Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #509: WoSo — 5 things to think about ahead of the Olympics (plus a few more)

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

How can we stop Barbra Banda? A brief primer on recent results for our group stage opponents. What's the striker depth chart in the post-Morgan era? Where will our set piece goals come from? Can Rose and Cat play at the same time? All that and much more discussed by Vince, Tara and Belz. 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.

From the USSF approved territories of Georgia and Kentucky, and also from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, this is the Monday Review. Today is WOSO Wednesday. We're back on a regular schedule, and the Olympics begin for the U.S. women's national team on July 25. Tara, how are you?

So good. Eager, excited, impatient. How are you guys? Yeah, how are you, Vince? I'm feeling increasing excitement for the Olympics. Hopefully they can save me from the depths of despair that I currently inhabit. I'm ready to go. I'm ready to see a full tournament under Emma.

And I think I think we're going to do a little something. They were going to do a little something. All the pieces are there. Yeah. I'm just excited to see it. With every death, there is. life. That's right. Is that like a Rafiki quote?

Something. Yeah. Anonymous, you know, you know, hey, go. Yeah, yeah. We'll attribute it to Mark Twain. We should do real starting 11s for that first, that first game against Zambia. Well, let's talk about Zambia right away. How about that?

Because, Tara, you have some, you're kind of, as usual, kind of leading the way here. You've got some maybe five. observations, things you're thinking about going into the Olympics. And I think those are going to be a nice sort of framework for the episode. So could you give us the first one? Yeah. Going into these friendlies... Let me clarify.

The friendlies are against Mexico and Costa Rica. Mexico on Saturday and then Costa Rica middle of next week. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry for the eruption. Yeah. You're fine. Totally forgiven.

But these friendlies, I just want to... us to be looking towards France. And with looking towards France, something that's on my mind, and I hope and totally believe it will be on the team's mind, is our first game in the group. It's going to be against Zambia. And the one game, and that's the one game that I would start Casey Kruger instead of Jenna Nyswanger. Maybe not in place of, but some sort of switch due to Jenna's speed and defensive limitations.

So in this camp, in these two friendlies, I would love to see them try Casey in more than just varied substitution minutes. I believe Casey is key to stopping Barbara Banda. I think she's key to closing down Germany while holding a lead and so on and so on. So give me Kruger time, give me significant Kruger time in one way or another. I think we've got to see her in different capacities. I think that's going to be really important and something I hope we take seriously. and these two friendlies. I like it.

We've all been doing a little bit of, we've all been in the lab a little bit watching Barbara Banda, highlight reels. I like that because she does feast on bad center backing kind of a lot, bad, bad defenders, bad goalkeepers.

She just, she pounces on everything. And it is very easy to imagine her shouldering Jenna and Iiswanger into the seventh row and then and then just like striding forward with the ball. So I like I like the shout for Kruger, Winnie Krueger in that game. A little bit about Zambia in their last year or so. Zambia beat South Korea twice last year.

You know, we just recently beat South Korea. they lost to the Republic of Ireland 3 to 2 in 2023 but they beat Germany 3 to 2 in 2020 then in their World Cup run they lost to Japan 5 to nothing

and then they lost to Spain 5 to nothing and they beat Costa Rica 3 to 1 but those scores can be a little misleading I think I think so I mean, I want to hear what you have to say about Banda, Vince, before we move on from her. Golden Boot Leader.

Yeah, just Golden Boot. I mean, first of all, came to the NWSL a third of the way through, I want to say. Golden Boot Leader already. Just, you know, just a force of nature. Force of nature has taken the NWSL by storm, has vaulted the Orlando Pride up to the top of the table. in the NWSL. But yeah, man, just to kill it. Just to kill it.

If I had to pick, like, you know, they just play that game, the pride and current. If I, it's a tough choice. If I had to pick, I'm probably more of a, more of a Timua guy, Timuicewenga, just because, yeah, she's just as frightening as they come. But yeah, Barbara equally as frightening. Can beat you just a number,

a number of different ways. Great at finding spaces. in the box, first of all. She's more of like a... She adds a little bit of... Like, Chowinka might be a little bit better on the dribble, creating her own shot. Barbara is like a supreme poacher

with just excellent short space quickness can get to like any ball and we'll just expose you that way. Like, for instance, like that goal she scored against the current wasn't... I forgot who played the pass. But, and ball misplated, right? I went to stick her foot out to cut it out.

It, like, squirted under the foot. Boom. Barbara Banda's just, like, game over. She's always on her toes. You know what I'm saying? Like, a lesser striker might not have been on her toes there. Allows, uh, allows, what's the correct? French.

Uh, allows AD French to come out and collect that. No. Barbara never gets caught. Flatfooted is just always, always, I'm going to score a goal. Like, it can, it can happen. to you in a blink of an eye. So, yeah. Yeah.

She's a fearsome prospect to play against. And yet, so I watched the Japan game. Like you said, Tara, the score is a little bit misleading. Because it was, the whole first half transpired without Japan scoring, almost. Japan didn't score until the 43rd minute of that game at the World Cup. Now, Japan was dominating. and actually Barbara wasn't even getting a sniff in this game. She didn't get anywhere near, at least in the first half didn't get anywhere near scoring.

So one, she can be neutralized by like a sort of coherent possession opponent, which I think Japan did very nicely. On the other hand, they were pretty, Zambia was pretty resolute in that game. That was their first game of the World Cup. So they came out and they did not allow a ton of. of clear-cut chances in the first half with that 5-4-1 of theirs. And then they got broken down on that, so a perfect sequence from the Japanese team to get that first goal. It was like a really beautiful chipped ball over the left back from, I think it was Yui, Hasigawa.

What a player she is. And then Aobah Fugino takes a gorgeous first touch with her left foot and then curls it in behind for the striker, or the left-winger, Miazawa. to steer it in all casual past Catherine Moussanda. So I only bring all that detail up to say, it took three perfect actions and sequence to break them down for that first goal. And we shouldn't be shocked if it's going to take that from us, you know,

in the opener at the Olympics. We're going to have to, if they're allowed to sit back in that 5-4-1 and just sort of hope that Bandit can go get a goal, it's not going to be easy to break them down. Now, Spain, on the other hand, Spain did also beat them 5-0, like you said, and that score was very much reflective of, like, the entire game. They just got, they just got dusted that night. So one thing, like, along with the, with the fact that we have to, we're going to have to string together a few perfect actions, right, to beat the block.

also an extremely messy action is going to put you in the you know on the back foot in the band zone in the band zone and they don't only have Barbara Banner they also got Rachel Sukuna Naji from Bayfc who has not put up like crazy numbers but if you look at you know pull up her sponsor of the pod FB ref page putting up numbers put up numbers not necessarily finishing

everything but everything looks good So having those two coming running at you, you just don't want it. You just don't want it. And this is where having Casey Krueger in the lineup is going to do wonders for us if that is the case. Because it's like, I mean, Jenna Nassonger might as well be on the forward line in that situation because, you know, she's going to get, if she's not in the seventh row, she's going to be leaving the camera shot as she just

beat beat past her so yeah and Zambi is a team where I could absolutely see us giving up some goals but they're also

a team where I could see us scoring a bunch of goals so you know I just as long as long as we come out swing and I think

I think we're going to be okay. It's just, if we roll with Alyssa Neyer, I think we've got to be ready to give up one or two. That's what I'm saying. I hope not. But yeah. And, you know, one other thing on them giving up a lot of goals that I noticed that there was a centerback named Musase in both the Japan and China. I mean, Japan and Spain games.

and she was a mess for them for Zambia. And she's not on the roster this time, I noticed. I think we could score a lot of goals. I just also think they could score a few on us. Even with Naomi Germa, I think they're going to be dangerous. Hopefully we deal with it in a professional manner and take care of business. Hopefully Denise Reddy, defense specialist, is making a, Big old Barbara Banda plan.

I'm excited. And I have faith. I have faith. Keep the ball. I mean, that should be the plan. Keep the ball. And don't spring counterattacks. So I'm looking at you, Emily Fox.

What's the next thing? My next thought is cat. It's about Cat and Rose. So Cat and Rose don't have to exist in different universes. If Cat is the starting 10, and Rose subs in to be the attacking midfielder. Kat can go up to be the striker. If Rose is the starting 10 and you bring Kat into the midfield,

we've seen Rose play in the half space or out wide as a winger. It's become a bit of a this or that situation, and I see a better world for us all. It doesn't have to be often, but in a late run this summer, consider it everybody, especially during these friendlies when they are both at the healthiest they've been in years. I think it could be interesting to see. And I think it could make us look different than we ever have. Just consider it. What do you all think?

Vince? I'm being hit with a lot of information right now. It's hard to take it on to take it on totality. But you know what, Tara? I'm going to consider it because I got respect for you. You know what? So I got much love, much respect for you, Tara.

I am considering it. But I also got some questions. I got some questions. Okay. Yeah. Remember? That I said, it doesn't have to be often because we want both of them to be arrested. Okay.

But then you're taking off a, right, if this happens, you don't have a self-maltren, Jaden, Jaden, Cressel Dunn on the pitch. Yeah. This is happening in lieu of one of these players, which, you know, we're playing every three days, whatever. Sophia will be getting subbed. that happens. Okay. Sure.

I don't know if it's going to happen. But I will say this. I will say this. I'm really thinking about the cat at Stryker thing. It could happen. I don't know if it will. But Rose, Rose just play,

you watch her play for Gotham. She plays like a forward anyway. You know, she's basically. She plays like a forward all the time. Just on the forward line. She is like a nominal. 10. But, you know, there's no, she doesn't drop back past the halfway line. She's occupying the back line, centerbacks, finding space to attack in and really just receiving the ball,

finishing for the most point. It's not even that she plays like a forward. She has been a forward for Gotham. Yeah. Yeah. But even like recently, they, like, they've moved her back a line, but still, you know, it's like she's up there. She's in front of the goal all the time. At time, she's leading the line. You know, she's part of their two and their 404-2,

their defensive shape. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just, there's not a lot of actual true midfield on there for a row. So her on the wing or anything like that wouldn't shock me, wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't be out of character for her. Yeah. So I'll take that.

That makes sense. And in terms of Kat subbing in for Sof, that's what Emma did for her all last year. Yeah, okay, fair enough, fair enough. Late in the game, if Sof is coming in two days later, you would want to rest those legs. Okay. I guess, yeah, it seems like you're talking to a specific portion of the fan base with this. I would like for us to consider that these two can exist together. That's all.

Okay. It's just like Rose being on the field is just like if I were the coach, which obviously I'm not. Thank goodness. Getting Rose on the field is not that big of a priority for me. We got to mollify the soccer moms in suburban Cincinnati. That's what I'm saying. I mean, it is. They don't get to have.

Alex? Just finding out that Megan Rapino's not on the team? No. At least give him Rose Lavelle. As an official, as an official, uh, son of the Midwest.

All right. I don't know. Is Cincinnati the Midwest? What is Cincinnati? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. For sure.

I, how do you feel about turning it back on the Midwest, I guess, bills? That's, that's what I'm, that's what I would like to ask. Well, you know, my loyalty is to,

not to nation or to region. I'm saying this because healthiest they've been in years, we should see what it's looking like. All right, fair enough. Yeah. Let's come back and talk about three more things that you have, Tara, in a moment.

Okay, we're back. Okay. Next up, it's a lighter question because I think I answer it, within the question, but we'll see. We'll see. What exactly is the striker depth chart?

The Alex snub is all anybody talked about for lengths. But is anybody quite sure what the depth chart is now? For me, it's something like Sophia, Jaden, Kat, Mal,

Lynn? I agree. Maybe Kat Jaden? Yeah. I don't know who, does anybody know who the second one is? I mean, it's definitely, self is the first choice striker now. That seems clear. Mal played it, right?

When Jaden went to Mow's spot, Mal moved to Sop spot in that first South Korea match. So maybe Mal second? She could be. I mean, Jaden makes more sense there to me than Mal does, but. I don't know if Jaden's going to run enough, to be honest, if I had to. We got to talk about it. I had to think about it. I don't know if she's going to run enough, like, in behind the stuff.

All that stuff that, uh... Cats... Cats way more false nine, and I don't know if we're doing false-niny. Yeah, such different profiles among those players and, like, what they like to do off the ball. Jaden, can we do a little tangent here and talk about Jaden? Do you feel like she underperformed a little bit in the last camp? I feel like Casey Stoney is. hurt, Jaden.

Underpornment in Alaska. Like, not physically. I just, I was just, I was just expecting a little more from her than we got in those South Korea matches. And I'm hoping, I'm just going to add this in as a point from, for me, I'm hoping we get, like, some real transcendence from her. And these, in these send-off friendlies, send her off to Paris full of confidence. and, you know, somebody's male severed horse's head to Casey Stoney's mansion if she is hurting Jaden. She's fired now.

She's not Jaden's coach anymore. Oh, okay. So I had to look up what the hell happened in this last window, man. It's been a while. But first of all, okay, she came in, played, what, 30 minutes in that one? I forgot what she did. Okay, she's played 30 minutes of the first one. Didn't do too much.

And the second one, right, was the whole, we couldn't get it out of our half issue that plagued the entire first half. And then she did come alive in that second half, if you remember. She did come alive. There wasn't a lot of transcendence per se. But, you know, Jaden Shaw has, set a high bar where transcendence is the expectation for the U.S.

women's national team. You know what I'm saying? Started off six start. Was it six starts with the goal and assist when you count the, I mean, with a goal or assist? Yeah. When you count the She Belief's Cup final. It's six.

Yeah. It was such a breath of fresh air at the time. Yeah. So we'll see. We shall see. And, you know, anybody who's watched the wave knows what they've been going through. here lately. Like even after they fired a score to goals since they fired Stony.

Uh-uh. It's dark time. Who's old girl? The coach of the wave's wife? Rebecca Lowe. Yeah, Rebecca Lowe's husband is the coach of the wave right now. And, yeah, he has yet to produce any results as an interim. No, no, uh, new coach,

sounds over here. Yeah. Alex still doesn't have a goal for the year. It's looking rough. It's looking quite rough. Like Maria Sanchez ain't cooking. But, I mean, Jaden's still the perfect Olympics player. She's going to be Mal's backup.

She's going to be one of Sophia's backups. She's going to be Cat Rose back up. She's going to be Trinity's backup. She fits in so many places. Yeah. Yes. And before we leave the topic, I do want to bring up the fact that her overall activity, just in general, has been down this year.

You know, the numbers are still looking, Jaden Shawish, for the most part, particularly the, you know, expected numbers. But, you know, her, like, take-ons are down. Her, like, progressive carries are down. Stuff like that, you know. It's just wondering if she's been, she's just carrying and not really from the start. of the season on. Something to watch. I mean, it's, for me,

something that is somewhat consistent is the transition to national team career and professional career. It's juggling both. We've seen it in other players. Yeah. For sure.

For sure. But it, that easily could be the, it probably is. the culprit here. But it's just like, man, like, Jayden, show me a sign, you know, one side. Like, let me see one game where your legs don't look

as heavy, you know? Yeah. Well, no better time than now. She's been saving it. Yeah. Terry, you have two more things, I think. Yes. Next one, I find particularly interesting. So I listened in on the most recent Emma press conference at Nike with the men's Olympics team, there is an update to the alternate rule. So if there is a temporary injury to a player on the roster within the

team, that as long as they give a six-hour notice, they're able to make a temporary roster change for the next game. So a little, so there's going to be a little bit more flexibility, basically. So let's run, so for me, let's run out the A team for consistency in this, in these friendlies for more continued growth

and whatever else is needed. But then sub and sub whoever we want to, because alternates are back in play. We can get some minutes into Croix's legs. We can get some minutes into Croix's legs. We can get some minutes to Lynn's legs, Powell's legs, whatever.

But just a few because the A team needs the majority of them. But alternates are back in play, and that's major because we had no idea that that was coming back. It's basically like the COVID Olympics, just slightly different. So I imagine that the injury doesn't have to be

signed off on by the Secretary General of the UN or anything. It's like, we just say, hey, she's injured. We need to bring in an alternate. A temporary injury. It could be, it could be, they did not go into any specifics, but it was as long as, as long as they give six hours notice. That's all they need. Basically, they have a 22-person roster. Yeah.

Essentially. Hey, man. It's cool. Why didn't they, why didn't they announce this a month ago or two months ago? It just happened. Yeah. go ahead I'm sorry

They could just easily pull a You know It's not adjusting to the food over here Escargo got Roosevelt small intestine blowing up Croixen Yeah You know

Those troubles In Australia Yeah Right And the fact that it really is a 22 person roster You know I'm gonna

I'm gonna be a broken record here But Makes the fact that Lily is not there Lily O'Hannis is not there as an alternate hurt even a little bit more for me. Because we could have played. Easily see her. Yeah.

Maybe later this year. Yeah. Definitely later this year. She's hope alive. If you listen to Emma, you know. And the press conference, Emma was like, you know, Emma gave the biggest vote of confidence ever. You know, she later...

I trust Emma. Emma let everybody know where she stands on this issue. So we will continue. to recruit. She's given us no reason not to trust her. Exactly. Okay. Last, last, last key thought I had going into, going into Saturday, our first pre-France-friendly, please, please, God, please continue our return to set peace dominance. Amen. Amen. Yeah. I used to think people were like boring and old when they talked about this. Facts.

How important it is to be good at set pieces. I have fully been converted to the boring old position. It's like it's everything. It's everything in these tournaments. 30% of the goals in tournaments come from set pieces. And it feels like more than 30%. That's crazy. 30% of the standard.

And what Stewart, our setpiece specialist. I love you, man. I don't know your last name. I forgot it, but you're my guy. I don't know who they're going to come from. If it's still Tierra, if we're going to get Lindsay back on them, whoever wants to get on the end of them, I don't care. But let's return to being dominant.

We were the gods of set pieces. We were so good at them. Yeah. Yeah, I need a... Yeah, if we can get somebody to smack Smack Lindsay in the face and whatever before our corner comes in, get a nice and pissed off like Van der Dung did

in Australia or New Zealand. I think it was New Zealand we were planning at that. Don't give me any lie. I think so. I don't know. But yeah, yeah. Just get Lindsay nice and pissed off. And then fire that thing in there, baby.

Yeah. Be it cat, be it Mal, whoever wants to take them, I think we can get back there. But I hope we practice a lot, these two friendlies. That would make me very happy, get good set piece practices before we head back out to France. Do you guys remember those shoes you could buy that had like, that like put you up on your toes? So it's like supposed to like make you jump higher? You know those?

Not at all. So maybe we should get some of those for Germa and Davidson. Because, like, we need a little more threat from those two. I mean, I guess Tina has some goals lately, but it can't just be all Lindsay. Who else could it be? Germa's a near flawless player, but I wish she could give us a little more on set pieces. I guess that's what I'm saying. She's the one who stays back, right?

She doesn't even go up for them. Right. Which tells you something. She says I'm not even going up. I mean, I haven't seen a Jaden Shaw dunk, but she's prolific with her head, for the most part. Other than that, Trinity. Yeah, yeah. Let's get some Trinity in there.

Talk about a running jump athlete. Yeah. We need. Yeah. She's an angry jumper. We need that. Thank you, Tara. That was great.

So let's talk about. Well, the other two group opponents, Australia, just I'm giving like a really high level update here, which everybody knows. Most of you know this stuff already. But just in case, no Sam Kerr. She's out with an ACL injury, has been since the winter. And she is going to miss this tournament. That makes, I think, Australia a far less formidable opponent, but still formidable. Their last few results, they beat Uzbekistan.

10-0 in Olympic qualifiers. They beat Mexico 2-0 in April, something we famously couldn't do earlier in the year. And they drew China 1-1 and then beat China-2-0 in a two-leggar in Australia. And they play Canada on Saturday in their last tune-up. All right. That's who we're facing.

We play Australia last in the group. The middle game is against Germany. they have a couple of European championship qualifiers coming up this week and middle of next week, this weekend, middle of next week. How have they been doing lately? They're actually on a little streak here.

Five unbeaten. Five unbeaten. Their last loss being to France, 2-1 in the Waifa Nations League. But since then, they've beaten Netherlands 2-0, Austria 3-2 Iceland 3-1 and then Poland twice

4-1 and 3-1 So yeah That's how that's how this has been going The Austria match They went down early 2-0 Two early goals and came back With

Yeah With 3 in answer To win that match A little bit of inconsistency I mean Like they haven't been Like just busting these teams Even the

Like I'm looking at the Iceland match match. They scored first, conceded a goal. They scored in the fourth minute, conceded a goal in the 23rd minute to Iceland, and then added two later. This first Poland match, they conceded in the first minute. So a bit of a bit of some slow starts from Germany. Even this last polar match, 3-1, they conceded first in the 12th minute and then scored

three in the second half. We'll get our fill of bionic strikers in this group with first Banda, then Pop, Alexander Pop. I still remember the Euro's last edition of the Women's European Championship was, Germany was really fun to watch in that tournament. And I thought. Was rooting extremely hard for them to beat England. Yeah, me too. They just couldn't pull it off.

Okay, so that's the group. And let's get a little bit, let's check in a little bit on NWSL before we get on with our Wednesdays. Okay, we have a few player check-ins in lieu of game check-ins just because we're focused on these friendlies, if that's okay with you guys. Great. Excellent. Okay, first up is Ali Sittner. She's headed off to the U-20 camp. over this Olympic break with another goal under her belt and the pleasure of knowing she absolutely humiliated

former national team centerback Alana Cook while doing so. Utah tied Seattle rain one to one. Allie's goal was the only one. Just, just a lot of cook, man. What'd you think? A lot of cook, like, because first of all, I just saw the goal on focus on Allie. and I was like, you know, nice play, blah, blah, blah.

I didn't even think to actually think about who it was that she just took the ball off of. But, yeah, I mean, the Alana Cook oopsie counter for this 2024 NWSL season, it got to be up to 10, 15, something like, I mean, this is just, we've talked about it multiple times this season. but it's getting, I don't know if she need to take a break. Well, matter of fact, I guess she is taking a break.

You know, the Olympics. Olympics are here in WSO is not playing. So hopefully she can come back after this break, man, feeling refreshed or something. Something needs to go on. Go to a retreat, get away. I don't know. But Alana,

come back to us. You know, it's just, it's sad, it's sad. But back on, back on Ali. Yeah, she's been, she's been cooking here lately. It's been cooking here lately. I think she had a good performance against, I forgot who they played before this. It ended up nil-nil.

The thorns, the thorns, that's what it was. Good performance against the thorns. She was absolutely cooking them. But most part, couldn't. Best player, best player on the field, I thought. Mm-hmm. And yeah. She is, I watch some of that game.

She is influential. She's a bustling protagonist. Yeah. You know, she's busy out there. She's doing stuff. Bounder pockets of space to receive the ball. Not afraid. Gets that thing, she's coming at you.

And, you know, take a shot, right, left foot. She has six goals and assists on the season. The Utah Royals have scored eight goals. She's putting this, she's putting this little tiny franchise on her back. It's a little like the worst NFL team taking a quarterback number one in the draft, except she doesn't get hurt the whole season, right? Yeah. So, I mean, she's been overshadowed by Croix, right, as far as like rookies go or whatever. But, you know, she has not been a disappointment or anything like that. Like, Ali, Ali has been bringing it the entire season, and she's really getting stronger as the season goes on, really.

And so, may along continue. Yeah. Yeah, I'm proud of her, and I'm excited. I'm excited to see her at U20 camp. I think she's really. She also set up page Monaganda at the crossbar, just real quick, in this match also. Yeah, yeah. Well, something with Ali is they've gotten over.

they too have fired their coach so they're going through a little adjustment they've gotten over playing her on the wing thank God they've they're adjusting they've they've tried to play at striker and it's worked out fairly well but where she really thrives is

in the midfield and she just sets up her she sets up her team perfectly and that's where she's doing really well and scoring a lot of really fun goals. Miles Swanson, she's headed off to our pre-Olympics camp with another big, beautiful goal against the best goalie in the NWSO, Jane Campbell. She's looking better than ever. it couldn't have come at a better

better time Chicago's Chicago's not you know not one of one of the most attacking teams in the NWSO but God

when Mal Swanson wants to wants to score a big goal she just takes it on and does it she can do it anything that's a beautiful goal left footed 22 yards away, absolutely unstoppable, set up by a, you know,

terrifically bad back pass. She just can do anything. Yeah. And, I mean, it's got to feel good. It's got to feel good going into this camp. Rose Lavelle, she's headed off to pre-Olympics camp, similar to Mao, with a goal under her belt. It's her second goal in a row, but I'm partial to this one.

What did you think, Vince? That was quite a nice goal. Quite a nice finish. You know, one touch to settle it, boom, you know, with the left foot and just swept that right foot through. She's a shooter. Yeah, that's the thing about it. It's like I'm learning to just accept Rose as she is. You know, I've been sitting here like, okay, she's just doing a lot of shooting.

And a lot of the goals, a few, maybe 50% of our goals have been just like, you know, regular finishes. I mean, like she got that one gift from racing Louisville where just our own centerback runs into our keeper. And the ball just falls to her in a box and she, you know, shoots it in. So it's like, at first it was like, okay, she's shooting, she's scoring these goals. But it's like, I need to see something else from her. I was hoping that it would be creation along with the goals. But now the creation seems to just have not come. But like we talked about earlier,

she's like on the, you know, on the pointy end of attacks for Gotham. She's receiving the ball to shoot, and she is shooting and shooting well. But, but yeah, this last one was the one where I was like, okay, all right, I'm with it. And then the, you know, she had that one against, I don't know who it was, but the one where she, nobody stepped to her, basically. Nobody stepped to her. She just had the ball of midfield, was running, and shot the ball from outside of the box, scored.

So, yeah, she's shooting and she's shooting well. And we'll take it. And we'll take it out. Pretty nice assist from, pretty nice assist from Crystal Dunn on that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it was beautiful play from Gotham all around, really. But yeah, beautiful as stickers.

Does anybody, I got to get it, I got to throw this in here just to get a rise out of Tara. Did they ever score goals in WSL that aren't on the press or the counterpress? Have fun, yeah. It's just a, it's just a heavy metal league, baby. Yeah. Next up. Oh, you know what? You know what, Adam Bell's?

Coffee. Watch. That didn't work. at all. Watch the North Carolina Courage's take down

of racing Louisville. That was a game. That was a game. Ashley Sanchez was beautiful. I mean, it's something about

racing. Ashley Sanchez. Racing lets all my, all my agenda targets eat. Ashley, you'd fall in love. You would have fallen

in love with that game. You would have fallen in love with that game. would have. I know you won't watch it, but you would have. Maybe I'll watch it. Come on. Next, next point and the one I'm most, most happy about. Samantha Coffey, we checked in on her health during the Olympics pod roster, the Olympics roster pod. We did a little over a week ago, and I said she went 30 minutes and then 70 minutes. But now she's headed off to to camp having gone 90 minutes and she played well. Great news all around.

Sam coffee. Sam coffee's fit. She's going to camp with a lot of minutes under her about. And I believe Emma is going to treat her well, get her even more game fit. Things are looking up, people. Yes, right. I wonder how often Vlako thinks if I had just taken Sam Coffee to the World Cup, we would have won the whole thing probably

Listen He probably thinks it a lot I wasn't it wasn't I don't particularly want to watch Lindsay and Rose Try to be a midfield for the 70th time again But I do want to watch Sam and Lindsay

Work it out because that That is fun It is if he was going The key, though, is he was still going to have him in a, you know, still running a single pivot six out. And I'm dubious as to that as if that would, you know, if that would have worked. Even with Sam there, just with profiles we got in midfield. Yeah.

But, oh, one thing, when I pulled up Sam coffee on Wisecout, her name is Samantha Grace. I just wanted to point that out because she looks like a Samantha Grace coffee. Acts like one. She looks exactly. It just made perfect sense when I saw her mental name. Wiscount, Wyscout puts you on blast.

Ali Marie Sintner. Samantha Grace. It does. I think everybody's concerned about, just real quick to nerd out on that single pivot point. A lot of people are concerned, like we need, we need, we need, tough defensive people in the midfield.

And it just seems like even in that tournament where we were kind of crap, I'm talking about the last World Cup, we still had most of the ball, even against Sweden. And, you know, if you can cover the transition moments, which maybe that's the key question,

it's okay for Sam Coffey not to be, you know, a Julie Ertz level destroyer. It's okay. Because as long as we can just like manage the, transitions, we're going to have most of the ball. And when you have the ball, much rather have a Sam Coffee than, I mean, honestly, rather have a Sam Coffee than the last iteration of Julie Ertz we saw with the ball in possession. And lately, you have seen Sam Coffee start to work on her destroying.

I've seen her start to try to add that to her toolkit a bit. We had 43% of the ball gets it. I mean, she certainly can do it. Oh, really? Yeah, we didn't dominate a decent team until sweet. Or would dominate possession. Okay. Until sweet.

A decent team. You know, we played Vietnam, obviously. Well, let me defend my factual error with a further argument, which is that you have more of the ball when you have a player like Sam Coffee, you know? You keep the ball more than what we were doing with Andy Sullivan at the last World Cup. So you put Sam coffee in the field We'll turn that 43 into a Into a 57 you know

Against the Netherlands That's my Apologies for the air But that's my way to circumvent The shame that I feel right now I'm looking up Portugal I agree with you though Just so you know

It was the same in the Portugal match We had 43% of the balls against Portugal Yeah I was about to say man I remember that World Cup being quite dire and it wasn't just because we were we were it wasn't just the end of game results yeah so i just think there's a little bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy when you go again apologies for the air when you go for like a full defensive midfield setup is you don't

have the ball okay you have more um you know defensive solidity but you need players in there who can play with the ball sam can do that would have been a good different tournament, I think, with a player like her there. Okay, you guys want to give 11s for the Zambia game? I think we should. I'm not an 11 guy. I think I can do that. I know you're not, but you're a judge.

You got to try it. You got to try it. Who's in goal for you, Tara? I'm going Casey. I think we're bringing Alyssa for P.K.'s. Hot take. Okay. I'm fairly agnostic on that front, but I'll take an air just to, you know, just to spice things up.

Yeah, yeah. Vince, you can, you know, you can chime in when you feel it's necessary. And right back, Tara. I'm going Emily Fox, and she's going to make me nervous, but I'm going to trust that with rest, recuperation, she's going to start to act normal. Yeah. We all got to hope for that. Yeah, Foxx it right back. I mean, the centerbacks write themselves, right?

It's Germa and Davidson. Yeah. Fair enough? Yeah, I think so. You have a caveat to that? No, no. I was about to be really, really picky and say Davidson and Germa. But I do think it's Germa Davidson.

Well, if we're starting it right back, right? Yeah, yeah. Left back. I'm going Kruger. Yeah, Kruger against Zambia. Maybe Naiswanger gets the other two. Yeah. The midfield is for you as who?

I'm doing coffee, Horan, Katerina. Yeah. Same here. And then the front three. The big dogs, Mal. Sof. Trinity. And I think Trinity is going to be able to help Emily Fox a lot because she likes to track back and she plays more defense than Mal and so ever could.

She can be able to go over to where Emily is and pass the ball to herself and then run over and receive it. No, but she'll be able to clean up any errors, I think. Yeah. I think I'll, I think I'll go the same except I'll start Jaden Shaw at right wing instead of Trin. Vince, what's your lineup? All right, so after much consideration and thought, I'm just going to

give a to you a like this. I'll go Casey Murphy and go. Casey Murphy and goal. From right to left, we're going Emily Fox, Naomi German, Tiana Davidson, Casey Kruger,

midfield, Sam Coffey, Lindsay Horan, Catarina Macario, and then up top, up top, give me, let me see, yeah, Mallory Swanson, Sophia Smith, and

Trinity Robin. Yeah. It might have to be Fox on the left, Kruger on the right. Fox plays on the left, has played on the left before, depending on where Banda is.

Sometimes she's on the left, but either way, that's my lineup. Whatever Tara says, I'm just going to say the exact same thing. I told y'all don't give 11s, man. I told you all don't give 11s. You can't force me giving 11, Bill. Okay, fine. Kruger on the right would help my lineup a little bit because then you'd have somebody out wide in possession of Jaden

so she can tuck hand. Yo, did y'all watch that, the current, the current pride match? Yeah. So, Black Co.

He took, took Chawinga, played her on the wing. And basically she just posted up on, I think her name's Casey Lawrence for the prize. I mean, she just posted up on Casey Lawrence for the entire match.

Well, the entire match until Casey Lawrence got sent off with a red card from being attached to Chowwinka. But, and, like, so she just had her, like, in hell, like, the entire match. And I'm just picturing, like, if we do start Nasswanger, like... I'll be crazy. Like, like, Barbara. Barbara just post up on Jenna. I meet, like, Bells.

I'm talking, like, Big Ten basketball post-up. You know what I'm saying? Like, Mouse in the house. you know what I'm saying? Like, the old girl Lawrence behind Chawinga was just followed up. Like, and I mean, the ball was just like, the ball wasn't even fizzed into her all the time.

It was like slowly rolling into the Chawanga. Old girl couldn't get around her, couldn't get a foot in. Like, Chowonga, like, couldn't move Chawanga, anything. Like, it was crazy. And all I'm saying is, if we do start Jenna Nonswonger, I'm expecting to see a lot of that. Like, mouse, mouse in the damn house.

give me the rock. I got my left my left hand up. You know what I'm saying? Lob it in. I can do a spin-offer whatever you need me to do. I'm gonna stand right here

next to next to Jenna and Oswanger and just give her hell this entire match. So I hope we don't give an easy target like that, but that's what you can do with versatile.

I think Jenna could play I think Jenna could play every other minute of the Olympics. But not that one. Not that one, though. I also like so much of the discourse when this roster dropped was like why would we bring Corbyn outside of the scandal like she hasn't done this she hasn't done that she hasn't done this I think the Zambia game I don't think Corbyn should start but I think Corbyn could could easily come in for us. Sam or a Lindsay because a scrappy, speedy midfielder could easily fit in this game. Yeah.

Like a Corbyn profile fits the Zambia game, I think, very well. Like, I think, I think that's why she's here over other players. Just to like man mark Barbara Banda. We don't have any other speedy midfielder. And Corby. Yeah. And Corby, she's a good defender. Oh, yeah, she is.

It's really the only thing she's good at right now. Yeah, that's the thing. I've heard some people talk about, like, form with regards to Corbyn, you know what I'm saying? Like, she's in bad form. I mean, you shouldn't have brought it to the limit, you know, whatever. Like, not only is she documented herself, documented herself to be transformative macobophobic, et cetera. But, you know, she's been in bad form for PSG.

She just, for me, just hasn't quite demonstrated that she's actually a good player. It's not just the form we're talking about. I mean, you know, form for a midfielder shouldn't fluctuate that that much, especially when I'm playing deeper as she does for PSG most of time. But, yeah, she just hasn't necessarily demonstrated over a, you know, even a three, four-month period that she's actually good, particularly about U.S. Flem's national team good. But, yeah, as we've all laid out here, she does have

particular traits, characteristics that other midfielders in the pool don't have. She's a good athlete, and she's and she plays hard. I thought she was better, honestly, when she first arrived at PSG and got minutes than she has been in the last, you know, down the stretch this last spring.

Yeah. But anyway, neither here. I'm trying to make a control tempo. She doesn't know what tempo is, man. You know what? She doesn't know what tempo is. No, she doesn't know. You think she can read music?

Uh-uh. But I do, you know, she's young. She can keep improving, and she very likely will. Uh, so. Oh, um, quick little rumor. I saw Ivacitino was rumored to Leon was interested in her. I was like, in WSL? I seemed a world too crazy.

But, okay. Yeah. I still think, I mean, the thing that's interesting me about the midfield and the Corbin discussion and the coffee discussion, which I'm trying to get at and maybe not doing a very good job, is there is this tradeoff between defensive solidity. There can be a tradeoff between defensive stoutness, which you get in Corbyn, and a player like Lily O'Hannis,

who is a maestro on the ball, who does not provide the same, like, assurance defensively. And I think that is a very complicated equation, like what you trade off for what, because if you play somebody like Corbin who fizzes the ball into her teammates' feet, when there's no need to fizz it, you know? or like, you know, she just looks like she's in a fluster every time she gets on the ball.

It takes a toll. It takes a toll. And it's hard to quantify the toll that that takes on the team. But it is a toll-taking thing. So anyway, we'll keep talking about it. Where I stand on this is just the fact that, like, if you structure your team correctly, you should be able to mitigate most. Like, I'm not too worried about, like, the Sam Coffee, Lindsay Iran, double pivot, for instance.

It's like, if you structure your team correctly, we should be able to, and if we're able to control the ball, like, we should be able to, that we should be able to mitigate and swerve around any defensive issues for the most part. Maybe, like, once, you know, we catch Spain or whatever, they put us under the caution, and it's like, oh, okay. they getting pulled around, torn apart, etc, etc, etc. But as long as we're able to control the ball and, you know, counterpress doing what it's supposed to do, all that different type of stuff, you know, it limits the spaces. It limits the amount of ground that you have to cover, all that, all that different stuff.

It was, you know, we were playing with Laco. We were just putting it on, on mostly one person who couldn't cover the ground necessary to hold it down to the midfield. Right. Well, to use another sort of specious European metaphor, the, it's kind of like, it could be like a marginal line, you know, the famous wall, the French built to keep the Germans out after World War I. The Germans just went around it.

So you could fill your midfield with defensive midfielders, you know? But you're missing the point. It's not, that's not, the game isn't won by stock. Just purely by stopping the other team. The game is won in a much more complex way than that. So anyway. Yeah, I've just had this screenshot up of this damn of this possession number in the Portugal match. Expecting to see this is a lot better tournament here, you know?

And we're going to be feeling much better. You know, we're going to have another Wosso Wednesday, I guess, right before the tournament starts. where we can. Yeah, when is the next one? Yeah, it'll be one. The day before. T-minus one. Match day minus one.

And, of course, we'll recap the Mexico and Costa Rica friendlies. Greg and I will. You know, we'll see how that works out, but maybe Sunday, maybe Monday. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.