OK, welcome to a 2025 NWSL Championship recap edition of Into the Channel podcast from about 1 football.

I'm your host, Dino de Suspira.

So as always, I'm joined by my coast Mr.

Grant Angle.

What is up man?

I'm feeling fantastic buddy, well rested after a fruitful, eventful trip to the Bay Area for the championship match.

It's good to hang out with you, good to hang out with our our pals in the media, all the crazy fans.

And it was, I think a good time had by all.

Well, mostly all.

Mostly all, indeed.

Yeah, it was great seeing all of the the fellow content creators, podcasters, writers, hosts, all the folks that you know, we whose work we quote, just kind of getting to put a face to a name.

That was a lot of fun.

And then, yeah, man, the players, coaches, everybody was super gracious.

The league was very helpful.

Shout out to our guys at BFC, Jeff and Emil, who, you know, looked out for us in a huge way.

And yeah, I agree with you, man.

It was great having you in town.

We got it.

We got to find a way to do more of it.

Maybe, you know, the ITC Darby and WSL Championship, maybe Champions League final.

We'll we'll, we'll, we'll figure out a way to get a couple more dates on the calendar because I definitely got a kick out of, you know, watching the game with you.

Apologies if I talked your ear off or, or ood and odd your ear off.

I'm a little bit vocal when I get up there, but had a lot of fun man.

Likewise, man, no, it was cool.

It was cool to like sit and watch a, a live match with you.

Even then, like you and I don't do like online watch alongs or anything.

So it's we don't we watch these games separately and come together to talk about.

It was cool to to discuss them in real time from the auxiliary press box in PayPal Park.

A pretty good view from up there.

Yep, Yep, a little chilly little chilly, but we were we did all right.

Shout out to all the, the, the, the friends we made-up there and and some friends that we bumped into in in the stadium shot to our guy Jose, who came up and said, what's up?

Appreciate you.

And like I said, all the people that we met, everybody was super cool.

Players were super cool.

Let's get into it, though, a match that actually let me rewind a bit.

Rewind a bit Mr.

Grand Angle where you want to get started.

Let's get started with the championship beverage, my good man's go.

I think it's only fitting.

So I was hoping to cheers to reach in the mountaintop.

That's right, cheers to you, cheers to the football, cheers to Gotham FC, because if you haven't heard by now, it'd be really weird for you to be watching or listening to this podcast.

But just in case, in the NWSL Championship in 20/20/20 in 2025, Pardon Me Gotham FC won Washington Spirit nil.

Who buddy what a result I mean where do you want to I mean we let's figure out where to get started.

I want to I want to get started Well first our expectations we both picked Washington to get the WI was talking to our guy Eric from expected old goals couple of nights before the final and I think I went even harder when I was talking to him about my prediction.

I was like, I just think Washington too fast, too busy, too dynamic.

I, I kind of felt like they'd be running circles around that Gotham midfield specifically, especially after what we saw Wash to do to Portland.

So that was fully my expectation.

We also saw Gotham struggle to get going versus Orlando.

Granted, it was on the road.

So I don't know, those were my expectations going in.

I know you also picked Washington, but what kind of game were you expecting going in?

On on our preview show, I picked Washington Spear to win one nil.

So I nailed the score, I guess, but I I just expected it to be like a hard fought battle where both of the defenses kind of stood up.

I think we got that in a lot of cases, but it still looked different than I predicted.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I guess I don't really know how I was envisioning, you know, one nil like with a bunch of shots on target, but I definitely expected more shots on target than we saw.

I definitely expected more shots on target and I I think I expected more penetration by these offenses.

You know, like that's a good way the talk of the of the week had been like, OK, well, these managers are are conservative.

It's a final.

It's going to be conserved.

It's going to be close to the vest.

I wasn't really seeing that necessarily because I'm like, all right, these these aren't really like defensive stoppers, you know, like even though that there are great big name defensive players on there.

But then you zoom out, man, like this Gotham side didn't allow a goal to the Washington spirit.

I think over 4 matches, if I'm not mistaken this season.

And then you and then you look at Gotham defensively, the eighth seed, they beat the one seed, the two seed, the three seed.

And over those three matches, they allow one goal, you know, and that was a super late 1 to KC And then they come back and and get the W anyway.

So it turns out Gotham defensively able to kind of hit another level or two.

And that that absolutely was not on my bingo card.

Yeah, likewise.

And, you know, we had the opportunity to chat with Jess Carter after the win.

Everybody can go check that video out.

And Gotham FC is in is in the title.

It's you know, the you'll know the video when you see it there.

It's on like this, kind of.

She's in the thumbnail type area where Jess is in the thumbnail too.

Oh, there you go.

There you go.

Good choice.

And I had mentioned to Jess Carter, you know, Washington Spirit plays a fast attacking style.

They play physical attacking style.

And I asked her what were, you know, how were you able to cope with that?

And in, in she, she gave me a friendly answer, but she kind of looked at me a little bit like, yeah, we play a physical style, like we play a fast style, like we're up for it.

So we were, we were ready for it.

And I could kind of tell, like, the competitive juices in it were like, Oh yeah, you think they're fast and physical, huh?

That's actually what we do.

Yeah, she checked you hard and then the mix out.

I loved it.

Yeah.

Because she was like, you know, I actually think we're pretty.

I think we're the.

She was like, you know, kind of like, you know, very elegant about it, but also came over the top, which I loved.

Speaking of that, like aggression and physicality.

There was a couple of matchups early that I thought couldn't, couldn't help but notice one of them happening on our side where we were sitting.

That was Midge Purse going to Kate Wiesner.

And I thought Midge Purse kind of set the tone early.

You know, we had talked about it a lot of the Gotham players, Jade and Shaw had talked about the first 5-10 minutes being super important.

After the game, Emily Sonnet talked about the 1st 15 minutes being super important.

So that was clearly one of the themes.

Shout out to Midge Purse who came out and was like, I want all of this.

You know, I did.

You just got to make made me think about the late great Harold Letterman who used to talk about ring generalship.

Tremendous ring generalship showed by Mitch purse just kind of wanting to go at Kate Wiesner.

But Wiesner, to her credit, super up for it.

You know, wasn't going to get ran over even though she got beat early once or twice.

And then on the on the diagonal side of the pitch, you had Lily reel and Rose quasi, which was another one.

You know, Rose got her a couple times.

Lily stood her up a couple times and that I mean, those two battles were just like those.

That was kind of where the game felt like it could turn.

Nobody could totally get the upper hand.

But those those two one on ones that was borderline.

Pay-per-view stuff.

Shout out to to Howard Letterman.

RIP to the legend.

All right, Jim, I had that first round scored 10/9 for for Gotham.

FCI thought they controlled the pace.

I thought they did pretty much what they wanted in those first 15 minutes.

Can I?

Can I?

Can I do my real quick?

Please.

Oh, how does it go?

He goes.

A fighter cannot be saved by the bell in any round except for the 12th and final round.

Jim, what a legend.

I love that.

Cheers.

Cheers to him for sure.

And yeah.

And you clocked it early when Jade John Roosevelt said that at the press conference.

You're like, I think they're going to try to start fast.

You said it in the preview.

You're 100% right.

Emily Sonic confirmed it when I asked her a question in the post match press conference.

She said that was a focus in training.

And you know, if maybe Washington Spirit wasn't watching, maybe they need to watch more of our videos because you had given it in the preview.

Maybe they needed to watch their their pre match press conferences because they kind of like Gotham kind of tipped their hand on that.

But they still went out and executed it perfectly at the beginning of the match.

Absolutely.

I mean, they were super aggressive.

I mean like the beginning of the match, literally Jaden shot 2 seconds into the match.

He tries.

He tries from from way downtown.

You know, you had Ester, you know, almost, I mean, putting the ball back in the net and you had you had the offside call.

But I was I was surprised how aggressive they were.

I think they got off at least three shots in the 1st 10 minutes, maybe 4 if I'm if I'm remembering correctly.

And then on the other side, Washington a little bit impatient, a little bit rushed, you know, no real kind of like, you know, talk about ring generalship.

I think they needed a little bit of that in the center of the park.

You know, I, I had mentioned to you maybe 10 or 12 minutes and I'm like, right, well, Kroy, you got to go get the ball.

Like, and you know, to her credit, she, she kind of cranked it up right around that 15 minute mark and was like, OK, I'm, I'm going to be involved in this game.

But to Gotham's credit, they didn't do anything other than play extremely disciplined defense.

You know, it was pretty much like, just don't give them anything.

Don't, don't give, don't, don't give it, don't give it away.

And like, to their credit, they just stood up, held up, you know, played extremely, you know, like I said, disciplined and organized and then watched it on the other side.

You know, we're used to seeing, you know, players all over the pitch in terms of like just running in and out, up and back.

Bernal, Terry McKeon, You know, two players I'm thinking about are are that get super active, you know, from deeper parts of the pitch.

We didn't see any of that from Washington.

Very straightforward, very vanilla, kind of, you know, a little easy ish to defend once quasi to Monday couldn't really get going in a big way.

We saw cantore, you know, kind of be like, right, I'm going to go get the ball down now.

Now it's cantore time.

That kind of kind of, you know, stalled out a little bit.

So, I don't know, it really was jarring to see Washington not able to get into a rhythm in the first half.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

They were able to, they were able to kind of shake loose because they were getting strangled by the press in the 1st 15 minutes for sure.

They were able to shake loose of it a little bit like middle of the first half ish.

You know, Corey Bethune had a really good turn, got some oohs and ahs from the crowd.

But then like a couple minutes later, Rose Lavelle had a had a great move getting more oohs and ahs.

And I was like, are we at PayPal Park or Rucker Park?

What's happening here?

Like the, the the players just kind of started to really play with some style out there.

What's your point about Mitch Purse going right at Kate Wiesner?

You know, we had talked in the press box.

Maybe that's going to be dangerous for spirit and Kate Wiesner, you know, in defeat.

Incredibly gracious with her answer.

I asked her about it.

I said, look, you know, Mitch Purse is one of the best wingers in the league.

You held your own out there.

What was that match up like?

And she gave credit to Purse, noted that Purse got her pretty good early on, but then thought that she was able to kind of scrap some back.

And I think as the first half went on, Washington Spirit were able to get like a couple, like they were able to win some balls, kind of able to move it a little bit more and just like at least tamp down the significant pressure that they were on in the beginning.

It didn't mean that they were like, it's not like they were generating a ton of great chances, but at least they were giving themselves some relief from Gotham's high press.

Yeah, I mean, Lacey Santos came back a little bit to get the ball.

You know, it it they, they, they got a little bit more patient.

But again, like, you know, they just couldn't, they couldn't move the ball along.

I mean, if you think about if you look at the passing, I think McKeon and Bernal both.

I think McKeon was like in the mid to high 80s.

Bernal was a shade over 90.

So they were be able to connect.

But after that, you know, ESB Morgan, you know, was was trying to do a bunch of stuff to her credit, lot of passes into the final third lot of activity.

But I mean, it just didn't it didn't come off offensively.

No, no, no other way to to put it.

And Washington couldn't really go too much else.

You know, which which was a little bit of a downer.

But again, this this one goes into halftime nil, nil.

And I had mentioned in the preview too, you know, if this one goes into halftime nil, NIL and both both teams are sitting at four or five shots, Gotham's probably high fiving.

That's like almost literally exactly what it looked like going into the half.

So I don't know when Gotham played their game.

I mean, shout out to them.

They they did exactly what they came out to do.

And I I totally agree with you on Wiesner.

That's that's a real player.

Lily reel jumped off, jumped off the pitch.

You know, as a player, I was just like, Oh my God, like the we're getting to to to see some of these players up close in some of the highest stakes football you can, you can kind of catch.

So that that was very cool in of itself as well.

Yeah, I mean, real had the had some of the Kawasi Monday matchup, if I'm if I'm remembering correctly.

And yeah, and and when you see Lily real in person, that's real.

Like I, I can't remember if when Gotham played at Seattle, maybe maybe real played, but that that press box is, is pretty high up in Lewman Field here in Seattle.

But when you can, when you see Real on the pitch, great size as a defender and can play a super physical style.

And she, as I'm sure Jess Carter would, would remind.

Me and her great size doesn't slow her down at all.

She can barely.

Clearly, she's still very.

Fast.

She can do everything that everybody else can do, and she's also big and very strong.

Yes.

And so, and just to to set, to set the record straight, what I was trying to ask Jess Carter was like, you guys are great at that.

So like I, I could tell that she was just like, yeah, I'll take you down right now, dude.

And I was just like, whoa, hey, Jess, I'm I'm giving you credit.

They play a fast and physical style.

I'm giving you credit for beating them.

That's it's neither here nor there.

I don't want any smoke and just just for the absolute record, I want no smoke.

But I.

You know, did I, did I maybe shuffle a few inches away from you and just was coming at you?

It's possible.

You're like, yeah, I don't know, dude, it's this joker.

We're just standing next to each other.

Yeah, exactly.

Hilarious that I would slightly annoy a player from the Lionesses, a player who I've cheered for many, many times.

Oh, good, though.

You know, it's all part of the game.

But I felt like after halftime, you, you talk about the Bats being had, you know, they would have been happy going into halftime.

Nil, nil.

You're right.

You were almost on the money.

Bats had five total shots.

Washington Spirit had three.

Gotham had one of those on target.

Spirit didn't have a single shot on target in that half.

All day, all day.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's a good point.

Not even one of those, not even one of those like ones from distance.

And it still felt though, and and correct me if I'm wrong here though, but it still felt like Spear was able to at least wrestle back some of the game.

I mean, they at least had the ball a lot more in the second-half.

Yeah, Early second-half, I think they got going a little bit.

They logged some shots, you know, I think, you know, Kroy, I think got a little bit more aggressive, you know, it just like the the chances were.

So I don't know, they weren't so few and far between, but they were so low quality.

You know, we're so used to seeing those Washington players go one-on-one, you know, go around the back over the top.

And yeah, it, it's just hard to describe.

But like, it was a 2 sided coin because like I said, Gotham was everywhere they needed to be.

And I kept thinking about one word that Adrian Gonzalez used in the in the pre match presser as well, where he was describing Gotham's attack as like very dangerous.

And we got to respect it.

And we got to, you know, and it's like, and to to some extent he's right, But also you're the manager for the Washington Spirit.

You know, like, do you want to like lose and go out like that with all that firepower?

Like, especially when not that you've been playing, you know, like basically, you know, Mike D'Antoni, Phoenix Suns basketball out there all season.

But that is where your strength is, you know, that that is where you might have an advantage, like athletic, dynamic, attacking, unpredictable.

And we just didn't see any of that.

We saw them kind of, like I said, play very vanilla, very straight up, you know, nothing, nothing too out of the ordinary.

And every chance that they did get every, you know, possession that did move into the final third, it it just looked like, you know, you're just watching XS and OS Everybody was like at the right place.

And it's like, OK, well, it doesn't look like anything's going to happen here.

And then you juxtapose that with the goal, Bernina to Lavelle, and what's happening, obviously, like Hirschfeld is, is kind of like mid jogging back onto the pitch trying to like, you know, get situated dealing with an injury.

But it was chaos in that moment and it was an absolute scramble.

And, you know, Washington could have used a little bit more of that, waited much, much, much too long to kind of turn the game and into something that could provide a little bit more variance.

I think that's probably fair and you called it right away after it happened.

But, and I saw Gotham FC mentioned it in their game recap on their website, which I thought was well written, but the pass from Sarah Szipanski to Bruninia, that long range, you know, cross field pass to get her on the ball and completely force the Washington spirit into a total switch, like change fields, we used to call it in my cruddy high school, you know, football that I played.

But Bruninia has the ball in several yards of space.

It's like she had a 10 yard Halo around her.

And then she's able to, you know, get it in there, dance with the step overs and then just kind of hit that outside of the foot pass, which, you know, for an outside of the foot.

Pass had good pace on it still.

She's like, she she hit it, Yeah, She hit it really nicely with.

And it was Laval coming on the leg and it was so nice in the within the rhythm of the step over.

It was like a round, a round, a round and then Wham, like right, right into Rose's path.

So cool.

Yeah, it was wild.

And I and I just think Schubansky, you know, deserves immense credit for for kind of opening like taking the top off the defense or opening things up however you want to, however you want to put it.

Well, it's a great pass.

And you know, when we asked Esme Morgan about it, she was just like, yeah, you know, you got to try to, you got to try to rotate, you got to try to account for the late arriving run.

But I think in her answer, which is in that in the Washington spirit, a post match video that you could watch for free on YouTube if you if you're so inclined, or rewatch.

I thought she was gracious about it too and or rewatch if you want.

And I just think, you know, the bats made a great play.

It's a great pass from Shupansky to open it up.

It's a great it's great pace and a great move by Brunini.

We talked about her pass and Lavelle times it perfectly and she hits the shot like like somebody who scores, who has scored a goal in a World Cup final, like she's Lavelle is built for this and and that's just kind of what happened.

Yeah, no doubt.

I mean, 3-3 on point actions to kind of like flip this game and the, the, the, I, I keep thinking about the, the, the move that Bernania makes before the past too, because I remember I'm sitting there and I'm like, hey, hey, you know, you could feel the, the the the stadium start to like, you know, do get charged up in that moment.

And the goal was just incredible.

But yeah, do great, great call out by you highlighting Schipanski on that play.

I loved, you know, Bernina's quote when we spoke to her when I, you know, I was just like, what, where does this rank in your career?

And she's just like best moment of my career, you know, and I'm I'm just glad to be, you know, tough to argue and and to have it be an assist.

You know, it is so cool, you know, to have it be like action, action, action, action and just kind of like mesmerize the entire building.

The entire building in that moment is watching Burdinia, you know, even though Rose Lavelle, you know, one of the most legendary players in the women's game, is just a few yards away running on everybody's in the trance at that moment.

And then credit to Lavelle, slaps it right into the back of the net too.

And just I don't blew the blew the roof off that place even though there was no roof.

Yeah, I mean, you know, she's 23 years old.

I think like, look at I'm I'm going to check.

I'm checking fat mob here.

You know what?

She helped win the Brazil under 20.

They won the U20 Feminino Economy Bowl in 2022.

But like, you know, you're just not going to get much, much better than this.

Obviously she's part of the this year's cocky FW Champions Cup winning team.

But but to win the NWSL championship match and you provide that assist coming off the bench, like, you know, I'm not.

So I'm not totally shocked that it's it ranks #1 for her and career in her career.

And of course, I couldn't do this without patting myself on the back.

Bernania had a translator with her, but I I could kind of see her eyes light up when I asked her about the play.

And I say, and then you find Lavelle for the late arriving run.

And I could tell in her eyes she was like, I know that I know what that term means.

I've heard that term in English many times.

And then she kind of looked at the translator was like, I'll answer this one in English.

And she, she did a phenomenal job.

So not only is she a great football footballer, but she speaks multiple languages just beyond talent.

Talent beyond anything I could ever conceive.

Yeah, yeah.

When she said I'm going to try to do this one in English, I was a little worried.

And then we started speaking English.

I'm like, she speaks great English.

What are you doing here?

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

But yeah, what a super moment for for Bernania.

That was so cool.

And then it it also reminded me of the MVP, you know, voting situation where, you know, everybody up in the in the press box gets an MVP vote.

So we both voted on, on MVP and we've got to get our vote in at a specific time.

That's not ideal, but we've got to get it in.

And we're just looking at each other like, right, what are we thinking?

What are we think of you?

And I think at that point, this was before the goal, you know, Tara Mceone, we, I think we both independently landed on Tara Mceone as maybe our MVP.

She had made some defensive, some big defensive plays, nothing really on the offensive side, but she had kind of been involved in in the most highest leverage moments, even though there wasn't.

There just wasn't that many.

We didn't mention Rose and Pat Rose has been good.

Jade Shaw's been good.

And then it was just so funny that a couple minutes there, she begs in the go.

We're like, oh, OK, I guess we've got our MVP sold.

It worked out nicely.

Great timing by Schubansky, Bruninia and Rose Lavelle to score that goal.

In that moment, I if I remember correctly, we talked about Mickey own, we talked about Lavelle, I think we talked about purse or.

I had Shaw I.

Think I had mentioned purse, I thought.

I thought Shaw had mentioned.

Shaw yeah, like she didn't really have the the moment moment, but I think, you know, James Shaw probably.

And and I'm I'd be curious your answer to this in terms of obviously we talked to almost every player some capacity or I I I had a couple extra days, you know, during the course of the week to interface with, with players from both teams, but spoke to a lot of players, we'll say.

And for me and I, I don't want to get your answer to this.

The most important, impressive player that I walked away from just being like, holy shit, like this player can take over world football if if she chose, if she like so chose and the dominoes fell that way.

Jayden Shaw to me isn't like an absolute superstar.

I think kind of threw the entire soccer world off the scent, you know, with with her North Carolina courage, you know, Foray and you know the way, you know the exit from San Diego.

But you know, we were all pumped when she landed in Gotham.

And she's just an absolute engine man.

And like she's ice cold.

You know, when you speak to her like you can just see that this person is almost like a like a football computer of a brain and can do everything out there and just, I don't know, not not a player that I'd want to play like maybe the player that I'd want to play against least I'll I'll say, and that's generally how I like to judge these things.

I think it's a good way to look at it.

And you're totally right.

I mean, clearly an incredibly intelligent young person who thinks a lot about the game, considers her answers, you know, to to media questions carefully too.

I think that I think that says something about a player, but not like thinks about him like, oh, I'm going to give a non answer.

She gives thoughtful answers as well.

So and, and when you talk about like just the footballing engine and we and we've we've talked to a bunch of people about this, I think I feel like we've talked to Leanne about it.

We talked to Mike Watts about it in the NWSL preview episode we did many months ago of like, OK, 9 1/2.

Is she 10?

Is she a winger?

Like what is it?

And she's just a baller out there.

And you can, I do think she is best in some kind of attacking midfield role because of what she can do.

I don't think I there was a time where I thought perhaps she could be a play as a traditional number 9.

I actually think that might be too limiting on her skill set for like some of the past that some of the touch passes that she's able to provide and then some of the great vision that she has.

But you can still use those things as a #9 But I just, it feels like the attacking midfield is probably where she should be.

And shout out to our guy Juan Carlos Amaros.

He seems to have figured that out pretty quickly.

Our guy indeed.

I shot him a message.

We'll see if we can get our guy in the show here in the coming week or so.

We'll see.

You know, yeah, I could get Congrats to the coach for sure.

But yeah, Shaw, I think kind of reminds me.

It's funny, as you were describing the attacking midfielder situation, the 9 being limited weirdly like this is this might sound so stupid, but to me, it makes sense in my head, even like just as a 10A little limited, you know, like can, you know, it's almost like, could you put Jaden Shaw in like an attacking midfielder spot alongside a traditional 9:00 and

10:00 and just be like, good, just go wherever.

Like, you know, like you're, you're part of this, this attacking unit.

And you know, we want to use your unit, your improvisational skills, your, your, your jazz skills out there to be, to be able to make stuff happen.

And I don't know, all of a sudden my money is now on Jayden Shaw to be able to like wreck games in a big way.

And I think, you know, just her finding a place in Gotham with those other players that could kind of like match her from a football IQ standpoint.

I think it's just paid, I mean, massive dividends.

And now we just kind of get to watch Jayden Shaw like for Gotham for a lot of years, Hopefully fingers crossed.

And competing for championships is just like super exciting.

And you look at that midfield that she's in there with, I mean, you know, so they essentially lined up in what kind of looked like a 4141.

That's what Fat Bob has it.

I think that's kind of that's pretty much how it looked.

I mean, you could probably make, you could maybe make the argument that at times it kind of looked like A4231 with Schupansky and Howl kind of maybe being more of a holding midfielder types, I think during courses of that match.

But you put Shaw out there with Lavelle, who is a straight up attacking midfielder, and then Mitch Purse out there on the wing.

And Jayden Shaw is, yeah, she's on the wing, but she drifts into the middle of the field and can really create a lot of value for you in there trying to get the ball forward.

So I'm with you.

And you know, who has the perfect opportunity to season those skills even more is going to be Emma Hayes.

And can you put Jaden Shaw out there when you have Kat Macario as your number 10 and Sophie Wilson as your number 9?

Like, maybe, you know, maybe there's a way to kind of figure that out with Shaw hovering around those two and maybe create some dangerous look.

So I know this isn't AUS women's national team episode, but like, I think it's a great point by you is that Shaw is one of those players.

It's like we'll get you on the field.

You're smart enough to figure out your role.

It's just the manager's job to come up with a plan to make sure that we at least kind of guide you in the right spot, but then you do the rest.

Yeah, yeah, no doubt.

I mean, I think they they've certainly, they're unlocking, they're unlocking stuff there.

And, and I don't know if you caught this, but Jaden Shaw's answer when we were talking to her post match, she kind of caught herself.

She was like, she was like, Yep, got it done this week, and now we're going to have to come back next.

No, actually, no, we won the championship.

Not going to have to come back next week.

Yeah.

Such a fucking machine.

I'm just like, holy.

Like, you know, you've got some of the other yogurt Gotham players.

They've got their, their, you know, champagne in the hand and they're just reeking of alcohol.

And she's just like, yeah, I'll be back next.

No, I mean, that was such a really funny moment.

She wanted to talk about things that they could also improve on for next week too.

And it's just like, yo, Jade, Jade, you lifted the trophy, season's over.

No, that's.

Awesome, I.

Mean yeah, she's a total beast.

Yeah, if, if, if I didn't, if I wasn't walking away with that impression already.

That moment.

It's just like, come on, man.

Like what?

What are we doing?

This, this one was going to win everything.

What was it going to hit?

I mean, well, anything else?

I'm not sure.

I had one other thing.

Maybe, maybe we'll we'll, we'll get to it before we get out of here, but is there anything else you want to hit before we got here?

There is something I want to talk about.

So we we talked to Trinity Rodman, who was understandably incredibly emotional after the match.

And, you know, she took, she took a moment as she was kind of doing the, you know, carousel, whatever you want to refer to it as.

After talking to many, several members of the media, she had to take a moment to compose herself.

You know, broke down into tears again, understandably so.

It's a very difficult evening for her.

A player.

We know her competitiveness.

We know her toughness.

And she could she, she gave her club 30 minutes.

She gave the Washington Spirit supporters 30 minutes.

She gave her fans all around the world 30 minutes.

And so I just want to talk about her for a moment.

She did not play in that match, dinged up or with a knock as is sometimes used by folks when describing athletes.

She is injured and I'm glad she pointed it out in that post match Prescott or in the post match availability where she noted that she had played 9 minutes in the build up of this NWSL Championship match.

I left PayPal Park with one of my primary takeaways being that she is 1000 times tougher than I thought and I thought she was pretty goddamn tough before this and one of the reasons.

Go ahead, please.

No, I, I wanted to add something and I don't think you're going to hit it.

If you remember when we're out in that back area, Trinity walks by and I'm just like, oh, I think you're like, oh, that's Trinity.

I'm like, they look like Trinity with a, with maybe like a bodyguard or something.

It looked like she was out of there.

Looks like she's gone.

She doesn't need to go talk to us.

She doesn't really need to talk to anybody.

You know, like that could happen at the post match presser.

You know, that we were post match.

We were kind of in a scrum area with a lot of people hanging out.

So you can kind of talk to whoever in a situation she walked through and then 10 minutes later what comes back through to, you know, be accountable to your point, answer questions, answer every question pretty much.

It wasn't, you know, there wasn't anybody shuffling her quickly off, you know, out into the back, which, you know, there was a there was some other, you know, big name players that didn't make it out there.

So Rodman absolutely did not have to do that.

And, but to her point, she came out, answered every question, was thoughtful and, you know, provided super duper important context, you know, to, to, to your question to her that, you know, to, to the, to the 9 minutes of playing time leading up to this, which I think was absolutely relevant.

You know, we're at the end of the season, these teams are as sharp as they can be.

It's a, an impossible spot.

And I, I totally agree with you.

I those few moments and then watching Trinity play like absolutely had a massive impact on, you know, kind of like how you think about a player like that.

Yeah, and I mean, you know, there are people who and I, and I understand this, like when Lucy Bronze played in the Euro final and then she revealed, I think it was a fibula or maybe a tibia.

I can't remember what the injury was.

And people were shocked by that and said, woah, why would you play on that?

And you think about like Tyrese Halliburton in the NBA or Kevin Durant in 2019 versus the Raptors.

And it's like, why would you risk some of your long term health when you could sit out and miss one of those matches for for a person like Trinity Rodman and Tyrese Halliburton.

But this is a program about women's football.

You're literally in the final.

Like you're literally right there.

You can't be thinking about well, or you can be I and I don't, I don't mind a player who sits out if they feel like they're too hurt to play.

If you if you're too injured to play, don't play.

But for a person like Trinity Rodman to show that toughness and to say I'm here, I'm going to give everything I possibly can for my club and my friends and teammates who all we all worked so hard to get here.

I just think it's important to give Trinity Rodman her due respect for a truly rare level of toughness to go out there and compete the way she did.

A.

100% cosign.

I mean, I think that was that was for sure a moment, you know, on the pitch and in our conversation with her.

Absolutely.

Yeah, I think well said had to be said.

And I'm, I'm glad you brought that up.

If I could add one last thing, and I would imagine several of our Internet pals share this sentiment.

I hope Trinity Rodman does not kick a football competitively until she has rested and rehabbed her injury all the way back to where she feels comfortable.

And I hope she does not competitively kick a football until those significantly larger direct deposits start hitting, no matter what club is smart enough to pay her.

Mm Hmm.

Yeah, I think I'm not gonna say the the thing that I was thinking.

I I already told you at this at the game.

We'll talk about it later.

I'll tell you after the show.

But all right, man, is there anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?

I feel like there's a couple other things she's not, but I think, I think, I think we've got to everything.

We got to everything Srini Robbins not going to arsenals.

Just knock it off and the.

That's not what no, that wasn't the that wasn't the nasty rumor that I started.

I started a different rumor, but I can't talk about how that rumor came to be.

No, that that's fair, that's understandable.

And one more time for our guy Juan Carlos Amados, 2 time NWSL championship winning manager.

He was a he was the Co manager and I and please for our Internet pals, correct me if I'm wrong on this, but if I understood everything correctly, he was the Co manager at Tottenham Hotspur in like the late twenty 10s.

Who's Co manager with Karen Hills, who is an accomplished manager herself.

But just think it like women's football is changing.

It's it's everything is, is is, you know, kind of trending up.

Well, I don't want to say everything is trending up.

Everything should be trending up.

The teams need to continue to get better.

Treat these players as professionals, make sure the infrastructure is better.

But just shout out to our guy who also at, I think at one point during the post match presser, Juan Carlos said, you know, I think about these things more as I'm getting old now I'm 41 years old and you know what, shout out to you Juan Carlos.

You're 2 years older than I am.

I'm in my latest 30.

You know what, We are getting older and we're maturing quite nicely.

Yeah, a couple.

Look at you.

Look at you young fellows enjoying your your.

Well, you're not quite there yet, but you're a few days away.

But yeah, the 40s, they're a good time.

It's a good time to peek.

If you ask, if you asked me.

I like it.

All right, man, quick.

Oh, before we add here, quick episode calendar.

What are we doing?

What are we doing?

Obviously NWSL 252025 season a wrap, you know, very successful if you ask me.

Little bit of bias.

US women's national team though.

Back in action this Friday and Monday.

We'll be back to talk about both of those after that, a little chain Zig match Day 5 preview, apology, apologies.

We didn't really dive deep into match day 4, just cause too much, too much NWSL happenings this weekend, but we'll be back with A2 parter December 9th, December 10th.

Match Day 5 gets rolling, so we'll break down all nine matchups over those two days and we'll get that previewed well before a few days before, so you'll be able to get fully caught up.

Make sure you're subscribed following your boys on all the socials.

All right, man, I think we did it.

Anything else you want to hit for you out here?

I think we've we've comprehensively done it.

My good man.

Thank you to everybody who's just with the kind words about like happy for us with the access we got checking out the videos.

I think we got more NWSL video views than we've ever had in a single week, so we just really appreciate you guys hanging out with us.

Yeah, no doubt, Yeah.

And everybody that that commented absolutely appreciate you.

Boy named Blue and there was Kobe too many to name.

Just I should have probably written them down, but you already know what time it is.

We appreciate each and every one of the folks in the ITC community.

And yeah, I mean, we, we did our best out there, I'll say that.

And you know, I don't usually do this.

I hate to kind of do this and then and I'm going to do it.

I'm not going to ask her to do it.

But your boys came out of pocket a little bit to kind of cover all of this, all of this good NWSL goodness.

So if you want to support the show, if you can, if you're in a position to support the show, if you're not, no worries.

Keep rocking with us.

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But a lot of great merch available.

Go check it out.

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Thank you for watching, listening, hanging out with us over the course of this entire 2025 NWSL season.

If you enjoy the show, you already know what time it is, you already know what to do Follow, subscribe support.

We appreciate you links to all the above much, much more in the description of this episode.

And a big thank in my coast as well, Mr.

Graham Angle for lifting the trophy.

You know, we, we were there on the pitch in San Jose.

You know, I had to dust some confetti off our shoulders.

I mean, we didn't win anything technically, but I think we did a little bit of winning this week in San Jose.

So I appreciate you, bro.

None of it possible without you.

Likewise, my good man the life producing everything that you were able to put together.

I mean, I know people have already commented your award show coverage, the the media day coverage, absolutely phenomenal.

I would say we more the random hotel episode, I would say, I would say we absolutely won something directly and we couldn't have done it without all of you.

As we've mentioned before, thank you for always dropping knowledge, being so kind in the comments.

It's the only corner of the Internet where kind people seem to reside and we and we could not thank you enough for all of that.

So thank you all for watching and we will see you all next time.