Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / NWSL 2025 Season Awards + ITC Best XI 🏆

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NWSL 2025 Season Awards + ITC Best XI 🏆 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:04
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about one's
0:09
football. I'm your host Dino de Cespedes
0:11
and as always I'm joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Engel.
0:16
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
0:19
It's awards season. We've completed the regular
0:23
season of the National Women's Soccer League, Now it's time to
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hand out some individual hardware as we await to see
0:31
who's going to lift the NWSL Championship here in a few
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weeks. Let's go.
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I'm pumped. That's right, man.
0:37
On in this episode, we'll be handing out our version of the
0:40
MVP, the D POI, the G koi, the M Foy, the ROI, and the coach koi
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or M koi. Manager koi.
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We'll figure out, we'll figure out the terminology, but you
0:54
know, it's only year three. We're sorting it.
0:56
Out. The Moi I guess.
0:59
Manager of the Year. Yeah, we'll also get our best of
1:04
11. Mr. Ranagle, apologies for the
1:06
clunky start to the show. Where do you want to get
1:09
started? I like it.
1:10
No, you, you, you're you. Threw me off a little bit with G
1:14
Koi, but I love it. That's great, that.
1:16
Sounds that sounds awesome because obviously D poi, we know
1:21
what time it is. That's a great acronym.
1:23
G koi Lovett. Add it to the lexicon.
1:26
It's in the pantheon now. I don't know, man.
1:28
I guess you know, if there's one place to get started, we might
1:31
as well start with the Most Valuable Player.
1:34
Feels like an important award. Feels like an award people care
1:37
about. And they should care about a
1:40
very curious Mr. Dino de Cespedes, who is your 2025 and
1:47
WSLMVP? I, I mean, I'm glad you inserted
1:50
the 2025 in there because I, I kind of very, not very famously,
1:53
but you know, in my mind, it was very famously selected Barbara
1:57
Banda as my 2024 and ABC MVP being a little bit on an island,
2:01
but this year tell much Oinga, I'm not.
2:04
I mean, I don't even really have to say too much more.
2:07
I mean, KC was just that dominant. 15 goals, 3 assists.
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The Golden Boot, the one stat that blew me away.
2:16
So KC on the season goals for goals against.
2:20
There were 49 for 13 against plus 36 goal differential.
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Temwa Chuwinga when she was on the pitch, 44 goals for only six
2:33
goals allowed. She was plus 38.
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So when with Temwa Chuwinga off, Casey is five goals, 47 against
2:44
their -2 without Tamajuiga. With with Tamajuiga, they're
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plus 38. That's all.
2:50
That's a great step. Astronomical number, so I don't
2:53
I'm not sure we need to say a ton more.
2:56
Tamajuiga is is is our MVPI think.
3:00
Yeah, I I think that's totally fair. 33 shots on target, good
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for second in the league. She led the league in XG for
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people who care about that. Fifth in the league of shots on
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target, 35 key passes that's good for ninth in the league. 85
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shot creating actions. That's third top ten in carries
3:19
into the penalty and top five in progressive passes received.
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So yeah, I mean I she's the envy.
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She's the Most Valuable Player and you hope she's healthy when
3:28
the when the playoffs roll around or else it'll be some all
3:31
time bad luck for Kansas City current.
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No doubt, yeah. I mean, she's she's such a
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force. Let's keep it moving though.
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And Congrats to to Tamanjunga for I'm sure she's taking on the
3:43
real MVP for which would be would make back-to-back a
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reality for her. But yeah, I think ultimately got
3:49
to see Tamanjunga back at full strength before these play offs
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are over. Or I think, I mean, it'll just
3:56
be a big disappointment I think for the for the footballing
3:58
world, world as a whole. Can we do like a couple
4:03
honorable mentions? Just Oh yeah, let's go.
4:06
OK, Monaka Matsukubo 11 goals, good for third in the league,
4:11
tied for third in the league. I think or no, should be should
4:14
have moved into to Seoul, 3rd place.
4:16
I think she scored today on decision day as it were 4
4:21
assists. That's top ten in the league
4:22
number. She was third in the league and
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three balls. She was top five in shot
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creating actions. She was best in the league
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number one with 12 goal creating actions, number six in
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progressive passes received, number of she was top five and
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shots and shots on target and #4 in fouls drawn.
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I mean, Matsu Kubo just a a, a force out there.
4:42
Unfortunate for North Carolina Courage to not make the
4:45
playoffs. I think they were a multitude of
4:47
factors that led to that happening.
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But you got to think with with Monaca kind of leading the
4:52
charge next year though though be a challenger for that top 6
4:56
probably. Yeah, got to imagine.
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So I think I, I think I pegged them 4th coming into the season.
5:03
There was such a glob there in the middle.
5:05
But that that's a great shot. Shout from Anaka for sure.
5:08
I have a couple players that were that made my MVP ballot,
5:12
but I don't want to tip my hand because I'm going to mention
5:14
them either when we get to the midfield section and and
5:17
definitely by the time we get to our best 11.
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So I'm going to keep those a little close to the best.
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I want to switch gears to the D boy because obviously defense
5:24
wins wins championships. We already know that in this
5:27
spot. I had Kayla Sharples.
5:30
So you know, last year, my defender of the year and I think
5:34
the the broader defender of the year Orlando prize Emily Sam's,
5:38
you know, my my case was best defender on the best defense.
5:41
And I think Casey's defense even better this year than then
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Orlando's was last year. Kayla Sharples was in the best
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11 for the NWSL 3 times this season.
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There was only six of those awards given out.
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Only six months of football being played.
5:57
Second most in minutes for KC by and Lorena, 19197 minutes, just
6:02
under 2011 goals allowed over that stretch.
6:05
So per 90, while Sharples is on the pitch, Casey's only giving
6:09
up less than half a goal. You know, and she's kind of like
6:12
commanding out there, calling shots, kind of like chasing, you
6:16
know, doing the physical work and not just kind of like
6:19
directing traffic out there. So I don't know, every time I
6:21
watch, you know, I'm, I'm no defensive expert, but when I
6:24
watch these matches and I'm like, OK, who's standing out?
6:26
Who's kind of like dictating the terms?
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I think Sharples, it kind of fits that bill in a big way.
6:33
So that that's my deep way for this year.
6:35
I like it. I mean, I, I like the idea of,
6:37
you know, looking at the best defenses in the league and
6:39
saying like, who is kind of making that defense work?
6:43
I realized that Izzy Rodriguez had an attacking impact on
6:49
Kansas City Current, but she led the league with us with six and
6:52
six. She was #5 in the league in key
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passes, second in the league in passes, in the penalty, top of
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the league, number one in the league in passes and crosses
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into the penalty. Pardon me.
7:02
And so I think, you know, how do you end up with the best defense
7:06
in the league? You have players like Kayla
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Sharples, Izzy Rodriguez, Claire Hutton, obviously contributing.
7:12
There's defensive midfielder Lorena and goals stopping shots.
7:15
But for for anybody who's doing this, I don't know if we if we
7:18
said it clearly at the top, we are basically naming the into
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the channel winners of of these awards.
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And yeah, I I'm with you, Dino. Let's, let's make let's make
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Kayla Sharples the winner. I do have an honorable I do have
7:32
one more honorable mention. If you don't mind, How about
7:35
Lily Reel for the Bats in Gotham FC?
7:40
She's top ten in passes and crosses into the penalty area.
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She's top ten in dribblers tackled and successful take ONS.
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She's a mainstay in the squad. She appeared in all 26 matches,
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started 21 of them and the Bats allowed the second fewest goals
7:53
this season. So I thought Real was probably
7:55
deserving of a shot there. Yeah, no doubt.
7:58
And I'll follow up your shot with our Rookie of the Year,
8:01
Lily Real a little bit of an upset.
8:05
I think, you know, kind of came down to a few different players.
8:08
Full disclosure, your boy forgot Lily Reel was a rookie.
8:12
You know, she she don't play like a rookie.
8:15
And was it on my initial really rookie list that I jotted down?
8:18
And then, you know, through further research, I'm like, Oh
8:20
my God, yeah, I forgot. This is her rookie season.
8:24
Shout out to the to UCLA. So yeah, Rookie of the year,
8:27
any, if you give any pushback on on Lily Reel or, or we like, we
8:31
like that pick. No, I I should have saved all
8:33
the stats for that. My apologies for that.
8:35
Yeah, let's let's give the into the Channel Rookie of the Year
8:37
to to Lily Reel. I think she absolutely deserves
8:40
it. I mean, look, though, Riley
8:42
Tiernan, she scored eight goals. She had one assist to Matt to
8:46
boot, but didn't do a ton else in terms of counting stats.
8:52
And I think sometimes her impact, you know, sometimes she
8:54
would kind of like fade into the background a little bit in some
8:57
of those other matches. She was rookie of the month
9:00
twice. Excellent year.
9:02
Not taking anything away from Riley Tiernan, but I think if
9:04
you're talking about sheer impact on a squad, even with
9:09
eight goals and of you know, I'm some idiot sitting in my office
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talking into a into a microphone, I am not diminishing
9:15
eight goals in one assist. I still don't think she had the
9:18
impact that Lily Reel did on the Bats.
9:21
Totally agree with you. You know, it's a young player,
9:23
so it's like that's those parts of her game will will get
9:26
rounded out. But Tiernan made my super duper
9:29
long list of U.S. National team players that
9:32
couldn't show up in 27. So I think I think her her
9:35
future is there for sure. All right, so Lily Reel our,
9:39
our, our ROI. Let's shift gears to our, our G
9:43
Koi goalkeeper of the year. I think we had a, we had a
9:47
couple couple clear names at the top of this list.
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I've got somebody in mind. I want to I want to hear how did
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you approach the the G feel so dumb saying how did you approach
10:01
the G koi, the G koi discussion? No, we got, I mean, G Koi lives
10:06
forever now. That's great.
10:08
I love it. Look, Lorena had 14 clean
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sheets. That's pretty good in in in 26
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matches. She didn't play all 26.
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That might be a record. I think that's a record.
10:21
I believe it is. And she didn't even play all 26
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and she had 14 clean sheets. And that's absolutely
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incredible. I'm still, I think you know,
10:33
accused me of being a Homer here if you like, but I'm just I'm
10:37
just going to have to throw this out here.
10:39
I realized Claudia Dickey only had half the clean sheets.
10:42
She only only had seven, but she led the league in saves with 86.
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There were a lot of moments that she had to save figuratively and
10:53
literally matches for Seattle Rain football club.
10:58
Dickey has the best post shot XG minus goals allowed in the
11:02
league and it was nearly double Lorena's post shot XG minus goes
11:08
allowed. Claudia Dickey at the time of
11:10
this publication, which I don't think he was taking into account
11:13
the last match of the season. So apologies that we're doing
11:15
this the decision, decision night, if you will.
11:20
But Dickey had was plus 12 and Lorena was plus 6.6.
11:25
And so there's a just a massive gulf between them.
11:29
And yeah, I just think, I mean, Dickey's ability to make diving
11:34
stops, play with the ball at her feet, it felt like she had a
11:38
superlative season. And it also, I know this doesn't
11:41
necessarily count for these NWSL awards, but she played her way
11:45
into contention to be the number one goalkeeper for the US
11:48
women's national team. I I think that says a lot.
11:51
Yeah, that's a great point. And it was clearly on the heels
11:53
of what she was doing in the league, right.
11:55
Because for sure not, not a whole lot was going on, you
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know, around her. I think when you think about I,
12:02
I had to give, I mean, you bring up some great points.
12:04
Obviously Claudia Dickey impacting results right through
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her play is what you look for. Now, in my mind, Lorena did the
12:15
same thing, just under some different circumstances.
12:17
Because so often, you know, you get these teams throwing
12:21
everything at KC, like everything, you know, and like
12:26
it might be 20 minutes in or 30 minutes in or 40 minutes in and
12:29
they breakthrough, you know, you breakthrough, you break past,
12:32
you know, Izzy, Rod and Wheeler and you know, like Kayla
12:35
Sharples and Hutton and, and you kind of like you, you did it.
12:39
You you're in with the keeper. And then it's Lorena there, you
12:42
know, and like too many times I just saw her be like the last
12:46
line of defense and you know, just steal a goal, steal a goal
12:50
that should have gone to the other team effectively.
12:53
And I think like the the impact of those moments, those game
12:57
flippy type moments, and then also considering what Casey was
13:01
able to do, you know, once they, you know, pull some momentum
13:05
away from, you know, an attacking opponent, it just was
13:09
so demoralizing every time Lorina did that, that to me, it
13:13
had the same impact as what Claudia Dickey was able to do,
13:18
you know, to kind of like keep points or keep Seattle in
13:20
matches or, or, you know, kind of like keep them ahead.
13:23
I mean, obviously both we're probably talking you could throw
13:26
a Ketchum burger in there. It's like, it's like probably
13:28
like the top three, You know, for this season, I think I would
13:31
consider, but I, I got to give Lorena, you know, 83.1% save
13:37
percentage and she didn't face a ton, but you only allow twelve
13:41
goals, you know, 59 saves. You know, that's that's a nasty,
13:45
that's a nasty percentage. I think she was, she was 6
13:47
points clear on that front. I think ahead of Dickie in
13:50
second. So I don't know.
13:52
It's close, but I got to give the nod to Lorena.
13:55
OK, you are you are the awards guy on the show, so I will see
14:01
to your expertise here. I've made my case for Claudia
14:04
Dickey. But look, I mean, you know this.
14:07
You're the leader of the show. I'll follow your lead on this.
14:10
Lorena is a worthy recipient. All right, we got two more
14:14
awards that we need to hand out here and kind of get to the
14:18
bottom of We've got our M Foy and our Moy.
14:22
I'm I'm curious to hear from midfield standpoint who stuck
14:26
out to you. If there maybe there maybe
14:27
there's something in Seattle, you know, that that you found
14:28
interesting. But from my perspective, the
14:31
name that I kind of kept and it was weird because I kept not
14:34
wanting to write down this name, but I kept just being like, I
14:37
have to write down this name. Taylor Flint for me.
14:41
I think like you think about what Louisville was able to do
14:44
and like just how close they came to falling out of the mix
14:47
and like a player that was caused so much trouble in the
14:51
midfield. I think like it just seemed she
14:54
was always getting to balls that you didn't think she was going
14:56
to reach. You know, she kind of, it's
14:58
almost like I went to the thought exercise of like, what
15:02
if Victor Wenmanyama was was born to be 1/3 baseman and then
15:05
was as good 1/3 baseman as he is an NBA basketball player.
15:09
And it's like, that's kind of what Taylor Flint looks like
15:11
sometimes. Like Victor Wenyama playing
15:13
third base just where nothing gets past, like it's just a
15:16
total dead zone. And I thought that that impact
15:20
was so effective for racing Louisville in terms of like
15:23
turning them around. You look at.
15:25
Yeah, I went to FB ref to to check out some of Flint's
15:28
numbers. She's in the 99th percentile,
15:30
just like some Madden shit. 99 for interceptions, blocks,
15:36
clearances and Ariel's one. She also adds four goals and an
15:40
assist. Obviously Racing Louisville
15:42
finishes with a winning record this year.
15:44
They make the playoffs. I just think that like, if I
15:47
wanted to have a midfielder season this year, I mean,
15:49
there's a few on the short list, but Taylor I'd I'd want to have,
15:53
you know, Taylor Flint season. I thought, I think what she was
15:55
able to do, wrecking games was, was the most impressive thing
15:59
for me. I think that's totally fair.
16:01
I realized we're 17 minutes. We're in the 18th minute of this
16:05
of this podcast here. I'm going to crack another
16:08
beverage because I am thirsty. If you don't mind just and I
16:13
want to cheers to the midfielders because that's a
16:17
hard job. And Taylor Flint did it
16:20
exceptionally well. You're totally right.
16:21
She's absolutely dominant in the air, as you would expect a a
16:24
player of her size to be. She was largely, you know, her
16:30
Jeanine Sones, Emma Sears were like kind of the the main
16:34
factors in why Racing Louisville is a playoff team for the first
16:38
time in in their franchise history.
16:41
I think she's a worthy recipient of this award.
16:44
I do want to shout out though, show favorite and a player we've
16:48
talked a lot about through the context to the US women's
16:50
national team, Olivia Moultrie. She had a pretty great
16:54
midfielder season as well. Eight goals, that's good for 6th
16:57
in the league. 53 key passes. That's the best in the league.
17:01
37 passes into the penalty area, that's third in the league. 125
17:06
shot creating actions, number one in the league by like a
17:09
dozen or so. She was seventh in the league in
17:12
progressive passes, tied for six for goal creating action.
17:16
She had 66 progressive carries, that's 7th in the league, and 49
17:20
fouls drawn, second in the league.
17:22
Just a monster season for Moultrie.
17:25
We talked. We talked about MVP.
17:28
Ballot. And I think Moultrie, I didn't
17:31
fill out an official ballot, but she was either two or three on
17:34
my MVP ballot because for all those numbers that you rattled
17:39
off, I mean, you take all of those numbers away and there
17:42
there just is no other player that could never place a the
17:49
grand majority of those. So I think, I think Moultrie, I
17:54
mentioned it on our in our US women's Astra team shows, I
17:57
think the MVP of the league is her ceiling.
18:00
I think she can she can get there, you know, So I think
18:04
she's a fantastic player and had a fantastic season.
18:08
Top three MVP for me. A little spoiler alert, she will
18:12
be in my best 11 when we get there.
18:14
No way around that. But you know nothing, nothing
18:17
more you can say. Just a magical player out of
18:19
magical season. Yeah, she she would be the other
18:22
play, the other player that I would give that award to in the
18:25
midfield. And yeah, she was #3 on my MVP
18:28
ballot, I think I would be remiss if if I didn't mention
18:31
Kenzo Dali. She led the league in passes
18:35
into the penalty area with 58. She had 20 more of those than
18:39
Izzy Rodriguez, who was second in the league.
18:42
You know, Dolly, yeah, she kind of tapered off as the season
18:45
ended, as San Diego wave kind of tapered off.
18:49
But I just want to mention show favorite Kenzo Dali, of course.
18:54
And she wasn't going to win the award.
18:56
But I do think it's worth mentioning again, watch out for
19:00
the Homer over here. Sam Mezza.
19:03
She led the league in tackles with 102.
19:05
She was #2 in tackles 1 and dribblers tackled.
19:08
She was #2 in blocks and was often the best player on
19:14
probably one of the most surprising teams in the league.
19:17
I don't think probably I'm definitely one of the most
19:19
surprising teams in the league. So Laura Harvey told me several
19:24
times Mezza's their best player and so for her to kind of
19:27
achieve that and for them to finish fifth in the table when
19:30
they finished 13th in the table last year, I just want to make
19:33
sure I gave the young players some props there.
19:36
Yeah, no doubt Mezza made my shortlist for sure, but
19:39
definitely made my all 11 shortlist.
19:41
All right, So it sounds like we're kind of like 5050 on this
19:44
one. I think you might have, you
19:47
might have swung me into the Moultrie camp.
19:49
Terms of our M Foy. I think we got to go Moultrie.
19:55
I think it's. Is it the?
19:58
It's the you think about team. Stats, yeah, I think it's both
20:01
of those. It's lifting Portland like we're
20:04
talking about surprising teams here.
20:06
It's helping lift Portland to a level that you we didn't
20:09
necessarily think they were going to get to and the fact
20:12
that it's such a diverse set of statistics that that Moultrie
20:17
really has an impact in. Absolutely fantastic, Yeah.
20:19
So Moultrie, congratulations to our Midfielder of the Year.
20:23
Now on to the coach, Coach of the Year, Manager of the Year,
20:27
Coy Moy, we'll sort it out. Who do you have in terms of
20:34
coach, manager of the Year? We're talking about surprising
20:39
teams before. Before I say who it is, let's
20:43
look at 3 possibles here. I talked about Seattle rain.
20:47
Football club, Laura Harvey. Let's go.
20:49
Seattle Rain had 23 points last year.
20:55
They finished 13th on the table. They were awful to watch.
21:00
And no offense to anybody over there, they were not
21:03
particularly enjoyable to talk to after those terrible matches.
21:07
And I don't blame them. It's just the vibes were bad,
21:11
man. Like nothing was working.
21:13
Nothing was going well. They have 39 points this season
21:18
and they finished fifth and they added Lynn.
21:22
Their big offseason acquisition was Lynn Biendolo, the all time
21:27
leading scorer in the history of the league.
21:29
I think now she's #2 in the history of the league in, in
21:32
assists and she played like 800 minutes and I and I think at
21:36
most gave them three goals. I think it was either two or
21:39
three goals gave them very little in terms of on field
21:43
production and they still found a way to scratch and claw their
21:48
way to a fifth place finish. I I think Harvey at least
21:51
deserves some consideration. I would, I would definitely
21:55
agree with that. I mean, a super turn around.
21:58
And to your point, not one in which it made total sense.
22:04
You know how we got here, you know, to, to get from the, from
22:06
where they were last year to this year, because it wasn't
22:08
like, Oh yeah, these 2323 players like really solved it,
22:12
turned it around it, it just seemed like everybody got a good
22:16
chunk better. Yeah.
22:18
The the game plan, the preparation, the the execution,
22:21
like, you know, the, the connectivity, all of it got got
22:24
elevated and it's hard not to kind of credit that, you know,
22:28
to the coach. So I, I I fully agree with that.
22:30
I had two other names, you know, that that I I was kicking around
22:35
Laura Harvey, absolutely deserving.
22:36
But these these two coaches, I mean, Vladco for one, you know,
22:43
talk about somebody that obviously we saw what they went
22:47
through last, last season getting so close, but an
22:50
absolute historic season and a little bit of change of DNA, you
22:54
know, like now this is a, a, a new approach to this current
22:57
side. I don't know this this current
22:59
side. If, if Chewinga was banged up
23:01
going into the playoffs last year, it would have been like
23:03
they, they seem like they're, we already saw the holes with, with
23:06
what they have this time. I'm not saying that they, they
23:09
can still, they, they can obviously still win without
23:11
Chewinga. It'd be be a, it'd be really
23:13
tricky. But it just feels like they're
23:15
so much more well-rounded as a club, you know?
23:18
So I, I thought Flatco was one of my 2 finalists.
23:21
Very curious to hear how you experienced this Flatco season.
23:25
They were on 55 points last year, they got to 65 points this
23:32
year. And I understand like I talked
23:34
about the jump, the 16 point jump the rain had under Laura
23:38
Harvey, 23 to 39. Is this one of those things?
23:42
Am I doing like the the hacky sports radio thing?
23:45
And maybe I am and maybe I enjoy it.
23:48
It feels more difficult to go from 55 points to 65 points,
23:53
that 10 point swing than it even is a 16 point swing when you
23:58
were way lower in the standings the year.
24:00
Before, yeah, I mean, I know there's never been this many
24:03
teams in the league, but there's been teams that have made-up 16
24:06
points. There's never been a team that's
24:08
hung 65 on the leg. I don't believe it's like.
24:13
I mean, it's hard to wrap your head or and, and, and this was
24:15
coming off of watching what Orlando did last year be like,
24:18
Oh my God, this, this team is a historic team and KC kind of
24:22
like outpaced them. So really, really incredible
24:25
stuff. And I think, you know, the the
24:28
changing on the fly, you know, like, I'm not sure if Flagco was
24:30
like working on post moves with Hakeem over the summer or what
24:33
exactly was going on, but he came back with a different, you
24:37
know, a different approach and kind of is has the league still
24:41
trying to chase what they're doing, You know, so, you know,
24:44
getting like, we got to give credit to Laura Harvey.
24:45
We got to give credit to Vladco as well.
24:48
And this third coach that I think would be my pick has to be
24:53
Rob Gale. You know, we talked about, you
24:56
know, Portland, the expectations coming into the year.
25:01
He's got a kind of funny look to them.
25:02
They they they looked a little funny at the beginning of this,
25:04
you know, like they they didn't, they didn't come out of the
25:06
gates like, you know, like like gangbusters.
25:08
But how prepared he has that club, how locked in they are for
25:14
pretty much every single match. There was only just one or two
25:17
really no showish type performances this season.
25:20
I think they were so rock solid, especially at home.
25:24
And I think just what they did today, like the wherewithal to
25:28
know, OK, not only do we need to win, but if Orlando and Seattle
25:33
draw, we need to win by two. And that's our recipe for
25:36
leapfrogging them. And what do they do?
25:37
They come out and they they beat Houston 2 nil and they grab the
25:40
third seed. Like at what point during the
25:43
season were we like, oh, Portland?
25:45
Yeah, that's they'll they'll probably, they'll probably
25:46
finish in 3rd. Like, like that never happened
25:50
now. I mean, I'm still it, it already
25:52
happened. It's now happened.
25:53
They have finished the season in 3rd and I'm still having trouble
25:56
processing it. I think he has to be the winner,
26:00
man. Like, I mean, I know we've
26:01
talked about with Portland, we, we've mentioned it.
26:04
You cannot overstate what it's like to lose a multiple time MVP
26:10
who plays #9 who is your primary goal scorer, who is a Golden
26:15
Boot winner, who is legitimately one of the 10 best 10 to 15 best
26:22
players in the world and one of like the five or to 6 best
26:26
number nines in the world. Just a devastating player like
26:29
Sophie Wilson. You lose her to start the
26:31
season. A player who you know, people
26:34
Revere and Christine Sinclair, you lose her and then you just
26:38
find a way to make it work. So I, I do think I'll say this.
26:43
When the NWSL hands out these awards, I think Vladko
26:47
Andonovsky is going to be their Moy.
26:51
I think he's going to win. Well, I think they call it COY
26:53
Coach of the year and and the NWSL they're going to give
26:56
because you can't cap 65 points and not get coach of the year.
27:00
I think that's probably what's going to happen.
27:02
But into the channel, Moy manager of the year, I think
27:07
it's got to be Rob Gale, man. They had 34 points last season
27:11
with Sophie Wilson and Christine Sinclair.
27:13
They have 40 points this year and they finished third.
27:18
It's just like the dude, like obviously he has good players.
27:24
Portland Thorns. I think there's been some, some
27:26
changes in ownership that people might be questioning how all in
27:30
ownership is, but he has support around him, but he had to figure
27:35
out a lot of different stuff to get them to where they are.
27:38
And you know, I, I know it's it's kind of maligned that
27:42
sports media just says the coach of the year is the coach of the
27:46
team that maybe we just underestimated to start the
27:49
season. But we had, we had every reason
27:53
to underestimate them. They lost Sophie Wilson, I mean.
27:57
For them to have gotten better by 6 points is is stupid.
28:02
That's that's just not something that's normal.
28:05
Yeah, I'm, I mean, I kind of went into it, you know, sort of
28:08
feeling like this one was tricky.
28:10
Now I I feel much more entrenched in our Rob, our Rob
28:14
Kale pick. So Congrats to coach our koi,
28:17
our Moi. I don't know what time it is.
28:19
Well, I mean, I don't know. We got a year to sort out these
28:22
acronyms. We'll get back to it.
28:25
All right, man, let's let's hit our our best 11 real quick
28:28
before we get out of here. I'm going to knock through mine
28:31
because we we've mentioned a few of these players.
28:33
So I've got Lorena and goal my backline like I'm coming out
28:37
with a back three. I know, I know we're a 4231 kind
28:40
of outfit, but just just the way that they this this shook out.
28:44
I went with a 343. Hopefully that's not too
28:47
disruptive defensively. Give me Izzy Rodriguez, who you
28:51
mentioned, Kayla Sharples and Tara McKeon as my backline, OK,
28:59
Taylor Flint, Olivia Moultrie, Kenzo Dali and Claire HUD as my
29:04
four in the midfield. OK, I could bruise you.
29:08
We could win the ball back. We're creative, we can score.
29:11
I like I like this set up so far.
29:12
And then up top, Tamo Chuenga, Estero Gonzalez, Lujamila,
29:18
that's my 343 set up. Those are my 11.
29:22
Obviously a long list of of honorable mentions and and close
29:26
ones. But how should we tackle this?
29:29
You know, where are the weak points?
29:31
So you know, who did, who did you have that?
29:33
You feel like it's got to be in there or, or maybe we're in
29:36
lockstep. I'm really curious to hear where
29:38
you stand on this. I think it's a coin flip between
29:41
Luj Mila and Monaca. I, I, I mean, I've already given
29:47
my Monaca pitch here. I think I would, I would
29:50
probably give the nod to her over Lushmila.
29:53
I like your other picks. I think when I was looking at
29:56
mine, I was like, OK, am I going to go like late 90s era football
30:01
and just play A442? Because I, I think I would have
30:04
had Patterson, Sharples, Mickey own Izzy Rodriguez as my 4:00
30:11
there. I, I, I think I'm largely with
30:14
you on Flint hunt and Moultrie Moultrie Dali.
30:18
I, you know, I thought about like, could you do, could you
30:21
put Sam Meza in there instead of Kenza Dali?
30:24
I know Dolly was probably like had more highlight plays but
30:28
Meza was just like such a stalwart on like a surprisingly
30:31
good team but. Kenza Dali.
30:33
We can have 4/4. Best elevens April, June,
30:38
August, September. So she that's just she was
30:40
pretty good. She was real way through even if
30:42
the team kind of backslid. No, that's totally fair.
30:45
I think yeah, Dolly, Dolly should be there.
30:47
So yeah, I think I think I'm with you there.
30:51
I I think I'm I'm happy to rock with that.
30:53
And I had Dicky obviously in my 11, but that's our divergent on
30:57
the goalkeepers. But yeah, I like that eleven.
31:00
That that sounds like a that sounds like a great into the
31:04
channel 11. I'm a little, I'm a little
31:06
cautious on Monaca over or Lugemila over Monaca.
31:12
But you know what? It's like we're two dudes
31:14
talking in the microphone, staming the best 11 like it's
31:17
it's fine. Yeah, it was it was it was
31:20
tough. I had Patterson on a in a
31:21
previous iteration and I was just like, you know, if that
31:26
would have put me in a 442 and I'm like Lugemila, I think just
31:30
had a more impactful season than neighboring Patterson.
31:33
I think Avery Patterson's going to get there.
31:34
But Lugemila, when she was on that terror, it was like, I
31:38
mean, she was killing. It was it was Linsanity levels
31:41
of like, I got to stop what I'm doing, make sure like flip over
31:44
to see if she's going to get 456 gold.
31:46
What exactly is going to happen in this one?
31:49
And it always seemed to be on ESPN with Jen Hildreth and
31:52
daytime and that weird camera view where it's like it's hard
31:56
to read the, the, the the numbers on the back of the
31:58
jerseys. But you know, you watch anyway.
32:01
But yeah, shout out to Lujamila. I think just a fantastic stretch
32:06
good enough, I think to make make the 11.
32:10
I think we covered a lot of is there anybody that we didn't hit
32:13
this episode? Sam Coffey another another
32:17
player that two best elevens May June and obviously rock solid.
32:24
You know, one of the staples of that of that Portland squad and
32:28
we must be missing a bunch of players.
32:30
Is there anybody that we we'd be kicking ourselves if we didn't
32:33
at least give them a mention here?
32:35
I think it's my ministry to to bring this up.
32:38
I mean, you talked about Maddie Dalene as an alternate for the
32:41
US Women's national team as potential alternate in the 2027
32:44
World Cup. She had four goals, 4 assists.
32:46
The four assists were tied for ninth in the league.
32:49
She was fifth in the leg in progressive passes received,
32:52
tied for seventh for shots on target, 6th in shots on target
32:56
percentage, and second in the league with 49 carries into the
33:00
penalty area. A dynamite rookie campaign from
33:02
Dalene. So I was kind of looking at her
33:06
as a as a potential Roy nominee or depending on where you where
33:11
you are in the world, a WAH nominee.
33:16
Very global of you. I like that that's what we're
33:18
doing. Let me see, is there anybody
33:20
that got close for me? I guess you know, Lily Reel was
33:24
was interesting in in the back that I thought we could think
33:27
about Alyssa Thompson, I think an attack, you know, had she
33:31
played the full season and had Angel City been closer, I think
33:35
was having that kind of year potentially.
33:38
But yeah, I think I think we pretty much covered we covered a
33:41
lot. We covered our our best elevens.
33:43
We gave out some awards in our last episode.
33:46
We talked about everything that went down, decision day, the
33:49
little quarterfinals preview. So I mean, we're pretty NWSL
33:53
heavy this week. Definitely make sure you keep it
33:55
locked. I think we covered a ton of
33:57
ground man and 26 weeks in the books.
33:59
So shout out to all the players, all the coaches that got it done
34:02
this season. And shout out to us for, you
34:04
know, talking about all the players and coaches getting it
34:06
done this season. Exhausting.
34:09
It was heavy lifting from us sitting behind these
34:14
microphones, second guessing managers who have forgotten more
34:18
about football than we'll ever know.
34:19
But you know what? We did it man.
34:21
That, that that's why we, you know, that's why we put, we put
34:24
in the the 10,000 hours of sports radio and just sports
34:29
watching. I mean, you know, it's, we're
34:32
not here to pat ourselves on on the back necessarily Pat each
34:36
other on the back. But you know, we'll talk about
34:38
that one later. All right?
34:39
It's been an episode of Into the Channel.
34:41
Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
34:43
out. If you enjoyed the show or
34:45
loving football as much as your boys do, make sure you're
34:47
kicking with us each and every single week.
34:48
Like subscribe, follow, or leave us a review to Spotify, Apple
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34:52
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34:56
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34:59
Links to all of the above and much, much more in the
35:01
description of this episode. And a big thank you to Michael's
35:04
as well, Mr. Granagle for being the the Choi the Coast of the
35:09
Year. There we go.
35:11
All I know is that what the biggest trophy that you know
35:15
it's possible in this in this podcasting world goes to my guy.
35:19
I appreciate you bro. Nobody else I'd rather knock
35:21
through 26 weeks of NWSL with. Likewise, buddy, 26 weeks up 26
35:29
weeks down. It was a pleasure talking about
35:31
this great league with you as well as all of you.
35:35
Thank you for watching and supporting the show.
35:37
We we have appreciated all the knowledge that you've dropped
35:39
thus far. We look forward to more of it as
35:42
the playoffs continue. So please let us know who is
35:46
your let me see if I could do this MVP Roy M Foy D Poy Moy G
35:55
koi tell us who did we forget? Who should have at least got an
35:58
honorable mention that would maybe we didn't talk about and
36:01
who were your award winners? Put us on game like always.
36:05
And thank you for checking out the show and we will see you all
36:08
next time.