Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / ITC INTERVIEWS: Emily Sams, Kylie Nadaner, Angelina, Anna Moorhouse of the Champion Orlando Pride 🏆

Transcript

ITC INTERVIEWS: Emily Sams, Kylie Nadaner, Angelina, Anna Moorhouse of the Champion Orlando Pride 🏆 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:02
  OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily by women's
• 0:06
  football. I am your host Dean Suspicious
• 0:08
  and as always, I'm joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
• 0:12
  What is up man? I'm feeling pretty great buddy,
• 0:14
  but not as good as you should be feeling because you conducted
• 0:17
  some kick ass interviews with some Orlando Pride members.
• 0:21
  Yeah, shout out to the Pride. Sent your boy the invite for
• 0:24
  their media day and got a chance to catch up with, you know, 4
• 0:29
  defending champions from my Orlando Pride.
• 0:31
  So that was really exciting. My first interview.
• 0:33
  NWSL defender of the year. How about a little Emily Sam's
• 0:36
  on the ITC? Let's go.
• 0:38
  Let's hit it. Emily, quick question about the
• 0:42
  your recent She believes cup experience.
• 0:44
  What was the most positive take away from that from that run?
• 0:48
  I honestly think it was the loss against Japan and when we hadn't
• 0:52
  lost under Emma yet. And so her message to the team
• 0:55
  was just we saw how we need to raise our standards and, you
• 0:59
  know, where we need to be and the next steps we need to take
• 1:01
  to take to the next level. So I think it was overall
• 1:04
  positive learning moment. And yeah, I think it would have
• 1:07
  been incredible to keep winning, keep winning, keep winning.
• 1:09
  But then you never really get to see, you know, where you're
• 1:11
  lacking. And so I think it was a great
• 1:13
  learning lesson. And then obviously historic run
• 1:15
  for Orlando Pride defence last season.
• 1:18
  Where does the defence go from here?
• 1:20
  Like how do you, how do you take it up a level from from what you
• 1:23
  accomplished last year? Yeah.
• 1:24
  I mean we tied for most or least amount of goals conceded.
• 1:28
  I think we should, we could have and should have been not tied.
• 1:31
  So I think just shoot for that again to not concede and yet to
• 1:35
  not lose at home. We didn't do that at all last
• 1:37
  year. And so I think just keep that
• 1:39
  going to this year as well. And then for the defence, what
• 1:43
  about the defence of DNA makes it so that positions can change?
• 1:48
  You know, maybe tactical things can happen within a match.
• 1:51
  But. Like the vibe stays the same.
• 1:53
  Yeah, I think we all have the same mentality.
• 1:55
  I think it's like unspoken mentality, but we all have the
• 1:58
  same competitiveness and like tenacity and don't want to let
• 2:03
  the, I think it all pisses us off so much to get scored on,
• 2:05
  even if we're winning, you know, 40.
• 2:08
  I think we take a lot of pride in those shutouts.
• 2:10
  And so I think we all just, that's like an unspoken thing
• 2:12
  and we're going to work hard. We're going to, no matter what
• 2:15
  position, no matter who's in there, I think we all have that
• 2:17
  same mentality. Awesome, one more your time at
• 2:19
  BK Hakken. What do you remember from that
• 2:21
  time? Man, I don't even know.
• 2:24
  Yeah, my first professional experience, I was just trying to
• 2:28
  soak in. I said I knew it was only going
• 2:29
  to be about 5 months. And so I was just trying to soak
• 2:32
  in everything I could. And, you know, there's some
• 2:34
  really, really good players that I played with that play for the
• 2:36
  Sweden national team and, you know, for other country
• 2:39
  national, other countries national teams.
• 2:41
  But I think I almost just felt like a little kid like trying to
• 2:45
  understand what the professional, professional life
• 2:47
  is like. And so just trying to, yeah,
• 2:49
  just try to learn as much as I could.
• 2:52
  Yeah, excellent. Thank you.
• 2:53
  I got to say her saying the best experience from her time with
• 2:59
  the national team being losing to Japan in the she believes cup
• 3:03
  with the de facto final, if you will, the final match of of the
• 3:06
  four team tournament. I thought that was a really
• 3:08
  interesting answer. I think it kind of speaks to her
• 3:11
  mindset. I mean, if if we're going to do
• 3:12
  anything on a podcast hosted by two Bros, it's obviously play
• 3:17
  amateur sports psychologist. And so I'm just going to go
• 3:20
  ahead and go all in and say I think that tells you a lot about
• 3:23
  her mentality, and I like that. Yeah, I mean it, it kind of got
• 3:27
  my wheels turning with regard to like, because I've been talking
• 3:30
  to Emily Sam's, you know, obviously 2024 and to be self
• 3:33
  defender of the year, serious vibes.
• 3:35
  You can kind of see, you know, like how her personality kind of
• 3:38
  like radiates out when she's on the pitch.
• 3:40
  I wonder if she kind of joined that US women's national team
• 3:44
  roster and was like, why is everybody so kind of happy go
• 3:47
  lucky and doing TikTok dancing. Doesn't strike me as the TikTok.
• 3:52
  Dancer type? Maybe not.
• 3:53
  But yeah, super cool. To kind of like, get that that
• 3:56
  feedback from her and then, yeah, you know, your boy had to
• 3:58
  ask about BK Atkin. I love that you snuck that in
• 4:01
  there. That's absolutely great work by
• 4:02
  you. I thought her answer was good.
• 4:04
  I it felt like you caught her a little by surprise.
• 4:06
  I don't know how often she's asked about her, about her time
• 4:09
  in Gothenburg, but you know, shout out to you for sneaking
• 4:12
  that in. As everybody knows, we are the
• 4:15
  internet's only UEFA Women's Champions League podcast, so
• 4:18
  it's only right that you did that.
• 4:19
  I appreciate that, man. All right, so let's go to the
• 4:21
  second interview. Got a chance to speak with Kylie
• 4:23
  Strom, actually Kylie Nadaner, Apologies for that.
• 4:27
  Let's go to Kylie. Sound well, Kylie Furzelf,
• 4:31
  congratulations on the nuptials preparing for the season.
• 4:35
  We talked about physically what that this preparation being
• 4:38
  different than previous seasons. What about mentally?
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  You're coming in as defending champions versus just chasing a
• 4:45
  championship. Has that changed your mindset
• 4:47
  coming into the year? Yeah, we are very aware that we
• 4:51
  have a massive target on our backs.
• 4:53
  So every game that we play, like people want to beat us and
• 4:57
  they're going to treat it like a final.
• 4:59
  So we have to give 110% every game.
• 5:02
  That's the reality. So we're going to have to raise
• 5:05
  our game. We're we're very aware of that
• 5:07
  and and we're ready for it. And then as a defensive unit,
• 5:11
  you talked about the depth, has anything developed competition
• 5:14
  wise or you know there's still some flux line up wise or did do
• 5:18
  you guys ever get into it, you know, and in terms of like
• 5:20
  trying to carve out some positioning?
• 5:22
  I mean, you know, of course as a player, you're, you're always
• 5:26
  kind of reading into things. You know, when you line up for
• 5:28
  training and stuff, you're like, what are, what are, what do you
• 5:31
  think the coaches are thinking? You know, and the crazy part is
• 5:34
  like, I think we have so much depth and any player that is put
• 5:39
  out in that defensive unit, like, you know, they're going to
• 5:42
  get the job done. So, you know, I don't know what
• 5:45
  fans are going to expect because we don't even know what to
• 5:47
  expect from our back line. But we know for sure that
• 5:50
  whoever is out there will get the job done.
• 5:52
  And then last fight against Washington, anything specific
• 5:55
  that you can hang your hand, hang your head on positively or
• 5:58
  say, OK, this, this, this went really, really well for us.
• 6:01
  I think a big thing for us this year is hunting as one.
• 6:06
  Our press, I think put Washington in some really
• 6:09
  uncomfortable positions and we were winning the ball high up
• 6:13
  the pitch and creating chances out of it.
• 6:15
  So I think that's going to be a big focus for us this year.
• 6:17
  And then any areas for improvement off of like watching
• 6:20
  the the the tape from Friday? Yeah.
• 6:23
  I mean, overall, I think Friday was a really good performance.
• 6:25
  Obviously not the result we wanted.
• 6:28
  Probably need to work on BKS a bit more, but I think some
• 6:33
  challenges that we're going to face is, you know, obviously
• 6:36
  Barb's is going to draw so much attention to her, like poor
• 6:40
  Barb's getting fouled every time she touches the ball because
• 6:43
  that's the only way people can stop her.
• 6:44
  Martyr the same way, a lot of our players the same way.
• 6:47
  So I think we're just going to have to be able to like keep a
• 6:50
  cool head, protect ourselves and and find ways to create chances
• 6:55
  from them. Look at you sneaking in a
• 6:59
  congratulations on the nuptials. I mean, I can't even describe
• 7:03
  how much joy that brought me. Thank you for doing that buddy.
• 7:08
  You have no idea. I couldn't even look in the eye
• 7:10
  when I was saying I felt like an asshole because I'm like looking
• 7:12
  at my computer. I'm looking because.
• 7:15
  I was like, let me just please laugh.
• 7:17
  And I think you can hear my voice.
• 7:19
  I'm really trying not to break. Yeah.
• 7:21
  And I had to go straight from that just to the first question,
• 7:24
  but Kylie was. Great.
• 7:26
  You know, her vibes are super positive and it was interesting
• 7:29
  because I got to speak to her at the beginning of training camp
• 7:32
  and you could tell. It was almost like.
• 7:34
  You know, she had just woken up from a long nap or something.
• 7:36
  She was like first day, you know, let's see what's going on
• 7:38
  here, shake up the rest. I think she was a lot more
• 7:41
  locked in. When I spoke to her on Monday.
• 7:44
  And you know, talked about the match versus Washington kind of
• 7:46
  like what they learned. And I don't know, this back line
• 7:49
  is going to be really, really interesting.
• 7:51
  And I was also really curious about like how things are
• 7:55
  shaking out with the depth chart and competitively, I think she
• 7:58
  kind of, you know, was a little coy about it, but she definitely
• 8:00
  let me know that that there's some competition and you know,
• 8:03
  they're they're definitely scratching for for playing time
• 8:06
  with regard to that back line. Love that that.
• 8:09
  I think that was probably obviously after congratulations
• 8:11
  on the nuptials. That's my favorite part of the
• 8:14
  interview, just her talking about kind of like looking
• 8:17
  around, seeing how the team is being set up during certain
• 8:21
  drills or during certain training sessions.
• 8:23
  She said the right thing by saying, you know, no matter who
• 8:25
  we put out there, I feel confident in our squad.
• 8:28
  You don't want to throw on any of her team mates under the bus.
• 8:30
  She wants to be on the field and she probably feels that she
• 8:34
  deserves to be on the field just as much as anybody out there.
• 8:36
  And it'd be difficult to argue with her.
• 8:38
  I mean, she she finished, I think she was a finalist for
• 8:41
  defender of the year also alongside her team mate Emily
• 8:44
  Sampson. So, you know, she is dying to be
• 8:47
  on the pitch every, every minute.
• 8:48
  It's good that she trusts her team mates, but it goes back to
• 8:51
  what you talked about with their culture where they're pretty
• 8:54
  clearly competitive with each other, accountable to each other
• 8:58
  and that's that's why they were an all Time Team last year.
• 9:00
  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you can.
• 9:02
  You can definitely feel that, that competitiveness.
• 9:04
  And then the next person I got a chance to speak to Brazilian
• 9:07
  midfielder extraordinaire Angelina, who also super
• 9:11
  competitive vibes, super serious, serious vibes.
• 9:14
  I was really interested in what Angelina had to say as well.
• 9:19
  Three seasons in Seattle. This is your second year in
• 9:22
  Orlando. What was?
• 9:23
  Different about joining this organization and this community
• 9:26
  that helped you know you have such a great season last year.
• 9:30
  I think my life outside soccer, honestly, I feel at home at the
• 9:35
  city too, because the weather, the Brazilian community, it's
• 9:40
  closer to home. So I do feel like I I felt
• 9:45
  myself at home when I came to Orlando and that helped me
• 9:48
  develop my best soccer on the team.
• 9:51
  Preparing for this season physically and mentally.
• 9:54
  Where did the majority of your time go in terms of preparation?
• 9:58
  Honestly, because we had a short offseason, it was a little tough
• 10:04
  to manage all those like moments that we had with the club and
• 10:08
  the national team. And then just like coming right
• 10:11
  into it again, I think we needed to focus mostly on a recovery.
• 10:16
  And I think that was a really big part for me and I think for
• 10:20
  the team too, because we know it's going to be a long season.
• 10:23
  So I think probably we're focusing a lot on recovery and
• 10:28
  how to manage our bodies to just go after it and.
• 10:32
  Then when you mentioned recovery, obviously the
• 10:34
  understanding that it is a long season, how else does preparing
• 10:39
  for this year, you know, obviously again also as
• 10:41
  defending champions differ from previous seasons.
• 10:46
  I mean, it's always different. We know that this league is the
• 10:49
  most competitive or one of the most competitives in the world.
• 10:53
  So we know what it takes and what's going to be like on our
• 10:58
  bodies. How is it going to feel?
• 11:00
  So I think it's just like good to take the goods out of last
• 11:05
  season, but like knowing that it's going to be different this
• 11:08
  season and just like having those resources of how can we
• 11:12
  just like continue to develop and continue to grind.
• 11:16
  I think it's really important for us to just understand that
• 11:19
  it's going to be a different season, so we're going to have
• 11:21
  to do different things to reach our highest level.
• 11:26
  Angelina. Yeah, you got me.
• 11:28
  The weather's nicer in Orlando than it is in Seattle.
• 11:31
  I understand it's closer to Brazil.
• 11:33
  I understand. I understand it all.
• 11:35
  I'm glad she's happy there. She should be.
• 11:37
  She's going to play well in that system.
• 11:39
  She played well last year. You know, I I don't think I'm
• 11:43
  going to be one of the guys. Like, how dare you disrespect
• 11:45
  Seattle? It's like, no, I get it.
• 11:47
  I understand. Now, would I, you know,
• 11:49
  personally, would I rather live in Florida than Washington
• 11:52
  State? I would not.
• 11:53
  No offense to you either, my good man.
• 11:54
  That's all right. But I I understood.
• 11:58
  I understood everything that she was talking.
• 11:59
  About there, yeah, no doubt. It was interesting to see to
• 12:03
  kind of juxtapose the personality types too.
• 12:06
  This Pride roster is filled with different personality types kind
• 12:09
  of top to bottom. And sure, somehow Seb Hines have
• 12:13
  been able to kind of like move these pieces around and and kind
• 12:16
  of build these units that have like real cohesiveness, real
• 12:20
  chemistry, despite, you know, different age ranges, different
• 12:24
  experiences, different backgrounds, different leagues
• 12:26
  that that these players are coming from to kind of build a
• 12:29
  championship squad, which is super impressive.
• 12:32
  And I think that really shone through in these conversations.
• 12:35
  And then the last player I got the chance to speak to you, the
• 12:37
  legend between the posts and a morehouse.
• 12:40
  Let's go to that sound here. Anna, last year you had a
• 12:45
  stretch. Nine matches, one goal allowed,
• 12:47
  and that one was to Tama Choyingo, the MVP of the whole
• 12:50
  league. You raise the shield undefeated.
• 12:53
  What does it? Feel like to.
• 12:54
  Be in that kind of zone. I still, I still don't think
• 12:58
  I've really processed it properly to realise what we
• 13:01
  actually achieved last season. Obviously, like you see the
• 13:05
  shield in the, the championship, like, but like the, like all the
• 13:09
  records that we broke and like the, the streaks that we, we
• 13:12
  went on and, and stuff like that.
• 13:16
  But yeah, like we want it to continue into this season.
• 13:21
  And yeah, I think, I think we built, we built last year off a
• 13:26
  good defence and having that adaptability in there and
• 13:31
  everyone working for each other. And yeah, I think we just need
• 13:34
  to do the same, the same this year.
• 13:36
  You talked about building on last year.
• 13:39
  Are there any specific areas where or maybe coming off the
• 13:42
  match with Washington last Friday was was was there
• 13:45
  anything you said, OK, this this is an area that I think we can
• 13:47
  still build on, even knowing how good we we played last season.
• 13:51
  Yeah, I mean, this is a completely new season.
• 13:55
  I think you could tell in the game against Washington, both
• 13:57
  teams were very early in the season.
• 14:00
  It was a little transitional, little cagey.
• 14:03
  Like there's like niggly little fouls everywhere.
• 14:05
  And that's what you that's what you get in the first game of the
• 14:08
  season normally. I do think we need to finish
• 14:12
  opportunities that we create. That was a we had probably more
• 14:17
  than you think where we had good possession and we were building
• 14:20
  forward and then it's just that final pass or like the pass
• 14:23
  before the final pass to get to goal.
• 14:26
  But yeah, I I have faith in the forwards that they're going to
• 14:29
  figure it out and then they're going to start banging goals
• 14:32
  then do. You have any personal goals
• 14:34
  coming into the season? Honestly, I haven't really
• 14:37
  thought about it. Obviously I would like to break
• 14:40
  the record that I I broke last year.
• 14:42
  That would be nice obviously. But honestly, just just keeping
• 14:47
  the back line solid in front of me, just having, yeah, just
• 14:52
  communicating with them and and just having a good season
• 14:55
  defensively is is always a goal. I don't think that changes
• 15:01
  personally. I I want to go to the EUR with
• 15:03
  England. That would be that would be a
• 15:06
  dream come true for me. So yeah, that's, that's probably
• 15:09
  it. Awesome.
• 15:10
  Hope to see you at the Euros. Thank you.
• 15:13
  OK, I got to say, resetting the clean sheets record lofty goal.
• 15:19
  I mean, I'm not going to put it past her.
• 15:20
  I I think that's all very interesting.
• 15:23
  If I, if you will allow me to the kind of veer this off to the
• 15:26
  side. Love that she mentioned playing
• 15:28
  for England in the EUR thought exercise here.
• 15:31
  Mary Earps is 32 years old. Anna Morehouse is 29 years old.
• 15:35
  That is a weird spot for kind of Morehouse to be in right now.
• 15:40
  You know, Earp's legendary performances in the previous EUR
• 15:43
  was in the last World Cup. You kind of think of like, where
• 15:46
  is she going to be generationally?
• 15:48
  You have Hannah Hampton and Kiara Keating coming up behind
• 15:51
  her. I thought it was pretty telling
• 15:53
  that she wanted to float it out there in a media day appearance
• 15:56
  for the Orlando Pride. Hey, I got my eyes on these
• 15:59
  Euros. Yeah, it was funny because like
• 16:01
  just that morning I had read something on Reddit where
• 16:04
  somebody was like, Oh yeah, I got a chance to meet with Anna
• 16:06
  Moore House and I think it was Carson Pickett maybe at like a
• 16:10
  community event. And then the person was like,
• 16:13
  yeah, Anna where else was talking to me about wanting to
• 16:15
  play for England at the Euro. So I.
• 16:16
  Was like, so she's basically telling everybody that this is
• 16:20
  her. Aspiration, but I love it
• 16:21
  speaking into existence. I think she definitely has a
• 16:24
  claim sure for that spot. I mean I think Hannah Hampton is
• 16:27
  probably leader in the clubhouse.
• 16:29
  But you know, like with your thinking experience wise and
• 16:32
  just kind of like big game ability Mary Earps, it's hard to
• 16:36
  to ignore. Anna's going to get a chance
• 16:39
  early part of this NWSL season, like really make a point if she
• 16:42
  really kind of slams the door on the league and all the great
• 16:46
  offenses that she'll have faced. I think that's something that
• 16:49
  Serena Wiegmann's gonna have to take note of for sure, I think.
• 16:52
  You have to. And I, and I know, I think
• 16:54
  Leanne Sanderson has actually talked about it.
• 16:56
  Friend of the show, of course, the Arsenal legend, Lioness
• 16:58
  legend that I think some English players are a little concerned
• 17:02
  sometimes that hey, I'm going to go over to the NWSL and it's a
• 17:05
  great league, but I kind of disappear off of any England
• 17:08
  managers radar. I think Serena Wiegmann has made
• 17:11
  strides to say no, no, no, I'm watching everybody.
• 17:13
  I I know that's a great league. I want to make sure you know,
• 17:16
  you're doing well. But you know, I mean, I, I think
• 17:19
  Anna Morehouse is is right to campaign for the spot and you're
• 17:22
  absolutely right. She has a claim.
• 17:26
  I think. I'm curious your thoughts.
• 17:28
  I mean, we watch a lot of Chelsea.
• 17:29
  We've seen a decent amount of Hannah Hampton.
• 17:33
  I think I'd rate Morehouse over. Wow.
• 17:35
  Yeah. I mean, it's tough because.
• 17:37
  It's close. I mean, I think Hamptons best
• 17:41
  might be better than either of their best, but when you play in
• 17:46
  a high pressure situation like the EUR, you know, defending the
• 17:49
  title, you know, if you're the Lionesses, yeah, that just comes
• 17:53
  with a lot of pressure, you know, especially playing for
• 17:55
  that country. So I think that's kind of why
• 17:57
  there's been a little bit of like Mary Earp's momentum, you
• 18:00
  know, in terms of like who who maybe should get that starting
• 18:02
  spot. And then I think it's a great
• 18:04
  call to say, yeah. And the more house is in that
• 18:06
  mix. But the fit is like, all right,
• 18:07
  what do we, you know, it's like sort of like a paper, rock,
• 18:09
  scissors type situation in terms of like, OK, experience, who's
• 18:13
  stopping shots, who's distributing, you know, who can
• 18:16
  kind of handle that pressure in that spotlight.
• 18:19
  So, yeah, going to be tremendously interesting to
• 18:21
  watch, you know, kind of as we approach the summer here.
• 18:23
  I would just be and you know, I realize I keep having, we're
• 18:27
  having this conversation and I am talking as though it is an
• 18:30
  absolute shoo in that Herbs is the starting keeper.
• 18:33
  I would be floored if she was not the starting goalkeeper.
• 18:38
  You know, 66 matches played, obviously 6 starts in the 2022
• 18:41
  Euros, two goals allowed, save percentage of 88% In the World
• 18:45
  Cup, obviously seven matches played, seven starts, four goals
• 18:49
  allowed, 85, about 86% save percentage.
• 18:53
  You know, I, I just think she's, she's kind of earned the spot
• 18:56
  and she's 32. So it's not like we're, we're
• 18:58
  talking about an ancient player here.
• 19:00
  I I think Herbs has to be the starter and it's Morehouse and
• 19:02
  Hampton fighting it out for number 2.
• 19:05
  Very interesting. All right.
• 19:06
  So we'll keep an eye on that. This is another episode, quick
• 19:09
  episode, quick Orlando pride themed episode of into the
• 19:12
  channel. Thank you for hanging out.
• 19:13
  If you enjoyed the show or love ones of all as much as your boys
• 19:16
  do, make sure you're kicking up with us every single week and
• 19:18
  WSL coming in fast and furious. Very excited about that.
• 19:21
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• 19:23
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• 19:25
  Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
• 19:27
  We want to hear from you. We love hearing from you.
• 19:29
  Links to all of our socials except one in the show notes of
• 19:31
  this episode. Big thinking Michael's as well.
• 19:34
  Mr. Grant angle for joining me on this Orlando Pride
• 19:37
  celebration journey. I appreciate that, man.
• 19:38
  I know it's a, you know, it's a road game for you, but I, I
• 19:41
  mean, you're, you're a guy I can always count on.
• 19:43
  So I appreciate you for that. Likewise, buddy, thank you for
• 19:45
  making me an honorary Florida man today and hopefully
• 19:49
  everybody who watched all, all the Florida folks, all of our
• 19:52
  Florida pals enjoyed it as well and we will see you all next
• 19:55
  time.