Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #494: Hayes era begins, report from training, Lyon falls to Barcelona

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Tara, Vince and Belz relay some intelligence from training in Boulder, Colo., Horan and Lyon fall to Barcelona in the Champions League final, lots of NWSL action to summarize and some key USWNT players coming back to health.———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 Woso Wednesday. Tara, how are you? I feel like a million bucks. Emma Hayes is here. I have never really had a hard time cursing when we've met every other Wednesday. And I think I'm going to start to have a hard time cursing. I am so excited.

You're going to start cursing more. I'm so excited to be talking to you too. in particular. I'm excited to see you too. I'm just excited. You know, she really went over the Today Show crew when she said, I'm working on it.

When she said, I'm working on it, you know. I'm trying to be better about swearing so much. That was an easy crew to win over. Is it? Yeah, I mean. Jenna Hagerbush. Yes. I've become quite familiar with the,

with Jenna, with, uh, hoota. Is that, uh, Huda? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because whenever I dropped my, uh, baby off at my grandparents' house, they, they have a, they have a TV in their kitchen, which is the communal area, uh, area at my grandparents' house. And, uh, it doesn't have cable.

So on TV in the house without cable. And, um, they're always watching some network, television, you know what I'm saying? Will of fortune, uh, price is right. Like in the morning, it's the Today Show. It's Jenna and Huda. I think they do their own show too. Really, really, whenever I see Jenna Hagerbush, I can't think of the, I can't get it out of my mind the fact that one time I was over there and she mispronounced Griselda. She was telling people that they should watch Griselda on Netflix.

She called it Grizzadela. I can't forget it. I can't forget it. That's George W.'s daughter? Is that who that is? The party girl. If you remember. Okay.

Yeah. Well, I thought, I mean, we haven't had a chance to talk about it yet, but I thought Emma was outstanding in her media tour. She is a great personality, even if that crew in particular is easy to win over. I ate up every single interview, even though they all said almost exactly the same thing. I was just over here reading every single piece. I loved it all. Sib Salazar's interview was particularly good, I thought. I did too.

Wouldn't the scuff get invited to such things. You know what I'm saying? Is that an aspirational goal for Scuff Global or we're just cool? You're just trying to hurt my feelings? Is that why you keep asking questions like this? Because it's working. Because it's working. It's just we finally have a fresh perspective.

I feel like with a new coach finally being here after so long, we can close a chapter that has been needing to be closed for many years. We just get to start something new and that feels good regardless of whatever you're starting. And it begins, what was it, yesterday? Yesterday, Kip officially started. And it just feels great. It just feels great. Well, and let's start with a little subterfuge, a little espionage. Because we had a person on the scene yesterday in Boulder,

given play-by-play reports on their training from what looked like a distant patio kind of. It was like a scene out of Tinker-Taylor Soldier Spy itself. Still a book I haven't read or book I'd like to. It's a pretty hard one to read, but it's fantastic. So Anand, I think it's okay to say that from the Discord was... Even a spying name. Even a spying name. Yeah, long-time Discord or a longtime friend of the pod.

Apparently they're training near his apartment in Boulder at the University of Colorado. University Boulder. And he said it looked like, so he's watching the training for the first, I don't know, half hour of the training, looked like a major focus was sort of structure, building out from the centerbacks through the lines, lots of reps. And just bear in mind, these trainings are behind closed doors. Nobody's supposed to see them. So what you are getting right now is special information.

That's right. I mean, he got actually kicked out. He got sent away from the field and he just went. He just retreated about 40 yards and then got his binoculars out. So, you know, Belsa may have hurt your feelings at the beginning here asking about when we can we get invited to such prestigious events as the Emma Hayes inaugural Media Day, Media Blitz. But so I would have to think that this particular type of situation like this would A make you more proud than being invited to, you know, a media. where you get all these generic cookie cutter answers, number one, and number two, I mean, just ups the value proposition of becoming a scuff patron, member of the Discord, etc., etc.

It's the island of misfit toys. It's not the media tour. It's the island of misfit toys. Well, another way to say it is, as you've said before, Vince, we got shooters all over the country. That's right. We got people at farmers markets in Charlotte, North Carolina, overhearing the news that Jesse Marsh is going to be the coach of Canada. We had a bartender scooping everybody on Balligan to Orlando from J.T. Batson and San Diego. And now we got somebody telling us about the first training that Emma Hayes conducts as a national team coach for the U.S. women. It's truly crazy.

It's pretty cool. It's, yeah, it's something. So it was apparently swinging it around the back, along the back line, and then looking for ways to play up through the midfield. Lots of reps, lots of pauses for instruction from Hayes. The drill started with a throw-in about a third of the way up the field, swinging along, then through the lines. No tackling allowed at first, but then interceptions were allowed.

There's a lot more detail. But I guess the key thing here is Emma's, Emma wants, him to keep it on the deck, working on keeping it on the deck, you know? Yep. And I like that. I like that quite a bit. We got some insight on the midfield configuration, potentially. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Tell us about that. So from what Anon could decipher, I think this was after he got pushed back to 40 yards. And so, you know, it was a little bit harder. Might have been more than 40. Yeah, yeah. No, for a security guard just came up until you told you to back up and he just backed up 40 yards. I mean, that's a pretty poor security guy. But anyway, for what he could decipher, it looking like with the first team group,

because, you know, if you ever watch a practice, it's pretty clear to decipher who's the first team group, who's second team group, et cetera. Sam Coffey, six. It seems like we're back to a single pivot. Lindsay Hurran, Jaden Shaw, potentially ahead of Sam Coffey. is what seems to be is what a non could see. It's what a non could see.

Now, if they come out in Commerce City and something different happens, don't, don't come from my man's. Don't come from my man's. He's doing the best he can. We may get more information today. But that's what it's looking like right now.

We already had, we already had somebody out from, Boulder offered to bring a pair of binoculars because he didn't have one yesterday. You were offering to postmates it to him, right? Postmate it to him. Yeah, they can postmates anything these days. Hey, you need a lawn chair, you need to get comfortable, you need a phone charger, whatever you need. We locked that, man. 24 pack of bottle of water. We locked that, man. Give me those glasses from Spy Kids with the six

I don't know if y'all remember the gift the old dude old dude from Spide Kids got this little like monicle that comes over his eye but they just keep they just keep flipping out

there's like six iterations of it so by the time you get to the end I imagine you can see pretty far away that's what we need if we had that you can just post up in the mountain range behind the practice field and have a very clear view

of everything that's going on yeah beautiful setting Got those The Rockies They call that Yeah That's what they call that The games coming up

Are Saturday Against South Korea And then Tuesday against South Korea That one's like you said In Commerce City The first one on Saturday is And then the second one is in St. Paul South Korea not a team

And we got a lot to get into this show But let me just real quickly say South Korea A team that will not be playing at the Olympics They They couldn't get out of Asian Confederation qualifying.

The latest results for them had been kind of mixed. In February, they got pasted by Portugal thanks to some horrendous goalkeeping. And then they got, more recently they beat the Philippines

in a couple friendlies earlier this month. It doesn't seem like they're kind of firing on all cylinders. Yeah, but I will say if they can beat the Philippines, which famously is a national team that's come about through the legwork of even greater sickos

than maybe are containing the scuff discord of some American Filipino people who, you know, combed every soccer roster in the United States looking for Filipino Americans to transfer over there. So what I'm saying is, I say all this to say, Philippines got, you know, a passable roster, acceptable roster, so South Korea can beat them.

then we're looking at probably like a, you know, a baseline level of confidence. Maybe not too much talent, but, you know. Right. No, definitely a baseline level of competence. South Korea also has a really young dual-that, a really young American who plays at Angel City. She hasn't debuted yet. She's a 16-year-old Casey Fair.

She played at the World Cup. I remember because her name is spelled like Liz Fair. Yeah. The singer. So I'm excited to see if she plays. She has debuted for Korea. She has it for Angel City, though. Okay, okay.

Got it. So that's what's up on Saturday. Should we get to the sort of updates what's going on? Yeah. Some new staff for Emma? Yeah, I wanted to briefly introduce some of the new newbies Emma's bringing along just to kind of get familiar with them because something that has been in the back of my mind before Emma came along was this idea that, well, it's not really going to be that new because Twyla's going to be. you know, right there behind her this whole time anyway. But Emma's bringing all this new staff as well.

So it's something that's exciting to me. So Denise Reddy is coming as an assistant coach. She's an American. She's a former Rutgers star. She's a longtime professional player in Sweden. She's a former head coach in Europe and the NWSL. And the USL, she's been Emma Hayes' assistant the past four years at Chelsea. Reddy also previously spent time as the assistant for the under U20 U.S. team.

So she's got experience with some of our players already, which I thought was cool. So is Reddy kind of her right-hand woman? Yeah. She's going to be like the way I read it was that she's going to be like the the main backup. She was, Denise Reddy was the number two at Chelsea. She was, she was, she's been Emma's number two for the past four years.

And she's been, she's been in all categories we would have wanted. Europe, NWSO, U20s, she checks all the boxes. I think that's wildly exciting bringing her in as an assistant. And then Stuart Surley is our new goalkeeper coach. He was the former goalkeeper coach at Chelsea, where he spent the majority of his career.

He coached the new goalie at Gotham, who is very, very good. If you're a Gotham fan, you wouldn't know that. He coached the Germany national team goalie, who is also very good. His Instagram bio also says he is our steppiece coach. I don't know if he has given himself that title because our press release didn't say that. But I thought it was something worth mentioning. And then Bart Fawberg, a native of Belgium, joins the staff as the new program director. He will oversee strategic alignment across all staff members and departments

for the senior U.S. Women's National Team. Colberg will work in a close collaboration with the women's national leadership team, most notably in the areas of technical performance and operations contributing to the short, medium, and long-term strategic planning for the success of the team. And then two more Chelsea backroom staff members. Oh, my goodness. Two more Chelsea backroom staff members will join the U.S. Women's National staff and performance coach for DIA, who will work with current head of performance.

And then Nathan Sherlock will across all departments within the team, while opposition analyst Cameron Minahan comes aboard, comes aboard to work with lead analyst Kate Cohen. Okay, I'm done. So lots of new staff. I'm teasing, but it is good to... I'm sorry, Tara. I thought it was exciting to know we have lots of new staff.

That's all. That's right. It is. It is exciting. And it's good to see like a full infusion of new blood. You know, I think that's sort of the... I just can't wait to see... Big picture.

I just can't wait to see Mr. Bart Colbert meet Tracy Kevin's. You know what I'm saying? He seems like he's going to be the one that's doing all the surveillance of the youth national teams. I mean, wait until you get a load of this, Bart. Wait until you get a load of this. Yeah. I was curious if he was already getting to work knowing that a senior team is playing South Korea and the U-20s are playing South Korea. Yeah. That seems like some unity already.

Yeah. Hopefully he can oversee some strategic alignment that pushes Tracy Kevin's out the door. Yeah. God only knows. We'll see. Yep. So there's the new staff. I mean, where does Twyla fit in on all this? She's going to remain an assistant, but, you know, we got more blood in there. So who knows. Do you, were you guys surprised at what Emma said about, has said in the last week about how much she has been involved in the decisions over the last,

you know, eight, nine months? I don't think I was surprised, but I was surprised by how open she was. I think you could, I think you could kind of see what was. by she believes the changes were being made. The dirtiness was being cleaned up. But I was a little surprised by the bluntness of it all. Yeah. It felt like she's released.

She's released to now that she no longer works for Chelsea to just sort of be like, yeah, you know, I've basically been in charge this whole time. She was like when the clock hit at 8 o'clock, you know. after hours, I was full-time USA, baby. Yeah, exactly, right. Exactly, man. You know what I'm saying? She's like, hey, hey, hey, Chelsea, you pay me to work from nine to five.

So whatever's going on. When I clock out, you know what I'm saying? I'm clocking in for Cindy Parlow Cohn and J.T. Batson. What do you need for me? Which you would think, like, maybe probably, because I know she said something about, like, she was getting like a clip packages from people that she could just, you know, sit down and watch real quick. And I'm willing to bet like, you know, those things were quite curated and not meant to

take up too much of Emma's time. And if you have somebody curating your clip packages for you, you can get a breast of situations quite quickly. And, you know, a lot of time between windows and everything, like decisions don't need to be made like right, right now, you know. But I will say if Chelsea didn't win the WSL, she's probably not coming out here saying. Yeah, that's true. Because, you know, it's interesting you say that, Vince,

because really in any given game, there are, I don't know, I'm just throwing these numbers out there, but like 75% of the clips don't tell you anything. You know, like they're all just that he or she's just doing what they're supposed to do here, is run-of-the-mill soccer actions. But there's like a 25% where you, where something is happening that's interesting, that is instructive about the player. So if you have somebody who's saying like, okay,

these are the six clips you need to see from this game, from Jaden or whatever, or whoever it is. I mean, Jaden might have a little bit different percentage there. But any player, you could, you could knock it out in like five minutes, you know, and know what's going on. Just to back up what you're saying. Should we move to the Champions League final? Yeah.

Knock it out. Lindsay and Leon lost 20 to Barcelona at the San Mamas in Bilbao. Quite a scene. A partisan crowd, I would say, for Barcelona. What did you think? Yeah. I mean, I thought it was a pretty disastrous first half myself. Lindsay almost at fault for an own goal, gave up the ball, and then, like I said, almost scored an

goal. I thought she cleaned it up much better in the second half. Leon had struggled this year in attack. That's not my own opinion. That's known. But I will sound like a bit of a bit. of a dummy in saying that, as they just made the Champions League final. But it's Leon.

They're a giant in women's soccer. They should always be making the Champions League final. I would be expecting more out of them. Their coach is leaving at the end of the season, or the season's over there. She's leaving. She has left. She's replacing Emma Hayes at Chelsea. Um, next season. So I am excited for a new chapter for Lindsay.

Um, I think, I think it's going to be good for her. Fair enough. I think, I feel like she, you know, I know she almost had the own goal and she, she had that giveaway right at the edge of the box that nearly led to a goal. But by and large, I thought she was pretty good in this game. She's, uh, she's the chief instigator. And, and Leon, I know Leone didn't win the possession battle or anything against Barcelona, but they had their chances. They had their chances to score. They had plenty of those. I mean, particularly Wendy Renard, a full, like, all-world Wendy Renard, full wind-up, full volley at knee height from like six yards out.

She just blasts it over. And that was set up by just an incredible piece of skill from Horan. Yeah, that was gorgeous. reaching out to to sort of dink it back across she was I thought

I think just a classic Horan performance I went into it thinking like oh Haran's just a botler when it comes to big games but that

that was not true at Leo and I expect much more from Lindsay in that first half at least she can play I mean she has played much better than that

for club and while we're on the topic of Lindsay you threw it Ben Bells when we were talking about the midfield shape that there was observed by Anand, that that's what the midfield should be. Sam 6, Haran 8, Shaw 10 type situation. Yeah.

I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm reserving judgment. I'm reserving judgment. Part of the reason why, you know, Lindsay as an 8 didn't work is because, you know, the cumulative between her and Rose, her and Ashley Sanchez, et cetera, et cetera, wasn't doing, they weren't able to do enough defensive work to get the job done there in that midfield. The question's still there? The question's still there? So we'll see.

Yeah. I mean, she's arguably the best midfield metronome in the world. You know? I mean, metronome slash keener of moves. Leon bases everything around Lindsay for a reason. But Leon also has the midfielders to do the rest of the work for her because she can be freed of her responsibility. You see it.

I sent the, I was going to say set the F home. Dude, we didn't get knocked out of the World Cup because we gave up a lot of goals. We got knocked out of the World Cup because we couldn't score. I mean, my whole point is, what does, like, what did Lindsay being the, what I'm saying is, what you, what you just said about Lindsay could be true. Okay. We can also get our ass at home at the same time with that being true. That's all I'm saying.

Yeah, I mean, for sure. I would like to reiterate a new coach at Leone, the big, big, big, big. House of Leon is going to be exciting for a next step in Lindsay's career. I think it's going to be really, really big. They haven't announced a new coach yet, but with Michelle Kang money, it's going to be someone big. Awesome. And I mean, also, I should mention Barcelona scored late on an Itana-Bomati goal, but that was lucky. I mean, it was going off frame, got deflected over the goalkeeper.

So this game could have gone either way. Barsa is quite fallible, you know what I'm saying? It's not like, I mean, they're very good, right? Of course, obviously, championship league winners, et cetera, et cetera. But it's like, man, they could have got got by Chelsea. They could have got in this match. You know, it is what it is. It was just that kind of year for Barzola.

But we need for them to keep winning because so that Emma can keep building that buggy man up in their head. Six minutes into stoppage time. Keep losing sleep due to the Spanish. I need it. Yeah. Let's, oh yeah, also Lindsay's, Lindsay turned 30 on Sunday. Happy belated birthday to our captain. NWSL.

Let's go through the action. So much of this is going to be a health check-in just because I've got a bit of tunnel vision going into this camp and going into the Olympics. So apologies if that's not your thing. The first game is Angel City versus San Diego. It was no goals. It was nobody could score. San Diego is just slopping it up in the box, and that's just how they attack.

And for some reason, Angel City, Sarah Gordon is injured. I assumed that meant their defense was going to crumble. Hey, they held it together. So zero-zero, nobody could score. They kept it together. But the big news here is that Naomi Germa and Jaden Shaw both went 90. That was a huge surprise because they both were hurt. To me, it's very good that Jaden went 90 because that injury never seemed like it was a very big deal.

She was only ever out one game. and even that one game, it was day-to-day per her coach. Naomi Germa going 90, I wasn't entirely thrilled with because she was out multiple games and being thrown right into the deep end. I wasn't thrilled with, but I'm trying to learn to trust Casey Stoney a bit more, so that's more of a me problem. But all in all, I thought both of the Thompson's looked. looked good this game.

Giselle in particular because it was only her second start of the season as she's been dealing with some injuries. Something to keep track of, but not too much since we've got Olympics on the brain. Incredibly good news that Shaw is ready to unleash. Yeah.

Also, Alex went 27 minutes this game. So she is getting some minutes. To me, this smells a bit like I've got to meet him a haze and I've got to get some minutes. So throw me in there. Remember, she hasn't played since April. So when we're going into rosters at the end of this, I don't know how many minutes we can expect from her. So that's not me being cynical. 27 minutes is, it's curious. I don't know. Yeah.

Okay, Orlando versus Portland. Orlando won two to one. The big news here was that Sophia Smith wasn't in the lineup. The news came out the day before that she was questionable with a leg knock, but she did travel to Orlando. Then the day of the game, she didn't dress. So after the game, their interim coach did speak on Sophia, and he said it was, just a day or two too early with the low leg injury. Hopefully the U.S. will manage her properly while she's away in that environment, knowing that she wasn't available for today.

So it doesn't seem too serious. Hope all you want, Rob. It's not under your control, buddy. Yeah. Yeah. So seems okay. But in the actual game, Olivia Moultrie had a really nice assist. She's having a really good year And I'm really glad they're keeping her as a training player They meaning U.S. soccer I think that's the right position for her at this time

Okay Okay next up Spirit versus Rain You guys cut in at any time I'm just rolling through I'm about to cut in hard but go ahead Okay Spirit versus Rain Spirit 1 3 to 2 It was another big Croy

Masterclass. She had a goal and an assist. I don't think you should let that fool you, though this was a scary one from the spirit. Seattle is not a very good team. And they were calling back hard.

Trinity did have a very good game, though, this one as well. Yeah, speaking of why we didn't score any goals at the World Cup, Trinity Rodman. Nope. She, you know, she won the penalty that Andy Sullivan converted in this game by missing a 1V1 with the keeper and then tripping over her. And I'm like, so we're blaming Lindsay Horan about the World Cup. But Robin, does she have the requisite coolness in front of, in the penalty box? Do you guys ever wonder this?

She had against Canada in Columbus, Ohio on, what was that March, March 16th? was that March? It might have been April when she slotted that thing over to Sophia Smith for a goal after receiving a well-weighted through ball from James Shaw. Thank you.

Well, I guess I'll just let that question sit. But Croix goal comes when she wins a little cage match at the top of the box. It's to be clear here, Adam Bells. A nice finish. Nobody's blaming Lindsayoran. What I'm saying is,

okay, first of all, the midfield was a problem during the whole cycle. We pointed it out here on this, here on this very show. You agreed. Okay, number one, all while Lindsay Horan may or may not have been a world-class metronome, et cetera, et cetera. The midfield was still an issue. What I'm saying is we're going back to the same configuration with Lindsay in the same position where the midfield was an issue. Nobody's blaming Lindsay Horan. Quit it with this victim with this with this,

with this victim complex, Adam Bell's. Your snowflake mentality is rubbing me the wrong way. It's unbecoming of you. Enough. I like the I like the midfield configuration with coffee. I mean, I've always been a coffee. I've always been pushing coffee at DM. And I think Shaw at the 10 makes all the difference. You know, we don't have Rose LaVelle falling down all over the place out there.

We've got somebody who can actually do stuff in the attack right now. So I think it makes all the difference who's around Lindsay. Andy Sullivan back there as the defensive midfield. and then Lindsay and then Rose, I mean, that was not working. That's all I'm saying. I'm reserved judgment. I got to. We'll see.

We'll see. Okay. I just, I really, okay, we're moving past it, but I just, I really enjoyed Lindsay and Sam together. And I wish we could keep going with it until it breaks, at least. It seems like we're going to, right? Right. But that was Lindsay, Sam.

very close together in build-up situations. Lindsay almost holding Sam's head. This is Lindsay. When Lindsay's up in the field, Lindsay likes to gravitationally pull towards being a striker. That's what I'm saying. This is the issue. Okay.

It's her further up the field that is a problem. Because we... I mean, we're going to be able to control games a lot easier with Lindsay and Sam together. You know what I'm saying? I mean, the whole issue is just having control the match, right? And then potentially whatever issues with speed, athleticism, covering ground or whatever, won't be exploited if we can control the ball, control the game, dictate play, et cetera, et cetera.

I think that happens better with Lindsay and Sam back there together. Still, yeah, that may be true. But anyway, Spearverse Rain. Croix's assist came on a pinpoint cross from the left. to Sarr, who thumped it home with her head. It was a nice cross. It was for the last night. I was racking my brain to see if I could remember what it was.

But yeah, that thing was, it had no, you know, it had no curl to it. You know what I'm saying? It was like a homey missile. Just a straight one. At the perfect height to get over the defender's head, right to Sarr. She's a provider, Bethune is for sure. Another thing, Bells, just real quick. The Robman thing.

So she is like, I was going through this today. I want to say she's like fourth in the league in a non-penity XG plus XA. Not being reflected so much on the score sheet. So there may be something going on there. We'll see. Yeah. I mean, I know we don't believe in finishing as a skill. officially, but it's hard to not.

You know, when you see Jaden Shaw just like casually put it in the back of the net when she gets a chance. Not every time, obviously, but it's a little different with Rodman. Also, Hal Hersch felt, right? How Hersch felt surprise call up to the U.S. Women's National Team, full call up, you know what I'm saying? Not a practice player. Andy Sullivan was also recently called up to practice with the squad. the spirit are sending what six players or something like that

to camp anyway Rob Gill should be worried about them you know Spirit brass Michelle Kang somebody somebody should be worried about what's going on at camp anyway yeah

so first of all I'll start here I don't know how y'all feel but I felt a little disheartened when people hop in the scuff discord and be like who's how Hirsch felt because I'm like, hold up. That happened a lot.

I'm like, hold up. Yo. Yo. Okay. It would be different if, you know, it was some other platform, but the scuff Discord where we have a podcast dedicated to covering, you know, women's soccer, U.S. women's national team, the pool, etc. We're not going to lecture them right now, though. So I'm not lecturing. I'm just talking, I'm just asking how y'all feel about, about what?

going on because I mean every how Hersch felt, who's how Hersch felt comment? I was like, ah, I felt the pain in my chest. I'm like, man, we've been talking about how since she got drafted. But anyway, if you, I'm not going to go to who she is if you didn't know. But if you listen, if you do listen to this pod,

shout out to you. Shout out to you. If you do actually listen, hit play, etc. Listen to completion. Well, how did you think she do? though. I didn't think she had a great thing. Okay. And this is where I'm going.

I've long been on the, not long been on it, but I've pointed out that how I don't like to pass the ball forward a lot. Okay? She doesn't like to turn with the ball. She doesn't like to pass a ball forward a lot. That seems to be a statement that garners some controversy for some reason. But if you watch the games, it's clear as day.

I'm not saying she doesn't have the ability to pass a the ball forward. She does it sometimes, and most of the time it works out well for it. I don't know why she doesn't do it more. But I got two screenshots here in our notes of how receiving basically a square pass from like the Washington Spirits right back. I mean, and I might, if anybody wants to ask me about this, ask me on the Discord, ask me on Twitter, I'll share these screenshots with you. They on my phone. How getting the ball in the Washington spirits basically on the edge of their attacking third. It's in the attack and half.

But in a pocket of space where there is plenty of room if she had properly checked for how to turn, survey our options, pass, carry the ball forward into zone 14. All of stuff. Everything's available for her in this moment. I got two screenshots of the past being played and then her when she receives the ball. Now, let me tell you all what she did. was she received the ball. She turned around and passed it backwards.

And when I went back and watched the first half of that spirit match that I told y'all that I got to at halftime because my mom's birthday, I watched the first half of that spirit match this week, racing Louisville versus spirit. And she even received a ball in the box one time that she'd then promptly turned around and played backwards. Oh, yeah. I saw that cool. Like, this is what she was.

she does. And people, you know, we're getting fresh new blood. People are excited. I understand. All I'm saying is, don't be surprised if she comes out here and looks like Emily Sonick. Or Corbyn, Albert, you know, how Corbyn Albert has been looking with the U.S. Women's National Team. That's all I'm saying. I still think she can develop into something. But as of now, and on the positive side, I will say this. She has a good sense of how to move, how to find space to receive the ball, how to pass a move. She's always, if you watch her, she's always pointing.

She'll pass that thing. I always thought she was going to be the player who Barcelona Mano was going to love the most out of the rookies, including Croix. Yeah, that's why I was slightly more excited for Howe than Croyd, which I've sat on the show before. But, yeah, she has a good sense of how to move without the ball.

You know, she's not, like, technically deficient in any way. Like I said, when she passes the ball forward, it looks good. It looks good. Do it more how. But I think she's just depending on Andy to hold her hand a little bit too much. Some rookie nerves. Wasn't there somebody in the Discord who was sitting at a Washington Spirit game, and every time Herschfeld would pass the fact,

there'd be somebody behind him going, that's just what Hal does. I think it was DJD, 07 or something in the Discord. Yeah, it said, I guess a Washington Spirit season ticket holder or something, but somebody behind them, anytime Hal recycles possession passes the ball forward, it was mentioned that the man said it in a southern accent. Yeah, that's just what Hal does. And the thing was, I had been arguing people if Hal passed.

passes the ball backward too much. People were arguing with me. And I appreciate DJD for coming in because that was the, that was the mic drop right there. I was like, okay, I'm not crazy. But anyway, good sense of movement. It's strong in the tackle, strong in duels. You know what I'm saying?

I think she has a little bit of a, she has a little bit of a, she can do a little bit in the attack. She scored a goal this year. You know, she can do a little something. something. We're just waiting for it to all come out. I keep seeing like takes as if Andy Sullivan should be like furious. Howe was called in instead of her because Andy does so much of the work for Hal.

But if I was a new coach, I would absolutely want the fresh blood in a very successful midfield. Wouldn't you? Yes. And it's yet to be seen. But I did kind of. When the roster came out, once I digested it, I'm like, okay, I think we are going back to having eights in the roster. And with the non's reporting, it seems like we are going back to using, like, actual eights. And so with that being said, I'm probably, I would probably pick Hal over Andy as an eight.

Yeah. We already saw the lone six thing that's not work for Andy. So we'll leave that alone. You know what I'm saying? But if we're picking between eights here, I probably would go how, still. and just bet on the potential, bet on her coming good. Okay. Anyway, talk too much about how hers felt, but this is how I feel.

Okay. Let me read for me. Bay, F.C. versus Gotham, it's a two zero to Gotham. Rose got some minutes, continues to get minutes? Yeah, continued Rose minutes, which is a good thing. Sonna is seemingly a full-time centerback. again, which right in time. A little suspicious, though, that it's happening for both club and country.

Somebody's up to something, I think. Right when Rose's minutes go up, crystals is going down. Also suspicious. Tierra played 30 minutes, so she's working her way back to fitness. I think that's something to keep track of going into camp. And then Chicago versus racing, Chicago lost one to nothing. I thought it was a really good showing. Go ahead.

One second. I just wanted to stick on that Gotham game real quick before we get to my beloved. Yeah. Currently in the playoff, eighth in the table, race in Louisville. But anyway, first of all, Rose, she continues to not move me necessarily with these minutes. she's out there she's playing she looks okay

not great not great at all really she did hit the post with the with a shot received the ball cut inside took a shot with her right foot that hit the post

and that was like her only truly dangerous moment at a match like I don't know I don't know she's playing right wing for the most part yeah she's not even

playing midfield for golf which I think is odd. Like that's her best position and she's not better than their midfielders. Odd for, odd for Gotham. So that, Crystal, I am intrigued as to what we're going to see with Crystal done playing forward. I don't know what's going on there. We'll see.

It is, initially it was really exciting to see her listed as a forward. She was a very good midfielder for Portland. But who is she going to beat out as an attacker on our roster? But the Olympics is all about, you know, how many positions can you play? She can be on the bench. She can... She can sub in for anyone. So is that what she's coming in for?

I'm thinking she might be a Jaden back up. Maybe. Just seeing as they were both listed forwards and with the, once again, with the non-diffamation, I'm just trying to piece everything together. But we'll see. We'll see, man. Like at this point, I feel like we're a little bit past prime crystal. Crystal they used to be able to solve any problem that you put in front of her with a soccer ball.

She would be able to figure a way out of it. It's just, we'll see, though. We'll see. And also, oh, since we're talking about Bay versus Gotham, Savvy King, you know what I'm saying? Once again, another decent shift at left back still has yet to do anything cool with the ball even once. It's not her fault. This team is chaotic.

All right, fair enough. This team is so bad. They did just invest, you know, attack and midfielder and two strikers and left everything else to God essentially. So I understood, understood. No, I watched this team and I say, it can't get worse than last week. And it gets worse than last week. Chicago versus racing.

Let's talk about that. Okay, Mal and Sam Stobb, I thought, had a very good game. Chicago is a hit or miss team. Anybody who watches Chicago will know that. But Racing Louisville, this rookie Sear, she had a fantastic goal. I want to hear Vince talk about it. Oh, well, Emma Sears, first of all, the only non-first-round draft pick that Racing Louisville has hit on as a franchise, first of all, that, like, truly hit on. from Ohio State.

Winger, very fast. Yeah, yeah, Terry, you would like that. Oh, H and all that. So, yeah, yeah, just basically, see the ball in the box. People have been hyping it a little bit, like, oh, Sears juggled the ball in the box and then took a, and took this, like, come on, it was awesome. She didn't juggle the ball on the box.

She had trouble bringing the ball down. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Somebody else would have just killed that thing with one touch and then it took the job. But anyway. You can't stop typing race a little bit. And then they get an amazing goal. And this is the time you level it out.

I got somebody else who's an apple in my eye right now. Great goal from MS. But I'm back on the train, ladies and gentlemen. I'm back on the- You're going to talk about Taylor Corniac. That's right, baby. And this has been the, the muse to my whole progressive pass ramblings that I was talking about on the Monday review,

all the stuff that I've been talking about in pod chat on the Discord, and just trying to make sense of the progressive pass as that and how to quantify progressive actions in soccer is because of Taylor Cornyack. Well, now Flint. Now Flint. Taylor Flint. Okay. Just to be clear, I'm talking about the former Taylor Cornyack here.

And if you, for my real, my real Wausau Wednesday heads, you know, y'all know that I was a fan of Taylor, Taylor Cornyack from back when. I want to say it was like 2022, 2021, San Diego came to Louisville. And that's my first time seeing Taylor Cornyack play as a midfield. And I was like, hmm, there's something here. There's something here. Now, much of it is my proclivity for, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, large women. It's not just women, though.

It's men, like, if you give me somebody that's unconventionally sized and then they start doing like things that you wouldn't expect the unconventionally sized person to be able to do, you know, you know how we typecast people in society, you know what I'm saying? Like a, I don't know, like a big dude in basketball that can like handle the ball, you know, a big hefty person, you know what I'm saying? They can handle the ball as quicker than you think, you know what I'm saying? saying that's my archetype of player because I was that player.

But anyway, so seeing Taylor Cornyack when she came to Louisville, that one time when I saw her, I'm like, okay, she's able to receive the ball. She got better feet than you would think. You know what I'm saying? She can do a little something with it. But then playing for Wave, she never got the ability to really play with the ball and really tapping that potential so we could see what was going on there. There was a lot of balls to head as, you know, Tara, you know, was driving Tara crazy.

Casey Stoney's a terrible coach. She was playing Target midfielder, and that was just a terrible use of her abilities. Now, fast forward, she's at race in Louisville. She just came this year. And she's, and she is our pivot, essentially. Now, I'm going to preface it with this. She has, like, the lowest past completion percentage in the league. She has the lowest pass, but if you look at, if you watch her play, you understand why.

Every time she receives the ball, she's turning around, she's looking to do something. She's too good. She's too good to complete. You don't say it? She's trying to do something cool with it. She's not taking the easy option ever. I mean, rarely. I mean, I'm talking about maybe 5% of her passes.

She's passing that thing backwards. She's recycling possession. And it's not like we're doing some Red Bull stuff. If we're not pressing, and then as soon as we get it, we just lumping it forward. Like, no, this is in possession. She's receiving the ball between, you know, in the amoeba. She's always checking her shoulder. She always knows when she has space.

She's turning around, and she's making it happen. And yes, she needs to pick up the past the percentage, the accuracy a little bit. But I was playing around. But because in trying to find how to quantify progressive actions in soccer, FB. Ref, progressive passes, it's cool, but it doesn't necessarily tell you everything. And when I was looking at it, the real reason why I was in a quandary is because, like, Taylor Cornyack and, like, Al Hirsch felt, like, kind of similar. And I was like, no, no. I watch these two players, you know what I'm saying? couldn't be more different. Couldn't be more different.

So I get on ASA, American Soccer Analysis. In their X-Pass Interactive Chart, they got like the average vertical distance that each pass goes. Taylor Corniac has played like 480 passes. Basically, of anybody that's played like 300 passes, she has the highest average vertical completed pass, which is like, it's like 7.3 yards or something like that.

Now, I might be getting a little bit too in the weeds, but this is just evidence of what I'm talking about with the fact that she's always trying to progress that thing forward. Now, there are, like with the past percentage, there are growing pains here, right? She, with her getting this ability to finally get the ball to feet and play it multiple times a match there. There's growing pains.

She needs to figure out how to draw fouls, first of all when she gets in advantageous positions she needs to figure out how to get out of them most midfielders do it by just falling over creating contact falling over

she needs to figure out how to do that she needs to figure out when to go when to go backwards with it she doesn't do it enough as I've laid out because sometimes there just is no point you just need to go ahead

and go backwards with it and and if you look at the FB ref chart she leads the league and blocks clearances interceptions, blah, blah. I mean, she's a strong defense, improving offensively, and I just want to call that out.

I'm not saying she's going to be in the national team anytime soon, but I'll say at least give it this year, because she's getting all these reps, touching the ball, all these times. She's getting better every game. She hasn't improved enormously. She's moving better. She's moving better.

I mean, I remember last year with the wave, I don't know if she was hurt or something, but she was truly moving like, I was like, I think she did have a back injury or something. I was like, whoa, she was looking like Baron Trump out there. It's looking a lot better this year. She's covering ground. She's making all the defensive plays.

Work in progress with the ball, but the signs that I'm seeing with the ball so far are very encouraging. The fact that she's, you know, you would think somebody being given this responsibility, they would play it safe, you know what I'm saying, which is why I'm not too down on heart. Phil. Like, it just is what it is. Like, you know, you're getting accustomed to thing. But no, she's taking it and she's running with it. She's like, look, I might try and thread the needle on the same is going to come right back at me, but guess what? I'm going to make this tackle.

So, once again, just give her to the end of the year and maybe we might be cooking with something. It might even take two years. But is she still in a double pivot, though? It's not a, it's not a double pivot. but it was it was it like nominally it's it's not if you look at

the person receiving the ball from the center backs is Taylor yeah so um yeah I just wanted the wax poetic about about Taylor Flint real quick put y'all put her back on y'all's radar you know what I'm saying

and like I said she's 25 right now it it may take two years But by 2027, I expect it to be a factor in our midfield selection process. Okay. Okay. And also from this match, just real quick, Sav is turning it on. Sav's turning on. She's getting better.

Really just she's creating ways to receive the ball and be progressive with it. I mean, she's still falling way too much for me. I mean, that's a feature. That's a feature every game. But it just, she's not going to stop falling. But she's at least doing something in between the falls. Last game? Yes.

Can I go? Yeah. Okay. Utah versus Kansas City. Kansas City won, one to nothing off of the Claire had an assist, which I thought was very fun. Ball clipped across to the backpost. She nods it over for. Elizabeth Ball who had subbed on to sweep it in.

Yeah. It's looking like an ACL injury for Gabby Robinson, unfortunately. Horrible. That's a shame. She had become one of my favorite players in the league. Yeah. That's who Elizabeth Ball subbed in for, was for Gabby. Okay.

But a little bit about Utah with expansion teams, I feel like it's an act of patience for the first season or so. But I really thought Amy Rodriguez, the coach, had something going on with this lineup. Mandy Hott, a goalie, and Lauren Flynn, the centerback. They had fantastic games. They kept Kansas City to one goal after not being at all a defensively sound team in any way this season. Some of it was absolutely just luck. But Mandy and Lauren, I feel like should get.

a good amount of credit as well. They both saved a lot of potential goals from their forwards, especially Chowinga, who had a million different chances to score. So once they figure out how to attack as well as not bleed goals, they've got something going on. It's just a long process. Lauren Flynn, though, she was in the U-20 cycle last season. She won a national championship with Florida State last year.

It took a little bit to get acclimated to the league, but she had a really good game this week. She was one of those famed wide centerbacks for Tracy. Tara, so I do find it curious as to how you seem to be positive about Utah, negative about Bay. When Utah is considerably worse, in my opinion. I mean, they kept Kansas City to one goal. I think that's a huge...

You don't think that's a huge celebration? I mean, Portland let four goals in when they played Kansas City. Kansas City was still running wild. I mean, I mean, like, I, so within these two weeks, let's see, racing played in Chicago. and they played Kansas City. And I went back and watched the race in Kansas City match because that was the game where

like Taylor Flynn had two progressive passes according to Opta in that match. And I wanted to see, I was like surely she had more progressive actions in that match. She had like 10. But anyway, that's besides the point. I just want to say Kansas City is terrifying, bro. They are just... Kansas City is very scary.

They are just a nasty team. Like, I mean, the counterpress is nasty. They're like, their basic press is nasty. I think Claire Hutton and Lola Bontah have a really great partnership going on in that midfield. It's growing every single game. And, I mean, and they're doing this without Bia. And when you get Chowingo running at you, I mean, first of all, her running style, she just seems like, it's like, it's very robotic almost. It's like, she is just bearing down on you.

And to be fair, Bay FC have a million better players than Utah. Like they spent literally a million dollars in Utah spent a couple thousand. I mean, what did they spend? They spent no money at all. Fair. But yeah, I just wanted to comment on what the esteemed Blacko-Eytonovsky has built there in Kansas City. I mean, they're just a machine. a machine.

And then when you top it off with Chauanga running at you at any, any ball that's even like kind of up for grabs, it's just, it's a scary sight. It's a scary sight. Like Louisville got out of Kansas City with the 3-3 draw by the hair of their chinny, chintin. But I wouldn't want to experience that again. No, that was a great. That was a great draw. Okay.

before anybody before anybody says no I'm going to do a quick U-20s update I swear. Real quick, real quick, just before we leave

Kansas City. So Claire had the assist in this match in the game against race in Louisville she pulled a club out of her bag that we hadn't seen

too much which was just her long, the long ball, the vertical long paths from Claire Hutton. I noticed it was she uncorked like three of them

and she had been trying to do it before, but she wasn't, she wasn't catching the ball. They were, a lot of them were falling short. But against, against racing, she had three very nice ones, one with her, one with her left foot and two, two with her right foot, which was, which is very encouraged. So I, I think she's probably been working on that. And, yeah, I just wanted to want to comment on that. But anyway, you 20s, go ahead.

U-20s. So speaking of Lord Flynn, speaking of Claire Hutton, we've got a U-20 camp. They're also playing South Korea and a pair of friendlies. The first one is this Friday, and then we have the second one on June 3rd. It's particularly exciting as it's the first U-20 camp with all of our pros involved at the same time. So that's Claire Hutton, that's Ali Settner, that's Riley Jackson, that's Savvy King, that's Jizel Thompson, that's Ali Lemos, that's Emery Adamas, with a few major names from college as well, Elise Evans from Stanford and Jordan Dunley from Florida State, just to name a few. It's going to be really exciting to watch and see if they can break through the curse. of Tracy Kevin's.

If anybody can do it, it's going to be this group, which I believe is stronger than our last group of your 20s. Yeah, yeah, probably from top to bottom, yeah. Yeah, when you got to like our right back, left back, center back of that U-20s, yeah,

fair enough, fair enough. Yeah. Oh, oh, we did not mention that Emery Adamas scored a goal against the spirit. Caught a very nice volley with her full volley with her left foot, I want to say.

I think so. It was right at the end of the game too. Right after she's squirt. But yeah, I was a very nice goal from her. So yeah. These you 20 games are going to be

streamed, I believe, on YouTube. But I'm excited. excited for them. I'm excited for the camp. And if we can get all these pros at the World Cup, at the U-20 World Cup, we've got a good chance.

I believe. So, ending up with some camp news, we hinted at it already, but Andy Sullivan was added as a training player. The press release specifically referenced several players on the roster

returning from injuries, and midfielder Lindsay Horan played the Champions League final this past Saturday, and Emily Fox returning from Arsenal's postseason tour in Australia as a reason for adding another training player. So this really surprised me. I'm always speaking for myself, but I'm actively trying to start on a clean slate with a new coach, but I was pretty alarmed by the statement. I forgot what it was like to have a national team coach and a national team where you don't just play through entries and play through fatigue. Like we have somebody looking out for these things and adding another training player. I was really surprised by it.

Like everything we know about Lindsay is she plays through every single entry and she doesn't get tired. Like she still might play through every single entry And she still might play through every bit of fatigue But we're bringing somebody in as backup. I think that's really exciting. When you say you're alarmed by that statement, what statement are you alarmed by exactly? That they referenced reasons for bringing Andy in as

Lindsay just just played champions League and Emily Fox is coming off of a long tour. Like, we're, there's, there's reason that our players might be really tired. We might need somebody else. Those things never happened in this last era of the national team. You were alarmed in a good way. It's a positive alarm. Okay, what else?

What else from camp? Let's just reiterate, Naomi and Tirna looks like they can both, they're both available. Yeah. Hopefully they both start, in my opinion. Yeah. I'm hoping for some stop minutes, but just in place of Tierra, when Naomi and Tierna both play, Tierna's on the left. Sam Stob plays on the left, she's left-footed. I think it makes sense why she was caught in to be that backup. In the midfield, it looks like Shaw is the one most ready to go physically and spiritually and

mentally. Yeah. Yeah. Which is all good news. Yeah. I had, and then, like you said earlier, Alex played 27 minutes. Alex Morgan played 27 minutes this past Thursday for the first time since April. And Sof was out with a knock.

You know, plenty of options in the front line for us. Too many good players for too few spots. Yeah, Kat came off her last game with an entry. But that was at this point 10 days ago. So I think I feel like she should be ready to go at this point as well. I want to say this is not Woso, but three American women are going to be refing at the Copa America, the men's soccer tournament. Let's go, girls. Tori Penso will be a referee.

Brooke Mayo and Catherine Nesbit are going to be ARs among the first eight women chosen to officiate at a men's Copa America. Right. That's nice. Sisterhood. Yeah. South America known even less than other places for its gender egalitarian. That's what I don't know. I mean, you know, we've seen Tori Penso ref matches. But they're going to be bringing a certain level of S-Housery, first of all.

You know what I'm saying? And then you combine that. with potential disrespect for the woman in the middle. And, uh, Lictoria, I'm praying for you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Don't take any male aggression from our new women's national team coach.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. There may be some male aggression on the time, on the touchline. Yeah. And this and these ones. Anything else, guys? No. Nope.

Thank you for listening. thanks so much for sharing your fandom with us and we'll see you