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Lackluster at Lumen - Ep. 36
225 Plays7 days ago
The growing pains continue. In this week’s episode we discuss the Reign’s loss to the Washington Spirit, what went wrong, and the few things the team did right. We also cover the other results from around the league, preview the Reign’s next match, and chat about Arsenal’s incredible win in the Champions League final.
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Details
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 36 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, May 27th, 2025. On today's episode, we have the unfortunate task of going over Rain's loss.
00:00:36
Speaker
to the Washington Spirit, um but we'll also be doing a brief wrap-up of the other results in the league and doing a preview for the Reigns next match, among some other kind of woe-so highlights, um but first some housekeeping. The Cooler Guild is part of the Sound at Heart podcast network. You can either listen to us on our public feed or if you're Sound 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, just visit our page at soundertheart.com forward slash the Cooler Guild. The subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing. Mm-hmm. How are you doing?
00:01:08
Speaker
I'm sick. i don't know
Host Updates and Game Highlights
00:01:10
Speaker
if yeah you guys can hear that, but I have some sort of sinus thing going on. So ah it was a long weekend. I think it caught up to me. Yeah. Yeah. But your team won. Yeah.
00:01:20
Speaker
And you're still, it seemed like you're still ranked 11th, right? We went up when we were 12th last week. so Oh, okay. Okay. Nice. Yeah. So, no, I'm just trying to have a chill day today.
00:01:32
Speaker
Good for you. how about you? um Well, I have been long awaiting this new video game called Cattle Country.
Rain vs. Washington Spirit Recap
00:01:40
Speaker
which came out today and it's like stardew valley but it's like a crossover of that and red dead redemption ah so it's like a little farm game but with like hunting and bandits and stuff um there's already glitches but again it's the first day the game's been out so i guess it's expected um Anyways, if anyone's into Stardew Valley, I'd recommend it.
00:02:00
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. Super cool. um ah It seems a lot harder than Stardew Valley, but oh well. I need a challenge. Otherwise, I've been joining in the sun as much as I can. Alex is leaving this weekend, so I'm planning to just stay inside and play video games, even though it's goingnna be super nice outside. Yeah.
00:02:17
Speaker
We'll see. ah Well, bad news is we have to go over the rain match. Yeah. I know it was so Yeah, I have been not looking forward to this.
00:02:30
Speaker
No, me either. Anyway, I'll get into the recap. ah The rain took on the Washington Spirit Friday night at Lumen Field. The Spirit got on board first in the 11th minute when Casey Kruger's cross into the box saw two unmarked attackers ready to pounce.
00:02:43
Speaker
But desperate defending caused Shea Holmes to stick her foot in and ultimately score an own goal. But just six minutes later, Holmes found her revenge when she got on the end of a Madison Creek cross to equalize the match. The Spirit would go ahead again with the final goal of the match in the 35th minute when Ashley Hatch took advantage of and ah of atrocious defending and had an easy tap in
Analyzing Rain's Performance Issues
00:03:00
Speaker
from a gift Monday cross.
00:03:01
Speaker
Another forgettable loss for Seattle who once again could not seem to find their footing at home.
00:03:09
Speaker
This is like several matches now where we're just not performing well. It's just so frustrating because it's not like we can't do it. No. Do you think it's like a we're missing like another piece or do you think it's like the injuries that we had just like didn't help?
00:03:26
Speaker
I think kind of all of the above. I mean, the team's their own worst enemy at this point. As they said, yeah. um Because we know they we know that this team, even with the players that are injured, can show up and can play these top teams.
00:03:40
Speaker
um And it didn't happen this week. Granted, didn't start, which, you know, I was skeptical when I saw that, but it was... Because we got to see Adames start. And, you know, people have been wanting to see her.
00:03:55
Speaker
I don't know that this is like, I wouldn't say that this, like this game, this performance, I'm going to like knock Adames and not want to give her another chance. The spirit team is really good. Yeah. I think that's, that's, they're really good. And then we just weren't up to our standard. Well, they were able to very early on expose the rain's weakness.
00:04:15
Speaker
It was so painful to watch from the beginning. Yeah, it was so bad. i had to ask about it in the
Player Contributions and Potential Moves
00:04:20
Speaker
post-game press conference. I saw you ask your first question. in person, yeah. In person, yeah. But yeah, I don't know. it's just It was just so sad.
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. yeah We'll into some notable stats, though. The Spirit, for their part, they are now 5-0-0 on the road. So they are a very good away team.
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah. Ugh. But like, we got to do better. Yeah, we got to score more goals. ah The other stat that I had brought up, um we're like, our goal differential is like zero right now.
00:04:57
Speaker
um So we have, we're in the top three of like, in the good way of goals, can so like people scoring on us. So we've only given up nine. So we're the top. Goals conceded. Yeah, so we're there, and but then we're in the bottom three of goals scored.
00:05:14
Speaker
So I feel like when I read that and saw the numbers, I'm like, okay, this result does make sense. And until we start to change something here with being able to score, you know, this the this could continue.
00:05:30
Speaker
Yeah. because that's you can't like the other two teams that are in the bottom of scoring were chicago in utah lord that is not company you want to have this year no it's not not at all but let's go to the positives before we absolutely tear this match apart It was Shea Holmes's first professional goal.
00:05:54
Speaker
And as I heard, think it he was Steve say, also her first brace. Oh, no. But yeah, it was her first professional goal. um So that's good for her. Yeah, I mean, it's also good because it was like a ah vengeance goal kind of thing. yeah and it was a quick
Upcoming Matches and Team Strategy
00:06:10
Speaker
response, which we we don't always see from this team.
00:06:13
Speaker
Not at all. So that was nice to see. um It was also made a huge difference um when Fishlock and Coco came on in the second half. Yeah. i I mean, there was an immediate chance right after they subbed on, so...
00:06:28
Speaker
Yeah, I feel like we're maybe underestimating missing Montessir or like at least like because i don't know. i've seen lot people be like, we need to make a summer signing. We can make a summer signing. But I'm like Montessir very, very good.
00:06:40
Speaker
And she does things that other players don't do, especially when she gets the ball down to the end line. She'll take players on and go to goal. And that creates immediate danger for the other team.
00:06:52
Speaker
Yeah, and I think a lot of the complaints about this game were that we were trying to feed Darlene pretty much, you know, that was kind of our main strategy. So only going up the left side doesn't really give you a lot of options. But if you've got Mondesir on the other side and Maddie on the other side, you got two sides that are um working for you, hopefully.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah, so there was, it was like all all goal all the goals were scored in the first half. Second half, the performance was better. Not great, but better. And they have nothing to show for it other than not being scored on.
00:07:26
Speaker
Fishdog and Coco definitely changed the game and made the team more dangerous. So it's good that they're healthy and I hope that that they continue to stay healthy. Another thing that I noticed and was very heartening for me was Jordan Bug was getting higher up the field.
00:07:41
Speaker
She had a couple really good long balls out to Madison Curry. Yeah. i like one is One that ended up being like the Curry cross that started the goal sequence. So um she, I like that for her. And she's got a really good pace on her passes on those long balls.
00:08:00
Speaker
And they're not just kind of errant and everywhere. So it was cool to see that. And and it it was definitely some something that was very noticeable in helping the offense get get higher up the pitch. Yeah, and we and we know she can shoot a banger.
00:08:12
Speaker
Yeah, we do. So if she gets the right space for that and can't find the cross, we know she can try to make the shot. so One positive that I added to this was the good news is we don't play again until ah June 6th.
00:08:27
Speaker
I think they definitely need the time to regroup, and that should hopefully help but it's the start of a road series that I'm not super thrilled about but given how this performance went and the the other that I would say like the last few games we haven't really seen this team playing up to like some of the higher potential that they've had and shown um at points in the season that this can kind of give them more
League Results and Match Incidents Discussion
00:08:50
Speaker
time to like look back at the other games and kind of see what went wrong Hopefully.
00:08:54
Speaker
Hopefully. Hopefully. Yeah. As long as no one gets injured when they're on a international duty. Fingers crossed. because Yeah. There's a lot of people leaving for that. Sure are. Which is good and bad.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah. But ah things that I did not like. Negatives. um ah first First thing I per out wrote was the team is frustrating to watch. Yep. That's it.
00:09:17
Speaker
Nothing was going the right way. I don't know. I didn't see a lot of... tenacity that tenacity that we used to see in the big the first few games or whatever with the younger players feel like we were just kind of missing that we were missing that last game even though we did get a win and like they snug out that win right the lot the game before the spirit one they snuck that out uh i i think anyone could have watched that performance and been like this is this is not a sustainable way to win a game right And you're probably going to lose it more often than not, too.
00:09:46
Speaker
um So, like, I'm not shocked at all by this performance, ah but I did expect more. Yeah. And i there are some players were showing that tenacity, yeah um but it didn't seem like team wide philosophy for this match.
00:10:02
Speaker
The Spirit have a pretty young squad. um They also have a pretty fast team. um And it seemed like maybe the
International Matches and Player Management
00:10:10
Speaker
weaknesses that we do have were kind of just um very apparent in this match. They were exploited.
00:10:15
Speaker
Yes. Yes. That entire left side in the beginning of the game with Shea Holmes to Lou Barnes was just absolutely getting destroyed. It was so brutal watch just like over and over and over again because there was like a couple other chances that Spirit had in that half or like we could have been down like four goals.
00:10:35
Speaker
Yeah. ah How many VAR checks were there in the first half? A lot. Yeah. Yeah. So it it just was not fun to watch and it kept happening. And I'm like, why are you not fixing this?
00:10:46
Speaker
They couldn't keep up. Yeah. That's what it looked like to me. They like Shea Holmes literally could not keep up. Lou Barnes could literally not keep up. And like, I get it. Like you go and look at these players that the spirit have and they're not easy players to cover.
00:10:58
Speaker
But at the same time, like. You've got to figure that it's a problem that you need to solve in the game. yeah And you got to figure it out. And they finally figured out in the second half. Exactly.
00:11:08
Speaker
but It just was you you lost the game in the first half. You didn't figure it out fast enough. Yeah. So, yeah, Lou Barnes, that was not the game for her.
00:11:20
Speaker
No, I don't know if this is the right. I mean, it's not a secret that Lou Barnes is more than likely near the end of her career. She definitely is. And to me, I'm starting to think like we need to go and find a Lou Barnes replacement in that position, um maybe in the summer window.
00:11:40
Speaker
i don't know. and I'm curious what's on the market, I guess. That's maybe you'll find like an article about like top people that might be looking to the leave their clubs or making moves. But Yeah, some somebody did ask if we were going to do any sort of transfer transfer market yeah stuff. And I was like, maybe we should get Susie or June on because I feel like they know more than I do about that.
00:12:02
Speaker
Yeah, definitely a place that I'm ah more than willing to have pick someone else's brain about. For sure. ah Spirit also, i
Conclusion and Listener Engagement
00:12:10
Speaker
mean, Corey Bethune is back in full force. Hal Hirschfeld came back from injury late into this game today.
00:12:17
Speaker
so that just was not good for us. And but imagine Trini Rodman would have been playing. No, no. Torched. Torched.
00:12:27
Speaker
It would have been bad. I don't know. Maybe they would have like maybe they would have been more like... like ready for it though i don't know another like negative i wanted to point out was the i mean we talk about this week after week after week but i like i could not believe how distracted they were like to me the way that the the commentators had dealt with this the second goal for the spirit in my head i was like we're not even losing because their way they're talking about it is like they didn't even score like because they were just sleepwalking through the entire commentary they had like some other dialogue happening
00:12:59
Speaker
during that second goal and I was like like I feel bad that we get scored on but the same time when they don't really make it a moment it felt less bad ah so like I guess maybe in my perfect world now I want bad commentary if we're gonna lose yeah it was on the I re-watched it without sound smart and then i watched the highlights with sound oh and it was just like were they even watching the game i had to go look up who crossed the ball because i was like who was that because they weren't even like oh cry bithoon to casey kruger kruger in with her left foot but you know nothing it was like they're watching a baseball game that was boring the game was already boring you don't have to make it more boring
00:13:44
Speaker
guess Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do have any other negatives you want to call out? No. All right. It is kind of a negative that they don't play a home game until August 1st. Yeah. But also I'm in the middle of the USLW season, so it's fine for me.
00:13:59
Speaker
From a personal standpoint, maybe it's fine. Yeah. ah Into the press conference. Again, disappointing loss, disappointing performance. They send in some vets, which I respect.
00:14:11
Speaker
Some things I got out of this. they They didn't know that it was Shea Holmes' first professional goal. Someone had to point it out. It's kind of funny. ah matter don't know. i where we're I guess, like, where has everyone been?
00:14:24
Speaker
but is weird Well, the weird thing is is that they talked about how they had been practicing with Shay over the week to, like, try to get her to score goal, and they somehow didn't know her first. I'm like, you were just practicing this for somebody who's never scored a goal and you didn't realize she had never done this. She's got that air of confidence.
00:14:43
Speaker
I mean, I guess it worked. Yeah. But yeah, Jess was saying, so they had Jess Fishlock and Phoebe McLaren in the press conference. Jess said, we can be happy for Shay and disappointed in the results. Like those two things can coexist.
00:14:55
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, but still sucks. and Also, she did score an own goal. Yeah. Granted, I think that goal was going in regardless, but the positioning was bad from everybody else around there. So i mean, it was almost virtually the same thing that happened in the second goal.
00:15:09
Speaker
The defender was not but yeah was not ball side. If you get in front of that defender, you whack the ball out, you clear it. If you're behind them, your body positioning is so bad. It just goes in. Yeah, and this is ah like, this is, I feel this is the spirit's bread and butter sometimes. Mm-hmm.
00:15:24
Speaker
And for how good the defending's been for most of the season, this was like very much a letdown. Yeah, they should know better. They should do better. You know, Phoebe's saying we hurt ourselves more than they hurt us, which definitely true, but.
00:15:37
Speaker
I will say they probably wouldn't have said that last year. Because like the team was definitely worse than like the spirit. Well, and that's the frustrating thing is they're not helping themselves.
00:15:49
Speaker
No, no. And it's like, you're already having it hard enough. And like basically a rebuild year. Yeah, they're putting themselves in a difficult place to climb out of if they continue this.
00:15:59
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of all I got from their press conference. It was quite short. Both of these were. i will say we did find out that like Lynn didn't start because they're just like trying to let like she's on some sort of restriction management. Yeah, managing your minutes because yeah, playing full 90 coming off injury back to back to back.
00:16:16
Speaker
And she got called up for the U.S., Yeah. So makes sense. Yeah. I'm sure we'll see her back. We'll see how many minutes she gets. She plays for the U S it's always tricky when like you've got these national team players. Cause sometimes maybe they limit their stuff for the club and then they go and play as much as they can for the national team. Yeah.
00:16:36
Speaker
And I'm like, well, what the hell about it? What about us? Yeah. I know. ah Laura, yeah Laura, basically, lot of questions about Kwasi, who was the one destroying our left side in the first half. But, Mike, how do you prevent that?
00:16:51
Speaker
Her answer to that was keep Kwasi from getting the ball, which eventually worked. Yeah. But, I don't know. Too late. For me, it seems like...
00:17:02
Speaker
it's It's hard because on one hand, you've got Kwasi on that side. The other side, you got Casey Kruger streaking down the side. It's tough. And i think they just didn't have the personnel on the field to manage that.
00:17:15
Speaker
No, and I think this goes back to like, this is maybe why Darlene has started at times and in a further back position because she actually does have the speed to keep up with dangerous players like this.
00:17:28
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, you know, Shea Holmes is out for a while, but I do. I like very much remember when we were like, did Shea Holmes get faster? yeah the answer is no. but The answer is apparently no. It's just like a fluke is what it looks like to me at this point.
00:17:44
Speaker
As far as the speed goes, at least. And if you don't have the speed, you have to be figure out how to position yourself better. Like there are ways to compensate. And it just felt felt like they were very out of their depth.
00:17:57
Speaker
I mean, you could see it on the goals. Yeah. I think we need to get Emily Mason little bit more game time. think she's a promising player in the back line. yeah. Yeah, um I was also hoping to see Maddie Mercado, but she was out with some sort of reason, but it wasn't an injury. So hopefully she'll be used absence yeah so hopefully she'll be available in the future. Because I was a player that I was like, I would would would have wanted to see her start even and she wasn't available at all. Right. Because i always think when she goes off the bench, she's pretty energized as well.
00:18:26
Speaker
So that would have been a nice person to bring in, but wasn't an option. Anything else from this game? ah It sucked. didn't enjoy it. I want more. I want better.
00:18:38
Speaker
I do want more. I do want better. I do think that there's still plenty to be excited about for this team. It's just I think we've got so many glimpses of how good it can be that we're sometimes maybe...
00:18:54
Speaker
like our frustration with this, like we're not always keeping into keeping in mind that we're in a rebuild. And we're maybe getting a little too hungry and too greedy too early.
00:19:04
Speaker
um but these are also professional athletes. So i just, I think there's there's some of these performances where I'm like, they can do better. Absolutely. Yeah. I even get, bring myself back a little further into reality, I think would be. Yeah. We're getting reality checks every week. Yeah, every week's a reality check. um But hey, we've gotten more points like right now. Like I saw someone there were i think on the broadcast, I pointed out how many points we had gotten at this point last year almost. No, it was all season. How many points we got last year and what how many points were at this year?
00:19:39
Speaker
And it's not even close how bad we were last year. So ah that was not good. Yeah. It's definitely ignorant to think that this team is going to be like elite, though. Not this year. Maybe next year.
00:19:50
Speaker
Yeah. But even though this match was generally not great, um I did find what you agreed on a player to highlight for a cooler player of the match.
00:20:01
Speaker
The 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 first sponsor. Guess who's back? Yeah, guess who's back?
00:20:12
Speaker
Back again. Phoebe McLaren. her Eminem references. God. Phoebe, you are back. We knew it was going to come again, but I'm sorry it was during a loss, but...
00:20:25
Speaker
um you know they helped they got it together in the second half between her and again it was a fight between my brain when i was contemplating this it once again was a fight between sam mesa and someone else yeah yeah um i could easily been swayed for sam mesa this this match Yeah. Peeve McLaren, though, like for how poorly the other players were playing defensively. Yeah. She had a solid game.
00:20:55
Speaker
Yeah. And she was really good about clearing the ball, not back into dangerous areas. It just was wo one bright, the one bright spot of that back line, really.
00:21:05
Speaker
Yeah, she led the team in completed passes with 51 passes. um She also was second in recoveries with seven recoveries. Sam Meza had 10. Yeah, and then tackles one, Phoebe led that as well with four. So for how much was getting thrown at them, I think she did pretty well.
00:21:24
Speaker
And I think she's deserving of ah being the cooler player cool part of the match this week. Word. Congrats, Phoebe. Welcome back. Thanks once again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. The Doctor's Office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a match.
00:21:37
Speaker
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00:21:45
Speaker
I knew I was butcher this one. ah I did look this up. I tried to figure out pronunciation, but I saw some conflicting things. Sunomunu. Sunomunu cocktail. The agave sunomunu cocktail.
00:21:56
Speaker
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00:22:08
Speaker
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00:22:19
Speaker
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00:22:33
Speaker
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Speaker
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00:23:01
Speaker
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00:23:12
Speaker
Other results around the league. ah Utah played Orlando. Utah sucks. Yeah, Barbara Banda is back. At least for one game. Yeah. ah Chicago played Kansas City.
00:23:24
Speaker
Chicago lost. ah Casey put three on them, but Chicago got one. I'm glad I, you know, for some reason, part of me was like, I think Chicago might win it.
00:23:36
Speaker
but I guess I'm just a Casey hater. Yeah. There's that. ah Houston Bay game was interesting. That game tied two to two. Only note I really took from this was Abby Smith came up with, I think it was like three big saves, but then she also got beat on a one V one.
00:23:52
Speaker
Like she got, she was out in the middle of no man's land and got stepped around and scored on. So, but she still got starting spot from Jane Campbell. So interesting there. ah Angel city lost to Louisville and they lost a three two.
00:24:06
Speaker
This game was kind of wild. Yeah. and There were some hair pulling. That was insane. Who was the pearl player from Louisville that pulled her hair? don't know. They didn't say it on the broadcast.
00:24:17
Speaker
food Classic. um I was reading about her um from Reddit, which, you know, I don't a grain of salt. was it? me look it up. We should know or spewing before we spew it.
00:24:29
Speaker
Yeah, we had this problem last week. Never. we might try i tried to go through so much stuff to get ready and I just couldn't do it. Listen, I'm really distracted by my ah cattle country. I'm also on a lot of cold medicine.
00:24:44
Speaker
Was it Kayla Fisher? Kayla Fisher got the red card. So must have been her. Yeah. So from what I've read is this is a she's kind of like known for for antics like this.
00:24:55
Speaker
um andd be I'd be curious to go see like a reel of her other foul history because it sounds like this is just a reoccurring thing, which is not good. That's not good at all. Not something you want to see.
00:25:07
Speaker
um So there was that, but then Angel City like probably got robbed of a handball. um He put down it was the 84th minute. I know that there's like debate on like hands in a natural position, but the same time, like we've determined that VAR is going to look at all these plays now, right?
00:25:24
Speaker
So at this point, if you're in the box and a ball like might get swung at you while you're in that area, like you should know at this point to put your arms behind your back. or like in front of you or something like to your body.
00:25:36
Speaker
Well, the thing is if you you if you if you try to claim that this is a natural position, but your arms are just flailing, that's not natural. I think if you're falling to the ground and you're catching yourself. Sure. And then it hits you. That's fine. But maybe I could I could be sold on that. But that one to me, I'm like, your arm is out.
00:25:49
Speaker
Well, there's two different there's two different ways you could go about this. It could be. Yes, your body is moving that way and the momentum is taking you until your arm naturally goes out. Right. But also you're making your body bigger. Exactly.
00:26:03
Speaker
And you're cutting off a cross in the box that literally hits your hand. I don't know. It's one of those ones where it's like, okay, well, what is a handball now? I've seen, i would say. Because I've seen that be called.
00:26:15
Speaker
I've seen that like in the last like several years, that's been called as a handball like 95, maybe even more percent of the time that I've watched. Yeah.
00:26:26
Speaker
And I don't think that the NWZL has a very good VAR system this year. Previous year is also not great, but I have seen a lot of really bad calls and missed calls and not good. Not a good look for the refs who already have not been looking good.
00:26:40
Speaker
Not at all. um Then the team we play next, San Diego, throttled North Carolina mean, the only solace in there is that North Carolina hasn't been very great this year.
00:26:52
Speaker
Yeah, in and North Carolina kept up. I mean, until San Diego went off in the second half, they were keeping up. ah Yeah, ah casey Casey Murphy didn't have a good game.
00:27:06
Speaker
I don't know that she's had a good game this season. gri I do think San Diego, like if they get going, they have a lot of very, very threatening players that do scare the shit out of me for when we play them.
00:27:18
Speaker
Yeah, and that's kind of what we saw happen here. But I'm not, but I will say, like, i'm I feel good about our goalkeeper situation. Oh, for sure. Absolutely. Yeah.
00:27:28
Speaker
But, i mean, North Carolina got two on them. Yeah. So they're not, I said this about Washington, too. Yeah. Their chance is beatable, but, you know, the same time, it's like,
00:27:42
Speaker
We're not going to let up five goals. That's just not in us. we've Like i said, we've only given up nine this whole season. Take off the last two where we really fucked up and a few other ones that were fuck ups. And we' we've basically given up no goals.
00:27:56
Speaker
Incredible logic. Yeah, I know. That's what I'm here for. ah other Other soccer, USLW, Northwest Division. ah There were two games this weekend. West Seattle Roadies beat Lane United 2-0. First win ever for them. Yep.
00:28:12
Speaker
Roadies.
00:28:15
Speaker
Every time. ah And then my team, FC Olympia, beat Bigfoot FC five to zero Listen, and I'm trying to get one of those Roadies jerseys for free.
00:28:25
Speaker
You've seen them? They're nice.
00:28:29
Speaker
Anyway, ah other soccer notes. Claudia Dickey signed a contact to contract extension in through 2028. That's pretty great. I posted thing on my Instagram. I saw you tag her too.
00:28:43
Speaker
I was like, man, probably don't need to tag her. oh that's hilarious though it was something like uh a year ago i would have been pissed and now we love her ah so that's exciting and that's good i like to shore that up you know do it now um did you watch the champions league final i did yeah you have the champions league final for the women ah arsenal played barcelona and dar it was a really fun game it was a really fun game um
00:29:16
Speaker
umve I've watched the last couple legs of this tournament and Arsenal, they have good days and bad days. And they have days when some players show up, some days when other players show up. and for some reason in this game, Barcelona didn't show up.
00:29:34
Speaker
No. And everyone on the Arsenal team showed up. Yeah, they got I mean, they it wasn't without effort from Barcelona, but they looked gassed and out of ideas by the end of it.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah, um they they they look like just defeated even before it was over by nearly in the end. So, Tina Blacksinius came on as a sub and scored from another sub Beth Mead.
00:30:00
Speaker
Incredible. I really enjoyed the celebration videos that I've seen. it was great because kim little also got finally got her champions finally got her champions league title well deserved that's i mean that's the part that made me the happiest and we had two americans that got a champions league title emily fox and jenna nicewanger yeah and emily fox was a key part of that too. Yeah, she played really well.
00:30:23
Speaker
it was fun. I liked watching that. ah In devastating player news, one of our old old faves, Alana Cook, ah was announced this week that she tore her ACL, MCL and meniscus. Brutal.
00:30:36
Speaker
Blowout. Yeah, that sucks. She was... inching towards maybe getting back to the U.S. s Women's National Team. I mean, it was still a little bit of a long shot given kind of what the situation is with trying to get young players worked into that. But even she made it harder for herself the last time she was called up. Yeah. and now she's having to the biggest setback could possibly have underneath.
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah, so all the well wishes to her. I think Dabinia is going out for a while, too. I think it obviously I saw that. Yeah, because they have those injuries in that last match. So Dabinia is out.
00:31:10
Speaker
Who's the other one? There's a third one. Chwinga. Chwinga Blade. Yeah, so she's fine. Yeah. Yeah. But Dabinia to be out for a little bit, too. Anyways, not great.
00:31:21
Speaker
Not great. I mean, as as I hate Casey winning all time, do love individual players. Yeah, absolutely. So the Reigns' next match, they play San Diego away at San Diego Friday, June 6th, 7 p.m. You can catch that on Amazon Prime.
00:31:37
Speaker
It is the first of three games on the road for the Reigns in a row. Things we want to see. um I said goals. Emphasis on the S.
00:31:50
Speaker
And if I don't see goals, I want to see just like a slurry of guilt like dangerous goal opportunities because that will at least kind of give me some like ease of mind that like They're going to figure it out.
00:32:03
Speaker
They're going to figure out how to get something going at some point because I'm not fully seeing that. Like you have to create more chances. Yeah. You can't rely on putting your one chance away every game.
00:32:15
Speaker
it's just how works. Especially when so SD put up five in the last game of theirs. Right. So I put things that I won't see not getting cooked in the back. Fair.
00:32:26
Speaker
Got to make sure that defense is locked down. yeah this goes back to like remember when i complained about like uh letting people shoot from distance yeah like maybe would yeah i think maybe i was wrong because they're getting they're getting cooked in the back like this game i was like i hate this no i actually hate this It's always better to have players shooting from distance because it means it's not as dangerous. um So we do have two players ah playing out with the U.S. Women's National Team this coming week.
00:32:59
Speaker
That's Lynn Biandolo and Claudia Dickey. I was like, hopefully they'll both play. Yeah. um So the first game is Saturday, the Saturday, the 31st at 2.30 p.m. on TBS against China.
00:33:11
Speaker
And then ah there's another game on Tuesday, ah the 3rd at 5 p.m. on TNT versus Jamaica. And the youth national team, which has four Reign players, Sam Meza, Maddie Darlene, Emily Mason, and Jordan Bug.
00:33:26
Speaker
ah They're all going to the U23 camp ah for games against Germany, May 30th and June 3rd. I could not for the life of me find any sort of streaming.
00:33:36
Speaker
Is that one in Germany? Yeah. It's not what I want to hear. ah do not need our young players traveling that far in a week. They're young. They can take it. I don't know. I got, listen, so I got, so I'm scared of knees, right?
00:33:52
Speaker
Yeah. ah Yeah. I could not find them for life of me anywhere to stream those games. ah So keep us updated if you find that. I guess this is kind of really changes maybe what might happen the San Diego game, depending on how much minutes they play. Yeah.
00:34:09
Speaker
Why?
00:34:12
Speaker
Anyways, I think that's pretty much all we got for this episode. it was a bummer. um Sometimes things are a bummer and that's okay because now we have some time off to a group, to enjoy each other's company, hopefully to have some good weather, hold hands.
00:34:29
Speaker
um Just, you know, the usual things you do. Watch the national team ball out. Hopefully you get to see Claudia Dickey get her first cap. Yeah, you could also mention that.
00:34:40
Speaker
yeah i'm hopeful i'm hopeful i'm really hopeful she'll get she'll get a start i think so she has to they don't know what they're doing with their goalkeeper situation they haven't committed to fallon they haven't so they have to try dickie too i think so or else emma haze i would i would bet that they play fallon in the china game and then play dickie in the jamaica game Okay.
00:35:01
Speaker
We'll see. We'll see. You got any shout for the week? No. Neither do I. um Thanks once again to our sponsor, of The Doctor's Office. um As always, you can go follow us on social media.
00:35:14
Speaker
We're on Blue Sky and Instagram at CoolerGuildPod. ah You can send us an email at thecoolerguild at gmail.com. We love an email. Oh, and we also have our website.
00:35:25
Speaker
I want so many cold medications. ah You can also visit us on our main website, sounderatheart.com forward slash the cooler guild. We're also on YouTube. We got most episodes up there on video so you can see how nice we don't look.
00:35:38
Speaker
Yeah, you not put this one up? Yeah, I don't think I'm going to this one up. I look like sick trash. You're sick trash and you're a loser.
00:35:49
Speaker
i mean i am sweaty over there yeah i know it's like i'm sweaty i'm like a fucking it's 75 degrees up in the room i mean i am fucking hot but i don't think i'm pitting yet but if this is because this episode short
00:36:04
Speaker
Anyways, not this episode, but other episodes, youtube.com forward slash at the Cooler Guild. and Wherever you're listening, please go rate five stars. Till next time, I'm Coop.
00:36:15
Speaker
I'm Van. Stay cool, y'all. Stay cool, y'all. Not like I am right now.