Good Vibes FC: Return of the WSL!

0:00Hi, it's Sam Muiss, host of the Women's Game, which is proudly supported by New Balance. It's been great to work with a partner who is equally dedicated to growing women's soccer in this country. They work with some of the best talent in the game, Michelle Cooper and Jordan Heidema, and have three incredible models of cleats for all types of players. The Fioran is crafted for speed, the Tekela provides superior touch and control to bring your vision to life, and the classic 442 is meant for any pitch and any weather. Go to newbalance.com slash soccer to find out which pair is perfect for you or the soccer player in your family. You're listening to the MIB Media Network, and this is the Women's Game. All right, great. Let's do it. Let's do it. Do you want to do it? Do you want to start it? No. Hi, everybody. And welcome to Good vibes FC. I'm Sam Muiss coming to you from the Women's Game World Headquarters in Vermont. I'm Becky Sobering coming to you from Portland, Oregon. Good vibes FC is presented by our great friends over at OliPop.

1:02Use code TWG20 for 20% off at DrinkOliPop.com. Today on the podcast, we are reintroducing our newer listeners to the Women's Super League in England, which kicked off this weekend. Then we'll recap the biggest moments from the end of this L. Asher Sanchez has 18 goals now. We're going to talk all about it, and finally we'll chat through some other news, including the U20 Home of the World Cup and the Ballon Dora nominations. But first, Becky, what's going on with you? You know, I very recently became a technical consultant to the Portland Thorns. Well, congratulations, coach. Thank you. No, no consultant. Congratulations, technical consultant. Yes, thank you very much. Can you tell us, I was reading an article about this today to try to have a little bit of a heads up for this podcast. I want to hear in your words, tell us all about this new role. What are you going to do? Are you excited? How are you feeling? I'm super excited about it. I've been in twice now. I basically go in early, very early, because these coaching staffs get in so early in the morning to actually have the meetings to plan for the meeting and for the sessions, but

2:06that's aside the point. I go in with the technical staff and we kind of discuss clips that we want to go over with the team, or we'll talk about the game that just happened or the game that's coming up. That can influence what happens at training. I get to be on field with the players, which is great. Of course, I'm focusing more with the backline because that's basically all I know is defending and a backline unit. That's been really fun. I also get to be part of unit meetings. I'm also just a resource to the players. I've been a part of the league since the beginning. I've played on a bunch of teams. I've seen some things, both on and off the field. If anyone wants to just ask a question about, hey, this is happening, what do you think? I'm also just a resource in that respect. I've really enjoyed it. It's been really fun and it's been feeling my cup and the group is so great. I love working with the backline. They ask such good questions and you can just tell that they're hungry to get better and

3:09better and they're already so good. It's just really fun to see players that they want more. They want to be better. It's just like they want the tactics. They want the principles. They want scenarios. They want the trainings and the extra reps and everything. I'm just like, yes, yes, of course. It's just awesome. That sounds so awesome. I have a million questions. I feel like one of them is like, do you have any coaching licenses already? I don't. That's why I can't be a coach. Does it make you interested in getting one? Has anybody asked you a question that you didn't know the answer to? I think they know not to ask me those types of questions. It has gotten me maybe thinking flirting with the idea of getting some coaching licenses. It's just like when you're a player, it's really, it was just so difficult because sometimes they would do player-specific courses, but then it would be during a FIFA window.

4:09We would be gone to the national team so I'd miss that. Maybe now that I've got a little bit more time, but I also don't have that much time. I know. I know. You might not have seen it. You're wearing so many hats already. I do like when I know I was technically the coach of Vermont Green of the women's team for a few games, but it was so funny to me, and I know this is a totally different role. It was just so funny to me how I felt like I knew less than I actually know, but I think what's so cool about your role is from what it sounds like, is you really can just lean on your own experience, kind of like we do in the podcast. You don't necessarily have to understand the head coaches entire philosophy about the game and every scenario. You can just say to a player, if I was in this one-on-one situation, this is what I would do. Exactly. That's exactly it. They don't expect me to be running any of the sessions or anything, but they're like, hey, if you want to get to that place, we will help you do that. So yeah, so it's been, hopefully, a very mutually beneficial relationship.

5:10Oh my god. Yeah, I mean definitely beneficial for the team. I can only imagine. I do have kind of a hard-hitting journalist question that you as a coach would have to maybe answer in the media. I know you're not a coach. You're a technical consultant. But I was looking at the goals against up and down the standings. Portland does have 32 goals against, which is not the worst, but also not the best in the league. Yeah, they're like middle. Middle of the table is more as goals against. What do you think you can do to help the backline? I think when you look at some of the goals that have been conceded, it has been some of the marking in the box. And as a defender, that is, I think one of the most difficult things to do because as a cross is coming in, you're thinking, okay, I'm zonal, but then there's someone in my zone. So do I go man to man? And so there's kind of that transition in where you have to go from zone to man to man. That is really difficult. And happens in such a split second. And so I think doing reps with that, going over film, breaking down, okay, where's the cross coming from? Is it a one-touch cross? Is it a two-touch cross?

6:10Like the location of the cross where it's coming from, fine-tuning some of those things, I think will help with some of the goals conceded. Love that. So smart. Well, I'm so excited for you. Thank you. What have you been up to? Oh my gosh. Well, we had a live show on Denver last week. Yes. How was Denver? How was Denver? It was really fun. The show went very smoothly, usually at the end of one of those shows. I come off stage and I like immediately say like ABC. This is what we should have done better. Like these are all the things that went wrong. And I have to like offload all of those right away just so everybody knows like I'm aware that I'm not in the state here. But this time I was like wow, that went pretty smoothly. Like I don't think I would have changed much. We went like five or ten minutes over time. But I think everybody was having a great time. We had such amazing guests. I had a great time. The audience was laughing at my jokes. So that's... I know you love that. It's the reason for my existence. And I just felt really, really proud of our team.

7:11Like I feel like we have done, have some reps doing these shows now. And one of our producers who helps me write out all the questions, I just feel like we had like a great rhythm. And I was like just really proud of the group. I think we did a good job. I hope the crowd had fun. It seemed like they did. And even all the people who came on stage to join us from the Denver Onyx, which is the Women's Professional Rugby Team in Denver. And then also from the Denver Summit. We had several of the front office, we had coach, Janine Sonis, he has been Ryan, Lindsay Heaps joined us. And everybody seemed like they had just like the best time. So I was really proud and really happy. It was fun. Sam, you're getting... No, I'm not going to say you're getting so good. You've always been so good at that. So I like the more reps you're getting, you're just going to be like, I'm going to become like, I don't even know what you're going to become. Well, yeah, I was Gary show host. Scary. I was more relaxed at this one, I feel. Like at one of the Boston ones that we did, I like could have puked before.

8:13And I think it's just because it was like my hometown. And then at the end of his own championship show last year, we were obviously in San Jose and I literally started the show by saying San Diego, which was like the worst moment of my whole, oh my god, I was so mortified. And I didn't do anything like that at this one. Thank you. I keep you up at night sometimes. It was like so. My hope is that like I have established a lot of goodwill with like the audience and the listeners and that like when I do make mistakes, my hope is that they're like, she's beating herself up enough. Like we don't have to punish her for this. So like I do feel like the listeners forgive me and laughed it off. But like it was bad. Like I was real embarrassed. I feel like Zola told me, like has told me a lot of good pointers because he has to present a lot in his job. And he's like, if you just call out the mistake or like you call out that you're nervous, it basically like puts to rest any of the weird tension that can happen between the person

9:15presenting and the people listening. Yeah. And it just makes everything a little bit more relaxed. And I feel like you're so good about that that you just call things out. You're like, I'm nervous. I'm weird. Like I made a big mistake. This is not San Diego. Like I feel like the crowd that is just like, yeah, okay. Like she's one of us. Yeah. Well, I mean, I hope. I hope I'm just the endearing girl next door that everybody likes. I. And if I'm not, please don't tell me otherwise. Check it. So Denver was great after Denver. I went to the New York New Jersey area and I got to go to the US Open game, a US Open match. Which was so fun. I had the best time I got to see Coco go off second round match. And I also got to have a honeydews. Do you know about the honeydews? No. What's is a honeydews kind of like the apparel spritz now like 20 to one of them? Well, I didn't really know that much about a honeydews either. But like when you're like in and around the event, I feel like honeydews are like a cult thing. And it's just like a cocktail.

10:15It's like, I don't know, like a raspberry melon cocktail. And then it has these three little green melon balls on a skewer. And like it was great. It was like a great drink. The melon balls were the best part. It was fun to get it and to have it at the US Open. I feel like I got like a lifetime experience. The drink sounds fantastic. And I'm glad that you got two experience, a tennis match at the US Open because I've always kind of wondered what it's like. It seems almost like like fashion week. I don't know. It's just like so elevated and there's like celebrities and like get really dressed up. And yeah. It's so funny because one of the things I learned when I was there is that like obviously a tennis match is supposed to be very, very quiet. Like you're really supposed to be able to hear everything happening on the court. The audience is not supposed to be like chattering. And what I learned is that the US Open is like, you know, a fun event. So you know, businesses are there with clients and a lot of this year, a lot of influencers are there.

11:16And so all the buzz around the US Open is that the crowd has not been quiet enough during the match play. And like a few like instances have happened that are like, you know, obviously not great for like the sanctity of the humongous tournament that's happening. But I did kind of notice that like the crowd was like pretty loud like even when the play was going on. Like are the players saying anything about the noise? I think a few times. So I think a player had to say something not when I was there, but I think a player had to say something because it like maybe smelled like weed. Oh, wow. I know. And then I think like some influencer like like camera lights were going off. Like I think like a few things have happened. And people are kind of like, yeah, we need to like get a handle on the crowd. This is just so American. I know. It was really funny. I was talking to somebody who was saying that at Wimbledon, it's like up, you could hear

12:18a pin drop. And it's just like a different type of event. The US Open was so fun. And like I, the son of my business, what's going on? Like I had a great time. I obviously tried to be quiet while the while the play was happening. But it, it seems like just a little bit of like a rowdy or event. I like, I just can't imagine playing a sport where it needs to be quiet. Like that's so not team sports, you know? I know. Like to have that effect you as you're playing. I would be more affected if it was quiet. I'd be like, what's happening? Like people started hearing. Where are the drums? It reminds me of like during COVID when we like literally were playing at empty stadiums and it was like awkward. Yeah. Yeah, buzz. Um, do you think like would you have ever wanted to play an individual sport like tennis? Or do you like drive an team environment so much too much? I, I wish I had done an individual sport. I wish I had experienced it because I feel like you learn a lot about yourself when it's just all on you. And I think there's a lot of good and a lot of bad that can come from that.

13:19Yeah. But I wish I, I had to just rely on myself at times just to see like what am I made of? But I, I mean, I love team sports. Zola did, he did some wrestling, he did diving and he did track. And so like all of those are like individual sports within a team environment. Yeah. And he like, he really says there's such advantages to that when it just comes to like mental fortitude. I so believe that because I think I feel like when I was young and I did feel a lot of pressure, I could like hide behind the team in a lot of instances. And it would have been such great practice for my soccer career to have, to not be able to hide anywhere and to just have to like overcome the pressure on your, on your own. Absolutely. Yeah. So I really, I do feel like I missed out on something. But what would you have done if you could have played an individual sport? Well, I mean, I did do swimming, not like super competitively, but now knowing that I love swimming, I wish I would have like done more swimming, even just like I really love

14:24it now, but I never learned how to do a flip turn right. So like my friends that are good at swimming will like watch my flip turns and be like, they're like, what are you doing down there? Yeah. Like it's taking you like longer to do the flip turn, like it's supposed to be way faster. But also I think tennis golf, I feel like I could have had like such a great, like I just feel like I have such a huge frame that I could have had like such a powerful swing in tennis or golf. Yeah. And then just like, you would have made so much money too. I know it. I know it. Can you imagine? I, I can't speak. But you know what? Then I never would have won the World Cup with you. So I wouldn't change it then. All right. Should we talk about some soccer stuff? Yes. I think we should. Okay. Let's do it. So everybody, the women's super league kicked off in England this past weekend. And obviously we all love the end of the cell here, but there's lots of soccer love to go around. So we're just going to do a little crash course today on the women's super league. I'm sure you already know and love a team in the WSL. But I think this is such a great opportunity to introduce the teams in a new way.

15:26Maybe your NWSL team is watching their playoff dream slip away. Maybe you want to watch some future stars of the world cup ahead of Brazil next summer. Or maybe you just miss US women's national team stars. Elissa Thompson, Naomi Gurma, Sam Koffee, Emily Fox, Fallon Telles' Choice. I think especially for some of our newer listeners here, we really just want to like reintroduce some of these clubs and teams and something we may even do, Reba, is loosely compare the WSL teams we talked about today to the NWSL teams that we know so well. I feel like it might be a little bit helpful. It might even be fun. Might be some people off. It might, it's definitely going to piss some people off. It is a crazy thing for us to do. But I feel like it's fun. And this is our podcast and we're going to do it. So I want to start us off with defending league champions. Actually, my former team, Manchester City, who we are loosely comparing to Gotham. City had a fairly quiet off season, just compared to some other teams, something that Gotham has never heard of. Gotham has been acquiring new talent left and right. But City's recent return to the top and just overall breadth of international talent just

16:31kind of reminds me of Gotham. Our American connection to Man City is obviously Sam Cawfe, US Women's National Team Midfield, or who has been out for a couple of months after getting a minor knee surgery. She is back now. She subbed into Man City's game this past weekend. And she's playing alongside other superstars like Lionesses, Lauren Hempanox Greenwood, plus three time in a row, Golden Bootwinner, Bunny Shaw from Jamaica, who is absurd. City are also back in Champions League this year. They are certainly contenders to win the WSL again. But I think it's going to be even harder this year because because they're back in Champions League, they'll have a more congested calendar. Plus they're going to have this target on their backs because they won last year. They did win their opening game this weekend over Birmingham City 3 to 1. Bunny Shaw got a brace. Plus fan favorite Beth Mead made her debut for City. She's one of those new signings, one of those few new signings. I thought the attack looked dangerous. There was some stress in the back line though throughout the game, especially at the end. Jade Rose got stripped and City led up a goal against.

17:34Overall, if you are looking for a team to root for, I think Man City is like an easy, fun team to adopt. I love watching them play and I used to play for them. So there is reason enough. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Reason enough, you played for them. Happy Dolcan for played for them. Yeah, Rose the Bell. Exactly. So you've got a lot of people we love. Even before us, Carly Lloyd played for them. Man City has a little history. That's true. A lot of American internationals have played there. Yeah. Well, I would like to introduce the group to Arsenal because I do think it reminds me of the thorns. I think if you think of like OGs in the women's game, organizations like Arsenal and the Portland Thorns should come to mind. Both clubs have found a lot of success early in their leagues and they have sustained high performance throughout most of their seasons, but maybe not winning as much as they would like. I mean, Arsenal did just win Champions League in 2025, but this past season probably disappointed that they didn't win more than just the FIFA

18:35Champions Cup. But they have had a very exciting off season. They've got young players like Canadian star Olivia Smith. She won the PFA Young Player of the year for Arsenal last season. They've got new signings like Georgia Stanway. She's a lioness. She joined from Bayern. She's an aggressive midfielder. She had a great game over the weekend. And she had over a hundred passes in their last game. So she you know that she's very important to that team. A lot of the ball there. And then you've got Ona Bati, the Spanish outside back. She's also a new signing. So if you want another similarity to the thorns, a really great fan base. They show up in big numbers. They are proud. There isn't American connection. Emily Fox is playing over there over this past weekend. They won against Brighton. One zero thanks to Elise Babamco, who is another new signing for them. Yeah. Wow. I actually love that you're comparing them to the thorns. I think that's really smart and like does make sense. I you know, again, I don't think either team would be offended because both teams are so successful and have that kind of historic aspect to them.

19:38I also just have to mention that I did interview Emily Fox last week. So if you want to quick catch up with Foxy, just click around on our YouTube channel and you will find that. I could also kind of see Arsenal being a little bit similar to the Washington spirit. There's something about Emirates stadium, which is where Arsenal plays. And then just the the excitement around those fans, you know, selling out all those games, it feels very rowdy outie to me. Fans are loyal, loud, passionate, plus both clubs. Kind of as you said, Becky, they've they're just becoming massive global clubs, like really recognizable. Arsenal has so many players who have star power. So I feel like Arsenal is a great one because they could win the league. They, you know, they've won Champions League. It's like a great. I feel like if you're just getting into it, Arsenal is like such a great place to start. A lot of our producers here at the women's game are like big Arsenal fans. And it's become I feel like part of our personality over here. Yeah, I mean, I'm a big Arsenal fan. Women and the men's side. Well, so that's reason enough there.

20:38I know. I think I think people are going to flock to Arsenal up next from me. People might think that this next one is going to be Chelsea, but it's not. It's the London City Lionesses. This is Michelle Kang's WSL team. Michelle Kang obviously owns the Washington spirit, OLL and as and the London City Lionesses. So this is your team if you love superstars and big bets. London City is the only women's club in the WSL. So like unlike Chelsea Arsenal, Man City and literally everybody else right now. London City is not affiliated with a men's team. They had just an okay first season in the WSL, but now they've signed some of the biggest names in the world to bolster their roster. The biggest star being Alexi Puteus, La Reina, the Queen, Ballandora winner, World Cup champion, overall personal hero to all of us. Coming to London City feels like a big new challenge for her. She's been at Barcelona her entire career. And the WSL's top four spots are notoriously hard to crack, but it just feels like Michelle Kang bringing Alexia is all a sign that they are going for it.

21:44They are off to a good start. They beat Manchester United 2-1 in front of a sold out home crowd on Friday. And they also sold out their season tickets this year. So it feels like, you know, on the field they're going for it, but off the field they're also like building something cool. Yeah, it's just like an all around like pretty impressive endeavor. Yeah. And don't you think you could maybe compare London City to San Diego Wave? I mean, they're relatively new to their respective leagues. They are banking on big stars. You just talked about Alexi Puteus, but do you look at the wave? You've had Alex Morgan, Naomi Gurman, now Kamikario. Can you see it? I think that's really smart, actually. It felt like when San Diego came into the league, they a lot of that was riding on signing players like Alex Morgan and Naomi Gurman. Like it was like kind of like the Lindsay Heaps Effect at Denver. It's like, we're going to sign a marquee player and that's going to help us establish as a club and it feels like London City getting Alexia is kind of similar to that. Yeah. So really smart with the San Diego comparison. Alexi Puteus, actually Becky has also launched a streaming service.

22:47I'm like, what can't this woman do? It's called 11 TV. It's in Spain and I feel like what's so cool as you and I and me and Lin have been talking about like all the streaming rights drama over the summer and just in recent years. It feels like Alexia is taking on this problem. Her service 11 TV has secured the rights to the WSL in Spain and will exclusively show one match per week. The first match was her opening game for London City against Manchester United. And I just feel like that was like such a cool move from Alexia to like start this and then to get the rights to her own games. Yeah, it's like the ultimate heat check. Yeah. All right, let's move on to Chelsea. Okay. Historically so dominant in the league. One five years in a row under Emma Hayes and then added a six when Sonia Bompaster took over for her first season. But they are going through some big changes right now. You've got Sam Kerr, Gourighton. They left to play for Gotham. Billy Bright retired.

23:48But they still boast just a super impressive roster with superstars like Lucy Bronze and Lauren James from England. Plus you've got new young talent in American Alyssa Thompson. But you also have players like a Monaca Matsukubo. And so it's a pretty impressive roster. Then you also add Naomi Germa who we will be watching see how she's doing health wise. She has had a little bit of a rough go since her start with Chelsea. But a fully healthy Naomi Germa not even a fully healthy. Just able to play like makes she makes such a difference on whatever team she plays on. And so we are hoping for that absolute best for her. So I feel like you could compare Chelsea to possibly I would say like the courage. If you're looking at kind of that dynasty element, which Sam I know you're just kind of like gloting a little bit. I'm like salivating. I'm like yep. You may be like a touch of Gotham there just because of their championship wins the last few years. Unfortunately they did drop points to Ashton Villa this weekend for the first time ever. They did tie one to one.

24:48I know I it's so tough like I see the courage comparison actually like a few years ago when the courage after that little dynasty run fell off a little bit. I don't want Chelsea to fall off by any means. But it just feels like they are bound to go through transition or like a bump in the road at some point. I did think dropping dropping points this opening weekend was not a great start obviously. But they have so many players that we know and love on their team that I do want success for them. So I think that the four teams that we've gone through kind of feel like they have the biggest players in the biggest storylines. I've kind of already mentioned this but like historically the top four are Chelsea Arsenal Man City and Man United who is kind of getting bumped in like the storyline category for me by London City just because Manchester United have been like so unpredictable in a way. They've had a difficult season last year. They fell to fourth in the table which caused them to miss Champions League which they actually had made the season before which was incredible.

25:50They beat out Manchester City for that spot. They just have players with so much heart and grit. My mind goes right to Aalichun who's played there for a long time. But United has historically just struggled with investment from the club and obviously as a fan that's infuriating but it does make you want to root for the players in the field even more. Their manager from last season actually just walked away due to this lack of investment. But he's been replaced by Eva Oled who came over from the Scottish League. It gives the WSL actually more woman managers than ever. So hopefully that will be a silver lining depending on how they do and how this goes. Manchester United is also where you can watch US Women's National Team goalkeeper, Fallon Tellus Joyce. I don't know exactly what to say in terms of prediction for them this season. I think it's safe to say they'll come in fourth or fifth. But it's just tough to watch them perpetually stay at the mid to top part of the table because it doesn't feel like either this huge globally recognized club but it just doesn't

26:50feel like their ownership cares that much. It's shocking that you look at the men's side for Manchester United and talk about just an iconic global brand and franchise. Everyone knows Manu Men's team. The fact that they're not being invested in in the manner in which they deserve, it is like you said so infuriating because they absolutely have the players and the roster and the ability to be so good. Yeah. Well, I totally agree. I actually just read in our own newsletter that Manchester United played against London City. We already said this. They Manchester United lost in their opening game this weekend. Michelle Kaying attended the game with London City Lioness's jersey on and Manchester United's owner Jim Ratcliffe has never attended a women's game. And I'm just like that's like such a such a stark like window into the discrepancy of not just like financial investment but like how much you care.

27:52Yeah. Yeah, that's really disappointing. I do want to just say for Manchester United there is another NWSL connection in Rebecca Bernal who left Washington spirit. And so she's actually the first Mexican player in the WSL which is just so cool and she's just a great defender and so I think that's a huge get for Manu. I do too and to keep it end of is all related and I just this one is like this is a ridiculous comparison but there are some interesting aspects. Manchester United in the WSL is kind of sharing some similarities to racing Louisville. They are led by ambitious women coaches. They're always doing more than is expected of them with maybe a lack of investment but unfortunately they do just kind of tend to have this unpredictable series of results. So that is my comparison and I'm going to leave that there. We can move on to Tottenham if you'd like. Please. Historically Tottenham's always kind of been this like big next season team. The head coach Martin Ho has been doing a really solid job.

28:55They did some aggressive offseason recruitment. They've got Scotland's Christy Hanson already scored a brace for their opening weekend. They also picked up Shakira Martinez. She's a German international. She's forward and then Alice Sombath. She's a defender from France. I've always been impressed with Alice Sombath. She's kind of new to the scene but the fact that she was starting at center back with Leon for a lot of games, I was kind of like who is this person and she's just been a really solid player. And so like good offseason, probably going to have immediate impact. And I feel like Angel City like this could be your twin flame. And I feel like Tottenham and Angel City both have this kind of we see glimpses of what this team could be but we need to string it together more consistently over the course of the season. I also think like much like Angel City heading into this year, they made smart. If not super splashy pickups. And much like Angel City, I would like to see them actually shake things up. I know. Like I said, it's like can Angel City make playoffs and like really make a run?

29:57Can Tottenham break into the top four? Could they ever push for a Champions League spot? They did do a lot of work at the offseason. Their coach is doing a good job. Tottenham are again another one of these huge globally recognized clubs. And so it's like we're kind of waiting for the women's side to get the proper investment and get that momentum going. I actually love that comparison. I think that one is spot on. Brighton are also really worth mentioning. They've never really cracked the top of the table. But Brighton as a club has been investing in this team. Last year that led them to a historic first appearance in the FA Cup final. So they'll be hoping to keep that momentum up as they bring on seven new players, including Lee Valti who will be joining legend Fran Kirby, who has a wealth of WSL experience. If you don't know super Fran Kirby, she started her pro career as this young player from a tiny club. She went on to become Chelsea's top goal scorer of all time. Although Sam Kerr just tied that record last year. Fran's career was briefly derailed by some health issues.

30:57She went from starter to bench player, but then she made this move to Brighton. And I think she and the club both just felt like Fran had so much to give still. She had an incredible season last year. She helped Brighton have a really strong end of the season where they went on this run, beating powerhouses like Arsenal. So I feel like Brighton maybe didn't have as big of an off season as Tottenham, but they are a team to look for who always bring a solid performance. Could you say that Brighton are the Utah royals of the league? Yes. It's like underestimate this team at your peril. There's always just something like you just want to root for the underdog. Yes, I love that. And I think it can make the WSL so much more exciting if these mid-table teams start to really get results against that like typical top for it. We'll like shake things up so much and you know, yes, give more parity. I don't want to say make the WSL more like the NBA sell, but you do want it to be unpredictable. You do want to see crazy things happen.

31:58It makes the game so exciting. So if these mid-table teams like Brighton can get points off of Man City, Chelsea Arsenal, it's just going to make things so much more exciting. We are starting to get into underdog territory. We've got Aston Villa who are kind of like perpetually mid-table. Maybe comparable to the Houston Dash. Not sure. They did get points off Chelsea those begins. So like you never know anything can happen. We've also got Liverpool who are a legacy club. Everybody knows Liverpool. You want to root for them, but they've struggled a lot on the women's side. A few years ago they got relegated. They fought their way back up to the top tier in 2022. They're actually coached by my former coach from Man City, Garrett Taylor, who plays a really specific possession style that has seemed to take a minute to sink in. I think they really struggled at first last year, but they won. They're opening weekend game for nothing. Thanks to a brace from Grace Fisk. I think the history, but also the heartbreak here,

32:59sadly kind of makes Liverpool the Chicago stars, but I don't want to curse anybody with that right now. Okay, then we'll just move on to West Ham. How's that? West Ham. I mean, they had a really dicey season last year. Lots of their best players left over the summer, but they did make some interesting signings. That includes a lot of young players who had trouble getting minutes at some of the top teams like Arsenal and Manu. And my hope is that they are hungry to make their marks in the league, and that will only help them perform better as they gain, like that crucial game experience. There's also Everton, you have a new manager, and a little optimism, but nothing crazy. Home of Irish goalkeeper, but New Jersey born Courtney Brosnan, who had a really exciting season last year. Okay, so then we have the three teams who got promoted from the WSL2 last season. The WSL2 is the league below the WSL. England's football pyramid has multiple tiers, which we don't really have in the US. I think also Becky a few weeks ago actually mentioned,

34:00this might have been on last week's episode. I mentioned that Birmingham City and Charlton got promoted from the WSL2, and I actually forgot to mention Crystal Palace, so I just wanted to correct myself there. Let's start with Birmingham City. They came in first place in the WSL2, so that secured automatic promotion up a league, up a tier. They did lose to City in their opening game this weekend, but I saw some good things. It seems like they've invested enough that they're planning to try to stay up, which is like good. Maybe have a look at them if you're a BFC or a Denver fan, there's definitely promise. It hasn't quite paid off yet, but like I'm open-minded about Birmingham City, very open-minded. Then we've got Crystal Palace. They finished their WSL2 campaign in second place. They also ended this season with this incredible run, they secured that automatic promotion, and they're feeling really good coming into this year. They're managed by Joe Potter. They have a rich history in the sport, despite this rocky past couple of years. And they actually won their first game,

35:01thanks to a goal from Lexi Lloyd Smith. But Becky, I don't know if you heard about this. This is in the news early this week. Crystal Palace had that weird substitution thing, where they used four windows during the game, and nobody noticed it, so they might get a points deduction. I know. I know. So, unfortunately, I don't really know how that happened. It's kind of the rep's fall. For sure. But it feels like this is what I hate to do. I might compare them with Boston, because there is that rich history, but they're off to this weird start. Oh, that's a bummer. Oh, I know. All right. And finally, we've got Charlton Athletic, who came in third place in the WSL2, and had that crazy one-off promotion relegation game against Lester City last year. It went all the way into PK's in Charlton 1, so they bumped themselves up a tier, and they find themselves in the WSL for the season. Okay, this team is a huge question mark, and unfortunately, they started off pretty grim

36:01with the four-o-loss deliver pool in their opening game. Yeah. This one, I personally don't know as much about it, doesn't seem like they made a lot of changes over the offseason, even considering making the jump up to a whole new league. I do remember their promotion relegation game against Lester City, because Lester City came and last in the WSL, but since the WSL was expanding by two teams, Lester City played the third place WSL2 team. The top two, who we just said, Birmingham and Crystal Palace automatically moved up, but then Lester had to play Charlton. And I think people were saying the gap is too big, Lester's going to kill them, but Charlton took them all the way to PK's, and it was a crazy, crazy game, and Charlton won. So I want to root for them, but it's definitely underdog in underdog land down here, and we'll see what happens. I think the opening game losing to Liverpool for nothing is definitely not promising, but it's a long season. That was a lengthy review.

37:02I am sure that some of you are gritting your teeth and are comparisons to the end of the cell. I know we didn't hit everything, but you know what? At the very least, it was fun. Cool off. We need to take a quick break, but we're going to check in on the end of the cell and we get back. Okay, welcome back everybody. So a lot happened this weekend in the end of the cell. So we're just going to go over the biggest headlines. I want to start with an anomaly this season, which is the fact that there have been multiple goalkeeper assists. So listen to this. Before this 2026 season, there were only three ever goalkeeper assists in end of the cell history. In 13 seasons, this happened three times. So it was like a once in a blue moon kind of thing. This season alone, there have been four. On Friday night, Utah's Mandy McLean assisted a Keanu Palacios goal, becoming one of only two goalkeepers in league history to record multiple assists alongside Kaelin Sheridan. And then also this season, Casey Murphy and Mackenzie Arnold have recorded a cis.

38:04Becky, this has to be our olive up guttuk of the week. I'm just like, what are these goalkeepers doing? It's... So our olive up guttuk of the week. Becky, why are goalkeeper assists happening so much this season? Is this some kind of tactical shift like give us your knowledge? I feel like it might be a little bit of a tactical shift. I think that teams are flirting with more high press. And so they're asking players to be extremely front-footed. And if you commit numbers to a press that often leaves your backline, man to man, when usually in most cases you want to have an extra player. But they're using that extra player to kind of push forward to make it even more difficult to build out. And so I feel like when you're man to man in the back, and I'm such a pessimist, I'm always like, it has to be worst case scenario. Like someone's gonna trip fall of the ball, like you're gonna lose a duel. Like you always want that plus one person there to cover.

39:06But that's not really happening as much this season. And so I feel like if a goalkeeper gets a hold of the ball and launches it, and the forward just reads the fight of the ball better than the defender, some of the players are in, or some of these defenders are just losing their duel. And then they don't have that extra cover that can come over fast enough to kind of clean things up. And so I'm not like so surprised about this because I do feel like more teams are trying to win the ball higher up. And then goalkeepers are like, fine, I'm just gonna hit the absolute crap out of it and let you guys figure it out up there. Yeah, I think what you're saying makes a ton of sense. It's like if you're really focusing on pressing high up the field, it's not like your back line is gonna be 10 or 20 yards behind midfield. They're gonna be right up on the midfield line. And a goalkeeper, especially if she's trying to play out of the back and she's standing at her 18, of course can launch it way well beyond that.

40:06My idea of like, well on a goal kick, the back line, you know, should be 10 yards behind the midfield line who are going up to win the header. But it's not really how it's happening. It's maybe more happening in the run of play. And the goalkeeper has a few more yards and the back line is still up high. So the back line is just higher. And I think yeah, what I am saying if I'm a goalkeeper coach, even if I'm like an offensive coach, I'm like, go for it. It's on this year. For whatever reason, it's now happened more times than it's ever happened before. I would be like very actively if I'm a goalkeeper or the coach looking at the back line of your team being like, just play it if it's on. One pass to goal. Can't couldn't get any easier than that. Route one, absolutely. And I feel like, route one, if you could just boot it over the back line, make them turn and have to chase like and let them battle. Like you never know what's going to happen. And so absolutely, I feel like if you're scouting these teams, some teams are even like more aggressive than others. But absolutely, I think this is a little bit of like a tactical thing that's

41:08happening this season. I know. And honestly, like I am so here for it. I feel like sometimes in North Carolina, we would get like a little bit criticized, you know, when I played there in 2017, 2018, 2019, we would get a little bit criticized for being direct. And I think that playing on that team actually really instilled in me the idea that if you make two vertical passes and you score a goal, that's just as effective as making 30 horizontal passes and scoring a goal. In fact, it's technically way more efficient and way more effective. And so I don't have the purest mentality of like, no, I want to out possess you by passing you to death. I'm just like, if we can go score a goal, one, root one, baby, I love that. Like one pass is the most efficient way. I mean, I'm with you. Like I, I love a little tiki taka. I love like when the ball has to cook. But as a defender, if like a goalkeeper can just get a hold of it and then I have to read, like you just never know what's going to happen.

42:09And so like some of these forwards in the end of your cell, they are just like so in tune with the people that are playing these balls that they are living off all shoulders. They're making these defenders have to make really tough decisions. And so like, I think that's also like adding to these goalkeepers. I, I love that. And I am like so here for the goalkeepers. That was our only pub got you. If the week just let us know in the comments. Why do you think this is happening? What's been your favorite one so far? Are you here for it? I'd love to know. Shout out to all the pop. Okay, Becky goalkeeper assist aside. This game was actually between Boston and Utah. This is the game that we were talking about the goalkeeper assist. Boston won this game. They came out of the game with three huge points. Thanks to a late game winning diving header from Ali Gambon. I was so pumped for Boston. I feel like beating Utah who are in really good form is a big deal for Boston right now. They have been bolstered by the recent edition of Sarah Shepansky. Plus, Asa Tretreore kind of quietly has eight goals for Boston.

43:11She finished one off earlier on and then that Ali Gambon header was just so, so, so good. I feel like Tretreore from the beginning was like getting goals. Like get, probably. Yeah, she, I feel like maybe is like it should be a bigger story, but she's kind of like just flying under the radar just because we have some other players. Ashley Sanchez, you were kind of taking up the golden boot headlines. I know which we will get to because it's so crazy. But yes, I agree Tretreore is doing well for Boston. I feel like she maybe has like a higher XG than she does. Like actual goals like she does get a lot of chances. I will say obviously I love Boston. It does feel like their playoff hopes are dwindling. Like they're kind of, you know, stuck down there at the bottom and it just seems a bit out of reach. But I do hope that they can end the season on a high and getting a win against Utah is like, you know, a good step in that direction. Sam, did you see that Utah just acquired to me, StoSiff from the Chicago Stars? Yes. I think this is a huge get for Utah. I feel like having a quality attacking player or like join an already like pretty strong attacking cohort,

44:16like that's a good move for Utah. Great move for Utah. I am a little bit like I hope Chicago has something up their sleeve. Don't we all? It was so fun a few weeks ago to like celebrate Chicago's win. It was. Yes. We'll get to them. Yes. Okay. But good luck to Jimmy's Joseph. I mean, she's a young, young player. She's been called in with the national team. You want to be in a positive environment. I don't, if she had anything to do with it, I don't blame her. But I do hope Chicago figures it out. Okay. The other game I want to talk about is Denver versus Gotham. Denver dominated, which I mean, I'm not surprised, especially because I was just in Denver and they do seem like they have great team culture and they like a great attitude about the rest of the season. But Gotham is a great team who are, you know, have been together a lot longer. Denver is an expansion team and Denver dominated them. Yuzuki Yamamoto, score to goal, Olivia Thomas, score to goal, her second and two games. And the Asmi and Ryan score to goal. So Denver won three to nothing. Denver just came out aggressive like from the very beginning.

45:17It was zero, zero, and half time. But then the floodgates just opened up in the second half. Gotham before this had a 10 game unbeaten streak. So this loss obviously broke that and they just looked a bit slow. They never really gained control of the game. The summit set the pace. And I was reminded, of course, that this game was at elevation. And it kind of reminded me of, remember when Gotham just had that really disappointing performance in the ConquerCalf w Champions Cup when they played against Club America also at elevation, they lost four to one. So I'm like, maybe Gotham particularly struggles at elevation? Could that be? I mean, I guess comment denominator. You could say that. I'd be playing at elevation is like a different beast. And I think if you play for Denver or for Utah, like you absolutely know that teams that are coming into town, like they are going to struggle. And so you can tactically adjust and like make them run a little bit more. Like we were talking about you can go route one. Route one, baby.

46:18She'll have to down the throats. Exactly. Like really make them run and get tired early. Like when I played for Utah, we absolutely talked about that. Because you can feel it. And if this is if it's Gotham's like true Achilles heel, or if it's becoming like a mental block for them, like same thing. They're not getting resulted elevation. So yeah, that's a really tough trip for Gotham. I do think Denver is taking advantage of their home field. They've only lost at home twice. And they're currently on a three game home unbeaten streak. And so I think the elevation plus the sell out crowds. Yeah. This was the summit's seventh sell out of the season. They're just making it a little fortress there. It's pretty good. Yeah. It's not bad. It's really not bad. Good for them. Good for Denver. OK. Another team that got a big win this weekend was Angel City. Thanks to a brace from Evelyn Shore, as he gets Louisville. Angel City looked good. They needed this win. The middle of the table is very tight for the playoff race. So now coming up this Friday night, 10th place Denver is going to be playing 9th place Angel City.

47:19So I have that one circled on my calendar. It is at 10 p.m. Eastern time, which is late. So I'm so late. It's late. But maybe I could watch a replay in the morning. Both teams are just like on a hot streak. They both obviously really want to get into playoff position. It is a home game for Angel City. So Becky, do you think either team has the edge here? I mean, if I had to choose a side, I'm going to go with Denver. I think. I know. They were flying in their game against Gotham. And you could just tell there's something about like the way that they interact with one another on the field that you could just tell like through their celebrations. They just really enjoy playing for one another. And they seem so genuinely happy, especially when the Asmine Ryan scored. And I was watching that celebration. You're just like something really cool is happening in Denver. And I feel like you just took down the top dogs in Gotham. And so you just ride that momentum into the next game. I don't know if I think that's like a hot take. But I feel actually similarly about Angel City. They came off that huge win against Boston, where they won five to two. They have a similar kind of vibe of celebrating

48:21each other's goals. Evelyn Shore is this young player who plays outside back, just scored a brace. I feel really interested in this game. So you're going with Angel City. I don't know that I'm going with Angel City. I actually want to go that far. I actually think it could be a tie. Yes, Sam, games can be ties. Games can't be done. That is the most on another on the fence, Sam moment. Right, but watch it be a tie. And then I will just clip, go right out and be like at least. I you're a genius. A soccer team. Okay, time to talk about how she said, Jess, she was already leading the Golden Boot Race heading into the weekend. Then she proceeded to score a hat trick against Chicago and the courage is six to nothing when every single time I go, oh my gosh, Sanchez, don't let it get to you. It's going to be so hard to keep this pace up. She just goes and scores a brace or a hat trick. She just keeps going. She now has 18 goals in the season. That is the record for the highest scoring American player in a single season. She is close to breaking the regular season goal record, which is currently held by Kansas City's 10-wattling at 20 goals.

49:24And I just am like Sanchez is life. Okay, Sam, hot take is Sanchez going to score and break 10-wattles 20 goal record. Yeah. Yeah. I think it might happen too. I think they might have, I didn't count, they might have seven games left. And I'm just like, I just think she's on, she's on a train and there's no exit and we're all hanging on to decide. And there's no like the track is, I don't know the metaphor. She's on it. She's going. Those are the trains coming. I mean, North Carolina are now third place in the standings. And it feels like they just kind of snuck up there and they're tied now on 39 points with Utah and San Diego. And then you've got Portland Thorns just behind with 38. So things are tight. Yeah, it's really tight and they're obviously above them as Gotham and Spirit. And then it's that really, really, really, really tight section. You mentioned Portland just behind that group of teams

50:25with 38 points. I know you lost this weekend. Tell me more about how you think Portland are doing. Yes, they lost and it's surprisingly maybe that it's the first time the Spirit have ever won at Providence Park. I saw that. I know, I was kind of like, I was like replaying in my mind all the time that I had played Washington. I'm like, yeah, we never, we never lost to them there. Which is surprising because just Washington's been for the last few seasons, like such a strong side. But I think it really goes to show how much of a fortress Providence Park can be for the Thorns. So, Wilson Square to PK for us, early in the game, and I would say that the Thorns first half was very impressive. I think when they look back on the game, they're going to wish that they had maybe capitalized on the momentum from that first half. But then the Spirit came back. They did score two in the second half to take all three points. So that puts them within two points to first place Gotham. So that was a big win for the Spirit and had the Thorns won that actually would have bumped them above the Spirit. Tang. Yeah.

51:25That's just where it gets real tight up there. And in the middle and on the bottom, it's just real tight. I'm okay, a couple more quick rapid-fire things that went to take a quick break. So Izzy Rodriguez scored an Olympic goal for Kansas City. And Olympico is when you scored directly from a corner kick. Izzy Rodriguez left footed, swung that bad boy right in there. And then Rocky Rodriguez scored the game winner in Kansas City's win over BFC. The double Rodriguez there, Kroibatun, passed it to Rocky Rodriguez. That was Kroi's tenth assist of the season, which I also feel has been kind of quiet. Another game, Maddie Mercado, scored her eighth goal of the season with the game winner for Seattle. And then Orlando beat Houston three to one. Hayley McCutcheon had a great goal in that game. That was just our little rapid-fire recap. I'm sure we missed a lot, but we do need to take one more quick break and we'll be right back with some more news. Welcome back to Good vibes FC. Okay, we have covered so much today, but a few more quick things that have been all over our news feeds lately.

52:29Blacko and Dinoffski is part of ways with Kansas City. Obviously, Blacko led the team as head coach to a shield winning season last year. But then the current loss in the first round of playoffs. He moved into a sporting director role and the current hired Chris Armistice head coach. So now it was just announced that Blacko will be leaving the club. And there was this statement from the team about his departure that both parties determined this role was not the right fit. I guess I'm not shocked that it wasn't the right fit for Blacko, but the whole thing seemed strange. And I'm not one to speculate. So Becky, can you speculate? Can I speculate? What do you know, Blacko? So well, what do you think? Do you think he's going to go back into coaching? Why do you think this wasn't the right fit? What do you know anything? I don't know anything about that. I just Blacko as a professional coach. I think he really thrives being on the field and the day-to-day and the details. And he's so good at developing players.

53:30As you can see, his time with the current, like he did some really impressive things with that group. And I know that the players really appreciated him as a coach. So I wouldn't be surprised if he eventually got into coaching. I also think, Sam, and we talk about this, that it's a grind. Like being a coach sometimes, like, the time and energy that goes into being a coach, sometimes, like, supersedes that of a player. Like, as a player, you can finish training. You can go home. Your job is just to get ready physically for the next day. I feel like the coach's job is like never done. You know, it's the planning. It's the deciding. It's all these things. So I'm wondering if Blacko's just going to take a little time. I mean, he loves Kansas City. He's been there for so long. I mean, he was a professional indoor soccer player there. He coached FC Kansas City, the current. Like, maybe he just like is going to chill for a little bit and see what the next thing could possibly be. Yeah, I wonder. I'm like so interested just from having him with the national team.

54:33He was so obsessed with the game itself and the details that I do imagine. Maybe he misses having that kind of say over the trainings and who goes out on the field and what that all looks like. So I wonder if he'll get back into head coaching. I do think this was weird. I'll just say it. I think the move to a different role within the same organization and then the hiring that a lot of people had a problem with. Somebody who had never coached professional women's soccer before. And now this to departure just all feels weird to me. And that's all I know. Moving on, very exciting. The nominees for the Ballador are actually going to be announced when this podcast comes out. It's going to be today. But we are recording this on Monday night. So it's this is making this more confusing than it needs to be. Basically, the Ballador nominations are coming out. Reba, I'm curious who you expect to see on this long list as somebody who you think could realistically win.

55:33Maybe apart from Alexey Proteus, who was like an obvious front runner. She's won it several times before. So like give us another little like heads up on somebody to look for on the list. I think everyone should be looking out for Melchie Dumourne. I think she is just like a prolific world class player. And she's a Haitian international. She had 20 goals, 12 assists for Leon, one the trimester. One the domestic trouble and made the one champions league final. And honestly, any of the players that I've spoken to who have played with Melchie or against her just rave about how good she is. And I feel like if you've got players talking about how good you are. Like world class players saying this player is like world class. I think the world should be like on on blast. That is like such a cool show. And I think it would be so cool if a conca-calf player who obviously plays in France were to really like make a run at winning this award. I'm going to show to Ava Pior. She is Polish.

56:34She helped Barcelona beat Leon in the Champions League final. She scored two goals in that game. And I do just think that I mean, Ava Pior had such an incredible like domestic season. She just scores so many goals. But I do think that in a year without a world cup, the Champions League final and Champions League knockout rounds have this real weight to them because there's just so many eyeballs on those games. So I think that that will like, you know, lean the skills in her favor in some ways. So again, yeah, those nominations are coming out today. We're going to cover them even more across our social media. And you know, you can hear more about it. So just make sure you're following along with us for more on the Ballon Dorn Alms. And then on a very serious and important note, September is National Suicide Prevention Month. Katie Save is the organization started by the family of Katie Meyer, Stanford Women Soccer Player, who lost her life in 2022. And they are working to get Katie Meyer's law passed by Congress. And this law is inspired by Katie's story and would ensure that college students have access

57:36to an independent advisor when they need it the most. You can head to katysave.org for more instructions on how to reach your representative and show your support for this law to be passed. Yeah, thank you so much, Becky, for bringing that up. I actually went to this website today. It gave great instructions on how to send an email or call your representative or your senator. And I actually sent three emails to my representative and my two senators. And it took like 10 minutes. And so I really hope some other people who listen can do that and just show support for this cause, you know, in memory of a soccer player whose story we all came to know. Next, the U-20 Women's World Cup in Poland kicked off this past weekend. Unfortunately, the U.S. U-20s lost their opening game to Italy 2-1. So not off to the ideal start. Chicago stars Ford, Michaela Johnson did score our lone goal. But the team plays again on September 9th Wednesday of this week. They'll take on Japan and hopefully they can get W in that one.

58:36Yeah, I mean, it's a tough way to open the tournament. But it's not the end of the world. I do think this next game against Japan will be the most difficult. A result there is helpful. And then they round out the group against New Zealand. And if memory serves, right? The top two teams of each group automatically advance into the knockout rounds. But I do think a couple of the top third place finishers also advance. And so I feel like they get a few results. I have a lot of faith that they are going to advance. It's just now a matter of where they fall in the next round. Yeah, the U-20 World Cup that my team won. We lost our first game to Germany. We lost three to nothing. And then we went on and we played Germany again in the final and we beat them. So there's hope. I'm definitely cheering for them. Let's move on to the inbox, Becky. We got an email from Molly and Jonathan that says, Dear Good vibes FC, greetings from your full-time traveling hot dogs, Molly and Jonathan. We are big fans of the podcast and are grateful for such good vibes on our travel days as we traverse the country back and forth in our RV.

59:37Over the past few years, we've become huge enemy cell fans. Going to games at as many stadiums as we can. We even met and became friends with another full-time RVer who's an actual 85-er. She told us what that meant. And since watching games with her, we have learned the phrase, Too many touches, which we now say constantly. Probably only correctly 20% of the time. This year, we've added the fantasy app into our life and cannot decide whether it's ruining our marriage fandom or giving us the best time of our lives. Probably that though. We're emailing you because we really think we're ready to watch European soccer, but we get immediately overwhelmed trying to make sense of it. It felt like a sign when Sam and Lynn chatted about the league and London City last week. We decided we must email. Can you help? Can you be our guide into European soccer? Here's where we get lost. The leagues in UEFA. Domestic leagues versus Champions League versus European Championship. Are leagues in other word for tournaments and are those three things even related? Also, there are a lot of FIFA club cups. Yes, it sounds like a statement, but it is a question. What didn't we ask that we should have?

1:00:39Every time we Google it, we get more lost in the sauce. Please understand that we are really not expert soccer fans. We're here for the good vibes and just want more soccer good vibes in our lives. We have more soccer love to give. Molly and Jonathan. I read the whole email because I loved every single element of it. I love that they're traveling in their RV. I love that they have questions because Molly and Jonathan, I'm going to be honest with you. I played in Champions League. I played in Europe. It's so confusing. You guys are absolutely right to ask questions and to have questions. We're going to do our best to explain a few of these things to you, but I have no promise that it's going to help a ton because it actually is really confusing. And I feel like the only way to learn is to just like try to dive in as best you can and listen and learn as you go. We can't learn it all on one day. I still have questions every day. So I think the first thing I'm going to explain is that UEFA is like conk caff or aft con or Oceania.

1:01:41UEFA is all of those things are governing bodies for the entire region. And in fact, they govern both club and international soccer. So for example, the US women's national team is going to have conk caff qualifiers coming up. That's where they're going to try to qualify for the world's cup. In Europe, those qualifiers are just governed by their governing body, which is UEFA. When we're talking national team, that's what the European championships are. That's what the euros are. That tournament that England has been winning. That's a national team thing. Let's ignore nations league because literally what even is that I don't know. Let's just say like conk caff qualifying or the Asian cup, the cup that Japan and Australia were playing in earlier this year, we talked about it a lot because Sam Kerr was there. That was the Asian football confederations version of World Cup qualifying. That's all national team or waft con or waft con. Exactly. That's all or conmibal.

1:02:42Yeah, South America. That's all national team. What's confusing about it is that UEFA also governs a club league called Champions League. Becky, can you tell us a little bit more about that? The Champions League. Absolutely. So it's not like England and Germany and Spain think more of the club teams like Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Barcelona. They play in the Champions League and it's so to put that together again, basically the best teams from their respective domestic leagues, Arsenal from England's WSL, Bayern Munich from Germany's from Bundesliga, Barcelona from Spain's League of F, they play against each other in the Champions League. Just to confuse us all, Champions League is in a tournament format that takes place over the course of the entire soccer season with games both home and away until you make it to a final,

1:03:43which is at a designated site. So that's why sometimes you'll hear so and so, they're in the quarter finals of the Champions League. So that's where it can get a little bit confusing because it's the Champions League and it takes place in a tournament format. That is really confusing. Yeah, it is confusing. Look, it's our job and we are constantly asking questions and confused because they are adding new competitions and it's a lot. So you are not alone in being like what is happening. Yeah, I think one place to start is like some tournaments are for the national team, some are for club teams and I think that can get really confusing but it's easy to figure out once you know what to look for. Your question about the FIFA club cups. This is kind of new, like especially on the women's side, the ConquerCalf W Champions Cup, which we mentioned in this show today. The FIFA Club World Cup, which is happening a couple years from now.

1:04:45These are kind of new and I think we're all wrapping our heads around these. These are club tournaments and I think they're coming about more becky because FIFA makes so much money from the national team tournaments that they were like where can we get in with more. And so FIFA is kind of introducing these additional global tournaments so that they can like get their fingers in on more stuff. More big events. Does that seem fair? Yes. So Molly and Jonathan, I'm obsessed with you. These were such great questions. I don't know if this helped. Maybe we can do some sort of like more of a breakdown someday. Please email again. Please email again. I'll give you some of your travels. I would love to run into you at a game soon. Safe drive out there. Okay, everybody. Don't forget you can write us with a question via email anytime you want. Just like Molly and Jonathan. Send us an email. Women's game. M-I-V-I-M-N-O-B-L-O-C-O-C-O-M. Becky, this is the end of the episode. So we must leave our listeners with a good vibe before we go.

1:05:48I went camping kind of for the first time two weeks ago. Rebell, I'll say kind of because we didn't actually overnight. But we did like drive out to the water. And like it was with a bunch of families in our neighborhood. One of their like kind of family friends owns a plot of land near the water. And so all the families kind of congregated. But like the space was big enough that people could put their tents kind of like away from one another. So if all the kids were there. So if like a kid would cry, it wouldn't really matter. Because there was a lot of a lot of space. And it was just we drove down there. It took like 40 minutes to get there. Ronan had such a good time. I mean, he's like he's crawling up a storm now. So he was just crawling over everything. And like all the kids were just having so much fun. And the parents were like, you were just around the bonfire like playing some music. And just having a good time. And people were taking turns cooking meals for the entire group. And it was just it was just really lovely.

1:06:48And another another moment of many where I'm just so appreciative of the community that is here and is being built. Oh, I love that. I love when you tell us about like your neighborhood friends. And that actually kind of is a perfect segue into my good vibe today. Which is like actually not really a good vibe. But I think it's like gonna serve in a good way at some point. So I'm gonna tell this little story. Basically in Burlington, Vermont, there have been a couple of like very historic, very beloved music venues that are closing. Nectars is this music venue that like fish kind of got started at. And is just very famous and very well known. And they recently announced that they were closing, which was like really sad for the community. And then just in the past week, another venue called Radio Bean announced that they had gotten this big bill from their insurance company and that it was unsustainable for them to continue as they've been going and that they are also gonna be closing their doors. And Radio Bean is this place that Pat and I when we visited Vermont for the first time

1:07:50as we were deciding to move here, we found ourselves at Radio Bean one night. And we had this very weird, wonderful experience at Radio Bean where the band that was playing the lead singer like pretended that he was a spider. And then he like emerged from his body, Halloween spider web material that we in the audience, there was like 30 people in the room all passed around the room and danced with above our heads creating a large spider web. Pat and I have never been to Vermont before in my life. Let alone had a weird spider web experience watching live music my first place at my first time in a new city. So we moved to Vermont and we were like one of the reasons why we moved here is because of Radio Bean. It was such an awesome night, such an awesome experience. We felt like we were gonna be around people who just were like, you know, doing cool stuff and different stuff and thinking differently. And I always was like, oh, I'd love to go back. Like I'd love to go back to Radio Bean. Let's go see this band. Let's go here.

1:08:54I may have gone back once or twice, but I didn't make it a regular part of my life or my weekends here. And when I saw that it was closing, I had this feeling of like, oh, this was all of our responsibility to keep this place going and we didn't do it. And we went this weekend. They have like hundreds of acts coming through over the course of like the next five days to pay tribute to what Radio Bean has been and hopefully what it could be in the future if we're able to like resurrect it. And we Pat and I went yesterday. And I really had like an emotional experience being there, remembering my first experience there and then having this feeling of responsibility that I had been a part of letting down our community who really prides itself on art and music and being a little bit out there and thinking differently and community and connection. I saw all these people that Radio Bean means so much to in tears at the prospect of losing this place. And I just felt obviously heartbroken and sad for everybody

1:10:00really involved in the business and the space there. But I felt this call to talk more about it and to say that if you have a place in your community that you love, go. Like if you are a supporter of one of the end of your cell teams or of a local women's sports team, go to the game. Like it has become I think so easy for us to stay home and I am guilty of this. Be on my phone, watch TV, just be home with my dogs. I'm so comfortable here. And I really regret like not being out of my comfort zone more and not putting myself out there to go to a local place that is what made me fall in love with where I live. And so I just wanted to actually use this time today. I know this isn't exactly a good vibe, but I wanted to like make this ask of all of us to like continue supporting the places that you love and the places that make your community special because they are not guaranteed to be there. And if we want to keep our communities special and unique and sacred and safe places for people we love to go and experience music and art, we have to support them.

1:11:05And so I just wanted to show our radio being. I hope it can come back. I hope I can be a part of that in some way. And I'm using this, you know, as a call out and as a lesson to myself to support more places that I love. Sam, I think that's beautiful. Thanks. It's a call to action. It's a call to action for me and for everybody. Okay, that was long winded. That's it for this week's episode of Good vibes FC. Don't forget you can subscribe to our YouTube channel on podcast feed. It is available wherever you listen to podcasts. You can follow along with us across all social media. We did have that episode of Friendly's with Emily Fox come out last week. You can check that out later this week. We are going to have Allie Setnor and then episode of newest grid on Friday. And I think that's it. I'm Becky Sobbering and I'm Sam U.S. Love you guys so much. Love you. Bye.