Concern and controversy over the U.S.'s ugly 0-0 draw with Portugal, with Brandi Chastain

**Brendan Hunt** (0:03)
This podcast is presented by State Farm, a proud supporter of women's soccer and all women's sports. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

**Brandi Chastain** (0:13)
We have to be better in every phase of the game. We have to be better with the ball. We have to be better in transition. We have to be better in defending as a collective. We have to be better in our mental approach. And we have to be better in just respecting the game for Christ's sakes. This game deserves more than we've given it.
It's a beautiful game and we have almost bastardized the hell out of it.
And I hate to see that, but that's the truth.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:41)
From Apple News, I'm Rebecca Lowe.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:44)
And I'm Brendan Hunt, I guess.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:46)
He's so sad, even in the intro.

**SPEAKER_4** (0:48)
And this is After the Whistle, USA nil, Portugal nil.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:52)
It's the morning after and we're processing what on earth happened.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:56)
Our friend and iconic 99er Brandi Chastain joins the pod to diagnose the Uswnt's many issues and to give her take on whether the team's head coach is quite frankly good enough.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:08)
Remember, there's guaranteed to be adult language.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:16)
Should we rename it After the Post?

**Brendan Hunt** (1:23)
After the Resonant Clang?

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:26)
Oh, Brendan, where do we begin? I mean, where do you want to begin? Because I've got a couple of things, but I want to hear from you because, I mean, did you stay up super late?
I'm assuming you pulled like an all-nighter or like a half-all-nighter?

**Brendan Hunt** (1:39)
Yeah, half-all-nighter. Half-all-nighter.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:41)
Yeah. So I mean, you feel great, you look great, you're sounding great this morning.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:49)
All right, where do you want to start?

**Brendan Hunt** (1:50)
My night stunk, my night stunk. You know what I wanted on the last night, Rebecca? I wanted a nice, you know, 6'1, shaking off of the cobwebs. I wanted exactly what you got. Basically, I'm under the Christmas tree.
I am looking at the new round of Play-Doh cans I've been given. And you are over there with the Colecovision that I fantasized about. This is, it's a horrible switcheroo.
And there should be enough 6'1's for everyone, frankly.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:19)
Yeah, there just isn't. You just got to hit that Play-Doh, make some figures.
Maybe try and make some goals out of Play-Doh.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:24)
This is my first note after hitting the post.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:28)
Basically, there's life before the post and there's life after. Yeah.

**Brandi Chastain** (2:30)
Correct.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:32)
Correct, correct. And they're oddly similar, but they feel different.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:35)
Yeah.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:37)
I wrote, Desperation Driven Hero Ball.

**Brandi Chastain** (2:40)
Oh.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:41)
It felt like, at that point, the sum of what we had seen was desperation driven hero ball. Like, they were feeling the weight of everything as opposed to just going out and being like, ah, we're the USA. Let's fucking have fun. Play us a little soccer. Let's even ostentatiously call it soccer, just to get under people's nerves. But instead, it was like, everyone playing like, we have to win this, and I have to do my part to win it for us. Everyone was trying to get a highlight real moment, it felt like. And then shortly after I say that, Allie Wagner had a, what I thought was just a fantastic quote to the point where I paused it, I rewound it, I made sure to get it down.
The illusion of pressure sometimes can cause more havoc than the actual pressure.
Whoa, whoa, Allie Wagner has just skyrocketed up my list of favorite game announcers. Oh my heavens.
It felt like they were playing with this pressure that they weren't even acknowledging, you know? They just were not themselves. The amount of under hit passes, the amount of disjointed attempts at attack. I mean, even when Rapinoe came on, where you're thinking like, okay, finally, some level headed veteran ship who will be totally unfazed by the swamp we're in, her night was characterized by turning the ball over again and again, like it was contagious. You know, and there was no one who could stop it. And I had written down here at one point, let's see, where did I write this down? Oh, at the 76th minute, nil nil would be a miracle. It just fully felt like this was gonna be a loss. Somehow, someway, the year I'm actually finally going to the Women's World Cup in fucking Australia, by the time I get there, the US, I'll see them at the airport on the way out. We'll high five on our way to the cab and it'll be done.