Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #412: WoSo W-Day — 6 USWNT questions ahead of the Women’s World Cup

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

Belz, Vince and Tara talk through six questions we're thinking about with the World Cup opener 9 days away, including health and wellness stuff, the front line, and who will step up in the midfield.----Consider subscribing on Patreon! You get an exclusive episode once a week, plus access to the Discord and live call-in shows, by signing up for as little as $2 a month here: 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, welcome to Woso Wednesday. This is Bells. I've got Tara and Vince here with me. How did y'all feel about the game on Sunday? The 2-0 win over Wales. A little less than great. So like very good.

Very good. Okay. Vince? All right. You know, it was more of the same. More of the same. I mean, you know. I listened to the recap of the Wales game yesterday and I told myself I was not going to be that argumentative.

But I've got to, you know, argue a little bit already. Vince, it was a game where we had no injuries and we won. Yeah. Yeah. I feel good. That's great for a standoff game. That is very good. Yeah. Yeah. It's a. Yeah. It's about. about as good as it could have went, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, we talked about this in Discord.

That basically, if you watch this game, that essentially any preconceived notion that you had about the team, whether you were feeling good, whether you're feeling down, hasn't changed. Hasn't changed. So, you know, it was just a chaotic neutral. And, yeah, so.

We move. We move in it. Let's just see what happens in the World Cup. Well, part of the reason, Tara, you say that a win with no major injuries should be considered an unqualified success is because not everybody won in their last friendly before the World Cup. I mean, right off the bat, I'm thinking about England and Portugal, which was a big game. I only watched highlights, but although it was zero-zero, England had a lot more chance. chances than Portugal. They just couldn't finish. I know somebody on Canada's team got hurt, somebody on Germany's team got hurt. Like, it could have gone a lot, lot worse. Yeah. Did you, did watching that first half of England versus Portugal make you scared of Portugal? No. It made me, it made me excited for the Netherlands as, as wonky as that may seem.

I'm just really looking forward to playing against a team that likely won't just park the bus. I think that that's going to be really, really exciting. Scared against Portugal? No, but it just made me excited for when we get an opportunity to really play attacking soccer. Germany lost, so England and Portugal drew zero zero. Germany lost to Zambia, three to two. Pretty surprising. Which was a wild.

It all happened at the very, very end. Germany tied it up. It was two to two, and it was just a hero final goal from Zambia. Didn't the Netherlands just paced fellow low country, Belgium? Yeah, I think it was four or five to nothing. And then Spain plays Vietnam. on Thursday tomorrow. Yeah, I think that's going to be a really, really exciting one to watch,

just to get more eyes on Vietnam. The team has arrived in New Zealand. It looks beautiful there. The Federation drops in B-roll last night and some interview footage. Here's just a little bit from, I mean, mostly platitudes, delivered with great poise. But here's something from Rapino, a little bit from Rapino.

How are you more importantly? I'm good. Yeah, I had a good nice sleep. Chill and nice to be back out, full training with the team. And yeah, it feels very real now that we're here. I was excited to get out of the country and land down here. You've adjusted the sleeping patterns okay? I don't want to brag, which is probably going back and bite me tonight.

But yeah, I feel like I slept pretty well. I was up early, obviously. But yeah, sleeping pretty good. Haven't been on the ground for too many hours yet, but how are you finding the facilities and things? Yeah, it's great. obviously a beautiful pitch we have the whole setup in a really nice gym hotels bomb that we're staying at we're spoiled here so we feel good and comfortable and excited to get this thing on it seemed like there's a lot of local reporters asking a lot of the

same questions to all three of them Morgan Rapino and Horan it looks like they are comfortable and getting ready to go first game of course is next Friday versus Vietnam 21st and then the Netherlands and then four days after that we play Portugal And that's our group stage. Since we recap the game yesterday, I wanted to sort of organize. I don't want to stop you guys from saying what you're saying your pieces about the game. Definitely we should. But I thought it would go ahead.

Well, the only thing, the only thing I had to say, though, was after watching some of those interviews from last night and seeing like how gorgeous it looks and seeing the team train for the first time on location and everything. I really just go back to how beneficial that January camp was. Like we're familiar with that area. We get to stay in the same place for our group stage. Like that's not promised for everyone. I just think that it was great that we got that opportunity in January to kind of get a head start. It seems more beneficial now than I think I may have realized earlier on. It does seem quite beneficial.

It also looks like October there. Yes. Like crisp and slanted sunlight. So anyway, I wanted to structure this as a series of questions about the U.S. women's national team ahead of the Women's World Cup. So, Vince, unless you have anything you want to say quickly about the game in a vacuum, let's just go right into the questions. And I think a lot of the stuff will come up.

Yeah. All right. Will Rose Lavelle be healthy? Will Julie Ertz? Ertz seems like she's probably okay given she played as recently as June 25th. Levelle hasn't played, however, since early April and didn't get any minutes in this most recent game. Do we have any new information, Tara? Yeah. Well, it was a surprise to me. The pictures came out, like I said, of our, our first training session in New Zealand.

And Rose is there. She's in two of the three pictures posted, which again are just pictures. We don't know all of the context. But she looks to be knee deep, knee deep in practicing. And that's a huge bit of news to me. I think that that's really, really important. We had some members of the Discord in the game, not in the game, at the game. at the send-off game and Rose was practicing and she was involved.

So she's not being kept away. She's not being like slowly integrated into warm-ups. I think we're just being truly careful with her, which is new for Flatco. And it's something I'm starting to feel a little bit better about. in terms of Rose, I think that it's a really good sign that she is medically cleared to play and we didn't just force her in there. Vladko spoke to the press before the send-off game and he did note that Julie, Rose, and Megan,

all three of them are medically cleared to play, but he said Julie is a bit further along than Rose or Megan. So again, take it with a grain of salt. Who knows what all of this means, but she's practicing. She's medically clear to play. Those are two things I'm choosing to believe are exciting. Yes, yes. This is very exciting because we need Roosevelt. Yeah, we need, we need Roosevelt. Like for me, the whole reason I've been, I don't want to say that, like, like, I'm excited for the World Cup. I'm excited for the World Cup at everything. But for me, the way I'm looking at, the way I'm looking at, Black Co has handled these call-ups, the way he's handled, like all the friendlies before this, the way he's handled constructing this roster, I just feel like we have a, we have kind of a

narrow window where everything probably needs to go right to to win because, well, we'll get to it, but our depth's looking kind of shaky. Depths looking kind of shaky. So we need rows. We need rows at 100%. And, you know, if you want to give her Vietnam off, then we talk about 13 days. And hopefully she can pull a Sergenio Desk.

You know what I'm saying? We're, you know, we have surge just missing. He's out in the wilderness. He's doing whatever Sergenio Desk is doing. They don't need club teams. They're professional national team players. that's fair fair then come out and show it i mean i mean which uh so so specifically with the women's national team you know uh they this is nothing new to them it's nothing new to them as tera just

brought up as far as like being just being a just being a national team player uh over club so hopefully that's what was going on and uh everything's all good because we need everything to be all good i mean if you saw as Ashley Sanchez's before performance. You know. Hey. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, but, well, let me just say, let me just say, as you pointed out, Tara, Vlako is saying

they're all healthy and, um, I guess, you know, both the eyewitness accounts of Rose, uh, playing soccer in the stadium the other day, like,

like kicking the ball around and these pictures of her with, in what looks like full training. does bring some comfort and some reassurance. But, you know, well, go ahead. Do you want to respond to the Sanchez stuff? No, no. We've done that far too many times. But what I did want to say in terms of like roster construction,

Bill Simmons, there was a clip going around. Bill Simmons talked about this team on his podcast. It was like he, it was maybe three minutes. but he basically explained how the team is stuck between two eras and like that's the struggle leading into the World Cup. And I think that that's, first of all, it was cool that he spoke about the women's national team on such a large podcast. But then also in terms of like our shaky depth, I think that that's a decent way to look at him. as well. So the second question has a lot to do with the first one in that it's, you know, if

Lavel can't be relied upon. And it seems like she should be fine. But if she can't be relied upon, who's going to step up? Because as Vince just mentioned, Sanchez was, I thought, pretty unconvincing on Sunday. It ain't Ashley. Savannah Demello got her first cap on Sunday. Maybe a little bit more convincing than Sanchez, but I don't know. Are there any other possibilities?

Go ahead, Ben. I've talked about it on this pod multiple times that I believe that Savannah de Mello is better than Ashley Sanchez. And if Rose is out, then I would like to see it. I would like to see it. Yeah, yeah. I think that there's a few other. options. With the assumption that Julie would be starting at the six, I do wonder if Andy would get a chance in the more attacking midfield role, which is more natural for her. And I think that that's

one of the negatives that people often point out when talking about her role as a six, is she doesn't really play it all that often. She wants to be more attacking, and that would also free up Lindsay, her anson. And then there's something else that I want to talk about more. Crystal and Andy looked to me and I think a few others to be in sort of like a double pivot-ish with Andy Sullivan in the second half. that would free up Lindsay Horan to be her free floating attacking self, which she wants to be. And I think that would also solve some problems.

Do you guys have any thoughts? Savannah DeMello. Thank you. Done in the midfield with Sullivan is intriguing. But that means if we play that, if she ends up there in like a really difficult game, then we're talking then we're going to have Huerta and Fox

at fullback yeah yeah and and once again this goes back to the to the roster construction goes back to the roster construction we we have some left backs we have some available left backs that we could have called up you know I mean I think Carson Picker got like one call up in the in the Black Coal era

all the while being like NWSL all 11 for like three straight years which neither here nor there at this point no point crying over some spilled milk. But this is the thing. This is the thing. So with the roster that we have, Crystal probably has to play left back.

But I would probably say that if Rose is out, I mean, and we're talking about, like, I do believe that Sav is that good to where, like, where she can take up that position and, like, do her thing and be like a a solid contributor to the team on on on the world stage on the world stage but i would i would

also probably want to have crystal there instead of Ashley sanchise for sure and like i mean and sav for sure for sure i mean when we watch this match and we see how well so once again we're static uh we like dynamism uh from the middle specifically i don't know it would be like nice to see we're we're not going to see it i'm gonna leave it alone uh it just is what it is but yeah i'm i guess i'm i'm not quite as excited about de mello as you are vince which is you know understandable but um i guess after lavelle probably i probably hope for her next but i'm also hopeful that sanchise can have a good tournament you know yeah or at least play better than she has been playing.

I mean, I hear both of you. I don't think we have that much disagreement. I don't think Ashley Sanchez was the worst player on the field. I think that that would probably go to Alex Morgan. She was literally invisible the entire first half. And you mean what? Close second. I mean, got to be a close second.

I don't know. I've said it 100 times. I definitely don't mean to be a broken record. Ashley Sanchez is always going to try something and a quality like that is going to result in it not working sometimes. I've never wanted her to start. I think that she's going to be really valuable off the bench. And I hope that Alex shows up.

next time she plays because she really, really didn't this game. Yeah. Like I would just say that in my opinion, she's just not a midfielder in this system. Like I think we kind of ran into that problem with the men's national team with like Sebastian Leggett. Oh my God. Hey, no, no. Listen to me. Listen to me though.

Listen to me. Listen to where I'm going. Because like once we switch systems and we put that extra. added responsibility on Sebastian to be involved in build up, to win duels, uh, and do, and have him do all these type of things.

Uh, then that's when this play, that's when this play just completely dropped off because like, he's just not that type of player. And when you watch Ashley for the spirit, uh, she's, I mean, that's just not her. She, she's not,

she's not going to be in the middle of the field, winning duels for you. Uh, she's not going to be like entirely convincing and, build up and everything. And another thing about this match is like multiple times we were just completely skipping the midfield like all together. And I just, I just can't stand for it.

I just can't stand for it. I think you got to watch again. This was, this was one of Andy Sullivan's better games. I disagree. You got to watch again. But we will always have Hartford, won't we, Vince? Always have Hartford. Yes.

Sure. I mean, we'll always have Hartford. We'll have a good time. But I, no, like, I feel it. I mean, I mean, if you watch the amount of times we just hoof the ball, we had a long ball to Ashley Sanchez at one point. But, but, yeah, like, Ashley is cool. Like, when we get into the attacking phase and she's in that band of five and she can do a little something. But even then, she doesn't do too much that's catching my eye.

And so if you're not getting, if you're not getting the great attacking contributions, you're definitely not getting pitch control. And then also you're not getting like no ball progression for real and and no dynamism from the middle as far as like eliminating players off the dribble or anything like that. Then it's just, I mean, then then what the hell's going on? Because I'll tell you what Sav is going to do. Sav was going to dribble past somebody. And we saw it multiple times when she came in the match, getting fouled, dribbling, aggressive, you know what I'm saying? And on the defensive end, she's at your heels at all times. that's what I'm saying.

It is wonderful to have the ambassador from Racing Louisville on the call today, though. It's a pleasure. I mean, Tara, you cannot, you cannot tell me that Ashley has, I mean, she just, in every opportunity she's had, she's looked mid at best, mid at best. And, you know, I don't want no mid. I don't want no mid, man. The mid, the mid ain't selling over here. Bring that same energy to this next question. Who will Vladko start up front?

I don't want the people coming at me. So, Terry, you can go and give your opinions. Okay. I feel very strongly that Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, and Lynn Williams should all be starting. I got a little worried when Trinity came on for Alex in the Wales game, not because I didn't think that she couldn't do it. Obviously she could do it. She scored twice.

But because I didn't want her to get locked into that role. But I thought about it some more and knowing how fluid Trinity and Sophia and Lynn really play, they can all play different positions. They can switch up at any time. I'm totally over that. I'm game for Trinity to be Alex. it's back up if it means that they can be that interchanging and be that open. I think it's a beautiful thing and that's the most exciting front three I could possibly

think of. Is it going to happen though? You know, it's just one of the things. I agree. I agree with Tara. But please direct all your, all your angst to. At green bean suck. Please.

It's okay. It's okay. I definitely have some reference templates if anybody wants to see them. But Bells, what do you think? Yeah, I want it to be, I mean, Smith or Rodman at the 9, and Smith or Rodman on the one wing, either way is fine with me. And whether it's Thompson or Williams, as the third person out front,

I guess for now, I don't really care. I think I'm more invested in Thompson than I am in Williams just as a fan. But, yeah, I don't think, I'm with the sort of consensus on, hopefully Morgan doesn't start.

And if she does, maybe she'll play a lot better. Yeah. And it'll be okay. I, um, there, there is some conflicting, um,

feelings, uh, going on about, Thompson or Lynn Vladko came out at some point before after the

send off game I can't remember but he he referenced Lynn as being like the best 15 to 30 minute player at the World Cup like she will be a sub yeah they said it on the broadcast

but then Alyssa like her starting this game to me this is strictly my opinion it didn't indicate at all that she is the starter. I took that as she's so newly acclimated into this team that she needed more minutes

before heading off to her first World Cup. In that October camp in Europe, between England and Spain, she had 26 minutes. and then she was called in to replace Mal Swanson in April and she got 90 minutes. So I was like, there's absolutely no way she's starting. She just needs, you know, more minutes under her belt, for lack of a better term. But hearing that Lynn may just be a sub, maybe she is the starter. I don't know. Do you guys have any thoughts about that?

I kind of hope it is, Thompson. She didn't have the cleanest game. on Sunday, but she does she offer a lot? I mean, I feel like we talked about it at length in the recap, but her ability to combine and get released behind. She's amazing. Yeah, so even against the low block, I think that that is going to be a big asset for the team.

I thought Alyssa and Crystal had great chemistry out there. Like I thought they were combining really, really well together. Yeah, Alyssa and Horan. too. I thought. And even with Morgan a little bit. I mean, I just find it funny. I just find it funny that you talk about, uh, you talk about Alyssa Thompson's ability to help against a low block, but you're not going to mention Lynn Williams, Lynn Williams past that, that, you know, led to the first goal. You know what I'm saying? I'm just right. But that wasn't against, it was wonderful. I mean, I definitely have mentioned it on the podcast.

You did. But Vince, who got Lynn Williams the ball? for that pass. I thought we were ignoring our midfield the entire time. That ball came from Ailey Solomon. I mean, that's cool. But I didn't say we ignored it the entire time. I mean, fully did. Some of the time, let me, let me revise my position.

I mean, a lot of the time, we, I mean, you cannot tell me that we did not have Alana Cook. We were bypassing the midfield quite a bit. She was in long balls. That's what I want to cook does. Yeah, but what I'm saying is I don't like it. Okay, I hear you. I hear you.

But Alyssa versus Lynn, you got a, you got a opinion? Alyssa versus Lynn. No, not really. Yeah, we're either way, we're fine. Great against tired legs, whoever's up and off. Be all right. Whoever it is. You had a point to make Tara about how Sophia is.

Sophia and Trinity play when they are at the nine or when they're on there together without Alex? Yeah, I just, when they're together, they are able to be partners a lot more like evidently than when Alex is there. They combine so well, they get to switch on and off with each other. there were multiple times Sophia was in the middle, even for a player too, and Trinity was on one of the sides. They just got to, they just understand each other a lot better. And it doesn't feel as someone watching that they're competing for the same ball almost ever. Whereas Sophie and Alex are often trying to do the same thing, in my opinion.

Yeah. Yeah, because it wasn't even 100% clear when Rodman came on for Morgan as the nine that Rodman was always playing strictly as a nine. Yeah, she got to, she got to do what she wanted, basically, because she knew she had Sophia Smith there. Sophia got to be a lot more than just a winger because she knew she had Trinity there. Like, it just, it just felt like a partnership for the first time in that game. So you don't think, you don't think Alyssa's going to start?

I do not think Alyssa Thompson is going to start. I think she started because she needed more national team minutes. And I think she was made for running against tired legs, you know, coming on as a sub. But if it turns out I'm wrong and she is going to be starting, great. I mean, we're in a wonderful position. And I think even though she didn't have the best game against whales, she still showed a lot of incredible talent. Yeah. Well, this is the thing, though, is like,

this whole third question just might be, it is probably moot because we have a very large statue of Alex Morgan touring the country. It just, it is what it is in it. But, I saw, I gotta say, I saw, I might cut this, but we went over to dinner at some of my in-laws,

my wife's parents, friends, you know, so that we're talking like late 60s, white people in Iowa. And one of the women asked me was asked me about what I do. And I was trying to explain it to her as briefly as possible. And then she said, she started talking about the Women's World Cup. And I said, I said, yeah, it's going to be great. And she goes, yeah, Rapino is going to win another one.

And I said, yeah, you know, I guess I'd be surprised if Rapino makes, you know, has a huge impact in this tournament. But, you know, she's definitely, you know, a legend. What's that? why why did I say that yeah I'm just trying to speak the truth in my life you know and I said yeah there's a lot of young players like there's some really exciting and she's like yeah I'm mostly just gonna watch for a rapino and I was like a large portion of of those who are going to be tuning in will feel similar to yeah man she was a really nice lady I'm not I'm not saying anything about that no She sounds like a blast.

I mean, Megan Rubino is awesome, but I don't think she is in the minority. That's putting it lightly. Yeah. That's like the biggest thing I think about is once this generation actually turns, how is it going to go? Are there going to be any fans left?

Right, right. I think U.S. soccer is doing a huge, to service by not putting Sophia Smith like on any um any PR area that they can like throw her on a TV show throw her on a magazine it she's she is one of the only ones who can take take it on I think and they're not really doing it yeah yeah I like I was listened to a podcast recently where they were talking about uh they were talking about women's sports and the fact that like it's like every time women's sports gets into the national conversation, it's almost like you're reintroducing it to, uh, to like, you know, the people that are watching it. But, and they mention

the fact that like, uh, Megan Rapino, Alex Morgan, the, the generation that's kind of fading out within the women's national team has, like, earned that cachet to be, uh, stars on their, in their own right to, in their own right, that drive viewing. And, and, and, you know, and, you, you know, that have become like household names. And so I just, I just wonder. I just wonder that once, once this all happens, if, you know, I mean, we're just going be starting over from scratch again. It'll be starting over from scratch again with regards to the U.S.

Women's National Team. I just don't know. I just don't know. Maybe. But, but, but the, the, the good thing is, even though we don't have that, we don't have that Sophia Press run, for real, that, that we should have had, you know, we should should have had her on uh well well i don't know there's a writer's trick but she she could have came on conan o'brien or something something the sports illustrated cover with trinity and

sophia um was good like it it was kind of yeah talking about the two eras Alex was there rose was there um but alice we got something yeah yeah but ripino is rupino is very good i mean like has a lot of, she's got a lot of charisma, you know. An incredible amount, yeah. Yeah. There's a reason why she's, right, where she is. But I don't understand why is Horan out front and center. Like, she doesn't have the same charisma.

No. She doesn't have, she's not a household name. I mean, she is a captain, but. I mean, if you really want to be like, if you really want to think about it, like, we could easily just throw Trinity Robin out there. And, and, you know, do the, whole do the whole robin thing if you really want to get get get people up and running and do it quickly it's like oh her last name is robin you know what i'm saying yeah she's the one that makes

sense but if you try to book uh sophia smith at like uh you know one of the late night shows or something they might be like who yeah it's a shame it's a shame but but uh like i guess my my whole point was that uh at the end of the day you know the the the the play will do the talking the player do the talking. That's right. And if we are doing what we should do at this tournament and if we win our group on that side of the bracket, then, you know, we'll be playing some big games with consequence.

And, you know, I mean, with the way that that side of the bracket looks, I mean, it's looking pretty tasty. Look at pretty tasty. So if we at least get to the semi or something, get a lot of eyeballs, well, we'll see how it goes from there. We'll see how it goes from there. Okay, so let's call that question number four. Will all the fans stick around when Megan Rapino and Alex Morgan truly retire?

I guess we don't know the answer yet, but it's a question that we have posed. Number five, go ahead. Well, I just want to, like, I don't know. Like, I feel like if you're listening to this pod, you're probably like, I mean, of course they will, but I truly do not. I truly do not know because Belze's experience that he had is just, I mean, that's a lot of people. I mean, she looked at, she said, she said, she kept saying the name Megan Rapino and just staring at me and blinking, you know, didn't matter what I said. It was all coming back to Pino. Yeah, yeah.

And so Anne also, we're probably bearing the lead here as far as, uh, Megan Rapino announced that this is their last year playing soccer. Not a shocker, exactly, is it? No. I, you know, love Megan Rapino. She's earned all of the praise that she gets. Probably could have come last year. Yes, yes.

Jesus. I just, I mean, put some respect on the legend name. Put some respect. I did. I started off by saying she's amazing. She is. She is amazing, but you should have got your ass out. Exactly when you're, yeah.

Megan Rapino was the first jersey. The first kit that I bought was a Megan Rapino USA kid. Don't you have a Dick Sporting Good story about this? Yes, yes. I met Megarapino. I met Megan Rapino. She is a funny story. So I used to work at Dick Sporting Goods.

I like worked there towards the end of college and after college for like six months until I got a real job. And yeah, I was just chilling in Dix. This particular, so it was wintertime. It was wintertime. And so when all the North faces are out, you got to just have somebody that stands by the door because people like to steal North. Because people like to run in and steal North faces and run out. So anyway, I'm standing about a door. We get some people come in, and my boss gets on the, uh, my boss gets on the little headset.

And it's like, hey, so it's events, we got some people over in like winter gear or whatever, like, like, go over and check on them and see if they're, all right. I'm like, all right, cool. And it's a walk over, some people looking at some, uh, well, some ski masks, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, some, balacavas, whatever you call them. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, they, they, they both had shirts on where on the back, it said,

ripino in large capital letters. Large capital letters. And so I go over there. I talk to him, I'm like, y'all good. And they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're good. And I was like, all right. So I'm, so the, like, area where they are is close to the door by, by where I'm standing and protecting the honor of Dick Sporting Good.

And, you know, they get there, they get their little ski mask or whatever, go to the register. And I'm pretty sure I check them out to. I'm pretty sure we got backed up and I had to check him out. And, but, like, in between me checking them out and them, like, coming to the registers, like, I saw the Rapino on the back. And so this is before I was a sicko. This before I was a true sicko, but I definitely knew who Mega Rapino was.

You know, I was on that 60-year-old lady status at that point where, you know, like I knew two people, Mega Rapino and Alex Morgan. and I knew Hope Solo. Hope Solo had my heart for a little bit. But we don't talk about that. Anyway. Carly Lloyd, you knew her, probably. No, not really.

Not really. I also knew Abby Wambach. I knew Abby Wambach course. Like I've always watched. Get back on track. The World Cups or whatever. But anyway, I'm back. So I pull out my phone.

I look up what's going on because if it was Megan Rapino, especially with everything she did, far as kneeling and everything, I wanted to holler at it, be like, yo, I appreciate it, blah, blah, blah. Looked up the pictures. Look, and like I turned around and looked at them. And now I'm pretty sure it was Megan Rapino on Lori Lindsay. I just didn't know who they were.

I just didn't, I wasn't for sure. I wasn't trying to embarrass myself. So you know what? I didn't do it. I didn't do it. So then I get off my shift. I go home. I'm like laying in bed.

I'm scrolling through Twitter. And I follow the Courier Journal, which is, the local newspaper in Louisville. And I see a story where it's like Ripino has camp and Rapino has soccer camp in Louisville. And I was

just like, God damn it. I was like, that was it. That was them. That was them. It was kind of nippy outside. And they were looking for some face coverings and, you know, a matter of fact, now, I think about it, I hopped on Twitter and

tagged her and was like, Megan, I was at Dick's sporting goods and I was at Dick's sporting goods and I helped you that I didn't get a pick and blah and I got no response. I got no response, unfortunately. But you'll always have that memory.

I always have that memory. And like I didn't think about it at the time but also like one of my other co-workers was like huge women's soccer fan. She was a, she played soccer in like high school and stuff. And she was like, you should have called me over there. And I was like, yeah. hindsight i goofed i goofed in it hey it's all right i'll never forget it though let's move to question

number five uh how similar will the lineup versus vietnam be to the lineup versus the netherland oh i feel very strongly it has to be very similar we have to run the a squad out whoever that may be if they're healthy enough to play they will play we got to get goals run up our goal difference. That's my vote. I guess I'd sort of been assuming that we would play a less than first choice, 11 versus Vietnam,

just to rotate. But I think I agree with I Tara that we should get as many people cooking as we can who we will need to be cooking when we play the Netherlands. Yeah, if the Vietnam game was second, I would have a completely a different answer. I would say it would need to be super rotated. But because it's first,

I think, I think it's going to be the first choice gals. Yeah, we got to get a cookers going. Savannah de Mello especially as we come down to, you know, the more important games. We've got to get her a second cat, maybe a goal, you know what I'm saying? Assist. Can't wait to see it. I mean, surely if she plays, she'll score having an assist. The last question I had, um, is, if you guys have any thoughts, is Vladko no longer going to be known as the knee collector, which is a very dumb nickname, but resting arts this past game, being careful with Rose, keeping Alex at 45 minutes for what we later found out was a muscle strain, getting Savannah and Alyssa meaningful minutes instead of just running the normal few players into the ground

may not seem that substantial, but it has been a surprise to me. It's unlike him. And something I'm looking forward to keeping an eye on, continuing to watch. he's looking a little bit more adaptable than he has in the past and curious if you guys have any thoughts yeah it seems i guess it's been a little worrisome with rose but it does seem positive that he's managing people this way uh if we want to talk about knees the the most scrutinized knee uh that we have on the team has been lindsay hurans and uh she stays on the pitch buddy that's true That's true.

And, you know, with Rose, remains to be seen in it. What about everything else, though? I mean, I mean, it's cool, but I don't know. I mean, it's entirely possible that he's running Lindsay Huran into the ground. I mean, we saw, you know, big congrats to Lindsay. She's now engaged. Yeah, it looked super cute too. but we also saw that that even on a even on like a hike up a mountain she has to wear some

some type of knee gear she she is not uh yeah i don't know like like black coak could be in the process of siphoning that knee um as we speak so i just don't know but because i mean i mean everything else is cool but if he does end up claiming a knee then he's still a collector it's true Keep us humble. That's true. Yeah, she's wearing like a leg sleeve in her engagement photo, huh? It could be the elevation. Could bother it is what some folks have come up with, like a long hike.

Yeah. Anything like that. But hey, we'll see. That's where we land. I guess whether he goes down in history as a knee collector will depend a lot on what happens over the the next month and a half, right? Yeah. Yep.

All right, a couple non-game-related things. Haran and Morgan named captains for this World Cup. Iran will be the captain when they're both on the field. Super expected. You know, nothing out of the ordinary. We move. What else? Vince, our favorite you-trial.

player Gamero, she signed with Barcelona's B team. It feels like that news came out a while ago, but we haven't had

a chance to talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. We lit. It's great news. This is great news. Even though,

even though I want everyone to go to the NWSL, in theory, in theory, I understand in practice that, you know, there's a lot of problems with,

you know, the NWSL, with how we take care of players, with the, the ability, well, the inability for players to decide where they go. All these different types of things. I understand it. I understand it.

So, you know, and also, if you can go to Barcelona, I mean, then go to Barcelona. She had previously committed to Stanford. And we also found out that she had an offer from Leone, but specifically cited being able to work her way to the senior team as a reason for picking Barcelona. So I'm thrilled. I think that's all super fun. I can't wait to see it. I can't wait to see it.

Yeah, this is, I mean, yeah, this is tremendous news, tremendous news. And then... Imagine having that option to say no to Stanford. And then to close us off, I guess, we have some boots on the ground. Michelle Cooper, C.C. Kaiser, some national team adjacent prospects. You got anything to report about them? Yep, boots on the ground. Once again, you know, Louisville, Kentucky, Lynn Family Stadium.

I was there as racing Louisville took on the Kansas City Current. And it was an interesting game. Well, well, the one thing, I want to say this one thing about the current. We have absolutely busted their ass this entire season. Like, I mean, in the NWSL, they're in a Challenge Cup group, and we have just given them the beats consistent. consistently. It's been it's been something. It's been something.

And even, you know, even without our World Cup players minus one, we started Wang Shuang. She hadn't left yet for her Chinese duty. But, yeah. Well, so number one,

number one, I wanted to see Michelle Cooper. That's the main reason why I came. Like, I came to this game. Krusty as hell, you know, I was still in some some scrubs from work a t-shirt but you know what i just had to get there i was like you know what i need i need to see michel cooper so and i was disappointed i was disappointed uh mostly because she wasn't playing striker she wasn't playing on the wing man playing on the wing and uh i would i would say the the effectiveness was it it just wasn't like well first of all first of all first of

Like Kansas City just couldn't really get the ball and fashion like any attacking chances really or had like any really any dangerous possession passed the 10th minute or something when when Michelle Cooper did score a goal, right? She did score a pin off. I wanted to hear your thoughts on her goofy pen taking. She does such a goofy little run. Yeah. It was weird.

It was weird. But hey, if it goes in, it goes in and in it, I guess. Two for two this season with pens, and she did the same silly little run each time. Yeah, so Kansas City current starts Kristen Hamilton up front. Michelle Cooper on the right wing, which if you've seen any XG data from this season, Michelle Cooper is performing very admirably within the entire NWSL. So I don't know. They probably need to switch that up.

They probably need switch that up. The pen came from a clearance from, I can't remember where the clearance was, but, but, but it hit, it hit Jay Howell's arm. It was just a weird, uh, a weird circumstance. Weird circumstance. So the pen comes. And then from then on, like racing just, go ahead. Jaylen Howell gave up, gave up the pen. Yeah, she had a ball literally kicked.

I mean, there's nothing she could do about that. She had a ball just kicked in, kicked into her, her, uh, her arm, yeah, from like it was a clearance. It was a bad clearance. Jay was trying to jump to get out the way and just didn't. It is what it is. But then, yeah, we just completely busted ass. Speaking of Jaylen Howe, I mean, I've said it.

I say it every boots in the ground segment. She's just an incredible player. She's an incredible player. And Tara, I know you thought, Andy Sullivan, was all right in this past game. I do not believe so. But, I mean, she was okay. He was okay.

But I feel like from now on, from the end of the World Cup on, if we could just hand the sixth position over to, I mean, if Julia is wants to keep playing, I mean, it's her reason until she stopped. But if we could just hand the back of rolls. Oh, oh, well, okay. Yeah, yeah, I need to mention this too. muis the older muis

Christi Christy Yeah that performance was not good No And it just made me sad That she's our She's our third six

When we have Jaylen Howl at home We got Sam Coffee at home And just going forward No more of these games That you was playing in Blackcoe Which looking back on them We're completely ridiculous Even though I was trying to hype the Cornyack thing

It was completely ridiculous We got Sam coffee we got Jaylen Howell. Leave it to them. Please. Leave it to them. This was just another, just immense performance from Jay.

She's, I mean, what a player. Just watching her run around and just break things up, it's truly a joy. And she's getting better on the ball too. I've mentioned this, but like in this match,

it was a different thing where like, there might be like a popped up ball coming to her or like a second ball coming, and she's like sandwiched by two people. And she's taken, and she's taking that thing out the air and basically taking it on a half turn and playing just nice touches to set her up

going forward to progress the ball not going backwards as much it's beautiful to see also for the current Cic Kaiser who we've talked about before just is up there in like Sophia Smith's territory as far as G plus

as far as XG plus X8 within the league like a person that I that I hope gets a shot after the World Cup I don't know if it'll happen. Also, C.C. came off injured. I think it was from a Jalen. It was either Jalen Howe or Kayla Fisher tackle.

But yeah, that's really all like the national team relevant stuff. Carson picking once again good, but that's not even national team relevant anymore. Cizzie Kaiser from Ole Miss, University of Mississippi. I go back to what you said about Michelle Cooper, like Kansas City just has to figure it out because she has been playing very well this season. And I do still wonder if after this World Cup, a coach will be free who maybe lives in Kansas City.

maybe maybe it's very very good at being a coach coach and maybe maybe we'll see something happen there big chiefs fan I think yeah I hope so man I mean I'm not trying to go through another black coast cycle but yeah anyway I will say about Michelle that they even though even though she was on the wing for that bit she was like making runs in behind and any time she did it it was just a very scary sight it was just a very scary sight and watching the way she sets up her runs and everything

she just knows just knows how to play ball but it's just one of those things where she's just not like she's just not a type of player that's going to be like dynamic on the wing and then also it's even like

she would make a running behind and receive the ball out on the wing and you could just tell Kansas City wasn't going to score because there's maybe like a half a person in the box and like Michelle just throwing it in there and it's getting clear

because literally there's nobody there's just nobody there maybe one person and maybe like a second straggler coming but yeah I don't know who Casey's coach is but hey you need you need to figure something out they fired their coach

so this is just interim right now but yeah I always love to hear puts on the ground that's good yep it was a good time good good good hey a couple things the U.S. men play in the Gold Cup semifinal against Panama later today, tonight. And Greg and I will recap that later in the week.

If you want to join us on the Patreon, get the Monday reviews, extended versions of the interviews, access to the Discord, et cetera. The link is in the show notes. Please consider that. Anything else, guys? No, can't wait for the World Cup. Yeah. Go USA.

Let's go. Hey, and like, you, you, You know, we talked about our issues or whatever, but, you know, like as soon as the ball is kicked off, yeah. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be fun. It's going to be fun, for sure. And, you know, like, you can never put anything past these women, for sure.

So, you know, we could go through and sweep this whole thing and just miraculously turn on some type of switch that we haven't seen this entire cycle, like outside of that one Canada match where We just totally busted their ass. But it wouldn't even take a miracle for us to sweep the whole thing. Right. You know? Right, right, right. It could just be that's the normal course of events.

We have that much talent. Yeah, it's just that thing. Like, it's World Cup time. Like, we know what to do. We need that, we need that fifth star. I mean, like, like, and specifically with this, with the way that women's soccer has changed from like 2019 until now, where everyone

feels like they're coming for our ass like, you know, all the English people won't stop talking about how their league is the best league in the world, which is,

which to me is ridiculous. You know, I would love, I would love a little bit of humbling. I would love a little bit of humbling. And I hope we get it. I hope we get it. I could stomach losing

to Germany or Spain, but not English. I don't want that. Can't happen. If we take care of business, we'll be good. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.