SoccerWise - Thorns Win Big Tuesday Night, Washington Overcoming Injuries (but whats going on?) & Angel City Name New Head Coach

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

Gotham won 4-0 on Friday so have they fixed everything? NO Portland's rookies exploded on Tuesday night at home. Jordan & David dig into what we should take away from these wild games. Then they dig into the wild NWSL Championship rematch that Washington Spirit won, and KC's history making shutout streak. And of course the off the field moves never end with Angel City finally announcing their full-time head coach Alexander Straus. 5:30 Portland’s Young Attack Shining20:15 Washington Injury Woes28:16 Reactions To Orlando Losing Home Undefeated Streak40:00 KC Move To First & Extend Historic Shutout Streak43:00 Houston’s Rebuilding Process49:00 Angel City FC Hire Alexander Straus As New Head Coach58:45 Weekend Preview Soccerwise Live 2pm ET Every Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday on Youtube/Twitch/Twitter

Hey everybody, welcome back to Soccer Wise. Dave Vagas, Jordan Angeley with you for another fantastic episode. Jordan, this is our regularly scheduled show. We go every Wednesday live. If you are watching on YouTube, if you're listening via podcast You can go to our YouTube page subscribe and you'll get notifications on Like NWSL which just is like oh Tuesdays, you know what we could do we could throw a game in there And I'm not gonna lie. I wasn't mad about it It was a little late on the East Coast, but like what else was I doing?

I had no other plans and all of a sudden the when the lineups came out and I got all the like social media messages, I was like, Oh, right. That's what I was going to do later tonight. Yeah, it does feel like it's nice to have just like a random Tuesday game. I think it's a little difficult right now. I'm from Denver and two of our teams are playing in the playoffs right now. So it was like multiple screens. What'd you say? Bragg much? I know I only brag a little bit when it's necessary and this is necessary. You know, it's just multiple games and are you making sure that you can find what you need to find? But luckily for me, last night, the Nugs and the Avalanche weren't playing so I did get to watch some of this game. But it is busy. It's been a busy week at NWSL. It feels like,

I mean, it's only been a week since we've chatted, but I feel like so much has already happened. There's been a head coach hired, which I had to go back and check our show notes to be like, did we discuss this? Because it has been, as you said, very hectic. Three Friday night games, which was too much for me of just the overlap. You like the one. You just like the one.

I don't mind too, but like once the third started, I was like, well, I kind of gave up. I can't, I can't keep up. So I ended up, we will talk about Gotham in a little bit. I ended up watching a lot of the Gotham game because it's like, well, I already saw it from the start and like I'm already locked in. But yeah, it was, it was a little bit overwhelming, I think. It was nice not to have, just personally, not to have Sunday games and to be able to be home for Easter with my family. But it did feel like everything kind of happened quickly with the Friday games and then there

were early Saturday games and it was like, okay, everybody's done now. Weekend's over. Yeah. It's over. It was a unique one. The schedule goes a little bit more normal this weekend, although minus the fact that we had this Tuesday game thrown in there, which was fairly electric. So we will talk all about that coming up.

And then we will talk about the weekend that was and it was headlined by this NWSL Championship rematch. The NWSL Championship rematch was heavily affected by the walking wounded of Washington, Washington Spirit. Eleven players listed on their injured list before the game even started. Then they proceeded to have additional injuries going into the game as well as injuries during the game. So we will talk all about that, their victory over Orlando, what it means and then Kansas City standing alone atop the standings and putting together a season that does not look dissimilar to what we saw last year with Orlando and Kansas City at times but mainly with Orlando so we'll talk about all of that some of the other

big moments of the weekend Kiki Pickett only scores one type of goal. So if she's winding up, everyone get your cameras out because you know something good is about to come and Utah Utah finally delivered for you Jordan. They've heard your pain and your angst and they're here for you. They waited to the last minute. I'll just say that too. They were like this is going to be a nil nil game. we'll score PK right at the end. But good for you Utah, finally getting that win. Ali Centenor getting the finish on that one. Nice for her to have some positive moments early in this season with the way it's gone

and with the way she has worked. So a lot to talk about. And then I mentioned Angel City. They have a new full-time head coach. It will be starting on June 1st that Alexander Strauss will take over Norwegian born and raised coach currently in Germany with Bayern Munich looks to be on his way to a third straight Bundesliga title over Wolfsburg of course is the big storyline with all of that. And so that is something that we will discuss

because it is a major story. It has been like this weird opening that we've kind of, we haven't avoided it. We just didn't know much about it. And Angel City, it felt like had maybe stabilized under Sam Lady and now they've got this future lined up. And so we'll talk about what it means, his appointment, what the club's looking for,

and I think the profile a little bit more of. There is now this running trend behind Jonas Eidevall and Jonathan Giraldez of this style of manager being brought in to NWSL. But let's start on Tuesday night because we very rarely come on right off the back of the game. We get to do post game coverage like a normal show that we could be doing other times and if you missed it, I have my Monday recap every single weekend coming off the weekend podcast right now only. So you can go there and get some immediate reaction coverage all the time with that.

But Jordan got them 141 on Friday night. So they righted the ship. Everything's fine. Esther is in form. Gotham is starting to cruise. They've moved into the top four of the table. They're going in one direction. Portland, tough loss to Seattle on the weekend and a rivalry game also on Friday night. And so they're trying to figure themselves out. We don't know who Portland is. We don't know how they're going to find their feet, especially offensively. That's the story, right? Tuesday. We already know. We know what the setup's gonna be.

It's gonna be a Gotham 2-1 win, maybe 1-0. False. We had two goals in an 80-second span in the seventh and eighth minute, and then the Portland young attackers exploded, and we're able to get a 4-1 win. Could have been five in the end against this Gotham team just to make sure we were as confused as humanly possible. Yeah, it felt, you know, we were texting a little bit last night and

you mentioned it's kind of a fun game because it was really open and I think that's what you get with this new Portland squad. Like, it doesn't look like they are going to play too many games where they're going to be completely in control of the game and dominate the ball that there will be because of some of the players that they have now, an openness to the way that they play. But it also is a Gotham team who's coming off a long road trip, right? They went to LA, they have that big emotional victory in LA, then you travel straight to Portland. And I think it was the right game plan by Rob Gale. Both teams switched up their starting lineups. But I think by going with some younger players with a lot of energy, you could really get to tiring out Gotham who early in the season to have

this kind of road trip is kind of unprecedented. We don't see it very often. So you really test them with some of the speed, the pressure, the defensive work that Portland did. I think that inevitably just broke Gotham down. Yeah, Gotham actually ended up only making I think one change to the starting lineup between the two games and that I thought yeah I thought that was bizarre in I thought it would be more rotation because of the necessity of the travel and the trip and how early it is in the season and it has been interesting for Gotham in that Juan Carlos Amoros while trying to find his group has actually like stuck to things pretty quickly. Like Lily real is the starting left back. Yeah, Mandy Freeman is

not a starter on the scene for a team that lost here in a Davidson and you think is specifically missing what Mandy Freeman brings to the team of end of yourself experience winning 5050s like the physicality of defending Injured so these last two games she hasn't played because of injury Okay, but like had art when and had the card right had the red card that pulled her out of the team as well But it just feels like that They've landed on things and now this new test was Neely Martin at right back and Taryn Torres in central midfield it worked against Angel City and obviously Part of that didn't work against Portland. Now, I think both these games are

Hard to judge to me a little because I think the Angel City Gotham Score line was not exactly what I saw on the field and you could argue that there was some level of that as well in the Portland game. Like Gotham probably should have been up 2-1 or 3-1 at halftime in the Portland game and Angel City I didn't think I mean the Lily real or the own goal in the Angel City game was maybe the least dangerous play that turned into a goal I have ever seen on a soccer field. Have you ever seen just like a deep cross get deflected for a goal? No, but Lily Real has been doing that game in and game out. She has been crossing from that spot and I don't think we will ever see a goal like one win, maybe three to two even. I think that could have probably been a better score line in that Angel City game, but it

didn't feel like a four nothing victory like it was. Sorry, a three to one win probably would have felt more real. But it is interesting that you say that, that Juan Carlos didn't change his starting lineup because this is a guy who notoriously changes a starting lineup. And one of the things that I think he has been bitten by, especially in the back, is there's no options, right? When you lose T. Aaron Davidson, and then you lose Mandy Freeman to a shorter term injury. Well, who else are you going to play back there?

I guess Neely Martin is the option that you're going to play. And she did play there at a little bit when she started in the league at Louisville. So she's aware of how to play outside back, but it just feels like they are trying to get a team out on the field who is healthy because you can't play Mitch Purge that much. Jesse is just coming into the league, probably not quite as fit as you need her to be to play 60 minutes because she didn't play it. She wasn't playing at Manchester United. So now, and Jess Silva is coming off an eye injury. So she's still trying to get back to full fitness. All these players,

I don't even think they had the ability really to rotate because beyond that you're thinking you have like 15 year olds That you can play That's true and they have pushed as many rookies kind of as you can Into the team. So I think it did it caught up with Gotham but at the same time you mentioned the way Portland set themselves up and I think this was a great example of the potential that exists in this group. And what I said to you before we got on is what Portland's Thorns reality is

right now, which is I think it's built around a lot of young, exciting, attacking talent that will struggle to repeat performances week in and week out. Cause that's the nature of the step to the pro ranks, is week in and week out because that's the nature of the step to the pro ranks But the potential and the ceiling and the way they play and how fun it is Is so much better than what I had anticipated and when we did our season previews when we finished out the season previews It was right when we had finally gotten the news. That's a feel Wilson would be unavailable Morgan Weaver would be unavailable, and it was, I think I had them in the bottom two in the league, but with no expectation that the way the games

would be played, whether there was success or not, would be super enjoyable. And so to have that Kaiya Hanks of the world to have toward in who I think has looked really good, I've obviously really enjoyed Turner. Now you have Ali do coming to the group gets a goal in this game, I think showed some really interesting aspects to her game in that central attacking area. And then cost Delano sort of stirring the whole drink from that center forward position, like Portland's must watch. And whether it's going to be four goals every week, I would be shocked, but like

it's enjoyable to experience. And I think we should also credit Jade and Perry, the center back who really got thrown into the fire in the first game of season saying, okay go play Kansas City in your first start ever, good luck, and struggled as most would do. You would struggle in that environment against that, those front five and had some moments that looked good, but you know, there were some moments that she would never like to think about again. And I think since then she has recovered really well. And this is a long-term, like I think over the past couple of years, I can say outright, like I don't feel like Portland has built well. And now in this

year with all these changes and some of these bigger name players in the Thorns, like history leaving in Sauerbrunn, Hubley, Klingenberg, Sinclair, you have this freshness to them and they could go one or two ways. They went with some really unknown young players. And I think because of that, there's a freedom within this group for them to try things and to buy into what Rob Gale has. And I think that's what we're seeing is a team that's bought in, willing to do the work and is going to have a variety to their game. Like this was a little bit more direct and it can be direct, but when you play with Sagita,

Moultrie, and Coffey in the midfield, that looks a little different, right? And can you control the pace of the game a little bit more? But yeah, I've really enjoyed some of their players. I think Kaia Hanks is, I mean, that goal she scored, first time, far post, inside of her right foot, that was a ridiculous goal. And it feels like we haven't really even seen all that she can do. Yeah, it the the ability to finish with your body going away from goal at speed, but to it be clipped so it gets over burger but doesn't rise over the crossbar like not an easy finish.

The hesitation move on the opening goal that she sets up down the left wing where it's not one speed straight line it's understanding how to use your speed and then the threat of your speed to open up space Bruninha probably not the best person to be lined up against that very much a defender in name only in that position whether she's playing right back or right wing but like Hankanks saw the openings had opportunities later on I thought read the game well as Gotham pushed numbers into the attack started to pinch in off the wing when they were in defense so that the

transition moment central Hanks could jump on the end of and use her speed and like I mean I know it's two games on the road But Jess Carter was dragging to keep up with Hanks and it's like this can only get better as she gets more experience and comfortable and Works in professional training environments and all of that. So it was a huge game from her was a huge performance. I thought clearly We've talked about Castellanos coming off the front line, being a false nine, creating in the channels as she comes off those positions. It's dangerous. It works. It's interesting because Turner and Hanks can be finishers. But I thought OliDoo was a huge, I think in this game showed huge potential also being comfortable occupying center forward

positions when Castellanos drops off the front line, at least just occupying center forward positions when Casalano's drops off the front line at least just occupying center backs making runs in that spot and then later on or earlier on figures out how to get on the end of Hanks is set up. I think that's where Casalano's is going to have her most success is if she's playing with a 10 underneath her who were neither one of them want to be a nine and neither one of them really want to be a 10. They just want to do whatever they want to do in there. And they want to read the play. And I think that those were the moments that I really appreciated with Ali-Do and with Castellanos is they just read each other's movements. And you're going

to see that as the year develops, whoever is around Castellanosos because I've been pretty, pretty upfront. Like I think she has under delivered and there, there has to be a way to get the best out of her because we know she can be a top level player. And maybe this is it. Maybe it's putting her in this space where it's like, yes, these are your defensive responsibilities, but in attack, you too just figure out a way to, these are the spaces that you can occupy or

a center back. Somebody needs to be occupying the center back. Somebody needs to be stretching. Somebody needs to come in the pocket like whatever it may be for that particular game. They have the intelligence to be able to figure that out. And maybe there needs to be a little bit more freedom in the way that she plays. You mentioned Jade and Perry, the rough start to the season comes back all the way around and takes penalty kicks.

Right. As a rookie center back. Okay, girl. I think she said she was eight for 10 in college and said in training that she could take them and Rob Gale gave her the opportunity and said, I'm happy to take them whenever it comes up and it came up and she got the opportunity and said, I'm happy to take them whenever it comes up. And it came up and she got the opportunity. And I think that's really cool. And it was fun to watch this game and it was fun to watch.

I don't know. 88th minute Sam Coffey leading the press out of midfield. Like, yeah, we're not slowing down. We're not stopping. And that's the type of leadership you want to see. She has talked already this season about calling the Becky Sarah Browns and Christine Sinclair's of the world and talking about how to handle leadership roles and how to handle this experience but The way this Portland team is set up right now to me is one of the prime examples of the positive potential for not having a draft because because all of these players got to pick a club that they would play for and If you had taken this cohort of players and you just spread them out through a draft

Some would have ended up on Portland, right? Maybe in Portland would have traded veterans or future picks because they knew that it wasn't gonna be their year and tried to move up in the draft like Washington did last year and get as many picks as possible. But I think you got to see situations like we don't know the full story yet, but Kai Hanks decided to leave college late having an incredible year with Wake Forest last year. And I wouldn't be shocked if part of the convo was like her in Portland had engaged earlier and they come back and they're like Morgan Reaver is out for the year. Sophia Wilson is out for the year. Like come play now.

You will play and we have a plan to help you get to your ceiling. But like there's opportunity right now and so I think some of the flexibility around the process now. I you know, we talked about talking about the draft or rookies last week and so you have me still waiting two more weeks. Which I am doing. I'm writing two more weeks which I am doing I'm writing my list but I am waiting but I do think you see the positivity of that and for Gotham right I think Gotham one of the things that I think makes sense like they went all in last year in a win now mode it wasn't sustainable winning maybe would have covered a lot of the cracks where people would have said okay

I'm not playing as much as I want I'm not making as much as I want. I'm not making as much as I want, but fine. I want to be on a winner and we won. And they didn't. It fell apart and they turned around and got Lily real and Sarah Schepinski and other college who hasn't even played yet, who they think can be full time starters like today. And I don't know how that would have played out in the draft because you would have had to move pieces that maybe you didn't have or future draft picks or whatever to move up in the draft And I think you see a lot of positivity around all of it

For gotham there was some interesting stuff in just if nealey martin's playing right back. She can rotate inside Tarrantora's is covering ground all over the place happy to be in possession, which I think is positive But at this point it feels like maybe a little too easy to play through in the other direction. And so there are still question marks around this Gotham team. They face off against Washington this weekend. And let's talk a little bit about this Washington group. The big game we had circled was the NWSL championship rematch. The of course, I was going to call it a commissioners Cup again the challenge

Cup. Oh good catch. Yeah. Rematch as well. The biggest part of it down in Orlando on Saturday afternoon. You were a part of this game but some of the huge news coming out right before as we find 11 players on the injured list for Washington including Trinity Rodman who then I think it was Steve Goff who put out a report saying that Trinity Rodman is out indefinitely as She steps away from the team full-time and travels to London to work on some medical

Options to try and recover from what has been this nagging back injury for a year plus now and recover from what has been this nagging back injury for a year plus now for her. And Jordan, we've talked about her injury situation before. It's scary. It's really unfortunate, obviously, for her, but for all of us who want to watch her do what she does at her best. Yeah. And I think for her is she's desperate to figure out what's going on and not feeling like she's getting the answers where she's at. So she

has to go across the world to figure out what's going on with her back. And, um, you know, we, I didn't, we didn't know about this. We were on the game, but we weren't told that she one wasn't playing or two wasn't even with the team. So we didn't know until right before I think, I don't know if you saw this, but we, we saw her at a tennis match, like a picture of her at her boyfriend a tennis match, like a picture of her at her boyfriend's tennis match. And we're thinking, what in the world is going on? And then the reports come out that she's, she's getting this, the help in London. And it just felt like a little bit of a chaotic moment. But when you are in a situation like I will always

advocate for players who are injured and trying to figure out what's going on because I've been in those shoes and I've been told to keep playing or that it's okay or, and you just know something's wrong and you're not getting to the bottom of it. Go figure it out. You know, go, even if it is on your own, you get one life, you get one body and you got to do your best to protect that. And so I, I give her kudos for going to try to

figure out what's going on because That's got to be scary. It's your back and every little move I don't know if you ever hurt your back gasp but like every movement you have hurts when you've hurt your back and so I hope that she's able to get Get the help that she can get and just feel like herself again because that's all you really want when you're injured like that. Yeah. And it's one of the things we've discussed is like the way she played as well. And I think soccer is such an emotional sport because your personality is in the way you

play. And so she plays over the edge because she loves it and it's fun for her and she doesn't mind the physicality of getting hit And you know, she talked about she talks about how people love and hitting people but people love tuning in watching her Face off in the fight with Emily sonnet in the playoffs like that's that's Trini Rodman in her happy place Which is doing the things she loves and a back injury police which is doing the things she loves and a back injury makes all of that impossible and as you said it affects everything you do and obviously the scary thing with backs is like we don't really know a lot about them still and we don't know how to affect them. When I've gotten back injuries it's like

you got to stretch your legs and strengthen your upper core you're like but this is where it hurts they're like yeah we can't do anything about that like you have to work on all of this. And you're like, Okay, so this is like an 18 step process. On top of that, then you have 11 players unavailable for this team on the injury report some season ending injuries that we we knew about like an Andy Sullivan, who is always going to miss the year but Ule Saar, it sounds like has had more issues come up as she's attempted to come back after missing

basically the entire second half of last year and then in on top of that you add to Hal Hirschfeld and Casey Krueger and Lacey Santos came into this game didn't start with an injury Ashley Hatch ends up receiving a concussion in the game. It has to come out So this list could be even worse for next week when they do play Gotham. But have you ever seen anything like this to have they didn't have a full bench and you could start a team outside of goalkeeper pretty much with this 11 that feels like a content six of their normal starters seven if you include Lacey Santos, who is on the bench available after she came on in the second half, that's their starters. And they were all on this list.

I have never seen this. The list for their injury report was on a Word doc, three lines long. Like this is unbelievable. And if I'm NWSL, if I'm the Washington Spirit, if I'm in their head office, I'm the Washington Spirit, if I'm in their head office, I'm thinking what is going on? Because this is not normal, Goss.

There should not be this many injuries within one team. And maybe it's just a fluke, but you better figure out if it's a fluke or not. Because I think of two things. One, this is a business, right? And if your assets are not available to help you win, then that's gonna be really difficult to get wins like they just did.

Like that was a monumental win and we'll talk about it. But two, these are people and these are their lives and this is their livelihood. And you need to make sure that they're getting the best treatment that they can. And knowing Michelle Kang and what she's put into this team, I can imagine that the standard is really high. But I don't know, I'm just curious about, I'm really curious about what's going on because

that is an unreal list of players who are out. It is extremely scary. And it is Flying in the face of something we've talked specifically about over the last nine months Which is like Washington has built this project that people want to be a part of And you look at this offseason of players coming on loan to try and help restart their career get opportunities or Rebecca Bernal Right takes this big jump of like the face of her club the face of her national team Oh, if I'm gonna go to end up yourself, I'm gonna do it here. That's me Morgan the same If you can't keep players on the field and then the conversation out in the world is like it's not a place that is

Safe not safe. That's the wrong term to use But like you're not getting the help you need and you're not able to get on the field then like that's you're going to start to lose that credibility and that that name that you've built because We spent all of the end of last year and the playoffs and the offseason being like Michelle King has invested in an unprecedented way Rowdy is an unbelievable atmosphere. You know, it's on her Aldez is arguably the best coach on the planet This is where players want to be They will find ways to get there if there is opportunity

I think that goes away To some extent if the feeling is you're not getting the treatment that you want to be able to get there And then as you said as a product in a business You're not putting it out there on the field of they've gotten the results this year. It hasn't been the entertainment product they'd want it to be because they're not able to do the things they want to do. You're not able to sell and market the stars that you want to. And you may not be able to push for the trophies. That is what this is all built on. The playoff runs and hosting championships and hosting challenge cups. Like that's what a fan base is created around

that's what memories and connections are created around and it becomes unavailable rose koasi did return for this game which is a nice pickup for them koasi showed last year her ability to fill in for a lot of different holes and gaps in the second half of the year again a signing where we talked about when she signed of like oh oh, this is one for the future. And then immediately it became one for the present because of the injury issues that they were dealing with. And gift Monday comes into the team and ends up getting the winner.

So the way I saw this one, and I know you were on the broadcast, so somewhat similar, cause I heard you all talking about it. But Orlando came out and played the game they wanted to play. They were fairly dominant through the first half, could not find the finish, and then the goal comes in a bizarre moment, you could say, but good work from Washington to press

high and make Annamore House make a decision. At a minimum, makes the wrong one, and Washington ends up breaking a 22-match home unbeaten streak for this Orlando team. What did you, what do you, how do you take this result and how do you sort of do you extrapolate it out with Orlando, let's say, or is it just sometimes the ball doesn't go your way? I think that I take two things away. One for each team. For the spirit, we get to talk

to the coaches all the time and we've said this on the broadcast so I can say it again. Jonathan Heraldas talks a lot about we need to speak the same language and he said it a lot last year and what he means is like, we're going to press, we're going to press. If a player is going to sit back and we're going to wait, we're gonna press, we're gonna press. If a player is gonna sit back and we're gonna wait, we're gonna control the tempo with how fast our passes are. And then when we want to lure a team in, maybe it's a little slower, so they start to come. And then that's the language he's talking about,

this language of football. And when I watched the spirit now, even with all these changes, in this game, I felt like they were on the same page. They knew that they were going to have to defend for their lives. And over the last, what we can't call it quite a year and a half, but where have Washington been elite in defensive moments where they then transition into the attack, right? That's how Croix Bethune was getting

all of her goals in assist. That's Trinity scored a lot. Ulay scored a lot in those moments where they would sit in a mid block, win the ball back and go. But now we're just seeing it in different spots. And I thought this Washington team, the biggest takeaway I got from them is they're going to be hard to break down. When they went to press, like the times that Orlando did have a goal kick and they would press,

like those were some of the best moments for the spirit. Tara McKeown had Barbara Bannon in her back pocket. She had an excellent game. Rebecca Bernal is elite and is going to continue to make this team much better than they could ever have been. I was really confused about the start of the game and the swip swap of center backs. I think it got much better in the second half when they went back to their normal sides. But I think for the spirit, I think this team is going to be really good defensively and that is going to earn them a couple of looks at goal no matter who's on the field. For Orlando, I think that they need to

figure out if a team doesn't give them the space that they want, how are they going to break a team down? Because those chances were there, Goss, but if you're not scoring consistently when you are playing against a team who's in a little bit of a lower block, are you going to have the year that you had last year? Are you going to fulfill the potential that you have? I think that's the question that I have for Orlando, but I have a lot of faith that they'll figure it out because if that's really the one thing that you're working on, because everything else looks pretty good,

like, isn't that a bad place to be? And if that game gets played out, you know, nine times out of 10, it's at worst a 0-0 tie. Like, if that's your worst case scenario, that's a pretty high floor for what you're capable of. And I think there's an element. I, it feels maybe like everyone in NWSL was like, okay, finally one went against you. Like Orlando has lived on this edge for a while over the last year.

They have become experts at closing teams out or seeing out the late tie or the late win and this time it doesn't happen but that ability to break down teams in that final third and We've talked about on the show to me. That's always the last step which is the hardest thing to do It's the hardest thing to do and they built from the other side of the field They built as an elite defense in their spine up the middle then transition goals March is obviously special in their spine, up the middle, then transition goals. Marz is obviously special in Earlway, but it is the hardest thing to do. It is the thing all great teams have to do because it's the way people will play you.

And specifically for Orlando, it is the thing that they are finishing on in terms of their game model and development and all of that. It clearly is the thing that they're choosing to end on or that's the way they built this whole process. So that's always going to be that last piece that comes. But I don't know that you would have said all of last year that Washington would be the team that could then make that stand out. They did in the final, but they did it because of their possession.

Orlando just didn't have the ball enough in the final. And so this was a completely different game. And I think that's, like you said, the exciting part of like, it felt very clear that Tara McEwan has learned from her experiences playing against this team, playing that position, very new to center back position, playing at the international level. She looked more physical the way she physically engaged Barbara Banda being the first one to sort of hit rather than get hit Being able to step forward at the right times cut off angles on long balls

So you're not in a foot race straight ahead but you start to force Banda to take a wider angle like all of those little things that felt like Mickey own did to keep them alive in the first half and to keep the team sort of settled and engaged and Then you get into the second half and you're able to create the opportunity, which you have to press. Like that's an effort thing. We choose to press that. Annamore House tries to cut back against it. Has it taken away? You score. I don't remember what your call was. What did you make of the goal called off for Orlando? Yeah.

You don't remember what my gift call gift Monday? No, no, no. I was saying, I don't remember what your take was on the VAR. Yeah. I, I think that the, the VAR, I felt like I could have seen it go either way. Like I think that it looked like Tara or sorry, it was a Daner. It looked like in a Daner maybe It looked like Nadanar maybe hip checked blood. So, oh my gosh, look at me. I'm just like Kingsbury. I said her maiden name.

It looked like Nadanar hip checked Kingsbury and that obstructed her from having a route at the ball. And we got to talk to pro yesterday and I asked about that and and they're like well things are heightened in the box, right? Like everything is heightened, especially around a goalkeeper because they if they can't if they don't have you know if they're obstructed like that their job is to protect the goal and if there is no goalkeeper in in the right place, like it's probably not lack of trying it's probably the goalie's trying and they can't get there and so they said it was an obstruction

call they were happy with it but I think to me it looked like it probably could have gone either way like it looked like maybe there was a push from the spirit player into Nidana into Kingsbury so I could see depending on the referee that could have gone in a different direction. What was the language that they use there of? I have to find my notes. They're right here. You want me to grab them? Sure. Yeah. Hold please. As Jordan goes along, this is great radio for everyone. And shout out to Douglas in the chat, talking goalie interference on in hockey as well. My rough take was I thought it was a poor call in I didn't think it was worth overturning and I thought that Nadena has the right to try and get under the ball and be a part of

the play. And I think since she didn't go for the goal. But the contact also doesn't come in a way in which it's like you're here and all of a sudden you're reaching out and pushing or grabbing. It was like backing towards where the ball ends up being and the goalie is there as well. Sorry, uh, hit us with that language and then I can understand why I'm completely wrong. They just said because of the situation inside the box contact with the goalkeeper, their, their idea of contact is heightened. So they,

if there is contact with the goalkeeper, they are going to see it. Their senses are heightened to that, right? And there was clearly contact with the goalkeeper. And to me, she was obstructed from having, I mean, if that contact wouldn't have happened, she would have gotten the ball and it wouldn't have just like thrown it into a defender's head that bounced in. I don't think she would have done that. So I get that. But I also feel like I agree with you. This is where I think there's a little confusion is like, is there enough evidence that that should be overturned? Because it was, I don't know. It was a tough call for the bride. I don't know that yeah, it was it was a tough call for the pride

It's one of those where I get the point there being basically like now in this situation We are leaning 60% towards if there's contact the goalie got fouled problem being if Aubrey Kingsbury comes out and punches and The goalie chooses to make a motion and makes contact is that on the player and we all know a million whistles go Every corner kick there's a penalty and a foul on every corner kick Somewhere in the box like all of this happens and I thought this is a bad exact if I was giving examples of this To a refereeing course or to fans who don't know I would not choose this one because I don't think it really fits into the Is just screening the keeper for the sake of screening the keeper and making life chaotic and if that's the case Maybe at some point we have to talk about you cannot be inside this

Three foot three yard line to the goal line because what's the world in which the player who's standing in front of the goal on the line is not going to make contact with the goalkeeper if that's where the ball gets played? Yeah. I think since, I don't know, I'm not, thank goodness I'm not a referee, but I think if maybe she comes, because of the angle at which the ball was coming, it was coming back across the face of goal onto the far post. So Kingsbury was going backwards to try like to her right to try to save it. And I felt like Nodaner was coming back into the goal into Kingsbury.

So it wasn't like they were going at the same, like they weren't parallel to each other. There was clear contact there. And I think that because there was contact, and it obstructed Kingsbury, then that was going to be the call. Yeah, we left end of yourself championship talking about whether Lacey Santos got fouled or not in the attacking half, leading to the play that now they're even goal. So now you get to even it up. Either way, it is a

monumental result for Washington. It is a tent pole moment, I think as a group to say whatever challenges we are facing, we as a group can play above our level and overcome it. And I think that's a lot for going to our all this to lean on. I think for Orlando, that's a lot for you on a 10 hour all this to lean on I think for Orlando You break a 22 match a home unbeaten streak, but in this way against the team that's a contender I don't think it's gonna sit with you too long if you're able to turn around and get yeah a new performance and that's Gonna be an opportunity for them on Friday night, which we will preview coming up in the meantime while this happened

out in Kansas City, Casey current took advantage and they moved to the top of the NWSL table by themselves a 2-0 win for them. Another early goal, another shutout will talk about the defense and all of that, but it was a 2-0 win over Houston. This time a goal either side of halftime Lola Bonta with the ballerina pirouette this time coming out of the penalty kick that she put away. Second straight penalty kick for her as well. And the KC Courant, I think it feels very clear, stand alone right now as the best team in NWSL.

Yep. They're there. Only them at the top of the standings, the last team to be undefeated. I think similarly to what we felt about Kansas City and Orlando last year is there is a little bit of a fear factor when teams play them. I think a lot of teams, rightfully so, change the way that they play. A lot of the teams actually just don't change the way they play, but you can tell that they're playing scared. And they're thinking about all the bad things that can happen as opposed to like, we're on the same playing field as this team and we can go in there and break through their lines and play confident.

And I feel like we've seen that a couple of times now where teams just almost, it feels like they deflate quickly because there's just so much pressure from Kansas City. They have so many different ways that they can hurt you. And teams are like, if they don't change their structure, they definitely change their mentality because it doesn't look like they really believe at moments that they can beat this current squad.

And that's what we saw from Houston. And I, I took it and I think you can take it in two different ways. I think one way you can take it is what we sort of just said about Washington, which was they are probably right now the way they're set up in the experience they have, they're probably not capable of opening up the game and crushing Kansas City in possession and therefore to choose not to. I actually think they defended fairly cleanly in this game for the most part. So you could look at it on the one hand and say, okay, they're better at this thing we

thought they'd be bad at than expected, which is a club in your bag, which sort of can give you a little bit of confidence even though they don't get the result. Or you could go the flip side, which is for a young group under a new manager who was going to live and die by these fundamentals and try and jump up the table and a way to do that is to change your style. Having stepped away from it so quickly is a little worrying. Which side of that do you follow? I feel like I still have hope for Houston and what they are building there, but I just don't think it's as easy as it looks sometimes to take a team with a new coach and to get players to come

together. Let's be real here. Seb Hines had two and a half years to really build a team before we were seeing the fruits of that labor. Andrew was at the club before that. And he was at the club before that. And yes, we can see other coaches come in and, and see something spark right away, but I don't think that's the reality within every single organization. So I am, I want them to stick to what they're doing.

And there has to be a balance and a knowledge, especially from veteran players of like, okay, we're going to try our best to be a possession dominant team, which Houston wants to be, right? But there are going to be times in games where that doesn't make sense. And that's okay if it doesn't make sense. And we can be a little bit more direct there. And then as long as as a unit, we trust each other at those moments of like playing through versus playing

direct, we just stick together and we go together. Like if it is direct, all right, let's step our lines up and let's go press a little bit higher and see if we can win the ball back in a better place. If we decide to play through, let's make sure our passing structure and our help off the ball is in good places so we have the ability to play through. I just think that Houston needs to stick to it because they do have the players to play that way, but it's not going to be easy at the moment you're going to like, you don't want to get

blown out by Kansas City, but they play, um, who are they playing this weekend? We just talked about it. Do they play Chicago? We just talk about it. Um, Utah, like this is a great, this is a great opportunity to, yeah, to just be your, be yourself and take some of what you've learned from all these different. I just think that it's building Yeah, and we all thought it was gonna be like oh right away Houston is gonna be this great team No, it takes a little bit of time and I still think they have the right pieces

They just have to stay bought in and gosh, I'm gonna be real Their big name players need to step up. Yeah And gosh, I'm gonna be real. Their big name players need to step up. Yeah. It's also interesting though, cause it's like, so Deanna Ordonez and Messiah Bright right now are trading off the center forward position. So it's like, they both need to step up,

but which one will? And are they being put in the right situations? And obviously this whole thing, a lot of it's built around Yasmin Ryan, who's just never had to be this individual in a group, at least expected this way. She was last year for Gotham, but it was unexpected, and then injuries occurred, and then she ended up

elevating to that spot. And so you don't wanna go to Kansas City and get killed, but also you do wanna stick to who you are. And I think one of the things that's tough with Houston right now is just, a lot of what I feel like I'm seeing from San Diego is what I expected to see from Houston. So you are completely right in like having patience and it taking time and building. Then you've got a first year manager on a team that struggled last year and fire sailed

their whole roster and flipped the team and they have been one of the most fun teams to watch and they went to Orlando and stuck to their guns and I thought played one of the better games we have seen and Just couldn't get the result and so that's sort of the balance you have to find but there's a moment in this game in the 18th minute I think it's the first time Houston really built through Kansas City's pressure and they get higher up the field They they bounce off of bright at midfield They're able to get it over the top to Ryan who's waiting for help Has it taken away showing a picks up the ball and all of a sudden it's a

potential penalty kick the other way which Jill Lloyd and what's right on top of which the AR referee didn't see whatever but like you felt the danger immediately you're like oh Houston they broke lines they opened up the game and within 15 seconds you've got showing in space and it's like all hands on deck and this is I think to me, obviously, clearly the best team right now and to be news play MVP level and be is back in the team and it's really tough. Three penalties and five games for this Kansas City team.

I've seen it be a little conversation to me, teams that play aggressive that play in the attacking third and that play direct will always earn penalties. And so you can complain about that stuff, but you got to go and look at intent and style. And maybe over a long season, there's there is some outliers that might be a little bit weird. But often, they're very explainable of this team attacks people and attacks people in the box, or this team makes you play in your box so often that mistakes become penalties

And that's the case right now for Kansas City. They're fun to watch and then defensively 401 minute shutout streak. It is the franchise record the record in NWSL was set last year by Orlando at 538 minutes. So you're basically two games away less. I don't know that Kansas City gets there. But what a sea change from last year, which was we're going to beat you 6465 to a 401 minute shutout streets start pretty much to start the year. And just remember last year we were every broadcast call which, you know, every week different broadcasters are talking to these coaches. So Vlachko and Anovsky, I think for six weeks in a row had to answer,

well, what's going on with defensive corner kicks? You guys keep giving up goals on defensive corner kicks. We have to ask these questions. Are you changing your structure? Are you changing your mentality? What's going to be the difference? Because they gave up so many set piece goals. That is not the case this year and there feels like there is a different mentality about this team when it comes to how they defend set pieces, really just how they defend in general and they have become a really cohesive group from Lorena all the way up to Shewinga up front. Like this team is hard to break down and they're

hard to stop. They are a juggernaut right now and they're going to look to continue to do so. Once again, this weekend, let's go off the field though. Now Angel City, they're looking for their turnaround, their rebuild, and we finally have official confirmation of who will be in charge. Of course, Mark Parsons hired as the head of the sporting side of things in December. Brought in Sam Laiddy as the interim manager had mentioned in an article a few weeks ago that they were down to their final few options and a couple of them were gonna be unavailable and the assumption was that was because they were

coaching full-time over in Europe and waiting for the end of the season and that is the reality so Alexander Strauss Norwegian born came up through the Norwegian leagues was a head coach in Norway and then took over Bayern Munich in Germany and helped turn the club around in a league that was fully dominated by Wolfsburg has won the last two Bundesliga titles and the expectation is that they are on the road to winning a third one this year and he will then take over things in LA for Angel City officially on June 1st. He is the first NWSL head coach with Bundesliga experiences as first as as well as the first Norwegian coach

Which is a little bit shocking but a 49 year old coming over to take over things in Angel City Jordan I have to say obviously the name Wasn't sure who would be but I think in the end the profile was probably what I expected After the way mark Parsons has talked about this and the timeline of what has gone on. Once you blew through the start of the season, you assumed it was going to be a European head coach who wasn't coming over anyway. Yeah, I think there with how many options there are or places there are to be a head

coach. I think there's very few like really truly good head coaches, like elite head coaches in the women's game yet. Are there good head coaches? Yes. But elite, elite, elite to like really turn heads. And I think that this is a good signing to be fair. I don't know much about Strauss and what he can offer in his style of play, but I know

German football and I know it is very structured, which I feel like we've seen a different structure to Angel City already this year, um, good mentality, good work rate, and this is what Angel City wants. They, this is a guy who led Bayern Munich to back to back championships and going for a third. And I think everybody looking at this league and the valuation of this Angel City team is they know that this is a really good squad and they want to win championships. So you bring someone in with championship experience and yeah,

we'll see what he can do in LA when all the lights and the stars are looking his way. It hasn't worked out yet for this club. And so the hope is this is start of the formula that puts it all together. And obviously, I think what what's clearly been set up is like Mark Parsons of the sporting You know ethos of everything and that's what allows you to have the flexibility to do this because you have someone who's around that's setting this style and you assume that

Strauss will come into what has already been put into play. We've seen some bright spots from this Angel City group They're very young. And so your hope is that you're now bringing a manager in for a long time. I think that you can build this whole thing with the Thompsons and with Fuller and with Turner and all of these options that like, can we put something together for five years that ends up being something great? And it feels like what he built at Byron is the case Sort of a blank slate, but also having these pieces that you're working with having a history but not having it be recently as

Successful as you'd want it to be and then being able to get over the line and be able to win things again Some of the toughest teams in the world. And so that's what Angel City is hoping that this whole thing is geared around. But I do find it interesting. You're not wrong. And like, are there that many elite coaches? I think of this with all sports. I think there are like, I think for the most part, sports come down 90% to talent and health.

And like coaching is 10%. Sometimes in soccer you can convince me it's more and a lot of times it's just right place, right time or right fit. And then sometimes it's like this coach gives a clear advantage to the teams that they coach. If there are so few of them, I think at some point you're kind of guessing and you're hoping. And if that's the case, I think it would be nice to guess and hope with people more often who are associated with the league because part of what you're building with NWSL is trying to promote the fact that the soccer structure here is good enough.

So if you're saying the players are good enough and the medical trainers are good enough and the broadcasters are good enough, at some point you also have to state as a league that the coaches are good enough and I think part of that is making sure former players are put into pathways to become future coaches right we how many times are we gonna hear that baby and as is the only former NWSL coach like there should be more of that and then the other is opportunity and so I think if you look at it and you say, okay This is sort of the third straight Male European coach from a big club to come over behind Jonas Eidevall and you know, Nathan Heralde's it

Both of them have been successful I get it if you're trying to put together a team to finally be competitive in a way Angel City expects to Looking at what you want to side of all has done so far and Jonas Haraldas has done, it's pretty attractive. But I think there are more than one way to go about this. And I think if you're trying to be proactive as clubs, you've got to find ways to give other opportunities to people who maybe they haven't proven they can do it yet. But Alexander Strauss is not, like he's never been around NWSL.

So like none of this is a given. Yeah, and let's remember there's always, you know, a Fran Alonso in there. Like it's not every coach from Europe is going to be the best coach, right? And, you know, I think Jimmy Kunratz is still, he was great last year. Is he going to be the answer for this Utah team and can he continue to develop as he

needs this Utah team to develop? No matter who you choose as your head coach, there are risks associated with it. I am of the belief that I'm kind of a, like a, I like our nation and like what we can offer when it comes to our talent, when we can offer, when it comes to, you mentioned broadcasters, like I think broadcasters should broadcast US women's soccer games, should broadcast in our league. I think that we should have, I think our head coach of our national teams should be from the United States. That's just my opinion and that's what I think because if you're building these players up and they're good enough to be on the national team, there should be somebody

building them up at some point that's good enough to coach that team. So I think maybe coaches in America get overlooked. It seems like right now they do. I know Laura Harvey has talked about females getting overlooked and maybe a little bit more adamant about having a female as opposed to an American, right? Like just a female coach. But there are very few female coaches. There's just not as many female coaches as male coaches. So I don't know what Angel City's search looked like, but I do think there are really good coaches in the United States that could do a good job in NWSL, might not have NWSL experience,

but are good coaches. Just like Alexander Strauss is a good coach. Are they elite? I don't know. I think that you have to prove that you're elite. and one of the things I think is that's hard for me Is you have a setup right now where in end up is all you don't have Academy so you don't have opportunities for former players to get coaching opportunity because obviously I do a lot of coverage around Major League Soccer and like That's the path. That's the first step if you really want to coach

You are probably gonna coach a lot of players coach in around the academy while they're currently playing. Now there are massive academies around the U.S. that many NWSL current players choose to run camps for or coach if they want to. So that does exist or their college, whatever it is. But then the next piece is you become an assistant. It's a little bit harder when coaches that are building staffs don't have connections inside the league because they haven't been here before. You're not going to make former players your assistants that you've never worked with. So yeah, maybe in five years, right?

Yonatan Araldas and Alexander Strauss, their, their staffs are all former players in NWSL who they've liked and worked with and are connected to. But you have cut that off slightly because Their their number one job is to build a staff that they're comfortable with and obviously this is a bad example because we're talking about Your blah blah blah one color's armor I was turning to a former player as a goalkeeper coach who now had to be a technically a backup goalkeeper Last night in the game. So doing a little double I think she was coaching set pieces from the sideline while wearing the jersey and everything as well but like the these are the ways you get people into these spaces and

It seems a little bit harder To do that that does not mean it like we have said a million times that it would or won't be successful Either way, it's just the reality of where we sit right now Angel City will be back out on the field to start the weekend on Friday night. They will do so against Orlando. The lone game on Friday night, that one at 8 p.m. Eastern Time bounce back opportunity for both teams. I said I thought Angel City played OK against Gotham. I actually thought their defensive structure was OK.

I thought between the two boxes they were fine I thought you clearly saw the difference when Alyssa Thompson is and is not in this team yeah, he is already a Game-changer and so I think losing the focus on her which now puts more numbers in front of a Kennedy Fuller puts more numbers centrally and puts more numbers in front of a Kennedy Fuller, puts more numbers centrally and losing the threat in transition and then just her pure goal scoring ability. It just felt for Angel City a little bit less dangerous the whole game and there's no way to fix things if you're missing a superstar.

So your hope is that she's available for this one. Yeah. And I didn't really agree with making, you know, you don't have Alyssa Thompson, so then you actually switch two players. You bring Giselle Thompson up front, you bring Maria in as an outside back, and it felt like you could have just kept Giselle and played somebody else. Like, put Julie DeFore out there and put Katie Zelham as a winger tucking it inside and playing in the pocket.

Or Kennedy Fuller out wide. Or Kennedy Fuller. It didn't need to be two changes because one player was unavailable. And I felt like the back. Well, they already written Thompson in pen. So they had no choice. Yeah, you're right. You're right.

You're right. So I do think I hope the back line is whether or not Alyssa Thompson is available. I hope the back lines back to what it was before because that's Arguably the fastest back line in NWSL with all of those players having Savvy King and Sarah Gordon as center backs and Vignola and Thompson that's a really speedy back line, but they play high and this is the question I I asked Sam lady. Are you gonna change that and he's like that's how we want to play Well, you're probably gonna have to change out against Orlando or you're going to get smoked. So does Angel City adjust their, the, their line of, um, their back line

and how high up on the field they are and how much space they give in behind them, because that's going to be a real. Tell against this Orlando team. Maybe not against Houston, maybe not even against Gotham, because I don't think Gotham hurt them too many moments in that, but how high is their back line? And then also Angel City has to clean up set pieces. They give away yet another goal on an Aser corner kick.

They've given up too many goals on set pieces. They look susceptible and Orlando will punish you. It's either banned at the back post, McCutcheon following up, or a plethora of other options who are thirsty for goals in there. Kyle Aiden-Daner, operating around your goalkeeper as well. Yes, operating around the goalkeeper,

hopefully not fouling this time. Yeah, this has the danger to be bad for Angel City. It also has the opportunity to be like, no, we are here, because there has been moments like that so far this season where the possession has been good. They've had the group out there that they want and you see the path forward and you see the direction to all of it.

This is an opportunity to do that. So that's the big game on Friday night on Saturday. Two big games that we wanted to point out. First, Washington against Gotham. We talked about the injuries with Washington. You're hoping more pieces are available. You're hoping even more players come back. I don't know that I mentioned, but the conversation before the game, Yonatan Araldis said Cory

Bethune still two games away. That was before the Orlando game. So this might be the last game and there's no guarantee with any of that, but that's really promising for them. Fingers crossed that Casey Krueger or Hal Hirschfeld can get closer. We don't have a report yet on Ashley Hatch, which would be backbreaking. She has buoyed a lot of what this team has lost in her goal scoring, her ability to hold the ball high to get them higher up the field to release pressure, her flexibility to play all across the field as well. That would be massive loss for this team.

And this of course is a rematch of the semi-finals in the playoffs last year, which was fiery, was electric, went to extra time, went to penalties, had the argument between Sonnet and Trini Rodman and everyone else. This is one of the unfortunate things about the injuries is we built up last week, you could build up this week. There's all these great games

with all these great storylines. We're losing a little bit of it, but the points still count. All of this still matters, and I think you're looking at teams that are gonna be jockeying like we saw last year in that top four, and we saw how much home field advantage means

and how big these games are even early in the season. Yeah, this is going to be a really interesting one because it does feel like Gotham is getting healthier and are they able to utilize Jason purse for some more minutes? Cause I, I know they're coming on late as, as subs, but it does feel like every time those two have come on, there is like an intensity, a bite about Gotham that's really interesting. But Washington's hard to break down. I don't care who's going to be out there. I just talked about it. I think that they have a really good structure. They understand how they want to play. And this is going to

be, I think this is, could prove to be a better game than the Orlando one because I think both teams will feel like they can go after each other a little bit more. Like maybe Washington will be a little bit more, less hesitant to be like so back. Like it might be slightly more open. And your hope would be Lacey Santos can start, maybe Rose Quasi can go from the start so yeah you have more threat going forward more possession which allows you to open up a little bit and what we have seen the last two games Gotham it feels like if you open up word we're fine right yeah they're like let's

go and turn this into a sprint and if you start image purse then it's probably that takes it to another level because she wants the game to be open and will attack one v one as they're scored in the last game, just as playing at an unbelievable level and is doing so much for this group. There's not a ton of creativity around her right now individually. And she's like on a heater that I think if it continues we'll start to get into the Schwinga band of conversations of the best forwards I mean, obviously she's already around there but like pushing as the best forwards in this league

The final game we wanted to note here Bay versus Seattle is the late game 10 p.m. Eastern time on Saturday night On the field. This is super interesting. These are two teams I think that kind of sit around each other both in perception and in points and they've gone up and down They both got 1-0 wins this weekend for Seattle the rivalry game against Portland for Bay They went on the road at North Carolina and got a win after the disappointing performance against Chicago they're both still figuring themselves out and We got the big announcement from Bay that they are going to be playing in front of they hope a sold-out Oracle Field I think that's the name of the stadium. It is the San Francisco Giants Stadium. It is on the water in San Francisco

And its capacity is high what we saw with Wrigley last year They actually played in that game game but they talked about it the geography is way different like San Jose is not in San Francisco and so you connect yourself to maybe other fans who can't make the trip to come see you you also get connected closer to the East Bay and Oakland and all of that and these tentpole events that we saw the build up in the experience for Chicago around this this is a really cool thing I think for Bay to do and Bay's licking their chops because they went into Wrigley and they won that. So they're thinking, hey, maybe we're just really good at playing in baseball stadiums. So I think the capacity they were saying something is like 40,000. So I feel like they could sell that out in

this could back in August, which August in San Francisco all I gotta say is Burr that is cold. Love that. It is gonna be a chilly night. Those are the times I wish I lived there like cold is how you attract me. I don't want the heat. I don't want the sun. We are such opposite people. And you live in the mountains and I live at the beach. I know it's so funny. But yeah, that's a real, that should be a fun spectacle and hopefully they get a sellout there. But this Bay Seattle game, I'm intrigued, Goss, because both of these teams have shown multiple formations this year. Seattle have shown, I think Laura Harvey has gotten a lot of the tactics right

in the games. In the last game against Portland, they go man for man in the middle of midfield and really shook Portland up. I don't think Portland could figure out how to play through their midfielders in those moments. Will they do that against Bay who have attacking midfielder and Taylor Huff who's been everywhere and done everything and Kiki Pickett only scores bangers. Like I think that this midfield poses problems for Seattle and I'm interested to see what

this matchup actually looks like because I think there's a variety of ways that each of these teams can come in and play. Yeah, I like for starters for Seattle, it felt way different with Lindy and Dolo in the team. All the games she has played. It's a different threat. It's a way in which she gets on the end of through balls that now changes where a backline steps the way you play. It's an outlet as well for midfielders.

Meza is a ball winning dominant force. And then it's already, you know where you can go with it. Even if you don't look up and play the right ball, it's a threat. And then Deline can follow that up and give you another like, there's a lot of fun stuff of what Seattle has been able to put together so far. And I think a lot of that is where I'd like to see them lean. And like I talked about with the one like start with the yeah, nice. Start with the defensive base and the transition ability. I, I would love to see more from height.

We just haven't seen it like an NWS all kind of across the board. And my hope is the two forward setup helps her get there. Yeah. And they actually played, I thought they played a four three three with height Emma as a winger, but tucked inside a lot and like, because then it could isolate Deline. it could allow Maddie Curry to get higher. And I don't know. I don't know what Hytema's best position is. I don't know. She's, she's clearly not a big time goal scorer. That's not her game, which okay, fine. But is she then

better than Serna Gorsovich at playing as a winger and tucking inside and being next to Lynn Biendolo? I don't know. I don't know, because we haven't seen Cernov Gorsuch start instead of Hajdema. I just think what Cernov Gorsuch can add when it comes to crossing from those areas is a different level in Hajdema. So I don't know. I still have questions around Jordan Hajdema, but you're spot on when you say that this team looks different. I just think the hold up play of being dolo attracts so much attention and then it allows other players to have more freedom because on that goal, she's surrounded by five players and she figures out a way to get the ball to

Dulleen. So it should be a really good one. And the chance she almost scored where she gets played through, it's a slide rule pass that most players, it's not a threat. Like you're either not going to beat your player there or by the time you get there, the goalkeeper is coming out. But with B and Olo speed, the keeper can't feel like they can come off the line. Like there's all these question marks that happen because she's on the field and she looks healthier than at any point last year. I just,

we never saw a healthy or at least comfortable Linde and Ola last season and now you're seeing it with this group. Last one for you and then we're gonna go. You mentioned Huff with Bay. So fun to watch. Do you have a comp for her of like what who she reminds you of the way she plays because there's such force to me with the way she attacks the game both ways. And it's like super direct with a ton of quality and skill in there. The only name that came to my mind, but I don't want to say it before you get there. If you have a name you want to go with first name, but not on the defensive side.

Like I think it's a different. So you say a name you want to go with a name but not on the defensive side like I think it's a different So you say the name I think in some of the ways that she attacks it reminds me of Lauren Holliday Oh, okay, when she played centrally. Yeah, I was gonna say Lindsay Lindsay yeah. Yeah. Yeah of just like there's this overwhelming Physicality and athleticism and aggression that happens but it's paired with so much like skill Yeah, where I think to me that yeah Lauren Holliday I see but also was a bit more of a passer and obviously we don't know where I was gonna go In her career, but I just a lot of what I see from Huff

Just feels different than a lot of the other center mids in the league and it's the way I like to see the position played So I've really enjoyed watching her and it's cool that Bay's sort of giving her the keys. Yep. Yep. Stay tuned for our rookies list coming out. Oh man, I cannot wait. It is all I want to do. It's all I want to talk about.

They have of course added a ton to the league. So thank you to all of you for listening. Thank you of course to you Jordan for being here. Another great weekend of action coming up. We'll have all your coverage. I'll have the weekend recap. We're working on some interviews and everything else around the game as well. But we love all of you for being here. So we appreciate everyone in the chat.

We appreciate everyone listening and we'll talk to you again very, very soon.