Transcript
Speaker: Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 78 of the Cooler Guild. I am Coop Cooper, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van Crisp. What's up? It's Tuesday, September 15th, 2026, and we are here recording um on today's episode.
Speaker: I can just keep replaying it. It's another dub. Another one? Another dub pod. Wild. ah This is a great turn of events for us as Rain fans and for the team. Before we get into everything that happened and the usual stuff we go over, we got some housekeeping to take care of. The Cooler Guild is part of the Sounder at Heart podcast network. You can either listen to us on our public feed or if you're a Sounder at Heart subscriber, on the private unified feed with the other podcasts on the network.
Speaker: If you'd like to become a subscriber, just visit our page at sounderatheart.com forward slash the Cooler Guild. New subscribers get 10% off the normal rate and you'll help support everything we're doing. Did you go to your beekeeping thing? i did. how was it Six hours long.
Speaker: Did you know it is' that long? Yes. You sound like you didn't know. I thought it'd be more interactive. Like six hours just the bees or five hours with the bees or four hours with the bees? It was six hours of slideshow lecture and information.
Speaker: That sucks. It was a lot. Yeah. But we made it through it. Great. ah that was not like That was last weekend, though. Okay. I know. I just never followed up. Okay. ah This weekend, um we went to the game. Great.
Speaker: Her first rain game. That's awesome. It was great. Did you know that if you park in the parking garage, you can access the stadium from the parking garage on the fifth floor? Like if you use the normal tickets? Yeah. Oh, weird. All tickets. I learned that. I didn't know that. Because i saw I had bought club tickets for us because, you know, first game, got to go all out. Right. In an affordable fashion. Yeah. Not field tickets. But ah I noticed when we were driving because said, I'll park on the fifth floor. And I was like, it says suite and club access. So I was like, well, let's just see. So we walk up and I was like, can we get in here with the club tickets? and they said, any tickets. Oh, weird.
Speaker: I guess people buy the parking there. So it'd be weird if they like told them they couldn't go through there, right? Yeah. thought that was neat And it was something new I learned. Cool. but it was It was a super fun game. Yeah. Got our Snoopy hats.
Speaker: Mm hmm. Very cute. yeah They did have an adult option this year. That's good. But it was a fun game to watch. It's good. Good crowd. Yeah. Did you anything fun this weekend? I had a lot of busy stuff going on. Started my new job. I went to Portland on Sunday to go see a podcast, live podcast, I guess. Yeah. It used to be like they used to do recordings in a studio, but now they just do live shows um and it's an improvised musical. That sounds like my nightmare. It's actually really great. ah it sounds It does not sell when you just explain what it is.
Speaker: ah But it's like these two really talented improv like comedians. They're on a bunch of different dropout improv shows. And they just have this like weird talent to improv improvise musicals.
Speaker: Yeah, I would still hate that. I don't like musicals. I don't either. i don't like musicals. i I really don't, but they're really good at what they do. um i brought a friend to this blind ah who doesn't know anything about this fucking show. She does like musicals and we tend to have the same type of humor. So I was fairly confident that she would like it.
Speaker: And like the first two songs play and she looks at me and her mouth is just like wide open. She's like, i they are so talented. i can't believe they can do this. And I was just like, I know. Who else is talented?
Speaker: Who? Lorraine. was trying to do a transition, but you were still talking. It didn't Well, I just wanted to say that the show that i saw, they sang about ballet and firefighters. It was them trying to slide down ballet poles, imaginary ballet, like firefighters.
Speaker: Ballet poles are horizontal. Yeah, I know. Well, someone suggested stripper poles, but they decided to go with the firefight or the ah firefighting method because dancing on a imaginary poles too difficult. Anyways, it was a whole thing. You can listen to it later. It's called off book. ah Yeah. The talented rain. How many wins do we have in a row?
Speaker: Three. Is there a goal streak now? 14 games. We have 14 games with a goal? Yeah. 14 games since I hired the Etsy witch. Wow. That's incredible. Didn't know I could be here right now experiencing the rain at this level. ah So to that, I am going to open my beer. Van didn't have one because she's driving and being responsible. Usually you have a root beer. I might well i might go see if I have a cherry Coke. Give me a second. You don't have to. It's too late for caffeine, I think.
Speaker: It's never too late for caffeine. It is. You have to be up early. i know. You're too old to do that. All right. So cheers to the rain. Oh, that was interesting. I was also taking a break from drinking, but someone needed to cheers the rain. This is like a, it's a very low ABV one.
Speaker: It's like the, I mean, everyone's been at low ABV ones. It's great. What is it called? Bookend? Bookend? Yeah, 3%. It's 3% beer. Nice. Small eight IPA. So you went to the game. It's a fun time. You were in the stands. How did you feel going into this?
Speaker: I felt fairly confident. But after Laura never being able to beat Bay before the first time they played them this year, i was like, ooh, are we going to be one and done with Bay this year and like have an issue with them? But it seemed to be OK. was but I felt like the team was in good form. I had confidence in Cassie Miller after knowing that Claudia still needed to be out.
Speaker: I was it was interesting to see Coco start. And it seems i I actually do think she had a really good game. It's I mean, I think the reason for is because of we have a packed schedule coming up. Right. ah But she stepped up, I think, pretty well. Yeah. So just looking at that, i was like curious, but also pretty confident.
Speaker: i don't know if I felt the same, but I mean, I was proven wrong. Yeah. I mean, they end up winning 2-0. Shutout at home. Third straight shutout at home. We need these. Have we won more than three games in a row? Am I just crazy? shit.
Speaker: We have the internet. I'm using it. Although, yeah it's three games in a row. Okay. We're undefeated in four. That's right. But three games in a row with shutouts. Which is our complaint for a bit was not getting the shutouts because a big identity for the Reign is their defense and how much pride they have in how they show out.
Speaker: And they were kind of letting silly goals in. kind of i mean, they talked about this like... After the Gotham game and what happened there, I feel like that game was truly tragic to watch, but they did seem to take a lot from it.
Speaker: Sure did.
Speaker: You have a note here about the broadcast, which I didn't listen to. Yeah, because you were at the game. i think it was Zerboni was on the call. McCall Zerboni. And then i can't remember who else was on it, but they, I mean, we've been harping on it All Reign fans know that this team isn't as stacked as they need to be, as they could be. They don't spend money like they could, as much as we wish, I guess they would. But yeah, the broadcast team pointed out that what Harvey has done with this team is is kind of wild. Yeah. given the lack of stars, like household name stars that this team has.
Speaker: I mean, household, like which households? not Not in the Seattle area. If you pull up, like what names on this team would people know in other parts of the country? Like I don't, it's not we have a like a Rapinoe. We don't have anything close Rapinoe on this team.
Speaker: We don't have a Rose Lavelle. We have upcoming stars for sure. But yeah, I thought it was kind of... Interesting to hear the broadcast team bring it up. I feel like they understand the frustrations maybe of what fans complain about.
Speaker: But Harvey does make it work. And there are a lot of fans that tend to blame Harvey for the problems on this team. And if you know ball, you know NWSL ball, then you understand that this team um and what they're doing right now is largely contributed to what Laura Harvey can do and bring out in players.
Speaker: And I think it's this kind of, you know, the broadcast crew pointing this out. It goes back to kind of that same conversation we've been having where like, yeah, are we in size that like we haven't brought in a big name player to fill a gap?
Speaker: Yes. But there is growth and growing confidence. With the current roster and and the way that they've been performing. Yeah, she was gassing them up and saying like they they keep themselves in games and they always give themselves a chance.
Speaker: And the fact that they can do that with this roster just speaks volumes of what Laura Harvey does, even though some people don't want to give her credit. Yeah, mostly fans who just want to. I don't know what they want to do there. They just want to be a hater.
Speaker: They sure do get some notable stats. Yeah, we've talked about most of them. ah But another one is that was Huerta's 40th regular season NWSL goal. Eight have been with the rain. That's it?
Speaker: Yep. thought it was more. Oh, well. If it is then Ryan is wrong. It's probably not. That was in the game notes. He usually gets the stats right. I just, I get, she takes so many penalties, so it just feels like she had other goals, but I guess, yeah, I guess this makes more sense. it's like We also don't get a lot of penalties. No, you're right. And Darlene took the last couple?
Speaker: Two? She took two. Two? One? Two? Anyway. Yeah. Cool. Well, what worked for you in this game? Obviously the clean sheet and Cassie Miller. It's so good when you have a backup that can just step in like nothing happened.
Speaker: Right. Like they've been playing all season and it feels like that's what we have with Cassie Miller. It seemed there's no big miscommunications between her and the back line. seems like they and what they've said in the presser was they have the utmost confidence in her. And I think that shows on the pitch. Yeah.
Speaker: And she came up huge in a save that should have been up for save of the week. It wasn't because the NWSL is stupid, but... But we still watch it. We still love it. it um I think she doesn't make that save, that diving save, two-handed. So she gets a strong hand on it, pops it off the post, and it gets cleared. If she doesn't make that save, the game change the game changes. So I don't know if we get the win without her. Yeah, there was like like a little bit of a shaky moment, I thought, her. because it was raining. what Was it Yeah. Oh, I couldn't tell. It started raining. So the pitch from dry to wet got really slippery. Oh, OK, OK, OK. Yeah, the shot from Nyswanger was a little weird. It was like a weird shot. So then like, yeah, Cassie. it skipped off the pitch. Yeah, so Cassie kind of had had a little bit of adjustment, weird adjustment there, but it worked. We already shot out the Etsy witch, but i do have to always put what worked the Etsy witch as long as we keep scoring. I feel like it's not doing us any service. Like, it's probably not good to not shot her out.
Speaker: um So shout out to the Etsy witch. I was sitting there. I was like, if it's the one game that I sit in the stands and watch and they don't score, i'm going to be so mad. Like, i i cursed it.
Speaker: Yeah. But that's not what happened. Yeah, you didn't. And we also got two goals in this one. So that's fucking rad because we've been having a little bit of a annoyance with that. But no issue here. In another VAR, not even VAR, but the but the penalty was called on the pitch.
Speaker: Coco did a really great job of taking the corner and trying to get a round in a nice wanger. And nice she just couldn't get to her and had to chop her down. Yeah, I think Nyswonger is just a little rusty after her failed unfortunate move, whatever you want to call it.
Speaker: So I'm sure she'll get back to it and back to the best she's capable of being. But that wasn't on the rain night, luckily for us. Yeah, so getting that penalty call and then Horta just stepping up.
Speaker: Goalkeeper goes the right way, but it's placed so well with enough pace that it goes in. Yeah, it was a nice, strong shot. What else did you think? This isn't a surprise everybody, but Sam Meza was phenomenal, as usual. She's doing this thing that I feel like a lot of veteran players do. And at this point, she plays like a veteran, so I'm not surprised. But I feel like really good midfielders like her, ah they're really good at drawing fouls at like key moments to kind of slow things down or like get your players forward and kind of reposition. and And I feel like she's been starting to get that into her game really, really well. There's got at least a couple moments in this game where I saw her drawing some pretty...
Speaker: Important fouls, but i mean it's just like one facet of her game that she's just like keeps figuring out many many things to do and how to be like such a good player yeah It's so fun to watch her It is really fun to watch her.
Speaker: I love it every week every week still consistent I will also shout out another player that I don't have written down, but I said it in the chat Share it here. I think that that was the best game. I've seen Sally Menti play. Okay. Yeah, I thought she was really good But Bay is not very good.
Speaker: Again. Because i I saw a lot of players kind of, they were looking pretty saucy in this game. Mm-hmm. Like, Mentu, when she gets saucy, it's great. I saw Darlene kind of doing some saucy stuff. Mercado was looking saucy, too. Everyone was kind of feeling it. I wish we could maybe could have gotten some more interesting goals from the starters. But, yeah. meant i thought I thought they all good. They did.
Speaker: Just do it against a really good team sometime. I guess that's that's not the game plan we go into, though, against really good team, so... Be saucy. Can you try to be saucy against ah the best defense in the fucking league? Thanks. But they, you know, they took care of it. Taking care of business, your team below the playoff line.
Speaker: This gave them a little bit of cushion. Yeah. And we've had issues playing teams worth in us. Exactly. That's why I had to put it down. They have lost every game that they've conceded first. Yeah, they they went on the broadcast. no Oh my God. Yeah. Yikes. hey The last thing that I'll put in here. i love...
Speaker: the just the decision of Brittany Radcliffe and apparently from the presser Laura said that she was initially saying take it to the corner and then she was like go just go in and Brittany Radcliffe just switched on turned in went to goal and just finished that in the last minute of stoppage time I feel like the team is just growing in this way that they want to be. And maybe that was just her personal effort, or maybe it's a reflection of the mentality of the team as a whole. But I really think that that says something in comparison to the team that we saw earlier this year to now.
Speaker: I don't think that that's a decision that would have been made. Potentially. right i mean, Ratcliffe was kind of doing this early in the season, right? And yeah then there was a huge kind of not much happening.
Speaker: I do think that there might be a correlation with people and their bad takes on Reddit. I wouldn't give him that not much credit. No, but there has been like, I feel like there was there was a post about Ratcliffe and how she's done nothing for this team all season, which first of all, not true. And then even before this game wasn't true. And then there was somebody also being like Maddie Mercado should be, you know, on a different team. and the brain Oh, you were talking about that. about that last week. Yeah, and it just seems like every time someone bashes, like maybe not everyone, some idiot, some every time some idiot tries to like come with come up with a take, a hot take that doesn't make any sense because clearly I don't watch the team closely enough, but it seems like the next week that player does something ah to kind of put them back in their place. Yeah. I just love the decision.
Speaker: Getting that extra goal. Yeah. That has been an, that was an issue. One point or two. Exactly. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's good to know. I mean, with the Louisville game and how that went, sometimes I have my doubts about this team, you know, stepping up in ways that they really need to, especially with the way that the kind of the playoffs are starting to shake out and how close we are to the end of the season. So Yeah. Shout out to Radcliffe for making sure that that wasn't on the line. That was all you wanted to do for what worked? What didn't work for you?
Speaker: also noted slash things that made me nervous and or concerned about. Sure. but Yellow flags. Yeah. There's a part. I took a picture because I was just taking a picture of the field in the minute was this.
Speaker: It was the 74th minute. The ball is in our box and our highest player is Mia Fischel and she's about maybe eight yards outside of the 18 yard box. What minute was this?
Speaker: The 74th minute. what When did Fischel sub on? she She started. Fischel didn't start, did she? Oh. i don't think she did. i don't think so. You're right. ah She subbed on, minute was that? 68th minute. Okay.
Speaker: But even with that, everyone is so far packed back. Where's our high player? So I'm sitting at half field and you could clearly see so much space between James Turner and Meza and the front four slash the wide players in the front two.
Speaker: They're missing that attacking midfielder that it will really fill that space. and it was just so prevalent in this game, probably from just the angle that I was sitting at. And I don't know if that's something that like Menti and Fishel are supposed to be like swapping on and dropping into that space to help out or what it is.
Speaker: But when Fishlock came on, she filled that space. Seemed to solve it. Yeah. I feel like McCammon not being there is probably not helping that. if you have but it's been an issue yeah i'm not saying it hasn't been and like we have to do rotations anyways because we have these crazy weeks so like not everyone's gonna keep playing so they should be able to make those adjustments yeah so it's just something to watch out for okay i'll watch out I mean, this is like, it goes into like what the piece we've been hoping to add to the team and we never did So thanks for that, uh, front office. Really appreciate that. Uh, the stress will continue and i will still be a little skeptical in terms of the longterm run, but, um,
Speaker: you No, the team did get a 2-0 win and that rules. was awesome. They found a way to do it. They did it in a little bit of a gritty fashion, but I do think they look like the better team the whole game. Especially the second half. Yeah. Yeah. ah It was fun. It was a fun game, I thought. i saw some people complain about how it was a little bit of a, ah I don't know. Some people didn't find it super entertaining, but I liked it. What do people want? Do you want bad defense? Because, like, I don't want that. Honest question. Yeah, i can't answer that for you. ah Did you watch the post-match wrestlers? I did. did you get out of those?
Speaker: Somebody asked Cassie Miller. Because it was Cassie Miller and Sofia Huerta. And somebody asked Cassie... If her mindset is different since she already had to step in this season. And there was one quote that I wrote down from her that I really, really liked.
Speaker: And she said, at the end of the day, that's my job. That's my role. Been playing this game forever. So stepping in is fun. And just being out there with the girls is really fun. So just happy to get the clinch and get the win. But that that responsibility and understanding and being happy in some context about your role, that's my job. That's my role. That's just such a consummate professional.
Speaker: so I loved that. Also, apparently Huerta like had a feeling that they they were going to get a PK today or in that game. little premonition. I guess. she just She said, don't know. Don't know why. Just had a feeling. She didn't. Okay. That's interesting. I wouldn't It's not they pointed out that Bay is like really bad at giving up penalties or anything. So, but I mean, sometimes you feel due for them. Oh yeah. yeah So it was weird.
Speaker: Anything else I got from this? ah Talk about like ah some adjustments that were made at half. And Laura made a point I have to protect centrally and adjust players to not have the six be pulled out wide so far.
Speaker: And you could tell in the second half that that was happening a lot less because there wasn't that gap between has and Meselike. There wasn't the first half. Harvey talked about how they were reluctant in the first half.
Speaker: loved the subs, thought they all played well, and talked about the decision with playing Coco this week or this match. And she said she met with her this week and thought she was one of the more influential attackers at the beginning of the season, which we we pointed out. And they're just trying to get her back to that. Yeah. all right Like we've seen glimpses of it, but it it just doesn't seem to show up when you need it.
Speaker: yeah And it's a know it's it's annoyed me. To be honest. But she had a really good... I thought she had a good game. It's too bad she wasn't rewarded for some... I mean, she was rewarded for at least one of her efforts in terms of getting the PK.
Speaker: But I did kind of think maybe she deserved to get on the score sheet, at least in an assist or a goal. But sometimes in the fall... think it's coming. Yeah, it doesn't fall that way always. Maybe it'll make her more hungry for the next time. But she looked good in a way that I feel like I hadn't seen in way too long. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker: I've talked about Ratcliffe and how she's good closer for the team. And talking about like just they brought her in because the team lost so much experience last year. And I don't think Laura's ever pointed out that to be a reason why she brought her in. Interesting.
Speaker: It's not just like last year either. It's like last few years, it seems like. Yeah. And a lot of youth on the team. um she, what changed since the world cup, but she was asked about that and she said they've done a lot of work with the sports psychologist and staff collectively is looking at ways that they can be more interactive.
Speaker: And she said she didn't feel like her old school approach from the past was really sinking in. they tweaked, so they tweaked how they analyze games in video and made it more interactive with the group, made it more small groups that are player led, kind of solving it for themselves instead of Laura doing it for them. That's cool.
Speaker: they keep talking about They keep talking about that on the broadcast, too. They keep talking about how the players are like leading all these things. And she made note to say that it's not it's very rarely Fishlock and Phoebe and where a a lot of times it's the younger players. Oh, fascinating.
Speaker: They should do documentary on this team. I know. Sounds interesting to watch. Last thing I'll add, um Grant from Into the Channel asked about Emma Coates and Bay's performance.
Speaker: Because Bay's not necessarily a bad team, but coaches have been getting just axed all season. And Emma said, or um Laura said that she hopes that Bay sticks with her. Well, of course you'd say that, like Emma Coates is English, but...
Speaker: She's also a woman. She also said that there were plenty of seasons when the rain could have turned their back on her. She said, you know, 2013, Bill Predmore could have turned his back on me and he didn't. In 2024, the rain could have done it. They didn't.
Speaker: Mm hmm. So it's she said chop and change is what she called it. Teams don't tend to have a real project that you can see coming to fruition. Hmm. It's interesting to hear that from an actual like, I don't know, that's not talked about, you know, really much at all.
Speaker: Just the constant like. When 2024 was the first year we did the podcast and there was so much, so much crap being talked about Harvey and it was Harvey's fault. We need to get rid of her. I mean, there always is. But it was hard. It was hard that season. it Yeah, it was. it was extremely difficult. We understood the changes that had undergone with the team, so I feel like we were willing to give her grace. and We also understood kind of like her ability to turn teams around, even if there's a tough season.
Speaker: but People don't like to give her credit. Like people, i would say misinformed people don't like to give her credit when she actually is finding success. i feel like, yeah, there's slumps stuff like that. But the fact that you just pointed out what you did about her finding new techniques and ways, that's the mark of a really good coach.
Speaker: And that's somebody that you want to stay in your organization. And that's somebody that you want to kind of work through these little things. And she's doing this with a team that is not star studded. And you have to give her that that credit.
Speaker: Well, I think it's interesting, too, because there's always been talk throughout the years of how she's so set in her ways. And so I think the growth says a lot about the team, sure, but also about her. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
Speaker: And being willing to change in order to fix an issue that's being presented and realizing that maybe it's something I'm doing. Coming from somebody that's always been so staunch in the past, I feel like it's only going to make this team incredibly better. Yeah, I feel like I've been seeing a change in her.
Speaker: And that's really cool to see, knowing that the results are starting to also kind of flip around. It's cool. It's fun. I like it. I'm glad that the team is sticking by her. I also think that this is happening because she genuinely cares about this team and this organization.
Speaker: And I think for the most part, they have her back. Yeah. And I hope they continue to. I wish they would also help her in other ways that they could because she is worth doing that for. And they could have something great here if they were willing to also give her all the tools that she needs to kind of level up again.
Speaker: But, um you know, the challenge is real right now. And she's she's she's definitely up for it. so Yeah, that's about it from the presser. Cool. ah Should we move on to Cooler Player of the Match? Let's do it. All right. The Cooler Player of the Match is brought to you by The Doctor's Office, a great little 12-seat bar on Capitol Hill. The owner is a big fan of the rain and is proud to be our very first sponsor.
Speaker: Gonna give this one to the save of the week, in my opinion. So congratulations, cooler player of the match goes to Cassie Miller this match. Hell yeah. I i just think that save was incredible.
Speaker: Yeah, the game changes if that that doesn't happen, so. It really does. I was, you know, personally kind of vouching for Phoebe at first, but I think i think this is right and correct. um Yeah. So go congrats to to Cassie. And thanks again to our sponsor, of The Doctor's Office. The Doctor's Office is the best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match or really anytime.
Speaker: Make an appointment today and order their limited edition The Free Press Cocktail. The Free Press is sure to bring in fall the right way. Combining cold pressed Pacific Northwest Honeycrisp apple and green tea layered with fragrant oregano and mint finished with fine bubbles. You know, you you say Honeycrisp and I'm there. Yeah. Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person.
Speaker: Cheers. Cheers. Also, Matt, if you're listening, I got chartreuse. I love chartreuse. It's hard to get and Klatskenai liquor store, no one gives a fuck about chartreuse there. You know you can go on the Oregon liquor board and see what stores have what? Yeah, but like chartreuse hasn't been nowhere for like months. Hasn't been nowhere? Hasn't been anywhere? I'm just kidding.
Speaker: Fucking asshole. You're not getting any my chartreuse. Dennis, it's my dad's fault. All right. ah What happened in the end to the NWSL? Let me blow those through these real quick. ah Louisville lost to Gotham 2-1. Shocking.
Speaker: so Yeah. ah Gotham's first goal was from Gruer-Wrighten. It's her first NWSL goal and first Norwegian to score in the league. she this is ah This was a banger. I saw this. it was ridiculous. It was a banger of goal from outside the box. KC tied Orlando two to two I should say KC tied Barbara Banda two to two Holy moly. Orlando's not good, so that's a big result for drop.
Speaker: casey to drop Yeah, KC had goals from Chuinga and Ball. Orlando, both goals were scored from Barbara Banda. And this week it was announced that Orlando had signed Banda to a high and high impact player contract through 2029. Well deserved.
Speaker: She deserves it. I'm glad they did this. If they didn't, somebody else was going to. Yeah. ah Angel City tied Denver three to three. so High scoring game there. Denver kind of dropped the ball on this.
Speaker: They were up three to one at one point. And Chalufia is on a tear. So watch out for that. They got a penalty, but it was Lindsey Heap's first goal for Denver.
Speaker: Houston lost to Utah one to zero. Tanaka scored in the 69th minute. The big blowout of the weekend. The Washington Spirit lost at home to Boston. Not good.
Speaker: Watch the spirits defense look, look terrible. Okay. i was to say, but do you think Trinity Rodman being on her pleasure cruise? Yeah. I know they, they want to say, well, she can do it. And I'm like, well, the her team just lost to Boston. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know what was going on there, but Traore scored in the 81st minute, and that was just like a very weird goal. Snuck in, ah but the ball was bouncing around. they Washington didn't clear it. And then Gutierrez subs in in the 84th minute. Amanda Gutierrez scores in 90 plus four.
Speaker: Gets the ball, scores, just lobs one from about 50 yards out. Yeah, I saw that goal ah when I was at that place yesterday, and like Washington just kind of fucked up. They were just like sleepy. They looked sleepy. Yeah, and then she scored again in 90 plus six. Yeah. So three goals from Boston. Incredible. And another kind of shocker from the weekend, Portland tied Chicago at home.
Speaker: Actually, I have a note about this one. When I was in Portland, my friend that I went with, she's like a quote unquote Thorns fan. um I put that in quotes because she was like, yeah, I think the Thorns are playing tonight. And the game was already over at that point. Yeah.
Speaker: I was like, who are they playing? And she's like, I don't know. I was told they're playing the worst team ever. and I was like, oh, so they're playing Chicago. And then I looked up the score and I was like, oh, this is hilarious. ooh technically Technically, Chicago scored two goals because the first goal was an own goal. But <unk> an this is a Chicago win. this is ah This is like a Chicago's championship right here. Yeah. These days.
Speaker: Portland just could not get their shit together. And then Chicago scored in 90 plus two on a good header off corner kick. Amazing. Love it. that wraps up the NWSL. Well, that's a week of surprising results, I would say. Yeah. it's A little bit. A little bit. Yeah. ah Definitely favorable for the rain.
Speaker: Very good for us. lee I love that for us. ah Next match for the rain we got up. We'll get into that now. Although, we're not I don't know if we're going to have... We'll probably cover the next two games in our next episode as long as I can definitely record. ah But the one that I wrote notes for and will briefly maybe mention the other one. Next game is going to be against Angel City. That's going to Wednesday.
Speaker: That'll be the day that this comes out, 7 p.m., unless they have issues with Zencaster again, which fuck you, Zencaster. It'll be in L.A. So quick turnaround on the road. It will be on Fox 13+, NWSL+. It's also on the radio, 950 KJRFM. AM. m AM. m You said, you put, yeah. the kids You know, KJR, there's a lot of letters happening. Yeah. NWSL Plus.
Speaker: KJR AM. the if If we won this game, and I don't want to like you know put that pressure too much on this, but if we won this game, it would have serious implications because we're one game back right now with ah several teams above us.
Speaker: And if we won, let me double check the table. We're sitting on 37 points, game in hand, on all of the teams above us. If we won, that would put us into fifth place.
Speaker: And we would jump North Carolina, Portland Thorns, and Kansas City. Insane. but The run of rain I've been going on since that break. Wow.
Speaker: i love it. It's nothing sort of short of, don't know, witchy. Yeah. ah Anyways, i i I'm nervous for this game, but I do feel like, you know, what happens happens. And there's a lot of pressure on it. I don't know what's going to happen in it, but...
Speaker: I just had a thought. Okay. So last year when they went down and played in Angel City and lost. Yeah. Remember how Sam Meza was coming back and she had like a really bad game? Uh-huh.
Speaker: Like her one and only. i wonder if she'll go on like an absolute just tear. Potentially. I'm hoping. to be like last time I was here. Yeah. I can't have two bad games in this place.
Speaker: I'm hoping her and Curry, given Curry's previous history there, get the start and just go on tears. That'd be dope. I did kind of like do a little little bit of a deep, but little little shallow dive into Angel City's recent form. They're not... They're not bad right now. They've been scoring a lot of goals, but then if you go look at who they've played, it's maybe not as impressive because they put five goals up on Lost Nation. So they've scored 10 goals in the last three matches, but five half of those were in one game. That's still a lot of goals to put up, and that's not something we've done.
Speaker: But Boston's defense, not great. Yeah. Uh, so I think things I want to see in this game defense, it's gotta be locked in, has to be locked in. There is a lot of firepower on this team and they like to come at you fast.
Speaker: And there was a Claudia update in the pre-match presser that I went to, before this recording. Claudia, she's good. She's back. She's good. She's back. According to, according to Laura, that's, that's what she said. Great. Well, let's have her on her best.
Speaker: What do you want to see in this game? think there's some players that they need to limit, two of them being Jan Stotter Chalufia, because when they can get high together, defenses don't ill have a a chance. So I wonder how they're going to kind of isolate them.
Speaker: And they're going to have to do that because they're pretty threatening. The Reign tend to do a good job, I think, at having the like dealing with the task of, of you know, like you these are the players you need to pay attention to. and they tend to do a pretty good job with that.
Speaker: But they also have had a history of making mistakes in games like this. Like they'll be locked in and all of a sudden just like one thing kind of goes, like one ball kind of doesn't get passed right. And then they're not in position to deal with that.
Speaker: They have really need to be on it for this one. Because Angel City will punish you. i Also, Centenor's kind of been feeling it lately. i do The Reina typically done pretty well against her and dealing with her, but she still has a ridiculous shot from distance that ah they can't give her that space.
Speaker: Exactly. the midfield and and the forwards need to do a ah good job kind of stopping that attack before it starts, limiting those long balls. Do you think the Reign are score again? Oh, yeah.
Speaker: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Who do you want to see kind of get on the score sheet? Who do you expect to get on the score sheet? Expect and want are two different things. Do I think Maddie Mercado might go a little crazy? Yeah. Do I hope it's me official so she can do a cartwheel for that Reign kid?
Speaker: Did you watch that video? I read about it. Yeah. didn't watch it, but she's got to do it. But i think they'll I think they'll get a goal. it's It's about the defense in this game. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, I agree. i was looking at the like the last time you played them. There was a play that I really didn't want to relive. Yeah, I watched the replay again. or the highlights. Yeah, the Chalifia goal.
Speaker: Yeah. Ugh, that was brutal. ah So, don't don't leave any of these players one-on-one with the goalkeeper. They can do silly stuff. I think Dickie can handle it, but... There's only so much you can do at a point. Yeah.
Speaker: Cool. Well... And then what was the game that we have after that? Denver. That'll be interesting. that's in That'll be a challenge. Yeah, that's in Denver. I think the Denver game is going to be more challenging than the Angel City game. Yeah. So if I were to choose one to have a good performance for the team, angel I would want it to be Angel City. Yeah, I think I'm I think I'm there with you.
Speaker: Hopefully they can get some points away from this. If they can get at least three, if they can get one win out of this, I'll be happy. yeah let's just make this make the standings a little like kind of get your get your solidify your playoffs spot or just like being in the playoffs and then you know start climbing yeah have fun with it after that agreed oh lynn is uh lynn's back in training right practice i i saw like some surveillance video yeah did you see that she posted She was in the training room or something. Yeah, well she was running around practice. Did you see this? And she was running behind the goal and somebody shot one. Oh, yeah, I did see that. Yeah.
Speaker: I, you know, i don't hate the idea of her like kind of just like, you know, we got two games left. Oh, guess what? We have Lin-Bean Dole to bring on for the last five minutes. Just fucking go for it, man. Yeah, that's that's something I did want to bring up. But do you have shout outs for the week?
Speaker: I like shout shout out Holly Rowe. Cool. Professional. You can love her or hate her, but she's pretty damn good at her job. So men need to stop disrespecting her. You got shout outs? Should I shout out Macklemore?
Speaker: Why not? You know? Hell yeah. Good for him. ah All right. Thanks again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. You can go follow us on Blue Sky on Instagram at CoolerGuildPod.
Speaker: ah We love an email. You can send us an email. You send that to thecoolerguild at gmail.com. You can also visit us on our main page, which is soundatheart.com forward slash thecoolerguild. Wherever you're listening, please go rate five stars. Till next time, I'm Coop. And we don't quite know when next time will be, but hopefully the episode will be out next week started. yeah yeah i'm gonna be on the road i'm uh i'm gonna be on the road i'm on the road we got coop on the road again i'm gonna be in my van and on the road not okay i'm gonna be in a van electric van ah in or anyways i'm gonna be gone on on the road
Speaker: But we'll figure it out. We'll figure it out. Yeah, where we're trying to figure out the details and figure out that stuff. But hopefully the internet's good enough for that. I'm Coop. I'm Van. Stay cool, y'all. Stay cool.
Speaker: Oh my god. It's not the connection, it's the cat. Shut up, I can hear you.
