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The Cooler Guild: Playoff hopes dwindling - Ep. 18
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Yet another Reign loss at a time they really couldn't afford it. One penalty was all that was needed for Bay FC to take all 3 points in Seattle. Another week of us getting into the Reign's playoff hopes and the harsh reality that those hopes are rapidly fading.
We do a quick look at a few results from around the league over the weekend and preview the Reign's next match.
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello. Hello. Hello.
Introduction & Episode Overview
00:00:20
Speaker
And welcome to episode 18 of the cooler guild. I'm your host coop and joined with me as usual is my co-host van. Hello. We are recording on Tuesday, October 1st, 2024. It's spooky season. It's spooky lakes month. What's spooky lakes? It's a, this person named Gio has a spooky lakes month account on a Tik TOK where she covers a spooky lake every day. Yeah. I remember now anyway.
00:00:45
Speaker
Uh, on today's episode, we'll be discussing rain's loss at home to Bay FC preview their next match as well as take a look at the league playoff picture. Um, but first some housekeeping. 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 at heart subscriber on the private unified feed with the other podcasts on the network. If you'd like to become a subscriber, just visit our page at sounder at heart.com forward slash the cooler guild.
Personal Updates & Projects
00:01:11
Speaker
New members get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing here.
00:01:15
Speaker
Um, how are things? Good. Good. Good. I went to doctor day and i I'd also gone on Friday because I thought I had shingles again. Shingle girl. I already had it once this year. I thought I had shingles again. Turns out I didn't. That's good. But I went on Friday for that and then I had scheduled another appointment today just to check in. And between Friday and today, according to the doctor's office, I've lost 15 pounds. How is that possible? I don't trust their scale anymore. Yeah, I wouldn't. Something's going on there. I mean, I know you've been working out, but that seems crazy.
00:01:51
Speaker
Ah, all right. Look at me. I know. Does someone have like a toe on it like last time? I don't know. That's wild. No, everything's good here. I didn't do much this weekend. Oh, I got vaccinated this weekend. Nice. So yeah, I got my COVID shot and my flu shot on Friday. That was great. Felt like shit Friday night though. Yeah, that's usually expected. That's why you got to do it on a Friday so that you're not feeling like shit on Monday. Yeah, we were sitting there watching Dancing with the Stars, and I was just like, I don't feel good. Oh yeah, not much else. What about you? Um, I did a lot of coping. I made, i so I have an art project that is a secret project. I don't think I've even showed you it. It's for somebody that, they have no idea about it. Anyways, I'm working on a project, but it's kind of annoying me. And I got a point in making something that I ah get, I don't know what to do. It's like getting too difficult to finish.
00:02:43
Speaker
So I just started knitting a new hat and so I made a new hat. I finished it up in like a couple days because hat season's coming, fall, winter's coming. Then I've got like I ordered some more yarn so I'm just gonna like have like this hat that I'm wearing here. I'm gonna have like maybe not the entire rainbow but I'm trying to like you know have something for every outfit because right now I just have a pink hat which is great, classic, whatever but I don't wanna be known as pink hat girl.
00:03:07
Speaker
I just want to be known as Cool Hat Girl. Can you make me a little Fisherman's Beanie? Like this? Yeah. Yeah. Like a real short one. Yeah, that's what this one is. So I can wear it to Fisher Poets. Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, this takes me like two, two and a half days. I still got to block my other one. I don't know if you know what blocking is. I do not, but go on.
00:03:25
Speaker
Um, it's just kind of like hold the shape after you did it. So you like soak it like this like special whatever and then kind of like set it down on a towel and like let it dry out and that shape and it kind of holds the shape a bit more. So, but I love making eat this pattern. I finally, I finally found like a good pattern for hats. I feel like they're always, I don't know, I've been knitting long enough now and I think I know how to find the right patterns before it was kind of like a a guessing game. right but this one's great. It's called the, if anyone knits out there and looking for a good little Fisher, Fisher mints hat, Fisher person's hat, it's called the Siege. C-E-E-J. It's like some chick's husband's name or something like that, but I love it. We can roll into, I suppose, the match now.
00:04:08
Speaker
Yeah, let's get into it.
Rain vs. Bay FC Match Recap
00:04:10
Speaker
I'll just do the recap because that's where we're going to have to start this somewhere. Okay. On Sunday afternoon in Seattle, Rain played Bay FC in what some may have described as a quote unquote must win match. That was me. I think you and maybe several other people.
00:04:28
Speaker
Uh, the team was trying to find any possible way to sneak into the playoffs because they are not in control of their destiny. So they needed to find a win somehow, just at least give them some sort of chance. Things did not go well. Uh, in the first half, Lou Barnes went down with some sort of injury leading to her having tags to the field for a little bit. And while that happened, like immediately afterwards, uh, play resumed. And while she was on the sideline, they took quick advantage of the opportunity in charge of the middle of the rain's back line and they were able to get a penalty after a foul from Phoebe Clernon in the box. It wasn't a foul. maybe well There wasn't really a great look at it. We couldn't get a good angle on it. They didn't seem to care that much. um Anyways, but you can't let that ruin your game. It did.
00:05:12
Speaker
Oshawa took the penalty, put Bay FC up 1-0, Reign didn't have an answer, they looked pretty predictable, my opinion uninspired for a lot of the match, and while there were some decent last ditch efforts in the final minutes, it was ultimately too little too late once again. Mathematically, Reign's playoff chances may still have a pulse, but the playoff possibilities are very much on life support.
00:05:36
Speaker
not a great watch no and i know we're we at the last last episode we i would say are trying to hold onto positivity that was really hard this game yeah i mean i would say i was trying to hold on to it because you know there There was still a chance and all of that but this game was bad. Yeah, it wasn't just like a screamer Maybe it was a penalty little questionable penalty from a mistake He hats off to them. They took advantage of it. But like we had nothing to answer a lot of nothing
00:06:08
Speaker
So let's go started it right back again, which in that sense I think worked. I mean with the limited options. At moments. her quality I would say her service quality wasn't there the entire time and she acknowledged that as well. Oh yeah. And it's new, you know, to change. Just Fishlock is still out. We don't really have a timeline on her return.
00:06:30
Speaker
I'm I was I mean kind of getting after see what happened with Barnes though I'm kind of just like let's not rush it right I mean I don't know if the Barnes injury was related to her previous injury But because she had a take get off the field in the first half 27 minutes in that goal happened um I would hate to have a similar situation again. Well, it's gonna go down either way. It's her
Team Performance & Future Prospects
00:06:50
Speaker
so ah Good point i mean it's not like she's trying to prolong her career here right we all kind of know that this is most likely the last season for her yeah so with four games left what can we do it's kind of a choice this is kind of just a bummer i really just don't know same problems keep happening we you know we had the streak to kind of give us some some hope that you know at least we have maybe some pieces here that could work next year yeah i feel like i got catfished
00:07:19
Speaker
Have you been catfished before? but No! yeah Sure. No shame in getting catfished. No. My first girlfriend I found on myspace and she did not catfish me. I caught a catfish once. that's That's a story for another day. But it wasn't mine. it was I was helping someone else.
00:07:36
Speaker
I said this before, but I do feel like I was getting to the final last season. You know, the so many teams making into the playoffs. And I know we like did pretty well last year. It wasn't like horrible, but I do feel like a lot of problems got covered up by how far we got last year. Long problems that kind of were lingering in the background with like, this is gonna maybe not work out in the long term for us. I feel like it's gonna catch up to us at some point, and it has now.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah, and I almost feel like we have the opposite problem right now where things may not look good right now. Yeah. But but as far as the players we've brought in um and the youth talent that we have, the future, while the current situation is pretty dim. The future seems to be bright. But, you know, there's going to be movement in the offseason, you know, stuff that we like, stuff that we don't like. So I think it's whatever happens the rest of this season, um it'll be interesting to see kind of the what the makeup of the team looks like at the beginning of the season next year.
00:08:37
Speaker
Let's go. I got, I don't have a ton of notable stats. I don't feel that there's really anything to try to dive into just because this team has been bad. So I didn't want to try to, the stats are there. We suck and we're but below the standings. Um, but the two stats, I feel like maybe that contribute to why we're so bad that I, you know, they had posted, um, 14, which this is maybe slightly encouraging for next year, 14 of 22 rain matches have been decided by just one goal. That's good.
00:09:03
Speaker
you know we're not getting blown out could be worse um the other stuff that was up on the like match day stuff rain have used an nwsl high 30 players this season they've had a different starting 11 in every single match this season all 22 which is just crazy crazy crazy and it's it it just made sense i don't like i can't pick a starting 11 there's no clear besides a few positions there's no clear starting 11 to me i would agree with that but i also don't think we've seen enough consistency from the lineup to really gauge that sure
00:09:39
Speaker
Yeah. So I would argue that the stat is also conducive to why we don't have a clear starting 11. Yeah, I think that's fair. You only two players that have appeared in every single of those 22 matches, Jisoo Yeon and Phoebe McClernan. Makes sense to me.
00:09:55
Speaker
kind of i kind of I was kind of surprised it wasn't somebody else in there, but we've been kind of rotating a lot in the back, players leaving, we've had... National team absences. Yeah, trying to work in youth players, you know, it's just we don't really have like a forward who has been outstanding enough or here enough that, you know, we would want to be starting or in every single match. It's it's a it's a bummer situation.
00:10:20
Speaker
It is a bummer situation. And I wish we did. Wish we had that one player that we can be like, yes, you, you're starting. It's at times we've had G have that game. It's not consistent, though. No, but I think a lot of that has to do with the players around her. So it's I don't know what else to say on this. it's Yeah, it sucks. Let's roll into the positives. We do have a few positives. Number one, there's always next season.
00:10:52
Speaker
There sure is. ah But on the same note as what we talked about before is we have the building blocks there. it's just dear We need to be able to cultivate that quality that we've been lacking.
00:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's the big question, right? It's week after week. We hear the same thing from Laura Harvey and it's just like we're just missing that bit of quality. Where is it? Can you find it? Yeah, find find it, please. What's the issue? Don't know. I do you think the yeah, the young players I feel good about with the positivity train rolling. The only one I would question just because we haven't seen a lot of her is Ainsley McCammon. She's really young though, right? She's really young and she's going to the U-17. She was just named on the U-17 national team roster. I'm very conflicted about players being under the age of 18 in this league anyways.
00:11:41
Speaker
Right. So that'll be cool. It'll be cool to see her in the U-17 environment. Yeah, for sure.
Player Performances & Team Struggles
00:11:47
Speaker
See what she can do because we just really don't know a lot. She looked, up she had the the few, she had an appearance right in the summer, summer cup. Yeah. And I remember thinking she looked pretty, pretty solid there. So.
00:11:57
Speaker
I mean, on that same string there, Jordan Bug looked good. She had a few shaky moments, but um I think overall when she came in at halftime, she looked solid. She hadn't played for a while for us, at least. Yeah, she hadn't played for a while for us. there was She caught up and stopped Kudanangi from having a breakaway shot. I was like, oh.
00:12:17
Speaker
ah Yeah, we didn't concede a goal in the run at play positive very big positive and bugs back there bug beat back there It's definitely um a reason for that. I believe let me go. I don't know what the fuck's going on You see what's going on cuz they're not stopping. Okay, I'll be here are you good Louis wanted out anyway, so, but she doesn't, you can't ever hear him when he wants out because he doesn't know how to ask for help. ah My Jersey's here. What Jersey? From the auction last year. So Koop is opening up her Jersey that she won at a silent auction last year. Let's see it. said its So it's the white, this year's Jersey. How many, uh, how many signatures can you make out? We got G. It looks like Ainsley, Bug, Adames, but also look how cute this G. Isn't that cute? It's like a little cartoon. Yeah. And then it just says G. Yeah. I love that. Don't get it framed. That'll cost an arm and a leg. It'll cost more than you paid for the jersey. Truly. Okay. So next positive you had listed was a noticeable improvement when Howell came on, which one minute did Howell come in?
00:13:26
Speaker
86 minute i think yeah 86 minute we never know with laura harvey we never know what's going on with a player if they're on a minutes restriction like what is happening but she didn't start the game and i was really curious if she would come on earlier in the second half yeah And then it was because we weren't winning the ball in the midfield. We weren't we were controlling a good amount of possession, but there was just no impactful penetration into the attacking third. So I was hoping she'd come on earlier, but now we put her in in the 86 minute. That last five minutes of regular time and then into the added time were the best for the rain all game.
00:14:07
Speaker
I mean, your common denominator there is bringing on howl. So I'd like to see more of that. There was one other thing that was a positive for me. In the first half, there was a moment where Claudia Dickey got the ball on her hands and had a really quick distribution out to like the half line to G and G was able to take the ball up and like attack.
00:14:25
Speaker
And I was like, okay, Claudia, with your quick distribution, like you've been working on your distribution. And just like the the the sight and the ability to look up and see that, I think it's something great. And I hope to see more of that from her. I go back and forth on being excited about Dickey, but I feel pretty good about the way she's kind of been looking after having some kind of abysmal games. It's better than bad. You're still not.
00:14:49
Speaker
it was Leanne Sanderson seems to be a fan of hers. I know that's not probably saying much sometimes, but she does seem to be... I don't know. Again, there are some pretty bad keepers in this league. Which we'll get into. Which we'll get into. Yeah, specifically south of us, but yeah.
00:15:07
Speaker
Okay. Moving on into the negatives. ah Other than everything, yeah, I mean that same concept where the team only seemed to gain a sense of urgency and fight at the very end of the game. It's like, I'm sorry, we've been here for 85 minutes. Could you have done something then?
00:15:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's kind of been the the theme for a lot of matches this season. And so like you would hope that knowing what your playoff chances are at this point, which are very bleak, couldn't you come out fighting with that energy? Yeah, I don't know what's going on, but.
00:15:42
Speaker
At points, I'm just kind of at a loss for words because if I say anything else, I'm just going to get myself up and like be more upset about it when I don't really need to be yet. And I will let myself be when needed. But at this point, we we're going into Friday game. We've got the Amazon Prime game. but you You just have to look forward until it's no longer a possibility. I don't know. Everybody's probably listed every single episode we've ever put out, which, like, that's on you. But, um, you know, we didn't, we didn't ever do like a, we, it took us a long time to get a winning ah episode and then we got three in a row. But before that, I mean, I think that we're just kind of sick of having to say the exact same things over and over and over again, because it hasn't been, these issues are the same issues.
00:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, nothing has changed. um we Yeah, we have new so a few new players and stuff like that. But like but these these big issues don't get fixed overnight. You might see moments where like we can rise above that and you can see the vision of what this club is for like say next year when they have more time to build chemistry and all of that stuff. But it's going to take time. And it's just kind of unfortunate that, you know, with the sale of the team and the timing of all of that, we just weren't able to kind of get these pieces put together. Because the sale of the team got announced so long ago that it was just really shitty that the the sale of the team didn't get closed sooner. Yeah. Because then we maybe we could have tried to make all these moves before, you know, when we knew we weren't going to have Lavelle and Sana and we were still were you know trying to figure out what to do about Megan Rapinoe leaving, we could have done all of this these moves sooner. And then we would also would have had a wider selection of players to choose from.
00:17:20
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, it really stunted that development, that roster development after those big moves happened. And we had to wait for that next transfer window to be able to make those moves. And that just was too long.
00:17:35
Speaker
So there's a lot of factors at play. And I think it, I think it is a little bit helpful to ease a bit of that frustration when we think about those bigger picture issues, um, rather than just kind of focusing or nitpicking on like in game performance and things like that. Because when you look at that, you know, how we got to where we are, yeah you're like, Oh, okay. It kind of makes sense.
00:17:58
Speaker
Yeah. that'd be Should we be playing with the players that we have right now? Should we be playing better? Yes. And I think that that's where the bane of my frustration lies, is that the performance from the quality that you have isn't good enough because we are lacking some pieces, but at the same time, the pieces that we have aren't performing to their potential.
00:18:19
Speaker
Not only that, but the goals we're conceding are I would say pretty easily fixable stuff or it's just like momentary lapses that you would hope that players who we believe have quality could get over and not allow these types of goals that we do give up. So I don't know. I think that's definitely part of the problem. Yeah, and seeing McLaren and so upset after the game was just heartbreaking. I really did not appreciate the camera person just like zooming on her. she She's been really solid. I saw someone on Reddit trying to like say McLaren wasn't the answer in the back line.
00:18:55
Speaker
And I was like, buddy, blasphemy. She had won. She had this bad match. Sure. And I don't even think she was. Yeah, it was a it was a bad match. I'm not even going to try to play it up like it wasn't. It was a bad match for her. But she's been so solid for most of the season that there's no way I'm going to throw her under the bus for this match. I i also don't think it was... We don't know if it was a penalty because there wasn't enough views and there was not there was hardly any replay. Yeah, that but I also don't think it was in general a bad match from her. I think it was a mediocre match from everyone and we're just used to her playing really well. Yeah, I guess that's fair. And so a bad match from her is a good match from a lesser player.
00:19:33
Speaker
So i I wouldn't frame it as her having a bad match, but um it definitely was not the same level that we've seen her and others on the team at. I hope she was able to kind of reflect and realize that it really wasn't. I mean, I'm i'm sure that was just kind of the emotions of everything hitting her with the playoffs and everything. And then knowing that the penalty I called because of her. But I really, really hope she can at least reflect on some of the positives that she's brought to this team all season. She was two time back to back cooler player of the match. Yeah, that's big. That's big time. It's like the number and we should die we should post something and tag her in it just to boost her spirit. Yeah, I think we'll do. We'll probably end up doing. I mean, I'm not going to say she'll be it for sure, because we got to look at everything that's happened this year. But I think we're probably going to do like a cooler player of the year. Right. Of the season. Oh, you've got to write.
00:20:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think she's up there. She's definitely like a candidate, I would say for that. Should we have like an offensive and a defensive? Sure. we yeah We're workshopping as we know we can workshop it as we pod. We could. ah Yeah, we'll figure we'll figure something out. We've got a few end of season awards. I think that's pretty much it. for two Positive negatives.
00:20:42
Speaker
I did want to touch on ah one other thing. There was a potential handball in the box in the second half. Oh, yeah. She had the chicken wing out. That didn't get sent to review. Yeah. They didn't even try it. No. And they were like, well, what else is she supposed to do? And I'm like, well, if you're going to keep your hands behind your back, keep them behind your back. A chicken wing is not a normal position, but they didn't even review it. And there wasn't even good. That's the thing with these NDB cell plus matches. There's not enough camera angles. You see a bar review on, you know, uh, any of the Amazon prime games, you've got like five, six different angles and these NWSL plus games, you got like two. And then like one of them is like so blurry because it like can't keep up with the speed. Yeah. One of them is blurry or there's like people blocking it. Yeah, it's not good. It's like, no, it's not good at all. So moving on from the positives and negatives, I did watch the post-match presser, Olivia Athens and Veronica Latsko. It was a somber mood. I mean, we kind of touched on everything that they said. Um, they talked about, yeah, they needed to manage the game better when they knew they had a player off, which is like, yeah, okay. Not much you can do there, but that's good. You know, good thing to be aware of moving forward. They're still looking at the playoffs. It's not mathematically impossible at this time. Which to me feels like that moment in Dumb and Dumber where he's talking to Mary and he's like, so you're so saying it's a chance. yeah You should make that a meme with Veronica Lazco space in there. I mean, I'll believe it when I see it. I've been kind of feeling checked out for the playoffs for a little while. I know you've kind of held on hope a little bit longer, but I can see it's fleeting for you.
00:22:16
Speaker
Let's go into Cooler Player of the Match. Wrap up most of this match. The Cooler Player of the Match is brought to you by the doctor's office, a great little 12-seat bar on Capitol Hill. The owner is a big fan of the rain and is proud to be our first sponsor. Cooler Player of the Match. Yeah, we were kind of not sure what to do. I think we decided on two things. Do you want to just do one or do we want to do two? We should stick with one. The second one on there? Yeah. Coping tools.
00:22:44
Speaker
I, you know, after that match ended, I wasn't just such a sad and like, I don't know if I was really
Coping with Losses
00:22:51
Speaker
sad. I was just like, I just need to like kind of decompress yeah from having to watch that. So I like popped on Bob's burgers and, um, started kni finishing any may have, it really helped. It really helped me. I took a nap. I took a short, I took a short nap and then worked on my puzzle.
00:23:08
Speaker
It's good to have hobbies. You know, soccer is is such a big part of my life and it always will be, but it's always good to have other things because things like sports tend to also create a lot of stress. It's not everything, you know, only usually only one team can be the champion. So there's more of us who are feeling down and need to cope. Shout out to coping tools. Welcome to the cooler player of the match Hall of Fame. Once again, thank you to our sponsor, the doctor's office.
00:23:37
Speaker
The doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after rain match. Make an appointment today and try out their limited edition doctor's note. A tequila grapefruit and aperol cocktail that manages to taste juicy without having any juice at all. Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers. great So I posted in the discord, um, seeing if anybody had anything to contribute to the episode or any questions or how we felt about things.
Coaching & Strategy Debate
00:24:03
Speaker
And one of our good friend of the pod, Mongolian barbecue shout out, um, asked Harvey asked about Harvey's apparent lack of self-awareness regarding her kind of contribution to the team's missing quote, bit of quality unquote.
00:24:19
Speaker
And I think this is an important question and, you know, we've kind of been skirting around it all season just because I like, Oh, we need to give her a chance. All we need to give her a chance. And I think for me that chance extends into next season. And I think maybe at the midpoint of next season.
00:24:35
Speaker
We reevaluate, but for now, with the amount of changes, the ability to bring new players in, you know, now that we have the money and to see what shifts happen with the roster in the offseason, I don't want to bring in a new coach at that point. But I would agree that there seems to be not a lot of recognition on her part that maybe she's part of the problem. And maybe it's not even her, maybe it's Scott Parkinson.
00:25:01
Speaker
Maybe I need to bring in an assistant coach who's better. What's Sam doing? Can we get Sam back? I've been wondering these things, too. I think we've talked about this. It's kind of hard to call out these things on our podcast because I don't know. I don't know. I get the teams in a really bad place right now.
00:25:20
Speaker
understandings, whatever, they don't look good. They're not finishing chances for a lack of quality, right? But I do think it's hard to just call out people because we don't know exactly what the situation is. um So like we could say somebody specific, but it could be something completely different. And then here we are just calling out names to just call out a name because we think we know what's happening. We don't. um You know, I don't know. Sam was with us for a long time and i is there some capacity we could bring him back to the team? I'd be curious.
00:25:47
Speaker
um I think from what I know from my sources, his separate separation contract from Houston had some sort of clause where he couldn't coach for like a certain amount of time. So there might be something in that might be another way for him to come back, but I don't know if that's what the team needs. You know, we're not um we're not in that side of the conversation. And we are seeing things from a single direction, right? And it's really easy to assign blame from our position. But like you're saying, we don't know everything going on. And so to put all of the blame on her would be really hard. And I think at some point as a fan when your team is progressively getting worse, right?
00:26:34
Speaker
then it's okay to call it out, right? Call for change in leadership. But in my opinion, we're not there yet. It reminds me a little bit of the Brian Schmetzer situation. With the Sounders? Yes. I think that she's been dealt a really difficult hand this year, and I think she's done maybe not always the best that she could do with this team, but I do think she's done I think she's brought out a lot more of this team out of these players than maybe other coaches for sure would. I think we would look a lot worse without her. I just think that we haven't had the chance to go and try to get great players here since we've lost so many big names.
00:27:17
Speaker
And I don't think Laura Harvey is hindering that. I would care to think that players now that they, you know, our ability to get them and the draft being gone and, you know, um, full free agency is people want to play for her. They hear from players all the time. They want to play for her. So getting rid of a coach who's well liked by the players is never good. No. And there's tons of like, she's going to get scooped up by somebody else.
00:27:43
Speaker
Yeah. And if you think about it, like, if you want to think about it a different way, okay, say we axer, right? Say we fire her. Who the hell else are you getting? Right now? Yeah. It's not a lot of... Twilight Kilgore? No. Maybe Casey, maybe Casey Stoney, but I... cool it The cooler guild would live on. Yeah. But I don't know that I, like, cause we've watched the way that Casey Stoney plays and I'm not sure I want that. Yeah. And it's just like, i I still have faith in Laura Harvey. like i that That's not lost for me yet. And so I think that it's important to it's important to be happy with what you have and to remember that she's a reason a lot of the players are still here. For sure. And i like she's always she's also been one of those coaches who's never been a fan of the draft. she never take she never takes the drafts She's never taken the draft seriously. She's always just been like, well, I'll just go get the players that I want when I can. To our frickin' dismay. Yeah, I mean, it hasn't been without us being upset about it because I do think that we've missed out on a lot of opportunities and taking the draft super seriously. But she has been one of those people that's kind of like, I can get players on my own. I don't need the draft. um It's just we haven't ah had ah the opportunity to actually do that with the new ownership. Yeah. At least not in like a true sense. Right. We had like a little window, but we were really were not. She wasn't given full freedom to do that.
00:29:02
Speaker
And to go out and to talk to players and to convince them and to be in a contract negotiation, you know? Yeah. Now we've got the training facility, right? All redone so we can use that as part of the selling point. We're at Lumen. It's a great place to play. We're tied with the men's team now. Do you have a lot access to a lot more resources? Seattle's a very attractive place to play. I will, like you, hold off my negativity on her and maybe reassess it and see where we are in the middle of next year. Yeah. And I think back to his more specific question. That's the thing. We don't know if she has a lack of self-awareness regarding her contribution to missing a little bit of quality. I don't know that she's going to admit that.
00:29:47
Speaker
I don't think that that's the thing. I don't think she would ever ever admit it mitten to us yeah or an oppressor. if if If you ever have the chance and you want to see kind of the level of transparency that Laura Harvey allows, ah go watch a press conference. She's pretty honest about the situation.
00:30:04
Speaker
She's honest, but very tight-lipped. yes So you don't know the intricacies of how she is understanding where this lack of quality comes from. For all we know, she could you know be in the locker room telling them, like I need to do better. like We need to focus on different things at practice. We don't know. And i I would doubt that she is daft or too thick to understand that she could probably be part of the problem. yeah Yeah. I have a hard time believing that she's not like Because she says a week after week after week, she's been saying this for like a long time. but Nobody could say that for this many games and not be like, hmm, maybe is it me? I mean, she's not that she's not a man. So I feel like a man could be like, well, it can't be me. But I am not I'm not I'm not seeing Laura Harvey be one of those people. So no. not um So appreciate appreciate the ah the comment and talking point from you, Mongolian barbecue. If you ever want to say if you ever want to send us something, please do.
League Highlights & Standings
00:31:02
Speaker
Other happenings around the league. Orlando is still undefeated. Just absolutely insane. Are they going to be the first team to go into the postseason undefeated? I think so. ah but Not if we have anything to say about it in the last game of the season. So if we have nothing else to play for, to ruin a perfect season for them would be so sweet. It would be, but I kind of like Orlando. Okay, we've all both kind of always liked Orlando, so. I've always loved it. Maybe even the word love could come up, but I really, I like, I love this plot line for them. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. This storyline is crazy. Ali, what? We miss you. They have so many fucking players we've had. that this I guess this is something I will say about the rain. I've had questions maybe about players they let go of before. I don't think sometimes we've held on to the correct players. Allie Wap being maybe one of them. um But there's a few players. Angelina got a really good goal recently, playing for Orlando as well.
00:31:59
Speaker
She had a lot of injury woes and they got her on a really good deal because of that. I understand. We didn't really have, there's reasons and especially in that case. i It's hard to watch. It is hard to watch though. Plus that's where all the Brazilians go anyway.
00:32:15
Speaker
I know. I would like, I mean, I can be mad if the rain wants to spoil the party. I won't be mad about it. That's going to be my entire hope. If we are, if something happens and we're no longer able to be in the playoffs, that would be my my shining moment of the season. Hang the banner. Yeah.
00:32:33
Speaker
It's also in Orlando, so like it'll be that'll be tough. Another wonderful match from our favorite keeper. We get the Arnold. Mackenzie Arnold, MVP. You said you put MVP after Arnold. And I agree. I agree. Most valuable player. For us. e For all of the teams below them. Portland, I don't know what the fuck is going on. And I'm using the F word here because I don't know what the fuck is going on. Well, they hired that fucking idiot coach. Yeah. Who was the one who signed off on that? That's my question. But I mean, they're, they're going through a transition as well with their record trip. Their GM, I got some questions about that, but I'm also fine with it. So, you know, just keep her signer for longer. Great. Sounds good to me. Keep doing what you're doing, Portland. Love it. Love it for me. They played at, you noted this, they were playing at San Diego. I don't know what the again ah fuck is going on, but that field is so bad. It looked like a quilt. It was like a patchwork gene. They replaced certain parts of the grass.
00:33:38
Speaker
It was awful. And then other parts were just completely bare. they they need to They need to figure something else out because that is like so unacceptable. Isn't that a new stadium too? Yeah. Well, the problem is they share it with so many fucking teams and then they're also getting ah the and MLS team and I believe they're going to be playing there as well. so they've got like And they share it with college football. Yeah, yeah, it's bad. It's real bad. I don't know if they're ever, I don't know if they're looking into getting like a, it's a new stadium. So I imagine they're going to plan to be there for quite a while, but like it really does seem like they need to get somewhere else for just soccer. with We talk shit about turf all the time, but if there's ever a field that should have turf, it's that one.
00:34:17
Speaker
They're in San Diego. They should be able to get good grass. Right. But with the amount of tracking and the amount that they'd have to replace with those fucking hundred football players on the sideline every weekend. Audi Field has some issues with that sometimes too, but San Diego takes the cake for sure. Yeah. Christine Sinclair out of Portland is retiring after this season. I think a lot of our reactions were finally.
00:34:42
Speaker
um I mean, the most prolific goal scorer on the international stage of all time. That's a stat that will live with her for a long time, I think. But as a Portland player, that's about all I have to say about her. I've watched her play for a very, very long time, and it's usually been in the sense of being on the like the opposing side of it. so and that I've never really been a you know big Sinclair fan, but i you know I've watched her for a really long time, so you can't you can't deny ah the history that she's she's created, so um enjoy retirement. The Spirit found a way to win without Trendy Rodman, who's still out with injury. So yeah, they beat Angel City. What was it, two to one?
00:35:22
Speaker
Yeah, it was two to one, which that's, you know, the reindeer playing Angel City next. So I like playing a team that's gotten their asses beat the week before. Yeah. Let's keep them on a losing streak. That's all I'm saying. um We did get a little bit of help this weekend. Would have been nice if we would have gotten our result because Utah beat racing Louisville, which is, I would say, pretty unexpected. I don't know. Utah's been better since they signed players. But shouldn't racing Louisville be better too?
00:35:52
Speaker
Another former rain player scored this weekend. It was an own goal. Oh, dot so no no no no and I really, really, really wanted her to turn things around. Um, yeah. Alana cook is struggling at Casey. She, yeah, she got another own goal, which I think we, did we figure out it was three this season? I think it's two, uh, technically. Oh, cause they counted the other one. They gave it to the player, right? Okay. Yeah, I would say that like I know that the final is going to be in KC and they were playing really, really well. i think I don't know what the fuck is going on with their defense, but I think if Orlando can kind of keep keep the ship moving the way it's been going, I'm feeling pretty good about their chances going to KC because I feel it's going to be really hard to play KC if it ends up with KC in the final.
00:36:41
Speaker
It's going to be a hard game for anyone who's going in there. And I think Orlando would probably be the best best chance for that. But now I'm thinking maybe other people do. Yeah. and It's it's always a so always up in the air when it comes to playoffs. We'll see what happens. Playoff standings are very tight. Rain are, what is it, eight points from the playoff line. We have four matches left, two at home.
00:37:03
Speaker
One of the last one, the last ones or Orlando ways. So that's not going to be easy. But the fact that we're only eight points off the playoff line, like if we went on a run and some other stuff happened, um, like Portland continues to suck. That's, that's why there's still a chance, but I do, didn't they say it could get wrapped up and figured out by like next week's match. Um, if things, you know, things are really tight though. So there could still be some movement there with the bottom, bottom two or three positions. Yeah, luckily, there's no relegation, so. Yeah, I'm going to look forward to there. But yeah, I mean, they're it's going to be tight with I think Chicago is going to be fine. ah But Portland, the way that Portland's looking, man, they're not doing well. So Portland and seven ah tied with Bay and eight, that 28 points, so.
00:37:52
Speaker
Someone from the bottom has got to got to prove something. Yeah, based on the up and up and Portland plays Utah next weekend. So I think that that'll be a game to watch because I think Utah could win that game. Fingers crossed. Yeah. Although I don't want to be embarrassed to the last place, but I also would rather see Portland out if we're not going to make the playoffs. Let's get a McKenzie Arnold masterclass. Well, we won't be in last place because if we beat Angel City next week, then we'll pop up above them.
00:38:18
Speaker
Great. Get the job done. Rain. Let's go. Yeah. And racing's just, just behind, uh, at 25 points. So they're one game, but they had a chance to really like put themselves in a good position and and they, they kind of screwed that up for themselves. So that's, um, yeah, it sucks for them.
00:38:34
Speaker
That was squandered. Yeah, next rematch, Friday, October 4th, 7 p.m. at
Upcoming Match Preview
00:38:39
Speaker
Lumen Field. Angel City, if we beat him, we pass him. ah We last played them September 6th, so it was fairly recent. um Three to two win. It was Reign's most recent win. Mm-hmm. And that was... Latest win. That was also quite the ah quite the ending to that. I'm sure i'm sure Angel City's gonna want a little bit of revenge, so that's something to definitely be mindful of. Yeah. And Alyssa Thompson, man, she brought it to us last time. So hopefully with bug being and back, I mean, I'm i'm sure McLaren and we'll also want some revenge from the last game yeah from, you know, the game we're talking about. But yeah, it'll be interesting. I'm hoping the rank can pull it together after.
00:39:17
Speaker
We won three. We just lost three in a row. So I think this is a, you know, the last game was kind of, uh, must win. This is an absolutely utterly must win in terms of playoffs. Good luck to the rain and go get your tickets if you haven't already and use the sounder heart link. There's a link there and they got a little discount, avoid some fees from ticket master.
00:39:40
Speaker
We got a fun little shout out this week. Yeah, we do. We got a new rating and review on Apple podcasts. here We don't know how to say your username. We're kind of debating it. Flange slammer. I'm going with flange slammer.
00:39:56
Speaker
I don't i don't know know if that means something and I probably should be saying it that's I guess my problem is I'm not sure if I'm saying something kind of weird but Yeah, we got hit with a ah great five-star review. So thank you. um You want to you want to read the review? Yeah So this review is titled, great to have a pod dedicated to the rain. Excellent. The the body of the review goes in and says, I mean, the host seemed to believe in Jordan Heinemann thinks she's somehow a better, more effective striker than Bethany Balzer, which is very wrong by them. It's not backed up by a single data point. Exclamation mark.
00:40:35
Speaker
up ah Sorry, I'm dying. But apart from that, very wrong opinion. In a great pod with two hosts with good chemistry. Hey look, Flanshlammer, we talked about this. You're not wrong. No.
00:40:51
Speaker
you So far, you're correct. We don't have the data to back up our point. I will say take out take out the penalties from Bethany Balser, and I don't know that we're seeing hugely different statistics between the two. I know Bethany scored more recently. I'm not saying Hynum is doing what she should be doing, but I do think it is worth considering the penalties in this discussion.
00:41:13
Speaker
And I would say that weighing potential and player potential in this is also important. But again, you're not wrong. You're not wrong. And kind of like the Laura Harvey thing, I'm still waiting.
00:41:27
Speaker
She is, she is, Jordan Heinem is only 23. That's pretty young. She'll be 24 in May. And then I think maybe we, then we can reassess what's been happening here. But thank you for your rate and review. Uh, we thoroughly enjoyed it and we appreciate, we appreciate you. Yeah. We love a five star review calling us out into it. Love it. Oh, I think that'll wrap up this week's episode. Yeah. I don't have anything. i dont No, it sucks.
00:41:52
Speaker
I am looking forward to the Angel City match, whether I should be or not. i'll I'll be watching. I'll still be watching. Always. You can't stop me. As always, you can follow us on social media. We're on X formerly known as Twitter and Instagram. The same handle. It's cooler guild pod. You can send us an email. We love an email. It's the cooler guild at gmail dot.com. You can go and visit us on sounder heart.com forward slash the cooler guild or find our YouTube at youtube dot.com forward slash at the cooler guild. And and if um you want to leave us a tip, we also now have a tip option on our posts that we put up for all these episodes on Sounder at Heart. Go rate five stars wherever you listen and also, ah you know, leave us a review and tell us what opinions. Leave us five stars and then just drag us in in the body of your review place. Yeah, you can drag us. We're fine with that. You know, I'm also like, we're just, we talk to each other. Sometimes we need other people to tell us what we're doing wrong yeah and get some other perspective. Cause you know, we try to gas up with the situation is a little bit. Sometimes we're in denial about the situation. Sometimes we like to live in our little fantasy land. Can you blame us these days? It's bleak. It's bleak. All right. Thanks for listening. I'm Coop. I'm Van. We'll see you next week. Bye. Bye.
00:43:23
Speaker
so listed on here. Oh, I am a complete liar. So let's take this back.