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It's a Rookie Summer - Bonus Episode - Ep. 10
9 Plays4 months ago
In this bonus episode Coop and Van discuss Reign’s all-too-common heartbreaking loss, this time against Club Tijuana in the Summer Cup Series, as well as cover all the women’s soccer drama and controversy this week at the Paris Olympics.
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- This podcast was made possible through the support of The Doctor's Office
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Coop
Van
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Feedback & Suggestions:
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Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
Show artwork by Coop
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Overview
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to a bonus episode of The Cooler Guild. I'm your host, Coop, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van. Hello! We are recording on July 30th, 2024. On today's episode, we'll be discussing Reign's all-too-common heartbreaking loss and
00:00:36
Speaker
and cover all the women's soccer drama and controversy this week at the Paris Olympics. But first we have some housekeeping to take care of. 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 public unified feed with the other podcasts on the network. If you'd like to become a subscriber, just visit our page at sounderatheart.com forward slash the Cooler Guild. New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing here at
Reign vs. Tijuana Pre-Match Discussion
00:01:04
Speaker
the podcast.
00:01:04
Speaker
get on it we've got a full three paid subscribers now it's growing we're growing every episode every episode it's growing uh do we want to talk about the game well i i do want to talk about the game i will say i am glad there's uh a lot of other things that happened
00:01:25
Speaker
so we don't have to just focus on that. I mean these are our bonus episodes and I don't know how like my expectations were for the summer cup were anyways but yeah I'll uh you want me to dive into match recap right now? Yeah let's do it.
Match Recap & Key Moments
00:01:38
Speaker
On Sunday afternoon the rain played club Tijuana in the second game of the summer cup group stage. Tijuana came out early and scored in the second minute, not great, um heard this tale before
00:01:50
Speaker
Usually it's in the second half though. Yeah. Or like quick restart, whatever. Not immediately when the game starts. Rain were able to regroup, but only until the 40th minute when Solorzano struck again. Rain came back. They had to come back in the second half thanks to two goals by two rookies.
00:02:09
Speaker
So we like that Adamas and Mercado gun the score sheet. Uh, it did seem like the rain might escape with a point, but guess what? They conceded a goal in the 84th minute from who was it once again? And that mean that she ended on a hat trick for the day and the rain left with another disappointing loss. I mean, the first loss of this summer cup, but, um,
00:02:32
Speaker
i don't think a team that what they got beat like how how bad did they get beat by the thorns five zero five zero and we lost three to two not good yeah not good at all and they've been switching up their lineup like crazy which is the time to do that so i'm not no i'm talking about tijuana oh tijuana yeah
Analyzing Match Statistics
00:02:51
Speaker
But we were, we were too. Um, I was like, we were too. Yeah. Some notable stats that I had from the game. Um, the possession, the rain had 62% possession. Tijuana had only 38%. And I just, it needs to be more productive. This is what always happens, right? We seem to have the ball and then we just don't make the most of our opportunities or the opportunities aren't that good. Yeah. So we had a lot of shots. We had a lot of shots.
00:03:17
Speaker
Once again, 17 total shots, nine on target. Oh my God. And then the goal that we did get from Adam is was just like a banger, just a complete banger. So like, yeah, I got a Yahoo news alert about it. Yeah.
00:03:33
Speaker
That's
Player Performance Insights
00:03:34
Speaker
not like a, I mean, I would love it if that was a repeatable and like kind of goal that you could make happen every single match, but that's not like, I don't know. It's not really what I look at in the team and get inspired by that. We're going to keep, keep this kind of momentum up.
00:03:49
Speaker
Yeah, it kind of reminded me a little bit about like when when King scores. Yeah, it's usually just like a banger. Yeah. It can be so sporadic and it's like, but I will say she did look like at least in the first half, she was the most dangerous player on the field.
00:04:06
Speaker
Which if you got a, if you got a shot, take it. I'm not like, and if you got the skill, do it. I'm not like mad about that by any means. Um, it would just be nice if that was one goal and like the, we had more goals that were like part of the sequence of something. And it wasn't just like a brilliant moment from somebody. Yeah. Maybe one of the other nine shots on target. Maybe that'd be nice. But Mercado. Yeah. And assist in her first appearance. That's,
Defensive Challenges & Lineup Issues
00:04:32
Speaker
that's a big positive from this match.
00:04:34
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, I, we haven't seen her literally at all. So in these draft, we'll get these like lower draft picks and it's just like, are you ever going to see him on the field? I have no idea. So I guess it's nice to have the summer cup because it's probably the only opportunity she would really get barring some like crazy injuries or something like that. Um, and she made the most of it. I would say, I'd say so. As far as positive scope, is there anything I think that's a, that's about it.
00:05:01
Speaker
I think that might be all we got. I mean, it was just like, there's so many different players we had going on, right? But like the same kind of shit going on still. Yeah, I would say like, it's kind of like a positive, but also negative that we created a ton of chances, but it's a negative that we couldn't finish both of them. So it's just, it's just rough.
00:05:26
Speaker
I guess going into the negatives because there really isn't much more to bring up. We'll see how they look the next game. But it just like to me, I don't see a path for us probably out of this stage now or this group now. And that's kind of a bummer.
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah, all the way that the way that the tournament works, you know, there's five groups and only four advance. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. But Portland did lose. So yeah, everybody's on a loss in the group. So I just maybe we'll have like the weakest group, though. I have no idea. I don't know. I need to talk about the first goal that was scored against.
Goalkeeper Critique
00:06:03
Speaker
Yeah. Ball comes through. Julia Lester is just lost in space. Hate to see it. And Laurel Ivory comes out for no good reason and is outside the box and is jumping up with her hands up. Trying not to get chipped, but also like trying to get a red card. Just not a smart decision. And it was just you don't want to start the game off like that in the second minute. That's just a confidence crusher for a goalkeeper. It's definitely
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely got questions about what her future will be here. Yeah. Which is unfortunate because, you know, she has good skills, good games. Um, but just some of the decision making is, is questionable for me. Yeah. I think I'm at that point now with when I watch her, I'm just like always a little concerned.
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, all three of these goals came through the back line. And the first one, a lot more difficult. It was a good pass. Hard to blame anyone, but when I get on the blame train, it just sticks to everything.
00:07:03
Speaker
Yeah, the second and third goals. When Salarzano is kind of just bobbing and weaving her way through and then getting these nice through balls like into space, in dangerous space, you've got to ask questions about the organization of the back line. It seems like there's a lack of communication. I mean, you've got a literal child playing in the back line.
Tournament Adaptation Challenges
00:07:25
Speaker
who actually played better than the other center back. It saved a goal for us. But yeah, you gotta, you gotta wonder like, does she not know that the players around her? Does she not, is she not aware? So like, where's the communication there from Laurel Ivory? Where's the communication with the other, you know, you do put a 17 year old back there. So.
00:07:44
Speaker
You're like, you know, you can't really put that onus on her. I feel like in her first game, I mean, any good player should have communication skills in the in the in the defense, but you got to you got to ask questions.
00:07:57
Speaker
It's just a shame. And obviously you're not going to start your normal keeper in this tournament because you got to see what else you got, especially since we did have an issue with injuries. So I don't fault anyone for that decision or whatever, but it's just, I don't know, man, it's getting a little exhausting when we saw what happened when Laurel was starting for a certain amount of games. We were just letting in lots of goals, a lot of dumb goals too. And here we are again.
00:08:25
Speaker
At what point is it a coincidence? It's probably not. It's not. I feel like it speaks for itself.
00:08:33
Speaker
Yeah. We've, we've got a decent sample size. The thing that I bumped about is Lester not having a good game. Yeah. I mean, she played so well in the last game, but then again, you put her in, she's paired with an inexperienced player. It's makes it difficult. So I don't know. It's, it's hard with these, this tournament and, and the amount of players that are getting playing time that have never played together before, you know, or have very limited minutes to really assess like what happened.
00:09:01
Speaker
It's also, we're playing a team we've never played. It's a league we don't really play often, right? It's only happened a few times. You know, you can try to come up with a plan, but that's not gonna always work out how you think just because you don't know what this opponent is really like until you play them.
00:09:19
Speaker
Yeah, and I didn't watch their game against Portland, so I don't know. It sounded like they switched stuff up. I'm not don't quote me on that, but yeah, so they switched a lot of players. I saw he posted something about how they had like a completely different starters or something. Yeah, you could you could they
Roster Changes & New Signings
00:09:33
Speaker
could have studied the Portland game, but obviously there's something different. I think that's just something that the rain at this point don't have.
00:09:41
Speaker
I don't know. They just don't have the players to be dealing with that kind of change and seeing it and adjusting. Again, that's what they're playing these players to figure out what they have and everything. So I don't expect them to be able to adapt that quickly to an opponent like that. And to be fair, they did get back in the game. Yeah. I mean, that could be a positive. They know they fought back from being down to zero.
00:10:05
Speaker
That's the rain thing. That's like our whole thing is fighting back. Just be nice if we wouldn't give up. I mean, it also didn't seem like a tie would have been enough out of this either. So now we just really close the door, I would say, on this tournament by getting the loss. Depends on what happens elsewhere, you know? I know. It's not over until it's over. Cautious optimism, Coop. Yeah, but we're going to Portland.
00:10:32
Speaker
Stranger things have happened. To be fair, they're not looking too good without some other Olympians. No, they're not. So who knows what will happen, I guess. I guess you're right. I'll give you that one. We've got a lot to cover. This rain game, a bummer. We've also got the last match that we're going to make an episode for and then another Olympics game to cover.
00:10:54
Speaker
So, do you want to go into the cooler play of the match now? Yeah, let's just do it. This week, our cooler player of the match is Maddie Mercado. Ding, ding. Yes. Mm-hmm. You have to. You have to. You have to, yeah. A goal and an assist in her first... First professional appearance. I know. Incredible. Yeah. That's a very big bright spot in what was otherwise a bummer. And you have to hold on to that, because maybe at this point, we're just holding on to the future.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah. So welcome Maddie Mercado to the cooler player of the match. All of Fame. Other kind of news just around the rain since we last met. We signed a player. We did sign a player. Uh, do we figure out how to say her name properly? I recorded a video. I'm going to learn French. Oui. I already learned it. This is Naomi Dazer. I'm sorry.
00:11:52
Speaker
Montezir. Montezir is here. Montezir is here. I think this is a good signing. I'm excited about it. I am too. We need that quick player up front. The question now is what happens to the other people in the front? And there's gonna be adjustment for sure, because she hasn't played over here. So I don't think it's gonna be like an immediate thing, but maybe it is. I don't know. No, she's not coming till August, so. Well, it's August in two days. Oh, shit, it is.
00:12:22
Speaker
Oh, I keep thinking August is so far away. This month is flowing by. Yeah. So she'll be here in a couple of days. Would you say what day she's joining? Yes. So Montezier will be joining. The article just says August pending receipt of her ITC.
00:12:41
Speaker
which when I've had to do them for players in the W league, um, it can either take five days or it can take three weeks. If they've been, if they've had this in the works, they should have submitted the ITC like a hundred years ago. You can't submit the ITC without the, well, you can, but it's longer process, but us soccer will have to reach out to the other club, but she's coming from, uh, Montpelier in the French league. So I'm sure that they have a process that's more together than
00:13:10
Speaker
some of the other professional teams that I've worked with from around the world. So yeah, it shouldn't be too too long if US soccer gets it through. But yeah, I mean, she's looks to be exactly what we need. First Haitian born player in the league.
00:13:28
Speaker
which is wild. Yeah. I feel like Hades looked pretty good when we, like, if you've ever caught a game of theirs, they actually look pretty fun to watch. Mm-hmm. And it's kind of a shame we don't have more of them, and maybe this will be the start of more of them in this league. With that said, that means we did have to make room on our roster, and Alana Cook is no longer on the reign. Yep. Got traded to KC, which I feel like was a really good deal for us.
00:13:55
Speaker
Yeah. And we talked about this a bit, um, on our cooler conversations podcast with Mariah Lee, like genuinely wish her the best of luck. I hope she gets back to her best. It sounded like Casey needed to send her back too. So I'm hopeful that maybe this will be kind of a good opportunity for her just to fill that role and, you know, get back on her, get back on her good game. Yeah.
00:14:18
Speaker
Um, I feel the same. And then other bad news and feel kind of open to spot. Uh, Oh God, this sucks. So bad. Ryan Brown confirmed ACL and meniscus, which is use that ACL. And then I was like, oh, meniscus. And then with our powers combined, we successfully diagnosed the injury, which it's not fun to do. You could see it on the video when they were yanking on it, that there was.
00:14:45
Speaker
too much movement. There's usually a little bit, but yeah, when they're pulling it out like that and you're, you could tell. Huge loss for the rain. And there's been rumors of another player. We kind of, I mean, we did talk about this just a little bit, but anyone who didn't listen to our interview, I highly recommend you listening to it because Mariah is super interesting. She's got really interesting backstory and everything. So it's a good interview, but we did briefly kind of bring this up as well with Ryan Brown, but that's going to be huge loss for the rain.
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, not great. No. And a player that was getting playing time in form, you just, you just hate to see it. Yeah. Couldn't have been worth timing for her. Sometimes stuff like that can kind of motivate you to come back, um, even stronger, hoping that there's no other like hiccups along that recovery process. Cause ACLs are and at meniscus that combos not going to be a fun one.
00:15:35
Speaker
No, well, it will be interesting. It would be interesting to know like in the backside of everything with the sale and now having the sounders resources, how that is going to change players recovery process. Yeah. Um, that's a good point. But yeah, we don't know. That'd be a good follow up question that I'm going to write down. Good. I think we're going to take a quick break. Uh, we'll be right back.
00:16:03
Speaker
The Cooler Guild 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 first sponsor. The doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match. I love being welcomed into the bar with their hot towel service right before I order a classic Negroni to sip on. Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers.
Reign Watch Party Experience
00:16:35
Speaker
And we're back. Onto the Olympics. So we thought that following the Canadian national team was going to be very boring. I guess maybe first before, because that is a whole segment. Before we get into that, let's talk a little bit about the U.S. match. Yeah, which we watched together. We did. We went up to the watch party, the Reigns watch party for the game at Ruffin Tumble Pub. Out in Ballard. Really?
00:17:05
Speaker
cool place i've been there twice now that was my first time several rain players were there they did like a brothel for autographs it was a fundraiser for a group that does adopt is an adoption service agape i would say the event was like more centered around latzko than any of the other players yeah she kind of works with agape
00:17:25
Speaker
Um, regularly and was fundraising for them. Kind of cool though. They had, she got a beer. She did like a collab with a brewery. And so she had her own beer, like a let's go. Let's go pale ale. It was actually really good too.
00:17:40
Speaker
Yeah, super cool. They had it on tap. This is like they had it fresh there. And then they had some cans you could buy. You could even buy some sign cans if you wanted to. And all the money was going back to Agape. They had shirts. They got them printed for free. And then all the money they were making from the shirts were going back to Agape as well. Yeah, it was a really cool event. Got to meet some people and kind of let people know about our podcast as well. So that doesn't hurt either. Also, Latsko's partner, so hunky. I just... I know. He walked in and I said, that has to be a player's boyfriend.
00:18:11
Speaker
You did. You did clock it. I was like, I think it's just a photographer guy. And you're like, no. I mean, he was like ridiculously handsome. Yeah. And this is coming from two lesbians. Yeah. When that man walked into the bar, I was like, damn. And he was so sweet.
00:18:26
Speaker
He was so sweet. He didn't talk to him at all. No. But he was interacting with people. Lazco was signing shirts using his back as a table. And he's really tall, so he was kind of crouching down a little bit. Yeah. And he had his camera out, taking photos of her event. He looked like a really sweet man. Good for you, Lazco. Good for you, Lazco. I'm not surprised, but good for her. Back to the game.
US Women's Soccer Analysis under Emma Hayes
00:18:50
Speaker
U.S. played Germany. It was going to be their first real test under Emma Hayes. It was going to be their first real test under Emma Hayes. I have to say, they look great. They did look great. They got the goals they needed to get. I would say there were some spots where I maybe would have liked to see more for some players. Oh, for sure. I guess I'm using great as the scoreline works for us.
00:19:11
Speaker
Now, this is the kind of score that you want to see when you're not playing great, when you have the back history of the U.S. Like, you know, they're known for just making humiliating teams usually when they're playing really, really well. I would say this was a full humiliation, but it was good. It was good. Yeah, it was. Our front three, Unreal. Incredible.
00:19:29
Speaker
Cause Smith was finally back cause she got, I mean, she, she was played most of the last game, but you know, she did get subbed out with the injury. I was a little concerned. Maybe she wouldn't be there with the other two, but she was there. And that front three is just like, I don't know how you can stop them. I truly don't know. They're the only way you stop them is you don't allow them to get the ball. And then you deal with our really underwhelming midfield. Yeah. That's, that's, that's the part where I'm like, uh, that part wasn't great.
00:19:55
Speaker
I would say Horan had a better game the first game. Yeah. Those, you know, passes that she was getting up. But this game, she made so many perilous passes. I don't know. Yeah. My dad coined a term from the first game. Um, he called it horrendous. Oh my God. You saved that just for me to hear this for the first time, didn't you?
00:20:12
Speaker
Yeah. That's a classic Dennis. That's a classic Dennis. Uh, so she made some really horrendous passes. Oh man. Okay. Yeah, she did. They were bad. If it wasn't for her front three making everything for themself, I mean, cause that's what it was. It feel like the front three were doing everything for themselves.
00:20:33
Speaker
Which honestly, I don't think you need much more. The goal from Germany, a little rough to watch. Coffee got like a yellow card, right? Like, they let advantage play, which is really good from the ref. I was really happy about the way that that was let to go on. Especially since you got a card after the goal. Nutmeg, Tierna. Yeah. Oof. Don't like to see that.
00:20:51
Speaker
Yeah, she got injured, which is not good. We'll see. The next game coming up is Australia. We should win that. Yeah, I would hope no problem. That was the game of the weekend, honestly. That game was like 60 miles per hour. No defense.
00:21:08
Speaker
Just like zero defense at all. I like was watching the highlights. I was like, oh, my God, this is the most ridiculous thing I've ever watched in my life. I watched the whole game and I was just like like watching like like indoor or something. I mean, that was crazy. How many goals are just going in left and right? I mean, Barbara Banda. I know she's she's played in five games in the Olympics.
Zambia's Olympic Surprise
00:21:32
Speaker
She has three hat tricks. Yeah, that's right. That's ridiculous. Insane. Ridiculous.
00:21:36
Speaker
And there's no way Zambia should be ranked 64th. Well, I would rate them 64th just because of their coach. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy that they're able to get these kinds of talent. It's the talents, not the of the players, not the coach at all. What's happening there? Imagine if they had a good coach. Yeah. It's a shame for them because they're going to. I mean, I guess the way that the knockouts, I feel like a lot of teams can get through, though, right? Because the top two teams go through and then like an extra two teams after that go through. Right. Yeah. The top two third place teams.
00:22:05
Speaker
Yeah, I just don't know if there's still a path for them, but hmm, crazier things have happened. But Michelle Heyman winning the game for them is just like such a great story. I mean, she's 36 years old, retired from international football, and then comes back once. She's still been playing in the A-League, but came back once Kerr got injured. I didn't realize that. And has just been scoring goals.
00:22:28
Speaker
Shout out to being a 36 year old striker and winning a game in The 90th minute for your team. Are you waiting for your call? No, I'm not you're waiting for Next time neighbor goes down Like who the fuck is that? Why is she like two feet? Oh? She breathing so hard
00:22:48
Speaker
All she did was run to the box. That Australia game was insane, Australia Zambia, and then Spain, each one out. I watched most of the Brazil-Japan game. That was, you know, it was hard to watch because I love Marta.
00:23:03
Speaker
There's something about the Japan team that's just like you can't not root for them. Yeah. Brazil got like a ridiculous pass from Marta up the field. Yeah. I mean, no look. Beautiful. Like the best pass you maybe would see all Olympics. So that led to that goal. Japan took a horrible penalty before that. Absolutely garbage penalty. And then they got another penalty later.
00:23:25
Speaker
which the penalty kick was still really bad, but the goalkeeper went the wrong way, so worked out for them. And then like last minute, just keeper wasn't paying attention or something like that, got caught out after a poor pass from the back or whatever it was, and Japan just like dinked it over the keeper.
00:23:43
Speaker
Oh, it was an insane shot too. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was a nice thing. And then, I mean, then they just panda Marta would just like her head and her hands. And I was just like, you don't gotta do that. I know. It was pretty cruel. I hate why they do that. Pretty cruel. I mean, hats off to Japan. They did what needed to be done. And, uh, I think there's a chance we might play the next two. Yeah, we would play, I think we win group B, we play the second place team in group C depending on, I think it depends on like who has.
00:24:13
Speaker
I heard there was a chance who might play them. Yeah, I don't want to. Yeah, I don't either. Also, FC Olympia goalkeeper, Shuoba, is an alternate for Japan. Love that. Love that. I will root for them when they're not playing us. Didn't she get some playing time? Yeah, she got her first cap. Nice. I think it's part of one of their series in early this month. That's cool. Not many. I mean, there's no other USLW teams in Washington that can say that. Correct.
00:24:42
Speaker
We've got two. We've got an alternate on New Zealand too. That's great. Shout out Murphy. I want to ask Murphy if she saw the drone. Okay. Before we get into drone gate, we're going to take another quick break. Thank you for listening to the Sound Rit Heart Podcast Network, which now includes No Sonietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023.
00:25:06
Speaker
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00:25:29
Speaker
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!
00:25:49
Speaker
And we're back.
Canadian Team's Scandal
00:25:50
Speaker
Let's talk. Cheating scandal at the Olympics. What a story. Drama everywhere. Before the first game was even played. Wild. Wild. Bev Priestman thought she was, you know, just being cool. I'm just gonna sit one game out. No, you're suspended one year.
00:26:14
Speaker
Yeah, people went hard on that. And then, assistant, you might get jail time. It's what, it's not, it's like being held off, but like- The bird, yeah. Eight months, just like jail time being read in a headline of some kind, crazy. Canada was playing New Zealand in the first game and apparently the second, they did the drone twice to watch on their practices. And the second time, apparently, they reported it and they caught the guy and just like,
00:26:43
Speaker
jeez how dumb are you like drones are loud yeah they're like anytime i hear a drone outside i'm like what the fuck is that and then i'm like oh it's a fucking drone like it's always so obvious you have a drone and you're you're first of all you're at the olympics i think there should be a little bit of respect for like what the sanctity of the olympics are especially especially coming in there as defending champions
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah. Like that is so rude to do to your players because you're undermining what they did before by doing this. You're disrespecting them by doing this because I'm not convinced that the players had anything to do with it because this apparently has been going on for a very long time. Yeah. And both the men's and the women's game.
00:27:26
Speaker
Which was kind of funny because they were like, this is so un-Canadian. And I would say like in my head, like, yeah, Canadians don't cheat, but like the two coaches who were involved possibly in this, not Canadian. Yeah. So FIFA fined Canadian Federation about $225,000 US and they docked Canada six points before the tournament even started.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, which I there's a lot of people who think that's unfair. I would say the unfair part to me seems like why didn't New Zealand get something out of it? Because whether or not the players knew that this was happening, they might maybe have benefited from whatever knowledge was given to them. It's hard to say.
00:28:10
Speaker
Yeah, you can't make any definitive statements because, you know, the investigation is still ongoing, whatever may or may not come of that. But I think it is harsh on the players to deduct the team points, but at the same time, you can't definitively say that they haven't had some of their success because of information that was gained from the strong footage.
00:28:34
Speaker
Whether or not like, I mean, most likely they had no clue what was going on, but you know, how your team plans are drawn up, how, what you're practicing set pieces, defending set pieces, you know, there's a lot of things that you can gain from footage of another team's practice, but.
00:28:52
Speaker
I don't know. It sucks. It sucks all the way around. I wish that we didn't keep having these issues in the game with people who are supposed to be running these programs, coaching them or in the staff that, you know, whether it's like sexual assault, whether it's drones, it's all just extremely corrupt, corrupt, and it's terrible. And Canada's not like, it's not like they have a good track record either. Like the Canada Soccer Federation.
00:29:20
Speaker
No, these players have been trying to fight against their Federation for funding and money for years. And then the Federation lets them do this through apparently third parties. And I'm just like, it's just, it's not, it just kind of taints a lot of it for me, especially surrounding Canada. Which is a bummer because we've got two, we've got two of the players that won gold on our team. Yeah.
00:29:42
Speaker
And I don't have any doubts that they worked hard and they themselves earned those medals, sure, but you can't ignore the fact that, you know, the way that they were coached because those coaches had the drone footage, whether they knew about it or not.
00:30:02
Speaker
It's just impossible to say that, you know, they had nothing to do with it. You know what I mean? Like they were like, because the coaches were coaching them. And so maybe they weren't privy to the drones, but the coaches were giving them the knowledge that they had from the drones. Right. Maybe in a secret way. Yeah. They weren't going to tell them that this is how I got this information. I'm not a good enough coach, so I had to go spy on them. That really is what it says to me, is that I don't know what I'm doing enough. So I need to find a way around it and cheat.
00:30:31
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. Again, you're not putting faith in your players and that's just super shitty because now they're probably doubting themselves. I mean, there's some players that are just saying otherwise like they did their hardest and then this had nothing to do with them and like they didn't know whatever, whatever, whatever, but like. And yeah, I mean, I do believe that that
00:30:52
Speaker
They believe that. But at the same time, I mean, we can be like beating a dead horse, but you will never know if you benefited from that information. Exactly. Exactly. That's where I'm remain frustrated is is them acting like this is like Schrodinger's drone footage. Did you benefit? Did you not? We'll never know.
00:31:12
Speaker
And I think it's a little reckless to just act like you're it's it's fine. Like everything is fine. The results, there was nothing wrong with them. I don't know that I'm like going so far as to say that they should be stripped of their medals. And I don't think I'm saying that. No, the coach, the coaches get them. Then, yeah, take them away.
00:31:32
Speaker
And they did go on, you know, after the sanctions and after sending priestsmen and the other two home and the suspensions and the fine, um, you know, they did come back and win their game in pretty dramatic fashion too. Yeah. Which from a player perspective, you know, and a human perspective was just kind of like a triumph of sorts. But yeah, the whole thing's a bit tainted for me now.
00:31:56
Speaker
I feel bad. I mean, I would say anyone who's Canadian, anyone who's followed the national team for Canada, I get why you'd be adamant about saying they're innocent. Everything's fine and solid, and I don't see any issues with our results, but it's definitely tainted.
00:32:12
Speaker
It's easy to be more pragmatic when your fandom is not affected. Yeah, I think people need to check their bias maybe a little bit and not get upset at people who are viewing this from the outside lens. Yeah. And also, I would say other way around too, because we're not cheating as far as we know. So it feels a lot like people that kept defending the Thorns organization before the AIDS report came out.
00:32:34
Speaker
a bit like that. Obviously, a very, very different situation. I'm not conflating the two. But there was defenders of it before there's evidence. Yeah, the fan response seems, you know, you don't support something until the end, until you find out information. I feel like in this sense, we found out information pretty quickly.
00:32:52
Speaker
Like the, what was it they said, like about the men's coach that they figured out that he, like they've already figured out he's the common denominator, John Herdman. That was like quotes like in this investigation or whatever that they've been already starting. And it's like, he's a common denominator. Um, and former players or current maybe players for Canada's men's team, like already came out and said that they were in meetings with the footage from drones.
00:33:20
Speaker
So the evidence is there. Yeah. And they did it to the US men's team too. Yup. But the US men's team didn't report it because they had a World Cup bid coming.
00:33:27
Speaker
Yeah. And they were trying to play nice and not screw that up with Canada soccer, which is just like kind of ironic because I feel like, you know, as a fan who watches and keeps tabs of national teams, men and women, I don't watch the men's national team for the US as much, but it has seemed like Canada has been the one on the rise first of several years. And now I'm like, well, was there a reason for that?
00:33:52
Speaker
Cause it wasn't just the U S there was like multiple countries that have, have come forward about this. So, and then they also tried to send somebody to hear about that one where they try to like send someone in to spy on them. And then he got caught like the credentials that like weren't valid or whatever to be there. So it wasn't, they didn't just do the drones. They were like fully trying to cheat anyway. They can get away with. Yeah.
00:34:13
Speaker
I'm going to I'm going to withhold the rest of my judgments until, you know, this whole thing is kind of played out. But I think definitely like this, there's going to be a lot more to come of this. Yeah. And I think that I highly doubt that they're the first country to ever do this. Oh, definitely not. So it'll be interesting to see. Yeah. But it is huge for the game as a whole in the at the international level. It's just a bummer. And I feel bad for our players specifically, but that's about where it ends where I feel bad.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah, Heidem actually played pretty well in their last game. Yeah, I would like her to come back. I feel like there's this thing where our players go abroad, they'll play with their national team, and they play really well there. And they come back to the rain, and it doesn't happen quite the same. Just a shock. Just a shock.
00:35:05
Speaker
Uh, yeah. You want to move on? Yeah. Let's move on from that mess of a situation. You want to go into more positive Olympics news? Yeah. We got some really exciting news. We're both, uh, I would say rugby fans, fans, a former player for the mud hens.
USA Women's Rugby Triumph
00:35:23
Speaker
Um, and we have some friends who have played, I am friends with at least one of them who has played for the USA women's rugby team. Um, so we like to follow them. We've been on the train for a while. We're not.
00:35:35
Speaker
You know We're not joining the hype train this year. We've been on it. Yeah, shout out to my big rugger Ashley kamichik who used to play on the US 15 steam and is very very good friends with the coach of the USA women's sevens team they got a bronze medal, which is their first time getting a medal in The Olympics first USA rugby team ever to get a medal at the Olympics. Yeah, incredible and what a freaking game Yeah, the end of that match
00:36:02
Speaker
I thought I thought they were done. They're down seven to five or no twelve twelve seven. They were down twelve seven to Australia. And there was literally like they got possession with maybe like a minute left, maybe a little less.
00:36:19
Speaker
And they're just, clock is just moving so quickly. And I'm like, they've got to go another 80 yards up the field, 80 meters up the field. And then, holy crap, the mistackle player stayed on her feet, broke through, absolutely just smoked all the way through to the tri-zone.
00:36:37
Speaker
puts it down centrally. Yeah. And it, this wasn't stoppage time too. Yeah. As she was running, as she was on her break, the horn went off. Yeah. And yeah, she's able to, you know, put the ball down right in good positioning for the kick. And should the, the player that, um, scored the try, kick the ball through for the extra two points to win the game. I watched like the Australia team, uh, earlier in the tournament or whatever, they had like, they had the two sisters on their team.
00:37:04
Speaker
They're so good. They're so good. I thought we would have no chance, honestly. We played the All Blacks and I was watching that game and they just got out of hand so quickly. I was like, fuck, this sucks. Well, the two sisters combined for Australia's last try. Okay. Yeah, those sisters are scary. They're just so fucking fast and they're on the same page about everything because they're sisters. It's so hard to...
00:37:28
Speaker
know how to take them on but yeah super cool obviously we're huge fans of uh alona how do you say her last name alona mar yeah alona mar we're huge fans of alona mar uh have been uh love what she does on social media would love it if someone would find her and date her she's still looking for love i know she she her like whole love island series
00:37:55
Speaker
while she's at the Olympic Village is funny. If she dated women, I mean, the line would be around the globe, but maybe she should go on a dating show. Maybe they should make a new dating show for... They should have an Olympics dating show. Why don't we have an Olympian dating show? I don't know. Someone needs to get on this. Hosted by Nikki Stanton. Yes. You would think it would be a former Olympian, but not this time.
00:38:17
Speaker
I'm just trying to get Nicki Santin on a reality show. I know we'll keep pushing that any other Olympics things that you saw that you were like stoked about I mean US women did win the team all-around gymnastics Championship today gold medal Simone Biles
Reign vs. Portland Match Preview
00:38:33
Speaker
goat. Yeah. Oh, I mean this is non women related but Steven Oh the pommel horse guy pommel horse guy
00:38:41
Speaker
I watched his routine. I love how he takes his glasses off and then he's just kind of blind. He's just like getting into the horse and then he just fucking hairs it up on the pommel horse. Yeah. So that was cool for them getting a bronze for somebody done that in a long time. So.
00:38:56
Speaker
I mean, that wraps up that next match for the rain at Portland, Wednesday, July 31st. This would probably be out maybe before that, probably maybe a little bit after we'll see how that goes. Previous results for the summer cup for them. Five zero win over Tijuana and a one three loss against Utah. So who knows what will happen? Yeah, this guy, this game's kind of a toss up.
00:39:21
Speaker
I'll be curious to see if they just don't want to get embarrassed by Portland again. And so maybe they'll play some other people, not just the kids.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of a game you don't go into questioning your lineup. No. As a rivalry game, even though it's a summer cup. Yeah. You don't want, you don't want to be the reason Portland gets into the next stage. Yeah. I think that's probably more of what it would be at this point. Yeah. I did lurk in the press presser today with Laura Harvey and she was asked about Olo and Olo apparently is still day to day. So is that injury related then? Yeah.
00:39:57
Speaker
Okay, I saw some people like trying to start some room or something that maybe she was going somewhere else, but well, you know, Laura Harvey is pretty tight lipped about a lot of stuff, but that's what she characterized all of that was day to day. So because if we bring in somebody else and we're still like our roster cap situation with numbers and stuff is is really tight. And with this new what? No, I mean, with a lot of cook. No, but if we get someone else in
00:40:24
Speaker
We were still over even before a lot of cook left. Yeah. And then we have Ryan Brown. And I think we're still over one. Yeah, but I think we're still over one. I don't know. I'd have to look into it. Okay. Well, there's a chance we might have to loan somebody. Yeah. And I'm curious if someone's going to get loaned out to the new league. Yeah. Maybe some of the players that are roster or on the roster, but don't necessarily get rostered. We'll see. Just something to keep an eye on, I would say. So we got upcoming events.
Sounder at Heart Anniversary Event
00:40:50
Speaker
We've got one.
00:40:51
Speaker
The Sounder at Heart went independent last year after the whole, was it Vox and everything? And so they're having an anniversary of going independent next month, which the episode will probably be out still in July, but next month, end of the month, Thursday, August 22nd, 7pm to 10pm at Fast Fashion Brewery, which is in Soto, right next to the Filson location.
00:41:14
Speaker
And it's an event, if you want to go, there's tickets for it that just went on sale, but it's only for paid subscribers right now. Um, so if you want to get in on that, uh, you can go ahead to our page and subscribe. That's sounderheart.com forward slash the cooler guild. Yep. We've got a link there. So if you want to go to that, they're going to be doing a live recording of NOS Adidas, I believe. Um, and kind of just a big old gathering of everybody to celebrate sounder heart. I'm excited. We'll be there. We will be there.
00:41:44
Speaker
And then also if when you join center heart, um, if you pay for the subscription, you also get access to our discord and there's like a whole community on there of rain fans. And it's pretty fun. We do like chatting with about the Olympics, all sorts of stuff. So it's a good place to be.
00:42:00
Speaker
Uh, if you want to follow us, you can follow us on Twitter, uh, cooler guild pod at cooler guild pod on Twitter. We also van started up a Instagram. I don't know that much is happening there yet. No, nothing. I made the account today. Uh, I need to put some, uh,
00:42:16
Speaker
media in there, some photos, but we do have an Instagram account now. And then it's also the same as the Twitter handle. It's cooler guild pod. Um, you can email us as always. I know everyone's just sent us emails like crazy. All one of you so far. Um, email is the cooler guild at gmail.com. As always, uh, if you like, subscribe, rate, review the podcast, five stars only, please. Yeah. We're too small to be able to shoulder less than five stars.
00:42:45
Speaker
Till next time, I'm Koop. I'm Van. Goodbye. Goodbye. Agape. Agape. Agape. It's agape. Boogie, boogie, boogie.