Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #393: WoSo W-Day — The cases for Demelo & Pickett, Soph’s underlying #s strong

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

Belz, Vince and Tara talk through the implications of Cat's absence a bit, shouts for Savannah Demelo and Carson Pickett, U20 Concacaf Championship check-in, a couple necessary corrections to the last episode, and much more.----Scuffed is an ad-free podcast. Support that and get exclusive episodes once a week, plus access to the Discord and live call-in shows, by signing up for our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the SCuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hello, it's Woso Wednesday. We're 50 days from the start of the Women's World Cup, and by the next time we convene here, we'll be halfway through the NWSL regular season. So things are moving along. Tara, Vince, what's up? Hey, not much.

It was an interesting two weeks. We've got some news to talk about. Yes. Before we get into that, though, I wanted to do a little correction. Last episode, I was on a bit of a ramble about how there is a current undrafted rookie, starting regularly for the spirit. Kind of like as proof that there is enough talent for another league in this country, being as she's having so much success and she went undrafted. I said her name was Paige Monaghan, but I meant Paige Mateer, a dummy mistake that I wanted to...

name on you. Because Paige Mateer is proving to be really, really impressive, scored just this past weekend. Not to say Paige Monaghan isn't impressive. It's just one of those classic page oopsies that I wanted to acknowledge. So if we're juxtaposing the pages, Paige Monaghan missed an open goal this week. Page Metair scored. Well, apologies to the page community. Absolutely.

Yeah. Also, I believe we may have been unclear at a minimum about the stepping down of coaches in Portland. After their title winning run in 2022, head coach Rionn Wilkinson stepped down in December at the player's request. After, as she put it, quote, a player and I formed a friendship that turned into more complex emotions. I think we made it sound like she was the one kissing somebody's neck. The coach, and that's not true, the coach who was ousted for kissing a player's neck was an assistant coach. Sophie Clow. Right.

So good enough. Next were kissed, just not by the head coach. Not by Rion. And if I could point out something that was possibly potentially right in the last episode, you know, I had brought up the fact that penalty kicks in the women's game are a little bit more trivial than in the men's game. And somebody on the illustrious cuff discord, which if you're, you're not a member, you should be a member, you're missing out on all types of information and legal advice, you know, information about soccer and, you know, anything that's going on.

You laid out your child support, but whatever, we got, we got an esquire for you, buddy. But, so this comes from Discord user, Tim Sullivan. And he says, surely somebody already answered this. And I just missed it. But scuff podcast, potential P.K. Misogyny controversy answer. All-time NWSL penalty conversion is 71.1%. 214 out of 301. So a fair amount lower than the conversion rate in men's top flight league,

which is around 78%. Yeah, it's like almost 1 in 10, a 1 in 10 difference. I guess I'll give the one caveat that like 301 total pins It isn't that large of a sample size really when we're talking about What like like whatever Number What was used to get the 78% from the men's top flight leagues? You know we got Years and years and years and years and years. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean 100,000 pins at that point

So we'll keep an eye on it. We'll keep it on it. But it was something that just from watching women's soccer that I just noticed. Misogyny charges withdrawn. Thank you. Thank you. Like, I'm just happy that the numbers proved that I wouldn't tripping. That I wouldn't tripping. It was just a little hypothesis that I formed in my head.

And the thing that scared me the most is when I threw it out there. And both bells and terror were just like, I have no clue what the hell you're talking. I was just anxious to ding you for sexism on no evidence. That's what I wanted to do. Fair enough. But I am happy that you noted something accurate that came out. That came out. So I think that's a huge success.

Yeah. Accuracy. Way to go. Way to go. Yeah. We're trying, on a serious note, we're trying to get things right and acknowledge when we don't. And so, you know, if you hear something that you think is incorrect, please contact us on Twitter or on the Discord or wherever. Absolutely.

Yeah. Absolutely. Let's go to the news. As we all suspected, Katerina McCarillo is out for the World Cup. She made the announcement on Instagram a week ago. Yeah. What do you guys think?

Rough, not unexpected. Try not to let it bear us down too much. Yeah. It's extremely rough. And like I've said on previous episodes, because I didn't even let myself believe that this World Cup is even going to be anywhere close. to a, you know, like trivial as far as cat's availability in it.

And so, yeah, the fact that she's out and out and the fact that, you know, it seems of Blackcoat, like she was the franchise. We talk about our general hesitation as a program to switch everybody out to get a, to get a fresh appraisal of the talent in our, in our, you know, women's soccer pool. We've put some fresh blood in there in the lineup, right? and on our substitutes bench. But Cat was really the one, it seemed. The first one before, you know, we had Sophia Smith step up and then Mal Pugh also,

and, you know, we're going to miss her as well. I mean, Mal Swanson. Excuse me. But it just stinks. And it also stinks because it's going to give Black Colac out when, you know, he writes his memoirs after this cycle. He's going to be like, you know what, I didn't have Cat. When he hits back to Kansas.

city current because they're a need for a head coach man they really are let's talk about two things that are sort of knock on effects of the of the macario officially being out and one is um you know who's who's likely to be in that spot in the nine for the women it's going to be it's going to be Alex Morgan right yes yes and and then yeah great discussion point bells uh no it's and then hatch off the bench. It'd be cool if we could see Sophia Smith there maybe, but that just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. And then, you know, I suppose Lynn Williams may also deputize. But further down, the list of knock-on effects would be, you know, does this open a roster spot? And if so, Tara, for whom?

Well, I think that it does open a roster spot. I think this decision, cat being out, is new. Like I think I think Vladko has been holding out and I think that that's why there has been so much like ambiguity in Kat's statements, be it when she was saying what Vladko just has to trust me or Vladko saying we need to see her on the professional field. And it just never really worked out. So I do believe that it opens a roster spot for someone we haven't seen thus far. And to me, that is a true opportunity to bring someone new in who has been lighting the NWSL on fire with filled with rage. Savannah DeMello, I think, has an opportunity to shake some things up here. And I just really believe that with the way our rosters, the past few camps have been crafted. I guess, for lack of a better term.

We haven't ever had, you know, a lot of players on a roster. We went a little high this past one against Ireland, but it was defense heavy. It was clear that we were just trying out different defensive options. I do think it opens a spot. And to me, there's no one better than Savannah. That could take it if that wasn't clear. Does she slot in cleanly into that sort of advanced midfielder role?

Yes. I think we play our midfield a couple different ways. And before it like turns into any like competition between two players, I think we've been trying Taylor Corkniac at different positions and it hasn't really worked. we've been trying Christy Mewis at a couple different positions like be it they're both midfielders but they've been playing different roles I think that Savannah could slot easily in okay any objections Vince no objections I mean y'all know me as the pods racing racing Louisville uh what do they call those things that they send off correspondent yeah yeah and correspondents sure but um ambassador maybe yeah it was ambassador that's what it was i was i was picturing connor roy in my head oh but i couldn't i couldn't get the word out but uh you know uh so yeah sav i mean she's just been she was great last year she's even stepped it up this year um a little

bit more just just with with with with pure class tenacity audacity like like bells you you posted that, you posted the, the vid of the, yeah, the outside of the boot shop from the top of the box. I mean, come on, dog. I mean, this is a, I mean, seriously, seriously, man. I mean, even past, like, like, nobody can ding me for bias or anything. She does just incredible stuff on the soccer pitch and along with it, you know, with the, you know, I've talked about the reverse ASEC Sanchez thing. But for me, the side of factor is like, she gets stuck into.

She's all over the pitch. She's trying to win balls back. She's extremely stout defensively. I mean, like, even like basically, like, to her detriment. To her detriment. She picks up yellow cards, yellow cards above the rate that you would expect from like a attacker. You know what I'm saying?

That's the point. That's what really won me over in terms of the national team opening. It's, I think we lost a lot of edge with Mao. like a lot of fight. And we didn't have somebody to take, take that on, like, to play with a coldness. And Savannah definitely does. She, she's a force out there. Like, she does not care about anyone or anything.

Yeah, yeah. She's not, she's not playing around. Very serious, very serious individual. So, yeah, I mean, great. I would love to see it. I would love to see it, and I don't know. I'm not too concerned about any type of integration within the national team itself. At this point, I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah, at this point, I mean, you know, we have black coat still chomping to change in to this day.

So it just is what it is, and we saw it with Tim Ream with the mids national team, even though he had many more minutes over the course of the cycle. but he had just fallen out in big chunks within the middle. But integration is overrated. I also don't think like it's too much of a grasp. Like I think it's actually pretty realistic because we haven't been trying new players out. Like that's what I know I've been beating, you know. There's got to be another saying than other than beating a dead horse because that's that's pretty gross.

But... Pound of the table. Yeah. There's been a lack of desire to let anyone try out for this team. And that's always been a headache of mine. But in terms of midfielder's, the only other ones who aren't regularly called in is Sam Coffey. And I don't think her role is opened up.

that ship has sailed yeah I'm not pleased about it but I don't see a defensive midfielder being a need at this point you know we'll talk about who hasn't been playing so much but

other than coffee it's it's Jalen Howe and Savannah de Mello like they have been the only other ones to even get a peak yeah

yeah I mean they they are the ones They are the ones making noise in the NWSO with their play. And Vladka's been at two racing games. So previous to the cat news, I was 100% convinced he was just watching Chicago because we're going to need some extra defenders. I mean, we're dealing with a lot of injury headaches. So I was sure it was just Tierra and Casey and Alyssa being watched. But now, like, that changes everything for me.

Maybe he was watching some others. Hopefully. Let's talk about, so who are the leading goal scores in NWSL right now? Yeah, I think, I mean, I know who the leading goal scores are, but I think that it's a safe place for many in terms of the national team and in terms of the World Cup coming up to kind of live in the doom and gloom. the Cat News, the Rose News, there's Julie Earts questions up in the air. And we've been in sort of a transitional space.

We don't have the clearest identity in terms of the national team. And like I've said, we've had bad luck with injuries, but so have a lot of other countries. And we're going to be going into this tournament with the four leading goal scores in the NWSL, which I think is very exciting and worth celebrating. So as it stands right now, we have a tie for the Golden Boot Race. It is between Crystal Dunn, Alex Morgan, Ashley Hatch, and Lynn Williams, all of which have five goals. So, you know, I think it's easy to be pessimistic, but there's a lot of good still happening. Yeah, and Dunn, a locked-in starter for this team at fullback, probably.

and very probably. And then Morgan, Hatch and Williams are the three of the most likely options, probably the three most likely options to replace Macario on the field. Any minutes Macario would have gotten in an alternate reality. One person who's not on that list of goal scores is Sophia Smith. It's only because she's behind them by one, four goals and five assists this season. Are there, Tara, are there whispers that she's in a... slump or something or?

Yeah, I think going into this season, it was expected that it was just going to be the Sophia show. And so to have anyone else, especially for others, be ahead of her and that they're all national team players as well, I think it's opened up some questions like, oh, what is going on here? But before, before we get into kind of what's been going on with her this season. I think it is important to note that before this current season started, she did talk about the need to grow and she wanted to get more assists. That's something she's noted publicly in many interviews. And I think that that's happening.

She's adapting her game. And it's been a joke not just on here, not just in the Discord, but just in women's soccer community. Like, Sophia doesn't share the ball. It's her ball. she's going for it. And she's getting a lot better at sharing it. She's got five assists already. Yeah, she only had one in 2021 and only three in the whole season in 2022.

So she's way above the pace. And I think we should talk quickly about the underlying numbers because they are pretty consistent over the last three seasons, even if she isn't scoring goals at a torrid pace right now. She's at 0.75 non-penalty XG plus XA through this, you know, through this, nearly halfway point of the season. That's one basis point. So one one hundredth of a goal below her 22 level, which was 0.76.

And it's one basis point above her 2021 level. So, you know, the XG is down a little bit so far this season from last season, but the XA is up. Reference her quotes from the beginning of the season that she wanted to become more of a provider. So I think she's fine. And there's also this. I have a screenshot of her, you know, after tracking the ball down in the corner, she's got two defenders clearly double teaming her and all the way over in the corner.

And this is, I think, a big thing and probably why it's good that she's becoming more of a provider because she draws so much attention. She, in this case, this is in the 25th minute of the 1-1 draw with San Diego over the weekend. She gets the ball in the corner and then she just plays a, she plays a fairly simple pass back across for coffee. Coffee's in like a 20-yard radius circle of space and coffee clips a ball to the backpost and there's a miss, huge chance created mostly because Sophia Smith draws so much attention. So all that to say, I think she's fine. And I think that that's a great point to make and something I think we could easily see happening in the World Cup. I think people are going

to be really familiar with Sophia Smith and how dynamic and how forceful she is. where she's going to have lots of attackers on her at all points, but that just opens up space to introduce Trinity Rodman to the world. I think it's only good, only good. Yeah, yeah. If like if you watch the thorns, Sophia is very dominant. It's not, you know what I'm saying? It's not even like she pops off the screen.

Yeah, it's not even a thing. these goals. I mean, it is what it is. But yeah, she's fine. Everything's fine. So a couple more bits of bad news. Roosevelt re-injured? Yeah. So last time we spoke, I brought up a quote from Laura Harvey that basically said, and I'm paraphrasing, she's back training with the team. Period. Hooray. Rose's, uh, We're going to see Rose soon. This past week, Laura Harvey had another question on Rose's status, and she said this. She said, honestly, it changes all the time.

Because she was really on track to be back, then she had a little bit of a setback. I would love to be her to be on the field tomorrow. I don't think that's going to happen. I hope that we get to see her before the World Cup, but honestly, right now, I don't know. Goodness. So the alarms went off all across women's soccer. The world is ending. Rose is out.

I didn't take that from this quote, but it is important to note something's happening in training where she's getting setbacks. Are there any worse words in professional soccer than a little bit of a setback? It stinks. It stinks. I mean I mean because I feel like you only have a setback on a on a on a on a on a on a on a on a on a on a on a on a on a significant but but it's significant enough to where the healing is is a yeah yeah right right uh injury is not too straightforward um something where you have to get out there and kind of and kind of test it

but before you can you can determine your process and every i mean progress and everything like that so it's just bad news all the way and even more reason for one savannah de mello to to make her way into this national yeah because it's because it's because it's gonna if if rose really is out which is i guess the worst case scenario for the world cup not saying she is yeah then it's then it's DeMello, it's DeMelo Sanchez and Horan. Well, we're speculating that DeMello could be there, but Sanchez and Horan right now. Christy, Taylor, Sonnet's been getting midfield minutes. It gets dark.

All right. Well, one more bit of bad news. Can you give it to us, Dara? Yeah. So Julie Ertz has only played three games for Angel City. She's been listed as questionable for the team since the last. last time we spoke due to what they are listing as a left thigh injury. She's been on the bench, but she has not been warming up. So it's like totally up in the air. No one really knows what's going on

with her. She's not heard enough to not be there. She's not warming up. Her coach has spoken about it in vague terms, nothing concrete, at least in my point of view. And then I just get a little bit paranoid and I'm thinking she's just kind of enjoying herself until the World Cup comes because I've been skeptical much to the disdain of many people in the discord about her club intentions to begin with. So I'm curious what's going to happen. Angel City really needs her. So I'm sure that there is some sort of pressure for her to come back.

But whatever this left thigh injury is, I hope it gets solved soon. But it has been nice to see her on the bench. She's kind of taking over this new player coach persona. you see her like pointing things out a lot and like talking to the girls on the bench or or if there's a water break she's she's you know guiding some players which is is fun to see she's a guide yeah I mean we talked about that running that Julie that Julie had as far as like the the amount of NBSL games that she could potentially play in you know to get to get to get a minutes up to get that feel back you know what I'm saying but every week every week that passes you know what I'm saying I mean makes it smaller obviously so I don't know there's plenty there's still plenty of time to get our minutes up she just we just got to figure out what what this injury is oh so yeah what Bell said 50 days 50 days man so we're talking about Angel City has seven

games before that friendly against Wales on July 9th. Seven games. And then... Yeah, we'll see, ain't it? Two or three would be good. Four or five would be better. Yeah, I'll about say, I need a solid four. Give me four, man.

That's a good line to draw, though, because I wasn't sure how much I needed. Four, I will buy in to the four games needed. Speaking of Elder States women on the national team, Megan Rapino's kind of back, huh? Hey, I'm the first person to harp when she has a bad game. She did not have a bad game this past weekend. OL Rain won four to one this past weekend against Angel City.

And Megan got three assists. It was, to me, a very good, very good Megan performance. And I'm hopeful that she's bringing this quality. to New Zealand because we all know she's making the roster. Yeah. I don't want to get too carried away about this performance, though. Two good crosses. I'm happy you said it, bills.

Two good crosses, one from the right, one from the left. A fairly simple pass into Zone 14 for the other assist. I thought she was pretty wasteful on the chances she got. You know, you can't finish everyone, but she had five decent chances. in the box. This game compared to the last game or specifically when they played North Carolina, this is a world of a difference.

Okay. I know, I know. But still, though, like, those assists, right? So the crosses, it's like, she's picking up this ball and just... Just whacking it. I mean, yeah, and it's just acres of space.

He's chilling, picking her head up, seeing what's going on, and, yes. This is what, I mean, Megan's going to be able to do this until, you know, until the Reaper come. You know what I'm saying? Just being able to serve a ball up, you know, when she comes out 30 years down the line and plays like the first cross for a women's national team game, you know, it's still going to be a dime. It just is what it is, but I don't know. Does it translate?

I guess that'd be my question Even though it is it is good for her to be playing better than she was before Like is this going to work at the World Cup I guess it might work against Vietnam but That's the question we don't know Chicago won their first game in a long time Yeah it feels like a light has shown Shined on on the windy city

Alyssa Neyer had a pretty good performance which again compared to where she was it feels like you know a new day a new day is born a listener is back um Casey Kruger also had a very good performance uh and I've been on the Casey to New Zealand train for a little bit now um I think it's good news for everyone Alyssa Alyssa is playing well Casey's playing well I'm happy for Chicago because it It was doom and gloom there for a bit. Yeah, they suffered the cosmic injustice of Mallory Swanson's injury. Yeah.

All right. What else? How's Alyssa Thompson doing? I mean, her team is embarrassing. But I think Alyssa Thompson is doing pretty well, all things considered. Chris Henderson on Twitter, he does a lot of draft news and women's soccer. news. He's a great follow for anyone interested. But he posted a 1v1 and dribbling success stat for the NWSL this past week. And Alyssa was second. So it was important for, at least for me to highlight

because I think Angel City is in a very bad place. And I don't want them to drag Alyssa down with them. Because they have dragged down her XG plus XA stats a little bit. Yeah, I mean, you can't carry a team by yourself. Right. Where is she? Let me just look this up real quick. She's non-penalty XG in the 33rd percentile.

So, you know, on FB. Ref, these would be red bars, 33rd percentile, non-penal the XG plus XAXAG, you know, so goals and assist, non-penalty. XG, she's at in the 11th percentile. So it's kind of rough. The 1B1 and dribbling success stats do soften the blow of those, I think, a little bit. I hope so. But keeping with Angel City for a moment, Sydney Larue is traveling with the team again. I find it hard to imagine that Vladko does.

anything really surprising or interesting with the upcoming roster. But Sydney is a former national team star, and I wanted to highlight it that she's almost back. It's going to make the NWSL better. It's going to make Angel City better, which in turn hopefully will make Alyssa Thompson even better. And she hasn't played soccer in nearly a year. So I think it's exciting and I'm happy about it. Yeah. Anything that helps Alyssa helps me.

That's how I look at it. Love that. And the only other note I had in terms of the World Cup coming up, I guess, is England's World Cup roster came out today, which means ours must be soon, right? Have you guys seen any news on when ours is expected? I haven't. I have not either. No announcement about when it'll be released or anything. but I'm assuming if England's is released.

I saw it before we hopped on here today. I'm thinking ours must be soon, though. So that's exciting. Well, I don't know because I feel like England can do it because, like, their season's over. Oh, yeah, good point. Good point. Who knows?

So we got, it would be a shame to name people to the World Cup roster and, you know, have them all get. hurt or whatever. There's got to be a mechanism for replacing folks, right? This far out? I mean, yes. But naming a roster, like, I don't know. It would just, I feel like for me it would raise the general anxiety.

Yeah. Like, just amongst everyone at that point. It's just. Yeah. Maybe that's probably true. It's most likely going to come right before that Wales game, the send-off game. Speaking of, go ahead, sorry. I was just saying I just got my hopes up a little bit,

seeing World Cup rosters be released, knowing it's so soon, I'm really excited. Yeah. I mean, it's really coming up. It is. But speaking of European seasons coming to an end, the one in France just did this past weekend, and Corbyn Albert got her third start, PSG-130.

I know this is like my little axe to grind. I talk about her every other week, every other week, I guess. But I'm really curious to see where she stands in the pecking order for PSG in the fall and where she might stand in the pecking order for the new coach, hopefully new coach of the women's national team. She's been quite good in her appearances. She plays almost every game. Like I said, started three strong in duels, very good at finding the ball,

tidy in possession. Big fan of Corbyn. Her Anne didn't play for Leone, but she's extending her time in France? Yeah, her loan was up, but she's not coming home. She's going to stay with Leone, I think, another year, but for sure she's staying in France. Okay. Yeah, I mean, we talked about potential eights, you know what I'm saying, that can replace Cat and replace potentially Rose. And, yeah, we left Corby now, man.

As a big Corbyn fan myself, you know what I'm saying? I apologize. Yeah. I apologize to the iconic brands that are Paris-Sanjaman and Notre Dame. University of Notre Dame. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let's see.

Last, well, got a couple other things, but mainly the U-2 women's... Go ahead. Can I just butt in real quick? Yes, please. I've been doing some, I pulled up American soccer analysis and their interactive tables just to check out some XG stuff real quick. I just want to say Sophia Smith is second in the league and non-penalty XG plus XA. Who's first?

C.C. Kaiser. Oh, C.C. Watch out. C Ciccaz. It's actually a pretty funny list of, so C.C. Kaiser, Sophia Smith. Morgan Weaver, Louisville's Kirsten Davis,

and then Lynn Williams, I'll take it. Good for us. Okay. The U20 women are trying to qualify for the U20, the next U20 Women's World Cup

at the Conca Calf Championship. What are we seeing there, Tara? Yeah, one more win, and we do qualify for the U20 Women's World Cup. So that's huge, exciting. That is the semifinal of this tournament against Costa Rica on Friday. Yeah, which is this Friday, 6 p.m. But the group stage has been a blast.

The first game got canceled due to weather in the Dominican Republic. It was storming. So when the game got rescheduled, we won 6 to nothing against Panama. The second game, we played Jamaica. We won 4 to nothing. It's just a young group that's hopeful and playing fun soccer there. They're scoring a bunch of goals. What's not to love?

The third game, which was, you know, not to be a bummer, but our first real game, our first real test, was against Canada, and we won five to two. One of Canada's goals came from a penalty kick, and the other was a late goal. We shouldn't have really given up. We were just kind of checked out. tired or the heat got to them at the end.

But we still won 5 to 2, a load of great goals. And I've been having a good time watching. I know we've talked about some of these players before, but can you give me the two or three players you're most excited about on this team? Yeah. And Vince, feel free to answer too. I definitely want you to elaborate when I get to the Gamarro. But Ali Settner has been really, really good.

She got hurt last year, so she didn't play much for UNC. But she's playing good now. She scored twice last night against Canada. She was fast. She was creative. I thought she was a joy to watch. Jazele Thompson, Alyssa's little sister. She also scored against Canada last night.

She took their penalty kick. As a right back. Yeah, I which I thought was like super silly. But it was a good P-K. and she got a goal. She played well. She's committed to Stanford, but we see how well that went for Alyssa.

Who knows what's going to happen there. And then Gamero, I think, is a force. She's committed to Stanford as well, and she scored last night against Canada also. Okay. Yeah. I've been extremely excited about Anya Gamero since I first saw her for the,

the U-17 World Cup, which was, I don't know when it was. It was sometime last year. Time all runs together now. But, but yeah, ever since I first saw her, even more so than, like, Giselle, who was also on that team, like, like, Camero was just the one for me. And yesterday in this match, she was, she was just unplayable, unplayable. She gets, she gets that ball on the wing, 1 v1. Yeah, you're not stopping her from getting to where she wants to go. He had a couple of, like, snatch shots that ended up, like, looking like crosses,

but you could tell that she was definitely trying to shoot the ball a few times. The goal kind of came off of deflection. So she, there's a little work to be done, a little work to be done on the final ball, but this is just another one, the long line of attackers, man. They just keep funneling in. I just keep funneling in, funneling in. And I would probably bet that, you know, he's going to forego college and go ahead and join the NWSO.

But we'll see. We'll see. And the interesting thing about Sintinor is I'm pretty sure she came back from injury and her first games were that U20 woke up. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And so she seems to be like just extremely highly rated,

which she was playing up a cycle it seems right in that in that last U20 woke up he's a member of this U20 team and so and while and I guess I would say like

yesterday was the first time that I really like I was like oh okay like like I'm seeing what's going on here like that first goal she scored was just absolutely it was a it was a ridiculous finish yeah it really was so smooth left footed left footed from

a tight angle, almost kind of a chip. Yeah, like across her body. Yeah. To the far corner of the goal, like the right that. She tried it a few more times in the game too. She's really, really fun to watch. But to your point about Gamerao, I was going to say, but I, you know, it's just a guess. I'm thinking she gets one season in Stanford before she comes over.

She's got that much potential, but like Vince said, just a little cleanup, spend some time at Stanford and then come home. Come to NWSA. I'm with it. Another UNC player on the team is Matt Maddie Dalyan. Yeah. She seems like she's causing a little trouble as well. Some good trouble. Yeah, yeah.

She's a good player as well. Good players well played left wing yesterday. she's extremely fast. She's extremely fast. I think Kim McCauley tweeted that in the state of Minnesota, I believe, she won like the 100, 200, 400 meter dash, like state championship while she was in high school.

So just, you know, an elite athlete. Probably another one coming, you know, as far as the wingerpool. It's It's all the more reason Like I'm so glad the professionals Weren't released for this tournament

Like we wouldn't have been able to see All of the steps that we have So I think it's it's been really fun And I'm looking forward to the next game on Friday Oh and also I would also like to point out I think a name is Ali Lemos The Sick from yesterday I thought she was

I thought she was quite clean as well as a good player so is is uh is Jordan Dudley not grabbing anybody's attention I thought I saw some some stuff she was doing in that first apparently not I thought she was doing some stuff in that first game

that was good yeah that's going to be a question for Terry I'm not going to lie I definitely checked out of these first two matches because I was just like you got other things going on um Canada I was like it

I watched both games, and I got to tell you, don't remember a single thing about the first one. Okay. Fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. Last thing is Challenge Cup continues today. Chicago versus Racing at 8 p.m. Eastern.

San Diego versus O.L. Rain at 10 p.m. Eastern. Portland versus Angel City at 10.30 p.m. It's kind of – would anyone have predicted that at this point, Gotham would be in first place in the NWSL? God no But it's really fun to watch It seems like they made a It made a good little trade there Tara huh

Yeah they got Yasmin Ryan and Lynn Williams And it's paying off beautifully That's not to say Michelle Cooper wasn't worth it Which you're implying So I'm just messing with you I'm a big fan of Michelle Cooper But But I mean

Lynn and Ryan are doing phenomenal at Gotham both landed exactly where they're meant to be. Clearly, it's working out beautifully. Cooper, have we had a chance to discuss that Cooper goal yet? Or did we talk about it last time? You're talking about the one against racing? Yeah, it was the first goal. In the challenge cup, in the Challenge Cup, Cooper had a great goal.

But racing in Kansas City played each other twice, so those two games blend together for me. It was Challenge Cup. First one. league league second one I mean Vince that's that's not that's not something to be that proud of Kansas City is really bad right now wins a wins and win ain't it

beat them home and away That's true but but yeah the goal The Michelle Cooper scored I mean it was kind of similar to the to the sentinel goal that we just described Just just very nice Very nasty it's the type of thing that I expect from Michelle Cooper

and more and more as she gets comfy you know what I'm saying she is playing an attack that should function pretty well you know Debenia we just mentioned Ciccazer number one in XG plus XA in the league and just an extremely underrated attacker I mean from her time it I was heartbroken when we let her go

when we traded her to Casey in the first so yeah that that should be a good attack man you got Spanstra but Michelle like like everybody surrounding Michelle is isn't our good players so hopefully we get to see some more. If they if they don't fill their coaching position before early August, I think I think we know somebody who could come down, take it on. Right on down. He would be happy too, man. That man ain't left Kansas City. No. But but to Bell's original point, Gotham is doing really. really well.

And Washington Spirit are doing really well. Two of the worst teams last season, which just goes and shows, goes to show how fun that NWSL is. Every single game is competitive. You know, you can rewrite your story the next season with ease. Yeah.

Okay. I think that covers it. Well, well, do we need to, do we need to put some respect on Christy Mules' name? I guess it's my point. No, we don't. okay all right i mean i'm just saying got them top of the table you know but christie pulling the strings there if if you want to give respect to christie muis name she's she's playing well in

gotham but i think it's the same scenario actually if if if you accredit christie's success right now with gotham you're also saying ash should probably start in the world cup because she's doing very very well okay okay I'm playing Kelly O'Hare too. I see, I see where. She's not even playing,

man. She can't make her play. You're going to get me in trouble, though. So I think it is time to think. All right. Well, thanks, guys. Thanks everybody for listening. Whoa, whoa.

We're about to, this is the end of that episode? Yes, sir. Oh, wow. Now, hold on. I need to talk about this then. I made it out to Lynn Family Stadium.

On Saturday. I had to take the baby with me. How did Indy enjoy it? Indy had a good time. She was actually very good. He was very good. I was very nervous about taking her to this match by myself. So I was going to take both kids.

What was your carrying apparatus for her? My arm. Yeah. Yeah, my arm, man. There's a nice little nook that she likes to get in. She really just settles herself in like the fold of my arm. And like this is something we developed. because she had acid reflux and I had to keep her up after she ate sometimes.

And so, like, ever since then, she just sits in there and chills and just looks around at the world. So, yeah, brought my five-month-old baby to her first NWSL match. I was going to bring both kids, but my wife talked me out of it, so I took Eden to her cousin's house. She had fun over there. But anyway, got to watch racing versus North Carolina Courage, which was a good match. It was a very entertaining match back and forth. And we talked about North Carolina courage before, just their general style of play, how they just build out, play with the ball.

It was enlightening the sea. Emily Fox and Lucy, great combo, right? I mean, they got a good team all around, man. Their midfield really impressed because basically they ran like a double pivot. Oh, Sullivan is fantastic. I mean, I think everybody, and I mean everybody like down. played Ireland's success this past

camp. Like, O'Sullivan is a great player. O'Sullivan is so good. She was in Sav de Mello's shit. Like, I've never seen anything like it. I've never seen anything like it. Like, Sav really couldn't get going, bro, because Denise O'Sullivan was there every

step of the way. Every step of the way. Like, I think it seems like North Carolina coach just really just sick the dog on her and said, you know what, go get her. And then also in possession, just nice as hell. So this midfield of Meredith Speck, Denise O'Sullivan, and Naurumi Miura, the Japanese 10,

it was just fun to watch some work. To watch Miura try to like basically get away from Jalen Howe and like find pockets to receive the ball. Like it was just one of those things where like, when you go to matches, you go to matches to like see stuff. that you can't see on TV, I guess. And just watching that midfield work and especially watching how Mira, like, really had to work to find spaces to receive the ball.

It just kind of enlightened me a little bit just to how soccer works, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. Boots on the ground, though. I love it. I was feeling very woo-woo and metaphysical at this match, I guess. That's the type of thing that soccer can. Bring out of you.

But yes. Boots on the ground. Racing lost one to two, even though we out XG, North Carolina, significantly by at least a goal. But anyway, did you have any thoughts? Did you have any thoughts on Casey Murphy?

Casey Murphy was very good. She had a couple extremely nice saves. Because, as I mentioned, you know, the XG was much higher for racing. And so Casey played very well. Gole number one. Matter of fact, she kind of got lucky on this, but there was a shot, like a first-time shot from Ari Borge's, like right in front of Casey Murphy. And Ari kind of shot it into her midsection, but the fact that Casey still caught that ball and like didn't spill it.

I mean, I'm talking about this shot was from point Blake rain. And, you know, I mean, Casey looked very good. It's a look very good. And I do have to say, you know, we talked about Jalen Howe. I'm still on that train. If, you know, Julie Ertz isn't fit or whatever. She doesn't make it for whatever reason. I feel like Jalen Howe should be the pick.

I feel like Jalen Howe should be the pick. I feel this more strongly. Every time I watch her, man, she's everywhere. She's everywhere. And two or three times a game, she's just getting in somebody's face and just straight ripping them. Like taking a kick. cookies, man. Like, it's a, like, it's a basketball game. It's, it's incredible to see, like,

Debenia, uh, when we play Kansas City at Kansas City, so that was a game in the league. Like, I, so I think Debian is going to see Jay LaHan Howe in her nightmares. Like, I posted some, uh, I posted some clips of Jay, uh, wrecking that midfield from that match. And, man, I mean, she put biblical clamps on, on Debiania. It was incredible. It was incredible. But you bring up a good point and and I think it's maybe something for when we talk again um if julie arts isn't playing if she's still if she's still um off to the sideline maybe we can do some Sam coffee Jalen House scouting we'll see yep yep uh don't and oh oh oh and then also two more points also uh yeah it was a very nice goal from caroline in that match I just wanted to point that out

And she also threw up a little black power fist as a support to Venetius and the abuse that he has suffered. Yeah, just a very nice. She was able to pick the ball, pick the ball of one-on-one against one of our centerbacks transition and just did what Caroline does. Just a dynamite player. And my last point, and most important point, this has been a thing that's been talked about on Wosso Twitter for the past few weeks, I guess.

I mean, it's an, it's an evergreen topic, of course. But it came up because they talked about it on the CBS Colazo show, I think. But I think it was, anyway, the idea that Crystal Duncha play in the midfield, right? Yeah, June, too said it. Yes, Diddy Chu? Diddy Chu said it. And Charlie Davis had the pushback, just, you know, stay at left back. who's going to play left back at Crystal Dunstead if she does move to the midfield and I'll tell you who

Carson Pickett Carson Pickett can play damn left back Carson Pickett is so good dog she really is so good so good like all the all the elegance that we get to possession from Crystal Dunn I Chris Carson Pickett can do it Carson Pickett can do it I'm telling you I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't believe it wholeheartedly she's an excellent player excellent player and so I'm wasting my breath because Black Co. Anonofsky is not going to do it but I feel like I just need to get that out there

because that's been the common refrain from a lot of people just there is no left back candidate if Emily Fox is going to play right back there is no left back candidate to take that spot and I would just like to say it is Carson Pickett and thank you all for bearing with me that is boots on the ground which is a same thing

segment that we like to do here on Walsaw Wednesday. Thank you. I loved it. Yeah, I mean, especially if we start, people are dropping in the midfield from injury, then I think the rationale for something like that starts to make more sense. Yeah, yeah. So go ahead and put her in there. I'm telling you, man, if Carson gets that shot, we wouldn't lose anything. We wouldn't lose, I mean, yeah, we wouldn't lose anything. I was going to caveat it, but no, no, man. She's that good.

She's that good of a left back. Let Crystal down play midfield. And again, not totally unrealistic. Carson's gotten call-ups, especially if somebody gets injured. She's next man up often. So I love it. I have always been a Carson fan. Our lives are in Blocko's hands.

Thanks, everybody. What'd you say? Very shaky hands. Yeah. All right. I'm trustworthy. If I gave black coal a handshake, he'd give me the dead fish. That's a type of person I think of you.

Yeah, maybe. All right, that's it. Let me just say if you'd like to join the Patreon and become a member of that Discord we talked about earlier in the episode and get the Monday reviews every week and various other things, including full interviews. The link is in the show notes.

Join us. $2, $5 or $10 a month. It's not that much money. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.