Speaker 1: Hi, welcome to rain Meekly Keiley Dunning and Laura Shott.
Speaker 2: And this time we get to talk as long as
Speaker 2: we want. We have no limits.
Speaker 3: There we go, the limit.
Speaker 2: Does not exist.
Speaker 4: Quoting Tina Fey from Mean Girls, Oh Millennial Classics, I still,
Speaker 4: you know, I still reference that movie to help me
Speaker 4: just navigate the world.
Speaker 3: Uh yeah, I mean I think I referenced that movie.
Speaker 3: I think I well, now I listen to any Polar's
Speaker 3: podcast quite a bit, so you know, there's all kinds
Speaker 3: of fun there. Bridesmaids is I mean, my my daughter's
Speaker 3: loosely uh named after Kristen Wegg, so stop it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we were like soulmates for this dude.
Speaker 3: Yeah no, I am big fan, big fan. I mean
Speaker 3: those those those people are complete comedic and otherwise geniuses.
Speaker 4: So Amie Polar is just like one of my top
Speaker 4: five favorite people I've.
Speaker 3: Never met, top people I've never met.
Speaker 4: I would be authentic, like and I don't get starstruck
Speaker 4: because people are people, and it's not because I'm like,
Speaker 4: oh they're not so cool, there's still like that's not
Speaker 4: what I mean. I mean, people are just people. The
Speaker 4: Amy Polar man if I ever If and when even
Speaker 4: when I ever meet her, I'm just gonna be like
Speaker 4: starry eyed.
Speaker 3: You know what's so fun is she's like I mean,
Speaker 3: she's in God, She's in every SNL thing that you
Speaker 3: know you love, from mom Jeans to Debbie Downer. And
Speaker 3: then she now she does all this stuff right, and
Speaker 3: she has parks and rac and she can do anything,
Speaker 3: goes on tour with Tina Fey, of course, and then
Speaker 3: now she just starts a podcast and her podcast sounds
Speaker 3: like she should have been podcasting this entire time. It's
Speaker 3: so good. It's such a natural all platform for her.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, I want to hang out with her, and
Speaker 4: that's the whole point of a podcast. So thank you
Speaker 4: listeners for hanging out with us. I hope it work
Speaker 4: fun to hang out with.
Speaker 2: I like to think that I am a good friend.
Speaker 4: Chat soccer and other great chat.
Speaker 2: Love Island.
Speaker 4: I have great chat everybody.
Speaker 3: I'll catch up on Island.
Speaker 4: All right, Yeah, we'll catch up on Love Island later.
Speaker 4: The first episode premiered yesterday. All right, Laura, let's switch
Speaker 4: from Love Island. Although rin MC players do all love,
Speaker 4: they love Love Island, so there is a connection there.
Speaker 3: I will tell you that last year. When I heard
Speaker 3: that Laura Harvey gave us that. I think in a
Speaker 3: pregame she was talking about how the players were really
Speaker 3: into Love Island. I gave a shot. I gave it
Speaker 3: a real shot, and I, you know, found it because
Speaker 3: I had to find it, because that's how disconnected I
Speaker 3: was from it. And I started to watch it and
Speaker 3: I had I had trouble. I struggled a bit. I
Speaker 3: struggled a bit. I you know, I pushed through. I persevered.
Speaker 3: It was like my sixth one twenty. It's like, I'm
Speaker 3: gonna go ahead and make this. I don't want to
Speaker 3: have to run the fitness test again. I gotta see
Speaker 3: what this is about. And I did, and that's the
Speaker 3: last time it's been on my TV.
Speaker 4: It's great background noise because literally nothing happens every episode, right.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's what I should have. That's I was actually
Speaker 3: trying to pay attention because I was like, well, you know,
Speaker 3: they're into it. I kind of want to learn something.
Speaker 3: And I started watching it and I was like, I
Speaker 3: don't know if I can do this, And you know what,
Speaker 3: that's the perfect way to do it. I should have
Speaker 3: been doing that.
Speaker 2: You know what Love Island reminds me of.
Speaker 4: And this is actually this is what Love Island is,
Speaker 4: and this is why it's probably so popular. It reminds
Speaker 4: me of every time I would play with my Barbies
Speaker 4: and my Kendles and I would just like play with
Speaker 4: them and be like, these ones are dating, and now
Speaker 4: these ones are dating and creating like all the stories.
Speaker 4: But the audience are playing with a bunch of Barbies
Speaker 4: and Kendalls.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's nostalgia for people.
Speaker 2: Maybe, Yeah, like that's what it reminds me of. It's
Speaker 2: playing barbies.
Speaker 3: Okay, I can I'm following that logic That would make
Speaker 3: sense to me.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: They all wear like weird crazy outfits all the time.
Speaker 4: They all couple up and date each other and switch up,
Speaker 4: and it just reminds me of you know, ten year
Speaker 4: old KILLI playing with her Barbies and her Kendall and
Speaker 4: going on an ice skating date with Ken, and then
Speaker 4: the next day and going on a surf date with
Speaker 4: not Ken.
Speaker 3: That's right, different skipper, Skipper.
Speaker 2: Skippers, the younger sister, I don't know. The guys had
Speaker 2: the younger guy. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Isn't there another guy more than Ken? Yeah?
Speaker 4: Well, because there was like one with like dark brown,
Speaker 4: like black hair, and there was definitely a blonde and
Speaker 4: I kind had like the sandy brown hair.
Speaker 2: We are so debating.
Speaker 3: It's you're you're challenging my pop culture knowledge and I'm failing,
Speaker 3: and I'm sorry, and I'll do better.
Speaker 4: All right, Let's move into your area of expertise, Laura,
Speaker 4: and let's do some NWSL action. We're obviously going to
Speaker 4: get into Rain and they're unfortunate too. One loss to
Speaker 4: Washington Spirit. Always tough to play the same team twice
Speaker 4: in one month, especially when we played them so well
Speaker 4: the first time and then we had to go on
Speaker 4: the road and and try and repeat that.
Speaker 2: It was tough. It was tough.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: Actually, now that I think of that, let's start with
Speaker 4: that game, Laura. Yeah, let's start with the Rain game.
Speaker 4: We are a rain of see, we are Rain weekly.
Speaker 4: Let's start with the Rain.
Speaker 3: I I am actually fairly high on the game. I know,
Speaker 3: none of us, you know, we want to get the
Speaker 3: three points. We want to even just get a point
Speaker 3: on the road. Obviously we'll achieved that against Boston, which
Speaker 3: was awesome getting the three. This game was just kind
Speaker 3: of one. There was a lot of action to it
Speaker 3: to me. There were times where I thought the rain
Speaker 3: attacted very well with pace, with speed. Frankly, that's how
Speaker 3: we created the goal that we got. I know that,
Speaker 3: you know that goes down as an own goal. However,
Speaker 3: Mercado running that ball down and then putting really three
Speaker 3: players in an awkward situation so that they had to
Speaker 3: make a decision and it ended up resulting in an
Speaker 3: own goal. Great kind of hustle play there. Just to
Speaker 3: stick with it. But I thought the game was really
Speaker 3: open at times, really interesting. How you know, Like a
Speaker 3: lot of times the n WSL, you'll see teams transition
Speaker 3: very well the defense and they'll get back in a block.
Speaker 3: And oftentimes you'll see teams be successful in the attack
Speaker 3: when they don't allow the opponent to get into that
Speaker 3: block and they counter quickly.
Speaker 2: You know, I e.
Speaker 3: Banda showinga you know, players that have been very successful
Speaker 3: at getting in behind. You know. I was going to
Speaker 3: say this season, but I think I have to say
Speaker 3: a lot of seasons. And I thought that this game
Speaker 3: opened up at times and made it very entertaining to
Speaker 3: watch as a fan. But also I got to give
Speaker 3: a nod to the goals. The goals were all awkward, right,
Speaker 3: You've got a free kick goal by Santos that you
Speaker 3: could tell Dicky's vision was blocked and so it ended
Speaker 3: up sneaking in the corner. It was very well taken
Speaker 3: by her. I like the way she struck it. I
Speaker 3: like the way it had a little bit of balance
Speaker 3: on it, so it was difficult to read. Even when
Speaker 3: Dicky could see it late. It's still very very hard
Speaker 3: to make that save. So you know, you kind of
Speaker 3: you kick off there with that goal, and then you
Speaker 3: have the I'm just going to call it the Mercado goal,
Speaker 3: although we should technically call it the deep goal.
Speaker 2: Justice from Madison Curry, by the way, she should get
Speaker 2: an assist on that.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean it's unfortunate that when you yeah, it's
Speaker 3: unfortunate that there's not you know, some way I guess
Speaker 3: to kind of stat count that because it was created
Speaker 3: and we know that you know, Maddy Curry has been
Speaker 3: I mean she did that in the last game, right,
Speaker 3: great assist. So she's looking for it and it's and
Speaker 3: she's playing those balls very well and it was a
Speaker 3: very dangerous ball results in the own goal, but goal
Speaker 3: for the ring, and then you get that final goal.
Speaker 3: Which was was also awkward. Right, takes a deflection off
Speaker 3: of Bug. Right, Dickie had read it, takes a deflection
Speaker 3: off of Bug's foot and kind of you know, like
Speaker 3: with pace, but then goes the other direction, just to
Speaker 3: flex it enough so that you know, Dicky's dive is
Speaker 3: just out of position now and now you know it
Speaker 3: goes in the goal, quite simply. So all of those goals,
Speaker 3: really can we say that they were created? Sure, but
Speaker 3: they were all unique in that they weren't you know,
Speaker 3: they weren't plan Something happened that was a little out
Speaker 3: of the box that you can't really prepare for on
Speaker 3: both sides, so on the attacking end in that sense,
Speaker 3: I just I found the goals very interesting.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 4: So let's look at NWSL and where we currently stand
Speaker 4: in the league. Tenth place, four two and five. So
Speaker 4: a good record, honestly, yeah, a good record. Not a
Speaker 4: great ren of form to end this first half of
Speaker 4: the season. Half ish half ish of the season. Let's
Speaker 4: take a look at the rest of the table. Sean
Speaker 4: diego way up and at the top eight one and four.
Speaker 4: Look at that Utah seven three and two, and Laura,
Speaker 4: I know you wanted to delve into Utah a bit.
Speaker 4: Let me just finish going through the standings and then
Speaker 4: we'll go through some of the games. Utah sitting in second,
Speaker 4: Portland right behind, Washington, Spirit sitting in fourth, Gotham, Kansas City,
Speaker 4: North Carolina, Orlando.
Speaker 2: Those are your top eight.
Speaker 4: Then we have Denver Summit, Our, Seattle Rain, Houston, Angel City,
Speaker 4: Bay FC, Boston Legacy, Chicago Stars coming off for really
Speaker 4: tough results and a tough ending of that one.
Speaker 2: And racing Louisville at the bottom.
Speaker 4: But you know, as is always seemingly the case in NWSL,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of parody, and there is not a
Speaker 4: lot of distance between the first place and eleventh place.
Speaker 4: There are only eleven points between Houston Dash, Seattle Rain
Speaker 4: was fourteen, and.
Speaker 2: San Diego at twenty five, so attainable. No one is
Speaker 2: out of it, frankly.
Speaker 4: I mean maybe spiritually they're out of it, but mathematically
Speaker 4: they're not.
Speaker 2: Mathematically they're not.
Speaker 4: So let's go through some of these games, and I
Speaker 4: think the highlight was that Utah Portland matchup. I'll let
Speaker 4: you go into what you saw first, and then i'll
Speaker 4: give you some of my softer takes.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, really interesting game. I really enjoy watching
Speaker 3: Utah right now, specifically in the way that they've transitioned
Speaker 3: from twenty twenty five to being, you know, in the
Speaker 3: position they're in right now in second, tied with the
Speaker 3: Portland Thorns. So that was that was a you know,
Speaker 3: back to back matchup two teams that are you know,
Speaker 3: fying for first. If either one of those teams would
Speaker 3: have won that game, they would be in first right
Speaker 3: now in the league standings. But I mean Multrie with
Speaker 3: her her first goal, I mean the first goal of
Speaker 3: the game to kick that one off. You know, she's
Speaker 3: been making really savvy, really great runs off the ball,
Speaker 3: and really with that one, the placement of her shot
Speaker 3: was clinical. I mean she went near post on it.
Speaker 3: There wasn't much room there. The room that was there
Speaker 3: she utilized. That's a very difficult ball to finish going
Speaker 3: up one.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: But I mean really in that game, I thought that
Speaker 3: the at the end of the day, both teams played well.
Speaker 3: There was a lot of attack, some great defensive stops,
Speaker 3: really entertaining game in that way. You'd expect that from
Speaker 3: those two teams with the players that they have that
Speaker 3: have been very aggressive in the attacking end. Really the
Speaker 3: story of the game, though, was the final goal and
Speaker 3: how it was. We'll call it created. I mean I
Speaker 3: was asking you before, I would love the stat on
Speaker 3: how often the eight second rule has come into play
Speaker 3: in games. I don't remember one in any of the
Speaker 3: games that we covered last year. I don't remember one
Speaker 3: in any of the games that I watched last year,
Speaker 3: which is quite a few games. Or let's go into
Speaker 3: this year too, in twenty twenty six. I don't remember it.
Speaker 3: I haven't watched all the games. Maybe there have been some,
Speaker 3: you know, surgeons in eight second calls, but this one really,
Speaker 3: to me seemed like it was right on eight seconds.
Speaker 3: The thing that will remain unknown, at least for me.
Speaker 3: Maybe we can get some inside information. We'd have to
Speaker 3: talk to the players involved, but maybe maybe she was
Speaker 3: warned like four times, and then she held it again,
Speaker 3: and you know, the referee decided not this time, but
Speaker 3: eight seconds is called, corners taken, foul is called, and
Speaker 3: then that results in Thorne's p que, which is converted,
Speaker 3: which results in the tie. And this all happened, I believe,
Speaker 3: I mean the eighty eighth maybe to the ninetieth minute
Speaker 3: in regulation play, So I mean this was this is
Speaker 3: what really became the result was it hinged on this
Speaker 3: series of calls right in the eleventh hour of the game.
Speaker 3: I this doesn't happen very often. So when I was
Speaker 3: watching the game and it was called, I mean, I
Speaker 3: you know, like my soccer brain's running in the background,
Speaker 3: and I was like, did he just call eight seconds?
Speaker 3: But I wasn't quite sure because I was kind of
Speaker 3: doing something.
Speaker 2: I was so shy, like wait, right, You're like.
Speaker 3: Did he do that? And then you know, I'm watching
Speaker 3: and I'm like he did. And then I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, you get that feeling. You've been in these
Speaker 3: situations before. We were like, Ah, in a game, weird
Speaker 3: call or not that it wasn't merited. I think it
Speaker 3: was technically eight seconds. Did they call that very often? No,
Speaker 3: I've seen goalkeepers hold and bounce and lay on balls
Speaker 3: for more than eight seconds. I can't remember how many times.
Speaker 3: But in this particular instance, he went for It results
Speaker 3: in the next play, which results in a PK, which
Speaker 3: results in a goal, and now you have a tie.
Speaker 3: So I feel I'm sure Utah feels like that game
Speaker 3: was stolen in some ways. I mean, you can't necessarily
Speaker 3: term it completely stolen. But that was definitely different than
Speaker 3: what I've seen across other games.
Speaker 4: It feels like Portland's kind of one of those teams
Speaker 4: have benefits from that a lot. And maybe it's just
Speaker 4: because we notice it because it's Portland.
Speaker 3: Maybe, you know, I've seen a number of their games
Speaker 3: this year. They're they're running on als around cylinders. Tordon's
Speaker 3: been great. I mean, their back line has been great, multrees.
Speaker 3: I think, you know, really, you know, with the new
Speaker 3: contract and really stepping into our own becoming more of
Speaker 3: a leader, with you know, the absence of Sam Coffee
Speaker 3: in that midfield, you know, just some things have shifted
Speaker 3: a little bit within that team. And I think people
Speaker 3: last year were like, oh well now they're not going
Speaker 3: to be, you know, nearly as good. And to their credit,
Speaker 3: a number of younger players have stepped in and just
Speaker 3: showed out. They've been playing very very well. You know,
Speaker 3: I haven't seen too many I haven't seen anything that
Speaker 3: I'll just call it unique. Happened, you know in the
Speaker 3: Thorns favor so far this year and in the games
Speaker 3: that I've observed, But I will say when you're in
Speaker 3: the eighty eighth minute and eight seconds is called, and
Speaker 3: then a PK is called. I don't know the probability
Speaker 3: that that sequence of events occurs at I'm going to
Speaker 3: say it's very very very very low.
Speaker 2: Very low eight silver eat silver. Can you tell us
Speaker 2: the answer to that, please, I'm.
Speaker 3: Sure we can get. Yeah, we can get.
Speaker 4: We can loose some people in that Nolte speaking of Moultrie,
Speaker 4: that player is a hunter.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, when she I mean she is just relentless.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, well, if I'm a defender, I'm just
Speaker 4: constantly feeling her breathing down my neck the entire game.
Speaker 3: I think you feel her breaking down your neck. You
Speaker 3: also have to make sure that you've got eyes on
Speaker 3: her at all times, because she pulls into spaces in
Speaker 3: a very strategic and calculated way. And if you lose
Speaker 3: her off the ball, or if you're looking at the
Speaker 3: ball too long and Multrie's off the ball scheming, you're
Speaker 3: going to be in trouble. And I think this is
Speaker 3: a piece of her game that frankly has been underestimated.
Speaker 3: A lot of the focus since she was thirteen was
Speaker 3: about her getting signed and is she too young and
Speaker 3: can she handle this? And she would be doing this
Speaker 3: to players obviously she could just practice when she was
Speaker 3: that age. There was the whole series of events that
Speaker 3: finally allowed her to be able to play, and younger
Speaker 3: players in the league kind of open doors. So she's
Speaker 3: definitely a trailblazer in that way. But I think this
Speaker 3: is an underrated piece of her game, her scheming and
Speaker 3: her reading the game so well, just because there have
Speaker 3: been so many other facets of her playing life that
Speaker 3: people have kind of latched onto, whether it's her age
Speaker 3: or whether it's you know, is this too young? Is
Speaker 3: this the right move? Should she be going into a
Speaker 3: court case so that she can get the right to play?
Speaker 3: Should she be doing right? There's there's been a lot
Speaker 3: of noise, and during that noise, to her credit, I mean,
Speaker 3: now it's been has it been six seven years?
Speaker 2: Talk about scurity, by the way, talk about maturity.
Speaker 4: All of that crowd noise around you and all that
Speaker 4: controversy that has really it's completely out of your hands
Speaker 4: and out of your control, and you're thirteen fourteen. She
Speaker 4: must have it either like a great support system or
Speaker 4: just insane maturity.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean shout out to her entire her family,
Speaker 3: and I know them, I've been around them. I was
Speaker 3: with the Thorns and running the academy when she came
Speaker 3: in and we were planning for her to come in
Speaker 3: and how she was gonna get games and all those
Speaker 3: sorts of things, and I got to coach her for
Speaker 3: that period of time. You know at that time, don't
Speaker 3: you don't quite know? Right, somebody new comes into a
Speaker 3: situation and you don't quite know. You don't know if
Speaker 3: they're mature, you don't know what their family's like. You
Speaker 3: just it's not that it's bad or that it's negative,
Speaker 3: and it's not that it's good. You just it's a
Speaker 3: lot of unknown. So there was a lot of planning
Speaker 3: around it. It's the first time that something like that
Speaker 3: had occurred. It was really a moment in time that
Speaker 3: was a first. So over time, you know, you get
Speaker 3: to know the family, you get to know the player,
Speaker 3: you get to know the situation. And I'd say the
Speaker 3: thing that's important, and this is important for every player
Speaker 3: in watching and you know, starting to admire a player
Speaker 3: like Olivia Multrie for our younger players out there, is
Speaker 3: that through that noise and all those things that were
Speaker 3: happening and things that you know were talked about or
Speaker 3: heard about she's training. She's just she's just hungry, right,
Speaker 3: she said it and put press conferences like she wants
Speaker 3: to be the player, like she she wants it. And
Speaker 3: then on top of that, you know she she trains
Speaker 3: all the time. I mean she'll train when she's at training,
Speaker 3: she'll train at the practice facility, she'll go home and
Speaker 3: train like she's just she's that person. Now you look
Speaker 3: at when she was thirteen, the questions were, you know,
Speaker 3: is this too early? Is it too much? Or are
Speaker 3: you putting too much on a kid? I would say,
Speaker 3: in this particular instance, the kid wanted it that much.
Speaker 3: I think that this is, you know, the outlier of outliers.
Speaker 3: A lot of kids end up in pressure situations where
Speaker 3: a parent or an adult wants it more than them
Speaker 3: and starts to create these manufacture these things around them
Speaker 3: to get them to a spot because they're talented. And
Speaker 3: this is a situation where there's there's great support around her.
Speaker 3: But she also this was something that she really wanted
Speaker 3: to do.
Speaker 2: It's just really impressive. The entire situation is impressive.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she's still so young and and she's just begun
Speaker 4: her journey, which is crazy.
Speaker 3: And she's like, is it sick. Well, actually, I have
Speaker 3: to go back and look at when she first played.
Speaker 3: Was it five years ago? Because she couldn't play it first, right, Yeah,
Speaker 3: she had to fight for the right to actually play,
Speaker 3: but she was training for a couple of years before that.
Speaker 4: Let's see, she was born in two thousand and five,
Speaker 4: so she is only twenty years old currently.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll see when she start.
Speaker 3: I believe that's seven years since she came to parlanm.
Speaker 3: She came when she was thirteen, but I don't know
Speaker 3: when she started playing in matches.
Speaker 4: So signed her first professional contract at age fifteen and
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one. That was following the lawsuit that successfully
Speaker 4: removed aage limit. Following that, and then the next year
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty two, won an nws AL championship with
Speaker 4: the Thorns.
Speaker 2: So she's also a winner too, like a team. She's
Speaker 2: she's an exceptional player. She clearly has.
Speaker 4: Insane maturity, she's got a great support system, and she's
Speaker 4: also a winner.
Speaker 2: Yeah, perfect play.
Speaker 3: I think in a lot of ways she's I mean,
Speaker 3: I think no one continued to see her evoll.
Speaker 2: No one's perfect.
Speaker 3: No one's perfect.
Speaker 2: I don't want to put that pressure on her.
Speaker 3: I mean, if there's somebody you could put the pressure
Speaker 3: on and could.
Speaker 4: Hand there, I for a coaching course from her, like
Speaker 4: a life coaching course. I would pay so much money
Speaker 4: to do a life coaching course with Olivia.
Speaker 3: Well, when you when you get these players, these very
Speaker 3: unique players that you know play for the national team
Speaker 3: for long periods of time, or you know an Olivia Moultrie,
Speaker 3: that is such a unique situation. It's it's funny like
Speaker 3: you of course want to learn from them and let's
Speaker 3: let's you know, Moultrie had sink. Christine Sinclair was at
Speaker 3: the Thorns for a long time, right, she had coffee
Speaker 3: in midfield as she went through her transition to the
Speaker 3: national team, and then Moultrie was, you know following suit.
Speaker 3: She's had some great mentors there and I can I
Speaker 3: can tell you, I mean even starting with Mark Parsons
Speaker 3: was there at the time. I mean his design and
Speaker 3: planning and the thought that went into taking care of
Speaker 3: the soccer side of this was very extensive. So there's
Speaker 3: a lot that goes into it. But I mean, if
Speaker 3: you want a course from somebody like that, I mean,
Speaker 3: get ready, because I mean a lot of these people
Speaker 3: embody greatness to then teach. It is sometimes difficult for
Speaker 3: them because they aren't.
Speaker 2: Because they aren't. That's so true. That's so true.
Speaker 4: What is it those you can't do teach? But I completely,
Speaker 4: I actually completely disagree with that.
Speaker 2: My mother is a lifetime teacher and she does a lot.
Speaker 2: She's a due. She doesn't even hate SAT.
Speaker 3: Came up with that. Yeah, I'm not sure. What do
Speaker 3: you what's.
Speaker 4: Better student in their class? That's who it was. Yeah,
Speaker 4: this teacher has it out for me. So they just are, you.
Speaker 2: Know, trying to destroy my dreams because they can't do
Speaker 2: it themselves, which you know what.
Speaker 4: I operate great on spite. Yeah, fortunately it's spite is
Speaker 4: a great motivator for me. I hate that because I'd
Speaker 4: rather live my life not needing to spite people to
Speaker 4: do well.
Speaker 2: But man, is spite uh motivator for Oh?
Speaker 3: I mean it's fine as I mean, it's it's right
Speaker 3: there with like prove you.
Speaker 2: Wrong, right, that's yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: I mean people have used that energy for they'll use
Speaker 3: it forever.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Chip on your shoulder, just having a chip on your shoulder,
Speaker 4: it helps, it helps, all right. More action across the league.
Speaker 4: Orlando Pride BFC three to one for Orlando. I feel
Speaker 4: like that was an That result doesn't tell how well
Speaker 4: they played, especially on the attacking end. They had a
Speaker 4: goal taken off that was called offside, would have been
Speaker 4: at that point to nil, I believe. Uh, it just
Speaker 4: changes the complete complexity of a game, complexity whatever.
Speaker 2: It changes the complete complexity of the game.
Speaker 4: What did you see from Orlando and Bay Because I
Speaker 4: was I was very impressed with Day's attacking prowess in
Speaker 4: that match.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, even going back to the last year
Speaker 3: and in the beginning of this year, they creates attack like.
Speaker 2: They're an interesting team to Yeah, totally, they can be
Speaker 2: a very.
Speaker 3: Interesting team to watch. And so, like, I mean, Orlando's
Speaker 3: a difficult matchup. Obviously, Banda's been knocking it out of
Speaker 3: the park. She's the lead leaguing scorer right now. We
Speaker 3: know she ain't just been out and she's surging, surging
Speaker 3: in goals right now as she you know, makes up
Speaker 3: her time away at BLA. She's sitting at seven right now,
Speaker 3: behind at eleven. Yeah, savaging the goal of game. And
Speaker 3: I mean, I I'm going to say, she guys gonna
Speaker 3: try to She's gonna make a surge to get to
Speaker 3: that average as well. Those two players are you know,
Speaker 3: they're special, and so you know, anytime you have band
Speaker 3: on a field, you've got to be looking for the counter,
Speaker 3: and you've got to be looking for that speed and behind.
Speaker 3: She's looking for it constantly, and it's it's always dangerous
Speaker 3: whether she's scoring the goals or whether she's playing defenders
Speaker 3: out of positions because they have to pay special attention
Speaker 3: to her. She gets a step on you and she's
Speaker 3: in It's it's difficult. I when I've watched Bay and
Speaker 3: you know, including in this game, the attack is just
Speaker 3: inconsistent and sometimes the finishing's not there. I think that
Speaker 3: they're a team that even last year like they could
Speaker 3: have made a surge, and I think we're going to
Speaker 3: see the same thing as we go into the second
Speaker 3: half of this season, is whether they're able to convert
Speaker 3: on some of these plays or whether they continue to
Speaker 3: kind of bounce around and tie some games and then
Speaker 3: and then drop close ones, specifically when they play teams
Speaker 3: that have special players that can you know, get one
Speaker 3: chance and they convert. So I mean, that's that's really
Speaker 3: where I see Bay is. I'm not really sure if
Speaker 3: they're going to make that conversion into being a real
Speaker 3: player that's going to challenge for a playoff spot. But
Speaker 3: I think, you know, we get we get into late
Speaker 3: later in twenty twenty six and the playoff picture starts
Speaker 3: to form. I believe Orlando is going to be there.
Speaker 2: You know what's kind of funny.
Speaker 4: They remind me, I'm going to make a really weird
Speaker 4: comparison here, but bear with me. They remind me a
Speaker 4: lot of the San Jose Sharks NHL team, which is funny.
Speaker 3: Because I'm not not going to know this.
Speaker 2: They play right, like right across the street from each other.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the San Jose Sharks are a lot of really
Speaker 4: really young players who are really exciting and they want
Speaker 4: to score like eight goals a game, and they typically
Speaker 4: score about five goals a game.
Speaker 2: The problem is they give up seven.
Speaker 4: So a lot of youthful exuberance, a lot of talent
Speaker 4: and the will to score, which give us give Seattle
Speaker 4: some of that. We love that, but do very like
Speaker 4: similar teams in completely different sports.
Speaker 2: Interesting. Yeah, all right, more.
Speaker 4: Across the league, Let's see Casey Current and Boston Legacy.
Speaker 4: Casey coming out on top with that one with one
Speaker 4: nil then we've got Denver Summit ending this half of
Speaker 4: the season up one nil, over racing Louisville, who's obviously
Speaker 4: at the bottom of the table. And this is a
Speaker 4: game that I want to talk about, Chicago going down
Speaker 4: two nils of San Diego Wave almost equalized and it
Speaker 4: was almost one to one in the in the ninety
Speaker 4: first minute plus stoppage Jordan Heidema actually scoring and then
Speaker 4: devastation called back for offside and then of course, because
Speaker 4: this is what always happens poetically, San Diego comes back
Speaker 4: and scores and ice is the game too nil.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's been rough for Chicago. I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm I'm glad they have now back. Shout out to
Speaker 3: Jordan Tidema who this certainly had her moments this first
Speaker 3: half of the year for Chicago. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 3: it's the two zero score is a little bit deceiving.
Speaker 3: I mean, the first goal for the Wave was what
Speaker 3: in the third minute, right digna, You know, like, so
Speaker 3: third minute goal, which is always deflating, and you've you've
Speaker 3: had a rough go thus far, so now you're down
Speaker 3: and you're not even five minutes in, and then the
Speaker 3: second goal game transpires there are chances Chicago's in it,
Speaker 3: you know, can maybe tie it up. And I mean
Speaker 3: the the second goal was I mean, stoppage time was
Speaker 3: very very long. Yeah, and it was well in stoppage time.
Speaker 3: So I mean, really that game plays more like a
Speaker 3: one to ohero or a one to one game. It's
Speaker 3: unfortunate for Chicago they weren't able to make that one
Speaker 3: one and then you know, make it a real exciting match.
Speaker 3: They're on out and then you know you don't want
Speaker 3: to go into the break giving up a goal in
Speaker 3: the ninetieth plus thirteen minutes. But what that's not that's
Speaker 3: a bar.
Speaker 4: The goala called from VR too, like it called out
Speaker 4: like they checked it on VR.
Speaker 2: And that's when I got like it just men, that sucks.
Speaker 3: Yeah, mentally, that totally sucks. And I mean that's you
Speaker 3: can always turn that though. I mean I think of
Speaker 3: like Chicago. Remember Chicago's second half of last year. They
Speaker 3: ended up going on what became a tie spree. They
Speaker 3: couldn't quite get wins, but they were getting lots of points,
Speaker 3: which was making the playoff picture really murky because you know,
Speaker 3: teams are you know, going to those games expecting although
Speaker 3: they shouldn't to beat Chicago, and Chicago's pulling points over
Speaker 3: and over and over, and at a point they were
Speaker 3: getting so many ties that it looked like they might
Speaker 3: start to, you know, if they got a few wins,
Speaker 3: get into that playoff picture. So I think that that
Speaker 3: has to be your narrative and that has to be
Speaker 3: your goal going into the second half. If you're Chicago,
Speaker 3: is just like, let's get a few wins and see
Speaker 3: what happens. Utah did something similar last year, right, got
Speaker 3: to the break and then got some opportunities after the break,
Speaker 3: got to kind of reset, you know, didn't quite get
Speaker 3: into the playoff picture, but got to make some changes
Speaker 3: right going into the second half a little bit, getting
Speaker 3: some more wins, getting some more opportunities, and playing quite well.
Speaker 4: All right, let's take a little bit broader look at
Speaker 4: this first half of the season for a second, Laura,
Speaker 4: which teams have impressed you the most?
Speaker 2: Let's start with impressed you the most?
Speaker 4: And then I want to also ask what your biggest
Speaker 4: surprise has been, So what team is impressed you the most?
Speaker 2: And then what team has surprised you the most?
Speaker 3: Umm? Impressed? God, that's a great, This is great. This
Speaker 3: is so fun. Thanks, thanks, I love this. Uh it's interesting.
Speaker 3: I although San Diego sits in first right now, I
Speaker 3: wouldn't say them. I will say Utah and the Thorns
Speaker 3: have been have been on point Tanaka midfield, like she
Speaker 3: has really opened up the game for them. She's been
Speaker 3: a great player for them, she always has been. But
Speaker 3: in these moments where they have these attacks, you can
Speaker 3: just tell she's facilitating and playing so well. You can
Speaker 3: say the same thing for Moultrie, So you start to
Speaker 3: see this theme of attacking mids who are playing very well.
Speaker 3: You could say the same thing for fourth Washington Spirit Santo.
Speaker 3: She's a playmaker, you know, no matter where she's out
Speaker 3: on the field, she's gonna she's gonna create things. She's
Speaker 3: gonna make plays, she's gonna find windows. She's often involved
Speaker 3: when they play those sneaky little through balls that you know,
Speaker 3: seem to be weighted just perfectly. And I now you know,
Speaker 3: you look at the table, and now you get into
Speaker 3: fifth Gotham, sixth Kansas City, and seventh with another one
Speaker 3: of the leading scores in Nashally Sanchez, North Carolina behind
Speaker 3: them Orlando.
Speaker 2: Pride Murders in the middle.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's exactly where I'm going with this. So while
Speaker 3: I think you Saw and Portland have been very impressive,
Speaker 3: I think you've got the hard hitters, the heavy hitters
Speaker 3: in Washington, Gotham and Casey right behind you at four,
Speaker 3: five and six. And let's remember the Shawingo is out.
Speaker 3: Gotham almost famously now starts a little bit slow, and
Speaker 3: then and then last year goes and wins a championship.
Speaker 3: And then you've got Washington Spirit that have been in
Speaker 3: some finals but haven't haven't gotten the trophy yet. So
Speaker 3: I'm I mean, those are my ones that I'm going
Speaker 3: to look out for. But if we're just judging by
Speaker 3: the first half of the season, I would say, you know,
Speaker 3: Utah and Portland hats off. They've done very well.
Speaker 4: Utah has really impressed me. They're probably my biggest surprise
Speaker 4: as well. And there's no other reason other than Utah
Speaker 4: teams I just look past every year and there's no
Speaker 4: shade to this roster. It's not She's like my favorite
Speaker 4: player who's not on the rain. To be honest with you,
Speaker 4: I love watching her play. I think that she is
Speaker 4: so good at putting herself in the right positions and
Speaker 4: being relentless, and I hear a lot of announcers be like, oh,
Speaker 4: look good, she created her on luck there da dada.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yeah, she created.
Speaker 4: The luck, she redated it because she was so relentless.
Speaker 2: And she just reminds me of a Tasmanian double.
Speaker 4: Whenever I'm watching, I'm just like, this is just a
Speaker 4: Tasmanian double, and she's going to attack and win every
Speaker 4: single ball, Yeah, against three or four other defenders.
Speaker 3: Yeah, busy effective finds. I mean, we were just talking
Speaker 3: about Moultrie finds these spots is a magnet just for space,
Speaker 3: you know, pulls away into into really dangerous areas when
Speaker 3: the opponent isn't looking. Just has an ability to know like,
Speaker 3: oh you turn your head, I'm you're gonna lose me.
Speaker 3: And it happens over and over and over. So yeah,
Speaker 3: very exciting to watch. But you know you got to
Speaker 3: watch out. You got Shwena coming back who's had seven
Speaker 3: goals and I'm gonna go with what like four maybe
Speaker 3: five games coming back, So you know, she's she's picking
Speaker 3: up for a lots of time. She always will she
Speaker 3: I mean, whether she's in or out, as soon as
Speaker 3: she comes back, she's going to be impactful. Yeah, so
Speaker 3: I'm really kind of eyeing that four, five and six
Speaker 3: spot right now, as you know, some teams that are
Speaker 3: going to make a surge in Gotham Casey and Washington Spirit.
Speaker 3: And then of course the playoff line is is really
Speaker 3: interesting again. And you know, this is where I think
Speaker 3: the second half of the season again for the Rain
Speaker 3: and we're seeing some parallels here right We're talking about,
Speaker 3: you know, teams that turned corners and had a different
Speaker 3: second half than they did first half. Rain sitting in tenth.
Speaker 3: I mean, you're gonna hopefully fingers crossed and I don't
Speaker 3: know where she's at in rehab, but maybe Jess fishlock back,
Speaker 3: hopefully sooner than later. I think that's something you can
Speaker 3: equate to in a different way. But scores, goals, creates
Speaker 3: obviously impact player, captain she comes in, that's gonna be
Speaker 3: a big surge. And then you've got you know, some
Speaker 3: of the teams we've talked about Denver Summit, you know,
Speaker 3: as an expansion team, can they turn that corner and
Speaker 3: be a playoff team right off the bat? And then
Speaker 3: you've got Orlando. I mean Orlando's always in or around finals.
Speaker 3: They always seem to be making bangs happen. So I mean,
Speaker 3: very very interesting table going into the next part of
Speaker 3: the season.
Speaker 4: I was just about to bring up Just Fishlock because
Speaker 4: your discussion about the importance of that, you know, attacking
Speaker 4: ten or that attacking midfielder, and we've been missing just Fishlock.
Speaker 4: And if you saw, I mean the beginning of the season,
Speaker 4: our attack was really firing on a lot of cylinders
Speaker 4: or creating a lot of chances when we were scoring.
Speaker 2: And then she left there a wentz.
Speaker 4: You know, we've gutted it out and we've looked good
Speaker 4: and we've done I really feel like well without her,
Speaker 4: But yeah, it's going to be better with her.
Speaker 3: Well, certainly. I mean the obvious example right now is
Speaker 3: Casey Current. I mean, how many goals were they giving
Speaker 3: up in the first five games of the season. They
Speaker 3: were giving up goals. They couldn't quite put it together.
Speaker 2: I mean the spoken.
Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely right. And then you know, and as as
Speaker 3: a club you look forward to that, I mean, as
Speaker 3: everybody's gonna look forward to Jess Fishlock's return. Well, same
Speaker 3: with us shawinga right she comes back, You're like, oh,
Speaker 3: here we go. Now that final piece where we know
Speaker 3: exactly where to play her the ball, rather than having
Speaker 3: to reconfigure where no one's quite like her and has
Speaker 3: a skill set. How do we manufacture and reconfigure so
Speaker 3: that we create the scoring chances we got with showinga Well,
Speaker 3: you don't have to do that anymore. You just go
Speaker 3: back to it. Well, this is what we did, this
Speaker 3: is how it worked, and right, it's a little more natural.
Speaker 3: I think something similar happens when Jeff Fishlock comes back,
Speaker 3: just because I mean, if you look at the beginning
Speaker 3: of the season, how many goals the rain were scoring,
Speaker 3: how well they were doing in the attack. The chance
Speaker 3: is created, and I don't think I have a little
Speaker 3: bit different perspective on it than I think some of
Speaker 3: the narratives that I hear. I haven't seen that they
Speaker 3: aren't creating any attack. I just see that they are
Speaker 3: not finishing, and sometimes they aren't as dynamic in the
Speaker 3: final third as they have to be. I love Mercado's
Speaker 3: work great. She will create things just off of being
Speaker 3: tough and getting in spots. Not to mention her talent.
Speaker 3: I really like DeLine in the last two games. I
Speaker 3: feel like she was a little bit more dynamic and
Speaker 3: different and then I believe for the first time we
Speaker 3: saw our first same lineups back to back for the
Speaker 3: Rain in these last two games. So, you know, getting
Speaker 3: the win, Laura Harvey decided we're gonna put the same
Speaker 3: people back on, and I'm excited to see if somebody
Speaker 3: like a Ward steps in and changes games, if Adamis
Speaker 3: starts to score goals again like she did, and we
Speaker 3: talked about me official, you know, she turns the corner
Speaker 3: and she starts. I think she gets her first one.
Speaker 3: I think she gets her first one. I think she
Speaker 3: gets more, and it's just about breaking that barrier.
Speaker 4: Well, and I'd like what I have seen from her
Speaker 4: on the field, like, yes, she's her whole up play
Speaker 4: has been great. She's been a lynchpin in terms of
Speaker 4: getting the attack moving, and she's been great defensively and
Speaker 4: playing all facets of the game.
Speaker 2: So you know, yes, she hasn't.
Speaker 4: Scored yet, but I think it's important to look at
Speaker 4: her effectiveness outside of just scoring.
Speaker 3: Yeah, agreed. I was impressed with with her hold up
Speaker 3: play in the nine, her defensive work rate. She was
Speaker 3: creating awkward situations for the opponents, putting them in difficult spots,
Speaker 3: not allowing them to get into the flow of their attack,
Speaker 3: which is something really special out of an attacker and
Speaker 3: a nine. If you can have attackers and somebody like
Speaker 3: Me Official who puts that work in on the defensive
Speaker 3: side as well and creates opportunities out of that for
Speaker 3: herself and her teammates, that's a big bonus. And so
Speaker 3: I believe in the second half the season we're going
Speaker 3: to see some of the fruits of that labor.
Speaker 4: Another thing about Me Official, and this is my pet
Speaker 4: peeve with just nine's in general, is they have the
Speaker 4: most obvious body language of all time. You know when
Speaker 4: a Diva nine is not playing up to what they
Speaker 4: want to do and is not scoring and da da
Speaker 4: da da all the things. Her body language is fantastic
Speaker 4: and she's part of the team, and I have not
Speaker 4: seen a single I just hate that.
Speaker 2: I hate watching that so much. Like dude, it's not
Speaker 2: about you right now, it's about the team. The team
Speaker 2: talk about you.
Speaker 3: I think that's hard as a nine, specifically in the
Speaker 3: middle third, is that you're so reliant on the entry
Speaker 3: pass or where the ball's coming from right, so you're
Speaker 3: constantly scheming. Whereas this if your team hasn't been possessing
Speaker 3: well and effectively in a game, you're constantly guessing, right,
Speaker 3: so you're it makes it look like you're out of
Speaker 3: position a lot, and arguably you are, but really it's
Speaker 3: the unpredictability of not being able to keep the ball
Speaker 3: that creates this dynamic where you're like, well, should I
Speaker 3: pull away? Are they going to have the ball? Or
Speaker 3: do I need to check because they're going to be
Speaker 3: under pressure, And those are the decisions you're constantly making,
Speaker 3: and they're they're very different. Right, if somebody has the ball,
Speaker 3: clearly you can pull away because they don't need short support, right,
Speaker 3: they can maybe play you behind they had the time
Speaker 3: and the space to do it. If a ten or
Speaker 3: a mid midfielder is under pressure, now that dynamic changes.
Speaker 3: Now you have to check to the ball. Now it
Speaker 3: has to be a completely different run. You thought you
Speaker 3: might get in behind on a sprint. Now you're checking
Speaker 3: and giving your feet or you're holding somebody off and
Speaker 3: showing your feet. Right, So, if your team's not possessing
Speaker 3: or is just having a hard time with that and
Speaker 3: balls are just bouncing forward, or most of the balls
Speaker 3: you're receiving are from like a goalkeeper's punt some kind
Speaker 3: of that scenario, a goalkick. Those are really difficult balls
Speaker 3: to handle, given somebody's always on your back and there's
Speaker 3: always somebody directly in front of you, and sometimes you're
Speaker 3: kind of surrounded by two or three. But you know,
Speaker 3: when nine's effectively hold up the ball like we've seen Mercado,
Speaker 3: like we've seen Fish'll do, it completely changes the game.
Speaker 3: And you saw that early in the season, specifically with
Speaker 3: the dynamic of Jess Fishlock and Infishal finding her in
Speaker 3: those early games she was able to hold up the
Speaker 3: ball and then not only was she able to get
Speaker 3: a ball that was predictable that she could hold and
Speaker 3: allow the team to attack, she also had really obvious
Speaker 3: runs that she could play right so she could find
Speaker 3: somebody on the run and then she could spin out
Speaker 3: and get further up the field. And it's all about
Speaker 3: getting numbers up the field, and really an effective nine
Speaker 3: allows you to do that. So the more me Official
Speaker 3: and Mercado get into form of, you know, making that
Speaker 3: consistent and the team finding them consistently in the spots
Speaker 3: that they're checking to the ball, the better they attack
Speaker 3: is going to flow.
Speaker 4: Let's talk a little bit more because I've always been
Speaker 4: curious about this as a non player who just loves
Speaker 4: watching and appreciating the art form of being a hold
Speaker 4: up player and playing back to goal and muscling your
Speaker 4: way through and the importance of.
Speaker 2: That, because I think a lot.
Speaker 4: Of fans, just in my experience, amongst the fans, it's
Speaker 4: almost looked at as well, this person who's.
Speaker 2: Big and just physical, why aren't they just holding it up?
Speaker 2: Why can't they just be a hold up forward? So
Speaker 2: much more complex than that, Laura, you are the expert.
Speaker 4: Can you explain to fans who may be underestimating the
Speaker 4: talent and the skill and the technical ability that it
Speaker 4: takes to be a hold up forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean there's a couple of ways you can
Speaker 3: do it. I think that the most the one you
Speaker 3: see most commonly is, you know, a player that gets
Speaker 3: into position, posts up on a center back and then
Speaker 3: is you know, in some way or another holding them
Speaker 3: off or keeping them behind them so that they show
Speaker 3: their feet. So the reason why it's so difficult to
Speaker 3: play is, you know, you could put yourself in that position.
Speaker 3: You're a nine. You just post it up. You got
Speaker 3: to the ball side of the defender, which is, you know,
Speaker 3: the side of the ball's on right. So if you're
Speaker 3: a midfielder has the ball, you don't want to be
Speaker 3: on the far side of that defender because the defender
Speaker 3: will then have the angle to intercept the pass. So
Speaker 3: you have to get on the near side of them
Speaker 3: and do the work. Then you have to do the
Speaker 3: physical labor to hold them back because now it's a battle.
Speaker 3: They're going to try to fight through you to that
Speaker 3: ball and get the angle, and you're going to try
Speaker 3: to keep them behind you and fight to keep the
Speaker 3: angle hole. So in that battle, it's it's very difficult.
Speaker 3: Now imagine and you've fought for that space you've gotten
Speaker 3: in front, you're holding off a human right, they're trying
Speaker 3: to get into your space. Now it's a little bit
Speaker 3: a little bit of a like it's not a wrestling match,
Speaker 3: but it is. So you're physically holding them back. Now,
Speaker 3: imagine that ball goes over your head and behind the backs, right,
Speaker 3: So you've done all this work, you've gotten to the space,
Speaker 3: you've shown your feet, and now the ball goes somewhere else. Okay,
Speaker 3: so now you're completely out of position. So that's why
Speaker 3: possession is so important is that if like let's say
Speaker 3: the ball is at where's his feet and she's going
Speaker 3: to play an entry pass into me official. Well if
Speaker 3: me official gets on the ball side of the defender
Speaker 3: and does that work and is in a good spot
Speaker 3: and then she's able to play a pass forward, well
Speaker 3: it starts to become more predictable as that ball is
Speaker 3: traveling and attacking mid a mentee McCammon, official, sorry, not official,
Speaker 3: fish lock. Now those players that bass is going in,
Speaker 3: they know Mercado or official is going to receive it.
Speaker 3: Now they can design their runs now they know where
Speaker 3: they need to go to create the next pass, which
Speaker 3: is often the pass that then unlocks the next attack forward,
Speaker 3: the next run. So when that's not predictable, and let's
Speaker 3: say again that nine is posted up, now the ball
Speaker 3: goes in behind rather than to their feet. Now you're
Speaker 3: chasing the game because the opponent had all those angles
Speaker 3: taken care of, because you were doing all the work
Speaker 3: to create an angle in front. That's where you wanted
Speaker 3: to create the space. And it's really a chess match
Speaker 3: in that way of you know, pulling away from the
Speaker 3: defender then checking too. That's another way you can play
Speaker 3: the nine, you don't necessarily just have to stand and
Speaker 3: hold them up and make it a physical battle. Often
Speaker 3: in those situations, you're intentionally standing in an offside position
Speaker 3: until the time where you're going to receive the ball.
Speaker 3: You establish an on side position and then you make
Speaker 3: a run. So you're constantly playing a cat and mouse
Speaker 3: game of you see me, now you don't, and you
Speaker 3: don't know where I'm gonna pop out at as opposed
Speaker 3: to a traditional you know, like big post up where
Speaker 3: you're like, I'm here, what do you do about it?
Speaker 3: I mean, think about like in Abby Womback, who is
Speaker 3: you know, like so tall? She was gonna do that
Speaker 3: and then she was gonna get in the box and
Speaker 3: then do something else in the air. Right. That was
Speaker 3: very much the dominant part of her game. Heidema did
Speaker 3: that to some extent. Sometimes she would want to get
Speaker 3: in behind, didn't always have the pace to play that game.
Speaker 3: But when she was effective holding up, we had some
Speaker 3: really good run of play. She's doing that a little
Speaker 3: bit with Chicago. But yeah, when you when you have
Speaker 3: a good nine that can hold up play, it can
Speaker 3: really unlock the attack. Now you can Jex's position the
Speaker 3: opposite of that would be like shwinga Okay, she's just
Speaker 3: gonna run across you and she's gonna pull away from you,
Speaker 3: and she's gonna say catch me, good luck. She's not
Speaker 3: gonna mess around necessarily with posting up a whole lot,
Speaker 3: although she's strong enough to do it, and you'll see
Speaker 3: her do it once in a while. Often she'll post up.
Speaker 3: Not get it, you want to see that attacking mid.
Speaker 3: She's just gonna be excited when she sees that attacking
Speaker 3: MIDHF space. She's gonna pull wide and she's going to
Speaker 3: create space and then look for the ball and behind.
Speaker 3: So she might fake that she's going to post up,
Speaker 3: or she might post up once in a while just
Speaker 3: because the game needs it. But she's a player that
Speaker 3: wants to be faced forward, just you know, getting the
Speaker 3: ball in behind.
Speaker 4: That's to me expresses the importance of having so many
Speaker 4: tools in your toolbox. Yeah, because oh, you beat her
Speaker 4: this way, Oh, but she can also beat you three
Speaker 4: or four other different ways.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, it's that's why. I mean people say
Speaker 3: it and I think maybe we just said it, but
Speaker 3: that's why it's a chess match, right. Your pond does
Speaker 3: something different than your queen does something different than your bishop, right,
Speaker 3: they're all you know, one can only go straightforward, right,
Speaker 3: and one can go all the directions. And you know,
Speaker 3: the king, what's he doing? Like he's just he can't
Speaker 3: he can barely move right.
Speaker 2: So does all the work and the king.
Speaker 4: But the game still ends when the king dies, even
Speaker 4: though the queen is doing all the work.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like the king might be her post
Speaker 3: up and the queen might be here your ten or
Speaker 3: your your runner. But that's that's what it is. Is.
Speaker 3: You know, in the game of chess, you've got these
Speaker 3: pieces and I'm not like a chess expert, but obviously
Speaker 3: they have different skill sets and you're just trying to
Speaker 3: fit them together to establish a style of play, and
Speaker 3: so it's predictable so your team can get kind of
Speaker 3: some kind of rhythm in the attack. And that's really
Speaker 3: the name of the game.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's transition to some US men's national team results
Speaker 2: and news and talk, just because the World Cup is
Speaker 2: literally tomorrow almost not literally tomorrow, but it's very close.
Speaker 3: It is. It's awesome.
Speaker 2: All the friendlies.
Speaker 4: Tomorrow, all the friendlies are now happening. Us coming out
Speaker 4: with a three to win over Senegal. My personal favorite
Speaker 4: player on the US men's national team other than Christian
Speaker 4: Roland of course, yeah, of course Christian Roland is my
Speaker 4: favorite player, but your guest is my second favorite player.
Speaker 4: I love him in the last World Cup cycle. I
Speaker 4: love when we have a really great fullback who can
Speaker 4: attack and not just a fullback who can you know,
Speaker 4: play on the wings, but he side a lot.
Speaker 2: He's he goes wherever.
Speaker 4: He kind of is a Nico Ladero in that way,
Speaker 4: but he's playing as a wing back like it was,
Speaker 4: wherever he wants, and I love it.
Speaker 3: I love that he has that freedom. It's fun to watch. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it makes I mean for people who really enjoy the
Speaker 3: game and look at the starting formation and then how
Speaker 3: it's utilized through you know, styles of play. What a
Speaker 3: fun player to watch from where his starting position is,
Speaker 3: and then the freedom he's allowed to then do those
Speaker 3: kinds of things. It's unique to you know, and special
Speaker 3: players get to do some of those things, or they
Speaker 3: have special qualities that allow you to let them do
Speaker 3: things that are a little out of the box, and
Speaker 3: he's certainly one of those players. He was really fun
Speaker 3: to watch in the Senegal game.
Speaker 2: Christian Pelistic also scoring a goal.
Speaker 4: He's been off the score sheet I think for like
Speaker 4: eighteen street games or something like that. But he does
Speaker 4: not seem like the type of guy who that gets
Speaker 4: in his head.
Speaker 2: I don't know if anything gets in that guy's head.
Speaker 3: No. I you know, as much as we've talked a
Speaker 3: little bit about, you know, what's the man national team culture?
Speaker 3: What are they going to be like in this World Cup?
Speaker 3: You know there's been a lot of just I guess
Speaker 3: unknowns we'll call them, kind of swirling around. You don't
Speaker 3: know exactly what you're going to get, or what the
Speaker 3: plan is, or even what the final roster was going
Speaker 3: to be. I thought that Senegal game was I'm optimistic
Speaker 3: on it. I was high on it. I loved watching it.
Speaker 3: I was like, this is this is a lot of fun.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're really dynamic runs. The players are like
Speaker 3: they're they're getting ready for a woke up and that
Speaker 3: was obvious and you don't know, I see that with
Speaker 3: the men's national team in terms of urgency in the
Speaker 3: attacking third. And it was very dynamic, and I thought
Speaker 3: it was really really fun.
Speaker 4: I thought, interestingly, and I was surprised when I read this.
Speaker 4: This was the first match that Sudinia does in Anthony
Speaker 4: Robinson started together in the Bojetina era, which is surprising
Speaker 4: to me because I would have felt like they would
Speaker 4: be the obvious pairing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's the first time I've started together under him, Nino.
Speaker 3: That's interesting. I mean some of the some of the talk,
Speaker 3: you know, has been like, who is the starting lineup
Speaker 3: going to be? Is it gonna be these lineups that
Speaker 3: we're seeing right now or is this still push Tino
Speaker 3: trying to figure it out? And I, I really don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't have a I don't have a hot take
Speaker 3: on that. I'm not sure. I'd love to say that
Speaker 3: he's got to figure it out and this is who
Speaker 3: it's gonna be, this is who we're gonna see, and
Speaker 3: we're just gonna get some reps in terms of you know,
Speaker 3: who's who's out there now and them getting some chemistry together.
Speaker 3: But I'm not sure. But I really enjoyed that game,
Speaker 3: I you know, as much as we weren't sure about
Speaker 3: culture and those sorts of things. And you know, you
Speaker 3: can't watch one game and go we've got it. But
Speaker 3: given the proximity to the World Cup, and given who
Speaker 3: was out there and how they were playing and the
Speaker 3: chemistry that seems to be evolving, it made me really
Speaker 3: excited for these games coming up, starting well, specifically for
Speaker 3: US starting the twelfth.
Speaker 4: Next friendly will be June sixth against Germany.
Speaker 2: That's quite a friendly. It's a great I'm gonna play against.
Speaker 4: Put yourself toe to toe against the top competition right before.
Speaker 2: That's what you have to do.
Speaker 4: And this US men's notional team has had the disadvantage of.
Speaker 2: In certain ways. This is a disadvantage.
Speaker 4: They have not had to qualify and they haven't really
Speaker 4: had to play a competitive match in a very long time,
Speaker 4: so actually having a challenge ahead of you can only
Speaker 4: be a good thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that that also fed into the unknowns,
Speaker 3: or has been feeding into the unknowns, is just like
Speaker 3: who exactly.
Speaker 4: Look, it almost feels like we It's so when I
Speaker 4: was at USC the football team they practiced just like
Speaker 4: in the middle of the quad and like a field,
Speaker 4: but they would put these giant walls up so you
Speaker 4: couldn't actually see the practice.
Speaker 2: And that's what this entire US Men's team has felt
Speaker 2: like this cycle, Like there's.
Speaker 4: Just this giant firewall and we can't actually see what's
Speaker 4: going on.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we're all just speculating.
Speaker 4: And of course American men's soccer fans, not the women's
Speaker 4: soccer fans, with American men's soccer fans are the most
Speaker 4: negative nancies I've ever experienced in sports. And I lived
Speaker 4: in Boston and I've visited Philadelphia, So that's impressive. You
Speaker 4: guys are very impressive.
Speaker 2: And your curmudgeny.
Speaker 5: Glass half MD ways yeah right, And I mean I
Speaker 5: think that part of that, you know, probably probably connects
Speaker 5: to like a Lexi Lawless, you know, like people like
Speaker 5: to pull that name, and he likes to give some
Speaker 5: you know, some takes.
Speaker 3: That aren't always positive, and that's that's you know, his job,
Speaker 3: and that's okay. I've seen both out of him though,
Speaker 3: you know, to his credit though, I think heading into
Speaker 3: this World Cup, everybody wants the team to succeed and
Speaker 3: everybody's really excited to see what what's brought. Yet not
Speaker 3: having to qualify puts in an interesting dynamic. I mean,
Speaker 3: what do you what do you do with that You
Speaker 3: don't really get to see those you don't get to
Speaker 3: see the team prepare in the same way as the
Speaker 3: bottom line, So the unknowns are still I still think
Speaker 3: they're I'm really excited for the friendly and what we
Speaker 3: get to see before the World Cup. But I mean
Speaker 3: when it's go time and it's June twelfth, I just
Speaker 3: I can't wait. And I'll be at the game up
Speaker 3: at Lumen on the nineteenth. It'll be my first live
Speaker 3: Men's World Cup game, so I'm I can't. I mean
Speaker 3: that nothing beats that.
Speaker 4: I am planning on getting tickets for that one as well,
Speaker 4: but I'm just good waiting until the dynamic pricing goes. Wait,
Speaker 4: I'm waiting for the prices to crash.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm sure I overpaid, but I'm going to just
Speaker 3: go with it because I go with it.
Speaker 2: I overpaid for two other games I overpaid. I'm going
Speaker 2: to the USA Turkey game in Los Angeles and we
Speaker 2: definitely overpaid that and then Egypt Belgium just because it
Speaker 2: will be at Luminfield and I want to just experience
Speaker 2: as much as I can.
Speaker 3: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be.
Speaker 3: I mean it's teams like that, right, I mean Belgium
Speaker 3: has been gosh what it was it fourteen where they
Speaker 3: were like so exciting. I mean they've put in.
Speaker 4: Some like, Hey, without if Chris Wandilowski just did not
Speaker 4: shank that last chance at all, you would have beaten
Speaker 4: Belgium's Golden Generation.
Speaker 3: Can you do?
Speaker 2: Can you tell?
Speaker 3: So close?
Speaker 4: We all have PTSD from that. Chris Wanilowski, you were
Speaker 4: actually one of my favorite prose. I've never met you.
Speaker 4: You are seriously one of my favorite pros of all time.
Speaker 4: You went to the same high school as my dad,
Speaker 4: not the same age. I'm closer in age to you.
Speaker 4: It's fine.
Speaker 2: I love you. I love that you caught fire so
Speaker 2: late in your career. I love that you are have
Speaker 2: all of these crazy records in Major League Soccer. But gosh,
Speaker 2: darn it, man, I know you know what same I.
Speaker 3: Mean, he's a he's a Chico guy. Yeah, he was
Speaker 3: a D two like all star, you know, kind of
Speaker 3: late Blue Own High.
Speaker 2: He's from Danville, California.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, I mean northern California. Here we go, go,
Speaker 3: Arris go Berkeley. So yeah, I mean, I honestly, I
Speaker 3: I was a big fan, too huge fan. And then
Speaker 3: you know, he was obviously just scoring a boatload of
Speaker 3: goals in MLS and he never quite got I thought
Speaker 3: the national team run that I thought that he could
Speaker 3: have maybe had earlier and when that moment happened, I
Speaker 3: felt so terrible for him. I was like, that guy
Speaker 3: has just put in so many goals and so much
Speaker 3: work and you know, taking this very It's just it's
Speaker 3: a path that not a lot of players take to
Speaker 3: get to that level. And then yeah, that moment was
Speaker 3: a total bummer. But Chris Wandelawski, what a gosh. The
Speaker 3: guy was so fun to watch goalscorer.
Speaker 4: I love you, Wondo, but a yeah, that was that team.
Speaker 4: That Belgian team was like, they have got to be
Speaker 4: so disappointed in the results that that national team has
Speaker 4: had because that was that that team was loaded.
Speaker 3: It's a crazy roster and I mean those come through
Speaker 3: and you're just like what is going. I mean, like
Speaker 3: think of you know.
Speaker 2: Spain and they weren't even a top three in that.
Speaker 3: World Spain when they went on their run. I mean
Speaker 3: obviously that Spanish playing at Barcelona, it was basically Barcelona
Speaker 3: without MESSI was kind of what you had there.
Speaker 4: Literally, yeah, like they all played together, they all had
Speaker 4: insane chemistry already and they were I mean that Spain
Speaker 4: team in my lifetime might be the best team of
Speaker 4: all time.
Speaker 3: Oh well, that's that's when the that's when everybody started
Speaker 3: building out of the back and started talking about Rondo's
Speaker 3: I mean those two like buzzwords.
Speaker 4: Oh, you know, because the best team in the world
Speaker 4: is great at that, we should just copy the best team.
Speaker 3: We can do a whole episode on building out of
Speaker 3: the back and when to do it, and why everybody's
Speaker 3: doing it and how they're misusing it. I could really
Speaker 3: go on and on, but I won't right now. However,
Speaker 3: that is really where it stemmed from. That's when the
Speaker 3: trend started was, Look, the best players in the world
Speaker 3: can do it, let's have everybody do it all the time,
Speaker 3: which is, in my opinion, the absolute wrong application of
Speaker 3: that decision. I think that it's everybody's doing it, and
Speaker 3: I think it's there's a time and a place, certainly,
Speaker 3: but I you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna push for it.
Speaker 3: I know we've talked about Achille. I want the statistics
Speaker 3: on the NWSL and I'm going to look for other
Speaker 3: leagues too on how many goals result from building out
Speaker 3: of the back in the defensive third and see what
Speaker 3: those stats are, because I think the numbers are a
Speaker 3: lot more shocking than people would think they are.
Speaker 2: We should call it Jen Cooper because she will know
Speaker 2: that answer.
Speaker 3: Let's get on, Let's get her on.
Speaker 2: Because she knows everything, Jen, we can extend it.
Speaker 3: We can extend it to the back half of the
Speaker 3: field because if.
Speaker 4: Way just shout out to her every like I don't
Speaker 4: want to say every single factoid and every single piece
Speaker 4: of research that you watch in every NWSL broadcast comes
Speaker 4: from her, but at least eighty percent does because her in.
Speaker 3: Her work is so in depth. I mean, whenever I
Speaker 3: start to dig into her work, I'm like, oh, like
Speaker 3: this is It's so organized, it's so in depth, it's
Speaker 3: it's all the information you would ever need to really
Speaker 3: talk about just about everything.
Speaker 4: And it's formatted so well for broadcast, yes, and for producers,
Speaker 4: like it's exactly the right information that you need. Like, Jen,
Speaker 4: you are amazing. We are so we don't we don't
Speaker 4: deserve you, but thank you, Thank God.
Speaker 3: She she does the job that she does. She's one
Speaker 3: of those people that is doing something that she's amazing at.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes she is. Let's see blah blah blah. What
Speaker 2: else do we want to talk about? God, there's still
Speaker 2: I feel like there's still so much about Messy airplane.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was just weird.
Speaker 2: I was like this, Okay, Messi is gonna be in
Speaker 2: the US, He's been in the US. Yay, Argentina.
Speaker 4: Who do you think is gonna win this World Cup?
Speaker 4: And I don't know.
Speaker 3: That's how I felt was the last one. And then yeah,
Speaker 3: at some point it just felt, you know, like all
Speaker 3: the everything was going to align, and obviously Messy got
Speaker 3: his World Cup. I wouldn't be sad if he got
Speaker 3: to I certainly would.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't either. I don't think many people would be sad.
Speaker 4: No one would be sad, like non polarizing superstars, like
Speaker 4: no one hates Lionnel Messy.
Speaker 3: No. And I mean he he just seems like such
Speaker 3: a normal, grounded, family oriented loves the game. Like obviously
Speaker 3: he's like teaching it to his children, who look like,
Speaker 3: you know, times that they can do a lot of
Speaker 3: the things in similar ways that he he has at
Speaker 3: the top levels. No, I love it. I mean I
Speaker 3: was at a tournament once. It was a youth tournament
Speaker 3: and his family happened to be there, and I mean
Speaker 3: the crowds around it was just it's just you know,
Speaker 3: such a glimpse into one interesting odd world, you know,
Speaker 3: those peopeople must live in in terms of specifically their children.
Speaker 3: I mean it was just there's not really many stands there.
Speaker 3: They were pretty regular fields, and they were small fields
Speaker 3: because the children are that old. And these children had
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, like ten people back just deep
Speaker 3: standing around a field watching them play this game. And
Speaker 3: I was just like, holy cow, like this probably happens
Speaker 3: every other weekend for him.
Speaker 2: Crazy. Yeah, you were in the superstar that we all
Speaker 2: aspire to become.
Speaker 4: Yeah, truly, all right, google that. What else is on here?
Speaker 4: We don't usually get that much time? This is so cool,
Speaker 4: you know before we leave. Actually I put this on
Speaker 4: here and it was it just says love for Tim
Speaker 4: Reim because Tim Reem is catching so many strays on
Speaker 4: Reddit and I don't want to hear a word about
Speaker 4: how old he is. I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 4: I want to hear that our captain is on Charlotte EVS.
Speaker 4: That's awesome, Okay, he's awesome. He like what back line
Speaker 4: do we have without him?
Speaker 2: Guys? He's the anchor.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's a really happens without him. We could
Speaker 3: listen we could want a different one, we could want
Speaker 3: a younger one, we could want something else, like all
Speaker 3: those things are fine right now. We have who we have,
Speaker 3: and frankly, I think we should both celebrate it and
Speaker 3: be excited about it. I think he brings a ton
Speaker 3: of experience and he's going to do a great job.
Speaker 3: You know, sometimes can he get caught for speed and
Speaker 3: we need to be able to game plan for that,
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, sure, I mean, your legs are thirty eight,
Speaker 3: are not the same as when you were younger. But
Speaker 3: I think that we can and especially as we look
Speaker 3: into pool play, I think that this is this is
Speaker 3: a good situation for the US and I'm optimistic that
Speaker 3: they can make a run if they bring the same
Speaker 3: energy that they're bringing to these early games and they
Speaker 3: don't get tight or nervous, you know, when the stage
Speaker 3: gets so big. But I think it's going to be
Speaker 3: very interesting to watch this team, and again, I'm very
Speaker 3: optimistic from what we saw against Senegal.
Speaker 4: We love you, Tim Reim, and I'm pretty sure Tim
Speaker 4: Reim used to host a podcast with our buddy Steve
Speaker 4: Schlanger as well, So.
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, talk to Steve.
Speaker 2: I love to talk to Steve about his buddy to
Speaker 2: next week.
Speaker 4: Actually, this is a great idea for next week and
Speaker 4: great segue. We will be back as a podcast all
Speaker 4: throughout the World Cup. You can check us out on
Speaker 4: the Seattle Soccer Audio Network page.
Speaker 2: Hoole New Kili is just gonna come out.
Speaker 4: We'll be back next week regat talking more World Cup,
Speaker 4: talking NWSL news because there will still be tons of
Speaker 4: news and transactions and tons of stuff to talk about.
Speaker 2: And yeah, stay with us.