Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #556: USWNT Annual Review 2024

Episode Date: December 28, 2024

Greg, Vince and Belz (with Tara contributing in absentia) give a series of awards for what was obviously a very successful 2024 for the U.S. Women. Player of the Year, Breakthrough Player of the Year, Retirement of the Year, Most Patriotic, 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 the last WOSO episode of 2024 at SCUF, so we're going to do an annual review. Patrons helped us by voting on a few key awards. We'll get to those, plus some that we have come up with on our own. All of them are very important. Tara is, unfortunately, I mean, fortunately for her, unfortunately for us, out of the country,

but with us in spirit and in the notes. So I'll be reading some of her thoughts as the show goes on. And I've got Vince and Greg here. Vince, how you doing? I'm doing great. Adam Bell's. Good to hear. Greg Velasquez, happy to be here.

I'm doing great too, man. I'm still reveling in what 2024 was for the U.S. women's team, which felt like a big, fun celebration. And a nice lead in into what 2025 could be. Yeah, it was a fantastic year. I mean, we talked about on the men's side. It was kind of a rough year. Not on the women's side.

Not rough at all. Fantastic. Bunch of trophies. Yeah. Maybe we should just start with maybe the most obvious of all the awards, which is coach of the year. The 2003 winner, it shows how exciting we were about her coming to the women's national team, that she won the award in 2023 when she was still the coach of Chelsea. So she won in

2023 and you know, I think she should win in 2024 as well. Any disagreement? No, there's nothing speculative about the 2024 version of this award like there was in 2023. She came in with like

three games to get ready, just had us go out and win a gold medal. Yeah, the soccer itself may still be a work in progress I think by Hayes' own admission, but she restored the joy. She definitely restored the results. She saw out a generation of older players

who were not helping us as much as I think they could have. She played Sophia at Stryker. She holds great press conferences. The recent past is golden, and the future is bright. And that's what it comes down to, right? You know, the fact that she came in and did really everything,

obviously we wanted the results but in order to get to the results she had to do a few things some things that that are easier said than done leaving Alex Morgan home from the Olympics or something like that you know and

she was able to do it and you know we were so excited because here's this person coming from outside you know we're not getting a coach from New Jersey to coach the USWNT you know what I'm saying and so she

basically held up her end of the bargain you know everything that we were excited about she was able to come in and do and that's a coach of the year right there sometimes it's like the underachiever is the coach of the year or whatever does less with more she was able to do

more with more yeah more with more she just was able to take off the limiter plates that were holding us back for whatever reason So here we are. And yeah, that's a coach of the year. I'll take that over an underachiever or an overachiever.

Give me the more with more person. Yeah, it is easier said than done to leave a legend off a roster for the Olympics. And that's a decision that needed to be made, you know. And it should have been made in the previous World Cup cycle with some different players, but the past is the past. I mean, what I'll say is that cost other candidates to 2023 Coach of the Year award is what it did. That's right. Yeah.

Which is probably one of, if not the biggest regret that coach would have is not winning that award. Yeah. That's right. A comeback award. The 2023 winner, that's the next award is the comeback award. The 2023 winner was Midge Purse, who had a bad knee injury and then came back. and looked like she was breaking into the national team. Maybe as a right back, you know, it felt like maybe she would be a right back for us.

It didn't work out that way, but she did win the award in 2023. I will quote Tara in nominating a comebacker for 2024. Here's what she says. Alyssa Thompson was kicked to the curb and climbed right back up this year. Trackstar only allegations were thrown at her. She ended her club season with five goals and seven assists. That's more club assists than Mal. Sophia and Trinity.

Jaden. Combined. Wait, no, no, no. Yes. Or Emma Sears. No, not combined, I don't think. But more than each of them. She credits attending the Kristen Press School of finishing for her success this year.

And a fourth espresso was born. I think that's well said. Yeah, I think so too. And it's really, again, this is really a promising development. Because as, you know, as we know, in 2023, in New Zealand, we were missing one of the espresso's for injury. So Mal herself could potentially, depending on how you define comeback, it's always nebulous. What are they coming back from?

Sometimes comeback wards are just one because somebody was bad one year and they're not bad. The next year is like, what a comeback. Mal obviously coming back from missing the World Cup from her ridiculous serious injury to win the, to be vital in winning a gold medal in the Olympics is a pretty cool thing. Yeah. That's a good point. I guess it's that Alyssa was, you know, even though Mal was injured, it never felt like she was out of the picture. No, definitely not. Yeah. It felt like as soon as she's healthy, she's coming back and getting every chance. It did feel a little bit like Alyssa had maybe played herself out of the picture.

And it does feel now that she's right in the picture. You know, I mean, she was, she scored that really nice goal versus Iceland in October, was involved in a lot of danger in goal-creating action in those friendlies in that window, and then was a live wire against England and the Netherlands to close out the year. So yeah, I agree with Tara, I think. Although Mal definitely, definitely gets a shout here. Vince, any dissent? No, no dissent.

Okay, Greg's going to love this next award. Most patriotic. This is a terror category. This is a terror category, just to be clear. So before anybody alleges something about me, the 2023 winner was Sam Coffee because she loved the national anthem so much. She had her eyes shut. She was grateful thinking about freedom while the music played.

And you can tell anyone who has a shirt tucked in is almost certainly you're going to assume more patriotic. That's just something you're going to associate with anyone who's shirt is tucked into their soccer shorts. Yeah, yeah. More, they probably follow the rules. They probably do everything right, including their patriotism, if they have their shirt tucked in. Tara's most patriotic award, though, goes to Lily Johannes for deciding to represent the USA. The U.S. women's national team doesn't dabble in dual nationals as much as the men's team does. There's not as much dual national panic.

We lose more than people would realize, Tara says. But we haven't had a substantial decision like this since Kat Makario. So congratulations to Lily and the USA for her coming to play for the U.S. Patriotic Award goes to Lily Ohanis. And let's hope Lily has as much impact as, I mean, cat hasn't even had that much impact. Let's hope Lily has the kind of impact we're expecting that healthy cat will make. Because then it'd be a nice chain of really successful dual Nats going from Sydney

La Rue, Sophia Huerta, Cat Macario, L'Irae, Lily, Honest. I mean, there's going to be more to discuss about Lily as the show goes on, but she wasn't very good in that Netherlands game, was she? No. She was all right. She wasn't bad, I mean, I don't even mean that in like, well, she wasn't terrible. I mean, she was fine in what the game was asking. She's only 17 years old, folks.

And I do think, yeah, the best is yet to come. So, best retirement. Let me quote from Tara, multiple giants have retired this year. Alex Morgan, Kelly O'Hara, Becky Sauerbrin, and Alyssa Neyer. But the clear winner is Alyssa Neyer. Retired after a successful European camp, got a gold medal. And in doing so, is giving the program plenty of time to find her heir. the best retirement award goes to Alyssa Ayer.

Yeah, she's, Alyssa Aer, I mean, this is going to go down as one of the best retirements in program history. Like a storybook thing where the person who could be king, queen, decides to turn down the throne for the betterment of the people. She's saying, no, I'm going to step down. Let's bring in a new person because the World Cup is still several years away as the next major tournament. and so we'll all allow the process to start now instead of maybe hanging on too long I mean because maybe she could do it maybe she could still be number one going into 2027

but she's just going to take her name out of the hat and the process gets to start and be pretty thorough I think and all of this after she was so so good at the Olympics she even had a fantastic game and her last game for the national team

against the Netherlands kind of stood on had helped us avoid, you know, going down by a couple of goals in the first half. And we ended up winning that game. Yeah, there's a lot to recommend Alyssa here. She did it in typical. Alyssa in their style, no frills, no pomp and circumstance. None of that. Just I'm out after this window.

And the window's not even going to be in the United States. You know, she might not even came back. You know what I'm saying? She's just over backpacking. You know, so shout out to her listener. You know, she came under a lot of scrutiny from a lot of people, especially particularly over these last two years, three years. I was scrutinizing.

I was doing a lot of scrutinizing. I was about to say, including me, including me. But when you see these backup options, man, they're not looking, they're not filling me with the confidence that a listener has earned. know, listeners earn that confidence. And also, just while we're still here, because I don't think we're going to get to it

at any other point, being able to see her penalty exploits in person, just, I mean, crazy. Crazy. I'm telling me, like, penalties were taken in the end zone that I was in,

in Columbus for that she believes final. Watching a listener, stop a penalty. Pick the ball up. Set the ball down on the penalty spot. Score the penalty. Get back and go and stop another pin. Like, come on, man.

That's just, I mean, truly, truly legendary stuff, man. Legendary. So. It's almost wasted on someone who's as emotionless as she is. She just did like one of the most incredible things ever. and it looks like I mean she has all the emotion of someone like checking out at the grocery store like total

totally unchanged expression in body language which I don't know maybe that adds to it maybe that adds to it so yeah so Nair's retired perfectly that is a perfect retirement but it is almost like emotional thinking about who we're saying goodbye to for this program because it's like legends the lot of them

between Alex Morgan of course Becky Sauerbrun who, you know, who finishes her national team career with a lot of trophies and zero goals, which is part of her lore. Kelly O'Hara, who's played multiple positions for the U.S. through multiple title-winning teams, it's been a lot, right? Like, it's been a transition. And I think that's the biggest thing is we held on to the transition for a long time,

so now it's sort of happening all at once. Yeah, I'd say Alex Morgan, the most famous American soccer player of all. time. Yeah. And I think that's true. I think she sort of walked through the door that Mia Hamm opened from that that sense of like combining celebrity status. Mia am a very reluctant celebrity.

Yeah. But the face of U.S. soccer nonetheless. And Alex Morgan, absolutely so to the point where you knew as soon as the roster was announced and she was not on it for the Olympics, that we were still going to be seeing tons of Alex Morgan through the Olympics because she was going to be in every commercial that featured U.S. soccer players. And she was. Yeah.

All right. So best retirement goes to Alyssa Neier in a crowded field of competitors. The 2023 winner was Megan Rapino. Most intriguing transfer rumor. Now, there's some options here. I guess Germa, there's some whispers about Germa going to Leone. that maybe Corbyn Albert could end up at Barcelona or Chelsea she hasn't extended her contract at PSG yet

there's also the question of wherever Lily Ohanis goes you guys got a most intriguing transfer rumor choice For me it's Lily for sure because she is you know Leone and Barcelona if players end up in those places They're going to be surrounded by outrageous talent like outrageous talent, but they're not going to play competitive soccer for almost the entire year. This is my little competitive soccer soapbox. I already said last time around, Leon, I think, are like outscoring their league 60 to 2,

something stupid like that. Barcelona, it's the same kind of thing. They're 57 to 7, and their 13 wins, zero draws, zero losses. So just from a competitive standpoint, I don't want our players going to those places and just kind of waltzing through 9.4. months out of the year until Champions League knockouts. Lily's not in that situation. She's playing for Iax, which is not going to be outrageous talent, even at training. She's not playing in the Champions League.

I'm hoping Lily moves in the winter to even one of the, like some, some sort of top end team and maybe get some Champions League knockouts played actually in the spring. That would be awesome. Maybe Chelsea? there you go. I would do it. WSL, I think, other than NWSL, is out of the big leagues in Europe, is the most competitive. I don't know that they're going to have the top end talent as Leon or Barcelona,

but they're going to play more competitive games on a weekly basis than either of those two, the powerhouses. For sure. Vince, Corbyn, Corbyn to Barza? That's your, is where you're going? Man. Corbyn de Barso would be a sight to behold. Yeah, I'm just, I'm on the Lily Train. I'm on a Lily Train.

We got a very limited number of people to really worry about when it comes to these transfer rumors, really just the people that are inclined to stay abroad. You know, like a move from the, from the spirit to the rain, ain't really doing it for me. But that's Williams, right? Is that Lynn, Lynn going? Yeah, Gotham to. got them to Seattle.

Yes. Wherever Lily goes, just get out of the Netherlands. The Netherlands, man. Really, and any of those other places would be cool. I understand the caveats that Greg has with all these other leagues, but the Netherlands is like a different.

I mean, it's a step down from those leagues. Well, if she ever wants to win, you know, the Ballandoor, she's got to go to Barcelona because you apparently have to play for Barcelona to get the Ballandor on the women's side. Okay, harshest injury. In 2003, it was very, very clearly, Malice Watson going down two months before the World Cup with Achilles' injury. Honorable mention went to Emily Fox's multiple concussions.

Who do we have in 2024? The harsh injury. It has to be Jaden Shaw Olympics. Jaden Shaw Olympics, man. You know, now was her opportunity to go to a major tournament. You know, unlike Alyssa Thompson, she did not get to go to the World Cup, did not get to contribute. The Olympics came. We thought it was going to be Jaden Shaw's time.

And, yeah, Jaden Shaw picks up an injury and pre-tournament camp. I think it was in France. It was in France when she got hurt. It was before the games were played. And, yeah, no Jaden shot throughout the Olympics. It really slowed her down for the whole second half of 2024. Yeah. Yeah, and we're going to have to watch closely to see if it's still slowing her down in 2025.

Kat Makario probably an honorable mention here just because I think her original injury was in 2023. But she came back, had setbacks, came back, had setbacks. And so it's kind of the same boat. we're now going to be waiting and watching closely to see if her 2025 can start to look like what we know cat macario pre-injury was capable of yeah and and i would say so far the the jury's still out you know she's been playing right got a couple starts for chelsea but she does look mighty ginger out there uh moving around for for whatever reason sprint watch it scuffed is alive and well yes i was going to say we got to add jaden to sprint watch too

right? Yep, yep, sure do. All right, that's a great one for harshest injury. Stepmom of the year. We do this, we do stepdad of the year as well. Who's the stepmom of the year? Stepmom of the year got to be none other than Twyla Kilgore. Twilight Gilgore, a caretaker manager of the USW&T in the period between managers until Emma took over the reins.

Bells, you can say whatever you want to say, but she did a good job, okay? the results were there their results were there she believes cup winners gold cup winners yeah what a smashing success that she believes cup performance was that's right broad jane it was a genius move I think from

to while to lose to Mexico in the gold cup because I think that really like got everyone got everyone's attention you know if you just win ugly over and over again no one's really paying that club boat to lose to Mexico got everyone Got everyone to sort of sit up and be like, hold on, what?

The women lost, like, to Mexico? It's one thing to lose. It's one thing to crash out in the World Cup, and even that got a coach fired in the knockouts. But to lose to Mexico on U.S. soil is a, that's not what people are accustomed to. So you do that, you do that, you do that, then you just, then you just clean sweep from that on out. That was pretty masterful stuff from Twyla. Good job, Twyla. That's right.

She brought some people through, you know? She, uh, it seems like she did a little bit of. Emma's bidding, you know, and she won. And then she went off until the sunset. Who knows what that opportunity was that she left for? I don't think it's been announced yet what Twilight Kilgore is doing since she left. Since she left the last seat on Emma's coaching bin. Yeah, man, she got moved down the line.

But she stayed on that line. the Olympics. So she gets, whatever perfunctory role she had, she got to do it at the Olympics. Yeah. Which is pretty cool. Yeah. Okay. Congratulations the stepmom of the year, Twilatilgore.

Now let's go to some stuff that was voted on. Let's start with uncapped player of the year. Now, a 2023 winner was Katie Lund, the goalkeeper. In 2024, listeners chose Claire Hut. The young midfielder for the Kansas City Current and the U20 World Cup semifinalist for her country. I think she's a good choice. A reliable professional midfielder, toughen the tackle, getting better as a progressor of the ball, played a lot for a good team in NWSL.

She won this with the voters in a landslide and I can't really disagree. Y'all? That's a good choice, you know? And it is a good choice. There's a few, like, armamentions I got here. but, like, you know, everybody knows I love Claire Hudden. I'm a big Claire Hutton fan. There's a lot of talent in the U.S.

Ella Stevens. Ella Stevens is one I might have threw up there. I'm going, so my uncap player isn't necessarily somebody who should have gotten a cap, but it's just the player who hasn't gotten a cap that I'm hoping is going to be the next, like, better than replacement level player for the U.S., and that's going to be Jaze Thompson. So I'm hoping, I'm hoping we get some fullback. quality, not just depth.

Like, I'm looking for quality that I'm not even sure we have in the starting spots right now. We have solid players, but I'm just somehow hoping, because that's what you get to do with players who are super unproven. It's just pin all your hopes on them. I'm hoping that Giselle gives us real dynamism. I feel like that's a Bell's favorite from the full back spot. Yeah, that would be fantastic. It's a great show.

You know, this isn't a side, but is Mitch Purs at all still intriguing as a fullback? For me, absolutely. Yes. Yes, for sure. If we let her run the right touchline like she was doing when she was at the Gold Cup, be great. I would love to see it. I would love to see it once again.

It looked great when we were doing it before. Or if we can throw her at, I think the spot that needs failing right now for, for us is wide left, right? I don't think we've got the production. I don't know, that I would want from wide left. You know, the right side is where

a lot of our magic happens. Obviously, Trinity's out there. But, yeah, midge, at left back, patrolling that left touchline, I would take it. I would take it in a heartbeat. Also, I do want to just shout out Ryan Williams, because

Ryan Williams is just an exceptional player, exceptional right back. And Greg, I do want to say, you stuck your neck out there a few episodes ago about Emily Fox. I agree for the most part. The work that she's done on the ball for the national team has not been very remarkable at all.

So, yeah, there is an upgrade opportunity there. I think Emily has it in her. That's what I'm hoping. to be who I think that she is. But, yeah, as far as results and outcomes and what she's put out there, it's been quite basic. Maybe that was just lower on Emma's list of things to address. That's what I'm hoping.

She can still get some more out of Fox. Because I do think Fox has more in her toolbox than what she's sort of been comfortable putting on the field for the U.S. And one more point I wanted to make about Mitch Purse is, you know, Harvard graduates just don't get enough opportunities in this country or have enough influence. So we need her back. That's right. Club goal of the season by a women's national team player.

The 2023 winner was Lynn Williams versus the Seattle rain in the final. Obviously, a lot of significance to that goal, a lovely team goal. I believe Mitch Purse had the assist on it. The 2020 winner, per the listeners, is Trinity Rodman versus the Houston Dash. And I'm just going to say this is my choice as well.

It's the one where she picks the ball up at midfield, makes a mazy run, wins like seven cage matches over 40 yards, and then hits one top bins from outside the box. It's an amazing individual effort of a goal. And it wins with the, It wins with the listeners, I think, pretty handily. And it's a perfect word of fraternity because it goes back to what we've kind of known about her from the second she debuted for the U.S.

And that is like when the ball is near her, she just has total command of the situation. It doesn't mean she can do whatever she wants to do. She did in this case. But you're not just going to like wrestle control of the situation away from her. Like she's going to have it until she makes her choice. Yeah. whether she's cutting him from the left or from the right I mean it is kind of always the same

that dynamic does always seem to be in play where she's in control and she's getting smarter like her choices are getting better which would you'd expect because she's still so young so and I just feel like she's going to win some more trophies and some more annual awards from scuffed

both of those things probably equally important to her the trophies and also the awards from scuff. Well, you know, she did that long interview with Caller Daddy, mostly about her dad. But she said at the very end of it, what she wants to be known for, what she wants her legacy to be as a player, is to be the one who, like, made it fun to watch. She said, I don't care about, you know, scoring a thousand goals or, you know, other people can score the goals. I just want to make it fun, fun to watch. And I was like, man, that's incredible. That's an incredible sentiment. She had one of the best moments of the year non-Olympic edition in Colorado.

I think it was in Denver where she sets up a goal and I think it was Sof. And then she runs over to give Sof a big hug. And Sof like is running towards her for a second. And so Trinity's there with her arms outstretched like ready for this hug. And then Sof suddenly wheels around and runs another way and completely leaves Trinity hanging. And it's it's again, it's just like the best produced three seconds of video soccer content of a year just in trinity like plays it i mean she's such a performer uh she just does it all perfectly so she does to be heartbroken yeah yeah she really does like she is an absolute entertainer

she just has that uh that you know that sense of what's entertaining in any moment i mean there were some other ones uh johannes had that really that banger versus zwhol her and rand scores a couple every weekend. I know, but they're... None of them got a vote, and I think probably deservedly did not, because they're just kind of regular goals,

you know? I'm a fan of the... So, Soph scored one, and I think it was the first NWSL game of the season, I guess the current. I think it's her second goal, where she kind of hit

like a dream shake in the box. She was just kind of toying with current defenders. Once again, like I said, hit a little dream shake. Back to goal, faked like she was going to turn left, push that thing out with her right foot. She's on the left side of the box. And then the way she took the goal was very nice, too. She almost played it like a with their left foot across the face of goal. It almost struck the ball like she was just.

playing like a simple pass across her body or something like that. She wasn't even, she's not even, didn't even make an effort really to square up to the, to square up to the goal at all. To like get the strike in. It was just like, man, she's basically like almost facing the corner flag. And boom, just plays that thing across with the left foot into the far right corner.

That's a nice goal. Yeah. Real finish, there's instincts to know that if you just guide this path, this challenging defender with no pace on, you don't even need pace on it. Because the keeper's not going to be in a position to be in that spot to stop it. Unsighted, late, everything working for the striker there. She's quite good, Sophia Smith.

She is, yeah. So women's national team goal of the year. So not for club, but for the national team. The 2023 winner from a pretty slim field was Lindsay Horan's header at the World Cup after the Vandadonk shenanigans. In 2024, the listeners chose Rodman v. Japan. So this is the winner in extra time to send us through to the semifinals. It's a ball played over, I think by Germa, right?

Over the top. Is it played by Germa? I think so. Over the right side, she takes it down, chops. to her left foot and then just it's a blasts it into the far corner. Now, second place is

Swanson's goal versus Brazil in the final and it's a pretty narrow victory for Rodman v. Japan. But I'm going to say, I mean, I do want to hear your guys' thoughts, but I think the Rodman goal against Japan has to be the winner. The one against, the one from Swanson versus Brazil,

it's not that it was a bad goal or ugly or anything, it just was kind of a weird goal because everybody thought somebody was offside. but she wasn't offside and then she goes in and it's a relatively straightforward finish I mean she has a lot of the goal to shoot at it's like a broken play kind of

and it takes a while to sort out what happened and that nobody was offside the robin goal against Japan was man that was a difficult game Japan is good we were not at our sharpest in the final third and for her to break the deadlock that way the chop, that clean strike.

For me, it's the goal of the year. And I agree with the voters. Goal of the year. Trinity Rodman. That's right. That's right. And shout out to the voters for not being, you know, overtaken with emotions.

The propaganda, which is the scuffed discord, having the goal as its banner. You know, if you're on the discord a lot, you see that thing maybe 20 times a day. Mouse, the gold medal. winner, right? Yeah, yeah, the gold medal winner. Miles goal, the celebration, all that.

Trinity's, I mean, that's the, that's the goal of the year. When you, when you combine everything, you know, because we also don't win gold without that goal to, you know. Right. And also, I will say the trend, trend versus Ambia. Yeah. She receives the ball in the box. A little, little, what type of term?

That's a Croifth turn. Yep. Quirth turn strikes it. Beautiful. Also, I do got a shout out, you know, my brand. I got a shout out, Jaden Shaw's goal against Iceland. I mean, just extremely nice. Once again, just to, I mean, drag that thing over at the right and then poke it, poke it through for the Meg.

And then her being able to catch up to it and toe poke that thing in for the goal. beautiful beautiful goals all around also I do want to say the the goal that was scored in Columbus the She Belize final

against Canada Haran to Shah to Trinity to Sof You know the one I'm talking about That one was nice too Those ones that They come to bind for me That was my honorable mentions

Of those honorable mentions The one Robin versus Zambia is probably my favorite You know, that was such a pleasant goal on the eyes. I'm going to throw Alyssa Thompson versus Iceland right on here as well, just because I think, you know, Rodman, Swanson, and Smith are going to dominate all of our goal totals, I think, for a while. But it's nice that, it's nice that like Alyssa Thompson shows she's got some of that, like,

magic in a bottle with her right foot, too, cutting in from the left side. So we're going to be watching Shaw closely to see if she can keep providing us those kinds of moments where I think she's going to require some of that burst that we're hoping she hasn't lost. And then hopefully Thompson can put her name on more of these candidates in 2025. I have a related award. It's not a positive one. It's the worst call of an iconic goal of 2024. The honor goes to John Champion. Because when Rodman scored that winner over Japan, the first words out of his mouth,

were amidst a morass of muddling mediocrity and frustration. And it's like, it's like, it's like, what are you talking about, dude? I get the, I get the point, you know, he's not, it's not entirely untrue, but also it was pretty uncharitable. And it did not capture the glory of the moment. So congratulations, John Champion. What he was saying is amidst all this mediocrity and frustration, here was a special moment from Trinity. but the way it was experienced by the

viewer was I think suboptimal. Yeah, I mean, we don't need to hear all that John Shambia. Keep you alliteration in your pocket. You know what I'm saying? Like, come on, bro. It's one of the time to flex.

Also, he didn't do a good job on the on the Malgo, the Brazil winner, the one that won this Olympics, which, You could say a lot of people didn't know what was going on. You know who didn't know what was going on? Abby Wamback.

I don't know if y'all saw the video of Abby Wambach watching that goal and celebrating in her house. But she knew that she knew exactly what was going on the whole time. She knew Sof was off. She knew Mal was on. She was screaming at Sof to leave it for Mal. And as Mal carried that thing in and dropped it into the goal. There was no, you know, there was no check to the sideline rep for her. Abby Wambach was in full celebration as soon as that ball went over that line.

Yeah, Abby wasn't waiting for VAR. She knew. Maybe we'll get her in a booth someday. But yeah, come on, John. Like, wet blankets are, when we're no strangers to wet blankets here at the scuff podcast. Yeah, we have wet blankets all over the place. But those are for the days following. Like, I'm not watching Rodman hit that goal against Japan.

Man, like, that was a very low XG chance. That is not the kind of thing she's going to be able to repeat on a consistent like get like get excited about an incredible goal, John. Well, don't say the word morass first off. Come on. So the next award is the breakthrough player of the year, you know, aka rookie of the year, I guess. 2023 winner was Jaden Shaw. In 2024, the voting was again fairly close, but in 2027.

The listeners chose Lily O'Hanis, a 17-year-old who scored versus South Korea and then chose to play for the USA this fall, proving her patriotism. I think Yonis has the upside to be the air to the best version of Lindsay Horan. It's not there yet, but I obviously really like her, as anybody who listens to this podcast knows. She won first place in the voting. Corbyn-Bathune, Yasmin, Ryan. Our second, third, and fourth. But then we probably could have mentioned, too, for the injury. I mean, it didn't keep her out of the big tournaments,

which I think is why it doesn't seem that big deal. But she was putting up silly numbers in the league for the injury. I think she still set like a record for assists, despite missing, like two-thirds of the season. So, you know, she's sort of, I feel, like, falling out of mind. But, man, she could be something for this squad, too. Yep, maybe. Yep.

Yeah, she did tie Tobin Heaf's single season assess record in the NWSO. And it looked like, you know, it was a foregone conclusion that thing was not only going to be broken, but like, you know, stomped on multiple times. But unfortunately, pitchers mounds are a thing. Yeah, she tore her ACL throwing the opening pitch for the Washington Nationals one night. Okay, that probably should bump it up in the world. Should we go back and say that's the harshest injury of the year? Yeah, I think that's the harshest. That's for sure.

Yes, definitely. I'm going to diverge from the voters. Have you guys, are you guys agreeing with it being Lily? I got a few people I can call out. I'm going to go with Yasmin Ryan for my choice for a breakthrough player of the year. She's much older. but she got her first cap in October and while she may not threaten triple espresso

plus Alyssa Thompson for starting minutes or whatever she is already having an impact with the national team and I would say that's not quite the case with Lily as much as I love her game so Ryan is instant impact big time creator, steady hand in the attacking half

I think she's going to help the national team a lot over this next year. She's already helped it a lot in the last four months. So for me, she's the breakthrough player of the year. And Corbin, Corbin, did Corbin break through in 2024? I don't think she's broken through at all. You don't think she's broken through at all? Too harsh.

I mean, I was going to say, like, I lean towards one of the midfielder's, but again, sort of in the scuffed blank slate, totally unproven, which means they could be anything way. In my mind, like, Corbyn isn't going to be anything in the near future. We kind of have a sense of what she is, which can be useful. She's got some strengths. But these other players, they could be the world. You know, Lily and Bethune.

Like, so they haven't really broken through either. But they could in a way that really makes a difference for the national team. because I think midfield is still such a unsolved puzzle for Emma and our team that a midfielder, I think, has more opportunity to really do it than someone who's going to come in and certainly not beat out triple espresso. So at the best, they're going to be like pretty low on the depth chart. I just mean pretty low as in the gap between, you know, any of triple espresso and the next attacker. Are you referring to my choice? Yes.

Yeah, yeah, that's kind of what I'm saying. But what if she plays midfield for the national team? So then, all right, if you want to, you go, you open that door and then, yeah, she could, she absolutely be that kind of a player. Hersfeld's a totally different player, so I like, I like her, my breakout, to be honest. She really broke, like, she broke through, like, my awareness. And it's like, oh, man, this midfield. Yeah, I was going to shout out how, I was going to shout out Sam Coffey, too.

I mean, you know, I know she had a cup of coffee with black hole or whatever, but I mean, this is, you know, she really took a hold. You know, she was a Twyla project, right? She was, she got her foot hold under Twyla and then carried that thing throughout the Olympics. And basically she's a first choice midfielder, it seems. Now, how long will that last? I don't know. But I do think Sam should be considered. her.

I'm seeing it doesn't look like she received any votes. That's to her credit. She is actually so instantly established in like a part of the first unit that you don't even think of her as a breakthrough player. You're thinking about the people who might break through past her. But yeah, as soon as you said, it's like, oh, yeah, she'd totally be coffee as the nailed on breakthrough. That's a good point.

Yeah. Because I think of her as so established that she's not a breakthrough. but did she she probably got a couple caps under twilight at the end of 23 right yeah and again she got a couple under blotcoe okay yeah she got to play in that last game this is breakout so yeah yeah so i think i think sam's sam's been uh sam's been robbed he's been robbed but sam didn't Sam didn't break into your house. You just got up one morning and we went to breakfast. She's just sitting at the table with everyone and you don't even notice. And she just never moved away from the table. She's just been eating with you for every meal all of 2024.

She has control of the checkbook and everything. I mean, she's just completely. Yeah. She's on the family phone plan. She's in here. She's telling you what to do. She's such a pleasant person. And she won't even bother asking who is this.

You know, it's just like, oh, well, yeah. Everyone else is cool with her. I guess I'm cool with her too. All right. So a little bit of controversy around Breakthrough Player of the Year. The listeners chose Lily O'Hannis. The listeners are probably wrong. So about this.

Player of the Year, in 2023 it was Naomi Germa. I don't think there was much debate about it. What about in 2024? The listeners gave her a repeat victory. She ran away with her. the award again. Basically, almost twice as much support for her as the player of the year than there was

for any other player. I would say it's fair. That's what I think. We figured out some things in the attack under Emma Hayes, but we didn't completely figure out our attack under Emma Hayes. The defense remained very much the strength of the team. Germa very much the primary reason for that. In a sense, I think it's harsh on Triple Espresso, because I think they're very obviously

going to split the attacking vote. Like, we didn't score in the World Cup. We just didn't score goals. So I think it made sense to give German the award. And I think defenders generally get undervalued in these kinds of conversations. But I like that defenders undervalued because it's like I like the focus on the super exciting goals being scored. It was like, well, while we're giving German the award in 2023, it's almost like, man, it kind of sucks that we have to give the award to the amazing defender we have. I'd much rather be able to give it to some amazing goal score.

And we got that in 2024. We just got three of them at once. And you can't, there's no campaign to be like, hey, out of these three, who should we give the award to? We're going to have to institute ranked choice voting for these in the future as long as triple espresso is doing their thing. Well, I should point out, before you go, Vince, I should point out that if you tally up the total support for Rodman Smith and Swanson, it is higher than the total support for Germa. So Triple Espresso, if they were a single human being, would win the award. Just having gone through all the goals today that were scored by the team,

I mean, I think if you really looked at it, out of Triple Espresso, I think it would be Trinity. Because she was just a force like the entire year, holding it down, providing, providing goals and assist for the team and big goals and assists. But yeah, it's just like the defense was good in the World Cup, wasn't it? And, you know, that ended in disaster. So as good as Naomi Germa is, and I think we even saw it in this past window, the England, Netherlands window. With that, like, Triple Expresso is what makes this team into a truly formidable force.

Otherwise, we just have our defense, which is good. But they're just hanging on. They're just hanging off for dear life. And Naomi's doing what she needs to do, making all types of great tackles, interceptions, last dish defending, all that different type of stuff. I am not taking away from Naomi whatsoever. But I think this triple espresso just has such a impact on this team that, Yeah, it's just, it doesn't sit right, handed this thing over to Naomi this year.

I'm sorry. I'm Kanye West running on the stage. You know what I'm saying? Triple espresso had one of the greatest videos all the time. And it goes back to, again, like, to the midfield problem. Like, triple espresso are doing this without, like, a particularly well-functioning, high-functioning midfield all through the Olympics. And just like, they can literally win games on their, they can score goals on their own,

very little in the way of like system support. If we can solve this midfield and get some real system support for these gals up top, like that's it, man, that's it for a decade. It's going to be, we're going to sweep some more trophies. We're going to be back to the old era. Sorry, Spain. Right. Well, I mean, it feels like even though triple espresso has been outstanding,

we could get so much more out of them. Yeah, I guess even with whether it's the- Give them so much more to work with. Both, both, I think, yeah. And I will say, Vince, to your point about you saw how much less formidable we were against England and the Netherlands without triple espresso, we still got to draw. I mean, people aren't going to remember that nobody cared about this game at Wembley. Like, nobody tried that hard. They're just going to see that we got to draw at Wembley and we beat the Netherlands.

Game we should have lost. beat the Netherlands. One of the nastiest wins who I've ever seen. In the Hague. So, I mean, we're formidable with or without them. You know, I think the argument could be made. Your point is correct, though. It's good that we can always go back to the scuffed bit of,

it's good that all of these players are on our team. Yeah. I hope we don't lose any of them in the transfer portal. That's right. And then there's, you know, also like Macario waiting in the wings. Jaden Shaw didn't even participate in the Olympics. And there's so, there's so many good players for us to choose from.

This is one for Tara, the gold medal award for Best Moment of the Year. In her opinion, is winning a gold medal. I feel like that's a very perfect Tara award. Yeah. Like such a positive way to look at. All of all of sports fandom. Yeah, we miss you, Tara. There's no wet, there's no wet blanketing it.

Like, we won a gold medal. Yeah. We won the gold medal, man. Had an entire Olympics team USA by singing strut. Also, in the wake of this, for one reason or another. My daughter has started watching Cheetah Girls, too, like a lot. And she's actually doing a dance to one of the songs. It's not Strutt.

It's a different song with her dance class and whatever. But Strut, excellent song, excellent song. And you may or may not believe this, but the USWNT singing it does not do a good enough job of illustrating how good a song it is. I believe it. It's a banger. It's a banger. Well, they at least increased awareness, Vince. Even if they didn't hit the standard of the original film,

they've increased awareness for a new generation. That's right. Guys, I think we've covered it. Any other awards to hand out? No, I'm awarded out. I mean, as always, the trophies are the best part. All right. Hey, thanks everybody for listening.

We appreciate it. Thanks for your patronage, for those who support us there. Have a great. holidays and a happy new year we'll see you