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Summer Reign Reset, USWNT Rally - Ep. 11
6 Plays3 months ago
The Reign wrapped up their Summer Cup versus the Thorns in a 0-1 result that saw both teams eliminated from the tournament. We get into what we saw from the team in Portland and what we hope to see moving forward. The next match for the Reign won't be until the end of August, giving the team a chance to reset as well as get a good look at their recent signings.
Elsewhere in woso, the Olympics continued in dramatic fashion. We discuss the vital ending to the USWNT's win over Japan in France, Canada being eliminated, Marta getting at least one more international match, and Spain's late comeback.
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CoolerGuildPod
Coop
Van
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Show produced by Coop
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Intro and Episode Preview
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the third Summer Cup bonus episode of the Cooler Guild. I am Coop and joined with me is Van. Hello. We are recording on August 3rd, 2024.
Summer Cup Final and Olympic Quarterfinals
00:00:32
Speaker
On today's episode, we'll be discussing the reigns third and final match of the 2024 Summer Cup against the Thorns down in Portland, as well as some of the other action from the quarterfinals in women's soccer Olympics.
00:00:45
Speaker
But first, a reminder, the Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder Heart podcast network. You can either listen to us on our public feed or if you're a Sounder 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 sounderheart.com forward slash the Cooler Guild. New subscribers get 10% off their normal rate and you'll help support everything that we're doing.
00:01:06
Speaker
We just got another paid subscriber. Yeah. Shout out to Jim. Anything going on with you? Other than the fact that I watched like seven and a half hours of soccer today. My brain is like fried right now. Yeah. I stayed out late last night, uh, with the movies and we saw Twisters. Fun. Mm-hmm. It was like badly good. Okay. I mean, I feel like that's what you want out of Twisters. Yeah. So it was fun. I had a good time, but yeah. And then woke up at 5.55 this morning. Is that my alarm for?
00:01:36
Speaker
and got up to watch the most boring game that we will talk about a little bit later. Yeah, it was a bit of a snooze fest for a while. Yeah, but let's talk about the rain. We have to. Well, the good news is this will be our last time talking about a match until the end of the month. Yeah. Getting a little bit of break from that thanks to being eliminated from the summer cup.
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, you want me to do the match recap? Yeah, get into it.
Reign vs. Thorns Analysis
00:02:06
Speaker
All right. On Wednesday night in Portland, Lorraine played the Thorns in their final group stage match of the Summer Cup. Portland scored in the 40th minute after Lenehan was able to wake her way past Shay Holmes on an attacking run. McClaren tried closing her down, but Lenehan got a shot off on goal and put the Thorns up 1-0. Despite Lorraine having 19 shots to Portland's 8, Lorraine were unable to convert any of their chances and lost the game 0-1. Broken record. We're broken record. Yeah, I know.
00:02:32
Speaker
so frustrating we could just like maybe release the same episodes we've put out and then just like edit the names of the teams we're playing and then insert goal like score or whatever but like not completing chances is like the theme of this season yeah or just not having threatening chances one of the two because i feel like the chances aren't usually that good anyway so
00:02:55
Speaker
No, I mean, unless it's a sitter that's getting missed by a certain forward. Yeah. I think we all have to have that discussion at some point. There's some issues I think that haven't been solved that you need to see solved from some of your forwards. Yeah. And it sucks because we've grown to love these players. We've seen them play well, but if you want the team to start winning and they don't step up and perform when they need to, then things got to change.
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's it's that. I mean, the goal, the goal was just kind of, you know, you should not get scored on your post as a goalkeeper. You should not get scored on your post. I will say, though, Ivory does like kind of slip. She recovered from the slip. OK, I watched it multiple times.
00:03:40
Speaker
She did recover from it pretty well. She recovered pretty well, but then she wasn't able to get far enough towards the post to cover that space. And to her credit, when a similar situation happened in the second half, she came up big. You know, it's just one of those flukey things where Portland took advantage of their chance and we didn't. How many was it? 19 shots we had. We couldn't figure out one of those. How many were there on goal?
00:04:05
Speaker
Five on target. Come on. It's getting so old. It really is. Especially since this was our first match of the Summer Cup where we're playing our vets and was hoping things would maybe be a little bit different in that front, but it wasn't. And I mean, it was a rival match, right? So it's obvious we're going to try to put a good lineup out with the players you have available, but nothing game of it.
00:04:33
Speaker
So I've kind of decided it's like very exhausting being so disappointed every game. So I've decided that I'm going to take an optimistic approach for the rest of the year. That's, you know, it's funny that that's, that's your choice. You can take that choice. Um, when I started getting frustrated watching the sounders, when they were starting to suck less, like, you know, year and a half, two years.
00:04:58
Speaker
I just told myself, I'm not going to let men disappoint me anymore, but I can't really do that here. Exactly. And I'm going to keep watching. I love the team. I know that's the thing. And so it's like, why make it worse for myself? Yeah. Let's go, ladies. Let's go. Come on. I mean, I'm also going to be hypercritical, but as an outlook, as a whole,
Player Performances and Commentary Issues
00:05:20
Speaker
Well, OK, so if we want to be optimistic, we did get to the final last year. So we just needed to get the right pieces plugged in for the players that we lost, which one of them has joined the team. Is that the player? I don't know. But why not? Could be. Yeah.
00:05:40
Speaker
I mean, game one. Like, let's watch this. Like, game one, she comes in, scores a banger. Could change the energy of everything. Yeah, really good. That speed up top, having her train with the players that we already have that are slow or slower, and having to compete with that, like, that could really change it.
00:05:56
Speaker
Uh, yeah, change the training environment. It could, which it's been pointed out that her statistics don't tend to lean towards being an outright goal scorer, which is kind of been the criticism of the rain and what they need to get. But maybe it's somebody who's more threatening with the, you know, laying in balls could be the thing that helps the people needing to finish. If we're going to be optimistic.
00:06:21
Speaker
Well, we have like all out brutes that will put their body on the line to just get in the way of the ball when it's coming towards the ball and try and put it in. Yeah. Heidema, Lazco. I've seen Ballster do it, but like, especially Heidema and Lazco. Yeah.
00:06:34
Speaker
Yeah. All they have to do is like get a body part on it. If she gets into just like a dangerous spot, could change everything, you know? It could. Maybe I've been looking at it all wrong. Maybe that is what we needed, not the outright goal score. But I wouldn't mind if we had one of those too. You know, but sometimes outright goal scorers come out of nowhere.
00:06:53
Speaker
Yeah. And we've had the, like, we, we've had goal scores that are currently on our team. They're just not doing that right now. Right. So maybe it's just matter of getting them back on, on that with the right pairing. And Monteser, Monteser seems like she's got a really good vibe. Yeah. And that she like wants to come in and like be flashy and like bring flair. And I'm all for that. Yeah.
00:07:16
Speaker
I know from my experience, like on my W league team this season, it was like the second somebody like hit a dope back heel pass, there was like three more that came from different players. And it's like you sometimes you just need that person to come in and be like, Oh yeah, that is an option. Oh yeah, I can make that run. Yeah. And she's coming from a completely different environment. Yeah. A country that's, you know, never had a, you know, a Haitian, never had a Haitian born player in the league. So we'll see.
00:07:41
Speaker
We will see. And also what I think is really beneficial because of the Olympics and because he just got knocked out of the challenge or the summer cup, we're going to have several weeks to get her acclimated. That's going to be very, very valuable.
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah. And you know, I don't know what the plan is for Quinn and Heidema, but the, you know, the candidate candidate game today, um, they're going to be coming home at some point. Yeah. So they're going to be on good rest. Um, whether or not they come back to train or not, they usually give them a little bit of a break coming back just because of the environment being a little hectic. And right. But I mean, like if they stay for, cause some, some athletes like just stay in France for the closing ceremony, they don't get booted out like they do for, uh, the world cup. So.
00:08:23
Speaker
Yeah. And I wouldn't blame them if they wanted to hang out. That sounds got a reset, especially when you got to come back to the rain. And when you go run up the rest of the schedule, you got to get ready for that mentally. Yeah. And with everything that's going on, you can with, Oh God. Yeah. They need a break. Yeah. Um, anyway, back to the game against Portland.
00:08:44
Speaker
Um, I mean we lost, but we didn't lose by a lot, which means we helped eliminate Portland. Yeah. Because it was only, Portland only scored one goal and the tiebreaker was goal differential. And we lost to Portland last time 4-0 in Portland. So I would say that, I mean, it wasn't a win, but knocking Portland out of a tournament by not losing more, that's a win. Yeah.
00:09:10
Speaker
It really was. It really was. Shout out to June Ash Eden, Sounder at Heart, Ride of the Valkyries, contributor, writer, the post-game article which is titled Rain Eliminate Thorns from Summer Cup. That's right. That's right. We did. You got to hang on to these things when you have them presented to you. So take that Portland.
00:09:36
Speaker
I mean, Utah just came out and, like, did the unexpected. Oh, yeah, they just demolished Tijuana. Yeah. I mean, good for them, I guess. I'm hoping they're gassed by the time they come back into the league, you know, when it starts up again, because they're going to go deep and lose maybe in the Challenge Cup or Summer. I keep calling it Challenge Cup, the Summer Cup. And then they'll stay in last place and we won't get last place.
00:09:58
Speaker
Right. But of course, as we said, we're going to tear up the schedule after that. Like, we're going to be so good. So I guess we don't need to worry. I think we're going to be fighting. I think we're going to be fighting. I think we're going to get some points out of games. I don't know. I am. I am asking them to prove me wrong. I'm very skeptical, but I'm happy to be surprised. Rest of the game positives. Jordan Bug. Definitely. Yeah. I texted you and I was like, she's the real deal. Yeah. And you're like, I just put that in my notes.
00:10:27
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I put what did I put in my notes? Bug seems solid. I don't throw the word solid around unless it's like, you know, that's that's a big word for me to put out very solid. And that's like for a kid. That's what you want. Yeah. Shay Holmes had a lot of good things to say about her after the game. So they could also they also recognize the kind of player that she is at her age, which I guess is good to know that if we're not going to focus on the draft, that this is our new plan. I don't know.
00:10:56
Speaker
backup plan. Well, we didn't use people to sign young kids, right? So, like, this was never really an option we had before if we didn't try in the draft, which we'd have rarely ever done, if ever, like, with real conviction. So, I think this is maybe our new path to developing players and stuff like that. Yeah. Where did I thought I played well?
00:11:18
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, she didn't start last game. She didn't start the Tijuana game. So starting this game was good to see. She just doesn't have a lot to work with, you know? And she's covering, covering a lot of ground. I will say a positive for me was that there wasn't like an absolute breakdown in the shape of the backlight. I said, I mean, that one goal was bad.
00:11:37
Speaker
Yeah, but it wasn't the same way it's been bad. And then I've been complaining about for like the last four games. So, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they limited, they definitely limited Portland's chances, but just saying a lot for this team. So I'll take that for sure. And also knowing how the Tijuana game went. Oh yeah.
00:11:58
Speaker
Yeah, they're they're they're learning. We will hope. Yeah, it's learning and then being consistent, right? That's been the issue. Yeah. Yeah. Another thing I wanted to shout out, McCammon, there was a chance in the first half with Lasko and McCammon got a start as well. And she laid this really great ball up the field to find Lasko. Lasko wasn't able to finish it, as we know, because
00:12:22
Speaker
Score was zero for us. But that ball from a cannon, I didn't I didn't expect that. Yeah, I was probably I would probably say that was the best chance the game. Yes, definitely. Unfortunate goalkeeper did a good job coming out and cutting off the angle. But yeah, that the ball, the way it was weighted. Well, the run was really good. It seemed like they were on the same page. So that's encouraging somebody to keep an eye on with her. I think we can see any that more. What position does she play usually? I think they had her at like the six.
00:12:52
Speaker
Okay. Okay. That's been a position. I feel like we've been kind of, uh, I dunno, not super set on who, who were sitting back there always. Uh, she, she was, so the way that they have the score sheet set up on the rain media guide, they have it as a four three three and she was, um, right mid.
00:13:10
Speaker
Okay. And then on the, they have like the, what is the average position? And she's like sitting just behind the center circle on the right. Okay. Yeah. If we can get her in the attack a little bit, that'd be sweet. Yeah. I think that's definitely something that, um, could allow fish lock to go up a little bit further too. Yeah. That would be really nice. Cause we, as we've noted for a while, fish lock is so much more productive when she's central and up a little higher.
00:13:35
Speaker
Yeah, I guess the problem with visual she just like she kind of just does whatever she wants and feels as needed in the moment, which is great. I'm not like upset about that. She felt like we needed to score when she plays for whales. Exactly. Exactly. So I feel like we have like a little bit of better like coverage in the back and she feels fine about what's happening back there, not needing to track back there. Then that should allow her to do what she's really good at, which is figuring out goals and goal opportunities.
00:14:03
Speaker
I mean, otherwise the the attack was a bit underwhelming. Boss, you can't shoot in the ball from outside the box, which is fine. If you're not penetrating, you know, well into that final third, you're going to have to take those shots from outside the box because that's where you're finding your space. But on target, one was saved, but there wasn't a lot on it. So.
00:14:22
Speaker
I don't know at what point we need to have a serious discussion about Bethany Balzer. She keeps missing, I would say, opportunities that she hasn't always missed in the past. Or maybe she'll miss them, but she'll get the next one, right? It seems like every single game we're getting two or three really big chances, and she's just not doing what she needs to do for someone in her position. Yeah.
00:14:47
Speaker
Um, cause I went and looked up, Adamus came on, I wrote in my notes, Adamus is elite.
00:14:55
Speaker
And she was only on the field for, what was it, like 20, 27-ish minutes. And she had as many passes in the final third as Boats did, who was on there for 66 minutes. And I know that's not Bethany's role in the box. And like, obviously Adama seems to be more of a like a create, you know, she likes to create chances too and not just take them. But I do feel like that's kind of an issue. That is a lot of an issue. Yeah.
00:15:20
Speaker
I just feel like we need to maybe give some other players maybe some more minutes and maybe put some people in positions where they feel like they need to fight for their starting position, not just give it handed to them. Yeah. I mean, at this point I wouldn't play ball, sir. Wouldn't starter. I wouldn't play her at all. Really? At what point has she come on and been productive? Yeah. I mean, if you want to be real about it, it's a dumbest to score to goal and she's getting a third of the playing time. Yeah.
00:15:47
Speaker
Granted, you're not trying to burn people out, but she's not getting playing time in the regular season. Balzer is. What's, uh, cause I think Bethany is, she's still at three goals this year, right? For the season. Let me double check it.
00:15:59
Speaker
They said five on the broadcast and I was like that many She has five goals this season. Oh, that's right 1088 minutes played. I know at least two of those are penalties. Yeah, see me. That's where I was seeing the three So you've got three goals in the run of play or set pieces or whatever Not good enough. I would say 100% no, I mean, but none of our forwards have been good enough
00:16:24
Speaker
Yeah, to be fair, not totally her fault. I feel like every week we're just talking about like these sitters that boats is missing.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yeah, you also have to worry about player welfare and are you really gonna throw somebody into a slump if you're not giving them any time? Yeah. So I can sit here all I want and be like, yeah, she doesn't deserve to play. Yeah. But as for a well-rounded roster, but then again, you've also ostracized a bunch of these other players that never got minutes and are now being productive. So it's like,
00:16:58
Speaker
Yeah, you got to find the balance. Um, that's the coach's job, not mine. Um, and maybe I don't know, like they keep acting like training's going really well. So like, is she finishing these chances in training? And like, that's why they're just like, maybe this will be the game that she figures it out, but like at some point, maybe we need to mix it up.
00:17:18
Speaker
As much as I love her, I think it's maybe time to mix it up. Yeah, I mean, I definitely agree. I just I don't see it from her, whether she's coming off the bench, whether she's sure she's creating opportunities, but nothing ever comes of them. And it just like adds to the frustration. So at some point it's counterproductive. Yeah, definitely. Get Adamaz in. Just swap out Adamaz. Adamaz is literally like... She's ready. She's ready and she's so good. Her and Latz go up top.
00:17:47
Speaker
Yeah. Like if we had another game this weekend or this week, her and Lats go up top all day. Yeah. Um, since we're in the negatives, um, and when we lost, I guess we should get into more negatives. How about things we can improve on? Things we can improve on. I don't know.
00:18:04
Speaker
I'm trying to bring this positivity front, okay? I don't know. Sometimes it did feel like, and I guess our defense did hold because it did feel like Portland was kind of just having their way with us sometimes when they had the ball, like twain with our defense. That's like kind of how I thought of it. They were just like playing around and we were just kind of like chasing it at times. Maybe that's just because our midfield situation wasn't what we would normally want it to be, but it was a little hard to watch because
00:18:33
Speaker
you know, Portland's got a lot of big players missing with this Olympics. And I feel like we shouldn't have been looking that kind of overplayed in certain moments like that. I don't know. I think when it comes to things like that, from like a player standpoint or game standpoint, when they're just playing the ball around, if it's not threatening, that possession doesn't really matter. But you don't want to be chasing the ball game long because then you're going to get tired. Yeah. And so they're
00:19:02
Speaker
There's a time to let it happen. There's a time to let it happen. And then there's a time to be like, all right, now it's time to step in. Like, let's double team. Let's win the ball back. Yeah, I guess that's where my issue is, is it was happening and then what was our attack? Well, that's the other thing. So it's not really so much about that. It's like the midfield like being able to regain possession and then, you know, create that next phase. Yeah.
00:19:27
Speaker
I don't know, man. It just looked lackluster. Very lackluster for me. Yeah. Non-related to players on the field, the commentators decided to do like an anecdote about Quinn because they're in the Olympics, right? And I honestly don't even remember what the anecdote totally was because I was just like angry because they just kept misgendering, like using the wrong pronouns for Quinn over and over and over again.
00:19:56
Speaker
Yeah, it was like a whole antidote with like several like back to back to back wrong pronouns. Yeah, it was like a whole like paragraph essentially about Quinn that they were reading off. She was reading off. That's her pronouns. You see what I'm doing here. She was reading off about Quinn. And I don't know. So we looked up the names of them.
00:20:20
Speaker
I believe it was Marion Crowder who was misgendering Quinn. Jamie Watson was the other person on the call, which I do feel like maybe when you're in a booth like that and you got the game sheet, right? Like I feel like pronouns are there. You also, if you're going to have an anecdote about Quinn, a non-binary player, like that's kind of a big part of this whole situation and why it's so cool. Shouldn't you know that? And then maybe the other person can kind of like give them a gentle reminder of some kind. Yeah.
00:20:48
Speaker
Cause I feel like we've been finally getting it right in like the last year, year and a half. Oh yeah. And it's just totally just like bombed it out of the park. Yeah. Just like the worst. Yeah. Cause I, and I will say I've, I've heard someone else using the wrong pronouns, but they catch themselves and then they'll go back and correct.
00:21:06
Speaker
Which, you know, not, not, not ideal because this is their job. I feel like they should do the research, get it right the first time. There's literally one player in the league. It's not that hard to remember. I just don't understand. Like, and if you're writing this up or if you think, Oh, I'm going to be talking about this. Yeah. Cause they, cause Quinn wasn't even on the field. Like you're, you're bringing it up to like.
00:21:28
Speaker
help educate people you're educating people and you don't even have the information correct do better do better they need to do better there's no excuse i mean even like either correct yourself say it right the first time fucking correct yourself or just don't fucking say anything at all yeah nobody wants to hear that
00:21:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think that's pretty much it on that. I think we also need to call it out when we when we hear it. I'm sure someone is hopefully I would hope someone's in their emails or whoever's their boss is is following up on this because it's really not okay.
00:22:01
Speaker
Moving on, I wanted to start maybe a new thing since the rain aren't doing great. Things we could improve. Yeah, things we could improve. I want to have a segment where it's like things we'd like to see. So things I would like to see for me starting off.
00:22:20
Speaker
I would like to stop taking shots when like there's a defender literally right in front of you. I know sometimes the ball can like sneak through a leg or whatever, but I feel like that person needs to be like a little bit, maybe like a couple yards out from you for that to work. Maybe a yard to get it through the legs, but I feel like I'm seeing players take shots and this is where our shot count is going up really high because they're not good shots.
00:22:43
Speaker
or just like hitting a defender immediately. There's just you can see such a skill difference between like take for instance Trinity Rodman's goal that we'll talk about in a bit. Oh yeah. But the ability to create space for yourself when you're like in the box and you're in that height crowd and just to be quick enough to bam bam make space and get a shot off. Yeah. Just don't have that quickness. Yeah. I want to see them figure something out with that.
00:23:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's definitely something you need to focus on because this has happened. God, all season, all season. Yeah. All season. Just smacking balls into people. And it's like, it's dangerous. It's a pet peeve of mine, I think, just regardless. But when I see it happening with my team more than like a handful of times, I'm just like, Oh my God, why are we doing this? They do something different. Do something different. No, at one point at some point, I'm like, are you just like trying to pad your stats here? Yeah. Yeah. It kind of looks like that sometimes.
00:23:43
Speaker
You know. The next thing, I think we can both agree on this. Oh yeah, 100%. More Adamas. We want to see more Adamas. More Adamas. We already went into that, so we'll just move on from that, but did you have something else too? Yeah. So a little bit what we were speaking to earlier with Balser just taking shots from like 20 yards out. Need to find a way to like penetrate through and get behind or be more dynamic in the 18.
00:24:12
Speaker
Yeah, because sometimes you know you're getting those shots off, but you don't really have any hope for them. So we need to find a way to just add a little bit. Just try to get closer.
00:24:26
Speaker
Yeah. Honestly, like as a goalkeeper, when you're just seeing them smacking shots from 20 yards out, you're like, oh, we're fine. Yeah. Nothing's there. They're like desperate. They're getting impatient. That's what it looks like to me. Yeah. I mean, and sometimes like if that's what you have, sure. Take it. How many? But my question is, how many bangers have we seen from our team anyways? Like these people trying them. It's not like a thing that they're like known for. I mean, she's so young.
00:24:52
Speaker
Yes. I will say G is maybe the exception and then Fishlock, but okay. Good point. But we already said, I want more dumbness that choosing this, this critique, but like from Balser, like I'm confused why Bethany is trying to take a, like a banger, uh, trying to get a bigger goal. She has done it. I don't know if she's been working on it more, but guess what? It's not working right now. Yeah.
00:25:15
Speaker
So I would like to see them be more dynamic in that final third and honestly just have more support up front and not support that's just standing there. I mean, Bethany, the reason she was so good for us is because she was getting headers.
00:25:30
Speaker
Yeah. So can we figure that out again? I would love that. But I also think when you have Latsko running around like crazy, right, trying to get into any sort of space, like she's a smart player and she's a hardworking player. And then you see her, you know, kind of trying to cut through the back line, make some runs and then they're just kicking the ball away. Yeah. Sure. She's not like throwing her hands up in frustration because she's an adult, but
00:25:55
Speaker
you know like at some point you got you got to get somebody to keep doing that to you and get get you players who can see that pass and can see that alley. I think for this week that'll that'll do. We've got I'm glad that again we have some time to rest. Wrapping up this match cooler player of the match we got. Jordan Bug our first teen. Oh god that's frightening.
00:26:20
Speaker
in her second game. And also like just signed good for her. Congratulations to Jordan Bug. Welcome to the cooler player of the Match Hall of Fame, Jordan Bug. We will buy you a root beer. Do we want to take a quick break? Yeah, let's take a quick break before we move on to the Olympics. We'll be right back.
00:26:45
Speaker
The Kua Guild is brought to you by the doctor's office, a great little 12 seat bar on Capitol Hill. The owner is a big fan of the rain and is proud to be our very first sponsor. The doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match. I really love the swanky environment that also provides knowledgeable and personal service. Next time you stop in, celebrate Marta extending her international career with Brazil's win over France by ordering the Bombdia cocktail.
00:27:09
Speaker
Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle, or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers. And we're back.
US Women's National Team in Olympics
00:27:25
Speaker
Olympics quarterfinals. Great news. The US won and beat Japan.
00:27:33
Speaker
Dramatic win, too. Dramatic win. What'd you think of it? Oh, they looked like crap the first part of the game. I was on the Discord, you know, because if you sounder at heart, subscriber. Paid subscriber. Yeah, paid subscriber. You get access to the Discord, which is a really fun conversation during the games. I really liked all of the people, like, pulling the masks off of Emma Hayes, and it's just Vlocco.
00:27:58
Speaker
We didn't have any subs for the whole first part of the game or like the regular. You kept pretty much the same starting 11 minus putting, um, Corbin Albert in you had Roosevelt and you had Iran in the midfield.
00:28:13
Speaker
Do you think Horan had a horrendous game? Extremely horrendous. I don't even know why she's playing. She looks lost. She looks lost. She's giving the ball away. Sure, she does clear the ball off the back line at points, you know, when we're back there for like a set piece or something, but God.
00:28:33
Speaker
It's so annoying. People are like, oh, she's so good. I'm like, are you blind? She has good games and I try to give her credit where credit is due, but the bad games that she has, it's just this, the way that this team is set up, it just like, like the whole thing doesn't seem to work if she's having a bad game.
00:28:50
Speaker
Yeah, which I guess speaks to maybe how valuable she is or it's just like should we have been trying somebody different for a long time? Because if she's on the field and they're depending on her for that position, it can be rough. It can be very rough when she's having a bad game.
00:29:05
Speaker
Well, and I think like what I talked about with last, uh, when we were kind of previewing this Japan game, I said, you know, like, well, we're talking about how good our front three is. And it's like, well, if they keep our front three from really getting the ball, they're just going to deal with our like mediocre midfield. And that's exactly what happened. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, Roosevelt was doing everything she possibly could. Had an okay game, but like Japan executed the game plan they had wanted to execute.
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, they were extremely disciplined, really played well, and they definitely deserved to go into extra time. Definitely. So you're starting pretty much the same starting 11, who this is their fourth game in 10 days. And then Emma Hayes does not make a sub until extra time starts.
00:29:52
Speaker
I don't know what it is, but I feel like so many of the teams I follow just don't use subs at the times I expect subs to be used. Well, and I think too, it just really drills in the idea to those subs that they're not valued. Yeah. And that's something that you don't want to be inching into the culture.
00:30:13
Speaker
you know, like injuries happen, things come up at any point in the game, right? First half, second half, before the match even kicks off, stuff happens. And this doesn't give you the, like, I can do this if they're not even getting minutes in normal circumstances. Yeah.
00:30:30
Speaker
And kind of had that issue a bit with Emily Fox today when she came off, which was extremely worrying. Seemed to me that she might have just like hyper extended her knee. That's kind of what it looked like to me. But I've been saying quietly but loudly at the same time, she's been one of the most solid players to the team this tournament. She's been like kind of just like a quiet, steady force on that side.
00:30:58
Speaker
Yeah. What if she gets injured though? Who are we going to, like, what are you going to do? Kruger. Okay. Which we didn't see. I feel like this is, this is the problem, right? Like as good as Emily Fox has been, like this is a long tournament. These games are quick. Well, it's pretty short tournament actually.
00:31:15
Speaker
I would say it's long in terms of if you're playing these players every single match. Well, yeah, that's the problem I'm having is like there's quick turnover. Yeah, playing every three days. If you're getting a bunch of minutes, that's that feels long. That's that's more what I'm saying. And so I just I feel like I feel like I just like at some point, maybe we should be saving some people's legs and we're not. But now we're into the Olympic semifinals. So you don't really have that choice.
00:31:40
Speaker
especially if you're not gonna fucking sub then don't put the people in that you're not gonna sub out that you think might not be good it's just it's a self-fulfilling prophecy man like it's just been like so much discussion about our depth and then we're just not using any of it yeah so
00:31:55
Speaker
cool love that i don't i didn't watch like the presser afterwards or anything so i don't know i know that there were gonna be a lot of questions about that for emanates but other than that i mean an extra time for you know shout out to the pink haired players trinity rodman you know great ball from crystal dun from the center of the field to the right right side of the box and rodman just takes a really great touch makes space for herself and hits it with her left foot
00:32:25
Speaker
Really good way to make space for herself, but also the shot was really, really well taken. Incredible. Incredible. She looked surprised that it went in.
00:32:34
Speaker
Well, my girl, we've seen you do this. Yeah, but there was like some discussion I was seeing that she had spoken this year for the, for her club team saying that she wanted to work on getting better with her left footed stripes. Okay. So that's paying off now. It seems to have worked at the right, at the exact right time too. Yeah. And Pino got to be there to see another pink haired player score. She did. And she looks so happy. I know she's hugging me a ham and Cindy Parla O cones right behind them.
00:33:03
Speaker
love seeing her there. Kind of fun fact that I saw from the post-match recap on the U.S. Soccer website. The U.S. have 12 consecutive wins. The U.S. Women's National Team has 12 consecutive wins in France, dating back to the 2019 World Cup. We love winning in France.
00:33:22
Speaker
That's so great. I love that. Love that for us. Yeah, so we were going to play the winner of the Canada-Germany game. I was really rooting to get Canada. I have mixed feelings about Canada still being in this tournament, but I did want to play them and now I'm kind of bummed we're not getting that. Yeah, I don't know because they look pretty dangerous.
00:33:43
Speaker
They did. I'm not saying it would have been easy. I'm not saying it would have been easy. And like, I know we'd be Germany. So, you know, I didn't know what we're going to get out of playing Canada, but I still wanted that. I still wanted that challenge. Yeah, the first half of the Canada-Germany game. So that game was at 10 a.m. Snoozefest. Yeah, first half was an absolute snoozefest. And then second half, it was like, oh, my God, somebody's definitely got a score before this game is over. And then they didn't. No. And then they didn't in extra time. So then they went into penalties.
00:34:12
Speaker
Well, the good news is our rain player made their penalty. Yeah, they did Canada. Everyone else. Not so, not so hot. There's one other play that made it, but everyone else is not looking good. And I did say like, I was saying to myself before the, like the game even started, I was like, if this game goes to penalties, I'm not super confident in Canada. Just because I was thinking about their mental space right now and everything.
00:34:37
Speaker
I mean, it could have gone one or two ways, obviously, but to me, it's just like they've had so much on their shoulders. And Germany just got their asses kicked. Well, and the coaching staff couldn't help because they'd already sent the drones home. Also that. Obviously. But shout out Ann Katrin Berger. Mm hmm. Germany's goalkeeper. New Gotham goalkeeper, right?
00:35:00
Speaker
Yeah, she's been, she's been Gotham all year, but, um, absolute ice queen, man. Hold an air. She almost saved three. She almost saved three. One kind of went underneath her. Adriana Leon shot and it kind of went underneath her, but it had this insane spin on it and it just like kind of rolled behind her. So she didn't want to face her though, because she came back right after that. She scored her, her, her kick. Yeah. Right after that, she scored. So to put Germany through.
00:35:26
Speaker
And in the very first kick, the first player that walked up, she just stood there in the middle of the goal line with her arms behind her back. I know. She did that for all of them. And I was like, this is an interesting strategy. And I loved it. Yeah. And it worked. I also liked her gloves matching her boots. I'm a sucker for those kinds of little things. Germany moves on. We'll play Germany on Tuesday. Yeah. And then Columbia Spain match was wild. I watched most of that match.
00:35:54
Speaker
Columbia, I always get so heartbroken for them when they don't get further than they do. They work their asses off and they have so much talent on their team, but I still think that they're just, the composure to finish out a match is not there yet. No, it feels like their program is just like five years behind. Yeah, which is such a shame, but the good news is, well, we'll see how Caesado's injury is, but Caesado's very young, so I think they've still got a very bright future.
00:36:21
Speaker
And, you know, they didn't give up. I mean, they went up to zero and they had something like 20 percent possession in the first half. It was crazy. I mean, but at the same time, Spain didn't look that threatening. They had a ton of possession. They had a lot of, you know, passing in the final third, but they just weren't getting shots off that were helpful in any way.
00:36:41
Speaker
Jenny, Hermoso, Sub Don, Scored. She loves, she loves Scoring. And I'm so happy for her. Yeah. I mean, you can't not root for her obviously. Um, and then they got another last minute goal in the second half of the regular time, tied it up, went to penalties, rough to watch. Yeah. Uh, I know you're like a sicko for them just cause you're a goal keeper. Oh, I love them. Yeah. I'm a little pressure. Give me the pressure. I know sicko behavior.
00:37:10
Speaker
Spain won that. Good for them. Always good to see someone who has won the World Cup keep going because there seems to be that curse sometimes in the Olympics afterwards. The US has been very bad about that. I would like Spain to lose to us at some point, but we know that's going to take time.
00:37:30
Speaker
Another wild match. This day of women's soccer in the Olympics has been just wild. I did take a small nap. I had to. We're West Coast time. This started at 6 AM for us. But the Brazil France game, I put that on after I got off my dog walk. And guess what? We got two more matches for Marta.
00:37:52
Speaker
Brains just kind of falls, has been falling apart in matches. Yeah. I don't know what happened to them. They just kind of, they just kind of dilly dally. Yeah. They just dilly dally. They fell apart. Porchillo balled out. And also this is apparently her first ever international goal. Insane. Game winner, 82nd minute. And there's almost like at least two fights at the field. I saw Cascarena punch Angelina in the arm because Angelina just- She kind of tried, she punched at her.
00:38:19
Speaker
She didn't really hit her out. She was, she would have been fine if they made full contact. I think she, cause she came back with her fist like closed and trying to get a swing at her. Cause it was just a fist full of Jersey from Angelina trying to stop the attack. And like, I do not blame Brazil at all for this tactic. Like it worked out for them very, very well. Yeah. And a rile kind of shook France up and.
00:38:40
Speaker
Oh yeah. And the crowd there was insane cause home field advantage. France was, you know, really, really into it. Got the upset though. Brazil got the upset and now they're going to have a chance for a medal. I was watching the post game and like they were just showing, showing the players celebrating on the field. And there was a moment where, of course they're showing Marta, you know, up in the box because she couldn't dress for the game because she's on a red card suspension.
00:39:04
Speaker
She was obviously like very emotional, but then they showed the field players and the field players or you see them start pointing up. Yeah. And they're like doing this, you know, like I'm a bad millennial like this. I'm going to Gen Z it. My hands don't work like that.
00:39:21
Speaker
Wait, I got it. I got it. There you go. Okay. For everyone listening, Coop had to teach me how to do a hand heart. But they were doing hand hearts. They were doing hand hearts up at Marta and like pointing to her and she just like kind of broke down. Yeah. Because she's going to get to play another game. Two games. Two games. She's playing for a medal. As long as she doesn't get red carded. You're right. Okay. She at least gets to play one more game. Yeah. Part of a game. Who knows?
00:39:47
Speaker
Super happy for her. Super happy for her. Red card was just bad that she got. I don't think anyone wanted to see that be the end of her international career. Even the players from the other team were like, f**k. They were upset. Am I a part of the last international game Marta plays? I don't want this to be it. I think that was probably a really good
00:40:09
Speaker
motivator for Brazil in this match. Yeah. So good for them. I think, so I have some personal stuff going on. So we're going to be taking at least a week off from recording, which I won't be able to watch any of the semis live. Unfortunately, I'll probably watch them later when I am a coherent from what I have planned. I don't
00:40:34
Speaker
You know, you know, that'll be really, really exciting. We've got Brazil's going to be playing Spain. That's going to be a really, really fun one. I mean, this top four for this is really just, I think most people, you want to see one, at least one underdog get in something like this. I think that's Brazil, especially when you know, they didn't have Marta. Um, and then you've got the world cup champion, got the U S and you've got, you know, you've got, you know, you've got, you know,
00:40:59
Speaker
I guess Germany maybe is the underdog. I would say Germany because like having Lena Oberdorf out with ACL like that's been a big hit to them. So there's that and then they also just lost the US pretty badly. So yeah, yeah, I guess. Yeah, we got two underdogs and two big big dogs. So
00:41:14
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see, uh, Germany's game plan for the game against the US. I mean, they might learn a little bit from how Japan played us today, but you know, Germany's also the only team to score on us. So they'll probably lean into that a little bit too. Maybe, you know, try and surprise us with a little bit more attack. I'm excited. Sad. I can't watch it live, but I'll get to it when I get to it. Wraps it up for the Olympics. We'll take another quick break. Be back in a bit.
00:41:42
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Soundwork Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sonietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but 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.
00:42:08
Speaker
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00:42:34
Speaker
And we're back. Other notes. Um, so we talked about Montesier. Yep. Coming in. Yeah. We saw pictures of her practice. Yep. So, woo woo. Looking forward to that. Other happening. I guess our, our prediction of, we missed our chance. We should have just done it.
00:42:55
Speaker
We should have just made her cool play the match and then maybe she wouldn't be gone. I wanted to say I'm a summer. I did too. She's going to have we're going to have a same summer. It's just going to be in Dallas. Yeah. So Sam is it was well, her contract was extended by a year. But she was loaned out to Dallas Trinity in the U.S. Super League.
00:43:16
Speaker
which is great for her. She's had a really kind of wild rookie season where that has not gone the way that any player would want it to go. And apparently her family lives in Dallas, so she gets to be closer to home, get a lot more playing time, hopefully. Yeah, their season runs a different time than they end up on the like European schedule. So I think that'll be really good because then then hopefully it times up that she can come back to the rain.
00:43:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's just alone. So I think this is just like such a positive thing for the league to have. Oh, yeah. That relationship with the Super League, because it's players like this that, you know, really need that. Oh, yeah. It doesn't work. I mean, we talked about this in our interview with Mariah, but like.
00:44:04
Speaker
It doesn't work for every player to have to go do your loan abroad or whatever it is. Go start your, try to get your, your early career jumpstart. Not everyone, it makes, it doesn't make sense for everybody to go abroad. Logistically it's difficult, you know, and like mentally sometimes it's just like easier to be closer to home.
00:44:24
Speaker
And if you like, can't guarantee player welfare when they're, you know, at these smaller clubs and you're up at least here, you know, in the super league, at least there are minimum standards that need to be met. Yeah. And then you're also talking about, it's going to be a lot easier for these players to get scouted now for the NW cell. I think it's good. I'm, I'm, I'm happy she's getting this
Reign Player Moves and Upcoming Matches
00:44:45
Speaker
chance. I was shocked. I was shocked at first many reasons. And then once I got over my shock, I was like, Oh yeah, this is perfect for her.
00:44:52
Speaker
Next match for the rain, as we said, won't be until the end of the month, Sunday, August 25th, 7 PM, Lumen field versus Carolina courage. It's the Rapinoe Jersey retirement match. I bought my tickets. There is a link on the sounder heart website. If you want to go there, um, I believe you get a little bit of a discount on tickets and you have to be a subscriber. I don't do. I think so.
00:45:18
Speaker
Okay, we'll go subscribe. There's a link there, go to subscribe. I think you get a little bit of a discount and then Sutter at Heart also gets a little bit from that too. You're helping out so many things, yourself and this community that puts together good coverage for your favorite NWSL team.
00:45:36
Speaker
North Carolina is sitting pretty good though. They're in sixth place. So they're eight one seven and they're still in the summer cup. So we'll see kind of what the lineup looks like when season starts back up. Not. I don't like playing North Carolina ever. I really don't, but I am hoping that having Rapinoe there in attendance and like the celebration around that. Yeah. Maybe it's a little bit of a inspo for them. You know what? I just thought about this.
00:46:02
Speaker
what maybe they'll announce her ownership stake oh maybe that'd be sweet you know like i thought you were going to say maybe they'll announce she's unretired and then she just gets in the field and that and that's our summer signing
00:46:18
Speaker
It wouldn't be the worst thing to ever happen. No, but I think that'd be cool. You know, like the club giving back to her for, you know, her years. Oh, yeah. Here. And then like a kind of a mutual thing where she's like, yeah, by the way, I'm boss. I don't know. This is like a weird thing. I just thought of it's not probably happening, but like.
00:46:38
Speaker
At some point, there's got to be some involvement with her back into the club on like ownership level, business level. Something has to happen with her. Yeah. I assume it sounds like they're going to be hanging. They have to be hanging her jersey from the rafters, right?
00:46:55
Speaker
Yeah they'll do like a number retirement. Which will be the first the first rain uh thing installed into the stadium. Did you not have the shieldwinds up? Nope. It's even the one we want at home. Yeah they don't put them up there. Apparently it's like super super expensive and like it's just hard to do and get up. Doesn't feel like a good excuse to me but that's what I had been reading reading about it. Well if the Sounders can afford it for their teams
00:47:22
Speaker
That's what I'm wondering now that like the Sounders are kind of overseeing stuff. Maybe they'll not pay for it. Maybe we can look into getting an update on that. Yeah. If and when Rapinoe gets hers up in the rafters, we can follow up on that. Anything else exciting going on? Do you watch anything else in the Olympics that you liked? Oh.
00:47:41
Speaker
No, I mean, there's been so much soccer today. I feel like I'm just like zoned out on soccer. Yeah, I'm zoned out. I think we can probably wrap it up for this week. Catch us on the socials. Like I said, Coop's going to be out. But I will be available if anyone would like to email the podcast. I will answer you. You can email us at thecoolerguild at gmail.com.
00:48:03
Speaker
Van's getting the Instagram. We're trying to figure out what direction we want to go there. But we will get that going, figure that out. Instagram and our Twitter handle are both the same at Cooler Guild Pod. Follow us on there. We'd appreciate that if you're in there. We're fun. We're fun online. That's right.
00:48:25
Speaker
And then, as always, visit us at sounderatheart.com forward slash the cooler guild. Go there, subscribe, get a paid subscription, be a backer if you want. Be a backer, be a supporter. You can sign up for free. Get access that way if you want. Can't afford it right now. It's a great place to go. Good coverage with the Ride of the Valkyries. Go check them out too. As always, like, rate, subscribe to this podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts. Till next time, I'm Coop.
00:48:51
Speaker
I'm Van. Bye bye. Bye. OK. OK. Let me just put my phone on. The mute.