Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #455: USWNT v China recap (Frisco)

Episode Date: December 6, 2023

The Jaedyn Shaw era is surely upon us. Also we're back to pressing with conviction. We got a good look at Coffey and Shaw, a debut for Korbin Albert, more Purce at right back, a comeback win, lots to discuss. Vince, Greg, Tara and Belz talk it through, react to a few clips from Twila Kilgore's press conference post-game.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 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 came back from 1-0 down to beat the People's Republic of China to one last night in front of 11,000 in Frisco, Texas. It was the last game of the year. I was greatly entertained. Got the Woso Wednesday crew here, and Greg. Tara, how are you? I am so good. I mean, we got real tryouts, this camp.

there's nothing more I could have asked for so I'm so good yeah I feel the same Vince once again ladies and gentlemen the Jaden Shaw era is upon us it sure you all everyone listening to this to this podcast should be grateful that you are alive during this time you know there's a lot of people that didn't get to see this they didn't get to see the jaden Shaw era you know what I'm saying so be blessed be grateful be happy so especially in this time of year the holidays you know what I'm saying that, you know, we've been blessed with,

I'm just going to go ahead to say another Messiah. You know what I'm saying? I debated it. I debated it. But, yeah, yeah. So I'm doing amazing. I'm just basking in, you know,

all of Jane Shaw's glory at the moment. The list of people who didn't get to see this is full of, you know, big names. Right. It's billions of people. Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln. He didn't get to see it.

Didn't get to see it. Martin Luther King Jr. He didn't get to see it. Most, it's most people. Rejoice. Greg, how are you? I'm good. I think we're all crossing our fingers for Emily Fox.

And then, yeah, then we're just sort of after that. We're basking in a technically undefeated 2023. How about that? What a successful year. Three goals. Three goals conceded all year. Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty nasty.

It was 0.17 per game goals conceded. I need to do better about logging the who of things, but in the Discord, someone basically made a Brian Farrant's joke, and it feels about right. If anybody's watching the Iowa Hawkeyes or even adjacent to college football enough to get that they're basically a punchline for their ability to win games

without actually scoring any points. Yeah. So basically Germa is, you know, our punter, essentially. Build the team around the punter. Around Germa. Oh, she was good again yesterday, wasn't she? Oh, man. She did have a couple of mistakes, but, yeah, she was awesome.

Should we play what Twyla said about Emily Fox because she has a concussion history? And she took a couple knocks, but she stayed on for the first half. And Nancy Armore from the Associated Press asked why that was the case. Why did Fox stay on for the whole half? Here's what Twy said. So with Foxy, she took a knock in the first half. She indicated from us that she was good.

When she took a second knock in the first half, they were able to go out and check her for some sort of body injury. but they were able to kind of assess her then also for her head, and she checked out okay. And then towards at the end of the half, when she was coming off the field, she indicated that she had a symptom that, or could a possible symptom, she basically just said she wasn't feeling funny or she was feeling funny. So we knew that we needed to check her out, that that was going to take a bit longer and just at an abundance of caution, we subbed her. There you have it. It's unsatisfactory, right? Yeah, I don't love it. Yeah, here's my list of unsatisfactoriness.

It shouldn't have taken a second injury to actually check out her head. So the fact that they waited for another injury to be like, oh, now's our chance to check out her head. You don't need to wait that long. The game is built to stop if there's a head injury. So, I mean, whether she says she's okay or not, she got her bell, like, rung bad in that first moment. And it was immediately apparent, right? she gets hit and she just like stops and you can tell the game just doesn't exist around her anymore she just she just stands perfectly still and like they continue playing soccer within yards of her

and she's just not in like not in the moment at all and then as soon as the ball actually does go out of bounds like her shirt goes up over her face like because she's crying because she got hit so hard and it's just like how are we not like doing a real full check of this and then when they show the replay you're like oh my goodness that's that's horrific and so So, like, it's unsatisfactory to say this was our chance after the second knock she took to check out her head. It's like, no, you don't wait for a second injury, an unrelated injury, to check out someone who just got destroyed that way. And then just her use of abundance of caution just feels, it feels wrong to say out of an abundance of caution, we took her out 40 minutes after her initial injury. It just doesn't seem right.

Yeah, Greg, you brought up college football earlier. and I've been thinking about this. Like one thing that I've definitely learned from playing college football myself is what can cuss people look like. I've seen upwards of 50 at least. And yeah, the initial days, first of all, and like the fact that she couldn't close down, the person who like had the ball right next to her, Ashley Hatch had to come out, close the player down. And then you see on the on the TV, Ashley's looking back at Emily like, like yo are you good and uh and and then also another tell tell sign for me for me personally

which i i do think that i can consider myself an expert on this topic uh just because of the fact that no one really seems to be an expert on this topic so i'm gonna go ahead and throw my hat in the ring because i've seen it i've seen enough um always for me crying is a is a sign crying is a huge sign i mean when you get your bell wrong and then people start crying after I haven't I've never seen it not be a concussion so I don't know and with

I do have to bring up Emily's history here because I've seen you know Emily had a lot of concussion issues while she was at race in Louisville and I went back I searched Emily Fox concussion on Twitter there's at least three documented ones

and a possible within the past two years in the past two calendar years so like not count this one so this would be a fifth incident of you know head trauma so yeah i think i think her history with concussions should take some of the choice out of it for emily like if she wants to keep playing maybe maybe you shouldn't give her that choice on the first or the second goal uh like potential injury if you know that this player struggles with that like uh soccer player's gonna want to play soccer. I don't like that it was seemingly left to her. Yeah, that's the, I mean,

that's the thing is the rule is the rule that every soccer coach has to learn in America, every rec sports coach everywhere has to learn in the training is the player doesn't get to decide. And you got to have a medical professional clear them before they can get back on the field. And I don't know, I guess that happened on the second injury. But yeah, I agree with everything everybody said. Yeah, and even if you're not, the protocol. Even if you don't have

like a Vince level expert on the sideline to check it out and definitively say, like it just feels like it doesn't need to be definitive to be like, it's bad enough that we should be taking, again, taking, using that abundance of caution that Twyla herself said

to actually use abundant caution and remove her for at least, a couple of minutes after it actually happened to do that sort of check. Yeah, and the terrorist point, like, Emily, you got to protect yourself. Like, I saw this coming from like five seconds away when that ball started bouncing. And they both lined it up. I'm like, Emily, no. And she did it.

And everything happened, you know, from there. Like, so Emily's, you know, physicality is a huge part of her game. but it's just like, please. And then when she came back on, her first touch, like she was like coming back to the ball, her first touch was just like crazy. Like she like booted it back. Like I've seen, I've just seen it.

I've seen it. I've seen just, you know. She got beat a few times. Yeah, yeah, she got beat a few times, which is pretty uncharacteristic. Then she also, I mean, she did have some bright moments later in the half. Like she, so I don't know. It's not like

I'm just saying it's not like she was A total mess Sporting wise out there from then on But she kind of was though A little bit But then she also had She had some good stuff too It's all I'm saying

Um All right so yeah I hope that she's Okay and Um Gets the treatment she needs Should we do the lineups? I mean this

Aside from the Fox thing, I thought, man, this was really fun. It finally felt like, it felt to me, like, finally, we're getting to see plenty of new faces all at once. We're playing, like, pretty good soccer. I felt like the page is finally starting to turn. Yeah, I agree. And it was the first time that I can remember at least since the last Olympics in Tokyo, where

you looked at the bench in the game and everybody was exciting. It seemed like everybody was worthy of being there, that you could trust our bench, which was a major, major struggle for us at the World Cup. So I was just excited going into it. But yeah, lineups. Yeah, let's do the lineups. Okay. Aubrey Kingsbury and goal for us, she got the, she got her chance here.

Emily Fox, Naomi Germa, Tierna Davidson, and Jenna Nyswanger across the backline, Coffee and Sonnet, Sam Coffee and Emily Sonnet in midfield. And then I know we had a different shape in defense and in possession, but just generally speaking, Shaw, Horan, and Williams in a band of nominal three, I guess. And then Ashley Hatch as the striker. Shaw and Williams were swapping wings throughout. It seemed like a lot of freedom for them. Great to see coffee and Shaw both get to start for the first time.

Yeah, and then Horan defensively was up with hatching like a 4-4-2 and a very aggressive 4-4-2, which, you know, Bells, I kind of disagree with your entertainment value take. Like, I thought it was kind of muddled when we had the ball. There were good moments, and overall, I'm like, fine with it. But where I was most excited was in how aggressive we were pressing and we were just

like getting after China PR and and we didn't stop and we were getting joy out of it and just not really turning that joy into too much actual shooting joy. Yeah, I'm a second great exposition here. I'm not as

I don't feel as good as you bills. That's all I'm saying. Congratulations to both of you on having your own opinions. I good job I so I guess my

position comes from the fact that like I don't know it's like I can see it you can see it you can see where we're building well I don't anyway you can see what we're building

you can see the talent we have and where we are going to and where we are on the way to it's just you know we get if we get a few more ballers

in this lineup then in a a little bit probably well, no. I was going to say a little bit more athleticism, but no,

the athleticism quotas probably stay the same considering that Lynn Williams is one of the ones I would like to take out. But just basically, if you get a few more ballers in there, then we'll really start to see something

really, really get going there. That's all I'm waiting for. Yeah. I did find it strange. It seemed like this was the lineup where we were auditioning. And I wasn't quite sure

what we haven't seen from Lynn Williams up to this point. I was a little surprised that she was starting, honestly. Yeah, because she's a familiar player. She's been around a while. Yeah. I agree with that. I guess part of what Twyla talked about in the run-up to the game is when you do an audition, this is sort of a scuffed classic from Greg way back in the day.

You do an audition You need to have some of the regulars in there To make it an audition that makes sense And I guess I sort of see Sana and Horan Maybe Williams is even in that category for Twyla I don't know So that you get a fair look at coffee and Shaw Who can say?

Who can say? China's lineup was I'm going to do just the last names again Zhu and Goal Gene Lee Yao Wang and Shen across the back line so they were in kind of a 5-4-1 and then Jan, Shen, Hu,

Zhang in the band of four and then Tong and goal a lot of the same starters from the game on Saturday a little bit different shape from China, I think. At least according to Twilil. I wonder if they went to that back five

to try to essentially mirror our line of five that we created in the first game. And that might have made things a little more muddle for us to not, because we didn't, we didn't do nearly as good of a job with that front, front group, sort of like, you know, I set accordioning last go-around and kind of the same thing of like, who needs to drop out of that line to collect a ball, who needs to try to be running in behind, how quickly can we even get into it? That was, I don't think this was even like a Fox bell ringing consequence, but Nice, Wenger and Fox were like, just looked a little muddled

about when Fox could break up into that five, when Nice Wonger needed to drop back into a full three or whether she should sit ahead of the two deepest players and create almost like a two, three, five. So it just looked like a little bit, like there was some individual confusion about who should go where, when. And I don't know if China's shape played into that.

Well, this is somewhat related, but Twyla in the press conference talked about, well, she talked, Let me play the clip because she talked about Corbyn coming on. And then when Corbyn, Albert, came on, they switched from building from a 3-2-5 to building from a 2-3-5. And Twilow is quite proud of this in-game adjustment too. So here we go.

I thought Corbin showed a lot of maturity and poise coming in. She's trained in multiple positions all week, which is not something that we generally ask somebody who's not yet to be capped. But she's capable of doing those things. Excuse me, she does those things for her club. And then we asked her to go in and play a little bit like a six. We built with actually three sixes at one point. So that was something that she hadn't trained and she adjusted very well.

You can see that she can cover a lot of ground and that's going to help us a lot defensively. But she's got a great mind for the game. She's eager to play and combine with other people. And that was very, very encouraging to see. Not a lot of detail there, but I think basically what she's saying is, when Corbyn came on, they switched from a 325 to a 235 in the buildout. She talked in a different part of the press conference about how that led to the foul, you know, the cleat to Corbin's face because Nice-Wonger was getting forward more and more central.

And so she thought that that was gratifying to see. Any other big picture thoughts before we get into the timeline? No. Just going to say again, that press, our press was, I don't know if that's purely like a Twyla thing, if that's Twyla and Emma working together behind the scenes. But there's so much money in that press. Okay.

I guess I would say as far as a big picture thing, they talked to Jaden Shaw after the match. And I think Shannon Box asked Jaden what she needed to like work. She was like, you got a lot of time off. What are you going to work on in the offseason? then like Jaden, Jayden's like, eyes got huge.

And once the question concluded, she was like, well, first of all, I'm taking a rest. But also, she mentioned the fact that, like,

her starting on the wing and coming inside and she, and playing dual tens, as she called it, was new to her. So, you know, I guess I would say

it's time to bring, you know, half-spaced merchants over to the women's side if that's where we're going to be running for the, you know, for the future here.

Yeah, Yeah, she was awesome in the half space, especially in the second half, just getting on the ball repeatedly, creating, what did she create? Like 90% of our danger on the night? It felt like not. Almost everything. Correct. Sorry, Tara. I just, I was saying it felt like it was nonstop creating.

They were in the second half with Jaden. Yeah. And I thought she was actually quite good in the first half, too. There were a couple, like a couple loose touches, but let's play a clip from, before we do the timeline, let's play a clip from Twyla talking about Jaden. She was sort of asked, you know,

she was given the opportunity, as coaches sometimes are after a game where a young player performs well to wax poetic about her and, you know, guarantee her a spot on the Olympic squad. She didn't do any of that, but here's how she handled it.

You know, she has a lot, a lot of talent, and she's capable of doing a lot of different things. She's a very diverse. player. She can do a lot of different types of things. She can play multiple positions. And it's just the time now for her to go back, focus on taking care of herself, and then identifying a few of the areas that we've actually already talked about how she's going to train those things. And she's somebody that should have her sights on the Olympics. But the next step to that is simply to show up at the next camp and give her best. And in order to do that, she's going to have to be well prepared at home. But first, she's got

to rest. She kept quoting Michelle Obama saying, do the next right thing. which is good you know good life advice I think should we go to the time life for half the country bells you know out of half what what it's only it's only a good advice for half the country oh some people can't even take can't even if she said the sky is blue they wouldn't like that

we're gonna leave that alone yeah yeah essentially but um I guess yeah for along to your point bells for anyone that you know that may have been a little bit disappointed by Shaw's performance up until the goal or whatever like that. I saw some rumblings.

Saw some rumblings here and there. Yeah. Like basically, for me, Jaden almost created like every opportunity where, like, China's running back at their goal. You know what I'm saying? Where we like broke their shape and were able to play ball a little bit. Every, damn there every time it happened. It was Jaden Shaw either providing the past, you know what I'm saying, making a

nice touch getting on the carry, something like that. But, you know, everyone knows how I feel about Jaden Shaw. If you listen to Wosso Wednesday. I mean, Roosevelt got some of what to do if she wants to get back in the starting 11. Mm. Mm. You got to show us something. Let's talk about it.

We just put Jaden Shaw in the half space, so Lavelle's got a spot in the midfield, and we can get all of these players in until Malk comes back. Then there's real questions. I don't know. I don't know. And as soon as as as as soon as Cat Macario gives us one vital sign you know what I'm saying?

One heartbeat, a picture of one cleat being put on her foot. You know what I'm saying? My head's gonna go, you know, it's gonna grow the size of, I don't know, eight sons or whatever the hell. It's, I can't wait. I can't wait.

We're about to cook. Yeah, it feels like there's about to be an explosion of creativity in the attack. All right. Second minute. I just want to note that Ashley Hatch, who had a quiet night,

not, not, didn't, I don't think did herself, you guys could disagree with me if you want, but I don't think she moved the needle in the race for number nine minutes. She did do some nice stuff in the holdup early on and looked decently sharp. Yeah, I,

since September camp, Mia and Ashley Hatch have been trading off minutes. It's been pretty equal. I would hope after this last camp of the year that Mia has surpassed Ashley Hatch as this backup number nine. But what do you guys think? They're all so different, I feel like. So Hatch is such a like a scrapper.

And she was doing a solid job of scrapping yesterday. so it's like if that's what you're looking for then she's then she's got a role but it's a huge contrast to Fisle and what the comp showed I actually went through the comp for official and so it's on the Discord if anyone's

wanting to see it all of her touches from the first China game but official is such like a linking player so it's such a she's such a good possession forward one of the things that I thought we were missing was hitting our playmakers in like good spots and over 45 minutes against China. Fissel was so useful in the ball going up to her feet and then her hitting,

her just laying it off really nicely for those players, for our attacking players like in those high value pockets. So getting the ball to Jaden Shaw, getting the ball to Rose Lavelle in really good positions. She was like a little shortcut to do that. So how much is that is Lindsay being moved up a line? I have no idea. Okay.

Just our inability to hit, you know, players in those pockets. Because I'm not going to lie. After, yeah, especially the first half. I think one of the biggest issues with the first half was just the fact that, you know, we all know what Emily Sonna brings and missing Lindsay in that pivot right there. I think that hurt us a little bit. Yeah, and of course, like, Ashley Hatch can't hit Roosevelt in the pocket when Roosevelt is not in the game.

So she was definitely playing with a different personnel group than what Fissel was working with when we were cooking a little bit and Fissel's half. I'm just assuming the next time we see this team, it's going to be for the Gold Cup and Twyla is going to have to eventually start to chisel this roster down a little bit. I would think this probably isn't the last time we see Alex Morgan, Sophia Smith, me official, now getting regularly called up.

I wonder if a decision has been made yet about action and where she stands in the group. Well, that's the other big picture thing, right, is this from this camp is Sophia Smith didn't play winger. Yeah. So that's a real nice takeaway for me for this camp. And yeah, we don't know how permanent thing that is because this is experiment time. But I sure hope that is the trend and that Sophia Smith is a striker for the national team.

Likewise. I don't feel as positively about Fischel as maybe everybody else does. I mean, I thought she did some things well, but I guess I need to see more. I need to see more before I like jump her ahead of anybody else. Including Hatch? I mean, I just don't feel strongly about the two of them.

Okay. Hospital ball from German to Fox at the three-minute mark gives China a bit of purchase down our right flank. Results in two corner kicks, and this is when Emily Fox gets a knock to the head in that aerial duel that Vince foretold five seconds earlier. Yeah. I think it's important to note that, you know, we've already talked to it at length, but this first head injury happened. in the third minute. So she really does play an entire half with maybe a concussion. Yeah, we were too messy with the ball to break China down early, I thought.

But yeah, that press was, the press was real. Eighth minute. I thought we had a nice, this was a really nice sequence, 16-passed sequence. Basically, everybody touches it. Williams receives it between the lines and the right half space. cuts diagonally toward the top of the box, eliminating two defenders. It has a wonderful idea, I think,

to skim a left-footed ball through to Shaw, who's making a run behind the last defender. And it's just cut out. Needed like a yard or two more of bend on it, and it would have been an absolute work of art. But, you know, shoulda coulda woulda. Yeah, there's clearly, like, more of an intent

to play like real incisive soccer. which is it's such a relief it's like so refreshing it doesn't mean that we didn't have several just like hopeful pointless driven balls into the box uh even on the sequence or right after the sequence we had one of those from nice wanger the sequence you're talking about uh but we we got enough we're getting enough incisiveness and insightful attempts for me to feel like they're that this is a real shift and not a mirage yeah progress has been being made. And on top of that, this, this is a very new lineup together. There's not a lot of history there. So I think it's even more telling that the direction is different. Like the

directive is different. We, we are trying out players and they are still able to play a little bit more intentional than a group of players who only played together for many, many games. So all that to say is things we're looking up. When Twyla was asked in the press conference what she told the team at halftime, she basically said, we have to pick up the tempo so we can find Jaden in the pockets and also other players like Lynn Williams. So let me play that clip real quick. Just going into halftime, I just felt like the tempo needed to be much faster.

And some of our best opportunities did come from finding Jaden in the pocket or would have come from finding other people in the pocket if we just move the ball a little bit quicker. And once we get in the pocket, I just want to make sure that we had a threat in behind and a threat in the opposite pocket and make sure that we had with the left side of our field didn't have enough with.

So just really asking them from the run of play to move the ball quicker, especially from left to right as Jaden was playing on the right. And this was the sequence, the 16 past sequence was one of the times where we did move it quickly from left to right. That's why we were able to find Williams. that's why she had an opportunity to make a play there.

I'm just going to continue. What's that? I had to say get the ball to Jaden. Go ahead. I mean, basically, yeah. 14th minute, Shaw receives a floated ball from Davidson on the right side, cuts in, drives at the top of the box, draws a few defenders,

pushes it through for Hatch in behind. This is a well-weighted pass. Hatch kind of gets kind of caught in two minds, whether to make the run or whether she's off. side or not, but she does get to it at the end line and her cutback is cut out. Those last two touches that Jaden made basically to set herself up for the past. Probably could have cut that out. Probably could have released it, you know, a second and a half sooner.

When Ashley was setting up the run, I guess she had basically already made her, you know, her run. And at that point, you know, once the ball didn't come, she was just standing, trying to be off sides. I still think could have did a better job, I guess, being on our front foot there to get on that ball from Shaw. But I guess if for Quibbling here, you know, Jay could have released that a little bit early. I'm marking that down. I'm bringing these receipts when Jay and Shaw is our best player and we got Vince here, Doubtinger.

Incredible. I just noticed, I'm going to skip ahead a little bit, but I just noticed we had good setpiece service. throughout the night from Nicewanger and then Shaw I think Shaw got a couple chances and then Corbyn Albert did and all of them did a good job whipping the ball in from a corner free kick at one point in the 16th minute Williams gets the top of her head to one from Nice Wanger but it's not quite enough yeah got there ahead of the keeper right keepers right there and if you're a keeper you can't just come out like that and not even get close to the ball

It's foreshadowing. Shaw backhealing and trying to meg people down in the right corner. I love to see it. 19th minute coffee curls a pretty good ball, I thought, into Hatch's path. She just can't quite bring it under her spell as she strides into the box. Yeah, it was a good ball. Harn, 19 minute Mark Harram wins it in the press, squares it for Hatch. She has a shot from the edge of the box.

It's tipped over. Actually, a pretty good, like a very good chance. very good chance to score here. Yeah, I was going to jump in earlier when you said that Jaden was 90% of our offense, because she was, of our danger. She was really dangerous. She had great intent. But I did want to come back in and defend the press again because the press was so effective

in getting us good numbers close to the box. And then what I thought was another sort of signature difference between what we saw last night and kind of what we were seen towards the end of the Vlato era was the intent of Everyone around the ball once we want it. Like once we want it, we flooded the box. And so even on that one, Haran gets it and Hatch is in the box and we find her and she holds it for a shot. Jaden Shaw is also arriving in the box too, right? Like we are getting players quickly with real desire to join the attack once we turn them over high.

Awesome. Yeah. 20th minute, Nice Wonger swings the ensuing corner after Hatch's shot has tipped. over the bar and suing corner right in front of the goal mouth. I mean, sails through a foot from the post without anybody attacking it. Lynn Williams somehow gets wrong-footed by the flight of the ball. She's the one who's closest to it. 21st minute, I just love the way Shaw casually brings down a headed clearance off a goal kick

and pushes it into Hatch's path. It's like, it's a quiet little moment in the game, but the quickness and the weight of the past to sort of spring something. something out of nothing. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm feeling pretty good about it. You can see it.

Yeah, you can tell Bells is loving this with the number of timeline items happier, right? Like, he's enjoying this game. And again, to be, to be fair, like, this is all the U.S. So even though this is a strange score line at half time and threw it into the second half,

like we feel in total control of this game, just not creating the number of sitters that we created in the first half of the first game. Yeah. So like with the rest of this sequence, like right, after Jay slides it to Ashley Hatch, Hatch slides it over to Lynn, who is basically like 1V1 at the top of the box,

like left side of the box, and is really like unable to like get a yard to really, I mean, she gets a shot off, but the shots blocked by like her primary defense. vendor. And, you know, it's just something I'm noticing here. Like, like, it's just, you would want a little bit more. You'll want a little bit more from Lynn. And I was going to mention that when Toala said, you know, we didn't have any left-sided width in the first half. I mean, I wonder why that is. Yeah, Lynn, Lynn wastes the, waste the opportunity a little bit here.

22nd minute, Haran slaloms across the top of the area. There's a bunch of buildup before it, But coffee lays it off for coffee. She has one with her left foot from 22 yards. It's very tame right at the keeper. 23rd minute hatch wins it in the counterpress. Spreads it over left to Horan. Heran draws the defenders and slides it over to Williams. To her left for a first-time shot.

This is an excellent chance, I think. Williams tries to curl it far post, but just isn't able to wrap her foot around it. It sails wide, but like I said, this is a good chance. And Williams can bury that shot. We've seen her do it. So, yeah, that's really solid stuff from Lindsay Horan there. Like, that's veteran patience to wait for Williams to get all the way up ahead

and keep the defender sort of pinned on her and then just nice, easy leading pass to set Williams shot up for her. So, again, doing the things right, the press has just been a monster. And we, again, not the clear cut chances that Sophia Smith missed in the first game, but we're getting looks and you can just tell that this game is pretty one-sided. 30 minute mark, a good Shaw chance, good build-up, throwing from Nice Wonger back to Davidson over to Germa and she slides it through the lines to Shaw, another turn from Shaw to leave the defender behind and she's off

and plays Hatch in next to a centerback. Hatch isn't able to get behind the centerback, but she cuts it back for Huran or kind of squares it for Huran across the penalty area. Iran has a good idea for a touch, but kind of gets it caught under her feet, plays it back to Fox. Fox wants to shoot, but it doesn't see the window, so she plays it back to Shaw at the top of the box. She has one first time. It doesn't catch all of it, but, you know, grazes the outside netting on the right side, forces a dive from the keeper. Pretty good shooting chance, I think.

Yeah, wasn't bad. And also, you know, we've seen Lindsay get that right multiple times. You know what I'm saying? First of all, just the body and the shoulder to the defender to completely discard that person. And usually, you know, we've seen her be able to get that turn and shot off before. And that would have just, that would have been beautiful. You know, I've talked about it before. It's the place where I do, where I do absolutely love Lindsay is in the box.

So she'll get that right next time. But, you know, once again, another Jaden Shaw ball. So one of her trademarks, one of those right there, those little, I don't know what you would call that, a reverse pass, right, into space to the spring and attacker. Yeah. Yeah, it's not quite a through ball. Maybe it is a through ball. I don't know. Semantics.

Also, I guess I would say that just when I was watching this, this is something that I guess I dinged Ashley Hatchford in my head, just a little bit. just, you know, just the fact that, like, a more dynamic player maybe would do a little bit more of the initial ball here. She does well to get it to Lindsay in the first place, so I'm not... It's not too big a deal, but I'm just saying. Did it change your opinion seeing Sophia also struggle to get around that centerback once she came on? I'm not trying to defend Ashley Hatch, but I just noticed the same thing from Sophia.

Like, she wouldn't... She wouldn't really get in separation either. You know... I don't know. I don't know. So it's coming off of injury. You know what I'm saying? Fair now.

I'm just here for us connecting three passes in the box that leads to a shot. Like this is... Fair. I know I said it was a little muddled, but when it wasn't muddled, it was... There was some real solid stuff here. I love how you guys can both say you didn't like the first half, and I can say I liked it, but then I get to choose that we talk about the first half for 30 minutes.

So the tyranny of bells. 33 minute mark, a rare but bad Germa giveaway, playing at Crossfield for Nicewanger. But she, you know, classic Naomi Germa fashion recovers well and wins it back on her own immediately. How does she do that? It was a few seconds where she made the mistake without correcting it.

It was just a few minor seconds. Yeah. like two and a half seconds. 34 minute Mark Shaw plays a dime onto Haran's chest, but Haran and Williams kind of collide and tumble over each other. It's a little bit comical, but... I found it entertaining simply because Lindsay Horan needed to be the highest person on the field at all times.

I have a question. Is this Lindsay Huran? Heron's best position for the national team. Please, please answer. Okay, good. We got an answer. From Vince, the other two of you. It's, I'm going to say it depends on the other personnel we've got it available.

So with this group of players that we chose to play, I guess that's equivocating, isn't it? I don't like this as her best position, no. Okay. It gets her into the box, though, more, right, than if she's playing as a part of a double pivot. it. Yeah. But she was still able to do it in Fort Lauderdale, you know what I'm saying? At the same time, because I don't know.

I just, I do like her, you know, in that pivot line, hidden our attackers in the pocket and the way that she can do it, you know, first time, just in the variety of ways that she can hit people in the pocket. I like that. And also, you know, I've talked about this a lot. But I think, especially with her being one of the dual tens, just not as dynamic receiving the ball in the pocket as I would like for her to be. I agree with that.

Yeah, I was going to say something similar. Yeah. Yeah, lots of good ideas, but just not quite as, she's not going to have the same burst that we'll get from some other options. I do want to give her credit. you know, I've been talking about how much of a monster the press was. Haran was part of that. So even though we kind of talk about her, like,

she can be a bit of a liability or, like, a restriction when you're trying to press. At least yesterday, she was not. I think she was a major part of it, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She was doing that thing. And, yeah, that's something I guess I've been thinking about a little bit is just the fact that, like, you know, when you do have a better coach and you do have better structure

and, you know, your team has less distances to cover in specific, and all different types of stuff like that, you know, I think a lot of times we'll be able to we'll be able to get away with playing Lindsay in those, in those deeper positions where maybe, you know, you have to defend counterattacks and whatnot. But if, but if the, if the counterpress is looking nice, like how y'all detailed today, and our initial press is looking right, then maybe we don't see those deficiencies and they're not as glaring as they were, you know, under black coat with, Lindsay. Let's get to the China goal.

It starts with Fox getting beat again, her second time that I noticed, by the same, like down the same part of the field. And she comes sliding in way late, very late challenge to set up a free kick. And on the free kick, it's hit far post for Wang Sichuan, who nods zip back across for Shen Mengu to tap it home from point blank. And I do want to get the Velazquez Zepruder on Miss Kingsbury's performance here. She waved at it. Also, Germa lost Shen.

I don't think there's any Zeproodering necessary. She races off of her line, jumps up and weighs her hand. And she didn't even just, like, mistime it. Like, that ball looks like it's two feet over her outstretched hand. There's just nothing. There's just nothing. There's no real redeeming excuse here. She's just badly, badly misjudges and misplays it.

When people say, when I say she waved at it, it literally looked like she's like saying hello to it as it passes by. Over her. I mean, that's what's killer here is it passes well over her. So she misjudges it so poorly that like she gets four yards off her line. actually pulls a decent offside trap if that's what she's trying to do. But you can't, like,

there's no, yeah, there's no rationalizing this. She just had no business racing off of her line here. Yep, yep. Yeah, I think Casey Murphy saves that easily. Yeah, uh, Miss Katie Lund does too. Just saying, catches that with ease. 6-1

long arms in the air well you know no drama but but anyway good set piece goal from China when it comes down to it and then I mean good in that it technically counts

but we kind of still just skimmed over that they do have a player who's well well offside here wait really it really looked outside is it definitive well I mean I've got it right Now, by the time the player heads it, uh,

you've got, uh, we have one player defending the player heading it, who is definitely deeper than the China's goal score. But we don't have a goalkeeper there anymore. The goalkeeper, our goalkeeper is third to last defense. is our third to last defender. Oh, I see. Yeah.

Sonnet is actually set up now as the, uh, would be the second defender closes the shooter. And the shooter sure looks a step, half a step at least pass. So it's a, it's just a tricky one because you're, if you're not, like, really on your game as an AR, you're clocking the blue jersey when you need two blue jerseys now. Right, right, right. Okay. And it is our third goal we conceded this year.

And at this point, I'm really excited because we have, we have a lot of new players out on the field. It's almost half time. What are we going to do about it? Yeah. Got check time for Twila. I got a shout out, you know, Lynn Williams come under some criticism today on this podcast, but I do want to say she had a nice turn in zone 14, right at the top of the box, right at the end of the half, under pressure, turns at her ideas to find her ran darting in behind the center back, and it almost comes off.

So another almost comes off, nice moment from Lynn Williams. And then the half arrives. Smith comes on for Hatch Midge Purse comes on for Fox Both good subs in my opinion Absolutely Yeah when Tara was talking about how good our bench was Part of how good our bench is is that we were auditioning the other kids

So our real players are sitting there waiting to come in Yeah so I mean like essentially with Twyla talking about the issues in the first half and the width on the left we basically just need a midge purse on the left you know what I'm saying as far as like a 1V1

merchant because you know Emma and her system that's what she's that's what she's going to need we already got you know we got multiple options for the right side and I guess but but it seems like the left side is the

the side where we're using like a traditional attacker to hold the width and so whether it's trend uh Mao when she comes back you know we gotta we're spoiled for choice but we really are we're just looking for

like once we get another one V1 merchant in there on that side that's gonna be and uh son it out of the lineup, we're gonna, it's just gonna be nasty. It's gonna be nasty.

We should talk about sort of best case 11s before we sign off. But 50 minute mark, coffee wins a week Chinese clearance in the attacking third and plays it first time to Shaw. Kind of slaps it over to her with her right in step. Shaw turns and shoots with her left foot from just outside the box, gets deflected right to the keeper. But kind, I mean, it was hard to tell without multiple replay. but it kind of looked like that was headed for the far corner before it got deflected, unfortunately right to the keeper. We're pressing hard, pushing for a decent chance, getting the full Lynn Williams experience,

right around the 53-minute mark. She twice in 30 seconds gets caught on the ball at the top of the box with her back to goal, unable to decide what to do, honestly. she does great stuff with the game in front of her, but she's not great receiving on the half turn. Yeah, it's like we're, you know, a lot of, we're talking down on land, I guess, here. But it's just, like, this would never be a game

that you would think would be a Lynn Williams game in the first place, I guess I would say. Just, you know, D-block, that type of stuff. Yeah. Well, good patient possession. from us. Huran and Nyswanger combined through the middle. Horan tries to measure a ball in behind for Smith.

The keeper comes out on it. 58th minute. We get Trinity Rodman on for Lynn Williams. We're pushing. Purse, roasts the Chinese left back again. Doesn't come to anything, unfortunately, because that little offside scandal between her and Jaden Shaw.

Which I feel like that was wrong, and it felt wrong because they'd allowed the goal, so I feel like they owed us one. But it was some nice disguise over there, and you can see that we've got real Shaw purse fun side potential. Breach. 61st minute. Shaw puts a ball on Smith's chest in the middle of the penalty area.

Smith just can't corral it, really do anything with it. 62nd minute, Shaw gets it in the pocket, turns in place, Smith between the two centerbacks. Smith can't find a shot, lays it off back for Shaw. So it does well to sort of hold up the moment, lays it off for Shaw. And she comes and hits at first time. It looked like another good infirm shot but blocked by an intervening defender.

Yeah. I kind of thought that this finish was basically going to be exactly the same way her goal went if it didn't get deflected with the way it was going. I thought she might have picked out that far corner there. But, you know, a little bit of more foreshadowing for you. I mean, really, inches from having a hat trick, I think. But, you know, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. 63rd minute.

Go USA. And it's Sam Coffee, of all people. On a scrum in the box after a nice, Wongar corner kick, Sonnet and a Chinese player just kind of like, are you going to touch it? No, are you going to, are you going to, are you getting? And then Sonet plays it back to coffee. Coffee reacts quickly, gets her feet set

and then just curls it softly into the top right corner. First U.S. goal for her, a big one in the context of this game. 1-1. You know, goal aside, how are you guys feeling about Sam Coffee? First game, she's gotten significant minutes. Did it sway you anyway? Tara, how are you feeling about Sam Coffee? I want to hear what you feel about Sam Coffee.

coffee first. I think that her I think that her time in the December camp be it just game two I guess but I think it earned her I think it earned her a call up for

the gold cup in February I'm not really confident enough to go further than that but I thought it was the first time we saw her in in a USA jersey where she looked like

she shook off some of the nerves. I still think it's difficult for us to really judge our midfielders when it's Lindsay Horan and Emily Sonnet

as their partners. I just think they take up a lot of space and it's just difficult for me at least. But I've been a big Sam Coffee fan in the NWSL season. I think we've been waiting for her to get

a real tryout and today was it. So I'm curious what you guys think. She was all right. So I'll say she has a real pep in her step after the goal. After the goal, it was like every time the ball came to her, she was, you know, she was taking that thing on the half turn,

looking to pass her forward. It just seems, seemed like as soon as the goal happened, she came alive as far as really starting to try and be proactive in her play. Not that she wasn't necessarily in the first half. And I think some of that was like you alluded to there, Emily Sonna next to her. But I don't know. Sure. Like, I mean, she's earned another call up, as you said, Tara.

I just, and she got a cold, so I mean, come on. I'm not, I'm not, I feel like I'm alone here and not ready to just totally jettison Sonnet either. So, you know, we're talking about it as though like Sonnet would be an anchor dragging down anybody who's auditioning next to her. But I'm kind of in wait and C mode with her as well. And as I've been talking about for most of this, like the press was huge, right, in this game. And we're pressing in like a 4-4-2. So you have Sonet. and coffee responsible for a ton of defensive ground.

Because even though the turnovers often came from the players on the wing, those turnovers don't happen if the midfielders aren't denying easy passes at exactly the right time. So even though they might not be on the screen as much or getting all of the any counting stats, they have to be doing a lot right for that press to work. So for me, I'm not saying Sonnet and Coffee are the key to this and they're irreplaceable in our press based off 70 minutes of doing it.

But I'm also not saying that I'm definitely not saying we should just move on from either one of them. Like I really do think that us working well has a lot to do with how well the midfielders are playing. And so I'm like neither of them getting additional minutes is going to make me too upset based on what we saw in this window. Um, this is, this is a, this is a, this is a fair take. The fair take, great. I'm swimming against this. I know I'm swimming upstream here, but. But I will say every time, uh, every time Emily tried to like break a line with the past,

it was just so wayward that it was like, what, like, what are we doing here? And so that, so that's what's really sticking in my head. She was, she was covering ground. She was, uh, crucial in the, in the counterpress. you know what I'm saying, closing people down and not letting China get out of their half for the most part, but I think there is a potential for improvement there.

And I'm totally with that. So I'm not saying like, you know, Sonnet organized all of this without her or the press falls apart. And we might have another midfielder who can do all the things that she was doing in this game in the press and can also add more incisive passing

to, you know, to move us forward in possession too. I hope we get to see those players try out, and I hope they do it when they get on the field. I'm just saying, in the meantime, I really liked what we saw from the organization of the team against the ball, and so I'm totally fine seeing more of that to see how it can be fine-tuned with more reps.

That's all I'm saying is I'm not ready to put any of those either sonnet or coffee, like, nope, they just aren't there because, you know, they weren't incisive enough with their passing, even if that is a legitimate criticism. I feel like the, I feel like the choices in, well, the question about coffee comes down to, like,

who plays in midfield. And the choices about who plays in midfield are downstream for me from the choices about who plays in that attacking band of five. So, like, we got to get the right mix up there, and then whoever, like, supports and helps that band of five flourish the most. That's who ends up being the midfielders.

I don't know if that makes any sense, but I'm going to leave it in. Here's Twyla talking. Well, Tara, were you going to say something about that? No, I was just saying that does make sense. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Here's Twyla talking about coffee.

Playing the six is a really, really important responsibility. There's a lot that goes into it in both attack end of, defense. I think she's she's been building into that. She's done a good job when we've subbed her in. And I think it was important to give her the opportunity to start and and feel what it feels like to start a game and have those responsibilities when the game is still tight or or the score line is as it was. And that's a really important thing for a player that's developing into a very important role. I think she did a good job tonight. I think the best thing about Sam is She's got a great growth mindset.

She wants to learn. She wants to grow. She's, you cannot work harder than she does. And we're going to have some things tonight that we're going to work on together. And she's going to take an even bigger step, you know, and that's going to be really important. But she did a great job. And it's got to be special to score your first goal, which is pretty fun. She's not overly effusive in her praise of any of the new people.

I guess that's part of the orientation period. You know, you got to earn Twyla's praise. by getting to five caps. But what she did say, though, is that Sam Coffee might be getting a Tim Waya-esque video session, you know, 1V1, Twyla, Twyla and Sam, working on some stuff. So, I mean, that does seem to allude to, you know,

being in the group, so to speak. Bode well for her sticking around, which is something she couldn't do in the Vladkeo era. I think she got one call up and then she was out. So either way. What a bozo, that guy. If I never hear his name again in my life. Unbelievable.

Sorry, Tara, I interrupted. I was done. I was done. Okay. 65th minute, nice from purse to beat her defender again. And she yanks the cross. Like, the final ball was not there for her, but man, she's scintillating. Coming up that right side.

She probably should start. If you know, we need the right width to be somebody, you know, like Midge and attack, then it probably should be Midge. Yeah, I was really impressed with Midge this camp. I've been a Midge fan for a while, but she has struggled with injury a lot this year for club, her country, she clearly didn't make the World Cup squad. She had a bad hip injury that kept her from playing for a while. So that's number one thing to look at while we're going into the off season and, you know, whenever NWSL starts back up again, normally February, March, if Midge can stay healthy, I think she's locked in for the Olympics. I thought it was one of the

best players this entire camp. Yeah, and the final ball was definitely missing, almost like comically missing yesterday. But the approach play was like just comically entertaining. I mean, she was just rinsed people. So, you know, when Bells is talking about start with your front five and work backwards from there, I'm not kidding either about Midge being the width on the right and Shaw being the half space on the right side. like that's a

and with Sophia as a striker you've got three-fifths of your five right there so I would I would take that any day if I'm starting to build a lineup Midge has a false fullback you know like she's not she's a she's a we don't mean Germa doesn't need a fullback over there Correct

It's playing up front Correct Well and Midge is capable too She's not like I mean this isn't like a video game kind of thing where you just say oh let's let's just take like midge can play fullback and do a fine job and we we honestly even when we're playing some of the best teams in the world we aren't going to be stuck in a low block like for 60 minutes in a game we are going to get plenty of attacking space to play or plenty of attacking possession time so um yeah this doesn't to me

feel like a stretch at all i can't wait to talk about the who's in that band of five when we get through the timeline here. A 66 minute mark, a disallowed U.S. goal, and maybe the moment of the match for me. Shaw gets it in that half space, goes to work on two defenders, cuts in, then shifts back wide onto her right foot to lose them both,

and then sets up and hits just a beautiful cross for Haran, puts it right on her head, right in front of the goal. Haran dives and puts it home, but she was pretty clearly offside. Could have time. that run a little better lens that's how I look at it that's right that's right you had to be celebrating during that moment Vince when she when shot was over there dicing those defenders up

um because it kind of looked like she was she was going to lose the ball and then she didn't i don't know if i was or not i probably was not at that moment just because well actually i saw the i was seeing if there was a celebration coming or not you know what i'm saying i don't think i could really see the AR at that moment. And so when Lindsay put her hands up in the air, I was like, ah. But, you know, still beautiful. So beautiful.

I whooped. I whooped when she took that touch with the outside of her right foot. It was like a Chris Berman. Yeah. And it was late. I got a kid sleeping. And I was, I mean, that was incredible. Also notable on this play, while her ran was clearly outside.

Trinity's right behind her on side. all by herself as well. So, I mean, Shaw by herself disorganized the defense to the point where we had two totally free runners in the box, one of whom was definitely on side and would have had to tap in if Herand doesn't lay into it. Not blaming her for doing what she did. I just mean, you know, Shaw opened up that with the time that she spent on the ball, like created enough attention to herself that we got two players in the box for free. and she's got that driven cross, like, real well dialed up, doesn't she?

Like, it's pretty well calibrated. Corbin Albert comes on in the 70th minute for Haran. Olivia Moultrie for Sam Coffey. I'm going to try to go fast here. 72 minute Mark Shaw plays a throughball for Moultry, who kind of breaks off her run and behind. I really wish Olivia would have made that run. 76 minute

We're pushing for a goal And Albert gets a cleat to the face Putting her head through a ball at the edge of the box Looked like it hurt But she was smiling She was smiling and she was getting looked at By the doctor so You know not quite

Not quite an Emily Fox situation In the post game interview She said it was going to be a black eye And she's proud to get it And she's treating it like a souvenir So I loved that That's right I'm a fan

I'm a fan of Corbyn. 79th minute Albert and Germa are talking about their scheme. I don't know what they're talking about exactly, but they both look really smart. Get a nice shot of them. I guess they're sorting out the 325 to the 2-3-5 or something like that.

And then we get the goal, the game winner. Who else but Jaden Shaw? 79th minute. Nice Wanger takes the free kick after the Albert Fowl and the medical treatment. It flies up off the wall over towards Sophia Smith, and she heads it back across the box. It's a really smart choice from her. And Shaw arrives and just snipes it, bottom corner left, through traffic.

No chance for the keeper. Two-one. Huge goal. Something that we've seen her do. in San Diego a few times. She's got that in her pocket. I was thrilled. I thought it was even better than her first goal.

But yeah, all about it. The best finisher in the NWSL, you know what I'm saying? According to some sets. And also, you know, to be able to get this goal, I showed a family up in the stands, getting hype, grew up apparently a block and a half away from the stadium is what I'm hearing.

But they said on the broadcast. Yeah. You love to see it. You know, longtime patron Dmitri Dube put a video of her talking to one of her youth coaches in the coaching and playing channel on the Discord. Did you ever see that, Vince? No.

No, I did not. It's just about how committed she was at such a young age. I mean, she was doing stuff that, you know, I like seven and eight. I mean, she's been at it. she's not new to this she's true to this that's right it's uh

it's pretty interesting to see how just how committed she's been for how long this is no accident what we're seeing right now well US is all over China at this point in the game shot on the turn again picks out another dime for

Smith very similar to the one that you played to Haran Smith doesn't get over it at all, pops it over. It does bring to mind our disagreement a few couple months ago, Tara, about how Smith scores we were saying she doesn't score in a lot of different ways. Yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday.

So that argument didn't come to mind, but I did think when I was watching this, just like how, like, you know, Lindsay took her offside header and then at, seeing soaps and I was just like, it's, you know, one looks pretty comfortable, the other one does not. She just doesn't know,

getting similar to. Right, she doesn't look like, she looks like she doesn't know what to do when the ball's flying at her in the air. A little bit. You guys, this is a tough,

this is a tough chance. Like, the ball's kind of coming over her shoulder. This isn't an easy one where she gets to line it up and then step into it. She has, it's like glancing on the run,

to defend Sophia a little bit. but also just because I defend anyone who's creating good chances. But I love this from Shaw. Like I love the letting it run past her with enough disguise that it kind of slows the defender down a little bit and just lets her get a free run towards the box, free enough that she gets to even like wait and not just deliver that ball at her first opportunity.

But by waiting a beat, she let Sophia Smith get that edge. Like if she plays it too early, there wouldn't be a window to hit it into because the Chinese defender still has. as the positional advantage over herself. But because she waits a little bit, Sophia eliminates that advantage and actually is able to get well behind. And again, Shaw has now set up yet another total free chance,

free runner into the box. So again, despite Vince's misgivings about Jaden Shaw's ability to hit these passes and his doubts about her, I think she's going to be, I feel like by the end of the Gold Cup. She's going to be an ink somewhere in the 11. Has to be. Makes you think. Makes you think.

Alex Morgan is her teammate. Alex Morgan has been playing and training with Jaden Schafe for, what, two years now? She couldn't use any of her suction with the national team to get her a look for the World Cup? It's crazy. It's crazy. You know what I'm saying? I was sitting here as... Look.

It would have cut into some of her buddy's minutes. That's why. If you have Jaden Shaw in there And Jaden Shaw is not ready to be your midfielder yet Then Jaden Shaw is going to be a wide attacker And that means Sophia Smith is now free to play a different position I'm not saying Alex Morgan was over there like Scheming to prevent

Back of the envelope Eleven's Yeah Yeah but Well maybe She should be Never heard of a I'm saying

You know We're bringing We bringing players That they're that they're You know NWSL teams Thrive without You know

To the World Cup For the sake of Veteran leadership It's a little It's a little Jayden Shaw said I got your veteran leadership Right here

How about I lead you with this ball And you put your head on and score a goal Sophia Smith How about that? Yeah 89th minute Got a note, Nice Wonger cutting in and having a rip with her right foot from the top of the box. This was nice.

I thought she was a little bit messy in possession in this game, but I'm still intrigued by her, and she's got a lot of tools. Good in possession. Stop passing it to the defender right in front of you. She was like a paradox for me, because so many times she has like that faint, where she takes the big wind up, like, she's going to drive the ball into the box, but then she doesn't.

she either hits a slip pass or just takes the extra touch and recirculates. So I'm like, oh, this is, you know, when you do that, you've got the connecting mentality. You're trying to, like, sucker the defense into even taking a step or two to prepare for that driven ball onto the box. And then you're like, nope, I'm actually going to do a, you know, more nuanced soccer play. But then also a bunch of times in the game, she just drove the ball in the box.

So I'm just, I'm just hoping we cut down on the number of those. And then I'll be happier with her possession. Baby steps, I guess. Ninety-second minute, great pass from guess who? Sophia Smith, on the half turn. To Rodman between the centerbacks. The ball is perfect. It's not an easy pass.

Good first touch from Trinity. Bad, second and third touches. Takes it a little too wide before she shoots, and the angle is almost impossible. Saved. And the final action of the game is Smith getting a good ball down the channel from Davidson and taking a shot from a tight angle that's deflected again right to the keeper

off the defender's leg. Did you all have any thoughts about Abby Dalkempur and Tiana Davidson split games with Naomi Germa this camp? Is there anybody leading this partner with Naomi race for you all? Greg. I don't have a favorite, and I don't think that I can even like say that there's a clear favorite in the coach's minds. It's just whoever it is is just going to be privileged to be playing next to Naomi

Germa. Yeah. I think for right now I lean Tierna just because she had a really rough time coming back from her ACL injury, but for club, she was looking back to her old self, the final half of the season. I think she's healthy. She looks good. She's a great passer.

but I don't feel too strongly about it right now. I'm about where you are, Tara. I thought I liked Davidson's performance last night quite a bit. There was a nice precision to her distribution. Yeah. I'd also just throw Alana Cook still in that hat, so even if it's Cook. I'm not sure she is. I mean, I'm not sure she is, but like I can definitely see where,

because Tierna and Dalkemp are both coming back from injury, the staff would have just prioritized getting them as many minutes as they could to get as much tape as they could on them. Yeah. Knowing again, knowing what you have with Lana Cook. Vince, no opinion? No. Not a one? Not right now, no.

Need to see more. I have no opinion. So the band of five then, let's talk about that a little bit. If we go purse, Shaw, Smith, Horan. and Rodman. I guess we don't want Lavelle for me. It's Lavelle for me.

I mean, I don't... Lavell instead of Huran? Yeah. Yeah. I think so. And then Robin. And then again, we can just imagine

when we get that heartbeat from Kat when Mal starts training again. Then suddenly there's questions because then again, And basically at that point, no one can be considered safe for a lot. Right. You have an excellent seven players. Plus, Horan kind of sitting there as someone you can stick into that half space.

But yeah, you're cooking a little bit, friends. It's going to be beautiful to see. You just got to get to that point. Well, I can... Go ahead, Tara. I can give some minor vague cat updates. She was not listed on Chelsea's champion league squad, but she can be added in January, which is the timeline that Emma originally gave to when she would like to see her back on the field is January.

So it's coming up next month. We may get signs of life or at least some sort of news, which I'm looking forward to. And we did see Mal in late October playing with Chicago Red Stars. They were terrible this season, so they didn't have a playoff run. So we haven't seen anything yet, but there is some signs of life there as well. What are the drawbacks of Shaw playing the nine? I mean, for me, she's too good at creating. chances. I

think when you watch San Diego Wave, she plays a second striker somewhat regularly and it's great. It's always a pleasure to watch Jaden Shaw, but I think that there is less umph in the attack.

Okay. Yeah, I know she wouldn't be getting the ball in the half space 12 times like she did last night, but I mean, you know, We talked about it before, but she is pretty good at, you know, playing the nine. She's pulled out some very nice striker movements, striker finishes in the NWSL season. So, but, but yeah, Tara's right.

I don't want us here there. I don't want us here there. Give me, yeah, it says, give me that five. Give me Lindsay feeding the five. And then also joining in when, you know, when we're having the jolly up, everything feels good. There's not a ton of threat going out of the way. And we're going to cut. Then you just run a, you just run like a conveyor belt of midfielders next to Heran

in that line behind him to see who settles in. Albert, what did you guys think of her? Tara, the most hateful Albert hater in America. What did you think of her? I'm just kidding. That's a ridiculous thing to say. No. I loved her.

I thought I wish we could have got more, but anytime you can get a Lindsay sub-appearance at 70 minutes is a good thing. Normally, it's not at all. I think I'd like to see her get more minutes in the Gold Cup, and I'm looking forward to watching PSG and continue to be an Albert fan. Oh, and also it's just great that she like wasn't hurt, first of all. Because she came out of that, was that, that Bayern match? Yeah. With what it looked like an injury, number one. And then number two.

I was really nervous for her. Yeah. I was too. And her cat almost got stolen. Exactly. It was a rough week. Exactly. Her cat was lost somewhere in Paris.

Her cat, her cat said her left a window. open and our cat got a very exotic looking cat seemed a very expensive cat you know nice little print on the fur i don't know i don't know what that is i'm not a cat man but uh her her cat was found sometime before this this match so you know i'm just happy that she wasn't worried uh worried worried too long about her fair baby, wow, you know. How many miles is that, y'all? Six thousand? Lots.

Yeah, lots of miles. Six thousand miles away. I know, I know we're trying to wrap up. Twilis said she trained in three positions. I wonder what those were. I mean, different variations of a midfielder, I guess, but. Maybe one of the fullbacks? I'm intrigued.

Yeah, maybe. I was going to say, yeah, I'm not sure exactly, but it is, back to the cat for a second, it does seem like Paris, if you're going to get lost and you're a cat, Paris is a good place to get lost, you know? I mean, it looked like it was. That's a dizzy movie. The aristocats, yeah, little French Marie running around. Might run the ratatooy rat, you know. All right. Anything else, guys?

goalkeeper tryouts January get some goalkeepers in camp that maybe maybe get the kids in bring Fallon over she's getting real minutes

in Manchester United um Katie Lund I would keep Jane Campbell around I'd probably say goodbye to Kingsbury after this

I would probably say goodbye that's a girl world I mean yeah I just I just want to get start adding adding more uh again, more orientation.

So Lund, I don't know, I doubt Fowler would be able to come over from Manchester United during January. But, yeah, bring in Abby Smith, bringing in Katie Lund, the new guard, and just start getting them some minutes in a U.S. shirt. Even if it's, even if they're, I don't even know if we're going to have games in January, but just have them working out with the team. Well, go ahead, Vince. No, I was just saying, yep. But since you threw it to me, I'm just going to go ahead and say it. you know, whenever I have the opportunity to pick the taller keeper, I would do that. And so, yeah, that's why we were out with Katie Lund over here.

And she's nice with her feet, too. Casey Murphy's stellar, isn't she? She might be, but I'm just saying as far as, like, the cohort, Casey Murphy can be. The taller keeper in Kentucky you're rolling with. No, I'm, I'm rolling with Casey Murphy, too. I'm just saying, I want a, I want a nice. you know, imposing, looks good when they get off the bus,

goalkeeper room. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. That's basically Katie, Casey, and Fallon, right? Or trees. Yep. Exciting times.

Taking a little break. Twyla said she's going to go spend some time with her family after she cuts the tape. And so, yeah, the next big thing is the Gold Cup. And thanks for listening. Check out our Patreon. on, links in the show notes. We'll see you.