USWNT Olympic Roster Reaction with André Carlisle

Join Craig and André live to discuss Emma Hayes’s first ever major tournament roster. Alex Morgan is out, while Korbin Albert is amongst the controversial choices to land on the team.

Plus, Spirit stars Casey Krueger and Trinity Rodman are in, while Croix Bethune and Hal Hershfelt are alternates. We break down all the decisions live!

#uswnt #ussf #soccer #football #olympics #emmahayes #alexmorgan

what’s up what’s happening we are Live on YouTube that’s Andre Carlile I’m Craig Hoffman this is my channel Andre’s been so nice to Grace us twice uh here in the first like what are we I think I might still be in the first month of this pied a heck of a month to start a women’s sports YouTube channel it probably helps if I unmute you there we go there we go it’s all good yeah no you you certainly have and I appreciate being a recurring guest already this is fun yeah we I mean let’s be real i’ I’ve known you for what five years now and you’re you’re my guy when I want to talk about this stuff and know that I’m getting someone who’s on top of it and intelligent and knows there’s there are a lot of great options but you’re certainly Chief amongst them so I really appreciate your time and your expertise uh coming on here uh and talking about Emma Hayes’s first roster for a major tour tournament um we obviously broke down a couple weeks ago after the uh the CH believes cup and and her first tournament as coach in general but now we have an Olympic roster which is the hardest roster to make in World football because it is small it is an 18 player roster for alternates and uh in case anyone needs the roster read off to them you you’ve missed it you just got to chance to to do something and you’re like let me go to YouTube and you found us welcome uh subscribe if you like it uh and if you don’t just hit the button anyway and then just ignore all our stuff just kidding click on it watch it all all right goalkeepers two of them Casey Murphy Alysa nir no surprises uh but we will talk about it Defenders Tiana Davidson Emily Fox Naomi germa Casey Krueger Jenna nicewonger Emily sonnet midfielders Corbin Albert Sam coffee Lindsey heran Rose lvll Katarina marcario forwards Crystal Dunn Trinity Rodman Sophia Smith Jaden Shaw malerie Swanson and the alternates are Jane Campbell as a keeper midfielders from your Washington Spirit Hal herfeld and Croy bethon and then Lynn Williams um I guess on some level of surprise just CU she wasn’t in that she believes Camp uh but she she’s obviously uh has a resume that we all knew about uh and and Emma Hayes is quite familiar with her stylings and why wouldn’t you want to have Lyn Williams anywhere uh and so she is the fourth and final alternate um I will just say off the top Andre Corbin Albert might be the most controversial probably the most controversial for both on and off field reasons um you I saw you Tweeting about her form recently and all that stuff so we’re going to save her because there’s all so much to that conversation for a second so outside of Albert’s inclusion the other big headline is Alex Morgan’s exclusion but let’s focus on on the 18 that are going and the the other 17 besides Albert what stands out to you about this team oh that’s a that’s a big question uh I carved out the easy one I know right um I I love the fact that t Davidson is kind of the unquestioned um next to Naomi GMA a center back pairing for na Naomi GMA I think that’s awesome um I love that Casey Krueger got on I think it’s very difficult there tends to be quite a bit of competition in those uh fullback areas but Casey Krueger is our best One V one Defender there’s really no question about it if you want to know more about that maybe watch the spirits game versus Gotham where she did a very good job on crystal Dunn who makes this squad because Crystal Dunn does not get shut down by too many Defenders so um that was really cool as well but obviously the big one is the forward line it is a lot of Youth a lot of a particular style of play as well um a lot of creative creativity but also a lot of just like kind of the phenomenal um the phenoms that we’ve been talking about for the past few years it’s all up to them now with the addition of course of Crystal dun but it’s going to be fun and I’m excited for it but I also know that that means the flip side is Alex Morgan did not make it and I think some people are struggling with that yeah I mean Alex is still great at a very particular thing but I think it’s pretty clear that Emma Hayes may not value that thing or thinks other players on this team can do it and to me that’s the big thing that sticks out is the versatility of this roster because it’s so small there aren’t a lot of Specialists of course like your center backs are kind of going to have to be by Nature like Tiara Davidson’s great at one thing but Casey Krueger and Emily sonnet make this team in part because they’re versatile um you know marcario is listed as a midfielder she can also play up top um as a true nine or a false nine but she can kind of play a 10 role Jaden Shaw we’ve seen her play all over the place for the US and for San Diego crystal dun listed as a forward we’ll probably find herself at outside back at some point in this tournament because it’s you know like there’s just prob yeah but like at the same time like in this transitional style where the US wants to get up and down and you only bring so many bodies like she might play 90 minutes and play 60 at forward then be like hey we need you to shut it down for 30 because Casey Krueger or Jenna nicewonger is exhausted from running 80 yards over and over and over and over again and having that versatility is really important on such a small roster um it’s why someone like I think Hal held would have been a great inclusion uh and I’m excited to see how as an alternate of course and we’ll see what happens over these final two weeks of nwsl and um you know I Sam coffee is still a little banged up so how does that play out over the next couple of weeks is this a a sign that she’s fine but that versatility of having players that give you options amongst a super small roster I think is an advantage for Emma going into her first major tournament with the US yeah and I think that’s a a great point this roster is very small unnecessarily so I don’t understand why they’re stuck on this 18 Player thing but that’s a conversation for another day yeah um but versatility does matter and I think if you look at the forward line I mean even chrisa Dunn has played as a central Striker before she did it for the Washington Spirit won an MVP and a Golden Boot yes it was 2015 sold nearly a decade ago sure but still she’s a very versatile player can play on either side as well of a wide forward role Trinity Robin we see we saw her she played in a a 442 with Ashley Hatch up top last season under Mark Parsons we’ve seen jadden Shaw as you mentioned do that Sophia Smith can play on the right wing left wing or that Central uh Striker position and mallerie Swanson she can play up top as well and be a player that kind of gets him behind in central areas or she can be dangerous out wide deeper on the pitch as well she’s one of those players that is likely to get the ball kind of at the at the halfway line uh and just dribble through the entire defense one woman fast break soccer style yeah she’s she’s excellent at that and that is something they leaned on when they were when they did get to play together um just the movement and fluidity of that when they’re all on the pitch together so it’s not necessarily saying like Sophia Smith’s gonna be my nine it’s the fact that robman Smith Swanson Shaw dun um who did I I think I got everybody can switch in those positions on the pitch and from sequence to sequence and that’s what makes them so dangerous no doubt and you’ll have haran running into spaces lvll running into spaces as as attacking players Macario like they can all interchange and I think that’s something that it’s funny how much uh the Spirit uh who we both cover for those that that don’t know our backgrounds like we’re both Washington DC base and uh talk about the spirit cover the spirit quite a bit but this weird like interim coach thing mirroring and new Styles mirroring the US team but coming off of yesterday talking to Jonathan heraldez at and Mark Parson or Mark Koran at uh the Press conf conference like some of the same things of of you must understand as a player like when you can freelance and have teammates that can bounce off of that and I think the despite the youth like there is that where someone like ATT Trinity Robin does understand like hey if lindsy heran gets up in a certain spot I might need to co cover back defensively a little bit obviously her and Casey do that with the spirit um where sometimes you get outside back trend for 30 seconds until Casey can recover after something so I I think that interchangeability is is obviously huge the ability to attack with different types of players like someone like ma is much more of a speed player s obviously is tremendously fast but has a little bit more size to her Tren with the trickiness and that’s the other thing too you know Andre you started to touch on this I’d like for you to to unload the notebook on it a little bit more the the type of player in the attacking uh I’ll call it the attacking unit not just the forward line but uh some of the midfielders we see as well because it’s something that’s been at Emma’s trademark for a long long time those tricky typ of players and obviously Trinity Rodman is one of the best athletes on the planet but she also has that ability to create off the dribble and to control the football so what is it about this unit that you really like or that you see as like a classic M type of of collection of players yeah so I think the biggest thing for me is when I look at Emma Hayes and the things that she wants to do or at least did with Chelsea we’ll have to see what Emma haes the national team manager does I’m not I’m not sure I think we saw some of that versus uh South Korea but we’ll obviously see a lot more but she likes versatile players as mentioned she likes players that can kind of move and kind of play roles instead of necessarily positions and I also think that she likes players who are are hungry and wants to get want to get the ball back that fits with a lot of these players they not only are they great at attacking they’re also very hungry and good when they press and like to get the ball back and aren’t afraid to kind of drop back into deeper areas but when it comes to like buildup play MH likes to move things quickly which is kind of funny because she said in a presser that you can’t just play transition football for 90 minutes that’s not great like it it it tires players out and that is true but also that’s the strength of a lot of these players and it’s also something that she’s very good at coaching one of the ways that her Chelsea used to dominate players is she she talked about it and she framed it under the umbrella of ruthlessness and basically what it was is we’re going to run at you when we have the ball we’re going to make quick decisions on the ball we’re going to pass forward we’re going to attack vertical spaces we’re going to move you try to get behind the line and move the ball around and good luck you know was kind of kind of it and when she got on top of certain teams it was relentless it was you know three four five six goals and it’s hard to defend that especially if they’re coming from various sources and the attacks are coming in a variety of ways and that’s something that’s fun about an mma’s team now she can also slow a game down you know try to defend a lot and and look for those moments on the counter which will be few and far between she’s good at doing that as well always NE didn’t always love that style but it’s probably something in a tournament like this that we will see which also makes me think that a lot of these players being comfortable pressing and on the you know out of possession part when they need to try and Main control a game or um use the press to try to take TR to create those transition moments these are players that are naturally good at doing both of those things and you won’t have to make too many Subs if you want to change the game plan mid game or game State changes and you want to say okay we’re going to do this now instead of this when you look at what you think will be I’m going to call it their a lineup right if they make the final uh which would be sweet because I have tickets uh but if they if they make the the final um like who’s the 11 here like what do you think is the best version of this team and what are then if we look at that and they you know whether it’s the final whether it’s the semi basically when they get to The Knockout rounds and some of the squad rotation dies off a little bit uh what what does this roster like present and also in that presentation what are the potential weaknesses in it yeah so if you’re looking at for me to look at a best 11 out of these players you’re probably going with a Lysa nire and goal just because of the experience although I kind of feel bad for Jane Campell I feel like she did enough to be there in place of Casey Murphy but that’s not the question I’m biased but I feel bad for Aubrey kingsberry he’s been the best goalkeeper in the nwsl for five years and can’t seem to get on the pitch with the US Women’s National Team but I’ll take that fight to a different place there is that as well how many goalkeeper of the years does she have to win yeah yeah there is that as well and she stopped the penalty over the weekend as well like she she she’s she’s been quite good for she with her feet every yeah ah she’s got a long throw that the the throw between from her to tr is like an automatic transition like it’s been such it’s been so fun to watch she plays with the urgency that you want at that position for this team I I don’t know maybe every time she gets in Camp it’s just not as good but I don’t know whatever anyway’s in goal yeah think I think we’ll frame that under I don’t know whatever she really is genuinely great I’m not saying that that sounded bitter I Alysa nire is wonderful uh just I don’t know what OBS has to do maybe maybe cook a different kind of cookier cupcake because she’s very good at baking and maybe maybe someone got a flavor they didn’t like once upon a time at US soccer that so many places to go with that but it’s as good of a theory as anyone else is going to come up with that that’s very true um so so yeah I I I do think it’s a listenary and goal I think you’re looking at um Jen and I swanger uh outside back and Casey Krueger outside back and then germa Davidson uh Center back pairing I think you’re going four three3 and you’re looking at definitely Sam coffee which let’s hope that she is good to go uh you’re definitely getting Lindsay Iran in the way that they play she’s been Central to pretty much every Midfield which is you know if we get to weaknesses which I’ll do in a second but she’s played a lot of football and isn’t the most mobile player and has a persistent knee issue so something to watch out for for with a tournament that is very short and quick uh and going to be super competitive uh I think then you opt for Katarina marcario as the 10 um yes over Lo Rose LEL I just think that macario’s final third decisions are a little bit better and she also has that knack for scoring goals that I don’t think Rose has I think you can bring Rose in later into games and she’s just a different one V one type of player to go at um um a defense especially if they’re happen to be a little bit tired uh and then the forwards that one’s always going to be easy it’s Swanson Smith Rodman yep yeah no I I don’t I don’t disagree and I think Rose as a sub is so interesting because like we’ve just held her as the gold standard when healthy for so long but what she brings is like the the phrase I always use for her and it was funny because I think it was with Casey that I was talking about this with and I use this phrase and Casey just busted out laughing she’s like that’s good um but like rose is a Chaos Agent yes and what I think is underappreciated about Rose though is she’s also like when she locks in she can also be very solid defensively um and she can hold the ball which is obviously a tremendous skill late in the game because of her dribbling ability because of her passing ability everything so like whether you are up or down with her experience I trust Rose lvll in the final 30 minutes of a game to create some moment of magic especially against a tire defense or to help shut down a game and be organized and do all the things that that smart Rose level can do do and that is that concentration in a 30-minute burst might be the absolute 100% best version of her where like cat is built for that longer stint over time yeah the the thing that I wonder about is defensively like Jenna is an attacking minded player Casey is a very very good one-on-one Defender she can kind of do both um you know Tiana Davidson tremendous distributor of of the ball has her moments defensively Naomi is the sickest Center back I’ve ever seen the game she played against the spirit two weeks ago you and I were both there at out field that was the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life on a soccer field out the spirit would have won that game 4-1 if it wasn’t for Naomi GMA single-handedly breaking up like seven different opportunities for Washington it was ridiculous yeah um so yeah not nay nay does help cover the the center of the pitch in a way that um you pair her with some of these I mean it’s kind of been her whole career some of these center backs that have maybe a little bit more in distribution and you’re looking for something a little different um but I do wonder about once you get against the Frances the englands ETC the top other teams in the tournament do they have the defensive prow when they can’t just use all their very special attacking abilities and are there a couple of spots on the field where those teams look at and be like that’s an opportunity for us yes anytime the US has been attacked and and successfully gotten the ball through the defense I’m thinking of even what Japan scored in like the first I don’t know like 14 seconds or whatever uh it’s attacking that scene between Davidson and nicewonger um on the left side of Defence is going to be the issue um not saying that they’re not good players as you mentioned Jenna nicewonger isn’t a natural Defender terer Davidson is but sometimes in space uh she can get kind of caught out and doesn’t necessarily have the foot speed to get back and recover uh naom mgma is good at reading those moments but if she is a half second late then that’s obviously creates a shooting opportunity for the opposition um they have been doing more of a you know it’s it’s a four back on paper but in possession it turns into a three-back so Jen and I swonger can get high Casey Krueger can kind of protect on the right side of Defense which kind of pushes Naomi germa Central and then you have TNA Davidson on the left to try to cover that space it’s a good system it works but they may have to shift it quite a bit and had and started to a little bit as well by bringing Tred Robin back a little bit deeper but we’ve seen this issue with the spirit as well when you bring Trinity Ramen deeper that means she’s not available up front and attack and she kind of is the width in attack uh when you have a player like her because she is even though I like to see her get more narrow because I think there is a goalscoring part of her game that she can unlock she can be a consistent Saturday yeah exactly that P that she scored so I think she can do that more frequently and I think she can add some shot variety to help her um go tally improve but she likes to also get wide and stretch the pitch and if you’re going in transition and attack you need somebody that creates that space because ma likes to get central cat likes to get central even though cat can drift and Sophia Smith likes to get central so robman being that that width and then of course you’re gonna have nice swonger on the other side if you lose that a little bit the attack the attack can get quite narrow and that can become a problem yeah um so it’s going to be interesting to see you know also tactically like we’ve seen the two games against South Korea what else does Emma install basically between now and the Olympics we’ll get a little bit of a taste when they’re here in DC the final sendoff game at Audi field so that should be a lot of fun uh to watch those buildup games but then you know once you get in the tournament there’s only so much adjusting you can do um but they like we we started off with the top like the versatility here of different players and the creative ability of these different players does potentially create um some some different options from an attack you know through the middle up the up the wings obviously with nice longer Krueger Etc um you know the defensive part part of it though to Circle back to that this also gets to the health part that you talked about earlier yeah coffee we don’t know uh she missed uh missed with two or three in a row for Portland um I think it’s still two at this point past weekend which was good she just got a handful of minutes in the second half but it was better than her sitting on the bench with a boot on her foot so yeah so the Sam coffee uh Health level unclear haran not the most mobile player to begin with constantly has knee stuff um you know Rose whatever and then that kind of brings us to the Corbin Albert discussion in a in a natural footballing way and we’ll talk about the the non-f football stuff we’re not going to we’re not going to dismiss that um but just for a moment like you watch part of the reason I really enjoy your perspective on this is because you watch more International Football where a lot of us watch nwsl but you’re at 8: a.m. in the morning and sometimes I’ll join in because I go to your newsletter and I’m like hey what uh what game on oh Andre put it right here for me uh obviously that’s uh since expired because the European season is over but you’ve watched Corbin Albert play in France like you understand who she is as a player right now outside of the US environment and in your opinion on Purely football reasons you do not think that she belongs on this roster because of her current form compared to Lil johanes how herfeld and some others yeah and I think that’s what’s making this the selection of her raise a lot of questions she has a miss to Camp since her unfortunate uh off the- pitch um actions which we will definitely talk about but I think just as you mentioned on merits you know at PSG then second part of the Season she lost her starting position deeper in Midfield to Jackie grin who is a decent player but she’s an older player um and she kind of had her Peak with when Casey Stony was coaching her at Manchester United um but to lose your spot as a young promising player who had a lot of opportunity to start in the first first half of the season and actually had some pretty decent performances things started going a little you know sideways or she plateaued a little bit in her development and especially when you think of PSG got kind of deep in the Champions League and there were moments obviously they got matched up against Leo which is always dangerous for them because that’s the team they’re always chasing and never can quite catch um but it was it’s it’s noticeable that she hasn’t been in great form for a few months and I think it’s also noticeable against in those friendlies against South Korea the US had 45 to 60th minute stretch where the Midfield looked bad and she was part of it um it was kind of the only significant portion uh that she played and the Midfield did not look good in those moments and so I think not only do you have you have awareness from her Club level but you also have an example from the most recent um National Team level that shows that there might be some opportunity to get somebody else in there and you mentioned Lily johanes I would love to see that personally I don’t know if she’s made a decision in terms of what national team she’s going to represent and for those that don’t know like you she would become cap tied if she appeared for the US in a major tournament she’s only 16 years old uh she can also play for the Netherlands uh so um oh she’s 17 now you said yeah I think she’s 17 now just had a happy birthday to Lily johanes she was the last Camp she was still 16 um so happy birthday to her yeah 17 but she become cap tied and and she might have turned down the spot because she doesn’t want to which you know maybe that’s a whole separate discussion but um yeah but I mean it’s not like it not like it was Johannes or Albert there were other options as well exactly and one of them you know training player how hersfeld uh Emma Hayes has clearly seen something in how herfeld even though she is a rookie this season with the spirit she’s been um undroppable from the starting 11 she I I spoke to adrean who’s the interim head coach and I just asked him about how the first time she made uh the a national team call up and he just like sighed and he was like Hal is amazing like the ground that she covers the way she reads the game it’s incredible and I agree like she is very good I talking before the press conference yesterday uh before the the spirit press conference and they were like did you notice Rose LEL this weekend didn’t think so you want to know why because of how like if how herfeld as a rookie can shut down Rose lvll in an nwsl game yeah what why is she not on the roster yeah yeah so there’s that and then I also not to get super Spirit Centric we have been a little bit but I also think there’s some very quality players on the spirit Andy Sullivan is also somebody who I think the national team should not forget I think that she went through a very difficult period in the last cycle and for a number of reasons wasn’t able to show her best we have seen her at her best we know what she looks like when she’s at her best it was not what the national team was doing with her in the last cycle and I do not want her to get left doubt of these things and I think what she’s doing in terms of how she’s performing this season also warrants a look at that role that that perhaps Corbin Albert is looking at playing on the pitch because I do think there are multiple available players who can fulfill that role and it was quite disappointing to see them continue to stick with her for a myriad of reasons but yes form is also one of them so let’s get into the non football reasons um here here’s my you wrote about this so well a couple weeks ago and have consistently written so well about this so I don’t want to I don’t want to do anything more than just say this one piece and get out of your way for the moment then I’ll happily continue to chime in um I am sick and tired of people in society in general and Emma Hayes who I have a lot of respect for for a lot of reasons did this today so Emma just wound up on the wrong side of it today downplaying social media activity is something other than a person expressing themselves it’s not about putting it on social media it’s about having the thoughts and the the everything in the first place like if you’re a homophobe on social media it’s cuz you homophobe you were transphobic on social media it’s because you were transphobic doesn’t matter where the Avenue the outlet it doesn’t matter and the consistent downplay of it because it happened via social media is insulting to everybody uh everybody’s intelligence it is no less insulting to the people on the uh receiving end of those that hate and it’s a just an absolutely horrendous look for US soccer to respond in this way just own that it was bad own that that’s not the standard and say like even if you want to then keep it private I still think that’s BS because ultimately she did things in public and when you do things in public your apologies and your remorse and kind of your eventual return to polite Society comes in public but the downplay of this because it’s social media I find thoroughly disgusting and I’m very sick of it not just in this particular instance but as a wide societal problem that’s my small piece Andre to to kick us off here yeah no I I’ve just been really disappointed with the way US soccer and even now Emma Hayes um I I did not appreciate many of her comments about this I think she tried to paint a better picture but I don’t I think the picture that she’s trying to paint is one that has not been earned and that’s always going to be a problem because as you mentioned her harm was public and we have nothing but the fact that she has not missed a single call up she has been called in again form notwithstanding she has been called into to every single Camp she’s been relied on and all we have is them telling us that they’re handling it internally what does that mean who is handling what what are they actually doing and I think people confuse it and think that we want to see like you know Corbin Albert like on a cross or like repentant or whatever no but what is she doing to unlearn these things what has the been the process what what is US soccer what is their involvement who is leading where is the leadership what is the leadership doing we saw um Alex Morgan and Lindsay Oran take a press conference after it happened and they weren’t scheduled to show up but they showed up talked about it and said they’re handling it internally not really good enough what’s actually happening two straight white women doing that is like that’s not the right PE like I think Alex and Lindsay are tremendous leaders in a million ways but like it’s just that’s not the people we want to hear from in this particular instance it’s the teammates who were more much more directly affected if you want to bring someone out of uh that generation to talk about it let’s bring penino out of retirement for a hot second and let her hold a press conference cuz boy would that sound a little bit different it sure would especially given what she posted as well bango bongo and suddenly uh Corbin Alber is not wearing number 15 anymore wonder how that happened um anyway what what I really think the the issue is is that where is the trust who has the trust right now in terms of how they’re handling this situation I would say previous iterations of the team we had Megan rapino as you mentioned we had Kristen press who did a lot of work behind the scenes as well um and even saw like if you listen to the last episode of the recap show when they interviewed me official her and Tobin Heath talked about this situation first um and it was actually kind of funny because Kristen press you know she’s been dealing with an ACL injury for a couple years now and she kind of was like this is the first time I’ve really miss being on the national team so I could be in that environment when something like this happened to show some leadership to like protect the standard of the club or of the team and that’s what’s missing at the moment and it doesn’t seem like US soccer gets that it doesn’t seem like many of the players unfortunately get that especially the players that are the team captains and leaders um from the um that the public views them as and that they actually are on the pitch and it also doesn’t seem that way unfortunately now from Emma Hayes who kind of said that you know the booze were getting to her they probably should what she did was not cool um and then she kind of mentioned that she hopes they can embra Embrace her how why and what what has changed from the outside persp perception of Corbin Albert at the moment she hasn’t said anything except a apology that expired 24 Hours by Design it’s an IG story we all know how those work and we haven’t heard anything from her since so what are people supposed to hold on to to trust her now and to say okay I see that there is work being going on I see that she understands severity of what she said and how she alienated a massive portion of the women’s uh US Women’s National Team fan base there’s been nothing so to ask them to Embrace her is very very weird and doesn’t show to me that they get the severity of what was done no 100% And I I want to just pause for a moment to say like Corbin Albert’s 20 years old which means what she did said thinks Etc is far more a reflection of the environment she grew up in than any independent thought that Corbin Albert has found as a young adult because she’s 20 years old and we as people who are no longer 20 years old realize how little every single 20-year-old uh pretty much on planet Earth knows that is the nature of being 20 years old yeah um it’s same um even though like we were probably pretty smart for 20-year-olds like true may have not smart for a real adult because we were 20 and like that’s the nature of it and so I think there’s a a word that you use in there of like what has she done to unlearn this right like once you are awoken to the fact that this is a bad thing that you have done that there this is harmful and that maybe it actually doesn’t reflect your value like if you truly come at this from a religious perspective of okay the core of of my being is love etc etc that people try and like they’ll they’ll then throw the you know oh I love you I just want you to go to heaven bit it’s like okay well I that’s you know that’s it gets into a whole theological conversation but like if I’m truly loving someone then making them feel terrible is typically not a great sign like if you have that Awakening they don’t believe what you believe so yeah like which again we could get in a lot of trouble if we keep going down this path villian Kane Yanks off stage uh if you know you know um if not stay tuned because I’ll plug Andre’s newsletter properly at the end of this um but the point here is that like I am willing as a human being with empathy to allow Corbin Albert to grow and learn I don’t I don’t believe in permanence on shame Island if you will but sometimes you got to go visit for a hot second yeah and I do think what I found extraordinarily interesting about Emma Hayes’s comment specifically is if you were trying to do right by Corbin Albert and she is struggling pulling her off the team would be more helpful than pull putting her on it I realize this is her dream but she is young and she is extraordinarily talented there is a great chance at the age of 24 24 four years from now that she could play in LA 28 but right now to pull her off of the national stage to get her out of the the negativity and say Corbin this is your chance to learn this is your chance to grow maybe go visit press if Kristen press is willing to have that conversation with you um have those conversations learn come back prove to us that you’ve actually done the work figure out a way to publicly whether you do you know charity work with someone like athlete Ally or you just come out with like a really thoughtful statement like something please something this actually isn’t like just putting her on the team and telling everyone else hey can you kind of cheer for her that’s actually not one best for the team two best for Corb Albert or three best for the rest of us as a fan base who want to watch and cheer and not feel conflicted towards cheering for someone that we don’t really want to cheer for because of the harm that she’s done to people yeah and and it’s it’s so weird because this is so avoidable like when something like this had this this is almost really unfortunate too because I kind of mentioned this on Twitter as well is that like a lot of the Vets on the team that would have taken those leadership roles are gone they’re either hurt or they’re retired or not on the team anymore in the picture which okay fine but we’re kind of losing recipes in terms of how that team goes and how that team functions socially and that’s really disappointing to see because this is not a difficult situation US soccer should be able to understand and handle this situation the players involved should be able to handle the situation better than what Lindsey ran and Alex Morgan did which I get standing in front of getting in front of a young player who did this and it’s probably probably surprise perhaps to learn that her perspectives got such push back and people are so frustrated and Hur and angered rightfully so by them but this is easy situation to handle this was something that was a problem you have to acknowledge the problem you name it you talk about the steps that you’re going to go through to improve it and to address the situation directly instead of protecting and saying oh just cheer for her I think it’s fine now it’s not people booed and they’re going to continue to boo because they should right this was a very difficult thing to hear and I’m not going and I’m not the thing I really dislike is kind of trying to frame her as the victim because she’s getting booed there are people who are hurting a lot by what she did and what she said and by how she’s been projected by US soccer who have felt connected to this team by more than just fandom this team represents a community and that Community got attacked directly by a player not only the community but a legend of the team was also directly attacked by what she did and now that stuff seems to be ignored and that’s a big big big problem that US soccer can’t figure out how to manage that or an appropriate response to that other than we’re we’re going to kind of protector and see what happens and hopefully everybody just kind of either forgets about it or the team starts winning and everything’s fine I don’t know really what their plan is and they don’t really have I would say the trust or social capital capital for people to be able to trust that internally things are going well because remember a lot of these players former players had to actually fight the Federation to get things like people pay yeah who who are the gangsters on the team now right it’s like who and you know chy robman caught some Flack the other day for comments but I Tren is 22 years old and you know she’s learning I think a lot about the world daily um there is just it’s different I I think a lot of these younger athletes have watched a lot of people and organizations in their lives take the path of least resistance which means just stomping on the same people that have always been stomped on and that that to be very clear like when I say path of least resistance is not a good thing like the path of lease resistance just because the same people they’ have gotten beaten down for generations for centuries for Millennia are getting beaten down and it’s easy to just keep the status quo like sure it’s the path of least resistance forward except for if you’re the one getting stomped on and so that that Dynamic like needs to be called out for what it is and just accepting like oh people have different different opinions like that’s actually not like there’s some stuff stuff that yeah it’s fine if you have a different flavor of ice cream that you like more than me like that’s a perfectly acceptable difference of opinion um someone’s Humanity being lesser than yours because of who they love or what they believe or anything else along those lines along the demographic lines along racial lines along religious lines like that’s that’s not okay um we should we should be pushing for maximal Humanity for all people um and the question I would then have is like who are the people on this team now that are the next Megan redo Ali creers it’s Etc that will step up and be like no this is who we are we make sure that we’re good for everybody Kristen press Tobin Heath that are that are going to upkeep that uh necessary standard especially in this Sport and I look at someone like Tiana she’s about that life um you know I look at someone like nay I think is doing a lot of work obviously in the mental health space but I also think Naomi is someone who is not afraid to speak up on pretty much anything and is smart enough and informed enough and wise enough to understand the power of her words so there are some the Next Generation I just don’t see uh I don’t see that in a lot of the the current leadership generation I don’t know who those players are and um that’s obviously disappointing um to see that it’s just kind of a group of players that I think are beloved for a lot of reasons and and good reasons um but that that that element of the the chart if you will is the bars seems to be a little low yeah and that you know on the it’s so funny because a lot of this mixes the football and and the and the social side of things like they’re all connected and um which is why you can’t really separate Sports and politics but again another discussion for another day but um I do think that this is also a byproduct of the team botching its Cycles its transitions because what’s supposed to happen on national teams is that you get a good mix of players coming through and they kind of learn what the team means and in this team it’s particular because this team has been important not only in the United States but globally for a reason and pushing women’s sports forward and pushing women soer forward and that’s important and they don’t all have to believe the same thing but like you said when you difference of opinion does not cover uh invalidating somebody’s Humanity that’s not an opinion we can’t we can’t have a conversation if you’re willing to chalk that up to somebody’s opinion that’s a different thing and so it’s not about having a monolithic belief system but is about understanding people and people’s humanity and being able to fight for a particular thing so again this is pride month this is difficult we they’re currently US soccer is auctioning off her Jersey her Pride Jersey and it’s like why is this happening what are you doing you’re just here know should definitely buy it yeah listen I mean it’s so it’s so weird and it doesn’t seem like they get it and I think the botching of the of the um transition of the team meant that we are losing recipes a lot of those players did not get to impart like what does being on this particular team mean what are the standards for being on this particular team and my question is maybe this is something and this is this is why the way that US soccer has addressed it invites these sorts of questions does US soccer even want that what is the culture of the team that they want right now because they’re kind of showing us a little bit of this isn’t this doesn’t rise to a level to where they feel like they have to do any more than what they’ve done and what they’ve done is kind of nothing at least from the outside and so that is concerning and it’s very concerning for a lot of people who are super connected to this team and it’s disappointing because of the history of the team and what it has meant in this country and globally and that to me it’s almost like uh I think it was um uh Lindsey Gibbs who who has a newsletter as well uh said like is Corbin Albert really worth all this and that’s I think that’s a fair question is it worth questioning the history and validity of this team and obviously we’re not at that point yet but this is a scary Omen if they can’t seem to get this one right because it is not that complex well and we talk about not being able to separate politics from sports like let’s flip that on its head um I just mentioned Tia right is someone who it does speak up on these types of things Corbin Albert makes a mistake puts TI Davidson in a bad spot on the field how does Tia feel about that not that Corbin Albert would like sabotage a game that’s not what I’m implying to be very clear but like she’s a human makes mistakes I mean that on in a footballing sense um and all of a sudden though it puts tiar in a bad spot us gives up a goal like how does tiarna feel and so when you talk about the sports politics separation you know Lindsay’s point is Corbin Albert worth it like there’s Team Dynamics play here as well that if you leave Corbin Albert off you just don’t have to deal with and on an 18 player roster like I’m sorry don’t put your homophobia out on the internet for everyone to see uh on the US Women’s National Team and you don’t have to worry about that being a reason that you potentially get L left off the roster and so that there’s like obviously multiple layers to this um we could continue talking about this for hours we don’t have time to do that I do think that was a good discussion though um so uh certainly uh appreciate your perspective is always on it and if you want more on kind of what Andre’s written about this uh you can check out his newsletter uh which Andre the easiest way to get to is what uh just the funny thing is because I named it something so Random you can just Google beyond the vailan cane and it’ll show up beyond the sometimes just do something random and Google says I don’t know what this is I guess it’s that kids is what we call search engine optimization or something like that um also of course uh you and Courtney have talked about this on diaspora United um you know hey Spirits touches on these topics as well when they become relevant in DC so make sure checking out all of Andre’s work all right quickly like two three minutes here at the end um we would be remiss if we did not point out Alex Morgan’s Omission here um this is the first time she’s been left off a major roster since 2008 I am 34 years old I graduated high school in 2008 um which is also crazy cuz Alex Morgan and I are very close to the same age so like she is missing a roster for the first time since she was basically in high school and we were talking right before we went live here about how it’s not because like people have done Alex Morgan a favor and she’s popular whatever she’s belonged on every single one of those roster she has been one of the best forwards of the world she has been in the bonda OR conversation multiple times during that stretch she’s won golden boots etc etc etc why now though what what has dipped off SL what else has happened in in the Federation that this is the time where Alex Morgan finally barely misses uh an Olympic R not even a World Cup roster the smaller one the Olympic roster after all these years yeah I mean I think it’s a couple things I think if people kind of were aware of Emma Hayes and the way she was operating before she actually took control of the team you’ll see that she tried to put out a roster without Alex Morgan for the W Gold Cup that happened earlier this year right and then Me official tore her ACL and then Alex Morgan was called in but it seemed seems like Emma Hayes has been trying to make this transition and honestly this has been one of the slowest and hardest transitions to make with this team but I think now is I I would from my perspective it’s too late but I think now is still a good time to do it because when you look at the group of attacking talent and how they play it’s very difficult to ask Alex Morgan to do what they do it’s not her game it’s not what she does therefore you have to change how you play when you have a player like Alex Morgan or the way that you want to play with these Dynamic talents all around can they maybe try to make it work yeah but you’re still talking about square peg round hole so I don’t think it’s necessarily like a big um like uh judgment on Alex Morgan and where she’s at in her career she can still be useful in a particular system but this is not the system and so I think that that it just became natural where if we’re going to move forward if we’re going to fully commit to a particular style of play in trusting these players and attack which I think they should have done because how many goalss did Alex Morgan score at the World Cup none how many goals did she score for the national team overall last season I think two or last year I think two and I think she has one non-penalty goal this year I don’t remember but still like that’s the thing the attack looks different when other players are there and it looks kind of misshapen and not as cohesive when Alex Morgan is there and it’s just a pure thing of style that there are other players who uh play a certain a particular style that is the most dangerous for opposition defenses and so I think she just kind of naturally gets left out as as the team transitions yeah I mean it’s not like Alex can’t do some of this stuff right like if we if we were to put together 10 forward list she’d be on that list for the US probably still even in this system so it’s not like oh she actually is terrible all this stuff you she’s had moments there there’s for some reason in my head right now she had like this sick scissor like heel flick pass I want to say was in she believes last year um but like those moments where she can create and space and her holdup play is obviously great that’s a useful skill set to have on a roster but it’s it’s five it’s not 10 it’s not seven and so at at this point in her career with this transition I think that it’s actually pretty obvious um it’s hard to make it I think the argument that you would make for Alex and this would be my last question is like are you surprised she didn’t make it as an alternate because despite what we were just talking about very specific to the Albert situation like she is a tremendous competitor she does have an international experience and how that could be really valuable to have around the team she is a tremendous leader and has been for this Federation uh for a long long time but as a player like it’s it’s actually pretty easy are you surprised though that she is not named an alternate here and that Lyn Williams gets that call not really um I’m not actually either but I think it’s a valid question it is it is and I and I think it I one I think it would have been tough to bring Alex Morgan as an alternate I think that’s almost like then then you are kind of just doing it on the basis of like your your past it’s not necessarily on like which is kind of funny because like we wish that they had just done that with Becky at the World Cup sour like who cares if she doesn’t play Just Brer she’s Becky she needs to be on the team right right so so I think as an alternate that would have been a little tough for her I think Lynn Williams um is a great pick just because she’s coming back from injury as well and when you look at the style of play and the style of forwards Lyn Williams fits with those better than Alex Morgan at the moment um and I so it makes sense to me that you wouldn’t do that put Alex Morgan as on the alternate list for a couple of reasons so it just kind of means that by default she’s kind of off the squad and this is going to be very interesting for us naal team fans especially the Casual fans uh I’ve seen a lot of people uh having a hard time with this but I think and I hope that once they see the team play and the cohesive nature of that forward line um they’ll probably recognize pretty quickly that there’s unfortunately not a spot for Alex Morgan and again maybe World Cup roster she gets back in the picture who knows by then maybe Me official is healed in time to play that hold up nine roll but I think the the like what has been Alex Morgan’s game is you know early on in her career she had she was quick and got a step and this time later in her career that’s not really her game she gets caught offside quite a bit and when it comes to Hold Up play they’re just better players who can who can do that and when it comes to linking and getting through balls and on to through balls they’re just better players that that do these sorts of things and you know again it’s not that she’s a terrible player it just means that the good news is for the US wom national team attacking pool of talent they’ve gotten to a point where they don’t need to be relying on Alex Morgan that’s actually a good thing for the for the future of the team yeah no doubt about it um so it’ll be fun I wonder uh you know if I’m Alex I might just be like oh my God I get a break uh stay at home in San Diego hang out with Charlie and cando and and just enjoy life for a couple weeks also if I was NBC I would call Alex Morgan and be like you want to come be an analyst for us I would love love like Alex is so smart about the game like she would be tremendous there’s obviously a ton I mean I Ally like there’s so many great recent retirees or or veteran players who have could do that and are doing it at a high level but uh she is Alex freak and Morgan she scored you know so many goals uh and so if I’m NBC I would I would make that call but that’s just me NBC is pretty good at this all right uh Andre Carlile he’s very good at this uh diaspora United podcast hey Spirits podcast uh VOD villian Kane is yanking you off stage on your newsletter just search if you search vaud villian Kane Andre boom it’ll be right there uh at 8:38 carile or on Twitter did I get that right or is it the other way around carore 838 no you got to write the first time gotta write the first time 838 carile uh there’s also a link to the newsletter there uh anything else at the end here sir I’m just excited I’m excited for the Olympics I’m excited about this team um I think this is a a good um group of players to take the next step uh barring the Corbin Albert problem which I think will probably rear its head and we might be wondering why we don’t have how herfeld or Andy Sullivan uh to call on instead but you know we’ll see hopefully she can get into some kind of form just in terms of the production of the team and the and the entertainment value of the team so there are certainly a lot of questions in um from from multiple angles with this team but I do really much really very much love the attacking unit there are things I really love about the defense as well this is finally a team that looks like it is building towards the future and what they can do during the this Olympics is kind of fun because it’s kind of unknown I don’t know what the expectation should be because there’s a lot of new players um taking up different roles that um we didn’t have last time around and I’m excited about that aspect of it for sure I want to ask you for prediction but that feels like another live that we could do in like a couple weeks please save me from that yeah before before or maybe I’ll make Jason Anderson or uh you know I’ll get Ella or someone on on the show to do it I’ll make them make the predictions but uh I will I’ll be there so I’m I’m very much hoping this us team is there when uh I get to Leon for the semi-final I mean they might be on the other side of the bracket but I got a semi-final ticket in Leon finals tick hit in Paris let’s see what happens should be fun enjoy it yeah uh subscribe Hoffman W Sports on YouTube of course the main channel is at Craig Hoff but if you want more stuff like this at Hoffman W Sports appreciate you watching and we’ll see you next time here on YouTube [Music]