Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
'Tis Lynn season - Ep. 24
297 Plays4 days ago
It's our very first offseason episode, and the Reign have given us some exciting things to talk about. The club has made a few roster moves, including picking up the league's leading goal scorer, Lynn Williams, as the Reign look to turn around an offensive side that left a lot to be desired this past season.
We wrap up the episode with a few other newsworthy happenings around the league and in women's soccer.
- Support the show by subscribing to Sounder at Heart and get 1 FREE month!
- This podcast was made possible through the support of The Doctor's Office spirits tasting room
-----
Follow us on social media:
TCG IG
Bluesky:
TCG
Coop
Van
Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
Show artwork by Coop
The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
Recommended
Transcript
Episode Introduction and Overview
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to a very special winter holiday bonus episode of The Cooler Guild. I am Coop and join with me as always as my co-host, Van. Hello, we are recording on Saturday, December 28th, 2024 on today's episode. We'll be discussing what's been going on so far in the rain's off season, as well as any other newsworthy happenings around the league and in Woso in general.
00:00:41
Speaker
But first, some housekeeping. The Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. You can either listen to us on our public feed or if you're a Sounder at Heart subscriber on the 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 thecoolergulid Cooler Guild. New subscribers get 10 percent off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing. Before we get into the show, how has things been for you? Non-pod life. I know. How's it been? Busy. Yeah ramping up for the season ramping up for usw season work holidays, you know Yeah, it's a busy time for many people. Yeah. Yep anything new with you. Uh, i'm a blonde now Yeah, i'm like a true blonde, you know, I also got a mini mullet. That's nice Yeah, I mean i'm like mini mullet blonde now with what I got going on So, you know, you gotta let people know that you're gay when you're walking around the streets
00:01:37
Speaker
if it's not already obvious. Yeah. Uh, yeah. All right.
Lynn Williams signing
00:01:44
Speaker
So we'll get into the, there's actually been quite a, quite a few big happenings for the rain. Thank God. Thank God. They've done it. They have done it. They found a score of proven goal scorer who wanted to come here, who did want to come here. And, um, it's no other than the league's leading goal score.
00:02:05
Speaker
Lynn Rainey Williams. How do you feel about this? I honestly was shocked. Yeah, me too. I can believe it. as it Is this a joke? Because to me it felt like remember when we signed quote unquote signed Abby Wambach? Yeah. And then it just held her right. Yeah, but like it didn't happen. I was like something weird going on here. I don't know if I trust this, but it's happening.
00:02:24
Speaker
yeah i was just like i hope this is a thing uh-huh and then it like was confirmed and we were like oh my god huge huge excellent signing yeah and i have to admit i have not always been her biggest fan in the past i would say you usually say that when it comes to the national team picture i don't feel like i hear you being super I don't know. I mean, there's no way I could be critical of her in the NWSL space. Yeah. Because you can't. She's the leading goal scorer of all time. Yeah. And I really liked her interview when they were talking, when she was talking to Sam Uess about the trade where she was saying, you know, like her style of play.
00:03:09
Speaker
and how it can help the team because she'd seen how the team struggled, you know, without that pace up top, a being able to stretch the line, those sorts of things. So I think it's a really good signing. and I think it's, uh, she offers a lot that we were missing. It's nice to hear somebody understand like where our weaknesses are and wanting to kind of, um, fix that for us. Cause you know, she was like, you know, the rain weren't good this last season, but But the year before that, she played against us in the championship between hit her and her and Midge. They just tore us apart. So, you know, now we'll have one piece, at least on our side. If you beat them, join them. I don't know. If you beat them, let's go try to make them better. I don't know.
00:03:52
Speaker
I think there's been some criticism or concern, I guess, about her age and her health. I think those are very fair things. This this contract, though, is only going through the end of 2025. So I don't know that you're committing to a lot. You're not having to like if so if something does happen with injury or whatever, we're not really going to be um screwed for a while. And if it does work out, get an an extension going. um yeah And i I think we've seen her kind of starting to push past a lot of those injury woes she was having. So I think it'll work out. I'm hoping it'll work out. And if it if she stays healthy, I think this will definitely be one of the best signs we could have made out in the offseason.
00:04:28
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, if you look within last season, she was incredible and even over the Olympics, right? I didn't have her on my roster, but she was an alternate and then had to, you know, step up and she did that. She did. I didn't think she was going to be that good either. ah You know, as an alternate, I was just like, she's coming kind of late and hasn't really yet kind of been in her peak fitness. I don't know. I don't know. But she did it.
00:04:52
Speaker
I think it kind of says something with this signing as well, like with the national team, she had something to prove. And I don't think that necessarily she has anything to prove to the league itself. But if she can come in and along with other players that will be able to pick up, if she can turn the team around, that would be just another accolade for her. I mean, she spoke about how this is a challenge for her and she welcomes a challenge. This isn't like she's coming into a built super team or like they're building, bringing in players to build a super team around her. This is not the situation for that, but we are talking about somebody who's won four NWSL championships, was a leading goal scorer for the league, and she was the MVP in 2016. Yes, it was a while ago, but she won four of those championships with three different teams. Not a lot of people can claim that.
00:05:42
Speaker
No. I would imagine maybe none can claim that. I'm pretty producer sure she's the only one that has four NWSL championships. And the fact that she's on with three different teams, I think just speaks to like, she's a winner, she's a gamer, and um anything less than that is is going to not be good enough for her. So I think, you know, bringing someone in like that that has that winning mentality, and given that we have a lot of young players on our team, they're going to kind of be able to see someone like her with that work ethic and with that drive.
00:06:09
Speaker
and what's needed with that mental aspect to take this team, you know, to a different level. We finally have a national team player again. A US national team player. A US national team player. I was like, let's not discredit. No, we've got others. We do have others. Well, plenty. They're kind of dropping. We got you national teamers. We do. We got two of those. We do have some future US national team players for sure. Yeah.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah, I'm excited. I'm very excited. The trade details. Do you want to go over those? Yeah. So not only do we get Lin Williams, I think I think kind of the black sheep of this trade is going to be Cassie Miller. So we got Lin Williams, but then we also they threw in Cassie Miller, I guess. I don't know why that was, but we need a goalkeeper. Yeah, we need a goalkeeper.
00:06:55
Speaker
Um, and, uh, we had to say goodbye to one of my favorites from last season, Jalen Howell. Yeah, not what I expected, but we had talked, like, you know, we heard the Lynn Williams story was happening. We didn't know who we were trading and we didn't have a lot to trade with. We were looking at the list and texting each other and being like, oh.
00:07:16
Speaker
We don't have a lot to go on here. Yeah. And ultimately, I don't know. You go, Jalen Howell's contract is up at the end of 2025. Denver is getting the next NWSL team by everything I've heard. And Howell's from there. I don't see Howell signing an extension with any club when she could go play at her home. Yeah. And if she does well with Gotham, I mean, she could be like their monumental for signing. Yeah, absolutely. And she can get a good paycheck too.
00:07:43
Speaker
but So i don't I don't know. I mean, i was I did think we were going to build our future around her, and I'm definitely disappointed and in not getting to have that anymore, but we have more desperate needs. We have much more desperate needs. Much more desperate needs. Especially knowing that there's going to probably be a situation in which Howell wants to go playing Denver. Yeah, but I think in in the shorter term with her at Gotham, um Well, Gotham's lost a lot of players. Yeah, they're ah they're kind of in a downfall at this point. There's something going on there and it's being alluded to, but not discussed the culture. Yeah, there seems to be something surrounding team culture that just isn't right at the moment.
00:08:24
Speaker
Which like, I think it's an anomaly to have a team culture, like the one that the rain had built with Laura Harvey. And that's something that we can take pride in, I would say. And we have to think about that when Laura Harvey, when Lynn Williams was talking about this, about coming to the rain, was like the huge perk for her, right? Like she's probably the reason that Lynn Williams came here.
00:08:48
Speaker
Yeah, and people were saying that you know to can Laura Harvey at the middle of the season No, no, this is why you don't and this is why you let her cook. Yeah, and we said this, you know towards the end of the season and Maybe it is her but we got to give her a chance. We've said it before four, but she hasn't had a real off season to do moves that she would normally want to make just because of the sale of the team happening and all of that. Here we are now with our first real off season and our first real big signing. And, um, I think she's doing, she's starting off pretty well. We definitely have more work to do, but I think this definitely shows we still get ambition and, uh,
00:09:26
Speaker
It can't be understated about how much the culture that Harvey creates is is a big aspect to bringing players like her in. when Yeah, people people want to play for her. um I mean, speculate how you want to speculate about the team culture at Gotham. Maybe in years down the road, there'll be some some news of that, but there does seem to be some players who kind of like poking the bear with that. Yeah.
00:09:49
Speaker
who aren't actually involved with the team, but, um, it will definitely be interesting to see more of what happens with Gotham as, uh, as the weeks go on leading up to the season. Because, um, yeah, they're losing some people. We'll get to the rest of that later. I think part of losing Jaylen Howell, uh, and being okay with maybe losing her is because the team is looking like, uh, Olivia Van Der Yat is maybe gonna be healthy and ready to go next season. I hope so. I've always liked what I've seen for her. I am extremely biased.
00:10:18
Speaker
as a cat are both of us As a Kent school district product myself, like, uh, Olo, uh, yeah, I'm rooting for her and, uh, she has been around. It's not like she's disappeared completely. She's had a bunch of stuff going on that just kind of not been, you know, public. We don't know what's going on still there, but it does sound like they're, they're feeling optimistic about her. Yeah, I hope so. She she she was a really big asset to the team. um So back to what I really want to talk about, which is Cassie Miller. Yeah, we all know you got the goalkeeper. It's the goalkeeper mind. Yeah. So she actually played for Sounders Women back in 2016 in the old USLW League. She opted out of the end of SL draft after college and went and played overseas and then signed with Chicago.
00:11:02
Speaker
And then during that weird, you know, we had pandemic. So the U.S. ended up playing in 2021 for the Olympics. That's a listener leave. And Cassie Miller was the third goalkeeper. She was third string at this point. So she left. And then the second second string had an injury. So Cassie Miller had to step up. She played excellent. ah They made it to the championship game. She had two shutouts leading up to the championship and they lost two to one in the in overtime. So And then she went to KC in 2023 and beat out French for the starting spot. and So I think that there's going to be a lot to see there and I'm, I'm really excited about it. I think that there's also something to be said where she was training with the league's best goalkeeper last year. Maybe the world's best women's goalkeeper last year.
00:11:50
Speaker
but Yeah. So you know what it takes and you've seen how she works yeah and that that only can add value to you. Yeah. we I mean, you've spoken about it at length ah and how we need some real competition for Claudia Dickey and this is it. I think maybe some people don't think this might be it, but it is. It is. Her decision making, I went through, I watched like two hours of Cassie Miller reels today tape and her decision making is so quick. She's confident ah and i I like the way that she moves. And what i what I kind of guessed, if I had to take a bet, I would say, dicky ah Laura Harvey is very much a favorite person. She has her favorites.
00:12:35
Speaker
So I feel like maybe Dickie will get the start at the beginning of the season sure just out of the favoritism, but there's no way she keeps it the whole season. I think there's definitely possibility of that happening. Strong possibility, I would say. Plus Cassie Miller just married a woman and we know lesbians are better goalkeepers. It's a fax. Cooler fax.
00:13:01
Speaker
and Katrin Berger. Look at him. I Yeah. Yeah. I think we, I think we got a good trade here. Cause I mean, I looked at it this way. Cause essentially what we got is it's just a long drawn out process, but it was essentially it ended up being Bethany Balser for Lynn Williams and Cassie Miller plus having to pay an extra 20 K and an international spot for 2025 or whatever.
00:13:29
Speaker
but if you look at Bethany Balzer for Lynn Williams and Cassie Miller and only 20k that's a pretty good that's a I think you came away pretty good with that I would call that a steal honestly yeah and if you look at if you look at how Bethany Balzer performed for Louisville for the rest of the season it wasn't it was on par with the way that she was playing here Yeah, I would say it wouldn't have warranted an extension. No.
Free Agent Movements
00:13:51
Speaker
Right. Because her contract was up at the end of the year. She's obviously a starter in this league. She just wasn't putting up numbers with our system. I think there's still a possibility for her being able to do that wherever she plays, but it wasn't working for us. Yeah. and Not at this point. We needed somebody who's a little bit more greedy and fast.
00:14:10
Speaker
I think the thing that surprised me about this trade is I feel like you know whether it be sounders or rain like for some reason we try and sign players that like you barely heard of and hope that they break out in the league like a Ruby DS type situation which you know sometimes it hits sometimes it hits But we keep trying and trying and trying that, I feel like, and just really hasn't played out the way that we need it to. So i'm I'm really into this approach of, hey, let's get the big name, you know, that's going to bring it's going to bring people into seats and it's it's it's only going to do good things for the team.
00:14:46
Speaker
I am looking forward to ah seeing what happens with Heidema, having getting to play around and train with someone like Loon Williams. um I think this is what she's kind of maybe needed around her for a long time. It'll take a lot of the weight off of her. Yeah. It'll it'll relieve that stress of, okay, I'm it. No, she yeah, and now you've got someone like like lee Like lean on her. We have speed. but like We finally have speed. Yeah, I don't know. I'm just like, you know, flow me out the mouth a little bit about this. but About the possibilities with what we've got up top. that's been like we've Because we've seen little hints of like what this could be like if we just find that one extra piece up top. Someone who actually can like score, who can actually kind of get the ball up top on the road maybe. I don't know. It's just exciting to me to to
00:15:37
Speaker
to think about her. We've got Heidema, we've got Monteser, G I think is going to have a better season next year with yeah players like this. um Quality is always the thing that Harvey has been talking about not having and now we have that.
00:15:50
Speaker
Yeah, we're going to have a lot more equality on the field as far as like, okay, we've added a top notch forward. I wish we could get, I wish we could get where to back. Where to, we'll be back probably in the summer. Hopefully. So we just got to put ourselves in a good position. Cause once she gets back, if we get her, if we're in a decent position, you know, like anything can happen in this league, but I don't want to be too bad in the hole, but we get where to back in the summertime, where to and Lynn Williams. Ooh.
00:16:17
Speaker
Oh music to my ears. Yeah I need to see that. So that ah I think that's going to give us some info where to want to to come back to and be excited about. Oh for sure. Yeah hopefully they just win the Champions League or whatever so that she feels accomplished and can be done with the chat. done yeah so we need to talk about players that are leaving free agents the status of our free agents that we had um since we last spoke i kind of made notes on players that we saw minutes from last season because it didn't really seem worth it to me to talk about i don't think there's many players that didn't get minutes as you know we had a different starting lineup for almost every single game besides one right But I think the big, biggest name that is not going to be returning that we know of now for, ah for free agent is zero King. I think this one hurts on a personal level. Yeah. Just because she's seemingly a wonderful person. And obviously she is married to someone who has a long history with our team as well. And Fishlock didn't know what was going to happen with her, but the production numbers, they're not good. They they're worse than I realized.
00:17:20
Speaker
Oh, I knew it. um Six goals in four seasons. You can't have that for somebody who's playing up top. Granted, most of them were bangers. She does have a good foot on her. yeah like she's she's she's but She's got some skill. I'm wondering if she's going to come on into the organization ah in some sort of like ambassador role. I would like that, because then she stays in the area. Yeah, maybe get her like doing the halftime interviews or Yeah, I mean they definitely need to up their marketing. Like I think they're starting to invest a bit more into the marketing now that they have the funds um to do that. So I could see her being brought on for for that. We don't really have like a former player um doing that kind of thing for the club either. So why not why not King? Yeah, I think that that would be really cool. And it sounded to me she said she's not returning to the rain, but I don't I think she's
00:18:06
Speaker
The letter was kind of ominous that she posted on Instagram. Find it really quickly. um It says, no matter where life takes me next, I know I'm entering the this next chapter with so much perspective and the most full heart. What an honor to play for this club but these past four years. Can't wait to continue to lead with love and joy in my next journey. So.
00:18:29
Speaker
I don't think she's going to play anymore. Yeah. I'm not going to read too far into it. We'll see what happens with her. It is a bummer to see her. I don't know. I'm not going to pop up on their socials as regularly, but maybe she will. That's what I'm saying. Get her on an ambassador role. Yeah. Uh, next one, Laurel library. She has now signed with Casey current.
00:18:48
Speaker
Which is funny, but I don't know, I get why she would do that, but they they also just signed Lorena. Well, they signed, why I'm sure they knew they were going to sign Lorena, but Laurel was, I don't know. It's just, to me, the part that's funny about this is that when we were playing really poorly, I mean, we played poorly most of the season, but there were times when we um Ivory was in the back because Claudia Dickey had an injury and I saw some really bad decision making from Laurel Ivory. And she had a pretty good stretch of games. Like she had a very good, I would say every keeper in this league who's not the starter right now knows that you have a moment, you might get a moment and you have to seize it, right? I, she did not seize her moment, I would say at all. So that's why she didn't get a contract extension. Um, the funny part to me is that she's going to KC where the backline woes that we were having, she'll be joining cook.
00:19:41
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't i think it's pretty clear that Ivory's not gonna be starting um until Lorena goes out on international duty. So we'll get, i'm we're definitely gonna get more looks at Ivory. She won't be, I don't think she'll be at the starter though. No. No. The list of free agents that we still ah don't know what's happening with. We got Olivia Athens, Lou Barnes, Quinn, Nikki Stanton, and Maddie Mercado. Do you got any thoughts on what might happen there?
00:20:08
Speaker
I have thoughts on what I would like to happen. But we don't we don't have a lot of roster room. No, we don't. But so I don't know. Yeah, I don't know what's going to happen. I think Quinn's the one that I'm really kind of like waiting and seeing what happens. Yeah, that's that's the one. That's the one that I would hope that they're working on a deal there. Blue Barns. Does she want to coach? She she interested in coaching? I don't know.
00:20:33
Speaker
They would think a deal would have gotten figured out with that too by now. But I don't know. It's also the holidays and chilling out, I guess. Yeah, I mean, they'll have to decide eventually what they're going to do here. Athens, I would like to see Athens come back. But if that would make room for somebody who was a a little more consistent, I'd be OK with that as well.
00:20:52
Speaker
You bring in Lynn Williams, we need somebody at that level. And maybe not the position Livia Athens plays, but I think you're looking at like, okay, this team wants to get big names and we want, we're not fucking around. We had our bad season, but now we're gonna, we're gonna really try to go for it. So that being said, we need to keep Nikki Stanton.
00:21:14
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I agree. That is just a locker room necessity. if I saw someone be like, you know, I guess the rain are serious because they, after years of trying to get King, just just trying to see if they can make it work with King, I guess they're serious. And they were like, and I'm guessing Nicky will be next. And I was like, how dare you?
00:21:33
Speaker
How dare you. No, and don't be surprised if she comes back because do not rip the heart out of this team. Yeah, exactly. Well, I'm wait. i I would say Quinn and Stanton are the two that I'm really keeping my eye on because I don't think it's stand using a contract here. She's definitely signing somewhere else.
00:21:49
Speaker
And granted for her, I think that it might be nice for her to go somewhere where where she gets more playing time. Maddie Mercado had some some highlight moments this season and with not a lot of time, not a lot of playing time. So that would be a player that I could see going somewhere, but ah might be also be exciting to give her another opportunity with the club. Yeah, I agree. my That's my thoughts on that. I agree.
00:22:15
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Soundwork Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sonietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, 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 gives you access to everything we produce.
00:22:41
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.
00:23:06
Speaker
Let's go into maybe just some overall roster thoughts, just to wrap up kind of what's going on here. um Goalkeeper situation, we still have a third slot open, but what what do you what do you hope to see with the third slot? Do you still want to see a veteran goalkeeper come in or do you think this these two goalkeepers we got now are good enough to create some good competition or do you like, what do you want?
00:23:27
Speaker
You know, i'm I think I'm pretty happy in this in this situation we're in. Connie Dickey's not a bad goalkeeper. She's just not the best that we could have right now. And I think that Cassie Miller has the ability. I mean, she's 29. She's not new, right? So in a way, you might be with a goalkeeper being 29 years old, you're getting somebody at the start of their heyday of their career. Yeah.
00:23:51
Speaker
I'm excited to see what she brings and I think that, like I said, that could be like the dark horse of this trade. Yeah. And from what I've seen from her these last, you know, years, she is a vocal leader on the team and that's what really what was lacking.
00:24:07
Speaker
in the goalkeeper core from last year was that leadership role. You saw it all the time with McLaren and Dickie yelling at each other in the back because they nobody was making a decision and you need someone someone back there that's going to be decisive um and lead the back line. I think that she has the ability to do that and I think that it's going to be exciting to watch her kind of grow and maybe come into her own here.
00:24:31
Speaker
Cool. I think you're spot on with that. um Moving on to midfield. I'm still nervous about this. Not gonna lie. yeah We're relying on fish lock. G, we're hoping kind of, I don't know, figures things out a little bit quicker and stays consistent. Like I said, we lost Howl, if Ola comes back, it's going to take her a while to get it back up to speed with this league. So I just don't know if that's really going to work all the way. So I don't know. That's the part where I still feel pretty shaky about. Yeah, I guess we still have the one thing I do feel good about still is.
00:25:06
Speaker
our young players, I think there was some worry that with this trade, we were going to maybe lose some of these ah future, probably future stars of the league. We didn't.
Player Development and Season Outlook
00:25:18
Speaker
Um, we still got them. And I feel very good about what we've got in bug and what we've got in McCammon. And we'll definitely be seeing more from Adamas. And that has to be very, very excited. Yeah. And now they're going to be training with Lynn Williams.
00:25:36
Speaker
So let's let's learn let's learn how to win championships with the champion herself. Yeah, I'm just way too excited about this. Yeah, board situation. I think we talked about it. So I don't think we need to cover that. I feel good about this. I think we could maybe bring in another piece. I think that one of our main issues still is trying to figure out how to fill where to roll um until she comes back, which I know that's kind of helped filled in.
00:26:00
Speaker
Yeah, we we also picked up Madison Curry. That's right. That was a big hit for big get from what I've heard. Yeah. I don't know a ton about her, but it sounds like we really got ah one of the best free agents on the market. Yeah, that'll be interesting. i don't I also don't know much about her, but good get from Angel City from what I've read. I think we've got a lot here that's happened in this brief period of being off and before the season starts to be excited about. I think we got a lot to be excited about.
00:26:26
Speaker
And we'll get to see a lot of it pretty soon. Have you figured out if that's streaming anywhere? A lot of this preseason stuff doesn't get to get streamed or like I would like it to. But you can get tickets if you want to go to Coachella.
Community Questions
00:26:37
Speaker
They're playing Bay FC and Angel City FC in the Coachella Valley Invitational, which will be taking place during the International Window. So unfortunately, I don't think we'll be able to get to see Eclipsia of Lynn Williams, I assume, with the rest of the the team playing in some sort of scrimmages and whatever but we'll get to see the young players yeah got that to look forward to I mean it would be kind of cool to go down there I actually kind of looked into it um the fields are back to back or like side to side side by side interesting so you can watch both games that's fun yeah maybe someone can pay for us to do that sometime not this year next year vip tickets for one weekend or five hundred dollars well that's not bad it's pretty affordable i think maybe a free drinks really
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, maybe it's a covered area. Maybe 2026. We can look into it now. Yeah, that'll be the first time we'll be able to see these players February 26 or February 16th. Excuse me. And then against BFC and then ah February 22nd against Angel City. Anything else you want to wrap up on the rain before we get into some community questions? No, I am just ah hope we can get Luma Williams of all.
00:27:45
Speaker
I think sure'll ah that'll be fine. People figure it out. Um, we kind of had some questions that they're not just kind of like fun questions, trying to keep it light and fun, but we got a couple of questions that we have gotten just to for now. If you ever got anything, you can send us an email. You know, we love an email. Feel free to do that, but we figured this would be good a good place to kind of, uh, maybe respond to stuff like that. So. We got first question from JB, sent us an email. I think we all knew the club would struggle in a post-rapino world, but I certainly didn't think the transition would be this difficult, although it was certainly hampered by the change in ownership. If you could make one big signing this offseason to try and fill this enormous hole, who would it be? Both someone if you were just dreaming and someone plausible? Do you want to go over yours first? Yeah, I had two. The Chawinga sisters. Temla and Tabitha. Yeah.
00:28:33
Speaker
Yeah, I think many people are dreaming of that. Oh God, that that would be insane. Yeah, you have a plausible one. This might be a reach for plausible, but Mary Fowler. I almost put her. Really? Yeah, I did. She's playing well in the Super League right now. She's young, obviously, you know, Australian royalty. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Does she want to come play in the end of your soul? Maybe. Probably not. I don't know. Maybe, right? She's Australian. There's like all Australians come over here. Yeah. If you want to be tested, Mary Fowler, you got to come over here. Yeah. We all know that the league over there really isn't. It's not as wild as this one. No, not as wild at all. So.
00:29:13
Speaker
Do you want to challenge? We'd love to have you in Seattle. Yeah, come to Seattle. If you want to challenge but want to be on the best team, come to Seattle. You want to come play with Lynn Williams? Yeah. I did take some time to think about it, but my dream two players would be Linda Quesado. I totally agree with all of yours. I saw you put that and I went, yes.
00:29:37
Speaker
Yeah. lin Linda, i say I'm pretty sure that will never happen um unless like, I don't know, three billionaires come into this league or something crazy, which I don't really want. And then my other dream one was Lily Johannes, obviously. ah You're an idiot if you don't choose her. Also, the rain could use a midfielder like that. So yeah, we really could. I mean, that would be an exceptional signing.
00:29:59
Speaker
I'm sure Lily and Laura Harvey have crossed paths. So for sure. Maybe that maybe this is a plausible one. I don't know. It does feel like a dream one, but maybe it's possible. um And then my plausible one that felt actually plausible was Maria Sanchez. I feel like I just like kind of fell in love with her as a person on ah the offseason. But yeah, but she also has ties to Idaho. So I just I feel like maybe that it'll eventually happen. Get where to to talk to her and get out here.
00:30:28
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. Get her closer to her family, you know, all of that. Because there's no closer place to Idaho than here. For the end of the show at least. Yeah. I don't know. I think that would be fun signing. Oh my god, I just saw you fucking wrote. Jesus Christ, I'm so glad I did not read this first.
00:30:47
Speaker
oh my god you're going you're gonna get so many people mad um the second question i had gotten from a friend a long time ago my friend ally she had boasted this somewhere but she was wondering who her dream guest to interview is i'm gonna say mine first because vans is so out of pocket
00:31:06
Speaker
Mine is obviously Megan Rapinoe. I don't think I need to elaborate at all on that. And then my second one is Michelle Betos. And I think I would love to hear from her just because she's been with so many teams. I would love to hear all the stories that she has from being wherever she was at and kind of just what it's like to be um a player with the kind of role that she has. after because i met I met a guy.
00:31:30
Speaker
over, last was it last week or whatever? It's kind of like a weird role player, but he never quite made it to MLS level. And just hearing his stories, I just like had have this like deep appreciation for people that maybe don't always kind of get the spotlight all the time. And so I think that was kind of like, fuck, I really want to talk to Michelle Betas about her experiences. So, um, and Van, who's your, who's your dream guest interview? Hope Solo. Oh my God.
00:31:57
Speaker
just for like the pure like shock jock in me like i mean the woman has had quite the life yeah it's true and i just think i just think that there's a lot there that would be really interesting to ask to ask about Okay, so yeah, I mean, i i I would say we're definitely big. We respect Hope Solo's game a lot. Oh yeah, she's the best goalkeeper the United States has ever seen and I will stand by that yeah um on the field. Yes.
00:32:33
Speaker
which we all know the team is not made of just what you do on the field. So, all right, I think that's going to pretty much wrap it up. Thanks, Van, for wrapping it up with that. um On the rain. Yeah. For the rain. We want to thank the doctor's office. This winter holiday episode 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. With their limited edition holiday themed cocktails, like a spiked eggnog, there's no better place to grab a drink and chat with a fellow rain fan about the off-season moves this winter and get away from your family. That's right. Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle, or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers. All right. There has been a lot of stuff going on. Yes, we did our last episode before the final.
00:33:17
Speaker
Yeah, we did. um So we want to start this with congratulating Marta and Orlando Pride and also us, the number one Orlando Pride fans. Yep. It's funny because I was listening to ah one of the latest episodes of Lobbing Scorchers and they were talking about how they've been like LA Galaxy stands all season basically and they were like people were joking with them about being an LA Galaxy podcast. That's kind of been the case with us and the Pride.
00:33:40
Speaker
Yeah. and Hey, guess what? We were right. So we were winners in a certain sense. We kind of sometimes know what we were talking about.
Other NWSL/woso news
00:33:48
Speaker
Yeah. No surprises there. Congrats to Orlando and congrats to Marta, especially. Just want to get her mom at the game. I know her mom at the game. So sweet. I loved it. Yeah. We can move on from that because it's been a while.
00:33:59
Speaker
But there has been, we talked about how there's been a lot of movement with Gotham, and there's been a big shake up going on there. um They have lost probably their best player from the last season. I mean, they didn't lose her, because they got $400,000 for it, which is kind of a lot of money, but they lost Yasmine Ryan, and then um but right before that Delaney Sheehan, who was a free agent, went to Houston. So now they're both gonna be playing for Houston. Yeah. Houston might be cooking. Houston's kind of cooking. I will say I still feel a little skeptical given what happened with Maria Sanchez. Yeah, that's fair. I'm just not sure if this is actually going to be the utopia that it seems like it might be, but we'll see. We'll see. like I wonder if part of me has that this
00:34:44
Speaker
ah idea that maybe Gotham you know spent you know brought in that dream team right and kind of kicked out a bunch of players from the season before mm-hmm and I don't I think that this is just kind of a product of that yeah I don't think it's not it's not a sustainable ah way to build a roster at all that's what we're seeing the effects of they need to come up with money fast Yeah. But I think that's also why they're dumping them because they have to. They were probably breaking the rules. Yeah. Yeah. We haven't seen the books. We don't get to know anything. It's kind of annoying. You know, we got to maybe get Midge person next. That's that's the other thing that I have note of. is We don't know where Midge person is going yet. If Gotham doesn't lock that down, I think they're going to have some real problems. it I would say that the way that they're liquidating players, it makes it seem like they're going to make a deal to her.
00:35:37
Speaker
um Which is very unfortunate because I was really really wanting us to to get Midge especially since she's coming off ACL right? So like part of me was just like well maybe Midge wants to mix it up and now that we got Lynn maybe she wants to come like over here and like recover. I'd be into it. Yeah I'd be into it too especially if you it was gonna cost too much money.
00:35:57
Speaker
Honestly, we probably have money to spend. I think we do. We're low on in ah international spots, but we probably have the money. That's one I would fucking like love to see us get. You texted me this the other day. You were like, I just want to know what's going on with Crystal Dunn. Mystery. I don't even want to speculate because I just really don't know what to say about it. um But if she has not been around and that is another player that Gotham brought in that we thought was going to be such a big part of it, somebody keep an eye on, I would say. Definitely. lot The other thing I had for the NWSO, I had made a brief note just because as Rain fans, we have ah some slight experience with having a stadium that is owned by the public school systems. So Boston, who thank God, they have decided to change their name and branding. We don't know what the reveal is going to be, but it's not going to be, ah Boss Nation is no longer.
Boston Team's Stadium Issues
00:36:48
Speaker
thank god i was looking at my notes when i sat down here and i have notes that was like that say steel balls boston loves its balls no balls necessary oh my god that stupid video they did that was so bad yeah so we can at least be happy that that is no longer a thing but um there's some slight complications i would say with the stadium And I would love to have somebody on that maybe has a little bit more of a deeper understanding on the White Stadium in Boston, kind of the controversies, I would say, that have kind of been brought up with with this funding and the ownership and all of the stuff going on there. But White Stadium, where Boston is going to be having the NWSL team playing, is owned by the Boston Public School System.
00:37:31
Speaker
I believe it's the ownership or whoever it is gonna be funding like a fuck ton of money into the stadium but they're also gonna be having taxpayers but some of the bill which has now been doubled from what I've read of how much they were originally quoted but I think the idea is that like the public schools are gonna have a great fucking place to play which they have not had. Yeah.
00:37:50
Speaker
So that's pretty cool. However, there's definitely some so some restrictions for the NWSL team, which include they can only have two weekend matches a month. um ah that is So like they can have Wednesday games and that's fine. um But the games also need to end by 11 30 p.m. at the latest, which like, I don't know if you've ever tried to watch games on the East Coast and stuff like that in the summer. And I mean, I guess the Midwest too, but sometimes there's like weather delays and shit.
00:38:17
Speaker
And I'm like very curious to see how this is all going to play out. um But obviously the priority is going to be for the public schools. Yeah, I mean they own it. And so there's been some people that are upset about this and I'm just that's just kind of how it goes. Yeah. What what else? The other thing I wonder about is ah the game day experience because that was a problem for the rain for years at Memorial Stadium because Memorial Stadium obviously owned by Seattle Public Schools. So the first two years they couldn't sell alcohol?
00:38:45
Speaker
Um, and then it transitioned to where there was a beer garden behind the seats. So you couldn't even see the game. You had to go like chug a beer halftime. So I don't know. I don't know what that's going to look like for them. And and i I hope it works out for them, but it sounds like it's a, it's a mess. And I wait, I'll dig deeper into it when we get more information, but it's.
00:39:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's a pretty big park that it's into, so there's been a lot of people that have been upset about like what the effects of that are gonna be. um Congestion-wise, obviously, i mean it's the stadium and the city. like It's always gonna have some fucking issues no matter what, but I think do think some of the concerns that people have brought up are pretty valid. If anybody knows anybody in Boston who's like familiar with what's going on with this stadium, I would love to talk to them. Yeah, come on come on the pod. We'd love to talk to you.
00:39:30
Speaker
Next this I think that's pretty much all we got for the NW cell at least directly related to the teams um Other stuff going on the women's
Retirements and Contributions of National Team Players
00:39:38
Speaker
soccer world though. We got two big retirements to the national team US s national team Yeah, one hit me harder than the other honestly Becky Sarberan Mm-hmm icon legends just all around great human good human cat lady. I love her. Um, and then the other was a listener announcing her national team retirement at least. Yeah. So we'll still see her in the end of the cell this season, but, but when she notices her club retirement, she's probably also not going to have a big fanfare either. She's not a big fanfare person. No, she's not. And that's why I love her.
00:40:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of the reasons that makes her great.
Women's World Cup Media Rights Concerns
00:40:09
Speaker
yeah Another big news dropped um regarding the next Women's World Cup as to the media rights, which got sold to ah Netflix. So we will have to watch all of the Women's World Cup on fucking Netflix.
00:40:25
Speaker
evening This is absurd. I'm sorry. It's fucking crazy. they There should have at least been a deal where like some of it was gonna be available on like local TV. How am I gonna go to the bar and watch a Netflix game? Yeah. Yeah. I have no idea how the fuck this is gonna work for bars. They're gonna have to be doing something something like something to like partner with all these sports bars or something, but like you've just made like the women's game even more like difficult to access.
00:40:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's the opposite of growing the game. Yeah, it's like the I mean, it's not completely as bad as the Apple TV deal for MLS. But like it kind of reminds you me of that where you're not going to see growth. But at least they had some fucking games that were still on like some channels that were accessible to people or they had free games. Or is that going to be a thing? Probably not, because their whole thing is a subscription model. Yeah.
00:41:10
Speaker
I mean, people were pointing out that at least on a personal level, it is cheaper than, you know, a cable subscription or something to that sense. But OK, so currently ah the cheapest ah subscription for Netflix is fifteen dollars and forty nine cents a month.
00:41:32
Speaker
I looked on Amazon the other day and the cheapest antenna, which would let you access local channels, you're going to get ABC, NBC, CBS. The cheapest antenna you get on Amazon was $9.69. Nice. But waiting to get that one in.
00:41:50
Speaker
ah And so, it's not. you know Netflix isn't cheaper. Roughly $16 a month, so you get the whole entire World Cup for $16. That's a pretty good deal. You know what's free though? To walk into a bar.
00:42:04
Speaker
Well I'm probably spending more than $16 and one sitting at the bar if we're being honest. Me too. But that's not the point. They're talking about growing the game and accessibility and this is making it difficult. So if I would say for the fan that's kind of a sicko like you and me, we're definitely going to be able to watch it no matter where it is.
00:42:23
Speaker
but when we're talking about being able to like go watch let's say the men's world cup you walk into any fucking bar they're gonna have it on the fucking TVs and now you've made that step harder for people to watch the women's game so i don't know if they've got some sort of plan on how they're gonna get this out to bars then great but i wonder if they'll put like a netflix channel on like cable networks Maybe. Definitely doing more of this sports stuff on Netflix. Yeah, and they're really bad at it. That's the other thing. Well Beyonce was on one, so then the Beyonce performance was great.
00:42:54
Speaker
Yeah, but they didn't have sound for I didn't watch the game. Yeah. When when they started, I heard they started it. It was just playing the music and the woman's talking and you can't hear her. And it's like, and've got yeah, they've got a little bit of time to figure it out. Not long. So hopefully we got these kinks. Yeah, hopefully. But and will the Beyonce be playing at halftime? That's the question I have Beyonce in Brazil. Why not? Great joy of being a women's soccer fan once again.
USLW League Expansion
00:43:22
Speaker
Obviously we're a little bit more engaged with the U.S.L.W. Vans specifically, but I would say I've gotten some knowledge of the inner workings and how it goes. But with Ballard getting their team and definitely some more like West Seattle has a team now. Who else got some teams in the area in Seattle? um okay so we're gonna be seeing a lot more uslw stuff going on for sure and i think we want to um because van knows so much about it i do yeah maybe have an episode kind of just um i don't know explaining it a little bit yeah because it's a new it's i would say it's a newer league it's definitely different it's not i would say what you would i feel like there's been some
00:44:03
Speaker
There's been some misconceptions about what it is. We want people to enjoy these teams, but I think it's important to know kind of how the model works and how the league works. Because it is a fun league to follow. It is fun. It's a pre-professional league, correct? Yeah. So it's, it's not even semi-pro. A lot of people will mistakenly say that, but semi-professional still can pay players, cannot pay players to play in pre-professional. And that has to do with most of them are division one college players, at least in my team in FC Olympia. Um, so they can't be paid to play. But yeah, so it's cool you get people in from all over the country. We're going to have a big mess of really, really good college players and some post college players, some pre college players that are going to be playing the Pacific Northwest this year, and it's going to be really exciting.
00:44:54
Speaker
Yeah, so I think what we're going to do is try to, if you're interested, if whatever you want to kind of learn more about the league, we're going to try to do an episode kind of with a little bit more of a deeper explanation and kind of stuff, I don't know, teams and regions and how all that's kind of formatted. We're going to do a little explainer um before the season kicks off so that you at least feel like you have a little bit of an idea of what's going on.
00:45:20
Speaker
Yeah, and it's also cool because the games are free to watch, so it's a really good thing to be able to tune into and watch some soccer. Plus, like I don't know, it's so rare that we get rivalries like this close to each other, that it just like kind of adds to the ah the spiciness of it, you know?
00:45:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah, because Van's team that she's the GM of, FC Olympia, I would say they're like the the first team in the state. They're the OGs of this. So you're you're going to be hearing from the OG. She's actually 88 years old. Van is 88 years old. um But it hasn't been around that long. So now and now we're kind of like seeing the growth pick up. And so that's fun. um And I want people to go support the teams that are in their areas and kind of get the growth going everywhere. so Yeah.
00:46:03
Speaker
Um, and going on moving on from that, I just wanted to also take this time to congratulate van who has been appointed the usl w league yeah league executive of the northwest division. That is a mouthful. It sure is. So you, yes, we, we have some bias takes here. Just putting it out there. What were you doing last year? Didn't you get some sort of big time? This is like at the tail end of last season. Okay, but this is my third going on my third season and yes, uh, uslw. So yeah, man. Yeah, man Um, okay. Well, you have anything else you want to shout out shout out to my cat for not getting bird flu so far, dude I'm really worried. Yeah. I have a my virologist friend. Remember? Oh, yeah angie raspison shadow angie.
00:46:49
Speaker
I will say shout out Angie cause she's like, I never realized that this person who I went drinking with before Seahawks game was like this crazy genius virologist. And then she like pops up on CNN and shit. And then we had a whole fucking pandemic and I was like, Oh shit, it's our time to shine. If you want someone good to follow for that kind of shit, she's like covering the, what's going on with this bird flu stuff. And it does not sound good from her perspective. And that always has me worried. Um,
00:47:14
Speaker
Anyway, if you want, you can follow us on the internet. We're on blue sky, the cooler guild. We're on Instagram, uh, at cooler guild pod. You can email us. We love an email, the cooler guild at gmail.com. You can find us on our center hurt link, center hurt.com forward slash the cooler guild. If you want right now is a great time to gift a subscription to center hurt to a friend or yourself. There is a gift option on there. So now you can help a friend out support some independent soccer media. Yeah. If you know somebody that likes soccer and you want them to get a little more out of it, uh, with the wonderful coverage that all of sounder at heart and right at Valkyries does gift them a subscription. Yeah. And if you sign up for, uh, what is it? The $74 a year tier, maybe it's $75 or near tier. There's a tier where you get access to the discord and that's the nicest thing you could do for a friend, get them access to the discord. It's a great discord.
00:48:09
Speaker
Uh, I think it's going to wrap it up for us for, for now. And then we'll, we'll figure out when there's more news going on to do another episode. So hope everyone had a good holidays. We'll be, we'll be back again next year.
00:48:21
Speaker
da We'll we be back next year. I hope I've decided before that. All right. Goodbye. Bye.
00:48:44
Speaker
it's It's a K out of C. i Look, I'm going to the iDoctor next month, okay? Great. I already have my window at 120% zoomed. It's a problem. I might have to get a new host so I can actually see you next time. Good luck.