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Deep dished at Lumen - Ep. 43
209 Plays2 days ago
It was all good until it wasn't. After being up 3-0 against Chicago the Reign decided to pull a Kingdome and implode by conceding 3 goals in the second half, resulting in a disappointing draw at home. With defensive struggles on full display we discuss this disappointing draw but also talk about the recent phenomenon of the Jordyn Huitema effect. Additionally we do Reign trivia, cover the other results around the league, and preview the Reign’s next match.
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Coop
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Show produced by Coop
Theme song by Alex Juarez
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The Cooler Guild Est. 2024
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Transcript
Introduction and Episode Overview
00:00:21
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 43 of the Cooler Guild. I am Coop Cooper, and joined with me, as always, is my co-host, Van Crisp. What up? We're recording on Tuesday, August 19th, 2025. On today's episode, we're going to go over the rain crashing out versus Chicago, um some other NWCell results, get last week's trivia answer, and preview the rain's next match.
00:00:43
Speaker
But first, some housekeeping. 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 Sounder at Heart subscriber on the private unified feed with the other podcasts on the network.
00:00:54
Speaker
If you'd like to become a subscriber, just visit 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.
Weekend Adventures and Biking Mishaps
00:01:04
Speaker
How was your weekend?
00:01:05
Speaker
Good. Yeah. I'm pretty late back. Cool. Did you do anything or just nothing? but i I'm always doing stuff. Well, sometimes you're like, eh, not much. Just horse stuff.
00:01:18
Speaker
No, I, uh, yeah, I went on a hike. That was nice. I went by myself because I found my, uh, Garmin in reach. Oh, nice. Yeah. I was like, oh yeah, sick.
00:01:29
Speaker
Don't need anybody now. Yeah. I've been on this thing where like I don't want to use my phone. So like I just took my Garmin and left my phone. That's nice. do you have the one where you can like program like text to send back and stuff? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
00:01:41
Speaker
Cool. Yeah. You can do that on most of them, but it's like the in reach mini. Got it. I think like the normal one that backpackers use. I can't, I can't remember if that's the one we have or not. I never, i I never am in charge of don't alone. like a little tiny thing.
00:01:52
Speaker
I think ours is, I think ours is. Yeah. It's probably. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was nice. How about you? I went mountain biking yesterday, yesterday as I told you, and I fell twice.
00:02:05
Speaker
um I mean, it wasn't like I was going fast when I fell. So it's kind of just like a little topple over kind of situation. um But I don't have like biking shorts.
00:02:15
Speaker
Like I have like like padded shorts underneath, but I don't have anything that goes on top of them really. So it's like kind of sketchy for falling. So I did order some performance shorts.
00:02:27
Speaker
so uh those will be coming soon performance jorts yeah yeah so they're they don't actually denim they're part they're denim they're just they have a little bit of you know like other materials so they're a little stretchy and they make them so that that they're like comfortable for writing and they're like it's from a mountain bike company run have you heard of them yeah but maybe i'll bleep that out or cut it out so they don't do free advertising um but i've bought is it like the same kind of denim that your jeans remain out of the jeans that i wore last time yeah yeah those was black ones yeah yeah yeah same same material and i really like them um i got like the men's cut this time so that they sit a little bit lower on my knee yeah um because i don't want to be scraping up my thighs because that's kind of where i scrape myself up i've also got like some gnarly fucking bruise um but you know i needed to get over the fear of falling a little bit i did almost fucking fall from like a huge jump um that i was not centered for because my technique is not good
00:03:22
Speaker
This is like have amateur hour over here. I've biker like gone biking twice in the past like couple couple years, mountain biking. it's ah It's a little sketchy what's happening on the on the the hills with me.
Soccer Match Lineup Analysis
00:03:34
Speaker
but yeah um And I will say, I wanted to bring this up that this is kind of segwaying into the game, but people were calling Haidama's, some people were calling Haidama's goal a bicycle.
00:03:45
Speaker
and it And it was not a bicycle, but if you watched me fall, then yeah, I guess it was a bicycle ah kid Because it did look reminiscent of how I fell.
00:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah. Anyways, let's get into the game now. So... Not good. Not great. I was a little skeptical when the um lineup came out. Yeah. um And it apparently was pretty much what they were doing at the open or the media available practice last week.
00:04:16
Speaker
um But I just don't... We'll talk about that later, but... um yeah bug was out after you know her really poor game last weekend which i thought was interesting because i feel like harvey is the kind of coach that would be like just get back to it she did that for menti i would have done it for bug personally yeah so it could have been something else i don't know again we don't know the ins and outs but um and then not seeing mezza in there which i thought was odd Yeah, so we got James Turner coming back in to start and then Mente in the midfield.
00:04:50
Speaker
ah to It was just an odd. It just seemed odd to me. I mean, here's the thing, though. We went up three zero at that lineup. Right. So it was it worked, but, you know, like everything was fucking gravy. like ah and It worked, but but there were cracks.
00:05:09
Speaker
They just didn't get exploited. there were cracks in the first half, too. They just didn't get properly exploited.
Soccer Game Performance Discussion
00:05:14
Speaker
Yeah, Holmes got cooked really bad. Holmes all game. yeah Anyway, we were up 2-0 at half.
00:05:20
Speaker
After third minute goal from Jess Fishlock, assisted by Jordan Heidema. Really good sequence there. Heidema got through. ball was a little long. She took a touch.
00:05:31
Speaker
Kind of thought it was not great. And then she was able to cut it back and get it to Fishlock. Boom, boom. yeah Right in. So finally some Heidema goal involvement. Little did we know. ah chemistry was flowing with that one.
00:05:43
Speaker
Yeah. And then Heidema scores again 34th minute. Just like a wild bobbling ball in the box and she just throws her foot up. Super scrappy. And gets on it, which is something I feel like we haven't really seen from her.
00:05:56
Speaker
We haven't seen it from a lot of players. feel like we don't have a lot of scrappy goals like that. And I feel like that's kind of. i was honestly surprised that she did that.
00:06:06
Speaker
And I'm like, okay, this is a player that wants to score a goal. Yeah. It's going to do anything to score a goal. Yeah. So that was really cool to see. And honestly, she had a great game. She had a fantastic game. So suck it haters. Uh, second half, they were still announcing i missed it half the the halftime sub.
00:06:24
Speaker
Yeah, I was doing something. don't remember what I was getting at halftime, but like I left the room for like, I was coming back in and I was like, what what the I think I was still writing in my notes like, first half or second half starts, no so subs, and then like, they were announcing it in the stadium.
00:06:41
Speaker
And then it's just like, ah! and i look up and i'm like oh my god yeah they they kick off the game rain has a ball they kick it back um and dickie just launches a perfect fucking ball and adamez i don't i mean that was that was composure right there yeah but it was terrible defending too from chicago because absolutely they weren't two of them hit each other and it went off one of their shoulders and then adamez was right there and she just smacked it Yeah, it was kind of like a little ah comedy, like comic sequence or like cartoon sequence for that defending there. But I was a little disappointed that they didn't give the assist to Dickie in my heart. Dickie got the assist on that.
00:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, I think the consensus in the Discord chat, ah the Sound at Heart Discord chat was um that it was an honorary Dickie assist. Yeah, absolutely. I think if like, cause I think they're slowly starting to get more stats for, for soccer and stuff like that. And I could see that like, they talk about secondary assists.
00:07:34
Speaker
Yeah. And, um, if they're not going to credit her with an assist, I would certainly be a secondary assist. Absolutely. So 46 minute. Yeah. Everything's great at that point. Three zero. We're cruising, man. first in Up three zero. We're getting three points. We're jumping Portland. I am feeling great.
Player Reflections and Veteran Dependence
00:07:53
Speaker
Everything's looking good um until the 66th minute when we make three changes. And this to me was baffling. You take out your two outside backs, Madison Curry and Maddie Darlene, your two wingbacks, and you take out Jordan Hidema.
00:08:11
Speaker
and You put in B and Dolo bug and me official. So you put in two attacking players. Granted, Maddie Darlene outside, she's an attacking player. But that's not like for like.
00:08:21
Speaker
No, and these weren't players having bad games either. So like, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't understand it Um, and then, so that, those three changes happened in the 66th minute and we got Ludmila, uh, seven minutes later.
00:08:38
Speaker
And then seven minutes after that, five minutes that, think it was like five minutes, right? know. 73rd and the 80th minute. had 73rd and 78th minute. 80th minute. Hmm.
00:08:46
Speaker
eightie minute No, I guess I did have 78th minute. It says 80th minute on the line, but ah my ah my game notes go 73rd minute, Ludmila, 78th minute, Begelski, where is our left back?
00:08:59
Speaker
Yeah. That was, it wasn't even the left back, it was the left center back, which was Holmes, just lost in space. it The momentum, like, it didn't feel like they were gonna, I don't know, I feel like I didn't... I wasn't feeling good.
00:09:16
Speaker
i feel like... Because because Chicago has literally nothing to lose, right? they're They're in the fucking bottom. They're going for it. They have nothing to fucking lose. Our defense looks like total dog shit at this point. So...
00:09:29
Speaker
end of the game comes right we've got 90 plus seven seven minutes at stoppage time and we can't get the fucking ball out of our defensive half or defensive third even and this was an issue earlier in the season when we kept getting scored on late it's like just freaking whack it yeah uh they've concede a corner right that's the last play of the game okay the game should have been called before this there was argument was someone down a little bit though no not for two fucking minutes yeah whistle probably should have been blown either way it wasn't um play to the whistle
00:10:06
Speaker
Yeah. Corner. Again, horrific defending. Dickie actually makes a really good save. She made a fantastic save on that. um And then Werto was kind of in the right place, but then she was caught ball watching, watching Dickie's save. And then just lost track of everything.
00:10:22
Speaker
Well, I mean, there was you you see the still shot of the save and the rain players are kind of standing there watching. And then you see the next shot of the like ball going in. And there's like four Chicago players in front of our defense.
00:10:36
Speaker
Where is everybody? Where are you? No one was around. Like if Alyssa Nair is able to get free and get a toe on it, you haven't done the job. Right. the fuck?
00:10:47
Speaker
So we were all just like, Brutal, brutal, absolutely brutal way to drop two points. The press went mild. Yeah, yeah. That's our match recap.
00:10:59
Speaker
um All right, jet some general notes before we really dive into the negatives. Mostly negatives, we have some positives. As you pointed out, no Bug, no Mez in the starting lineup. I would have really liked to see Bug given another chance.
00:11:11
Speaker
um I don't think this is good for, i don't know, I mean, this is one game, but like I don't want her to lose her confidence. Yeah. No, and I feel like, I mean, I don't know if it would have changed anything, you know, having her in. But, you know, after having the performance that she had last weekend and then coming into a match and having your team get scored on three times, that's not great.
00:11:31
Speaker
No, and I feel like they should have confidence. But Madison Curry also had a great game. She did. um Her crunching tackles are some of my favorite things. I feel like every game there's a moment where a player thinks that they're almost on a break and then Mattis Courageous comes in and just smacks it.
00:11:50
Speaker
She was hyped up when we like got her. like I feel she's living up to like everything that people were saying about her. Yeah, the reason that they were pissed that she left. After one after her rookie season. So she's only a second year player.
00:12:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's crazy. And I thought she had some really good offensive contributions as well. I mean, like she was her and Jess Fishlock have a great connection. Yeah. Fishlock loves to switch the ball to her up high on that right side.
00:12:18
Speaker
And it's a great way for them to get through because like we had another issue like in the first part of this match getting stuck back. It was only five, maybe not even five minutes. It was right before the goal, actually. It's like two minutes of like not really getting through.
00:12:32
Speaker
And then Fishlock got the ball and switched it out to Curry. And that's how the sequence of the first goal kind of got started. So big fan of hers. Anyway, moving on. um It was the Queens match, which honored the 1985 U.S. s Women's National Team.
00:12:46
Speaker
And they had several little things throughout the game for them. They honored them at halftime and ah introduced all the players, gave them flowers. um Apparently they were at ah Starlake Elementary School, I believe, and unveiled the Reigns first mini pitch as part of like the Rave Foundation collab that they're doing now.
00:13:06
Speaker
And so they did that with the 85ers. That's neat. So that was cool. It was neat to see them be honored. And when they were walking past, they went around kind of in front of the Royal Guard and people were like cheering them and they were waving. It was really cute.
00:13:22
Speaker
be curious what they think of all this stuff that's been going on. Kind of paving the way for what we see in the landscape of women's soccer now. It's crazy. Yeah, it's really interesting. ah Notable stats. This is the sixth consecutive multi-goal match, which is the longest streak in Reign team history.
00:13:39
Speaker
That's neat. Didn't see that coming at the beginning of the season, did we? No. With all our scoring problems? No, definitely not. I know. We've swapped issues. ah Not great. I hate it. Emery Adames has five goals in her last six matches and leads the team with six goals.
00:13:55
Speaker
Nice. Rookie of the year? She's not rookie. She can't do that. She's not a rookie, But where was she last year? I mean, she was around. i just, yeah, I don't know. She's still kind of working her way into getting her starting spot regularly. But we have so many looking forwards that it's not easy to get everyone on time. Yeah. um So she's taking advantage of that. So that's that's all you want to see. Because I know early on, everyone was just like, what about Adames? Where is she?
00:14:22
Speaker
ah Yeah, I guess there was some validity to the frustrations about that. Yeah. All right. So positives. We do have positives and when you score three goals, that's that's great.
00:14:34
Speaker
And we had multiple goals with three different goal scorers, which is also great team effort. and Also, just fish lock turning it up to like another level that I really, really didn't see coming.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's kind of baffling. It is. ah Three goals in three matches. We've needed that. ah She's coming up pretty... i don't know. some of the The goals she's scoring are just... It makes me like nostalgic, you know?
00:15:02
Speaker
as I don't know. I feel like I've just kind of... Not fully... I've just... Ever since seeing Rapinoe retire, I guess I've just been kind of, like, dreading the day that Jess Fishlock retires and stuff.
00:15:14
Speaker
um And it wasn't... I feel like we saw Rapinoe kind of off and on playing for us, right? Especially in those last few years that I just... I mean, yeah, she showed up, I would say, every time she got an opportunity. So, again, shame on me.
00:15:29
Speaker
Another week in a row. but It is a little concerning to me that our best player on the field is, uh, 30, what, 38 years old. that doesn't concern me.
00:15:41
Speaker
No, no. I want my players who are at the end of their career to have the best games of their life. Okay. I just would like someone else get it now while we have it. Sure. I just want someone else to get to her level.
00:15:53
Speaker
Nobody else is 38. Yeah. True, true. she reads yeah You're talking about like years and being able to read the game in a way that just nobody else. You can't replicate that. Right. With our younger players. And the way that she's been able to adapt her game. I was actually talking with Jeff about this. Nice.
00:16:09
Speaker
And be a f Jeff. uh and the way that she's been able to adapt her game to her age yeah and that's just i mean most of that is sure she has ah still a lot of physical ability obviously yeah hard work hard work but it's just brains yeah and it's just an innate knowledge of the game and where to be and where to be the most effective and how to be in the right place at the right time And you see that in younger players, but those those younger players are the ones that become the Jess Fishlocks.
00:16:42
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So she's one of a kind. Yeah, we're and we're incredibly lucky to have her. Mm-hmm.
Jordan Heidema's Role and Criticism
00:16:48
Speaker
I feel like that first season... it It was like obvious she was something special that first season.
00:16:53
Speaker
um Just like her energy and everything about the way she plays, even when we were really bad. Yeah. She still brought the energy. She still gave everything she had. And you can still tell that we had someone extremely special. So thank you to her for kind of being so committed to to this club and seeing what seeing how special things are here too.
00:17:13
Speaker
And in part of because of her too. Absolutely. Oh, gee. Other positive. What got? um I mean, we got to say it. That's somebody who's had some there's been some controversial takes about her.
00:17:28
Speaker
There was even a Reddit thread the other day asking if she was necessary. Get the fuck out of here. Jordan Heidem is here. She's playing well. She's showing up. We've got the stats.
00:17:40
Speaker
You wanted stats. I can put them back with stats now.
00:17:45
Speaker
But she comes through, ah scores scores a goal first off, which she's been needing to do. And she gets an assist. Mm-hmm. And both both like hardworking kind of scrappy plays.
00:18:00
Speaker
Mm hmm. In the postgame press conference, she was talking about like what she went through with the goal because ah she did like an overhead kick somewhat. Some would call it a bicycle. No one And they're wrong.
00:18:13
Speaker
I don't know. I can't kind of feel like I want to give it to her. I don't, but that's fine. You see the pictures of it? I did <unk>s ah an overhead. It's an overhead. I'm, I'm good with overhead. Okay. Anyway, so she said, uh, I said, you know, don't kick anybody in the face.
00:18:29
Speaker
She said, I am tall. So I thought I could get my foot over people's heads. Like her foot would be matched up to where everyone's heads were, which is very true. Like if she's, but I may not even go over me. Yeah.
00:18:40
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, the technique and ah audacity to do something like that. Good for her. ah There's been a lot of Haidama haters. We haven't been those. we You know, I would say played devil's advocate um when we talked about the acquisition of Mi Official, just in terms of what that means for Haidama.
00:18:58
Speaker
Yeah. But I just, i I see her spot on this team. I do. I do too. And I think... There's when you talk to her, when you see her and you hear her speak there, she has that level of passion.
00:19:16
Speaker
Yeah. She seems motivated as hell. Yeah. and And motivated for this team. yeah Exactly. Yeah, totally. And you can see the results on the pitch. She's contributing in matches. Her defense is invaluable. Yeah.
00:19:31
Speaker
Um, I like to see it. We gave up three goals after she left the field. We did. Um, and did you want to bring up your, what you pulled up? So I did some digging. Well, I just didn't do any digging. I really, um, just kind of pulled up our results while she's been on the pitch this season and nothing much really, um, until our June 14th match, nothing really stood out to me.
00:19:57
Speaker
was It wasn't much different with her on or off the field. um She did take some time off to to be fair. She took some time off and she had, I would say a lot of trauma from that fucking incident. So I would say, you know, take, take the early stuff and maybe not find anything ah like super standout with a little bit of a like asterisk maybe.
00:20:19
Speaker
Right. So on the June 14th match, which was hooray under the other Chicago game, We were down ah to zero when Haidama subbed on in the 66th minute.
00:20:31
Speaker
And the Reigns scored in the 87th and the 90th minute. Angel City game, ah two games after that, we won 2-0. She subbed on in the 64th minute. The game was zero zero The Reigns scored goals in the 66th and the 86th minute.
00:20:48
Speaker
So two minutes after she comes on, we start scoring. And in the last match, she subbed off in the 66th minute and we were up 3-0. Chicago got a goal in the 73rd minute for their first one in the 73rd minute.
00:21:00
Speaker
I'm just saying, we play better and get better results generally when she's on the field. Yeah. If she can start adding to her ah contributions on the score sheet in whatever capacity that is.
00:21:13
Speaker
and don't know if correlation is causation here. It's just something I wanted to look up after noticing the defensive breakdowns kind of in the attacking third of the pitch. I wanted to know.
00:21:26
Speaker
yeah Her aerial abilities, I would say people recognize it, but the rain defense when they are defending set pieces and all of those kinds of things, very, very reliant on Hydemma in those moments. not a coincidence that and i guess maybe we can just roll into ah the negatives but you know like we've been giving up a lot of goals on restarts um with balls flying in um on set pieces corners and it's happened when she hasn't been on the field whoever suggested she should be a center back's an idiot um
00:22:06
Speaker
I think after this game, we can probably, you know, just be like, what the fuck are you talking about? um That's an insane take to me. But yeah, i i like i I really do value her and what she brings to this team. And I wish more more people who are critical about her would, you know, I don't know. I just feel like maybe it's not the flashy on the stats player, but she's hardworking.
00:22:30
Speaker
She loves this team and she'll continue to give it her all. I think anytime she's on the pitch. And I think part of it, part of the overall disgruntled bit about her, I feel like are rooted in a lot of misogyny. Yeah. You know, she's got that public relationship with Julio. Mm-hmm.
00:22:53
Speaker
She's and attractive woman. ah Traditionally attractive. Traditionally attractive woman. yeah You know, she's flashy. She's in New Balance ads.
00:23:04
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Very commercialized. Yeah. You know, big in Canada. So I think that there's a a lot of like, well, she's doing all this. Like, why isn't she playing better?
00:23:14
Speaker
Instead of like understanding that she's a young player, a valuable player on our team, a star for Canada. Yeah. And it just feels like a ah bit of unwanted hate is from that perspective.
00:23:29
Speaker
yeah from from hating women that are successful yeah and not i don't know i i mean i'm a noted haidema apologist um but with this game that you know i'm hoping maybe this this opens up her contributions and kind of opens the floodgates maybe for more um but again i again knowing how our defense has been playing when she leaves the field yeah i think i think people need to give her more credit Yeah, because it's got half the time it's got to go through her to get to the defense anyway.
Substitution Strategies and Defensive Issues
00:24:03
Speaker
And the pressure and the movement that she makes up top to force players to go certain ways. You'll see it. You'll see her running around making players go outside instead of pulling it through the inside.
00:24:14
Speaker
It's just invaluable. Yeah. what ah What negative, what's the top negative you wanted to shout out? Pick one.
00:24:24
Speaker
ah The supping. Yeah. You Harvey usually waits. We always complain about her not doing early subs. So i don't know. Maybe maybe she shouldn't she should just keep kept should have kept doing what she was doing early online it was funny because fish luck looked gassed kind of by the time the first subs came on.
00:24:52
Speaker
we were like, oh shit. Fish luck looks gassed. Fish luck doesn't get subbed. So G and Meza were going to come in. after the first round of subbing and then after we got scored on twice harvey threw g back into the into the warm-up area and brought emily mason on which i didn't hate that move i didn't hate it no emily mason's i think solid and yeah it just the the people the personnel that were removed from the pitch maddie doline madison curdie curry and jordan haidema were having good games
00:25:30
Speaker
I thought Dahlien played well, too. But you bring on two unproven players. I would i can say that. Unproven within the rain environment. Sure.
00:25:41
Speaker
Which is Lynn, Biendolo, and me official. Yep. And you also bring on Jordan Bug. He's coming off a poor match and not getting the start in the next game. So you completely swap out your wingbacks, who have been the heart of your defense this game.
00:25:58
Speaker
And everything just looks completely disjointed. Which, to be fair, Harvey did take credit for or at least assume the the blame for for that. She didn't try to avoid that at all.
00:26:15
Speaker
She said a bunch of words, but it sounded to me like i fucked up. I own it. Yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, it was a notable noticeable difference. Sure, sure. The thing I wanted to bring up was, just because it's the defense, was this shit show.
00:26:29
Speaker
um i'm not I don't think I'm sold on Haidema at center back. Haidema? Or Haidema. Huerta, the other H-U word. um I'm not sold on Wyrta at center back, mostly because I just think we're we're not taking advantage of her abilities in the attack. And I also just feel like our defense hasn't looked that great back there.
00:26:50
Speaker
So i don't I think there's maybe a little bit of a correlation. I know that we're not super deep in the center back department these days. Just put Emily Mason on the pitch. Or even Shea Holmes could maybe play the other side. I think they'd have to change their formation in the back. I don't think they could five back with that.
00:27:06
Speaker
Shea Holmes should not be in the central area, anywhere near it. she probably shouldn't be starting at this moment. No. don't if that's a hot take or not, but... um I think she plays well when she's playing on the outside, when she's playing in the wingback position, but we're so overloaded there now, especially when we're playing in the five back.
00:27:25
Speaker
I'm so frustrated that we didn't get a center back in this summer window. I would i had brought i pointed this out. I'm just like mad now. I didn't want this to happen. And I knew it could happen. And now it's happening.
00:27:37
Speaker
Well, and then you got two players in the back, one in front of the other, which is Sally Menti and Shea Holmes, who just look lost. I just think there's not a lot of chemistry there. They're players that look frantic and lose possession a lot.
00:27:55
Speaker
Yeah. Did Sally Menti close the game out right? Yeah. Or did she sub out? She closed it up. Okay. So to me, it's like, why give take take her out maybe?
00:28:07
Speaker
Give her a break? Because, I mean, she like things you know like, you're up 3-0 and then you give up two goals. Like, maybe take off the player that wasn't looking that good in that part of the field. I don't know. It just seems so obvious to me. I guess we're just go to keep going back to the substitutions because that would include maybe giving Selly Mendzi a break to kind of digest what happened because this happened last week.
00:28:30
Speaker
The last two weeks. Yeah. The second half was just a shit show. And I think, you know, you bring those heavy attacking players on that are supposed to be your ringers, right?
00:28:44
Speaker
yes And granted me officials knew and it takes a while to adjust to the league as we saw with G. So I, I'll give her some grace, but the, I just, when you have these players coming on and not scoring goals and not securing the game.
00:29:03
Speaker
Right. And we talked about this the last couple weeks is I want the players to start the game that are going to win the game. And this roster was that. Yeah. But then you bring players on that are supposed to help you and they hurt you. Yeah, they're supposed to be the players that you would in theory want to start.
00:29:19
Speaker
Right. But if, you know, you're bringing them in late to secure the win for your team, they're not doing their job. No, and I know, like, and we know that, I mean, Mia Fishel is his own thing, right? Because of her return from injury. But, like, we know that Lynn has this in her ability to, like, be a difference maker, be a super sub. We know she has that.
00:29:40
Speaker
hasn't hit, though, with us. No, because we can't get the ball to her. Yeah, yeah, which is, yeah, its own own thing. Because this the central midfielders, I mean, ah besides Menti giving the ball away, I didn't even really notice James Turner in there.
00:29:55
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't either. Like, where is our central midfield? a Stat on that, actually, passing accuracy in the second half, 55% for And then Chicago dominated nearly every major stat in the second half. They had 12 shots, seven on target, 263 passes with 81% passing accuracy. like And this is after they were dropping like flies.
00:30:19
Speaker
I know. They were really getting beat up. Oh, my God. That ankle injury. ah Just a ah moment of silence and ah thoughts for Jenna Bike.
00:30:30
Speaker
Yeah. That was gnarly. Yeah. Yeah, i I mean, we could go on, I think, forever about the negatives um because this happened two weeks in a row, especially.
00:30:41
Speaker
Well, and the funny thing is, is like we got a point out of the game. We did. But it is like ah it feels like a loss because. You're up 3-0. You lost 3-1 in the second half. It's embarrassing. It's really defeating. To Chicago. It's a Chicago win.
00:30:57
Speaker
asked for this not to happen. Yeah. I forgot about the Chicago win. Yeah, I said I don't want Chicago. Chicago cannot get a Chicago win. This is this is their this is their every game that they get a tie is a championship celebration.
Podcast Sponsorships and Trivia
00:31:13
Speaker
ah Yeah, I got I got some stuff to say about that. ah um They i mean, granted, last second winner. You're always gonna be excited about that. And the listener scores it.
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty fucking cool. I love that for her. i hate that for us. Yeah, but I can appreciate Alyssa Nair playing for a really unfortunate team at the moment in her last years as a professional.
00:31:39
Speaker
I can appreciate that she's going to get a goal like that. Yeah. I can root for that. I just, yeah yeah, I wouldn't want it against us, but, you know. um yeah they ran out onto the field after the game like they'd want it uh i mean it's a chicago win um and then in the presser right before the player presser harvey came in first and then players were second which was weird right before like while we were waiting for the players um the chicago locker room they must have brought some like subwoofer giant speaker yeah it was blasting in there
00:32:11
Speaker
Hey. And right right before the players walked in, it you could hear it. I mean, it was loud as day. Hear ah Fergie's London Bridges. It's a shade.
00:32:22
Speaker
um I mean, in the in the presser at one point, Haidemo looks over to Ryan and is like, I can't hear. I didn't know what she said, but he was like, is that their locker room?
00:32:35
Speaker
It's like, what? It was so loud. Hey, you know, I can't, I can't hate on it given what the sounders do when they went away. Yeah. So just like, can we move the press room like away from the away locker room? That would be great. yeah It's fine if like the home team hears it, but like if it, yeah, if it's impeding with the press room a little bit, you might want, I thought the timing was really funny too, because generally that's when Laura Harvey would be in there.
00:33:01
Speaker
Laura Harvey would have gotten up and like walked into the locker room and yelled at them. yeah she was already like in size so like i it was perfect timing from them in that sense anyway ah yeah we got ludmila it was all down here hill after we got ludmila ludmila god i keep fucking that up i might have said it wrong or i think we've been saying it wrong the entire episode ludmila i don't think she's italian why you're saying it like you're mario the inflection was bad i'm sorry lujamila it's it's a portuguese accent you can do that lujamila okay i did it too far
00:33:44
Speaker
although portuguese kind of does have that kind of flowiness to it sometimes okay well it does i would know thank you for listening to the sounder at heart podcast network which now includes no sanietes lobbing scorchers and the cooler guild We've been independent since August of 2023, but need your support to make sure it continues.
00:34:08
Speaker
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00:34:21
Speaker
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00:34:36
Speaker
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00:34:47
Speaker
I guess that kind of rolls into the presser unless you had another no negative sucked ass. Yeah. okay It's felt like fucking loss. Yeah. So Harvey um talked about Jess Fishlock after she, like, kind of, because they always start the press conference with, um over Laura, your overall thoughts on the match.
00:35:04
Speaker
ah But and we talked about, you know, she took took a the responsibility for the subbing choices and things like that and said it was on her and blah, blah, blah. But talked about how Jess has been the Reigns' best player. Yeah.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. ah Six goals in two games off restarts. You can't win if you're doing that. Okay, well, that was a problem last week. What did practice look like?
00:35:30
Speaker
I mean, you know, Heidemann pointed out, like, it was it wasn't set pieces as much. But, like, you gave up four fucking goals last time. So, like, ah that's not really saying much. Yeah. If you give up one at the very first, I don't know.
00:35:45
Speaker
Whatever. Not great. uh yeah yeah lost momentum with the subs um and then we had james turner and haidema in the second one um number one they looked pissed yeah the mood was you the mood was gnarly and they had already showered and were like in street clothes and jordan haidema is just like sitting there with her wet hair and her motorcycle jacket just like fucking pissed and i was like damn Yeah, I didn't understand why Hyde and I said the team was better in set piece moments than last week.
00:36:16
Speaker
After you tied a game on set piece moment. She wasn't on the field for that, to be fair. No, it was not her fault. When she just said that, she actually meant just herself. Yeah.
00:36:28
Speaker
Yeah. She's never the problem on set pieces. No. Scoring them. Yeah. But defend the defending, we all know it's not her problem. yeah the You know, they talked about the end goal is playoffs. Well, you gotta fucking win games and you gotta beat teams like Chicago.
00:36:41
Speaker
You gotta. You can't let Chicago do this. ah yeah They have nothing to lose, though, I wouldn't be surprised if they kind of keep doing wild shit like this. And to be fair, they've like eked Chicago wins.
00:36:52
Speaker
They're not a terrible team. No. They're not Utah. No, they're not.
00:37:00
Speaker
They are not Utah. It's going to be my slogan for the season. They're not Utah. Could be worse. Should we make Matt make buttons that say at least we're not Utah?
00:37:10
Speaker
Yeah, sure. not? Do you want to roll into the cooler player of the match before I give the answer to last week's? Yeah, let's do that. The cooler player of the match is brought to you by the doctor's office, a great little 12 seat bar on Capitol Hill. The owner is a big fan of the rain and is proud to be our first sponsor.
00:37:29
Speaker
to absolutely no one's surprise the cooler player of the match for this weekend's game is jordan heidema and it was monday night monday night last night jordan ama jordan jordan heidema has she gotten it before i think so i'm not positive but i'm pretty sure because you know we're the heidema hype train so i just feel like the chances are pretty high that we have i'll look at it later all right yeah i mean well deserved we don't win the game without her on the field or we don't even we don't we don't even score three goals with her on the field so we lose the game won the game if she was on the field the whole time yes
00:38:04
Speaker
That is what I have extracted from the data.
00:38:09
Speaker
The data doesn't lie. All right. That is the, this would not pass in any sense in any academic setting. Hey, this is, we're here and we're, we're delivering the height of my propaganda.
00:38:22
Speaker
With very solid statistics. It's just the facts
NWCell Matches Recap and Weather Issues
00:38:26
Speaker
of life. ah Thanks again to our sponsor, The Doctor's Office. The Doctor's Office is best place to grab a drink before or after a rain match.
00:38:32
Speaker
Check out their Instagram at TDO Seattle or better yet, go drink there in person. Cheers. Cheers. All right. We're going to move on to Vans Trivia. Maybe you should can put the name for this at some point. Not right now because we were already kind of going a little long, but Vans Trivia.
00:38:48
Speaker
Let's go. And our trivia question from last week. That's what I wanted to put in here. Oh, whoops, I could have done that. Let me go find it. So the question last week was, Seattle and Chicago were involved in the first trade in NWSL history. What player was the trade for?
00:39:04
Speaker
The extra credit part of the question was, who did Chicago select in the 2014 college draft with the pick that they received? So the answer to last week's question is Keelan Winters.
00:39:15
Speaker
Winters joined the reign for the Chicago Red Stars in March 2013 in the first trade in NWSL history. In that trade, Seattle received Winters along with Chicago's fourth round pick in the 2014 college draft. college draft In return, Seattle sent Chicago its first round pick in the 2014 college draft, who turned out to be Julie Ertz, formerly known as Julie Johnston, as well as the rights to a U.S. allocated player slot, who ended up being Kristen Press.
00:39:41
Speaker
Wow, that's fascinating. uh shout out steve vote uh he came up with this question and i thought it was a great one for this week we had two i don't know if you there's anybody else on blue sky that answered it but we had two people get the keela winters part that i know of soundernavia sounder right that's how you say it soundernavia soundernavia scandinavia no it's so it's like scandinavia thing it's like a play on that oh i don't know i didn't look on blue sky he added well you were supposed to post it there too i know i forgot
00:40:12
Speaker
ah Social media sucks. I told you. ah So he but he posted the correct answer for Keelan. He didn't know the second part. Kay Weiss 95 on Instagram got it and got both parts of it. So, yeah, pretty cool.
00:40:26
Speaker
I don't. Good job, everybody. was like, I don't have a prize for any of you. But other than the shout out on the podcast, which is so valuable. So congrats on getting the first question correct. You too.
00:40:36
Speaker
ah And special shout out to Kay Weiss 95 for getting the extra credit. All right. What's your trivia for next week? The question for next week is Kim Little and Obafemi Martin set identical team records for goals for goals in a season in 2014.
00:40:52
Speaker
How many goals did they each score? find out next week find out next week it was a great that was a 2014 was a great year for seattle soccer soccer in seattle yeah it was i wish she was still here um let's move on from that because we're going long we're going long nwsl match week just we're gonna do quick recap some what happened um washington played louisville 2-2 draw cantore this is the appropriate time for that boy uh banger from outside the box yeah
00:41:25
Speaker
What a way to debut, right? it was That was her debut, right? Yeah. Maybe it wasn't. Well, that wasn't her debut. It might have been her home debut. Okay. It was like they just got her this summer. It was her first goal, though. Okay. Yeah. She scored since she joined the team. um There was a two deflection bone goal goal.
00:41:41
Speaker
ah Yeah, that was crazy. Louisville's getting lucky on those. I know. They also got a soft PK call. Good for them. um But then Kwasi in 90 plus 10 ties the game.
00:41:53
Speaker
Sweet. Although I would prefer Louisville to Yeah, for sure. um I did try and look up what the latest regulation goal in NWSL history was. And what I could find yesterday was it was 90 plus 10. Okay.
00:42:05
Speaker
okay So Kwasi, if Kwasi's goal is actually 90 plus 10, it would tie. Which hopefully that doesn't keep happening because these stoppage times are ridiculous. I know. Yeah. ah Utah played Angel City. At least we're not Utah. ah But they did tie Angel City 0-0.
00:42:22
Speaker
And Angel City hit the crossbar and the post. ah But otherwise, this game was boring. A Chicago win for Utah.
00:42:31
Speaker
uh the shit show at kc in orlando uh nil nil draw three and a half hour heat delay if anyone didn't tune into the whatever the hell was going on there living hell was going on there um super super hot out um the league needs to get it together with what they are going to do when there's these kinds of conditions Who the frick thinks a midday game in August in the Midwest in Kansas City is a great idea? got Not to mention our midday game, not last week, but the weekend before where it was Portland hot, which is turf. Yeah, which is worse to play on in the heat.
00:43:15
Speaker
Absolutely. I don't know why people weren't an uproar about our game. Well, it did come out later that um Harvey mentioned that some of our players had burns on their feet. Yeah. Fucking playing on that turf.
00:43:26
Speaker
um We didn't mention this, but our good pal Jane burnt herself on her camera. She's like never had that happen. And she covers so many fucking sports teams. um I saw her yesterday before the game. And I was like, have you recovered? And she said something like, I don't know if I ever will.
00:43:43
Speaker
oh poor jane that's so sad um and then at least one fan went to the hospital to do to relate heat related stuff uh in casey so get it together and to be so this is this is not okay uh schedule them either way earlier like you might have to do 11 a.m kickoffs i think you might you just really might um because it does only get hotter in portland when it's like this The lesbians love a brunch.
Next Match Preview and Strategies
00:44:08
Speaker
Make it a brunch game. Yeah. Have a drag brunch game. Sure. Well, in Kansas City. I don't know about that. Portland can do it. Yeah. um Yeah. Anyways. Yeah. So that was a 0-0 tie. And pretty expected after the players were just...
00:44:24
Speaker
not expecting a three and a half hour wait and you're not really prepared. I don't know. It was, it was bad. Um, then, uh, North Carolina played Portland and kind of two identical, not super identical, but similar goals where the goalkeepers, uh, kind of parried a shot away and it went to a player who scored.
00:44:45
Speaker
Anyway, we love to split points though. Yeah. Uh, so a Chicago win for North Carolina, Portland, and uh bay played san diego san diego won two to one i did not watch the highlights of that game i did watch as the highlights of the gotham houston game um um but mostly one highlight so that i could feel better about losing emily's sonnet okay so but gotham fraud watch is still active uh number one two ah because houston beat them two to one
00:45:17
Speaker
Yeah, Esther's carrying the team, but like she can only do so much. um Anyways, Emily Sonnet with the worst own goal I've seen in many, many, many years for the NWCell made me feel a lot better about not having her on the team anymore.
00:45:31
Speaker
Yeah, that was bad. Did you see Berger's face? No. After somebody took a screenshot of it. And like, that is the last person I want to be mad at me. Yeah. Yeah. I don't need that. Like between her and Marta, it's like really close.
00:45:47
Speaker
Yeah. um But yeah, Emily's on Plays the ball back to burger, but burgers not burger is close to the near post where she should be playing the ball because generally when you're playing the ball back to your goalkeeper, it should be not super on frame.
00:46:04
Speaker
yeah And there's just no communication. There was no shoulder check. No, nothing. Yeah. Passes the ball into the goal. I did see Emily's on its reaction for sure. Well, and then ah to Houston's or um yeah, to Houston's credit and Michelle Olozzi's credit, she did score the game winner at 90 plus three.
00:46:21
Speaker
Yeah. ah Which I'm going to segue into our match preview um because we're playing Houston next. Yeah. Houston has, and three matches in a row, they've scored game-tying goal or winning goal in the 88th minute or later. That is something, given our recent history, ah we need to put a lid on it and make sure that doesn't f***ing happen.
00:46:46
Speaker
So the game is at Houston, in Houston, ah next Sunday, August 24th at 4 Is this on NWCell Plus? Oh yeah, i didn't look that up. um I am wondering if there's going to be any issues with weather there at all. 4pm game?
00:47:01
Speaker
It'll be 6pm there, right? Are they two hours ahead? Oh, so it's 4pm our time? Yeah, it's 4pm our time. It's on Paramount Plus. It's saying Amazon Prime Video. I feel like this doesn't seem accurate because it's showing Amazon, Paramount, and NWCell Plus.
00:47:17
Speaker
So if you have a Paramount Plus subscription, i think it'll show up in your Amazon account. And so when you go to Live Sports, because this happened when I was streaming um the, think it was the, I was streaming some game and I went and watched it on Amazon and it was like a Paramount Plus stream.
00:47:38
Speaker
I'm trying to find it on the game notes. That'll be more clear. It does say NWSL Plus and Paramount Plus. Cool. Okay. All things we want to see in this game. What do you what do you want?
00:47:50
Speaker
I want a shout out. Big ask these days. Huge. Huge ask. Who do you want to see starting if that's what you want? And like, what's the formation you do like in the back line?
00:48:02
Speaker
ah Here's my hot take. Okay. um From right to left, I guess. Okay. You go in a five back. yeah Madison Curry.
00:48:15
Speaker
Um, well, you got Curry, obviously, i guess not especially from left to right, but Curry, um, McLaren and throw Mason in there. Okay. Put, get bugged back in.
00:48:26
Speaker
Yeah. Um, left, left side, Puerto. So we, we, right wing back is right. We back is Madison Curry. Okay. Left wing back is where to. Okay. And then middle, middle McLaren and outside of McLaren and you've got Mason and bug.
00:48:43
Speaker
Okay, why not? And then the the defense did used to be good. It was something we were good at. We couldn't score, but we were at least doing the number one priority you should have when you're playing soccer, which is don't let a bunch of goals in.
00:48:58
Speaker
Yeah. ah A three goal, if you score three goals, that should be enough for a win. And somehow that didn't work out. What I want to see is our deep offense contribute on the score sheet.
00:49:10
Speaker
I said, AKA, when will we see Coco, Lynn, or me official create something meaningful? I don't care if it's one of them starting out of these three players that I'm pointing out. Just, I don't know. Something needs to happen with them.
00:49:23
Speaker
Yeah, they're kind of like sitting. ah it feels like unused potential. And I just don't kind of know. I don't see the vision with how you get them to be impactful here with how they're currently being played.
00:49:40
Speaker
ah Last thing I would just I don't want to implode again. Thank you. um Please don't. yeah Four fucking goals against Portland, three goals against Chicago. this This is by all means a defensive disaster. So figure it out. Please go watch film. Go reflect on yourself. Go meditate. ah If you need to go get a little treat for yourself to feel better about what went wrong, I don't i don't care.
00:50:02
Speaker
um But this can't keep happening. No, I can't. If they are serious about their desires to get to the playoffs, yeah, they got to figure this out quickly. Go out there next weekend and play like a playoff team.
00:50:14
Speaker
Thank you.
Closing Remarks and Social Media Shoutouts
00:50:15
Speaker
All right. ah That's going to do it, I think, for this episode. ah You got any shout outs for the week? Nope. Okay. I don't either. My stomach's growling because I need to eat dinner. So thanks again to our sponsor, of The Doctor's Office. And you can go follow us on Blue Sky and Instagram. We'll probably have the tributes up, at least on one of those. um Hopefully both someday.
00:50:33
Speaker
ah At Cooler Guild Pod. You can send us an email. We love an email. Thecoolerguild gmail.com. You can visit our main website, townheartheart.com forward slash thecoolerguild.
00:50:44
Speaker
Subscribe there. um And we'll we're on YouTube. Some most occasional episodes are on there in video format for you to go see us. YouTube.com forward slash at thecoolerguild. Please go rate five stars wherever you're listening.
00:50:58
Speaker
Till next time, I'm Coop. I'm Van. Stay cool, y'all. Yeehaw. so fucking draw yeehaw
00:51:24
Speaker
my dogs are barking okay um take your shoes off my shoes what Your dogs are barking. dogs are barking.
00:51:38
Speaker
Not this again. all right. um
00:51:43
Speaker
Ian's quite the comedian today, I think. um It's the least we can do to cope. hope