Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / (2/2) Seattle Reign v KC Current RECAP W/ SPECIAL GUEST ThomBomb!

Transcript

(2/2) Seattle Reign v KC Current RECAP W/ SPECIAL GUEST ThomBomb! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:05
  OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast Premier about women's
• 0:08
  football. I'm your host Dino de Suspicious
• 0:10
  and as always, I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
• 0:15
  What's up, man? I'm still feeling fantastic,
• 0:17
  buddy. You know, we didn't cover in our
• 0:20
  in Part 1 of this. We didn't cover Seattle Rain
• 0:22
  FC-1, Kansas City Current. No, that's because we had to
• 0:25
  call on the big guns to cover that match.
• 0:29
  Very excited about that. But yeah, very important
• 0:31
  distinction by you. I appreciate that.
• 0:32
  Part 1, we covered 6 matchups of the seven in this match.
• 0:37
  Week 7 of this 2025 end of BSL season, the one that we didn't
• 0:41
  hit. Seattle rain, Kansas City
• 0:43
  current, and there's a good reason for that.
• 0:45
  But if you miss Part 1, definitely go back and check
• 0:47
  that out. But yeah, let us let the
• 0:49
  audience know what's ahead. We were joined by the great Tom
• 0:54
  Bomb Co host of the Shades of Blue podcast, the Galaxy's
• 0:58
  Greatest Manchester City Football Podcast, Co host of the
• 1:01
  12, the Internet's greatest Women's Super League podcast,
• 1:05
  and I believe it as of March 28th, Tom Bomb started the
• 1:09
  current moment at Kansas City Current Focus podcast as he is
• 1:12
  based in lovely Kansas City, MO, which you could find on the Shea
• 1:16
  Butter FC podcast feed on Spotify.
• 1:20
  And you might as well just do yourself a favour and subscribe
• 1:22
  to Shea Butter FC, the Shea Butter FC podcast on Spotify,
• 1:26
  one of the most hilarious and insightful podcasts in the
• 1:28
  women's football space. Yeah.
• 1:31
  Hard cosign for me and and look at us just with just with the
• 1:34
  one podcast, just, you know, just relaxing.
• 1:37
  Easy Street. No, yeah, no, no biggie.
• 1:41
  All right, let's get to that interview here.
• 1:44
  OK, welcome to and into the channel interview special.
• 1:49
  I'm your host, Grant Engel, and I'm psyched to be joined by our
• 1:51
  guest today. He's a true champion of
• 1:53
  consuming as much football as humanly possible while doing
• 1:56
  like 10,000 other things per day.
• 1:59
  He is a journalist and one of the hosts of Shades of Blue, the
• 2:01
  galaxy's greatest Manchester City football club podcast.
• 2:05
  He's also one of the hosts of the 12 The Incredible Women's
• 2:08
  Super League Podcast. And as of March 28th, he is the
• 2:11
  host of The Current Moment, a Kansas City current podcast
• 2:14
  that's part of the Shea Butter FC Podcast Network.
• 2:16
  Joining us from the middle of the map.
• 2:18
  It is an honor and a privilege to welcome to the program Tom
• 2:21
  Bomb. Thank you so much for having me
• 2:25
  on. First of all, course that
• 2:28
  introduction makes me feel like I do a whole lot of stuff.
• 2:32
  I just, I just show up what I'm told and and just talk, talk mad
• 2:35
  stuff. You know, understandable, but I
• 2:39
  think as, as Sky and Sylves have discussed on Shea Butter FC,
• 2:44
  you're also pretty famous, man. You can't run from it at this
• 2:46
  point. I have a little bit of
• 2:49
  notoriety, maybe name recognition or something.
• 2:53
  We'll, we'll, we'll put it that. Way, all right, you know, humble
• 2:56
  is a good attribute to have to add to that introduction as
• 2:59
  well. So obviously, my good man,
• 3:02
  you're joining us from lovely Kansas City, MO.
• 3:06
  There was a match played on Friday night over here in the
• 3:09
  lovely Emerald City of Seattle that finished Seattle Rain FC-1
• 3:14
  Kansas City current NIL. It felt like a little bit of a
• 3:17
  weird 150505050 possession. No big chances for either side.
• 3:23
  Both teams had three shots, two shots on target, courtesy of our
• 3:26
  pals over at Fat Mob. Just from, from your
• 3:29
  perspective, because I came into this match with like no
• 3:32
  expectations. I, you know, even before I knew
• 3:35
  chewing it was, was questionable.
• 3:38
  You know, you guys are awesome. Seattle Rain FC is on a
• 3:41
  different on an upward trajectory, but at a different
• 3:44
  part of their path. I didn't expect this game to go
• 3:47
  this way. What?
• 3:48
  What did you leave the match thinking?
• 3:53
  I think I like my attacking take away from Kansas City Current is
• 4:02
  that the attack is so much more than Tim Wichewinga.
• 4:06
  And I think that you see Current really missing Michelle Cooper's
• 4:13
  ability to create on the other wing you also like and even
• 4:20
  Michelle Prince has the ability to do that as well while also
• 4:23
  playing centrally. When you're playing essentially
• 4:27
  Haley Hopkins and Divinia on the on the wings and you're playing
• 4:33
  B up front, you're essentially leaving.
• 4:37
  You're not create without chewing on the pitch.
• 4:40
  You're not creating those one on ones on the backside with those
• 4:46
  players because Hopkins is not able to take advantage of that
• 4:51
  and Debina just wouldn't because Debina wants to play through the
• 4:54
  middle. So that I think that that was
• 4:56
  what I saw as like the biggest an attack, like the biggest take
• 5:03
  away, like, oh wow, like they really miss Michelle Cooper and
• 5:07
  Michelle comes a lot. Yeah, man, I'm 100% with you.
• 5:11
  I mean, I think one of my prevailing feelings about
• 5:15
  Michelle Cooper and I've, I've written this in game notes when
• 5:18
  you guys played in Seattle last year, and it was, you know, this
• 5:21
  is before Cooper was on the national team.
• 5:23
  But you know, she was obviously garnering some attention because
• 5:25
  she's she's obviously kind of stepped into a role and played
• 5:28
  well. The thing about Michelle Cooper
• 5:30
  too, that I always think about her is she'll whip your ass out
• 5:34
  there like she'll run you over and she'll body you up.
• 5:37
  She'll she'll use her hold up plays like she has a lot of
• 5:40
  skills out there. And I think it's, I think it's
• 5:43
  it was pretty, it was pretty obvious that you guys could
• 5:47
  have, could have used that additional spark.
• 5:50
  It's really interesting when you think about what a a fully
• 5:54
  healthy Kansas City current what they can offer an attack as far
• 5:57
  as if they decide to flip their wingers at at you, even if it's
• 6:03
  just for 5 minutes. That means that you're 1 full
• 6:08
  outside back. It has been chasing Tim with
• 6:11
  Chewinga for 20 to 25 minutes and it's like, oh God, I need a
• 6:15
  break. Now you have Michelle Cooper
• 6:17
  who's going to maybe not run past you, but run through you.
• 6:21
  Yes. And actually in a lot of ways,
• 6:27
  like, and I know that the, you know, the cross sex comparison
• 6:33
  is not, you know, totally passe. But I think in a in a lot of
• 6:36
  ways, Michelle Cooper's current game reminds me a a lot of Jack
• 6:41
  Grealish's peak city form all like that in that like she can
• 6:47
  create a lot of control and draws a lot of fouls, allows a
• 6:54
  lot for a lot of set pieces, and that gives Dee Bernardo a chance
• 6:58
  for her really nice delivery. Yeah, Oh, that's fantastic.
• 7:02
  I I, I hadn't looked at it this way.
• 7:04
  And just just for the audience, just prepare yourself for a lot
• 7:07
  of Manchester City Football club references.
• 7:09
  Obviously, Tom, bombs repping, you know, I'm repping.
• 7:12
  We never stop. So you mentioned the you
• 7:18
  mentioned the midfield earlier. I was taking it back.
• 7:20
  And obviously I'm watching from a, a Seattle Rain FC
• 7:23
  perspective, you know, trying to cover the team and such.
• 7:26
  Sam Meza. Who?
• 7:28
  You know, like there were some mixed feelings on like is the is
• 7:31
  she is the size going to work? Like honestly, I think that was
• 7:35
  a big thought. You know, she goes down to the
• 7:37
  USL team last year, she comes back.
• 7:40
  It just felt like she was wrecking shit a lot of times in
• 7:43
  this match versus KC. She ended up with 10 recoveries,
• 7:47
  3 interceptions, a block, 2 clearances, and she just had
• 7:51
  like an energy in a couple different spots of the midfield
• 7:55
  where it felt like she was able to snuff out attacks.
• 7:57
  And again, this could be another theme of this episode.
• 8:00
  I didn't see that coming against D Bernardo Hutton and Lebanta.
• 8:03
  How did you experience that? I think that this past match was
• 8:10
  probably Claire Hutton's worst match as a professional, I mean,
• 8:16
  and it's not. Sure, of course.
• 8:19
  But that stated, like I I did not, I too did not expect a
• 8:26
  single midfielder to just be able to thrash Levanta and
• 8:30
  Hutton in the way that she was. But like you could tell that
• 8:36
  Current was frustrated that they couldn't link their midfield to
• 8:39
  their attack. And that was all down the same
• 8:42
  as that. Like she was just everywhere on
• 8:44
  the pitch. And I think like what's really
• 8:47
  interesting to me is that seeing her on the pitch and hearing you
• 8:51
  talk about her size and then seeing Lebanta on the pitch, so
• 8:55
  much of Meza's game reminds me of old school FC Kansas City.
• 9:01
  Lebanta's game like like that 20/15/2016 run when she first
• 9:12
  signed with the club. And it like you have this
• 9:14
  undersized Dynamo in the midfield that can essentially
• 9:18
  play all three positions if you want her to and she's going to
• 9:22
  get stuck in. And I think that this was one of
• 9:26
  the few matches where not only did Hutton not get stuck in on
• 9:33
  stuff, but Lebonta didn't get stuck going on on tackles
• 9:38
  either, which I think made a big difference.
• 9:43
  And I and I'm not sure what the relationship was supposed to be
• 9:47
  between D Bernardo and BIA. And I'm not sure that it worked
• 9:52
  as well as what happens when it's BIA and Divinia, with
• 9:59
  Divinia running the running the show.
• 10:02
  Sure, which is funny too with two Brazilian players.
• 10:05
  Like, I mean, you know, sometimes I feel like my mind
• 10:08
  can go that way. But you know, if you get used to
• 10:10
  running a certain way, you get used to making certain cuts,
• 10:13
  having an anticipation of some level.
• 10:16
  That's a that's an interesting thought.
• 10:17
  Let me just say, if Sam Meza is anything close to Lola Banta,
• 10:21
  sign me up immediately for that. Exactly.
• 10:25
  I mean, that's you think about like the the career that Lebanta
• 10:30
  has had, you know, signing a contract as basically a a trial
• 10:34
  list with FC Kansas City and sticking on with the club,
• 10:38
  making the move to Utah, making the move back to Kansas City and
• 10:42
  essentially, you know, becoming the captain of the squad.
• 10:45
  Like that's that's huge. And especially like with a
• 10:49
  A-Team like Seattle Reign, that's essentially is a a legacy
• 10:54
  franchise in the league. You and you already have that
• 10:59
  player in Lou Barnes who is like that.
• 11:02
  Like I've been here since since we've been here.
• 11:05
  Kind of like if that, if there's going to be somebody to pass the
• 11:09
  torch to, if I was the Seattle Range front office, that would
• 11:14
  be the player that I'd be looking at.
• 11:17
  That's a, that's a, that's a great thought exercise.
• 11:19
  Let's let's talk a little bit about Lou Barnes because in our
• 11:24
  take people behind the curtain, you mentioned in in our episode
• 11:27
  doc here. Can you just for the audience,
• 11:31
  can you, can you frame the question here?
• 11:32
  Because I think it's a great question.
• 11:34
  I guess the question is like, how much longer can Lou Barnes
• 11:38
  keep doing this? Like, And I don't say that as
• 11:41
  like a like, I mean, I get as someone who is on the other side
• 11:45
  of 35, I get it. There's there's certain things
• 11:48
  that your body just will not allow you to do, especially like
• 11:50
  when your competition is half your like, it was kind of
• 11:54
  jarring to see her and Claire Hutton in the same frame was
• 11:58
  like, Oh my God, Claire Hutton is like almost half her age.
• 12:00
  That's that's really wild. But but she won eight of
• 12:04
  fourteen of her total duels, 3 recoveries, 2 accurate crosses,
• 12:08
  and then she was the corner kit taker.
• 12:10
  Like what is it like seeing one of the longest tenured players
• 12:14
  in the league still doing it at a high level?
• 12:17
  I think it's great because she is exactly to your point, she is
• 12:23
  that vestige of the history of the club.
• 12:26
  Like she's there when the furniture got dropped off,
• 12:29
  right, like when the team it's is started.
• 12:31
  And so you had that that trio of Lou Barnes, Jess Fishlock, Megan
• 12:35
  Rapino. We're we're now in our second
• 12:37
  season post Rapino, Jess Fishlock obviously fighting like
• 12:42
  hell through some some tough injuries and just here's Lou
• 12:45
  Barnes every season showing up. You know, she recently set the
• 12:48
  record or extended the record for most minutes played in the
• 12:52
  history of the league and she's done some bouncing between left
• 12:57
  back and center back. And there were sometimes and I I
• 13:00
  totally get your point, like asking the question like, how
• 13:03
  long could she keep doing this? And I know, you know, from
• 13:06
  watching your guys shows and you know, from the way we talk about
• 13:09
  things, time is just a a thing that happens.
• 13:13
  It's coming for us all. And so there were moments last
• 13:16
  year when she's in the center back spot.
• 13:18
  It was like, oh boy, I don't I don't know how much long, how
• 13:21
  much longer this is going to last because that's just the
• 13:23
  nature of sports. But now that you have this, the
• 13:27
  emergence of Jordan Bug in that center back role, Lou Barnes is
• 13:31
  back on the left hand side. You got Phoebe Mclernan over on
• 13:34
  the right in a lot of situations or sometimes, you know, they'll
• 13:36
  switch around, obviously, but it it's now opened up.
• 13:41
  So Bug is doing all the cerebral fast twitch, you know, getting
• 13:48
  in there, do it using her her young legs to chase down
• 13:51
  defenders. And then Lou Barnes is kind of
• 13:53
  there as like I'm an outlet. Give me the ball when I need to.
• 13:56
  And then what if I got to make some plays?
• 13:57
  I can do that. And then Phoebe McLaren and and
• 13:59
  I say this with great respect, is out there to foul people and
• 14:03
  play hard nosed defense. And then also look to Lou Barnes
• 14:06
  where sometimes it's like I'm not I'm not too confident about
• 14:09
  this pass. I'll just give it to Lou and I
• 14:10
  should be good. So I mean, to have her as the
• 14:14
  captain, to have her come with a a level of gravitas is just
• 14:18
  something that, you know, every club is lucky to have a player
• 14:22
  like that, that you can look back and be like you.
• 14:24
  You think about Vinny Company for City, it's just like that.
• 14:28
  That's our person. That is the culture of this
• 14:31
  club. Because I think my perspective
• 14:33
  on that was like when I when I asked the question, I was
• 14:37
  thinking a lot about Desiree Scott and how she was similar to
• 14:43
  the club for Kansas City. Like also, you know, playing for
• 14:46
  FC Kansas City, moving to Utah, moving back to Kansas City.
• 14:50
  But you saw that there was like you saw that they there were
• 14:55
  limitations to what she could do.
• 14:58
  Like she couldn't destroy as much as she wanted to just cuz
• 15:03
  she didn't have it in her legs to do that.
• 15:06
  So the fact that like they are the same age and yes, they're
• 15:09
  playing different positions, obviously, but that the same
• 15:14
  type of player essentially with that gravitas within the league,
• 15:18
  but still being able to play, you know, on schedule night in
• 15:23
  night out, like that's really impressive to me.
• 15:26
  Yeah, it feels like it does a lot for any side you reference.
• 15:30
  Claire Hutton Dino's out here being the the dad of the year,
• 15:35
  per usual, so he can't join us. But Dino, as it feels like to me
• 15:41
  and obviously, you know, we do a show together, but he was he was
• 15:44
  as early on Claire Hutton as it felt like anybody could be like.
• 15:49
  And you know, not to take away from my guy, but it's not
• 15:52
  exactly a mind blowing take that she's good.
• 15:55
  You could pretty much you could pretty much see it right away.
• 15:59
  I, I, I'm just endlessly curious man, because she play and I know
• 16:02
  she didn't have a great one against Seattle this past match,
• 16:06
  but I just love that she plays with a lot of sauce, back heels,
• 16:10
  spin moves. Like she has a flair to her game
• 16:13
  that I just love. So I think like, I think like,
• 16:18
  yes, that's absolutely true. And I think what's what's even
• 16:22
  more impressive is that like, she came into this league ready
• 16:28
  to be a professional. Like there wasn't any
• 16:30
  adjustment. There wasn't any adjustment from
• 16:34
  like being, you know, like playing at the youth levels and
• 16:39
  then just jumping into, you know, the top level of of the
• 16:44
  pyramid in this country. And like you think about like
• 16:47
  who, how many people like that? You know, as as we discussed,
• 16:52
  I'm on the other side of 35. So I know, like I know when
• 16:56
  younger people come in, like I'm not necessarily expecting the
• 17:00
  world from them, but for for her to comport herself with a level
• 17:06
  of professionalism that most 18 year olds are not in their first
• 17:12
  job, regardless of what they're doing.
• 17:14
  That to me was like, the first step was like, oh, she he's no
• 17:20
  good. Oh, like, because you know, you,
• 17:23
  you kind of expect like, OK, like if she's coming out the
• 17:28
  gate, like starting the first five games, like, OK, there's
• 17:31
  going to be a drop off at some point is like, and I never
• 17:34
  really thought that there was a drop off.
• 17:37
  And and I this is going to probably ruffle some feathers
• 17:41
  when I say it. For someone who has been accused
• 17:45
  of running midfielders into the ground, I think that Vlad Co has
• 17:50
  done a very good job of managing her minutes and making sure that
• 17:58
  she is not overexposed or overplayed.
• 18:05
  I think that adding a player like like Rocky Rodriguez to the
• 18:10
  squad was probably one of the smartest pickups that Current
• 18:14
  had 'cause I think the guys that expected own goals.
• 18:19
  When I talked to them earlier in the season at the preview, we
• 18:22
  were talking about just the age of their midfield and how Claire
• 18:25
  Hutton is the lone person outside of on the other side, on
• 18:29
  the underside of 30. That matters.
• 18:33
  And like just being able to protect her, making sure that
• 18:37
  she's not overexposed, not overplayed, and knowing that
• 18:41
  she's going to get a lot of team, a lot of minutes with the
• 18:45
  national team, whether that be the senior national team or the
• 18:47
  U20 national team, like just making sure that she's in a good
• 18:51
  spot. Yeah, I I hear you, man.
• 18:55
  I mean, it's such a great point because you could have a young,
• 18:59
  super talented player come into the come into a roster and play
• 19:03
  with that style. And then the grind of being a
• 19:07
  professional wears a lot of people down.
• 19:10
  And that's and that's totally fine.
• 19:11
  Like that's to be expected. But the fact that she already
• 19:14
  that she comes in immediately displays that mindset.
• 19:17
  I mean, you have to think. I mean you mentioned Mesa on on
• 19:21
  Seattle rains side it I think it would just be it would be a
• 19:26
  crazy opinion to hold if people weren't looking at Hutton as
• 19:30
  this is a franchise cornerstone at least for the next decade.
• 19:35
  Absolutely. Like you, you, you look at this
• 19:39
  and you're like, OK, this is the piece that like this has to
• 19:43
  stay. Like if you're regardless of
• 19:46
  what Kansas City current does this, like what the results of
• 19:51
  this season are, you know that eventually that within the next
• 19:54
  one to two seasons that there are going to be players that
• 19:57
  you're going to move on from just based off of age.
• 20:00
  Like I know that Debina extended recently, but like I think Dee
• 20:06
  Bernardo's going to be out of contract here soon.
• 20:09
  Labonte is going to be out of contract soon.
• 20:13
  I think B is going to be out of contract relatively soon.
• 20:16
  So like knowing that you have that.
• 20:22
  Piece along your spine like that's going to like cover your,
• 20:27
  your center backs who have done a really good like for the most
• 20:30
  part outside of like, I don't know, 2-3 matches that they've
• 20:35
  been together, like that's, that's huge.
• 20:41
  That's like they're that's invaluable.
• 20:43
  And you, you know that that's someone that you're going to
• 20:46
  want to build your squad around. Yeah, I just continue to be to
• 20:53
  be impressed with her on on a lot of different facets.
• 20:56
  You raise an an interesting question here, or at least a
• 20:59
  thought for me. So you mention, you know, you
• 21:02
  you brought back a ton of players.
• 21:04
  I forget what the exact numbers were, but you brought back
• 21:06
  almost the vast majority of minutes from last year back into
• 21:11
  this squad. You obviously make the semi
• 21:13
  final. You're you had a look at the
• 21:15
  shield or the Kansas City current?
• 21:17
  Pardon me, I know you're an impartial journalist, my good
• 21:19
  man, but the Kansas City current had a look had a look at the
• 21:21
  shield. The majority of the season you
• 21:23
  make it to the the current makes it to the semi final.
• 21:27
  How how close are we getting? And this is I'm just going full
• 21:31
  sports radio hack here. How close are we getting to must
• 21:35
  win a trophy time for Kansas City Current?
• 21:44
  I think that based off of based off of last season's result and
• 21:51
  the way like you can, I mean, honestly, it's not even the
• 21:55
  like, I think it was like 4 points separated second and 4th.
• 22:00
  So you can point, you can point to like three matches that
• 22:05
  they're like, oh, and and they're not all losses.
• 22:08
  Some of them are draws like that three, three draw against
• 22:14
  Louisville at home, the two 2 draw against Chicago at home.
• 22:18
  Those are four points that you dropped at home.
• 22:23
  And again, you cannot lose at home up a player for 45 minutes.
• 22:29
  You just cannot do that. Like, I don't care if if it is
• 22:31
  against the eventual shield winning and cup winning team,
• 22:34
  you can't do that if you want to win a championship.
• 22:39
  I think the water is always going to be a little bit hot
• 22:42
  just because of the way that Vladko's tenure with the
• 22:46
  national team ended. So I think that there are like
• 22:51
  within the league, there is already that feeling.
• 22:56
  But I think that from the inside, from the fan
• 22:59
  perspective, they're a little bit more willing to give him
• 23:03
  some patience in grace. Yeah.
• 23:06
  I think that's, I think that's totally fair.
• 23:08
  I think there's going to be that broad perception and Dino and I
• 23:11
  were talking about it on our last show because the US women's
• 23:14
  national team experience obviously didn't look great.
• 23:19
  I have this, I have this thought of, you know, if, if you're VLAC
• 23:23
  go if you wanted to say some things, you could say I well, I
• 23:27
  had Rapino pastor prime, I had Alex Morgan pastor prime.
• 23:30
  I had Julia Hertz pastor prime. I had Elisa Thompson when she's
• 23:33
  a literal teenager. I mean, she still is a teenager,
• 23:35
  but she was like 16 at the World Cup.
• 23:37
  He could he could list out a lot of reasons.
• 23:40
  I didn't have Cat Macario, I didn't have Mel Swanson.
• 23:43
  It would buy him nothing in in the public discourse if he said
• 23:47
  any of those things. It would actually make things
• 23:49
  significantly worse. And I'm, I'm glad you mentioned
• 23:53
  him because, you know, Laura Harvey talked after after the
• 23:56
  match in the in the post match press conference, she referred
• 24:00
  to him as a chess player. And you know, you mentioned too
• 24:03
  with with Vlacco and you know, FC Kansas City, Kansas City,
• 24:09
  current Laura Harvey's long tenure in the league.
• 24:12
  Those two have gone up against each other several times at this
• 24:16
  point. I'm I'm not sure what the stats
• 24:18
  are. I should have looked it up.
• 24:19
  But they have to be among probably the the two managers
• 24:22
  who faced off the most probably in the history of the league.
• 24:24
  This this like 10 plus year run. But you know, she referred to
• 24:29
  some of the stuff that that Kansas City was doing and the
• 24:33
  adjustments that she had to make in terms of of, you know, make
• 24:36
  try to get Lou Barnes up a little forward at times or or,
• 24:40
  you know, moving around Sam Meza where she was you you touched on
• 24:44
  it a little bit there in Kansas City because I know he loves it
• 24:48
  there and I think he has some good equity there.
• 24:50
  How do you guys view him tactically?
• 24:53
  And, and if if you could please be our Kansas City spokesperson
• 24:56
  on this. I think that for me, I think
• 25:03
  that I think you see the vision and, and like having having seen
• 25:12
  him coach like coach A-Team and what they're what they do
• 25:18
  tactically at the club level. It also kind of gives me some
• 25:21
  insight of what he wanted to do but didn't always do with the
• 25:25
  national team. And I think that this game was a
• 25:30
  this match was an almost perfect example of it in that like
• 25:36
  Kansas City doesn't want the ball like they they Kansas City
• 25:40
  wants to to crush you on the counter just because they have
• 25:44
  they know that they have way better athletes upfront than
• 25:48
  your defenders are. And and they're going to beat
• 25:51
  you to those, to the, to those balls that you that you run into
• 25:56
  the channel. Yeah.
• 25:58
  Thank you. You're welcome.
• 26:01
  But that stated when you when you don't have that, when you
• 26:06
  don't have that ability, it's difficult for you to pivot.
• 26:10
  And that's and based off of everything that like that I've
• 26:15
  talked to you about Vladco about game state is that there's
• 26:18
  really hasn't been a game state where they have they in outside
• 26:23
  of these last two matches where they haven't felt completely in
• 26:26
  control. And I think that if you notice
• 26:31
  these last two matches or the last two matches that Michelle
• 26:34
  Cooper didn't start, and not only do you not have Michelle
• 26:37
  Cooper, but you don't have Michelle Prince either.
• 26:40
  So you're taking one of those high level athletes that you
• 26:44
  have out and like I get, I guess.
• 26:50
  And then let me then throw this back to you because is was there
• 26:54
  something specific that Laura Harvey did tactically or with
• 26:58
  personnel that kind of surprised you in this match?
• 27:00
  Because Vladko's choice of outside backs like shocked me.
• 27:06
  I thought that I was. And I guess that you give
• 27:12
  Wheeler and Rodriguez a little bit of a rest and you don't give
• 27:16
  them the start. But even though they both ended
• 27:18
  up making it onto the pitch, just with the travel that stated
• 27:24
  like and I get putting Flora Martolacho as a outside back
• 27:31
  kind of makes sense because like she played in a similar role to
• 27:35
  what Izzy Rodriguez does where she pushes pushes up higher on
• 27:38
  the left side. And then you have the the three
• 27:41
  defenders basically play as a back 3 when they possess the
• 27:45
  ball. But she was, I think she was
• 27:49
  supposed to be the outlet and cutting inside more on the left
• 27:54
  hand side. But there was no winger on that
• 27:57
  left side to keep the width, like Hopkins wasn't staying wide
• 28:01
  enough to keep the width for Martolacho to cut inside and be
• 28:07
  dynamic towards the center of the park.
• 28:11
  Yeah, and I, I mean, that's, I think that's a great point.
• 28:14
  I I would say the couple things that that jumped out to me and,
• 28:18
  you know, maybe it's a largely a function of the personnel.
• 28:21
  But when Harvey has the youngster, Maddie Darlene out
• 28:24
  there on the left and then the vet Anna Maria Sternogorsuvich
• 28:28
  out on the right, the both of those players do have the
• 28:30
  ability to cut in and try and start dragging players inside of
• 28:35
  the pitch. So I thought I thought that
• 28:37
  worked out pretty well. But it also there are a lot of
• 28:40
  spots where, pardon me, where Darlene has to get back on
• 28:44
  defense, you know, trying to trying to contend with with your
• 28:47
  guys forwards, even even minus Chewinga.
• 28:49
  And so I think that's always and it seems like Dalene is a very
• 28:53
  willing defender, which is I think a good sign for her
• 28:55
  prospects. I think the, the biggest thing
• 28:58
  that jumped out to me is so you guys sub on Rodriguez at 61,
• 29:03
  Chewinga at 62 and Harvey doesn't make a move.
• 29:07
  And I'm just kind of like glancing around the the press
• 29:10
  box, like, OK, Madison Curry's on the bench, the MVP's coming
• 29:14
  onto the field. This, this things could get real
• 29:17
  hectic this last half hour and they and they started to like
• 29:21
  Kansas City really started to kind of build on the attack.
• 29:24
  And then when Vlatco makes the triple sub in the 75th minute,
• 29:27
  he brings on Wheeler, Rocky Rodriguez and Mary Long in the
• 29:32
  75th. Then you see Curry, Mccammon and
• 29:35
  Shay Holmes, 3 defensive minded substitutions come on in the
• 29:39
  79th. And I just really like when a
• 29:43
  manager can kind of look at their squad, look at the way
• 29:46
  they're playing and say, not ready for Subs yet, don't need
• 29:49
  Subs yet. I know, I know Pep has taken
• 29:51
  some shit for that in the past in some important matches.
• 29:54
  But then he gets in the he gets in the press conference and he
• 29:56
  goes, I like the way we were playing.
• 29:58
  And it's just like, you know, Harvey kind of approached it the
• 30:01
  same way of just like, hey, if I like what they're doing up
• 30:03
  there, why am I, why would I be taking players off the field?
• 30:06
  There's nothing that will make Charlie more upset than you
• 30:14
  know, But I I did find that interesting and it it I thought
• 30:20
  that like the the lack of winger depth showed itself in this
• 30:27
  match. Like not only are you like
• 30:29
  playing to be in your on the wing, you're playing Hayley
• 30:34
  Hopkins, but then when you sub your wings, you're bringing in
• 30:38
  Ellie Wheeler, who is essentially a full back.
• 30:41
  But like it has the ability to get forward.
• 30:45
  And then I mean we talked about Casey current having the first
• 30:49
  official stadium in the world for women's soccer.
• 30:54
  They're they have the league's first Neppo baby and you bring
• 30:57
  in the league's first Neppo baby and it wasn't there Like it it
• 31:05
  there. There's a drop off like and and
• 31:09
  I think that until that drop off can be addressed with getting
• 31:14
  back to health or addressing it in the summer window it it's
• 31:19
  going to be it's going to be there's going to be some rough
• 31:22
  patches for Kansas City current until they are able to get that
• 31:25
  right. Sure.
• 31:27
  You, you team me up perfectly for this.
• 31:30
  You've been very generous to you with your time.
• 31:32
  I appreciate I got a couple things I want to hit.
• 31:34
  We can get you out of here on those things.
• 31:37
  This is 2 losses in a row. The loss to, to North Carolina
• 31:40
  courage is a wild one. Obviously this one feels
• 31:43
  unexpected. I, I always, I bemoan the, the
• 31:48
  quote UN quote panic meter because I, I always say like
• 31:51
  people frame questions like is now a good time to panic?
• 31:53
  And my position is it's never a good time to panic because you
• 31:57
  make bad decisions when you do that on your if we had a level
• 32:01
  of concern one to 10, where would you land on this on this
• 32:08
  run of form or even think maybe thinking about chewing his
• 32:10
  health? I know injury information is
• 32:12
  hard to come by in this league and really women's football in
• 32:15
  general. But if if you had to think about
• 32:18
  a one to 10, what, what level of concern are you looking at right
• 32:22
  now in terms of like getting, getting to where this team
• 32:26
  getting to its ceiling? OK, so if I if my concern level
• 32:33
  for the shield, if you would have asked me that Friday night,
• 32:38
  I would have said 12. OK.
• 32:41
  But based off of what Orlando was able to do against or excuse
• 32:49
  me, Portland was able to do Orlando, I'm going to I'm going
• 32:52
  to knock that down to A8. As far as playoff positioning
• 32:56
  goes, I think the biggest thing is to make sure that you're in
• 32:59
  second and you you don't have to.
• 33:03
  You don't have to come in first. You just have to come in second
• 33:05
  so that you make sure that you're those two playoff
• 33:07
  matches, you're playing those at CPKC Stadium and you're not
• 33:10
  going on the road. I would say that my panic meter
• 33:13
  for that is A5. I think that last week for
• 33:20
  Kansas City and this week for Orlando has kind of proved that
• 33:23
  like every top team in this league has a team that is maybe
• 33:29
  not quite at their level, that just has their number.
• 33:34
  North Carolina is that team at in Cary, NC for Kansas City
• 33:39
  Current. I think that Portland Thorns at
• 33:44
  Providence Park is that team for Orlando.
• 33:48
  Like, I think that we we have been talking so much about the
• 33:52
  top four in this league and we forgot about how how many
• 33:57
  players come over from European leagues and tell us like, damn,
• 34:01
  every one of these matches is tough.
• 34:03
  It's like it's like like the second leg of Champions League
• 34:08
  semi final and and in a lot of ways it is.
• 34:12
  So I think that we number one need to keep that in mind.
• 34:17
  Like the margin for like between the teams is not as large as we
• 34:22
  think and it's definitely not as large as it is in other leagues
• 34:25
  in the world. And his team still can get what
• 34:33
  they want. It's just it's it's just going
• 34:35
  to be a matter of injuries. I think that lower leg injury
• 34:41
  for Michelle Cooper is super ominous and scary.
• 34:47
  I think if you can get Nichelle Prince back sooner rather than
• 34:54
  later it will be helpful. Yeah, I, I think I'm in pretty
• 35:01
  much total agreement with with both of those.
• 35:04
  Like it's too early to to be really concerned about, you
• 35:10
  know, the the the potential of the championship.
• 35:13
  I think in the three-game sample, I think your roster is
• 35:15
  good enough, obviously, barring injury or barring, you know,
• 35:18
  significant injuries, because everybody's going to be a little
• 35:20
  hurt by the time you get to the playoffs.
• 35:22
  You have enough talent to win. There's just no question about
• 35:25
  that. And, and with the shield, yeah,
• 35:28
  I think I think you could have, I think a, a middling level of
• 35:33
  concern, maybe a little above that.
• 35:34
  I think that makes sense. It also would appear and maybe
• 35:38
  it is a a function of Portland in the Pacific Northwest in the
• 35:43
  second best city in the Pacific Northwest gives Orlando gives
• 35:48
  Orlando some trouble, but it doesn't, I don't know is it
• 35:52
  quite the same Orlando as last year?
• 35:54
  I think it would be almost unfair to expect them to be the
• 35:57
  same Orlando as last year so that the shield should be should
• 36:01
  be up for grabs. And it also speaks to your
• 36:04
  point, I mean no disrespect to these squads, but there's no
• 36:07
  Bristol City on this schedule. There's no Real Betis on this
• 36:12
  schedule. Like there's no ROMs on this
• 36:14
  schedule. Like it's, it's a you're in for
• 36:16
  a dog fight pretty much every week.
• 36:18
  There's no Turbine Potsdam on your like that.
• 36:22
  That's not happening. Right, 100%.
• 36:26
  All right. I want to switch gears on
• 36:28
  something because you did some, some excellent reporting, which
• 36:30
  I always, I always say like when, when the rain are on on
• 36:34
  the road and I'm watching a broadcast, you know, I still try
• 36:37
  to do journalism type things. You're on blue sky.
• 36:41
  Out of curiosity, where should people find you on Blue Sky?
• 36:45
  You can find it. There is a social media network
• 36:48
  that I use. You can find me at Tombom 816.
• 36:53
  OK, excellent. Everybody should do that
• 36:54
  immediately. So obviously I'm in the press
• 36:57
  box watching this match after the fact I get home, you know,
• 37:02
  got to start to relax, whatever, start kind of scrolling through,
• 37:05
  see what what folks are thinking.
• 37:07
  And you got me hip to something that I just didn't know was an
• 37:12
  issue. And this is not to take shots at
• 37:14
  anybody. You know, we all kind of we're
• 37:16
  all trying to figure stuff out. But I I will say I was
• 37:18
  legitimately surprised by this. Is Biendolo a difficult name to
• 37:23
  pronounce? I think the fact that there have
• 37:31
  been so many Paramount Plus, NWSL plus ion, ESPNCBS
• 37:41
  announcers that have not gotten it right, even though it is
• 37:46
  spelled and pronounced phonetically, that's it.
• 37:51
  That that I guess it is. It's that's what makes it
• 37:56
  difficult is that just like by number of you hearing it, you
• 38:02
  don't hear Biondolo said correctly.
• 38:06
  And I'm fairly certain that before the season she like when
• 38:10
  like she was brought in for media day.
• 38:12
  They did a, I'm pretty sure that Sylvan Skye did a big thing
• 38:16
  about, in an interview about the pronunciation of her name, of
• 38:22
  her married name. And I, I think that broadcasting
• 38:27
  teams are still struggling with that.
• 38:31
  They really, really struggled. And I think that what, what was
• 38:37
  so jarring is that Biendola was difficult to pronounce, but they
• 38:42
  never got Cernegorsevich wrong. It's like, I'm sorry, but she
• 38:50
  has three consonants to start her name out like that.
• 38:53
  That is definitely not phonetic. And I I.
• 38:57
  If we're keeping score, if we're keeping syllable score, I
• 39:00
  believe Serna Gorsuvich 5, Biendolo 4.
• 39:04
  I think with biendolo, the thing that I, I mean, it's the exact
• 39:09
  point that I was, I was hoping to make.
• 39:10
  I'm not surprised you nailed it. It's it's pronounced pretty much
• 39:14
  as it's spelled. So that helps you have like your
• 39:18
  hard consonant sounds with like the soft Y in between.
• 39:23
  I feel like that's like it's an it's an easy rhythm to grasp.
• 39:27
  I just my advice and far be it from me to give other real
• 39:32
  professional broadcasters advice here.
• 39:34
  Some, you know, jerk sitting in his office doing a podcast, but
• 39:38
  approach the name with confidence.
• 39:40
  Pals Biendolo Lynn Biendolo. You can say it.
• 39:43
  I know you guys can say that it's not in It's not a a
• 39:47
  difficult name to pronounce. No, you can say it.
• 39:49
  Biendolo. I believe in you.
• 39:51
  You can do it. Yes, and, and and and.
• 39:55
  Don't take the coward's way out and just call her by her maiden
• 39:58
  name. Like that's like, no.
• 40:00
  That's whack. She she changed her name for a
• 40:02
  reason, right? Yeah, don't, don't that.
• 40:06
  That's part of the game. And I would actually if I could.
• 40:08
  I don't know how bold of a take this is.
• 40:11
  I would argue Biendolo not that much more difficult to pronounce
• 40:16
  than Williams. I just don't think it's that
• 40:18
  difficult of a name to say. It's not it's not like, and I
• 40:24
  guess my other thing is to this is the league's all time leading
• 40:30
  goal scorer, like she just extended her record in this
• 40:33
  match. Like we need to be speaking her
• 40:36
  name with respect. Yes, I think that's fair.
• 40:43
  All right. I appreciate you talking that,
• 40:44
  talking that out with me. I thought it was, it was funny.
• 40:46
  There was a lot of there's a lot of good stuff.
• 40:49
  The great Sophie Lawson I saw replied to one of your blue
• 40:52
  skies with a with a great quote of of I can't remember the
• 40:57
  actress's. Name Michael Adoba Adoba.
• 40:59
  There we go, thank you and saying if people can say
• 41:03
  Dostoyevsky or Tchaikovsky, then they can pronounce any name, so
• 41:08
  let's go. Yes, correct.
• 41:10
  That is absolutely correct. All right, again, you've been
• 41:16
  incredibly gracious with your time.
• 41:19
  Is there is there anything else in the league that you you would
• 41:22
  at least you want to get off your chest before before you
• 41:26
  call it a night? I don't know what was going on
• 41:30
  at Audi Field other than some drugs.
• 41:35
  Drugs. First of all, any match where
• 41:39
  Esme Morgan and we know of Esme Morgan, any, any match that she
• 41:44
  scores two goals, you you have to question like what is
• 41:47
  happening that like and any, any match where a sister assists
• 41:53
  another sister for a, for a, for a goal.
• 41:58
  There's a lot going on there. Also, Riley Tiernan, I, I think
• 42:07
  I've theorized this to the group chat.
• 42:09
  She may be the Julian Edelman of NWSL.
• 42:14
  Please elaborate. Try list gritty all those, all
• 42:23
  those all those all those adjectives that we use for white
• 42:29
  athletes in any sport. Coach on the field, correct?
• 42:34
  All of those, All of those but deceptively fast, correct?
• 42:37
  Sounds like she has all of those and she knows how to play with
• 42:45
  another player that she automatically recognizes is
• 42:49
  above her level. And Alyssa Thompson, Like I
• 42:52
  think if if Alyssa Thompson ever decides that she is going to
• 42:55
  leave Angel City, Riley Tiernan is probably going to be like, so
• 42:59
  where are we going? Not where are you go?
• 43:01
  Where are we go? Yeah, I love that.
• 43:05
  Yeah. I mean, yeah, Tiernan definitely
• 43:08
  looks good in the context of that attack for sure.
• 43:13
  It's, it's interesting, it gives them a little bit more of a
• 43:16
  focal point that they didn't hang off before.
• 43:20
  Also shout out to Sam Laity for actually remembering that
• 43:25
  Kristen Press was on his bench. Wow, I know who.
• 43:30
  Knew who knew just like also I I don't I'm not sure if fat mob or
• 43:36
  the league updated it but I don't see how you don't give her
• 43:40
  the assist on that to your name goal.
• 43:44
  Well, I didn't know an assist was not notched.
• 43:47
  Yeah, that's got to be. I mean, we have an ITC personal
• 43:50
  record book. So I mean, that's whether the
• 43:53
  league figures this out or not, that has to be an assist in the
• 43:56
  ITC. Oh yeah, has to be an assist.
• 43:58
  Like I, I don't see how you could register it as ADP.
• 44:03
  But but, and you know, shout out to Sam Laity.
• 44:09
  He's just living his best life and like, yes, why don't, why
• 44:13
  not celebrate? Like that's so great.
• 44:15
  He celebrated, got on like got the red card so he doesn't have
• 44:19
  to go into work next weekend and he didn't even have to do the
• 44:24
  press conference. He's.
• 44:27
  Like, like, let me just run onto the field like and create less
• 44:31
  work for myself. This is perfect.
• 44:32
  He's living the dream. Gets off work early, gets a day
• 44:36
  off, gets the win. I may come on the next level
• 44:40
  stuff. Truly, truly.
• 44:42
  And and since he knows he's interim and they've already
• 44:45
  named his replacement, like he knows his days are numbered so
• 44:48
  he's just coming office having a great time.
• 44:50
  What are you gonna do? What are you gonna?
• 44:52
  Do to the guy fire me, sure. Yeah, yeah, the direct deposits
• 44:58
  are still going to hit man. It's totally fine.
• 45:00
  Clears. Check, still clears.
• 45:01
  Yeah, no doubt. Well, again, Tom, you've been
• 45:05
  incredibly, incredibly gracious with your time.
• 45:07
  Thank you so much. I tried to do it justice at the
• 45:10
  beginning of this show, but can you please tell people where
• 45:13
  they can find you in these Internet women's football
• 45:16
  streets? All right, so I shout out to my
• 45:24
  showbros. Charlie Tarek Cracked Chocolate
• 45:28
  Shades of Blue. Internet's most comprehensive
• 45:32
  Manchester City podcast covering both the men and the women.
• 45:36
  Shout out to my show friends Mark, Trev, Tracy and DD on the
• 45:44
  12 where we talked about the Women's Super League.
• 45:47
  Lots of fun there. And so grateful to Sylv, Sky and
• 45:53
  Ebony for giving me the opportunity for the current
• 45:55
  moment where we talk about all things, where we keep you
• 45:58
  current on all things Kansas City current.
• 46:01
  That's what I'm talking about. And let me just say I just want
• 46:05
  to make sure I throw this in before you depart.
• 46:07
  And all three of those shows absolute must listens.
• 46:11
  Look, I, I'm going to say on the front end, I am not a licensed
• 46:16
  dermatologist, but I do believe it is medically proven that Shea
• 46:21
  Butter FC delivers content with soul and seasoning that will
• 46:24
  moisturize your skin. I'm pretty sure that's medically
• 46:27
  proven. I totally believe that also that
• 46:33
  like they can't keep enough shirts in stock.
• 46:36
  They keep those stop don't play out the back shirts are flying
• 46:40
  off of the shelf talking about. So NWSL managers, please
• 46:46
  continue to play out of the back so that your teams can make
• 46:49
  errors and they can sell more shirts.
• 46:52
  Absolutely. Let's run the numbers up.
• 46:55
  Tom, again, thank you so much joining us for this interview
• 46:58
  special. We will keep it locked to your
• 47:00
  coverage throughout the year and hope to have you back sometime
• 47:03
  soon. Thanks again for joining us,
• 47:05
  man. Thank you so much for having me
• 47:06
  Grant, Had a great time. You too buddy, see you later.
• 47:13
  Let's go. Great stuff.
• 47:15
  Oh my gosh, yeah. And anything else?
• 47:18
  Any any cappers on that? I just think that, you know, Tom
• 47:23
  and I talked about it, it's it was a surprising result.
• 47:27
  Even, you know, a team gets a win at home.
• 47:29
  It shouldn't be that surprising. But Kansas City looked like has
• 47:32
  looked like world beaters at times.
• 47:34
  They're on this like weird two match skid.
• 47:37
  But like Tom said, like there's no need to panic.
• 47:41
  You can, you can have your thoughts about where you're
• 47:43
  going to land in the Shield race, but you know it.
• 47:48
  As long as chewing his injury is not too serious.
• 47:51
  You have to, you have to feel really good as AKC fan going
• 47:55
  into a three match tournament to try to win the NWSL
• 47:58
  championship. I don't think that changes.
• 48:01
  Yeah. And I think you think about, you
• 48:02
  know, you guys talked about like who was missing on this day?
• 48:05
  And I think it's easy to kind of see that this isn't the KC
• 48:10
  current. This isn't the best of the of
• 48:11
  the current that we're going to see this season on the heels of
• 48:16
  this one, though. I did I I did want to hit one
• 48:19
  last point before we get out of here.
• 48:22
  Sure. So I caught I caught wind of a
• 48:25
  little interaction that you had with coach Laura Harvey at the
• 48:29
  post game presser. And I want to go to that sound
• 48:32
  here. I.
• 48:34
  Will take Grant in the back. So Laura, you mentioned Heidama
• 48:37
  played well tonight. Obviously the header leads to
• 48:39
  the goal. It was the right play to to play
• 48:41
  it back in. Is it is it just a matter of
• 48:44
  health or what is she? What are you seeing from her
• 48:46
  because she's looked better this entire season so far compared to
• 48:50
  last year. Honestly, I think I have to
• 48:53
  credit you guys a little bit for it.
• 48:54
  You've give her a bit of stick and I think she's responding and
• 48:58
  I'm not saying it's anyone in this room, but I just think
• 49:00
  media have given her a little bit of stick, you know, and I
• 49:03
  think she's come out with a little bit between her teeth to
• 49:08
  want to prove. And I was actually talking to
• 49:09
  Vladko before the game and we were talking about like the age
• 49:12
  of our team. And I said, you know, Jordan
• 49:14
  Hypmer, 23 and he was a whoa, she's still only 23, you know,
• 49:18
  and you do forget that with that, that she's obviously been
• 49:20
  around a long time, but in being a professional, but she's still
• 49:25
  super young. And I think she's come out this
• 49:29
  season. She's taken on a leadership role
• 49:31
  in the team. She set the stall out with us, a
• 49:34
  staff the moment she walked back through the door to say, I want
• 49:39
  to score goals, I want to assist, I want you to help me to
• 49:42
  be better at those things. And we were like, game on, let's
• 49:45
  go. So I give her all the credit,
• 49:48
  But I think she's had a little, a little bit between her teeth
• 49:50
  to prove what she believes and what we believe.
• 49:53
  She's got in there and I'm, I'm just so happy for her.
• 49:57
  I I've got a lot of time for Jordan and she works really,
• 50:00
  really hard and she did again tonight.
• 50:02
  I thought a defensive effort tonight was exceptional and you
• 50:06
  know, she gets a little bit of a reward with an assist.
• 50:09
  OK, so 2 questions. Mr. Grant Angle, what did Laura
• 50:15
  Harvey mean by that? And my second question is why
• 50:19
  was it you that she was talking about when she was referring to
• 50:22
  the media putting? OK.
• 50:25
  All right. So for folks who who maybe new
• 50:31
  to the program last season toward the toward the end of the
• 50:35
  year, I can't remember exactly what match it was.
• 50:39
  I wish I was more prepared, but I asked, I asked Jordan Heidema
• 50:44
  a question at the at the at a press conference.
• 50:50
  Sorry, I'm stumbling over this because I wanted to see if I
• 50:52
  could, I could figure it out, this thing, it might have been,
• 50:57
  it might have been the home loss to Angel City, maybe.
• 51:03
  But basically, I had asked Haidema about her production
• 51:08
  over the course of the 2024 season, and I had referenced
• 51:12
  some of her statistics for that season.
• 51:16
  And there weren't many goals and there weren't many assists.
• 51:19
  And it was and in that question, in the response to that
• 51:23
  question, Jordan Heidema, rightfully so, brought up the
• 51:27
  fact that she had a fractured spine earlier in the year.
• 51:32
  Now, as we've, as we have, and as we have mentioned many times
• 51:38
  on this podcast, and I feel like all women's football podcasts do
• 51:41
  mention injury, real detailed injury info is impossible to
• 51:45
  come by in a lot of situations. So this isn't even, I'm not
• 51:49
  trying to like crank up the excuse machine here because I,
• 51:51
  I, I felt like I asked a question in good faith about her
• 51:54
  production and kind of what was missing, what needed to happen
• 51:57
  to kind of to kind of get her up to a level that people expect
• 52:01
  from her as a young player. And she, you know, mentioned
• 52:06
  that like, Hey, it wasn't just a back injury.
• 52:09
  I had a fracture in my spine this season and I'm coming back
• 52:11
  from that. And it's been, it's been
• 52:13
  difficult. And you know, frankly, it didn't
• 52:16
  seem like she appreciated my line of questioning.
• 52:20
  And so when I ask this question now and fair is fair.
• 52:26
  I asked Jordan Itema a question about when about her production,
• 52:31
  when the production wasn't great last year and when she's playing
• 52:34
  well. She obviously hasn't been
• 52:36
  available at any press conferences that I've been
• 52:38
  attending this year so far. But when she's playing well, I'm
• 52:42
  going to ask questions about that too.
• 52:44
  And so Laura Harvey was available for me to ask that
• 52:46
  question about her playing, in my opinion, significantly better
• 52:50
  than she played last year. Laura Harvey gave me that little
• 52:55
  grin and kind of answered the question and said that it seems
• 52:59
  that Heidema came into the offseason ready to do some
• 53:04
  things to to improve, improve her game and then kind of get
• 53:08
  some goals and assists, as I believe Laura Harvey put it.
• 53:10
  So my colleagues in the in the in the press room may have shot
• 53:15
  me a couple glances as Laura Harvey was answering that
• 53:18
  question. And again, I, I, you know, I
• 53:22
  don't think Heidemann took it as like hugely disrespectful.
• 53:24
  But I will say again, she didn't seem psyched about my line of
• 53:28
  questioning last year. And so here we are.
• 53:31
  I, you know, in a different time of my life, I would have just
• 53:35
  been a little bit maybe, you know, sensitive or maybe
• 53:38
  borderline mortified. It's like, what are we doing?
• 53:40
  The right, you know, the imposter syndrome would have
• 53:42
  fully kind of kicked in. But I kind of like that we're
• 53:44
  just out here, you know, bumper caring into things.
• 53:47
  And I'm asking Emily Sam's about BK hacking, and she's going to
• 53:50
  look at me like she's like, yeah, why?
• 53:52
  Are we doing? This and you're getting into it.
• 53:55
  Didn't you say that Heidema adapt you up after that also?
• 53:57
  Or or did who was it somebody? What did I miss that was that
• 54:01
  was part of that story too, I think.
• 54:03
  This was yeah, this this part never made there, but we're here
• 54:06
  now. So after I asked that question.
• 54:10
  No, you're good. I mean, we here we are after I
• 54:13
  asked that question to Haidiba last season as she was leaving
• 54:17
  the press conference, she asked me my name.
• 54:19
  I said I'm Grant from into the channel and she just gave me a
• 54:22
  handshake and it's I think she may have said nice to meet you.
• 54:26
  And then to her eternal credit, Phoebe Mclernan, who's walking
• 54:30
  after Haidima leaving the press conference goes, oh, Grant.
• 54:34
  It's like, OK, great. So like, you know, I I get it.
• 54:40
  Like Haidim was a competitor. She came in with, you know, high
• 54:44
  expectations and Harvey talked about it later in her in her
• 54:47
  conference, or I think she said it in that answer.
• 54:50
  The item was only 23. So she's still, there's still a
• 54:53
  lot of development to be had. So when some dude at a press
• 54:57
  conference wearing a backwards hat asks like, Hey, you've only
• 55:00
  scored three goals and had one assist this season, you know,
• 55:04
  and again, I, I felt like I asked the the question
• 55:06
  respectfully and in good faith, but she's a she's a professional
• 55:09
  athlete. She probably didn't or she very
• 55:12
  clearly didn't appreciate the light of questioning.
• 55:15
  And so she wanted, she asked me what my name was and gave me the
• 55:18
  handshake. And yeah, I was like, OK, that
• 55:21
  was, I didn't expect that, but that's that's part of the game.
• 55:25
  Like we're here to we're here to ask questions and get
• 55:28
  information. And I and I think, you know,
• 55:32
  whatever happens is obviously I have to take credit for some of
• 55:37
  her improvement. Then isn't that how the game
• 55:39
  works? No.
• 55:41
  Yeah, you guys a real team effort, You, you guys.
• 55:44
  Yeah, thank goodness for me. I think it it's I kind of like
• 55:50
  that we are coming into this not necessarily doing the same
• 55:55
  things that other, you know, journal.
• 55:56
  And I think we kind of feel it when we're in the building or in
• 55:58
  the in the press conference or in the press box, but we're
• 56:02
  doing our show like I like whenever I do it, I know you do
• 56:05
  the same. You're going, you're asking
• 56:07
  things that you're genuinely curious and inquisitive about.
• 56:11
  It's like, yeah, we're here for the audience trying to like, you
• 56:13
  know, put, put a show together and put kind of, but you're
• 56:15
  really digging. And I know that I'm doing the
• 56:17
  same. I'm asking stuff that I really
• 56:19
  want to know about. And we just have faith in our
• 56:22
  audience and our community that there's good alignment with.
• 56:25
  Like the stuff that we're interested in is the same stuff
• 56:28
  that our audience is interested in.
• 56:29
  So some, some pretty cool stuff there.
• 56:31
  And I'm and I'm glad that we continue to kind of be out in
• 56:33
  these streets doing our show. For sure, and you know, just to
• 56:38
  be clear, like I'm, I'm being a little bit of a Jackass joking
• 56:41
  about this. I know I've made fun of like
• 56:43
  people in in sports media pundits who are like all well,
• 56:46
  clearly I inspired them to play better or whatever.
• 56:49
  I think that is obviously complete nonsense.
• 56:52
  I think it's funny that that Laura Harvey brought it up that
• 56:55
  she came in extra motivated and I'm I am also far from the only
• 57:01
  person who is who talked about item as production last year.
• 57:05
  But I just have to say fair is fair.
• 57:07
  To her credit, she has played significantly better this
• 57:11
  season. She's been getting getting to
• 57:14
  the ball in more dangerous areas.
• 57:15
  She's caused some havoc. Her her play on the defensive
• 57:18
  end this year has been significantly better.
• 57:21
  I think every press conference that I've been a part of, Laura
• 57:25
  Harvey talks about Heidema's defensive effort.
• 57:27
  And, you know, I think she's got, she's got to stand like
• 57:29
  5-10 or 511 something in it somewhere in that ballpark.
• 57:33
  So she, she can be an asset in those situations.
• 57:36
  And she's been doing it this year.
• 57:37
  So I mean she, she deserves all the credit, not some fucking
• 57:41
  dope who rides the bus down to Lumenfield and then sits in the
• 57:46
  press box and asks some questions afterward.
• 57:49
  Yeah, that's debatable. All right.
• 57:52
  Maybe a slice, maybe a slice of credit, I don't know.
• 57:55
  A little sprinkle sprinkling. All right, quick, quick.
• 57:59
  Look, I had episode calendar. We're already here.
• 58:02
  NW Cell match week 8 coming up next week.
• 58:04
  We'll be back covering the action there.
• 58:07
  And now we're just a couple weeks out from the Champions
• 58:10
  League final. We're going to line up some
• 58:12
  guests we're going to have, we're going to be doing a big
• 58:16
  here at the ICC. Just leave.
• 58:19
  Let's leave it at that. You're going to want to
• 58:21
  subscribe. We're going to be covering this
• 58:22
  final Arsenal versus Barcelona printed from every angle.
• 58:25
  Tons of folks are going to come on, help us break it down, folks
• 58:29
  that you're definitely going to want to hear from.
• 58:31
  So definitely make sure you're subscribed.
• 58:33
  Mr. Grant, angle, Anything else you want to hit for you out
• 58:35
  here? No, I think that just about
• 58:37
  covers it. I think I'm glad to be put in
• 58:40
  this very uncomfortable situation because no journalist,
• 58:44
  again, I have a journalism degree.
• 58:45
  No journalist says it ever wants to be any part of the story.
• 58:48
  But that answer was too funny. Once you once you got a hold of
• 58:52
  it, I knew we were going to get here.
• 58:53
  I'm I'm glad we talked about it. Yeah, well, you know, I've got
• 58:57
  an economics degree and, you know, you've got the supply of
• 59:00
  good stuff to talk about and I have demand to talk about it.
• 59:02
  And here we are. All right, man, this is for the
• 59:05
  channel. Thank you, Thank you.
• 59:06
  Thank you for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show, our
• 59:08
  loved ones football as much as your boys do, make sure you
• 59:10
  can't get in with us each and every single week.
• 59:12
  Like if you liked, subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple
• 59:14
  podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
• 59:16
  Leave us a review over your favorite podcast that we want to
• 59:19
  hear from you. We love hearing from you.
• 59:21
  Links to all of our socials in the show notes of this episode,
• 59:23
  except one of course. And a big thank in my coast as
• 59:26
  well. Mr. Grant Angle Part 1, Part 2
• 59:29
  doesn't matter. My guys always ready on the
• 59:31
  bench in the starting lineup. Sharpie, pencil pen does I I
• 59:36
  mean any way you slice it, my guys ready to go 2 parter.
• 59:40
  You brought it. I appreciate you bro.
• 59:42
  Likewise buddy, couldn't do it without you.
• 59:44
  Thanks for setting me up always. I'll make sure to return the
• 59:47
  favor once you start asking the players and coaches at Bay FC
• 59:51
  those tough questions, holding people accountable as we do.
• 59:55
  And thank you to everybody for watching and holding us
• 59:57
  accountable. Let us know in the comments what
• 1:00:00
  we missed, what you want to see more of next time, and we will
• 1:00:02
  see you all next time.