Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Jaedyn Shaw TRADED → NC COURAGE 😱 Plus More NWSL + WSL Transfer News!

Transcript

Jaedyn Shaw TRADED → NC COURAGE 😱 Plus More NWSL + WSL Transfer News! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast premiere about women's
0:08
football. Before we hit the pitch.
0:09
If you enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your
0:11
boys do, come kick it with us already.
0:14
Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
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wherever you like to watch or listen.
0:18
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
0:20
Links to all of our socials in the show notes of this episode.
0:23
I'm your host Dean of Desuspitas.
0:25
And as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
0:28
What is up man? Feeling all right, buddy?
0:31
I feel like it's been a little while since we've done this, but
0:33
I'm happy to get back. It's been a pretty busy transfer
0:36
season, trade design season thus far, both here in the US and
0:40
abroad. I'm excited to talk to you about
0:42
it. Let's go.
0:43
I'm excited to quick programming Reminder, though, January, we're
0:46
going to bounce around Europe a little bit.
0:48
I know the football's been slow, but it's slowly starting to
0:51
simmer, starting to bubble a little bit.
0:53
League of F has already kicked back off this weekend.
0:55
Leona, PSG, Saturday, fucking go sign me up for that.
0:59
Chelsea, City, Arsenal all back in action on Sunday.
1:02
A lot of women's FA Cup action but WSL back proper next
1:06
weekend. As mentioned, that's the game
1:08
planned for January until February 7th.
1:11
We return live on YouTube after the UAF Women's champs the
1:14
quarterfinals draw, so be sure you're subscribed for that
1:17
Champs. He kicks back off March 18th and
1:18
19th. We've got some poll results my
1:20
friend. Our ITC 2024 best 11 draft.
1:25
You edged me out by a single vote.
1:27
Amazing. I won, I won the vote on
1:30
Twitter. You needed some votes to come
1:32
through on threads and you got me by 1.
1:34
So congratulations to you, the winner of the ITC 2024 Better
1:39
Best 11. I appreciate you being gracious
1:43
in a narrow defeat, a hard fought battle.
1:45
You picked a great team yourself, my good man.
1:47
Now we're one and one in the lifetime series.
1:50
I look forward to doing it again next year.
1:52
But I will still say our combined best 11, absolutely the
1:56
better 11 compared to any women's football podcast in the
1:59
universe I'll put us up against. Anybody dominant?
2:02
Dominant. Yeah, we crushed it.
2:03
But yeah, with that said, enough patting ourselves on the back,
2:05
Mr. Grand Angle. Where do we get started?
2:07
Want to get started with a frosty beverage?
2:09
Because, as you said, the football's starting to trickle
2:11
back. The news is coming in thick and
2:14
fast as well. Frothy, you might say.
2:18
I agree. So let's get started with the
2:20
big news that broke this weekend.
2:22
I don't think there's any other place to get started with us
2:25
living in the United States of America than Superstar attacking
2:28
Claire Jaden Shaw being traded to the North Carolina Courage.
2:33
Unreal. I mean, huge sent shockwaves.
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I think, I think the, the window had been a little quiet and a
2:40
little, you know, it's like I have some interesting stuff
2:42
here, but I think we kind of were hyping some stuff up a
2:44
little bit bigger than was warranted.
2:46
But this Jaden Shaw move, I, I mean, it knocked my socks off.
2:49
Look at the deal as reported by Jeff Castoff.
2:52
Shout out to Jeff for cash. And this is, this is a player
2:55
that turned 20 years old in November, so just 10 months away
2:59
from her 21st birthday. An absolute superstar.
3:02
Kind of sold off by the same Wave side that broke the league
3:05
record on the buy side last year with the Maria Sanchez deal.
3:08
500K. Tough to know exactly what's
3:10
going on in San Diego, but I wanted to kind of have a little
3:13
mini US Women's National Team conversation because of all the
3:16
players yet to hit their prime. Jaden Shaw.
3:19
Where would you rank Jaden Shaw amongst all of the players in
3:22
the USWT universe pre prime? Great question.
3:27
OK, so let's think about the pool.
3:29
So Croy Bethune, fair to say, not yet in her prime.
3:33
Hell, Hirschfeld, not yet in her prime.
3:35
Man, is Naomi Germa. Can.
3:37
Can we? Are we sure she's in her prime?
3:40
How old is she? Quick Fact Check. 25. 24 years
3:45
old will turn 25 on June 14th so I mean she's entering her prime.
3:50
Let's let's maybe not count her just because she's so close to
3:54
her prime. If we're talking like the the
3:56
younger, younger players, and then you have that here, there's
3:59
a pretty good young midfielder who plays for IX who is nowhere
4:03
near her prime net and already looks like one of the most
4:06
talented players on the roster. She's got to be near the very
4:10
top of the list. I think the thing with Shaw that
4:14
can confound me at times, and she's been great and she will
4:17
continue to be great, I firmly believe that is that sometimes,
4:21
I know Shaw has said publicly she prefers to play as a number
4:24
10, and I think she fits in that role.
4:26
But she has such good attacking skill that sometimes she looks
4:30
like a little more of like 9:00-ish, like 9 1/2 or 10 and
4:34
like you're not really sure where to throw her.
4:37
And then we've seen her kind of when she's been placed on the
4:39
wing, she kind of disappears. So you got to figure out where
4:42
exactly to play her. And I think a good midfield
4:45
partner is going to be really key for for her.
4:47
So this is my rambling babbling way of not directly answering
4:51
your question of if she has the highest ceiling of any player
4:54
who hasn't hit their prime. I think it's got to be between
4:57
her, Bethune and Johannes. Who am I forgetting?
5:00
Trinity Rodman still. Jesus, okay, she's the answer.
5:05
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I I had her. I also got her down 3rd.
5:09
I'm just like, obviously like, but she's so good.
5:11
Yeah. It's like, how is that player
5:13
not in her breath? Like, how could you get better
5:14
than this? Yeah.
5:15
But yeah, I think still 22 for for Trinity.
5:18
But to get back to the Shaw news, this shot move comes a few
5:24
days after the club announces Yonas Adeval as their new
5:28
manager. Coming off, I mean a rocky few
5:31
years at Arsenal. Adeval had tremendous success at
5:34
Rosengard, but over the three years that Yonas spent at
5:37
Arsenal, they seem to fall further and further behind
5:40
Chelsea. I did watch you on this
5:41
interview. I can see how his delivery, You
5:45
know, it's kind of like very Dutch could be get a little, you
5:47
know, grading I think over some time.
5:49
I'm really curious with everything going on San Diego,
5:52
what that's going to be like, you know, having that voice,
5:55
trying to quell things, calm things down and maybe start to
5:58
rebuild. And I'm not sure about the fit
6:00
there. You lose Alex Morgan, who is one
6:03
of the most important players in the history of women's football
6:06
period, let alone the US Women's national team program, let alone
6:10
US Soccer, the NWSL in general. You have this super rocky
6:14
season. You know, there are legal
6:16
troubles. There are accusations of a toxic
6:18
culture. You bring in aid of all.
6:20
And I think you're right. I think sometimes his delivery,
6:22
I think people look at him that he has a little bit of a an
6:27
arrogance to him. And obviously, like you said,
6:28
the guy had a great run at at Rosengardi obviously understands
6:31
football. I don't know man, it feels like
6:33
if we the famous Into the Channel segment during the NWSL
6:38
season. Arrows pointing up, arrows
6:40
pointing down. I know they got Maria Sanchez, I
6:43
know they signed Delphine Cascarino.
6:45
I don't know, man. Is the arrow at best pointing
6:48
sideways for the San Diego wave? It's probably spinning like a
6:52
clock in Alice in Wonderland, to be honest, But I know that they
6:56
did pick up another couple players in lieu of the end of
6:59
the assault draft that were pretty highly rated.
7:02
We'll learn a lot about those players coming up here, but I'd
7:04
be a little confused, you know, with with these moves and kind
7:07
of like where the team might be headed.
7:09
Shaw. It's just such, I mean, there's
7:11
no telling where shot of ceiling is.
7:12
So that right there is, I mean, borderline.
7:16
Like that's, yeah. That that could be franchise
7:18
derailing, especially if she just becomes, you know, the 1A
7:21
for US women's national team, which is not a 0% chance.
7:24
She's an excellent player, right?
7:25
Eight of all. Got some huge shoes to fill.
7:28
Obviously stepping in for Landon Donovan, who put together three
7:31
wins, one draw, 7 losses. Nicely done.
7:36
But yeah, we'll keep an eye on them.
7:37
So let's let's loosely do some winners and losers.
7:41
I'm going to go flat out and just say it.
7:43
Say Diego Wave, my first loser of the window.
7:45
Hated this move. I'm not sure what they're, where
7:48
they're headed. Feel free to add me at ITC.
7:51
Do you know? But yeah, I'll kick it to you.
7:52
Where do you want to go from here?
7:54
I'm going to go with a winner 1st.
7:55
I'm going to try to make this a little more positive.
7:57
Although I like it, the honesty is important.
8:00
We're journalists here, we're just calling it as we see it.
8:02
I'll go with my first winner to the surprise of everybody
8:05
watching this program, Manchester City Football Club.
8:07
Why do you ask? Not because I'm a supporter of
8:10
that club. I'm going with them because they
8:12
signed 28 year old German center back Rebecca Nach from the
8:16
Donmos Fenskin Champions. FC Rosengaard previously
8:19
mentioned really does Eunice eight of all.
8:21
She's a 5 foot 9 defender of the year from the Donald Svenskin
8:24
who also happened to score 12 goals for the Champs in the 2024
8:28
season. She has the ability to play
8:30
center back or defensive midfielder.
8:32
She could push up and maybe partner nicely with Yui Hasegawa
8:35
at times. And it looks like she's going to
8:37
have to serve as the replacement for Alex Greenwood while City
8:40
tries to get things back on track.
8:42
This really just kind of jumped out to me as like, OK, let's get
8:46
not just a Band-Aid for the Greenwood injury, but get a
8:50
player who is Speaking of players in their prime.
8:52
She's like I said, she's 28. Get a player in her prime who is
8:56
actually familiar with a system similar to what City plays.
9:00
City's director of football is Swedish legend and one of the
9:03
most capped players in the history of Sweden's national
9:05
team, Teresa Wegron. Think I'm pretty close on the
9:09
last name. It might be Wegron, I digress.
9:12
She was formerly the sporting director at Rosengard.
9:15
She knows what Knock is capable of and I think City is really
9:18
going to need that help and so I was just very pleased to see him
9:20
pick her up. Love that, pretty smart from me
9:23
from what I know about Knox game.
9:24
Pretty versatile as well compared in different spots and
9:27
tons of experience and tons of winning experience.
9:30
Love to see players for winning programs move over you know, and
9:33
then have to step into a big spot.
9:35
Do you have any other winners, losers WSL wise?
9:38
In the WSL, yeah, I do have another winner.
9:40
Let's go with Everton Football Club, those plucky underdogs
9:44
currently sitting at 9th in the table.
9:46
But they're four points and eight goals and goal
9:49
differential above Crystal Palace, who's in the relegation.
9:52
I just like that Everton is still kind of trying to push
9:55
forward. They're only a few points back
9:57
of Tottenham who's sitting in 6th.
9:58
I think Tottenham is 2 points and a couple and maybe a goal or
10:02
two ahead of them in goal differential.
10:04
So I like Everton's idea here. So they went out and they picked
10:07
up 31 year old veteran midfielder Haley Ladd.
10:09
She's a Welsh midfielder from Manchester United.
10:12
She wasn't getting much playing time.
10:14
It kind of dwindled toward the end of her time there, I
10:16
believe. But I like them adding.
10:17
I like Everton adding some experience, depth in the
10:20
midfield. That experience is going to be
10:21
balanced out by 18 year old Scottish midfielder Emma Watson,
10:25
who they're loaning from those same Red Devils over at
10:27
Manchester United. Watson was playing in the
10:29
Scottish Women's Premier League for Rangers when she was like 15
10:32
years old. At that point, I think either
10:35
that year or the year after, she was nominated for the SWPL's
10:38
Youth Player of the Year in the 2122 season.
10:41
She left Rangers as a free agent, signed with United,
10:44
injured her ACL in 2023, but she's on the mend.
10:46
She made a couple appearances in the WSL, got some burn in the
10:50
League Cup, scored a goal again. Newcastle.
10:52
I like Everton taking some swings, like let's bring in some
10:56
young players who aren't getting playing time at their other
10:58
clubs. And that leads us to 20 year old
11:01
Spanish center back Martina Fernandez from Barcelona.
11:04
Pretty good club to pick a player from if you have your
11:06
options. She played the full 90 in 10
11:08
League F matches for Barston in the 2324 season.
11:12
Played another full 90 versus Rosengaard.
11:14
A lot of Rosengaard content in this show in last year's
11:17
Champions League. So I think if you're Everton and
11:19
you want to try to like scoot your way up from like the bottom
11:23
of the table, I'd like these moves.
11:25
Just kind of trying to add some depth and trying to just add
11:28
depth and experience, but then take some Flyers and some
11:31
players who you can kind of develop while they're young and
11:34
make a difference on the field. Yeah, totally agree.
11:37
Rosengard getting a lot of a lot of burn today.
11:39
I think we should. There might be a drinking game
11:41
there. Speaking of, Fernandez scored a
11:43
goal against the aforementioned Rosengard, so here we go.
11:46
Cheers. There it is.
11:48
Cheers to Rosengard, cheers to these delicious beers.
11:51
Absolutely, yeah. Liverpool also picked up Bayern
11:54
Munich's Sam Kerr, Samantha Kerr the other Sam Kerr Have you want
11:57
to think about that? 25 year old Scottish midfielder.
11:59
8 appearances this season, 13 last season for the frown
12:02
Bundesaga champs. Chelsea extended grow right into
12:04
2026. Yasmine to Real Madrid, 28 year
12:08
old left back. 4 league championships for Yasmine as
12:11
part of that Corinthian squad in Brazil.
12:13
Was excited for my Blancos. What do you think about that
12:15
Yasmine deal? Like it.
12:17
Impressive defender previously for the perennial champions
12:21
Brazil. Corinthians looked really
12:23
impressive in the she believes couple Looked good in the
12:25
Olympics. Sneaky move.
12:27
Anytime you see a Brazilian player go to Real Madrid, Yeah,
12:32
keep an eye on that. Agreed, excited to see how she
12:35
fits into because I think she's got the creative.
12:36
I think you could drop a player like that right in again in her
12:39
prime. You mentioned that 28 year old,
12:41
you know, sweet spot of super experience.
12:44
Still has all the physical tools.
12:45
One more European move that I wanted to mention, Elma Utila
12:49
Nelhog from BK Hacken, the 21 year old center back.
12:52
She moves over to Lyon as if they needed any more defensive
12:56
help. That backline is just going to
12:58
be so nasty. Speaking of nasty, a tough
13:01
player, was involved in everything defensively and, you
13:04
know, just can't help but think about that Champions League run
13:06
last year where they were just impossible to score on know how.
13:09
Obviously a huge part of that. Yeah, I mean she stands
13:12
somewhere in the vicinity of five foot 10.
13:13
She played in 20 Donald Swenskin matches, netted two goals last
13:17
season. Man, you got to wonder, does
13:20
this mean that Lyon thinks that when Vanessa yields loan ends in
13:25
the summer I believe after the Champions Champions League final
13:27
would be played, does Angel City FC want Vanessa Gio back?
13:32
And then what happens with the dance of if you're Vanessa Gio,
13:35
do you want to go back to Angel City?
13:37
Would you prefer to stay in Lyon?
13:39
I don't know if if signing Elma Yuntila Nellog is insurance for
13:45
Vanessa Gio leaving. Is it insurance for Wendy Renar
13:48
continuing even though she's like just in her late prime now
13:51
is after she was in her prime for so many years?
13:54
Is it insurance to create a Geo nail hug center back duo?
14:00
I'm not sure what it's going to look like.
14:02
It definitely piqued my interest though when they when they
14:04
picked her up. I thought they've done it again,
14:06
but who's leaving and when? Fair, fair questions to ask for
14:10
sure. My first thought was they
14:13
recognize that their defense is special.
14:16
Yeah. And you know, you love when you
14:18
think about team building to invest in your strength, like
14:22
make your strength stronger and just make that more of an
14:25
advantage against the opponent. They can kind of see how they
14:27
think they want to like run through this Champions League
14:30
season and they believe in their players up front to be able to,
14:33
you know, create with less with less numbers up top.
14:36
Yeah, Love the move though. I mean, that's great.
14:38
Tremendous player. And you can totally see her
14:41
fitting in no doubt with any of those comments, with any
14:44
combination of of of those defenders alongside her.
14:47
So really excited about that. Let's shift gears though.
14:50
I want to head back to the end of USL.
14:52
I've got one more loser and a couple more winners, but I'll
14:55
kick it to you. Where do you want to go from
14:56
here? This team cannot possibly be a
15:00
loser because we talked about them at the top.
15:02
I'm going to call them the team I'm watching the most closely
15:06
for the rest of the window, the North Carolina Courage.
15:09
So yes, you acquire Jaden Shaw. That's a huge coup.
15:13
Cast Off said it should be. I believe his exact terminology
15:16
was a substantial sum of money, which sounds about right when
15:20
you get a player, like you said, who's not even anywhere near her
15:23
prime yet. But I think what I'm really
15:24
interested in is they lost Narumi Mira, defensive
15:28
midfielder who was a critical part of Shawn Nejas's like
15:31
possession based style. She's going to be hard to
15:34
replace in that defensive midfielder spot.
15:37
I mean, Mira's been a stalwart defensive midfielder for the
15:40
Courage the last two seasons. She's played more than sixty
15:42
matches across all comps in these last two years.
15:45
In the 2024 season, she was top ten and passes into the final,
15:48
3rd progressive passes and threw balls.
15:50
She was number four in the league in tackles and #3 in the
15:53
league in tackles. One, you're just going to have a
15:56
really hard time replacing that player and obviously bringing in
15:59
Shaw. That's not like for like
16:01
whatsoever. So you still have some questions
16:03
to answer in that position. But the other piece that is
16:06
looming over their head that I'm very curious, you know, after
16:10
they spend in, in Kassoff's words, a substantial sum of
16:13
money to bring in Shaw, the 2023 NWSL MVP.
16:17
Gedolin, the Brazil threatening winger, has not yet been signed.
16:21
She is a free agent. And I got to think you really,
16:25
really, really want to bring her back.
16:27
Remember, they signed Australian speedster Courtney Vine last
16:30
year. You could have vined Shaw and
16:33
Ghetto Lynn on the field at the same time.
16:36
I don't know if that's in the plans though.
16:37
And that's what has me watching them so closely.
16:39
I think Ashley Sanchez you got to mention as well re included
16:42
back into the US. That was actually January camp
16:45
roster, but that's a fearsome 4 up top and they still have
16:50
Kurt's. They still have Williams on the
16:52
defense. They still have an identity and
16:54
a culture defensively for sure that I think that that always
16:57
goes a long way when they know how they want to play.
16:59
It's just like it's basically written on the walls of the
17:01
building. So I'm kind of pulling for them
17:04
to get Caroline back. I think they could be really
17:06
interesting. I don't want to say it because
17:07
it's super early, but I'm going to take a a long look at the
17:10
courage when I start making some predictions for my 2025 season.
17:14
They have sort of like sleeping giant potential.
17:17
This Shaw move could be absolutely massive.
17:20
And usually when you're making a move like this, obviously you
17:22
want to grab that suppressive talent, but it's because you see
17:25
something there that you're willing to sort of fork over
17:28
that substantial, you know, sum of money, however cast off put
17:30
it. So I don't know, I'm jotting
17:33
notes down pretty furiously. I think the courage could sneak
17:36
into my my 2025 postseason predictions.
17:39
I love it. Let me take this opportunity.
17:41
I'm going to put, and this is not exactly a bold prediction,
17:44
but let me just take one sports take chip and put it on the
17:46
roulette wheel of 20 year old forward Minaka Matsukobo, who
17:51
the courage resigned. She hasn't put up big numbers in
17:54
the NWSL yet, but she gets herself into dangerous areas.
17:57
She can create highlight plays. She helped Japan win the silver
18:01
in EU 20 World Cup last year. If you won the silver ball for
18:04
the tournament's second best player.
18:06
We're talking about a lot of forwards here in Shawn Nejas is
18:09
like defensive kind of maybe not Even so much defensive, but
18:12
possession based football. If you have players who can then
18:16
just create highlight plays or can just break the game open
18:19
with speed while you're holding possession, that sounds a lot
18:23
like a team that will challenge for the title.
18:25
It still got some work to do, but I think they're they're
18:27
putting it together in a way that that I like.
18:30
You mentioned Narumi Mira going to Washington.
18:34
What do you think that means for that spirit side better?
18:36
Did they do anything else big of note that we need to kind of
18:39
zoom in on a little bit more? If North Carolina Courage are
18:42
going to challenge for the title, we already know they got
18:44
to go through the Champs, the Orlando Pride, but on their way
18:48
there, they're going to have to go through the Washington
18:50
Spirit. I think extremely highly of
18:52
Mira. If you look at that midfield
18:55
rotation now, obviously Kroy Bethune has to come back and get
18:58
healthy, but let's think about some players in the center of
19:01
the park. You might have Ashley Hatch up
19:04
top at that #9 position, but in that midfield you're going to
19:07
have Mira and Hirschfeld in the defensive midfield.
19:11
But then you think about your more forward-looking players.
19:14
You're going to have Trinity Rodman, Rosemont, Kawasi and
19:17
Lacey Santos and possibly Kroy Bethune running around in
19:20
midfield. And then you still have McKenna
19:22
Morris, who came on strong, especially toward the end of
19:25
last season, who can also fill in some gaps defensively and get
19:28
forward if you need or to or at least help distribute the ball.
19:31
I think you have to really take a hard look.
19:33
I think Spirit are going to be back in the absolute mix.
19:36
I think that kind of goes without saying.
19:37
That's not exactly a bold take. But I think when we're making
19:40
our predictions, far be it for me to go against Barbara Benda
19:44
and the greatest player, whoever lived Marta.
19:47
But man, I think the Spirit have a real, real chance to win the
19:51
title or and when I say when the when the title, obviously we
19:55
mean the NWS so shield but also win the NWSL championship game
19:58
as well. Yeah, it almost feels like
20:00
there's two teams to beat. That makes sense because Mira
20:04
and Hidal does is, I mean, what a pair that is like her footwork
20:08
and just how quickly she'll pivot and turn and have the
20:11
decision already made. I mean, Hidal does is going to
20:14
feast on her skill set. And then you think about Bethune
20:18
doing a lot of the same stuff, but more of with like the
20:20
offensive tilt. But, you know, a lot of the same
20:22
twitchy skill set. Yeah, if we're thinking super
20:25
early predictions, I feel pretty confident that there's two teams
20:28
to be going into next season, Orlando and the Spirit. 100%, we
20:32
haven't even mentioned Ole SAR yet.
20:34
And then I also want to point out for this window, they signed
20:36
21 year old Brazilian forward Tamara Bolt.
20:40
She had nearly 50 appearances with Internacional and scored
20:43
eight goals down in Brazil. I will say I don't have the
20:46
opportunity to watch a lot of Brazilian league play, but Bolt
20:50
stands 5 foot 9 and we just have to operate in the space of, I
20:53
think what does Jonathan Geraldos know?
20:56
What does he and his staff know when they go down there and pick
20:59
up a 21 year old Brazilian forward?
21:02
I think people should be very watchful of that and I'm sure
21:05
every team in the league is. Scary stuff.
21:07
Yeah. Jonathan Geraldo's ITC Best 11
21:10
2024 manager. Yeah, however you want to say
21:13
that. But he was, he was our guy last
21:14
season, so shout out to him. I want to talk a little bit
21:17
about Gotham. This is my next loser.
21:19
Wow, OK. So I know that a ton of moving
21:23
and shaking from their part. And then we'll get into the Lynn
21:26
Williams move heading to Seattle.
21:28
This is from Lynn Williams's appearance on Samus podcast
21:32
immediately following the news breaking that she had been
21:34
traded. So here's a Lynn Williams quote,
21:37
looking at the culture that's there.
21:38
Speaking of Gotham, I don't want to get into everything with the
21:41
end of Gotham, but I'm really excited to be a part of a team
21:43
that looks like they're enjoying each other and having fun and a
21:46
culture that looks like it's a healthy, fun loving environment
21:50
to be around. And I think that's super
21:52
important. At the end of the day, it is a
21:53
game, it is a sport and we should be having fun doing it.
21:57
I want to be in an area that allows that.
22:00
End Quote. It's interesting.
22:03
Now before I get your comment on that now you had a couple
22:05
players go out the door. The lady Sheehan, Yasmine Ryan,
22:09
Sam hi. Like these are like talented
22:11
players along with Lynn Williams, but the players they
22:13
acquired. So they acquire Gabby Portillo
22:16
from obviously an international from Corinthians, Jalen Howe via
22:19
trade and then Jessica Silva pretty much on a short termer.
22:23
Looks like she might be headed back to Europe.
22:25
Didn't quite, you know, hit her top speed, I would say at
22:27
Gotham, but doesn't look like there's a lot of good players
22:31
pining to head to New York. But our real talent rate, if you
22:34
look at those 3 or 4 players out the door.
22:36
Yeah, man, I think that was very, very curious.
22:39
I mean, once you say I'm not going to get into everything
22:42
that was happening there. I know it could be easy for
22:46
like, people like us or like people in the media that just
22:49
kind of like parse every single thing that an athlete says.
22:52
Lynn Williams is on a podcast with her good pal Sam Mewis.
22:57
I'm sure they discussed this ahead of time.
22:59
I'm sure Lynn Williams thought a great deal about what she was
23:02
going to say, and for her to kind of refer to that situation
23:06
in those murky terms kind of sets off the alarm bells a
23:10
little bit. Yeah, usually kind of where
23:13
there's smoke, there's fire. And I think we're starting to
23:15
see some of the, the organization's really start to
23:18
bubble up to the top that have either infrastructure or culture
23:22
or better leadership or everyone think about that.
23:24
And the next thing I want to talk about is interesting
23:27
because it it does look like could they be turning a corner
23:30
and that's the Houston Dash. Let's go.
23:32
I'm I'm feeling. Emotional about this team.
23:34
I'm I'm not ready to say they're my tricky treats of the of the
23:37
WSL, but I don't know. There's some there's some emojis
23:41
being exchanged. There we go, I love it.
23:44
So look, they like you mentioned, they acquire Yasmine
23:47
Ryan, talented 25 year old midfielder, attacker who played
23:50
more than 2000 minutes for the Bats last year, notched five
23:53
goals, 6 assists. Then they pick up Kristen
23:55
Westfall, veteran defender, two time Shield winner, once with
23:58
Portland, once with San Diego. She played a real role when San
24:02
Diego won the 2023 Shield. She was top ten in assists and
24:06
3rd in the league in blocks that year.
24:08
She took a little bit more of a backseat last season.
24:10
Her playing time kind of dwindled after June.
24:12
So it's good to see her kind of get like refreshed into this,
24:16
into this Houston Dash squad. I want to rewind to when we went
24:20
on the great Leanne Sanderson's show, the women's football show.
24:23
You should subscribe to that podcast immediately.
24:25
We talked about the Houston Dash and one thing that I had
24:28
mentioned to Leanne was I was openly wondering with the
24:31
abolition of the NWSL draft, how was Houston going to get
24:35
themselves out of the basement when they now don't have the
24:40
advantage of I get to pick the very top rated player out of the
24:44
NCAA here in the United States. And it looks like with Sheehan,
24:49
Westfall and Ryan, they're making some real moves to dig
24:53
themselves out of there. Totally agree with that.
24:55
I mean, we talked at the top about Jaden Shaw and where her
24:58
prime might top out, and both in agreement that we're we're still
25:02
a good ways away from that. I feel like Yasmine Ryan at 25,
25:05
still a player on the ascent, getting better year after year
25:09
for Gotham. She was third in shots this
25:11
year. This is a ton of talent for
25:12
Gotham to head out the door. Yeah.
25:15
Second in passes into the penalty area.
25:17
That's a lot of productivity that you lost third and crosses
25:20
into the penalty area. So just a dangerous, creative
25:23
player, a player that's really going to connect some stuff and
25:26
then also put the ball in the back of the net, you know, on
25:28
occasion for Houston, Sorely, sorely needed.
25:31
But yeah, I'm getting excited, getting excited.
25:34
I'm getting excited about the season too.
25:35
I mean, you look at it, when is it?
25:37
March 7th for the Challenge Cup, Pride versus Spirit going down
25:41
in Orlando. We're less than two months away
25:43
from that. I mean, excited to get to it.
25:45
There we go get your get your big body cars with the candy
25:48
coated paint ready down in Houston.
25:51
We might have to take a visit down there.
25:52
That is a great city, great Food City, awesome music, great
25:56
culture. Love it down there.
25:58
We have to go check out some Houston Dash matches that.
26:00
'D be incredible. Not in the summer though, so
26:03
maybe early. Season late.
26:04
Season when the stakes are high. Let's go.
26:07
Also shout out to Fabrice Gotraw.
26:09
Signed as their manager. Spent three years as an
26:12
assistant in the NWSL One for the Chicago Red Stars 2 For the
26:15
North Carolina Courage playoffs all three seasons 4.
26:18
Fabrice. So excited to see what he's
26:20
going to be able to put together there.
26:22
Any other NWSL news moves and shakes that we got to hit before
26:26
we get out of? Here, Well, I think that we have
26:28
a couple more teams to discuss as I sit here in Seattle, WA, I
26:33
will say you mentioned Lynn Williams, leg sleeve Lynn, as
26:36
she's also known coming to the Seattle rain up here in the
26:39
beautiful Pacific Northwest. That's great.
26:42
I think one of the sneaky early moves really wasn't that sneaky.
26:45
I think real hoopers knew signing Madison Curry from Angel
26:49
City FC is a nice way to kind of bolst the defense, make the
26:54
defense a little bit younger over here for the rain.
26:57
They've been making some pretty good moves.
26:59
I'm kind of wondering still, you know, could maybe use some
27:04
attacking midfield help, could probably use some attacking
27:06
help. But I'm overall feeling pretty
27:09
good about the moves. Well, how do you feel over there
27:11
in Florida as a neutral? I like it.
27:14
I mean, Lynn Williams is an absolute gamer.
27:15
You know, we've been talking about somebody's later in their
27:18
career, but it it, she doesn't play like it.
27:20
She just plays like a really good, experienced player that's
27:23
highly productive. It's just going to be a matter
27:26
of how many minutes, how many matches you'll be able to count
27:29
on her for this upcoming season. But I think any team would be
27:32
happy to have her. Love the Curry pickup as well.
27:35
I think yes, Seattle arrow pointing up.
27:38
Oh, let's go. All right, I'll take it.
27:41
They signed a forward out of the University of North Carolina
27:45
Maddie Dalian. I'm not going to pretend like I
27:47
am a women's collegiate football expert by any means.
27:51
It seemed like some people were were fairly excited about that.
27:54
I will say they're, they're pretty young in some spots.
27:57
They're very experienced in other spots.
27:59
It's Arrow probably pointing up. You never, you're never going to
28:03
count out Laura Harvey. Who?
28:05
I will say I'm going to chastise Laura Harvey for one thing, her
28:08
recruitment pitch to Marta post match after the Pride won the
28:11
NWSL championship. Sorry Laurie, you didn't get it
28:14
done. I know you tried.
28:15
She told Marta she could name her price if she came and signed
28:18
with the rain. Didn't work out this time.
28:20
Better luck next time maybe, but I think Arrow probably pointing
28:24
up. I'm going to harp on it a little
28:26
bit. I would like to see a little
28:27
more attacking talent in the dressing room, but they still
28:30
have time to to make it happen. Fair enough.
28:32
You mentioned Madison Curry, who came over from Angel City FC.
28:36
Angel City they pick up Julie Defore player that you know
28:39
we've we've covered quite a bit here on the show. 23 year old
28:43
forward, six goals, 5 assists this Premier League season.
28:46
Shout out to handle me up one of the ITC community starting 11.
28:51
Let's say who are our favorite Perry FC supporter?
28:53
So shout out and then you also mentioned, you know, we're not
28:56
experts on NCAA soccer, but we do have a bunch of them in the
28:59
audience because we follow you guys back.
29:01
So let us know who we missed one more team.
29:03
I want to hit the Kansas City current.
29:06
So they pick up Rocky Rodriguez, 31 year old Costa Rican
29:09
midfielder, really experienced really tough player.
29:12
Maybe a spot starter some it's that might be able to come off
29:15
the bench, but I love the toughness angle of this move.
29:18
And then they also picked up two different goalkeepers.
29:21
Lorena from Brazil, extremely experienced tons of big, big
29:25
matches on her resume and Laura Livery, who you spend some time
29:28
with in Seattle, you look at where KC struggled last year. 80
29:33
French had a rough go, I'll say 17 matches played, 26 goals
29:39
allowed, 1.53 per match that French was between the posts.
29:43
That went down to 0.89 once they switched to Alma Schulte, who's
29:47
moved back to Europe but I think got replaced with two legitimate
29:51
starting goalkeeping options. And I think between that, the
29:55
Rocky Rodriguez move, you can kind of see what they're going
29:57
for in KC. They're looking at where they
29:59
were lacking last season and making the investments there.
30:02
Yeah, I mean, big turnover in in Kansas City's goalkeeper room.
30:06
The the team posted on social media goodbyes to as you
30:09
mentioned, almost shoot and 80 French.
30:12
So I gotta say, you have to expect Lorena walks in and is
30:17
the undisputed starting goalkeeper, 3 clean sheets in
30:20
the Olympics, great diving ability, good instincts, but at
30:24
at the same time, not a, but it's more of an, and Lorena has
30:28
to be your starting goalkeeper and signing Laurel Ivory, who
30:32
who played well and had to spell Claudia Dickey for I think eight
30:37
or nine matches in the NWSL last season.
30:40
Laurel Ivory has to be, I mean, I literally like stood next to
30:44
her at a press conference when she was walking out.
30:45
She's got to be at least 5-10, might be every bit of 511, good
30:50
size, good diving ability. Obviously, I watched every
30:53
single match that she was playing in.
30:54
I was at all the home matches. There are sometimes on some
30:57
crosses over the middle where she was like kind of in between
31:01
coming off her line or not. You're going to expect that from
31:03
any goalkeeper. That's bound to happen when you
31:05
watch him play an extensive amount of time.
31:07
But her instincts are largely good and she has some real quick
31:11
twitch, fast twitch shot stopping ability.
31:14
So I think they they ended up with a really, really strong
31:17
goalkeeping room. And it's probably worth pointing
31:21
out that any Kansas City Current fans watching this podcast right
31:24
now, when you and I said that there are two teams to beat,
31:27
Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit, I feel like some Kansas
31:30
City Current fans might be raising their hand and be like,
31:33
oh, hi, we have the MVP of the league and we're pretty awesome
31:36
too. 2nd tier for me. Oh wow.
31:40
Good. Let's go.
31:41
Let's make this a real sports show.
31:44
Start yelling at each other about it.
31:46
Can't can't have three teams to be.
31:47
It's ridiculous. Of all the ridiculous things we
31:50
talk about, No, I do think that they're half a notch below.
31:53
I think we just saw this things we saw this play on the
31:55
playoffs. I love the moves.
31:56
I think they improved, but spirit or scary and the pride
32:00
just kind of have that got to beat the champ kind of be
32:03
considered there. We'll see if BIA can come back.
32:06
And then obviously that was a huge loss for them.
32:08
If she plays, you could definitely make the case that
32:11
they're the ones hoisting one maybe being both of those
32:13
trophies. They they look so good at the
32:15
beginning of the season. But yeah, we'll see.
32:17
It's going to be a hell of a season.
32:19
I mean, we're not. We're halfway through, not even
32:21
halfway through the damn transfer window.
32:23
And the league looks like it's going to be almost turned on its
32:25
head in some different ways, even with those kind of those
32:28
top three teams looking like juggernauts who are making
32:31
really smart, savvy moves as well.
32:34
But like we talked about, you have the courage bubbling up
32:37
with the Bats. It's going to be interesting,
32:39
interesting to see where Gotham starts to to fall in this mix.
32:42
Bay FC is going to come back a little more organized.
32:44
You see how they bubble up. Lot of stuff going on has I just
32:48
want to say it's January 11th. It's 839 Pacific Standard Time.
32:52
I don't know if bracing Louisville's made a transaction
32:55
yet. I think there was a day or two
32:56
ago where they had not made a single transaction.
32:59
Hey guys, just if somebody wants to let them know that the
33:02
transfer window opens, they may want to consider making some
33:05
moves. Well, yeah, we'll see.
33:06
They kind of fallen out of favor with me in terms of my my second
33:09
team that I bat my eyes at. But it's still early, you know,
33:13
maybe they're, they're playing the slow game.
33:14
Knowing that I said that by the time this episode comes out,
33:17
it's going to be like racing Louisville signed.
33:19
I Tana bone with T and I'm like oh boy.
33:22
Or scrap the episode. And Sophie Smith and, you know,
33:25
a couple of monster. Yeah.
33:28
All right, man. I think we covered most of the
33:29
league, most of the big moves. Anything else you want to hip
33:31
for you out here? Oh, man, I think for being like
33:34
right up on the halfway point of the transfer window, I think
33:36
we've covered most of the stuff. Like you said, I appreciate you
33:39
putting the the bat signal out for our pals who cover Division
33:42
One or division two NCAA women's football at the collegiate
33:46
ranks. You know, let us know who we
33:47
forgot to talk about. But I, I think we mostly did it
33:50
for now. Obviously, more coverage to
33:52
come. Absolutely, Yeah.
33:53
And Speaking of that, more coverage to come, we're going to
33:55
bounce around Europe in January. We're going to take a look
33:58
League F, WSL, Fran, Bundesliga and the Premier League in
34:01
France. That all leads to February 7th,
34:04
where we'll be back live on YouTube immediately after the
34:07
draw so you know where to find us.
34:08
Make sure you're locked in is. It going to be immediately after
34:11
the draw. Do how early do I have to wake
34:13
up to be immediately after the draw?
34:15
Yeah, it's going to be immediate after the draw.
34:17
Gotta get up early. How early is too early to crack
34:19
a beer when you're 39 years old? No such thing.
34:23
OK. We're on European time for
34:25
covering the European it's like 1:00 in the afternoon.
34:28
That's it. It's totally fair.
34:30
No, I like it. I appreciate you.
34:31
All right, man, I think we did it.
34:33
There's been another episode of into the channel.
34:35
Thank you, thank you, Thank you for watching, listening,
34:36
following, like and subscribing, commenting, just playing,
34:38
hanging out with your boys and remember to like if you liked,
34:40
subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
34:42
podcast or wherever you like to watch or listen.
34:45
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app links all
34:48
of our socials in the show notes of this episode.
34:49
And a big thank you to My Coast as well Mr. Grant Angle for Co
34:53
creating the ITC 91 episodes ago and bringing your substantial
34:57
sums of talent to the show. I appreciate you bro.
35:00
Likewise, man, like you know, 91 episodes and I think that's a
35:04
pretty good run. I don't think either of us are
35:06
transferring anywhere anytime soon.
35:09
I think our squad right now solid.
35:11
We don't need to pick up any talent.
35:12
We're challenging for the title right now.
35:15
I love it and if we do transfer, we're A2 man pod here, so we're
35:18
both transferring if we're heading somewhere else.
35:20
Damn right. And obviously, we would never
35:22
transfer any of the folks who are always rocking with us.
35:24
We appreciate you. Thanks for kicking it with us,
35:27
always dropping knowledge in the comments and we will see you all
35:29
next time.