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Summer Cup Surprise - Bonus Episode - Ep. 8
5 Plays4 months ago
It's a Summer Cup bonus episode. In the opening match of the first ever Summer Cup series, the Reign finally picked up a win, having not won a match since May 3rd. We take a look into what we saw in the match against Utah, as well as chat about the new young signings and what that might mean for the future of this club.
We also talk about the USWNT friendlies that took place in preparation for the Olympics this summer.
Follow us on twitter:
CoolerGuildPod
Coop
Van
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Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
Show artwork by Coop
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction and Recent Win
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to a bonus episode of The Cooler Guild. I am your host, Coop, and join with me, as always, as my co-host, Van. What's up? On today's episode, we'll be discussing the rain's wind. That's right, a wind. What? In the summer cup, first summer cup match of the whole summer cup. Yeah. And that marks our first wind since May the 3rd. It's been a long time coming. It's been quite the journey. We'll also be going into some other happenings, the Loso world. Yeah, but we got some housekeeping to take care of.
00:00:50
Speaker
The Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. You can either listen to us on the 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 sounderatheart.com forward slash the cooler guild. New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing.
00:01:10
Speaker
That's right. Second episode under center heart. Loving it. Stoked. We're definitely seeing a little bit of a boost already. Yeah. And just having like being in that world of these wonderful people is great and so informative.
00:01:25
Speaker
I feel like that's knowledge that I desperately appreciate
Recording Together for the First Time
00:01:29
Speaker
and need. I'd also like to mention something else right now, and that is that we're recording together in the same room for the first time. Yeah, hopefully it doesn't sound like shit.
00:01:40
Speaker
Cause we're also set up with, what do you call it? What do you call this thing? I don't even know what it's called, but we've got something, our mics are plugged in. We're not using our usual stuff. I'm acting like a tech expert. If you want to hire me later for like, you got like a karaoke party, hit me up. If this turns out well, if it doesn't, I don't, I don't, I've vanded it.
00:02:06
Speaker
Yeah, so hopefully it's an interface. It's a USB interface. That's what it's called. My friend Jonathan gave it to me. Thank you, Jonathan. Yeah, it's something new we're working with. Yeah, Van decided to come down for the weekend to where I'm at, get a little break from the heat.
00:02:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's been awesome. I love it down here in Astoria. Yeah, it's a
Astoria Visit and Local Highlights
00:02:26
Speaker
great place. I got to show Van the infamous divot in the yard that broke my ankle. It's gnarly. It's bad. I can definitely see how you did that. Yeah. But I don't understand how you didn't roll down the hill afterwards. I mean, there wasn't much of a hill to roll down afterwards, but I did fall and just lay there for quite a while.
00:02:46
Speaker
I just grabbed my ankle, I was like, oh no, not again. And then I also got to Chauvin the infamous, the other infamous thing in Astoria, besides the divot in my yard, the slide. The Astoria slide. It's great. Yeah. Highly recommend you go check it out.
00:03:05
Speaker
It's like a little bit of a chiropractor experience. Yeah, if you're really into violence, it's great. Yeah, they built it with the idea that they didn't want people to be going too fast because it would be too dangerous on the slope. So they decided to engineer and design it with some bends in it. But they're like highly like degreed bends. It's a hard stop when you hit those little sides.
00:03:31
Speaker
Yeah. And mind you, okay, full disclosure, this slide is meant for children. It does say up to ages 12. Yeah. And we're in our 30s, but that didn't stop us. No. And I do think it shouldn't stop anybody. No, we can still have fun. Yeah. Van went down it three times. Did too. It was nice. You know, that'd be fun in the snow.
00:03:51
Speaker
We don't really get snow here. I know. And if we do, then it's icy and good luck getting down the hill. Nice. But I mean, just put your act tracks on, get down there and slide in the ice. It's on the, that's what I'm talking about. I don't need to break my other ankle again. Um, yeah, so we'll get into the game.
Significant Win and Attendance Issues
00:04:06
Speaker
Little match recap, little match recap on Friday night. The rain faced Utah at home in the opening game of the summer cup. The rain struck first after Mackenzie Weiner was taken down to the box and Olivia Athens stepped up and converted the ensuing penalty. Utah quickly countered familiar thing that we've
00:04:21
Speaker
experience this year. Utah I quickly countered and brought the game back even maybe within 10 minutes of that rule. Oh it was less than that. Yeah it was less than 10 minutes but luckily in the 77th minute the soccer gods blessed us with a gorgeous cross from ZR King that was headed to the back of the net by Sofia Huerta and that sealed the game for a rain win.
00:04:40
Speaker
This is not, this is a dub pod. We're going to go ahead and call it a dub pod, but it's not the regular season. So, you know, I still, we still need our regular season dub pod. We're still waiting for that, but you know, we got to start somewhere. We're hopping on our friends, the lobby scorchers, uh, another sounder heart podcast and their dub pod episodes that they've been able to have many, many times. They had six in a row. I know. They really got tumbled the last night. We got to unfortunately watch that together.
00:05:07
Speaker
Yeah, so getting into maybe a little bit of the game, finally a win. Attendance, not that great. Oh, no, awful, absolutely awful. But the way that they set up buying tickets, so they only had those like three sections. Which they had changed that later before they had more open. They changed it just because they wanted it to feel a little bit more compacted, not spread out, because that would obviously make the experience be a little bit worse. Yeah, they only had those middle sections on the east side of the stadium open, and then the supporters section.
00:05:35
Speaker
And so it just was kind of odd. And they didn't market this tournament. No, no. And that seems to be like everywhere. Yeah, it was just the rain. And also there was a Mariners game. It was also a Friday night at 6 p.m. Yeah. Even if I wanted to go to that game, I would have had to get off work like an hour too early.
00:05:55
Speaker
more than that. But it's like, not to say I didn't want to go to the game, I did, but I was also coming down here. Yeah, we had plans and the rain hadn't been a great form either, so that probably doesn't help. But the Mariners were also playing the Astros and everyone loves to go watch them play the Astros. I know they do for some reason. They just want to watch the Mariners lose to the Astros, self-torture.
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah. So that wasn't great. The final tennis number is 2,704. Yeah. I mean, you're also missing all your international players. So that's definitely got to be part of maybe people like, should we go or should we not go? Yeah. Everyone's gone because they're going to the Olympics. Yeah. It's kind of an inconsequential, you know, game. And they just played Utah. So it's not like it was something new really, but yeah. It's the second time in three weeks. Yeah.
00:06:40
Speaker
Yeah.
Young Player Development
00:06:41
Speaker
But a very notable moment for us here and our campaign for Sam Mesa to play. She got plenty of time. How'd she look? She looked great.
00:06:55
Speaker
I know. She looked great. I don't know what her fitness situation is. It seems like Laura Harvey's been alluding to there's been some stuff going on with her. Maybe that's why she's been getting playing time. I don't know. It's all still a mystery. But what I saw on the field looks like everything we need and what we've been missing.
00:07:13
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of tenacity there. There's speed that we're missing. Energy. Energy. I don't know. Like someone that looks like they enjoy playing. Yeah. No, she looked like so excited to be playing. And that could be just from her not being able to get on the field. Yeah. But I also feel like this is kind of what we had heard about her going into the draft. Yeah. Before we even knew we were going to get her.
00:07:34
Speaker
So I was saying, Laura Harvey, I just want to know. I just want to know if she's going to be good. I think I can say she doesn't suck. We didn't get much of a view of what she's got, but like when I've seen a lot. Of course I'm biased because we've been wanting this for so long the entire season.
00:07:51
Speaker
and then we see it and we're like okay this is not terrible and the rest of the team's kind of been terrible so it's like maybe maybe this is like a good change that we need yeah and maybe this can translate into like the second half of the season i'm hopeful word i've used many times and it hasn't gone well
00:08:11
Speaker
And also, Adamus started as well. Something we also advocate for. And to be fair, I think Laura Harvey is trying to make sure she doesn't get burnt out. And I think that's something that is respectable and I don't want to push on that too much as far as she should be playing more, she should be playing more.
00:08:30
Speaker
Seeing what happens to players, we're seeing what happens to players like Kristen Press and Tobin Heath and all these, you know, national team players who are having issues with their bodies like at this age where they should still be able to play, I would think. And that they're just having to deal with chronic pain issues. And I don't want to see that with these younger players that are getting pushed into the league so young.
00:08:52
Speaker
Yeah, getting pushed into the league as well as, you know, we don't always pay attention to what's going on in the background with like their youth national team stuff. So a lot of the times, you know, we're like, oh, they weren't at training. And it's like, oh, yeah, they've been at a two week youth national team camp. And then they come back and we're like, why aren't they starting? Yeah, just because there's not a lot of media surrounding the youth national team. And I mean, even trying to look up their schedule and like when they're going to be gone has kind of been a nightmare. Yeah, it's not easy to follow.
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I get it and I I hope that, you know, Laura Harvey in general, I feel like is pretty good about like protecting players when it comes to playing time. Yeah. And get a bit more conservative on that end, which is probably a good thing for the long term of their. Yeah, especially their careers. Yeah, because it seems like this is like an investment situation, right? We're bringing these players in not because we think they're going to be impact players right away. I mean, they definitely have glimpses of being able to do that, but we're not expecting them to be Megan Rapinoe right away.
00:09:50
Speaker
Exactly. And, you know, with the Domus, the two youth players that we recently signed, they played with her on the youth national team system. And everyone there, they're like, it's kind of interesting to see this, like, early, like, we don't know for sure if they're going to be stars, but it seems like they are, in theory, maybe what the future is of the national team. Yeah.
00:10:09
Speaker
Perhaps. We don't know what that that team's going to look like. Could it be these three players? Maybe. Maybe. That's like the hope, I think, is that we're going to take them in early, develop them and hopefully get their careers just going.
00:10:21
Speaker
Yeah. And have them in a training environment that helps them get better. Yeah. I think that's kind of the, the hope with these like younger youth signings that are, you know, skipping college at this point to sign these professional contracts is to get them into these competitive, um, experience training environments where they're not just going off to college and playing, you know, with other college kids and,
00:10:47
Speaker
They're learning under the just fish locks. They're getting that kind of training environment and that mentorship, which I think is kind of the idea of this. Ainsley McCammon, she got a few minutes. So that I think tells you kind of how serious they're taking these players. I know it's the summer cap and we knew that we were likely going to see these young players, but I do think that that's kind of something that tells us that Laura Harvey is serious about these signings. These weren't just signings on a whim.
00:11:16
Speaker
No,
Key Player Performances
00:11:17
Speaker
and they had trained with the rain when they were here a couple weeks ago for the EC&L Championship. And so there obviously was a lot more going into this than just like the, we were like, Oh my God, we assigned two youth players. It pops up, you know, and then two days later they're in the game, they're on the roster. And so.
00:11:36
Speaker
I think that's cool to see. I think that that confidence in them is really nice from Laura Harvey because sometimes, as we've seen, she can be kind of reserved about adding people in and granted again, this is the summer cup. I think that that's a nice nod to her confidence in these players. And she mentioned that Bug was probably going to get playing time in the next game.
00:11:56
Speaker
Mccannan, and you had looked this up, I didn't clock it and remember it immediately, but Mccannan is signed through 2028. That's, yeah, that to me says everything about we're taking this player and we're going to develop the shit out of her if we can. Yeah. So, very cool. So aside from the young people, young signings, the rest of the game, what have we got? Honestly, still not good enough.
00:12:21
Speaker
the goal, this is the goal we gave up. I was like, that's the same shit we've been doing. Yeah, it's pretty crazy because even with it's something in must be in the DNA of this team, but the back line somehow always gets so pulled to one side.
00:12:38
Speaker
So in your back four, the right-winger gets beat over the top, Ryan Brown, and then Weiner has to slide in, Lester has to slide in, and then your other, your left wing back, your left back, is also sliding in. And so you've got an overload, and your center mids are not kind of coming back to help with that, and the organization just looks bad. And so you've got their, probably their right wing, just wide open on the other side.
00:13:04
Speaker
which isn't really a huge problem right away, but when you're getting a shot off and it's deflecting out and it goes to that player that's wide open because... Yeah, yeah, and that's the same, like, that was like the same type of goal we've been giving up all season. Yeah, it's an incredible pattern. I'm no coach, but when I notice something, like, I think it's a problem.
00:13:22
Speaker
you've been a coach i was a goalkeeper coach and i didn't you yeah some other stuff you're more of a coach than i've ever been and will ever be so as a goalkeeper when i noticed those things when i when you're looking out and you notice that your players are getting so shifted to one side leaving players open
00:13:38
Speaker
For me, that always feels like a threat, but sometimes it can be okay just because that ball is not going to get to them. But when that play comes in closer and they become an option, if something happens, that's when it's a problem and they're not adjusting. Yeah. So you got to figure that out because it's happened a couple of times and it's just an organizational issue. And I feel like it's been mostly an organizational issue when Claudia Dickey hasn't been on the field.
00:14:03
Speaker
I would, yes, we've seen it more when she's not on the field, but we do see it at times when she is so, which is, you know, to me, I guess I'm just like, I always thought maybe a lot of cook was having a bad year. This is part of a larger problem and it maybe isn't just her. I mean, I know she's had lapses and all that stuff, but I think it's kind of a big, like big picture. Maybe I don't need to be as worried about her. I just need to be worried about the entire.
00:14:25
Speaker
entire back line not doing what they're where they're supposed to be where they're supposed to be and all that stuff so fingers across we can figure it out and then we get a lot of cook back to where she is because we need someone like her to be playing at her best I don't know Lester had a really good game oh yeah we do need someone like a lot of cook playing at her best I agree with that
00:14:44
Speaker
Julia Lester I mean to me watching the game because I wasn't really paying attention to her necessarily I was like there's too much to look at yeah I mean she was to me played fine in the game uh-huh but looking back on it great game from her great game and Laura Harvey said that and I and then I was like okay I need to like go reassess and really look at what she's done
00:15:06
Speaker
Yeah. Numbers are crazy. Yeah. Numbers are crazy. Let's pull some of the stats up for Lester. Where did I put them? Yeah. Scratch that. It's our first game for the rain period. First game for the rain, which is crazy because we did like go out and acquire her. Right. And we hadn't seen her. And I was just like, huh, well, why do we go get her if we're not playing her at all? Kind of even forgot that we got her because like literally she just hasn't been anywhere.
00:15:29
Speaker
And she had the second most touches for the rain. McClurney was number one, so no shock there. She had, Lester had the number one most completed passes for the team. 45, that's great. And not only that, but her pass percentage completion, 81.8%. That's so like, that's just like from a center back.
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah and that's exactly what you need. Someone who's doing their job and also if you're passing that well that means you're helping out the attack and helping that build up. Well she played a couple of balls that were very reminiscent to things that I've seen other teams be really successful at in this NWSL season which is that center back kind of pushing up with the ball.
00:16:13
Speaker
And then playing that really threaded pass through or that ball over the top into space. Yes. We need that. We've seen that cook do that when she's playing really well. Yeah. And that's something that I always think, especially in a team that is having trouble breaking into that final third is something that could be really valuable.
00:16:32
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. I think we've been kind of seeing a rotation with Senderbacks and Lou Barnes is out again. And we also like long term, we're still figuring out what we're going to do about replacing Lou Barnes. We don't know when she's going to retire, but it's definitely approaching, I assume. So is Lester maybe somebody we can put in the mix now? Maybe. I don't know. They've got a thing for Shay Holmes that I don't understand. I like Shay Holmes.
00:16:54
Speaker
I think the center back situation is a situation and we we don't have like an obvious choice of people back there of like these are the two you'd always choose. Yeah. Because as much as I love Lubarn and she still has great games, she's lost speed, obviously. So that's not great.
00:17:10
Speaker
I just have a hard time with Shay Holmes because we haven't really seen her play that well. Not well enough, not better than any other center back we've seen in there. And I also have a hard time with it because she was a UW player. I know Leslie Gallimore's affinity for UW players. Yeah, you can see it. And I really don't think that should... Collaborate decisions. Right. Yeah. You should just be playing just because you're GM, like you coached at your school for 100 years.
00:17:37
Speaker
Yeah, 100 years. Exact number. It was a long time. It was. Yeah, that's fair. And I mean, you can see we've got UW all over our team, which isn't. And what's that doing for us? Yeah, I would say it's not really a bad thing. They're not a Power Five school. I don't know why. That's the thing. I just like what has UW done that warrants this? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yeah. Recently, not much. I don't know. Like we got Olo out of UW. I think that was a great sign name, but like Elite? No. No.
00:18:06
Speaker
Solid. Yes, definitely solid. But yeah, it's it's I don't think you don't need to be treated like it's a I don't know. Like these players are coming from Barcelona. Yeah, that's how it feels sometimes. Sometimes. Yeah, I get that. I get that for sure. Well, good news is some good news to get the win. So we got a win in a way when we weren't playing well, which is the kind of thing you want to see. You want to get wins in ways where you don't look great. Right. And that's kind of where we've ended up tying games.
00:18:34
Speaker
Yes. A hundred percent. And even we've even lost games where we look good. So, you know, they did, they did what they needed to do. Um, that brings us to being unbeaten. Uh, was it five games now? Yeah. Which started June 16th against the thorns. Uh, and that was the zero zero draw. Um, and then if anyone remembers, we got completely thrashed by the thorns earlier
Unbeaten Streak and Ambitions
00:18:54
Speaker
in the season. So.
00:18:55
Speaker
The fact that our unbeaten streak started against the Thorns after we got our asses kicked by them is a good sign. That means we're learning. I don't know if we're going to the next level, but we are learning. That's a positive, I would say, or like somewhere in the middle of positive negative.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it's tough when you have to have your right back win goal, win, win the games for you with goals. Yeah. Which she hadn't scored where to hadn't scored. What was, what did you find out that she hadn't scored since that was her first 2018 first goal since 2018. So in all competitions, I don't think we're looking at where to be like, huh?
00:19:34
Speaker
Yeah, she's going to get on the board. But I mean, that's something we talked about in the beginning of the season about just really wanting her to get that spark back, you know, maybe get those national team looks. And it just kind of seemed uninspired in the beginning. But like it feels like every other every game now, like we're seeing a little bit a little bit more fire from her. Yeah. And I'm into that. And I hope it continues.
00:19:57
Speaker
Yeah, I think the team and players are trying to work through this, you know, not being able to find wins and all that stuff. I think they're well, that's how you do it. Yeah, they're they're earnest in what they when they say like this is not good enough and we're we want to do better and we believe that we can. So good for her for for getting on that. And also that cross from King. Oh,
00:20:20
Speaker
I know, she duped that. Ooh. Defender. This is what I'm talking about. This is what I, like I, this is a thing that I think makes King a dynamic player. It's just we don't, one reason or another, we don't have somebody in the ends of them or she, maybe she doesn't get her shot off as well as it could. Um, but her play in the box is like, I think something we need to tap into more and other players need to be ready for it.
00:20:41
Speaker
more because like the fact that where to was the one who was ready for it. It's just like she was literally like in the far. She was looking for it in the post game presser. She was talking about like I know when I see Z one on one with a defender, like I know she's going to find a way to get across in and I just need to be ready. Players seem to be interested in this tournament, which is kind of good.
00:21:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think that the kind of gist of it was anytime there's hardware involved, you know, they want to be in the conversation to win that. Which we had a nightmarish end to the challenge cup. Last time we had an opportunity at a trophy. Well, besides the other thing I just want to forget about, the end of the sell cup, but the other trophy that we were
00:21:32
Speaker
We were in contingent for I was ended terribly and I guess this is like a history with rain Yeah, we we've won this the shield, but that's like there's no usually it's not like a big game on the line in that moment And we still need to get over that
00:21:50
Speaker
Yeah, it's like the deeper into any playoff situation we get, it gets worse. Yeah, we'll see how everyone's taking this tournament. That's the thing is we can't tell. And the way that it's formatted is so weird. But if they get out of the stage, they're going to go for it because the season's rough.
00:22:09
Speaker
Yeah. Seasons rough, they need something to fight for and to prove that this isn't a wash, the season isn't a total wash. Yeah, I think that too, I worry about how conservative Laura Harvey will be about it. This is just fun. That's the thing is to me is I don't want her to take it too seriously. Do you think this thing's supposed to be fun? And I think the more fun they're having with it, the more success they might have.
00:22:29
Speaker
Yeah, it's a time for players to get minutes, you know, crucial minutes within a tournament that has a lot of the same players that you're gonna be playing in the regular season, but just without the consequences of points that go to, that matter for the rest of the year. I think it could be one of those things where if they keep going, if somehow they're able to get the trophy, that could be the thing that, especially since like, in theory, we're gonna be signing somebody this summer. In theory, no. If we don't, we will write.
00:22:58
Speaker
If we get this trophy, if we get a signing, this is maybe the one thing I can see as having a path towards the playoffs. But that's a big if. That's a big ask. I don't think this tournament's going to be easy to win by any means. Not at all. This game was close. We didn't look spectacular. No. And it was another toilet bowl.
00:23:20
Speaker
like the two teams in the league. We're still not last place though. So I'm still not last place. We're going to hold onto that as long as we possibly can.
00:23:29
Speaker
And I think too, like talking about this tournament and how else it can be important is there's just momentum, you know, that's at stake too. Because we had a little bit of momentum coming into the break just because the sale and then only losing a couple of players to international duty and then really being able to get these younger players in and then getting a win in the first game.
00:23:54
Speaker
If you can kind of keep that going and keep that excitement level up in the players in the fan base and bring that into at least be competitive in this in this tournament and bring that into the regular season after after the Olympics. I mean, you can really only go up from there. Yeah, I think this is a chance for the players who aren't starting prove that maybe they could be the solution to what's been going wrong. Yeah. So that does mean getting good results.
00:24:22
Speaker
Yeah, everybody's fighting for, you know, their their little spark. Mm hmm. And to get in and make an impact and to be a game changer. And I love I love seeing that when you bring in younger players or players that haven't been getting minutes and you're like, dang, all right, you can tell that they want it. And I think that's something that came from Sam Aza last night. I'm sure she's missed playing. Oh, God, I bet playing in a match is just like a different different experience. Yeah.
00:24:48
Speaker
How do you feel about the Adamas performance since we always go on about how much we would like to see from Adamas more? What do you think of her starting and what she looked like on the field? I thought she looked good. I mean, it wasn't great. Yeah, but she put balls into dangerous places. And I just think again, she for her age, she's just seems very put together on the field.
00:25:10
Speaker
Composure is seems totally there. Mm-hmm. She seems very ready. Yeah, which is great So we'll see kind of what we'll get from her going forward, but I think that she played well I don't know if she's gonna be going to the youth World Cup or the u20 World Cup, you know Harvey wants to make sure she goes in there in good form Yeah, because that experience that she's gonna get there is gonna be really really valuable So it can't be taken lightly that she's going
00:25:35
Speaker
Well, Harvey used to coach the U20 team too, so she knows Adam as well from that. Yeah. And so you want to, like we were talking about previously, we want to, you want to make sure that those players are healthy and taken care of going into that. Yeah. I can't burn her out in this tournament. I hope she does well. I hope she gets some good playing time there. See if we can find streams of it. Cause that stuff is always like all over the place.
00:25:55
Speaker
Yeah, when we find that stuff, we'll share it on the Cooler Guild Twitter. Were there any other positives from you from the game? Not really. I've got one, and it was kind of sporadic, but I thought Mackenzie Weiner in the beginning of the game, first three quarters of the first half, she looked tenacious.
00:26:10
Speaker
That's really how we got that first goal. Yeah, she earned the penalty. She earned the penalty. She got pushed down, kind of in the penalty box, maybe a little soft, maybe should have been called penalty, but gets up, goes and wins the ball back quickly. So the fact that the Utah defender had to hack her to try and get to the ball and then bam, penalty. And there's no VAR in this tournament. But it did look like a penalty. It did look like a penalty. It was called a penalty. That's how you win that first goal.
00:26:34
Speaker
So couldn't do without her, couldn't do without her getting up and trying to just I don't know. To me, when that she got back up, I was like, she's trying to like get she wants she wants a spot. Yeah, she wants more playing time and she's going to prove why she deserves it. And I think she did. I think that you got to keep giving these players meaningful minutes in this tournament. Yeah. Just just so that they have that opportunity.
00:26:56
Speaker
You got to give Olivia Athens her flowers for converting that penalty. Yeah, and she played really well. She did. Negatives, besides the goal. Our favorite and first cooler player of the match, right? She was our first. Yeah.
00:27:12
Speaker
Ryan Brown went down with an injury and it did not look good. She immediately and it was a non-contact injury and I watched it on slo-mo yesterday and you can her knee does something funky and they were definitely like yanking on it which they do to do like the on-field ACL testing I know this from experience and it looked to me like it was moving a lot so
00:27:38
Speaker
I don't have high hopes for that. I have high hopes for her. Yeah. But just from what you could see when they were yanking on it and the look on her face, you could tell that. Which sucks because she was becoming to me an obvious starter.
00:27:54
Speaker
100% I'm not like super super obvious starter. She I mean, I think that's obviously any player would be emotional after that something like that because everyone just watches it everywhere in the league and in the sport but I feel like you could tell with her reaction is just like fuck like
00:28:10
Speaker
she fought so hard to be in this position yeah and to be getting these minutes and like this kind of recognition finally and then for this to happen i'm just i'm heartbroken for her yeah i'm heartbroken for her i hope it's nothing crazy but man i don't know it's
00:28:28
Speaker
I hope for her sake that it's nothing serious. I think it's gonna be serious. We're just being speculative, but speculative in a way that we've been watching tragic knee injuries plague this sport. Since I did mine. Yeah, fellow victim. Thoughts to her? Wellwishes really really really bummed out for her.
00:28:51
Speaker
Ryan, if you want to do something in recovery, you're welcome to come on the show. Yeah, always. We'd love to have you. Especially for our first school to play the match of our of our podcast. Yeah. It'd be super cool. We are fans. So big fans. We wish you well. We do. Anything else you want to cover from the match?
00:29:06
Speaker
It was a win. It was a win. It was really exciting. I was so excited. I was thrilled. And then the next morning I was like, oh man, it wasn't even an NW cell game. I know. I was like, we're going to need a dub pod, but I still want the real one. Yeah. We're still waiting on Laura Harvey's 100th win.
00:29:22
Speaker
We don't we don't get to knock that off. So we're also still waiting for where to assist stuff, although I think Bethune's going to honestly beat that record pretty quickly. You'd like to have work to have it at some point. I just I remember saying like, I think we're just going to have that for a long time. Then I remembered, ah, Craig Bethune exists now. And I'm not mad about it, but I'm like, she's clearly going to be doing well for a long time, I think. So she stays in the league.
00:29:48
Speaker
That's true. Does she want to go elsewhere? Maybe. Also, she's with Michelle Kang, the person who wants to wheel and deal, I'm sure, going forward. Yeah. Post-match presser, Harvey talked about the new signings. We already touched on this a little bit, but it was kind of interesting to hear her say, like, we're serious about these signings. They want to develop players. It was kind of funny that they were talking about, like, wishing that we could have got a Domizan last year.
00:30:17
Speaker
because then she could have had a year with Megan or Beano. Yeah. And I'm like, fuck, this is like I know Megan has talked about she never wants to coach, but like, could we just like not have her coach, but just like hang out? Can you consult? Just like, yeah. Isn't that what consulting is? Yeah, I think she would love to be a consultant. I just like think she has so much knowledge and like skill that she can pass on. And why wouldn't not go to the future of the rain players? Yeah.
00:30:44
Speaker
I would love to figure out if there's any way to do that. I don't know. I mean, it seems like Mayor Pimino is really enjoying life these days away from away from planes. So it might not happen anytime soon. She was at the WNBA All-Star match with the shoving ice and every plazas.
00:31:04
Speaker
Yeah, and grinding up with Ellie. Ellie the Elephant, yeah. Big fan of Ellie, so I don't know if that's going to be in the cards, but I thought too with this presser, I thought it was a really good kind of insight into what Harvey was talking about with this long time investment in these youth players that a lot of it she feels confident in because of the sounders being on board and the new resources that the
00:31:29
Speaker
club has access to just to give these players everything that they need for these years to come.
Commitment to Youth Development
00:31:35
Speaker
Yeah. And so that long time investment is made easier because you've got a long time commitment with with your owners. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's big. I did. It did seem like this is one of those things where we know the rain don't usually take the draft seriously. Plus you do have you do have to rely on having those high picks. I think this is a way around that. Yeah. I think that we're going to get high picks.
00:32:02
Speaker
Suck and get hydropics and also just pick up anyone that might be a hydropic later if you know We didn't scoop them up scoop them up now We did get we put out a note and if anyone will probably do this going forward But we put out a tweet like if anyone has questions or notes in the matches we would love to cover it in the episode we got our first one from a
00:32:21
Speaker
The first and only? First and only? Well, don't tell people it's only. We're going to pretend like we have- They can go on Twitter and look it up themselves. We have so many. This is the only one we had time to get to. Demand is high for us and our insight. From at the spicy curry, should Sam Mesa have played before tonight? Like maybe in every game, she's incredible. Exclamation mark.
00:32:43
Speaker
Yeah. If she could, if she was able to. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. We don't know if she was, but yeah, I think we covered why we think, but the answer to that. Yes. Yeah. I think it's undeniable that she's got a talent there and I would like to see what else she can do. Yeah. We also need to keep her healthy. So getting these game minutes, you know, and these smaller chunks, but still meaningful chunks, you know, it's not like what we were doing to Adamas at the beginning of season and giving her like three minutes at the end of the game. And it's just like, okay.
00:33:11
Speaker
I guess the other thing we need to go over is, is there a cooler player of the match? And who would you give it to? Julia Lester. Yes, we were. We did record saying it was going to be a Sam Aza, but we remembered that's not who it is this week. But we I'm sure she's I'm sure she's going to get her time soon for that. But Julia Lester, for sure. 100 percent cooler player of the match. We want to see more. Yeah. I think that's maybe sometimes where we're at when we give these out is it's it's more of
00:33:39
Speaker
giving credit to players that maybe don't always get that credit. I do think that Laura Harvey was very impressed with her and made sure that she knew that, but that doesn't mean she's gonna get to the starting lineup immediately when things return. So we're gonna be here and pushing that
00:33:56
Speaker
Well, and I think that she's probably going to get a good amount of time in this tournament. So it'll give us more positives to check in her little column so we can keep pushing it. Yeah. Don't let us down, Julia. No. Jewels. Jewels. We're calling her Jewels. We're going to pretend like we're besties with her. Call her Jewels as well.
00:34:18
Speaker
Yeah. So congratulations. Welcome to the Cooler Player of the Match Hall of Fame. Welcome, Julia Lester. Sam Mazza, you got to wait your turn. Not much longer, probably, though. Thought it just keeps going this way. I'm just going to say your name every time. Thank you for listening to the Sound Rit Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sonietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023,
00:34:44
Speaker
need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible by your continued support. Memberships start as low as $25 a year, which not only helps make podcasts like this one happen, but also gets you access to everything we produce. If you're able to support us at higher levels, starting at $75 a year, you gain access to a host of other perks
00:35:06
Speaker
Most notably, entry into our members-only Discord where the smartest, funniest, and most engaged commenters share their thoughts and ideas. To find out more, just visit SenderAtHeart.com and click the subscribe button in the top right corner. Thanks for listening!
00:35:24
Speaker
Moving on, we've got the Olympics coming soon. Yeah. We will be at the watch party at Ruffin Temple on July 25th for the U.S. versus Zambia, right? Yep. So we'll be there. You can meet us in person. Yeah, we'll have a few little sticker decals to give out too. So if you want to snag one of those and we're one of our listeners, please do.
00:35:44
Speaker
it's our first merch not super big i wanted to make sure that they weren't taking up your entire laptop or whatever you put them on they're really nice though um yeah that watch parties are rough and tumble uh the rain pushed it in there saying we can share that on the cooler guild twitter we will we will be there in person
00:35:59
Speaker
Yeah, and I don't know if we covered this at all, but some news with the Olympic roster for the US Women's National Team. Makario will no longer be taking part because of some knee issues once again, which is kind of just, I feel so bad for her because this has been like, she should be right now, like in the prime of her fucking career from what we've seen from her. The ceiling is so high for her. And it's been over two years.
00:36:24
Speaker
They bring in Lynn Williams who was an alternate on to the you know Olympic roster I don't see how that's it's not like for like no Which we didn't to be fair. We didn't have anyone like for like from a car real There's no one like her exactly, but Lynn Williams. I just I'm not hyped about it. What do you think of the? The friendlies that we did going into
00:36:47
Speaker
okay so first of all because we did want to talk about this we didn't make notes about this but i will say i didn't need to make notes about it because it was like watching the rain oh god it was so i mean it was i would say it was a high a faster pace rain yeah for sure but like
00:37:05
Speaker
just more opportunities on goal yeah chances yes uh but not really doing a lot with them no not really doing much with them um it was really a whole lot of nothing it was listless it looked uninspired and it really when we were at uslw playoffs i had this um saying that was like keeping me together which was um cautious optimism
00:37:30
Speaker
Mm-hmm, and I think I might just play into the thought that maybe Emma Hayes was just screwing with everything to see what she could do. Mm-hmm. And then She got a plan maybe got a plan. This is my cautious optimism. Yeah, my realism is
00:37:49
Speaker
what the fuck yeah like that was awful anytime rose wasn't on the field look like shit yeah and you're bringing done on and then you're just throwing her in the back to me it was just like you listed here as a forward yeah for what are you gaslighting us like what is this
00:38:06
Speaker
Yeah, it was pretty odd, definitely odd. Lindsay Horan doesn't look, I mean I know I have my own feelings about Lindsay Horan and that sometimes does play into my criticisms of her, but I feel like if Rose Lavelle isn't on the field with her, she doesn't bring a lot.
00:38:24
Speaker
And she kind of falls down a lot. She's always trying to draw fouls, which isn't always a bad thing. I do think that there's a time and place for that and a match that that is very well suited for. But sometimes you just got to get up or you got to stay up and keep going and keep the ball moving. Which I thought was really interesting because since she went to Lyon, like that's been a lot better.
00:38:46
Speaker
like she used to do that all the time and it was a constant complaint between the two of us when we would talk about USM's national team games even thorns games when she was back there and Then she went to leon and like every time she would come back. It would seem like oh like she's kind of getting it together and then now it's like it's back to her old ways she there just wasn't a lot going on and I just
00:39:07
Speaker
and she had a little bit of like a there was a clip that someone had posted of it but she was like mad that someone didn't pass her the ball at the back post or something like that and she just kind of threw her hands up and was like super annoyed and it's like well have you proven that you're gonna like sink these in every single freaking time because like you have it
00:39:29
Speaker
And also, you're the captain. Why are you over there kind of... I wouldn't say she was throwing a tantrum. That wasn't what it was, but I feel like the play wasn't to her, but it was to try to get somebody else. I feel like you can clap that up or it didn't work out and maybe next time, but she was really, really upset about that play.
00:39:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think that that's it might be like projection frustration. Oh, for sure. And so I wouldn't. Yeah, I just I wouldn't. I feel like it's infantilizing to call it tantrum. Yeah, I don't think it was a tantrum. I just think that as a captain, I think as a captain, that's where my frustration lies, is that like I wouldn't want to see her doing that.
00:40:07
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. I think that that's one of those things that people can pick out and try and pick apart. And I just think it's whether her frustration might be with the current situation, the score line of the game or her own performance. That's probably what came out. And I am reserved to call it anything else at this point, because that's, you know, players blow up players. That's whether professional athletes, you can't do that without the fire and
00:40:36
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Like, and those players should want the ball. And that's true. That's kind of the idea behind it. So I wouldn't pick it apart that much. I mean, I would have been very frustrated in that game if I was also one productive. So hell yeah, I might have done that as a competitive person. And these are professional athletes. I think that, you know, men do this all the time. It's true. You ever watched the Premier League? Did you watch? Did you watch the Euros? Did you watch a fucking baby?
00:41:01
Speaker
Copa America, they're all babies. And so when our player does this one time, I don't think it's anything to really pick apart at this point or overanalyze. Yeah, that's that's totally fair. Yeah, I don't feel great going into the Olympics. Cautious optimism. I don't even know if I'm that just because just and I would say just because I follow the rain so much that I see what's what played out. And if that is the plan, I don't think it's going to work. Yeah.
00:41:27
Speaker
At least not right now like this soon going into it I don't think that's what that's not what I wanted to see the draw like you getting a draw there a win in a draw I don't know and the win wasn't huge So I think a lot of this is the second match Rose wasn't available
00:41:43
Speaker
I think too, we have to think about this is Hayes hasn't been in charge for that long. Yeah. Oh yeah. So this experimentation could be a part of the plan. Uh, we're not privy to that plan and how it's being executed. So that's where I'm, I'm withholding my judgment until I see this in full force at the Olympics. But trust me, if game one at the Olympics, we come out, everybody's playing out of position and, you know, Vodka ball again. Yeah.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, I just I just I don't think that if it looks that uninspired again Yeah, that's me an issue. I'm gonna be having major issues Yeah, I mean I did like before all this happened when we got the change like when Emma Hayes got announced I was like whatever happens at the Olympics happens the Olympics I'm gonna take it too seriously because we knew how late she was gonna be coming in so I think that when she came in though everything just seemed so good and I was just maybe over eager about what she could do this early with this few games and
00:42:36
Speaker
Yeah. And I need to be reminded and remember that this team was not looking very good like the last several years. Yeah. And it's not going to be something that happens overnight over. She's had what, like maybe five matches or something like that. It's not very many. That's not going to happen in that short of time.
00:42:56
Speaker
Yeah, and the player selection for the Olympics roster is over and done with. Super slim too. And it's, you know, you only get 18 and I could argue that there are some players that deserve to be on that that aren't, you know, the Mercario being gone. It's kind of the Olympics are an interesting tournament. They need to expand that roster. I mean, they might just because of injuries. I don't think it's ever going to be any more with the ones that are actually part of the roster that may add more alternates, I would think, but
00:43:24
Speaker
Who knows they're kind of stingy with that stuff and they think that's part of the Olympic draw is that like It is only supposed to be so many people
00:43:31
Speaker
Anything else we got going on, our next match? Next match, yeah, it's going to be on July 28th at 3 p.m. And that is against Club Tijuana. And that will be in Seattle again. So if you want to go watch The Rain and go maybe see Sam Mesa, for instance. Wow. And if you want to go see the cooler play of the match.
00:43:57
Speaker
Lester might also be on the field and I would I would guess is you know should probably on the field So that's exciting. You can go watch that 3 p.m. Sunday. Yep 3 p.m. Sunday The 28th at Lumen. Yeah, go check it out. You want to watch the game? It'll be on Paramount Plus and NBSL Plus no clue what to expect from that interested to see what we look like against the league and Becky's team Yeah, that'd be fun. We did want to give a couple special shout outs we got drumroll, please
00:44:27
Speaker
Our first paid subscriber. So our first paid subscriber, it might be some relation. It's my dad.
Acknowledging Supporters
00:44:40
Speaker
Shout out Dennis Chris. Yeah, we've got a link. So if you do, we did mention at the beginning of the show, but there is like a special link so that if you sign up for Sander at Heart, we'll kind of get a cut of that. And so we can put that back into the show and all that. That's all we do with it for now, unless we start making millions of this.
00:44:57
Speaker
And then I can't promise anything where that money goes. Um, but yeah, so thank you, Dennis. Shout out Matt for sending us an email. Yeah. We finally got our first email. Um, he is a Lazco Adamus stand and we love that. Yeah. Always big fans of those. Um, so thanks for that kind words. Appreciate it. Um, and our locations are just.
00:45:18
Speaker
Our listener locations, we're just, we're everywhere. We're everywhere. We're all over the Seattle area, obviously. We got Snoqualmie, we got Gig Harbor. We're international too. Yeah, Norway, Brazil. Germany. Frankfurt, Germany. Frankfurt, Germany. Shout out to you.
00:45:36
Speaker
We've also had a pretty Steady there's someone out in South Dakota who's been a loyal listener. So shout out to you unless you're on a VPN that we don't know Yep, you could just be pretending you're in South Dakota and you're not So in which case never mind
00:45:51
Speaker
but yeah that's uh i think that's pretty much all we got for this episode after the olympics and the next rain game we'll probably queue up a new episode new bonus episode thanks for everybody who's been listening and following so far you can always follow us on twitter cooler gill pod email us love emails are all one of them that we've gotten
00:46:12
Speaker
Email is thecoolerguild.gmail.com. And again, that link, if you want to go and subscribe, you can always subscribe for free to Sounder at Heart too. You don't have to pay. It's just those paid memberships help kind of fund everything. Website for us, sounderatheart.com forward slash the cooler guild. It's always helpful if wherever you're listening to this, give five star ratings, rate, review, subscribe. We appreciate all of you.
00:46:34
Speaker
Yeah, until next time. I'm Koop. I'm Van. Let's hope for another dead pod. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. Bye. Bye.
00:47:01
Speaker
Should we, are we just, we're just vibing and Sam Aza. Yeah. Yeah. Sam Aza. We were gonna give it to Lester. But fuck it. I forgot we talked about that last night. Yeah, we did. We did talk about this last night. We were like, we should go to Lester. We'll wait till Sam Aza does some, a little bit more, but.