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Loss in KC, playoff push still on - Ep. 48
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The Reign sit in 6th place with five matches remaining on the schedule. As the end of the regular season nears, the NWSL playoff picture is far from clear. In this week's episode we get into Seattle's 2-0 loss to the Kansas City Current, and how despite the loss, we saw a lot of good things on the field from the Reign. We wrap up the episode going over other NWSL results and preview the Reign's next match.
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Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Network
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and episode 48 of the Cooler Guild. I am Coop Cooper, and joined with me as always is my co-host, Van Crisp. Hello. We are recording on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025.
00:00:33
Speaker
twenty twenty five On today's episode, ah we're going to pretend like that game didn't happen by talking about it The Reign played and lost 2-0 to KC Current. We'll quickly go over the other results in the league and also preview the Reigns. next match um 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 if you'd like to become a subscriber just visit our page at sounder at heart.com forward slash the cooler guild new subscribers get 10 off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing how's it going it's it's the going yeah it's the going not much has been going on really
00:01:17
Speaker
Yeah. Hanging out with my friends. Your friends? Yeah. I do What'd you go do? ah Well, we went bowling. Yeah.
00:01:28
Speaker
How much stretch did you get? I bowled a 186. Oh, that's really good. It's not bad. i am bad at bowling and it pisses me off. So that's really good.
00:01:39
Speaker
i like to have a bag and a ball and shoes. that That makes sense. I could have guessed that, honestly. They're hand-me-downs for my dad. okay. well he's really the same size. Because my mom was like buying him stuff and he's like, well, whatever Dennis doesn't want, you can just have.
00:01:54
Speaker
like okay sweet um yeah i'm just trying to be outside yeah it's winding down i'm excited ah i don't know i'm on the fence about it but i do appreciate when there's a nice day kind of like peppered into like while it's winding down yeah it is nice i am just excited to be able to go backpacking and not have everything be so packed Yeah, that's fair.
00:02:21
Speaker
That's really fair. About you? Anything fun? Uh, yeah.
Secret Concert Experience
00:02:26
Speaker
uh, I mean, it I have a secret thing that I'm not going to, you know, say too many details on, but I went to a secret concert at a secret location.
00:02:37
Speaker
It was like very exclusive um for this band called the Hackles. And then they also had his name was Adam Selzer. Is it a secret concert because nobody knows who they are?
00:02:51
Speaker
no Everyone knows who they are here in town. They're like a big band here. And then the people in this band are in like a bigger like they're all in like more famous bands. And then this is kind of like their offshoot band that they do a lot of local shows with and stuff. So I got like an invite to this like secret show, but it was like mostly like people from the other band. was like mostly like bandmates of other bands and like family and random friends.
00:03:16
Speaker
i think there was like maybe 30 people there at most. I feel like it was maybe less, but um yeah, it was like a secret show. They were like, don't post where this is because we're we're all breaking a lot together is what they told us. where the show was but like where it was like inside of a barn okay the top like the loft of a barn and like the acoustics in it were like insane um and then i've also found out that apparently where i live has some insanely talented musicians that like have had moved from portland out to here and do shows like kind of randomly around here and stuff so
00:03:51
Speaker
but that's where i met the liverpool guy there was like a i had my liverpool sticker on my car and all a sudden i hear this like scouse accent and he's just like who is are you the one with the liverpool sticker and i was like yeah and he so we like jotted it up and stuff and this you're not gonna imitate a scouse accent oh uh are you the one with the liverpool liverpool sticker
00:04:16
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. he he was ah He was cool. So him and his wife, I ran into them again on like Sunday when they were playing another show at Fort George. And ah he wasn't playing. He just has another band with his wife, but they're all friends. And so him and his wife were like, you should come over and watch games with us because we watched them all together. i was like, yes, please.
00:04:34
Speaker
ah you're like sick soccer friends yeah they were like it's really i love to watch they were like we want to find someone else who likes the team as much as we do and i was like i mean it's probably not as much as a man from liverpool but yeah definitely sign me up maybe maybe close yeah i mean i follow i follow them pretty pretty religiously so uh anyways uh super cool really i'm sure everyone loved to hear everything about that um but i mean i really just don't want to talk about this fucking game because it's just like i would say the game ended and i felt kind of okay but then looked so much better in the second half but yeah the same at the same time it's like we went into it thinking whatever happens it's fine and we did get some help from the rest of the league yeah there's ties for like every team that was isn't is above us currently right now yeah
00:05:22
Speaker
And beating Louisville last week gave us a good, this is kind of, kind of a freebie match. Yeah. But it still
Game Frustration and Analysis
00:05:31
Speaker
sucks to lose. Nobody likes to lose.
00:05:33
Speaker
ah Yeah. And we lost a pretty a good player. Yeah. And that's super irritating. irritating i like felt okay about the match. And then like, as the days and hours went on afterwards, I just kept getting more angry. Yeah.
00:05:46
Speaker
I know. I had to like stop engaging with the discord because I just kept getting angrier and angrier. I like put my phone down. and I just like I was like, I can't take any more takes. I got to go. got to protect. I just got to wait until we got to talk about this again. So I had to like kind of refresh what like the goals, unfortunately, on my fucking the highlights before doing this. I mean, it took a lot of notes, but upsetting. It was there. was there. The team looked good.
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah. I was really hoping they could pull one out in the end, but just didn't didn't work out like that. Yep. All right. ah General notes. What do we got? Angara James Turner reached 50 career NWSL regular season appearances. It's her 28th for the reign. And then she had 22 combined appearances with The Courage back in 2021 and then Orlando Pride in 2022.
00:06:36
Speaker
How did I miss that?
00:06:40
Speaker
I knew about it. I remember from when we signed her but 22 isn't a lot. No, but like, I feel like maybe I just got confused because it was like, we did the double signing with her and Lily at the same time. So I kind of just maybe missed some of the other stuff, but I'm glad that she got an appearance in this game.
00:06:57
Speaker
Yeah. Cause you were talking about last week that, you know, what, what was going on with her. no, I say that and I do feel like, Was that a dumb thing to say? Because the penalty was because of her arm. But like, I don't know.
00:07:13
Speaker
was kind of like, that's just kind of those kind of things happen when you're defending on that part of the field. almost happened for us against the KC. Yeah, I mean... don't think she was bad. i just That was just an unfortunate situation.
00:07:25
Speaker
Yeah, it was just one of those things that happens. I mean, it's kind of, is it irresponsible to jump with your arm out in the box? Yes. Yeah. um But I don't know.
00:07:36
Speaker
It's part of the game. It happens. Mia Fischl started again, which was cool to see. Looked good, too. Yeah, she looked good. I'm feeling good about that signing, for sure. So i didn't have really any notable stats for this match.
00:07:51
Speaker
I was looking back on the FOT Mob. If you look at the momentum chart, though, that's pretty great. It's like red, red, red, red. red And then he gets about 58th minute turns blue.
00:08:02
Speaker
and it turns blue And I will note that Jess Fishlock did sub in in the 53rd minute. And you can definitely see the momentum change in the 58th minute.
00:08:12
Speaker
So I don't know what that says, but i mean, she's a change maker. at the second half did look good. I was also kind of worried with how how we would look without ah me official. And I don't feel like was as bad as I thought it would be.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah. you want to go into positives? Yeah. Then like actual positives? I mean, I guess we kind of talked about it, but it it to me, it did look like Rain were up for the challenge and got I got to say, given some of their recent results, I wasn't sure that that was going to be the case.
00:08:38
Speaker
don't know. I just... I feel like there was, like I had said, like I want to see something that like inspires me to feel like they can make a push in the playoffs.
00:08:49
Speaker
um And when you play a team as dominant as Casey has been and you kind of look like this, um that makes me feel a little more optimistic. I think so. And really, if you take away the penalty, it's a one zero game.
00:09:04
Speaker
Yeah, and that's not a bad result. I also think the second, I mean, yeah, unfortunate handball, obviously, for the first goal. Second goal, ah just not, I mean, like, they kind of lost track of Schwinga. And you just can't do that. No. You're going to get punished for that. Yeah.
00:09:21
Speaker
But yeah, there were moments of good possession and buildup. I noted that there were a couple points in the first half where it started off with a little bit of frantic defending, but then they kind of got it together and started playing the ball out and finding outlets with Fischl.
00:09:39
Speaker
Yeah. And so that was encouraging. i mean, I guess I put in the notes, like, who would have who knows what would have happened if Fischl didn't have to sub out. Yeah.
00:09:49
Speaker
That's kind of just like where I felt. But I don't know, like how many more minutes was she going to get anyways? Right? Yeah. Like, I don't know if she was going to play the full 90. but Probably not. because she hasn't yet.
00:10:00
Speaker
Yeah. But i they did, the rain started with a really low block. And though that is as a fan watching the match, kind of terrifying yeah because you're inviting pressure.
00:10:14
Speaker
um They seem to handle it pretty well. And really, they didn't get a goal and run a play until they were they had opened up. So the low block worked. I mean, there was definitely some nervy moments.
00:10:27
Speaker
but But we've got Claudia Dickey. Yeah, I was like, we got Claudia Dickey, who's who's who's the next thing on the positives list, right? Yep. Dickey looked great. um It's really a shame that this goal or this game had two goals in it. She almost saved the penalty, too.
00:10:44
Speaker
Oh, God, I know. She went the right way. She got her hand on it. It just wasn't quite enough. It was really too bad. I wanted her to save it. Obviously. Obviously. When she gets your hand to it, you're like, ah, you really want to save those.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah. I think the last positive I wanted to go over is I just, I don't think KC is as scary as I thought they were. I think they play a certain style that um kind of forces teams to try to absorb their pressure. And if you can kind of manage that, like mark the right players and everything like that, I don't, I don't know. I feel like there is a way to beat them.
00:11:21
Speaker
yeah I know it hasn't happened yet, but I do like like you had said, like they might lose in the playoffs. And I kind of did think that that might not happen. And i think this game gave me despite us losing, gave me like a sense of how that could work, though.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they're 10 plus points past everyone else.
Referee Bias and Controversy
00:11:42
Speaker
And yet the sixth place team held them to one goal in the run of play. yeah they're not they're not like undefeatable yeah they have weak points that just need to be exploited when you find them yeah uh i think it's time to move on the negatives i just saw your just saw your point of negatives the entire broadcast s simping for casey I mean, you're not wrong. it was clearly like, i wouldn't even say the broadcast. I think you could fucking extend it to the refereeing.
00:12:14
Speaker
Oh, God. I feel like the entire league it like and everyone in charge of it is just completely bought in with making KC this like elite fucking team. Which like they are, but I don't know, after watching, like the refereeing in this game and everything is just kind of...
00:12:32
Speaker
A little... I don't like to complain about the referee, but they were... they were i would I wouldn't say the calls were even. The calls definitely were not even. um But I... Yeah, the broadcast simping, it was just completely talking about how good they were. Will they go down as, like, the greatest team the NWSL has ever seen? They've got Sebastian Salazar on the sideline wearing a Casey hat. Yeah.
00:12:56
Speaker
And he looked like a child in it. Give me a fucking break. And also... Like how many times do you need to mention within the game that if they win this match, they clinch the shield. all fucking know.
00:13:07
Speaker
We all know. You've told us a thousand times. I am aware. um but yeah, and we can talk about the refereeing. Cause that was another negative that I added. ah the referee named Tahini.
00:13:22
Speaker
h I'm going boycott hummus from now on. Um, But ah you touched on this and and I think there was a ah lethal combination between the terrible refereeing and the way that Casey plays.
00:13:37
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they were beating up our players. Very physical. And the referee Tahini was giving stern warnings to Casey players and then throwing out cards for the dumbest shit for us.
00:13:53
Speaker
um I don't like how Casey plays. It's dangerous. It's terrible. um And they're that tackle from Claire Hutton at the end of the game. That's a clear as fucking day red card.
00:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. I don't know if it I mean, other than punching someone in the face. I mean, how do you not call that a slide studs up straight to the leg?
00:14:17
Speaker
That's going to break somebody's leg. Well, when you're the darling of the league right now, apparently you can do whatever the fuck you want. i did that was ah That was the most atrocious missed call I've seen all season.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty bad. um so negative 100 out of 10 for the refereeing this match. I will say, like, I didn't like it. I don't, like, the Reigns' chances I don't think were affected by the referee necessarily.
00:14:43
Speaker
But our chances going forward are because their fucking players got hurt. Yeah, that's true. got to beat the fuck up. Yeah. Yeah, Curry, they were really going hard on Curry, too. um and the reason Fischl got hurt is because of the way that they were tag-teaming and, like, going around Haidema, right? Mm-hmm.
00:14:59
Speaker
So, i don't know. something Something I don't like about the way KC plays, which is just, like, i don't know i guess i had heard from from some other people who watch them regularly that this is kind of their thing um they just kind of bully their way into things which is like fine but when it when you start get to get to the point where it's reckless and dangerous that's like an issue absolutely and i did that i saw that yeah and then ah that you know just just the what do they call it the
00:15:30
Speaker
Yeah. chery on top what cherry on top yeah the cherry was thinking about cake um the jerry on top of it is when you have a referee that does nothing about it yeah because you got to set the tone early on in the match and the tone was set pretty much for us to not kick the ball away after a fouls called like yeah I don't get it. um And i I just think that I i hope everyone's okay.
00:15:59
Speaker
We don't know about Mia Fischel because she did have a kind of a nasty ankle roll. And in the postgame presser, laura Harvey said it might be a couple weeks. Of course, we don't know.
00:16:10
Speaker
we don't have an update on that yet. The mystery of of injuries and Laura Harvey. What other negatives do you want to highlight? Yeah. I know these are not team related, but back to the broadcast, we could not tell that that was a handball for the PK.
00:16:27
Speaker
and know And then they showed one fleeting little part and it was like, oh, yeah, that's obviously a handball. Why don't just fucking show me that? Yeah. the The communication was clearly not there. It seemed like this was everyone's first day on the job. Yeah.
00:16:41
Speaker
Because they were like, oh, shit, we missed a fucking, oh shit, we missed the penalty. Or like, wow, this is it, right? It was the last thing that happened? Like, no, it wasn't that. They also, the broadcast crew, this isn't even on I mean, they didn't show the replay correctly, but the broadcast crew missed James Turner's yellow, which I caught that live. Like, I clearly saw why she got yellowed.
00:17:04
Speaker
Yeah. I was like, she fucking blasted the ball. And like the fucking ref was right there. I was like, that's going to be a yellow all fucking day. Like, unfortunately, but like, you just can't fucking do that. That was like kind of a mental lapse on James Turner's part, which is not a great time for that to happen to because and she was playing the rest of the match um on a yellow.
00:17:23
Speaker
But like the ref, like the commentators were just like, I have no idea. I thought it was for Haidema. I'm like, well, watch the fucking game then. don't. I expect more from J.P. De La Camera. Yeah.
00:17:35
Speaker
For as long as he's been doing it. And ah as good as he normally is, especially with the national team. But heat there's a couple and a couple names were wrong. It was just like like an amateur hour because they were so their brains were so filled with like having a hard-on for KC that they forgot that we were playing.
00:17:53
Speaker
Yeah. that's That's what it felt like to me, too. Yeah. um We were not at all on the front foot in the first half. But hey, sometimes when you're playing teams like this, you just got to hang on. Yeah.
00:18:07
Speaker
And like I said, there were good moments retaining the ball, getting out of pressure from the low block. But yeah, they were not able to get any anything really into a dangerous area.
00:18:20
Speaker
and The ah strategy of trying to shut down Haidama for KC definitely worked. Mm-hmm. They didn't... they couldn't The ring couldn't figure it out, couldn't get past it. They had some okay chances in the second half and stuff, but like KC...
00:18:33
Speaker
dominated everything in the first half so which again i think the raider comfortable with that kind of being a thing it's just unfortunate that that that penalty happened um and then you're talking about going to the second half zero zero against a team like kc and maybe things go differently i don't know but the way they hurt our players maybe not yeah
00:18:53
Speaker
uh yeah i don't know do you want do you want to say anything else No, I'm ready for next week. but Yeah, me too. I don't don't want to go into this anymore. Sorry if anyone was hoping for more, but I just feel like it was a little bit of an unfortunate result.
00:19:09
Speaker
You can, if you want to look more into the technical side of this, there are a couple really good articles on Sound at Heart for Ride the Valkyries.
Podcast Independence and Listener Support
00:19:17
Speaker
Yeah. About this match. um We'll get a little bit more out of there.
00:19:21
Speaker
But I just really want to talk about this because it sucked. It sucked. I also think the Reign did almost everything they could. i really do do think they played well. And it's just sometimes this is the way it goes.
00:19:36
Speaker
And hopefully, hopefully they can have some vengeance for the rest of the season to get to the playoffs and maybe play them again, you know? Yeah, I would love to take them out in the playoffs. That would be awesome. But I don't want to finish in eighth.
00:19:50
Speaker
No, please don't. Please don't give me a heart attack. I was like, we got some we got some favorable games that coming up on our schedule, so i would I would like to finish higher than that, please. Yeah.
00:20:01
Speaker
Oh, I did want to add something about the post-match presser. Okay. Laura Harvey was talking about how... So Jessica Berman, commissioner, was there at the match sitting next to Huerta's husband when they showed the showed her on camera and they had the shield there. Laura Harvey noted that both times she's won the shield with the rain.
00:20:21
Speaker
They've never had the shield on site and they've never had the fanfare for them. Yeah. Yeah. Which, okay, Casey is miles ahead of anyone. They were going to do it at some point.
00:20:33
Speaker
So I think there's that. Yeah. The last shield, we totally got away with it. Yeah, there was no way that the shield needed to be there for that. But the one before, yes. Yeah, the other two, I would say for Our first one, yeah, I don't know.
00:20:47
Speaker
I get where she was coming from. um But also, when you have this many games left in your schedule and you've already clinched it. Yeah. like maybe do that with the rain yeah i would i would much prefer that that would be great uh but that's all i got from from there yeah all right uh time for cooler player the match the cooler player the match is brought to the doctor's office a great little 12 seat bar on capitol hill the owner is a big fan of the rain and is proud to be our first sponsor
00:21:18
Speaker
We came to a quick agreement about this. I just double checked with ah Van on it. um I think this this week we're going to give it to Claudia Dickey. Claws up.
00:21:30
Speaker
It's like the Lady Gaga thing, you know, but with claws. Anyways, I thought she had a great match. This game might have been a blowout if it wasn't for her, to be honest.
00:21:41
Speaker
Yeah. and When you play a team like KC, you do need your goalkeepers to step up in the way that she did. um and we've seen teams get their asses kicked when they don't have good goalkeepers by KC. Because they do have quite the arsenal of players.
00:21:56
Speaker
It's like kind of almost unfair. um I mean, it's like they're... ah they've already quenched the se shield with many games left um but yeah i think claudia dickie deserves it for this week and it's just it's just too bad she didn't get that fucking penalty saved i know next time next time um thanks again to our sponsor the doctor's office the doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after rain match check out their instagram at tdo seattle or better yet go drink there in person cheers cheers what we got for trivia i'm glad you posted it from social media too
00:22:32
Speaker
I told you not to promise.
00:22:36
Speaker
I'm so bad at the internet. but It's just stupid. It's like, I don't know. I mean, ah think everyone knows that social media, we are not in the peak of it. We are not.
00:22:47
Speaker
I also just like am staunchly avoiding it because of the state of the world right now. That's what I'm saying. Like it's, this is not a good time to be on the internet. Yeah. It is good to be informed. yeah,
00:23:00
Speaker
But yeah. Don't need to doom scroll. Yeah. So last week's question was who scored the first NWSL goal for the Reign? And the bonus part of the question, what current NWSL player is she married to?
00:23:14
Speaker
you know the answer to this? Someone's currently playing and they're gay. Keelan Winters isn't married to a player. um Hope Solo's not married.
00:23:26
Speaker
No, She also didn't score. Oh, fuck. Trying to rack my brain right now. feel like i should know this. Who is it?
00:23:37
Speaker
Christine Nairn. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Who's she married to? Jane Campbell. Okay. How did I not know? I missed the memo on this. Mm-hmm.
00:23:48
Speaker
I'm not and into, like, my gay news radar is not, when do they get married? A while ago. i was like, I'm not, my gay radar news, like, is not what it used to be. I'm, like, in my thirty s now I forgot about it until I follow Christine Aaron on Instagram. Got it. i think they, she posted it, but like, yeah.
00:24:05
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. I don't even know what she's even doing now. That's kind of a cool little fact. Actually. I didn't know that. Cool. What else going to teach us? I guess some people already know these things, but.
00:24:18
Speaker
Okay. Here's one. Who did there? Did I already do this one? Who did the Reign get their first NWSL win against? That doesn't sound familiar. Okay, the question for next week.
00:24:28
Speaker
Who did the Reign get their first NWSL win against? We'll find out next week. Is there a bonus is that just it? ah you can You can point out who scored in that match.
00:24:39
Speaker
Okay. That season was really bad, so there wasn't a lot of wins. Yep, and I'll give you a hint. One of them was the answer to this last week's question. One of the goal scorers.
00:24:50
Speaker
Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
00:24:53
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network, which now includes Anietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild.
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00:25:01
Speaker
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00:25:07
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:25:35
Speaker
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00:25:46
Speaker
We're going quickly run through these NWSL worlds. um I would also suggest anyone um but go outside while you can and enjoy things like with people, you know, be with your community, stuff like that in these bad times.
00:26:01
Speaker
So. it's not good go open some credit cards before we can't get credit anymore get your vitamin d while you can because that's also that's we already got that issue happening all the time um take your tylenol oh yeah so l la you put la that's weird um i was watching the highlights and that's what they had on the thing oh i guess it makes sense okay the did you did you watch the highlight of this or something yeah okay uh oh wait i i also saw this um i was so angel city played spirit uh rodman had a penalty that was saved but then got we got saved and then yeah it wasn't a good initial penalty and angelina anderson dove the right way and it kind of just bounced off her body but robin was able to pick it up and put it in what are your what's your opinion on penalty saves
00:26:52
Speaker
Like, do you think that it it should just be, like, goal kick after that? No, it's a live ball. But, like, you think it should always be like that? You don't have any desires to change the rule?
00:27:03
Speaker
No. Okay. ah just I know some people do, so I just wanted to ask. because I think... Number one it's going to be a crapshoot when you save it. if you're going to, you're rarely going to catch it You're usually going to put it on the post, and if anything.
00:27:17
Speaker
um or you're going to put it behind the goal. When it comes in that's no longer your job. That's a defense should be running in right as that ball is taken. Isn't there like a rule with the person who kicks it can't be the one first one to touch it or something?
00:27:33
Speaker
No. I feel like I've heard that rule somewhere or something. Or is it? No, it when when the player, when the kicker makes contact with the ball, the other players can enter the box.
00:27:45
Speaker
so And that player that kicked the ball usually stops after they kick it. So science-wise, your defenders should be able to get in to clear the ball before that player gets access to it.
00:27:58
Speaker
Okay. Kind of interesting that Spirit tied that game. Yeah. um I will say Giselle Thompson looked half decent in that match. She has good games.
00:28:09
Speaker
Does she want to go join her sister in Chelsea? um She'll be at another club nearby. ah Houston beat Chicago one zero ah Sorry, Chicago. i think your run, you know, it was good.
00:28:23
Speaker
But had to end. Yeah, mean, Ryan scored in the 28th minute in that match. And then Orlando played North Carolina in Orlando got beat in the ah goal in the 89th minute by Koyama.
00:28:38
Speaker
Yeah, everything's downhill for Orlando, unfortunately for them. Yep. Another big game, Utah against Racing Louisville. Utah won three to two. and think we have to retire the, at least they're not Utah.
00:28:51
Speaker
Yep. I mean, they're in like second to last place. At least they're not Chicago. Yeah. Well, you know what? I'm not going to do that to Chicago. not while Nair's there. Yeah, but Mina Tanaka hit an absolute bullet in this game in the 13th minute. um Like I said in multiple podcasts, really overlooked player, but she's on a semi-shitty team.
00:29:13
Speaker
It happens. um Portland, San Diego tied one to one. ah Portland barely got out of this. I'll take it when we're splitting points. Yeah. Either way, it was going to be fine. um My favorite player scored against Portland.
00:29:29
Speaker
Claire McCaskill. Yeah. Or sorry, not Claire McCaskill. Savannah McCaskill. I was looking at something else on my phone. It was Claire. Savannah McCaskill. Your best friend forever. My bestie.
00:29:40
Speaker
And then the Sunday game. Bay against Gotham. Roosevelt? Yeah, get you get one. Why'd you only get one against Bay? i don't know, but Rachel Kunanji scored again. Yeah.
00:29:53
Speaker
Yeah. Two weeks in a row, right? Mm-hmm. So I feel like that's a pretty good pretty good set of results in terms of things for the Reign because Louisville lost and then a lot of split points around.
00:30:05
Speaker
So, yeah. Could be worse. Still one point behind the third place team, which is Gotham. Yeah. Well, and transitioning to that, ah the next game that we have is against the Courage. So if we pick up three points there, that will really help.
Match Preview Against the Courage
00:30:22
Speaker
And the Courage aren't ah ah they aren't as elite as they used to be. No. No. But if they beat us, yeah they'll jump ahead of us. Yeah. so they got a lot of a motivation for it.
00:30:33
Speaker
This is an important, important match for the Reign. Yeah, so that game's gonna be Sunday, September 28th, 5pm at Lumen Field, so at least it's at home. um It'll be on... i don't even want to promote these fucking channels these days.
00:30:48
Speaker
Because they're all doing bad shit. Besides maybe NWC Plus... so plus there's no ethical consumption under capitalism i know i know uh it's also on fox 13 plus and paramount plus courage of loss or they've won their last two matches though so that kind of does make me a little nervous but again streaks got to be broken um they're in eighth place 28 points rain sixth place on 30 points so yeah like you were saying they could jump us if they win kind of scary kind of scary But these are these are the things that like, you know, you get you get you get presented an opportunity.
00:31:23
Speaker
You are the rain players. You get presented an opportunity to move up and also keep someone down. Yeah, these are the games that that make a difference and can make or break playoffs.
00:31:35
Speaker
You know, you drop points here. Not but not a lot of games left to make up for that. I just want to see. I don't care how it looks. I honestly do not care how this game looks.
00:31:47
Speaker
I want to come out of it with a win. have five games left. I don't care if you've got to scrape it from the bottom of the barrel to put a ball in the back of the net. Do it. Yeah. They should be playing every game like this, but...
00:31:59
Speaker
This is a win a very very winnable game. And hopefully players are healthy. Yeah, but they need to go into this in a win win and probably make the playoffs or lose and you're on the chopping block.
00:32:16
Speaker
yeah that's the mentality every game's a must win i would say from here on out if they're serious about getting into the playoffs i mean they could sneak in right it's like how they snuck and got the fucking shield but like you want to go into the playoffs on with some momentum right like you don't want to just get in because all the other results went your way you want to do it because you fucking did it Yeah, and you don't want to be the eighth place team playing playing the first place team.
00:32:46
Speaker
Not in KC either. i don't want to go there again. I mean, i don't I would love to knock them out, obviously, but if I had another choice, I would probably choose in a something else. ah Exactly. i would i' rather play Gotham.
00:32:59
Speaker
yeah i I don't know. They always fuck with us, though. I know. Well, there's a few teams that do that. One day, though, we'll be the ones to get them. One day. ah is there anything you want to like see in that match? Any any like ah like specifics that you got?
00:33:17
Speaker
Goals. Goals. They need us to score goals. Yeah. And I'd love to see a shutout. Claudia Dickey should get a shutout in this match. Yeah. But we need to be dangerous. Yeah. The team needs to absolutely just ball out.
00:33:32
Speaker
Take the shots. Go for it. Get the ball forward. Get Maddie Darlene in there. Yeah, she looked great last game. I need to see her. Yeah, when she came on, she looked really good. um And I want to see her.
00:33:45
Speaker
i say start this game in the four back. who now you're on board start that get this game yeah yeah i guess it's not casey because it did work until didn't start this game in the four back and go for it yeah get three goals before half oh that's okay lock it down all right i mean i'm not opposed to it that seems crazy but i'm not opposed to it most of the predictions that i've made this year have been completely wrong so We'll start high and then we'll go down.
00:34:11
Speaker
Yeah. um It does look like KC or KC, North Carolina. They're not. So they've given up 30 goals this season. um We've only given up 25. Their goal differential is negative three. Ours is one right now. should They should win this game.
00:34:28
Speaker
They got it. They got it. um I do think that Darlene, we should have maybe pointed that out on the positives um with Darlene because she was balling out both offensively and defensively. She looked fucking great defensively in the game.
00:34:40
Speaker
As annoying as it is for me as someone who would rather see her higher up. But she there was like a there was like a play in that game where she like came back and just fucking like, I don't know, bullied out. Yeah.
00:34:52
Speaker
Bullied them out. I mean, there a few of them were too because ah even Mondesir was, i remember, I don't know if she got my memo, but
00:35:01
Speaker
I was like she needs to like bulk up or something because i feel like she kept going down and then she fucking came with that hard challenge but i wouldn't be mad about her starting again why not I yeah I I think you have to um they really the rain really need control Monaka that's gonna be in the midfield and I think I think really you just throw Sam Meza in on her yeah as as one does just enlist mezza mezza mania mezza mania because the last time we played them was back in march that's the game we lost two to one know we won that game two to one which game sorry this is last season but what year am i looking at here
00:35:49
Speaker
Oh, God. Everything is fucking... I'm like a hot mess right now with everything organized. um You talking about the last time we played them? Yeah. March.
00:35:59
Speaker
That's a while ago. We beat them, right? Yeah, two to one. That was like... Because we don't win there very often. That was like a whole thing. Oh, that's right. This was Jess Fishlock's 200th appearance. Yeah, we don't win there very often, so that was notable. This is the Bug Galazzo game.
00:36:13
Speaker
Oh, is it? Yeah. God. Fucking years. Felt like forever. It's... This feels like last season. It does. This year is taking forever and it's really upsetting. Yeah, this is the game that Fishlock scored that really good goal coming through ah the box.
00:36:32
Speaker
And then Jordan Bug hit that glazo. And maybe we remember we won and we were like, wait, are they bad or did we play well? Yeah. And we were up. I mean, we were home last time we played them. We had that time where we were giving up goals shortly after scoring. So yeah let's not do that other again. i guess that would be my one request.
00:36:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think that they just need to start putting on putting putting points on the board. good goals. Get them early. Yeah, I don't want to have to hope for subs to chase the game.
00:37:04
Speaker
i will. I mean, we could have pointed this out in the positives, too, but think we're backtracking a lot. Sorry. it's so disorganized.
00:37:13
Speaker
Madison Curry oh keeps balling out. I know she's great. I I'm a big fan of hers. me too and i think that having her it just adds another element to the back line and she's so steady she's great she's uh she's as good as everyone made it seem like she was going to be when they were mad when the eight angel city fans were mad at that she was leaving yeah she's better than i thought she would be she's way better i thought she would be especially for how young she is
00:37:46
Speaker
Yeah, I guess the one other thing I wanted ah to mention was um just on the rain news notes, but Ryan Brown was taken off of the um like injury list. So hopefully she'll be available soon. We can start getting some minutes with her. That'd be a nice addition to our depth.
00:38:05
Speaker
to have ah going going into this five games left push. So that's our first ever cooler player of the match was Ryan Brown.
00:38:17
Speaker
ah She was very, very good when she was available. And I'm eager to see where she's at and hopefully get her some minutes coming up because, man, that would be a nice piece to have.
00:38:29
Speaker
Yeah, she was bawling out. And we were hyped, hyped, hyped. And then, bam! That was just like a... Got stabbed in the heart when she got injured. The curse of the ACL in Woe So.
00:38:42
Speaker
Yep.
Conclusion and Gratitude
00:38:44
Speaker
Alright. Sorry this was kind of a bit all over the place at the end here. But, um... You know. We don't make a lot of money doing this, so... We're not professionals.
00:38:55
Speaker
We're not professionals. Kind of throwing together the show notes a little late, but I think we got it done. So um do you have any shout outs? I don't think so, no.
00:39:07
Speaker
Okay. I'm trying think if I have any. I don't. So ah thanks again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. ah You can always go follow us on Blue Sky and Instagram if you want to be on the internet for some reason right now.
00:39:21
Speaker
Yeah. It's at CoolerGuildPod. You can send us an email. We love an email. Thecoolerguild at gmail.com. You can visit us on our main page, soundatheart.com forward slash thecoolerguild.
00:39:34
Speaker
You can follow us on YouTube, youtube.com forward slash at thecoolerguild. We're still kind of working through some audio issues. And I think until we kind of get that honed in, we probably aren't going to be posting up our video episodes.
00:39:45
Speaker
um But we are trying to get to the bottom of that. I promise we're trying. I'm using a different computer. Yeah. yeahd rooms I've I've changed what charger I use. I've reset my computer. it's I can barely hear Van for this episode.
00:40:04
Speaker
But we're trying to make it work. um So, ah yeah. Wherever you're listening, though, please go rate five stars. Till next time. I'm Coop. I'm Van. Stay cool, y'all. Stay cool.
00:40:32
Speaker
acetaminophen because i can fucking say the word yeah they had to choose one he could say they had to choose a brand name that he could say well they also you well they also remember they said they were gonna have the uh they were gonna have the answer was gonna be this fall and we've we've come to the conclusion they did it anyways uh