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Adames. Pinoe. Party. - Ep. 13
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The Reign made their return to league play this Sunday with a dramatic stoppage time win. Emeri Adames played a massive role in securing the Reign's first league victory since May 3rd. We dive into the late heroics from Adames, the jersey retirement ceremony for club legend Megan Rapinoe, and how the team looked with their summer acquisitions.
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Coop
Van
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Show produced by Coop
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 13 of the Cooler Guild. I'm your host, Coop, and joined with me as always is my co-host, Van. Hello. We are recording on Tuesday, August 27th, 2024.
Discussing Key Sports Events
00:00:33
Speaker
On today's episode, we'll be discussing the rain's triumph over North Carolina, Megan Rapinoe's jersey retirement, Jalen Howell acquisition, and a few other things. But first, some housekeeping.
00:00:42
Speaker
We want to remind people that the 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. New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing
Sounder at Heart Anniversary Reflections
00:01:03
Speaker
here. Speaking of Sounder at Heart, we went to the anniversary party event
00:01:09
Speaker
Yeah, it was the one-year anniversary of Center Heart going completely subscriber-based and independent. Yeah, it was that fast fashion done in Soto. We got to finally meet a bunch of people that we collab with, chat with, absolutely admire. So it was really cool. We have not met many of those people IRL, I feel like.
00:01:29
Speaker
So and I don't get to I don't think I don't ever get the chance to come out and meet people just because I'm so far out So it's nice that I got to meet so many people in one night I didn't get a chat with everybody as much as I was hoping for some people at least But it sounded like Jeremiah was kind of hoping to maybe do more of these smaller events
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah. And it was really fun and it was like super cool. It was like a really good meeting of people and just like a really great community that they've kind of. For sure. For sure. Been able to cultivate. Yeah. Yeah. It was great. I wish I could have stayed longer and like gone out and done some more partying. But it was also on a Thursday. Yeah. Can we like plan that next time for like a Friday or something?
Seattle Event Challenges and Experiences
00:02:07
Speaker
Because. Yeah. Yeah. It was not great for us that do not live within public transportation of Seattle. Yeah. No. Well.
00:02:16
Speaker
Back in the good old days. Yeah. We would maybe take a, what was it? The, uh, car to go, take a car to go to the lift or the, uh, the light rail. No, it was fun though. Um, I mean, you and I, we, you and I saw each other on Thursday for that event. And then Sunday for the ring game.
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, we went to the rain game and I was having some car troubles. So, and we were also just being really responsible. Human beings care about the environment. Sweet carpooled.
Rain Game and Community Partnerships
00:02:46
Speaker
Uh, yeah. Uh, went out to the game. We had gotten some tickets.
00:02:51
Speaker
to there's like an event before the match under the north end area and it was like hosted by Brandi Carlisle's wife Catherine Carlisle and they kind of like spoke about the foundation and partnership that they have with the rave green foundation now and rain in general I think it's just called the rave foundation
00:03:11
Speaker
Is it just Rave? The Rave Foundation. Yeah. Okay. So that's kind of sweet. Shout out to Steph from Rain who hooked us up with those tickets and got us on the list for that. So kind of got to see some familiar faces in there, including one, including one, Brandon Carlisle was there. We did not speak to her, but she was there. And then also we
00:03:32
Speaker
Ran into Adrian Hanauer while we were there. He is now a familiar person with the Cooler Guild. Yeah, Coop's like, oh my God, is that Adrian Hanauer? And I was like, yeah, that is Adrian Hanauer. So should we give him a sticker? What what millionaire doesn't want, a multimillionaire doesn't want a sticker.
00:03:50
Speaker
Um, this one did. I do have to say like, I, I, I have the audacity of that kind of person that just goes and talks to people. Uh, and so we want to talk to him, give him a sticker, let him know who we were. Um, and I have to say he was fantastic.
00:04:06
Speaker
Yeah. He was great. Super nice. Um, he's open to kind of maybe, well, I mean, we'll see if we can follow up with him or whatever, whoever we need to follow up with, but he gives some people that he wants us to connect with and hopefully get more awareness about the podcast. Cause I feel like it's all just about like growing the base fan base and getting people out to games and getting excited about this team. Yeah. So that was really cool. But then we got to be there.
Megan Rapinoe's Jersey Retirement
00:04:28
Speaker
for this match, which- Which was, it was incredible. I mean, it was already- Second half was incredible. Let's just recap it. Let's recap it and then we can talk about it. Okay, we'll do the quick recap. On a beautiful Sunday night in Seattle, the weather's perfect. Couldn't have been any better. The rain took on North Carolina courage before the kickoff. The club honored one of the greatest legends in all of women's soccer. Ever. Ever.
00:04:56
Speaker
Maybe ever. If you're from this country, definitely maybe the best ever. Megan Rapinoe. The Megan Rapinoe. So they did like a little jersey retirement celebration. We'll get into more details about that later. Once the match kicked off though, the rain took a little while to get going.
Rain's Game Analysis and Highlights
00:05:13
Speaker
The first half was rough.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, the first that was not very fun to watch and I was like man this games on ESPN This might be a little little rough for some people watching but they did settle in I thought there's some nervy moments for sure But they did figure out the courage limiting them to just four shots, which is pretty great And then the rain themselves were able to create some dangerous chances It was looking like the rain we're gonna once again end the game with nothing but regret about the missed chances in the match and
00:05:42
Speaker
Yeah and I was looking at the standings like we had finished 0-0. We would have been in second place just because of goal differential with Utah but nobody wanted to end the game that way. I mean there was so many people there and it was just rad and they had the momentum.
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, the crowd was into it. The crowd was super into it. Adames played hero. Played the hero that we all needed. And she just got this perfect cross into find her head. And then she just headed the ball to the post and it dinked off the post in the most perfect way.
00:06:18
Speaker
that Kasey remember just fumbled it bad, real bad, and it went in for an own goal. I'm going to call it Adamas' goal though because of the celebration that we got from that. It felt like it didn't matter how it went in and that an 18-year-old kid who played great in the summer cup created that chant. Yeah. Absolutely. That's her goal. That's her goal. I'll give it to her. I know the stats are going to stay different, but I'll give her that.
00:06:46
Speaker
It was great. Um, which meant rain got all three points. Much needed. First win since May 3rd. Yeah. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. I mean, so starting off, I mean the lineup, we only had one of our new signings from, uh, the summer window. Summer window. Yeah. Which was Sinek Orchovich. AMC baby. AMC.
00:07:09
Speaker
And the first half, though it was a bit boring, I mentioned to Megan during the first half, I was like, see how boring this is? This is so boring. We need something to be exciting. Wait a second. We're not acknowledging that this is our first true dub pod.
00:07:26
Speaker
which means we need to bring out our our drinks our dub pod drinks our first dub at least for the first one but we have so few wins that we definitely need to be getting some celebrations in and van if we'll post a screenshot of this has the let's go let's go paleo great one and then i've got um
00:07:47
Speaker
Maybe we can showcase both of them right here. And then I've got this Guild collab beer that Van brought to me. So cheers to a rain dub. I don't think the microphones ever pick up that sound. I don't think so, but Clink cheers. Clink cheers. Okay, so AMC. AMC. The first app itself was like
00:08:09
Speaker
Very underwhelming. First of all, when she stepped on the field, I just texted you, or you texted me AMC starting and I texted you because we were in different seats in the stadium. I texted you and I was just like, she's big. She looks strong. I felt like I was sending Dennis text to you. Looks strong.
00:08:31
Speaker
Pretty much. Dennis is my dad. But yeah, she in the first half, like I said, it was underwhelming, but I feel like she was kind of a bright spot. I mean, I definitely was paying a little bit more attention to her than other players just because she's new. Yeah. But it was kind of easy to because every time the ball was played to her, she gave herself that space to win the ball. Yeah.
00:08:56
Speaker
and was strong and was just, I think she's a great addition and I'm so excited to see her play with some of the players that we were able to bring on later.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah, so the first half was kinda meh meh. One of the things I will say about the first half was it was a bit weird to me that we were playing in a formation, because it was basically like a 4-4-2. But we were bringing our outside backs up so much, mostly Shay Holmes, right? Trying to get her so far up the field that Quinn was having to drop back in the center back position. And that just eliminated any sort of like midfield overload that we could have had.
00:09:35
Speaker
which I saw someone, someone suggest, um, I haven't been able to find a full replay it, or maybe I need to go find it a little bit harder. Um, maybe try harder to find it, but I saw someone point out that maybe Quinn was dropping back so much and I know Jordan bug had a great game, but it was a little bit, maybe to cover bug. I don't think that would have been it. Um, no. And from what I, I rewatched the second half cause I recorded it on YouTube
Impact of New Players
00:09:59
Speaker
TV.
00:09:59
Speaker
I watched probably the last 20 minutes of the first half and then the second half. And it wasn't really to cover bug. It was just making up for the lack of back line because they were basically shoving homes up. But the problem with that is that the other midfielder, the other center midfielders are not recovering. And so it's just leaving a big gap. And that's why our possession in the first half was so mediocre, because we were really just putting the ball on the outside and having no play with the inside players.
00:10:28
Speaker
So, and that's not, Quinn's playing out of position there. So, you know, I can say they had, you know, an okay game, but that's not really giving them any credit because they were forced to play somewhere they don't really play. Yeah, although Harvey seems to be trying to force them into that position in the back, which I'm not sold on because I just think that there is an element. I know we could talk about maybe Quinn doesn't have the speed, but there's an element to Quinn's game that I think we don't utilize enough, and that's like long balls.
00:10:56
Speaker
Yeah. And it's better. And it's as much as you can get that from your center backs, Quinn's much better at a six doing that kind of stuff. Right. And it's breaking the lines with that through ball. Um, and we haven't really had the speed to showcase that. So yeah, I think that like, if we can find that with Monteser and Quinn, I think that would be a really lethal combination. So I look forward to seeing that. Um, but the first half it was kind of a wash. Yeah, for sure. It was a bit of a snooze fast.
00:11:24
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, there were some nervy moments and especially one nervy moment. I think it was like the 30 second minute when there was a ball played through and Dickie didn't forcefully come out, call for the ball and McLaren and was looking for her to. And it just they started yelling at each other.
00:11:44
Speaker
Yeah. And we saw that a couple of times within the game. Otherwise, if you delete these shoddy decisions, Diggy had a great game. He did. But these are the things that concern me about that is when your back line doesn't have the confidence in you to come get that ball and they have to make up for it.
00:12:00
Speaker
which we've seen that frustration before when Cook was still playing well with Dickey back there. So it's definitely something to watch, but I think I went and looked at all the stats for goalkeepers in the league and Dickey's doing really well. Even with these mistakes, I think she's a young keeper. She's learning and growing from the looks of it to me. So as long as these aren't becoming costly mistakes, you know, I think I can give her some grace.
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree with that. I think you're right. And I think that leadership can be something that you're born with, but it can also be something that you learn. But she needs to fucking learn it and she needs to learn it quick because this is going to make me angry because you just can't you can't sit there and not communicate with your back line.
00:12:49
Speaker
Which, to be fair, it's kind of been shifting and rotating and the consistent... I mean, McLaren has been playing. Yeah, but, you know, Bug is young and new. And it wasn't Bug that she was talking with. It wasn't Bug that went around. Bug had a great game. It was a player that was older than her.
00:13:07
Speaker
Yeah, it was a player that had more experience than her. Yeah, I don't disagree with the fact that like, you know, it doesn't maybe look like she's got full control. Maybe more. I'm very I'm hard on goalkeepers because you were one. Yeah. You know what you're looking at a little bit more specifically than someone like me.
00:13:24
Speaker
For sure. And it's more than the numbers. It's pretty much, you know, my thing. It's like stats tell part of the story, which is fine. But that was pretty much the first half. You know, some some nervy moments, but nothing too bad. I mean, there were some there was the G back eel. Oh, if that would have gone in.
00:13:42
Speaker
Oh man, I would have lost my mind. She's cheeky man. I mean that's like the kind of stuff that like I've been hoping to see more from her and she just hasn't been able to get in those spaces as much as I'd like to see. But she was able to get up there which was really cool. I mean that was like right on top of the six pretty much when the ball came in from the right side and she was kind of standing near post on top of the six and she kind of let the ball go through her legs and then did a little whoop behind the back and it hit the post.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah. And she was like, uh, she was really taking on defenders along the line over there too. Um, I'm trying to get through, which is great. We need somebody that can do that in the first half. Like we saw some good moments, but it felt a lot like what we've been seeing for the last part of the season, which was several months, which is just missed opportunities.
Adamas' Decisive Performance
00:14:29
Speaker
I mean, you got fish lock coming in hard, shooting the ball straight at the goalkeeper. You had a missed opportunity from G. So it just kind of seemed like, uh, we're slogging it again.
00:14:38
Speaker
Yeah, but then we have time break. But I will say added to that, we are seeing a lot of changes with this this team. So I don't know that everything is going to look great right now. I mean, we're trying to make moves finally to change. I didn't think it would look great the first half because we only had one new player. Yeah.
00:14:56
Speaker
So I wasn't expecting a lot more. And then the second half comes and the arsenal comes in. The new arsenal of players comes in and oh my god, everything changed. A little late. No, it wasn't as soon as I wanted it to, but it did change everything. The whole vibe just completely shifted. When Jaylen Howell got in, everything changed. Yeah, I think we need to talk about Lazco coming in though. So Lazco was the first sub in the 66th minute for King.
00:15:21
Speaker
who, King, I disagree with a lot of people about her because though I do think she's a good player, I don't think she fits within the system and I don't think she's a starter, especially up there with Heidama because they're very similar players in the fact that they're both not the fastest, they're both, I would say that King's probably more creative than Heidama, but
00:15:43
Speaker
in the same vein, there's just not a lot of movement up top when the two of them are in. It's very stagnant. So you switch King out for Latzko and you start seeing Latzko do what she does and just absolutely destroy the back line, making those runs through, pulling defenders away.
00:15:59
Speaker
And that changes everything that changes everything. I mean, within that, um, I don't know if it was before or after that, but there was that good through ball in from G to, uh, Oh, it must've been before that. Cause it was getting, but G to fish lock and the fish lock. Hadn't opened like pretty much a great shot. Yeah. And then laid it off the King and King just hit it straight at the goalkeeper. And it's like, we can't keep doing that.
00:16:23
Speaker
To be fair, Fishlock probably should have taken an extra touch. Fishlock should have shot the fucking ball. She either should have shot the ball right away or she should have taken an extra touch and then tried to draw Casey Murphy over a little bit more and then she could have passed it over to King because Murphy like basically didn't even have to move watching that replay like to make that save. I mean King could have shot it better for sure.
00:16:44
Speaker
Yeah, but I think that that just kind of solidified the choice to take King out and so Lotzko comes in and Lotzko just starts making moves and we start looking better when Lotzko comes in and then we get a couple debuts in the 75th minute. Yeah, I was getting fired up I was what seeing them like starting to warm up and then you know go over to the sideline and start to get ready and I was just like oh it's gonna happen and
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, so we had Montezier coming in in the 75th minute for AMC, who Anna Maria Sinogorchovich, we're calling her AMC now. And then Jalen Howell came in for Jess Fisher. Yeah. And Jalen Howell was one that I was like really looking forward to because what a whirlwind she's been on over the last nine days or something.
00:17:49
Speaker
Six days, something like that.
00:17:55
Speaker
No, and she comes in so her and Montesier come in and there was just a new energy I mean, how was like hyping up the crowd? Yeah So like two minutes after she comes in she gets the ball kind of top of the box and takes a shot and it goes wide Not super wide not far not super wide but she turns around and just like hits the badge and just Absolutely just starts pumping people up which they don't show on the broadcast apparently, but I saw it and I was like, oh shit She's been here for six days
00:18:25
Speaker
And this is how she's feeling i'm here for this Yeah, like I I am scared for other teams. That's the energy we've been missing Yeah, we miss we miss that attitude. Yeah, right We miss that attitude, you know brought that and fish luck has it, you know, but fish doesn't show it She doesn't not not lately not with us maybe with wales as much as we'd like um, but yeah, I think howl with her age and our
00:18:52
Speaker
the way that we went and got her. I mean, this could be somebody who sticks with us, hopefully for a very, very long time. Yeah. When you see that kind of energy and passion for the game, it's like you can't find that everywhere. I'm absolutely here for it. Yeah. I will. She might become my new person that I talk about on the podcast all the time.
00:19:12
Speaker
There are some cool stats that came after, uh, so in Susie Rance's article for Tundra heart and ride of Valkyries, uh, which you should go read because it's a great article.
Megan Rapinoe's Legacy
00:19:23
Speaker
Um, she does like little like stats for the game and like really fun stuff and eight of the reigns, 17 shots. So she says 47% came after the 75th minute when Jalen Howell and really amount to see her subbed into the match.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, Jaylen Howell's a monster. I said it at the live recording we did, but she's a monster. I knew it would be good. Yeah, we got to get through this so I can talk about her. But Adamas and Athens come in and we create chances. Monteserre is going through taking players on in the final third, embarrassing them. Embarrassing them.
00:19:57
Speaker
And that's not something we've seen. No, we've had none of that dynamic play at all on either side. None of that speed. Nope. So yeah, Adamas comes in for Heidema on 89th minute and I'm like, great, we give her a minute. And then it's all she needs. It's all she needs. It's all she needs. So they get eight minutes of extra time and 90 plus seven balls on the left hand side. Lasko puts a ball in Adamas. Beautiful, beautiful cross from Lasko.
00:20:26
Speaker
oh absolutely fantastic on a platter on a platter and Adamus puts it back where it came from which is what you should do because the goalkeeper is moving the opposite way to cover the cross and she puts it back and it looked to me and watching the replay that Casey Murphy thought it might have been going out yeah and so she kind of just let it
00:20:46
Speaker
She was still trying to get there, but in the worst way. She had it covered. It was like the weirdest thing. She had it covered, but her momentum was going backwards. So the ball hits off the like it hits off the post and then hits off her and goes in. Yeah. But Adam is rightly fucking so owned it.
00:21:04
Speaker
owned it, absolutely owned it, and ran to the southeast side of the stadium and does the Megan Rapinoe Arms Open Celebration at 18 years old. This woman knows her moment. Which I'm sure if you're if you listen to her podcast, you've seen the photo, but the photo of Adam is when she's like a child.
00:21:24
Speaker
with Megan Rapinoe, it's just, it's, those are the kinds of stories that you just like, I don't know how, you can't, you can't imagine, you can't even imagine those in your wildest dreams, just that picture and seeing Adamas where she's at, but then seeing her score, which she did score, she scored the game winner in Megan Rapinoe's retirement, like jersey retirement match, like that is like the coolest fucking- And to do her celebration in front of her, that is like the coolest thing anyone could ever do.
00:21:52
Speaker
And then after the match, she had a quote, and it's like the coolest fucking thing. They were asking, what was the question? So in the press conference after the game, Adamas and Fishlock were the players interviewed, and they asked her on the game-winning goal if she'd been able to come down from the excitement.
00:22:13
Speaker
And she says, not really. My friend in the locker room, I was like, I think I'm going to throw up. Like, I'm so excited. I have so much adrenaline right now. And then when everyone was running up to me after the game, I thought I was going to wake up and be in my bed. I actually thought I was dreaming. It's it's endearing. It's so I mean, that's an incredible quote. And she's 18.
00:22:35
Speaker
Oh, that's like, I get goosebumps thinking about that moment for her. Because just like between that and seeing the picture, it's just like, holy shit, what a day for her. Yeah, I it was incredible. Yeah, it's like we've been waiting for when this happened in the most dramatic fashion we could have ever imagined on a dramatic day. Yeah.
00:22:55
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you're celebrating the greatest player your club's ever seen. Greatest player clubs ever seeing and potentially the greatest player this country's ever seen for the national team. Greatest advocate for for women and women's sports and humanity in general. Yeah. Yeah. And to be 18 years old and recognize your moment and do that after you scored, it blows my mind. Yeah, absolutely blows my mind. So like hats off to you, Adamas, like shit. I am twice your age.
00:23:25
Speaker
And I don't think that I would have been able to do that. Did you see the like the banner that was like in front of the stands there too afterwards while that was happening? It said like the banner in front of Adam is on the stand said changer of games. So Adam is comes in, changes the game and the banner that says changer of games had like Rapinoe's picture on it with the pose. I got to take my glasses off because I'm crying. You're so emotional about it. I have certain tear up a little bit.
00:23:52
Speaker
No, it's just it's incredible. Yeah. No, I was right. I was hearing up about it a little bit. It's just like so fucking cool It's like this is why we follow sports Yeah, I mean for all the months of heartache and frustration like we get a moment. That's what we live for, you know Yeah, cuz we were at the the center hurt, you know anniversary party and we were just going around moping around a little bit
00:24:14
Speaker
I mean, it was hard not to. And I think that too, I will give us credit for that. So when we were at the Sonderhart anniversary party, Jeremiah had us do like a little bit of a live podcast stint in front of the audience. Yeah. And we did talk about like, you know, it's a, it's a new, new leaf for the team. Sure. And we're getting some new signings. Uh, we're talked about being excited for the players that we're bringing in. Mm-hmm.
00:24:39
Speaker
And just to like kind of like hold some space for like to have some positivity and to be excited about the team. Yeah, I would say that there's I think that comes from knowing that like I don't think this organization is content at all. Like they're they're as disappointed as we are about the results. Well, I think that too, like we've shown that and not really questioning Laura Harvey at this point. Yeah, which I know a lot of people maybe don't feel that same way, but
Game Strategy and Player Contributions
00:25:08
Speaker
Which is fine, I think in other circumstances, in other histories, you might question the coach, but when your coach has led you to so much success, and then you went away for a while, and then created something really not good, and then you bring her back.
00:25:26
Speaker
Like there's some grace there, but also I think that there, you know, that these players that we've been following for the longest time, you know, this coach that we've been following for the longest time are not content. No, there was an article with the Seattle times, uh, interviewing Rapido and they asked her like, is she surprised about where the rain are on the standings now? And she pointed out like not really because of where the clubs kind of been.
00:25:54
Speaker
been like the last two years, two, three years, or even since like the Leon group took ownership because we kind of just been in, she said in a place where ownership maybe didn't want to go out and spend money. And then not only that, but then when they did want to sell the club, it took so freaking long to happen. And so the players mentally have kind of just been holding on. And I think that this is maybe kind of what we're seeing the like the effects of that when we, when we aren't getting these good results.
00:26:24
Speaker
And now that the sale is through and things can start to finally maybe change on things like getting players acquisitions extensions whatever Trades we're starting to see that finally happen in a meaningful way I would say and I think that will maybe kind of turn things but it's not going to be an overnight thing and
00:26:43
Speaker
No, but I think that it was I think that we are right to bring some Optimism into this match. Yeah, I know we were a little Hesitant about signing an older player in cineg orchovich, right? Yep, cuz you're like gosh, she's 33. She played for Barcelona She probably like any career she played for thorns for a minute. Whatever but
00:27:03
Speaker
Think that you kind of see the Laura Harvey effect in these players. Mm-hmm. You've got howl Immediately within two minutes of entering the game owning the fact that like she's proud to play for the club Oh, yeah, you've got Montesier coming in and being confident enough to take on players. Yep I mean, that's a testament to the entire coaching staff. Yep You got an 18 year old out there and trying crazy stuff that and then you've also got Jordan bug with her first league star Yeah
00:27:32
Speaker
she was so good so i think that yeah i i really like the summer signings that we made we might have not made like one big flashy signing but i think that they were really solid signings and you know i i will give credit for that yep because
00:27:52
Speaker
All in all, I think that you might not have had like an all time winning solution in one player, but you kind of like not great at math. So I don't know how to like form it into a solution, but like it's not like one huge signing that's going to come in and score all your goals.
00:28:08
Speaker
No, it's players that are filling gaps. It's players that are elevating positions where you haven't been successful recently. Yeah. And I think that all in all, it might help the solution in general. Yeah. We should probably take a quick break and then we'll get into positive negatives and anything else we want to cover from the match. Let's do it. We'll be right back.
00:28:39
Speaker
The Cooler Guild is brought to you by the doctor's office, a great little 12 seat bar on Capitol Hill.
Sponsorship and Celebrations
00:28:44
Speaker
The owner is big fan of the rain and is proud to be our first sponsor. The doctor's office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match. Go celebrate Rapinoe's Jersey retirement over a long story short, a cocktail gin passion fruit in two ways done in a way that drinks like a martini on vacation. Sounds so good.
00:29:03
Speaker
Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle, or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers.
00:29:16
Speaker
We're back. We're back. We did it. Rain won a match. Positive number one. Positive number one. So I did the, I put it into Google and I was like, how many days between this day and that day? It's been 115 days since the rain won a league match. That's bad, but it's good. Now we're past it. So thank God. Thank God. Three months and 23 days. Yeah. May, what was it? May, May the third.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah. And we're talking about it before the game. We're like, Oh God, why has it got to be North Carolina when we do this game? Oh yeah. Because this is not promising at all. We're so bad against them. Yeah. So the all time record now, after we won this one game, we're at four wins, 11 losses and three draws. That's so bad.
00:30:05
Speaker
So yeah, it was a thing.
Promising Young Players
00:30:08
Speaker
Yeah, which I guess to me that's just like, thank God we didn't give up a goal. Yeah. I mean, and there were some nervey moments. Oh yeah, for sure. But I was like, I felt like if we got in that, if we got in the negative and had to like come back, I wasn't super confident we'd be able to do that against North Carolina knowing what our history is. Well, I would have hoped that we would have subbed sooner if that had happened. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:30:29
Speaker
But I do think that McLaren and bug absolutely positives for me in the second half when they didn't have Quinn dropping back in and just kind of held that for back. Yeah. Bug bug is incredible players. She's like that. That is an 18 year old. Like we got two 18 year olds that I will absolutely stay in a soccer players like get it. I can only imagine how how it is to be that good at that age.
00:30:55
Speaker
Bug kind of reminds me of Tina Davidson a little bit. Just like calm presence. I see that. Also with the bun though, she looks like a lot of cook. Yeah, a little bit.
00:31:06
Speaker
It was hilarious, my like seatmates around me, you know, I was making comments and stuff. And I was only with like Alex, my wife. And so I didn't know anybody else like right next to me. I just like kept saying, how does it feel to get sauced by an 18 year old? And then like the person around me turned around. I keep laughing every time you say she's getting sauced or she's saucing people. And I was like,
00:31:25
Speaker
they're like I'm gonna I'm gonna start using that and I was like okay do whatever you need to do but she I mean she was humiliating players on North Carolina and I was just like an 18 year old doing that to you is just like so sweet for us yeah I think that like she we've talked about this in the last couple episodes since she's been playing in the summer cup that she's the real deal yeah
00:31:46
Speaker
She really is. I mean, that's a player that I can't think of anyone else that I would rather have back there right now, which is kind of terrifying since she's 18. And she's going to be gone soon for the Club World Cup or the not the Club World Cup. I'm an idiot, Miss Anderson.
00:32:02
Speaker
The 20 World Cup. Yeah, the real one She's she's like you watch her and then it's immediate starter Yeah, which is like we lost we lost cook and I was like she wasn't playing well So I just might be shaky back there for a while Maybe not know and you can see it when you like when you watch it and just see how she moves Mm-hmm and adjust herself to the play so smart and it's terrifying to think that a player like that's only gonna get better Yeah
00:32:27
Speaker
Yeah, I'm I'm very excited for her future and she's locked in for a minute. So yeah, they didn't really take that option to that she had. Yeah. So it was like there was an option that if she played or she appeared in one game that had extended the contract to like 2026 or 27 or something will be we'll be we'll be good back there for a while.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think Jordan Buck's good. I think McLaren and McLaren and absolutely killed this game. Her speed's notable. It doesn't look like she's fast, but there was one time in the second half where somebody put a through ball and it felt like the player was offside. It didn't matter because she absolutely tracked back and caught up with the player and was able to shield the ball out. And I was like, OK, Phoebe. Yeah, that was something I wanted to bring up and I already brought it up in the summary. But in Susie's article, one of her notable stats was
00:33:16
Speaker
that we held Carolina to four shots, which is North Carolina's like season low of shots. So that's like, I mean, that's a testament to both of those players back there. Yeah. They did such a good job. No complaints at all for that. And I think it's easy to be a little critical about the bad moments that they had. But at the end of the day, all that matters is that you get the clean sheet and they did. Yeah. So I think we've talked about like most of the positives.
00:33:45
Speaker
Well, I wanted to say a real positive is we're not last place still. We're not even last place. We're not even second, second to last place. We're third, last place. Because I think going into the match, we were still last place if we didn't pick up any points. Right. Yeah. But now we've jumped and we're above. Houston can join below our ranks.
00:34:09
Speaker
They'll start following, following below us as we keep racking up these three points. But yeah, I just, we have to, we have to remember we're not last.
00:34:18
Speaker
I think we can kind of slide past the negatives. I mean, we've talked about a lot of them. Really what I wrote is like pretty much the first half when Quinn was having to slide in the center back and then like we were missing numbers in the middle. Yeah, because there was a point where Quinn was shifted a little bit higher up near the end and that was working for me. Near the end of what? Near the end of the second half.
00:34:41
Speaker
Well, yeah, that was working for everyone. We scored. I know. But I'm just like, why are we not? I mean, I don't know. I guess our center back situation and defense, we're still trying to trying to figure out the right pieces with. Well, I think it was it had to go with Laura Harvey's press conference after the game talking about playing Shae Holmes further up on the side. And I think that that she thought that that's what had to happen to get Shae Holmes further up the field was that you had to slide somebody back in to make up for the fact that like you didn't want to go into a three back.
00:35:11
Speaker
Yeah, which I I think that there's like a lack of confidence there because I think we could play three back with me I think I think as long as bug is there that's what I'm saying But bug isn't gonna bug isn't gonna be here for a little bit, right? But I'm talking about within within the last game sure So
00:35:27
Speaker
but i mean you're playing new players it is what it is but yeah that that for me i saw that and like nothing was coming from it and then i like was analyzing like okay what's going through the midfield and there wasn't a lot and you're like oh because there's no numbers in there because quinn's fucking sliding out and everything's going to the side and then we're just getting crosses that are going nowhere yeah what i mean
00:35:48
Speaker
maybe that was part of the game plan though right because well i mean it was obviously a part of the game plan but i think it's working yeah but i think the idea was always like we're going to be a little more conservative because we're playing north carolina
00:35:59
Speaker
right but i'm saying it doesn't help anyone on the field it didn't look good right and so harvey recognized it in the second half and changed it we also shot the ball at the goalkeeper like three times in like point blank situations this is what i'm saying we gotta stop we gotta do something different
00:36:19
Speaker
I mean, I do see it all the time in like soccer everywhere. So this isn't like Not frustrating, you know, yeah, well, it's I mean, yeah No, it's super frustrated especially when like, I don't know just slow things down. Maybe a little bit be patient with it Right because that's all that's all they do. They're a little too patient sometimes all the time and then they force the ball into the final third It's like you make three passes you go short short and then your long balls like terrible
00:36:45
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm not happy with a lot of things. We could be so good. Stop doing this. I mean, it's it's hard to be upset because you won the game. But we're in a bad we're like the only way we're going to get out of this hole is if we're doing things we can't just look OK. We need to look good. We want to get out of this hole.
00:37:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think moving forward, I'm really glad that like our new players got time and made a point to showcase themselves. And I think Laura Harvey is going to have some really hard decisions to make when it comes to the next starting lineup because I think that AMC should start. I think Montesier should start and Montesier came in for AMC. I think that Howell should definitely start and Howell came in for Jess Fishlog.
00:37:31
Speaker
I want to see a dumbest start, obviously. Well, Thomas is going to be at the next. I know. I know. OK, but I still.
00:37:38
Speaker
It was a huge start, because she didn't start again. And I'm sure they were conserving her, because she's got the World Cup. We already thought she was gone. Yeah, we did. We both already thought she was gone. We didn't realize we had one game with her, because I was like, oh, Adamus isn't starting, so I guess she's gone. I just didn't click to me. Because we were all busy. We didn't get a look at the lineups like I normally do, and see the subs or anything. So we were just flying with the vibes of the game. And so I just thought Adamus was just gone already. And it turns out, no.
00:38:07
Speaker
And turns out, again, we're going to do a super, super late sub for probably one of your most promising players for the future. Yeah. Like really turns it up whenever she gets a moment. So she at least she got her moment. So she made her moment. She she did make her moment. Yeah. I mean, I I don't want to talk about Dickey again. We can cross that bridge when it comes to her decision making. But for now, I'll leave it be. I mean, I will. Listen, I'm not trying to be like the Claudia Dickey defender.
00:38:36
Speaker
I did go pull up some stats just to like make- Stats are not like a big thing in goalkeeping. I know, but let's bring up the stat I have, okay? Right? Let's just do it just for entertainment purposes. Is this the one you already talked about? Well, but let's just talk about who's number one worst in goals conceded. Who didn't even have that many. This is like per 90, right? But the number one worst goalkeeper that's played this year is Laurel Ivory. In the league. In the league, per 90.
00:39:05
Speaker
For 90 and goals again, but she had a good chunk of games and then we've got Claudia Dickey 13th out of 15 and the 15 the two below her they're tied and Your favorite goalkeeper is one of those right below her. It's my favorite goalkeeper on Katrin burger Oh, yeah, but she's like her stats are like almost right there with an Katrin burger for goals Conceded per 90 like they're almost identical. What do you think? Oh
00:39:34
Speaker
I'm just saying I don't I think I think she has the potential to keep this job. That's for sure. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I mean, I don't we don't have any other prospects. So like, of course, which Laurel will be a free agent after this year. I think that my critiques on Dickey are because I know she can be better.
00:39:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's not necessarily that I don't think she's good or promising. It's I want her to be better because I think she has the she has the ability to grow. And your stats as a goalkeeper, you're only as good as the people in front of you. As long as you're not as long as you're not like missing catches or doing anything like that. You're really only good as good as the people in front of you.
00:40:12
Speaker
She does one thing that's really, really great about Claudia Dickey is she gets the ball out of the air like nobody else. She will come out and doesn't punch the ball away, just catches the ball out of the air. It's a basketball player in her. Mm hmm. Yep. So, yeah, I mean, I critique it, but that's because, like, you don't need to do those things. You can learn to fix that. Yeah.
Honoring Megan Rapinoe's Achievements
00:40:33
Speaker
She absolutely should. We can move on from her. I just wanted to. I don't know. I just think she's an interesting thing to talk about. That's all.
00:40:39
Speaker
No, and I think that, like, the things that she struggles with, like decision making of when to come out and not, are things that are fixable. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. And I think Lloyd Yaxley, the goalkeeper coach for the rain, I mean, obviously identifies those things too. She's only going to get better, and that's a huge positive for the rain. I'm just, I critique her in the match sense.
00:41:03
Speaker
Sure. Not as a whole player. We need to have a cooler player in the match. Cooler player in the match. We had discussed this and Van was like, are you sure that's who should be? And I was like, yeah. Well, I texted you. I texted you in like the 85th minute or something. And I was like, Megan Rapinoe is our cooler player in the match, right? Yeah, obviously.
00:41:22
Speaker
And that still stands even with Adamus scoring because Adamus goal celebration and the picture of her as a child. This moment may have never happened without Megan Rapinoe. Exactly. So it's Megan Rapinoe. Welcome to also this is maybe our one moment to get Rapinoe into her core.
00:41:40
Speaker
They are all fame. Yeah, it is well deserved. I think in this instance, I think it is very much deserved and makes sense. So yeah, I mean, she, whether it's like the butterfly effect or whatever, absolutely created this moment for sure. And I don't think it's butterfly effect because those are very real impact that she had on the club. Yeah. And obviously a huge impact to an 18 year old.
00:42:04
Speaker
Mean like impact on the club. Yes. Also just impact on like anyone who's a like soccer fan in this country who watches the US national team Yeah, I could do an entire episode about Megan Rapinoe and what she means we could we could do that Why not we could bring on some Megan Rapinoe. Where are you at? You want to come on?
00:42:24
Speaker
If anyone's got a contact, let us know. You used to be my neighbor in Seward Park. Do you want to come talk? We've bro hugged before, you and me. We can set up a little event if you want. We can do it. No problem. We got a really cool bar we're partnered with. You can meet us there. Yeah. So anyways, congratulations. We're going to talk about her in a second again. Congratulations to Megan Rapinoe. You are now officially in the Cooler Guilds Cooler Player of the Match Hall of Fame.
00:42:51
Speaker
Welcome. We're honored to have you. We are. Um, so I said, we're gonna talk more about Rapinoe and it's because this match was a huge celebration for probably the greatest player we'll ever seen play in Seattle, um, for the rain. And she had her number retired, her jersey number retired with the rain. There is not a number in the rafters, which I did some, a little bit of research and by research I met, I,
00:43:17
Speaker
I went into the slack of for a sadder heart and roblox and just asked if anyone had heard about because I know that the sounders don't have every banner up in the rafters that they have of some stuff. And then the rain don't have any of their accomplishments and trophies up in the rafters either. They're apparently cost anywhere from 60 K like $60,000 to like low six figures put up. Yeah.
00:43:43
Speaker
A lot of money. But hopefully they figure out something for her. I think they got like an LED screen that they're going to put her up on. Well, that's what they did for the game. But I mean, so the attendance, the official attendance number was 16,590, which was the second highest standalone regular season attendance in club history. And people were in the seats for this, too.
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah, they did. So the celebration apparently was supposed to happen. The game started at seven. Celebration was supposed to start at like seven or six thirty. Yeah. Yeah. And it started a little late, which is probably good because there's so many people and they don't open all the entrances for Lumen for for the rain games. So it took took a minute for people to get in. But they had a full like display. They had a whole kind of.
00:44:34
Speaker
not necessarily i wouldn't call it a tifo it was when it was like it was like a crowd display they called it a stunt oh okay yeah but there were these like uh like placards at your seat and so you held them up and so it spelt out and it spelt out like ryze the thing they've been doing for pinot and it yeah it was just really cool you can see when
00:44:57
Speaker
There's events for Rapinoe. The whole city kind of does start to gather for the events just because she is, what's the word? I mean, there's not one word you can use to describe Megan Rapinoe, but she's a legend, right? I think that's first and foremost is she's a legend both for the rain and just for, I don't know, being a human in general. So it's really cool to see, I think it's just like, we're so lucky that we got her here.
00:45:25
Speaker
And we got to give her the, I would say the recognition and stage that someone like her deserves for something like this. Because not everybody's playing in stadiums like Lumen. Because I feel like because of Lumen's size and everything like that, it really did just make it feel that much bigger.
00:45:43
Speaker
because they started it off first of all they started it off with these like uh what was it this like this female skydiving team what was it yeah there's like an all-female skydiving team and they did one event before so they like i remember they came into one rain game but they were flying in and they landed in the stadium and then the last person to fly in has this like the rise flag the megan rapino flag under them and is like
00:46:10
Speaker
rolling around landing on the field which there's like these wires you know going across for cameras and that's what i was saying i was like so worried about them hitting the wires but they they nailed it they knew i mean they clearly rehearsed this obviously but like man they nailed that that was so freaking cool and to know that they were like women too just like adds to that like rapino was not going to do that unless it's you know people who reflect her you know are doing something like that
00:46:35
Speaker
Well, and I don't think the club, I think that the, all credit to the club and everything, like they know exactly what she represents. They know exactly what she stands for. They know exactly what she's going to say, whether it be controversial or not, you know, when she gets up there to have her talk, but the event needed to be a representation of her. And I think they did a really good job of that. Yeah. They, uh, which we didn't get to see it on ESPN, but apparently the F bomb did get dropped live. Yeah.
00:47:04
Speaker
I had seen people, and this is an opinion I've always held, I'm a little on the fence about jersey numbers being retired in general. But for me, Rapinoe is the exception that this is what the level it should be for you to have your jersey retired. And as much as I love Lou Barnes and Jess Fishlock and everything that they've done for the club,
00:47:27
Speaker
I think maybe this should be the only player we ever have their number retired for. And then beyond that, we can have some sort of ring of honor like we have for other teams in the city. And then we can put the Blue Barns and the Jess Fishlocks in that. But there is no arguing that there will never be somebody like Meghan Rapinoe. Right.
00:47:48
Speaker
Um, and there shouldn't have to be I think that's the other argument that can be made like she stood up for things that weren't popular um, but she believed in and it Like she was such a great player that it didn't matter Yeah, it's so like we can always talk about Like we could go on for the leaking. Yeah, we could go on for this forever so we should cut it off um, but like it's so easy to talk about all these things she's done off the field that like
00:48:16
Speaker
Sometimes we don't give her enough credit for how fucking good she was as a player. Right. Because like, I mean, I feel like I feel like I do. And I understand that because she wouldn't be. She wouldn't have the power in this way that she does if she wasn't such a good player. For sure. For sure. I agree with you that for now, if we're going to retire numbers, Megan Rapinoe is the only one I would consider. Yep.
00:48:39
Speaker
And her number's just so iconic. Yeah. You can't, I mean, you can't, people are saying like fish luck. You can't retire a 10 in soccer. You can't. No. You can't retire 10. I don't think you can even retire Barnes's number. I would say this retirement thing specifically bothers me in soccer because I just, it's not a thing historically for the game. No, I mean, it's very American. Yeah. And sometimes we don't need to be doing that for everything, but we're gonna, you know, I'll give it for that.
00:49:06
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think this is a this is the exception. It's not the rule. Yeah. And she said a different precedent than the rest of our lifers do. Mm hmm. Just because of her entire impact. Yeah. So we got that. We can honor them in other ways. For sure. Yeah. Give them a stake. Have them into ownership. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still still waiting for that for Pino.
00:49:32
Speaker
But yeah, Pino speech. I was really hoping that she would announce that she's like buying a steak in the club, but that didn't happen. What she said was like pretty fucking great. It was like very on brand for her. I mean, she said talking about her experience, you know, in her time at the rain.
00:49:49
Speaker
and in her retirement, know that every time I look at that number, I'm going to see you. I'm going to see every pride flag and every trans flag and every Black Lives Matter flag and every equal pay flag and every fuck Portland flag. It's perfect. It's iconic. It's perfect. It's totally Pino. I couldn't stand someone more. Yeah, I. Oh, she's the best. It's like I'm starting to feel like emotional right now. Yeah. I also just love that she says fuck Portland when she went to fuck.
00:50:19
Speaker
You do you pee? Yeah. But yeah, I think I think the celebration was very much sufficient. It was well done. And it was well done. And I'm so happy that people showed up. Yeah. You know, people showed up. People showed out. There was a lot of energy in the crowd. I was sitting in front of a team of like eight year olds. That's your favorite. Who did not stop screaming.
00:50:49
Speaker
That's your dream. Absolute dream. Megan and I were just sitting there listening to their gossip. It was funny. My mom, my mom brought wine. Their gossip is about their mom getting wasted.
00:51:14
Speaker
That's great. Yeah, I don't know much more. We need to add on to that. We can talk about another time. If you guys want to hear, if anybody listening wants to hear us talk about the impact that Megan or Pino has had on us as people on the community and want to have us have us have people on to talk about it, we will happily do that. But we can't cover that in 20 minutes of talking about her. Yeah. So thank you, Pino. I love you. We'll always love you.
00:51:42
Speaker
uh moving on the other event that happened that we kind of briefly touched on we finally got a pretty cool famous person tied to our club and that is none other than brandy carlisle who you love
Brandi Carlisle and Community Initiatives
00:51:57
Speaker
Yeah, I definitely, I wouldn't say I love her, but my wife loves her. And also a big part of our relationship started with this very hilarious story, which I will tell in another time, about Brandi Carlisle. Since she's local to Washington, I did have a run in with her a few times at a certain hardware store I used to work at.
00:52:15
Speaker
But yeah, her, her wife and their foundation, um, had like a little get together, uh, before match. And it sounds like they've kind of got some cool things planned, which if you know anything about the rave foundation, they kind of help fund like soccer fields and try to get like the youth involved more with. I don't know, just getting into the sport and everything. Um, I went and looked it up and kind of, cause we,
00:52:39
Speaker
We were a little late. We didn't get to hear the full speech because I wanted some tacos. Priorities sometimes. But yeah, they were really good. But we did kind of catch the end of it. I went to look it up just to clarify things. They're planning their commitments with.
00:52:55
Speaker
the rain and stuff. They are trying to affirm their goals and commitments are affirming LGBTQIA plus rights, furthering play equality and access to the sport of soccer and asserting and supporting the power of women and gender diverse people. It's such a
00:53:10
Speaker
Contrast to like maybe what we had heard about a certain owner at a different club When some things had surfaced, but it's it's you know when you have a when you have a club with a player Specifically like Quinn on on our team you want to get like some validation that we are looking out for all sorts of communities that kind of fall under things that are maybe being attacked by a
00:53:34
Speaker
Well, and they did that with the kids gender diverse soccer game that they put on. Shout out Paula Rothrock for being an absolute absolute gem at that camp. He looks so precious. Yeah, it seems like the club is very willing, able and open to be a part of that conversation and a part of that kind of message.
00:53:58
Speaker
that soccer is for everyone. Yeah. And it's not. I mean, we see the post, right? Even over just somebody like Megan or Pino as welcoming as the city of Seattle is. That's not the case everywhere. And it's I think it's important to fight and make sure that we're like reaffirming our stances on supporting all these communities.
00:54:16
Speaker
Yeah. And I think it hits even a little bit harder because of the Sounders sponsor of Providence and, you know, their Catholic stance on abortion and gender-affirming care. There's a different conversation about the dichotomy with that, but at the same time, I'm glad that our women's team is furthering that message and really promoting it. Yeah. Because I think that's something that, you know, that should be part of Pino's legacy and that should be part of the organization moving forward.
Event Success and Break
00:54:46
Speaker
Yeah, I couldn't have, I think this partnership with the looking out foundation couldn't have happened at a better time. You think that was an accident? No, obviously not. No. Because we had seen, we had seen Brandy Carlisle at a game a few months ago. It was a game which was not a good game because I remember we joked about like Brandy Carlisle's never coming back to another game again. But we got a really good show for her this time. So I'm like pumped about that. And I'm hoping to see her at more games. Maybe one day she'll sing at one of them.
00:55:13
Speaker
But it was it was it was a really cool event. I don't know. Just seeing the energy. The energy just felt so good everywhere around the stadium, especially that event. I just I don't know. There's something about rain games that just like feel I don't know special. You knew that like people were excited to be there, which has been hard this season. Yeah.
00:55:32
Speaker
It's also hard to hold a retirement event for somebody when your team is in last place. Yeah. So I think the whole night, the whole event, I don't think it could have gone any better for the club. Yeah. Hats off to everybody involved. What a night. We were super lucky to be there. Little side note I wanted to throw out there. Evangeline, Katherine, and Brandi's daughter, their oldest daughter, she wore a... You saw her suit that she had? She had a suit on. I think she had a Rangers unit, right? Mm-hmm.
00:55:58
Speaker
She looks so precious, but I saw some pictures after the game that one of our photographers from Sounder at Heart took. And Fishlock gave her jersey to Evangeline. And Evangeline, if you go find the clip of the goal that Adam has scored in the background on the south end, if Brandy and her family are all there. And Evangeline is like, I'm so stoked to see a celebrity's kid just get so excited for our team.
00:56:27
Speaker
You love an EPPO baby. What? Yeah. I love an EPPO baby. I also like want to make sure that our team like gives that joy to somebody like that because like this, you know, like, like you've said, we have not had a good season. We have not been playing well. So like it would have sucked if it just ended zero zero and we didn't give them something to be like super excited about. And I think that's just going to like pump the energy into like that family being excited and hopefully kind of keep, keep them in touch and maybe come to more games and everything and all that.
00:56:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think you can talk about that message throughout though. A lot of people came to this game, even though they may have been paying attention to the season, but like, all right, this is one we'll go to. They're not very good, but this is one we'll go to. And then you go to this game and it's enthralling in the second half of the show. I mean, like I said, the club couldn't ask for a better night. Yeah, the person who's next to me, she told me it was only her fourth, I believe it was her fourth soccer game she had ever been to.
00:57:22
Speaker
She's like, I'm always coming back. Yeah. So I was like giving her all these, you know, once she told me that, and she didn't know that much about team, I was kind of like giving her the insider or just like my deep obsession with the teams stats and info. And she was just like, this is so cool that you're telling me all this. I can't believe you know so much. And I'm just like, I run a podcast and this is like kind of all I focus on.
00:57:43
Speaker
But, yeah, she she went to that and there's no doubt she walked away from that as well. Like she's going to be back. Yeah, these are important moments for the club. And I hope we look back on this and see it as a turning point within this season and the next season. Quick break. Let's do it. We'll be right back. Thank you for listening to the Sound Rit Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sonietes, Lobbing Scorchers and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023,
00:58:12
Speaker
but need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible by your continued support.
00:58:20
Speaker
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00:58:49
Speaker
Thanks for listening. All right, I think we got to talk about how we got Jalen Howell.
Analyzing Trades and Future Prospects
00:58:58
Speaker
The controversial you're about to hear from us, I think. Yeah. So, I mean, if you've been listening to the podcast, you know that we knew there needed to be changes on the front line, forwards. Big changes in the sense that probably someone needed to get traded. And we talked about it possibly being Bethany Balser.
00:59:14
Speaker
And I was surprised at the trade. Sounds like the players may have been too, which is not great, but the CBA has changed since coming into next season. But it sounded to me that Bethany Balser had been in talks with the club to find a different place to play in the offseason last season.
00:59:37
Speaker
So it wasn't super out of nowhere. But at the same time, you trade Bethany Balser, who's a sometime starter from the rain. I know her goal scoring is not good, but she was our leading goal scorer for the season. Yeah, we're not good. But you trade her for the captain of Louisville. And I was like, OK, Balser's gone. I mean, she wasn't doing a whole lot. She missed a bunch of big chances. But then we get a player and money. 50K, which is kind of a lot in the end of so.
01:00:05
Speaker
Yeah, we get Jalen Howell and $50,000. What drugs was Louisville smoking? I feel like we fleeced somebody. I have 100% feel like we got away with something. But like listening to the press conference, so I went to the press conference on Zoom where Balser was talking for the first time with... Yannis. Bev Yannis, yeah. And I heard that you could hear the reporters talking in the background and they're like amping up her stats, amping up Balser's stats and all this stuff. And I'm just like, have you not watched the season?
01:00:33
Speaker
And maybe she can get back into form at Louisville. Maybe. That's how you get a player like that though, right? You don't get them at their peak. We're not giving up a player like that at their peak. So I think the hope is they get back to like those good steps that you've had. Yeah, it's really similar in the cook situation with this where the player has been with the club for a long time.
01:00:51
Speaker
The club values them, the club values them in the fandom. And Balser even more so because, you know, she's been really public about her mental health struggles, which has been something that not a lot of people in professional sports are open about. So that's really, really impactful and great. But at the same time, if you're us and you want to win games, that's not really a player that is helping you currently win games. Letting her go and maybe helping her further her progression as a player is the best thing to do.
01:01:21
Speaker
Yeah. And Jalen Howell? I mean, our midfield's been shit. So like, you know, when someone, an offer like that pops up, I don't know what the situation was and how her name got brought up or whatever, but man, I, again, I feel like we, we really like got away with something. I feel like it's somebody like really wanting like boardwalk and I want the fourth railroad and I'm absolutely going to fleece them in Monopoly.
01:01:48
Speaker
I mean, that's not to say that like, like ballsters wear some money, a hundred percent. Like you can't get rid of her for nothing, obviously. Yeah. But I just think the player that we got in the trade was like way better than I thought it would be. Well, and Balser did get an assist in their game on Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. So she's putting in work for them. So this could likely be a win-win. This could likely be a win-win for both teams.
01:02:11
Speaker
And that's kind of what you want as like a women's sports fan, as long as it's not against your team, because you care about the athletes. It's not just a business transaction for women's sports fans, right? Yeah. You're losing somebody that you paid a lot of attention to for years and somebody that came, you know, literally from the ground up, like the first NAI signing in Andy Bissell history who came on to become rookie of the year. Yeah. That's incredible. It's an incredible feat. She's a good player, but she just wasn't performing in our environment.
01:02:39
Speaker
No, and so hopefully she can perform for them. Yeah, but at the same time your captain. Yeah, we gotta look out for us and what a signing Yeah, she seems to be like just on some tear. She seems I mean she seems like I don't know. I feel like I don't know
01:02:54
Speaker
I don't know if there were conversations to her. I mean, when she's the captain of your team, I don't feel like there was conversations in the offseason about you potentially leaving, right? With Balser, those conversations had been there, so I don't know that she was totally shocked. Timing sucks for anybody, I would say, mid-season for her trade. So as much as maybe she had hoped this would happen in the offseason, it came early, whatever. But it doesn't seem like Howa had any clue that this was really gonna happen. I mean, she met with the team and then eventually was, like, obviously aware this was gonna happen, but she seems like she is, like, ready to just, like,
01:03:21
Speaker
make Louisville regret regret doing this. She seems on destroy mode. Yeah, I need it. This is like the energy. Her Montesier absolute like energy hounds like into it. I think I sent you I think I sent you a text when we first signed Montesier and I like went through her Instagram and I was like, oh, there's a vibe here.
01:03:41
Speaker
Yeah. There's a vibe here. I think I can feel it. And AMC. And AMC. And I'm just like... And then I saw it straight out on the field right away with Howell. So I feel like this energy has been lacking. I try to have that energy when you're real bad though. It is. It is. But I do think that sometimes we were kind of given this false sense of like how maybe how good or bad the team was because we got to the final last year.
01:04:07
Speaker
Because to me that felt like a result of us having Rose Lavelle and Emily Sonnet and Megan Rapinoe still playing well. It didn't feel like at times at least that if we didn't have those players, it seemed a little difficult and uninspired. And so I feel like these players are bringing that part back. Well, they don't have the weight of that history. Oh, absolutely.
01:04:31
Speaker
Yeah. And that is so encouraging as a fan. Yeah. To see them just absolutely bawling out. Just like, hey, we're here now. Yeah. And that's that's what we needed. It is what we needed. So I'm glad we didn't make just one signing. We needed
01:04:46
Speaker
more than one, you know, when we just got the one confirmed sending of Montezira, I was like, this is good, but we need more. And I also, when we signed Heidema, I was like, I don't know how this is going to work with Balser, because to me, it just, it didn't, it didn't really make a whole lot of sense as far as like what they both bring and what they're going to bring out of each other. It just seemed like a little too, I don't know if they were similar. It was a one to one.
01:05:08
Speaker
If you subbed one for the other one, it was a like for like sub. I just think that for me, somebody said...
01:05:17
Speaker
It might have been the Slack or the Discord. I can't remember maybe it was Twitter, but somebody said, oh, I wish we would have traded Heidema. That would be a mistake to me. I also want what you're smoking because like what? I know that Heidema's numbers aren't good for like what maybe we were sold on when we got her. But I don't know what you're getting sold on. I mean, she hadn't done much. She'd played for some good clubs. No, it was an investment. It's an investment. It's somebody that really wants you to be here. So you were saying that we might have been oversold on her. Yeah.
01:05:46
Speaker
Or that might have, that was a thought that came through, but she's young. And I mean, I guess I was saying she was an investment, right? So, yeah, I mean, she's like, what, 24 now? I think she's still 23. Or is she 24 now? I don't know. Maybe her birthday just happened. Let me look. She's 23. Okay. I mean, they don't have her birthday. Oh no, it's May 8th. Yeah. She just turned 23 in May. Okay. So I think that she's younger players. She's getting a lot of international time. She's getting goals. She's getting goals on the international level too.
01:06:11
Speaker
Yeah. So there's something to be said for that. And I really don't think in future investment terms that that's a like for like. Yeah. Because Ballstar is going to be a staple in the league. She's going to be a great player in the league, but that might be all you get out of her. Which is what some teams need, right? Because like no one's in his dire. That's why I think that's why I think Louisville is really excited to have her because they didn't have a player like that. No, they're not in as dire of a situation as we are.
01:06:36
Speaker
No, they could afford to give up their captain, apparently. But yeah, I really don't think that, like, as far as like the rain situation, the trade situation goes like you even have that conversation. But I don't know. Yeah, I don't think so either. I went and looked it up just to see kind of what I would say if you're looking if we have Balser and Heidem on the same team, those should be your top two goal scores. Right. So I went and looked at how many goals the top two goal scorers have for the top three teams just to see like how bad we are.
01:07:07
Speaker
Orlando, you know, personally right now, between their two top goal scorers, they've got 17. Washington Spirit, 15. And then we know Chawinga is over in KC, since she's just tearing it up. But they've got 18 goals. And then our two combined players are Bethany Balzer and Heinema with a total of eight. And five of those are Bethany Balzer, two of those goals.
01:07:31
Speaker
So that'd be six goals, which I didn't, you know, factor in the penalties for their teams or whatever. But I mean, for players that should be your obvious goal scores, that is not good enough. And in my opinion, it seemed like one of them, they have value, right? They have value. So one of them needed to be traded to improve this team in a different way.
01:07:48
Speaker
Yeah, I mean I think you can say in my opinion it's not good enough but no I think in everyone that watched soccer's opinion that's not good enough. I just know how people have been feeling about the Bethany Balzer trade and I also have been seeing how Bethany Balzer has been feeling about the trade but in my opinion this is why I'm saying in my opinion I think this was the right move and I have thought this for a while I think both of us have thought this for a while. We're two for two
01:08:13
Speaker
I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but we're two for two. Whenever I have brought up, I think we need to have a conversation and then we bring up a player. They get treated not long after. So we're two for two. I mean, these are conversations that we're already having. We are. But I think it's one of those situations where like we love these players and we wish they were doing better, but we suck. And these are maybe players we need to move on from. Yeah. And players that we want to do well. Yeah.
01:08:39
Speaker
because they have they wish the best for them because they're good they seem to be good people we don't know them personally but they seem to be good people and like they've played well for us so like the idea is like other teams know that and so then they'll pay us for them to get back to that level with their team because it could just be an environment switch right that's hopefully i think what most people wish yeah as long as they don't play well against us i'm good because no team wants our bad players
01:09:06
Speaker
That's just, you know, like you're going to have to, that's just sports. Yeah. But like, you're going to have to lose players that like you've grown to love and have like, watch them play well. Like that's just the reality of sports. And so to me, it was like, hook seemed like the first obvious one needed to go. And then Balser, it was like I said, it was between Heidema and Balser for me. And it just seemed like we, it didn't make sense to get rid of Heidema. I never, I never thought Heidema was on the job train. No, but Balser is just, I don't know, Balser's got value. That's, I think that tells you about what we think about her too is just like,
01:09:35
Speaker
I mean, she's got experience in the league. Like I get it. Yeah, she got an assist in the game. I'm not looking forward to playing her soon. The next game. Yeah. Like I think she's a very like a player that will want to come out and just like kind of like make us look stupid. Like she has an ability to her. I welcome that. But I also if I were her, I would be fucking terrified of Jalen Howell. Yeah.
01:09:58
Speaker
I think Jaylen Howell's got a little bit more fire in her from this trade. Hell yeah. I'm here for it. Yeah. I think now too, because of this trade, it gives Heidema maybe an opportunity to step up. She's going to have more responsibility, 100%. And I feel like maybe we haven't seen the development shift that we have hoped to see, but I think it's because we haven't really given her this responsibility when we've had Bethany Balser.
01:10:21
Speaker
Well, I think too, like the way that the attack has been playing hasn't really fed into her abilities, strengths. Yeah, totally. So if they've got speed with Montezir, they've got strength with Howl and AMC. I think that that gives Heidema a little bit more freedom to figure out her niche within the attack.
01:10:48
Speaker
I'm excited about it. Like I said, if it doesn't happen this year, I do think we're going to have a pretty good team next year. I do think we'll have a good push at the end here. It's just a matter of, uh, is it too little too late? I mean, probably, but I'm still, I still haven't bought my friend Rana beer that I bet him that we were going to make the playoffs beginning season, but we'll see.
01:11:09
Speaker
Uh, do you have any, uh, closing thoughts from the game? Closing thoughts. Um, it is going to be awful to lose Adamis for the, for the world cup and bug and bug. I think that's maybe the one that I was like, didn't really prepare myself for. Cause we.
01:11:24
Speaker
don't ever get to see much of Adamas, annoyingly, but I didn't expect Bug to just come on and look so freaking good. Yeah, it's hard to lose like a new kind of staple player, especially in your back line. Yeah. It'll be exciting to watch them. I knew that like I was forcing myself, you know, into the optimism train. I was happy. Here we are.
01:11:44
Speaker
Here we are. I was happy I did it. But seeing everything past the 75th minute of the last game really makes me hopeful for the next one. Yeah. So I'm for once excited to watch the team again. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see them against Louisville of all people to next.
01:12:04
Speaker
Yeah, so that's the next game. They're playing away. So that'll be 430 our time. Pacific Standard Time. Next Saturday, August 31st. The Bethany Balser. Next game for Union Badge. The Howell Balser Vengeance Games, right? I mean, that's what it is. It's a vengeance game for both of them. I'm here for it. So the last game, last time we played them, June 23rd, we tied 1-1. That was a game where we were up a player. Yeah.
01:12:31
Speaker
We are up a player for 81 plus minutes, and didn't we give up like a last minute goal or something? Is that what happened? Yeah, so Hidam has scored the penalty, I believe. She scored? No, she earned it. Did she score it too? I don't think she scored a penalty, because I didn't see her penalty stats on Thought Mob. She has a penalty. Okay, one second. Hold on, folks. This is why we don't do live recordings. She doesn't have any penalties. I think she earned it, and then Bethany took it.
01:12:57
Speaker
1-1 racing- Pulsar, yeah. Okay, yeah. And then they- And then they gave up the fucking tie angle on the 90 plus seven. Yeah, for sure. It'll be interesting. I'm here for this vengeance tour. It's about to happen.
U20 World Cup and Community Engagement
01:13:12
Speaker
But other than that, we're going to be able to watch Adamas and Bug.
01:13:16
Speaker
in the U20 Women's World Cup, that game, what? I was just gonna say, we found out it's on FS2, which is shocking, but great. I don't think it's shocking. I mean, it's shocking that they haven't really advertised it. Yeah, I guess that's what I'm saying. We had to dig into it a little bit, and then I was like, oh, it's on FS2? Why haven't we really heard about that?
01:13:35
Speaker
If you don't have the live soccer TV app, you should because it is a free ad. This is a free ad for them. 100% get it. It's good. Um, but that game's going to be on September 1st, which is a Monday, right? I think it's a Sunday, Sunday labor labor day. We can Sunday. We're going to be able to watch Jordan bug and Emory Adamas with the U 20 women's national team on FS2, September 1st, Sunday, September 1st at 1 PM.
01:14:02
Speaker
And it's also versus a Spain and they're you two, you 20 teams. So that should be good. That should be very good. Yeah. So everybody's true to that. Um, next week's episode, we're going to, I know there's kind of some movements and stuff going on with the free agency, but everything's going to play out and the extensions and everything like that. So we'll cover that next week. Cause we've already done enough for today. Special shout outs for the week.
01:14:25
Speaker
I said it once, but Steph hooked me up with those tickets for the event that Catherine Carlyle was running. But not only that, Steph gave me a bunch of tickets to give out at the Sounder at Heart anniversary event. So I was able to give away, what was it? Was it 40? 47. 47 tickets to people. And that's like really freaking cool for Sunday's game. Yeah. So thank you to Steph for that. That was great. Well, shout out, Dave.
01:14:52
Speaker
We have to shout out Dave Clark today. We're recording as the actual anniversary of Sounder Heart starting as a blog. So we would as an eight. Yeah, we I also don't think we would be here without Senator Hart even starting. No, I think that they.
01:15:08
Speaker
Satterheart has created such an environment for coverage of Seattle teams that the idea of having any sort of band podcast or, you know, being involved in any way other than like being a part of the team would really exist for people like us.
01:15:25
Speaker
Yeah, I would say a big part of my fandom came from the coverage of Sounder Art and Ride of the Valkyries. The game feed conversations. I live for those. Yeah. I've also connected with so many people over all this too, so it's just...
01:15:42
Speaker
Can't like credit Dave enough for just starting this thing and everybody who's been keeping it going But Dave definitely deserves his flowers today. Oh, yeah Congrats Dave. We appreciate you. I think it's gonna wrap us up right for the this episode Yeah, we only recorded for like two hours
01:16:01
Speaker
It's always so long. This one is a big one.
Episode Length Justification and Engagement Plans
01:16:03
Speaker
Rapinoe deserves it. Yeah, Pinoe deserves it. And the wind, and the wind deserves it. Yeah. I mean, it's been 155 days. Jesus. It's been 84 years. It's been 84 years.
01:16:15
Speaker
Did you put that as the end of one of the podcasts? I think so. If you don't listen to the full end, there's usually a little Easter egg in there. As always, yeah, you can follow us on Twitter. No, no, no. We got to start the new bit. You can follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter.
01:16:32
Speaker
at cooler guild pod or email us please email us we love emails the only emails we get are from google so email us at the cooler we got one from sign guy oh yeah shout out sign guy shout out sign guy uh you can email us at the cooler guild at gmail.com or find us at sounderheart at sounderheart.com forward slash the cooler guild
01:16:56
Speaker
Also, Van needs to upload the photos. We were going to start uploading some photos of some stuff for Instagram. Our Instagram is also at Cooler Guild Pod. Yeah, Coop was not happy with the Instagram, so I stopped doing that. I have an aesthetic. Coop has an aesthetic. I'm not designy, so I think we should post the one picture of us that they put on the Discord. I think we should post any event photos. I think we go to games together or whatever. I think we should post all that stuff on there. We didn't take any pictures the last game.
01:17:26
Speaker
Yeah, we did. I made you take a photo. Alex took it. Yeah, that's right. I forgot. I forgot. You never sent it to me. I thought you took it. It's on your phone. The photo's on your phone and I was looking for you to upload it because I was like, you should upload this to the Instagram.
01:17:41
Speaker
There are pictures of us. I wanted you to upload that and then the photos from the event to the photo that we have of us from the event from the center heart event. Which one? Yeah, you should start posting those kinds of photos and then we'll also put the screenshots from here on there. All right. Yeah, I could do that. Anyways, we're gonna wrap this up because Alex is making mushrooms, orange mushrooms. Till next time, I'm Coop. I'm Van. Stay cool. Let's get another one. Bye bye. Bye.
01:18:28
Speaker
one of these. It's like a fancy thing. So I get the glass out. Oh shit. God damn it. I should, I should open it, right? Should we wait? We should wait. Fuck. Strong start already.