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It's fine, it's cool, it's over - Ep. 22
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The Reign finished out the 2024 season with a 3-2 loss away at Orlando. Jordyn Huitema finally broke the curse and scored her first NWSL goal since June 9th. Maddie Mercado played super sub and tallied her first ever NWSL regular season goal, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Shield winners. We reflect on the game as well as the season at large for the Reign, and look ahead to a hopefully brighter future for the team next season.
Later in the episode we cover other results from around the league over the weekend and make our picks for the first round playoff matches.
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Coop
Van
Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
Show artwork by Coop
The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Episode Introduction & NWSL Overview
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, ho, and welcome to episode 22 of The Cooler Guild. I'm your host, Coop, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van. Hello. We are recording on Wednesday, November 6th, 2024. On today's episode, we'll be discussing Rain's final match of the season versus Orlando Pride. And we'll also do a quick dive into the NWSL playoff picture, since we are at the end of the season, or at least us.
00:00:42
Speaker
Yeah. And of our season, thank God. ah But for some housekeeping, The Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. You can either listen to us on the public feed or if you're a Sounder at Heart subscriber on our private unified feed with the other podcasts on the network. If you'd like to become a subscriber, just visit our page at sounderatheart.com forward slash The Cooler Guild. New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing.
00:01:04
Speaker
um You know what? I think this might be the first episode where I'm just like, let's just dive straight into it because everything else going on fucking blows.
Escaping Politics & Women's Rights Concerns
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah. It's honestly really hard to actually ah talk about anything that's not the doom of our current political state here. Yeah. Yeah. i I want this episode to maybe serve as people, serve people as like some sort of, um, I don't know, moment, like a reprieve. Yeah, let's like try to at least maybe just focus on something else for, I don't know, 45 minutes to an hour probably will be this episode. But it's also hard to not acknowledge it because, I mean, we're both people who might be affected by some of the policies that could be coming out with this new administration and that's pretty scary. Yeah.
00:01:53
Speaker
and i think but You know, being a women's soccer podcast, it's hard not to acknowledge the fact that women are going to suffer. Yep. And it's honestly terrifying. So it's hopefully this can be a little escape for us at least at least talking a short amount of time. I mean, we don't want to like pretend it's not happening.
00:02:18
Speaker
but i also think it's important to um take care of yourselves and also find i don't know maybe joy maybe not complete joy because the rain suck but But at least find a moment for yourself um to just, I don't know, kind of tune some of the bad out for at least a moment. You don't want to stay in that dark place. Yeah. At least not not forever. I think there's times where we need to be in it and maybe figure out how we can not get there again, but it's not going to be good for quite a while. so Yeah, I mean, there's it's it's a tough spot to be in, but it's nothing i you or I can change.
00:02:55
Speaker
right now and so I think it's it's good to you know we enjoy doing this and we enjoy talking about the rain and we love the team and so we'll continue to you know keep bringing that coverage no matter what the world looks like.
Rain vs Orlando Pride Match Recap
00:03:10
Speaker
That's the very least we can do um I don't know. It's an extra element of like we have a player like Quinn in our team and I can't help but think about people like them and other non-binary, trans, gender non-conforming, queer people. um So I don't know. it's it's ah It's really hard right now. Yeah. um But we'll move on into the match, the last match of the season.
00:03:35
Speaker
Yeah, we had one last game. um The rain took on Shield winners Orlando Pride on Saturday, and November 2nd. Orlando got ahead early with Ali Watt scoring in the ninth minute, but Jordan Heidema quickly countered to tie the game a minute later. Orlando scored in the 25th minute and we're up two to one at half. They increased their lead in the 57th minute with an inevitable Marta goal. The rain fought back and narrowed the lead with an excellent header from Maddie Mercado in the 84th minute, but they were unable to find the tying goal. And again, losing the match, last match of the season, two to three.
00:04:05
Speaker
And it was away. It was away at Orlando. Orlando's been, like, pretty solid it at home. Yeah. For me, like, when watching it, I was really confused why there were so few people at that game. They have often worse attendance numbers and not that we're doing badly, but for a shield-winning team. Like, if our team was this good right now... You have Marta! Yeah.
00:04:27
Speaker
You have Barbara Banda. yeah You have generational talent on this team. You should be selling out that stadium every game. Especially as shield winners, especially as a team that is as elite as they are, yeah but also a lot of bad stuff going on in Florida.
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah, be the other priority and ignore that. ah Yeah, there was also a college football game on at the same time at home. And Orlando, I think it was a UCF game that you mentioned. So so it was the final match of the season. I was able to watch the whole game live. And honestly, like the team didn't look terrible. Montesier started again and she looked really good. They were able to connect in the midfield. They looked dangerous. They had ah multiple moments where they were connecting three, four passes and like beating the line to get through. So they didn't look bad. So that was cool to see. It wasn't great though because Barbara Banda scored in the second minute.
00:05:20
Speaker
and I was like, oh, great, here we go. But with the replay, they called it back because she was offside. It was pretty obvious, too. But she she croiffed it right yeah into the back of the net. It was pretty insane. And luckily she was offside. So that one was called back. So.
00:05:36
Speaker
But yeah, it it could have been a lot worse. And, you know, it sucks that like they we seem to always go behind early. Yeah. But Jordan Heinemann was able to score this game, which is something we thought. Finally, fucking finally.
00:05:52
Speaker
The floodgates, are they open? I don't know, we're about to wait a few months. It was the last game. I know, I was like, ah, crap. If this could've come like four games ago, that would've been great. Yeah. But it was a good goal. It was a really good goal. Yeah. i she that That's a hard cross to connect with, and she was able to get on it and place it, so. Good distribution from Dickie. You know, that was nice to see. And everyone was kind of ready for it too. I don't know. That was like, okay, ok okay, okay. And then we had the the final quality that we needed at the end of it. I know. We're still lacking that little bit. yeah But we were able to find it a couple of times this game, which was refreshing. the creat So this is a noodle set I put down. That was King's first assist for the season on that goal. ah so Don't think that's a good stat to have for your last game of the season. and It was a really good cross. Is that something we should have been trying a little bit more throughout the season? I don't know. It's hard when it's somebody that's played that many minutes and hasn't really contributed much.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah, it could have been tried sooner. Like there's plenty of opportunities to try that. yeah When I think of King, it's usually she's the run one running up
Player Highlights & Team Dynamics
00:07:00
Speaker
the field with the ball at her feet and then trying to make a cut, but not necessarily leaning crosses quite like that one was. But it was also a quick play with Claudia's distribution. So I feel like she was just a little bit more on it than um maybe we've seen all season.
00:07:15
Speaker
Well, I think it helps too. She was, King wasn't getting so sucked into the middle because the midfield with Montessori in there had more, was giving more support. So she's able to stay wider because our midfield is present. Yeah, that makes sense. A lot of changes in that midfield. um Although this was the first time we've seen a repeated lineup.
00:07:36
Speaker
Why did we have to do this the last game of the season? I wanted to keep the, I wanted to keep it going. We probably would have been the first team ever, my guess, I'm much for certain, but my guess is if we would have completed this game with a different lineup, there's probably a pretty good chance we would have been the first team to ever finish an entire season with a different lineup every single match. I want to have something to take out of this, this season. It could have been that it could have been that. I don't know if that's something to be happy about, but it would have been something interesting. It would have been something. We also got Maddie Mercado's first and to be so regular season goal. That was sick too. That was a really good header. Yeah. Well, and she kind of, it's hard because it's a little bit behind her. And so she had to kind of go up and time it correctly and was able to place it back where it came from and put it in the back of the net. Great goal. Super great. Her contract is up at the end of the season. Do you think that goal maybe got her an extension? I i don't think it doesn't help. and That's a terrible double negative I shouldn't use.
00:08:35
Speaker
I think it helps her. i love doubly it up to being honest i think it I think it definitely helps. She hasn't gotten much time. And so if you're able to contribute something and in a very limited amount of time, I think that that shows that you you can be an impact player.
00:08:50
Speaker
I mean, she subbed on and made a difference right away, which is not something we've had. Right. So yes, let's see if she's got more. I think it's worth it. I do think it's interesting that 17 of our 26 games were decided by one goal. Uh, that speaks to two different points. One that we need to score more. ah At least one more to get points. Yeah. And also stop letting goals in.
00:09:12
Speaker
Yeah, it's like the very basic idea of soccer who scores more goals, right? And we just haven't scored enough and we're letting in dumb goals. We talked, we did, we did talk about this the last match. What does it say to us? I think it says that we're close to kind of being competitive. Um, we just but lacking that little bit of quality. Exactly. It it gets back to the point that Laura's been making all season. Yeah.
00:09:37
Speaker
Which I guess I'm glad like this is an Orlando team that is historic. Like this is going to go down as like probably one of the best teams historically in NDBecil history. Yeah in regular season. I mean they broke the record for points. We'll see what happens in playoffs and stuff. I don't know.
00:09:54
Speaker
I don't know if they've got it to to win the whole thing. that's so That's a big, big ass to win both. And I don't know that I'm seeing that level of eliteness that they need to have going and into the playoffs, but they could do it. But if they don't do that, you know, that does kind of dim the season for them, I would say. But there's no arguing. We play them in the regular season. So, you know,
00:10:16
Speaker
we lost to them in their best way that they play. um So I don't i don't think it can be too harsh on the result um given given what we were going up
Team Morale & Future Outlook
00:10:25
Speaker
against. Yeah, and I thought it would actually be a lot worse. I was pleasantly surprised that we were able to score twice. Two goals, too. Yeah, in the run. And not penalties. Yeah, they were penalties. But yeah, Orlando has conceded five goals in their last two matches. um And before that, they had only allowed two goals in their previous 10 regular season matches. So there they're kind of bending, but I don't know if they're going to break.
00:10:49
Speaker
You know? I think the post-season will be interesting for them. See if they can keep it going. They're gonna need to find, I feel like they're at a point where they kind of need to find like a weird, not like a total reset, but just like kind of like regroup and and figure out how they get back to that like, we're gonna fuck you up. Like there's no way to stop us kind of mentality. Yeah. Cause it seems like that. I didn't, I don't know if I saw that when we played them. It's also hard when you're already, you know, locked in as the number one seed, right? Totally. you're trying to arrest players. You're trying to, you're trying to navigate what the next couple of weeks are going to look like for your team. And you got players coming from international duty. You've got all sorts of things going on. So I don't know. I don't know if it's appropriate to judge them on the last couple of games of their season, especially when they you know lost to Portland, but they didn't even play their best players for 75 minutes. And it was in Portland. Yeah. So should we roll into the positives from this match? Yeah, let's do it. It's over. season is over, we can kind of move on from and forget about what happened here this season. I don't want to forget about it. I mean, it's been terrible. It's been rough. Like this is something that you look back on and say, okay, it used to be worse and we're going to move on. And hopefully there's going to be a lot of movement in the off season. Hopefully we'll be able to bring some new fresh goal scoring people in. Yeah. But I'm i'm glad that this kind of this chapter, we can turn the page on this, you know? Absolutely. There's a lot of things that played into why the season was bad. And I'm glad that people started acknowledging it towards the end. You know, I heard I heard it on the broadcast. I heard it from players. You know, there was always that idea of a rebuild or something like that. But people weren't really talking about it. No. And I in in the last game, Lance Anderson, right, was announcing we're on the broadcast and
00:12:42
Speaker
And yeah she mentioned it, you know, she said they there was the sale. There was, you know, kind of in this purgatory for a while. And so we weren't able to do a lot of things that Laura Harvey would have needed to do to have a winning season. So I'm glad that ended up being acknowledged. She said I don't think I had heard this before. Obviously, it could have been like implied if you just thought about how sales of sports teams go in this country. But it sounded like the players weren't even 100 percent sure that the team was going to stay in Seattle. Yeah, that was interesting to hear. Yeah.
00:13:12
Speaker
That's got a way so heavy on you, especially for people. Cause like we're one of those teams that's had players around for a really long time. And that's, those are like your leaders of the team and they're not sure what's going to happen. And that can't help the mentality of everything happening around there. Yeah. Um, it worked out, I would say mostly in the end, and as far as we're keeping our team where it should be. Um, and we've gone back to a good branding and all of that stuff, but to bounce out of that and everything that came with the sale and how long it took, that doesn't get fixed in a few months. Yeah. Or with a single window of being able to sign people. No, absolutely not. They definitely need to go into like a reset mode where let's learn from, you know, this season, but also, uh, just keep pushing forward. second positive thing that I had listed, we were not last place. Thank God. The the crazy thing is, I mean, I just think like, thank you players for making sure we beat Houston because we were not last place. just by three points over Houston. So how do we not win that game? Oh, man, this would be a this would be a shitty fucking episode, a shittier episode than it's kind of feeling. Yeah. So we were overall better than one team. So that's something.
00:14:32
Speaker
How far, what's the, what's the team above us? Yeah. They're like ah one rate above us. Oh no. Okay. And then let me just point out the team rate above us and then the standings got three points docked from them. That's like good seats, but we weren't last place. So, you know, take it take the win. I'll take that win. I'll take it. Um, we have to talk about the fact that we've been on the, on the train of Jordan Heinema could be better. She knows it. Yeah. And I was really happy to see her score. Yeah. I felt a bit vindicated at the same time. Should she have scored more? Yes. I was like, you got to wait. I think we got to get a few games in the next season before you're fully vindicated because. Yeah, for sure.
00:15:18
Speaker
She definitely let us end on a high note with like the possibility of like, yes, ah she's capable of of great, of good things. Um, and that's nice to know because I feel like a lot of people were just like, I don't even know if she can do this anymore. Like maybe this isn't going to work. And I'm just like, I, I, we haven't really, she hasn't been given a fair chance. If you, if you go watch the postmaster presser and stuff, you know, like.
00:15:39
Speaker
First of all, when she started a professional career over here, there's like COVID, there's her injuries with her back and like she had another like head injury problem, like off and on it seemed like. And she's super young. She moved from like France to over here. Like this is happening when she's what, like 19 years old? Yeah. That's like a lot to have going on for you. Yes, she should have done better this season, but i've I like the way she's been talking in these press conferences, because it make to me, I see a lot of maturity in her. I think she's starting to feel like her role here is something that she really values. um And I think she wants to prove people who have doubted her or maybe think that she's not as good as, I don't know, she hasn't lived up to those expectations for sure. And I think she wants to make sure that she proves those people wrong next year.
00:16:24
Speaker
Yeah, it seems to me that she really cares about the team yeah and about her role. And she's really stepping up to be one of the leaders on the team, which is crazy for you know a 23-year-old. Yeah. So I i i think good ah moving forward with the team, I think that she's definitely an asset. Yeah, I think a season like this can um do a lot for a player like her. And I'm i'm i'm excited about it. I think a lot of people don't feel that way. But good news, I'm not one of those people.
00:16:53
Speaker
I also liked that the goal was like a, it was a quick response, right? It was literally like the next minute. And you could tell what it meant, you know? yeah You could see it in the celebration. Yeah, I was like, she had a pretty good celly on that. um Any other positives you got? I mean, other than what I said earlier, but the team looked more connected. The team looked more productive in the final third. So that was nice to see.
Defensive Critiques & Admiration for Marta
00:17:14
Speaker
It didn't necessarily translate as much as I wanted, but what what can you do? You've had crop season, you're playing the pop team in the league.
00:17:22
Speaker
It's hard. Yeah, I guess we'll roll into the negatives then. was The second goal was... the second The second goal was the one where it was kind of like a mashup in the box, in the six, and um somebody just got absolutely bodied off the ball. Oh, that was the possible foul on the box. It should have been, but it wasn't called. But again, you can't win games if you don't score more goals.
00:17:46
Speaker
If that goal would have been correctly called back, we would have tied the game. But ah you can't rely on things like that. Yeah. The third goal was disappointing from Athens because she kind of just watched Marta from what it looked like to me. But at the same time, would I have also just watched Marta?
00:18:06
Speaker
You know, like, because I feel like she was trying to make sure she wasn't going to get tripped up by her. Yeah. so She was really trying to like focus on her a lot, but I just feel like her her body positioning wasn't didn't set her up for success at the end of it because Marta eventually just martyred, you know. Yeah, it's it's kind of inevitable. I remember I remember seeing Marta when they were playing at Chaney. Yeah. And I remember sitting in the sitting in the supporters section. She came up to sign autographs and I was just like,
00:18:37
Speaker
Just ah stick it i in ah australia this tiny woman with like yeah heavy red lipstick. I know just an absolute beast. <unk> So I don't I don't I can't fault to anyone for not.
00:18:53
Speaker
not doing anything yeah and like is this ah because Marta's not playing for the Brazilian national anymore I don't know what her situation is with Orlando I feel like if they win the whole thing she probably won't be back but it's Marta so who fucking knows I know that you and I have been kind of secret Orlando yeah supporters yes Well, and are weird so in our weird way, i fans, fans, the they, they, they have a lot of players that like Ali watt, right? Who, uh, were rain players, her Angelina, uh, Celia. We didn't really want to see go and they left. And so it's been nice to follow them. i I really hope that they do well in the, in the off season or in the post season. I will be, if, if I need to root for another team, I think I would want Orlando to win it.
00:19:39
Speaker
I want to see Marta win a WSL championship. Yeah. Especially now that the trophy doesn't look like dog shit. Um, you know, that's its own thing. But for following the league, as long as we have, which is, you know, since it started, um, we've seen how bad Orlando has been year after year after year after year, even though it seems like they have so many good pieces. Marta's been there through all of it too. Just like, you know, another element to this just. I just think it's such a good story. They've had all this history of just being so bad and they can go and get the shield in this like ridiculous fashion. And if they can finish it up with the trophy, don't think it's easy to do. The turnout they've had is very impressive, but no doubt we're all just kind of waiting to see if they can, they can actually get the big one. Yeah, I would like it. I would like to see it. I think there's no one else in the batch of teams left, but I'm like, that'd be fine. It's certainly not Gotham and it's certainly not the thorns. God, no. Uh, yeah, if I had to root for another team, it would be, it would be Orlando. Did you get anything for the presser? I got, I've watched both pressures. It's kind of like, I mean, the season's over. So like, what are we supposed to take out of it? I feel like they had, they had Glasgow and Jordan Heidema on the presser. Um, and they kind of just talked about like wanting to make sure that their team that has resiliency, they don't want to go into this match playing to team like Orlando, um, and making it look like they just didn't care. And, um, I think that was obvious to me from what I watched. This team has a lot of pride and I love watching this team and I love.
00:21:12
Speaker
I love seeing that players still care and want to give us something to be excited about even while we're down. Yeah, that's the thing, you know, you can only be as invested as the players are. And if you don't feel that the players care or if they're just going out there to, you know, earn their $70,000 paycheck. 70? Yeah. Some of them may get 70, but there's not many. It is as a fan, you know, being on this side, it is nice to know that they care. and it shows you could see it you know when they're celebrating when they're scoring goals when they're even when they're complaining you know that was something i took out of it because uh lasco's obviously talking about having to take up a new position just kind of out of nowhere yeah she was put through the wringer yeah and she's She's like, I'm starting to, I'm starting to get it. And she was rewarded with that, with that, um, assist on the second goal. And I think that was kind of cool to see someone. I mean, we're both huge Alasko fans. Obviously we were always rooting for her and kind of, I feel like knew that she had it in her to kind of be that player that can kind of float around wherever the team needs her to some extent. I think she's going to have to take up that role again, come next season, at least for a little while, depending on what happens with, um, where to
00:22:22
Speaker
I don't know. I love let's go. I feel like we need to sign her to like a lifelong extension because
Playoff Analysis & Predictions
00:22:28
Speaker
there's something about her attitude that is just so like captivating and it's like, you just kind of, whatever she's feeling, I feel like I kind of just like latch onto to it as well. Um, and that's gotta be so nice for players to have someone like that around. Well, there's something about her when you watch when you watch the team play. And even when we were in the really deep delves of like being awful this season, she would come on and just work her ass off. Yeah. And it was like, oh, someone cares. Yeah. You know, she's trying. And that I feel like that kind of rubs off on everyone else around her. Right. You can't just dink around when somebody is literally working themselves to the bone.
00:23:10
Speaker
Yeah, right next to you. So I am I please sign her to like a eight year contract or something. Yeah, I'd be fine with that. Thank you for listening to the Sound Rithhart Podcast Network, which now includes No Sonietes, Lobbing Scorchers and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023.
00:23:30
Speaker
but need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible by your continued support. Memberships start as low as $25 a year, which not only helps make podcasts like this one happen, but also gets you access to everything we produce.
00:23:46
Speaker
If you're able to support us at higher levels, starting at $75 a year, you gain access to a host of other perks, most notably entry into our Members Only Discord, where the smartest, funniest, and most engaged commenters share their thoughts and ideas. To find out more, just visit centeratheart.com and click the subscribe button in the top right corner. Thanks for listening.
00:24:12
Speaker
Do you have anything else for the match you want to cover? No. All right. Um, this is time for our final cooler player of the match for the season. Last one. Cooler player of the match is brought to you by the doctor's office. A great little 12 seat bar on Capitol Hill. The owner is a big fan of the rain and is proud to be our very first sponsor. So our final cooler player of the match brought to you by the doctor's office. Who are we going to give it to?
00:24:34
Speaker
uh it's the friends that we made along the way and if you want to like elevate that it's it's the uh also the center subscribers that have kind of been helping us i don't know keep doing this a little bit yeah you know i don't know it's added some fun to me fun for me doing this and then i feel like without the community what's the point yeah i mean we'd still be talking about the team but and should it'd be a lot like sadder it would be hell of a lot sadder yeah so we appreciate everyone i i sometimes forget that people listen to this yes so do i we just like put it out into the ether and then like oh people are listening oh crap we can say now we're in the hundreds it's not a high hundreds but we are in the hundreds now usually for listeners um for episodes which is
00:25:28
Speaker
way more than I thought we were going to do when we started this thing. No. um And not that I'm like looking at numbers, but it's just it's very fun and cool to see that there's other rain fans out there that care about this team in a way that we do. I think that's more of what it is for me um because I'm really passionate about about the team. And um I just want to spread spread that joy and um camaraderie and misery when we're in the misery together, have that together. It makes it feel a lot um a lot more, a lot more nice.
00:25:57
Speaker
Yeah, it makes you feel connected in a way that I don't know that I would especially during this season. I don't know that I would have felt as unified with other people without this platform. Yeah, it's been tough. It's been tough. So it's a better thing. Yeah, here's some things. Thanks to all of you.
00:26:16
Speaker
Thanks once again to the doctor's office. Doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match. Stop by today and try the non-alcoholic celery shrub cocktail. Celery juice and apple cider vinegar are steep for two days with a dozen spices. Then it gets strained and topped with Como, a non-alcoholic soda made in the style of an Italian Amaro, making it one of the loveliest things you can order at TDO. Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person.
00:26:41
Speaker
chairs Cheers. Cheers. Should we move on from the rain and go into some other end of the soul stuff? Yeah. did you watch Did you watch the Bay game? No, I just saw the highlight of it.
00:26:54
Speaker
Paige Nielsen get absolutely wrecked. And what's that move called? Where they jump on top of the ball with both feet? Kudananji just fucking embarrassed the shit out of Paige Nielsen. She's in hiding now. she has She lives in a cave. She's in hiding because she just got embarrassed in a way I have never seen someone embarrassed in the NWSO.
00:27:19
Speaker
It was insane. Could not just like standing there in the corner and just like hops on top of the ball and both feet just standing on top of the ball and then pops down and then just absolutely wrecks Paige Nielsen. Insane. It was amazing because I've never seen anybody do that. I was saying like Bay is probably like the one team that was kind of skirting into the playoffs maybe that I hated the least. That stands true after this move.
00:27:49
Speaker
I had the pleasure of going to a BFC game at their stadium. I had a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, so I don't hate them. I don't know that they're going to win. I'm happy for them. They're one of the few expansion teams right who have qualified for playoffs in their first for season. So congrats to them, and I'm so happy that you did it that way.
00:28:12
Speaker
Yeah, thank God, because like, at Houston, this was the team that was behind us. If Houston would have won, it would have been bad for us, so thank you, Bae. Thank you, Bae. The other thing that happened in the league, San Diego, we've talked about this many times. The trash fire. What the fuck is going on with their field? They had to relocate their final home match of the season. Which was supposed to be their like fan appreciation match. Nothing like saying fan appreciation, like fuck you.
00:28:42
Speaker
but yeah our so Our field vuggins suck so ah we're just gonna have to go to Louisville. Yeah we're gonna have to play an away game when we should have had a home game because our field conditions are so terrible. On top of the trash fire that is their front office, Angel Ellis being sued. It's not good there.
00:28:59
Speaker
Vibes are bad. If Naomi Gurman's looking for a new place, Seattle's great. Happy to have you. Yeah, so happy to have you. Um, they did win though, they did which like Louisville, you kind of got handed like a little, like they were fighting for a playoff spot and they kind of got handed this gift of being able to play in a home game and they still lost and they lost pretty badly. The only goal they got was Bethany Balzer. Um, but then SD put up three on them. So yikes. Yeah. Louisville missed out on playoffs by four points.
00:29:29
Speaker
Yeah, so it wouldn't have been enough, but you know, you got to take care of businesses at home. If you get a home game out of nowhere like that, especially against a dumpster fire organization at the moment, like like the wave. Yeah, you really just need to take care of business and they didn't do that. No. For a team that was, I don't know, ah obviously I'm a little want to rub it in people's faces, but like a team that was you know bragging about and trying to get players to like make their playoff push and stuff like that didn't work out.
00:29:56
Speaker
um This was kind of an interesting thing that I that like saw, but six of the eight playoff teams that are you know now officially in the playoffs, six of the eight, um won their final regular season match. So they really just made us, below who everyone who's below the playoff line, feel like even more like dog shit than we already do.
00:30:17
Speaker
Yeah. And the only teams that lost that were in the playoff spots that um they played like other teams that are already in the playoffs. So it's kind of like, yeah. um So yeah, there wasn't a ton of movement. Not a lot to of movement and um the bad teams just proved they're bad. Chicago. So Chicago going into the playoffs, Chicago has to play Orlando. Woof. Yeah. I don't. But, Malpio. I know. mal Mallory Swanson. Sorry. I love that name Malpio though.
00:30:46
Speaker
I don't know, could Swanson show up and Nayer show up in a way? Yeah, they're kind of a, Chicago's kind of a dark horse, I feel like. Yeah. They have, they have the players. They just haven't been getting the results. So I don't know. I think that's this is probably a good game to watch, especially because the other games are all early, really early. So if you want an evening game, this is literally the only evening game you can get if you're on the West coast. Yeah, the Friday 5 p.m. Amazon Prime game. Oh, yeah. Because after that ah the next game we got for the playoffs, we got Casey Current versus The Courage. And that game's at 9 a.m. west West Coast time on Saturday on CBS, which is like great with CBS, but like 9 a.m. once again, we're still kind of not getting past. So it's just like a noon game for them. Yeah, we're not getting past that problem, though, that we have with the individual playoffs not being taken seriously.
00:31:38
Speaker
okay at least none of the games are overlapping at least there's that because then you got spirit uh watching spirit playing bay you've kind of got you kind of got a close call maybe though with that one yeah we'll see if that that's at 9 30 a.m on sunday the but you know the stoppage time in these nw solo games can be like hours So hopefully there's an overlap, but there could be. I will be ah rooting for Gotham over the Thornsons. Yeah, that's a... that's Can they both lose? i'm always When it comes to those situations, I'm always like, how do we make the game look like it was a complete joke? So like at that point, I'm rooting for the refs.
00:32:18
Speaker
yeah And I want the refs to fuck up the game so bad that everyone is just like, this game, it just, it was a joke. No, there was no winners. We're all losers. That's, that's what I'm rooting for. yeah I want bad penalty calls. I want bad. The ball went out, but we weren't sure, but there was a goal anyways, and we're just going to call it or like a missed, a missed tackle somewhere. Give me that. Give me that all day. Should we do Let's do some, let's do some playoff predictions.
00:32:48
Speaker
All right, so who do you got in Chicago, Orlando? In Orlando, I'm taking Orlando. I'm taking Orlando too. Casey against North Carolina. I'm taking Casey. Yeah, I can't root against Chewinga. No, I think- Or I guess put my money on a team that's playing against Chewinga. Well, and courage have been bad on the road. Yeah. So, yeah. And the finals in Casey, so I feel like they're really fighting to be a home team in that final.
00:33:15
Speaker
ah spirit bae I'm taking bae I think I'm I think that they're feeling it I don't know if Trinity Rodman this is this is my this is my whole like if Trinity Rodman is on it I think they got it but I think we'll see but I think this might be my one I think I'm gonna pick bae I'm just just to kind of stir it up i I would have to agree with you on that one. um It really depends on Trinity Rodman. Yeah. And if she shows up or not. Yeah. Gotham Thorns. Gotham. Easy. Yeah, easy. Thorns are not great, and Gotham are destroying people and yeah in ways that should scare everybody, I think. I think that one might be a blowout. I'm hoping it's a blowout. Yeah.
Community Engagement & Episode Sign-Off
00:34:02
Speaker
A very biased blowout. Very biased blowout.
00:34:05
Speaker
Yeah. So these games are this weekend and then the final will be, when is the final? I don't know. We got semis and then we got final. Yeah. We'll see. I don't know if we're going to do an episode. Maybe we'll do one for the, I don't know. Yeah. We can pop on and do, uh, maybe right before the final. Sure. Talk about what's happened. Yeah. Yeah. We do that. wrap up the Wrap up the season with that. So we'll be, we'll be back in a couple of weeks. Anybody want to shout out? Not America.
00:34:36
Speaker
Not America. ah My dog, shout out my dog, who's been shouting out. Molly, stop it. stay off row Yeah, I don't have anything else. I'm looking forward to next season. This is our last rain episode though. Yep. This year. We'll see if we can get some interesting stuff, but this is also a lot of work. Yeah.
00:35:00
Speaker
So I'm enjoying, I'm going to enjoy our break. I think for a little bit, at least get through the holidays. See if anything interesting pops up. We'll we'll talk about it, but at least sounders are making a run. Yeah. Shout out sounders. Yeah. They won guys to penalties but and I'll take it. What's that other? Is that?
00:35:23
Speaker
oh that is that game like the the other games aren't till like the 23rd or something fuck the MLS man you have the fucking international breaks and yeah they it that three match thing just absolutely screwed up it's well the thing that screwed them is that goddamn league's cup yeah so not shut up the MLS You got any shout outs? Nope. Not shouting out America. Definitely not. Not shouting out Twitter anymore either. Nope. I'm on Blue Sky now. I've been on Blue Sky. Me too. But if you want to pop over to Blue Sky, we're on there. I'm at my normal handle. The tallest coop. Van's on there. Same thing. Van crisp. Go follow us there. We can get that party going over there. We're on Instagram. Instagram handle is Cooler Guild Pod. I don't know if that'll be continuing much longer either.
00:36:09
Speaker
I'll be on there. hope um I'll get some posts up until people decided that it's also the devil. um
00:36:16
Speaker
You can also send us an email. We love an email. ah Email is thecoolerguild.gmail dot.com. If you got any ideas too that you want to maybe see for next season, feel free to send them there. Yeah, you can always find us at our home site, sounderatheart.com forward slash cooler guild rate podcast five stars. you Leave us a message. Yep. Till next time. I'm Coop. Till next time. Yep. In this trash hole. I'm Van. Bye. Bye.
00:36:56
Speaker
Celery juice and apple cider. Oh, I'm having a hard time saying apple cider vinegar. It's the problem.