Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / NWSL Week 1 RECAP!

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NWSL Week 1 RECAP! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:04
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
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football. I am your host Dino de Cespedes
0:09
and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
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What is up man? I I'll dare to say I'm feeling
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fantastic buddy. The NWSL officially all the way
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conclusively back. Back in the back, back.
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Wow, what a weekend. Watched as much as I could.
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I mean, we know we've also got Europe even like definitely
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cooking heading into Champions League this week.
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But what an opening weekend for the league.
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Lot of parity, a lot of competition, some surprises.
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I think some of our predictions look really bright, some of them
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a little bit less so. So be excited to talk about
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those. But where?
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Where do you want to get started?
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OK, we've been slacking on this the last few episodes.
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I have an ice cold beverage. We can't screw this up.
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First matches of the league. Delicious.
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Cheers. Cheers to you, cheers to the
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football. I think there's no other place
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to start. We got to start with your
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Orlando Pride, the defending double winners.
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I love it. Yeah.
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Last week at our NWSL preview, or maybe it was a Challenge Cup
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post game, I asked the question. OK, Adriana, moving on, How is
1:18
Orlando going to be able to fill that void?
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You know, with, you know, somebody creative on the wing
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could kind of like, eat up minutes in the midfield, be a
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little bit unpredictable. Turns out, could not have made
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less of a fucking difference at all.
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Orlando looked awesome. They crushed Chicago.
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They were dominant. How about 25 shots, 8 on target
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shots inside the box? How about 15 for the defending
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champions? I will say the Morgan Gautreaux,
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Haley McCutcheon midfield I didn't mention in the preview,
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but it did give me a little bit of pause.
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So you look at Gautreaux, 6 career assists heading into the
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season, only three assists since 2016, Haley McCutcheon, two
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career NWSL goals, regular season goals heading into the
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season as well. And then those two link up on
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the first, the first goal of the season 7 minutes into the 2025
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year. What do you think about
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Orlando's hot start? Well, I think we've often talked
2:08
about it, that your Orlando Pride is really in the
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discussion for the best football team in the world.
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And when that goal went in 7 minutes into the match, I
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thought to myself, OK, they are now firmly in the competition
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that we have talked about many times when it comes to the these
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big European clubs of how fast can we score compared to the
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other juggernauts. And if you don't mind, I'd just
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like to get into it real quick this weekend.
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The ranking goes gold medal to Lyon Ada Hegerberg 5 minutes,
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the silver medal the Orlando Pride, Hayley McCutcheon 7
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minutes, bronze medal Chelsea Football Club Myra Ramirez at 8
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minutes and in fourth place, Barcelona Alexia Puta scored all
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the way 14 minutes into the match.
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If you can believe. I don't know what the hell they
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were doing. Yeah, I think I I wrote in my
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notes about Orlando's like, you know, fireworks potential.
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I'm like, this reminds me because, you know, on the Gotra
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to McCutcheon goal, Banda had a look early and I think the ball
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ricochets out and that's kind of the whole thing get started.
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I'm like, this feels like Mike Tyson in the 80s, like where
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it's like you might go get a beer.
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You might go down and take a rock out of your shoe in the the
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fight might be over, right. And I think this match
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definitely had some of those vibes for sure.
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Ali Watt gets the second goal. So I was watching Ali Watt in
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those set pieces. They're clearly using her
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vertical leap as a as a real strength.
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She looked like Gerald Green out there on a couple before.
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I'm just like, oh shit, like she's just going to be in here
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trying to do that. She scores in 36th minute.
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Gotra creates a goal, 47th minute, an own goal on a Chicago
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defender. Banda, she gets loose like they
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bring Julie Doyle in in the 65th minute.
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And then that one play where Banda gets the touch to kind of
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like like get the ball over Hannah Anderson, Priska Chalufia
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with the dummy slides it pass, it reaches Julie Doyle.
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Julie Doyle not only her first touch of the match makes it 4
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nil and then you get two more goals from Banda later that are
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just absolute. All three of those plays might
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might have been in the in the weekends top 10.
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Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
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I mean, we've talked about and we'll we'll have to have the
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longer discussion some other time.
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But our pal MLS architect, shout to you MLS, one of the great
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friends of the pod from from Jump Street really gave me some
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some insight into not allowing the NWSL being the most
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competitive league to automatically meaning it's the
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best league. And I think that's something to
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really consider. But maybe that's for another
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show. But the reason I bring that up
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is they looked like a dominant Barcelona team, a dominant Lyon
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side when yeah, we've obviously we've seen big score lines in
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NWSL before, but just the way they just immediately took it to
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Chicago Stars FC was unbelievably impressive and
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something that you that you don't see a ton of, I would say.
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No, absolutely not. And I think when you think about
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the disparity, this team already has a four goal goal
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differential lead on the entire league after one match.
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Like the the the shot numbers, the shots on target, and then
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you think about the defense being able to play Sam's out on
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the on on the wing. And Mike Watts talked about a
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little bit on the telecast. Like their defenses, they're
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just kind of like sliding all over the field and it doesn't
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really matter. They're just going to kind of
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shut off your water. That was incredible.
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A seventh goal was called offside.
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Frisco Choluvia was offside a little bit.
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That would have given Banda two goals and two assists in the
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opener. And I had this in my notes as
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well. Banda and Marta linking up
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slight shades of LeBron Luca. Oh wow, that's pretty good.
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Yeah, I could see that. The greatest of all time
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depending on where you land with LeBron, but we'll just say at
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worst, one of the two greatest of all time.
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And then the the young up and coming star who's who's going to
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be maybe not chasing after the GOAT status, but who's going to
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be in a in a very short conversation for all time.
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Great number nines. I I like it.
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You know I love a good NBA, NWSL, or just women's football
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comparison in general. Yeah, absolutely in the mix.
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And then the other one that I thought was Priska Chalufia
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coming in with about 25 minutes left.
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Imagine you're at the the end of your work day, you know, 25
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minutes till quit in time. Your boss comes in and says,
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hey, you've got to chase around Prisca Chilufia for the next 25
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minutes before you get out of here and clock out.
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That's just what a nightmare that would be.
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Not not interested in even attempting that.
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I mean, I cannot believe how fast she is.
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And you know, friend of the program at Astra who is is
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correct now gets casual mentions on the program mentioned that
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when she was in the crowd, people audibly gasped during the
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Challenge Cup. Seeing how fast Jovia is and I
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believe it, I I cannot wait to see her play in person.
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Definitely breathtaking. All right, I think we celebrated
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the Champs quite a bit. 6 nil, huge win, huge way to start the
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season. They've already got teams
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chasing them from a goal differential standpoint, so
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we'll see how long they're going to be able to hold that.
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But let's go to the team that got the best of Orlando in that
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Challenge Cup, the Washington Spirit hosting the Houston Dash.
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Houston 1, Washington 2 in this one.
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What'd you see here? Well, Kroy Bethune on the bench,
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seemingly available to play. Available as a substitute.
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Did not appear, but that's good to know.
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Trinity Rodman appeared, played like what, like 10 plus minutes,
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something like that in this match.
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That's good to see if you're a Washington Spirit supporter.
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And even with those two superstar players out, they
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still have enough to just figure out a way to win.
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And I kind of think that's where we are already with them.
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And, you know, I'm I'm not gonna try to make like gigantic
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sweeping conclusions after one match or I guess in spirits case
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two matches. But we knew this coming in is
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that this team is gonna is gonna know how to win just based on
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who their manager is and the superlative talent they have
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even while they're kind of battling through these injuries.
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Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
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Looking at the stats, though, in this one, there was some kind of
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anomalous stuff in here. So Houston wins a possession
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battle. They were more accurate from
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passing standpoint, 78% to 73 more shots, 11 to 8 shots on
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target were even four to four. Houston had eight corners washed
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in zero. The Spirit managed just one shot
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in the second-half. We talked about in the preview
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like Houston step up from like sort of like basement dweller to
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like now on the cusp or maybe in the in the playoff mix.
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This was that type of performance.
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Like didn't really have the the pedigree at every spot.
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I think they were definitely hoping for more from the Yasmine
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Ryan Delaney, she and Perring on the left that they were playing.
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But tough competition and I think ultimately like a good
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bellwether for Houston. I think so.
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I think they can be encouraged. I mean, like you mentioned, like
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you know, Delaney Sheehan and Yasmine Ryan, they kind of got
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to get their chemistry. Sheehan could have probably done
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a little better. She got an interception off of
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Mickey own that could have been an absolute howler by Tara
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Mickey own, but she and just didn't quite do enough.
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I think she ripped a shot from outside the 18.
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I think I would have liked Messiah bright to maybe be in a
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little better position to kind of put away the rebound, but I
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think there's some luck involved with that.
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But yeah, I I don't think there was anything to be too
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disappointed with. If you're Houston now, you never
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want to lose at home, but you're playing arguably, you know, at
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worst the third best team in the league, the Challenge Cup
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holders. So, you know, I, I think if
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you're Houston, you can be encouraged by that.
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Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
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I definitely agree with you on that Bright chance.
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And I think when you think about Messiah Bright not really
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notching the goals that I think we think she's capable of, those
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are the kind of goals that it's like, you know, that's what gets
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you from like four goals to like nine goals, like, you know, over
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the course of the season. But, you know, it's early in the
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season. I think ultimately Houston
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should be optimistic. And I think the spirit, you
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know, took care of business. They come in on the road, not
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the toughest environment, but I think Houston was playing pretty
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live. Quick shout out to player.
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I didn't mention the preview for Houston.
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Evelina Dulian, who played for Orlando last year.
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She is just an absolute live wire.
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She was involved in the goal. She gets the ball ahead to Avery
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Patterson after like a really great drive, but she's so fast
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and she's so twitchy, lightning quick, makes good decisions and
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then kind of has like a powerful boot.
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Like I think if they can find a way to kind of like unlock
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Dulian, still just 21 years old, a Swedish player, Avery
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Patterson, who I mentioned 22. I think it's sort of like get it
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all together. I think I think there's
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definitely some growth potential there for Houston.
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And then Washington, I don't know, I think they're, they
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probably feeling pretty good about themselves with these
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three points. I think they should, and I do
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want to mention 17 year old Chloe Ricketts who we talked a
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little bit about during the Challenge Cup.
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Looks good again. Again I thought had a rocket off
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the crossbar that set up that hatch tap in.
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Feels like something that should be an assist in the ITC record
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book interest. It's going to be very.
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Interesting. I've got to veto you here real
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quick because I saw your notes and I'm going to share a little
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bit of an image that I pulled together here.
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OK, so I present to you Exhibit A.
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This is the Chloe Ricketts shot that hits the bottom of the
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crossbar and then bounces in. Definitely hits the grass on the
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on the plus side of the line. So not a Chloe Ricketts assist
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in the ITC record book. This is a Chloe Ricketts goal in
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the ITC record book. You know, let the record show.
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How are we already better at VAR then everybody in the NWSL?
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Look at you, my man. And I swear, I swear when I saw
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it, I was like, oh, that looked like it could have been over the
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line. And they showed like a couple
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angles on the broadcast that were like a little tricky to
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see. And I was just like, OK, what?
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Whatever. I mean, it's a goal, but good
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job out of you. That is fucking fantastic.
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You know, I, I knew you saw it too.
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I'm like, when I see these things, I already know you saw
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it. And then when you put in the
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doc, I'm like, I've got to go back and actually go like get to
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get the screenshots, freeze it. But yeah, definitely, definitely
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a goal for Ricketts, the ITC presser, Rickett, but that's an
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easy one. Nicely done.
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This is why this man is the best producer in the game.
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Everybody look at our guy. Oh boy.
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Well, you know I don't get him. All right, we'll get to that
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later. Nobody does.
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That's good Ed, the other arguably top three team in that
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true contenders mix. For anybody who checked in last
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week, the KC Current 3. Portland Thorns 1 before I get
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into it, I don't know, I thought that Portland looked, uh, looked
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a little feisty looked a little live in this one.
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I thought they brought some, you know, pride knowing no pun
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intended to the table. But obviously Casey gets a big
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win. What you see here?
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I think Kansas City current clearly wants to be in that race
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with Orlando Pride, Barcelona, Leon and Chelsea, which I don't
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have a better name for it right now.
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But which juggernaut scored first this week?
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I will try to tighten up the name.
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It's a working title, but the rule for entry is that you have
12:35
to win your league the previous season.
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So sorry, Kansas City, you're not in there.
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You would have won this week with Tewan Chewinga scoring in
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the fourth minute to absolutely set the tone for I wonder if not
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just this match, but possibly the entire season.
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And I, I think you're right that that Portland looked live and we
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talked about in the preview, they do have an awful, awful lot
12:55
of good players, but Kansas City looks strong again.
12:59
Absolutely, yeah, I think Debina unbelievable game is when she
13:02
gets the assist to kind of open things up to Temu Chewinga.
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Chewinga is just always open because I, I noticed like
13:08
whether it's like D Bernardo or Cooper or Debina or Claire
13:12
Hutton or whatever, they could just kick it to a place where
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there's nobody and Chewinga is going to beat everybody to that
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spot. Doesn't matter where she is or
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where her her starting point is or the closest defender.
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Like if there's just uncovered grass, which there always will
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be, you could just kick it there until the demo runs and gets it.
13:27
She's unbelievable. Also a lethal finisher.
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Great finish on that one. And then Michelle Cooper, a
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player whose stock has risen quite a bit on this show, for
13:35
sure an absolute fucking rocket. I mean, that ball is still
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rising. And Flacco, you know, I think
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also getting it done. I really like the game plan.
13:44
I really liked how many chances they would recreate.
13:47
I think Dominia looked at least as good or maybe better than she
13:51
did at any point last season. Not that she looked bad last
13:53
season, but this was like definitely peak vintage
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primetime Davina in this one. Yeah, Davina was absolutely
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fantastic. I think, you know, I mean,
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obviously they get all three goals in the first half with
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only 44% possession according to our pals over at Foot Mob.
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And then the second-half possession then splits 5050.
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They have the same number of shots, they have the same number
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of shots on target. But Kansas City has three big
14:17
chances. Obviously they don't convert on
14:20
any of them in the second-half. So I think you could probably
14:23
pick some nits and say like, hey, you know, you could have,
14:25
you could have stretched this out.
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You wouldn't have to be 4 goals behind Orlando Pride and goal
14:30
differential if you're a little more tidy in the second-half,
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but you knock home three in the first half.
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You set a tone, you know, chewing.
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It looks like she's going to be right there in the MVP race,
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right there in the Golden Boot race.
14:42
Again, hard to pick too many nits if you will in this first
14:46
one. Yeah, I totally agree with that.
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I mean, I think first match you just want to see like the
14:50
inklings of things happening. And I think, you know, we we we
14:53
figured that Casey would be in sort of like, all right, we left
14:56
it on the table last year mode. Let's come out and like get
14:59
serious about it. And that first half definitely
15:01
set the tone there. But as mentioned, I thought
15:03
Portland looked really good. So Hina Sugita, she gets the
15:06
assist. Olivia Moultrie, who scores to
15:08
get them on the board. 49th minute, Moultrie gets another
15:11
shot at a penalty kick, puts it off the crossbar.
15:14
But like, a really great strike. Just a little bit unlucky.
15:17
I'll just lean into that to kind of give her the benefit of that.
15:20
Yeah, I know. You know, turn over to New Leaf,
15:21
see what we can. We're all evolving.
15:24
I thought Sam Coffey played well.
15:25
I thought Jesse Fleming also played well.
15:27
Took a nasty knock. She was, you know, bruising and
15:31
red and puffy and definitely took me back to my boxing days
15:34
And I, I remember getting knocks like that and your face just
15:37
throbs. It's like not a not a fun
15:40
feeling. It looks bad.
15:41
And then it's just kind of a pulsating thing in your face.
15:44
And Fleming was like, I don't give a shit.
15:45
I'm playing. So I mean that was pretty
15:47
impressive. I think she she only got a a few
15:49
more minutes of run before she got substituted out.
15:52
But a really tough player And, and I don't know, I, I, I liked
15:55
how Portland played. You know, I think if, if they
15:57
play like that and they're able to kind of like shuffle some
16:00
pieces personnel wise, get some players to kind of kind of step
16:02
up and switch gears and then maybe more be more of a lockdown
16:05
defensive type team. They they could, they could stay
16:08
a little bit more, live for a little bit longer than I was
16:10
expecting. Yeah, I think it's definitely
16:12
possible. I mean, it is it is still one of
16:14
those things where you kind of look at look at their team sheet
16:17
and go OK there. There still are a fair amount of
16:20
good players here. It'd be interesting.
16:22
I mean, Moultrie's finish on the goal was real classy.
16:26
Going to turn into a reliable goal scoring player for them.
16:29
I don't know, remains to be seen and she's obviously young but I
16:32
don't think that's really supposed to be your game.
16:34
But I might be missing something from some of her past pedigree.
16:37
They'll be interesting to watch. I think my my original stance of
16:41
I'm not quite sure where the goals are going to come from.
16:44
I think I'm going to still ride with that for the time being.
16:46
That's fair. Yeah.
16:47
I mean, Dana Castellanos too, I think looked sort of threatening
16:50
in spots. I mean, I think she, if she
16:52
could be a player that could put together 5 or 6 goals a season,
16:55
that could really help them as well.
16:57
But definitely something to keep an eye on.
16:59
But let's shift gears. A couple teams that I think, I
17:02
don't know, maybe were we higher on than any show.
17:04
I don't listen all the shows, but we were pretty high on each
17:06
of these teams and we got maybe what we came for.
17:09
Utah won, Bay FC won. What did you see here?
17:11
I think one, one was a fair result.
17:15
I, I thought it was a, it was a good match.
17:17
I thought it was an even match. You're definitely right.
17:19
We're high on both of these teams.
17:22
But before, I mean, before we get to it, are we going to, are
17:24
we going to talk about it? Are we going to talk about the
17:26
thing that I did during the preview?
17:28
Yeah, actually I, I saw some people mentioning this about the
17:32
Utah manager and and maybe maybe some sort of a mix up.
17:35
So I just want to go to the tape here real quick and and just
17:38
double check that. I'm going to zag a little bit,
17:41
and I don't know how much of A zag it is considering how we
17:44
feel about this team. Jimmy Coon rats for the Utah
17:47
Royals. Yeah, I that's a great call.
17:50
I mean, if this was the TBP, I think we'd be looking at those.
17:53
Jimmy Coon rats. Odds and being like, all right,
17:56
plus 1450, I'll partake a little 10th of a unit on the sprinkle.
18:00
Sure, sprinkle, sprinkle. Yeah, that's how it goes, you
18:03
know. I love that pick.
18:04
So is that is that your official pick?
18:06
Are you going? Yo, no. 100%, I'm picking Jimmy
18:08
Coon Rats. I think they're going to jump on
18:09
the table and I think people are going are going to reward her
18:12
for that. Excellent pick.
18:13
Jealous of that one, too. Yeah.
18:16
I mean, I don't know. I don't know what people might
18:17
have heard. It seemed pretty clear to me.
18:19
But I think, you know, you know, bandwidth or, well, you know,
18:22
download speeds, These are all things that could, you know,
18:25
kind of distort what's happening and maybe outside sounds.
18:27
I've got Airpods Pro. Sometimes they can get a little
18:29
funky, but I don't know, you know, Pretty business as usual
18:33
if you ask me. Yeah, Jimmy Coonrat's manager of
18:36
the year. I think Utah's going to finish
18:37
higher than everybody expected. And so I think that's that's
18:42
what's going to happen. But in all seriousness, let me
18:45
just let me just take you into my notes here.
18:48
This when we when we did our prep before that episode, I'll
18:51
hit you with the most embarrassing part.
18:53
First. They really got better last year
18:55
as the year went on. And then, as I said on the show,
19:00
manager of the year doesn't necessarily mean you're the best
19:03
manager in the league. It can sometimes the best
19:06
manager in the league does win that award, but a lot of times
19:09
it just means did you finish higher in the standings than
19:12
people expected you to land. And so I, I want to think about
19:17
my first point here that I made in my notes that ran counter to
19:20
what may or may not have actually been said in the last
19:23
episode, is that Utah before June 30th, I'm going to pick
19:28
that date for a specific reason, was two wins, 2 draws and 11
19:32
losses in league play. After June 30th, they were five
19:39
wins, 2 draws, 4 losses. So markedly better.
19:43
And as it would turn out, June 30th is the date that Amy
19:47
Rodriguez was sacked and Jimmy Coonrats was named the interim
19:52
manager. Later, of course, named the full
19:55
time manager for this season. Yeah, we we talked about that
19:59
Amy Rodriguez sacking on the show last summer.
20:01
Actually, if I if I recall, that's the thing.
20:05
But yeah, you know we. We win as a team, we lose as a
20:07
team. I definitely refer to Amy
20:09
Rodriguez a couple times in that episode.
20:11
And I'm not sure how we both, I'm not sure how we both got
20:15
that equally wrong and couldn't couldn't quite source it, but
20:19
shit happens. What are you gonna do?
20:20
But you know, to your point, Amy Rodriguez, you know, I'm not
20:22
sure if Sam lady still got the interim tag in LA.
20:24
There's maybe Amy's free in June when when Parsons is looking for
20:31
crazier things have happened. That would be.
20:34
Let's get to the. Hell of a prediction I I would
20:37
still be wrong because I'm picking Jimmy Coonrats to win
20:39
manager here. All all the pick was was that
20:42
the Utah Royals manager is going to win the fucking manager of
20:44
the year. So if Amy Rodriguez somehow
20:47
takes over his squad and wins it, I'll I'll somehow be like
20:50
triple wrong at this point. Yeah, we all know it's going to
20:55
be Geraldo. So I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll
20:57
just, I'll, I'll take the victory for the show and
20:59
hopefully that'll let us off the hook a little bit.
21:02
Let's get to the football, though.
21:03
Utah won, BMC won. What'd you see in this one?
21:05
Sentinor looked real live man. Multiple, multiple instances
21:10
where she's just running at goal.
21:12
Absolutely loved it what she had.
21:14
I think she hit the crossbar right near the death.
21:17
She had a couple shots that she was just ripping from around the
21:20
danger area, which is at this point I think you can just say
21:23
that's her calling card as an attacking player is that she
21:26
will just look up and fire from wherever around the 18 and she's
21:29
live to score it on the goal. That Mandy McGlynn bomb to
21:35
Bianca Saint George on the run. Gotta say, shades of Alex Smith
21:40
to Paris Warren for the 2004 Utah youths.
21:44
For anybody who is as much of a college football nerd as me.
21:47
Oh my God, that's so much better.
21:49
I had I had Jalen Hurts ask in my notes on that one.
21:52
It's just cool. Mcglinn's like, I'm gonna wait.
21:54
I'm gonna wait. Let me see something, all right?
21:55
See something up here, OK. You know, just on an absolute
21:57
platter out there. What a what?
21:59
A play from Mcglinn and great finish from Saint George.
22:02
Yeah, I, I'm still, I'm extremely happy with how high we
22:06
are on Utah Royals. I think they're gonna be good.
22:08
Tanaka looked live at a couple different spots also.
22:10
So I just think that this team is going to look threatening on
22:14
offense and they went up against in a team that they were evenly
22:18
matched against. And I, I know I'm higher on Bay
22:20
FC than you, but I think we both respect Bay FC as an outfit
22:24
also. So it was good to see them play
22:26
level with each other. Yeah.
22:28
I mean, I think for me Bay FC who I think I had 10th in the
22:31
preview, I think Arrow pointing up a little bit for me because
22:34
they looked really, really good. And I'm glad you mentioned that
22:36
the the teams are relatively even couple stats definitely
22:39
reflected that. Shots were 13 to 13 shots on
22:42
target 5 to 4 fouls 17 to 14 tackles 18 to 18 interceptions
22:47
15 to 14. So a lot of balance there for
22:49
sure. Utah had more possession better
22:51
in the passing game. Bay FC, though, a lot more
22:54
crosses, a lot of time spent on Utah side of the field, shots
22:57
inside the box, 7 to two touches inside the opposition box, 27 to
23:01
six in favor of Bay FC. So they were very, very
23:04
dangerous. And then, yeah, Ally sent in our
23:06
super live that that one that you put off the crossbar a
23:09
little kind of a fade away. She's kind of like falling away
23:11
from the goal and crazy miles away.
23:13
Like, I mean, I couldn't believe she was able to do that and then
23:15
almost snuck one in the 89th as well.
23:17
These teams pretty evenly matched on the day, split the
23:20
points. So I think everything you know,
23:22
as it should be. Yeah, looking forward to
23:24
watching both these teams play as the season continues.
23:28
And obviously Jimmy Coonrats and them gals always excited to see
23:31
him play. Absolutely.
23:38
Oh jeez. Real quick, I want to also shout
23:40
out Kiki Pickett, who smashed in a great goal on what looked like
23:44
a definitely like a a training ground play.
23:46
Taylor Huff with the free kick. Joel Anderson lays it back off
23:49
to Kiki Pickett and then knew what was coming.
23:51
Because if you see the replay, she runs away.
23:54
Like if it like if she just left a live grenade on the floor and
23:57
kind of like turns her face and turns away.
23:58
She's like, I don't want to be anywhere near this.
24:01
So she knew what was coming. Kiki Pickens slides it in, gets
24:04
a little bit of the post, which was just chef's kiss to tie that
24:07
one up. And yeah, I'm going to be
24:09
excited to watch both these teams.
24:10
So I think we were we were pretty much on it.
24:12
Let's Fast forward here, though, a couple other teams that I
24:14
think we're we're also high on. This was a fun one.
24:16
Racing Louisville one. Well, the weather a little bit
24:18
less. So it looked like there was
24:19
maybe 75 people there. Shout out to them or anybody who
24:22
who braved that environment. Racing Louisville One North
24:26
Carolina courage, one good match of football despite the
24:30
conditions. What did you see?
24:31
Here. Well, your purchase of Emma
24:35
Sears stock weeks ago continues to look like an excellent
24:40
purchase by you. Thank you.
24:41
She's a hell of a player. She notches the goal.
24:44
It's a great corner by Courtney Peterson to Aaron Wright.
24:47
I would say as long as we're messing with the ITC record book
24:50
here, I think you got to give an assist to the 27 year old
24:53
American Peterson just for how nicely executed that corner was
24:58
to get the ball back into the middle for Sears to knock at
25:00
home. So I think I think we get an
25:02
assist to Aaron Wright, who already has one in the regular
25:04
record book, but in the record book that really matters.
25:06
I think Courtney Peterson should get one as well.
25:08
Love it. Yep, I'll make note of it.
25:10
I'll just keep the RECO book real handy.
25:12
See it has ITC right there on the top so I can go outstanding.
25:16
So that notes will be made. And yeah, emissiers definitely
25:21
going to be holding that stock for that's a long term hold.
25:25
No capital gains tax risk here for your boy.
25:28
She creates the corner kick, you know, like she well, she earns
25:32
the corner kick for her side and then is able to kind of smash it
25:35
home on the North Carolina side. 19 year old Riley Jackson
25:38
Ballin. So she got she got a goal to
25:41
equalize in the 68th minute. She also completed check this 54
25:45
of 57 passes as a 19 year old in the smack in the middle of the
25:49
park. Unbelievable game for Jackson 6
25:52
out of 6 on long passes as well. Just an incredible weapon for
25:55
that courage side. Yeah, great work by Riley
25:58
Jackson. This one I thought she she
25:59
jumped out on the build up to that.
26:01
I think overall Jaden Shaw, I'm curious your thoughts on it.
26:05
I felt like Jaden Shaw was relatively quiet in the match,
26:08
kind of trying to find her way with the rest of the squad.
26:10
But in the build up to that Jackson goal, it was Shaw and
26:13
Ryan Williams who combined to kind of get the ball up the
26:16
field and Ryan Williams makes the cross in.
26:19
That's obviously your boys defensive player of the year
26:21
pick. And I would say such a good
26:23
cross by Williams, I would lobby for her to get an assist in the
26:27
ITC record book as well. But I don't need to keep you
26:29
that busy during during this show.
26:31
But again, we have another, we have ourselves another one, one
26:34
draw. And dare I say, I think it was a
26:37
fair result. Yep, totally agree with that.
26:39
I got Williams in the book for the assist.
26:41
We'll see if that appreciate that helps her, her deploy case
26:44
and we'll see if we could not hit one of those picks.
26:48
Well, I'm trying to hit as many picks as we can.
26:51
But yeah, I agree with you, Jaden Shaw, I mean, she had some
26:53
chances early, she was involved early, but I think you could
26:56
definitely see a still young player be definitely still
26:59
developing chemistry with her new team mates.
27:02
But I think, I think a positive first match for Shaw.
27:05
Hopefully she feels good about that.
27:06
Courage dominated possession in this 168 to 32.
27:10
They also completed almost three times as many passes as
27:12
Louisville. Way more accurate as well. 84 to
27:15
66% shots, slight edge, 15 to 13, but you look a little
27:19
closer. Louisville has the edge and
27:21
shots on target. Adi Borgess hits the post Taylor
27:24
Flint hits the post. Louisville forces Casey Murphy
27:26
into six saves on the day. I thought Louisville looks super
27:30
live. Definitely on on on different
27:33
days. This is going to be a team that
27:34
pushes other really good teams in the league and is capable of
27:38
like notching three goals, four goals if they get good
27:40
performances from one or two of those attackers.
27:43
So I think this team definitely going to be dangerous and you're
27:47
working the ear pick. I definitely want to get into
27:50
the Sarah Weber. What'd you see from Weber?
27:51
Hey Now almost had the winner in the 76th minute.
27:55
Casey Murphy had to make a great save to push it over the
27:57
crossbar and then had another look at goal.
28:00
Sarah Weber out of Nebraska, the University of Nebraska and
28:03
another look would put that one over the crossbar without Murphy
28:06
needing to get a touch on it. I thought she looked super live
28:09
too. I will say when you talk about
28:12
racing Louisville, maybe having the ability to score three goals
28:15
in a match or just put up crooked numbers in general.
28:18
Emma Sears is 5 foot 9. I believe Taylor Flint is, she's
28:22
either 6 foot or 6 foot one. They're a bit of a nightmare on
28:25
set pieces. And I think that's going to
28:27
create, whether it's those two scoring on those set pieces or I
28:31
think there's a, there's going to be a lot of opportunity for
28:34
other players to get some chances and looks on goal
28:37
because everybody's going to have to focus on those two.
28:39
Yeah, yeah, I think Borges in and around the area, Aaron
28:42
Wright, D'mello. I mean, I think they just,
28:45
they've got a lot of players that are professional in in that
28:48
area that I think could, could, could have impacts.
28:50
They're going to be a tough team.
28:51
I think they're definitely going to be in the playoff mix for
28:54
sure. The courage, I think they're
28:56
going to be good as well. But I think, yeah, the scoring
28:58
thing doesn't feel like they've totally solved it.
29:00
I think they've really got AI. Don't know it's early in the
29:03
season. This is a road game.
29:04
Obviously, we talked about the conditions, but I I definitely
29:07
would have wanted to see. Let me just look at one thing
29:10
real quick. Yeah, apologies for the quick
29:12
22nd timeout. I wanted to look at the XG and
29:15
according to FB ref 1.7 for Louisville, 1.3 for the Courage.
29:20
I think even despite the conditions, you know, you're,
29:23
you're taking on a team that's probably loosing the playoff
29:26
mix, maybe in the on the bubble. If you're the courage 1.3 XG
29:31
that's not going to quite get it done.
29:32
I think I have the courage in my in my top four feeling not so
29:37
good about that pick. I think they they might be one
29:40
of those teams that that got a little better with Shaw but
29:42
maybe didn't didn't really address all the needs.
29:45
I had him at 5th. We got to remember, you know,
29:48
Courtney Vine, what I think she got like 10 plus minutes in in
29:51
this one. She took a, she took a break
29:53
from football for a little while in 2024.
29:57
So, you know, she kind of needs it to get back up to speed.
30:00
I think you are right. The 1.3 XG when you have that
30:04
much of the ball and we've talked about Shawn Nahas's
30:06
system and then the kind of possessive style, you obviously
30:09
want to get a little higher XG than that.
30:11
I had him at 5 in my, in my prediction.
30:14
And maybe this is the last episode where I keep talking
30:17
about all my predictions, but, you know, we're fresh off of
30:19
them, so we might as well, we might as well try to discuss
30:21
them a little bit. But I, I still feel good about
30:24
it. Like I still think they're going
30:26
to be all right. You know, it's year 2 without
30:28
Ketaline now, essentially because she was, she missed so
30:30
much time last year. I think they just need to figure
30:33
out some stuff. Well, we got like 25 plus
30:36
minutes of Hannah Betfort. I think you just need for them
30:39
to kind of yeah. And you just kind of need for
30:42
them to get a little more used to the system and then we'll see
30:45
where things land. But I'm still feeling good about
30:47
the courage. Yeah, and I guess that's right.
30:49
Maybe I'm overreacting a little bit of a little Taddy Tad, but
30:53
we'll we'll keep an eye on that next match on the docket.
30:55
You were in the building for this one.
30:57
Your Seattle Rain won Gotham FC one.
31:01
What do we need to know about this match?
31:02
All right, yeah, another one, one match.
31:04
And I gotta tell you, I think it was a fair result.
31:08
I mean cruddy weather. Seattle Rain top seven team.
31:11
I mean, people are saying, I've heard it said, you know, the
31:17
weather was not great, but it was also it's Seattle in March.
31:20
So that's just going to happen. Still still more than 8400
31:24
people in attendance. Pretty solid turn out usually,
31:27
you know, if you're hovering around that 10K number, pretty
31:30
good shape in these matches. The first half ends nil, nil.
31:34
Seattle looked pretty live early.
31:36
You know, Gotham was able to kind of keep was, was able to
31:39
keep it mostly even. I'm curious your your thoughts
31:43
here as somebody who's who's further away from the club.
31:46
I'm still kind of left wondering where Seattle is going to get
31:50
their goals from, similar to how I feel about Portland.
31:53
Did you see anything to to kind of give you some encouragement
31:56
around this playoff finish that you're expecting?
31:59
Well, I mean, I was a great team goal, you know, to to kind of
32:02
like get them back into this 171st minute.
32:05
They only need to go Jess Fishlock to G to Jordan Heitama
32:08
to Maddie Mercado to Shay Holmes to really Mondesira back to
32:12
Jordan Heitama to Emily Adamas who put the put the ball, it
32:17
gets deflected off a Shipanski and then Adamus then punches it
32:21
in. I mean, that's super easy to
32:23
recreate. We could just do that whenever
32:25
we want really. I mean, just got to get
32:26
everybody the same page, get everybody synced up and we
32:29
should be good to go. But I think really the story
32:31
here probably, and I think I joked about top 17.
32:34
I had Seattle ranked 7th in my preseason rankings.
32:36
I think defensively they've got a little bit of a point to
32:39
prove. I think Jordan Bug, I'd be
32:41
interested to see to hear from you.
32:42
You were in the building about Bug's performance and then the
32:45
the defense as a whole. You look at the stats, you know,
32:48
8 tackles, 7 interceptions, 3 goalkeeper saves, 29 clearances.
32:52
And the Gotham goal also takes a deflection, you know, so
32:55
Portillo gets a good strike on it, but you know, Dickey's kind
32:59
of been in no man's land, you know, just because that
33:01
deflection kind of rude to the route to the spot, but that was
33:04
kind of it. That's kind of all they gave up.
33:06
And I thought defense, they look they look pretty tight and if
33:08
they could play that kind of ball and, you know, you
33:10
definitely feel like the offense is going to kind of come around.
33:13
There's definitely going to be some growth there.
33:15
I think when you think about it from that standpoint, strong
33:18
defense, the ability to kind of like stay strong in that
33:20
department and the offense maybe takes a step up or two.
33:23
And, you know, I think that that that to me at least, was the
33:26
formula. That's kind of where my head was
33:27
at. But you were there definitely
33:28
dying to hear, you know, how much of that is what was was
33:31
backed up by the eye test. Yeah, I think, I think you're
33:34
totally right. So I'll start with Jordan bug
33:36
man, she continues to impress 18 year old American center back.
33:39
Looks like she's going to she's going to have to crack the
33:42
national team radar. I mean, she she played for the
33:45
youth national team. Obviously she's going to get a
33:48
look from Emma Hayes. There's no question about it.
33:50
That could be an incredible pairing with her and Germa.
33:54
She had a real physical header early in the match as a
33:57
clearance. I think he I think she went up
33:59
against Schubansky on that one. And then later in that half,
34:03
there is a ball and this is like, this is like one of those
34:06
little things where the ball is kind of like coasting out of
34:09
play and she sprints back and makes a sliding save to like,
34:13
basically take the ball off the line, gets to her feet and then
34:16
passes back to Dickie to keep the possession alive for Seattle
34:20
rain. It's just like that's one of
34:22
those things that you're like, yeah, if you're going to do
34:24
little stuff like that, just little moments to just help us
34:27
keep the ball or help the team keep the ball rather.
34:30
And just kind of, you know, do that for for your squad.
34:32
Those things matter. And then late at like toward the
34:35
end of the first half, Portillo looked like she was going to be
34:38
on with the keeper one-on-one and Bug went screaming back
34:44
there. She I did not know that she had
34:46
that much speed in her game. And I thought that was really
34:49
impressive. I asked her about it.
34:51
It was Emery Adamus and Jordan Bug at the post game presser.
34:55
And when I asked Bug about it, I said you really showed off some
34:59
real speed there. Emery Adamus was like, yeah, you
35:02
did was like, like happy about like, you know, nudging your
35:04
teammate, like, yo, you were moving.
35:06
And Bug talked about, she gave credit to the to the Reigns
35:09
training staff and saying like, hey, I'm 18 years old.
35:12
I'm out here playing against grown women, grown, grown adults
35:15
in this league. I needed to get faster.
35:18
I needed to get stronger. And she, you know, she obviously
35:21
hinted that that growth is still has to continue.
35:23
But she pointed out, like, she basically said, that she
35:26
understands the physics in this league and she's working toward
35:28
that. And it looks like she is getting
35:30
close to it already at 18 years old.
35:32
Tremendous. And what was the what was the
35:36
take away from the goal? It it seems like Emry Adamas
35:39
only scores like interesting goals, like where there's like
35:43
things happening and there is the degree of difficulty and
35:46
they they kind of go around. They kind of like take the
35:48
dotted like the beeline roundabouts to kind of like get
35:50
to get to the finish line. But what was the what were the
35:54
vibes like when they tied it up? You know, the I went nuts.
35:57
Laura Harvey talked about it too in the post game.
36:00
You know, 8400 in the rain in an NFL stadium and Leon Sanderson
36:05
has talked about it on, on this very show.
36:07
Also, Lumen Field can really feel kind of cavernous when you
36:11
you know, it's got a seat like 40,000 or whatever it is.
36:14
You put 10,000 people in there. It's a good crowd for an NWSL
36:18
match, but you still have 2030 thousand empty seats there.
36:22
But it it got pretty loud in there.
36:24
And you make a great point about the way Adamus has scored her a
36:28
couple goals in the league. She seems to be in a good
36:32
position for these goals. She's she's obviously, and I've
36:35
talked about this with with Laura Harvey directly.
36:38
She is a clever player, especially for someone as young
36:41
as she is. She knows how to like, she'll
36:43
nick the ball away from defenders she gets.
36:46
She's always kind of in the right area.
36:48
Like that is promising it. It goes back to something that
36:51
you and I have talked about in sports for a long time where if
36:53
you project a young player to be good, you have to be able to see
36:58
some of both the physical and the mental sides of the game
37:02
that that you can actually project.
37:04
Like sometimes I feel like people talk about prospects.
37:06
It's like, well, I've never seen that player do good things on
37:09
the field. I don't know why we're talking
37:10
about them as a prospect. Adamus very clearly knows where
37:15
she should be in the danger area and kind of around the field.
37:19
So I think that's all very encouraging.
37:21
Yeah, I love that. Just kind of those flashes that
37:23
you see just like, OK, more of that, Like, let's see, let's see
37:26
that evolve, you know, versus a player that has like, maybe the
37:29
physical tools but is unable to show that IQ or kind of like
37:33
unlock something that nobody else is able to see on the
37:35
pitch. So I think that's a great call.
37:37
One more match in this opening weekend.
37:39
Angel City won San Diego Wave won the weekend of one ones.
37:43
I'm interested to hear what you thought of this one because I
37:46
feel like I learned quite a bit watching these two teams go at
37:48
it. Yeah.
37:49
You know, one, one draw, got to say, thought it was a fair
37:52
result. And when you watch these two
37:55
teams play, I thought they were a little more evenly matched
37:58
than maybe I expected. You know, San Diego Wave scores
38:01
super early. Gia Corley scores a goal in 5
38:03
minutes. And I would be remiss if I did
38:06
not point out that, as I just mentioned earlier, Leanne
38:09
Sanderson, Arsenal legend, Lioness legend, friend of the
38:12
program, friend to both me and you, is literally on the call of
38:17
the match saying I think it'd be a great idea for San Diego.
38:20
Or it would be great for San Diego to get Cascarino on the
38:23
ball, get her in space so she can make some plays.
38:25
As she's saying that, Cascarino is streaking down the right wing
38:29
and then plays in a perfect pass to Corley, who, while the pass
38:33
is absolutely perfect and we know what time it is with
38:35
Delphine Cascarino, she has those skills.
38:38
Corley is standing by herself in between the penalty spot and the
38:42
six yard box and just kind of grooves it in at that point.
38:47
Not a great moment for the Angel City defense.
38:49
You had three, three back liners just kind of stand around
38:52
looking around. And that's after Delphine
38:54
Cascarino Cook's two other Angel City defenders running up that
38:57
right hand side. Tremendous call by Leanne
38:59
Sanderson. I mean, that's, that's how you
39:00
make a, that's how you make a prediction right there.
39:05
A good start for San Diego. I thought they played, I thought
39:07
they looked really good. I mean a lot like Portland, but
39:10
maybe half a notch above. I thought Kenza Dali looked
39:13
good. Cascarino, like you mentioned,
39:15
she gets the assist looked good all game.
39:17
Leanne Sanderson talked about Cascarina looking like the best
39:19
player on the pitch in this one. Savannah McCaskill, I thought
39:22
she was effective. There's just good players on on
39:25
San Diego. I I thought defensively, you
39:26
know, you lose Germa, but they they held up pretty well outside
39:30
of the one goal that they gave up.
39:31
But I would say arrow for me with San Diego pointing slightly
39:36
up. You know, I had them 14 at my
39:38
pre season, right, Because I don't think they're that bad.
39:40
I think they're going to be a little bit better than that.
39:42
They just have talented players. They have good football players.
39:45
We'll see what aid of all could do.
39:47
They they clearly look better than Angel City today and they
39:50
come in as the road team. You know, I think before this
39:53
one I thought Angel City maybe had maybe higher prospects for
39:55
the season. So I think I was a little bit
39:57
impressed by that. Angel City I thought looked OK,
40:00
but I would say a little bit underwhelming, a little bit
40:02
short of my expectations for them.
40:03
What would you think of Angel City?
40:05
You know, Angel City, they they get the announcement that Sydney
40:09
LaRue is stepping away from football for a while.
40:12
She cited some just kind of like mental health recovery.
40:15
Shout out to Sidney LaRue, 2015 World Cup champion.
40:18
I think she made 4 appearances, notched an assist in that 2015
40:21
World Cup. Great player, always
40:24
entertaining and we always say we don't know these people, we
40:26
don't know what the athletes are going through.
40:28
We obviously wish her well. She just seems though her social
40:31
media presence, you know, she seems like a genuine, funny,
40:35
nice person who other people like to be around.
40:37
So obviously we wish Sid the best, but so, you know, if
40:42
you're Angel City, that kind of lands in your lap and then you
40:46
kind of go and and you kind of have to figure out like, OK,
40:49
well, who's who's going to be our starting forward here again,
40:52
you know, first match of the year, Alyssa Thompson looked
40:55
good. So that's obviously a good sign.
40:57
I just I'm not ready to take away too much from this first
41:02
match. Like somebody has to finish in
41:04
the bottom 3. And if we know anything about
41:07
your boy Yonas Adoval, is that sometimes things can go a little
41:10
sideways as the season progresses.
41:13
I don't want to put that on them right away after one match
41:15
because like you said, they do have good players.
41:17
They did look good today. I'm not trying to rain on all
41:20
Yonas's parade, but you know, like you said, you lose Germa
41:25
Savannah McCaskill. To your point, she looked good
41:27
today, but last year it seemed like there would be like,
41:31
sometimes you get like 50 minutes stretch of good Savannah
41:34
McCaskill and then you get like 120 minutes stretch of bad
41:38
Savannah McCaskill. So you know you're just going to
41:41
have players. Like that and not and not like
41:44
disappear McCaskill. But you're right.
41:46
Bad McCaskill like. Bad and so like no disrespect,
41:50
but like that just happens in in professional sports.
41:52
So like, you know, I'll be interested to see how they're
41:56
able to hold up Hannah Lundquist's.
41:58
She's kind of the same way where she'll make some plays in the
42:00
back line and you'd be like, OK, look at Lundquist kind of coming
42:03
through there and other times BBQ chicken.
42:06
I want to point out one more thing about San Diego in their
42:09
favor, though. And I want to shout out a friend
42:12
of the show made a comment on YouTube Lost in Darkest Peru,
42:16
which is a great YouTube screen name mentioned on our last
42:19
video. And they didn't they didn't say
42:21
this. I'm saying this part that I kind
42:23
of flippantly said that Anna Morehouse is the best goalkeeper
42:26
in the league. And they just pointed out and
42:28
said like, hey, I was surprised that you you mentioned Morehouse
42:30
might be the best keeper in the league.
42:32
You know, a couple other of our pals noted this too.
42:34
Obviously on Katrinberger firmly in that conversation.
42:38
She had a better goals against per 90 and save percentage than
42:42
Morehouse in the 2024 season. But this match served as a loud
42:46
reminder. Caitlin Sheridan absolutely 100%
42:50
in that conversation as well. Best keeper in the league.
42:53
Yeah, played really big in this one.
42:55
Yeah, Katzenberger, I think was the the goalkeeper of the year
42:57
last year and I think the first team NWSL 11.
43:00
But then you look at Orlando, you know, another clean sheet,
43:03
the only clean sheet of the weekend, you know, So there's
43:05
going to be a lot of those from Morehouse.
43:07
She made a couple saves in that. One.
43:09
Last note on San Diego, Melanie Barsenas, she comes on and looks
43:14
really live, not guardable in spots.
43:17
Had a chance, had a move that Leanne Sanderson described as
43:20
quote UN quote dirty. That was a great description for
43:25
it. You know, I think as she
43:27
continues to grow and evolve, I mean, she's already looking
43:31
close to there as a player that can play regular minutes, be
43:34
really effective, really exciting and a real handful to
43:37
deal with for opposing defenses. So I thought, you know, another
43:41
fair result won one. But I did think San Diego was
43:43
probably the better team today. They're probably going to be a
43:46
bit more disappointed that Angel City will be, especially with
43:49
Sydney LaRue just kind of needing to take care of personal
43:52
things and obviously 100% cosign on LaRue.
43:55
I love her as a player. I'm sure as a person, she's an
43:58
amazing person as well. Definitely wishing her as many
44:01
well wishes as we can as a show during what I'm sure is a tough
44:04
time. But yeah, back to the football,
44:06
I think, I think the Wave probably feel a little
44:07
disappointed they didn't walk away with the three.
44:09
Here, I think that's fair if you're San Diego, but I I want
44:12
to go to something that Laura Harvey actually mentioned in her
44:16
post game presser was that she she was happy with the one point
44:21
at home against Gotham and said last year we probably don't end
44:26
up scratching out that point. And I wonder if you're Jonas
44:30
Adevall, if you look at your team and say we probably don't
44:32
even win this game last season. Yeah.
44:34
So maybe that's where you can kind of hang your head on that
44:37
and say, look, we expect to win these matches moving forward,
44:40
especially when we go up that early.
44:42
But let's take something away from this that we looked better
44:45
probably than 70% of our matches that we played last year.
44:49
Yeah, that's a great point. Yeah, I I totally agree with
44:51
that. And like I said, it's still
44:53
early ton of football to be played.
44:55
Quick look ahead here. So I mean, this is extremely
44:58
short notice. So apologies everybody lists
45:00
this after the fact. But we will be live Monday
45:03
night, 11:00 PM Eastern, 8:00 PM Pacific to do a little quick
45:07
preview preview of the four quarterfinal matchups of the 8
45:11
Champions League quarter finalists that get ready to thug
45:13
it out this week. Tuesday 1:45 PM Eastern, Real
45:17
Madrid host Arsenal, 4:00 PM Bayern host Lyon.
45:20
Wednesday, 1:45 PM Eastern, Wolfsburg host Barcelona, 4:00
45:23
PM Eastern, Man City host Chelsea for the the second of
45:26
four in in that head to head to head to head.
45:29
So we locked in for that. And then match week two in the
45:32
NWSL. We'll figure out if we come back
45:34
later this week with a preview or if we come back next week
45:37
with a recap. But some big match ups on the
45:39
calendar as well. The courage host your Seattle
45:42
rain. Also on Saturday night,
45:43
Washington Spirit host Casey Current, that's a monster
45:46
matchup. And then Sunday, 5:00 PM, Gotham
45:49
FC host my Orlando Pride. I mean, just a ton of football
45:53
coming up another. What is the 711 matches that we
45:56
will not be missing this week? It's going to be a busy week for
45:59
your boys. Anything else you want to hit
46:01
before we get out of here? Couple more quick shout outs so
46:03
on YouTube shout out to eight pitch and Gene 25 for being very
46:08
kind wow pointing out the Amy Rodriguez Jimmy Coonratza fiasco
46:13
appreciate you guys understanding I am GOOOG known
46:16
pal of the show on blue sky. Just tell me, you know, rub some
46:20
dirt on it, keep it pushing. It happens to everybody.
46:22
Appreciate the I appreciate the encouragement there.
46:27
M Kelly R Pal often in the YouTube comments mentioning that
46:32
that Orlando 6 nil victory might have been a deliberate signal to
46:36
the rest of the league. I love that angle pointed out
46:39
that it just might as well be scary hours for the whole
46:41
league. I think M Kelly has a, has a
46:43
right to believe that. Yeah, I just all the, the just
46:47
all the collaboration and all the friendliness.
46:49
Again, like I always say, we have found the corner of the
46:52
Internet the only, maybe the, the only corner of the Internet
46:55
with actual friendly and kind hearted people in it.
46:58
And we greatly appreciate that. Absolutely, yeah, definitely
47:00
appreciate all of the community and for, you know, being gentle
47:03
with you guys. That definitely did not go
47:05
unnoticed. So we appreciate you guys.
47:07
This has been an episode to the channel.
47:08
Thank you for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show or level
47:11
in football as much as your boys do, make sure you kick in with
47:13
us every single week. Like if you liked, subscribe,
47:16
follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever.
47:19
Like to watch your listen? Leave us a review over your
47:20
favorite podcast app. We want to hear from you.
47:22
We love hearing from you. Even we get shit wrong, we be.
47:25
Just just bring it, give it to us.
47:27
I do. I do have a small bone to pick.
47:29
Some people did push back on some of our predictions and
47:33
completely ignored your directive, which is like, if
47:36
you're going to push back on our predictions, we need to hear a
47:38
prediction of yours. If you're going to come at us,
47:40
we want I mean, we generally are.
47:41
We're curious. We want to hear from you who you
47:43
think is going to take home these awards.
47:45
Who's going to win it all? We win the shield, win the
47:47
playoffs, make the playoffs. So definitely do not be shy
47:50
about chiming in links to all of our socials except for one in
47:53
the showing us of this episode and a big thinking Michael's as
47:55
well Mr. Grant Engel for, I don't know, being ready for 2A
47:58
days, man, what can I say? I appreciate you bro.
48:00
Likewise, buddy, and I'm glad you mentioned that.
48:02
Shout out to the absolute legend R pal Gretchen Little in the
48:06
YouTube comments who gave us our predictions.
48:08
So for the record, Gretchen Little says Spirit beat Kansas
48:12
City for the championship, KC beat Orlando in the semi final,
48:16
Spirit beat Bay in the other semi final.
48:18
Shout out to you Gretchen. Let's go.
48:20
Gotham, Angel City, North Carolina and Utah are the other
48:23
quarterfinal squads and your Orlando Pride repeat as SHIELD
48:29
winners. Obviously, in case anybody
48:31
already didn't know, Gretchen Little knows Ball, don't you
48:35
ever forget it. We appreciate you, Gretchen.
48:37
We appreciate all of you like we said, and we will see you all
48:40
next time.