INTO THE NWSL ⚽️ KC Wins Shield | Playoff Race On Fire | Orlando in Absolute Freefall | EP 170 - Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
OK, welcome to into the channel podcast Primal about once Bye.
I'm your host Dino de suspiciousand as always, I am joined by my
Co host, Mr. Grant Engel. What is up man?
I'm feeling fantastic buddy. It's good for the The Sleepy
Boys podcast to return. Plenty of NWSL action to

(00:24):
discuss, plenty of things to look forward to.
Just excited to get into it withyou.
I already feel myself in a little bit of a sleepy boys
after dark, you know, tone and and and tambor, just so you
know, I mean, we're we're creeping up on a Wednesday
morning here on the on the West Coast, but that's all right.
Still got some energy. We're midweek and we're we're
heading down the playoff stretch.

(00:45):
Man, I think it's so, so many things have been flipped upside
down. Like I was thinking earlier
today just about Orlando Seattle, like there was a point
where as Orlando Seattle followers, we were kind of
flying high. And now it just seems like every
team, you know, has sort of beenin and maybe on the edge of the
playoff mix, except for the maybe Washington and and KC.

(01:08):
Those might be the only two. And on the on the bottom half,
you have a little bit of the same, but it, it's just been a
a, a wild, you know, last, you know, second-half of the season.
And and I don't know if you did this, but looking at everybody's
schedules, everybody's got five matches left.
Look at everybody's schedules. I'm just like, that's a tough
five, you know it. It doesn't matter what 5 is on
there. It's just like every everybody

(01:28):
seems like they have a loaded last five to kind of close it
out. Yes, and there was also there
would be if you look at that last five for some teams, there
was a point in the season where you could have looked at that
last five and be like, OK, you can come away with a good amount
of points out of that five. So it's just it's just constant
twists and turns in this league.I.

(01:49):
Don't know what I'm thinking about.
I'm like, oh, at Chicago and versus Utah.
That's that's no, that's no pinky game.
Well, what are you going to do? All right, man, well, match week
22. Wow, here we go A lot to cover
this this weekend. What do you want to get started?
Let's get started with a beverage, my good man.
I think we've earned it. It's been a it's been a long

(02:12):
week. Wait a minute, it's Tuesday
night. It's still been a long week.
It's been a Tuesday. Cheers.
Yes. Cheers to you.
Cheers to the football. I'm gonna pour it.
I'm going. I'm going to the glass again.
Damn I. Feel like I need to go throw a
tuxedo on. Although I feel pretty sharp for
my my my into the channel, my little ITC shirt hoodie thing.

(02:36):
You know? We went a layer, we went a layer
lighter than we did last week. Little warm here in NSF.
Little bit of a heat wave. Nice.
It's finally, finally getting nice and cool here in the
beautiful Pacific Northwest. It's about time I'm dealing with
this disgusting 80° high 70° weather for too long.

(02:57):
Back in the 60s temperature wise.
Where I like to, where I like tolive.
So you know, I'm Speaking of theITC merch wearing my premium
into the channel. Let's go ITC hoodie as well.
If you want to know what it feels like to be wrapped in the
arms of 1000 Angels, that's whatit feels like to wear this

(03:19):
hoodie. Wonderful certainly sounds nice
and cozy, you know, sleepy boys cozy.
But like we're you know, this isI mean we're I feel theme get
generated here, but we still gota show to do.
Let's get into it lot of football the playoff race.
This is the final stretch. We'll go ahead and congratulate
the 2025 shield winners Kansas City current.

(03:41):
We were joking that they might get done September 26th.
Got it done a week before that A.
Cool. 43 days before the final match, they get to celebrate and
raise the shield and they do it with another two nil win.
You know, I've joked about that.I think when I started my, my
little 2 nil, you know, diatribe, it was a little bit,

(04:02):
you know, pejorative. But now I kind of like have
grown to really, really appreciate the, the dominance of
the two nil win. You know, they, they kind of
squeeze you in that first half. They get the goal that you
couldn't get and now you're chasing and then they just break
your back in the 70th or the 80th or whatever to get that
second one. They're 8th two nil win of the

(04:24):
season. I think kind of fluky, but also
kind of like indicative, like how they want to play and I
don't know, kind of kind of a cool quirk.
Absolutely. And it's a great, it was a great
call by you. You said it's their 8th 2 nil
victory of the season. They're it's their 5th 2 nil
victory of their last six wins. So of their last six wins, they

(04:45):
have 5 two nil victories. Maybe that's a smarter way to
say that. Yeah, they just kick everybody's
ass, like, and the more the morewe do this, I really do believe,
at least when it comes to this league, I'm an objective
journalist. But for the away matches for
Seattle Rain, FCI am sitting next to a Seattle Rain FC super

(05:05):
fan who did not enjoy that matchone bit, particularly the first
half. But they had no chance.
Seattle Rain had no chance goingin there.
And I don't think that's any disrespect to them.
They just you're just not beating Kansas City current
right now. We talked about Orlando Pride in
this, in this, through this lenslast year.

(05:26):
Kansas City current as it standson September 23rd, 2025, if they
were to play Barcelona, if they were to play Chelsea, if they
were to play Lyon, if they were to play the Champions League
winner Arsenal, I think they they absolutely have a chance to
win any of those games. And then they would be super
competitive. They have the the speed, the
skill, the strength and everything you need to win those

(05:48):
games. Yeah, certainly at full
strength, I think everybody about Arsenal gives them, you
know, I mean, that's, that's probably what we're looking at
here. But their their, their string of
dominance is just it's pretty amazing.
You look at their XG for the year, 37.5 real G sitting at 40.
So they're outperforming their XG, which is already like the
best in the league. And then XG allowed 14.9 real G

(06:11):
allowed just 10. So a little bit of the the
defense effect, a little bit of the Lorena effect, and they're
just absolutely dominant. They're ahead, they're ahead by
16 points. The largest margin of victory to
win a shield is 15 in the history of the league.
They're already up by 16. So if they can maintain that,
that's that's a record setter, largest goal differential for a

(06:35):
whole season, 24 + 24. That was in North Carolina
Courage 2018 led by Limbiendolo,Dominia, Crystal Dunn, Sammy
Muniz. They're at plus 20.
So they're just four behind that.
So again, this is these are sortof unprecedented accomplishments
that, you know, Fladco on on maybe his revenge tour we talked
about last year. Maybe that was the start of the

(06:56):
revenge tour. Now revenge tour in full effect.
Another stat that I loved defensively, the average shot
distance versus KC. So not only do you have to beat
Lorena, but you have to beat herfrom an average of 19 1/2 yards
away. That is definitely no fun.
That's best in the league from adefensive standpoint.
So, you know, it's not just offensively.

(07:17):
Defensively, I think that that has become a little bit of their
backbone. And again, they're they're doing
more than enough offensively to basically, you know, carve out
these points and and grab all these wins, 17, two and two on
the season. Unbelievable.
Yeah, plus thirty goal differential.
The next closest team is is Gotham FC with a + 10.
Yep, Orlando Pride won the double last year when they when

(07:40):
they ended the season they had a+ 26 goal differential, so
Kansas City's already out of that pace as well.
Thanks for clarifying that it was their goal differential was
not 20. They're 20 ahead of the second
place team and not what? That's what I meant with North
Carolina too. In 2018, N Carolina was 24 gold,
you know, goals ahead of the second place team.
KC has twenty goals ahead I believe of Gotham.

(08:01):
So it's the goal differential. Differential they're rarely
seen. GDD we've been doing nice and
done. We've been doing this show so
often and so long. I knew what you meant when you
said it. And so I didn't even issue that
as a correction. I I don't know for like, yeah,
no, I knew what I knew 100% whatyou meant.
And like, I was like, Oh yeah, now I get to say like what the

(08:22):
goal differential is like in, inplain terms, they just don't let
you do anything. Their defense is disruptive in
All in all kinds of great ways. And I I want to say like one
thing that I'm really interestedin seeing is so they lift the
shield obviously very early, like you pointed out earlier,

(08:44):
and now they have quote UN quotenothing to play for for these
last five matches other than to get ready for the postseason.
And I think I want to go on record right now and say I think
they'll do just fine doing that.Like if you look at the make up
of their team, yes, they have great young players like
Sentinor, Cooper and Hutton, butthink about like their real

(09:08):
leaders and the vets on the team.
Lola Bonta's 32, Dibinius 33, Rocky Rodriguez is 31, Bias 31,
Sharples is 28 and Chewinga 27. I mean, obviously like new into
our lives is like, you know, relatively the past couple years
women's football appreciators, but they have a good veteran mix

(09:29):
who is going to say, hey, look, we're going to I feel like
they're going to have the ability to let's go out there.
We're not going to get hurt, butwe're going to stay sharp and
we're going to get ready becausewe've won the first trophy.
Now let's try to go lift the second.
I'm glad you brought this up. We're not going to fully, you
know, blow the top off of of thefull blown rest versus rest

(09:50):
conversation, but I think we could do a version of it here
because I had the same, I had a very similar thought, but I
landed on a different conclusion.
And the lens I was looking at itthrough was last year's Orlando
Pride, who, you know, they lift the shield later, you know, in
the process, you know, obviously, I think they had like
3 or 4 matches left. They were closer to the finish

(10:10):
line. And even then they had a little
bit of rust. You know, like this Kansas City
side pushed them in the semi final, Washington pushed them in
the final. Like it, it was definitely, no,
it was definitely no walk. But you know, I think it's a
long time. And it's 43 days until the
season finale. So it's roughly 50.
We're talking about 7:00-ish weeks and I think these are

(10:31):
professionals. They can stay sharp, they can
stay in top condition. But then you think about these
other teams, Washington, Gotham,Portland, whoever you want to
think about, these teams are going to be scratching and
clawing, you know, for that two seed, two seed means you get 2
home games, you know, and that'll carry you all the way to
the final, you know, three seed,four seed, those, these are
important for for home playoff matches as well.

(10:52):
So these teams are going to be really chasing it, going for it
probably until the final weekend, you know, and assuming
that the health bug doesn't kindof bite some of these other
teams, it it's going to be a tough task.
And the eight seed, I don't think it's going to be the same
Mal Swanson less Chicago stars 8seed that we saw last year going

(11:13):
to Orlando with zero chance. I think we're going to get, I
don't know, a relatively live eight seed and then you get to
the four seed or the four or five matchup could be tricky.
I'm I'm going to be really interested to see how they stay
sharp. Yeah, it's it's a it's a great
point. I mean, if you think about who's
in the mix for that eighth seed with five matches left, you have
Angel City Racing, Louisville, Houston Dash, North Carolina

(11:35):
Courage, Orlando Pride, Seattle Rain, San Diego Wave.
If they keep losing, any of those teams could kind of be
there in the A spot. It would be a little bizarro
world if the Pride keep not getting points.
We'll talk about that later is much as I don't think either of
us want to, how bizarre would beif you end up with the 18 your

(11:58):
Kansas City in your first match is going to be could potentially
be against the defending double winners could be very
interesting. Now it's a totally different
squad, obviously with no BarbaraBenda, but you might get a
little bit more over a kind of used to playing in the system.
And it could be one of those situations where it's like, OK,
we won the league, we got the eighth seed and now here's our

(12:19):
reward. You end up with playing up
against some fantastic talent. Yeah, no, I think I, I kind of
hope that doesn't happen. That would be a long afternoon
for, for, for my, for our Orlando Pride.
I want to talk a little bit about the Orlando Pride, Go a
little bit out of order here. Last weekend, Orlando nil North
Carolina courage won. So you texted me on game day.

(12:41):
I I appreciate the nondescript quote.
You watching the pride? End Quote.
So that was your text. No spoilers.
I, I knew I knew that could meanone of three things.
One, yeah, Orlando's back, baby.Like, are you watching this?
I'm thinking, OK, that's that's the first place.
I'm like, maybe something's happening. 2, it's a bloodbath.

(13:01):
And I I don't want to. I don't want any part of it.
And three, ultimately, I think what we saw ultimate heartbreak,
obviously, Shanomi 89th minute, her first goal, a goal that
really absolutely broke my heartas an, as an Orlando pride fan
and follower. But then you look at Shonomi
smiling and celebrating, you know, with the, you know, the
rest of her team or her BFF, youknow, Monaca and you're just

(13:24):
like, hey, you can't feel so, sobad, you know, watching a moment
like that. But just a, a, a terrible
stomach, punchy way to lose a match they really, really needed
against a team that they're probably going to be, you know,
clawing against pretty much for whatever's left of this 2025
season. Yeah, exactly right.
And to lose that way at home, there was a moment in the first

(13:47):
half I can't remember who took the shot.
It might have, yes, it might have been Lemos, I think who
took the shot. The keeper is out, Marissa
Jordan is off the line. And I think it was Lemos takes
the shot and Macy Bell just madea really good defensive play to
get back on the line and then block it off the line.
But it was one of those plays where I was just like, so just

(14:10):
nothing gets to go right for Orlando anymore.
Like that's got to be a goal. And again, credit to Macy Bell,
I'm not I'm not acting like thisas luck.
You could see where she purposely gets back when she
sees the keeper, goes out, go out.
She then does the right thing asa defender and gets on the line.
But I was just like, God damn, last year.
That is a goal for Orlando. It's just, it was, it felt like

(14:33):
a stomach punch even in the first half.
At the end of the second-half, too, 90 + 9, a very, very
similar situation. The summer Yates screamer.
And like I, I, I think it was like 10 or 15 minutes before
that North Carolina gets into the match.
Natalie Jacobs, who they acquired from Houston from, from
Alea Berkeley. And I thought Jacobs had been
playing really, really well downthe stretch for Houston.

(14:56):
So that was a slick, you know, kind of under the radar pickup
and, you know, she gets ejected into the game, Jacobs and then
she's right there, you know, to just little little Bunny hop to
kind of like get that get that header.
And and then even it was so muchmustard on that Yates shot that
it it still almost snuck in, even though Jacobs made like
really good contact on it. And then you're just at that

(15:17):
point, you're just like, we can't even we can't even get a
late equalizer here. And I think just just the image
of the five Orlando players, youknow, you know, when you when
you give up that Backbreaker goal.
And then there's just the extended one or two or three
second beat where everyone's just lying on the ground just
like I'm not getting up, you know, like this is I'm, I'm
done. Like I just, I, I can't even get

(15:37):
up right now. Just a really tough, tough
moment for Orlando. And I think we'll see, man.
I, I, do you think Orlando will be favored in any match down the
stretch based on what you saw? Oh boy, I don't have their.
Yeah, I should have had their schedule.
I would put you on the spot. Let's play the schedule game.
You know I love the schedule game.

(15:58):
So they're at San Diego Wave on Friday night.
Favored. Probably not.
They play Club America in the CONCACAF W Champions Cup on
Tuesday. Probably will play a rotating
squad in that one, but let's stick to the NWSL.
Then they're at Houston. Who's who?

(16:18):
We've talked about looks pretty solid and then they're home for
the Thorns on October 10th. Then they're at Washington
Spirit in the penultimate match of the season.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say they won't be favored in
that match unless I mean, maybe Washington has the 2 seeds sewed
up and they're resting players. And then they're home for
Seattle Rain FC, which I got to tell you, before the season

(16:39):
started, I wouldn't have thoughtthat would be much of A toss up.
But man does that game scream nil nil draw to me right now.
That that game could also scream, you know, playoff spot
up for grabs, you know, last weekend season, you know, and
and it might not just be those two teams, it might be 3 or 4
teams trying to grab 2 spots. We'll see The North Carolina

(17:02):
courage, I want to talk about them a little bit.
So they take they take on your Seattle rain this weekend.
Defensively, they've been on a pretty nice run here.
I think post post Sean Neos, they've allowed ten goals over
their last eight matches. They're shot on target
percentage, though, best in the league, 31.2%.
So they're forcing you into bad shots.

(17:22):
We saw this with Orlando. Orlando was was able to get
pretty, pretty decent shots. But that North Carolina courage
defense, I think the way they'reable to bully, it's impressive
and and it's it's definitely a thing.
It's definitely their DNA. It's definitely how they want to
play. And I think it is a strategy
that I think they can ride pretty deep into the into the
later part of the season. I mean, what's your what's your

(17:43):
read on on North Carolina? You saw them kind of strangle
Orlando Orlando's, you know, obviously struggle a little bit.
I think they're coming on. I mean, I, I had them, I went
back and I saw I, I had them predicted as fourth in my pre
season rankings and then I went ice cold on them.
I'm just like, I hate, I hate this team.
I hate watching this team. And now I'm just kind of like
now I kind of get it a little bit more.
I I kind of get what they're trying to do.

(18:05):
The goal was obviously a Backbreaker, but I really liked
that professionalism defensively.
Like they just are not going to give you anything easy.
You've got to beat them with something pretty spectacular
once they kind of shift into that mode.
Well, you go, you think about myold, the trusty, They have good
players mantra. You know where you think about.
You talk about defense and the offense.

(18:26):
You have Ryan Williams, Kaylee Kurtz, Macy Bell, the
aforementioned Macy Bell. Monaco's looks great, Tsunami
scored that first goal. They still have Courtney Vine,
they have Tyler Lucy like they have.
They have talent all across the roster and even with this, this
run of the defense playing well,especially in the last three

(18:48):
matches, this still is a team that's allowed thirty goals on
the season, which I think is tied for fifth most in the
league. So they were really poor really
early and like confusingly so ondefense particularly.
But I, I'm sorry if, did you mention their two wins, 3 draws,
2 losses since firing Nejas? I know you said they, I think I

(19:10):
know you said they've been better since, since they they
fired naos for a multitude of reasons, but I think I don't
know. Here we go.
Here we go with the analysis. What, what the fuck do you even
make of them versus Seattle RainFC?
Man, I don't know like which team, which team on either side

(19:31):
is going to show up. And I say this as a person who
watched, who obviously watches every Seattle Rain Football club
match very closely, either from the press box or on television.
And I just don't know. I just don't know who's going to
show up week to week. But I'm starting to, I'm
starting to fall into a a train of thought where I'm just not
expecting a lot of goals. That's fair.

(19:53):
And that's probably, you know, you're playing a good bit of
emotional defense against Seattle, which which I
appreciate, you know, just kind of that it makes a ton of sense
to me. This is really going to be one
of those matches where it's likewhat version of these club shows
up? Seattle's not going to quite
have their handle, but they're going to have to stay alert, you
know, pretty much 9090 plus minutes to to make sure they

(20:14):
don't give this one away. And then on the Seattle side,
it's kind of like, you know, youmentioned some of those players
on KC. Some of those veterans, Seattle
has a little bit of a a different issue.
I think it's kind of like take another little leap time, you
know, for some of the young players, Sally Menti, Sam Meza,
you know, Maddie, Dalene Adames,you know, like there's even you

(20:37):
know, I'm and I'm not sure the the official injury status, but
even like a Madison Courage or Naitama.
These are these are players not yet 25 years old, you know, so
you can assume there's still some growth there.
You know, there's still some evolution.
These aren't these aren't fully formed players yet.
And this is kind of like that point in time, You know, you
make the Bindolo signing, you know, some of the the previous

(20:59):
moves, you know, AMCG. So you know, like some of these
moves didn't sort of totally take.
And now not only is it an opportunity, but Seattle's
probably in need of one or two of those young players kind of
taking a leap. And, and this is sort of when it
happens, playoff time down the stretch, a good opportunity for
that and maybe a good match, a good match up, you know, to kind

(21:21):
of make that happen. And the stakes, they're, they're
absolutely there. For sure, I think it the the
part that could be tricky and early in the season it looked
like Maddie Dalene might be thatattacking young player to kind
of take that leap. But you got to wonder like a a
full season wear and tear of playing against professional
athletes instead of playing against Atlantic Coast

(21:44):
Conference athletes is just going to be different, right?
Like, you're just going to, you might have, you know, a little
tougher time being fully physically fit for, for the end
of the matches when you're playing all these, all these
games against, you know, grown adults for the whole season.
So, you know, the attack, it's just not enjoyable to watch.
Seattle has media availability the morning after we record

(22:08):
this. So I'm guessing we'll get a me
official update at that time. I could just tell you, I mean,
part of it was felt like this isme guessing here.
I was actually I had something else a prior engagement.
So I wasn't able to be on the the zoom for the post match
press conference, but I watched it.
And so some of it seemed like Laura Harvey frustration just at
losing to nil, especially because she was not happy about

(22:31):
some of the officiating in that match, which is I don't blame
her. I don't blame anybody at this
point for not being happy with NWSL officiating.
It's awful. And in a lot of cases, I
digress. But Laura Harvey did not seem
optimistic about me officials injury.
She said she expected it. She expected it to be more than
a week. But luckily the shadow executive

(22:53):
producer of the show showed me like an Instagram Reel of me
official walking in a park. She was like, maybe she's OK.
And I was like, I was like, OK, yeah, maybe maybe she's OK
walking in a park. That's yeah.
You know, understanding that's different than playing a
football match. But we'll see.
But yeah, I don't know, man. Like they've scored two goals in
their last five matches and Casey Currents defenses is

(23:18):
suffocating. I will say if, if you want to
look, I, I don't mean to go wholly negative on this, they
were much more attacking and playing on the front foot in the
second-half of that KC current match.
Like they totally flipped. I think possession was it was
like 6040 KC's direction in the first half.
And I don't think KC was just like, OK, park the bus time and

(23:41):
Seattle was still able to flip the possession 6040 in their
favor in the in the second-half.It was a good total.
It was a total switch. And so I thought they they were
able to find a little bit of joyon the wings.
Nothing that really ever troubled Casey too much, but at
least there were some signs there.
You get the ball to Curry, You get the ball to Quert out on the
wing, see if they can, you know,kind of find some lanes and see

(24:03):
what you could do. So I'll be interested to see how
that works against North Carolina.
Obviously, Casey's tough. The North Carolina defense, No
walk in the park either. We'll keep an eye on that.
And I think it's just going to be like a moment to, I don't
know, like I think Huerta, Huerta's an interesting player
because obviously she comes backover.
You can see the splash pretty immediately.

(24:25):
You're like, OK, this this player is going to be able to do
stuff, but is it going to translate to any kind of
connectivity or any kind of like, I don't know,
effectiveness? And I think I think there's
shades of it there. And what's cool is like there's
just enough time left in the season to kind of leave, to have
some pivots, to have some like reroutes and, and, you know,
for, for some drama to kind of unfold here.

(24:47):
I want to take a really quick break because, you know, I'm
also just noticing that we're, we're both rocking our ITC gear.
Quick update, we did launch the merch store publicly.
We had some people comment on the in the on the video and also
on the streets out here in the in the Bay.
So shout out to everybody who who gave me a little head 9A
little what's up? You know, as I'm out here
repping the brand, but ITC merchstore is live.

(25:09):
Head over to our link tree. We've got a lot of cool shit.
Basically everything we're wearing.
I kind of hit this point, obviously moving from Florida to
the West Coast. You know, I go from like short
sleeves and hoop shorts, you know, back to, you know, my, my
native hoodies and sweatpants. And maybe, you know, the ITC
merch store was an opportunity to kind of like refresh the old
wardrobe a little bit with some branded gear.

(25:31):
So I don't know, I might get in there and, you know, cook some
stuff up in the lab, you know, mix up some colors.
So definitely, I mean, just stayposted.
There's going to be a lot of hotshit, you know, just flowing
through there. And as you know, we're hitting
our own playoff stretch. So I don't know, you might see
some new looks here. We'll keep everybody up to
speed. But definitely check out our
link tree, check out the store. You got to grab something.
Obviously, we'd be immensely appreciative.

(25:53):
Can I, can I just totally irresponsible just throw
something out here that like there have been times where I've
seen merch for shows that I like.
You'd be like, oh, OK, that's that's pretty good.
I would like to see something inthis color or maybe like in this
style. What if people just gave us some
suggestions? You know, you, you could treat

(26:15):
the YouTube comments as a suggestion box.
We'll see if we can make it happen on the merge store.
I mean, you know, it, it seems like pretty flexible in the
stuff we can design. So if there's something that
that fits your stees, let us know.
Maybe we can put it together. Absolutely.
That's the good part about this show.
Obviously you guys drop knowledge in the comments.

(26:35):
You give us some some updates, maybe Fact Check us from time to
time. We need that.
Well, I'll also need I can always take any fashion advice I
could possibly get and you know let's just keep it at Benny
here. If I'm going to be designing
something, it's going to be a black piece of clothing.
So if the people who don't only wear black, just be like, hey,

(26:57):
what if you mixed in some colours?
I'll be like, Oh yeah, I forgot colours.
OK, cool. We can do that.
Just make sure you tell me what it is because I you can't trust
me to design it myself. I mean, you know, it's slimming.
I think we're we're already doing that.
I'm feeling good about, you know, how we're how we're
presenting this Eve don't. Don't give my secrets away.
I just like wearing the colour black.
Nothing about slimming. It's political saving, right?

(27:22):
Last week known on Seattle. I think, you know, obviously we
we talked about Seattle offensively and some of those
offensive woes defensively. They're still there.
You know, they're, they're stilldoing what they do.
They're still making it, you know, difficult.
And a player that I kind of wanted to highlight a little
bit. You still got Claudia Dickey
back there who Yep, you know, again, the the good part about
heading down the stretch is you don't need to figure out how to

(27:45):
beat every conceivable team in every conceivable way.
Now it's really about embracing fully that identity.
Here's who we are. Here's what we're about.
South Seattle, maybe behind Dickey or maybe in front of
Dickey has the chance to kind oflike re re embrace that
defensive identity. It's felt a little bit

(28:06):
experimenting a lot of line up fluctuation.
I'm, I'm curious, I kind of whatthe, what the conversation has
been. You know, you know, you're in
the room and you know, you're hearing some of the grumblings,
but is there an opportunity kindof for them to shift gears to go
more defensive and be like, thisis this is how what we have to
do? Or do you sort of feel like
they're still tinkering with therecipe?

(28:26):
I I don't think they could go more defensive if they tried.
I mean, it's really the only waythat they've been able to
scratch out results, especially lately.
I'm glad you bring up Claudia Dickey.
So she is now second in the league in saves.
She's three behind Mandy Mcglinnfor Utah Royals with 73 saves to
Mcglinn's 76. But she is also now she eclipsed

(28:50):
Aubrey Kingsbury in the very nerd stat, but the very cool
stat in my view, Post shot XG minus goals allowed.
So a couple weeks ago after the victory over Racing Louisville
where they had to get that victory, you know they had to
play the second-half on a different day.
I was at the post match press conference after that

(29:12):
second-half was played and Jess Fishlock and Claudia Dickey were
available in the post match presser.
And so I, I gave both of those stats to Dickey.
Now Dickey was still second in the league in post shot XG minus
close allowed. And Claudia Dickey, a young
player, clearly a very humble, mindful young athlete, gave a

(29:35):
lot of credit to her defense andsaid, you know, they they forced
people into a lot of easy shots and I'm just out here doing
clean up duty. Well, once she she gave me that
kind of answer and it's a press conference.
So I didn't have the room to be like, well, actually, the post
shot XG minus goes aloud means you make some really good saves
too. Like I didn't have time to get
into all that with her. So I just kind of like head

(29:57):
nodded and, you know, thanked her for her answer.
But Jess Fishlock, the leader, the captain, the legend that she
is, immediately jumped in and she had this to say.
And I think, you know, for me, I, you know, I, I start my
career here with hope and goal. And that's how I felt with hope
and goal. And I feel exactly the same now

(30:20):
with Claude and goal. And I think that that is one of
the biggest compliments you could ever kind of have.
But that's the confidence that Claudia gives us in knowing that
we have her in our Nets and not just not just says, but with the
bullet of feet 2. She's an extra player for us.
And you know, I can't speak highly of this girl.
She's been absolutely fantastic for us, so I will speak when

(30:42):
Claudia can't speak and compliment herself.
Pretty awesome. Pretty good.
So I think the part that you can't see there is that I'm
obviously sitting, you know, sitting behind the camera asking
the question is that when Jess Fishlock evokes the name of Hope

(31:02):
Solo, I just have absolutely no poker face and just kind of give
her one of these because, you know, Hope Solo, arguably the
best goalkeeper of the last 25 years, like absolutely on the
list. Like on the short list of one of

(31:22):
the most dynamic, athletically gifted, smart, good with the
ball shot stopping goalkeepers that, you know, most people have
ever seen. And again, like we always say,
like we don't claim to be historians, but if you just look
there, you know, plenty of articles from from people who
are more historians. She's way, way, way up there.

(31:44):
Not just like, oh, she played for the US women's national team
and she was good, but she had a great career for Seattle Raid
and is a legendary goalkeeper. So when I said that, Fishlock
then kind of said, and I and that's a very high compliment.
Like she was kind of like she was clearly kind of reacting off
the look I gave like, Yo, that'ssuper high praise you're giving

(32:04):
here. And so it's it's interesting to
say. And I just don't think, I don't
think Jess Fishlock would just throw that around for no reason.
I don't think so either. I'm like, I'm like, you know,
that it doesn't seem like something she would do.
It doesn't seem like Claudia Dickey was at a moment where she
needed that necessarily. Yeah, exactly.
Didn't need that. Like, it didn't need to be set
at all. So that's kind of what makes me

(32:27):
think that there's there's something to it.
And it also makes me think that there's something to Dickey's
game that we haven't seen. You know, I mentioned those
players offensively, can they take a leap?
You know, maybe maybe Claudia Dickey's the one that says, Hey,
I'm I'm I'm now that keeper in this league and I'm going to I
can carry this team. I don't know, to the to a who
knows. I mean, like, you know, we saw

(32:47):
on Katrinberger, like do what she did for Germany, you know,
obviously for Gotham last year. So the keepers can get hot.
Lorena obviously huge effect, you know, on on Kansas City's
success defensively. So who knows?
I mean, it might be fish seeing like some of the tea leaves and
I don't know, something coming around the corner and, and
wanting to get out ahead of it. She certainly got the football

(33:09):
IQ to, you know, to, to be able to make a claim like that.
And I wouldn't give Jess fish like that face.
But obviously you've built up a little bit of rapport in there
And, you know, I, I, I trust you.
So if you gave her the face, I stand by the face you gave her.
I was just surprised. It's just like a lot it, you
know, it's a lot of pressure to kind of put on a young player to

(33:30):
be like, hey, you know who you remind me of one of the greatest
goalkeepers most people have ever seen.
Like that's it. It felt like a lot.
And I was like, I was really surprised that she did it.
But like you and I are talking about, I think she she probably
did it for a reason and did it because she meant.
It you know, I, I told you that you remind me of a young Michael
Jordan. You know, that's it.
I don't know. I don't, I don't think we've

(33:51):
ever actually been Hoopa. I know we're both hoopers.
Well, maybe when we get when youget out to the Bay, maybe, I
don't know. We'll we'll lace them up and get
out there and, you know, just get some shy ice up.
Yeah, man, I got good health insurance these days, thank
thankfully. Yeah, yeah.
No Achilles though. No, no Achilles injuries.
Let's be safe. We'll, we'll be smart out here.
No, it's all stationary. Just get get shots up.
I love I love that plan. I'm.

(34:12):
More than any Darius Garland. Not a Michael Jordan, but I, I,
I appreciate it. I like that.
Is that Is that your game, Darius Garland?
A little bit, yeah. Like I could, I can legitimately
not just a white A yeah yeah forsure.
I love to practice the floater and not just a white guy who
says he can shoot 3 pointers. I can shoot him.

(34:33):
I practice. Him.
Let's go. I can shoot him and I'll tell
you a weird thing. This is a very odd sidebar.
When he came into the league, I was like, oh, I like his shot.
I feel like that makes sense andI my shot got better from
watching the way he shoots. I like it, Yeah.
There's just I'm, I'm more of like a 2000s, early 2000s, kind
of a big forward that could pass, could shoot.

(34:56):
I think Mike Miller is probably a good comp for how I played.
I would say that's the closest comp.
I'd say slightly better shooter,I think, but we'll talk about
that one later. Gotham, Portland.
This is a big one, man. I think, yeah, we had three
matchups of top eight teams and this one is probably the
tastiest. 3rd place Gotham. 4th place Portland.

(35:16):
Opens the weekend Friday night 5:00 PM Pacific.
Gotham is here. This is a real team.
They're they will absolutely be heard from Portland.
I feel like it's cooled off a little bit.
They've been out ex cheed in sixstraight matches.
One win, 3 draws, 2 losses over that stretch -2 goal
differential over that stretch. They're in the middle of the

(35:37):
pack defensively. Portland, I think we we think
about them as like, you know, this hounding, harassing kind of
physical defensive team, but pretty much across all the major
metrics, they're right middle ofthe road, perfectly average,
maybe smidge above average defensive team.
And then I think it's just goingto come down to offensively,
what can they do? And now they're heading to the

(35:59):
northeast to take on Gotham. And it's really one of those
situations where it's like, I kind of feel like Gotham's going
to get two goals and I'm not sure Portland's going to get two
goals. And it's going to be maybe that
kind of game. And, and I, I'm not sure that
that's kind of where where, where these teams are at.
That's I sort of feel like that's where these teams are at.
At this point of the season. You can count on Gotham to kind

(36:22):
of like piece together some, some, some offense.
I love that they're sinking a stair deeper into the midfield,
getting her more touches, getting her more involved.
She obviously gets gets, I thinkher first assist of the season.
Just another thing to worry about, if you have to defend
Gotham and some of those playersare kind of coming on, the
chemistry is kind of like picking up and Portland, a team
that started out really, really rock solid, is kind of left

(36:46):
maybe having to maybe reintroduce some new quirks,
some new wrinkles offensively, defensively to kind of like, I
don't know, catch, catch some ofthese teams off guard.
I think maybe the book is a little bit out on Portland, but
when you look at this match up, obviously super high stakes.
What are you going to be watching for?
Game of the week. I think it's the game of the
week it happens on. I think it happens on Friday.
Spirit Dash. That should be that should be

(37:07):
really good. I'm with you, man.
Gotham continues to impress. I think the I think what
happened against Bay FC was moreof a hiccup than an indicator of
what we can expect for the rest of the year.
I mean, that Kundanagi shot was just a worldy.
So like, yeah, what do you get? You kind of throw your hands up

(37:28):
that that's going to happen sometimes and especially in this
league where where weird stuff happens.
But you know, you and I have talked about it.
They got the championship DNA all over the squad.
It feels like they know how theywant to play, but they still
they still have to. And I know you know, Jayden Shaw
got the goal two weeks ago, but they still get to incorporate

(37:52):
another great young player in Shaw.
So last five matches, the only team that has more points and
more goals than Gotham FC is Kansas City Current.
They're just on a they're just on a super heater right now.
They have a + 6 goal differential in the last five,
842 against an 11 points, three wins, 2 draws, no losses.

(38:14):
I just think they're peak, they're peaking at the right
time and I don't think anybody'sgoing to want to see them in the
play offs. Absolutely not.
And that was all of this is happening after like, you know,
it's kind of debilitating 3 gamelosing streak, you know, that
they put together before the break.
And the cool part about Gotham is you mentioned Jaden Shaw, you
know, and like, you know, the, the lack of having fully

(38:36):
incorporated Jaden Shaw into Gotham offensively this last
week. I I think Sarah Shypansky and it
didn't start. I'm not sure if she if she got
any minutes. But they're just are all of
these other pieces too that Amodos hasn't had the chance to
kind of like put together to put, you know, to get like some
2-3 player units and get some chemistry kind of going because

(38:57):
there has been such flux and theline UPS just kind of have been
kind of have been changing. And I think like, you know, you
look at Orlando, the line UPS, you know, the line UPS are
changing there, but it's a little bit out of desperation.
You look at, you know, Gotham, the line UPS are changing and
it's a little bit out of like, let's see, let's see what this
let's see what happens when we put Jace up front and we put
Ester in support of her and we put, you know, like we figure

(39:19):
out what to do. And you know, like there's just
so many moves that they can go to still, you know, and I feel
like a team like Portland, you kind of know, you kind of know
who Portland's going to put out there.
You kind of know what they're going to do.
I'm not saying they've run out of stuff to go to, but going
into this one, I wouldn't be shocked if we saw a new Gotham
wrinkle that kind of flips this match on its head.

(39:40):
I'd be a little bit more surprised if Portland comes out
with something that's that's a surprise.
I think that's that's fair. Yeah.
Portland might be more in the weknow who they are, but they
might have those moments where we're just like, Oh yeah, that
is who they are. She's like, I mean, you get you
get the occasional Moltre fast break where she just like looks

(40:04):
like she shot out of a cannon toeither create or score a goal or
like just last last match. She has that incredible free
kick that's off the crossbar andthen it's in for a tap in.
That's an assistant in the ITC personal record book, by the
way, just. Very, very good call by you.
Of course it is. It should be, yeah.
It's one of those things where Portland will do some stuff and

(40:25):
we'll be like, OK, yeah, like that's kind of what they do.
And then Gotham might have this other gear where we're just kind
of sitting back going, oh, they can do that too now.
Yeah, I'm super excited. I think I'm totally with you.
That's the game of the week for me.
Cannot. I mean, yeah, we're getting
close. Friday night.
That one's going to like I said,that one's going to open the
weekend. You mentioned this other match,

(40:46):
very intriguing. Not quite a matchup of two top
eight teams, but almost a matchup of two top eight teams.
Second ranked Washington Spirit will host the 9th ranked just
outside the play playoff picks. Houston dash could be a huge I
don't know this this could be a playoff preview.
I could see Houston sliding up into the seven seed and then
maybe these teams kind of circling back in a month, a

(41:09):
month and a half. But Spirit, you mentioned it
last week. You know, when I kind of, you
know, proclaimed Spirit as maybethe team that I'd pick if they
if they played the current in the championship tomorrow.
I think you were right in sayingthat this team is not there yet.
I think we saw that in that drawversus Angel City, a good team,
A-Team that is loaded with talent, overflowing with talent,

(41:32):
not totally able to kind of likepiece it together.
But again, like I think you're, I think your read was right.
This team could get there, couldabsolutely get to the absolute
apex, but they're not there justyet.
So I maybe jump the gun a littlebit.
I think I'm with you. And then Houston on the other
side. This is a team that I feel
pretty confident will make the playoffs.
I love it. I mean, and you were you were on

(41:54):
it early, though. Well, you like a couple weeks
ago, you were already telling all of us.
You were evangelizing, telling everybody, hey, look out for
Houston. They're they're creeping up in
here. I mean, I know, I know we talked
about her a lot, but Yasmine Ryan in their last match, she's
just out there calibrating, calibrating, trying to figure

(42:17):
out how she's going to score. And then what do you know?
She figures out a way to score. And that one nil victory over
Chicago stars. She did have a PK saved late in
that match against Chicago, but I mean, the PK monster, Alyssa
Nair, just you, I guess no matter what uniform she's
wearing that she can just stop any PK.

(42:38):
So the the USWNT legend still has that.
But yeah, a lot of things to like, if you kind of look at the
recipe and you have a reliable goalkeeper in Jane Campbell, who
has been a little up and down this season, I think is probably
fair to say. But then you have a superstar in

(42:59):
Avery Patterson and a superstar in Yasmine Ryan, kind of as your
bookends on like both ends of the field.
Do you usually have a pretty good chance?
Yeah, I think, I think Yasmine Ryan has been incredible like
this this year. I think, you know, she's sort of
like not not quite superstar status, but she's certainly to

(43:20):
quote Leanne, got some superstarstatus potential in her locker.
You know, I mean, I think it's just a matter of like, you know,
the pacing of getting there, youknow, but I think she has all
the tools and she's such a greatplayer.
Delaney Sheehan, really good player as well, having a really
good season. I thought Michelle Lozier in
this one at right back opposite Avery Patterson created a lot of

(43:42):
problems, you know, for for for the defense.
You know, her work rate was awesome.
She was up and down, you know, like up and back like pretty
much non-stop and really embracing that role, which I
thought was really great to see.Houston has lost Maggie Graham
and Sophie Schmidt to season anyinjury.
We talked about the now Jacobs trade.
That one hurt. I agree with you on Jane
Campbell, little Rocky, but has made some spectacular saves this

(44:06):
season, like some real highlightsaves.
And again, like, you know, now it's just about right now.
These are the championship rounds, last four or five
matches. Can we get in the play offs?
Can we how long can we survive in the play offs?
There's a maximum 55 matches. There's only a maximum of eight
matches left in the season. So whoever wins the title is
going to go through these five, win the, you know, win the next
three and then that's it. So you don't need a ton down the

(44:28):
stretch. And I think I think Houston's
the kind of team that you look at what they've done since the
summer break. Four wins, 3 draws, one loss.
That's not the make up of like acellar, A cellar dwelling team
that I think Houston knew. We've looked at Houston and kind
of seen them right in in that inthat vein the last year and a

(44:49):
half, we'll say. But 4-3 and one since the break
and they're four wins. They beat the North Carolina
Courage, they went to Gotham, beat them, they went to San
Diego and beat them. And then they beat the Chicago
Luge Milos that were on absolutefire, you know, at home, but got
that done as well. You know, and, and it's tough to
win matches in this league. And you look at the side like

(45:10):
Houston, I don't think anybody would have predicted this team's
going to win four matches of eight after the summer break.
Like this is, this is a real runfor a team.
And now it's gotten it's, it's less of a cute story.
And now we've, we've shifted into this team's going to make
the playoffs and this team's going to like maybe ruin some,
some team's chances down the stretch by stealing a result

(45:32):
that I, I don't think anybody would have expected when you
look at that on the schedule maybe a month or two ago.
Yeah, I think it's definitely, it's definitely on the board.
You mentioned she and you know, Colaprico has good experience.
Clarissa Larissi always, always got to be careful around that
name. Clarissa Larissi.
I always feel like I'm going to,I'm going to, I'm going to

(45:53):
butcher it. Obviously BK Hacking Legend.
I don't know if she reached the legendary status at BK Hacking
but I I always enjoy. Working on legendary status in
Houston. I mean, this is this is some way
to start your WSO career. Let's go.
That's what I'm talking about. So yeah, I always get a kick out
of like, you know, when we covered the UEFA Women's
Champions League with our maidenvoyage back in 23, you know,

(46:16):
it's funny to now see her playing for the Houston Dash
going from BK hacking. So yeah, you know, they got the
experience. They have smarts now it's, you
know, what kind of spoiler can they play and how and how high
can they? Can they climb on the table?
Could they get, you know, can you get to the sixth seed?
Is that is that available to them?

(46:37):
So what, they're sitting on 26 points.
Seattle rain's sitting on 30. You want to tell me in five
matches they can't catch them? Orlando and North Carolina, I
think they could like you. You look at their schedule,
they've they've got so they they've got to go to Washington.
It's gonna be that's gonna be tough.
Then they host Orlando, right? That's a six pointer and and

(46:58):
they're playing that Houston heat.
They go to LA, they take on Angel City.
We'll see what happens there. That's there.
There could be some points on the table.
Kansas City current at home. Not a ton to play for.
You know, it's not, you know, like, I mean, I don't know, no,
I love the schedule game. Then you got to go to Portland,
you know, close the season. That that one could be tricky.

(47:19):
But who knows? Maybe at that point Houston's
got the 60 and sewn up and then they can't move up nor down and,
and you know, that one doesn't totally matter, but we'll see.
I, I don't know, count me as a Houston enthusiast.
There you go, sitting sideways. Listen, Houston Dash, Houston
bash, I mean come on, man, it's a great city.

(47:41):
I the reason I love the schedulegame so much is that we can go
through and be like Kansas City current won't have anything to
play for so far and away the best team in the league, but
it's still a fun game to play and be like maybe they'll be
resting everybody fully rotated squad.
Yeah, October 18th and then going to Portland, one of the,
you know, historically great franchises in the league.

(48:04):
I don't know we'll see. We'll see where they're at, but
I think, you know, looking at that last five, the fact that
they have spirit Kansas City andPortland and three of the five
not great. And I don't like saying that the
two softest matches, yeah, on their schedule remaining our
home home versus Orlando and then at La or Angel City.

(48:26):
Pardon me, but it it's going to be interesting no matter what.
I'll be locked in, man, because Houston is.
They have really surprised this season and it's been, it's been
a real pleasant surprise. Hey man, So what do you think of
1012 points down the stretch forthe dash?
There we go, 12. Let's go.
Let's go all right, we'll, we'llwe'll keep it locked.
Well, either way Washington, Houston this weekend Sunday

(48:46):
morning oh Sunday morning that'swe got we got a little brunch
match up 10:00 AM Pacific. We get to watch spirit dash.
Well, I get close to playing a little bow on the weekend.
Seattle on the Courage officially closes out 5:00 PM.
Pacific on Sunday. And then there's a, there's a
little, I coined Saturday's action elimination Saturday

(49:06):
because we've got 10th place racing Louisville hosting 11th
place Angel City. That one kind of feels like if
one of the teams wins that one, if they split the points, that's
something different. But if either Louisville or
Angel City wins that one, that'sgoing to make a big difference.
And then just for shits and gigs, 12th place Bay FC versus
13th place Utah Royals. So those two matches going down

(49:28):
on what we've coined eliminationSaturday.
Bay of Seavers Utah Royals, who is more hell bent on ruining the
other team's day, just just ruining their weekend.
It's it's you know, I love to draw the parallels between
college American football and women's football and I just
they're just football in general.

(49:49):
And I just think sometimes you have these matches that are just
absolute rock fights and where Ithink like when you're 3/4 of
the way through a game where it's just like these teams who
don't really have any kind of real rivalry.
They just hate each other right now.
And they just want to punish theeverybody who's wearing the
different colour shirt than theyare.

(50:10):
And that may that's usually a good watch it.
Could have the makings You mentioned Kunanagi's goal last
week. Definitely worth a shout.
Mina Tanaka's goal last week? Come on.
I mean, let's go. Anybody that didn't see we
didn't see that maybe one of thegoals of the season, just an
incredible display of skill. I mean, that goal was pretty
much why I watched the sport. I mean, it's an unbelievable

(50:33):
display. And I mean, side note, I love, I
love the name Meena Tanaka. The the flip flopping of the
consonant and the vowel, you know, just kind of all the way
through. That's such a ring to it and
just such a fantastic player. So I don't know, we could be in
for a 5 to 4 two red cards, you know, just been crazy.
You know, nobody wants to play defense.

(50:54):
Let's put some some highlights on tape kind of matchup.
Nothing really to play like I don't know why can't we do that?
I don't know, let's decide that.We're just going to open it up
from jump and we're just going to have some target practice out
there. After dark match on Saturday.
It'll I'm get I'm going to take a guess here that well, I think
yeah, it's going to be on ION Saturday Night Football.

(51:15):
Ion NWSL After Dark has all the makings for just a a bonkers
game. Yeah, let's get crazy.
All right, last quick thing, I want to hit the Boundor.
First of all, congratulations. I had to see all the Famer and
now three time Boundor winner Aitana Beaumati.
I want to stop there. What was your take when you when

(51:37):
you saw that Aitana take takes up the award?
So she joins Lionel Messi and Michael Platini, French
midfielder in the 80s as the only players to ever win the
bond or three consecutive times.Lionel Messi won at 4
consecutive times between 2009 and 2012.
I got to tell you, a pretty goodcompany to keep for Aitana Bone

(51:59):
Mati. I did see some hand wringing on
the Internet, if you can believeit's hand wringing on the
Internet. But I I'll say like it's one of
those ones. Where could you make an argument
that maybe another Spanish player who plays for Arsenal
Football Club had a better overall season than I Tanabono

(52:22):
T-shirt? I think you can.
But when people when when the ovary action machine starts
going and people call it like it's a disgraceful decision and
blah blah, it's not. She's like pound for pound,
still probably the best footballer in the world.
Could you make an argument that somebody may have had a better
season or a better year than her?

(52:43):
Sure. But, you know, sometimes you got
to think about like, OK, are we talk?
It's the it's the classic MVP argument.
Are we talking about who had thebest year?
Who's the best player that year?It's kind of, you know, however
you might feel about it. So like you said,
congratulations to her. She's a historic player who
deserves A historic accomplishment.
And now go ahead and chill for Mariana Caldente, please.

(53:07):
I'm actually not going to show for Mariona like I obviously a
player that I that I love. Yeah.
I am going to show for a different player though, because
what? Yes, hear me out here.
I'm going to take you a little journey.
Obviously unassailable. I tell him about my tea.
Unassailable. Mariona Caldon tea comes over to
Arsenal from Barcelona, just brings the Champions League

(53:28):
trophy with her. I'm not I'm not giving himself.
I don't care where I'm playing. Wherever she plays, she could
she could come play for Houston Dash and they probably won the
Champions League. But this year, 2025, you know,
obviously I welcome to daughter to the world.
I'm not sure I'm just going to be bouncing my daughter on my
knee 10 years from now and talking to her about I thought

(53:49):
about my tea's 2025 season, but sure, whose season I will be
talking to her about Chloe Kelly.
And I know it's weird. I know it's I mean, Chloe Kelly
finished his fifth in the voting, right?
And I thought about this very deeply because one of the big
knocks on Chloe because, oh, she's a sub.
I'm not starting. Oh, like it's he she did all of

(54:11):
that, produced all of that in a fraction of the minutes.
That's that's fair. She had she you think about
these moments for Arsenal down the stretch, for England down
the stretch, the the flash bowl moments of like the the penalty
kicks and like, you know, just the celebrations.
This was and and it's I don't care if it if it if it runs

(54:33):
counter to what we do and how wethink about this award.
This season was Chloe Kelly's season.
When the Wikipedia page of the 2025 Waso, you know, season gets
published, Aitanabomati will appear on that page below Chloe
Kelly. And I think for me, I, I used
the Max Kellerman, who would I have rather been in that boxing

(54:56):
match round, you know, to score,you know, that's a kind of how
he famously scores. Who would I have rather been
this season, 2025? I mean, it's not even an
argument. Like the moments out of this
world, the trophies out of this world.
You do this as a sub, like it, it's just fucking insane.
Like, so I, I don't know, I, I would have probably been a
weirdo and then, you know, been maybe the only one to give Kelly

(55:18):
a first place vote, but that would have been my vote.
I think that I think she was theplayer of this year.
I love it. I mean, I didn't expect to
comment from you. I expected the full court press
on Cal Dente and you know, like you said, kind of unassailable.
I think she had a real, she had a real argument.
Am I looking at the right results here?

(55:39):
Sorry. Now I'm like I'm in full on
panic mode. Alessia Russo finished third.
Yeah. OK, so that is OK.
I just want to make sure I was looking at that.
Yeah. So like, you got to have Kelly
above Russo and you know, again,if we're talking about like,
who's the best player, you know how, I mean, it's I'm not

(55:59):
exactly breaking new ground here, but you know how I feel
about Alexia, too, in terms of just raw talent and what she
like the way she's able to just,like, drive everything.
But you kind of, you kind of sold me, you kind of sold me a
little bit on, on Kelly. I, I think, I think that if if
there is, if we're going to havea 123, it should be some order
of Bone, Mati Caldente and Kelly.

(56:21):
I think that's, I think that would have been the right mix
and you couldn't go wrong with with any of the three.
Kelly one bone Mati Caldente youknow, 2A2 BI think that what are
we what are we talking about? And I think, you know, for
anybody up in arms about the bound door voting right?
So this is obviously it's weird.You know, you have you've got
Marta 2 spots out of Barbara Benda.

(56:42):
That's weird. You know, NW saw MVP Tema
Chowinga, you know, clocks in atwhere was she 17th?
I mean, I'm I'm an Arsenal fan. Steph Catley at 29th is, you
know, what are you going to do about that?
That's a choice is a choice. What I would say anybody at
home, don't look at the bottom of the list.
The bottom of the list is a total absolute, should show

(57:03):
there's so many great players that are just making zero.
Like, I don't know what we're doing.
But if you look at that top five, top 6, I think that's a
good representation of what's happening in Europe, not I don't
think globally. Yeah.
And then you get to like Leah Williamson, Papaya or Lucy
Bronze. Now you're just like, OK, now
we're going a little bit off name recognition once you get to

(57:23):
that point, but I think I think top five, top 6 if you if you
look at through the European lens, I think they got it pretty
close. My only quib, obviously, I would
have had Chloe Kelly at the absolute top just just for the
season. You remember back in the day
when a team would win a championship and like
immediately after Sports Illustrated would run that
commercial of like, hey, get this special Sports Illustrated

(57:44):
cover with like, I don't know. Well, you know, the Los Angeles
Dodgers celebrating and then youget the this VHS or whatever.
Absolutely. But on both that on both that
bounded book and that VHS or DVDor Blu-ray or have everyone
think about that. The cover is Chloe Gelly.
However you want to think about that, that's the person that
you're putting there. You're not putting the legend,

(58:06):
you know, ITC Hall of Famer, another unassailable player, one
of the all time greats, Mount Rushmore, a town Beaumont T.
That's not who's on the cover ofthe 2025, you know, recap and
I'll just kind of like leave it there.
Those are my very short but alsosort of long Bondor thoughts,
Bondor thoughts. So I appreciate you bearing with
me. No, I love it.
I think it's I think you're spoton.

(58:28):
I will say though, like Eva Payor, I do, I do just want to
state that she had 43 goals in the 2425 season.
I just want to just be, I mean, she had a lot of fucking goals.
Like she's awesome. But yeah, I, you know, they're
like Barcelona has a lot, has a lot going for them.
But two year, 2 year Sports Illustrated magazine special

(58:52):
champion box set, Chloe Kelly ison the cover of that because she
both helped win the Champions League and win the EUR.
So Aytanabo and Mati didn't lifteither of those trophies.
So it would be hard for it wouldbe hard for anybody to put her
on on those championship covers.So it's a great point by you
came out of left field, man. I I absolutely 100% expected you

(59:15):
to Cape up for for Cal dente on that spot.
So you you've done it again, my good man, you all you always to
use the boxing analogy that lefthook completely cold cocked me.
I'm I'm out, I'm out cold here you.
Know what? I would never do that in real
life to you. I appreciate it figuratively on
the show. I like to kind of like, you
know, little smoke of mirrors, pull one over on you.

(59:37):
There it is. Quick, quick episode calendar.
We're going to be back next weekto go into the end episode
again, but more importantly, buttry it again.
Sleepy boys getting sleepy. You know, Of course we've got a
UEFA Women's Champions League mega preview coming your way a

(59:58):
little. Your boys are a little
heartbroken. SK Braun.
You know, we didn't get the tournament that I think we hoped
for, but it does have the effectof kind of untethering us a
little bit. You know, I mean, I'm an Arsenal
fan. I'm I'm sort of going in, You
know, now we're we're looking atwhat's happening.
You know, we'll have an an eye on Leon, what's happening there.

(01:00:19):
But to any, you know, NWSL fans that that are are sort of like
maybe ready for that maiden UEFAWomen's Champions League voyage.
Maybe I can interest you in a little Barcelona, Chelsea, Lyon,
Bayern Munich, Arsenal. How about Lindsay Heaps, Lily
Johannes playing over at Lyon? Chelsea is going to be sporting
some Katarina Macario, Naomi Girma, Alyssa Thompson for UNWSL

(01:00:42):
heads. We got a little PTJ, Fallon
tells Joyce. Manchester United is still
bummed that they got through, but here we are.
And then my Arsenal, little Emily Fox, Jenna Neiswarner,
what have you done for me lately?
Are you still playing? Are you still active?
Is there is there any room for afor a Neiswarner to make a
reappearance here? But in short, a lot of American

(01:01:02):
players, a lot of recognizable faces, a lot of NWSL stars that
have kind of gone back and forthand just the absolute upper
echelon of European women's football.
So the best time of year, the best, you've said it time and
time again, the best tournament,the best competition and we're
ready to kick off I think group stage for what, 2 weeks away?
October 7th, I'm not sure. Around the 8th, 7th, 8th and

(01:01:23):
9th, somewhere around there, group stage kicks off.
We'll be back with a preview andlook at all 18 teams duking it
out in the group stage. The new format, all the new
machinations, we'll have all of it for you.
So make sure you're subscribed and you just get ready, get
ready, get ready to buckle up because it's going to be another
great Champions League ride. It always is, my good man.

(01:01:45):
The UEFA Women's Champions League is a celebration of life,
but women's football in Europe is entering a new era with the
UEFA Women's Europa Cup. And let me just tell you, I'm
going to just make the pitch right now that perhaps we should
become the internet's greatest UEFA Women's Europa Cup podcast

(01:02:07):
because in the qualifier there, Hammerby Verse, Braun, we're
going to have to check that out.We're going to have to lock in.
Hopefully it's going to be available to watch somewhere.
I'm just going to make the petition now.
I feel like we should carve out some time for that tournament as
well. Done and done.
Totally agree, No reason not to.You already know there's going
to be some good, good, good, good clubs in that mix as well.

(01:02:31):
Very excited to dip a little toein there and you know, an
abundance of, of great football.What, what more could we ask
for? But with that said, anything
else before we get out of here? I think that's it.
I mean, if I could just, you know, very, very quickly IAX is
going to play in the Europa Cup,Rosengard, Sporting CP,
Eintracht Frankfurt. I mean, we got, we got a lot of

(01:02:54):
good teams in there, Glasgow City and then obviously the
glorious SK Bronze. So, you know, look, you got
sometimes there are different paths to get to the Champions
League. So the path for bronze to get to
next year's Champions League, atleast to the third round
qualifying phase, is to just winthe Europa Cup this year.
So that's what SK Bron has decided to do.
That's totally fine. We'll be there along the way.

(01:03:16):
Hell yeah. And the path for you to be in
the Champions League with us, Just hit that, Subscribe, just
rock with us. We're going to be pretty much
covering every minute of Champions League action that
happens from here on out. So you don't know what time it
is. And with that said, there's been
another episode of into the channel.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
out. If you enjoyed the show or love
them so far as much as your boysdo, make sure you're kicking

(01:03:38):
with us each and every single week.
Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
you like to watch or listen our Patreon.
Definitely go sign up for that. We're doing a lot of fun stuff.
Member shout outs. We'll have interviews with
players, coaches, voices of the game.
You'll have access early access to those three days early, 72
hours early. So definitely hop over to

(01:03:58):
Patreon or YouTube memberships. You can just hit the join button
on YouTube. Find our Patreon link in the
description of each and every episode.
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app links to
all of our socials except one showed this episode.
And a big thank you to my coach as well, Mr. Grant Angle for I
saw a video of you walking through the park.
No limp, you know, just looking to physically 100% ready and you

(01:04:22):
know that that bore true. You showed up to the for
tonight's episode 110% ready andI think we absolutely crushed
it. I appreciate you bro.
Likewise, buddy, you know what, you don't got to get ready if
you stay ready. I think that's one of the mottos
of this program and that's what we appreciate about all of you.
Thank you for continuing to rockwith us, always dropping
knowledge in the comments, making sure that we stay sharp

(01:04:45):
and stay smart and we will see you all next time.
Stay sleepy.

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INTO THE NWSL ⚽️ KC Wins Shield | Playoff Race On Fire | Orlando in Absolute Freefall | EP 170

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}INTO THE NWSL ⚽️ KC Wins Shield | Playoff Race On Fire | Orlando in Absolute Freefall | EP 170