SoccerWise - NWSL Edition: Orlando Shield & Ange City Salary Cap Violation's

Episode Date: October 9, 2024

In a driving storm on Sunday evening Orlando Pride clinched the clubs first NWSL Shield against Washington Spirit. Jordan was there and takes us into the experience and celebrations from the day. And of course the Soccerwise crew has to dig into the story around Angel City's salary cap violations. 7:53 Celebrating Orlando’s Shield Win 20:02 Wash Injury Woes 28:25 Angel City FC’s Salary Cap Violations & Punishments 40:51 Portland Thorns Front Office News 47:19 Bay & Louisville’s Playoff Chances Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Jordan, we are back. We are live. We are ready to roll. SoccerWise is here. NWSL edition on a Wednesday. I am finally arrived and set up and ready to go. You have been busy and doing things and we were not able to do our show last week. And now we are back and it feels good. You're dry, which I assume is a big deal after the last seven days you've had. And I feel back in the flow. I know. Yes, I am dry. It was funny at the game in Orlando. I was doing sideline and it was pouring the whole game.

So much so, Goss, that my fingers were wrinkly. Like pruning up. You know that it's a lot of rain when that's the case. It's when your parents would tell you you should have come inside earlier. Yes, yes. So it was nice to be dry and no rain right now, but

I hope everything's okay with you. It's nice to be in an apartment, but not the greatest time to be in Florida. So, yeah, thoughts for everybody down there as they get prepared for this big storm coming. Yes, I believe it is called Milton. I got my first Milton message because you get messages. I just moved to Miami, for anyone who doesn't know. And I thought it was for the wrong person. Like update on Milton was what it said. And I was like, oh, I don't know a Milton. And then I realized that it was about

the storm. So yes, we are hoping for the best for everyone who is in the path. And we were hoping for the best for everyone in general. It is supposed to not be so bad near where I am. So that is very fortunate. Everyone in Miami has told me a million times, it's not always like this. Well, I've been here for like three weeks. We've had three hurricanes. So I don't really know what your point is there, but it's fine. At least we don't get snow. So when we get to December and January, I can appreciate it a little bit more. Orlando got the rain on Sunday, but they also got the shield. It was a pretty big day. That's why you were in the building. We are obviously going to dig into that, talk all about

it, talk about your experience and this team and what this season has been. If you haven't, we did a sit down interview two weeks ago with Haley Carter, who helped put this roster together and build this culture and talked a lot about, you could sort of sense and feel how you turn an organization around, how you turn an organization around, how you build an organization just off the language you use, the vocabulary, the way she talks about people. So I highly recommend going to listen to that if you have not. And unfortunately, on the other side, still big news around Washington, and it continues to be injury news. So we'll dig into that. We'll talk about that on this show here today. And we'll talk about the news coming out of Angel City because we've not been on since they were caught for salary cap violations. And

then the punishment was announced by NWSL. We'll talk about what happened, what we think about it, and sort of what the future could be going forward. And then we've got another big weekend of NWSL action. So two more weekends in regular season before the international break. Then when we come back, the weekend of November 2nd sort of is the final weekend of the regular season. And then we're into the playoffs. Our first one to cover here at SoccerWise as we head towards a championship in Kansas City, which is going to be incredible. Casey Currant would like to be a part of it. Unsure if that will happen, but there are a lot of strong contenders. And I just did an interview with a coach for our Friday show. We're going to have Ben Pierman on who's head coach of Charleston. And obviously I don't live in a Northeast place anywhere, but he mentioned

playoffs and like the calendar turning. And I was like, college soccer has come back. Like it's that time of year. And I got a little bit of a chill to be like, you don't get it when it's 85 every day now as much, but you get that chill of like, oh, it's that time of year. Yeah, you just feel it when it's cooler at nighttime. You're getting ready to go watch a game and you're like, it means a little bit more. And I love that time of year here in the fall. And there's a lot to play for still in NWSL. There's a crispness under the lights that is different when it is that fall and when you're into a playoff race. We have our first officially eliminated team in Houston who are not going to make the playoffs this year, which was something we probably all could have told you before, but now is official. We also had North Carolina officially clinched their spot in the playoffs. But for Houston, the first team out, they also have finally announced that Fran Alonso has left the club, was hired as head coach, coached for about a month and a half, stepped away from the team for reasons we don't know, and has been in absence, in absentia. Is that a term?

Oh, wow. I have no idea. I shouldn't have jumped off that ledge it shouldn't it shouldn't be okay well they've been in absent he's been in absentia then is what i'm gonna go with yeah since then and then finally officially stepped away from the club it's obviously not a surprise it is not really breaking news it is a positive that it is done this is one of the weirdest things i have seen around sports for a while, just the unknown nature of it. And this club just needs some firm footing to step forward with.

Yes, it feels like it's too little too late. It was going to already be a really difficult season for Houston, regardless, just with their build and trying to play a totally different style of soccer under Alonzo but then the uncertainty I feel like put them in a really difficult place as players it put the interim in a difficult place and Ricky Clark because you don't know how long you're going to be in charge and what extent of am I hiding everything I need to hide when it comes to knowledge about what's actually going on and that's a lot of weight to to bear and for in Houston's credit they played Chicago on Friday and I was on the Chicago local field feed call. It was another game where Chicago just defensively did really well. I think Houston had over three XG. So they created opportunities, could not score. And that was just

on the heels of announcing that Fran Alonzo was no longer going to be the head coach of the team. So you just wish that this would have come, this boost would have come a little bit earlier, and they would have been able to live in this area of like, all right, Ricky Clark is our interim. We know that. He's taking care of us. They're giving him some direction, and we're not going to see that because there's only three games left. They're going to do everything that they can, but you just wish it would have happened. What two months ago, even to give this team a little bit of hope to really band together and try to make something happen.

You talk about for Ricky Clark, like the comments when you hear them post game press conferences, like dancing this line of like, this is what I believe just on field, like tactical stuff, but it could. And like, he's kind of was leaving the door open

to like it's not really my decision or i don't know that i can say that i'm putting permanent things in place because i don't know that i can say that i'm here or someone else isn't here like there has been a lot of really weird stuff that's been really tough to deal with and obviously we've seen the effect of it um on the team in absentia by way, it is at least a real term. And so good, quick search there. I was trying to get on it. So the official news there for Houston. So eliminated, I believe Sophie Schmidt signed a contract extension as well.

That was announced over the last week. And now moving forward, we talked a little bit about potential candidates for them in the future, As we've sort of talked about all of them, there's a list of names out there. So you can go back and listen to those shows and listen to those segments as well. But let's dig into the big news. Let's talk Shield winners, Orlando Pride. 2017, they finished seventh in NWSL. That was their best finish over the last eight years until they continued their undefeated season they knock off washington spirit this weekend 2-0 at home and win the shield for the first time in their club's history jordan you were there you were rained on you were in the building give us an idea of the experience of like what the weekend was like how the club was um sort of what the atmosphere was it was great it was the whole day had this like anticipation about it i talked to hayley carter

i got to talk to seb hines and giles barnes before the game and everybody was just like all right we're ready for it we're ready to play the game and the fact that they got to do it at home in front of their fans i think you you saw that with the comments that marta had after the game and the fact that they got to do it at home in front of their fans. I think you you saw that with the comments that Marta had after the game where she said, this is for you, for everybody that comes to every single game. And you've been here through everything. You know, we want this, but we also want more. So you could sense the anticipation and a little bit of a bummer. Like it was raining. It wasn't the best atmosphere to get a huge crowd on hand, but there was a lot of people there and they were as loud as they could be.

And I think that that is, it just made the game that much more fun. And I think, did you see any of the pictures from it because it was raining? Like they're pretty cool pictures. I feel like it gave- Oh, the drama when you see like the rain. Yeah, the drama of

the water flying everywhere, but on the field, I just have, it's so impressive when you're sitting there watching Orlando play on a TV screen, but when you're there and you see how they are so good at dominating how the game is going to get played. Like they were in control of that game. I don't know. I wouldn't say that there was a moment where you felt like Washington is going to find their way into this game. It felt like whether they were defending at the beginning and trying to figure out how they break Washington down

to when they started finding some success going forward, it was just going to be Orlando. You just knew that they were in control, right? They had the game controller and they were pushing all the right buttons and they finally found a way to pull through. So it just was a cool atmosphere to be a part of, cool to be a part of the Shield ceremony and, yeah, get to watch Marta lift the Shield in person.

Yeah, Marta, obviously, big name, big story. But the perseverance to stay with this club since 2017. And she talks about people coming every game. Like she knows who those people are, right? She's been there. She's been there through a lot of downtime. So for her to be a part of this team, and we've talked about it this year, to feel revitalized.

Like we can feel it in the way when you watch her, the way she's playing and the way it feels the way when you watch her the way she's playing and the way it feels compared to you know the last few years but then you go to like her peaks and and what she's done for brazil and in big tournaments and all that type of stuff she gets the goal off the penalty um which is technically the winning goal and like all of that stuff is storybook that's what you wanted and i think you could sense and she sort of said a pregame to you of like they wanted to do it today or they wanted to do it on Sunday and not have it be on the road this weekend. Yes, exactly. And I thought that it was hard from Washington is always going to be

hard for Washington, right? Because of we'll get into some of their, what they were, their hands were tied with the number of players that they had available but for Orlando I just think their 4-4-2 works out really well and what they ask of those two central midfielders it was Gattra and Angelina to start with in this game and their positioning just pulls apart an opponent's midfield and was asking a lot of Sullivan and Hatch and then Sainbrook to cover the ground. And I think that that's where you started to see Orlando really toy is making those players make mistakes and dive in and then they could manipulate the players in front. And although Adriana gets that second goal, right, it's a deflection off of a defender.

And what was, I think, a really smart play, because when it's raining that much, Gus, what do you need to do? Just kind of shoot. Take shots. Like you can get lucky with a deflection. And she sort of hits it low but off the ground so it can take a bounce or deflection. Yeah, and you are following up.

All the little things that you're told when you're small, I think Orlando took advantage of those. Yeah, and you are following up all the little things that you're told when you're small. I think Orlando took advantage of those. Did they credit her a goal or was it an own goal? I have not checked. Wait, let me. No, it's an own goal. Yeah, so she creates that goal, but I thought throughout all of the game,

it was really interesting to watch where she popped up. Sometimes she would occupy a center back. Sometimes she would go all the way in the channel. Sometimes you float in the half space. She does so much for this team that I think goes unrecognized by a lot of people. And her stats are not Banda stats are not Marta stats this year. But man, I really enjoyed watching her play in real life with her right there in front of me. Yeah, we saw at the start of the year before Banda and Marta were really in this group, we saw her play as a 10. You see her ability, it feels like, especially with Corey Dyke out there, to understand when to be in the channel, when to be on the end line,

when to come inside, where the overloads are, and then when to take advantage of space. She is that third option which means you can't commit too many numbers to Marta and Banda and that feels like a huge part of this attack I talk a lot about to me sort of Orlando's amoeba of like they you said it they control the way a game is played without traditionally controlling possession the way you're used to seeing what were you hearing from Seb Hines as you're watching them play in person of like how they're reacting to the way the game's being played and what they thought they were doing? Yeah, he was in the first half

frustrated with the decision making. He thought that they were a little slow to be decisive, that it didn't matter what the decision that they were making as they were building up, but he just wanted them to make the decisions quicker. And I think we, and then it was frustration in the box because in the first half, there were multiple chances Orlando could have already been up before the first 45 whistle blew. And so those were where the frustrations lie.

And I think that that is the standard that you're just talking about, that they can control the tempo of the game. So in order to do that, when you have the ball, you must be decisive. You must make a decision and stick with it instead of being on the ball a little too much. And then with the conditions too, you can't, you can't get caught with the ball at your foot because you're going to get tackled in the ball. You never know where the ball is going to pop to. So I think those were the frustrations that I was hearing from Orlando sideline and in Sub Hines in particular. We'll talk about Washington, the injuries they have, but they never really looked like they would win with the way the game played out, but they put out the

fires pretty consistently up until the goal. And that is, to me, the experience of playing Orlando, which is you can put out all the fires but if you leave one ember that's where you get in trouble and conversation around what happened on the goal Anna Boutel turns throws her hand up the commentary during the match was she's calling for offside in watching the replay from a different angle I think she's calling for Kingsbury to come off her line and take the ball because Banda is behind Boutel like there's no way Boutel can think Banda's in an offside position she had she is the one keeping that attacking player on and and no matter what you have to run it down and try and be competitive and just like try and slow Banda a little bit

but it's just an example of like over 90 minutes you don't get a rest you don't get a break any half mistake becomes the chance and it's the penalty and then Marta puts it away and I am surprised that there wasn't a um Boutel got a yellow card though didn't she it was the yellow card on that okay then in the first half I can't remember which center back it was I thought it was the yellow card on that okay then in the first half i can't remember which center back it was i thought it was butel who got an early yellow on the edge of the box on that tackle it was it was mickey on though i think okay it was mickey on because i felt like um there wasn't uh when i talk about decision making like i would have put barbara banda on the center back with the yellow card the whole rest of the game, just to create that little tug of war, right? You're

already on a yellow card. Now come chase me. Come try to stick with me. And I felt like that was an area that Orlando was just a little slow to recognize and put pressure on the center backs who, yeah, they were putting out fires but they were also chasing a lot right they were getting pulled around by Marta by um the center backs so Boutel was the one who threw her hand up McKeown makes the tackle because she's the one coming over Boutel had gotten the yellow card in the first three minutes McKeown gets the yellow card there it was all messed up that's's right. That's right. And so I did.

I thought it was Boutel. I was like, I would have put Banda on Boutel the whole first half. And she likes to drift and she likes to float into the channel on the left side for Orlando. But that to me was a mistake in the first half that Orlando could have just been

a little bit more dominant with an early yellow card on a center back, the pace they have with Banda and how difficult she is to mark I think they could have made life a little bit more difficult for Mutel so they get the victory they win the shield what is sort of your feeling now of like what are the last three games of the regular season look like the undefeated streak is there are they talking about it I it does every time we talk to Seb Hines he says they Are they talking about it? Every time we talk to Seb Hines, he says they're not talking about it. They just want to be better.

They want to be better. They want to control games. They want to play like themselves. I think one of the benefits of this Orlando Pride team this year, because of the players that have been in and out of the lineup a little bit and the depth of the roster that they've truly built over the last couple of years. Some of these players were starters last year and haven't started a lot of games this year. Even think Julie Doyle, who was starting at the beginning of the year and now is not starting. They have the capability to switch the lineup every single game and it doesn't feel like there's a drop off. So I think if I were managing this

team, I would say, what can we put out there that is a mixture of some players who need to get minutes and stay consistent, but make sure everybody on the bench has an opportunity to have a starting role and a bench role because you never know what's going to happen throughout the rest of this year and even into playoffs to make sure everybody feels confident in any role that they would be called upon, whether it's starting a game, whether it's coming off the bench. So I think we're going to see that with a lot, I would imagine a lot of players just to make sure through these last three games, everybody feels fit and in rhythm,

but also rested at the same time. And as you said, this is a team that has rotated. Central midfield's constant rotation. Summer Gates has rotated in and out. They've added Carson Pickett. That gives you more flexibility. You can put together a strong 11 every single game for the next three weeks and change it pretty heavily for this team.

That schedule is at Portland on Friday night. The following weekend, they travel to Gotham and then they close out at home against Seattle, a Seattle team that most likely at that point will be eliminated for the final game of the season for them to be the first team ever to go undefeated over the course of a full regular season. They've obviously done it for over a year now because I believe it was the first, the last three games of the regular season last year where this undefeated streak started. But this is a historic chance.

Yeah, no, it was because their last loss, Orlando's last loss was October 6th of 2023. And they won the shield on October 6th of 2024. It has been a wild year. It has been a wild year. It has been a ridiculous year. It's fun to watch, and I think we're looking forward to seeing a little bit more of it. We'll talk about the Portland Thorns a bit when we get to our weekend preview because they've had some news come out over the last few days.

But let's talk about Washington before we go away. It was a team we already knew dealing with injuries. Corey Bethune out for the season. Then you have now added Trinity Rodman, who has gone down with that back injury. Casey Kruger missed her second straight game in this one alongside Rodman. Ule Sar, their leading goal scorer, has been out, I believe now it's six straight matches, with an injury herself. And then into this game, Lacey Santos was unavailable for this starting lineup. And the biggest news, Andy Sullivan at the end of this game tore her ACL.

She will obviously be out for the season. We hope to see her for some segment of next season as well. I can't even think of a team like this. And you talk about the players that I just named are these six best players probably on this team, six of the seven, whatever it is. You were talking about your leading goal scorer. You were talking about the rookie of the year who we were saying may be the MVP at the time. You're then talking about her replacement in Lacey Santos. You are talking about arguably the best player at the time. You're then talking about her replacement in Lacey Santos. You are talking about arguably the best player at the Olympics. You're talking about another national

team player. You're talking about your captain. You're talking about the heartbeat of your team. What did you see from Washington without them? And like, what could this season still be? I saw from them a team that was knew how to defend, right? They felt, it felt like they were very prepared as to how Orlando was going to attack them. And as you said earlier, they were putting out fires, right? So they were prepared in that aspect. But the thing that has been the dagger, right?

For this Washington team is how they move forward. And they weren't able to do that at all. They have this ability to press high or sit in this mid-block and pick a ball and go and attack. And they've scored so many goals from that good transition moment, and that seems to be lost because I would say the front four now, especially in this game with Hatch as a 10, Kowalski as a nine, we haven't seen her there, Matea as a winger, and then on the other side

was who I can't remember, Courtney Brown. Those players haven't played a lot of time in those positions. So that, when they pressed, when they went, if somebody won the ball, it was just a little disorganized as to how they were going to go forward. And you asked me how Seb Hines was on that sideline. I would say Jonah, and I spoke more to Adrian Gonzalez. Yes, Geraldo and Gonzalez. I confused them. He was telling me that they just didn't have as much threat in behind. So at halftime when they made the change and they brought Kwasi into the winger spot and

they bring Lena Solano in as a nine, every change that they made was to try to get in behind and turn over this Orlando team. And that's what they're missing, that you're missing that because you don't have the players that you typically have. And even, you know, you mentioned everybody and what they were missing, that you're missing that because you don't have the players that you typically have. And even, you know, you mentioned everybody and what they were doing, but I think Ule Sar was the most consistent player out of all of them, right? I don't think she scored as much as we maybe thought that she could because she had a lot of opportunities, but she's still leading goal scorer on this team and has helped them in so many ways to drag attention away from Rodman. And, and those two worked so well together. It just, it is going to be a tough end of the season for the spirit,

which is a bummer. Goss, remember how high I was on them? As you should have been right. That was fascinating about this team. And so fun about them was, um, they had clear ideas about how they played and they had multiple strengths. And if you wanted to take one away, you helped the other one. So the ability to stretch the field meant there was room for originally Corey Bethune and Lacey Santos to cook in midfield. And there was a ton of space. And you had Hal Hirschfeld, who was suspended for this game on yellow cards,

so at least they'll get her back going forward. And then Andy Sullivan with space to play in midfieldfield and if you wanted to put numbers in there that meant leisar was going to have space to run 1v1 over the top or trinity rodman all those things and so there's there was both a lot of individual quality and great team composition here you've now lost almost all of that if all of these players are out. I do think that Jonah Geraldo's got the setup wrong, where he set players up. I think Ashley Hatch should have been the nine. I think Kawasi should have been a winger. And I think you put Paige Matea, who before, what, two months ago, was a center midfielder, you put her in the center of midfield.

And now at least you're changing even though they're you're changing a spot of Mateo the other two are comfortable and you can get Kwasi running in from that outside channel right in a quick transition instead of trying to find space in the center of the field which she couldn't find Ashley Hatch couldn't find that that half space or the seam between the back line and the midfield line because that's not how she sees the game. She doesn't see the game 360. She sees the game, okay, here's how it's developing in front of me, and that's where I want to go behind me. I felt like you could tell on the field

when they had the ball, they were were like what do we do now instead of just playing there's not a ton of levers for heraldas to push left especially if santos is out i do wonder you said matthew matthew at center mid She's been fantastic on the right wing. If you have these injuries, three players that have to start are all three center backs just because Esme Morgan is too good to be on the bench if these players. I do wonder if they just play wingbacks and Matea plays in the right wingback because Hatch is a threat in the air. And maybe that frees Kouassi to be a second forward and find the game a little bit, but not have to stay as tactically structured centrally as a center forward?

Or do you try and find a way to press everything even higher and try and generate chances with your formation rather than out of pure talent, which is where Ule Isar is missed a ton because she is an individual pressing magnet and her ability to push the game and create chance and all of that is a huge out. I would assume SAR and Santos are the two closest to coming back. But we have no idea. And it's really,

I think it's really upsetting for all of us because this was a genuine contender and this was a team that was in a really special space um they are built i think long term like i'd expect to see most of these pieces come back if they choose to uh but it's going to be tough for jonathan heraldes to close out a year that started so promisingly and obviously takes over in an in a moment where they were a great team and he's been able to maintain it up until these injuries going forward. So we hope for the best for everyone. We hope to see some more players get back onto the field going forward. And we continue to watch Orlando's run.

Let's talk about our second big time. Are they going to do it? Continue. They're going to do it, right? They're going to do it. They're going to be undefeated. I don't know. Okay.

It's not a knock on them. It's just the, like there's three games to make a mistake. I mean, Gotham on the road is fascinating. Yeah. And all of that, because you're going to go from Portland back to Orlando,

Orlando up to Gotham for that game. You do have time in between because it's Friday to Sunday. And we have said over and over for Gotham, like they've had these regular season games where you're like, can you on the national stage insert yourself into the championship convo? The last three weeks, it feels like they've done that. It felt like they did that in Kansas City, even though I thought Casey was really good against them. This is a chance where if Gotham's healthy and Rose is starting and Lynn is starting and all of that, that's a big game. And I think if Orlando's not going best 11 in these three games,

there's space to slip up. Yeah. Good point. All right. They're definitely going to do it. I like it. Because I made that point. I know.

I'm going into it. Let's talk Angel City, though.'re definitely going to do it. I like it. Because I made that point. I know. I'm going into it. Let's talk Angel City, though. Angel City will not do it. It does not feel like they're going to make the playoffs, and it just got harder. So the news was that they were found in with multiple players with the club that were either for money or some other form of compensation like travel, housing, child care, whatever that form is. And the way I believe the commissioner explained it around the game, because I think Steffi Yang wrote a piece for The Athletic with quotes from Jessica Berman is,

the league is a single entity league. Every player's contract is with NWSL and it is paid by NWSL and then NWSL gets money from the clubs to cover the payment of salary cap, especially if it's a way to add additional compensation to players outside of the salary cap. And the official statement says that they exceeded the salary cap by $50,000 for four weeks over the course of the season. We then got the official punishments for this after this. I will say on just hearing the news of what happened, it goes in line with what we saw on Jeff Kasuf's piece with the anonymous GMs of GM saying like,

we get players who come in and they say they got this from the last team and we don't do that. And it's like, it felt like that was a pretty clear sign that this is a thing that happens in the league. And then you then get official confirmation and the league's like oh no this can't happen it's like well i felt like we were told this was happening which makes me think one were these audits not done before and or we or we just never heard about them because they're not interesting. Because nothing happened. But now that it's out there that violations were evident by all the GMs, I think that was the only unanimous answer by everybody, right? Is that someone else is cheating. Yeah.

And so I think that was like, I don't know, just the timing felt fishy, didn't it? Yes. Right after that article and i there's some other fishiness here as well which is the punishment came down so the club was had three points deducted from their standings for this year 2024 there was a 200 000 fine to the club and then they had two employees suspended julie erhrman and Angela Huklas, both suspended for the rest of this year, which I believe is calendar year 2024, not NWSL season. And I guess they could then maintain or retain or resume their position starting January 1st, which is going to be really tough for Angel City. These are not massive, robust front offices.

So you now have your president and your head soccer decision maker unavailable to be a part of decision making for the end of contracts this year, the renewal of contracts, and then the beginning of your free agency. I guess almost lucky for them there is no draft, because I don't know who would build the draft board and who would put it all together and make trades going forward. And that is a pretty massive punishment for this team coming out of this. I say fishy because I think that the three points deducted was almost like, all right, you're not going to make the playoffs this year. We're going to send a sign, but you're not going to complain

because if you did this to a Louisville or a Bay, if they were in this situation, it would be a whole, I think, different conversation to deduct three points from the competitive side besides financial and employee punishments off the field. So I think that maybe is a little bit of convenience of the moment. But otherwise, I think it's a statement from NWSL to say, like, if we don't catch you, this is your sign that this is unacceptable. And it's only probably going to get worse if other teams get caught in the future. I think there was a lot of talk about is this punishment fair and is it fair to take away

three points from a team who didn't do anything to deserve it right they're not they're not the ones that have to manage the money and make sure that everybody's under a salary cap but I go against that I say you're a part of a team. And unfortunately, in this case, people above you made decisions that are going to impact those players. It's hard. I would be very upset if I was a player on that team. But it's the same thing I felt like in the Olympics with Canada, right? If you don't make this felt through, because the $200,000 fine, like Bob Iger just bought the team. They're clearly willing to spend that money. They were 50 K over the salary cap for weeks.

That's $200,000. Yeah. That's just not, it's not a big enough financial burden to be like, Oh, we'll never do this again. But when you know that the team who is innocent in this is going to be punished, well, not everybody's

innocent, right? Some people sign side deals that you shouldn't be signing, but the team's going to get punished. I hope that changes actions of people who are in decision making roles that this won't happen again. I just find it strange that we haven't heard about any of this auditing ever before. We're aware that teams have been doing this. This is one team who was on the brink of like, can we push and try to make the playoffs? And now you have to say to every other team in this league, like either, or I think they need to be honest to be like every other team has been audited and nothing has been found otherwise if that's not the case and the auditing is happening and maybe it's not because auditing isn't just like oh snap of the fingers and it's done if teams get caught like there's only three weeks left in the season what if what if um i'm trying to think like of what team you can just say what if a

playoff team gets caught in a month and you're not able to take the points away for them to drop out of the playoffs exactly and then they get a playoff spot and a team that doesn't didn't cheat doesn't get a playoff spot i just find it like you'd better have all your ducks in a row before you start giving out all these major punishments because if that's not the case i just feel like it's gonna get a little crazy so that's just where my brain thought um i don't know i don't know what's going on i think it would have felt differently to me two weeks ago when i thought angel city was making a run and i think now it's like, really? They're not really going to?

And I think then you get into the space of like, if we do this, you've already made a mistake, so you can't complain to us. And like, it kind of gives this sign, right? Because the whole point is we're saying is the sign and the statement is the punishment is not, you know, the crime's not worth it. The punishment is going to be pretty bad. I do fall into a weird spot. And I think this is where I lose clean lines sometimes of like, well, the team wants to spend more money to make them better. They want to give players more money that deserve it, which we haven't even talked about the fact that Angel City are not very good.

Like if you're going to cheat, you should be making the playoffs. You should be competitive. That's like a whole nother conversation to have i would you would like that to be a part of the league right you would like two hundred thousand dollars more to be in the salary cap or to be in these players pockets or to be given an opportunity to help players be competitive this is a push-pull that always occurs in a salary cap league no matter the sport you see um what the New England Patriots try and do versus what the Arizona Cardinals try and do

and like that type of stuff. It's something we've seen in major league soccer. We've seen teams and people get in trouble for doing similar things to this, paying off the books and all that type of stuff. And it goes into the argument of like, should salary caps exist? Does it help leagues?

Does it hurt leagues? I think you would like to find more discretionary spending portals so there should be a space where an angel city can say we're la we have a rich owner we want to spend more money what mls did was designated players right the beckham rule that type of thing can you find ways to do some of that while keeping the structure of the league similar to help everyone stay in check with each other? But this will probably lead to more conversations, which is you have the push teams and you have the pull teams. And in any one of these leagues, you have every owner that comes into a room.

You have some that want to spend more and some that want to spend less and some that sit in the middle. And that's sort of the commissioner's job is to guide that whole thing and get the league to move in the right direction together. That keeps everyone in the boat and keeps the league growing in strength. I think this is one of those like cracks you see in all of that, which is there are clearly some teams that want to push even harder. And I would assume when angel city says that there are other teams in the room that are like, we can't afford to go there. Yeah. Or even just like Angel City knows that they might need to pay players more to even just live in L.A.

versus players that live in Louisville. Like you're actually making more money with the same salary if you live in Louisville than if you're living in L.A. So it is it's the difficulties of the salary cap league. It is hard to hear the players, but also their reactions to what happened and the punishment being on them. But at the same time, they banded together and got a really big win

on the heels of learning out. I think they learned Thursday and they won on Friday. So massive congratulations to them for finding the guts to do that because that shows you really this team, maybe not on paper this year, doing enough to get into playoffs, but I think that there is something building there and with a few more key pieces, with a little bit more money next year in salary cap, maybe they get what they need and can really compete.

A little bit more for them, potentially a little bit less, depending on how much of this actually was happening. But I agree with you, right? There's no way. I feel the best about Angel City on the field right now, as I have since they've come into the league. They've been able to activate the best of Alyssa Thompson and find her spaces Kennedy Fuller's a bright prospect Zalem I think is there is a good addition and has a ton of ability in that central midfield which finally it feels like controls games in more of an effective way to help them create chances

you've got Gordon along the back line you sent players to the U-20 World Cup. Like, you've got young talent coming through. There is a lot of promise, but I go back to now, who's the decision makers going forward? What does the next six months look like for this, or the next four months look like for this team and how they build the roster into next season and how they're able to take advantage?

Because the inefficiency, I think, with this organization has been one of the tough parts for everyone which is a ton of promise a ton of excitement great market great fan base ownership group all of this and yet a lot has fallen through the cracks of just running the club correctly so that all of that can be taken advantage of and having the two most senior employees of your team be suspended through the end of the year, that doesn't feel like a way to help that at all. So an interesting story. I think it'll continue to develop because I think we'll continue to get more facts and sort of understand what happened, but also what else is going on across the league as

we go forward. Let's dig into the rest of the league. Let's look at the rest of the league. Let's look at this weekend coming up. Friday night starts Orlando against Portland. As we have said, Portland hosting two pieces of news. Oh yeah, sorry. I thought you said Portland versus Thorns or I don't know what my brain did. Oh, Orlando versus Pride. I thought you said, so I was like, no, no, no. Keep going. You keep going you were fine so there's like a 40 to 60 chance that that is what happened uh but as of now the portland thorns are playing the

orlando pride on friday night and uh the one piece of news is sinclair who we know has retired um and is stepping away from the thorns at the end of the year, has officially been announced as one of the owners of the new NSL, Northern Super League Club Vancouver Rise. Her hometown, her home city. The moment the team was announced, I believe it was with a picture of her holding the scarf, hiding her face. It has now, that spanned a few weeks of some hoping she would be a player, some hoping she would be a coach, some hoping she would be a coach, some hoping she would be a GM, some hoping she would be an owner. Everyone having those conversations, it sounds

like ownership is the route she's going to go. There's nothing but positive if she's involved in the game. There's nothing but positive to have a local legend, a national team legend, and one of the greatest players of all time who's actually from your city be a part of this team I would love for it to be as involved as possible um so I guess I will be the one fingers crossed for her to sit at the first game and be like I could still do this and then step on the field week too uh but a big piece of news to know that she will at least stay in the game and interesting that she will step into Canada um where I think she's kind of been waiting maybe for a league like this to exist for her to be involved in yeah I think a lot of

Canadians have been and Diana Matheson who played in NWSL back for the Spirit when I was there is a big one of the big leaders in getting this league up and running in Canada. So it is great to see some of these legends, especially the legend of Christine Sinclair being involved. I don't know. I don't think she, when she hangs up those boots, I don't know when the next time she's going to be putting them back on, but nice to know that she can do something that is really meaningful for her

in a town that means so much to her, just a little bit north of Portland. And then news from the Thorns that Karina LeBlanc, who is currently the GM of the team, at the end of the year is going to move over into the overall ownership group and work in a role that spans both the teams they own, because they just announced the WNBA team, that the same ownership group that now owns the Thorns will be a part of. That means that the Portland Thorns will need a new head soccer

executive going forward. They gave the contract to Rob Gale earlier this year to move him from an interim into a full-time head coach. It's not always the best situation to have a GM take over an already existing head coach, but it is what it is for the Thorns. They continued this nose slide, or nose slide? Nose dive into the end of the season. Kind of a no-win slide, too. I think they won't care what term I use. They would just love to get a win.

It has been really tough to watch this team, and I think that probably goes to a little bit of trying to shake things up on the soccer side of things to rebuild this roster going forward it was hard there were images after that game I got to be on the call for the game and of Sam Coffey just looked like she was in tears afterwards just trying to figure out and Jesse Fleming spoke afterwards like nobody's more frustrated than us on the field we're trying to figure this out and there are little moments where you like there's some all right soccer being played but it's missing this flavor this a little bit of spice that Portland used to have where when they

they sensed that there was a weakness, they would pounce on it. And they don't have that right now. And that's a hard thing to get back. Confidence is like the best thing when you have it. But when you're searching for it, it feels like you're never going to get it again. And that team right now is searching for a little bit of confidence. And they know now this is now just christine sinclair's two last games at providence park and you can sense there's a pressure too to perform

for her and to make sure that she's leaving on a high note because the way it it ends up right now one they're still fighting to stay in playoffs so there's a lot on the line too but also it would it would leave Christine Sinclair with 200 appearances in NWSL when she plays through the end of that last game which what a better way to give her a little bit more right like you get that 200th game but then you know you have playoffs on the other side so they they're pressing and it feels like they can't find the answers right now and i watching goss i don't know how to find the answers yeah and that's that's an interesting thing there's a lot of moments and we've done it on this show and then you go and watch the games and

you're like can they play with more natural wide players then they do that and it doesn't work can they move to three in the back then they do that can oh it's just missing sam coffee they need to reinsert in central midfield then they do that. Can, oh, it's just missing Sam Coffey. They need to reinsert in central midfield. Then they do that. They continue to lose. Okay, well, if you use Sophia Smith this way instead of this way, get Sinclair on the field, Moultrie comes back, all these things. And as you said, you watch games. And I think if someone didn't know the story

and they walked away from most of these games, they'd say, oh, Portland played well. They were right there. They probably would win this game for you know 49 out of 100 times that it was played that but and it continues to happen it is very bizarre and in um the the moments we don't know when they're getting smith back the moment they get beat you you don't anticipate them because they come out of nowhere and they're self-inflicted, but in different ways. It is very hard to watch, as you said, and it is very odd.

Obviously, they're not going to get high enough for a home game. So the end of the regular season will be Sinclair's last home game, even if they make the postseason. That'll be on the road. They could have been a home team when we came out of the Olympic break but not after the results that they've had going forward North Carolina the one team that could push from outside that top four into the top four they are currently let me do some math in my head they are eight points behind Kansas City nine points behind Gotham and Washington so a lot for North Carolina to play for. It might be a bridge too far to get to, but it could be possible. Gotham traveling to Chicago this weekend for their

game. KC traveling to Bay FC for Bay. Of course, that is must win as they try and hang on. It was not pretty this weekend for this Bay team, a 5-1 loss against Gotham. It was a couple moments of insanity or stretch of insanity for a Bay team that has been really solid and clean over the course of this time. And it feels, to me at least, Jordan, this is one where it's like, I wouldn't even watch the tape. That game didn't happen. We move on. Like sometimes when a team scores so many goals, it's everything went wrong and like you don't even try and worry about it. Gosh, how upset are you that you just moved from New York? You used to go to Gotham games all the time.

And now the one time when they finally do what we've been saying, like you have to punish teams. You need to score multiple goals to really like tell us that you're a contender and they do it and you're not there anymore. Don't even get me started. The Liberty are in the WNBA finals. The New York Mets are the best team in the history of the world. And I just moved out of New York for the first time in 11 years.

No. Yeah, no, I don't think. Yeah, okay. Well, they were like, Goss is gone. We can win everything now. Exactly. If you're Bae, it's going to be hard to watch that. But you're going to have to learn.

Because if you want to play in the playoffs, you're going to have to beat a team like Gotham. Most likely, that could be your opponent. That really could truly be your opponent. So they're going to have to watch it back with the sense of like, we have to learn from this. But from Gotham, I think that it's more about them finding that X factor to be like, we have to learn from this. But from Gotham, I think that it's it's more about them finding that X factor to be like, we're we're taking no prisoners, because they haven't had

that mentality. They've been like, Oh, we play pretty soccer. Look at us control the ball. Whoops, we kicked it wide. There's just been like a lotty da bit about them once they get into the attacking third. And I like like that that it wasn't that that there was this grit and feistiness and they're like we don't care we want more and they did that so I I think for Gotham there's a bigger piece of like now they're contenders for Bay they they're gonna have to watch some of the film. But for them, there's still a really good chance for them that they could, and it comes on the heels of, now they're playing Kansas City this weekend.

So if you don't work on what went wrong in that game against Gotham, you know you're going to get punished against Kansas City because this team is scoring goals like it's nobody's business. And you need to tighten things up defensively in order to keep them at bay it is um it is a big stretch coming up for a couple teams bay is one of them Louisville is the other one uh Louisville traveling to Washington on Sunday Louisville finishes with Washington, Portland, and San Diego. Three teams where we could not guess what we're going to get from them every single week,

especially now Washington. You don't know the roster you're going to get. You don't know where they're going to be at mentally after losing Andy Sullivan to the injury on top of everything else. And Louisville needs results. There's just no question about it. They need to go and put in performances. It actually doesn't matter what it looks like, right?

The point is they brought in veterans so that they could just get over the line and they can try and do a little bit better. And this is a huge opportunity for them. Because this, in theory, when you look at the season overall, if you are going to make the playoffs over someone else, these are stolen points. Even if Washington doesn't look great because other teams didn't go to Washington and get results and other teams first half of the year weren't getting results against a Portland when they were playing better.

So this is an opportunity for Louisville to kind of make up a little bit of ground and try and steal that final playoff spot going forward. And that's going to be a big one coming up on Sunday. Another great weekend of NWSL action. I'll be back on Monday with my recap and we will be back together on Wednesday to talk through it all as we go forward as I said two weeks of gameplay

international break which we can talk about in rational teams during and all those other things and then we go into the postseason one final regular season game and then we go into the postseason and it is going to be a lot of fun. Jordan, thank you for being here with me and hanging out.

Thanks, Ross. And thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you.