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Jess Fishlock is inevitable - Ep. 47
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The Tiny Dragon does it again. It took 72 hours but the Reign ultimately came out victorious at home winning 1-0 against Racing Louisville. We get into the match, its oddities, and what went right. Additionally we cover our usual segments, discuss the other results from around 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 & Episode Overview
00:00:22
Speaker
aud ah Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 47 of the Cooler Guild. I am Coop Cooper, and joining me, as always, is my co-host, Van k Crisp. Hello. We're recording on Wednesday, September 17th, 2025. On today's episode, we'll be getting into the Reigns' two-day match versus Louisville. Racing louis Louisville, that is.
00:00:39
Speaker
ah Looking at some other NWCL results and previewing the Reigns' next match, and also going over our usual Cooler
Sounder at Heart Network Benefits
00:00:45
Speaker
Guild segments. But first, some housekeeping. The Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. You can either listen to us on our public feed or if you're a Sounder at Heart subscriber on the private unified feed with the other podcasts on the network.
00:00:56
Speaker
If you'd like to become a subscriber, please do. 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. Sweet. Do you ah get up to anything fun recently?
Seattle Visit & Cat on Roof
00:01:10
Speaker
I've been in Seattle twice. Yeah, I was asked why were you in Seattle? Besides for the... Oh, for the but didn't you go there for something else recently? I thought like the week before you went to Seattle for something.
00:01:21
Speaker
I feel like you said I was in Seattle or something like that. You went to a bar. I... Are you thinking of someone else? No. No, definitely not. I feel like you were out in Seattle somewhere. during a rain I haven't gone to a bar in Seattle in a while. don't know.
00:01:38
Speaker
No, was telling you about a bar. and like telling I was telling you about the Malort bar. i Yeah, I remember you telling me about that bar. I didn't think you were at it. So I must have just had a really weird dream.
00:01:54
Speaker
Oh, my God. Hold on. I forgot there was no screen on this window and it was open and Vane Jr. was in here and he's just been on the roofer. Oh, no. and upon I'll pause it. Okay. I forgot I let him in here. Well, now that Van's gotten her cat off the roof.
00:02:07
Speaker
ah Weird week. Yeah. Sounds like it Sorry. I've got allergies like all in my throat. It's really been annoying. Yeah, no, just been Seattle two days, which I just go to the stadium and then I leave.
00:02:20
Speaker
I did stop at Dick's yesterday on the way home. They don't do but veggie patties yet. Nope. So I'm out on that.
D&D Session & Mysterious Geese
00:02:28
Speaker
What about you? The decent. um What about me?
00:02:30
Speaker
i don't know. I had D&D this week. I ordered my mini and that came. Well, I got a guy in town to print my little mini and I got to have a little painting party with my dungeon master.
00:02:42
Speaker
We did go mountain biking today because Alex has to work Saturdays once a month now. So she had today off instead. And so we went mountain biking and we went down to like dip in the water because it was actually kind of warm. And there's like these three geese just like kind of near us. But then they started coming towards us.
00:02:59
Speaker
And like we had our dog with us. So it was like very strange behavior. like I was like, they must be someone's pet geese like at one of these houses that just because they weren't like scared of your dogs. Not at all.
00:03:10
Speaker
We just I mean, we just had Dana, but she was like, you know, was like a hawk because she's like part border collie just like fixated on these fucking geese. And one them had like an orange like beak. Oh, so so they were like different breeds.
00:03:21
Speaker
Well, two of them look like the standard kind of geese we see around here. They seem to maybe a little bit smaller. um But then a fourth one joined and that one also had the same orange beak and had like a super fluffy tail. But like they kept just coming straight at us.
00:03:35
Speaker
Like I have a photo of geese. I mean, the last time I was this close to a goose was when I got bit as a child because I because i ran out of bread. So, I mean, I'm not like super... These geese, like, they didn't have like ah like a bad energy about them when they came towards us. So I felt like fine. But it was just like really, really weird how close they were getting to us. And Dana, like, kept trying to throw a rock to get them to like go away. And they didn't care.
00:04:00
Speaker
They just kept coming closer and closer and closer. Like, there's me and the geese. It's hard not to it with the glare, but like they're like literally like two feet away, maybe a foot. They look like they're just chilling. They were. were having a great time.
00:04:12
Speaker
It seemed really nice. I got to like see them like flip up with their like little geese butts up in the air and stuff. It's like really unexpected little way to end our bike ride, but it was nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Reign's Welcome Win & Latsko's Retirement
00:04:23
Speaker
Anyways, ah we do have something really great to go over and it's a dub. It's a dub. Dub pod! It's been a while. It was a very welcome result. It took a long time to get it, both in a sense of long...
00:04:38
Speaker
Yeah, both and how long Spenzen's her last win and also because of everything that happened. So ah just a general note about the game. kind of ah Kind of a, I don't know if it was like a super shock of news just because Latsko's kind of, don't I haven't seen any updates about her like getting back with a team or like that and like she's such a great player for us and someone we I mean we both have always really enjoyed on the field but there's been like no real updates about her return but yeah she's retiring from the sport at the end of the season to go pursue a law degree which checks out
00:05:11
Speaker
Yeah, and I was reading um a little bit more from her article on the RAINN website, just talking about how her stuff with the Players Association and the just the whole union side of soccer
Latsko's Legacy & Emory Adama's Future
00:05:24
Speaker
and all of that really made her want to pursue that more. good for her they need people like that who you know have experienced it and have the brains to kind of look out for the players on uh legal levels ah yeah so she will be she will be sorely missed for sure uh though i did notice as far as a ongoing let's go legacy yeah that think the newest let's go energy on the team is definitely emory adama's Oh, okay.
00:05:54
Speaker
Okay. Just that total chaos. Like, yeah, make, make shit happen when yeah there's not much going, like much there kind of stuff. Totally different players, but I kind of get the same thing, you know, when you get somebody on the field who just wants to make stuff happen. And that's kind of, that's how I always felt about Latsko.
00:06:11
Speaker
I mean, like there's always a possibility of of of a goal happening when she's on the field. She was super clutch too in the playoffs that one season. So two was that two years ago? Yeah. Yeah. So she'll be missed for sure. Hopefully she'll be around though. Yeah. kind of a Kind of a
Reign's Stats & Match Performance
00:06:25
Speaker
weird game. Do we want to do notable stats before we go into like the yeah kind of what happened?
00:06:29
Speaker
Claudia Dickey is now just ah one match away from tying Fallon Tulls Joyce on clean sheets for the rain. She's on 12 shutouts right now. So I imagine she'll she'll have that maybe broke, hopefully broken by the end of the season. But I'm sure she'll at least be tied with it.
00:06:44
Speaker
Tied with it next week. Yeah. Well, we'll see. It's gonna be tough one. That'd be a fun one to get that on, though. But yeah, what ah what a cool stat. Yeah. I mean, she's played so well this season. you see that coming last year?
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah. I'm the last person that saw that coming. And it was literally like people were yelling it in my face. People that knew more than me, people that knew more than me were yelling it in my face. And I was just like, I got blinders on. I just don't see it. Yeah.
00:07:12
Speaker
But no, i'm I'm so happy for her. And that's all I wanted was for her to get better who and to have more clutch performances. And she's done that. Yeah. The other note that I put down was that the Reign have only lost two of their last 10 matches.
00:07:24
Speaker
Have we won a lot of those? No. but I wish we had more points to show for it, really, is what it is But, like, I mean, losing is never good. No. And, like, I was looking at, like, how many teams they've lost to because I think we have six losses and we lost twice the Spirit and then, you know, kind of just some one-off ones. One was, like, definitely a poor performance, the one against Angel City.
00:07:44
Speaker
have we won Are we the only team that's beaten? they've lost shit They've lost twice. Okay. I don't know who the other team was that beat them because we were the last team that beat them. and Yeah, they must have lost earlier in the season. But yeah, I don't remember who the other team is and I'm not going to look it up.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yes. Because at this point, it doesn't really matter. They're just on a fucking tear and they seem unstoppable. So, all right. So let's get into kind of the the weirdness ah that was this
Lineup Changes & Match Strategy
00:08:12
Speaker
this match.
00:08:13
Speaker
Yeah. So before of even the weirdness, there was a change in the starting lineup for the Reign. Well, there's a couple, but um the big one, which is something that we talked about last week that we wanted to see was, or guess I did, was like, why don't you just start Fischl?
00:08:28
Speaker
Instead of putting her on at the end when players are tired, like get her on, get her moving with the starting lineup. And but she she got on the starting lineup and I thought she played well. That was it was Fischl and then they started her with Montessir, which the first game that Fischl played, I saw that connection there with her and Montessir. So that was cool to see in the starters.
00:08:47
Speaker
And in going into the game ah in the third minute, Fischl had a shot on goal. So it started off quick. Yeah. Fischl, I thought, looked really good ah out of the gate. I feel like it's going to take some time for her teammates to catch up to her creativity and kind of just her ability to retain the ball in some ah pretty high pressure situations. Like they kind of need to be ready, I would say, a little bit more. Yeah. She like flicking the ball over people and shit like that. And it's just like we haven't had like a kind of finesse.
00:09:16
Speaker
And she's strong. Yeah. Yeah. She's a strong player that can hold other players off. Yeah. Which we don't necessarily. i mean, we see with a lot of our players, but there are times when, especially with Montezir, when Montezir would, you know, get hit and fall down, which to her credit, she did get fouls for a lot this match, but Fischl just kind of powered through. And so having the forethought and the just knowledge of like, she's going to get out of this. And I think players have had to kind of figure that out with Sam Meza. Because she'll go into a tackle with two players and come out with the ball. And it's like, oh, where where's her outlet? I think the same kind of thing with Fischl. But yeah, the first half was just kind of, we played well. I think they started off the game well, again, a bit with having the front foot. But then they kind of get into this lull of the match where they let it come to them.
00:10:08
Speaker
And that frustrates me. Yeah, the defense was looking super, super shaky. Quite a bit. And they kept trying to play the ball. They kept trying to switch the ball out wide to the wingbacks up high up the midfield. And the balls were just too short and kept getting intercepted. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it was like super easy for Louisville to read it.
00:10:28
Speaker
So that I understand the the vision there, but the ah the execution was wasn't great. Because like you could see players getting open. It's just like the ball was too short or they would put too much on it. It just like wasn't refined. Yeah. To be trying that you got to like I mean, like you got to do better. so You got better and it's got to be the right time. Sure. Yeah.
00:10:52
Speaker
One thing I had noted from the first half was there was twice in the first half where like players' ponytails kept falling out. I have that note too. i have my My note says lots of ponytail adjustments.
00:11:04
Speaker
I said everyone's hair is coming out of their ponytails. Yeah. The other note the other note I put was a quote from one of the commentators, which ah she said, you know how I feel about eyeballs. Not my favorite.
00:11:19
Speaker
I think it was when Borja's got something in her Right. I feel like that's a weird thing that you would have. Me? No, I'm good with eyes. People touching their eyes. No, I've had contacts since like seventh grade. Yeah, that's true. I'm all good with... I'm probably... People probably get grossed out by how I am with my eyeballs. Yeah.
00:11:37
Speaker
I can, like, if I make contact contacts a little weird, I'll just put it under my tongue and kind of refresh and put it back in. another Another thing that I saw ah from the first half during the ponytail era um of adjustments was Claudia Dickey took her gloves off. And i don't I don't know if it's just me never noticing this before, but she had a fucking Apple watch on under her gloves.
00:11:59
Speaker
That's funny. I was like, that cannot be comfortable. Also getting her steps in. Well, like, the I know players like I've seen goalkeepers wear like their whoops, their whoop tracker on their arm. yeah, yeah. But like just wearing your straight up Apple watch under your gloves is diabolical to me. It's kind of funny.
00:12:19
Speaker
I get it. Whatever you do in there. um Just like voice text on her watch. 45 minutes to go. Yeah. I did know even without production, Fischl looked to be our best player on the field.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, good promise there for sure. Just skill-wise. And, you know, Harvey did talk about that being a long game. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is, like, kind of reassuring because, yeah, I think a lot of people are growing impatient, which is fair. um Especially given, like, where everything's in standings. Like, you want players that you acquire, like me official, to be available all the time and at their best as soon as possible. So...
00:12:59
Speaker
It takes some players longer to grow into the game, I think, and grow into the NWSL. Well, yeah, and also her injury situation. There was a lot going in there. they The Royal Guard did do the Let's Go, Let's Go cheer in the 12th minute.
00:13:11
Speaker
Nice. Which was great. And the players sit right in front of the press box. And so i they were all looking at her, smiling, chanting at her. Other than that, the midfield has had some issues.
00:13:24
Speaker
And that was a big part of what I felt didn't allow us to get more quality opportunities in the first half because we couldn't control the midfield.
00:13:35
Speaker
We're having to skip lines, play those longer balls because we couldn't play through the midfield. um And so they just need, I mean, Fishlaw coming in the second half completely changed that, but they've got, i don't know why Sally Menti is still on the field.
00:13:51
Speaker
you look like the numbers You look at the numbers, sure, it's fine. 75% of the time, she's playing the ball backwards. yeah defensive Defensively, she's lost. Yeah, it's not great, which is interesting because she didn't is Harvey didn't start Ole Miss for a really long time because of her, ah i you know, maybe places to improve was defense. And then you've got a player who's playing where Minty is. And ah I'm a little like, well, that's an interesting choice.
00:14:19
Speaker
Yeah, it I won't say anything further, but it it's frustrating to me to see that happening in the midfield yeah because it adds so much more pressure to the back line. Sure. Especially when you have two players dropping like Meza and Menti are.
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah. And you've got Sam Meza having to cover the entire field. Make her job easier. Make her job easier. like She's not helping. There's no production there. There's nothing helpful.
00:14:45
Speaker
um But I did
Savannah DeMello's Collapse & League Response
00:14:47
Speaker
see some positives from Huerta crossing in to Fischl. Hopefully going to be something coming out of that. But the real star of the first half, Claudia Dickey.
00:14:57
Speaker
Maybe the star of the game, to be honest. Yeah. Continued. But yeah, the first half was definitely would not have ended zero zero if Dickie wasn't there. No. So few. I was really surprised she wasn't um up for save of the week. I feel like they did. They put it out today. Oh, so they did wait.
00:15:15
Speaker
But that was the first half save anyway. But I guess they had to wait till the game was over. But yeah, weird. Anything else you want to go over before? the I really have anything else from the first half other than the eyeball comment.
00:15:26
Speaker
Yeah. The big, big thing with this game was about two minutes into extra time at the end of the first half, um off the ball, Savannah DeMello seemed to go down and just collapse, which is scary because it's happened once a season.
00:15:45
Speaker
I feel like anybody that watches soccer internationally or but even within the NWSL this year has a little... Trauma. Trauma. Yeah. um With this.
00:15:57
Speaker
And this happened to be the one game that I brought my freaking binoculars to. I'm zoomed in. I didn't bring them yesterday. I'll say that. I was like, that was bad luck. But she collapses. They immediately call her. Her teammates immediately call the medical team over.
00:16:15
Speaker
They come out to her. What I could tell from it, from my binoculars, was that she was out. But it was when the medical team got to her and when the medics got to her, they put the life pack on her.
00:16:29
Speaker
And there was a member of the medical team taking her carotid pulse the entire time. And they never they got out the AED, but it wasn't a whole thing.
00:16:40
Speaker
So it it looked to me that it was a non-cardiac issue. which was a little bit of a relief because nobody wants another Savvy King situation. But it was it was scary and nobody kind of know knew what to do, but it seemed that the response was really good. There were a lot of ah lot of people there.
00:17:00
Speaker
And at one point I saw that she did wake up. She regained consciousness. ah So that's good, you know, without any sort of assistance from machine or any person. So by the time that she was put into the ambulance and on the on the stretcher, she was had been awake in and out.
00:17:20
Speaker
But I didn't know. i guess I missed it somehow when we were texting during this happening that this happened earlier in the season. I don't know how severe it was then, but the league didn't really do the right thing. This is probably the first time the league's done the right thing when it comes to something like this.
00:17:37
Speaker
Pretty quick response to to kind of just, you know, postpone the game, delay it, whatever you want to call it at the moment. guess they're learning from their mistakes, which to be fair, this isn't hopefully something that they have to deal with all the time. But it is people in situations where like your heart's, you know, your heart rate's moving pretty fast. And like, I don't know, shit just shit happens, right?
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah. And DeMello does have pre-existing conditions that were discovered ah when this happened earlier in the year. Well, I think she got the diagnosis on what she has like late, like last fall. So it's it's ah it's clearly something that she's like still learning to like live with and deal with and kind of try figure out. Yeah, for sure.
00:18:19
Speaker
But yeah, this ah this season is definite the first time that she's kind of had to maybe face some harsh realities about how it's really going to affect her career as a professional athlete. Yeah.
00:18:29
Speaker
So, I mean, thoughts thoughts to her. Hopefully she gets some answers and, you know... And I think it was a pretty easy decision. and and i I think that, you know, we have Bev Yanez, the head coach of Racing Louisville, who's a legend for the rain, who's close with Laura Harvey, right?
00:18:47
Speaker
And they know their players well. And they could see that, like, this game should not continue. And I couldn't see that from where I was because I had put the binoculars down at this point. um But the players were extremely upset. And it was...
00:19:01
Speaker
you know When you see something like that happen and it just puts everything into perspective, nobody wants to come out and play the game. yeah Nobody wants to keep going. They want to know that she's okay and figure it out after that. But that's that's the main concern.
Match Resumption & Strategic Changes
00:19:15
Speaker
I think for the first time ever, the league did the right thing. and postpone the game. And to their credit, you know, one one of the things that I was thinking, you know, the the attendance is not great for the games, right? There was 8,091 people at this match when it was canceled or suspended.
00:19:32
Speaker
But the team is offering two tickets to any other game. So I think that's great, and they're doing the right thing with that. But there's no the for me, there's really, looking back on it, there's really no other choice that could have been made here.
00:19:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think they did what they could. So think everyone understands the situation well enough. So that's the one gripe I will put out. So they called the half players went in while they're still dealing with this injury.
00:20:00
Speaker
But there was no in stadium announcement. There was very little communication. The language that they used, the match has been suspended.
00:20:12
Speaker
That's not very clear language to me. I mean, I just feel like they've clearly weren't prepared for something like this. I mean, how I understand that it's a rare occurrence, a rare situation, but there has to be some sort of protocol in place. And this is going to force you to do that. Yes.
00:20:28
Speaker
But to me, and even in the press box, ah staff were running in and out. They're like, we'll have a update soon. And we didn't hear anything in the press box before they made the announcement in the stadium.
00:20:40
Speaker
That's not great, but I would just probably attribute to they've never been in that situation before. Because like the language that you're like talking about, that just sounds like what they would use for like a weather delay.
00:20:50
Speaker
That's what I'm talking about. You need be clearer. And we were talking about that in the Sounder Heart stuff. Like they used the link the words abandoned, suspended and kind of interchangeably.
00:21:04
Speaker
But to me, those mean two different things. So I think I think that i think especially for the people in the stadium, that needs to be clearer. Sure. Yeah. So anyone else that has not had to deal with this, then learn from it.
00:21:17
Speaker
But so we all go home, figure out they announced the game is going to be played 72 hours later, Tuesday night at 5 p.m. To no fans going be a closed door game.
00:21:31
Speaker
Which was weird. i know. I mean, it's weird, but like. I mean, I don't know what else it could have done. co i mean, like COVID was like, it's like we haven't seen games played in nothing. no it felt, it felt very COVID. Yeah. we We all kind of felt we were transported back. Yeah. That's not fun.
00:21:46
Speaker
yeah They started beginning of the second half. So players came out, did a warm up, went back to locker room and then just came out like they're playing the second half. um And so Louisville did make a sub. They put in Katie O'Kane for Savannah DeMello and the rain didn't make any changes.
00:22:03
Speaker
They made a bench change. What do you mean? the They had someone who was on the bench that got swapped out. Oh, yeah. Apparently, if they played within 24 hours, they couldn't have done that. Yeah.
00:22:14
Speaker
But because it was past 24 hours, they could. Well, it's funny because I had noted on my match notes for ah the first half that i had ready, I had said AMC on the bench, and then I had to put in, and then not for the second half.
00:22:29
Speaker
Because I was kind of like excited to finally see her kind of on the bench and available, but but i she's definitely working through something. So um that was a little unfortunate, but she's not ready to go. She's not ready to go. i don't want to force it.
00:22:41
Speaker
Yeah. So what did you, what kind of positives did you have? Because the second half basically a new game, just a short game. Right. So that kind of, That's interesting and from a coaching perspective, for sure, because like they had all of this shit happen, right? And then you've got to get out in front of nobody, basically.
00:22:56
Speaker
So, I mean, this is kind of a very unusual situation from a coaching perspective and a player's perspective.
Impact of Substitutes, Especially Darlene
00:23:02
Speaker
I don't really think the rain changed much. No. I mean, they were getting swarmed for while.
00:23:10
Speaker
They were getting bogged down on the rain's right-hand side. but Less than 10 minutes in, in the 54th minute, a cross gets, Louisville puts a cross into the far post, and Emma Sears is unmarked.
00:23:23
Speaker
Mm-hmm. And just completely misses. Who's Sears, right? What minute? 54th. Yep. She skied the ball really bad. Yeah. Somebody said that that was a 0.9 XG shot.
00:23:35
Speaker
Yeah, we definitely lost the XG battle. But like at the same time, if you win the game and you lose the XG, like you've won the XG battle. Yeah. So I don't know. I, you know, like there was a lot of like the rain could have easily have lost this game. The second half to me didn't look any better.
00:23:52
Speaker
The only saving grace was... the substitutes uh which we've seen them be starters so that's an interesting maybe little tidbit to all this um because Darlene came in for Fischl which we i think everybody i don't know I guess we could have maybe seen 45 minutes for Fischl given the whole circumstances of this game you I mean you pointed out to me like Harvey used her subs in the right way for this so maybe give her maybe she needs to look at everything in 45 minute span
00:24:20
Speaker
Wouldn't that be nice if this was your kind of refresh at
Jess Fishlock's Winning Goal
00:24:22
Speaker
45? But ah yeah, I don't know. Things, things. Yeah, things, things started to change in the 73rd minute when Darlene came on for official.
00:24:30
Speaker
And I think that's just because of Darlene's speed. Yeah. Louisville was playing a pretty flat back and we kept trying to play Haidema in and she just doesn't have Darlene's speed.
00:24:40
Speaker
She can hold the ball up really well, but you're not going to play her past their center backs. Yeah, there's got to have another kind of um either they need to get on the same page or they need to have maybe somebody else to kind of I don't know because no one can keep up Darlene. That's just be has something something that she's to have to adjust her her game a little bit with in terms of kind of just holding it up a little bit, just a little bit longer.
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah. And so 84th minute is when Fishlock comes on for Lou Barnes. ah And I said, OK, weird. And then I realized they went to a four back. And that's when things really started to change. It really got Heidema involved, really got Darlene involved. Fishlock was on the ball constantly. Yeah.
00:25:24
Speaker
Had some... It just started to look better. Yeah, I mean, Hidama was really getting and getting in and everywhere. like Yeah. Like, heading the ball everywhere. Borges had some really good marking on her. Otherwise, she probably would have scored. Mm-hmm.
00:25:37
Speaker
Lo and behold... i i mean i called meza old faithful what what what's what's what's uh what's just fishlock's nickname for for the show ye old faithful ah no ah there's like brand and yeah grandpa faithful uh grandpa grandpa Yeah, so I mean just fish. Oh gee faithful.
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah, just unbelievable unbelievable wish somebody else could channel which whatever the fuck she does to get these goals, but just completely clinical on the finish of that and we get three points.
00:26:15
Speaker
It's just the the confidence. It's the confidence. Yeah. You know, and I feel like when you've got, so the ball came, i think Huerta played the ball in and then kind of popped off, Haidem, played it to Darlene and then Darlene fed Fishlock. Mm-hmm.
00:26:35
Speaker
And there's just such a command presence when Jess Fishlock is on the field. Yeah, get her the ball. Get her the her the ball in the box. And everyone knows where she is. Yeah. and Well, except for the defenders on... Yeah. but That's not their fault, really. There's only so much you can do to contain Jess Fishlock.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah, so a 90th minute Fishlock slots it in. Yeah. Also, there was like a little bit of, I would say, a frustration foul at the end, too, there from Taylor Flint. Oh, yeah. Body, just body checks Haidema in a totally, like, unnecessary way. Got a yellow card for it Which, they've got yellow card accumulation, so that was just, like, a dumb thing to do.
00:27:11
Speaker
But we get three points. We're back. yeah Get three points. I'm on a mad note because i couldn't I couldn't open my beer, my celebratory beer I've had. I couldn't open it in the middle for obvious reasons and I forgot to open up the top. But here's my here's my little beer.
00:27:26
Speaker
Yeah. Is this an obelisk? Yeah. Do you pronounce it obelisk? Is not obelisk? Whatever. Whatever. Just curious. i always call it obelisk. Ob-ob. I don't know. I'm from Washington. We say weird shit.
00:27:40
Speaker
I'm from Washington. you live in Oregon. Doesn't count. was born in Seattle. What city were you born in? Olympia. Yeah, that's right. It's the capital. Anyways, um three points.
00:27:53
Speaker
Another dub. what we've i guess we've kind of touched on a lot of highlights. Do you want to quickly list them off just so they get their extra credit? What do you... positives yeah um Yeah, Jess Fishlock, duh. Number one, yep.
00:28:09
Speaker
Claudia Dickey. Number two, yep. The formation switch up, going to the four back, throwing more players up, getting Darlene in made a huge difference, which in that sense, I also had subbing Darlene in to break the flat back line of Louisville.
00:28:24
Speaker
Hmm. negatives we haven't touched on this one yet oh god really didn't want this to happen didn't want this to happen will say though uh for for this error from from barnes which is not i don't like this becoming a trend potentially but barnes laid in a really good pass in the first half yeah like an incredible fucking pass She had less of her errant past moments this match than I've seen recently.
00:28:54
Speaker
I thought it was a much better game from her. ah Minus this one hiccup where she played the ball back and it was just slow and almost got picked off. and Yeah, i was bad.
00:29:05
Speaker
It was really bad. i think that's the biggest thing from the rain other than the things that I've already complained about that I won't keep going on about. was like, we've been going on a while for this. It was a weird, weird game. So I feel like it's kind of hard to format it ah for the show, but...
00:29:20
Speaker
Yeah, we had three points. So let's not let's not be doubters. That's biggest takeaway. Three points. Healthy players for us. um That was my big thing um going into this match just because the setup and the recovery but just such a weird timeline. I was really concerned that we might have some like weird muscle injuries or something. yeah that's fair.
00:29:42
Speaker
Yeah. Um, so I really just wanted to see everyone that was available to play. i mean, we already talked about the DeMello situation and glad she's doing well, but really wanted to see the players that we had that were playing not injure themselves unnecessarily. Yeah. And I don't think, I mean, we won't know until the next week's availability report, but I, I didn't, I didn't think I saw any of that.
00:30:05
Speaker
I'm just looking at my beer can cause it's really good. Yeah. I just wanted make sure I knew what it was called. It's the SideQuest from Obelisk. It's a New Zealand IPA. Yeah, just different kind of hops.
00:30:15
Speaker
It's good. I got like a jacket from them that the same graphic on it, so I feel like i should at least try it once. No, I love their beer. Yeah. Cool. Did you have any takeaways from the post-match presser?
00:30:27
Speaker
but Big takeaways? Anything like that? My big takeaway just that the players thought the league did the right thing and there was no way they wanted to continue. um Getting just the mindset, being able to play 45 minutes and that be the whole game.
00:30:44
Speaker
I mean, the the big takeaway from all of it, both Claudia and Jess and the players and in the Harvey one was, you know, they're they're glad that DeMello is... ah awake or alive yeah like she got quick medical medical attention i mean in your what three minutes from harborview yeah there's definitely i'm sure i wonder if there's any other stadium that's i mean i know that there's there's a lot of times there's hospitals nearby stadiums but like harborview is a very good hospital to be next to in a situation like that yeah it's the only level one trauma center are in washington
00:31:19
Speaker
That might be right, but I'm not. It's a big one. Yeah. But Harvey, I think Harvey's presser um just talking about they did what's right for the players after the injury, after the medical emergency. um And that's just what the club does.
00:31:37
Speaker
And we talk about this a lot. You know, one one reason that we're really proud to be fans of this club is that we feel like they try to do best by players.
Laura Harvey's Leadership Commendation
00:31:47
Speaker
whether that be injury recovery, mental health breaks.
00:31:51
Speaker
It just seems to me that the club allows players to grow into themselves, take time off, do whatever they need to do to be the best people and in turn become the best players they can be.
00:32:03
Speaker
That that just that was a big thing to me that I feel that way as a fan. And for people, especially the head coach within the organization, to have that be part of their mission just makes so much sense to me.
00:32:15
Speaker
And I feel like it shows. Yeah, I feel like a lot of people maybe who aren't written fans don't get it You know what i mean? Like, I feel like, yeah, i want to win. Obviously, I want this team to be good. And they are. They're competitive. They've won, you know, what, three, four shields? And they're good. They're competitive, right? So they care about that side of it. But like the other side of it is just like something that you don't have be embarrassed about.
00:32:39
Speaker
like Exactly. like that's And that's kind of and not easy to find in this league. so And that starts with people like Laura Harvey. Mm-hmm. So... uh that's a good segue into our cooler player of the match unless you got any other final thoughts you want to say about the match are you good no i am i'm happy that it ended the way that it did and that it that demelo's on the up and up Yeah, she was and to be fair, she was kicking her ass in the first half. Oh, God, yeah, she was terrorizing us. And they were also still really good in the second half, and but, you know, just fish luck is inevitable, so. All right.
00:33:15
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. We've done different iterations of this. Sure.
00:33:26
Speaker
For Cooler Player of the Match, but I think this is the first time we've done straight up this person. Mm-hmm. Cooler player of the match this week is the cooler coach of the match, Laura Harvey. Bam, bam, bam. Bam, bam, bam.
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah. I was on the fence about giving it to Dickie or Fishlock, but, you know. I came out of left field. Yeah. Van was like, Laura Harvey, and I was like, you know what? Yeah. I think the subs were made at an appropriate time. Yeah.
00:33:50
Speaker
Which we bitched about the last, like, what, three weeks, and four weeks? Especially especially you. but Yeah. um And i just felt like her response and her ability to, after everything that happened, be able to get the best out of her players. And I think that Bev Yanez, too, after her team that is even closer to be able to get her players out and to have them compete 72 hours later after that.
00:34:16
Speaker
Mm-hmm. They played well. Yeah. Louisville was not a bad team. No, they were, some would say, maybe the better team if you look at XG. So I think Laura Harvey, um yeah, cooler cooler player cooler slash player coach of the match. She even got a yellow card. So I feel like she's on the scoreboard at some point. Yeah, she got a yellow card from the cooler too. So, hey. right.
00:34:39
Speaker
Thanks again to our sponsor, of The Doctor's Office. Doctor's Office is the best place to grab drink before or after a match. Check out their Instagram at TDOCL or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers.
00:34:51
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Nos Adietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues.
00:35:04
Speaker
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00:35:17
Speaker
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00:35:32
Speaker
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00:35:43
Speaker
All right, barring some technical difficulties, it's time for its time for trivia. ah What do you got for this week? Well, last week's question. So last week's question was, what year did Megan Rapinoe score the Reigns' first hat trick?
00:35:56
Speaker
Did you have a guess on this? I was going to guess 2015. Yeah, it was. I figured because we did so well that year that I just figured, yeah. And of course, as always, I slacked and did not put it on the socials.
00:36:09
Speaker
Yep. Great. I will do it this week. I promise. ah This week's question. Don't make promises. I'll just do it when I get to work. um This week's question, who scored the first NWSL goal for the Reign?
Trivia: First NWSL Goal for Reign
00:36:22
Speaker
part two bonus of this question, what current and NWSL player is she married to? That's an interesting one.
00:36:30
Speaker
Tune in next week. Yep. All right. Great. ah We've got some NWSL results to go over. um i didn't really get to watch any of these. Again, I'm trying to.
00:36:41
Speaker
The summertime is... Also, we're quickly descending like into the depths of fascism. So it's really... I'm just trying to stay out of my house as much as possible. It's terrible. Yeah. um Anyways, san Diego played Gotham. is Is San Diego on the down?
00:36:57
Speaker
Yeah. I got questions for them. I thought they were supposed be really good and it doesn't seem like it's been going that way, but Gotham beat them 2-0. Did you watch that one? So I watched a lot of a little bit of every game. Great. um I watched all of the highlights, which I wish the NWSL highlights weren't 10 minutes long. Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:17
Speaker
I need like a red zone. Yeah. Like an NWSL goal zone. Yeah. Which they sometimes do, but it's not consistent. No. um Well, what I got from this, Ann Ketrenberger is still really good. Yeah.
00:37:30
Speaker
Looks great in her new haircut. and It looks fierce, if you will. um Of course, Jaden Shaw with Gotham now scored a great header on a pass by Howell. I voted for Howell's ball into the box as assist of the week.
00:37:44
Speaker
Yeah, she's balling out there. Yeah, I'm glad she found somewhere. i mean, I think she could have done that here. But like, you know, ah trade and everything that went along with it. It's fine. um Yeah.
00:37:55
Speaker
But, you know, I did think she was going to go to Denver immediately. And maybe she still will because they extended her. And so maybe they're their their plan is to get more money out of her. But she seems pretty settled in there. And I would have a hard time wanting to leave there.
00:38:08
Speaker
yeah especially with the amount of playing time she's getting. And for sure. And the quality around her. who you Anything else from that game? No, that was it. ah North Carolina Courage played Angel City. Courage won that one. Surprising. Two to one. Angel City sucks. But they won two to one. What did you get from that one?
00:38:26
Speaker
The first North Carolina goal, Minaka, who played really, really well this game. um think she's a little underappreciated. but She's just on a rough team right now. think that's what it is. and Angel City started their new German defender, Dorsen, and Monaco just fleeced her ooh and put the ball in.
00:38:43
Speaker
but The next North Carolina goal, the cross came in Thompson, Giselle Thompson kind of stopped it in the six-yard box, but dead-balled it like right onto the penalty box. Ah, it's tough.
Recent NWSL Results & Player Performances
00:38:55
Speaker
And North Carolina's Pinto just blasted it in. Good shot.
00:38:57
Speaker
Angel City did claw back one back in the 88th minute. John's daughter's first goal for Angel City. Is it Jan's daughter? Jan's daughter. and One day we'll be versed in every single ah like of like nationalities names. I can say Lucia Mila correctly now. We got that one now. One at a time.
00:39:15
Speaker
Orlando played BFC. don't know. Orlando got the Chicago win. I guess that's what we should call it for them now. Yeah. Because they're just in a fucking situation. it's not good. oh um Allie Watt scored?
00:39:26
Speaker
Got called back. Looks like. Oh, she did. um She did end up scoring, but if there was a lot of VAR this this weekend. Another offside VAR call. Kundunanji looked really good. Yeah. Yeah.
00:39:37
Speaker
Like, I don't know if Oshawa leaving made ah pattur yeah her feel like more responsibility or what? She played really, really well. She scored a header after a terrible clearance by Orlando's goalkeeper, Krohn, who I didn't know much about her. i was like, I haven't heard that name really. It was her second NWSL game um since May 3rd when she came on against Portland um after Reyes need more house in the head. Yeah.
00:40:02
Speaker
So, um and she made some good saves. so It was just a little unfortunate one. ah Marta scored. That one was called back for a handball. um And then Allie Watt ended up scoring in the 70th minute, assisted by Ovalle.
00:40:14
Speaker
Good for Watt before she leaves.
00:40:18
Speaker
Casey Washington um tied zero zero this was on This one was always going to be tough for either team to kind of get through. um Hirschfeld did get a second yellow in the 66th minute and red carded. So she'll be out for the next game. I was lucky for anybody has play the Spirit next.
00:40:35
Speaker
Yeah. um The other note I had from this is Tara McKeown is good. Yeah. yeah um She saved one, not quite off the line, but Kingsbury came out, um didn't quite get the ball, and attacking player got it and shot, and she was behind Kingsbury and was able to clear the ball out. Was this game in KC, or is it at... It was in Orlando. In KC, yeah. Okay. Well, it's good to know that it gets shut out.
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah. We are back in Chicago win territory. Yeah. They tied Portland one to one. ah Portland went ahead on a Moultrie free kick and then Bia Franklin scored a goal after the ball bounced around ah ah hundred times in the box in the six and Portland's defense did nothing.
00:41:18
Speaker
I feel like I see a lot of those instances with Portland of just like sc scrambling around the box and just but I feel like they've gotten them really lucky and not letting those kind of things get into the back of the net. But there's always seems to be ah like a hot mess.
00:41:31
Speaker
Yeah. The next game was probably the biggest surprise for me of the weekend. Utah to Houston zero. Didn't Utah beat, just beat Portland? Yeah. i said Yeah. This is an interesting turn of events. And they scored early right at the four minute mark.
00:41:45
Speaker
Great goal. um And then they scored again, but again, VAR came back, called for offside. And then to finish off scoring, Paige Moynihan scored golazo from outside the box.
00:41:56
Speaker
It must've been 25 yards out. So yeah, Utah up 2-0 on Houston. So go Utah. I would say most of the results were pretty much in our favor as as best as things could have been.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, no real blowouts, no big changes on goal differential. Yeah, it seems like teams are taking the standings very seriously and now the implications are are big.
Reign's Next Match Forecast
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah, so speaking of that, Reigns' next match, they're playing KC Yeah.
00:42:29
Speaker
Oh god I'm scared. um It's gonna be Saturday September 20th 4 30 p.m. on ION. Thank god it's not on the dictator TV. um It's really after we we had to like re we had to record the second half of this podcast in the morning so I just read the news after we finished up about Jimmy Kimmel getting canceled.
00:42:53
Speaker
And I'm not like a Jimmy Kimmel fan. I don't really give a shit about him. I know everybody on the internet is like, don't make me defend Demi Kimmel right now. I don't like him. until But like things are bad. And I'm really upset about the situation to be able watch NWSL and the streaming partners that they have. So when a game's on ION, I will happily take it Shout out to Sounder at Heart for allowing our free speech. Yeah, thank you. Anyways, KC is on 50 points. I'm pretty sure they've already clinched the playoffs. They have. Okay. They probably will clinch the seat Shield very soon. Rainer on 30 points, so they're in sixth place. They are tied with three other teams on 30 points, so...
00:43:31
Speaker
You know, Wynn would do a lot here, obviously. If you could also, i mean, like, get get the goal different. They use goal differential, right? Not Wynn's for the tiebreaker. it's going to be a big ask against KC. But we were, fun fact, the last team to beat Kansas City.
00:43:47
Speaker
um And they're currently on a 13 game unbeaten streak. So that's not fun to hear, but streaks are also meant to be broken. And then another fun fact, they have ka Kansas City is only allowed 10 goals of this season.
00:44:00
Speaker
Best in the league. They've also scored 38 goals, which is also best in the league. So all that being said, what do you want to see? I want to see more control and possession in the midfield, which is going to be difficult in this match.
00:44:12
Speaker
But I think if they can start working the ball through the midfield instead of trying to skip it, it'll help possession and help kind of control um control the match and not make it be so erratic with those long switching balls that are going to get intercepted.
00:44:27
Speaker
Do you think James, ah I want, I feel like someone needs to ask about James Turner, but do you think James Turner starts with Meza? I would hope so. know. I got questions about what's going on there. Well, she came in last match. Yeah, but I would like to see us, I feel like we were doing really well when we had them starting consistently together.
00:44:45
Speaker
Well, the Sally Menti experiment continues. yeah Anyway, um that that will be my thing. i would I want to see who starts in the midfield. Sure, sure, sure. I was like, do they i mean just like I think after this last game, Jess definitely has to come off the bench.
00:45:01
Speaker
Absolutely. i also, we're not going to probably have a lot of offensive opportunities, but I do feel like we're going to get crosses in the box. And I would like for those to be taken advantage of, get shots on goal when we have the opportunity.
00:45:16
Speaker
It's not going to be easy either. They're going to have to really, really be clinical, which has been an issue for us. Maybe make some more more chaos though, right? Just load it up. Yeah. I think Darlene's going to start in this game.
00:45:28
Speaker
ah seems smart to me. um Just with the speed KC have up top. Yeah. I wonder, i think you leave Barnes in. hu want the four back again. Yeah. That just makes you pretty vulnerable.
00:45:41
Speaker
Yeah. Against KC, I guess. And I think that that's kind of a subbing opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. Cause you know, Barnes doesn't need to play the whole match. Sure. So the ability to have that change and have that change have worked to the week before.
00:45:56
Speaker
I think you start this one off conservatively. What about you? What do you want to see? um i I don't know. Maybe this is greedy, but I want see Jordan Hyde on my score. Yeah. she's school i think I think that's part of the get the ball into the box.
00:46:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She, I read, they put like a little facts sometimes when you go look at the match on like Google, the preview or whatever. And Jordan Heidema has scored three times versus Kansas City. She scored a brace against them last year when we lost 5-2. That was so brutal. It was so bad. But she did get on the score sheet, so that's like you know notable. and ah it's I think she was the only player ah like traveling to KC who scored multiple goals against them since Sophia Wilson.
00:46:38
Speaker
So it doesn't happen often, KC. If you get a draw or you get like a one zero result, you're going to feel really, really good. um about the team that you have. And it's it's going to be a really big challenge.
00:46:50
Speaker
And I think the team has to remember as well, they've beaten them. Yeah, this year. they have Yeah, they have the ability to get a result out of this match. Yeah. And I know that it's hard as fans going into it and seeing KC on this just absolute tear.
00:47:05
Speaker
Yeah. And to forget that they are beatable. And they're going to want to lose before the playoffs. Yeah. Well, I don't I wish this game was later in the season because they might be arresting people. But I mean, they could be arresting people still, though.
00:47:21
Speaker
Yeah. Isn't there like a I mean, at some point there's gonna be an international thing going on. But honestly, they probably want to see us in the playoffs. Well, then they should let us win.
00:47:33
Speaker
i don't know. I think this this game looks daunting, but it'll depend on which team shows up. Yeah, I guess I won't be surprised by any result is how I feel. I could see us getting our asses kicked. I hope that doesn't happen.
00:47:47
Speaker
And if it does happen, it's just kind of like, clearly, we cannot match up with this KC team who are going to be going down as one of the most elite teams in NWSL history. I would say most regular season dominant.
00:48:01
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, they've got to finish it out just like Orlando did last season. Yeah. um Yeah. I also would like to see Claudia Nicky absolutely ball out. Yeah. She's going to have to, she's really going have to show up for this one.
00:48:13
Speaker
So yeah, I don't know. ah We'll see what happens. I'm a little stressed about it, but we'll just go out there and have fun. and Have fun girls. Yeah. That's a, I mean, that's what what can you do? Teams above you by 20 points. Yeah.
00:48:28
Speaker
And we were how bad last season? Terrible. Yeah. I think that's pretty much all we got now that we can finally finish up this episode in the morning. Yeah, I apologize everyone. we were recording last night and had some major audio issues.
00:48:40
Speaker
um So now it's seven o'clock in the morning and we are recording the second episode. half of this episode we can't really get to the bottom of what's been causing our audio issues um so hopefully we get that figured out at some point but it seems to work for about 40 minutes usually and it just gives out oh yeah anyways you got any shout outs ah shout out to the seattle storm uh i mean we'll see if that continues but yeah i don't know if this will age well but i mean fighting back in that second playoff match sure i mean they got completely slaughtered the first game so they were down by 10 going in the in the fourth quarter and i was just like oh this is fine all but another shout out to dominique malanga yeah absolute 19 year old baller i know i'm kind like she's friends with jordan bug
00:49:27
Speaker
ah kind of i want to I guess I just like seeing pictures of really tall people with anybody. you picture with her in Just Fish luck would be really, really fun. that would be good. um Cool. you have any shoutouts?
00:49:38
Speaker
um No, don't think so. don't really know. Nope. Okay. Okay. Thanks again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. As always, you can follow us on Blue Sky and Instagram at Cooler Guild Pod.
00:49:51
Speaker
You can shoot us an email. We love an email. Thecoolerguild at gmail.com. Or you can visit us on our main page, soundatheart.com forward slash thecoolerguild. We're on YouTube, youtube.com forward slash at thecoolerguild. Please go rate five stars wherever you're listening.
00:50:05
Speaker
Till next time, I'm Coop. I'm Van. Stay cool, y'all. Stay cool.
00:50:27
Speaker
What happened? He keeps flicking the door handle trying to get in here. And then he wants out the window. Okay. Sorry. I'm going to actually just go put him outside. Okay. I'm going to.
00:50:39
Speaker
Okay. So went mountain biking, went to the river. Now that Vance cat is outside and won't be grumpy. um