Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #552: WoSo — The roster for ENG & NED, plus a news rundown

Episode Date: November 22, 2024

Vince, Tara and Belz get back in the WoSo saddle, long overdue. Triple Espresso gets a much-needed break, Lily in, Phallon gotta work on rounding out her game, who starts at the 9, starting XIs for the England match at Wembley, Vince pours more honey over Michele Kang, and much more. 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. It's been almost a month. Tara, how you doing? I'm good. I'm considering this our Thanksgiving episode. So I'm thankful for Christy Mewis' baby. I think she's going to play for the United States Women's National Team.

Or he. Because we have two Mewis's against one. Kerr, you know, we win there. So it's an American. A numerical advantage there for sure. Vince, how are you doing? Well, we do need to, you know, Sam Kerr has an aversion to stupid white people, what she called a person? Stupid white other B-word, not B-I-B-A. That's what it is. That's what it is. So I don't know. I feel like it's also, it depends on who's being less stupid at the moment, Australia, U.S. Two excellent friendlies coming up in the next 10 days. First England at Wembley on the Saturday right after Thanksgiving.

That's number one versus number two in the FIFA rankings. Apparently 80,000 tickets have been sold already. Going to be a big time show. Big time show. I can't wait. Yeah, that's about as interesting as a friendly can be, I think. And then we play the Netherlands, ranked 11 in the world, on Tuesday, December 3rd at Otto Den Haug Stadium just outside of the Hague.

I guess the biggest news from the roster is just no triple espresso, right? Rodman, Smith, Ann Swanson, getting a rest? Unheard of. I know. I mean, we don't, we don't, we historically do not let players rest. So I was surprised. I was surprised they were all getting rested. I got to be honest.

I kind of assumed one of them was going to. So after Portland got knocked out of the playoff, their coach, Rob Gale said that she was dealing with, like, ankle fatigue. And she could hardly train with Portland. So it sounded not minor. So there was some concern that she wasn't going to be on this in this. up anyway, but we didn't really hear much about Mal, other than the fact that, you know, she wasn't doing great since coming back from the Olympics. And then Trinity, she has been coming back from this back injury, but she's been playing regularly. But, you know, there's a

difference between pushing through the playoffs and going to play in friendlies for the national team. Yeah. This is what, here's a clip of what Emma said about it. You know, the volume of games and in particular sort of coming back from the Olympics, I think it's fair to say all three of them have been carrying niggles. And I think it's fair to say that they're, you know, they had to play through the last part in discomfort. And look, the realities are, you know, I'm vested in player well.

And I think the decision is the right one. They need to get, you know, the right interventions. She was about to say the word niggles one more time. And I cut it out. Good. Good. That was the right decision because it stuck with me. What a word, man.

It stuck with it. What a word. But yeah, I think Emma there saying, you know, the pain cave can only go so deep. There's limits to it. they're at the limit. This seems like a nice time to give them a full stop. I mean, you know, they had a, you know, full season plus an Olympics. So they had to carry the team on the back.

They did. Serena Weigman, the England national team coach, she was asked if she was disappointed by the lack of triple espresso, not being on the roster. And she said, they miss some players, so do we. I think it's part of the year, part of football too. So Lauren Hemp, Lauren James, and Ella Toon are out with injuries from the lionesses. And in my opinion, Lauren James is the closest comparison to any of our top three.

So they are definitely going to miss a good attacker in Lauren James, but we'll see. Yeah, in terms of being just like electric. She's, she is the closest comp. Yeah, so, but I think it's like kind of a good opportunity for other people to get a chance, too, you know? It's going to be Alyssa Thompson's second game at Wembley. That's crazy, yeah. At 20 years old. That's insane.

And, you know, one of Yasmin Ryan or Emma Sears is going to get a chance. out there on the right wing probably. Okay, some other things from the roster before we just sort of read off the list. Lily, Johanna's in. We haven't had a chance to talk about it on together, the three of us. Wonderful news.

I really didn't have a doubt. I mean, I know it was dramatic to imagine there being a chance that she didn't play for us, but there really wasn't a doubt. There just wasn't. It didn't feel that doubtful. I did have a conspiracy. theory. Do you guys want to hear it?

Yeah, I do. Like I said, I didn't really have a doubt. But what had me thinking that the decision was closer than maybe I would have guessed originally was in this last camp, when Emma Hayes was pressed about why Ashley

Sanchez was played as a winger, she seemed kind of annoyed by the question. She said, we have so many wonderful midfielders. They won't all get the opportunity. to play their original positions. And if you remember in that game, only Lindsay Horan and Rose LaVelle played in the

midfield. So what did she mean by that? She didn't test any other midfielder's. Yasmin and Ryan could have played in the midfield. She's originally a midfielder. Ashley Sanchez is having the best year of her career. She's a midfielder. She didn't get any chance to play in the midfield.

I was thinking, okay, Lily's closer. Emma loves Lily. We talked many months ago when Chelsea was playing Iax for the very first time. Okay, the program's going to be in good hands because at least Emma's going to get a look at Lily's tape. And look where we are at now. She's committed to the program. Everything's in good hands now. I was thinking, okay, there's a midfield spot that's not even open because we know Willie's committing.

That's my conspiracy. I don't think it's that far-fetched. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, so I mean, Bell's, can you tell, you know, you're playing coy over there? I mean, you know, you've been sitting on information throughout this whole recruiting process. I don't know. I mean, you know, we can just keep it at that. I mean, yeah.

But I mean... I have no information, and I know you two do. So just to be clear, my conspiracy is true. I knew nothing. Well, I don't think... I think the... If your conspiracy is that Emma would say, essentially, Ashley's not...

There's no reason that Ashley should play in the midfield because we have so many good midfielders. And if she has in mind, Liliohannis, when she says that, I think that's totally plausible. did that, did Emma have like inside information that Lily was going to commit before Lily did? I don't know about that. He's not at liberty to say, y'all. He's not at liberty to say.

I don't know. I mean, I actually don't even know. I don't really know. Yeah, interesting. We'll just leave it at that. We'll just leave it at that. But it is what it is. I was never too pressed.

Tara, you brought up the moment. When Iax and Chelsea got matched up, it was a rap. we already knew I mean I knew many months ago Emma was so complimentary of Lily

in the like right right back then yeah yeah yeah like she went out of her way yeah and you know

her proclivities to preferring I don't want to say preferring the European play but you know

much respect She does. She does. She does. She does. She does. Playing in Europe, et cetera,

et cetera. So, yeah, it was a rap. And then once she got here and we started balling, one of the Olympics, et cetera, it's like,

oh, come on. You know, you don't come, you can come play with the winners, man. She came in the camp, TikTok's with Jaden Shaw dancing.

Like, come on, man. It was, it was a rap. Like, Lily, true American girl, you know what I'm saying? Like, not, hasn't been in another, in the Netherlands since she was,

you know, half a year old or something like that. It was a rat. You two had this conversation a few Mondays ago about Potch. It was, what are you going to do? This country is massive. I'm Pachitino. What are you going to do?

This country founded women's soccer. I'm Emma Hayes. We gave everybody equal pay. I mean, it's nearly offensive not to choose us. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And it is striking how much Lily is an American girl, too. Like she talks like she grew up in Carmel, Indiana, you know,

went to that big fancy high school that everybody's passing on on Twitter these days. She did the gritty as a goal celebration. Somebody thought she was going to play for the Netherlands? That's outrageous. Nothing more American. Nothing more American than a celebration dance that started in the weight room. In a football weight room. That's all we do is dance in a football weight room, though.

And weightlifting sessions, I'm telling you. I have my own dance that took hold at Lindsay Wilson College, the Vinny. We don't need to get into it, though. Someday we should get into it. It was stupid. It was stupid to be stressed, I think. So chances are we'll get to see her play, this window. Another call-up that's interesting is Fallon Tulles Joyce, the goalkeeper for Manchester United.

Can you give us a little background on her, Tara? Yeah, I have been waiting patiently for Fallon's first call-up. I've been a huge fan. Fallon left the NWSL. And it was extremely sad because she just sat on the bench for a lesser goalie in Mary Earps. And it took a year for Manchester United to sell Mary Earps off to PSG, where she plays now, because Mary wanted to play in Champions League. when England's starting goalie and Manchester United's long-time goalie finally gets her move,

Fallon gets the starting drop. And we cut to her very first call-up for the senior national team. One, like I said, I've been waiting for a few years now. It's very exciting. If you're just getting to know her now, she's currently the best goalie in the WSL. She has two goals conceded in the last eight games. Likely she won't get a game. I mean, these are two huge friendlies we're playing.

But what's even more exciting is we're kind of seeing the passing of the torch. Hayes talked about Tolus Joyce kind of a lot in the press conference because she was asked twice about her once just to she gave a more general answer. And then a reporter, I believe in England, asked the question like, so what is it? want to see from Tulles Joyce. And she, I think her clip is like, is pretty instructive because she acknowledges how good of a shot stopper she is. Well, I'll just play the clip. How about that?

What's her decision making like in and out of possession? What's her execution like? How do her feet move? Is she, how commanding is she behind the line? How switched on is she from set pieces and the organizational piece? Like there's so many facets. It's the goalkeeping that's more than just a shot stopping. Her shot stopping and her ability to cover the frame is second to none.

But in terms of building up with the team, connecting with the team, I think there's room for improvement. But I want to see what she looks like with the demands we place on her. There it is. They're bringing Fallon in to see if she can organize the defense and play in possession and command the box. I don't know that Alyssa Neer is exceptional. some of those things, but let's go Fallon, you know?

Yeah, I think Fallon could easily be the next goalie for the next, you know, decade. We need somebody to take it. So, you know, I mean, it's up for grabs. It is up for grabs. But real quick, I do want to go back to Tara, you mentioned the game that Ashley Sanchez played on the left wing. Your home game. The location of that match in case y'all are wondering was Louisville, Kentucky.

I'm sure they were wondering. I'm sure they were. We haven't talked since then. But yeah, USW&T came to Louisville. It was a great time, man. Stadium packed, rowdy. I got to ask Emma a question the day before,

match day minus one. Get out there and watch a little bit of training. How was she? How was she? How was who? Emma. Yeah, Emma. Oh, man.

Look, she, you know, O'R, 10 out of 10, we already knew this. We already knew this. But when I asked the question, I ain't going to lie. I have my heart in my throat. You know what I'm saying? It was pounding a little bit.

I had it. I had exactly what I was going to say in my head. I even typed it out on my phone. I wasn't going to read it on my phone, but like, you know, just to type it out just to get my words together, reading it back to myself to make sure this question as efficient as possible, etc. I get the mic.

You know, she gets done talking. from the last question and then the pressure's all on me I had to compose myself and in those two seconds where I was composing myself Emma gave me the just the best smile

she just looked at me like you're safe with me your question's safe with me you know what I'm saying and I was like all right then Emma let me just go and deliver this question so then I asked her the question

and she did not answer it whatsoever the question was let me see basically what are the roles and responsibilities of your of your three central midfielders and are they fixed? And how they fix?

And do they change from game to game? And she took it as are the positions fixed, like are the players playing the positions fix? And, yeah, she went that way. But, yeah, nonetheless, nonetheless, a very positive experience.

Very positive experience. Got to, you know, do some mixed zone stuff, whatever, Rose, Mao, Sof. go out and watch training for really they say it's like 15 minutes they let us they let us chill out there for about 30 which was cool because as you were just talking about filing and and listen to emma talk about how they're going to um see how they react in uh how she how she reacts in practice and training or whatever um like the first drill they did as a team in that in that uh training was like uh back to front buildout patterns, basically.

Starting with the keeper, keeper to the six. And that was, that was Mandy's game, right? Correct. So they were both going, like both sides going at the same time, essentially, back to front buildout patterns, mostly ending with the ball out wide and across into the center forwards there. It was cool. They put some defense on there.

So it was just very cool to have all this in my hometown, you know, tailgate before the match, went smoothly. everything was cool. Did you bring your daughter? No, I didn't. I left her ass at home. I ain't a lot to you. I ain't a lot to you.

Good. She doesn't care that much. She does have a Sophia Smith jersey that she wears, and she's quite proud of it, but she didn't, she didn't care to go to the match too much. I will say one thing real quick that I noticed just from watching training and being close to the players, because, like, the first 10 minutes we were out there, they were just doing like activation stuff, stretching, warming up, getting their body. right.

Alyssa Malanson, a very slight, very, very slight individual. And also just see, I've tweeted about this maybe like twice now, I want to say. But seeing Haley Mace in person. Haley Mace, I mean, that's a solidly built individual. You wouldn't want to see Haley Mace in a dark alley.

That's what I'm, that's what I would like to convey to the people. I saw that tweet. I saw somebody. I saw somebody be, like, be offended for her. I mean, yeah, because I called her a unit in the tweet, but it's like, I mean, I feel like, Haley, Haley would be like, thank you. If I said that. She worked hard for that.

She worked hard for that. You can see just how she walks, how she carries herself. It's like, she knows she's one too. And she's having a great season. Have a great season. You don't want to run upon Haley. Speaking of NWSL teams in the Ohio River Valley, I saw a report out just like just tonight, I think, that Caitlin Clark is back in, you know, distant friend of the pod, Caitlin Clark, is going to be part of an ownership group that is trying to get NWSL in Cincinnati.

Yeah, the team's potential 16th team. That would be amazing. Cincinnati is a great soccer town. They've proven it with their MLF team. That's right. They were proven in the USL. They've proven in the MLS, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, they, if you can do that, go ahead and do that.

I am a little bit worried that maybe that just ends up with Louisville City's license being bought by the Cincinnati Ottership Group and just transferring that thing. But we shall see. We shall see. Because the rumor for so long was Cleveland. Cleveland got to prove it. I mean, I know y'all got a lot of Polish people up there or whatever. You know, but, you know, there ain't been no proof of concepts. Yeah, I'm all about clusters, you know, like clusters of excellence or whatever.

But love the solidarity from Caitlin Clark. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Clark. That's right. She was really good at soccer, too, you know. So Shaw at the 9, is that what we're going to see? Or we're going to see Lynn Williams at the 9? Really the only two options at Stryker, right?

I haven't really been loving the experiment with Jaden at the nine. I have made it abundantly clear multiple times. I think she's better in the midfield. But like Emma Haysa said, we have too many midfielder's. They all can't play there. So if that's what we got to have, I'll stick to it. I do think that's a better option than Lynn. I doubt we have Ali rollout right away.

I don't really see what else is going to happen. It probably will be Lynn, though. What'd you think? That'd be my guess, yeah. I mean, Jaden was last game. Did she start both games? Williams started at Striker the first game. So maybe they share it?

Yeah, probably. What have you not loved about the Shaw Nine experiment? I just don't think it's been working. Fair enough. As simple. I mean, I mean, I mean, I was watching Kat McCarrio's performance in Champions League, you know, her 45 minutes when she started. You know, it's a different gravy, even rusty.

She is, there's a ball security to her, even in tight space that I find myself wishing for from Jaden. Yeah, very ball secure. I guess it remains to be seen when we'll see Kat back with the team. She's going to play, well, let me play a clip, another clip from the press conference. She's going to be invited for, thanks. dinner. He and she and me official both. I'll start with Mia. No, she's not back yet, but I've invited

her and Kat for Thanksgiving dinner with us and the team. I think that could be nice if they could come have dinner with us. One, because I love the pair of them, and I haven't seen them, so I want to see how they're getting on. That's cute. Yeah.

Is it like an Argentina situation where, you know, they brought all this beef to the World Cup, right? Because I'm just wondering where we are sourcing this food from for a proper American Thanksgiving. You know what I'm saying? It's a good question. I don't want to see no beans, no toast.

I know they're having English dessert, which I'm disappointed in. Yeah. What is? She mentioned a few of them by name, Sticky Toffee pudding and Spotted Dick. Are two of the English desserts they're going to have. Actually, Spotted Deges. Dick looks pretty good if you Google it. I'm not going to.

Understood. It's like a cake of some kind. It's a cake. Okay. So how well, you know, somebody's going to correct me on that. I don't know if it's a cake, exactly. But it's in the cake. It's cake adjacent, at least. It doesn't sound good.

You know, like my reaction has nothing to do with the actual, the double entendre. Yeah, I know. Okay, it doesn't have anything to do with that. But just as a dessert, as it did, as a food. What's the other one? Sticky Toffee pudding. Yeah, come on, come on, man.

Come on, man. I like Toffee, but I don't like the English, so. Toffee's tremendous. Except Emma. Except Emma. We like Emma, right? Yeah, yeah, I do like Emma. And her little boy.

But, anyway, I do have Mia news. I have been listening to Chelsea press conferences to get updates on our gals. and there has been an update on Mia's timeline. They're expecting her back in training by the end of the year now. So the old timeline was mid-January. Now it's end of the year. So progress. Okay.

We'll take it. Man, we got a lot of good players. I don't know. What are we going to do with them all? We got a lot. We're going to start cutting. Man. We're going to start cutting.

Man, we got a lot. Yeah. I was reading some reviews. I was reading some reviews of the Scuff podcast. Why? It was a topic on the Discord a couple weeks ago. Well, actually, I made it a topic. I said, hey, people put some reviews on the pod,

which if you listen to the pie right now, it gives a five-star. Please and thank you. Rate and review. That would be wonderful. Please do. But most of our negative ones are like, well, so related. Really? Oh, no.

And they're like, oh, they're so smug. These people are so smug, and they think they know what's best and blah, blah, blah. And I think that's a response, right? Like, where did we get the most smoke, right? As a pod. Us talking down. From criticizing Alex Morgan. It was all Alex Morgan fans who did the negative reviews, I think.

Criticizing Alex Morgan, criticizing the old guard, et cetera. I mean. I did do that a lot. I'm sorry. We get the old guard out. and immediately win a trophy. You know what I'm saying? I mean, we get them gone.

And some gracefully, some had to be told you're not coming to that Olympics. But we get them out and immediately and immediately. Everything we've been talking about this whole time, it's here. And we got so many good players. We're not going to bring triple espresso. And we're going to give England the what's for. I mean, we're going to face them at minimum as equals, even without our three best attackers.

Belly's full of sticky toffee pudding. You know what I'm saying? We're going to beat them on their own stadium with their own desserts. I'm just loving where we're at right now. But yes, when you brought up me official, I was because, you know, she had been out of mind for a little bit. I was just like, damn, that's another one. Mm-hmm.

Also, I mean, I'm... Real quick, but before we get too far away, too far away from it, we probably are already too far away from it. I just want to say, Emma, if Emma, I do love you. but if you're going to call up Ashley Sanchez again, don't put her out there. It was ridiculous. It was so stupid. But, I mean, it was pointless.

Just don't call her up if you're not going to play her in the midfield. That's right. I agree. I agree. But sticking with the attackers, I'm really looking forward to who shows up. I think it's just a really big opportunity for everybody. Like we've been saying, but Yasme and Ryan has just been such a full. force in the league. I don't think she's really stamped too much in the last camp. I think Alyssa

Thompson was very good in the last camp, but against not great opponent, so you can't take too much from it. I think Alice Sittner is a very promising player. I hope she gets minutes. I just think it's a huge opportunity for everybody. I'm really looking forward. to it. Yeah, it will be interesting to see who kind of steps up of those, particularly of Ryan Sears and Settner, because I assume Thompson's going to start. Yeah. I hope so. Yeah. I mean, she earned it after last camp, I think. She can roast an English woman just as easily as she can roast an Icelandic player, you know, I mean. Yeah. And her season. I mean, she had a boatload of assists. I gather from Hayes' press conference that Sintner is not probably.

probably going to start. No, everybody needs that debut. Sears and Ryan had theirs already, so I think, I think, I just hope she gets minutes. That's my wish. When do you all think Lily gets to play? Off the bench, late in both games probably, if at all? I really don't. I mean, I see her as Lindsay's backup, and do you see Lindsay not starting?

either game. I see her starting both games. Give me Emma Sears, man. All right. Did a thing in the Nashville match, right? At the start in Louisville, did all right. I mean, the Louisville match, that's Emma Sears match. She is going to do exactly what I told you she was going to do.

No, she did. She was as advertised for sure. So I don't know, but. Argentina was not a opponent, though. No, of course not. Iceland was, though. Iceland. Yeah.

So, yeah, you know, go and throw Emma out there. Emma actually, now that I think about it, this is a revenge match. Emma lived in England as a youth. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. Yeah. I want to say maybe like five, six years or something like that. Her family might even be English.

I'm not totally sure, but I know for sure she lived in, she lived in a name. Sears sounds like a very English name. No real newcomers in the defense. I mean, it's all just familiar faces. Eva Gaitino's not, I don't know if she counts as a familiar phase, same with Emily Sams, but they've both been in a camp before him played significantly. The goalkeepers, let me just read the roster real quick. Mandy Hott, Valentlis, Joyce, and Alice in Aero are the goalkeepers.

Tina Davidson is back. That's notable too. You know, Eva Gaitino, Naomi Germa, Emily Sams, NWSL Defender of the Year, Emily Sam's, Emily Sonnet, Emily Fox, Casey Kruger, Alyssa Malinson, she of slight figure, and Jenna Nyswanger. Also quite slight. And then the midfielder's of Corbyn-Albert, Sam Coffey, Hal Herschfeld, Lindsay Horan, Rose Lovell, and Lily O'Hontas. And then the four words, we've talked about all of them already. But Yasmini and Ryan, Emma Sears, Ali Sintner, Alyssa Thompson, Jaden Shaw, and Lynn Williams.

So I'm going to put you guys on the spot. But it's fair because I'm putting myself on the spot too. What's your starting 11 versus England? Okay, I'll go first. Okay. I'm going to do Fallon and Goal. Whoa. English gal in England.

She's right at home. She's, Mary Earps is the goalie for England. She just took her job. She might as well play against her, you know. So I think, I think it's only right. The two centerbacks, I'm going to do Germa and Tiana. And I'm going to do Casey Crooker on the left. I'm going to do Fox on the right.

Casey Kruger, phenomenal into the year. For anybody watching the Washington Spirit, they will agree. She's just doing great. I don't think anybody's really locked down that Crystal Dunn spot. I don't think it's Jenna's. I don't think it's Alyssa's. I'm giving it to Casey right now. I agree.

Nobody's locked it down. To the midfield, I'm going, Lindsay, coffee, double pivot. I'm going to go rows up top. Up top in the midfield. Yeah, in the midfield. And then I'm going to do

Thompson on the left, Jaden, Stryker, Yasmin Ryan on the right. I have exactly the same lineup except Nearing goal. Because you're a coward. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, I mean. Maybe, I mean, that probably is about what it is, because I think, I just think it's not going to happen on any other way.

Yeah. And we've got to win. We got to beat England. Yeah. Emma Hayes is going to really want to win this game. That's right. Yeah, and I think we will. Which is why she's going to start emissiers on the right way, by the way.

Mary Earps left Manchester United to play in Champions League, you know, the big move everybody wants in England. She moved to PSG. What happened? Yes, she got the earliest exit in Champions League they ever got. Womp, Womp. Mary Earp sucks. We're going to beat them. She's not that good.

She really isn't. Just give me in the Sears on the right, man. I'm pretty ambivalent between her and Ryan. They're not going to know what to do with that. Pure pace and power. And they're going to be sleep on the fact that she's providing that based on the fact that, you know, first of all, word does not travel across the Atlantic.

That's true. Our soccer over here just happens over here. and a wrong little bubble. It's been proven time and time again. How many times we've got to be disrespected in any award given out by a European before I realized this. So, so they're going to be seeing Emma Sears.

Thinking she got the athleticism of a Jenna Nasswanger or something. And boom. She's going to get the balls. It's off to the races. Going to roast somebody. I can see it right now. In line, little chip ball. Mary Erbs is flail. and it's going to be like it's going to be one of those goals

Lynn Williams scores that one that you know Lynn Williams always finds herself in a position to approach a goal yeah it does feel like if emissiers were Spanish she would have won three Ballandores by now you know that's facts I mean I mean so what does Selma do in that World Cup other than you know a poor emissar's impression

so it's probably a good emissier's impression but but you know yeah I would like for us to maybe be a little more experimental in the game at the Hague, you know? Yeah. Give Herschfeld to start over coffee, maybe Lavelle over, I mean, maybe Lily over Lavelle or something. I don't know how likely any of that is, but be cool. I wouldn't be mad at it.

Emma's done crazier things. At this point, Hals played a lot of ball, man. as a rookie. Let's take a break. We'll be back in a second and talk about She Believes things that are going on in NWSL and a smattering of other things.

All right, moving on. She Believes Cup was announced on Thursday. It'll be Japan, Australia, Columbia, and of course the U.S. and a little round-robin. Games are the last week of February across the Western Sunbelt of Houston, Phoenix, and San Diego. I really cringe at most

the location talk. I just, I just, don't like it. But I'm going to do it anyway. I can't believe Snapdragon Stadium is getting another national team game. It was the host of the Great Flood Gold Cup. Their NWSL games are some of the most embarrassing of the league. Their last game, they couldn't even play there. They had to go to Vince's hometown because the stadium was not up to code or whatever. It's just not a very good stadium. And I'm very surprised that they got another game. That's all.

That flood bowl was ridiculous. That was one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. It was so stupid. But I'm very excited for she believes. I believe I'm excited. I might go. I'm excited. I mean, the issue of Snapdragon mostly is overuse.

I mean, the rain thing is just, I don't think it's going to happen again. But, you know, overuse is the issue there. And so we're catching them at a good time. We're talking February 26th. You know, it's not football season. It's not European football season. Well, it's not American soccer season. And so we're going to catch it at a nice time.

This pitch is going to have a nice time to rest and relax. And so by the time, by the time, by the time, time we get there, February of 26, that grass is going to be nice, lush. And once again, when we talk about soccer cities, I mean, San Diego has proven, you know, I mean, they're getting big numbers. They're getting big numbers. Every, every way way, every way, every way match, 25,000, something like that. I mean, they're selling it out.

I mean, I don't know how many people, San Diego State University football gets, but it seems About the same. About the same, man. They're selling that thing out. Shout out Marshall Falk. I had no clue. He went to San Diego State, to be honest with you. But, so, so that's, I think that's why they get games.

I just believe in punishment, but I forgive them now. I understand. Twenty-five thousandth a lot. I understand. It seems like there's a nice little scuffs contingent going to the Houston match. Go say hi to them. I might go. If you go.

I might go. My cousin. I like Houston. I've never actually been as an adult. My grandpa's from Houston, but my cousin lives there now. Think about going down there, have a place to stay and whatnot, etc. What's Lindsay up to, Tara? I mean, she's the golden boot leader in France right now.

Everybody looks at Lindsay if you watch the national team and you say, that girl wants to be a striker. And she's in France right now, scoring all the goals her little heart desires. This past weekend, she scored four goals in their game against, St. Etney? Saint-Etyne. All right. And then, yeah, she's the golden bootleader.

So, congratulations to Lindsay Horan. Hey, I just want to shout out Ednees real quick. The shoe brand. Terry, you know what I'm talking about. Yes. You were there. Bels, you had a pair of Edneys. Did I?

You seem like you might have had a pair of Edmys. I can't picture what an Edney's looks like. How do you spell that? E.T. N-I-E-S. Oh, yeah. Yeah, look. He said, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

No, I never did. I never did. Either those are some D-Cs, bro. Come on. No, I didn't have either of those. I did have some fans back in high school. That was the next one. Understood.

So, yeah, this is kind of funny that she scored all these goals in an 11-0 win, first half hat-trick, and then some staff. patting in the second half. Leon B. Roma, well, so one of the goals was like her making a run from deep, putting away with the right foot. A couple nice, and then the other three were all kind of,

one was a header on the far post coming in late, and then the other two were just like go, like scrambles around the goal that she just kind of managed well. Leon B. Roma, 4-1 in the middle of the week, but this was not as much of a blowout as it seemed. It was 1-0 to Roma in the 70th minute.

And then Leon got three set piece goals and a nice one in there, too, in the last 20 minutes. Lindsay not involved in any of the goals. Should we talk a little bit more about Macario? Because, I mean, I'm beginning to hope. I'm daring to hope. Yeah, we touched on it a little bit, but she got her first Champions League start of the season yesterday. Chelsea won three to nothing against Celtic. She got an assist off of a corner kick in the very first minute of the game.

She went 45 minutes. It was a plan sub as she hadn't gone more than 35 minutes up until that point. And Emma said that they're being strict with her, making sure that her body gets fit enough to be able to handle the travel it takes to play international soccer. So Cat Minutes Watch is back on I was suckered into watching all of Chelsea last year

and it seems like I'm going to be suckered into watching it again this year and I thought it was a good game they were dominant Kat's half was good she was a false nine I thought she created a good amount of chances I thought she looked strong

she missed shots Like you said, she was rusty, but overall I thought it was a lot of progress. Yeah, there was a moment that I kind of alluded to earlier in the game where she kind of gathers the ball just inside the box with a bunch of people around, a bunch of defenders around her. And then she just kind of like shimmies around one defender, explodes past the next, and then creates a window for her to shoot out of herself to shoot out of nothing. And the shot went over the bar. but that was a little eye popping to me to see her do that. Let me know when Kat starts running, okay? When you see, let's see, let's put the over under about three to four sprints a game.

We get to that number, a little bit above that number. Y'all let me know. Because really... She ran. Yeah, she was doing some sprinting. I don't know if she's like doing an M.S.ier's style 100 meter dash. down. No, see, but this is where I'm becoming truly radicalized. You know what I'm saying? Usually I'm just like, go with the flow type dude. I'm going to listen to everybody's viewpoint and perspective and weigh them equally as long as, you know, I view you to be a reasonable person. But I've been propagandized too long by the tacticals and the quote-unquote bald knowers, you know, saying that, you know, you know, if you really, if you're really a master of soccer that you don't need to run,

et cetera, et cetera. Because, because, you know, when Kat got her run with Emma for the national team, right, she played, she played all right. But, like, there wasn't a lot of movement going on with that, with that, in the, in those games, right? Triple Expresso was going beep, beep, and Kat was just kind of bringing up the rear and a light jog. and what do you know? We're thinking cats all healthy. All of a sudden, a week before the roster comes out for the Olympics,

nah, cats not going to participate in the Olympics. So that just let me know right there. I'm like, look, if a player is in a contest, is in a soccer match, and they are not running, I mean, at some point, you're going to run, and if you're not doing that, I'm dubious to you. I'm dubious to you. Why are you not running?

Okay. I fully understand taking the whole picture in letting your creativity take the game by the scruff of the neck and etc etc being able to find pockets and let everybody else do the running for you

and you just interpret space and do all that etc I understand it all I understand it all but her and Giorana too at this point it's like if you're not running it's not because you're some damn savant

All right, you hurt. You hurt. Unless you mess. Good comparison. Good comparison. Both wonderful, beautiful souls. I heard what you said. She did run.

So what I'm going to do instead is I'm going to tell you when she starts three more days. Three more matches, but I'm going to need, on that third match, I'm going to need at least four, four sprints. I'm talking about, I need 30 yards. I need 30 yards. yards a piece. Okay. Okay. That's all I'm looking for. So next up, real quick, Arsenal beat Juventis won nothing today. Emily Fox went 90. It was less impactful than their first game against Juventus a few weeks ago where she was player of the match, but it still went plenty fine. Did you all see Emily Fox doing that? I don't even know what is. I don't be on TikTok, but like

there's some like little game on TikTok you play where you got a, like, like, emote, you got to, like, do different... Match the emotions. Yeah, yeah, match the, like, emoji faces. She couldn't pass it. So it's like, happy. Okay, I'm smiling. Sad, mad.

Right, right. It's like, yeah, happy emoji, sad moji, mad moji, like, thinking emoji. Crying. Yeah, yeah, all that. And it's like Emily Fox, the cyborg, man, she couldn't do it. She could not change faces to matchy. It's a hilarious video.

Naomi Germa stays disrespected. ESPN put out a top 50 women's football players with 24. She got second. Unacceptable. She's not second. No, she's first. Who's she bad? Bon Maddi.

Bon Madi. Oh, don't know. Oh, my God. with the pronunciation's time. No, but we might as well. We might as well, because we, I mean, we need to disrespect her name. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's fair.

That's fair. Whatever. I'm okay. She didn't win a trophy in 2024. No international trophies won in 2024. So quite interesting. I used to really like Beaumati. I thought she was great.

And now I'm mad at her. I didn't. I used to, too, until last year's Champions League games, she pissed me off. What about NWS? We got some news. I mean, obviously, the final is this Saturday, 8 p.m. In Kansas City. Washington Spirit versus Orlando Pride.

That's going to be great. It's going to be a good final. I'm excited. I'm excited. The playoffs have been absolutely amazing. But they have. They've been huge games. Huge games.

You can tell that they are huge games, you know, just top, top tier ball being played. Best playoffs I can remember in many years. It truly was elite. But a few notes. before we get there. As there's no NWSL draft this year with the new CBA, I wanted to bring up

we have our first signing. Trinity Byers has signed with San Diego Wave. She's part of the extremely talented Texas team. But her season has been over for some time now with injury.

So that's a huge get for San Diego Wave. It's a huge get for the league. Another Trinity for us to watch out for Landon Donovan is also out at San Diego Wave, which does matter to us as we have Jaden Shaw, Naomi Germa, and now

Trinity the Younger over there, so a little update there. And then Troy Bethune, she was named Rookie of the Year and midfielder of the year for this year's NWSL class. She had

five goals and ten assists. in only 17 games because she got hurt. 10 assists is the record held by Tobin Heath. So if you remember last year, we talked, the three of us talked, Sam Coffey hit that number last year but failed to claim the crown. So you can imagine if Croix hadn't been injured, she would have easily passed that. So it's very sad.

But I can't wait until Croix's healthy. again. I think she's going to be incredible for us as a national team player and then just continue to make history for the league. I mean, I'm sorry to say this, but I'm going to have to take a similar stance to Croix that I just talked about with Kat. I mean, y'all, she got her throwing a first pitch. I was telling you guys that be careful with that knee. Be careful with that knee. Be careful with That name. I mean, throwing a first pitch. I threw a first pitch in a mascot costume.

Not a professional athlete. I was a collegiate athlete at the time. But, but like, come on, man. It's not that taxon on the knee to throw a pitch. And she got hurt during that. And what? She's had three ACL tears before this, which wasn't an ACL tear, but it's like, I mean. It is an odd way to get such a serious injury.

And I desperately want Croix to play for it. National team, of course. Yeah. I'm just saying. The Spirit have fantastic medical staff. So keep hope alive. I have hope. I'm very excited for the future.

And I just want her to rest because she has a lot to look forward to. Good luck to Trinity, Casey Kruger, Hal Herschfeld, Proibething's Ghost, Emily Sam's. Ali Limos, all of them. But on this podcast, I mean, with all respect to Emily, we're rooting for the spirit, right? Yes, mostly because of Michelle Kane, man. I mean, at this point, I got to put some respect on Michelle. I mean, just throwing money all over the place with regards to women's soccer.

Put some respect on Michelle. She won Best Billionaire Award in our award show last year. We have put plenty of respect on Michelle. I'm going to keep pouring honey on her. That's what I'm saying. I'm going to continuously pour her on her because she keeps, you know, she's pouring honey on the youth women's soccer system. Yeah.

And the United States, what, 30 mil she pledged? Why is she rich, first of all. Okay, she got in on the, oh, who, oh, what a finesse, Michelle. See, this is a savvy businesswoman right here. She got in with the military industrial complex. Okay. There it is. Her, uh...

We're about to take her award away. No, no, no, listen, listen. Basically, she focused a lot on veterans, which is how she got into the military industrial complex. It seems like she might be involved in, I don't know, maybe, uh, helping amputees, et cetera, et cetera. Cognosante is like one of those companies where you pull up the website and you could spend the rest of your life reading the website.

You still would have no idea what they do. And then we got one more thing, right, Tara? Yes. So the U-17 World Cup, it's been a bit since we spoke. But the U-17 women, they got bronze in the World Cup. It was the best the U.S. has done in the tournament since the very first women's U-17 World Cup in 2008, where the U.S. got silver. We beat England three to nothing. and I just think Alex Morgan's legacy lives on through making sure these girls are going to get paid fairly

and making sure we continue to beat England whenever given the opportunity. And I love that. Thank you, Alex. Yeah. Anyone who watched this tournament would attest to it being the Kennedy Fuller and Mel B. show. They were very good. Fuller played a direct role in seven of the 13 goals we scored. Mel scored multiple bangers.

And our midfield, darlings aside, a new centerback star was born. I feel very, very confident in saying that Trinity Armstrong, she was just so talented, so good in this tournament. She's a defender for UNC. Their coach retired early this year. So their interim coach is Damon Nahas, Sean Nehaus's brother. So I thought that was interesting.

I love Mel B, man. I like Kennedy Fuller too, but man, Mel B. She's a fun player to watch. She was fantastic. Congrats to the U-17s. That's pretty much it, guys, right? Yeah. Thanks for doing this.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see ya.