Mario: Apparently people
like our bloopers.
At
Angela: Oh, I'm sure.
We say some dumb shit
Mario: She was even asked during the
presser about that, and, you know, just
kind of, it was just m- It, and kind
of we were maybe around in the same
general area of, like, "Earthquake!"
You okay?
Angela: Ow.
Oh
Mario: Oh
man
Angela: It's like a five-minute
episode and 15 minutes of garbage.
Mario: Okay.
All right.
Rewind.
rewind
Angela: You gottaâ¦
Wait, when you cut it,
you gotta start out with
EARTHQUAKE
Oh, fuck.
Okay, okay, okay.
Mario: Welcome to Casual FC, an Angel
City match preview and footy therapy pod
featuring two certified footy therapists.
I'm your host, Mario Salazar, with my
self-proclaimed shiny turd among all
the turds, co-host Angela Morales.
You dared me, and I'm gonna say
Angela: I know.
I didn't even triple dog dare you.
I was like, "I dare you."
Mario: I--
Angela: that is a direct quote from me
to my therapist a couple weeks ago, which
made her laugh so hard she started crying.
Mario: Look,
Angela: everyone.
Mario: be ready everyone.
This is a definite shenanigansode.
We have already been
I- it's already devolving and
we just started recording.
All of our previous, conversations to
this, so yeah, definite shenanisode.
we're both
Angela: yeah, I'm sorry in advance.
This heat, I'm not sleeping.
I've gotten, seven hours of sleep
over the last two days, so I'm tired.
Mario: Yeah,
yep.
Angela: It's too damn hot
Mario: with that, this one, this
sh- special Shenanisode is, brought
to you by our double header week.
We have our match preview today of
our match against the North Carolina
Courage on Wednesday, August 26th.
It's at First Horizon Stadium at 5:00
PM Pacific Time for us over here.
It's gonna be broadcasting on CBS Sports,
Angela: Boo.
Mario: and yeah.
And I believe maybe NWSL+ because
it was originally supposed to be on
Victory+, and all Victory+ broadcasts
have been switched over to NWSL+.
Now
Go look.
Don't hold us to where you're watching it.
Angela: No, don't hold this
to the NWSL's shenanigans
Mario: Yeah, but it's a possibility.
there is also, this is coming out
the same day as the match, so if
you have nothing else to do and have
not planned for anything to do that
afternoon and wanna head out from work
a little bit early, ACFC is hosting
an official watch party at 33 Taps
in Culver City starting at 4:00 PM.
so if you're anywhere near the area and
you wanna get off of work early, head
over there and go hang out with a bunch
of other Angel City fans watching the
Angela: It will likely be packed.
They pack it out at the
Culver City location.
It's not super big.
park on, in the parking garage on
Cardiff, I think it is, or the street that
starts with an I that's, a block away.
It's, the best parking
that's not street parking.
The food is good, just either get
there early or be ready to wait.
It's gonna be hot also, and
it's, open air, so good luck
Mario: yeah.
Just main thing for this entire week, and
probably next week too, is just hydrate.
just, just,
Angela: too
Mario: yeah.
Yeah, do, do a two to one, Do,
do a beer to two glasses of water
and, kinda keep the balance going.
Angela: Yeah
Mario: And then we have a match,
coming up on a Monday, of all days,
August 31st, versus Balls FC, Boston
Legacy FC, at Gillette Stadium.
Again, it's going to be a 5:00 PM
kickoff here for us in the Pacific.
it's also scheduled to be on CBS Sports
and maybe possibly NWSL+, so go ahead and
check that out when it actually comes out.
Both matches are going to be
broadcast on iHeartRadio, which is
favorite way to listen to the match.
and if you can, listen to Isaac and Tracy.
They will have the best
insights, best calls.
It's just great.
so yeah, we've got this double header.
It lands really weirdly in our normal
episode cadence, so there you go.
And, our next episode will
cover the match after that.
We are on a three-game, road trip
right now, which is going to be tough.
We've been saying that points at
home are crucial, and they still are.
we're still two games in hand.
Angela: Technically.
Mario: we'll talk about that in a bit.
but yes, we're gonna be, we're gonna
have a tough next couple of matches.
we're gonna
Angela: Yep
Mario: who's gonna get
healthy, and come back.
It's two weeks on the road.
it's just gonna be tough.
it honestly is.
yeah, that's what we got coming up.
Angela: Yeah, so last weekend, or yeah,
this past weekend's game against Gotham,
as everybody knows, I was stressed,
capital S, stressed, as a, a closeted
Bats fan, which I found out there are
many of us in the Angel City community
because of the players on Gotham.
But I was up in the press box, and I
meant to do this a couple weeks ago,
actually, and then someone actually DM'd
us and was like, "Hey, can you shout
out this organization that's also in the
press box and super influential because
it's really cool with what they do?"
We actually, one of our listeners
hit me up and was like, "Hey, my
daughter is gonna be up in the
press box with KidScoop Media.
She's gonna hopefully
come and say hi to you."
And I was like, "Cool.
I'll be able to give you
guys stickers finally."
we didn't end up crossing paths that
day, which bummed me out so hardcore.
I wasn't feeling super good, so I
ended up going down to our seats,
and then we just ran home afterwards.
But such is life with chronic illness.
But we wanted to call out
how cool KidScoop Media is.
They're a local organization that
helps get kids involved in journalism
and, understanding the voices
they have in the community through
sports, politics, what is it called?
Entertainment.
I was like, Hollywood.
Movies.
Like press junkets.
And it's really cool because these
kids in the press conferences, in
the videos I've seen from KidScoop
Media, they put out fantastic content.
the questions they ask in the press
conference, a bunch of our listeners
listen to the post-game pressers.
You always hear, a small, tiny voice
like, "Hi, I'm from KidScoop Media."
And they ask, this super detailed
question, and you're like, "Yeah, that."
But teachingâ¦
it's similar, in my opinion, to the way
s- playing sports teaches you so many
intangible skills as an athlete and then
that you take for the rest of your life.
It's the same thing when it comes
to, journalism and speaking to
people and understanding kind of
the inner workings of the world.
To get exposed to that
so young, that's so cool.
So yeah, just big shout-out
to the work they're doing
Mario: yeah, it's been
awesome, to hear them.
I've heard them on some of the post
games, asking questions with you, which
has been really fun for, you too, 'cause
you've been more involved with those.
And, and then yeah, their Instagram.
So if you ever wanna check them
out, it's, KSM Kid Scoop Media.
that's the, the whole thing.
K-S-M K-I-D S-C-O-O-P
M-E-D-I-A on Instagram.
Go check it out.
kidscoopmedia.org,
if you wanna learn about them.
There's also, cool information if you
wanna get your kids involved or if they
wanna be involved in what they're doing.
It's a nonprofit 501[c][3],
which is great, so to help
support, what they're doing.
And it's, it, wanna get
more m- hear more of that.
I think it's always good to get the
perspective of, the, the kids that are
enjoying it or the, the kids that are,
like, learning what they're doing.
And then, and then we've
got our perspectives
Angela: And it's always nice,
Mario: on and
Angela: in these press conferences,
and I- maybe it's because I've watched
sports for a million years at this point,
you hear a lot of the same questions.
Whether it's intentional or not,
people are asking, the same thing.
"Oh, how do you change your
mindset when you're down a goal
and then you come back and win?"
you just do.
you know?
youâ¦
Okay?
But when you have someone who is
willing to ask a daring question
of, what does it take for you to
get out of the big feelings of
that moment to then continue on?
these kids are asking fantastic questions.
it's so cool.
But it's nice to have variety in the
press conferences 'cause, for me just to
listen, but I know for the players, l-
answering the same questions gets boring
Mario: And there's something
about, answering a question from
someone so young and so into what
they're doing or learning, suspending
a little bit of the like, yeah, maybe
they did ask the question that you've
heard a million times, but you know what?
They get, they had
Angela: They haven't heard
Mario: you â¦Yeah.
they haven't heard it, and also, did you
have the courage when you were like, 12
years old to, go to a presser and ask a
Angela: Yeah.
And
Mario: professional player who-
Angela: sitting, you- they're usually
front row at the press conferences,
and they'll ask the question and
Mario: Because they can't
see if they're in the back
Angela: It's not that big of a room.
But, they'll ask the question with the
microphone, and you see the players and
the coaches all like, "Yes, talk to me."
it's so cute.
They're like, "Okay, yeah."
And they're so engaged, and I think
that's such a, an interesting thing
that happens when it's, you know
someone who's super impressionable.
You're like, "Oh no, I'm gonna do whatever
I can to keep them comfortable and keep
them engaged," and more of that in general
Mario: So yeah, check them out, and I
think it's just a great organization.
I think they're, share,
share their content.
Do us a favor.
Sh- go to check them out, share their
content with the people you know,
and then right immediately following
that, share our content with the people
you know, and, win-win for everybody.
So
yeah.
Angela: Everybody wins.
So to quickly recap the,
Mario: The 0-0 win
Angela: yeah, the 0-0 win against
Gotham, Ethan submitted his,
weekly haiku of Sarah Gorden boss.
Even withdraw felt like win.
Penn save season shift, question mark
Mario: That was a big save for
Angela: Ange is three for three.
Our girl is three for three on
saving pens from dumb calls.
Mario: so we, early on we know
that, Angelina was having, someâ¦
She was
having, like, a a down period, right?
And we talked about it, and
we had our thoughts, right?
We're always about building up
the criticism here, but it's
not about putting anybody down.
there was a little bit of a discourse
of, do we switch out Angelina?
But I think she was given
the chance to, keep going.
She was given the chance to keep
performing, and she did well.
She was even asked it, about it
during the presser, where she admitted
or acknowledged the fact that,
yeah, she was training too hard.
And, that's a thing,
right?
You canâ¦
Angela: much,
Mario: You're doing too much.
you're overcorrecting, which
is making things worse,
right?
And, pulling back a little bit and
being able to focus in on what you
need to do and you don't have to
go hard 100% of the time, right?
that will burn you out or that will
reinforce bad things.
Angela: Yeah.
and when you're at that level, it's
so easy to get lost in the sauce.
And we've talked about this a ton.
you're doing a million things.
You have all these little ticks.
And, to be an elite athlete, to
be a professional musician, like
any elite, elite performance,
you're a little bonkers.
Ev- all, all of us at that level is,
we're all a little off our rockers.
You kinda have to be to obsess
that much about something.
And it's not a bad thing.
It's just the truth.
But it get, it can get to a point
where all those little minute details
become this mountain of things that
clouds what the actual goal is.
And sometimes you kinda just have
to take a step back and look at this
and be like, "This house of cards
doesn't make any sense anymore."
Whack.
And just, and break it down, and
just really get back down to basics,
because all of a sudden you remember
why you wanna be there, what the
goal is, and how to do it, and you
can see it with a lot more clarity.
And she didn't say that outright,
but you saw it in her face
of, "I just had to chill out.
to remember what my job
is, what the point is."
And that, it happens in baseball,
in basketball, football,
every sport, every everything
Mario: to bring it back to last
week's episode, it's exactly when
Gordon Bombay had to take a step back.
He had to go back to his home pond,
kinda do a little coup- couple of laps.
He even did it in D2 where he had
to go by himself on Venice Beach
and go around on some, rollerblades
Angela: Rollerblades, yeah
Mario: Yeah.
And he's gotta recenter himself and
figure out, like, "Who
am I doing this for?"
There you go.
Angela: triple deke and like
just remember what it's about.
Mario: yeah, and
then nobody cares about
D3, so we'll move on.
Angela: I'm also glad
everybody was in agree.
It's like nobody, I don't care about that.
It's D2 Mighty Ducks and that's it.
Ducks fly together, guys.
Ducks fly together.
Mario: I forgot where I
was gonna go from here.
but
I, I think, yeah
Angela: to the heart of it and,
remember the simplicity of the sport.
The plan is to stop the goal.
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: Sometimes that's all it is
Mario: you stop the
goal, and you know what?
You still can get a point.
and the lessâ¦
The more you stop going in, the better
chance you get more in on the other side.
yeah.
And, at this moment, both Angelina
and, um, Giselle are our iron players
so far at this point in the season.
They have played full 90s for every
single match, that they have played in.
Um, so hopefully we get them
all the way through the end.
last year there was, in our little
pre-season bet thing, like we, y- you
chose go- or, Casey chose goalkeeper and
did not go all the way through,
Angela: that didn't go
'cause she got hurt, yeah.
So good wishes for no
injuries and all the minutes.
But everyoneâ¦
Though Eva looked at me at one
point in the second half and goes,
"This feels like opening day.
This feels like the inaugural match."
Everyone in that stadium
was on the same page.
It was one of the first times I have
felt truly that this fan base, and, for
a very long time, was the 12th player.
we were the 12th man,
and it was so apparent.
You could feel it in the press box.
You could feel it in the stands.
It was just this, raucous crowd, and
everyone was locked in, and there
was a ton of Gotham fans walking
around, and I was like, "Yeah."
A ton of Chelsea fans, which I
was like, "Why are they here?"
And then "Oh, Sam Kerr."
Um, but I, and speaking of Sam Kerr,
I have never seen her that frustrated.
Itâ¦
Oh, God, it was so
Mario: being shut down the whole game.
Angela: Just "What the hell?
What the hell?"
Ev- oh, just flailing.
But no, it wasâ¦
crowd was amazing, and when the PK was
awarded after a ridiculously lo- long
call before, or a long run before the VAR
Mario: Yeah, I, I, I gotta, I
gotta soapbox him a little bit.
yeah.
Angela: Yeah.
But the second that man walked over,
ran over, whatever, jaunted over to the
TV pressed, the second he went there,
everyone knew they were gonna call the PK.
Everyone knew they were gonna
grant it, and it was like, No.
It was so loud in the best way.
Mario: Yeah.
it, we've hadâ¦
Angela: force of yelling air helped
keep that ball out, I swear to you
Mario: The, we were talking about
this, in, in the Discord too, where,
like, it- honestly, this season, it hasn't
felt like a home crowd every single game.
it's
been, likeâ¦
Yeah.
It's
Angela: It's a come hang
out at Angel City game
Mario: Not a bad thing, but also
not the, the, environment that
you need sometimes for those
games, especially when they're
so close, especially when
it's only that one goal, especially when
you're, when you have a draw and you're,
like, really kinda getting the team,
Angela: You're trying to push them over
Mario: trying to push them over the hump.
And they've said they can hear you.
They can hear you from the field.
They can hear the fan chants.
They can hear the criticisms.
they can hear you, and being able to
get those moments where the entire
stadium is really just right behind
them, you can tell, solid performance
m- pretty much this entire game.
But you can
Angela: God, this game was easily
the best game we played all season.
It was, oh
Mario: it was definitely a zero-zero win,
and, uh, as the consensus came down of,
a zero-zero draw against the best team in
the league at the moment, we'll take it.
we haven't
Angela: go ahead.
Finish your thought
Mario: I was just gonna say, we
haven't had, We've been doing a
lot better on those, final, 10,
fi- 10, 15 minutes of the game.
we've been doing, a lot better when it
comes to, hitting our passes, it feels
like every, three or four games is where
we start, it breaks down a little bit
Angela: a littleâ¦
Mario: Yeah,
but again, we're seeing those,
like, little steps and people
are getting healthier now.
So now we got Savvy, now we got
Syd on, on the bench and, there's--
it seems like the game plan is
starting to fall back into place.
and unfortunately, it's happening
now rather than happening at
the beginning of the season.
so but yeah, I, itâ¦
Listening to the game felt like
it was a different atmosphere.
Angela: It was electric.
It's the only word that I've been
able to, really figure out that felt
right because everyone was buzzing,
because everyone was locked in.
A lot of people were upset more
goals weren't scored, but you also
have to remember Gotham has the
number one defense in the league.
We are, like, number three or
four defense in the league.
These were top defending teams
you're not gonna score on.
Mario: Gotham's keep- Gotham's keeper
is number one in saved throughout,
goals saved per 90, goals, I believe
also top in clean sheets in the league.
So when we say we were playing the
best team in the league, we were
playing the best team in the league.
It wasn't
like they're just really good.
They just, they- they're
Angela: just are.
Yeah.
And before we get too much deeper
into this, I really hope Rose is okay.
Mario: Yes
Angela: is very apparently concussed.
walking off the pitch, she
was very floaty, and thereâ¦
It was just incidental contact, and
then she hit her head on the pitch,
and it just devolved from there.
she was able to walk off okay and have her
balance, but homegirl's gonna go through
it, and I hate that just in general.
I don'tâ¦
It's not necessarily me being a Bats fan.
It's I don't want good playerâ¦
I don't
Mario: No.
W- like, no.
we don't want injuries at all.
any, we don't want players to be
leaving the pitch because of an injury.
Angela: No
Mario: players to be leaving
the pitch because they got a
red card and we're like, "Hell
yeah, get off the field."
Yeah, exactly.
Not because, they're concussed
and we're like, "Holy crap."
Not because they've, rolled their ankle or
they're, like, or have a, a bigger injury.
we don't want that
Angela: No.
And it's crazy.
Eve and I were trying to
figure out the right term.
So there's a term that's used in sports
a lot that this was a monkey's paw, and
I was like, "What the hell is that?"
what does it actually mean?
I've heard it a ton.
She's heard it a ton.
We looked it up and it's it's
not, oh, this bad thing happened,
so this good thing happened.
It's like an extreme version of that,
which is what this was of you got
the outcome you wanted, which was
Rose not playing and scoring on us
because she's Rose effing Lavelle.
But it was our center back, Sarah
Gorden, was having the game of
her life collides with Rose.
She's now on the ground,
and getting medical care and has to
come out of the game, and we don't
know when she's coming back yet.
They haven't announced anything.
But then Sarah has the game of
her life, and we draw a win.
But I didn't, I did not want Rose
to play because she was injured.
I just didn't want her to play
because maybe she was tired that day.
maybe you just didn't score on us
because it, it would hurt my feelings.
But I would've loved if one of the
rockets towards the goal that Prisca
had or that, Ali Suttner had been
able to get past AKB, but it's on
Katrin Berger and LOL, like no.
but as everyone was screaming
at Jerrold, the referee, ball
don't lie when it came to the PK.
Ball, ball does not lie, and, Ange big
blocked that PK and effectively saved
the game and I think really allowed
Angel City to lock in and lock it down
and said, "Okay, if we have 10 more
minutes," which is roughly how much there
was left in the game, "then here we go."
And looking at the possession chart after
the game was insane because I was like,
"Oh, we definitely held possession."
No.
61-39.
Because my mom texted Eve and I that on
the broadcast, the TV broadcast, they
were saying that Gotham's directive is
that their goal upon losing possession is
to get the ball back within six seconds
But the good thing is that they would
get the ball back, we'd disrupt it, and
then so we weren't necessarily holding
possession, but neither were they.
They would hold it for two seconds longer
Mario: Yeah, we would break up, we would
break up the plays, which like, honestly,
the, listening to the match, watching
the match, all of the play breaks,
all of the defensive m- amazingness
that was happening, from like Gordon
and from the rest of the team really.
but yeah, Gordon was orchestrating
everything back there.
and
Angela: Sarah Gorden for president.
I--
She is our captain.
She is the driving force of this
team, and I swear to God, that
woman can do literally anything.
L- everyone knows how
much I love Sarah Gorden.
Sarah Gorden knows how
much I love Sarah Gorden.
it's just the general consensus between
the Discord and Instagram text messages,
everything was, "Holy shit, Sarah
Gorden, the woman you are," and then
followed up with, "Hell yeah, Big Ang."
it was just one or both of
those messages from everybody
Mario: And Sarah Gorden, I-
there was also a lot of, i-
when are we resigning, Gorden?
Angela: When are we getting
the notification that we've
extended our contract?
Mario: Yeah, 'cause come on now.
Parsons, you've got, ah.
Angela: That's a
Mario: You've got a couple
of simple things to do.
You still got a couple of big
things to do, but come on.
Angela: Yeah
Mario: Okay.
Let's just do roundabout.
This was another, extra long
week, so we had a Wednesday
match, and then the weekend match.
This coming week is gonna be another
one where, we have the Wednesday
match here, then we got the weekend.
We play on Monday.
it's gonna be a big, long one.
We're starting to stack up a lot of the
games towards the end of the season.
Um, let's see.
Racing Louisville beat the Reign 2-1.
Angela: Helpful.
Thanks, Racine
Mario: yeah, Houston beat, Chicago 5-0.
I need to go back and watch
the highlights on that one.
Angela: You don't.
Mario: Oh, no?
Angela: it's just,
goals
Mario: it's just goals
Angela: Goals and sad
Mario: the Wave beat, Utah 4-2.
KC and Seattle drew 1-1.
And, North Carolina, who we're gonna
be playing, beat Boston, who we're
gonna be seeing afterwards, 2-1.
Portland beat Denver 1-0.
Chicago came back and beat, Racing 3-2.
We have a 1-0 win ov-
Orlando over the Spirit.
And, Bay beat Houston 1-0, and then we
had our draw being the last of the match.
We keep getting the, last
Angela: I know, like
Mario: of the weekend
Angela: I will say we decided
not to watch the Racing Chicago
game 'cause we're like, eh."
And the next thing five goals were
scored and we're like, "Okay."
But, the Orlando Spirit game
was crazy because Orlando hit
that goal three minutes in.
But then Boston and Houston was bonkers
'cause Silky had a double save, like bam
save, which was surprising that everyâ¦
I don't know why that also
wasn't up for save of the week.
Iâ¦
Silky had a fantastic game, and I'm
so happy that they pulled that win out
because, Bay FC has a special place in my
heart 'cause one of my best friends from
college is a Bay FC, season ticket holder.
And so we're constantly screaming at each
other through the games for both teams,
and we've been playing at the same time a
lot lately, so there's been a lot of "Ah,"
constantly between my friend Sarah and I.
So sup, girl?
Mario: Okay.
We're gonna get to the chaos
award, which for certain is VAR.
We're gonna have to talk about VAR again.
Gonna have to talk about the damn long
time that it takes VAR to make a decision.
Message to the refs, VAR
is an assistant referee.
You still make the decision on the field.
Just because they're showing it to
you does not mean they are correct.
You saw what happened on the field.
They're seeing the same shit
we're seeing on the TV, maybe
with a couple of extra angles.
But we could be yelling at
the TV like that was a foul,
that wasn't a foul, whatever.
You're the one that was on the field.
Angela: Yep.
Mario: Call it like
it
Angela: or no
Mario: You have the power to be like,
"Eh, no, I don't agree," and walk away.
That's, good, bad, indifferent, whatever.
But, if it takes you that long,
it's
Angela: Then it means it
wasn't clear and obvious.
Mario: right?
So I
did a little deep dive.
Angela: tattoo my leg,
like clear and obvious
Mario: Next to the fart tattoo?
Angela: Yeah.
Clear and obvious for
Mario: okay, so I went
on a little deep dive.
there is no clear database of VAR
decisions, so I went through on the Pro
website and the VAR report that they
do weekly, clicked through all of them
Angela: God
Mario: had time.
I had extra time today.
Don't worry about it.
Click through all of them and
found, Angel City incidents.
VAR has been our enemy just
since it got implemented.
And we were the first ones
to go down on VAR, right?
With Jun's goal, which was atrocious.
so we're not friends.
VAR and us?
Nah.
Um, this season alone, there
has been four VAR interventions.
Each one of them has not gone our way.
So we've had a disallowed goal in Chicago.
That was the first one.
It was a, uh, SveindÃs goal, and it
got disallowed, which means it was
called as a goal, and then VAR said no.
Angela: Awesome
Mario: we were denied
a penalty, uh, in Utah.
It was a penalty against Ary, but,
and it was called as a penalty,
and then VAR came in and said, "Oh,
Giselle was offside, 30 seconds ago.
but apparently that counts.
So that was a denied
pe- a, a denied penalty.
It was taken back.
Then we have the disallowed goal,
last week, from, it should've been
Sentnor's brace in that match,
but due to handball from Prisca,
which was completely a BS call.
Angela: Yep
Mario: And then we've
got this week, right?
Another BS call.
So then it's five.
It's five
Angela: take this hand and you whack.
Like
Mario: it's completely bonkers thatâ¦
And, and the thing is that, I can maybe
say out of, one, one of out of these five,
the VAR is "Okay, maybe if you wanna sway
that way."
But the rest of them, honestly, they were
not clear and obvious, and that's the,
the threshold that it's supposed to have.
It's not supposed to have,
"Let me see it at, at, at 200%
slower, and let me see where the
shoelace was."
Yeah, enhance.
No, it's not that
Angela: the interesting thing for me is
that so many of them are called back or,
the VAR review is instigated or I don't
even know the right terminology for that.
initiated, we'll say that, a good
minute after it happened, which
tells me enough that it wasn'tâ¦
They had to already be like, "Yes.
No.
Yes.
No.
Okay, fine, review it."
Mario: Yeah.
Yeah.
mean,
Angela: don't let play continue
if it's that big of a thing
Mario: I do know that, or I've
heard when they actually do
last week's handball, right?
Angela: Yeah
Mario: and disallowed goal.
This week, pro refs went, "Oh, shit.
My bad.
Yeah, that, that shouldn't
have been disallowed."
And it's just "Oh, my bad."
Yeah, my bad doesn't give
us our points, right?
no.
And
then
Angela: say that we should be
relying on the referees, but when
it's that egregious, what the hell?
Mario: So there's definitely
a, there's definitely a level
of we need to be playing to not
have the referees be involved.
But when you're in a
Angela: When you are
Mario: tied and you wanna be
the main character in this,
you're doing the wrong thing,
Angela: Yeah, that's why you get booed
Mario: yeah.
Yeah.
And LA does not like, yeah,
what, yeah, it's, we'reâ¦
you have all collectively shit the bed
Angela: We are a, a hostile group
Mario: Yeah.
Um, so it's all BS, and I think all
of the, tweets and everything that
we saw afterwards about this was,
like, VAR or pro refs really saved
themselves another apology by the
fact that Angelina blocked that pen.
Because it would have had to
been another review, another
bin, another like, "Oh, my bad."
'Cause even someone on our Discord
was, like, going back to look at
the other handball that happened,
a couple weeks ago and was like,
"Nope, that one wasn't a handball.
Angela: Why was
Mario: a handball.
Why was this one?"
and I like, th- so in the presser
someone asked Coach Leaf, what
did he think about the call?
Granted, he has to play
the
Angela: You have to be careful.
You
Mario: He has to be careful.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So he has to watch his words.
But he's his quote, and I think
this is, I think I wrote it down
correctly, "My English is not that
good, but I know clear and obvious."
Angela: Yep.
Mario: I'm like,
"Yeah."
Angela: was just so good 'cause he goes,
he-- I watched the clip again earlier,
and he goes, "You know what I think?"
Like, it's like, duh.
And he goes, "But I
can't say a lot on it."
And it was very facetious, and I'm
like, ooh, you've thought about this.
I love this.
Yeah
It's my English might not be that good,
but I know what clear and obvious means.
damn, sir.
Okay.
Mario: I--
Angela: Yeah.
It's just bonkers, and it's frustrating,
and, we talk about it a lot that you
can't play a game dependent on a call
from a referee, regardless of sport.
You can't.
You have to play to the top to win.
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: But when you are, and you're
executing everything the way you should be
Mario: but the thing is that,
but the thing is that soccer
is a game of very low margins.
it's a
low-scoring game, so interventions by
the ref are definitely going to affect
Angela: They had big impacts, yeah
Mario: it's not it's not like
a basketball game where you're
like, you have, 100 to, 99.
at that point, if they're intervening
at the very end where they're,
like, screwing, the, the tempo and
everything, okay, I understand that.
But, in the course of the game, it's
one bad call, two bad calls is not
really effective in the entire game.
In a soccer match, it is, right?
it can screw everything up.
So
fix it.
Fix it.
Ugh.
I'm gonna put that
little girl with the
Angela: Me with coffee?
Mario: Yeah.
Angela: Just with that
Mario: Yeah, but then this
time with, eyebrows down.
Like, "Ugh."
okay.
So
Angela: did not have in
the press box, thank God
Mario: they're like,
"Oh, oh, Angela, weâ¦
Okay,
we saw."
Angela: needs to chill.
Even Tracey was like, "Tell
me about this coffee."
I heart Tracey.
'Cause Isaac was like,
"Was the coffee that good?"
She was like, "What coffee?
What are you talking about?"
So I was telling her.
it was a very funny conversation.
But yeah, let us know 'cause,
guys, this is our first
check-in with Permutation Primo.
He's back.
Mario: Yeah.
Back, baby.
All right.
I'm gonna start this off with
two games in hand, and then
insert laughing and crying emoji.
it's a good thing, but also
it's not gonna be that good.
All
Angela: Not that much longer
Mario: Angel City is in ninth place
currently with 26 points and amazingly
still a plus seven goal differential,
which is bonkers to me that with
a plus seven we're down in ninth.
Um, and that really just comes down to
the fact that our losses were a lot,
and we're stacking up these draws.
we're losing points on each one
of these draws, and when we're
losing these points, especially at
home, it's not helping us, right?
We're gonna have a tough next three
matches because they're all on the road,
so it's gonna be a really long road haul.
That's just gonna make things even harder.
So that's what it is.
whenever we're looking at games in
hand, the best thing to think about
it is, look, everybody else, literally
everybody else in the league, has
played one to two more matches.
Currently, to be, like, up to
date on all your matches, it's 21.
We are at
Angela: Yep
Mario: and we are the only team.
So this midweek match that we're
gonna have, Monday match, th- yeah,
this, this midweek match is one of
our games in hand, I believe, that,
gets closer to pairing with everybody.
again, the entire league does not
actually even out until the 16th.
September 16th is the day where all
teams will have played the same amount
of matches and will be the true kind
of, the true standings before we get
into, that final push for the playoffs
Angela: Yeah.
Bum,
bum, bum
Mario: the best way to, like I was saying,
the best way to think about games in hand
is ideally you would have two wins, right?
So you would have six extra points
Even two weeks ago or something like
that, that those six or six points
would have put us in like third place
or like fourth place or something.
Like something crazy to think about
how we had our season start off.
Now it's becoming a little
bit more like, oh, okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
these two games right now would put us at
Angela: Seven
Mario: place with pretty much everybody
above us having played all their matches.
The only team being North Carolina
who we're going to be playing.
So they will be evened out by the
end of this, by the end of this week.
So again, we can't be
dropping these points.
You guys are making it harder on
Permutation Primo to figure out
all the permutations because we're
so low on the table.
Angela: and the thing is right now we're
going into this week, we're sitting
in ninth place and we're battling out
for seventh, eighth, like question
mark, could be either one right now
with Kansas City, Seattle, and Houston.
All four of us are like, "Yes,
no, yes, no, yes, no, yes, no."
Everyone's having a really,
wildly good and weird season.
Seattle is like on a tear, but
then not, and then Kansas City is
really good, but maybe not always.
And Houston, what the hell?
Houston made up so much of their goal
differential, which helped them move up
Mario: Yes.
Angela: so much in that
last game against Chicago.
So there's a lot of movement happening in
like the middle of the table right now,
and we'll talk about it a little bit, but
this matchup with North Carolina is key.
Mario: Yes.
Yeah, it, it's a very important game.
like I said, North Carolina's at
20 matches played at 33 points.
We are at 19 matches played at 26.
So we need all the points we can muster.
I believe we only have,
what, three home games left?
Angela: Something like that,
Mario: Something like that.
Not too many.
someone will correct us, 'cause
I'm not actually looking at
the schedule at the moment.
But, we don't have that many
Angela: there's more than
three because we haveâ¦
Our next home game is on,
Mario: September 11th,
Angela: 9/11.
Yeah.
Mario: then 9/16, we're playing at home.
then October 25th,
Angela: Is that it?
Mario: and then,
Angela: How depressing
Mario: Yeah.
So we're only four home games left,
Angela: And I'm gonna miss
one of them for a wedding.
Okay, I'll be fine I guess
Mario: But you're happy that
you're going to the wedding
Angela: I am happy that
I'm going to that wedding.
but yeah, there's a lot to talk
about with both of these upcoming
matches, so let's get into it
Mario: get into it.
All right.
We're gonna doâ¦
We've
already gone crazy long on
this Shenanisode, so if you've
made it here or if you skipped
all the way to here, good on
Angela: Good for you.
Mario: Yeah, you missed some
amazing stuff right before this.
But, let's kinda hit the highlights
'cause we've got two matches that are
coming up before we talk to you again.
tell us what we should be looking at both
North Carolina and then up in, Boston.
Angela: Yeah, so North Carolina,
team's already obviously out there.
The game is in a few hours to when you're
listening to this, but the biggest thing
with North Carolina is Ashley Sanchez.
I think I've talked about Ashley
Sanchez every single season.
I will continue to do it
because she is that damn good.
She is originally from Pasadena.
She's a, an Angelino essentially.
She's number two.
That's it.
That's all.
She's a forward.
She is having the season
of a lifetime right now.
She's leading the Golden
Boot race and it'sâ¦
She's just on a freaking tear.
She has beat her ownâ¦
I think I talked about
her the last match up too.
I was like, "We gotta mark her, we
gotta mark her, we gotta mark her,"
'cause at the time she had already
either, beaten or tied her own season
high in goals scored, and that was a
m- a month, two months ago in June And
now she has 13 goals on the season.
That's a lot, guys.
To play 20 games and you've scored
in, on average like two-thirds
of them, that's big time.
or three-quarters of them.
She's been on and off the national team.
I think everyone across the league,
players, fans, coaches, former players,
retired players are like, "Call her up.
Call her up."
Especially with L- Ol- of, oh
my God, especially with Olivia
Moultrie, out with an ACL tear.
Why not?
Like, why not?
she's a fantastic, phenomenal
player, and she deserves the
credit where credit is due.
And there's a ton of other
really good players on North
Carolina, but that's a biggie.
She will score on you and be like,
"Ha, I told you she's so fun to
play or so fun to, to watch play.
But overall, like the way I said going
into the Gotham game, like our defense has
their game cut out for them, same thing
here, because there's a lot of different
people on North Carolina that can score.
And I would loveâ¦
granted, I want us to win every game,
but I would love, love for us to kick
off a road trip with a win like this.
our historical matchup with North
Carolina, again, relatively even.
I'll say like I said last time,
I hope we win because I want
more numbers in our win column.
Four wins for us, two
draws, and three losses.
so many of these matchups are so widelyâ¦
so even it pisses me off because
it doesn't always feel that way.
we have every opportunity to take
advantage of the draw that was
a win and take that energy and
fly high and have fun and go.
I just, I'm excited to watch this game.
I hope it's on NWS- NWSL+ and not
CBS Sports, because I'll be pissed.
I'll find a VPN.
I will find a way to watch it.
but no, this is gonna be a very
important game because not only does
it kick off this road trip, it kicks
off like this stretch of who are we?
And we showed up and we knew
who we were in that Gotham game.
Can we continue this the next
three games and keep that momentum
rolling, keep the goal scoring going?
And honest to God, if we had any other
keeper that we were going up against
this last game, we would've scored.
I'll be frank.
Like
Mario: Yeah
Angela: any other keeper, it's going in
So that's my recap or pre-cap of North
Carolina is Ashley Sanchez is really
fucking good and we need to play good
defense, but we also really need to score.
Basically, duh, and duh.
Like these are things I've said
before and I will say them again.
North Carolina is a team that
knows how to win in its core.
Like spiritually, they are a
winning team forever and always.
They've won a championship multiple times.
They have historically very good,
but maybe they're just not this time.
We can take advantage of that or we
can exploit things or we can, get
in their heads and figure that out.
please soccer gods let us win this game.
So
Mario: All right.
Then we
Angela: I don't want
any extras.
I don't want a lot of stoppage time.
I want a clean 92 minutes let's say
because then we probably bus it up to
Boston from North Carolina, play the
Boston Legacy in Gillette Stadium.
They've been bouncing back
and forth between Gillette and
Rhode Island I think it is.
Starts with a P.
I don't remember what it's called,
but they've been playing in different
places while they get their stuff
figured out stadium-wise, in Boston and
I am stressed that it's at
Gillette because they pull a damn
good crowd and that crowd helps.
as we know we pack out 20,000 people,
15 to 20,000 people every game.
We know what it's like to be in
a stadium like that and to be in
a big arena and Balls FC whichâ¦
Sorry, I have a ton of friends that
are Boston fans but like I've seen too
much about this wild marketing unroll.
but Boston, this is gonna be our
first ever matchup with them.
We have not played them at all.
Weâ¦
This game and we end the
season with them at, in Carson.
Mario: Carson, yeah
Angela: In Carson.
so players to watch if you haven't
been watching a lot of Boston
games is one of them is Bianca St.
Georges.
I'm not the biggest fan
for a variety of reasons.
she's a defender.
She's been in the league
since 2019 and I'mâ¦
it's not that I'm not a fan
because she's not good or something
like that like you have to be in
order to be in a league like duh.
She's played around North Carolina
then went to Utah then came to Boston.
She is a very
What's the right word?
She's a player that toes the
line of this is a clean play
and this is not a clean play, if
Mario: she's overly aggressive
Angela: Yes.
In weird ways and at weird times,
and it doesn't always make sense.
I don't know what the issue is, and
she's always been that player, and
she's a Canadian national team player.
Same thing there.
it's just the vibe.
And I'm curious if it's ex- if it was
exacerbated in North Carolina because
there was, history there for many players,
McCall Zerboni, Merritt Mathias, somebody
I can't think of, and then Bianca St.
Georges, of physical players whose
physicality was used for the team,
but in, like at the end of the day,
against the player in the sense of they
toed that line of am I just physical
or am I too aggressive causing issues?
I have always And like I said it when
Merritt was still playing, and in order
for the entire league to hate you, you
have to be good, and that's the thing.
You don't like players that are
that good, but it's also like
you're so good, but at what cost?
She ended up with two yellows and was
taken out of the debut game for Boston.
Like very first game of the season,
home girl's out with two yellows.
you're like, what?
it make sense.
she's had additional game suspension
because of card accumulation and
because of reviews, and it's just the
whole thing and I don't understand it.
And can be very physical without causing
possible injury, like without toeing
that line of so aggressive it's an issue.
But it is what it is.
She's controversial for a variety
of reasons I don't wanna talk about.
You can ask me about them.
It just makes me mad.
and then there's Amanda Gutierrez,
who's a fantastic forward out of
Brazil, like wildly different.
She's got a cute little bun similar
to Juju who plays basketball at USC.
She's number nine.
She's a forward.
She was, I believe, injured at
the beginning of the season.
She didn't play for a good chunk, and
she started subbing in and she's been
scoring and it's been real- it's helped
turn their season around a little bit.
She's on the Brazilian national team.
She bounced around playing in the
Brazilian league and then to France,
then back to Brazil in Palmeiras
before she came here to Boston.
And Boston in general is, full of a
lot of young international players that
are new to the NWSL, as well as young
players who they pulled from other teams.
They just, in the trade windows, picked
up Lily Reale and Sarah Schapansky from
Gotham, which whoa, Rookie of the Year
and almost Rookie of the Year last season.
So it's very interesting com-
interestingly composed team.
I am curious to see how their team culture
grows and vibes and kinda figures itself
out We need to keep our heads about us and
keep our wits about us because they're--
I would put hundreds of dollars, I'm not
going to, but I don't bet on sports 'cause
it, it is something nobody needs to do.
But, I would put money on the fact
that it's going to be a little
chippy, a little funky, and we just
need to keep our heads about us.
Like I said, they're a super physical
team, not just BSG, but other players
as well, so don't let it get messy.
You know what I mean?
don't play into the whistle,
but if the whistle blows, oh
no, or if you fall down, whoops.
we need to play that we're
no longer the new kids card.
Like we know how to handle a new team
like this with all the fits and spurts
that come with that, and we need to have
fun and go in there and say li-literal
balls to the wall and just score, score.
Because we can.
We're fast, we're good, we're fun.
We just need to be able to execute
that, and if we can play Angel
City soccer, we'll be okay.
They are incredibly disruptive to other
offenses, and they can be really sneaky
about it, but so can we, and we can
use that to our advantage, and we can
exploit that, youth in the-- and like
youth not just necessarily in age,
but in years in the NWSL because the
NWSL is a very different league than
a lot of the international leagues.
It's faster, it's more physical, it'sâ¦
There's a lot more happening.
The pace is different.
Just, yeah.
I-- That's a weird match.
I don't even know.
It's oh, we can totally win that.
We can win everything, but do we know?
So we'll see.
Mario: yeah, they, they
are lower on the table.
they haven't not necessarily had
the best, th- i- inaugural season.
and it lends itself because of
the fact of how young they are
and how, inexperienced they are.
And, there's a little bit of a
similarity there with the Angel
City kind of makeup and stuff.
we have the benefit of having a
little bit more time under our belts.
And yeah, we have to, if anybody's
still been holding on to the,
we're one of the newer teams in the
league, no, that ship has sailed.
like, no, you can't wear that anymore.
you're no longer that.
Angela: You're not the rookie anymore.
You're five years deep.
Mario: Yeah,
exactly.
so yeah, it'll be an interesting one.
in isolation, we probably had a really
good chance, Boston in this kind
of elongated, elongated road trip.
it's gonna make things harder.
also it being on Monday is gonna
Angela: Yeah, that's weird
Mario: and then, in our next
episode we'll start talking about
the next match that they have, but
they still have another road trip
match that they need to think of.
So a lot of thought about player
rotation, a lot of thought aboutâ¦
And, when it comes to player rotation,
yes, we've got our players back,
but we still don't necessarily have
a,
Angela: don't have a dep-
Mario: rotation.
We don't have the depth.
we have the depth in theory, but,
because they haven't necessarily
played with each other, we don't,
right?
As soon as you swap out a
couple players, it falls apart.
know, there's there's so many variables
when it comes to this stretch of games.
So yeah, we really need those points.
Come on.
So with
Angela: Do it.
do
it, lady
Mario: if you got this far, do
us a favor and, subscribe to the
show, share it, among your friends.
Like we said, go check out KidScoot Media.
Share their platform, then share ours to
the same people, and then there you go.
You did your good deed for the week.
check out casualfc.com
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and social media links.
we're also on YouTube, so that you
can see us if you're listening to us.
Come join us on the Discord.
It's free.
Check out the socials for the invite
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We actually even just started a
new channel for, music and, books.
So we've got a whole bunch of
recommendations that went out, in
there, and I think it's just really
fun to kinda keep the community going.
we're multifaceted people.
Yes, we're all here for Angel
City, but what are we gonna do with
the other six days of the week?
And then, best ways to support the pod is
share, comment on any one of our episodes
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It's all about engagement.
grab some merch at shop.casualfc.com.
There's a couple of new
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A lot of our, core e- things are still
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And if you feel so inclined and you
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it's an easy way to throw us a couple
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And tell a friend about the pod.
It brings us good luck.
They have a long road trip, so make
sure you tell quite a few people
about the pod so that we can send
that, and we can let them dole it
out as they need to along the trip.
so we're gonna need quite
a bit more this time.
And, with all of that, thanks for sticking
around for this Shenani-sode, everyone.
Hopefully, I edited out all the
things that I'm supposed to edit
out 'cause this is very late,
and, we'll talk to you later.
Angela: Bye, guys.
See you on the internet
welcome to Loose Turds, the podcast.
Mario: We'll just put that
at the end with no context.
Angela: This is how you
know I'm so fucking tired