SoccerWise - NWSL Edition: Interview Minnesota Aurora's Andrea Yoch

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

A wild week in and around NWSL with records being set, streaks being ended, and clubs being named (maybe)! Jordan & Gass dig into the end of Orlando's undefeated streak, Temwa Chawinga setting the goalscoring record, BOS Nation & NWSL Expansion reports. They are also joined by Andea Yoch one of the cofounders and operators of Minnesota Aurora about their fan owned club & their latest round of funding. https://mnaurora.com/become-a-community-owner-2024/ 5:15 Orlando Loses Their Undefeated Streak 13:15 Thorns Looking For Turnaround 22:07 Orlando v Gotham Preview 24:40 Temwa Chawinga Goal Record & MVP Candidacy 37:00 BOS NATION 41:50 NWSL Expansion Update (SOCCERWISE FOR DENVER) 45:51 Interview Minnesota Aurora’s Cofounder & Chair Of Investor Relations Andrea Yoch 1:06:49 Weekend Preview Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome to soccer wise david gosh jordan angeli with you here for another big wednesday show the music is flowing we've had what christina aguilera already in the pre-show meeting i was actually listening to mariah carey right before I got on with you. Oh, that's what it was? It was going through the playlist, yes. So I was right to bring another girl pop singer into the mix with our pre-production meeting. Christina Aguilera that I pulled out of nowhere. Absolutely.

Sounded just like her, didn't I? I was looking around because I didn't realize we had secured the interview. Yes, yes. With Tina. And it was a big moment for the history of soccer-wise. Our first Emmy winner. What awards did I get? Grammy.

I think she's a Grammy. Yeah. Yeah. Emmy, I think, is TV. I never know the difference. Yeah? Yep. I do.

From Columbus. Pretty cool. Where do you keep it? Currently at my parents' house. It's a good spot for it because they'll be super proud of you and then they can talk about it. I just don't know where it's in my old room at my parents' house. I don't know. I don't know what to do with it.

I'm not like a put it on the shelf kind of gal. So we'll see. Do you have any trophies, awards, medals up? No. Okay. Do you have any traded jerseys there wasn't really a thing when we were yeah so and i'm bummed because i played with alex scott and kelly smith and i wish i had their jerseys specifically because they were my teammates and they were amazing but i also played against marta i played against caroline steger i like i played against really bonpastor wps had really good players and i'm bummed that wasn't a thing because i would have dipped into that collection they say the stories are interesting

of like you get x amount a year and then you have to buy more if you want to trade more because you don't get i don't think you get the exact amount per game like the assumption is they'll wash your jersey and give it back to you right so it's like you got to make the decision of what's worth it if it was me i would trade every single one yeah me too me too yeah but you do you really think they make like i only think that really applies to messy because everybody wants his jersey do you really think they make him pay for jerseys he's ad Adidas and he like pretty much owns Apple TV, whatever it's called, MLS season pass. He probably owns enough shares of the Adidas jerseys they sell to himself that he's just, it's all just inside the family at some point. I think there was a story that Dragway used to go

to the team store, buy his jersey in bulk to give it away so that he would always finish as the highest seller every quarter. Smart man. So you could do that as well and then just give away. The show was going to start, but here we are. Here we are. And this is what we do. We do have a great show for you all though, because we've got a big interview. Minnesota Aurora's Andrea Yock, who is one of their co-founders and is in charge of their, I believe it is investor relations, is going to join me because they are doing another round of crowdfunding, which I mentioned a few weeks ago when it started, they're about halfway there. So get in now because you want to be able to say you own a

soccer team. Like that's the coolest thing you could say. And you don't want to miss out because I missed out last time. And I was in the bar of one of the owners talking to all of them. And I was like, all right, but like I'm here, right? And they're like, nope, it's closed. And I never got in. So now I've done it. And I guarantee you, you will want one day to be able to say I own a soccer team. So get in there.

But we have that interview coming up uh we're going to talk as well about nwsl expansion around that because there's a report that came out of the sports business journal today about the next round and everything that's going on with that uh we will talk about the next expansion team boss nation you have to take a breath before you say it so you don't laugh. And what we think about that and everything else going on. But of course, we're going to talk soccer first. And we're going to talk about two of the records that happened this weekend. One was set, one was ended, but still ends as a record in Temwa Shawanga scoring her 19th goal of the year

and Orlando falling for the first time in a year at Portland. And that's where I think we're going to start here on this show. Jordan, we sort of mentioned last Wednesday, you said, do you think they do it? Do you think they finish out the year undefeated? First team ever to go undefeated in a full season of NWSL. And I was wishy-washy. I said no, but it took me a while to get there. I said it with no confidence

and not in a way that I could clip out and throw out there and say, look, I was right. But the concept was there. This is a team, I think their goal is to win the NWSL championship at the end of the year. This was a Friday night game coming off a Sunday game, cross country, on turf.

You saw a heavily rotated team, and you saw a team fall 2-0 at Portland. We will talk about the Thorns because this is an almost equally massive victory for them as it is loss for Orlando. But this was sort of the fear for this record for this Orlando team was how do you maintain it while also keeping your team in the best shape going forward? There's other factors too that I think are important is they traveled really early because of the hurricane. So they got out of there, I believe on Monday or maybe Tuesday morning before the hurricane

hit. So they were on the road all week. They were coming off what was a serious high, being at home, winning the shield, and the emotions of going into that, knowing that they could secure that at home. Those things can't be overlooked, I think, for this Orlando team. Just the emotions that went into that last game, having a quick turnaround, as you mentioned. It's something that we should talk about because I think it is draining, and it's hard to reset yourself after taking home the shield on a Sunday night game

that was very waterlogged, as we talked about last week. But I am not, I don't think it had to do, definitely a little bit had to do with the rotation, right? This is a rotated team. No Banda in the starting lineup, no Mart Adriana no Emily Sams yep but Sams was really I would say the only defender that got rotated everybody else in that back six I would say because Pickett is now a starter yes and Morehouse started but everybody else in that back six has played in those positions that and I'm counting the two midfielders in the four,

four, two for Orlando. They've played in spots in chunks of the season or rotated in throughout the year, except for Carrie Lawrence. And I thought that you saw Orlando lack the firepower that they have going forward, because if you're a Portland and you see that roster, that lineup come out an hour before the kick, imagine how much more confident you feel thinking we don't have to defend Banda. We don't have to defend Marta. We don't have to worry about Adriana cooking us on the wing because they're not in the starting lineup.

So I think I feel like it was less about Orlando when it was more about this performance for Portland. I don't know how you feel about it, Goss. So I think you're correct in like the strength in the back six to eight for this Orlando team was there. It was, we have seen now, I think especially over the last few weeks, I think back to the game at Bay for this Orlando team of there have been games

where they haven't looked like the better team. But the mistake that you make is a mistake to Banda. And then not only does it create a chance or create a goal, it resets the field a little bit. It resets the game. And that was the part that it felt like was missing for Orlando was like this get out of jail free card to change things. I think even when you watch the way they built up, especially stuff around the final third, the lack of the presence of Marta, it changed what Summer Yates was looking at. And it changed the rest defense or the defense she was set up against. And when she received the

ball and you, I think you saw Angelina sort of get a little bit more involved, more aggressive as the second half wore on. So I agree with you on a lot of that. Like I think for Orlando, the attacking threat missing was the real difference. Portland getting the early goal, I think changed a lot as well. And you mentioned like the players that should be marking and understanding those moments are the players who have been out there for Orlando.

Like that's not tape that's going to be thrown away. That was a mental mistake to turn off for the second ball and to not know really where your marks were. And something that Seb Hines has been pretty adamant about with this group that they knew last season, they lost their chance at the playoffs by one goal. They did not score one more goal. And if they would have done that or not given up one more, then they would have been in the playoffs. And this is a team who then has refocused on, we've talked a lot about the last 15. They've still not conceded in the last 15 minutes of any game this year, but they've also

not conceded a lot on set pieces. And that is the mentality that you bring into this group. So when there's a little bit of change, you can't let that make you not focus in those moments. And I think that, I don't think, if you give up a goal to Portland at Providence Park, it is the hardest place to switch momentum. You can't do that. I think earlier in the year, Louisville went and scored two goals early,

but then it was Portland who got back in the game and they switched the momentum because they're at home and that place is loud. And that place is the hardest place to play in NWSL. And those fans have been waiting for something good to happen for a few games now at home. And finally, they got to see it. Yeah. So I think this was, I would say if you asked me an abstract before the game, it was an Orlando team that could get a result.

But it would be one that I would have been surprised if they won I agree with you I thought it was a team that could use that could have gotten a draw but you give up the early goal you have to chase you don't really have the weapons and the pieces it felt like Hines might make the changes at halftime he didn't waited a little bit longer and then it's 2-0 and you start to run out of time and run out of the opportunity in saying all that I do think that they will be better off in a postseason where you have games like this where an Alleywater Summer Yates has responsibility on their shoulder and like has to sort of work that muscle memory in a different way in which they're not bit pieces or sub players and they're not just trying to find

space around a Marta because if you look at the postseason right it's like you know a team going up against you especially because Orlando is going to be home they're going to try and flood the middle with numbers they're going to keep numbers around Marta they're going to try and shut down any long ball opportunities to Banda and I think in the end you'll look back at these whatever they end up being two or three games that maybe a rotated lineup plays and say there's some positives that you could take out of it. Yeah. And they're going to be able to show some different ways to break down teams. Like I thought they were good in moments in the channel trying to utilize the

speed that they have in quick transition. So not to say that they don't do that with the players that they have, but yes, there is a lot of learning that can be done and sometimes it would have been cool to see the record broken or to see an undefeated team but if i'm if i'm orlando i'm kind of happy we lost now like like get it out of the way let's move on yeah let's move on there's no pressure anymore and now it's just two games left think about that think about building into the playoffs and that you don't even have to think about it anymore. The streak is over and now you're really thinking about what you want, which is silverware. They want a trophy. They want to win NWSL championship.

And the reason these things are historic and they are difficult is because the way schedules are built, you have to go cross country after a late weekend into an early weekend. You have to play back-to-back games on the road. Like this is why it is so difficult to do something like this. Before we talk Portland though, Orlando now, the number is set. Do you think another team matches this anytime soon? Like we at the middle of the season are talking Casey and Orlando and it sort of felt like, is this the new reality?

Do you see this as a future? Every year this is a conversation? I don't. I think it doesn't surprise me. It happened in an expansion year where teams are like a little bit sorting themselves out. Like Orlando had the most consistency from year to year with the team that they had built and then added some really good parts.

So potentially it happens again in expansion, but I don't know if we ever see this again, ever. So it's cool that we got to experience it this year. Yeah, absolutely. I agree with you. I would be surprised, especially as the league grows, that it becomes possible with the amount of, and we talked about many times, the transfers of players in and all that can happen over the course of the season, plus internationals and everything like that going forward. So for Portland, they were on a terrible run in the other direction. Hadn't won. I had the date somewhere. I think it was July 17th or something like that in NWSL play. They get the

victory 2-0. It was the first half goal off the set piece by Morgan Weaver, correct? Correct. She scored the opener. Yep. And then Sinclair gets the second goal, which we'll talk about Sinclair in just a moment. This is her second to last home game for Portland. And she scores the goal in the 55th minute, I think it was,

to make it 2-0. I thought the Thorns had some really good ideas. They had a ton of injuries. They still have a ton of injuries. No Sophia Smith in this one. No Hina Sagita. And it shifted their midfield a little bit. And so you ended up getting Coffey next to Fleming behind Moultrie.

And I thought you saw the quality there. Like you are talking about three players who are happy to be on the ball. They don't mind numbers being around them. They can connect or they can create by themselves. And I thought you saw something that Portland could take forward in. They might be easier to play against at times, or they might get physically dominated in there by some teams, but it also had a strength that they could lean on going forward and say like, we can be possession heavy through midfield. And that is going to be important for them. And when I had Portland last weekend, and one of the things I was looking at is how many touches Sam Coffey was getting throughout those games leading up.

And it was around 50 touches a game, but her progressive passes were not as high as they had been all year. And I think that that is one of the biggest things that I noticed in this game, Goss, is Sam Coffey was finding the opportunities to thread the ball through, to find Moultrie in the pocket in front of the back line between the two central players for Orlando. And in that is where she thrives. I can't remember, was it last year or the year before where she had 10 or something assists? Like she had so many assists

and led the league in assists and that's what this team needs of her and it's been difficult because it has been a little bit of a carousel of players centrally around her and you have to think for a while it was Sagita next to her now with that injury these three are trying to find their groove together and it takes time nobody was more frustrated than Sam Coffey. I think she cried after the game a couple of weeks ago when I called it because she was so frustrated that they cannot find solutions. And I thought she did a really good job of being the player who a lot of the time through the past, like I just mentioned, but on the goal, the Sinclair goal, she dribbles and

finds the gap and says, all right, let's go. We're going to score right here. And I'm going to be the player to really utilize the space correctly. I thought she had a really good game. And that is the performance that I think we expect from her. Good defensively, but also contributing to what's going on in the attack. The goal, it's her first touch. She takes like a long first touch on purpose out in front that breaks the two

defenders. Then she runs around them and then she starts driving at the back line. And it was just one of those moments where she saw the gap before anyone else. And rather than get it in her feet and try and find it, she's able to take that long touch on purpose. And that gets her past the defenders without having to dribble through them. And then she's off and running. I think a lot of that was Fleming playing next to her. Because when you look at their build outs, Coffey's not coming to the ball every time. Fleming takes half the field.

So on their own build outs, it felt like Fleming played their left side and Coffey played their right side. And so it changes the defensive shape that Coffey is looking at more often and changes the work and responsibility. But that's different than they've been playing because Fleming has been a little bit higher. And also, I think it makes sense against Orlando because when we saw them play Bay a few weeks ago, we talked about how Bay was better than Orlando. And they really stretched their midfielders wide and made the two central players for the Pride have to cover a lot of ground. And when you're playing with two players deep, sometimes that's asking a lot from, I think it was Angelina

and was it Guitra in there? Yeah. Yeah, it asks a lot of them because they can't step all the time. So then you're going to have a free player sometimes in midfield and Portland was able to utilize that to their advantage. Moultrie, I thought, looked good in this game. She has looked good this year. You can see her age in just, it's 85, 95% of the time there.

It's the last 5%. That's the hardest part of the game. It's the final setup to the shot. It's waiting to pass in the final third at the right moment. She's going to have a big year next year, I think. I absolutely agree with you. Huge. She is hands down the starter at that spot and that's with her and still needing

to finish on a couple of these things. And that's what this team kind of struggling at her age. It is ridiculous. And she should only continue to get better. Um, Sinclair won't be there next year, obviously her retirement coming up. So she has one more home game in the regular season. That's the final game of the regular season. That's the final game of the regular season. It's the Friday night match against Angel City.

Really cool moment for Sinclair. One, she gets the goal in this game. So I think she has now equaled Sam Kerr's all-time career goal scoring mark and is behind only Lynn Williams, which you assume she will end behind Lynn Williams or Lynn Williams will finish her career ahead of her. But a cool moment for Sinclair, the energy in the building when she scored like you could feel it coffee's reaction to the goal after she laid the ball off all of it was incredible and then she gets the

chance to go up to Vancouver her hometown this week and played in a CONCACAF official match against the Whitecaps elite squad um It was a 6-0 victory. And that's probably something Sinclair didn't think would ever be possible when her career started for sure and throughout most of the stretches of her career. That was a really cool moment as well. I wonder what the pressure is on the other Thorne players to sort of say, we cannot let this go quietly. We have to make the last few

moments for Sinclair worthwhile because if they whimper into the playoffs and fall out in the first game it's just not going to feel the same they feel that pressure I think but I don't know if they they it's as a professional athlete you have to turn that pressure into a privilege like we get to send Christine Sinclair out the best way that we know how. A really cool thing that I don't think it's been talked about yet, but her last game in Portland will be her 200th regular season game in NWSL. So it's just another big milestone that she's been able to accomplish. But to do it at home, her last game in regular season is going to be at home. I would imagine it's going to be packed, but there is pressure on this team and not from Christine. Like Christine is,

she is just so happy to be playing and wants to enjoy every last minute. But you know, if you're on that team, you're thinking, all right, the best way for her to enjoy it is to have a good run here. And, and I think they have a runway. I'm not saying that they're going to be the team to beat, but they have a runway to start to feel good good run here. And I think they have a runway. I'm not saying that they're going to be the team to beat, but they have a runway to start to feel good going into playoffs because if they get two wins here throughout the rest of the year, they're going to feel like they're peaking at the right moment, which is exactly what you want.

They are one of those teams that's hard to distinguish at times, like who they are and who they could be. They finish with Louisville on the road, and then they host Angel City for that last game. Because I think Lori Lindsey said it on the broadcast that, like, Rob Gale said, well, if we get Smith and Sagieta back for the playoffs, like no one wants to play them, right? You don't want to be in a single elimination matchup

against star quality players like that. But I think I feel as we see this more and more often, what you do in the regular season does end up catching up to you. And like, for example, I'm a New York Liberty fan. The Aces, two championships, and the whole year it was like, well, they'll be healthy for the playoffs, it'll be fine. And then you get there and it's like, well, they hadn't worked on some of these things.

It wasn't as cohesive. Players hadn't really built up the muscle and energy and all that type of stuff to be prepared for the big moments. So I wouldn't be shocked if Portland stole one and was able to surprise and upset. I would be shocked if they made a run like Gotham did last year. I think the other thing that differentiates them from other teams is if you get those players back, one, I want those players back. I want them to be healthy because they make this team

so much better. But I don't think they have a goalkeeper of the quality that other teams have in that position. And a lot of the times that is the key position right yep that is going to make or break it it is going to be uh fun to watch though that angel city game is going to be absolutely wild on that final game and louisville that's must win for louisville we'll talk about that in our weekend preview um let's talk about one weekend though game here in orlando they now go home and they face gotham on Sunday, which is as even though Orlando technically has nothing to play for a very big match. Would you expect to see the best 11? Would you expect to see a different type of rotation? What do you think Seb Hines

does? I think he starts with his 11 and you try to see as much as you can see against a playoff team as possible. So I think the same question though though, kind of goes for Juan Carlos Almaraz. How does he play his team? But I would think going into the playoffs with a team that you could potentially play, they wouldn't play until most likely the final, right? Well, we don't know based off the standings. Yeah, it depends. But right now they're in first and second?

Yes. Yeah. So they couldn't play until the final if they both win their games. Sorry. Washington's in second. Oh, Washington's in second. Okay. Yeah.

So I feel like it's a good chance to keep everybody feeling like they're in a little bit of rhythm. I know he got a lot of those players in at the end of the game, but I would start and try to see if you can get a really good 60, 70 minutes out of your 11 and then bring rotations in. That would be my plan. For Juan Carlos Amoros, the slight difference here is they have a match against Tigres tonight, which we won't talk about because we don't know the results yet.

And then they play the Summer Cup final on Friday, which is during the international break. So it gives him, one, it gives him an opening to play other players. Like he doesn't, for example, Ella Stevens probably deserves a start. She's going to get a ton of minutes over the next three matches. And on the flip side, he's got to manage the minutes of the players that they are keying on that they are relying on. Gotham is 5-0-1 in their last six matches. The last loss was to

Orlando. And it has been on the strength of the back line. Berger back now from the Olympics, Jess Carter added to the mix. Davidson and Sonnet have been healthy and Niswonger has started again. And that is the strength of this team. Like the pieces are coming back in the attack and sometimes they're hitting and sometimes they aren't, but that's, that is what this team is built on. If they're going to make a run for a back-to-back championship, it's going to be on that back line, that back five. You can swap some pieces out in there and still be really strong,

especially with the versatility of Carter. But it will be interesting to see what Juan Carlos Amoros decides to do with that one. It is the game of the weekend. Absolutely. Even if it's not best, best 11s, like there's still so much talent and it still means so much for what we think we're going to see going forward into the postseason. We know we're going to see a lot of the KC current. Temwa Shawinga, 19th goal in a 1-0

victory over Bay FC. So her 19th goal this year, it sets the record for a single season goal scoring mark in NWSL. This was the 24th match that she played so far this year. It breaks Sam Kerr's record from 2019, which was 18 goals. She played 21 matches. We will talk about that a little more in a bit. But you were on the call for this one. I sort of just walked through the goal on Monday because it was like pure what we have gotten from Shawinga this year.

And it was just an individual moment of brilliance when her team needed it the most. You know what's funny, guys, is right before she scores this goal, I had talked about how Bay wants to keep her between the midfield and the back line. I was like, they're fine with her operating in there. They just don't want her to get in behind the back line. She just goes and like totally bosses the ball off of Kiki Pickett,

dribbles right up to Abby Dahlkemper and nearly blew the net off with the goal I think in reality that's an okay spot for Temwa Showinga to get the ball and they were really good at keeping her in front of them but it doesn't matter I think that's the difficult part with Temwa Showinga every coach we talk to, we hear it's kind of inevitable. Like you can't go into a game. You're doing everything you can to deny her the ball and to resist the team from even playing the pass into her. But once she gets it, it has to be a team effort. And I think that that's where Bay kind of slipped in that particular moment.

But she is incredible. And it has been so much fun to get to watch her score in a myriad of ways, right? It isn't just this shot from distance. It's dribbling past the back line. It's in a 1v1 dribble against the goalkeeper. There's so many ways that she has scored and outpowered the defense that it's been one of the most interesting storylines, if not the most interesting storyline of this season. I think it rivals the Orlando Pride with their unbeaten streak because she just has taken this league by storm. You mentioned the different variety of goals, and it comes in the different build-up moments. And that, I think, is also the credit to her. She's played center forward. She's played out on the wing. She's comes in the different build-up moments or like and that I think is also the

credit to her of she's played center forward she's played out on the wing she's played in the two she's played in the three she um like you said like she can score in the box on the end of things she can shoot from distance she can read the build-up and make the right run at the right time and then she has this ability to give you to create chances out of her pressure that maybe one other player in this league can genuinely create at the consistency that she has done and that's been by this year and like that's that this goal wasn't that moment that was more what we saw against North Carolina a few weeks ago we saw it against Washington as well um where it was like the game

was against them they weren't going to create anything. And all of a sudden, Shwinga pops up with a goal, and it changes everything for them. And she did it once again here. And it's unbelievable to watch. I will be fascinated for next year. Yeah. Because, like, normally for goal scorers especially, it's like you get more comfortable.

You get more comfortable in the team. You get more comfortable with the speed of the league, the style of play. You'll also have teams start to understand what they're looking at and like game planning for and all of that um so it's going to be fascinating to see how she grows obviously no one figured out sam kerr yeah no one has right in the world so that could just be the answer to something like this now i wanted to ask you because i i thought about this as i was sort of reading about it this weekend. So the 19 goals is the highest mark ever. But as I said, Sam Kerr did it in 21 matches that she was available for in a season that only had 24 games.

Shawinga has done it in 24 available matches so far in a season that has 26 games. And Shawinga now still has to play two more matches. Does goals per game come into this conversation or is it just you hit a number and that's the number and stop talking about semantics? I think it will be a part of the conversation because expansion is inevitable and we already know that that is going to be the case in 26. There's going to be more games, right? And who knows what the future looks like. So I think us as American viewers, we're always going to want more.

And we're going to want the goals per game to mean something. But I don't think it takes away from great seasons, right? I remember that 2019 season with Sam Kerr and how fun it was to get to watch her score in a variety of ways and really be the highlight of the league. 18 goals is incredible. And so I think the same goes for Tamu Shwinga. I think we're going to expect a little bit more. And I, I'm not, I wouldn't be shocked if she gets out of this season with two games to go at 21 or even 22. Like there is not a doubt in my mind that she can get a brace against Chicago or against the other team that they're playing is,

I just read it, San Diego. They're playing San Diego this weekend. So I think she can get a brace. I think she could get out of this season with 21, 22, and then it would be nearly the same points per game, right? As that Sam Kerr season. But I hope as the league continues to grow and we continue to see records getting broken like this, because I don't believe this will be the record for long

as much as this league is growing and more players are coming in. I hope we can still appreciate how great those seasons are despite the points per game. Because Shewing also has six assists. I hope we can still appreciate how great those seasons are despite the points per game because she also has six assists. So she is, she is, um, and I think right now she is scored 13 goals in the last 12 games. She had that record where she had eight games in a row. She's, she's only, she had eight games in a row. She missed one game scoring and now she's back on another run. So it's, it's wild and so fun to watch. And it was really cool to be a part of the game where she broke the record. if you don't include stoppage time um in theory kansas city has played 2160 minutes this year

okay and shawinga has played 2075 of that whoa because because i'm like 24 of 24 that means she's played every game yeah nearly all the most games so she basically has started every single game that takes me into the next conversation which is mvp yeah um and i sprinkled a little bit of this into the monday show i do a weekend recap every monday although with the playoffs coming up we might shift that a bit but we will see um and i talked about to me why i think tamwa showinga is the mvp this year and it's who i would vote for if i had the opportunity um i went through this fake statistic that I created of the goals you scored being either the only goal your team scored that game

or being the goal that decided the result or gave you a result in one in which you got a tie. I thought of that because I think with both these teams, Orlando and Kansas City, I assume we're talking about a debate between Banda and Schwinga or am I missing anyone else? I think so. I think with both these teams, Orlando and Kansas City, I assume we're talking about a debate between Banda and Schwinga, or am I missing anyone else? I think so. I think if Rodman didn't get hurt, she was in there, but she unfortunately had that injury and was out a few games. Okay.

I think you get stuck because there are a lot of blowouts in there, especially for Kansas City, mainly in the first half of the year. But you talk about the goal scoring streaks. I calculated it as 11 of her 19 were the only goal her team scored or got them the result, whether it was a win or a tie. You cleaned it up for me by saying she has six game winning goals, which is the all-time college soccer statistic that sometimes drives me insane when it's a 5-1 game and you scored the first or

second goal but i'll allow it catch there on the second goal to a 5-1 game yeah thank you so it's it is all part of this debate but i think you can't ignore the minutes because you're talking about a team where b has been hurt and Hutton's been out and Dabinia started the year out and you've rotated at center back and you've changed your goalkeeper and Michelle Cooper has been hurt. Everything has moved and Kansas City has remained a top four team, maybe a top two team in the league, largely, I think, because of her consistency and her ability to be on the field. I think that's added to the pure goal scoring numbers and ability to put her in my mind at the top of the stand at the MVP conversation.

A few weeks ago, I think I was in Banda camp, right? When we talked about this a few weeks ago, I think you were in Rodman. And it's changed. And I think that that is why we vote for these things at the end of the year. Temwa Shawinga has been the star of this league and it's difficult because you don't want to always vote for the golden boot player to be the MVP but in this case the golden boot winner I think is the MVP because Temwa Shawinga has played all the minutes that you just said. She's been consistent in that, whereas Barbara Bando was really hot and has struggled to score in the last, I think she had the goal reverse bay, but in maybe one goal in the last six games, which that has never happened for Temwa Shawinga. It is going to be time with showing being both the golden boot and the MVP at the end of the year.

But I loved that we had, we have this conversation and there has been so many really good players across the league that make it a difficult decision, but I would be shocked if it's not showing. I really, I thought I was going to get some pushback. I thought there was going to be some debates still. I would be shocked because I think the thing about Orlando is they have been such a team, right? They have, I think Seb Hines

will get coach of the year. No question there. They have been the unit and what the unit has been able to do together, which is why they're shield winners, which is why they were undefeated. Everything is so team about them. And I'm not saying that Kansas City isn't team, right? They have the most goal scorers. I think they have 18 players who have scored a goal. 18 players who have scored a goal in this league this season. That's more than you would probably anticipate you'd play for a full season. That's more than Houston has scored or Utah have scored all season long. Don't even do that. That's tough. It is tough.

But so it is a team effort from them, but they have been so driven by Shawinga and she is, she's been excellent. She'll be the MVP. She'll get the golden boot and yeah, it'll be very deserved. Yeah. I think to your point, Heinz getting coach of the year,

Morehouse probably going to get goalkeeper of the year. It's a pretty good shot. Sam gets defender of the year. That actually makes it to get goalkeeper of the year. It's a pretty good shot. Sand gets defender of the year. That actually makes it harder for a Banda to win because you get into the what does MVP stand for? What is the debate? What is most valuable versus best and all of that?

And Banda came to the season later, so she didn't have as many opportunities and as much time. And of course, Marta will probably pull some votes would be my guess from some people. And so you end up in a really tough spot there. But I think we both land in a good spot. If Shawinga deserves to win it, so therefore should.

In my fake stat thing I created, by the way, of only goal, blah, blah, blah. Banda had six to Shawinga's 11. So if you like to do the Goss fake stat standings, then therefore swing it deserves to win. GFSS, Goss fake stat standings. You started and I was like, I don't want this acronym to end up like offensive. So I'm going to ignore it. I probably shouldn't do that live, huh? And then you spelt it out. So we got there in the end. We probably did better than the consulting group and ownership group of the new Boston NWSL team, Boss Nation. It's the official name for the team that is starting play, not next year, but the following year in Boston.

A ton of excitement about this. You played in Boston yourself in the past. You did not play for Boss Nation. What happened here? I have no idea what happened, Josh. And I think a lot of people have that same question is how did this name and this video get through so many different layers of approval before it got put out there? I played for the Boston Breakers in WPS. The Boston Breakers is an excellent name. It was, it's, it's great. It's different. It is something that has to do with Boston. And I love that. Boss Nation. First off, I don't know what the boss like I know it's short for Boston, but it's boss spelled wrong. It's only BOS. And then nation you're talking about a city

and it's not a nation. It's a city. I just feel like they went wrong. It's just so wrong. And it makes me sad because this is, as they said, a awesome sports city. It is one of the best. I know that's hard for you to hear because you're from New York, but it is one of the best sports cities because it's small and all the sports are right there. And these people love their teams and Breakers fans loved us. And I feel like it's not going to stay this way, is it?

Like, I can't imagine, G goss calling a game in this league which i do once or twice a weekend and talking about boss nation's goals i don't know i just can't we could do a practice segment if you want i guess we're gonna have to jordan we are here um boss nation coming off a three-game undefeated streak, looking to continue things here at their home facility. And it's going to be a big one for Boss Nation. They've got a lot of the fans here. Nation Faithful.

That actually I don't hate. I don't hate the supporters group being called Boss Nation. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. To me, that's what happened here, which was you got a bunch of people in a room or whatever, however this occurred, and you ended up on step seven. You didn't get to step one yet. Like this is a collaboration with a cool local clothing company that you put out two weeks before the playoffs start to get some buzz and to get people

into it this is not the foundation of your team identity and the foundation and launch moment that's the part that i think is really hard for someone from the outside is like this is the week you sell gear for the next year and a half like this you're you're groundbreaking when you have a stadium your first player signing, your coach signing, like those are tentpole moments. And sports and marketing organizations, all that, that's what they're built around is tentpole moments. Create energy, have a big moment,

and then try and ride it down and then do the next one. This was like your biggest one and it was like your first one. I can't imagine people, if you look at the gear, you are not buying that. I cannot imagine people are going on to buy that stuff. So you've lost this huge opportunity. They issued an apology. I believe the marketing company, which was sort of like really proud of themselves when it came out, has pulled it off their own website, which is never great. I don't know if that means it changes. I don't know what happens now. I mean, i don't know if that means it changes i don't know what happens now i mean you're you

don't exist so you do have time if you want really until 2026 starts right 14 months so you could change it the other thing might be it somehow gets reformed and like the team technically is called this but is never referred to it that way and they don't use it and you create something underneath it the hard part is you've already done the acronym thing like it's not like oh well you know it's this long name and we'll shorten it to boss because you've already gotten there so i don't know how you expand it back out into boston um you were talking to me before we got on about bostonia like technically the original latin name of where Boston comes from, which is a cool name. There's not a lot of cool things about Boston. I'm just kidding. Yeah, I knew that

was coming at some point. It's a great place. I'm just joking. Yeah, it's an obvious miss for a city with great history, history in general, history in sports, history in women's soccer, like all of these things you could hit. They also have a women's hockey team. We should mention that before anyone tries to start the next marketing video and maybe it gets lost there. One that went to a final. So this was a brutal, this was just the worst thing you could do. You had one job and everyone stepped in it at the same time and fell over and it's bad.

But hopefully we move on to bigger and better things as we go forward, as we hopefully find the next expansion team. So we got some news. The Sports Business Journal put out an article moments ago before we came on here with an update on NWSL expansion. So this is the report that they wrote. It says, quote, the field is believed to be narrowed down to big groups in five cities, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Nashville, and Philadelphia. Philadelphia were the new name to me. I hadn't heard that

before. It is one, it is a group fronted by the head of football development and strategy, Connor Barwin. And there are a few people mentioned in this article as part of the bids. One of them is Jordan Angeli. Do you know anything about that? Oh my gosh, no. But I have these great stickers about for Denver all over my water bottle for some reason. No, I am excited to see this article because it has been a really cool process to be on the other side of things, Goss, and to get to try my best with this great group that I'm working with to bring a NWSL team to Denver. We do not have any other pro women's teams. And so we would be the first, which is really exciting in a very big sports city,

a championship city. Huge sports. Yes. So it has been cool to learn about that. But one of the things that has been very hush hush is who else is involved. And so when this article came out, I was like, yes, we know great cities, like really good cities involved. And I think when I look at the map of where those cities are at and what they could do to enhance this league, there's really just one choice. It has to be Denver. It has to be. It's,

it's cool. And to be amongst that group, I feel like it's exciting that Nashville is a part of it. Philadelphia now in, in the mix, which seems like this was a pretty last-minute thing for them. And what was that? Cincinnati and Cleveland. So, you know, that's so close to Louisville. They don't need a team in Ohio, right?

But it's been great to be a part of it. And I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful that Denver will be the next NWSL team and we'll get to create a team name that our city really likes you should already be honestly if you just ended for Denver you still would probably be winning in that debate and in that conversation as you mentioned the Philadelphia one that was the one that was a surprise to me. The stories we have all heard,

we sort of knew Cincinnati was involved. Nashville had been rumored. Rumor, yeah. I believe Miami and Atlanta were the other two big ones that had been rumored and talked about, not publicly, but in spaces. And Cleveland, we have heard the reports that there is a stadium site that they are

landing on and negotiating with that could be the spot. I think a lot of people took that as saying, oh, they're doing that because they have the bid. More likely, it's just part of the bid. And that's a part of what you have to do. And they definitely have been the most outspoken out of all of the groups. They have a lot of info out on social. They're constantly posting they're doing um merch

drops and stuff like that in in cleveland so we we knew about cleveland and it's been great to see that city have something that they can stand upon and try to build there too but yeah i mean denver you've been to denver a million times goss. You know that it would just, this is a spot. This is a spot. So I'm just trying to make my case whenever I can. We need an NWSL team and bring a team to the Mile High City. It would be amazing. I think the easiest case would be you could build a spine of World Cup winners

or Olympic gold medalists without even having to get anyone to move because so many of them are from there. If you are not watching the show on YouTube, I made the title below us, SoccerWise is for Denver. So we agree with you. It is the place to be. We have a special interview here on SoccerWise. I'm sure you have all seen the Minnesota Aurora shirts, the logo,

seen them on social media. They are one of the hottest names in sports in North America. And we are joined with by a guest to talk about this team. So Andrea Yock, co founder and chair of investor relations with the Minnesota Aurora. You gave me the shirts that me and my wife wear that say Minnesota Aurora quite consistently. So thank you. I'm always indebted in you. And thank you for joining us. Thank you so much for having us. I'm glad to hear the shirts are now making their way south in the United States. So yeah, it keeps us cool in our minds when we are in 85 degrees in humidity all the time. I mentioned on the show. Yeah, for sure. I mentioned on the show a few weeks ago,

but you have opened up a new round of investing in the club. So let's start with for anyone who doesn't know or doesn't know as well, maybe as I do. What is Minnesota Aurora? What is this club? So Minnesota Aurora is a independent community owned women's soccer team based in St. Paul, Minnesota. So we started when the U.S. we're an inaugural team of the USLW. And when we started the team, we were founded by a group of normal citizens. So there were nine founders. All of us have normal day jobs of various degree. And the group was tired of waiting for someone to start a women's soccer team.

So we thought, well, maybe we can do this ourselves. And we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. But we so we gathered together as a group and had a meeting in a park. It was during COVID. We were all six feet apart in our masks. And there was about 25 people at the first meeting. And out of that, nine ended up coming together and saying, yeah, we can start a women's soccer team. And so that was the first step. Then we had to figure out, well, how are we going to get money

to start this women's soccer team? Because none of us were rich. And so Wes Berdine, who's one of our founders, he's a historian of soccer. He loves the soccer stuff. And he said, look, community ownership is a possibility. And so he started talking. And I knew about Detroit City and Chattanooga and some of it. And he said, I really think we can do a community ownership campaign and raise the money to start the team. And so that's what we did. So we launched a community ownership campaign. We had absolutely no idea. We did in the

fall of 2021, no idea how it was going to go. Our, if we had raised $300,000, we were going to be happy. A million dollars was the cap. And we never thought we were going to get to a million dollars. And within three months we had sold out every share that we had. The average investment was $300. So not a big investment. From that, we ended up with 3,080 community owners. We're in 48 states, eight countries. There are two states we couldn't get that still drive me crazy. We did get them for this new round because I specifically called people in West Virginia and Delaware. And I was like, you have got to buy shirts. Delaware?

Just tell someone to make a P.O. box in Delaware. So we couldn't get those two states. So, yeah, so we had 3,080 community owners. They helped us vote on our name. So they've been very active in the process of building the team. They voted on our mascot. And they in the process of building the team. They voted on our mascot and they're the fabric of who we are. So we raised all this money. We had a name. We started playing soccer. Weren't sure how many people were going to show up. And lo and behold, lots and lots of

people showed up. So we thought we'd fill half of our stadium. And within two days of tickets going on sale, we had to open up the whole stadium. And so we average about 5,800 fans a game. We are pre-professional. So our players are amateur and our fans don't care. They love them. And they show up and they're loud and they have chants. And we had a supporters group before we had a team name. So we are a magical little team in Minnesota.

If anyone hasn't been to Minnesota and plans on going, Wes owns a fantastic bar called Blackheart in St. Paul. It is right across the street from Minnesota United Stadium. And when I was there for All-Star, I believe two years ago now, I met a lot of people who had invested in Minnesota and talked about how, one, how much fun it was, how competitive it was to, they were glad they had invested just So I'm very excited that you have reopened this. Talk to people a little bit about what this fundraising process is and sort of what they get and how they get involved. Yeah, so we after the first round, we had a lot of people on a waiting list. So because we sold out of shares, we had a lot of people on a waiting list. So over the last couple of years, we've been asked all the time, are you

going to reopen? Are you going to reopen? Are you going to reopen? So now we're close to the end of the three years. And we knew that million dollars could get us through the first three years. We've been really fortunate with our ticket sales, our merchandise sales, and we have a lot of sponsors that we didn't need all of the million dollars just to exist. We've been able to use the million dollars for things like we pay for player housing. So we're able to get players in from around the world. We actually pay for our players, U.S. soccer registration. U.S. registering to actually play soccer in the United States

is really expensive. And so we wanted to remove any barriers for a young woman who wanted to come play for our team. So the money, so we've, we've been through the money and we decided, okay, let's open up community ownership to raise more money, bring in more owners. So we started that in August and basically it's the same premise. It's a hundred dollars is your minimum investment, which gets you shares in the team. You become a part of our community and our community owners are different than like the Green Bay Packers and some of the other teams. Our community owners vote for two representatives on the board of directors. So there's always a voice from the

community owners on our board. And that has been really helpful because the two we have right now, Mayan Tran and Jamie Becker Finn, they're so straight, solid on always representing the community. If we're talking about ticket pricing, if we're talking about doing an exhibition game, it always comes back to, would our community owners be excited about this? Is this something they want to be involved in? Even when we were trying to get to the NWSL, we kept our community ownership involved because it's an important decision and they have the right to know. So we don't do anything without them. And it's very powerful. So now we basically want more of them because it really is our secret sauce. The community owners, as you said, when you were in town, they're so proud to be a part of our ownership group that they tell everybody and they bring their friends and they bring their neighbors and they buy merchandise for the holidays. And so all of those things have really allowed us to fast forward our soccer team, right? So we're not like a startup, even though we just finished our third season,

because everybody showed up. I literally can't think of a cooler thing to say to a person, no matter where you live, right? You said now 50 states, eight countries, then why own this soccer team in Minnesota or saying, oh, I got to stay home and watch the game because I want to see how my team does. Right. No. And that's it. And when we looked at the ratings for especially our championship game,

we were in the championship game our first year that there's nothing, having your team lose in the playoffs is heartbreaking. Having a team you own lose in lose playoffs is a whole new level of heartbreak and um but what was cool is when we looked at the ratings the streaming numbers for the game it was worldwide right people were watching from around the world and again we're a pre-professional women's soccer team and so you know that's our owners right my son was in Ghana when we were in the championship game. He was watching from Ghana.

We saw people watching from Japan, Germany. That's an incredible thing to have. And so I think the grassroots of this soccer team is what makes it special, but it's also what makes us strong. And so we want to invite more people in. You've only lost three games, I believe. Regular season. Yeah, we've never lost in the regular season. The three losses are all in the playoffs. Because sports are hard. Turns out winning the championship is hard. Yeah, and I

was not prepared. The first and I was not prepared. The first season, I was not prepared. It's a funny story. I was leaving the house. At the time, I was serving as the team president and chair of the board. Luckily, we have more people now. But I was walking out of the house, and my husband said, are you prepared for if you lose, right?

We had won every game. We were pounding. The fans packed. we're national publicity he's like are you prepared because everybody's going to look to you if you lose and i was like we are not going to lose because in my mind i had the headlines written right this this brand new team community owned winning the championship in their first season and in a state where only the Lynx, now we have more teams that have won, but the men have never, you know, they don't do it on a regular basis. So the women had, I had the whole thing written and then we lost in the 118th minute.

So it was a double overtime. That's painful. Oh, it was awful. It was awful. And people were literally sending flowers to my house for the next week. I was like, it was awful. It was awful. And people were literally sending flowers to my house for the next week. I was like, it was bad. And my husband kept trying to console me. I'm like, don't talk to me.

Don't go near me. I don't want to be consoled. I'm just going to be miserable. Now, the last two times that we have lost, I've just had to straight to Blackheart. And there's a little bit more misery loves company. Which is why we're all sports fans. Exactly. Exactly. It's what brings us all together. and there's a little bit more misery loves company. Mm-hmm, yeah. Which is why we're all sports fans, right? Exactly, exactly.

It's what brings us all together, the highs and the lows. Yeah. It also, it'll make a really good opening scene for the 30 for 30. Exactly. When you end up winning the Women's Club World Cup in 20 years. Right, as a professional team and everything else. Yep, that's what we tell ourselves now. So let's talk about the future. You mentioned an NWSL bid. We're talking about a fake club

World Cup that's going to happen in 50 years. What is the future for this club after you said like, it was sort of a prayer and a hope during COVID. And then what you've seen the success it's been, how do you all sort of sit around and talk about what comes next? So we've taken a serious run at the NWSL. Most recently is August. And we have all the pieces. And we know that Minnesota absolutely will support a team at a higher level. It's already been shown.

We have 7,000 fans coming to our games. We sell out. So if you can do that with a pre-professional team, imagine what you can do if you do have the caliber of players like a Crystal Dunn or a Sophia Smith, because I know they're all going to want to sign with us. So I'm just going to keep dreaming big. And so what we did was we put an investor group together. We took a serious run at submitting a bid. We were public about it because, again, we're community owned. So you can't really do things in secret.

Right. Because your owners will be mad. And the thing about us is you can walk into a store or the bar and find one of us at any given time. So if we're not honest up front, you're going to see us at the grocery store and you're going to say something. So we might as well just be honest. You're not on the private jet home to another city where you live. No one ever sees us. I run into community owners at Target, which is great. So anyway, we took a serious run at the NWSL. We were short on our money. We ended up having to withdraw the bid. So what we're doing

now is we're regrouping. We are doing this new round of community ownership to give us a solid financial foundation to keep going forward. And then we're going to take a serious look at the Super League, continue to look at the NWSL, try to bring in some more resources to help us. The beauty of our team is we're community owned. We were founded by a group of normal citizens. That also makes it the really hard part to find the money because we're not in the right rooms with the rich people, with the Rolodex that you can just call and say, hey, we want to take the scene at the end of the sale. Could you give us $150 million? And also because the price of getting into the league has gone up quite a bit

since we started this process. The thing I will always regret, and of course I wasn't ever thinking about it, if we had had this idea in 2018, my book club could have bought a team. If you just look at the difference of such a short period of time from when these teams were a million dollars and two million dollars to now 150 250 who knows what the next sale is going to be so we hope we'll get there um and be pro our market deserves it we want to have more games uh the one thing that's limiting about the uslw is we only have six home games and 12 total, 15 if you make the playoffs.

So we'd really like to provide more for our fans. And in order to do that, we need to go pro. But to go pro, you need the money. It is a truly American soccer story, like as great as it is. And we've talked on this show, um, on the NWSL side about the angel city investment from the Iger family from about San Diego, how great it is, right? It's all growing, um, NWSL changing records for transfer fees and all of that. You want players to have more money. You want there to be more jobs. Um, it is amazing where the professional side has gone, but it is still fun and idea to think that people can get together and start a soccer

team that people around the world are going to stream and people, you know, thousands of people are going to come out and watch. You are a soccer fan, you're a sports fan. From now having this experience, how do you see the soccer landscape or the sport or anything like that differently? I do. I mean, we, even in our short time, what we've seen is that if you can give young women some experience either on the field or off the field, they can do anything. We have, we already have a really great track record of young women having either played for us or interned for us going on and getting great jobs. We have seven players playing pro in Europe right now. I mean, seven.

We've got two in Portugal that every time they post a picture, I'm like, okay, you're welcome. Like, so glad you're having a great time. You know, we've got one in Finland. So we have seven playing pro. On our side here, we have a former player that now works at Learfield Sports. She wanted to go into sports marketing. I saw yesterday we have another player that just got a job in Ohio in sports marketing.

One of our interns now works for The Athletic in soccer. And our very first head coach got stolen by U.S. Soccer. She's now a talent ID scout, right? So here we are, this tiny little team with this belief that if you gave the women the experience, they could go on. And it's happened already, especially when Nicole got stolen by U.S. soccer. Like that's one of those things that when she called, like you're crying inside, but you're celebrating outside because it was exactly why we started the team. And so when I look at that and then when I look at what the women are capable of doing, given just a little bit of a chance, that changes the whole view, right?

Like you said, like your wife is working on the World Cup, right? Think about that 10 years ago. That probably wouldn't have happened, you know? And so I'm seeing it change, seeing the women in positions of leadership. And that's very exciting because I've been doing this for a very, very long time. And to now sit on calls where it's all women on a call, it was only two years ago where it was me and all men. And so that's really what I'm seeing the most is that change. It's awesome to hear. It's amazing to hear. So explain to people how they do this. How do they

get involved? What's the process? So it's very easy. If you go to mnarora.com, right on the top of the website, it says become a community owner. That'll take you over to our WeFunder site. And WeFunder is the secure platform so that your financial information doesn't actually ever come to us. So you go in there, you sign up, you buy your shares. It can be as little as $100, as much as you want. I would say if you're at over $100,000, maybe email me instead and we'll do a private investment on the side.

If there's someone listening that is interested in being a private investor, we would love to talk to you. We do, we are very strict in making sure people are value aligned with us. We do have a strong set of values as far as welcoming everybody, standing up for women's rights. The whole list is on our website. So we were trying to stay very true to that. But if you are that person, please give us a call. So you go in there and we do have a frequently asked questions. You can gift your share. So if you're trying to figure out, you

know, the holidays are coming up and trying to figure out gifts, you can buy your shares and gift them. They come with different privileges at different levels and it's all laid out on the website amazing um we will we'll tweet out the link as well um we will put it in in the podcast description as well if you are listening you can go there and and click on it um and i this was a good reminder for me to get mine done well thank you we're gonna have to have you guys out next uh next spring for a game we'll do a pre-party at Blackheart and have you do the podcast again. And then you can get on the bus and ride with the supporters out to the stadium. Because I've heard the party bus is quite fun.

But you have to work. That's the good and the bad. Yeah, I don't mind. Every game day for me is like a big party. You get to know that not only the community owners, but a lot of our friends and family are there and game day is just, it's, it's a beautiful thing. Cause it's, it's like being at your own wedding every time, you know, you get to see everybody. It's quick 30 second conversations. Right. Then you get to

the next one, but also you meet new people, right? It's that's the beauty of our community is everybody's making friends out at our games. And, um we're it's a long off season for us it's another reason to go pro because then the off season a little bit shorter yeah absolutely um well get involved get um you know join i think it's special as i have said a million times and uh we'll continue to talk about this as well as you continue to do the fundraising. And of course, the sport continues to grow. But thank you for taking the time, Andrea, for joining us. I really appreciate it.

Thank you so much, David. I really appreciate it too. Thank you so much to Andrea for taking the time to talk to us. We will post all the things about how you can get involved, fundraisers. It sparked a couple ideas for me i'm going to be gifting shares to people for the holidays which i think is like the coolest thing ever i've said that a million times because i cannot imagine owning a soccer team yeah it's cool like obviously you're working on it so you you feel it as well very like green bay packers

right like how the green Bay Packers were built. And now look at that and how supportive those fans are because they own it. They are part of it. And I think that that is a really cool idea that Minnesota Aurora has. And so now you and your family and your nieces will get to be owners and forever fans of Minnesota Aurora. And they do listen to this show. So if they hear that, you don't know what your gift is coming up. Oh, they do? Oh my gosh.

That's what I've been told. Just cut it out. No, cut it out. Just edit it out. All right. All right. They don't watch it live, do they? Oh my gosh.

I have a spoiler. Let's talk about the NWSL weekend coming up. We've already talked about Gotham versus Orlando. That game, I believe is on Sunday. Some of the other big games here that I circled for this one, Louisville against Portland. We talked about Sinclair and what Portland are trying to do.

Louisville are in this, this race alongside Bay FC who face off against North Carolina. It's the final home game for Bay in that one. They finish at Houston. You have to think there's at least three points in there between those two games for Bay. Whether it's at Houston who are struggling and won't have anything to play for or at home. All I'm saying is for Louisville, they probably have to win out to make this happen. And home against Portland is not easy, but it is a winnable match.

Yeah, it is. I think the question I have for Louisville is in the last game, they don't start Savannah DiBello. And this team has a good starting 11. I really like the way that Yanez has shifted some of the ways that they build and how they attack.

But if they're without DiBello, it changes things. And I think that they need her and her, the starting 11. I don't know if that was for injury, if that was what the case was for there without DeMello in the 11, but they're going to need their 11 to start. So then they can bring Sears off the bench and she can provide a spark, which she always does off the bench. And it's been a really good role for her as a rookie in this league. But they're going to have to be able to, I don't know, I don't know where Sophia Smith's at. And it felt like a few weeks ago, maybe she was a couple weeks away,

and this could be the week that she might be back. And that would be difficult because Louisville did not look like they were able to handle some of the speed that Washington had against them in Louisville's back line last week. And so that would be an issue if Sophia Smith's back, among the other issues that Sophia Smith can create. Yeah, so Smith, it seemed like fully trained pregame on Friday and then was announced as unavailable. So it goes to the it is very close if not happening uh louisville has given up a little bit of speed and physicality for ball progression and ball playing ability both in central midfield and along the backline that's the shift they've chosen to make um they have to dominate the game and therefore you have to think the final home game is a must win here

because it's going to be tough to do that. Even though, so they finish at San Diego, it's going to be tough to do that in that setting, even with San Diego, nothing to play for. And trying to dominate the ball. And so I think this is. In San Diego, if you try to dominate the ball, like that field does not scream dominate the ball. Like that is going to be a hard thing.

And San Diego, even as much as they struggle, I've struggled this year, they still control possession. Like that's just who they are in their DNA, whatever they're trying to figure out so it is going to be a big one here for louisville bay on the other side trying to bounce back in this one against north carolina i thought bay played north carolina really well on the road a few weeks ago and so i think the building blocks are there and we know how much north carolina struggles to travel and if Bay can get any results here you set yourself up to control your own destiny in the final week against Houston it's that probably gets you enough you were on the Bay game though this weekend what did you see

from them what do you make of where they sit right now they've gotten so much better defensively and I think that is the biggest plus is that it doesn't look like at the beginning of the year it it was this is how we attack. And then the middle of the year, it was this is how we defend. And now it's so much more cohesive. Like, this is how we play, attack, defend different phases of the game and transition as well. They just struggled if they don't have I mean, Rachel Kuninanji and Tess Bodie account for 25% of their chances created, and they were without both of those players. So with them in, it is a different Bay team. And I think they could really, in moments, challenge North Carolina, who get expansive and stretched and have dominated the ball

every single game they've played for, what, a year and a half. I think they've had more possession. So if they can let North Carolina get stretched and use the outlet of Kundanaji, they might have something going for them. But I don't know the health where she's at. Tespoti was an illness, so you would imagine she's back in the team. But for them, it was difficult for them to create much going forward. Penelope Hocking did all right in moments, but this is a team who they need to be clicking especially at home because

this this feels like if you can get three more points at home then you go into your last game in houston as you said knowing that we could get a result here and it doesn't maybe have to be a win yeah yeah and i think you take a lot of wind out of the sails of Louisville. Hawking, I thought, in this game was the most dangerous player on the field. It is in isolated moments, and so it's hard to connect to it, and it's hard to build off of it. It kind of flashes. But if you have Akuna Ndange on the field,

and she's stretching the field on the other side and creating danger, it becomes even more dangerous and more effective. And the final one to touch on on for the weekend Washington against Chicago so Trinity Rodman came off the bench in the previous game Kruger was available on the bench did not appear I think some of that's affected by you're a defender and you're up four to one yeah as the game goes along so why take the risk Lacey Santos didn't dress once again Uli Saar didn't dress once again I think it's safe in saying Rodman back is the biggest step to take and then you're hoping anyone else can get back that can become available especially now you've lost Andy Sullivan but if they can get Rodman I think they go back into a conversation of at least they can threaten anyone

on their day. Absolutely. I mean, Trinity Rodman is what do we say? Top three players in this league because we were talking about MVP caliber players earlier. And she was one of the three that we talked about. It also is something that Jonah Harald has told us in conversations like we want players to be 100 percent. So I want to know that they can go out there and feel fully fit and so some of those players that didn't dress might be closer than we think because of that is they're just not quite there right maybe they've trained for four days but they need two

weeks and so they yeah and i would imagine that's where a player i'm hoping actually like ulesar potentially is because she's been out the longest. But it is good to have Rodman back. But I think they got it much better in how they placed players. Hatch was at the nine. Kwasi was at a winger. And she really can threaten and add balance or add threat to this team. But with Rodman back, then there's a real balance of which side do you protect more?

You can't choose then. Yeah, it was definitely each player looked more comfortable in their position than what we had seen. Now, it's not Orlando on the road, so that's going to change a ton as well. But you're going to try and manage it and rebuild it. This Washington team has gone through four or five iterations this year you think early on before you were fully healthy before you had acquired all the players and before you had your actual head coach true they played one way then they sort of shifted then they brought an sma morgan and lacey santos and they

lost croy bethune they got jonathan heraldes it has changed a lot. I think the building blocks are still in there to put together a really good team. The Andy Sullivan injury probably won too many to say they are an NWSL Cup contender. Yeah, it'd be hard for MLS too. Yeah, I got to think of the 97 different championships and playoffs and standings that everyone has to go through. All right, I believe that's all for us.

Anything I forgot? No. Soccer Wise is for Denver. Thank you once again to Andrea for taking the time to join us. And please go support Minnesota Aurora. And I don't have to say that after you do it because then you'll be an owner

and I'll be supporting you. So go out there. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity. We will have the information. We'll put it out on social with the clip we put out as well as in the podcast description. And so anywhere else we can put the links, we will as well. Thank you to everyone for joining us. Thank you to you, Jordan, for being here.

We've got a couple more big shows coming up this week. We're going to have Tim Bezbachenko on on Friday to help us preview the MLS weekend. And we'll be back next week with more conversation.