Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #445: WoSo — USWNT v Colombia recap No. 2

Episode Date: November 2, 2023

Vince, Tara and Belz talk through the 3-0 win on Sunday, finally, another status quo lineup from Kilgore redeemed by Mia Fishel and Jaedyn Shaw's second half showings. Full timeline, lots of takeaways.We get into some detail on the candidates to coach the NT for real, and bid Kilgore adieu in a bonus episode for patrons. Link below.Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for men's national team players every week with Watke and Vince. We have recently added patron-only content that’s available every Friday. Patrons also 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/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. We won. Three to zero. Me official, Lindsey Horan and Jaden Shaw scored two debut goals, both quite good, bracketing a sweet volley from Haran. Greg had some things come up this week, so we're soldiering on without him. Woso is going to be the recap of the second Columbia friendly, which happened on Sunday night. I've got Vince and Tara here with me. Tara, how are you?

Oh, my gosh. I'm exhausted and not because we're recording late, but because of how back and forth this window was. It was low lows and some high, some high-ish-high, but a lot of low lows. Emotional whiplash, I'm tired. Yeah. Okay. What was your lowest point there? The entirety of the Thursday game.

I thought it was awful. I thought it was worse than the World Cup. I thought it was terrible. Yeah, it was pretty bad. It was pretty bad. I'll give you that. I think it may have been the worst we've ever looked. The low for me was when the lineups came out both times.

Double lows. I found it all to be upsetting. Let's focus on the positive. We got some Apple reviews that don't like us being negative, so let's get, Let's get super positive. Hold on, hold on. Let me give you my positivity. Number one, we got the second half of this match and the things that transpired within it.

And number two, on this same day, which I can only take as some type of omen from the universe. You know what I'm saying? On Sunday, we also have Flavor Flaves in the National Anthem at the Milwaukee Bucks game. something like an event that is just so out of left field and ridiculous that I can only I can only view it as like a canon event and not only you know that that that affects everything within the history of America you know what I'm saying like Mr. Gorbachev's tear down that wall type of thing we got Flavor Flavisian the National anthem it was symbolic to me it was symbolic to me that somehow you know we have lady liberty herself

Alex Morgan possibly uh meeting the end of her reign and uh we got flavor flave to to cap it for us some omens going on yeah the don of a new era the don of a new era so speaking of that second half the jaden shaw era is upon us ladies and gentlemen the jaden shaw era is upon us i repeat red alert the jaden shaw era is a punna. That's Vince talking about a month ago. A souser. Yeah. Indeed. We're going to recap the match just in our normal way and then and then get into some stuff about the coaching search and some takeaways from the window. The lineup was Casey Murphy and Goal. Emily Fox, Alana Cook, Naomi Germa, and Crystal Dunn across the back line, Lindsay Horan, Emily Sonnet, and Savedomelo. in the midfield and then Sophia Smith back from injury gets the start on the wing. Morganette Stryker, of course, and Trinity Rodman on the other wing.

Any thoughts on the lineup? I was excited for Casey Murphy. She's been doing well in the league much better than a listener. But she rarely, you know, she hasn't gotten that many chances as of late. She used to get more before the World Cup. But that's all beside the point. I was excited for Casey Murphy. I was excited for Savannah de Mello, but it did damper my excitement a little bit, seeing it with Lindsay Horan and Emily Sonid.

I just think that's asking a lot of her. But, yeah, those two things I was, of course, excited about. I originally was like firmly in the in the camp that we shouldn't be risking Sophia Smith in like pointless friendlies with a substitute coach or or whatever the phrase should be. But, you know, I can't lie. It was very nice to see her back and she'll seemingly be more prepared to play in her playoff game this weekend. It kind of did the thorns of favor a little bit with that 45-minute runout. Long-winded way to say I was, of course, thrilled to see self back as well. Yo, I'm not going to lie.

I wasn't mad at Andy Sullivan, Les Midfield. You know what I'm saying? Even though it came with, you know, Emily Sonnet, Lindsay Horanzaff, I was happy to see it. And I do think, you know, it was looking all right. It was looking all right. I can't friend it. was a little, little finicky. But, you know, we're not, we're not talking about that yet.

I mean, we were totally dominant. And the midfield was a part of that, but we just weren't that great in the attack, I thought. But we will get into that. Columbia's lineup was Natalia Geraldo in goal very briefly before she came off with an injury. Carolina Arias, Jorlind Karabali, Daniela Arias, and Manuela. Vanegas across the back line. Lorena Durango, Daniela Montoya,

Lacey Santos, and Marcella Restrepo in the band of four in the midfield, and then Alexa Barr and Ingrid Iobana Guera Meneses head striker. So right off the bat, we're missing Linda Kaiser, which is

major. Major. I mean, she brought a lot of the excitement on the first first game and she didn't want she didn't want to face Naomi Germa again she didn't want that smoke I thought I thought she played well but Emily Fox and Germa like it was a joy just to see them slower down but like clearly this lineup is not as strong right not as dangerous I mean how can it be as dangerous without Cicero to the timeline absolutely all right um two quick things in the first two and a half

half minutes. We get a, you know, patented Alana Cook oopsie gives it away, but quickly, we quickly win it back, just noting giveaways in dangerous spots. And then I noticed early in the second or early in the third minute, Morgan coming back to the ball, receiving a pass and it, um, bouncing far away from her on her first touch. When we bring up omens of any kind, good or bad, a good omen is, Alana Cook, oopsie, get it out of the way. First couple minutes, get it out of the way. We're going to be good the rest of the game.

Yeah. Sure. There was at least one other one that came. But yes, they were both within the first 20 minutes of the match. So, so yeah, we'll take it. We'll take it. Yeah. I thought for the next 10 minutes after that, like,

up until the 13th minute, we got some set piece chances, total control of the game, Columbia not generating anything. But like I said earlier, not very tidy in tight spaces in general, and we couldn't really work anything out in the final third. Continuing? Per usual. Yeah, I mean, it was... That's the last two and a half years.

Right. Yeah, pretty much. So 13th minute done, keys and attack with a run. on the ball and a ball down the line for Rodman. Rodman kind of swings it all the way across the field, and then there's a cross back in from the right side, and a header for Horan. Pretty good chance on frame,

but tame for the keeper to handle, I thought. Yeah, and, you know, this is already going to be a lot different than your normal recaps with Greg. Something I really enjoy doing when I watch this version of the national team is count how many times Lindsay Horan. is desperately trying to play striker. And we've got one already. She's right there.

She came close. It was a good chance. I'm not sliding it. But I do like to keep track of it. We do cross the ball a lot. And she's our target striker. I mean, might as well. I mean, that's, you know, one of the places where we, you know,

one of Lindsay's largest revenue streams is her in the box. You know, the goal that comes we've seen. There's a few chances with their head that come, even a few more within this first half. But yeah, if we're going to have Lindsay out there, we got to let her get in the box and receive the ball in the box and see if she can do a Lindsey Huron with it. Right.

I, you know, I'm not critiquing. I enjoy watching Lindsay head the ball as much as the next person. But this is just our first real look at striker Lindsay again. Oh, there was long stoppage in the 18th, starting in the 18th minute after her hand gets bumped, trying to head a de Mello cross at goal. She gets kind of, she thought she was filed. The ref didn't think so. And then Kuala Kuk cleaned somebody out in the ensuing counterattack.

And probably should have gotten a yellow for that, but didn't. The ref was reluctant with the yellows, which I think came back to bite. a little bit. It was a chippy match. It was pretty chippy and it culminated with this, with this right here. Luckily, it seemed everybody was just like, okay, we probably should chill out before any one of us gets hurt.

But yeah, yeah, it was, it was something. Both teams, I don't know, when you play the same team twice in a window, you have kind of some type of sleepy affair the first one that we had um i don't know i think both teams were looking at this like the rubber match you know what i'm saying like hey somebody has to come out of this series the winner so uh yeah the intensity was ratcheted up i was i was liking it i was liking it especially from us especially from us um yeah i did i agree i liked our mindset in the game and columbia wasn't backing down they were ready to we're ready to go

go at it. No, one of the reasons why I think Columbia is such a good test is that they have, like, they can match our athleticism pretty well. I thought that was a big reason for the stalemate on Thursday. It's just, you know, we play how we play, right? But a lot of times we played how we played, and then all of a sudden some type of a moment just pops out of nowhere that we end up scoring on because we can eventually just run by somebody

and do something. But yeah, Columbia, Columbia is up for it. Thank you for being up for it, Columbia. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. It's also easy to do the lineups, which I know seems like a small thing, but it's a nice little bonus

when there's a two-legged friendly tie because I don't have to completely rewrite the opponent's lineup for the second one. Anyway, who cares? 20-minute mark, nice turn. We get a pretty good chance here. nice turn from Sophia Smith on an entry pass from Horan. So she turns out of pressure real neatly, plays it fast to Sonnet, who's streaking down the channel, making a good run.

Sonnet can't quite corral it, but her touch makes it trickle through the centerback's legs to Morgan, who is free on goal, like right in the middle of the box, well, not in the middle of the box, but at the top of the box in the center of the field. good strong left-footed hit just basically right at Geraldo and she saves it but is shaken up by her fall to the ground after she kind of forearms it wide and she can't go on so Sandra Sepulveda comes on for her and at this point that is their third string goalie Sandra at the World Cup it was it was a big deal at the World Cup their keeper got hurt and a real young goalie came in and was incredible. I don't believe she was here in this camp. So the previous game, the first game, we had their second string keeper at that point because the World Cup starter wasn't there, and now we're on the search string. Okay.

Go ahead. Oh, I just, I just want to say Alex Morgan could have slipped Trinity in right here. For sure. There's a, I mean, she took the shot with the left. Trinity is on. Alex Morgan's left. Could have just been a nice little open up.

Because as, you know, as Alex receives the ball right here, the player that's marking Trent, you know, comes towards Alex as she sees Alex trying to open her body up to line up for, you know, that left foot a shot. could have slid it right to trend little right foot shot in the far post 1-0 USA but you know I'm not I'm not mad at Alex for shooting that

you know yeah it just says what it is if she'd put it to either side of the goalkeeper with the same velocity there's no way the goalkeeper's saving it oh I was also on the turn from self I just like just the way that the Colombian defender just bounced off of her when she received the ball and just all that that that was uh had to be a great sign for anything

Thorntz fan, first of all, and just, it's great for us. And it's nice to, uh, you know, seeing some little back to back to goal work, a little, uh, potential, you know, another omen, possibly for the future. So for receiving a ball like that in the middle of the pitch, maybe flanked by two other attackers, uh, in the front line. I'm saying that Sophia Smith would be playing striker. That would be, uh, nice to someday see. But anyway, we move. going to need the new coach to implement that to do some coaching so 31st minute some good pressing from morgan and rodman morgan's just running like a kamikaze at the goalkeeper and um the goalkeeper plays a loose pass out wide rodman does really well to win it keep it in bounds um on the right

sideline and then whip across a ball it kind of pings around for a while pretty dangerous um and we went a corner haran heads it on frame on the corner, but it's deflected away by a defender. Just want to say again, we are crossing a lot. It's a little frustrating how much we cross, but our press is good. I got to say that. We got a good press. So this is, the press has been, the press was very good in this entire match.

I do have to give a lot of the credit here to one Savannah de Mello. If you watch this match, she's, I mean, she's doing. you know, tried and true Savannah de Mello stuff. It's working a tail off. Working a tail off, getting stuck in. A lot of times, well, we'll get to this, but a lot of times, Sav is like running point. She's the one chasing down the goalkeeper, doing all the hard running,

I think because we wanted to not put all that work on Alex Morgan's legs. That's what it looked like to me, almost like she was second strike group there at times. Like, Lindsay was in charge of getting all the headers in the box and Sav was in charge of running very fast. Yep. Yep. And it was working. Like, that's part of the reason why I was, I wasn't too mad at this midfield once I actually watched it in action. Because, because, you know, the work, the work of Sav was immense. And I wasn't mad at Emily Sonnet either.

Emily Sonnet either. Emily Son was doing, was doing some stuff. I think she. Yeah, she's She's braver on the ball than Andy Sullivan Yeah In my opinion For sure

I don't think that's controversial Sonnet Go ahead I'm just saying I'm just reiterating what he said Like she is not Andy Sullivan Are you guys talking about

Demello or Sonnet right now Who's braver on the ball than Simon Emily Sonnet is braver on the ball than it Andy Sullivan Is what I'm saying is not very controversial Yeah a little sonna's a little chaotic you know like you worry that something bad's going to happen every time she touches the ball just about but i i wanted to not come in here and be a negative nancy that's

why i didn't put every time she passed the ball out of bounds in the first half on this timeline i did you guys a favor she definitely did some rough things like sometimes when the ball's coming into her her uh first touch wasn't as clean as he would like um different types of things But yeah, I'll take it. We're trying something else. That's all we've been asking for. We're trying something else. And it was just like, for me, I'm looking at Sond.

I'm looking at Emily Sondon, how she's playing. I'm like, all right. She's doing okay. But we can get more from a Sam coffee, Jalen Howe. It just made me realize we're going to be, we're going to be good. We're going to be good here. Hmm so I mean I'm I'm one who said

First said sonnet was chaotic here in this episode I do want to follow that up with the second part of the thought which is Of my thought on her which was that she was you know extremely active and Like all over the place did a lot of dirty work which I appreciate Well did you see what Twyla said about our dear Emily Sonnet? No, I'm boycotting Twyla Well Twyla said

I'm paraphrasing, but getting it pretty close, I'm not making anything up. She said, Emily Sonna is like another coach out there. So she's very valuable because she's a coach. And how often does an almost 30-year-old get to reinvent themselves? Because she hasn't played defensive midfield since college. So it's all bright and fluffy, but it seems like we've got a leader out there back in that category of We need somebody to wrangle these kids. Yeah.

And I didn't, I wasn't able to fully pay attention to this game in real time. So like I saw that quote, but I was still like plugged into stuff. So I saw that quote like, Twyla, shut the hell up. But like when I'm watching this game back with that quote, like ringing in my mind, I'm like, oh, she's doing, you know, she's out there. She's a presence. Like offensively and defensively, she's not hiding. She's asking for the ball whenever she can. She's getting it.

She's passing it to Lindsay. She's passing it. forward, whatever. Like, I just, I liked it. But, but like I said, it just made me realize that we can also take that next step up once we just decide to do it. That's the frustrating thing about it. We just got to press the button.

Even, it's right there. It's right there to press. We just haven't done it yet. It's good to have her as an option. Hopefully she's not the, you know, locked in starter for the next five years. Correct. All right. next timeline item Vince

38th minute a time when we don't take the easy cross comes from a quickly take and throw in on the left touch line from Trinity Robin to Savannah de Mello SAV collects it on the outside of the box close to the end line and turns it starts dribbling away from the goal

towards the top of the box and plays a nice little back hill to Trinity who is rushing to join SAV and support her after the throw in the back hill takes Trinity to the end line where she fakes the left footed cross that she has taken three or four times so far in this half that has come close to no one's head. The player marking trend jumps in anticipation of the cross and boom. With that player out of it, trend is free to just saunter the

ball into the box on her right foot with the angle to shoot, I think. With the angle to shoot, I think she should have shot here. She ends up trying to slip the ball to Alex Morgan, who's kind of like three feet away from her, like posting up on somebody in the box, it gets cut out. But we just need more of that. We need more of that. And with Trinity being on the left in this match,

for some reason, I mean, I know she can hit a left foot across. She can. In this match, it was not fruitful at all. Most of them went completely over the gold mouth. was, you know, picked up by like Sophia Smith, recycled and stuff. And it's just, for me, Trinity, we've seen your ability to, you know, be a nuisance on the left. Be aggressive, man, you know, face your marker up. Come inside on your right foot, be ready to shoot.

I mean, that's any right foot of player's dream to be on the left. A lot of times you just settle for, you know, hitting that same left foot across over and over. Like I said, would have liked to see a shot here. but did not come. Yeah, be greedy. Be greedy, Trent. All right, 40th minute. Sonnet wins it off a defender just outside the box,

pokes it to DeMello. Nice little, I really appreciated this from DeMello, a nice little Kroyfe roll into Morgan's path, but Morgan's not expecting it and gets beaten to it by a defender. If she's running onto it, she's in on goal again, this time closer to the goal. Yeah. this chance came from

from the press. Actually, that's the reason why we win the ball back so far up the field. And it's another one of those instances where Sav is closing down the goalie here and the chaos that leads from Savannah de Mello closing down the goalie, Lisa has winning the ball. And also it's just,

even with us trying to protect Alex Morgan and her legs within this press and not having her do too much running, I still kind of noticed for me in this 39th minute that, I mean, in this 40th minute, that she's gassed. She's gassed, you know, doing all this high press. We had an aggressive counterpress to whenever we lost the ball. With the type of intensity that, you know, so Greg's been talking about this as far as like,

just not, we haven't been seeing it lately. And I do, it, this chance made me wonder if the reason why we haven't, been seeing a full out and out USW&T press is because of the fact that we are also trying to play Alex Morgan. That's what I thought here. Yeah, hard to do a two-year testimonial and run a high press, a two-year testimonial for four or five players and do a high press. Yeah. And also, two things aren't compatible. And also, Bells, you talked about like how she's not expecting it, but she might not have been expecting it, but even with her old Alex Morgan

would have got onto this ball. That's all I'm saying. There's just, she doesn't have that same gear, understandably that she had when she first came onto the scene, right? I mean, Alex was just blazing by people, stretching the line, doing all types of stuff, seemingly at will when she came on the scene. I remember this vividly, but it's just not there no more.

This is not. 41st minute de Mello receives in zone 14, turns and goes. I'm not sure where she's going here, but she's just kind of carrying the ball towards the box, gets fouled just outside the box by Montoya. Might have been a yellow card? No, no, it wasn't. Her aunt's free kick is blocked by the wall.

She tries to hit the rebound and sends it over. This is when, it seems to me like this is when the fouling really started happening in earnest, because Smith gets fouled just outside the box. Free kick from Demello has dealt with. Then Morgan has fouled in the channel. We're getting lots of free kicks, like deep in Colombian territory.

Demo's free kick on this one doesn't clear the first defender. And on the corner kick, Horan kind of collects it in front of the near post, pushes it back for Sonnet, and Sonnet bloops one into the box, which is collected by Sepulveda. Yeah, that Sonnet cross was, one, I don't know, it seemed pretty egregious to me just because there was some, there was some,

there was some decent opportunity for some soccer in there. And, you know, Emily just decided to launch it, which can't put too much on her. Everyone else launched it. So, I mean, if everyone else is doing it, it must be a director from the coach. So Emily, of course, is going to fire that thing up too. We, I Tara, you haven't spoken for a while. You got anything on your mind? Crosses. Yeah.

I'm ready for the second half. Yeah, we got to celebrate the second half. We get a giveaway from Horan in zone 14. Our zone 14 just gets caught on the ball, right, in like the fifth minute of stoppage time. Nothing comes of it, but again, got to note that kind of thing when it happens. Bells, if I could. So the timeline item we had. earlier when you talked about the

deflected header from Lindsay Horan. Was that the one that wasn't the one she like hitting to the ground, right? Yeah, that's the one. That's the one she hit into the ground? Okay, I feel like we missed that one that Saf put on her head that she just skied over the

that she completely, it was a free header that she completely skyed over the goal. You remember that? I don't remember a completely free header, but it was pretty free. Pretty free. robbed Savannah de Mello of an assist. I just wanted to note that

before we completely moved on from the first half. Thank you. Okay. Yeah, the half arrives zero zero. Not like we were terrible or anything because we did dominate, control the game.

Dominates not the right word. We controlled the game. Just not particularly dangerous. But then comes the second half and there's a lot to celebrate because we get some subs right away. Official, me official, comes on for Alex Morgan.

Jaden Shaw. comes on for Sophia Smith. And then also for Colombia, Yvonne Chacon, for Menezes, and Lady Andrade, which is kind of a cool name for Daniela Montoya, who was on a yellow. Extremely cool name. Things start happening almost immediately.

46 minute. So right after the beginning of the half, Sonnet wins it in the press, plays it to Fischel. skips kind of accidentally I mean just kind of ricochets off of Fishal's legs over to Shaw and then Shaw just very tidily and neatly plays Fishall in but Fishel is like a quarter of a step off side. Like this clearly didn't result in a single thing

but already I'm so happy it feels like there's chemistry in our attack again which has been lacking And I think anybody would agree with that because we can't score goals. But, you know, I'm, I was hyperbolic already. It just felt 46 minute. We're going to be okay. Jayden Shire is upon us.

She is a level up. It does feel like. On Sophia Smith, you're saying, Bill? Well, no, I'm not saying that. I'm not ready to say that. But when she gets the ball in the attacking third, you get the feeling something's going to happen. Like she's going to make something happen.

No, she didn't every time, but several times she did. And I mean, maybe in that sense, you know, receiving in the half space, maybe a little more full of ideas than somebody like Sophia Smith. But definitely, I mean, I'd like to see her in the midfield, you know. Like playing as a in the Lindsay Horan role. A creator for sure. What are, I mean, it's a little, it's a little premature, but what are you guys thinking about me official?

Because when I am noticing in the second half, things feel different, there's, you know, a spark of life on the field again. And I'm not trying to, you know, dump on her. But it feels like it's because Alex isn't there. And it feels like even when Mia is a step offside or misses something or, you know, is not completing what she wants to do, it feels like that's benefiting us a lot to me. Yeah, so I was thinking about this myself, um, watching, like, rewatching the game back before we started this pod. And it, and it wasn't like everything that me official did was clean.

It wasn't like everything that Jaden Shaw did was clean. Uh, but I don't know. I think it's just something to be said for youthful exuberance, dynamism, athleticism. Uh, it's all those things on the pitch. I think it just becomes a force multiplier. Yeah, so that's where I'm at now. That's where I met now. I would say most of what Shaw did was clean.

Like there were like a couple moments of, I mean, she passed out of bounds one time. Yeah. And she got caught in the ball one time. I can't think of anything else she did that wasn't squeaky clean. I thought Fishel had more, you know. For sure. Uncleanness, if you will. I guess what I'm getting to though is the difference between the first half and the second half

I thought Mia being there benefited a lot of people including Jaden like I don't know I guess it's not making sense no I mean I spark of life is a phrase that resonates with me I mean there was definitely like that dynamism like Vince said and um but you know Morgan was Morgan put in a shift in the first half, you know, she was, she was running around. I don't know. I don't know. I was not, I don't think I was as impressed by Fischel as you were, Tara, and I'm curious what Vince thinks of like Fischel overall.

I mean, she scored a great goal. Uh, no comment. Okay. No, no, I'll take the goal. So you're saying you weren't impressed. That's what, no comment. that means. I'm not saying I'm not saying I wasn't impressed. I need more more inputs. No, I I completely agree with that because I'm struggling with even even

celebrating like her success is that much because we we've yet to see Sophia Smith as the striker and I'm worried when are we going to see Sophia Smith as the striker? Like if Alex starts the first half of a game, Sophia then gets her shot in the second half? Or is that going to be Mia or is that going to be Hatch? When is a coach finally going to bench Alex? Let us see Sophia. Let her get her roll out. Because when you look at statistics, it's Sophia Smith by a mile compared to everybody,

including Jaden Shaw. Like it's it's a big time difference maker and and I'm just confused how to I'm confused how to rate me official even when I'm excited by her because she's not going to be Sophia Smith but are we ever going to get so in the midfield I don't know you mean at striker yeah yeah at striker yeah that's a bit of a dilemma a dilemma for fissile and then I don't know Macario maybe we'll come back someday as well. It's hard.

I took us on a tangent. Let's keep going. Okay, 47th minute, Germa gives it away. Very unusual for her, but gives Columbia possession in our defensive third for a little while,

which results in the one spell of danger from them, I think, in the whole game. Across, a scramble, a firm shot from Yvonne Chacon, Murphy palms it over. And then on the ensuing corner, another scramble.

Andrade gets a shot, scuffs it right at Murphy, who bobbles it almost directly to Chacon, but pounces and grabs it off her feet. So some nervy moments there early in the second half from us. Which is good. See what Casey Murphy can do. You know, she's, her season's over, test her a little bit. I was perfectly fine with it. Then we get, you know, one of the, one of the nicest moments of the game.

Haran runs onto a loose pass. in Columbia's half. One touches it to Shaw, just real neat-like. And then Shaw plays a no-look pass to Fischel running into the box. Fisiel, which is, that's a clever pass. And then Fisiel blasts it over from 16 yards. But that's nice from Shaw.

And her hand too, but mostly Shaw. Yeah. Jaden Shaw, man. There's nothing else to say, man. It's beautiful to see. It is beautiful to see. Some people call her genius in the final third. I don't know.

I don't know. I mean, she got that. She has it, whatever it is, you know what I'm saying? But yeah, it's just, it's nice to see a little bit of, I guess, chemistry forming. You know, after the match, Mia, I talked about that she's never actually played with Jaden Shaw. She's a decent deal older than Jaden Shaw. about two, two, three years. So, you know, they didn't, they didn't line up with youth teams or whatever.

But even, I mean, these first two, you know, chances in the beginning of the second half, you wouldn't know it. You wouldn't know it. But. She didn't said they room together. They roomed together that she was expressing love for everybody. But she especially was really complimentary towards me after the game, which, you know, It was always nice to hear.

Yeah. You know, you said you're not sure if she's a genius, but she has it, whatever it is. And one of the things that it is that she has is vision. Yeah. And she sees a lot. And, uh. Yeah, we talked about the graduate level passes, uh, quite a bunch on Wilson Wednesday. Yeah.

And, uh, yeah. For a long time, too. way before World Cup. Yeah, right. I mean, I remember I used to DM events on Twitter, Jaden Shaw's goals,

like the clip of the goals. I just used to send it to Vince. Oh, here it is. Like last year, probably. Yep, yep. Could have got an invite, you know, the NWSL record holder for

most teenage goals, you know, I mean, but, but, you know, there's no sense of crown over spilled milk. It's a new cycle. It's a new cycle, and we're seeing a jadden Shaw do everything now.

And the second half showed, I mean, I think a dire need to integrate more young players. More, bring them in, spice it up. I think it can only be good to have some of our locked in starters be pushed a little bit, compete for the spot. again, I'm excited. Yes. And, you know, anyone can see, right? That this, I mean, in the first half, we generated that one chance off the sonnet,

um, accident accidental nutmeg to Alex Morgan. You know what I'm saying? And here we are, um, five minutes into the second half to, I mean, the, uh, first one was, you know, Mia was a step off side or whatever. But, you know, we, we haven't seen this type of, uh, this type of play through the middle the whole match, the whole window

up until now. So, yeah, hopefully the right people take the right lessons from this. But anyway, let's continue. There's more. There's more here. Yeah, there's just a few quick notes. There's a Haram free kick right at Sepulveda from 25 yards.

Shawd whips in a cross, as is, as were apparently the instructions. But there's a good cross. And then she does get caught on the ball, like I mentioned. Got to mention the bad with the good. Got caught on the ball after Horan finds her in roughly the same spot as the time she played that No Look Past official. And then she pokes it over to Fisiel gets caught, pokes it over to Fisiel.

So it doesn't totally get caught and then Fisleu loses it. But let's get to the goal. Should we get to the goal? No, no, no. I'm going to stop you right there because Bels, I think you're being a little harsh here. She does a—Jaden does an absolutely sick pullback turn right here and leaves two Colombian players on the dust. She wasn't caught on the ball. You got watch that back, bro.

that pullback turn was absolutely nasty and she plays and if you I just depruded this because I actually uh I saw on the notes bells that you were you were going to say this and I and I just set myself up for ambushes by putting notes down you're damn right I came with my briefcase I'm opening up uh you know what do they call evidence evidence deposition this is no when they pull it out Item number one or whatever in the courtroom. But anyway, yeah. So go back and watch this. The pullback turn was nasty.

And then also, if you watch Mia here, first of all, Mia got very close to getting a foot on that cross and controlling it, maybe could do something nasty like a little turn and shoot right there. Yeah. That was an almost moment there. And also, after Jaden makes this turn and is in zone 14, Mia should just post up for a for a backboard here for a Drew tight backboard and maybe you can play like a little one shaw with one two with jaden shaw here

but instead she's just like drifting towards her left as as jaden's making this move and so jaden tries to pass it to mea but meas just drifting drifting towards her left for like basically along the line that forms the top of the box I don't know why she's doing that because Lindsay Horan's right there says she's about to be like if she drifts one more step she's like one foot away from Lindsay Horan but as you know

as Mia gets more reps she'll know just let me just let me stand right here and receive this ball maybe I can tap it back to tap it back to Jaden maybe I can lay it off to Lindsay on my left something like that so but still

probing in zone 14 another example And the goal comes not so much I mean there was some probing I guess But it's a sort of Traditional U.S. Women's National Team goal Decent spell of attack

Fox crosses it So Povita punches it away We recover it and circulate it around From left to right Shaw wins a corner kick And then she plays it short to Sonnet on the corner and then Sonnet just lifts a ball across. Official rises for it, heads it low and on frame, just textbook, a textbook-headed finish

on a cross. Keeper can't get down to save it. Go USA-10. Officials' first U.S. Women's National Team goal and she celebrates with a fin over her head running to the left corner flag. Pretty cool. Yeah, I was happy for her. Great goal.

You love to see it. you do love to see it. She looked thrilled too. She did. They both look thrilled. Mia and Jaden, that is, when they scored their goals, yeah, for sure. Mia with the shark, the shark celebration here in our hometown of San Diego. Lovely to see.

They were both, I mean, they're both kind of hometown girls at this point. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, what fish is bigger than a shark, right? Very true. 57 minute mark. Fisiel wins it from a loose pass by the keeper. This was very nearly a goal. Cuts it back for Domello.

So Sopova plays a really bad pass over to a defender to her left. Fisiel gets to it first, gets the in line, cuts it back for Domello. DeMello kind of traversing across the six behind the defense. But she has to sort of come a little farther over. than she would like to get to the ball, so she ends up with her back to goal. And she lays it off for Haran. Perfect decision there. Horan moves onto her left foot and shoots.

And, I mean, the shot gets deflected off a Colombian leg over the goal, but it was a really, really good chance. Obviously gifted by the third string keeper. Yeah. And if I could nitpick just a little bit right here, Lindsay. I need just like a collect this ball touch you know a couple steps goal you know what I'm like she she tries to get her feet right here after after her first touch and it takes I mean she she does like some Looney Tunes steps to get her feet right but before before striking the ball which you know gives the defense time to get over there and block the shot I think if she's

a little bit cleaner here, might be a goal. That's all. At this point, I feel a Lindsay Horan goal coming, only because she hasn't gotten it so many times by now. Like I said, I did not enjoy an ounce of Thursday's game, but Lindsay is just such a, you have to study her. She's, She's perplexing. She's amazing. She's frustrating. She's troubling. She's everything.

Everything one person can be. You know, women are complex. But at this point, at this point, I just know that she's going to score soon because she's starting to frustrate me. And that's the Lindsay Horan experience. And it was an amazing goal, but I'm jumping ahead. Yeah, it was. Yeah, I have to say, I'm, I'm a, I'm going to give us to Lindsay. This was a good Lindsay game.

And for me to say this... Big deal. I was... Lindsay was doing some stuff in this match. I am... Bell's is making a face right now. You need to watch it back, bro. You need to watch a back.

I'm envious of you that you weren't holding on to anything after Thursday about Lindsay. Yeah, I don't know. I guess I had purified myself in the waters of late minute talk at this point. I wasn't holding any any prior. I was also not connected to the discourse during the actual match. I don't know. Watch this match today.

What I was thinking of myself when I was feeling these feelings, these unfamiliar feelings, so I had to examine and talk to myself like Vince, what's going on here? What's going on here? And I think that, you know, just getting Lindsay surrounded by some legs, having some legs around her. You know what I'm saying? It just seemed like,

it made a big difference for me personally. I mean, that is fully... Go ahead, sorry. Oh, sorry. And just being aggressive in the counterpress and the actual press, like, Lindsay was making plays in the counter press because, why?

Because she didn't have, like, huge spaces to cover. You know what I'm saying? She could amblawn over there and get her foot in as, you know, DeMello and Sophia Smith is harassing somebody and, you know, we win it, and then we're off to the races. It was, uh, I'm calling it.

I'm like I see it. No, that, I mean, that is, you're describing a Leone match perfectly. It's, it's, it's, Lindsay has midfielders who can run a lot, who can clean up a lot. And it leaves Horan open to head a bunch of balls in, volley a bunch of balls in, do what she wants. She orchestrates. She orchestrates for Leone, too. And now she's tied for a leading goal score in the league. I mean, it's a challenge, but a fun one.

Yeah. Yeah. Like, I mean, I think I've said it on the pie before. I've definitely said in the Discord. But I didn't necessarily see a path forward with Lindsay and the team if we're going to play a 433. I was in, for me, like, she can be definitely a second striker in a 4-4-2. Like I said, for me, her best attribute is just what we're about to talk about. But, yeah, I can see it.

I can see it here if we surround her with people that can cover for her deficiencies. I'm just surprised that you thought she was good enough in this game to note it. I thought she was kind of, you know, take the goal out of it. She was just kind of who she is. And, I mean, I love the way she plays because she can do special stuff, you know. But how much special stuff. did she do outside the goal? It's the simple stuff.

Like, you know, that one-touch pass to Sophia for the turn that led to the chance in the first half. Yeah. I don't know if y'all remember in the first half where she, there was a pass that comes into her that she just like traps and turns with like somebody on her back. I remember that one, yeah. Yeah, it was so, it was sick. It was sick.

I'm pretty sure she, like, tried to play it through to Trent at that point. I think Trent took another one of those left foot across. at that point. Yeah, I was... Okay, okay, okay. Yeah, we don't have to dwell on it. 59th minute, Rodman does somebody smoothly on the right wing, finds Fischel's feet after cutting in.

Officials right at the top of the box. Fisciel cleanly receives it and turns and plays it over Domello and space. Domello tries to cut in and shoot. It's deflected and collected easily by Sepulveda. And I guess I'll take this opportunity to say something controversial, which is, I think it will be controversial on this podcast, which is like, I need more from DeMello in the final third. Maybe this is just an example.

This is just an example. When she gets that ball out wide left, I'm thinking there's not a part of me that's like, oh, this is going to be a goal, you know? And I know she scored some nice goals for Louisville, but. I mean, she scored, I think she scored three, right? She's not your guys as like goal score by that means. And that's not a I guess that outside of the boot one

From the edge of the box You know weighs heavy in my mind Because it was a It was a beautiful goal But yeah I mean she's mostly I mean She's mostly a support attacker

You know box arrive her Also a set piece specialist Free Kickmaster Nobody gets fouled like Savannah de Mella I guess foul like Savannah de Mella But uh we'll see We'll see

Um If it comes she she did play we didn't cover this in the first half also, but on a nice, on a ball that I think she won in the press, played a nice little through ball to Sophia, the letter towards the end line that amounted to nothing. Sophia ended up crossing it in somebody or something.

But, yeah, I wouldn't say like she's like a master in the final third or anything like that. She does what she did. I forgot what game that was. I think it was in the Netherlands when she had like a good chance early that she like put wide. or was it really it was like really close to the like the near post where she shot right right exactly blocked wasn't it i don't know yeah i don't think so but but yeah that like that's sav she'll she'll arrive in the box

she's not going to orchestrate anything she's not jane shaw out there i was just uh excited for sav as a current like as it currently stands as just a high floor midfielder. And I thought our midfield didn't work because we didn't have a lot of high floor players in it. With Rose in our current state, Lindsay and Andy, we just talked about the things that we need to support Lindsay. And that midfield didn't have it. And so, yeah, getting savvy on our work rate out there. She's out there. She's carrying the ball. She's getting filed. All this type of stuff. But I do think, so we'll get a little bit more from her in the final third actually gets acclimated but but it's not going to be

she's not going to be doing lyrical miracles out there at this stage speaking of cool stuff in the final third this is probably my favorite moment of the game 60th minute sonnet plays a pass like through Shaw like at kind of I think she was actually aiming for

Fisiel with the pass but Shaw was between him and Shaw just cleverly dummies it. It doesn't result in a chance, but when you're dummying pass this successfully in the attacking third, you deserve recognition for that. That was my favorite moment? I really didn't do justice to that play at all,

but it was cool. No, I remember what you're talking about. It was cool. I'm just surprised that would be your favorite moment. I love a dummy. A 62nd minute, we get our second goal. It's a quick restart on the right side, over to Fox.

and she just lifts one into the box and Haran meets it from what 14 yards out real sweet with her right foot on the volley thrashes it in low and hard unstoppable beautiful shot 2.0 USA Amazing, amazing, gorgeous Lindsay has that in her back pocket

I mean it's a talent not many human beings can do that it's great it's a hell of a goal it's a hell of a goal yeah like I've said three times now yeah Lindsay in the box hey I'm I'm with it I'm with it she

I mean I mean I'm gonna put Jaden Shaw up there but other than other than Jaden Shaw she's probably the best finisher on this team as it currently stands as a currently stance from the position that she plays

you're talking about Golden Boot leader Sophia Smith It's not in the top of your finishers on the team? Hey, I can either confirm nor deny. I'm not trying to fight no more. I'm not trying to fight either. I would just ask you to refer to whatever's on the transcript. Well, whatever I said that was on the transcript, then you can take that as a...

I'm not going to say. I'm going to avoid all direct questioning about it, though. But I don't know. I mean, so I do think the variety of finishes that Lindsay can pull out. Yeah, yeah, I'm going to take Lindsay over Sophia Smith. That might be controversial, but. The variety is a good point. Yeah.

Lindsay can score all kinds of different ways. So can Sophia, what are you two talking about? I'm sorry. Like, what different ways can Sophia score? I'll send you some clips later. It's all good. Does she ever score with her head? I think I mean, I think she can.

I can't reference one. You posit that she can sort of theoretically. Yeah, theoretically. According to the NWSL website, Smith has scored one goal with her head since she arrived in Portland, and it was her first ever pro goal, the second in a three to zero win over Utah Royals FC in the 2020 fall series. All right. Subs come on for the U.S. coffee for Demello and Huerta for Dunn. Fox moves over to left back

Querta to right back Tara I think you have thoughts here I didn't I didn't love these subs I didn't think coffee for Coffee for Demello made any bit of sense just because Sam Coffee has excelled as a defensive

midfielder and they're not similar at all and I'm just I'm just kind of curious what we're doing with coffee because we're not setting her up for success. I would have loved to see her come in for Sonnet and give her an actual test. But I also wasn't super fond of the Huerta sub. I think we as a national team are pretty desperate for a done successor.

And just moving Emily Fox over and putting Huerta on the right is not a solution. and it's not a solution that buys us any time really either. Nope. I would have loved to have Vignola get runouts just because she had a really great goal in Angel City's final game of the season. And I was thinking that surely that was going to buy her a little bit more time. I mean, she only got to play in September once. That's not enough time for anybody to really, you know, grade her to productively, in my opinion.

But if it wasn't going to be Vignola, I would have wished Casey Kruger, who we know is one of the best defenders in the league, who, you know, should have been with this national team at the World Cup. Like, we know Casey. I would have preferred to see Casey there. Huerta did nothing in this game to assuage concerns about her defensive chops. I was about to say she got eliminated and left behind at least once and kind of. Bro, it was pretty soon after she came on. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think we can move past Sophia Werta, in my opinion.

Sad to say, nothing against her. But if we can't try people out at this window, like, when are we going to be able to? When we get a real coach, hopefully, that's the hope. I don't know. You know, maybe this is a fool me once. Shame on you from which I shame on me type situation. But, I mean, I guess that's the only thing we can hope for. Sure.

I'm curious what you guys thought of coffee because, like, because I initially thought, oh, she's bringing a lot of, like, rhythm and composure into this game. And then I started noticing her, you know, with the caveat that she's not playing her preferred position, I noticing her getting eliminated and like her pitch control wasn't real good. This is the Sam Coffee experience as detailed by Vincent Irvin on a well, so Wednesday a few times. I want to see more though. I want to see her get more of a chance. but I it is I'm acknowledging it as well bro I mean of course you know it's still one of the more

inexplicable things as far as like why uh black co decided that he needed to he needed to give telecourniac a look after seeing sam coffee a few times and who did nothing wrong and some games looked all right and and she was just excommunicated it was it was strange right right I mean, she doesn't look that way for Portland, you know? She doesn't look, she's not like always behind the play. I mean, you disagree with me if you want, but what's that? That's because she retreats a lot. I've picked this up from Sam.

Like when the danger's coming, she's basically like morphing herself into the back line and is backpedaling with everybody else. She'll come out of her hole to defend once her line of confrontation is reached, which is usually her own box. Like, once you get there. she'll try and step up and see if she can knock the ball away or anything like that she likes to she likes to size you up you up you know uh like a shark shout out me official like a shark honey pray or something you know likes to like to circle you a little bit um but yeah yeah that's that's sam coffee yeah disagree no i mean i don't really disagree i don't think She made too much sense in this game. I may have been a bit stuck on who she came in for. I just didn't understand what the directive for her was. I mean, I noticed everything you guys did.

That's not out of the ordinary for her too much, like Vince is noting. And it may be a bit too simplistic, I guess, but what this team has struggled with for so long is scoring goals. And for the NWSL's leader and assist not to get a real runout is perplexing. It's troubling. And I don't even consider this a real rollout because why is she playing? in that role, why isn't she playing where she succeeds? But, you know, I'm not going to die on the hill.

I might. I want to see her play as a six. And then, so 65th minute, another Shaw dummy. This time I pass from Cook between the lines. And it goes to, like, she dummies it, and it's basically the pass goes in behind for Fishel to run onto. I don't know if she's in on goal, but she's in behind the back line running onto it,

and she gets pulled back as she runs free, and it's a yellow card. ensuing free kick from Horan is deflected up by the wall. On to Cook's head. Kind of an awkward trajectory and probably spin on the ball to try to head it on frame, and she is unable to do that. A lot of Columbia fouls, as we've discussed.

69th minute, high quality turn from Shaw. This is a vision moment for me when I was saying that what she has is vision. She takes a pass in traffic from Cook right in the center circle, middle of the center circle and immediately plays it out wide to Rodman in just miles of space. And I think that's a lot harder than

and she made it look like it was. do, you know, to sort of like to size up that whole situation and find Rodman. And then Robin was whistled offside. Two things. One, I don't know if she was. I kind of don't agree that she was. I didn't think she was. Two, if she was, come on, Trin.

Don't be offside there. You got the whole freaking feel to look at. Definitely. Yeah. Kind of a frustrating afternoon for Trinity overall, I think. Yeah. Yeah. I need Trent to find our mojo a little bit.

She had to get back to being Trent, the trend that I expect to see. She did get a red card in the very first, I'd say, 20 minutes or so of Spirit's final game that got her team eliminated from the playoffs. It was a lot to carry. She came out crying hard. I just think that she's not having the greatest few weeks. hopefully she can get, you know, a little bit of a break and come back, recharged. Sounds perfect.

And she did immediately get a break after she was called off, whistled for offside because Alyssa Thompson came on for her. And then I just want to mention one other thing about coffee. I worried about her pitch control, which, you know, so Vince was, you know, at least somewhat right about that. But I also worry, maybe it was like a bit of a quicksand. performance to steal a total soccer show phrase because she does this passing sequence with Germa in the 81st minute down in our corner where Germa's like passing it passes it to coffee she needs coffee to do something and coffee just keeps passing it back to her so they keep passing it back and forth it happens like three times and each time coffee passes it back to Germa

things get a little more difficult for her and it was a frustrating thing to watch I'm like come on Sam. Like you gotta like be able to turn and then find a solution here instead of just pawning it back off on Naomi. Yo, uh, I meant to bring this up with, with, me official,

but you do got to give you, I mean, anytime you see these types of things, uh, you do got to give a little bit of credence to the, to the national team jitters. They come for everybody, it seems at some point.

And, and with the way, like we just talked about, the way that Sam's, uh, last cycle went. It's possible that, you know, you know, she came on, did everything she could in the last one, in the last cycle.

And her getting shunned after could cause, you know, a crisis of confidence. And now that she's back in their first cap ever since she was shunned, it's, it's possible that, you know, there's just a lot on the mind, a lot on the plate, a lot of jitters. So, you know, you always got to give somebody some, uh, some grace, some leeway. for these dittery type performances in the shirt it's heavy you know very fair he's a heavy shirt yeah let's do the last goal uh thompson mugs somebody well Thompson ran together in the press mug somebody and uh lindsay coming over and joining the party after after somebody's been you know firmly grasped and and being harassed by somebody else once again yeah it was good and then it

So the dispossessing touch comes from Thompson to Huran. Horan helps it along to Thompson. She's like, yeah, go ahead, you be the one running. She did. Thompson runs into the box, or at least at the box, and she slides it to Shaw, who is actually running into the box. Shaw takes a touch as defenders are closing on either side, and then just toe pokes it through the keeper.

Love this kind of finish. because there's no time to put your laces through it. And it's just instinctive and ruthless. And we're up 3-0. And, you know, as a wise man once said, the Jaden Shaw era is upon us. It's upon us, man. Cold finish.

Cold finish. Finish is crazy. I mean, this is Jaden Shaw. I mean, at 18 years old, She has that final third gene. Talked about it with, you know, how she opened to have, this goal to close the half. Also, I think I talked about it before on here, but just to reiterate, Jaden Shaw rated as the best finisher in the NWSL this season as measured by expected place, which is, you know, post-shot XG minus pre-shot XG. Number one within the NWSL.

And whether or not finishing is a skill, everyone is still trying to suss that out. But when you see it, when you see the finish here, and you see, like I said, the X place number, it's, you, you see why she rates so high in that stat and why she's just Jaden Shaw, man. Beautiful. The tendency is to try to put your laces through it

and then just sort of get your shot. blocked and then say all shucks you know i mean a lot of a lot of soccer players at the highest level will do that i i talked about this in the discord but i can just see so clearly with my with my eyes like alex morgan running on to the same chance and just like right foot touch straight to the keeper as soon as that thing comes in from alissa you know just boom but you know It's a great goal. And Alyssa Thompson, not that I need to emphasize it again, but she was the one who got the assist. Yeah.

And I do love a touch like that, just the one, Jay and Schaels first, the one that, like, kills the ball dead and leaves it, like, kind of spinning a little bit for you to do whatever you need with it. It was awesome. Yeah. The one thing I will say, oh, also, you know, we talked about. about how they were so happy. Mia and Jaden after scoring. Jaden for a second, there's a split second there when you're looking at it. She considers crying.

She considers crying for sure. In her celebration? Yeah, just in her celebration, I think after, I think it's after she hugs everybody. Maybe. It could be while she's running towards everybody. Well, she talked because the crowd starts chanting Jaden Shaw for a few seconds. and she talked afterwards about how she was like a please stop. Like she's not used to it.

She was getting overwhelmed. And she's like, I didn't like it. But I love them. They're the best fans in the world, but I didn't like it. Yeah. And my one thing that I would say as a detraction here is just that, you know, we got Mia doing the shark celebration. It would have been beautiful to see Jaden do her patented surf celebration.

You know, just get Jaden surfing, Mia, running around like a shark. It would have been a great little split screen right there for me. But, you know, what was it? Ocean theme. Yeah, yeah. But plenty of goals to come. Plenty of goals to come. Well, that's the game.

A lot of fun in the second half. Still, you know, a lot riding on Jaden Shaw to do the pretty stuff in the final third, the unlocking. Well, you know, obviously harranded some of that too. But we're going to save our discussion of the coaching search and some takeaways from the camp for the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you.