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Ji So-Clutch - Ep. 14
10 Plays3 months ago
It's a second win a row for Reign after a come-from-behind win in Louisville. Ji So-Yun came off the bench in the second half, giving the team a much needed spark on set-pieces, included scoring a beautiful goal off a direct free kick.
We also cover a few other things from the weekend in the NWSL, the new CBA, and preview of the Reign's next match.
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CoolerGuildPod
Coop
Van
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Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
Show artwork by Coop
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Agenda
00:00:20
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 14 of the Cooler Guild. I'm your host, Coop, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Fan. Hello! We are recording on Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024. On today's episode, we'll be discussing Reigns' come-from-behind win away at Louisville, as well as some other results around the league this weekend and a very brief preview of the Reigns' next match.
00:00:43
Speaker
But first we want to remind people 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 heart subscriber on the private unified feed with the other podcasts
Subscription Information for Cooler Guild
00:00:54
Speaker
on the network. If you'd like to become a subscriber, just visit our page at sounder at heart.com forward slash the cooler guild. New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing. Or we get into the match and everything else. How was your weekend?
00:01:08
Speaker
Oh, it's good. Yeah, it's good. Just been working out. Nice.
Hosts' Weekend Experiences
00:01:14
Speaker
Yeah. Gotta get in shape. Yeah, I'm doing my CPAT in October, so. How, how would shape do you need to get from where you are now? A little bit more. Okay. So you're on the right track. You don't have that. Yeah, strength-wise I'm good. It's the cardio. Yeah. It's the cardio.
00:01:30
Speaker
Well, I went to Hood River this weekend, which was, the weather was great. I don't really get hot weather, you know, where I'm at. So I finally got to experience immense heat and that was great. Went to a winery for a day. And it was like, the winery was like,
00:01:48
Speaker
Like the tables were like in the garden. Oh, so that was like kind of cool because I hadn't been to one like that before in the gorge Usually, you know, I don't know. I feel like every winery out there kind of has its own experience But yeah, we went out there and was it in her river was it up in Parkdale? It was in I was actually on the Washington side. Oh Yeah, we got we got better wine
00:02:11
Speaker
I mean, it's very similar, but their wine was really, really good. Um, but the setting was also really, really good. Like I'm definitely me going back there for sure. Um, I did get to go on a tugboat on Sunday. Oh, that's, that's big news. Well, it's Harvard days in Olympia. This, it was Harvard days in Olympia, which is like the tugboat festival. And they had like an old decommissioned coast guard rescue tug out there. No, that's fine. I walked around that and went to their little,
00:02:40
Speaker
a museum that's in it, so that was pretty cool. That's fun. Watch the tugboat races. Or they probably aren't that fast, right? Well, they're like mini tugboats. So no.
00:02:50
Speaker
They're great, yeah. Sounds great though. It was fun. Cool.
Reign's Comeback Victory Against Louisville
00:02:55
Speaker
Well, we had a rain game. We sure did. We had a rain game win second in a row. What a great time to be a rain fan. Great time. It's past two weeks. It's only been two weeks in the amount of stuff we've had for weeks. I don't know that we're at the point where
00:03:14
Speaker
where the ratio is still not good, but you know, wins feel so much better when we've been so bad. Yeah. So especially wins like this against team who we just had a major trade with. Yeah. Let's talk about the game. Match recap for you. Match recap, baby. So this past Saturday, after a 90 minute weather delay, the match finally got started.
00:03:35
Speaker
Louisville got on the score sheet first in the six minute when Ari Borges headed in a corner kick. The start of something bad. A few minutes later, Jess Fishlock was taken down in the box and the rain rewarded a penalty that was ultimately converted by Sofia Huerta. In the words of Sofia Huerta, pick a spot, kick the shit out of it. Yep. Go keep bombers, got it. But she did good enough. As the first half came to a close, Louisville struck again off another corner kick that was headed in by Taylor Flint. Formerly.
00:04:05
Speaker
Luckily, the second half was all rain. Jiso Yun was subbed in in the 54th minute and was able to score a Galazzo free kick in the 75th minute after Fishlock was taken down, this time just outside the 18. Banger. All tied up. Final tally of the night came from a Sofia Huerta corner kick in the 81st minute. G got her head on the ball and then it hit off another player's head, a Louisville player's head, and into the back of the net. Another rain win in the books.
00:04:29
Speaker
We love it. Don't know exactly where it hit on, um, I think it was Erin, right? Might've been her shoulder top of her shoulder head. I'm not really sure.
Match Analysis and Player Performances
00:04:36
Speaker
Okay. Who cares? You know, little, he has general notes about the game before it started. We didn't have where Harvey available. No, but we did get to see her tweet during the game, which was amazing. Yeah. I was kind of worried for her stress levels, knowing what we know now about what way she was like gone. And I was like, Hmm, it seems like maybe someone shouldn't have allowed her to have her phone on her.
00:04:59
Speaker
Um, but it's kind of funny cause Louisville also didn't have their head coach. So it was one of our favorite people who we've yet to really meet, but always admire from afar. Carmelina Moscato was on their sidelines. Um, so I was kind of interesting to see it play out. Um, and then bug and Adamas were unavailable, which had me nervous mostly cause of bugs last game. I was really not looking forward to seeing what was going to happen in the back line there, but that meant Lester got the start. Um, I think it went okay for her.
00:05:30
Speaker
little, little bit of a nervy moment first half when she played a ball back. But I think that that was a little bit environmental too. Cause the field was a little soggy in the first half. Yeah. The ball was just kind of dying. Yeah. Yeah. It was our first time playing Louisville since the ball, sir. How will trade on August 19th?
00:05:47
Speaker
Yeah, I was I was pretty nervous for this game. I do think once the head coach thing kind of played out, I was like, who knows what's going to happen. But it's definitely like a game I didn't want to lose because I just like I don't it's this felt like one of those things like, did you win the trade or did you lose the trade? And if you lose this game, it's going to feel like you lost the trade or like this maybe wasn't the right trade. But good news, we we did it. Did you want to get into positives?
00:06:14
Speaker
Yeah, positive is a game. Yeah, I think this is spot on getting a win without looking great. Mm hmm. We didn't have the majority of possession. We didn't have majority shots. Yeah, we don't have a majority of most things. Yeah. Because I feel like a lot of our results, the bad ones, at least that were happening before the break, we were like racking up the shots.
00:06:34
Speaker
and rocking up shots on goal but like nothing was good that was happening which is kind of what if you look at the stats it's kind of like what Louisville looked like yes they got two goals but they were like set piece goals they didn't get any in the red play so that's like great for us um in our defense neither did we but um
00:06:52
Speaker
But defensively, yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I I think that it just it felt like when we were shooting, it wasn't really we weren't missing sitters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And again, is that it's kind of a negative because we didn't get the ball in dangerous positions. But same time, take what we can get. And, you know, that's how you that's how you climb in in the standings is
00:07:20
Speaker
you know, getting a win when you're not playing your best. Yeah. And because we have so many new pieces and we're kind of getting, I don't know, like our nine, for instance, used to all the players around her. It's, it's not going to happen right away with, with getting, I would say chances in the run of play. Um, but yeah, it is good to make sure that they're not, um, I don't know. Those sitters just like haunt me that we've been having. I know.
00:07:45
Speaker
I think there was a header from Heidema in the first half or something. I don't know if I would call that a sitter. But she kind of aimed it a little bit better. That would have taken some skill to get that to a different area unlike some of the other ones we've had.
00:08:04
Speaker
Yeah, no egregious misses. No. No, I wouldn't say so. Another bright spot, Jisoyun. Uh, yeah. We've been waiting for a moment like this just to be. For a moment like this. Jisoyun, this is what we signed her for. Yeah. I keep saying this is what we signed her for, but now this is what we signed her for.
00:08:22
Speaker
And we've been waiting for her to come in and really make an impact again. Um, like she did in the beginning of the season, you know, cause we thought, you know, she's going to need some adjustments into the league. You know, she's 33 years old. It's going to be a minute. And then she went and scored that banger so good in like the first couple of games of the season. I can't remember what game it was, but.
00:08:43
Speaker
Yeah, she takes those shots. I mean, obviously the free kick, she gets close, right? She gets real close. I don't know if maybe hoping that this opens the floodgates kind of thing. Give her that confidence and everything that we can do it here and that the rain also can win.
00:08:58
Speaker
Yeah. That's the big thing, because it just has been feeling like nothing's gone our way. And, you know, I feel like four games ago, that free kick would have hit off the crossbar if not gone in. Which it did hit the crossbar. Right, but it went in. It bounced the right way, finally. Yeah. So, but yeah, her coming in in the 54th minute for me, in my notes, I wrote, 54th minute, King finally subbed off for G.
00:09:26
Speaker
Yeah, I don't, I don't know what's going to happen with King. Um, and we're focusing on the positives, but I do like that when we subbed in G, she got more minutes this time. Yeah. We're not used to subbing in in the 54th minute. So maybe that's a parking, maybe parking Scott was like, I'm going to finally do these earlier subs.
00:09:48
Speaker
Yeah, which I do approve of maybe he can kind of nudge Laura to do more of these in the future Because I do think like G coming on that early really helped her get what she needed at the end of the match Yeah, and somebody was saying in the discord I was on the game thread in the discord saying like well here it is We're gonna wait for the 75th minute and then we're gonna get all these players And I was like, I don't know And they said in the 54th minute. I was like, yeah
00:10:16
Speaker
And I'm sure being down didn't help. Like they had to do something. Right. We talked about that during the last game where, OK, we were tied. Why weren't we subbing? Well, it was like, well, we weren't losing. We probably would have subbed sooner if we had been losing and we were down. So definitely. Oh, I forgot. Oh, shit. I need to get my beer, huh? I get my celebratory beer. BRB.
00:10:42
Speaker
All right, I'm back. Cheers to the wind. Oh, I
Celebration of Reign's Victory
00:10:45
Speaker
know. I grabbed, I saw you had this one, so I went and grabbed the same one. I don't even know if I like Pilsner's really, so I might hate this, but Vanra has, uh, we caught this again. We got a dub pod and that means dub pop beers, dub pop beers. Cheers. Cheers. I think I heard that one this time from you. It was loud. Oh, that's not bad. That's pretty good.
00:11:08
Speaker
Mm-hmm. It's the case anyone's wandering. We're drinking the King Crispy. Van brought these to my house last time. Well, two times ago when you came over or something? Did I bring the please? Yeah. Well, I think you picked them up at the store when we went to the store or something. And so Van Crisp has the crispy beer. Anyways.
00:11:30
Speaker
Oh, what else are we talking about? All right, back to the match. Back to the positives. It was nice to see Lou Barnes come back on. Oh, yes. Yes. Yes. And I really think that the defense looked more organized once she came on the field, which is not surprising with her experience. Yeah. I mean, they close out the game. So.
00:11:46
Speaker
Hopefully this is a, I don't know. We keep wondering when her and Fishlock are going to hang up their boots and I don't know. Barnes, when she's, I feel like she's definitely slowed down, but for what she brings to the back line, as long as we have a little bit of speed somewhere else, it can work, but I'm happy to see her back for sure.
00:12:05
Speaker
I would say also McLaren and was a positive McLaren and solid. She's so solid. Yeah. It's like, it's why it's hard when Lou is back and we have bug as you've kind of got like three really, really solid options, which is not a bad thing. No, that's not at all. But it's still like, ah, who do you, who do you take off?
00:12:25
Speaker
I mean, I think it's, yeah, it's a matter of rotation and then, or do you just go into a three back? Then do you just go into a three, five, two, but if you've got three of them available, who takes, who takes the primary center? Is it mccleernan? Um, probably Barnes. Okay. Yeah.
00:12:40
Speaker
that you're two faster players on the outside. Yeah, you definitely want to bug on one of the sides, for sure. I think it'd be between McClernand and Barnes in the middle, but I don't know. It'll be interesting to see when everybody's available, kind of what Harvey goes with in the back there. Yeah, the next positive player of the match, not cooler player of the match, player of the match, Sofia Huerta.
00:13:02
Speaker
Yeah, just a solid game. Yeah. She's, she's definitely got her groove back. Yep. Yep. I don't, I think we, we figured out, I mean, it was an own goal, right? So be aware, it doesn't technically get the assist for that.
00:13:17
Speaker
Yeah. So we're still waiting on the assists, right? Yeah. She's still tied with Jess McDonald for assist leader in the league all time. She's got to get that. I know. Jess McDonald asked her about it in the pregame. Oh God.
00:13:32
Speaker
Cause they had a bunch of time before the match started. So before they started replaying the last game, they were interviewing. Um, they interviewed, I can't remember who they interviewed for Louisville was probably Balser, but, um, then they, at one point they interviewed Huerta and just McDonald's on the panel for the pregame. So she asked her about it. She was like, yeah, of course I'm trying to get that.
00:13:56
Speaker
Yeah, professional sports. Of course. I want to beat you. Remember when like, I mean, and it ended up tying, right? Obviously we're just going to get it at some point, but remember when Dempsey and Donovan were like tied for a long time, but Donovan been retired and then Dempsey just couldn't get that last goal. I feel like we've been waiting so long for where to get this last, like this is game breaking or this record breaking assist. And it's just like, it's gotta happen though. This is like her role in the team. So I'm just frustrated that it's, it's, we're still waiting.
00:14:25
Speaker
Yeah, I think when it happens, it's going to be it's going to be when it's needed. So it's not an if question for me. It's a win. Yeah, for sure. For sure. It's just I feel like I don't know. I feel like she's just kind of gotten in this like, I don't know what you call it, but the team in general just hasn't been like lucky with stuff. So I mean, like I was saying, that kind of changed with this game. Yeah. So I look forward to I look forward to things.
00:14:55
Speaker
this team I know I know um we did get the win which you know sometimes I'm like maybe we shouldn't focus so much on negatives but um so you know that we didn't score like scored eagles in the run at play we definitely need
Set-Piece Defending Issues for Reign
00:15:11
Speaker
to go over maybe what didn't work in the negatives
00:15:14
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. And there's some common themes. Once again, returning needing to come back from behind the number one. Six minute to me. I was just like, oh, yeah, I.
00:15:30
Speaker
I will say we didn't concede afterwards. It was like an early goal conceded, but we didn't concede right away afterwards. But yeah, that's something they need to, I don't know. I keep saying we need to fix this and it's like, well, I guess we haven't. Well, I think the theme there other than coming from behind is just our set piece defending.
00:15:53
Speaker
hmm they scored on us twice off corner kicks yeah everything from this game was set pieces and then the penalty so which is a set piece yeah so Louisville fans can listen to this and maybe just apply what we're saying but they did come back so
00:16:10
Speaker
you know. Yeah. And they didn't score like all the goals late. Like they got one in the first half. And then G scored not super long after she came on. So the game winning goal was late, but I'll take it, obviously. Yeah. Another negative, Laura Harvey's ulcer. Which we didn't know why she was out. And then Parkinson mentioned in his pregame interview
00:16:33
Speaker
that she was home from the hospital now and we were all like, what? Oh, what? Yeah, no. I mean, we're always, everything's so mysterious anyways with this club. Yeah. And I was like, I don't know if we're ever going to find out what happened. But then she started tweeting during the game. Yeah, she was like, this could not be good for my ulcer.
00:16:50
Speaker
I was like it feels like maybe whoever was on your like team at the hospital if you're trying to treat an ulcer which you know ulcers come from many different things in life but I don't feel like adding stress about watching your team it's gonna be helpful for the ulcer I mean it's also her job
00:17:11
Speaker
Oh, I know. But this is why maybe she should have taken a little break. But obviously she would have just been worried about it the entire time anyway. So does it make a difference? Probably not. So hopefully she is on the mend and will be back soon. But, you know, she needs to take her take a little break. Don't rush it. We another negative is we also had a goal called back.
00:17:29
Speaker
They didn't even call it a goal, though, right? It just she blew the whistle after it for either. I don't think it was. There's been no explanation. No. And but how kind of got in on this floating ball and kind of directed it in as she like went into the goal. But and there were two players in front of her. So I don't know how it would have been offside, but no.
Controversial Disallowed Goal Discussion
00:17:55
Speaker
it wasn't upside it wasn't upside but they never said whether it was a foul or what they were calling and then afterwards howl got a yellow for arguing or whatever for arguing and then demello got a yellow yeah they both got yellows um and then i was like watching the highlights just to catch up on things again and like they didn't have in the highlights
00:18:15
Speaker
And for me, like you and I were texting because I had like just tuned in because I was like out, you know, drinking wine. But I got back and I started watching the second half of the game and she's like, oh, you were like, oh, so you just caught that whatever the hell that was. And I was like, you mean the goal from Jaylen, from Jaylen. I don't I would still like to know what they thought they saw or at least hear somebody say that this was a mistake because by all accounts to me, it was a goal.
00:18:42
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I can see an argument for a foul. Open and soft. It would have been very, very soft if it was.
00:18:49
Speaker
Yeah. And if it was a foul, shouldn't she have given the yellow? I don't know. I'm pretty confused by that. Yeah. I would like a pro referee's explanation of that one. Like we got for the Huerta handball that shouldn't have been called. Yeah. I'd like to hear either from pro or I would like to hear from our favorite uncle, not Ted. Christina. Christina, uncle. It's just weird because I feel like they, and I said this to you, they're kind of treating it like a nothing burger and to me it was kind of like worse.
00:19:18
Speaker
Looking at a bit more. Yeah, but apparently not and it was a bit it would have been so sweet too for how old a score in her return to Louisville after getting traded as the captain of that team That's like the you know, the storyline that I'm like kind of pissed about Yeah, it must have it must have been something else because if it had been a foul then it would have would have been var Mm-hmm, right
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah, there was no bar taking a look at it because if it was in the run of play up to a goal, so she must have called something in the build up. But then don't you go to VAR for that? You would think they kind of just brushed it off. They didn't really seem interested in going to viral, which and the commentators seem like that, like upset about it either.
00:20:01
Speaker
I don't know, it seemed weird to me. Seems super weird to me. Not happy about that one. One thing that, and this happened after the game as well while the rain we're celebrating, but Louisville really needs to tone it down on their light shows and celebrations during- Is the dimming. They're like flashing the lights for like goal celebrations, which like,
00:20:24
Speaker
I don't know why you would do that when you want your photographers to capture this moment, right? And then you're just flashing the lights on and off. And you want your fans to have a good time. There's a huge cohort of people that have visual sensory issues.
00:20:42
Speaker
And you don't need it. It's so unnecessary. No, the game speaks for itself.
Louisville's Distracting Light Shows
00:20:48
Speaker
I don't get it. And then sometimes they'll have light shows before the match, really, to get people in the field or whatever. And then they'll warn fans ahead of time, like, hey, we're going to have this light show before the game. So don't come out into the field until this time mark if you don't want to see them. But doing the middle of a match completely makes that experience like you can't maybe attend the matches because of it.
00:21:11
Speaker
Just be in the middle of the game with no warning because that's how soccer works. Yeah, I just think it's so unnecessary. It's it. It seems like it's trying to be like a concert or something. Yeah, it's something that it's just not. No. I mean, granted, there were only five thousand people at this game, but was there actually five thousand? The attendance on fot mob said five thousand eleven. I don't. There was a 90 minute delay.
00:21:35
Speaker
I know, I know. To me 5,000 seems high and I have this like I would like to know if some of these these teams are just counting tickets sold. I don't feel like they're taking need and obviously for the game like this you probably know would rather mark tickets sold but I feel like I want to know the number of tickets scanned.
00:21:54
Speaker
Um, cause I think teams just kind of get a pick and choose what they do. And so sometimes we're not getting, um, completely accurate numbers. Cause I don't know. I look at the stands and I'm just like, eh, I don't know if there's that I do think for this game, because the delay, I'm not like, I'm not going to be harsh on it, but I don't know. Oh, they have a podcast. Racing Louisville has a fan podcast. What's it called? Butcher town rundown, a racing Louisville podcast. I have 52 episodes. Damn.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yeah, I'd be curious to see what they have to say. We should go follow them on the cooler gold Twitter. We should. They also have a player podcast, but that's not our space. I was trying to look up Louisville's attendance announcement when I came across that. I don't think teams like ever want to admit that they're not using the scanned things. I remember like the rain made a big deal about that when they were doing some of the like higher promoted matches. They wanted to make sure that that was like a genuine number that nobody could argue with.
00:22:52
Speaker
Yeah, so I don't know. Maybe there was really that many people. I don't know. I didn't listen to the postgame press conference because the Sounders were
Reign's Road Win and Playoff Prospects
00:23:00
Speaker
playing Portland, which I shouldn't have watched. Yeah, I made the mistake too. Better choices could have been made.
00:23:05
Speaker
Notable stats from the game? Yeah. Let's, let's go over those. First road win. Yeah. First road win for the rain this season. This year. Jesus Christ. That's so bad. Yeah. The, the last regular season road win was October 15th, 2023. Yikes.
00:23:26
Speaker
They hadn't had consecutive wins in a regular season since three-game win streak in April, 2023. See, this is like, people like to say like, oh, this is going to be a down year for the rain. And I'm like, we've kind of been looking like we're going to have some serious issues for a while. And here we are, hopefully mending it now. But I do think that as getting to the final kind of, I don't know, put some rose colored.
00:23:55
Speaker
Glasses on for like the actual problems maybe that we were facing. Yeah, I think so I don't know when we'll I will see if this this new team that we have is capable of getting us back to Like the Laura Harvey days of our second year in the league where we just dominated I would like to get back there
00:24:15
Speaker
I'd like to get back there too. I did see one quote from the post-match presser, Porta, talking about just how their goal is playoffs. So they're looking towards that. So they know what they need to do. Yeah, it's not going to be easy. And I think I'm. But I'm glad they're not just resigned. Yeah.
00:24:37
Speaker
You know what I mean? I mean, maybe they are and they're not saying it, but that seemed to me to be a genuine conversation that the team is having, that it is possible. We're four points below the playoff line right now.
00:24:50
Speaker
Yeah, this league's a lot of teams get into the playoffs. Um, that is the benefit of this league is that we still got a, we still have a chance. Um, it's not going to be without a lot of like, you're going to have to go on a run. You can't be fucking around at all. So they're going to really have to win in, win in ways that might be ugly, which is kind of what we got here today. Um, I mean, obviously G's goals, beautiful, but you know, they're going to have to figure these out and.
00:25:20
Speaker
I don't know. It gives us something to root for when watching these games. Yeah. We don't need to win the supporters shield. That's not going to happen. But, you know, a chance to get into playoffs and see the team continue on. I'm I'm excited that the we are trending upwards in these meetings.
00:25:39
Speaker
And if they make the playoffs, we all know that once you make the playoffs, anything can happen. So if they get there, then they can really kind of just throw everything at it and hope for the best.
Jisoyun and Laura Harvey's Milestones
00:25:51
Speaker
So I would love to see that we figured out. Well, someone was it right of the Valkyries figured out that G. So Yoon is the only other player other than Megan Rapinoe.
00:26:02
Speaker
to score a direct free kick goal since Lou Barnes. I think you pulled that up, right? That's that goal since Lou Barnes in September 2016. Yep.
00:26:15
Speaker
I mean, obviously, Rapinoe is taking our free kicks, right? So it's not like the most shocking stat, because she's been with the club since the beginning, but woof. I know. I think that another funny antidote from that game that Lou Borkin scored the free kick in is that Huerta actually scored on us in that game.
00:26:37
Speaker
Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, that's hilarious. Huh? What are their stats? Yeah, it was also Latsko's 100th regular season appearance in the league. She said 53 appearances for rain and 47 for Houston. That's cool. She got to hit that 100 mark. One game after Harvey's 100th win.
00:26:56
Speaker
Yeah, which brings me to that, which we forgot to talk about last week. It finally happened. It finally happened. Laura Harvey is the first NDB cell coach to get a hundred wins in the league. So congrats. Huge, huge honor to be able to like say that she's our coach and she's been our coach for most of those wins besides the little stint she did in, in Utah. But, um, I would say, I don't know if I saw that coming after our first season in the league. No.
00:27:25
Speaker
I mean, I didn't feel like it was a coaching problem that first season. It was a lot of problems. But, um, yeah, if you go, like, look at how she's done since that second season is she's just been like, oh, my coach, you don't want to face. Right. Well deserved. Do we should we move into cooler play of the match? So moving on, we've got an exciting kind of mix up update. Yep. The cooler player of the match is now brought to you by the doctor's office.
00:27:54
Speaker
which as you all know, our very first sponsor is our very first sponsor, which is the coolest little 12 C bar in Capitol Hill. Our good friend runs it. He is a long time fan of the rain. We run into the matches anytime we, you know, catch one together. If you see a guy in a really cool outfit, yeah, it's probably him. It's probably him.
00:28:14
Speaker
But his bar is like super, super cool. Very swanky, very good vibes. Worth checking out. Also just quirky and like such a fun experience. I don't, I've never been to a bar like that before in the best way possible. So the cooler player of the match this week brought to you by TDO Seattle. Ji So Hyun. Ji So Hyun.
00:28:33
Speaker
Obvious I think it's pretty obvious why I know where to go player the match, but she's so you We've been we've been waiting for this moment and it's here and she deserves all of the flowers 100% hoping to see more hoping this gets her confidence back up I know she's kind of not maybe been I don't know it's been a while since she's been in the league at this level So now she's hit her shred
00:28:55
Speaker
Yeah, I hope so. I think that her playing time's kind of been all over the place. Yeah. So that's hard to navigate as a player, but you like to see when players make the most of the time that they're given. That's what we saw with Pino. That's what we saw with the Damas. Yep. Young or old. We're not ageist.
00:29:13
Speaker
Make the most of your time. Yeah. Welcome to the Cooler Player of the Match Hall of Fame, Jisoo Yoon. Welcome. Congrats. Thank you once again to Dr. Joffis for sponsoring Cooler Player of the Match. Go celebrate Harvey's 100th win with the Boss Cocktail. What a fitting name. I know. It's a wintry mix of bourbon, black walnut, aged apple brandy, and a unique sherry cinnamon syrup.
00:29:36
Speaker
Oh, that sounds so good. So go check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers. All right. Let's get into other happenings. Oh, let's talk about the team a little bit.
Signing of Hanna Glas and Impact Discussion
00:29:49
Speaker
We got some news today that the rain have signed a Swedish defender kind of glass.
00:29:55
Speaker
I'm excited for this one. I think it'll be good to have a little bit more depth back there. And she's been in the league for a little bit, so. Yeah, she's kind of got a weird history with injuries and stuff like that. So I think that's why we got such a deal on her.
00:30:11
Speaker
Yeah, 40 sale surgeries. That's wild. No clue how that's going to play out. But the way that the- Talk about resilient. That's right. That's what we're all about here is players that have no issues possibly getting injured again.
00:30:27
Speaker
The deal they got for her was like, I mean, it didn't cost as much. There's some like performance incentives. So like if she really isn't healthy enough or whatever, then like we aren't really losing anything. And even then it's just an extra 10,000 whatever for it. So yeah, I think you need definitely need some depth, especially with bug, you know, being away a little bit. And there's some, I don't know, personal stuff going on with a low. It sounds like we don't
00:30:54
Speaker
No, it's going on there, but we just hope she gets gets back to whenever she's ready. Yeah, somebody on the Slack shared Olo was also gone last season for like six weeks or something. And she shared a bit about just how she felt so supported by Laura Harvey, which I thought was really cool.
00:31:15
Speaker
Because that's what you want from the club that you follow, that they're really there and they have your players best interests at heart. And I think that just goes to show that at least in this instance, that's the case. Choose an important piece to the team, too. So, you know, you don't want to see any player kind of get booted for dealing with whatever they need to deal with outside of soccer or whatever this may be. But I think especially because of somebody that's important to our team, you want to see them get the support from the club still.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah, I hope to see her back soon, but whatever she needs. Yeah, which kind of ties into the CBA that was just signed. Mm hmm.
NWSL CBA Details and Implications
00:31:51
Speaker
We didn't get to talk about that last episode. We kind of had a lot to cover. And so we didn't get to talk about the CBA either, which really just went into effect. But in honor of Labor Day, that was yesterday. Mm hmm. Whoo, unions. I'm a union member. I'm not. But I support them ally. I love being in a union.
00:32:11
Speaker
I happily pay my dues. No more entry or expansion drafts. That's huge. Which is just so huge. Yeah, the expansion drafts are miserable. Expansion drafts are miserable. The entry draft tied players up, even if they weren't going to be used. I mean, it was the same kind of gripes we had at the beginning of the season talking about Mesa. Yeah. And speaking of Louisville, you know, with the way that they got like Tobin Heath rates and all that bullshit.
00:32:39
Speaker
That's going to be happening ever again. Nope. That's a good part. I mean, and then also another great thing is free agency. Yep. Everybody has free agency. Your contracts are guaranteed and you're not moving anywhere unless you agree to it.
00:32:56
Speaker
which it did it it sounded like Bethany Balzer would have vetoed the move and the interview that she did about this this move to Louisville she might have vetoed it had this been in effect when it happened so that's the part to me that's going to be interesting to watch play out because what if you do have a player that you would like to move on from and maybe get
00:33:16
Speaker
you know they have some value in them and this is a part of sports right is like trading players while they have value so if a player doesn't want to leave then what do you do you really gotta really gotta do some thinking be smart and also like have a good reputation yeah but if a player you're not trading a player if they're not performing yeah but i'm just unless they want to go yeah but that's what i'm saying what if they refuse to what if they refuse
00:33:40
Speaker
But then you have to make it work with them, right? Yeah, it'll be something really interesting to see play out. You might just not see them on a game day roster.
00:33:49
Speaker
Yeah, that just, yeah. It'll be interesting to see what kind of that does to the environment. I don't think it'll change a lot. I think players having the ability to be where they want to be is only helpful to everyone. Yeah, I guess it changes the dynamic that this is just something we're not used to. It changes the dynamic with ownership and the coaches and everything.
00:34:11
Speaker
Right, because they kind of hold this power above them. And now that's going to be not so, I don't know, imbalanced. Yeah. I think too, like you're just going to have players that are more content to be there because players are there because they want to be. Yeah. They're not going to be worried about leaving. Yeah. And for players that don't make that much money to have to uproot their lives out of nowhere. Yeah. I'm not against it. I'm just like really curious to see how this is going to play out. For sure.
00:34:41
Speaker
Another thing, charter flights. So now there's. You get a total six charter flights, which the rain use there's on their flight to Louisville this past week because there's no direct flights to Louisville from Seattle.
00:34:54
Speaker
Yeah. So it's six flight legs. So three round trip you're entitled to without needing approval. And then clubs are required to charter for certain midweek games, which I think is great. Another thing that I thought was really interesting was the clubs will phase out team provided housing as part of player compensation. Oh, I think I missed that.
00:35:17
Speaker
So what's really interesting is that they were able to house players in a club owned house or apartment or whatnot and use that as part of their salary. So they were taxed on that rent that they were supposedly paying. So housing is no longer included in that salary. Okay. I mean, if the players are great upon it, then great.
00:35:41
Speaker
So over the next six years, um, as long as they don't renegotiate, uh, the cap of how much teams can spend on player salaries will rise from 2.75 million in 2024 to at least 5.1 million in 2030. Do you have the, um, minimum salary pulled up to there? Cause that's pretty notable.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah. Minimum salary in 2025 will be 48.5,000 eventually getting to 82.5,000 by 2030. Yeah. And there's no maximum salary now. That's going to be, um, like if you're in certain cities, that's going to go much further.
00:36:16
Speaker
Right. And that's kind of what they were talking about. But, um, with the guaranteed minimum based salary cap, uh, that helps ensure players get paid even if revenue drops off. Okay. Because they're also implementing some sort of revenue sharing with clubs that plays into player salaries. Okay. I'm not quite sure how that's going to work, but I will, when they do their financial call at the end of the season, I'm sure we'll hear a lot more.
00:36:42
Speaker
This, uh, CBA is like probably one of the biggest and craziest things we've ever seen in this country. So good for the players for coming up with everything they wanted and getting it, everything that they got at least. Yeah. Um, I mean, they kind of needed to do something like this because of, um, the way the sports going overseas, they want to stay at the top for this league. Um, cause.
00:37:06
Speaker
I don't think you want to come over here if you're over in England or Spain or wherever and someone might just trade you and you didn't agree to it. Yeah, that that would not be fun. No, I just feel like there's certain locations in this league where if you're, I don't know, queer, black, you know, some minority, there are certain places in this country you definitely do not want to be traded to. Or an international player.
00:37:33
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So now they've got control of a lot of things now, and that's really great. So congrats to the enemy cell players association on getting that done. Same proud of it. And they should be other games around the league this week.
00:37:49
Speaker
I pointed this out to you, but, um, I just, you know, I thought we should celebrate the goalkeeping in Portland, the new goalkeeping in Portland.
Portland Thorns' Challenges and Player Highlights
00:37:58
Speaker
I have my Australia Jersey on, um, cause you know, just star performance out, out in Portland. So bad. So they signed McKinsey Arnold, I think coming off the high from the world cup, but, but first of all, the high wasn't even good.
00:38:17
Speaker
She was one of the lowest performing goalkeepers there. I know. Fine by me. Like I said, I'm wearing my Australia jersey and I'm happy. Yeah, it's great for us that are not fans of Portland. It was gratifying to see Portland women's soccer Twitter be so upset about it. I just kept sending you articles.
00:38:38
Speaker
It didn't seem like anyone was happy with the signing when it happened. And I was talking to at like the labor. We had like a little barbecue yesterday at my mother-in-laws and my wife's like cousin had had his girlfriend was there and she's a big Portland Thorns fan and she used to play as well and she played center back. So she's also pretty critical of goalkeepers. And she just put her head down when I brought up Mackenzie Arnold. She was like, I don't want to talk about her. Like I'm like I was so mad when she got signed.
00:39:08
Speaker
Interesting signing. Interesting signing. Maybe it changes. I don't know. But if that's going to be your starting keeper. Interesting.
00:39:18
Speaker
I am, I do have to say I am biased because their second goalkeeper is not great, but they do have a third goalkeeper on their roster who does not have an appearance yet, who could be very valuable to your team. And it helps that she played on my team here, FC Olympia, but Kat Asman, Wednesday. You know, you got to give people a chance sometimes.
00:39:43
Speaker
But I don't think she's the only thing is she's not gonna get her chance now because of they're putting all their cards in on Mackenzie Arnold, which is just insane. Yeah, I mean insane interesting fun to watch from a perspective.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, they lost pretty bad. Sophia Smith didn't get a goal for them, but they still lost three to one to, of all teams, Bay FC, who are not good, not good at all. They should have won that game. Well, they didn't. Any other things happen in the league over the weekend? I there was chewing a
00:40:20
Speaker
oh god what a player she just is so quick and so smart in her positioning that she was able just to rip a ball off the defender and go score it yeah um they did lose still which is like i said fraud watch they are on fraud watch still for me
00:40:40
Speaker
I'm still, they're still there. I'm not taking them off. I think this dad was something to do with, um, years ago, Alex Morgan won the golden boot with 14 goals, but Chewinga has 14 goals right now. Oh Jesus. Yeah. This is what I'm talking about. Like if I want to be an elite team in this league, uh, I need a goal score. I mean, it can even be half of what Chewinga does.
00:41:03
Speaker
i know she's just like next next next level um but yeah i i long for the day we have a goal score like that i mean there will probably never be another tringa but
00:41:14
Speaker
And then Orlando has still not been beaten. They're unbelievable. How many games like how many games have they played? Is it 18? Are they 18? Are they? Yeah, we're all at 18 this week. So they haven't lost a match. And like if you go back even further with regular season games, it goes back even further. But that's 13 wins. Five draws is just unreal. I am tying it back to the game. I didn't mention this, but Monda Seer did play well.
00:41:45
Speaker
I just love her attacking prowess and taking players on. I think that it inspires other players to be a little bit more bold and brave. Yeah. I think once she gets more minutes under and she can go further in the match or even sub on earlier, right? Like I don't, you know, kind of that extra spark. Yeah. The last like 30 minutes or so, hopefully earlier, Laura Harvey.
00:42:14
Speaker
I did see Sarah Gordon get absolutely rocked. Two black eyes, right? Yeah. Two black eyes, stitches in the middle of the match and still kept playing. Who decided she- I don't know how you pass concussion protocol after that. Yeah, who decided she shouldn't get pulled out? I don't know. It seems fishy, but they still won the game. Yeah, at what cost?
00:42:36
Speaker
Utah did beat Houston, though. But Houston sucks. Yeah, I mean, they're in the last place now. Which had kind of been a long time coming, I feel like. I mean, the Utah is really bad, too. Yeah, Utah made some signings, though. Well, yeah, but they were also out because they got their other big player. Centnor is out at the 20 World Cup as well.
00:42:58
Speaker
No, they still won. They still won. Yeah, good for them. And I'm happy to see teams below us beating teams that can keep the other teams below us because that's
Importance of Reign's Victory in Standings
00:43:09
Speaker
what we need. As long as we keep winning and staying above those teams, it's fine. Because this racing game was kind of a big deal with the standings too. For sure. Did what we needed to do.
00:43:19
Speaker
This Louisville game was so big, both for the signing off, whatever you want to call it, to see who won the signing trade. Trade off? The trade off? Could be. The trade off. We'll call it that. So the trade off, we were trying to figure out who wins the trade off, but also the standings were so damn tight that if we would have lost the trade off and lost this game, this would have really put us in a hole.
00:43:43
Speaker
Yeah, we won. We won the trade off this trade off. We won the trade so far. I feel like if Bethany Balzer is going to have a revenge tour, it starts against the rain and that didn't happen. Yeah. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. But looking forward to next week. So let's take a break before we preview the next match. We'll be right back.
00:44:07
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Soundwork Heart podcast network, which now includes No Sunny Yetis, Lobbing Scorchers, and The Cooler Guild. We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues. Although this podcast is free, it's only made possible by your continued support. Memberships start as low as $25 a year, which not only helps make podcasts like this one happen, but also gives you access to everything we produce.
00:44:33
Speaker
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00:45:00
Speaker
And we're back and we're going to play Friday. We get the Amazon prime game.
Excitement for Upcoming Broadcast and Anecdotes
00:45:05
Speaker
Yes, indeed. I love the Amazon prime games. I made the mistake of thinking the last game was Amazon prime game and they were extending to Saturdays, but apparently on Saturdays or some Saturdays, they put the ion games on Amazon prime as well.
00:45:19
Speaker
Yeah, it's one of their like select channels where if you like have Amazon Prime, it's like a live TV offering. Love the Amazon broadcasts. Production quality is always top notch. It's so good. But yeah, we play Friday night, 7 p.m. our time at Angel City. Also their time. But for our East Coast listeners. Yeah, we do have a lot of East Coast listeners. We've also got some European listeners. So yeah. Shout out the one Vermont listener we have. I see you. Me too.
00:45:49
Speaker
Oh, I was watching Price is Right today. And this lady won like a cabin getaway trip in Burlington, Vermont. Oh, that sounds amazing. And she was like, that's where I live. Oh, no. Staycation. I live in Vermont. And he was like, how close do you live to Burlington? She's like, about an hour and a half.
00:46:16
Speaker
Did she look fired up, though? I bet she was still fired up. Oh, she's stoked. She's stoked. I mean, it's kind of nice to like get a staycation because like traveling is kind of a pain in the ass. Yeah. I mean, you're on the prices, right? So you would hope it's like Tahiti or something. But, you know, yeah. And in Burlington.
00:46:32
Speaker
So we play Angel City Friday the 6th. We are 7, 1, and 1 against them all time. We usually play pretty well against them. We hope we can make it 8, 1, and 1 against Angel City. But we will be at a bit of a disadvantage because Jalen Howell got a yellow card in the last game, which makes her ineligible for this game because she has to serve a yellow card accumulation suspension. So our star promise player will be out.
00:47:01
Speaker
And I do have to say, mention that one of the really great things in the postgame interview was she was, they had her on for the postgame, you know, win player interview on the broadcast and PB McLaren and Jordan. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:17
Speaker
came and ran over and we're like taking her headphones off and we're like we're sorry she's got to come celebrate and she like put them back on it was like i gotta go i'm sorry but thank you and like took them off and then they ran over to the celebration and she's in the middle just jumping up and down which
00:47:34
Speaker
It was so the vibes were so good, right? I just feel like the change and shift of energy of the club and the team But the funniest part to me was and I know they love their light shows at Louisville But if you notice when you go watch that clip, we were like shuts their life It's like mid celebration of like her jumping in the middle I'm like that seems intentional like because they were starting to take photos, you know above of it Yeah, and then the lights just got shut off and I'm like that's shady. But also maybe you shouldn't have lost I
00:48:01
Speaker
I just love the atmosphere of a player that was signed like two weeks before. Oh, yeah. And other players embracing them like that. Yeah. Making sure that they're included. And then just like the utter joy of her jumping around. I know. I was just like, all right, this is this is this is good. Yeah.
00:48:21
Speaker
Um, anyway, so how will we be out? We haven't played them in a while. Angel City. Yeah, we haven't. We haven't won in a while before these last two games. And that's usually because we haven't played Angel City recently. Fair, fair.
00:48:36
Speaker
Well, last time we played them was one zero meeting in the quarterfinal win at home. Um, that was a Lasko header. Oh, what a game 87 minute winner. Um, that was an incredible game. It was a great game. Pino's last time game first playoff. Oh my God. I hate saying this stuff. I hate it so much. First playoff win since 2015. We loved getting to the playoffs. We didn't like it advancing though. Um,
00:49:00
Speaker
Um, kind of cool though. It looks like Ruff and Tumble is going to be doing a little wash party for that match. You do have to get a ticket. They're complimentary, but I think they just want to make sure they don't like go over capacity and have people waiting because it does get very crowded for those. Um, so go online. There's limited tickets available still. They got links, I believe on their Instagram for Ruff and Tumble doors at five 30 should be a great time. Highly recommend going there. We've enjoyed ourselves. So we've gone. Yeah. Yeah. It's a great time. Love Jen. Shout out Jen. Other shout outs.
00:49:28
Speaker
Yeah. Speaking of other shout outs, uh, you know, we always got to shout out the teams below us, which now there are three. Now there's three. Cause we only had one before we're up to a total of three. Now you want to shout them out? Yeah. So shout outs to San Diego wave, Utah Royals, Houston dash. That was fireworks.
00:49:50
Speaker
So hopefully we can keep adding, adding to the teams below us. That's the dream, right? That's the dream. I mean, I don't think we're going to get that many more if we make the playoffs, but we just need to get in there. We just need a few below us a little more than what we have right now, but I'll take whatever we can get. What a week. I'm happy to be happy podcasting about it.
00:50:09
Speaker
Yeah. Fun fact, we had our most ever. I posted this on our Instagram. We are starting to finally get the Instagram going, but we had our most ever listeners first single episode. I know. The last episode. So that's great. Thank you everyone. Yeah. People are sharing. People are sharing. People are listening because it's not just like sometimes the last like, I don't know, early episodes, we had a lot of listeners. It was like me testing the episode. So it was like four listens from the same location and it was my house.
00:50:35
Speaker
You can't tell exactly where it is, but you're the only person in a story. Yeah. But like now we're getting them all over the place and I've, you know, my testing is getting better. So there's only one listen for me, but yeah, we really, really appreciate everybody that's been tuning in and we're getting more subscribers in from our link on Senator Hart. So that's super cool. You can find us on X or only known as Twitter and also on Instagram at cooler guild pod. You can send us an email. We love an email that address is the cooler guild at gmail.com.
00:51:05
Speaker
We're also on sounder heart. You can go to our site there, our page, our page there at sounder. You could just say, go subscribe. You can subscribe at sounder heart.com forward slash the cooler guild. Excellent. Go also go check out more right of the Valkyrie stuff. If you haven't, cause we love them. They're the best. Good people, good articles, good feedback, good insight, good information, good stats, good facts.
00:51:31
Speaker
Good friends. We, we love you folks. Uh, and if you're listening, wherever you're listening, please go rate five stars. Anything else you want to plug in? No. Uh, we'll be back next week. Hopefully with another dub. Um, our friends over at lobbying scorchers are finally getting a taste of what we were dealing with. I feel bad for them, but not that bad. Cause we're getting to record wins. So until next time I'm coop I'm van. Bye. Bye.
00:52:16
Speaker
some people the way for that one special okay there's other leak lyrics that are involving kiss but i chose that one anyways um