Carrie Anderson on American Soccer Analysis: "Recent reporting from iBlack has been able to link the Carlyle Group to...

2026 and we're kicking off X OG on the road. We're going to be traveling guys traveling. And to do it up on opening weekend, I have decided to do a dumb thing. I will be in Washington on the 13th at Rowdy Audi Boston on the 14th for the Boston Legacy debut against Gotham and at BMO for Angel City's game against the Chicago stars on Sunday. Yikes. If you are in any of those markets, be sure to come say hi before the game to Eric. And we plan to try and hit all 16 markets this year. I will be in New Jersey for Gotham FC against the Orlando Pride on Sunday, March 29th and watch this space for more dates to come. In the meantime, if you are a fan of the show, we are doing a big Patreon sale where you can get an annual membership for a big discount. So be sure to use the code in the show notes for that. And we have launched a store. We have to have an official X OG store where you can get all the best merch for the start of the NWSL season and Patreon members get 20% off with an exclusive discount code for that. So those are all the fun little goodies from us. Stay tuned for the show. Hello and welcome to expected own goals. These dreams edition. I am your host Eric Morgan. And I am Evan Davis. Welcome to day six of NWSL season preview week. Today we're talking about the Seattle Rain with Carrie Anderson, one of the newest X OG FOPs, X OG friend of the pod. It was a great conversation. You may have noticed if you've been watching along with some of these or listening along with some of these previews all week that these intros are done in different surroundings because we were recording them a few days after the main interviews to try and hoover up any late breaking signings or roster changes. If you're a Seattle fan and we're hoping that such a thing would be waiting for you, sorry to disappoint. It's still just the two players. It's 6.18 p.m. on Wednesday, March 4th. So who knows? Still time. Do you know where your GM is? Do you know where your signings are? Yeah, and believe me, we get into it with Carrie, so enjoy that. Yeah, she's great. Well, after a quarter final defeat at the hands of the Orlando pride, chat GP TFC is gearing up for another campaign under the newly extended head coach of Laura Harvey. A lot of moving parts behind the scenes right now with Seattle, maybe not so many moving parts in terms of their offseason roster moves. So to help break it all down is greater Seattle native and reporter for Yahoo Sports. Carrie Anderson, Carrie, welcome to the show. Hi guys, really thrilled to be here. Was really hoping I wouldn't have to talk about chat GP T, but I'm glad you brought it off right at the start. It's really great way to get it out of the way early. I'm going to give you a question that you can answer in chat GPT style or not. I know that ASA wrote its preview with chat GPT as a joke. That said, the question I have for you is briefly tell me the story of the Seattle rain in 2025. Yeah, I mean, I think the thing about the Seattle rain in 2025 is that in order to understand that you really have to understand what 2024 was like, 2024 was bleak. Like it was, it was a really weird period of time. It was partially while the sale was still happening. It was while there were still a lot of flux. It felt like every week there was a new key player that was getting traded away or loaned. And at one point, the rain had literally three defenders on the roster. That is not a joke. They were playing with a three back because they had to because they had no other defenders to play with. But in terms of 2025, things kind of started to set a lot a little more. I think that there's a greater part of it is just this like really young core that like it's like starting to thrive and succeed and get better and better and grow as they do. They started to really come into their own last year. And then the other thing I think is just that like some of the things just I think of things just felt more settled is really what it was. Things felt a little more settled things felt like they were kind of like if you know 2024 was the bleak year, then 2025 was kind of the beginning of the growth, the beginning of the rise if possible. I don't know for sure how that rise will continue over the next several years. But it does mean that like there's a lot of potential for the season. And there's a lot of things that can from last year that were these really bright spots that will hopefully continue going into this next season. With that said, the vibes are still a little weird. Rain FC's attendance went down really big last year. That was a thing that I didn't really process until I was like doing a story about their games in Spokane. They're going to be playing in a stadium with 52 like 5200 people. I think if you have standing in capacity and in my head the rain have you know 10,000 people at every game. And so I was like, oh that's like going to be such a such a small stadium in comparison. But then when I was looking at the the stats like they had under 8,000 people on average last season, which is like really low compared to even 2023. They had 13,000. Which to be fair was partially because they also had that one sell out 31, 33. I can't remember exactly the number of thousand. Yeah, I retired again. And you know, the peanut retirement too in general was always going to bring in more people. But I think just like maybe and some of it may have just been the vibes of 2024 were so weird that then they lost some people. But I also think that there's just a little bit less energy from the fan base. And some of that may just be because there was a little bit less energy on the field over these last two years. So that was a very long convoluted way of saying that last year was fine. Well, you mentioned rise and certainly they did rise in the table. They're fun points and a quarter final birth. The underlying data didn't really back that up whether you believe that or not seems like maybe they were not playing quite like a playoff team. But to focus on club culture for a second. Obviously, we made the chat GPT joke. But also this is a team that has undergone a great deal of transition. The core members of the rain who had been there from the very beginning, your Lauren Barnes is your Jess Fish Locks, your Megan Rapinos, Barnes retired last year. Fish Locks going to be 39 this year. I doubt she's going to be much longer for the NWS cell before she decides to retire. But also the extension of Laura Harvey in the off season. The Carlisle group having a full off season last year to try and rebuild the group seems like whether it was from them or was from GM Leslie Gallimore. The decision was made to focus on is very, very young core who does look very promising. And then there's the other part of it, which is that you know, recent reporting from iBlack has been able to link the Carlisle group to a warehouse in suburban Atlanta that is being bought by the Department of Homeland Security to be used as a concentration camp. The vibe seems worse than weird in my opinion. It's not great. It's not great. I think, if I've learned anything from the past year or two, is that private equity rarely makes things better? I feel like it makes things worse. I struggle with ownership because I feel like ownership is one of those things where it's always going to kind of suck for different reasons. And obviously this is a whole different beast. But like realistically speaking, there's only so much that can be done by the players to offset those things. It speaks to a larger structural issue that I don't know if I feel qualified to talk about. But I do, yeah, it's not good. I don't love it. I think it's like private equity. And also I think there's like that quote from like an IBM manual or something that's like like a computer can never be held accountable. And so it must never make a management decision. And people have been talking about that a lot with AI. But I also kind of feel like it can apply to private equity in that. It's this like beast that is kind of more of a conceptual thing than it is a real honestly. Like if there are problems, you can't go to the private equity group and complain in the same way. You can point to you know, a Jerry Jones or like another owner that has like a controversial history. So in other words, not thrilled about it. I think that the fans are going to make their voice heard throughout the season because Seattle is a very has a history, especially like the supporters group where a guard has a history of being very blunt about what it believes and what they believe. But again, how much is that going to change things? Probably not much. I don't really have a good answer to that to be super honest. Yeah. Maybe let's maybe let's try and link Carlyle as an ownership group with how it relates to what has gone on on the field. They've now had two full off seasons to try and manage whatever version of the roster they see is going to be the long-term one that they're interested in. Leslie Galamore going into I believe her fourth season as GM Laura Harvey. This is going to be your full year five of round two of being the head coach. There is a lot of continuity and stability with who is making roster decisions. In what ways are they being empowered or perhaps not empowered by the Carlyle group's objectives with this team specifically? Yeah. Part of it was there was that one stretch where they basically kind of make any real trades other than sending people away. I think that's in the time since then probably the spasias signing. Galamore's made has been me official. I think that that I mean, I would say we wouldn't be a dolo but then she only played I think seven games before. She went on maternity leave so like that in and of itself that one is a little bit delayed. We'll see how when she comes back and how she comes back but the me official signing I think was one where you know it kind of felt like winning a winning a lottery in a way that like wants to come join the reign. I talked to me official at mediator and she was very blunt about talking about how last season Laura Harvey basically told her not to worry about the rest of the year. Like basically told her to you know take her time off to really recover. She's still coming off a ACL injury that happens you know two years ago or less than two years ago you know she hasn't really had like a full preseason in a while or full offseason in a while because of all the trades that she's been going through over the last several like throughout her career. And so that was kind of a piece of it was just like it was this chance for her to really reset and regrow. The question now is whether she will be able to turn that into something this season. And I have a lot of optimism about it. I think that she can be a really dynamic player and especially on a rain team that has had a lot of trouble with goal scoring and like shooting and specifically finishing shots has been a huge problem. It's really nice to have a really dynamic forward like me official that like is a known you know goal score unknown shooter. She she you know creates chances like she you know take what you will from a preseason game. She did like help create the chance that ended up being nearly a month a year or cocoa as they call her. She ended up scoring the goal that ended up being the game winner. And like that involvement is going to be key and crucial and hopefully very helpful but like there's only so much you can predict. I think that I mean you know private equity in terms of the Carla groups specifically. I don't know if this is their influence at all because I kind of I envision private equity groups is kind of like putting money in places and then leaving it alone and kind of expecting it to do things on its own. I don't know if that's true. That's how I envision it. I think that in this case like in some ways the rain is creating a team that they are anticipating will grow over time somewhere to a stock like they will like they have these young players that are only going to get better is the goal. They have these players that they also they know each other really well. They have these veteran players that are up at the top that like yes they'll probably retire well specifically just fishlock will probably retire in the next couple of years like you know Sophia Hertha like will probably stay for a couple more years but we don't know where she's going to go after her or how long she's going to end up staying. And I think that in some ways it kind of feels like those players are there to guide these young players up. There was a TFO that a Royal Guard made last year. One of the games that was literally like I think it was maybe the last game and it was like around Lou Barnes's retirement and it was literally of like the fishlock Rapino Barnes era passing the torch to the next generation. That was like what the TFO was doing and so while like fishlock still has plenty more to give I think that she's like she's like an quintessential you know 60 70 minute sub who comes in and scores like that stuff is like very valuable but I think that the veteran influence in this locker room is going to be a lot of it is just going to be about like growing this or raising almost like this generation of kids. So I'm wondering I don't know how much of that is the Karla group or how much of that is Laura Harvey Laura Harvey is like there's a reason she was the youth national team coach for a bit like there's a reason that she's like been involved in the academies and stuff at the national team level the US national team level I should say and so like she's really good at like growing players and getting getting a lot of potential out of them that's something that she's like proven that she's good at over the years. So I think that that's some of that could just be that and then you know in terms of gala where I think I think that a lot of her value does come in like her relationship with Harvey is very good like the two of them have a really non-understanding of how they approach things and gala where I believe was also like a college coach so she also kind of sees things from a growth perspective she sees the game from so you know even players like Montessier who like scored a goal very early after she arrived and has not scored since she did not score last year I think she hasn't upside we just haven't seen it yet and so the question is like how many of these kind of I hate seeing investments because they are people but how many of like these players like investing in these players how much that is going to lead to the upside that they're expecting and they're hoping for versus they're just there's some players who like they they come in and they just they don't quite click or like things don't quite happen and that's a little bit how it's felt with Montessier for a little while and so I think it'll be really interesting to see I have high hopes for her this year as well I think even just her scoring and that preseason game was a great start I must be a very optimistic person by nature so I choose to believe that things can happen and things can get better but yeah and so again I'm fully projecting I don't know what goes on in the locker in day to day I don't know what goes on the front office day to day but I have a feeling that there's a sense of focusing on the future focusing on growth focusing on how to improve with who you got and that's one of the reasons also why their offseason was so quiet I think is because they're pretty satisfied with who they have and so now it's just about getting the best possible performance out of them so would you say next year the 2026 season is really about incremental growth as opposed to like making a run at a title right now like do you think yeah that's kind of how it feels I don't know I I I'm also even though I'm very optimistic I also like to hedge a lot so I think when it comes to making a run at a title feels a little bit out of reach for this team I think they have a really high ceiling I definitely think that they can exceed expectations and I think if I'm playing it really safe I would I would guess kind of a similar finished last year but maybe a little bit better just on like overall the products on the field gets a little bit better I'd be thrilled with that but I do think that seeing because I think part of the problem too is that a lot of their problems have been the same for years like the goal scoring thing has been a problem for years I remember in it was maybe 2023 or 22 I can't remember I just remember like there was a while when they just wouldn't score they would shoot they would be like crazy I would sit around I was like at games at Lumen Field and I was just watching the shot tally go up to like you know 1918 20 shots and zero goals or one goal like they're at least a couple of those games that they tied to like they drew they didn't get a win when they had so many opportunities to get that game winner I think last year their shot production went down a decent amount they really didn't even have that many chances and so I think that those like the issue was the same the score goals part was the same they only I think they scored third two goals last year which was the same number as the last place Chicago stars and it really goes to show first off how much better their defense got because oh my god the defense was so bad in 2024 but I think it goes to show like they're still they're getting there they're getting there but at the same time like the problems are still the same and so that's why I'm like hedging a little bit because I don't want to see them keep running into the same wall that they've run into for years and years but I also want I also think that there is the potential to surpass that and finally get a little bit out into the world a little burden I don't know I lost my trade out of it no no I've got to we'll we'll get back to the sort of projection but I think you have to make my question well my question for you is so to sort of follow the this sort of historical trend line Laura Harvey I think was known as an attacking coach for a fair amount of her career yeah in the last couple of years particularly I think starting with the championship title game run that they went on in 2023 we've seen like increasingly negative football out of Laura Harvey sides do you feel like this youth turnover and youth movement is and is an attempt by the club to sort of get back to Laura Harvey 1.0 and to make the team more expansive and attacking or do you feel like we're going to see a lot more of the same stodgy often low block just hit them on the counter and see what happens that's a very fair question and I do I don't really know I think that I think that these young players especially the four words are very very dynamic Madageline is an instigator in the best way she is really fun to watch and also really gets under player skin and I think that's really fun what that's like a side note I just think it's fun I could talk about each of these young players you know individual benefits and everything I do think it's also important to note that like half of the young players are not attacking players like Jordan bug though she does definitely have an impact on the attack is the reason why she's so good is because she is an incredibly like she's a defender who's first of the sense of the field beyond her years like there's a reason why like she is like getting national team nods and all these things I will say caveat to the goal stuff one of the things when I was prepping for this I was like going back through a basketball years of like goal scorers and the rain have never really been or it's been a while since they've been like a high scoring team or at least more importantly since they've had one player break out with a lot of goals it has been a long time like I was looking at past seasons the last like the most or the highest level I think was Bethany Balser who I believe got married Bethany Balser now um she had nine goals in 2021 and that was like the last time they reached that level like even to get tonight the last time they were at they had one person with double digits was Megan Rapinoe in 2017 she had a 12 goal season and that was like yeah so that was a Megan Rapinoe non world cup year season which was a rarity back then that was like a kind of a known thing she would pop off in the years when she didn't have to focus on the the national team I think what's happened since then since that Bethany Balser non goal season is you have a lot of distribution is a big part of it I am a huge fan of teams that don't have one best player that's like a really hot take but I love teams that distribute their offensive production across several players and really demonstrate like the breadth and the depth of the team with that said last year the two like tied for the highest goals was Emory Adomis and Fidesh Fischlok who both only got six goals uh just Fischlok if you're going like hockey rules and you go points it meaning like goals plusesis which side note I kind of love and I also think that soccer should have secondary assists that's my other hot take and if we're going in terms of like goals plusesis equals total points just Fischlok had two assists six goals eight points she was tied with Maddie dolly in for the top and I cannot stress enough just Fischlok did not start in that many games last year she would pop in in the last 15 20 would create chances great stuff love her for that I do think it shows that the rain are falling short kind of in the run of play especially in first half I feel like the rain have often the second half team um really feels that way I don't know I just think that like in terms of that distribution I like to see it but I do think it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a rain player who actually like breaks double digits you know to have a stand out which is why I'm kind of hoping that me and Fischl will be that player but I don't know for sure if that will happen so yeah the amount of playing time that has been given to Jordan Hyde to me over the last three years would suggest that Laura Harvey sees her as that individual in the Seattle rain system obviously she went through a horribly traumatic event last year surviving a home invasion early in the season but her struggles to score and her struggles to take shots from high quality chances seems to have left her after that really explosive second half of 2022 and she came over to the states yeah um where do you see her fitting in now in 2026 with Fischl here and potentially being a hundred percent fit and with people like Adamus Mondesir and Dalline surrounding her and not necessarily in the center forward role but being potentially big contributors like Ken Heitzema end up producing as an attacking focal point the way that Harvey seems to want her to or is that ship sailed? I don't think it's sailed but I do think her spots a little more in trouble than she would like it to be I think one of the problems is that Jordan Hyde has always been at her absolute best when she scores with her head that has always been the case she is so much taller than everyone else I have stood near her and it is crazy how much I also am not that tall so that's a big part of it but I think that like those opportunities haven't been connecting over the last couple of years and I don't know how much of that is about her placement or just about like maybe she's not getting the crosses that she needs to get maybe she's not getting the looks that she needs to get I don't really know I do think one of her I don't want to say downsides even but one of the things that's going to be you know notable for her is that she is not super flexible as a player like if you're talking about like Maddie Dalline Maddie Dalline can play either side really she can play you know wingback she can play forward she can kind of be wherever she needs to be Emory Adonis has a lot of flexibility and versatility on the wing as well me official traditionally has been a striker I believe so I don't super know if how what her flexibility is going to be like either but I think that if you have someone like Jordan Hyde who is best as a striker and really only knows how to be a striker she's gonna have to either flex a little more than I've seen her flex which I you know I'm all to say that like she probably has the ability to do so I just haven't had a chance to see it as much but I you know when you have a very entrenched coach like Harvey like having the coach like you is a big factor in a lot of things but I also think that Harvey really likes me official so I'm going to be really curious to see where that lands Hyde Emma I also think you know if she's off doing national team stuff which she is very consistently on the Canadian roster then like that opens things up even more for you know those other forwards to pop in and take advantage of some of those situations so I yeah I don't think she's like beyond hope or anything like she's only what like 25 she's not she's I think I think she has she has like the chance though I think this year to kind of make or break the next part of her career like again only 25 so I take that with a grain of salt but I think she can move where she might on I mean yeah this is the season maker break is the phrase that is I mean see and official see me official are exactly the same age they're born a week apart in 2001 and me officials the one with the four year contract Hyde Emma had got a year in a mutual option left so the signal of who you are committing to long term from Carlisle from Gallimore from Harvey would suggest that unless we hear talk of an extension Hyde Emma might really need to play her way into a job yeah I mean and there could be an extension like I can see a world she's she's kind of like a well she's not like a face of the team anymore but she has been for sure at certain points I think that it's it's relevant I also do think she is a pretty big influence in the locker room which is not something I was necessarily expecting but when I was talking to Emory Adamis at media day she was talking about basically how much she missed Lou Barnes which is very fair Lou Barnes has been such an institution in that team for so long but I think when she was mentioning people who stepped up she mentioned Huerta who is obviously has been on the rain she's now one of the most tenured players on the rain and is very much a part of that culture as well and then she also mentioned Hyde Emma and I thought that that was really telling that those are the people she she brought up first were these people who had stepped up in that leadership role that Barnes had left behind I suppose before we sort of get to the terminal questions of this I want to ask you so you get Leslie Gallimore's job for a day and let's assume that the Carlisle group is interested in giving you money yeah yeah no we agree we shouldn't run clubs either the question I have for you is you can acquire one player to strengthen a portion of the team I'm not thinking about who the individual player is but what role are you looking to fill to improve this Seattle ranked most meaningfully this year the thing is like I haven't really seen them play that much this year yet so I don't know for sure but if I'm going blinds if I'm going like especially based off especially since last year's roster and projected lineup is so similar to this year's I probably would say something in the forward spot I would say like that that finisher that person who just kind of gets goals out of nowhere and I think that's kind of been a weak spot for them for long enough but I again like hesitate to see that until I see the full extent of what like a me official reign season is going to look like if that makes sense and I do think that there's some room but with that said I mean again their defense has been good and that's been a really lovely change and so I and I think that the midfield has a lot of potential a lot of like excitement from some of those younger midfielders so that I think I would go forward I think I would I would lean towards that that finishing spot as we like to say around here Claudia Dickie is working yeah I cannot stress enough how much she does for this team oh my god you don't need to we agree I like during media day of just like year amount that like Claudia Dickie if Claudia Dickie was not there last year and more importantly if Claudia Dickie was not there in 2024 oh my god bloodbath every week like she we've had really good luck with goalies like I am a P.T.J. chooser for the rest of time a Fallon Tolestoyce for context and having to watch them watching them have to like battle it out for us when satchel team gk1 is going to be so brutal for me because I desperately want both of them to win I just have both so talented so yeah no never never end out on that gold keeper front we're we're good we're golden and also I mean the reign have to really interesting like young goalkeepers as backups which is also going to be really interesting uh yourself is there too it's like yeah she is the you I think and uh Evan O'Sleen is 17 which I've never in my life seen like a teenage goalkeeper highly touted prospect I feel like goalkeepers are always really late bloomers um so to have a 17-year-old who is being touted as like good enough to make a you know make a team like this is like really crazy to me so I'm thrilled oh I'm gonna start crying if we talk about just fish luck being I'm ready to talk about it all right so the just fish lock for the record because I get apparently I'm the only one who's going to keep it together just fish lock whether she's retiring or not not a question we're willing to emotionally face at this point moving on beyond the possibility of just fish lock retiring what do you think is keeping Laura Harvey up at night right now in advance this season probably uh did my open AI subscription renew how old can I can I can I address the chat to be teaching yes please I read that and the first thing I thought I was like Laura this is this is an inside thought this is not an outside thought these are the things you don't tell like like the media is not always out to get you but when you feed them something like this they will publish it and you need to deal with that um I was I was I was like girl like you're killing me here I the thing is not a bad suggestion but I just wish she hadn't talked about how she came to that idea you know just wish that it hadn't been that way anyway yeah so what is what is keeping her up at night it's beyond chat gpt claddy a dickie injury honestly it honestly really legit good answer I do think cuz I mean I think again there's so much better than they were but I think that that's one of those things where um you don't realize okay actually I have us do you all want to compare then from American football yeah yeah yeah okay so congratulations on the Seahawks thank you so much yeah thank you so much I went to the parade I almost got hit by a beer it was really a beautiful moment um so the thing about the Seahawks going up rooting for the Seahawks um it always meant especially like specifically the Russell Wilson Seahawks um it always meant just watching Russell Wilson have to overcome one of the worst offensive lines in the entire NFL at least that's how it felt and I think that there are stats to back that up as well but you know when you have a Russell Wilson you can kind of get away with a really bad offensive line um and then when you have a Russell Wilson that gets hurt or like something happens to him and we ended up being able to do the same thing with Jeno Smith for a little while there because he's also a scrambling quarterback he likes to move around but the point is that like if if that one single piece of your system fails you're screwed because you have this offensive line that cannot hold up uh to a lesser quarterback I I worry sometimes that Claudia Dickie is a little too crucial to the rain success as much as I love her and as much as I'm like thrilled by her you know talent and her success on this team I'm a little bit concerned that missed time any anything even like you know Fallon Taylor's Joyce got a an ocular bone fracture total freak like injury that didn't technically affect her playing but like was enough obviously that she could not be like diving on the ground and like things like that those kinds of things I I worry that that is a little bit too central but we're knocking on wood a lot because uh Claudia Dickie is healthy and she's gonna do great I'm confident we believe in we believe in Claudia Dickie it's we believe in anything we believe in Claudia Dickie fifth place last year the American soccer analysis projection model pegs them for ninth place but only a point behind the eighth place San Diego which means really tight cluster this is the tight cluster and the model thinks that this team might be on the outside looking in by years end but we'll be in the fight for playoffs but so what is your gut telling you about where they finish on the table come November I'm feeling right now I'm feeling a fifth to eighth finish I think that that bottom half of the playoffs I think number between five and eight you have to pick a single number between five and eight we'll take one number that I could I have a higher chance of being wrong well the other thing is no one's holding you to this we actively and regularly at the bit on this show don't advocate for sports betting and we will continue to not advocate for that this is purely for entertainment to make you feel better Evan and I were both so wildly wrong last year about the rain and so it doesn't even really matter well I think the rain weren't expecting the rain to do as well as they did I'm gonna go save I'm just gonna say fifth again I'm gonna say repeat of last year I'm gonna give it my just because I think that even with that that fifth place finish especially because that fifth place punish was so frustrating because they were so close to fourth they could have just gotten one more goal against the pride and then would have hosted a quarter final and that what I think would have made a lot of difference then I think that there's the capability to end up in that that spot again or or even maybe in top four but I don't know I just want to win one like way but I think this there's there's a high ceiling I would like to think that there's a high ceiling here I do also see a world where all of the same problems as last year all the same problems as the year before pop right back up and they just can't figure out how to make it better and they can't quite click the way that Harvey really wants them to and then believes that they can and then they do fall outside looking at which I will say as a Mariners fan I am very used to I can handle it but it would be a bummer for a team that I think has a lot of potential I love that we're doing the Seattle sports round table on the show yeah this is what we talked to me I have like a lot of posters behind me like I'm not yeah yeah yeah there's even a Jess fish lock Hillary Knight yeah yeah yeah as well well if you W H L takes any W MBA takes you want off no I mean I'm going well you don't want to know my US men's hockey take because it's very fresh but I think we share the take yeah I'll pray this Laura Harvey's Chatchee PT comment is nowhere near as bad as the Hughes brothers even opening their teeth cracked mouths yeah I will say I mean I'm going to the twerk game on Friday and it's gonna be big and I'm thrilled oh yeah all right and where's you where do you have them I I really struggled with this one this is itself one because I think I believe a lot of variables and I think I believe in the upside of the youth core mm-hmm it's just a matter of like is that youth core enough to paper the cracks elsewhere in the lineup yeah must throwing Dickie in there can she have another like lights out campaign the way she did in 2025 and I don't really believe in Laura Harvey very much anymore I'm sorry to say it's someone who really used to believe in her to be quite strongly to be fair this has been a hard couple of years for both of us who were big Laura Harvey stands yeah so I think I think ninth place is feels right to me I think it's gonna be tight I don't think that they are you know completely shut out of the playoff hunt throughout the campaign but I do think that they're probably gonna come up just a little bit short because it's really tough to overperform your underlying numbers the way that they did in 2025 and expect to maintain that level of strength again so I think some regressions coming here yeah for me I wafled a lot about this one I feel like on the plus side almost certainly another year of a really coherent you know midfield together plus the evolution of a fair amount of their young players should result in like sooning full improvement that said as we know with goalkeepers there's a lot of wild variance so if Claudia Dickie gives back and just becomes like and but even just an above average keeper in this league like to say nothing of becoming just like a bang average keeper in this league that's a lot of points for Seattle to concede right back I still don't know where the goals come from but also there are a lot of teams that I feel like Seattle can feast on this year you've got two expansion teams that I don't think either are better than Seattle as a as total roster constructions and and frankly like we've I've bet against Laura Harvey's extremely negative football and that the numbers don't like it but at some point we just sort of have to throw our hands up and say like on some level it is working certainly in a regular season sense so for me I also have the ninth I think that it's I had had them 11th and then I woke up in the middle of the night last night and thought no Bayes worse than this but but I think this Seattle rain team I think they're I think the absolute without additions the peak of their potential is probably fifth or fourth and the downside of like everybody not hitting is potentially like really calamitous like 13th so I'm gonna go with ninth is the middle of those two things roughly will yeah go ahead oh I just I think that yeah I think that it's gonna come down to a handful of players I think it's gonna come down to official honestly I think it's gonna come down to Montessier if she can really start to finally find her place like that'll be a huge difference maker I think it'll come down to the kids and I do think you know in general and it was hell people love to talk about under cell parity but I also do just think it's a game of margins like you're gonna have a lot of games that are won by one goal that shouldn't have been or a lot of draws that should have been wins or losses you're gonna have an eighth place playoff team win the championship so I think that you know hey I'll take that I'll take that a bottom half of the playoffs because you never know what can happen great you guys in Seattle just have just won a Super Bowl so it's true they were really good all year though I just applaud your optimism because you've earned it Seattle the entire city of Seattle has earned it we will see what comes of Laura Harvey squad in the coming year yeah well you can follow carry on social media at carry mandarin and read all of her work at Yahoo sports carry Anderson you are the absolute best thank you so much thank you thanks guys appreciate it thank you so much for listening be sure to do all the things you're supposed to do with podcasts rate us five stars drop a kind review in your pod catcher of choice and follow along with the feed if you haven't done so already tell all of your friends 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