Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #543: WoSo — 3 WNT games upcoming, full roster discussion

Episode Date: October 23, 2024

Who will partner with Girma in the back? Who’s gonna be the Dunn replacement? Will Sanchez make a mark in this window? Who’s gonna shine in the midfield? Lots to mull over ahead of a two-pack of friendlies with Iceland and then Argentina in Louisville on Wednesday. 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. The U-17s advanced yesterday to the quarterfinals of the World Cup beating South Korea 50. Mel Barsenas and Kennedy Fuller starring for us. The U-17s faced Nigeria on Saturday, but meanwhile, the senior national team is going to be pretty busy. Three matches in the next seven days.

Starting with Iceland on Thursday night in Austin. I got Vincent Tara here with. me. How are y'all? Vince, how are you? Feeling great, man. You bury the lead. You know what I'm saying? Three matches in the next seven days. It's starting in Austin, but where is it in the debt? Louisville, Kentucky.

That's right. One week from today. One week from today, Louisville, Kentucky will be the epicenter of the global woe-so community. A huge game, a huge match against Argentina. Is it?

Yeah, I'm very excited. I'm very excited. My credential was approved. I'm going to pull up the training a few days maybe before I go to work. It's all going to be very nice. This is all just being in my hometown. I don't have to leave anywhere. Man, beautiful.

Yeah. Beautiful. Going to be doing a little tailgate there in the purple lot, the main lot attached to the stadium. If anybody wants to pull up, I'm probably going to have some pull up. I'm probably going to have some pool pork on deck. that I'm a smoke. Stadium is, I would say functionally sold out.

I mean, we added, like, we're bringing in, like, bleachers seats and whatnot. I think they said there are 700 tickets left. They said that last week. So, hopefully we'll see that dissipate, get a full sellout. I mean, it'll be a,

record crowd on the stadium, because, like I said, they're bringing in extra bleachers. I don't even think we've had an actual full sellout, even for a little city game. I think we got close, maybe. 14,000 somewhere in the record. We're going to blow down the water.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you couldn't tell, I'm excited, and I'm just looking at Tara's face while I'm talking about all this. And I can't tell if Tara is annoyed or just being happy for me that I'm so excited. It's hard to tell. But I'm very happy. I'm very happy. I am thrilled your back. I'm thrilled we're playing Argentina.

and I'm thrilled for the U-17s advancing to the group. Let's do the roster first because we haven't had a time to talk about that yet. Emma Hayes called up for these three matches, so Iceland, Iceland, and Argentina. She called up a goalkeeper Jane Campbell, Casey Murphy, and Alyssa Neer. So not really any shockers there. Well, you have to remember this is the Gold Cup celebration. So per the collective bargaining agreement, everybody had to be called up.

So if you were expecting like goalie tryouts, this wasn't going to be the camp for you. Come back in November when, you know, there will be an option for that. But everybody who was on the Olympic roster had to be called in for this camp. Okay. That's interesting. Got to follow the collective bargaining agreement, you know? I won't get sued, man. Got to do it.

Because they won the gold medal, this was their celebratory camp. Okay. So, yeah, that puts some guardrails up, I suppose. Defenders would be Emily Fox, Eva Gaetino. Is it Eva, or is it just a plain old Eva? It's probably just an Eva, isn't it? Yeah, I think so. And then, Naomi Germa, probably the best player in the world.

Casey Kruger, Haley Mace. Alyssa Mallinson, Jenna Nysewanger, Emily Sams, and Emily Sonnet. So Malinson, Mace, Sonnet, Kruger, and Fox, and Niswanger, I guess, are the ones who can play fullback. And Gaetino, you know, she does play some midfield for PSG, but pretty much a centerback. We'll get into, Tara's got some sort of a way to guide us through this conversation. that I think is really helpful. So we'll get to that in a second. Midfielders, Corbyn-Albert.

I got a lot to say about her. Sam Coffey, Hal Herschfeld, Lindsay Horan, Rose Lavelle, Olivia Moultrie, and Ashley Sanchez. I know you're happy about that, Tara. Yeah. Everybody I wanted to be called up, got caught up. I think it's a huge success.

And then forwards, Yasmin, Ryan, from Gotham, Emma Sears. We're going to be playing in front of our hometown crowd, hopefully, against Argentina. Jaden Shaw. What club did Maseers play for? Bills? The people don't know. Racing Louisville.

Okay. Thank you. I assume we'll get into that, too. Sophia Smith, Mallory Swanson, Alyssa Thompson, and Lynn Williams. So that's the roster. A lot of good players. Not really, like, I guess, yeah, because of that gold medal celebration clause. No big surprises, I don't think.

Yeah, Emma specifically said in her post-roster press conference, because she had so little room to play with, she requested the camp go from 23 to 26 because she wanted more players to look at. And she even hinted at November she's going to have even more players to look at. That's the goal is to continue to expand the camp. Expand the roster. Yeah. And the player pool all of the above.

And I think, like, with all due respect to Lynn Family Stadium and Louisville, that late November, early December camp is when we're going to see, A, you know, premier opponents and then B, some, maybe a little bit more interesting roster. Oh, oh, oh, so you're saying the roster that the one the Olympic gold medal isn't interesting? I mean, it's interesting, but it's all relative, you know. Noted. Noted. And then in the press release, Emma also said the roster does not include any players from the under 20 women's youth national team that finished third in late September at the U-20 Women's World Cup in Columbia, as those players are being given. time to get back into their clubs and colleges. Hayes said some could be in November camp to warm up for the January's futures camp.

So they were never going to be in this camp because they just got back to club and college. It totally makes sense. And I want to talk a little more about the futures camp because it was interesting. I thought, you know, I pulled up a bunch of Alyssa Thompson clips to try to change. check in on her game. And when she was, when Angel City was playing at Seattle, they were interviewing Hayes on the broadcast. And she was talking about the futures camp right before Thompson assisted a sister Mary Alice,

Vignola goal. That'll be really interesting to see who she calls up. They're going to do it, like, I know we've talked about this before, but they're going to do essentially concurrent camps right next to each other. So she can watch, so she can have, she'll have the senior team, and then she'll have, be able to over and watch the futures. I like that term. Me too.

While the camp is going on. So it'll be fascinating to see who gets called up for that. And who matriculates upward. Any predictions on who gets sort of in November? I think it absolutely, I think there is a strong, strong argument for Hutton. I think there's a strong, strong argument for Sittner. Those two. okay yeah like like i guess with the u20s being left out it does throw a wrenching the things

but but i'm thinking it's like okay if emma petitioned for these extra roster spots and she used them on certain players um over other players then you can kind of assume that that i think that that they're rated you know pretty pretty highly i guess but but the but the but the 20s being out does throw a wrench into all of that because maybe like you know uh sent nor jumps emissiers i mean she should you know i'm saying uh clare hudden jumps uh i don't know malonson something you know um or maybe savvy because she she plays with alissa you know at bay yeah maybe yeah something like that so but but it must be said that getting called up for this camp did this seem to be It can be a, it can be a sign or it could, or it could not be a sign, you know, you know, Emma is.

Crazy. It could be all or nothing. Well, let's talk about, let's start with Sears. Like, what should we expect from her? What kind of player is she? Oh, yeah, Emma Sears. Okay, she is a right winger, okay, attacker from Ohio State, the, Ohio State University.

You would think Tara will be more excited about this. I'm very excited. I'm a fan. Okay. All right. As a great, I mean, Sarah,

you're not like the typical Ohio State University graduate. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's fair. Let's offend some people. What is the typical Ohio State University graduate?

Look, the listeners of the pod would have known that Tara was a Ohio State University graduate. within the first 20 to 30 words of her speaking on this podcast if she was one of the, you know, the usuals. Okay. Or even if she didn't go. I mean, come on. Tara, from Ohio, went to Ohio, stay up me, you know.

Yeah. Emma Sears. All right. Yeah. Right winger. We've tried to play her on, we've tried to play her on the left wing. She can't do it. Okay.

Emma Sears is a very limited player, a very one-dimensional player, but a very effective player, because she might be the fastest person in the league and she might be one of the strongest people in the league. For defenders, just bounce off of her. Number one, if you can even catch her, and then if you... Yeah, I mean, she'll race past you first. And then if you can catch her, you'll just bounce off of her. She's solid, like a brick wall. I mean, her main thing is that she just pushes and runs.

She just pushes it and goes. And good luck stopping her on getting to the end line or anything like that. She's also a pretty good ball striker. Pretty good ball striker. I think she has like, what, five goals in the NWSL? A lot of them have come from, you know, low XG chances, but she just wallops the ball. Absolutely.

Laces that thing where she gets the chance to put her laces through it. And to be honest, that's really it. Like that's Emma Sears. It's very basic. But like I said, extremely, extremely, extremely effective. Really nobody that I've seen has been able to stop her on that right side. We've put it on the left a few times. And she's very right-footed.

She's very right-footed. So we've put her on the left and the only thing she can do is cutting on her right-foot. And along with being very right-footed, she's not that good at controlling a ball. or, you know, the ball is not one with Emissiers as it stands currently. And so her cutting inside is just a recipe to just lose the ball over and over again. With her being on the right, she can push that thing and run and good luck stand with her. She's going to leave you in the dust. And she's been able to, you know, just cause problems.

She's shown a little bit of the little bit of culture she does have is just maybe the ability to chip a ball. when she has different deliveries from the when she gets to the end line. She can visit, a la Tim Wea, low and hard. She's shown the ability to chip it. And, but yeah,

that's it. It's a simple package, effective package, once again, for the third time. Okay. So she, but she can,

is she pretty decent at picking out a cutback or, you know, picking a pass? Okay. Yeah, yeah. She does get her head up.

And she's even, one thing I was thinking about yesterday, watching Tim Wea and all the cutbacks he got. he got to play yesterday. Sometimes, you know, get to the in line and chop that thing back, you know? And Emma does play with their head up in that regard.

You know, as the season has went on, she doesn't just get to the end line and blindly play it in. She'll get there because at this point, she knows she's getting there. You know, she's thinking ahead. She'll get there. Somebody's trailing a yard behind her, chop that thing back, put on her left foot, maybe chip it.

She is getting better at that. She's making plays by design. I mean, she had a beautiful chip ball to Savedamello, which, I mean, that's just a whole other story on the total opposite end of, you know, I mean, I don't think. We don't even have time to get into 2024 Savedamelo right now. I don't think Emma was considering calling her up because, my gosh, everything good that happens attacking wise, even with the additions of Bethany Balser and Janine Becky, most of it still comes from Emma Sears. and she hasn't even necessarily started for racing the entire season. She probably might have like four or five starts or something like that, but are most dangerous and best and most dynamic attacker by far.

Okay. I mean, it sounds like a little bit of a, I mean, not exactly a like-for-like with Trinity Rodman, who is, but, you know, there's a little bit of overlap there. because, you know, Trinity's going to get by her defender and get an opportunity for a pass. Right. And we talked about it before, right? We don't have many wide touch, foot on the touchline wingers. You know, we got Trent.

Alyssa has been called up now, so we got to listen. They can play out there. Emma's one of those. But, yeah, as far as, you know, once again, I just want to really hammer it home. The technical ability is not that great. Technical ability really is not that great. But she can be a Lynn Williams, you know. I think she's probably like two inches shorter than Lynn Williams.

But like I said, strong as ox and extremely fast. Okay. And I think it's important to note Trinity's not here. She's recovering from a bad back injury. She is back for the spirit. She's not starting or anything. But we're giving her time to recover. cover, which I think is great.

So all that to say is we're going to be seeing these wieners. And I think that's a clear goal of this camp with who we've caught up is to get some triple espresso subs for the first time ever. That's not Lynn Williams. That's a great goal to have. Yeah. And if you've, I mean, triple espresso has been totally shattered by their experience in France.

You know, if you kept up with the rest of the NWSL season, I mean, they clearly paid a toll, you know, obviously for a great reward. But, yeah, Tren injury issue. I mean, Tren doesn't get hurt really much at all. So just now coming back, Mousins have been off and on. Not hurt, just stalled. Yeah. Let's get a quick look at Yasmin, Ryan, and then Alyssa Malinson, because those are the other two first-time call-ups besides Emma.

What's there to know about Yasmeen? Yaz, I have a sneaky suspicion she's going to be looked at on the wing, right or left, but she is a midfielder originally. She's being played on the wing for Gotham this year because Midge Purst tore her ACL. But before that happened, she was a midfielder for Gotham. And she was incredible. She's very, very dynamic. She's fast. She's aggressive.

Scores goals. She can do it all. Okay. I mean, that was very quick. But I think everybody's going to be a big fan of Yasmin. You know, one thing, before we go on to Malins, and one other thing about Sears is if you look at her FBREF chart, she's not super great.

It doesn't look in the attack, but on defense, she got some big old green bars, you know? Like, tackles, interceptions, blocks, clearances, apparently a two-way player. Yeah, yeah, that's why I brought up the Lynn Williams thing. Yeah. Because that's, she can bring the defense.

What about Mallinson? So she plays left back for Bay FT. Yeah. Does Savvy usually play right back for them? She's healthier. Savvy's left back too, but she was gone for a while at U-20s. So we're calling in Savvy's backup to the national team? Well, it's a little, they've split starts quite a bit.

I would not call Alyssa Savvy's backup. Okay. But, yeah, I mean, Alyssa, Alice has been playing since 2020's pretty steadily. And you're definitely not going to see her attacking as much as Crystal done. But she's, she's very good at defense, I think. She's had a good season. Would you agree, Vince? Yeah, yeah, which I've been watching her in spite, you know, because her in the starting role has taken away minutes from Savvy.

But, yeah, I mean, there's no, like, you know, when you watch it, you want to be like, oh, this player is being wronged or whatever the hell, you know. But, no, not the case. Not the case. And 15 starts for Alyssa. I just looked at this season. So, I mean, yes. It's played quite a bit. I mean, Savvy might be Alyssa's backup, to be honest.

Okay. So that leads us into the Dunn, the Crystal Dunn replacement discussion. She put in a heroic, I would say, shift for several games at the Olympics at Leftback. It's hard to imagine anybody doing that better than her. But who can replace her? Yeah. So Crystal, Tierna, Trinity, and Croix. They are all out of this roster.

So all of them are injured except for Crystal, who is out for personal commitments. These personal commitments have kept her from playing for Gotham for weeks now. And for Gotham, they're marked as excused absences. So I think we're going to be seeing full back replacements much quicker than we were anticipating. She's pregnant. I think she's pregnant, yeah. So that's something I'm excited about for this camp, some tryouts. And I think we can even expect that in November and moving forward because nobody's going to be locking this down right away.

Malleton, Haley Mace, Jenna, Casey Kruger's on this roster, but she's just coming back from injury and she's not a long-term. option anyway with all due respect. Respectfully. It is... Because she's too old, right? Yeah. To be able to be. And then, as much of a fan of Savvy and Giselle Thompson as I am,

we'll see how long it takes to get a call up. As they both have made provisional rosters, I think, I think they are on the radar. as they should be and the fullback replacement plan is something that's going to be an intriguing storyline in the women's national team.

Yeah, and this is something that Emma has kind of been flailing out since she's had the job really. I mean, you know, we remember the random Kate Weisner, a training player, you know, you know what I'm saying? It's like, I mean, how many minutes is Kate played for a spirit?

It's called in. was training with the team, etc. I guess something that Emma doesn't quite have a grasp on, maybe she is waiting, but with what you just said, I hadn't even noticed that, Tara, but Crystal's probably going to be out for November too, if this is the case. I mean, you would think.

So we're going to get the opportunity to see some people. I don't want to see Haley Mace at England again, like how it happened last time. That was, I mean, come on, man. Really, I don't. understand the Haley Mason edition. But it hasn't. I mean, she hasn't been at Gotham.

It's been, it's been at least four weeks, if not longer, of excused absences. Yeah. I'm going to start calling U.S. soccer ableists, man, if they don't call Carson Pickett. I mean, we're doing all this flailing and no Carson Pickett, man. That's, it's a little crazy. But, uh, we'll see. I would put my, depends on who we play. But for this camp in particular, I would say,

Jenna just because I was thinking about this driving home, like driving back from dropping my kid off at school. And just thinking back to when I watched Jenna, when I had my boots on the ground in Louisville this year. And just how smooth she is with the ball, man. I mean, she makes, we watch a lot of soccer. Fullbacks can often make playing at the back seem very difficult. and at points in times they make it look so difficult that it's like you can't even blame him it's like he's on the touchline he got a guy on him or got a person on him as soon as they received the ball what are they supposed to do etc but jennah with jennah that's just not a thing

she just tuck a little pass in between a tiny little window move and tuck a pass so just carry it inside if she needs to be to get a better angle anything like she just has options for anything that you throw at her. And so even with the defensive shortcomings, which we all know, we all know are a thing, but with Emma, with the structure that we have in place, I think we might be able to alleviate some of that. And, well, she'll get to cozy up next to Germa. You know, Germa's going to slide over into that left back spot, that left center back spot,

so she's going to have her sort of warm, warm, comforting presence to her right. And I was thinking about Winger help too, but, but, you know, I mean, Mal's not the, it's not the same as having Trinity on your side. But, but it's Mao nonetheless. Mow's a dog. A five foot four, you know, the, uh, Chihuahua, you know, but, um, yeah, I, I would go Jenna right now. Maybe Casey Kruger or, or my lonson for the tougher games, a November window or something. But Haley Mace, I've seen it. I've seen what I need to see.

The thing is, and I forgot to mention this earlier, in that same post-roster press conference, Emma did say we can expect three different lineups. So I think we're going to be seeing all of these options at some point. Understood. Yeah, we should be able to win each of these games without, you know. The Lilleville game will be so nasty. I can't think of the Argentina women's national

women's national team without remembering that Pan America series where their Hutton goal made the senior goalie retire right after the game on the spot. She announced her retirement right after the U-19s beat them. It was an amazing tournament. Yeah. We're going to get Roosevelt for sure. We're going to get Roosevelt for sure in that match. She's getting honored for 100 caps.

and, you know, she's from the area, Cincinnati kid. But other than that, man, we're going to be looking at, you know. Get ready for some Haley Mace, bro. That's right. Okay, what about the centerback situation, Tara? What do you want to see in these games? Something I hope is that we get a revolving door of GERMA partners. So San Diego is not.

going to go to the playoffs. So we don't need to cry wolf about resting Germa. She can handle it. And Tiana Davidson is not there. So I'd like Emily Sams, Eva Gaitino, and I guess Sonnet because she's there, to each get a game. And then we dissect after that, look at each option of centerbacks and how they do with our dear Lord and Savior Naomi Germa. Eva, like I said earlier, or like you said, actually, I didn't.

Eva is still being played in the midfield for PSG, which I just do not understand at all. But surely we are not going to be doing that, and she is listed as a defender on this roster. So I hope that we get her first cap as a centerback. That left centerback for PSG, Dudec, I think is her name, is the captain. and is pretty nice. She played only as a centerback her first year last year.

Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I'm not that excited about Guy Tino, like long term. I mean, she's fine, but,

you know, Sana is who she is. Are you guys excited about Emily Sam's? I like, let's be, let's be, like, you know,

can't be equally excited about everybody. Like, give the listeners some distinctions. Like, Is Sam's... Sam's is good. Okay. Sam's is good.

Sam's is good. I mean, she's not Naomi Germa. Yeah. If Sam Stobb did not break her knee, I would have preferred Sam Stob. But Emily Sams is the next best option for me. Yeah, she's good. She's been, she has been battleshiped more than a, what? I was going to say more than a few times,

but I'll say a few times. I'll say a few times. She's gotten turned, made it look a little silly. Not too, she's all right on the ball. Hasn't really done too much that's like, wow me anything like that, but I mean, capable,

athletically, first of all. And decent on the ball. And despite me talking about the fact that she gets a battleship, it's solid. She's solid, man. She's solid there in the back. I mean, a key part of, you know, the pride's success this season. And has pedigree.

You know, she's been a someone thought of with someone thought of possessing this type of potential for a while now. And it's coming to, it's coming to fruition. You guys have watched a lot more of her than me, but, you know, I just pulled up some clips yesterday. and like the first long pass and that 3-1 lost to Gotham is like she just floats one like into from the right side almost into zone for her own zone 14 I'm like bro come on what are we doing here that was the first time anybody scored three goals on them all year Orlando I mean you just picked a bad game okay um the next thing I want to see oh you go ahead just real quick I will rank her above Eva if to just go ahead and give a put a ball in the situation like Eva uh has problems with her hips and turning and I don't think she's as fluid and athletic as Emily for sure like Emily okay Emily is pretty pretty damn athletic so I'm gonna side with that for sure for a centerback and they're probably the same they're probably the same on the ball too

I would say the next thing I am excited to see or hope to We kind of already talked about it, but just to be even more up front. I want good triple espresso subs so we don't run their bodies into the ground even more than we've already done. So what I hope that looks like is Thompson, Shaw, and Sears as the first runout. Vince talked about it a little bit, but Sophia specifically just recently came back from Injur's. I can only assume she won't be playing any 90s. Yasmin is being played on the wing a lot for Gotham, like I talked about. So we could see her as one of the options.

But I would have loved, I would love to see her as a midfield trial. But, you know, if it's a winger, so be it. But definitely, Alyssa, definitely Emma Sears. let's get good triple espresso subs so we have backups for the first time since, you know, we've been able to play now, Sophia and Trinity regularly. Well, it's, yeah, it reminds me that we brought a essentially unplayable, unplayable in the sense that she couldn't play, Jaden Shaw to the Olympics. Yeah.

And so we had her on the roster but didn't have her as available, basically. Yeah, and it was never very clear where Jaden was going to be played because she can play so many positions. I mean, that's where she was going to play anywhere she needed to go, basically. But after the Olympics, she went on Kristen Press and Tobin He's podcast. And she talked about how she was cleared for 10 minute aerial emergency minutes if they needed a goal. Because her leg was still like banged up, but she could use her head, basically. So, striker minutes. But they never needed a goal.

So they didn't have to throw her out. So I can only imagine she's going to be the striker in this situation because nobody else is the striker on this roster. I mean, we could slot Mal over if need be, but... What about Sof? Sof's just coming back from injury. So I don't think she's going to be playing a lot, is my point. So I think it's got to be Jaden. Okay.

We'd love to see it. We'd love to see it. Yeah. I do think I feel a little robbed that we got so little of Jaden at the Olympics, you know. Emma talked really highly of her in the press conference about how upset she was that she wasn't able to play in the Olympics. She wished we were able to see more of her, how great her hair looks now. It was nice. I checked in on Alyssa.

It's great to see her back. She's going to be a nice fill in, I think, probably on the left wing. Her 1V1 explosiveness is as explosive as ever. It's just a joy to watch her breeze by people. But I think, like, if decision-making and final third execution were on a continuum from, say, Kat Macario on the good end to Lynn Williams on the bad end, I still think she's a little too close to the Lynn Williams end, Alyssa is. Like she'll get to the end line and her cutback will,

you know, she'll play the pass a little too late. She'll miss the runner. She'll cut it back to nobody. So, I mean, it's awesome. I don't know how it compares to Emma Sears, but it's awesome to see her get to the end line because she can do it. But then there's just a lot of waste when she gets to that moment.

You know, she's still a really young player. And she's magical. and she can do the hard part, which is get by somebody. But she's a clear step down from Mal Swanson, I guess, is the very unsurprising insight that I have to offer. I think she's following the Mal Swanson trajectory almost perfectly. Career-wise, going up, going down, going up, going down, making a big roster, being dropped. from a big roster. I think getting five goals and I think she's on seven assists now for a very bad team shows

she's growing at a very good rate. And now that she's going to have not huge flop of teammates, I'm super excited to see what happens in this camp. No, Claire Emsley. Man. They talked about how she stays after and attends, like, the Kristen Press School of finishing, because that's how little she gets from their actual training with Angel City. Like, Kristen Press has to be her coach. That's what taught her to be good in the second half of.

the season when Kristen Press came back. It's a good coach to have. But yeah, unless I've been getting to it, though. Unless it's been getting to it, man. She's just looking good. Looking real good.

She's looking good. And this is what Mal Swanson had to do when she entered the league. What, at 17? Like, she went through big ups. She went through big downs. I mean, to come back from a very slanderable start to the season

that she had. end up with these types of numbers. I mean, amen. Nothing but respect. Okay. Lindsay Horan, you know, she's going to play probably all 270 minutes in this camp. You know it's true. It'd be nice to see some people deputize for her, wouldn't it? I would love it. My hope, my dream, my prayer, I'd love to see Sanchez, Morty, even Yasmin, get some midfield minutes. The last time we saw Ashley Sanchez, we saw her as an attacking midfielder for the national team. That small stent that poisoned everybody's mind.

She joined North Carolina and she's thriving. She's leading her team in goals. She's leading her team and assists. North Carolina plays with two eights quite frequently. my plea to the world, remember that Ashley Sanchez can do both now. She can be box to box. Don't just think that she can only attack.

I hope that we see her in both roles. That's all. And I hope Olivia Moultrie gets more time as well. I mean... Go ahead. Look, look, I'm not Ashley Sanchez here. I just want to throw that out there. But as far as like, like, I mean, with our midfield set up, right, the two and then the one, like, we need to find people that can play in that too, right?

And I don't think Ashley Sanchez is one of those players. I do not think she could surprise me, but she's still like two sheets in the wind when it comes to defendant. Like, I mean, it's a, she'll give you a strong O'LA all the time. You know, she'll be in positions, but, like, I mean, she's easy to swat off, you know, she's like, I mean, there's no, she's bringing nothing to the party when she's, when she's coming at you and you're carrying the ball or anything like that. But, but that's not the takeaway with how she's been playing. I saw her in person. I think this was after, I think this was my, during my sabbatical, North Carolina Courage came to race in Louisville. they got beat by the way.

Ashley Sanchez, bro, I mean, it was what I, I think the first time I talked about her this season, I was just talking about how she, like, I mean, when she's on her game, she's unplayable. She's unplayable. She's like a, I don't know, she's like a ghost or like an apparition out there. So like, so just pop into space,

receive the ball. And you're trying to get over to the, you're trying to get over to her while she's receiving. receiving the ball, but she receives the ball so cleanly, and then takes like two, three touches to turn, and then she's off while you're still trying to, you know, you're taking you two steps to the right to get over to her. But while you're coming over to meet her where she is, she's coming, she's going to where you're leaving, you know, and she can do it just so quickly.

Her turning radius is like a zero-turn lawnmower or something. You know what I'm saying? Like she gets the ball, she's just boop, boop, boon, gone. And like before you can even get to it, before you even get a foot in. And seeing that in person was just, it's a pleasure to watch. You know, all the flare and everything that comes with Ashley Sanchez. But yeah, just her ability to receive the ball in those pockets and just leave people in the dust, man. It's really something.

I mean, that's all I can really say about it. But it's like, it's like she got eyes in the back of her head or something, man, with the way. The way she turns, the way she's able to find space, the way she knows what she's going to do with it as soon as she turns her 360 degree awareness and all that, all that is just, it's sublime. And I do think, I do think if you play in that 10 role, she will shine. It's just being in that two band, I don't think that's her ministry. Did you say you don't think that's her ministry? correct Vince wasn't it funny

that how much she turned it on when Emma showed up to the game though she did I mean she's been doing it all season though but but yeah it was just like an extra click on the dial I was just like she's so silly

she did hit I forgot who she hit with that nasty ass that turn on the on the right side line where she was just toying with if you're NW. cell fan, you know what I'm talking about. Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, her ability to do to do all those things. Plus, actually midfield is, yeah, we can get some of the, we can get something out of that. And in that 10 role, if you got the right people in that band of two, you know, you don't got to do too much. Just be willing and able to

get stuck in. I mean, that's where Rose was so good in the Olympics, right? She was getting around the pitch and making it happen. So yeah. I expect Ashley to go ahead and make sure that, you know, she's in Emma's mind for camps to come. Yeah, I mean, we should have mentioned Kat Macario, not in this camp. I guess she's had a little bit of a setback. Emma talked about it.

She said it's important for Kat to get a regular amount of, games before we put her on a plane. Yeah. She came in, performed really well for Chelsea right away, and then now she's not in the lineups. Hasn't been in the lineup for a couple weeks. Yeah, they said there's no injury. They just said they're building fitness.

Understood. Okay. Well. Unbelievable iron. I mean, what does that even mean? for anybody not seeing this visually. Well, you know, we got like, I don't know, the mystical healing of the knee for a long, long time.

Yeah. What is going on, you know? It was like she couldn't come to the Olympics. She plays two games and then she disappears again. Yeah. You know, speaking of that band of two, I think Corbyn Albert, the way she's playing, the things she's adding to her game,

I've got to get used to having her on the field. I think it's going to be, she's going to be around for a while. She's playing as an 8 for PSG, forming one of the two in that 3-25 attacking shape. And then she's like either in defense, she's either in the middle in a 4-4-2 if they're in a block,

or she's pressing in this sort of the second wave of the press. So it would be, I guess, roughly a 4-3-3. and she's an absolute dog in the press. We already know that. And in the counter press. She's probably the best athlete we have in midfield, at least on the Olympic roster. Am I missing anybody?

Is anybody in midfield who's a better athlete than her? I don't think so. Yeah. And she's getting better. So she's still, I don't know, she's probably never going to have like an elegant first touch. you know, just a profound sort of poet in the middle of the field. She's not going to be that.

But she's getting more efficient with her first touch and with her decisions. She's getting more comfortable, I think, receiving the ball in tight space. She's getting more thoughtful about finding the ball. She's waiting her passes better. Like, you know, for instance, leading a teammate into a little pocket of running room with a slow roller or hitting the through ball on an in-back-through passing sequence. And instead of the ball just flying out of bounds, it just dies on the grass right next to the person she's playing it to.

She can play a pretty decent diagonal. Just got that clipped ball over the back line in her bag. And she's not a dribble merchant, but she can dribble enough to sort of get out of a sticky situation. And she's just getting a lot of rep. You know, we talk about the importance of reps. She's getting a lot of reps at these things in PSG. And she is way better, I would say.

I feel confident saying this. way better now than she was a year ago against the same competition, you know, in Ligon. Or it's not Ligon. It's the Wii Feminique. That's right. That's right. It's the weewee Feminio officially. So, and she also shows she can get her, she's showing she can get her own shot in transition on the dribble.

You know, she already has, we already know how gold dangerous she is. You just add all those other things into it. just like this wide variety of tools that she has that are all getting better. She's 21. She's going to be in that too for us in, I think, important games. She also has the power of incumbency at this point, having performed, I think, pretty well at the Olympics. Who do you think she kicks out?

Who do, like, who does she have to kick? Who's ahead of her? Coffee or lens? Coffee Lindsay. As a stance right now, ain't that the two? Or are you saying Lindsay's going to be moved up? I think Lindsay's going to be playing as a 10. Mostly.

Boo. I'm not saying I like that, but. I'm not saying I like it, but I just think, I mean, isn't that a lot of what we saw, the Olympics, those three in the midfield together? Corbin was a sub. Corbin would come in, wouldn't she? Yeah. Until the last game, right?

Because Sam Coffee got Yellowcard. That's what it was. Okay. Okay. I was about to say, I was like, I know she started that last game for sure, but who said? Yeah, I think, I mean, I guess the dream would be for me that she, she knocks out coffee. I see a dream, madam? I think coffee was, I was disappointed enough.

and coffee at the Olympics that um and i do and i think the olympic i mean not olympic the physical limitations that we have talked about sort of endlessly on this podcast for coffee um they're real and if we want to be the continue to be the best team in the world we can't have a midfielder who just gets like um run past so easily yeah i think the issue is albert's not as elegant in possession as coffee generally speaking. Correct. So watching the games in the period

that I've been kind of running my Sam Coffee agenda. You know what I'm saying? For like three years? Yeah, exactly. All the time that she's been playing in the national team up until the Olympics, I want to say,

when I was just like, you know what, I'm giving up Jay Howe? How many teams can really capably play through the middle just in general to really put saying under that pressure. You know, I mean, we saw it in Brazil, we saw it against Germany. We did see it then. But it might just be that it's just those, those type of teams are the only ones that

can do it. Only ones with the athletes, only ones with the quality, with the type of players that can really expose us through the middle like that. So that's the only thing I would say about this. Because really, in most of the tournament, right, it wasn't that much of an issue. even though you can you can see it you can see it in in a little spurter moment that like hey you know Sam coffee's chugging but she's it looks like she's looks like a car running out of gas right right now when she's chasing after somebody but um it's just doesn't it's like a 94 corolla you know it's like it's like a vulnerability that you know you have it's not always exposed because of our structure right they talked about that with Jenna Nasswanger earlier it's like our When you have a team that gets your structure right, when you have a coach that puts in the structure, you're able to protect players from their weaknesses a lot of times. And that's kind of my assumption moving forward after the Olympics was we just had to deal with these things because Emma had two months and couldn't work around some of those problems.

and now we're going to fix things like the midfield. The midfield was a mess. We're going to fix it. We don't have to live with just three midfielder's. The fullbacks, we don't have to live with just. Well, we might, though. We might still have to live. Because the other players might not be good enough.

So you come to a tournament and you want to win it, you got to play the players who are good, you know. But now we're going to be trying out. She's saying moving forward though. Moving forward, we'll try him out. And 2027 is a long time away. Let's not settle for anything. I do want to shout out how hers fell real quick, just for the fact that with Andy Sullivan being injured,

how has been playing as a lone six for the spirit. and I need to really lock in on these games and rewatch them, even the one where they play race in Louisville, because I wasn't necessarily focused on hell. But the FB ref data shows that she had like two, two of her top three matches of the NWSL season with regards to progressive passes in these two matches where she's played as a lone six.

And y'all know my whole issue with Hal has been her, inability inability slash unwillingness to pass the ball forward yes so I'm gonna tap in there but as far as like a defensive presence Hal is

how's up there recording for real like I mean how how how gets to it defensive well no matter what for me Hal needs to get a game just just to see what we're working with we brought it to the Olympics

and she doesn't have a cap, she needs to get a game in this camp. Yep. And she will. Just to close a loop on Corbin's performance in the Olympics, I think you're right, she was a sub. She started the tournament as a sub. But I guess the reason she sticks out of my mind so much is because she started and went 120 in the win over Japan in the quarterfinals. So that was huge. And then she also, you know, started and went 90 in the final.

against Brazil. So two really tough games. She was, she started and went to, went the distance. She also scored that, I believe it was a game winner against Australia,

off the bench. Right. Corbett had a great Olympics. There's no denying that. So was she good in that Japan game? I think she was mixed in that Japan game. I think I remember. I was a fan of her Brazil performance,

for sure. That is the dual. of Corbyn, that is how bad Lindsay Horan's Olympics was. It made Corbyn's Olympics look fantastic. I think there's definitely, yeah, some truth

to that. It's coffee's, so it's crazy that coffee, I don't think coffee played that well in the Olympics either. Which also makes Corbyn look better. But yeah, there's a duality there because even for PSG, man, she'll do like something really nice. And then the next

her next action is just like a hospital ball that's like basically a through ball for the other team. So she's still too messy. But I just think like the wide range of tools, like I already said. And she's only 21. She's just barely 21 turned 21 like 10 days ago. It's no surprise she's improving. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean, that's what happens when. That's what happens with two iconic brands link up. You got to understand. Got Tino. Man, the name's never going to live that down. No. I mean. Next, I believe, or I hope, that each goalie gets a game.

Because, you know, they had to be called up. They should play. Blotty, blah, blah, blah. Then in November, I'm hoping that it's the start of goalie tryouts. Emma has made it clear. that all eyes are towards 2027. She's bringing in new talent. And for me, I hope that includes getting some new goleys in here.

I have my eyes on Mandy Halt, halt at Utah Royals or Faluntholus Joyce at Manchester United. Those are two goalies that I think would deserve, a call up to the national team and would be very good. They didn't have the opportunity to be called into this camp because there was no room for it, but I would love to see it in November or January. Okay. But it would be kind of cruel to send Jane or Casey off into the wind without getting a game.

So I hope they play in this camp. Okay. Okay. I'm always dubious of Keepers on an expansion team Like I mean the Utah Roy is a better now right But you know when they weren't better And when they're getting absolutely shelled

And you know Mandy hot was looking like a hero I'm always dubious of those types of things Just because I mean it's like When you get that many Look at Mandy at Gotham then She won a championship Yeah true But it's uh yeah when you get that many opportunities

It's easy to look good. I remember, like, you know, Michelle Betos for racing Louisville, our first year, she had, like, the most saves ever or something in WSL history. And I remember being, I was like, dude, if we protect her, if we use her as one of our protective players for this expansion draft, I'm going to be very upset. We made the right move. We did not protect Michelle Beto's. She moved on.

It's not quantity. It's not quantity, I promise. I'm not a fool. Basically, that was the end of her career. That's all I'm saying. Right after a career year, it was like, nah, I mean, she's not. She's not that, but she never was.

You just had a lot of shots to stop. But, okay, I'm gonna trust you. I'm trusting you, Tara. I'm not, I'm listening to you. I'm open. I'm listening to you too, Tara, the, and I want to say, I mean, obviously the thing that interests me the most is in midfield. It's midfield.

Because I want to keep talking about it. If you go watch Claire Hutton, watch like a bunch of Claire Hutton clips. You watch a bunch of Corbyn Albert clips. It's kind of hard to tell the difference. I mean, they look, they do a lot of things similarly. However, the differences that I would say are, I'm just thinking ahead to like who's, you know,

what's the pecking order going to be like in November? The differences are Hutton is, 18. Not quite as, she doesn't pop athletically quite the same way Albert does. You know, she doesn't seem quite as dominant in that way. And Hutton is cleaner with the ball.

She doesn't make all the mistakes that Albert does. I mean, I have no doubt Corbyn is way ahead in the peck and order. Well, yeah. I mean, just, I mean, like in the future, who's going to be in the, who's going to be, who's going to emerge? Did you see Twyla move on? Mm-hmm RIP

Twyla You know You did all the Emma's bidding Well we'll see what she We'll see what she ends up You'll be missed Twil She said She said her son asks

When is the next cam She misses the girls She's gonna be busy We've got things going on Yeah if I could add one thing. Please. I hope you do.

NWSL. Last game of the regular season coming up. I mean, it's right after the international break. Right. Okay. November 1st. Decision Day. All right.

Racing Louisville, three points out. The playoffs, in ninth place. Bay FC ahead. Three points ahead. Thorns. Three points ahead. due to the thorns losing the race in louisville last saturday okay hey let's get out of here guys um USA versus Iceland tomorrow that's Thursday 730 p.m. Eastern time and uh and then they play they play

Iceland again this time in Nashville on Sunday yeah 5.30 p.m. Eastern time thanks Tara thanks Vince we'll see you