Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we're in
Speaker 1: Kansas City, ready for a big winner and a trophy presentation.
Speaker 2: Give us tears, give us hugs, give us confetti, give
Speaker 2: us joy.
Speaker 1: Just keep the camera off the losing NWSL team tomorrow.
Speaker 2: We hate a sad face as much as we love
Speaker 2: a happy one.
Speaker 1: It's Friday, November twenty third, and on today's show, we'll
Speaker 1: get you ready for the NWSL Championship Game, a battle
Speaker 1: of the best as the top ranked Orlando Pride and
Speaker 1: second seed Washington Spirit duel for the title.
Speaker 2: We got your preview.
Speaker 1: We got a flashback to our chat with two of
Speaker 1: the Pride's best, plus the very first edition of a
Speaker 1: new segment Take it Back that sends us to twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen for a Western New York flash moment of greatness,
Speaker 1: and we'll talk Turkey Time TV and give shouts to
Speaker 1: a vegan island in a barbecue sea. It's all coming
Speaker 1: up right after this welcome back slices. Mish has your
Speaker 1: need to know today, Take it away, Misha.
Speaker 3: Thanks Sarah. In NWSL Championship News, it all comes down
Speaker 3: to tomorrow, the Orlando Pride and Washington Spirit play in
Speaker 3: the league finals Saturday at eight pm Eastern on CBS
Speaker 3: and streaming on Paramount Plus. All the flights are landing
Speaker 3: in Kansas City. Both teams are holding their final training sessions,
Speaker 3: and the festivities are poppin'. I actually landed here Wednesday
Speaker 3: night and got my first look at CPKC Stadium as
Speaker 3: I headed to my hotel, and let me tell y'all,
Speaker 3: the location on the river is gorgeous. There was a
Speaker 3: brilliant pink light emanating throughout the stadium. I cannot wait
Speaker 3: to see what it looks like full of fans. We'll
Speaker 3: have more on the final here in a bit. More
Speaker 3: in WSL News Awards season continues. Congratulations are in order
Speaker 3: for the Washington Spirits Corbathun, who won Midfielder of the
Speaker 3: Year on Thursday. That's after winning Rookie of the Year
Speaker 3: on Tuesday, which she won even though she only played
Speaker 3: in seventeen of the team's twenty six games. She's so
Speaker 3: wild for that. And let's not forget Pethunes tenn asists
Speaker 3: were tops in the league in the regular season two
Speaker 3: and that she tied Tobin Hee's single season record for assists. Incredible,
Speaker 3: so stuck to watch her play next season?
Speaker 2: Did I mention I love living in the DMV.
Speaker 3: Also congratulations to Gotham FCS and Caterine Berger, the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty four Goalkeeper of the Year. Berger only conceded sixteen
Speaker 3: goals in the regular season, earned eight clean sheets, and
Speaker 3: saved eighty point four to nine percent of opponents shots
Speaker 3: on goal nuts. The German international is the first European
Speaker 3: player to win that award, and cheers to Defender of
Speaker 3: the Year Emily SAMs of the Orlando Pride. She became
Speaker 3: the first player from the Pride to win that award.
Speaker 3: SAMs was second in the NWSL in recoveries this year
Speaker 3: and leads the team in possessions in the defensive third,
Speaker 3: clearances and blocks. She notched an eighty eight point one
Speaker 3: to eight percent passing accuracy, which which was the best
Speaker 3: among Pride defenders in last but not least big props
Speaker 3: to BFC's Jen Beatty. She's the recipient of this year's
Speaker 3: Lauren Holiday Impact Award, which celebrates players community involvement. She
Speaker 3: was nominated for her outstanding work within the breast cancer
Speaker 3: community in the Bay Area and previously in the United Kingdom.
Speaker 3: After her own early diagnosis with the disease in twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: In college faki Yeah I Said It, or Field Hockey News,
Speaker 3: the twenty twenty four NCAA Semifinals are today.
Speaker 2: First up Friend of the Show.
Speaker 3: In North Carolina, head coach Aaron Matson's number one ranked
Speaker 3: Our Heels take on number four ranked Saint Joseph's at
Speaker 3: twelve pm Eastern, then number two ranked Northwestern faces UMass
Speaker 3: at three pm Eastern. Both contests will be available to
Speaker 3: stream on ESPN Plus. In College Soccer News, the second
Speaker 3: round of the College Cup gets underway today. The remaining
Speaker 3: field of thirty two teams will be chopped down to
Speaker 3: just sixteen by day's end. You can catch all those
Speaker 3: games on ESPN Plus starting at two pm Eastern. In
Speaker 3: WNBA News, the Los Angeles Sparks have found their new leader.
Speaker 3: The franchise named Lynn Roberts as its new head coach
Speaker 3: on Tuesday. She was the head honcho at Utah for
Speaker 3: the past nine seasons and earned PAC twelve Coach of
Speaker 3: the Year honors in twenty twenty three. She's the second
Speaker 3: college coach to leave their post for the pros in
Speaker 3: the past couple weeks, after Florida Gulf Coast. Carl Smesco
Speaker 3: was announced as the head coach of the Atlanta Dream
Speaker 3: on November thirteenth. Roberts enters a potentially promising situation. The
Speaker 3: Sparks now have the second overall pick in the twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five draft. They'll also return Rakia Jackson, the small
Speaker 3: forward who made the All Rookie Team in twenty twenty four,
Speaker 3: and Cameron Brink, the center who finished second in blocks
Speaker 3: per game despite missing twenty five contests, was the torn
Speaker 3: acl in her rookie campaign. More WNBA, could the Cleveland
Speaker 3: Rockers be making a comeback. The Rock Entertainment Group, which
Speaker 3: is tied into the mnba's Cavaliers, is looking to submit
Speaker 3: a bid to bring an expansion team to Cleveland. The
Speaker 3: league's already added three teams in the next two seasons,
Speaker 3: the Golden State, Valkyries, Portland and Toronto, which will bring
Speaker 3: the total number of squads to fifth teen. W Commissioner
Speaker 3: Kathy Engelbert has stated that the league wants to add
Speaker 3: a sixteenth team by the twenty twenty eight season. This
Speaker 3: could be a renaissance for the pro women's hoops franchise
Speaker 3: in the city. The Cleveland Rockers were one of the
Speaker 3: WNBA's original teams in nineteen ninety seven before folding in
Speaker 3: two thousand and three. More basketball news, Unrivaled released all
Speaker 3: six of its club rosters on Wednesday via a fun
Speaker 3: and super creative video on YouTube. In it, each of
Speaker 3: the league's coaches discussed the talents and strengths of the
Speaker 3: field of players helped construct the rosters, and then were
Speaker 3: told which basketball club they'd be leading in that order.
Speaker 3: We'll link to the video in the show notes. Reminder,
Speaker 3: Unrivaled tips off on January seventeenth. Tickets are available to
Speaker 3: folks who subscribe to the league's newsletter.
Speaker 2: Now. We'll drop that link below too.
Speaker 3: In college basketball news, it's official, y'all. Gino Oriema is
Speaker 3: now the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, surpassing Stanford
Speaker 3: Legendara Vanderveer's all time wins record. His number two ranked
Speaker 3: Yukon Huskies sealed the deal Wednesday night with an eighty
Speaker 3: five forty one win over Fairleigh Dickinson at Gamble Pavilion.
Speaker 3: Oriema now has one thy two hundred and seventeen wins
Speaker 3: in counting since taking over in nineteen eighty five, and
Speaker 3: for those keeping track. I was negative twelve years old
Speaker 3: back then. Associate head coach Chris Day has been part
Speaker 3: of Yukon's success from the start too. Together, she and
Speaker 3: Oriama have led Yukon to eleven national titles, twenty three
Speaker 3: Final four appearances, and six undefeated records in forty seasons.
Speaker 3: Oh and the team had some fud celebrating daily. They
Speaker 3: donned blonde wigs in the postgame presser and in the
Speaker 3: locker room, paying homage.
Speaker 2: To her signature.
Speaker 3: Look, we'll link to their postgames shenanigans in the show notes. Also,
Speaker 3: I want to say congrats to red shirt junior guard
Speaker 3: Azy Fudd on suiting up in her first game this
Speaker 3: season after sitting out for a year with a knee injury.
Speaker 3: Nothing feels sweeter than those first few minutes of game
Speaker 3: action after working so hard to get back on the court.
Speaker 3: In some more college hoops news, USC sophomore sensation Juju
Speaker 3: Watkins docuseriies titled On the Rise Juju Wi f. Hawkins
Speaker 3: drops this Saturday at three pm Eastern on NBC, right
Speaker 3: before USC squares off with Notre Dame at four also
Speaker 3: on NBC. The series explores Juju's connection to her family
Speaker 3: and to the Southern LA community she grew up in
Speaker 3: and how both play a role in the success she's
Speaker 3: seen on and off the hardwood. I want to give
Speaker 3: a big old shout out to the homie and fellow
Speaker 3: DMV Melanie Page, who helped bring that story to the screen.
Speaker 3: We really can't retire from this. If you know, you know,
Speaker 3: if you don't peep the show.
Speaker 2: Notes, thanks me. All right?
Speaker 1: It all comes down to this, folks. The NWSL season
Speaker 1: started back on March sixteenth. We were all so much
Speaker 1: younger then. Who could have guessed that the Orlando Pride
Speaker 1: perennial also rans would almost run the table en route
Speaker 1: to the NWSL shield at a spot in the final
Speaker 1: And in our wildest dreams, could we have imagined a
Speaker 1: Marta for all the marbles opportunity? And what about the
Speaker 1: Washington Spirit and the Cape clad Michelle King coolly dropping
Speaker 1: thirty mili on the growth of girls and women's soccer
Speaker 1: just a few days before her team takes the field
Speaker 1: looking for a second title. That is baller shit. This
Speaker 1: one to two matchup of powerhouse teams that have been
Speaker 1: in the top tier of the league all season long
Speaker 1: is honestly a gift to footy fans, and we thank
Speaker 1: the footy gods for this one. So let's take a
Speaker 1: quick look at this matchup that we've got. These two
Speaker 1: teams had major go ups in twenty twenty four, just
Speaker 1: two seasons ago, the Spirit finished eleventh in the league
Speaker 1: with just three wins and Orlando was in tenth, winning
Speaker 1: just five times. Last year an improvement, but both still
Speaker 1: on the outside looking and the Spirit finished in eighth place,
Speaker 1: the Pride in seventh, both just missing out on the playoffs,
Speaker 1: which hadn't yet expanded beyond six teams. This year, they
Speaker 1: both shot to the top, with the Pride adding electric
Speaker 1: scorer Barbara Banda, who had sixteen goals in the regular season,
Speaker 1: second best in the league. And of course, they were
Speaker 1: buoyed by the legendary Marta, who, at thirty eight years old,
Speaker 1: somehow had her best individual campaign since twenty seventeen. She
Speaker 1: had eleven goals and an assist. Now all Marta holds
Speaker 1: it down for the the Olds and the Pride. The
Speaker 1: Spirit have relied on a bunch of young stars making
Speaker 1: waves in their debut seasons, six rookies contributing, to be exact,
Speaker 1: so rookie of the year. Friend of the show, Corey Besoon,
Speaker 1: led the way all season. Of course, she unfortunately got
Speaker 1: injured and will still be sidelined for tomorrow's championship.
Speaker 2: But fellow rookie.
Speaker 1: Hel hirschfeldt she scored in the Spirit semi final win.
Speaker 1: She has been huge all season long. And of course
Speaker 1: the Spirit have Trinity Rodman, who was a rookie the
Speaker 1: last time the team won it all in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: And I'll tell you I was at that championship then
Speaker 1: as an owner of the Chicago Red Stars, and I
Speaker 1: will admit that I was cursing Rodman under my breath
Speaker 1: for most of the game. She was a dog, impossible
Speaker 1: to guard, terribly tricky and so aggressive. The player that
Speaker 1: you love on your team and hate to see on
Speaker 1: the other side. So no doubt she'll look to come
Speaker 1: up big in the title game. As for the team's
Speaker 1: meetings this season, Orlando prevailed in both of them. They
Speaker 1: won the first three to two in April out in DC.
Speaker 1: Then again in October they won two nil on their
Speaker 1: home field to clinch the NWSL shield. The question is,
Speaker 1: of course, can they claim the ultimate hardware or is
Speaker 1: the third time the charm for the Spirit in their
Speaker 1: third meeting this season.
Speaker 2: This should be a good one.
Speaker 1: We got to take a quick break when we come back.
Speaker 1: It's an Orlando Pride interview readucks. Back in September, I
Speaker 1: talked to defenders Emily Sam's and Kylie Strum about taking
Speaker 1: pride in their back line and their expectations for the
Speaker 1: rest of the season. Spoiler alert manifesting works because tomorrow
Speaker 1: Orlando will compete in the club's first ever NWSL final.
Speaker 1: To get you ready, we decided to revisit that conversation.
Speaker 1: It's coming up right after this.
Speaker 2: Welcome back.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned before the break, here's a chunk of
Speaker 1: that interview with Emily and Kylie from September.
Speaker 2: Joining us today.
Speaker 1: We've got a defender for the top of the table,
Speaker 1: Orlando Pride of the NWSL. She won gold with Team
Speaker 1: USA and Paris and was a national champion with her
Speaker 1: Florida Seminoles.
Speaker 2: A twin.
Speaker 1: She loves Dakota, a guy, not a state. She's got
Speaker 1: cat's name Linguini and Rigatoni, and she got married in February,
Speaker 1: but her wedding's in December. It's Emily Sam's what's up,
Speaker 1: Emily what's up?
Speaker 4: Thank you?
Speaker 5: That was crazy.
Speaker 1: Also joining her a defender for the Orlando Pride. She's
Speaker 1: played in Germany, the Czech Republic, and Spain, and she's a.
Speaker 2: Proud bu alum.
Speaker 1: She was on the most recent NWSL Best eleven for
Speaker 1: the month of August. She's just a quiet gal who
Speaker 1: likes to read books and watch Jeopardy, but says she
Speaker 1: turns into a monster on the field.
Speaker 2: It's Kylie Strom.
Speaker 1: Hey, guys, ladies, it is great to have you, and
Speaker 1: we are really excited to shine a spotlight on this
Speaker 1: defense for the Pride. I get why we have so
Speaker 1: many conversations about the goal scorers like Barbara Banda and Marta,
Speaker 1: but we got to talk about the lockdown that's been
Speaker 1: happening with the Pride of late. You shut out your
Speaker 1: opponents in four straight matches. You set a new club
Speaker 1: record for longest clean sheet streak. You've also set a
Speaker 1: new club record for regular season minutes played without conceding
Speaker 1: four hundred and eleven consecutive minutes without giving up a go.
Speaker 2: So let's just start there.
Speaker 1: Emily, what's the secret, Like, what's been the secret to
Speaker 1: this incredible defensive stretch?
Speaker 4: Oh gosh, I would say, although we're talking to two
Speaker 4: defenders right now, it's definitely a team effort. Yeah, even
Speaker 4: just like the midfielders from to the forwards, everyone's included
Speaker 4: in our defending and I think that's what helps make
Speaker 4: it so successful. And of course having players like Marta
Speaker 4: and Barbara on offense, I think changes teams to their
Speaker 4: behaviors and makes them play maybe a little bit more defensively,
Speaker 4: which makes them makes our job easier.
Speaker 1: That's such a defensive player's answer to just differt. That's
Speaker 1: why I never could have played defense. I'm way too
Speaker 1: much about myself. I'm like, give me the goals. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: you're just spreading the love.
Speaker 2: But it's true.
Speaker 1: It's incredibly complete team and that's what's made it so
Speaker 1: impressive to watch. And that goes back to the goalkeeping.
Speaker 2: To Emily.
Speaker 1: Anna Moorhouse tied in NWSL single season record the other
Speaker 1: day in your nil nil draw with Case. That was
Speaker 1: her eleventh clean sheet of the seas And so tell
Speaker 1: me about playing with Anna and your communication back there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Anna's great. I mean, she's obviously has a big
Speaker 4: presence and like, for example, end of the game, we
Speaker 4: have a corner, like we have full confidence that she's
Speaker 4: going to come out grab the ball and just like
Speaker 4: secure the win for us, or you know, get the
Speaker 4: shut out for us. So it's been great, and part
Speaker 4: of what makes it so great is that we can
Speaker 4: communicate in practice, like get it all out there. Like
Speaker 4: she says her opinion. She's very strong opinion, which is good,
Speaker 4: and I think I'm strong opinion too, So we can
Speaker 4: just like swear it all out there on the field
Speaker 4: and not you know, dance around what's going on. We'll
Speaker 4: just get it all out there and come to a
Speaker 4: common ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Kylie, is there something in particular that the defense
Speaker 1: has worked on or prioritized of late or is this
Speaker 1: just a team clicking in the final stretch.
Speaker 5: Honestly, I think it's just kind of like a mentality,
Speaker 5: you know. I think our coach Sam Hines, he was
Speaker 5: a defender in his career, and yeah, we just take
Speaker 5: a lot of pride in our defending. I think we
Speaker 5: have like such good camaraderie from front back, and I
Speaker 5: think like the defensive unit is super tight and like
Speaker 5: we all have a common goal. So yeah, hopefully we
Speaker 5: can keep it going.
Speaker 1: Well. Twenty one games unbeaten. That's the most in league history.
Speaker 1: There's only a few weeks left in the regular season,
Speaker 1: so how much pressure is there to try to go
Speaker 1: an entire season without a loss?
Speaker 5: Kiley honestly, like, like it's not a main goal for us,
Speaker 5: Like we've broken a lot of records and all that stuff,
Speaker 5: but it's never once been a goal for us. I mean,
Speaker 5: we want to win the Shield, we want to win
Speaker 5: a championship. I mean, we want to go to playoffs,
Speaker 5: which we've accomplished already, but we just want to keep
Speaker 5: playing like our best games ever game. So that's kind
Speaker 5: of the motivation here. No pressure with any of like
Speaker 5: going undefeated and stuff. So we're just we're just going
Speaker 5: with it.
Speaker 1: Is it like a Jinks mentality, like you don't even
Speaker 1: talk about it or is it like mentioned we.
Speaker 5: Don't even talk about it on it Like I think
Speaker 5: sometimes we look at each other, like we tell the
Speaker 5: story a lot, Like in the beginning of the year,
Speaker 5: but like preseason times, we were going through our schedule
Speaker 5: and kind of like predicting, like you know, how many
Speaker 5: points we would have and which games we would win
Speaker 5: maybe like draw, lose, whatever, and we gave ourselves like
Speaker 5: a ridiculous amount of points like crazy, and we're like,
Speaker 5: afterwards we went through We're like, guys, this probably is
Speaker 5: a little unrealistic, you know, like let's be real and
Speaker 5: like now we're like even out performing on So yeah,
Speaker 5: I think sometimes we're just like, wow, this is crazy
Speaker 5: and we.
Speaker 1: Call that manifesting. Right, you just put it out there,
Speaker 1: like here's all the points.
Speaker 2: That we want and then you just made it happen.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Marta FIFA World Player of the Year
Speaker 1: six times, first football or of any gender to score
Speaker 1: five different World Cups, first of any gender to score
Speaker 1: five straight Olympic games, Like, Kylie, what's it like playing
Speaker 1: with an all time great like that You've had a
Speaker 1: couple of years with her.
Speaker 5: It's unbelievable, Like every single day we step out on
Speaker 5: the field with her as like such a privilege and
Speaker 5: an honor. She is hands down the greatest of all time,
Speaker 5: Like no debate, and the fact that she's like still
Speaker 5: doing these things that she's doing like at her age,
Speaker 5: like she's like getting better if that's even possible. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's it's just like such an honor and a privilege
Speaker 5: to be her teammate.
Speaker 1: I remember talking to some of my Chicago Red Stars
Speaker 1: players at an end of season event, and I ask
Speaker 1: the question, like, is there a player that you got
Speaker 1: out in the field and you have trouble just playing
Speaker 1: with or against because a little bit of you is
Speaker 1: like kind of freaking out a little And I feel
Speaker 1: like that would be the case with Marta. Did you
Speaker 1: feel that way when you were in your first couple
Speaker 1: of practices together.
Speaker 5: The coolest thing about Marta is like she'll never make
Speaker 5: you feel like she's, you know, the greatest of all time,
Speaker 5: Like she doesn't act like it or anything. Like she's
Speaker 5: so humble, She's just like another person you meet her,
Speaker 5: she's I'm like, oh, I'm kind of like, oh Marta, Like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, that's like Madonna. Okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Has she taught you anything or is there anything that
Speaker 1: stands out from your years playing with her that that
Speaker 1: she's taught you?
Speaker 5: Oh? I mean I've learned so much from her, you know,
Speaker 5: just her like being a captain and the way she
Speaker 5: leads is one of the most inspiring things. Uh. She's
Speaker 5: so passionate about everything that she does, like every single training,
Speaker 5: like she's she's not there to just like show up
Speaker 5: and you know, do her job, like she wants to win.
Speaker 5: So I think she just showed me, like what it
Speaker 5: what it takes to be a winner.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Emily, it's just her first year, but it feels
Speaker 1: like Barbara Banda is a legend in the making in
Speaker 1: the same way.
Speaker 2: What makes her so special?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think she's a world class player. She's so
Speaker 4: hard to defend. You know, there's time where I go again,
Speaker 4: she're in practice and she's making me better, and I
Speaker 4: hope I'm making her better. But she's obviously she has
Speaker 4: her speed, and but she's good with like back to
Speaker 4: goalplay and like to connect with as the nine. So
Speaker 4: she's got like both of those aspects she's so good
Speaker 4: at like just a little flick ons and to get
Speaker 4: behind the back line, and of course her speed, Like
Speaker 4: she's just so good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it feels like you have this incredible torch passing happening.
Speaker 1: And I'm certainly not pushing Marda out, but like to
Speaker 1: have the greatest of all time and then have this
Speaker 1: player that in such a short amount of time has
Speaker 1: sort of taken this league by storm. It feels very
Speaker 1: promising for the future of this team, and that's really nice.
Speaker 2: To see.
Speaker 1: I think I don't mean this in a condescending way,
Speaker 1: but there are certain teams that go through such struggles
Speaker 1: that it's hard not to root for them when they
Speaker 1: start to find success, and the Prideer are kind of
Speaker 1: one of those teams, like best in the league right now.
Speaker 1: But things haven't always been so sunny in Orlando. The
Speaker 1: team has missed the postseason for the last five regular seasons.
Speaker 1: They've missed the postseason in all but one of the
Speaker 1: seasons that the team has existed. You've already clinched a playoff, Berth.
Speaker 1: You're playing so while, like Kylie, you've been on this
Speaker 1: team since twenty twenty one, why is this year so different?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's been a roller coaster to say the least.
Speaker 5: So to kind of finally see everything coming together is
Speaker 5: like the best feeling in the world. I think like
Speaker 5: one of the strengths of this team and something that
Speaker 5: makes us really special is just the bond and like
Speaker 5: the culture that we have amongst the girls. It's something
Speaker 5: that I've never experienced on any other team, and I've
Speaker 5: been a part of like some really good teams, but
Speaker 5: something that we have is just really special and kind
Speaker 5: of unexplainable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, how did you deal with it when the team
Speaker 1: was sort of the butt of jokes? I mean we
Speaker 1: had Ali Riley and said LaRue and I was talking
Speaker 1: to sid about her time there, and how literally people
Speaker 1: would be like, Oh, if you play too badly, you're
Speaker 1: gonna end up with the Pride. Like being a team
Speaker 1: that's sort of the butt of the joke is hard.
Speaker 5: How did you handle that nobody wanted to come to
Speaker 5: the Pride, Like I remember there was like before one
Speaker 5: of the seasons, there was like this meme I wonder
Speaker 5: if I could find it, and it was literally like
Speaker 5: like you know, Pride Potential starting eleven and it was
Speaker 5: like Marta and then like the rest was like a
Speaker 5: rock and.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Like but like we're like, oh wow, yeah, so we
Speaker 5: were down bad, but we climbed our way out of it.
Speaker 5: You know. I think we made a lot of good
Speaker 5: changes from you know, like front office standpoints and stuff,
Speaker 5: and people have just really invested in the culture of
Speaker 5: this team and took it really seriously. So it's pretty
Speaker 5: incredible how drastic of a turnaround it took in a
Speaker 5: rather short amount of time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Emily, it's just your second season. With the team.
Speaker 1: It's the only NWSL squad you've been a part of.
Speaker 1: But I wonder how much the team staff, coaches, anybody
Speaker 1: talks about those past seasons or previous struggles.
Speaker 5: This year.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was just thinking. I feel like one of
Speaker 4: the main messages from SEB last year was just like
Speaker 4: changing the narrative of Orlando. So yeah, people would come
Speaker 4: to Orlando and be like, Okay, easy three points. Like
Speaker 4: SEB would always just hammer that message into us, and
Speaker 4: he's like, we have to change the narrative. We have
Speaker 4: to make it a nightmare for teams to come here
Speaker 4: and play. And I think we just had that chip
Speaker 4: on our shoulder last year of like, no, you're not
Speaker 4: gonna come here and just get an easy three points
Speaker 4: and go back home. Like it's we're trying to make
Speaker 4: it a nightmare to come here. And same thing with Away.
Speaker 4: You know, obviously it's a different like shot at you
Speaker 4: when you go to another person stadium, but you know,
Speaker 4: same thing, like we're not gonna this isn't gonna be
Speaker 4: an easy game for anybody. And I think even from
Speaker 4: like two years ago to last year, like although I
Speaker 4: wasn't part of the team two years ago, we did better,
Speaker 4: and we were so close to making playoffs, and I
Speaker 4: think even almost making playoffs was again more fuel for
Speaker 4: us this year to be like, Okay, we could have
Speaker 4: done it last year, and now we've added more players
Speaker 4: and now we definitely know we can do it this year.
Speaker 4: And I mean it's worked, it's been I don't think
Speaker 4: it's any team has walked away thinking it's been easy
Speaker 4: to play us.
Speaker 1: What message do you have for the fans of the Pride.
Speaker 1: I know there's been time to, you know, react to
Speaker 1: the success you're having and it's hard to demand this
Speaker 1: huge outpouring for a team that has struggled in the past,
Speaker 1: but I'd like to see Orlando get behind a squad
Speaker 1: that's doing unprecedented things. Kylie, what would you say to
Speaker 1: fans to try to get them to come out and
Speaker 1: see what y'all are doing?
Speaker 5: Yeah, we have some of the best players in the world.
Speaker 5: Marta Barbara Like, there's literally nothing more you could ask for.
Speaker 5: You know, we're flying right now. So yeah, we have
Speaker 5: great fans. Our environment this year especially has been like
Speaker 5: so great, and yeah, it'd be nice if one day
Speaker 5: we could sell out enter Inco and keep this going.
Speaker 2: How about you, Emily, Yeah, I would say the same.
Speaker 4: Like the growth even from last year to this year
Speaker 4: has been awesome. You know, we're starting to fill out
Speaker 4: the upper part of the stadium, or not fill out,
Speaker 4: but starting to get people there. So I just want
Speaker 4: to keep that going. Like, huge shout out to the
Speaker 4: fans that have been with us, you know, through the
Speaker 4: hard times and through last year, and that have been
Speaker 4: here every game this year. So bring your friends, bring
Speaker 4: your friends, friends, bring your parents, whatever you like.
Speaker 5: Let's fill it.
Speaker 2: Bring your enemies.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yes, exactly, literally anybody.
Speaker 1: And let's The last thing I want to ask you
Speaker 1: to is to tell me something about your team that
Speaker 1: most of the fans wouldn't know.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's been such incredible coverage of the.
Speaker 1: Soccer, but I don't really know a lot of the
Speaker 1: members of your team as well as some other teams.
Speaker 1: So give me some good stuff, Kylie. What's something like
Speaker 1: and team inside joke or somebody on the team that's
Speaker 1: always like singing or or in charge of the music
Speaker 1: in the lockerom more dancing or doing tik toxic.
Speaker 2: What are some of the characters.
Speaker 5: Of your team that we shih get an. I don't
Speaker 5: even know where to start. Like I feel like we
Speaker 5: have a really fun team. Yeah, Like I mean Laro
Speaker 5: uh loto cat. She's she's a special one. Uh. She's
Speaker 5: bringing all the pregame vibes in the locker room. She's
Speaker 5: getting everybody going. She's like so important to this team.
Speaker 5: Oh God, like there's so many.
Speaker 4: What about you, Emily, Yeah, I would say as far
Speaker 4: as like tiktoks, like mac cron gets her little squad
Speaker 4: and like Ali Limos, they like love making their tiktoks
Speaker 4: so on the field and they yeah, they provide all
Speaker 4: that content for like all the field tiktoks, which is
Speaker 4: kind of fun. And they try to like pull some
Speaker 4: of this in. Like me and Kyler are like, no,
Speaker 4: you gotta go ahead, but yeah, they rope some people
Speaker 4: in somehow. Uh.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's so funny because like we have some you know,
Speaker 5: like Ali Limos, like she's so young and like I
Speaker 5: feel like an old grandma, but like at the same time,
Speaker 5: like she's one of my favorite people. Like we just
Speaker 5: like get along so well, and she just is teaching
Speaker 5: me nonsense.
Speaker 1: And with all the like international players and especially all
Speaker 1: the Brazilians, are we mixing it up? Are we getting
Speaker 1: like some Boston Nova and some samba music and stuff
Speaker 1: in there, or is it are there little clicks of
Speaker 1: like all the international players and then all the Americans
Speaker 1: are hanging over here.
Speaker 4: I would say, like in the locker room, it's funny
Speaker 4: because we'll be like playing like you know, rap music
Speaker 4: or you know Drake whatever. Like I can't even tell
Speaker 4: you who the new rappers are.
Speaker 5: I don't listen to that crap.
Speaker 4: But they'll that'll be playing the locker room, and I know,
Speaker 4: like come, they'll like come a time where like Marta
Speaker 4: and someone's like, Okay, we're like tired of this, and
Speaker 4: then they'll like go over and put their Brazilian playlist on,
Speaker 4: and then everyone's like, hey, it's a little nice vibe,
Speaker 4: like let's go. Yeah. I feel like they get yeah,
Speaker 4: they get fed up and they're like we're changing the vibe.
Speaker 5: Then em comes in and puts like I don't know,
Speaker 5: like journey On or something like amazing.
Speaker 1: I feel like we've we've got like a movie in
Speaker 1: the making here, sort of like a bring it On style,
Speaker 1: but like not enemies. It's just the warring factors of
Speaker 1: the locker room Bosonova rap going back and forth, or
Speaker 1: we can get some pretty fire remixes. To be honest,
Speaker 1: if you just put them together and you combine forces. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you to so much for joining us. Was so
Speaker 1: great to talk to you. Congratulations on the success you're having.
Speaker 1: It has been really fun to watch.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, thank you, Sarah, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Well, you heard Kylie. We want to win the shield check.
Speaker 2: We want to win a championship. We'll see you.
Speaker 1: Got to tune into the NWSL final tomorrow at eight
Speaker 1: pm Eastern on CBS or Paramount Plus.
Speaker 2: We have to take another break when we.
Speaker 1: Come back the debut of a new segment, Welcome Back Slices. Today,
Speaker 1: we're introducing a new segment inspired by all of you
Speaker 1: in the survey we sent out a few weeks ago.
Speaker 1: A whole lot of folks requested a sort of on
Speaker 1: this Day or women's sports her Story segment, and we're
Speaker 1: nothing if not accommodating.
Speaker 2: So it's time for the very first edition of Take
Speaker 2: it Back.
Speaker 1: In honor of the upcoming NWSL championship, were taken it
Speaker 1: Back to twenty sixteen, when the NWSL title game was
Speaker 1: decided on penalties. It would end up being the final
Speaker 1: NWSL season for the Western New York Flash, as the
Speaker 1: franchise rights were sold to the owners of North Carolina FC.
Speaker 1: The team was moved to carry North Carolina and then
Speaker 1: rebranded as the North Carolina Courage. Now they didn't know
Speaker 1: it then, but the Flash were about to exit the
Speaker 1: NWSL in a blaze of glory. Standing in their way
Speaker 1: the Washington Spirit, one of the other original eight teams
Speaker 1: and one of the other teams in the league also
Speaker 1: looking for its first title. So the Spirit were coming
Speaker 1: off a semi final win over the Chicago Red Stars,
Speaker 1: while the Flash had defeated the Portland Thorns, and in
Speaker 1: that game their head coach, Paul Riley, since banned from
Speaker 1: the league, was given a red card and sent off,
Speaker 1: so he was suspended for the championship and the Flash
Speaker 1: would be without their head coach. Washington got on the
Speaker 1: board first thanks to a Crystal Dun goal in the
Speaker 1: ninth minute, but Sam Muis equal in the fourteenth minute.
Speaker 1: Knotted up at a goal apiece after regulation, the game
Speaker 1: went into extra time and Crystal Dunn scored again almost immediately.
Speaker 1: Listen to this, she had two goals all NWSL season
Speaker 1: and two goals in the championship.
Speaker 2: What a gamer.
Speaker 1: With thirty seconds left in stoppage time of extra time,
Speaker 1: Lynn Williams beat two defenders to score on a header
Speaker 1: and even things up again penalty kicks with the title
Speaker 1: on the line was how this one was decided, and
Speaker 1: the Flash came out on top thanks to three big
Speaker 1: saves from Sabrina D'Angelo. So Western New York finished their
Speaker 1: brief NWSL run on top, and the core of that
Speaker 1: team headed to North Carolina to help the Courage start
Speaker 1: its dynastic NWSL run, winning three straight shields and making
Speaker 1: three straight championships, winning two of them. So if you
Speaker 1: want to understand how the Courage franchise got off to
Speaker 1: such a hot start, you gotta take it back to
Speaker 1: the Western New York Flash and that title win in
Speaker 1: penalty kicks back in twenty sixteen. We love that you're
Speaker 1: listing slices, but we want you to get in the
Speaker 1: game every day too, So here's our good game play
Speaker 1: of the day. We are less than a week from Thanksgiving,
Speaker 1: so we need your best Thanksgiving movies and TV episodes.
Speaker 1: Is it Will and Grace hitting every family obligation and
Speaker 1: using timers to stay on track. Is it that Master
Speaker 1: of None episode that deftly and hilariously tackled race and family,
Speaker 1: the Friends episode with Brad Pitt, or the one with
Speaker 1: the turkey on Monica's head? Maybe planes, trains and automobiles.
Speaker 1: So Charlie Brown, Thanksgiving, tell us what to watch. We're
Speaker 1: probably gonna have some time to kill on a long
Speaker 1: flight or a long drive, or maybe just need a
Speaker 1: break from family, So hit us up on email. Good
Speaker 1: game at wondermedianetwork dot com or leave us a voicemail
Speaker 1: at eight seven two two four fifty seventy. Tell us
Speaker 1: your fabes and don't forget to subscribe or rate and review.
Speaker 1: It's easy watch. Finding a delicious vegan place in the
Speaker 1: barbecue capital of the World, rating five out of five
Speaker 1: Grateful Goods. Review shout out to Cafe Gratitude in Kansas
Speaker 1: City for being a delightful, plant based alternative to the
Speaker 1: barbecue spots that dominate the city. Meish was out hitting
Speaker 1: up all the barbecue places. I was delighting in some
Speaker 1: buffalo cauliflower bites, some sweet potato black bean tacos. Let's
Speaker 1: go grateful for you, Cafe Gratitude. Now it's your turn
Speaker 1: rate and review. Thanks for listening. See you next week
Speaker 1: or tomorrow if you run into us at the NWSL Championship.
Speaker 1: Good Game, Orlando Pride, Good Game, Washington Spirit You, Paul Riley.
Speaker 2: Good Game with Sarah Spain is.
Speaker 1: An iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue
Speaker 1: Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Production by
Speaker 1: Wonder Media Network, our producers are Alex Azzie and Misha Jones.
Speaker 1: Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz, Jenny Kaplan,
Speaker 1: and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rudder, Britney Martinez,
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Speaker 1: and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain