SoccerWise - NWSL Soccerwise | Orlando’s Fall From the Top & NWSL Transfer Rumors

Episode Date: September 1, 2026

Seb Hines is out in Orlando less than two years after leading the Pride to the NWSL Shield and Championship. David Gass and Jill Loyden break down Orlando’s struggles, the decision to move on from Hines and what comes next for the Pride. Plus, Rose Lavelle re-signs with Gotham, some rumors floating around as the NWSL transfer window is closing soon, and the biggest takeaways from another wild weekend in the NWSL.0:00 Intro2:35 Orlando’s Fall From the Top13:37 Yolanda Thomas Takes Over the Pride18:06 Rose Lavelle Re-Signs With Gotham24:49 NWSL Transfer News & Coaching Rumors31:48 Denver & Angel City Goal Fests37:04 Kansas City Keeps Finding Ways to Score44:14 Seattle’s Playoff Push & San Diego’s ComebackFor the sharpest coverage of American soccer, we’ve got you covered:https://linktr.ee/soccerwisehq

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Soccer Wise, David Goss and a special co-host, Jill Lloyden, on this one. Jill, we pulled you off the road, 15 games and 15 days for you to come join us here at SoccerWise. Yeah, I'm excited. There's been a lot of soccer that I've called recently, so lots to talk about. There is a lot to talk about. I heard the energy in New Jersey from you on the sideline. Then I'm watching Casey, and it felt like the energy level went up another one. Seattle and Houston may be settled in somewhere in between the two of those. But it was a great weekend of action and I cannot wait to dig into all of it. We are going to talk about two games that had seven goals across NWSL,

which is pretty wild to say on the same weekend, including a little Monday night football at Gillette Stadium. We will talk about the battles at the top of the league between Gotham and Portland as they were going head to head at the time in first and second place. And I feel a little bit maybe like a time machine watching Casey this weekend and maybe back to the the heydays of Lacko-Anonovsky's group. So we will talk about all of that and look forward to the weekend to come. But it is going to be a news heavy show because we don't control what happens in the world of women's soccer before we build a rundown. We do build a rundown and then it gets shattered when teams decide to do kind of ridiculous things sometimes. So we'll talk about

some player transfers. We'll talk about Roosevelt getting a new contract, but we will, of course, start and talk about Seb Hines being let go in Orlando. Don't forget, if you don't already, follow us on Instagram. SW Woso FC. We have coverage all week there. We have a really cool series coming out that Catbush has been putting together in which we're going to look back at some of these monumental trades and start putting some grades together. So the Jordan Heitnamah, Claire Hutton, trades, Corey Bethune's, all those moves. We're going to start to take a look back. and give some trade grade. So make sure to follow us there on Instagram. It also is where we do our para rankings. Our player of the week, Chloe LaClaas, got that award this week, our newcomer of the

week and everything else there. So make sure to follow us there. And we have, of course, our U.S. soccer shows that we're doing every single week. This week, we will talk with Emery Adamas and Michael Johnson as they get ready to kick off the U-20 World Cup, which will be kicking off in Poland this weekend, the U.S. against Italy. We will have your coverage of that. tournament here and of course on our U.S. soccer show. Let's dig in now to the news that broke well late yesterday. I believe it was out of Orlando. Seb Hines has been let go in Orlando. So he has been a part of the club for 11 years between the men's and women's team. He played for Orlando City for two years and has been an assistant or head coach of the Orlando Pride since 2018.

And of course, he won the 2024 NWSL Shield, NWSL Championship, and the coach of the year. That team set the record for most points, most wins in an NWSL season, and clean sheets. They started on a 23 game unbeaten streak. Now, less than two full years after that, Jill, he is out of a job. And it is on one hand, not shocking with the way it feels like Orlando. has played on the other hand as i read back through 2024 and reminded myself of that experience it is jarring to think that he is out of a job so soon you know i think it's unfortunate um there's a series of unfortunate circumstances for sev um just being so closely removed from

winning a shield winning a championship um i think the the squad construction certainly didn't help his cause with the offseason bringing in Haley Mace, letting Emily Sams go, and not really, it doesn't seem like a succession plan for Marda in terms of how they replace her and how they replace her leadership, what she does in the midfield or in the striker position, kind of like we're seeing like a succession plan maybe like in Seattle for like a just fish lock. There seems to be a few other younger players coming up with the yanks that they've, ranks that they've embedded in the last couple years and we really haven't seen that from Orlando and then not having kailina daner for a large majority of last season and then

this season and carry a bellow out for a long period of time and I correct me if I'm wrong what they were in the playoff hunt until waftcom and then they're yeah and like before bandit got hurt um since the world cup break that happened they have gone three oh and seven So they've lost seven games since, what, end of June, and only won three in that span, and they are now five points out of the playoffs. They've played one more game than most teams. So they were around the playoff sort of hunt up until that moment. Right.

And then I think Branda picked up an injury. Then she went to Lafcon, so she's missed a significant portion. She's played in the last few. But it really is the Barbara Banda show. It has been when they won the Shield, when they won a championship. It was then. It is again now. And I think really what it comes down to is that there just hasn't been much balance in the roster.

Because without her, you have to defend a little bit different because you can't just sit back, absorb pressure, rely on being good on the counter. You have to play a little bit more with your possession. You need to use your possession as a tool to break teams down. When you do that, you need more numbers forward. And what's happening is that they've been very open in defensive transition, they've been very vulnerable in their buildout. conceding really like easy opportunities just comes to the head of like half ellie and at angel city just gets stripped of the ball and young starter scores and that seems like it was a series of errors that led to some of the difficult times that they've been in and then you know they go and get

a point or three points on the road against the spirit because of again barbba banda and then he sat back and defend it so unfortunate for seb that he hasn't had all of his players available to him, but this league is ruthless and it doesn't necessarily matter. At the end of the day, results are the thing that managers are going to be judged by, but I do think this was a little bit premature. It's, I can understand, I think the part for me that I think I get is you mentioned the band to show and where they sit. They haven't improved as a team, right?

2024, everything went perfect, but it was unsustainable to the point of like, they almost acknowledged it, right? The amount of one goal games they won and the amount of late games they won. I think they set the record for winning points and stoppage time. And a lot of that stuff was like culture and mentality, which was great. And you mentioned the Dana being out, right? She was a huge piece of that. So that's a big loss. Marta continuing to get a little older, probably not as not the ability to return on that. But I guess the hope would have been, okay, you've won this way. What do you add now?

Like, what are the steps forward? So we're an elite defensive team. We can kill you in transition. How do we now kill you with the ball? Or how do we become higher pressing so that when we don't have Banda, can we create other chances? And it just felt like there was never a plan B or another idea that came into play with this club. And that's where at some point two years in,

you probably feel that Sepp Hines doesn't really have those ideas to bring to this it totally could be that right and we don't know how the hierarchy in the front office works in terms of is it sebs decisions to bring players in or um the gm or whoever decisions but they just don't really have the personnel like the team needs more balance if you want to play possession you need better centerbacks you need quicker centerbacks you need centerbacks that can make 50 yard recovering runs and sweeping behind specifically if you don't have a preventative goalkeeper. And they just don't, they're not, they're not compiled of those types of players. And until they are, it is going to be difficult for them to be a productive team if they don't just rely on Barbara Banda. You mentioned the GM. Obviously, Haley Carter was there when Seb Hines

first took over and left at the end of last season. And then Caitlin Carducci took over in this season coming over from Kansas City. There's not a great history in any professional sports or, organization of a coach who wasn't hired by a sporting director of some sort, remaining very long under the future sporting director, could have been a part of this conversation, I don't know. But for sure, you look at the roster build with this. And, you know, we go all the way back to Adriana leaving and being so productive. And it feels like Ovillae was a really expensive replacement for that.

And it wasn't, how can you assist Marta or how can you fill in for the steps back that Marta takes and they never added to the rest of this team as you mentioned and this team never really took big steps forward on the field you mentioned preventative goalkeeper so I have you here so I'm going to ask because they set the shutout record in 2024 there's a lot of conversation about who Anna Morehouse is and how long Seb Hines may be stuck with her under their struggles is that one of the marks against him or is that a goalkeeper can only do so much with what's going on in front of You got to tie your horse to someone that you really, like, believe in and that you think when they're going through a tough time, it's not looking down the bench to see who else you have. And if I think that his confidence in her was misplaced, I'm not the biggest fan.

I think that she's wildly inconsistent. I think looking back on the season that they had, that they won, she had some good, decent performances. But let's be honest, that the defensive effort started with the team. They defended from the front all the way to the back. They were very organized, very disciplined. I think at that point in that season that Morehouse had to deal with the least threatening shots of any other goalkeeper all season long. And even Lerena last year at Kansas City, I think the same thing. And if you need to evolve as a team and you need to be better in possession so that you can not just rely on transitions,

you need to have a more competent goalkeeper that's going to have to deal with to, stopping counter attacks and coming up big and a good shot stopper. And she hasn't necessarily been a reliable shot stopper this season. I think she's been pretty poor with it. Her feet haven't always been her strongest suit. And if they wanted to evolve their strategy, I just felt like they needed a more well-rounded, competent goalkeeper.

She's finally sort of lost her spot over the last few weeks. We'll see what now happens with Seb Hines out. Caitlin Carducci in the press release said, we look toward the club's long-term vision and future and objectives. We believe that this is the appropriate time for leadership change. We are grateful for all that Seb has contributed in which him nothing but success in the next chapter of his career. Reminder, 2019, this team set the record for negative goal differential. In 2024, they hadn't made the playoffs in seven years.

Then they won the double. And then last year, in a down year from two years ago, they were the four seed and they were you know, up on Gotham in the semifinals with a chance to go to the final. That's how quickly this has turned. And I wonder if, you know, is there a change in the pressure in NWSL? Is it a reality in Orlando that there's increased pressure because of increased investment from ownership? What do you make of the idea of doing this right now for this club?

Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but Kaling Carducci came from Kansas City, correct? Yeah. Yeah, right, where the expectations are very high, where you become, a costume to winning and Orlando won a few years ago and now that's the new benchmark and if you're having an off year we've saw we've seen it all over the league even to go back to Kansas city a few years ago and they got rid of um who got them to the final against Portland yeah 2021 yeah in 2021 uh the names escaping me off the top of my head um but the same thing this league is just it is a results league and And also it is, I'm sure part of it goes these decisions.

I'm not just speaking about so much, but part of it goes to the decisions on how the players feel in the locker room. Do they feel like they're getting any better? Are they happy? And do they still have faith in the coach at that point? I'm sure all of it kind of goes into these decisions outside of just the results. But I do think there's so much pressure on these managers to get results yesterday. Matt Potter was the name we were looking for.

Orlando's five points out from a playoff spot. They've played one more game than most of the teams around them. So it's a little bit worse than just the five points. The assumption is you do something like this now in an attempt to salvage this season. Because if not, then you do it in the off season and you run your coaching search in the off season and you have someone ready to go when the next season starts. Although we'll talk about potentially people already hiring people that won't work during the season. The role will now fall, at least at an interim basis, on assistant coach Yolanda Thomas. A Sweden youth international in her playing career came to the U.S. to play college soccer

with Oklahoma State and has stayed pretty much her entire life, worked as a youth coach, college soccer coach, and then brought in as an assistant under Seb Hines in 2023. Since then, has taken over the U.S.U. 23s as a head coach for some camps last year. This is very similar to Seb Hines, brought in as an assistant, sort of stayed with the club for a little while, becomes an interim, eventually wins his role. What is your expectation of what happens now? And do you think this is Yolanda Thomas sort of working for the potential to be the head coach? You know, I don't know.

But I think she has a difficult challenge ahead of her because I don't know how much different you can play with this roster. I think if they are going to try to get results toward the back end of the season, you rely on what's made you good. and you play similarly to how you played at Washington Spirit at Audi because you score early, you get a hold of the game state, and you sit back and you defend. And that was the best offensive performance I've seen from that back line of the Orlando Pride all year long. Hafei defended the box so well. She was probably the best player on the pitch for the Orlando Pride.

And if that's what you're good at, then that's what you rely on. Ovae, you want to put her in central position is great. She can help you in transition. She can help attract a little bit of pressure play quickly and continue to keep the tempo up of those counters so that you can get band in behind. And I think you try to maximize and squeeze every little bit of juice out of that strategy and those players. And that's the way that you've got to play the rest of the season.

Because I don't think with limited time, you can implement a full new strategy. And with those players, I don't think there's much else you can do. It is amazing because the things we talk about of what, this Orlando team used to do are the things we talked about that Seb brought out of them, right? We remember in 24 how the players celebrated when he won coach of the year, the relationship he had. It felt like getting every sort of drop out of that team. All of that feels like the exact things you're looking for. And so it'll be interesting if is it the sort of shock that goes through a locker room that can sometimes jog a team's energy? Is it maybe a need for a different voice,

which happens. My assumption is that Sepp Heinz is going to end up on the top of the list for anyone else in the league looking for their next coach. Like he's two years out from coach of the year. He's a young coach. So the hope is he learns from this. But I think as you've said, I think a lot of people look at this and say,

what else could he have done? They had injuries. They didn't really improve this roster. And if you believed he was a good coach back then and he's a coach who's won a title, you would assume maybe it's Angel City right now. or any other openings that occur. Chicago that sort of come to the door and see if Seb Hines is available. I wouldn't be surprised if he's back in this league next year already coaching

because this feels sort of out of nowhere. And I think he's got a pedigree that other people don't. Yeah, I think he is a good coach. I mean, you look at the turnaround from how poor they had been and then getting them into a stable place. I even remember, I think it was his first full season. They went to Portland. I think they lost that game 4-0 or 4-1, and I was like, oh, gosh, I'm not sure if Sub's

going to be able to figure this out. And they did, and they had a great turnaround, and it wasn't an overnight thing. It was something over the long haul. But I think he's going to have to figure out what's the right club for him, because there are so many different types of clubs in our league, ones that want to invest a lot of money, ones that don't, big markets, small markets, ones you need a huge personality, and ones that you don't. So I think if he finds the right fit, he could be successful again.

Yeah, you look at for Bev Yanez, obviously she's done some great work at Louisville. If they don't make the playoffs, her job's probably not in trouble the way Seb Hines is, two years out of winning a championship because of the different levels of pressure because of the different levels of investment, which you don't control. Really interesting times for Orlando, they lost this week. It was an hour weather delay and then a two-one loss to Utah at home. and they'll be back on the field this weekend for the first time under their now interim head coach in Yolanda Thomas. Let's move to a little bit of transfer conversation.

So the transfer windows come to a close in September. It turns out, after me researching this, that there is chaos when the transfer windows come to a close. So Germany closes today. England closes September 3rd. NWSL closes September 7th. And France and Spain close on September 18th. None of those dates have anything to do with each other. I have no idea why they are so widely spread out.

So I think the expectation should be there might be a flurry of moves coming over the next few days. One that clearly is not happening is like a few months ago we talked about the hip rule and how all these players in Europe we're going to run their contracts down so that they could come and be on the hip rule and figure it out. That is not true at all, right? That has not been the case in any way. is that something that you worry about or is that something we should be thinking about in terms of the rules NWSL is put in place

and maybe how they're actually happening? No, I think that the rules helping us keep some of our best talented players here and it might not be attracting some of the internationals but, you know, I was talking to someone about this other day. I was like, imagine if Trinity Robben didn't stay here this year. Like, what would she be doing right now?

Would she be having the same level of like success? And it was almost like a sliding door moment the hip rule in terms of like keeping, you know, a talented player here who has just set the league on fire at the moment. But I think there are some teams that are utilizing it really well to their advantage and other teams that are just opting not to or holding off and waiting for the right type of player to be interested. But I do think that it is helping our league. And I do think that it will continue to bring some more talented players here. Yael Averbush, Wes in our interview during the World Cup break said there's actually multiple ways to use it. It seems like Gotham, for example,

as a team, you can break up the money inside of the hip rule and attribute it to multiple players. And all of that comes in light of the positive news that Roosevelt has resigning a contract through 2029 with Gotham. We talked about them a lot over the last few weeks. Myself and Jordan talking coming out of the Sarah Shippansky trade last week that they're sort of refinding the super team version of themselves and clearly forced to make some of these moves to send players out to be able to afford to sort of cover all of these players. But Roosevelt is the heart of all of that. Like she is, she's the nucleus. It feels like it all spins around. And this is as big a news, Jill, as they could have, knowing that she's locked in through the World Cup and in the near

future. I mean, I'm, I think Roosevelt's biggest fan. I just love watching her play. And I think the intriguing part about what she's been able to do at Gotham is that she's been available, like all year. Like I thought she got a concussion, obviously, and was out for the Portland game, but she's been available majority of the year and this year and last year. And we haven't really seen that out of her in her career. And you're right. I think a lot of the attack does revolve around her. She's the ultimate half-space attacker. She makes whoever's playing out in the right, whether it's Jordan Dudley or Mitch Purr, she makes all of them better. And they get the ball, that position on the field, that space on the field is so important to the way that Gotham

want to attack. And you get your best player who is able to discern what pass is best right now. And you have their best technician in that area of the field that can play the overlap or the underlap and set up the cross, who can dribble inside and shoot herself or play the little dink ball on the back post of Sam Kerr's loitering out back there. I think it is just another way that this Gotham team can just break opponents down because, you know, They want to hem in their opponents. Yes, they've been better in transition, but ideally they want to hem in opponents.

And she's like a low block unblock, unblocker, unblocker, whatever you want to call it. She's the ultimate. She is a block breaker. Yeah, there you go. It's the Tetris piece that connects and then it all falls apart. She had a lot to work with a work to do, or her team did in light of it with Portland on Friday night.

Jane Shaw ends up scoring the goal. There is similarities between their game. They're different styles of player, but there is that like sort of flexibility. But if they find them space, there's space in the channel, you don't know what's coming next and that's a positive for their team.

Yeah, I was, you know, we called the game and Lori does the replay. And after she does the replay, I'm like, oh my gosh, incredible recognition from Jay and Shaw. You know, Sam Kerr's should, get the assist because she's like in between the centerbacks and her teammate is McKenzie Arnold and Arnold's cheating because she sees Sam Kerr and I'm like oh such a brilliant execution by Shaw and

after the game I interview her and she's like yeah I meant to cross it I was like no. Did you as a keeper though respect that she came out and didn't pretend that she was like trying to trick the goalie? Honestly I don't think it matters you know I've been scored on I've been scored on that in like some really important games in my career, and I will never forget those because you're like, oh, yeah, in your head, you're like, feeling good. You're like, yeah, our team's defending well. And we know that Jaden Chal really likes to cross in those areas, and we know that Sam Kerr is so good in the air. So, like, you hedge your bets a little bit. And that time, you know, as a goalkeeper,

it doesn't matter what they say if they were trying to cross or trying to shoot. It's in the back of the net. That thing took a vicious dive, though. Like, that thing came from what? Nine of clock to two o'clock pretty quickly whether she meant it or not it's what i hate most about attacking players because that was a wild miscue and we make a wild miscue and like people are calling for our jobs to be replaced you know we make a bad decision in behind the back line and we look so silly they make a bad technical you know execution and they score goals they go on a highlight reel yeah exactly uh it was a huge performance from her and obviously a big performance from gotham to at least the distance between them and Portland.

And Roosevelt, you know, they're building this whole thing around them. They will be moving into a new stadium soon in Queens. All of this, you know, I was at the Queen City Classic. Like, she's the face of this team in the market. She's one of the best players in the world. And she's probably going to be the face of the U.S. Women's National team next summer at a World Cup. So a huge moment for Gotham to keep her on board.

I mentioned some of the coaching movement. So reports are coming out in England. Dario Vitocivich, Vidosich, nailed that one. A 39-year-old Croatian Australian coach has left Brighton one week before the WSL season kicks off. And the reports are that he is the leading candidate for the opening at Angel City, hence why he chose to leave right now. He spent two years at Brighton. He got them to the FA Cup final last year, which is their first time making a legitimate cup final and going to Wembley and he brought the team to their highest WSL finish in club history.

Before that, he coached Melbourne City's women's team for two years and he played for almost 15 years. His dad actually coached on the men's and women's side in Australia and played professionally. He had 23 caps for Australia and he played, I just listed like four of the seven countries he played in. So he's, you know soccer around the world. Right now, of course, Angel City are playing under an interim coach, one who actually came. from WSL, and there are reports of what could be happening. None of this feels like a for now thing. All of this feels like if he does get brought on,

it would be for the 2027 season. And it's just an interesting move to make to leave your club four days before a season starts. And we don't totally know what it means. And if it does happen, we will dig in a little bit more on what he's going to bring to Angel City. Two player reports coming out this week. One, Rebecca Bernal could be headed to England to Manchester United.

This breaks my heart, Jill. I love Rebecca Bernal. I love her game. I think she's a genius. But if I was her, I would understand the frustration, which is I think I'm the best centerback on this team, and I think I'm the best demon on this team. And why am I the one who has to switch and play both and doesn't always start?

And if someone's offering her a big number and not, to start and have a role in their team. I could understand her interest and move. Yeah. I mean, I agree with you. She has been one of my favorite players for the Washington Spirit this year. But you almost understand it because they have, or you understand why Spear would let her go potentially for a high number because they do feel really good about Rud and Morgan in the centerback position.

And they have a lot of similar players in the midfield and Annie Sullivan and how Hirsch fell. And now Abby Oden, who's been playing really well. They've got some other players that can fit in that. And it would be a really smart move if they can bring in another attack-minded midfielder as well. Because Lacey Santos's injury has really hurt the spirit, I think, this year. Yeah, it feels like if you could use the resources in theory of an experience international player, you'd want it as a number 10 or a number 8 that wants to go forward a little bit more.

and obviously Andy Sullivan out for over a year. And so Recker and all being around the team, that was one world. And now your former captain comes back and is ready to play every single week. That closes off some of those minutes. And then you get back into that centerback shuffle, which has more good players than are capable of playing on the team. So I agree with you. I understand why it would happen.

And if you can sort of reallocate those resources, but it would break my heart. And I would be really sad about seeing her leave this league. League. And then the last report out there, which I feel like there's a chance I'm being ridiculous, even bringing this up, or there's a chance that it's going to be good that we talked about it because it will actually be real. There are images that believe that Emma Sears was in Denver for their game this week in Louisville. Did not play against Denver. So she would have been there on her own. There have been reports that she has requested a trade to leave Louisville, and there's been

connection with a couple different clubs. Whether this happens or not, we're not 100% sure. What would you make of a fit there for her, both in her career and a move for Denver? Yeah, I think Denver likes to use their wide channels a lot. And it would force Emma Sears to probably have to move back on that left hand side because I think the relationship between Yasmin, Ryan, and I. Okay, has been really, really profitable and productive for the Denver team. and I do think that they need vertical threats on their front line. That's why I think we've seen Olivia Thomas play is to provide that vertical threat,

allow the midfielder's opportunities to get on the ball, and for them to break teams down through those wide channels, I think it would be a good fit. I think it seems like they are a team that has high ambitions, and Nick Cushing has outwardly said that. We're talking to players. We want to make this team better. We want to bring in talented players.

I think before Orlando was doing poorly, I thought that would be a good move for her as well, fitting up top with Barbara Banda, being able to profit from some of the space that she leaves, but also being able to keep up with her in counterattacks could provide Orlando and other attacking edge as well. Yeah, I think there's some interleague moves that could be made across the league before that.

I think that deadline window ends in October. Yeah. So once, if you're inside NWSL, the roster freezes not till October. So you can still make moves inside the league. And then as you if you remember from last year, in light of the new CBA, there are players who are going to start signing pre-contracts because they'll be free agents. What we saw last year, Neely Martin was one of these, is teams then saying, okay, well, if you're not going to be here and you want to go there, can we find some financial reward to get you there a little bit sooner? So there could be some other

moves in there as well. Do you have a dream move that you were thinking of? Do you have anyone that you'd want to see go or any team that you want to see make a specific move? You know, I called North Carolina this weekend. I think one of the things they really struggled with was that their two main starting centerbacks were out injured with Macy Bell and Nat Jacobs. And if that's going to be something that's long term, I think they need to go get themselves

another centerback. And I look at the bottom of the table and like, okay, well, you know, Paige Nielsen did play this weekend for Houston or Sam Stobb, you know, maybe they would let her go. But I do think that they need, they need another centerback. That could be something that might help them get into a playoff top four position and maybe do well in the playoffs. Yeah, I think that one would make a lot of sense. I think Emma Sears has been the other one that people have connected with a couple different teams of could she bring an attacking punch to the right team in the right position? It would be interesting. part of her joining Denver because

Janine Tosanus has nine goals and four assists this year. So like, can you afford to clog any space on the wings? I will start our weekend recap there. Seven goals in both the Denver game and the Angel City game. Denver 6-1 win over Chicago. Lindsay Heaps made her return, played 45 minutes. But nine goals, four assists for Sonas. Is she, I tried this a few weeks ago and Jordan kind of yelled at me about it,

but then we talked about it. Like, can you win Defender of the Year on goals and assist numbers? That's a good question. I think Defender of the Year isn't just about goals and assists, but it's like how your team does and who provides the most value to their team. So if her team makes the playoffs, then I think that that is a case, right? If not, I do think that there's some other centerbacks who've probably had more impactful performances for their teams,

depending on the standings. But certainly this move to fullback, it brings, I'm sure, a lot of excitement to Casey Stodian and the Canada group headed into the World Cup this year because I think this is some of the best football we've ever seen from Janine. So it's outside of just the goal contributions.

But more touches on the ball, more influence in the game. She's got more time, less pressure to have to produce in the attacking third. And of course, something, you know, she can always continue to increase her 1B1 defending, like having played it as,

an attacking player for so long. You're going to have to be really mindful that when you get to the World Cup, you're going to be defending some of the best players in the world, and your individual defending is going to be tested. But I do think just from an overall perspective of adding and maybe how she could help Canada in the attack, it could be really something interesting. We've talked over the last few weeks about Jenna and I swunger and coming into the professional ranks and getting converted to that fullback and being a match winner for her teams because of what she does going forward. And then she has plateaued as a player

because she never developed the second half, which is the reason she didn't play fullback from the start, which is she's not a defender. And so that will be the question with Janine Sonas is if she can continue to bring that. But Chicago, I mean, they're in their own situation, in their own world. This was tough to watch.

There are games where team scores a lot of goals, and I will come out saying, sometimes it happened. Sometimes teams score 100% of the chances they create. and they put up five, seven goals. And it's ridiculous. And you go and watch it, and it doesn't feel like the gap between the teams is there,

or one team has made mistakes or not shown up. I don't know that Chicago knew what time the game started for this one. They were jogging around, getting played around. Like, from the moment this game started, Chicago looked completely out of it. And it's probably not going to change anytime soon, having already fired the coach. And this being the team that they are right now.

You know, I put on my blue sky the other day that the only thing that can help Chicago stars right now is the same thing that would help me when I was playing and I was in a rut. And that's retail therapy, unfortunately. Well, that's good news for all the businesses across Chicago. That they might have a big influx of customer is coming soon. And then you're thinking, okay, so this is going to be the highlight of the weekend. This is the most absurd game we'll see. And then on Monday night, Angel City goes to Boston for Monday night football for some reason. The assumption I have is because Gillette was a World Cup stadium to get games at Gillette.

This is what Boston Legacy have had to do, which now we get the news that they will play the full season in Providence next year or Pawtakeet, wherever it is, at Centerville Stadium with White Stadium not opening until 2028 and basically giving up on trying to play at Gillette because you end up with Wednesday night games and Thursday night and Monday night. and everything else. We had three goals between the two teams and 11 minutes, and it ends up being a 5-2 victory for Angel City. The first two offset pieces, Ali Sentinel or gets the opener, off a corner kick, the second one are recycled. I got to be totally honest.

After that, I kind of turned off. Once it went 3-1, it felt like this one was over, Jill. And if you had to, if I had asked you blind, hey, this weekend two teams are going to lose by five or six goals. Who are they going to be? you probably would have guessed Chicago and Boston. For sure.

I think structurally, Boston's game plan just isn't really working for them. Right now, I think they're leaving way too much space in behind their backline. And Angel City took full advantage of that. They have some of the quickest attackers. They were high pressing. They were very direct with Shilufia and John Stodder. Yeah, both those players. And then you throw in a young goal.

who doesn't really have much experience in this league and you feed her to the wolves. And that was a really tough watch. Yeah. It was tough to see. I was excited when the lineups came out of like, okay, Giselle Thompson's playing a little higher. What does it look like? Is it a 4-4-2? Is it a 4-4-2?

1? And it was Ali Sentinor on the left wing and Jan's daughter as a second forward. But I don't think we can overanalyze this one because I don't think it's going to look like this against most other teams with the direct ball to Yon's. not earn a goal basically from the end line. So let's take into the other big games we saw this weekend. Let's start with one that you were on the call for, Kansas City against North Carolina. And I sort of mentioned it at the top of the show.

It was a 3-0 lead for Casey in the opening 40 or so minutes. North Carolina gets one back off of EJ in the dying minutes of the first half. They fight back to 3-2 and Casey hangs on. But the feeling watching this felt very Kansas City to me. It felt high energy. It felt electric. I mean, the Michelle Cooper goal is one pass from a defensive stop in your own box to a goal the other end. Yeah, I mean, from top to the first half was so dominant from Kansas City, so dominant.

And I think there are caveats here, right? North Carolina was missing their two starting centerbacks. They really haven't figured out a right wing. Hallie Schlegel's out injured. Riley Jackson was out injured. They tried to pigeonhole Erica Meg Parkinson into that position and play more inverted than Ryan Williams had to get into the attack. And by the time North Carolina had a little bit of possession, they were down 1-0. Ryan Williams is getting high into the attack.

Kalin Sheridan's holding onto the ball way too long because nobody wants it. They couldn't break through. And then they go down 2-0. Ryan Williams then trying to get into the attack to create the width and they're wide open. And to your point, one headed clearance from Kayla Sharples, one long ball from Haley Hopkins, and before North Carolina could even catch their breath, they were down 3-0. They did get that goal back, which I thought was a really fabulous bit of play from their build-out to the quick transition to Sanchez and a wonderful finish. Like, of all the finishes in the game, I actually thought EJ's was the best one.

Oof. I know. Because so Corey Bethune's finished maybe wasn't the best one, the setup on her touch. The way she flicks her touch up to the side to avoid the tackle is incredible. And then Michelle Cooper at full speed to hit the underside of the crossbar is pretty impressive as well. I do. I just think to shape that ball from E.J. into the back post is like really thoughtful, really intentional. And to do that under that amount of pressure, I thought was really good.

but yeah once riley jackson came into the game the game kind of did flip but i will say there were two things that impressed me about kansas city one was their box defense wow it was like night and day that i have been you know saying how dreadful it's been to watch them defend crosses and set pieces all season and that performance was really good there were opportunities for sanchise quite a few opportunities in the second half for sanchise to find that third goal um but you relied on on good goal You rely on really narrow angles and letting Sanchez have the ball from really, really tough positions on the field to score from. That impressed me. And the second thing where there were some really good deep builds from this Kansas City team.

And when Tim Washington came in the game, she didn't do anything. Like she was irrelevant in that game, which is not a diss to her, but just like a positive to Kansas City is like they have evolved without her. and they have learned how to play without her. And yes, one of the goals was a second phase of a set piece that they did well to pin their opposition in and then score from there. And the other two were transitions, yes, but there was some good attacking play. Like when they get Labanta to rotate down and there was one with Labanta and Rocky Rodriguez and they get it into the final third rather easily, nothing comes of it, but it's just like, wow, this is something that we have. haven't really seen them. Yeah, I think what we're seeing, and maybe it's not coming across every single game,

but we're seeing a little bit of an evolution from Kansas City. Yeah, we did some interviews with some of the Kansas City front office, Ryan Dells and Angie Long talking about their project there as well as the project in Denmark. And I said to them, when we were talking off air, I was like, you know, we do these power rankings every week. You're either five or six every week. You are like the only consistent piece that we have. And now over the last few weeks, it feels like they've found their feet.

And I think it might be a little bit different now. And I think you watch these games. Croy Bathune's playing as well as she's ever played. So that's match winner right there. And some of it's in the flow of play and her ability to dictate flow of play. And some of it is special moments that she's capable of that no one else is capable of. Michelle Cooper is a starting US WNT player when she's on. She's been hurt all year.

So then you feel her presence come back into the team and its ability to get to the end line, but also the fact that she is naturally actually a center forward. And she knows exactly what she wants to do when she comes inside to score. And then Vanessa DiBanardo coming back into this team, which I think gives a little bit of balance and predictability, to allow a little more risk from, the back line. And this is all without the two-time MVP, Temwes Shinga, being mentioned. But as you said,

when she comes into this game, I think the fact that she's not a player who demands every touch and that you feel like you have to play into helps this KC team because she can just settle back in and she can affect the game however she needs to, rather than requiring you to reset the way you play to find her feet every single time away from what you've done for the last, what, six weeks? that's been fairly successful. I agree. And I think she came into the game when they were already winning. So they didn't need her to go and find a goal. And that's really when she can open up teams the most.

Is Kansas City's defending deep, they need an outball at the moment? I mean, Schoenga can chase down any hopeful ball in behind opponent's backlines with a 10-yard disadvantage and still manage to get the ball. And score from those types of positions when she's back defending and's got to dribble the length of the field. So I think we're able to see both different strategies under Chris Armis, and I think he'll have a little bit more wiggle room to make choices, depending on the opponents, depending on the availability of players,

which I think kind of insulates your chances in knockout football. We still don't know what their best 11 would be, if healthy. Where does Debian play? You know, Hale Hopkins has played well, but you assume she goes to the bench, but who's center forward? who's that wide. But I think that's a problem. Casey would love to figure out how to answer rather than how do we cover for the injuries of the best players on our team. As you mentioned in North Carolina, they've been on a great run. They've been one of the best teams this year. They are really

dealing with injuries, especially at the centerback position. How they get through the next few weeks will determine where they fall in the playoff rankings and probably how deep a run they can make. They can steal a home playoff game at a minimum based off where. they sat over the last few weeks. Let's go to two more games to close out. One, you were on the call for Seattle over Houston, a one zero win. Houston's been on a nice run of form. Seattle have sort of found their level here. They are not open. They are not expansive, but they have found a winning formula and it feels like one that's a little bit more confident than what they were last year. Yeah, I actually was really impressed with the way that Seattle dominated that game. I thought that

That matchup specifically had the biggest playoff implications of any matchup in the entire league. And Seattle came with a really good game plan. They had a 4-2-4 mid-block, and they just let the back line of Houston have the ball. They let them have the ball. And when they wanted to put pressure, they lost their shape from the two wingers going on the centerbacks. They kept their number centrally. And Houston, really, for 90 minutes, did not have a solution to that. They did not have a one time, I think, in the first half, Klinky decided to take a little.

little space. And then once she did, she engaged that first line of pressure, played a long ball and the Fossi and Fossi had a shot. And that was the first and only time that they really were able to break through that 4-24 block. Their passing distances were way too big. They didn't have support around ball carriers. And I think Seattle's defensive game plan won them that game. And yeah, they capitalized on a Jane Campbell error, but they capitalized on an error, which you can't always say about the Seattle team. I think they're interesting. Since the summer break, They've some different components and different players that are stepping up and playing really really well, specifically Maddie Mercado. And yeah, I think that they put themselves in a position to create a little space from the teams underneath them under the playoff line.

And it'll be interesting to see with the remaining schedule that they have left, how many points they can get. So it was a two point gap between Houston and Seattle coming into this game. So now it's a five point gap. Seattle's sitting in eighth place right now. The last team in the playoffs, it's a two point gap between. them in Angel City, but they are only three points behind Kansas City in the spot ahead of them. It is a bit of a dogfight right on the edge of the playoffs. And all these teams are sort of knocking each other off back and forth.

To close out weekend, San Diego, three to win over Louisville. It was two zero at halftime. It was two zero in 23 minutes. Both of them offset pieces. And I went to sleep because that's what one does when the. game is two zero and it's over and i should have remembered that it's always nwsl after dark in san diego and it's always the wildest games they came from behind they won three two trinity buyers two more goals and kensadali comes off the bench uh returning from injury it was never you know san diego

dominated the whole first half they conceded two set piece goals they didn't put away the chances they had and then the second half they start to put them away um this feels like a san diego team i've said over and over. I believe in them because a group, they have so much belief in their style that they will get there. It just falls to these young players figuring it out. And I said last week, if Trinity Buyers is going to start scoring goals, watch out. And it feels like San Diego now has that solution at center forward that they can sort of ride on a playoff run. Yeah, I think the strategy of the club overall is something that is, I think, different than what we're seeing from other clubs. you can see there's a clear investment in young players for the last few years, right?

Mel Barcena is a young player. And I think she came in the league when she was like 15 or 16. And the way that they trickled in playing time for her over the last few years seems really important. And you could see the quality, even when Casey Stoney was there, of Kimmy Isconio and how important she would be for this club. And now Trinity Armstrong, obviously, who hasn't been able to contribute, but Trinity Byers, the patience that they displayed, the foresight that they displayed to get her,

even once she had torn her ACL out of college, didn't get to play her first full season and the ability for them to rehab her and get her back on the field. She is more than a goal score from what she does because she can drop back into the midfield to create those overloads. She can stretch him behind. And more importantly, the biggest signing that the San Diego team had in the offseason, Lujmila, has been a flop majority of this season. and Trinity Buyers has shouldered a lot of that attack on production and filled in some of those holes.

And has made Lulmila better now. As Byers has scored goals and found her space, it's opened up gaps for Ludmila to do what she does best, which is just be a final runner, not be a creator. You don't play through her. You don't build out through her. It is buyers dropping in or going to the side and opening up channels that Ludmila can run into. So all of these teams will be back out on the field this weekend. five games on Sunday.

So make sure to front load your weekend with everything you have to do with friends and family. It starts at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. The game's the highlight. I kind of had all of them on Sunday. Portland faces off against Washington at 4 p.m. Orlando against Houston at 7. So first game under Yolinda Thomas. And then Seattle facing golf against San Diego,

the final game of the weekend, 9 p.m. Eastern time should be a fantastic one. In terms of standings, in terms of matchup, and San Diego trying to go on the road and get a win at Seattle. Well, this was a blast. Jill, you will be back next week, but you'll be here with Jordan, because I will be away on a little bit of vacay, but I'm looking forward to following.

I'm looking forward to listening to the show. I appreciate you taking the time to join me today. Enjoy the games this weekend, and we'll talk to everyone soon. Sounds good.