Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #460: Annual Review — USWNT

Episode Date: December 20, 2023

Best goal for country, best goal for club, player of the year, breakthrough player of the year, best offseason vacation, uncapped player of the year, best retirement, and much more. Greg, Tara, Vince and Belz talk through a year that was a tunnel, in that it sucked but there was also light at the end of it.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. Hey, everybody, it's the last WOSO episode of 2023, so we're going to do an annual review slash awards show. We asked patrons to help us by voting on a few key awards, and we'll get to those. We also have several of our own awards. Probably some new awards will come up over the course of the conversation and be awarded. All of them are very important. Remember that. We've got Tara, Vince, and Greg here.

Tara, how are you? It is an honor to be at the first Women's Scuffie's Award. I'm doing great. You have a really cool lamp in your background, too. I just want that to be headed. Vince, how you doing? I'm doing great, man. Simple as that.

Gregory. Doing all right, man. I want to appreciate Tara actually naming the awards. I feel like, Bells, you've got to work on your award branding. We're going to start these awards. You got to work and get the brand in there. And then I'm excited to take the 2023 women's national team season and probably put it behind us a little bit and look, like,

give these awards out with an eye towards what we can be in 2024. The beauty of sport, isn't it? You can always just look to what you will be next year. Yeah. So there's going to be just to be clear here, there's going to be some positive, there's going to be some negative, there's going to be some celebration and some critique in this annual review. Tara, why don't you kick us off with the first award?

Okay. The first award is a big one. It is the biggest comeback award. And I think we're going to have a lot of people eyeing for this award next year. Not so many people this year. but the award actually goes to Midge Purse. Someone who has dealt with a ton of injuries has been on the bubble for the women's national team throughout different phases of her career. And she just really ended 2023 on a high.

She helped take Gotham from the very worst team in the NWSL to winning the league all within one year. I think she looked really good in the last two camps with the national team. I remain impressed and hopeful for what 2024 brings out in Midge Purse. Oh, capped it all off with that scintillating run and assist in the NWSL final. She's going to do, she's going to be on the New Year's Eve show. Like, you know, where you watch the ball drop, she's going to be on that. And that's great.

Like on the stage? I mean, yeah. They're inviting they're inviting three Gotham players. It's Midge. It's Ali Krieger and Christy Mewis. So if your kids watch that show, you should point out Midge because she's the best. I don't know.

I would guess I would have to say that if Julie Ertz is watching this right now, she is rather chuffed at the selection. by, you know, the committee year. Can you get a comeback award if the coach had to call and beg you to come back? I mean, came back in it? I mean, not by choice. I thought this was like the perfect example of how we are all so ready to put 2023 behind us, that World Cup sort of fiasco.

Like we want to repress it in our memory as deeply as we can, as quickly as we can. And so we're already like, Midge is back, 2024. It's going to be huge. She's going to do great things. And it's already like, sorry, Julie, you don't get this award, even though you literally were in the abyss and were like emerged at the 11th hour and did very well in a World Cup,

the biggest tournament of the, you know, that you could possibly play in. And instead we're already like, now that's done. We got to look to the future. This is crazy. This is crazy. I'm throwing a flag on this. I'm throwing the flag on this. I mean, you know what I'm saying?

Midge going out there looking good against some commies. You know what I'm saying? I mean, you know, we've been beating, we've been beating up commies for a long time here in America. So, you know, I don't know how much credit I can give, Midge. Whereas, you know, Julie came back, played what, every minute? Did she play every minute in the World Cup? Yeah.

Yeah, she did. Yeah. Well, this is setting up, in my mind, this is setting up for Midge to actually, also win the award in 2024 when she takes us through like Olympic glory. Like I feel like she could actually somehow, with this one comeback, extend it through 2024 and end up winning it twice. Okay, okay.

Fair enough. I'm hoping we have a little Mao Swanson, Katerina Bacario vying for this award next year. But if it's Michigan, you know, there's worse things. What's more traumatic to the body? A little bit of injury or a childbirth? You know what I'm saying? I'll let y'all still on that. Do we want to have a live vote here on who should win come back over the year?

Tara, Tara, I appreciate the category, you know? The category is the important thing. I'm thrown off that the very first award, you aren't respecting the winner already. I'm just making the case. I mean, if, you know, you announced it, Tara, Midge won the award. I'm just Kanye coming on stage. You know what I'm saying?

After Taylor Swift wins, letting y'all know that Juilliard's had the greatest comeback of all time. That's all. That's perfect. Look, this is good branding. Controversy is excellent branding. So this is terrific for the scuffies. Scuffies are on fire right now

Yeah I mean right It has to The The truth is Julia Hertz did have the biggest comeback Right? I mean Tara even you would agree No

But respect the award bills Respect the award okay Respect the award There needs to be There needs to be some sort of thought behind Did she come back She expressed to us publicly

That Vlad Coo called her and begged her to return. It was a triumphant return, but did she come back the same way Midge did? I don't think so. Yeah, she was compelled. So this is where we're going to get into the definition of coming back. Midge came back.

Julie was dragged back. So I think if we go to the judges, I think the judges would agree that this is, that the, comeback is midges. So how much, how much dragon do you have to, I mean,

okay, maybe she was dragged back. Julie was still in shape, though. Okay, she was ready to go to be called back within the first place.

Let's get to the next award, y'all. Yeah, let's go. All right. All right. All right, but the canon here is

come back award, Ghost Midge. Yes. Vince has stormed the stage and announced that Julia Earts had the greatest comeback of all time. Okay.

That's all. So in Midge's future is several Ballandors, a time person of the year. And, well, Julie's future is a little more complicated, I guess. Wait, other way around. Yeah. It leads in well. I'm hopeful for the next category. The award for most patriotic, and it goes to Sam Coffee.

We had a lot of anthem talk in the world of the United States. United States women's national team. Some, even on this very podcast. But no matter how you felt about Anthemgate, one thing is for sure, Sam Coffey is a huge fan of hearing the national anthem. Her eyes are shut. She's grateful. She's thinking about freedom.

She gets the award. I think this is without question true. It's a level of enthusiasm for the national team that's almost scary. It's very unusual for an American. It's less unusual in other countries, but we don't need to get into that. We don't want to talk about that, right? Let's not talk about that.

One thing I haven't noticed is, does coffee keep her shirt tucked in during the anthem? I feel like the normal practice was to have it. Like, players back in the day would have it tucked in right until they got out on the field and then untuck it. So I was wondering if coffee was the opposite, where she keeps it untucked, but then as soon as she steps on to the field,

he's like, no, it's business time. We've got to tuck this thing in. No, that bad boy's tucked in. Okay. She wakes up with a shirt tucked in. Okay. Yeah. I have no dissent on this award, but I guess I would like to say that part of my agenda, like, part of the reason why Sam threw me off off the rip was just gib related issues like the tucked in shirt, like being very grateful as the national anthem is playing.

I'm not saying that's a negative per se, but it's like when you put the whole package. together. I don't know. I mean, but but shout out to Sam Coffee. I'm not trying to. No, I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. You brought that up.

So anybody who listens to Vents with authority knows that Sam Coffee's actually very good. She just tucks in her shirt and is super into the national anthem. Yeah. She just gives me fed vibes. I'm not going to lie to you. That's okay. I get it. But I, I am not saying that I am against,

people being reverent during the national anthem. I think you did a little. No, it's just a data point that can be accounted for when assessing one's jib. That's all I'm saying. Anyway, next award. I could totally see Sam Coffey and BJ Callahan breaking a big case from the like Tulsa FBI office, you know? For sure, bro. A whole, you know, show like Fargo or whatever.

Series critically acclaimed. Apple TV. Next award is a negative one, but it's something that needs to be recognized in the aftermath of it. Harshest injury. Yeah, this is an easy one. It is pretty easy, isn't it? What is it, Tara? It is Mal Swanson going down two months before the World Cup, the World Cup, which was going to be Hershey.

case. She was destined for greatness. She went down. And I'm not sure I'll ever forgive Ireland for it. That's probably fair. Yeah. Yeah, she was our best player. Her forgiveness for energy. Go ahead, Greg.

Sorry? Oh, nothing. I was just giving my general thoughts on Ireland. Which were? I just don't think they deserve forgiveness generally. I don't actually know much about Ireland. I just wanted to agree this was absolutely the harshest injury most mysterious injury probably Cat Macario because we all thought like for months she was going to be in a camp and then start playing for Chelsea

and then, or I'm sorry, for Leon and then she just never did and it was heartbreaking in its own way but the harshest definitely the suddenness of it and you know how well she was playing Malin the moment question. Yeah. She was so good. She was so good at the beginning of the year at the end of the last year at the beginning of the year.

She was pretty unstoppable. And yeah. Still the USW&T leader for goals in the calendar year of 2023, which some people look at it and are like, oh, that's such a depressing stat as in like, you know, the fact that our offense was so

anemic that we were not able to to score goals, but at the same time, it's like, Mal had seven goals. She scored seven goals in like the first three months of the year. That's just incredible. I don't think, even if we had a very nice clicking offense, attack, if you will, that

somebody would reach, there's no guarantee that somebody would reach seven goals, even if, you know, we were a well-oiled machine. So, now was definitely going crazy. Somewhere there's an honorable mention for Emily Fox's multiple concussions, what sort of lasting effect that'll have. But, you know, she did not win. Hint, hint, she will be coming up later on, though. Okay.

What's the next award, Tara? Okay. Next one goes to Best Red Card. I love a card. The red cards have been dramatic this year in NWS. So it was a tight race, lots of competition. The votes came down to Trinity Rodman versus North Carolina, Savannah de Mello against O.L. Rain, and Alana Cook versus North Carolina.

Being as Trinity's red card had the worst consequence, it was the final game of her season. They needed a win to make the playoffs. She's the best player on the team. She did not win best red card. she would run away, most likely with the worst red card, but that award does not exist. So all that to say, the best red card of the season award goes to Alana Cook. She denied Caroline from scoring and stoppage time in an already tied game.

O'L Rain got a much-needed point. It all worked out. Congratulations to Alana. Congratulations, Alana. We'll take that. We'll take that. I remember this play. At first, I was thinking that this was an opportunity to, you know, slander Alana Cook a little bit.

But then what's he, as Tara so beautifully laid out, you look into the situation, you look into what's happening. And the fact that, you know, it's either you give up at 1 v1 versus the keeper or you can get, you know, just a free kick from outside the box, which we know, I mean, you know, the chance. chances of scoring are, what, 10%? Probably. Something like that. So, hey, you got to make the play. You got to make the play. Alana made a play that say their team a point.

What a hell of a red card. Congrats. Next category is Coach of the Year. And there are really two nominees, Blocko Ananovsky and Emma Hayes. I mean, is anybody else even in the... You're not going to give Twyla even a chance. Twyla doesn't get a chance.

Three. Twyla. She's undefeated. Twyla also in the mix. I mean, if we want to throw cheeky Natalia strain on there just for being a friend of the pod, you know what I'm saying? Okay.

I give it to Strine then. I'm a little suspicious of Natalia. She recently got another license from U.S. soccer. And in her interview, she seemed like she was good. You know, she was into broadcasting. She's wiping her hands of coaching. And then she popped up in a very talented class. It's the pictures in the discord somewhere,

but it's like the North Carolina guy, who you love Vents. He was in this class, Natalia, a few others. So I'm a little suspicious. She may be under something else. She may not have been 100% forthcoming. Yeah. I mean, you got to keep doors open. She's early in her career.

You got to open every door when you have the chance, when you know the people. I'd like to bring her back and just say, what's going on? Right. Yeah. Yeah, I think it was. The HOOVANWSL team, you know, to kick them tires.

But go ahead, bills. It was last week. She was in class the whole week, I think. Like not the week we're in, but the one before it. So who wins Coach of the Year? Greg. It's Emma Hayes. Emma Hayes is the coach of the year.

As soon as the story broke, she was our coach of the year. It's a ridiculous get. And I know that, you know, we do have the stars on the crest that are like, hey, it's a draw, of course. Like, you get this crop, this pool of incredible talents. You have a ton of resources. It turns out you will make a lot of money if you are an Emma Hayes caliber coach who the U.S. wants to come coach their women's team.

And nevertheless, she is Emma Hayes, so she's the coach of the year for us. She can totally coast on reputation for at least one tournament. I saw some U.S. fans speaking critically of Chelsea's, like, current form. And I could not disagree more. I hope they lose. I hope they keep losing, get her here quicker. I don't care. Sorry me official.

You know, keep losing. I do not care. I want her here as soon as possible. Yeah, yeah. So she definitely needs to lose in the Champions League because it seems like, that's like, the one major push, right, main thing they're going for. So go ahead and get grouped one time for me, Chelsea. You know what I'm saying?

Go ahead and do a, you know, make sure next time, if there is a next time that you play Hacking or whoever that was, just go ahead and lose to them. Don't do it, you know, no tie. They play them like today, don't they? Don't they play Hacking? They do play today. Okay.

Yeah, let me get out of it. Because it'll be easy if Chelsea starts struggling, it'll be easy to just say, oh, well, she's got one foot out of the door that Players know she's, you know, lame duck coach. Like, then you don't have to blame her actual coaching. So you have a great built-in narrative to just say. And Chelsea can just say, this is no longer tenable. Let's just get you on a plane to the states in January.

And we'll make it, we'll go in another direction. That's what we all want, right? Yes. Absolutely. Okay. I can't wait for our press conferences. We want to coach the year to be fired as soon as possible. I can't wait for a press conference.

press conferences. I think those are going to be fun. So I do just want to use this category. I mean, I know we're trying to keep it positive, but it was a World Cup year, and we had our worst World Cup finish in our history. So I am just going to use this time to once more for hopefully the last time,

sort of dump on Vladco a little bit. Just the inability to even look like he's attempting to correct what seemed like very obvious flaws. in our playing style, mainly in our chance creation, where we are obviously going to be a dominant team in a lot of the games we play in any cycle, but you have to be able to look deeper into how we're actually playing

and not just say, oh, well, we won the game 30, so everything was fine. This is a time where it's not unrealistic to say, we need to win 30, but also in an incredibly efficient style for so many of these games. So, you know, people kind of joke about that, the pressure of being the women's national team coach

where people aren't going to be happy with 3-0 wins. But there are plenty of times for this team that it really isn't going to be good enough just to win 3-0. Like, you have to be able to get this team organized and play in a way that's going to be clean, efficient, tidy, and that you believe will translate against the better teams that you're going to play. Because you don't get to play them for very many of those games.

And we just did not see any steps taken, I don't think. towards moving us in that direction. I thought we were just really unprepared for the actual big moment of New Zealand. And I mean, with all, you know, with everything that's came out, I guess, and like, you know, the documentary, all the different things that we've seen,

like with regards to Black Coe and the U.S. Women's National team, Greg, you talked about pressure. It does seem like the pressure got to that man. Yeah. I don't know. And he just, almost like he was paralyzed by it at points. So, you know, good riddens.

Okay. Honestly, he should have probably been disqualified from this category, just based on how he did. Yeah. All right, so the award for most disqualified coach for coach of the year goes to Vlako and Onoski. And I hope he has success in Kansas City I mean he seems like a very decent person He has worked hard like

Again thinking about his background and what he did He's we've worked really hard for women's soccer in Kansas City He's really helped build that program And that scene So I wish him all the best But yeah he was just again It was very clear That he didn't have any

Any ideas of how to get this team playing and clicking Didn't have the minerals Greg as they would say across the pond I'm saying yeah I am ready to get hurt again I will be watching Kansas City Current I love Michelle Cooper please don't hurt her Vladco

Best offseason Yeah this is a nice one Naomi Girmal wins in a landslide She went across the Atlantic She stayed with Katerina Macario In London She went to a few soccer games She went to an Abba themed

restaurant. She went to Spain, went a bit viral online, or as viral as you can go in women's soccer. For a rumor, a rumored move to Arsenal, which brings up

a surprise category, best rumored move to Arsenal. Yes. It's shocking turn of events. We have a new category. And as you might have caught on, Naomi Germa is nominally. for this award. The rumor has legs during the World Cup. Arsenal's coach went on the Men in Blazers podcast and he spoke incredibly highly of Naomi. He alluded to not being able to say too much or else he

would ruin all of Arsenal's scouting secrets. He called her astonishing, phenomenal, a world-class player. It got some life on Twitter from different Arsenal accounts. And just last week, she attended the Arsenal versus Chelsea game. The rumor of her signing in January came back to life.

But in a Moonlight versus La La Land, best picture turn of events, she actually did not win this award. The real winner for best rumored move to Arsenal goes to Emily Fox, who is also rumored to be joining in January. Emily is a free agent, had a great season in North Carolina. Her rumor seems to be a tier above Naomi's in terms of having people talking about it. And I hope, if true, she makes a boatload of money.

Beautiful. Well done. I mean, that took me. That was a true roller coaster. you know with the emily thing um so her so i you guys know i'm an arsenal fan um and i listen to a arsenal specific podcast i listen to called ars vision and one of the dudes on there his name is tim stillman he um you know does a podcast talks about the men's team but also is basically like a beat reporter for the women's team and the like official tweet that like like

like Emily was close to signing with Arsenal came from Tim Stelman, and I'm here to tell y'all, he's a tier one source. So if he is out here tweeting about it, reporting that Emily is on the way to Arsenal, then Emily's on the way to Arsenal. Also, you know, I had heard even when Emily was at racing and getting traded to North Carolina, that she was going to stay at North Carolina for a year.

And she had her site set on other things. Europe wasn't mentioned at that point, but I mean, the fact that she was just not going to settle in North Carolina, I guess, was always in the back of my mind. So, yeah. It's a great move for Emily.

Oh, you know what? Let me ask you to this. What's the deal with ABA? Abba, the band? Yeah, like I understand they're a band, right? But they like still release music. I don't think so. I don't know if they do or not.

I mean, they had like a re-release for the Mamma Mia movies, but I think they're quite old. Okay. Maybe I'm tripping, but I feel like I've seen, like, ABA on, like, some new music lists, and I'm like, hold on, aren't they? But maybe I'm sure. They seem to have some cultural staying power

that is a little hard to put your finger on, but, um. The first CD I am. ever owned Abba's greatest hits. Yeah. But Emily's move to Arsenal. I actually bought an Arsenal women's jersey

this year and I felt a bit like a fraud because I do not care about Arsenal's women's team. But Stella McCartney made the jersey and it's super cute and now I get to be less of a fraud if Emily goes. All right.

And then, uh, so Germa, the Germa rumor doesn't have much legs. Is that the upshot of all this? It was tweeted about by people who seem like actual, you know, journalists, but it hasn't gone anywhere else. But like, um, until I see the Tim Stalman tweet, you know, I am not, I am not moved personally. That's exactly why she lost the award. That's why Emily won. Exactly. Nice thing about Germa is she does not need any additional, like, educating anywhere. Like, she is, like, such a complete player on, like, both directions, offense, defense.

Whereas with some of the others, it's like, oh, yeah, go out and, like, get some, get well-rounded. So I'm all for, I'm all for Emily taking a study abroad time. Whereas with Germa, it's just like, go wherever you want, Naomi. Like, you want to go there and do it and enjoy it. yourself do it. You want to stay state side, stay state side. You were going to be the best defender in the world no matter what.

Yeah, I was feeling like saying something similar. Let's do Uncapped Player of the Year next. This category was voted on by scuffed listeners. It is a scuffie. Vignola,

M.A. Vinyola, Jenna Nysewanger, Corbin Albert, Olivia Moultrie and Jaden Shaw all got caps in the final part of the year so the group of uncapped players shrank quite a bit right there at the 11th hour. Lots of shouts in the voting, but the winner, the clear winner,

is goalkeeper Katie Lund with twice as many nominations as the next person, Sam Stobb, centerback. What did you look at that? I think it's a very surprising win. I do. Why? Are scuffed voters passionate about the Golden Glove Award?

What's going on? Are they angry that Jane Campbell won goalie of the year? So they needed to make up for it elsewhere. Did they hear Vince's passion for tall goalies that aren't Casey Murphy? I'm not sure why Katie Lund would witness award. Not that I'm against it. I was very surprised. Morgan Weaver was ineligible.

She has two caps, just not when it counted. And I did want to shout out the lone, Allie Sittner voter. She had a fantastic season in North Carolina, lots of great goals and won. I can't wait to see GoPro. But yeah, utterly surprised by Katie Lone's win. I voted for Sam Stobb.

But all that to say, I am excited for a new generation of goalies. I am. I mean, the thing about Katie is she's a very good player. She's very good. She's been putting on for, I think this was her second full season. Now, and let me just read, let me just read you some stats. I got these from sponsor of the pod, the one, the soul, the sole, the only sponsor of the scuff podcast, football reference.

com. I went through their NWSL leaderboards Katie Lund number two in saves two behind Jane Campbell number two in save percentage four percentage Behind two

Behind two Behind Jane Campbell Behind Jane Campbell by two Jane Campbell had 91 saves Katie Lund had 89 Save percentage Jane Campbell is number one at 85.2% Katie Lund

81.4% number two. Post shot XG minus goals allowed. Abby Smith number one and plus at plus 8.2. Katie Lund number two at plus six. And also, you know, given that, you know, she was number two and post shot XG minus goals allowed. She was also number two and post shot XG minus goals allowed per 90. All of this is to say.

that Katie Lund is an excellent player. Excellent player. And, and she is pretty good and getting better with her feet. She is, I would actually say she's, I won't say quite good, but she's pretty good. She's pretty good with her feet. And so, and, you know, at the height that I like, you know, Katie's a solid 6-1, 6-foot, rangy, you know what I'm saying?

She's a good player. She's a good player. I probably would have voted for Sarah Gordon myself but you voted for Gordon Greg told me that we I would have but I'm sorry Greg was saying that we need

we need goalkeeper auditions so I'm all for a goalkeeper winning the uncap player of the year award I voted for Fallon Tullis Joyce but I'm not ready to defend that decision she'd be taken over in Manchester yeah I do think it's time to

I feel like the goalkeeper call-ups have been a nerd based for a while now, which to an extent I'm actually fine with. If, like, Neer was the clear number one. But I feel like we may be settled on who the clear number one was a little too early. Again, I don't think that came back to hurt us too much in the World Cup because we didn't concede anything. We didn't concede any shots. But for this cycle, it's very much time to move past the inertia and be like, and just be

open to the idea that some of these newer, younger kids, younger, I mean, Abby Smith is like 29. What's Katie Lund is 26? Like, they might have something and you got to check them out. Yeah. And if you were to compare, you know, Katie Lund stats against like, Aubrey Kingsbury or a listener for that matter, I mean, there's no competition.

There's no competition as it stands currently. So we shall see. I have a genuine question. Where does she stand against Casey Murphy, though? Is Casey a good in club form goalie? I enjoy Casey Murphy. I just am not sure. Let me see here.

First, stats aren't going to blow you away. She doesn't, at least by the stats they're keeping, she's not saving a ton more goals than you would expect her to. Whereas you have a few keepers who are winning you more points with five or six goals a season. Okay. Yeah, right now, post shot XG minus goes aloud. Casey Murphy is at plus 0.8.

Whereas, you know, Katie line number two at six, once again, Abby Smith number one at 8.2. So Casey Murphy's rating out, yeah, about league average, I guess. Well, I don't, I won't, how many teams are there in the end? That'll be so. 12? Below league average. Hmm, interesting.

But I like Casey Murphy as a player, but, yeah. Formates. Yeah. Okay. Let's do, I know Greg's got to go here pretty soon. So let's do, let's do national team goal of the season. And then we'll get, we got, you know, six more awards or so after that. So the women's national team, we have a club goal of the season voted on by scuffed listeners

and a women's national team goal of the season. voted on by listeners The pickings are slim for this one, I think, but Haran's World Cup header against the Netherlands gets the nod, no pun intended. She was angry at Vanadank and she towered to thump home a Rose Lavelle corner kick for our only goal of the Women's World Cup.

That's not true. Whoa. Sorry. Oh yeah, yeah. I just like, I just like, forgot about the Vietnam goals. Yeah. Yeah, that's definitely not true.

It's kind of fair. Because that game felt like a tune-up to the actual rest of the World Cup. And that's just how some games are in the Women's World Cup still. Yeah. And then we got the zero-zero-zero-d draw against Portugal and the zero-zero-dra against Sweden. So, so... It must be about Portugal. Yeah. So anyway, it was dramatic, and it was a number of...

nice goal. Vanadonk, her teammate at Lyon, um, got, you know, tackled her hard. She didn't like it. She pushed, Vanadok pushed her. She pushed Vanadok. She pushed Vanadok. She stormed off. And then she came back for the corner kick. Rosellevill put it in the right spot. She, uh, headed it home. 29 people nominated that as the goal of the year.

Way more than anything else. I'm going to play the audio. 4 a.m. wasn't it? Yeah. Was that one of the early games? Oh. I can't remember. It seems like a fair choice for a goal of the year, but it's not that exciting of a choice. And I guess that just shows it wasn't that exciting of a year.

Yeah. 2023 will go down as the year we famously did not score many goals. It did turn out to be a pretty big issue for us. But I think when I look back at this year, I'll probably remember a listener's penalty kick, which is sad in it of itself. That really is a takeaway, isn't it? Like, we're doing this, we're doing our awards show. And of the U.S. women's national team, like one of the most potent programs in world history. And we're hard pressed to, like, come up with that any of those moments.

there's something to come up off the top of my like that uh Alex Morgan goal that she scored and uh she believes against Canada I think so like a little volume of the box or something the left-footed one yeah yeah that was that was all right uh her only goal of the only goal of the year um the let me think oh yeah any jad and shaw goal you know what I'm saying you can go ahead you can go out throw that in there those are moments for me and you know if we got uh so which one was it where uh jaden hit the chris burman and sent the and sent the cross in was that the one that hit lindsay's head that she was all saying for yeah ran just the hair offside we were close i like the jaden shaw shouts just for

what they represent again because you got we got to put 2023 behind us and and so the jaden shaw goals uh can be that can be that like optimism that's the light at the end of the tunnel. There is so much light at the end of the tunnel, and thanks in large part to Jaden Shaw, and we're going to get to that as the show goes on. I'll just say I dissent on the Horan choice, and I voted for Swanson's Strike versus Japan.

Just a lovely team goal. Huerta finds Morgan's chest from 40 yards in the center circle. Morgan swivels and sends Swanson through. She races by the defender, kind of juggling the ball as she goes, and then slots it coolly. just so illustrative of her quality and dynamism a mere month or so before she went down with the Achilles injury. Good pass from Morgan, too.

Women's National Team goal of the season, Lindsay Horan. Love it. Congrats. Congrats, girl. It was a big goal. All right, let's go to another category. Tara, this is your category. Best retirement.

It's a fascinating category. but best in what sense? Yeah, this was a tough one. I guess that's a little subjective. We had two major retirements and another very big retirement, even though she hadn't been with the national team. In over a year,

it is between Megan Rapino, Julie Ertz, and Ali Krieger. Big goodbyes to make. All three changed women's soccer forever. They fought for equal pay and won. are World Cup and Olympic winners. After consulting the Scuffy's rulebook, though, it does seem like Julie Arts has been disqualified for this award

because it seemed like she was retired, and then Blackcoat called up and begged for her to come back, like we've mentioned. And then she retired on air after the final game at the World Cup, and then she was called in for the farewell game and retired again. It is a technicality. She simply retired too many times to get this award. What?

So it is down to two. And the winner of this award is Megan Rapino. I did call for her retirement to happen a year earlier than it did. But her retirement gave everyone something to celebrate a giant of women's soccer, a very decorated career, and an open roster slot for someone. ready to make their mark on this team and women's soccer. So congratulations to Megan. Yo, so like along with the best comeback, you know what I'm saying,

where you're saying that Julie was forced to come back. Now, well, I guess I was going to say Megan was forced to retire because as I, you know, talked about before, the universe got a way of telling you ass to set the hell down. But I, so I guess she had announced it before she missed the pen and before she tore her Achilles. So that's fine. Megan was taking heed of Tara's calls

for our veterans to step down with grace and, you know, and humility and not require a whole huge, you know, tour of the United States and its territories in, you know, to commemorate the retirement. So, okay. with it. I'm with it. Megan Rapino, best retiree of the year. I hope rehab. I hate the fact that you got to do rehab and retirement. It's so sad. It's terrible. I hate that you got to do rehab

in retirement. But, you know, once you get that Achilles back, you don't got to do anything else explosive for, you know, the rest of your life. I have some qualms with with Rapino's retirement. One, as you mentioned, it came too late. Two, she announced it. in a press conference before a group stage game at the World Cup. I'm not going to give that the best retirement. That's not the best way to handle your retirement. We'll take it to the appeal board. That's fine.

Yeah, I'm taking it to the appeal board, and I want Julie Ertz reintroduced on the ballot. She came back. She played well. She contributed to the team, and then she retired. Best retirement for me is Julie Hertz. I'm sorry.

Next one. everybody. Yeah. Can you do the next one? Yes. Okay. This was hard to fit on the trophy. It's a little wordy. It's hard to make this about the United States women's national team, but we will still try award. And it goes to Emma Hayes for being nominated for FIFA's women's coach of the year. Again, she is up against Barcelona's women's coach and England's national team coach. If Emma wins, we all win, I think. The Barcelona coach is also rumored to be joining the Washington spirit. So that is also about us because we get to look forward to watching Trinity Rodman's career with two highly decorated coaches. So it's not about us, but we are making it that way. And congratulations to Emma.

Oh, it's about us. I mean, the news of the Barsa coach being rumored to come to Washington is very interesting. His name is Honatan Heraldez, I guess. I'm not sure I'm pronouncing that correctly. 32 years old. He's from Galithia. Been managing Barsa since 2021 won the Champions League, of course, in 22, 23. I guess the latest rumor is he's not.

He's going to stick it out at Barsa over the rest of the year. Oh, really? I saw they were offering $500,000 to get him out of his contract. I mean, I don't think anything is, there's no like official statements from either club. But I thought I saw the latest rumor was he was, he wants to finish the season in Catalonia. So this is a welcome development, right? Because like, like I think that the cat's out of the bag now as far as I think, I think the people over here realize. that yes,

that competition is coming from across the pond, you feel me? But at the same time, Big Big Tank Little Bank, you know what I'm saying? We got bigger pockets over here. For whatever reason, you know what I'm saying?

These big clubs have yet to, you know what I'm saying? But like pony up for their women's coaches. And so that can be considered a market inefficiency for the very rich people that we have over here in this very rich country. So,

more of this is probably, going to happen. Michelle Kang is probably, you know, the one owner who's more willing to spend bundles and bundles of money than anyone else. So maybe, you know, we're not just poaching every single top coach. But I think that was having a hard market reset, you know what I'm saying, we saw Maria Sanchez get a huge contract, free agency. I'm sure there are many more to come. that are going to be even higher than Maria Sanchez's contract. Because, you know, we still got women's national team players to sign and all that. So a big part...

Follow the money. Yeah, yeah. A big part of winning this arms race is, you know, putting your money up. So happy to see it. And, and I would hope that Mr. Yonathan can help get trend to that next level, to that next level that we're all anticipating. It just makes me think

you mentioning Michelle Kang, what an interesting lady. We should probably talk about her more immigrated. She should probably win an award. She's done already so much for women's soccer. Best owner? Best owner? Should we create it?

And give it to her right now? And it's unanimous. Congratulations to Michelle Kang. It might be our only unanimous awards so far. Yeah. On the, on the,

on the, on the sporting side, I have some reservations with some things that'll happen. I'll talk to y'all. This has nothing to do with how she's actually running the sporting side of the team,

I guess. But yeah, only the year, Michelle came, that's fine. That's fine. I'm excited to see, to your point about Trin and,

uh, this Barsa coach, it would be, I'm interested to see how Ashley Sanchez develops under a new coach. So the last shot. Kind of. I mean, if we're talking about the national team,

things are getting crowded. Like, this is the way I'm looking at it is. If it don't happen under him, like, when's it going to happen? Which is totally fair. Yeah. Next award? Yes, please, Tara.

You take it away. Okay. This award is for the worst item from 2023. that we wish we could blame on Vladco, but we cannot. All right, that's another wordy one. The award is, an award ceremony is no real time to be contentious, but luckily we can blame a lot of what happened in 2023 on Vladco. So I am happy to announce that the award for worst item from 2023,

that we wish we could blame on Vlachau, but we can't, goes to the oversized pinstriped suits Nike made for us at the World Cup. You cannot blame that on Vlachau. Yeah. So congratulations to Nike in those suits.

Yeah, they had us looking like, I don't know, George Washington in them suits. I can't look at a pinstripe. striped soup anymore. Can't look at it. It wasn't good. And, you know, as, as, you know, when you put an article of clothing on these women,

they're going to make it look as good as it can possibly look. And even then, there was, it was still off. They tried to accessorize it, you know, shades, whatever, cool poses and pictures. It just went. It didn't come off. It didn't come off, unfortunately. Yeah. Which is hard to do.

I mean, is it just. Is it the only thing we can't blame on? on Blocko? Basically everything else. Falker wise, I feel like that kind of falls on the coach, which I think you're alluding to. Yeah.

Is it? Mark Graff also, we should also mention Mark Graff lost her job. She was, you know, at least ostensibly his boss, right? Yeah, goodbye to Kate Mark Graff as well. All right, club goal of the season

by a women's national team player. Contention. The voting was much closer on this one with wide variance, Vide variance in opinion. The buildup on this goal is Mitch Purse burning three defenders, and you can hear the crowd react to each one, even if the commentators do not. Some of you will know what the goal is just based on that,

but here's the audio. Stepping in the two centerbacks into the midfield. And here they come, Gotham. Oh, lovely play by Midge Purs. She has time to pick up with him! If that's Williams' goal in the final, slotted home from the six after Perce single-handedly cut open the reins left side and cut it back deliciously for her teammate, for club and country.

This goal gets the nod here, I think mostly because of Purse's run? I don't really know. Yeah, if it was, if this category was for assist of the year, I think it would make a lot more sense to me. It was a phenomenal job by Midge. But I do not agree with the voters here. But, you know, don't come for me, voters. I do love you.

I just, I think you may have gotten this one wrong. Yeah, I'd argue for Sophia Smith's run and goal against the Washington Spirit on June 23rd. It's just a really, it's the one where she picks it up at half field. Oh, yeah. It beats like four people. and then I think hits it with her left foot. Yeah. I also had that one in my short list.

It was between Alyssa Thompson's goal against Kansas City, Sophia's second hat trick of the season against the spirit, like you said. And with respect to Sydney Leroux's bicycle kick, those were the three that stuck out to me for the season. Okay. Yeah, I think Thompson's goal is a great shot. out. That's the one she, she tinged off the post from a tight angle.

Kind of a no look shot. And it was gorgeous. But, you know, democracy is democracy in it. So, the winner of the club goal of the year for a women's national team player. And this annual review is Lynn Williams. Which hurts. Well, well, it doesn't hurt. But it hurt me at the moment.

watching Lynn scored that goal because, you know what I'm saying? The, for agenda purposes, but anyway, then keep moving. Great job, Mitch. Yeah, I was like, are you a rain fan or what? No. I thought, yeah.

It's a hell of a match, though, in it. It was a good, it was a good final. And purse, you know, to go back to Purse's comeback of the year, you know, that sort of her just cheat-coating her way down that side of the field. Like that is something that we saw for the national team as well. And it was good to see her back and firing on all cylinders. Let's see. Player of the year, you ready for this?

Yes. It wasn't even close. Smith, you know, Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman, Lindsay Horan, Mal Swanson, all got shouts. But it was Naomi Germa. a near flawless player. We conceded only three goals and 18 matches in 2023. Our defense is incredibly good,

and Germa is the anchor of all of that. She really dominates games from the back. We couldn't figure it out in the attack, but one day we will, and we'll be rock solid at the back because of Germa. Congratulations to Naomi Germa, the scuffed women's national team player of the year. Yeah, I love you, Naomi Germa.

Congratulations. All right, before we get to break through player of the year, which will be our last award, let's do most imaginative lineup creation. Tara, are you ready to give this award? Yes, I am. This is a coveted award. It's highly sought after. Established in 1914.

Established in 1914. All three of us are. the same page for the first time all day in awarding McNaulty 21 in the Discord the most imaginative lineup creation award. He toys the line between wonderfully weird and criminal quite often. He kept us hopeful even when Vladko would run out the same nine to ten players for over a year. He kept the Discord fun when there wasn't much fun to be had. And we are all better off because of him and his imaginative lineup creation. So congratulations. Yes. Well done, Ryan. You are a productive guy.

You know, I was talking to bells about this after we recorded the Monday review. But the fact that Ryan is, I mean, he's tracking hundreds of players, players that will never ever sniff you know a national team a NWSL team anything like this man is tracking players playing in like in the in the Cypriot

first division it's it's it's wild but shout out but you know we need everybody has a part to play in this community in it you know what I'm saying yeah he's a sicko sicko

you know yeah and it's not just on the women's side I mean he's very interested in the men's side too yeah if anybody was curious or thinking about joining the discord his lineups alone are worth it

in my opinion they are fun they are fun he'll throw out stuff that like you said when we knew we were going to get the same thing every single camp from Vlako there was just a little bit of joy to be squeezed from the situation and Ryan managed to do it by fantasizing about what a lineup could be.

All right. Final award is the breakthrough player of the year. I think, aka rookie of the year, I think this is important to close with because it is, it's such great news and it's something to look forward to. And despite all the sorrow, despite all the sadness of 2023, it did end with this player breaking through. And it's an emphatic award. It's Jaden Shaw. Believe the hype.

Prepare for her to bring you joy. Wherever she ends up on the field, she will be a difference maker from now on. Congratulations, Jaden Shaw, the breakthrough player of the year. Congratulations. Well-deserved. a joy to watch week in, week out. You know, San Diego Wave isn't that fun to watch, but Jaden makes it, makes it.

So you have to tune in all the time. Yep. throws a little razzle dazzle in there. Yeah. Jayden Chal's the one. She's the one. She has taken that mantle for me, like for me, this is my personal award.

It's just called The One. She has taken the torch from Trinity Robin, and for right now it's Jaden Shaw's. It's Jayden Shaw's. I like it. She's very good. She's extremely good. We've seen it in these, you know, since she's gotten her first call-ups in camp minutes and all a different type of stuff.

You see the quality. You see her ability to. create chances to hold on to the ball, not get the ball away cheaply. You know, just all these things. A complete player. A complete player, a real soccer player. You know what I'm saying? If we ever are to see a, you know, Mal Swanson, Captain Macario, Sophia Smith, Trinity

Rodman, Jaden Shaw link up. I mean, it's going to be one for the ages. Then we went for the ages. So get hype. You know what I'm saying? Jay and Shaw is as good as advertised. And we got more coming too. You know, more players coming.

So looking for 2024 to be, I mean, better than 2023, of course. It's going to be a big year. Big year. Very interesting. And, you know, with the teams that have made it out of Europe to, that will be attending the Olympics with us. You know, I mean, I guess so I guess this goes without saying.

But, you know, we have as good a chance as anyone to win that thing. Even with Emma, you know, coaching Chelsea, if she does happen to coach Chelsea until May or whatever, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We'll be all right. And Twyla, we trust until Emma gets here. If we want to call it Twema, you know what I'm saying?

that's currently doing the coaching right now. But, yeah. Yeah. There was a real, finally felt, you know, maybe it was coincidental that it was after Emma Hayes was announced as a coach, but it did finally feel in those last two games against China at the beginning of the month, beginning of December, that we actually began to turn the page.

The retirement parties had come to an end, finally, and we're playing the kids. kids and some new faces. And so that sets, that sets me up for 2024 with a lot of, a lot more enthusiasm that I would have had if we, you know, ran out the same lineups against China that we did in September and October. Yep. So I'm, I'm, uh, I'm riding high.

I'm ready to go. And then, oh yeah, we're going to be, uh, I guess, best, uh, best planned, uh, trial run at a stadium is, uh, they're going to put grass on the field at Mercedes-Benz and, uh, and Atlanta. U.S. is going to play who on April 6th there? We do not know the opponents yet. The one thing we do know is, though, all of the opponents were at the World Cup. So it's the only thing that they announced.

April, she believes the Cup is back. Like you said, Atlanta's getting grass. It's going to be a good trial run for anybody attending Kupo America in June. You know, we got She Believes in April to get ready. I'm excited. Yep, yep. I plan on being there. You know what I'm saying?

Tickets are, should be going on, should be going on full sale soon. I know the pre-sales happening right now. But, you know, I took a pick of that pre-sell. You know what I'm saying? You can get in there $25, baby. Me too. I might go too.

Yeah. So $25. You guys talking about the April game? Yeah. Yeah. The April game. $25 plus fees, which, which,

which may bring you out to 7560, I don't know. But either way, you know, an affordable event. There's going to be plenty of there. There's no way we're selling out of Mercedes-Benz in the first place. So you should be able to get in for, if you want to even wait a little bit, you should be able to get in for pretty cheap. Pretty cheap.

So we'll see y'all in Atlanta. All right. I think that's it. Thank you to both of you. It's been a pleasure making the Woso Wednesdays together. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.