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The Cooler Guild: Struggles in LA but we swear this team is fun - Ep. 29
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A loss in Angel City was less than ideal but the Reign’s youth talent and new acquisitions are showing some potential. Coop and Van discuss what went wrong in LA as the team heads into an international break. The show rounds up where things stand after week 3 in the NWSL and previews the Reign’s next match versus Orlando Pride.
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Transcript
Introduction and Agenda
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome episode 29 of The Cooler Guild. I am Coop, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van. Hello. We're recording on Tuesday, April 1st. It's not a joke. 2025. I didn't even catch
00:00:36
Speaker
On today's episode, we'll be diving into Rain's disappointing loss ah down in l LA from Sunday evening, as well as taking a quick look at some other results around the league and how things stand after week three in the NWSL.
00:00:48
Speaker
um But first, some housekeeping. We want to remind people that Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder at 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 sounderatheart.com forward slash the cooler guild.
00:01:05
Speaker
New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing.
Personal Stories and Anecdotes
00:01:09
Speaker
Did you do anything cool before you had to watch this tragic game?
00:01:16
Speaker
um I got to see a purebred cat at um yeah the local bar.
00:01:26
Speaker
what What kind of cat was it? was a British short hair. I sent you a picture of it. oh okay that was the cat i was like gray cat cool apparently it's way cooler than i realized it like purebred cats okay weird a but also i picked it up and it was like so light it looked big but it was like very light whose cat was it some random guy just walked into the bar with his cat and he's like i'm trying to socialize him and okay your weirdo and then he's just like handing him to people to hold was it like a younger cat i think she said you said it was like nine months old okay other than that just been catching airplanes on my new favorite airplane app that i've been using for a while got me on that sky cards yeah sky cards let's not promote it we're not getting paid for it
00:02:13
Speaker
I don't think they make any money
Rain's Loss to Angel City Analysis
00:02:14
Speaker
off of it. Yeah, probably not. ah What about you? ah I had a friend in town visiting Saturday night. I got dragged out um and I didn't want to go.
00:02:23
Speaker
It was really annoying. We did go to a spa before that, but my friend was in town because we went to a tote making class and I made a sick tote that I have right here and I'm going to show you.
00:02:36
Speaker
Show me. Show it to me, Rachel. Yeah. It's made out of wax canvas. Oh. Perfect for that Northwest weather. i did two colors because I was like, can we do more than one color? And he was like, I never thought about it. But yeah, sure.
00:02:50
Speaker
So it's like a nice. I like got the leather all done for the handle. you sewed it and you cut the leather? Yeah. we We like, well, the leather banding was like already cut, but I had to like run it through a little thing to like...
00:03:07
Speaker
Soften the edges and I had to like punch the holes in it and I had to use the sewing machine for everything like put on the rivets and measured some stuff.
00:03:18
Speaker
Did you have to sew the tote bag? Yeah, I sewed all of it. We like cut the piece of fabric from like the roll and then put it together. I don't know. Like I had to sew the pocket on. I sewed everything. Did they have like a template so you knew...
00:03:33
Speaker
what size to make everything he just had like good big table like a drafting table that has like you know like grid on it so you can measure it out but like there was no template per se there was a template for like marking the holes where to put the handles just so it's easy for him you know when he's making them to sell um but it's neat that looks expensive Yeah, they they are expensive. He sells them for quite a bit of money. I mean, I paid more to make mine, but now I can make one myself if I wanted to, which is pretty neat. I also got to use ah like commercial grade sewing machine and I'm trying to convince the man there to hire me and teach me more stuff.
00:04:12
Speaker
That'd be cool. I feel like he'd be really good at that. Yeah. He did seem impressed by me and my other friend. Not necessarily my wife, but...
00:04:24
Speaker
Alex. We love Alex. yeah She's already a doctor. She doesn't need to know how to sew. Well... She does need to know how to sew in a way. but With hands. She can sew by hand really easily. and it's Machines, it's not so good. She also did not have the commercial grade machine because he only had two for us to use. So not necessarily her fault.
00:04:41
Speaker
But he did say our three bags were probably the best three bags he's seen. He he said they were the best three bags he's ever seen people make in his class. So my wife can't be too hard on herself. and I'm sure hers is great. You know, it is. It's great.
00:04:54
Speaker
You wouldn't be able to tell. it no It's good. There's nothing wrong with it. It looks great. Anyways, so I did that and then i went home and finished this rain game and missed part of the first half, but I guess we'll we'll get into I'm not mad, but I'm disappointed
00:05:16
Speaker
Yeah, the press conference after the game was not fun. um Hit the rat match recap for us. Yeah, let me get into it. The Reign traveled down to L.A. riding a high after last weekend's victory in North Carolina.
00:05:28
Speaker
Their confidence was quickly shattered after Alyssa Thompson broke through and scored in the eighth minute. The Reign fought back and were awarded a penalty four minutes later that was converted by Ji Soyun. The game stayed even in score, but the Reign were on their back foot, ultimately conceding in the 63rd minute.
00:05:42
Speaker
When Angel City's Riley Tiernan was left unmarked and headed in across from Claire Emsley, The game ended in a 2-1 loss for the Reign, heading into a much-needed international break.
00:05:53
Speaker
I really thought we should have won this match. the way we The way we played, we shouldn't have. No, but before it happened, I was like, this is a game we should be able to win. Well, we got to talk about players we were missing.
00:06:06
Speaker
Yeah. Right? Yeah. Fishlock, who was absolutely crucial last game, was out. Yeah, the game before. Yeah. We still haven't seen Lin on the field. Nope. Haidama's still out.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yep. So that's a lot. it was always going to be difficult going into this game. It was going to be an
Impact of Key Players' Absence
00:06:23
Speaker
uphill battle. Yeah. We knew that Alyssa Thompson is kind of hitting her stride.
00:06:30
Speaker
think that's maybe the part I was hoping we could contain. i was also hoping that. And it was surprising to me that, i don't know, it was just, it seemed like they, and I know this isn't true, but it felt like they were unprepared, hu which is the frustrating part.
00:06:47
Speaker
I think I would chalk it up to be they were missing the leadership on the field of just fish luck. And then i think that they maybe used all of their tactical wit and energy and stuff on the North Carolina game.
00:07:02
Speaker
I mean, I know it's a new game. You had a week off or a week to prepare, I suppose. But i think when maybe when you beat a team like North Carolina on the road for the first time in a long time, maybe maybe just didn't really...
00:07:15
Speaker
have have what you needed to mentally yeah maybe i don't know they're professional athletes so they're not like they're gonna be out there taking their foot off the gas you know yeah but there is a mentality issue but again it's just it's a whole know the the players we were missing especially fishlock really change a lot of the dynamics of I feel like on the field.
00:07:39
Speaker
But yeah, it was just really disappointing. couple notable stats I pulled up. It was the 38th consecutive appearance for Phoebe McLernan. Pretty neat. um And that was like after she came back from like being on like a long term injury.
00:07:52
Speaker
So the fact that she's been able to stay healthy after that's very good. And then the other thing was this was our second loss ever to Angel City over 11 meetings. So I guess maybe that was why I was like, oh, we'll be fine.
00:08:04
Speaker
um But they did have Sam Lady leading the team. And, you know, if anyone's going to figure out Laura Harvey, it's going to be Sam Lady. Right. That's an unfortunate thing to deal with on our end.
00:08:17
Speaker
Yeah, it's... There were moments where it was exciting and i love that youthful energy that players like Sam Meza and um like am i darle Darlene are bringing yeah and the work ethic that they're putting in.
00:08:39
Speaker
ah We just need to see results out of it. I mean, there's going to be growing pains. For sure. I think it's like super like ignorant to think that everything's going click week in, week out with these new players.
00:08:51
Speaker
And they're young. This is Sam Aza's first start. Maddie Darlene's third game. Professionally. Yeah, so that's the thing. The, the, it's like you said, it's, we're not mad, we're disappointed.
00:09:03
Speaker
It's, it's a lot of that.
Team Performance and Future Outlook
00:09:05
Speaker
And I think if you would have told me at the end of last season, before we'd made any signings, before we'd done anything at the end of last season, and if you'd told me you're going your team's going to start the next season, one, one, and one.
00:09:17
Speaker
Mm-hmm. I'd be like, dope, sweet. Yeah. Hell yeah. take it. I'll take it. sure you factor in that what that one win was against North Carolina on the road. And then tying ah tying New York at home.
00:09:29
Speaker
It's going to be interesting. You know, we get there's going to be a week of week break for short international break. I guess it's kind of like two weeks. um And then we play again. not We don't play until April 12th. So hopefully we can regroup.
00:09:42
Speaker
Yeah, hopefully the players that are injured can get that extra rest that they need and be able to come back with a little bit of energy. We'll see. Yeah, I've kind of been thinking Laura Harvey doesn't want to push those injuries. It's, you know, she's been kind of being like, oh, I think Lynn's like close. But like you look at the calendar.
00:10:01
Speaker
and you see this little break, why would you push it when you can get a couple of extra weeks of rest on her and some extra training? so I have no complaints about them waiting on that long term at least.
00:10:13
Speaker
You know, she didn't get called into the national team camp, so even better. i mean, pretty probably that was a lot of the reason why. What else did you like about the game? want to go into positives? Should we roll into positives? Or do you just want like my general overall what I liked about it?
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah. What was your general overall feeling? I don't think the team looks terrible. i think they look exciting. and They do look like they just have some lapses, perhaps, um with positioning. missing just a little bit of quality?
00:10:44
Speaker
I wouldn't say that. I don't think I i don't feel like I felt that. Right. Like I don't, when I saw the the team last year, i was looking up top and i like didn't see what I saw in this game.
00:10:55
Speaker
You know, like there was moments where it was flowing and like the players getting onto the end of things. They're just kind of new. yeah Right. It's not like they've been in this league for a while and they're in some sort of you know, drought with things. It's players that are figuring things out, getting up to speed with how fast this this league plays.
00:11:19
Speaker
And i don't I don't know. I think they've got a lot of potential still. I think they're fun to watch. um I didn't like the goals that they let in. i was really hoping for a clean sheet, but those two goals that were scored, pretty hard to stop, in my opinion.
00:11:34
Speaker
That's, you know, one for Melissa Thompson couldn't have been placed any better. i could maybe have some complaints about where the defense was, the back line was kind of marking up on the second goal that Angel City scored, but i felt pretty good watching them.
00:11:49
Speaker
i do think... Like I'm, I'm worried. i don't know. Maybe I got too excited about beating North Carolina. Like we're playing or Orlando next and that I'm a little scared about now, but I don't think we're terrible. I think, ah I think that's kind of how I felt even with the loss.
00:12:08
Speaker
I would agree with that. And I think ah what you were talking about with the you know adjustment, it that was pretty apparent to me, especially with Matty Mercado getting the ball right on the penalty spot and being 1v1 and just taking ah touch she didn't need to take. Yeah.
00:12:27
Speaker
And just getting caught up and losing the ball. And you're just kind of like, oof. Then you're like, okay, well, give her some time. Those instincts will come. Yeah. Yeah. So I also don't think we're bad.
00:12:40
Speaker
There were moments in that game where we looked like we had no idea what were doing because it was like... I swear to God, I haven't seen this in a long time, but and maybe it's because on the rewatch, i already knew we lost. I'm being hypercritical, but there were times when it was just like, we're kicking the ball into people. And I'm like, are you 12?
00:12:57
Speaker
Yeah. yeah I think that that's that leadership and that kind of calm confidence that Jess Fischlach brings that kind of reels everybody back in.
00:13:08
Speaker
um But yeah, there was a lot of that, which was, again, disappointing and kind of tough to watch. And I think... An adjustment was made after the Thompson goal that helped a little bit on that right side, or right side of the defense, but they were still getting fleeced.
00:13:26
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So... I don't know. I i think with having having these new players and getting them in, i think at the halfway mark of the season, you can maybe start to make some conclusions.
00:13:41
Speaker
But we're we're we're not there yet. And there's always another week for them to pop up and, you know, learn from these mistakes that they're making in the league. Yeah,
Positive Takeaways and Sponsorships
00:13:51
Speaker
think that's fair.
00:13:52
Speaker
like people are maybey being I thought people were being a little overreactive about about it. Some people on the internet, maybe not all. Some people being overreactive. Was I being overreactive about the team last week in their win over North Carolina?
00:14:05
Speaker
I don't care. At least they won. Yeah. um Maybe that was where people got disappointed is you see that result and then we end up with this and it's like, God damn it.
00:14:17
Speaker
I thought we moved past this a little bit. I think as well if the in the next game, and I don't know what her fitness is at, but i think Coco has a a good case to be a starting player.
00:14:32
Speaker
Yeah, I think we'll have to see what the availability looks like. I think you got to at least play her and see what she can do playing longer and and starting. I think she's made that case for herself.
00:14:43
Speaker
I mean, she got 30 minutes. Mm-hmm. But team is already on the back foot yeah struggling, and it's hard at that point. yeah Yeah, but if they want to try, because you know Harvey's talking about wanting to press out of the A, why not try that with someone as dynamic as Coco?
00:14:58
Speaker
And that didn't seem to work as well this game. You could see that some players, and this is what worked in the last game, and you could argue even the game before, is having those pressing players really working together in the midfield cut off those passing lanes, to put them under pressure, and it was just like one 18-year-old running at someone. Yeah.
00:15:24
Speaker
ah yeah ah the The vision was there. The execution was not yeah great. yeah Again, growing pains.
00:15:34
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Sounder at Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sanietes, Lobbing Scorchers, and the Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, we've been Thank you.
00:15:47
Speaker
although this podcast is free it's only made possible by your continued support membership start as low as twenty five dollars a year which not only helps make podcasts like this one happen but also gives you access to everything we produce if you're able to support us at higher levels starting at seventy five dollars a year you gain access to a host of other perks Most notably, entry into our members-only Discord, where the smartest, funniest, and most engaged commenters share their thoughts and ideas.
00:16:16
Speaker
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00:16:27
Speaker
ah Let's officially roll in two positives. I mean, do we want to call it a media response? I think... Because it wasn't really... mean, it was a penalty. No, because they had a choice they had a chance like right after...
00:16:39
Speaker
Yeah. but the Angel City did, so it wasn't really an immediate response. Yeah, but the Reign did get their ah penalty a few minutes later. I mean, like it was called a penalty a few minutes later. VAR took their time looking it over. It was soft.
00:16:55
Speaker
I'm going to go ahead and agree it was soft, but you you get the penalty, you take it, and you you score it, and now the game's back level. I think that's a positive. Keep yourself in it.
00:17:08
Speaker
like your comment there about it
00:17:11
Speaker
so we do we do like an outline for every episode and we edit it together so well like it like separately but it's on the same thing yeah and then sometimes i don't read everything collaboration yeah yeah it's a collab and van put the no probs i said prob soft and then add van added but i don't care give her an oscar
00:17:35
Speaker
Hey, they're in L.A. What better place to do it? Yeah. And also like that's just how the game works sometimes. And I think props to AMC for recognizing that feeling the pressure and going down.
00:17:49
Speaker
Young players sometimes don't do that. And you're like, oh, my God, you just lost the ball. Why didn't you go down? Equal rights for women is we also need to fall down on the box. Yeah. Yes.
Community Question: Team Strategy
00:17:59
Speaker
That's all I'm saying.
00:18:01
Speaker
What do you got? Oh, we both texted about this. Three. You texted me about it. three they Laura Harvey made three subs in the 60th minute. I know. Unheard of. And I think they were needed. Yeah.
00:18:12
Speaker
Montessir came in for Mesa. Adama's in for Srinogorchevich. um Holmes in for Mason. And I think Mason was struggling this game.
00:18:24
Speaker
i think that's fair to say. Holmes came in and actually switched to the left side and then they put Curry on the right side. it didn't help stopping Claire Emsley's cross. She had a good game. i know. When she came to Angel City from Super League, people were like, oh my God, why would you want her? She's not good.
00:18:39
Speaker
She is. i know. ah She can't cut it the WSL. She's going to suck in the WSL. I was like, okay, girl, calm down. And honestly, Ilana Kennedy played well.
00:18:51
Speaker
She did. Not that we're going over a positives right now. But players that have not really hit their stride for LA kind of hit their stride this game, which is really unfortunate for us.
00:19:05
Speaker
I mean, I had said and when we did predictions or whatever, I had kind of said like, oh, I think Angel City is going to win against San Diego. Like I said, I think I got tricked maybe by the...
00:19:20
Speaker
Angel City andy yeah it just any branding. But like this game, I was like, okay, maybe I wasn't totally wrong. um i think... I think they always have the pieces to like do something good. It just seems like the chemistry isn't always there. Yeah.
00:19:34
Speaker
This is a quick shout out I'm going to do just because i don't know if Laura Harvey listens to the podcast. um I liked her jacket again this week. It was a good jacket. It's like a light denim zip up.
00:19:46
Speaker
That's positive. Wish it would have been a winning jacket. Maybe we bring back the corduroy jacket. I'm a little. Might have been a little too hot for that. You're probably right. I do like the Reigns new ah warm-up jackets.
00:19:59
Speaker
The ones they walked out in. Yeah. Those are nice. I like i really like this kind of grayish blue. is there but Is there a name for grayish blue as a color? I feel like the team probably has a name for the color. um Oh, it's probably on the media guide. read they have um I feel like the league's stepping up with those pre-game sweatsuits, though. They're they're looking pretty good everywhere.
00:20:23
Speaker
I wanted to point out these chances for positives because to me, like like I said, I don't think this team was terrible and and and had one of these kind of worked out. I think we're looking at a tie.
00:20:35
Speaker
First chance I wanted to shout out was Matty Mercado. There was like a buildup on the right. Emily Mason, you know, passed the ball up the right of the field to Darlene and Darlene crossed the ball over in.
00:20:47
Speaker
The crossover was really good from Darlene. I went through two defenders and then that was the one where Mercado, I think you talked about it, just didn't quite have the quickness to just turn it and try and just shoot it as much as you can. Just try to shoot it because Sarah Gordon was able to clear that out. So it didn't work out, obviously, because we lost. Then the other one was the chance...
00:21:08
Speaker
for Montessori right after subbing on. There's a long ball. I believe it was McClernan from what it looked like. They had the stupid fucking commercial that was like taking up most of the screen that was like ending.
00:21:19
Speaker
But it looked like it was McClernan. She just launched this ball and Coco got like a head on it, passed it over to Darlene and then got back to Coco and she just shot it just a little wide.
00:21:30
Speaker
But I'm really, really, really liking what we're seeing from Darlene. I'm continuing the Darlene hype train. i think one of these days sooner rather than later, hopefully one of these actually turns into an assist or a goal for her. I'm really impressed with what we're seeing from her.
00:21:46
Speaker
it's and it's in it's fun. It's fun to see someone young and fast like that. It's been I don't know if we've ever seen this on this team. This was literally on the, it was it was Phoebe McLaren in because it was from a restart right after the sub.
00:22:00
Speaker
It was literally right after she subbed in. Which is great. You want to see that from Coco coming off the bench. Like her, what, second touch is almost a goal. And it it we had a couple that just like trickled.
00:22:12
Speaker
To be fair, they also had a couple that just kind of trickled back. Yeah. Yeah. Could have been goals, but. i mean, I want see those quick clean clean them up and everything, but I saw the quality in making those chances that maybe I didn't see last season, and it's got me excited.
00:22:28
Speaker
um G did nutmeg a player this game, which I loved, and ran through her, so it was great. This is where... like She also backheeled. Yeah. she also had a backheel pass that was pretty dope.
00:22:39
Speaker
She has some bad giveaways, and this is where I think maybe the missing fish lock was the issue, ah because she's usually able to kind of try stuff like that, and some a lot you know sometimes it doesn't work out, sometimes it does, but at least there's someone behind her to clean it up.
NWSL Week Three Results
00:22:54
Speaker
But that's the problem when they're playing... So the way they started was kind of like an upside down triangle and Sam Meza was on the left. um James Turner was on the right and then G was back in the bottom.
00:23:05
Speaker
um And so that's kind of where that gets sketchy. That was kind of the last thing I had. Was there anything else positive? Oh, well, Kristen Press being 100 yards offside and still celebrating a goal. Yeah, that was nice.
00:23:17
Speaker
And I think the back line did a good job stepping up on that. Yeah. Negatives. This is a loss. We should just roll into that. and Fish luck missing. Midfield struggles. Not fun. No, the lack of possession was atrocious.
00:23:30
Speaker
And as a comparison to last game, it's a complete turnaround. Yeah. And I don't think the opponent was necessarily better. The product on the field, I think that the way that Angel City defended was a lot more impactful.
00:23:44
Speaker
um But missing Fishlock, who is such an integral part of how they move the ball around the back line and through the midfield. There are very rare instances when we had a pass that went from the right side of the field to the left side of the field.
00:23:59
Speaker
And i'm I'm not talking about just whipping it around the back, but there's just a lot of lack of continuity in our passing and in possession that was just really did not help the struggle that they were having.
00:24:13
Speaker
We have we have a pretty good record against Angel City and they're also not very good at home. We couldn't take advantage of that. i I won't be too hard on it just because I do think, like I said, Alyssa Thompson's heading her stride.
00:24:25
Speaker
i think she could have scored more goals against us and ah maybe we got a little lucky there on some of those. um Because she seems like she's on a mission this this season for some reason or another.
00:24:39
Speaker
um So I'm not going to be too critical on it, but i don't know. I still wasn't. maybe i i I guess my negative is I had high expectations and none of them were met.
00:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, we already touched on this, but unable to stop Alyssa Thompson ah is worrying to me because I feel like ah feel like that's something that's pretty not easy to do. But if you focus on that and if you really want to shut her down, but think they could have done it. It just seemed like, I don't know, it just didn't seem like a coordinated effort.
00:25:15
Speaker
There's way more threatening players in the league that we have to play soon. specifically with Orlando and now I'm like oh god oh god not Barbara Banda just throw AMC on her just body her out of the way that's not a bad idea i don't hate that idea again there's a reason why I don't coach
00:25:37
Speaker
ah Sam Lady. I don't know what Angel City's plan is still with Sam Lady. i guess the negative is that Sam Lady isn't coaching for us and he's on our coaching staff and that was bad for us. um i don't I don't think we have the coaching room now, unfortunately.
00:25:51
Speaker
What Angel City is going to do about him, I don't know because they were doing interviews. It seems to me like they're waiting for a summer window, which according to people on the internet, makes it seem like they're going to hire an English coach or somebody from ah European league.
00:26:07
Speaker
I think this is a top negative. We need a forward to score who's maybe doing it in the run of play as well. Because like our last goals that we got were we got the PK in this game.
00:26:20
Speaker
And then we got jeffish Jordan Bug Banger. ridiculous banger once in a you know maybe once in a career kind of goal like that i hope not maybe there's more don't know she tried it again and it hit off somebody so and then ah we had the just fishlock goal in the box and then adama's don't want to overreact but for how much harvey is talking to us about wanting to press and kind of flip around people in the front we need to see some production from them that results in goals
00:26:53
Speaker
And we didn't see in this game well what we were stoked about last game, which was just taking shots. Even if you're outside the box, you know, somebody just put it on frame.
00:27:04
Speaker
Went through most of the game without having a shot, off with with only having one shot on goal. Yeah, I want to see them try stuff. But they were also like, the game plan didn't, it wasn't working out. So I don't think that they were ready to try doing that.
00:27:19
Speaker
you know I mean? Sometimes you have to adapt. Yeah. good teams Good teams adapt. Yeah. Well, and we're, how bad were we last year? Again, three games in. I have to keep reminding myself that like, we have abundantly better problems right now that we did last season. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to be realistic about stuff, you know, but there are obvious critiques as well.
00:27:47
Speaker
Yeah, this this loss was very sobering. But it's a loss. We move on Play Orlando next. ah I know. I know.
00:27:58
Speaker
Maddie Darlene could go on a run. Maybe this is the game she balls out in a way that means goals for her.
00:28:07
Speaker
Because she's been working her ass off. ah She has been working her ass off and I think she deserves credit for that. She makes stuff happen. um I think there's not much more to really dive into here unless you got anything else.
Preview of Rain vs. Orlando
00:28:20
Speaker
No.
00:28:21
Speaker
Got to move on. ah Cooler Player of the 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. We had trouble with this one. We did. We had trouble with choosing a player of the match.
00:28:37
Speaker
The obvious would be G, but i i again, I think in the spirit of the cooler play of the match, that's not what we intend to do. We don't want to just do the obvious unless it's a ridiculous game that someone has, which was not the case, I would say.
00:28:50
Speaker
So since we can't give her an Oscar... we can give her the next best thing which is cooler player of the match good which goes to strutty gorchevich's acting skills yeah i mean she had a she got a little bit of contact and went down not saying there wasn't contact not saying it was totally fake but she sold it she made look great got the penalty put us in the game for a little bit didn't work out in the end but i do appreciate someone doing that yeah Sometimes you got to try stuff.
00:29:19
Speaker
Yeah. It's soccer. Things like this are meant to be part of the game. is annoying It is annoying when it happens to us. Absolutely.
00:29:29
Speaker
So I can see how this might upset some people, but... We're not here to... This isn't RuPaul's best friend's race.
00:29:40
Speaker
Oh, Lord. um Once again, thank you to our sponsor, the doctor's office. The doctor doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match. Stop in today and try their Marantz Fizz. I hope I'm not butchering that.
00:29:55
Speaker
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00:30:11
Speaker
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00:30:29
Speaker
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00:30:57
Speaker
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00:31:11
Speaker
We got one community question from folks. I don't think many people wanted to remember this game. So we got quickly move on. Yeah. So we got the one from Steve.
00:31:24
Speaker
Shout out, Steve. ah Vote. yeah Steve Vogt. We got that quick cleared cleared up from him. Thank you. ah There was a dragon sized hole in the midfield with Fishlock out on Sunday. How does this team fill that more effectively in the future? Formation shift, different combo of midfielders, go shopping in the summer window or something else?
00:31:44
Speaker
Try it all. This is a really good question. um i i don't know how you fix it. i think ah we don't have a player really that does what Fishlock does.
00:31:57
Speaker
She's one of a kind. So trying to figure out a replacement for that, I think is going to be pretty impossible. I think that the next the next option is going to be to shift the formation because what we did didn't work.
00:32:13
Speaker
So something's got to change their different combo of midfielders. Who would you put in there? I mean, i think you could you could start Olo, but I don't know where she's at fitness wise.
00:32:23
Speaker
No, she looked pretty rusty when she came on to. Yeah. We just know that that's not usual for her, but she's been out for a hot minute. Go shopping in the summer window? Do we have any money? Yeah, we have money, right? I think so.
00:32:34
Speaker
I mean, i don't know what the... cat that I hate how everything is so not clear for the NBSL, but like we've got our new ownership, so please go get us somebody.
00:32:47
Speaker
Lily Johannes, please. Okay.
00:32:52
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. on it Honestly, like that is the position we would need to not it's not an easy role to fill or position to fill. If you're having issues in this place in the field, you have to find the right fit for the team that works with the players that you have.
00:33:08
Speaker
It's not an easy thing to do. I would like to steal Sonnet. I know it's really a shame that that went down the way it did. Yeah, because I think that she would be really good in that role.
00:33:20
Speaker
Yeah, I think that gives me hope for at least because Harvey kind of got her back to her prime, right? My hope is that, I don't know, Harvey can coach up whoever is the person that's going to need to fill in after some amount of games. But that did take a little while for Sonnet to kind of start hitting. Not very long because she's already like, you know, hit that level before.
00:33:43
Speaker
So it might be a matter of finding somebody that's at a similar level as Sonnet on a different team and bringing them in. and getting them up to speed. I think that's maybe where I'm leaning towards still.
00:33:56
Speaker
The summer is just so far away. so I'm saying so like, I don't know. i don't know how you fix that. I think I mean, you got to try different combos. This is Maze's first. start the Is this the theme of the episode is try stuff. I mean, we had that kind of last season and then it was literally every single game trying stuff.
00:34:16
Speaker
And it really didn't work, um obviously. um i don't want to see that amount of trying stuff. I mean, that the only change in the starting lineup for this game was Meza. I think that's maybe a good sign.
00:34:26
Speaker
um You don't want to do too much. But I think they'll be able to look at film from this match, too, and see exactly what didn't work and improve on that. But i don't know. Some of these young players are just it's just going to take a little bit of time.
00:34:39
Speaker
Which makes this next week and a half off great. For sure.
Episode Wrap-up and Personal Updates
00:34:44
Speaker
Let's go into some results from the NWSL week three.
00:34:50
Speaker
Annoyingly, you texted me this because i had someone in town. So I was kind of trying to entertain someone. um So I didn't get to watch Friday night's match. I watched some highlights and stuff. But annoyingly, two games on at the same time again. It's the worst. Why are you doing this to me?
00:35:03
Speaker
and Also, the prime prime videos are so nice. So it's just like, let us watch two games on there, you know, back to back, maybe. Or give me a du give me a dual screen. Yeah, that would be sick. Go Olympics coverage on it. Yeah, that would be sick. They should do that.
00:35:17
Speaker
Washington, Spirit and Bay played each other. There was... Two headers from Ashley Hatch, three minutes apart. Bay, get it together. yeah Ashley Hatch is now, what, fifth in the NWSL scoring, too, after these goals?
00:35:32
Speaker
I didn't look at that stat. It was something like that, but she's climbing up that, so she's a goal scorer. Gotta mark her better, especially if it's on headers. That's pretty... You should have learned from the first one. Yeah.
00:35:44
Speaker
Did they confirm that we're going to talk about the... Tiernan? Yeah, did they... Tierna? Not Tiernan. Did they confirm her ACL? I'm pretty sure they did. Let me double check. So Gotham and Houston played and they tied 0-0.
00:35:59
Speaker
But Tierna Davidson went down in the first half. I don't know if they've confirmed it yet because it's Tuesday, but sometimes they're a little delayed on the scans for that. um But she was replaced on the national team roster for a knee injury.
00:36:14
Speaker
people replaced with chille thompson yeah People are suspecting, which Giselle Thompson's playing really well too. um But people are suspecting it's an ACL. Well, she's done it before. yeah and it was the opposite knee of her other one.
00:36:26
Speaker
ah I also like I watched part of that game and the grass wasn't seeming great. I didn't get to see the tear like when she went injured or whatever. But people are kind of like stepping in around the box and getting their feet caught. I don't know if that played a part into it.
00:36:41
Speaker
ACL tears happen on any type of surface. And it's also like and it's a freak thing sometimes. I don't some you know, not it's not necessarily the surface that causes it. But um for a grass field, you'd you'd hope to see better upkeep and not see those kinds of things happening.
00:36:55
Speaker
Yeah, it looked it looked weird, the field did. i don't know i don't know if anyone else plays on that field other than the Dynamo and the Dash. Orlando did Orlando stuff. So they played San Diego, Orlando But San Diego played a really good high press for a lot of the first half and held held Orlando off pretty well for ah good amount of time, which was surprising.
00:37:20
Speaker
McCutcheon seems to be becoming a pretty solid goal scorer for them. And then the other goal that they got was a penalty kick. So, you know, i would say containing Barbara Banda is always something that you should be happy about from San Diego's perspective.
00:37:35
Speaker
Obviously, you want to least walk away with a point if you're able to do that and they didn't get jack shit. And they went into halftime zero zero because Claire McCutcheon didn't score until the 50th minute. I guess I don't know how my fraud watch for...
00:37:50
Speaker
Casey's going and ah Utah i will say they're not looking too hot this season at least not yet I think there's maybe people were thinking they might be past their their their problems don't know if that's the case yet um but Casey put up three on Utah and this is what I was talking about i was like they're they're capable of doing something like this and I was just waiting for them to actually do it and they finally did so i'll put them on the back burner of the fraud watch for now because again this is utah put three up on utah uh that's that's good obviously but um i want to see what they do against somebody like orlando or even yeah mostly orlando to see what they do against orlando because they' like or orlando i oh man i like like loved when they took it to them last year
00:38:42
Speaker
those oh yeah And the other part of the KC game is they were all first half goals. So they scored three in the first half and then didn't do anything after that. So where was your second half performance, KC? don't know.
00:38:54
Speaker
I watched the Portland, North Carolina game. The, the what did I call it? The Battle of the Boring? We're going to have to call like that that stadium, like i don't know, I'm going have to come up with a good name. Something boring.
00:39:08
Speaker
Boring Park.
00:39:12
Speaker
That's a really good one, huh? Wow. So creative. and know. I'll work on it. They did. North Carolina did get a penalty. And Mackenzie Arnold saved it.
00:39:23
Speaker
It was a horrible kick. It was not great, but you went the right way. so It was a really bad kick, though. But like Mackenzie Arnold... Has actually been playing pretty well this season.
00:39:33
Speaker
Which is great, because now they'll sign her longer and then... once she gets her extension she'll feel like she can chill out a little bit more and she'll go full russell wilson yeah and then she she'll go back to the mckenzie arnold i grew in love last season uh louisville won louisville beat chicago yeah not saying much there Poor Chicago.
00:39:58
Speaker
That is a dumpster fire of ah dumpster fires. They're really struggling. Poor Alyssa in the hair. That goal just like that they got was quick turnover. dipped hard. It It dipped so hard. Yeah, that deflection was kind of brutal. It was real brutal.
00:40:14
Speaker
think Alyssa was a little further out than she needed to be, but I mean, that just like popped right over. With that deflection, you can't save that. yeah That's a nasty curve or nasty spin on the ball to just make a dip.
00:40:27
Speaker
um If we look at the standings, there is, I would say, some good news. The Reiner is still in sixth place, which I think you can be happy about. One, one and one. That's not terrible to start the season, especially since you got a win against a very, very formidable team.
00:40:42
Speaker
Pride currently in the top. um I think every everyone at the top three is who you expect. There's really, don't know. I don't feel like anything's.
00:40:53
Speaker
a given this year for anything outside of the top three. I feel like I feel pretty good about Pride, Current, and Spirit kind of ah holding those top spots for a while and kind of trading trading trading places maybe.
00:41:05
Speaker
But I wouldn't say there's any clear other teams that are... going to be threatening them. And then once you get to the playoffs, anything can happen. So try to make your just try to stay in the playoffs. Just try to stay above that line.
00:41:17
Speaker
Stay above the line. I will say it'll be really I'm really curious to see going forward as more teams play each other, really how the season looks like it's going to like span out results wise, because we're still early on.
00:41:34
Speaker
We're three games in. So it's a little close right now for me to make any assumptions, but I think you're on point about Orlando Casey and Spirit being top three teams.
00:41:46
Speaker
I do you think I would make a bet that the Chicago Stars are going to get the wooden spoon. I feel pretty confident about that, unfortunately for Chicago fans. Yeah. Yeah. I don't see where that gets better.
00:41:59
Speaker
I just don't. Zero points after three games. Negative eight goal differential. ah No.
00:42:09
Speaker
Oh, it's so bad. It's bad. It's just not good. No. um So for next up for the rain, do you want to give a little quick preview? but We're playing Orlando.
00:42:22
Speaker
Fun fact. So Landon are going in. They have not lost or drawn a match, so they're 3-0-0. They look like ah the look like They look like they're going to be a very formidable opponent.
00:42:33
Speaker
We to figure out a way to contain them. i think if we can pull a point out of this match, it would be extremely surprising.
00:42:44
Speaker
I don't think it'd be that surprising. Given what they did in North Carolina, I think they could... Because if the game's in Seattle, they'll have the rest that they needed. North Carolina intent, though. I know, but We had never we hadn't won there for a very, very long time.
00:43:00
Speaker
And this is a home game. We're going to be playing Orlando at home. Yeah. ah Saturday, April 12th at 430 p.m. That game will be on ION. But they also don't play on turf as often. So I think we've got that as to an advantage.
00:43:13
Speaker
I like your optimism. i'm just i I'm just saying I wouldn't be surprised with the point. I would be. Okay. But i might I might be a little biased after while re-watching the last game today.
00:43:24
Speaker
That's fair. Things you want to see, i hit it with the don't get embarrassed. we Yeah, don't don't get blown out at home. You can't do it. Nope, not good for anybody. um I would like to see ah better positive possession, so moving the ball forward, passing it through the midfield.
00:43:44
Speaker
keeping possession, not giving the ball away errantly, you know. ah And also just taking more shots. If you have an opportunity and it's the best choice, take the shot. Be a hero and and at Lumen.
00:43:56
Speaker
Why not? I'll be there. You're thinking about going? Yeah, I'm thinking about heading up. um I'm having some personal stuff going on at the end of this month that's going to put me out of commission for a little bit as far as at least getting to games.
00:44:09
Speaker
know can do anything from a couch, though. I can just fucking sit and watch the game, so. But i I also really, as yeah as everyone knows, we're quite, ah i mean, I'm not rooting for Orlando. Do not get me wrong. But I do like if there's a chance to see Orlando in person, I want to go see it.
00:44:25
Speaker
So I'm going to see if I can make it work and get up to the game. Yeah, because I mean, and how much time do we have with Marta left too? So if you're thinking about going, it's on a Saturday, which is great. And it's not at like one o'clock. So get your tickets.
00:44:40
Speaker
i I think Barbara Banda incredible. Again, this is turning into. But I don't want her to be incredible on this day. no, and and no, no, no. I want to see us like destroy them or at least like surprise them and shock them.
00:44:54
Speaker
I think the team has the capability to do that. Sure. and Which I wouldn't have said last season. No, no, definitely not. So there's that. So positive thoughts, positive thoughts. They're clear underdog. So like you have nothing to lose.
00:45:08
Speaker
um If there's a single game that you would say, all right, we can wash our hands of this one. We'll move on. If we lose like this is probably that game. this or Orlando away that one's yeah but not having good vibes for that one think that pretty much does it for soccer talk shout outs for the week this is kind of some soccer talk but I wanted to shout out Kristen Press um anytime someone's kind of knocking on the patriarchy big fan
00:45:40
Speaker
But there she she ah she did a little segment on their pot like the Re-Ink podcast with Tobin. And she went on like a little rant about women taking men's last names in sports.
00:45:55
Speaker
When the woman is the better athlete? Yeah, when the woman is the better athlete is pretty much what it kind of came down to. And like she was she quote unquote said like the spirit of lesbianism and and maybe hetero people need to bring that into their relationships a little bit when it comes to name changing.
00:46:09
Speaker
And at least just think about why you're changing your name. I'm not saying this is a knock on everybody changes her name. But Lindsay Heaps? Really? Sophia Wilson?
00:46:21
Speaker
Really? Mel Swanson? Pew was a cooler name. Maybe Pew was the right choice to keep. Pew! I don't know. I just want to shout her out for that because I don't always enjoy everything I watch on there, but i did like that.
00:46:34
Speaker
Yeah, I was surprised. i had seen that clip, but I had scrolled by it about 15 times. It's a good clip. You should go watch her if you haven't seen it yet. ah You have ah exciting contest coming up. Yeah, I have to make everyone know this because there are, what was it, 86? 86 other contestants. But I entered my cat into a cat contest, cat photo contest, um because there's 86 entrants. It's at a local bakery where I live.
00:47:01
Speaker
And because there's 86 entrants, they're doing three different rounds of voting to narrow it down to like a top four or something or top. I don't know what it is. He's not in the first round. My cat Louie is not in the first round, but he will be in a round at some point.
00:47:14
Speaker
um And when that happens, I'm going to be sending out the links so people can go vote for Louie, because if he wins, I get a free coffee and a coffee drink gets named after him.
00:47:25
Speaker
which is like a huge prize. This is like the most ah lucrative thing I could have ever won in my life. um The Louie latte. oh I love that. He's a little tuxedo cat. Maybe I could do some sort of like black and white kind of coffee inspo. I'm not really sure.
00:47:39
Speaker
I'll ask Louie what he thinks. But I just wanted at least let people know that it it is coming and I will appreciate all the votes that he can get. this is something I've been taking very seriously for weeks.
00:47:52
Speaker
And it's now starting to kick off with the votes. But stay tuned and I'll i'll get the link out when he is eligible to be voted on. This is very important stuff on our podcast. Anything to do with cats is high high importance.
00:48:07
Speaker
I think that's pretty much it. You got any you have any shout outs? No. We want to thank our sponsors, the doctor's office and Hacks and Ferments. You can follow us on social media. We're on Blue Sky and Instagram at CoolerGuildPod.
00:48:19
Speaker
Send us an email. You can send us an email. We love an email. It's thecoolerguild at gmail.com. You can also go to our main page, which is sounderatheart.com forward slash thecoolerguild.
00:48:30
Speaker
We're also on YouTube now, ah figuring it out slowly but surely. it Seems like the audio is getting a little bit more lined up. It was more improved this time. um We're figuring it out. We can go there, youtube.com forward slash at the Cooler Guild.
00:48:44
Speaker
Go subscribe there. If we hit certain number of subscribers, I can start to do different stuff with it. um So we appreciate the subscribers we've picked up over the past week. And you can see our beautiful faces.
00:48:56
Speaker
Yeah, my hair doesn't look very cool right now. But... The color's good. oh Oh, yeah. Because it's not fit over your headphones. Yeehaw. We got a yeehaw hat.
00:49:08
Speaker
Couldn't hear you what. You can go see the cowboy hat Van just put on and you can also see my tote bag if you go there. Now your hair looks really funny. Anyways, ah go rate wherever you're listening. Five stars.
00:49:19
Speaker
um Until next time, I'm Coop. I'm Van. Stay cool, y'all. Oh, yeah. Stay cool. Bye. Bye. Bye.
00:49:45
Speaker
Fatuous, not fascist. Fatuous.
00:49:51
Speaker
ah