just going for it, going for it, going for it,
22:23
putting everything on the field after winning in Orlando,
22:26
lifting the shield and then going cross country to Portland,
22:29
you never know what could happen if you really just kept mashing
22:32
down the gas pedal. So you know they've won the
22:35
double. They never have to apologize for
22:37
for losing the Invincible season.
22:39
Absolutely, totally agree with that.
22:40
OK, we've been talking a little while here, buddy.
22:42
I know obviously you're based in Orlando.
22:45
I am an Orlando Pride sympathizer from where I am,
22:48
obviously you're my guy, so I root for your squad.
22:51
There's a lot of chatter about the refereeing in this match,
22:53
not just the Angelina Beshev on on Lacey Santos leading to the
22:56
Bendigo. Here is what Trinity Rodman said
22:59
on referee Alyssa Nichols. This is a post match.
23:02
She said, quote, I don't want to say no comment, but I think she
23:06
was a lot more receptive to hearing the Orlando pride talk
23:09
than to us. So again, a ref's going to do
23:11
what they're going to do, but I don't think she was open to
23:14
hearing what we had to say. End Quote.
23:17
So, you know, I, I think Washington spirit and I think
23:20
Trinity Rodman is kind of at the head of this in a lot of cases.
23:23
I mean, Hal Hirschfeld is very vocal with with referees to have
23:26
noticed that throughout the season.
23:27
I think they do talk to the referees a lot.
23:29
I do think they appeal for fouls a lot.
23:32
What do you think about Trinity Rodman kind of walking that line
23:35
of not she, I don't think she buried Alyssa Nichols here, but
23:38
I think it's an interesting tact to say, well, she seemed to be
23:40
listening more receptive to the other side than us.
23:43
I mean, yeah, definitely pretty savvy phrasing there.
23:46
But Trinity Rodman to me is at a place in her career, even though
23:50
she's still a super young player, where her actions are
23:54
starting to kind of like, bleed out into the rest of the squad.
23:57
And I think it wasn't just a spirit in this match because
24:00
this Orlando Pride side has frustrated every team.
24:04
You know, they turned every team into this irate, super heated,
24:09
you know, like, like, I mean, I have a toddler at home, you
24:12
know, a lot of toddler vibes, you know, like, that we see on
24:14
the pitch. But I feel like Rodman, I think
24:16
just spends too much time gesturing and trying to show up
24:20
the ref and trying to show up other players.
24:21
And it's just sort of like it's starting to bleed into other
24:24
players. And I think the Hirschfeld call
24:26
out, I think is is exactly right because when Hirschfeld gets
24:29
called for her yellow, which was like a legit foul, Oh yeah.
24:33
You know, she kind of eye rolls the referee and kind of stink
24:35
faces the referee. And it's like that's going to
24:37
create some vibes, you know, with a referee.
24:41
And it's also going to just permeate outwards within the
24:44
team. You saw Quasi later in the match
24:46
get really frustrated. I think, you know, player before
24:49
she goes out, commits a hard foul and Banda, like they really
24:52
were kind of rattled. And I think she's an incredibly
24:55
talented player and an accomplished player at a young
24:57
age. But if you want to go out there
24:59
and dominate, do it with your play, which you are totally
25:03
within, you know, your skill level to be able to do.
25:05
And I think that sets the tone for some of these other young
25:08
players. I mean, I think we rattled off a
25:09
bunch of under 20 threes, under 20 fours on that Spirit squad
25:13
who are probably going to be looking to a Trinity Rodman to
25:16
kind of like to figure out how they should respond in some of
25:18
these tough moments. I think that's a that's a good
25:20
way to put it. I mean, she's obviously one of
25:22
the leaders on the team, likely the leader on the team.
25:26
I don't mean this in a disrespectful way to her at all
25:28
because I don't think she's nearly as bad, but like kind of
25:32
a little Luka Doncic ish where it's just like, like you said,
25:36
expending energy, yelling at the refs.
25:38
Now she still gets back on defense and she still is is
25:41
clearly incredibly conditioned. So I would never compare her to
25:44
Luca in those ways. But I I mean, look, like you
25:48
said, she is an accomplished player, 2021 rookie of the year.
25:51
The spirit won the title that year.
25:53
I was talking about it with the shadow executive producer of
25:56
this show. Like if they would have won that
25:58
match yesterday, she would be a two time title winner, a rookie
26:01
of the year and a perennial MVP candidate.
26:03
And you know, she's at least top five this year as an MVP
26:06
candidate. She has a gold medal and now
26:08
they're going to be eyeing in a World Cup here in 2027, so
26:11
plenty more to come from her. It's going to be interesting to
26:14
see how that adapts in her game, how she kind of manages that.
26:17
But we've seen a lot of footballers kind of have
26:20
consistent conversations with the referees, we'll say, or
26:23
maybe sometimes go to the ground a little easy at times, but
26:26
sometimes when you're a superstar you can draw those
26:28
fouls and put your opponent in a bad situation.
26:30
Yep totally agree. All in all the great season for
26:32
the Spirit, great season for Rodman and I would say a
26:36
definitely well deserved rest for Trinity.
26:38
Rodman 1/3 of triple espresso, a great season, end to end.
26:43
So yeah, we'll we'll definitely welcome this team back.
26:45
Fully expect them to be in that championship mix next season.
26:48
All right, man, Orlando Pride, our 2024 double winners, shield
26:53
winners and WSL champions took home all the trophies.
26:55
Almost all the trophies. Barbara Banda, my MVP again,
26:59
more vindication for your boy. I could have had myself on the
27:02
back too hard. Anything else you want to hit
27:05
before we get out of here? You tried to team me up for it
27:07
earlier. So I just want to do this
27:08
quickly. I think it it is obviously
27:09
widely known that Marta is the greatest footballer.
27:12
Whoever lived. I just want to say like we let's
27:14
look at the resume real quick. Six time FIFA world player of
27:18
the year. She won five consecutive between
27:20
2006 and 2010, added another one in 2018.
27:23
She's Brazil's all time leading scorer with 119 international
27:27
goals. She has 189 goals across all
27:29
competitions in 15 years for her clubs.
27:31
She won the 2004 UEFA Cup, obviously now known as the
27:35
Champions League, back when the final was 2 legs.
27:37
She had a brace in the first leg, another goal in the second
27:40
leg. That's when she played for umea
27:42
in Damos Fenskin. They beat Eintrac Frankfurt in
27:45
that final. She has 46 goals in the in the
27:47
Women's Champions League. She has the second most
27:50
Champions League goals in umea's history with 30.
27:52
She has the second most goal in tiriso history with seven.
27:56
She has the third most goals in Rosengard's history with 9 in
28:00
the Champions League. 3 Damos Fenskin teams she played for
28:04
Teresa, it's a it's a tricky 1. And Rosengaard, she won Donald
28:09
Svenskin with those sides 7 times for her career over there
28:12
in Sweden. She reached the Champions League
28:14
final with the combination of those teams four times,
28:17
including with which he reached it in the 2007 final with
28:21
Teresa. And they lost to your Arsenal
28:24
and our pal Leanne Sanderson. So let me just roll through a
28:28
couple more of these. She won the Golden Boot in
28:30
women's professional soccer, the league that predated the NWSL.
28:32
She won that Golden Boot 3 years in a row from 2009 to 2011.
28:36
She played for three teams because unfortunately like
28:38
multiple of those teams were folding because of financial
28:41
conditions. They won the league all three
28:44
years for the teams that she played for, three teams in three
28:47
years and she won the double in two of those years.
28:49
One for FC Gold Pride, which plays like in the Oakland area
28:52
or played in the Oakland area and the Western New York Flash
28:55
in the World Cup. She had three goals in the 2003
28:58
World Women's World Cup. She was 17 years old.
29:01
She LED Brazil to the second place medal in 2007, where she
29:04
won the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball for best player.
29:07
She won the Silver Boot in 2011. She has 17 World Cup goals.
29:11
That is the most of any human being who has ever competed in
29:14
any World Cup. She's the first ever player to
29:16
score in five World Cups, only later matched by Cristiano
29:20
Ronaldo in 2022 and Christine Sinclair in 2023.
29:23
And she has three Olympic silver medals.
29:26
And so at age 38, she is the captain.
29:28
She is absolutely at worst the third best player on the Orlando
29:32
Pride. If you want to maybe say it's
29:34
Benda Sam's, Marta, you could say Benda Marta Sam's.
29:37
Whatever the order you want to say is, she's at worst the third
29:40
best player on a team that wins the double in the most
29:42
competitive league in the universe.
29:45
She's the greatest player. Whoever lived the statue cannot
29:47
be built fast enough. And like you mentioned earlier,
29:50
don't use the guys who did the Dwyane Wade statue figure out.
29:52
Definitely don't use the dudes who made that Cristiano Ronaldo
29:55
bust like from a few years ago. They got to be off the list.
29:59
I don't know that maybe they're great sculptors, but I my
30:01
expertise doesn't expand to that.
30:03
But let me just say, there was really never any question, but
30:06
now the resume is getting so long, it's going to be nearly
30:08
impossible for anybody to meet that in the next 50 years.
30:12
I can't believe some of the years that you're rattling off
30:15
2007, 2008, 2003. It's just ridiculous.
30:20
Yeah, shout out to the GOAT. And I mean, you can't help but
30:22
feel just incredible warmth when you see her raise the trophy and
30:26
just how everybody rallies around her and just kind of runs
30:29
to her. Like she's definitely the
30:30
emotional center of the team. The Pride had this thing where
30:34
they basically repeat of Marta ISM about teams coming into
30:38
Orlando, where Marta says, you know, nobody comes in here and
30:41
has fun except us, which is just.
30:43
That's awesome. That's so good.
30:45
Go talk, let's go all right quick programming reminder we
30:48
will be back next week with a recap of the US women's national
30:52
teams trip to Wembley to take on England little Netherlands
30:56
preview nuzzled in there as well.
30:58
And soon thereafter we're going to be joined by a special guest,
31:00
an old friend of the ITC pod, our guy Peter Weisey.
31:03
He's going to come on talk about Germany, talk about Fran
31:06
Bundesliga, Lil Bayern, Lil Wolfsburg.
31:08
We'll look at the table out there as well.
31:10
So definitely stick around for that.
31:12
And then we will be back shortly thereafter with match day 5
31:15
preview before the UEFA Women's Champions League kicks back up
31:18
mid-december. So very excited to get into all
31:21
of this with you. With that said, I think we did
31:24
it. It's been another episode into
31:25
the channel. Sincere thank you.
31:26
Thank you for watching, listening, following, liking,
31:28
subscribing, just playing, hanging out with your boys and
31:30
remember to like if you liked and subscribe or follow into the
31:33
channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever.
31:36
If you like to watch or listen, leave us a review over your
31:38
favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
31:40
the show notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my coach
31:43
as well, Mr. Grant Angle for I mean, you already know who's
31:46
raising the trophy. You and I, It's half you, half
31:49
me. We're we're, we're lifting that
31:51
thing at the same time 5050. I appreciate you, bro.
31:54
Couldn't do it without you. Likewise, my Goodman,
31:56
congratulations to you and all Orlando Pride fans again.
31:59
And there are going to be transfers.
32:01
There are going to be NWSL moves in the offseason.
32:04
We've made a lot of pals over here on our side of the pond.
32:07
Like we've referenced many times, this started as a UEFA
32:09
Women's Champions League podcast.
32:11
We love European football, but obviously we've become
32:13
entrenched in the NWSL as well. Thank you everybody who kind of
32:17
picked us up during this NWSL season.
32:19
We really appreciate dropping knowledge, giving us some
32:21
historical background on a lot of these players, teams,
32:23
coaches. We really greatly appreciate all
32:26
your all your help. Let me do a let me do some real
32:28
quick, quick shout out at shark eats kitten at John Rawlins, our
32:32
guy loud and proud at Luis and I don't know Luis has handled, but
32:35
Luis, you already know what time it is loud and proud.
32:37
Our guys community's growing. We're just so happy to be a part
32:40
of it and we appreciate everyone checking in from the.
32:42
Final for sure man, the NWSL season this year was awesome and
32:46
you guys made it awesome for us. So thank you again for dropping
32:49
knowledge in the comments, keeping us honest on some of the
32:52
takes. We appreciate you guys.
32:54
If you want to keep rocking with us during our UEFA Women's
32:56
Champions League coverage, you're more than welcome to come
32:58
join us in the tent, but other than that, we will see you guys
33:01
next time.