Hi, welcome to rain Meekly Keiley Dunning and Laura Shott.
And this time we get to talk as long as we want. We have no limits.
There we go, the limit.
Does not exist.
Quoting Tina Fey from Mean Girls, Oh Millennial Classics, I still, you know, I still reference that movie to help me just navigate the world.
Uh yeah, I mean I think I referenced that movie. I think I well, now I listen to any Polar's podcast quite a bit, so you know, there's all kinds of fun there. Bridesmaids is I mean, my my daughter's loosely uh named after Kristen Wegg, so stop it.
Yeah, we were like soulmates for this dude.
Yeah no, I am big fan, big fan. I mean those those those people are complete comedic and otherwise geniuses.
So Amie Polar is just like one of my top five favorite people I've.
Never met, top people I've never met.
I would be authentic, like and I don't get starstruck because people are people, and it's not because I'm like, oh they're not so cool, there's still like that's not what I mean. I mean, people are just people. The Amy Polar man if I ever If and when even when I ever meet her, I'm just gonna be like starry eyed.
You know what's so fun is she's like I mean, she's in God, She's in every SNL thing that you know you love, from mom Jeans to Debbie Downer. And then she now she does all this stuff right, and she has parks and rac and she can do anything, goes on tour with Tina Fey, of course, and then now she just starts a podcast and her podcast sounds like she should have been podcasting this entire time. It's so good. It's such a natural all platform for her.
Yes, yes, I want to hang out with her, and that's the whole point of a podcast. So thank you listeners for hanging out with us. I hope it work fun to hang out with.
I like to think that I am a good friend.
Chat soccer and other great chat.
Love Island.
I have great chat everybody.
I'll catch up on Island.
All right, Yeah, we'll catch up on Love Island later. The first episode premiered yesterday. All right, Laura, let's switch from Love Island. Although rin MC players do all love, they love Love Island, so there is a connection there.
I will tell you that last year. When I heard that Laura Harvey gave us that. I think in a pregame she was talking about how the players were really into Love Island. I gave a shot. I gave it a real shot, and I, you know, found it because I had to find it, because that's how disconnected I was from it. And I started to watch it and I had I had trouble. I struggled a bit. I struggled a bit. I you know, I pushed through. I persevered. It was like my sixth one twenty. It's like, I'm
gonna go ahead and make this. I don't want to have to run the fitness test again. I gotta see what this is about. And I did, and that's the last time it's been on my TV.
It's great background noise because literally nothing happens every episode, right.
Maybe that's what I should have. That's I was actually trying to pay attention because I was like, well, you know, they're into it. I kind of want to learn something. And I started watching it and I was like, I don't know if I can do this, And you know what, that's the perfect way to do it. I should have been doing that.
You know what Love Island reminds me of.
And this is actually this is what Love Island is, and this is why it's probably so popular. It reminds me of every time I would play with my Barbies and my Kendles and I would just like play with them and be like, these ones are dating, and now these ones are dating and creating like all the stories. But the audience are playing with a bunch of Barbies and Kendalls.
Maybe it's nostalgia for people.
Maybe, Yeah, like that's what it reminds me of. It's playing barbies.
Okay, I can I'm following that logic That would make sense to me.
Yeah.
They all wear like weird crazy outfits all the time.
They all couple up and date each other and switch up, and it just reminds me of you know, ten year old KILLI playing with her Barbies and her Kendall and going on an ice skating date with Ken, and then the next day and going on a surf date with not Ken.
That's right, different skipper, Skipper.
Skippers, the younger sister, I don't know. The guys had the younger guy. I don't know.
Isn't there another guy more than Ken? Yeah?
Well, because there was like one with like dark brown, like black hair, and there was definitely a blonde and I kind had like the sandy brown hair.
We are so debating.
It's you're you're challenging my pop culture knowledge and I'm failing, and I'm sorry, and I'll do better.
All right, Let's move into your area of expertise, Laura, and let's do some NWSL action. We're obviously going to get into Rain and they're unfortunate too. One loss to Washington Spirit. Always tough to play the same team twice in one month, especially when we played them so well the first time and then we had to go on the road and and try and repeat that.
It was tough. It was tough.
You know.
Actually, now that I think of that, let's start with that game, Laura. Yeah, let's start with the Rain game. We are a rain of see, we are Rain weekly. Let's start with the Rain.
I I am actually fairly high on the game. I know, none of us, you know, we want to get the three points. We want to even just get a point on the road. Obviously we'll achieved that against Boston, which was awesome getting the three. This game was just kind of one. There was a lot of action to it to me. There were times where I thought the rain attacted very well with pace, with speed. Frankly, that's how we created the goal that we got. I know that,
you know that goes down as an own goal. However, Mercado running that ball down and then putting really three players in an awkward situation so that they had to make a decision and it ended up resulting in an own goal. Great kind of hustle play there. Just to stick with it. But I thought the game was really open at times, really interesting. How you know, Like a lot of times the n WSL, you'll see teams transition very well the defense and they'll get back in a block.
And oftentimes you'll see teams be successful in the attack when they don't allow the opponent to get into that block and they counter quickly.
You know, I e.
Banda showinga you know, players that have been very successful at getting in behind. You know. I was going to say this season, but I think I have to say a lot of seasons. And I thought that this game opened up at times and made it very entertaining to watch as a fan. But also I got to give a nod to the goals. The goals were all awkward, right, You've got a free kick goal by Santos that you could tell Dicky's vision was blocked and so it ended up sneaking in the corner. It was very well taken
by her. I like the way she struck it. I like the way it had a little bit of balance on it, so it was difficult to read. Even when Dicky could see it late. It's still very very hard to make that save. So you know, you kind of you kick off there with that goal, and then you have the I'm just going to call it the Mercado goal, although we should technically call it the deep goal.
Justice from Madison Curry, by the way, she should get an assist on that.
Yes, I mean it's unfortunate that when you yeah, it's unfortunate that there's not you know, some way I guess to kind of stat count that because it was created and we know that you know, Maddy Curry has been I mean she did that in the last game, right, great assist. So she's looking for it and it's and she's playing those balls very well and it was a very dangerous ball results in the own goal, but goal for the ring, and then you get that final goal.
Which was was also awkward. Right, takes a deflection off of Bug. Right, Dickie had read it, takes a deflection off of Bug's foot and kind of you know, like with pace, but then goes the other direction, just to flex it enough so that you know, Dicky's dive is just out of position now and now you know it goes in the goal, quite simply. So all of those goals,
really can we say that they were created? Sure, but they were all unique in that they weren't you know, they weren't plan Something happened that was a little out of the box that you can't really prepare for on both sides, so on the attacking end in that sense, I just I found the goals very interesting.
All right.
So let's look at NWSL and where we currently stand in the league. Tenth place, four two and five. So a good record, honestly, yeah, a good record. Not a great ren of form to end this first half of the season. Half ish half ish of the season. Let's take a look at the rest of the table. Sean diego way up and at the top eight one and four. Look at that Utah seven three and two, and Laura, I know you wanted to delve into Utah a bit. Let me just finish going through the standings and then
we'll go through some of the games. Utah sitting in second, Portland right behind, Washington, Spirit sitting in fourth, Gotham, Kansas City, North Carolina, Orlando.
Those are your top eight.
Then we have Denver Summit, Our, Seattle Rain, Houston, Angel City, Bay FC, Boston Legacy, Chicago Stars coming off for really tough results and a tough ending of that one.
And racing Louisville at the bottom.
But you know, as is always seemingly the case in NWSL, there's a lot of parody, and there is not a lot of distance between the first place and eleventh place. There are only eleven points between Houston Dash, Seattle Rain was fourteen, and.
San Diego at twenty five, so attainable. No one is out of it, frankly.
I mean maybe spiritually they're out of it, but mathematically they're not.
Mathematically they're not.
So let's go through some of these games, and I think the highlight was that Utah Portland matchup. I'll let you go into what you saw first, and then i'll give you some of my softer takes.
Well, I mean, really interesting game. I really enjoy watching Utah right now, specifically in the way that they've transitioned from twenty twenty five to being, you know, in the position they're in right now in second, tied with the Portland Thorns. So that was that was a you know, back to back matchup two teams that are you know, fying for first. If either one of those teams would have won that game, they would be in first right
now in the league standings. But I mean Multrie with her her first goal, I mean the first goal of the game to kick that one off. You know, she's been making really savvy, really great runs off the ball, and really with that one, the placement of her shot was clinical. I mean she went near post on it. There wasn't much room there. The room that was there she utilized. That's a very difficult ball to finish going up one.
Oh.
But I mean really in that game, I thought that the at the end of the day, both teams played well. There was a lot of attack, some great defensive stops, really entertaining game in that way. You'd expect that from those two teams with the players that they have that have been very aggressive in the attacking end. Really the story of the game, though, was the final goal and
how it was. We'll call it created. I mean I was asking you before, I would love the stat on how often the eight second rule has come into play in games. I don't remember one in any of the games that we covered last year. I don't remember one in any of the games that I watched last year, which is quite a few games. Or let's go into this year too, in twenty twenty six. I don't remember it.
I haven't watched all the games. Maybe there have been some, you know, surgeons in eight second calls, but this one really, to me seemed like it was right on eight seconds. The thing that will remain unknown, at least for me.
Maybe we can get some inside information. We'd have to talk to the players involved, but maybe maybe she was warned like four times, and then she held it again, and you know, the referee decided not this time, but eight seconds is called, corners taken, foul is called, and then that results in Thorne's p que, which is converted,
which results in the tie. And this all happened, I believe, I mean the eighty eighth maybe to the ninetieth minute in regulation play, So I mean this was this is what really became the result was it hinged on this series of calls right in the eleventh hour of the game. I this doesn't happen very often. So when I was watching the game and it was called, I mean, I you know, like my soccer brain's running in the background, and I was like, did he just call eight seconds?
But I wasn't quite sure because I was kind of doing something.
I was so shy, like wait, right, You're like.
Did he do that? And then you know, I'm watching and I'm like he did. And then I'm like, oh, you know, you get that feeling. You've been in these situations before. We were like, Ah, in a game, weird call or not that it wasn't merited. I think it was technically eight seconds. Did they call that very often? No, I've seen goalkeepers hold and bounce and lay on balls for more than eight seconds. I can't remember how many times.
But in this particular instance, he went for It results in the next play, which results in a PK, which results in a goal, and now you have a tie. So I feel I'm sure Utah feels like that game was stolen in some ways. I mean, you can't necessarily term it completely stolen. But that was definitely different than what I've seen across other games.
It feels like Portland's kind of one of those teams have benefits from that a lot. And maybe it's just because we notice it because it's Portland.
Maybe, you know, I've seen a number of their games this year. They're they're running on als around cylinders. Tordon's been great. I mean, their back line has been great, multrees. I think, you know, really, you know, with the new contract and really stepping into our own becoming more of a leader, with you know, the absence of Sam Coffee in that midfield, you know, just some things have shifted a little bit within that team. And I think people last year were like, oh well now they're not going
to be, you know, nearly as good. And to their credit, a number of younger players have stepped in and just showed out. They've been playing very very well. You know, I haven't seen too many I haven't seen anything that I'll just call it unique. Happened, you know in the Thorns favor so far this year and in the games that I've observed, But I will say when you're in the eighty eighth minute and eight seconds is called, and
then a PK is called. I don't know the probability that that sequence of events occurs at I'm going to say it's very very very very low.
Very low eight silver eat silver. Can you tell us the answer to that, please, I'm.
Sure we can get. Yeah, we can get.
We can loose some people in that Nolte speaking of Moultrie, that player is a hunter.
Oh yeah, when she I mean she is just relentless.
Yeah, I mean, well, if I'm a defender, I'm just constantly feeling her breathing down my neck the entire game.
I think you feel her breaking down your neck. You also have to make sure that you've got eyes on her at all times, because she pulls into spaces in a very strategic and calculated way. And if you lose her off the ball, or if you're looking at the ball too long and Multrie's off the ball scheming, you're going to be in trouble. And I think this is a piece of her game that frankly has been underestimated.
A lot of the focus since she was thirteen was about her getting signed and is she too young and can she handle this? And she would be doing this to players obviously she could just practice when she was that age. There was the whole series of events that finally allowed her to be able to play, and younger players in the league kind of open doors. So she's
definitely a trailblazer in that way. But I think this is an underrated piece of her game, her scheming and her reading the game so well, just because there have been so many other facets of her playing life that people have kind of latched onto, whether it's her age or whether it's you know, is this too young? Is this the right move? Should she be going into a court case so that she can get the right to play?
Should she be doing right? There's there's been a lot of noise, and during that noise, to her credit, I mean, now it's been has it been six seven years?
Talk about scurity, by the way, talk about maturity.
All of that crowd noise around you and all that controversy that has really it's completely out of your hands and out of your control, and you're thirteen fourteen. She must have it either like a great support system or just insane maturity.
Well, I mean shout out to her entire her family, and I know them, I've been around them. I was with the Thorns and running the academy when she came in and we were planning for her to come in and how she was gonna get games and all those sorts of things, and I got to coach her for that period of time. You know at that time, don't you don't quite know? Right, somebody new comes into a situation and you don't quite know. You don't know if
they're mature, you don't know what their family's like. You just it's not that it's bad or that it's negative, and it's not that it's good. You just it's a lot of unknown. So there was a lot of planning around it. It's the first time that something like that had occurred. It was really a moment in time that was a first. So over time, you know, you get to know the family, you get to know the player,
you get to know the situation. And I'd say the thing that's important, and this is important for every player in watching and you know, starting to admire a player like Olivia Multrie for our younger players out there, is that through that noise and all those things that were happening and things that you know were talked about or heard about she's training. She's just she's just hungry, right, she said it and put press conferences like she wants
to be the player, like she she wants it. And then on top of that, you know she she trains all the time. I mean she'll train when she's at training, she'll train at the practice facility, she'll go home and train like she's just she's that person. Now you look at when she was thirteen, the questions were, you know, is this too early? Is it too much? Or are you putting too much on a kid? I would say, in this particular instance, the kid wanted it that much.
I think that this is, you know, the outlier of outliers. A lot of kids end up in pressure situations where a parent or an adult wants it more than them and starts to create these manufacture these things around them to get them to a spot because they're talented. And this is a situation where there's there's great support around her. But she also this was something that she really wanted to do.
It's just really impressive. The entire situation is impressive.
Yeah, she's still so young and and she's just begun her journey, which is crazy.
And she's like, is it sick. Well, actually, I have to go back and look at when she first played. Was it five years ago? Because she couldn't play it first, right, Yeah, she had to fight for the right to actually play, but she was training for a couple of years before that.
Let's see, she was born in two thousand and five, so she is only twenty years old currently.
Yeah, I'll see when she start.
I believe that's seven years since she came to parlanm. She came when she was thirteen, but I don't know when she started playing in matches.
So signed her first professional contract at age fifteen and twenty twenty one. That was following the lawsuit that successfully removed aage limit. Following that, and then the next year in twenty twenty two, won an nws AL championship with the Thorns.
So she's also a winner too, like a team. She's she's an exceptional player. She clearly has.
Insane maturity, she's got a great support system, and she's also a winner.
Yeah, perfect play.
I think in a lot of ways she's I mean, I think no one continued to see her evoll.
No one's perfect.
No one's perfect.
I don't want to put that pressure on her.
I mean, if there's somebody you could put the pressure on and could.
Hand there, I for a coaching course from her, like a life coaching course. I would pay so much money to do a life coaching course with Olivia.
Well, when you when you get these players, these very unique players that you know play for the national team for long periods of time, or you know an Olivia Moultrie, that is such a unique situation. It's it's funny like you of course want to learn from them and let's let's you know, Moultrie had sink. Christine Sinclair was at the Thorns for a long time, right, she had coffee in midfield as she went through her transition to the national team, and then Moultrie was, you know following suit.
She's had some great mentors there and I can I can tell you, I mean even starting with Mark Parsons was there at the time. I mean his design and planning and the thought that went into taking care of the soccer side of this was very extensive. So there's a lot that goes into it. But I mean, if you want a course from somebody like that, I mean, get ready, because I mean a lot of these people embody greatness to then teach. It is sometimes difficult for them because they aren't.
Because they aren't. That's so true. That's so true.
What is it those you can't do teach? But I completely, I actually completely disagree with that.
My mother is a lifetime teacher and she does a lot. She's a due. She doesn't even hate SAT.
Came up with that. Yeah, I'm not sure. What do you what's.
Better student in their class? That's who it was. Yeah, this teacher has it out for me. So they just are, you.
Know, trying to destroy my dreams because they can't do it themselves, which you know what.
I operate great on spite. Yeah, fortunately it's spite is a great motivator for me. I hate that because I'd rather live my life not needing to spite people to do well.
But man, is spite uh motivator for Oh?
I mean it's fine as I mean, it's it's right there with like prove you.
Wrong, right, that's yeah exactly.
I mean people have used that energy for they'll use it forever.
Yeah.
Chip on your shoulder, just having a chip on your shoulder, it helps, it helps, all right. More action across the league. Orlando Pride BFC three to one for Orlando. I feel like that was an That result doesn't tell how well they played, especially on the attacking end. They had a goal taken off that was called offside, would have been at that point to nil, I believe. Uh, it just changes the complete complexity of a game, complexity whatever.
It changes the complete complexity of the game.
What did you see from Orlando and Bay Because I was I was very impressed with Day's attacking prowess in that match.
Well, you know, even going back to the last year and in the beginning of this year, they creates attack like.
They're an interesting team to Yeah, totally, they can be a very.
Interesting team to watch. And so, like, I mean, Orlando's a difficult matchup. Obviously, Banda's been knocking it out of the park. She's the lead leaguing scorer right now. We know she ain't just been out and she's surging, surging in goals right now as she you know, makes up her time away at BLA. She's sitting at seven right now, behind at eleven. Yeah, savaging the goal of game. And I mean, I I'm going to say, she guys gonna try to She's gonna make a surge to get to
that average as well. Those two players are you know, they're special, and so you know, anytime you have band on a field, you've got to be looking for the counter, and you've got to be looking for that speed and behind. She's looking for it constantly, and it's it's always dangerous whether she's scoring the goals or whether she's playing defenders out of positions because they have to pay special attention to her. She gets a step on you and she's
in It's it's difficult. I when I've watched Bay and you know, including in this game, the attack is just
inconsistent and sometimes the finishing's not there. I think that they're a team that even last year like they could have made a surge, and I think we're going to see the same thing as we go into the second half of this season, is whether they're able to convert on some of these plays or whether they continue to kind of bounce around and tie some games and then and then drop close ones, specifically when they play teams that have special players that can you know, get one
chance and they convert. So I mean, that's that's really where I see Bay is. I'm not really sure if they're going to make that conversion into being a real player that's going to challenge for a playoff spot. But I think, you know, we get we get into late later in twenty twenty six and the playoff picture starts to form. I believe Orlando is going to be there.
You know what's kind of funny.
They remind me, I'm going to make a really weird comparison here, but bear with me. They remind me a lot of the San Jose Sharks NHL team, which is funny.
Because I'm not not going to know this.
They play right, like right across the street from each other.
Yeah, the San Jose Sharks are a lot of really really young players who are really exciting and they want to score like eight goals a game, and they typically score about five goals a game.
The problem is they give up seven.
So a lot of youthful exuberance, a lot of talent and the will to score, which give us give Seattle some of that. We love that, but do very like similar teams in completely different sports.
Interesting. Yeah, all right, more.
Across the league, Let's see Casey Current and Boston Legacy. Casey coming out on top with that one with one nil then we've got Denver Summit ending this half of the season up one nil, over racing Louisville, who's obviously
at the bottom of the table. And this is a game that I want to talk about, Chicago going down two nils of San Diego Wave almost equalized and it was almost one to one in the in the ninety first minute plus stoppage Jordan Heidema actually scoring and then devastation called back for offside and then of course, because this is what always happens poetically, San Diego comes back and scores and ice is the game too nil.
Yeah, I mean it's been rough for Chicago. I mean, I'm I'm glad they have now back. Shout out to Jordan Tidema who this certainly had her moments this first half of the year for Chicago. But yeah, I mean it's the two zero score is a little bit deceiving.
I mean, the first goal for the Wave was what in the third minute, right digna, You know, like, so third minute goal, which is always deflating, and you've you've had a rough go thus far, so now you're down and you're not even five minutes in, and then the second goal game transpires there are chances Chicago's in it, you know, can maybe tie it up. And I mean the the second goal was I mean, stoppage time was very very long. Yeah, and it was well in stoppage time.
So I mean, really that game plays more like a one to ohero or a one to one game. It's unfortunate for Chicago they weren't able to make that one one and then you know, make it a real exciting match. They're on out and then you know you don't want to go into the break giving up a goal in the ninetieth plus thirteen minutes. But what that's not that's a bar.
The goala called from VR too, like it called out like they checked it on VR.
And that's when I got like it just men, that sucks.
Yeah, mentally, that totally sucks. And I mean that's you can always turn that though. I mean I think of like Chicago. Remember Chicago's second half of last year. They
ended up going on what became a tie spree. They couldn't quite get wins, but they were getting lots of points, which was making the playoff picture really murky because you know, teams are you know, going to those games expecting although they shouldn't to beat Chicago, and Chicago's pulling points over and over and over, and at a point they were getting so many ties that it looked like they might start to, you know, if they got a few wins,
get into that playoff picture. So I think that that has to be your narrative and that has to be your goal going into the second half. If you're Chicago, is just like, let's get a few wins and see
what happens. Utah did something similar last year, right, got to the break and then got some opportunities after the break, got to kind of reset, you know, didn't quite get into the playoff picture, but got to make some changes right going into the second half a little bit, getting some more wins, getting some more opportunities, and playing quite well.
All right, let's take a little bit broader look at this first half of the season for a second, Laura, which teams have impressed you the most?
Let's start with impressed you the most?
And then I want to also ask what your biggest surprise has been, So what team is impressed you the most?
And then what team has surprised you the most?
Umm? Impressed? God, that's a great, This is great. This is so fun. Thanks, thanks, I love this. Uh it's interesting. I although San Diego sits in first right now, I wouldn't say them. I will say Utah and the Thorns have been have been on point Tanaka midfield, like she has really opened up the game for them. She's been a great player for them, she always has been. But in these moments where they have these attacks, you can
just tell she's facilitating and playing so well. You can say the same thing for Moultrie, So you start to see this theme of attacking mids who are playing very well. You could say the same thing for fourth Washington Spirit Santo. She's a playmaker, you know, no matter where she's out on the field, she's gonna she's gonna create things. She's gonna make plays, she's gonna find windows. She's often involved when they play those sneaky little through balls that you know,
seem to be weighted just perfectly. And I now you know, you look at the table, and now you get into fifth Gotham, sixth Kansas City, and seventh with another one of the leading scores in Nashally Sanchez, North Carolina behind them Orlando.
Pride Murders in the middle.
Yeah, that's exactly where I'm going with this. So while I think you Saw and Portland have been very impressive, I think you've got the hard hitters, the heavy hitters in Washington, Gotham and Casey right behind you at four, five and six. And let's remember the Shawingo is out. Gotham almost famously now starts a little bit slow, and then and then last year goes and wins a championship. And then you've got Washington Spirit that have been in
some finals but haven't haven't gotten the trophy yet. So I'm I mean, those are my ones that I'm going to look out for. But if we're just judging by the first half of the season, I would say, you know, Utah and Portland hats off. They've done very well.
Utah has really impressed me. They're probably my biggest surprise as well. And there's no other reason other than Utah teams I just look past every year and there's no shade to this roster. It's not She's like my favorite player who's not on the rain. To be honest with you, I love watching her play. I think that she is so good at putting herself in the right positions and being relentless, and I hear a lot of announcers be like, oh, look good, she created her on luck there da dada.
I'm like, yeah, she created.
The luck, she redated it because she was so relentless.
And she just reminds me of a Tasmanian double.
Whenever I'm watching, I'm just like, this is just a Tasmanian double, and she's going to attack and win every single ball, Yeah, against three or four other defenders.
Yeah, busy effective finds. I mean, we were just talking about Moultrie finds these spots is a magnet just for space, you know, pulls away into into really dangerous areas when the opponent isn't looking. Just has an ability to know like, oh you turn your head, I'm you're gonna lose me. And it happens over and over and over. So yeah, very exciting to watch. But you know you got to
watch out. You got Shwena coming back who's had seven goals and I'm gonna go with what like four maybe five games coming back, So you know, she's she's picking up for a lots of time. She always will she I mean, whether she's in or out, as soon as she comes back, she's going to be impactful. Yeah, so I'm really kind of eyeing that four, five and six spot right now, as you know, some teams that are going to make a surge in Gotham Casey and Washington Spirit.
And then of course the playoff line is is really interesting again. And you know, this is where I think the second half of the season again for the Rain and we're seeing some parallels here right We're talking about, you know, teams that turned corners and had a different second half than they did first half. Rain sitting in tenth. I mean, you're gonna hopefully fingers crossed and I don't know where she's at in rehab, but maybe Jess fishlock back,
hopefully sooner than later. I think that's something you can equate to in a different way. But scores, goals, creates obviously impact player, captain she comes in, that's gonna be a big surge. And then you've got you know, some of the teams we've talked about Denver Summit, you know, as an expansion team, can they turn that corner and be a playoff team right off the bat? And then you've got Orlando. I mean Orlando's always in or around finals.
They always seem to be making bangs happen. So I mean, very very interesting table going into the next part of the season.
I was just about to bring up Just Fishlock because your discussion about the importance of that, you know, attacking ten or that attacking midfielder, and we've been missing just Fishlock. And if you saw, I mean the beginning of the season, our attack was really firing on a lot of cylinders or creating a lot of chances when we were scoring.
And then she left there a wentz.
You know, we've gutted it out and we've looked good and we've done I really feel like well without her, But yeah, it's going to be better with her.
Well, certainly. I mean the obvious example right now is Casey Current. I mean, how many goals were they giving up in the first five games of the season. They were giving up goals. They couldn't quite put it together.
I mean the spoken.
Yeah, absolutely right. And then you know, and as as a club you look forward to that, I mean, as everybody's gonna look forward to Jess Fishlock's return. Well, same with us shawinga right she comes back, You're like, oh, here we go. Now that final piece where we know exactly where to play her the ball, rather than having to reconfigure where no one's quite like her and has a skill set. How do we manufacture and reconfigure so that we create the scoring chances we got with showinga Well,
you don't have to do that anymore. You just go back to it. Well, this is what we did, this is how it worked, and right, it's a little more natural. I think something similar happens when Jeff Fishlock comes back, just because I mean, if you look at the beginning of the season, how many goals the rain were scoring, how well they were doing in the attack. The chance is created, and I don't think I have a little bit different perspective on it than I think some of
the narratives that I hear. I haven't seen that they aren't creating any attack. I just see that they are not finishing, and sometimes they aren't as dynamic in the final third as they have to be. I love Mercado's work great. She will create things just off of being tough and getting in spots. Not to mention her talent.
I really like DeLine in the last two games. I feel like she was a little bit more dynamic and different and then I believe for the first time we saw our first same lineups back to back for the
Rain in these last two games. So, you know, getting the win, Laura Harvey decided we're gonna put the same people back on, and I'm excited to see if somebody like a Ward steps in and changes games, if Adamis starts to score goals again like she did, and we talked about me official, you know, she turns the corner and she starts. I think she gets her first one. I think she gets her first one. I think she gets more, and it's just about breaking that barrier.
Well, and I'd like what I have seen from her on the field, like, yes, she's her whole up play has been great. She's been a lynchpin in terms of getting the attack moving, and she's been great defensively and playing all facets of the game.
So you know, yes, she hasn't.
Scored yet, but I think it's important to look at her effectiveness outside of just scoring.
Yeah, agreed. I was impressed with with her hold up play in the nine, her defensive work rate. She was creating awkward situations for the opponents, putting them in difficult spots, not allowing them to get into the flow of their attack, which is something really special out of an attacker and a nine. If you can have attackers and somebody like Me Official who puts that work in on the defensive side as well and creates opportunities out of that for
herself and her teammates, that's a big bonus. And so I believe in the second half the season we're going to see some of the fruits of that labor.
Another thing about Me Official, and this is my pet peeve with just nine's in general, is they have the most obvious body language of all time. You know when a Diva nine is not playing up to what they want to do and is not scoring and da da da da all the things. Her body language is fantastic and she's part of the team, and I have not seen a single I just hate that.
I hate watching that so much. Like dude, it's not about you right now, it's about the team. The team talk about you.
I think that's hard as a nine, specifically in the middle third, is that you're so reliant on the entry pass or where the ball's coming from right, so you're
constantly scheming. Whereas this if your team hasn't been possessing well and effectively in a game, you're constantly guessing, right, so you're it makes it look like you're out of position a lot, and arguably you are, but really it's the unpredictability of not being able to keep the ball that creates this dynamic where you're like, well, should I
pull away? Are they going to have the ball? Or do I need to check because they're going to be under pressure, And those are the decisions you're constantly making, and they're they're very different. Right, if somebody has the ball, clearly you can pull away because they don't need short support, right, they can maybe play you behind they had the time and the space to do it. If a ten or a mid midfielder is under pressure, now that dynamic changes. Now you have to check to the ball. Now it
has to be a completely different run. You thought you might get in behind on a sprint. Now you're checking and giving your feet or you're holding somebody off and showing your feet. Right, So, if your team's not possessing or is just having a hard time with that and balls are just bouncing forward, or most of the balls you're receiving are from like a goalkeeper's punt some kind
of that scenario, a goalkick. Those are really difficult balls to handle, given somebody's always on your back and there's always somebody directly in front of you, and sometimes you're kind of surrounded by two or three. But you know, when nine's effectively hold up the ball like we've seen Mercado, like we've seen Fish'll do, it completely changes the game.
And you saw that early in the season, specifically with the dynamic of Jess Fishlock and Infishal finding her in those early games she was able to hold up the ball and then not only was she able to get a ball that was predictable that she could hold and allow the team to attack, she also had really obvious runs that she could play right so she could find somebody on the run and then she could spin out
and get further up the field. And it's all about getting numbers up the field, and really an effective nine allows you to do that. So the more me Official and Mercado get into form of, you know, making that consistent and the team finding them consistently in the spots that they're checking to the ball, the better they attack is going to flow.
Let's talk a little bit more because I've always been curious about this as a non player who just loves watching and appreciating the art form of being a hold up player and playing back to goal and muscling your way through and the importance of.
That, because I think a lot.
Of fans, just in my experience, amongst the fans, it's almost looked at as well, this person who's.
Big and just physical, why aren't they just holding it up? Why can't they just be a hold up forward? So much more complex than that, Laura, you are the expert.
Can you explain to fans who may be underestimating the talent and the skill and the technical ability that it takes to be a hold up forward.
Yeah, I mean there's a couple of ways you can do it. I think that the most the one you see most commonly is, you know, a player that gets into position, posts up on a center back and then is you know, in some way or another holding them off or keeping them behind them so that they show their feet. So the reason why it's so difficult to play is, you know, you could put yourself in that position. You're a nine. You just post it up. You got to the ball side of the defender, which is, you know,
the side of the ball's on right. So if you're a midfielder has the ball, you don't want to be on the far side of that defender because the defender will then have the angle to intercept the pass. So you have to get on the near side of them and do the work. Then you have to do the physical labor to hold them back because now it's a battle. They're going to try to fight through you to that ball and get the angle, and you're going to try to keep them behind you and fight to keep the
angle hole. So in that battle, it's it's very difficult. Now imagine and you've fought for that space you've gotten in front, you're holding off a human right, they're trying to get into your space. Now it's a little bit a little bit of a like it's not a wrestling match, but it is. So you're physically holding them back. Now, imagine that ball goes over your head and behind the backs, right, So you've done all this work, you've gotten to the space,
you've shown your feet, and now the ball goes somewhere else. Okay, so now you're completely out of position. So that's why possession is so important is that if like let's say the ball is at where's his feet and she's going
to play an entry pass into me official. Well if me official gets on the ball side of the defender and does that work and is in a good spot and then she's able to play a pass forward, well it starts to become more predictable as that ball is traveling and attacking mid a mentee McCammon, official, sorry, not official, fish lock. Now those players that bass is going in, they know Mercado or official is going to receive it.
Now they can design their runs now they know where they need to go to create the next pass, which is often the pass that then unlocks the next attack forward, the next run. So when that's not predictable, and let's say again that nine is posted up, now the ball goes in behind rather than to their feet. Now you're chasing the game because the opponent had all those angles taken care of, because you were doing all the work to create an angle in front. That's where you wanted
to create the space. And it's really a chess match in that way of you know, pulling away from the defender then checking too. That's another way you can play the nine, you don't necessarily just have to stand and hold them up and make it a physical battle. Often in those situations, you're intentionally standing in an offside position until the time where you're going to receive the ball. You establish an on side position and then you make
a run. So you're constantly playing a cat and mouse game of you see me, now you don't, and you don't know where I'm gonna pop out at as opposed to a traditional you know, like big post up where you're like, I'm here, what do you do about it? I mean, think about like in Abby Womback, who is you know, like so tall? She was gonna do that and then she was gonna get in the box and then do something else in the air. Right. That was very much the dominant part of her game. Heidema did
that to some extent. Sometimes she would want to get in behind, didn't always have the pace to play that game. But when she was effective holding up, we had some really good run of play. She's doing that a little bit with Chicago. But yeah, when you when you have a good nine that can hold up play, it can really unlock the attack. Now you can Jex's position the opposite of that would be like shwinga Okay, she's just gonna run across you and she's gonna pull away from you,
and she's gonna say catch me, good luck. She's not gonna mess around necessarily with posting up a whole lot, although she's strong enough to do it, and you'll see her do it once in a while. Often she'll post up. Not get it, you want to see that attacking mid. She's just gonna be excited when she sees that attacking MIDHF space. She's gonna pull wide and she's going to create space and then look for the ball and behind.
So she might fake that she's going to post up, or she might post up once in a while just because the game needs it. But she's a player that wants to be faced forward, just you know, getting the ball in behind.
That's to me expresses the importance of having so many tools in your toolbox. Yeah, because oh, you beat her this way, Oh, but she can also beat you three or four other different ways.
Well, I mean, it's that's why. I mean people say it and I think maybe we just said it, but that's why it's a chess match, right. Your pond does something different than your queen does something different than your bishop, right, they're all you know, one can only go straightforward, right, and one can go all the directions. And you know, the king, what's he doing? Like he's just he can't he can barely move right.
So does all the work and the king.
But the game still ends when the king dies, even though the queen is doing all the work.
Yeah, I mean, like the king might be her post up and the queen might be here your ten or your your runner. But that's that's what it is. Is. You know, in the game of chess, you've got these pieces and I'm not like a chess expert, but obviously they have different skill sets and you're just trying to fit them together to establish a style of play, and so it's predictable so your team can get kind of some kind of rhythm in the attack. And that's really the name of the game.
Okay, let's transition to some US men's national team results and news and talk, just because the World Cup is literally tomorrow almost not literally tomorrow, but it's very close.
It is. It's awesome.
All the friendlies.
Tomorrow, all the friendlies are now happening. Us coming out with a three to win over Senegal. My personal favorite player on the US men's national team other than Christian Roland of course, yeah, of course Christian Roland is my favorite player, but your guest is my second favorite player. I love him in the last World Cup cycle. I love when we have a really great fullback who can attack and not just a fullback who can you know, play on the wings, but he side a lot.
He's he goes wherever.
He kind of is a Nico Ladero in that way, but he's playing as a wing back like it was, wherever he wants, and I love it.
I love that he has that freedom. It's fun to watch. Yeah, it makes I mean for people who really enjoy the game and look at the starting formation and then how it's utilized through you know, styles of play. What a fun player to watch from where his starting position is, and then the freedom he's allowed to then do those
kinds of things. It's unique to you know, and special players get to do some of those things, or they have special qualities that allow you to let them do things that are a little out of the box, and he's certainly one of those players. He was really fun to watch in the Senegal game.
Christian Pelistic also scoring a goal.
He's been off the score sheet I think for like eighteen street games or something like that. But he does not seem like the type of guy who that gets in his head.
I don't know if anything gets in that guy's head.
No. I you know, as much as we've talked a little bit about, you know, what's the man national team culture? What are they going to be like in this World Cup? You know there's been a lot of just I guess unknowns we'll call them, kind of swirling around. You don't know exactly what you're going to get, or what the plan is, or even what the final roster was going to be. I thought that Senegal game was I'm optimistic on it. I was high on it. I loved watching it.
I was like, this is this is a lot of fun. I mean, they're really dynamic runs. The players are like they're they're getting ready for a woke up and that was obvious and you don't know, I see that with the men's national team in terms of urgency in the attacking third. And it was very dynamic, and I thought it was really really fun.
I thought, interestingly, and I was surprised when I read this. This was the first match that Sudinia does in Anthony Robinson started together in the Bojetina era, which is surprising to me because I would have felt like they would be the obvious pairing.
Yeah, but it's the first time I've started together under him, Nino.
That's interesting. I mean some of the some of the talk, you know, has been like, who is the starting lineup going to be? Is it gonna be these lineups that we're seeing right now or is this still push Tino trying to figure it out? And I, I really don't know. I don't have a I don't have a hot take
on that. I'm not sure. I'd love to say that he's got to figure it out and this is who it's gonna be, this is who we're gonna see, and we're just gonna get some reps in terms of you know, who's who's out there now and them getting some chemistry together. But I'm not sure. But I really enjoyed that game, I you know, as much as we weren't sure about culture and those sorts of things. And you know, you
can't watch one game and go we've got it. But given the proximity to the World Cup, and given who was out there and how they were playing and the chemistry that seems to be evolving, it made me really excited for these games coming up, starting well, specifically for US starting the twelfth.
Next friendly will be June sixth against Germany.
That's quite a friendly. It's a great I'm gonna play against.
Put yourself toe to toe against the top competition right before.
That's what you have to do.
And this US men's notional team has had the disadvantage of.
In certain ways. This is a disadvantage.
They have not had to qualify and they haven't really had to play a competitive match in a very long time, so actually having a challenge ahead of you can only be a good thing.
Yeah. I think that that also fed into the unknowns, or has been feeding into the unknowns, is just like who exactly.
Look, it almost feels like we It's so when I was at USC the football team they practiced just like in the middle of the quad and like a field, but they would put these giant walls up so you couldn't actually see the practice.
And that's what this entire US Men's team has felt like this cycle, Like there's.
Just this giant firewall and we can't actually see what's going on.
Yeah, we're all just speculating.
And of course American men's soccer fans, not the women's soccer fans, with American men's soccer fans are the most negative nancies I've ever experienced in sports. And I lived in Boston and I've visited Philadelphia, So that's impressive. You guys are very impressive.
And your curmudgeny.
Glass half MD ways yeah right, And I mean I think that part of that, you know, probably probably connects to like a Lexi Lawless, you know, like people like to pull that name, and he likes to give some you know, some takes.
That aren't always positive, and that's that's you know, his job, and that's okay. I've seen both out of him though, you know, to his credit though, I think heading into this World Cup, everybody wants the team to succeed and everybody's really excited to see what what's brought. Yet not
having to qualify puts in an interesting dynamic. I mean, what do you what do you do with that You don't really get to see those you don't get to see the team prepare in the same way as the bottom line, So the unknowns are still I still think they're I'm really excited for the friendly and what we get to see before the World Cup. But I mean when it's go time and it's June twelfth, I just I can't wait. And I'll be at the game up at Lumen on the nineteenth. It'll be my first live
Men's World Cup game, so I'm I can't. I mean that nothing beats that.
I am planning on getting tickets for that one as well, but I'm just good waiting until the dynamic pricing goes. Wait, I'm waiting for the prices to crash.
Well, I'm sure I overpaid, but I'm going to just go with it because I go with it.
I overpaid for two other games I overpaid. I'm going to the USA Turkey game in Los Angeles and we definitely overpaid that and then Egypt Belgium just because it will be at Luminfield and I want to just experience as much as I can.
That's awesome.
Yeah, it's gonna be.
I mean it's teams like that, right, I mean Belgium has been gosh what it was it fourteen where they were like so exciting. I mean they've put in.
Some like, Hey, without if Chris Wandilowski just did not shank that last chance at all, you would have beaten Belgium's Golden Generation.
Can you do?
Can you tell?
So close?
We all have PTSD from that. Chris Wanilowski, you were actually one of my favorite prose. I've never met you. You are seriously one of my favorite pros of all time. You went to the same high school as my dad, not the same age. I'm closer in age to you. It's fine.
I love you. I love that you caught fire so late in your career. I love that you are have all of these crazy records in Major League Soccer. But gosh, darn it, man, I know you know what same I.
Mean, he's a he's a Chico guy. Yeah, he was a D two like all star, you know, kind of late Blue Own High.
He's from Danville, California.
Yeah, no, I mean northern California. Here we go, go, Arris go Berkeley. So yeah, I mean, I honestly, I I was a big fan, too huge fan. And then you know, he was obviously just scoring a boatload of goals in MLS and he never quite got I thought the national team run that I thought that he could have maybe had earlier and when that moment happened, I
felt so terrible for him. I was like, that guy has just put in so many goals and so much work and you know, taking this very It's just it's a path that not a lot of players take to get to that level. And then yeah, that moment was a total bummer. But Chris Wandelawski, what a gosh. The guy was so fun to watch goalscorer.
I love you, Wondo, but a yeah, that was that team. That Belgian team was like, they have got to be so disappointed in the results that that national team has had because that was that that team was loaded.
It's a crazy roster and I mean those come through and you're just like what is going. I mean, like think of you know.
Spain and they weren't even a top three in that.
World Spain when they went on their run. I mean obviously that Spanish playing at Barcelona, it was basically Barcelona without MESSI was kind of what you had there.
Literally, yeah, like they all played together, they all had insane chemistry already and they were I mean that Spain team in my lifetime might be the best team of all time.
Oh well, that's that's when the that's when everybody started building out of the back and started talking about Rondo's I mean those two like buzzwords.
Oh, you know, because the best team in the world is great at that, we should just copy the best team.
We can do a whole episode on building out of the back and when to do it, and why everybody's doing it and how they're misusing it. I could really go on and on, but I won't right now. However, that is really where it stemmed from. That's when the trend started was, Look, the best players in the world can do it, let's have everybody do it all the time, which is, in my opinion, the absolute wrong application of
that decision. I think that it's everybody's doing it, and I think it's there's a time and a place, certainly, but I you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna push for it. I know we've talked about Achille. I want the statistics on the NWSL and I'm going to look for other leagues too on how many goals result from building out of the back in the defensive third and see what those stats are, because I think the numbers are a lot more shocking than people would think they are.
We should call it Jen Cooper because she will know that answer.
Let's get on, Let's get her on.
Because she knows everything, Jen, we can extend it.
We can extend it to the back half of the field because if.
Way just shout out to her every like I don't want to say every single factoid and every single piece of research that you watch in every NWSL broadcast comes from her, but at least eighty percent does because her in.
Her work is so in depth. I mean, whenever I start to dig into her work, I'm like, oh, like this is It's so organized, it's so in depth, it's it's all the information you would ever need to really talk about just about everything.
And it's formatted so well for broadcast, yes, and for producers, like it's exactly the right information that you need. Like, Jen, you are amazing. We are so we don't we don't deserve you, but thank you, Thank God.
She she does the job that she does. She's one of those people that is doing something that she's amazing at.
Yes, yes she is. Let's see blah blah blah. What else do we want to talk about? God, there's still I feel like there's still so much about Messy airplane.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was just weird.
I was like this, Okay, Messi is gonna be in the US, He's been in the US. Yay, Argentina.
Who do you think is gonna win this World Cup? And I don't know.
That's how I felt was the last one. And then yeah, at some point it just felt, you know, like all the everything was going to align, and obviously Messy got his World Cup. I wouldn't be sad if he got to I certainly would.
I wouldn't either. I don't think many people would be sad.
No one would be sad, like non polarizing superstars, like no one hates Lionnel Messy.
No. And I mean he he just seems like such a normal, grounded, family oriented loves the game. Like obviously he's like teaching it to his children, who look like, you know, times that they can do a lot of the things in similar ways that he he has at the top levels. No, I love it. I mean I
was at a tournament once. It was a youth tournament and his family happened to be there, and I mean the crowds around it was just it's just you know, such a glimpse into one interesting odd world, you know, those peopeople must live in in terms of specifically their children. I mean it was just there's not really many stands there. They were pretty regular fields, and they were small fields because the children are that old. And these children had I mean, you know, like ten people back just deep
standing around a field watching them play this game. And I was just like, holy cow, like this probably happens every other weekend for him.
Crazy. Yeah, you were in the superstar that we all aspire to become.
Yeah, truly, all right, google that. What else is on here? We don't usually get that much time? This is so cool, you know before we leave. Actually I put this on here and it was it just says love for Tim Reim because Tim Reem is catching so many strays on Reddit and I don't want to hear a word about how old he is. I don't want to hear it. I want to hear that our captain is on Charlotte EVS. That's awesome, Okay, he's awesome. He like what back line do we have without him?
Guys? He's the anchor.
I mean, there's a really happens without him. We could listen we could want a different one, we could want a younger one, we could want something else, like all those things are fine right now. We have who we have, and frankly, I think we should both celebrate it and be excited about it. I think he brings a ton of experience and he's going to do a great job.
You know, sometimes can he get caught for speed and we need to be able to game plan for that, you know, yeah, sure, I mean, your legs are thirty eight, are not the same as when you were younger. But I think that we can and especially as we look into pool play, I think that this is this is a good situation for the US and I'm optimistic that they can make a run if they bring the same energy that they're bringing to these early games and they don't get tight or nervous, you know, when the stage
gets so big. But I think it's going to be very interesting to watch this team, and again, I'm very optimistic from what we saw against Senegal.
We love you, Tim Reim, and I'm pretty sure Tim Reim used to host a podcast with our buddy Steve Schlanger as well, So.
Oh gosh, talk to Steve.
I love to talk to Steve about his buddy to next week.
Actually, this is a great idea for next week and great segue. We will be back as a podcast all throughout the World Cup. You can check us out on the Seattle Soccer Audio Network page.
Hoole New Kili is just gonna come out.
We'll be back next week regat talking more World Cup, talking NWSL news because there will still be tons of news and transactions and tons of stuff to talk about.
And yeah, stay with us.