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August 10, 2026: The Most Anxiety Filled Win · Rose City Red Card

0:01
Welcome to Rose City Red Card.
0:17
Alan: I am Alan and with me is Marissa and yesterday we watched the game and it was quite the time.
0:25
Alan: Marissa I think you have most to say about just the experience of watching this game from your perspective.
0:32
Marissa: Oh my gosh.
0:34
Marissa: Oh my gosh.
0:34
Marissa: Yeah.
0:35
Marissa: I started the game watching off a suspicious streaming site and then the streaming site cut off.
0:42
Marissa: And so I sped, walked to the bar to go watch it.
0:47
Marissa: They don't let me hold the remotes like they do at our home bar back in Portland because I'm still in Las Vegas, which was stressful.
0:54
Marissa: Sad thing about not being a local.
0:55
Marissa: I know.
0:56
Marissa: My local bar, I don't have the, yeah, she gives me all the remotes to hold on to.
1:00
Marissa: But bartender is super awesome here, gave me the remote.
1:04
Marissa: Or she did not let me touch the remote.
1:05
Marissa: Sorry, I will say that.
1:06
Marissa: She did not let me touch the remote.
1:07
Marissa: But she turned the channel on.
1:09
Marissa: And surprisingly, it was right after we got the red card, which, we'll get into later.
1:13
Marissa: Our coach Red Card will get into that.
1:15
Marissa: But, yeah, it was, it was very stressful.
1:21
Marissa: My heart still aches.
1:22
Marissa: I had to take a nap after the game because I was mentally exhausted.
1:27
Marissa: But it was, we won.
1:30
Marissa: It was literally the most anxiety-filled win of all time.
1:33
Marissa: So, yeah.
1:34
Alan: And that brings us into the results of the game.
1:40
Alan: So like you said, we won, but oh, it was such an anxiety.
1:45
Alan: field game, we started off strong 3.0 in 9 minutes and 38 seconds.
1:54
Alan: The fastest ever 3-0 in league history.
2:01
Alan: 35 seconds faster than our own record we set six years or four years ago.
2:08
Alan: So it was an incredible start to the game.
2:12
Marissa: Mm-hmm.
2:12
Marissa: It was.
2:13
Marissa: It was insane.
2:14
Marissa: I don't know.
2:16
Marissa: There's nothing, like, I've, there's been, we really can say there's been nothing else like it.
2:22
Marissa: You know what I mean?
2:23
Marissa: Like, and since we broke the record, but we broke our own record.
2:26
Marissa: But it was, it was insane.
2:27
Marissa: It was some of the craziest nine minutes and 38 seconds of soccer I've ever seen.
2:32
Marissa: It was crazy.
2:33
Marissa: It was crazy.
2:34
Marissa: It was crazy.
2:36
Marissa: Tied for the highest scoring match of the season, seven goals overall.
2:42
Alan: It was, it was.
2:44
Marissa: nuts. It was nuts. And luckily, it was nuts in our favor, which was why it was so much anxiety. Like, we were, we had three goals in the first nine minutes, and you still got an hour and a half left to play a game, you know? Like, that's, that's crazy. And we pulled it through.
3:05
Marissa: We won. I'm, we were talking off a lot. We were talking off pod earlier, but this is, it's, we're exciting to have to talk about a win today and not a loss. That's, that's, that's a deal. We really needed this win. Yeah, this was, this was really big. It was really big.
3:23
Marissa: As we are high, we will talk about the lows also because the results did end four to three.
3:30
Marissa: We won, but Boston managed to get three goals in. I mean, we did manage to get another fourth goal in, but Boston is not the worst team in the league. They're not the best. I think that we, our defense made them look a little bit better than they are. But, um, yeah, they, they were relentless. Boston did not give up. After three zero, if you're down three zero in the first 10 minutes again, they just kept coming. They never gave up. They just wanted it. No, they fought until literally the very end. Their last goal, uh, was that, uh, was it the 82nd minute, I believe?
4:09
Marissa: 82nd minute was their last one. At half time, uh, we were, uh, we were, at 4-2, which yeah, okay, was already crazy. And yeah, this is a crazy number that
4:23
Alan: Brooke just gave me. Uh, in the last 18 games, Boston scored 19 goals. So just over one goal per game. And they, we just let three pass us. You know, how did that, how did that happen?
4:39
Marissa: Our, we're goddamn beaten, I don't want to talk about hurting animals here because we support animals.
4:45
Marissa: But it's like beating a dead horse on this podcast at this point, man. Like, we need better defense.
4:52
Marissa: Like, they just, they chipped and chipped and chipped and chipped away at us. And they came back and they got three goals and not bad goals. They were good goals. They worked hard for those goals. And I mean, like we said, we came out with the win, but they made us work for that win. And it, yeah, like, yeah, like they, they just didn't give up. And they, I mean, Yeah, they just kept chipping away at us. They got us tired. We just, we made some substitutions that maybe weren't the best or the worst ideas. But yeah, they just, they were relentless. And we just, yeah, we can't. I don't want to go forward. But, you know, like, our offense can't carry us so far. We do need a defense. And we did have a defense. We did have a defense. Our defense played better than they have the last few games.
5:45
Marissa: I will say. They weren't incredible. They weren't great. But they were decent.
5:51
Marissa: But things happen. People get tired, rotations. People get substituted in and out. Then you start changing the comfortability everybody's with. Suddenly they're a little bit less familiar with that person that's actually starting next.
6:04
Marissa: Just got subbed into the left of them or something like that.
6:07
Marissa: We've been talking about that. The consistency of knowing who the other players are, who is with you there on the field and being able to communicate.
6:15
Marissa: familiarity of like, well, I know, I know that she likes to kick it out this way. I know that she likes to tuck in this way, but they just don't have that. But we still did great. I mean, I'm not great. Sorry, we still did good. We still did good. Mackenzie Arnold was communicating a lot better with the defense. You could hear our coach on the sideline talking and communicating. I think, you know, like, I think communication is what we need. You know, if you're a defender and you see two one mark people, yell it at somebody. You know, like, hey, somebody, Mark.
6:45
Marissa: who's got there? Who's got there? And if you could listen, if I was trying to listen to the game and you could hear, people were very vocal and our defense was vocal. And it really, it does start. It's not all on Mackenzie Arnold. She had some good saves this game. But it's, everybody needs to be communicating. And I think for what it's worth, our defense did better than we have. And I think a lot of that is with communication. So that was really good.
7:07
Marissa: We're finally getting better at it. And this is our first win on the road in a very long time.
7:15
Alan: So what do you think about that? Are we able to turn around that curse that's been afflicting us for a while?
7:23
Marissa: I think we are. I think that we needed this win. We, the game that not shall not be spoken of when we got our asses whooped 5'1 two weeks ago from Utah, I think that was a huge wake-up call to the team, to the coach, to a lot of people that was like, nope, we need to do better. We know we're better. We can't just be the.
7:45
Marissa: the team that's so good that, I mean, so scored inside of, uh, sorry Brooke, you have to pull this up, but inside of a couple minutes that Utah game, right? Like, she got a really quick goal. And you can't be a team that's good enough to get a goal that fast, but bad enough to concede five more goals for the rest of the game. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's just, it's just doesn't, I mean, I don't want to say it doesn't make sense because it happened, but it just doesn't, doesn't make sense, kind of.
8:13
Marissa: Yeah. But, um, yeah.
8:15
Marissa: And that was, yeah, gosh, it's been since May 3rd, or, uh, was it May 3rd?
8:21
Marissa: Was the last road win that we got against Chicago?
8:24
Marissa: May 3rd was our last, uh, May 3rd. Yeah. And yeah, yeah, 98 days later.
8:30
Marissa: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Jeez. But we broke the curse and I, you know, curses aren't real, whatever, but the players have that in the back of their minds. They know that we know, they know that they know that they haven't lost.
8:45
Marissa: they haven't won a road game. So they probably have that. And I bet you this is kind of like a little bit off their backs now. They kind of, I'm not a player. I'm not in the locker room, but I just how I would feel is I was like, okay, we're over that hump. Let's fucking go. Let's move forward.
8:59
Marissa: You know what I mean? So. Absolutely. I think that's, I think that's important.
9:05
Alan: Well, let's dive a little bit more into our offense and one of the really cool things that happened.
9:16
Alan: God damn.
9:21
Alan: So Tordin.
9:22
Alan: scored three of those four goals that we had.
9:25
Marissa: Yes.
9:26
Marissa: Her first hat trick of her career, the youngest hat trick of a Portland player so far.
9:35
Alan: It was incredible.
9:37
Alan: Her third one was even, speaking of McKinsey Arnold, it was off of her, a goalkeeper assist for
9:45
Marissa: the third, or the fourth goal of the game, third by Torton.
9:49
Alan: It was, it was a beautiful moment.
9:51
Marissa: It was beautiful. McKenzie kicked it. I think it bounced a couple of times, and then Tordin just dinged right over the goalie, and it was, it was beautiful. It was, it was so exciting. I'm so excited for Tordin.
10:05
Marissa: I was so excited for the team. Like, she's only 22, and we, you know, we just locked her in for the next two years, and she is just, she's just flourishing. And I hate to bring up, I'm going to do it.
10:18
Marissa: Sam Coffey, but Sam Coffey's a huge miss. We know that.
10:21
Marissa: I think if we still had Coffey, I don't think that we would get to see Tordin flourish and spread her wings in the midfield as much as she has been. It's been so amazing to watch. I mean, three goals in one game, there are some players that have scored three goals all season, and that's huge for them. But our girl has three goals in one game, 22 years old. That was, it was something special. And then, so let's, okay, so like, let's break it down. So the first goal came, It was off a free kick, and it was perfectly placed.
10:56
Marissa: She placed it in the near post.
10:59
Marissa: It was, it slid.
11:01
Marissa: I think it was gorgeous.
11:03
Marissa: I feel like it touched, like it rubbed between the goalie's gloves and the post.
11:07
Marissa: It squeaked right in, and it was so beautiful.
11:10
Marissa: It was, it was beautiful.
11:12
Marissa: It was so amazing.
11:13
Marissa: The keeper was able to deflect it just slightly, but it stayed right in.
11:18
Marissa: And, you know, that was the only touch.
11:20
Marissa: It was just.
11:21
Marissa: It was right in. It was amazing. Not quite as fast as we scored last week, but second minutes still, it's, you know, that was quite, quite the start to the game.
11:33
Marissa: Yeah, it was awesome. And I was just, yeah, it was, it was awesome. I'd like, have, like, a smile on my face because it was so awesome. And I don't know, I don't, I don't, we don't, we don't personally know Tordin, but like, through interviews and stuff, she just seems like such a funny and, like, fun girl. Like, she really does. I'm just, I'm just happy for her.
11:51
Marissa: I always love to see when they pull her on at halftime to answer questions from a month ago.
11:58
Alan: Score more goals.
12:00
Marissa: I was really hoping she'd say it again this time.
12:03
Marissa: Yeah.
12:03
Marissa: But she just seems like a really fun person.
12:07
Alan: And you can tell she's having a great time out there on the field.
12:11
Marissa: And she loves the game and she loves what she's doing and she's playing an incredible game.
12:17
Marissa: Always smiling.
12:18
Marissa: Yeah, it was great.
12:19
Marissa: It was.
12:20
Marissa: it was really great.
12:21
Marissa: Yeah.
12:24
Marissa: Shoot.
12:30
Marissa: Wow.
12:30
Marissa: Yeah.
12:31
Marissa: She's at, yeah, seven goals and eight assists on the season.
12:34
Marissa: That's a fuck ton of goal contribution.
12:38
Marissa: Like, you're not just making the goals, but you're assisting on them.
12:41
Marissa: That's, that's huge.
12:42
Marissa: That's a game changer.
12:44
Marissa: Like, you can't.
12:45
Marissa: That's awesome.
12:46
Marissa: I'm so happy for Tordin, man.
12:48
Marissa: That is, that's so big.
12:49
Marissa: I'm so happy for her.
12:51
Marissa: And I'm happy for the thorns, too.
12:52
Alan: Absolutely.
12:53
Alan: Well, so that was.
12:54
Alan: her first goal. Tell us about the second.
12:57
Marissa: Okay. So, yeah. So we got the Tordin's two-minute goal in. She was off the free kick. We just talked about that. We just fangled about that for a little bit. And then we got Soph Wilson's goal was in the sixth minute, which is four fucking minutes later.
13:14
Marissa: Four minutes later. Soap splits it in. And we got Marie Mueller, Mueller. I would like to figure out the German, me more German about that.
13:24
Marissa: Marie Mueller, our German national, assisted that goal.
13:28
Marissa: And then we got another Tordin goal off a Jesse Fleming assist at the ninth minute.
13:33
Marissa: Jesus.
13:34
Marissa: Can you imagine getting scored on just like three times just within like seven minutes?
13:40
Marissa: That's, sorry, Boston.
13:42
Marissa: It was, yeah.
13:44
Marissa: It was just an incredible start.
13:46
Marissa: It was so much fun to see.
13:47
Marissa: Yeah.
13:48
Marissa: So then we're up, so then we're up three zero thorns.
13:51
Marissa: And then at the 35th minute, Bianca.
13:54
Marissa: St. George for St. George's for Boston scores. That's a bummer. But, yeah, it was that goal. Backpost marking. We'll get to that when we talk about defense. But, yeah, just some in-the-box marking, man-to-man boxing, or man-to-man marking. We need to do a little bit better. But, yeah, so then we got three to one. And then our fourth goal came from Tordin, or her hat trick.
14:24
Marissa: And that was the one that Mackenzie Arnold assisted, which was amazing.
14:28
Marissa: So now we are up four.
14:30
Marissa: Yeah, yeah.
14:31
Marissa: And so now we're at 4-1.
14:33
Marissa: And then Alba Canyo scores for Boston at the 42nd minute.
14:39
Marissa: And then there's halftime.
14:41
Marissa: So we got 4-2 at halftime.
14:44
Alan: Seeing them start to come back was a little bit rough.
14:48
Marissa: It's scary.
14:49
Marissa: Especially after that Utah game, we scored.
14:51
Marissa: a few minutes in Softed, and then we just fell apart.
14:55
Marissa: So I almost like, I was excited for our quick goal, but I feel like it almost gave me like triggering flashbacks. I was like, almost, I almost don't want us to score this fast. Like, what does this mean?
15:05
Marissa: You know, but, but yeah, so we go into the half. It's four to two. Um, and then we, you know, we are playing a little bit more deflated. Uh, we made some substitutions. Um, Hyatt came in. Sam Hyatt came in. And I think that kind of changed things. Um, she doesn't really, she doesn't find herself in the best positions ever. Uh, she doesn't necessarily always make the correct move, whether to clear it out, pass it. And she's just, she's not, she doesn't have speed. And I think after the half, I mean, we were, they were already kind of chipping away at our defense before in the first half, but the second half just, we didn't score another goal, you know, and we weren't really, we were just, we were kind of just letting it happen to us. We were just, we were just, we were just, kind of taking it. We did have some good chances, obviously, because we have great offense, but mostly we were just kind of just taking what was kind of being brought to us.
16:01
Marissa: We were. The third goal of the game for Boston was scored by Amanda Gutierrez, and that was at the 82nd minute. And as I will say, 82nd minute to the 90th, plus that seven minutes of stoppage time.
16:16
Marissa: So that's like 15 minutes of game was I was having heart palpitations. I had to have a third shot of vodka, Alan. Like, it was so stressful because you knew Boston was in it. And they knew that all it was going to take.
16:34
Marissa: It felt like the Utah game. It felt like we were falling apart again. And it was so hard to watch.
16:40
Marissa: Yeah, it was just I, it was every minute, every 30 seconds, I was like, okay, okay, another 30 seconds. Another 30 seconds. But, you know, we managed to pull through.
16:50
Marissa: And yeah, we won. We won four to three. Fuck, man. Three points or three fucking points.
16:57
Marissa: And we really needed those points. It's completely, so we are solidly now in fifth place.
17:07
Marissa: We have Gotham, at first place, with 40 points. Washington Spirit with 36 points.
17:13
Marissa: Utah Royals with 33 points. San Diego Wave with 32 points. And Portland Thorns with 32 points. And Portland Thorns with 30.
17:20
Marissa: And I'll just finish out, like, just like the playoff, the eighth, because one through eight, those who would go to the playoff. So, and then underneath us, North Carolina and Kansas City are tied for sixth at, or it's six and seventh, and they have 30 points. And then Angel City is at 24 points. So we are, we're not tied for anybody for fifth place, but, you know, like this is kind of crunch time. Like these games.
17:50
Marissa: these next, I think, man, we should look into that.
17:54
Marissa: We came into this game in seventh place, and now we're, we're in fifth place.
17:59
Marissa: Yes. And that's, and we're solid. We're not tied for fifth place with anybody. And we're close enough that a win can push us further, you know, and yeah. So I think this is, I mean, it's, we're still, oh my gosh, of course. God, goddamn, baby boy, we've only not gone to playoffs one time in the entire Thorn's history. We've only not been in play.
18:20
Marissa: one time. We will be in the playoffs, but we just need to figure out where we'll be in the playoffs, too.
18:30
Marissa: Well, that does bring us to one of the stranger moments in the game, which was at the 58th minute,
18:36
Alan: the ball was headed off to the sideline. Vilahamn, our coach, uh, seems to say he was trying to get out of the way. The camera seems to show him kick the ball. It's, it's really hard to say quite what happened. I know you didn't see it live because you were trying to get to the bar and get the TV on. Speedwalking. Speed walking on over. The ref gave him a straight red card. He walked out off the field out of the stadium or whatever. If it stands, he's going to miss Saturday. You know, you and I are going to be at the game and we'll see if he's there or not. But yeah, it was a straight red,
19:23
Marissa: a coach on the sideline, you know, we'll see if it stands. Yeah. I mean, if it does stand, because we said, like, you can, you can always go and appeal it. But if it does stand, I'm not unhappy with Sarah Lowdon, our assistant coach, filling in. She is the one that brought us to that.
19:42
Marissa: We had a really great start to the season. She's been the interim coach since we got rid of Gail last year before Villam came in. So I love Sarah Lowdon, and I think that she is a great person to fill in for the shoes. And also, just because the head coach can't be on the sidelines, I mean, you get the starting lineup. Like, it's not like he's going to be, he's going to disappear, you know, so he's still there. He's still there helping set things up. Yeah. He's still in all the discussions. He's just, you know, that 90 minutes, he's not, not there. Yeah, exactly. But Sarah Lowdon is fucking amazing. You were talking about her last week. And it sounds like she's, she's fantastic. I'm not super familiar with her. Tell me, tell me more.
20:22
Marissa: Yeah. She's just been like so, she's just been with us for a while and we've just had some interesting coaches the last couple of years. And she just steps in. I feel like she knows the players really well. And I feel like she's very respected with the players. And like I said, we had, we started off the season incredibly strong. Like, God, we beat Washington Spirit. We had, we were doing really well. And I think some, then Villam came in. I'm not saying he did not do well at all. He's, we're doing great.
20:52
Marissa: We're fifth in the league. You know what I mean? But a coach comes in and he puts in what he wants to start doing, which is he's the head coach. That's what he needs to start doing. And then I think things kind of got a little bit changed. So Sarah Loudoun, shout out. Like I said, it's not like he's Vilahamn's going to be missing. But I like, I do like her being on the sideline for us next game. If the red card stands, which it sounds like it's going to.
21:18
Marissa: It's probably going to. Yeah.
21:24
Marissa: Let's talk. What are you drinking?
21:26
Marissa: tonight. Well, Alan, like you know, I'm fancy, fancy, so I'm drinking well vodka. But I will say it's $4.50. So you can't go wrong. It's not that bad. You really can't go wrong. Well vodka, a glass of water. I'm, you know, I'm just looking out for my health at this point. So what are you drinking? Some homegrown, some home brew? I do not have some home brew. Although I do have a new kegarator coming in.
21:56
Marissa: in a couple of days. So I'm hoping to fill that up with lots of new home brew.
22:03
Marissa: I was grabbing a beer out. I almost grabbed the Elysian space dust, but I remembered what
22:09
Alan: happened last time I drank space dust on here. What happened with Seattle. So I am drinking a, I believe this is out of Portland. It's at least a Oregon beer. It's the Ninkasi IPA. They always
22:25
Marissa: do some real nice super hockey ones. So you hear that folks, Alan knows. Alan knows that he had the curse on him. I know. I'm not going to drink a Seattle beer on this pod ever again. We've got to learn, you know. Yeah. But, you know, I know this is kind of, you can cut this or whatever. And, you know, we did lose to Seattle, which is a bummer. But since then, Seattle's not shitty. They're not terrible. You know what I mean? They're not playing terrible. They're playing their game. They're They're not looking bad. So it's not like we lost to this bottom of the table loser team.
23:02
Marissa: Like, they're, they're doing okay. So, you know.
23:05
Alan: They are. They're, you know, they're managing to pull off, uh, pull, pull, pull their own weight, I guess.
23:11
Marissa: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
23:14
Alan: All right. So let's talk now about the defense and what we need on our team.
23:23
Alan: All right. So, Marissa, you've been talking.
23:28
Alan: about the gaps that we have in our lineup, who we need. And we were talking earlier about how the defense is really what we're, what we're, the defense is really what we're needing here. So tell me more. Tell me your thoughts about this. You had texted me a bunch of bullet points. It seems like you've got some great, great thoughts about this. So go through it for me.
23:56
Marissa: Well, okay, cool. Well, first of all, I'm going to start off what the first of all.
23:58
Marissa: formation where we started the game with. We started a, we started the game with a four, five, one, which is four defenders, five midfielders, and one, one forward, which is Soph Smith at the, at the top. Anyway, so yeah, so we had Soph Wilson at the top. But so our defenders, we started with, MA Vignola as the left defender, Perry at the left center back, right center back was obeys, and then right defense, right left, right back was.
24:28
Marissa: Caldaza, Calzada, and I was very happy not to see Sam Hyatt out there.
24:37
Marissa: No disrespect to her. She's one of our captains, and, but she just, I just don't, I just don't think that she makes the best decisions out there sometimes, and I think that she's a little bit, a little bit slow. But, so that's with our formation. So we had four defenders and five midfielders. We, our midfielers did really, really well at the first half about, coming back. But then we talked about we did some changes at half, which kind of, I feel like, fudged with that. But so, yeah, so let's go into my bullet points about defense. They need to work on one-on-one defending. They're just, our girls are just getting juked out of our shoes.
25:14
Marissa: Then one of the defenders gets juked, and then we have our centers, our center backs that are defending in the box, and now they have to come step out. They step out to defend this person that just made just made it past one of our defenders, and now somebody's unmarked in the box. So we really need to work on that one-on-one defending. I feel like we also need to work on pushing the, like the person coming at us wide as opposed to pushing them towards the middle. Push them towards the side.
25:41
Marissa: Let them make a mistake. Let us kick the ball out. Let them cook the ball out. They get a throw-in. We don't need them pushing them in the middle where everybody else is, where our goal is also. We need to figure out marking players. I don't know if we're doing zone.
25:55
Marissa: man-to-man, but like set pieces, corner kicks, corner kicks, all of it, we need to figure something out.
26:04
Marissa: They need to be better with marking defense because it doesn't seem like there's even really a plan.
26:11
Marissa: Yeah, and like I said, Boston is not a bad team, but they're not the best team.
26:16
Marissa: Utah punished the shit out of us for not being able to mark in the box.
26:20
Marissa: And they made a showing of it, five goals.
26:24
Marissa: Like, it was, it was rough.
26:25
Marissa: And so I feel like we need to learn that, you know, like Mackenzie Arnold did a lot better at communicating to the defense this time, but it wasn't, you know, like she can only say so many words if somebody's not going to do it.
26:39
Marissa: Or like I just said before, somebody gets juked out of their shorts, and somebody has to step and get to that defense, get to that offense, like, get to that person that's coming towards them, then that leaves gaps and that leaves holes and that leaves people open.
26:51
Marissa: And that's just, that's no bueno.
26:53
Marissa: No, that's no Bueno. We looked, we looked better than we did.
26:57
Marissa: What do we need the most?
27:01
Marissa: We need centerback. We need, first of all, we need familiarity and we need consistency.
27:07
Marissa: But I don't think we have good enough centerbacks to have people that can consistently play.
27:16
Marissa: I feel like our coaches, also our coach is new, you know, and so he's kind of figuring out what we want.
27:20
Marissa: I feel like this defense that came out was our best defense rollout so far.
27:25
Marissa: And we played really, we played really well.
27:30
Marissa: We played good.
27:31
Marissa: We played good.
27:32
Marissa: We did play really well.
27:33
Marissa: They finally started chipping at the start of the game.
27:34
Marissa: We played really well.
27:35
Marissa: I mean, we won.
27:36
Marissa: At the start of the game, we won.
27:37
Marissa: You know, we won.
27:38
Marissa: But we just need consistency.
27:40
Marissa: And we need a centerback that knows how to be a centerback that can be like, hey, you there, no, yes, go.
27:47
Marissa: I got, you go.
27:48
Marissa: I got over there.
27:49
Marissa: Go left, left, left.
27:50
Marissa: We need somebody that with a little bit more of a voice that can control that.
27:54
Marissa: But also the voice, you need to have a more.
27:55
Marissa: mind behind that. And I, this isn't a Sam Hyatt rag show, rag, you know, but I feel like she doesn't have the mind to be like, okay. So I know that this player's going to come at us this way, and that's going to leave this person open. So this person needs to go here. And if you don't have that, then you're not going to be able to communicate that to your team. Yeah. It's something we've been
28:15
Alan: talking about, you know, we haven't been doing this podcast all that long, but it's something we've talked
28:20
Marissa: about a lot. I know, I know. Last week, our title was we need centerbacks.
28:25
Alan: and we keep talking about communication and, you know, that team awareness or the field awareness and the field planning.
28:35
Alan: And who's in charge out there, you know, who's keeping track of everything that's going on?
28:42
Alan: You know, we don't have that anymore.
28:46
Marissa: No, we don't. And we need that. We need that. And I think we did better this game. I think we did a lot better this game. It was messy.
28:55
Marissa: still, which is not good, especially from a Boston team, but we still came out with the win.
29:00
Marissa: And I think that's like my mic drop quote, that's like our offense is the top of the league, but they can't carry us to a championship.
29:10
Marissa: One of the oldest quotes in the world is defense wins championships, you know, and we can't depend on Sophia Wilson and, you know, toward in and phlegm and Maltry and Turner to make all these goals.
29:24
Marissa: As amazingly as they're playing.
29:25
Marissa: They can't be the only ones doing it.
29:28
Marissa: Which is what we just saw.
29:30
Marissa: They can score four goals.
29:32
Marissa: But if our defense is going to give up these goals, then it doesn't, you know, it's, it doesn't, I don't want to say it doesn't matter how many goals they score if we concede that many goals.
29:43
Marissa: So, yeah, and I think I hopefully, I mean, I also like, Nina Nyjstad, the Dutch international that we just signed, I think that she was huge.
29:53
Marissa: She played really, really well.
29:54
Marissa: She found herself in really, she found ourselves in really, probably.
29:55
Marissa: herself in good positions. She was making good passes. She was also, I did check.
30:02
Marissa: She picked up her first yellow card of the game of her, also her NWSL career. So welcome to the league, Nina. Love you, girl. We love you. Thank you for being a, but, but she was great and you could tell that she has been playing with the team for that long, but she's already. No, not at all. Picking it up great.
30:19
Marissa: Not at all. Her first game, her first game was against Gotham. You know what I mean? I think she only got 20 minutes in that game.
30:25
Marissa: But she was strong then, and now I feel like she's just going to get better.
30:31
Marissa: Yeah, so I have, she, I feel like that's really good.
30:34
Marissa: And like I said, like, we have good mid-fielders that will take a little bit of stress and stress off of the defense.
30:44
Marissa: It's not going to change anything.
30:46
Marissa: It doesn't mean the defense is so much more amazing.
30:48
Marissa: But I feel like her being on the field really, really helps, really, really helps.
30:51
Marissa: Like, that was, like, Tordin, nice dad.
30:55
Marissa: Fleming, Mueller, and not a huge fan of Dana Casalanos, but that was a really strong midfield.
31:02
Marissa: Because also, I mean, we haven't even talked about it. We were missing Moultrie today.
31:06
Marissa: Moultrie is one of the best midfielder's in the league, and we didn't have her, and we still managed to do really well in the midfield. So that was big. That was really big.
31:14
Marissa: And we, like we said, it still, it was a win. And this was a win on the road, even, which brings us to our next segment.
31:24
Marissa: So we won on the road after 98 days.
31:33
Alan: The last time we went on the road was May 3rd at Chicago, 2 to nil.
31:39
Alan: And our scores that day were Moultrie and Turner, neither of whom we played on Sunday.
31:46
Marissa: Two that we're missing.
31:47
Alan: So, you know, this is still, it's a great, we played a great game.
31:52
Alan: And we have our first win here.
31:55
Alan: you know, tell me about this.
32:01
Marissa: So first of all, shout out to the Etsy Witches.
32:05
Marissa: Just joking, just joking.
32:06
Marissa: Always, thank you, Etsy witches.
32:08
Marissa: It was huge.
32:11
Marissa: Missing Moultrie, I was worried.
32:14
Marissa: We were worried.
32:14
Marissa: People that don't know the game were worried.
32:17
Marissa: My mom was worried.
32:19
Marissa: People were worried about not having multery on the field.
32:22
Marissa: And it worked out.
32:23
Marissa: it worked out okay.
32:26
Marissa: I do think that Raylan Turner being out, I think maybe she has, because it's been a couple weeks now, and they said between four and six weeks with a knee injury.
32:36
Marissa: So I think maybe she's kind of getting towards the end of, maybe we might see her back in the next coming weeks.
32:41
Marissa: We're not sure about that.
32:43
Marissa: That would be great.
32:43
Marissa: We do notice how much Raylan Turner does help out by getting back on defense.
32:51
Marissa: Like, she is fast.
32:53
Marissa: And if if they're making a quick break and they can turn, she's going to turn and burn and help out on defense.
32:59
Marissa: And it is, it's, it's big.
33:03
Marissa: And when we're relying so much on our offense, you know, having some offense that can also help on defense is huge.
33:09
Alan: Yeah.
33:10
Marissa: And that's, and that's another thing with, like, our defense, like, so, so Wilson, she is the nine.
33:16
Marissa: She is the only forward.
33:18
Marissa: Her job is to only press, only press.
33:20
Marissa: And she was helping, she was coming back on defense a lot.
33:23
Marissa: And that's going to tire her out.
33:26
Marissa: And, you know, and that's, I think also that's another thing.
33:28
Marissa: I know we're on defense, but that's another thing that kind of changed the offense in the second half.
33:33
Marissa: And towards the end of the second half is these long balls that were working for the first half, which is why we got three goals inside of, like, you know, 10 minutes.
33:43
Marissa: I feel like so forth and Tordin, and they're tired because they're coming back.
33:48
Marissa: They're coming back helping on defense.
33:49
Marissa: They're making those runs back and forth.
33:51
Marissa: And they're just gas.
33:52
Marissa: And so those long balls over.
33:53
Marissa: They can't just sprint onto them.
33:55
Marissa: So I feel like, yeah, Soph coming back and helping on defense is great, but she doesn't need, that doesn't need to be happening.
34:02
Marissa: We need Soph to only be pressing, only be pressing their defensive line.
34:06
Marissa: We do not need Soph to be helping back on defense.
34:08
Marissa: Thank you for doing it, Soph.
34:10
Marissa: You're amazing.
34:11
Marissa: Also, happy birthday, Sophia Wilson.
34:13
Marissa: Happy birthday, Soff.
34:15
Marissa: Sorry that came out of left, left Wilson.
34:19
Marissa: Sorry, that came out of left field, but happy birthday, Soph Wilson.
34:23
Marissa: Yeah, yeah, she was doing it all.
34:29
Alan: So what about Perry?
34:31
Alan: She was back this game after being out for a red card.
34:37
Marissa: Yeah, so Perry being back was huge.
34:40
Marissa: She was the start, she started.
34:41
Marissa: She was our center left back, our left center back is who that she was playing.
34:49
Marissa: And she was huge.
34:50
Marissa: We did, we missed her on the last game because of her red card.
34:53
Marissa: But she was back and I feel like that was also.
34:55
Marissa: something that really helped.
34:57
Marissa: She is, I feel like she's a great player.
35:02
Marissa: She's really one of the more consistent people that we can have on our back line.
35:07
Marissa: And her being there really did help.
35:10
Marissa: So that was really big.
35:11
Marissa: That was really big.
35:12
Marissa: Thank you for coming back, Perry.
35:14
Marissa: Thank you.
35:14
Alan: It was great to have her back.
35:16
Alan: And, you know, with the help of everybody, like you said, we are now in fifth.
35:29
Marissa: Yeah.
35:30
Alan: Yeah, so like you said, we are up, we are at 31 points in fifth place.
35:37
Alan: We were talking a little bit about it earlier, but tell me more about the standings.
35:42
Alan: You know, we've been talking about how we're barely hanging on to a playoff place.
35:46
Alan: But now it seems like we are in it.
35:49
Alan: You know, we've got that pretty firmly locked up.
35:52
Alan: Fifth place is not bad.
35:54
Marissa: Yeah, no, fifth place isn't bad.
35:56
Marissa: And we do have a little bit of a schedule.
35:59
Marissa: We, it's, the last bit of our, it's not an easy last, uh, bit of our season.
36:07
Marissa: Um, there are, we do, you know, we play Washington Spirit again.
36:10
Marissa: We, we're going to, we play Gotham again.
36:12
Marissa: We play, we're, we do have some, you know, some harder games going forward, but we, a lot of those games are at home, um, which we know that we play fantastic at Providence Park.
36:22
Marissa: But, yeah, but we are securely in fifth place with 31 points.
36:29
Marissa: Like I said, there are 16 teams in the league, and the top eight go on to playoffs.
36:34
Marissa: So, um, and, and, yeah, and Angel City is at eighth place with 24 points, and we have 31.
36:42
Marissa: So I feel like...
36:42
Marissa: That's a pretty big lead.
36:43
Marissa: It's not a good lead.
36:46
Marissa: It's a good rhythm.
36:48
Marissa: But then Gotham has 40 points at number one.
36:51
Marissa: You know what I mean?
36:51
Marissa: So there's still a lot of games to play.
36:54
Marissa: We need to keep our head down.
36:55
Marissa: Yeah, it's a huge lead.
36:58
Marissa: We just need to keep our head down.
36:59
Marissa: heads down and play Thorne's soccer.
37:03
Marissa: I think when we get Turner back in a couple weeks, it'll be good.
37:07
Marissa: We got Morgan Weaver coming back and playing more minutes and more minutes.
37:11
Marissa: Man, I feel like she's got a yellow card on this game.
37:15
Marissa: Morgan Weaver, man, she's amazing.
37:17
Marissa: But I feel like we're going to be okay.
37:19
Marissa: I feel like after this game, like I said, like we've been saying the whole thing, our defense wasn't great, but it was better.
37:25
Marissa: And I feel like we're just going to keep getting better and better.
37:29
Marissa: better hopefully.
37:31
Marissa: And I'm still shout out.
37:33
Marissa: God damn owners.
37:35
Marissa: Sign us the centerback.
37:36
Marissa: You know, like, but also I will say at this stage, every team needs defenders.
37:44
Marissa: So it's, we all like, come to Portland.
37:48
Marissa: It was a high, you know, high scoring game.
37:51
Marissa: New York's expensive. Come to Portland.
37:53
Marissa: Yeah.
37:53
Marissa: Yeah, exactly.
37:54
Marissa: But yeah, so, yeah, so exactly.
37:57
Marissa: Yeah, so exactly.
37:58
Marissa: the threat is from below, not above.
38:00
Marissa: We need to just keep playing our games.
38:03
Marissa: We need, it's important to collect three points every game.
38:07
Marissa: We play in Orlando next, this next weekend.
38:12
Alan: Sorry, you go again with that.
38:13
Marissa: Yeah, we are, yeah.
38:14
Marissa: No, no, no, yeah.
38:15
Marissa: So we do play Orlando next this coming Saturday, which I'm so excited to be back with my buddy.
38:22
Marissa: Alan, I'm so excited to be back with you at that game.
38:25
Marissa: Orlando is currently an 11th place.
38:28
Marissa: Yeah, it's, I'm excited.
38:30
Marissa: Orlando's in 11th place with 23 points.
38:35
Marissa: And, yeah, Orlando's kind of had a rough go of it the last couple of weeks.
38:41
Marissa: And I don't know, we just need to capitalize.
38:44
Marissa: We need to capitalize.
38:45
Marissa: We know that we're going to end up playing the Washington Spirits and the Gothams and these other hard teams, but so we need to capitalize on these lower-place teams and make sure and get three points.
38:54
Marissa: Like, it's coming towards the end.
38:57
Marissa: And so the last Thorne's match of this season is going to be November 1st.
39:03
Alan: That's a long season.
39:07
Marissa: Yeah.
39:07
Marissa: So we have 11 more games this season.
39:12
Marissa: So it's kind of time to lock in.
39:16
Marissa: These points count.
39:18
Marissa: I don't know if we can really afford to lose any points.
39:23
Marissa: We need those ties.
39:24
Marissa: We need to even walk away with one.
39:25
Marissa: So it's kind of crunch time.
39:27
Marissa: We're getting there.
39:27
Marissa: But also.
39:29
Marissa: Let's take a little bit of a relaxed, Thorns fans.
39:32
Marissa: We did come out with a win.
39:34
Marissa: Our girl Tordin got a fucking hat trick.
39:36
Marissa: Youngest to do it under Christine Sinclair.
39:39
Marissa: Like, that's fucking amazing.
39:40
Marissa: Like, this is big.
39:42
Marissa: We know we have a lot of shit that we need to go to, but like, you know, work on.
39:46
Marissa: But like, a win is a win.
39:48
Marissa: Three points of three points.
39:49
Marissa: We're sitting in fifth place.
39:50
Marissa: Like, it's, we're going to be okay, Thorny's.
39:53
Alan: Well, that brings us to looking ahead.
40:00
Alan: So next week, you are home from Vegas.
40:03
Marissa: and we are going to be at the game together.
40:07
Marissa: Yes, I'm so excited, Alan.
40:10
Marissa: I get home from Portland at like 10.30 in the morning.
40:13
Marissa: I'm going to go home.
40:14
Marissa: First, I'm going to stop at our favorite bar and get a drink.
40:17
Marissa: I'm going to go home, change, shower, and then we will meet up.
40:23
Marissa: Smuggle a little bit of rain.
40:25
Marissa: I don't know if you can cut that out if you want drug use online.
40:27
Marissa: It's not okay.
40:28
Marissa: But don't do drugs, kids.
40:29
Marissa: But.
40:30
Marissa: But, fuck it.
40:32
Marissa: This is an adult.
40:33
Marissa: I'm so excited to be with you, man.
40:36
Marissa: I'm so excited to be home.
40:38
Marissa: I'm so excited to be back in our neighborhood.
40:40
Marissa: Like, I'm so excited to see the fucking thorns in Providence, fucking park.
40:45
Marissa: God, I'm so excited.
40:46
Marissa: I'm so, so excited.
40:47
Marissa: I'm so excited.
40:48
Marissa: I'm so excited.
40:50
Marissa: It's going to be a great time.
40:51
Alan: It's going to be great to see you.
40:53
Marissa: We've, you know, everybody at the bar has missed you.
40:56
Alan: I've missed you.
40:57
Alan: It'll be great to be able to, you know, record in person at the bar again.
41:03
Alan: You know, on Sunday after we watch the game on Saturday night.
41:07
Alan: If we, you know, we'll see how we're feeling on recording.
41:11
Marissa: Why not?
41:12
Marissa: Yeah?
41:12
Alan: Yeah.
41:13
Marissa: And at the game.
41:14
Marissa: It's not a super late game.
41:15
Marissa: The game's at 545, I believe.
41:17
Marissa: I am not sure, but we will see.
41:19
Marissa: Yep, it's at 545.
41:21
Marissa: Perfect.
41:21
Alan: It's at 545.
41:22
Marissa: Maybe we will record that night.
41:23
Alan: We'll see how tired we're feeling.
41:26
Alan: And Meghan Kling.
41:28
Alan: What is it again?
41:29
Marissa: Can you tell me?
41:31
Marissa: Meghan Klingenberg.
41:32
Marissa: She's having.
41:33
Marissa: having an honorary night on Saturday, August 15th.
41:38
Marissa: She's been a, man, she was a thorn for almost 10 years.
41:42
Marissa: She was a solid player for the USA team.
41:46
Marissa: She's been a solid player for us.
41:48
Marissa: Like for the thorn, she was our captain.
41:50
Marissa: She's a huge voice on our team.
41:52
Marissa: She actually has a podcast with USA soccer.
41:55
Marissa: She is like a huge staple in the community.
41:58
Marissa: And yeah, like, we're, don't worry.
42:01
Marissa: We're going to definitely give her, like, her do on our next episode.
42:04
Marissa: We're going to be talking her up a lot.
42:06
Marissa: But it's really big.
42:08
Marissa: It's exciting.
42:09
Marissa: And not to get a little bit too ahead.
42:11
Marissa: August 15th, we got Klingenberg night.
42:13
Marissa: And then August 22nd, we got Tobin'Heath night.
42:16
Marissa: Which is, like, just legends on legends, man.
42:18
Marissa: Like, it's, it's actually, like, man, man, we, the, like, our alumni that we have on this team is just, it's really fucking special.
42:26
Marissa: And it's really big.
42:27
Marissa: So, um, yeah, we do have great people.
42:30
Marissa: I'm so excited.
42:32
Marissa: Oh, also, before I get all crazy, Alan, do not cut this.
42:38
Marissa: I want to give a big shout out to Alan.
42:40
Marissa: My close friend, our producer, my co-host, literally without him, this podcast would not happen.
42:48
Marissa: And me being in Vegas, this guy is a genius.
42:52
Marissa: He's been making it work.
42:53
Marissa: I'm doing this remotely.
42:55
Marissa: Literally, big shout out to Alan because this would not be able to be done without him.
43:01
Marissa: So seriously, dude, love you.
43:03
Marissa: And I'm so excited to see you next weekend, for real.
43:05
Marissa: I'm so excited to see you as well.
43:07
Alan: Thank you for that.
43:09
Alan: Not to give away too many of my secrets.
43:11
Marissa: Don't you dare cut that out.
43:13
Marissa: Brooke definitely helps out with a lot of this and definitely makes sure that this happens.
43:18
Marissa: Yeah, yeah, sure.
43:21
Marissa: Mr. Can't take a compliment.
43:22
Marissa: Do you guys see this?
43:23
Marissa: You guys can hear this, right?
43:25
Marissa: Well, he also does a lot of the editing, so let's see.
43:28
Marissa: I hope he doesn't edit this.
43:31
Marissa: All right.
43:32
Marissa: It'll be great to see you on.
43:33
Marissa: Saturday and we will watch that game and we will talk to you guys all next week.
43:41
Marissa: Yeah. See you guys next week. Three points, baby. So as always, all smiles, no injuries. Fuck Seattle.
43:49
Marissa: Go Thorns. Go Thorns.