Taking Down the Champions LAFC | S1 Ep35
Kara
0:16
Long time, no see. Welcome back to another episode of the queen's pitch. I'm kara.
Bridget
And I'm Bridget.
Kara
0:20
And it's been a long time since we had our game against miami. And we know we actually recorded an episode where we had technical difficulties, and so it actually didn't record. And so we were like, you know, it's over. We don't need to do it again. So here we are. We're back after LAFC. And what a win. Bridget back at the
Bridget
0:39
bank. It's been a while since we've been there, and it's been about a month. And last time I left there, got hit by a deer. So I'm excited that we came home tonight, didn't get hit by a deer and that we won. And I told you, I think when we did an episode, well, every time we interview somebody, we asked them, what's the team that we want to be when we're at home? And I keep saying LAFC. And everybody laughed at me and thought it was the funniest thing in the world. But guess what? I got my wish. We beat LAFC. It's our first win since 527. Can
Kara
1:10
you believe that? Been a very long time. Been in a wind drought in MLS play for these points. 1s That's for sure. I was saying during the match, I was like, listen, I want to settle for no one point here. I'm tired of these one points. I mean, that's great. I'm glad we got them, but I want some three pointers here. Especially when we went up so early, right? We went up. But, you know, going up, you can't really count on that because you're always like, if we go up, then we're going to hold it or park the bus or whatever. I was really excited. We had a really neat lineup today. We had our new guys. 1s Lady decided to do something funky and put Bender in up top and put Carol in the middle because Enzo's still hurt. And then put Bret I can't say his last name over there on the other side. And let meram and Camille and Varghi sit down for a little bit, get a break. That was pretty interesting. Start it up. And then put DJ. And Veronica in the middle with Westwood. And then on her back line we have private and burn, which we love. Burn now. And Melonda and lanzisa and Kalina and the golf.
Bridget
2:20
So lady changed up his tactics a little bit, and I thought that was really neat.
Kara
2:24
Yeah. And obviously that was purely tactical as we play three games within a week. Spanish here. We play again on Wednesday and then again on Saturday. So he needed to manage his team well, especially since we had a two week break and we've had a lot of games and we've had a lot of injuries too. We've had some guys coming. You know, he needed to balance what he had on the pitch and try to keep people fresh for this small
Bridget
2:55
did. I think whatever he did worked. It was an exciting night. I was really worried going into it, because last time we played LAFC, we got beat pretty good, five to nothing, but at least it was in La. So I wasn't really sure what was going to happen tonight. But we controlled the ball, we did what we had to do, and we came out with us three points that we really needed. Yeah.
Kara
3:16
So do you want to start with Raz and then we can end on favors since it was such a great
Bridget
3:20
night? Yeah, let's do that. Let's do that because I don't really have too many wraths today.
Kara
3:24
Okay, go ahead. The wrath. The Heat. The heat was pretty awful. I know you don't have to feel that because you're fortunately, being pregnant, you're in the club section. But the Heat was pretty wrathable today. Felt like Hades out there, but 2s we suffered through that. So that's going to be one of my biggest wraths is the Heat. And then my other wrath is just the LAFC team because I can't stand them. Okay.
Bridget
3:51
I mean, I still like how they played. I don't like their attitudes. I just don't like them. So there we go. That's going to be my first. The heat and the LAFC.
Kara
3:59
Well, and since our recording for Miami didn't get actually recorded, 1s I want to go back on the record and say that I want to wrath the announcers for their biased opinions of our team. It's insulting and rude, because I felt like tonight when I was doing the rewatch and not I do not mean Jessica charman, just so you know. It's the apple. I have no idea who they were tonight. I did not care, did not pay attention. I just know it wasn't Eric cracker and Lord Sam. 1s But the announcers said that we wanted a taste of another four to zero loss against LAFC Allah, our last match against Miami. And we know that that game was extremely biased. So I'm not going to go any more into that. You can message me on Twitter, X, whatever, I don't care. And we can talk about it. But no, that might be why episode didn't record, by the way. It didn't record Kara in our conversation, but it was probably for the best because I was not in a very happy mood
Bridget
5:11
where either one of us said really nice things. She was very bitter, very bitter. But it gave us a little bit of time off. So that's good. But now, yeah, the announcers I don't understand why people hate us so much. I mean, it's not like we out here scrubbing it up or anything. We're tying. We lost some, we win some, we lose some, we tie some. But they're out there acting like we're like the worst of the worst. I hate so in your face.
Kara
5:37
But my real wrath is the absolutely stupid yellows that happened tonight. For real. 8 minutes in, we're going to get a yellow to Adilson. Come on now. And then you're going to turn around and give one to Carol Swaderski who got pulled down in a play. And then the guy after the play, after the call, the LAFC man was like, I'ma kick you. And when Carol was complaining about it because he's like, hey, he should get a yellow. He kicked me after this play and was not being a good sport. And the ref was like, nah, man, nah, man, you're asking for a yellow. Here, here, have a yellow and it's for you. Eat that. Not happy. I'm not happy. Very bitter about these yellows.
Bridget
6:19
Wait, we had somebody else to the yellow too, right? Well, bronco
Kara
6:21
at the end for time wasting. Oh,
Bridget
6:23
yeah, I thought cleaner was going to get one for time wasting, too, but I wasn't really mad about that. I like it when the goalie gets yellow for time wastings. But we are Yellow Card FC. I mean, that is us, unfortunately. And I don't think it's because we warrant it. I just think that for some weird reason, these MLS refs just don't like us and 1s we're easily given them. I
Kara
6:46
mean, when we warrant it, I'm happy to go be like, oh yeah, we earned that. That was a good yellow card way to 1s I mean, especially when during the same match you had Carol get pulled down by three guys and he's nah, nah, you complained earlier. You get squat. Sit down.
Bridget
7:04
I can't. That ref wasn't really the best. 1s He wasn't the worst of the worst. It wasn't the best of the best. I mean, he liked to call fouls, that's
Kara
7:13
for sure. Only give us yellows, though, except the one play on
Bridget
7:18
burn. Anyway. Do you have another wrath? No, that was
Kara
7:20
it. I had my two. I don't really
Bridget
7:22
have a lot of wrath. My other wrath is I guess I'm just gonna go ahead and say it because whatever. I need Kalina to just do a little bit better in that goal box and stop coming out of it so much. He is not a one on oneer. Like, I guess he can do PKS, but he's not a one on one. Don't go up against the dude outside the box. You're not that. You're not. So just just guard that box with your life. Homie. But it's just a baby wrath. Just baby. He did good. Otherwise he did a lot of good blocks. I like how he punched it out during the corner kicks. So he did a lot of good things, but that coming out of the books just kills my
Kara
7:55
nerves. Yeah. So that's a Bridget pet peeve. So I do not share that
Bridget
8:01
feeling no one else agrees with. Oh, but he did. Let me tell you, he did do really well with his distribution. I'm very proud of the guy. He's been learning up. He's been practicing, taking some pointers from George, and he knows how to distribute it a little bit better, so I was very proud of that
Kara
8:16
part. Yeah. I actually thought he probably needed to come out a little more sometimes and be a little more decisive on some things than he, so oh, no. God. That's all I'll say there. So you want to move on to
Bridget
8:27
favors? My favorite I'm not going to go to a specific person today. My favorite is going to go to the team, and I think it's because I've been wanting to see this team play together and do something and be a team. They know what they're doing out there together, and they did today. It was amazing. It was like it was beautiful. Soccer. There was times I think I was texting you in the group chat. It was just like, that was so beautiful. And I don't know if it's because we have a lot of older people out there now, older meaning 30 year olds, but
Kara
9:00
that's experienced people
Bridget
9:02
experience. This is what Laddie was talking about. You want to experience. So I think it's that or I don't know if Westwood controlled it better or if it was just somehow that glow. It was just like. They surrendered to the flow and they did what they had to do, and they passed it. I think they had, like, 500 and some passes, and they stayed on their final third or the final third that we're supposed to be on on that side. And and it was just like teamwork. It was just like, fluid, and I love it. And so it's just like I think I was telling you, I don't want to talk about the M guy that's out there playing withiner Miami, but that guy has an effect. But it's not all him. It's just the team. It's how the team plays together around them. And today we saw that. We saw the team work together, and I thought, if they could just do that, we might have a playoff chance.
Kara
9:49
Yeah. One of the things I had written down that was the best thing about this match was just the sheer chemistry that we actually had where we were connecting passes. They were being accurate, some of them. I was like, oh, we made that. That was a very nice pass. I didn't expect that to go so
Bridget
10:08
correct. Carol did his little back kicky kick pass thing that he does.
Kara
10:12
Yeah. Carol can connect his fancy passes to a lot more people than just now. diagra, 1s he's got our field out there. He's got, like he's got a lot more options to be fancy. And you saw some of that actually linking up. Like, you saw that we weren't losing possession, which against LAFC was actually key because if you let LAFC build up the ball, then that's how they keep scoring. So I think that keeping possession was key to us winning the match and why we needed to continue breaking up their plays as much as possible. So I think we've harped on all season how we let straight passes go crazy. And not that that didn't happen sometimes, but it wasn't as much of a crutch as we kept having that took the legs out from under us. In other matches in the past,
Bridget
11:13
we were winning 50 50s. We were going after the ball. It was just nice to see. It was nice to see. It was like people were in the spots they were supposed to be at. I don't really understand the inverted fullback mess that we talk about all the time, but I saw it today. Like, I saw it because it's hard not to see it when you're like, where the heck is Lindsay at? Or where's burn at. And at some points, it was like, only two people in the back line. I thought I only saw Cribbit and Milanda back there. And then you would see you're like, Where are the other guys at? And then you could see how they were in the middle in that they're supposed to do. But this time it worked. Like, it really worked. And you were, you know, maybe Laddie's not completely lost his mind when he talks about
Kara
11:53
that inverted miss.
Bridget
11:55
I don't know if we're like there to do it all the time.
Kara
11:58
There's a backhanded compliment. 2s I'm just saying I'm not a hundred sold on it. But it worked. It worked today. It worked. And so, okay, I'm gonna give up a little credit for it not sold on it a hundred, but
Bridget
12:16
it's kind of like I could see it and it worked. It was like Lindsay was he didn't let it just mess them up. It was cool. I liked
Kara
12:23
it. Yeah. It's really hard to actually pick people out of this match because I feel like we did play so cohesively and because I feel like there's a positive thing almost to say about every person. And as in we didn't have too many wraths or player wrath because we really didn't see anyone being 1s a big detriment, I guess, to the team or not having the best game. Like if people weren't playing their best match, at least they were on par with some of the others and it was still
Bridget
12:53
yeah, it wasn't noticeable
Kara
12:55
being positive. Right, exactly. It was still enough in cohesion and bringing the team collectively together that it wasn't a detriment to single
Bridget
13:05
did. It worked. Lady's tactics worked. Whatever the heck he's doing. What's your
Kara
13:10
favor? This is so hard. So I think I'm going to have to pick because I had a couple written down just in case, but I think I'm going to have to pick a Dilson Melonda for this one. Mainly because he goes through this whole match pretty much with that yellow card because that was at the 8th minute and he plays the full time. He plays almost 100 minutes. 1s And he had some cutting out plays where one of them he gets and I had my heart in my throat because there were three LAFC guys right in the middle, and you just knew that it was going to go past him. But he manages to pluck it out of midair like magic, and he's got it. And he had another one that was really excellent down at the other end of the pitch in the second half. Just cut out an unbelievable ball. And so I don't know, his ability to read things and see things saved our bacon multiple times. Even if he did get that yellow, and even if he did have an injury where he did come out like, oh, yeah, I guess he can't play the full 90 if he's out. That's not what I meant. He played right at the 90. Right at he didn't play 100 right at the 90. But yeah, I mean, I just felt like his performance he could have changed how he played with that yellow, and I really feel like that was a crap yellow. If you're going to get a yellow, like, earn it, man. 2s And maybe it's just because he didn't have help at that point, I don't know, but it just seemed really crazy. But either way, he settles down and he just really focuses the rest of the match and is so key on that back line. I'm actually glad they pulled him out because we don't want him getting injured and staying injured again. We just want him to he doesn't have to sacrifice himself. He doesn't have to die on the sword. He's been a good night 1s this match for the win, so he earned it, right.
Bridget
15:14
My daughter agree with you. She said that she thought that Melonda should have got man of the he. For him to be so young, he's a very key part of our very, very much so. And he knows how to control that ball, and you can see Kalina will pass it to him and trust him with it. And I think that says a lot, too, is that they trust him with making the decision on where it should go. Wait, he's in that photo. He looks good in the photo after photo. So I'm going to go with he's. Okay. They just took him out as a precaution.
Kara
15:49
So who's your next favor? 1s I'm going to go ahead and favor I know that you was giving me a hard time about it, but I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to favor my boy Scotty. Well, not my boy because he ain't my boy. I'm going to favor Scott Arfield because he came in and he made a goal, and I know he was only in about two minutes, and you said that he had help, and it is what it is. He came in, he scored, and that was a key goal for us. So I'm going to have to give him a favor for it and. 2s I think that he put he brought in something that we needed in that midfield. But if you can come in off that bench and you can help us score or score, even if oh, that's what it was. Okay. We was talking about you said, oh, you didn't do anything. It was just a ricochet. Okay, so he followed through. Okay. And this goes back to my kid playing soccer. We just keep teaching those kids follow through. If it don't go in the first time. Follow through. Follow through, follow through. And there was the time earlier in the game where we did not follow through, and if we followed through, we would have had that goal, and we didn't. So we followed through, and Scotty got the goal. So that's why okay, that took a very long time for me to get to that point, too, but I did it. That's fine. It's
Bridget
16:57
after midnight. What do you 1s know? We're so tired and loopy, we just want to go to bed.
Kara
17:06
But I
Bridget
17:07
got there. I got it. Okay.
Kara
17:08
That I'm glad he was there to get that goal, because I think we were all went nuts over, so and it was his first goal for MLS, actual points. So not just in the league play.
Bridget
17:19
Oh, yeah, he got one for, like, Nakar, didn't he? He got one sometimes,
Kara
17:23
right? Not just in the league's cup play. So it was nice to let him actually have that, too. So that's. That's great for him and is encouraging because we want him to get more.
Bridget
17:34
Okay, who's your second favor
Kara
17:36
since you did that? Since you did that? I'm going to go rogue and split mine. 3s Because to me, the reason our field is even able to get that one is he wouldn't have been able to do it without Carol making that nice shot so he could even get a ricochet.
Bridget
17:58
I'm mad at Carol right now. No, but I'm mad at Carol.
Kara
18:01
Well, all right. I'm going to defend Carol because this is my so.
Bridget
18:06
I know you would, but I'm still mad at Carol. Okay. He needed to get off that ground and stop running his mouth, and I don't like the fact he went had dinner in Italy. Okay, there we go. Off the table. There's
Kara
18:17
Bridget with an extra wrath.
Bridget
18:19
But he did do well tonight.
Kara
18:21
A side wrath.
Bridget
18:22
He did well tonight. I'm going to need him to do a lot better. If his little happy butt wants to go somewhere else, I'm going to need you to show and prove it. Anyway, that's the side note. Carol did good tonight.
Kara
18:31
Well, and he also didn't even get that assist, even though he technically did like they called it out. He got the assist, but no one's giving him that. Extra bonus point there for Ashley's goal.
Bridget
18:43
My daughter said that the goalie assisted feeling.
Kara
18:48
He did. Yeah, sure. That's
Bridget
18:50
fine. We'll give it to Carol. Carol had a lot of other good shots, though, tonight, so you can go ahead and give
Kara
18:55
it to Carol. So again, I've got a split one because Carol gets to me the bit, because I feel like without his effort, it would have never made it across the line on both of those. That's true. I'll go there. So then my other one, two parter is for Westwood would because he was finally in the right place at the right time and he was not fighting with the ref, even though Carol was at times like sometimes he's been a little hot.
Bridget
19:21
I want to yank Carol.
Kara
19:23
Right, right. 1s But he also like I don't know. I felt like Westwood was trying to be everywhere in the right place in the right time. I really didn't see him make any mistakes that I can really remember except maybe one time, and he defended some really excellent balls that had our hearts in our throats because there was that one where it seems to go off of Milanda and we thought we were going to get another own goal. And Westwood steps in front of the LAFC player just enough that Kalina is able to clear it out and allow us all to breathe again.
Bridget
20:02
Oh, there was a couple of them.
Kara
20:05
There was. There was.
Bridget
20:07
Yeah, there was. But now Westwood did good tonight. I thought that he should have stepped up when Carol was running his mouth at the ref, but like Carol Walton told know, he probably thought Carol was a big boy and could handle himself, so he didn't. But I did see him later on in the match 1s start fussing and talking to the ref a little bit more. So I did like that, and I just think that he controlled it better. He passed it better in the midfield, and that's the key for us is we need that. And I think he works really well with our field and he works really well with Brecht the dude. I can't say his last name, that guy. And then I think he works really well with them and I like it.
Kara
20:44
Yeah. And I also thought that LAFC singled him out. You saw him get knocked down the absolute most, and whether that was just because Westwood was play acting, which we know, that bit where it seems like he gets a groin injury, he's play acting to waste time and extra time. So I don't just I liked his things today. They were very entertaining and. 2s What would we have done without him?
Bridget
21:11
He's a good captain. I gave him a hard time at first, but he actually has come into being a really good captain. I like it. I like how he's feisty. He's got himself a little feisty moment. Sometimes I want him to step up a little bit more, being feisty, but 1s when he steps up, oh, boy, don't get in his
Kara
21:27
way. When he gets feisty, he's getting another card. And I think that's part of the thing was once he saw that card come out for Adilson like that, I think that he was here's and then it came out for Carol. He was just like, okay, I can't do this. I'm just going to keep getting cards and we can't afford I think I think it was just tactical. His just tactics and smarts on that were on par the things that needed to happen.
Bridget
21:55
He's a good guy. Like his leadership. I like how he talks to the press afterwards, and he's always building up the team and he supports Laddie, his manager, and he also supports the players. He's like the middle guy, but he's very supportive on both sides of it. I like that.
Kara
22:11
Okay, I know you have an honorable mention. Now's your time.
Bridget
22:15
You're going to let me do it? You're going to let
Kara
22:16
me? Yes. Because I have an honorable mention. I have
Bridget
22:19
to mention him because his shoes are the best, because I can see what he's doing better than anybody else, because he's the only one that wears bright shoes now other than Maram and Mary. But I just love Privet. I just love him so much and I think he's just doing so well. He stepped up. He was in it today. He did have that shot. I mean, it was airmeld, like he was sending that off to space, but he tried and I think he gosh, he's good. He knows how to get back when he needs to. And he does have some mistakes, but he's still learning. And like you and said, I think he's fighting Carujo for that starting position if he's not already won it from him. So my honorable mention is going to be a little private. He's not little. He's a tall guy,
Kara
23:04
actually. Yeah. And I don't think anyone thinks he needs to be more clinical in the final third or expects that quality out of him. He's obviously got places to improve and I don't know that he's had as many opportunities, but if they're going to single him out on a corner, like, okay, dude, this is what you need to work on because you might get a chance, you know? 1s But no, it is really nice how well he's playing and you might look at it and go, well, he's not that great. He didn't have a great game tonight. Well, no, he didn't, but it's the quality and not having him be a detriment to the team having so little experience before and being a new guy coming out of the league's cup play. This is his first MLS match and and the fact that he's been giving a starting lineup and he came out before in leagues cup match, but he hasn't come out here because they've been putting Jones back there. So I think realistically you could have expected jones to pop back if there was a need. But I thought privet in the midfield, he was more visionary with how he played things in the midfield and cut out plays and that was really interesting to see. So we just got to get him better in that final third and just double checking on if he's going to give opportunities away because I think there was an opportunity that he gave away to LAFC. But they didn't capitalize on. 2s He's, he's getting better, but he's no worse than plenty of other center backs that we've had who've had bad games. And privet hasn't had what you can say a bad game yet. I don't think
Bridget
24:43
he's lost a game for us yet. I don't think he has. I don't
Kara
24:46
proud I come out of the matches that he's played in going, oh, I'm so proud of
Bridget
24:50
him. Me too. It's like he makes an effort and he's always trying and he makes a difference. Yeah. So my honorable mention is going to Jalen Lindsay, because while he had one moment where his judgment was, iffy he was trying to catch the guy offside, okay, that led to their goal. But other times that did actually work at the very beginning and it was just the timing and where things were. But otherwise I thought he had a good game pretty much. He almost had a goal. He'd have gotten his head down just a tad on that header and he had some nice passes into the box. I just really liked what I see in him the last couple of times and to me he's hot now. Doesn't mean he's perfect, but that's okay. And oh my gosh, that one play or one or two where he just magic the ball out of LAFC hands. Oh my gosh, he
Kara
25:45
did really well. I was like I had hearts coming out of my eyes just because it was just so good. I've been giving him hard time too. I give him hard time because he messed up some know where they scored against us. But he improved really well too. He set up his game and like I said, I noticed that inverted fullback. 1s Whatever that we do. And he was in the middle of it and he was actually doing it and it was working. And
Bridget
26:10
I like it. I like the fact that he's taking his mistakes and he's learning from them and he's making it better and he's contributing to the team more. So I like that.
Kara
26:21
And honorable, welcome back to Nathan Byrne, who I definitely missed last game. So I was very happy to see and hope that he is good and recovered for Wednesday. I don't like watching games anymore,
Bridget
26:36
but he is one of my favorites now. And after Miami, I really noticed how much I miss him and so I watch him a lot. I'm just yelling for him. He's a good guy. I like him. He's earning his keep now, so that's good. Oh, on that note, let me just say before we wrap, I was just going to say carol Walton did a great football Friday. Again, I like to mention her all the time, hang out to because I haven't had a day of sun in a while. But anyway, she did one on the wives and girlfriends and fiance's or whatever of the players and I thought that was an awesome article. And she did it on Fridays this past Friday. So if you haven't seen that, you should go and read it because. 1s I think behind all these good football players, soccer players, is a good woman or a mom that raised them so or someone significant other. But anyway, I just really like that article. I thought it was really cool to find out things about them. If you haven't read it, go read that one. And the other second part of it came out today, and it was about Bronico. But I like the part about the
Kara
27:40
after. You know, we have a couple good games here this coming up. We want to hope we get some more points. And so we'll see you, hopefully after Orlando on Wednesday. We
Bridget
27:51
beat them last time, so hopefully we'll win. We beat them at their home. We're going to win on Wednesday, get another three points. Oh, and on that note, we are moving up the little ladder because La Galaxy beat Chicago. We are moving up the ladders. Here we go. On our playoff run. Let's keep this going until then. Stay safe. Thanks for listening.
Kara
28:10
We appreciate you. Good night. Bye.