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E-racing a Lead Late - Ep. 4
8 Plays4 months ago
Coop and Van discuss Reign's upsetting draw vs Racing Louisville in Seattle, preview the Reign's next match against Gotham, as well as a few other things including trade rumors for the Reign (both unfounded and founded) FC Olympia's USL-W team, and choices by a certain media company in the women's sports world.
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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 to Episode Four
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode four of The Cooler Guild. I am your host, Coop, and as usual, I am joined by my co-host, Van. Hello. We are recording on Tuesday, June 25th, 2024.
Rain's Draw Against Racing Louisville
00:00:32
Speaker
In today's episode, we'll be discussing the rain's frustrating draw from Sunday at Lumen, which we are both still very, very upset about. It put me in a bad mood the rest of the day. I just like stopped responding to your texts. I know. It's like I can't. I don't want to deal with this day anymore. Yeah.
00:00:48
Speaker
Okay, let's talk about the game here. So on Sunday afternoon, the rain took on Bev Yanez's racing Louisville for the first time this season, in front of the third highest standalone regular season attendance for the club. Despite scoring a penalty and being up a player for 81 plus minutes due to a straight red card for Louisville's Aaron Wright in the ninth minute, rain were unable to close out the match, conceding a goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time, finishing the game with a 1-1 draw.
Missed Chances in Gameplay
00:01:13
Speaker
It was heartbreaking.
00:01:15
Speaker
It was heartbreaking, but at the same time, the only goal we scored was a penalty. Yeah. Do you deserve your three points when that's your only goal? Because they also had a lot of shots and still weren't able to convert. Yeah, there are so many missed chances, missed opportunities, and Laura Harvey touched on it at the press conference, you know, talking about not being composed to just hold possession and keep moving the ball around and finding those moments to really break through. Because when you lose a player,
00:01:45
Speaker
As a team, when you lose a player, you go into like a defensive block almost. So it's harder to break down the defense because they're more, they're more confined, right?
Potential Team Changes and Transfers
00:01:55
Speaker
Yeah. So that's why it's like, uh, anytime you see, uh, like a power play in hockey or an indoor soccer, right? You sit. And so the other team has to move the ball, move the ball, move the puck, and then bam, you strike. And that's kind of what you need to do when you're playing in an, in a situation like that. And they just got too eager and kind of fell apart.
00:02:14
Speaker
Yeah. I'm like at a loss cause it's just like they can't, they can't afford stuff like this. You had a golden opportunity, right? You got that early red card, you got your penalty, which Bethany Balser like, you know, great penalty from her, but it is just like an inexcusable result to me, completely inexcusable.
00:02:31
Speaker
Yeah. Herbie in her post-match press conference, she talked about like what went wrong, right? It's the quality. They can't finish. They get shots. They get in the box. We had a lot of touches in the box, but that doesn't matter if you're not able to find the back of the net.
00:02:46
Speaker
No, it doesn't. And I just, she's right. Like they lack quality. And how do you get quality out of this group? You don't. After this long, I think you can come to the conclusion that maybe it's not possible or some, you know, something big needs to change. Yeah. That's, and that's, I think with our, like who's on the field. For sure. Bring someone new in, you know, the, the August transfer when it's going to happen and some tough decisions are going to need to be made. And we're going to have to probably say goodbye to some players that we've grown attached to. Yeah. But that's what, if they want to get results, I think that's what is maybe needed at this point.
Player Performances and Pride Match Highlights
00:03:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:16
Speaker
I think that it speaks for itself. Like when Laura Harvey was talking about, you know, the goal that Louisville scored and, you know, she said they worked on that exact situation two days before in practice. Yeah. And yet they couldn't execute. Yep. Same thing we've been hearing for weeks. Yeah. It's as a fan, it's very frustrating to have to like keep watching the same rap on the field week after week after week after week. Yeah. Even finding like things to highlight in this game where it's a little
00:03:46
Speaker
A little rough. The stats are there for stuff, but if you're not scoring, then what's the point? They're doing all of this work for nothing. It's not leading to anything super impressive. Yeah. Because this team at some points, this is when we had different players, higher quality players in our lineups like last year and the year before, we could find these games where we were scoring multiple goals and that's just gone away. Yeah.
00:04:13
Speaker
at least when we need it, right? Like they'll fight them back when we're down, but in a game like this, if we still had those, like if we still had Emily Sonniff, we still had Megan Rapinoe, if we still had Roosevelt, we're winning this game, no problem. Yeah, the problem, another problem we have is we're not going out and setting the tone for the game. We're waiting for the other team to set the tone and then just playing at that tone.
Past Struggles and Hopes for Revival
00:04:37
Speaker
It's just frustrating.
00:04:38
Speaker
Maybe we'll pause there, talk about maybe some other stuff related to the match, get deeper into the positives and negatives, I guess. Yeah. Just some side things about the match. It was a pride match. Brandi Carlisle, speaking of pride, Brandi Carlisle was in attendance with her family. That was kind of neat to see. I feel like a lot of people hoping that would happen sooner. You know, it would have been nice to put on a better performance for her. And Balzer scored in her, well, now 101st appearance for the club. That was very cool.
00:05:07
Speaker
What's kind of cool about the Bethany Balser hundred appearances. It's got a pretty good list of names for the rain that have done a hundred appearances. One of which was the Louisville coach. Yeah. And aside from Bev, you had Megan Rapinoe, Lou Barnes and Fishlock. So that's some pretty elite company for Bethany Balser.
00:05:27
Speaker
Moo Barnes is at 238 total appearances. That's so many. And Fishlics at 205. I should get to 250. That would be insane. I mean, I don't know what they got left in them, but that would be wild. The rain entered this match without a win in six games.
00:05:45
Speaker
Which I think, I said this in the last podcast maybe, but the last one was May 3rd, which is, you know, almost July. That's not good. It's not good at all. It's not good
Olympic Roster Anticipation
00:05:56
Speaker
at all. And it's not good enough. Well, and the annoying thing too is that Laura Harvey has been on 99 wins.
00:06:03
Speaker
Like, she just needs one more until we get 100 wins. And we've been on this for several games. I need to stop saying frustrating because it's like the first word that comes up when I word associate reign FC. Yeah. Well, it's funny because the late presser that Fishlock and Huerta did, they asked them if they knew like Laura Harvey was on 99. And they were just like, we had no idea. I'm like, good, because... Well, Huerta said she had
Controversy in Women's Sports Media
00:06:30
Speaker
an idea.
00:06:30
Speaker
there ultimately they were just like we're just focused on getting results and like it'd be nice if you were focused at the end of the game and not giving up a goal it is boats's fifth goal of the season so yay you know that's that's good am i greedy i want more
00:06:45
Speaker
Well, yeah, with the amount of games that we've played, you know, granted, she hasn't started every game. But for your one, your your forwards need to have our goals. She also aren't like at least two of those penalties. Yes. Which I wouldn't in the past have ever thought of. Obviously, I don't think anyone would have thought of Bethany's ball serve being the person that's going to take your penalties. But I mean, I'm happy she's taking them and she's making them. Did you see Jordan Heinema's penalty kick in the Canada game from a couple of months ago?
00:07:13
Speaker
I might have, but I kind of forget to cheat what happened. It was like a hospital ball. It was like nothing behind it. And it got saved. I have been feeling like we're lacking, which I guess this is why Bethany Balser has never taken them is because we used to have Megan Rapinoe.
Team Struggles and Roster Changes
00:07:26
Speaker
Yes. Who else is going to take them?
00:07:28
Speaker
Yeah. And on Fatma Huerta was the best rated player. And I think a little bit of that showed she was getting up the side and putting balls into dangerous areas. Yeah. But nothing came of it. So she had some good passing, which I'm glad she's getting back to that level. I would say that we've maybe been like not surprised that she doesn't get called up recently. You know, a lot of that's
00:07:51
Speaker
because the team's not doing well, but it's also sometimes looked like on the field that she hasn't been at the level that she's capable of being at. I think she's getting back there, which is great. Yeah, it's good to see, especially after her first handful of games this season, and we were both kind of like, ooh.
00:08:07
Speaker
Yeah, she's getting in the rhythm. It would just be nice if the rhythm also included her crosses, you know, into the box and then leading to goals like they used to. That would be very, very nice. Yep. But here we are. Fishlock, speaking of fought mob ratings, Fishlock had a 7.9 rating, which was the second highest of either team. Again, adds to my, in the word of the day, frustration.
00:08:34
Speaker
Like, we're having some players playing really, really well, and we're not getting three points. Yeah, it's not translating. Fishlock was 51 out of 55 for accurate passes. That's great. That's insane. It's 93%. That's what you expect and want out of Fishlock. And I'm so happy that she's still capable of doing that. I'm not trying to put a butt on it, but we need to do better at the end of what she's doing. Yeah.
00:09:02
Speaker
We're missing that final third lethal player. Which we might be getting into something soon. Possibly. We'll talk about that in a bit. But it really did feel like a loss. Yeah, absolutely. And I think if you go watch any of the pressers that were out afterwards, I mean, it was just... Laura Harvey's pissed. She's super pissed. She's so mad.
00:09:22
Speaker
I don't know if I've just never seen her be that direct on several questions. And it was kind of jarring because you could tell when she walked into the room that that was about to happen. She didn't look like she wanted to be there because she's been doing this for so long.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, they opened up the presser and one of the reporters asked her comments on today's game and she said, I'm going to repeat myself, not enough quality. That's it. And then they moved on to the next question. And then somebody asked, is that lack of quality going to be addressed in the next transfer window? Her answer was yes.
00:09:55
Speaker
and moved on to the next question. She's not, she's not pleased at all, which is like something you want from your head coach. Right. And I don't, there's two, there's two, there's two people that were fired in the league for performances, right? Coaching and general manager, Bay FC and San Diego.
00:10:10
Speaker
And I would say that they have the rosters maybe to be doing better for sure. I don't feel like we're at that point with Laura Harvey by any means, just because we haven't recovered still from, from the losses that
Preview of Upcoming Rain Match
00:10:23
Speaker
we've had on a roster. So you can only expect her to do so much and the players aren't doing what they're supposed to do, or at least not getting the results that we expect them to. And the league is getting tougher. So it's not like I expect them to fully bounce back from losing three key players and only bringing in one consistent starter.
00:10:39
Speaker
I don't know, it's hard to, you can't really place the blame on one thing. You can be mad, you can be upset with, I don't know, the players maybe not having better finishing quality and all that stuff, but like we get to the final last year and we lose all these players and it's like this is what happens. Yeah, and then you make no movement to rectify that loss.
00:10:57
Speaker
Which how can you when this, when the sale wasn't complete? Yeah. Now we're finally crossed that finish line. So now we can hopefully be in the next chapter and start actually making moves and doing what we need to do to get this team back to like the standard that we have always had. Yeah. We definitely need a revamp. Yeah.
00:11:16
Speaker
It's tough because we go so attached to these players and you know, I look at the roster and I'm like, we're going to have to make room if we want to get some, some good players in here. And that's going to mean dropping a lot of these backup players who we've maybe seen promise from. And it's just so hard for them to break into the lineup. So we're never even going to know what they could have brought.
00:11:35
Speaker
Yeah. And it's annoying because we've seen this before, right? Like with Ally Watt, I feel like she had trouble breaking into our squad. And so we had
Predictions and Key Players Analysis
00:11:42
Speaker
to like, you know, trade her off for, I think we got like a decent amount of money or whatever it was from that, but she's like doing pretty well at Orlando. Yeah. She's playing really well. And we always knew that she had that ability, but she didn't have consistent minutes. No. And without those consistent minutes, you're not going to get a good product out of her. So it's one of those coaching things.
00:12:01
Speaker
Which, to be fair, I think we had the people at the time to maybe do without her. But right now, oh my God, if we had her, that would be so helpful. It would be. But as they say, when people die, she's in a better place. Oh my God. Oh my God. I tweeted at her, I was like, come back someday, like a long time ago. And she's like, like my tweet. And I'm sure now she just doesn't even think about us. No.
00:12:27
Speaker
We're like a pity party for her. We're still wondering where the draft picks are. Where are we at with Samaza? I would like to know. Why aren't you putting Adamas in this game if we're not scoring? I don't get it. I think she thought we could close this game out like Harvey did. But it was funny because the commentary was even like, that's kind of like a risky thing to be subbing out your center backs like this,
Goalkeeper Changes Speculation
00:12:51
Speaker
you know, to close out a game. And I remember thinking the same exact thing.
00:12:56
Speaker
And also Heidema was on a yellow. She was on a yellow for a while, so I thought for sure she was going to get subbed out earlier, you know? And then Adamus would come on. So I thought for sure Adamus would come on, just because I was nervous that Heidema was going to get a red with the way that the game was going. And for whatever reason, I saw the subs come up and I was just like, well, that's not Heidema. Why not? Don't know. I think there was an injury problem. I think Ryan Brown had a... Yeah.
00:13:18
Speaker
hamstring problem, sometimes, but they were able to make six subs. I feel like why was one of those not the person who was on a yellow and then bring on a Dom is like, traditionally, that's what you do, especially when your team is so underperforming. Yeah. And you know that like the next game is going to be even harder and you're going to need one of the few players on your team who's been playing. Well, lack of seen Adamas is something I'm confused by. I'm very confused by agreed.
00:13:45
Speaker
Bet they boss her as much good as she has been and did well enough in this game I would say she had a really bad miss. Oh my god Like it's harder to miss that Than it is to put it in the back of the net
00:13:59
Speaker
Yeah, that was bad. And I know, I mean, you could tell in her face that she's, she's always going to want the one back. That's the quality, exact quality that Laura is
Personal Soccer Games and Weekend Plans
00:14:07
Speaker
talking about. That's missing, right? Or hasn't, hasn't been there at least and maybe used to be. Yeah. What takes you from a good to a great player is finishing those opportunities when you have them. Yeah. That one really pissed me off. We hit the, we hit the bar too at one point or so like you guys are almost there, but that's what we've been saying. We're almost there. It doesn't matter if you're not actually getting the three points.
00:14:27
Speaker
I keep thinking about this quote and it's the quote is insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That's how I feel. And it's exactly how I feel. I feel insane because we keep doing the same thing, hoping we're going to win. Laura Harvey keeps saying lack of quality is what's affecting this team and the results and getting points.
00:14:52
Speaker
It's like, why do you keep doing the same exact thing then? I think I'm at a point now where I'm just kind of like, I don't know if I'm full surrender cobra, but I'm just like, like, I don't know if they're not winning a game like this. I'll enjoy the team as much as I can. Obviously, I love this team, but I'm just like, well, I'm looking forward to next season.
00:15:12
Speaker
Yeah, because the sales gone through. It sounds like we're making moves in the next transfer window. So like, I don't know. I spent so much time like feeling upset. And then you realize why we're having these problems, maybe. And it's a lot of the things that I think will change now that this ownership is in place.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah, but it's hard to tough it out as a fan with the uncertain future. But at the same time, I wouldn't consider the season awash yet because I think that bringing these players in during the transfer window, it could really make this team exciting to watch again. So I'm excited for that possibility.
00:15:52
Speaker
It's kind of what happened with, um, with Gotham last season. And that worked out great for them. Yeah, exactly. At the expense of us, but it did work out great for them. Um, it's just a matter of how many moves can we make and all that, you know? Well, now we got the money. We do have the money. Um, it's a matter of, I guess, who's available. Um, I did see our, you know, biggest self rumor of a transfer. Madiima was doing an interview, I think with, was it you in an interview with Sammy Lewis?
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah. Which if we want to make the connection, Sam us has also interviewed Bethany Balser before recently. Yeah. She's probably stateside. She's like stopping the flights, you know, from East coast to West coast. Yeah. So I'm sure she's just heading over here. Yeah. There, there was a
Olympics Roster and Social Media Sharing
00:16:33
Speaker
rumor, uh, that, uh, the Haitian captain, their 25 year old cap captain, Monda sewer. We've been trying to practice or at least research how to correctly say her name.
00:16:44
Speaker
She's 25. She plays right now in Montpelier. She's a striker, right? She's forward. She has 25 goals in 30 caps. She's been getting really good goals with them, even in her youth career with them. It sounds like the deal, I mean, obviously things can fall apart, but it did sound like the rain or like kind of working on tying this deal up.
00:17:04
Speaker
So I am guessing we can expect it to happen. My question, they said it was like $200,000 transfer fee. I guess the question we have is who gets knocked off the roster. I think we're probably going to need to lose at least two people, especially if we want to make another move on top of that. Yeah. But you have to remember the roster is not just the game day 18. So, but then other players get, you know, when we bring new players in, other players are getting less time and they get frustrated and then they want to move on. It's a tricky thing to balance. I know. It's a, it's a whole.
00:17:31
Speaker
I'm ready, especially with the way that Laura Harvey was talking about it. She doesn't seem to be wanting to put up with, with losing at all. It's time. It's time to get cutthroat. It's time to get cutthroat. It's time to make the moves, to get results and bring this team back up. And I think Laura Harvey is ready to do what that takes. I'm ready. Team's going to get a revamp for sure.
00:17:50
Speaker
Uh, who's your, uh, cooler player of the match? I have mine. You want to hear mine? Yeah. Well, I'll say that, you know, when we introduced this, I said maybe sometimes there isn't one. Yeah, there isn't one this week. I think when you have a game in the way that it did, I don't know. I'm not choosing anybody this week. We both kind of agreed that, uh, the cooler player of the match goes out to actually 10,715 people who were in attendance for this game and had to witness that.
00:18:16
Speaker
That's I mean, that's a really impressive attendance because we didn't even pull those numbers for Portland. No, it was on Father's Day. Whatever you can find, whatever excuses you want to find. Finally, getting over the 10 K on a game against Louisville of all teams. That's something to celebrate. Yeah. And hopefully that just that number keeps going up. Yeah.
00:18:31
Speaker
I get it. The results aren't there. But I do hope that maybe this new ownership thing is getting people excited. And it does sound like they're going to be working on a lot of stuff to like kind of hone in with the fans and get people excited about the club and make it fun to come to games. Yeah. And I think that our prediction that, you know, more people would start coming to games with sounders attached kind of showed itself to be true with this attendance. Shout out to everybody who who came out.
00:18:57
Speaker
So moving on to other happenings. Yeah, that's all we want to say about the game. The Olympic Raster Drop happening. We're recording on Tuesday, so that'll be happening tomorrow. Yeah, I think it's going to, it said coming out 11 a.m. Eastern time, 8 a.m. Pacific time. There's media availability at 1130 Eastern time tomorrow.
00:19:14
Speaker
Okay. I'm going to be really, really pissed if Lily is on the roster. Yeah. Put her on the plane. I have a feeling Alex Morgan probably isn't going to make it, but I don't think her or McCarrie are going to make it based on the vibes that I've gotten, especially from McCarrie's Instagram, but I hope I'm wrong. I really hope I'm wrong. She just seems to be relaxing and enjoying things a little bit too much for my comfort, but I hope maybe it's a celebration relaxation. I have a feeling that Alex Morgan is going to make the roster. We'll see. This will all be decided by the time this gets edited and dropped. So.
00:19:44
Speaker
I know. I'm really excited to see how my predictions from the bonus episode play out. It's a fun one to listen to if you still haven't listened to it. So, you know, coming up on the Olympics, I think it's kind of a good episode to get to get up to speed with maybe the roster that we've been looking at and all that stuff. And then you were telling me about some funny Twitter drama. I don't even know if it's funny. It's just like in another world of women's sports now moving to women's basketball because we cover all the things we want to.
00:20:11
Speaker
whatever we want.
00:20:26
Speaker
content. They'll also like pretend like interview stuff that they didn't do is stuff that they did. And then they also just seem to have a very certain bias maybe with the certain players that they cover or the narratives that they like to paint for players. And victim to that was this week. Today, Tuesday was Asia Wilson. Why are you picking a fight with the best women's basketball player in the world right now?
00:20:48
Speaker
Well, here's the thing. Your whole branding is called just women's sports. I feel like their whole idea identity is about lifting up women and women that play sports, right? So why are they going out there and making a video just shitting on Asia Wilson's like review for her, you know, upcoming sneaker drop? So they decided to just like, I don't know. I don't even want to repeat it just because like you can go look, watch the video of them.
00:21:12
Speaker
but they're just clowning on it. Holy clowning on her, her thing that she worked on. She like drew this up. Yeah. And they've since taken down the tweet, but apparently it's still up on their YouTube. Oh, they have the video still up. Yeah. That's what somebody said in the thread. But yeah, you don't like the point of women's sports and covering women's sports should be yes, critical at times, but not for a fucking brand logo.
00:21:36
Speaker
Not only that, but it wasn't even that bad. Okay, I don't even think the logo was bad at all. I thought it was good. And she drew it up, that's even cooler. Yeah, it was her thing. She's also been waiting for this so long, she's been so good for so long and has not gotten, I would say, the credit that she deserves. And the moment she finally gets this dropped, just when sports decides to shit on it. I mean, Asia's clapback was great. It's just stupid that she even had to do that. You should read it.
00:22:01
Speaker
Okay, so her Asia tweeted, I get people are gonna have their opinions and think pieces and that's all fine and dandy. It's all part of this. But this is lame as fuck coming from a site that is supposed to be for quote unquote us. She put like some emoji faces throughout this. But bedded up, the A collection is about to be so much fun and a great collection for everybody. The only ass I see are the people a part of the segment talking about the people who from Just Women Sports made this stupid ass video.
00:22:29
Speaker
This thing is, so like there was no reason, the ass thing that they were like trying to laugh about, there was no reason to add that to the video. No, so they, one of the women in this podcast taping, they thought it looked like an A. Which it was. That's part of her name. And just decides to put two S's behind it, thinking that's just so fucking hilarious. It's not funny.
00:22:50
Speaker
Get some class. I just don't. No, I don't. I don't follow anything that they do. I just I can't even if like, you know, maybe we'll be generous here. 70 percent of their content is fine and possibly OK coverage. I can find that other places that aren't doing the shit that they do. That's what Michelle King own them now. Does she? I believe she does. Let me let me double check. I remember being like, that's a conflict of interest. Oh, yeah.
00:23:20
Speaker
The funding round was led by Blue Pool Capital, investors include Billie Jean King, Michelle Kang. Yeah, so she's which wanna- That track. Yeah, being on that drum again about questionable feelings about Michelle King. Women's Sports News in my life, my team has a chance to clinch a playoff berth on Friday when we played Tacoma at home.
00:23:43
Speaker
It's your last home that tray, like not playoffs. Yeah, that's our last last home match. We don't even know where playoffs are yet. Well, hopefully Lacey, I guess. Right. You're playing Lacey. Yeah, I doubt it. So the way our where playoffs work. So our region, the Northwest Division goes into a three region playoff with the NorCal Division and then Mountain West Division, Mountain Division.
00:24:10
Speaker
And so we get one bid into playoffs, Mountain West gets one bid into playoffs, and then NorCal gets two. They have more teams in their league or in their region. It makes sense that they would have it in California with two California teams being in playoffs, but at the same time, just like last year, we're on track to be the number one seed out of all three of the regions. We should be able to host a fucking
00:24:35
Speaker
playoff game. Especially if you didn't get one last year. Yeah. We were the ones he last year didn't host playoff game. Yeah. So it's just a, it's an unfortunate thing and a fortunate reality in the league that we play in. Well, if you're looking for something to do Friday night, they're also, you're also playing in your pink, pink jersey, pink kits, right? Yeah. That'd be fun. The afterglow kits. I heard someone cool came up with that name. I wonder who is me.
00:24:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's like our third kit. We've never done that before. Yeah, it's like a neon pink. They're really cool looking, actually. Yeah, they looked fun to me. Yeah, so if you got another do Friday, head out to Olympia or Lacey.
00:25:09
Speaker
Friday, 7 p.m. South Sound Stadium. Last thing I guess we should get to is previewing the next match for rain, which we've got a 10 a.m. match. Yeah, this is insane. Which I think the heat report supposed to be pretty high. And I'm wondering if we'll get delayed. Let me double check. It's in New Jersey, right?
00:25:30
Speaker
Looks like Sunday. Oh 90 degrees. Okay. Well and maybe rain. So is that gonna turn into Lightning? I don't know scattered thunderstorms. Great. Sure. This is gonna go really well for us Anyway, so the game's gonna take maybe take place 10 a.m. Sunday G30 if my first thoughts FML Gotham did however lose their last match Which is nice because they've kind of been writing a high for a while after kind of getting it off to a rocky start in the season Yeah, they were a little barebow
00:25:54
Speaker
Yeah, they are again, which maybe is why they didn't win their last game or also lost, but they have only had three times that they've been shut out. And two of those times were versus the spirit, which was the last match was also against the spirit. So something going on there. They are also unspirited when they play them.
00:26:11
Speaker
This will be our first time playing them since the final. That's, I don't know, could go one of two ways, right? Could be us wanting to prove ourselves wrong from both the final and also from this terrible draw that we just had. I'm hoping it's that. I'm hoping we get the redemption that we need. With the mentality of the team recently in these games, I doubt it, but I am always welcome to a nice
00:26:35
Speaker
surprise. Yeah. And I love to be proved wrong when it means my team is doing something better. Um, but the results don't lie. So Gotham will be with probably, they're probably gonna be without a lot of players. Yasmine Ryan got a red card, like double yellow. So she's going to be out for the red card suspension. Their availability report from last match was brutal. They were without Kaley O'Hara, Lynn Williams, Christian Edmonds, Esther Gonzalez, Mitch Purse, Abby Smith, Taylor Smith. Um, a few of those are season ended injuries, so they won't be back at all.
00:27:02
Speaker
Rose was on a minutes restriction. That'll probably be happening again, especially at the Olympics right around the corner. So things I say to maybe look out for, Katie Stengel. Always. Always. I like her as a player. I always have. I don't look forward for our team to play against her.
00:27:18
Speaker
She's just like a baller, right? Yeah, she gets shit done. Yeah, she reminds me a little bit of Latsko. Yeah. But she's just like a baller. She gets it. She knows where to get good positioning. And she does things and gets things done with brute force sometimes. Yes, yes.
00:27:36
Speaker
Yeah, and that's just really impressive to see. Yeah, she played at Liverpool, so I kind of that was like my bigger introduction to watching her more regularly was watching with Liverpool and she kind of helped bring their women's team back up. Yeah, she played really well for them. Yeah, I was upset when they announced she was coming over here and it wasn't to the rain. Yeah, but you know, it's nice to have her back in the league for sure.
00:27:57
Speaker
It's going to be tough to score on Gotham. Um, they've only allowed 11 goals this season, uh, tied for the best in the league with Orlando. Got that to look forward to, but maybe it's one of those things. Maybe it's one of those things where they're like, that's the one time they score goals is against the team that has a least amount of goals.
00:28:15
Speaker
We don't know. Everything is a crapshoot right now. You can't predict anything with this rain right now, because it's like one week you think they're going to have problems scoring, and then they don't, but then they're giving up a million goals. To be fair, they only didn't have problems scoring one weekend. Okay. I've just been trying to pretend like maybe they'll do that again, because why not? I guess because they're not going to. That's why. Who's their keeper trying to figure that out? I know they've got Beto's on the bench, but I was just trying to figure that out.
00:28:46
Speaker
betos on the bench. Oh yeah, the rumor about betos. The possible rumor about betos. My rumor. Okay, so speaking of Gotham and Goalkeepers, Van has an insider, or not insider, what do we call it? It's my own personal conspiracy theory.
00:29:01
Speaker
Yeah, that's which is exactly what you came to hear about this podcast is our own conspiracy theories. So I was I don't go on Facebook ever, but I was thinking, you know, like maybe we should get some more people listening to the podcast and maybe the rain Facebook group would be a great place to do that.
00:29:16
Speaker
So I found the rain fan Facebook page and, you know, joined and filled out the little questionnaire. Then like immediately they put out like welcome new, new members. And one of those new members, I was the last one because I was the most recent, but one of the new members was Michelle Betas' mom. So I have a theory that we're going to bring in Michelle Betas. And I am here for that because I always, always liked watching her.
00:29:44
Speaker
Yeah, and I would say if we're looking at our roster changes that we can maybe make, I think let's make some moves on the goalkeeper front. Yeah, especially after what happened towards the end of the game. Yeah. Claudia Dickey was trying to waste time, so she chested the ball down to herself.
00:30:00
Speaker
literally like maybe a yard in front of the goal. And she chested the ball down and it goes between her legs and she has to dive back to get it before it crosses the line. I'm like, no, this is unacceptable. Yeah, let's bring a veteran in. And who better than former rain goalkeeper who was here in our inaugural season, Michelle Betos. Yeah. We've always been on the Betos fan club. I'm pretty sure we like started the Betos fan club when the rain like joined, like the league started and everything. We were
00:30:24
Speaker
I wonder if she remembers us, the two lesbians that were like Michelle Beto's fan club. I know we were like always were like yelling at her for autographs before that became really weird. It's fine. Yeah, I would be stoked if that happened because she's not getting, I mean, the thing, I think she moved over to Gotham and it was kind of like a, she always gets moved around the league, right? But I think she's from the East coast, right? So I think it was like, well, at least she's going to be back home.
00:30:48
Speaker
Oh man, her and Harvey connecting back up? That'd be fun. That'd be a lot of fun. I can imagine she would do a lot too for a younger keeper. Gotham brought in Ann Katrin Berger, who was playing for Chelsea. So I think Banos is probably going into the season thinking, oh, you know, you don't get to start. And then they bring Katrin Berger and Ann Katrin Berger, and he's like a fantastic goalkeeper. And you just, the minutes just disappear. Yeah, they're not there. Which is understandable. Like, I get it. Yeah, I mean, Berger's playing well, so. For our situation, it's a bit different.
00:31:16
Speaker
You might have goals that matter. Come get your minute. We'd give it up. Not good. We're just like dangling playing time in front of her face. Come on, Michelle. Yeah. I get fish luck on the phone. Give her a call. Get a, get her OGs that were with her from the beginning. Get Lou Barnes back there. She already knows Lou Barnes. Yeah. What a fantastic pairing. I'm on board. Sign me up. I think that's going to pretty much do it for this week's episode. Yay. Sunday. Yeah. Looking not forward. I'm excited for the port of France to start. So I can at least have that. I don't have a lot of stakes in that. Right. So I can, I can watch the rain and then I can just like,
00:31:45
Speaker
Oh, basically, whatever. Well, my team plays it too. On Sunday? On Sunday. You're playing Friday and Sunday? Yeah. Tell me you're playing Sunday. We have enough. Oh yeah, you're playing after the rain game. Our player pool is pretty big. So there will be some rollover from the players that play on Friday to the players that play on Sunday, but not a whole lot. And some players will be on limited minutes for Sunday's game because we've already beat the team that we're playing on Friday twice. We're playing the team that we've only played once on Sunday. The team that we beat four to two last week is...
00:32:14
Speaker
our biggest competitor in our division. So that's the real big game this weekend. They're all big, but that's the biggest one. So I think I'm going to go down and stay with my sister in Portland if she lets me. Hi, Sarah. I haven't decided if I'm going to go full, if I'm not watching the game, if I have to drive down on Sunday, if I'm going to go full blackout mode and not see any of it until I can watch it later in the day. But if I'm driving a van full of
00:32:41
Speaker
Like a 15 person van full of division one college soccer players who pay attention to the NWSL. I don't think that would work. I hope everyone has a great week. Yeah. Hopefully I don't pick rosters. Good. Not disappointing by any means. I'm sure it won't be. It'd be cool if Bethune maybe made it in there. Don't think she will, but it'd be sweet.
00:33:00
Speaker
If you want to follow us on Twitter, we're at cooler guild pod. If you want to email us some feedback or any suggestions that you got, uh, we're at the cooler guild at gmail.com. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at the tallest coop and I am at van crisp. That's going to do it. Till next time. Till next time. Bye bye. Bye.
00:33:40
Speaker
We only communicate through TikToks.