Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / GOTHAM FC 2025 NWSL CHAMPIONS | Gotham v Washington Spirit | Rose Lavelle | Bruninha | Championship

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GOTHAM FC 2025 NWSL CHAMPIONS | Gotham v Washington Spirit | Rose Lavelle | Bruninha | Championship · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK, welcome to a 2025 NWSL Championship recap edition of
0:13
Into the Channel podcast from about 1 football.
0:16
I'm your host, Dino de Suspira. So as always, I'm joined by my
0:20
coast Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:24
I'm feeling fantastic buddy, well rested after a fruitful,
0:29
eventful trip to the Bay Area for the championship match.
0:35
It's good to hang out with you, good to hang out with our our
0:37
pals in the media, all the crazy fans.
0:40
And it was, I think a good time had by all.
0:43
Well, mostly all. Mostly all, indeed.
0:46
Yeah, it was great seeing all of the the fellow content creators,
0:51
podcasters, writers, hosts, all the folks that you know, we
0:56
whose work we quote, just kind of getting to put a face to a
0:59
name. That was a lot of fun.
1:00
And then, yeah, man, the players, coaches, everybody was
1:03
super gracious. The league was very helpful.
1:06
Shout out to our guys at BFC, Jeff and Emil, who, you know,
1:10
looked out for us in a huge way. And yeah, I agree with you, man.
1:13
It was great having you in town. We got it.
1:14
We got to find a way to do more of it.
1:16
Maybe, you know, the ITC Darby and WSL Championship, maybe
1:19
Champions League final. We'll we'll, we'll, we'll figure
1:21
out a way to get a couple more dates on the calendar because I
1:24
definitely got a kick out of, you know, watching the game with
1:28
you. Apologies if I talked your ear
1:30
off or, or ood and odd your ear off.
1:31
I'm a little bit vocal when I get up there, but had a lot of
1:35
fun man. Likewise, man, no, it was cool.
1:37
It was cool to like sit and watch a, a live match with you.
1:40
Even then, like you and I don't do like online watch alongs or
1:44
anything. So it's we don't we watch these
1:45
games separately and come together to talk about.
1:48
It was cool to to discuss them in real time from the auxiliary
1:52
press box in PayPal Park. A pretty good view from up
1:55
there. Yep, Yep, a little chilly little
1:58
chilly, but we were we did all right.
2:00
Shout out to all the, the, the, the friends we made-up there and
2:04
and some friends that we bumped into in in the stadium shot to
2:07
our guy Jose, who came up and said, what's up?
2:10
Appreciate you. And like I said, all the people
2:12
that we met, everybody was super cool.
2:14
Players were super cool. Let's get into it, though, a
2:18
match that actually let me rewind a bit.
2:21
Rewind a bit Mr. Grand Angle where you want to get started.
2:25
Let's get started with the championship beverage, my good
2:28
man's go. I think it's only fitting.
2:29
So I was hoping to cheers to reach in the mountaintop.
2:38
That's right, cheers to you, cheers to the football, cheers
2:41
to Gotham FC, because if you haven't heard by now, it'd be
2:44
really weird for you to be watching or listening to this
2:46
podcast. But just in case, in the NWSL
2:50
Championship in 20/20/20 in 2025, Pardon Me Gotham FC won
2:56
Washington Spirit nil. Who buddy what a result I mean
3:01
where do you want to I mean we let's figure out where to get
3:03
started. I want to I want to get started
3:04
Well first our expectations we both picked Washington to get
3:09
the WI was talking to our guy Eric from expected old goals
3:14
couple of nights before the final and I think I went even
3:17
harder when I was talking to him about my prediction.
3:20
I was like, I just think Washington too fast, too busy,
3:24
too dynamic. I, I kind of felt like they'd be
3:28
running circles around that Gotham midfield specifically,
3:31
especially after what we saw Wash to do to Portland.
3:34
So that was fully my expectation.
3:36
We also saw Gotham struggle to get going versus Orlando.
3:40
Granted, it was on the road. So I don't know, those were my
3:43
expectations going in. I know you also picked
3:45
Washington, but what kind of game were you expecting going
3:49
in? On on our preview show, I picked
3:54
Washington Spear to win one nil. So I nailed the score, I guess,
4:00
but I I just expected it to be like a hard fought battle where
4:07
both of the defenses kind of stood up.
4:09
I think we got that in a lot of cases, but it still looked
4:13
different than I predicted. I don't know.
4:16
I don't know. I guess I don't really know how
4:18
I was envisioning, you know, one nil like with a bunch of shots
4:25
on target, but I definitely expected more shots on target
4:29
than we saw. I definitely expected more shots
4:32
on target and I I think I expected more penetration by
4:35
these offenses. You know, like that's a good way
4:39
the talk of the of the week had been like, OK, well, these
4:41
managers are are conservative. It's a final.
4:43
It's going to be conserved. It's going to be close to the
4:45
vest. I wasn't really seeing that
4:48
necessarily because I'm like, all right, these these aren't
4:50
really like defensive stoppers, you know, like even though that
4:53
there are great big name defensive players on there.
4:56
But then you zoom out, man, like this Gotham side didn't allow a
5:01
goal to the Washington spirit. I think over 4 matches, if I'm
5:06
not mistaken this season. And then you and then you look
5:09
at Gotham defensively, the eighth seed, they beat the one
5:12
seed, the two seed, the three seed.
5:14
And over those three matches, they allow one goal, you know,
5:18
and that was a super late 1 to KC And then they come back and
5:22
and get the W anyway. So it turns out Gotham
5:24
defensively able to kind of hit another level or two.
5:28
And that that absolutely was not on my bingo card.
5:34
Yeah, likewise. And, you know, we had the
5:37
opportunity to chat with Jess Carter after the win.
5:41
Everybody can go check that video out.
5:43
And Gotham FC is in is in the title.
5:45
It's you know, the you'll know the video when you see it there.
5:49
It's on like this, kind of. She's in the thumbnail type area
5:51
where Jess is in the thumbnail too.
5:53
Oh, there you go. There you go.
5:54
Good choice. And I had mentioned to Jess
5:59
Carter, you know, Washington Spirit plays a fast attacking
6:03
style. They play physical attacking
6:05
style. And I asked her what were, you
6:07
know, how were you able to cope with that?
6:09
And in, in she, she gave me a friendly answer, but she kind of
6:14
looked at me a little bit like, yeah, we play a physical style,
6:18
like we play a fast style, like we're up for it.
6:21
So we were, we were ready for it.
6:23
And I could kind of tell, like, the competitive juices in it
6:26
were like, Oh yeah, you think they're fast and physical, huh?
6:29
That's actually what we do. Yeah, she checked you hard and
6:32
then the mix out. I loved it.
6:35
Yeah. Because she was like, you know,
6:36
I actually think we're pretty. I think we're the.
6:39
She was like, you know, kind of like, you know, very elegant
6:43
about it, but also came over the top, which I loved.
6:47
Speaking of that, like aggression and physicality.
6:51
There was a couple of matchups early that I thought couldn't,
6:55
couldn't help but notice one of them happening on our side where
6:59
we were sitting. That was Midge Purse going to
7:02
Kate Wiesner. And I thought Midge Purse kind
7:05
of set the tone early. You know, we had talked about it
7:08
a lot of the Gotham players, Jade and Shaw had talked about
7:10
the first 5-10 minutes being super important.
7:13
After the game, Emily Sonnet talked about the 1st 15 minutes
7:15
being super important. So that was clearly one of the
7:18
themes. Shout out to Midge Purse who
7:20
came out and was like, I want all of this.
7:22
You know, I did. You just got to make made me
7:24
think about the late great Harold Letterman who used to
7:27
talk about ring generalship. Tremendous ring generalship
7:30
showed by Mitch purse just kind of wanting to go at Kate
7:33
Wiesner. But Wiesner, to her credit,
7:35
super up for it. You know, wasn't going to get
7:37
ran over even though she got beat early once or twice.
7:41
And then on the on the diagonal side of the pitch, you had Lily
7:45
reel and Rose quasi, which was another one.
7:48
You know, Rose got her a couple times.
7:50
Lily stood her up a couple times and that I mean, those two
7:53
battles were just like those. That was kind of where the game
7:57
felt like it could turn. Nobody could totally get the
8:00
upper hand. But those those two one on ones
8:02
that was borderline. Pay-per-view stuff.
8:07
Shout out to to Howard Letterman.
8:09
RIP to the legend. All right, Jim, I had that first
8:13
round scored 10/9 for for Gotham.
8:15
FCI thought they controlled the pace.
8:18
I thought they did pretty much what they wanted in those first
8:20
15 minutes. Can I?
8:21
Can I? Can I do my real quick?
8:24
Please. Oh, how does it go?
8:25
He goes. A fighter cannot be saved by the
8:28
bell in any round except for the 12th and final round.
8:32
Jim, what a legend. I love that.
8:39
Cheers. Cheers to him for sure.
8:44
And yeah. And you clocked it early when
8:46
Jade John Roosevelt said that at the press conference.
8:49
You're like, I think they're going to try to start fast.
8:50
You said it in the preview. You're 100% right.
8:54
Emily Sonic confirmed it when I asked her a question in the post
8:58
match press conference. She said that was a focus in
9:01
training. And you know, if maybe
9:04
Washington Spirit wasn't watching, maybe they need to
9:08
watch more of our videos because you had given it in the preview.
9:10
Maybe they needed to watch their their pre match press
9:13
conferences because they kind of like Gotham kind of tipped their
9:17
hand on that. But they still went out and
9:19
executed it perfectly at the beginning of the match.
9:22
Absolutely. I mean, they were super
9:24
aggressive. I mean like the beginning of the
9:26
match, literally Jaden shot 2 seconds into the match.
9:29
He tries. He tries from from way downtown.
9:32
You know, you had Ester, you know, almost, I mean, putting
9:35
the ball back in the net and you had you had the offside call.
9:37
But I was I was surprised how aggressive they were.
9:40
I think they got off at least three shots in the 1st 10
9:43
minutes, maybe 4 if I'm if I'm remembering correctly.
9:46
And then on the other side, Washington a little bit
9:52
impatient, a little bit rushed, you know, no real kind of like,
9:57
you know, talk about ring generalship.
9:59
I think they needed a little bit of that in the center of the
10:01
park. You know, I, I had mentioned to
10:03
you maybe 10 or 12 minutes and I'm like, right, well, Kroy, you
10:05
got to go get the ball. Like, and you know, to her
10:08
credit, she, she kind of cranked it up right around that 15
10:10
minute mark and was like, OK, I'm, I'm going to be involved in
10:12
this game. But to Gotham's credit, they
10:16
didn't do anything other than play extremely disciplined
10:21
defense. You know, it was pretty much
10:23
like, just don't give them anything.
10:25
Don't, don't give, don't, don't give it, don't give it away.
10:29
And like, to their credit, they just stood up, held up, you
10:33
know, played extremely, you know, like I said, disciplined
10:37
and organized and then watched it on the other side.
10:40
You know, we're used to seeing, you know, players all over the
10:43
pitch in terms of like just running in and out, up and back.
10:47
Bernal, Terry McKeon, You know, two players I'm thinking about
10:50
are are that get super active, you know, from deeper parts of
10:53
the pitch. We didn't see any of that from
10:54
Washington. Very straightforward, very
10:57
vanilla, kind of, you know, a little easy ish to defend once
11:03
quasi to Monday couldn't really get going in a big way.
11:07
We saw cantore, you know, kind of be like, right, I'm going to
11:10
go get the ball down now. Now it's cantore time.
11:13
That kind of kind of, you know, stalled out a little bit.
11:15
So, I don't know, it really was jarring to see Washington not
11:19
able to get into a rhythm in the first half.
11:24
Yeah, I think that's fair. They were able to, they were
11:27
able to kind of shake loose because they were getting
11:30
strangled by the press in the 1st 15 minutes for sure.
11:34
They were able to shake loose of it a little bit like middle of
11:38
the first half ish. You know, Corey Bethune had a
11:43
really good turn, got some oohs and ahs from the crowd.
11:46
But then like a couple minutes later, Rose Lavelle had a had a
11:49
great move getting more oohs and ahs.
11:52
And I was like, are we at PayPal Park or Rucker Park?
11:54
What's happening here? Like the, the the players just
11:57
kind of started to really play with some style out there.
12:01
What's your point about Mitch Purse going right at Kate
12:05
Wiesner? You know, we had talked in the
12:07
press box. Maybe that's going to be
12:10
dangerous for spirit and Kate Wiesner, you know, in defeat.
12:14
Incredibly gracious with her answer.
12:18
I asked her about it. I said, look, you know, Mitch
12:20
Purse is one of the best wingers in the league.
12:22
You held your own out there. What was that match up like?
12:25
And she gave credit to Purse, noted that Purse got her pretty
12:29
good early on, but then thought that she was able to kind of
12:32
scrap some back. And I think as the first half
12:36
went on, Washington Spirit were able to get like a couple, like
12:41
they were able to win some balls, kind of able to move it a
12:44
little bit more and just like at least tamp down the significant
12:50
pressure that they were on in the beginning.
12:52
It didn't mean that they were like, it's not like they were
12:54
generating a ton of great chances, but at least they were
12:57
giving themselves some relief from Gotham's high press.
13:02
Yeah, I mean, Lacey Santos came back a little bit to get the
13:06
ball. You know, it it they, they, they
13:09
got a little bit more patient. But again, like, you know, they
13:12
just couldn't, they couldn't move the ball along.
13:16
I mean, if you think about if you look at the passing, I think
13:19
McKeon and Bernal both. I think McKeon was like in the
13:24
mid to high 80s. Bernal was a shade over 90.
13:26
So they were be able to connect. But after that, you know, ESB
13:30
Morgan, you know, was was trying to do a bunch of stuff to her
13:33
credit, lot of passes into the final third lot of activity.
13:38
But I mean, it just didn't it didn't come off offensively.
13:42
No, no, no other way to to put it.
13:44
And Washington couldn't really go too much else.
13:48
You know, which which was a little bit of a downer.
13:50
But again, this this one goes into halftime nil, nil.
13:54
And I had mentioned in the preview too, you know, if this
13:57
one goes into halftime nil, NIL and both both teams are sitting
13:59
at four or five shots, Gotham's probably high fiving.
14:02
That's like almost literally exactly what it looked like
14:05
going into the half. So I don't know when Gotham
14:07
played their game. I mean, shout out to them.
14:09
They they did exactly what they came out to do.
14:11
And I I totally agree with you on Wiesner.
14:13
That's that's a real player. Lily reel jumped off, jumped off
14:17
the pitch. You know, as a player, I was
14:19
just like, Oh my God, like the we're getting to to to see some
14:23
of these players up close in some of the highest stakes
14:28
football you can, you can kind of catch.
14:30
So that that was very cool in of itself as well.
14:34
Yeah, I mean, real had the had some of the Kawasi Monday
14:42
matchup, if I'm if I'm remembering correctly.
14:48
And yeah, and and when you see Lily real in person, that's
14:53
real. Like I, I can't remember if when
14:56
Gotham played at Seattle, maybe maybe real played, but that that
15:02
press box is, is pretty high up in Lewman Field here in Seattle.
15:06
But when you can, when you see Real on the pitch, great size as
15:11
a defender and can play a super physical style.
15:16
And she, as I'm sure Jess Carter would, would remind.
15:19
Me and her great size doesn't slow her down at all.
15:22
She can barely. Clearly, she's still very.
15:24
Fast. She can do everything that
15:25
everybody else can do, and she's also big and very strong.
15:30
Yes. And so, and just to to set, to
15:34
set the record straight, what I was trying to ask Jess Carter
15:37
was like, you guys are great at that.
15:38
So like I, I could tell that she was just like, yeah, I'll take
15:41
you down right now, dude. And I was just like, whoa, hey,
15:44
Jess, I'm I'm giving you credit. They play a fast and physical
15:47
style. I'm giving you credit for
15:49
beating them. That's it's neither here nor
15:51
there. I don't want any smoke and just
15:53
just for the absolute record, I want no smoke.
15:56
But I. You know, did I, did I maybe
15:58
shuffle a few inches away from you and just was coming at you?
16:01
It's possible. You're like, yeah, I don't know,
16:04
dude, it's this joker. We're just standing next to each
16:06
other. Yeah, exactly.
16:08
Hilarious that I would slightly annoy a player from the
16:12
Lionesses, a player who I've cheered for many, many times.
16:18
Oh, good, though. You know, it's all part of the
16:19
game. But I felt like after halftime,
16:22
you, you talk about the Bats being had, you know, they would
16:24
have been happy going into halftime.
16:26
Nil, nil. You're right.
16:27
You were almost on the money. Bats had five total shots.
16:31
Washington Spirit had three. Gotham had one of those on
16:34
target. Spirit didn't have a single shot
16:37
on target in that half. All day, all day.
16:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a good point.
16:42
Not even one of those, not even one of those like ones from
16:45
distance. And it still felt though, and
16:51
and correct me if I'm wrong here though, but it still felt like
16:56
Spear was able to at least wrestle back some of the game.
17:01
I mean, they at least had the ball a lot more in the
17:03
second-half. Yeah, Early second-half, I think
17:06
they got going a little bit. They logged some shots, you
17:10
know, I think, you know, Kroy, I think got a little bit more
17:14
aggressive, you know, it just like the the chances were.
17:22
So I don't know, they weren't so few and far between, but they
17:24
were so low quality. You know, we're so used to
17:27
seeing those Washington players go one-on-one, you know, go
17:32
around the back over the top. And yeah, it, it's just hard to
17:36
describe. But like, it was a 2 sided coin
17:39
because like I said, Gotham was everywhere they needed to be.
17:43
And I kept thinking about one word that Adrian Gonzalez used
17:49
in the in the pre match presser as well, where he was describing
17:53
Gotham's attack as like very dangerous.
17:56
And we got to respect it. And we got to, you know, and
17:57
it's like, and to to some extent he's right, But also you're the
18:02
manager for the Washington Spirit.
18:04
You know, like, do you want to like lose and go out like that
18:07
with all that firepower? Like, especially when not that
18:11
you've been playing, you know, like basically, you know, Mike
18:15
D'Antoni, Phoenix Suns basketball out there all season.
18:19
But that is where your strength is, you know, that that is where
18:23
you might have an advantage, like athletic, dynamic,
18:27
attacking, unpredictable. And we just didn't see any of
18:30
that. We saw them kind of, like I
18:33
said, play very vanilla, very straight up, you know, nothing,
18:36
nothing too out of the ordinary. And every chance that they did
18:39
get every, you know, possession that did move into the final
18:43
third, it it just looked like, you know, you're just watching
18:46
XS and OS Everybody was like at the right place.
18:48
And it's like, OK, well, it doesn't look like anything's
18:50
going to happen here. And then you juxtapose that with
18:53
the goal, Bernina to Lavelle, and what's happening, obviously,
18:59
like Hirschfeld is, is kind of like mid jogging back onto the
19:04
pitch trying to like, you know, get situated dealing with an
19:07
injury. But it was chaos in that moment
19:09
and it was an absolute scramble. And, you know, Washington could
19:13
have used a little bit more of that, waited much, much, much
19:16
too long to kind of turn the game and into something that
19:21
could provide a little bit more variance.
19:25
I think that's probably fair and you called it right away after
19:30
it happened. But, and I saw Gotham FC
19:34
mentioned it in their game recap on their website, which I
19:37
thought was well written, but the pass from Sarah Szipanski to
19:42
Bruninia, that long range, you know, cross field pass to get
19:49
her on the ball and completely force the Washington spirit into
19:54
a total switch, like change fields, we used to call it in my
19:58
cruddy high school, you know, football that I played.
20:02
But Bruninia has the ball in several yards of space.
20:07
It's like she had a 10 yard Halo around her.
20:10
And then she's able to, you know, get it in there, dance
20:13
with the step overs and then just kind of hit that outside of
20:15
the foot pass, which, you know, for an outside of the foot.
20:20
Pass had good pace on it still. She's like, she she hit it,
20:25
Yeah, She hit it really nicely with.
20:28
And it was Laval coming on the leg and it was so nice in the
20:31
within the rhythm of the step over.
20:34
It was like a round, a round, a round and then Wham, like right,
20:38
right into Rose's path. So cool.
20:42
Yeah, it was wild. And I and I just think
20:44
Schubansky, you know, deserves immense credit for for kind of
20:47
opening like taking the top off the defense or opening things up
20:51
however you want to, however you want to put it.
20:54
Well, it's a great pass. And you know, when we asked Esme
20:56
Morgan about it, she was just like, yeah, you know, you got to
20:59
try to, you got to try to rotate, you got to try to
21:02
account for the late arriving run.
21:05
But I think in her answer, which is in that in the Washington
21:08
spirit, a post match video that you could watch for free on
21:11
YouTube if you if you're so inclined, or rewatch.
21:14
I thought she was gracious about it too and or rewatch if you
21:18
want. And I just think, you know, the
21:23
bats made a great play. It's a great pass from Shupansky
21:26
to open it up. It's a great it's great pace and
21:29
a great move by Brunini. We talked about her pass and
21:32
Lavelle times it perfectly and she hits the shot like like
21:35
somebody who scores, who has scored a goal in a World Cup
21:39
final, like she's Lavelle is built for this and and that's
21:43
just kind of what happened. Yeah, no doubt.
21:45
I mean, 3-3 on point actions to kind of like flip this game and
21:52
the, the, the, I, I keep thinking about the, the, the
21:56
move that Bernania makes before the past too, because I remember
22:00
I'm sitting there and I'm like, hey, hey, you know, you could
22:03
feel the, the the the stadium start to like, you know, do get
22:07
charged up in that moment. And the goal was just
22:09
incredible. But yeah, do great, great call
22:11
out by you highlighting Schipanski on that play.
22:16
I loved, you know, Bernina's quote when we spoke to her when
22:20
I, you know, I was just like, what, where does this rank in
22:22
your career? And she's just like best moment
22:25
of my career, you know, and I'm I'm just glad to be, you know,
22:31
tough to argue and and to have it be an assist.
22:36
You know, it is so cool, you know, to have it be like action,
22:39
action, action, action and just kind of like mesmerize the
22:42
entire building. The entire building in that
22:44
moment is watching Burdinia, you know, even though Rose Lavelle,
22:48
you know, one of the most legendary players in the women's
22:50
game, is just a few yards away running on everybody's in the
22:53
trance at that moment. And then credit to Lavelle,
22:56
slaps it right into the back of the net too.
22:58
And just I don't blew the blew the roof off that place even
23:01
though there was no roof. Yeah, I mean, you know, she's 23
23:07
years old. I think like, look at I'm I'm
23:10
going to check. I'm checking fat mob here.
23:15
You know what? She helped win the Brazil under
23:18
20. They won the U20 Feminino
23:21
Economy Bowl in 2022. But like, you know, you're just
23:25
not going to get much, much better than this.
23:27
Obviously she's part of the this year's cocky FW Champions Cup
23:31
winning team. But but to win the NWSL
23:34
championship match and you provide that assist coming off
23:38
the bench, like, you know, I'm not.
23:41
So I'm not totally shocked that it's it ranks #1 for her and
23:44
career in her career. And of course, I couldn't do
23:47
this without patting myself on the back.
23:49
Bernania had a translator with her, but I I could kind of see
23:54
her eyes light up when I asked her about the play.
23:58
And I say, and then you find Lavelle for the late arriving
24:00
run. And I could tell in her eyes she
24:03
was like, I know that I know what that term means.
24:05
I've heard that term in English many times.
24:07
And then she kind of looked at the translator was like, I'll
24:09
answer this one in English. And she, she did a phenomenal
24:11
job. So not only is she a great
24:13
football footballer, but she speaks multiple languages just
24:17
beyond talent. Talent beyond anything I could
24:20
ever conceive. Yeah, yeah.
24:21
When she said I'm going to try to do this one in English, I was
24:24
a little worried. And then we started speaking
24:26
English. I'm like, she speaks great
24:27
English. What are you doing here?
24:29
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
24:31
But yeah, what a super moment for for Bernania.
24:34
That was so cool. And then it it also reminded me
24:37
of the MVP, you know, voting situation where, you know,
24:42
everybody up in the in the press box gets an MVP vote.
24:45
So we both voted on, on MVP and we've got to get our vote in at
24:51
a specific time. That's not ideal, but we've got
24:55
to get it in. And we're just looking at each
24:56
other like, right, what are we thinking?
24:58
What are we think of you? And I think at that point, this
25:01
was before the goal, you know, Tara Mceone, we, I think we both
25:06
independently landed on Tara Mceone as maybe our MVP.
25:09
She had made some defensive, some big defensive plays,
25:13
nothing really on the offensive side, but she had kind of been
25:17
involved in in the most highest leverage moments, even though
25:20
there wasn't. There just wasn't that many.
25:22
We didn't mention Rose and Pat Rose has been good.
25:24
Jade Shaw's been good. And then it was just so funny
25:27
that a couple minutes there, she begs in the go.
25:29
We're like, oh, OK, I guess we've got our MVP sold.
25:34
It worked out nicely. Great timing by Schubansky,
25:37
Bruninia and Rose Lavelle to score that goal.
25:39
In that moment, I if I remember correctly, we talked about
25:44
Mickey own, we talked about Lavelle, I think we talked about
25:49
purse or. I had Shaw I.
25:53
Think I had mentioned purse, I thought.
25:54
I thought Shaw had mentioned. Shaw yeah, like she didn't
25:57
really have the the moment moment, but I think, you know,
26:02
James Shaw probably. And and I'm I'd be curious your
26:05
answer to this in terms of obviously we talked to almost
26:08
every player some capacity or I I I had a couple extra days, you
26:13
know, during the course of the week to interface with, with
26:16
players from both teams, but spoke to a lot of players, we'll
26:18
say. And for me and I, I don't want
26:21
to get your answer to this. The most important, impressive
26:24
player that I walked away from just being like, holy shit, like
26:27
this player can take over world football if if she chose, if she
26:32
like so chose and the dominoes fell that way.
26:35
Jayden Shaw to me isn't like an absolute superstar.
26:40
I think kind of threw the entire soccer world off the scent, you
26:44
know, with with her North Carolina courage, you know,
26:47
Foray and you know the way, you know the exit from San Diego.
26:50
But you know, we were all pumped when she landed in Gotham.
26:54
And she's just an absolute engine man.
26:57
And like she's ice cold. You know, when you speak to her
27:02
like you can just see that this person is almost like a like a
27:05
football computer of a brain and can do everything out there and
27:09
just, I don't know, not not a player that I'd want to play
27:12
like maybe the player that I'd want to play against least I'll
27:14
I'll say, and that's generally how I like to judge these
27:17
things. I think it's a good way to look
27:20
at it. And you're totally right.
27:22
I mean, clearly an incredibly intelligent young person who
27:27
thinks a lot about the game, considers her answers, you know,
27:32
to to media questions carefully too.
27:35
I think that I think that says something about a player, but
27:38
not like thinks about him like, oh, I'm going to give a non
27:40
answer. She gives thoughtful answers as
27:42
well. So and, and when you talk about
27:46
like just the footballing engine and we and we've we've talked to
27:50
a bunch of people about this, I think I feel like we've talked
27:53
to Leanne about it. We talked to Mike Watts about it
27:55
in the NWSL preview episode we did many months ago of like, OK,
28:00
9 1/2. Is she 10?
28:03
Is she a winger? Like what is it?
28:06
And she's just a baller out there.
28:08
And you can, I do think she is best in some kind of attacking
28:13
midfield role because of what she can do.
28:15
I don't think I there was a time where I thought perhaps she
28:18
could be a play as a traditional number 9.
28:21
I actually think that might be too limiting on her skill set
28:25
for like some of the past that some of the touch passes that
28:27
she's able to provide and then some of the great vision that
28:30
she has. But you can still use those
28:31
things as a #9 But I just, it feels like the attacking
28:34
midfield is probably where she should be.
28:38
And shout out to our guy Juan Carlos Amaros.
28:40
He seems to have figured that out pretty quickly.
28:44
Our guy indeed. I shot him a message.
28:46
We'll see if we can get our guy in the show here in the coming
28:49
week or so. We'll see.
28:51
You know, yeah, I could get Congrats to the coach for sure.
28:54
But yeah, Shaw, I think kind of reminds me.
28:57
It's funny, as you were describing the attacking
29:00
midfielder situation, the 9 being limited weirdly like this
29:06
is this might sound so stupid, but to me, it makes sense in my
29:08
head, even like just as a 10A little limited, you know, like
29:13
can, you know, it's almost like, could you put Jaden Shaw in like
29:18
an attacking midfielder spot alongside a traditional 9:00 and
29:21
10:00 and just be like, good, just go wherever.
29:23
Like, you know, like you're, you're part of this, this
29:25
attacking unit. And you know, we want to use
29:27
your unit, your improvisational skills, your, your, your jazz
29:31
skills out there to be, to be able to make stuff happen.
29:34
And I don't know, all of a sudden my money is now on Jayden
29:37
Shaw to be able to like wreck games in a big way.
29:40
And I think, you know, just her finding a place in Gotham with
29:43
those other players that could kind of like match her from a
29:47
football IQ standpoint. I think it's just paid, I mean,
29:50
massive dividends. And now we just kind of get to
29:53
watch Jayden Shaw like for Gotham for a lot of years,
29:56
Hopefully fingers crossed. And competing for championships
29:59
is just like super exciting. And you look at that midfield
30:04
that she's in there with, I mean, you know, so they
30:07
essentially lined up in what kind of looked like a 4141.
30:11
That's what Fat Bob has it. I think that's kind of that's
30:15
pretty much how it looked. I mean, you could probably make,
30:17
you could maybe make the argument that at times it kind
30:19
of looked like A4231 with Schupansky and Howl kind of
30:23
maybe being more of a holding midfielder types, I think during
30:26
courses of that match. But you put Shaw out there with
30:29
Lavelle, who is a straight up attacking midfielder, and then
30:34
Mitch Purse out there on the wing.
30:35
And Jayden Shaw is, yeah, she's on the wing, but she drifts into
30:39
the middle of the field and can really create a lot of value for
30:42
you in there trying to get the ball forward.
30:44
So I'm with you. And you know, who has the
30:47
perfect opportunity to season those skills even more is going
30:51
to be Emma Hayes. And can you put Jaden Shaw out
30:54
there when you have Kat Macario as your number 10 and Sophie
30:58
Wilson as your number 9? Like, maybe, you know, maybe
31:01
there's a way to kind of figure that out with Shaw hovering
31:04
around those two and maybe create some dangerous look.
31:07
So I know this isn't AUS women's national team episode, but like,
31:10
I think it's a great point by you is that Shaw is one of those
31:13
players. It's like we'll get you on the
31:15
field. You're smart enough to figure
31:17
out your role. It's just the manager's job to
31:19
come up with a plan to make sure that we at least kind of guide
31:23
you in the right spot, but then you do the rest.
31:25
Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I mean, I think they they've
31:28
certainly, they're unlocking, they're unlocking stuff there.
31:31
And, and I don't know if you caught this, but Jaden Shaw's
31:33
answer when we were talking to her post match, she kind of
31:37
caught herself. She was like, she was like, Yep,
31:39
got it done this week, and now we're going to have to come back
31:41
next. No, actually, no, we won the
31:42
championship. Not going to have to come back
31:44
next week. Yeah.
31:46
Such a fucking machine. I'm just like, holy.
31:48
Like, you know, you've got some of the other yogurt Gotham
31:51
players. They've got their, their, you
31:53
know, champagne in the hand and they're just reeking of alcohol.
31:56
And she's just like, yeah, I'll be back next.
31:58
No, I mean, that was such a really funny moment.
32:02
She wanted to talk about things that they could also improve on
32:05
for next week too. And it's just like, yo, Jade,
32:08
Jade, you lifted the trophy, season's over.
32:11
No, that's. Awesome, I.
32:14
Mean yeah, she's a total beast. Yeah, if, if, if I didn't, if I
32:18
wasn't walking away with that impression already.
32:20
That moment. It's just like, come on, man.
32:22
Like what? What are we doing?
32:24
This, this one was going to win everything.
32:27
What was it going to hit? I mean, well, anything else?
32:32
I'm not sure. I had one other thing.
32:33
Maybe, maybe we'll we'll, we'll get to it before we get out of
32:35
here, but is there anything else you want to hit before we got
32:37
here? There is something I want to
32:40
talk about. So we we talked to Trinity
32:43
Rodman, who was understandably incredibly emotional after the
32:49
match. And, you know, she took, she
32:53
took a moment as she was kind of doing the, you know, carousel,
32:58
whatever you want to refer to it as.
33:00
After talking to many, several members of the media, she had to
33:03
take a moment to compose herself.
33:06
You know, broke down into tears again, understandably so.
33:09
It's a very difficult evening for her.
33:12
A player. We know her competitiveness.
33:15
We know her toughness. And she could she, she gave her
33:18
club 30 minutes. She gave the Washington Spirit
33:22
supporters 30 minutes. She gave her fans all around the
33:24
world 30 minutes. And so I just want to talk about
33:27
her for a moment. She did not play in that match,
33:31
dinged up or with a knock as is sometimes used by folks when
33:37
describing athletes. She is injured and I'm glad she
33:41
pointed it out in that post match Prescott or in the post
33:44
match availability where she noted that she had played 9
33:48
minutes in the build up of this NWSL Championship match.
33:52
I left PayPal Park with one of my primary takeaways being that
33:58
she is 1000 times tougher than I thought and I thought she was
34:02
pretty goddamn tough before this and one of the reasons.
34:07
Go ahead, please. No, I, I wanted to add something
34:09
and I don't think you're going to hit it.
34:12
If you remember when we're out in that back area, Trinity walks
34:17
by and I'm just like, oh, I think you're like, oh, that's
34:20
Trinity. I'm like, they look like Trinity
34:22
with a, with maybe like a bodyguard or something.
34:24
It looked like she was out of there.
34:25
Looks like she's gone. She doesn't need to go talk to
34:27
us. She doesn't really need to talk
34:29
to anybody. You know, like that could happen
34:31
at the post match presser. You know, that we were post
34:35
match. We were kind of in a scrum area
34:37
with a lot of people hanging out.
34:38
So you can kind of talk to whoever in a situation she
34:41
walked through and then 10 minutes later what comes back
34:46
through to, you know, be accountable to your point,
34:50
answer questions, answer every question pretty much.
34:53
It wasn't, you know, there wasn't anybody shuffling her
34:56
quickly off, you know, out into the back, which, you know, there
34:59
was a there was some other, you know, big name players that
35:02
didn't make it out there. So Rodman absolutely did not
35:06
have to do that. And, but to her point, she came
35:09
out, answered every question, was thoughtful and, you know,
35:13
provided super duper important context, you know, to, to, to
35:19
your question to her that, you know, to, to the, to the 9
35:21
minutes of playing time leading up to this, which I think was
35:25
absolutely relevant. You know, we're at the end of
35:27
the season, these teams are as sharp as they can be.
35:31
It's a, an impossible spot. And I, I totally agree with you.
35:34
I those few moments and then watching Trinity play like
35:37
absolutely had a massive impact on, you know, kind of like how
35:41
you think about a player like that.
35:45
Yeah, and I mean, you know, there are people who and I, and
35:51
I understand this, like when Lucy Bronze played in the Euro
35:55
final and then she revealed, I think it was a fibula or maybe a
36:00
tibia. I can't remember what the injury
36:03
was. And people were shocked by that
36:06
and said, woah, why would you play on that?
36:08
And you think about like Tyrese Halliburton in the NBA or Kevin
36:12
Durant in 2019 versus the Raptors.
36:15
And it's like, why would you risk some of your long term
36:18
health when you could sit out and miss one of those matches
36:22
for for a person like Trinity Rodman and Tyrese Halliburton.
36:26
But this is a program about women's football.
36:28
You're literally in the final. Like you're literally right
36:32
there. You can't be thinking about
36:34
well, or you can be I and I don't, I don't mind a player who
36:37
sits out if they feel like they're too hurt to play.
36:39
If you if you're too injured to play, don't play.
36:41
But for a person like Trinity Rodman to show that toughness
36:45
and to say I'm here, I'm going to give everything I possibly
36:49
can for my club and my friends and teammates who all we all
36:53
worked so hard to get here. I just think it's important to
36:57
give Trinity Rodman her due respect for a truly rare level
37:01
of toughness to go out there and compete the way she did.
37:04
A. 100% cosign. I mean, I think that was that
37:09
was for sure a moment, you know, on the pitch and in our
37:11
conversation with her. Absolutely.
37:14
Yeah, I think well said had to be said.
37:16
And I'm, I'm glad you brought that up.
37:19
If I could add one last thing, and I would imagine several of
37:23
our Internet pals share this sentiment.
37:25
I hope Trinity Rodman does not kick a football competitively
37:29
until she has rested and rehabbed her injury all the way
37:34
back to where she feels comfortable.
37:36
And I hope she does not competitively kick a football
37:39
until those significantly larger direct deposits start hitting,
37:45
no matter what club is smart enough to pay her.
37:47
Mm Hmm. Yeah, I think I'm not gonna say
37:52
the the thing that I was thinking.
37:53
I I already told you at this at the game.
37:55
We'll talk about it later. I'll tell you after the show.
37:58
But all right, man, is there anything else you want to hit
38:01
before we get out of here? I feel like there's a couple
38:03
other things she's not, but I think, I think, I think we've
38:05
got to everything. We got to everything Srini
38:10
Robbins not going to arsenals. Just knock it off and the.
38:13
That's not what no, that wasn't the that wasn't the nasty rumor
38:15
that I started. I started a different rumor, but
38:17
I can't talk about how that rumor came to be.
38:21
No, that that's fair, that's understandable.
38:23
And one more time for our guy Juan Carlos Amados, 2 time NWSL
38:29
championship winning manager. He was a he was the Co manager
38:35
and I and please for our Internet pals, correct me if I'm
38:38
wrong on this, but if I understood everything correctly,
38:42
he was the Co manager at Tottenham Hotspur in like the
38:46
late twenty 10s. Who's Co manager with Karen
38:48
Hills, who is an accomplished manager herself.
38:52
But just think it like women's football is changing.
38:56
It's it's everything is, is is, you know, kind of trending up.
39:00
Well, I don't want to say everything is trending up.
39:02
Everything should be trending up.
39:04
The teams need to continue to get better.
39:06
Treat these players as professionals, make sure the
39:08
infrastructure is better. But just shout out to our guy
39:11
who also at, I think at one point during the post match
39:14
presser, Juan Carlos said, you know, I think about these things
39:17
more as I'm getting old now I'm 41 years old and you know what,
39:23
shout out to you Juan Carlos. You're 2 years older than I am.
39:26
I'm in my latest 30. You know what, We are getting
39:29
older and we're maturing quite nicely.
39:32
Yeah, a couple. Look at you.
39:34
Look at you young fellows enjoying your your.
39:38
Well, you're not quite there yet, but you're a few days away.
39:40
But yeah, the 40s, they're a good time.
39:43
It's a good time to peek. If you ask, if you asked me.
39:46
I like it. All right, man, quick.
39:48
Oh, before we add here, quick episode calendar.
39:50
What are we doing? What are we doing?
39:53
Obviously NWSL 252025 season a wrap, you know, very successful
39:58
if you ask me. Little bit of bias.
40:01
US women's national team though. Back in action this Friday and
40:04
Monday. We'll be back to talk about both
40:06
of those after that, a little chain Zig match Day 5 preview,
40:11
apology, apologies. We didn't really dive deep into
40:14
match day 4, just cause too much, too much NWSL happenings
40:18
this weekend, but we'll be back with A2 parter December 9th,
40:21
December 10th. Match Day 5 gets rolling, so
40:24
we'll break down all nine matchups over those two days and
40:28
we'll get that previewed well before a few days before, so
40:31
you'll be able to get fully caught up.
40:33
Make sure you're subscribed following your boys on all the
40:35
socials. All right, man, I think we did
40:37
it. Anything else you want to hit
40:38
for you out here? I think we've we've
40:42
comprehensively done it. My good man.
40:45
Thank you to everybody who's just with the kind words about
40:49
like happy for us with the access we got checking out the
40:51
videos. I think we got more NWSL video
40:56
views than we've ever had in a single week, so we just really
41:00
appreciate you guys hanging out with us.
41:02
Yeah, no doubt, Yeah. And everybody that that
41:04
commented absolutely appreciate you.
41:06
Boy named Blue and there was Kobe too many to name.
41:10
Just I should have probably written them down, but you
41:12
already know what time it is. We appreciate each and every one
41:14
of the folks in the ITC community.
41:17
And yeah, I mean, we, we did our best out there, I'll say that.
41:22
And you know, I don't usually do this.
41:25
I hate to kind of do this and then and I'm going to do it.
41:27
I'm not going to ask her to do it.
41:28
But your boys came out of pocket a little bit to kind of cover
41:32
all of this, all of this good NWSL goodness.
41:35
So if you want to support the show, if you can, if you're in a
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Keep rocking with us. YouTube, it's free.
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41:59
Shout out to our guy Jose who who caught me in the building
42:02
wearing my ITC merch before I got too cold and had to buy a
42:05
hoodie and then put it on because you know, I'm, I am that
42:09
type. But a lot of great merch
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42:15
Links in the description if you want to go do that and this one
42:19
over something to the channel. Thank you for watching,
42:21
listening, hanging out with us over the course of this entire
42:23
2025 NWSL season. If you enjoy the show, you
42:26
already know what time it is, you already know what to do
42:29
Follow, subscribe support. We appreciate you links to all
42:33
the above much, much more in the description of this episode.
42:36
And a big thank in my coast as well, Mr. Graham Angle for
42:42
lifting the trophy. You know, we, we were there on
42:44
the pitch in San Jose. You know, I had to dust some
42:47
confetti off our shoulders. I mean, we didn't win anything
42:50
technically, but I think we did a little bit of winning this
42:53
week in San Jose. So I appreciate you, bro.
42:55
None of it possible without you. Likewise, my good man the life
43:01
producing everything that you were able to put together.
43:05
I mean, I know people have already commented your award
43:08
show coverage, the the media day coverage, absolutely phenomenal.
43:12
I would say we more the random hotel episode, I would say, I
43:18
would say we absolutely won something directly and we
43:22
couldn't have done it without all of you.
43:24
As we've mentioned before, thank you for always dropping
43:26
knowledge, being so kind in the comments.
43:28
It's the only corner of the Internet where kind people seem
43:31
to reside and we and we could not thank you enough for all of
43:34
that. So thank you all for watching
43:36
and we will see you all next time.