September 7, 2026: Desperate Beats Tired

Portland 1-2 Washington. The first home loss of the season, and the Spirit's first win in Portland ever.

Portland had played ten at home this year and lost none of them. This was the eleventh. Washington came in missing seven players and won anyway.

Sophia Wilson scored from the spot in the 18th, her tenth career penalty from ten attempts. Only one other player in NWSL history has done that. Tara Rudd equalized from the spot in the 59th, given after a video review. Melissa Bethi got the winner in the 80th, her first for the Spirit, set up by Trinity Rodman.

Then the 68th minute. Rudd handled it in her own box and nothing was called. No whistle, no check. She was Washington's captain, she had been booked at 32', and she had scored the penalty nine minutes earlier. Marissa asked for the rules on it, so we went through Law 12 on air.

The part that makes it worse: the VAR was working that night. It had already intervened to give Washington their penalty.

Portland outshot Washington 17 to 10, and 7 to 5 on target, and lost. Alan's read is shorter than Marissa's. He texted her mid-match that Washington looked desperate and Portland looked tired, and desperate beats tired every time.

Marissa was in the press box for this one. She has the room at 59' and at 80', a kid reporter who asked a better question than she did, and Hirschfeld on the touchline going "wow, it's loud."

Also in it: Reilyn Turner available and not playing until Mueller came on for her at 63', Calzada keeping Rodman quiet right up until Rodman assisted the winner, deadline day, and Marissa's Match Week Roundup.

Portland are sixth on 38. Three teams landed on 39 above them over the weekend. Chicago at home on the 13th.

Adults only. Bring a drink.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Cold open: the first home loss of the year
03:25 The handball nobody called
09:44 Marissa at the ground
17:46 Turner, and what Mueller coming on showed
21:02 A guest ad read, and the healthiest roster of the year
27:52 Marissa's Match Week Roundup
36:42 What's next: Chicago at home

THE NUMBERS

Attendance: 19,065.
Shots: Portland 17, Washington 10. On target 7 to 5. Possession 44.7%.
Home record: 7-0-3 becomes 7-1-3. Goals conceded at home go from 5 to 7.
Wilson: 10 for 10 on career penalties, second player in league history to do it. 12 goals this season.
Table: Portland sixth on 38. North Carolina, Utah and San Diego all on 39.
Next: Portland v Chicago, Saturday September 13, Providence Park.

Transcript

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0:15

Welcome to Rose City Red Card for September 7th, 2016. We're coming off of another painful game. We've been talking about how Providence Park provides, but this time, our first loss there in quite a while. Spirit's first win in Portland ever. Yeah, Marissa, tell me about it. Tell me, you were there, you saw it live, I saw it from Pappies where we're sitting right now. Tell me, how was it? It was, it's hard. You don't want to lose, obviously, especially you don't want to lose at Providence Park. We lost against a great team. We played really well. The crowd, it's always so electric in Providence Park. Yeah, it was. It was a game. It was a game. It was tough loss. We'll get into this later. But, yeah, it was. Well, it started off really strong. We started off looking really good. My daughter was at the game, but she's young and left at half time. So she was very excited to hear that Portland had won. I had to sadly disappoint her. I wish I could have left a half time and been like, the Thorns fucking won, let's go. Yeah, you know, there's something about leaving halfway through and being blissfully naive. To be a child. But, you know, we played well. We really did. It just, you know, it didn't quite go the way we planned. This is sports. This is sports, baby. This is sports. Like, you're going to have these games. We play. I know we're getting into the match later, but. We played an extraordinary 60, 70 minutes. We played great. Our defense was playing great. We had control of the game. It was, it was great. Our defense was playing incredibly well. And our offense was as well. We had so many shots. 17 shots, seven on target. We outshot the spirit. But, you know, we just, we couldn't quite get those last ones. We had a beautiful goal. Unfortunately, they also had a beautiful goal. And then we almost had another one. And that, I think, is the piece that everyone is talking about. Yeah. So we will say, I will say, that the referee does not lose you or win you games. That is not what happens. The referee is not at fault for you losing or winning games. But fuck this referee, and we will definitely be talking shit about him the rest of the podcast. Well, let's get into it then. Let's get into it. So in the 68th minute, there was something that looked an awful lot like a handball to an awful lot of people. But nothing was called. VAR didn't do a check. The ref didn't call it. Play went on. And it was a shan. shot on goal, hit by hand, as an arm was dropping. By Tara Rudd, who's the girl that sunk the, you know, the goal for against us. So congratulations on her goal, but. No congratulations. I'm just kidding. Tara Rudd, love you, girl. Yeah, but, okay. So tell me more about what happened and, you know, why is this not the ref's fault? Why can't I blame the refs and tell them that it's entirely their fault. Alan, I literally was texting you. I was like, what are the rules to the handballs in the box? I, I, it was, okay, so, unnatural position, make her body bigger. I, I don't understand. So the exact, uh, quoted, you know, quoted rules is, um, um, a deliberate contact or an arm that makes the body unnaturally bigger. And unnaturally bigger is defined as an arm position that is not a consequence of or justifiable by the player's body movement for that specific situation. So she didn't mean to do it is not a defense. If she, as long as it happened, it happened whether, you know, it doesn't matter what the intent was. So in the clip that I see, I see her arm being up, her arm dropping down and slightly out. Mm-hmm. It was not close to her body. It was not close to her body. She wasn't penguin and around. But it was a dropping and a slight extension of the arm. And the arm or the hand comes into contact with a ball and, you know, seemingly deflects it away from the goal. So is that making your body? unnaturally bigger. The ref said that he didn't think it was. The VAR didn't call anything. We did look up the VAR rules as well. And so VAR triggers its own. So there's somebody watching the VAR and or, uh, yeah, it's like a room. It's like a room full of people watching screens and slow-mo and stuff. And they're the ones in the ref's ear that are like, hey, you should go review this. Go check it. And that's when the ref runs to the side of the field and looks at the screen. And so it is the ref who makes the decision based on what they see on the screen, but they are not the one who decides that they are going to go over to the sideline and take a look at that screen. Exactly. They are told, hey, we saw something, you should go check it out. And so in this case, the ref didn't see anything on the field. The AR didn't see anything on their replays. So they didn't make a call and play continued on. And we didn't get that goal and we lost two zero. Yep. Two ones. Yeah, two one. Come on, Alan. Come on over there. Do your homework. Yeah. Yeah. The handball's kind of just been, people are kind of talking about it. And I would like to just, let's just chop it. Let's move on. We'll talk about, like, the press earlier. Nina Nijstad was like, we move on. We're thinking about the next game. We're not thinking about this game. Move on. We're pushing forward. It was, like I said, this is, it's, it's, the, a ref doesn't make or break your game. Yeah, it sucks. And maybe it should have been called. But it is what it is. This is, this is sports, you know. It is. And I, you know, I love that advice to just move on and, uh, you know, move to the next thing. Yep. But as the man on this, uh, women's sports podcast, uh, there was one more thing I wanted to say. So I'm going to circle back on it. Um, which is, that we don't necessarily get the best of refs. So we were taking another look at this. And there are four different levels of Pro 2 development, which is the organization that manages the refs for the NWSL and MLS and others. So they have D, which is the lowest, that's the entry level. C is their first step than B and A. And B and A are limited numbers of people and they are the ones who they're like about to get a trial game in the major league. So B and A are the best of the best, or nearly, C is a step below that, D is a step below that, and D are eligible for in WSL. So, you know, should we, should we bump that? up to at least see. I don't know enough about, uh, you know, the, what these mean to, to really be able to recommend, but it feels like we're maybe getting some refs who haven't put in the hours. They're a little bit green. Exactly. A little bit green. Yeah. And we should what, how do you get to be a, a, even a D level ref like, okay, like you've reft a few college games. You've refed, like, What is, even to be at the lowest tier? That is a good question. And I don't know the answer to that. God damn it, Alan. Yeah. I, unfortunately, I don't know everything, despite what people think. I've been telling people that you do, so. And Brooke doesn't seem to be listening to us today. So, uh, I have no fuck an idea what's going on with that, but I'll fix it later. I don't know shit about fuck. She helped us prep well, so, uh, thank you, Brooke again, even though you're, you're not listening. So Marissa. You were there at the game. And on our last episode, you promised us that you were going to go to the press box and ask your first question. So I know you did not make it to the press. You actually had other arrangements. Yes, I did. You did need to go, let's say, console a friend. Yeah. We drank at the bar. So, you know, I will give you that excuse. Um, however, you did get, uh, your question swiped, uh, or at least your opportunity to ask a question swiped. Uh, who asked a question at the, the, the press conference this time? A kid reporter. A what? A kid reporter. A kid reporter. She asked, like, five questions to like, if a child's, if a kid reporter, if a kid reporter, if a kid reporter can do these things. Then your girl Marissa needs to do. a big girl pants and ask some questions. Well, luckily, we have another opportunity coming up, uh, this next week. We will talk about that later. Um, but like I said, you, you, you were at the game. You got to watch the game live. Um, tell me, tell me what it was like. Okay. So, um, it was, it wasn't rainy, but it was a chilly day in Portland. I was, I got there about an hour and a half before a kickoff time and it looked kind of slow. The bartender's flashing me. So it looked kind of slow. It looked kind of empty, but by the time, but by the time like kickoff's happen, it was a full house. I think we got 19,065 in attendance this game. It looked good. Seeing it on TV, like, we talked about this before, but just looking in the stands, our stands looked so much fuller. Yeah, especially like watching other games around the league. Like, you're like, God damn, you only got a couple thousand people in that stand, you know? So it is, that's always really nice. But, yeah, it was great. As always, everybody is always so awesome there. They feed us. We had great food. Yeah, it was great. The National Anthem was beautiful. Yeah, it was great. Well, and then the game got started. And at the 18th minute, we saw an incredible goal by Sophia Wilson. It was a penalty. and we've talked a little bit about the game theory of it before and whether you go left or whether you go right. And it was another one of those classic ones. I loved seeing it, you know, when it's your team scoring, it's beautiful when the keeper jumps the wrong way. And it just goes right on in. And so it kind of worried me because we've seen Soph, shoot. I mean, okay, let's also bring up Sophie, Soph Wilson is 10 out of 10 PKs this season. She's second player to do that behind Ashley Sanchez, 10 out of 10 goals. Also, are the goalies not paying attention? Soph goes right every time. And the goal, but like you were talking about game theory, the goalies know that a percentage, like the higher percentage of players go left. And so they're always going to, like the odds are if they just jump that way, they're going to get it. But I'm like, where's your riding on your water bottle? You know how some goalies have like a bunch of riding on their water bottles? Soph goes right. But it was also, she went top bins too. It was a really nice PK. It was really nice. I also had to turn around. So anytime a PK gets shot or whatever, I completely turn around and don't look at the game at all. And I was sitting next to somebody. I forget who they were. They were from the Willamette, Willamette. I don't know, but they were really, really cool. They were sitting next to me and we were chatting, actually. And I just completely turned around and looked away during the PK. And they looked at me and they were like, I get it. But sometimes, you know, it might be a superstition, but you got to do it anyway. I just don't want to look. I just don't want to look. I don't want to look at it. Don't involve me. Do your thing, Wilson. But it was great. And, you know, that first half, like I said, you know, we were ahead. 1-0 going into the half. Everything was looking good. I mean, so we controlled that game for 60 or 70 minutes. We looked great. It was, I don't know, everyone says a tale of two halves, but it really was. We were phenomenal. Spirit didn't look ready. Actually, I don't know if I want to say Spirit didn't look ready, or we just looked good. You know, like, I don't want to say the Spirit weren't great because Spirit are an amazing team, but we just looked really, really good. I mean, this is also the healthiest our rosters looked all year. Like, I understand we have a lot of season-ending injuries, but Hanks, Turner, Weaver, we're looking really good. Yeah, Weaver and Turner starting was really awesome. I feel like fan favorites back to it. They were really great for the attack, and it was also really good to have actual wingers back on because they are really good at maintaining the width, with, with, with, with, with, with. Anyways, their actual natural ringers, so they maintain with, and they also have. have the speed. So that was really, really great to see. Also, we got the same starting four defenders again. Third game in a row. Hell yeah. Consistency back there. We've talked about that. We've talked about that. Perry, Calzada, Hiatt, and Vignola. They played really well together. They looked solid. Yeah, it was great. Nightstad, Turner, Turner, and Flem in the middle. They played together really well. Also, sooner or later, this might just become a Nina Nijstad podcast, because holy shit girl. She, and she's, she's also new to this league. She's only ever played in a Dutch league. She's new to this, how we play here in the NWS. She's new to the team. She's new to the league. She's new to the country. But she's just killing it out there on the field. And we'll bring it up later, but in the press conference, people were asking like, hey, how is it? Like, how is it? And she's like, takes them getting used to, but she loves the girls. Like, she's getting involved. Like, it's, it's really cool to see. That's so cool. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, yeah. So, yeah. So Calzada kept Trinity Rodman relatively quiet. Not all the way quiet because Trin had an assist, but to shut, to kind of keep one of the best players in our league slash the world quiet is pretty exceptional. And we did really well. Like, once again, hats off to our defense. We've been doing really well with our defense. Well, at the 59th minute, like you said, we had the first hour or so under control, but at that 59th minute, there was a video review and a penalty kick awarded and Spirit scored their first goal off of that penalty. Yep. And that, I think, is where things started to turn around. Yeah. And like we said, you know, that was the first video review. And then we didn't see a video review. a little bit later. I literally texted you. I was like, because I was at the game, I can't, I can't hear. I can't see a replay. And I was like, Alan, what's a replay? Was that in the box? And you go, yep. And I go, fuck. Yep. I mean. I was lucky enough that I was watching the game here and I had it on two different TVs with a 10 second delay between them. So I got your text and I missed it on the first TV, but then I was able to look over and catch the replay on the second TV. And so. Sometimes that delay can be fantastic. So Turner was available for the last game, and she didn't play any minutes, which we thought was like, okay, you know, it's going to take some time. But she went from not playing any minutes to starting this game. Turner is great for us. She is so fast. She knows her position, and she also helps out so much on defense with getting back. And that's why when Müller came on for her in the 63rd minute, like you can kind of almost look side by side to when we started kind of faltering with our defense. And it was, I mean, like I said, Müller's a great player, but her coming in for Turner definitely changed things on that side. People weren't, she wasn't getting back. Also, she's, Turner is fast as fuck, boy, so, you know, she wasn't getting back. And yeah, that is where you can kind of pinpoint. There's always like a kind of, you can see, we're in the turning goals, you know, like, oh, stoppage of play, half time, you know, beginning a game. You could always kind of see like, oh, what just happened there? And that seemed like that was kind of big what happened. Also, love Murray Müller. Hell yeah, go Germany. Fuck yeah, girl. It was an energy point. You could definitely see, yeah. And we got gassed. Like, that goal, we took our foot off the gas. We looked gas. I don't know if it was, like, the fans. Like, we were, yeah. Well, that does bring us, yeah, to the 80th minute, where Melissa Bettee scored a goal, assisted by Trinity Rodman. and, you know, we're not a spirit podcast, but she's been in the news a bit lately. Who, Trinity Rodman? In the news? Who could have guessed. What do you mean? No, she's just as, she's almost as scary as self, like, even, yeah. And yeah, that second goal really turned things around, and it felt like we were, we were just on, we were on the back, our back foot. We were asleep, you know, whatever you want to say. I think at one point, it was maybe a little earlier in the game, but I texted you that they looked desperate and we looked tired. And desperate beats tired every time. Especially like, like you were saying earlier, like, they've never won in Providence Park. Ever. So they've got that on them. And also, like, I remember this was a while ago. I think this was last season. The camera was. I was zoomed in on the spirit players and they were at Providence and how Hersch felt looks to the side and she goes, wow, it's loud. Like, I'll have to pull it up to you. This is, these are facts, Brooke. So don't come at us. But she goes, it's loud, you know, because it's. We are such a community team. Especially with like, so between us and the spirit, like, they call them, it's rowdy outy. They are loud and no one's better than the thorns. No one's better than Providence Park, you know, our fans. But Rowdy Al-Aid gives us a run for our money. They definitely show up for their team and they go hard, so. Absolutely. Well, that then brings us to what else is happening with our team and what's coming up next. Rose City Red Card brought to you by Marissa and Alan. And Alan, let's go. Woo! Let's go! That's right. That brings us back to talking about what's going on with the team. We, we see. said it is the healthiest roster we've seen all year. Like you were saying, our defense has been really consistent. The transfer window is closing today. Yeah, the transfer window closed today. We don't spread rumors here at Roe City Red Card. But if we were to spread rumors, we would think that Deña Casinos, having an excused absence, being at the game, but not dressing. She was in a hoodie. She looked very comfortable. I saw her. on the field. It was right before the game that we found out she was not going to be playing. Yeah, it was a late availability update. And all they said was that it was an excused absence. And normally when that happens in the league, somebody is waiting to go through medical to join their next team. We talked about that briefly last week. And, but yeah, it closes today. And it is currently 6.30 p.m. on September 7th. And Marissa keeps checking the news. And I'm trying to keep. keep updated and nothing as of 6.30 p.m. So we'll see if something happens after we record, but so far, you know, it looks like it might be something else. So, you know, what does that mean? What happens if Castellanos stays? What happens if she goes? What does it mean for us? She has been doing better the last couple of games. We need better than has been doing better. I think we, we need better. I don't know. I really don't know. I feel like we could just do with. Thank you, Calvin. Shout out to Calvin. Hey, I'm going to bring you some more announcements. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Calvin. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. And this is why we record at the bar. We literally, this is also, sorry, sidetrack, but this is Alan and I's home base. We fucking love this place. It's amazing. This is literally right we record here is because people be sitting down next to us. We love the community. Yeah. Also, we're making a. This is a woman's sports bar, basically. We're turning it into one at least. Hell yeah, we are. But yeah, so with Danya, I think that we could do better. And we will find out. I don't, we don't know what's going on, the rumor mill, but that that's kind of what it is. All right. Well, so the other big thing that we've been talking about is Sophia Wilson. Is she going to stick around? Yeah. She still hasn't signed yet. You texted me and said, it looks like she's not going anywhere with a link to her podcast that she was on, Tobin Heath's podcast. I listened to it as well. And it sounds like, you know, she's loving Portland. She's loving the people. She didn't say she's sticking around. So one of the quotes, that's why I texted you is like, one of the quotes that I took from it was that she, like, so Tobin Heath brought up the Ball and Door, which is one of the most coveted women's most coveted football awards you can get ever. Also, it's a fucking award given by a French magazine. It is a joke. Sorry, it's not a joke. Congratulations to the Ball and Door winners and the nominees in the past. It's a big thing, but also. But it is heavily European. Americans do not win it. You have to, it's, it's very European base. And so basically Tobin was like, so, you know, like, if you want to, and ball and door, you have to go over there. And Soph was like, I don't really care about that stuff. She cares about her family, Gigi. And then she started talking about how, because all the time you hear players, even Coffey, all these players were like, well, I just felt comfortable. I wanted to be uncomfortable to move up. And Soph was like, I don't think you have to be uncomfortable to do better. She was like, I would actually say that you might want to be comfortable sometimes. And so that's what got me into thinking that Soph's not going to leave. Also, I have my own little tangent after this. this, but Soph has a new baby. These players know her child. They are hanging out with her child. She is comfortable here with the space. She's comfortable with our new training facility. Brand new training facility. This is the only team she's played for. I think that, also, I do not think we're going to get any national team players that are going to move in this next year. You want to be comfortable with your team. It's going to, like, you move it to a new, you could be the best player in the world. not best playing in the world, but let's say, Ally Sentnor, getting traded from Utah to Kansas City to L.A. Ally Sentnor's been with L.A. for Angel City for a couple of games, and she's just now starting to crack. It fucking takes time to get used to stuff. And you can use this season too, but we only got one more season, which is next, at the beginning of next spring, before the World Cup. I don't think we're going to get a lot of, we might get some lower-tier movement. Not to say these players are lower tier, but we're not, I think we're going to get some movement like that, but I don't think you're going to get the main national team players moving around. I don't think they want to fuck up their juju. I don't think they want to fuck up their familiarity. But I think that SOF is going to stay put for at least two years, because we got the World Cup next summer, and then after that, we got the Olympics. So I feel like those are two big years. Also, her husband just signed like a huge deal with the Kara, because he plays in the NFL, which is a men's sport. It's American football. Yeah, I don't know. They call it American football, but they play with their hands. Lots of CTE. Anyways. But so I would like to think, like, maybe there's some continuation. Like, also, they play, he, she plays in the summer. He's off during the summer. I feel like it's easy. Yeah, their schedules don't conflict. Yeah, also, maybe I'm just Hail Marying. I don't believe, but maybe I could believe in JC for this. So, I had my, that is, that is quite the, the sacrifice that you were willing to make there. Well, earlier in the season, I did say I was going to start sleeping with men if the thorns would win. Luckily, I didn't have to do that. It's true. I mean, we'll see. We'll see how the rest of the season goes. But that does bring us to what's happening in the rest of the league and where we are standing in the, standing in the standings? Standing in the standings. Standing in the standings. Standing in the standings. Something like that. It's not like that. Yes, we have arrived at everyone's favorite segment. Woo-hoo! Piyup, bea-p-p-p-p-you! All right, so match week 20 was electric. We are getting closer and closer to the end of the season. Every game counts. The teams that are at the bottom of the table are still fucking shit up for teams at the top of the table, and that's why I love this league. Like, especially the WSL just started this. weekend and you get the same teams who are always the best and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and shit's boring. That's one of the things we love about this. Yeah, it's the parody. We got a bunch of shit going on. All right. So let's get into it. Beap, bea, pew, pew, pew. Sorry, I guess you have a button for that now. But yeah, so, okay, Marissa's match week round up 20. All right, so Friday, we had Boston. Boston and Utah. Boston beats Utah two to one. I didn't see that coming, but also good for Boston. They're not a bad team. They have their moments. They're not going down with a fight. They're also an expansion team. Every expansion team deserves a little bit of grace. But, yeah, Boston beats Utah two to one. It was actually, I got to watch that game. It was pretty fun. I missed that one, but it seems like it was a good one. I'll, you know what, next week we can watch all 100 million games in a weekend. We'll get them all. Don't worry, yeah. And then the next Friday game was Kansas City and Bay FC. Kansas City beats Bay FC two to one. We said this in the last podcast. Wake the fuck up Bay City or Bay FC. You guys are better than this. Be better. Be strong. You guys have such a solid, like, roster. Come on. It was against Kansas City, who's one of the better teams. But like, you guys should not be where you at or on the table, you know? So that's it for the Friday games. Saturday had only one game. And anyways, Saturday only had one game. It was Angel City and Racing Louisville. Angel City beats racing two to one. It was the only man. match of the game. I was kind of busy. Didn't get to watch a lot of it. But I don't know. Racing was on a tear for a minute. And yeah, that's, that's all I got on that. That's all I got to say about that. I missed that one as well, unfortunately. And then to Sunday where we had five games, which was crazy. That's a lot more than that. Yeah. So the first game on Sunday was Denver versus Gotham. This. was, for me, crazier than Boston beating Utah. Denver beats Gotham. 3 to 0. That is 3 to 0. Insane. Gotham's streak is ended. Number one, they have been playing so well. Yeah, top to bottom. They've been the greatest team. And I caught just like the last two minutes of this game. And it was, it was just over by the time I got into it. Oh, yeah. And it's, and that's the thing is like, so. Gotham looks mortal. You know what I mean? Like, when we tied them, when they played here a couple weeks ago, like a month ago at this point, I was like, they kind of look immortal, you know? And also, they are actually, they are very much missing Rose LaVelle in the middle. She's out due to concussion protocol, but she's out with the, she's still, she's practicing with the team. I expect that she'll be back. But also, I am really glad that our league takes concussion. and head injury series, because a concussion is a head injury. It is. It is. And she looked really dazed out of that game a while ago. But, yeah. So then moving on to the other game is North Carolina versus Chicago. North Carolina Maliwopped. Wallywopped. North Carolina beat the shit out of Chicago, 6-0. God, poor Chicago. Can we, should I, should I lace up my boots? Should I get out there? They've, they've not been having a good year. It's not, it's not. You know, and they have mall out, they have, it's just not looking good. But also, with that game, after my, in my notes, it says sad face for the stars. But Ashley Sanchez, Hatrick, Sanchez is at 18 goals for the season so far, the most from any American in a single season in WSL. She's truly, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, she's, doing something special with the season, and I hate to be another person talking about the national team call-ups, but if Ashley Sanchez doesn't deserve a call-up, then who the fuck does? Like, I fully expect her to be on the roster for when we play Spain next month. Like, she is, she's, she's, she's the MVP of this league, right? I mean, for me personally, like, a hat trick, 18 goals, 18 goals in the season was still like seven fucking games to go? She's, she's playing incredible. She's just playing incredible. And then Spirit and the thorns play. Spirit beats the thorns two to one. My notes say, whatever, boo, I hate the sport. I hate everything. Die, die. You told me that you had to cut a lot of that. I had to cut so much out of my notes before I sent them to you, Alan. But, you know, this is where we're at, and, you know, this is what we're doing. You also had to apologize. for using caps lock throughout the entire note document. You apologized in the email subject, but the email subject was also all in caps lock. So I'm not quite sure how much you meant it. There's a light that says that the caps lock is on, but I was just like, fuck that light, shooting from the hit. We go in. Just do it. Just do it. Yeah. So blah, blah, blah, blah, sparing break the thorn. La. Another game that happened, or the fourth game that happened on Sunday, was Houston versus Orlando. Orlando win three to one. Orlando aren't going down without a fucking fight. They, I don't know, they're very hot and cold, and I know, beating Houston isn't supposed to be, isn't like some huge thing, but Orlando's, they're still pushing. They're still doing well. Also, where the fuck is Marta? Is Marta injured? We should bring that up in the next episode. Like, where's, where's Marta? I don't know, you know. So she's had six starts and then six off the bench. So. This season? That's what I'm seeing here. So I don't know if that's correct. We'll either say it's correct or we'll fact check it in post and cut this. Yeah. And then the last game on Sunday, which was actually, it was so nice. Sometimes it's really nice after a Thorns game to have like some other games to kind of like mouth wash it through that was the noise I did you should cut that but anyways kind of like a nice like you know after something sad it's like okay well let's in this with a happy fact you know and so not a happy fact for San Diego but the last game on Sunday was Seattle versus San Diego wave Seattle win one zero Mimi Van Zanten who for me is personally rookie the year she's fucking incredible she got a red card for the wave at the 13th minute so they played a lot of the game majority of the game with 10 players down they still looked great they still had some opportunities but you're one player down and laura harvey as much as fuck seattle laura harvey's a decent coach and so she know that she was like okay let's see what we can do with this you know what we can do with this you know and so yeah Seattle comes away with the win one zero and that's it for For Maritz, Marissa. What's my name, Al? Can you, what was my name again? What was your name? Marissa. Marissa. And now for Marissa, this is the end of Marissa's match week 20 roundup. So that brings us to next week. As I said, we are both going to be able to be there this time. It's going to be a blast. My second time there as press. And like we said, we're going to ask some questions, aren't we? Yeah, we are. First of all, cheers, Alan. Cheers. This has been a great episode. We're killing it. We're keeping that in. Yeah. Also, the bartender that just said we suck says, what's your shirt say, Priscilla? Thick girls taste better. That's the bartender that just yelled at us. Yeah. See, hello, we are loved at the bar. We are. Everybody loves us here. Also, we're like, sprawled out at a bar with like podcast equipment. It kind of takes an eye, you know. Everybody asks what we're doing. I know, which is also. because we know everybody, so they kind of know. Yeah. All right. But what's happening at the game next week? All right. So we play Chicago at home. We all want good things for Chicago, but the thorns, we're going to play, we're going to be pissed off. Yeah. We just lost at home. The Chicago stars are going to have to feel the wrath of a pissed off Portland Thorns in Providence Park home game. I don't think it's going to fare well for them, but we will see. Yeah, also, let's bring it into the rest of our games that we have for this year. We have a pretty, I don't want to say easy, because who knows, Boston beats Utah, Denver beats Gotham, who knows what can fucking happen. But the end of our season looks pretty, we're playing bottom, like the lower of the table teams. So, yes, we play the Chicago stars in Portland on Sunday. the 13th. We play Orlando Pride Saturday, September 19th, in Orlando. We play poor, we play Houston Dash in Portland on September 26th. Then we play Boston Legacy in Portland on October 3rd. Also, in the middle, I'm sorry, I got to say, it is really exciting to host these expansion teams in our city, like, Boston, boss, first ever Boston team in a women's fort to play in our, like, to play in Providence Park. That's really cool. That is really cool. I feel like we don't give enough shout out to these expansion teams. Like, it is so fucking cool. Our league is growing. It's really exciting. We're getting new teams. We're getting new fans. Yeah, it's new players. It's great. It's so awesome. Okay. Back to business. So yeah. And then, uh, we play Bay FC, October 8th in the Bay. Then we play, I think this is going to be kind of the hardest one, the hardest of our games at the last leg. and we play North Carolina, but we do play them in Portland. And Alan, you don't know this because you're pretty new, but North Carolina is like our, like, so it's build a bonfire, build a bonfire, put Seattle at the top. North Carolina goes in that fucking middle. Like literally, North Carolina, like we were talking about earlier, we were discussing shield winners who, like can you win the shield and win the the championship and North Carolina fucking did it two goddamn years in a row. It was 2018, 2018 and 19. Yeah. And North Carolina used to boss people around in this league. Not no more. I mean, Ashley Sanchez. And then, sorry, got distracted because of friendship, you know, but our last regular season game is against the Houston dash in Houston on November 1st. So we do, I don't want to say easy, because. Because this league be fucking people left and right, but it seems like we have player, we're playing the lower level teams besides North Carolina. Well, and just looking at the standings, you know, we're not playing people who are up, you know, competing for the shield. We're playing, you know, some of the teams that are not doing as well, but we've talked about the parody. And so it still is. Anything could happen. Anything could happen. We still need to, you know. Utah beat us five one. Boston just beat Utah to one. Like, it can go either way. This league is like a box of chocolates. Well, you never know what you're going to get. Took me a moment on that one. Well, one thing I do want to mention is that next week is your birthday week. So we are going to go and see the game together and go celebrate your birthday. Yeah. I'm excited. It'll be fun. Yeah. I'm never worried about my age. I don't give a shit. Like, whatever it is, what it is. I'm black. I look young. You know, that's life. Melanin. Be melanin for me. But this age, I'm definitely like, it's, it's not rough, but it's like something I'm paying attention to. So I'm going to drink more water. Hydrate. Smoke a lot of weed. As you do. Just take care of myself. My body's a temple. Yeah. Absolutely. And you got to pay attention to what your body needs. And, you know, I'm approaching a big birthday as a little. I'm approaching a big birthday. well next year. And so I feel you there. How are we going to survive? On that note, I think it is time to once again say cheers. Fuck yeah. And I will finish off my beer. As you say, as you always do. All smiles, no injuries. Fuck Seattle. Let's go thorns. Go thorns.