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Playoffs, we *might* have a problem - Ep. 17 image

Playoffs, we *might* have a problem - Ep. 17

E17 ยท The Cooler Guild
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101 Plays2 months ago

A loss in Houston means Reign's tough road to the playoffs just got even tougher. We talk about what went wrong in the 0-1 loss against the Dash and how much optimism we have for the remainder of the season.

We finish up the episode with a few highlights and lowlights from week 21 in the NWSL and do a quick preview of the Reign's next match.

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Coop
Van

Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
Show artwork by Coop
The Cooler Guild Est. 2024

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Transcript

Introduction and Episode Setup

Impact of Rain's Loss and Season Implications

00:00:19
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 17 of the Kooler Guild. I'm your host, Coop, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van. Hello. We are recording on Tuesday, September 24th, 2024. On today's episode, we'll unfortunately be discussing rain's loss in Houston, and if there is any hope for the rest of the season.

Mushroom Foraging Adventures

00:00:40
Speaker
Spoiler alert, I think there is. I'm not sure.
00:00:45
Speaker
I was Greek. Uh, it was good. Did some more mushrooming actually found a decent amount of chanterelles. We be like got like an actual, we have never found like a patch before we found a patch.
00:00:58
Speaker
noise. So you have like a satchel that you put them in. We have like a basket. We have like a because they recommend you have something that has like some holes or like nothing that's like too contained because you want to keep spreading the spores when you're walking around with it. So it's like a woven basket that we got at the co-op that we bring with us. I think we get a smaller one because we have like a huge one for pachinis which parchinas get huge but when we bring chanterelles or go out for chanterelles it like looks like our basket's like basically empty even though we got a bunch yeah um but yeah Alex made a really good rosoto with with them I forgot back it was so good well I love mushroom season how was uh how was your weekend

Coop's Puyallup Fair Weekend

00:01:41
Speaker
Good? Yeah. ah Took a half day on Friday and Megan and I went to the Puyallup Fair, or the Washington State Fair, they call it now. You could do it at a trot, you could do it at a gallop, you can do it. what's How does it go? I don't remember. I'll look it up later. But yeah, it's fun. Got to see all like the little animals and Yeah, sat in a massage chair. Mm hmm. That was like apparently some sort of like chiropractic maup massage chair. I don't know. weird It was like a mattress firm thing. Yeah. So like and our start at the same time. So we're just like sitting next to each other and it's like inverting us. Oh, fun. It's really weird.
00:02:21
Speaker
I was always into my friend Evan ah growing up him and I would go to the skip a day of school and go to the fair and we would always go to the like the vans the like cool vans like sit in them you know I'm talking about the van like the RVs not even the RVs they were just like they were like borderline creepy vans but like they had like TVs in the back of them and like chairs that you could like kind of like lounge in a little bit I don't remember this I was probably kept away from those as a child I mean, we were in high school. Oh, OK. But yeah, we I don't remember that for going in high school. Yeah. But we ended up, ah yes, we walked around, went to all the animals, went through like the booths and stuff and then, a you know, had a crusty pup and all that jazz. And then we were like, oh, let's get ride tickets. And then by the time, like we got ride tickets and got in line for rides, there was this like so the lines were so long. ah Yeah, it's a Friday.
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah, we waited. we got We went on the Ferris wheel and that was the only ride we went ended up going on. So i had we had all these tickets left. So we just started playing games. Nice. I won Whack-A-Mole. So I won this ah pickle and it says Mr. Pickle on it. Nice. Pickle dude. Love pickles. It was great. And I was like, what are we what are we going to do with this? So when we got back to her house, gave it to her dog.

Housekeeping and Podcast Network Updates

00:03:41
Speaker
Oh, I thought it was really into Mr. Pickle. that's good i thought you're gonna like share custody of mr pickle and like you get like every other weekend but i guess giving it to the dog is better no amazing amazing wanted it so yeah it's a good weekend until the game once again ruining our weekend yeah at this point it's not really ruining my weekend and i'm just like preparing myself for bad stuff to happen
00:04:05
Speaker
Prepare myself, I mean, I always have hope. I'm still on my positivity train. I'm gonna ride it, maybe out of delusion, but it makes me feel better. All right, before we get into the match, we got some housekeeping.

Match Recap: Rain vs. Houston Dash

00:04:18
Speaker
We wanna remind people that the Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder Heart Podcast Network. You can listen to us on our public feed, or if you're a Sounder Heart subscriber, the private unified feed with the other podcasts on the network. If you'd like to become a subscriber, just visit our page at sounderheart.com forward slash the cooler guild.
00:04:34
Speaker
New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything that we're doing. Hell yeah. It's a little match recap. Let's get into it. On a very hot Saturday evening, rain faced last place dash down in Houston. After losing to Gotham in the previous match, it seemed like playing the last place team would be exactly what the rain needed to begin another winning streak as they try and find a way into the playoffs.

Can Rain Make the Playoffs?

00:04:56
Speaker
But the quality will woes in front of goal continue to haunt this team.
00:05:00
Speaker
a Galazzo off a volley from Yuki in the 50th minute with the lone goal in the match, giving Dash their fourth win of the entire season and leaving Rain with an even more difficult battle to the playoffs. So going into the playoffs. This is the last thing we knew needed and wanted.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, it's not the end of the world and statistically it's still possible, but you know, points and not gaining points from games makes this a whole lot harder for us. I just feel like this is so unacceptable because of who we we're playing, but you hear about the temperatures, you know that Houston is, I don't know, sometimes these teams that are really bad find ways to get these wins um out of like just needing to, I don't know, give themselves some dignity. Do you know what I mean?
00:05:45
Speaker
and they had some players come back so you know they weren't the same squad that they've been the whole season yeah they had a more full squad but i mean overall the ranges weren't good enough yeah i they don't score a goal how are you supposed to expect to like deserve a win right yeah that was disappointing uh i mean and fishlock didn't travel for the rain so that was a big loss in the midfield uh heidema traveled but we weren't sure if she was gonna play because she'd been dealing with an illness she ended up playing and then yeah weird lineup again yeah i mean we had the early yellow with glass or right because glass was playing on yellow for a while so um and it seemed like there was a pretty good chance she was
00:06:27
Speaker
She was definitely testing those ah those boundaries with on that yellow. um So when she subbed out, Lasko came in and not only did Lasko come in, but she played right back, which was pretty unusual. And I don't think she was bad at it either. No, her stats actually looked pretty good

Lasko's Performance and Potential

00:06:43
Speaker
too. I was checking up on that.
00:06:44
Speaker
So I'm curious, yeah, I'm curious to see if I know we always talk about, we want to see Lasko star. Um, and I'm never sure like what her fizz fitness level is or anything like that, but maybe that's a position where she could start and play a decent chunk of time back there. Um, won't be as, I mean.
00:07:01
Speaker
They want her back there to kind of play a role similar to Huerta as far as getting in the attack and getting involved there. But um it's certainly, I wouldn't say maybe as demanding as where her usual position is as as far as like cardio and everything that comes with that position.
00:07:17
Speaker
I don't know, I think it just might be more. You think? Yeah, flying up on the outside, that takes a lot, you cover a lot of ground. And especially if they're trying to get her in the attack, like, yeah, that's ah's heavy running. I think it was Harvey was talking about, though, like, there's times where they want her to play, like, where to, but then there's going to be times where they also want her to just do what she does with defense. Obviously, this all depends on who were who our opponent is.
00:07:44
Speaker
I don't know. i guess I guess you make a good point, but I'm also like, I think there's a way to play her where she could get more minutes and it wouldn't be as strenuous as it maybe otherwise might be. I don't know if it's anything to do with her fitness. i'm know i'm every tender out Every time she comes in, she's like a freaking energizer bunny. Yeah, so what's the deal with her not starting?
00:08:06
Speaker
Beat me. I feel like I don't have a clear answer on that still. Yeah. And to me, I'm always just like, I must be fitness. ah I don't know. What's the deal?
00:08:18
Speaker
I, I don't know. It baffles me. Um, cause she does all like, anytime she comes into a game, she has an impact, positive impact. Um, whether it's the energy or, uh, the physicality of it, the way she plays, um, scrambling up defenses. So I'd like to see her on the field more. So if this is a way for them to get her on the field more in a spot that they think she can be productive at, like I'm here for it.
00:08:47
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, where to didn't always start at that position that she grew into. So very true. ah Do you have any like positives you're going to get from this match? I want but um i thought had a better game. just Okay. I mean, there wasn't any obvious mistakes.
00:09:10
Speaker
No. um Made some really good shot stopping saves. Some really important ones. It could have been a lot worse um had

Heidema's Missed Opportunities

00:09:18
Speaker
she not been in goal. There was that one giveaway by Lester in the box. Was Holmes the one that gave away the ball before the goal too on the side? She like passed it up and it went straight to... Oh yeah, it was like almost a square ball into the middle. Yeah, yeah that was bad.
00:09:32
Speaker
So good for her. Um, especially after last week and you know, the hands issue. So, um, that was good to see from her. You're pretty critical on her. So I was eager to see how you, how you felt after, after this game. Yeah. Um, I liked the modest year got more time. Yeah. She came in earlier. So that says good things about her fitness and her game level fitness. So.
00:09:55
Speaker
hoping and for a start soon. Yeah. What about you? I thought we got Heidema involved a lot and, you know, we didn't even know if she was going to play. Yeah. So the fact that she was involved and she was getting chances. I like that. We can have another discussion about her finishing. um But, you know.
00:10:12
Speaker
the amount of opportunities that she was getting I thought that was good because I would say the previous week when we didn't have somebody up there that may you know was kind of getting in those spaces and stuff like that there wasn't really any opportunities and chances that we maybe saw like this match it's just you know there's the other side of that as she didn't finish any of them but Yeah, and we haven't seen a ton of those opportunities lately. I think she had three chances in this game that were pretty clear to two headers and one on the ground. You know, that that's how she was scoring earlier in the season was getting those crosses and finishing them. So it was good to see that production back. um The quality issue is, you know, still an issue.
00:10:58
Speaker
We see her finish a lot of these kinds of things when she's playing for Canada, so I feel like it's not something we can sit here and say like she's completely missing the quality that it's talked about week after week after week with this team. It's just...
00:11:13
Speaker
Are we like, do we need to like break some sort of curse? Or is there like something we're like missing as far as like, I don't know. Do we need to like go right some wrong somewhere? Yeah, what is it? I don't know. But because like I said, I feel like itema has it in her to do better. And um I'm just kind of waiting. Maybe it is a curse. I would look into it. Someone out there can help us out. Maybe do a tarot reading. Get to the bottom up there. I don't know.
00:11:41
Speaker
Yeah, we got to figure this one out because it's it's she's so close to being so elite elite and I mean her stuff. Yeah, because her stats look like look like crap because she's not getting any of these chances like finished. And if if she doesn't get it together, like we'll definitely have to like look at the situation. um It's it's a bummer. But again, we say this every time we talk about her, she's young.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah. <unk> young Hopefully, hopefully that can help us out later. And hopefully somebody can figure out what this curse is and how to, how it can be lifted because I would really like to get on that. Yeah. Uh, you know, I don't know what the chances are looking for like this season. So if we don't get into the playoffs, we don't figure it out. Then maybe, um, you know, if it's been this off season, really, I don't know why our exorcist, if we need to, I don't know what's going on, a witch, if there's any witches, you know, of send email us. I know the witches probably have email, right? you oh Yeah. Yeah. Let us know.
00:12:40
Speaker
ah Any other post? Oops, I don't know. I wrote in and our show document, only let in one banger. It was a really good goal. It was a banger. it was She hit that as good as someone can hit that. And it went just across the face, the goal, opposite way of thinking he was moving. I don't think she's getting there. no There's too much going on. no um I'm not going to be critical of a goalkeeper in that situation.
00:13:05
Speaker
Yeah. I think my gut reaction is always like she didn't even move, but like you watch it again. You're just like, don't embarrass yourself. Maybe. Yeah. She would have been two seconds behind that ball. Like she'd been diving in and been already been in the back of the net. And then you could have gotten a little bruised. I don't know.

Team's Defensive Struggles

00:13:20
Speaker
that's Just stay where you are, I guess. Yeah. You could see it in her face after the goal. It was just like, Oh yeah. I wasn't, I wasn't getting there. No, no. I guess we should just roll right into the negatives.
00:13:32
Speaker
With that goal, um I think the big clear issue we had in this match was like getting the ball out of the box. no na Because that ball went straight to Yuki and just like and hammered it in. and And we tried to clear it, but not it was not good. It wasn't good enough. Yeah, I mean, McLaren and headed the ball from out of the six to outside the box. And that's where she was, where she hit it, where she volleyed it. So not much more you can do with a header clearance there, but you can't be leaving players wide open in dangerous areas. No. And there was, i you know, I was rewatching the highlights and there was like several clearances, maybe not. Like it wasn't even a header clearance. Like someone else tried to clear it and then like it's top of the box. Or it gets caught up in Quinn's feet.
00:14:18
Speaker
yeah like we gotta we gotta you know hit the panic button sometimes so just fucking launch it sometimes you gotta do that yeah that's one thing this team i feel like has a little bit of a problem with is in those moments where maybe we should just be like booting it you know yeah uh there's sometimes when you need to do that and i feel like this team doesn't always feel that urgency and wants to like showcase the quality of playing out of the back or like being more technical with it when you don't really need to. It just puts you in more danger. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I totally think that's right. Cause they're always, it does seem like they're, they're kind of always on a mission. Like let's, let's regroup. Let's do a buildup again. And then, and then we'll go, but like, just blast that shit. Blast it. I don't care. Just get it out of here. Yeah. but We didn't score. Can't win games if you don't score goals. And it wasn't that there weren't opportunities. I think we had 11 shots on goal or 11 shots. Yeah. Two, I think we're on goal or something like that.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, no shots on goal in the first half for either team. um But there were a couple opportunities where, you know, that ball sits a little lower or doesn't hop up on Jordan's foot or, you know, she gets a little bit over the top of the ball and heads it down. It could have been a lot different, but it just didn't happen.

Impact of Losing Key Players

00:15:33
Speaker
You know, one good thing about that is room for improvement.
00:15:37
Speaker
Yeah, but we, this was a problem we, we had seen so much before the break and it seemed like we gotten over it for a brief minute. It's back. The problem has back. We had a good run. We had a three game run and now the problem's back. Go, let's go back to the, I mean, again, like what has things have changed since that three game winning streak and made a big piece of that was where to um it's just like it's just like sad because you know we were hyping up where to talking about how important she was to our team and then we lose her and now we're losing so yeah that was a shot to the gut we have to move on and then they played the little like rain ad rain fc ad at halftime and she's in there and i just like felt like she was leaving me again
00:16:25
Speaker
But yeah, um, talking about Hidama, and I just hope she can uncurse herself. Maybe she just needs like that one banger, you know? It just seems like the floodgates are gonna open at some point.
00:16:38
Speaker
um We've been waiting since she came here, I would say, because it this has been like an ongoing theme with her. She gets so many chances and then they're just not finished. And it seems like she could be one of the best players in in the league if she could just figure out or be like a little bit hungrier and meaner. Yeah. I think that's what it feels like is a a little bit missing for me. Be rude.
00:17:03
Speaker
Yeah, I've seen a little bit more of that like grit and tenacity this season um compared to last season with her. um But yeah, she's got she's got to get a little bit more mean. But maybe AMC will help her with that.
00:17:20
Speaker
AMC just loves to tear through people. Yeah, yeah. That's a good point. I wouldn't mind that, but definitely, you know, when we brought her in, maybe that was, maybe that was the ah part of the goal is, do you see, it do you see her over there? Teach the other tall girl how to be mean. People are crying when they see her coming at them. We want you to instill that in opponents. Like you need other opponents to be crying when they see you running at them. Exactly what you want. Yeah. That's what I want.
00:17:48
Speaker
That's definitely what I want. Uh, wrecked. I mean, if we're going to go back into things we used to do that are happening again, we conceded the goal that we conceded. Uh, and again, don't think there's much to do, but the buildup, the back line really bad coming out of the half that game, that goal came like five minutes after the restart. How we, again, I thought we were kind of getting over these things. We're not, not consistently.
00:18:15
Speaker
Yeah, that was ah not a great start to the second half. It looked really shaky. Oh, yeah. Yeah. It looked bad. My notes were like, back line looks bad. Back line looks questionable. And and then and then it's like disorganized. And then it was like, go. Yeah, no. And so we're just falling into that second half slump yeah again, which is not something we want to see. No. But you know it's one game. Can't quite call it a slump yet. Call it a bump. OK.
00:18:46
Speaker
I mean, last week it was like, oh, we, we lost to Gotham. And then it's like, it's a slump, but it was to fucking Houston. I'm going to make excuses all the way to the playoffs. Just watch. I don't think they're getting there. I don't think they're getting there. You want to make an on air bet? Sure. We can get on air bet.
00:19:02
Speaker
Um, all right. I will, I will bet you a drink that the rain make the playoffs this season because I think they will. And I will buy you a drink at TDO. Yeah, I do not. Okay. i I mean, I'm taking that back because I don't, I don't, I'm not feeling good about the same making the playoffs at all. I feel good. You're about to lose. I'm lying to myself, but I feel good. You're going to have to owe your buddy Ron a drink and then you're also going to owe me a drink. So. I know. Start rack. If anyone else wants to join in,
00:19:32
Speaker
Anybody else wants to bet me, I'm going to be buying everybody drinks. You're going to go into severe debt. Maybe not. Or maybe I'll just be um drinking for free for a while. I had devil. um
00:19:44
Speaker
what What else do you got for negatives? We got to get points every game. We got to get three points every game moving forward. Yeah. It's it's a must win. Every game is a must win. It's a bad situation. Isn't great, but we do still have, we should hold onto this. We do still have one of the easiest remaining schedules and we went on a three game win streak. Can we go on a four game win streak? Yes, we can. You're saying that because you have drinks online, but I also have hope and faith.
00:20:15
Speaker
I've, I've lost it at this point, but that's just me. I'm without faith and without hope. Oh, how sad for you. I'm having fun. I'm having fun. It's just not watching the mirror fun.

Rebuilding Phase and Team Vision

00:20:31
Speaker
We don't need to talk more about the game. If we see pattern going into next week after next week's game, sure. But I'm going to call this a one-off.
00:20:42
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Soundwork Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sunny Yetis, 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 gets you access to everything we produce.
00:21:08
Speaker
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00:21:34
Speaker
There was, you know, I didn't take a lot from the post-game presser other than the same shit Laura Harvey has been talking about in the beginning when we were bad as far as missing quality with our chances, whatever.
00:21:45
Speaker
But at the halftime, they had like a little halftime interview with Lou Barnes and it was kind of nice to finally have someone concede that this team is in a rebuild. So if we make the playoffs, great. Um, if we don't, it does seem like we are looking towards the future and, um, we're still finding the pieces to put together. And I do like the pieces we've gotten. It's just a matter of how's it all going to look next year and with people aging. So.
00:22:15
Speaker
Yeah, I mean that's gonna be a huge question for the offseason um But I think I don't think she was saying that as like an excuse to die But it was it like you were saying it was um I mean they've talked about it like in the essence of it being a rebuild But nobody's been like we're in a rebuild. She did say like it's a quick rebuild or it's been like a quick thing.
00:22:38
Speaker
Yeah, we're trying to make it a quick rebuild. Yeah. Well, girl, it's not going to be quick. You just lost to Houston. Yeah. And also like the amount of players that we lost in the offseason, like that's not ah that's going to take some time to figure out ah how to get back to that.
00:22:52
Speaker
It's going to take a while and it's, you know, making so many moves during the season with starting players and, um, you know, important pieces makes it really, really difficult to get everybody on the same page and, you know, make sure that that rebuild is working to its full potential.
00:23:15
Speaker
Sure. You don't want to just sign players because you need to sign players. You should be mindful and have, I don't know, a vision when you're bringing people in.
00:23:26
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. This is something we kind of did before when we weren't playing well. What what would we like to see? um I want to see Jordan Bug. Yeah, Jordan Bug needs to come back. I want to see Adamas. Yeah. I mean, Adamas start immediately. They got the bronze at World Cup. So let's bring them in. Let's bring the winners in. We'll just wrap it up for this this game because really we just kind of got to keep looking forward every single game. There's no point. dwell in it at the The pressure's on. We got to keep looking. at Week after week. Let's go. Let's go. Yeah,

Bebe McClaren: Player of the Match

00:23:57
Speaker
there's going to be either be improvements or it's going to be in a say a stasis and we won't know until next week. Yep. So moving on to everyone's favorite segment. Cooler player of the match.
00:24:10
Speaker
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. Who do we got for a player Cooler Player of the Match? Bebe McClaren and our first two time Cooler Player of the Match winner. Not only that, but she is on a streak. Yeah. Two game streak. You know, if there's the team hasn't been very good, but a bright spot. Bebe once again. Yeah. I mean, I love this storyline for her.
00:24:38
Speaker
Yeah, she's really been able to step up and she had a great game. I mean, some of the defensive mishaps or I wouldn't say mishaps, I guess some of the defensive inadequacies are not on her. And when she needs to step up, she does. And that's not something you can say for every player in the back line.
00:25:01
Speaker
No, and I think that maybe played a little bit of a part into why we're giving her a back-to-back honor of this. and I feel like she could maybe be an unsung hero through this bad season, um but she's definitely um someone that we should be very happy that we have back there, because things could be much, much worse without her. I look forward to next season, seeing her and Ryan Brown. Yeah, we'll see how that recovery goes. I know ACLs are really all over the place with their recoveries, but we still have bugs, so Future looks bright.

League Updates and Rival Team Performances

00:25:31
Speaker
Thanks in part to our core player of the match, Phoebe McLernan. Welcome to time. I guess I don't have to say welcome.
00:25:38
Speaker
Here to stay. Here to stay for the near future, I think. The doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match. I really enjoy their love in the time of COVID cocktail, TDO's first original cocktail and an enduring favorite. And to be honest, I love anything with Japanese whiskey, so this one is a hit for me. Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers. Clink.
00:26:04
Speaker
think Moving on, any brief notes you want to make about matches this weekend? I know Louisville got a very, very big win. I don't want to get too deep in everything, but that's really putting the pressure on us. Also, it hurts extra more because of Bethany Balser.
00:26:19
Speaker
Uh, got the game winner for them and good for them. That's what they brought her in for. Um, they make confident that if we still had her, we would have seen the same results and not really, but it was a penalty. Yeah. So we've talked about this before and I'm like, well, it wasn't running the up but run to play. So take away your penalty, you know, penalties in her stats. And we're looking at a little bit of a different situation, but I know it's a goal a goal' is a goal in the standings and they are put making things difficult for us now. So not ideal. Yeah. Um, Alyssa Thompson is still on an absolute tear. Uh, each city played Portland, uh, yesterday was yesterday was this was it's Monday. It was Monday night, right? It was yesterday, wasn't it? Yeah, it was yesterday. Okay.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, again, ninth minute banger. They end up tying two to two. But the second goal. I'm gonna have to get a Portland Thorns goalkeeper jersey, I think. I support my new favorite player in the league. She's just lights out every time Arnold out here. Do you want to walk through the goal? Not really. You can go look it up. Claire Emsley scores it in 75th minute. I guess I can. A cross comes in in the six. Mackenzie Arnold goes up to grab it and it just kind of hits off her hands and goes behind her.
00:27:45
Speaker
She doesn't even try to grab it. I don't know what's happening. It's just the games touch the ball, right? I'm a touch the ball. Yes, it's kind of pathetic. They should be winning games and they're not. Yeah, Portland, honestly, it sucks for them. Yeah, they're kind of in a spiral right now. I don't hate it. I like it. um They're probably still gonna seek into the playoffs, but I don't know. Maybe not. We'll have to see what their upcoming results are gonna look like. I mean, there's gonna be a lot of movement in the table, so... at eight the Every weekend from here to the end is gonna be a just chaos. Yeah, and Angel City has a bit a short turnaround because they play the Monday night game and then they play the Friday night game. Ooh, that's rough. Yeah, they're home for both games, but... That's still like not ideal because it's been kind of warm out there too, I think. And I don't think they had a super easy schedule to finish the season out. So that could work in our favor.
00:28:37
Speaker
Yeah, they play Washington Spirit next. Although, Trinity Rodman's having some injury stuff and some health stuff going on. I hope she's all right. I really do, because she's one of my favorite players. Yeah. um But that'll be something to keep an eye on. Because if Trinity is not there, at that's going to be a very, very, very big blow for Spirit. Yeah, she's a huge, the biggest part of their yeah offensive

Pre-match Expectations Against Bay FC

00:29:00
Speaker
prowess. Yeah, definitely. I mean, really. Utah lost again. So they're actually in the bottom, bottom now. Cellar dweller.
00:29:07
Speaker
Uh, San Diego lost again. They're just absolutely tanking. Yeah. I don't know what their plan is. It's very interesting to see it just kind of implode from how much success they had. And then they just say, it doesn't make some interesting choices. And now it's all going down the toilet.
00:29:21
Speaker
i it be but It's fine by me for now. i feel I feel for the players, but as a rain fan, this is fine. Everything is fine. Yeah, I don't really know much more there is to go into from the weekend. um Not a lot of exciting stuff as far as ah other news going around. ah Pretty drama free this weekend, I would say. here um So look let's look forward to the next rain match.
00:29:44
Speaker
next rain match is this sunday september 29th it's a afternoon game so it's that 3 pm game uh at lumen against bay fc which will will be a banger of a game yeah they've got some players it's pretty ah you never really know what you're gonna get from them Cause that'll be interesting to see. Last time we played them, we lost and we lost after giving up a goal in the 87th minute, which was just really devastating. Um, but I, you know, I went and looked at it and the other results around that result. And that loss was part of a five game losing streak.
00:30:19
Speaker
that we had back then so ah you know not a good loss but we were losing a lot back then so yeah no and there'll be a totally different team you know facing up in this game so um they're also coming off of a loss to Orlando which is always demeaning but they yeah they actually held their own pretty well until Barbara Banda just came out them in the 84th minute and got the game winner for them and or Orlando continues to be unbeaten Yeah, 1-0 against Orlando is pretty solid kind of a win this season. Yeah, pretty solid, um especially for a team that's in the standings where they are. um And I went and looked up. They're pretty generous with letting in goals. Not as generous as us. Not as generous as us, but pretty generous still. um They've conceded at 33 goals so far. Rain have allowed 35.
00:31:07
Speaker
And there's six teams in the league that have conceded 30 or more goals. So they're in that bottom part of, of conceding goals along with us. So, you know, if we don't score, well, do we deserve any points? Yep. Yep.
00:31:24
Speaker
Guess we'll see. I just did the I don't know emoji arms. It's yeah, I wish we could read more into these matches, but like we've been going through so many changes. Well, see will they have their shit together? Will we find that? I think the the biggest question for me is have we found have we quickly found a solution to losing where to?
00:31:42
Speaker
We'll find out. Find out soon on next week's rematch. Will the Heidema Hex be broken? Will Bay FC concede as many goals as Lorraine after Sunday? Ooh. That could be something to watch. That'd be fun. Yeah. Let's get, let's get Beta 36 and concede. We've scored, we've scored three goals before. We can do it again. Yeah. Let's dominate the shit out of them. Let's do it. I'm excited.
00:32:05
Speaker
No comment. um Keep this episode nice and short. Moving on.

Listener Engagement and Social Media Promotion

00:32:10
Speaker
Shout outs. Bottom teams below us. We'll keep doing this. Shout out Utah Royals. pi you Who else is? Oh, Houston. Shout out Houston. you't You beat us, but you're still below us. And shout out San Diego Wave. Shout out Wave. Wave. Shout out Landon Donovan for keeping them bad. Thank you, LD. We've got some stuff in the works coming up for the Cooler Guild. Stay tuned. That's all I'm going to say about it. Working with our sponsor in something a little fun. I guess that's maybe something I will mention. Just a little so little hint.
00:32:43
Speaker
And then, I don't know, I'm kind of looking forward to the offseason. If we don't make the playoffs, even if we do make the playoffs, we got a lot of stuff that we can, like I don't know, looking to refine on the show. So if you got input, please, as always, send us an email. We love an email. We love an email. thecoolerguild at gmail dot.com. Let us know um what you thought of our shows over the season. um We could maybe try a few things out before the season ends, you know, because we're kind of winding down segment ideas. If you want to hear some fun facts, a weird stat, whatever you want to hear. We're winding down and we want to we want to try some maybe some stuff before ah before the season's over, you know.
00:33:21
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram coop and do some stuff on the Instagram. That's really cool. So, uh, our Instagram Twitter handle is cooler guild pod. And it's the same handle as well for, uh, on X previously noticed Twitter, same handle. as always you can find us on our home home site at sounder at heart dot.com forward slash the cooler guild and we're up on YouTube now yep got that going go to youtube dot.com forward slash at the cooler guild hit the subscribe button follow us you know what you do on YouTube
00:33:55
Speaker
We're, I mean, we, have I don't know the videos stuff. I'm still getting comfortable with making little segments, but I'll get there. But for now, you can go listen to the episodes there and watch the one clip of us, um, hyping up where to before she decided to leave us.

Where To's Departure and Team Development

00:34:10
Speaker
It really was so detrimental to my mental health.
00:34:15
Speaker
she She looks, I saw the pictures of her in training. um I'm looking forward to watching the Champions League and kind of having someone to root for. At least we have that. I'm still set up. Yeah, it's not great. I'm happy she's happy. And in the end, you know for player development and for wanting to like your club, it's something that you want as a Reign fan is for them to get the most out of their players. And I can logically be happy for this. This could also help with us recruiting players. Hell yeah.
00:34:44
Speaker
if we If people know that we're not trying to hold on to them to prevent them from doing something they actually want to do do, just, you know, for a little stint or whatever, we'll welcome them back. Let them leave if they want. Come back. Come back. Where to? Come back. Come back. Yeah, so I think that's going to help with us, but um I think that's pretty much it for this episode. um Oh, one more thing. We now have, if people want to, you know, subscribe on Center Heart, we would always recommend that.
00:35:11
Speaker
But we now also have, if you don't want to do like a monthly subscription, we now have a tip option on our articles for all these posts um because the little article goes out with our new episodes. So you can go hit a little tip instead of something. We'd love that. um We need funds to buy beers for our winning episodes.
00:35:30
Speaker
And there's gonna be a lot of them coming. Yeah, we're gonna have a lot of with we're gonna need a lot of ah a lot of let's go pay oils. Mm hmm. If they don't go to the beers, maybe they'll go to us upgrading our lighting so we can upload videos that are better. yeah um But you know, beers, lighting, we do have priority sometimes.
00:35:50
Speaker
Well, here's to hoping next week will be a happy dot pod. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Till next time, I'm Coop. I'm Van. Bye. Bye.
00:36:18
Speaker
You can either listen to us on the public feed or if you're a hounder, hounder, if you're a hounder, hounder at start.