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Problems in Portland - Ep. 42
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Let's not do that again. It was rivalry week in the NWSL, as the Reign traveled to Portland to face the Thorns. In this week’s episode we get into the heatwave that contributed to Reign’s abysmal performance, what went wrong, and try to put the 4-2 loss behind us. We do our usual wrap up of other results in the league and preview the Reign’s next match.
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Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 42 of The Cooler Guild. am Coop Cooper, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van Crisp. Hi. We're recording on Thursday, August 14th, 2025. On today's episode, we'll have to go over the rain getting burned in Portland, both in the heat and
Sounder at Heart Network and Subscription
00:00:37
Speaker
in the result. And what went wrong in Poop City?
00:00:42
Speaker
I wasn't going to say that. i laughed out loud when I read that in the intro. We'll wrap things up with a quick ah quick roundup of NWSL results, highlights, as well as preview the rain's next match.
00:00:55
Speaker
And introduce a new segment. Yeah. Woo woo. Party on. So there is a reason to listen today because none of us want to relive what happened. It's myself included.
00:01:07
Speaker
First, some housekeeping to take care of before we get into it. 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.
00:01:19
Speaker
If you'd like to become a subscriber, just listen to 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. We haven't had a new subscriber in a while, so if you've thought about doing it, this is a good month to do that, so...
Recording Delays and Personal Stories
00:01:34
Speaker
Get on it um So we're delayed on recording for a multitude of reasons. there We were going to record on Monday. then there was a heat wave. And we also felt like shit because of the game.
00:01:45
Speaker
I really feel like I went like I was emotionally exhausted to the point where like it was like worse than my last breakup. Yeah, I don't know if I felt that way. i was kind of just like, I just want to pretend like it didn't happen. Yeah, I'm too invested. I gotta get over it. Did you do anything for the last few days to to kind of ease your troubles?
00:02:07
Speaker
Um, played some cribbage. Been reading a new book, so I'm into that. And I've been watching British crime shows. Yeah, nothing new there.
00:02:17
Speaker
No. What about you? Oh, did hang out my sister. i mean. Your audio is cut out. Like it's not working at all. and's Did you say anything? Just now? About your sister?
00:02:28
Speaker
Oh. I said just hanging out with you and my sister. ah thought you had something else to say about your sister. And I was like, well, the mic's broke. No, I just ended it there.
00:02:39
Speaker
Wow. All right. Oh.
00:02:42
Speaker
Did you ask me what I did? Yeah. What did i do i So Monday, ah which we had planned this, but then because my Alex had a haircut late, we went and footed down one of the rivers by our house for the first time.
00:02:59
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. You have inner tube? Yeah, we have inner tubes. we had We had them from when we lived in Portland, but we haven't like scoped out anything here. But Alex like drove by a park a few days ago whatever during one of the other days of the heat wave and saw a guy like with his family going down the river and was like, where do you guys like go? and he's just like, oh, we just park up there and drive one car there. you know Typical stuff you do with the foot down the river.
00:03:21
Speaker
but There was like no like current really for a lot of it. So it was, built it was like a lazy river, but like maybe not even really lazy. It was barely moving. but it was kind nice cause it was like, it was like kind of around like, like sunset. And so like the birds were like, not, you know, at sunset, but as it was getting close sunset, all the birds are like flying around crazy, like right above us and stuff. And there was like nobody really else out there.
00:03:47
Speaker
um so that was cool except for, for whatever reason, um the river wouldn't pick up me very well it would pick up the other people i was with alex and her friend you're just lagging behind like i had to like fucking like really paddle like myself i don't know if it's just because i'm like more compact and square shaped i don't know um because her co-worker is like much longer maybe more aerodynamic i'm not sure what the deal was but i was really struggling to keep up a little bit
00:04:18
Speaker
I just imagine you sitting in an inner tube, like way behind everybody, like guys, wait up. Like paddling. I mean, i was just, i was dealing with it, but like there, we had like three types of, we had two different types of inner tubes and there was like one of them that like I can't sit in cause I'm too small.
Match Recap: Portland Defeat
00:04:35
Speaker
I'll like fall through it. so yeah i don't not look like a child in it um anyways let's get on with this bullshit that we have to talk about we're not doing a match recap because who cares fuck fuck the fuck this game this is a hot hot hot mess in more ways by all accounts yeah um so we lost four to two yeah what sucked was that they had so much fucking false hope three minutes in yeah i mean it was quick i mean i feel like it was dashed pretty pretty quickly i mean yeah false hope sure but then like i guess we can go over like what times the goals were scored third minute rain went ahead 1-0 portland got a penalty in the 19th minute
00:05:22
Speaker
um because Bug took a player down the box. And then we got scored on again in the 26th minute off a corner. So we went into halftime down two to one.
00:05:33
Speaker
Second half, ah we got scored on again in the 55th minute. ah Portland scored on a set piece. So we were down three one. And then we made a little bit of a comeback of a gorgeous goal.
00:05:44
Speaker
was a really fucking good goal. It was a great goal. it was fantastic goal. And we were like, oh, okay. like maybe Maybe there is some life in this match. To just literally... No, we weren't. because Two seconds later. thought that.
00:05:59
Speaker
It was a fleeting... oh I mean, it did stop after that. And then we got scored on in the 65th minute. It did stop. After that. So like, cause it could have just really fucked. I mean, you don't want everyone to give up four goals. you don't want everyone give up four goals to your rivals, but like for the way things were going, I feel like Portland could have really fucking just embarrassed the shit out of us even more.
00:06:22
Speaker
and luckily guess that didn't happen given, and don't know, I guess our subs maybe were somewhat helpful in that regard. If you want to call it that. um I got a general note. I guess I just want to, after this game, the Reiner now in sixth place in the standings on 24 points. We're one point now behind Portland. i We're only three points out from being tied on points for second place. I don't think we would be in second, even if we got tied up just because of the, you know, tiebreakers and stuff. But, you know, we're still in a good place.
00:06:55
Speaker
yeah could be worse this was a game that like i wish they would have been able to take advantage of it obviously but do you want to go to the positives and then we can start pitching about it yeah okay obviously the positive number one is uh fish locks diving header uh that was nuts i don't know how you let someone who's i think she's like five foot two five foot three get that open um but but that was great to see her doing something against Portland because she does love playing them um and the other positive that goes along with that is that we scored multiple goals um we did yeah and the first one her pass on the first goal was incredible Mm hmm.
00:07:37
Speaker
Just curling it around the defense to Adamas, who was running in. So the goals we did score were quality and the goals we gave up were our own fault. Yeah, they were total ass. The other positive i found, I literally have never seen a goalkeeper
Positives and Negatives of the Match
00:07:51
Speaker
get scored on four times.
00:07:53
Speaker
And have a 7.8 rating on FopMob. Yeah. Yeah. Their XG was like really high. So like they buried all of the chances that that they were given basically that were like easy. Like they didn't have any like insane quality, just like finding a ah goal out of nothing.
00:08:08
Speaker
Dickie made some really good saves too. It's really hard to have a good game when you're nobody else is helping you. Truly, it' truly. And so she, I thought she played well for what she was given. Yeah, yeah.
00:08:22
Speaker
Another positive I put is ah Portland are actually this is kind of a fun fact. This is like, I just found this out. Portland is actually going to be up for an Oscar for for their diving um and their acting skills. So congrats to them.
00:08:38
Speaker
Well done. You know, representing the Northwest in the best way possible. uh and the the last positive uh also mean we don't have many obviously ah we're playing chicago next at home yay i'll take it think that's a good opponent you would want after a shit show like this so yeah any other positives no i think are the away fans we'll say the away fans we'll shout out those but yeah negatives everything basically after the third minute Really, though? They couldn't hold the fucking ball at all. Like every single pass was just getting disrupted. Like they just looked fucking exhausted, which there was reasons for that.
00:09:20
Speaker
But you're also playing a team that's dealing with the same weather. Yeah. The same environment, everything else that's happening. So i just don't I think lack of overall quality to a game you can attribute to. But like one single team. hmm.
00:09:36
Speaker
I don't think it's an excuse. I think it was just a trash, trash day for the team. Yeah, probably the worst game that this could have happened with, too. It felt like every pass was going to the other team, had trouble winning the ball back.
00:09:51
Speaker
The marking wasn't good. And, ah you know... Phoebe McLaren, who's played in every single game for like 100 years, wasn't there. And the team looked like they had no fucking clue what they were doing in the back line. Yeah.
00:10:07
Speaker
We talk about how good Jordan Bug is. Is she only good when Phoebe McLaren is with her? Yeah, when she's got a center back vet with her. Maybe. This is definitely a bad game for her. i mean...
00:10:18
Speaker
Sofia Huerta was playing back there with her, and that's not where I would want to see Sofia Huerta either. i don't think that helped. um I don't think anything helped. Back there. It was all because like ah going into this game, i feel like we were like, great, we can let's start seeing where to start to start to, you know, send some balls and maybe you start getting some more chemistry building with Hydom and everything like that. And there was like no opportunity for that because of McLernan not being available.
00:10:45
Speaker
And I had said this, you know, however many episodes again, when we're talking about like transfers or whatever we want to see in the summer window, I literally said like, if McLernan goes down or something like that, we're going to have a bit of a situation in the back line.
00:10:59
Speaker
And yeah here we are. Doesn't sound like any long term, but I think it was helpful when Lou Barnes came in. It just sucks that ah she's not game fit enough to play an entire match.
00:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, and I feel that was always going to be a possibility just given where she she is in her career, right? Yeah. So this is like why I wanted to see us maybe find another center back.
00:11:22
Speaker
So it's a little irritating to me to... I know we're like capped out with our roster spots and all that stuff, so there wasn't really any room to bring somebody in, but um there was some other defensive moves and shifts that I think we could have seen them maybe a little bit earlier.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah. And for all of Fishlock's great play, the midfield itself between Meza, Menti and Fishlock was awful. Yeah, it was abysmal.
00:11:51
Speaker
And I said this. I think the last episode, maybe was the one before, I don't know, ah about Sally Menti and how she has some really brilliant moments, but also is making mistakes, but we weren't getting punished with her mistakes.
00:12:05
Speaker
We got punished with her mistakes this match. Yeah, it seemed like, I mean, Harvey was clearly like, the this lineup came out and Harvey was willing to give the young players a chance.
00:12:16
Speaker
ah they did They did not rise to the occasion. Yeah. They sure as shit did not. Which, like, I guess it's... Again, it's hard to do when it's that kind of weather and temperature and the conditions and everything else factored in.
00:12:30
Speaker
and i I mean, I don't know, like, how many rookies... I mean, they had a rookie score, right? So, like... I don't know. Like, I'd be curious to see like the experience and NWSL years between the two starting lineups.
00:12:42
Speaker
um That's man Maybe you should have looked up for this. um But yeah, I, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't the game for our young players. It finally kind of caught up to them with their lack of experience.
00:12:55
Speaker
Yep. It was not enjoyable to watch. Not at all. Especially when we're in the press box in Portland someone in the press box from Portland's just fucking clapping a lot and a place where you're not supposed really be doing that. um Just, you know, not fun. It was an experience.
00:13:14
Speaker
Yeah. um I'm not going to try to... We can talk about outside of this podcast and how shitty it was. but um What else did you take from what went wrong?
00:13:24
Speaker
i
00:13:28
Speaker
every i mean, everything went wrong, really. I think there was a lack of organization in the defensive line. We but locked ourselves in every time we got the ball because they weren't making passes to skip lines.
00:13:44
Speaker
Because you saw anytime we had any sort of like forward momentum and we're getting into dangerous areas, it was because someone in the midfield's absolutely switching it, right?
00:13:54
Speaker
And playing Curry far up on the right-hand side. Mm-hmm. But the little dinky midfield passes were just getting lost. And we kept going backwards with the ball constantly.
00:14:06
Speaker
Yeah, and Portland doesn't... I wouldn't say they have a good defense. No. So, like... I don't know. I'm going to... It's tough for me because i I was like... Part of me was like, I saw these subs come on. I'm like, why didn't they start? But at the same time, like do I want them coming on for this like fucking hell on earth game?
00:14:25
Speaker
ah Because the season is long. right like we still have the We're in the second half of the season. But I also like... You should want to put out the best lineup you can possibly put out in against Portland.
00:14:36
Speaker
And i don't I don't know if it was a fitness thing or whatever it was. And I, you know... I get the sentiment of wanting to start your young players and all that stuff. And it it has worked several times this season.
00:14:47
Speaker
But I don't know, man, I would have like, where was Lynn? Like, I feel like I would have had Lynn starting personally. don't know. It's frustrating. It's really frustrating thing to see.
00:14:58
Speaker
And it's frustrating when you have a team that puts themselves in a hole. hmm. And then puts players on to try and climb out of it. Yeah. It feels, i mean, I do not coach this team. I rarely know what I'm talking about, but as a fan, i would rather see a strong starting lineup. Mm-hmm.
00:15:20
Speaker
And playing the players as long as they can and trusting the players you're going to bring on to hold the score that your best lineup got you. Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah. Instead of what we're doing, which I feel like is, hey, you guys start and then whatever happens, we'll bring players on try and fix it. Why create that problem in the first place?
00:15:43
Speaker
That's my question. Yeah, it's tough because like they don't give up that stupid goal right after like the last goal or whatever that they gave up. And it could have been an entirely different. Like we could be sitting here talking about how like, oh, so great to save our subs, right?
00:15:57
Speaker
Yeah, because I think that they have a one goal deficit that late. And, ah you know, all you need is one to at least get a point out of this fucking thing. uh crazy crazy game um and that i think that would have felt like a win so lapse i think this comes down to lapses um mental lapses and you can you can definitely attribute that to the heat um but like a minute after really less than a minute it was like less than a minute yeah i just I just don't get it.
00:16:29
Speaker
this is This is the kind of shit they were doing early in the season. I thought they had kind of gotten over. This is the shit they were doing last year. Yeah. I mean, i guess this is just like a reality check to some extent.
00:16:40
Speaker
I would say maybe it's kind of, don't know, hopefully the a good learning experience for everybody because this is... this is an embarrassing result. It could have been worse, but certainly they're not going to be happy about, um, I would say anything besides the two goals.
00:16:59
Speaker
Yeah. Um, and hopefully they just don't let it happen again. Yeah. If I ever, it I just don't want to have to do, at least we don't play Portland again this season. We beat them once.
00:17:14
Speaker
Yeah. We lost a second time. Yeah. yeah It was another thing being there and being around Portland people who are acting like they just fucking won the championship. They don't have
Stadium Critiques and Press Conference Chaos
00:17:25
Speaker
a lot in that city. So it's like, you know, I wonder if their attendance is going to drop once the Portland fire, the WNBA team joins.
00:17:34
Speaker
I mean, probably a little bit. i would imagine. i and WNBA is ah a great product. And I do think there's there's a very good basketball well scene out there. So maybe. Also, people talk about that stadium and how great it is, the Portland Stadium.
00:17:49
Speaker
The side that we were on looked crappy. The bathrooms were like 100 years old. I mean, it is 100 years old. It looked like it felt like it was falling apart half the time.
00:18:01
Speaker
i mean, you can only do so much. It's a Frankenstein stadium. Yeah. So that's just it is what it is. um It's a fucking baseball stadium trying to pretend that it's a soccer stadium.
00:18:11
Speaker
They like it. They think it's quirky. don't. But, you know, like it's it it suits them. That's that's all I think about it.
00:18:23
Speaker
It's like they don't they can't do anything better. What else would they do? Like they don't have anywhere else to do something that wouldn't. The convenience of it, I think, is good, though. I do i do like where it's at. So there was a post-match press conference in person.
00:18:36
Speaker
Yeah. And we were alerted pre-match. Yeah. That it was going to be kind of thrown together because the Thorns do not have access to the other press room anymore because they are not owned by the Timbers anymore who have control of the stadium, I guess. Mm-hmm.
00:18:57
Speaker
And so part of their lease agreement with the Timbers, they don't have access to this other room. Or like a lot of rooms. Like they could have maybe found even somewhere that's not a press room, but like they don't have access to those places.
00:19:12
Speaker
So we were put in a hallway. In front of some bathrooms. Yeah. yeah it was interesting if you go watch the presser like you can see like that the players they didn't have it kind of blocked off like there's a hallway like that was going in so like the doors just kept opening and people weren't being respectful or mindful of like the fact that they they were as a press conference going on inside of there um but you could see like just fish like like in um who else was in it uh mason curry yeah curry they were both just like staring to their like right because it was just so fucking distracting eventually they they kind of blocked it off and made sure people weren't being so noisy and coming through for the harvey part of it but yeah shout out shout out to sarah from the rain comms team for doing the best with what she was given yeah she did she i think she did a ah very good job with that
00:20:01
Speaker
Yeah. What did you get from the pressers? ah For Frischlach Curry, it seemed that it same sentiment that we felt like it just wasn't good enough. They looked like hot.
00:20:16
Speaker
And I'm not talking like, like just temperature wise, they looked like they did. They like they came in and I was just like, I can't believe like I was up there swinging in the shade in the press box.
00:20:27
Speaker
And like they had to be on the fucking field for that shit running around. i mean, saw somebody in the discord say that somebody had put ah one of those heat gun readers yeah on the pitch and it was like 170 degrees. was curious on what that was because that turf is fucking and atrocious in the heat.
00:20:44
Speaker
And like the first comment, I think that like Fishlaw talked about when someone ah um asked her a question was just like on turf specifically in these temperatures, it's just like your feet are on fire. Yeah. I've played on hot turf before. it is awful.
00:20:57
Speaker
Yeah. This is, I mean, this is kind of, i this is kind of why I don't want to get too carried away with like losing hope with this game because this is not going to be the conditions they're playing in week to week. Right. Especially come playoff time.
00:21:11
Speaker
And every time it feels like we've had a result that could have been better, i will say, the next game has looked better. so hopefully there's no heat wave. I guess we're playing, we're playing Monday in Seattle.
00:21:24
Speaker
Don't think there's supposed to be a heat wave. yeah. Yeah. Anyways, back to the presser. Yeah, I mean, they talked about Fishlock and Curry combining for that awesome goal.
00:21:35
Speaker
And, you know, that's kind of what they were wanting to do all game. It just didn't kind of come to fruition. ah People asked about the young players and how that was. And, you know, that's it was a test for them. They didn't pass. And you move on and you try and get a better result in your next in your next match.
00:21:55
Speaker
Nobody could really answer why it was so bad. And I think that, you know, it wasn't just one bad goal that was given up. It was four.
Defensive Weaknesses and Match Analysis
00:22:06
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:07
Speaker
And so you can't super pinpoint, you know, like this one moment in the game where, know, things just weren't clicking and you got scored on. was the whole match. I mean, it was set pieces though, right?
00:22:18
Speaker
Yeah. Which is something that they can, I would think, easily clean up. But... When I said things to watch for with this match beforehand, it's upsetting to me that this is how we lose when like I do think everyone knew that like you have to look out for Portland and they're they're diving and they're trying to draw fouls constantly because at least one of these goals came from a definitely I wouldn't say it was a foul.
00:22:42
Speaker
The penalty definitely was a penalty. I'll agree with that. um But, like, this was Portland's game plan. They want to draw a foul they can take set pieces and score on you. And they played they like they played in a Portland's hand with that.
00:22:56
Speaker
Like, be more careful. Or, like, if going to do that, like, line up better defensively at least. ah Do something. Something, anything. Try harder.
00:23:08
Speaker
I mean... I'm kind of out of things to say. Yeah, I make me yeah i think we can move on. It sucked. Harvey didn't enjoy it either. It sucked. um ah Final thoughts.
Player of the Match Award
00:23:22
Speaker
You have any final thoughts you want to say? I never want to think about this again. So no. Okay, great. Thanks for tuning in. See you guys. ah All right. ah What do we got next?
00:23:33
Speaker
a Cooler Player of the Match. Yeah. 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.
00:23:44
Speaker
I will say, is this the Cooler Player of the Match or is this like the hotter, less hot, heat you know, most player who's almost on fire match? I don't know. I want to give this to Fishlock, but I feel like we should give it to the traveling away fans. Okay.
00:23:58
Speaker
I don't want to do that just because imagine how bad this would be if fish like wasn't playing. Fair. official i mean like this the four zero would have been an embarrassment and had we not at least had the quality and experience of fishlock playing in these rival matches it would have been i might have had to stop being a soccer fan so um okay i i uh hear your logic and i agree with it so quarter player of the match or the hotter player hottest player of the match
00:24:29
Speaker
for this game it is just fishlock congrats um her first yeah her first ever fun fact if you want some cooler guild trivia for it for you yeah um yeah wish it was under better circumstances ah Thanks again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. The Doctor's Office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match.
00:24:51
Speaker
Swing by today and try their limited edition White Lotus Cocktail, a white Negroni with pineapple... Sousa. Sousa. I tried to look up how to pronounce this. It's a French thing. Sousa.
00:25:03
Speaker
She's. It's like there's like a weird you in it. Anyways, it's a white Negroni with pineapple. She's Plymouth gin, charime vermouth, and ah saline. The first sip will have you feeling the island breeze in your hair, or at least what's left of it from pulling all your hair out from the weekend's match.
New Trivia Segment Introduction
00:25:20
Speaker
Um...
00:25:22
Speaker
Sounds like a really refreshing thing to have after this fucking shit show of a game. ah Check out the doctor's office Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Do you want to introduce the new your new little segment?
00:25:38
Speaker
Yeah. So I thought it'd be fun um to add in as a nerd myself. I do love trivia, not necessarily bar trivia, Jeopardy trivia.
00:25:49
Speaker
um i thought it'd be good to do a rain trivia question each episode so i will give you the rain trivia question and if you'd like and answer it by adding us on blue sky answering the question and maybe we'll get a shout out in the next episode i was like you can also if you wanted to you could go make an instagram post I could.
00:26:14
Speaker
so Okay. ah Yeah. So our first range of question, ah you'll get the answer next week. And there's two parts to this one. There is a main question and then there is a bonus for this. So the question is.
00:26:30
Speaker
Since we're playing Chicago, um shout out Steve, who thought this would be very appropriate. And I agree. Seattle and Chicago were involved in the first trade in NWSL history. What player was the trade for?
00:26:42
Speaker
Find out next week. And for the extra credit part of this question... Who did Chicago select in 2014 in the college draft with the pick that they received?
00:26:53
Speaker
Find out next week. Sound like robot. ah Yeah. So go go on our socials. and ah ah Do you want to like make a post and then people can reply to it too? Sure. Yeah, we can do that. cooler thing. You can figure it out. It's your gig.
00:27:06
Speaker
um Fun little thing. See what you come up with next week. and this is a cool little trivia thing. I'm learning along with everyone because it is really hard to find NWSL historical kind of data. You got any... to shri Do you have anything else before we jump into the ah other NWSL results?
00:27:23
Speaker
I do not. Okay. I'm excited to know if anybody knows the answer to this, but we can move on. i would have I would not have known. I wasn't like that big of a nerd into like these kinds of things until like later in my adult years with um being like super nerd with sports.
00:27:41
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Nos Anietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues.
00:27:54
Speaker
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.
00:28:07
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.
00:28:23
Speaker
To find out more, just visit centeratheart.com and click the subscribe button in the top right corner. Thanks for listening.
00:28:34
Speaker
So NWSL results, this is kind of a fun stat I found out.
League Performance Overview
00:28:38
Speaker
um There's only been two wins in the last 25 matches for the bottom five teams. That's crazy.
00:28:46
Speaker
Yeah, I was looking out on FOTMOP and so they have the standings and then you can see like the last five results of all the teams and I only saw two wins. um so like the teams in the bottom right now bay angel city fc houston chicago utah and the only two ones that came in the last five weeks were houston and bay um houston being the one recently woof i mean that's so bad like if if you're not beating those teams yeah it's not it's it's bad sign for you yeah um hopefully i don't eat my words next week um
00:29:19
Speaker
ah god with our luck i know for real uh first result up houston versus north carolina houston won that two to one shout out sophie schmidt again subbed on in the 85th minute scored a 90 plus five goal to win the game with an assist from yasmin ryan clutch super clutch is still clutch yeah amazing uh that she's still doing this this many years later incredible um utah took on kc they lost only by one goal though yeah mean guess they really hunkered down they did and that goal was like a little bit of a lapse from utah um i wouldn't say offensively utah you're having a lot of optimism there after losing ally centenor or selling ally centenor
00:30:06
Speaker
um But like I would have thought this game was going to be much, much worse for Utah. So it could have been. Yeah. Yeah. ah Did you watch the Gotham spirit game? That was a zero zero draw. I did. Okay. What'd you, what'd you see?
00:30:21
Speaker
So there was a red card. I think it like thirtieth minute. ah hu And i didn't think it was a red card. I did rewatch. I did go find that play to see. i sort did you think? So it basically,
00:30:37
Speaker
it What am I trying to say? i just lost my train of thought. Jace, so there was like a ball coming, like it was near the sideline, right? So Jace was like trying to, she was definitely late to it. that She was nowhere near the ball.
00:30:51
Speaker
I will say that she was nowhere near the ball. The ball was gone. Yeah, like the player took a touch away. And she was like, it looked like she was trying to like catch up. Yeah. And just like her step cleated a player in the Achilles.
00:31:04
Speaker
And it wasn't like super fast either. and it it didn't seem malicious. Yeah. no i will No, it was just like a misstep. hu Yeah. And got tangled up and her cleat just came down.
00:31:16
Speaker
mean, she did step on it. So that's the part where I was like, I can see why they gave the red. i thought it was harsh. I can see why, but I think it's harsh. Yeah, I thought it was harsh too. Because there's plenty of other things in this league that can be red cards that don't get called. It's true. It's true.
00:31:32
Speaker
Yeah.
Gotham vs. Spirit Match and Field Condition
00:31:33
Speaker
Consistency in the calls. That's what that's to make it make sense. And honestly, Gotham looked better with 10 players. yeah the highlights that i saw spirit really just um i ah they they had a chance to to get three points and they didn't at all take it no um i saw people talking about the field there and i went oh god it looked bad was like dry as fuck patchy patchy as fuck had like some event there recently right some events and stuff i don't know not good everyone always talks about grass is so great
00:32:05
Speaker
When it is maintained by someone who knows what they're doing and there's other events there. So I'm not i'm not on board. The grass grass is always greener, obviously. Between us and San Diego. yeah ah ah Orlando, Louisville, one one draw. There's a lot draws this weekend. um In fact, there's only two no draws or three. This is kind of a heartbreaker, honestly.
00:32:30
Speaker
yeah, yeah. yeah But, okay, so or ah there's an own goal at the end um that was in favor of Orlando. ah Ari Borges got, I don't, to be, like, what, first of all, what was she doing? So there was a cross set piece in, Carson Pickett laid it in, love that for Carson Pickett. um But she she laid in a cross and then, like, the defender, like, went to head the ball, but she also turned her head towards the goal to head the ball. It made no sense. So so you kind of did that to yourself.
00:32:59
Speaker
Did she get confused and think she was on the other end? Yeah. She just needed to turn the other way or like just jump up, but she turned her head and I'm like, Oh no. So ended up in a one, one draw, uh, San Diego angel city.
00:33:15
Speaker
Great news, everyone. Another fun fact for everybody. This is two weeks in a row that Alana Kennedy has scored. you all remember, she scored last week for for the rain.
00:33:29
Speaker
Jesus. But hey, the goal, this goal, at least, this is a bit of a redemption for her for the own goal that she got. um Yeah, and it got them a point out of it because they were losing 1-0. Yeah, 90 plus 2 got that goal. So good for her. um what Does she always keep beat up in every single game? I feel like it.
00:33:47
Speaker
The girl has the worst luck. Yeah, I feel like every time I see highlight her, she's just like, her face is getting knocked and shit. And I'm just like, Jesus. She's just like, and i like a I don't know, what's the word?
Controversial Interview and Military Promotion
00:33:58
Speaker
She's just like always present, always in space, and you can't avoid her.
00:34:03
Speaker
I don't know omnipresent yeah yeah that's the one yeah um did you did you watch you watched the highlights and you corrected my my mistake there but um the Chicago bay FC game I wanted to talk about this I don't know if you were wanting to talk about this yeah I also thought it was weird and then I saw your note um it they they did a weird like mid-game interview which already hate you now swanson but yeah swanson should be pew because she was she was promoting there yeah and she goes on this weird thing she's wearing this ill-fitting army jacket ah literally says army in the big letters in the front
00:34:46
Speaker
And she's talking about like the league collab with army and like designing these jackets. And in the middle of this interview with picture in picture, BFC scores.
00:35:00
Speaker
It's so awkward. It's really awkward. And also, from what I had read on the internet, everyone loves facts the internet. um This isn't the first time that Mal Swanson has gone on during broadcast and like promoted the military with some propaganda.
00:35:18
Speaker
um I don't like to see this from the league. i You know, like kind of the reason i have switched a lot more of my time and ah allegiances towards the NW cells because there's a lot of this military propaganda and peddling for whatever they want for like the NFL and like MLB or whoever. Like they've always got these weird propaganda things paid for by the U.S. government or like Department of Defense or whatever. um And I just don't feel like there's a
00:35:49
Speaker
it's It's gross to me. It's weird. It's gross. um And I also just think for the NWSL, it doesn't make any sense given what um this administration has been trying to change within the military. It's very anti-women. It's very anti-LGBT.
00:36:06
Speaker
I don't get why the league is promoting it. I don't think it's a coincidence that this happened on CBS, though. No, not at all. um i don't I don't know. just seems to be very, very a tone deaf.
00:36:18
Speaker
Yeah. And I don't know. i mean i don't mallory so I don't know. It seems like anytime Mallory Swanson has like time off or is isn't able to play, she's just like, how can I like get involved to promote the military? And I'm just like,
00:36:30
Speaker
This isn't the place for that. That's your own. You can do that on your own social media. I don't think we should be doing that on this. Like go through a soccer camp for like kids on military bases or something.
00:36:41
Speaker
Sure. Like, fine. Go do that. I don't want to see it on my TV. No, it's not. It's a really, really strange time to be doing that, too. Yeah. Like I said, it just seems tone deaf. I don't like it. um I did have one note from this match.
00:36:56
Speaker
OK, Alyssa and Eric can still move. yeah her feet are still quick there's one save that she made where she got all the way across goal and slid with her leg out and saved a shot um which was really impressive it's good for her i mean it sucks she's still in chicago but this was a chicago win as we know any draw chicago gets is a chicago win so any point for chicago is a win are they still in last place i feel like i already know the answer to this oh they're not no Congrats, Chicago.
00:37:26
Speaker
All those wins. The Chicago wins are moving you up. Slowly but surely, you have the bottom. The bottom team is 14th place is Utah with six points and Chicago is in 13th with eight points.
00:37:41
Speaker
And then Houston's above them with 15. ah you know, maybe not slowly but surely, but at least they'll stick above Utah, maybe. Okay, I think that's pretty much all we got for the NWC sell for last week.
00:37:57
Speaker
We got another game coming up. Speaking of Chicago, we don't want to give them a Chicago win. I want to beat this team.
Upcoming Match Against Chicago
00:38:04
Speaker
We're playing them. Chicago Stars, Monday, August 18th, 7 p.m., Lumen Field.
00:38:09
Speaker
They've also got a sick deal if you had don't have tickets already. ah You can get two beers and two tickets for like $40. Yeah. And those beers are like fucking $15 or something crazy. So it's basically free beer.
00:38:20
Speaker
pretty much yeah so go get your tickets for that we all try to kind of forget the last time we played them because we should have won um but then they got ludmila isn't it ludmila jamila sorry we figured yeah they got ludmila um that was also the game was at soldier field so again another weird condition thing but we're at home hopefully we're comfortable there god we got to get a win at home our home results have not been up to par yeah yeah uh chicago's recent results two chicago wins they got two draws ties two draws one one versus bay and gotham the gotham game was i would say an impressive performance for sure so so like as much as i shit on chicago luge meal of it all
00:39:10
Speaker
it's definitely something to like prepare for yeah i mean like that's the thing with the nwsl like no team is safe yeah except for casey i guess right this year yeah and yeah especially since they got la sentinor but um things we want to see what do you what do you want to see for this game uh just play well and don't give up dumb goals please this feels this feels like early season yeah yeah Back to basics.
00:39:37
Speaker
Back to the basics. Well, if Harvey did say in her press conference that she, and Phoebe, would probably be back for Monday's game. She was in a boot, which we saw.
00:39:48
Speaker
was a low boot. Pre-game, yeah, low boot. um And Harvey said that that, this is actually the most transparent I have ever seen Laura Harvey with an injury. I think it's it's probably because we all knew, like, we were kind of fucked without Phoebe. Yeah. Yeah.
00:40:03
Speaker
and We're not surprised seeing how we gave her cooler player of the season last year. We love her. We're her biggest fans. But ah yeah, so hopefully Phoebe McLaren will be back.
00:40:14
Speaker
yeah and healthy yeah um about you what do i want to see a clean sheet after that fucking shit show would be nice because those were all pretty much dumb goals um other things i might want to see i want to see more time with being double i don't know what health like her fitness is um and i would It's because I want to see more me official to cooking in there with Montessir.
00:40:38
Speaker
um That would be fun for me. I would like to see that. I just I don't know. i would I would I would think that Harvey doesn't want the young people, the young players to think that last week's performance means that they're.
00:40:51
Speaker
ousted from from their chances so i'm not sure that the players i want to see start will get the start if it's related to their fitness um especially since we're playing chicago maybe this is a good chance to kind of help them kind of wipe that slate clean from last week but at the same time i want to put this game away earlier that's why i want to see what i was talking about earlier where just go out with your best lineup yes yeah let's not fuck around no pleased don't we do not have the leeway to do that at this point yeah yeah for my own sanity and for playoffs yeah i'm sorry for all the swearing i'm just really angry as am this isn't a kid's show well could be if you let your kids be badasses nothing funnier than swearing children all right uh yeah i think we're gonna wrap this up let's keep it nice and nice and tight i don't know how short this one's gonna be um any shout outs
00:41:44
Speaker
ah Yeah, so yesterday was the my cat, Van Jr.'s 14th adoption anniversary.
Community Shoutouts and Podcast Engagement
00:41:52
Speaker
Nice. 14 years.
00:41:54
Speaker
Nice. Best little man. i love him. h You got any shout-outs? ah my my good My good pal, Jeff. um Do you think Jeff listens to this? I have no idea.
00:42:05
Speaker
have no idea. But Jeff I met from... ah I'm not even sure who he works for. works for Post. Oh, does he? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so Jeff, I met him in press box in Portland, and he's big into D&D.
00:42:18
Speaker
And as everyone knows, I'm really into D&D now. um So I got it was funny because Van was like, yeah, there's going to be this guy there. He's at all the rain games, but he doesn't really talk a whole lot.
00:42:32
Speaker
But I think he has a D&D company or something is what you said. um and then i walked in and jeff's wearing like the shirt for the pod the big dnd podcast and i was just like oh hey nice shirt and i mean he was just talking like we were having a great chat For a guy who never really talks so much to everybody else, we were having a great chat about D&D. So I think D&D was his ah is really where he shines with the conversation because there is a lot to talk about with it. So I'm eager to talk to him again at some point, hopefully this year.
00:43:03
Speaker
um And hopefully he gives you those DM cards for me. Yeah. um I did follow him Be on Monday. Did follow him on Instagram. My good pal Jeff. Nice. Just going to nerd it up some more.
00:43:14
Speaker
Anyways. Yeah. I think that's pretty much all the, all the shout outs I got. um I think that's kind of pretty much do it for this episode. Sorry. It was a bummer. Sorry. The rains, the rain, we're not good. That sucked.
00:43:28
Speaker
ah Hopefully that doesn't happen again this season. Hopefully we can do a dub pod next week. please Yeah, please. I also think we're just a heads up to some folks. I think we're going switching ah recording days on some weeks just because of my D&D game.
00:43:43
Speaker
um So it might come out like a day later than maybe people are used to. Not that this one wasn't late for other reasons. We're unrelated, but shit happens. We're not we're not full-time podcasters. So um thanks again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office.
00:43:57
Speaker
ah Go follow us on Blue Sky and Instagram at Cooler Guild Pod. You can send us an email. We love an email at thecoolergild at gmail.com. You can also visit our main page, sounderatheart.com forward slash the cooler guild.
00:44:09
Speaker
And we're on YouTube last episode. That was a fun one. Um, that one's, uh, I don't know if this one will be up there. This was really fucking shitty. Uh, uh, go to youtube.com forward slash at the cooler guild, follow us there, subscribe. So you can get the latest on those video episodes there when we put them up.
00:44:27
Speaker
Um, and also wherever you're listening, go right. Oh yeah. Should we have brought up the rating that we got? oh yeah. Yeah. ah I mean, we're going to address it today because we've we already gone on longer.
00:44:39
Speaker
But Van had a really funny way. I love when people leave us a review and then criticize us or like are confused about something or like have something maybe not as positive to say as it could be. Like maybe it starts positive and then it goes into like, well, actually, or something like that. love that. I love those five star reviews. I know. Just yeah, they're the best because I'm like, oh, five stars. And then it's like, I don't understand this. And I'm like, OK.
00:45:01
Speaker
cool yeah makes me laugh you you got the do you have it up i can pull it up real quick okay it was on apple right yeah yeah yeah
00:45:14
Speaker
Um, okay. So this is actually from two months ago from an account called ah Fresh Undies. Love it. ah Five stars. I'm not a soccer fan, but maybe starting to be. Anyway, I enjoy the commentary, learn some things and continue to be mystified by the Portland hate.
00:45:28
Speaker
I'll keep listening to see if they ever explain themselves. Like, I feel like this means we don't we shouldn't ever explain ourselves so they keep listening. um that Once you let me know, ah once you do become a soccer fan and hopefully a rain fan um let me know when you start to hate Portland because it will happen.
00:45:51
Speaker
yeah i mean if you don't hate them after last weekend i don't know what to tell you yeah and also like the fucking the rain and the nw still like hype it up about how this is like the strongest rivalry in the entire league um and you can go watch just fishlock and megan erpino and whoever else just shit on portland at any opportunity they can in this rivalry so there's a lot of history behind it Yeah. And I could go into why I have strong negative feelings about the city of Portland, but ah that's not what this podcast is going to be for. so
00:46:24
Speaker
if you want to ask me in a bar about that, go for it. But um I'm just going to leave it there for the week. Until next time, I'm Coop. I'm Van.
00:46:36
Speaker
Stay cool, y'all. Stay cool, y'all.