Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / NWSL Matchweek 17

Transcript

NWSL Matchweek 17 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK, welcome to into the Channel podcast premiere about women's
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football before we hit the pitch.
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If you enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your
0:12
boys do, come kick it with us already.
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Subscribe follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
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you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
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favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials,
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every single one in the show notes of this episode.
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I am your host Dino de Suspidis. And as always I am joined by my
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Co host Mr. Grant Engel. What is up man?
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I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. Good vibes out here in the
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shadow of Mount Rainier. It's got the edge of the Puget
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Sound, of the coast of the Puget Sound, the edge of the Puget
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Sound. I don't know.
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Whatever it is, we're feeling good out here and I think it is
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time for a celebratory beverage. Let me let me help on that ferry
0:53
with you, buddy. Let's go see.
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You sound like a real Pacific Northwesterner.
0:59
I don't even. I don't even know if that's the
1:01
right term. Who knows?
1:02
I fuck with the PNW. It's nice out here.
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It is a balmy 68° feeling good. I like it.
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I like it. Yeah.
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We're at Max heat, Max humidity, Orlando, FL, you know how we do.
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But it's nice and cool here. Monday evening after a pretty
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awesome match. Week 17, I think between the
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Olympics and the Summer Cup, I think the players stayed pretty
1:27
sharp out there. It looked like it, man.
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Not much of A drop off at all. I think fewer players rested
1:33
than I expected. I mean, Yep, there were a good
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amount of players who didn't appear in some of those matches.
1:38
I think Gotham rested some folks, San Diego Wave rested
1:41
some folks. But other than that, across the
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league, the Stars were out. Yep, Gotham rested some folks,
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but they've got more folks waiting to take the place of
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those folks and some folks behind that as well.
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We'll get to that in a minute. A lot of football this weekend.
1:55
Man, where do I get started? Washington Spirit for Kansas
1:59
City current one I thought it was the biggest match of the
2:03
weekend. Washington Spirit leapfrogs
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Kansas City and the table to take the second spot.
2:09
They are two points ahead. There are two goals ahead and
2:13
goal differential. I thought it was a thorough
2:17
victory. Yeah, it was a mashing.
2:19
The current got shots off. Yeah, so they outshot the Spirit
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fourteen to seven and we got the the very rare double leapfrog
2:27
where they left, they left, they left.
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Frog them points and in goal differential.
2:32
So I mentioned the shot disparity, but I think when you
2:34
think about the shots that were on target, I think that's where
2:37
kind of Washington really shine. Much more clinical, 7 total for
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them, five on target. They notched the four goals and
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it seemed like they gained from a lot of different players, a
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lot of different directions. Yeah, man, I think, you know,
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they took advantage when Kansas City made some mistakes, so
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that's one. So that's always a good sign.
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But then they're able to use their great skill across their
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roster, which I got to say, you drop Lacey Santos into an
3:02
already great roster, there's no relief really anywhere on the
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pitch for any of their opponents.
3:07
Yeah, I was actually interested where they ended up playing.
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I think was a little bit of a mixed bag.
3:13
But according to the starting lineup, to have Rodman
3:16
technically in a midfield spot to make room for Bethune, Santos
3:20
and SAR, that's insane, you know, and I think Herschel's on
3:23
with them. And then Sullivan, center of the
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park, that's a nasty. That's a nasty 6 to have to
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face. Yeah, yes, I mentioned it.
3:31
Offensively, Washington looked very overpowering because they
3:35
had a tough, tough time dealing with that, especially, you know,
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kind of in their own box. I think they were a little bit a
3:41
little bit Swiss cheese back there a little bit.
3:43
What did you see during those moments when Washington was able
3:47
to score? Yeah, I think it was a little
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bit of both. I think you're right.
3:50
I think Washington looked overpowering.
3:52
They looked good, but there were some things that were just
3:54
happening on the field that I thought were questionable from
3:57
Kansas City in their midfield and their defence.
3:59
And the first goal, Paige Meteor, she gets the ball
4:03
probably 7 or 8 yards on her side of the halfway line and
4:09
just dribbles all the way, pretty much unencumbered to the
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edge of the 18, gets the ball under her left foot and tucks it
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away. It was just like nobody's
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stepping up there, like nobody's like rerouting her.
4:19
Nobody's going after the ball there.
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Like, I thought that was, that was a pretty ugly look for the
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defence. And then unfortunately, I mean,
4:27
you hate to see goals really scored this way.
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Maybe I'll rephrase that. I never really hate to see
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goals. But Michelle Cooper, an absolute
4:35
howler, gives the ball to Craig Bethune, maybe one of the last
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players in the league that she would want to just give the ball
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to. She she streaks up midfield, she
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gives SAR Olli SAR a little point and like, hey over there.
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And then she dishes it perfectly.
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And SAR makes the absolute perfect decision.
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Instead of going right onto the ball, she lets it roll like an
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extra an extra couple feet to square herself to rip the shot.
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And there's just no chance for Adie Franch on that.
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I thought. I thought they left Franch
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exposed in multiple scenarios there.
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I know she like every game score you're going to see.
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She has a terribly low score because you're a keeper and you
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let in four goals. But some of those I don't know
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what she was expected to do about him.
5:20
Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both, sure.
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I mean, I think, I think she had a rough match and but I think,
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yeah, defensively they were just getting carved up back there.
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And I think on that play, you know, on that meteor drive, I
5:31
mean, imagine how many threatening players you have to
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account for, right? You know, so it's almost like
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this might, it might be our best option to just kind of like back
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off and make sure she she can't lay it off for somebody for a
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tap in. Turns out nothing defensively
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was going to work today for Kansas City.
5:48
So Bethune's assist now puts her at 10.
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No, no one's ever had more assists at an end of BSL season.
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Still nine matches to play for Corey Bethune, a player again in
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her first professional season if playing in the best league in
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the world. Her team is very, very, very
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much in title contention. And yeah, that that time I
6:07
missed the point. Now I've got to go back and try
6:09
to catch it. But the the pass was an absolute
6:12
dime. It's wild because you see that
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ball giving away from Cooper. You don't always feel like this
6:18
is definitely going to be a goal going the other way.
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But Bethud and SAR and then just the execution just perfect.
6:25
Like you mentioned, SAR kind of waits, you know, two changes of
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direction, like 2 little kind of like pivots as she's running.
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Then the wheel around to like just find herself pretty much by
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herself. You know, she had a four or five
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different place you could have put the ball.
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So yeah, I can't can't really hang it on French.
6:41
And the Spirit just looked, let me ask you this actually.
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Do you think it was more of an issue with Kansas City
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defensively or do you think we're starting to see the
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Jonathan Hernandez effect in Washington?
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Because I do think some of those attacks felt a little, you know,
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felt a little European, I'll say I think like the angles were
7:02
interesting. They just seemed to continually
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catch the current in a state of confusion almost.
7:07
Are you positing the possibility that a Yonatin Geraldes coached
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team was slightly more prepared than a Vlatko Andonovsky coach
7:16
team? You know, and then not in those
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exact terms. Right.
7:23
But but you know, back-to-back to you, I asked you the
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question. What do you think that's fair.
7:27
I'm not Yeah. This is not a deposition.
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Yeah. I, I think I don't know, man,
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cuz some of those like, and maybe I'm just being annoying
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here and then, you know, please sound off in the comments if you
7:39
think I'm off on this. But that meta year drive, you
7:41
just can't allow that. You cannot like, you know,
7:44
Cooper makes the pass. Cooper Cooper's 21 years old.
7:47
I like her upside physical player.
7:50
I think she plays real tough. That kind of howler is going to
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happen to anybody. You know, you can't falter for
7:54
that. You're good for one of those a
7:56
season, probably the men of your drive.
7:59
What are you doing? She, she, you can't let her go
8:01
the length of the field without somebody stepping up.
8:04
I think your point stands about you have to watch out for the
8:06
other dangerous players, but there is a way to shade and just
8:11
not let her have a free run on goal like that.
8:14
Yeah, totally. I think after Casey's blazing
8:18
haunt start, I I went back and checked their eight matches so
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far this season against playoff teams.
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There are only three wins, 2 losses, 3 draws, you know,
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against the eight playoff teams. Six of their nine remaining
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matches are against playoff teams.
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So, you know, you could look at the bias on Aranto injury.
8:38
You can look at hey, did this team beat up on you know, like
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sort of like the non playoff teams?
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They clearly did. So that would put them at nine.
8:47
Yeah, 12 points from eight matches against playoff teams.
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Not terrible, but it's not the, you know, the league leading
8:54
crazy explosive, you know, Casey Curran that I think we might
8:57
have penciled them in as. I think it's going to be
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interesting. I think there's definitely some
9:00
danger here the rest of the way for Casey.
9:04
The the playoff picture is going to be pretty interesting.
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I think right now they're clumped up.
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There's like a four team clump at the top.
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Orlando, Washington, KC got them all within a 7 point band.
9:13
Yeah, KC clearly looks like the team is like the most
9:16
vulnerable. It kind of slip and maybe lose
9:18
that home field advantage in the first round.
9:20
I think so. I can see that.
9:23
I mean, I guess out of that four, yeah, there's really, it's
9:25
not an insult to say you might be the most vulnerable out of
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those four. They still have Chewinga.
9:33
You know, I don't think Dee Bernardo was like bad out there.
9:37
Actually, let me answer it like this.
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So the chewing a goal is her streaking up the middle of the
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field. Debina plays a perfect pass,
9:45
plays her right in and she does exactly what she does with it.
9:49
Outside of that. And and you know, we've talked
9:51
about maybe if you don't have a bunch of other like changes of
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speed or a bunch of other looks that maybe you can get in
9:57
trouble. The thing about that look for
9:59
Kansas City is that works an awful lot.
10:03
Like when when you saw chewing good, like just shake off a
10:06
defender to get to that to being a pass and you know, it was
10:09
night, night from there. That was a goal.
10:11
Oh yeah. If you get one of those in the
10:13
1st 30 minutes of a playoff game or of an important match, then I
10:18
think Kansas City is always, always, always going to be a
10:22
live threat. So I think you're probably
10:24
right. I guess out of those four,
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especially, you think about Gotham, you think about Jessica
10:28
Silva coming in, you think about now Jess Carter is going to get
10:30
a little more acclimated with that team.
10:32
Maybe I would say Kansas is Kansas City current the most,
10:37
the most vulnerable. You really got me thinking on
10:38
this one because it, I don't want to say it because I just
10:41
love their offense so much, but I think I think you might be
10:44
right. I mean, I think the BA injury
10:46
definitely hurts, yeah. And then you look at their goals
10:48
allowed 26 on the season, that's good for 10th.
10:51
Yeah. Out of 14 in a league where
10:54
eight make the playoffs. I mean, they will have the worst
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goals allowed number by a pretty good margin of all the playoff
11:01
teams. All right, so before the chewing
11:04
goal, this one goes to halftime two nil.
11:06
Washington obviously not done with the scoring.
11:08
What'd you see in the second-half?
11:10
So I mean, they came out and the Spirit were firing again.
11:13
We got to see Trinity Rodman do the thing and I think she
11:16
actually had to tell a reporter after the match like, hey, by
11:20
the way, I can shoot with my left.
11:21
Nobody be surprised by this anymore.
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I don't think anybody should be after the Japan match in the
11:26
Olympics where she scored that banger of a winner inside
11:29
netting with her left foot. But now she just has this other
11:31
weapon where you have to be terrified that she's going to
11:33
fly down the right wing and serve in a perfect cross or
11:37
she's going to cut in, get the ball onto her left foot and she
11:40
can fire from there. Now in this goal, I think this
11:43
is another chance. And I think I've talked about
11:44
the program before. I love 80 French.
11:46
I thought she was a great second goalkeeper for Team USA for a
11:50
few years there. So I'm in the tank for her.
11:51
I just like French as a player in general.
11:54
But like Rodman rips it with her left foot and it takes a carom
11:58
off the defender. And so I think it's one of those
12:00
things where I think it's bad luck for French, but I don't
12:04
think it's a lucky goal by Rodman, if that makes any sense,
12:07
is that she created that luck off that bounce with that, with
12:09
that rocket off her left foot. But at that point it's three
12:12
nil. You're 51 minutes into that and
12:15
you could see the slumping of shoulders in Kansas City.
12:17
It was it was game over from there, it felt like.
12:19
Yeah, totally agree. I think Trinity Rodman's game
12:23
just keeps adding adding pieces to it, adding ways to be
12:27
threatening. It just seems to be happening
12:30
over the course of weeks now, like where it's like now new
12:32
wrinkle to the game teetering dangerously close to like one
12:36
person offense kind of territory.
12:38
Like when she got the ball, it's just like, OK, this, this could
12:40
just be something. I agree with you, though, not on
12:43
French. But I also still continue to
12:45
believe that she did not have did not have a good game.
12:47
Definitely best game. But again, I think the whole
12:50
defensive setup probably needs a little bit of a reassessment.
12:52
74th minute, though, Lacey Santos, her first NFL regular
12:57
season appearance. You know, I love when you see a
13:00
player with the confidence and the IQ to just, there's no
13:04
wasted movement. It's just like, I'm going to go
13:06
through this whole sequence, pop, pop, pop.
13:08
And then it's just like beautifully executed.
13:11
Yeah, it was fantastic. I mean, and credit to Gabby Carl
13:14
who runs on to Michelle Cooper. Again, not a banner day for
13:18
Cooper, but that's going to happen to every young player.
13:20
Gabby Carl runs on to her, takes the ball right off her.
13:24
It's a good pass. It's not a great pass.
13:26
There is still work for Lacey Santos to do.
13:28
To your point, no wasted movement.
13:30
Gets the shot off 1 appearance in the end.
13:32
WSL One goal in the NWSL. Not a bad day's work.
13:36
The most interesting part about it for me was like this was the
13:40
marquee matchup of the weekend. And I think this has happened a
13:44
couple times a season where it feels like this is going to be
13:47
like a knock down drag out. But just to see Washington lay
13:50
it on Casey like this and then to kind of rehash where the
13:53
current have been against playoff teams, I think I think
13:56
it's definitely be something to watch.
13:57
I think very clearly in my view, we've got Washington Spirit with
14:01
the up arrow next to their name and Casey Current with probably
14:05
the down arrow next to their name at this point.
14:07
I think so. I don't know.
14:08
I you got some takes here, buddy.
14:10
This feels a little strong, I think.
14:12
You know, you're probably not gonna get another.
14:15
Like, Lebanta was fine. Dee Bernardo was fine.
14:18
Probably could have been better. Claire Hutton was fine.
14:21
Like I think a lot of times those that midfield, I think
14:24
they're going to have more impact on matches.
14:26
But you've raised some compelling numbers obviously
14:29
with these matches against playoff caliber teams.
14:32
So I think it's totally fair for you to raise these concerns and
14:36
maybe, you know, let me know. Maybe I'm just being a coward.
14:39
I'm not ready to say the arrows all the way down make.
14:42
Can the arrow be sideways before it goes down for Kansas City?
14:45
I think so, yeah. Kind of like a little veering
14:48
off to the right or something that that could work.
14:52
But you know, KC six goals allowed in their last two
14:55
matches, 2 losses in a row. You know, I think the BA injury,
15:01
yeah, I think that's going to be, I think that's going to end
15:03
up being one of the injuries I think of the season because that
15:07
team was flying so high. I'd love to be kind of proven
15:09
wrong, but I don't know. I'm going to get out.
15:11
I'm going to get out ahead of this one a little bit early.
15:14
I think the current are in that potentially maybe one and done
15:18
this playoffs. He's going All in, all right?
15:21
Especially as you know, we've we've talked about some of these
15:23
teams that are that might be coming up.
15:25
Wait till I get to Racing Louisville.
15:26
I've got some takes there that's coming up right now.
15:29
But before we get there, let's talk a little Orlando Pride.
15:32
The league leaders, they win one of those matches at Houston
15:37
that's a little bit ugly, but you see championship level teams
15:41
kind of pull these games out just with a couple moments of
15:44
quality. I think Houston looked very,
15:47
very threatening late. But it ends one nil Angelina to
15:51
Summer Gates in the 67th to put Orlando on the board.
15:54
And the Orlando Pride 17 matches unbeaten, longest streak in NWSL
16:00
history. They've now won four in a row.
16:02
That is after their eighth match win streak a little bit earlier
16:05
this season, so they've definitely got something going.
16:07
What? What'd you see in this one?
16:08
The best team in the league plays in your city.
16:11
Let's go. That's undeniable.
16:13
I think the double is on. I think I mentioned it in the
16:15
last in the last show. I think they're a real threat to
16:19
win the shield and win the title.
16:21
This is gonna you could just make fun of me for this very,
16:24
very basic analysis. Everything their players do is
16:28
like really good, like like Martha hit a hit, a corner kick
16:35
and it looked like just a missile, like right into the
16:38
danger area, right for like it it didn't end with a goal, but
16:41
it was just like, that's a great corner kick.
16:43
And then like, you just see like all these moments, is there
16:47
anybody better in the world at creating separation from a
16:52
defender than Barbara Benda? I don't think there is a single
16:55
player. I don't think I don't think so
16:57
either. I mean, she's so smart
16:59
athletically. She's a freak.
17:00
Yeah. And her ball skills are
17:03
incredible. And and and they've actually
17:05
come a long way in the last 1212 plus months, you know, maybe
17:10
going back to the 23 World Cup, in that World Cup and during the
17:12
lead up, she was more of like a runner, gunner type player.
17:16
But now she's like got some playmaking.
17:19
She's notching a sister in the season.
17:20
She's manipulating space a little bit better, creating
17:23
space for some of the other attackers.
17:25
She knows exactly what to do to kind of like get you on your
17:28
heels, open up space and give herself a lane to run.
17:31
It's it's pretty uncanny. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
17:34
I mean, I think there were at least it felt like there were at
17:36
least 5 instances in the 1st 60 minutes of that match where
17:40
she's like shoulder to shoulder with a defender and then she'll
17:43
be on the ball. And that's the most amazing part
17:45
to me is that she'll be on the ball and then she'll still get a
17:48
step or two on you. It's like you're not supposed to
17:50
be able to outrun somebody when you're kicking a football and
17:53
they are not and they're chasing you.
17:55
I don't like, it's just absolutely unbelievable.
17:58
And she just shakes defenders off her.
18:00
She looks like Marshawn Lynch out there just like, get off me.
18:03
And then, like, players are like falling off of her as she's
18:06
making her way toward the goal. More to my all your players do
18:09
really good things. Point Angelina and Julie Doyle's
18:14
passing, it's just like great pass constantly on point, hit
18:18
him in stride. You know, it's perfectly timed.
18:20
It's at the right angle. And then the defense, the
18:23
defense, you just the opponent so rarely gets to any spot that
18:29
they want to be in. Like you saw it when when they
18:32
beat Kansas City. Speaking of Kansas City, you
18:34
know that whatever way the arrow is facing Kansas City, they were
18:38
just never in a comfortable position to to really get any
18:41
kind of like strong attacking looks.
18:44
And on the last thing that I'll that I'll say on this, Anna
18:47
Morehouse is announcing herself as one of the best keepers in
18:50
the lake. Oh, I love that.
18:53
Yeah, I definitely agree with that.
18:54
Yeah. Because it's not just the
18:56
defense. I think the defense is great.
18:57
To me, it's like Strom and Sam's are the cornerstones of two
19:01
center backs. Yeah.
19:02
Abello is a tremendous luxury to have because she's just flying
19:06
up and down the field defensively, rock solid
19:08
offensively, always hungry. Like it's just a great player to
19:12
watch. And then I think the two kind of
19:15
defensive ish midfielders, Haley McCutcheon and and Angelina, I
19:18
mean they're incredible as well. Like like it's just so tough to
19:22
find space amongst that team. Houston had chances late as
19:26
mentioned, but that Orlando pride defense holds up.
19:30
And then Angelina the ball to Summer Yates was a perfect
19:34
example of like defensive the offense.
19:35
That's that's the other thing. I think defensively they're
19:37
great, but still offensive minded.
19:39
No Hafia Eli in this game. Another great player that.
19:42
She might help, kind of, which goes back.
19:44
Just roll out here. I think you still maybe just
19:47
lost one match this calendar year that that she's appeared
19:50
in. If, if I remember correctly, I
19:53
joked about it early in the season.
19:54
At what point do you think Seb Hines has thought we might go
19:58
undefeated here? Surely he's thought about it.
20:03
He'll never tell a soul outside of that building who he
20:06
absolutely trusts. But of course he's thought about
20:09
it. I mean, they didn't even lose in
20:10
the Summer Cup. They had to lose and it took
20:12
PK's to beat him there. They have a couple of big tests
20:16
coming up, but are we looking at the Orlando Invincibles?
20:21
I think it's on the board. It's not not on the board.
20:23
Do that. So they've got a couple tests
20:26
looming here. They've got Gotham coming to
20:28
town. I'm going to try to be in the
20:29
building for that one. Nice.
20:31
And you know, I'm going to just see if I could get a hold of
20:34
Seb's feet, put him in the fire a little bit.
20:36
Ask him when's the 1st? When the first time was he had
20:39
the thought of Orlando going undefeated.
20:41
I'm going to ask him if I get the chance.
20:43
You already know. I love the framing too of just
20:45
asking like assuming it. When's the first time that you
20:48
thought this? For him to be like.
20:49
No, no, I've never considered it to me, said.
20:52
I'm definitely asking. So they got Gotham at home, they
20:55
go at Chicago, play the Red Stars, and then they have the
20:58
Casey Current whose arrows pointing in some direction.
21:01
We're not sure. Right.
21:04
I think those will be three tough tests in the next three.
21:07
Either way, they do still have a four point lead and a four goal
21:10
goal differential lead over the Washington spirit.
21:12
I love when the cushion is more than a team could give up in a
21:15
weekend because you could have, you know, a nightmare of a game
21:21
and you got a whole week to kind of like brush it off, develop a
21:24
little bit of a short term amnesia right the ship a little
21:26
bit. So that four point cushion I
21:29
think is going to really come into into handy here.
21:32
Still, just 2/3 of the way through the season, lot a lot of
21:34
football left. 65.384% through the season.
21:41
So I don't know. I mean, we're getting there at
21:45
Chicago's going to be interesting.
21:46
You're at Portland on October 11th, tough stretch.
21:51
You host the Washington Spirit on October 6th and then you go
21:55
to Portland on October 11th. That's going to be a tricky one.
21:59
You're going to have to show off the depth in in that two game
22:02
stretch for sure. Yeah, for sure.
22:04
I I do think depth is going to be the story of the last third
22:07
of the season here. I think we're starting to see
22:10
some of the teams, you know, getting some of their players
22:12
back from the Olympics rounding into shape a little bit.
22:14
We saw a little preview of that this weekend.
22:16
But I do want to scoot ahead. You were in the building along
22:19
with the legend in Seattle. Lumenfield, Seattle, One North
22:24
Carolina. Courage, NIL.
22:26
Take it away what you see in this one.
22:27
Let's start with some stats. So obviously Megan durapino's
22:30
#15 jersey was retired in a pre match ceremony.
22:35
I thought the, you know, just kind of like journalism neutral
22:40
here. Like shout out to the the
22:41
communications team for Seattle Rain Football Club.
22:44
I thought they did a really nice job.
22:45
I thought the color scheme was cool.
22:48
The setup was classy. The videos were good and people
22:51
like parachuting into into the stadium.
22:54
I don't know if they showed that on the broadcast, but like I
22:56
will tell you, somebody comes parachuting into the stadium
22:59
legit startled me a little bit for like a half second.
23:02
Like they're this giant yellow parachute.
23:03
And I was like, well, what's happening here?
23:05
Because this is America, so you never know what's happening.
23:08
But yeah, so I thought the whole ceremony, I thought it was
23:11
really, really well done. But as I was sitting in the
23:14
press box before the match, just kind of thinking about they're
23:17
showing like Rapino stuff on the board and all this stuff.
23:19
And I was just like, we really witnessed, you know, an all
23:22
timer and I I know that's easy, easy to say, but I started by
23:26
thinking about let's just think about her 2019 just in in
23:30
isolation. She leads the team to win the
23:33
World Cup. She wins the Balandor, she wins
23:35
the World Cup golden ball. She is on the World Cup All Star
23:39
team. She's in the FIFA pro world 11
23:41
and she won FIFA best women's player all in one season.
23:45
That is like in comparison, and I'm not comparing these two
23:49
players, but in comparison, that's Bone Mati last year.
23:53
But I would also say that Bone Mati won the Champions League
23:55
and won the league in all in that 2023 season as well.
24:00
But I mean, that absolutely stands alone and, and I know
24:04
it's not a statistic, but in 2019, she has the iconic
24:08
celebration. She has the goal.
24:10
She's the face of of the national team.
24:13
I also tweeted the video of her kind of scoffing at the idea
24:16
before the tournament saying, and I quote, we're not going to
24:19
the fucking White House and quote were they to win legend.
24:24
And it just all adds to it. I mean, she, she stands for the
24:28
right things and that 2019 is just, it's an all time year for
24:32
any athlete really. Perfectly said.
24:35
She's just a legend. And I think like it was, it's
24:38
great to see that pinnacle, you know, reached in a year where
24:42
you can sort of say this was like the absolute apex of a
24:45
great career. I'm genuinely curious about this
24:49
because usually I see these from the comfort of my own home
24:52
watching on TV. Was there a boost energy wise?
24:56
Obviously sometimes there's a buzz in the crowd.
24:58
Did you see any of that? And then did you see any of that
25:00
spill onto the field and the players?
25:01
Like was there an extra level, you know, being hit a 5th or 6th
25:05
gear? I think so.
25:06
I think not even in hindsight, like the the place was electric,
25:11
like it was that it was the second highest attendance for a
25:14
regular season standalone match in the history of the club.
25:17
Nice. And you know, Laura Harvey and
25:19
it's been a rough season for Seattle rain and Laura Harvey
25:23
has talked about in press conference after press
25:26
conference after press conference, the team hasn't
25:28
shown enough quality in the final third, whether it's the
25:32
the LastPass, the shot, anything like that.
25:34
She has harped on that time and time again.
25:37
And I mean, you remember a few months back pre Olympics, and I
25:41
had asked her at the press conference, is that something
25:43
you're going to need to address in the transfer window?
25:45
And she succinctly said yes. End Quote.
25:48
And they did. And and so they added Swiss
25:51
attacker Anna Maria Cerner Gorsevich, who, you know, spent
25:55
a season at Barcelona a couple years back, previously with the
25:58
Portland Thorns, had a year at Athletico as well.
26:02
She's on the field. And it's like, OK, this is a
26:04
player who makes good decisions, has a good first touch and just
26:08
plays with a level of quality that was kind of lacking on the
26:11
wing for this squad for good stretches of the season.
26:15
So some of it was the electricity, some of it was the
26:18
atmosphere. But I also think that they just
26:20
had some better players on the pitch.
26:24
Yeah, I think you definitely noticed that she took routes
26:27
that were, I think, a little bit more direct than I'm used to see
26:30
the rain attackers just to be like, I'm just going to go
26:33
straight to the goal. I thought G had a great game.
26:36
She was pretty close to a couple wondrous finishes.
26:40
That back heel, yeah, that was nasty.
26:43
We had also talked too about Seattle inability before this
26:47
one to turn a draw into a win, you know, or to turn a loss, you
26:52
know, into a win Couple a couple extra steps there to make that
26:54
happen. But it was kind of cool to see
26:57
that happen in this one. And then Emery Adamus, a player
27:00
that you you'd brought up on more than one occasion on the
27:02
show, makes it happen late. Pretty legendary Selly too.
27:06
I think that one goes really, really fun moment.
27:10
What'd you see there? I mean, I think really what
27:12
happened and Laura Harvey touched on this in the press
27:15
conference, the Courage had 61% of the ball in the first half
27:19
and you know, it was more Rain FC struggle ball and it was kind
27:24
of like, OK, we're going to play this counter attacking style.
27:26
But even then it wasn't full on struggle ball.
27:29
Because I think even with the Courage having the lion's share
27:32
possession, I still it still felt like Rain had kind of the
27:35
better chances. Yep, I do want to shout out
27:38
Courtney Vine and North Carolina Courage is manager Sean Nahas
27:42
clearly was like, all right, Courtney, you're here now.
27:45
So we're going to try to give you the ball as many times as
27:47
possible in the 1st 15 minutes of your first NWSL match.
27:51
And Shay Holmes, left back for the rain, really had to compete
27:56
with Vine in a lot of different chances.
27:58
But what happened and what Harvey touched on in the press
28:00
conference was after about the 50th minute, she had said they
28:05
they discussed this at halftime. Seattle just committed to
28:08
holding the ball a little more. And you could tell that that was
28:12
making the courage more uncomfortable.
28:15
So they ended up finishing 5545 in possession, and that's
28:20
because Seattle ended up getting it to like 5050 in the
28:23
second-half. And you could just tell that was
28:25
really frustrating the hell out of out of the Courage players.
28:29
And at the 75th minute, Seattle brings on Jalen Howell and
28:33
Nerilia Mondesir, two more additions that they just made.
28:37
And they looked good right away. The attack was ratcheted up.
28:40
The pressure was ratcheted up. Jalen Howell was like pumping up
28:44
the crowd, like telling people to get louder after she was
28:46
making plays. I love Al.
28:49
She looked immediately comfortable and Montesir, I got
28:52
more on Montesir later, but when they ratcheted up the pressure
28:55
and the header was good from Emery Adamus, I thought it was a
28:59
well placed. It didn't have a ton of pace to
29:02
it, but she places it perfectly. And you know, you hate to see
29:06
that for Casey Murphy, who's obviously an excellent
29:08
goalkeeper. She kind of bats it around a
29:11
little bit. It goes in and ends up being
29:12
charged as an own goal against Casey Murphy.
29:15
But honestly, if you're not going to give that goal to Emery
29:18
Adamus, then I think you should just give that goal to the
29:20
cosmos because that was just that was written in the stars as
29:25
our guy Chris Sharples would say.
29:27
Like there was she, like you said, she goes and hits the
29:30
celli. Earlier that day, she tweeted a
29:32
photograph of her from like 10 years ago at a training session
29:36
where she got a photo with Megan Rapinoe.
29:38
And mind you, when Adamus was talking about in the press
29:41
conference, a photo from 10 years ago, she said about 10
29:44
years ago for Emery, Adamus means she was was roughly 8
29:48
years old around that time. So it's her favorite player,
29:52
it's her idol. She scores the winning goal at
29:56
the death and then hits her idols cellie in front of the
29:59
home crowd with the place just going absolutely bananas.
30:03
I mean, you couldn't write that stuff.
30:05
Incredible. Glad you were in the building.
30:07
Take it all in. I thought it was a great point.
30:09
What you mentioned about the courage and the possession
30:12
disparity between the first and second-half, 61% in the first
30:16
half. That's courage ball right there.
30:17
Yep. And I, I was going to ask you
30:19
what wasn't going right for the courage, but I think I think you
30:23
kind of nailed it with just like, hey, let's let's not let
30:26
them have the ball right away. Let's not let them control the
30:29
ball. Let's not chase them around
30:30
forever. Another minute more than we need
30:32
to. What was there anything else you
30:34
saw that kind of had that team kind of stalling out or anywhere
30:37
else or you thought they were missing something that because
30:41
they had to have been looking at this match, you know, Megan
30:44
Rapino celebration stuff aside, as probably like a match where
30:48
they expected a result. Sure.
30:51
Maybe kind of we're going to come in and say, hey, I think we
30:53
think we can win this one. What else did you see that was
30:55
lacking from that North Carolina side?
30:58
I think they're good players like Matsukubo, Ashley Sanchez,
31:02
they just couldn't find any joy in the middle of the field.
31:06
And you know, when you put G out there and then you have
31:09
Tsunagorsevic up front who's able to maybe track back and,
31:13
and she was playing in the middle of the park for for some
31:15
stretches. Then you have Quinn and Fishlock
31:19
who are able to just, you have two really smart, really
31:22
versatile defensive midfielders out there and they are flanked
31:26
by, I mentioned Shay Holmes playing well, Phoebe Mclernan,
31:30
Jordan Bug, who I want to make special mention of here, another
31:33
18 year old young player. And then Sophia Huerta, you
31:36
already know what time it is with Huerta.
31:38
She's going to get hers. She's going to create pressure.
31:40
But both Jess Fishlock and Laura Harvey would not stop talking
31:45
about Jordan Bug, 18 year old center back defender.
31:48
She comes out there. I think it's her first start for
31:50
the club, at least in league play as far as I remember.
31:53
And she goes out there as a center back pairing with Phoebe
31:56
McLennan. And there were multiple moments
31:59
where the courage were on the attack and Bug was just
32:02
dispossessing players or forcing them away from the goal.
32:06
And I will say I don't have the the entire quote, but Laura
32:10
Harvey did say, and I know she used this exact term that Jordan
32:14
Bug's ceiling is quote world class.
32:18
Like she thinks this is a player who is going to ascend to the
32:22
national team, who is going to be one of the better defenders
32:25
in the world. And like fish lock was gushing
32:28
over bugs play and I think they just made it really tough.
32:31
Kurt, the courage couldn't do anything in the middle of the
32:33
field. And when you talk about their
32:35
kind of possessing style, they were just getting frustrated as
32:38
the game went on. Incredible.
32:40
I mean, it's already got under 16, under 17, under 19, under
32:44
20, US experience. So that's a player that's
32:47
definitely on track. Somebody to keep an eye on for
32:49
sure. Anything else you want to hit
32:51
before we hump off Seattle Courage.
32:55
Yeah, the last thing I want to hit real quick and really a
32:57
Montesir. I mentioned she came on the 75th
32:59
minute. Haitian forward, spent the last
33:02
few seasons at Montpellier, immediately changed the dynamic
33:05
of the attack. I thought it was really
33:07
interesting. I asked about her in the post
33:09
game press conference. I asked about Howell and
33:12
Montesir, and Laura Harvey pointed out that Montesir has
33:15
not had to play as physical a style of play as she's going to
33:19
encounter in the NWSL. You know, and she wasn't like
33:23
Bashner or whatever. She was just like, they they
33:25
just play a different style over there.
33:26
Yeah, she made it pretty clear in the way she was discussing it
33:30
that she's going to have to bring Mondesira long through
33:34
minute increments at a time. So I think a lot of Rain fans
33:39
are excited about her, her scoring ability and her speed
33:43
and strength and clearly, clearly a very, very clever and
33:47
creative player out there. She was she was immediately kind
33:50
of confusing courage defenders as soon as she got on the pitch.
33:54
I think it's going to take a little while to kind of develop
33:57
her to to play this style of football.
33:59
But absolutely looks like, I know you know, we're 20 minutes
34:04
in if you count stoppage time for Montesiere playing, but
34:07
seems like a pretty smart pick up.
34:10
I would say so. She looked really good.
34:11
I've been very surprised this season.
34:15
Usually, like when you watch, I mean, I'm probably like showing
34:18
a little bit of regular American sports bias here, but usually
34:21
when you watch the NFL or the NBA, it definitely is a war of
34:25
attrition. It feels like the NWSL is going
34:28
the opposite direction. It feels like there's somehow
34:31
more talent on the field. The talent pool just seems to be
34:34
growing over the course of just this season, even with the
34:38
injuries. I mean, we're seeing players
34:40
come in, we're seeing young players kind of like start to
34:42
get their their their playing time, their months into their
34:45
professional career. If this is their first season,
34:47
they've got experience, they've developed a little bit of
34:49
chemistry. And now we're starting to see
34:51
like a lot of these players kind of bubble up here and sort of
34:55
tip, you know, tip the league a little bit, you know, in terms
34:58
of me being able to have an impact.
35:00
This one obviously just decided by Adamus and Mondesir's impact
35:04
as well. And this is just a couple months
35:07
after, you know, you sort of lamenting the lack of like young
35:09
talent OR maybe opportunity for some of these young players.
35:12
And now this, this team is maybe on track to, I'm not sure if
35:17
this season is still like unnecessarily on the table, but
35:20
all of a sudden now the future of this, this team looks a whole
35:23
lot different, probably feels a whole lot different than it did.
35:25
100% And one of the last thing I'll say is, you know, in the
35:29
press conference when I talked to Jess Fishlock, you know, I
35:32
asked her about Jalen Howell and mentioning, so OK, now you bring
35:36
Howell in and now you have a trio of Quinn, Fishlock and
35:40
Howell as three kind of defensive minded, versatile
35:43
midfielders. And Fishlock, as she often does,
35:45
kind of made sure to slide in a joke there and was like, I'm not
35:49
getting any younger. And Jalen Howell is 24.
35:52
And so she was very forthright about saying, I understand
35:55
Jalen's going to help us win matches this year.
35:58
That's also a move for the future of the club.
36:01
So I think you're spot on. Mondes, here's 25 and then we
36:04
talked about Bug and Adamus. They're 18.
36:06
This is a transitional period. Like Lou Barnes is eventually
36:09
going to retire, just Fishlock is going to retire.
36:11
Quinn is progressing that way in their career.
36:14
So you have to plan for that future.
36:18
One more last, last thing that I want to say.
36:19
This was Laura Harvey's 100th win.
36:22
And Jess Fishlock said something I thought was it was really
36:24
great. Harvey's the all time winningest
36:26
coach in the history of NWSL league play.
36:28
And she said it makes sense that Adamus scores the winner because
36:34
that's a player who Laura Harvey pictured and said, OK, you could
36:38
help be the future of this club. And so for her to on the night
36:42
that you retire Megan Rapinoe's jersey, now you have this this
36:46
player who looks to be a main fixture of the future scores the
36:50
winner. Jess Fishlock said she doesn't
36:52
believe in coincidences, and so again, she believes the cosmos
36:56
was in play there. Let's go.
36:58
Nice Pele throwback too, with the cosmos.
37:01
Nice. I want to bounce around the
37:04
league. Four matches that we didn't hit
37:05
yet. We're not going to dive 22 deep
37:07
into these, but saw some fun stuff.
37:10
Let's get started with Gotham Portland.
37:13
A shot on target advantage for Gotham nine to three over
37:16
Portland. Jackie Oatley Championship form
37:19
just. Always.
37:20
Glorious on that. I mean, it's just I'm not sure
37:23
how somebody's voice can elevate a sporting events that love.
37:27
I mean, you know, to the goatly, please come on the show.
37:30
We need the ITC pod to get elevated just as much as as one
37:34
of these random August matches in the NWSL.
37:37
So obviously the doors always open, but zooming out, Gotham,
37:42
another big, big win over another real playoff team.
37:46
Did you pick up anything from this one?
37:48
You know, they had a bit of a slow start to the season, but as
37:51
things have progressed, you know, I know we focus on a lot
37:54
of their US women's national team players.
37:56
Turns out Yasmine Ryan is really good, Brunini is really good,
38:00
Ella Stevens is really good. They just have talent all over
38:03
the field. They can beat you 100 different
38:05
ways. I think I referenced quickly in
38:07
passing the Jess Carter acquisition, the Jessica Silva
38:11
acquisition. They made the right move
38:13
obviously in bringing in on Katrin Berger.
38:16
Do you know this could be one of those teams that they start to
38:18
peak at the right time, But luckily for them, I don't think
38:21
they've peaked yet. I just think they're kind of, if
38:24
we're talking about arrows, seems like that arrow is
38:27
definitely going up. Yeah.
38:28
I think looking at Gotham, looking at Washington, those are
38:31
the two scariest teams. I think for Orlando, they have
38:35
more firepower. I think both of those teams,
38:37
they do have more productive firepower.
38:40
Like I think Orlando as a whole, especially when you include the
38:44
coaching and like what they're doing on the pitch, I think
38:46
still is the best team, but wouldn't be shocked in the
38:50
slightest if one of these teams kind of knocks them off, You
38:52
know, come playoff time, second round, you know, or the final.
38:55
I mean, it's it's a quick turn around.
38:56
So you got to win three to kind of take the whole thing.
38:59
And as soon as you get to the the semis, I mean, you're you're
39:02
it's all heavyweights at that point.
39:03
So I was pretty impressed with Gotham.
39:05
Glad you mentioned Yasmine Ryan. Her goal like the one hop
39:09
screamer that never rises more than 8, 18 inches off the
39:12
ground, but somehow only bounces once between the time she kicks
39:17
in at it, it, you know, almost blows the hole through the net.
39:20
Just incredible. She was awesome.
39:22
Bruninia was dealing as well. They've just got so, so much
39:25
talent. Yeah.
39:26
I mean, and then when it comes to playoff time, and we've
39:28
talked about this and it happens in other sports and I know
39:31
they've turned over the roster a little bit.
39:33
They get to playoff time. A lot of the players in that
39:35
locker room are going to look around and say we know how to do
39:38
this. 100% yeah, definitely A-Team to watch.
39:42
Let's go cross country and head to a place where everything's
39:46
totally normal. San Diego Wave, it's fine.
39:49
Drop a close 1-2 to 1. Angel City?
39:52
Not a whole lot to see here, just a football game with not a
39:56
ton of storylines what you see in this one.
39:58
Alyssa Thompson looked great. I thought it was probably it's
40:01
the best match I've ever seen her play at the professional
40:04
level or at the international level.
40:06
It has a real quick. Big difference between Alyssa
40:08
Thompson's XG and real G 0.6 XG for Alyssa, two real G for Alysa
40:15
gets the brace. And I mean I don't know.
40:17
Case in point, the magic is the delta between the real G and the
40:22
xga. 100% I mean, she was a real G be out there brace in the
40:25
first half getting it done and it just felt like it was pretty
40:31
much over after that first half brace.
40:34
I will say though, things did change, OK, the San Diego wave,
40:39
they brought on this plucky youngster making her NWSL debut.
40:44
Oh, Delphine Cascarino turns out extremely good at football.
40:50
Yep, she's rocking the the historic #69 jersey made made
40:55
Gronk laugh somewhere and apologies to a seal.
40:59
Delphi didn't make, didn't make her best our best said transfers
41:03
made made our our honorable mengies.
41:06
So yeah, our apologies to Delphine.
41:09
She looked awesome. I think she's going to fit in
41:11
pretty nicely in this NWSL. Yeah, 100%.
41:14
I mean, she has her head up, she has her eyes on goal, she gets
41:16
to her spots, she's going to fire shots whenever she needs
41:19
to. She's going to fit, like you
41:21
said, right into the style of play.
41:23
You know, she's going to have some obstacles to overcome for
41:26
that squad. They look a little listless
41:28
right now, but there is still a lot of talent on there, so we'll
41:32
see how it goes moving forward. Yeah, didn't like the body
41:35
language one bit from the old weave.
41:38
They're currently way outside the playoff mix.
41:41
I think what's happening with the playoffs pretty interesting
41:44
because I think the eight that are in the slots, I don't know
41:46
why, but in my mind it feels like these are the 8 that are
41:49
going to make the playoffs, even though I know probabilistically
41:52
we probably going to see some upseason down seas, but we've
41:55
got Orlando, Washington, KC, Gotham as the top four.
41:58
Those feel those are absolute locks already look like.
42:01
Then it's Portland, the courage, the Red Stars Racing,
42:05
Louisville, who we'll talk about here in a minute and then
42:07
outside looking in, you've got Angel City, Bay FC, San Diego,
42:10
Seattle, Houston and Utah. Those six feel like the right
42:14
six to be on the outside looking in.
42:17
Do you expect any kind of like shake up near the bottom?
42:20
I think the Racing, they're a point ahead of both Angel City
42:23
and Bay FC, pretty healthy gold differential advantage.
42:26
But how do you see the bottom of the playoff mix kind of shaken
42:29
out? I think that's one of my
42:30
favorite things about football is that I think the gold
42:33
differential tells a real story in how to judge who like the
42:37
realistic contenders are. Not always.
42:40
It's not, it's not a perfect system.
42:42
It's not a perfect indicator. Nothing really is.
42:44
But you know, Angel City -9 even though they're only one point
42:48
behind racing Louisville and Louisville is, you know, plus
42:52
one in gold differential. Racing has draws.
42:55
Of course, they're going to have a pretty good goal differential
42:58
when they're when they're constantly drawing like that.
43:00
But I think that's about right. I think if if one team were to
43:05
bubble up, you had mentioned Bay FC, now they're -10 in the goal
43:09
differential. You know, I'm not selling my
43:12
Oshwala and Kundanagi stock just yet.
43:15
I think if if they can kind of correct some of that goal
43:17
differential, they have a big match coming up against Portland
43:20
that I think is going to have a lot to say about that playoff
43:23
race And and racing has to play Seattle rain next.
43:26
So you could hear, you know, kind of walking outside of the
43:31
stadium. OK, Seattle rain.
43:33
They're they're they're five points back, five points back in
43:36
the playoff and they play Louisville next week.
43:38
So that could be a potential six point swing.
43:41
But that wouldn't that would have Seattle raid winning in
43:44
Kentucky And I don't know, that's it.
43:46
That seemed That seems like a tall order.
43:49
I have to agree with that. Yeah, Louisville looked pretty
43:52
impressive, I'll say, against Chicago.
43:55
No Swanson, no Ludmila. For Chicago, who had no real
43:59
bite to their offense in this one.
44:00
They dropped one hard, I think to Louisville, 3 to one.
44:04
They didn't look particularly threatening in this one.
44:06
We've seen Chicago kind of stall out, especially without Swanson,
44:09
but all of a sudden you look at that Louisville starting lineup.
44:11
Can you Balser, Adi Borges, Taylor Flint, D'mello, Marissa
44:17
Degrande Who scored? They bring Emma Sears and Janine
44:19
Becky off the bench, Kayla Fisher off the bench who scores
44:22
as well. That's a real team at home.
44:25
It's a live environment, so you know, you're not just going to
44:28
roll in there and kind of beat up on them.
44:30
I kind of like this Louisville team.
44:31
I think if I'm looking actually, if I'm looking at a team that
44:34
might fall out of the eight, I wonder if Chicago could maybe be
44:39
more likely. You know, we've talked about
44:42
their, you know, they they just didn't look great.
44:44
And I think they're so dependent on the forwards there.
44:48
You lose Sam Staub, Alyssa Nair is just so I don't know, for
44:50
some reason she's a different player in the NWSL that she does
44:53
when she's wearing the USW and T kit.
44:56
I'm going to drop a little take chip on that too.
44:59
I think I would maybe not be so surprised if if Louisville
45:02
finishes the season ahead of Chicago and then whatever
45:06
playoff implications come along with that.
45:07
I like it. I I like the boldness of the
45:09
take and I think it's I think it's realistic as well.
45:12
I mean, as they started Wheeling and dealing, you know, racing
45:16
sends Carson Piggott down to you in in Orlando.
45:19
They send Jalen Howell over to me in Seattle.
45:22
They acquire Bethany Balser like you had mentioned, Sears and
45:26
Becky kind of coming into the squad.
45:27
I it felt like some of also Twitter were like, what are they
45:30
doing? What's what's happening at
45:32
Racing Louisville? Like why do they feel the need
45:35
to shake the snow globe so vigorously?
45:37
I think it's gonna be really interesting to see.
45:39
I'm glad you mentioned the Bolser Kanu pairing.
45:42
I think that could be really, really interesting with Artie
45:44
Borges in there as well. They just played with a level of
45:47
toughness and smarts. I think Savannah Demello brings
45:50
a lot of that in her game. She had a rough spot in the 2023
45:55
World Cup and I, you know, she drew the ire of some folks.
45:58
She was not really set up for success in in that kind of
46:01
situation. But I think they have a mental
46:03
toughness to the way they play. They have an intelligence to the
46:06
way they play. Their players were joking about
46:08
it on Twitter after the match. Like one of their goals, I think
46:11
maybe all ten players on the pitch touch the ball and they're
46:14
just like, we play team football here.
46:15
Like let's go. This is how we play now.
46:17
They're absolutely going to be an interesting team to watch
46:21
moving forward. And that's after a season of
46:23
already being an interesting team to watch before they shook
46:26
the snow globe the way they did. Definitely watching them now.
46:30
I'm kind of hoping that we don't get Orlando Louisville first
46:32
round matchup. I don't want to.
46:33
I don't want I don't want those problems, not problems.
46:37
I just don't, you know, the problems of the heart, we'll
46:39
say. Yeah, Barbara Bunn.
46:40
Last match last last match to hit Utah Royals 2.
46:45
Bay FC-1 Bay FC continues. You know, we talked about the
46:49
Invincibles. They are the undrawables in Bay
46:52
FC. They have yet to find the draw
46:55
this season. Twenty goals for 30 goals
46:58
allowed. My cool -10 six wins, 11 losses
47:01
for Bay FC. I thought Utah, I continue to
47:05
think that what they're doing is going to pay some dividends
47:09
here. Maybe, maybe we're a year away
47:10
from me in a year away. But the MENA Tanaka signing, we
47:16
didn't mention on the show, but what a fit there.
47:19
I mean, yeah, like, great player.
47:22
It's kind of like exactly what they needed.
47:24
Ali Sentinor continues to just dazzle her ball skills her her
47:29
single mindedness around. I'm going to create an
47:32
opportunity for myself and I'm going to let this shit rip.
47:35
It's like it's a thing of of absolute beauty.
47:38
Yeah, 100%. That's a good call.
47:40
I'm starting to kind of back off my maybe Bay FC could sneak in
47:43
there. That defense is having a rough
47:45
go of it. I think you're you're spot on
47:47
there. Obviously, Tanaka, great
47:49
addition. And then I know you had shouted
47:52
her out in the in the transfer episode when we were talking
47:55
about Real Madrid, Utah choirs. Claudia Zora Noza, 33 year old
47:59
with experience. It's with Champions League
48:01
experience. Just like it's smart management
48:04
when you see teams and you see NBA teams do it a lot where it's
48:07
just like, OK, let's get another adult, a full blown adult in
48:11
this locker room on the pitch in kind of when you start to hit
48:15
maybe scary hours a little bit on there.
48:17
Like I don't think Utah is going to make like a huge charge, but
48:21
I think they set themselves up to continue like establishing a
48:24
culture and like just get some more pros around.
48:29
Allie Sentinor to be like OK, you very clearly already have
48:32
your stuff together, but we're going to do everything we can to
48:36
shepherd you into helping you turn into the world class player
48:39
we think you can be. Yeah, 100%.
48:42
I'm glad you mentioned the the getting getting some adults on
48:44
the roster. Yeah, because it doesn't always
48:47
work, but I know for sure that when you don't have the adults,
48:51
it almost never works. Like, yeah, like you see this in
48:55
sports for sure all the time. Chloe Lacasse, we mentioned in
48:58
the show, another addition, Amandeed Henri, They obviously
49:02
added her earlier this season. So I think they're they're
49:05
definitely committed. And it's weird.
49:07
They play like a good brand of football.
49:09
They just don't really have the talent.
49:11
And if I were a fan of Utah, I would be ecstatic because that's
49:15
what you want to see, especially from an expansion team.
49:17
You want to see the building of an identity.
49:20
You want to see some cohesion. I'd be excited to be a Royals
49:23
fan at this point. And then you have, you know, a
49:25
supernova of your own that I mean, Sky's the limit for a
49:28
player like Sentinor A. 100% and I'm gonna I'm gonna operate.
49:32
Admittedly, I'll raise my hand. I know we have a lot of friends
49:35
of the program who who like different sports.
49:38
So I've only seen this in passing.
49:39
I saw on Twitter there was like a clip of Nick Saban.
49:43
I was talking on Hard Knocks and I think he was talking about
49:46
Caleb Williams, quarterback for the Bears.
49:47
And Nick Saban said something to the effect of the number one
49:51
killer of young quarterbacks is expectations, unlike unrealistic
49:56
expectations for for a quarterback.
49:59
And I'm like, you know, as a dude who grew up in Cleveland,
50:01
OH and forced to watch a lot of Cleveland Browns football, I'm
50:04
pretty sure the number one killer of quarterbacks is a
50:07
terrible offensive line that doesn't have anything to do with
50:11
media expectations. Like I'm pretty confident
50:14
terrible management and a bad old line is what does it.
50:17
So if this long analogy is basically, if you're a Royals
50:22
fan, like you said, your management appears to be making
50:25
good decisions to put good pros around your young star player,
50:30
That is a hell of a lot more than other franchises do to set
50:34
up their young stars. And like you said, I think they
50:36
should be super psyched about it.
50:38
It might not yield the results this year.
50:40
I think it pays dividends down the road.
50:42
Totally agree. Yeah, something that we'll
50:44
continue to monitor. Quick programming reminder, next
50:48
episode we're going to drop our 2024-2025 UEFA Women's Champions
50:54
League preview. The action kicks back off next
50:57
Wednesday, September 4th. A lot of UWCL teams back in
51:00
action then, so we got to get to the preview before we get there.
51:04
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
51:06
That's it. Like you said, great week of
51:08
NWSL football, great return for the league just all across the
51:12
board and I'm looking forward to watching more.
51:16
I'm also ready for that Champions League to return as
51:18
well though. Let's go all the football.
51:20
Just keep it on top of us. We're ready for it.
51:24
All right, man, I think we did it.
51:25
Spin another episode into the channel.
51:26
Sincere thank you. Thank you.
51:27
Thank you for watching, listening, following, liking,
51:29
subscribing, just playing, hanging out with your boys and
51:32
remember to like if you liked and subscribe or follow into the
51:34
channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast or wherever you like to
51:37
watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
51:39
favorite podcast app, links to all of our socials in the show
51:41
notes of this episode. And a big thank you to Mikos as
51:44
well. Mr. Grant Engel, all rest no
51:47
rust. You already know what time it
51:48
is. Match week 17 in the books.
51:50
Champions League right around the corner.
51:51
I appreciate you, man. Nobody else I'd rather do it
51:53
with. Likewise, buddy, if you stay
51:56
ready, you don't have to get ready.
51:58
Let me just also say to great friend of the program at Shark
52:03
Eats Kitten on Twitter. Hilarious, hilarious Twitter
52:07
handle. Rest assured the shadow
52:09
executive producer of the show got her bucket hat from the
52:12
Rapino retirement match. So we're we're good to go there.
52:15
It's a good looking bucket hat, reversible light purple on one
52:18
side, black on one side. So we're out here doing things,
52:21
doing what we got to do. Thank you again to everybody who
52:23
is checking us out and we will talk to you next time.