Crown Cast/ QP -1 CIN

(Please note that this transcript contains errors in finding each narrator, so names are not corrected.)

0:14

Hello, everyone. My name is U1, and I was going to force this in somewhere, so I may as well go ahead and do it. You might already know the ending, but we're still going to read you the story. That doesn't it doesn't fit. It doesn't fit. But because I told you my name is U1, you know you're listening to an episode of The Crown Cast, except it's not just an episode of The Crown Cast. It's actually a co op of working together, a conglomeration of two. And it is not just the Crown Cast. It is also the queen's pitch. So I have the honor of bringing in today special guests and co hosts from The Queen's Pitch. Bridget hello. Hello.

0:50

And Kara. Hello. Hello, guys. Welcome to the studio. Is it everything you dreamed it would be?

0:58

It's amazing. We don't do this normally. No. We

1:00

usually sit in our house on our chairs and look at each other through the TV, through the computer

1:04

screen. It's much prettier than Charlotte FC's results, right? Absolutely. Yeah. We did go and we played a game against Cincinnati, which I think if you had not told anybody ahead of time, like, how the result was going to come, most people would have bitten your arm off for a two two draw. 1s But but it happened again, and I think it's safe to say that frustrations abound. Bridget, would you would you call that fair? Yeah,

1:32

I don't really it's tough to even say anything right. I want to say we tied, and that's good against the greatest or the best team in the league, but it's really depressing coming out with a two two tie when we should have won that game easily. Yeah,

1:45

it's it's another one that we're out in front. And Kara, I'm going to go to you for this one. One of the things that went down in the Chat is that this is now officially our longest streak of games without a loss. And boy, it feels horrible, doesn't it? It

2:00

does feel horrible because we keep dropping down on the table. And while we haven't had a loss, we also haven't gained very much, especially with our injuries and just the way it feels to the

2:10

fans. Yeah. And DJ goes out in this one, which I will give a very brief update on DJ because Christian was kind enough to give us a very small update. And that is, if you haven't seen it from the live presser. He did say that DJ elected to come out, that he felt like there was an unnatural tightness. And DJ made the decision and he said, hey, I can't do a six week pull. So that was DJ's decision. Let's move right into it because now there's three of us. We're going to have lots of people to talk about in all the good and the bad ways, and I'm going to try and remember if what I said to you I actually do correctly. No, wait, you know what? Okay. Bridget, do you want to start with the crowns? With the cards? Yes.

2:52

I'll start with let's do the crowns

2:54

first. Just so you know, Kara just actively waved me off. She was just like, no, this is what Bridget this is Bridget's call. She

3:00

always lets me go first. She likes to put me on the

3:02

spot. That is fair. So I believe I said that I was going to ask you to start with the crowns. Yes, sir. So go ahead. Who do you feel like giving a crown to tonight?

3:12

Tonight I'm going to give my crown to Carol. Carol Swadesh.

3:16

I can't believe you such a such a controversial pick.

3:20

I know. I mean, it was hard. It was really hard to decide who to give it to today. But I guess we're going have to to give it to the guy that scored two the only two goals that we

3:28

had. Yeah, the only two in two. Real stunners. I mean, to to hit two of them like that. The second one, you couldn't fit a piece of paper between it and both of the top 90 posts. Right. Like, it was

3:38

perfect. It was great.

3:40

So you kara, thoughts on Carol today? Have we said it already?

3:45

Well, he took the spot of Enzo today, and that was a big spot. Like, we expected him to kind of take that direction on Wednesday, and he didn't, obviously, latanzio's call, but this is the Carol we wanted to see. And this is why we wanted to see him in that spot because we know he's going to give his all and he's going to try. And he put his heart out there on the pitch tonight. And even when he was like, I've already got two, we need more. I'm going to keep doing it until I lay down dead at the end. And he immediately collapsed at the very end because he tried his heart out.

4:13

It's almost a trademark of Carol that he leaves that pitch every single time on whatever. Your needle is just past empty. The part where it starts to show you have a full tank again because it doesn't know how to register that's carol always. So one of the things I'm going to ask, I'm going to stick with you for this one, and that is do you feel like there was a little bit of extra venom in hey, I've got another shot at playing this nine spot. I want to show the fans and letanzio and in general, not an anti Enzo, but a reminder that I came here to be a striker and I'm a good one.

4:49

I could absolutely see that. I don't think it's anything negative in it. I think it's more of a I'm going to shoulder this, burn it, and I'm going to show you what I can bring to this table. And I promise you there's going to be something at the end of this. And even with that last really amazing shot that went off the pole, he also got one that he had a free kick that went right to the goalie but also was really good. Both of those were really quality shots. And so he not just gave those two goals, but again, he was still bringing the quality all the way to the end.

5:19

Yeah, this one was a performance from him. I'm going to stay with you and ask for your crown.

5:24

Okay. So my crown is going to go to McKenzie Gaines, who got our goal last game. However, this game, the McKenzie was still there. He was still hot. He was still running. He made an excellent attempt all the way at the end and almost ran out of space. And just because poor Carol couldn't keep up with him speed wise, because McKenzie is incredibly fast, we didn't make that goal. But McKenzie was still trying all of his tricks, and not to mention he was also bringing excellent defense and he had very good crosses and key passes. And that's the McKenzie that I really like to see when he has a lot of grit and bite in him.

6:02

Absolutely did. Bridget, you want in on McKenzie?

6:05

I like McKenzie. He's fast. He's really quick. There was a couple of times the ball did get away from him, but he controlled it. He got it back. And I like that about him. He doesn't give up. So there were a couple of times he had some little crazy passes, but so did everybody else. But he did a good job. And I think he's seen it in his starting position. He's given them a run for it. I thought we would have Camille out there today, especially with Swedeski in the middle, but Gains came out there and showed up, and

6:30

I like it. Yeah, he's one of them that in an earlier podcast, I referenced it as possibly like a last chance saloon that he hadn't really delivered. Despite the fact that it's clear he's got the speed, it's clear he has an ability to go at goal. He hadn't really made his mark on the right, and the left kind of felt like, try it and see if it works. And I actually get to use this opportunity to very briefly give out, like an extra little tiny crown to a fan who made my whole day and maybe my whole week today, morgan Kivitt White. Oh, we

7:04

love her. We love Morgan.

7:05

Thank you so much. She actually made me a mug that has the crown cast logo on it and on the back says, as Mackenzie Gaines has now joined the club of people who are always better on the left. 2s I could not have planned it better, so thank you so much that it made my whole week. I am going to jump into my crown and it's going to be Kerwin Vargas. This is a guy who's got lightning in his boots. He has fire in his soul. He is alive on the pitch. And I have had sort of this mentality going that some of these players look like they're giving it their all but look like they're giving it all at their job. Right. They look like they're going in and they're professionals and they're going to do a great job, but they're there for their work. Kerwin Vargas looks like he's there to make his mark. Looks like he's there and he wants a future. It looks like he's hungry to everything. And it doesn't always work. It doesn't always come off in a way that screams skill and talent, but it does always come off in a way that screams hunger. And today it also came off in the way that screamed talent. I think he did a great job finding his space out on the right. Four or five times early on. We split them open with a good ball out to that right side. He was always the one there. He was making good use of it. He was terrifying. Their left side defense, I think it was on their left side that they did eventually get the red card. Two of those cards, three of those cards, I think. Again, I haven't had time to watch this back. Three of those cards are from them having to just physically injure Kerwin Vargas to stop him. So a huge shout out from me, bridget, you want any say on Kerwin here?

8:49

I like Carolyn because he crosses. I like how he can go from one side to the other and he's not scared to do it. You don't see games do that as much, but you see Vargas come right across the field and he's not scared to do that. And I think that's very talented to do that and get in the middle and make things happen. He's not

9:04

scared. He comes out and kara, I'm going to go to you for this one. He comes out at 60 ish minutes today, and he looked like he just had nothing left in that situation. Do you feel like that's a player who's been so effective, you just kind of have to leave him on and let him run every last drop out? Or do you say, hey, you did your time, kid, and you pull him out like Latanzio did?

9:25

Yeah, I think he should have came out because I think the whole point was to also get Maram and ushriak on the field to make a difference and run 1s at their defense. Because we saw last game, we couldn't get on their side of the pitch. So we really needed to get that differently today and keep running at Cincinnati, because Cincinnati at that point was also pressuring us really hard. They'd gotten us the goal. That penalty had already gone in and they were still getting a lot of shots off and staying on our end. So not that Kerwin wasn't effective. He had made an excellent job of it and he had drawn a lot of contact this game, and he deserved that rest. But also we know that usriak and Marim are going to come out there with that renewed energy and try to alleviate. And not only that, but strengthen up our defense to try and get that pressure off of our side. And I think relieving carawind from some of that is what helped that.

10:18

Yeah, I think all three of those are absolutely fair shoutouts. Except maybe that Carol Schwardersky guy. I don't think he did anything in this one. We are going to move along now and we're going to go into our card section where we get to be mad at people. 1s And Kara, I'm going to start with you for the cards. Who do you feel like didn't show up today?

10:38

I have to give a soft card and this hurts me. I'm going to be upset about it's. Jalen lindsay. And because I really wanted him to be there, I am happy with the rest of his performance, but he gives up the penalty. It is a contact now, the crappiest contact I will ever say because we've had worse. And so I'll push him up a little bit. I'm not mad at him for it. I'm just mad that it happened. But he also does that slide and he shouldn't have done that slide at the worst time and that also gives him the other goal. But he did try. He had a great offense, but those two things are two knocks on him, 1s unfortunately. So I'm sorry. Jalen.

11:24

Yeah. I think that this one is you say it's soft. I have a history of I don't want to say going two footed. Jalen is a young player who has a couple of flaws that are still there in his game. One of them is he steps. He doesn't get low to his body and stay with his attacking man. He thinks he gets a mark and he throws his foot in. And that's a part of being a young defender, especially one out on the wing because when you do that, if you do win, you can transition really quickly. Unfortunately, it doesn't transition well against very good players who are waiting for it. The slide in the box, a young man over committing and going to ground when you should not go to ground. Bridget, you want talk about Jalen

12:09

with me? Yeah. I'm going to go against Karen. Going to say it's a hard wrath. I don't even want to go soft with him. I think he's great. He has great qualities when he does well. But like you said, I think it was his fault for both of the goals. I mean, he had the foul on the PK and then I think that he actually missed. Also the second one where he went where Kleena got scored on as well. So I think that we could possibly say both of those goals are on him. And for me, then I have to say that he deserves a wrath. Although I love seeing him

12:37

start, it's definitely a place where he has fault in both goals. One of them is a penalty giveaway like that's his. The other one is significantly on him. So not great. Bridget, you want to go for your card

12:52

here? Okay. So I'm going to be controversial. Mine's going to be Bill. No, I'm just kidding. I'm not doing bill. He didn't play that long. I just like doing bill. But anyway, mine's going to be Westwood. I know that's kind of a shocker. Westy yes. I didn't see anything out of Westwood like I told Carol or I was telling Carol I didn't see Westwood out there today. I know he played the whole time, pretty much, but I didn't see him do anything. And I expect him to do stuff. If he's going to be out there and he's going to be that position in the mid, he's going to need to do something. And I just didn't see it out of Westwood. I want to see it and I haven't seen it out of him the last couple of

13:25

games. Yeah. From the captain. Cara thought that.

13:29

I think some of the times that we've seen Westwood play, 1s he has that thing that Bronco used to have where sometimes if you don't see him, you don't see also the you're not really noticing the effect he's having. And so it's kind of that invisible. And I think in this case, the invisibility works against him. But I think he also didn't have as much delivery forward this match. So perhaps his job was doing something different. Perhaps his job was mainly on defense, maybe shutting down Acosta or something. So I'm not sure what he was watching, but I feel like in this match, his job wasn't as much to deliver it forward that was given to some other people. So I think his main job was on defense or being passing lanes. And I think that works against him in here.

14:16

Yeah, it's another one that you're right, Bridget. It feels quiet from a guy who in the center of your pitch. You probably don't want it to feel quiet. I kind of talked him down a couple of games ago, and then I talked him up last game because he was doing a lot of that defensive work that stopped the second man run. We didn't have a lot of people hitting us on second man runs. I mean, Carl, real quick, is there any one moment of his name that stood out to. 2s You know, he didn't even make any to me, any arguments on the pitch, which you kind of expect. I mean, I feel like we saw our field a whole lot more than we saw Westy, just visibility wise. And

14:58

he comes out. Westwood comes out of the pitch.

15:02

He does come out.

15:03

That demise also says something.

15:06

I'll do the same thing to you any moment that stood out on Westwood, there wasn't one for me. I mean, that's why I'm asking. That's

15:12

why I told Kara I didn't see him. I didn't even know he was out. I mean, I know he was out there, but I didn't see him. And if you don't see him, then that's a problem for me.

15:22

I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to give my card and it's going to feel a little bit harsh to me, but I think it's probably warranted. Guzman Kurujo still feels like he's not ready. And it doesn't feel like a knowledge gap. It doesn't feel like a talent gap. It feels like somebody who 1s thinks he's got the speed and isn't quite there yet. And I almost gave it to Yawn because I'm really falling off the Yawn train, but I don't think he was on long enough for me to tack that on him this time. But. Guzman feels to me like somebody who wants to go play like he knows he can and he isn't getting there, but he's also then not making the decision to stay and be smart. Right. It feels like someone who probably has enough evidence now that he needs to take it a little slower, needs to pace down a little bit, and you either have to make that decision or you don't. And Guzman's not 21, right. He's not one of the youngest guys in the squad. He's a center back. Those guys are used to handling a lot of responsibility. They're used to being the guys who have to keep calm heads in big situations. He is one of the leaders of the team in the defense. I know he's been out for a long time. I'm excited to see the way he comes back, but it just felt like I saw a few too many of those moments like I see from Yon that are, I think I can do this. And so you write the check and his body just can't cash that check yet. Right. Does that sound unfair? Kara?

16:55

It does not sound unfair. I think that's also why he's been consistently pulled out at the however, today we had Jones get pulled out and so therefore his relief wasn't available because obviously Latancio did not want to put Bill in for Carujo because he was like, oh, that's an even worse idea. So he kept Carujo in because I think he had to get sacrificed, he had to go the full 90 and Karujo is going to try even though he doesn't have it. I think this criticism of Carujo, I also have kind of with Kalina in that whole to me, I think of it like he's still at 80%, he's not at 100, he's not even at 90. Like he's still at 80. You need to take care of him. He needs to not get another knock and get injured again. But he's still going to be out there. He's going to try. He's going to stay on the pitch if you need him to, but yeah, it's going to mean that you get some things that aren't as timed.

17:48

Well. Thoughts on Kurujo? I agree. I think that, like you said, he's trying so hard. He wants to make it happen and his body's not keeping up with his mind and what he thinks he can do. So then we end up having errors and I don't think it's at any fault to his. But I did think that after the interview with Latanzio afterwards, he said that he expects Gruha to start playing 90 minutes from now on.

18:11

So I think that his time at healing is over and he's going to have to do what he's got to do. Suck it up, Buttercup, let's go. But I agree. I think that he's trying so hard that his body's just not there

18:22

yet. Part of that in the presser, you're referencing. I actually asked him what he thought of Carujo's game and whether him playing 90 was intentional or whether it was a result of what happened to Derek Jones. And his response was very straightforward. It was. If I put you on the pitch to start, I expect you can go 90 minutes, and if I don't think you can go 90 minutes, you'll be starting from the bench. And I don't know that that is entirely true, but I can tell you that those are Crystal Latanzio's words. That's

18:50

not what he said a couple weeks ago. He said that he was only gonna let Grujo play 60 Minutes. He literally said that

18:58

all all I can do is report on what's just happened. Right. All I can do is tell you the truth. And I hope that that you lovely listeners out there think we're still telling you the truth. Yes. Fall into my trap. But we're going to go ahead and start to wrap it up here and Bridget, would you give me your one sentence to take us home?

19:16

Oh, I don't know about one sentence.

19:19

We do this so you can't ramble. You have to condense it. Do you want me to come back

19:23

to you? Yeah, come back to me, because one sentence is hard for me. All

19:26

right, Kara,

19:29

look, this is a disappointing tie. Despite it being top supporter, Shield team in a normal way, I always go into every game thinking we're going to lose, so my mental health is better. Honestly, not for the team, because I have hope all the time, but to me, it's a disappointment. I'm happy we got a tie at the end, but we need to start climbing the table, period.

19:52

I'm going to say that your one sentence was, we need to start climbing the table. Nobody ever manages to make it one sentence. And I have just now realized that I should have done this at the end, not at the beginning, because it would have made way more sense. But I'm going to do it again, and that is my sentence. To take us home is you might already know the ending, but we're still going to read you the book. All right, Bridget, take us out.

20:15

I'm going to say let's all just stay on this train, keep supporting the team, and Laddie needs to go and do a little bit of reading the book.

20:24

Absolutely. All right, 1s that is it for the post. React this time, as ever, if you have decided to spend your time with us. We love you. Thank you so much for being here. And Bridget. Thank you. Thank you, Kara. Thank you. Thank you so much. We did it. That's it. We will talk to you again when we break all of this down on Wednesday. Goodbye. 2s Thank.