SoccerWise - NWSL Edition: Trinity Rodman Injury Concern & Louisville Playoff Push

Episode Date: September 25, 2024

The NWSL standings had another weekend of chaos. So who better to break it all down than Jordan & David?! They dive into KC's comeback win over Washington. Discuss what The Spirit might have to do without Trinity Rodman. Louisville have gone all in to make the playoffs and can they get there. 4:12 KC’s Bounce Back 19:17 Trinity Rodman Injury Concerns In Washington 29:40 Orlando’s Shutout Streak Continues 37:10 Louisville’s Club Growth 46:30 Twila Kilgore’s Potential NWSL Coaching Future 48:48 Weekend PreviewSoccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

what's up everybody welcome back to soccer wise david goss jordan angely with you for our wednesday nwsl breakdown show we've got a good one coming up for you jordan you were just saying was it it takes two was that what you were going with right before i hit the intro so what was i singing i can't remember like hit it and then you went with that oh yeah hit it hit it hit it hit it that's i don't know what it is is that is that it takes you to make a thing go right oh maybe it takes you to make it out of sight yeah yeah and there you go we're a two-person show i wasn't even planning that and then you said and then i said it and then i felt it um we have a big show for you very very excited about this one as the playoff race still all over the map both to get

into the playoffs as well as standings higher up especially for home field advantage between some of the top teams we saw some big games this weekend. Unfortunately, some injuries as well. We will talk Trinity Rodman coming up in just a moment. We will talk about that playoff race, some of the teams that are fighting to get in. We're going to focus on Louisville in this one because they had a big weekend, and you convinced me that it was worth it for them,

and now I'm fully all in on like ninth places is God. And like, that's what we have to accomplish in life. And you know what, if you ask me to try and accomplish ninth place, I think I'm capable and I like to be able to succeed in things. So it's a really good marker for me as well. And I am sporting this soccer wise t-shirt. Yours is in the mail. They are super comfortable. I just got it. just got it i got the per yours isn't purple though i have one of each i got the purple is like this nice faded i just got it so i did not wear it this morning and this is just what i already had on so that's fine i will be wearing it because i love it it's so soft yes it is very good. I am very excited about it.

I was going to wear my purple one again. I wore it yesterday because I just got it. Yep. And I don't know the protocol of like, I basically wear the shirt and then the show finishes and I take it off because I saved them for the show. What is the grossness of wearing on multiple shows in a week? Now that you're in fully air-conditioned places, I'm sure it's a little different.

I wear shirts multiple times in a week. I'm on this weird, because I do TV stuff, I rent clothes, so I often double dip on the clothes that I rent within the week. I think you're fine. You're totally fine. It's more intense to re-wear clothes when you post them on YouTube in a line. And there's a playlist of you wearing. And then your Instagram account is a playlist of you wearing the same shirt over and over.

Because I was never scared of it before. I get a little bit more worried about it now. Well, now people know you only have one of those. You should just get multiple so they don't know. So I've got 12 of these and I've got 12 of the purple ones. So I'll just be wearing them every single day from here on out. They are so comfortable and I would. multiple so they don't know so so i've got 12 of these and i've got 12 of the purple ones so i'll just be wearing them every single day from here on out they are so comfortable and i would yeah i don't mean to talk about it too much because if you are not already an mvp uh provider subscriber

at our patreon you cannot get one but we are working on building a store so that we can sell them to everyone i advise you to become an mv MVP subscriber as well or a subscriber at all. You get access to the Discord, which is where I get the mailbag show, which we are converting now to a Friday show so that we can spend more time on it and you can really impact the show that you want to hear. It's where we get to hang out and talk about all the games. You know, Monday night, 1030 p.m. Who else am I talking about? Alyssa Thompson and the Portland Thorns with except in the Discord, hanging out, talking about all the games.

And it's where our depth charts exist as well, which is going to become big as I think we're going to try and do some postmortem stuff as teams get eliminated about what their futures look like and what can happen. And this is a really clean way to see who the players on the teams are, where they stand and where, what everything looks like. So that's how you get access to all of that. And then hopefully, then you'll get access to stuff as we roll it out going

in the future, like things like our shirt. Okay, we are ready to dig in now to our NWSL action. Let's start with the Kansas City-Washington game. There are two huge storylines coming out of this one. Let's start positive because that's what we do here at SoccerWise. Let's start with Kansas City. Question marks across the board. The three weeks coming out of the Olympic break. They go to Washington. They lose 4-1. Three-game losing streak. Is this the same team we thought they were? Are they a genuine contender? Was it a flash in the pan or because of schedule early in the year they get the zero zero draw at Orlando they come home they explode out the gates fourth minute goal uh for Nichelle Prince against Washington at home with the crowd behind them and everything Labonta with a stunner

right after that they win 3-0 Jordan and this felt like a must need not just win but performance from this team. It was at the time when we were at in the season you want to be peaking when you're going into the playoffs and I think for this Kansas City team they know how important it will be for them to have home field advantage so they need to continue to win their games convincingly at home and make CPKC a really difficult place to play, which they did. I thought that their intensity from the beginning was spot on. And that really allowed the game to play exactly how they want to. This is a Kansas City team. We've talked a lot about it. They are comfortable defending, but if they can get one goal on you and if they can get a goal early, all teams know this, the game has to then open up. There has to be pressure from

the other team to expose themselves, to create opportunities. And once Kansas City smells and tastes a little blood in the water, they're going to attack and they're going to find a way to score on you. And I thought they scored in a variety of ways this game that actually was really interesting and showed the depth and the level of their soccer ability but once once they get a goal they're really difficult to come back on because they then just have the game exactly where they want it especially in that in front of that really loud crowd at home absolutely they are a team you don't want to fall behind especially there you talked about the goals the different ways they scored, what they did. I agree. Let's start with the first goal then. It's interesting because there's a specific moment in the Washington-KC game three

weeks ago where Washington played through Kansas City's press with huge gaps in the lines. And I said, wow, this is a Washington team that can contend for a championship. That opening goal is KC doing the same thing. Schultz is out on the left side of the box. Rather than playing long, is able to beat the first defender, plays into the center back's feet, and from there KC plays through the lines up the field. And what I wrote in my notes as, I don't know,

something starts making noise in my apartment, and I hope it's a good thing and not a bad thing, is there that moment where Nichelle Prince picks up the ball in midfield? That's what Bia had done so well for this team. Instead of Schwinga having to be the one there, it's Prince who turns, drives, sets Michelle Cooper up in the box. The space exists because Schwinga stretches the line on the other side of the field. And then you've got threats in the box and Prince, to her credit,

puts her head down and gets in a dangerous area. It was textbook from end line to end line. And it was something for KC that I think we saw growing in the Orlando game, but hasn't been the way they've attacked all year. It also shows you that you can be direct in a way that is actually really beautiful. Yeah. That it doesn't have to be when people think of direct football, they think of can we play a long ball in behind the back line and turn them and either we win the first duel or 50-50

and get to goal or we turn them higher up on the field and you're going with few passes over the top. Well, this was really direct, right? It was not a lot of passes, but I think it's why it's worked with Bia. And Nichelle Prince has qualities like Bia and is showing those qualities of being able to play because she is, when she plays as a winger, she can be a pocket winger. So she's comfortable in space between the lines. So if you stick her at a nine, she's going to have good post-up play, but she's also going to drop off in between the back line and the midfield line

and then be able to drive with the ball at her feet as if she's a winger, but then pick out more options around her, whether it's Shewinga. This time it was Michelle Cooper on the wing. And I think we have to give a lot of credit to Michelle Cooper. She's a nine. She was a nine all through college. She was the best goal scoring player in NCAA when she left Duke just a couple years ago, early to come pro. And she has over the last year and a half become a winger. And that is a difficult transition when you're a back to goal type player, wanting the pressure on your back so you can spin players here.

Michelle Cooper really does a good job of facing up Casey Kruger, who's one of the elite 1v1 defenders in NWSL. And she beats her with a pretty simple move, but just the knowledge of where she's creating space, how she can then expose the space, and then where the ball needs to go in the end for

the assist. So many things are beautiful about that goal, but I think that there's so much growth in some of the players that we're seeing, which we look at this Kansas City team and we acknowledge that they have really good key players, but within some of those roles, they have developed into, I think, players that we didn't even know that they were before they came here under Vlako Andonovsky. Cooper is now essential to this team in that she's really the only one who does what she does like her ability to play as a true winger she's the only one on this roster that plays as that true winger and creates that space and I love the moment of the goal in which you don't need to take the second touch to get to the end line. You've created that inch of space, hit the cross

low and hard, put it in that dangerous area. And because Shawinga is not playing as a center forward dropping in and making the run, you've got more options in the box now with the way this team set up. I would be surprised if Shawinga played as a center forward from the start for the rest of this season. And I don't think she think she should no I don't think so either I think they've gotten a really good combination Nichelle Prince is a great either I don't know we'll see I think they have to be a little bit more cautious with Bia because it was a lingering injury that popped up a couple of times within this year even that you you can't ask too much out of her too soon. But what a better thing when you have that restriction

to know that you have a player who has fit in that spot and stepped up and been a really good piece to the puzzle for Kansas City. So I think they're in a good spot with those two as nines and those two as options at the nine. There's going to be a numbers question mark with Hutton coming back. I think Hutton's a starter and Dabinia played as the 10, quote unquote, in this game. And so I think there are five players for four spots in the attack with this team. If it all goes the way I expect and DiBernardo's kind of more of the 10 going forward once Hutton comes back,

it's a good problem to have. It's a problem that they would have taken the last few weeks when they've had to try and cover for positions. And as you said, if you're going to manage Bia slowly, there's some flexibility in there and options as well. Let's go to that second goal. You talk about the differences. Labonta gets the second goal on a stunner, but it was classic Casey of pouncing on a half chance in a mistake in a pass across the back four. All of a sudden they're in transition. It wasn't the first transition where the goal comes from.

They try to play Schwinga in two separate times or Dabinia in two separate times off Prince's pass and Labonta's pass. It doesn't work. And yet Casey, and what I wrote in my notes is they're the best transition team. They're also the best secondary transition team. Like when a transition break ends, there is a moment still of chaos in which players are out of position. They've made recovering runs to cover players they've recognized, but they haven't gotten back into their natural position or they haven't assessed exactly where everyone is.

If you can be aggressive the right times in those moments, you can still find openings. And Labonta takes the first touchdown the right side and realizes how much space there is along the edge of the box to charge into. And Michelle Cooper is able to be a decoy. Casey Kruger has to decide, am I going to leave the player who just set up the last goal and has been on fire? Or am I going to track the ball? And that moment gets enough space for Labonta to get into the box and score the goal. And there's a stat that came out of like,

basically they always win when Labonta scores, which makes sense. Like there is so much danger in the attack that if you add her whenever you add her you're probably gonna lose that game yeah it is i feel like it was really good decision making for little labonta in this moment to recognize that trinity was trailing her so if i can take a touch that really cuts off that either trinity has to foul me or she's got to let me go. And because of the space where Labonta was at the corner of the box and the run of Cooper,

that next decision then was a domino effect, I think, because Kruger was caught between two minds. Then Boutel doesn't step up to deny the space centrally or the shot from Labonta. It's all slow. And it's a good job by Labonte it's a beautiful strike a blinded strike for Aubrey Kingsbury the goalkeeper she can't see it until it's way too close for her to make the save and I think it goes back to the point of is Washington's

weakness their back line is their decision decision-making in those moments? Because if I'm Casey Kruger, I think you've got to step there. Because you know Trinity Rodman can flank down the wing. She can at least try to deny the cross there. But since Kruger doesn't step and she's a little timid, then it kind of just all dominoes down the whole back line chain. And I just wonder wonder now that we're seeing injuries with Washington and some of their, really some of their depth is in the back line.

If we are going to see changes in order to bring some players that did play a little bit higher up the field, higher back on the field, but they've got to clean up those moments defensively of who is denying the space, who's denying the player on the ball, because I can't discredit Labonta because it is so good, but I just think for Washington, it was not good enough in that moment. Yeah, and the moment the ball hits the net on one of the replays I watched, you just look at Kruger, and she kind of looks over at Cooper, looks back and kind of,

I think, assesses herself like, I didn't really have a chance. Like she's stuck guarding two players in that moment. And I think a player of her experience is trying to figure out like, what did I do wrong? Because I've done this right so many times.

And I think there's kind of an assessment of like we were broken. Our shape was broken. Right. Question really quick before before are you saying second transition is so washington transitioned out to try to attack no i'm saying like you turn you attack in transition and then there's still a moment this is probably a basketball term i learned to go again but like there's a moment after everyone has gotten back where things are still jumbled. Okay.

Because I often, I find it on the other side too of a double transition where Washington, it does get stretched and they would go against Kansas City and Kansas City ends up denying that counter and they go there. I feel like that's a really good spot where Kansas City is good too when an opposing team tries to transition and they almost counter that transition or they are the second of those two transitions. Right. It's the moment when you've taken the risk to say,

I'm going to step another number in. Yeah. And that's where there's some opportunity exposed, which Casey did pretty well in this game as well. Let's talk about Schultz for a second here. Yeah. First half. I thought there, there wasn't really much danger from Washington. It was two shots, I believe, both from outside the box. Four starts, though, for Schultz, three shutouts, which is obviously not a goalkeeper set, as you have

explained to me. So I'm just getting out there first has been she has made excellent saves i think two games ago in orlando we were saying she was one of the players of the game right because of the saves that she was making and she did it once again i think and in the shutout conversation i think some of it goes to steadying with alana cook getting in there right some moving pieces in the back lines yeah but you can't deny her presence, I think. And this is where you talk about intangibles with goalkeepers. It's really, really tough if you're not playing in front of that player and hearing their voice and feeling them cover the space.

But there feels like there is some solidity to knowing you can trust her feet, knowing, again, in those playoff moments, dominate in the air, I think on set pieces has changed some stuff for this KC team of how much they scramble and how uncomfortable they are in those moments and I think it feels pretty straightforward to say this is this is the path forward for this KC team for at least the rest of this season well we'll see right because that was a gnarly challenge she had at the end of the game with Lena Solano who ends up getting a red card from yeah it was just a terrible choice by solano to go in with it really was to go in with your feet in in front to a sliding goalkeeper uh when you're losing three

to nothing i get that you want to score and it's a moment's decision and it all happened so quick but we don't know we don't know the status of schultz after that and i think that that is been such a key piece for kansas city that they now have some stability and goal that if it reverts i just wonder what the you know ad is a great goalie but i wonder what the mental state of AD is after starting the whole entire year, losing your spot to a player who came in and who has been performing really well, gets three shutouts in four games, only giving up one goal in that time. That is a hard thing for a goalkeeper to get their mind around. So until we know the status

of Schultz, I think that's a question mark of how they proceed forward. If she's available, she's your number one. Absolutely. And I think Kansas City, I think everybody looks a little bit more confident in what they're doing because of her shot stopping ability, how comfortable she is in the air and all those things that you were just explaining. For the Washington spirit, obviously the loss, I think, not just puts a dent. I think it probably is the difference in the race for the shield. It feels like Orlando has won it, and we'll talk about Orlando in just a moment. But obviously the big story for them is Trinity Rodman.

75th minute, she is shielding the ball against Shewinga. She sort of stretches to shield the ball. There's not really contact, if any, in the moment. And then you see immediately Rodman pulls up. The ball trickles out, goes down on the sideline, holding her back. The trainers come over. They work on her for a while, and then the game continues without her. And the videos and i think the pictures have gone around of she gets helped off the field via a wheelchair and then ends up coming back later in the game um the only thing we have heard so far is her agent coming out and saying that she has had dealt with back spasms and that that's what it was in this moment we don't know about the injury.

So there's not a point in us speculating. I said on Monday, it's scary to hear a young athlete dealing with back issues. Those are the types of things that we don't know a lot about still from a medical point of view. And sometimes when there are issues, it's unavoidable. And that's the scary part, I think, for fans. And you heard it from the fans in the stadium cheering for her in a road game because she's such a bright light in the sport. Yeah, you're MVP, right? Probably took a bit of a dent on that one.

Well, I mean, I think we all hope that it is just back spasms. And we wonder that, you know, I wonder, can you find a moment to give her a little bit of rest yeah if it is that and this week might be the week to do it they travel to angel city it's a it's the prime game correct on friday night so it's a little bit quicker of a turnaround it's a cross-country venture i feel like it would be a good time after the year that trinity rodman has had not only with the Washington Spirit, where she has been their best player, game in and game out, playing a lot of minutes. I don't know if she's the top minutes on this team. I would imagine she's around top five with minutes. She

played the most minutes at the Olympics for the U.S. Women's National Team. You have to think of, okay, we need her when push comes to shove and we are in the playoffs. So can we find a moment for her to rest? And maybe she's not even available this weekend, but even if she were, I don't know if I would even risk her to sit six hours on a plane to play a game on a Friday night after just playing the Saturday before, or they played Sunday, didn't they? No, this was the Friday night game. So it's Friday night to Friday night.

Okay, okay. But it is the reality of having flown from Kansas City to DC. You will then have to fly from DC to LA. I cannot see a world where she gets on that plane. That moment, more than even playing seems ridiculous like if it's a home game yeah maybe she feels okay you dress her and if she really wants to or the game calls for it you sub her on but that seems ridiculous and then the following Sunday they play against Orlando which the shield race okay maybe it's out of hand so you don't really have a shot there but like you want to see what you look like against Orlando.

And of the two games, that's where I'm choosing to try and play her. And I'm definitely going to try and get her more rest. I mean, you're in a spot now if you're Washington, which is like you've clinched the playoffs. If you can't play Trinity Rodman again the rest of the season to have her healthy for the playoffs, that's what you do because that's where you need to have her. You nailed the line, by the way. She is fifth in minutes on the team. So there you go.

But that, of course, doesn't account for the Olympic minutes, which is a massive part of exactly the load on her body and what she's been through. And there were mentions I saw from local reporters who said she has dealt with this in the past, that there was a moment at their old training facility where reporters were around and she kind of let out a scream and went down during training and it was a back spasm as well. And so you would hope they kind of have an idea of the process and how it works and what happens from here on out. Let's talk about the team, because the big issue here is not just that arguably the best player in the league is down.

The big issue is it comes on top of a string of really bad injuries to one of the best attacking teams. So Kroybethune down for the season. We already know that. And then Olusar, who is tied for the goal scoring lead on this team with Trini Rodman, has gone down, went down two weeks ago and has not played since. So it is thin for this Washington team. Talk me through first, if Rodman, let's say, can't play again, what it means for the club this season.

And then we could talk about what we think they will do at least this Friday. Can't play again through the rest of the year. Yeah. Like what is this team without Rodman on top of Bethune? I think it significantly changes this Washington spirit team because you're, you're always, if you're an opponent of the Washington spirit, you don't have to just manage Trinity Rodman. You have to manage Ule Sar and now Rosemont Glossy. And it's just speed speed speed speed up front but not just speed really good precision with this speed too and Tridney Rodman is does

so many things right she can get to the end line and cross and find the right pass she can then fake it to the end line get inside and utilize both feet for a shot from distance or inside the box there. She is good at backtracking in defensive situations, really good at those transition moments when she does, when it understands the pressing philosophy. All those things are just not even her aura on the field, who she allows this team to be confident in how they can attack. So I feel like this would be a very different Washington team if they do not have Trinity Rodman. And let's hope that's not the case, right?

Let's hope that this is just a couple of games without her. They have Ashley Hatch, who they've been utilizing with Ulesar out. They have Brittany Ratcliffe, who has played a substitute role for them throughout the most of the year but can play on the wing in that in that position where on the right wing where Rodman plays so I think that that's a good option for them right now because of the energy the defensive responsibility all those things that Ratcliffe delivers on yeah but then that's just a completely different front line, right? Kowalski, who's new to the league, Hatch, who, you know, got a couple of goals a couple

of weeks ago, but I think has been up and down in not just the minutes she's played, but the confidence she has because of the minutes she plays. And now you're asking Brittany Ratcliffe to play a totally different role than she has all season, which she's been very good at coming off the bench. But now can you be good for 75, 80 minutes and make a difference throughout that time? It really changes things a lot for the spirit. Yeah, it is. There are options.

It is not straightforward what would happen because you are down so many players. And that's where it starts to become a little confusing you could play hatch on the left wing and play sarah up top if sarah was available if greg bethune was available i think it would be a totally different world if she does a lot of the things for you that rodman doesn't and that's just not an option and this is the thing i was talking about earlier is like maybe you can play page page you can play page mater back in a 10 position higher up on the field or even as a winger and utilize Gabby Carl as your, she's going to be our right back. Now you push Paige Matea,

then Santos and her can play one of those two positions and you still have Matea on the field. You know that she has good defensive presence. She has a good final ball decision-making in those moments. But I think, you know, when we saw they brought in Lacey Santos earlier in the year, it was like, where is she going to play? How are they going to get her on the field with everybody? And now it's like, thank goodness they have Lacey Santos. Because if they didn't have Lacey Santos now,

we're really thinking about this might be very different for the Washington spirit. It already could be without these, these players who have been so crucial to them. Yeah, I would say missing Kroy Bethune and maybe missing Sarba with Rodman, this is still an end-of-her-self cup contender, legitimately. Like, they are in the blue blood conversation of, like, these are the real teams, have a real shot.

I think without Rodman, that's not the case. But it is the case with her because Lacey Santos is an option as a legitimate elite chance creator and goal scorer, but a different style. And that's where I think it's going to be really hard, which I think what you said is a legitimate chance, right? You'd quote unquote, push Lacey Santos out to the wing, add another body into central midfield and Santos floats. She's not an individual pure chance creator.

I've talked about this a little bit. She needs numbers around her. She needs options. She's way more of a connector. And you can, I think Yonatan Heraldas can build chances out of a system. But Rodman's ability to break it open creates gravity that no one else on the field will have. The other idea I had in this, which is he talks about the fragility of the back line a little bit. Esme Morgan doesn't start in this game, started the last game. Do you go quote unquote three in the back?

Do you play Kouassi and hatch as the two up top and try and get a Kruger higher up the field more often? Yeah. Kruger and Mateo are your wingbacks. You're getting great options from them. Can they have a little bit more license to stay higher? The game probably becomes a little bit more predictable for opponents because of the spacing and where players are.

It's going to be, though, regardless without Rodman. And Hatch, I think, is a legitimate threat in the box because of her size and the way she attacks the ball, where you could play into her skills. And if Saar comes back, Saar still fits into that as well. So there's a lot for Washington to figure out. This is very worrying at this moment of the season. Well, we talked about Portland playing in a three-back last week, and guess what they did? They played a 3-5-2.

So I don't know. Maybe we're on to something here for Washington as well. Unfortunately, I think we might be on to stuff, which is not what you want happening at all. Let's talk about Orlando. A big performance once again from them. 501-minute shutout streak. They're the fourth NWSL club ever to go over the 500 mark with a shutout streak in a row. Morehouse is now up to 12 for the season. So the sole person on that record, she was tied going into this game on 11. And then Barbara Banda gets her first goal since the Olympic break.

I believe you were on this game. Talk to me a little bit about what you saw from this Orlando team. And I will say I, in the weekend recap, talked about, I thought Bay looked really good in this game. So that's part of the story as well. But Orlando continues to roll on. This is what we're going to see now, Goss, is the difference between good and great.

And the difference between good and great is you get one chance and you're going to score the chance. Bay had, what would you say, four really good opportunities? I would say probably four really good opportunities. Bay were on the front foot. I liked how they played in their midfield, especially with Dorian Bailey playing really wide because it stretched out Angelina and Morgan Gautra, essentially those two holding midfielders for Orlando who really allow them the six at times in front of them to go do whatever they want to do. It's those two players.

But if they get stretched, then there's space. And they did a really good job of stretching them horizontally. Yes, horizontally. I never know vertical. Oh, vertical is long. Yes, horizontally. I never know vertical. Oh, vertical is long. Yeah, vertical is speed. Yeah. Horizontally to find then gaps that were opening up

and to really make them scramble a little bit defensively of Orlando. But Anna Morehouse was great. She made some phenomenal saves, I think. One with her legs where the ball is about to make her and she somehow gets her leg on it. She was wonderful. But the thing that we see from Orlando, they rotated slightly. Gautra, I mentioned, started, which she hasn't started in a while.

It had been mostly McCutcheon and Angelina. And they put Kiki Pickett in. One of her first starts, I think. It's her first start, I think. It's her first start, I think. It was her first start. Okay. I thought so, but then I second-guessed myself. First start at left back,

and it does not shock me that late in the game in a quick transition moment, Kiki on the other team, Carson Pickett finds that space to play an early cross and just dimes it. Like dimes it right over the head of Menges into the space where Barbara Banda is waiting to put the ball away. It was not an easy header. It was the ball that was perfection, but there was work to be done by Banda and she still found a way.

And that is the difference between the teams that are going to make it to the final, the semifinal and the teams that are going to make it into playoffs,, the semifinal, and the teams that are going to make it into playoffs, maybe even. And Bay sits on that. For sure, if you were to watch that game and not didn't know what the score was throughout the whole thing, you would be like, Bay is going to win this game. Right. And I think if you watch that game not having followed the season or know the standings, you would say, oh, Bay are one of the better teams in the league.

What's funny is we did our draft, and I meant to go back and get the scores. I'll have them for next week of where we stand right now. I assume you are doing better, but we will figure it out as things go along. It's not over until it's over. I think both of us kind of just went past Bay. The other teams that had made moves had clear roads forward of, okay, this is how they're going to change or get better or evolve. They didn't have that, and yet they have found it internally with some tweaks, but it feels like they spent the time of the off-seat

or the break to just become a better unit and playing better together. Dahlkemper, I think, has been a huge bonus. Yes, huge. And has changed a lot for them, and I think changed a bit emotionally for them as well to get that player in. They are tied right now. And Rachel Hill's been healthy.

And so now they have a front line that has been able to play consistently, and they don't have to move Bodie here and Bodie there and inside, outside, front line, midfield. So now there's consistency in their lineup. So they, as they're training in this 11, they know the relationships of where Rachel Hill wants it, where Oshawa wants it, stuff like that. And that is one of the reasons why they're tied for the last playoff spot. Is that what you were saying? Absolutely. They are tied. They're currently out on the tiebreaker i don't know the tiebreaker is off the top of my head right now so i will get that for you next week

i think it's gold differential and so that's why they are behind louisville yeah right now wins it's wins gold differential does that make sense, that does make sense. And that's probably the way a league should be run because you want teams to try and win. So Bay FC right now have, no, that's not the first tiebreaker. I think it's goal differential because Bay have eight wins. I have it somewhere. Because remember, Bay had never tied a game before last week. So I believe it is goal differential and Louisville has a better goal differential, less wins. We'll talk about them in just a moment. On Orlando side, you,

you mentioned the like depth and rotation, the picket crosses. That's what she brings. That's what she's capable of. That's what we saw in Louisville as well. This season in the past with Orlando and for her this quickly for banded to recognize like that, she's getting into an area where the cross is coming

and floats in between the center backs. And Banda had missed chances in this game. She did, yes. Banda could have had two or three, but that's what she is. That's who she is. Mentally, she's not going to lose both confidence and sort of get overwhelmed and continues to stay consistent and find the game and Orlando get the goal.

If you want to hear more about the Orlando pride who are setting records and being amazing and all of these things, we have a special interview that we're going to put out on Friday with Haley Carter, who is now the VP of soccer operations and the sporting director of this club signed a new contract midway through the season because she put together what might end up being the greatest regular season team of all time on top of being really good at this job. Seb Hines, of course, signing an extension as well.

So I talked with Haley on Monday, and we're going to run that show that in our show on Friday, which we are now going to use as an interview mailbag show every single week. The interviews aren't going to be weekend preview necessarily. They're just going to be fun soccer conversations. We talked for over 30 minutes about building this roster, but then the CBA, how it's going to affect sporting directors, and it's really a lot about the future of the league and the sport. It was fun to listen to someone who actually knows what they're talking about and involved and engaged and sort of thinking about these things all the time.

You can see the leadership qualities of her, even as she talks to me. It's not, you know, faking or putting it on, talking about what it means to be a part of that club and a part of that group. Like, you can see why they're doing what they're doing this year. Yeah. I'm just going to say standing tiebreakers, goal differential, total wins, goal scores, head to head. Yeah. So there's more, but that's like the main ones. Let me make my pitch for it should always be wins first.

So teams go for wins and it should then be goal scored because it's entertainment. And like I respect good defensive teams and I respect quality and I respect balance. But like everyone signs up to see goals. And like that's what you should give people if you can. Let's talk about the team that has the better goal differential between the two teams tied on 25 points. So therefore are currently in a playoff spot. And that is racing Louisville. They played North Carolina at home on Saturday night. North Carolina had beaten Louisville. They played North Carolina at home on Saturday night.

North Carolina had beaten Louisville. This is, JP Telecamera dropped this. It was a gem. In eight straight NWSL games and 11 games across all competitions, if you include penalty kick shootouts, which are sort of ties, but whatever. That is such a mind-blowing stat

for a team in Louisville that hasn't made the postseason, but whatever. That is such a mind-blowing stat for a team in Louisville that hasn't made the postseason but are consistently competitive. This is not – they had not beaten North Carolina. They had lost eight straight games against this team, and yet this is must-win because North Carolina are bad on the road and dominant at home, and you're playing them at home, and that's an opportunity, and they want to make the playoffs uh and they were able to they won 2-1 came from behind after Ashley Sanchez set up Brianna Pinto for the opening goal it ends up being a slightly fortunate first goal to get back

in it and then a penalty kick that Balser puts away in stoppage time to get her second goal with Louisville and her second goal in back-to-back games, which is really big for this team. But I went back and dug through some of the numbers and looked at it, and this matchup was very similar to the other matchups they have played against North Carolina over the last few games. It was not like, oh, now Louisville plays here or plays here. But I think the way Louisville completes passes the way they have played there is belief and confidence that they can get back into a game like this and it's what they've done with these additions I think there's more veteran presence

and I think there's a belief in the group that the next player will step up and that if I make the right play my teammates will make the right play I think there was a group on the field that felt they would come back, and that hasn't been the case for Louisville. And North Carolina kills your spirit with the way they play. And this is a Louisville team, I think, for the first time in a while that wasn't going to give up. Yeah, no, I think that Louisville, it's not just those things, but I think those things that you were just saying were are important, right? You're the confidence to know,

Hey, we're going to get back in this game. That speaks to over these last few years, Louisville hasn't had like, this is our system and we believe in it. And they have gotten really good results over in this change since the summer cup of the way they're building out of a three back. Malay is getting forward.

DeMello is tucking inside. Borges and Flint have been holding it down as deeper playmakers because I think that's what they really are. They're deeper playmakers. They're not sixes. They can disrupt, but they're playmakers. And it allows players to get in front of them that even if they don't have the ball, they have really good because they didn't have the ball that much in this game, right?

64% possession for North Carolina, 36% for Louisville. And that is a drastic difference from other games where I feel like they have a little bit more of the possession, right? It's been more 50-50 or even, I think, recently leaned toward Louisville. But because they have a buy-in of this is going to work and because they have a really good now solid starting 11, they can utilize Emma Sears late in the game when players are tired and say, go run like we ain't seen nobody run before

and do whatever you can to disrupt the defense. They have the ability to now hit you with a couple of different things. It's not just how quickly can we transition to the far side on the weak side and use serious speed. It's now let's build, let's push higher, higher our numbers, create really good overloads. If we can't get a goal from there, then we're going to get a goal from the counterattack that they did here. It was just a hopeful ball from Peterson that Sears ends up running a bagged back pass. So I think that they have a variety to the way that they can attack, but they're so bought in because they've seen the fruits of the labor of like this new system under Bev Yanez

that like credit to her for recognizing, hey, this is actually the tweak that I think would really work because it's looked really good and they've looked good defensively. Katie Lund made some massive saves and yeah, what a big win for them at home. And so where I'm convinced now in the point you made last week,

which is they've been ninth place back-to-back years. They need to be eighth place. They need to make the playoffs. It's not just that. Winning is fun. So that's a good idea. But they are fun to watch now. Like if I was a Louisville fan, I'd sit there and watch that game.

The way they broke North Carolina's pressure, ideas they have you talked about it the central midfielders when they choose to make runs when they don't when Millay gets into the attack she's fun to watch she's aggressive she's playing downhill whoa a whole lot is going on my screen there's a lot of fireworks at Louisville because I'm so excited about what's happening. As someone who's watching from afar, this was the most entertaining game I think Louisville has played in a really long time from my point of view. And I can imagine if you're a fan, like this is fun and this is what you sign up for and this is what you want.

And the team, I think, needs this at this point. So I'm fully committed and sold on the like, just make the playoffs. I think they're Jill Lloyd and dark horse for the playoffs. Okay. Which in the playoffs or to make the playoffs. I think it must be in the playoffs, but I don't know now. Now I don't remember what she said,

but they, if you're in Louisville, go watch his team play because they are really fun i i think that they have really set a precedence of being an entertaining team and they have the players to be able to do that and they're set up really well it it's gonna be a fun push towards the end here they go to utah this weekend then they host Kansas City, which is a huge game. Yeah. And a big one. So I already did my journey around with MVP and that didn't go very well. I'm not going to do a whole nother pitch, but like Ashley Sanchez is great at. It's her stretching the field with her speed and being, you know, physical enough to keep Erceg off and then cuts back at full speed. And then you see her quality, right? The vision, the understanding puts it in a place for Pinto

to be able to strike it first time. Caroline came back in this game. That is like the biggest point of note for North Carolina, but came back in the 73rd minute is like the biggest point of note for North Carolina, but came back in the 73rd minute. They scored in the first half and they scored in the first half because of Ashley Sanchez. She's got, I think it's five goals and five assists on the season for a team that struggles to score goals.

She should be in the MVP conversation. She's not going to win it. She shouldn't win it, but she should be talked about. She should also probably be in the national team. And that's something we'll probably get into as we get closer to more camps going forward. I think it also just shows that specific play that she has.

We talked about it last week of how she's drifted a little bit more wide now because it's so clogged centrally for a lot of these teams, and it shows you a different variety to how she can break down a team from that wide channel and just her vision of how the play was developing with Pinto's positioning, the center back getting dragged out of a spot and then, hey, this is where I need to be. This is where the space is going to be

between the center back and the outside back. Really intelligent player. And I agree with you. We'll get to that talk, I'm sure, pretty soon. It was when you watch the replay from behind the field, not to hammer this point home, you are watching her move the chess pieces around for the way she wants it. Like exactly what you talked about, center back stepping.

I'm going to take three steps wide, but I'm going to curve my run because I'm going to run centrally and calls for the ball in a way of like, okay, I've set it all up. Now play me the ball. It was really cool to watch and really, really fun. Some big games this weekend before we get there Twyla Kilgore has announced that she is leaving U.S. soccer for quote other coaching opportunities this has led to a firestorm of rumors and connections and all of that um so

she was the interim coach in between the time between Vlako Andonofsky and Emma Hayes has also was the head coach of some youth national teams over the last five years. Before that was an assistant at the Houston Dash, which is a club right now that has a head coach who has not coached a game in three or four months. And we still don't understand what's happening. And my understanding is her residency is still in Houston

as of most recently when people talked about it. The obvious openings right now, or the actual clear ones, are San Diego, who have an interim manager in Landon Donovan, and Utah as well, who have an interim manager in Jimmy Conrads. I would be surprised if Utah really had an interim manager based off what we saw in Portland. I think Jimmy Conrads has had enough success and was brought into that club probably

to be the manager going forward. San Diego, though, is a legitimate opening, and then Houston's the other name that gets thrown out there. What would you expect to see here as a head manager in NWSL next season? Well, when I saw this, I i thought oh houston doesn't have a coach right now so you were one of them right away like that that's what i thought and just because i do think there's stability in utah with jimmy i think i think there's stability in san

diego with landon and i think these last few games will be the test for that. But I am watching them in Chicago. They were by far the better team. They had 3.2 XG. And I was like this. I can't believe they haven't scored a goal. I've never seen this before with that many much goals and expected own goals on Twitter said just checked in. It's official.

San Diego has set a record with most XG generated without scoring in a regular NWSL regular season game since 2016. He has been playing so good and they're really confident in this new structure and system that he has. If they get a few results through this rest of the year, I don't I don't think they make a change. I think Landon Donovan becomes head coach of this team. All right. First of all, game's not played on a spreadsheet, but I appreciate the XG love over there. I'm just kidding.

Yeah, no, I agree. They should have scored, right? You can create all you want, but if you can't score, then you can't score. The other thing with San Diego in that whole conversation is like, okay, but then what's gone wrong? What gets better? It's like, well, Jaden Shaw comes back. Like if Jaden Shaw's in this team, they're scoring goals. And Melanie Barsanis is playing.

She looks really good. She's confident. She's 16 years old. And they'll get more players. Like Cascarino, I think, could be MVP of this league next year with how good she's going to be. You waited 48 minutes to bring this juice and this energy. I think Cascarino is good. I'll say it now. She's going to be MVP of this league in 2025. She is a freaking boss. Okay.

Well, we're going to have to clip this and use it for you when you're right next year, which I'm very excited to see. I'm also glad to hear that because I was really excited about that signing and have been waiting for it a little bit. Some big games this weekend. Casey against Gotham, the biggest one. That one's Saturday at 1 p.m. I think big shout from the show to Kelly O'Hara, who has announced she's been put on the season-ending injury list. She had said this would be her last year. She'll remain with the team. Unbelievable career, unbelievable veteran, just like from day one, it felt like of all of a sudden she was in teams because you could trust her in big moments, played a number of different positions, won a lot for the US and in NWSL and a great ambassador

for the sport. And you can see her on a lot of different platforms now and continue to see her career develop. That is, I think, the best game of the weekend. Chicago facing off against North Carolina is a very interesting one for the standings and where everything sits. Those two teams are next to each other. Chicago three points behind Ludmilla with the goal this weekend in the game. And then, of course, North Carolina coming off that loss. And then the last one is Angel City starts the weekend against Washington. Angel City got a 2-2 draw Monday night against Portland. It wasn't the

result they really needed, but they are within three points of that playoff line behind Bay FC and Louisville. A worse goal differential. They probably need to be ahead of those teams, but I had to mention Alyssa Thompson before this show is over. Five goals, five assists on the year. Four of those goals have come in the last five games. She looks like the number one pick. She looks like a player that you can build a team around. She breaks teams open. She can score in individual moments. And I think a shout to Sydney LaRue for being a central force right now that Alyssa Thompson can play off of and anticipate off of and get into 1v1 spaces but none of these goals are easy finishes especially this weekend and she sees tight openings and she's able to hit it clinically we're gonna see the same

push I think from Angel City that we saw from them last year where they ended the season they have to end the season with that same mentality and I think even though the result wasn't what they wanted, they came back in that game to get a 2-2 draw. And that to me speaks more to their mentality and their belief that they can get results, but they have to win on Friday. This has to be a win and it's not going to be easy against Washington. I don't care who plays or who doesn't play. Washington is still going to be a solid team. And this is now going to be a team that Angel City has to get a result off in if they want to make the playoffs but also in playoffs make any kind of run we are into the stretch run get your mailbag questions in for me so I can do them on Friday I'll be back on Monday with the weekend recap just to get you

updated on where everything sits in the standings, the big storylines and all of that. And of course on that Friday show, we are going to have our interview with Haley Carter, the sporting director of Orlando city. Thank you to you, Jordan. Thank you to everyone for being here and watching live.

Thank you to all of you for listening. And we'll talk to you again. Very, very soon.