Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Laces Out Loud is an NWSL and women’s soccer podcast about the game on the field and the forces shaping it off the field. The show blends match analysis, supporter passion, and bigger-picture conversations about player welfare, league growth, media coverage, business, technology, and soccer culture. We are here for the goals, the tactics, and the chaos - but also for the questions that determine whether the women’s game can grow with the ambition, care, and investment it deserves.
Sam Muis was one of the, like, team leads. Last year, I
Gurushabd:was like, hey. If you
Gurushabd:guys just need help, I'm here. And she just kinda looked at me like, no.
Pamitha:Welcome back everyone to another episode of Laces Out Loud. I am Pammatha, and as always, I'm joined by Guruschabed.
Gurushabd:Hello, everybody.
Pamitha:How are you doing over there?
Gurushabd:I'm doing great. We're getting ready for fall out here in the Pacific Northwest.
Pamitha:Yes. We, too, are enjoying the the fall weather coming in. You know what fall weather is? Lease weather.
Gurushabd:Gonna Yeah. Say coffee weather.
Pamitha:I think every day is coffee weather.
Gurushabd:That's true, but it feels so much more cozy in the fall.
Pamitha:That's very true, that's very true. It's a great excuse to get that winter closet of yours organized.
Gurushabd:Oh, yes. I don't know where Matt is on our closet.
Pamitha:Mhmm. Mhmm. I it's it's funny because I mentioned winter closet. We've had a couple of people reach out and comment about winter closets. But our wonderful co host, Allie, my better half, who will be joining us again, she's just had a a long stretch of work that's taken her away from recording, she never had a winter closet growing up in Texas.
Pamitha:So she listened to the episode and was like, do we have a winter closet? Yeah. What is a winter closet? This sounds amazing. I need a place for all of my comfortable clothing.
Gurushabd:You guys don't have that yet, living in DC?
Pamitha:I think we have unofficial winter closets.
Gurushabd:Okay. Okay. But now it'll be, like, intentional.
Pamitha:That's exactly right. Yes. Yes.
Gurushabd:You can put some pumpkins in there.
Pamitha:This podcast is creating more work for me. That's what is happening.
Gurushabd:Yeah. Yeah. Everyone needs to maybe we need to design a winter closet with themes. That'll be the new thing. The new TikTok, or I
Pamitha:don't know.
Gurushabd:Okay. We don't know. Sorry about that.
Pamitha:That's Pimp My that would be
Gurushabd:the thing. Decorate yeah, Pimp My Closet, decorated closets for each season.
Pamitha:Yes. Well, now I want a closet for every NWSL team. Oh. Yeah. You know All
Gurushabd:of them, though?
Pamitha:Well, so not like literal, right? So so figurative, right? So for example, what would Gotham FC's closet be? It would be full, with maybe a couple Trophies. Yeah, filled with trophies, and, you know, some stuff from Australia, and maybe just sort of like a small, like, first aid kit, right?
Pamitha:Whereas
Gurushabd:Maybe a little English bulldog?
Pamitha:Yes. Second animal. Exactly.
Gurushabd:Little Wilma.
Pamitha:Nice. Very nice, exactly. So you're getting it, right? So then, like, Chicago's closet could be filled with for sale signs. Oh.
Pamitha:Yeah. You know, and otherwise, like, barely empty. Alright, sorry.
Gurushabd:And a big cutout of Nayr. Yes. Of our unk, Still holding it down there. What would a spirit's closet be?
Pamitha:I think it would probably be a tiered shelf of first aid paraphernalia, given all of our terrible injuries, and a whole bunch of second place trophies.
Gurushabd:Like Oh, rough.
Pamitha:Just like the smaller ones that we get, instead of the, you know, growing up, like, the big championship trophy, the the first place team bat, and everyone else got the tiny dinky ones. Mhmm. That'll be a bunch of the a bunch of the tiny dinky ones. Anyway, so this was a great week '22, as every week this season seems to have been great. There were 10 teams that moved up and down the standings, I think, this week.
Pamitha:A lot of motion as we get into the final stretch. So let's really quickly recap the standings before we talk about who who is where. We'll start at the top of the table as per unfortunately usual for those of us who are not fans of Gotham FC. Gotham FC deserved number one at 51 points. Washington with their victory continues to hold in second place, 46.
Pamitha:San Diego at 45. Utah and Portland are four and five respectively tied at 42. Angel City comes in at 39, so too is North Carolina at 39 at six and seven. Kansas City rounds us out at eight. Sorry, Guruschabad with 30 The eight rest of the field spots nine through 10 are Seattle, Denver, Orlando with 37, 35, and 30 points respectively.
Pamitha:And then unfortunately, the bottom of the table seems pretty unchanged. Houston, the 29, Bay, 26, Boston, 26 racing, 23 and Chicago, 17. But if you ask some people, Chicago, the biggest winner of all, getting Vladko Anandowski to come and coach that team, feel I differently, but that's a topic for another day. So looking at the don't
Gurushabd:know, it might be a good change. Well We'll see.
Pamitha:I mean But It's not a change, it's a re trend.
Gurushabd:Yeah. But I mix it's just so tight this year.
Pamitha:It really is. All of
Gurushabd:those points. Like, I feel okay that we got bumped down to nine, Seattle. Yeah. Just because the points right there to the fifth to the fourth place
Pamitha:Yeah.
Gurushabd:So tight. 42 points to 37, there's five games remaining. So it's How
Pamitha:is it only five games remaining? Where does the year go?
Gurushabd:I know. I don't know. But match what do they call the last day? Match day? Playoff day?
Pamitha:Oh. Decision day? Decision day. Yes.
Gurushabd:Decision day is gonna be wild.
Pamitha:Yeah, that fight the fight for the eighth seed is huge, and Angel City climbed three spots to get into Three. Right, into the sixth seed. That's Yep. And you all can do the same. The schedule going into week week 23 schedule, the Angel City, Kansas City, and North Carolina all play different teams.
Pamitha:So if they all lose and Seattle wins, Seattle will vault into the sixth seed. So it's Yeah.
Alli:Gonna be Wild.
Pamitha:It's gonna be tight all the way down to the end. Kansas City, Kansas City dropping their game to San Diego two nothing. They fell a spot down into the eighth seed. Angel City, as we mentioned before, jumped up three spots. They had that three one win against Seattle, and then they followed up with a three nothing shutout win against Utah.
Pamitha:Utah dropping one spot down into the four seed. Denver Bay was a two two draw, and then Denver also ended up, sorry, taking out Seattle two to one.
Gurushabd:Yeah. No.
Pamitha:That's okay. Orlando dropped a four one match to Portland. I think Orlando is kind of floundering, they may be out of it. It's again, five games left, there's still time, but doesn't look really promising. Gotham took care of North Carolina.
Pamitha:Ashley Sanchez almost had a record setting record tying goal, but it was Dying him. Yeah. That was super close. Let's see. Houston took care of Brooklyn.
Pamitha:When I say Brooklyn, I mean Boston. I apologize. Houston took care of Boston. Bay took care of racing. I'm sorry, racing.
Pamitha:I feel like of all the opinions that we had going into the season, that is the one that is both the most wrong and the most sad, I feel. That's just me. And then Washington, it was that get well game against Chicago, not like anybody could see it, but we took care of business three nothing. And then we're heading Washington's heading into a really exciting game against Angel City next Yeah.
Gurushabd:Yeah. I thought I had to get my eyes checked.
Pamitha:Oh, yeah. That was a vision test. Right? Or one of those it was like a magic eye type of poster?
Gurushabd:Yeah. You're like, did I take drugs this morning?
Pamitha:Yeah. So for for those of you listening who are not fans of the Washington spirit and did not tune into ESPN, I don't know if you know, ESPN is little known sports network. They're just a startup. They haven't been around for that long.
Gurushabd:They don't know what they're doing. Yeah. They're figuring it out.
Pamitha:They're just figuring it out. You know, we gotta give them a little bit of grace. But anyway, you know, thankfully, they were broadcasting the game. Heavy sarcasm. So Chicago plays a Northwestern Stadium that is on the lake on, like, bordering Lake Michigan, it is really scenic and really beautiful.
Pamitha:The whole Chicago, as everybody knows, has beautiful weather year round. It's the San Diego of the Midwest. Again, sarcasm. Chicago is known for horrific weather, rain, snow, the whole nine yards. Their nickname is the Windy City.
Gurushabd:The Windy City.
Pamitha:Yes. So one would imagine that any broadcast sports that happen outdoors would be in the inclement weather from time to time. Well, somebody did not seem to have notified ESPN that there would be weather coming in for the Spirit and the Chicago Stars game. The result, for those of us watching at home, was a rain soaked camera where it was impossible to see players moving, and let alone the ball for the entire first half. This was not, oh, it's raining, five minutes in, we need to fix the camera lens so our audience can see.
Pamitha:This was forty five minutes plus of the main camera feed for this game, making it unwatchable
Gurushabd:You for us at know what was moving? The lines.
Pamitha:What? That's right.
Gurushabd:Like, the water was distorting the lines, so they were waving.
Pamitha:That's right.
Gurushabd:The players were just little fuzzy things moving around the field.
Pamitha:Yeah.
Gurushabd:It I was like, how how has this gone on past, like, five minutes Yeah. Without someone cleaning that?
Pamitha:We there was one there were many moments, but one that stands out is there was pass back to Sofia Cantore, and first we thought, oh, was she offsides? And then she shot the ball, we couldn't tell that she shot the ball, we couldn't tell that she missed the shot, it's just all of a sudden, we saw these blobs of color on our screen stop moving and moving slowly in the other direction. It was it was it was was was really frustrating. Yeah, go ahead.
Gurushabd:Yeah. I mean, and that's just not acceptable. This day and age. No. Like No.
Gurushabd:Not acceptable. Like, we can sit here and, like, laugh, because it's ridiculous, but it's actually not funny.
Pamitha:No, it's really funny.
Gurushabd:Like, come on ESPN, you and they knew. They knew the camera was like that, and I mean, what, they must have other cameras
Pamitha:They did.
Gurushabd:That they could switch to.
Pamitha:They would cut to field level cameras where it wasn't as impacted. And so and and the announcers I'm blaming the announcers. They're clearly just mouthpieces for ESPN, and I don't even mean for that to be pejorative. Right? Like, it it takes a great deal of courage to criticize your employer on camera.
Pamitha:So I'm not gonna fault the announcers for just towing the company line. But that's what they did. And they and they basically said, this this happens. Right? Like, weather happens, you guys can't help it.
Pamitha:Sorry sorry for everybody at home. What? What are you are you kidding me? Like, how about the producer who's responsible for the broadcast, cut to a camera angle that isn't impacted by weather, get someone out there with a sham wow and take care of it. Mhmm.
Pamitha:Like, this is this is not rocket science. You know how I know it's not rocket science? Literally every other broadcast that has it has had weather problems does it. And they fixed it after forty five minutes. Why did it take forty five minutes?
Pamitha:Why did it take forty five minutes? If this was a men's game, if this was the NFL, do you think this would have happened? Absolutely not. Famously No. Famously in Chicago, go look it up, it's something called the Fog Bowl, there were broadcast cameras that could not see the field because such dense fog had rolled into the stadium.
Pamitha:That prompted the league to figure out how do we broadcast games in inclement weather because it was an embarrassment. Right? It was an absolute embarrassment, and that took place in Chicago. So, like, there's precedent, people are aware for you not to be prepared, or to have been prepared and not be effective in addressing the issue. It's it's embarrassing to the league.
Pamitha:It's embarrassing to the network. It's disrespectful to the fans. It's disrespectful to the players. It's it's just unacceptable. Just unacceptable.
Gurushabd:Especially an easy fix. Go up there with your little rag, and clean the camera.
Pamitha:Yeah. Sorry.
Gurushabd:Like, I just yeah. It's crazy.
Pamitha:Yeah. It's really frustrating. And, you know, it's easy to be sort of like, flippant about this. Like, it's easy to be like, oh yeah, they could've just wiped the lens, or oh yeah, they could've just covered it, like, why didn't they do that? And that's true.
Pamitha:Like, that's justified, valid, the way we feel. But it's a bigger issue. Why do we have to keep demanding that women's sports get treated with the same degree of polish as men's sports? It's like, this isn't an amateur league, this is a professional Yeah. League.
Pamitha:And and it's like you're watching, like, high like, your kid's high school broadcast. And, you know, we can have an entire another episode on the quality of the broadcasters themselves, and like, really hold them to account for some of the ridiculousness, and should probably wait for Ally because I know she has really strong feelings about that. But it goes towards the same problem. Right? Like, you would never tune in for a Major League Baseball, National Football League, National Basketball Association game, or even WNBA game, and expect this kind of shoddy presentation.
Gurushabd:Yeah. I mean, it's the same thing Michelle Kang has been talking about. Like, kids sports, you wouldn't go drop off your boy at a state of the art facility and then drive further and take your girl, same age, to a facility that has nothing and a really bad field. And, like, Michelle Kang is on this. She's speaking out, and it's just hard that this still needs to happen.
Gurushabd:Like, the league has set itself as a professional league. It's successful. We're doing well. And this kinda thing just makes us feel like second class citizens again. ESPN, do something else.
Gurushabd:Yeah. Get it together. This is one of the reasons we wanted to do this podcast and wanna try and bring more content, and more awareness to the NWSL and kind of be what no broadcast sports broadcast system is giving us.
Pamitha:Yeah.
Gurushabd:Like, we would love to bring more highlights and recaps and information stats to everyone, because no one else is doing it right now.
Pamitha:Yeah. And why does why does it fall on the fans of women's sports that have to do that? Like, haven't we sent a clear market signal? And and I think Yeah. It's games like what happened on Sunday that make it even more frustrating because it's not even that we it's not even that the market signal is recognized.
Pamitha:It says it's recognized, people are talking about how important it is, and it's still treated so shoddily. You know? Like, it shouldn't be incumbent upon us to create the product that we need. Right? Like, you're working a full time job, I'm working a full time job.
Pamitha:We're doing this for fun because we care about the sport, we care about the league, we care about where it should be going. Everybody who is really responsible here, I think needs to ask themselves, where does where does the league wanna be ten years from now? How do we get there? What are what are the things that we need to be doing now? And like, stop making sorry, stop just making the small investments that are, like, course calibrations, and start making big swings.
Pamitha:You know, you brought up Michelle Kang. She's doing that. Need more leaders like her in the sport.
Gurushabd:Yeah, her, Emma Hayes, they're all speaking out, telling really giving a blueprint of what needs to be done. And Michelle King's actually putting her money where, you know, her talk is and actually making change. Yeah. Yeah. She's amazing.
Pamitha:Well, wish this wasn't just going to be an episode where we were just complaining about things, but unfortunately, this seems to be where we are. I blame I blame the winter closet. That's what's happening. It's the it's the fall encroachment. Football season starts, everyone gets annoyed and frustrated, fantasy team is terrible, can't believe all my guys are injured.
Pamitha:That's why one of the reasons I should pay more attention to women's sports, but anyway. So on for
Gurushabd:Oh, American football started?
Pamitha:You know American football started, but can I also tell you, Australian football, so good?
Gurushabd:Oh, I haven't gone on that wagon yet.
Pamitha:Oh, man, I am on that wagon, I am attached. It is it is fun to wake up early in the morning and watch also, like, it's cool. And it may be may just be me, but I love an Australian accent, so like, listening to announcers, really, really cool. So, you know, as our as our continued evolution from women's soccer to food to wardrobe to now Australian football's podcast Mhmm. If you haven't watched Australian rules football, the championship game is this Saturday at midnight eastern.
Pamitha:So do the West Coast math. I think that's 09:00, 9PM West Coast. Yeah. So it's a little bit more reasonable. I think it's on Fox Sports One or Fox Soccer Plus, one of those two channels.
Pamitha:It is it is between I know way too much about this now. It's between the Brisbane Lions, who are now appearing in their fourth consecutive Australian Football League championship, and they're seeking their third consecutive win. Okay. Now that that is historic in and of itself, but if they win four in a row, that has only been done once in the entirety of this history of the sport, which dates
Gurushabd:back to, like the wombats?
Pamitha:No. No. Nor are they playing the kangaroos, which is an actual team. They are playing the Fremantle Dockers, which is a team from Western Australia.
Gurushabd:Dockers like the pants?
Pamitha:Kind of. Yes. But I think Okay. They're probably named after the port, but not not the pants. For
Gurushabd:sure. I
Pamitha:haven't done that deep dive. But anyway, they're playing Fremantle. Fremantle's a city on the Western Side of Australia. They have never won a title. And so, despite having family in Brisbane, I am rooting for Fremantle on Saturday.
Pamitha:And you should check it out if you're looking for something. I will tell you this, in just like the short amount of time I've been following, Australian Football League also has a really robust women's league, and the the media treatment of both is refreshing compared to American media. They they hold players accountable, they hold fans accountable, they protect referee integrity, they give equal time to women, they there's a a recent behavioral scandal that several high profile players on a high caliber team were caught up in, and all of those players were suspended without investigation. They were just like, you're done. Is not what we stand for, these are not our values, and like, everything else is gonna run its course, but you you're done playing for us.
Pamitha:And like Okay. Everyone, like, rallied around it, which was incredible. Now granted, there were some people who were like, we should talk less about the impact that this will have on the field, and more about the fact that this shouldn't be happening broadly. I agree. But if that had happened in this country, that player would have still been playing.
Pamitha:Right? Like Oh, yeah. So
Gurushabd:Definitely. Yeah. And certain groups of people would celebrate them.
Pamitha:Yeah. Absolutely.
Gurushabd:So do the guys wear, like, some tight shorts, revealing Yes. Clothes to keep us interested? Do they? Yeah.
Pamitha:They don't wear pads. So like, everything's on full display. Okay. Seeing the the physicality of Australian rules football, I wish I had started watching it sooner. It is really fun.
Pamitha:So, I, again, highly recommend you watching it, and the fact that they also have, they have made such a strong investment in parallel to the women's game, I think is really cool. I mean, I'll just put it this way. I I'm gonna go right now to the NFL website in real time, and just check this out, because I don't think that they even have it on the NFL website. Oh, no. Forget the NFL website.
Pamitha:Let me go to the NBA.
Gurushabd:I mean, if I have time to watch it with all of the good NWSL games coming up this week.
Pamitha:Yes. No. That's true.
Gurushabd:We'll see. We'll see.
Pamitha:So I'm on the I'm on the NBA website. This is nba.com, and I'm just trying to see how many clicks does it take me to get to the WNBA. Teams, NBA Play, Fantasy, News, nothing there. Store, no tickets. Tickets, of course, I can buy tickets.
Pamitha:Commerce, commerce, commerce. Num num num. Scroll, scroll, scroll. NBA organization, nope, nothing there, nothing there, nothing there. Yeah, so just on a very quick, like fifteen second glance, I don't see any links on the NBA website to take me to the women's league.
Pamitha:If you go to afl.com.au, which is the Australian Football League, the very first thing you see at the very top is another tab that is AFLW. Boom.
Gurushabd:Oh, wow.
Pamitha:And look at that.
Gurushabd:That's awesome.
Pamitha:Yeah. And it is it is it's the same layout, it is the same content Mhmm. It's watered down. It's refreshing. It's refreshing.
Pamitha:Wow. Yeah.
Gurushabd:Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna check that league out.
Pamitha:Yes. You should. Everyone should. You
Gurushabd:meant me.
Pamitha:We are pivoting. Oh, man. Do I need to work on an Australian accent?
Gurushabd:Yes.
Pamitha:Oh, this isn't
Gurushabd:I can't do accents, though. Oh, yeah. I can't do them.
Pamitha:I could do it when nobody's listening, too many people are listening. I'll work on it.
Gurushabd:Okay. Practice. Practice.
Pamitha:Good eye, mate. Alright. Alright. So I think this is a decent transition into another point of frustration I've had this week with how women's soccer, getting back to our podcast topic. I don't know if any of you have had the opportunity.
Pamitha:I know, Gurus Chabad, you and I did because we wanted to talk about this. There is an article in The Athletic today. No. Not today. On the fifteenth or, like, last week.
Pamitha:It is titled NWSL player availability cannot be down to guesswork and quote transparency is key. Despite Tamara Griffin, you know, the host of the full time podcast on The Athletic, you know, she's been a, you know, great source of information covering women's sports for quite some time, and a lot of her stuff is really good. I found this article to be a real low mark. I I will share you I will share with everybody my thoughts and and Gurus Chabad, we can go back and forth on this, but I would really love everybody to go read the article, and let me know what you think. I wish I could do this without having your opinion colored by mine first, if you haven't already read it.
Pamitha:But this is the is the medium we have. One of the things that Tamara mentions is the lack of transparency around player status relating to injuries, but really, broadly speaking, player status. The examples that she gives were Rebecca Bernal's excused absence from Washington before her trade to Manchester United.
Gurushabd:And mhmm.
Pamitha:Yeah. Sorry, thanks. And Cat Mercario, the extent of her injury, whether or not it was going to be season ending, the duration of stuff like that. And her main point is that the NWSL needs to embrace greater transparency in order to grow as a league. I couldn't disagree more fervently.
Pamitha:Gurus Chabad, what do you think about Tamara's article and her point about transparency?
Gurushabd:Yeah. So when I was reading it, the main thing that kept coming up to me is she thinks transparency is growth for the league, and especially transparency around injuries and then trades, which a trade to me, you can't announce that until it's, like, completely finalized. So if there's still contract negotiations going on and that player's excused for a game, you can't say, Oh, we're in talks to trade them, when
Pamitha:Right.
Gurushabd:It's not finalized. Like, you don't know how that's gonna affect their transfer and their, like, career. And then with injuries, injuries are tricky. Sometimes the doctors don't know your extent yet. You don't know.
Gurushabd:You like, Kat Mercario, she may have thought she was coming back this season and would actually play, and then things just weren't moving along. And I think she needed a surgery. Mhmm. She may have not So known she needed there it's hard to be transparent, and it's hard, especially injuries, and disclosing exactly what that was could affect a player's career moving forward if a team knows.
Pamitha:Yeah.
Gurushabd:Well And also, I think it's a non issue. If a player's not available to play, the reason doesn't always matter each game.
Pamitha:Yeah. I totally agree. And there's an internal failure of logic in this article also, because she recognizes that the collective bargaining agreement I'm gonna read it to you. The collective bargaining agreement requires a player's written consent before the league or any team or agent can, quote, disclose or otherwise make public private medical information relating to a player and or individually identifiable fitness information relating to a player, end quote. Black and white.
Pamitha:Right? It's the it's it's really about protecting the players. It's about players' rights. Like, this this information doesn't have to sort of be out there. Then but then there's sort of, I think, a misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the CBA because the next paragraph is examples of when the teams are allowed to make players' medical information public.
Pamitha:But even that is quote, provided that such information relates solely to the reasons why any such player has not been or is not rendering services as a player. And again, still with consent. And then and then there's sort of this catch all provision that says nothing in this provision prohibits the team or NWSL agents or employees from sharing medical or fitness information based on a need to know capacity for purposes of providing medical assistance, rehabilitation, or training for a player. Mhmm. So the first thing that that last part is really important.
Pamitha:Like, the only sort of caveat for permitting disclosure, which would still require consent by the way, is and it just sort of eliminates a prohibition on that disclosure, is for the purposes of medical assistance, rehabilitation, training for a player. And even in those circumstances, that information is only shared on a need to know basis. So internally, the the logic holds that there are limits to what the league ought to be transparent about. Like, it's in the collective bargaining agreement.
Gurushabd:Mhmm.
Pamitha:And I think while there is a recognition in by Tamara that the there should be a respect for rights of privacy, but there's this argument that, like, there's still a a a public need for this information, and I don't know why that would be the case. How does it serve the public? Right? How does how does this serve the public? And that gets me to I think my biggest point, and Guru Shabbat, I see you wanna come in.
Pamitha:Transparency has been weaponized against women forever. This same level of transparency is not demanded for in other sports, or if it is demanded, it is certainly not provided. In basketball, men's basketball players miss time for, quote, load management reasons all the time. And that the source of frustration for the league is that is a star player missing time because they're tired, and so then fans who go to the game are disappointed they don't get to see the star player. That's not what we're talking about with this article.
Pamitha:This article is is all about the NWSL needs to be more forthcoming about player injury information in order to grow. No. I disagree.
Gurushabd:No. Yeah. The way to grow the league is to get people into seats in actual games, like, to show up. -Like, I don't know. This felt kind of maybe she didn't have anything written and was, like, pulling something together she, I like, had a little don't know, like
Pamitha:I agree. It's poor.
Gurushabd:-I don't know, get us a better article, get us better information. Like, write an article on Ashley Sanchez getting really close to reaching, the, you know, most goals in a season.
Pamitha:-Yeah. There's so much
Gurushabd:there's Highlight so much to write something that's great that's going on. Yeah.
Pamitha:Yeah. And this is not to say that the league shouldn't be criticized, it's not to say that there's not ways in which the NW solo ought to be growing, but I think this misses the mark entirely. Right? And you know, we were talking about before we started recording, and this is just to, you know, so you don't feel like I left you out on a branch here. I think what I said was, at best, this article reads like a rage bait, like like rage bait click bait title.
Pamitha:And at worst, it's actively detrimental to the growth of the league. Right? Like, this is this is a story like, you're this is a story that reads like, I'm upset that I didn't know why Kat Macario was injured, or I didn't know that Rebecca Bernal was gonna get transferred. Get better sources. Like
Gurushabd:Right. Yeah.
Pamitha:It's not
Gurushabd:Tell me what's happening in the league so I can write about it before other people.
Pamitha:Yeah. Exactly. If you're relying on the NWSL availability report to inform your stories, then you're already three days, four days, five days behind. Right? Like, and that's not that's not the league's fault.
Pamitha:And look, maybe it's not your fault either, but if you look at other the way other sports are covered, that's what that's what the standard is. The NWSL shouldn't lower itself just to facilitate the the sort of reporting, because nobody is willing to put the time and effort in. Like, why isn't there greater dedication Right. Yeah, to to covering women's sports broadly.
Gurushabd:Yeah. As I mean, as a fan, like, I don't think I'm owed, Oh, this person's missing a game because they're in talks to possibly be traded to another team if it hasn't been completed yet.
Pamitha:Yeah.
Gurushabd:Like, no, if you're in a job and you're looking for another job, you're not telling your employer that.
Pamitha:Yeah, and to the extent that information
Gurushabd:Wait until you sign on the line, and then you're like, okay, I took another job. You're not like, oh, I'm thinking about it. Like, you wait.
Pamitha:Yeah. Oh my god. That's so that's right. So so so Same. Yeah.
Pamitha:Like, it it there's a competitive issue here too, right? Like, the players need to protect their, competitive, balance. Right? Like, if if they are injured and they don't want people to know about it, it's going to affect negotiations with teams or contracts. If they're in talks to be traded, it's going again, going to affect, like, what other teams interest Ted Lasso just did this episode with Danny Rojas.
Pamitha:I don't know if anyone saw this episode, spoilers. Yes. So, like so anyway, without getting into that, like, yeah, that aspect of how like it just is it's potentially compromising for players to share information. That's why the CBA says it's gotta be with explicit consent from the player. But then more than that, it's like you don't if if you don't need to wait for the teams to tell you that it's happening to find sources that can tell you that it's happening.
Pamitha:Right? Like, there's plenty of times in which there are, like, conversations broken by sports journalists about something that they expect to happen because they have sources that have shared information and confidence. Right? And like, they're under an embargo, so they don't like do this. And like, I don't need I don't need to, and neither of us should be in or or should be lecturing, you know, Tamara on journalistic ethics and integrity.
Pamitha:She should she knows that she's been doing this long enough. This felt like a misstep. Right? So I don't this is not an indictment broadly, but like this article? Come on.
Pamitha:You could do better.
Gurushabd:Yeah.
Pamitha:Right? I feel like I demand better from like others as well, and so I don't I feel like I am compelled to try to be equal, because I want us to be better, and I also want others to be better, so today it's you, Tamara. I'm sorry.
Gurushabd:But yeah. But come out with articles about players and what they're doing in the league, records they're setting. Come out with an article about the really bad broadcast by ESPN. Yeah. And their rain gate.
Pamitha:Rain gate.
Gurushabd:Like, yeah. Yes. Like, give us that information.
Pamitha:Yes.
Gurushabd:Because, yeah, growing the league, like, let's get people in seats. Let's get them to the game.
Pamitha:Yes. Let's build more fans. We're heading into week 23. It seems like there's gonna be some decent games, but there's only three that really jump out to me. Kansas City, Denver, because that's got real, like that's got playoff implications.
Pamitha:Denver can vault themselves into the eighth spot, and Kansas City can play themselves out Mhmm. Which is tough. Washington, Angel City, for the same reason. Angel City is holding on now that they're in the in the in the top eight. Washington needs to continue to win to keep their control over the two seed.
Gurushabd:Oh, and both teams can put goals in.
Pamitha:Yes. Oh, my
Gurushabd:gosh. Like, Angel City keeps scoring three goals in their games, and the spirit can do the same. So it'll either be really high scoring or a lot of good defense and saves. I'm excited for that one.
Pamitha:I'm excited for that too. I hope the weather cooperates at Audi Field for us on Saturday. It's an evening game, so I'm just glad that we're not gonna be baking in the sun. That's Yeah. That's an Us problem.
Pamitha:Last time we played Angel City, it was a one one draw that I believe we rescued near the death. So, like, I I think it's gonna be a great game. And then North Carolina, Utah, also, is gonna be really exciting, both because both teams are locked in the middle of the playoff run.
Gurushabd:Mhmm.
Pamitha:And this is not to take away from Seattle, who needs the win to also come back into playoff contention, but, like, Utah, North Carolina, you got Ashley Sanchez trying to set the, single season record. You've got Utah that just also inexplicably lost to Boston. Am I right?
Gurushabd:Yeah. No. They lost
Pamitha:to No. They lost to Angel City.
Gurushabd:Yeah. To Angel three nil.
Pamitha:I take it back. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah.
Gurushabd:Which was crazy because Utah's been looking pretty good. We'll see if they can get it back because they've just got Jimmy's Joseph in their lineup who I'm a big fan of. So we'll see if she can get more comfortable up there in that forward position and put some goals into them. I yeah, I was just so excited to see her get out of Chicago.
Pamitha:We're gonna watch a lot of changes in Chicago. We'll do we'll do an episode next week on Chicago, because I'd still wanna digest the vlotco of it all.
Gurushabd:Oh, and Chicago plays Gotham this weekend? Rough.
Pamitha:Yeah. I mean, that's gonna not like Gotham needs a get well game,
Gurushabd:I but I oh, I feel so I feel horrible. I feel like the teams are just using Chicago right now to try and get their goal differential up.
Pamitha:Yeah, I mean
Gurushabd:And I feel awful saying that. Like, I'm sorry, Chicago, we are rooting for you. Like, we don't want you to be, like, the league's punching bag. Yeah.
Pamitha:The league suffers the league suffers there's a punching bag. Right? We talked we talked about this last week. Like, nobody wins when there's a team that is so bad.
Gurushabd:Yeah. So, yeah, I feel like Gotham's just gonna try and run up their scores. And oh. So, yeah, I just keep thinking about the World Cup next year, and every time I see a US women's soccer player taking a PK and nailing it, like, taking a beautiful one, I'm like, yes. Just keep taking those.
Gurushabd:Get ready for Brazil.
Pamitha:Now is that PTSD from last World Cup?
Gurushabd:Yeah. Okay. To totally. The game against Sweden. This is PTSD watching Scentnor, Sofia Wilson taking beautiful PKs.
Gurushabd:Just like, okay.
Pamitha:Well, hey, Gershabad, it suddenly got a little bit more crowded in here.
Gurushabd:Hey, Ali.
Pamitha:Hey. Hello. Hey. I
Alli:have missed you. I would say I've missed you guys, but I've still seen Parmatha regularly. So Yeah.
Gurushabd:Well, I've missed you.
Alli:I have missed you also, and I have missed getting to do the podcast, so I will be back on a better schedule soon.
Pamitha:Well, we thank you for making time, we know you're very busy.
Alli:That's true.
Pamitha:But we thought it would be really good to very quickly preview the NWCL Championship weekend because, yeah, because the league has just put out information about what's taking place that week, and it just so happens to be in our backyard. Yeah, literally.
Alli:Yeah. Our backyard.
Pamitha:Literally our backyard. We have our tickets, If any of our listeners who are not from the area are gonna be there, let us know. Gurus Chabad, we still hope you and Matt are gonna make it.
Gurushabd:Yeah. I'm still hoping to make it. I'll talk to work soon.
Alli:Awesome. I don't know what in previous years, we did get tickets one year and ended up reselling them and not being able to go. But the, I mean, tickets were, like, immediately selling out in sections, and, like, this code didn't work. There was a code from the NWSL. There was a code for season ticket holders.
Alli:They were just, yeah, flying out of Ticketmaster? I was gonna say flying out of pockets, that's not the right word, but
Pamitha:Flying off the But it's good, that's great. The demand is fantastic.
Alli:Yeah, and I hope that it is actual people who have bought them, and not people, I mean, people, fans who are going, and not the whole resell thing.
Pamitha:Yeah, I agree. Well, the championship game is November 21 at 8PM eastern. Nope? Yes, 8PM eastern
Gurushabd:Yep.
Pamitha:At Audi Field in Washington DC. For those of you who are not familiar with Audi Field or that region of DC, it is a relatively recently redeveloped part of the city that coincided with the Washington Nationals ballpark being built in the late two thousands, and subsequently has really developed over time into sort of a happening place in the city.
Alli:Yeah. It's the area that, well, it's one of the areas that I look at and go, when I first moved here in 2013, like, oh, this wasn't like this, and now look how much it's grown in the last decade plus. So, yeah, it's definitely got all sorts of restaurants and bars and outdoor spaces and very walkable and metro accessible and kind of that everything that people want from a kind of city popular area like that. I was gonna say city center, but that's not really the right word.
Pamitha:Yeah, absolutely. Wharf, that's exactly So there's things happening at The Wharf. Let's rewind a little bit. So if you if you visit listeners, nwslsoccer.com backslash championship, you will see the information that the NWSLs put out for championship week events. The first event is the NWSL awards.
Pamitha:That's taking place November 18, 06:30PM, broadcast simulcast on ESPN two, and that's live from the Lizzner Auditorium at the George Washington University.
Alli:Oh.
Pamitha:That should be a good joke.
Alli:Is that open to the public?
Pamitha:No. Okay. Was
Alli:gonna say, I I didn't think previously they'd been.
Pamitha:No, but we know people at GW, We could probably like finagle our way in.
Alli:I mean, probably shouldn't have said but maybe before he said that.
Pamitha:They're not listening. I'll, I mean if we just dress the part and show up, right?
Alli:It's true.
Pamitha:Yeah. So for anyway, for those of you who are not familiar with the geography of DC, George Washington University, it's not next to Audi Field, but it is sort of like located in a more downtown area of DC, as opposed to Georgetown, which is, I think, little bit more well known, that's very much off on their own, basically, in Virginia. I don't know, people probably don't know American University or Catholic University, but those are in other parts like North of the city, yeah, so don't worry about that. Anyway, GW is Never heard
Alli:of me doing a DC geography lesson, Sorry,
Pamitha:we've already been a Winter Closet podcast and an Australian Rules football podcast so far, so we are branching out. November 20 at 6PM is the NWSL skills challenge. Now, it's not being broadcast at the same time, but there will be it will be replayed November 28 at 2PM on CBS and Paramount plus. Okay. I I was immediately offended that it wasn't going to be simulcast, maybe that would be a really cool broadcast, but then I realized it was being held at Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia.
Alli:Oh, interesting.
Pamitha:Interesting. Well Is interesting code for disappointed too, or is that just me?
Alli:I think that I always get disappointed when I hear something for a professional is being held at a high school. However, being from Texas, and having a high school football team whose facilities were used by the professional football teams when there was a snowstorm in town for the Super Bowl many years ago, and then being impressed by them, I'm like, okay. High school facilities, I guess, can be good, but
Pamitha:This is what happens when you've been off the podcast for so long. You come in much more reasonable and ratchet.
Alli:Yeah, I'll try to get That rid of
Pamitha:has also not been the theme of this podcast.
Gurushabd:It was really fun last year.
Pamitha:You went in person, right?
Gurushabd:Yeah, it was a blast. I would recommend going if you're in town that weekend.
Alli:Do they let random crowd participants, I mean, crowd fans participate.
Pamitha:-Crowd fans.
Alli:-Crowd fans.
Pamitha:-GRANT: No.
Gurushabd:And, I run Maybe. On the field Maybe they'll let you. So, embarrassingly, I walked by the teams, which Sam Muis was one of the, like, team leads last year, I was like, Hey, if you guys just need help, I'm here. And she just kinda looked at me like, Shoot your
Pamitha:shot. Your shot. I love that. Maybe
Gurushabd:a few of us run on, they can't kick all of us off. Yeah.
Pamitha:And maybe just the slowest one of us. Yeah. I wonder who that would be.
Alli:And maybe it can be like, you know, just we can balance each other out, like, you know, one on each team, and then Yeah. They just delete the lowest scores, which are obviously us. Okay. Because
Pamitha:It's the when I weakest played soccer link contest.
Alli:Yeah. When I was doing soccer exercises and physical therapy a couple months ago, I absolutely ate it. Trying to so my skills are not where they once were.
Gurushabd:Right. Okay, this high school is, like, bougie.
Alli:What high school is it, did you say?
Pamitha:Episcopal High School, Alexandria, Virginia.
Gurushabd:Like, they're a boarding school? They're Yeah, their facility and their campus looks like a college.
Alli:Maybe, Palmytho, we should go check it out.
Pamitha:Yeah, we could. And on on the way, we can get Jenny's ice cream.
Alli:You could.
Gurushabd:Oh. Yeah.
Pamitha:Bringing it to full circle. Well, you know what's not gonna help Jenny's You know what Jenny's ice cream is not going to help? There are very few things Jenny's ice cream won't help.
Alli:Yeah, no, I Nothing.
Pamitha:Yes. Yes.
Alli:He wants me to speak into the microphone.
Pamitha:And stop knocking the table.
Alli:It's been a while, I forget things. Anyway,
Pamitha:find better segue. So that's all taking place on the twentieth. November 21, I think this is pretty cool. I will not be participating, but at 8AM, the NWSL championship five k presented by CVS Health is taking place starting at The Wharf in in near the stadium. It is presented by CVS Health, which is a sponsor of the Washington Spirit.
Pamitha:Whether you're chasing a personal best looking for a pre match workout or simply showing up for your health, start with heart this championship weekend with the NWSL community. I gotta tell you, I don't know if I look for a pre match workout before watching games. That may be more of an indictment about me. Ali, will you be participating in the five k?
Alli:Oh, that's a good question. Realistically, it would depend on how early we wanna get there on game day. I'm assuming that
Gurushabd:that's early. 8AM sounds rough, but I wonder if there's gonna be some players there, like, who aren't in the game.
Pamitha:Yeah, although I would love it if Sam Kerr ran a five ks before the championship game.
Alli:Why are you saying Gotham's gonna be in,
Pamitha:I'm just saying. Odds are.
Gurushabd:I mean, yeah.
Pamitha:I mean, makes more sense.
Alli:I have still been watching games,
Pamitha:even though I haven't. Makes more sense than me saying if MS Series was running the five k before the championship That's brutal. Sorry, Emma. Yeah, no, that's a good point, and actually, so like, the NWSL fan fest has like an official kickoff at 3PM, but that's also at the Wharf. And so if you if you imagine sort of like this downtown bougie boardwalk esque scene, that's where I would imagine the fan fest is taking place.
Pamitha:It's possible that it pushes out into like that nice lawn area in front of Audi, but I don't think so. Like, I think that's a pretty far stretch. I would expect there to be like like, gatherings of people starting at the fan fest, and then like walking their way to the stadium.
Alli:Yeah.
Pamitha:Which is, you said, what, like, half a mile? A mile? I
Gurushabd:So you
Alli:don't know.
Gurushabd:If you can walk from the wharf to the stadium, that'd be amazing, in San Jose -TANCE: Okay, in San Jose, the fan fest was kind of it was far from the stadium, and they had to have buses bringing Oh, people And the buses were taking so long that so many of us just ended up calling Ubers. Instead of using the free buses, because it was so far away. So having the Fan Fest walkable to the stadium is huge.
Pamitha:For sure. The stadium entrance facing that side of the, people will be walking up to, so yeah, it is definitely walkable.
Alli:It should all be good, especially for people who are staying in DC and wanting to use Metro, or walking taking advantage of public transportation, it is very nice. For those of us that live a little bit further out in the boonies and have to drive in, that's where the timing gets a little bit trickier. But we'll figure it out, just not sure about 8AM.
Gurushabd:Is staying near The Wharf a good spot to, like, get your hotel, or are there other little neighborhoods
Pamitha:that are pretty Well, I easy to walk up gotta throw myself under the bus completely, and we're not gonna rerecord it, we're gonna leave it in just so
Alli:Yeah, because I have another call in seven minutes.
Pamitha:I can just totally just embarrass myself. The Wharf is not National Spark. That's not where The Wharf is built built. The Wharf is that stretch between Georgetown and the stadium that goes through the fort. Do you know what I'm talking about, Al?
Alli:I mean, it's all like in the same area though, No,
Pamitha:it's not. It's like it's an L, and it's the exact other side of the L. So this whole time, I was thinking about people doing the march over to Audi Field from, like, the, like, the stacks at the Nationals Ballpark coming out of the Stadium Armory Stadium Armory, the, the Navy Yard Ballpark. I was thinking the Navy Yard.
Alli:Oh, yeah. No. I
Pamitha:was The Navy Yard is not the war. No. No. Everyone who's listening who knows us is probably screaming their radios or phones. That's embarrassing.
Pamitha:Yeah. It's
Alli:definitely not, but I mean, but I mean, it is walkable,
Pamitha:like you're thinking of the
Alli:wrong thing, it's like a twenty minute walk, fifteen minute walk,
Pamitha:so. Yes, and and it's creation was not necessarily tied to the Nationals Ballpark, which is a thing that I had said at the beginning.
Gurushabd:That I mean, that weekend sees a lot of people at their podcasts in, like the recap show. Kelly O'Hara was out, and Ali Rally were out last year. So there's a lot of chance to see, you know, old soccer players.
Alli:Nice. And I think some of those events you have to get tickets to ahead of time.
Gurushabd:-We'll -Yeah. Be able look If you follow all of their podcasts, they'll release tickets. Some of them were free, Some of them you did have to pay for, like Kelly O'Hara's, but then they gave you this huge Amazon gift card and other gifts and a free drink while you were there.
Pamitha:That sounds awesome. Nice.
Gurushabd:But all of those were definitely worth it. And Ally House had a huge area to hang out. A bunch of podcasts were going out of there, and other talks, but, like, Domo Wells, the fashion designer. There's a lot happening that other just creators put on.
Pamitha:Yeah, and the and the there are so many, like, restaurants and bars at The Wharf that I wouldn't be surprised if there's gonna be, like, as you said, like, shows being hosted, lots of, like, live events and stuff like that. So Yeah. Whether ticketed or available to the public, we had to keep an eye out.
Alli:Yeah, for sure.
Pamitha:Just a couple weeks away.
Alli:Yeah, that's crazy.
Pamitha:Alright. Well, Ally,
Alli:Of thank you for coming course, happy to be here. Looking forward to being back more regularly.
Pamitha:Yeah. Gurus Chabad, thanks as always for a great show. Thanks everybody for listening. Where can they find us on socials?
Gurushabd:You can now find us on Instagram at Laces Out Loud and TikTok and Blue Sky, all Laces Out Loud.
Pamitha:Alright. And if you want to email us, you can do so at LacesOutLoudpod@Gmail.com. That is lacesoutloudpod@gmail.com. Alright. See you next week.
Pamitha:Gurus Chabad, take us out.
Gurushabd:Yeah. Everyone be kind, be good to each other, and from the fans for the game, we'll see you next time on Laces Out Loud.