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The Cooler Guild: Rhode win - Ep. 66
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The back of the net was finally found. The Reign turned their luck around after Van hired a witch – coincidence? Seattle faced Boston Legacy on Friday evening in the small state of Rhode Island, earning a much needed 3 points. We get into the win, including the team finally getting on the scoresheet, not just once but twice after an uncomfortably long goal drought. We also dive into other NWSL results and close out the show previewing the Reign’s next match.
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Transcript
Introduction and Recap
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 66 of The Cooler Guild. I am Coop Cooper, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van k Crisp. Hello! We recorded on Monday, May 25th, 2026. On today's episode, we got... i don't know if anyone remembers what these are. we got a dub pod.
00:00:38
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. ah So we're going to go over the range result versus Boston. ah Van's going to do a quick little recap of happened to NWSL for the results. And I don't know, whatever else we feel like talking about. But before we get into all that, we have 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, which you should be, on the private unified feed with the other podcasts on the network.
00:01:04
Speaker
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. Well, Van already cracked her, so I'm going to crack mine. She got a little too excited. I did before we hit the record. Yeah, we got victory beers. um I
Celebratory Moments with Victory Beers
00:01:21
Speaker
just went, ran downstairs and got one.
00:01:23
Speaker
ah This is actually when they're starting sell lumen. I saw someone post about it. It's the Kavotica, Fort George one. Kavotica's out. Because apparently we only have stats on our fridge. um Anyways, cheers to the rain. Nice. Nice.
00:01:36
Speaker
nice i ah What else ah what else do you got going on? Anything interesting? Fun? Cool? Stupid? Weird?
Personal Stories and Humorous Anecdotes
00:01:47
Speaker
Well, i did I went to my uncle's 80th birthday party. You have an 80-year-old uncle? have an 84-year-old uncle. My mom's got two half-brothers that are way older than her. Got it.
00:01:58
Speaker
um So that was that. um My cousin, Chad, was wearing a shirt. This is this will give you a little insight into the side the family. His shirt says, I gave my finger for America.
00:02:11
Speaker
Actually, he gave one finger and one thumb. What? To a firework a couple years ago. Oh, my God. Yeah. Wow. Lovely. um Other than that, I did ah order sunglasses. Did you get more Pip Vipers? No, they don't make those with a prescription.
00:02:29
Speaker
oh Oh, yeah, prescription sunglasses. Nice. Yep, Costco, baby. And they got a new like photochromatic driving one. Oh, sweet. So it like lightens up and darkens. In the car? So, yeah. Why do not do that? Yeah, that's what they were saying about the transitions.
00:02:44
Speaker
I do love them, but it is kind of like a bummer that they don't do it in the car. Yeah. um I also put my tent up because I'm going go backpacking next weekend. Oh, cool. I was going to take it down earlier today before it started absolutely pouring rain. I know it was dumping today. i did it. And so now it's just getting rained on. Well, maybe go sleep out there in the rain. What about you?
Volunteering and Social Events
00:03:04
Speaker
Well, i had text I texted you about I went to I volunteer at the local radio station, KMUN, and they had like little social. ah So I went to the social and it was like the programmers, the volunteers and like anyone that works in the station kind of showed up. um But I have like the older women that I like tend to volunteer with. It's like like everyone in this crowd is exactly what you would have thought they would be. It's just like mostly old people. And then just a handful of young people. And they're all like really cool, like funny old people. um But I got Alex got to meet some of the older people that I like volunteer with. And Caroline, the one I sent you the picture of. Yeah. She's really funny. But she was like introducing me to people. She's like, yes, this is Coop. She has a premier. She's a premier soccer podcaster.
00:03:54
Speaker
she is the one who like has listened to our show before. yeah But she like just kept I was like, it's not a big it's not a big thing. And she's just like, no, no, no. This is like a premier soccer like podcast.
00:04:06
Speaker
I was like, sure, Caroline, if whatever you want to say, sure. um But she did send me like a photo. That's why she texted me it's because she had this photo of me that she took when we were volunteering together and she wanted to share it with me. um i don't think I've showed it to you.
00:04:22
Speaker
Because I showed you the picture that she sent me of her selfie, but they they didn't put this this picture of me. I id modeled for some merch and they did not put this one up on the website because they told me I looked. And I didn't say this. These are not lesbians that use this word. but They said I look too studly for the website. um I can't really see it, but I can see what they mean. Yeah, I had my dad George on and anyways. ah Yeah, so that's what I was up to
Match Recap: Rain vs. Boston Legacy
00:04:50
Speaker
last week. Not a whole lot else. The game was on Friday. Yep. So yeah, let's get into the game. ah Rain took on Boston Legacy for the first time in Rhode Island of all places. Apparently was the first professional women's soccer game in Rhode Island.
00:05:04
Speaker
ah Not really a shocking thing. It's kind of a really small state. The smallest state, in fact. ah But the rain ended the game with a 2-1 victory.
00:05:17
Speaker
Unfortunately, they didn't were unable to keep the clean sheet. Last-minute goal. ah Same kind of tendencies we've been seeing in the last while, it feels like. Just silly goals giving up. But, hey, they got three points on the road. Yeah, and goals from Huerta and Darlene.
00:05:35
Speaker
It's great. Love it. Love to see this. um And Darlene's goal, um that's her fifth all-time NWSL goal, and all five of them have been game winners.
00:05:46
Speaker
Love that. I would love her to experience like goal scoring though. Just like, you know, as a thing, just like a bonus goal. Yeah. But I mean, it's kind of cool to say your clutch.
00:05:57
Speaker
It is. like Yeah. ah Laura Harvey has now has at least one regular season win over 17 of 19 NWSL clubs. ah She just needs to be Bay FC and Denver.
00:06:08
Speaker
How have we not beaten Bay? I don't know. It's kind of embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it was Horta's 200th regular season start. Dang. I think that might have be what you were thinking of last week.
00:06:21
Speaker
I think they said something about her appearances with the rain, though. I don't know. i feel like I don't know what I saw. They're always finding stats. That's what we know. Yeah. But 200 starts is, that's a lot.
00:06:35
Speaker
And she's now scored a goal in, at least a goal in every NWSL season since her rookie year in 2015. Dang. She's the only player in history to do that. I like how ah on the presser she was talking about like her forward days and how, you know, it was much easier back then. Yeah.
00:06:52
Speaker
ah But she, you know, she takes those penalties real good. Yeah. she She'll keep doing it. We hope so. Yeah. ah What did you, ah what did you make of the game?
Game Dynamics and Player Performances
00:07:02
Speaker
It was nice to see things finally kind of go our way. Yeah.
00:07:07
Speaker
It felt like whatever bad energy had taken over the team was not present in this match. Was it the witch? I was going to say, is it the witch?
00:07:20
Speaker
It might be the $4.99 Etsy witch that I purchased. Which is a bargain. Yeah. Solid purchase. I'll pay for wins. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, the package that the witch sent got lost in UPS, but did it?
00:07:35
Speaker
It seems to also have not gotten lost. It did. It got delivered somewhere in Tumwater. What? I don't know. I thought it was a curse on a curse.
00:07:47
Speaker
wait so something got mailed to you still yeah like proof of proof of whatever i mean the kurt she had already done whoever those switch was already did the curse lifting or whatever it was just proof of purchase removal yeah that's really funny i did give the game i had the game on mute and then i just got a flurry of messages about them talking about it on the broadcast indeed it not just them Mike Watts, Vans BFF Mike Watts. Shout out, Mike Watts. ah
00:08:22
Speaker
You know, if we're going to win every game that Mike Watts announces, I'm fine with it Well, this is our only prime game for the whole season. I think they said we don't have any more. Number one, thank God. Number two. um But if that's what it takes, you know, I'll make a deal with the devil on that one. Sure.
00:08:41
Speaker
and And in that same vein, um ah feel like there's been penalty calls. i know there's been penalty calls that have been missed. Yes. Ones that I would argue are egregious. Sure. This one was not missed.
00:08:57
Speaker
It did take forever for some stupid reason. I know. Because... I was so nervous. i was like, oh, God, we have a penalty. And this is our moment now to get out of this fucking drought.
00:09:08
Speaker
So I got up off my couch and I'm just pacing, waiting. And I almost like it was almost like the penalty that the Ray or the the Sounders had for their MLS Cup against Toronto. Like I was at the point because of how long the v are decision was taking that i couldn't almost look like I can't stand that. But I was pasting around and I was just like, are you fucking kidding me? Like, what is truly taking so long? In the first replay, you can obviously see that it hits her arm. And they're trying to have like a debate if it was her shoulder, I guess. I don't know. But like if you're taking again, they need to. i've I brought it up before. If they're taking so much time and they can't figure out if it's clear or obvious, stick with the call that you made. Yeah.
00:09:49
Speaker
It's not clear and obvious if you can't obviously
Challenges and Improvements in the Team
00:09:51
Speaker
overturn it. Which it was. Yeah, exactly. It was very silly. But they kept passing the ball back. James Turner, Werta handing the ball off while this, I don't know, halftime show of the VAR booth trying to have some attention. I'm not really sure. But Werta ends up grabbing the ball and ah takes and slots it really nicely taken to, I would say.
00:10:12
Speaker
ah Power-wise, yeah yeah. Placement, if the goalkeeper had gone the right way, would been iffy. Sure. But I think she did a really good job of throwing her off. Yeah. I was skeptical about the refereeing because like early on in the match, Boston has a corner kick, and they've got the ball like on the end line, a foot away from the actual like corner circle.
00:10:35
Speaker
And I'm like, can you not see if the ball is not where it needs to be for a corner? Like, this is obvious. Yeah. But turned out okay. Yeah. um Another thing. So it was bug start, right? Mm-hmm. So we got some Jordan bug back, which I feel just took a lot of pressure off of Phoebe McLaren.
00:10:53
Speaker
Yeah. It felt like everyone was breathing a little bit easier back there. Yeah. It didn't seem as chaotic. No. The calmness of Jordan Bug is is very, very apparent when she's on there. It must be contagious. Yeah. um And then, of course, Sam Meza didn't get the start.
00:11:11
Speaker
She didn't play at all. Yeah. Which is kind of too bad because that was the only player we shouted out on the Boston podcast. I had listed other players, but i was just like, I mean, Semez is the star. So this is the only person I'm going to mention. Yeah. i was So she's not on the injury report. So it must not be that. So hopefully she's just getting some much needed rest for having to do two people's jobs every game. Definitely. Definitely.
00:11:35
Speaker
I think this was a good time to rest her. Yeah, because you've got the spirit coming up. They're sticking on the East Coast, it sounds like, for this next game as well. Oh, my God. Laura car laura Harvey knows how to coach?
00:11:51
Speaker
Taking care of players? What's that? oh my God. But yeah, so that was always going to be ah thing. But James Turner, man. She balled out. She had a great game.
00:12:01
Speaker
She was all over the place. Should we switch our cooler player the match? I was going to suggest her. think we do that. You think? I think we do that. Okay. Yeah, we can do that. But wait, maybe we won't do that. You have to stay tuned and find out.
00:12:18
Speaker
Secret, secret. um yeah Yeah, James Turner was a standout for me. i was noticing her kind of intercepting. went and looked up some of her stats just because i needed to, I knew there would be evidence of how good she was. yeah She 11 recoveries.
00:12:39
Speaker
yep That's wild. And she was 34 for 38 on passes. I thought maybe she had a few more touches, but um she did what she needed to do when the ball was coming her way.
00:12:49
Speaker
ah she was She was phenomenal. She also was getting up a little bit further and kind of getting into the attack. Yeah. And was effective, too. Yeah. I loved it.
00:13:00
Speaker
And of course, Maddie Darlene, right? That ball from Curry. Yeah. It was so good. And then Darlene's ability to stay on side and make that run was fantastic. More of that, please.
00:13:11
Speaker
I was also, this is, I think, and she's been getting time and I think she just needs a little bit more, but I'm pretty impressed with Holly Ward. I was going to say Holly Ward looked really good too.
00:13:22
Speaker
I think that she's got a little bit of sauce. Yeah. And a little fire. Yeah. And she's quick. Yeah, she was... The way she was kind of um holding up the ball and trying to get out of player like pressure on her, she was trying to get creative with it. I really appreciated seeing that. She seemed strong, too. i was definitely impressed with her. It seemed like...
00:13:44
Speaker
i don't like I can't really pinpoint any poor performances from really anybody, maybe moments. But I would say the team as a whole, they all kind of seemed to understand how big of a deal this game was and how important it was to get the win and how important it was to break that drought.
00:14:04
Speaker
And it didn't matter if they were a rotation player or if they haven't played for a bit. They all understood the assignment. Yeah. I'm hoping that the vibes improve. It's tough because we've got the spirit next. I mean, we're also playing Boston. That's the thing.
00:14:17
Speaker
i can't hype it up too much, right? know, formerly known as Lost Nation. Well, they're back again. Currently known as Lost Nation. They were on an unbeaten streak and we made sure to remind them of their roots. Yeah, they still haven't recorded a shutout.
00:14:31
Speaker
No. So. Which my prediction on their podcast was a rain victory. I wanted to boldly do 2-0 and then I was kind of offended that they said 2-0 that they would win. Yeah. So I was like, I'm not going to do that to them.
00:14:45
Speaker
ah It still feels good. i just don't feel like our problems are solved. They're not. Holy no. They're not. And I, you know, I want to hype this team up, but the reality is we're still the team that couldn't score for five and a half matches. Yeah.
00:15:04
Speaker
I am glad we got a goal like in the run of play. Yeah. With the Dahlian goal. If it was just a penalty, would definitely be feeling worse than don't like I definitely don't want to feel like that.
00:15:15
Speaker
but If it was just a penalty, then we would have tied. Yeah. Although i don't know, they they they were able to lay on pressure late because they had nothing to lose at that point. Yeah. So I don't know. It's hard to hard to assess that. i'm gonna take it though me too enjoy the win we should enjoy the win still i am because it might be short-lived empty this this is a fact i don't mean really to follow this up with the spirit on the road it's like worst possible scenario after this don't know it's kind of a bad weekend for the can gang you know yeah
00:15:51
Speaker
yeah o o that new crest that they got going on france isn't good either it's part of what did you ah do anything else that didn't work didn't work for me um i don't know i think we covered it var being annoying it worked in our favor but it was stupid long yeah um and just the legal is dumb super dumb Yeah, that's ah one of those moments that we've been having. They get so close to cleaning everything up, and then it and then I just get sad. Because a Claudia Dickey needs a clean sheet. needs She needs to be racking up these clean sheets. yeah but i don't
00:16:27
Speaker
I don't want her to lose out on this this possibility of her fighting for the one spot for the World Cup next year. There's a lot of other stuff to her game that I don't think a clean sheet necessarily is an indicator of how good she is.
00:16:39
Speaker
um So I think she'll be fine. But I also don't want to make this a habit. I would like to make the habit of getting clean sheets. And I think this defense can do that. Yeah. When bug is available. That's what I'm saying. but That's that's a really helpful. Yeah.
00:16:56
Speaker
And Madison Curry, I mean, you don't play her, we lose a game we should have won. Yeah. You play her, she gets an assist, we win a game. Mm-hmm. I think that that was a mistake last week that was more than rectified this week in ah in a way. Yeah.
00:17:10
Speaker
What did you get? I didn't watch the pressers, but you said you did. Harvey kind of talked about, you know, how tough it's been with the results and lack of goal scoring leading up to this game and how they've kind of had to change the conversations because things haven't been changing. But with the fact that they have good culture at the team, it's easier to bring things up um and kind of dive into what the bigger issues might be. And it ends up not turning into like maybe a blame game type of thing. I'm not doing a perfect quote on this, but. So that's kind of what I gathered from it is just kind of reiterating that it's it's you could have more hope of working through problems as bad as these ones without having to like
Team Culture and Leadership
00:17:55
Speaker
change everything. If you can feel comfortable talking about things and like in a way that you don't think you're going to end up getting like blamed for something, you know, like someone's going to be like, well, you didn't do this. You didn't do this. And then like trying to turn it on somebody that. Like it's accountability. It seems like that they're trying to recognize and understanding them where they can do better individually as a team, all of that. So i don't know. That was kind of nice to hear. Do I still think they need a new player really elevate their game? Like,
00:18:22
Speaker
ah Yeah, like yeah they can have all these meetings all they want. But I again from that part that press conference kind press conference from last week with Harvey kind of sticks with me of just saying how much more quality other teams tend to have. And players that have been winners, big time winners and know how to win big time games. Yeah, it was kind of funny because she did mention like, they don't, I don't know if it's, I think it was her, ah but she talked about like, know if it or if was the players, but they talked about like how they don't really have like big egos on the team. And that really helps with talking about these issues that they've been having. And like, once you have someone with like way too big of an ego, it kind of gets difficult.
00:19:01
Speaker
I'm kind of like, sure, but can we just have like one player with the huge ego? Yeah. We just have one player with the audacity to score goals, please. I don't know. Maybe that would be helpful sometimes. Or at least channel that ego at the right time. don't know. Yeah, I wouldn't say I took too much more from that. Dolly was praising where to, I guess, about... Dolly was... Dolly-ing. Yeah, Darlene was... Sounded like said Dolly. Dolly! Dolly Parton was praising... Darlene was praising Werta and just how much she's kind of been stepping up with leadership with Fishlock being gone and how hard it's kind of been to work through some of these things. And you could hear it on the broadcast. You could hear Werta, like, kind of telling people where to go. think it's cool that Werta's...
00:19:45
Speaker
kind of getting more ownership of the captaincy in this way because they do rotate it quite a bit anyways uh but i think it was being rotated yeah i think harvey had mentioned that they try to like you know kind of let multiple people be leaders and stuff like that i don't know if that's working right but i did feel like this game you could tell where it was the captain and she was kind of guiding the ship Yeah, and I mean, i think she's had a couple of rough performances lately. and so it was really good to see her back, being confident, not giving up so many balls. It was good to see her have that, just that confidence again. Yeah, she stepped up. have anything else you want to add before we kind of keep going into... No, I think that's it. I am enjoying the win, but I don't know if there's much to take from it other than we can score goals in the run of play on a bad team.
00:20:42
Speaker
Mm hmm. Yeah, we could try to look at at it more analytically, but i think we've had these chances before and we finally were able to finish them. Yeah, this could have been any other game we've had. Yeah. But we finished. But I think one thing that I think definitely improved was the crossing. Mm-hmm.
00:21:02
Speaker
I mean, two weeks ago, like 80% of the crosses went straight to the goalkeeper. Mm-hmm. And we actually had some opportunities off crosses. I mean, Darlene's header that caused the handball off a cross. I think that was a Holly Ward cross.
00:21:17
Speaker
And then the goal to Darlene. Great cross from Curry. James Turner was laying in some dangerous balls. But just, you know, I can't not think. We're playing Boston.
00:21:28
Speaker
We're playing Boston. So let's let's see what they can do against a better team. But these are results that you should get against bottom level teams. Which they haven't done at times. so Right.
00:21:39
Speaker
i guess. At least you're better than Boston. least we're not Boston. We're bringing that. Title the episode, Better Than Boston. Better Than Boston. Okay. Better than Bob. Remember that? Yeah, I do. um Do you want to get into the Cooler
Player of the Match and Team Highlights
00:21:55
Speaker
Player of the Match? Sure. All right.
00:21:57
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. Well, we originally had someone else plugged in who we already kind of talked about this, but we had Darlene plugged in there for player the match. She earned the handball. She scored the goal. She was all over the place. She's doing great holding up the ball.
00:22:21
Speaker
But sometimes you got to rethink. And you have to give credit where credit is due. And with Meza not being on the field, I think it makes sense. I think it's, I think we have to give it to somebody else.
00:22:32
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, Dahlia can get your flowers. I think Angra James Turner deserves the cooler player of the match. Yeah, I think so too. that's That's originally who I wanted to give it to, but I'm also swayed easily. And I also think i also think there are some good performances for multiple players this week that could have deserved this. so Which is it quite refreshing. I also thought about giving Cooler Player the match to the Etsy Witch.
00:22:55
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Well, the Etsy Witch gets the victory of the reign. And that's, I mean... That's pretty big. Spoils enough. I know. know. Yeah, so congrats, Angarad, James Turner. I'm looking forward to Darlene whenever she gets her next cooler player the match because she's a forward. She keeps doing really well.
00:23:19
Speaker
but i think she could score against the Spirit. Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah. Deal with the devil. Again, Darlene, if you score next week, cooler player of the match. Are the devil now?
00:23:30
Speaker
I guess so. the devil. That's fine. All right. Whatever it takes. At this point. And I'm not a religious person, so whatever.
Sponsors and Listener Support
00:23:41
Speaker
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00:23:52
Speaker
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00:24:13
Speaker
Cheers. Cheers.
00:24:16
Speaker
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00:24:30
Speaker
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00:24:43
Speaker
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00:24:58
Speaker
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00:25:09
Speaker
ah One thing I wanted to bring up, Rain-related thing I wanted to bring up before we go into the and other NWSL results. This is a conversation that's been happening on the Discord last night today. um If we had to sub in a field player as the goalkeeper, who do you think it would be?
00:25:25
Speaker
i was thinking about this. Some people said Curry. I think she's too small. I'm sorry. She just is. I don't think it's about size. I know it's not. I think she's too ah uncoordinated.
00:25:39
Speaker
well not uncoordinated but like some of her tackles you know like sure like she just like kind of goes yeah you know don't have any proof about maria uh doing like i don't know if she's good with her hands but she's from minnesota and for some reason i'm just gonna believe in like because minnesotans are just kind of like strong boned individuals right who love milk consumption
NWSL Game Highlights and Controversies
00:26:07
Speaker
and for some reason to me That just screams they've got the, I don't know, the ability to be a goalkeeper, standing goalkeeper.
00:26:16
Speaker
yeah I can't explain it, but I do think she she could do it. i So my gut reaction was Huerta. Yeah, yeah. And then Susie pointed out that she was a star basketball player in high school.
00:26:30
Speaker
Okay, yeah. Well, that's a good shout. So that's a good one. My other one, just for the plain craziness of this player, was Sam Meza. Like, I think she would just, like, go take people out. Yeah, yeah. See, I want Werta to be yelling at whoever is back there, you know what i mean? Like, I think she'll be guiding whoever that is. And I think Darlene would be a really good, like, kind of, I don't know, goalkeeper protege for Werta to, like, yell at. You know i mean? I don't know. don't know.
00:27:00
Speaker
i don't know matt Maddie's dad if you're listening can you let us know if she would be a good good goalkeeper e who else could be Shea Holmes also came up in the conversation but she hasn't been playing much Brittany Radcliffe yeah that was my other one yeah I think I'm picking Brittany Radcliffe if not that's a good question although hopefully we never have to get to that situation I'm gonna ask I'm gonna ask about it in the next in in the pregame presser okay I really want to know who who it is. Well, that's like a secret that Laura is probably not going to tell anyone. Oh, no harm in asking. Sure.
00:27:37
Speaker
All right, moving on. There were a lot of games this week ah because there were three Wednesday games. ah So we'll start Wednesday. Houston played San Diego twooo tie.
00:27:47
Speaker
There was 13 minutes of... ah was I miswrote this. ah First half stoppage time, I think, was the second half. Anyway, there was 30 minutes stoppage time at one point um because ah Jane Campbell split her head open. oh god doing what um she came out to get a ball off byers feet and byers kind of trips into her and like kind of knees her in the head o and just camels laying on her back and she's got her glove up and it's just gushing blood um byers initially got a red card and then they took it to var and rescinded it just an accident because it yeah it was kind of incidental contact yeah
00:28:28
Speaker
San could have won this game because Lujamila beat Campbell in the first half and um kind of cut to her side 1v1 and left-footed shot, open net, missed it. So that was that game.
00:28:41
Speaker
ah Angel City played KC. Angel City won Lorena got scored on near post. This happens twice between Wednesday and Sunday, i will add, or this weekend, I will add. Yeah.
00:28:55
Speaker
Lola Bonta got a penalty. it so Casey could have tied this match, right? Lola Bonta got a penalty, went to the goalkeeper's left. It was such a bad penalty that Angelina Anderson just caught it. Like she dove, but it just stayed in her hands. no.
00:29:09
Speaker
Like she dove and caught it, but it just stayed in her hands. That's really funny. noulie No Sully on that one. Nope. And then the final Wednesday game, Portland ah beat Bay 2-0.
00:29:21
Speaker
Whatever. um This weekend's games.
00:29:27
Speaker
that's the That's the theme. Louisville lost to North Carolina 2-1. EJ, second straight game with a goal. And ah then Sanchez scored the game winner and then Wright scored a 90th minute goal.
00:29:42
Speaker
Off a corner kick. Utah then played Denver and beat Denver. Utah, man. they're um They're on a fucking tear. They're going crazy. Palacio scored the first goal for Utah, and it came from a really terrible giveaway from Gatino in the box.
00:29:57
Speaker
I wanted to bring up with that game because it seems like Utah is bragging about their attendance numbers. And it seems like maybe they're not accurate based on like what the stadium actually looks like. The crowd.
00:30:10
Speaker
Do you see this? They got like... Oh, is this the game that I was talking to Steve about? I think so. And they said they were pushing like almost 20K, but like the stadium was not very full. They gave away a bunch of tickets. So I don't know if they just counted tickets sold, not scan tickets, which is usually the case for a lot of NIPI sold teams. Because there was one that, no, the Utah-Denver match only had like 9,000 people.
00:30:34
Speaker
Oh, no, this one. No, you're right. This is the one. It was 19,274. But the crowd didn't really... The crowd didn't look like that. No. um Because I've been seeing people credit Utah. Because that's like almost capacity. That's like 1,000. Yeah. It's 1,600 away from capacity. Yeah, which, like, I want to give them credit for doing those things, but it's a little, it's very misleading when you see the attendants, when you to see the attendants, like, for the weekend, because they, you know, rank them.
00:31:05
Speaker
m It just seemed a little dishonest, but... I don't know. Maybe they'll keep... Maybe more tickets they give away, they'll get more fans coming back, so... Yeah, because I think their game before, they only had like 6,000 people. Yeah, so it just So i wrote... I asked in the in the chat, like, what was the giveaway situation? Uh-huh. Yeah. I'm just curious on what's going on there, because... I've seen this happening at like Angel City games too where they're like we have sold out crowd and I'm like I see the crowd there are sections fully not packed with fans like the people are not sure they're buying tickets but it doesn't seem like they're actually going yeah
00:31:40
Speaker
Who knows? Houston beat Angel City two to one and goals from Houston goals from Raider. ah Penalty from Noose for Angel City. It was actually a penalty, so whatever. And then game winner from Graham in 90 plus 1. Was Jane Campbell available for that one after her head thing? I don't believe she played, no. Okay.
00:32:00
Speaker
Um, Casey then came back from their midweek loss and beat Portland three to one. Took it to them. And Portland was actually up 14 minutes in with Sophia Wilson goal, um, near post on the Reina. Actually the first two goals, the first goals from both teams were near post goals. There's a lot of near post scoring and it like, it stood out to me this weekend and it's killing me. Yeah.
00:32:22
Speaker
But they were talking about yeah Portland's just leaving the far side way open. Any switch, they're completely off balance. Moultrie's been out right for a minute she's subbed back in this game okay okay so she is probably limited minutes but is back yeah but yeah they got ah it was 2-1 and going into the 90th minute and then 90 plus three Chwinga gets the ball and Hopkins is following her and just Chwinga unselfish just slots it to her boom goal that's nice of her
00:32:52
Speaker
um And then Chicago win. Ooh. Chicago beat This is a real Chicago win. An actual Chicago win. Yeah. Somebody um apparently skeeted that it didn't feel like Chicago won this game.
00:33:09
Speaker
Did I mention, did I talk about the red cards and the other goal in the other game? No. Oh, this is this game. Sorry. Okay. I was like, was the the two games, weeks. I saw the Sokowitz goal, or the red card, sorry. that's cool. Excuse me. I didn't see the other one.
00:33:25
Speaker
so Chicago got a win because they were up two players. Not that we could do that. but We can't do that. I didn't know that was possible. yeah um So the first ah red card on Kometi was actually a foul on Haidema.
00:33:38
Speaker
hey So Haidema's 1v1 going into the box and she's just at the top of the box and gets taken out. Sounds familiar. ah Yeah, but this one gets called um and it's a dog so red card.
00:33:50
Speaker
And then 60 second minute, game still 0-0. Silkewitz comes out and she's like 10 or 15 yards outside of her box. and The ball's about to bounce over her head. She comes out to clear it and then she just goes. she Then she shrugs. Then she went, oh.
00:34:08
Speaker
the o It was so funny. Her reaction so funny in that clip. It is. have no idea what she was doing. You're dumb enough to do this. Okay, I do have to admit that I did this once.
00:34:21
Speaker
Well, I feel like you have to do it at least once if you're a goalkeeper. But I wasn't playing goalkeeper. Oh. But I had come on the second half in the midfield, played goalkeeper the first half, come in. This is when I was a kid. But came in the second half and the ball comes up instead of heading it, I grab it. I'm like, oh, man, no.
00:34:40
Speaker
Just like hand of God in it. For no reason. For no reason. Yeah. So Bay is down two players for the next week. Got their goalkeeper out. And their goalkeeper.
00:34:51
Speaker
But Bay actually did score when they were down a player, but it was called back for offside. And it was offside, but it was so close. Mm-hmm. And then the last game of the weekend was San Diego Orlando. in I mean, wait, wait, wait. You should probably mention who scored for Chicago.
00:35:07
Speaker
Oh, Mallory Swanson. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I mean, it's cool. Another near post-goal. Yeah. But yeah, it's her first one back since returning from a Trinity leave. only took two extra players to do that, but sure. Sure. ah Good for her. It was a good goal.
00:35:21
Speaker
And another returning player goal in this one, Orlando beat San Diego Extra time in the first half, added time in the first half, Payne scored, and she missed all last season with injury. Hmm.
00:35:34
Speaker
um did you have any other i wanted to bring up the i mean that's probably all we got for nwcel you watch champions league final uh i was not around unfortunately um i did see that kang gang is down bad right now uh real bad Um, pretty amazing, personally, as a Reign fan. um But the, we haven't really talked about the injury with Katchenberger and how crazy that situation is with what happened in Mexico.
00:36:09
Speaker
Yeah. ah do we Do we ever get, like, clarity on what happened? I don't know. I was trying to talk to my wife about it because she's a ah physician, so i was like, you know, like, why would she be staying in Mexico, bla blah, blah, blah, blah. I don't she's back yet. We're not Gotham fans, so we don't have all the quick updates. was a head injury, right? No, she like it got like knocked in her like rib area. Oh, that's right. That's right. But she was like held in Mexico and there was a chance maybe as something got ruptured. I'm not sure, but like I don't know. It sounds like that might affect Gotham for quite a bit. Yeah. um not great well then they losted lost in that game yeah yeah the nwcl did not win the champions cup do they call the champions cup for the women don't know i think so it's something like that yeah i'm trying to see and then the other i guess the other thing i wanted to bring up was the uh the rules changing with like co-club ownership over in the uefa champions league for women I haven't really read much into that. What's what's going on there?
00:37:14
Speaker
It just sounds like Kang and her tribe bill efforts to build a global empire. um they're They're not allowing like two clubs to compete in like Champions League over there that or have the same ownership.
00:37:28
Speaker
Oh. So what she's been trying to do in London, she won't be allowed to have that team and her French team competing in the same tournament. She'll have to like, I don't know how it's going to work. I assume she'll prioritize Lyon, but like- How does that work, Boone? You have to qualify for that tournament, though. I don't know. That's what I'm like. Is it just you're playing in a league that can qualify for it? So then you don't get to own teams in those leagues. I don't know. It's very weird to me. I would like I would love it if somebody knew all of the ins and outs. Maybe we can dive into that kind of stuff. um We have a break. Yeah.
00:38:02
Speaker
Does Grant probably knows a lot of the stuff. Yeah. We probably bring him on or something. But it's just a Champions League final. OK. Yeah. He was covering it. oh that's fun. Yeah, he so he sent me a couple of pictures and we were guessing who was going to be in the post-match presser. and Got it. Okay. Yeah, I mean, i mean there's just like, we're go have a break for
Upcoming Break and Transfer Hopes
00:38:20
Speaker
a bit. So I just wanted to, don't know, see what's going on in the world of WOSO everywhere else. Because there's some interesting bits of news coming out. Especially with Kang kind of starting to maybe deal with some repercussions of trying to just buy everything. Yeah, and the change in the high impact player rule.
00:38:39
Speaker
Yeah, what? What? I'm not quite sure. i just know that they ah dropped the high and impact parts of it. So it's just... What the fuck? I don't i don't know. i know that the Reign have been supposedly using that as an excuse for why they haven't signed anyone as they've just been kind of waiting things out to see how the rules will change. And I'm not sure that's a great excuse. No, it's not. Given that everyone else is still signing people. I don't see anyone else being like, well, I guess we'll just sit here and until everything's figured out. It's like, no, fucking do something. Work with the rules that are already there.
00:39:11
Speaker
Worry about it later. Do something later if you need to. But, um I don't know. We don't have, we haven't got into like some random woe-so stuff in a bit. ah um Do you anything else you want to add on? Nope. Okay. Reign are playing, this is the last match before the World Cup break. ah They're playing Washington Spirit, in case you didn't know, since we haven't brought it up at all in this show.
00:39:33
Speaker
It'll be Saturday, May 30th at 3.30. It was weird because ryan I feel like Ryan keeps plugging in the wrong times because he had 6 p.m. on their little document. But everything I found is says 3.30. There's also, they've got and some email issues going on. Yeah, they do. Some major email server issues.
00:39:53
Speaker
So I don't know what's going on in the front office over there. but Is it leading me to believe weve this is part of our issues with signing players, big players? Yes. If we can't get our emails right, how do I expect them to giant sign a giant player? ah Anyways, that one's going to be at Eddie Field because it's definitely not at home because we already had that game. That didn't go well for us. That's going to be on ION this weekend. You can also listen to it on 950 KJR AM.
00:40:19
Speaker
ah what do you What do you want to see in this game? Please don't embarrass us. I would like to see a hard fought match with the rain, maybe for once, like not having a total breakdown in the defense.
00:40:34
Speaker
Like zero, zero. I'm fine with, I would want to win this game. As the last one went, we could win this game. Yeah. ah Depending on what they're doing with their players and what their lineup looks like. But I would like to see just a little bit of gumption out there. Sure.
00:40:53
Speaker
Audi is a very difficult place to play for opponents. So I don't want to be unrealistic in what I want. I think 0-0 draw is a good call. Could we do what they did to us at Lumen?
00:41:06
Speaker
Yeah. Maybe. i don't have a lot of hope for it. No. I guess we met Edaline looked in the last game. Like, can we replicate that? Yeah, that was a really good goal. She got in really good spots. People were serving in balls that she's been waiting for for a long time.
00:41:24
Speaker
Yeah. Keep feeding her. If bug is available, then I do feel like maybe we can keep the clean sheet. I just don't know if she's gonna be playing the whole time. Yep. And it's hard to say that we can do that given that our last opponent that we had a success with until the 90 plus four was Boston. Yeah.
00:41:42
Speaker
So if they want to give me some hope that this is like a team I can maybe, ah I don't know, have some belief for postseason before we go into this break, that would be awesome.
00:41:52
Speaker
That's kind of, it's pretty crucial moment too. Yeah. Cause it's kind of the last game we're really going to remember before heading into this long break. It's a long break. And how do you end it with the idea that maybe you want to retain some fans?
00:42:09
Speaker
they' I mean, they're gonna have to like, they're gonna have I mean, like, we we talked about this and we called out somebody last week, Leslie on the podcast last episode, but like, this, this is like, we're kind of at a tipping point with this club.
00:42:23
Speaker
And when does the window open? Do you know? No. Okay. Well, whatever this window opens for the summer, like... It's like June something.
00:42:33
Speaker
They need to get a name that even if the team isn't like... If everyone knows where the team's at in the standings and how they haven't been performing, they need to assign somebody with a name recognition to get fans excited to come back in the summer yeah once all this ends. Because people... I don't know how this fucking World Cup disaster is going to go Because by all means, it seems like it's going to be disaster um because they're getting to agree with money. But...
00:42:56
Speaker
I think people will be at bars. I think there will be some hype um about so the sport and you have an opportunity to get people excited about the rain. Yeah. And they're going to have a lot of eyes on the branding and marketing surrounding Lumen Field.
00:43:13
Speaker
And on the whatever float they have going on, you have to spend like $300 to go on. That's right. The float. The barge. Yeah, but like people will be going to bars. ah We've got women's sports bars in Seattle like that people will be going to to watch because it's they air other sports like soccer will be a big part even if FIFA is fucking it all up in the stadiums. um The game is the game and it's kind of a big deal. yeah, It's not often it just comes to this country. So like you need to kind of take advantage of that and make this team better in this window, this summer window that you have where we have historically kind of this is kind of like a moment that changes things for teams a lot. Yeah.
00:44:00
Speaker
Happens for the Sounders, happens in the NWSL. Like do something. I'm like poking Adrian Hanauer.
00:44:09
Speaker
I feel it.
Future Plans and Personal Aspirations
00:44:11
Speaker
i don't know. i did and I will be happy if they do. i will not be surprised if they don't. I might might riot if they don't do anything. our first yeah our first game back is against Portland, right? At home.
00:44:24
Speaker
yeah yeah uh wait no our first one well our first game back at home is against portland we play we play fourth of july yeah we play the fourth of july against the courage which will not be easy but the first game back in seattle after all this world cup madness will be against portland so like people portland fans will be coming up for it let's get the seattle fans out yeah You gonna bring your cat?
00:44:47
Speaker
No. He's so old, man. Yeah. It's that's tough out there with the growing pets. You gonna come up for the Portland game? I'm making sure my calendar is clear. July twelve Oregon Country Fair.
00:45:02
Speaker
I'm not gonna go to that. I'll just not go to that. ah There's an Oregon Country Fair that weekend, but um yeah, I'll definitely come up for that game. It's been a while. i've been wanting to come up.
00:45:14
Speaker
Looking into getting an EV. Yeah. That would really help with the journey that takes for me to get up there. Anyways, I guess maybe for the spirit game, I want to see like the lineup that would impress me the most.
00:45:25
Speaker
That's a good shout. Yeah. um I want to see Maddie Darlene start. I want to see Curry start. I want to see Meza start. I want to see James Turner and Meza together. Yeah. Get Bug, McLernan.
00:45:36
Speaker
Maybe subbing Brown would be a fun one. I want to see where she's at because that's a player I've been anticipating for the season. And I would like to see her get more minutes. Yeah. uh yeah i think i want to see a lineup where i'm not like i don't know if that's gonna work get holly war to start again why not she looked great bachammon we can get bachammon don't know if there's a is there a world in which we get bachammon mezza and james turner on the field i don't know maybe not that's maybe it too much although against the spirit maybe we need that much defense i don't know i think it also would be good um to get fishel in do you think you start her against the spirit
00:46:13
Speaker
I think you might try. Yeah. She subbed into this game. I'm just so like, she hasn't done herself any favors with me having hope in her. If she's going to come on and she or she's going start, she needs to make a difference ah in the world of impact on the score sheet.
00:46:29
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I mean, we say that about about everybody and it really happens. God, it's so terrible. Oh, okay. Well, have shout outs? Shout outs on my old man cat. It's on my lap.
00:46:41
Speaker
Cool. And junior. Hey, how's that going? He's good. Look at him. He's somewhat there. He can't hear you. Must be nice.
00:46:53
Speaker
What about you? Any shout outs? No, mean, if for some reason Caroline's listening to this, shout out Caroline. You're a really funny lady. i really enjoy her Energy is very, very fun. Thanks again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. You can go follow us on Blue Sky and Instagram at Cooler Guild Pod.
00:47:11
Speaker
You can send us an email. We do love emails at thecoolerguild at gmail.com. You can also, which you should probably already be doing to catch up on Sounder Heart News and Ride Valkyries News, go to sounderheart.com forward slash thecoolerguild.
00:47:25
Speaker
You need respond to that email from the Boston person. Oh, yeah. i forgot about that. I didn't know what happened with the witch thing, so I couldn't respond for you. um YouTube,
Closing Remarks and Acknowledgments
00:47:33
Speaker
you can follow us on YouTube, youtube.com, at the Cooler Guild. Wherever you're listening, please go rate five stars. Till next time, I am Coop. I'm Van.
00:47:41
Speaker
Stay cool, y'all. Stay cool.
00:48:07
Speaker
even though Mike Watts screwed up who was talking right before the goal was scored. um But what's new?