SoccerWise - NWSL Edition: Goodbye Alex Morgan, ORL-KC & GM Survey Reaction

Episode Date: September 11, 2024

There is never a dull moment in NWSL and this weekend was no different. After checking in on the KC panic meter last week did they do enough in the 1-0 win over Utah to settle the nerves? And what will the rematch look like against now playoff clinched Orlando on Friday night? Of course Jordan & Gass have to take the time to celebrate Alex Morgan upon her retirement. And lastlu what do they take from the monumental anonymous GM survey published by ESPN? 3:40 Orlando Clinch Playoff Spot 10:40 KC Bounce Back Win 15:30 ORL v KC Rematch Preview 21:58 Washington's Chances In The Wake Of Croix Bethune Injury 29:49 Goodbye To Alex Morgan 37:44 Reaction To ESPN GM Article 38:41 Breaking The Rules In NWSL 40:57 Parity In NWSL 43:52 Future NWSL Expansion Plans 47:55 Shift To Fall To Summer ScheduleSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Can you hear me playing piano in there as well as we are rolling on soccer wise I just pretend piano it was air piano there David Goss Jordan Angeli with you for an NWSL show here on this Wednesday afternoon. A big weekend of action, some big news, some big moments that you were heavily invested in and a big part of. Do you feel recovered yet? It was a big weekend for you. It was emotional. I think more emotional than I thought. There was a lot of heightened energy around being on the big game of the weekend, which was Alex Morgan's

surprise last game of her career. So it did take me a couple of days, Gus, to recover. I feel like I'm maybe just getting back to having the energy that I typically have. And it's Wednesday. So I'm already prepping for what's coming up next this weekend. Are there any other unknown retirements? Because last week, we did a show on Wednesday. And about seven minutes after we got off, it was sadly announced, and we'll talk about this, that Kroy Bethune tore her meniscus and is going to be out for the rest of the year. And about seven minutes after that, Alex Morgan puts up her video where she talks about her retirement and why and what's happening in her life. So I was wondering if you had that for us this week so we didn't

have to wait the extra 30 minutes. Yeah, I wish. I wish I was in the know of all those things. I could see what's going to happen next. But I'm sure we'll have more news like that as the season goes. It's just not ready to drop yet, I don't think. Got it. So you're keeping it from us. You're keeping it from us. I am keeping something from you. I appreciate that.

So tune in. Yeah. Stay locked in. Stay ready to go. And as we have said every single week, you never know what's going to happen in NWSL. And it was another weekend that proved that. We've got another big weekend of matches coming up.

So we will talk, of course, course about Alex Morgan about that match Croy Bethune how it affects the Washington spirit and everything else that's going on with that team we will talk of course about Orlando who officially clinched their playoff spot this weekend already and now they face off against Kansas City for a rematch of what was the biggest match of the first half of the season on Friday night. So a lot for us to talk about, a lot for us to dig into. And then on top of all of that, Jeff Kasuf from ESPN released a groundbreaking article in which there was an anonymous survey with every general manager in NWSL about some of the hot button topics and biggest issues in the league. And in that, we've got a lot of really interesting nuggets to dig through. I think a lot of what we talk about on this show and what we

talk about off the show was covered in this article. And so I think it's a chance for us to dig in and talk about where this league stands, the future of this league, as well as the sport and so much more. So we're going to dig into all of that as we go along. Note, Canada's U-20s will play against Spain tonight, and the U.S. U-20s will play against Mexico. So we're not going to talk about those games because they're going to be happening in a couple moments, and we won't have time for all of you to go out and listen to it. So enjoy those games. The U.S. road to the final is interesting. It's not easy if they're able to continue on in Colombia, and obviously Canada got the reigning U-20 champions and the reigning World Cup champions in that next round. So it is going to be a tough fight for them as well.

Let's dig into the weekend. Let's start with the top team in the league. That feels like a pretty obvious one. Orlando remains undefeated. They beat Chicago in this one 1-0. They officially clinched their playoff spot, as I said. And the goal, Marta's sixth of the season. I went back and looked. It ties her second best mark in NWSL since she joined with Orlando. Going back to 2017 when she scored 13 goals in her opening season.

And it was vintage, Marta, right? It's the step over, drives inside, powers a shot to the far post. It looked more like winger Marta than 10 Marta that we've seen now, but it is the continuation of what feels like a rebirth for one of the best players we've ever seen in this league. And this system and the players around her,

I think have really allowed Marta to look like herself this year. One, she's looked fitter than ever. There's times where I talk to Seb Hines and I'm like, is she covering more ground than you've ever seen her cover? And he is like, it's amazing what she's been able to do. but he's continually shocked at what Marta is doing at her age with this group. And I think it speaks to the buy-in of this group, but also the talent that surrounds her. It does not surprise me that she's scoring a lot of goals because she has a lot of players that you have to worry about too. You have to worry about Barbara Vanda. You have to worry about how Angelina is working in the midfield.

You have to worry about Adriana and what she's doing in the channel. So I think with the combination of what this team looks like as a unit, it allows her to maybe get a little bit more freedom than we've seen from her as of lately. And we're saying it on the score sheet with a goal like that, perfection in her placement, very Marta-esque. And we love to see it. It was a narrow win by Orlando.

I was not expecting it to be so narrow, as I've seen Chicago over the last couple of weeks. And they looked disjointed without Sam Staub. But they managed the win, and they continue this wild, undefeated streak. But not just that, Goss. They have yet to give up a goal in the last 15 minutes of a game. And if any team does end up getting a goal on them and trying to chase a game, how are they going to do that?

The mental strength of this group is gigantic. And the ability of this team to take advantage of what you do when you have to expose yourself right and that's yeah that's the threat of banda over the top it's the ability of marta in the pocket underneath and it's i think part of why maybe we see teams don't sell out to go for an equalizer or to go for a winning goal late in games because the fear is that you're going to expose yourself and can you find more marginal ways to go about it um this game was not a work of art to watch and Orlando I've talked about a couple times they are this team when you look at the data and the underlying numbers and all of that they are this team that just completely sits in the middle which sometimes means teams

struggle because they don't have an identity. But because the talent level is so high and the soccer IQ level is so high, it actually means that they can just morph to every game. And so you have Chicago who are the least high possession team in the league, right, with North Carolina on the other side. And you have an Orlando team that can kind of find their way in both those games without making wholesale changes because they don't really have to change their identity and they don't have to change what they do. They change their line of confrontation a little bit. They'll sit a little deeper sometimes.

They'll press a little higher sometimes. But they are so grounded in what they are because they don't have to be a completely different team based on every opponent. And you watch this game and Chicago just has no ability to take advantage of the space that Orlando will seed you. And that could get better. Ludmilla came on late here, which I think should be exciting for Chicago fans. I put them high in my little draft and it's been a tough few weeks for me. So I'm hoping she's back. Mel Swanson back as well in this team. Grosso getting the start. But Chicago couldn't take advantage of any of those things and as you said once Orlando's up 1-0 in this game it's almost like it's over because they're not going to concede easy chances no and they've been so solid

throughout the whole entire year even with the changes of personnel but they've done that with a fairly healthy roster so Orlando's doing that with all these changes, you know, that whoever is starting a game, there's confidence in them to get the job done, whatever it may be on the game day, whether it is a little bit higher, or they say, okay, Chicago, you can have the ball for a little bit of time. Those players have been in and out of the lineup. So they understand what is asked of them in every single moment. Whereas if you look at the Chicago team, they've been trying to patchwork it together the whole entire season,

not just now with injuries, which they're doing a little bit extra, especially Sam Stobb. They're trying to fill the pieces in, but throughout the year, they couldn't find the right mix in the midfield, couldn't figure out who's the starting front line and how they could be productive every single week.

So I think that's their big challenge is can we rely on an 11 to start with and know what some of these roles are for substitutes coming in? Because for Chicago right now, it doesn't feel like we know what their identity is. They're going to defend hard and they're going to try to get you on the break. But they have to have a little bit more nuance to their game and even those two things to understand how they can start to get some points at the end of the year they and my frustration with chicago is for a team that

doesn't have possession they are not direct enough when they get it so like kc doesn't have possession but they jump on you they play north to south and when they get the ball they are in your attacking quickly yes you're on your 18 Chicago get the ball and then play into the middle third and then lose possession and with Mel Swanson over the top and I think it'll change a little with some of these additional pieces where maybe you can have Swanson be a bit more isolated up top and be that threat that a banda is or showing it is for these other teams that don't really play with the ball as much. But it's pretty frustrating. And on the flip side for Orlando, again, the mental fortitude of just like, this is what the game requires.

This is what we're going to put out there. And I do think that's part of why the undefeated streak exists, because they are not overexerting themselves. It is a long season. It is ridiculous weather, especially when you're an Orlando home team and you're playing half your games in that weather. It's a lot of travel. It's all these things.

And while they've been healthy and fortunate with that, I think that balance allows them to stay settled over the course of the ups and downs. Yeah, and it helped them notch a playoff spot early in the season. Which, dream situation for them. And this is a club that's not been here before right a lot of this is new for this club uh this is going to be a record-setting season it already is because of what they've done and i think there's a lot of excitement and they're going

to continue to ride this energy and ride this momentum as they go forward the other team we were talking about in the first half of the season that was also looking to make history and records was Kansas City. And last week we did a panic meter conversation because they had dropped back-to-back games. They were struggling in their performances. And we said the gut check was going to be Utah at home, an improved Utah team. Kansas City goes in. They get a 1-0 win. Schwinga scores for the eighth straight game.

Lola Bonta called her a cheat code in the postgame interview on the field and was like, I was running. I thought I could go more and realized I don't need to. I'll just play Schwinga into space and she can do the rest of this. And Kansas City gets the win. Does this settle you? How do you feel about this team after this weekend? One, I feel like we need more Lola Bonta interviews because she is.

She's great. Personally, one of my favorites to interview after a game because she'll always give you something either to make you laugh or to make you think about what's going on. So thank you for that moment, Lola, and for getting Shwinga finally to do a celebration as she has been asking her to do. I feel a little bit better about Kansas City. I think for them, the question is, I think Utah gave them a tough ride. And I was expecting that because of the form that Utah is in and how good they have been over these last couple of games in their new identity and understanding they're playing with this double pivot who can really keep the ball and help them advance the ball and get into goal scoring situations. The biggest issue for Utah is going to be scoring goals in every single game.

They found that in these last few games, but they didn't figure out a way to get past the defense of Kansas City in this game. So I would say that makes me feel better, Goss, about Kansas City, that they didn't allow a goal in this game because that's where it did seem to fall apart in the last few games. We talked about the changes at center back and the players in and out of not just the starting 11, but in and out of the team.

And then who are you going to play at goalkeeper? All of those things are important because that's the stability of your group. That triangle there with the two center backs and the goalkeeper, they better know themselves inside and out. When they want to step, when they want to drop, when it's a keeper's ball, how they're going to play out of situations. So I think all of those things, the fact that they did not give up a goal

with this new combination of players back there has got to feel pretty good for Kansas City because they know that they have a cheat code and they can just play it to Shuenga and she'll find a way to score. Yeah, that was the secret sort of the first half of the year was the underlying numbers said that this was the best defense in the league. It didn't look like it all the time. Not all of the individual performances felt that way in every duel and every 50-50 and all the spacing.

But the numbers were saying they were giving up the least amount of chances. And then they have the ability to score without pushing numbers high. So then they can be safe. And Schultz comes in and holds the shutout. And I don't think that's insignificant. And now you've got Orlando on Friday night in the big matchup. I wouldn't be surprised to see Schultz in there again. Like after you get the shutout, I don't think you make that rotation.

And that might be her spot now for the rest of the season if she performs again at this level. Just because these teams have faced each other in, you know, it really wasn't that long ago, right? It feels a long time ago. It was because it was before the international break. But what was it, four games ago, Goss? Wow.

Well, yeah, because Summer was before the international break but what was it four games ago goss wow well yeah because summer cup in the middle yeah yeah it was only four games ago when it comes to nwsl season and i think because of that and you have this quick um recall of what that game was like i wouldn't i too wouldn't be surprised if schultz is in goal because AD got her chance and now let's see what Schultz can do in net. Is that what I would do? I don't know in that situation. But I think what I spoke to earlier is, is a goalkeeper in top form? Do they have good communication with their back line? Is that who you trust? Because that's where you have to go into this game and say right now this is the choice that we have she's training better she made good stops she has a shutout let's roll with her a little bit so it wouldn't surprise me either if that's what who they go with on Friday night and I think for KC you're not looking for a match winner in that spot you're looking for consistency right now and that's where French has sort of struggled this year. And I forgot about the Orlando game with the penalty. And the penalty was an unforced moment, right? It was a low percentage opportunity on the edge of the box and felt like somewhat of a mental error. And all of a sudden, now you're trailing against the team and in a completely different situation than what you expected. And Casey fails to get the win at home playing up a player for

almost over a half of that game so I think yeah I think you're right in like you have someone performing you're gonna go back to that my question is we blew this game up the last time saying this is the biggest game one of the biggest regular season games of all time it was the two undefeated teams against each other is it still at the same magnitude for you in this second matchup with the way the season has gone i don't know if it will ever be the same magnitude because of where those teams sat at that moment both undefeated both scoring through these players who absolutely shocked the league in banda and showing all right i don't think anybody saw this coming, even though we know how,

how deadly these players can be in the attacking third when it comes to gold scoring. But now I think it's, it might be even bigger of a game because of what happened to Kansas city. If they can get a result in Orlando right now, after a pretty difficult run of games, right? Losing multiple times in a row, finally getting the win. It was close. But the one thing that they can count on right now is they, well, maybe more than one. They've got some vengeance, right? They want to win this game

and they want to celebrate in Orlando. You know they do because of everything that happened when Orlando celebrated in Kansas City. And two, they have showing the scoring every single game. Orlando can't say that right now. Barbara Banda has not been scoring. They're getting goals from other players. I understand that. But I think that that's why this could be bigger of a moment for Kansas City because they've been tested. Orlando has not been tested. They have not lost a game and they have not found that little bit of like, are we going to withstand the storm in moments? Maybe they go down a goal. Imagine this Orlando team down a goal. What is that going to look like? So I think there's a little bit more on the line when it comes to the situations within both of these groups?

Because now Kansas City has been tested and can they go in there and test Orlando? I will be interested in, Bia came off the bench at the end of the last game. You don't know how many minutes she has in her legs, but we haven't really seen Bia and Dabinia, right? We've seen basically them alternate their time because Dabinia started the year hurt, came back, Bia got hurt, has now come back. I would be interested to see if they are both available from the start, how much possession Kansas City ends up having in this game and where they choose to play the game. Because with Claire Hutton out, I think they have struggled a little bit with their transition defending and their passive marking. And I would like to see maybe this Kansas City team push

all their numbers higher and play more compact higher up the field and knock the ball around. And I think if you come out and do that, Orlando will let you. One, because it will probably surprise them. And two, because I don't think Orlando are going to say no we have to have possession we have to take advantage we have to be the the protagonist at home I think they'll probably fall into a comfort zone there and it's a chance for Kansas City to sort of change the script a little and potentially take this game yeah get the first punch for sure I think that would be a lot the one thing that worries me with Kansas City, they have speed in their outside back position, no matter who that is, Wheeler or Mace or Rodriguez, but I don't think the two center backs and Sharples and Cook are going to, I mean,

they're going to get cooked if they give space in behind to Barbara Banda. So how do you manage that and understand, okay, we're going to get broken down here, so we have to manage the space in behind. And if we can just keep Banda and company in front of us, maybe we can slow them down enough for players to recover. But I think that's a good idea is to go out and play a little bit higher up on the field. Claire Hutton's best quality as a young player in this league is her defensive ability, her defensive responsibilities. And she nails those cutting off passing lanes, denying passes into different thirds of the field. And then really the, the way that she shifts and organizes and can just break up play is big time. And I don't think they have someone of that quality when they don't have her, but you do

get a better ball playing player when you bring in the midfield that they have so now they have to use that to their advantage in this game it'll be fascinating to watch it'll be fun to watch uh you know in trying to think about banda and what she brings to the game and all the accolades i'm watching portions of the chicago game and there's moments where angelina's trying to build out and has the right idea, but kind of makes mistakes in the quality of passing. And Banda reads the play so quickly that it like erases the issue. So there was a few moments where, you know, Chicago press a little higher and Angelina on the half turn tries to play early balls and it's probably the wrong ball. And any other player in the league, you're getting a transition moment against you.

And Banda goes and wins it and makes it a positive she has done so much for this team and her setup play like part of what you have to say for marta's goal scoring and adriana's goal scoring and summer yates's goal scoring is banda's ability to go out into that left channel and be a creator and doesn't look for her own shot when she gets inside is looking for her teammates um she has been players are so sorry just so humble they're just they're so humble they understand they can score in pretty much any situation but they're also just want the team to succeed showing that and banda and i think that that is evident in in moments like that that you were just talking about with barbara banda this game is on friday night

so it's a perfect start to the weekend. I think it is what we are all starting the weekend with in terms of our minds and what's going on. And for Kansas City, they come into this game nine points behind Orlando. I think for starters, you said it. They want to win in Orlando. They want to celebrate. They want to be able to do that. They probably want to break that undefeated streak for Orlando.

Say like, well, if we can't, you can't. Neither of us gets to be undefeated through a full season. And it puts it, it puts potentially the shield race in play late on in the season. But there are tough games coming up. I think Washington goes to Orlando in three weeks. Like if you are Kansas City, Kansas City has a tough run here. But if you get a victory here, you set yourself in the right spot to say like, yeah, but we're going to attack this. We're going to go after this and we've got a real opportunity.

So this is going to be an awesome start to the season or start to the weekend. I mentioned Washington. We have to talk Roy Bethune here. Washington came from behind to one victory over Portland at home. But we haven't talked about Roy Bethune since the injury. So she tore her meniscus. I believe it was throwing out the first pitch at the Washington Nationals game. This is why no one should play baseball.

I'm just putting it out there. Like, who cares? Everybody stop. Yeah, just stop playing baseball. Just stop doing it now and everyone will be okay. She's probably like the fittest person that would have been on that baseball field that day. And like she ends up being the one that gets injured. Don't do weird things. People shouldn't do weird things. So Bethune out, the team still gets a

victory. It was an odd game against Portland. Just talk to me a little bit about now what this season will be for Kroy Bethune. Like, what will you think about with her? What does the next year of her life look like? And what do you think about the Rookie of the Year vote? Yeah, I don't know. I know it was a meniscus tear. I don't know what if it was like, what's the extent of it, right? Is it a removal? Is it a repair? Both of those two things that have very different recovery rates. So I don't know when we'll see her again. And I think that that is one of the things that I hope. I do think she's in the best organization when it comes to what they can do on the physical side of things and the rehab side of things. I have Don Scott, who's one of the most brilliant minds in that area. So she's in good hands. What I feel about Kroy Bethune, I still think she's a rookie of the year. I still think she's going to be, unless something wild happens in these last seven games, I don't know if anybody has impacted their team as much as Kroy Bethune has. She tied the league lead in assists per season in her first year here.

So she's still going to be top of mind for me when that voting comes around. And they're going to, and Washington's going to maintain through Lacey Santos that's gonna be an not like for like but Santos has the ability as we've seen to hold up the ball maintain possession and find the final pass she's done all of those things in the first few games that she has played she is creative she has she's good with both feet. But one of the things that I think is going to be different is teams don't really know how to plan against her right now. Like they're, whereas with Kroy Bethune, I feel like teams knew halfway through the season, what they were dealing with. Now you have to adjust again to Lacey Santos and what that looks like with the front line in front of her. And she scores probably one of my favorite goals I've seen all season with a diving header

to win the game. She's going to be good for this team. And she has players in front of her who all have different qualities, but all can threaten in one way, which is in behind, right? I think Kwasi has done really well. Saar has been excellent. And Trinity Rodman is top player in this league right now. So I think that that's going to be an easy switch for this Washington team.

I agree with you. And I couldn't imagine saying that two weeks ago, right? Before we saw Lacey Santos get on the field. When they sign Lacey Santos, you're like, of course, sign more good soccer players. But how does this all work? How does this all fit? Like, why? And now you're seeing, like, you're protecting yourself for depth.

You're giving other players opportunities. When I watch the two players, I think Lacey Santos doesn't want to eat up space the way Corey Bethune does. And you saw it in the Portland game a lot when they would play through pressure. Santos picks it up, you know, behind the midfield line. She wants other players near her to connect with and play off of. But as you said, she's great with both feet. She's clean in tight spaces. She's confident on the ball.

But if Corey Bethune picks up the ball in that spot, two seconds later, she's in the final third. That's how she plays. They're just different players, but they're both super talented. Yeah, I think the one moment that I feel like Kroy Bethune excels more than Lacey Santos is in this mid-block for Washington when they're just waiting and baiting an opponent

to play through them. And then it's a lot of the times Kroy Bethune who wins the pass and she can drive to eat up the space to push the back line back or commit someone to her. I'm curious to see how Lacey Santos is in those types of situations because at the beginning of the year, Washington was the best in quick transition moments from good defensive positioning.

But a lot of that time was before Trinity Rodman had gotten fit and gotten on the field where Bethune was carrying that role. And so you watch stretches of this game. And I think it's going to be Santos to then play early ball into space for Rodman and Kwasi and Saar to run onto. And those three are all comfortable swapping spots and taking up different places. Which is awesome.

It is like a terror because Rodman starts this game on the bench, coming back from the Olympics. Sar gets hurt 20 minutes in, comes off injured. That's something to monitor. I think this team has depth. I think Bethune and Sar is probably a step too far to say this is a title contending team without both those players. Yeah. But you bring Rodman on and you've got the option.

They put Hatch up top and then later they put Kowalski up top. And Rodman's playing on the left and playing on the right and finding the game where she wants to. And that's where you see Rodman plays on the left, scores a goal, moves to the right, and Santos takes up the space and is able to score the goal off of Rodman's cross. This team has a lot of threats. They have a lot of danger. It will be different. I would say having Yonatan Geraldo is there now and playing in his system for a while, it's the right time to be more reliant on Lacey Santos. Because I think early in the year,

they probably weren't connected enough to be close enough to link up and play off her feet and make her the true threat, where now it feels like this team's more cohesive. And so then she'll always have options around her and they'll be more connected. and I think they've found something I would assume they feel pretty special in Matt Tyer playing at that right back spot and being another player you can play through yeah that was going to be my the next thing that I say I think the Paige Matea as an outside back has been I was I was on the first game where she was on an outside back and i'm like who is this

is this happening yeah and i understand it with herald as she can she can be the player that can drive and eat space and then create a little bit of she then draws the players towards her to then get lacy santos free trinity rodman free ule sar into space or just take up space herself and score a golazo. So I like like this experiment of playing midfielder at the outside back position, I think it's working so far. And she's been good in one v one battles defensively as well. Yeah, didn't lose any of the big moments really in this game. It got harder once Sinclair came on and Sophia Smith went out wide because Sophia Smith may be the best player in this league. But they hung on and they were able to get the result for Portland.

I think frustrating. You go up 1-0 even on the road, even in a tough atmosphere to not get the result. They looked a lot better. Moultrie is giving them a ton at the 10 position. I think it's allowing Smith to become more of a true nine and less of the creator and the playmaker. And obviously, Coffey coming back into the team post Olympics is going to make this team better. Portland are on the edge for me.

And we'll talk about what's coming up this weekend in a little bit, but they are one of the teams like Chicago where it feels like it could go either way. We said that three months ago and then Portland in the interim, you know, Rob Gale error of two weeks or whatever it was when he was technically an interim, they looked fantastic and they moved up in the right direction. And now it feels like they're on the precipice again this season. But let's finish off the

weekend talking about Alex Morgan. It was her sendoff match, as I said, last Wednesday, she announced it right after our show was done, as usual. And it was her final game last minute. Talk a little bit about the experience for you, about being around it, about what we got to all witness, which was this historic broadcast across basically every network that has a deal with the NWSL in a moment. I can't remember in any sport happening this way. And I think it was something that made waves. And it was something where that was not on purpose. the play onwards good job right that went over my head

it went over my head too until after um and I think it was something that you felt like it's so tough with such short notice to honor a player like this the way you want to you're not going to do the send-off series you don't get a game in every market to give a gift and all those things and this felt like a cool way to say, like, this is something that only Alex Morgan gets. Yeah. I also think it's interesting that we see players say that they're retiring at the beginning of the year a lot. And Alex Morgan already knew that this was going to be her last year. Right.

And she didn't tell anybody. And I think she just really wanted to soak everything up and to be present in it, to be about the team and not about her. And I just, I liked that about just her approach to all of this. And I think it was good timing. It was the last of a home stand for them, three games in a row at home. And she got to say, this is going to be my last game and not to think about it too much. Right. Um, of course there's good things that happen when you do get to think about it,

you get more people to come, it gets to be bigger, um, bigger deal. But within an hour of her announcing that 12,000 tickets were sold to this, there were people from North Carolina, Massachusetts, everywhere, just coming to be a part of her last game. So I thought that was really, really cool that they had the opportunity to do that and to be there. It was historic, as you said, I, I still am in a little bit of an odd of what NWSL media partners were able to do, because it really CBS led the way and said, Hey, let's do this all together. And it was ESPN, CBS, Prime, for them all to say, it doesn't matter whose logo is on the screen. We know it's more important about the player that we're honoring is big, because that is a huge thing for media rights. And, you know, you don't

want a CBS logo on ESPN. And for them, they let it happen because they wanted to honor Alex Morgan. I think it was a really good showing, not just in the audience, to have the commissioner there who was integral in this too, but the sideline reporter, Jenny Chu, who got to interview her and some other people around the game that night to tell us about the atmosphere and to really convey that to everybody else. I just think there were so many great moments about it. The signs, her send-off when she took her boots off and just walked humbly off the field for the last time. She got to celebrate

another goal. She probably hoped it was two, but it was one. And just to have that feeling again, you never get that when you're done playing sports. And yeah, I think it was one and just to have that feeling again you never get that when you're done playing sports and yeah it was I think it was a really special night for her yeah absolutely I talked about it on Monday for people from afar my favorite part was that the broadcast stayed on after the game and you got to see the speech and the celebrations that stuff you normally see like in a clip later on and in a pre-packaged video but to watch it all happen naturally and organically and to see the, the genuine emotion there and to see the North Carolina players come all over and give her hugs and talk to her.

And in the little girls who she signed jerseys for, who you could see in that moment, their lives are forever changed. Taking videos, being like, I'm showing everyone this video afterwards. So much of that. And then her team, right? Her own team, which it hasn't been the year they'd want. And it is not their future is not clear. I think there's a lot of probably tension and nerves in the group, not knowing who the future manager is and what the future of the club is and, and so much going on. And I think to have this moment to be able to sort of reconnect and figure it out and Alex Morgan saying into the group,

like, thanks for letting me be Alex Morgan around all of you. And we have heard a lot about what she's like as a teammate and as a player. And so I thought that was really special. And you could see that. And you could see for the Jaden Sh's of the world and Maria Sanchez. Did you see the video she posted of, she drove to Salt Lake city to see her first live soccer game and got a, a video of Alex Morgan years ago to be on the field with her for her last

game. It's just really cool. It's really special. Jeff Kasuf tweeted this out saying that, uh, Alex Morgan's pro debut was back in 2011 in Boston in front of 4,000 fans. Uh, and her retirement match was in front of 26,000. As you said, within an hour of her announcing, they sold more tickets than the stadium capacity of the team that you played for at the time, the Boston breakers were capable of. It shows how far it's all come. And I think one of the things that a lot of people have said,

and I would echo, is a lot of that came because of Alex Morgan. Alex Morgan's a superstar. She was always going to be elevated, but it feels like she made a conscious effort throughout her career to bring everyone else with her and to make sure that the environment around her was elevated for everyone and not just for herself. Yeah. And I heard that not even just within WSL. When she went over to WSL, she played for Tottenham. She said, this isn't good enough. This training facility isn't good

enough. We need to be on the fields that the men train on. And she just makes an impact wherever she can. And heavy is the head that wears the crown, right? And she wore a crown for a long time and that weighs you down. And you could see the tears that she showed in that interview, just saying, you know, I did accomplish everything and it is over and I can breathe again. But at the same time, when she wore that crown, she accepted the moments where it was really positive, right? Holding a golden boot or a trophy and scoring the big goal, but also talking to media after a loss, talking to media after a controversy,

things like that where you have to do that too when you're in the spotlight. And I felt like she always did it with such poise, which is a difficult thing to do. And yeah, she's changed this. She really did change this league and the game. So it was great to be able to honor her and really an honor for me and my colleague, Maura Sheridan to get to call the game. Yeah, it was awesome to listen to North Carolina didn't participate in the same way they chose to go out, score a bunch of goals and get the victory for

one in this one. Malia Berkeley makes history, the first player in NWSL history with three assists in one half. But I would close on this one with Alex Morgan. For me, in my head, I remember as Abby Wambach, it felt like was finishing the emergence of Alex Morgan and you saying like, wow, this is the next, you watch a player like Abby Wambach and you say, there'll never be another one. And none of these players are exactly the same, but okay. The future is bright. We haven't really been able to say that the last few years and Alex Morgan

held on long enough to be the bridge to triple espresso and this next generation. I think it's really fitting that the moment she does announce it, you can say, oh, the future is bright like she held on and did her job as a leader and I think passing on knowledge and experience and all these things to these young players and as you said carrying a lot of the weight of the post-game interviews and the pressure and interacting with the coaches and the federations and all of that to now be able to come out the other side and as she walks away to look at the program that means

so much to her and I that means so much to her, and I think means so much to the sport, and say, it's in a safe place. And the next generation is ready to carry it on. I don't know that we would have been able to say that 12 months ago. So I think it feels good to be able to say that for her as she walks away and finishes things. I mentioned Jeff Kasuf there with the tweet. Does as well as anyone covering this league and this sport and put together what was a groundbreaking article for ESPN where he works. It was this NWSL GM survey.

So every general manager or chief soccer officer is the term I use because teams like to do technical director and sporting director and GM. And it's whoever's making the number one decision at those clubs. They did into this anonymous survey on some of the biggest issues and stories anonymous so that the general managers could be honest and be open and talk about these things in ways maybe we don't really get to see them talk about. And there was a lot of flashpoint answers that came out of this. There was some like overwhelming, everyone agreed on things. And then there was some debate came out of this. There was some overwhelming, everyone agreed on things, and then there was some debate in some of them. The biggest one that popped out first for everyone

was the overwhelming acknowledgement that teams cheat or fudge the rules or move the rules in many different ways. So the quote to open up this piece of the article was the reality of the league's complicated rules meant that they can be hard to understand, or even impossible to follow by the letter of the law GM said, so do all the teams follow the rules? And the answer, the first answer put in here was quote, no, that's the easiest question you've had yet. One GM said, how shocking was this to you? I was shocked i was not shocked i think okay even just by someone working in major sports for a long time and nwsl mls you know there's always a little you know if you ain't cheating you ain't trying kind of thing happening so that doesn't shock me. You know, we don't get specificity on like,

what rules are really being broken. But I think, you know, my mind just goes to roster building, and how do you get some of these teams with a lot of really good players on them under a salary cap in a proper way? Is everything going under the salary cap? Or are some players getting paid in other ways? Like, we don't know. But I think that would be one of the areas that i would be like well how do you do it how do you really do it and so i wasn't super shocked yeah i i would agree um as you said if you work in sports long enough you see it if you work in sports long enough it's expected i watched a video today of bill belichick explaining how they practiced fake timeouts so that they could throw kickers off.

Like it happens. These things happen across sports from that all the way to agents taking money on the side and clubs, you know, fudging numbers and all of that. And I think a lot of it is not it's not to be detrimental to the world or to the sport. Like some of it is just it's easier to do things outside of world or to the sport. Like some of it is just, it's easier to do things outside of the rule books. It's quicker, like all these different things. And so I wasn't shocked either.

We don't know exactly what it means. And I think maybe we'll learn a little bit more now that everyone's going to start digging in and figuring it out. But it was a very funny, I think sort of like headline to come out of it. And I think it was one of those where you're like, oh, everyone inside is having one conversation, everyone outside is not really paying attention to it. And as you said, maybe it makes...

So you think the commissioner like circled that one and was like, hmm, maybe we need to get to the bottom of this. But at the same time, one of the other questions was comparing NWSL to mainly the big European leagues and the thoughts on what makes NWSL strong and less strong. And the main answer from the GMs was that the parity in NWSL was a positive. It was a good thing that players saw it as a good thing. The quote was, you look at the French League, there's two good teams, one GM said, referring to PSG and Lyon. In this league, anyone can win on any single day.

And that's what makes it exciting. And there was numerous quotes from different GMs in this saying, you don't beat anyone 8-0 in this league. And like they kept saying that over and over. We've talked about the parity in this league. And I think a lot of people are talking about as the league changes, what will shift. And it seems like an overwhelming feeling that it's a good part of NWSL. I think it's one of the best parts about this league because you just from someone who's calling games like, you know, that there is going to be intricate tactics every single game because one team plays a certain way and the other team plays a way that's hard for them to break down. So how are they going to do that i think when you go into other leagues you maybe get that a couple of times because there are two good teams in france there's probably five good teams in england yeah spain there's one or two top teams maybe a couple underneath that but the parity is here in the

united states and i think that's one of the things that as the league starts to grow, that they have to latch onto that and make sure that continues to be the case because I think that's why players want to come and play here. Like I wouldn't, I wouldn't feel satisfied knowing I could beat every team, but one eight to zero every time I go out. Right. Like what,

what is that proving that I'm good at soccer, if that's the case. So I think that the challenge coming here is every game is hard. We've heard that from coaches and players. And that is the sign of a really solid league from top to bottom. So yeah, I think parity has to continue to be our number one driving point. And I think it's something you see in the CBA of like, let's raise the salary cap a ton. Let's get more talent in this league. Let's reward the players in this league more,

but remain the salary cap. And I think that's what you see a lot of this is, how can you keep everyone engaged and everyone involved? Because then you also get the competition side of like, if I'm Kansas City and Orlando's playing a bunch of teams that have no shot left in the season for the rest of the year how am I going to catch them like you only play your opponents x amount of times and so I think all of that is a positive um and it's really fun to watch

and like that's the whole point of sports and that's the whole point of the competition is like yeah I tune on you tune into every game as you said and it's like you don't know what's going to happen. And everyone has a chance. And those first 1015 minutes are feeling out periods because everyone's got an opportunity to do something special in this conversation. Then there was a question about expansion to the general managers. And this was one of the widest spreads in answer. You had some GM say, well, it's going to go up to 16, it should stop there. And then one general manager said, I could see it go to 30 in a similar vein to what Major League Soccer has done. That's basically doubling the league from where it's at now. This would affect parity. This would be one of those things that would affect parity because not all 30 teams can be the most competitive every single year. And I thought it was an interesting blowback coming off the other answers.

Now I'm a person who has always said soccer is unique sport in that there's a globe that plays it. And like, you can, if you're willing to spend the money, you can always find good players. There's obviously questions in terms of labor laws and stuff with domestic talent versus non-domestic talent. But if NWSL is the biggest league in the world and willing to spend the money, you can keep bringing in really good players. Where it's going to get hard is that core of American

and Canadian or Mexican players, whatever it is, that sort of sits in the middle and builds the middle pieces of rosters. You start to spread out that talent a little bit more and it gets tougher to build great rosters from top to bottom. It's going to be important for NWSL to do expansion right. 30, I don't think we should ever get to 30 teams. I just I don't I don't think that that was going to benefit the league

in general. But could I see it getting to 20 teams? Yeah, I can see it getting to 20 teams. And I think that's a really nice size. We've seen a lot of big leagues in this world with 20 teams and there is still parody. There is still great competition, but how they get there is going to be the bigger of the questions for me, because we've already seen this as an expansion year, right? So two new teams coming in, we saw the bump in international spots, which I think is great. But I also think we should pride ourselves as Americans at making really good American players. And how you do that, I think, is another question that we might get to here. But this league should have really good quality American players. But we've seen the league this year, the parity change, just because two new teams came in. I'm not saying that isn't

getting different. We're seeing Utah as an expansion team start to lift up at the end of the year, but it isn't as tight as it was last year. And I think those two years in between this expansion and the next expansion, I think next year is going to have more parity because now you're getting players that didn't play a lot of minutes last year who are playing big roles on either their current team or they got traded to a new team. They're playing bigger roles because there's more spots to play. So they're just getting used to having that different defined role, right? They're getting used to being an NWSL player game in and game out every single weekend. So now the level is going to jump after this year. And I think next year, we'll have more parity. So the way that they do it is going to have to be correct. Because I don't

want it to grow so big, that then you see teams just break away and be the best three teams. And these other teams are struggling to compete to get into that level. It goes back to what we talked about a week or two ago when we pulled the numbers out of the FIFA report on the transfer window, which was a 287% increase for NWSL and transfers brought in from last year to this year. And I think that's going to be the model for Boston and whoever else comes into the league, which is what Utah did in the middle of the year with Zorinosa and Tejada and bringing in players of that quality from overseas. It also seems to be working, right?

It feels like when Boston goes into the room and says, this is how we want to build this, what we want to do. I think a lot of international players now or players outside of NWSL will look at what happened there, will know people who have maybe come to the league and said, yeah, that sounds like a cool opportunity. This I can see how it works. And I want to be a part of that. But you have to do it right. And you have to do it properly. This conversation goes into another convo that came up in this article, which we sort of mentioned on our show coming out of the CBA, which was the feeling that the

door was open to a change to a more international schedule, somewhat of a September to May with potential break in between, you never really know. This one, the quote in this was from one GM, this is, quote, actually is the biggest question facing the league right now. There was not unanimous decision whether it should happen or it could happen, but it shows how big of a conversation it is inside the league right now. It shows how big it is for the future of the league as well. I think it was a great question by Jeff Kasu. First off, he's a wonderful reporter and

deserves a lot of kudos for everything he's done over not just this league, but in previous leagues too. He covers this sport so well. But I think this was a good question because it did feel like the CBA had a lot of international talk, had a lot of global talk. Even there was a lot of global talk in the Alex Morgan game this weekend

is how do we engage our global fan? And a global fan wants to see players all around the globe playing in this league. And I do think international schedule is one of the things, the biggest things. How does it work? Is it possible? Is it something that is going to work in the United States for the teams that we have right now? So it doesn't surprise me that one of the GMs says, actually, this is the biggest question facing the league right now.

Because there's great possibilities on both sides of the coin. I think if you stick with the current schedule versus going to an international schedule, you can see the positives from both. Yeah, obviously, weather was a huge, huge conversation for a lot of these teams, especially the teams, you know, in northern cities that can't play and can't train and all of that. But the quote from one of the GMs was, when players are typically looking to leave a team, it's at the end of a contract or the end of a season. Aligning those things will make player movement a lot easier. And that's the

conversation. Yeah. Also, the other thing I think of, Goss, is that we just signed a five-year media deal with media partners who cover sports all year round, but the biggest sports are in this fall and in the spring. So how do you manage those two seasons with these media partners if you do switch to that? So that's a different way to look at it. It's not just getting these players in who want to come in a summer break and not a winter break to start with the team fresh after their summer window. But it's stuff like that, too, that has to be thought about. And something that we've seen positively for Kansas City this year is owning your own building.

And you see it on the flip side, though, where as you get into those months where more sports come into play and you've got more competition for facilities, you lose flexibility, you lose things like that as well. One of the other pieces in this article that's sort of mentioned but not really is youth development, the future of youth development, how the clubs will be involved. I think that's something we want to talk about more on this show going forward because with the elimination of the draft, it feels like the next steps are coming. It is something that I cover a lot on the Major League Soccer side. It's a huge conversation, and I think it's one that we need to start bringing in to the NWSL

conversation as clubs continue to grow and get bigger and better. And clearly the league says the same because they've just hired someone to be in charge from a league point of view of all of this. All right. We've got a great weekend coming up in NWSL play. I will be back on Monday with your recap show. I will finally have moved down toami and i will be doing it from the hot and heat and humidity and all of that air conditioning i will we hope so let's just say we very much hope so uh for that jordan have fun this weekend we look forward to watching you on all the games thank you to all of you out there for being around with us don't forget to jump into the discord this weekend if you want to and subscribe to the patreon and we'll talk to you again very

very soon.