Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / NWSL Semifinal Preview | Washington Spirit v Portland Thorns | Orlando Pride v Gotham [AUDIO ONLY]

Transcript

NWSL Semifinal Preview | Washington Spirit v Portland Thorns | Orlando Pride v Gotham [AUDIO ONLY] · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:04
  OK, welcome to Into the Channel, an audio edition of Into the
• 0:11
  Channel podcast primarily about 1 football.
• 0:13
  I'm your host Dean Suspicious and as always, I am joined by my
• 0:16
  Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What's up, man?
• 0:20
  I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. You know what?
• 0:23
  Sometimes in life there are technical difficulties that are
• 0:28
  just simply beyond our control, and this is one of those times.
• 0:33
  What's all right? I feel like, you know, it's not
• 0:35
  like we have a bunch of like graphics or anything.
• 0:38
  It's pretty much just two dudes sitting and talking about
• 0:40
  sports. So now if you want to think
• 0:41
  about just imagine 2 dudes sitting and talking about sports
• 0:44
  so you can just listen. Yeah, no, I love it.
• 0:47
  Yeah. Sometimes you see one dudes
• 0:49
  face, sometimes the other dudes face.
• 0:51
  Sometimes you see both dudes faces at the same time.
• 0:53
  You won't see, you won't be seeing any faces on this episode
• 0:56
  as Grant alluded to some technical difficulties, an audio
• 0:59
  only episode, an old school, a throwback episode, you might
• 1:02
  say, of into the channel. We got some NWSL football.
• 1:08
  We got some quarterfinal action. Only three NWSL matches left in
• 1:12
  the season. But before we get to the sad
• 1:14
  part, let's get to the fun part, Mr. Grant Angle where you want
• 1:17
  to get started. Let's get started with a
• 1:19
  beverage, my good man, because boy oh boy did those 4 football
• 1:25
  matches deliver over the weekend.
• 1:28
  Absolutely. These camera problems, this
• 1:31
  beverage will soften the blow. That's right.
• 1:37
  Cheers to you, cheers to the football.
• 1:40
  Cheers to you, my good man. What do you say we get started?
• 1:47
  Sort of in chronological order, I guess.
• 1:50
  I don't know, like everything was a blur, everything happened
• 1:53
  so fast. Who knows?
• 1:55
  But I do seem to recall how I spent my Friday evening.
• 1:58
  You know, I'm guessing many of our pals listening spent their
• 2:02
  Friday evening Orlando Pride to Seattle Rain Football Club NIL.
• 2:09
  Yeah, so I mean, if I had to, if I had to sum this one up, the
• 2:13
  Orlando Pride find a way in this one.
• 2:17
  I I, well, I want to start with the bench, you know, and there's
• 2:21
  some of the decisions that Laura Harvey made because that was the
• 2:24
  first note where I was like, OK, this is this is let me jot this
• 2:28
  down in the old notebook. Jordan Heitzma, Coco Mondesir,
• 2:32
  Maddie Ricardo starting up top. That leaves Jess Fishlock, the
• 2:36
  official Maddie, Dalene, Emery Adamez, Sally Menti all on the
• 2:40
  bench when the lineups get announced.
• 2:43
  What's your first thought when you see Seattle's 11?
• 2:48
  I know nothing about football compared to Laura Harvey.
• 2:51
  I think you, you and I both subscribe to that notion.
• 2:55
  Comparatively, I like to think you and I know ball quite a you
• 2:58
  know, we know a decent amount, we're date, we know enough to be
• 3:00
  dangerous out here. But when it when it comes to,
• 3:06
  you know, a manager who's who's won several trophies in the WSL
• 3:10
  and the NWSL, I'm usually not one to totally question Harvey's
• 3:16
  decisions. But yeah, I think, I think to,
• 3:20
  to put it plainly, I didn't really like the line up.
• 3:24
  I would have liked to see Fishel start up top.
• 3:28
  I do understand the strategy of playing Jess Fishlock as a sub
• 3:34
  though, because she has been absolutely dynamite in this
• 3:37
  role, especially late in the season.
• 3:39
  So I didn't I I was OK with that, but I think I would have
• 3:43
  had Fishel in there. Yeah, you look at some of the
• 3:47
  stats, Seattle outshoots Orlando, more shots on target,
• 3:52
  more shots inside the box, more possession, better connecting
• 3:56
  passes slightly as well more touches in the opposition box.
• 4:00
  So Seattle able to find some effectiveness.
• 4:05
  But you know, to your point, to the ME official point, you know,
• 4:09
  nobody really on the end of it to kind of like make things
• 4:12
  difficult. You Fast forward to the 21st
• 4:14
  minute and you get a great, I mean, nil, nil at this point.
• 4:18
  You get a great team goal from Orlando and I just love the
• 4:21
  action. I think it starts from a free
• 4:24
  kick from pretty deep. The ball finds its way centrally
• 4:27
  to Rafa, who kind of like shades a little left, you know, draws
• 4:33
  the defense another touch to pull him a little bit further
• 4:36
  left. And then they just go right back
• 4:38
  to the right, which is kind of where they were trying to make
• 4:41
  hay all day. It gets to Sam's Corey Dyke and
• 4:45
  then it's Julie Doyle and Marta working the ball up the pitch
• 4:49
  before it gets played back into the Hayley Mccutchen, who, you
• 4:52
  know, to her credit, this is a big spot in a match where I
• 4:56
  don't think anybody was expecting a lot of goals.
• 4:59
  And you you definitely see players sky that ball a lot, you
• 5:03
  know, especially in a in a massive moment like this and in
• 5:07
  the match where for the third, 98% of it, that was just a
• 5:10
  single goal. I mean, you got to give
• 5:11
  McCutcheon credit there for for a very tidy finish, a very
• 5:15
  clever finish. And I mean extreme.
• 5:18
  I like like exquisitely placed. No doubt, and you have to do
• 5:23
  that against Claudia Dickey, who is, you know, nominated is one
• 5:28
  of the finalists for NWSL Goalkeeper of the year.
• 5:32
  I feel like G Koi, yes, obviously, and I I feel
• 5:37
  compelled to mention that. I would say she probably was a
• 5:40
  second place finisher in the much more illustrious into the
• 5:44
  channel G Koi award. And so I mean, you know, you you
• 5:50
  got to you got to put a good hit on it with good touch to beat
• 5:53
  Dickie and Mccutchen did that. And you know, she had playoff
• 5:57
  goals last year too. And so, you know, we we are
• 6:01
  marching our way toward big game Haley Mccutchen territory.
• 6:07
  No doubt. And you know, we're going to
• 6:08
  give our our guy Mike Watts a shot too, who also had a a big
• 6:11
  game himself and grabbed a quote from the game where quote, this
• 6:16
  is I want to talk about Julie Doyle and Jordan bug Quote,
• 6:19
  Doyle may have gotten the worst of it.
• 6:21
  This is after a collision, but bug on the windshield.
• 6:25
  End Quote. Just, I mean, tremendous work
• 6:28
  for Mike Watts, who follows that up with a very classy Lou Lou
• 6:32
  Barn shout as Lou Barnes comes out of the game the 62nd minute.
• 6:36
  And the part I loved about that was Lou Barnes comes out after
• 6:41
  an absolutely legendary career, legendary run, you know, for
• 6:44
  your Seattle Reign. And nobody batted.
• 6:49
  We batted A9. Nobody looked twice.
• 6:51
  Nobody, you know, gave her a second pat on the shoulder.
• 6:53
  Everyone, it's like everyone knew they were coming back next
• 6:56
  week for more football. I thought that was a really cool
• 6:59
  moment from Seattle just to kind of like not not to, you know,
• 7:03
  overlook the legend, you know, and, and a real milestone, but
• 7:07
  to to have everybody locked in and, you know, just with that
• 7:11
  expectation, you could just see it on everybody's faces in that
• 7:14
  moment. I won't, I won't pretend to know
• 7:18
  Lou Barnes on any real level, but I think it's a great shout
• 7:24
  from you because I think that's kind of who she is just from the
• 7:27
  two years of, you know, just talking to her and some post
• 7:30
  post match interviews and kind of just seeing how she carries
• 7:33
  herself, the way players react to her.
• 7:35
  I don't think she she clearly in that moment, she wasn't going to
• 7:38
  be interested in, you know, hugs or like emotional moments.
• 7:44
  They still had a they still had to get an equalizer.
• 7:46
  They still had to find a way to win to to prolong her career.
• 7:50
  But I think honestly, most importantly to her, try to find
• 7:53
  a way to win a football game. And so it's a, it's a great call
• 7:56
  by you that everybody was so locked in on the on the task at
• 8:01
  hand that I think it was it was well done by our guy Mike Watts.
• 8:07
  Let him do the talking in that moment while they everybody else
• 8:10
  was so focused. Yeah, no doubt.
• 8:13
  And I think, I'm not sure if it was part of the same sub, but
• 8:17
  either a minute or two later, Sally Menti, who had just come
• 8:20
  into the match, rocks the crossbar and then that's the
• 8:23
  second moment where I'm like this line up there.
• 8:26
  Are we sure? Are we sure?
• 8:27
  We kind of nailed it. I think one thing that that
• 8:30
  Laura Harvey did get right, Sam Meza I thought was really good
• 8:34
  in this one. Sofia Huerta as well.
• 8:36
  And I thought that they had some chemistry that at some point
• 8:41
  kind of seemed like maybe the only way that a goal might
• 8:44
  happen for Seattle. As you're watching Seattle try
• 8:47
  to attack and try to breakthrough, obviously
• 8:50
  understanding the offensive limitations, what what was on
• 8:54
  the table for Seattle in that second-half or you know, just
• 8:58
  like what, what was the pathway to an equalizer?
• 9:01
  Well, you're in luck my good man, because I joined the post
• 9:05
  match press conference off from all the way up here in in
• 9:08
  beautiful Seattle, WA. And dude, after obviously no,
• 9:15
  spoiler alert everybody, Marta forces a a penalty kick at the
• 9:19
  end and Orlando stretches it to two nil.
• 9:22
  After that happens, you know there are a couple more minutes
• 9:25
  pass, final whistle blows. And I would say I shit you not,
• 9:31
  within 45 to 55 seconds after the final whistle blows, the
• 9:37
  power goes out in my neighborhood in Seattle.
• 9:40
  Oh my God. And I'm telling you, dude, like
• 9:43
  there are there are some like, you know, electric grid issues
• 9:48
  like a round outside of Seattle, like some of the suburbs have
• 9:51
  some issues with like wind, you know, taking the power out in
• 9:55
  some places. Almost never in Seattle.
• 9:57
  I've lived here for more than five years and just a power
• 10:01
  outages, I could count them on one hand.
• 10:03
  They are extremely rare and the power just goes completely out.
• 10:10
  Me and the shadow EP are just kind of sitting in the living
• 10:12
  room. She's trying to still absorb
• 10:15
  everything that just happened to her favorite sports team.
• 10:18
  I'm, you know, being very quiet and empathizing with her.
• 10:21
  I'm not, let's just say I, I know well enough that's not the
• 10:26
  time for takes from me. I just, I just kind of let her,
• 10:32
  you know, absorb it and sit quietly.
• 10:34
  We sit there quietly together. So the power goes out.
• 10:38
  So I come down to the office, I'm like, all right, well, you
• 10:41
  know, we got these little, of course we have the backup
• 10:44
  lanterns. I go down in my office, it's
• 10:45
  pitch black. The neighborhood's pitch black.
• 10:47
  I'm looking out the window. I, I put on my, you know, I, I
• 10:52
  pop open the, the Lantern and I just zoom in to the press
• 10:56
  conference from my phone and I'm like, all right, I'm, I'm
• 10:59
  sitting at a solid like 61% of my battery.
• 11:03
  I'm like, all right, we'll see. We'll see how long this power's
• 11:05
  going to be out. And so sorry, long, long time to
• 11:07
  get here, But I asked Jess Fishlock, OK, So what changed?
• 11:11
  Like, obviously she came onto the field in the 46 minute right
• 11:15
  after halftime, subbed on for, for Jordan, Jordan Heidema, who
• 11:19
  is the player? I mean, I always say, if you're
• 11:21
  going to say you want to line up change, say who it is.
• 11:23
  That's who I would have had Fishel on instead of Heidema.
• 11:27
  Heidema comes off, comes off at half for Fish Lock.
• 11:31
  And the way the Welsh legend just described it was they were
• 11:34
  able to stretch Orlando's defense a little more in the
• 11:37
  second-half. They were able to get players
• 11:39
  running in behind the defense trying to make a little more
• 11:43
  some more dangerous runs. Laura Harvey mentioned it at the
• 11:47
  halftime interview that once they put Fishlock on for
• 11:50
  Haidaba, then you move Maddie Mercado into the number 9 role,
• 11:54
  a more traditional #9 role, and she excels at that.
• 11:57
  So that seemed to be the game plan and, and you know, any time
• 12:01
  you have Jess Fishlock on the field, you know she's going to
• 12:03
  be looking in to play those balls in behind.
• 12:05
  And you can get the same thing from Sofia Huerta and Madison
• 12:08
  Curry. Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
• 12:11
  I mean, I think Seattle did pick up some momentum down the
• 12:15
  stretch looked looked relatively close to kind of making it
• 12:19
  making it interesting. But another shout out to to Mike
• 12:23
  Watts and Jill Lloyd because perfect timing.
• 12:25
  I think in the 80s, like kind of as the game's getting down the
• 12:28
  stretch where I think Watts is talking about Seb Hines
• 12:33
  recounting a story about Martha saying that Martha comes out
• 12:37
  when Martha decides she's coming out.
• 12:38
  And right at that moment, Martha just kind of takes on Jordan
• 12:42
  Buck, like runs up the left hand side and 1st it's a foot race.
• 12:48
  And then it's just kind of like bumper cars.
• 12:50
  And then Martha seemingly just kind of goes through her somehow
• 12:54
  to kind of like, you know, get in a in a very magical moment.
• 12:58
  And then the other point that you alluded to the run at the
• 13:03
  very end of the match, you know, I mean, henceforth she'll just
• 13:08
  be named the run, you know, as far as I'm concerned.
• 13:11
  So Marta beats Phoebe Mclernan beats them as a just beats
• 13:15
  every, you know, just continues to beat everyone all the time
• 13:18
  until the end of eternity. Apparently it draws the foul and
• 13:24
  then we get the shot of Seb Hein Seltz like just celebrating like
• 13:27
  a fan, like just full fist pump, like just wide eyed and what a
• 13:32
  beautiful moment. Julie Doyle hands on her head,
• 13:34
  just completely aghast. And at that point I'm like
• 13:38
  losing my mind. I'm I just cannot believe that
• 13:41
  Marta again, because I mean, like I was there last year when
• 13:45
  she she just basically ended the Kansas City current with that,
• 13:48
  with that ridiculous run, which is probably in the running for
• 13:53
  one of the greatest sports plays I've ever seen with my own two
• 13:56
  eyes in the building. And then watching what she does
• 13:59
  here and the reaction to everybody just losing their
• 14:04
  minds. And then, dude, I tell you that
• 14:06
  like I or I shit you not, when when Mike Watts starts to let us
• 14:12
  know that Luanna is going to be the one taking the bounty kick.
• 14:15
  It was 7 or 8 minutes of uncontrollable crying from me.
• 14:21
  I just could not, could not control myself.
• 14:24
  Like just thinking about everything that Luanna had gone
• 14:28
  through. And, you know, we joke on the
• 14:30
  show, OK, good versus evil. I'll tell you, we have some fun
• 14:33
  with that. And just to see Marta, a player
• 14:36
  that like does not have to do that at all.
• 14:39
  Like just, you know, if there's any player in the history of the
• 14:44
  game that deserves to just put that penalty kick through the
• 14:49
  back of the net, you know, just like blow a hole through the,
• 14:51
  you know, it's her. And what do we get instead?
• 14:54
  Like Luanna taking a penalty kick.
• 14:57
  I mean, just what a freaking moment, man.
• 14:59
  Like, you know, the power was up for like I, I was out of
• 15:03
  Commission for a completely different reason.
• 15:06
  For the entire I, I would have been an absolute mess if I was
• 15:09
  working it had to go to step into that press conference any
• 15:13
  any time within the 60 minutes of of of the final wuss, I'd
• 15:16
  say. That's that's incredible.
• 15:19
  And I I appreciate you mentioning that.
• 15:22
  I want to say. All right, so you were obviously
• 15:24
  super emotional after Arsenal won the Champions League.
• 15:29
  There's another one. There's another one too that
• 15:33
  that got the waterworks going. So yeah, I, I respect it, buddy.
• 15:37
  I mean, look, it's a progressive forward leaning podcast with two
• 15:42
  dudes who, you know, understand themselves in touch with their
• 15:47
  feelings. Maybe one host significantly
• 15:49
  more than the other, but we don't need to psychoanalyze any
• 15:52
  of that. That's fine.
• 15:54
  No, but you're absolutely right. It's a totally cool, it's an
• 15:58
  unbelievably cool moment. And it's just like, how many
• 16:03
  different ways could we ever calculate Marta just
• 16:08
  understanding football so much better than like everybody
• 16:12
  alive, whether it's like on the field or that emotional move to
• 16:16
  be like, hey, Luanna, you take it.
• 16:19
  And even when she gave her the ball and just gave, I don't, you
• 16:22
  know, obviously I don't read, can't read lips, especially not
• 16:25
  in Portuguese. But whatever she said to her,
• 16:28
  she just kind of gave her that look, said something and just
• 16:31
  gave her one nod. And I was like, well, yeah,
• 16:33
  that's this one's going in. There's no question about that.
• 16:37
  And it I mean, just well struck, perfectly placed, perfect
• 16:41
  moment. Luanna just does does her part,
• 16:44
  you know, to to kind of uphold, you know, like what what ends up
• 16:48
  being like a great moment, you know, and and you know, at the
• 16:50
  end of it, like I said at the open Orlando Pride, find a way.
• 16:54
  You know, I mean that when as the game's going on and
• 16:57
  Orlando's up one NIL and the minutes are kind of bleeding
• 17:00
  away, I was like, Oh my God, you know, I'm thinking about Seattle
• 17:03
  and Laura Harvey, you know, and all the kind of like, you know,
• 17:07
  the bonds that I've kind of created with that team through
• 17:10
  you, through you and your coverage of them.
• 17:12
  You know, I kind of feel a little bit close or or at least
• 17:14
  a little bit invested, I'll say in the team for sure.
• 17:17
  And I'm just watching thinking I'm like, is there a worse team
• 17:22
  to try to make up A1 NIL deficit against in the playoffs in their
• 17:26
  house? You know, just that that defense
• 17:29
  that was a little bit of a throwback defensive performance
• 17:33
  from Orlando, like Vintage rough and rugged known to Danner.
• 17:37
  But you know how far late, you know, you know, was stood up
• 17:40
  real strong and a morehouse 8 saves also stood up real strong.
• 17:46
  I think, you know, a great performance and I think they're
• 17:49
  going to carry some momentum. You know, this is a team that
• 17:51
  we're, I think we're worried about a month and a half ago and
• 17:54
  now in the semifinals with some momentum at their back.
• 17:59
  Buddy, I mean, I had a feeling you and I, we're going to be
• 18:04
  linked up on this. I mean, you've given me the
• 18:08
  excuse to say it. A wise man once said never
• 18:13
  underestimate the heart of a champion.
• 18:16
  And I think that's I think we are living there right now,
• 18:20
  dude. As soon as that result happened,
• 18:23
  you know, I mentioned the shadow executive producer of this
• 18:25
  program earlier. She had told me a couple times,
• 18:29
  you know, I think Gotham could beat Kansas City current.
• 18:33
  And if that happens and since Seattle gets this done, we're
• 18:37
  attending a home playoff game. I said, yeah, that is that is
• 18:41
  accurate. And that was the IT was known
• 18:46
  that was at stake for Seattle, and now it's come to fruition
• 18:51
  for those Orlando Pride. Let's get to that second match
• 18:56
  up and the team that Orlando be facing in the semifinals.
• 19:00
  KC Current one Gotham FC2 Pretty much like all of us predicted.
• 19:07
  That's right. No, no Esther, no Tamuchwinga,
• 19:11
  no Michelle Cooper pretty much means that whatever we thought
• 19:14
  we were predicting kind of goes out the window, but a little bit
• 19:19
  along the lines of what we saw with Seattle.
• 19:21
  When I saw that lineup for KC, I, I don't want to say it gave
• 19:28
  me a little pause, but you know, you start to, you start to do
• 19:31
  the math a little bit and you're just kind of like you look at
• 19:33
  the player, player for player. We talked about it.
• 19:35
  It was pretty clear man from the first half that Gotham had more
• 19:38
  talent on the pitch. Didn't mean that they were going
• 19:41
  to win, but more good stuff could happen I think based on
• 19:47
  the players that Gotham had out there.
• 19:50
  I think that's a that's a really good way to say it.
• 19:52
  And obviously great friend of the program. 3rd, 3rd place
• 19:57
  winner in the 2015 World Cup, Champions League winner in 2007,
• 20:02
  quadruple winner in 2007, Arsenal legend Leanne Sanderson.
• 20:06
  I thought she was all over it relatively early in the first
• 20:09
  half where Gotham just looked like the better team on the
• 20:12
  field that day as well. No doubt.
• 20:17
  I mean, whether it's, you know, Jaden Shaw, Mitch Purse, I
• 20:21
  thought looked really good, but the player that I think you
• 20:24
  know, sent shock waves through the 1st 2020 ish minutes of the
• 20:28
  match and catch a burger like that save on the alley sentinor
• 20:33
  strike. Who, you know, talk about
• 20:34
  Leanne. That that one.
• 20:35
  That save sent Leanne to a tizzy for sure, but that that save
• 20:39
  seemed to kind of deflate KC because it's a sentinor strike
• 20:42
  from distance. She gets a hold of it
• 20:45
  completely. She gets like the right bend on
• 20:47
  and she gets exactly what she wants out of it and Berger gets
• 20:52
  to it, you know, and it's like on a day when you know you're
• 20:55
  missing Cooper, you're missing the probably like the the
• 20:59
  presumptive 2 time MVP. You need some of those to go in
• 21:03
  and and later in the match be I had a look too from similar
• 21:07
  distance. You know, I think a little bit a
• 21:11
  little bit easier to deal with for for AKB.
• 21:14
  But Berger makes that save too, you know, kind of like knocks it
• 21:18
  over the bar stood up to Michelle Prince, who had
• 21:22
  back-to-back chances around the 29th.
• 21:24
  So I thought a burger in in in a match like this, when you know a
• 21:29
  keeper like that, you know, can stand up tall and you know you,
• 21:33
  you know, her resume, I think just as important as any of
• 21:36
  those Gotham superstars, we'll call them.
• 21:41
  Yeah, and like you, we talked about it in the preview, not to
• 21:44
  like pat ourselves on the back or whatever, but that's the
• 21:47
  thing that that can happen in a knockout phase of any cup or,
• 21:51
  you know, a playoffs like this. What happens if you get an Apex
• 21:56
  goalkeeper game from one of the Apex goalkeepers in the league?
• 22:00
  It's and that's that's a part of it.
• 22:03
  Like you could just be down bad in in that situation.
• 22:06
  And obviously, obviously everything is way different with
• 22:11
  no Temua Chewinga and no Michelle Cooper.
• 22:13
  And then Vladko Ananovsky reveals after the match that
• 22:17
  Bia's playing with an MCL sprain.
• 22:20
  So like she's limited. So he's getting like 50% BIA, no
• 22:24
  Chewinga, no Cooper. And even with their pretty good
• 22:28
  depth there, there was a play where Michelle Prince had had a
• 22:32
  shot on goal and she's running down the right wing.
• 22:34
  And you know, no, no disrespect in Michelle Prince.
• 22:37
  She's a fine player. She's not Michelle Cooper.
• 22:40
  And like that could go a very different way if Cooper is on
• 22:43
  that side in that moment. I mean, you know, it's it's
• 22:48
  totally unfair to even talk about, you know, Prince, who who
• 22:51
  I think has played really well stepping into various spots for
• 22:55
  the for the current for sure, But you're talking about the MVP
• 22:58
  of the league and you're talking about, I don't know, definitely,
• 23:02
  probably maybe one of the 10 best attackers in the league
• 23:05
  right now, like doing it Michelle Cooper.
• 23:07
  So it's like that is a massive amount of talent and creativity
• 23:14
  and just headaches for the for the defense to deal with.
• 23:18
  It just goes out the window, you know, and, and, and not a knock
• 23:21
  on, you know, those the other players that remain, but you
• 23:23
  know, the, the, the defensive game plan gets a lot more
• 23:26
  simple. You know, when you, when you
• 23:28
  take those two players off the board and then you combine that
• 23:32
  with, you know, the Jaden Shaw performance that we saw, you
• 23:35
  know, so Shaw hadn't hadn't appeared in the playoffs since
• 23:38
  November 2023. So we're going on two years and
• 23:41
  Shaw was awesome, you know, creates five chances.
• 23:45
  Only one other player had more than one chance created in the
• 23:48
  match. Four shots for Shaw.
• 23:50
  That's most in the match, 6 touches in the opposition box.
• 23:54
  That's also tied for most in the match with Gabby Portillo.
• 23:57
  She gets the goal, she gets the assist.
• 24:01
  So I mean, I think just just a massive performance from Shaw.
• 24:04
  I mean like another X Factor, you know, like you, you think
• 24:10
  about the hot goalkeeper as like, you know, one, one of the
• 24:13
  archetypes, another one is The X Factor.
• 24:16
  Not not sure what to expect in the playoffs and in a match like
• 24:20
  this, you get a performance like that in a couple big moment, you
• 24:23
  know, like it's, it's not just the performance all day.
• 24:26
  It's it's the it's the connectivity in those huge
• 24:29
  moments. And Shaw went two for 2 when it
• 24:32
  really mattered. And Gotham gets it done.
• 24:37
  Yeah, it's a great call by you for Shaw as The X Factor.
• 24:41
  And I just felt like on Shaw's goal, it was just a such a clear
• 24:47
  example. And then we've talked about it
• 24:49
  many times. It's it is AI guess, Speaking of
• 24:52
  being in touch with our feelings.
• 24:54
  I'm not sure if this counts. Maybe if I get as in touch with
• 24:58
  my feelings as I could be. It really speaks to the cruelty
• 25:01
  of sports and sometimes the unfairness that that comes along
• 25:05
  with being a professional athlete, at least from from my
• 25:08
  view from afar, is that Kayla Sharples had a dynamite season
• 25:13
  and she was the is the 2025 into the channel defensive player of
• 25:17
  the year, D boy in the in the NWSL.
• 25:21
  And she just kind of overplayed that ball that's coming into
• 25:26
  Shaw and Shaw's able to turn and score.
• 25:29
  And so like, you just have this, you have this great season.
• 25:33
  You, you, you know, you won the league.
• 25:35
  You you won the NWSL shield and that's massive.
• 25:38
  And Kayla Sharples should be incredibly proud of all that.
• 25:41
  And then just in that one moment, you kind of see it start
• 25:44
  to circle the drain just because of 1 overplay.
• 25:48
  That's just, you know, I don't, I don't mean to overstate it,
• 25:51
  but it's just such a bummer for for a player who was just
• 25:55
  outstanding all season. Yeah, no, like it, it is that
• 26:02
  close. You know, like like the the
• 26:04
  margins. And then when you think about
• 26:07
  the equalizer for KC, Ellie Wheeler sneaks another ball past
• 26:13
  catcher and catcher burger near post, which we saw in the EUR.
• 26:16
  We saw Itana beat her kind of in a similar way.
• 26:20
  You know, apparently that that's the one that's the kryptonite
• 26:23
  for burger. I think if you're trying to get
• 26:25
  one passed, you know, so we get we get the drama, we get the
• 26:29
  equalizer right before the end of stoppage time.
• 26:33
  And then in a weird twist of fate, I I kind of loved that.
• 26:38
  Katie Stengel, 120 minutes plus one kind of does the bidding of
• 26:44
  the soccer gods because I talk about catcher, catcher Burger.
• 26:48
  She starts the action, puts the ball ahead to Kayla, Kayla Duran
• 26:51
  moves it forward again. And then a beautiful Jaden Shaw
• 26:53
  touch before Katie Stengel hits the the crossbar and the post to
• 26:59
  to just add, add to the drama and and put Gotham ahead at the
• 27:04
  very, very dying moments of the match.
• 27:07
  But I love that the soccer gods kind of saved us from penalty
• 27:12
  kicks in Kansas City because had that one gone to penalty kicks,
• 27:17
  I can guarantee you all the terrible podcasts to talk about
• 27:20
  what was to pick. Oh, is it fair that the Kansas
• 27:23
  City current historic season and they lose on penalty kicks and
• 27:27
  there's a should we should be this or should we?
• 27:30
  I fucking who cares? I'm so happy that the soccer
• 27:33
  gods ended this shit in added extra time.
• 27:36
  I'm always railing that nothing, nothing cool happens.
• 27:39
  It added extra time just to us wasting time for 30 minutes or
• 27:42
  or 46 minutes if you're if you're in the end of yourself,
• 27:44
  but something cool actually happened.
• 27:48
  Skaty, Skaty stangle puts Gotham through and I was happy.
• 27:51
  The soccer gods are happy clearly.
• 27:53
  And, you know, they, they saved us, you know, a bunch of, you
• 27:57
  know, crap talk about, you know, I don't know, changing, changing
• 28:00
  the game that, that that we don't need to do in any way,
• 28:02
  shape or form. OK, I love it.
• 28:05
  I mean, you and I have for for people who've been watching the
• 28:09
  program for a little while, you and I have usually been on
• 28:12
  opposite ends of this. I like the added extra time
• 28:15
  because I want to see more football, free football, bonus
• 28:18
  football, whatever, you know, all the things I like to call
• 28:20
  it. And you've been a proponent in
• 28:22
  the past to going straight to penalties.
• 28:25
  But I mean, you know, after the results of this weekend, maybe
• 28:29
  maybe it's starting to Mosey on over to my side a little bit,
• 28:32
  which is OK. I mean, I think they're they're
• 28:34
  merits to both sides of the argument.
• 28:36
  But yeah, the the action to get the ball forward to Stengel was
• 28:41
  great. The pass from Shaw, that's one
• 28:43
  of my favorite passes in football is just that little
• 28:48
  dink where you can basically like you can do a, a, a no look.
• 28:55
  Look where really Like you, Sean knew where she was going to pass
• 29:00
  it. She was like, OK, I want this to
• 29:01
  be outside of my foot. And I know where Stengel is.
• 29:05
  But it's the type of ball that when you make contact with it,
• 29:08
  you can like, overreact and like, do an extra turn to the
• 29:12
  left to make it look like you're doing a no look.
• 29:16
  Yeah. And it's just like.
• 29:18
  Over rotate it. 100% And like, you know, the first time I saw a
• 29:23
  footballer do that when I was a kid and I would play and I was
• 29:27
  playing, I was like, Oh yeah, I'm going to do something like
• 29:29
  that now. Obviously my passes, they might
• 29:31
  as well have been landing in the Gatorade Jug and not exactly
• 29:35
  very accurate. But yeah, it was a wonderful
• 29:38
  pass, a great action. And honestly, I think it's the
• 29:41
  right result on that match. In that match, on that day, I
• 29:46
  think the right team won. I totally believe that.
• 29:49
  I thought I thought Gotham was better pretty clearly cruel
• 29:54
  twist of fate, obviously with the injuries, but you know,
• 29:56
  Gotham was better on this day for sure.
• 30:01
  Fast forwarding a bit, Orlando versus Gotham semifinals,
• 30:06
  There's some quirky stuff happening when you look at this.
• 30:10
  So these two teams obviously met twice, both Rd. teams.
• 30:15
  The road team won each match up two NIL and for for various
• 30:19
  reasons. Orlando wins early at Gotham.
• 30:22
  This was so long ago. Tear to Davidson started in this
• 30:25
  match. Barbara Bendis scored in this
• 30:29
  match or I'm sorry, she drew PK Martha's Martha hit the PK and
• 30:34
  then Gotham came back and beat Orlando 2 nil at Orlando less
• 30:39
  than a week after the Barbara Bend injury.
• 30:41
  Pride totally shell shocked in this one.
• 30:43
  The defenders kind of not looking like that Orlando Pride
• 30:46
  defense kind of bumping into each other.
• 30:48
  You had an Ester goal. Jalen Howell screamer 2 nil to
• 30:51
  Gotham. Now what I wanted.
• 30:55
  There's some there's some really interesting quirks when you
• 30:59
  think about the schedule. So this will be Gotham's third
• 31:02
  straight Rd. game. This will be Orlando's third
• 31:06
  straight home game. Now all of them with some
• 31:09
  stakes. We we understand Gotham's been
• 31:12
  chasing a little bit harder. The other sneaky thing is
• 31:15
  Orlando gets an extra 2 days of rest.
• 31:17
  Orlando played on Friday, Gotham played on Sunday.
• 31:21
  And then the third little icing on the cake is Orlando was the
• 31:24
  only team of the four still alive that didn't go to added
• 31:27
  extra time. So I'm not saying that any one
• 31:31
  of those factors is enough to kind of tip it, but as soon as
• 31:34
  you just kind of like start stacking them, I mean, well,
• 31:38
  Gotham have enough in the take, you know, to to really go to
• 31:42
  Orlando, look the defending champs, you know, right in the
• 31:46
  eye and and walk out of there victorious.
• 31:50
  I'll try not to butcher this, but there is a great Brooklyn
• 31:54
  based poet now known as Yassin Bay who once said you want to
• 32:00
  know why one straw broke the camel's back?
• 32:04
  Here's the secret. There's a million other straws
• 32:07
  underneath it. And I will tell you that's a lot
• 32:11
  of factors in favor of our Orlando Pride.
• 32:18
  And I, dude, they, they beat Rain FC in that match.
• 32:24
  And I just kind of sat there in the dark and again, not giving
• 32:28
  the Shadow EP any of my takes because she was not interested
• 32:31
  in them in that moment. And I sat there and I was like,
• 32:35
  they can win the title. They could absolutely, they
• 32:38
  could absolutely 100% win the championship.
• 32:42
  And I realize that's a maybe a bit basic considering they're in
• 32:45
  the semi final, but I don't know.
• 32:49
  I'm not, I'm not going to be in the business of betting against
• 32:52
  them. I, you know, I, I shared the
• 32:56
  same thought. I mean, I picked Orlando to
• 33:00
  repeat as champions, not to win the shield, though, so that that
• 33:05
  pick's still alive. And watching that Seattle match
• 33:08
  was the first time where I was just like it can happen.
• 33:11
  Like you, you have these players playing well together, playing
• 33:15
  like playoff style football together, like a little crisper,
• 33:19
  you know, a little bit, I don't want to say more locked in, but
• 33:22
  a little bit more connected and making it a little bit tougher
• 33:28
  on the other side to do what they want to do.
• 33:30
  You know it. And that was, you know, a very a
• 33:34
  much louder version of that story was the story from last
• 33:37
  season. So seeing it again in the
• 33:39
  playoffs this year, I'm just like, OK, like, and now Casey's
• 33:43
  out. You know, they were banged up
• 33:45
  already. Now they're gone.
• 33:47
  Now Orlando, you get a home playoff match.
• 33:50
  And I'm, I'm not sure either of those teams on the other side of
• 33:54
  the bracket, Washington or Portland are.
• 33:57
  I don't think any team is scared of any team.
• 33:59
  I mean, I don't, I don't want to make it an Orlando thing.
• 34:02
  No team is scared of any other team in this in this field.
• 34:05
  Everybody thinks they can beat everybody else.
• 34:07
  These are 4 rock solid teams that have real character, you
• 34:13
  know. So I think everybody's going to
• 34:14
  show up. It's going to be an unbelievable
• 34:16
  weekend of football this weekend.
• 34:19
  No doubt, man, I mean, we he can't say enough about these
• 34:23
  four clubs. And I understand, you know,
• 34:25
  Orlando pride had a real rough go for several, several years
• 34:31
  before they kind of ascended and and took home the double last
• 34:34
  year. And we appreciate, you know, so
• 34:36
  many of you who are long time NWSL fans kind of letting a
• 34:40
  couple of Johnny come lately like me and Dino, you know, into
• 34:44
  into your channel. Yes, nicely done.
• 34:49
  But yeah, I mean, if you just if you look at what Hayley Carter
• 34:54
  and Seb Hines have instituted for this club, if we're if we're
• 34:59
  talking on this, on this two year timeline, obviously Spirit
• 35:03
  win the title in 2021. The Thorns, you already know
• 35:05
  what time it is with them. Gotham wins the title in 23.
• 35:10
  I mean, we're, we're talking about four of the premier clubs.
• 35:14
  And it's a bummer for Kansas City current to kind of be
• 35:16
  sitting on the sideline, you know, doing the, you know,
• 35:19
  sitting in front of a window with rain trickling down it with
• 35:23
  a sad face. But you know you can't do much
• 35:27
  better than these 4. Yeah, yeah, it's definitely,
• 35:32
  definitely feel good about where we where we landed.
• 35:36
  I would have loved to see Kansas City at full strength, you know,
• 35:39
  kind of like you mentioned. But you know, that's, that's
• 35:43
  kind of how it breaks sometimes. Let's flip over to the other
• 35:47
  side of the bracket. Oh, and actually before we get
• 35:49
  out of here, you know, I, I'm kind of kicking myself because I
• 35:51
  don't know that we made any picks last week.
• 35:53
  We're talking about the quarterfinals.
• 35:55
  I want to make some picks. There's only three matches left.
• 35:58
  I want to pick all three matches before I get out of here.
• 36:00
  So if I forget when I ask you later on in about half an hour,
• 36:04
  if there's anything else you want to hit before you get out
• 36:06
  of here, let's hit that before you get out of here.
• 36:08
  OK, noted. Awesome.
• 36:10
  All right, so let's go to head other side of the bracket.
• 36:14
  Washington Spirit won racing, Louisville won.
• 36:18
  This one goes to penalty kicks, where Washington Spirit prevails
• 36:22
  3 to one over the upstarts from Louisville.
• 36:26
  What should we talk about? Where?
• 36:28
  Where do I get started with this one?
• 36:31
  I mean, what a football game that was.
• 36:34
  That was enjoyable, man. I really, I mean, from pretty
• 36:38
  much opening whistle racing, Louisville was up for it.
• 36:44
  You know, there were multiple moments as the match was
• 36:46
  happening where I was just like, yeah, they could win.
• 36:50
  Like I know in the in the preview, you know, I was very
• 36:54
  confident in Washington spirit. I have been, you know, all
• 36:59
  season. I love the way they play.
• 37:01
  But you know, I thought Louisville came in there with a
• 37:04
  good plan. They were going to muck it up.
• 37:06
  They were going to they're going to play tough.
• 37:10
  And you know, I, I thought they were able to kind of impose
• 37:14
  their physical will in, in, in a couple different spots.
• 37:17
  I mean, I know they only had like 34% of the ball, but they
• 37:21
  ended up with six more shots. They had, they had a couple
• 37:23
  really, really good chances and they, and they had, and they put
• 37:27
  Washington Spirit on the ropes. But when you have a ton of good
• 37:31
  players, when you have a a good plan yourself, A-Team like
• 37:35
  Washington Spirit is able to to kind of keep it, not only just
• 37:38
  able to keep it even, but then pull it out in the end.
• 37:43
  Yeah, credit to Louisville who was at the level for most of the
• 37:49
  day. So they outshoot Washington
• 37:53
  7:50, an extra time, 21 to 13 in the second-half plus added extra
• 37:57
  time, had a shot on target advantage like you mentioned,
• 38:02
  real chances. So obviously, you know, racing
• 38:05
  Louisville is another team that equalizes late, but Emma Sears
• 38:09
  had a screamer at the death that if you go back and watch it, the
• 38:14
  the the audience, the from the audience, that was an extended
• 38:19
  Oh, that was like a 7-8 second. Oh, I mean that one came so, so,
• 38:24
  so close. Rebecca Bernal had a monster
• 38:27
  block on Elihas right around the 26th minute to keep it nil nil.
• 38:32
  And then you had like the weird, you know, quasi chast that gets
• 38:36
  called back on the Laci Santos offsides it.
• 38:41
  Yeah, I feel like we got to the bottom of it, but it was
• 38:44
  definitely weird in the moment. And then the ball don't lie GIF
• 38:47
  Monday, you know, kind of like putting the spirit ahead.
• 38:51
  I mean, just like a real game of Rock'em Sock'em Robots.
• 38:56
  And then we get the GIF Monday gold, kind of like, you know,
• 39:00
  the the goal for sure that this match needed.
• 39:05
  Yeah, definitely. And a deserved goal, you know, a
• 39:09
  great header Kawasi, you know, creates the space like.
• 39:18
  That's why, that's why, that's why.
• 39:19
  Kawasi analysis bro. Yeah, I mean, just like figuring
• 39:25
  out how to how to create the space and to get off the pass,
• 39:30
  you know, and and they're and they're out there without
• 39:33
  Trinity Rodman and this is the attacking strength that they
• 39:36
  have. And obviously Quasi's, you know,
• 39:38
  playing right wing back in that formation in A5 back formation.
• 39:42
  So, you know, an embarrassment of riches for Washington Spirit
• 39:45
  who are still not playing at full strength.
• 39:49
  I don't even think, you know, that wasn't even really a Lacey
• 39:55
  Santos game. Like I thought she was fine but
• 39:58
  like she went do like a ton. So, yeah, I mean, they just they
• 40:03
  got a bunch of ways to beat you and I just so much credit to
• 40:06
  Racing Louisville, man, who who could have gone in there and be
• 40:09
  like, OK, you know, first time in the playoffs for a lot of
• 40:13
  these players. You know, they, they could have,
• 40:17
  they could have gone out there and, and, and really just, you
• 40:21
  know, been a little overwhelmed by the moment, but I don't think
• 40:24
  they looked like that at any point.
• 40:27
  No, I like the way they played. I like the way Jordan Bluer
• 40:30
  played in goal. They were up for it.
• 40:33
  Like I mentioned, you know, and you mentioned it wasn't really a
• 40:35
  Lacey Santos game. I love Lacey Santos wasn't
• 40:38
  really a Corey Bethune game either.
• 40:40
  Five shots, 0 on target, 120 minutes played, just 4 touches
• 40:46
  in the opposition box, 2 chances created.
• 40:48
  So Corey wasn't you know, I thought I thought Bethune
• 40:51
  watching Bethune. I want to say like, you know, we
• 40:56
  talk a lot about and this is this is the tough part for like
• 40:59
  an Adrian Gonzalez. We we talk a lot about like all
• 41:01
  the embarrassment of riches. Oh, good problem to have got all
• 41:03
  these good players. And but this is the tough part.
• 41:07
  You know, you have a special talent, a really good player, a
• 41:12
  player that you're going to need probably in this next match
• 41:15
  against Portland, you're going to have to figure out a way to
• 41:20
  kind of like get get Bethune involved in the offense.
• 41:23
  You know, and I think what what we saw that was working Quasi
• 41:25
  was unbelievable, like just undoable.
• 41:31
  Nothing you can do with quasi at all.
• 41:33
  GIF Monday, a really great player.
• 41:36
  You know the the perfect player to be on the end of of all of
• 41:39
  the that good service and whoever in Nigeria is making
• 41:44
  decisions with the Super Falcons and has decided multiple times
• 41:48
  that GIF Monday is not good enough to play for that squad.
• 41:52
  You're a dummy. You're an.
• 41:53
  Absence, Yes, it's an incorrect decision.
• 41:57
  It's a poor decision. It is a stupid decision.
• 42:01
  We we are stupid, though. If I could channel my my
• 42:04
  cafetera Lacey Santos. But getting back to it, I think
• 42:08
  Bethune, you got to find a way. If you're Gonzalez and you, you
• 42:12
  got to find a way to get Bethune more involved.
• 42:14
  And if you're Bethune, actually, I'll say you got to go get the
• 42:17
  ball at some point, you know, like, like, you know, and Kiwasi
• 42:22
  loves to go, you know, get the ball sack, you know, like we we
• 42:25
  don't need everybody go and chase the ball.
• 42:26
  But I would have loved to see it just to kind of like give
• 42:31
  Washington a little bit of a different approach, you know,
• 42:34
  and I thought Bethune took a little bit of a of the backseat
• 42:37
  in this one, you know, to Kiwasi and and and to give Monday, I
• 42:41
  think against Portland's got to be a different story.
• 42:44
  Bethune, obviously you already know what she's capable of.
• 42:45
  So, so I think secretly, you know, that if I, if I could kind
• 42:48
  of tip my hand, I think that's going to be one of the keys to
• 42:52
  the semi final match against Portland.
• 42:55
  Totally agree. It's going to, I mean, think of
• 42:57
  these two midfields, maybe we would talk about it in a second.
• 43:00
  Like if you just look at the combination of players between
• 43:03
  Washington's midfield and Portland's midfield, it's
• 43:06
  unbelievable. I did like I I'm with you.
• 43:09
  I think Bethune could have gotten the game more.
• 43:12
  She had a drive up field that looked like it could have been
• 43:17
  the dagger where she had a dish off to Monday and Monday didn't
• 43:22
  finish that one. I can't remember if it went just
• 43:25
  wide or it might have hit the. I think it was like a dribbler.
• 43:29
  Yeah, yeah. I think she didn't get enough on
• 43:31
  it, I think. Yeah, but yeah, no, you're but
• 43:35
  you're still absolutely right that I think Bethune probably
• 43:38
  could have grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck a little
• 43:41
  more just so when you think about how dynamic she is, you
• 43:44
  know, running at goal. But, you know, I mean, it's,
• 43:49
  it's easier said than done when you know, you're you're out
• 43:53
  there against, you know, a midfield with Taylor Flynn and
• 43:56
  Katie O Kane, who are going to play physical, who have great
• 43:59
  size, obviously. So, you know, they found they
• 44:03
  found a way. I I do want to say before we I
• 44:08
  we should obviously talk about the the penalties here, but that
• 44:13
  that Kayla Fisher touch to poke it past Kingsbury to get us two
• 44:20
  extra time. Yeah, just super, super classy
• 44:24
  by Fisher. Just just knowing the exact
• 44:28
  right amount of the boot to get onto it to to get it past
• 44:33
  Kingsbury but keep it on frame. Just phenomenal stuff.
• 44:36
  I I want to give our friends at the lit stream shades of blue,
• 44:42
  although shout because you appeared on that show last week.
• 44:47
  Great appearance by you. Thank you for that.
• 44:51
  The discussion came up NWSL versus WSL and as I was
• 44:57
  listening to it, I'm like, OK, you don't like and and the the
• 44:59
  conversation usually goes to all right, well, you look at the top
• 45:02
  of the league, right KZ current Chelsea, you know, neutral
• 45:06
  field. What are we looking at?
• 45:09
  Let me take a time out because that's not how we need to be
• 45:13
  looking at this argument because this past weekend, watching
• 45:16
  these eight teams compete, watching this racing Louisville
• 45:20
  team, the seven seed kind of push Washington spirit to the
• 45:23
  brink. I'm like this racing Louisville
• 45:25
  team could beat any WSL team, not every time, but can beat any
• 45:30
  WSL team on the on any given day.
• 45:32
  And when you just look at like the sixth team, the fifth team,
• 45:35
  the 7th team, the eighth team in this 7 would be yourself.
• 45:37
  How deep this league is. Get the fuck out of here with
• 45:41
  the WSL 5553. Get out of here every 5 five
• 45:47
  through 10 every I, I would say the NWSL wins every five through
• 45:53
  10 matchup versus every five through 10 in WSL.
• 45:57
  I'll say that flat out. And maybe we're maybe we're just
• 45:59
  in playoff mode in NBSL and I'm watching like the like iron
• 46:03
  sharpens iron like the best, like the last, you know, 23
• 46:07
  standing and like top, top, top playoff form from from these
• 46:12
  clubs. But I don't know, man, am I
• 46:14
  crazy like the, the, the Fisher touch that you talked about, the
• 46:19
  burger, you know, like the, the, the tactics, the chess match,
• 46:23
  like everything that had to happen for these players to
• 46:26
  score for the for, for, for these game changing moments to
• 46:29
  happen. The level off the fucking charts
• 46:32
  for me. I love it.
• 46:34
  I love it as a take. I mean, you look at the the five
• 46:38
  through 10 in the WSL right now, you got Tottenham Hotspur,
• 46:41
  managed by SK Brown legend, our guy Martin Ho, who they
• 46:47
  obviously time numbers look much better.
• 46:49
  They have a -1 goal differential right now sitting at a fifth in
• 46:52
  the table. Then you have London City,
• 46:53
  Lionesses, Aston Villa, Brighton, Leicester City and
• 46:57
  Everton. Yeah, get out of here.
• 46:58
  Get out of here, get out of here.
• 47:01
  Just go somewhere else. Go somewhere else.
• 47:06
  I would say any of those teams would have a very difficult time
• 47:10
  beating Gotham FCI. Do I agree with you there?
• 47:14
  It's a it's a great take by you. Moving on all right, so
• 47:19
  Washington spirit a couple players I wanted to to mention
• 47:24
  we talked about Croy. Maybe we want to see more Lacey
• 47:27
  want to see a little bit more. Let's see what happens.
• 47:30
  Couple players that Kate made a showing of it.
• 47:34
  Aubrey Kingsbury, seven goals from the eight shots on target
• 47:38
  faced over the 120 minutes, saves three of the four in the
• 47:41
  shootout, was so good in the shootout that Washington only
• 47:44
  had to take three penalty kicks to advance.
• 47:48
  I don't know. I'm not sure the last time I saw
• 47:49
  that. And then Esme Morgan, 142
• 47:54
  touches, obviously leads that really fun celebration in the
• 47:58
  crowd, looking like a damn like a maniac.
• 48:03
  Her 142 touches, 52 more than the second highest, which was
• 48:08
  Terra McGill with 90. So she just had the ball pretty
• 48:11
  much half the game and I think moves to the very top of my
• 48:15
  power rankings ahead of Aaron Cuthbert for players most likely
• 48:19
  to smash a beer can on their head.
• 48:22
  There you go. I mean, we've talked about it
• 48:24
  before. She she is a European champion.
• 48:30
  Obviously it, it came home for England once again, Esme Morgan
• 48:34
  was a played a significant role in that.
• 48:38
  She's a Jacksonville Jaguars supporter, so, you know, you
• 48:42
  could see her. Absolutely.
• 48:44
  I mean, I'm pretty sure people in Duval County are very
• 48:47
  familiar with smashing beer cans on their foreheads.
• 48:51
  And she plays like it, man, you know, I mean, you know, picks up
• 48:55
  a yellow in the match, plays with attitude.
• 48:58
  And in that Gonzalez style is always going to be part of the
• 49:03
  build up because you can trust her with the ball at her feet in
• 49:06
  pretty much any situation. Yeah, Love Isley Morgan talking
• 49:11
  about the build up though couple injuries that we're going to try
• 49:15
  to keep an eye on haven't haven't found much will track
• 49:18
  this this week as we progress towards the semifinals.
• 49:22
  Gabby Carl left back stellar left back for watching spirit
• 49:27
  leaves the game a little early. Tara McKeon leaves a little bit
• 49:29
  game leaves the game a little bit after that.
• 49:32
  So, I mean, those are two players that obviously do not
• 49:35
  want to be without for that semifinal match up.
• 49:39
  But, you know, Washington able to survive either way.
• 49:43
  Anything else from this matchup Do you think we need to hit
• 49:45
  before we shuttle over to Portland?
• 49:48
  No, I'm I'm, I'm glad you you mentioned it.
• 49:51
  I mean, I hated, I hated the look on Mickey owns face.
• 49:54
  I hated the by the body language.
• 49:56
  Just hope she's OK. Yeah, I mean, and, and hopefully
• 50:01
  this is just a body language doctor gone wrong, but it looked
• 50:05
  like she she was pretty concerned with the injuries.
• 50:08
  So we'll keep our eyes peeled for updates and hopefully she's
• 50:11
  able to play because obviously Terry McKeon, one of the best
• 50:13
  defenders in the league, I believe she's a she's a finalist
• 50:16
  for the NWS LS Defensive Player of the Year.
• 50:19
  She's always one of our favorite players to talk about.
• 50:21
  So hopefully she's all right for the semis.
• 50:24
  Yeah, no doubt ITC Best 11 yelled at me in the preseason to
• 50:28
  quote that in a regular ITC moment.
• 50:31
  So one of one of our favorites as well.
• 50:33
  So definitely hope to see Terry back out this weekend against
• 50:38
  this team, the Portland thorns, who advance after beating the
• 50:42
  San Diego wave one nil with a very late goal from who am I?
• 50:50
  Why am I biking on this? Raylan Turner assisted from
• 50:53
  Olivia Moultrie, of course, our midfielder of the year, our M
• 50:57
  Foy. This one sort of I would I'll
• 51:01
  say sort of went the way I was expecting.
• 51:04
  You know my analysis going into this.
• 51:06
  Portland arrow pointing up, San Diego arrow pointing down.
• 51:10
  I'm not sure how much was disproven, but this went a
• 51:13
  little bit closer, a little bit more interesting than I think I
• 51:16
  was anticipating. Yeah, credit to San Diego Way
• 51:19
  Football Club. I think I was, I I definitely
• 51:23
  didn't think they would be able to keep it that close,
• 51:28
  especially getting it to to extra time, you know, with the
• 51:31
  way their attack has been struggling for the past several
• 51:34
  weeks, You know, I, I think we're just like, what a terrible
• 51:39
  spot for them against a historically great club in
• 51:42
  Portland Thorns at home in that atmosphere.
• 51:47
  I thought they did. I thought they did well, though.
• 51:49
  I mean, you know, for me, I just maybe saying they did well.
• 51:57
  They did well to keep it close, but can I just get some more,
• 52:02
  can I get some more Delphine Cascarino time, please?
• 52:05
  Like, there's just a point where I'm not even rooting for San
• 52:08
  Diego, but I'm just sitting there like, hey, man, I'm a
• 52:11
  viewer. I would just like to see
• 52:13
  Delphine Cascarino on the ball, please.
• 52:15
  Can you give me some entertainment value here?
• 52:18
  Yeah, it was, it was tough. I my mind goes right back to a
• 52:22
  moment where she's yelling at Kimmy Escanio, who kind of runs
• 52:26
  right past her, doesn't give her the ball and then like loops
• 52:30
  back around, doesn't give her the ball again, ends up turning
• 52:32
  into a chance. I'm not sure if it was for I
• 52:35
  think it was for Ken, maybe Dolly or Kennedy Wesley, but
• 52:38
  just a funny sequence. Not funny if you're Duffy and
• 52:41
  Cescarino in in in the slightest.
• 52:43
  But yeah, man, sending a wave that you know, they passed and
• 52:46
  possessed their way right right to Cancun.
• 52:49
  Another match where they out pass and, and out possessed
• 52:53
  their opponent and they're not really able to kind of do very
• 52:57
  much with it at all. I was looking at a stat that I
• 53:01
  want to share. So box touches per shot on
• 53:05
  target. You know, like these are two
• 53:07
  stats that we look at. We, I don't really usually
• 53:09
  combine them all that often, but, but essentially how many
• 53:12
  times do you have to take the ball into the box to earn
• 53:16
  yourself a shot on target, right?
• 53:18
  So 7 of the 8 teams this weekend were between 2.8 and 5.6.
• 53:23
  So roughly you have 345 touches before you can get a shot in
• 53:27
  target. 7 of the 8 teams, OK, we're between 2.8 and 5.6.
• 53:33
  San Diego was at 9.75 touches in the box to generate a single
• 53:38
  shot on target. A long, long day.
• 53:42
  A long, long, long half Third of the season half, 40% of the
• 53:46
  season, half of the season. Second-half of the season, San
• 53:49
  Diego just unable to to really kind of like turn all of that,
• 53:54
  all that possession and all of that, you know, ball holding
• 53:57
  into into much of anything. I mean, I think you looked down
• 53:59
  the stretch, they had a few chances.
• 54:02
  It kind of was it kind of felt like they're like, all right,
• 54:04
  wow, well, there's minutes left in our season.
• 54:06
  Maybe let's let's try to start shooting the Kennedy Wesley down
• 54:10
  the stretch. Kenza Dali, Trinity Armstrong
• 54:12
  had a had a chance that and had an extra time that was decent.
• 54:16
  Mackenzie Arnold give her credit for saves was up for all of it
• 54:20
  and able to kind of keep the keep the clean sheet and keep
• 54:22
  the win for Portland. Yeah, I think it's it's a good
• 54:27
  point. I mean, you know, 1.31 XG faced
• 54:30
  on those four shots by Mackenzie Arnold.
• 54:32
  She was up for it. I I'll try not to beat a dead
• 54:35
  horse too much here, but you know, Delphine Cascarino, 104
• 54:39
  minutes played, one shot, no shots on goal guy.
• 54:44
  Like we, we got to do better than that.
• 54:46
  Like you just got to like you, you got to put a spot.
• 54:49
  And it's funny. I was thinking about that
• 54:51
  Kennedy Wesley shot too, where Iscano just completely passes
• 54:55
  over Castrino and Castrino's like, what the fuck?
• 54:58
  Like, what are we doing? Like I'm standing right here.
• 55:01
  You could have just played it back to me like I, I can do
• 55:03
  stuff. So I mean, but you know,
• 55:07
  ultimately not to not to totally latch on to that.
• 55:11
  I just think most of Wave FC's shots were a little more
• 55:15
  speculative. Their shots outside the box,
• 55:18
  they were. They had ten of them.
• 55:20
  Portland only had six. They made it a better game than
• 55:23
  I expected. But you know what?
• 55:27
  What we can also expect at this point, what we can always count.
• 55:33
  Sorry, I'm butchering that. What we can always set our watch
• 55:36
  to is probably Sam Coffee and Olivia Moultrie playing well in
• 55:41
  these kind of spots. And Olivia Moultrie, you know,
• 55:45
  you said it a few weeks ago and I had to kind of think about it
• 55:47
  and I wasn't really like super shocked when you said it.
• 55:50
  Her ceiling is absolutely MVP of this league.
• 55:53
  She she plays on the wing, she's faster than you.
• 55:57
  She plays in the middle of the field.
• 55:59
  She can out muscle you. She's she's a great passer.
• 56:02
  She can RIP shots from distance. She can put a little touch on
• 56:05
  the ball to get the ball away from you.
• 56:06
  She could put a little touch on the ball to play the ball into
• 56:09
  the danger area or get it over the line.
• 56:11
  There's not, there's not a single hole in her game that's
• 56:15
  worth like giving me any pause and completely agreeing with
• 56:19
  you. I think it's, I honestly think,
• 56:22
  and I I understand this is a big statement.
• 56:24
  It's probably more likely than not that she does get 1 MVP
• 56:28
  before her career's over. Oh, I love that.
• 56:31
  And I definitely agree with that.
• 56:34
  I mean, she is, she's a beast. She's a force.
• 56:39
  You look at what you did in this one leads the match in touches
• 56:42
  103, leads the match in chances created with six also leads and
• 56:46
  passes into the final third with 15.
• 56:48
  So it's. Like, I mean, come on.
• 56:50
  So. She'll like what is She's just
• 56:52
  everywhere. She's winning the ball back, you
• 56:55
  know, she's distributing 6 touches in the opposition box,
• 56:58
  hits the woodwork with 1 / 5 shots and then the assist to
• 57:03
  Raylyn Turner, you know, holds the ball, holds the ball.
• 57:06
  She's up the left hand side just as like, you know, we use the
• 57:11
  term mesmerizing. I think we misused the term
• 57:13
  mesmerizing, but I think that that that sequence was a little
• 57:16
  mesmerizing. She really drew everybody all of
• 57:20
  the attention, all of the focus, kind of lulled everybody to
• 57:23
  sleep. Takes an extra like touch and a
• 57:26
  half before putting it into Turner.
• 57:29
  And by the time he gets to Turner, everybody's just in a
• 57:31
  trance who's like who's like a dangerous goal scorers just by
• 57:36
  herself, you know, with with literally all of the stakes and
• 57:40
  is able to just kind of like boop, boop it right into the
• 57:43
  into the goal. And again, Moultrie, an absolute
• 57:47
  knuckler, turns all of that attention into a game changer of
• 57:50
  a goal and A and a moment to kind of move Portland into the
• 57:54
  next round. It's such a good call by you and
• 57:57
  I hope I I hope I wasn't like conflating the goals like when I
• 58:02
  was talking about quasi creating space on her cross.
• 58:06
  Yeah, Moultrie's ability to create that space.
• 58:09
  When you describe that extra touch and a half where she's
• 58:12
  like kind of driving in and she's kind of going cat a corner
• 58:15
  toward the goal. And then that extra touch, she
• 58:19
  then almost like flattens it out toward the end line.
• 58:25
  And that's where like everybody is now fully mesmerized and
• 58:29
  she's created like an extra probably nearly a yard of space
• 58:32
  for herself to hit that knuckler.
• 58:35
  I mean, she's just a genius footballer with with
• 58:38
  unbelievable skill. That's, you know, I, I, I
• 58:43
  exclude every Orlando player from this.
• 58:45
  I just, I can't think straight what I'm thinking about Orlando.
• 58:48
  I'm I'm like, I can't believe that they might be in the final
• 58:52
  and we might be able to go see them and cover them and and I
• 58:54
  did get to talk to all of my old friends and interview some of my
• 58:57
  old all the players that I missed so dearly.
• 58:59
  But nice Olivia Moultrie Moultrie quasi 1/2 on my list of
• 59:06
  players I love watching. I would pay to watch are in
• 59:11
  their prime. Are kind of how I would play.
• 59:13
  If how I would want to play if I played are just cannot take my
• 59:17
  eyes off either of those players.
• 59:19
  Those you know, when quasi was cooking, I'm like cool, Quasi's
• 59:22
  one and then Moultrie comes back to close the weekend.
• 59:25
  Like I have Moultrie's what Quasi's too, but those are my
• 59:27
  tops. I mean like those players are
• 59:30
  just gems. They're absolute gems.
• 59:33
  What, you can never predict what they're going to do, and it just
• 59:37
  makes you cannot take your eyes off either of those players.
• 59:40
  Yeah, totally agree. And you know, now we we just see
• 59:44
  them black horns and there and there might be some moments
• 59:49
  where those two are are one-on-one.
• 59:51
  You know, just you see the way Moultrie moves around the field
• 59:55
  and you know, you Gonzalez can do a lot of different things
• 59:58
  with quasi whether she's going to play an attacker, play right
• 1:00:00
  wing back again. So, you know, I think if we can,
• 1:00:05
  if we can kind of move into a little bit of the preview here.
• 1:00:08
  I think this one, it has all the makings of a potential.
• 1:00:12
  Classic semi final like we you you referenced earlier that
• 1:00:15
  Orlando pride Kansas City current match with the with the
• 1:00:18
  amazing Marta run and then the dagger goal.
• 1:00:22
  Like you, I I I wouldn't be surprised if we get similar
• 1:00:26
  moments between these two great clubs.
• 1:00:30
  I'm glad you, I'm glad you phrase it that way because I
• 1:00:34
  went back and checked the two matchups and these were a little
• 1:00:36
  bit more recent. One in June, 1 in August.
• 1:00:39
  So the first one at Portland. Portland wins 2 nil.
• 1:00:42
  But both of these matchups were very like closely contested.
• 1:00:45
  It was, it was very fun going back and and checking these out
• 1:00:49
  because these these teams are clearly even and built to kind
• 1:00:55
  of like counteract each other, which is very, very cool.
• 1:00:57
  But in that first one, Portland wins 2 nil again.
• 1:01:00
  Olivia Moultrie she intercepts the ball gets to Fleming to
• 1:01:04
  Turner who puts Portland up in the 40th.
• 1:01:07
  McKenna Morris close call 2 times and then Pietra torted
• 1:01:11
  chips Aubrey Kingsbury to get the two nil win.
• 1:01:14
  And then in August the two teams lock up again in Washington.
• 1:01:18
  Stop me if you heard this one for quasi to Monday to put
• 1:01:22
  Washington nil and then an Olivia Moultrie absolute banger
• 1:01:26
  to equalize. And then that this was the match
• 1:01:29
  with Trinity. Rodman hits that rocket 90 + 2.
• 1:01:32
  This is our first goal back after the long, you know,
• 1:01:36
  injury, you know, rehab and then puts her head in her hands after
• 1:01:40
  the goal. Just kind of can't believe it.
• 1:01:41
  Really cool moment. But if you remember both of
• 1:01:44
  those matchups, either of them could have gone either way.
• 1:01:47
  I think big chances, big plays, big saves, big stops in both of
• 1:01:52
  them. I cannot wait for these two
• 1:01:54
  teams to run their back on Saturday.
• 1:01:59
  I think that's fair. The only little tiny bit of
• 1:02:04
  pushback I'll give you is in that second match.
• 1:02:07
  And you know, for for our friends of the show who've
• 1:02:10
  listened to a lot of our NWSL episodes, I have referenced that
• 1:02:15
  August 3rd match between Spirit and Thorns multiple times since
• 1:02:21
  it happened. Because as I sat there and
• 1:02:23
  watched it, I was like, OK, this Washington Spirit team plays
• 1:02:28
  like a Spanish side. And, you know, they had 60% of
• 1:02:32
  the ball that day. They had nearly two XG.
• 1:02:34
  They had seventeen shots to 10. They had five shots on target to
• 1:02:37
  33. Big chances to two, which I
• 1:02:40
  think speaks to, you know, Portland still finding a way to
• 1:02:43
  keep it close. But I I left that match feeling
• 1:02:47
  way more bullish on Washington Spirit potentially lifting the
• 1:02:53
  NWSL Championship trophy. Because it like, there were
• 1:02:57
  times where I was like, yeah, like, it's, you know, it, it
• 1:03:03
  took a Moultrie Scorcher to to get the equalizer before the
• 1:03:07
  half. But to me, it felt like Spirit
• 1:03:10
  was just a better team. And that was before they had
• 1:03:14
  Sophia Cantore. So I think it's going to be
• 1:03:20
  interesting. I will not be surprised if
• 1:03:22
  Portland Thorns finds a way to get this done, especially
• 1:03:25
  because we're kind of still waiting to see, you know, how
• 1:03:29
  Rodman is going to look when she returns.
• 1:03:31
  But either way, this is going to be absolute cinema and we better
• 1:03:36
  be locked in for it. I'll tell you what, buddy, I
• 1:03:41
  think the Portland Thorns do find a way to get it done.
• 1:03:45
  Outstanding. As I was watching Washington,
• 1:03:50
  you know, I jotted in my notes, you know, through the through
• 1:03:53
  the 1st 30 minutes of the game and it and you know, it was
• 1:03:56
  very, it was very telling that, you know, that quasi near goal
• 1:04:00
  comes off like an errant cross. Because as I was watching the
• 1:04:04
  first half, you know, I know that they have a lot of good
• 1:04:07
  players, but I'm like, who's going to score?
• 1:04:12
  And it's, it's a different question from who can score.
• 1:04:15
  That's who can score. There's like 7 or 8 answers to
• 1:04:18
  that question. But in this match, in a moment
• 1:04:21
  where you got to you got to do it, you actually have to put
• 1:04:25
  your your boot through the ball. The ball has to cross the line.
• 1:04:30
  I was watching so, so closely because I'm like, these are all
• 1:04:34
  young players, you know, somewhat unproven, you know,
• 1:04:38
  have had moments in the, in the, you know, like in the playoffs
• 1:04:41
  and stuff. But at the very, very, you know,
• 1:04:44
  upper, upper upper echelon of like whether it's like
• 1:04:47
  international football or, you know, in the NWSL, not, you
• 1:04:53
  know, they're not brimming with like all this like championship
• 1:04:57
  experience. So I really want to see who
• 1:04:59
  would score. And I think as we get into the
• 1:05:02
  Portland match, it's going to get it's going to get dicier,
• 1:05:05
  man. I think it's going to be really,
• 1:05:08
  you know, if we thought Louisville put up a fight, I
• 1:05:10
  mean that Portland midfield, that Portland backline, it's
• 1:05:13
  going to be an absolute, you know, like rock fight in there
• 1:05:18
  and somebody on that Washington side is going to have to bust
• 1:05:23
  through and make it happen. Like they they they will just
• 1:05:27
  have to do that. I'm glad you mentioned Trinity
• 1:05:29
  Rodman. That's a player that if healthy,
• 1:05:32
  I would definitely put my money on.
• 1:05:34
  You know, quasi, I think is is right behind Rodman.
• 1:05:38
  Outside of that. I got you.
• 1:05:41
  We got to see it right. Like I think, you know, we saw
• 1:05:43
  cantore play big for Italy. Wouldn't be shocked, but you
• 1:05:47
  know, like it, it's different when the wind is not at your
• 1:05:52
  back, right? And I think the spirit has spent
• 1:05:55
  a lot of time playing football that way this season and against
• 1:05:59
  Portland. I I'm not sure it's going to be
• 1:06:01
  that way. I think it's, I think they're
• 1:06:03
  going to, I think each, each of those teams is going to have to
• 1:06:06
  go way, way, way uphill to, to walk away with, with a win there
• 1:06:10
  and get to the final. Totally, totally makes sense.
• 1:06:16
  If I may, I will take 1 football, take chip and place it
• 1:06:22
  on the roulette wheel and say I think Hal Hirschfeld is going to
• 1:06:28
  do something, whether it's a key pass or the assist or a goal.
• 1:06:34
  I think it's going to be a counting stat.
• 1:06:36
  And I think it could be something that helps, that wins
• 1:06:39
  the match for Washington Spirit. I'll, I'll go, I'll go a little
• 1:06:42
  bowl. I think it's a goal or an assist
• 1:06:44
  for Hirschfeldt. And obviously, you know,
• 1:06:46
  Hirschfeldt's not going to be, you know, a huge goal scorer.
• 1:06:50
  And I don't know if this is just so fresh in my head still
• 1:06:52
  because obviously I just watched it, you know, a day or so ago.
• 1:06:57
  But when when Hirschfeld stepped up to take her penalty and she
• 1:07:03
  she just got to the spot and I was like, that's it that is
• 1:07:06
  going like, there's there is just there was never a single
• 1:07:11
  doubt in my mind that she was going to score that penalty
• 1:07:14
  kick. And if I mean, you know, you
• 1:07:17
  referenced, you know, when when you interviewed her and Terry
• 1:07:20
  McKeon and Terry McKeon said, yeah, quote, that when Hash
• 1:07:23
  Herfeld said they had to go out there and thug it out reporting
• 1:07:27
  by you on the scene. Thank you.
• 1:07:29
  I was like when Hirschfeld scored that penalty, the
• 1:07:33
  outburst of emotion, like the Primal Scream that she let out,
• 1:07:38
  I was just like, Oh yeah, that's why we love this player so much.
• 1:07:41
  And it, it made me think like, we, we mentioned her when we
• 1:07:45
  talked about the 27 World Cup roster.
• 1:07:47
  She got the honorable mention. She didn't make it.
• 1:07:50
  And as that moment was unfurling, I was just like, it's
• 1:07:54
  she's making, she's going to make it as difficult as possible
• 1:07:58
  for Emma Hayes to leave her off that roster.
• 1:08:02
  Let let me ask you a tough follow up question that that I
• 1:08:05
  don't even really want to ask you, but I have to ask you.
• 1:08:07
  This is is your viewpoint and maybe, you know, not just on
• 1:08:13
  Herschel, but on Washington more generally.
• 1:08:15
  Is it being colored by the scene during the penalty kicks?
• 1:08:22
  Because when I think about the game Herschel had, I'm not I
• 1:08:28
  don't feel that same type of way when I think about that scene
• 1:08:33
  and her celebration and her penalty kick and how she just
• 1:08:37
  kind of, you know, scrambles up to the key, you know, like very
• 1:08:39
  frenetically scrambles up and just bangs at it.
• 1:08:41
  Like, I mean, like, yeah, I I mean, it's visceral.
• 1:08:45
  I am moved by remembering those moments.
• 1:08:48
  But and then I think about the game, you know, and I think
• 1:08:52
  about how hard everything was, you know, like, and I think
• 1:08:55
  about how they got out shot and, you know, kind of how, how
• 1:09:01
  things stalled offensively. You know, and then it's, it's
• 1:09:04
  just sort of like, all right, well, you know, the, the goals
• 1:09:07
  that we saw this, that this weekend, especially the late
• 1:09:11
  ones off the charts, you know, to be able to like produce a
• 1:09:14
  moment like that. And the reality is, I think in
• 1:09:17
  the play offs, you, you might need to play your best game and
• 1:09:22
  also get a moment like that. So it's like who's who's
• 1:09:25
  producing it? I I I'm not saying that they
• 1:09:28
  don't have the player to do it. I just want to see who it's
• 1:09:30
  going to be and I want to see what it looks like.
• 1:09:33
  No, it's a, it's a fair question.
• 1:09:35
  I, I mean, yeah, it being the last kind of the last thing we
• 1:09:40
  saw. It probably has an impact on my
• 1:09:43
  opinion, but I, I do also, I, while, you know, people have
• 1:09:48
  their, their thoughts on like momentum in, in air quotes in
• 1:09:53
  sports and how, you know, momentum only exists as long as
• 1:09:56
  you're playing well. And then when the your opponent
• 1:09:58
  starts playing well, then they suddenly have quote momentum.
• 1:10:02
  I totally guessed away, snatched away, took control.
• 1:10:07
  Now it's being played on their terms.
• 1:10:09
  All those, you know, all those things.
• 1:10:12
  The I I do have a little bit of belief in, you know, teams kind
• 1:10:18
  of unlocking something and like, you know, I, I, I just think if,
• 1:10:26
  if you're going to go up against that Portland Thorns midfield,
• 1:10:30
  then a big body scrappy down to fight, you know, not not fight
• 1:10:38
  in a dirty way, but down to fight on a football pitch,
• 1:10:42
  midfield, defensive midfielder like Hal Hirschfeld.
• 1:10:44
  That's going to go a long way. You need that against Sam Coffey
• 1:10:47
  and Olivia Moultrie and I, and I think that I think she's going
• 1:10:51
  to, she's going to have that. And now and then you think
• 1:10:53
  about, you have Hirschfeld, Santos and Bernal, who none of
• 1:10:57
  the three of them are going to be shy about making a foul when
• 1:11:01
  they need to. And they're going to, they're
• 1:11:03
  going to push the limits of what the referee will allow.
• 1:11:06
  And I think that's probably part of the most successful recipe
• 1:11:10
  you could use to upend the Portland Thorns.
• 1:11:14
  Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I, I love the Bernal pickup.
• 1:11:18
  I I hope, you know, we didn't get to see KC at full strength.
• 1:11:22
  I really hope we get to see that Washington spirit defense at
• 1:11:25
  full strength. I love all those players.
• 1:11:28
  And just your point, if we get everybody, Washington, Portland,
• 1:11:32
  you know, 11 V 11, you know, I think that's going to be such a
• 1:11:35
  special match up. And then I think that's just the
• 1:11:38
  first of two. I'm going to go ahead and make
• 1:11:40
  my predictions. I'll just knock them there
• 1:11:42
  pretty quickly. No score predictions.
• 1:11:45
  I'll just cut to the chase. I think Orlando gets by past
• 1:11:48
  Gotham, too much championships, championship experience, too
• 1:11:52
  much championship medal, too long a road for Gotham to kind
• 1:11:56
  of survive. I think they're their season
• 1:11:58
  ends here and I think Portland on the road gets it done.
• 1:12:03
  They lean on some of that institutional excellence.
• 1:12:06
  Rob GAIL, our Koi Moi coach of the year, manager of the year,
• 1:12:11
  Congrats again to coach GAIL. I think they get it done, and I
• 1:12:15
  think in the final I'll rewind all the way back to our NWSL
• 1:12:20
  2025 season preview where I predicted the Orlando Pride
• 1:12:24
  would raise a second championship back-to-back.
• 1:12:29
  So give me Orlando over Portland in the final as my official
• 1:12:33
  prediction. I mean, I, I thought we were
• 1:12:36
  going to do a show after the semis, but we could have done
• 1:12:40
  the the final prediction there. That's fine.
• 1:12:44
  You know, I like it. We could just change it after
• 1:12:46
  it. I was listening to one of the
• 1:12:48
  shows and they had the full prediction before the play.
• 1:12:50
  I'm not sure. I can't remember who I was.
• 1:12:51
  I'm not sure if it was Leanne, but I was listening to a show
• 1:12:55
  and they're like, yeah, this is how I this is my my pick to win
• 1:12:57
  it all. And I'm like, damn, why the fuck
• 1:12:58
  did we do a pick? We did.
• 1:13:01
  We did UC Champions League machinations.
• 1:13:03
  We did a whole 40 minutes on that.
• 1:13:05
  We could have made an end of his topic.
• 1:13:07
  Any who, hopefully that's been rectified.
• 1:13:09
  Orlando over Portland. All right, fair enough.
• 1:13:12
  And you don't want to do. You don't want to do scores.
• 1:13:18
  I could do scores. Let's see, Let me give me give
• 1:13:21
  me two, one Orlando over Gotham, give me 111 PK's Portland over
• 1:13:31
  Washington, and then one nil Orlando over Portland in the
• 1:13:36
  final. All right, fair enough.
• 1:13:41
  I am going to go one nil Orlando Pride over the bats.
• 1:13:46
  I think, you know, part of a champion stuff.
• 1:13:52
  I will then take Washington Spirit 21 over Portland Thorns,
• 1:13:58
  Washington Orlando in the final where I am going to pick Orlando
• 1:14:10
  one nil in extra time over Washington Spirit.
• 1:14:18
  Very spicy, Marta. Goal.
• 1:14:22
  Everybody celebrates. Your boys in the building.
• 1:14:26
  You already know we're going to be in the building.
• 1:14:28
  Oh my God, we'll be part of that.
• 1:14:29
  Everybody we'll be celebrating. Let's.
• 1:14:32
  Let's get, let's get that credential locked in NWSL and
• 1:14:35
  then we then we'll be good. We'll be there.
• 1:14:37
  Hey, I if anybody from the end episodes listening, on November
• 1:14:41
  7th last year, we received our notification about our
• 1:14:45
  credentials. We are now sitting on November
• 1:14:48
  11th. This is not even, this is a bank
• 1:14:50
  holiday. I mean, we're not going to, I'm
• 1:14:51
  not expecting any emails today, you know.
• 1:14:53
  So what are we doing? We're like 10 days away.
• 1:14:55
  I think last year, 70 days before the final, I went back
• 1:14:58
  and did the math. We were alerted.
• 1:15:00
  Now we're 10/11/12 days out. This is just unacceptable.
• 1:15:05
  Let us know. Come on.
• 1:15:06
  I mean, this is just a formality.
• 1:15:07
  You're doing what time it is. You can't have a final without
• 1:15:10
  your boys from the IDC in the building, especially one
• 1:15:13
  featuring the Orlando Pride. I mean, what are we doing?
• 1:15:15
  What are we, what are we talking about here?
• 1:15:16
  It's ridiculous. No, I'm, I'm with you, man.
• 1:15:21
  I mean, you know, we're just waiting on the just waiting on
• 1:15:24
  the message. Maybe a carrier pigeon, we'll
• 1:15:27
  deliver it. Perhaps a Raven.
• 1:15:28
  You never know. So, yeah, we're just looking out
• 1:15:31
  for those credentials. It's in it's in your, you know,
• 1:15:36
  in your backyard. Luckily it's not too much of A
• 1:15:39
  flight for me, so I, I should be able to make it happen even if I
• 1:15:42
  do get the accepted credential late.
• 1:15:46
  So, you know, just hit, hit us up.
• 1:15:48
  NWSLI like to think we, we cover the league fairly well.
• 1:15:52
  Our our pals on Reddit would agree, I'm sure.
• 1:15:56
  So yeah, just so you know, invite us to the party.
• 1:15:59
  I thought we were cool. We are cool.
• 1:16:02
  We don't need to cover comfortably on that quick
• 1:16:04
  episode calendar. In case you missed any of these,
• 1:16:07
  our NW Cell award show, which we referenced a couple times during
• 1:16:11
  this episode, we broke down the MVP, the Roy, the D POI, the Moi
• 1:16:16
  Koi, the G Koi, the M Foi, all the awards we gave them out.
• 1:16:22
  And we also provided a nice layer of analysis with some
• 1:16:26
  video later this week. Well, I guess this weekend or
• 1:16:30
  maybe early next week and into the NW Cell, we'll be back with
• 1:16:34
  the semi final recap, little final preview.
• 1:16:37
  So definitely stay locked for that special guest slated to
• 1:16:41
  join us this week. Yes, absolutely.
• 1:16:46
  Can you let him know about that? I certainly will.
• 1:16:50
  We will be previewing the Manchester Derby in the WSL with
• 1:16:56
  Manchester City Football Club versus Manchester United, of
• 1:16:58
  course, with the aforementioned the great, the Super producer
• 1:17:03
  Crunk chocolate from Shades of Blue and the Shades of Blue
• 1:17:06
  Network. It's an honor to have him on the
• 1:17:09
  program. And so we're going to we're
• 1:17:11
  going to preview that obviously Manchester United in the UEFA
• 1:17:14
  Women's Champions League. We got that little bit of spin.
• 1:17:17
  I think everybody's probably familiar with it by now.
• 1:17:19
  I'm a City supporter, Crunk is a City supporter.
• 1:17:22
  So we'll be chopping it up with our good pal Crunk here coming
• 1:17:27
  up soon. So please, you know, check it
• 1:17:30
  out. Yeah, should be a lot of fun.
• 1:17:33
  Shout out to Sharpie Charlie who had a heater of the take about
• 1:17:35
  Jess Park. So a lot of fun.
• 1:17:39
  Listen to that. Champions League returns this
• 1:17:42
  week, November 11th actually returns later today, actually.
• 1:17:46
  Champions League match day 4 next week will be covering both
• 1:17:48
  of those. So definitely keep it locked.
• 1:17:50
  Huge slate for forthcoming. All right, man, I think, I think
• 1:17:54
  we definitely did it at this point.
• 1:17:56
  Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
• 1:17:59
  I mean, you talked about, you know, this being a little bit of
• 1:18:02
  an old school show. I think I don't know if it's
• 1:18:05
  something like sans video. We just run a little long.
• 1:18:09
  So thank you for everybody who's made it to this point.
• 1:18:12
  I, I, I kind of wonder if when we are on video, I'm just like,
• 1:18:17
  OK, I just want to be off camera so badly that I just talk faster
• 1:18:21
  and we get to it quicker. But we also had a lot to break
• 1:18:24
  down. So you know, what are you going
• 1:18:27
  to do? We appreciate you guys rocking
• 1:18:30
  with us and I, I, I do think we've did it.
• 1:18:32
  I do think we've done it. Let me allow you to get to the
• 1:18:35
  proper intro now, outro. I don't even know who knows what
• 1:18:39
  I'm even saying at this point. Yeah, I do think we've we've
• 1:18:43
  intro the show properly now. We're ready to get out of here.
• 1:18:47
  This has been another episode into the channel.
• 1:18:49
  Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
• 1:18:51
  out. If you enjoy the show or loved
• 1:18:52
  ones football as much as your boys do, make sure you're
• 1:18:55
  kicking with us each and every single week.
• 1:18:56
  Like subscribe, follow, leave us a review, YouTube, Spotify, up a
• 1:18:59
  podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
• 1:19:02
  Want to support the show? patreon.com/into the channel,
• 1:19:05
  Great way to do that. Into the channel.
• 1:19:06
  Merch which you can't see, but we're both definitely wearing a
• 1:19:09
  ton of it. Another great way to do that.
• 1:19:11
  Links to all of the above. Much, much more in the
• 1:19:14
  description of this episode. And a big thing in my coast as
• 1:19:17
  well, Mr. Grant and go for I can't see you, but I I can see
• 1:19:22
  the vision. I can see the dedication.
• 1:19:24
  You already know what time it is.
• 1:19:26
  I appreciate you bro. And I can't wait to see you in
• 1:19:27
  real life. Hopefully we can still make that
• 1:19:29
  happen for the end of yourself. Final, stop fucking with us and
• 1:19:32
  to be with the holds in with our credentials so we can remove one
• 1:19:35
  stressor from our lives. Likewise, buddy.
• 1:19:39
  And we haven't even talked about it.
• 1:19:40
  If we are both in California for the final, how are we going to
• 1:19:47
  do a show? Like are we going to be like on
• 1:19:49
  the same camera? Like I don't even know how all
• 1:19:51
  that's going to work. We haven't worked out any
• 1:19:52
  logistics. We're about as prepared as a
• 1:19:57
  league that hasn't sent out the the accepted credentials yet.
• 1:19:59
  That's OK. That's just synergy, man.
• 1:20:01
  We're just on the same page. So we'll we'll figure it out
• 1:20:03
  together. We also got to figure out when
• 1:20:06
  we're willing to do these Champions League episodes.
• 1:20:08
  We got to you know, we got we got to do the the Manchester
• 1:20:11
  Derby, a lot of things going on and we always appreciate you
• 1:20:13
  guys rocking with us. Let us know what did you think
• 1:20:16
  of the quarterfinals? What are your picks for the semi
• 1:20:19
  finals for the final drop knowledge in there?
• 1:20:22
  Who did we miss? Who should we have talked about
• 1:20:23
  from those quarterfinal matches? Please let us know.
• 1:20:26
  We always appreciate the education.
• 1:20:28
  Thank you so much for watching and we will see you all.
• 1:20:31
  Maybe see you, maybe you will just hear you.
• 1:20:33
  Who knows next time. You did the salute right?
• 1:20:39
  Of course you couldn't hear it. No, just checking.
• 1:20:43
  Thanks.