Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #489: WoSo — Centerback injuries, Hutton shines, and much more

Episode Date: May 15, 2024

Vince, Tara and Belz recap the NWSL action from the weekend, Tara gives her list of centerbacks who she'd like to see called up for June, Cat getting a lot of assists in England in a short period of time, Claire Hutton balling out for the Current in Kansas City, and much more.———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 OTHER LINKSScuffed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAoundrEkZUgZ13IE5XIqrg We’ve streamlined and revamped the merch we’re selling. Check it out: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Scuffed on Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU 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, time to catch up on the U.S. women's national team. I'm doing this mostly for myself. Well, first of all, how's it going, Tara? Super good. How are you? I'm great. Just wonderful.

Vince, how you doing? Equally super. Equally as good. You know what I'm saying? I'm just chilling. The thing that I'm doing mostly for myself is just a refresher on the rough outline of the next couple months. So let me just go through this real quick.

If you're not paying close attention. The women will play South Korea twice at the beginning of June, June 1 and June 5, I think, or maybe June 1 and June 4 in Denver and then in St. Paul. And then, you know, there's like a month, a month in the interim. And then they play against Mexico on July 13th and then against Costa Rica and the final send-off match on July 16th.

then the Olympics group stage starts July 25 against Zambia and Germany and Australia are also in our group at the Olympics in France. So, you know, I think the first thing we've got to do is sort of check in on the possible 18 player roster for that tournament. I guess also the roster for these upcoming games against South Korea because there's going to be some relationship there. We've had some injuries. It's not quite as clean cut as it maybe it seemed right at the end of the shift.

She believes Cup is it? No, I think that we should go into this June roster with the assumption that it's going to look quite a bit different. Or at least it should. I don't think we should be rushing these players back for a June roster, especially some of our defenders. So, yeah, I think we should talk about some of the possibilities, or at least some of the injury checkups that we have. Well, yeah, let's start with centerback because after she believes it looked like the three centerbacks for the Olympics were going to be Tina Davidson, Naomi Germa and Abby Dahl Kemper, right? Right. As of today, none of the three of those has played for at least two weeks, right?

Yeah, as of today, Naomi Germa, Abby Dahl Kemper, and Tiana Davidson are all out with thigh injuries. So a little checkup Naomi Germa and Abby Dahl Kempter They both play for San Diego Wave And their coach Casey Stoney As of recently She came out and said That it likely will not be soon

As of a return So we can consider them out for a June roster I'm going ahead and saying Let's not bring them Let's let's let's I mean, this roster is coming out next week. Yeah. Why rush anyone back to play South Korea?

Sorry, Emma, you're not getting a look at them, but watch some tape. Don't be lazy. You know who Naomi Germa is. Don't be lazy. You're fine. You're fine. Naomi Germa is starting. Abbey doll Kemper is reliable.

You're good. Yep. And then... And then Tiranahna Davidson, she's also... out with a thigh injury, but it was previously labeled as a lower leg injury. Gotham's coach did say it shouldn't be a long one, was a direct quote at the end of April. But the June roster should be coming out next week, as I said, and Tiena hasn't played in a month. So I do not think we should be expecting her to be on it as well.

So, Tiana, rest up again. There goes another one. We have three spots open now. Rest up. Sorry to Emma again. But there we go. It's a damn shame. And then one more centerback that I'm considering injured is Alana Cook.

She's been out with an illness over two games. games now. And I'm adding her to this list because she was replaced on the national team roster after an injury in February, which was the Gold Cup roster. And then she took a while to come back to club after that injury. And then after that injury, she struggled a lot as of late. but I'm adding her to this roster for just that reason. We have all of our centerbacks are injured and we would need to bring in some backups.

You're saying Alana's coming. No. No, I'm saying I'm saying she's injured and all of our centerbacks are injured so we don't have any of our normal backups. Yeah, yeah. When you said add it to this roster,

I was, okay, I decided to clear that up. Yeah, Alana, you know, she's been, she's been playing like she has an illness, you know what I'm saying, typhoid fever, Lyme disease, something's going on. I don't know. Maybe a parasitic host is controlling her body because she is just not just not, just not looking up to snuff. So hopefully, you know, all those high-powered, what type of industry Seattle have, biotech or something? Hopefully, you know, they can figure it out. airplanes, space needle, you know what I'm saying? A lot of smart people in Seattle. Hopefully somebody can figure out what the hell is going on because it has been, it's been paranormal her activity so far this season. But also she's been out with a mysterious illness, illness.

So I doubt she'll be considered a backup. Yeah. So that leaves us, I guess we got Eva Gaetino, Eva Gaetino. Okay. Coming in, right? Yeah, I believe so. She was invited as she believes, but she did not play.

I think it's safe to assume she'll be invited to fill one of those spots. But it's just one of those spots. We have many more to fill. I have a list of who I think should fill the other spots. I think you should go ahead and give us the list. Yes, yeah. Let's hear that list. Without further ado.

But I want to add, I want to add some conducts. But because we need to fill, we need to fill the starting spots. But we also need to have some people in the bench to have some competition for those starting spots. So I would like to bring in Sarah Gordon from Angel City. I would like to bring in Sam Stobb from Chicago, Red Stars. I'd like to bring in Savvy King, who is a fullback and a centerback. She's played both for Bay, FC. And I'd like to bring in Malia Berkeley from North Carolina Courage.

And then, with all due respect, I would like to not bring in Becky Sauerbara. That's totally fair. All due respect to the God. All due respect. I think we need to test players. Because even if everybody makes a miraculous full recovery, which I pray that they do, we will need some alternates for the Olympics. And one of these players may have to be an alternate because our centerbacks are getting consistently hurt. There, I'm done. You guys go ahead.

So I want to add an extra entrant onto Tara's list. I mean, you know, Tara's approval, you know, if I can get your approval for this, then we can add her on to this. We haven't talked about this previously. But I did watch me a little Gabrielle Robinson, Kansas City current center back, left center back. I was quite impressed by her exploits this past week, I guess in North Carolina courage. So I would humbly, humbly request that, you know, we can get your conditional approval on this. is there approved and let me tell you i was repossed by gabby robinson last season but i've been so impressed by her this season she's she's been cooking she's been doing a little something something

yeah um yeah yeah like out of all the i don't have time to watch all the potential you know try out centerbacks uh but but just just real quick quick uh quick note on malia berkeley her ex-boy her ex-boyfriend was at our tailgate in Hartford. I don't know if y'all remember this. Really? I don't remember much from that tailgate. Yeah. I remember everything perfectly.

If y'all remember that group of like young dudes that like didn't even know who we were, but they were like, can we just party with y'all? And we were like, yeah. Oh, I do remember that guy. Yeah, yeah. I do remember that guy. Yeah, Malia Berkeley's ex-boyfriend. He was.

Wow. And this was before she was in the picture. You know what I'm saying? And he was like, oh, yeah, Malibirri. And that's really because, truly, to be honest with y'all, I don't pay too much attention to any non-USWNT radar player that doesn't like just catch my eye. You know what I'm saying? I wasn't watching.

I was watching the current, right? But I was watching, you know, O'Sullivan, Meera, and them get down in the midfield, wouldn't paying too much attention to the centerbacks, blah, blah. And so that that, that, that. I put her on my radar for me, funny, funnily enough. But,

yeah, she's been cooking, she's been cooking this season. So we can get, we can get a little scuff tie in something. It seems like they're on good terms. You know, she still follows on my Instagram.

Yeah, I'm saying. I'll leave that subject alone now, but I just had to, I had to bring that up. No, I did. That's awesome.

Hopefully he comes to another tailgate soon. You know, the, the, The due respect to Becky Sowerbun, I just want to sort of make explicit why I don't want her there, why I agree with you, is because she got absolutely dragged by Mexico at that Gold Cup,

which I guess, of course, you two remember, but I don't know if everybody remembers it, but it was, I don't know, like watching your dad get beat up in a parking lot at a gas station or something. Oh, man. Yeah. It was hard. It was something like that.

It was something like that. And also, if you've been watching the thorns, you know what I'm saying? She hasn't been covering herself in glory necessarily over there either. That entire back line's been very shaky. And I just don't think this is the time to, if we're trying out new centerbacks, I don't think we need to protect them. I think we need to throw them in the deep end because, We need to act as if they're going to the Olympics.

Like it's a big deal. They don't need to be paired up with this senior legend. They need to, you know, act like this is a very, very big deal. This is your ship. Deal with it. Figure it out. And yeah, I want them to be challenged. And I think that that's how they need to go into these.

games and it wouldn't be like that if it's okay and this is this is becky's backline and follow her lead and follow her leadership and and things like that so i mean i would contend that that would still be a challenge you know see but you know it might be in deeper deep end you know how this team acts with things like that yeah right of course of course um you know on that On that front, I've been thinking a lot about this with my U8 team because we have one player who's like head and shoulders better than everybody else on the team. Just a little older, a little more aggressive and everything. And it causes all the other players to sort of back off, you know,

and defer to him, even though they shouldn't, you know. They're all good players themselves. And I wonder how much did that happen at the last World Cup? people just people not fully expressing themselves out there because because of all the legends you know trotting around i mean big dogs yeah i think the big dogs do got something to do with it uh black co you know we're saying we can't we can't let his exploits with the current overshadow his uh i don't want i don't i don't want to use the term terrorism because i feel like that's gotten played out by the football community.

But, uh, yeah, his, his, uh, the BS that he was doing. Okay. I'll just, I just put it like that. And also, before we move on real quick, I just want to, uh, recap either Gotino's game that she played this past week, uh, against Paris. Please. Paris SG, you know what I'm saying? Which is a, which is one of the games in, uh, the Wii Wii Feminine that matters for, for PSG.

You know, you got, got Leon. Got Paris SG. Paris FC, right? Is it FC? Yeah. Yeah, I think it is FC. I'm tripping. So.

Well, hold on. It's the first time it is like going into the tournament, right? It's their first tournament since like 2004. Paris? No, like the French final. It's the semi-final. Oh. Is that what they're doing?

Yeah. Oh, instead of just a straight up table race, they're having a little playoff at the end. See, Bells, this is our, you know, resident Euro snobb. You're supposed to be on top of this. Sorry. But yeah, they got a, they tied two-two PSG and Paris FC. Eva was, she was, she was okay. She was okay.

There were multiple times where she was kind of ISOed 1V1, and she did not handle... That first goal. That first goal was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. She didn't handle, like, a lot of her situations in the assured way that you would hope for a person who might be tasked with leading the back line, who probably will be, you know what I'm saying, just based on the injuries and everything. She didn't handle her situations in the assured way that you would want. for sure.

On the ball, you know, she still shows things on the ball. Left foot, right foot passes into the amoeba. Can spray it. All a different type of stuff. But mostly 1V1 and, you know, let me let me let you all into another football term, you know, through the Monday review through the West of Wednesday, I've been letting the listeners into a little inside baseball, even when bringing nothing to the party, you know.

she was showing up, she was challenging, you know, when like a forward pass comes, and especially in the back three, you got the, you got the freedom to step up, challenge the ball receiver, be on their back, you know, and I don't think, I don't think evil was bringing enough, you know what I'm saying, it wasn't like a collision. She was kind of slowing up before she got there, a little, a little soft with it, a little soft with it, you know what I'm saying? And it's definitely not befitting of the merger of two iconic brands the way PSG and I thought you were going to bring that out.

In Notre Dame. You know what I'm saying? Going to Notre Dame, you should be familiar. Should be familiar. A football powerhouse such as that. You know what I'm saying? You got to bring something to the party. There was no, it was not enough physicality there for me.

And because of that, you know, she was getting run at. She was getting, some of them she was holding on by the hair of her chinny chin, you know what I'm saying? Sometimes she was just let off by pure variance. and other times It sounds like she also got punished Yeah yeah And other times she got punished I mean

She got She got really punished In that first goal It was bad Yeah It was really bad It actually seems like a positive thing Though

For the national team With the Olympics You know Coming up To be able to get some auditions For some centerbacks So hopefully we do that I know people have been talking

About Sam Stob for a while and Sarah Gordon. We don't have a choice, but to get some auditions. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And hopefully, you know, hopefully Germa, Davidson, and Dawkins are all, you know, steadily move back toward health. We got to talk about another big injury,

and that is Jaden Shaw, of course. We don't know, I guess we don't know how bad it is, but sounds like it's an ankle. Yeah. Yeah. So in this game, let me... This game being the game over the weekend, right? Yeah, San Diego Waves game over the weekend.

Jaden got injured around the 91st minute, and it happened on a corner kick. She briefly went down, but she got right back up and started jogging on her, on her... She started jogging. I was going to say on her ankle, but that's pretty obvious. and it looked like something was bothering her, but not to a huge extent. And about a minute into it, she went down and she got subbed. But she limped off on her own. And Vince and I spoke a little bit about this last episode.

But Jadens in a new phase of her career. And I thought about this when she got subbed about kind of the new wear and tear. for lack of a better term, on her body, because this was the first week that Jaden went 90 in her, this year, in her club. So I was curious if it was the extra minutes because she had a midweek game and it was the first time she went 90.

She was on her entry and playing golf this week. Okay. All right. That's good. Out of all of the injuries this week, it did seem like the least serious to me. Let's go. Let's go. But I do, out of the celebrations, I would not be upset if she's not on the roster. I think we should remain cautious.

I mean, this is, we shouldn't be rushing anybody back for a South Korea-friendly. Fair to say? Yeah, fair enough. Yeah, yeah, I'll take it. But if, you know, if Emma wants to, you know, just bring her in, have her around, you know what I'm saying, get some of that, some of that Emma Hayes aura, rub it off on the Jane Shilab. I'll take that. I'll take that.

But I'm very happy that you, Tara, that you have an Instagram account and that you'll be using it. You know what I'm saying? I have an account, but I don't really use it. I don't follow any players. But yeah, the fact that, you know, some golf was, some golf was being done. Did you see the lower extremities? There was no boot? We can confirm no boot.

No, I could not confirm. I could not confirm that. She was with, I believe, her brothers. Okay, okay. Men from Texas, for sure, men from Texas. And, yeah, I just wanted to check in on Jaden. No word from San Diego. yet.

But yeah, I will keep you guys in the loop on that. I want to, I want to roll through the other injuries. I'll be real quick, though. Okay, okay. Alex Morgan remains out with an ankle injury. No word on a timeline there. And the other big one is Alyssa Neyer got injured over the weekend in Chicago's game against Utah.

She tried to be Ali Sittner to a ball and some sort of an. injury happened and she was subbed out immediately. She looked in pain. No update from Chicago yet, but no reason to rush her back. Yeah. So maybe we'll get some genuine auditioning at goalkeeper too. I was, the only thing I wanted to say about Shaw is, you know, if she's not in this camp, I imagine we'll see more of Rose LaVelle than.

I think we expected maybe after she believes. Like she, what's the, what's your guys' read on? Maybe you talked about her last week, last time you got together when I wasn't here, but Rose, you know,

to the pod, to me like she's, I never did. I'm sorry. That's crazy. Rose, Rose, um,

has been playing better, it seems to me lately. A rose, rose is not yet gotten a start. So I think it would be outlandish to bring her. Better. So she's getting minutes, but I think to bring you into a national team camp, you should get a start. Even if you're Roosevelt.

Yeah. I mean, she'll probably be there. That's not. She'll probably be there and playing based on, you know, we got the human element involved. And from what we know, Emma is a big fan. I mean, Kat didn't come back until she had. over 150 minutes. True. That's fair.

That's fair. But Rose is like playing and she didn't, you know, she's not coming off a major major injury or whatever. You know, she played in the She Belize Cup and was out for like two weeks total and then like ended up you know, coming back for Gotham or whatever. So I don't know.

I think she'll probably be there. If I had to guess. But I... I thought I saw a little bit of her brightness and invention back in the most recent. And she was like, I don't know. She was okay, but she played a half.

She played 45 minutes. Yeah, I know how many minutes she played. I'm just talking about how she played. Yeah, I don't know. I saw a whole bunch of, it looked like the same. It looked like the same Roosevelt. I don't know, man. I don't know.

Yeah, I'm not going to die on that hill for sure. It might be over. I don't know. I'm just throwing that out there. But I don't know, man. I have not seen the same Roosevelt. And, you know, listeners will know I was on the train after that NWSL final performance. After she picked the entire rain team up after the catastrophic injury, you know what I'm saying?

I happened to Megan early in the game. And she put the squad on her back and really should have created two goals. You know what I'm saying? That should have, that game should have winning the extra time. Discorders will remember I got so much flack. about Roselphel from Vince. Do you remember that? Probably.

Probably, I flipped. I flipped 180. Seeing her do these, he's pointless-ass stepovers in the box in the gold cup and pass the ball backwards, radicalize me. Yeah. Could radicalize anybody seeing that, you know?

So, let's do some other NWSL stuff. I guess, you know, opinions are split on, how good Roosevelt was, but let's, let me play a clip from a player I think who everybody agrees was pretty good over the weekend. Watch this.

Listen to this. Sanchez has it taken away by the teenager, Clear Hutton, 18 years old out of Bethlehem, New York, keeping it moving forward for Kansas City. Shawinga, back to Hutton. Hutton, edge of the area. Shawinga! A follow-off! There's a goal!

So DeBi ni gets the goal, but that's all Claire Hutton and Chowinger in the buildup. You guys have both seen the clip, I assume. Hutton buries Ashley Sanchez takes the ball and then combines with Chowinga for the next 60 yards before Chowinger takes a shot that is just pawed wide. And Debenia taps it in from close range. Oh, yeah. Hutton's pretty good. Huh? And this was such a development for Kansas City.

Like Kansas City has been getting these huge score lines, but letting a lot of goals in for Kansas City to keep North Carolina to no goals. And a one-nothing game, huge. And for Claire to be doing, you know, all of the work there, such a big development. in her game, in her defensive work, it was a big deal. For me, for the team, I loved it. I mean, she's a true single pivot midfielder and dominating.

I mean, you wouldn't know this because you didn't listen. But Vince and I talked last episode about we're going to have to go to Vladko a lot of credit when she adds this next step to her game. and it looks like she's adding it already. You mean getting into the attack? Mm-hmm. Well, yeah. Getting into the attack and just being overall,

more progressive with her just general actions. But yeah, man, it's just another, she just keeps adding stuff on and she gets more and more comfortable. You could tell in this match, she's really starting to find herself, really starting to feel herself just because of, you know,

I almost feel like we've become, I don't know, parodies of ourselves. Like me and Bell specifically, just because we talk about, we talk about a midfielder's ability to play on the half turn so much, you know, and I feel like it's almost becoming like a joke or something. They're like, oh, people are just like, oh, the half turn, the half turn. We all shut up about the half turn? It's very important.

It's very important. It's not a joke to me. The joke is people who don't understand how important it is. Like, I mean, if you, that's the joke. If you want to have any hope of progressing the ball through the middle of the pitch, you got to have players that feel comfortable receiving the ball and just turning around. I've been one of my best friends was in town this week, and we watched a few games of soccer together.

And I was just yelling. I was just showing him. Every time, like, somebody received the ball in the pocket and, like, didn't turn around, like a pocket of space where you could see, hey, you know, this is a prime opportunity for you. There's nobody coming up on your back, anything like that. I was just pointed out every time. I was like, bro, they got a turn. They got a turn.

I got a turn. This is a man that isn't like a well-versed in soccer. But anyway, I bring this up to say that Claire was properly scanning, properly understanding her surroundings, receiving the ball, and turning it around a few times. You know? And receiving it with that back foot, letting it ride a little bit. Yeah, and it's a welcome development to see her do this. Also, she had a very nice turn where she left, I want to say it was O'Sullivan in the dust. No, she did.

I remember that one. She had a nice little O'Sullivan turn. Yep. Left O'Sullivan in the dust and carried it to the top of the box where she basically squared it over for Chowinger, I want to say. And then it became like a nice little time. And that is a major deal. Denise O'Sullivan is a fantastic player. Fantastic player.

And Claire was given her and Ashley the Blues for the most part. You know what I'm saying? I brought this up in one of the soccer chats. I mean, and somebody had told me that Ashley was giving Claire the blues in the first half, which Ashley Sanchez did have a good first half. she created like three she was created slash involved in three or four uh semi dangerous chances for the for the courage um only really only one of them involved claire uh she she got she got clear with a nice little dribble at the top of the box um before losing the ball uh once the second person came over

but um yeah claire well basically what i'm saying is claire was given to ashley a lot more than Ashley gave Claire, especially in that second half. It was one point where Ashley, it was like out on the right wing. Ashley had the ball. Claire came over, took it, and then, you know, the courage of trying to counterpress. So Claire tries to pass it out. It gets deflected by Ashley. Ashley gets the ball back.

Claire says, give me that right back. Took it again. You know what I'm saying? She's showing up, the counterpress with bad intentions. she's starting to play offensively starting to be more progressive offensively you know what I'm saying

created this goal here winning the ball off Ashley and and just one more thing before I get done just defensively we talked about our exploits in the counterpress how good she is there

but also even in like the regular base shape the way that she like functions within their midfield and understand how to take away passing lanes, how to identify danger, all these different types things. Because, you know, like there was one instance where, I think it might have been Ashley, but there was somebody in the pocket, like, behind her. She turns around was going to, was going to come towards the pocket to take that one away. She realizes that one of her

midfield partners was already there taking that away. So, so what does she do? Another football turn for y'all. Claire went and she found work. she found work. Sometimes when you're blocking, right, something happens that takes away your assignment. Like, let's say they run some type of funky blitz, where somebody blitz is away and they're just out of the play. You know what I'm saying?

What you got to do? You got to find work. You can't just stand around. I love that. Find somebody else to block. You know what I'm saying? And so that's what Claire was doing. So, but basically once I went away,

she went and pressured the person with the ball and won it. It's beautiful to see. Beautiful to see. What a player. What a player here. And this, this to me was always going to be one of Kansas City's most difficult games just based off of styles. Of course. And, I mean, Claire was MPP.

I don't care that DeBina, Tabina got the goal. Claire did all the dirty work, and it really paid off. I mean, she, she's developing into a really, really important midfielder for the league. league for, you know, the future of our national team, I believe. Yeah, for sure. Just real quick, while we're still on this game. Still only 18 years old, right? Yeah.

Yeah, but before we leave this game, just to get back on this, Gabby Robinson, right? Left centerback, before the current. I have seen, just like in our Discord, NWSL chat, and on Twitter, I've seen, you know, there's a ground swell. There's a ground swell for Gabby. You know what I'm saying? She's been playing very well in that current back line.

And so I decided to check her out real quick. Just about I locked myself in my room for 10 minutes while my daughter's were out there this morning, offended for themselves. And I decided to turn the turn her clips on our watch out real quick. And I was impressed by what I saw. First thing, very comfortable on the ball. maybe even too much. You know what I'm saying?

She likes to take an adventure. She likes to carry it. I think she lost it every single time that she carried it into the teeth of the courage defense. But a lot of times it didn't come, like it never became like a thing or they never had like a huge chance off of it.

But the reason why I bring this up as a potential positive is just because you can see that she's comfortable doing it. I don't know if she's good doing it, but she's comfortable with the ball at her feet. You know what I'm saying? And it wasn't because of like a bad touch or anything that she lost the ball. It was just like she was going with no plan, you know, to the point where she just like, I think, ran into a courage midfielder with the ball. You know what I'm saying?

Like her touch and everything and her ability to do it is there. Next, her ability to spray the ball. I mean, long balls all over the place. Boom. You know, mostly with her right foot. She plays left center back. she seems to me to be pretty right-footed. She pulls the left foot out occasionally.

But, yeah, switches over to the right side. You know, long balls, you know, through the middle that were, I mean, pinpoint every time. Beautiful to see there. Strong in the air. She is listed at 5'8, which gives me a little bit of pause. You know, I like them tall. I like them tall. But, you know, we're crying about Abby Doggap or not being available.

and she's, I think she's shorter than Gabby. So decent in the air, decent and individual duels also just gave, I mean, one time in the second half, just completely ate Ashley Sanchez up. Now, I mean, this isn't totally her game, like Ashley Sanchez being in an open space necessarily. She's not like a paste merchant or anything like that. But Gabby just slid over and just, you talk about bringing something to the party and just handling your business.

I mean, it was, it was definitive. There. And so, yeah, I'm, I'm with it. I'm with it. She's 22 years old. You know what I'm saying? Still the second year in the league has, I mean, a ton of experience at this point, you know, started all last season and is under, you know, the greatest developmental coach that we've ever seen on these shores in Vlako and Donovsky. So we'll see. All hell of Vlako. We'll see how that works. We'll see how it works out. We'll see if she gets to call in. But that was, she called my eyes.

She called my eyes. She's a good player. She's a good player. She's a good player. She's doing really well. Is there any chance she gets called up? She's doing really well. No clue.

I mean, yeah. Yeah, I mean, this really will tell us how Emma rates, you know, the rest of the pool. Who even knows if Emma is going to be doing the, the, of the selection here just because of the fact that Chelsea's WSL title hopes have been revitalized by Manchester City tricking a 2-0 lead with like 10 minutes left? So let me tell you real quick. Everybody on my little invitee list

was on the preliminary roster for She Belize. Okay, okay. All right, fair enough, fair enough. Yeah, yeah. Can I say one more thing about this game? You can say whatever you want. Well, thank you. The courage have, you know, it's a big game,

big win for the current because it was basically a six-pointer. The courage, even though they've lost three straight, one of the better teams in the league. So anyway, big win for the current, huge result. The courage of lost three straight, Riley Jackson playing a minimal role, I would say, for them. She did not play in this game after getting cameos in the previous two. In both of those, she was on late to chase a deficit.

Massive potential, and I'm going to keep watching her, but I don't know that she's making that big of a statement at the moment. Mostly tidy and smart on the ball. I think watching her against the ball maybe looks a little bit sluggish. She has a strong will, and she's pretty smart about when she goes in on a tackle, but still maybe trying to get calibrated to the speed of the game, seems to me. And then she did get bodied by Rose LaVelle 10 days ago at Gotham, which is part of my assessment here. So I did watch Riley, I think right after I watched Claire. And, yeah, I agree.

I agree. It does seem to, she's a good ball player, right? But yeah, the athleticism it's going to need a little bit of time to come around, I think. She's even younger than Claire.

Yes. So, you know, she's got, she's got time to grow into that. She's a big frame, too. Yes. So, but I don't know, what's the name of the character in Despicable Me?

Who kind of hunches over a little bit? Gru. Yeah. She runs a little. little bit like grew sometimes. Yeah. Kind of like, I thought that would get more of a laugh than it did. I love the way she plays, though.

I just, yeah, yeah, a little bit, just like a half beat late on some of her challenges. What else do we need to cover in NWSL? I would like to start, I mean, I'll go real quick. I'd like to start with the racing spirit game. Racing Lost to Spirit. two to one. We had goals from Sav de Mello and Croy Bacoon.

I have a personal plea to Savannah de Mello and I'd like your thoughts, Vince. But I'd like immunity. So please, please don't not be my friend anymore. So I think I agree with you. I think I know where you're going, but go ahead.

Okay. I understand why she doesn't do it, because it clearly gets racing Louisville goals. So maybe she has to leave or something. But I want her to stop looking for foul so much. And I want her to stop falling so much. What do we have to do to get her to do that? Yeah.

So, I mean, this is, at this point, it's like the feature of her game. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know what I'm saying? She doesn't, she's not like a great passer of the ball. She doesn't... I can tell you, I feel pretty confident in saying she's not coming back to the national team if you're watching tape and all she's doing is falling in the box.

Yeah, that's probably pretty fair. I mean, like I said, she needs to work on these other phases of her game, you know what I'm saying? And she's not going to be able to do it if she, A, never releases the ball in the first place to even get these reps passing. you know what I'm saying and if she's always hunting for fouls which yeah yeah I totally agree and it causes her to get injured

like she took a very nasty concussion at God I thought her head was going to fall off yeah yeah like at Gotham where the trainer comes out because at first they had they had the initial check right and I guess she passed that

which you know we've talked about this before with Emily Fox and all that these initial checks do not seem to be working plainly. But, um, so they, they had the initial check. Saf passed that. And then once again, she's still just trying to carry the ball through 11 people, carry it through 11 people, uh, continues to get filed and get, it just get debowed, you know what I'm saying, get hit thrown to the ground. And by the time,

you know, the trainer comes out the second time for when she eventually comes out the game, old girl comes out and Sav looks at her. And you can read her lips clear as day. She says, what happened? You know what I'm saying? I mean, she was completely out of it. Completely out of it. No, it was, it was awful.

And looking at her, too, I was like, you wanted that. You wanted that. You were looking for that. Exactly. And so, yeah, just in self-preservation and in personal development, SAV, you got to get rid of the ball. Because, like, there's no place, like, she doesn't pass well. Like, in the final 30s, she hasn't passed well.

in the in the in the in the middle third you know what I'm saying and build up all these different types things she just like is dependent on herself to carry it to carry the ball to wherever she's going to go and uh basically how far she goes just depends on who's willing to put a shoulder in her chest at any given time but yes she needs to I would like for her to stop I would like for her to stop yeah um okay so for me I did eventually get my boots on the ground. But it was after halftime. So I missed all the goals. I missed all the goals. It was my mom's birthday, May 10th. You know what I'm saying? So we went out to eat. Happy birthday to your mom. Yeah, happy birthday.

Happy birthday. Rosalind. You know what I'm saying? Beautiful name. Thank you. The, so after we got done eating, you know what I'm saying? I just, we left the restaurant. I raced down to the stadium or whatever. My best friend was there, the one I referenced earlier. A lot of me telling people to turn around and progress the ball was at this game. And a lot of it was me yelling at Hal Hersch felt, all right? How?

I mean, like the next time you turn around and progress the ball will be the first. We'll be the first. And I don't know if y'all have noticed there's like an account on Twitter that, that sends out, like, advanced analytics after every NWSL game. And it shows, there's one stat called, like, expected threat from passes. How Hersch felt was at a, was it, and it shows bars, right? It's like a bar graph. Expected threat from passes.

How Hersch felt, number 17, did not even have a bar. That's how much she did not, that's how much she did not progress the ball, And that's been my main thing with her. I still think big potential there. Once again, I got there in second half. All the exploits, all the fun exploits were done. Croy looked okay from what I saw. Tren always catches the eye.

Just, she's just always, she's just so good. So good. But by the second half, they were just on cruise control. Yeah, on cruise control. chilling for the most part. So, yeah, that... Croix's got four... Croix Bithoon, got four goals and four assists and nine matches as a pro now.

Yep. What's... How are you guys feeling about her? Is she... Once again, Adam Bell's... I would implore you to listen to the podcast. The Territ and I recorded two weeks ago. I'm just going to be honest

It's probably not going to happen at this point But yes Me and Tara are on board With Croy being called in to the national team But also are wary of You know, the potential load being placed upon her Of, you know, full national team responsibilities As well as first professional year

responsibilities, especially with her injury history. Okay. Well, I guess I'd be curious to see the expected threat bar chart for her because it seems like she's always looking to threaten. What I have been wanting from people calling for Kroy to be called in is for them to tell me who doesn't get called in because we have a boatload of tens. but if Jaden is being rested this camp, I'd say bring Croy in just to see what we got.

That's right. Otherwise, I say I don't think she needs the added load. Okay, outside of racing versus Spirit, we have Portland versus Seattle, Portland won four to nothing. Sophia was involved in every single goal. She got three assists, and she said, scored a penalty. Olivia Motry scored one of the goals.

That was a nice goal. It was a nice goal. Yeah, all of them very, very fun. Sophia's now the golden bootleader and the assist leader in the league. Did you guys see all of them? Did you feel like Sof is adding a little bit of pausa to her game, you know? Like, like the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the to like sort of slow things down, make a choice.

Do you feel like she is? I'm asking, and I'm not, I don't have an opinion on. I'm asking you a question. Do you feel like she is, Beth? I'm going to be completely honest with you. I ain't been watching that much of this year. I mean, I mean, she, she's. Suspicious?

It's a little suspicious. I'm worried, I mean, I know, I know what self, you know, Sosa known quantity at this point. I'm worried about the, you know, the kids. But when you show up and you say other things about her. Yeah, I mean, look, we've seen her kill the NWSL before. You know what I'm saying? It ain't nothing new.

Last year, she won Golden Bootleader with 11 goals and she already has eight. Yeah, I mean, I mean. So I think she's doing quite good. That's fair. That's fair. I mean, matter of fact, I did. I did watch the beginning of this game, so I did see the, I did see the Maltry assist, but I can't comment on the pause of man.

I can't comment. I will, I love to see her getting more assists. You know, that's awesome. Okay. I will answer your. Okay. Okay, you answer first, and then I got one more thing to say about it. Okay, I will answer your question, and I think she is.

And I think something that you both will appreciate is that she, is playing more than just a direct striker for Portland right now because of with the transition

from coaches the new coach has been playing Sinclair centrally more and Vince and I did talk about this two weeks ago but with Christine Sinclair

I compared it to what Katarina McCarillo will look like as striker for the national team. Christine Sinclair, as striker for Portland, does a lot of the same things. So you'll see Sophia outwide a lot more. But the difference with Sophia out wide for the national team and Sophia out wide for Portland is Sinclair is moving back a lot.

and Claire is moving outside a lot. Sinclair is all over the place. And that's what Macario does too. So when you watch Macario for Chelsea, I mean, Macario is their quote unquote nine, but she is a midfielder. I mean, she is going to be going back and getting the ball.

She's going to be playmaking. She's going to be doing all sorts of things. So Sophia gets a lot more time on the ball. Sophia, it can technically be a wide. forward, but she gets that time and space that she didn't get with Morgan as a striker because she has more freedom. So yes, she is adding another level to her game and adding more assists to her game. But she also isn't needing to just be a classic striker.

like she used to be at Portland, in my opinion. Okay, okay. Well, I've always been intrigued by that dynamic you describe of cat, you know, dropping into the hole and sort of creating for the wider forwards. Because I think it would work well for Mal as well. And it did. It did. And like, it's kind of been a joke because we had it for a little bit at the national team.

And when I bring it up, it's like, oh, for Uzbekistan, like, what does that mean? But we had it for more than just a Uzbekistan camp. And it was really successful for Kat. It was really successful for Mal. And it was successful for Sov too. We had all three of them scoring

instead of just our striker. Yeah. Okay. Well, all three assists in this game came on, you know, in the broad category of cutback. And, but I guess in particular, the one that Moultry scored,

there was a little bit of patience from Sof on the play. You know, she's running into space. She doesn't just like, you know, charge at the goal and thrash it at the goalkeeper. She kind of pauses for a second, picks out a runner in the box. I like that. And there is. Not that she wasn't doing that three, two years ago, three years ago, whenever, you know, she's, I'm not saying that. But I just like to see it in general.

No, and there is a bit of, I think there's a bit of. of like success fatigue when it comes to Sophia in this league because she has one MVP and she has one golden bootleader before. But we've brought, we have brought, we have brought so many expensive forwards this year in Chowinga and the Bayfc forwards and the Orlando forwards that I would hope. hope that all of these goals she's scoring would start to mean something to the people. Well, it means something, Tara. Covering.

Yeah. Me. I mean. I'm not saying it don't mean nothing. I'm not saying it don't mean nothing. I appreciate everything that Sof has done this season so far. Okay. Only a few more.

Chicago versus Utah. We got a malice. a beautiful cross, and she scored a pen, which normally penalties are boring, let's be honest, but Mal Swanson has a pretty terrible penalty track record. So anytime she scores one, it's a good, it's a good thing. And another good Samantha Stob game, so I plugged it in here as a good way to try out before, before we had our tryout segment. So there we go.

Okay. And then the last game I had was San Diego Wave versus Gotham. They tied one to one, and Jenna and I Swanger had a great, great assist. But it was otherwise a pretty boring game. Okay. Well, just real quick, who did Bay play, Bay FC? They played a... I didn't think there was any national team where they knew, so I didn't.

didn't include it. Well, I just want to say I watched Savvy King and she still has yet to do anything interesting with the ball, to be honest, but I do want to say, I've been seeing some names being thrown out for NWSL defensive player of the year. Names that I've seen make some very high-profile mistakes that have been punished and led to goals. And I just want to say if their names are in the ring, I'm officially throwing Savvy King. King's name in the rank for Defender of the Year in the NWSL still really has yet to even be

truly rinsed once, you know what I'm saying? I mean, really truly applying clamps out there. You know, people might get shots off. They're being blocked by hurt, you know, primary defender. You know what I'm saying? You can't even get the shots around her, you know? Savvy, I'm, I just wanted to throw that out there as a NWSL. esteemed media member.

Can we get a little Cat Macario update? I'd love to. I'd love to. Okay. This one includes Emma a little bit. So Cat is fifth in the league in the WSL right now and assists. She came back in March. So to backtrack a little bit, their league starts in October.

I believe. So she came back in March and she's fifth in the league. She is only two behind the leader. So the leaders has seven assists, which is great. Chelsea played this afternoon. And Manchester City lost this past weekend to Arsenal. So a special shout out to Emily Fox for helping us out. Chelsea have a hope at winning the league again with two games left in the season.

So a race to get Emma a trophy is back on. So just to reiterate or say it in a different way, Katarina McCarillo has five assists in her first six career WSL matches. That is equaling the most after six appearances in the history of the competition. That's what Caitlin Ford had in 2020. Okay. So, hold on. History maker.

No, hold on, hold on, hold on now, Terry. being that this is an opt-a-jack tweet that you just read off here, I need you to read off that last word. You can't leave off the last word, man. Adapted. Adapted. There we go.

There we go. Pretty solid. Pretty solid. I mean, I don't want to throw too much cold water on it, but these two assists that she got that took her fourth and fifth were against Bristol City. And? In a game that ended up eight zero.

So you're saying the league is a little shady. No, hold on now. I'm saying this game, this game was already over when she came on. And it might have been over, but Chelsea needed every one of those eight goals to make up the goal difference with Manchester City. And I think they're now in the driver's seat for the title because of every single one of those eight goals that were scored. Okay, fair enough. They need go a difference. And this has nothing to do with the league.

But I think the national team is going to benefit extremely well from cat's set pieces and corner kicks. Okay. One more cold water thing. Are we still thinking Emma Hayes walks on water? I'm thinking. I'm thinking, I would implore you. Wow. I'm thinking, wow, I can't wait to have a real coach again.

It's been so long. That's right. I mean, does a coach have flaws, of course, but we haven't had one in so long. Yeah, which Vakow, you know, he does seem to be decent at the occupation of soccer coach, you know, professional women's soccer coach. But something happened, you know, maybe he just didn't have the minerals. I don't know which, which confuses me being that he is Eastern European. You know what I'm saying? They don't create a lot of softies over there.

But, yeah, you know. Well known for their minerals. Yeah, extremely well known for their minerals. I mean, but yeah, it just seemed like, it just seemed like something with, I mean, I guess we'll learn when Emma gets here. But it's like either the core of everything that's going on here is just like rotting. And maybe, you know, there's just too many, I'm not trying to sound like, you know, Clay Travis out here. But maybe there's just too many politics, for lack of a better term. I'm not trying to get into any of that dumb stuff that people be talking about.

But maybe there's just too many politics at play with regards to the old guard and all that different type of stuff. But something happened with regards to Black Coe that caused them to turn into a pumpkin. and we just don't know what it is. But it does seem like, you know, we talk about minerals. You know, Emma got plenty of it. Plenty of it. So whatever was going on, I don't think she'll stand for it. So that's the main thing.

That's the main thing. And once we get all that ironed out, then I think everything else should take care of itself. We got enough talent in the system. We got enough talent coming through. You know what I'm saying? Tracy Kevin's has tricked us to believe that, you know, we're not producing players anymore. We're still producing pretty good players.

So I think Emma has everything she'll need, and I think she's the type of personality that we need to us into the future. Yeah. But I would also implore you to listen to our last podcast. I don't know where we're discussed the topic. very politely declined let me let me comment one more time

on or say one more thing Natasha Patel you guys probably saw this has been hired as lead analyst this isn't specific to the women's national team but has been hired as the lead analyst for men's and women's teams at US soccer she was assistant academy director at Southampton Matt Crocker's

stomping grounds before that she was was lead analyst for the New York Red Bulls. And before that, she was back at Southampton for several years. I listened to a little bit of her interview with the Training Ground Guru podcast from a couple months ago. Just because, you know, she's going to be the data person for our national teams. And she's just a cautious. She's a cautious in what she says kind of person seems like you didn't reveal much. You know, just once I wanted her to be like,

So we were looking at, you know, this specific stat and this is how we coded it. But it never gets to that point. It's always like, you know, it was a great team. We were there for each other. Yada, yada. But anyway, something to pay attention to Natasha Patel. Okay. Very English sounding person.

Anything else, guys? Yes. A few things. I swear, I'll be quick. Lindsay plays her Champions League final on May 25th. I think we should all be supporting her, our captain, and I want to see her murder, Barcelona, for lack of a better term. And yeah, that's actually...

Oh, one more thing. PSG are once again interested in signing Mary Earps, the lioness goalkeeper this summer, which would be good news for us because that would mean Fallantullus Joyce would be playing soccer again for Man United. So something to keep track of, we could be once again having a goalkeeper to keep track of over there in England. So those are the two bits of news that I missed out of saying earlier. We did kind of gloss over, you know, the penalty goat, unless the air's injury. I said it.

I know we said it, but we didn't, you know, talk about potential replacements or anything like that. But, you know, I think it'll just play itself out. But I feel like people will get honest for not paying the penalty goat. Not giving it more. I mean, it's a big deal, right? But we got a lot of goalkeepers, don't we? Is that my still glossing it at all? We'll be all right. We'll be all right.

I mean, like, Jane Campbell's been going crazy this season, which could just be a function of Houston being absolutely just ass. But, you know, like first year racing, I saw Michelle Beto's do a madness and hasn't played since, basically. So, you know, when you ask, you get a lot of opportunities to make saves it look good. Yeah, that's what, that's sort of the story of Gaga-Slanina's season at Yucan. Why do we want Leon to murder Barcelona? Is it just because I implore you to listen to the podcast that was recorded with March 2nd? What's today? March 1st.

May 1. May 1 you guys did it, I think. We're bi-weekly schedule two weeks ago. So go ahead and explain it to her. Well, we support our captain and the Chelsea semifinal was a disaster. So we're anti-Barsalona. Okay. That's right.

I may just cut that part, me continually bringing up stuff you guys already talked about. No, you should keep in here. Okay. All right. Let's get out of here. Thank you. Thank you, Vince. Thank you, Tara.

Have a great rest of your week. A lot coming up. A lot coming up in June. Let me just say this. We are a patron-supported podcast. So if you like what we're doing here, if you want to hear the Monday review, if you like the recaps that Greg and I do,

best way to help us. Well, there's several ways to help us, but the best way is to join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. Another way to help. If you say, no way, I'm going to give you any of my money, bells. Another way to help us is to write a review on iTunes or whatever it is, whatever they call it these days.

Or tell somebody about the podcast. Try to get more people to listen to it. That'd be great. Yeah, it'd be awesome. Word of mouth? Come on. So yeah. Have a great week.

We'll see you.