August 27, 2025 • 50 mins
Episode 163! We recap NWSL matchweek 17 including: KC Current 10 Straight Unbeaten | Orlando Pride Reeling | 40K+ Watch Washington Spirit Beat Bay FC Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL, WSL, USWNT, and UEFA Women’s Champions League! Find INTO THE CHANNEL on: LINKTREE: https://linktr.ee/itc_podYOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/@IntoTheChannelPodBLUESKY: https://bsky.app/profile/intothechannel.bsky.socialINSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/intothechannelpodTHREADS: https://www.threads.net/@intothechannelpodTIKTOK: https://www.tiktok.com/@intothechannelSPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/24oUNPqWhHyPR9ox8JFjig?si=963a9acfb6774dfcAPPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-channel/id1716497139Music courtesy of: ketsa.ukYour Hosts: Dino Decespedes & Grant Engle
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:06):
OK, welcome to into the channel podcast primer about once
football. I'm your host, Dino de
suspicious and as always, I am joined by my Co host, Mr. Grant
Angle. What's up, man?
I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. It's good.
Good to be back here with you. It's been a little while.
We appreciate everybody's patience, but we had a couple
(00:27):
things to do, so we needed to take care of those for a little
bit. So thanks for bearing with us.
Thanks for bearing with us for sure.
A couple things to do. One in particular, welcome to do
addition to the family This pastweekend on a free transfer,
Gabriella Elena joined us, little Gaby Porchillo, little
Elena Lenari in the mix. You know, just a little offense
(00:50):
defense, you know, in the namingconventions, didn't actually
name them after those two players, but that's the name
that we landed on. And she's doing great.
Mom's doing great, and your boy's back podding.
So you know what? What else I mean?
I'm not sure I can ask for anything else man.
I mean, look, the paternity leave at into the Channel is a
generous policy, but we just can't keep you off the pitch,
(01:12):
man. You know, I mean, I, I mean it,
it is unpaid. So I, I live with that.
But you know, we are, we are, we're scratching early up the,
up the up the what, what is it? The pyramid, the football
pyramid. So we'll see where we land.
But yeah, man, let's get into it.
Way, way, way too many days since we've potted.
I think I missed 2 NWSL weekends.
(01:32):
Funny story actually, I didn't see the the Seattle result from
the week prior, the three three,just absolute barn burner until
I started watching this week's games and I saw like like a like
a like a replay of it. I apologize man, I I, I really
wish we could have potted and I could have gotten your take for
from from that just epic matchup.
(01:54):
It was it was a pretty amazing matchup.
The team was not thrilled with the results in the in the post
match press conference, as you could imagine, nor should they
have been. But, you know, I mean, you're
going to have these kind of weird runs of form throughout a
season, and I think we can kind of talk about how that trend is
(02:14):
continuing. Yep, let's get into it week 1717
weeks in. I can't believe we're we're here
already. It hitting the the real real
stretch run. A nice weekend of football would
not not quite the rusty footballthat we saw the first couple
weeks back from the long break. But Mr. Grant, angle where you
want to get started. Let's get started with a
celebratory beverage for your new addition.
(02:37):
I appreciate that. For the football returning for
the podcast returning. Cheers.
Cheers to you. Cheers to the football.
Cheers to the pod, cheers to thefootball, Cheers to Week 17.
Is I don't know what this brewery, I don't know what their
connection is, but the breweriesin Portland, it's Deftones
themed. So cheers to the Deftones for
(02:57):
also returning, because however big the overlap is in the Venn
diagram of people who are playing the clips album nonstop
and the new Deftones album nonstop, I think there actually
might be decent overlap in that Venn diagram.
But your boy is squarely in there.
I like it. Yeah.
I'm, I'm probably more on the clips side of the Venn diagram.
Sure, huge Deftones guy. But you know, I'm sympathetic.
(03:19):
You know, I, I recognize, appreciate it.
Yeah, I'm, I've got I've got clips and and Lord, going
back-to-back in my rotation. I'm not sure there's a lot of a
lot of us roaming around these streets either.
Let's get into it, man. I want to talk a little Portland
Mill KC Current to your boys experimenting with a, with, with
some power rankings. I'm not sure how I'm going to
(03:42):
unveil those or when I'm going to unveil those, but they're
ruminating. And yeah, the KC Current, I
think, I mean, like, like everybody else covered the
sport. KC Current sit at the very top
of my power rankings and they get a big grown up win.
I'm not sure they got the signature win that I was pining
for. Didn't get it versus Orlando,
but this was a really, really big, kind of impressive win
(04:03):
against against a tough squad onthe road.
I think they're a flying death machine, to be honest.
I mean, Portland played pretty well, but Kansas City, they're,
they're just at a spot right nowwhere they could beat you a
million different ways. It's nearly impossible to beat
Lorena to score on her. I mean, she had a couple great
saves in in this one. Timo Chewinga is in a is
(04:24):
inevitable. And if you're going to let them
score in the first minute, you're fighting Ivan Drago real
like it's real scary hours real early in the match when you can
see that early. Yeah, you're you're you're going
into Drago S you're going into Moscow and just be like right
right here, right here, Ivan, just plant one on me.
I'm glad you mentioned Chewinga.Like, I think the, you know,
(04:47):
every week I feel like I I pick up something new from her game.
And I think this week the thing that kind of blew me away is
just how often a ball gets kicked into an area and then
there's just seemingly a cloud of dust, bodies kind of knocking
against each other. And then Tamo Chowenga just
exits the cloud of dust with theball, like heading towards the
(05:07):
goal. Like it's unbelievable how she's
able to do that. And in the, in the goal that she
scored on this one, it's an Ellie Wheeler ball over the top.
You know, obviously Wheeler getsthe Super early goal.
But the other thing about Chewinga is she's always got
defenders running sort of alongside her kind of in the
frame. But if you really, really look
(05:28):
closely, they have no impact on the play whatsoever. 8 times out
of 10, they're, they're just doing everything they can just
to keep pace running wise. And that was this one like, you
know, like I think the, the, theannouncing team kind of went
like, oh, she finishes amid sometraffic.
You look closer and it's like everybody's like a foot and a
half away. And it's like, she's really just
(05:48):
kind of like running through a very thin lane, but doing it at
such a high pace. And then she's able to just
finish it. I mean like they're, they're
just playing on another level right now.
And even the times, it's such a great point by you, even the
times where she does get kicked,like as she's running through
there and there's, it's like yousaid, it's like a cartoonish
cloud of dust and she emerges from it.
I realize Malawi is roughly 3500yards or 3500 miles, pardon me,
(06:14):
away from Nigeria, But when you see a tough runner in the city
of Kansas City, reminiscent of the Nigerian nightmare Christian
Nikoye from the Kansas City Chiefs years ago.
And that's just how I felt aboutthat, where it's just like, you
can't, you can't take her down. She's getting to her spot
however she wants to. And then she has the touch and
(06:36):
the intelligence to finish. I mean, what I mean, what can be
said about her at this point other than she's making another
run at A at her second consecutive MVP?
Absolutely. Yeah, and probably in the
driver's seat for that. You mentioned Lorena since 9:00
clean sheets probably on pace toat least equal but probably
surpass. Anamore has the record last
season of 13 clean sheets of theseason.
(06:57):
Lorena just looks, I mean, off the chart like the one weak spot
that they had last season to tryto figure out a goalkeeper.
Now they just maybe have the best goalkeeper or certainly
playing it in that echelon. I thought another nice move from
Blacco kind of stealing some minutes, you know, maybe or
maybe some rest from Michelle Cooper and Davina and and
(07:18):
getting some Nichelle Prince into the match who ate up
minutes and on that Ellie Wheeler goal ate up a couple
defenders. So kind of occupied Reyno Reyes
and then also had Claire Hutton kind of leaning the wrong way
for just a, you know, just just enough of a mix that Ellie
Wheeler was able to sneak in back door.
So I thought another mini strokeof brilliance from Vladco
(07:41):
because now, like I mentioned, 17 weeks in, just nine matches
to go, we're kind of hitting that home stretch.
They're 12 points clear. I'm not sure how badly they need
each each each of these single matches.
So grabbing some minutes here and there, making sure that
players are rested and ready forkind of the stretch run.
I really like that move as well from Black.
(08:02):
Go. I don't think I'm even at much
risk of this being memeable. I feel like it was 2 weeks ago
when we last talked about KansasCity being in the driver seat.
Shields over it's done. They're not losing it, they're
not giving it up. But I I feel no remorse about
saying this. I don't think there are really
any circumstances in which they don't win the Shield.
So, you know, congratulations tothe Kansas City current.
(08:23):
I'll continue to watch their matches because they're
entertaining. But I think that's done and
dusted at this point. I totally agree with you.
I think I think they could probably cruise to to the
shield. And yeah, a lot of it is on the
strength of their defense. I think one thing I saw in this
match Portland, you know, obviously they were game, you
know, they played tough, but Kansas City, once they commit to
defense, they can almost like, you know, like whether they've
(08:44):
got like a four three, you know,midfield or you know, midfield
and back line, but they can switch 4334 just have players
like kind of scoot up and down and like they're they're also
overplaying pretty aggressively,which you saw kind of like a
player like Hinasukita take advantage of the other way, like
kind of like, oh, you're going to overplay and like I'll just
kind of hit it back where you came from essentially.
(09:06):
But for the most part, their their tenacity made it, you
know, just like really, really hard for Portland to get
anything going. And you know, when they're
opportunistic and they can stealan early goal like Wheeler or
or, you know, chewing goes, you know, she's going to
breakthrough at some point. This team is just not not going
to lose these kind of games. Yeah, you're totally right.
(09:27):
And I think, you know, we'll talk a little bit more about
Portland in the preview of theirnext match, though.
But you saw how Portland responded when they lost that
match coming out of the break. They lose to Washington Spirit.
They came back with a great performance against Seattle Rain
FC. Now they lose this match to
Kansas City Current and I think that's bad news for Utah Royals
(09:47):
coming up next week. Yeah, we'll get into that in the
preview next episode here, but let's go ahead.
This was a fun one. Obviously a little bit of a
milestone for the league for sure.
Bay FC2 Washington Spirit 3 fromOracle Park played in front of
over 40,000 fans here in the BayArea.
Pretty awesome show. What do you need to know about
(10:08):
this one? How about combined XG for the
two teams 1.64 Combined real G for the two teams 5.00.
Get there we go like real G Enterprise.
Let's just get get the ball intothe back of the net, give the
people what they wanted, get everybody their their money's
worth. Negative, Negative XG on that
first, on that first Washington goal, right?
(10:33):
And you know, I don't blame Silkowitz for it because she had
to freeze. It looked like Hirschfeld was
going to get a touch on it. And I thought they, I thought
they explained that pretty well on the broadcast.
So I don't blame Silkowitz for that.
Now, I don't know this yet, but as it happened and I was like a
tough one for Silkowitz. Of course you know me, I said.
(10:53):
Tough, tough break for Silky on that one.
Is her nickname Silky? Do people call her Silky in that
locker room? Are you aware of this?
I've heard, I've heard her referred to as Silky.
Yeah, I think. I think Alyssa Milanson referred
to her as Silky when when I asked Milanson if she was trying
to send a message to MAS she loved, she didn't play.
(11:15):
She didn't play any kind of ballwith me.
And Silky jumped in and was justlike, yeah, of course she was
trying to send a message. And then Milanson was like,
yeah, Silky's got my back. I was like, yeah, that's right.
Any who can't can't blame Silkwitz on that one.
Weird, a weird ball in. I mean, but credit to Wiesner.
Like you kind of like knuckled it and, you know, she's aiming
for the back post and you put a little extra mustard on it.
So that kind of curls back in. But, you know, that was that was
(11:39):
kind of the story of this match.I would say the other the other
message to defenses all over theleague, Corey Bethune back, give
her some space. Give her some space on top of
the 18 like that. You're asking for trouble.
She she had way too much real estate available to her on that
goal and BF CS back line did it a second time after half and she
(12:03):
almost scored again. I mean, she was what, like a
foot off maybe? Yeah, and she was pissed.
Like she was like, I definitely should have should have scored
that one. I think this one had, you know,
like the venue was so massive and like the event was so
massive that the venue kind of overshadowed any singular
player. But I think if you had to I, I
say somebody. Bethune was awesome.
(12:24):
She obviously gets the early goal.
Kundanagi gets a goal to make it3-1 after they they go down 3
nil. Trinity Rodman involved in a
goal, Kelly Hubbley involved in a goal one way, Kelly Hubbley
involved in a goal the other way.
Like it was just back and forth,everything kind of happening.
But I wanted to talk a little bit about something that like, I
can't I can't get past watching Trinity Rodman kind of be a
(12:50):
little bit of a baby on the pitch and it be a little bit of
a bummer. Like she had she kind of had
that one play where she gets fouled and she just kind of like
just kind of splays out on the floor.
She's like, I've been fouled andI'm not going to kind of get up.
You know, Kunanagi kind of gave it to her and she sort of, I
don't know, like I just feel like she goes at the ref so
hard. She does.
(13:10):
And it's like, you're so good. You know, like, and I've said it
before, I think it has an effecton their team.
I think it does kind of derail them a little bit, you know,
where they're just like, yeah, we are, we are kind of getting
screwed here. And like, you know, it's it like
she's such a big personality that I do feel like it boils all
over a little bit and it just seems unnecessary.
Like she, I don't think he's any.
I don't think she's winning any calls by doing it.
(13:32):
You know, I'm, I don't know, am I, am I weird about that?
No, I don't think so. I mean, I think in you know, I
it's probably the only way that they're really similar.
But I know I've talked about like kind of the Luka Doncic
principle of like you're this otherworldly player, but you're
just hammering the refs throughout the match and it's
(13:53):
just like I could it actually beworking the other way where
you're not only. It has to be.
Like you're not going to, it's not going to help you get calls.
But also, which is also kind of like a Chris Paul principle
where it's just like, I'm not only not going to give you more
calls, I'm going to be more of ajerk to you.
Leave me alone please. Right.
No, I think it's certainly not producing any results.
(14:16):
And just because you could just see that it's sort of like when
she feels like she's slighted, she's like she's not using it in
any kind of strategic way. And add to that that that
Rodman, most of this match playing on the left, you know,
like not where we're used to seeing her with Cantore playing
on the right. You know, obviously Trigger, I
was not going to lose her place,But it's like, I don't know at
this point. It's a weird situation to be
(14:37):
especially with the spirit kind of coming on a little bit.
This is a team early season wobble.
We weren't really sure, OK, is this, we, we had high
expectations, you know, maybe championship level expectations,
especially for me specifically, they didn't look like they were
meeting that that level necessarily.
But now it kind of feels like they're they're they're right on
the outskirts at worst. I'm sorry, I don't know.
(15:00):
That was something I picked up on.
I'm not sure if it it totally makes the difference, but I
wanted to kind of raise the raise a flag on it.
Yeah, I, I think it makes sense.I mean, she's obviously she's
one of the leaders on the team. She did have some points 2 weeks
ago in that Racing Louisville matchup.
There were just some horrifying calls and decisions by the
referee. And they were weird about the
timing too. Like they ended the match, I
(15:21):
thought too quickly. And Rodman was upset about it
and I was, I was right there with her.
And I mean, you know, I, I don'tmiss a lot of opportunities to
talk about how shitty the refs are in the NWSL, but I do I, I
take your point though, I think sometimes it ends up being a net
negative. Yeah, so Washington gets the big
win in this one. Had a funny closer because much
(15:45):
like Alyssa Nair who got a big goal late in the match the
weekend prior, Jordan Sukowitz actually got to look very late
in this one to try to equalize aball off Caprice Didasco.
And it reminded me of a conversation I had with Jordan
very briefly a couple weeks back.
I didn't get to run it on the show, but kind of relevant here.
So I want to go to it right now.You know, see, I'm sure you'd
(16:06):
love to see a clean sheet, but what else will you be looking
for outside of not allowing goals?
Like what? What will you be looking for
from your position as you know, an upgrade from last week to
this week? I think the coolest part of my
position specifically is, yeah, you are the last line of
defense, but you're also the first line of attack.
And that's something that I really find joy in this
(16:26):
position. I think obviously your first and
foremost job is to keep the ballout of the back of the net, but
I think there's so many different parts of this position
that I know I love about it. You have the defensive side, but
you also have the attacking sidelooking to build in possession.
How can you help the team attackand exploit like transition
opportunities? So through every game I have a
(16:46):
bunch of different things I lookat and for me, I just try to get
better each and every day. Just like 1%, one thing each
game. Thank you, Jordan.
Thank you. Trying to get 1% better each
game. Would she be?
Was she reading Pat Riley's bookLet's go?
I love that like kindred spiritswith.
Probably ghost riding it. Yeah, there you go.
Kindred spirits was silky there.Yeah.
(17:08):
I mean, you know, we're trying to be the first line, first line
of attack, trying to be the lastline of attack on that goal was
a great save by Kingsbury to make.
It had to be, had to be made. It was going to be the
equalizer. So yeah, man, it it was a wild
one. The atmosphere added to it.
I thought the broadcast did a nice job of kind of like
highlighting, you know, obviously that ballpark is
(17:29):
incredible. Look is like one of my one of
the ballparks that I have not seen that I still want to see.
So all around it was a good showby the league and by these two
squads. Yeah, no doubt.
Yeah, like you mentioned, big win for Washington Spirit pay
FCI don't know. They're going to need to sort
something out. We'll get get into them a little
bit more in the preview, but Long story short, I think we've
(17:51):
got to see a little bit more evolution from that from that
squad and some a little a littledifferent to go to, but I want
to scoot ahead. Couple teams that I don't know.
I've caught my fancy this season, San Diego, NIL Racing
Louisville. One big impressive win for the
club that I think I guaranteed on this show when we were
talking to the XOG guys, Evan and Eric, that the Racing
(18:13):
Louisville would in fact make the playoffs and now it feels
like they're absolutely cruising.
I'm going to spoil a little bit of my power rankings.
I've got Racing Louisville as mythird best team in the NWSL.
Wow, OK, that's bold. You're just knifing your guy
Jonas in the back, huh? I mean, they got to, they got to
start scoring goals. Like at, at some point I, I had
(18:36):
in my notes a lot of these chances created and quote UN
quote shot creating actions. They they've got to start
creating some some goals, not just some shots or chances.
Yeah, it's a weird thing. I mean, you know, they obviously
what I mean they're they're tiedfor second with the most scored
this season. But yeah, these last five on the
spin, if you count the the last one before the break, 00120.
(19:06):
So yeah, I mean. I'm questioning some numbers
here. That sounds like three goals in
five games. Yeah, thank you for that.
A much more succinct way to say that, but yeah.
And you know, you get that they get that 21 win over Bay, who
was like, you know, kind of stuck near the bottom of the
table. So yeah, I I think racing
(19:26):
Louisville third best team in the league.
You got me. You got me thinking on that one.
I mean, the the Benda injury notgreat Portland Thorns a little
wobbly. I think you can make they just,
yeah. They just went to San Diego beat
them. Yeah.
I mean, you know, what are who are we talking about here?
I mean, like, I think it seems. I don't know.
(19:47):
I I see. But now, now I feel very I feel
more emboldened. Yeah, maybe we bubble, bubble.
I don't know. Washington.
What's Washington doing? And you Jordan Bloomer 8 saves
in this one. I thought she was awesome.
You know, like, yeah, one in particular that save on Corley
was, you know, very acrobatic and and a play that.
(20:10):
I think at the beginning of the season that that was one that
San Diego cashed, you know, and we're used to kind of seeing
that one go in and then the gamekind of tilts the other
direction. But San Diego dominated, you
know, three times as many touches in Louisville's half as
the inverse, 2 1/2 times more touches in the final third,
twice as many box touches, twiceas many shots.
(20:32):
But what kind of when it came down to it, like a lot of the
wave shots, to be honest, from distance, nothing too crazy
outside of that big quarley chance, nothing super duper
threatening. So I don't know.
Louisville just did a great job of Bend, but not breaking and
and you know, kind of keeping San Diego at Bay and another
another performance where San Diego kind of underwhelms
(20:54):
offensively. Yeah, it's a great point.
It takes a lot to beat Bloomer, who I think at least I have had
my eyes opened this season, likeas it's going on.
I mean, she's she's really an excellent keeper.
So yeah, I like the way they play.
They're gritty. They got a little bit of edge to
them. Taylor Flint is just
consistently good every single match.
(21:15):
She's got to be working her way back into US women's national
team contention. I'm just going to keep beating
that drum. Sorry, real quick, Taylor Flint,
I, I was thinking through the process of like, where where is
she on my MVP ballot? Because when you watch her, she
just stops so many things and she moves the ball along in so
(21:35):
many ways. You know, she had that she had
that great strike when Webber laid a ball off to her that she
kind of almost put in. And it's like, fuck, she's like,
she's effective at every like every part of the fish.
She's like super dangerous and she just covers so much ground.
I mean, like, I don't know, to me, she's she's in my like top
five top 6 MVP ballot. I think she's been that
important. And if and if Louisville can
(21:56):
kind of crawl up into that top three, I I feel like super,
super earned for for a player like that.
I mean they'll need her to play like an MVP candidate if they if
they get into the top three I think it'll be super well
deserved. I I you're right though, where
would they be without her? If you just put a replacement
level center midfielder in her spot, I don't think they'd be
(22:16):
nearly as good. No, I I totally agree San Diego,
we'll see we'll see what they'reable to they're able to put
together they they're heading your way, taking on the rain and
racing Louisville, they're heading home taking on Houston
dash and we'll see just kind of how how high Louisville can
climb. I think this was this was kind
of supposed to be a marquee matchup, you know, and, and San
(22:38):
Diego had to be a betting favorite in this one.
And they had success. But there's something about, and
I'm not, I'm not smart enough of, of a football brain to kind
of figure out what was going on here.
But Louisville felt in full control of the field position,
the tempo. It's like we.
Yeah. And like, you know, you look at
the possession numbers, 71% to 29 versus San Diego.
(23:02):
San Diego connects 89% of their passes to 75.
They dominated in both of those.They dominate, you know, like
where the ball is on the pitch. But it's almost like they let
you have it, but not in a, in a place that's 22.
It's like, almost like letting atoddler play, but you know,
you're not really letting them get into any kind of danger.
It's really trippy what they're able to do because it it, it
didn't feel like San Diego kind of had had any real chance to
(23:25):
kind of win that one. Yeah, I mean, they just, yeah,
they like they don't let you getinto your super comfortable
spots, right. Like, you can, you can have the
ball on the outskirts of the danger area, but you're not
really. And we've seen the matches where
Bloomer has had to stand on her head and kind of get pelted with
(23:47):
shots. And, you know, they they can
draw or lose those matches, obviously, but Bloomer will keep
a minute. But if you're if you're stuck
shooting from distance at Bloomer, you're probably not
going to have much of a chance. Yeah, no.
And that's pretty much what it was all day.
And then you look at the shot distribution, you know,
obviously 22 shots on the day, but the three leading, you know,
(24:08):
shot accumulators, Kenza Dali with five, Kennedy Wesley with
three, Melanie Barcenas with three.
So not quite your sharp shooterswho are, you know, I mean,
outside of Dali, Barcenas has been really good.
But you know, you have so many really good players that you'd
like, I don't know, you'd like maybe different players getting
the bulk of the shots there. But we'll see what they've got
(24:31):
this week against Seattle and we'll get into that once we hit
the preview later this week. But let's shift gears to a sad
1A real sad 1 Angel City one Orlando Pride nil sad from from
a lot of different angles. But I want to kick it to you.
Where do you want to get startedwith this one?
Hated it, hated watching it, didn't enjoy watching it.
(24:52):
Alyssa Thompson looks like Cowboy Bob Orton with that giant
arm cast. Looks like she when the referee
turns around, she's going to smash you over that skull with
it. No swimming for her.
Yeah, the the, you know, the, the overarching sadness, the
cloud in the air, the Barbara Benda injury, terrible.
(25:15):
I just Orlando looks, they just looked very beatable and they
looked really beatable and long stretches in this match and I
didn't like it. They looked beatable and they
also looked like they got bullied a little bit by Angel
City. You know, whether it was like,
you know, Madison Hammond or, you know, kind of Sarah Gordon
(25:37):
or, you know, Ceanus Jane kind of wanted to mix it up as well.
It just looked like, you know, and without Banda, this Orlando
side is this Orlando offense is just not really scary or
threatening. You know, it's it's like a
really big issue. Obviously the team also
announced the soon to be arrivalof Jacqueline or Elizabeth
(25:59):
Jacqueline Novaye from tigris. That's exciting.
So let's let's kick that into gear player that can score and
also assist. But before we get there, I mean
that this Orlando offense just really, really looking looking
for answers, looking for solutions and I think you know,
a player like Simone Jackson comes in has some positive
moments. I thought Ali Watt had some
(26:20):
positive moments. You know, being a little bit
more of that featured attacker on offense, those are
encouraging. But you know, we're at the
point, you know, if it's the second or third match of the
season and we're kind of like having this conversation.
That's one thing 17 matches in and we're still sort of trying
to figure out what the midfield looks like, what the attack
looks like. Also got news today that Morgan
(26:41):
Gautraw will be moving on. I think are retiring from
Orlando was was the announcementand and maybe possibly heading
over to Newcastle. So we'll see what happened to,
you know, you know, best of luckto Morgan there, But that's
another, you know, just piece that's somewhere else and and
another challenge for for Seb Heinz and Hayley Carter to kind
of figure out exactly how to getout of this.
(27:05):
Yeah, and Elizabeth Ovallez is really going to help.
I think US women's national teamfans probably remember absolute
laser of a goal she scored against them.
We've seen her do work for T Grace.
I mean, you know what, they announced it.
They announced her signing Thursday and then they played
(27:26):
later Thursday night. And just watching this match, I
was like, you couldn't get her on an earlier flight.
Like how like we, we couldn't have made this out of like, you
know, send, you know, send the PJ to go get her.
Was it the Wilf family or the the Wilfs or something?
The. Yeah, yeah, I think it.
I think it's the Wilfs, yeah. So but yeah, I mean the the
(27:49):
football gods giveth and they unfortunately do the other thing
as well. So Ovale can't get there fast
enough. I'll be interested to see what
her chemistry looks like with the other players, how she's
going to kind of fit into that wing rotation.
And then we'll see how she meshes meshes with Chalufia, who
I think you know, her and SimoneJackson.
(28:10):
They're going to have to providesomething in the center of the
park or, you know, down, down that central channel rather in
the number 9 spot. So, you know, they're they're
going to have to try to find some offense and hopefully that
gives their defense a little time to breathe and kind of get
back to their dominating ways. Yeah, I think defensively
(28:30):
there's a lot to kind of like feel positive about.
There's still a little bit of like flux, especially the
outside backs, you know, whetherit's Piquet or Abella or Corey
Dyke or O Yani or Alfa LA, like,you know, it's there.
There's still some, you know, moving parts like Sam's and
Nadan are seem to be like the the two constants among that
(28:51):
group. And yeah, you look at Orlando, I
mean, I really hope the the chemistry comes soon because you
look at the shot distribution inthis one, Carson, you know, like
the leader in shots in this one for Orlando, there was a four
way tie between Carson Pickett, Allie Watt, Hayley Mccutchen and
Oyane Hernandez, who all led theteam with two shots.
(29:12):
So not sure you know, the the eight shots in the matcher is
that's exactly how you want it distributed.
But to your point, I think Obaiaideally comes in and is able to,
you know, connect some more things.
I think Chalufia, I'm glad you brought her up.
I think she's been improving andcoming on more and more, but
probably not at the rate where she's a player you can count on
(29:34):
down the stretch and definitely not in the play offs and
definitely not on the road in the play offs.
But you know, that's no knock onHershey.
I think she is improving and she's a good player, but you
know, it's a lot to, it's a lot to ask when you know a player
like Banda, you know, just kind of gets zapped off the roster.
Yeah, it's tough. I mean, you know, it's hard to
(29:54):
for any team to lose their number 9, but we're talking
about one of the what, at worst,five best number nines in the
world. You're just not going to be able
to fully replace that. That's the way the that's the
way the sport works. No way, but I mean, you know, to
to Hayley Carter's credit and tothat organization's credit,
nobody thought Banda was going to come in last year and do what
she did, you know, So who knows?I mean, maybe, maybe there's a
(30:17):
little bit more magic left in the bottle.
We'll see. But I want to scoot ahead here.
Maybe maybe AI mean if there wasany game this weekend to have
our guy Mike Watson. How about Chicago stars 3 N
Carolina Courage 3? Let's fuck it, go.
That was a football game. I mean just that.
(30:38):
Was the second. That was the second-half of
football for Danielle. Let's go.
Let's let's zoom in a little a little further.
It absolutely was. I mean, if we want to talk about
the moments, I I just think the Tyler Lucy goal, I I'm not, I
can't even like what what minutewas that?
That was around like the hour mark I want to say.
(31:00):
Just a little. Just a little gap wedge, just a
little. Just you got to get it over the
bunker, just to use the shoulders, a little chip, just
just get it right over the goalkeeper.
I loved it. Get a little grass on the way
in. Yeah, yeah.
Just slow things down a little, you know, a little texture, a
little texture to it. That was great.
But, you know, the story of the day, I mean, it's got to be
(31:22):
Lugemila. You know, I thought, you know,
this was another one where the courage, you know, to their
credit, they, they carve out A2 nil lead on the road against a
team that they probably feel like they need to beat.
And then Lou Jamila just breaks it open 76th minute.
And I think when she scores thatfirst one, I knew it was 2 nil.
(31:42):
And she, you know, North Carolina has the game well in
hand. But I look at the clock and I'm
like, there's for how badly she beat that North Carolina
defense. I look at the clock, I'm like,
there's a lot of time left in this one.
And I'm like, if she just did that, there's really nothing
precluding her from, from doing that again and equalizing and,
and I, I, I even sold it. Short they were, I mean, early
(32:07):
in the season before the international break, Chicago was
the team that was coughing away Leeds regularly.
Now it would appear no lead is safe versus them.
And like they have they have taken that energy and you know,
they're they're roaring back in these matches.
You talked about the match, you know, previously against Seattle
(32:28):
rain, like they, they're unkillable right now.
And I just, you know, you got tolook at LMSR and kind of what
she's been able to implement just in these like these few
weeks of taking charge. And I just like it, man.
I they just look different dude.I, I'm laughing because I
rewatched right, you know, like Chicago Courage and you know,
(32:50):
like sometimes like they, they usually will start to rewatch
like 10 minutes. They'll give you the, the 10
minutes prior to kick off. And there was an LMSR package
where she's talking and it lookslike she's on a zoom and being
recorded. Did you see this?
You know what I'm talking about.No, I missed it.
So she's being recorded and she's just like, she's like does
(33:11):
Chicago like, you know, like, and she just sounds like a
version of like a little bit of Tupac and a little bit.
She's just so passionate about like Chicago and having be and
I'm just like, yeah, I'm sittinghere in San Francisco.
I've been in Chicago like twice in my life.
I'm like, yeah, this is fucking Chicago.
I'm so fired up. So I'm like, oh, yeah, this is
this is, you know, like this is a a coach that I can see getting
(33:35):
a team kind of turned around considering like, you know, how
how rocky things were for for the Chicago side.
And I want to call out one player specifically that we've
talked about on the show last few weeks who probably wasn't my
favorite player last year. And just kind of with like a
player that was like she's this place is an annoying player.
Like I don't want to like, like I just was not into watching
(33:56):
this player. And I've completely done a 180.
Ali Schlagel is so good and she's so busy and so threatening
and so like, I don't know, I just love.
I, I I think I compared her to Alessia Russo like a few weeks
ago and that's kind of who she reminds me of just because she
just goes and goes and goes and goes.
The reason I bring her up is I feel like Schlagelbal started in
(34:20):
earnest like 3-4 weeks ago whereit's just like, she's just going
to like outwork everybody. And I feel like it's had a
really positive effect. And you don't you don't know if
like that that player responded the most to like Ella Massar or
like, or what exactly is happening.
But it's clear that she turned acorner, You know, and be like,
I'm going to lead through just how hard I'm going to work.
(34:42):
And then it's clear that other players have followed suit, are
following suit. And now all of a sudden, to your
point, Chicago, not a team that you know is going to roll this
down and you're just like, all right, this is a dub.
Yeah, yeah, not at all. And I mean, she's she just wins
the ball, you know what I mean? Like with Schlegel, like I just
like you talk about her work rate.
She's great in the air. She has good timing.
(35:04):
Yeah. I, I, I, I like her toughness.
Only two goals this season, but it feels like she impacts the
match more than that, like, especially in these last few
weeks. So, yeah, I mean, there's
something to be said for a team that's kind of stuck at the
bottom of the table, you know, doesn't have any real playoff,
any real realistic playoff hopesat the at this point, but is
(35:26):
still willing to fight out there.
So again, shout, shout to LMSR, who I hope gets future
management. Nigeria looks, whether it's it's
in a blue collar city like Chicago or you know, any other
city around the world. I I hope she gets another
opportunity. The Chicago, Yeah, shout out to
Jaden Shaw, too. Really, really great to see
(35:48):
Jaden Shaw score a goal. Smile, enjoy football, even for
a couple minutes. So that that really felt good as
AUS massage team supporter Sam Staub, another player maybe on
the periphery of the national team. 2 assists in this one.
The Sam Staub return resurgence re emergence kind of continues.
Love to see that as well. But let's shift gears here to
(36:11):
your squad. Houston dash 1 Seattle rain one
I'm dying to hear. I mean, this is the Seattle
season's taken a a weird turn. The weird turn kind of
continues. I'm dying to hear what your
takeaways were from this one. So, you know, they come back
from international break, they get the two nil win over Angel
(36:34):
City feels good. Then you get the loss, big loss
against Portland Thorns on the road, you know, weird weather,
just get outplayed. Feels like the young players
kind of get lost in the in the gigantic rivalry.
You know, the atmosphere. Understandable then they you
know, they give away the three nil lead to Chicago, which some
(36:57):
you know, credit to Chicago, butyou're up by three goals in the
second-half. You should win at home.
Well, you should absolutely win that match.
And they were just getting they were just getting diced like on
the wings against Chicago in those in in that match.
And then Houston dash, you go toHouston, who you and I have said
(37:17):
have been relatively frisky throughout the season.
Like Houston is not a pushover, despite them being near the
bottom of the table as well. And you know, Phoebe Mclernan
just has an absolute howler. Just, you know, just a complete
mix up of where she is on the field and where Yasmine Ryan is.
And Ryan is one of those playersthat if you if you dilly dally
(37:41):
with the ball or whatever you want to call it, you make a
silly mistake like that, she's going to pounce on it.
And then Ryan is such a a great athlete and such a genius
athlete that she pounces on it, but then has the patience to to
deke Dickey and then deke Mclernan again and then just
tuck it away. You know, terrible mistake by
(38:03):
Mclernan, but you know, they're able to get the recovery and
kind of squeak out, squeak out the draw.
I still think, you know, you gotto be disappointed with it,
though. Like if you're in the race and
San Diego, Orlando and Portland,and I think, I think maybe one
of those matches happened after the fact.
But when those three teams lose in front of you, you got to be
(38:27):
kicking yourself that you only got to draw.
I think that's one way to look at it.
I think another way to look at it is Houston was a lot better
than Seattle on this day. You know, they notched probably
fair too. Yeah, I think they notched a lot
more shots. You know, they they were able to
penetrate deeper, you know, you know, better possession, you
(38:50):
know, the a super opportunistic with that goal, which is kind of
how they want to play. I think they probably would have
wanted a little bit more offensively, but you know, I
thought, you know, Seattle's a professional team defensively.
They're not just going to well, in this instance they did.
They did give one away, but you know, like they won't do that
(39:12):
often. They won't make a habit of it
for sure. But I thought I thought Houston
was better. I thought the the announcing
team brought up a good point, which was like, all right, let's
see what Houston can do playing from ahead.
You know, and I think, you know,relatively predictably, they do
give up the equalizer. I think relatively
unpredictably. Jordan Heitzma on the end of it,
(39:32):
but kind of a kind of a cool moment.
And and if you're a team that's,you know, got like bigger
aspirations and maybe just making the play offs, scratching
out a draw here against the Houston side that, you know, to
your point is maybe a little bitmore than feisty.
I think you know, I'll, I'll, I want to pose one quick question
to you because there was 1 chunkof my power rankings that I
(39:54):
really struggled with. Apologies.
I keep going back to my power rankings well, but it occupied a
lot of my brain this week. I think there's a clear top six
KC, Washington, Louisville, Orlando, San Diego, and
Portland, right? 789 is where I think I've got
(40:18):
Seattle, Gotham, and Houston. All in the same kind of like 789
band, you know, and I'm not saying like, all right, this is
where they're going to finish atthe end of the season, but this
is where I think these teams areat based on Seattle and Houston.
Do you still feel like Seattle is the better team?
Do you feel like it was like, you know, they left it on the
(40:39):
table? You feel like these teams are
relatively even or arrow point or arrows pointing up and arrows
pointing down. How do you how do you view these
two teams specifically in relation to each other?
You know, not all draws are created equal, and I think
that's kind of what, you know, if I could guess, like what's in
your head here, you know, the draw versus Chicago and then
(41:02):
this draw where they kind of getout where they do.
I think you're right. They do get outplayed for big
chunks of the match against Houston.
I think, you know, you can make a real argument that Seattle's
arrow is pointing down. I feel like it's still kind of
pointing sideways. Because the one thing, the thing
that's stuck in my head here is when do I get to see me official
(41:25):
play more minutes like that should like that's still in the
chamber. And then I'm not accusing
anybody at Seattle Rain FootballClub of being dishonest.
Why isn't Lin Biandolo playing more If everybody keeps telling
me that she could go, she could play more minutes if if she
needed to, then why isn't she playing?
(41:48):
She's one of the, you know, likeI understand she's like a little
up there in age, but you didn't sign her for her not to play.
I mean, yeah, that, that that's a little bit disappointing and I
think like it. It's been I think a few weeks
and correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a few weeks of Seattle
line UPS that look like they're missing bite or just like
(42:10):
leaving a lot of bite on the bench.
You know, I think we, we've seenfishel already.
We've seen bandola already this season offensively, you know
this Seattle put up the the worst XG performance of the
weekend, 0.36. Also the worst shot output.
Just five shots on the day. Heights have had two, three
(42:32):
players with one shot each. That's going to, it's going to
be tough to beat anybody. You're putting up five shots
and, you know, having that that little effectiveness getting the
ball up field. But I mean, I feel like, yeah, I
feel like it's tough to say, butI feel like Houston could be
(42:53):
approaching that same level where Seattle's AT.
And I think that probably says something about each team.
Maybe Houston on the ascent, Seattle backsliding a little bit
doesn't mean it's going to continue.
But I feel like if if this is going to be the lineup and the
offensive approach, I'm not surehow that I'm not sure how that
(43:14):
gets sorted. I think by the time we get to
the playoffs. Yeah, and you know, Jess
Fishlock is one year younger than me and you get 3 minutes of
her this match because she needed to rest because she's
getting, she's playing a lot of minutes.
And so you needed to rest. But look, to your point, the
attack doesn't look dangerous hardly at all without her on the
(43:39):
pitch. G so young, another player
toward the end of her career. I just doesn't provide the same
bite. I think you you put it perfectly
as Fishlock in in that kind of in those central areas or I
think, you know, think G spent some time out wide on this one.
I will say little silver lining,Maddie, Darlene and Sam Mezza
(44:00):
looked better than they had in the in the previous two weeks.
It felt like they were kind of in their own heads there for a
little while. It seemed like they started to
break out of that. And that was a big part of the
secret sauce earlier in the season was that Mezza and
Darlene were giving you great minutes.
And now we might also have to live with, you might have to
look at if you're talking about arrows again or if we're
thinking about like which direction the team's going.
(44:23):
You know, Mezza and Dalene, young players.
It's Dalene's first year in the league.
This is Mezza's first real year in the league.
All these matches again, these physical games against these
grown adult athletes that they're playing against, you
know, are they, are they going to wear down a little bit, you
know, as they kind of build up their adult strength?
(44:44):
Yeah, that's a great point. I mean it's it's like a team of
you know, vet veteran veterans and and a lot of young players,
you know, Jordan bug, another player that that didn't didn't
see any action in this one. But let's shift gears.
The final match up Week 17 Gotham FC nil, Utah Royals NIL
(45:05):
all right man, anything just went here before we get.
Out here, good game. Mandy McGlynn thought that was
that was entertaining, as entertaining as anything else
we're going to get out of this match.
Rose Lavelle looked fast. She looked like she had a lot of
energy out there. Had an explosive run on goal
early in the match. That Rose Lavelle thing where
she picks up the ball at at halffield is like, OK, 50 yard run
(45:27):
here. Yeah.
Well, let's see, What else do wehave?
Guatemalan striker Aisha Solorzano had that shot off the
crossbar from a nice free kick off of into the danger area by
Zoroa. That's all I got other than that
this is a sleepy boys podcast. That was a a sleepy time match
(45:50):
my good man. Real sleepy I think yeah Astaire
had some chances, not able to kind of catch and ultimately I
agree with you. The Mandy McGlynn game had the
highest rated fat mob score across all seven matchups where
she had Jordan Bloomberg was theonly player that equaled her and
well deserved a bunch of big stops and had to face the Gotham
(46:10):
side that was able to register 44 touches in the box.
So that's no joke. And you know, when when Esther's
a part of that mix, when Roosevelt's a part of that mix,
you know, it's it's dangerous either way.
But you know, Gotham continues to kind of feel like a fringe
playoff team. And I think this is a very
fringe playoff team kind of performance.
Can't get a win against, I'll say a pesky Utah side.
(46:34):
I think there's a little a little a little bounce back
potential post Ali Sentinor trade.
I think Utah hasn't looked terrible, terrible or as
terrible as I think we we were afraid it could have gotten.
So I think a, a nil, nil, you know, for as underwhelming as as
that, that sounds probably the the right result for for these
two teams with, with where they're at and with the
(46:55):
performance that they put forward in this one.
Yeah, I yeah, I think if you're if you're Gotham, you hate it.
Obviously. I think you should feel like you
got to you got to beat Utah on that spot.
But I think you're right. That's probably why they're more
of a fringe playoff team than a team that I'm that I think other
squads would really be fearing in the play offs.
Yep, no doubt. All right, man, Week 17 in the
(47:18):
books. As mentioned, we'll be back
later this week with the Week 18weekend preview.
I think we get, I think we get 4Friday matches, a Saturday, a
Sunday and a Monday. So it's a, it's a kind of like a
fun, fun football weekend distribution.
And I haven't talked to you about this, but we're recording
this Wednesday. I'm sorry, Tuesday night Pacific
(47:39):
in the United States and about 6hours time, 7 hours time our
beloved SK Bron takes on intid Nazi.
Oh, Nali, I've already put the put the bat signal out to some
of our friends in Norway trying to figure out a way to, to, to
watch this match. Well, we're going to do
everything we can over the next 6-7 hours.
Try to put that together. But as mentioned, we'll be back
later this week with the weekendpreview for NW Cell week 18.
(48:03):
All right man, anything else youwant to hit before we get out of
here? I think that's it.
Bronze on a heater. I think they've won their last
seven on the spin. Yeah, we have battalion.
Let's get this. Let's get this fucking done.
We are looking unstoppable rightnow.
Let's go. That's right, it's it's our
time. It's our time now.
All right, then this for anotherepisode to the channel.
(48:23):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
out. If you enjoyed the show or love
women's football as much as yourboys do, make sure you're
kicking with us each and every single week.
Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
favorite podcast app links all of our socials except one in the
show of this episode and a big thing in my coast as well.
Mr. Grant angle for stepping up,stepping in.
(48:46):
I appreciate you, bro. During a very tumultuous time
here in the Deceptius household,but also a very glorious time in
the Deceptius household. You're absolutely coerced.
That I can count on. I appreciate you bro.
Likewise, buddy, I'm extremely happy for you and the entire
family. I'm glad we could, we could fit
this in the schedule. I'll continue to complain about
(49:09):
my work schedule, about how busymy life is, just, you know,
because obviously I need people to feel terrible for me, but
I'll be alright, which I do. We got.
Yeah, thanks. We, you know, we got, we got the
football with us. That's all we can ask for
alongside all of you. Thank you guys for dropping
knowledge again. Thanks for being patient with
us. Patient with us.
(49:30):
Even though I don't think anybody was really asking for us
while we're gone. They're like, yeah, they'll come
back eventually. We usually have like a weird
hiatus like once per NWSL season, but the season rolls on
and the Champions League is coming back.
That's what I mean. I'm extremely excited about
that. So keep your eyeballs out for
whatever kind of preview episodewe do as the qualification rolls
(49:53):
on. And enough rambling out of
Maine. We will see you all next time.
OK, welcome to into the channel podcast primer about once
football. I'm your host, Dino de
suspicious and as always, I am joined by my Co host, Mr. Grant
Angle. What's up, man?
I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. It's good.
Good to be back here with you. It's been a little while.
We appreciate everybody's patience, but we had a couple
(00:27):
things to do, so we needed to take care of those for a little
bit. So thanks for bearing with us.
Thanks for bearing with us for sure.
A couple things to do. One in particular, welcome to do
addition to the family This pastweekend on a free transfer,
Gabriella Elena joined us, little Gaby Porchillo, little
Elena Lenari in the mix. You know, just a little offense
(00:50):
defense, you know, in the namingconventions, didn't actually
name them after those two players, but that's the name
that we landed on. And she's doing great.
Mom's doing great, and your boy's back podding.
So you know what? What else I mean?
I'm not sure I can ask for anything else man.
I mean, look, the paternity leave at into the Channel is a
generous policy, but we just can't keep you off the pitch,
(01:12):
man. You know, I mean, I, I mean it,
it is unpaid. So I, I live with that.
But you know, we are, we are, we're scratching early up the,
up the up the what, what is it? The pyramid, the football
pyramid. So we'll see where we land.
But yeah, man, let's get into it.
Way, way, way too many days since we've potted.
I think I missed 2 NWSL weekends.
(01:32):
Funny story actually, I didn't see the the Seattle result from
the week prior, the three three,just absolute barn burner until
I started watching this week's games and I saw like like a like
a like a replay of it. I apologize man, I I, I really
wish we could have potted and I could have gotten your take for
from from that just epic matchup.
(01:54):
It was it was a pretty amazing matchup.
The team was not thrilled with the results in the in the post
match press conference, as you could imagine, nor should they
have been. But, you know, I mean, you're
going to have these kind of weird runs of form throughout a
season, and I think we can kind of talk about how that trend is
(02:14):
continuing. Yep, let's get into it week 1717
weeks in. I can't believe we're we're here
already. It hitting the the real real
stretch run. A nice weekend of football would
not not quite the rusty footballthat we saw the first couple
weeks back from the long break. But Mr. Grant, angle where you
want to get started. Let's get started with a
celebratory beverage for your new addition.
(02:37):
I appreciate that. For the football returning for
the podcast returning. Cheers.
Cheers to you. Cheers to the football.
Cheers to the pod, cheers to thefootball, Cheers to Week 17.
Is I don't know what this brewery, I don't know what their
connection is, but the breweriesin Portland, it's Deftones
themed. So cheers to the Deftones for
(02:57):
also returning, because however big the overlap is in the Venn
diagram of people who are playing the clips album nonstop
and the new Deftones album nonstop, I think there actually
might be decent overlap in that Venn diagram.
But your boy is squarely in there.
I like it. Yeah.
I'm, I'm probably more on the clips side of the Venn diagram.
Sure, huge Deftones guy. But you know, I'm sympathetic.
(03:19):
You know, I, I recognize, appreciate it.
Yeah, I'm, I've got I've got clips and and Lord, going
back-to-back in my rotation. I'm not sure there's a lot of a
lot of us roaming around these streets either.
Let's get into it, man. I want to talk a little Portland
Mill KC Current to your boys experimenting with a, with, with
some power rankings. I'm not sure how I'm going to
(03:42):
unveil those or when I'm going to unveil those, but they're
ruminating. And yeah, the KC Current, I
think, I mean, like, like everybody else covered the
sport. KC Current sit at the very top
of my power rankings and they get a big grown up win.
I'm not sure they got the signature win that I was pining
for. Didn't get it versus Orlando,
but this was a really, really big, kind of impressive win
(04:03):
against against a tough squad onthe road.
I think they're a flying death machine, to be honest.
I mean, Portland played pretty well, but Kansas City, they're,
they're just at a spot right nowwhere they could beat you a
million different ways. It's nearly impossible to beat
Lorena to score on her. I mean, she had a couple great
saves in in this one. Timo Chewinga is in a is
(04:24):
inevitable. And if you're going to let them
score in the first minute, you're fighting Ivan Drago real
like it's real scary hours real early in the match when you can
see that early. Yeah, you're you're you're going
into Drago S you're going into Moscow and just be like right
right here, right here, Ivan, just plant one on me.
I'm glad you mentioned Chewinga.Like, I think the, you know,
(04:47):
every week I feel like I I pick up something new from her game.
And I think this week the thing that kind of blew me away is
just how often a ball gets kicked into an area and then
there's just seemingly a cloud of dust, bodies kind of knocking
against each other. And then Tamo Chowenga just
exits the cloud of dust with theball, like heading towards the
(05:07):
goal. Like it's unbelievable how she's
able to do that. And in the, in the goal that she
scored on this one, it's an Ellie Wheeler ball over the top.
You know, obviously Wheeler getsthe Super early goal.
But the other thing about Chewinga is she's always got
defenders running sort of alongside her kind of in the
frame. But if you really, really look
(05:28):
closely, they have no impact on the play whatsoever. 8 times out
of 10, they're, they're just doing everything they can just
to keep pace running wise. And that was this one like, you
know, like I think the, the, theannouncing team kind of went
like, oh, she finishes amid sometraffic.
You look closer and it's like everybody's like a foot and a
half away. And it's like, she's really just
(05:48):
kind of like running through a very thin lane, but doing it at
such a high pace. And then she's able to just
finish it. I mean like they're, they're
just playing on another level right now.
And even the times, it's such a great point by you, even the
times where she does get kicked,like as she's running through
there and there's, it's like yousaid, it's like a cartoonish
cloud of dust and she emerges from it.
I realize Malawi is roughly 3500yards or 3500 miles, pardon me,
(06:14):
away from Nigeria, But when you see a tough runner in the city
of Kansas City, reminiscent of the Nigerian nightmare Christian
Nikoye from the Kansas City Chiefs years ago.
And that's just how I felt aboutthat, where it's just like, you
can't, you can't take her down. She's getting to her spot
however she wants to. And then she has the touch and
(06:36):
the intelligence to finish. I mean, what I mean, what can be
said about her at this point other than she's making another
run at A at her second consecutive MVP?
Absolutely. Yeah, and probably in the
driver's seat for that. You mentioned Lorena since 9:00
clean sheets probably on pace toat least equal but probably
surpass. Anamore has the record last
season of 13 clean sheets of theseason.
(06:57):
Lorena just looks, I mean, off the chart like the one weak spot
that they had last season to tryto figure out a goalkeeper.
Now they just maybe have the best goalkeeper or certainly
playing it in that echelon. I thought another nice move from
Blacco kind of stealing some minutes, you know, maybe or
maybe some rest from Michelle Cooper and Davina and and
(07:18):
getting some Nichelle Prince into the match who ate up
minutes and on that Ellie Wheeler goal ate up a couple
defenders. So kind of occupied Reyno Reyes
and then also had Claire Hutton kind of leaning the wrong way
for just a, you know, just just enough of a mix that Ellie
Wheeler was able to sneak in back door.
So I thought another mini strokeof brilliance from Vladco
(07:41):
because now, like I mentioned, 17 weeks in, just nine matches
to go, we're kind of hitting that home stretch.
They're 12 points clear. I'm not sure how badly they need
each each each of these single matches.
So grabbing some minutes here and there, making sure that
players are rested and ready forkind of the stretch run.
I really like that move as well from Black.
(08:02):
Go. I don't think I'm even at much
risk of this being memeable. I feel like it was 2 weeks ago
when we last talked about KansasCity being in the driver seat.
Shields over it's done. They're not losing it, they're
not giving it up. But I I feel no remorse about
saying this. I don't think there are really
any circumstances in which they don't win the Shield.
So, you know, congratulations tothe Kansas City current.
(08:23):
I'll continue to watch their matches because they're
entertaining. But I think that's done and
dusted at this point. I totally agree with you.
I think I think they could probably cruise to to the
shield. And yeah, a lot of it is on the
strength of their defense. I think one thing I saw in this
match Portland, you know, obviously they were game, you
know, they played tough, but Kansas City, once they commit to
defense, they can almost like, you know, like whether they've
(08:44):
got like a four three, you know,midfield or you know, midfield
and back line, but they can switch 4334 just have players
like kind of scoot up and down and like they're they're also
overplaying pretty aggressively,which you saw kind of like a
player like Hinasukita take advantage of the other way, like
kind of like, oh, you're going to overplay and like I'll just
kind of hit it back where you came from essentially.
(09:06):
But for the most part, their their tenacity made it, you
know, just like really, really hard for Portland to get
anything going. And you know, when they're
opportunistic and they can stealan early goal like Wheeler or
or, you know, chewing goes, you know, she's going to
breakthrough at some point. This team is just not not going
to lose these kind of games. Yeah, you're totally right.
(09:27):
And I think, you know, we'll talk a little bit more about
Portland in the preview of theirnext match, though.
But you saw how Portland responded when they lost that
match coming out of the break. They lose to Washington Spirit.
They came back with a great performance against Seattle Rain
FC. Now they lose this match to
Kansas City Current and I think that's bad news for Utah Royals
(09:47):
coming up next week. Yeah, we'll get into that in the
preview next episode here, but let's go ahead.
This was a fun one. Obviously a little bit of a
milestone for the league for sure.
Bay FC2 Washington Spirit 3 fromOracle Park played in front of
over 40,000 fans here in the BayArea.
Pretty awesome show. What do you need to know about
(10:08):
this one? How about combined XG for the
two teams 1.64 Combined real G for the two teams 5.00.
Get there we go like real G Enterprise.
Let's just get get the ball intothe back of the net, give the
people what they wanted, get everybody their their money's
worth. Negative, Negative XG on that
first, on that first Washington goal, right?
(10:33):
And you know, I don't blame Silkowitz for it because she had
to freeze. It looked like Hirschfeld was
going to get a touch on it. And I thought they, I thought
they explained that pretty well on the broadcast.
So I don't blame Silkowitz for that.
Now, I don't know this yet, but as it happened and I was like a
tough one for Silkowitz. Of course you know me, I said.
(10:53):
Tough, tough break for Silky on that one.
Is her nickname Silky? Do people call her Silky in that
locker room? Are you aware of this?
I've heard, I've heard her referred to as Silky.
Yeah, I think. I think Alyssa Milanson referred
to her as Silky when when I asked Milanson if she was trying
to send a message to MAS she loved, she didn't play.
(11:15):
She didn't play any kind of ballwith me.
And Silky jumped in and was justlike, yeah, of course she was
trying to send a message. And then Milanson was like,
yeah, Silky's got my back. I was like, yeah, that's right.
Any who can't can't blame Silkwitz on that one.
Weird, a weird ball in. I mean, but credit to Wiesner.
Like you kind of like knuckled it and, you know, she's aiming
for the back post and you put a little extra mustard on it.
So that kind of curls back in. But, you know, that was that was
(11:39):
kind of the story of this match.I would say the other the other
message to defenses all over theleague, Corey Bethune back, give
her some space. Give her some space on top of
the 18 like that. You're asking for trouble.
She she had way too much real estate available to her on that
goal and BF CS back line did it a second time after half and she
(12:03):
almost scored again. I mean, she was what, like a
foot off maybe? Yeah, and she was pissed.
Like she was like, I definitely should have should have scored
that one. I think this one had, you know,
like the venue was so massive and like the event was so
massive that the venue kind of overshadowed any singular
player. But I think if you had to I, I
say somebody. Bethune was awesome.
(12:24):
She obviously gets the early goal.
Kundanagi gets a goal to make it3-1 after they they go down 3
nil. Trinity Rodman involved in a
goal, Kelly Hubbley involved in a goal one way, Kelly Hubbley
involved in a goal the other way.
Like it was just back and forth,everything kind of happening.
But I wanted to talk a little bit about something that like, I
can't I can't get past watching Trinity Rodman kind of be a
(12:50):
little bit of a baby on the pitch and it be a little bit of
a bummer. Like she had she kind of had
that one play where she gets fouled and she just kind of like
just kind of splays out on the floor.
She's like, I've been fouled andI'm not going to kind of get up.
You know, Kunanagi kind of gave it to her and she sort of, I
don't know, like I just feel like she goes at the ref so
hard. She does.
(13:10):
And it's like, you're so good. You know, like, and I've said it
before, I think it has an effecton their team.
I think it does kind of derail them a little bit, you know,
where they're just like, yeah, we are, we are kind of getting
screwed here. And like, you know, it's it like
she's such a big personality that I do feel like it boils all
over a little bit and it just seems unnecessary.
Like she, I don't think he's any.
I don't think she's winning any calls by doing it.
(13:32):
You know, I'm, I don't know, am I, am I weird about that?
No, I don't think so. I mean, I think in you know, I
it's probably the only way that they're really similar.
But I know I've talked about like kind of the Luka Doncic
principle of like you're this otherworldly player, but you're
just hammering the refs throughout the match and it's
(13:53):
just like I could it actually beworking the other way where
you're not only. It has to be.
Like you're not going to, it's not going to help you get calls.
But also, which is also kind of like a Chris Paul principle
where it's just like, I'm not only not going to give you more
calls, I'm going to be more of ajerk to you.
Leave me alone please. Right.
No, I think it's certainly not producing any results.
(14:16):
And just because you could just see that it's sort of like when
she feels like she's slighted, she's like she's not using it in
any kind of strategic way. And add to that that that
Rodman, most of this match playing on the left, you know,
like not where we're used to seeing her with Cantore playing
on the right. You know, obviously Trigger, I
was not going to lose her place,But it's like, I don't know at
this point. It's a weird situation to be
(14:37):
especially with the spirit kind of coming on a little bit.
This is a team early season wobble.
We weren't really sure, OK, is this, we, we had high
expectations, you know, maybe championship level expectations,
especially for me specifically, they didn't look like they were
meeting that that level necessarily.
But now it kind of feels like they're they're they're right on
the outskirts at worst. I'm sorry, I don't know.
(15:00):
That was something I picked up on.
I'm not sure if it it totally makes the difference, but I
wanted to kind of raise the raise a flag on it.
Yeah, I, I think it makes sense.I mean, she's obviously she's
one of the leaders on the team. She did have some points 2 weeks
ago in that Racing Louisville matchup.
There were just some horrifying calls and decisions by the
referee. And they were weird about the
timing too. Like they ended the match, I
(15:21):
thought too quickly. And Rodman was upset about it
and I was, I was right there with her.
And I mean, you know, I, I don'tmiss a lot of opportunities to
talk about how shitty the refs are in the NWSL, but I do I, I
take your point though, I think sometimes it ends up being a net
negative. Yeah, so Washington gets the big
win in this one. Had a funny closer because much
(15:45):
like Alyssa Nair who got a big goal late in the match the
weekend prior, Jordan Sukowitz actually got to look very late
in this one to try to equalize aball off Caprice Didasco.
And it reminded me of a conversation I had with Jordan
very briefly a couple weeks back.
I didn't get to run it on the show, but kind of relevant here.
So I want to go to it right now.You know, see, I'm sure you'd
(16:06):
love to see a clean sheet, but what else will you be looking
for outside of not allowing goals?
Like what? What will you be looking for
from your position as you know, an upgrade from last week to
this week? I think the coolest part of my
position specifically is, yeah, you are the last line of
defense, but you're also the first line of attack.
And that's something that I really find joy in this
(16:26):
position. I think obviously your first and
foremost job is to keep the ballout of the back of the net, but
I think there's so many different parts of this position
that I know I love about it. You have the defensive side, but
you also have the attacking sidelooking to build in possession.
How can you help the team attackand exploit like transition
opportunities? So through every game I have a
(16:46):
bunch of different things I lookat and for me, I just try to get
better each and every day. Just like 1%, one thing each
game. Thank you, Jordan.
Thank you. Trying to get 1% better each
game. Would she be?
Was she reading Pat Riley's bookLet's go?
I love that like kindred spiritswith.
Probably ghost riding it. Yeah, there you go.
Kindred spirits was silky there.Yeah.
(17:08):
I mean, you know, we're trying to be the first line, first line
of attack, trying to be the lastline of attack on that goal was
a great save by Kingsbury to make.
It had to be, had to be made. It was going to be the
equalizer. So yeah, man, it it was a wild
one. The atmosphere added to it.
I thought the broadcast did a nice job of kind of like
highlighting, you know, obviously that ballpark is
(17:29):
incredible. Look is like one of my one of
the ballparks that I have not seen that I still want to see.
So all around it was a good showby the league and by these two
squads. Yeah, no doubt.
Yeah, like you mentioned, big win for Washington Spirit pay
FCI don't know. They're going to need to sort
something out. We'll get get into them a little
bit more in the preview, but Long story short, I think we've
(17:51):
got to see a little bit more evolution from that from that
squad and some a little a littledifferent to go to, but I want
to scoot ahead. Couple teams that I don't know.
I've caught my fancy this season, San Diego, NIL Racing
Louisville. One big impressive win for the
club that I think I guaranteed on this show when we were
talking to the XOG guys, Evan and Eric, that the Racing
(18:13):
Louisville would in fact make the playoffs and now it feels
like they're absolutely cruising.
I'm going to spoil a little bit of my power rankings.
I've got Racing Louisville as mythird best team in the NWSL.
Wow, OK, that's bold. You're just knifing your guy
Jonas in the back, huh? I mean, they got to, they got to
start scoring goals. Like at, at some point I, I had
(18:36):
in my notes a lot of these chances created and quote UN
quote shot creating actions. They they've got to start
creating some some goals, not just some shots or chances.
Yeah, it's a weird thing. I mean, you know, they obviously
what I mean they're they're tiedfor second with the most scored
this season. But yeah, these last five on the
spin, if you count the the last one before the break, 00120.
(19:06):
So yeah, I mean. I'm questioning some numbers
here. That sounds like three goals in
five games. Yeah, thank you for that.
A much more succinct way to say that, but yeah.
And you know, you get that they get that 21 win over Bay, who
was like, you know, kind of stuck near the bottom of the
table. So yeah, I I think racing
(19:26):
Louisville third best team in the league.
You got me. You got me thinking on that one.
I mean, the the Benda injury notgreat Portland Thorns a little
wobbly. I think you can make they just,
yeah. They just went to San Diego beat
them. Yeah.
I mean, you know, what are who are we talking about here?
I mean, like, I think it seems. I don't know.
(19:47):
I I see. But now, now I feel very I feel
more emboldened. Yeah, maybe we bubble, bubble.
I don't know. Washington.
What's Washington doing? And you Jordan Bloomer 8 saves
in this one. I thought she was awesome.
You know, like, yeah, one in particular that save on Corley
was, you know, very acrobatic and and a play that.
(20:10):
I think at the beginning of the season that that was one that
San Diego cashed, you know, and we're used to kind of seeing
that one go in and then the gamekind of tilts the other
direction. But San Diego dominated, you
know, three times as many touches in Louisville's half as
the inverse, 2 1/2 times more touches in the final third,
twice as many box touches, twiceas many shots.
(20:32):
But what kind of when it came down to it, like a lot of the
wave shots, to be honest, from distance, nothing too crazy
outside of that big quarley chance, nothing super duper
threatening. So I don't know.
Louisville just did a great job of Bend, but not breaking and
and you know, kind of keeping San Diego at Bay and another
another performance where San Diego kind of underwhelms
(20:54):
offensively. Yeah, it's a great point.
It takes a lot to beat Bloomer, who I think at least I have had
my eyes opened this season, likeas it's going on.
I mean, she's she's really an excellent keeper.
So yeah, I like the way they play.
They're gritty. They got a little bit of edge to
them. Taylor Flint is just
consistently good every single match.
(21:15):
She's got to be working her way back into US women's national
team contention. I'm just going to keep beating
that drum. Sorry, real quick, Taylor Flint,
I, I was thinking through the process of like, where where is
she on my MVP ballot? Because when you watch her, she
just stops so many things and she moves the ball along in so
(21:35):
many ways. You know, she had that she had
that great strike when Webber laid a ball off to her that she
kind of almost put in. And it's like, fuck, she's like,
she's effective at every like every part of the fish.
She's like super dangerous and she just covers so much ground.
I mean, like, I don't know, to me, she's she's in my like top
five top 6 MVP ballot. I think she's been that
important. And if and if Louisville can
(21:56):
kind of crawl up into that top three, I I feel like super,
super earned for for a player like that.
I mean they'll need her to play like an MVP candidate if they if
they get into the top three I think it'll be super well
deserved. I I you're right though, where
would they be without her? If you just put a replacement
level center midfielder in her spot, I don't think they'd be
(22:16):
nearly as good. No, I I totally agree San Diego,
we'll see we'll see what they'reable to they're able to put
together they they're heading your way, taking on the rain and
racing Louisville, they're heading home taking on Houston
dash and we'll see just kind of how how high Louisville can
climb. I think this was this was kind
of supposed to be a marquee matchup, you know, and, and San
(22:38):
Diego had to be a betting favorite in this one.
And they had success. But there's something about, and
I'm not, I'm not smart enough of, of a football brain to kind
of figure out what was going on here.
But Louisville felt in full control of the field position,
the tempo. It's like we.
Yeah. And like, you know, you look at
the possession numbers, 71% to 29 versus San Diego.
(23:02):
San Diego connects 89% of their passes to 75.
They dominated in both of those.They dominate, you know, like
where the ball is on the pitch. But it's almost like they let
you have it, but not in a, in a place that's 22.
It's like, almost like letting atoddler play, but you know,
you're not really letting them get into any kind of danger.
It's really trippy what they're able to do because it it, it
didn't feel like San Diego kind of had had any real chance to
(23:25):
kind of win that one. Yeah, I mean, they just, yeah,
they like they don't let you getinto your super comfortable
spots, right. Like, you can, you can have the
ball on the outskirts of the danger area, but you're not
really. And we've seen the matches where
Bloomer has had to stand on her head and kind of get pelted with
(23:47):
shots. And, you know, they they can
draw or lose those matches, obviously, but Bloomer will keep
a minute. But if you're if you're stuck
shooting from distance at Bloomer, you're probably not
going to have much of a chance. Yeah, no.
And that's pretty much what it was all day.
And then you look at the shot distribution, you know,
obviously 22 shots on the day, but the three leading, you know,
(24:08):
shot accumulators, Kenza Dali with five, Kennedy Wesley with
three, Melanie Barcenas with three.
So not quite your sharp shooterswho are, you know, I mean,
outside of Dali, Barcenas has been really good.
But you know, you have so many really good players that you'd
like, I don't know, you'd like maybe different players getting
the bulk of the shots there. But we'll see what they've got
(24:31):
this week against Seattle and we'll get into that once we hit
the preview later this week. But let's shift gears to a sad
1A real sad 1 Angel City one Orlando Pride nil sad from from
a lot of different angles. But I want to kick it to you.
Where do you want to get startedwith this one?
Hated it, hated watching it, didn't enjoy watching it.
(24:52):
Alyssa Thompson looks like Cowboy Bob Orton with that giant
arm cast. Looks like she when the referee
turns around, she's going to smash you over that skull with
it. No swimming for her.
Yeah, the the, you know, the, the overarching sadness, the
cloud in the air, the Barbara Benda injury, terrible.
(25:15):
I just Orlando looks, they just looked very beatable and they
looked really beatable and long stretches in this match and I
didn't like it. They looked beatable and they
also looked like they got bullied a little bit by Angel
City. You know, whether it was like,
you know, Madison Hammond or, you know, kind of Sarah Gordon
(25:37):
or, you know, Ceanus Jane kind of wanted to mix it up as well.
It just looked like, you know, and without Banda, this Orlando
side is this Orlando offense is just not really scary or
threatening. You know, it's it's like a
really big issue. Obviously the team also
announced the soon to be arrivalof Jacqueline or Elizabeth
(25:59):
Jacqueline Novaye from tigris. That's exciting.
So let's let's kick that into gear player that can score and
also assist. But before we get there, I mean
that this Orlando offense just really, really looking looking
for answers, looking for solutions and I think you know,
a player like Simone Jackson comes in has some positive
moments. I thought Ali Watt had some
(26:20):
positive moments. You know, being a little bit
more of that featured attacker on offense, those are
encouraging. But you know, we're at the
point, you know, if it's the second or third match of the
season and we're kind of like having this conversation.
That's one thing 17 matches in and we're still sort of trying
to figure out what the midfield looks like, what the attack
looks like. Also got news today that Morgan
(26:41):
Gautraw will be moving on. I think are retiring from
Orlando was was the announcementand and maybe possibly heading
over to Newcastle. So we'll see what happened to,
you know, you know, best of luckto Morgan there, But that's
another, you know, just piece that's somewhere else and and
another challenge for for Seb Heinz and Hayley Carter to kind
of figure out exactly how to getout of this.
(27:05):
Yeah, and Elizabeth Ovallez is really going to help.
I think US women's national teamfans probably remember absolute
laser of a goal she scored against them.
We've seen her do work for T Grace.
I mean, you know what, they announced it.
They announced her signing Thursday and then they played
(27:26):
later Thursday night. And just watching this match, I
was like, you couldn't get her on an earlier flight.
Like how like we, we couldn't have made this out of like, you
know, send, you know, send the PJ to go get her.
Was it the Wilf family or the the Wilfs or something?
The. Yeah, yeah, I think it.
I think it's the Wilfs, yeah. So but yeah, I mean the the
(27:49):
football gods giveth and they unfortunately do the other thing
as well. So Ovale can't get there fast
enough. I'll be interested to see what
her chemistry looks like with the other players, how she's
going to kind of fit into that wing rotation.
And then we'll see how she meshes meshes with Chalufia, who
I think you know, her and SimoneJackson.
(28:10):
They're going to have to providesomething in the center of the
park or, you know, down, down that central channel rather in
the number 9 spot. So, you know, they're they're
going to have to try to find some offense and hopefully that
gives their defense a little time to breathe and kind of get
back to their dominating ways. Yeah, I think defensively
(28:30):
there's a lot to kind of like feel positive about.
There's still a little bit of like flux, especially the
outside backs, you know, whetherit's Piquet or Abella or Corey
Dyke or O Yani or Alfa LA, like,you know, it's there.
There's still some, you know, moving parts like Sam's and
Nadan are seem to be like the the two constants among that
(28:51):
group. And yeah, you look at Orlando, I
mean, I really hope the the chemistry comes soon because you
look at the shot distribution inthis one, Carson, you know, like
the leader in shots in this one for Orlando, there was a four
way tie between Carson Pickett, Allie Watt, Hayley Mccutchen and
Oyane Hernandez, who all led theteam with two shots.
(29:12):
So not sure you know, the the eight shots in the matcher is
that's exactly how you want it distributed.
But to your point, I think Obaiaideally comes in and is able to,
you know, connect some more things.
I think Chalufia, I'm glad you brought her up.
I think she's been improving andcoming on more and more, but
probably not at the rate where she's a player you can count on
(29:34):
down the stretch and definitely not in the play offs and
definitely not on the road in the play offs.
But you know, that's no knock onHershey.
I think she is improving and she's a good player, but you
know, it's a lot to, it's a lot to ask when you know a player
like Banda, you know, just kind of gets zapped off the roster.
Yeah, it's tough. I mean, you know, it's hard to
(29:54):
for any team to lose their number 9, but we're talking
about one of the what, at worst,five best number nines in the
world. You're just not going to be able
to fully replace that. That's the way the that's the
way the sport works. No way, but I mean, you know, to
to Hayley Carter's credit and tothat organization's credit,
nobody thought Banda was going to come in last year and do what
she did, you know, So who knows?I mean, maybe, maybe there's a
(30:17):
little bit more magic left in the bottle.
We'll see. But I want to scoot ahead here.
Maybe maybe AI mean if there wasany game this weekend to have
our guy Mike Watson. How about Chicago stars 3 N
Carolina Courage 3? Let's fuck it, go.
That was a football game. I mean just that.
(30:38):
Was the second. That was the second-half of
football for Danielle. Let's go.
Let's let's zoom in a little a little further.
It absolutely was. I mean, if we want to talk about
the moments, I I just think the Tyler Lucy goal, I I'm not, I
can't even like what what minutewas that?
That was around like the hour mark I want to say.
(31:00):
Just a little. Just a little gap wedge, just a
little. Just you got to get it over the
bunker, just to use the shoulders, a little chip, just
just get it right over the goalkeeper.
I loved it. Get a little grass on the way
in. Yeah, yeah.
Just slow things down a little, you know, a little texture, a
little texture to it. That was great.
But, you know, the story of the day, I mean, it's got to be
(31:22):
Lugemila. You know, I thought, you know,
this was another one where the courage, you know, to their
credit, they, they carve out A2 nil lead on the road against a
team that they probably feel like they need to beat.
And then Lou Jamila just breaks it open 76th minute.
And I think when she scores thatfirst one, I knew it was 2 nil.
(31:42):
And she, you know, North Carolina has the game well in
hand. But I look at the clock and I'm
like, there's for how badly she beat that North Carolina
defense. I look at the clock, I'm like,
there's a lot of time left in this one.
And I'm like, if she just did that, there's really nothing
precluding her from, from doing that again and equalizing and,
and I, I, I even sold it. Short they were, I mean, early
(32:07):
in the season before the international break, Chicago was
the team that was coughing away Leeds regularly.
Now it would appear no lead is safe versus them.
And like they have they have taken that energy and you know,
they're they're roaring back in these matches.
You talked about the match, you know, previously against Seattle
(32:28):
rain, like they, they're unkillable right now.
And I just, you know, you got tolook at LMSR and kind of what
she's been able to implement just in these like these few
weeks of taking charge. And I just like it, man.
I they just look different dude.I, I'm laughing because I
rewatched right, you know, like Chicago Courage and you know,
(32:50):
like sometimes like they, they usually will start to rewatch
like 10 minutes. They'll give you the, the 10
minutes prior to kick off. And there was an LMSR package
where she's talking and it lookslike she's on a zoom and being
recorded. Did you see this?
You know what I'm talking about.No, I missed it.
So she's being recorded and she's just like, she's like does
(33:11):
Chicago like, you know, like, and she just sounds like a
version of like a little bit of Tupac and a little bit.
She's just so passionate about like Chicago and having be and
I'm just like, yeah, I'm sittinghere in San Francisco.
I've been in Chicago like twice in my life.
I'm like, yeah, this is fucking Chicago.
I'm so fired up. So I'm like, oh, yeah, this is
this is, you know, like this is a a coach that I can see getting
(33:35):
a team kind of turned around considering like, you know, how
how rocky things were for for the Chicago side.
And I want to call out one player specifically that we've
talked about on the show last few weeks who probably wasn't my
favorite player last year. And just kind of with like a
player that was like she's this place is an annoying player.
Like I don't want to like, like I just was not into watching
(33:56):
this player. And I've completely done a 180.
Ali Schlagel is so good and she's so busy and so threatening
and so like, I don't know, I just love.
I, I I think I compared her to Alessia Russo like a few weeks
ago and that's kind of who she reminds me of just because she
just goes and goes and goes and goes.
The reason I bring her up is I feel like Schlagelbal started in
(34:20):
earnest like 3-4 weeks ago whereit's just like, she's just going
to like outwork everybody. And I feel like it's had a
really positive effect. And you don't you don't know if
like that that player responded the most to like Ella Massar or
like, or what exactly is happening.
But it's clear that she turned acorner, You know, and be like,
I'm going to lead through just how hard I'm going to work.
(34:42):
And then it's clear that other players have followed suit, are
following suit. And now all of a sudden, to your
point, Chicago, not a team that you know is going to roll this
down and you're just like, all right, this is a dub.
Yeah, yeah, not at all. And I mean, she's she just wins
the ball, you know what I mean? Like with Schlegel, like I just
like you talk about her work rate.
She's great in the air. She has good timing.
(35:04):
Yeah. I, I, I, I like her toughness.
Only two goals this season, but it feels like she impacts the
match more than that, like, especially in these last few
weeks. So, yeah, I mean, there's
something to be said for a team that's kind of stuck at the
bottom of the table, you know, doesn't have any real playoff,
any real realistic playoff hopesat the at this point, but is
(35:26):
still willing to fight out there.
So again, shout, shout to LMSR, who I hope gets future
management. Nigeria looks, whether it's it's
in a blue collar city like Chicago or you know, any other
city around the world. I I hope she gets another
opportunity. The Chicago, Yeah, shout out to
Jaden Shaw, too. Really, really great to see
(35:48):
Jaden Shaw score a goal. Smile, enjoy football, even for
a couple minutes. So that that really felt good as
AUS massage team supporter Sam Staub, another player maybe on
the periphery of the national team. 2 assists in this one.
The Sam Staub return resurgence re emergence kind of continues.
Love to see that as well. But let's shift gears here to
(36:11):
your squad. Houston dash 1 Seattle rain one
I'm dying to hear. I mean, this is the Seattle
season's taken a a weird turn. The weird turn kind of
continues. I'm dying to hear what your
takeaways were from this one. So, you know, they come back
from international break, they get the two nil win over Angel
(36:34):
City feels good. Then you get the loss, big loss
against Portland Thorns on the road, you know, weird weather,
just get outplayed. Feels like the young players
kind of get lost in the in the gigantic rivalry.
You know, the atmosphere. Understandable then they you
know, they give away the three nil lead to Chicago, which some
(36:57):
you know, credit to Chicago, butyou're up by three goals in the
second-half. You should win at home.
Well, you should absolutely win that match.
And they were just getting they were just getting diced like on
the wings against Chicago in those in in that match.
And then Houston dash, you go toHouston, who you and I have said
(37:17):
have been relatively frisky throughout the season.
Like Houston is not a pushover, despite them being near the
bottom of the table as well. And you know, Phoebe Mclernan
just has an absolute howler. Just, you know, just a complete
mix up of where she is on the field and where Yasmine Ryan is.
And Ryan is one of those playersthat if you if you dilly dally
(37:41):
with the ball or whatever you want to call it, you make a
silly mistake like that, she's going to pounce on it.
And then Ryan is such a a great athlete and such a genius
athlete that she pounces on it, but then has the patience to to
deke Dickey and then deke Mclernan again and then just
tuck it away. You know, terrible mistake by
(38:03):
Mclernan, but you know, they're able to get the recovery and
kind of squeak out, squeak out the draw.
I still think, you know, you gotto be disappointed with it,
though. Like if you're in the race and
San Diego, Orlando and Portland,and I think, I think maybe one
of those matches happened after the fact.
But when those three teams lose in front of you, you got to be
(38:27):
kicking yourself that you only got to draw.
I think that's one way to look at it.
I think another way to look at it is Houston was a lot better
than Seattle on this day. You know, they notched probably
fair too. Yeah, I think they notched a lot
more shots. You know, they they were able to
penetrate deeper, you know, you know, better possession, you
(38:50):
know, the a super opportunistic with that goal, which is kind of
how they want to play. I think they probably would have
wanted a little bit more offensively, but you know, I
thought, you know, Seattle's a professional team defensively.
They're not just going to well, in this instance they did.
They did give one away, but you know, like they won't do that
(39:12):
often. They won't make a habit of it
for sure. But I thought I thought Houston
was better. I thought the the announcing
team brought up a good point, which was like, all right, let's
see what Houston can do playing from ahead.
You know, and I think, you know,relatively predictably, they do
give up the equalizer. I think relatively
unpredictably. Jordan Heitzma on the end of it,
(39:32):
but kind of a kind of a cool moment.
And and if you're a team that's,you know, got like bigger
aspirations and maybe just making the play offs, scratching
out a draw here against the Houston side that, you know, to
your point is maybe a little bitmore than feisty.
I think you know, I'll, I'll, I want to pose one quick question
to you because there was 1 chunkof my power rankings that I
(39:54):
really struggled with. Apologies.
I keep going back to my power rankings well, but it occupied a
lot of my brain this week. I think there's a clear top six
KC, Washington, Louisville, Orlando, San Diego, and
Portland, right? 789 is where I think I've got
(40:18):
Seattle, Gotham, and Houston. All in the same kind of like 789
band, you know, and I'm not saying like, all right, this is
where they're going to finish atthe end of the season, but this
is where I think these teams areat based on Seattle and Houston.
Do you still feel like Seattle is the better team?
Do you feel like it was like, you know, they left it on the
(40:39):
table? You feel like these teams are
relatively even or arrow point or arrows pointing up and arrows
pointing down. How do you how do you view these
two teams specifically in relation to each other?
You know, not all draws are created equal, and I think
that's kind of what, you know, if I could guess, like what's in
your head here, you know, the draw versus Chicago and then
(41:02):
this draw where they kind of getout where they do.
I think you're right. They do get outplayed for big
chunks of the match against Houston.
I think, you know, you can make a real argument that Seattle's
arrow is pointing down. I feel like it's still kind of
pointing sideways. Because the one thing, the thing
that's stuck in my head here is when do I get to see me official
(41:25):
play more minutes like that should like that's still in the
chamber. And then I'm not accusing
anybody at Seattle Rain FootballClub of being dishonest.
Why isn't Lin Biandolo playing more If everybody keeps telling
me that she could go, she could play more minutes if if she
needed to, then why isn't she playing?
(41:48):
She's one of the, you know, likeI understand she's like a little
up there in age, but you didn't sign her for her not to play.
I mean, yeah, that, that that's a little bit disappointing and I
think like it. It's been I think a few weeks
and correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a few weeks of Seattle
line UPS that look like they're missing bite or just like
(42:10):
leaving a lot of bite on the bench.
You know, I think we, we've seenfishel already.
We've seen bandola already this season offensively, you know
this Seattle put up the the worst XG performance of the
weekend, 0.36. Also the worst shot output.
Just five shots on the day. Heights have had two, three
(42:32):
players with one shot each. That's going to, it's going to
be tough to beat anybody. You're putting up five shots
and, you know, having that that little effectiveness getting the
ball up field. But I mean, I feel like, yeah, I
feel like it's tough to say, butI feel like Houston could be
(42:53):
approaching that same level where Seattle's AT.
And I think that probably says something about each team.
Maybe Houston on the ascent, Seattle backsliding a little bit
doesn't mean it's going to continue.
But I feel like if if this is going to be the lineup and the
offensive approach, I'm not surehow that I'm not sure how that
(43:14):
gets sorted. I think by the time we get to
the playoffs. Yeah, and you know, Jess
Fishlock is one year younger than me and you get 3 minutes of
her this match because she needed to rest because she's
getting, she's playing a lot of minutes.
And so you needed to rest. But look, to your point, the
attack doesn't look dangerous hardly at all without her on the
(43:39):
pitch. G so young, another player
toward the end of her career. I just doesn't provide the same
bite. I think you you put it perfectly
as Fishlock in in that kind of in those central areas or I
think, you know, think G spent some time out wide on this one.
I will say little silver lining,Maddie, Darlene and Sam Mezza
(44:00):
looked better than they had in the in the previous two weeks.
It felt like they were kind of in their own heads there for a
little while. It seemed like they started to
break out of that. And that was a big part of the
secret sauce earlier in the season was that Mezza and
Darlene were giving you great minutes.
And now we might also have to live with, you might have to
look at if you're talking about arrows again or if we're
thinking about like which direction the team's going.
(44:23):
You know, Mezza and Dalene, young players.
It's Dalene's first year in the league.
This is Mezza's first real year in the league.
All these matches again, these physical games against these
grown adult athletes that they're playing against, you
know, are they, are they going to wear down a little bit, you
know, as they kind of build up their adult strength?
(44:44):
Yeah, that's a great point. I mean it's it's like a team of
you know, vet veteran veterans and and a lot of young players,
you know, Jordan bug, another player that that didn't didn't
see any action in this one. But let's shift gears.
The final match up Week 17 Gotham FC nil, Utah Royals NIL
(45:05):
all right man, anything just went here before we get.
Out here, good game. Mandy McGlynn thought that was
that was entertaining, as entertaining as anything else
we're going to get out of this match.
Rose Lavelle looked fast. She looked like she had a lot of
energy out there. Had an explosive run on goal
early in the match. That Rose Lavelle thing where
she picks up the ball at at halffield is like, OK, 50 yard run
(45:27):
here. Yeah.
Well, let's see, What else do wehave?
Guatemalan striker Aisha Solorzano had that shot off the
crossbar from a nice free kick off of into the danger area by
Zoroa. That's all I got other than that
this is a sleepy boys podcast. That was a a sleepy time match
(45:50):
my good man. Real sleepy I think yeah Astaire
had some chances, not able to kind of catch and ultimately I
agree with you. The Mandy McGlynn game had the
highest rated fat mob score across all seven matchups where
she had Jordan Bloomberg was theonly player that equaled her and
well deserved a bunch of big stops and had to face the Gotham
(46:10):
side that was able to register 44 touches in the box.
So that's no joke. And you know, when when Esther's
a part of that mix, when Roosevelt's a part of that mix,
you know, it's it's dangerous either way.
But you know, Gotham continues to kind of feel like a fringe
playoff team. And I think this is a very
fringe playoff team kind of performance.
Can't get a win against, I'll say a pesky Utah side.
(46:34):
I think there's a little a little a little bounce back
potential post Ali Sentinor trade.
I think Utah hasn't looked terrible, terrible or as
terrible as I think we we were afraid it could have gotten.
So I think a, a nil, nil, you know, for as underwhelming as as
that, that sounds probably the the right result for for these
two teams with, with where they're at and with the
(46:55):
performance that they put forward in this one.
Yeah, I yeah, I think if you're if you're Gotham, you hate it.
Obviously. I think you should feel like you
got to you got to beat Utah on that spot.
But I think you're right. That's probably why they're more
of a fringe playoff team than a team that I'm that I think other
squads would really be fearing in the play offs.
Yep, no doubt. All right, man, Week 17 in the
(47:18):
books. As mentioned, we'll be back
later this week with the Week 18weekend preview.
I think we get, I think we get 4Friday matches, a Saturday, a
Sunday and a Monday. So it's a, it's a kind of like a
fun, fun football weekend distribution.
And I haven't talked to you about this, but we're recording
this Wednesday. I'm sorry, Tuesday night Pacific
(47:39):
in the United States and about 6hours time, 7 hours time our
beloved SK Bron takes on intid Nazi.
Oh, Nali, I've already put the put the bat signal out to some
of our friends in Norway trying to figure out a way to, to, to
watch this match. Well, we're going to do
everything we can over the next 6-7 hours.
Try to put that together. But as mentioned, we'll be back
later this week with the weekendpreview for NW Cell week 18.
(48:03):
All right man, anything else youwant to hit before we get out of
here? I think that's it.
Bronze on a heater. I think they've won their last
seven on the spin. Yeah, we have battalion.
Let's get this. Let's get this fucking done.
We are looking unstoppable rightnow.
Let's go. That's right, it's it's our
time. It's our time now.
All right, then this for anotherepisode to the channel.
(48:23):
Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
out. If you enjoyed the show or love
women's football as much as yourboys do, make sure you're
kicking with us each and every single week.
Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
favorite podcast app links all of our socials except one in the
show of this episode and a big thing in my coast as well.
Mr. Grant angle for stepping up,stepping in.
(48:46):
I appreciate you, bro. During a very tumultuous time
here in the Deceptius household,but also a very glorious time in
the Deceptius household. You're absolutely coerced.
That I can count on. I appreciate you bro.
Likewise, buddy, I'm extremely happy for you and the entire
family. I'm glad we could, we could fit
this in the schedule. I'll continue to complain about
(49:09):
my work schedule, about how busymy life is, just, you know,
because obviously I need people to feel terrible for me, but
I'll be alright, which I do. We got.
Yeah, thanks. We, you know, we got, we got the
football with us. That's all we can ask for
alongside all of you. Thank you guys for dropping
knowledge again. Thanks for being patient with
us. Patient with us.
(49:30):
Even though I don't think anybody was really asking for us
while we're gone. They're like, yeah, they'll come
back eventually. We usually have like a weird
hiatus like once per NWSL season, but the season rolls on
and the Champions League is coming back.
That's what I mean. I'm extremely excited about
that. So keep your eyeballs out for
whatever kind of preview episodewe do as the qualification rolls
(49:53):
on. And enough rambling out of
Maine. We will see you all next time.
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