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The Cooler Guild: A rollercoaster point in Chicago - Ep. 38
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Two goals scored just in time to earn a draw. In this week’s episode we chat about last weekend's match against the Chicago Stars at Soldier Field and how the team was able to mount an exciting comeback to tie the game late. We also cover the results from around the NWSL and preview the Reign's next match.
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Transcript
Episode Introduction and Topics
00:00:09
Speaker
you
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 38 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, June 17th, 2025. On today's episode, we'll be going over the Reigns' draw in Chicago, checking in with some other NWSL results, and then finishing things up with a quick preview of the Reigns' next match.
00:00:40
Speaker
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 a Sound 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 sounderatheart.com forward slash the Cooler Guild.
00:00:53
Speaker
New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you help support everything we're doing.
Personal Stories and Experiences
00:00:57
Speaker
So you're on vacation? i I mean, yeah, I'm on vacation. It's also reunion. So, you know, having a reunion with some people that went to ah school, I guess you could call it some sort of internship with with my wife.
00:01:11
Speaker
Half of them are like from Minnesota. So we're having her You mean her residency? I don't want to tell people about that. But yeah, so her residency class. We talk about her being a doctor. I know. It's just sometimes I'm like, oh, no.
00:01:24
Speaker
um Yeah. So half of her residency class like went to medical school out in Duluth, actually, which is kind of crazy because they all ended up in Southern Oregon. But we're having a reunion this year in Duluth.
00:01:35
Speaker
So, yeah, we stopped and we flew into Minneapolis, obviously. And I got to go check out the women's sports bar there and met up with Mark Kastner. it was There were so many lesbians there, obviously. it was like a bunch of Lynx fans because there was a Lynx game that afternoon or whatever. and i know like the say like i all I could think of when I was there and like Mark was a little running late because there was traffic because of all the shit that was happening in Minneapolis.
00:02:00
Speaker
I was like, Mark's going to get in here. It's going to be like that time when it was like Alex Morgan bunch of lesbians. But it's going to be Mark Kastner and a bunch of lesbians. Yeah. mark and all the lesbians yeah he's like well most of my friends are lesbians so this isn't unusual for me but like i counted like the dudes in there when i got in there and i was like the place was packed and then there was like three men and then mark showed up and there was like maybe four but yeah good bar i would recommend it good food uh service was a little rough but they were also super busy with the lynx game so how's your weekend how was it good uh my usw team fc only played on friday they won six zero oh just an easy six zero yeah did was there a hat trick in that one yeah okay i thought jenny lackey scored a hat trick
00:02:42
Speaker
Shout out Jenny. But then Saturday I went to the protest with my dad. That was pretty cool. That's nice. Yeah. Nice little family outing for good cause. Got done just in time to watch the rain game. Nice. Yeah. That was about
Reign vs. Chicago Game Analysis
00:02:58
Speaker
it. It's nice to find somewhere that actually plays the rain game now. Like, you know, that didn't used to be a thing you could do when you but went to different cities.
00:03:03
Speaker
Yeah, I'm still sad you couldn't go to the Blackheart. I know, but I also, there's no way I was going to, like, go in there with all the Mania City United people while they were, like, about to play. yeah Plus, I don't know. It was kind of cool to be able to check out another women's sports bar because I've only been to the one in Seattle, so...
00:03:19
Speaker
um Anyways, let's get into the game, shall we? Yep. So the rain traveled to face the last place Chicago stars at Soldier Field on Saturday. A promising attacking start from the rain was snubbed out in the 11th minute when Ludmilla got the ball and scored after dribbling through almost the entire back line.
00:03:35
Speaker
Just two minutes later, sam Staub played a long ball from her own box and put Ludmilla through again. Okay. beating out P.B. McLaren and just score Chicago's second goal. oh Yeah, the game stayed tied until the 87th minute when Lin Biendolo scored a left-footed shot from outside the box.
00:03:51
Speaker
The rain kept pressing and were ultimately rewarded in the 89th minute when Jordan Bug played across into the box, which had a wicked bend on it and snuck in on the far post. The game ended two to two and the rain snuck point out of the match, finishing the week in sixth the place.
00:04:03
Speaker
This was a rough one. There were so many emotions in this game. Truly. I mean, I was I was catching up with Mark. So like my attention was kind of in two places, you know, but then like, no, I don't think anyone else in this bar was there for the ring game besides like our table. And so I was just like ah standing up when like the first goal happened. And then like the second one, go I'm just like yelling even harder.
00:04:25
Speaker
Like everyone everyone's just kind of looking around. ah me Because everyone else was there was like very much more invested in basketball. And they were all very happy about the New York Liberty finally losing.
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah. my My friends were at um a different bar than the one I was watching the game at. Uh-huh. Which is great. Two places. Yeah. Yeah. But they were like, oh, you should come over here at halftime. And I was like, do you guys have the game on there? And they're like, we'll put it on for you. Nice.
00:04:50
Speaker
And I was like, sick. Yeah, then I'll come. So then I went over to this other place and I was like, yeah, kind of blows, but like still watching it. Yeah, for sure. And then I was just like freaking out. Yeah.
00:05:01
Speaker
They also totally came out looking different in the second half. Yeah. I don't think I like, I mean, I was feeling down, but like the way they're bad in the first half, it was those two instances. Yeah. Yeah. Where they just got absolutely just
Player Highlights and Team Performance
00:05:16
Speaker
scorched.
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't know. i mean, we'll get into it later, but yeah, I don't know. It's, it was the one thing that I was like, we gotta look out for Ludmilla. Yeah. memo which is so funny because like every everyone at sounder at heart and ride of the valkyries i feel like everything that was written even the podcast we did last week like it was like yeah so podcast yep ludmila what happened he's like ludmila and then boom and lu meian
00:05:48
Speaker
Yeah. All right. So let's get into a couple of notable stats that we we hit. 70th regular season goal for Lynn Biendolo, second player to reach that milestone. Sam Kerr's the only one who has also done that, and it's with 77 regular season goals.
00:06:03
Speaker
i mean, we we know she had the 69th goal because we noted that at one point. I know. because I was like, I'm keeping track. um But yeah, incredible. Keeps going. It's going to keep going. shes definitely going to pass. She...
00:06:15
Speaker
i She's got to pass Sam Kerr this season, right? Like, do you think she's go get going going? i would hope so. It's been so long since we have like a ah high scoring goal scorer on our team. And I feel like it should be Lynn this season.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah, hopefully, i mean, it's tough because it's it's so inconsistent. Mm-hmm. You know, it's so, it's it's kind of hard to make any predictions this year other than, like, really broad ones, but i i it's she has it in her to do it this year. For sure, for sure.
00:06:47
Speaker
um So the Reign are now unbeaten in their last four road matches and earned 11 points out of 18 possible. That's pretty good. Yeah. How many points did we end on last season? Yeah.
00:07:01
Speaker
wasn't that good let look it i need to like keep this on our every our sheet every week because i know we are improving significantly yeah we have way more points than we did this point last year let's see it's 2024 oh boy here we go we ended on 23 points last year we ended on twenty three points last year ah That's so bad. it Yikes. Oh, man. That is terrible.
00:07:30
Speaker
And so far we're at... We're five points away.
00:07:37
Speaker
All right. Making progress. ah We got some, we have some positives. I mean, this, this game was brutal, but like we have positives for sure. Number one being, and think it was, was what our, maybe our third game where we scored more more than one goal yeah and we, and we did it from coming from behind.
00:07:52
Speaker
I'm coming from behind Yeah. yeah Which is the most dangerous lead in soccer. You know, I tell my friends this that don't really follow soccer and they like laugh at me when I tell them that. Like, what does that even mean?
00:08:04
Speaker
I'm like, it because just it can change. It can change. And also because you have this like false sense of security. Yeah. But even if you give up one goal, you're already screwed.
00:08:15
Speaker
Mm hmm.
Game Strategies and Critiques
00:08:16
Speaker
So, anywho, we are the first visiting team to avoid defeat after trailing by two or more goals in the 85th minute. Making history, baby.
00:08:28
Speaker
Yeah, was talking to dad about it. and He's like, yeah, I saw early on that they were down to by by two goals. And then I checked in. I was checking in periodically of the game. And then boom. Yeah. It was 2-2.
00:08:39
Speaker
did you do yeah Yeah, by the end. Yeah. They came fast and they came quick right at the end. They also looked like they were definitely going for a third. Yeah. I mean, that sub that they made ah bringing Mercado on for McLaren. Yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
Just completely changed the shape of the team. Yeah. But yeah. I want say it i want to see more of her for sure. Yeah, the I mean, wing the subs were incredibly productive.
00:09:03
Speaker
Yeah. And I think G really, so G and Meza came on at halftime, which Laura Harvey halftime subs that aren't for minutes restrictions. Yeah. Praise praise the soccer gods. It only took going down 2-0. Yeah.
00:09:22
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't quite get why you didn't start Meza and G. I may be trying to give your younger players more time. mean, we were playing Chicago, right? And you're playing Chicago, so.
00:09:36
Speaker
but I don't know. It didn't work this time. It didn't work. That's that's for sure. It did not work. um But g led the team with completed passes in the final third with 23. Mercado.
00:09:47
Speaker
She came on, and I think in the first like five minutes, she had created two chances. And she like was hardly... like She came on late. Yeah. Game changer. I've been wanting to see more of her. I didn't know that she had this kind of stuff in her.
00:10:00
Speaker
Exciting. Yeah, I kind of wish she had ah scored that last opportunity she had, though. was decent save, but... Yeah. But, I mean, she was only on for what, like...
00:10:11
Speaker
a little over 10 minutes or so without a time guess a little bit more yeah she came on the 79th minute so it's impressive work for her don't think we i feel like you expected damas to come in and change the game but like mercado hasn't necessarily been given an opportunity in that kind of sense where they're really really trying to go for it yeah and i think adam has played well yeah for sure again i mean she hit the crossbar yeah mean the crossbar was like our biggest enemy this game Yeah, I mean.
00:10:39
Speaker
Other than ourselves, but. like the five minutes where Lyudmila. You mean the two minutes? Yeah, not even five. And then, you know, we've got to talk about Sam Meza.
00:10:49
Speaker
Our number one fave. You can't not love her. yeah And with her and G in the middle, it just gives so much ability to hold the ball in possession and be able to keep the team up in in the other team's half.
00:11:07
Speaker
Because otherwise we're losing it, we're recycling it back. But with those two players in, you just have the ability to find open space and win the ball back when you lose it. Yeah, they were super dynamic when they both came on together. And I feel like this is the first time I kind of see them both. um I mean, I don't know how many times they've kind of... Because G's... I think we all know G hasn't been on the field as much as, I don't know, you would hope someone of her quality was on the field. But we also know she's older.
00:11:34
Speaker
But i feel like this is the first time we've kind of seen g and Meza kind of cooking together and kind of being dynamic together up top. Maybe not the same exact time, but working both sides of the field or like one of them kind of covering the other one in a sense.
00:11:47
Speaker
And it's easy to see the impact that they have when, you know, they're subbed on together. oh yeah. And they start, you know, and you're able to, you know, compare and contrast the first half and the second half.
00:11:59
Speaker
Yeah, it was nice. Yeah, it was nice. ah Other positive I put down was Laura Harvey's energy. ah ah She's fired up. she mean I mean, I don't feel like there's another coach in this league that like loves her team like Laura Harvey loves this team.
00:12:11
Speaker
Did you see ah then the camera cut to her after the second goal and like ah ah Phoebe McLaren? Yeah, her and Phoebe like embracing. Phoebe McLaren just looks tired and like she's been on the on the sideline like working out like she was still playing. Yeah.
00:12:28
Speaker
they remember They were just like fully embarrassed and couldn't believe what was happening. but like they were so fucking pumped up and to have a coach like that that's as passionate as the players like that is so i mean, it's contagious.
00:12:40
Speaker
um And it's just I don't know. I feel like it's got to be so so fun to have a coach that like you play for someone like that. Yeah, and we consistently hear that from players. Yeah. Just the the care and the passion that she puts into the team as players and as people.
00:12:56
Speaker
So that's, you know, one thing we always missed when when when she had left initially.
Post-Match Reflections and Future Outlook
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah. And now we have it back and you realize how nice it is. Last positive it had I didn't put it down, but we had been doing this thing where we win and then we lose the next game.
00:13:13
Speaker
Yeah. We didn't do it this game. So ah granted, I think we definitely should have won going into this, but given how our track record has been this year with after wins, you got to start somewhere, you know, positive.
00:13:28
Speaker
um So i'm I'm happy about that. There's that and there's just, I feel like the team was much more offensive this match, which granted you're playing the last place team, but there were multiple looks on goal, multiple close close calls.
00:13:45
Speaker
You know, if any of these, those other ones had gone in, it would have been a completely different game. Yeah. But you've got Jordan Bug hitting that same exact cross that she scored in the first half, you know, in the first like three minutes of the game. Mm-hmm. Trying the same things and actually finishing them at another point of the game. Yeah.
00:14:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We do have negatives, obviously. This is not a good start to the game at all. No. Very disheartening. Number one worst thing to happen. Getting Ludmilla twice.
00:14:15
Speaker
Back to back so fast. Unhappy face is what I put in the notes. Yeah. um not great i don't know what the fuck happened we got ludmila yeah but like everybody's getting stuck too far up because you see it when you've got especially on that second goal yeah right that ball comes through her and mclernon yeah are with each other yeah in the other half you She just launches it from the goalkeeper too. like And to Phoebe McLaren's credit, she kept the she kept she kept she kept up with her. ah And it's just so hard to defend somebody that's that quick. And it, you know, she kind of makes a last minute ditched side tackle effort. and Didn't get a red card.
00:15:01
Speaker
Didn't get a penalty. Like she was very smart about it. She could have. she There was a point at which you saw she was starting to grab her. yeah And then it was just like... yeah Yeah, she was very careful. i mean, she got out at the right time.
00:15:13
Speaker
Yeah. And, you know, it was really smart and it was a great play by Ludmilla to just kind of pull that ball to the side when she saw if you'd be McLernan was sliding in. Yeah. I mean, it was just an excellent goal.
00:15:25
Speaker
Yeah. Claudia Diggie did look kind of lost in that second one, but that's that's a hard hard thing to defend all in all. Yeah. especially when you've got a player Especially when you've got a player so close to that attacker because you're coming out and you see Phoebe sliding and she you can't really go through your own player.
00:15:43
Speaker
So it's just a tough one. More growing pains. More growing pains. Yeah. I mean, these are goals I really hope. I think they'll see them and they'll learn from them. I don't think it's like a repeatable thing.
00:15:55
Speaker
Well, maybe not in another game. It was repeatable in this match. Hey, listen. we We did okay against KC in their threats. And we did pretty okay against Orlando in their threats.
00:16:05
Speaker
We just... Defense severely underestimated or just completely turned off at the wrong moments with a threat like Luna Mila, so... Yeah, it was unfortunate. Yeah.
00:16:16
Speaker
We did. those Those were two goals scored in the run of play. So all after all of our talk last week about getting scored on in the run of play, i thought this was kind of funny. Yeah.
00:16:27
Speaker
And getting beat on the counter, it's just another one of those things where you have to think about playing to your opponent and... it's really hard to make that adjustment so quickly right after she's just scored yeah right yeah so it's it's tough and it makes sense that that happened twice in that short a period of time because they hadn't been able to adjust yeah but also that ball by Sam Staub was just brilliant and so I'll give him credit for that one but it also didn't help the team well maybe it did I don't know when Barnes went down injured
00:17:03
Speaker
I mean, I had had had said last week, I was like, you know, I don't know what the team's going to do. Because definitely going to have to change formation Lou Barn gets hurt or something happens with some someone in the back line They're going to have change everything up.
00:17:16
Speaker
And it did happen. And then we did figure things out. So I don't know. It's hard to read into it. And, I mean, Shea Holmes stepped in and did a decent job. Yeah, did a good job compared to a lot of the flack. So,
00:17:29
Speaker
Yeah. She stepped in. I thought she might just be down for like a ah like just a break, injury break. Yeah. And then i they they pan the camera over to Lou and she's like doing the cutoff kind of thing. And I was like, oof.
00:17:43
Speaker
Yeah. That's not good. No. Hopefully it's nothing big. Well, she'll have, she'll miss one game, but then she'll have a month off. So... Yeah. There's any okay time to have a minor injury might be right now.
00:17:56
Speaker
Hopefully she can is good, but you know, it was also um an unfortunate
NWSL Matches Recap
00:18:01
Speaker
thing. And i would say a negative to the game that Ludmila had to come out. Yeah, it was. she i mean, she put her body on the line in that moment.
00:18:10
Speaker
Not in a great decision-making way, for sure. don't want to see it play well like that. If you didn't see it, Sally Menti was taking a free kick from outside the box, kind of the corner outside the box, and two-person wall and Lyudmila got up.
00:18:26
Speaker
She jumped super high and kind of got her head in there and it looked like the ball just hit straight on top of her head. She put her head down to hit it, too. She just went down and it it didn't look good.
00:18:37
Speaker
which Someone on the broadcast team was pointing out, like, why would you put such a valuable player in that wall like that? Put valuable players in the wall all the time. Yeah, that's kind of what I thought, too. I don't, I mean she's clearly got the ability to, yeah. i don't know.
00:18:52
Speaker
It's kind of weird. It's not like, yeah, I guess, but then again, chicago doesn't Chicago doesn't have a lot going for them. So I don't know. You gotta to get somebody back. Yeah. And generally a two-person wall is not going to stop a ball.
00:19:05
Speaker
Yeah. So. Just unfortunate. But there was ah more unfortunate announcing this game. the i So I watched the, was it? i watch can't remember which. I watched the local broadcast. there was There's in there now. Is it local broadcast?
00:19:21
Speaker
Well, Fox was airing it. Ion was airing it. And then I'm... Okay, you were watching Ion. Okay. I was watching the Ion broadcast the first time I watched it, but I didn't have the sound on. So I was in a bar.
00:19:32
Speaker
And the second broadcast I watched when I rewatched the game was the NWSL broadcast. who same Same here. The NWSL broadcast, that guy that they have on there, the British guy, Gary Bailey, after the first goal, he was calling Ludmilla Montessire.
00:19:48
Speaker
yeah two different teams two different teams two vastly different haircuts yeah is there yeah not i just feel like that's a microaggression yeah it's not good he did grow i don't know he did correct himself pretty quickly afterwards um but i don't think you should be like that's a pretty bad mistake to be making Well, and he was also saying like after Barnes got injured that maybe they replaced her because um they needed a more physical player on the back line.
00:20:19
Speaker
What the fuck does that mean? I don't know. It was bad. Yeah, not here for it. Don't like that. Yikes. have other negatives you want to hit? Well, we did have almost losing to the last place team.
00:20:31
Speaker
yeah yeah
00:20:35
Speaker
Which is embarrassing. And then the like people will be like, oh, it's the end of show. So like anyone can anything can happen all time, whatever. But um we're better than Chicago. Yeah, much better.
00:20:46
Speaker
I know the the I mean, yeah the soldier field element, I think, was maybe the part of the part of the. the The elements that were something that you don't really know how that's going to play out.
00:20:57
Speaker
And I don't think, like I've always said, Utah's the worst team. I know Chicago was in last. Now they're not in last, thanks to us, unfortunately. But I've always said Chicago has some, like with Ludmilla specifically, I think she can take over games for them.
00:21:12
Speaker
um If they had Mal Swanson, then we're talking about even more threatening team. But yeah, I don't... Again, how are we going and beating the top teams?
00:21:24
Speaker
Number one, number two, getting close to beating Orlando, whatever. And then we can't beat the last place team, like win win against them. and I know. I'm getting annoyed with it.
00:21:35
Speaker
Well, that's what was saying about the inconsistency. Yeah. And it really comes down to not scoring, which luckily we were able to come back and score two goals in this game, but you need three. Yeah.
00:21:46
Speaker
You also need to not give up on at least one of those goals. Two of the same goal. Yeah. Yeah. Fixable mistakes, i I would think and hope.
00:21:57
Speaker
I'll leave it at that. Moving on to the post-match presser. They brought on Curry and Holmes. Did you watch these? I did. Okay. What did you gather from them? Uh, that they were glad that they tied the game, but they were mad that they tied the game.
00:22:12
Speaker
Basically
Upcoming Reign Game Preview
00:22:13
Speaker
what we're saying. Yeah, I think they were, it seemed like the thing that I was saying, like they were just glad to not continue the pattern of losing a game after win. So it's something for them to build on and at least give themselves belief the next time they come out with a win and then they can go to the next game not thinking like, oh, God, it's going to happen again. It's to happen again. We're go to fuck up.
00:22:34
Speaker
Stay focused. You guys got it. I believe in you. Yeah, but they're just talking about, you know, that the mentality of the team and how, you know, they are grit what we've been using a lot. They have grit, resilience.
00:22:45
Speaker
yeah did They did talk about the defense could have better with the 1v1 that ended up with Phoebe knowing that the counter was coming. Well, that's what you have to work on. That's the adjustment that you have to make. Not leave her out of position and just line that up to begin with in the first place. Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:00
Speaker
I think for, think that's pretty much it for the players. um Harvey kind of said the same similar thing. She's saying that they should be be hared proud of themselves. They should resilience, the mentality aspect. aspect I mean, you saw her on the sidelines, like point to her head and do that mental mentality thing, like great job or whatever. after the it was after the goal right yeah but yeah after the first goal yeah like stay focused you guys got this or whatever like that and you tell like when lynn scored that too like she didn't even so i mean obviously they were down right and it was late in the game but like you could just see her she's like going to get the ball like we're gonna we're gonna keep going she points to somebody to get the ball yeah like she points to go get the ball yeah and i think i i think i only saw one person raise their arms and it was in the very bottom of the picture and it was sam mezza yeah I watched it a couple times as I was like who's celebrating like I need a like who is anyone celebrating or like are they just like dialed in then you can just see Sam as a like at the very bottom of the screen go yeah and then I think the funniest but I think the funniest part was uh she asked her and I mean I did think Jordan Bug should know better but she asked Jordan Bug like did you mean to score that goal did you mean it and Bug was just like no
00:24:12
Speaker
man i know i know an honest kid i know she doesn't have that uh i don't know after i've been hearing the comments about um ah sally mentee and her her and don't know if it's just like jokes and cockiness sometimes about wanting to be called like katie b and kevin but i feel like she would have been like oh yeah totally meant to score that but um you know bug's are stoic presence and an honest person it seems like maybe right yeah i don't know the next time bug
Episode Wrap-up and Shoutouts
00:24:44
Speaker
maybe maybe just pretend that you meant it even if you didn't i don't care because it sounds like she can do this based on what they were saying about her training well i mean you look at the shot oh
00:24:52
Speaker
The movement on that ball. Yeah. Somebody asked me if the goalkeeper should have done better on that second goal. And I went back and watched it. And it's a tough call either way. Either you come out and get that cross, which if it's in your six, realistically, most of the time you should be doing. Even if you do that, there's so many people in that area. Yeah.
00:25:12
Speaker
Yeah. It would be hard to get to. Yeah. And when you're kind of trying and waiting to get set, when it gets really close to, I think it's Haidama. Yeah, Haidama's right. Yeah.
00:25:23
Speaker
And it just doesn't hit off anybody, but it's got a curve to it that you just probably wouldn't be able to see. Yeah. it's It's hard. It was a good goal. It was a good tross. Yeah.
00:25:36
Speaker
I love a Shross. ah Do you get anything else out of the Harvey comments? No, I mean, she commented that the subs were good. um And but I liked how she was talking about how she ah told Lynn to stay up high at halftime.
00:25:50
Speaker
And defenders are scared of her. Yeah. They are. I would be. Yeah. she I mean, she pointed out that Lynn and kind of set the tone at halftime too. You could tell. And I would like to see more of this. I want to see more of this b Lynn taking over this team.
00:26:04
Speaker
The Lynn leadership? Yeah. ah But like, you know, because like the we had that with Pino um and obviously she was at the club since the beginning. So I think it's obvious. It was obviously easier for her and more natural for that to happen, you know, later in her career or whatever.
00:26:18
Speaker
um and obviously that is going happen. going to happen with Lynn, but she hasn't, she's, she's ah think we can see that from her too with this team. um She hasn't been here long, obviously, but I don't think there's any reason why she can't be that person for us.
00:26:33
Speaker
No, and like we've pointed out in the past, yet she's totally bought in. Mm-hmm. Which is what you need. And so that's the kind of person that you want leading your team. Yeah. Or being a part of that driving force in the locker room.
00:26:47
Speaker
Yeah. It has me excited. I mean, I've been saying that, but like... She loves this game, and I think she's going to make this team more fun. And if they're doing that and playing for each other, then there' there's a lot of potential for this team to make some really um you know exciting stuff happen.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. ah All right. I think, do you want to add it Do you have any other final thoughts on this match? No. No? I'm happy we didn't lose. Me too. I'm like ready to kind of move on for from it, though. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it was it was nice to have an exciting comeback.
00:27:21
Speaker
Yeah. i wish the team hadn't put themselves in that position to begin with. For sure. But it was really nice to see a team this season. They didn't lose their composure. Yeah. And they did get frustrated.
00:27:33
Speaker
Sure. But it never looked super sloppy or um desperate. No, I mean, I can, I can like picture how this game would have gone last year and it would have been ugly.
00:27:45
Speaker
Very ugly. We definitely weren't going to get a point out of it. Definitely not. And Jalen Howell would have been red carded. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Maybe there would have two red cards, honestly, in this game.
00:27:57
Speaker
Because I think, yeah, I think there's a few other things. I think, I think like Phoebe might've been a little, i don't know Phoebe would've gotten a red card, but i think the like frustration definitely would've been worse. Anyways. I mean, we, I think maybe last year, Phoebe wouldn't have been so confident in in, the goalkeeper and she might've felt like she needed to take her out.
00:28:15
Speaker
That's true. I think there's a fair point there. Yeah. Yeah. So, nope, that's it. That's my final thoughts of this match. Okay, we're going move on to Cooler Player of the Match. Cooler Player of Match is brought to you by the Doctor's Office, a great little 12-seat bar on Capitol Hill. The owner is big fan of the rain and is proud to be our very first sponsor.
00:28:32
Speaker
Cooler Player of the Match this week is the subs. i was going to make a submarine noise, but I didn't know what that sounded like. Bloop, bloop. I was going to say implosion. oh I just watched the documentary, okay? Anyway, shout out G, Sam Meza, and Manny Mercado. Our notable subs.
00:28:54
Speaker
Huh? Our notable subs, at least. Because, I mean, there was others, but those were like the real... I mean, Shea Helm stepped in and did her thing. We didn't get scored on after she came on. Exactly. So, to all the subs.
00:29:06
Speaker
Thank you. Yes. Thanks again to our sponsor, of The Doctor's Office. The Doctor's Office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match. Try their N.A. Rhubarb Citrus Shrub, a seasonal shrub featuring rhubarb, pink peppercorn, orange, lemon, and lime, suggested with a pour of Plymouth gin as a highball, if you want to make it non-N.A. Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle, or better yet, go drink there in person.
00:29:27
Speaker
Cheers, cheers. Click.
00:29:31
Speaker
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00:30:12
Speaker
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00:30:23
Speaker
There was a lot of goals this weekend. There was a lot of goals this weekend. Yeah. I didn't get to catch all of them because I'm, as you know, in Minnesota right now. um Did go watch the highlights.
00:30:35
Speaker
bunch of highlights yesterday. ah did you watch any of the Houston-San Diego game? I did not. Okay. Houston, i mean, Houston lost two to three. San Diego. San Diego is doing their thing still scoring lots of goals.
00:30:49
Speaker
i did watch I did watch the Utah-Gotham game. Oh, did you? Yeah. That was like a shit show. I rewatched that one because I wanted to see what happened. um But Gotham beat Utah 3-0.
00:31:01
Speaker
It was kind of a shit show. Astaire scored a beautiful header. Open the scoring. How someone so small? So good at that. The way she gets ball side on headers on the near post is like needs to be studied.
00:31:16
Speaker
Yeah. She's so nimble. It's incredible. yeah And just the ah way she's able to like manipulate her body to place the ball. Yeah. You just. It's great. It's amazing.
00:31:27
Speaker
And then Jalen Howell scored. And yeah, good goal. And then Astaire scores again. penalty On a penalty kick that might have been one of the best penalties I've seen in years. Yep. She number one blasted it and number two placed it just inside the post and bounced back, bounced in. It was clinical. It was great.
00:31:45
Speaker
Yeah. um And then had Jess Carter get a red card on a dog. So call it was I saw the case for it. I did see like when they were kind of playing that when I was watching the highlights, they were like just showing the beginning of it before got called the red. And I was like, there is another like there's another defender there.
00:32:02
Speaker
They were really far away from her, though. So I guess it was the last defender. And I do see the, cause at first I was like, that's a BS call. And then I was watching it again and again. And number one you have, i can't remember who it was.
00:32:19
Speaker
Might've been Freeman. Back there. Yeah. um Covering. But she wasn't. mean, she could have gotten there. But if the player, if the attacker had gone through, there's an obvious goal scoring opportunity on her first touch there. Yes.
00:32:34
Speaker
yeah And so I think you have to call that. Yeah. Yeah. I thought so too. If it was further out from goal, then it's a little bit more questionable. But she was so close that it, yeah.
00:32:46
Speaker
And then, so it was outside the box. So they didn't get a penalty, you know, because it was a red card that was outside the box. They didn't score off of it. Utah doesn't score off this opportunity. And then Jalen Howell gets a second yellow.
00:32:59
Speaker
This is like a, i would say like the Jalen Howell goal with the Jalen Howell double yellow is like a Jalen Howell brace.
00:33:09
Speaker
A red card and a goal, right? Hitting for the cycle. Yeah. Yeah. And it was, I thought this was an interesting moment because the center referee doesn't initially see it.
00:33:23
Speaker
The player goes down and yells, but the center referee doesn't initially see it. So she comes back for the injury and you see her ah kind of conversing with her ah assistant referee.
00:33:35
Speaker
I don't know if it was the fourth official or the lines person, but she consults with them and says on like on top of the foot. Yeah, because when Jalen Howell came in late and just absolutely cleated the top of the foot full step.
00:33:47
Speaker
And so, yeah, that's a second yellow, if not a red. And so she confers with the the lines person and pulls out a second yellow. Which I think is amazing because you don't you're not allowed to review yellow card offenses.
00:34:01
Speaker
They don't go to VAR. So the fact that they got this right and it was conferring between two officials, I think that's great. Shout out them. ah Bay, Orlando, Orlando 1-1-0. Not much to say there. KC, Louisville, KC won Funny part is that KC scored three of their goals by the 19th minute, so it was kind of over by the second second half. The fact that Louisville got two is pretty incredible. yeah And then I think the last with the last KC goal was kind of at the end to just to kind of really make sure it wasn't going to ah maybe turn out to a tie. um But yeah, KC's still, I guess the fraud watch is maybe over.
00:34:43
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, i mean, we did beat them. Always fraud. Did you watch the highlights for the Angel City North Carolina game? I did.
00:34:54
Speaker
weird Weird game. Very weird. Because they did like bookends and goals. Yeah. Right. So the first goal, Cordy Vine, which I love Cordy Vine. i've never Yeah, I just I love her. I'm glad she's doing well. But the do you see the ball into her?
00:35:10
Speaker
um On that goal, Monaka plays this ball and it curls around. So good. Curls around. So the defender and defenders on the left, Courtney Vines on the right. The ball is coming from the left hand side and it's weighted so perfectly. Curls around. So Courtney Vines did slide in and score this ball.
00:35:29
Speaker
Yeah, it was good. North Carolina's got good players. The chemistry has just been lacking this season, but there's, yeah, that play was beautiful. Granted, Angel City clearly hadn't woken up because that goal was before the first minute it was even over. Yeah.
00:35:45
Speaker
It was quick. It was so quick. and then The minute wasn't even up on the fucking time. so um And then the the second goal that North Carolina got to get the game winner was ah ah Pinto subbed in the 88th minute and then scored 90 five.
00:36:03
Speaker
I think there was like six or eight minutes of added on time on that. Something like that. But yeah, kind of embarrassing for Angel City because North Carolina are have not been good at getting results.
00:36:15
Speaker
No, that was that was quite a surprise, honestly. Yeah, I didn't see that coming. Did you watch the Washington game? No. Someone scored a good goal in that, didn't they? A little flick.
00:36:26
Speaker
Wasn't there flick goal? Like a little nice... Who cares about Portland, right? But they beat the Spirit, who is... I hope they both lose, I guess, was when those games happened. Yeah, I think that's pretty much it for the week on NWC. So um things are looking okay, I would say, for the ring going into um this break because we're coming up on a decent break.
00:36:52
Speaker
Standings-wise, let's take a look. We got... Rainer's sitting in sixth place. We're one point behind Portland. We're only, what, six points out from second place? Mm-hmm.
00:37:03
Speaker
Or seven points? I can do math. ah Seven points out from second place. So that's not too unattainable to, you know, make a few more moves later, but things are definitely tight. i don't know.
00:37:14
Speaker
It's a fun season. Yeah, and there's only three points separating ah out of playoffs to playoffs. well How many people are tied on 15 points? Well, there's a bunch of teams tied on 15 points.
00:37:25
Speaker
Yeah. It's heating up. Yeah, heating up. I hear people to reflect, too, on this break. So that's going to be really interesting to see how everybody comes out of it. Yeah, and see what... Hopefully there's not a bunch of injuries in the break.
00:37:37
Speaker
But there are also probably moves, right? Yeah. Probably get some moves the... Yeah, there's been a couple players in Europe signed NWSL teams. um If people people play play well in the Euros, I imagine some people might be signing some deals, too.
00:37:49
Speaker
So... Yeah. Fun times. It'll be interesting when we get a big break after the next game, which the next match is at Utah. sun Saturday, June 21st, 2 p.m.
00:38:00
Speaker
on Fox 13 Plus with the local station in and NWSL Plus and Paramount for the non-local folks. ah utah Utah's record is 1-9-2. Five points in last place in standings. This is the worst team.
00:38:14
Speaker
It's not even close. I mean, I know the standings will say it's close to Chicago, but like Utah, I just ah don't see it. I don't see this getting any better for them. No. so we I mean, this is like we're going to elevation. That always makes me a little nervous.
00:38:31
Speaker
But Harvey's familiar with there. Yeah, she coached there. Yeah. um And Utah is also coming off of a pretty brutal loss. So and they weren't...
00:38:43
Speaker
I don't know. i We should beat them. Every week, we're like broken records. We should beat them. Yeah, we should beat them by more than one goal. Yeah, we need to we need to go into this break on a high note.
00:38:54
Speaker
I want to look dominant in this game, and I want the result to show that as well. That would be my hopes for this match. Yeah. But it's the end of Bessel. It's never easy. No. But I would like this team to go to break feeling like they've made a good amount of progress.
00:39:10
Speaker
And set themselves up well. And these are the teams that you need to be stealing points from because realistically, they should be easy points. Yeah. I mean, if if they get a point, Laura Harvey had pointed this out, if they're, you know, like maybe the goal is to be undefeated in June. So if they get a tie, they would accomplish that.
00:39:27
Speaker
But get greedy. I don't think they're going to be happy with a tie in this game. No, definitely not. Everyone knows how bad Utah Yeah. So turn it up. do you anything you want to, or you're like eager to see with this game or anything?
00:39:39
Speaker
I want to see... Well, the avail availability report will be interesting. I don't know what Euros travel is looking like for people. You know, notably Fishlock was out this week.
00:39:50
Speaker
James Turner. haven't seen her for a James Turner. So, yeah, that'll be interesting. You know, I want to see Lynn keep getting goals. And I want to see her get into a groove. Yeah. And... you know, just kind of find her way back into that.
00:40:03
Speaker
And I mean, she has it It's just the opportunities of that haven't necessarily been there for her. And I think having her up top and feeding her the ball is a viable opportunity for her to score. And you saw that more in the second half when we had more players in the midfield that were able to control it, that she was getting more touches on the ball and they were getting her into more dangerous areas.
00:40:25
Speaker
Yeah, which I think it was it was a reasonable idea for Harvey to start the players that we saw the week prior, right, given the success that they had. But given how that the you know the Chicago game went, let's bring back Meza in the starting lineup.
00:40:41
Speaker
Yeah, hindsight's always 20-20, right? yeah Yeah. But it's, yeah, it's a whole thing. yeah What about you? I mean, I think, i again, I just want to see Meza. i could be I could be into... What do you think they're going to do with the defense?
00:40:55
Speaker
but I don't know if they're going to five back... um did I like Darlene in the back like that again i don't know i think I'd rather see her up top again um I'm always saying that but I do think Utah's a vulnerable team so like let's put her higher up and let let her don't know she she seems to really be trying to be a game changer i can see like moments of her kind of maybe having some frustrations about it. Like you see her go down and sometimes it's true legit. Sometimes maybe it's not, but like, she's definitely like interested in wants to be a game changer. And I think her best place for that to happen isn't in that back area. I think she needs to be up top with Lynn.
00:41:37
Speaker
I would like to see her on one side, Lynn in the middle and then Montessir on the side on the right. Cause I think there's a, there's a good threat there. um And then Meza maybe cooking over there too.
00:41:48
Speaker
I don't know, man. That that right side, um when they can get Curry going too, is really fun to watch. um If they can switch that play over from Curry to Darlene and get her kind of feeding and lend the ball in, that's something I really want to start to see cooking.
00:42:03
Speaker
I love that Curry gets spicy. Oh, yeah. It's great. like she's She's a dynamite. i mean, we knew she would be, but now she's really starting to feel it I like it. It's great.
00:42:13
Speaker
don't know. I don't know. let's go ahead. Well, there are some reservations that sometimes she fouls in the wrong wrong spaces. That's legitimate concern. Okay. Yeah. Well, we've gotten scored on because of it multiple times.
00:42:25
Speaker
But I think it hasn't happened recently. And I like that, you know, she takes the foul to stop an oncoming attack. It's deliberate and it's smart.
00:42:36
Speaker
Mm hmm. And she can cook on that side and she can put the balls in a dangerous basis. And i another thing I think with the Dahlien situation is I think they might've put her on that side to match up with um Lou just because of her speed.
00:42:52
Speaker
So putting her on that side with Lou, maybe to add some coverage because that's what didn't work when they were starting Shea Holmes out there. Yeah. With Lou. So I understand the choice, but I don't think, I think you have to set the team up to score a bunch of goals in this game.
00:43:10
Speaker
And to do that, to do that, you need players in position to be fed through, to break the lines, to get Darlene into space, to get Lynn the ball. So you have to have those players up a little bit. So I wouldn't be surprised if they change ah the formation.
00:43:25
Speaker
Yeah. And I would honestly welcome it. Yeah. Cool. Well, think that's all we got for this week. um Hopefully everything sounds fine. I mean, I'm stumbling my words, but it sounds fine for Minnesota.
00:43:40
Speaker
But it should be back, back, yeah back Northwest after this episode. Any shout outs for the week? Uh, yeah. Shout out my USLW team. The power rankings came out today and we are ranked third in the country.
00:43:53
Speaker
That's pretty, that's pretty cool. Yeah. Got a game tomorrow. I got to go down to Eugene. Just staying the night there? Yeah. Cool. yeah go help Team outing. i'm I'm the bus driver. Miss Frizzle?
00:44:08
Speaker
No, the game's late, so we'll get in early and then... Kind of dink around maybe a little bit. We'll get in early, dink around, players will rest. don't know. We have been doing shutout donuts, though. So... Which we did. We've done the last couple years, especially in our away games. when We used to travel to Oregon.
00:44:24
Speaker
We'd always find some voodoo donut that was open at 1130 at night when we were passing through and get donuts for the kids. But... Yeah, sounds fun. About you, any shout outs? Shout out to my friends who house whose house I am in, I guess.
00:44:41
Speaker
Honestly, the color of your shirt with the um green background is actually really doing it. Great. I'm just in the middle of Where are my... I don't know what town this is called. But, you know, it's just like a 1970s Midwest home with like the split level, you know. I'm in the basement level. And then there's the upstairs. But know I've been talking about? You walk in, there's stairs. It's a split level.
00:45:04
Speaker
Yeah. Just a typical split level. But yeah. So shout out to Carly. I'm sure she's not going listen to this. have a shot Have a shot of Malort for me while you're out there. oh they don't No one has Malort out here.
00:45:16
Speaker
oh We're not in Chicago, which I was like, we have Malort in Oregon. Like, what the fuck? And they were just like, we don't like Malort. And i was just like, well, we're going to a liquor store tomorrow, which we have to do They don't sell any hard liquor in the stores or beer in the stores in Minnesota.
00:45:29
Speaker
So we're in a liquor store tomorrow. And then we were like, we'll get a bottle Malort. And they're like, don't get Malort. And we're like, we're getting Malort. So people are getting Malort, even if they don't want it. um I love Malort. I follow them on TikTok.
00:45:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's good stuff. I do like it. i am a fan. Anyways, thank you once again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. um And as always, you can follow us on social media. We're on Blue Sky and Instagram, Cooler Guild Pod.
00:45:54
Speaker
You can send us an email. We love an email. That's thecoolerguild at gmail.com. You can also visit us on the main website, sounderatheart.com forward slash thecoolerguild. We're also on YouTube, youtube.com forward slash at thecoolerguild.
00:46:06
Speaker
Wherever you're listening, please go rate five stars. Till next time, I'm Coop. I'm Van. We'll see you next week. Yep. Stay cool, y'all. Stay cool.
00:46:33
Speaker
The Cooler Guild is brought to you. o shoot.
00:46:38
Speaker
I'm on vacation. I'm on vacation.