ACFC EOY Recap

Welcome to Casual FC, an Angel City preview pod and Footy Therapy pod featuring two certified footy therapists. Certified by who? Us, but still, we're certified.

We're

I

and certifiable. Get with it. Yay,

with my amazing, dino wearing co host, Angela Morales. This

in my eye and like, yay.

doesn't count, this doesn't count as Angela crying.

No, absolutely not. For the record. That just, genuinely hurt. It felt like a rock flew in my eye. Anyway, hi

Anyway,

the

hey,

Woo!

so we are on our kind of sporadic, Group of episodes, and today is going to be a special one.

do this time?

Exactly. Today's special episode. we're going to close out the year by just kind of recapping the lot of off season movement that's been happening the last couple of weeks. So what do we know? What don't we know? And it's still up in the air.

We don't know a lot. Nobody knows anything.

and then just throwing out some questions that, if we remember to answer them when it comes to the preview episode next season,

Do

we'll try to answer them.

notes and scripts and bullet points of things? Yes. Do we ever look at them after we're done? No.

No.

Or,

know what?

know what? I should say rarely. Because sometimes I go back to see, who I've already talked about.

okay.

going to find a better way to track it and I just don't.

So

I wrote it down.

in high school, did you ever get the were you ever given the annual planner? Like the school planner?

This is where our neurodivergence differs.

Hehehehe. I mean,

gave it up. I got the, the planner that has the like, wooshy wooshy, holographic little thing.

that's, that's, that's, that sound, how you have a sound. Everybody has a thing.

Is it

that just yeah,

I'm

and,

but you know exactly what planner I'm talking about.

yeah, it's the same planner, the same planner we got.

in like seventh grade and I never looked back.

Okay, see, I have,

girly.

I have countless of these books, okay? And I use them, I do, I do, I use them, a ton. But.

he never saw it again. Yep.

the main thing was like, oh, you'd go up with your planner, you'd start off the day, and then, at least for us, like, all the teachers, upper right hand corner of the whiteboard would write the homework for the day. I'd pop out that book, write it down, that muscle memory was there. Close that, throw it in the bag, completely forgot about it.

only see it the next period when you have to do the same thing again.

But by the end of the day, the only time I saw it was when I opened it again, first period, to write down the homework for the next It's a miracle I got

no.

of my homework done. Honestly, I don't know how I did, and, and that's, that's my constant dilemma, my constant problem is I write stuff down, and sometimes it gets chaotic, at one point I couldn't find this book, and And so I, my desk literally was covered in, in these orange, post its, the white ones, everywhere. And I had them layered by conversation. Heh heh heh. Heh heh heh. Heh heh heh.

I will make a special trip up to the valley to get you figured out.

and I, and the thing is that starting the new year, I have a nice clean one, a new one to use. cause I'm also almost done with this one. But, I've tried, I've tried bullet journaling. I've tried every which way method out there. Okay.

thing with neurodivergence is you have to find the ones that are already like 90 percent of the way done for you.

Yeah, I I saw one that I really liked and I was like, oh, I'm gonna order this one, but apparently they're from Australia and the book, the one booklet, because I was like, I'm not gonna order everything. I'm just gonna order one booklet, see if it actually works for me. The booklet is 20 bucks. But then to ship it from Australia to here is 20 bucks.

Yeah, that's fair.

so yeah. Okay.

we'll have to deep dive about planners at our planning meeting.

Yet I somehow figure out how to like schedule and script our

We're, we're already into a shenanisode and I called that earlier today for the record.

Yes, yes, Angela did.

shenanisode. I've been up since 3 a. m. Cause Eva flew out to New Jersey today. Also, my dishwasher was running because I started it then it was like, oh, I'm gonna go set up to record. And then went, ah, damn it. So if you hear weird gurgling noises, it's just

It's not, it's not Angela. okay.

off to the side, it's because I decided to try something new and switch where I have things on my screen and now I don't know what I'm doing.

Oh, oh no. Okay.

who knows?

Let's roll with it. Let's roll with it.

Pretty much.

Some of them, we know where they went. Some of them we don't. I mean, first one that was

Heartbreaking.

heartbreaking and a shock. And I want to say If she ever listens to us, or has listened, we, I know it was probably, I want to put the good faith out there that it was probably your decision, right? It's free agency, you got your one year contract, you rocked it, but then, Let's go check out something new. Plus you're a California girl. I mean,

Yeah, you home. Go explore.

yeah, it's, you don't have to be like me. I don't like, I don't like other cities. I don't like other people. Like I want to stay here, so I'm good.

Mario, who are you talking about? I know who

Curry.

Just

I was going to get to it. It's going to be a big, yeah, big buildup, but Maddie Curry, is now moving on to Seattle. We, and see, the thing is, the thing that was also part of a big shock to all of this is that it wasn't one of those, thank you, thank you, Maddie, for, always part of the family, moving on to Seattle, because there was no trade. Yeah, it was just a straight up, out of nowhere. Yeah, peace out. thank you, Maddie. Thank you. And then that was it. It's just Oh man,

Depressing.

of bad news.

Yeah, this offseason's been rough, y'all.

yeah. but she's up in Seattle, which means we'll still see her in the NWSL. now we're just gonna have that extra hard time getting past her, because

thing is, is Seattle did not re sign Sierra King. That's right. Jess Fishlock's wife.

I wondered, because there's been a couple of those, right? There's been a couple of, there's been a couple of these, like Relationships that are, were either on the same team or near each other that are starting to

They found out before Wales competed to qualify for the Euros. So Jess Fishlock is trying to, prep for the game, and they're in Wales. Sierra King finds out she's not resigned. And then Fishlock has to go play the game, and then they end up qualifying. And I can't imagine how emotional that day was. Anyway, it's just,

Yeah.

weird shit going on y'all.

Chaos is brewing.

No, or as NWSL fans, because I don't know if you saw what was announced today. Today's Monday. Also we're recording on the 23rd. Balls FC announced their stadium. I've

Oh no, I missed that one. Okay, I saw, I saw memes going up about San Diego and Balls FC. is this anything to do with the whole, them sharing with the high school?

Yeah, so they now are like 13th priority in schedule making there's 12 events that are going to be happening at this field for the public school districts, which by all means, use, use it,

Use the stadium. I mean, nothing's worse than a big ol stadium that nobody uses.

So there's that. So there, there's a 13th in line to get scheduled. That, that's one. Two, there can't be, I think it's weekend games can't start after 830 Eastern. There can only, you can only be there like two hours pregame, one hour postgame. You can't have two, like you can't have, like it's, two games can't be in the same month. Like it's this whole like. Choose your own adventure, everything is confusing, but basically, how are they gonna schedule this?

Yeah.

Genuinely, I

You know what? And then

Every time

I

the chance to do something good, they don't.

Look. Look, NWSL, is, who, what, Jessica, what, what, Berman?

I'm also upset about Cleveland.

Look, you had Cleveland, who was going to build a stadium, you had Cincinnati, who already had everything set up, who has a stadium, and you go give it to Denver, who doesn't have shit, and if they do play, they're gonna be playing in Dick's Sportings, which is in the boonies,

Yeah.

and they, people barely go. Although, the Rapids had a pretty good year this year. and then now Boston, who like,

It's

they,

deeper and deeper.

they fumbled, they fumbled the balls thing. They I did not mean that. Okay. okay. Okay. Yes.

And on that note, I'm moving my microphone. So maybe I'll be able to look at my camera. Shenanigans. Okay, so let's, we'll get back to the shenanigans of the league probably later. Let's talk about has left us.

Yeah, we, we were going on a roll of our own team.

Depressed. Look.

okay. next on the list is Not that surprising. Kinda surprising, but not surprising.

disappointment and waste of a year of somebody's career and frustrating everything,

Yes.

I don't think anybody is happy with Rocky's tenure at Angel City. don't think she's happy. She didn't play. think the fans are happy because she didn't play.

I, I will say this And this is me going off of my very bad memory. Wasn't Rocky injured when we first got her?

no, she was fine, but in the gold cup, she got a concussion.

Okay. Okay.

at the beginning of the season, she had a concussion. But then

Okay. So we didn't, we didn't We didn't do the traditional Rehab FC to thing where we're like, we can make you better. No,

We can heal you. Granted, we usually do, but,

I can fix her. I promise.

Oh, no. Team red flag. Yeah, we essentially wasted a year with the Rocky Rodriguez, and I will, I think, forever be mad.

It's very, it was. Yeah. I mean, who knows? Who knows what the reasons were? Who knows why Tweed wasn't putting her in, the times that she was in again, mixed bag, like sometimes it worked. Sometimes it was like, Oh.

But when there's

She was in, yeah.

you, yeah,

team had, had games where you could have just gone without knowing they even were on the field. Like the, they didn't do anything and it wasn't necessarily because of them. It was just, weird lineups, like everything's different. Like you're not keeping anything consistent.

yeah.

yes, biggest. Disappointment, waste of time for, her career and everything. She's moving on to Kansas City, and

come bite us in the ass. Just FYI. going to put it out there right now. That's going to bite us in the ass.

You know what? Every move that we have made has bit us in the ass.

Yeah.

Every single one. Even Henry. Henry at Utah, beat the crap out of us.

Yeah. So we'll see.

yeah, we're, we don't got, we don't got a good record on, on some of these moves.

No,

yeah. All right. so that's second player gone.

There's

go watch it!

and I'm so sad about all of it. I'm just grateful that in that retirement episode, Eva and I had the wherewithal to talk about Broon. about Becky Sauerbrunn, and gushed about Becky Sauerbrunn, and I'm still sad that Becky Sauerbrunn retired, Like, she had stepped away from the national team, and then she announced her retirement from the league, and it just Damn.

yeah,

What a time, what a time, what a time.

Katie Johnson is also, was not re signed, was, chain of events went, Katie Johnson was released, or not released because it's not like we have that type of contract thing anymore,

yeah,

just Katie Johnson wasn't renewed. And then a week or two later, she announces her retirement. Hopefully the reason she wasn't renewed is because she was already talking to the team about look, I'm retiring.

was injured the majority of the season,

Yeah, yeah.

it was like, we'll you know, I don't know.

Yeah.

when team conversations came up, she was probably like, yeah, just don't Like, open up the spot on the roster. It time to Put those feelings into words for like a social media post Like, you can have talked about it. You can have made that decision quietly, but making it very public is

Yeah, yeah, I mean, making any type of announcement that you're walking away from essentially what has been Your life, your whole life.

Mexico. done so much.

Yeah, yeah, and, we wish, Merritt, and K. Jo the best in retirement. I know they're probably gonna come back in some weird, combo podcast that's gonna, kick her ass and, yeah.

Merritt was at a broadcasting, course that the PA put together, the NWSL and the WNBA PA put

Oh, okay.

like retired athletes going into commentating and that, like, uh, how to do it. So she was there. So it's a sour bun.

Retirement and you.

What?

Retirement and you. Your next steps.

Retirement 101. What to do now?

Alright, so the next three, have not announced any type of retirement or even what's going on yet.

I'm

jazz,

to preface this by saying, in my notes, can tell that I have just seen Frozen 2 for the first time. I'm not singing it. I want to, but I'm not, I'm going to spare our listeners because I want them to come back. But I basically just said, for the first person, Into the Unknown, then the second one, Into the Unknown,

DD,

then it's just a lot of capital letters.

and then MDH. Hi.

one. Like, it's the long into the unknown. I

You're not in?

sing and I totally chickened out for the record.

There was, if you're watching the, if you're watching us on video, there was a slight hesitation.

I

In. so yes. Into

so people actually see it.

Into the Unknown is, Jazz Spencer, Dee Dee Heritage, and Maggie Dirty Howard. How Yes. Howard. I thought the name was something else. Oh, man. yes. We don't know, they were released, not renewed, from their contracts, and they haven't announced, they haven't been picked up by anybody else. so they're still free agents, but I mean, off season's still kinda young, I mean, we've got till,

There's a break in trades and things right now for the holidays. So.

but I mean,

Who knows?

like we said, the NWSL schedule's not gonna get released till like we start the season, you never know what's gonna happen.

We don't even know what we're doing.

And then, the big elephant in the room, the merch that is no longer in our store.

Yeah, we had to take down a lot of merch real quick.

Becky Tweed. Becky Tweed got a year and a half with the team. Rockstar, second half, recovered, amazing, undetweeted run.

Yeah, it was a

11 matches. we did amazing. And then it just gave everybody such high hopes for the season. And then we get Freya 2. 0. and

There's theories as to why and what, but essentially it doesn't really matter because.

she's gone.

as a team, from scratch, basically. GM open, head coach open, the coaching staff open.

I

a lot,

goalkeeping coach open. Yeah. So there's, there's a lot of unknowns. Becky, we don't know what's going to happen if she's going to get picked up by anybody else. I mean, Freya got picked up by Casey and then became the assistant. And then they went gangbusters all year. So you never know. who knows? But, like Angela said, we are in search for our head coach. So we'll see what happens there.

like, don't listen to this episode, but also listen to it.

okay, so we'll just go flip flop from position. So I'll start off with goalkeeping. We, Angelina Anderson, we already had, on contract for one more year, and so 2025 will be the last contract year that we have with Angelina. I think, as we've stated before, she was totally short handed, or, or got the, the crap end of the stick, this season.

Yeah.

so they'll, they'll be playing there. Usually those games are very much like kind of intense preseason training where you can really just

Mm

just kind of rotate everybody. But then it gives everybody some playing time. So that's, that's always good. it's usually, it'll usually be like Angel City versus. Houston and the Coachella Valley wins. There's three teams playing in those games.

Yeah.

those balls just go, whoosh.

They go flying. Coachella's no joke. Like I, Eva and I joke that the only way you could get me to go to Coachella, like the music festival, one, because it's my birthday weekend, it's first weekend in May, two, I'm like, the only way I would go is if you're playing, that means I like, most likely would have some not be with the masses passes, like, I get some, I

The bougie passes.

a little bit, or like, just sign me in, like, let me sit down. I'm old. My body

I'm too old for this. I don't, I don't need to, I can't, I can't do a festival.

Yeah. So let's talk about defense, my friend. Who do we got?

We've got M. A.

Woo.

M. A. is coming back. Extended her contract. So we get more explosive M. A. to Syd Connections,

Get

next season. Okay.

a lot of whoever comes in. I have a feeling there's going to be like, push this ball wings. Like, just what have doing? Like, get,

Yeah.

G I T, get.

she is fast as, I mean, get her, let her, let her go.

Mm

All right. we also got Megan Reid. We've got Sarah Gordon. Madison Hammond and Gisele Thompson coming back.

Yes,

That's what we have on defense. In the mid, we re signed Claire Emsley, which was one of those that was like,

the best announcement. I think any of us could have like inadvertently prepared ourselves for.

it's, it's the type of signing where we love Claire. We wanted Claire to stay from a purely sporting standpoint of the team. Was it the smartest decision to re sign Claire, that could be debatable, right? But

Yeah.

we would have rioted if

Yeah,

got.

if they had let Claire slip away the entire fan base would have just been like picketing

Yeah. Yeah. so glad that we have Claire and have her for a couple years. So we're, we're gonna be good there. and we've also got Lily Nabet. Elizabeth, Eddy is still around, Kennedy Fuller, Katie Zelem, and our brand new signing as of today,

December 23rd.

Macey Hodge. And I think you put some notes on who Macey Hodge is.

is. fresh out of Mississippi State who are coming off an undefeated season and she was an like, first team All American, first team All SEC, SEC Midfielder of the Year. SEC sports in general are huge. Oklahoma, Texas, like um, South Carolina, you have like heavy hitting in schools. Good at every sport because they have a gazillion dollars to play with.

Yes.

have a feeling like we've, we've got, we've, we still have a good foundation.

The pieces are here.

pieces are here. The pieces have always been here. Whether or not we play the pieces is the question.

Yes.

But yeah. Anyway.

or not we play the pieces or how those pieces back up each other is really the question and so Yeah, I'm I'm excited Maybe and you know at some point We're probably gonna talk to someone who knows a little bit more about like how to set these things up And do we have holes? I mean, where are the holes and what would we need and then You know send that to the team and be like, hey

Once we have a final roster, then we'll talk about it.

Alright, and then as the attacker forward list, we've got a lot of good, coming back talent. We've got Alyssa Thompson coming back. Syd Leroux got re signed for three years. So we've got her.

in L. A. That's what

Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Talk to your therapist. you know, hit us up. You're okay. We're gonna be okay. We're not gonna be okay, but we're gonna be okay.

okay. At least she's not going out with the entire class of 2024, which was like gut punch for all of the WOSO fans.

team, half the 2019 team. Like, just my heart on, on a revolving door getting just smacked around.

Yeah, I mean, I saw, I, I kept up with all the, the, the online discourse about it and be like, yeah. I mean, emotionally, I'm not there because, it's not that for me, but I completely understand what it is,

a slap in the face because they're like a year or two younger than us, like maybe, or we're the same age. And I, just depressing.

All right, so we have, Casey Phair also. Hopefully, we get to actually see her play Real Minutes during a real season. With us, and not just with the South Korean team, and not just during a BS Summer Cup.

a 7 0 1 win. Yep.

Ah, alright, she's young, and hopefully she's moldable in whatever new system comes out that she becomes a good key player for

She

didn't miss.

half of the season.

She didn't get to, she didn't get to be Messiah Bright, right? She didn't get to be Rookie of the Year Messiah Bright

Yeah.

the whole season.

Yeah. She, and like, the injury was one of those where it was, like, Like, yes, no, yes, no. So it wasn't, like, she wasn't ready, but she wasn't ready, if that makes sense.

Yeah.

she was probably so there. Physically, her body was like, nah, girl, chill.

Yeah. Yeah. There were some games where when she started she had Some really great moments. And then you can see that she was starting to burn out because of maybe her fitness wasn't there or whatever. And then we had Sid come in as like super sub and just kill it because Sid is just a beast. Like she is like, how do you have the energy to do that? How the hell do you have energy to do that with two kids? it's just insane.

I think that's what we'll see this season, genuinely. I think it's, it's gonna be that transition more, or like, first half, second half, and then

Yeah,

that kind of thing. But, either way, I'm happy to have both of them still. Because, uh, an M. A. to Syd connection, M. A. to Messiah, like, M. A. to Alyssa, we just, we've got, we've got it.

we've got the, we've got the skills to like.

us, let these girls let them run, let them fly. gonna, I'm just gonna be talking about forever. Like, please let them play. Just please.

and then we, we've got our other new signing, Julie Dufour? Dufour? Dufour? Dufour? She French. She's French.

So she's a French national team player. We got her from Paris FC. nice thing is that in the last two seasons, she's scored 13 goals. Which is a lot.

That's insane.

mean, we were

I mean,

this year as NWSL fans with Barbara Chawinga scoring gazillions of goals. But 13 in two years is a lot. A I'm Like, I think the biggest thing is cohesion and that's what the team's gonna need. It's like they just need to together and have similar groups play with Like, similar starting lineups. Similar, similar things to create habits and patterns and,

consistency.

exactly, just a little bit. Just as much.

So yes, there is a big name missing there that we will get to in a minute.

she just said she wanted to come back. She didn't say when. This one she said, when, like, they've announced, like, when the loan is over, she's coming back. I don't know what that's going to mean. I put notes, like, I'll believe it when I see it, Vanessa. You might be

I mean,

of or the Canadian player of the but like, girl, are you on our team or not? Make up

and, and, and then I bet you she's gonna come back and then it's gonna be like, oh, oh, my, my, my shin, oh.

that in the universe. Take it back. Take it

Okay, I take it back.

drop that dun dun dun. I'm sorry. I've had that in my head like stuck for three days. Don't put shit like that out there. We cannot risk it. We cannot Nope,

I mean, again, I, I will believe it when I see it. I don't, I'm not holding my breath.

I'm not

It's going to be a nice. Addition and a very good plus if she, when she, when she makes it back, but when she makes it back, we'll talk about it. and then,

when I'll probably cry. I like, I have three center backs like

alright, and then, the last two are our two fan favorites, Ali Riley and June Endo, both of them on the SEI list. And the I'm gonna go silver lining of an SEI declaration is that Once you've made it, I believe you don't have to re declare anymore. It's just kind of like there

Yeah.

Same as with with press which is you said it you don't have to keep saying it every single year like it's just on the list and they can be they can get to the point where they can start training and stuff, but until they

They lift

that they are off the list, that will put them automatically back onto the roster, which means there needs to be a spot open at the time that they're about to declare. And I don't think the rules would have changed for this, but I believe if you cannot, you cannot bump someone from your roster

yeah.

just because someone is coming SEI.

That's

there has to, there has to be space for it. June has been progressing really well, as we were seeing towards the end of, middle and end of last season. She started, running on her knee, she's,

all

know, yeah, starting to do, more stuff. Ali had that, nerve problem and kind of working through that, so hopefully that's something that, with more rest and not as intensified. play and practice and things like that. She's giving it enough time to actually heal or heal to a point where she can, she can feel like she can do something on the field,

Yeah.

but also

to see her on the pitch one more

don't, don't push it. don't,

chill out. Go

yeah,

Cap. Go

yeah.

Go have fun.

So that is our team. now there's a couple of questions that we. don't have answers to but we hopefully should have them by the next time we do one of these recap episodes or the preview episode for the season sometime before the season starts

So Mario's first question was what's happening with Like, the ever elusive Kristen Press. Here's the thing. She's on vacation with Tobit in Mexico. You're not finding shit out till next year.

yeah

That's a, that's a boundary. She drew the line in the sand, like, country border and sand. Like, no, we're not, leave her, let her be. Like, let, just, no.

yeah

It, we don't need to know right now. They're probably just figuring like, little baby details of contracts, because that takes time, and when you don't have a GM, and your president can't do anything, and, There's a whole lot of other stuff. yeah, it's going to take time, but if Kristen Press, if, if Kristen Press doesn't come back, I'm in, I'm shocked.

i i i yes

That's it.

okay do you feel at this moment That we have a good starting 11 with our current roster. And I mean that's

saying this for four years, almost. We have a good team. We

Yes.

team. we

mean, not knowing

We have who, like, dig in and like, gritty when you need it.

Yeah, I mean, not knowing

to do things. Yeah,

we've got fairly healthy players at this point. Yeah, we have a solid team. Starting 11 now, is there, is there a good 18 on there?

I think so.

I don't, I don't know. I mean, I'd have to like, sit down and actually maybe do little paper dolls and put them in their spots and be like, Can I, can this person swap out with this person? Cause that's where I'm worried about. It's yes, we have, Yes, we have let's see, right now we have 1, 2, 3, 4, we have 5 forwards, but can, can they play where they need to play, or are we overloaded, on one side?

and we have Katie Zelem and,

know we have players, mids, mids that can go up as attacking mids and things like that, so Again, my brain doesn't work that way, I can't think about it that way, I literally probably would have to do paper dolls.

Please do.

That might be a way to, explain it. Maybe do a little TikTok of, or if that's still around by the next season.

don't, don't, don't say things.

Okay, next question is, what spots might we need to fill at this moment, do you think?

I think if anything, right now, like another true center back, but Vanessa Gilles is coming back, I see why we wouldn't do that. I don't know. It's just went from having four center backs to having two center backs. And then, Just fill ins here and there

Yeah,

but Sarah Gordon and Megan Reid need another Like there needs to be a backup in case something happens not M. A. and not people who play the wings who are used to playing that like a faster push the ball pace. Granted, we need to do that too, but like that needs to happen at a different place on the pitch, but we'll see.

we'll see.

we'll see. We'll see

All right, and then one of the other big questions, who's filling the head coach and GM spots?

who the hell knows.

Again, these are questions that we technically may not know the answer to yet. I mean, yeah. And I'm not saying that in a way where it sounds like I actually know anything about it. We don't know shit.

Christmas Adam. two days before Wait, you know, you know about Christmas, Adam, right?

no. I thought that was a typo.

Think about it. It's Christmas Eve Eve, which is Christmas Adam, the

Christmas Eve Eve, I get. Christmas Adam.

ever get. The slow burn,

Oh, okay.

yep,

I totally thought that was a typo.

nope, Christmas Adam, it's, that is an old Tumblr joke, old, 15 years old,

Christmas Eve Eve is more of a friend's joke for me. It's oh yeah, it's Christmas Eve Eve. yeah, so we have no clue. I mean, honestly, and it would be interesting, that's just one of the dynamics that I have no clue really on how those work is.

Yeah.

or, yeah, yeah, so I mean that, that

we'll see.

is something, but it'll be exciting, I think, hopefully to have, A So we had, we had Freya, who was very much, I felt a very rigid type of head coach. tried to force the, the square, square peg into the round hole type thing. Of this system is what's gonna work, and you guys better make it work. And, Didn't quite work. And then we had Becky who was, who felt like she was way more open and quick on the foot to adapt. But then that's how it felt for that interim season.

I think

And it's,

is some of the coaching staff who left between the interim season and this season. That's my theory.

yeah,

I'm just a girl. I've been saying that week. Like, my mom was, like, venting to me about work. And I was like, how are you supposed to know, mom? You're just a girl. And she's like, honestly, how am I supposed to know Like, it's so dramatic. Yeah.

about what a new coach can bring, what a new style of play, and hopefully something, I honestly believe someone who is Adaptable is really what always wins, like you can't just force feed your style, you know?

will, I will say this because I know there's a big still, so, a big push for female coaches, minority coaches, all the boxes to be checked. Don't expect it because we're at a point in the coaching pool that we're not, we're not left with too many options besides like a cishet white dude. And it sucks. not saying I like it. I'm not saying that that's what I want.

Yeah,

The same thing is happening in the WNBA and it's, it's a little bit different over there, but like stop. we have to figure out how to get more women, more minority women, more diversity in the coaching pool. At like the lower levels, so then you can move up,

yeah,

yeah, fingers crossed.

yeah. And I know, we did the little poll and people were throwing out options and stuff like that and we've got the big names that everybody wants, the big flashy names of Stoney or Kilgore, but money talks.

I don't know.

I mean, it's part money talks, part like, are you gonna get them at the right point? are they gonna want to even do it, or are they gonna want to come into something that they feel might be already, a cluster, like I have no control over the team, I have no control over anything else beyond you hiring me and saying, here,

something

Do something

it work

Make Trophies. yes. So okay, and then so we kind of touched on what the technical director, Mark Wilson's role might be in reshaping the, the front office, and who makes the moves, but you know, hopefully that's something we can figure out and hopefully they figure out, you out what. What's going to be going on? I forgot I put this question in.

Here's the thing. I love the three clap in spirit In practice Stop it It went from a three clap like a 19 clap. Nobody knows what's going on. Nobody does it. People completely check out in the stands. Nobody, nobody cares anymore. We need another thing, I don't, either we revert back to the original three clap or we just throw it away and start something new. I'm sorry, Julie Foudy. It's just not well.

It works better in a small setting. Like, when you're in the room and you want to do three, it works. In the stadium,

It

it

in the stadium though. That's the thing. There's no reason why the original 3Clap, like, shouldn't have aside from the fact that nobody who was leading the knew how to do it.

and I think this is where we talk about,

involved. Mm

about those things where it's is it, is it something that is happening naturally or is it something that's being forced, right? And I do believe, I do believe the 3Clap, can have a version where it, it exists and it just becomes part of Angel City. I think what kills it. That is the, the momentum killing ness of, alright everybody, we're gonna do the three clap. Ready? Are you guys ready for the three clap? Where? Okay. Ready? Ann, are you ready? Are you ready?

you're like, huh, huh, huh, huh,

And then, and then of course now the new three clap is there's a, it's a lot more involved.

I don't even remember it. I

I would just say look, if you want to keep the 3Clap, and if the SGs want to keep the 3Clap going in some way, just make it a thing

Make

that you do,

very simple. Mm

you do, and you just do, and people will start to catch on.

hmm.

It's kind of like if you, if you've ever been to like a, and I don't know if, I mean, I would assume that, that the, that, The Thorns do this also, but, I've, when I've gone to the Portland Timbers and when they do, the National Anthem, everybody has a callback, like an automatic callback during the National Anthem where everybody like, throws up their, their scars and the like, some part of the song, whatever. And like everybody, it's like a big cheer

Mm.

the National Anthem when the whole stadium is singing. It's just the thing that happens. There's nobody on the field like trying to time it and trying to get everybody involved.

It feels like a little grade, like, dance recital where the is like, okay, okay, okay. like, guiding everybody. That's what, that's what, at least this season, that's what the three clubs felt like. I thought the first two, we were like, getting our groove. With, like, the regular three clap and then it got changed and everybody just went, Oh, okay.

So in my, in my head, I would envision something where it was like, after, after they do their like intro, here comes the queen

Mm hmm.

Soon as that's over, bam, bam, bam from the, from the supporter section, done. That's your three clap. People will catch on. People are not stupid. You don't have to walk them through it. And I think that's what kills the momentum, is that you're trying to get everybody's attention

Yeah.

whoever's on the field doing it. And, yeah, so Will it stay? I don't know. Should it stay? I don't know.

We

No.

something and I don't know if that's it. Like

And then, last question that I have on here so far. How many more moves are going to be announced 10 minutes after this episode go live?

Um, I'm hoping not too many, just given the fact that they're like, Okay, pause. It's Christmas and New Year's. But With our luck, gonna

a Christmas Hanukkah present!

Chris Mahana, we're gonna get a head coach announcement, a GM announcement, like, everything's gonna unroll. And we're uh, okay. And then we just clip this and say, here you go, see what happened? We

Yeah.

We told you.

alright.

Top six. Statistically, this is in our favor.

Top four, Bob! Top four! Shit, no, it's top five. I should

because, I know, it's Drew for the children. It's Drew Carey now. Bob Barker died, bro. I think. I

Spay and neuter your pets.

Honestly. Adopt. Don't. Don't shop. no, but year, Orlando was in last place and then they won everything this year. Same thing with Gotham. Gotham. Gotham. Gotham. This season before. it's in

We

We could do things.

We're due, we're due for stuff. And I mean,

requested, let's get weird. I put up in the discord earlier today, like, hey, we're going to record tonight. you guys excited for? What do you want to hear? And I think it was David that was just like, I just want to hear Angel say, let's get weird. So let's get weird. Like, Angel City has nothing to lose. Just do something, like, just get, get weird, get crazy. Don't do normal things. Why? We've been doing normal things last three years. Where has it gotten us?

think, sadly, all a head coach needs to do next year is give us more than 50%,

Honest to

get us a, get us a 500 season.

Yeah.

will be happy if you can make,

season, like just one extra week.

if you can, if you can make, if you can make that 500 more heavy on the home games. Nobody's going to care. All

shit what happens on away Like, nobody's gonna care because we're gonna be like, uh, undefeated at home. blind excitement. Nobody, nobody's gonna care. But

And then how many matches do you think with the almighty gods at the NWSL who like to plan things super last minute? Will we have to sit through 90 degree or more weather?

For home and

That's the answer.

Because Houston exists. Louisville in the summer exists. Orlando in the summer exists. North Carolina.

And that that's, that's a. I'm gonna accept that answer of how many is just yes.

Too many. Hopefully not a lot, but too

Invest,

One is

in one of those nice like cooling towels, I think I got one from one of the fan fest too, so it's an Angel City branded one. You can

Yeah, if you were

put that cool towel.

the end of the season, I don't remember which game it was. They gave out a cooling towel in the shape of a jersey.

Oh, I don't have that one. I just have a long one. all that's what we've got.

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