Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #424: WoSo — World Cup fallout continues, Jaedyn and Olivia balling

Episode Date: August 23, 2023

Vince, Tara and Belz talk through the news, the Horan quotes about the Sweden match, Alyssa T getting apparently left out to sea by her older teammates, Jaedyn Shaw and Olivia Moultrie impressing in NWSL, Spain's big win amid significant turmoil, 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. All right, it's Woso Wednesday. Tara, Vince, how's it going, guys? I smell blood in the water. We've got Vladco out. We've got Kate out. It's looking up. Clean slate everywhere, but in the roster.

Hey, man. Spoiler alert, Tara. Spoiler alert. Forefront on my mind, I apologize. Yeah, Vlaco resigned almost a week ago. You know, resigned. We should put that in air quotes. And then in the athletic article,

it was said that multiple teams are already interested in him. Go get it, Vlad. Go get what you need to get. And there was no mention of Kate Mark Graff in the statement from U.S. soccer, which was a little odd. And then two days passed,

and she's out too. Her contract runs through the end of the month. She apparently decided not to stay. Again, let's throw some air quotes on that. So those two are gone. What a treat that is. I'm waiting on Tracy Kevin's to be out. Anybody that's touched anything to do with our youth national teams,

but specifically Tracy Kevin's because that U-20 team, I was really excited to watch them and they looked like garbage. So two down, at least one to go, at least we're making some progress. Matt Crocker is taking it seriously, it seems. Yep, yep, you know, we got various serious people at the top of our federation. It seems to me, to me, I've been on about this for a while, you know, Mr. Crocker, Mr. Bassin, Mrs. Cohn, you know what I'm saying? But yeah, yeah, it's nice to see. And Tracy, so with Tracy, it wasn't just a U-20 World Cup.

She also lost She couldn't win a U-20 Concaf trophy You know what I'm saying We didn't have losing The Mexico Uh famously World Cupless Mexico You know what I'm saying

But so We had the best World Cup of all time And Mexico's on the outside Looking in Of course But yeah So maybe you could Explain the way

The U-20 World Cup But Concaf Concaf failure At the youth national team level I mean come on Come on You can't explain And also you can't explain away of the U20 World Cup.

It remains a deep and abiding mystery. Like we had Corbyn Albert, Olivia Moultry, Jaden Shaw, and Alyssa Thompson on that team, and Michelle Cooper. I was, Tara and I were talking all fair. I would, I think actually today that that trio in the midfield, Albert Moultrie and Shaw, they would be better than most senior national team midfields. like today. And, you know, we couldn't do anything in that tournament.

So there's no explaining it away. We couldn't do anything. We couldn't like, like, well, so both Corbyn and Olivia, because Jaden got a nice little run out on the wing, right? So she was able to like, she was able to show her talents that way, get on the ball 1V1 and just do some stuff. But like, yeah, that midfield was so discompobulated. That Corbyn had a, you know, a pretty unremarkable tournament

as well as Olivia Moultry, which, you know, as we see now going forward since that tournament is just unexcusable for age-level competition. If they can do it in the NWSL, well, if Olivia specifically can do it in WSL, and Corbyn can do it in the Wii-Wee-Feminel. Is that what they call their league? Yeah, the French League. I don't know what.

Liga Liga Feminine, I think is what they call it. Okay, but yeah, yeah. It's just that thing. Like Tracy Kevin's got to get out of here. At least at least give Natalia Astrain some type of. Promotion. Maybe, yeah, yeah. From the U-17s, U-20, something, something.

Because, you know, we've mentioned it multiple times. But the only time we have, I mean, in any team, senior youth national teams have looked anything close to like a modern footballing side was, when that lady was coaching, when Miss S. Train was coaching. And she's not with the U-17s anymore. So it's not as if she would just get like a little bump up. At least I don't think. But she's still, I like look this up.

She's still an employee of the Fed though, right? Or something like that? Is she really? I'm not sure. Yeah. I think so. I looked at her Twitter bio. I want to say because she was doing, you know,

she was doing studio shows during the world. Cup and I don't know but all all of this is a really good point that I personally should not get complacent with my celebrations that Vodico and Kate are out cannot rest until Tracy goes as well yeah I think can't rest nope a strain is uh is Spanish just for the record um and so Twyla Kilgore is going to serve as interim coach of the women's national team for the September camp, you know, very much sort of cut from the interim mold. She is the first American-born woman to earn the U.S. soccer top-level pro license, which I find

to be cool in a maverickie sort of way. And also, I think it's a little sad that, you know, any time there's a first woman to in 2023. I'm like, come on. But, you know, focus on the positive. Go Twyla. She, she has September. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see how she handles the responsibility. So the search is on for, you know, a permanent coach. Do you guys have any strong thoughts about it? I do. I am dead set on it being an outset. So on every single list that you're going to be seeing from now until we have a coach of potential hires or realistic options or anything like that that comes out.

Laura Harvey is going to be on it. She's the coach of O.L. Rain. She was the U-20 coach when most of our current roster played in the U-20s like Germa. Sophia Smith, all of them. And she was the second option for when we hired Vladco. It was between those two. So Laura Harvey has consistently been on all of these looking ahead or next coaching option lists. And I want to dig myself a little hole here.

I don't think she's going to be a good option. I don't want anybody that's too comfortable. with our current group of players. And I also think that outside of that, totally different point, somebody who has international experience is going to be a must. Those are really just my two things right now.

Okay. I'm tripling down, you know, we says we're having our bona fides questioned, you know, as a women's soccer power. Yeah. And you know what I'm saying? I'm tripling down. Red, white and blue, baby.

You know what I'm saying? I need an American in here. I need a red blooded American. I need somebody who's DNA. DNA. It's USA. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah.

If we can. So my number, my number one candidate is Mr. Sean Nahas, head coach of North Carolina courage. if you watch the NWSL they play ball and they play ball the way the ball should be played

and yeah that's me so far I'm digging my feet in I don't want no I want no outsiders coming in here we've created this mess we're gonna get ourselves out of it

you know what I'm saying the American way yeah I'm team outsider I'm team outsider there's but I mean I see the point I see the

I see the value of USA DNA for sure. U.S. soccer has apparently reached out to Luis Cortez, who is the former Barcelona coach and Ukrainian national team coach. Yeah. He won the Champions League in 2021, in the 2020-2020 season, which is awesome. I saw a few different reports that U.S. soccer considers him the perfect replacement, which could just be rumors.

who knows his contract with the ukrainian national team is up at the end of august so if it's real i assume we'll hear something uh in september okay okay Vince you afraid he's gonna he's gonna be like uh just because he's spanish he's gonna be like kissing the players and stuff hey i can't put it past him uh no but uh in in in all seriousness i mean like the best candidate. I mean, it seems, I mean,

my man's resume is pretty nice. It's pretty nice. I mean, compared to Nahas, who, you know, he was a, he was a youth national team assistant

for, for a little bit of time in his career on the way up. But, uh, yeah. I mean, if we,

if we hired this man's, uh, that'd be great for me. I mean, I just want somebody to get the job done. Yeah. Yeah. Well,

and, and for me, getting the job done is like, uh, And I don't know, I don't know how possible this is. This is a really big discussion, but implementing some kind of more cohesive possession approach to soccer. Like we didn't have it. And, you know, Julie Fowdy tweeted during the game, well, somebody said, Spain's passing is how the U.S. used to move the ball.

Sye. And she responded, this was during the final. Very kind, but we have never moved the ball like Spain does. Their grace on the ball is gorgeous to watch. And I appreciate that honesty from Ms. Fowdy. And I think, I don't know, we don't have to become Spain. We can't become Spain. But I want us to play more like Spain going forward.

And I think we got the players to do it. We do. I think we do. But it's got to be, you know, it's got to be a serious effort from the coaching staff to make it happen. We obviously didn't get that from Blocko. If we hire Mr. Cortez, you know, get, so to get Natalia strain, assistant, you know what I'm saying? You already got some, you already got a little something, something cooking right there.

Which, as I thought more about Tara's outsider approach, the biggest thing that we need to do over this next cycle, of course, is just to refresh everything. And yeah, it's probably going to be a lot easier with an outsider. Just somebody that don't got any ties to anything, man. didn't do soccer shots growing up. You know what I'm saying? Like didn't play in the damn ECNL or whatever the hell.

Just like somebody completely, because we already got like the foundation right. It was a little different when like we were bringing like Juergen in to like transform all of American soccer by itself or whatever the hell. It's like you don't got to do that. Just get like this, this, I don't want to call them dead weight because all these women deserve of a lot of respect, but, you know, the people whose time might be past them, let the time pass them. And, and, you know, it's time, it's just time to refresh, man. And, and yeah, it probably is a lot easier with an outsider. Yeah, somebody, somebody who hasn't done soccer shots,

somebody who hasn't stayed in a Hampton Inn and eating a Danish on a Saturday morning, you know, all those, all those things. Before you head to the field, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So, I mean, obviously the big news in women's soccer is that Spain won the World Cup. Playing some beautiful soccer. Let's hear Andres Contor's call on the goal. If you listen, he notices the Olga Carmona overlap well before the shot is taking. England in the mud. Stanley in the mud.

Prince William in the mud. Specifically Lucy Bronze on that goal too, which I was particularly happy about. King Charles, William Shakespeare, all of them in the mud. Yeah, when you talk about English mud,

you know, I like, for me, I envision it comprised of just copious amounts of beans that have been mashed up. You know what I'm saying? Just a big-ass tub full of beans. That's the mud. Yeah, just with some white bread thrown in. Yeah.

Yeah, so they played just, I thought, beautiful soccer. Even that game, they lost 4-0 to Japan. They were, they were, it's weird. They lost 4-0, but they looked still really good outside of, like, you know, those four moments in that game. They play soccer the right way. They were playing out of the back against England. I pretty much dominated that game.

They did. It's kind of scary. It's kind of scary how good they've gotten at soccer in what? Like 10 years with their Federation president still kissing players on the lips against their will in public? Like all these, they just started women's soccer. The guys who lead the Federation are deeply problematic. And yet they were very clearly the best team in the tournament.

Yeah. I really like the approach of just bring Barcelona to the World Cup, and I wish that was an option for us. It's not. We couldn't just bring the thorns over those years and years of chemistry playing together. I'm also choosing to hyper-focus on Spain, having won the U-17 World Cup and the U-20 World Cup, which is meaningful.

It's big. It's something that we don't have. Are Spain better than us at soccer without a doubt? But could we start to pay a little bit of attention to our youth national teams? I think that that's a great first place to start at. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just the ability to win a tournament like this when the vibes were so obviously and clearly bad. Like, you know, you just saw like, I mean, every game where it's like the coach, coaches staff. celebrating by themselves the players just like in a huddle like like uh they're basically like oil and water not mixing you know what I'm saying when uh what was I forgot what was but when Patelis got some got subbed out and uh you know the coach track gave her a high five and like hell no high five it's crazy man it's like swung his hand away it's crazy and uh yeah I like, like, I tried. I tried. I think at like midnight or like 1 a.m. before the match,

I had been given this major consideration as far as who did I want to win the match. And, yeah, like five hours before kickoff, I was like, you know what? I'm going to try and place a curse on the RFEF, the entire organization, the Federation. I am a beans and toast man for these next. You know what I'm saying, 12 hours. Go England because I viewed them as the lesser of the two evils. You know, if England won, we just had to deal with a little arrogance. Nothing we haven't seen before.

Nothing we haven't seen before. So I was like, look, I'm willing to live with that. But Spain got some nasty stuff going on. Got some nasty stuff cooking. And yeah, after they won the tournament, everything since then, all the evidence that's poured in shows me I made the exact right decision. decision. But yeah, I guess we just got to live in Spain's world for the next four years. Year and a half. No, no. Well, nine months because, you know, Paris is coming. You know what I'm saying?

Okay, okay. Running it back. It's also, it's also a pretty dynamic situation. What's going on with Rubialis and Vilda, you know, they got like the president of Spain or not, I'm sorry, the prime minister calling for Rubialis's resignation. And then, I just saw this morning the head of Liga, Liga F in Spain, she called for Rubialis's resignation. So something's got to give at some point. For me, the way Spain played and the beauty of it and the harmony on the field, which I recognize Tara does have to do with a lot of them playing together

for their club, and we can't do that. Like, we actually could have brought the Pueiland Thorns as our national team or something close to it. But it's a rebuke to us, the way, Spain played. That's how I, that's how I read it. It's a rebuke. The, the crap that we did in the, in the group stage, a lot of the group stage with a lot of talented players. It's, it's, I mean, we should all be ashamed of that kind of performance. And I'm not saying it's on any particular player. That was some, that was some nonsense. Oh, I'm ashamed. Yes.

You don't got to, you don't get to say, I'm a change. Hey, man, I've been ashamed ever since, uh, that that window, that England, uh, when we started playing, you know, England, Germany, Spain,

all that, I've been ashamed ever since that, because your boy was talking, uh, big, big S word as far as like, you know, we,

we, we had done the deed against Canada. Yeah. Good doing it. Look good doing it. So I'm like, you know what? Everybody's saying we're down,

bring it on. And, and ever since, ever since, uh, those like consecutive windows or whatever, like, like,

like, like, not even the, uh, she believes could, could bring the, the vibes back, fully for me. Yeah. And yeah, yeah, it's just. Yeah, Mallory Swanson putting the team on her back

for a few games, it wasn't going to, wasn't going to write that wrong. When Mal, when Mal went down in April, couldn't sleep afterwards. I just knew what was coming. Did you really? I was real melodramatic about it, yeah. Dude, so I remember that day, I was at a, I was at a West Virginia baseball game. And I, I wasn't able to. We did WOSA Wednesday right afterwards, and you two were like, I didn't watch it. I didn't watch it. I didn't watch it. I don't want to focus on it.

Yeah, yes. So the reason why I wasn't watching the game is because I was at a West Virginia baseball game, watching my cousin play. And, you know, when you watch baseball, you got time to just sit there and just vibe and relax and whatever. Even the sun, you're chilling, you know what I'm saying? And I was just thinking to myself, like, I hadn't watched a game. I hadn't seen the Mallory got hurt. I was just thinking about the women's national team. I was like, and I just came to a conclusion.

I'm like, we're not winning the World Cup. We're just not. And then I hop on the Discord and see Mallory got her. I'm like, oh, we really. I'm like, you really not winning the World Cup. Like, okay. I thought we could still win it. And I mean, I still think we could have won it.

We got a little unlucky against Sweden. And, you know, we had the horses. We had a great defense. We could have won it, in my opinion, but... No, we definitely got a smash and grab, but... A rebuild is exciting. Like, I'm looking forward to seeing if we can actually pull it off. We have all of the talent.

I just want us to take women's soccer a bit more seriously. Okay. It's got to be brave. It's got to be brave. I don't know why. That's the thing. That's the thing. You know, that's a good point, because Spain gives up transition opportunities.

They do. You can run up and press them and win the ball off of them. and create danger. And every team they've played against has done that. They just, you know, they're just brave. And they say over the course of the game, we think this is going to work. And it, you know, obviously it did.

But that doesn't mean they're invulnerable, you know? Yeah, I mean, even in that England game, the world's greatest coach in the world, or that's a silly way to say it, Serena subbed off two of their most attacking players, just wild decisions. Oh yeah, by the way, she's a, she's a candidate. I mean, I think theoretically at least a candidate for the job of coaching the U.S.

women's national team, but the English FAA is doing all kinds of chess puffy stuff about like, hey, we're not, you know, no way, no way, no how. There's some crazy reports that she could be on the short list for the Netherlands men's team, the senior Netherlands men's team and England senior men's team. Right. That'd be cool. It would be cool. I enjoy the thought that the women's team could be like a stepping stone for those who want the men's job. That would just open up the pool of candidates a lot faster.

But who knows if we're good there. Yeah. Let's talk. Go ahead, Ben. Well, just real quick, you know, we talked about the bravery. but but I was focusing on you know the the fact that you know we got to put some these players out you know terrorists Teres championed it for a long time it's just like I don't yeah I just don't understand why some of these players got the fed by the you

know the cloth like they do and yeah that's step one and I it's basically like a mantra I say to myself, um, just to have realistic expectations. I don't think that's going to happen in September, but come October where it's realistic to think that we could have a coach, I got to see some new faces and some, some, some other faces that I've seen since like college. No, no more. Yeah. Well, dog. Well, dog. Well, I'm not. Well, I'm not. getting my hopes up like I remember I remember Alex Morgan's breakout I was a young man Kelly O'Hara like fighting everybody uh yeah I was around that age yeah yeah the pink sports well no no 14 14 on the high school field when Alex Morgan broke out

everybody you you had to have pink sports wrap on your hair well we should talk a little about the Chris and Preston-Hith podcast because they had Lindsay Horan on recently. Spilling all the teeth. Alyssa Thompson also. So, Heron was the guest on the final episode of the Recap podcast, and they talked about a lot of things. But something that's grabbed a lot of attention is her comments on the Sweden game. And her comments have been interpreted as Vlako criticism, I think, probably pretty fairly. Can you read the quote, Tara?

Yeah. Heron says, at the end of the day, you're set up in a structure to do this, and your opportunity individually is just go play within the structure. But if you are not set up, like the game against Sweden, I don't think we were necessarily set up to play the way that we played. That was just us, finally coming together and being like, this is what we're going to do. And then it worked.

Then it's like, okay, keep doing it. Could that have happened earlier? Maybe. So she's saying Vlako, the way Vlako set him up wasn't working. The players just figured it out, did their own thing. It's hard to imagine that it wasn't the coach to say, hey, Andy needs some support, and we're going to have a double pivot. It's hard to imagine that that was the players coming together and, like, revolted.

And that was something. that clearly worked was Lindsay not being that backup for Andy and letting Lindsay drift upwards, which she wants to do. So in that aspect, I don't really understand it, but she's saying. I have to say I don't really understand it either because, you know, it's like, you know, as Greg Velasquez sort of documented how rarely we, we tried to play the ball to Trinity Rodman, even though Rodman was the danger woman in that first half. the way she got the ball was accidental for the most part and so I don't know yeah I don't know

what Lindsay's talking about here what do we do what did the players decide to do that they hadn't been set up to do I don't know the fact that he that he picks on it right like like like almost like like like like like it's not like he started uh rose and rose and Lindsay and had and and all of a sudden you see like Rose playing in a double pivot you know what I'm saying You know, like, like, I would think that when you pick Emily Sonnet to play in the midfield, presumably, like, like, I don't know if they like went out there and said, you know, Sonny, you're not, you're not playing, you're not playing right centerback. Julie, you get your ass back to centerback, Sonnet, you go up here and play double pivot.

Like, like, I don't know. I don't know. It's just the profile for me with the selection seems to be that there was some sort of intent. But at the same time, like, I can't just sit here. and call our captain a liar i'm not saying she's a liar i'm just saying i don't understand what they did you know yeah i'm mystified but he also said something that you know uh stuck with me a little bit she said i made it a point to help soph smith as much as possible in this tournament because i think she has a lot of pressure on her back i want to make sure she's in a good place

and some of the younger players are in a really good place because they're going to going to have massive roles. And so it was like, could I have done more to help those players? Because I don't think we got the absolute best out of some of them because of the way that we were set up and some of the things that we did in the game. So that answer came after Tobin and Kristen basically asked, you know, you're two weeks out of it now. Do you regret anything?

Do you wish you would have done anything? And she she kind of solely talked about wanting to get more out of Sophia Smith, but I didn't want to, you know, interpret it that pessimistically. What do you guys think? Well, it's, it makes, it brings up what Alyssa said in her interview with the same, on the same podcast, which is that she felt a little lonely and a little sad at the World Cup. and she leaned on the other young players to help her in that. And, you know, she's an 18-year-old. It's loneliness and sadness are never too far away. But you do that combined with, you know,

Horan expressing some regret that maybe she could have done more to help the young players. It opens up a lot of questions. Yeah. For me. Yes. Was there like a divide between? you know, the legends and the young talent. Do they...

Especially as it was openly described as, you know, we're bringing leaders. In the call series where Vladko, you know, lets everybody know they've made the World Cup, he specifically said that Kelly, there's nobody with Kelly O'Hara's mentality and leadership. And I'm like, huh, he said Megan Rapina's a leader for the leaders. It was so much weight being put on the leadership of our team. But now we're only two weeks out. And we hear that people, you know, there were a lot of feelings out there. And do we know everything that happened?

Of course not. But some of these quotes, you know, just got me thinking. Yeah. I predict more will come out from the younger players over the years as they get their, you know, get their sea legs. Yeah, you know, we know through social media, Sophia, Sophia went back, I think she was in Arizona with her boyfriend for a little bit. But when she got back to Portland, she got a tattoo and she posted it. and it says protect your peace. So I don't know how much you guys, you know,

are familiar with girls in their 20s, but if they come back and get a tattoo that says, protect your peace, something happens. Something happens. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, I was going through Discord yesterday, and somebody made a good point where it's just like, you know, we're bringing all these quote-unquote vibes guys

and the vibes were off. vibes people and the vibes are off and it's just like yeah yeah I don't know I don't know and and just the fact that like if you are including like an 18 year old into like a team like this

where you know you got some grown ass women in there right all this type of stuff like like you would you would make it a point to make sure you're checking in on this on this kid all the time to me be like yo are you good? 100% Like she just left her out to see man which is upsetting um I'm jumping ahead a little bit but Becky Tweed the coach of Angel City talked about Alyssa only playing 45 minutes she started that game and she basically said you know Alyssa's been out for a month um six weeks whatever whatever it was she didn't play that much she she um she um She knew...

She did not play that much. No, she played 16 minutes. It's glued into my head. But she had a very limited role. So part of working her fitness backup is going to be mentally as well. So she was only ever going to play 45 minutes that game. I'm frustrated, man. I was disappointed to see it.

I was at the match boots on the ground. We'll get to that. But just imagining Alyssa. feeling kind of sad in a hotel room in New Zealand. It's weak. It's not good. It's like what? Yeah.

What are we doing? Dot Jif. Yeah, yeah. So it's just like, you know, just goes back to the, what we were talking about earlier. It's just like, if you're going to refresh these things, like everything's got to be refreshed because it's like, if you're not providing a,

if you're not providing a, and a suitable environment for these kids. And like, what, like, like how can we refresh? You know what I'm saying? It just. Well, I mean, Bill Simmons, I said it in one of these podcasts, a parent, you know, women's national team super fan Bill Simmons.

He, he talked about how it was apparent that we were stuck between two eras. And I think that that, it's hard to even say that that's just an opinion anymore. It's we were stuck between two eras. Yeah, but why can't the older era, you should at least be able to take care of Alyssa Thompson and make her feel welcome and confident and healthy in camp at the World Cup? If you're the captain of the team and you're giving an interview, I would have wanted Lindsay Herion to say, there are things that I could have done better and not.

Sophia didn't really achieve all that we had hoped, so I wish I would have been, you know, there for her more. I don't like that either. Hey, man, that's just Lindsay taking the baton from Carly Lloyd and running forward with it, you know what I'm saying? Because after the Olympics, Carly wouldn't blame it herself in her performance. It was, you know, the culture, it was everybody else. It was blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Which, you know, famously she's tripled down during the World Cup, but we're not going to get, but, but I, I, I did want to bring this up because this was a topic of large discussion on the Discord. And it's something that I thought about and I meant to bring it up in last World's on Wednesday, but I didn't really, I wasn't really drawing any conclusions from it. But I feel like we maybe should draw some conclusions from it. So talk about those two generations. You know, we got some very young people and then we got some people on the, you know,

other side of 30, whatever. What the hell happened to our generation? in the middle. You know what I'm saying? We're talking like age 26 to 30. I mean, that's Juan and Lavelle. Right. Dunn's 30, right?

Dunn is in the above 30 cohort. I think she's 31. I think she's our age. Doxon myself. Whoops. She's a 92 her? Oh, she is a 92. She turned 31 right before the World Cup started.

I had some people do some research. search on the Discord just to see like mostly I was kind of focusing on like 94 is 95 96 is to see like where they're at and and yes we do have Lindsay we do have Rose but but it's looking it's looking kind of barren really let me put this list up so I'm looking at a list of 94's and 95s and you got Rose Rose Rose is a 95 Andy and other than that I mean like Ashley Hatch

is a 95 it's not a son it's a 93 sorry okay okay so she's 30 right but but it just it seems like the gap really really

is yeah these kind of years I'm focusing like 94 through 96 there's just not there's just not a lot there and I'm just wondering well you have to remember that's that time period was really where the national team was considered to be like a club.

And it was even more so than it is now. It was they're going to be together way more. They're not really going to be transitioned in and out even worse than it is now. I don't think it's all to do with talent, my opinion, though. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know.

I just don't know because I'm seeing names like like Kelly Hubeley you know what I'm saying Jane Campbell and and it's like on a national team for a little what well she probably doesn't I mean goalies in it Kelly Hubbley just got a red card yeah she did so so I'm seeing

Simone Charlie oh Danny Weatherholt you know what I'm saying McKenzie Donnie had goal score from this weekend but it's just I don't I'm not seeing too many players that really is like, yo, they, they could have, they could have been on national team and they just got passed over. Like Savannah McCaskill, she got called up a little bit and she just like didn't deliver on like the promise that she had. You know what I'm saying? It's so and Paige Montaghan, Jordan, Jordan Baggett now, Jordan Baggett had a ton of promise too and didn't delay.

I think number one overall picking the NW. so and it's now a bench player for racing Louisville but it I don't know I don't know I'm just I'm just asking questions because I'm looking at the list and the list ain't looking that good and I'm looking at those well I'm looking at those you 20 teams from that year and I'm kind of comparing them to the to that like the U20 team that we've referred to a lot and it's it's possible that that we're we're looking at a little bit of a trend here that we're not necessarily catching. Go ahead, Bill's. But you think that the U-20 team that we talk about a lot, the one with Corbyn and

Jayden Shaw and Olivia Moultrie, I think those players are not going to pan out, like in the same way that the generation a few years ahead of them didn't, hasn't panned out? Is that what you're saying? Well, no, so those teams had like some names on it. It was like Mal Swanson playing way up, like, like two age groups up. It was Lindsey Horan, Roosevelt. And it was that type of same thing that we had with this past U20 team where it's like, there's four stars for sure, four projected stars or maybe five.

But yeah, the rest of the team didn't really amount to too much as far as being able to compete on that scale. And I'm just wondering, I'm just wondering. I'm not, I would lean to be more bullish, right, on this U20 team, like I've said it. I'm in lockstep with everybody here. It's just, I don't know, I'm just trying to, I'm just trying to see where we went wrong in the past and maybe see if, you know, these same signs are popping up for our future, but I don't know. Oh man, we got to get serious, no doubt. Let's talk about some of the action from the weekend.

The Corbin started PSG's friendly against Einhoven. They won 3-0. And then they have another friendly this Friday against Montpellier, which I don't think we can watch. And there's no clips from the Einhoven friendly either that I know of. But I assume she's playing very well. She did towards the end of the season. And PSG's season starts after Labor Day.

Yeah, I'm mostly excited to see if she gets consistent starts. She was getting them at the end of the, the regular season, but yeah, I can't wait to see more at Corbyn. I'm committing to watching PSG, especially if they get Little Thompson going forward, but no news on that yet. Jazele probably our bluest chip at fullback. Yeah. Which is going to be a position of need, I think, for a little while here. It will.

A lot of our, not a lot, a decent amount of our World Cup squad is back in the NWSL. Probably the most important game was Portland versus North Carolina as it was a top of the table battle. And Portland won. Emily Fox didn't travel and Crystal Dunn did not dress. So Sophia came on in the 68th minute and she scored the game winner in the season. 69th minute took took just a few seconds to get going with a great assist for Morgan Weaver yeah tap in at the back post good for Sophia I was I was really into Olivia Moultrie's performance in this game she was she went 90 got an assist the assist was gorgeous a ball over the top to her and she just

measures a little dink over the center back for Hannah Bedford uh Bedford uh betford uh stabs at home at the far post. I just think Olivia really, she really soccer's. Portland can connect a few passes and she's, she's kind of a big part of that. She also does some ball winning, but she's mostly like just patient and tricky on the ball. Lots of progression from her in this game ranging from the middle out to the right touch line. Still only 17. And I'm just thinking we need this kind of player. I'd like to see her with the national team before too long and I'm sorry for criticizing her

criticizing her during the U-20 World Cup. I feel exactly the opposite. I'm glad you guys criticized her because it only made her stronger this season. That right. 2023-Olivier Moultrie is not 2022-Livian Maltrey.

She's on an upward trajectory. She's looking good. She's somebody who really benefited from the World Cup break. She got a lot of time with Portland. She was great. She's doing really well. Hopefully, Portland's coach, I think his name is Mike Norris.

Mike something. Hopefully he's got what it takes to continuously start Olivia and kind of send Christine Sinclair out to pasture. That's my own thoughts, though, not an official scuff take. Just me. No, let's make it an official scuff take. send Christine Sinclair out to pasture. Please.

Get out of you. For Olivia, I mean, like, you can't have somebody like this be benched for a player who can't even run. It's, it's. Sinclair went, what, 20 minutes in this game before she got so though she started? Yeah, she came out in, I think, the 23rd minute. Was it with an injury or? Wasn't clear to me. She could have just been tired from the World Cup.

But yeah, I mean, probably an injury if it was. the 23rd minute. It was right after the courage scored a goal on a penalty. Okay, boots on the ground. Racem versus Angel City. Got to see a half of Thompson.

Yep, yep. My boots were back on the ground. I was actually not feeling well this day. But you know what? I had to get up. I had to get out. I had to go see the team.

This was our, we had a big promotion. This was Phil the Fam Day, Lynn Family Stadium, wanted to get a record crowd for racing Louisville. And we achieved it. We achieved it. I think it was like 10,200 or something like that. It looked good on TV. It looked full.

Yeah, yeah. It was definitely the fullest racing game I've been to. Like I've said multiple times, I still have not been to a Louisville City match this year. year just because of, you know, life and a lot of different things. But Louisville City. It's because you're feminist. That too.

That too. But yeah. So Louisville City regularly gets these crowds, especially on like a Louisville City Saturday night. I'll tell anybody like, yo, go, go. If you haven't been a soccer game, whatever. Like that's one of the coolest things that Louisville has going for currently. And it was nice to see racing get. some of that, get some of that juice, man.

I just wish that we were able to come out with a win. So, yeah, Alyssa, it was just, it was nice to see Alyssa play. She did some things, you know, you got to see that speed. She was going away from me. And I was really hoping that she was going to, you know, be there for the second half to come to my end of the stadium. And she was gone. But, yeah, she was okay.

Okay. Which, which considering everything, like, it is what it is. But, uh, yeah, man. Other things, uh, so SAV started. Sav started. She really wasn't that good. Like, none of our, uh, World Cup players, they, they all looked pretty bad. Their spirits were all broken.

Really, the whole first half, uh, was one of the worst halves of soccer I've watched from racing, little, like both teams. Angel City wasn't necessarily good. Racing wasn't good either. That first half was just kind of like blah and like drab. Like it was just like no juice, no energy for real. And I was getting nervous, man, because I'm like, yo, we got this crowd. Like I'm always big on those type of things.

Like when you get the crowd like trying to deliver, you know. And we did get a goal sometime late. I want to say like 75th minute, something like that. We were down 1-0, got the equalizer, which came from a nice little scooped ball from Jaylen Howell to send one of our players into space. Jay continues to be good. Cross comes in, headed home goal, and the place erupted. The place erupted.

I mean, it was loud. I had brought some people with me that hadn't been to a game. And, you know, my daughter always gets happy to see the smoke when he score a goal. It was cool, man. It was a moment. It was a moment. Couldn't pull the game. out and yeah

racing has now fallen back. I think we're like two points out of the playoffs but now we're like four points, four or five points out of playoffs and all of our World Cup players came back except for Timby except for Timby. I think she lost a few she lost like a few family members during the

World Cup reportedly and I don't know when she's back but we're not making the playoffs without Timby Catalana. It's just not happening. It's just not happening. The only reason we got close is because Timby started playing. I have a question. What's up?

Did you have any thoughts about Sarah Gordon, centerback for Angel City? I was trying to go through all the players in my head. I knew I was missing somebody. Sarah was very good. Yeah, she's had a great season. She was very good. I was watching her and M.A. Vignola.

They were actually, so M.A. was actually playing centerback this match. And I think they both did well. they both did very well. They were, yeah, in front of me in that first half. And, yeah, we're just handling everything. Was able to progress the ball. Like, MA being a fullback, it was just going on like wild carries up the field. It was fun to watch.

But, yeah, both those two were impressive. I would like both of those two to get some sort of a look with a new coach. But, you know, I'm trying to remain somewhat realistic. but I think it's meaningful that both of them have looked good all season because Angel City is a pretty bad team. So I think it makes them looking good even better in my mind. Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

That's it from the race in the Angel City match. I don't think I'm missing. I want to say there was, is there anybody else interesting for Angel City for a national team perspective? Ertz, who wasn't there, did you already say that? Right. Territz is not back with the team yet. Becky Tweed, Angel City coach said she went on a whole tangent about it, but basically everybody needs different things when they come back from the World Cup.

She talked about Becky's husband and football and her son and all sorts of things. So I am still under the thought process that she's not coming back, but who knows? She's surprised me before. Cook, Huerta. Alana Cook, who did not play a minute at the World Cup. Unbelievable. Sophia Huerta, Roosevelt, Megan Rapino, and Emily Sonnet

did not travel to Kansas City from Seattle. I guess they'll be back in training this week. Who cares? Wave versus Gotham. Alex is back. Alex Morgan's back. Yeah, Germel on the bench, which I was happy about. Wave don't really rest her all that often, so I was glad.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Her Gotham, Kelly played the final 10 minutes or so, and Christy and Lynn did not travel. Let's get to this interesting stuff here. Well, go ahead, Vince. Well, well, so I'm just talking about Kelly O'Hara playing in 10 minutes. I don't need that.

So I'm just chomping at the bit to talk about Jaden Shaw, man. Yeah. Well, give me one second. Yep, go ahead. Midge Purst, who has been injured a lot this season. She came out in the 23rd minute of this game, which was very sad, but apparently it was precautionary and not a re-injury.

And then that's all. Boom, Jaden Shaw got an assist, and it was a really good one. Yeah. Bels, you want to go ahead and... Well, It was really good. It was a good cutback after winning a duel to the end line.

But she had another one that was even better that was called back for offside. I guess Hill, her teammate, was just barely offside. But she gets the ball in the middle, like, you know, left half space, skips by a defender, and then just plays a perfect through ball, through two lines of the defense. I mean, just poetry. And Hill puts it away. I guess she was offside by a step or something.

But man. But by like the slightest step. The slightest step. I mean, uh, it, they're, really,

you don't even have to watch this whole game. Just, just, just, just watch that first half and watch Jaden Shaw go to work. Like, it's, it's,

it's truly incredible. And really, uh, when I sit here and think about it, I don't know how many players in the NWSL period are playing these passes that Jalen Shaw plays on like, on a week by week basis. Like,

like, like every, like every week, she's threatened, she's just threatened balls for fun. And, and, and, you know,

we've talked about it before, but, and Bells just talked about it, like, like two, like two lines being broke. You know what I'm saying? She's not just catching this thing, like, like, she, she's not receiving the ball right in front of the defense and slipping somebody in. Like, these are graduate level, PhD level balls that that are being played from Jaden. Like, and she almost had a, uh, almost had a nice little pre-assess where she like went a door and skipped by somebody and was getting filed and was able to, uh, and was able to release her right winger in the space. and Alex was just like criminally offside.

Alex Morgan was just criminally offside. She's like she forgot the offside rule. It's not quite to her anymore. Which is in her DNA as an attacker. I guess. But that entire first half was a big check in the Keep Jaden in a midfield role for me. I think that's her national team future is in the midfield. And I hope Casey Stoney.

sets her up that way because they don't always. Sometimes she's a nine, sometimes she's a winger, sometimes she's an attacking midfielder, which it's all good to be versatile, but I think she's the best she is when she gets to be in the midfield. Yes, but go ahead, Bill's. I'm just going to say, I think she and Moultrie, I think Moultrie also plays those kind of passes sometimes,

maybe not quite to the level Shaw does, but she's playing some at least, you know, master's degree level passes between the lines. And, um, yes. I, I just can't wait to see those two get to go to work, you know, with, um, maybe Rodman on one wing and Swanson on the other. And I don't know, we got a lot of options. So I don't want, we shouldn't get into all of it.

But there's, I'm excited about those two in particular right now, Shaw and Moultry. There is hope to be had. Yeah, yes. And I was thinking like after watching this performance and like just thinking to myself, like I've been thinking about Jaden Shaw for three days now since I watched this game. But it's just a fact that like, you know, so when you see most of time when you see Rose and Lindsay try to play these balls, right? They're not, most of the time they're not even on the ground.

They're kind of like more speculative to me. they're like in the air like they're in the center back to like make a mistake and and we're just going to put pressure on you that way like and most of the time you know these professional centerbacks they get their footwork right they get there they get there they get the head to it or whatever and it's just this is a this is just different type of different type of creation we're saying from from jaden and yeah i was i was gonna bring up uh bring up Olivia as well because yeah she's she's definitely played a few of these uh i remember one specifically to Morgan weaver that was that was nasty from earlier in the season.

Yep. But yeah, man, it was just, I, like, I was, I was more excited about Jaden than Alyssa, like coming out of the, if I had to pick one, I was going to pick Jay coming out of the U20 World Cup. And, you know, I had to stop myself because I was going to come on here and start an agenda. But, but all I'm saying is,

they are like four three days apart i think they were both born in like november of uh 18 years ago and um 2004 yeah yeah yeah yeah right right 19 years ago at this point they both have a long history with the national team but they're very different players i yeah when people compare the two of them i get very confused yeah yeah there's nothing to really compare but yeah uh alissa has like The game break at speed and everything, everything. Also ball secure. Don't forget that. Yeah.

Yes. Yes. But what I will say is just on like affecting a game at this point. I think Jaden is just like she's just a little bit above Alyssa at this point. Just because of her level of polish and, you know, just as a professional player at this point, which, you know, she's had a half of a season more. than Alyssa under her belt. I'm not comparing the two.

I'm just saying like Jaden really is, you know, on that level of Alyssa as far as like just big, big, big, big, big, big, big, U.S. talents. Yeah. I'm intrigued by Jaden. I think she's an amazing player. But I've been on this whole Jadens a midfielder kick recently. And when you look at the World Cup break,

as like a sample size or the challenge cup Olivia Motry's done much, much better. So I'm intrigued by it. But yeah, yeah, I mean, you got to throw team effects into it, right? Like the wave is a hopeless attacking ass team. You know what I'm saying? And the fact that like Jaden is the one who's,

you know, everything revolves around her. Like the wave are not creating any day. damn danger without Jaden Shaw doing it. You know what I'm saying? Like Alex is not, Alex is out there doing what Alex does. She's doing flicks. She's up there flicking.

There will be fights about Shaw versus Moultrie over the years, I'm sure. All three are big talents. Yeah. All three are big talent. A little bit of rapid fire stuff. Melanie Barsanis is now the youngest player in the NWSL. That she takes that title from Chloe Ricketts, who had it for,

you know a few weeks a couple months let's say but San Diego just signed Melanie 15 years old she got an assist in this game and then Abby Dalkemper she's back from back injury she will be 34 at the next World Cup so probably she'll start in the next World Cup Ashley Sanchez came off the bench in the 62nd minute scored in the 63rd minute

nice near post rip with the left foot good finish Robin did not play for the spirit I don't care about anybody else in that that game. What else? Messiah Bright in the Orlando versus Chicago game. It was a blood bath for poor, Alyssa Neyer, Orlando won five to nothing, but Messiah Bright scored twice. She's a rookie striker. Has probably the best case for rookie of the year at this point.

she should be in future conversations around the national team. But I wanted to highlight it because she scored two great goals. And it was sad for Alyssa. She was bad, but Chicago was even worse. Messiah, a native of Dallas, Texas, played at TCU, 23 years old as a rookie. Let's go. Anything else from you, Vince? Tara

Um No September camp I'm excited to Keep my expectations Low October camp I'm hoping we have a coach

And Katerina McIro back There There's reason to be excited And I'm just looking forward to Matt Crocker Continuing to take this very seriously Yes Yeah man

We got some We got some big developments potentially could come up because if you know if we have me official hit then you know all of a sudden we got a we we says we have a young nine to bring up you know cats coming back the kids yeah yeah man there is lots to be excited about it's still we just need somebody to steward yeah it's hot out there everybody stay cool uh thanks for listening We'll see ya.