A really important goal in the game, I think, was Deyna Castellanos' goal. I have the feeling she could be really great if she can find her place with the team and confidence seems to be really important. If she can get going, it will make a really big difference. The other goals were great too, for the players, but I think hers may have been the most important in terms of a player's advancement.
It will be really interesting to see what opposing teams are going to do about Hanks. As they had to learn how to defend against Sophia, they are going to have to learn how to defend against her. Hopefully, that will open up scoring opportunities for other players.
Regarding the Macca or Bella question, it looks to me like Macca has a calming influence on the players on the field. Especially with such a young team, that is important. There's a reason the players elected her as co-captain along with Sam.
Yes, the players voted for Macca as co-captain, but there is more to being on the field than that. Kling was co-captain last year, as I recall, and yet most of her time was on the bench that final year.
I still need to vociferously object to Rob Gales handling of Bixby. The first game she played she was awesome. And I like the fact that she figured out when to goal-kick long (therefore preventing opponents forwards intercepting the ground ball and going straight a attacking goal) and when it was more than safe to pass on the ground to a Thorns left or right back. Macca looked to have no such recognition. To me that is frickin' scary. But Rob Gale? He switches from Bella to Macca because Rob's strategy for the defense versus Seattle sucked, sucked, sucked big time. NOT Bella's fault in any way what so ever.
There may yet come a time when Bixby pushes Arnold out of goal permanently. What we saw from Bella is extremely encouraging. It's a good problem to have.
This season it seems like teams have book on Chawinga,she is scoring a lot fewer goals. But I have the feeling that the cast around her is playing much better. She is an amazing player and won't be slowed down for long.
I think everyone will be planning for Hanks from now on,. but the cast around her is also good and if you cover her with a double team, then as you say other players will benefit.
Chawinga torched the league last year. The season has just started and like all strikers, the next season after you've destroyed the record, you're not going to break the record again. But she'll still scare the crap out of the other team, and they'll still strategize around stopping her. She'll still score a lot of goals.
Macca v Bella: I struggle to be objective b/c I adore Bella- she has a great history w/the Thorns (eg, her text urging fans to Prov Park) & my intro to Macca was when she was called out as the worst keeper at the Olympics & the announcers pitied Thorns fans. They have both been strong this season- I’d prefer Bella but Macca has been doing fine lately & is the starter given Bella’s time off the team- doesn’t feel right to bench her..
I love Rella too, have a signed Bella soccer ball on my desk, in front of me right now. I can take either Bella or Macca. Also, I agree with ThornsFanSFBayArea that the Seattle goal was not a negative against Bella. I'm ambivalent about distribution for both of them, although Bella appears able to produce a longer kick. In terms of projecting confidence to the rest of the team, I think Macca is a little better.
In other circumstances, I might want Gale to rotate them regularly, but with a team this young, especially on defense, I think a little more consistency in goal could be helpful. As I said, I can take either one.
Yes I will miss her she has grabbed the reigns as Captain both verbally and by example. But Jessie and Hina are both leaders as well and captains. Jessie for her national team and Hina was Captain for the Nadeshiko for their last international. I get the sense that Hina communicates well with her Thorns teammates despite some language barriers.
Agreed. However, let me say that I doubt Hina has language barriers with her teammates at this point. She's been with the Thorns long enough now that while she may not be fluent in English (for all we know she's been taking English-as-Second-Language classes, or self-study online) there are not a lot of words in soccer that are unique or require complete sentences. Before I got too old to run sprints, I used to play pick-up games at the park where all the others were South Americans. I picked up enough words to say in Spanish what needed to be said to communicate. One word, sometimes two words was enough.
Mind you I don't think this is likely. I think Inter will beat Barça, especially after that exhausting 120-minute Clásico that Barça played yesterday, and Arsenal-PSG is a tossup. So the odds of the men's final being Arsenal-Barça look pretty low. (That matchup being the women's final is now 100% of course!)
So- what do we think? Is Hanks going to be incredible from now on & never look back? Is the team gellified (yup, made that up) & gonna start scoring/winning consistently? Or was that a Gotham hiccup? Please tell me why it’s not a hiccup…
It's a hiccup, but it's a promising sign of things to come. But the league is just way too unpredictable right now to put too much stock in that win. I mean, NC come back to score 3 second-half goals on KC for the win? Come on.
That NC win really was kinda shocking. I can live with promising. I appreciated Hanks’ comments about players intuiting where others would be on the field. I’ve felt that there’s been a lot of that missing - players passing the ball into the empty spaces they (incorrectly) expected teammates to be. Hanks play on Tues reminded me of Raso’s goal when it seemed like she just clicked on. Fingers crossed!
Hanks is a rookie. She'll have wild swings up and down, hopefully evolving toward the high end as time passes. If you don't expect the world of her every game, she'll be fun to watch!
Only if Thorns can capitalize on other teams scheming specifically to harass and defend against her. If we can make them pay for overloading that side of the field, then she'll get her opportunities.
Like what I'm seeing WRT her communicating with her teammates, that should continue improving.
Seattle playing right now. Topic: Sinclair v. all other Canadian forwards. I mean no disrespect to other Thorns fans, nor to Christine Sinclair. But I've said it before and I always will: Had Sinc been a U.S. born and raised citizen, she'd not have been a forward on the USWNT no more than half the time she was on Canada's Women's National Soccer Team. Her pace is too lackluster. Her foot skills less than average. Her heading goals off corners non-existent. She scored goals none the less. Abby Wambach without the goals on headers.
So, that said, the NWSL Canadian forward prove why Sinc was able to play for CWNT for so very long. The Canadian forward playing in NWSL can't hit the broad side of a barn. Huitema, played in the World Cup at the age of sixteen, still can't hit the broad side of a barn. She looks like she could. Good soccer IQ, nice touch with the ball at her feet, always over or wide of the net.
Adrianna Leon rides the bench.
Explains why the needed drones taking video of opponent's practicing I guess.
Oh goodness I hope to high hell this is just an attempt to rage bait our Canadian STF friends.......because every single thing in here about Sinc is so insanely wrong it makes me think you only started watching her circa 2019.
I kept watching Sinclair all the way through 2024. And wondered why she hadn't retired earlier. Like 2020 would have been more understandable. Go out on your own terms, instead having you national team head coach ask you how much longer (and tossing your cleats, laces tied together, over the cross bar. Then another year before saying you're done.
I mean, I guess if you hate Canadians, I don't have to worry about you wanting Canada to become the 51st state.
- Sinclair is the all-time international goal scorer. Quite a few of them—especially in her early days—were headers. Check out a few of her WWC goals in 2003 and 2007, IIRC. She can score and had insanely impressive foot skills. Are you kidding me? Have you seen her footwork? She had a beautiful movie in 2015 against England. Her free kick skills were also impressive, and until about 2015, her pace was not Banda fast, but certainly fast enough for a striker. Moreover, it's her soccer IQ that puts her above most other players. She has a vision for the game that few people have that allowed her to be in the right places and create and poach goals. Why must you try to belittle her career by saying, "Well, if she were American, she wouldn't have this career?" You're right, she wouldn't, but she wouldn't have it if she were anything but Canadian. But she is Canadian and has her record and her illustrious career, and for some reason, lives rent free in your head.
- Huitema didn't play at a WWC at the age of 16. Huitema, while annoyingly frustrating with her feet 80% of the time, has scored 23 goals in 88 caps for Canada. She is able to score, and as Thornando pointed out, she scored with her head tonight.
- Leon has often functioned best as a so-called super sub, but that doesn't mean she doesn't score. She had an assist tonight, so two goal contributions in the first six games. She has 40+ goals for Canada.
- Alidou has 5 goals for Canada in a handful of caps, and scored for the Thorns in her first start.
- Before her injury, Lacasse had the league's first hat-trick in the league last season despite arriving after the Olympics.
- St-Georges has Utah's first goal this season.
- I will give you the fact that Prince and Sonis haven't scored, but it's not like every Canadian forward in this league is shit in front of net.
If you're going to mention drones, then I'm going to assume you're still butt-hurt about Davidson taking down D Rose in the box four years later, so you do you. But get your facts straight first.
Signed, a dual-citizen sick of American counterparts belitting Sinclair + other Canadians
You've proven with Sincs history exactly my point. From 2003 to 2007 she was fabulous. 2015 she made beautiful moves. 2019 she would not have made the US Women's National team. That team was loaded top to bottom. Foot work. Speed. Fantastically skilled corner kickers. Heading goal scoring skills of two strong and physical attacking midfield and defending midfield. Lock down defense.
I give credit to Sinclair for holding up more than her end with Canada WNT. Fact is Sinc had no one else that scored nearly as regularly as she did. And that is why she was there one year ago.
What I said in the beginning is what I say no. No disrespect but Sinc stayed on CWNT as an "old lady" (a term used by July Foudy players over the age of 40) because there was no one there who had the whateverittakes to score as often as the old Sinclair, never mind the young one that was GREAT in her youth.
Why are you trying to diminish her accomplishments by saying "ah well, she wouldn't have made the USA 2019 team!" What does it matter? She's not American.
It matters because she was on Canada's team, and would not have lasted nearly as long on the U.S. team. THAT is a measure. Period.
She accomplished a lot! Period also. What Canadian women was good enough to put pressure on Sinclair for that job? Nobody. Not then. And no one today looks like Sinclair at her best.
Canada just got its first premier league for women. Give it some time.
While we're waiting, let me make an analogy to Canada's other all-time great.
Wayne Gretzky retired in 1999, but his last great season came 6 years earlier and his last peak season 3 years before that.
Still, it took until 2025 for any player, from another country no less, to break Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record, and unless they change the stats-keeping rules NO ONE is ever going to touch his assists or total points records.
Should we be down on all of hockey everywhere, including but not limited to Canada, because it took this long for someone else to reach his goal-scoring level?
Should we shit on Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby because no matter how great they are, they'll never approach Gretzky's relative level of accomplishment, significance, and stature?
If your point is merely that Huitema is not converting often enough and that Canada do not have a true world-class 9, I don't think anyone would argue with you. And it might even be true that Canada relied on Sinclair too long and hasn't done enough to develop younger forwards.
But I don't see this as an indictment of the quality of the whole national program.
Sinc was a 1 of 1. She comes from a country that, despite many years of international success,, has been very slow to invest fully in women's soccer, far slower than the US. A country that is 1/10th of the population and has only a handful of major cities.
Things are changing. They've already managed to produce top-notch players at other positions, players like Sheridan, Buchanan, Lawrence, and Gilles. Give it time.
Alidou is 29 (turning 30 on Monday). She would not be starting if we had Wilson, true, but she's more than competent.
I don't pretend to know why some players are on, or left off, CWNT. She's been a consistent scorer for the past 3-4 seasons, 23 goals in 66 club matches, 5 goals in 10 national team matches.
I was watching Huitema and it popped into my head that she doesn't score nearly as often as she would appear to be able. Fact is, even if she did score tonight, she's an exciting player to watch, until she attempts a shot.
"Huitema was eighteen at the 2019 World Cup btw, not sixteen."
Great. I know it was teen years. Take me to the gallows for being 2 years off. Good grief you all are bent out of shape. And yeah, I talk about Sinclair and yes, she stood in the way of other Thorns players getting experience because Rob Gale kept starting her over others waiting in the wings. Waiting and waiting and getting no experience.
Great episode, sound was good here.
A really important goal in the game, I think, was Deyna Castellanos' goal. I have the feeling she could be really great if she can find her place with the team and confidence seems to be really important. If she can get going, it will make a really big difference. The other goals were great too, for the players, but I think hers may have been the most important in terms of a player's advancement.
It will be really interesting to see what opposing teams are going to do about Hanks. As they had to learn how to defend against Sophia, they are going to have to learn how to defend against her. Hopefully, that will open up scoring opportunities for other players.
Regarding the Macca or Bella question, it looks to me like Macca has a calming influence on the players on the field. Especially with such a young team, that is important. There's a reason the players elected her as co-captain along with Sam.
Yes, the players voted for Macca as co-captain, but there is more to being on the field than that. Kling was co-captain last year, as I recall, and yet most of her time was on the bench that final year.
I still need to vociferously object to Rob Gales handling of Bixby. The first game she played she was awesome. And I like the fact that she figured out when to goal-kick long (therefore preventing opponents forwards intercepting the ground ball and going straight a attacking goal) and when it was more than safe to pass on the ground to a Thorns left or right back. Macca looked to have no such recognition. To me that is frickin' scary. But Rob Gale? He switches from Bella to Macca because Rob's strategy for the defense versus Seattle sucked, sucked, sucked big time. NOT Bella's fault in any way what so ever.
There may yet come a time when Bixby pushes Arnold out of goal permanently. What we saw from Bella is extremely encouraging. It's a good problem to have.
This season it seems like teams have book on Chawinga,she is scoring a lot fewer goals. But I have the feeling that the cast around her is playing much better. She is an amazing player and won't be slowed down for long.
I think everyone will be planning for Hanks from now on,. but the cast around her is also good and if you cover her with a double team, then as you say other players will benefit.
Totally agree on the Macca versus Bixby question.
Chawinga torched the league last year. The season has just started and like all strikers, the next season after you've destroyed the record, you're not going to break the record again. But she'll still scare the crap out of the other team, and they'll still strategize around stopping her. She'll still score a lot of goals.
So Macca or Bella - or both.. maybe this is a unique & happy instance where Gale can’t make a bad decision.
Macca v Bella: I struggle to be objective b/c I adore Bella- she has a great history w/the Thorns (eg, her text urging fans to Prov Park) & my intro to Macca was when she was called out as the worst keeper at the Olympics & the announcers pitied Thorns fans. They have both been strong this season- I’d prefer Bella but Macca has been doing fine lately & is the starter given Bella’s time off the team- doesn’t feel right to bench her..
I love Rella too, have a signed Bella soccer ball on my desk, in front of me right now. I can take either Bella or Macca. Also, I agree with ThornsFanSFBayArea that the Seattle goal was not a negative against Bella. I'm ambivalent about distribution for both of them, although Bella appears able to produce a longer kick. In terms of projecting confidence to the rest of the team, I think Macca is a little better.
In other circumstances, I might want Gale to rotate them regularly, but with a team this young, especially on defense, I think a little more consistency in goal could be helpful. As I said, I can take either one.
Sam Coffey out for today’s game (Excused Absence) and Daiane (knee). I guess Jessie and Hina in the double pivot; so well covered.
Yeah apparent Sam is in Spain for her brother’s wedding.
Wonderful, a great trip and a great occasion; plus Sam could use some rest!
That's too bad. Let's not drop the rope here. There's a chance to push into the Top 5 for real. LFG!
Yes I will miss her she has grabbed the reigns as Captain both verbally and by example. But Jessie and Hina are both leaders as well and captains. Jessie for her national team and Hina was Captain for the Nadeshiko for their last international. I get the sense that Hina communicates well with her Thorns teammates despite some language barriers.
Agreed. However, let me say that I doubt Hina has language barriers with her teammates at this point. She's been with the Thorns long enough now that while she may not be fluent in English (for all we know she's been taking English-as-Second-Language classes, or self-study online) there are not a lot of words in soccer that are unique or require complete sentences. Before I got too old to run sprints, I used to play pick-up games at the park where all the others were South Americans. I picked up enough words to say in Spanish what needed to be said to communicate. One word, sometimes two words was enough.
ATM we're leading on GD in a four-way tie for sixth. All four teams are 2-2-2. Should we call it a quadruple Pierre?
A four-way tie, with all four teams having played 6 games. And Houston (perennial doormat Houston!) is only one point behind.
Pierre?
Hey, guys, I wish I could be kinder but the sound quality of your podcasts isn't good - it's muffled.
Thanks for the heads up. About half our crew have mics rn. We will clean up the audio for future versions. We appreciate the heads up.
Arsenal up 3-0 in the UWCL semi second leg against Lyon (4-2 aggregate) if anyone wants a little pregame viewing.
Make that 4-0, what a season from the Arsenal (men and women!) in the CL this season!
(especially satisfying after Chelsea got smacked by Barca 8-2 on aggregate)
It's possible we could see Arsenal vs. Barcelona in both the men's and women's Champions League finals. Now that would be something!
Mind you I don't think this is likely. I think Inter will beat Barça, especially after that exhausting 120-minute Clásico that Barça played yesterday, and Arsenal-PSG is a tossup. So the odds of the men's final being Arsenal-Barça look pretty low. (That matchup being the women's final is now 100% of course!)
So- what do we think? Is Hanks going to be incredible from now on & never look back? Is the team gellified (yup, made that up) & gonna start scoring/winning consistently? Or was that a Gotham hiccup? Please tell me why it’s not a hiccup…
It's a hiccup, but it's a promising sign of things to come. But the league is just way too unpredictable right now to put too much stock in that win. I mean, NC come back to score 3 second-half goals on KC for the win? Come on.
That NC win really was kinda shocking. I can live with promising. I appreciated Hanks’ comments about players intuiting where others would be on the field. I’ve felt that there’s been a lot of that missing - players passing the ball into the empty spaces they (incorrectly) expected teammates to be. Hanks play on Tues reminded me of Raso’s goal when it seemed like she just clicked on. Fingers crossed!
Glad to hear others see some of young Ribbons in Hanks too.
Hanks is a rookie. She'll have wild swings up and down, hopefully evolving toward the high end as time passes. If you don't expect the world of her every game, she'll be fun to watch!
Only if Thorns can capitalize on other teams scheming specifically to harass and defend against her. If we can make them pay for overloading that side of the field, then she'll get her opportunities.
Like what I'm seeing WRT her communicating with her teammates, that should continue improving.
Seattle playing right now. Topic: Sinclair v. all other Canadian forwards. I mean no disrespect to other Thorns fans, nor to Christine Sinclair. But I've said it before and I always will: Had Sinc been a U.S. born and raised citizen, she'd not have been a forward on the USWNT no more than half the time she was on Canada's Women's National Soccer Team. Her pace is too lackluster. Her foot skills less than average. Her heading goals off corners non-existent. She scored goals none the less. Abby Wambach without the goals on headers.
So, that said, the NWSL Canadian forward prove why Sinc was able to play for CWNT for so very long. The Canadian forward playing in NWSL can't hit the broad side of a barn. Huitema, played in the World Cup at the age of sixteen, still can't hit the broad side of a barn. She looks like she could. Good soccer IQ, nice touch with the ball at her feet, always over or wide of the net.
Adrianna Leon rides the bench.
Explains why the needed drones taking video of opponent's practicing I guess.
Oh goodness I hope to high hell this is just an attempt to rage bait our Canadian STF friends.......because every single thing in here about Sinc is so insanely wrong it makes me think you only started watching her circa 2019.
I’m just shaking my head at that original comment. At least qualify it by time period!
I was rage baited by the inaccuracies, it's true, haha
I kept watching Sinclair all the way through 2024. And wondered why she hadn't retired earlier. Like 2020 would have been more understandable. Go out on your own terms, instead having you national team head coach ask you how much longer (and tossing your cleats, laces tied together, over the cross bar. Then another year before saying you're done.
I mean, I guess if you hate Canadians, I don't have to worry about you wanting Canada to become the 51st state.
- Sinclair is the all-time international goal scorer. Quite a few of them—especially in her early days—were headers. Check out a few of her WWC goals in 2003 and 2007, IIRC. She can score and had insanely impressive foot skills. Are you kidding me? Have you seen her footwork? She had a beautiful movie in 2015 against England. Her free kick skills were also impressive, and until about 2015, her pace was not Banda fast, but certainly fast enough for a striker. Moreover, it's her soccer IQ that puts her above most other players. She has a vision for the game that few people have that allowed her to be in the right places and create and poach goals. Why must you try to belittle her career by saying, "Well, if she were American, she wouldn't have this career?" You're right, she wouldn't, but she wouldn't have it if she were anything but Canadian. But she is Canadian and has her record and her illustrious career, and for some reason, lives rent free in your head.
- Huitema didn't play at a WWC at the age of 16. Huitema, while annoyingly frustrating with her feet 80% of the time, has scored 23 goals in 88 caps for Canada. She is able to score, and as Thornando pointed out, she scored with her head tonight.
- Leon has often functioned best as a so-called super sub, but that doesn't mean she doesn't score. She had an assist tonight, so two goal contributions in the first six games. She has 40+ goals for Canada.
- Alidou has 5 goals for Canada in a handful of caps, and scored for the Thorns in her first start.
- Before her injury, Lacasse had the league's first hat-trick in the league last season despite arriving after the Olympics.
- St-Georges has Utah's first goal this season.
- I will give you the fact that Prince and Sonis haven't scored, but it's not like every Canadian forward in this league is shit in front of net.
If you're going to mention drones, then I'm going to assume you're still butt-hurt about Davidson taking down D Rose in the box four years later, so you do you. But get your facts straight first.
Signed, a dual-citizen sick of American counterparts belitting Sinclair + other Canadians
You've proven with Sincs history exactly my point. From 2003 to 2007 she was fabulous. 2015 she made beautiful moves. 2019 she would not have made the US Women's National team. That team was loaded top to bottom. Foot work. Speed. Fantastically skilled corner kickers. Heading goal scoring skills of two strong and physical attacking midfield and defending midfield. Lock down defense.
I give credit to Sinclair for holding up more than her end with Canada WNT. Fact is Sinc had no one else that scored nearly as regularly as she did. And that is why she was there one year ago.
What I said in the beginning is what I say no. No disrespect but Sinc stayed on CWNT as an "old lady" (a term used by July Foudy players over the age of 40) because there was no one there who had the whateverittakes to score as often as the old Sinclair, never mind the young one that was GREAT in her youth.
Why are you trying to diminish her accomplishments by saying "ah well, she wouldn't have made the USA 2019 team!" What does it matter? She's not American.
It matters because she was on Canada's team, and would not have lasted nearly as long on the U.S. team. THAT is a measure. Period.
She accomplished a lot! Period also. What Canadian women was good enough to put pressure on Sinclair for that job? Nobody. Not then. And no one today looks like Sinclair at her best.
And I never root for Canada, so there's that, OK.
"No one today looks like Sinclair at her best"
Canada just got its first premier league for women. Give it some time.
While we're waiting, let me make an analogy to Canada's other all-time great.
Wayne Gretzky retired in 1999, but his last great season came 6 years earlier and his last peak season 3 years before that.
Still, it took until 2025 for any player, from another country no less, to break Gretzky's all-time goal-scoring record, and unless they change the stats-keeping rules NO ONE is ever going to touch his assists or total points records.
Should we be down on all of hockey everywhere, including but not limited to Canada, because it took this long for someone else to reach his goal-scoring level?
Should we shit on Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby because no matter how great they are, they'll never approach Gretzky's relative level of accomplishment, significance, and stature?
If your point is merely that Huitema is not converting often enough and that Canada do not have a true world-class 9, I don't think anyone would argue with you. And it might even be true that Canada relied on Sinclair too long and hasn't done enough to develop younger forwards.
But I don't see this as an indictment of the quality of the whole national program.
Sinc was a 1 of 1. She comes from a country that, despite many years of international success,, has been very slow to invest fully in women's soccer, far slower than the US. A country that is 1/10th of the population and has only a handful of major cities.
Things are changing. They've already managed to produce top-notch players at other positions, players like Sheridan, Buchanan, Lawrence, and Gilles. Give it time.
Huitema bagged a nice header tonight for the equalizer. Her fifth header goal in NWSL.
Mimi Alidou opened her account for Thorns against Gotham, in just her third NWSL game and first significant minutes.
Yeah, I missed it out of boredom and went to my home office to get some work done.
How old is Alidou. She's approaching "senior citizenship" isn't she? Only a recent addition to Canadian National Team, right?
Alidou is 29 (turning 30 on Monday). She would not be starting if we had Wilson, true, but she's more than competent.
I don't pretend to know why some players are on, or left off, CWNT. She's been a consistent scorer for the past 3-4 seasons, 23 goals in 66 club matches, 5 goals in 10 national team matches.
I was watching Huitema and it popped into my head that she doesn't score nearly as often as she would appear to be able. Fact is, even if she did score tonight, she's an exciting player to watch, until she attempts a shot.
"Huitema was eighteen at the 2019 World Cup btw, not sixteen."
Great. I know it was teen years. Take me to the gallows for being 2 years off. Good grief you all are bent out of shape. And yeah, I talk about Sinclair and yes, she stood in the way of other Thorns players getting experience because Rob Gale kept starting her over others waiting in the wings. Waiting and waiting and getting no experience.
Holy hell. NC score in the 90th and 93rd to eclipse KC 3-2.
What a wacky year. Only Chicago appear to be predictable. 0-3 today, with an OG by Staab. Glad to see her back from the ACL tear.
Esther! On fire!