Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / NWSL Matchweek 15 Spotlights: Two teams and two players

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NWSL Matchweek 15 Spotlights: Two teams and two players · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast Permanent about women's
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football. Before we hit the pitch, if you
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enjoy the show or level one's football as much as your boys
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do, come kick it with us. We do this every single week,
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Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
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I am your host Dino de Suspitas and as always I am joined by my
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Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:35
Oh, I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
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Match Week 15 of the NWSL. Worthy of celebrating, if you
0:41
ask me. Oh, he's he's got a little
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beverage himself. Yeah, drinking some seltzer
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today, keeping it light. Understandable.
0:52
Boy. Might have a case of the Rona
0:53
battling here, so talk about that one later.
0:55
Maybe we won't. You know, that's what podcasts
0:58
are good for. Two dudes discussing any kind of
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infectious disease. Maybe let's save that for
1:04
another podcast. Although let me just say your
1:06
boys are on the right side of history with that one.
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Firmly believe in medical science.
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If I if I may speak for the show.
1:13
Speak away, speak away, my Goodman.
1:16
All right, man, match week 15. You mentioned it.
1:19
We're starting to see a little bit of separation.
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You know, this is a show that I don't want to say we popularized
1:24
the tears in the NWSL, but we were certainly on the ground
1:27
floor of that. We're starting to see the tears
1:29
really shake themselves out here.
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Teams at the bottom. You don't want to be one of the
1:33
managers of those teams because, uh, job security is it's an
1:37
issue at this point. But yeah, ton went down this
1:39
weekend. Where do you want to get
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started? So I think every match week you
1:43
kind of have a few things that jump out.
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So let's try something new this week.
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You should pick a team, and I'll pick a team.
1:51
And who is your team of the week?
1:53
Or maybe it's like the team, the spotlight team.
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We can work out how we want to, how we want to describe this.
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But if I say OK, match week 15, we're coming right off of it.
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What's the flashbulb in your mind?
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Who is Dino's Team of the Week? I gotta say, I was really
2:12
impressed with what the Courage did against the Spirit.
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This was a team that on the road, big time struggles.
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Yeah, seven Rd. matches this season, you're looking at it, no
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wins, no draws, 7 losses. So you get a team like that
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heading to Washington, one of the hottest teams in the league.
2:30
I mean, we've spent a ton of air time talking about their
2:32
attackers and just kind of everything that they've got
2:34
going on. I got to say I was very
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impressed with what the Courage did.
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Tremendous, tremendous effort. The Courage played my Orlando
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Pride a couple weeks back and we joined our friends at the Loud
2:46
and Proud Orlando Podcast, did a little preview on it, and I
2:49
remember saying, OK, we're going to North Carolina.
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That's going to be tough. They're a really good team at
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home. But I feel like this one's going
2:55
to be dictated by who gets to play ball their way.
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And I think the way the Courage play ball when they play their
3:01
kind of game, very, very impressive.
3:04
So I went back because I just wanted to look at one stat.
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I'm like, this team seems to possess a lot of the ball.
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That was a real formula against Washington.
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So in 13 of the courages, 15 matches this season, they won
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the possession battle 13 out of 15.
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The only times they didn't win it was 5050 against Orlando,
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5050 against Gotham. OK, they've never lost some
3:26
possession battle all season, and it really shows.
3:30
I mean, what did you take away from that performance?
3:32
The main take away from this match is that the Kurds just
3:35
have an ability to just kind of smother your offensive attack
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where they can just kind of push you into areas where you don't
3:42
want to be, kind of keep you going backwards, kind of make
3:45
you reset your offense a lot of times.
3:47
I mean, I think the book is out there on Felly Roush, who is
3:50
just one of the better defenders in the world, Narumi Mira, one
3:54
of their defensive midfielders out of Japan, Denise O'Sullivan
3:57
playing beside her. Like they have players who just
4:00
make life difficult on attacking players.
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And I got to say I didn't totally see it coming when you
4:08
have a team that has Rodman, Bethune and SAR.
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So I just walk away from it incredibly impressed.
4:14
Yeah, I mean, Bethune specifically had a rough day.
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She just looked like she was on the the wrong frequency in this
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one and I think you have to credit the Courage defensively
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for just throwing looks at Bethune that she wasn't really
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able to decode. You mentioned Denise O'Sullivan,
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defensive midfielder for the Courage.
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What a monster game. O'Sullivan had 80 touches.
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That's her second highest to season 4 tackles, season high 6
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interceptions, season high six blocks.
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She was everywhere harassing Ashley Sanchez.
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She gets the revenge goal, obviously.
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She gets traded from the Spirit for the 5th pick.
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That becomes how Hirsch felt. She had an Instagram post to
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quote Sanchez here. Shocked and heartbroken to be
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leaving such a special place as her.
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Goodbye Washington Post shocked and heartbroken.
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Sort of feels like maybe this trade might have caught her off
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guard. But props to Sanchez.
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She Nets the revenge goal becomes the difference in the
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match. They get a monster win, their
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first, their first non loss in the road this season.
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And then walking away from this one.
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I couldn't help but think if the Courage can play this type of
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defense and also show this type of chemistry where it's not just
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that they're stopping attacks, they just seem to be in perfect
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position. The passing is crisp.
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They're out passing teams. They're out possessing teams.
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There's been some murmurs about 2023 NWSLMVP Ketoline maybe
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starting to work up a sweat and some training.
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We've talked about the length of the season.
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We talked last week about maybe teams prioritizing de
5:46
prioritizing the cup shield door a door B.
5:49
Which door do we want to go down here?
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The courage feel like a team if they can get a kettle lean back
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playing this style of play like knockout football.
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It's like right, we know what we got to do.
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Let's just hold the Fort. Let's be smart, let's possess,
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let's connect our passes and you put a player like that back up
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top. I mean, you look back to last
6:07
year, they got knocked out by Gotham.
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No Ketilene in that one. I think the injury happened
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maybe right before that, but right, I don't know.
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Could there be something here come playoff time?
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Yeah, man, that is a pretty interesting prospect.
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The MVP coming back, you mentioned it, she was hurt in
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either the final match or the 2nd to last match at the end of
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last season, playing so fantastic that she secured the
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MVP before then, wasn't involved in the playoff loss.
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Even if she's able to kind of, you know, just give you 25
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minutes or 20 minutes in the first match and kind of just
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start to work her way back. The Courage also signed 26 year
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old forward slash midfielder Courtney Vine out of the A
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League in Australia, one of the breakout stars of of the past
6:51
World Cup. I think Tyler Lucy has played
6:54
well for the Courage, but if you swap her out at kind of a left
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attacking midfielder and you put Courtney Vine there and now you
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also put Ketoline, the last year's MVP, into the lineup, and
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this team is already in a playoff position and we're
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looking at an extremely, extremely dangerous side.
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Absolutely. And I think another shout out to
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Ashley Sanchez, who I think has been kind of carrying a lot.
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Yeah, you know, on on her shoulders and and able to be
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productive. And this was just such a huge
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hump to get over. This team had struggled mightily
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on the road. And this was a very, very
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losable, losable match. No midweek, you know, no midweek
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matchup to kind of find some tired legs on the other side.
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Like this was a straight up all right, we got to go to their
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house. And I mean, the performance was
7:41
like Washington just couldn't get anything going.
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And I think when you look back kind of recontextualized a lot
7:46
of the season just pick, okay, well, we know Kettle leans out,
7:49
but if they are able to inject a player like that back into the
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lineup, you know, we've talked about this with other teams.
7:54
It kind of like moves everybody down a peg with regard to like.
7:57
And then now the other 910 players don't have to carry so
8:01
much weight. It's more evenly distributed.
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And she's such a home run hitter that I don't know knockout
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football. I wouldn't want to see that
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team. And, and what's fun is now the
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Courage sits in 6th, the Spirit sit in 3rd.
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So if the playoffs start tomorrow, wow, these two teams
8:17
would go heads up once again. Yeah, that's fantastic.
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I mean, you know, I love a good game of if the playoffs started
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today, it's one of the greatest, one of the greatest games you
8:27
could possibly play in any sports conversation.
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I think we'll talk about it more later.
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Do you have anything else on the courage?
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Nothing more in the courage. I want to shift gears and I want
8:38
to see and hear about what team caught your eye?
8:42
What What What teams in in Grant Spotlight this weekend?
8:45
All right, so Speaking of teams in that second-half of the
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playoff standings, I think we both kind of had the same idea
8:51
when we thought about doing these spotlights.
8:54
Give me the Chicago Red Stars. They notch a three nil victory
9:00
at San Diego over the wave now. A struggling wave, a wave that
9:05
is in a lot of flux. I think it's an impressive win
9:07
nonetheless. Definitely impressive.
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Definitely, definitely impressive.
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I couldn't help but we talked a lot of wave on the show this
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past few weeks. What's the opposite of a new
9:16
manager bounce? Is it new manager thud?
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A new manager splat? I mean, I don't know, we'll work
9:23
on the branding, but the bounce didn't quite bounce this
9:27
weekend. They looked as flat as a
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pancake, but not. That's not to take away anything
9:32
from Chicago, who I think played really, really well.
9:34
And they got some magic from that future Olympian up front.
9:37
100% So I'm going to I'm going to run through a couple of
9:40
things here. So and let's just get the rest
9:43
of the San Diego stuff out of the way.
9:44
So yeah, very interesting week to say the least.
9:47
They fired their Shield winning manager Casey Stoney days prior,
9:50
but they also had to kind of deal with the news that Alex
9:53
Morgan was not selected to the Olympic squad.
9:56
I feel like that was something that was kind of like hovering
9:58
around. You have to answer questions
9:59
about it, not saying it takes anything away.
10:01
Then you kind of have this interesting situation of like
10:04
there's Girma, there's Jaden Shaw, and now you kind of have
10:08
Alex Morgan, the icon there just dangling out there.
10:11
So there's that Red Stars manager and I believe I could
10:14
fairly say into the channel favorite Lauren Donaldson said
10:17
pre match that he expected San Diego to come out like quote, a
10:22
pack of wild hyenas. End Quote.
10:25
This was mentioned a couple times to chuckles over the
10:27
broadcast. It is a funny quote.
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I'll say this about our pal Lauren.
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That was pretty much the only thing he got wrong on Friday
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because the wave did not come out like hyenas unless hyenas
10:39
are known for not being organized, which maybe maybe
10:42
that was what he secretly meant. But.
10:44
Do hyenas hibernate? An interesting question.
10:48
Who knows, but I think when you looked at the Red Stars, they
10:51
were good on set pieces. They did creative stuff, whether
10:54
it was corners or free kicks, Hannah Anderson at center back,
10:58
Carrie Recaro in the midfield. They were doing nice work
11:00
defensively. You already know what time it is
11:03
if you know Lauren Donaldson's background with the Jamaican
11:05
national team in the 2023 World Cup.
11:07
That dude knows how to get defensive, buy in and get a
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defense organized. Chicago had 39% of the ball.
11:15
In this match. They only had 27% of the ball in
11:19
the second-half, but I will say the wave, they looked a little
11:23
dangerous in some spots. They had maybe a little less
11:27
than a handful of spots where I thought maybe somebody could
11:29
have scored, but they did not look that threatening.
11:32
And a lot of those shots that they took barely even phased to
11:35
listen there. Yeah, I mean, even you look at
11:38
Morgan's penalty cake. Talk about not phasing a listen
11:41
to her. I don't really want to have the
11:43
Alex Morgan conversation again, but I think there just might be
11:46
something too. She's such a huge figure.
11:49
We've talked about, you know, the Mamba in LARIP Kobe towards
11:53
the back half of not the back half towards the end of his
11:56
career, he became so big in stature that the players just
12:01
had to find a spot to stand where they weren't going to
12:04
just, you know, rustle up against Kobe and and kind of
12:06
what he was doing. I think there is a little bit of
12:08
that with this wave side and now with Casey Stoney out.
12:12
I'm not going to say I expect them to figure out, you know,
12:14
how to re reorient the offense and find situations where they
12:19
can extract more value, more productivity from Morgan.
12:22
I think she still definitely got it in the tank, but for sure the
12:25
setup that they've got, it's not working at all.
12:29
Yeah, they look like a complete and absolute mess.
12:32
They don't look like a team that could beat any other team in the
12:35
league. I don't think Utah AFC.
12:37
I think on a neutral field, I'm picking probably any other team
12:42
right now, considering how they've looked.
12:45
We see this often, not only in football, in other sports as
12:47
well, where a team will quit on their coach.
12:49
Yeah. Now I kind of raised the
12:52
question when the Casey Stoney news broke.
12:55
It doesn't quite feel right. It kind of feels like one of
12:57
those moves were right. We signed a bunch of players.
12:59
We may. You spend a lot of money.
13:00
It's not working. I don't know, fire the coach.
13:03
I wouldn't be surprised if if that was the thought process.
13:06
And I also commented, all right, we're going to see we're going
13:09
to see how much of the issue was the manager.
13:12
And I think usually the new manager bounce is often
13:16
correlated with like, all right, get this fucking guy out of here
13:18
or whoever, right? Like like let's just let's just
13:21
start over. But it does feel like this isn't
13:24
a team that has quit on their coach, but maybe it's a team
13:26
that has quit on their organization because they looked
13:30
worse to my eye than they than they had in previous weeks.
13:34
That's not usually what you see when a manager kind of gets
13:37
bounced. Very curious to to get your
13:40
opinion on that. It's an interesting point.
13:42
It's bold too. You win the shield the year
13:45
prior. Can it go South that quickly?
13:48
We've seen it happen with teams like, to your point, across
13:51
multiple sports. It's a tale as old as athletics
13:54
itself that you know, you lose the buy in something happens in
13:58
the locker room. We haven't done any reporting on
14:01
that. They looked worse.
14:02
We started this by talking about the Chicago Red Stars and what
14:05
they're able to do. And we've also talked well, we
14:08
talked about the new manager bounce teams try to time it and
14:12
maybe the powers that be in San Diego thought you OK?
14:15
We have a home match against a mid table team like Chicago
14:19
Firestone. We try to do the reset.
14:21
Maybe we get a draw out of this. Maybe we get a win out of this.
14:24
We changed the trajectory. There might not be a coach that
14:27
I would want to coach against less than Lauren Donaldson.
14:32
There's a little bit of disarray in my team and he can just work
14:36
with with very talented defenders and one of the best
14:39
goalkeepers in the league in Chicago and be like, oh, you
14:42
guys are frustrated. I have like six more things that
14:45
my side can do that I know my players are good enough to
14:48
execute that are just going to continue to frustrate the hell
14:50
out of you. And I will tell you if you look
14:52
at Chicago's stats. This is courtesy of our pals
14:55
over at FB Ref. Chicago has never had more than
14:59
50% of the ball in a league match this season.
15:03
The most they have had the ball was 47% possession versus the
15:08
Thorns and that was in a 2 nil loss at home in Chicago or
15:13
outside of Chicago where they play.
15:15
So Speaking of playing at home, verse away, Chicago is two wins,
15:22
0 draws, 5 losses at home. And now after this victory in
15:27
San Diego, they are four wins, 2 draws, 2 losses away.
15:32
And I just think you have a combination of players and a
15:36
scheme and just a style and identity that if you're already
15:41
frustrated, you're not in for any relief when you go up and
15:44
play against them. That's a great point.
15:47
I was thinking about this Chicago team specifically.
15:50
They kind of remind me of the Leicester City team that won the
15:53
title. That's where you've got Swanson,
15:56
Jamie, you've already spot. You know, maybe Angola Contes, I
16:00
don't know, we'll swap him in for Sam Staab.
16:02
Maybe, you know, in terms of like just impactful, even though
16:04
the midfield defender, they're great goalkeeping, but it's
16:08
really just like we're just going to sit back.
16:09
We're going to kind of like play it cool.
16:11
We're not going to panic. You can go full hyena on us,
16:14
sure. But then when the time comes, we
16:17
know what to do. And they they absolutely got it
16:19
done. Like this Chicago team, when you
16:22
think about did Chicago really take this one or did the wave
16:25
kind of give this one away? It's pretty much 100% of both.
16:28
Sure. Like I think the wave kind of
16:30
rolled over and Chicago came in and laid the smackdown.
16:33
Like this team should not be three goals better on the road
16:37
at San Diego. But credit to them.
16:39
They were like, all right, well, if you're if you're going to
16:40
come out here at 70 to 80% speed and not really match our level,
16:46
not really match our intensity, we're going to embarrass you.
16:48
And I think that's kind of what we saw.
16:50
I love that they play. I, I think it's right.
16:52
I think they play with that attitude.
16:54
And I think when you watch Stubb and Swanson on the field, I know
16:58
we we always point them out specifically.
17:01
They play with that kind of attitude themselves.
17:04
Nair. Yeah, Nair too.
17:05
I mean, she will stare you down, stop your penalty kick and then
17:08
go and blast one past your keeper.
17:10
So. So let me ask you some.
17:12
Let me give you a hypothetical here.
17:14
Oh, at first, before I do that, Ellie Schlegel didn't even play
17:17
in this match. She has four goals on the
17:19
season, matching Penelope Hawking's four goals.
17:22
Mallory Swanson has six. Let me give you a situation
17:25
here. So I have a team, and my team
17:28
has one of the five best forwards in the league.
17:31
I've also gotten at least one goal out of 10 players on my
17:35
squad. I have one of the best two or
17:38
three goalkeepers in the league, I have a defense anchored by one
17:42
of the best centre backs in the league, I have a manager with a
17:45
proven track record of playing a successful defensive counter
17:49
attacking style, and my team has proven it can win on the road.
17:53
So, serious question, do you think this team has enough to
17:58
win three games in a row? I would say depends on the
18:02
opponent. Sure.
18:03
I think there are some offenses where if you give them enough of
18:07
the ball, they'll just outlast you, break you down, wear you
18:12
down. I'm thinking of Kansas City
18:14
specifically. Yep.
18:16
Just a quick sidebar there. The dash, pretty good showing.
18:20
You know, defensively, like they're pesky, they're scrappy.
18:23
You know, Tarsiani made a mess of a couple, a couple of
18:25
situations there, but 90 plus minutes of temo showing go do
18:28
that to pretty much anybody. But I think defensively they
18:31
held up pretty well. But ultimately, you know, they
18:35
broke through. If you kind of play that game
18:37
against some of the teams at the very top, there's only so much
18:40
Mal Swanson magic. You know, I'm glad you mentioned
18:42
Hawking. You know, I think she's she's
18:44
been a great Robin to, you know, Mal Swanson's Batman here, like
18:47
a, you know, just a great secondary option, really
18:50
productive, really exciting player as well.
18:53
I think it's possible. I mean Swanson would have to hit
18:56
God level basically, which is not out of the question.
19:00
Yes, I would agree. You couple a few Nair
19:03
performances, some Lauren Donaldson whiteboard Magic, some
19:08
Mouse Swanson on the pitch Magic, and they could they could
19:11
absolutely win three in a row, you know, especially, you know,
19:14
come crunch time down the stretch or in the playoffs.
19:16
But would I pick it? Not sure I would pick it.
19:19
And for good reason, my Goodman, because they have yet to win
19:22
three games in a row this season.
19:25
I'm not saying it's completely out of the realm of possibility.
19:27
But the reason I bring this up is that if you think about all
19:30
those factors, I do think when you enter the playoffs and we've
19:34
talked about this, I think you and I have agreed with our pal
19:38
John Rollins over at Loud and Proud Orlando that the NWSL
19:42
Shield, that feels like the title, that feels like the best
19:46
representation, who's the best team.
19:48
But winning the NWSL championship, that's a three
19:51
match cup essentially going from 8:00 to 4:00 to 2:00 with one
19:56
winner obviously. Now three Supernova Swanson
20:00
performances in a row I don't think is completely off the
20:03
board. 3 Supernova Nair performances in a row,
20:06
definitely not off the board to get them at the exact same time.
20:10
We're starting to run low on our probability charts if you want
20:14
to look at it this way. But I think if you are a Chicago
20:18
Red Star. Fan will play one of our
20:20
favorite games. If the playoffs started today,
20:22
they would be playing the team that you're wearing on your
20:25
shirt right now. And I do think that is one of
20:30
the squads that you mention. If you give enough chances, if
20:33
they are in your defensive 3rd for most of the match, it's
20:38
almost impossible to withstand Bonda and Marta, Doyle, Adriana,
20:44
all those great players. So I will say, I think they're
20:47
live going into the playoffs. I think that's what they're
20:50
looking for. I don't think they have quite
20:52
enough to contend. I think they pretty clearly
20:54
don't have enough to contend for the shield now, but they have
20:57
the bones of a team that can compete for the shield moving
21:00
forward. We'll see.
21:01
You know, how much money they start spending, who they who
21:03
they're able to acquire. But I think if you're a Red
21:05
Stars fan, I think you go into the playoffs going, I don't
21:08
know, can we win in Orlando? Maybe we can.
21:11
But I also think you would like to maybe scoot up the standings
21:14
a little bit to avoid Banda in the first match of the playoffs,
21:19
yeah. I would even say it's going to
21:21
be interesting because a team like Chicago, a team with like
21:25
real defensive DNA and you know, can flip the field with Swanson
21:29
and Hawking up there very quickly.
21:31
They got to be trying to think about positioning against KC.
21:35
In my picture, because that Orlando defense, I tweeted it, I
21:39
think we're at 295 or 297 straight minutes, not counting
21:44
stoppage time of clean sheet footballs in the NWSL where
21:49
teams are just going bananas scoring goals.
21:53
I think Swanson would probably be more excited about a current
21:57
matchup than a pride matchup. But to your point, it's not just
22:00
winning three in a row now, it's winning three in a row against
22:03
playoff teams, against top 8. And if you're and all of a
22:07
sudden, if you're in that 5 to 8 range, you also have to go on
22:10
the road. And this isn't the same.
22:12
This isn't exactly the same as what's happening in North
22:14
Carolina where you've got an MVP, maybe possibly working your
22:18
way back. The Chicago team is loosely the
22:20
team. I definitely agree with you.
22:21
I think they could get hot. I could see this team definitely
22:24
winning one playoff matchup in upset fashion.
22:27
And then from there, it's like, can you string 2 together?
22:30
We see this corollary in the NBA a lot.
22:32
Who's the best player? Who's the best player on the
22:34
floor? Who's the best player in the
22:35
pitch? If you got the best player in
22:37
the pitch, you've always got a chance.
22:39
That is where you raise such a good point about it's not just
22:41
winning three in a row, it's winning three in a row against
22:43
playoff teams. If you have to play against
22:46
Barbara Banda, as much as we like Mel Swanson, Mel Swanson is
22:51
now firmly the second best player on the pitch.
22:54
That's no slight against Mel Swanson.
22:56
Obviously no shame in being 2nd place there.
22:59
So obviously you should be encouraged by 4 draws or pardon
23:02
me, by four wins, 2 draws, 2 losses on the road.
23:05
Not the ideal scenario. You might want to play a home
23:08
playoff match, but something to look for.
23:10
And I just think there's, there's some good reason for
23:13
optimism in Chicago. But I, I do want to touch on
23:16
another point you made the interesting thing, and I'm, it
23:19
is much maligned on this podcast that we don't have any real
23:22
visibility into the NWSL salary cap on these teams and their
23:25
situation and how much money they're spending and all that
23:28
stuff. I don't know, maybe when the
23:29
August 1st transfer window opens up or maybe in these coming
23:33
weeks we might see who's out. They're available for Chicago to
23:36
sign. I I got to think it's a
23:38
relatively attractive location to lure free agents, especially
23:42
if they're passing out bags with it.
23:44
So it'll be interesting to see how much of this is their team.
23:48
They piqued my interest with anytime you win three nil away,
23:51
I don't care if the other team is in disarray, you get a three
23:54
nil win away. I'm probably going to put the
23:56
spotlight on you for the week. Yeah, that's a great call.
23:59
I was just doing, uh, some quick Googling here.
24:02
It does appear that Fran Kirby is still in the free agent pool.
24:05
Oh boy. I think, I think a player like
24:07
that would be an interesting fit in Chicago.
24:09
Yeah, well, you know, we're out here flexing some GM chops, Jim.
24:12
Just saying in case there's any any openings anywhere.
24:15
Yeah, we're available. Absolutely want to shift gears
24:17
though, so we hit our teams that we want to spotlight now.
24:20
I also want to do that on the player side, a little bit of a
24:23
player spotlight. This week I took a close look at
24:26
Kansas City. Current Claire Hutton, 18 years
24:29
old, kind of has a little bit of like a young Kira Walsh kind of
24:32
vibe. It just keeps the ball moving.
24:35
I think past completion wise, she's she's decent, but this is
24:39
an 18 year old player. She's the youngest player in the
24:41
league to top 1000 minutes out of 84 total players and she's
24:45
well over a thousand 1268 total and she's topped 25 in minutes
24:50
in the entire league. She's appeared in all 15
24:52
matches. Second most minutes on her team
24:54
first if you count non goalkeepers.
24:57
She's also second on the team in progressive passes.
24:59
This one I loved. She leads the entire league in
25:02
plus minus plus 20. Nice while she's on the pitch.
25:05
Now if you pull the minutes out of there and say OK, what's
25:09
what's the plus minus per 90? She's still 9th.
25:12
She's still top ten. This is an 18 year old Blair at
25:15
plus 1.42. That's what her teams are doing.
25:18
Her plus 20 on the season is 3 better than Temujuwinga Wow,
25:22
who's also appeared in 15 matches.
25:23
So she's clearly having an impact.
25:26
She's a young player with pedigree.
25:28
So she first represented the US Under 17 national team at the
25:31
2022 CONCACAF Women's U-17 Championship.
25:35
She scored six goals there. They won the tournament.
25:37
This is a player definitely, definitely on the US WNT radar
25:41
and she's just been excellent. I think her name first came up
25:44
when we were having the rookie of the year conversation and
25:46
we're like, OK, or it's talking Bethune, talking Sentinore, you
25:49
know, a couple outsiders. I'm the Seers Hirschfeld and
25:52
somebody's like what Claire Hutton, she's got to be, he's
25:54
got to be in the conversation. And I think I was like, OK, like
25:57
I need to really kind of like reconsider that.
25:58
And then just watching her in this one, she's just so steady
26:02
and stature wise, she also doesn't look like an 18 year old
26:05
player. She looks like an athletic
26:08
centerpiece type player, so I'm just extremely excited to see
26:13
where she goes and a little bit unlike some of the teams that we
26:16
covered previously, this current team is going to be in the mix
26:19
for the shield. They're going to be in the mix
26:21
for the cup. They're going to be in the mix
26:23
for a top two seed, maybe the top seed.
26:26
So we're going to get to see Hutton play some big time, big
26:29
time interviewer self football this season.
26:30
Yeah, 100%. I mean, I like the words you
26:33
used. Steady, great stature,
26:36
consistent. You mentioned 15 matches played,
26:39
fourteen of them starts. Only two yellow cards.
26:42
For a player who is in a lot of times in a defensive midfield
26:46
type position. She's in the 88th percentile
26:49
compared to other midfielders in terms of aerial duels 1 She's
26:52
also in the 87th percentile in shot attempts.
26:55
Now, she does not have a goal on the season, but that's not what
27:00
she's there for Kansas City. So that steadiness, she might
27:04
not be a Sharpie player for for Kansas City right now, but I
27:07
don't know. I mean, if you played 1200
27:09
nearly 12170 minutes throughout the season, maybe you are a
27:12
Sharpie player. But at the very worst, she's in
27:14
there in Penn and you know, she's giving you good minutes
27:17
and knows how to play within the system.
27:19
I think this is a great shout for her.
27:21
And you know, whoever was shouting her out for our rookie
27:23
at the year conversation, that is absolutely an informed
27:26
opinion. And I and I appreciate them
27:28
bringing it up and, and you kind of bringing these stats to light
27:31
because you're right. Like I just kind of see her out
27:33
there. I'm like, Oh yeah, she's one of
27:34
those players where it's like good play by Hutton.
27:36
And then you just kind of keep it moving.
27:38
It's like, oh, Chiwenga BIA de Bernardo is like all these other
27:41
players, but absolutely a key cog in the machine at such a
27:44
young age. Exciting player for the
27:46
prospects of the national team as well.
27:48
That's a perfect encapsulation of what it's like watching her
27:51
game. Like, oh good play, good play by
27:53
Hutton. Oh nice, nice play.
27:54
Nice read there by Hutton. Nothing extravagant, but it's
27:57
just consistent. Claire Hutton, that that's my
28:00
very first player spotlight here on the ITC.
28:03
I'm into this. I kind of want to keep it going.
28:04
It gives me another thing to kind of like key in on on the
28:07
weekend. Very excited to hear who you've
28:09
got your player spotlight on. I like it and now we can just
28:12
try it. We can try to duel each other on
28:14
who can be more of a football hipster, who can name the most
28:17
obscure player, the player who's not getting enough attention and
28:21
then put our spotlight on them. So I'm I'm up for the challenge
28:23
as long as we have the viewers vote and I win some vote
28:29
eventually. I mean my God, okay, I digress.
28:34
Who do I want to spotlight? I think this is worthy of A2
28:37
beer show. We've been to take people behind
28:40
the curtain. I think Dino mentioned we're
28:42
working on our if I can work this cannon, there we go.
28:46
We're working a little overtime. We're recording some of these
28:49
Olympic previews. Stay tuned for that.
28:51
We'll get to that later though. So for my player spotlight
28:54
worthy of this two beer show, I'm going with your Orlando
28:57
Pride midfielder Adriana. Bit of an obvious pick here.
29:02
Let's go. But I think there are some
29:04
numbers kind of underlying this performance.
29:06
So obviously an impressive 3 nil win on the road in LA for your
29:12
Pride against Angel City. Adriana has a brace.
29:16
Let's go back to the beginning of the season.
29:17
So in Adriana's first six appearances this season, four of
29:22
which we will call in the time of 2024 BB, which is before
29:28
Banda, Adriana was primarily listed as a forward or a winger.
29:34
In that time, she accounted for 1.1 XG and 1.2 XAG expected
29:40
assisted goals. Since then, she's had her
29:43
placement in the squad mixed up by Seb Hines and her positions
29:47
listed on the pitch have either primarily been a midfielder or a
29:51
winger for the majority of time. And a lot of the time she's
29:54
lining up right behind Banda. But you can tell from watching
29:57
the matches, and I'll be curious to ask you about this that it
29:59
feels like she has a great deal of of freedom to kind of move
30:03
around. But since May 11th, her next six
30:06
appearances since playing more as a bit of an attacking
30:09
midfielder, your traditional midfielder, a winger, Andreana
30:13
has accounted for three expected goals and 1:00 .6 expected
30:18
assisted goals. And here's the interesting part
30:21
about it to me is that her touches and her carries have not
30:25
even gone up by any real significant margin.
30:28
And her pass completion percentage hasn't really
30:31
skyrocketed either. That's been pretty kind of
30:33
living in that mid 70s kind of range.
30:36
So I will see to your expertise here as somebody who watches
30:41
this team as closely as anybody in media.
30:44
The opinion that I'm going to throw out here, or maybe the
30:46
theory that I'm going to throw out here, is that I just think
30:49
Adriana's Brazilian footballing supercomputer of a brain just
30:55
needed a little more time to efficiently recognize when to
30:59
trail plays, when to lead the attack, and kind of how to fit
31:04
in place next to a supernova like Banda.
31:07
What have you been seeing from her?
31:09
I'm gonna actually zoom out to the whole season.
31:10
Yeah, I think I've seen a lot of up and down play from Adriana,
31:15
and not because she's been up and down, but it really is like
31:19
it's sort of a chess piece type argument.
31:21
I talked last week about just how Orlando was like just
31:24
throwing eight players forward and just being like, all right,
31:27
let's see you contend with this. Even with that approach, it kind
31:30
of felt like the offense was still not, you know, it's sort
31:33
of like an engine running. You could still hear some some
31:36
some stuff knocking around there.
31:37
It didn't have that clean purr to it.
31:40
Yeah. But when I saw this lineup and
31:42
I'm like, Oh my God, Banda and Adriana up front, because we've
31:45
seen Banda and Marta. We've seen Banda and Ali Watt.
31:48
We've seen like, I think we've seen Bond alone and like three
31:51
behind her. We've seen, we've seen a lot of
31:53
different permutations of this. I think this is the first time
31:55
we've seen Adity and Banda just as the two heads of the snake.
32:00
Yeah, they each play their own game, but they seem to be kind
32:03
of like perfect complements to each other, like a little little
32:06
bit of Luca Kyrie. Like, they both are explosive,
32:09
but they've got different bags. But Oddity has like the skills,
32:14
the creativity. She brings that Brazilian flair,
32:18
and she's explosive. And I think like, she just can
32:21
hit a ceiling. Remember we talked about this
32:23
too a couple weeks ago? It was like, who's going to be
32:25
their number 2 and if Orlando gets their number two?
32:28
We talked about the three in Washington.
32:30
We talked about the two in KC, and then, you know, the whole
32:33
offensive package that they've got.
32:34
I was really looking to this Orlando side saying who's going
32:37
to be Banda's running partner through the end of the season
32:40
and then seeing oddly up there, I mean, it looked unguardable.
32:43
Yeah, pick your poison. And that's the most kind of pick
32:46
your poison type situation that I've seen I think all season.
32:49
Like there just was no good answer that Angel City was going
32:53
to be able to put forward to be able to stop that attack.
32:55
I think on that first, so you have Banda, she kind of starts
33:00
to veer to the left and she draws the attention.
33:03
You have March on the left hand side with her.
33:05
And then here comes Audrey and March is able to serve the ball
33:08
in to get it to her in a little bit of space to where she can
33:11
get the ball onto her shooting foot.
33:13
And then she hits that absolute missile into the top of that.
33:17
No chance for heritage. And that's kind of what I was
33:20
what I was looking at. I think what you're alluding to
33:23
here is that you just need to get her in the space where if
33:28
you're picking your poison and your poison is to try to take
33:31
away Banda, or pardon me, maybe you think the antidote is we're
33:35
going to try to to take away Banda.
33:37
Now the poison you have picked is this Brazilian superstar
33:42
Adriana, who's able to get the ball and fire with a little bit
33:45
of space. Who's running right at you?
33:47
Who has you on your back foot, you know, and can just uncork
33:52
one like that? Like, that's just ridiculous.
33:55
And then I love Marta and more of a midfield world too.
33:57
Sure, because she still has all the ball skills.
34:00
She'll take it a little spinner Rooney and just kind of leave
34:03
you, leave you in a puddle and just kind of keep the offense
34:06
moving. And then, yeah, just
34:08
offensively, this team is really cooking defensively as well
34:11
mentioned, you know, now we're up to 15 matches, eleven goals
34:14
allowed at some point, something to score a twelve goal in this
34:17
team. We'll see if it happens before
34:18
the end of the season maybe. But yeah, your islanding point
34:20
is is so on the money. It's a combination of her
34:23
playing off of Banda. That's the other benefit when
34:27
you don't have her in the midfield, when you're in the
34:28
midfield. But she's sort of like playing
34:30
within a unit playing off of Banda.
34:32
Like, you know, Banda covers so much ground that she just might
34:36
pull two or three defenders out near the corner flag.
34:39
And then that opens up a ton of space for, you know, the
34:42
explosive striking ability of Oddity and her creativity.
34:45
So I don't want to jump the gun and say Seth Hines really
34:49
unlocks something here, but it is possible.
34:51
Sure. I think if we start to see
34:53
performances like that from those two up front, a little bit
34:55
of like, you know, what Bay FC I think tried to put together with
34:58
with O'shawala Kundanaji hasn't quite coalesced all the way.
35:02
But if we get more of this from Orlando and there is an
35:05
absolutely credible number two option, you know A1 plus XG type
35:10
player when she's playing next to Bonda upfront, that changes
35:13
this team ceiling. Yeah, totally.
35:15
It actually reminds me of something that our pal Chris
35:18
Sharples, the zone commentator, was talking about when the our
35:22
UEFA Women's Champions League final recap episode.
35:25
Go back and check that episode out if you're interested.
35:27
But when he was talking about Caroline Graham Hanson, CGH for
35:31
Barcelona, and he referred to her kind of coming in off the
35:34
wing as like a little bit of old school football, a little bit of
35:38
like 1990s, early 2000s style of football where you just have
35:42
this incredible winger out there, this attacking winger
35:46
who's running at you from the side and creating all these
35:48
weird angles. For me, you know, when we were
35:51
growing up and women's football was not quite available to
35:53
watch, like Thierry Henry is that guy in my mind.
35:57
He was the winger who was just unstoppable.
36:01
And now you kind of see it with CGH and you see it with a lot of
36:03
other like Trinity Rodman is a great example.
36:06
You see now Swanson do it. You see Sophia Smith do it kind
36:08
of for the national team depending in their spots.
36:11
If you have that with Adriana and you have, like you pointed
36:15
out, Marta still has the skills. Marta at worst one of the five
36:20
best number 10s in the NWSL, like at worst one of the 10 to
36:24
15 best at 38 years old still in the world.
36:28
And then Banda, now you have Adriana kind of flying in off
36:31
the wing, creating these angles with the ability to shoot, pass,
36:35
score, do everything that she can do.
36:37
Your squad is a problem, man. I mean, they can win the league.
36:40
They could win the double if we're talking about winning the
36:44
Shield and winning the NWSL championship.
36:47
They could win a damn treble if they if they want to win the
36:50
NWSL League and Mekis tournament.
36:52
I mean what? What's the ceiling on this
36:54
squad? I can't find it.
36:55
Again, you know, like this is a team that hasn't lost all
36:58
season, right? You just got to scoot over that
37:01
part. Like, you know, like they're, I
37:03
mean, KC in Orlando is still unbeaten 15 matches in.
37:07
We're getting dangerously close to one or maybe both these teams
37:10
might be able to reach the finish line unbeaten.
37:12
That'd be wild. But they just look like on
37:14
another level. I think both these teams I
37:16
tweeted also Hafaela, who's been sort of in and out of the
37:20
lineup, made an appearance in this one.
37:21
The 10 * 1 of her cleats has touched a blade of grass.
37:25
It's ten wins, no draws, no losses like her teams, whether
37:29
it's the Orlando Pride or the Brazilian national team, they
37:32
just do not lose when she plays. And all of a sudden, this team
37:35
looks extremely loaded and they seem to have found a little bit
37:40
of a recipe offensively to potentially match, you know,
37:43
this elite defense. Yeah, that's a great point.
37:45
It's going to be interesting to see can the defense continue to
37:49
keep up, maybe not quite this pace, but something close to it.
37:54
But I got to tell you, what evidence do we have that they're
37:56
not going to like, they look Goodman, they look solid, they
38:00
look smart. You talk about Heinz and the
38:02
organization and the competitiveness within the
38:05
roster of like these players challenging each other for
38:08
playing time, but still they play so connected on top of
38:11
that. So it's not like everybody's
38:13
beefing trying to get minutes on the field.
38:15
It's just like, I know there are cliches about this.
38:18
I'll tell you what I'm a sucker for.
38:20
I am a sucker for when a team is playing well and when a player
38:25
scores a goal, everybody runs and hugs that player.
38:29
Or when somebody misses a pass that the forward just looks,
38:33
looks up and goes thumbs up, hey, good idea, good pass.
38:36
I like that you see that with this pride team, somebody hits
38:39
the deck. I know you're Miami Heat are
38:40
famous for this. Somebody hits the ground,
38:42
somebody runs over to them and immediately pulls them up.
38:45
It helps them get up. Like you cannot tell me and I
38:48
know it's corny. I know it's sports, cliche.
38:50
If you have a sense of love and togetherness in a team sport,
38:55
that absolutely helps. And so I'm going a little off
38:58
the board with some kind of maybe some woo woo stuff here.
39:01
But I feel like your squad has that combined with skill,
39:04
combined with world class players, combined with good
39:07
coaching, combined with like a just an over all good
39:10
organizational culture, if I may use the C word here, that you're
39:15
Miami Heat loves so much. I just think they have all of
39:18
that. And I just think you guys are
39:19
super live to win. And I know Adriano, she scores a
39:22
brace. I pick her as my player
39:24
spotlight. I think she's emblematic of a
39:26
lot of things that your team is doing right, right now.
39:28
Absolutely, because it's within her role.
39:31
That's a great point. It was a lot of stuff today on
39:34
the men's side of the EUR with Portugal and Ronaldo and a lot
39:37
of discourse on one former legend, or I guess current
39:42
legend, maybe not sort of finding a new role as seamlessly
39:45
as maybe Adiana has. But that's one of the beauties
39:48
of this Orlando side is they're still working stuff out.
39:51
But you don't feel like anybody pressing.
39:53
You don't feel like March is trying to get one because Banda
39:55
got one. It does feel absolutely
39:58
interconnected. The chemistry is great, the
40:01
vibes are great. You know, if I'm going to be a
40:03
little bit critical, committing so many players forward, like
40:06
the pride I've been doing last couple weeks, Cindy LaRue had
40:09
pretty decent look or two where it kind of felt like she was
40:11
just one-on-one on one of those chances against Emily Sam's.
40:15
You just kind of wonder if that's a different attack, a
40:17
different attacker, what that might look like.
40:19
And buddy, let me tell you, this weekend we're going to have a
40:22
nice, nice long look at a real high power.
40:27
Potent attack in Kansas City and seeing what this Orlando pride
40:31
defense looks like against that roster of of just absolute
40:35
rainmakers in KC. I'm I'm just this has sort of
40:38
Super Bowl vibes vibes to it. You know, I meant to Fact Check
40:42
this. I have to imagine this is the
40:46
most matches played for two teams that are undefeated this
40:51
late in the season that are going head to head.
40:53
It has to be. I would have to think so, yeah.
40:56
You know, so this is this will be match 16, both teams heading
41:00
into this one unbeaten. I mean, like, what are we doing
41:04
here? Like it's going to be straight
41:05
Do not disturb when this one kicks off.
41:08
Yeah, it's definitely going to be an interesting watch.
41:11
I'm with you. The phone is completely on Do
41:14
not Disturb. It's a little bit of a bummer
41:16
with the timing this close to the Olympics.
41:19
So obviously Chiwinga will play Malawi, not in the Olympics.
41:25
I'll be interested to see I I haven't seen the reporting yet,
41:27
but I I wonder if Banda is going to camp with Zambia.
41:31
I know match week 15 was the send off for a lot of the
41:36
national team players so it'll be interesting to see if Banda
41:39
is not available for the Pride. Emily Sam's is a training camp
41:44
player for the US Women's national team.
41:46
I would doubt that Sam's will be available, so we might not be
41:50
getting to see these teams play at full strength, but I'm still
41:53
totally with you. You get to see the bones of
41:55
these teams compete against each other.
41:57
I think it'll also be an interesting coaching matchup
41:59
between Heinz and Flatco. What do you keep in the chamber
42:03
to be like, OK, well maybe if Bond is not there now, what kind
42:06
of chess game am I playing to not show any cards to Vlaco?
42:10
Yeah, I really love that angle. Yeah, it is absolute bummer.
42:13
I think we're going to see more of like a preseason type vibe in
42:17
this one. Unfortunately.
42:19
I think I got myself too worked too worked up thinking about the
42:22
Clash. But if everything works out,
42:24
maybe we see these teams lock up again in the playoffs, which
42:27
would just be absolutely epic. But I think it's still going to
42:30
be a banger this weekend. Totally agree and I'm right
42:32
there with you. Last week when we were talking
42:34
about it, I was already hyping up this current pride match and
42:37
then when we got to this week, they're like send off match for
42:40
all the Olympians. I was like, oh, you're gonna
42:42
you're taking away the match that we wanted.
42:44
So it's an interesting angle from the NWSL schedule makers.
42:49
Maybe they did not expect Kansas City and Orlando to look the way
42:54
they look to make them the match right before the send off.
42:58
And right, kind of when we get into this period where it's like
43:01
we have the Olympics, but then we have the NWSL league,
43:04
Meckey's tournament, It'll be interesting to see nonetheless.
43:07
And you know what? If Tim watching is playing
43:09
football somewhere, I'm watching. 100% she's just so
43:13
incredible from player. We talked about her at the at
43:16
the top of the show, her ability to wear you down crazy.
43:19
There was that play against Houston where she's defending
43:23
the opposite end line. She tracks all the way back.
43:26
She's probably the 3rd or 4th closest to the ball as it's
43:30
passing the halfway line and by the time it gets all the way
43:32
down to near the corner flag, she's on the ball creating a
43:35
goal kick for her side. Just no business being all the
43:39
way down there harassing and she just doesn't stop.
43:41
Her engine is like unbelievable. She doesn't get tired just
43:44
putting pressure on you, just waiting for, you know, one loose
43:47
touch and she's happy to just chase.
43:49
She's just like, Oh yeah, I'll chase you every time.
43:52
I'll be a foot, two feet behind you every single time, just
43:55
waiting for that moment where you know, you put the ball where
43:58
it's not supposed to go and I make you pay.
43:59
Yeah, she gets the brace against Houston Dash.
44:02
She gets the brace in goals. But I feel like we can call
44:05
this, whether we rename it like the BBQ hat trick or whatever it
44:09
is, two goals and then one football kicked into the
44:12
Missouri River out of the out of the freaking stadium.
44:15
She blasts one. Yeah.
44:17
I mean, with that brace, she takes the lead in the Golden
44:19
Boot race. Everything about her and the way
44:21
she fits into the system, You know, we have a great race for
44:25
the shield, what will ultimately be a great race for the for the
44:28
title itself, great race for MVP and a great race for Golden
44:32
Boot. Everything is extremely alive.
44:34
And now in the middle of it, a little thing called the Olympics
44:38
that we get to watch. 12 incredible teams.
44:40
Just about as good of a spot as you could be in in women's
44:43
football right now. Yeah.
44:44
Sport just keeps on giving Yeah, the the ball that chewing put in
44:48
the river. Shout out to our guy Mike Watts,
44:50
who just about lost his mind. You know, we kind of joke, kind
44:54
of joked that he can hit eleven with the best of them and he, he
44:58
definitely hit 11, maybe maybe a little tick higher.
45:02
He he dug deep on that call. The shout out to our guy.
45:07
And yeah, absolutely on the Olympics coverage.
45:09
We just knocked out our first preview.
45:11
We talked to the great Samantha Lewis breaking down the Matildas
45:15
from Australia. We went real, real deep on that
45:18
squad as well. We're going to try to cover as
45:19
many countries, as many nations as we can.
45:23
We're going to look at this tournament from every angle.
45:25
We are ecstatic that we're just a few weeks out here, so some
45:28
NWSL business to kind of close out, but that's going to be one
45:31
hell of a tournament. How many different combinations
45:34
of eight teams do you think could make the knockout stage?
45:37
It feels like there could be 100 different combinations of eight
45:40
teams that might end up making it.
45:42
That is like an SAT problem there.
45:44
I think in terms of how many combinations.
45:47
I was very average on my SAT so I do not quite know the answer,
45:51
but we have pretty much the 12 best teams you could compile.
45:56
Obviously, this is where I say save Great Britain 'cause I
45:58
think Great Britain would be an awesome addition to this field.
46:01
I digress, but nevertheless, I think the tournament is going to
46:04
be absolutely incredible. Must watch television, much like
46:07
any kind of Tim Watcher Winger or Kansas City current match.
46:11
But yeah man, it's another summer of football.
46:13
We got a great summer of football with the World Cup last
46:16
year, a great NWSL season. The good times keep on rolling.
46:19
All right, man, I think we did it.
46:21
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
46:23
I think that's it. I like this little, you know,
46:25
couple of teams to spotlight, especially going into the break.
46:28
Couple of teams, couple of players.
46:30
I think we did our thing today. You know what next show let's do
46:33
like a full rundown of all of the big player movements like
46:36
Mary, Erps and. Do you see?
46:38
You seen Jaland? Oh yeah, she went to.
46:41
Wolfsburg. Wolfsburg Oh yeah, stuff on I.
46:45
Hate that. Probably good for her bank
46:47
account, but I hate that To the Brown Battalion, we feel for
46:51
you. We're right there with you as I
46:53
I believe we can safely say we're honorary members of the
46:56
battalion. That news hit hit your boys like
46:58
a ton of bricks today, obviously.
47:00
Then you have Mary Earps going over to PSG.
47:03
That's pretty massive. Let's carve out some time next
47:06
week. We'll try to wrap our head
47:07
around some of these major moves in European football.
47:10
And we mentioned there is some movement into the NWSL as well
47:15
with Courtney Vine moving from the A league in Australia over
47:18
to North Carolina Courage. So we'll have plenty of player
47:21
movement to talk about again. I I'll tell you, very rarely
47:25
does my heart sink when I see football news.
47:28
But Jaland moving away from Braun, that one hurt.
47:31
We'll get the pulse of the Battalion and we'll be back to
47:34
report on it next week. All right, man, I think we did
47:37
it. Spend an episode into the
47:38
channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
47:40
for watching, listening, liking, subscribing, chiming in,
47:43
dropping some Nuggets into the comments section and just
47:47
playing hanging out with your boys.
47:48
Remember, like if you liked and subscribe or follow into the
47:51
channel, YouTube, Spotify app, podcast or wherever you like to
47:54
watch or listen links to Twitter X Instagram, TikTok, pretty much
47:57
all of our socials available in the show notes of this episode.
48:00
And a big thank you to my Co host Mr. Grant Engel for always
48:03
being my cohost in the spotlight.
48:05
Let's fucking go. I appreciate you man.
48:08
Likewise, buddy, I appreciate you.
48:10
There are no transfer moves that are that are breaking up this
48:13
podcast. We are, we are a firm centre
48:16
back pairing or what you know, a #9 and a defensive midfielder.
48:20
Whatever, whatever spot we're in, we're in this for the long
48:23
haul. And we appreciate you guys and
48:25
and all the kind words and the support that you've given.
48:27
Thanks for rocking with us and we will see you guys next time.