Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / xOG ITC Crossover! | NWSL 2nd Half Season Preview w/ Expected Own Goals' Evan Davis, Eric Morgan

Transcript

xOG ITC Crossover! | NWSL 2nd Half Season Preview w/ Expected Own Goals' Evan Davis, Eric Morgan · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:03
  OK, welcome to into the channel podcast premier about women's
• 0:08
  football. I'm your host, Dean de
• 0:10
  suspicious. Today we're joined by a couple
• 0:12
  very special guests. No, you're not seeing double.
• 0:15
  You know, I know there's there's two hipster ish glasses, you
• 0:18
  know, 22 foolish beards, 4 Wosso Bros ready to talk some
• 0:23
  football. But we'll get into that in a
• 0:25
  second while we introduce our guests.
• 0:27
  But first we are joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Engel.
• 0:31
  What is up man? Well, I'm feeling fantastic,
• 0:34
  buddy, and I've been crunching the numbers.
• 0:37
  I've been taking a deep dive into the analytics and I've
• 0:40
  determined that we have two times the average amount of
• 0:43
  special guests on today's show. Our guests Our guests today
• 0:46
  bring thoughtful, valuable and fascinating football data to
• 0:49
  your social media timelines with unrelenting consistency.
• 0:53
  If you're on Woso, Blue Sky or Twitter, you've definitely seen
• 0:56
  their work and you're smarter because of it.
• 0:58
  But after they post some scorching hot data on social,
• 1:01
  they turn around and talk about it in their highly informative
• 1:04
  and entertaining podcast, Expected Own Goals.
• 1:08
  Here to help us answer the age-old question, how many dudes
• 1:11
  does it take to adequately discuss the NWS LS return for
• 1:14
  the international break? It is an honor and a privilege
• 1:18
  to welcome to the program Evan Davis and Eric Morgan.
• 1:21
  Hey, that is. That's an intro.
• 1:23
  That's that's too much. Yeah.
• 1:25
  I can't, I can't, can't even can't even wrap my head around
• 1:28
  those, those very kind words. But the answer to your question
• 1:31
  is I think we're about four too many.
• 1:34
  Yeah. It's it's just a lot of
• 1:35
  schoolboy what is right now happening and I'm pretty into
• 1:39
  it. I love it.
• 1:42
  Worlds are colliding here. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:45
  You know, every time, every time we do some, some sort of collab,
• 1:48
  there's always someone that peeks their head up and it's
• 1:50
  like, I listen to both of these shows and I never comment.
• 1:53
  And I'm like, and it's, it's always like like one or two
• 1:55
  people that that are completely unfamiliar to us that'll just
• 1:59
  raise their hand. It's pretty fun stuff.
• 2:01
  We'll see if we get another couple of those this week.
• 2:03
  I also that people. Come out of the woodwork because
• 2:05
  we often wonder who the hell is listening to this goddamn show.
• 2:08
  I won't say I I was texting with a friend who I've met through
• 2:12
  our pod and I was telling them that we were doing this and they
• 2:16
  were like oh shit, it's the other best pod, let's go.
• 2:20
  Oh my God, I'll take that well back.
• 2:23
  Shout out to that person. Yeah, yeah, Kim.
• 2:25
  There's a lot of great pods out there for sure.
• 2:28
  But yeah, I am, I am, I'm for sure a listener to you guys.
• 2:31
  Been been for a while. One of the first shows that I
• 2:34
  was checking out when when we were young pups in the space
• 2:36
  coming up. So I'm glad we were able to kind
• 2:38
  of cross streams here. Young pups, I want to talk to me
• 2:42
  3. You know, I'm young at heart,
• 2:45
  young, young at my pup heart indeed.
• 2:48
  Week 14, the NWS LS back. Well, you guys went on a little
• 2:52
  bit of a Euro's journey with us, you know, sort of like impaired.
• 2:56
  Not just a hero's journey, man. Women's Africa Cup of Nations,
• 3:00
  Copa America, Pemenina. The final of that gonna be
• 3:04
  coming up on Saturday. Yeah, we are.
• 3:06
  We are full tournament brain poisons by this point.
• 3:09
  Can you let the folks know where to find you guys?
• 3:12
  I'm sure you know everyone who's seen the thumbnail and the title
• 3:15
  and the description and all that kind of good stuff.
• 3:17
  If anyone's ever had to listen to the last two minutes of one
• 3:19
  of our episodes, you can find us wherever you get podcasts.
• 3:23
  The show is called Expected Own Goals.
• 3:25
  The logo is a classic international like AUS badge but
• 3:30
  with the XOG in the in the lettering and and.
• 3:33
  The stars are drunk. And the stars are quite drunk.
• 3:35
  Yeah, but we are. Yeah, we're at, we're at X own
• 3:39
  goals. The letter X own goals on all
• 3:41
  social media platforms. You can reach us at
• 3:44
  expectedowngoals@gmail.com. Again, the letter X if you want
• 3:48
  to mouth off, but yeah, that's where you can dig up all of our
• 3:52
  nonsense. And you are right, we we do love
• 3:55
  a chart. We do love a dataviz.
• 4:00
  We do have a reputation to uphold.
• 4:02
  So that's not going to be abating anytime soon.
• 4:05
  Wouldn't expect anything less. All right man, Grant Week 14.
• 4:10
  Time to shift gears back at the NBSL mode. 7 big matches to get
• 4:14
  into. Where do we get started?
• 4:16
  I mean, we got to do chronological order, but let's
• 4:18
  start with maybe one of the the, pardon the grammar, less big
• 4:23
  matches of the week, we'll call it.
• 4:25
  Smaller. Let's say smaller.
• 4:27
  Smaller. Sure, that works, too.
• 4:29
  Let's go with Chicago Stars FC versus Gotham FC 5:00 PM Friday,
• 4:35
  5:00 PM In the only time zone that really matters.
• 4:39
  I mean, here's my expert analysis.
• 4:42
  I, I think that I have some data to to back this up.
• 4:45
  Chicago Stars not going great for them this season.
• 4:49
  No, it sure ain't. Yeah, I, I think that that would
• 4:53
  be a real understatement, though to be fair, this feels like not
• 4:59
  dissimilar from the Chicago Stars team of last year in terms
• 5:02
  of like what their like what the spreadsheet says.
• 5:07
  This is not a surprising outcome as far as I'm concerned.
• 5:12
  So the Chicago Stars have been, you know, Evan, Evan will go on
• 5:15
  Richard Foyt's monologues. This is a poorly run team
• 5:21
  running into a team that's underperforming.
• 5:25
  I I think our expectations for them.
• 5:27
  But you guys feel like the the Chicago, nay, Red stars are
• 5:31
  going to get drilled right by this Gotham.
• 5:35
  Team, yeah, absolutely. I think that this I think that
• 5:38
  was. Wellness check.
• 5:39
  Just yeah, just like I I know Alyssa Mayer's theoretically
• 5:42
  back, but I, I think that just is what a what a baptism of fire
• 5:46
  for her. Where are you guys at with this
• 5:48
  game? I mean, Chicago, I think we're,
• 5:51
  I think it's totally fair to have sort of written them off
• 5:54
  from the playoff picture, you know, just basic basically how
• 5:57
  this season has has unfolded. I'm kind of more interested in
• 6:00
  Gotham because Gotham to me is a team that's got sort of like
• 6:05
  outside edge of the top 4, you know, as they're ceiling maybe.
• 6:09
  And then I can also kind of see a world where maybe the
• 6:12
  chemistry doesn't take and they're sort of clawing for that
• 6:16
  playoff picture. And there's, you know, some
• 6:17
  teams, you know, grand Seattle rain racing, Louisville, who
• 6:20
  I've sort of like fallen a little bit in lust with it this
• 6:23
  year as a team. I, I, I think it's going to be a
• 6:26
  little, I don't know, man. I think Gotham, the talents
• 6:29
  there, I'm not sure. Ahmed also has been able to sort
• 6:32
  of piece everything together in a way to get that, that club
• 6:35
  cooking. But I don't know.
• 6:36
  What do you, what do you guys think?
• 6:37
  Are you are your expectations for Gotham?
• 6:40
  Like where? Where are they at?
• 6:41
  We certainly pegged them for top 4 coming into the season.
• 6:45
  I think based on the just the volume of talent, they had a lot
• 6:50
  of depth that actually they kind of chiseled away at in the
• 6:53
  offseason. And I think one of the things
• 6:56
  we've observed about Gotham under Amoros is that they are so
• 7:02
  defensively elite, particularly when they are engaging in
• 7:04
  counter pressure and for some bizarre reason can't really turn
• 7:10
  those high turnovers in the final third into good chances.
• 7:14
  It's it's this, it's this thing that's been it's persisted from
• 7:18
  the moment he showed up 2 1/2 years ago.
• 7:21
  And we've never really quite been able to crack how why
• 7:25
  that's happening, especially when you consider the talent
• 7:28
  that they have and the talent that they've acquired.
• 7:30
  I mean, you know, the Brazilians in the offseason, they just
• 7:34
  signed Katie Stengel for some reason.
• 7:37
  Welcome back. Yeah, welcome back from your
• 7:39
  Crystal Palace sojourn. But yeah, no, they are.
• 7:43
  They've always been a bit of a mystery.
• 7:44
  And you know, we talked to who a guy who was their assistant
• 7:48
  coach at the time, Asus Poteo, who explained the philosophy of
• 7:52
  organized chaos to us, where they love to have strong
• 7:58
  tactical structure when they don't have the ball and then
• 8:02
  they want to be flying at you like banshees when they do have
• 8:05
  the ball, especially if it's close to the opponent's goal.
• 8:08
  The thing we've always observed is that they're a lot better at
• 8:10
  the organization than the chaos. And so it has led to really
• 8:15
  strong defensive performances when you look under the hood and
• 8:18
  oddly soft attacking performances that don't really
• 8:23
  add up when you know the players that they're rolling out and the
• 8:25
  type of tactical strategies that they are implementing.
• 8:28
  Yeah, consistently one of the best teams in the league at
• 8:31
  winning the ball in the final third, but rarely one of the
• 8:34
  best teams when it comes to converting that ball win into a
• 8:38
  shot. And I think that they often over
• 8:40
  complicate things for themselves.
• 8:43
  And, you know, it was so funny to watch Ester just cook during
• 8:47
  the Euros with a lot of, like, direct striker play.
• 8:51
  And she's been great this year. But Gotham has not figured out
• 8:56
  how to turn that high up the pitch ball win into an Ester
• 9:01
  shot consistently enough. Yeah.
• 9:03
  Or like an S an Ester just a position of danger for her, her
• 9:08
  to either choose to shoot or lay off.
• 9:11
  They're a team that are currently underperforming.
• 9:13
  I think we both expect them to be better in the second-half and
• 9:17
  like maybe this Gotham Chicago game is a get well game for
• 9:22
  them. But you know, like eventually
• 9:26
  all the things that you do on the pitch do end up counting.
• 9:30
  And those chances that you create and don't convert are the
• 9:34
  difference between making the playoffs and not and are the
• 9:36
  difference between a home game and not.
• 9:38
  And they're not. They've they've played
• 9:39
  themselves into a position that a home game feels really
• 9:42
  unlikely, you know, to get a top four seed.
• 9:46
  And they're bizarrely like just being dragged into the fray of
• 9:50
  like, are we going to make the play offs?
• 9:53
  Which we think they. Will, but we definitely think
• 9:55
  they will. When you are sitting like in 6th
• 9:58
  place on expected points in the league, that means you're
• 10:03
  probably not going to be making out of the first round of the
• 10:05
  play offs. And the way that this league is
• 10:08
  so insane and so competitive, weird bounces of the ball could
• 10:12
  occur over the next 13 weeks that might put them in danger of
• 10:15
  getting knocked out. There's no reason to think that
• 10:17
  that actually will happen. But it's the NWSL.
• 10:20
  You don't. You want to do everything in
• 10:21
  your power to make sure that you don't have to risk it happening.
• 10:24
  Yeah, I think the narrative with them is so strange because it's
• 10:27
  like they grabbed a last second playoff berth in 2023.
• 10:32
  They converted that into a championship.
• 10:34
  They signed what is the closest thing to an NWSL Galacticos team
• 10:40
  as we've ever seen, and they converted that into a kind of
• 10:44
  disappointing but unlucky exit from the playoffs last year.
• 10:47
  And they're sort of in this weird transitional season now
• 10:50
  where the promise of that sort of club evolution hasn't taken.
• 10:55
  And now it feels like they're rejiggering to be a team that is
• 10:58
  good in two or three years as opposed to a team that's ready
• 11:02
  to capitalize right now. They've spent a lot of money.
• 11:04
  The Galacticos were not cheap. Some of those, some of that
• 11:07
  money has been moved off the books.
• 11:09
  But when you we're talking to people in front offices and
• 11:12
  coaching Staffs and people in and around the league, as much
• 11:15
  as it felt like the league was developing a top four last year,
• 11:19
  everybody's now just talking about a top three.
• 11:21
  And Gotham's not part of it. And does that just mean they
• 11:24
  need to get some more money off the books and retool, hopefully
• 11:28
  ride a couple more like low spot playoff berths because it's such
• 11:32
  a big playoff pool? Yeah, you'll they'll probably
• 11:35
  get away with that for the next couple of years, but their
• 11:38
  operation does not seem to be like turning heads in the way
• 11:41
  that like Kansas City, Orlando or Washington's are.
• 11:44
  I feel like you could feel that. And you know, Dino reported on
• 11:48
  it as our guy in San Francisco, that win over Bay FC.
• 11:53
  When you talk about things not like feeling like they're
• 11:55
  totally right. Omarosa's reaction when they got
• 11:59
  away with that win over Bay, just how psyched he was after
• 12:03
  that. Like you can tell that he knew
• 12:05
  they needed that bad lead before the break.
• 12:09
  There's always been conversation behind the scenes, like is there
• 12:13
  something going on between the players and Omarosa?
• 12:16
  Are they on the same page? We've never gotten a clear
• 12:18
  answer as to what that might mean or who might be involved or
• 12:21
  who's at fault or who's more at fault than the other.
• 12:24
  But there is less than settled energy at Gotham in ways that
• 12:31
  you're just not feeling in like the truly elite teams in 2025
• 12:35
  right now. Yeah, no doubt.
• 12:37
  And I think thinking about like the veterans that they do have.
• 12:40
  And when you talk about, you know, the the the organization
• 12:43
  and the chaos, you can imagine older players that are
• 12:46
  established in their ways, maybe struggling a little bit with
• 12:48
  like, hey, now, let's like switch it up and and not maybe
• 12:51
  not spreading all the way throughout that entire attack,
• 12:55
  you know, to where everybody's in in in perfect rhythm.
• 12:58
  But let's scoot ahead here. Second match up on the docket
• 13:02
  also 5:00 PM Friday. A little double header.
• 13:03
  We'll have to make some some decisions actually be well yeah.
• 13:07
  Well now I'm looking at who's in the second screen and it's
• 13:09
  probably just A1 screen night to be honest.
• 13:11
  Racing Louisville will host the Kansas City current.
• 13:14
  This one's going to be exciting. Where let's see Casey.
• 13:19
  There's talk that they feel like they're going to run away with
• 13:23
  the shield. Obviously, like they have
• 13:25
  strengths that are have were on full display the first half of
• 13:29
  the season. Temuchiwinga, you know, an
• 13:31
  offense unto herself. You know, there's there's a
• 13:34
  little bit of unfinished business vibes from KC last
• 13:38
  year, Obviously, you know, I was in the building for that Orlando
• 13:41
  loss and it was very sour. You know, I think you you can
• 13:44
  really, really feel it. And I, I kind of feel like they,
• 13:48
  they left last year on the table, you know, kind of like
• 13:50
  leaving empty handed considering the start that they had.
• 13:53
  Yeah, that's probably fair. I mean, the other thing is,
• 13:55
  like, much in the way that we've seen Chicago not really being
• 13:59
  that different A-Team despite the results being very
• 14:01
  different, we don't really see KC being a very different team
• 14:03
  than last year. It's just the results are
• 14:05
  breaking the right way. I mean, they are an absolute
• 14:10
  motherfucker of a club and they have been so ever since Vlaco
• 14:15
  Endonofsky signed on the dotted line.
• 14:17
  Honestly, the season before he joined, when Caroline Whablum
• 14:21
  was coaching them, they were pretty strong and they had made
• 14:25
  a championship the year before. Like under the hood.
• 14:28
  This team has actually like demonstrated a fair amount of
• 14:31
  consistency and adding the pieces that they have in
• 14:35
  increments over the last Four Seasons have gotten them to the
• 14:38
  place where they can lose Vanessa De Bernardo to maternity
• 14:42
  leave. And it ain't really that big a
• 14:43
  deal. You know, you're like, that's
• 14:46
  how stacked they are. I mean they hit an absolute
• 14:49
  goldmine with Claire Hutton. Like doesn't matter if Lola
• 14:52
  Bonta is not 100%. It doesn't matter if you're
• 14:56
  losing D Bernardo. Like every line is covered the
• 15:00
  way that they built in center backed up.
• 15:02
  People forget that Gabby Robinson hasn't been available
• 15:05
  from very long over the last like year, year and a half.
• 15:08
  Doesn't matter they go out and they get a lot of cook and
• 15:09
  killer Sharples who look great. Lorena not missing a beat from
• 15:13
  what Alma did in the second-half of last year.
• 15:16
  Like they are humming their operation behind the scenes with
• 15:21
  Ananowski and Caitlin Carducci. The GM is probably about as
• 15:25
  flawless as you could ask for in terms of the value that they're
• 15:28
  getting back for the money that they spend.
• 15:30
  They spend a lot of money. I mean, they are one of the
• 15:32
  biggest spenders in the league, but they are getting like value
• 15:37
  above and beyond. And I think that they they're
• 15:40
  standing out because like Orlando regressed from a slight
• 15:44
  over performance last year, whereas KC is just still kind of
• 15:47
  playing to their level. You have Tim VP who is still
• 15:50
  living up to that nickname, and she's not even maybe the most
• 15:53
  interesting story of the team, like Michelle Cooper, probably
• 15:56
  the most interesting player. Yeah.
• 15:58
  Reach into the, I mean, like, let's go.
• 16:00
  Yeah, let's get into the Michelle Cooper minutes.
• 16:03
  Yeah, but it's kind of a no note situation for them.
• 16:06
  Like what have they done that isn't excellent?
• 16:08
  They have been a sort of you can, you can put them on a
• 16:12
  pedestal not just as a small market franchise or as a women's
• 16:16
  soccer franchise, but it's just the way you run a sports
• 16:18
  franchise. Like they do everything right.
• 16:22
  They have done everything right from an analytics perspective,
• 16:25
  from a scouting perspective, frankly, their rest defense is
• 16:28
  savage. Like I just they're a team that
• 16:33
  can drop three goals on you in 30 minutes and then play the
• 16:37
  rest of the game like a practice session and come back fresh the
• 16:41
  next week. I love Louisville.
• 16:43
  We we are long on the record as being Louisville crush, you
• 16:46
  know, associated this this hate the game.
• 16:49
  There's always, there's always that moment in your life as a
• 16:52
  women's soccer fan where you fall in love with Racing
• 16:54
  Louisville and you hate yourself for it.
• 16:56
  But it's inevitable. It comes for us all and we're
• 16:59
  and we're there and it's, you know, what's funny is like this.
• 17:02
  This is the best that Louisville has played.
• 17:04
  In a long time. Basically in their well, in a
• 17:06
  long time, basically in their entire in their entire history,
• 17:09
  I mean, they are they're playing top 4 caliber soccer, whether or
• 17:13
  not that is reflected in the results and in the table at the
• 17:16
  moment. Like that's how good that they
• 17:18
  have they have been like the Janine Sona signing I think has
• 17:21
  been a pretty effective one. I mean, at times, like somehow
• 17:27
  they're still able to score in bunches without Bethany Balser
• 17:33
  being available because Emma Sears turns out to be the rookie
• 17:38
  sensation that nobody really saw coming last year.
• 17:42
  But they are also going up against the behemoth that is
• 17:46
  that is Kansas City. And so despite it being played
• 17:49
  in in racing's house, I don't really know how they managed to
• 17:53
  carve out some space. I think, Chuck, going back to
• 17:56
  your point, Dino, about KC feeling like they have something
• 17:59
  to prove this year, they're a team that I think a lot of
• 18:04
  people love to say will crumble at the wrong moment.
• 18:08
  And it's because of what Eric was just bringing up.
• 18:11
  Like they are happy to like pound you 3 nil before the 35th
• 18:15
  minute and then just sit back and absorb your pressure.
• 18:18
  And if you sit back and absorb pressure for 60 to 65 minutes,
• 18:21
  no matter how good you are, sometimes things can go a little
• 18:24
  awry. And does that turn into good
• 18:27
  chances? Actually, it doesn't.
• 18:30
  Like they might get in, you know, they might allow opponents
• 18:33
  to get in their face, but they are and it's not close.
• 18:37
  The best defensive team in the league by XG allowed, like 8 1/2
• 18:41
  XG allowed. And 2nd place is what, Gotham at
• 18:45
  12.6? Like they or sorry, San Diego at
• 18:48
  11.6, but that is still a massive gap.
• 18:51
  That's just how good they are because they don't need to allow
• 18:56
  you to get into dangerous positions to take good chances
• 18:59
  because they've already punched you in the face by winning the
• 19:02
  ball off of you in the final third over and over again like
• 19:05
  they are. They are just very, very, very
• 19:08
  impressive. And it's the end of USL.
• 19:10
  Anything can happen in playoff soccer.
• 19:12
  Anything can happen, which is what bit them in the butt in the
• 19:16
  semi final last year. But there's absolutely no reason
• 19:20
  to think that Kansas City isn't in pole position to win the
• 19:23
  whole damn thing. I think that's totally fair and
• 19:26
  because I'm so excited for that match and I don't know what I've
• 19:28
  been doing 20 minutes into this podcast.
• 19:30
  Let me crack. Oh, here we go beverage dying to
• 19:34
  thirst over here. That's.
• 19:35
  Right. Obviously done boys.
• 19:37
  Cheers guys. Cheers.
• 19:39
  We just started a new Patreon tier called XOG After Dark.
• 19:42
  Yeah, so I guess you're getting us in the mood to record this
• 19:46
  week. There it is.
• 19:48
  So I I do want to say one more, one quick note about racing
• 19:52
  Louisville. Like you wonder, you know, like
• 19:53
  you said, they've they've been playing so, so well.
• 19:56
  This is going to be a tough one. Weird scheduling quirk that you
• 19:59
  know, they get that two nil win over Orlando pride before the
• 20:02
  break and they had lost to KC before that.
• 20:06
  Now they immediately get the reverse fixture of each of those
• 20:10
  coming out of the break. And then their third match
• 20:13
  coming out of the break, no relief.
• 20:14
  They got to go up against Washington Spirit.
• 20:16
  So that might be might be a tough run.
• 20:18
  We talked about that too, that they were going to have just
• 20:22
  this absolute gauntlet they were going to have to run on either
• 20:24
  side of the of the international break and that would be the true
• 20:27
  test of them. And that Orlando game, not only
• 20:30
  did they win it, they legit, they legitimately outperformed
• 20:33
  Orlando that day. For sure.
• 20:36
  And that really, that really showed Eric and I something.
• 20:39
  Yeah, that maybe this team is for real.
• 20:41
  Yeah, I, I think between the two of us, I've been a little less
• 20:43
  Louisville skeptical this year. And I think it's mostly because
• 20:45
  Evan's been burned by them over the past.
• 20:48
  I got to protect my heart. No, but I, I, I think the
• 20:51
  emergence of Kayla Fisher this year has been that extra weapon
• 20:55
  that they've needed. I I they they give Oakland A's
• 21:01
  vibes in like a really fun way. The problem and and if I'm
• 21:06
  remembering this correctly, last year the the fixture they played
• 21:10
  in Kansas City ended up 3 three in like a super chaotic game.
• 21:15
  Look absolutely are they capable of grabbing a result here?
• 21:19
  And that would tell us probably a little something more about
• 21:22
  Louisville than it would about Kansas City, should they do
• 21:24
  that. But also, like they what?
• 21:28
  Katie O Kane's been great. Savannah Demelo.
• 21:30
  Savannah Demelo's back. Yeah.
• 21:32
  Like like. Taylor Flynn against Orlando was
• 21:35
  a real a real problem for them. I mean, just, yeah, she looked
• 21:38
  like, I mean, a velociraptor in the center of the park, just
• 21:41
  everywhere faster a step. Ahead you and like Flint's been
• 21:45
  kind of quiet this year. I mean, she had this absolutely
• 21:48
  gorgeous campaign in 2024 that made must think man Emma Hayes
• 21:53
  like let's open the let's open the book again on her about
• 21:56
  getting her into the mix. But like this year has been a
• 21:59
  little bit quieter. But it seems like maybe she's
• 22:03
  speaking at the right time. She's great.
• 22:05
  They have a lot of talent there. I, I think, I mean, do you guys
• 22:08
  think Louisville's a playoff team this year?
• 22:10
  Hell yeah, Hell yeah. I think it's the playoff team.
• 22:16
  I think so, yeah. I think, I think they're good
• 22:18
  enough. They'll need, they'll need to
• 22:20
  get like a point out of these next three.
• 22:23
  But yeah, I think they get there.
• 22:25
  Yeah, and if they get more, I mean, if they if they win at
• 22:28
  least one of these games, then you have to say they are in the
• 22:33
  driver's seat for one of those lower seed spots, maybe even
• 22:36
  hosting a playoff game at home in the first round.
• 22:38
  Who knows? Like we know how this league
• 22:40
  goes. That's true.
• 22:41
  Yeah, yeah, we'll see. I want to scoot ahead though the
• 22:45
  ITCXOG Darby. Well, at least in terms of the
• 22:50
  towns in which we currently live, correct.
• 22:53
  Yeah, I guess how does that work because I don't live in any of
• 22:55
  those towns, but I I guess for for all intensive purposes
• 22:58
  works. Seattle Rain FC, Angel City FC,
• 23:01
  we talked about it a little bit pre show Seattle big pick up me
• 23:05
  official. That's got to be exciting.
• 23:07
  Angel City. Big pick up, too.
• 23:08
  It's famous. Jones Dutier.
• 23:10
  Yeah. Oh, my Lord, boy, that's going
• 23:11
  to be Yeah. I mean, we, we, we've been on
• 23:14
  that run for a little bit, a little bit of a disappointment
• 23:16
  in the year. I I was hoping Iceland, Iceland
• 23:19
  had the run that I'm sorry, Finland had the run that I
• 23:22
  thought Iceland was gonna have. So Iceland under the hood was
• 23:27
  the most job team of the entire tournament.
• 23:30
  They. Probably talked about this on
• 23:31
  the show I think. They probably played the best of
• 23:34
  any of those teams in Group A Admittedly a soft group, but
• 23:37
  they played like a team who could have made the knockout
• 23:41
  rounds and the ball just didn't bounce their way at the wrong
• 23:44
  time. And the ball bounced fucking
• 23:45
  Norway's Ray at the exact right time.
• 23:48
  And we got what we got. So yeah, no, Spain, this is
• 23:51
  Spain. This is a big, big deal
• 23:55
  considering her age, considering her skill set, considering the
• 23:58
  need that is now sort of emerging with Claire Emsley
• 24:02
  going on maternity leave and June Endo coming back, but not
• 24:08
  necessarily having like a home. Right now.
• 24:11
  They're just undergoing sort of the next phase of like what
• 24:14
  their attacks going to look like.
• 24:15
  And I think Spain, this is going to be a big part of that.
• 24:17
  So this is a very cool game for US audiences to be introduced to
• 24:21
  some to two big European based powerhouses who have now come
• 24:27
  come to our shores, one of whom is basically coming home.
• 24:31
  Yeah, consider me more official skeptical just because I don't
• 24:35
  think there's enough like, I just think that like there isn't
• 24:39
  enough track record over the past couple years that that
• 24:42
  doesn't have anything to say with like what my eye test says
• 24:45
  when I watch her play, like I see like a powerful, smart
• 24:50
  striker. But like how that translates,
• 24:53
  particularly inside Laura Harvey's functional anemic
• 24:58
  attack. I I say that like, not as an
• 25:01
  insult, but as a compliment to the fact that like Laura
• 25:04
  Harvey's attack is is so much predicated on what the defense
• 25:09
  does. And then she's sort of inverted
• 25:12
  who she is as a coach over the course of her career.
• 25:15
  Like we both think it's a high wire act for the Seattle rain to
• 25:19
  continue getting away with this. But they can fake it till they
• 25:25
  make it When you sign a me official like this, this is
• 25:29
  potentially the line. Where are you guys with the
• 25:31
  Seattle rain And, and like I, I, I think, I think they probably
• 25:36
  can grab a result here at home against Angel City.
• 25:41
  Oh yeah, I think so. And I mean, you you inject me
• 25:43
  official Sofia Huerta comes back off a loan from Leon.
• 25:48
  Looks looks good in that in this friendly against the Udawa red
• 25:52
  diamonds a couple weeks ago. But I mean, I've heard it
• 25:56
  described as Laura Harvey's struggle ball, you know, parking
• 26:00
  the bus like other there are many different descriptors of
• 26:03
  it. But yeah, I think a high wire
• 26:04
  act is also fair to describe it too.
• 26:07
  I mean, there, there were times last season and now last season
• 26:09
  was the exception to like what normal Seattle rain football
• 26:14
  looks like, or at least the way the results played out.
• 26:17
  But that I think that's part of the high wire act where it's
• 26:19
  just like how many crosses into the middle are we going to see
• 26:22
  with no joy? But I I think you have a you
• 26:26
  have a point though, Eric, is that like the official, she has
• 26:29
  this tools and she has the upside.
• 26:32
  It's just we have not seen like a real string of consistent
• 26:36
  results. So it's like, can she get the
• 26:38
  consistent playing time? Can she fit, you know, work in
• 26:41
  the system and then make the most of, you know what could be
• 26:44
  somewhat limited chances? I I think it's all going to be
• 26:47
  very interesting to see. And then under the tutelage of
• 26:49
  Lynn Williams or pardon me, Lynn Biendolo right there with her.
• 26:53
  I think it's going to be a real interesting mix.
• 26:55
  Yeah, I mean, those are two battering Rams of forwards.
• 26:59
  And if I my big question mark right now is like where is
• 27:04
  Huerta right now? She's 32.
• 27:07
  She had a OK, She had an OK season with Leo wasn't like a
• 27:12
  consistent starter, like not a week to week starter.
• 27:15
  She started a lot of games. But like at that age, you can
• 27:19
  see it on paper. Certainly like if this was three
• 27:23
  or four or five years ago, just Huerta like banging in crosses
• 27:27
  to be in Dolo and Fishel, either defeat or to head, doesn't
• 27:30
  matter. You could do worse around
• 27:32
  building your offense along those lines.
• 27:35
  But a 32 year old Sofia Huerta I, I kind of think, I'm think
• 27:40
  I'm going to have to see it before I start believing in it,
• 27:43
  you know? I mean, for me, the key in this
• 27:46
  matchup is like, what kind of freedom can Sam Meza find in the
• 27:50
  midfield? Sam Meza, who has been
• 27:53
  incredible. And good business, good business
• 27:56
  to get that extension done right now.
• 27:57
  Yeah, just just like one of the one of the revelations of the
• 28:02
  season, I I feel like the future of the Seattle rain in this
• 28:05
  season is, is the story of like whether Sam Meza can keep this
• 28:09
  up and whether the additional parts can raise themselves to
• 28:13
  the game that she's currently playing or whether this team
• 28:16
  sort of like crumbles and whether she burns out over the
• 28:19
  course of a long season like she is.
• 28:22
  She is the metronome of that team for me.
• 28:26
  Yeah, I totally agree. I actually I think I, I think
• 28:29
  we're like minded here. I believe I referred to her as a
• 28:32
  metronome when speaking to Laura Harvey post match before the
• 28:36
  break. And even Laura admitted like
• 28:40
  they didn't see this coming from her either.
• 28:41
  Like they knew she was a good player.
• 28:43
  They took her like, you know, signed her young, but her
• 28:47
  ferocity on defense, just her ability to muck things up for
• 28:50
  opponents, you know, get like run on to players from behind
• 28:53
  and then steal the ball from them.
• 28:55
  And she's she's been an absolute revelation.
• 28:58
  So we have a fancy metric that you've probably heard about
• 29:02
  called G+. Our goals added from American
• 29:06
  Soccer Analysis. Who are our data partners on the
• 29:08
  show? And for the listeners who might
• 29:10
  not know what this stat is, it's basically just trying to measure
• 29:13
  the value of everything that's done on the field in terms of a
• 29:16
  foot connecting with a ball. So how much are you improving or
• 29:23
  detracting from your team's chances of both scoring and
• 29:25
  conceding with whatever you're doing based on what had just
• 29:28
  happened before what you did and what happened just after what
• 29:32
  you did? This is all to say that Sam Mays
• 29:35
  has been the best central midfielder in the NWSL by this
• 29:37
  metric in the areas that really matter, which is defensive
• 29:41
  performance and in passing performance, yeah.
• 29:44
  The three behind her are Claire Hutton, Lola La Bonta and Sam
• 29:47
  Coffey. To give you that.
• 29:48
  That really gives you a perspective.
• 29:50
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 29:51
  And that should give perspective on, like, how great Sam Meza is
• 29:55
  and like, how, how worthy of the plaudits.
• 29:57
  Again, I'd love to see this over 2000 plus minutes and not 984
• 30:02
  minutes, but like, the 984 minutes we've seen so far are
• 30:06
  devastating. Yeah.
• 30:08
  Yeah, yeah. No, I think, I mean, you know,
• 30:11
  to answer your your question, Eric, I think I think Seattle, I
• 30:15
  think they are a playoff team. I like the intensity that they
• 30:18
  play with. And Grant, I was talking to you
• 30:20
  about this before the break. You know, we we kind of
• 30:23
  backtracked all of those moves, you know, Anna Maria, Serna
• 30:27
  Gorsuvich, Biendolo, Giso Young, you know, Maddie Dalene, Sam Aza
• 30:33
  bringing her up now me official. And it's sort of like none of
• 30:36
  those moves like in a singular way or like blow you away, but
• 30:41
  they just keep adding these pieces.
• 30:43
  You just keep adding them and they just raise the water level
• 30:46
  little by little. And then you see them play and
• 30:48
  they're just they're just jerks about how they defend.
• 30:51
  They don't they don't give you anything.
• 30:53
  And now like they they don't need.
• 30:55
  They didn't need to add too, too much offensively to turn this
• 30:59
  team into a team where now every week they're they're super live
• 31:04
  and I think that's that's probably as good as you can hope
• 31:06
  for considering where they're coming from last season.
• 31:09
  I think she'll need to do it. I'm going to set the over under
• 31:12
  right now for 8 1/2 minutes of when Phoebe McLaren needs to
• 31:18
  follow the hell out of suspenders.
• 31:20
  Jane Jones, daughter I I I might take the under on it.
• 31:23
  I. Just I think I might take the
• 31:25
  under on that too. Yeah, I think, I think that's at
• 31:28
  the line at 150 seconds. There we go, Like.
• 31:34
  And she'll enjoy doing it. Yeah.
• 31:36
  What what what would the over under be in terms of attempts to
• 31:40
  try to catch Jones Dotere and not not not reach her with with
• 31:43
  a with a swift kick? I think, I think it's like 3
• 31:46
  1/2. Do you think she'll she'll get
• 31:48
  to her? Maybe it's a good time to talk
• 31:50
  about Angel City kind of in Toto, because this is a this is
• 31:54
  a defensively absurd group. And they like they, they, they,
• 32:01
  I mean, nobody we've talked about on the show like nobody
• 32:03
  drops points the way these, these players do Nobody.
• 32:07
  No, no lead. They carry a safe.
• 32:08
  Yeah, no. No, nobody like, leaves holes
• 32:11
  for you to run through and transition the way that Angel
• 32:14
  City does. Like it's been funny to watch
• 32:17
  Alex Strauss slowly watch it on his face, like it's slowly dawn
• 32:22
  on him. Like what this job is actually
• 32:24
  gonna be for the next year or two when you catch him in press
• 32:27
  conferences after games, He's just like I.
• 32:31
  I. We hate what we know.
• 32:33
  This. We hate losing.
• 32:35
  We hate. Losing.
• 32:36
  He said this to a. Poor talk to me like I will lose
• 32:39
  more here than I have ever lost anywhere in my career.
• 32:41
  And I think he didn't realize that would be immediate.
• 32:44
  And how and or how it would feel, you know, right?
• 32:48
  Like, I don't, I got to imagine you come in and you're just
• 32:50
  like, that's not going to happen to me, though.
• 32:52
  You know, it happens. Yeah, that's that's for
• 32:54
  everybody else to do. Well, he does.
• 32:55
  He has, he has. He's a little cocky and it's
• 32:58
  interesting when he like drops his little lines where he's
• 33:00
  like, you know, not for nothing, but like I've won a few things
• 33:03
  in my career. I'm like.
• 33:04
  All right, there we go. OK, three straight frown
• 33:08
  Bundesliga titles. Bravo.
• 33:09
  Like it, It's fine and and you know.
• 33:12
  And he'll say things like, oh, you know, I understand that,
• 33:14
  like, the league is the way it is, but maybe the league needs
• 33:17
  to change. Maybe I don't need to?
• 33:19
  That was the red flag for me, yeah.
• 33:21
  This is quickly becoming a everybody's got a plan until
• 33:23
  they get punched in the face situation, and he's been getting
• 33:26
  punched in the face those first two or three games in charge.
• 33:29
  And it's not going to let up because Svendis is exciting.
• 33:34
  It's a signing that is definitely banking on the future
• 33:38
  for like, what the attacks going to look like in a year or two.
• 33:40
  But you know, the summer window isn't closed.
• 33:43
  But Sarah Dorson is not like the most inspiring defensive pickup
• 33:48
  for me, and their central midfield of which is comprised,
• 33:54
  which is comprised of far too much playing time for Alana
• 33:57
  Kennedy and Madison Hammond and Katie Zellem for my taste, needs
• 34:00
  bolstering. And what a squad.
• 34:03
  It's still in a squad like everybody thinks that Sarah
• 34:06
  Garden should be back in the US women's national team mix
• 34:09
  because she has to constantly be running after attackers who've
• 34:13
  blown by her and put in a last ditch tackle.
• 34:15
  She's defending for three. Yeah, like and and I think the
• 34:18
  thing that by the way, to the point about the Youngs dots
• 34:21
  here, if I am Laura Harvey and I am going to the darkest place
• 34:27
  Laura Harvey goes, I am telling every single player on my team
• 34:29
  to put a body on her in the 1st 25 minutes of this game and like
• 34:34
  welcome her not only to Seattle but to this league and throw her
• 34:38
  around a bit. And and frankly, Angel City is a
• 34:40
  team that that should hold for Alyssa Thompson.
• 34:44
  Like Seattle is good at sort of channeling like this, for lack
• 34:49
  of a better way of describing it, hard nosed 1970s Alf Ramsey
• 34:55
  bullshit Leeds United way of playing football.
• 34:58
  Like, and it's so hard to consider that over the course of
• 35:01
  like Laura Harvey's career, given who she was, but she's
• 35:04
  she's become such a utilitarian manager that I fully expect her
• 35:08
  to say just like, throw a shoulder, throw an elbow, if you
• 35:12
  can get away with one to the sternum.
• 35:14
  Laura Harvey was Vlacco's assistant coach for the 2021
• 35:18
  Olympics with the US Women's National Team.
• 35:20
  And we all know who won that gold medal and how they won that
• 35:25
  gold medal. Bev Priestman's Canada.
• 35:28
  And I just have this image in my head of Laura Harvey, like
• 35:31
  popping into one of those games in Tokyo and watching the misery
• 35:36
  that Canada was inflicting on everybody else in terms of just
• 35:39
  not wanting to score and just being defensively nightmarish
• 35:44
  thinking. I'll have me some of that, you
• 35:46
  know, that that is that is the modern Seattle rain.
• 35:49
  So yeah, I mean, this could be, this could just be a real suffer
• 35:52
  ball struggle ball nil, nil situation that could also turn
• 35:56
  into like A2 nil loss for Angel City because me official just
• 36:00
  punches them in the gut. Yeah.
• 36:02
  I think every option is available to us in this one.
• 36:04
  I'm I'm excited to see it. We'll be locked into that one.
• 36:08
  All right, some Saturday action. Saturday, we'll have just
• 36:11
  finished the Copa America final. We'll have watched Columbia
• 36:15
  finally hoist the trophy. That's not going to happen.
• 36:20
  And then we turn to the domestic calendar.
• 36:23
  Well, I'm I'm interested to hear where you guys, these two teams
• 36:27
  are interesting. I'm perennially cooler on one of
• 36:30
  them, North Carolina courage and this year I'm white hot with the
• 36:35
  San Diego wave side despite, you know, very super low
• 36:39
  expectations coming into the season.
• 36:41
  I think for whatever reason, what they've done in the
• 36:44
  midfield, I mean, Kenzo, Dali and McCaskill, I think is a, is
• 36:47
  a is a crushing combination to kind of go against, you know,
• 36:51
  like the way that they're just able to get the ball upfield.
• 36:54
  Cascarino is just there to receive all of it.
• 36:57
  She's a great playmaker. She's a great finisher.
• 37:00
  I think a player like Adriana Lyon, a player that can get into
• 37:04
  the right spaces, you know, it's, it's not like, hey, finish
• 37:07
  every chance you get, but get into the right spaces, you know,
• 37:11
  attract some defense, move, move some of the pieces around and
• 37:14
  create some, some, some space for some of our other attackers.
• 37:18
  And I just like the, I don't know, like coming to the season,
• 37:21
  I was super low. I was like, this team sucks, but
• 37:24
  just watching them, they they are fun to watch.
• 37:27
  They are enjoyable to watch. I like watching them play and
• 37:30
  the courage on the other side. I had them high coming into the
• 37:33
  season. I thought they underwhelmed
• 37:36
  early. I thought they've picked up some
• 37:37
  momentum here. So I think this match up very
• 37:41
  tasty. I'm very curious to hear where
• 37:44
  you guys are at on on each of these teams.
• 37:46
  Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a fun match.
• 37:48
  I think that is a guarantee. Listen, North Carolina, there's
• 37:52
  no, there's no more narrativey A-Team than North Carolina at
• 37:55
  the moment because of Shawn Nahas's legendary obstinance
• 38:00
  finally being broken down in like Week 5 because Oh yeah, how
• 38:04
  do you play Ashley Sanchez and Jade and Shaw together?
• 38:07
  Maybe you can't do it in your like a hyper rigid 433, you
• 38:11
  know, pass it side to side nonsense.
• 38:13
  So North Carolina has actually been like pretty OK in the grand
• 38:20
  scheme, but it's mostly been since they like started
• 38:23
  experimenting with like a back three and two number 10s or even
• 38:28
  just like keeping Shaw on the bench because she does seem out
• 38:30
  of sorts with what she's being asked to do maybe, but doesn't
• 38:34
  have the clearest picture on what she's being asked to do
• 38:36
  perhaps. So there's a lot of there's a
• 38:39
  lot of juice in the, like, narrative conversation with
• 38:43
  North Carolina, San Diego. So we talk about what we feel is
• 38:49
  like often a visual fallacy in watching soccer, which is that
• 38:52
  like players who are really dazzling dribblers can very
• 38:57
  quickly become the most overrated attacking players if
• 39:01
  they do not have any form of like final service or end
• 39:05
  product in and of themselves to finish those dribbles.
• 39:08
  And between Gia Corley and Delphine Cascarino, San Diego is
• 39:12
  throwing you a lot of eye candy in terms of how those players
• 39:15
  are like moving all over the field and trying to cause chaos.
• 39:18
  But this is the crazy thing. So they're scoring goals for
• 39:21
  fun, but under the hood they are over performing their XG by ten
• 39:26
  goals. Yep.
• 39:28
  Which is historic over performance for the NWSL.
• 39:31
  By the way, what is team in NWSL history as of right now?
• 39:36
  As in terms of their attack, yes, now they are fifth in like
• 39:40
  expected points, expected goal differential because their
• 39:43
  defense has actually been outstanding.
• 39:46
  That's kind of been the secret to their success.
• 39:49
  Interestingly, even though it's Corley and Dolly and and
• 39:54
  Cascarino getting all the attention, it's the way that
• 39:58
  using Savannah McCaskill deeper to hide some of her defensive
• 40:03
  flaws to allow her to have an easier time of it in the double
• 40:08
  pivot with Dolly to like try and close off central passing lanes.
• 40:12
  And then the emergence of Trinity Armstrong, which like
• 40:14
  there's a there's a truism from our friend Kim McCauley about
• 40:18
  the NWSL. I was like, rookie set, her
• 40:21
  backs are gonna be bad. It doesn't matter.
• 40:23
  It's the most difficult position to translate from college to the
• 40:25
  professional game. Give them time, it will be fine.
• 40:29
  Doesn't seem to matter for 17 year old Trinity Armstrong
• 40:32
  because she has been elite. By the way, we were just talking
• 40:35
  about sort of the quality of central midfielders and praising
• 40:38
  Sam Meza, so I stopped at 4:00 with Sam Coffey.
• 40:43
  Central midfielders 5 and 6 are Savannah McCaskill and Kenzie
• 40:46
  Dolly as far as like positive production on the field in terms
• 40:49
  of G+. So I actually think like the
• 40:52
  surprise of this San Diego team to me is that this offense is a
• 40:56
  mirage. It may improve with the Dudenia
• 41:01
  edition. Like they may end up resembling
• 41:04
  the team that they sort of aren't right now.
• 41:08
  As far as we're concerned. Their defense is excellent and
• 41:12
  that highly functional midfield, they finally found a home for
• 41:14
  Savannah McCaskill. This sort of way that they are
• 41:17
  deploying McCaskill and Dolly is actually a thing that will
• 41:21
  continue I think to benefit them all the way through.
• 41:24
  This is a, this is a, a not superlative team in the way lots
• 41:28
  of people I think want to interpret them.
• 41:30
  This is a really solid team in the way I I think lots of people
• 41:34
  underrate them. And who have absolutely blown
• 41:37
  past expectations. Like, I think what did what did
• 41:39
  I rank them 13th in our preseason ranking?
• 41:41
  Something like that, Yeah. Like, nobody saw this coming.
• 41:44
  I mean, everybody's annoyed by Yona Scheidevall.
• 41:46
  I had them 11th. I didn't do it, like a lot
• 41:48
  better, yeah. Yeah, we're, we're the same,
• 41:50
  Yeah. But like, everybody's annoyed
• 41:51
  with Yona Scheidevall for every thing that happened at at
• 41:54
  Arsenal. And so people almost seem to
• 41:56
  like, be doing this overcorrection in this weird
• 41:58
  way. And you can see it like it makes
• 42:01
  sense in the abstract. Like you have a pacey 1V1
• 42:07
  trickster in Cascarino out on the wing.
• 42:09
  You have a, you know, off the shoulder target, classic target
• 42:13
  #9 in Adriana Leon. And then you have a 10 in Gia
• 42:15
  Corley who is happy to just roam anywhere and just be the spare
• 42:19
  player wherever you need an overload.
• 42:21
  Like theoretically that does sound like a pretty dominating
• 42:25
  offense, but for whatever reason all of the dominance that they
• 42:30
  find when they get into the attacking 3rd just isn't
• 42:32
  translating into great chances on a consistent basis.
• 42:35
  Like it's not a bad attack, it's just an egregiously over
• 42:39
  performing attack at the moment. You want to know what I'm so
• 42:41
  hyped about with this game? So we just said that numbers
• 42:44
  five and six are McCaskill and Valley.
• 42:47
  Numbers 7 and 8 are Riley Jackson, who's been excellent,
• 42:51
  and Denise O'Sullivan. Yeah, who's sort of.
• 42:54
  Turning back the years in ways that we didn't expect.
• 42:56
  Yeah. So like Riley Jackson's like
• 42:58
  endless work rate has really like covered for the running
• 43:02
  that we were worried no one would cover for with Denise
• 43:04
  O'Sullivan. Yeah, and with now Remember Me
• 43:06
  are taking a hike. Like I feel like this is a
• 43:08
  perfect nerd matchup. It's like 2 really, really like
• 43:12
  functional midfields going at it and seeing what you can grab on
• 43:16
  the counter with some pretty interesting attacking pieces and
• 43:19
  like what you can grab quickly and progressively.
• 43:22
  Yeah, no doubt. Grant, I want to go to you here
• 43:23
  real quick. But one quick point on San
• 43:25
  Diego, I think they're probably more live for me in the knockout
• 43:31
  stages of the playoffs because they present interesting matchup
• 43:35
  problems more so. So I think in that instance,
• 43:38
  like the the XG, you know, we do, you know, tongue in cheek,
• 43:41
  fancy ourselves a real G enterprise, you know, but we do,
• 43:44
  we do dip our toe into XG, you know, occasionally.
• 43:47
  But I do think like, will they be at the top of the table at
• 43:50
  the end of this season? Probably not.
• 43:51
  But I think in the playoffs, you start looking at those players,
• 43:54
  you start matching, start matching up your players against
• 43:56
  their players. And you're just like, oh man,
• 43:57
  there's a couple. There's a couple spots on the
• 43:59
  pitch where we're outgunned, you know, And I think at that point,
• 44:03
  it'll be up to 8 of all. It'll be up to some of those
• 44:05
  creative players to see, you know, can they, you know, can
• 44:09
  they break some new ground offensively?
• 44:11
  But Grant what? Any thoughts on this match up?
• 44:13
  No, I'm just I'm very satisfied with myself because I was, I had
• 44:16
  it here planned that you know, they're outperforming their XG
• 44:20
  by plus 9.9 and the next highest team is Seattle Rain FC
• 44:24
  outperforming their XG by plus 4.3.
• 44:29
  So it's just a massive golf and I was going to ask you guys
• 44:31
  about it. So I don't know if you saw the
• 44:33
  fist bump there. I'm I'm glad to to see that I I
• 44:36
  did an analytics look at that. And we applaud you, Grant.
• 44:40
  It's a beautiful thing. And I do want to just bounce off
• 44:43
  of something that Dino just said, yes.
• 44:46
  It. Could be very tasty for San
• 44:48
  Diego when you look at matchups when you get to the playoffs.
• 44:51
  But do not forget you don't have any more bad teams in the
• 44:54
  playoffs. And I think that's this year is
• 44:56
  really going to imply, and let's just say for the sake of
• 44:59
  argument, like San Diego finishes 6th and Washington
• 45:03
  finishes third. Well, who is Dalfine Cascarino
• 45:05
  going up against the best 1V1 defender at the full back
• 45:10
  position in the whole league, Casey Krueger.
• 45:11
  So like there are other teams who have match ups that can make
• 45:15
  problems for San Diego as well. I will say as a counterpoint to
• 45:17
  this, San Diego who are currently recording what the
• 45:21
  second best non penalty XG against?
• 45:23
  Yeah. Nothing is more predictive of
• 45:25
  winning knockout games than your ability to contain chances and
• 45:30
  like, contain, contain opportunity.
• 45:32
  So I actually do, you know, I like the take that if San Diego
• 45:35
  gets in, I like the fact that if they were up against a
• 45:39
  Washington spirit team that is extraordinarily chaotic, they
• 45:42
  can limit opportunities in that game.
• 45:45
  No doubt they are. I advise everyone not to bet on
• 45:48
  sports, but like there are worse.
• 45:50
  There are worse choices than like a potshot wave bet that you
• 45:54
  made at the beginning of this year.
• 45:57
  You probably can't get those numbers now, but yeah.
• 45:59
  So do we think the same level of fun is going to be in the Bay
• 46:02
  Houston game later the night, that night?
• 46:04
  Same level of fun, maybe. I mean, yeah.
• 46:09
  Right. Depends, yeah.
• 46:11
  We had a question that somebody asked us and I'm so curious to
• 46:14
  hear what you guys think about it.
• 46:16
  You're Aussie SA, Oshwala's agent.
• 46:18
  What are you telling her to do right now?
• 46:21
  Like what what what do you? What is what fixes Aussie
• 46:24
  Saroshwala for you guys? Especially in the wake of not
• 46:27
  getting much playing time in Wafcon, you know?
• 46:31
  Saudi League. That was his idea.
• 46:36
  Wow. That was going for China, yeah.
• 46:39
  I mean, I only got that back. That's where that kind of player
• 46:41
  goes now, right at this in 20. 25 yeah, I will give Oshwala
• 46:46
  some credit. So, you know, I was mentioning
• 46:49
  that I was covering Orlando last year.
• 46:51
  This year I've been covering Bay FC, living here in the Bay and
• 46:54
  seeing Oshwala on the sideline in warmups, you know, pre game,
• 46:58
  you know, like she's a pros pro, like knowing not she's going to
• 47:02
  get like no minutes are coming and she's every drill every like
• 47:05
  locked in, like with her teammates.
• 47:07
  I mean, very, very impressive. And I think, you know, you
• 47:09
  don't, you don't really know until you see a player in that
• 47:12
  environment to kind of know what they're about.
• 47:14
  But that was impressive for me for sure.
• 47:16
  And and to your point about not betting on sports, I'm not sure
• 47:18
  if you, you guys know the, the origin story of our show, but
• 47:21
  Grant and I used to do a, a a betting podcast a couple years
• 47:24
  back. We we did OK, Like, you know, we
• 47:28
  NBA, little NFL Grant's a college football guy.
• 47:32
  And then the the summer of 2023 year olds around and it's July
• 47:37
  and the sports calendar. You know.
• 47:40
  Clears out Isos for the Women's World Cup.
• 47:43
  And we're like, you know what? We like soccer, we like, we like
• 47:46
  women's football. Let's get into this.
• 47:47
  So we dive in, we fall in love with, with the Women's World
• 47:51
  Cup. We get, we get our asses handed
• 47:54
  to us, you know, you know, like our, our Google doc was just, it
• 47:58
  just caught fire. Basically.
• 48:01
  Yeah, it all read, you know, pretty pretty much every row,
• 48:03
  every cell. And then, yeah, from there, I
• 48:06
  would say a couple months later, the ITC was born.
• 48:09
  It's a good place to start. I mean, that was a great
• 48:11
  tournament, yeah. The World Cup in Australia and
• 48:13
  New Zealand, a really great bad, an unusually great tournament.
• 48:16
  I. Had for betting.
• 48:18
  Yes, for sure. Yeah, Don't put, don't put money
• 48:21
  on Morocco getting out of the group stage.
• 48:23
  Oh, wait a second. Never bet on Norway.
• 48:27
  I mean, that tide's turning, though, the Lynx senior gallop
• 48:29
  said. You know, on the rise, Norway,
• 48:33
  you know, Norway's coming man. It's happening eventually.
• 48:35
  Grant you're one of them, huh? Oh, absolutely, yeah.
• 48:39
  Weigh in on Norway when we covered the Champions League and
• 48:42
  SK Braun made a run. We have a bunch of pals over
• 48:45
  there who are friends of the show.
• 48:46
  So like I'm I'm way bought it. Godspeed my son.
• 48:51
  We are, you know. What do you guys think of
• 48:53
  Houston this year? We've talked.
• 48:55
  We've actually talked a lot about them.
• 48:56
  This. I love that you're like shifting
• 48:58
  into host. No, no, I'm just so curious,
• 48:59
  like, because like, you don't get to talk to like, because
• 49:02
  normally when you're talking to people, they're fans and like,
• 49:05
  you guys aren't fans of Houston. What do you think of Houston?
• 49:07
  I would say, and Dito and I have talked about this.
• 49:10
  I I maintain they're still better than they were last year.
• 49:14
  They're better to watch. I mean, you know, Yasmine Ryan,
• 49:18
  more ascension of Avery Patterson, you know, Maggie
• 49:22
  Graham had has, has contributed. I think they're better.
• 49:26
  I just think it's like it seems like the league got better.
• 49:30
  Or at least you know. Yeah, they like, they got better
• 49:33
  like along with them. So I, you know, they don't feel
• 49:36
  as hopelessly adrift as they were last year, but, you know,
• 49:40
  still got a, still got a long way to go.
• 49:42
  What I think about Houston right now is analogous to maybe, I
• 49:48
  don't know, like, you know, Brentford's first year in the
• 49:51
  Premier League or something on the men's side, wherein they're
• 49:54
  putting a lot of good pieces in place organizationally and
• 49:57
  behind scenes with Angela Huculis, Mangano coming over
• 50:01
  from Angel City, taking over not only as the GM but also as like
• 50:04
  president of the women's soccer division.
• 50:06
  And finally, like separating themselves from the Dynamos
• 50:09
  operations, which had never been the case until this season.
• 50:13
  More hiring, more analytics, people making interesting
• 50:17
  signings. I mean, they made a lot of
• 50:18
  signings. I don't know if all of them have
• 50:20
  paid off but they are doing what they can to over perform their
• 50:28
  budget now. Because this league is what it
• 50:31
  is. It still means that they end up
• 50:34
  sitting in 12th and until you decide you actually want to
• 50:37
  spend the cap, you're probably going to continue being in 12th
• 50:42
  and maybe hope for like an 8th, 9th place cuspy playoff kind of
• 50:47
  situation. But until the ownership there
• 50:52
  decides that it's OK to spend $3,000,000 on payroll and
• 50:55
  convince players that this is a good place to like set
• 50:59
  themselves up long term. And that's always been difficult
• 51:03
  both on the men's and the women's side in Houston soccer.
• 51:06
  They're just going to be spinning their wheels because
• 51:09
  there's just too many infrastructural barriers when
• 51:12
  you don't and want to spend more than like a million, million and
• 51:15
  a half bucks per season on payroll.
• 51:17
  It does it does feel like those those gaps are widening I think
• 51:21
  between the better organizations and I've got limited in big
• 51:24
  time, you know view into this. But you can just kind of see it
• 51:27
  like your your your KC point, your guys KC point from earlier
• 51:30
  was like you could just see it in everything that they ship
• 51:34
  merch like video, like everything is just at at a level
• 51:38
  that is just impressive. Houston, you know Grant, I think
• 51:41
  I agree with you guys. I mean, it's, they're fun to
• 51:43
  watch, but they, they just need so much to to kind of elevate up
• 51:48
  to that level. And there's something
• 51:49
  existential about it because this has traversed multiple
• 51:53
  ownership groups over the last 11 years.
• 51:55
  Like, it doesn't really matter, it seems who owns the team,
• 51:58
  who's the GM, who's the head coach This is we just see the
• 52:01
  same pattern repeating over and over again.
• 52:03
  So there's like some guts, like, we got to like do a gut
• 52:07
  renovation. We got to strip this sucker down
• 52:09
  to the bones in order to to get them on the right track.
• 52:12
  And I think the things that they did in the last offseason and
• 52:15
  the things that they've been doing with Fabrice Gautrott
• 52:17
  trying to implement some tactical structure that has been
• 52:22
  kind of chaotically bouncing back and forth between whatever
• 52:26
  coach they have is in the they're all steps in the right
• 52:29
  direction. But yeah, unless you decide to
• 52:33
  open up the checkbook, they're only ever going to be steps in
• 52:36
  the right direction. It's so funny because like you,
• 52:38
  you know, you mentioned steps in the right direction and in sort
• 52:42
  of like kind of business terms. I always think about decision
• 52:46
  making. It's like it's not just making a
• 52:47
  a decision that moves you forward.
• 52:49
  It's like because there's the opportunity cost of not making a
• 52:52
  different decision. So you could be moving forward
• 52:55
  and like, you know, to grant to your point, the league could
• 52:57
  just be lapping you. I think we're seeing a little
• 52:59
  bit of that and it's just maybe not just tactically but off the
• 53:03
  pitch as well. But Bay FC, I want to talk a
• 53:07
  little bit about them and kind of get your guys take.
• 53:10
  I lived here for a few years, relocated to Orlando, covered
• 53:13
  the Pride last year and now I'm back here.
• 53:16
  Didn't cover a ton of BFC last year other than tangentially
• 53:19
  following the league. Didn't know a ton about that
• 53:21
  team. Have gotten to know the roster,
• 53:23
  the organization a little bit. Great crowd, great atmosphere.
• 53:26
  I love it there. But from a footballing
• 53:28
  standpoint, there's a lot I don't know.
• 53:31
  So when you guys look at BFC, you know, obviously just their
• 53:34
  second team in the second season in the league, snuck into the
• 53:38
  playoffs last year. What do you think about this
• 53:40
  team? Well.
• 53:42
  In the interest of Full disclosure, we do have to tell
• 53:45
  you that Bay FC is unofficially known as a SAFC because our
• 53:50
  buddy Ariel Drawer is Director of Data and Analytics there.
• 53:53
  So we do have to make sure that people know that.
• 53:56
  But at the same time, despite all the things that they do well
• 54:01
  and all the smart things that they do, I think they really
• 54:04
  wanted to follow the San Diego Wave expansion team mold and
• 54:08
  really hit the gas hard, which is what got them really cap
• 54:13
  tied, salary cap tied with a lot of big contracts that didn't pan
• 54:17
  out. And they've been able to get out
• 54:19
  from under a couple of those. But Oshawa Oshawa's is still a
• 54:22
  big one hanging around their necks.
• 54:24
  And I think they have to kind of rethink their strategy about
• 54:28
  like how they recruit, how they build.
• 54:30
  Honestly, they need to fire Albertine Montoya, not even just
• 54:33
  because he's not a great coach, but because he seems like he's
• 54:35
  an emotionally abusive asshole, even though the league cleared
• 54:38
  him of any wrongdoing. It's a frustrating organization
• 54:43
  given the resources that they have and the fact that, like,
• 54:48
  the San Francisco Bay Area is a place where, like, sports should
• 54:51
  thrive. And we know, we all know the
• 54:55
  problems that the Earthquakes have had over the years, But
• 54:58
  this is a this is a frustrating group who like did some very
• 55:03
  smart things tactically and in terms of their lineup in the
• 55:06
  second-half of last year that got them into the position to
• 55:10
  make a playoff spot. But that's all kind of
• 55:13
  regressed. And now they're like sitting an
• 55:16
  eighth on XG differential. That's playoff caliber, but it's
• 55:20
  nothing like super special. I feel like in terms of this
• 55:25
  weekend, if this team wants to be a playoff team.
• 55:28
  They got to be. A This is 3 points, yeah.
• 55:30
  Especially at home it. Has to be yeah.
• 55:33
  In the broader scheme of things, credit to BFC for taking big
• 55:37
  swings. They whiffed on Oswala.
• 55:39
  They whiffed on Castellanos. Whiffed on Gen.
• 55:42
  BD. They whiffed on Gen.
• 55:43
  BD. I admire A-Team that's willing
• 55:47
  to take these swings. I feel like all of the best
• 55:50
  things they've done have been quiet, smart moves as opposed to
• 55:54
  like big swings. Yeah, it makes them dangerous
• 55:58
  should they hit on a big swing. But like Penelope Hawking, great
• 56:02
  pick up. They are like as mid as mid gets
• 56:08
  right now. And even a signing like Onyeka
• 56:12
  Gammero, that's all upside, Yeah, we don't have that.
• 56:16
  We don't. We don't.
• 56:16
  But we don't know what Gammero is right now in terms of helping
• 56:19
  your 2025 playoff. Front they whipped on Savvy King
• 56:22
  because they used her incorrectly.
• 56:24
  Right. Like, yeah, so yeah, it like
• 56:28
  Lucy Russian is no longer running soccer operations there.
• 56:31
  Matt Potter, who formerly of the KC Current, is there now.
• 56:34
  So it's a team of perpetual hope, I think.
• 56:39
  But we just need maybe another six months for them to really
• 56:44
  get to where they want to go. So yeah, they could finish
• 56:47
  eighth. They could sneak into the
• 56:48
  playoffs. But if you finish 8th, you're
• 56:50
  playing Kansas City in their house, so Bonchon Simone to me.
• 56:55
  Yeah, that'll be tough. I think you're just going to
• 56:57
  have teams like this, right? I, I think you guys make a
• 57:00
  really good point too. Like they'll need to take some
• 57:03
  big swings, hope 1 pans out and, you know, kind of try to make
• 57:07
  some some nips and tucks around like the margins to to see if
• 57:11
  they can they can tighten it up. But yeah, I think the other
• 57:15
  piece of advice I would give Oshwala, if I was her agent and
• 57:19
  you know it, I guess it remains to be seen if she could do this
• 57:22
  is be more of a part of the build up play when they get you
• 57:25
  on the field, like come back for the ball because it just feels
• 57:27
  like the ball like it dies out there for for Bay FC so often.
• 57:31
  And I, you know, again, how capable is she of doing that?
• 57:35
  I'm not 100% sure but like if she could come back and get the
• 57:38
  to get the ball from the midfielders and then help to
• 57:41
  push it up field I think she would.
• 57:43
  She would probably put herself in a better light.
• 57:46
  Yeah, probably. And so much of the conversation
• 57:48
  over the last year and a half is like how she has improved
• 57:51
  defensively. That's certainly the message
• 57:53
  that the team wants to put out there.
• 57:55
  But first of all, you're sort of wasting her skill set when you
• 57:58
  have to make her drop that deep. It's it's often it's often a
• 58:01
  necessity because if you don't have anybody else and they kind
• 58:06
  of don't at the moment, then that's that's what you got to
• 58:09
  do. I mean, Taylor Huff is is is
• 58:11
  again, another player who is like all upside at the moment.
• 58:14
  Like she's flashed some quality this season, but we haven't seen
• 58:17
  it with any kind of consistency. And so if you could get her in a
• 58:21
  position where she can be the attacking midfield of the
• 58:24
  future, then those some of those problems that you just laid out
• 58:28
  Grant can be solved. But we don't know if Huff's ever
• 58:30
  going to get there. And so Oshwala is just a 30 year
• 58:34
  old who's going to be 31 very soon with declining athleticism
• 58:37
  and mobility and seemingly not able to like, use any kind of
• 58:43
  mobility to like, make runs off the short, like get herself in a
• 58:46
  good positions to receive the ball.
• 58:47
  And so then, yeah, you're left with, like, Rachel Kananji being
• 58:50
  your primary creator. By the way, big swing and a hit.
• 58:54
  Absolutely, that is the one that really worked, but also
• 58:57
  Kundananji can only make so many 40 yard mazy dribbles that pay
• 59:02
  off in a good chance. You know, as exciting as they
• 59:05
  look, but like that's often all they got.
• 59:08
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quick note on Taylor Hough.
• 59:10
  I mean, I've, I've caught a few games and I think Taylor Hough
• 59:14
  is going to get there. I mean, I think you can kind of.
• 59:16
  See. The the thing that's missing is
• 59:21
  so far as the connectivity, you know, I think like, you know,
• 59:23
  she's got the vision and I think part of it is like the where
• 59:27
  you're trying to go with the ball that players needs to you
• 59:29
  got. There needs to be some some, I
• 59:31
  don't know, some some alignment there in terms of like the the
• 59:34
  strategy and just tactically just being on the same page.
• 59:38
  But to me, she's got it. She's hard to deal with Like she
• 59:42
  she gives defenders fits. I really, really like her game.
• 59:46
  Yeah. I mean, your points.
• 59:47
  Could it take time to to click? Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if
• 59:50
  she's on the track that like Alyssa Thompson was over the
• 59:53
  last couple of years where the the raw talent was there, but
• 59:56
  the production and the decision making wasn't always there.
• 59:59
  And now it's all kind of locking into place.
• 1:00:01
  So Huff could absolutely be that player.
• 1:00:03
  It's just a matter of like. When we see it.
• 1:00:05
  But to your other point about the connect, the connectivity
• 1:00:08
  lacking, like she's being done no favors by her coach because
• 1:00:12
  all Montoya wants to do is to fly forward and be this really
• 1:00:15
  exciting, entertaining, attacking football.
• 1:00:17
  And what he doesn't seem to want to admit this year is that the
• 1:00:19
  only extended period of time where BAE was really working was
• 1:00:24
  when he decided to play Kiki Pickett as a defensive
• 1:00:28
  midfielder and just lock things up defensively and get really,
• 1:00:31
  really solid. And they kind of set that aside
• 1:00:34
  when the calendar turned over to the new season.
• 1:00:37
  The Huff numbers at least suggest to me that she's taking
• 1:00:39
  an extra touch in the midfield when she doesn't need to, to try
• 1:00:42
  to pick and decide things. And that just feels like a
• 1:00:46
  classic jump from college to pro, which is you just have less
• 1:00:49
  time on the ball and and like that.
• 1:00:53
  The plus side with that is that is not a thing that has to be a
• 1:00:56
  trait that talks to you your entire career.
• 1:00:58
  But it does mean relying on, like, a young central midfielder
• 1:01:02
  is challenging. I mean, you see very similar
• 1:01:05
  things from, like, just looking at our numbers right now.
• 1:01:09
  You see the same thing from Kennedy Fuller.
• 1:01:11
  Yeah. And like, that's not a player I
• 1:01:13
  would write off. I wouldn't write either of them
• 1:01:15
  off, Right. It's just the speed of the game
• 1:01:17
  is an adjustment. Yeah, and also, if you listen to
• 1:01:20
  Leanne Sanderson, you will understand that touch can't be
• 1:01:23
  taught. It's just innate, literally one
• 1:01:26
  of the most extraordinary things I've ever heard on a sports
• 1:01:28
  broadcast. She's the best.
• 1:01:31
  That's our That's our pal. Champions League winner,
• 1:01:33
  multiple time guests on the Into the Channel podcast.
• 1:01:36
  The legend. Leanne Sanderson.
• 1:01:38
  We love her, but as this former striker right here, I watched
• 1:01:41
  his brain melt. I was just saying that comment
• 1:01:44
  came across. Somebody posted it before I
• 1:01:46
  could. They were like it is literally
• 1:01:47
  the most teachable skill. They were like like literally
• 1:01:53
  nothing. Nothing can be taught easier
• 1:01:56
  through sheer reps and just slamming a ball at a person than
• 1:01:59
  touch like. Listen, this is episode 159 for
• 1:02:03
  us. And if I had to tabulate all of
• 1:02:05
  the dumb shit that we've said, I mean, it's, it's 100 page
• 1:02:09
  Google. By the way, we literally call
• 1:02:11
  ourselves expected own goals because we expect to make
• 1:02:14
  mistakes. We're going to say dumb shit
• 1:02:16
  like the the title of this podcast is we're we're a little
• 1:02:20
  dumb like, but yeah, no, I love Leanne, good entertainer,
• 1:02:26
  sometimes disagree with her takes.
• 1:02:29
  Totally fair. Yeah.
• 1:02:31
  All right. Let's go, let's go ahead.
• 1:02:35
  We had a no, no, no. I mean, it's this is this is
• 1:02:38
  fair game. I mean we.
• 1:02:40
  No, no, by the way, like literally love listening to her.
• 1:02:45
  But in the same way I love listening to Ray Hudson, like in
• 1:02:49
  the like, like just I get them. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:52
  Oh, this person's on one like. I don't know if Leanne's ever
• 1:02:56
  read Shakespeare, to be fair. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:59
  But like Leanne's vibes are like, like, it's ultimately it's
• 1:03:03
  entertainment. I'm sorry, we don't need to go
• 1:03:05
  on this, right? You know, I mean the, it's a,
• 1:03:08
  it's a, it's especially sensitive for me, I can say
• 1:03:12
  because I told you I came into sport 2023.
• 1:03:14
  So, you know, obviously we're trying, we're trying to claw
• 1:03:16
  back some of that World Cup money.
• 1:03:18
  So I'm like NWSL, you know what? I'm feeling hot.
• 1:03:20
  I, I, I got my bearings. So we like, we shipped our, our,
• 1:03:24
  our betting gears to NWSL, which didn't go terribly.
• 1:03:28
  I will say that's kind of where I where I first, you know,
• 1:03:31
  dipped the toe into my Orlando Pride relationship, my racing
• 1:03:34
  Louisville relationship. That's where the little first.
• 1:03:36
  Kidding started. Last year, if you had even just
• 1:03:40
  a 10th, 100th, honestly of like some of the shit that we talk
• 1:03:43
  about in your back pocket, like you could have made some real
• 1:03:46
  money because Vegas ES like wherever you were finding lines
• 1:03:50
  last year, they were terrible. I believe that.
• 1:03:53
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. No doubt that.
• 1:03:54
  I mean, clear to us coming into the year, like we know who are
• 1:03:57
  going to be the contenders. This I.
• 1:03:59
  I got 22 to one on the Washington Spirit pre season.
• 1:04:02
  Yeah, Dave. And I, I see I was a Barbara
• 1:04:06
  Banda away from, you know, from not making that much money.
• 1:04:10
  I think I put like 20 bucks on that.
• 1:04:12
  That's. Still to pay out.
• 1:04:14
  You know, yeah, no, that's enough.
• 1:04:15
  It's all about the multiple at this point.
• 1:04:17
  But what I was going to mention was, was Leanne was so pivotal
• 1:04:21
  for me, getting me into the sport because for whatever
• 1:04:23
  reason, how she was talking about it for me as a newbie was
• 1:04:27
  just hitting my ears in the way. And like, and when she came out
• 1:04:29
  with us, she was like, you guys see the show talk about the show
• 1:04:32
  the way that we talk about it. Like, and I think it's because
• 1:04:35
  we are the initial genesis of the show is like, let's talk
• 1:04:39
  about women's football as if we're talking about the NFL or
• 1:04:41
  NBA. You know, I think that was
• 1:04:42
  something that we set out to do is like, I don't really care
• 1:04:44
  about all the other other stuff. I just want to talk about the
• 1:04:46
  football because the football's great.
• 1:04:48
  So I think for me, she was just such a huge voice and we're
• 1:04:52
  actually having Jackie Oatley on tomorrow, which we're very
• 1:04:54
  excited about. Who was the other voice for me
• 1:04:57
  that just ushered me into basically like what's going to
• 1:05:01
  be a lifelong, you know, relationship with this sport?
• 1:05:04
  She is. She is a pistol, That Jackie O
• 1:05:06
  Lee. Yeah, she's fun.
• 1:05:08
  Yeah, but you know what? Else she's the absolute best.
• 1:05:12
  Washington, Portland. Game of the scow.
• 1:05:15
  What a transition. Amazing.
• 1:05:18
  To you look. At your muffins.
• 1:05:19
  Yeah. Well, we're got, we got to
• 1:05:22
  clear, we got to clear the floor for some ISO ball for this
• 1:05:24
  Portland native. Talk about like the shock that
• 1:05:27
  is the 2025 Portland Thorns. Biggest surprise, I mean, I
• 1:05:33
  would say even a little more than than San Diego way because
• 1:05:36
  I still I my San Diego skepticism still remains to some
• 1:05:41
  point. I just thought you lose Sophie,
• 1:05:44
  Sophie Wilson, you know, you lose Christine Sinclair.
• 1:05:48
  I just thought there was yeah. I just thought it was too many
• 1:05:51
  goals and assists to lose and still remain competitive.
• 1:05:56
  How are they doing this? You want to know something
• 1:05:58
  funny? We had to re record our preview
• 1:06:01
  episode because in the 12 hours between us recording it
• 1:06:05
  initially, the Sophia Wilson pregnancy announcement came out
• 1:06:09
  and we're like, well, we got to completely throw all of our
• 1:06:11
  predictions out the window here. 1%, yeah, 1%.
• 1:06:14
  But the thing that Eric said that seems to be panning out was
• 1:06:19
  that GM Jeff Agus decided, well, let's just go for quantity and
• 1:06:24
  see if quality follows in terms of, like, filling those
• 1:06:27
  attacking spots. And guess what?
• 1:06:30
  It might be working out. Granted, we've lost Kai Hanks
• 1:06:32
  for the season. But like before her injury,
• 1:06:35
  between her, Pietra Tordan and everybody else that they have
• 1:06:39
  brought on to like plug those holes, Raylan Turner at the top
• 1:06:42
  of the list, there have been kind of a revelation.
• 1:06:45
  I I would say that yes, it was so funny that in this sort of
• 1:06:52
  pre season conversation we were having with Kim McCauley and we
• 1:06:54
  all agreed we needed to record like immediately, the minute the
• 1:06:58
  news broke, we were all like, so I'll see you tomorrow.
• 1:07:02
  But but like all of us were like, we think this team's like
• 1:07:06
  5th ish in our initial record and then they lost.
• 1:07:12
  If you Wilson and out of respect to that, we were like 11th,
• 1:07:15
  12th, yeah, 11th or 12th. Like that is that is how pivotal
• 1:07:18
  we saw her role in goal scoring. And they've kind of just figured
• 1:07:23
  out how to replace her in the aggregate.
• 1:07:27
  They have figured out in giving minutes to Raylyn Turner in the
• 1:07:31
  emergence of Kya Hanks in Pietro Torton, who I kind of expect to
• 1:07:36
  have a biggish second-half or a Yeah, I mean, she's she gets in
• 1:07:40
  good positions, she scores. And that is that is a total
• 1:07:47
  surprise. But the bigger concern was that
• 1:07:49
  this defense would be bad. And it it kind of hasn't been
• 1:07:53
  bad. It's just been leagueish
• 1:07:54
  average. Which, if you have a strong
• 1:07:58
  attack on top of that, is enough to get you into the playoffs.
• 1:08:01
  Like, I don't know how, I don't know how high I think the
• 1:08:04
  ceiling is on this team, but like, this is a playoff team.
• 1:08:09
  No doubt. I think definitely a playoff
• 1:08:12
  team. I agree with the lowish, lowish
• 1:08:14
  ceiling, but I mean just a a tough team to play against.
• 1:08:18
  We we talked about the torture chamber that is that midfield
• 1:08:20
  coffee, Moultrie and Sugita is just.
• 1:08:23
  Moultrie's back. Yeah, that's the other part.
• 1:08:25
  Like Moultrie is finally like making 2024 be but a distant
• 1:08:29
  memory, a bit of a blip on her trajectory.
• 1:08:32
  And like, it couldn't have come at a better time.
• 1:08:34
  Because if honestly, if Portland had had a second straight season
• 1:08:39
  where they weren't up to their standards, which is like top 4
• 1:08:42
  minimum, you know, they are the they have always set the
• 1:08:46
  standard in the league for on a lot of different levels both on
• 1:08:50
  the field and off the field. And like finishing 6th and
• 1:08:53
  getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs, their
• 1:08:55
  worst year since 2015. And then if this year had
• 1:09:00
  resulted in them not even making the playoffs at all because
• 1:09:03
  their two talismans were either injured having babies and then
• 1:09:08
  the one who was the face of the whole franchise from the
• 1:09:11
  beginning retired, that would have been a real problem.
• 1:09:15
  Because they've been trying to claw back respect and trust from
• 1:09:20
  the supporters for years. Since it emerged that Merritt
• 1:09:25
  Paulson and Gavin Williamson were in the middle of everything
• 1:09:27
  that went down with Paul Riley back in 2014.
• 1:09:30
  Yeah, Wilkinson's and, and credit to Portland and their
• 1:09:33
  supporters for being like, no, fuck you, we're not going to
• 1:09:37
  show up in 22,000 strong every single home game the way we used
• 1:09:41
  to because of that. And they've had to do a lot of
• 1:09:44
  work to try and gain that trust back.
• 1:09:45
  And if they had had a season where they finished at best 8th,
• 1:09:50
  but potentially 10th, 11th, 12th, that could have really
• 1:09:53
  seriously harmed them long term. And they have avoided that so
• 1:09:58
  beautifully. Like it's just it's it's, it's
• 1:10:02
  it's miraculous. And I know he's super happy
• 1:10:05
  about it. But like they have not
• 1:10:08
  necessarily had like individual defenders, like dazzling on the
• 1:10:12
  on the score sheet. But like when you have the
• 1:10:16
  midfield that you just read out and also potentially Jesse
• 1:10:20
  Fleming turning around some bad form.
• 1:10:23
  And you have those four players to choose from and mix and match
• 1:10:27
  with. And like figure out the smarter
• 1:10:29
  way to use Moultrie as on the attacking bands, making sure
• 1:10:35
  that like she's not constantly stuck out wide, that she's got
• 1:10:38
  room to move inside or just make her the the out and out #10 is,
• 1:10:43
  is pay is just paying dividends. And so this team is a very
• 1:10:47
  comfortable like 5th, 6th place playoff team for us now at this
• 1:10:50
  point. And we just that's soaring past
• 1:10:54
  and, and there's meat to it. You know, there's actual like
• 1:10:57
  skiness to those performances in the way that maybe we're not
• 1:10:59
  seeing with San Diego. Yeah, totally agree.
• 1:11:03
  I think, you know, we talk about it with Jesse Fleming, like
• 1:11:07
  obviously, you know, coffee is going to be unbelievably
• 1:11:11
  consistent. You'll get the same from Sugita.
• 1:11:14
  You talk about the re emergence of Moultrie Fleming feels like
• 1:11:17
  that ceiling razor. And then she's not always the
• 1:11:20
  most consistent player. Like it feels like she kind of
• 1:11:22
  fades into the background sometimes.
• 1:11:24
  But we'll and you know, when I describe it like when there's a
• 1:11:27
  Jesse Fleming game and they look almost unstoppable, when she's
• 1:11:31
  kind of like controlling the pace for like she'll give you
• 1:11:34
  like a 30 minutes where you're like, is she the best player on
• 1:11:36
  the field? And just feels like she raises
• 1:11:38
  the level of the whole team. That's such a good way to
• 1:11:41
  describe it at like a Jesse Fleming game when it's
• 1:11:43
  happening. Portland goes from a team that
• 1:11:47
  like might reasonably pick off a playoff game to a team that
• 1:11:51
  could legitimately title contend.
• 1:11:53
  And and those flashes are are brilliant to watch.
• 1:11:57
  And very few teams just have that depth.
• 1:11:59
  Like if she can perform the way that her reputation suggests
• 1:12:03
  that she should, then you have critical redundancy, as they
• 1:12:08
  say, in a very, very key part of the field.
• 1:12:11
  And like, she's basically been like producing like league
• 1:12:14
  average possession value defensively and in her passing
• 1:12:17
  game this year. But compared to what she was
• 1:12:19
  doing last year, that's a nice step up.
• 1:12:22
  And that's often what you'll all you'll need when you have the
• 1:12:26
  level of talent playing in front of her on the depth chart.
• 1:12:28
  Like a lot of play, a lot of teams don't have a league
• 1:12:32
  average central mid that you can give a lot of minutes soaking
• 1:12:37
  time to, especially in like when it gets to the stretch run at
• 1:12:40
  the end of the year. I I think the thing and, and
• 1:12:44
  this is sort of maybe a little anti analytical, but I think
• 1:12:47
  that essentially like having players with game breaking
• 1:12:49
  talents matters. And I think like when we were
• 1:12:52
  talking about this with like, Delphine Casparino can break a
• 1:12:54
  game open on her own. Olivia Moultrie can break a game
• 1:12:58
  up on her own, can can just sort of like change the course of a
• 1:13:02
  game. Jesse Fleming in flashes has
• 1:13:04
  that as a player who can just sort of find a seam, dribble
• 1:13:08
  through it, layoff the assist, RIP a shot from distance in a
• 1:13:12
  game breaking kind of way. And and when you think about
• 1:13:15
  like what the the entities in that Portland midfield are, Sam
• 1:13:19
  Coffey, excellent metronome, one of the best central midfielders
• 1:13:23
  in the world, Hima Sugita, also a game breaker.
• 1:13:27
  Jesse Fleming, also a game breaker.
• 1:13:29
  Olivia Moultrie, also a game breaker.
• 1:13:30
  I don't know if any other midfield in this league kind of
• 1:13:33
  has the number of players who can grab the game and sort of
• 1:13:36
  take hold of it in the same kind of way.
• 1:13:38
  And that makes them a spectacularly dangerous team
• 1:13:42
  with the attack that they also have.
• 1:13:45
  Yeah, yeah, I think I'm going to be interested to see how the
• 1:13:47
  attack settles in because sometimes when you lose a player
• 1:13:51
  like Wilson and Sinclair, it can have the effect, especially if
• 1:13:56
  if those two, if those players are replaced by young, younger
• 1:13:58
  players of like unpredictability.
• 1:14:01
  And now especially when you have a, you know, a senior midfield
• 1:14:04
  that's smart, that has vision, that could move the ball.
• 1:14:07
  It's just they're tough to play against.
• 1:14:08
  I saw Portland going to Bay FC and then give them a really hard
• 1:14:12
  time. So I'll be interested to see if,
• 1:14:15
  you know, you mentioned the Kai Hanks injury.
• 1:14:16
  That one hurts. Yeah, very much so.
• 1:14:18
  Once there's a little bit more, I think I think well said.
• 1:14:26
  I think when you can, can Portland stay dangerous once
• 1:14:31
  there's more tape on that attack, you know, even with the
• 1:14:34
  midfield, like, you know, when you think about like those those
• 1:14:36
  those attacking players up front, I think they caught us a
• 1:14:39
  little bit off guard. Might going to be a little bit,
• 1:14:41
  I think it's going to be slightly, a little bit tougher
• 1:14:43
  second-half of the season. Well, in this game this weekend,
• 1:14:46
  I mean, what better team is there to test that than
• 1:14:50
  Washington, you know, because maybe we're gonna see Trinity
• 1:14:54
  Robin back. We'll see.
• 1:14:58
  But they just grabbed they just grabbed A incredibly exciting
• 1:15:02
  and promising winger who probably single handedly like
• 1:15:04
  kept Italy's attack on rails on their way to a semi final in the
• 1:15:07
  Euro Sofia Cathore. Like all of the injuries that
• 1:15:11
  Washington has had to deal with, they've still managed to like
• 1:15:15
  put up generally pretty good performances, at least on the
• 1:15:18
  attacking side of things. And results have broken their
• 1:15:22
  way sometimes when they probably shouldn't have.
• 1:15:24
  And now if they can get most of those weapons on the field at
• 1:15:29
  the same time like that is, that is scary.
• 1:15:32
  I mean, it's a rare group where Ashley Hatch can go on maternity
• 1:15:36
  leave and it's probably not going to be a problem.
• 1:15:39
  Bulimarasar is still not back yet and it might not be a
• 1:15:42
  problem because Oh yeah, we just had gift Monday drop out of the
• 1:15:46
  sky. No from nowhere.
• 1:15:48
  And you know, Croy Bethune is like getting her sea legs.
• 1:15:51
  But she just had a month to like really get comfortable again in
• 1:15:55
  like full contact high speed NWSL training.
• 1:15:58
  Like she's probably going to hit the ground running tomorrow this
• 1:16:01
  weekend. Like that is a that will show us
• 1:16:07
  a lot about who Washington is, but it probably will show us a
• 1:16:09
  lot about who Portland is as well.
• 1:16:12
  Yeah, no doubt. And you know, you talk about
• 1:16:14
  Portland's midfield. I would say the other midfield
• 1:16:16
  that I probably like the most in the league is going to be on the
• 1:16:20
  pitch with with Hirschfeld. Absolutely, Naomi.
• 1:16:24
  I mean, yeah, this should this one should be a banger.
• 1:16:27
  It'll have my full attention for sure.
• 1:16:29
  What I what I like about this game is Washington's defense has
• 1:16:32
  been shit. And like.
• 1:16:34
  It really has been. And like, like, that's not a
• 1:16:38
  knock on them. I actually think individually
• 1:16:40
  they have very good defenders. Systematically, they've been not
• 1:16:43
  great. And I am super curious to see
• 1:16:44
  what a handful of weeks of just training and working out the
• 1:16:48
  kinks and with your manager situation settled, what, what
• 1:16:52
  that does against a team that will throw a lot of things at
• 1:16:55
  you. And frankly, Washington's
• 1:16:57
  offense has not been shit. They've been quite good.
• 1:17:00
  And if Portland finds themselves in a position where they're over
• 1:17:03
  committing numbers, boy, is any team going to punish you faster.
• 1:17:07
  Like, not that Beyond Kansas City, Not really.
• 1:17:11
  Yeah. So I think this game's a banger.
• 1:17:13
  Yeah, I know. I'm excited about it.
• 1:17:15
  Washington's got my, I think one of my favorite attackers of the
• 1:17:17
  season, Rose Kowasi, 3.6 Shock, shock, creative actions per
• 1:17:22
  ninety 17th in the league, but she's second in the league with
• 1:17:25
  roughly half an assist per 90, and that's just one part of her
• 1:17:29
  game. She's just, I know, so cool to
• 1:17:30
  watch. I will never forget live on the
• 1:17:33
  record when after that transfer happened last year, just sending
• 1:17:37
  Eric her radar and he hadn't really watched much of her when
• 1:17:40
  she was at Philly. And I just said.
• 1:17:42
  When would I have right? And I just sent her, I just sent
• 1:17:45
  her, I just sent him her radar. And he was like, oh, yeah, she
• 1:17:48
  gonna be good. And then he's fallen in love
• 1:17:52
  with her way more than I ever have, you know?
• 1:17:54
  Yeah, yeah, well, you watch you watch a player again game
• 1:17:57
  breaking qualities at like I I know whenever we doggone
• 1:18:00
  dribbling and like it's like a a dazzling dribbler on the order
• 1:18:05
  of Rose, Quasi or Duffy and Cascarino, these people again,
• 1:18:09
  it takes one opportunity to break a game open and like she
• 1:18:14
  has that. Well, the important thing about
• 1:18:16
  Rose Quasi's dribbling is that. Like she retains the ball.
• 1:18:19
  She she, she keeps the ball and also the way she generates
• 1:18:23
  dribbling value is putting full backs on skates in the box or
• 1:18:27
  the final third really, really close to goal where like even if
• 1:18:31
  she does lose the ball, it's still close to their opponents
• 1:18:36
  goal. And so it's, those are very,
• 1:18:38
  very dangerous, highly valuable actions.
• 1:18:41
  You know, it's the ones, it's the alley centers of the world
• 1:18:44
  who are trying to, like, take the thing 50 yards up field that
• 1:18:48
  we sometimes throw a, a, a quizzical eye at.
• 1:18:50
  But like when you're Barbara Banda or you're Rose Kowasi and
• 1:18:54
  you are just, like, bullying defenders while you're taking
• 1:18:57
  them on in the box to set up your own shot.
• 1:19:01
  Yeah, that's when dribbling really matters.
• 1:19:03
  She makes choices faster. She she doesn't let a defense
• 1:19:06
  reset and like that to me is essentially, you see dribblers
• 1:19:10
  who will like slow down the game, take their time, make
• 1:19:12
  their cut, make their decision, and the defense has been allowed
• 1:19:15
  to reset. Rose quasi does it on the fly
• 1:19:18
  more consistently and ends up not only putting her individual
• 1:19:22
  defender on skates, but already like dragging the next set of
• 1:19:26
  defenders out of position, which I love.
• 1:19:28
  Like who doesn't love? Like that's Rose Quasi is why we
• 1:19:32
  watch the game like. Yeah, her, her instincts are so
• 1:19:38
  good. And I love watching Quasi in
• 1:19:41
  like tight spaces as opposed to Cascarino.
• 1:19:43
  Cascarino's like an open field player.
• 1:19:45
  You're sure it's kind of like you, you know, you know, when
• 1:19:48
  you watch sometimes football like like the wide receiver will
• 1:19:51
  have the the cornerback just turning the and he's he's always
• 1:19:53
  just behind him. He's just turned.
• 1:19:55
  Like Cascarino will just do that to defenders for sure.
• 1:19:58
  But Quasi in tight spaces in the box, just bouncing off bodies.
• 1:20:03
  Having that vision and using that instinct to just like, oh,
• 1:20:06
  something's open, bam, like and the ball's gone.
• 1:20:09
  Like, she's just such a great creative player.
• 1:20:12
  You're right. Quasi's a slot receiver.
• 1:20:14
  And like, and like and like. Delfi Casparino is a deep
• 1:20:18
  threat. Yeah, like.
• 1:20:20
  Like it? All right, so one more, one more
• 1:20:23
  match in the docket. Appreciate you guys playing
• 1:20:25
  along, but this has been quite the very game.
• 1:20:27
  But let's go. We love this shit.
• 1:20:30
  My Orlando Pride. Our Orlando Pride versus, you
• 1:20:34
  know, we we just kind of foreshadowed a little bit with a
• 1:20:36
  little Ali sent nor talk 11 goal, 31 shots for sent nor.
• 1:20:40
  Ouch. How ugly could this one get
• 1:20:43
  Sunday afternoon? Or I mean, listed versus Utah
• 1:20:45
  last. If last year's, you know, mirror
• 1:20:48
  fixture is any indication, it could get pretty goddamn ugly,
• 1:20:52
  by the way. If you were looking your way to
• 1:20:53
  wrap this podcast up quickly, we can just say Utah's been really
• 1:20:56
  shit. Like historically shit terrible.
• 1:20:59
  Like unbelievably bad to watch and.
• 1:21:01
  Like like 2018 sky blue FC, 2023 Chicago red stars level bad.
• 1:21:07
  Like it like abysmal on a level, you know, like I don't want to
• 1:21:11
  make. Yeah, I'll do one more NFL joke.
• 1:21:13
  It's like a it's like, are they becoming the New York Jets of
• 1:21:17
  the NWSL? Like is this a perma sadness?
• 1:21:21
  And like, I think the answer right now is I don't know why
• 1:21:26
  Jimmy Conrate still has a job. They've you know, he was great
• 1:21:29
  last year. This.
• 1:21:31
  Team manager Bounce. Yeah, this team is abysmal.
• 1:21:34
  They're box shot differential. I'm just looking at our data.
• 1:21:37
  They have a -68 box shot differential over 14 games.
• 1:21:42
  I think you. Can can you walk, walk, walk me
• 1:21:44
  through that stat. That's that's OK.
• 1:21:45
  So literally what what it's laying out is like you take a
• 1:21:49
  certain number of shots in the box, your opponent takes a
• 1:21:52
  certain number of shots in the box.
• 1:21:54
  What's the difference between the two numbers?
• 1:21:56
  That's your box shot differential across the season.
• 1:21:59
  Chicago, Sorry, not Chicago, they're all so bad.
• 1:22:02
  But Utah, their opponents, have taken 68 more shots in the box
• 1:22:08
  than Utah has, which is scandalous, by the way, 13th
• 1:22:11
  place on this on this thing is Chicago at -42.
• 1:22:15
  Yeah, so essentially they're conceding five more box shots a
• 1:22:18
  game than they're they're scoring.
• 1:22:22
  Yeah, What's? Because I feel like they've got
• 1:22:25
  players that I like. Sure.
• 1:22:28
  No, I you're not wrong. I we picked Utah.
• 1:22:32
  To be a playoff contender to. Be a playoff contender.
• 1:22:35
  Same here. Yeah, by the way, I liked their
• 1:22:37
  offseason. It's everything went to hell.
• 1:22:40
  It's the problem. It's it's the problem that so
• 1:22:42
  many people, including us, we fall into this trap of confusing
• 1:22:47
  the most offseason with the best offseason.
• 1:22:51
  And they definitely had the most offseason, but there was a lot
• 1:22:56
  of potential with those signings that they brought in.
• 1:22:59
  And even though all of their big summer players that they brought
• 1:23:04
  in last year were over 30, like, they were producing.
• 1:23:08
  And they were producing in a league where maybe their age and
• 1:23:10
  athleticism wouldn't allow them to produce.
• 1:23:12
  And in that intervening time, obviously, Chloe, the cast has
• 1:23:16
  busted her ACL, and then Claudia Zarnosa has.
• 1:23:21
  Yeah. Well, Alex Allure is still not
• 1:23:22
  back. And like Claudia Zarnosa has
• 1:23:24
  just not hit the level that she had in the second-half of last
• 1:23:31
  year. And so without someone to just
• 1:23:35
  keep their foot on the ball, that defense is getting ripped
• 1:23:39
  to shreds. Ana Tejada can't be used as a
• 1:23:44
  Wrecking Ball in the same way that she was effective last
• 1:23:47
  year, especially in the second-half.
• 1:23:49
  And on the other side of it, Mia Tanaka and Ally Centner feel
• 1:23:54
  like they have to do it all themselves and mean it's not
• 1:23:56
  getting any younger. So it's all on Centner.
• 1:23:59
  And listen, the most predictive stat for future success when
• 1:24:02
  you're a player under the age of 21 is the amount of minutes you
• 1:24:04
  play. And Centner has gotten a ton of
• 1:24:07
  minutes in her professional career for club and for country
• 1:24:10
  so far. Be it for me to say that like
• 1:24:12
  she's not going to put it all together at this at A at a
• 1:24:15
  certain point, but up to now, she has not put it all together.
• 1:24:18
  And for all of the excitement people have about her dribbling
• 1:24:21
  and about her outside the box shooting, like I broke it down,
• 1:24:24
  I watched all 77 of her outside the box shots in college and as
• 1:24:29
  a pro leading into this season and she doesn't score many of
• 1:24:34
  them. And so it's very weird that she
• 1:24:36
  has this reputation in the 1st place if she has it because she
• 1:24:39
  just does it a lot. She's not as.
• 1:24:44
  But the one she scores bro, the one she scores they.
• 1:24:47
  Look so. Good, they look so great when
• 1:24:50
  she scores them. But like, can you, can you do
• 1:24:52
  that week in and week out? And she can't.
• 1:24:54
  And so like. Much like an Oasis in the
• 1:24:56
  desert. Like Allie sent her long bombs
• 1:24:59
  and like, like it's beautiful when you arrive, but it is not a
• 1:25:04
  consistent, it is not a consistent way to operate.
• 1:25:07
  And you can see like they have the largest, the longest average
• 1:25:11
  shot distance of any team in the NWSL by some, by some measure.
• 1:25:17
  And they and their attack is terrible.
• 1:25:19
  They don't score goals, they don't create good chances.
• 1:25:22
  And they concede a ton. And they concede an absolute
• 1:25:25
  shit load. And so let's talk some more,
• 1:25:27
  Orlando, Let's go. Hey, this is bringing me down.
• 1:25:29
  This is no way to end the pod. I was like, we'll go short on
• 1:25:32
  Utah. In the depths of the Utah Hell
• 1:25:35
  pit, you. See, we all just sunk into the
• 1:25:39
  quicksand, man. We're just we're looking around
• 1:25:41
  and all of a sudden. You can't see anything.
• 1:25:42
  Just to put a button on the alley center so.
• 1:25:44
  You don't. You literally don't meet.
• 1:25:46
  Shut up, dude. No button, no button, no button.
• 1:25:51
  We're talking or like no go again.
• 1:25:52
  I'm. Just he needs to get the fuck
• 1:25:53
  out of Utah. That's that's the.
• 1:25:55
  Button. Wow.
• 1:25:56
  OK. I could see, I don't think
• 1:25:58
  they'll let her go. They won't let her go.
• 1:26:00
  For sure not. Yeah.
• 1:26:02
  All right. Orlando, my Orlando Pride, our
• 1:26:05
  Orlando Pride, the defending champion good football team.
• 1:26:10
  I want to talk about them a little bit because I got a
• 1:26:13
  obviously a close look at them last year.
• 1:26:17
  I mean, I have this weird itch that, you know, a player that
• 1:26:23
  didn't do that much last year, but did something very specific
• 1:26:27
  for them and Ariana leaving. It just feels like that that one
• 1:26:31
  spot, that one unpredictable creator kind of like danced a
• 1:26:36
  lot. You know, like that, that that
• 1:26:37
  one play. They just have to watch while
• 1:26:38
  you're also watching Marta, while you're also watching
• 1:26:41
  Banda, while you're also watching whoever else is is on
• 1:26:44
  the at the same time really create a lot of problems for
• 1:26:47
  defenses. Yeah.
• 1:26:48
  Now that it's like the straight, it feels like it's a straight
• 1:26:51
  line Marta de Banda. And now they're experimenting
• 1:26:54
  with like Ali Watt. We'll see.
• 1:26:56
  Julie do like, I feel like offensively still huge question
• 1:27:01
  marks to figure out how to recreate some of the enough
• 1:27:06
  offensive that they had last year to kind of carry them all
• 1:27:08
  the way through. Yeah, I mean, I think 2025
• 1:27:11
  Orlando represents the axiom that like 2 seemingly opposite
• 1:27:17
  concepts can be true at the same time, which is that they over
• 1:27:22
  performed last year. Doesn't mean they were bad, but
• 1:27:24
  they definitely. Were excellent, yeah.
• 1:27:26
  They it doesn't, you know, they but they weren't quite like the
• 1:27:29
  like brain breaking historical like team of destiny that maybe
• 1:27:33
  it seemed the results would suggest.
• 1:27:35
  But also at the same time, this year, the legitimate regression
• 1:27:40
  has been driven, I think by stuff kind of out of their
• 1:27:45
  control. Like they've never been able to
• 1:27:47
  get Grace Chandall on the field really first.
• 1:27:50
  Now the second year in a row, you talk about the left wing
• 1:27:54
  hole that Adriana left, like Summer Yates was hurt for most
• 1:27:58
  of the year too. And so they're, you know, they,
• 1:28:02
  their philosophy that we have inferred from hearing Seb Hynes
• 1:28:08
  and Hailey Carter talk about the team is that they really want to
• 1:28:10
  have a philosophy of like next player up that they they want to
• 1:28:15
  build a level of depth and a little a level of talent and
• 1:28:18
  positional versatility that allows for them to like mix and
• 1:28:22
  match and fill holes where needed.
• 1:28:25
  And it all kind of clicked and they they got the rub of the
• 1:28:28
  green at the right time in 2024. And this year, like the injuries
• 1:28:32
  that should have probably kept them from running away with the
• 1:28:36
  league at a cancer last year, people forget that like they had
• 1:28:40
  really serious central defense tissues coming into the season
• 1:28:43
  that they fixed with Kylie Nadan are moving in there.
• 1:28:46
  Like those injuries are sort of biting in in the ass this time,
• 1:28:49
  at least in the first half of the year.
• 1:28:51
  Like Yates is healthy now. That's a good thing.
• 1:28:54
  Chanda got minutes at Wapcon even though she like was neither
• 1:28:58
  on the injury report nor dressed in the 18 player roster for like
• 1:29:02
  the five or six games leading into Wapcon.
• 1:29:04
  So we don't really know what the Hell's going on with her, at
• 1:29:07
  least in the Orlando context, You know, so they are maybe
• 1:29:11
  getting everybody back at the right time.
• 1:29:15
  But I think it's also important to remember that Marked is a
• 1:29:18
  year older and she's the greatest of all time.
• 1:29:21
  She's the goat. She'll always forever and
• 1:29:22
  forever be the goat. But you know, goats eventually
• 1:29:25
  get to a point where they cannot contribute in the way that they
• 1:29:28
  used to. And I think we're sort of seeing
• 1:29:29
  that with her performances with Brazil at the Copa America right
• 1:29:32
  now. And I think that Heinz and maybe
• 1:29:37
  Carter by extension, have been a little reticent to move on from
• 1:29:41
  her and figure out other options either at the number 10 or the
• 1:29:45
  false 9 secondary striker, do it all attacker position that she
• 1:29:50
  likes to fill. And it's probably very difficult
• 1:29:54
  to tell Martin no. I get that.
• 1:29:58
  We're all human beings. Looking that player in the eye
• 1:30:01
  and saying no to her must be a real challenge.
• 1:30:06
  But I think in order for Orlando to find a measure of consistency
• 1:30:13
  that maybe they've lacked this year, they're going to have to
• 1:30:17
  rethink some of their attacking personnel.
• 1:30:20
  Yeah, at least in terms of the players that you expect to play
• 1:30:22
  week in and week out. You talk about the left wing.
• 1:30:27
  I am a Julie Doyle truther. Sure, in the sense that.
• 1:30:30
  She's very reasonable to be 1. She's played 80 minutes this
• 1:30:34
  season. She gave him 14150 minutes last
• 1:30:38
  year. I know the counting stats
• 1:30:40
  weren't huge last year, but she just like gives them like a
• 1:30:44
  different level of gravity, a little bit of a change up.
• 1:30:48
  You know, she was let me make sure I got my numbers here.
• 1:30:51
  She was in the like the 92nd percentile and chances created
• 1:30:56
  in the 99th percentile and touches in the opposition box
• 1:30:59
  last year according to foot mob. I just think like they with
• 1:31:03
  obviously the subtraction of Adriana there, you talk about,
• 1:31:06
  you know, Summer Yates, the her lack of being in the line up.
• 1:31:10
  I just think there are a few things going against Orlando.
• 1:31:14
  I think the defense is still there, right, Like they don't
• 1:31:17
  they haven't. I think they they're tied for
• 1:31:19
  the fewest goals conceded this season.
• 1:31:23
  You know, you make the point about in a dinner and Sam's
• 1:31:25
  might be the best center back combo in the league.
• 1:31:27
  Like I think it's all there. But again, like we talked about,
• 1:31:32
  you guys hit it perfectly with Kansas City.
• 1:31:34
  They're still great and even Orlando taking a half step back
• 1:31:40
  or maybe 3/4 of a step back it they, it just looks different,
• 1:31:45
  like not every like not everything is going their way
• 1:31:47
  this year. So I think it's, it's an
• 1:31:48
  interesting dichotomy. I mean, and then, you know, when
• 1:31:52
  these, if those two heavyweights end up meeting in the playoffs,
• 1:31:56
  I don't know. I mean, do you get a, do you get
• 1:31:59
  a bend, a brace to to sneak 1 past again?
• 1:32:02
  Or, you know, can can Kansas City kind of climb that hill?
• 1:32:05
  That's a that's a great question coming down toward playoff time,
• 1:32:10
  particularly if Orlando ends up having to travel to Kansas City
• 1:32:13
  for that game. I think, you know, those teams
• 1:32:16
  were separated by a handful of points, if not just a single
• 1:32:18
  point last year. And that determined home field
• 1:32:22
  advantage. Kansas City will have it this
• 1:32:23
  time around. I think this Orlando team is
• 1:32:28
  last year was probably like a 90th.
• 1:32:30
  We we play this game sometimes of 9050.
• 1:32:32
  Ten in terms of percentile outcomes, last year Orlando hit
• 1:32:36
  like a 90th percentile season just based on the talent that
• 1:32:39
  they have. This year they're in like a 60th
• 1:32:41
  or 50th percentile season, which is still a really good team.
• 1:32:44
  Yeah, they're probably the second best team in the league
• 1:32:46
  right now. Yeah, it's just, yeah, they're
• 1:32:47
  just not 60 points and running through the playoffs like
• 1:32:51
  Flutter. They're not raised the shield
• 1:32:53
  undefeated. Yeah, they're not losing till
• 1:32:56
  they choose to lose at Portland. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:32:59
  Like like this is like this is not that team.
• 1:33:02
  They look like a normal, very good team.
• 1:33:04
  Yeah, exactly. And and and I think that like
• 1:33:07
  will that be enough against Utah?
• 1:33:08
  Absolutely. Will that be enough like down
• 1:33:12
  the stretch? Yeah, probably.
• 1:33:15
  Like this is a good, this is a good team.
• 1:33:17
  And they need to be honest with themselves about Marta being at
• 1:33:22
  this point like a mild God, I'm going to take shit for this, a
• 1:33:26
  mild net negative on the field and like use her minutes.
• 1:33:31
  No, no, it's just, it's like she's she's a she's a plus
• 1:33:34
  player at her peak minutes. It's just if, if you're running
• 1:33:38
  her for 90 minutes a game or 70 minutes a game, you're just not
• 1:33:42
  getting the best of Marta. And like, that's just like that.
• 1:33:46
  That has everything to do with like her just suffering under
• 1:33:53
  the fact that 39 year olds shouldn't be elite world class
• 1:33:56
  soccer players. Yeah.
• 1:33:57
  There, Yeah, there's definitely not full full time, yeah.
• 1:34:00
  No, exactly. And like G+ like breaks itself
• 1:34:03
  down into components like how good are you on passing
• 1:34:06
  possession value sobering defense.
• 1:34:09
  They also have a number that like not all possession value
• 1:34:12
  models that you'll find elsewhere incorporate which is
• 1:34:16
  receiving value. Like how good are you when your
• 1:34:18
  team's in possession and making off ball movement to get
• 1:34:21
  yourself into good positions to grab the ball and set either
• 1:34:25
  yourself or somebody else up for a good chance.
• 1:34:27
  And the reason that we love the way that receiving G+ is
• 1:34:31
  incorporated into the model is because it's incredibly sticky.
• 1:34:36
  It's a repeatable skill for attackers from year to year and
• 1:34:40
  it's fairly decent, although not perfect, but fairly decent,
• 1:34:43
  relatively Speaking, of predicting future goal scoring
• 1:34:46
  success as well. And that kind of makes some
• 1:34:50
  intuitive sense, right? Like the players who can like
• 1:34:52
  get themselves into the right spots are probably the ones who
• 1:34:56
  are taking the best shots, you know?
• 1:34:58
  And Marta loves to play as the spare player who can move
• 1:35:03
  anywhere on the field where she's needed to create
• 1:35:06
  something. And she insists on that being
• 1:35:09
  the core element of her game ever since she moved into that
• 1:35:12
  number 10 role a few years ago. The problem is that relative to
• 1:35:19
  other players at her position, she has been the worst attacker
• 1:35:22
  by receiving G+ this season. And when you are asking someone
• 1:35:27
  to constantly be the facilitator, whether it's left,
• 1:35:31
  right, center, high, mid, low, doesn't matter.
• 1:35:34
  That has a lot of knock on effects on how your Ally Watts
• 1:35:39
  and your Summer Yates's and your Barbara Bandas can move and be
• 1:35:42
  effective. I mean, what?
• 1:35:44
  Barbara Banda can wreck defenses on her own, We all know that.
• 1:35:48
  But like what makes her? She literally wrecked Utah
• 1:35:51
  already. Yeah, but what?
• 1:35:52
  What takes her from like deadly to like bubonic plague is when
• 1:35:58
  the other attackers on the field are occupying defensive nodes in
• 1:36:03
  the opposition so that she doesn't have anybody but like,
• 1:36:06
  one marker to deal with, which she can then put on the ground.
• 1:36:09
  So Marta is kind of no longer that player to Createspace for
• 1:36:16
  Banda to set herself up. And that's why I think like
• 1:36:19
  Banda's been amazing, but she hasn't quite been the like 1
• 1:36:23
  AMVP kind of production that she put up last year.
• 1:36:27
  And like I said at the beginning, you know, I think
• 1:36:31
  Heinz has to have a long, long look in the mirror about that.
• 1:36:35
  And he has a couple weeks more weeks to think about it because
• 1:36:38
  he doesn't get Angelina and Marta back and Silicopa America
• 1:36:43
  is over. But that has to be front of mind
• 1:36:46
  if Orlando wants to try and repeat as champions for sure.
• 1:36:51
  Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think.
• 1:36:54
  Yeah, the, the, the chance creation from that spot, you
• 1:36:58
  know, just hasn't been there. And looking at the Orlando
• 1:37:02
  roster, if you do shave off some Marta minutes, I'm not sure who
• 1:37:07
  slides right into that spot kind of seamlessly to, to kind of.
• 1:37:10
  It was supposed to be Chanda. It was supposed to be Chanda.
• 1:37:13
  And then everything, all this stuff has happened with her that
• 1:37:16
  we kind of don't have a full the full picture of.
• 1:37:18
  And so if you can't get Chanda up and running, you're right.
• 1:37:21
  Like, it sort of has to be Marta or, you know, Yeats has played
• 1:37:25
  more centrally in the past. Like, you could theoretically
• 1:37:27
  get her there, but then you got to solve the left wing again.
• 1:37:29
  And like, yeah, it just has all these cascading effects for
• 1:37:32
  sure. Yeah, I think when you were
• 1:37:34
  saying, when you were saying next man, I'm like, yeah, that's
• 1:37:36
  true for the defence. Like when you watch them play
• 1:37:39
  defence and you see the rotation, you're like, yeah,
• 1:37:41
  they're loaded there. Everywhere else, though, they
• 1:37:44
  they just don't have the personnel to be able to uphold
• 1:37:47
  that that that philosophy. Kind of kind of like Gotham.
• 1:37:50
  Their depth has taken a step back this season for sure.
• 1:37:53
  Yeah, big time. Yeah, I mean, like an
• 1:37:57
  underperforming Marta is an is an important piece in like the
• 1:38:01
  story of this team just going from great to to very good or to
• 1:38:08
  fine and like that's all it is. Like none of this should be
• 1:38:13
  interpreted as alarms in Orlando.
• 1:38:17
  They're good, no? Yeah, no, no, they'll they'll
• 1:38:20
  they'll be there down the stretch.
• 1:38:21
  And I think I agree with you. I think the shield a little bit,
• 1:38:24
  it's going to be it's going to take some some magic to make it
• 1:38:26
  happen. But I think it knockout
• 1:38:27
  football, especially if they could sort of fill some of these
• 1:38:30
  offensive gaps. And now they're they're back in
• 1:38:33
  a place where they're notching 2 three goals, you know, an
• 1:38:36
  outing. I think they're going to be
• 1:38:38
  they're going to be a tough out for sure.
• 1:38:40
  But to rewind all the way back, you know, again, I think A-Team
• 1:38:43
  like San Diego, it's going to come down to matchups.
• 1:38:45
  I think A-Team like San Diego could, could make it interesting
• 1:38:48
  for them where, you know, Washington might be the paper,
• 1:38:51
  you know, that might be the paper, rock, scissors like with
• 1:38:53
  between those 3. Orlando versus San Diego, that's
• 1:38:56
  going to be Cascarino versus Carrie Abello, who is the other
• 1:38:59
  best defensive fullback in the league.
• 1:39:01
  So yeah, matchups all over the place.
• 1:39:03
  I mean, our our position has always been in in this new
• 1:39:07
  eighteen playoff field that we have and like a more stratified
• 1:39:11
  NWSL taking shape that once you get to the semi finals, it
• 1:39:15
  really is a coin flip. There's really no honest way
• 1:39:18
  that you can say there is a guarantee that one team is going
• 1:39:21
  to beat the other once you get to the semi final round.
• 1:39:24
  Now, if something crazy happens in the quarterfinals and like,
• 1:39:27
  you know, Louisville ends up playing Kansas City in the semi
• 1:39:30
  finals, then OK, maybe that's a different conversation.
• 1:39:33
  But like if it's the top 4, the top five, like four of those
• 1:39:37
  teams making it to the semis, like all bets are off.
• 1:39:40
  Anybody can win those games. Anybody.
• 1:39:42
  For sure. No doubt.
• 1:39:45
  All right, guys, we're, we're at an hour 40.
• 1:39:47
  Let me let me do the math here. We did.
• 1:39:49
  We did the full 90 and 13 in true NWSL fashion, 13 minutes of
• 1:39:53
  stoppage time. There's a lot of injuries, yeah.
• 1:39:56
  A lot of a lot of arguing over cards, some VAR checks.
• 1:40:00
  Yeah, frankly, I. Pulled something during our
• 1:40:03
  Washington Portland. I I you didn't even see.
• 1:40:05
  I hit him with the magic spray on the yes.
• 1:40:08
  I pretended to pull something just because I felt the this
• 1:40:11
  going off the rails a little bit about the hour mark, but now we
• 1:40:13
  pulled it back in. I appreciate you guys.
• 1:40:16
  All right, man. Week, week 14, NWSL second-half
• 1:40:18
  of the season, it's here. A quick episode calendar.
• 1:40:21
  NWSL's back, as mentioned, Champions League qualifying.
• 1:40:24
  We will be back covering that as well.
• 1:40:26
  Just five weeks away from the return of the WSL.
• 1:40:28
  Can't believe that's happening. The sleepy boys in full effect.
• 1:40:31
  We had it. We had a couple more sleepy boys
• 1:40:33
  to the sleepy boys roster. We we appreciate you guys.
• 1:40:38
  We're rocking with us. Thanks.
• 1:40:38
  To Dad, my friends, yeah. I hear that.
• 1:40:41
  Anything else you guys want to hit?
• 1:40:43
  Anything else you guys want to hit before we get out of here?
• 1:40:45
  Absolutely not. Yeah, you've done more than
• 1:40:47
  enough. Let's go to bed.
• 1:40:48
  Yeah, listen to expected own goals, that's all.
• 1:40:53
  There we go. Let them know, let them know,
• 1:40:54
  let them know where to find it for for the couple of years
• 1:40:56
  still, that's what I was in with us.
• 1:40:59
  It is literally expected own goals on anywhere you get
• 1:41:02
  podcasts, you will find us there.
• 1:41:05
  Follow us, give us a listen, see if we're to your taste.
• 1:41:10
  You'll already know if you made it this far.
• 1:41:12
  Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, it would be weird if if
• 1:41:15
  they're you're not their taste if they've made it this this
• 1:41:18
  far, I think. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:41:20
  I appreciate you guys. It's been another episode into
• 1:41:21
  the channel. Thank you.
• 1:41:22
  Thank you. Thank you for hanging out.
• 1:41:24
  Thank you for watching, listening.
• 1:41:26
  If you enjoyed the show or love one's football as much as all
• 1:41:28
  your boys do, make sure you keep in with us each and every single
• 1:41:30
  week. Like, subscribe, follow YouTube,
• 1:41:32
  Spotify. Have a podcast where you like to
• 1:41:33
  watch or listen? Leave us a review over your
• 1:41:36
  favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials
• 1:41:37
  except one. Show us this episode.
• 1:41:40
  Big thank you to our guests. I appreciate you guys.
• 1:41:44
  I mean, pull in. Pull in a real marathon.
• 1:41:46
  I'm glad we're ready to make this happen.
• 1:41:48
  That's our fault, by the way. Definitely, definitely come back
• 1:41:52
  for the end of season. Let's do some awards, let's do
• 1:41:54
  some playoff predictions. And you know, we'll, there'll be
• 1:41:58
  less ground to cover. So maybe we'll, we'll, we'll,
• 1:42:00
  we'll shave it down a bit. Mr. Grant Angle, I appreciate
• 1:42:03
  you, bro. Thanks for thanks for rocking,
• 1:42:05
  rocking with us. And we're in full end of cell
• 1:42:08
  mode now. And now it's the next 14 weeks,
• 1:42:11
  we'll be in the buildings for a bunch of these matches.
• 1:42:14
  So I'm excited to kind of go on this journey with you.
• 1:42:17
  Likewise, buddy, thank you everybody for rocking with us,
• 1:42:19
  always dropping knowledge in the in the comments.
• 1:42:22
  Thank you to the expected Own Goals Bros for dropping
• 1:42:24
  knowledge on this podcast and leave the abacuses to the side.
• 1:42:29
  Leave the supercomputers to the side.
• 1:42:31
  Our guys got you covered on all the calculations.
• 1:42:34
  Thank you again for watching and we will see you all next time.