Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / 🇫🇷 France Beats 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England | Netherlands Cruises v Wales | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 Group D MD4/12 🏆

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🇫🇷 France Beats 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England | Netherlands Cruises v Wales | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 Group D MD4/12 🏆 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to you Into the Channel podcast for me about
0:09
what supply roast Dino Desespaters.
0:11
And as always, I am joined by my host, Mr. Grant Engel.
0:17
What's up, man? I'm feeling all right, buddy.
0:19
You know what? Life is full of wins and losses.
0:24
Sometimes you're all right. Yeah, exactly.
0:26
Yeah. Also draws.
0:27
Yeah. You never know what's what's
0:28
going to happen here in the in the in the group stage, part of
0:32
life, in the group of life, if you will.
0:35
So yeah, I'm feeling all right. I'm ready to talk about these
0:37
games. I'm happy to.
0:39
All right, man, let's get into it.
0:41
Big day of football, obviously. Match.
0:43
I guess this is match Week 1. I don't know.
0:45
It's match four days, one in the books.
0:47
Now, all 16 teams have gotten busy in this year's or in this
0:52
edition of the EUR Big day of football.
0:56
I mean, there's some happy fans, there's some sadder fans.
0:59
Mr. Kenengle, where do you want to get started and why?
1:02
Is it France? England.
1:04
It has to be France, England, because this was the heavyweight
1:07
fight. I understand Netherlands are
1:08
contenders also, but when you got two of the top ten national
1:15
teams in the world, according to FIFA, at least, England #5
1:18
France #10 we got to start there and I got a beverage.
1:23
We're recording this a little later than usual.
1:25
It's not going to change anything.
1:27
I'm still thirsty. Thirst don't stop.
1:31
Cheers. That's right.
1:32
Cheers to you. Cheers to the football.
1:34
And is it worth mentioning that I got the the big beer as a
1:39
celebration beer ahead of time where I was just like, we're
1:41
going to celebrate this, this England victory.
1:44
I'm going to be extra thirsty, real happy about this England
1:47
win. Norway already won.
1:49
Now England's going to win. I'm going to feel great.
1:51
Not so my good man. Final score, France to England
1:56
won. And it was not particularly
1:58
pretty, especially in the 1st 45 minutes and kind of after that,
2:03
at least in my view. Where Where would you like to
2:06
get started on this match? I mean, a bunch of places we can
2:09
start, obviously, you know, Lauren James in the line up,
2:14
Jackie Goat, Jackie Oatley, the goatly in the lineup up in the
2:18
booth, which meant we got to to hear a couple different
2:21
iterations of Lauren James, which is just always very, I
2:26
mean, it's just it's like butter.
2:28
It's like butter on a nice a nice English muffin there right.
2:33
So LJ starts, you know, and she's I, I thought, I thought
2:36
both teams looked very tense early, very, very tight.
2:40
Kind of the game looked a little a little choppy.
2:43
I, I didn't really like the look of it early.
2:46
And then, you know, England gets the breakthrough not not quite
2:50
against the run of play, but against the general run of play
2:53
for the full match because I I didn't think anything really
2:55
good was happening prior to that, but ultimately wiped away.
3:00
But when you saw when you saw that, what was your feeling?
3:03
Were you kind of feeling encouraged with that
3:05
breakthrough or was it like, oh wow, we didn't really deserve
3:08
that. We kind of stole one here or
3:10
what? What like what was the feeling?
3:12
What was the feeling for on your end?
3:13
Any England goal is a deserving goal.
3:15
Just only get that, get that out of the way.
3:17
Fair enough. No, I, I thought there were a
3:20
couple spots where they could have called offside because I,
3:24
you know, when it first happened and then they showed the
3:26
immediate replay. I thought the offside call was
3:29
going to be when Mead plays the ball all the way back across.
3:33
I thought Russo was in an offside position and then like
3:36
made a look of so yeah, but but like she kind of impacted the
3:42
way defenders were going to react to the ball.
3:45
And so that's what I thought they were going to get England
3:47
on. I didn't, I didn't.
3:48
I think they eventually they called Mead offside, but that I
3:52
was fine with the call. Like they were somebody was
3:55
offside on that play by the letter of the law.
3:58
And you know, that's fine. Fair play to the ref.
4:01
You know, I I just thought it was what was going to happen.
4:04
I expected an up and down game. Like you have look at the talent
4:09
on both of these elevens. Like I am always like curious
4:13
like when pundits or fans go into these these type of big
4:19
games and think like we're going to crush them.
4:24
And it's like, you know, as our our pals who watch this podcast
4:28
know, I'm a big American College football fan.
4:32
And one of my favorite phrases that I learned when I was a kid
4:35
is the other kids are on scholarship too.
4:38
And in in this in this match, the other players get paid too.
4:42
The other players are superstars too.
4:44
They have no shortage of talent over there.
4:46
I didn't expect it to be easy. It it would have been foolish to
4:49
think it was going to be easy. Now, did I expect England's
4:52
midfield to be Let me let me check my notes here.
4:56
A fucking disaster for large parts of the game.
4:59
No, I did not. I did not expect that at all.
5:02
Brew Toll. I mean the mid the the English
5:06
midfield got dominated by France and I think this is an extreme
5:11
oversimplification but I went to go look at fat mob because I'm
5:15
like I will bet that the three French midfielders all ranked
5:19
outranked English midfielders and they sure did.
5:22
Gayorio Sakina, Khalcheri Orange, Jean Francois 7.57.16.9.
5:29
The highest English midfielder, Kira Walsh 6.8 Stanway I think
5:34
had a really rough game. 26.3 LJ 6.0.
5:38
I think Stanway only had 30 touches or something like like
5:42
something really paltry. Same for LJI, think they were
5:45
both in the low 30s, which is wild when you think about this
5:48
is a defending champion. These are two excellent
5:52
midfielders. Kiera Walsh was got a little bit
5:55
busier, but they just they just kind of kept getting dominated.
5:58
And then on the other side, Gayoro, Sakina, Karshawi were, I
6:03
mean, pit bulls out there. Like they were just, they, I
6:07
mean, they just were immediately ready to take the ball back.
6:10
And then when they were on offense, they were playing like
6:12
England couldn't take the ball from them.
6:14
Like it was just like, all right, come get it.
6:16
And a super long day from that for that English midfield.
6:20
And you know, it's funny, and this is where, where the stats
6:24
in football or in any sport can be a little misleading.
6:27
So Stanway and Walsh, they completed, they both completed
6:32
around like 8384% of their passes, but it was the passes
6:37
that they didn't complete in like spots where England was
6:41
just starting to get the ball up field.
6:43
They're just kind of like they're going to have a measure
6:46
of control. And it was so uncharacteristic
6:49
from both Stanway and Walsh in a couple of key spots where they
6:53
just gave the ball away like pretty cheaply.
6:56
And I was like, yo, like, who are these players?
7:00
Like, because they don't do that very often.
7:02
I mean, you're one of the foremost Kyra Walsh appreciators
7:05
on these Internet streets and like, you know, that's 6.8 FOT
7:09
mob rating, foot mob rating or what, you know, however we
7:12
wanted to pronounce it, that's, that's aided by the great goal
7:16
that she scored at the end. Take away that goal and I you
7:20
know, that's a it's a weird hypothetical, but like, you
7:23
know, if that if that gets saved or it's off the crossbar, you
7:27
know, she's hovering more around six point O also, and I know you
7:30
know, player ratings are subjective.
7:32
They're not everything, but she didn't play that well like on
7:35
over the broad course of the match and England was doomed
7:40
because of it if you ask me. I agree with that.
7:43
I mean, they they couldn't, they just couldn't move the ball
7:47
along, you know, they couldn't, they couldn't kind of string
7:49
together possession. And then the flip side was
7:54
France could do that, you know, and like, I think as as the game
7:57
kind of wore on, the the other thing that really was trippy was
8:01
when the Russo goal gets called back, that that's usually the
8:04
moment where France kind of Wilts mentally.
8:07
You know, it's like, OK, first half goal within the first half
8:10
an hour, you know, you know, marquee match up, everybody
8:13
watching, you know, this is closing out, you know, match day
8:16
four, you're closing out the first round of group stage
8:18
matches, like literally. And that's really where France,
8:21
you know, that's where it goes, you know, 3 nil England or three
8:24
one, you know, like it. It just, you know, sort of like
8:27
snowballs. And instead it went the other
8:29
way. But, you know, the call gets
8:31
turned. Nothing really that France did,
8:32
but I think they maybe collectively were like, all
8:35
right, let's let's kind of get it together.
8:36
And a few minutes later, that's when Karshawi almost ships
8:40
Hannah Hampton. You know, and now it's like, all
8:42
right now they're starting to get, you know, like get a little
8:44
bit, you know, more, you know, gumption in the attack, a little
8:47
bit more confidence. And then the goal to Katoto like
8:53
2 passes. Like it, it's two passes that
8:55
that breaks the entire England defense.
8:59
And then it ends with a koto tappin.
9:01
Like, I mean, I, I couldn't believe, you know, De Almeida
9:04
loops went around Jess Carter, Cascarino, then loops went
9:07
around Alex Greenwood to get it to Katoto.
9:10
And then the simplest, I couldn't believe that they got
9:12
beat that easily. And then that kind of sort of
9:16
kept happening to your point in spots where it was just like
9:19
this is very, very troubling. Jess Carter is an excellent
9:23
player and she plays in, you know, the NWSL we talk about is
9:28
an extremely competitive league. She is a center back, and I
9:32
understand because she is a good soldier with good athletic
9:36
character. By everything I've ever read,
9:39
when Serena Wiegmann asks her to go out there and play left back,
9:42
she'll go out there and do it. She was getting flambade by
9:47
Delphine Cascarino and she wasn't having much success
9:50
against Dale Almeida. To your earlier point, Dale
9:52
Almeida, you know who we see play center back for PSG?
9:55
Like Dale Almeida looks awfully comfortable back there on the
9:59
right wing playing, playing right back herself.
10:02
And Carter, you could tell from the 8th minute this is going to
10:08
be a problem out there and it didn't help.
10:12
And, you know, again, one of the patron Saints of this here
10:15
podcast, Lucia Big Game Bronze, she was having a hell of a time
10:21
taking on Sandy Baltimore, too. And it was just like, OK, if
10:24
that's what the two wings are going to look like, we're in
10:28
serious trouble. Absolutely.
10:30
And I think Baltimore, I I want to get to the the Baltimore
10:33
goal. So obviously, you know, France
10:34
goes up one nil kind of against everything that we're used to
10:37
seeing. And Lori Lindsay, credit to Lori
10:40
Lindsay, she was talking about this, that the midfield problems
10:45
necessitated Russo dropping deeper to kind of help way.
10:49
Deep. But then the problem is that you
10:51
have Russo in the midfield battling fucking Galloro and
10:55
Lacroix. And it's like, you don't want
10:57
that either. Like that's the that's not the
10:59
solution, you know? And on that play, Russo gets
11:02
stripped by Lacroix like the ball, you know, it's a little
11:05
tap in ahead to Jean Francois, a little tap ahead to Baltimore
11:09
again. And then Baltimore, I mean, in
11:14
this moment, she just basically dispatches of Lucia Bronze, like
11:18
Bronze is on the floor, you know, gets around Williamson.
11:22
Bronze tries to hit it to her back to Baltimore.
11:24
And then Baltimore just stings the ball into the very top back
11:28
corner of the net. And something about that kind of
11:32
felt a little personal. You know, if I want if I want to
11:35
play a little little body language doctor, you know, I
11:38
think she's she's looking at Lucy Bronze.
11:40
She's looking at Kyra Walsh, she's looking at Lauren.
11:43
She went at Lauren James a couple times too and was like,
11:46
I'm going to go at you a couple times.
11:47
Hannah Hampton. These are all her Chelsea team
11:48
mates, you know, and then the celly, you know, I think I think
11:51
it was kind of like the points of the year.
11:52
It's like, all right, look, you know, can I hear you?
11:55
You know, I think from that point and then with the other
11:57
hand, she hits him with the too small.
11:59
So even though the goal, even though the goal goes to VAR, the
12:04
too small celly damage was done. It's over.
12:08
Like it was a wrap at that point.
12:09
I'm like, I don't care if it gets called back the the, the
12:12
emotional, the psychological damage, you know, for the from
12:15
the two small celebration, just enough to pretty much end it
12:19
right then and there. She is fantastic.
12:21
I mean, you know, we've we've been talking about Sandy
12:23
Baltimore since this podcast started.
12:25
I mean, she's a just a phenomenal player.
12:27
She's I don't think she gets enough credit for what a genius
12:31
she is on the ball. Like, you know, everybody sees
12:34
the speed, but she just, she is such a good decision maker when
12:39
to pass, when to shoot, when to, when to pull up and and recycle.
12:44
Like, I, I mean, she's just absolutely fantastic.
12:47
And I'm glad you mentioned Grace Galloro, too.
12:49
Shout to her, man. What?
12:50
I thought she was phenomenal out there.
12:53
They they couldn't, they couldn't, England couldn't do
12:55
shit with her. And, you know, she was just
12:58
bossing that midfield play. Yeah, I mean, you know.
13:03
I was going to say real quick, Karshawi, you know who who
13:06
played a bunch, you know, at left back and I think she played
13:09
either left back or right back at the last World Cup, but
13:12
definitely a ton of minutes left back for for PSG.
13:15
They they they found a home for her in the midfield.
13:17
I think she I think she might have moved there too, you know,
13:19
for the for most of the club season, but that that was a
13:22
great solution to kind of find a spot for Karshawi.
13:25
He was also. Incredible today, another genius
13:29
player. I mean, this is what we're
13:30
talking about like and and England has them too.
13:32
So I'm not going to try to act like I'm just like, oh, Iglis,
13:35
you know, doesn't measure up to France.
13:37
They do not not today, though. And like you could see
13:40
Karshawi's brilliance on on full display.
13:43
The thing is, like if, if we're going to talk about foot mob
13:46
ratings here, Basha had an 8 point O rating in the run of
13:50
play. I don't even think it was that
13:52
much of A Basha game. That's the one thing that maybe
13:55
opponents should be kind of afraid about is that like Basha
13:59
was fine. That wasn't peak Basha ball.
14:02
And you know, as you, as the inventor of Basha Ball, please
14:05
tell me if I'm wrong here. It wasn't, it wasn't a Basha
14:08
ball game, but I thought Basha was really good.
14:10
She had to block off the line really late, you know, That was
14:13
massive. I mean, that could have been an
14:15
equalizer. But defensively I thought she
14:17
was really good too. Her passing was on point, her
14:21
entries were on point. It's just so nice to see that
14:24
ball come off her boot and just kind of it just looks like a
14:27
like a like a golf shot going down the fairway on CBS on the
14:30
Sunday afternoon. So, so gorgeous of a ball.
14:33
And Speaking of Bosha, that number 13 blue and salmon Franz
14:38
kit with Bosch on the I was like, I'm going to put that on
14:41
my Santa Claus list. I think I would definitely rock
14:45
that that Bosch. I mean, just what a sick kit.
14:48
Yeah, great looking Jersey and it helps when they're just
14:51
beating the brakes off the rating Euro winners.
14:56
I think the last, the last couple points, Karshawi, Gayoro,
15:01
Basha de Almeida, outplayed Walsh, Stanway, Carter and
15:06
Greenwood pretty significantly. You're not like if you're
15:10
England, you're not going to win in that scenario.
15:12
You know, the possession. This is The funny thing too
15:14
about the possession. It was 5743 in favor of England.
15:19
That is probably, and maybe I'm doing some prisoner of the
15:22
moment stuff here, but that is one of the more misleading
15:26
numbers that I've seen from a match, you know, in a while, one
15:30
that really jumped out to me. And it's not even that I think
15:33
like we talk about sometimes when a team will hold the ball,
15:36
and I often describe if a defense can kind of make your
15:39
attack aimless, like that can be a real problem.
15:44
I don't even think it was that aimless.
15:45
It was more careless. The way England was was like
15:48
holding their possession. And even when they had the ball,
15:53
they were under duress the entire time.
15:56
And I just think that, like, France did all of that
15:59
incredibly well and up until those last like 10 minutes of
16:04
regular time and then into stoppage time after England made
16:08
some pretty key changes, I think there was just a little bit of
16:15
England, you know, knew they had to push.
16:17
It was kind of like some like desperate champion kind of stuff
16:21
in that late stage of the match. But I mean, even all that
16:25
considered, France was just the better team on the day.
16:28
This was the right result. There is 0 doubt about that in
16:32
my mind. And it sets up for a massive,
16:36
massive match on Wednesday. Oh my God.
16:41
Yeah, before, before we get to the the team that they'll be
16:43
facing that massive match, I just wanted to E1 of your points
16:46
'cause you, you read off 4 French players and four English
16:49
players and we'll go, we'll go to the French players first that
16:52
you mentioned, Karshawi, Gayoro, Basha and D Almeida.
16:56
Picture those players defending on this day, all of them nasty
17:02
like just within a foot of like wherever the action was.
17:07
And then the other side, think of how Kira Walsh defended
17:10
Stanway, Jess Carter and Alex Greenwood, the four that you
17:13
mentioned, it's just kind of like nowhere near at the same
17:17
level. And I think I think this could
17:20
prove to be somewhat of an issue for Serena Wiegmann.
17:24
I'm not really saying it's going to be an issue, but it could be
17:26
an issue. I think in retrospect, when we
17:28
look back that this team is made-up of really great
17:33
offensive players from the midfield forward and and the
17:37
forward room as well. I'm not saying that they can't
17:39
defend, but you look at some of these other teams and what
17:43
they're doing, Look at when you look at what Sweden was doing
17:45
from a team defending standpoint.
17:47
You know, when you when you look at what France did today from a
17:49
team defending standpoint, I thought the Netherlands also
17:51
we'll get to them also really good.
17:53
You know, just from everybody just locking every all of this
17:56
down. I'm not sure if England has the
17:59
the roster make up to be able to say, OK, when we're on defense
18:03
and and they're really good too, to your point, can we stop them,
18:08
you know, when we don't have the ball.
18:10
And I think I'm not sure if they, you know, if this roster
18:13
is the right, the right set up to be able to to play that kind
18:16
of football if needed. They had to make the change at
18:20
the hour mark. I thought they were going to
18:21
make the change honestly at halftime.
18:24
And again, like I like Jess Carter.
18:26
She's a good player. She's not a natural left back.
18:29
You have to play Neve Charles and I understand that Neve
18:33
Charles is not exactly like a defensive stopper, but they
18:38
needed her to run with Cass Carino in that in that spot.
18:42
And then obviously DNE comes on and it's just like, OK, welcome
18:46
to a new set of problems. But I, I think and you know,
18:50
obviously I gave my idea for the England 11 in the preview to
18:55
this tournament. I I think it, it has to be Neve
18:58
Charles who who has to get out there and now you then you have
19:02
just Carter as as a possible sub for center back, you know, late,
19:06
late in games. So I to your point, though, when
19:12
you look at it and you look at the other defenders on the bed,
19:15
on the bench, Esme Morgan, lots of women, Moi Maya, Leticia, we
19:19
got a lot of center backs. You know, we got a couple people
19:23
you could conceivably put at right back if, if Lucy Bronze
19:26
gets tired, which I don't think she does for for the record, but
19:31
you know, I, I don't feel awesome about that defensive,
19:36
those defensive substitutes, but they're not bad either.
19:40
So sorry, I'm doing a little bit of a dance here.
19:43
But I, I, I see your point on when you look at like who's
19:47
coming into the match, though, that's what we have.
19:50
And and and maybe if you if you move Charles in, having Jess
19:54
Carter as an option, maybe makes you a little more a little more
19:59
flexible and Ella tune coming, coming on.
20:02
England played better when Charles and Tune came on the
20:05
field. That was flat out like. 1000%
20:08
And I and I thought, I think Chloe Kelly, you can Chloe Kelly
20:10
didn't wasn't really a real game breaker, but Beth Mead, I
20:13
thought had a real rocky 60 minutes in this one.
20:16
It's quiet. Yeah.
20:17
Just kind of involved and involved in in a lot of those
20:20
like miscues, those unforced errors that you were talking
20:22
about. Just like, Oh my God, come on.
20:24
Like, and then it, it echoed in my head, you know, like the idea
20:28
of like club, club forum kind of has to matter.
20:31
And then I'm just looking at, I'm like, OK, if you're
20:33
Biegmann, we know when you, when you expand out the time horizon,
20:36
what Beth Mead has done and Chloe Kelly has done, it makes
20:39
it a little trickier. But I think in, in more recent
20:41
history, it's, I can't imagine looking at like the, the that
20:45
sample size of like the last six months or eight months or 12
20:48
months would be like, all right, well, let's let's play the I
20:50
mean, there's so much more information that we don't have.
20:52
Long story short, Biegmann, I think he's got a lot of work to
20:54
do figure figure out what happens and not a lot of time to
20:57
do it to your point. Yeah, I think that's that's
21:01
totally fair. Now we have to see what Lauren
21:04
James fitness is going to look like in this upcoming game.
21:08
I'll just I'll take one, take chip and say and you know, I
21:11
know they're not similar type of players.
21:14
I I got to think we're going to get some Jess Park minutes in
21:18
this Netherlands match. Got to no, they they need they
21:21
need her dynamism in the midfield for sure.
21:24
Let's shift gears though, Speaking of that Netherlands
21:26
match, Wales knell, Netherlands three.
21:30
We felt it felt like we were going to be in for maybe like a
21:34
knock down drag out. And then it quickly became more
21:37
of like a back to business kind of situation for the Nelons and
21:40
they take care of things with with a great three points over
21:44
the debutantes. Yeah, let me unmute there.
21:48
Wow. OK Sleeping podcast.
21:52
Yeah, I really, you know, you gave me a lot to chew on there.
21:55
Sorry about that. So I mean, shout to Wales, that
22:00
was a, that was a tough 43 minutes.
22:02
And I, I don't mean that to like be a jerk or whatever, but like
22:06
Netherlands has a distinct talent advantage.
22:10
Our pal Leon Sanderson was not shy about that.
22:13
She knows ball. She's not going to sugarcoat any
22:15
of this stuff. She knows all the all the
22:18
players, she can level with all them if they ever say anything
22:21
to her about it. Like that's just what it was and
22:25
they they hung tough for a while.
22:28
And the one question that I'm leaving this match with just to
22:31
kind of pivot to the first point early.
22:35
And then we talked about it in the preview.
22:36
We talked about it when we made our predictions.
22:39
And I couldn't help but leave this match asking are we going
22:43
to get a bunch of Viviana Medema supernova performances?
22:48
I mean, I think we got. We got one, we got the first
22:52
one. We got, we, we definitely got 1.
22:54
The game absolutely changed, you know, when, when, when Medema
22:57
scores, you know, sort of like right, right before halftime,
23:00
real Backbreaker of a goal. And I think they kind of
23:02
switched up what they were doing a little bit and started to play
23:06
a little bit more through Medema.
23:09
Like just kind of, hey, get down there and like look for stuff
23:12
that's that's happening in and around you.
23:14
I think word had a chance. Paduk's how to look, Van de Donk
23:17
obviously involved as well. Meet him.
23:19
A nine for 9 though on passes gets the massive goal and it
23:23
just felt like the pressure was released, you know when when
23:27
that ball hits the back of the net.
23:28
Yeah, I mean, she's another, you know, she's one of the greatest
23:31
players who ever lived, you know, at this point.
23:33
And anybody would comfortably say that, but she's just one of
23:37
those players who can meet the moment.
23:41
And so like getting that release before half time kind of, you
23:46
know, we talk about in these first matches, it can be a
23:49
little nervy, especially for the clubs that have a ton of
23:52
expectations. And Netherlands has expectations
23:55
because of their footballing culture, because of the talent
23:57
that everybody knows they have, because of their FIFA ranking,
24:00
all that, all that stuff. And you just rely on your
24:04
superstar to do the thing. And football is a great sport
24:09
because like you could sort of see it in the NBA where
24:13
sometimes like if like, you know, Shay Gil, just Alexander,
24:17
if he like makes a deep 3 or if like Steph Curry makes like a
24:20
deep 3 right before the half, Like that can be like a little
24:23
deflating. But it's like, you know, there's
24:26
so much scoring in basketball, there's so many possessions, all
24:28
that, all that stuff that's different.
24:31
Football has a a unique piece to it.
24:35
Maybe hockey is like sort of similar where like right before
24:39
the break when one team scores, everything changes for both
24:44
sides. And she and the way she did it
24:47
too, of just like you and I talk about putting players in the
24:52
blender. She put that wet Welsh defender
24:56
in the industrial powered washing machine.
25:01
That was like she completely turns her around and then as
25:06
cool as you like, scores it. And then that's what you have to
25:08
go into halftime with. Yeah, unbelievable moment.
25:12
I thought she was awesome. It sort of took them a minute to
25:16
kind of be like, all right, well, let's let's kind of feed
25:18
Meatama here. And I'm glad you brought the NBA
25:20
because the comp that I had for Meatama, I think, I think she's
25:24
got a little, I think Jokic. OK, All right.
25:27
No, all right. That's that's good.
25:29
I like it. I was going to say Durant
25:31
because of just like the unbelievable skill, but Jokic
25:34
has unbelievable skill. Tell me more.
25:36
Tell me why. I I think it's, I think it's
25:38
understanding the moment IQ off the charts, like knowing when to
25:43
you know, there's goal scores that are just like I'm gonna let
25:45
it RIP. I gotta look, I'm gonna let it
25:47
RIP. But to your point, which what
25:49
she does on that one, the touch here, you know, to touch, to
25:52
bring it back in like outside, inside, and then like take
25:55
another half a beat before just sticking and just really making
25:59
it about the placement. It's just like this is that's a
26:02
genius. This is somebody operating
26:04
mentally at a different just playing a different game.
26:06
Nobody else is playing the same game that she's playing at.
26:08
Yeah. It it reminded me of Jokic
26:11
because after the goal medium mediuma then starts kind of like
26:15
distributing and being more of like a a centerpiece focal point
26:18
of the offense, which was awesome to see. 100% and I want
26:22
to make sure that I mentioned that defender Rhiannon Roberts,
26:26
34 year old defender plays at Rial Bettis spent five years at
26:29
Liverpool, good, good run in the WSL.
26:32
So, you know, a good player, a good veteran player and just has
26:36
no chance in that scenario. And you just you can't blame any
26:39
defender going up against against Medema there.
26:42
I want to I want to point out another player kind of later in
26:45
their stages who we've obviously talked a lot about covering the
26:49
Champions League, talking about Lyon.
26:51
Daniella Vander Dunk had herself a match today.
26:55
I thought she was fantastic. Incredible.
26:58
I mean, 6 touches in the opposition box, three chances
27:02
created involved in pretty much everything.
27:04
She gets the she gets the assist.
27:06
Yet to the Pulova, when you close your eyes and think about
27:09
Van de Donk, all the Van de Donk plays, they're all over the
27:12
field. They're like everywhere like
27:13
you. They're deep in the quarter,
27:15
they're the halfway line, they're up the sideline.
27:17
She was just everywhere super engaged and, you know, played
27:22
really, really well off her teammates today.
27:25
That's such a good point. Yeah, she is everywhere.
27:28
Can we that pass that she hits in to pull over and what it if
27:35
it looked like maybe this is I'm like over analyzing something
27:40
that's simple, but when Pulova, when Pulova makes the first
27:44
touch and it like pops up like that.
27:46
No way that's intentional, right?
27:48
Like that pass just came up on her too fast.
27:50
I think so, you know, maybe a little rust there, but I thought
27:55
we were you. You're talking about the Pulova
27:56
goal, right? 48 yeah.
27:58
It was funny because I think JPJPDL camera who had some
28:02
funny, some interesting takes. I'll say today.
28:06
He kept trying to kind of push this narrative that was like, Oh
28:08
well, even even though the Netherlands are up to nothing, I
28:10
don't think they look that great.
28:11
And I'm like, dude, what Greek, you know Wales can't even shoot.
28:15
They can't even get a shot. They can't even like string too
28:18
fast together. Like I think Della is doing
28:20
every single thing they wanted roared fucking hits.
28:22
The post felt like 25 times hits the post later.
28:27
I thought they were they were pretty incredible.
28:28
But on that play, Della cameras like, you know, what's what,
28:32
what what is Wales doing defensively here?
28:34
You know, it's like van Adonk walks it in, you know, nobody's
28:37
on Palova. And then you they, they, they
28:39
pan out and Meadam is there. She's got three defenders just
28:42
touching her, like within touching.
28:44
That's oh, that's what happened. Like everybody's just got to
28:47
stop meeting about. And that was right after
28:48
halftime. To your point, she gets in your
28:51
head, that's all you can think about.
28:53
And then what happens? Vandadog walks it in two.
28:55
Nothing. Game's over pretty much at that
28:57
point. Yeah, absolutely.
28:59
I mean, she, she has gravity, whatever, you know, nerd term we
29:03
want to use. That's who Viv Viv Needham is.
29:06
I'm glad you mentioned Jill Roort.
29:08
You know, my pal from Manchester City Football Club who I love
29:12
watching play and who I believe is a very good player.
29:17
She she hit the crossbar. I think it was OK.
29:21
She hits the inside of the right post in the 35th minute and then
29:27
in the 52nd minute, she tests the the load bearing strength of
29:32
the crossbar. I mean, she's just hitting
29:37
rockets. You and I have been talking
29:39
about this as we've watched her play for City for a while now.
29:44
And so I just had to look because we talk about players
29:47
who calibrate. She gets a she gets a decent
29:50
amount of chances. I want to read some stats here
29:52
from this past WSL season. So she was #7 in the league in
29:57
non penalty XG. She's #9 in the league in total
30:02
shots on target. She is number 65 in shots on
30:09
target percentage with 36.2%. She gets opportunities, she gets
30:16
into dangerous areas, she puts her foot all the way through the
30:20
ball. And a lot of these chances.
30:23
It's just if you're not quite sure where it's going, think of
30:27
like a young this an old man reference, but think of like a
30:30
younger Randy Johnson pitching for the Mariners where it's like
30:33
this dude is dealing, but sometimes he doesn't quite know
30:37
where it's going. And I feel like Jill Rort has a
30:39
lot of that in her game. It's like a younger oil can.
30:42
Boyd The. Sure.
30:46
I'm not even sure if you remember what.
30:48
I don't know. You remember when he played?
30:49
I'm sure. I just want to get off an oil
30:51
can, Boyd. Well, I guess let's get into it.
30:56
I mean, dude, enough kind of dancing around England.
30:58
Netherlands. I don't, I just don't think
31:01
Kiera Walsh is going to have two bad games in a row.
31:03
And I know she scored the goal. It's it's a bad game from her.
31:07
Like, yeah, the the goal, salvage the game.
31:10
And do I think Georgia Stan, do I think Stanway is going to have
31:13
two bad games in a row? I don't think so.
31:16
I think Alex Greenwood could be, could be better, should be
31:19
better. They're going to have to not
31:23
allow, and this is easier said than done, but you have to try
31:27
to limit the danger that Medema creates around her and, you
31:32
know, try to try to push her into areas where she can't
31:36
absolutely ruin your defense. And I think England has, I know
31:41
England has enough talent to do that.
31:44
But again, it's easier said than done.
31:47
They have to execute it. I think we're in for a world
31:51
class match on Wednesday. Like I cannot wait to watch it
31:55
because you have the defending European champions, the holders,
32:00
and this is as much of A must win as you can face in the
32:06
tournament. There's there's you don't have,
32:08
you don't have any more time. You have to win.
32:11
Yeah. I mean, well, if they lose, it's
32:13
over, They're eliminated. Like just you're done.
32:14
Mathematically, if and if they draw, they're just a world of
32:17
hurt at that point, even though they do, they do have wills at
32:22
the end that they could try to see if they can make up some
32:24
ground, but I don't know, they could be in in big trouble at
32:26
that point. I think.
32:29
I think it's going to come down to the defense, honestly, you
32:32
know, because I think the Netherlands, seeing what they
32:35
did offensively, striking the ball, they're a scarier team
32:39
than France, you know, like they've just got.
32:42
You know. Killers there.
32:44
I mean roar, you know that Hoonen shot Esme Bruks like she
32:48
the the Bruks goal. You know where The Who who's the
32:51
ball coming from? I think you said it was.
32:52
Pulova. It's Pulova.
32:54
Yeah, our our pals at Foot Mob. We might have to.
32:56
Well, actually, let me not make let me not speak out of turn.
32:59
Let me make sure that they didn't correct it.
33:02
The last I saw they credited Van de Dunk with the assist and I am
33:06
certain that's not correct because she's standing inside
33:09
the 18. I believe the the cross came
33:11
from Palova. OK, yeah, I think I think you're
33:13
right about that. So, but that one, what was
33:17
interesting was Vika Kaptine, like basically wrote, does a
33:20
full circle rotating around Esme Brukes and basically drags the
33:26
defender away from Brukes, which is kind of why she's able to
33:30
just be by her by the by herself.
33:32
And when the ball reaches Bruce that close to the goal, let me
33:35
check. It's a goal.
33:36
The XG my calculations are correct. 1.0 at that point she
33:41
gets the ball there. Yeah.
33:43
So, but I think the, the, the point I'm making is like the
33:46
movement in the 18. And then like, I think that has
33:49
the potential to really give England fits.
33:52
And when they're just like unleashing those strikes,
33:55
they're so, so, so dangerous. I think it it could be big
33:58
trouble. But I think I agree with you.
34:00
I could see like a 2122 late kind of classic style match.
34:05
And you know, now it's like really in the balance that we
34:08
really see kind of this England side with their back to the
34:11
wall. We're going to see a Russo goal.
34:13
I'd let me just let me let me put my take chip on that right
34:18
now. And, you know, as she's scoring
34:21
it, I will hear our pal Chris Sharples from Dezone like Russo.
34:29
So I, I look forward to that, no matter who the announcer is, I
34:33
will be hearing our pal Chris shout out to you, Chris.
34:36
And yeah, I, I think that the big players, especially the the
34:40
people who are on that, that Euro winning team, they're going
34:46
to have to show out. I mean, there's just, there's no
34:49
other like you said, you're, you are finished if you lose and if
34:53
you draw, you don't want to go into match day three needing
34:56
some help. It's just like, you know,
34:59
especially if if it's, you know, it's going to be France and
35:02
Netherlands and they're going to kind of be in this situation of
35:05
like, OK, nobody get hurt. Let's get ready for the knockout
35:08
stage. You don't know what kind of
35:10
weird stuff could happen if they just walk in there and just, you
35:12
know, draw one to one. Well, France, you can't rely on
35:15
that. If France beats Wales, they're
35:18
at six and they're through and. They're already.
35:20
In so you know, you got a question what kind of motivation
35:23
that the turn around times are so gnarly in this tournament
35:27
that you can imagine them kind of resting some of those
35:29
players. The last kind of X Factor that
35:31
I'll mention from the Netherlands, Lynette Berenstain,
35:35
who? She played all right, huh?
35:38
She looked pretty good. Fired a fired a warning shot for
35:42
anybody, you know, paying attention.
35:43
And it was so cool because I, I think she might have known she
35:46
was offside, but she hammered that ball so hard.
35:50
Then she kind of sees the flag and she kind of smiles, like,
35:52
keep playing with me, keep playing with me, keep letting me
35:55
like RIP shots from you see what happens.
35:57
An absolute killer off the bench.
35:59
I wish that one would have counted another one.
36:01
There's something about these Netherlands, you know, ball
36:03
strikers, Joe Roord, Lynette Berenstain, Little, little
36:06
unlucky, I think, seemingly so maybe maybe that's something
36:09
that turns this tournament. Maybe that's something that
36:12
persists. We'll see.
36:14
Do you know the suspicious of all people in the world
36:17
admitting that sometimes footballers get unlucky?
36:20
Did I hear that correctly? You know, I mean, it's the
36:23
learning podcast, bro. I learning.
36:26
I'm like, well, you're going to get on me for learning.
36:28
What are we doing? No, no, no.
36:29
I just, I mean, before you had told me you like you didn't ever
36:31
want to hear anything about being unlucky.
36:33
So OK, I like this. This is a good.
36:35
This is a great development. Fair enough.
36:38
I mean, I don't think we're let me, let me.
36:40
I don't think word was unlucky for hitting, hitting the the
36:43
woodwork a couple times. But I think a player, I think a
36:47
player that good able to get that close and not really cash
36:51
in, I think it's just I think it's just a matter of time is is
36:54
maybe more more my official stance.
36:57
No, it's totally fair. I mean, you know, she had those
37:00
those stats for City. I mean, where she's just like
37:03
all over like hitting shots. She she had five goals, 3
37:07
assists. The the I'm doing the assists
37:09
off the top of my head, I think it was five goals, 3 assists.
37:13
You know, with that number of shots, with that number of of
37:16
shots on target, yeah, she's just not the most accurate
37:20
shooter. I mean, it's just, you know,
37:22
it's hard hard to say that. But the one that hit the inside
37:25
of the post, it's it's funny, like when you because you see
37:28
shots go off the post and like they'll hit like dead center of
37:31
the post and kind of bounce back.
37:33
She really hit the true inside of the post to where it took
37:36
that like goofy bounce cat a corner off the other side.
37:40
There's one more Dutch player I want to mention, Sharita Spitza.
37:44
Obviously we are Sharita Spitza admirers on this podcast.
37:47
IAX legend, 35 year old defender.
37:52
I like the idea of the Dutch just saying.
37:55
Sharita, can you give us 20 every game you like?
37:59
You're on the last legs of your career.
38:01
Can you give us 20? Can you give us 25 if we need
38:03
it? And I love it.
38:04
She comes on, she's a leader. She, you know, every, she has
38:07
everybody's respect. Everybody knows how tough, how
38:10
smart she is. It's just such a nice weapon to
38:14
have on your team and especially in a tournament like this.
38:18
Good. Yeah, Goodness.
38:19
I mean, I'm just realizing she replaced and I didn't have a
38:23
chance to look up the pronunciation of the first name.
38:25
Beal Boorman. Who had an awesome game and 14
38:30
pass into the final third was just everywhere defensively.
38:33
I'm I'm looking at at her profile now 19 years old and
38:37
part of the Chelsea organization didn't know either of those two
38:41
things did not does not play like a 19 year old.
38:44
I'm I'm a little shocked by that because I thought she was, she
38:48
was fantastic today at the center back position.
38:51
And then imagine being able to bring Spitza on to kind of spell
38:55
either of those center backs. What?
38:56
What a luxury. Yeah, it's huge.
38:59
And I mean her Berenstein, I thought Chastity Grant had had
39:04
some moment moments and Lynn Vilms I mean, you know, they get
39:08
they got depth on this team. So you called it out from the
39:12
beginning. You picked them to make the the
39:14
semi final if I recall correctly, or you you pick them
39:17
to make it out of the group at. Least out of the group.
39:19
And yeah, that's looking extremely possible.
39:23
And you know, we, you mentioned the Brutes, the Brutes goal, we
39:27
should also just mentioned her. Her match as a whole was
39:31
fantastic. I mean, she, she's a killer out
39:34
there. 82 touches, 12 passes into the final third and I think
39:38
she was still underutilized. I think you can still almost get
39:42
her double the touches and it would, it wouldn't make a
39:44
difference. I mean, like you would, it would
39:46
just, you would just be better off for it.
39:49
I cannot wait for England and Netherlands to lock up.
39:52
What I mean, the stakes don't get higher.
39:54
So I'm super pumped about that. All right, man.
39:58
Our 12 days of UEFA Women's EUR 2025 group stage football
40:01
coverage plows ahead. 4 down, 8 to go. 33.3% repeating according
40:10
to my math. Nice.
40:12
We're recording this on Saturday night.
40:14
So in this version of space-time, Group A is back in
40:17
action tomorrow. The early match Norway versus
40:20
Finland signed me up for that. I think some somebody might be
40:23
getting into the quarterfinals tomorrow from those two sides.
40:27
And then the late match Switzerland takes on Iceland.
40:31
All right, man, I think we did it.
40:33
We took a little longer than than planned, but that's all
40:35
right. Anything else you want to hit
40:36
before we get out of here? I mean, France, England is a
40:39
massive match. Netherlands is great.
40:41
I think this being our longest match day one.
40:46
Yeah. I don't know how you do the
40:47
math. I consider all of these match
40:48
day one because it's match day one for each each team that's
40:52
playing. I don't know.
40:53
I don't know how you do it, but whatever it is, this one
40:56
warranted. The longer the longer episode we
41:00
we'll see what tomorrow looks like.
41:01
Obviously when Norway punches their ticket to advance into the
41:06
knockout stage, that's absolutely 100% happening.
41:11
So yeah, we'll see how long that goes, but I I think we've done
41:14
it for tonight, my good man. Love it.
41:16
All right, man, this been an episode of into the channel.
41:18
Thank you, thank you, thank you for hanging out.
41:20
If you enjoy the show or love ones as much as your boys do,
41:23
make sure you're kicking in with us each and every single week.
41:25
Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
41:29
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
41:31
favorite podcast app, links to all of our socials except one in
41:34
the show notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my coach
41:37
as well, Mr. Grant Angle for, you know, stepping up, you know,
41:41
his team, you know, didn't didn't quite deliver, but my guy
41:45
delivered as per Yuge. I appreciate you bro.
41:48
Likewise, buddy, I mean, I'm a Norway supporter, so we're
41:51
looking great. I don't know what else you could
41:54
possibly be referencing, but yeah, thank you everybody for
41:57
rocking with us. I the feedback has been awesome
42:00
on these kind of daily shows. So thank you everybody for for
42:03
checking it out with us. Please keep dropping knowledge
42:05
in the comments and we will see you all next time.