Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / 🏆 UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 MEGA PREVIEW | PICKS | PREDICTIONS | PLAYERS TO WATCH | 16 Team Previews

Transcript

🏆 UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 MEGA PREVIEW | PICKS | PREDICTIONS | PLAYERS TO WATCH | 16 Team Previews · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
Hello, K welcome to Into the Channel, a podcast premiere
0:09
about women's football. I'm your host, Dina de
0:11
Suspicious, and as always, I'm joined by my coast Mr. Grant
0:15
Angle. What is up man?
0:18
I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. I feel like we are returning to
0:22
our roots of being a learning podcast.
0:25
And in some ways, in many ways, we've never left.
0:27
We never stopped being a learning podcast.
0:30
But looking at these teams, teams that we, you know, know a
0:34
lot of the players, but frankly haven't had a ton of
0:36
opportunities to watch a lot of these teams play since the 2023
0:40
World Cup in some cases. I'm just extremely psyched to
0:44
cover this tournament with you. Absolutely.
0:46
Man, we're but we're about to do some learning right now.
0:48
We we went all 16 teams we drafted.
0:52
I've got a, you've got a we're going to go down the whole
0:55
docket. This is going to be, well, I
0:58
think it's going to be a pretty mega, mega preview.
1:00
If I, if I had to make a prediction, an early prediction
1:03
for the show. But with that, said Mr.
1:05
Grindingold, we're going to get started.
1:06
So in the interest of time, because we have 16 teams, we
1:10
agreed before this like let's take a look at a couple players.
1:13
Let's take a look at how they did in the last EUR, you know,
1:17
if they qualified. And now that we're in another
1:20
tournament with groups, especially groups lettered, A
1:24
through D, alpha through Delta if you will, I don't think we
1:28
have any other choice but to go alphabetical order through
1:31
group, alphabetical order by team name within the group, the
1:36
double alphabetical. Order, yeah, double AA, which
1:40
could just, I mean, you know how we do around here.
1:42
But before we do that, let's let's get to the draft.
1:47
OK, as promised, here we go. The women's, the UEFA Women's
1:52
2025 Euro Draft, where each of us will select teams.
1:57
We'll make some picks. We've got the preview coming.
2:01
Well, actually, you're watching the preview right now, and this
2:03
is just nuzzled right inside the preview, so forget all that
2:07
little editing magic skirty skirt.
2:09
Let's get to it. We're going to speed.
2:12
We got to speed through this draft, so we're going to boom,
2:14
boom, boom, quick formality. You know, you're our resident
2:17
England guy. You, you needed to be the, the
2:20
guy covering England. So you're taking the England.
2:24
I'm going to take Spain as a result.
2:26
So draft starts at 3. You'll you'll have the 3rd pick
2:30
in the draft and then we'll just alternate from there.
2:34
OK, wow, I didn't. I didn't expect that, but I
2:37
should have expected you to be as gracious as you usually are.
2:43
Or sneaky. Yeah, you always got.
2:47
A trick up your sleeve when it comes to these drafts?
2:51
All right, give me France. I mean, I know we've had our our
2:53
questions about them in big tournaments, but you know, I
2:57
want to talk about them and, and there's endless intrigue with is
3:01
this team going to play well in a in a big tournament?
3:05
Well, they're France, so probably no.
3:07
So you took France. Give me.
3:10
I didn't think they'd be here. Give me Germany, the third
3:12
ranked team in the world, super loaded.
3:14
I get to watch all those great players.
3:16
Made some noise in the Nations League.
3:18
I think they'll be disappointed if they don't at least reach the
3:21
semis. So give me the Germans.
3:23
OK, I'm already going to betray my big board, but I think it's
3:26
just because now that I'm here, I'm going to go one spot lower
3:30
on my big board because I'm afraid that you would take them.
3:32
Next, I'm going to take Norway. Shout out to all of our pals,
3:36
the Bron Battalion. Wow.
3:38
I mean, do you know, I'm obviously rooting for them
3:40
because of all the all the great people we've met along the way
3:43
in the Champions League coverage, leading to, you know,
3:46
us just becoming bronze supporters.
3:48
So give me the Norwegians. I hate that sniped them.
3:52
Loaded squad. Aurora Mickelson.
3:54
Girl right in freedom on them. Ingrid Engen, Karina Shevik.
3:57
Justin Gellen, Elizabeth Turlin. ETA Hegelberg CGH.
4:01
Nice pick. Love it.
4:04
I think I'm going to go, and this is tough.
4:08
Got my eyes on two teams. I'm going to go with my heart
4:11
here. Give me the Netherlands.
4:13
I like the attackers. Esme Bruks, you know, Sherita
4:17
Spitza is not an attacker, but Danielle van de Donk, a loaded,
4:22
a loaded side for the Netherlands.
4:23
No Lily, Honest. But I don't know, maybe maybe
4:26
maybe it could be. Poke in the ribs.
4:28
Why'd you do them like that? I mean, I don't know, man, we're
4:32
we're we're speed drafted. I'm trying to go quick here.
4:35
I'm going off the Dome. And you know, like I didn't
4:37
know. I didn't know that it ended up
4:39
with Netherlands in the fourth round.
4:40
So I'm very happy, very happy about my pick here.
4:42
Give me, give me the touch. That was literally the team #5
4:46
on my board that I I took Norway in in front of the Netherlands
4:49
because I had a feeling if I took Netherlands, you would take
4:52
Norway. And I just couldn't live with
4:53
myself if I allowed that to happen.
4:54
OK, I guess I'll just keep it in the Nordics.
5:00
I'll take Sweden. Great pick.
5:03
All right, a lot of good players.
5:04
Pick. Yep, JRK Rofo, Champions League
5:08
winner Stina Black Sidious. I mean cake go wrong there.
5:11
Damn right. All right.
5:14
For the vibes, Give Me Portugal recently announced Kika Nazareth
5:19
back in in in the group. Might get some burn here for the
5:24
Portuguese. And you know, I'm not going to
5:25
let Kika slip any any deeper in this draft further than she
5:29
already has. So give me that squad.
5:32
I our big boards are very, very similar, which I guess makes
5:36
sense considering we watch a lot of Champions League and talk
5:38
about it all the time together. Do a show.
5:40
We've talked football hundreds of hours.
5:42
We probably have all the same ideas.
5:44
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, I think, I think that's
5:46
about right. So I'm curious to see where this
5:48
team was. I mean, could we be more of a
5:51
pro Valentina Giacinti podcast? I don't think it would be
5:55
possible that we could be. Give me the Italianas.
6:00
Excellent pick by you. Manuel Giuliano, Elena Lenadi.
6:04
Just so many fun names. Sofia Cantor.
6:06
There's so many fun names to say on this Italian side.
6:09
You're going to have a blast with with that group.
6:11
All right, who do we have left? All right, Italy off the board.
6:15
Give me 12 Frank team in the world, Denmark.
6:19
I like your attackers pretty harder, Senior Brune Emily
6:22
Vangsgaard. Not a ton on not a ton after
6:26
that. But I mean, at the very least,
6:29
you know, we're going to stay in some games.
6:30
So give me, give me the Danes. OK, All right.
6:34
Now you've given me some options here.
6:37
I just want to, I know where, I know where speed drafting.
6:41
I mean, they're next on my big board, so I'm just going to do
6:44
it. I'm going to take Poland and and
6:47
if the question is am I taking them largely because of Eva
6:50
Pyor, you're damn right I am. I want to.
6:53
I want to learn more about them. Give me the polls.
6:57
Good pick. I I I'm going to.
7:00
I might end up regretting this pick.
7:04
Do I want to do that? No, I'm not going to pick them.
7:07
Give me Iceland, OK, Spade this, Jane Glottis, Perla, Vegas,
7:11
Dodier. They played the US tough last
7:13
couple of matches. I like watching them play. 14th
7:15
ranked team in the world. I'm not sure how live they'll be
7:18
in this tournament, but I don't know.
7:19
They're fun, they're scrappy and I don't know, I like that pick.
7:22
Good value here late in the draft.
7:24
I think so and I don't know if this is the team that you were,
7:29
you know, between, but it would be kind of silly if me living
7:34
here in in Seattle, WA and with two Seattle Rain FC players on
7:39
the squad, I thought I could get them later in the draft.
7:41
So I'm going to go ahead and take Wales with obviously Jess
7:45
Fishlock and on her on James Turner, you know, making their
7:49
long-awaited debut, Fishlock specifically making her long
7:52
away to debut in the Women's Zeros.
7:55
It's about damn time. I'm ready to see Airplay.
7:58
I like it. Draft really broke my way.
8:01
I wasn't picking between those two and a little bit of a little
8:04
bit of games shift draft strategy and I, I knew that
8:07
Welsh squad, I knew they'd have a couple players that that you'd
8:09
have your eye on. So I, they were cross off for
8:12
me. I was going to let them sit.
8:13
And now very late in the draft with my 7th pick, the home team
8:19
falls in my lap who includes 1. Leo Valti 1 Anna Maria Cerny
8:24
Gersovich and the youngin Sydney shirt and live.
8:28
Let's fucking go. I'm ready for my shirt and live
8:30
moment in the Euros. That's a great pick.
8:35
Yeah, Congrats on that. I'm looking at my big board.
8:38
Perhaps the big board betrayed me somewhat there, so it's okay.
8:45
No, that's yeah, the host nation.
8:47
It's a great call by you. OK, two left.
8:50
I'm going to go ahead. You know what I already have?
8:54
I have Norway and Sweden. I'm not great with geography, so
8:58
I'm not sure if I think I'm a grown man, and I'm not 100% sure
9:03
if Finland is in the Nordics. I think it is.
9:05
They're up in that mix. OK, sure.
9:08
Yeah, they're, they're in the, I mean they're in Europe, right, I
9:11
know that much. So yeah, give me, give me
9:15
Finland. There you go, Kwika, Katarina,
9:17
Cazola, you got some recognizable players.
9:20
And that leaves me with Belgium. Don't know any of their players,
9:24
but hey, we've got a couple days between now and, well, your boys
9:27
gonna have to do a little homework on Belgium.
9:29
Understandable. I'll be doing the same with
9:31
Finland. Obviously they have, like you
9:32
mentioned, they have a couple recognizable players, but you
9:35
know, we try to watch as much of the European leagues as
9:37
possible. Obviously some of these squads
9:39
have NWSL players, but we got homework now.
9:43
So I, I guess that's, that's what we're doing here.
9:46
So I'm psyched about it. I, I like, I like the look of
9:49
this breakdown. Shall we do a quick rundown of
9:51
who we have? Yeah, you go first.
9:54
All right, so I have England, France, Norway, Sweden, Italy,
10:00
Poland, Wales, Finland. I like it.
10:05
I'm just going to come out and say I think I, I think I smashed
10:08
this draft. I've got Spain, Germany,
10:10
Netherlands, Portugal, Iceland, Denmark, Switzerland and
10:14
Belgium. It's pretty good.
10:16
Let's say you did all right. I think I did all right.
10:19
I'm not going to go as far as to say we should take it to a pole,
10:22
but suffice to say I'm happy with where I'm at.
10:24
Yeah, that, I mean, yeah, that's fine.
10:28
If you want to take it to a pole, that's fine.
10:30
I'll lose again. I forget about it.
10:33
All right, back to the preview. All right, so let's talk about
10:36
Finland. Ranked number 26th according to
10:39
FIFA, They did not notch a point in the €2022.00, but in their
10:44
defense, they were stuck in a group with Spain, Germany and
10:48
Denmark. So that was probably pretty
10:50
tough for them. A couple players to watch here
10:53
and obviously, you know, like they haven't seen much Finland.
10:56
So so I'm excited here. You already know my eyes
10:59
immediately go to Joanna Tanila from the mighty SK Bron defender
11:04
completed 87% of her passes in the 2324 UWCL.
11:09
She'll be rocking out of the defense there be pulling for her
11:12
of course. Next Katarina Casola.
11:17
I'm currently playing for Malmo and Damos Fenskin.
11:19
I'm going to take us back again to the to the beginning of this
11:23
podcast where she was playing for BK Hackin in that same
11:26
20/23/24 UEFA Women's Champions League.
11:30
I will forever remember her as the player who scored the winner
11:34
in match week two verse Real Madrid in that group stage.
11:39
Let's go. Yeah.
11:40
And it was when Madrid got that draw versus Chelsea in the first
11:43
match of me. And you were like, OK, Real
11:45
Madrid, it's the Champions League.
11:46
We're here like we're covering this sport.
11:48
And then they didn't win a match for the rest of of that group
11:51
stage. And I felt like it started with
11:53
that Casola goal. Yeah, I think maybe they didn't
11:56
not lose a match or they didn't, they lost They, they, they.
12:00
Lost every single match. Yeah, it was, yeah, pretty bad
12:03
for Real Madrid. I wish I would have been
12:05
prepared for your Katarina Casola because I've got a sick
12:09
card corner and wow. But my Casola card quarter might
12:13
never, but just might never come up again.
12:15
It's so impossible. She's gonna be playing for
12:18
Finland in this euro, so we'll we'll see about it.
12:21
Great point. Yeah, that's a player to watch
12:23
for sure. I'm I'm gonna be excited to
12:24
watch Finland. I think they're in an
12:26
interesting group. So Group A, you know, not not to
12:29
play spoiler, but Finland, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland,
12:34
you got a, you know, a couple couple real teams in there, but
12:36
no, no massive, no, no real big dogs in that, in that Group A.
12:40
So field seems pretty open. It it is based on past results,
12:45
it shouldn't be. And we'll we'll talk about that
12:48
later because I do believe there should be a big dog in this
12:52
group and it's just weird that it doesn't feel that way.
12:56
But I'll save that for later. Next club, Yeah, I think I got
13:00
my my alphabet right. I guess we're up to Iceland at
13:04
this point. So Iceland FIFA rankings, I
13:07
think they're ranked pretty high, 14th.
13:09
So in their Nations League results, they lost twice to
13:12
France and then four draws versus Norway and Switzerland.
13:15
So they've got they've got some some experience like it's a
13:19
couple of a couple of a couple of these teams.
13:21
And then when you look at it, some players to look out for.
13:24
I'm going to hit three players here.
13:25
Obviously Spain is Jane Jones. D'artier you already know Angel
13:29
City, they're getting a real one.
13:31
Only two goals off the bench this year for Willsburg, but in
13:35
the Champions League she had that four goal explosion, single
13:40
handedly kicking Rome out of the tournament and just sending
13:43
sending a shiver through the spine of football fans
13:46
everywhere. But another player I want to
13:48
talk about, Carolina Williams Dotier, 23 years old now.
13:54
USWT fans will remember her for the Olympico that she put in
13:58
against the USA That beats KC Murphy.
14:02
But I mean she's she's balling basically 22 appearances for
14:05
Levikuzen in fraud Bundesliga. Two goals, 5 assists, 48 shot
14:09
creating actions. She's top 20 shot creating
14:12
actions per 90. Again in the fraud Bundesliga.
14:15
She scores an attacking midfielder that could pretty
14:17
much do everything. And then obviously the captain
14:20
Glottis Proliviga Stoltier in the defense.
14:23
You already know she's going to be anchoring that thing.
14:25
I wish I could remember the match where after Bayern scored
14:30
a goal in the Champions League, she just goes up to one of her
14:33
team mates to just head butts her like not full on, you know,
14:37
UFC Marvel character head butt, but just like a, you know, like
14:41
just can't, can't control myself.
14:42
And we're just going to smash foreheads just a little bit.
14:45
I think at that point I'm like, this is just one of my favorite
14:48
players in the world. That's amazing.
14:51
No, it's funny. That's phenomenal.
14:53
And and villains. Dotier, I'm glad you mentioned
14:56
her. Two years on loan at Byer Labor.
15:00
Kusen will return to Bayern Munich at some point here.
15:04
Unless I have that. Unless I have that wrong,
15:05
please. And to our pals who might be
15:07
watching this, you know, from these countries, let us know,
15:11
you know, whether you're a new pal or you've been rocking with
15:13
us for a while. Let us know if we miss anything
15:15
or overlook anything. But yeah, I mean, A-Team that's
15:19
just going to naturally have some good size and we know has
15:22
some good speed. I think you know they're they're
15:25
#14 for a reason. Yeah, and I mean, we also
15:29
remember we were talking a lot of Champions League, Amanda
15:30
Jakobsen, Andre Dautier, she had an assist late in the match
15:34
against Real Madrid to Braca to make it 3, two in that one, but
15:39
21 years old again, plays for Twente.
15:42
This is a team that's got a lot of good players, a lot of
15:44
professional players that are playing a lot of different
15:46
leagues around the world. I think they're in.
15:50
When we did the draft, I was a little lower on Iceland, but I
15:53
think they're, they've got an outside shot of a clearing this
15:56
Group A and, and getting out and into the quarterfinals.
15:59
So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm very excited to watch this, this
16:02
Iceland team play. I love it.
16:04
Great take. I'm all in on that.
16:07
All right, let's push it forward.
16:09
I've been, I've been eager to talk about this team.
16:11
So this is the team that obviously should be the big dog
16:13
in the group. Let's talk about Norway.
16:15
They're ranked 16th in the FIFA rankings, two behind Iceland in
16:21
the 2022 Euros. They didn't make it out of the
16:24
group stage. I just want to say in the in the
16:27
first match, they beat Northern Ireland 4/1.
16:31
Great start. That's the way it should look.
16:33
You're Norway. You have great players all over
16:35
the field. In their second group stage
16:37
match in 2022, as many people probably recall, they lost to
16:41
England 8 to nothing. Beth Meade scored a hat trick,
16:46
The legend Ellen White added a brace.
16:48
Georgia Stanway, Lauren Hemp, Alessia Russo, they all chipped
16:51
in with goals as well. But that's OK.
16:54
We'll be all right, guys. We got smashed.
16:56
Terrible match. We just got to get this win
16:58
versus Austria. We're level on points, we go
17:01
into the knockout stage, everything's going to be fine.
17:03
Lose 1 nil to Austria tournament smashed into a billion pieces.
17:08
Complete disaster. I, I mean, that's an important
17:13
point. This is a very short tournament.
17:16
Like this group's age is 3 matches in, out.
17:20
You come out flat in that first match.
17:23
You could already be in some real trouble, you know, so you,
17:26
you can look at this Group A and you got, you know, Finland,
17:29
Iceland, Switzerland, Norway feels it's pretty open.
17:33
But even if you're in Norway, you could be, you could be in a
17:37
really bad spot, especially if you lose to the wrong team
17:39
early. It's so short and the stakes are
17:42
so high. That's a great point.
17:44
So how are they going to, how are they going to prevent this?
17:48
Because I because I'm going to do a little bit of a thing here,
17:50
but I mean, you already know who I'm going to lead the
17:52
proceedings with. Senior Gaupset 20 year old
17:55
gritty and incredibly talented midfielder who plays with both
17:58
power and style from the mighty SK Braun game Wrecker no doubt
18:04
says scored big goals in the past is just crushing in the top
18:08
Syrian season right now. The Guardian referred to her as
18:12
quote, a star in the making. End Quote.
18:16
To which I say to the fine folks of the Guardian, no disrespect.
18:19
Yeah, bro, we've been known that she's a star in the making, and
18:22
she already is a star. I cannot.
18:26
I've been made. Exactly.
18:28
So, you know, I want to see her on this big stage.
18:31
I know you and I have watched other Norway matches though and
18:33
been like you going to put her on the field or not.
18:36
So I think that's going to be a big a big part of this.
18:39
I mean, like you said, we got three matches in the group
18:42
stage. Let's go ahead and get her on
18:44
the field. Yeah, I mean, well, three,
18:46
three, it's just so short, just not that many minutes.
18:49
And you look at that forward room for Norway, Caroline,
18:51
Graham Hanson, you already know ETA Hegerberg.
18:53
I mean, there's just two legends right there.
18:55
And then Elizabeth Turland in the mix as well, who's also got
18:59
a ton of experience in the WSL, ton of goal scoring WSL as well.
19:02
So gaps that should get time. She's just so she's just enough
19:07
of a wild card that I think you have to you have to find minutes
19:11
for her. Like she's a change of she's a
19:13
change of pace. She's a match up nightmare even
19:16
with all those towns of play. I mean, you got to think a
19:19
little bit outside the box here. And then you also want to get a
19:22
player like that some reps you know, you don't want to have to
19:25
call on a young player and knock out football, you know, at the
19:29
absolute apex of the sport. So let's get some early gaps up
19:32
minutes. Yeah, 100%.
19:34
And I'm glad you mentioned Ada Hegeberg and Carolina Graham
19:37
Hansen, CGCGH as she has called on this podcast.
19:41
I mean, look, Hegeberg left the national team for a little bit
19:44
of a stretch, didn't like the investment, didn't like the buy
19:47
in from the federation, has come back.
19:49
Hegeberg, as everybody knows or as most people probably know,
19:52
the UEFA Women's Champions League all time leading scorer.
19:55
She hasn't scored in a major competitive tournament for
19:58
Norway since her three goals in the group stage of the 2015
20:02
World Cup. So, and that's, you know, that's
20:06
just kind of weird how the timing works out because she
20:08
didn't score in in 23. And then, you know, like I said,
20:11
she took that hiatus from like 17 to 22 somewhere in that
20:15
ballpark. CGH is at worst.
20:19
I won't listen to anything worse than she's the 4th best player
20:23
in the world. I like and I think in a lot of
20:26
readings, I think that even in the guardians 100 list, she was
20:29
2. I think maybe on ESP NS list,
20:31
maybe she was 3 somewhere in there.
20:34
It's winning time, pals. You got to you got to get far in
20:38
this tournament. It just looks too weird that
20:41
that this team doesn't win and so I'll be rooting hard for
20:44
them. Obviously we got so many pals
20:46
over in the Brown Battalion, like you just got to start
20:50
making it happen here. Yeah, I believe it.
20:52
And a a team with or a country with some background, you know,
20:56
like some some pedigree for the from a championship standpoint.
20:59
So this would be a team getting back to the mountain top.
21:03
And yeah, I'm just dying to see I I want to see all these big
21:05
time players in the knockout stage.
21:07
Like I don't want to see these players going home early.
21:10
I mean just too much talent. Let's get it together.
21:12
Just haven't been able to do it. But hopefully this is the time,
21:15
this is the tournament to do it. Let's close out Group A.
21:18
We've got one more team, the host country Switzerland.
21:22
So they're sitting there's I looked at some odds too.
21:25
They're sitting at plus 2500, not quite middle of the pack,
21:28
but a little bit a little bit below the fold.
21:31
And I think they're getting a little bit of a of a boost for
21:35
being the home country. But a couple players I want to
21:37
to key in on watch Sydney shirt and Libe.
21:42
I went back and watched, you know, we've seen what she could
21:44
do at Barcelona, but I went back and watched some some of some of
21:48
her play on the Swiss side and Switzerland just drops her in
21:52
the middle of the park and she looks like Billy Madison in the
21:56
dodgeball scene where she's just like she's just surrounded by
22:00
players half her size and just dominating, running twice as
22:03
fast, doing whatever she wants. Just looks completely dominant.
22:07
I I rarely do this, but I had to.
22:10
I had to do this for you. Give me one quick second.
22:12
I want to share something with you.
22:13
This is Sydney Sheridan Live's FB ref.
22:17
Sure. Yeah.
22:18
That seems good. What this this doesn't even seem
22:22
real. So for our audio only audience,
22:25
it's a bunch of green bars, all of them almost all the way maxed
22:29
out and there's about 20 stacked on top of each other for every
22:32
offensive category that you can imagine.
22:34
Even tackles, she's in the 82nd percentile.
22:37
It's unbelievable that like, they're all 90 plus with a bunch
22:40
of 90 nines in here. Totally unfair.
22:43
So shirt and lamp's an absolute beast.
22:46
I also want to call out Juventus defender Viola Caligaris.
22:50
She's leading the Swiss in minutes and goals. 540 minutes
22:54
and three goals this year for the Swiss.
22:58
Started all six Champions League matches for UVA.
23:00
Two goals to open the 25 Nations League versus Turkey.
23:03
This is a team that's also got Geraldine Reuteler in the
23:07
midfield, Alicia Lehman up top place for Juventus.
23:10
They're not super talented. They're a little bit
23:12
inexperienced at goalkeeper. Elvira Herzog's only got 9 caps,
23:15
24 years old. She's their most senior
23:18
goalkeeper. But you know, as the home
23:20
country, I think they're going to be a tough out.
23:21
You know, Anna Maria, Cerny, Gorsuvich, AMC is known on this
23:24
pod. You know, she'll be in that
23:27
attacking room as well and it is to Leo Walti from Arsenal.
23:32
So you know, there's some there's some real football
23:34
players on Switzerland and they'll be at home.
23:35
They'll get that extra juice. So we'll see if if they can
23:38
carry that into the knockout round.
23:40
Champions League winners AMC as well.
23:43
When she played with Barcelona, you got, you know, obviously you
23:47
mentioned VoLTE, you got the young star in shirt and Libe
23:51
host nation Lot of things going for the Swiss.
23:54
Hell yeah. All right, man, you want to get
23:56
shift gears and scoot ahead to Group B.
23:59
Before we do that, I just want to say you mentioned the
24:01
friskiness of some of these teams.
24:03
You mentioned the sleeping giant in Norway.
24:05
I just want to I just want to throw it out there.
24:07
You know what? We have a tradition on into the
24:10
channel podcast. We, you know, there's enough,
24:13
there's enough heartache and horrible things in the world.
24:15
We we don't refer to any group as the group of death.
24:19
We we choose to go with the group of life.
24:21
I just want to say Group A pretty good candidate for the
24:24
group of life. I like it, Yeah.
24:27
Yeah. Every, everyone's alive for as
24:29
long as possible. That's the only those are the
24:31
only parameters for getting that that group of life moniker.
24:34
But I like it. Tentative group of life for
24:36
Group A. Who do you think put you on the
24:39
spot here? The prediction Who makes it out
24:41
of Group A? Norway has to win, so they will
24:44
win green. Norway's going.
24:46
Norway is going to win this group and I, I would like to see
24:50
them at at worst get 2 convincing wins and maybe coast
24:54
to a draw. But I'd like to see them just
24:56
get three wins. And I know it's, it's tournament
24:58
football. It's hard, but come on man, you
25:01
got too many good play. Like we even say the name girl,
25:04
right? And when we're talking about
25:06
that team, and I know we're doing these quickly, but like,
25:08
let's go Norway and then I'll take my second team.
25:15
I'm not going to go. Yeah, I got to.
25:18
I'll go host country Switzerland.
25:20
I thought you were going to say, yeah, I got to go with my two
25:23
teams. Finland.
25:24
I, I, I think I agree with you. I, I, I, my heart wants to say
25:29
Iceland. I know.
25:30
And they certainly do play tough in these tournaments, but I sort
25:33
of feel a, a tough break coming on for Iceland.
25:37
Not saying that they're anything nefarious, but that's just
25:41
generally how these things go. You know, I think we'll, we'll
25:43
all be pretty pumped to have seen Iceland maybe get close.
25:47
But it it does usually break for the home country in a situation
25:50
like this, especially in a somewhat soft group.
25:53
So I do expect Switzerland to nudge past Iceland into the
25:56
knockout stage. Yeah, Iceland is just staring at
25:59
me. I like, I like their talent a
26:01
lot. I like their style.
26:03
So we'll see. Because I was going to say I
26:05
don't want to go chalk and pick the host country and go with
26:08
Iceland, but I think my my head is prevailing here.
26:11
So yeah, give me Norway and Switzerland.
26:14
Sounds like we're on the same page there.
26:17
All right, let's go Group B. What do you want to start?
26:21
Let's check the the alphabet situation here.
26:24
Group BI. Was going to say I won't, I
26:27
won't do the Elmo voice. But B is for Belgium buddy.
26:30
I think we got to, we got to start there.
26:32
All right, so Belgium, this was a team that had an interesting
26:37
Nations egg run. They scored 3 * / 2 matches
26:40
versus Spain. They get a three nil away win
26:43
over Portland and they beat your Lionesses 3 to 2.
26:47
Just just to be clear, I don't think they beat Portland.
26:51
I would have loved to see that match.
26:55
Beat. Portugal.
26:57
OK, fair. That's a good one.
26:59
They beat Portugal. I appreciate, thank you for
27:01
that. That very important, you know,
27:04
correction. And then that's the downside of
27:06
of using some of these short names to to capture something
27:09
that's funny. Yeah, any.
27:11
I didn't realize that. All right, Yeah, go.
27:15
Tessa Vouliert, She can score five goals in Six Nations League
27:18
matches. Ten goals, 3 assists, 82 shot
27:21
creating actions for Internazio Nale.
27:24
Sarah Keys of Leicester, 24 years old, ranks in the 99th
27:28
percentile in the WSL for interceptions, 7th in
27:32
interceptions for 90. So she's a midfielder, defender,
27:36
that kind of for sure will mix it up.
27:37
But my favorite little nugget here from Belgium, 36 year old
27:41
Davina Filchins who plays for Sasuolo.
27:45
Teammates call her the Pitbull because according to Davina she
27:49
has a bit of a temper and also she never gives up.
27:52
End Quote. Let's go.
27:55
I love it. I mean, and you know, for for
27:57
anybody who is like, you know, curious about this, the guardian
28:02
again, Marcus Christensen, Stephen Bloor, Gary Blight, they
28:05
put together this really cool preview where they talk, they
28:09
give you some Nuggets on every single player.
28:11
I know Dino leaned on that. I leaned on that as well, kind
28:14
of looked at some of the other historical stuff, little funny
28:17
quips about kind of every single, every single player
28:20
here. So shout out to those three in
28:22
the Guardian for for putting that together.
28:24
Did they have that that people I don't use?
28:27
No. Oh, right.
28:28
I think I think they may have yes, they did say that they call
28:32
her the Pitbull and and her quote was saying the Pitbull
28:35
because I'm fierce despite my height.
28:38
OK, so that's that's an additional that's an additional
28:41
piece. And it also says.
28:42
Just to if you just get the promo, she's gonna get her story
28:45
straight. And and just another little
28:49
piece to maybe show the doggedness here.
28:51
In her spare time, she enjoys mountain biking, so you know
28:54
what she like. Even the hobbies are kind of
28:56
hardcore. I mean, I'm 36, you know, she's,
28:59
she's out here repping for, for, for us, for us old heads.
29:03
So. These are on the knees.
29:06
Fits right in here at the ITC. So I mean, Belgium outside of, I
29:10
mean, they're in a tough group, probably going to be cannon
29:13
fodder in Group B and for this tournament more broadly, but I
29:17
don't know. We'll we'll see.
29:18
I I'm interested to get to know some of these players.
29:20
Yeah, I think that's totally fair #20 in the FIFA rankings, I
29:23
can't remember if we mentioned that already.
29:26
It's gonna be a tough go, but that's why they play the games.
29:28
Let's go. Let's do it.
29:29
All right, Let's scoot down the alphabet.
29:31
Where? Where we at?
29:32
We're going to Italy. They did not make it out of the
29:35
group in the 2022 Euros. Oh, and I should mention they're
29:39
ranked #13 in the FIFA rankings, which nice.
29:42
He's like intellectually doesn't blow my mind, but I, I think
29:47
they've climbed. I, I don't know, you know, yes,
29:49
our pals will correct me if I'm wrong, but it feels like they've
29:51
definitely climbed since the 23 World Cup.
29:54
I want to say they were mid 20s to low 20s around that time.
29:59
I think that tracks. They had two losses in that €22
30:03
and they were only able to muster a draw versus Iceland.
30:06
But they got some stalwarts on here.
30:08
So I'm going to think I'm going to look at the defense, too.
30:11
Look, you're in a group with Portugal and Spain.
30:14
Martina Lenzini, 26 year old from Juventus, Elena Lenari, 31
30:18
year old from our pals over at Roma and of course Lucia de
30:21
Julie Elmo, 27 year old, also from Roma.
30:25
Those three are going to need to hold up and I think if you're
30:28
going to look, if you're really fighting this thing out against
30:32
Portugal, then that's probably the match you're going to win.
30:35
And I think a a stalwart defensive classic Italian
30:39
performance is probably what you can use to to catapult yourself
30:44
to that win. Yeah, I think, I think it is
30:46
going to come down to those two sides and probably, you know,
30:50
you know, Portugal likes to play up and down more, more high
30:54
scoring kind of like letting it RIP.
30:56
And you know, they've, I guess we can go right to Portugal
31:00
because they do become, they do come before.
31:03
Let me do one more thing. So that match up against
31:05
Portugal is on Monday, July 7th. But I would be remiss if I did
31:10
not talk about into the Channel favorite Valentina Giacinti from
31:14
Roma who is not in this squad and who I mentioned before.
31:19
I totally didn't realize she didn't get the call up.
31:21
It's not an injury just didn't just didn't get the call up and
31:25
and I was looking I was trying to like I was doing a lot of
31:27
Google Translate. I was trying to look through
31:29
blue sky to figure out what the deal was.
31:32
Martina Pimante, 27 year old forward.
31:35
She scored seventeen goals for Lazio in Syria.
31:38
Femoneal. And it seems like like we like
31:41
we talk about on this podcast a lot.
31:44
Sometimes information can be a little tricky to find on on
31:47
women's football, especially international women's football
31:49
here in the States. You know, any of our pals,
31:51
please correct me if I'm wrong. So shout out to giant Giacinti.
31:55
We love, you know, the doggedness in her game.
31:58
We'll have to see what what Italia looks like.
32:01
They still have Manuela Giuliano, who everybody knows
32:04
who consumed the the Champions League.
32:05
She's a genius pastor can dictate the play at her running
32:08
mates at Roma and her running mate in that 23 World Cup was
32:12
Giacinti or it's going to be interesting to see what her
32:14
chemistry looks like otherwise. But you know, I couldn't, I
32:17
couldn't forget Valentina if we're if we're talking about
32:19
Italy and it's the ITCI had to, I had to mention her.
32:23
Yeah, no, great shout. Well worth the mention.
32:26
And yeah, that that's not going to be the last player that we
32:29
couldn't find anything on with regard to why they're not on
32:32
some of these rosters. So we're out here doing our best
32:35
trying to cover. But yeah, I mean, you know, if
32:37
we could get some more coverage and get some more answers out on
32:40
the general Woso Internet, you know, that would be awesome.
32:43
But we're out here doing what we can.
32:46
All right, so let's shift gears to Portugal.
32:49
We, it looks like we both agree that they'll be battling for
32:52
that second spot out of Group B Portugal's got an interesting
32:56
squad. So, you know, to get into the
32:58
EUR, they toppled the mighty Azerbaijan and then moved on to
33:03
take on the even mightier Chechia in the Euro qualifying
33:06
playoff final. I got it done.
33:09
Got into this turn in earlier this week, though.
33:11
Nil, nil draw versus Nigeria. This was at home.
33:14
They held almost 60% of the ball.
33:16
More shots, more shots on target.
33:18
Basically ran into Tamaka and Nidosi. 4 saves for Nidosi.
33:22
No Kika Nazareth in that one. Yeah, we talked about their
33:25
scoring. I think Portugal's going to be
33:27
looking to both of the Silvas. Diana Silva, 29 years old.
33:30
Diana Silva, 44 goals and 75 appearances for Sporting CP, 26
33:34
goals for Portugal, you know, for the senior national team.
33:37
Jessica Silva, 30 years old, hasn't quite gotten her footing
33:41
at Gotham, really like hasn't been able to capture that, that
33:46
Benfica magic anywhere else in her career other than Benfica.
33:49
She's got 24 goals, 38 appearance during her time
33:51
there. We'll see if Jessica Silva can
33:54
kind of put it together in this tournament.
33:55
The last player I wanted to mention, Joanna Markow, 20 years
33:59
old, plays for Cervette. So we get, we got a, a look at
34:02
Joanna in Champions League qualifying.
34:05
But yeah, she scored a banger against Roma from a free kick
34:08
from about 26 yard yards out. She is a defender for Portugal.
34:12
20 years old. And this team's got super long
34:16
odds. I think longer, I mean, a little
34:18
bit long +5000 to win the whole tournament.
34:21
That's longer than Iceland and Switzerland seems a little,
34:25
seems a little fat, but I think this Portugal side is at least
34:29
going to push Italy for that spot in the quarterfinals for
34:33
that, for that second spot out of Group B.
34:34
Got to, I mean, Keegan Nazareth was sidelined for some important
34:39
matches toward the end. You know, she's hungry, she's
34:41
going to leave that squad. And you know, we've talked about
34:45
it with with some teams, a lot of sporting players, a lot of
34:49
Benfica players on here, you know, players who have played
34:52
with each other. Obviously Keegan moved on to
34:53
Barcelona, but she has some of that some of that chemistry
34:56
sandwich. Jessica Silva Portugal gave USA
35:00
even like, you know, in a down World Cup, Portugal gave USA
35:03
pretty interesting run. So you know, let's see him and
35:07
and hopefully our guy Vespa checks back in.
35:10
Oh, let's go to check out the show and talk about Portugal
35:13
with us. Yeah, let's go, Vespa.
35:14
I hope you're all right. And yeah, drop, drop a little
35:18
some, let us know you're you're doing OK.
35:21
And you already know, you already know your boy was going
35:23
to grab Portugal in the draft. So I'll be locked into Portugal
35:26
and one more team in Group B Spain when another one of my
35:29
squads here plus 200 to win the tournament.
35:32
Overwhelming favorite. I mean, what are you going to
35:35
say? These are the Champs right here.
35:37
They're good. They they they're good at
35:39
football. Got that going.
35:41
Just 23 years old. How's that possible?
35:44
Yeah, that one really shocked me through.
35:48
Through the the the Nations League though, six matches
35:51
there, they didn't really super overwhelm.
35:53
They only had a + 13 goal differential 2148 against, but
35:57
gave up goals in pretty much five of those six matches,
36:01
including conceding in both of the Belgian matches, both of the
36:04
Portugal matches, and then conceding to England.
36:09
I'm sorry, they conceded in all six because they lost England in
36:12
the first one, but they closed out the group stage with those
36:14
two. Claudia Pina, Thunder strikes to
36:18
kind of like take that one and then steal the group.
36:21
My one question for Spain, this is not even really a question.
36:24
What do they do from an attacking standpoint?
36:26
Because I'll just read to you who they've got listed at
36:29
forward. And then you in your head, tell
36:31
me what 3 that that you'd rock with Mariona Caldente, Athenea,
36:36
Lucia Garcia, Esthera Gonzalez, Christina Martini Prieto, Salma
36:41
Pariuello, Claudia Pina and Alba Redondo.
36:45
It's a lot. It's a lot of talent.
36:47
That makes me the hardest question we tackle the the whole
36:50
podcast. Pick three of these players.
36:53
That's a lot of good players. I mean, I think you might have
36:56
to. It's hard because you can't even
36:58
really cheat and be like, well, I'm going to move Mariona to the
37:01
midfield because Patri Bomati and Pateas unawait Bomati.
37:05
Yeah, Bone with T, which obviously, you know, get well to
37:09
the legend. I did see something that was
37:11
like she wants to play and I would want to see Bone with T
37:15
play. However, I'm not a an expert in
37:19
these things, but I think if something is called viral
37:21
meningitis, something tells me it's probably not safe to play
37:26
with like other people on the field.
37:28
So I don't know what decisions have to be made there.
37:31
So that's obviously that's got to be heartbreaking for bone
37:36
with T Hopefully she can rest and take some time, not be
37:39
contagious at some point. And please, again, you know,
37:42
it's a learning podcast about football.
37:44
It's a it's a learning podcast about the virality of of
37:48
meningitis. If I'm wrong about this, please,
37:50
somebody, you know, correct me here.
37:52
But if that's the case, then I think you move Caldente to the
37:56
midfield. And to answer your question, I
38:00
think I would play, jeez, I'll play Pina on the left, I'll play
38:10
Del Castillo on the right and I'll play I.
38:14
This is going to sound, I don't know, tell me if it sounds
38:16
crazy. I think I'm going to play Esther
38:19
Gonzalez at the nine over Betty Uelo and bring Betty Uelo on as
38:24
a change of pace. Yeah, no, I think I would do the
38:26
same thing. And then yeah, even Ester versus
38:30
Alba Redondo is a real Yeah, you still got that's a tough one.
38:33
Yeah, it's a real my team Pierto is like also like a great yeah,
38:37
a great finisher up top. I mean, they they can't really
38:39
go wrong. But yeah, definitely get well,
38:42
Itana not surprised that she wants to play.
38:44
I mean, she could be, you know, she could be Tacoma who still
38:47
want to play. I have to imagine such a fierce
38:49
competitor. I think one of the quotes I saw
38:52
was like, she doesn't care for if her temperature is 50°C,
38:55
which, you know, I'm a dumb American.
38:57
I know that's high for Celsius. But also, and I understand her
39:02
willingness and her desire to play, but let's make sure, you
39:05
know, you always got to keep the athletes safe.
39:07
They want to play. That's how they reach the levels
39:10
that they that they reach. But you, you got to make sure
39:13
that she's not putting herself at any, at any kind of real
39:15
risk. And when you have something
39:16
that's viral, you want to make sure she's not putting anybody
39:19
else at any potential risk. Yeah, no doubt.
39:23
But either way, let's let's get Aitana back in this tournament.
39:26
Let's get her back healthy ASAP. Well, healthy, healthy first,
39:29
first and foremost, and then back in this tournament soon
39:32
thereafter. All right, so Group B, let's
39:36
make some predictions. I can go first here.
39:38
Obviously Spain. I think I've got Spain winning
39:39
the group. I'm going to put it out there.
39:43
I think give me Portugal. I, I, I think the football gods
39:48
not happy that you know, the the patrons, one of the patrons,
39:51
Saints of the ITC mounting the GTD not on the roster.
39:54
I think the football gods will, will, will, will take their
39:58
piece for that and allow Portugal to survive.
40:01
So give me Portugal and Spain that whole that whole peninsula
40:04
will be will be popping right before the the knockout stage
40:08
kicks off. I'm trying, I'm trying to do the
40:10
math, but we do an honest show here.
40:12
We're honest brokers. I agree with you.
40:16
Even if because I'm trying to decide like from the the
40:19
tournaments that we've seen, from the matches we've seen, is
40:21
Italy that much further ahead of Portugal?
40:24
Kind of like I always described it as like a country's like
40:26
footballing journey, so to speak.
40:29
I don't think so. I don't think they're, I don't
40:30
think a lot really separates. I don't think so.
40:32
These two teams. I think the domestic league's
40:35
better, you know, but like, I don't know, Champions League,
40:38
they've each, they've each had teams had success.
40:41
I mean, I don't know that there's a great case to be like,
40:43
Oh, well, I mean 23 World Cups, I, I mean, I had completely not
40:48
really blanked out, but that, that USA Portugal match that was
40:51
super highly contested and Italy did not totally, totally show up
40:56
for that 23 World Cup. They they weren't really any
40:59
kind of factor in that tournament.
41:00
Yeah, OK, so nothing against nothing against Italy, like a
41:04
lot of those players, but yeah. Nothing against any of these
41:08
teams, by the way. That's true.
41:09
Yeah, that is true. I.
41:10
Can't think all these teams. Yeah, we're we're Americans.
41:14
Neither of us are you. Yeah, that is true.
41:16
I can't think of one team that I would be like, they're not going
41:19
to make it out with prejudice. I don't like this team.
41:22
Yeah, that that is true. I don't think I'm going to I'm
41:24
going to levy any accusations like that.
41:28
So OK, that that's fair. Yeah, I'm going to go with with
41:32
Spain and Portugal. But you know what happens when
41:34
you get a, a three team race when two teams, only two teams
41:41
can make it out of the group stage.
41:43
I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna put this out into the ether.
41:46
Group B Potential group of life. Gotta wait.
41:52
Gotta wait and see. Yeah, but I mean, Belgium,
41:55
they're, they're the real linchpin to see how much life is
41:57
in this actual group. I think you need 4.
41:59
I think you need 4 legit contenders.
42:01
I think that's that. That might be fair, but I'm
42:04
doing a thing. Group of life.
42:06
I like it. Let's let's let's keep moving
42:12
down the alphabet. Group C, Group Charlie.
42:17
Alphabetical in order here. Back to you, my good man.
42:20
What do you say we talked about? Denmark, I love it.
42:24
Let's go Denmark +2000 to win the whole thing.
42:27
I think that's that's that's a pretty live number.
42:31
You look at this Denmark side, well, First off, finished third
42:35
in their Nations League group behind Sweden, behind Italy.
42:38
Not awesome. This side's got three NWS
42:41
sellers, though. Isabella Obeys, who plays for
42:43
Portland. Four wins, 4 draws, one loss in
42:46
her nine appearances. 87% pass completion.
42:49
Most most of her minutes at center back.
42:51
Josephine Hasbow plays for Gotham. 23 year old major debut
42:55
versus Bay FC played. Got 45 minutes of burn there and
42:58
then. Yanni Thompson plays for Utah.
43:01
Rugged midfielder, 13 appearance mostly on the right hand side,
43:04
mostly at right back but in the 90th percentile on shots.
43:09
Successful take ONS and blocks from her position, according to
43:12
FB. Ref scored versus Sweden, scored
43:14
versus Italy, scored two goals versus Spain in the 24 Nations
43:18
League. And then yeah, they've got some
43:21
attacking towns. I mean, pretty harder.
43:23
You already know what time it is.
43:24
I mean, this is a winning player.
43:25
Scored a scored the winner versus Wales in a one in a one
43:28
nil victory. Senior Brune Emily Vangsgaard
43:32
both scored in A21 win over Wales.
43:35
You were talking about and not being able to get you know, like
43:39
fully, fully up to Not showing up for this Denmark team.
43:53
Yeah, I don't know either. I haven't heard.
43:56
Yeah, so Sophie doesn't appear on this list.
43:58
Great season for Lyon. I mean, I'd, I'd be shocked if
44:00
it was football related. And then the last little note
44:04
here, quick shout out to 37 year old Nadia Nadeem from Hammerbee.
44:10
Absolute legend. I'll always remember this player
44:14
because this was one of the first players that I was
44:16
introduced to. And then shout out to one of our
44:18
guys, Raj Bennett. Men in Blazers.
44:21
We don't really talk about Men in Blazers.
44:23
A very Seminole podcast for your boy being introduced to European
44:29
football for sure. So shout out Raj.
44:31
Him and I share birthday. I tweeted him probably once a
44:33
year and he usually likes my tweet wishing him happy.
44:36
I, I, I wish happy birthday to my birthday brethren, Raj
44:40
Bennett, Jimmy Butler, nasty Nas and Amy Winehouse.
44:45
Those are my those are my BIG4 that that we share.
44:47
September 14th is AB day, so shout out to Raj Bennett, but he
44:50
did a great interview years back with Nadia Nadim that just kind
44:54
of stuck in my head and, you know, just was a was a great
44:57
influential, you know, talker podcaster for me personally.
45:02
So and I don't think we we really talk about him or that
45:05
show much on on this show. So I want to give him a quick
45:07
shout. Yeah, I mean, too.
45:09
Absolute legend, great author, absolutely hilarious.
45:14
I mean, very clearly influences from that program to this
45:18
program. I'll have to go back in the
45:20
archives and check out the Nadia Nadeem interview.
45:23
I mean, obviously like, you know, I paid attention, you
45:27
know, when we were looking at Hammerbee.
45:28
But no, that's fantastic. I mean, you know, senior Brune
45:33
on this team, like I want to see like what she looks like in the
45:36
in this tournament. So, you know, Denmark looking
45:40
looking pretty live. I would say ranked #12 in the
45:43
FIFA rankings for a reason. Yeah, absolutely.
45:46
In Group CI mean they're a little bit up against it
45:49
Denmark, Germany, Poland, Sweden and I'm not sure if they're odds
45:53
on to get out of the group, but I mean they'll they'll have a
45:55
shot and that leads me for sticking with the alphabet here
46:00
to Germany. Group C got to be the favourites
46:02
in Group C. You look at what this team did.
46:05
I talked about the goal differential for Spain, Germany,
46:08
a different story. 2644 goals against plus 22 and then in
46:13
those six matches, this is wild. 12 different goal scorers in Six
46:19
Nations League matches for Germany.
46:21
So check this out. Leia Schuler, Shuka Nuskin,
46:25
Linda Dahlman, Hoffman Endemann, Elisa Senz, Corey Zakai is that
46:30
everybody? Surai Linder, Cersei, Klabul and
46:35
La Fi gang that rounds up to 12. So they they definitely got busy
46:40
in the Nations League. They I mean, this is just a
46:42
high-powered team with a lot of a lot of great players.
46:44
Did the other fun stat with 12 different goal scores.
46:46
I don't think anybody had more than well, Cersei had four
46:49
because she had a hat trick against Scotland.
46:51
That was the high, but not the same players going every time.
46:54
Like a lot of distribution in terms of like who, who is, who's
46:58
getting the ball in the back of the net.
46:59
Just, I mean, unbelievable talent all over the, all over
47:02
the field. It's it's funny that you
47:04
mentioned like the diversity and sense of all the different
47:07
players who scored for Germany, but then you, you give that list
47:11
of players, it's like, OK, she's awesome.
47:12
She's great. She's extremely good.
47:14
It's just like, oh, OK, they just have a ton of great players
47:16
you can score. So I and they're all over the
47:18
field too. I was, I was keeping my eye out
47:21
to be like, OK, who, who are the defenders that you're going to
47:24
mention? You mentioned, you know Sarah
47:25
Linder, you know Julia. Given is just, you know,
47:30
shortlist one of the best. I mean easily shortlist one of
47:33
the best offenders in the world. Shortlist one of the better
47:35
players in the world as well. Yeah, it might be one of their
47:38
best players, might be their best player.
47:40
We'll see. No doubt.
47:41
Certainly their captain on many days.
47:44
And yeah, I think the the story always with Germany is kind of
47:50
like, can they score in these big, big matches?
47:54
You know, we know that they're going to be able to possess kind
47:56
of like move the ball box to box, but then kind of breaking
47:59
through against those top defenses.
48:01
We'll see if some of these players.
48:03
And I think the other thing, the age profile, you know, just
48:06
looking at the forwards, you LeBron 21, Kabul 23, Searcy's
48:11
25, Frey Gangs 25, Hoffman, who plays for Leipzigs, 26, as is
48:15
Leia Schuler. And then Korra Zakai who plays
48:18
for Oldsburg is 20. And that's the age profile
48:21
pretty much up and down the roster you got Anne Katzenberg
48:25
was 33. Katherine Henrich, who moved
48:28
over to Chicago star, she's 31. And then the other two players
48:31
at over 30, Sarah Debritz and Linda Dahlman.
48:36
Everybody else is, you know, in their 20s, kind of like prime
48:39
age with a lot of young players as well.
48:41
So they're they're they're kind of really, really well
48:44
positioned. I think at the end I'd, I'd want
48:46
to do some, some high level predictions on what we think for
48:49
the tournament. I thought long and hard about
48:52
how far I, I think this German team can go and where I would
48:56
see them kind of like ending, ending this run and how deep.
49:01
And yeah, spoiler alert, they, they, they might appear.
49:04
They might appear in my final. I'm, I'm still, I'm not totally
49:08
fully locked into a pick yet. So I'm I'm going to wait for the
49:11
the rest of this this preview to play out.
49:13
I think I already said in our draft there was a moment of
49:18
geography in there. And shout out to our pal Blue.
49:21
You know what I mean? ITC legend boy named Blue on
49:26
YouTube tried to help me out and be like like Juan.
49:30
Whether Finland is in the Nordics.
49:31
Wikipedia says Finland's in the Nordics, for what it's worth.
49:35
But so I mean, this is all to say I'm not great with
49:37
geography, but I believe Germany is pretty close to Switzerland.
49:40
I think there will likely be a big German presence in
49:44
Switzerland. So if you think about like any
49:46
kind of like home field advantage quote, UN quote, or at
49:50
least like, you know, the ability for fans to easily
49:53
travel into those, you know, into those fields, into those
49:57
stadiums, you know, I think that's live for Germany.
50:01
Yeah, just, you know, traverse that Black Forest and we're in
50:05
business. Sorry about that.
50:07
I'm not sure if the black force is direction there.
50:10
You might, You might. We're a geography podcast now.
50:12
Yay. All right, let's keep it pushing
50:17
here, Poland. And now I get to use a word
50:20
that, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't know if I've if we've used
50:23
this word yet. Let's hear it for the
50:25
debutantes. First time in the European
50:31
Championship. Poland is ranked #27 in the FIFA
50:35
rankings right now. I am expecting the Poles to do
50:38
some physical defending. I think you see that from teams
50:40
that are just kind of new in the game and they're like, all
50:42
right, let's muck this thing up. Olivia Vaz, nicknamed The Wall
50:48
by coach Nina Pat Patilon, listed at six feet tall.
50:54
Let me just tell you, obviously the shadow executive producer of
50:56
this program, the inventor of quote UN quote, tall girl bias.
51:02
Obviously already rooting for her as a fellow tall girl.
51:06
But I just want to point out Olivia Vas, she's had some
51:09
development in the United States of America.
51:11
She spent one year at Wake Forest, but much more
51:15
importantly, much more importantly, 48 appearances, 4
51:20
the Indiana Hoosiers, the University of Indiana.
51:23
And if you know one thing that your boy is here for, it's a Big
51:27
10 football. So I'm very interested to see
51:30
Olivia Voss play. And the next question.
51:33
I mean, obviously, look, we're talking, we're talking about
51:35
Poland. I think everybody knows.
51:38
And Olivia Voss plays for Nuremberg for, for what it's
51:41
worth, for anybody who's curious, 25 years old.
51:45
Obviously you're talking about Eva Pyor, you know, one of the
51:49
best number nines in the world, monstrous season, first first
51:54
season stepping into Barcelona has been a killer for for
51:57
Wolfsburg for years before that, obviously.
51:59
But I I found myself asking if you're going to get Poland and
52:03
they're going to play physical defense and they're going to try
52:04
to get the ball forward, Like everybody's going to expect that
52:08
they're going to try to get it to Pyor.
52:09
Who is that other attacking player who might be able to take
52:12
some of the pressure off. Let's talk about Natalia.
52:15
Padilla beat us and you know, help me out if I'm butchering
52:19
that pronunciation. But she the 22 year old scored
52:23
eleven goals for Sevilla this League F season and she scored
52:27
another five in the Euro qualifiers.
52:29
So their their recipe is going to have to be let's play some
52:33
hard nosed defense. Let's try it.
52:35
You know, they're going up against Germany, Denmark and
52:39
Sweden. So goals are going to be at a
52:42
premium in all of those matches anyway, considering the way, you
52:46
know, especially Sweden plays like you're going to have to,
52:50
you know, get past their defense in some way.
52:53
And if you're going to have the like great defenders on Sweden
52:55
keying in on Pyor, somebody else is going to have to be able to
52:58
do something. Yeah, I think that's usually how
53:02
it break. And when there when there's such
53:04
a super little talent on one squad that also outpaces through
53:07
the rest of the team, what we usually see is, you know, some
53:11
some stalling out. And then we might see a big pie
53:15
or goal at some point. And like, you know, for I hate
53:17
to use dessert, but for a debutante nation that is, you
53:20
know, a step forward and something that you have to do to
53:22
kind of get on the process of kind of growing as a footballing
53:26
country. But yeah, I agree with you, man.
53:28
I think they're they're just up against it in Group C.
53:32
This group's got some big dogs for sure.
53:35
And you've got you've got the next one on the docket, Sweden.
53:38
I do. Let's talk about Sweden won
53:40
their group in 2022 and the EUR they're they're currently ranked
53:43
number six in the FIFA rankings. In 2022 they beat Belgium one
53:47
nil in the quarterfinal and then got cracked by the Lionesses in
53:52
the semi finals, lost four nil. For anybody who might remember,
53:55
Beth Meade, Lucy Bronze, Alessia Russo, Frank Kirby scored all
54:00
four of those goals. If you are, if anybody wanted to
54:04
reminisce on those, I want to talk about 20 year old forward
54:07
Ellen Vongerheim played at Hammer B.
54:10
We saw her in the Champions League, loved her activity.
54:13
She has ten goals and 11 appearances in the Domel
54:16
Svenskin this year. She started the year I think she
54:19
had a hat trick and then two goals and then one goal in her
54:22
first three matches. So she she had six goals in the
54:24
first three matches. The pace has slowed down a
54:26
little bit, but I I want to say ten goals and 11 still pretty
54:30
good. One of the things that I just
54:32
noticed in the in the Hammer B verse Manchester City matches,
54:35
particularly that like really stuck out to me.
54:38
And I know this is probably maybe a little basic in terms of
54:41
like football analysis, but whenever there was space
54:45
available between the midfielders and the defenders,
54:48
she was on it right away and could really kind of take
54:52
advantage of that space. She just like had a nose for it
54:54
of like, Hey, I'm open like and you know, that was sometimes at
54:57
a premium when when City was kind of up and humming in that
55:02
in that Champions League group stage.
55:03
So I think she's a phenomenal player, only 20 years old.
55:07
You know, it can be tricky in these in these kind of
55:09
tournaments, but I can't wait to see what she what she has for
55:12
Sweden out there. Yeah, I think Sweden's
55:14
interesting. You know, they they've got the
55:16
defenders, they've got the forwards, Jennifer Falk,
55:19
goalkeeper, 32 years old, you already know that's that's a
55:22
rock solid solution there in the midfield.
55:25
It's a little, a little thin, you know?
55:26
I mean, they've got Engeldahl, they've got Sophia Jakobsen, 35
55:31
year old Jakobsen, Madeline Yanogi, who's good.
55:34
I think plays. I know she plays in serial
55:36
somewhere. Yanogi is Fiorentina.
55:41
Yeah, Fiorentina, Lena Hartig, Freelena, Ralph OJRK upfront,
55:45
Rebecca Bloomkist. They've got, I mean, it's really
55:49
going to come down to can can they get the ball up, up field?
55:54
Can they hold the ball for a little bit?
55:55
Can they give those attacking players a chance to score?
55:58
I think defensively they'll hold up.
56:00
It's really good. It's going to be that that kind
56:02
of battle and a team like Denmark, I don't know, could
56:05
could give them some problems. I mean, I think Denmark, if I'm
56:09
not mistaken. Oh no, they they put together.
56:13
No, no regular sized midfield. I thought they had like kind of
56:16
expanded midfield, but they've Got Talent there, obviously led
56:19
by Yanni Thompson. So I think that's going to be
56:23
the battle. I think for Group C Denmark,
56:25
Sweden, it's Sweden should have it, But I feel like Denmark is
56:29
sort of maybe within striking distance.
56:31
Could make it interesting. Yeah, I, I think so, man.
56:34
I think I might be a little more.
56:36
I mean, obviously Sweden and Germany are giants.
56:39
Like you know what it is with those two teams.
56:42
I think this group might be a little more interesting than
56:45
you. I think.
56:45
I think we might differ on that a little bit.
56:47
I I want to say like you name some of the players, but it just
56:51
in my notes. I at at one point I'm just going
56:53
over anything I just wrote. Well damn this team has a lot of
56:56
good 2 great players and just Jennifer Falcon goal.
57:00
Magdalena Erickson plays at Bayern Munich, Natalie born from
57:03
Bjorn from Chelsea. Amanda Ellis tech currently a
57:06
free agent but like was a monster in the last World cup,
57:09
won the bronze boot. If I if I remember correctly,
57:12
Felipe angled all Real Madrid. Kosovari Kosovari Aslani from
57:16
London City, Lioness is JRK from Chelsea.
57:19
Johanna written Konnarud Cena Blaxenius from the Champions
57:23
League winners Arsenal and you mentioned Bloomquist, Yanogi and
57:27
Rolfo from Barcelona. They got they got a lot of
57:30
players with experience, winning experience.
57:33
And I just want to read this quick quote from Sophia
57:36
Jacobson. She's 35 years old.
57:38
She she asked for her contract to be terminated from San Diego
57:42
Wave last year and joined London City Lionesses at 35 years old.
57:46
Here's one of her latest quotes. Quote, everyone thinks I should
57:49
retire, but I won't End Quote. I like that.
57:54
And then this is from the Guardian.
57:57
Their their player preview. I love this piece of reporting
57:59
as well. She arrived in Switzerland full
58:01
of confidence. She said.
58:03
Quote, we're truly a tournament team.
58:05
If we get everything in place, I believe we can go really far,
58:09
just like we usually do. End Quote.
58:12
And I was just like, talk your talk, Sophia.
58:14
You know what you usually do go far because you guys are fucking
58:17
awesome. So you know what?
58:19
Let's go. Love it.
58:21
That's that's that's some real ITC energy right there that we
58:25
got to be able to appreciate. All right, so Group C, who's
58:31
making it out? It's Sweden and Germany, but I
58:36
think it's going to be, but I think it's going to be, I think
58:41
it's going to be closer than than you might think it is.
58:45
And I think they're going to be some tough matches in there.
58:47
I think we'll get a Nevapayor moment or two.
58:50
And I just must say when you have that, and I think there
58:52
might be some doubt on match day three and when you put all that
58:58
in a big old Stew, when you think about the intrigue and you
59:01
think, whoa, could you imagine if Germany doesn't make it
59:03
through what a disaster that would be?
59:04
Or like, man, we Sweden hasn't been able to score Like they
59:07
they've been playing too defensive.
59:08
They haven't been able to do it. You put all that into the mix.
59:13
I think Group C is a group of life contender.
59:16
Group of life I'm going to pick the upset give me Germany and
59:21
Denmark get into the knockout stage.
59:26
I think when you look at when you look at the attackers, I'm
59:29
not saying it's going to happen. Oh, and then I will quick quick
59:31
correction. I mentioned Nadia deem is with
59:35
hammer B right now. That's that's a new signing.
59:38
So that's why she wasn't on our radar when we were covering
59:40
hammer for Champions League just so there we go you know, just to
59:43
clear the air there. But I think the attacking
59:46
players are there and Denmark feels like a team that's been,
59:51
you know, like a 3rd tier team, a second and a half tier team,
59:55
you know, and like that that would be a real nice step
1:00:00
forward. And it's one of those things
1:00:01
that's within reach, you know, like when you look at some of
1:00:04
these teams, like whether it's like AI mean, I don't know, I
1:00:07
don't want to pick up anybody, but let's say, I don't know,
1:00:09
let's say Finland and group AI don't think they could get out.
1:00:12
But I'm not sure you know that there's a certain hierarchy and
1:00:16
you know where where you have to be able to.
1:00:18
Get to a certain point to be able to like say we expect to
1:00:21
get out. I feel like Denmark is a team
1:00:23
that even though the odds don't say that, we expect that to
1:00:27
happen. They expect to be able to get to
1:00:29
the quarterfinal. I think they've they've been in
1:00:31
enough of these tournaments and they have enough talent.
1:00:34
I don't think that they could look at, you know, each other in
1:00:37
the in the in the dressing room and be like, we're up against it
1:00:39
today. I think I think they feel like
1:00:41
they can win. They can compete even with the
1:00:43
Germany's in this group. So I'm something tell me that
1:00:47
Denmark's going to be really interesting come next, come next
1:00:50
week. I think that's totally fair.
1:00:52
Yeah. I mean, so you just hit me with
1:00:53
the total fake out. I mean, we were talking a couple
1:00:56
minutes ago. You make it sound like it's like
1:00:58
guaranteed to be complete chalk. And now you're you're the one
1:01:03
out here with the bold pick. You know, another clever move by
1:01:07
Dino that chalk it up on the scoreboard once again.
1:01:11
I've ankles broken. I've just I'm on the floor while
1:01:14
you shoot the jump shot. It's like, oh boy, I hope that
1:01:16
doesn't go in. No, I, I'm not honestly, I, I'm
1:01:23
not I, I didn't make any knockout stage picks until now.
1:01:27
I wanted to, you know, I need to absorb the preview.
1:01:29
I need to, you know, pick up some, some of these Nuggets.
1:01:32
You know, I only really deeped over on 8/8 teams.
1:01:35
I need some of these data points from your teams, and I don't
1:01:38
want to say you didn't sell me en suite.
1:01:39
No, I'm just kidding. No, I I don't know.
1:01:41
I just I fell a little bit in in some some feelings were starting
1:01:45
to flutter between me and Denmark.
1:01:47
So let's see what happens this week when the ball starts
1:01:49
rolling around out there right? Are we ready for group?
1:01:53
DI think we are and it's been a while, my good man.
1:01:56
Now we've been trying to produce shorter shows.
1:02:03
Obviously we had 16 teams to cover here.
1:02:06
It's Saturday night enjoying myself obviously always enjoy
1:02:10
talking the football with you before we get to group Delta.
1:02:15
I think I think it's for the first time in a long time and
1:02:18
may I probably shouldn't make such a big show of it.
1:02:19
I'm going to I'm going to do a 2 beer show.
1:02:22
You know what, all right, let's do it.
1:02:24
Why not? Secret sauce behind this though
1:02:27
is I'm in my late 30s. Some might call it my latest 30
1:02:33
for for a few more months. I'll be real sleepy after two of
1:02:39
these. So that's kind of how that goes
1:02:41
for your boy. Now.
1:02:42
That's OK. Yeah, I hit the gym earlier.
1:02:44
Mom are a little tired. So you know, I think 22 will do
1:02:48
it for your boy in one night at this point of being washed.
1:02:52
Listen, yeah, I'm not going to go fool Mike Lowrey, Marcus
1:02:56
Burnett, but you know, we ride together.
1:02:59
We we pass out early together. I'm going to grab myself a
1:03:03
second beer. For those who don't know, I I
1:03:05
recorded from my little my little kitchenette area so that
1:03:08
that little guy right there is the refrigerator.
1:03:11
So give me one quick second. I'll scooty scoot back there and
1:03:15
I'll be right. Back the magic of editing.
1:03:18
Look at that. Cheers to you, Tuber Show.
1:03:21
Tuber Show. Cheers to you.
1:03:24
I use like this, like metal koozie thing.
1:03:26
I'm not going to do an advertisement because, you know,
1:03:27
nobody's giving us money for it, but I Oh yeah.
1:03:30
In anticipation of the two beer show, I was like, OK, I'll get
1:03:34
the koozie out there and keep this thing cool.
1:03:36
No double koozie. Yeah, I yeah, I, I, I made the
1:03:40
mistake of flashing this, this can in front of the camera.
1:03:42
So old so and so corporation got a little free.
1:03:46
So it's all right. They make a tasty product.
1:03:49
We'll get them next time. Yeah, there you go.
1:03:51
I mean, you know, maybe the the partnership is brewing.
1:03:54
Who knows? Yeah.
1:03:55
Oh, I like that. No put in there.
1:03:58
So let's talk about Group DI. Think that's in the probably
1:04:02
enough of a digression at this point.
1:04:05
Gee, who's in Group D? Let me take a look.
1:04:08
Take a look at alphabetical order.
1:04:09
Ranked #5 criminally low in the FIFA rankings, if you ask me.
1:04:14
Yes, the Lionesses, jolly old England team that I've been
1:04:19
supporting, at least in footballing terms.
1:04:22
You know, again, hand raised when in caveman times when I was
1:04:27
growing up. There was 0 information on the
1:04:29
Lionesses when I was growing up, but I decided to support the
1:04:33
Three Lions when I was a kid in like 97 playing FIFA on Super
1:04:36
Nintendo. Again, another digression.
1:04:39
But I've been rocking with England for a while.
1:04:40
You can probably tell by looking at me.
1:04:42
I think by my ancestors are are from that part of the world.
1:04:46
Big shocker there. Just so I've been recapping what
1:04:52
each team has done in the past. They won the 2022 Euros in
1:04:56
thrilling fashion over Germany. Chloe Kelly goal in the 111th
1:05:01
minute, absolutely iconic moment that went pretty well.
1:05:05
It was fun to watch. I enjoyed it greatly.
1:05:08
Beth Mead had six goals and four assists in that tournament.
1:05:14
And now you think about that confidence.
1:05:16
She was she was tied for first. I think he was tied for first
1:05:20
with Alex Pop. Please, again, correct me in the
1:05:22
comments if I'm wrong. I think she was tied with with
1:05:24
six goals, tied on six goals with Alex Pop in that EUR.
1:05:30
But then I think she led the tournament with the four
1:05:32
assists. So she I believe she was the
1:05:35
Golden Boot winner. And now the 30 year old is
1:05:39
coming into this tournament and I don't think you know, she'll
1:05:41
have a role on this team. She has to.
1:05:43
She's Beth Meade, but now she's coming into this with that in
1:05:46
her back pocket. I've already won the EUR, I had
1:05:49
a great performance and now I'm walking in off a UEFA Women's
1:05:53
Champions League win. You think Beth Meade is feeling
1:05:56
pretty confident right now? I would have to imagine she's
1:06:01
feeling pretty confident. I had.
1:06:02
I'd have to imagine that England is feeling pretty confident
1:06:06
heading into this tournament. I think so like, you know, the,
1:06:09
the, some of the some of the matches, like whether they're
1:06:12
friendlies or like Nations League have been a little up and
1:06:15
down. I mean, we've been doing this
1:06:17
show long enough. You've known me long enough to
1:06:20
where I try to keep a pretty level head about things.
1:06:23
But then when I talk about my teams, you often get a good
1:06:28
chuckle out of me who likes to try to consider myself level
1:06:32
headed guy. And then some things happen and
1:06:34
I'm just like, all right, enough of this.
1:06:36
And then I'm not level headed guy anymore when I start talking
1:06:38
about the teams that I really cheer for.
1:06:41
So there have been some moments that have been really
1:06:44
frustrating. I think there was a friendly
1:06:46
against Germany where I told you, if we, if, if England plays
1:06:50
defence like that, they're drawing dead against every good
1:06:52
team in the in the world. That was not that was not
1:06:57
enjoyable. But I've given, I've given Beth
1:07:00
Mead, obviously I got high hopes for what she'll do.
1:07:03
I think she'll, well, I don't want to spoil it.
1:07:05
I've given Beth Mead as a player that I'm, I want to watch.
1:07:08
But in terms of other players that I want to watch, I want to
1:07:11
see everybody play. I'm going to watch every minute
1:07:14
of every Lionesses match. You know, I might have to work
1:07:17
on some of the days that they're playing.
1:07:20
I will avoid social media, which is always a nice bonus of, of
1:07:24
doing this kind of thing. And instead of just giving you
1:07:27
another preview of another player that I want to talk about
1:07:30
to my starting 11, if you will, if you, if you don't mind
1:07:36
indulging me. As if this podcast was not
1:07:38
enough of an indulgence already. Not not at all, actually before
1:07:42
before I indulge you, I got to go back and clean up, clean up a
1:07:45
little thing that you mentioned the Shadow EP earlier, your
1:07:49
boycott wind of of some, you know, you put me on the spot
1:07:52
last episode, you know, from an Arsenal standpoint, asking me
1:07:58
how I felt versus the Avery Patterson versus Emily Fox
1:08:02
discussion. So and then somebody else, I
1:08:05
think Kobe in our YouTube comments also called me out.
1:08:08
So between those three, I understand, I understand it
1:08:15
might sound a little silly and obviously I support the US
1:08:17
national team. I support Arsenal, I support
1:08:20
Emily Fox through and through, but I'm doubling down and I'm
1:08:25
making the claim right now in the 2027.
1:08:29
I want everybody to hear this. Just stop what you're doing.
1:08:31
close, close all your tabs, close all your windows.
1:08:33
I want everybody listening to what I'm saying. 2027, the right
1:08:37
back starter for the US Women's national team will be the
1:08:41
freight train that is Avery Patterson.
1:08:44
You know where to find me. I'm not hard to find if you want
1:08:47
to. You want to talk about it, You
1:08:50
already know what time it is. All right.
1:08:52
Sorry for that digression. I had to just kind of circle by
1:08:54
close the loopy loop. No, that's, that's amazing.
1:08:58
I couldn't believe, I mean, we're already here.
1:09:01
I couldn't believe that you were so quick like I was.
1:09:04
I thought I was doing a thing by me like Avery Patterson better
1:09:07
than Emily Fox. And I expected you to just
1:09:10
immediately smack that down and be like, not her time yet.
1:09:13
Emily Fox literally just won the Champions League was a was a
1:09:17
huge part in that. And you totally shocked me, man.
1:09:20
Once again, your boys caught flat footed and you know you're
1:09:25
AI stepping over, stepping over Tyron Lew.
1:09:29
And I'm just sitting there like, well shit, I didn't expect that
1:09:31
to happen. You know, there's no, there's no
1:09:34
way to, you know, kind of plot out where where the show might
1:09:37
go. Case in point.
1:09:40
But yeah, just I just think she's a she's a tremendous, I
1:09:44
like her potential. You, you, you know, we and we
1:09:47
saw this with Lily Johannes. We've seen this with a couple of
1:09:50
other players. But when you see how high the
1:09:52
ceiling goes for me as a sports watcher, it's hard to to turn
1:09:57
that off and be like, hey, damn. Especially when a player that
1:09:59
plays like that, that could be that hungry.
1:10:01
I'm like, yeah, I I'd bet on that player reaching that
1:10:04
ceiling, you know, And we'll just now it's just a matter of
1:10:08
will it happen? So your boys doubling down.
1:10:12
Let's go. I'm here.
1:10:13
I'm ready. Back to regularly regularly
1:10:16
scheduled programming. And that concludes our England
1:10:19
preview of the EUR Avery Patterson versus Emily Fox.
1:10:24
OK, sorry to all my pals in England who have to just be
1:10:27
like, what are you? What are you on about, mate?
1:10:30
OK, hold on a second on about whole reset here, OK.
1:10:37
You know, we got a lot of. Arsenal players.
1:10:39
Yeah, we got a lot of Arsenal players like whatever.
1:10:42
OK, Yeah, We had to get that off our chest though.
1:10:44
OK, here, here's the 11 I'd like to see, you know, Wiegmann, you
1:10:48
know, it the the the line up kind of changes.
1:10:52
Obviously it depends on if you're an attack or if you're,
1:10:55
you know, playing in defence, if you have the ball off, you know,
1:10:58
like right on possession, etcetera.
1:11:00
Wiegmann's a genius coach. She's she's coached the last two
1:11:03
EUR winners, Netherlands in 17 and then England and 22 because
1:11:11
obviously COVID delayed the 21. Yeah, of course, everybody knows
1:11:15
that we need a digression and to remember COVID.
1:11:19
At this point, the show's probably fat enough so.
1:11:24
March 2020. So, you know, she's been
1:11:28
trotting out like a 433 or something that pretty much looks
1:11:30
like a 433. I'm going to go with a 4231
1:11:33
obviously, but you could turn this into a 433 if you want.
1:11:38
Can I can I piggyback and also do my 11 too?
1:11:40
I want to I mean, obviously I love this.
1:11:42
I love this squad. Yeah, You know, there's I've got
1:11:45
some things to say about this eleven.
1:11:47
I wish we had done the Spain 11, but that's all right.
1:11:49
You know, I feel like we've covered some good ground there,
1:11:51
but I don't know, I just want to play the, I want to play the
1:11:53
England 11 game with you. OK, how do you want to do it?
1:11:56
Do you do you want to go unit by first?
1:11:59
Or you just. Want to do my 411 OK.
1:12:01
No, no, no. Unit by unit, you're the home
1:12:02
team. You go first.
1:12:04
OK, can we just let's just get out of the way Hannah Hampton
1:12:07
and goal. Hannah Morehouse got it.
1:12:10
Wow. Are you?
1:12:11
Are you Morehousing? Come on.
1:12:13
Come on man. Of course.
1:12:15
OK, All right. You're out of your mind.
1:12:17
That's fine. Hannah Hampton.
1:12:20
I was I And, you know, I raised my hand like early on.
1:12:24
I was just like. Oh, you don't like clean sheets?
1:12:26
Not until I do. I do, I mean, some of the goals
1:12:31
that Hampton or pardon me, some of the saves that Hampton has
1:12:34
been able to produce at Chelsea. Really, I was I wasn't like
1:12:39
skeptical of Hannah Hampton. Like I realized that, you know,
1:12:42
Emma Hayes brought on to Chelsea for a lot of reasons.
1:12:45
But there there were moments this past year where I was like,
1:12:48
yeah, she is that that goalkeeper, like she is
1:12:52
fantastic. So as a shot stopper could play
1:12:55
from her feet a whole deal. OK, back 4.
1:12:58
I'm going to go left to right. Neve, Charles, Alex.
1:13:02
Greenwood, Leah. Williamson, Lucy.
1:13:05
Bronze. I like it, yeah.
1:13:09
I wouldn't make any changes there.
1:13:11
I'm with that. I'm with that back 4.
1:13:14
OK, yeah, obviously love what Charles can bring, you know,
1:13:17
running up and down the left hand side.
1:13:18
Bronze can do the same, but bronze, five time Champions
1:13:22
League winner, you know, now you have, you know, Williamson with
1:13:27
the EUR and the Champions League under her belt.
1:13:30
Lucy Big Game Bronze Lucy. Big game bronze.
1:13:37
I'm interested. To see if SMA Morgan's going to
1:13:38
be able to breakthrough here and and get some get some minutes.
1:13:42
I feel like, I feel like on Lioness's social media, Morgan
1:13:47
has some good matches and then Morgan has some moments where
1:13:50
it's just like, oh boy, I don't like that decision making.
1:13:54
And and Alex Greenwood coming back off the injury just looked
1:13:59
way better than I expected. Yeah, well, we'll see.
1:14:03
Yeah, we'll see what the matchups dictate.
1:14:04
I think Esme Morgan, that's a great call.
1:14:06
He's a wild card, probably going to be situational, but a player
1:14:09
that athletically fits the profile might, might be the a
1:14:14
player to go to in a specific spot or maybe late in the match.
1:14:18
What about midfielders? So I mentioned the 4231.
1:14:21
I'm not exactly going to reinvent anything here.
1:14:24
My 2 holding defensive midfielders. 2 of the better
1:14:27
holding defensive minded midfielders in the world.
1:14:30
Kiera Walsh. Georgia Stanley.
1:14:33
Yep, got to go with it. Two of my favorite players.
1:14:36
Definitely two of my favorite players in the world.
1:14:40
England a little, I mean sort of thin at midfield.
1:14:44
I know they've got Jess Park listed as a forward.
1:14:46
She might be an option at midfield.
1:14:48
We had the only other two midfields fielders mentioned,
1:14:51
Ella Toon and Grace Clinton. And then obviously you would
1:14:53
throw Jess Park in there and then maybe LJ could get some
1:14:56
minutes deeper as well. You know, she's she could
1:14:59
certainly float. But yeah, no argument there.
1:15:02
I would also go Walsh and Stanway.
1:15:04
And now this is this is the part that I actually want to kind of
1:15:06
get into because much like Spain, it's ton of options up
1:15:09
front to pick from. Yeah, and I view it's a great
1:15:17
call out by you just park as a midfielder.
1:15:19
I mean by trade, you know she's she's an attacking midfielder,
1:15:22
that's fine. But like calling her a forward I
1:15:25
feel like feels like a bridge too far.
1:15:27
You know how I feel. I mean, we have been, you know,
1:15:30
from jump street of like us really diving into the sport
1:15:33
from us watching the sport. Lauren James is one of the
1:15:36
superlative talents in the world.
1:15:38
I love the the smoothness to her game.
1:15:41
She's also, she's better off as a midfielder, I think somebody
1:15:44
who can kind of dictate the pace and then still get forward and
1:15:48
totally fool the opponent's defense.
1:15:50
So let's talk about those those front 3.
1:15:53
You, you have to go on the left wing.
1:15:55
You have to go Lauren Hemp, who has looked in in good form
1:15:59
coming back off the injury, was in dynamite form at the
1:16:02
beginning of the Champions League.
1:16:04
So give me Lauren Hemp on the left, give me Lauren James in
1:16:07
the middle, give me Chloe Kelly on the right wing.
1:16:11
And then obviously, tip of the spear, it has to be Alessia.
1:16:14
Alessia Russo. Love it.
1:16:16
That's where I would go as well because I mean, some tough calls
1:16:19
to make, you know, because that that puts Beth Mead on the
1:16:23
bench, Aggie Beaver Jones on the bench.
1:16:26
Get well, let me do the obnoxious thing when we think
1:16:28
about this line up because the next thing I have in my notes
1:16:31
here. So off the bench, Beth Mead,
1:16:34
Jess Carter, Ella Toon, Aggie Beaver Jones, Jess Park, lots of
1:16:38
WOB and Moy. That sounds like a team that can
1:16:41
win this tournament once again. I like it, yeah.
1:16:44
I think definitely, definitely deep enough.
1:16:47
I think this is going to be a term, it's going to come down to
1:16:49
moments. And I think that's where England
1:16:52
should feel really good. You know, they've won this
1:16:55
tournament before. Well, I talked about the age
1:16:57
profile of Germany, the age profile on the England side.
1:16:59
I feel like a little a little smidge older, you know, So you,
1:17:03
you, you've got that not quite last chance, last dance
1:17:07
situation, but you have players that won't defend their title.
1:17:11
I don't feel like it's a slam dunk.
1:17:13
They should be there. This, this, this is a team that
1:17:15
should reach at least the semifinals.
1:17:18
And I think once you get there, just which way is the ball going
1:17:21
to bounce? I, I really do feel like I don't
1:17:23
think that there's a flat out favorite, even Spain in this
1:17:26
tournament. I think we you could see a team
1:17:28
like that get beat in the semifinals if it's a bad match
1:17:31
up and and not their best. Yeah, totally fair.
1:17:34
I, I think that, you know, it's going to come down you, like you
1:17:37
mentioned big dogs earlier in this and not, we're not talking
1:17:42
underdogs, we're talking about the big dogs.
1:17:44
If the inflection matters here, a lot of big dogs in this
1:17:47
tournament and you know, there's going to be some, some luck
1:17:51
involved, but it's, it's because you, you make your own luck.
1:17:55
Luck is the, you know, great sports, Cliche.
1:17:59
Luck is the intersection of skill and opportunity.
1:18:02
And so you're going to have a lot of that in a lot of moments
1:18:05
of these matches. I think.
1:18:06
Well, another thing that we've said on this podcast that I
1:18:08
always say is like every match is its own ecosystem of weird
1:18:13
bounces, good decisions, bad decisions like questionable
1:18:17
manager, managerial decisions, genius managerial substitutions
1:18:22
or adjustments. Yeah, England, they have to be,
1:18:28
you know, they're the holders. Like they they have to be
1:18:30
considered here even even if the form has been a little has
1:18:33
looked a little wonky at times in the build up.
1:18:37
The one thing that I'd be worried about with with England
1:18:39
is like, can they truly play different ways?
1:18:43
You know, when you think about Spain, when you think about
1:18:45
Germany, when you think about a France who's also in this group,
1:18:47
the Netherlands, in this group, it takes different makeups,
1:18:51
different tactical game plans, different lineups to to, to be
1:18:56
able to put your best foot forward against each of those
1:18:58
four teams. Are they the different
1:19:00
strengths? So England does feel a little
1:19:03
bit, I don't want to say 1 dimensional because they they've
1:19:06
got great players, but it does feel like you can kind of look
1:19:09
at that line up and kind of see what kind of football they want
1:19:11
to play. And if there's a team out there
1:19:14
that can, you know, throw a monkey wrench into that.
1:19:17
What's the what's the adjustment there?
1:19:19
Because I don't think it's just a, hey, let's take out this
1:19:21
player and just let's put in, you know, Aggie and see what
1:19:24
that fixes it. I think it's going to be a
1:19:26
little bit more, you know, structural, you know, and it's
1:19:28
just going to be a matter of do they have the make up as a
1:19:30
roster to be able to to adjust to that and and play a different
1:19:34
kind of football. It's great call by you and I
1:19:37
think, you know, if, if I needed to pick managers who I, who I
1:19:43
trust to be able to do that. Serena Wiegmann is on is on the
1:19:47
pretty short list there. So I, you know, I like her as an
1:19:51
option, but winning €2.00 in a row, gigantic.
1:19:56
It's, it's a Herculean task. So you know it's not.
1:20:00
And I know like. We've, I just talked about how
1:20:03
every match is a different ecosystem of, of different
1:20:05
variables. Obviously a tournament four
1:20:07
years down the road or three years in this case, down the
1:20:10
road is totally different. But it's just just think about
1:20:14
the grind that it takes to get there.
1:20:16
So you win a EUR, you make a World Cup final, now you have
1:20:20
some space and now you're going to try to win the EUR again.
1:20:24
It's a, it's a yeah, it's a tall order, to say the least.
1:20:28
Yeah, no doubt. Let's shift gears, talk about
1:20:31
another team that's going to be trying to do that same thing,
1:20:34
not necessarily repeat, but kind of reach that mountaintop and
1:20:37
and has the talent to do it. And if my alphabetizing is
1:20:42
correct, we should be talking about France.
1:20:45
Let's talk about France #10 in the FIFA rankings won their
1:20:50
group in 2022, two wins in a draw.
1:20:53
Draw was against Iceland, as we as we talked about earlier,
1:20:57
pretty wild match. I think there was like AI think,
1:20:59
I think France scored in the first minute of that match and
1:21:02
then Iceland equalized in like 1 of the last minutes of the match
1:21:06
in like the 110th minute or like not 110th, but it was like the
1:21:11
IT was like there was like of course, 15 minutes of extra or
1:21:15
of of stoppage time, whatever, I digress.
1:21:18
Then they France beats Netherlands in in added extra
1:21:21
time in the quarterfinals and then they lost to Germany to an
1:21:25
Alex pop brace in the semi finals.
1:21:29
You know, whatever the meme is from Grand Theft Auto San
1:21:32
Andreas of main character CJ. He starts walking, you know,
1:21:36
walking into his neighborhood. He says, oh shit, here we go
1:21:40
again. Here it is with France.
1:21:42
They have a they have a lot of talent that I mean, there's
1:21:45
there's no shortage of amazing players on this team.
1:21:49
And we're walking into a tournament thinking surely they
1:21:52
could win it. And you also have to consider at
1:21:57
the same time they might put up just a puzzling performance at
1:22:00
some time. Yeah, it's tough to see how they
1:22:04
aren't more competitive with the amount of talent that they put
1:22:08
on the field. But for whatever reason, they
1:22:12
just haven't been able to make it happen.
1:22:15
You know, they've had World Cup finals in the country, nation's
1:22:18
league finals last year in the country.
1:22:20
There might have been an Olympics in there somewhere, and
1:22:23
we just haven't been able to see, you know, this team really,
1:22:26
really get all the way up to the mountaintop.
1:22:30
Really interesting in the in the defender room.
1:22:32
No, Wendy Renar. That was a.
1:22:36
That's a choice. That's a choice.
1:22:38
Interesting defensively, some some recognizable names,
1:22:44
obviously Sabasha, Lisa De Almeida, Lacrar, who's playing
1:22:47
great, Sunbath Griezembach. So the I don't know what else do
1:22:53
we need to know about this roster?
1:22:54
Do you feel like they put they put out the right 23?
1:23:00
I mean, it's pretty hard to say you put out the right 23 if
1:23:03
you're just like Wendy Renard and Eugenie.
1:23:05
Lisa Mayer don't need them. I I understand where they are in
1:23:10
their football and careers. Are you telling me Wendy Renar
1:23:13
still not one of the best defenders in in the world?
1:23:16
I don't believe that. It's just it's it's hard to to
1:23:20
square that, but that puts a lot of responsibility on and you
1:23:26
mentioned her and I highlighted her here in my notes.
1:23:29
Grey Jembok, 30 year old PSG center back.
1:23:32
We've seen quite a bit of her over the last couple years.
1:23:35
She's going to be the captain, she's going to have the armband.
1:23:37
She's going to set the tone. And you know, when I talk about
1:23:40
things being a tall order here, she's going to need to work with
1:23:44
Elisa Day, day Almeida, her PSG teammate who you know, you a lot
1:23:49
of times play center back for PSGI.
1:23:51
Think she's going to move out to the.
1:23:55
I think she'll play left. I think she typically plays oh,
1:23:59
she typically plays right back for for France, because Bosch is
1:24:04
running up and down on the left side and so you know, they need
1:24:09
to get that right and Bosch a ball trademark copyright.
1:24:14
Well, however that works from Dino to Cespas Bosch, a ball is
1:24:17
going to have to be in full effect here as as an outlet, as
1:24:22
a release valve. And you know, some of that's
1:24:25
going to going to fall on Grigenbach of you know, let's
1:24:28
let's do this. Like we know she's a good
1:24:30
player. You have gigantic boots to fill
1:24:34
and Wendy Rinard, and I don't expect her to be Wendy Rinard,
1:24:37
but there's still too much talent on this team to to go out
1:24:42
sad like they, like they said, like they did in the Olympics.
1:24:46
So IA big piece of it's going to be on the defense, but then you
1:24:51
look at this attacking talent, this is another this is another
1:24:53
squad where we can play your game of OK, So what attackers
1:24:57
are you putting out there? Yeah, I mean the three that
1:25:01
stick out though, it's tough. I mean, well, DNE Koto and
1:25:05
Delphine Kaskarino are just three monsters that it's going
1:25:09
to be tough to not have them in the starting lineup.
1:25:12
Claire Mateo, another player that that's had a playing really
1:25:16
well for pre FC who's going to make it interesting.
1:25:19
I didn't mention Sakina Karshawi, who's listed as a
1:25:21
midfielder but can also play in the back line.
1:25:24
And then Sandy Baltimore as well.
1:25:26
We saw her play up top for PSG and then as a wingback for
1:25:31
Chelsea. So you already know she's
1:25:33
effective anywhere. Amel Majri listed as a
1:25:35
midfielder, super versatile. I think she gets out of minutes
1:25:39
up top as well. Grace Gayoro I mean, I think a
1:25:45
ton of talent. I love the age profile that
1:25:47
everybody's a little bit older. Don't like the renars on the
1:25:49
team or not on the team. I I I feel like the attacking, I
1:25:55
think I think the front 3 pretty well situated with Kototo, DNE
1:25:59
Kaskarina. Would you make any changes
1:26:00
there? No, I think that's, I think
1:26:03
that's probably it. I like Baltimore a lot because
1:26:07
just the the blazing speed and the passing at speed.
1:26:12
But yeah, I guess, yeah, I, I like Dionne on the right side.
1:26:18
I think Cascarino likes to play on the right side and that was
1:26:22
part of her departure from Lyonne.
1:26:25
So and, and Baltimore, you can play on the left side.
1:26:29
So I mean, I, I do wonder if you get that Baltimore Ketoto Dionne
1:26:35
look from left to right and then you just have Cascarino, you
1:26:40
know, who's who's played in big time World Cup matches,
1:26:43
obviously makes the semi final in the 19 World Cup.
1:26:48
You have her experience coming off off the bench.
1:26:51
So you know, I, I wouldn't be totally surprised if we see
1:26:56
Baltimore, Katoto D&E and then Cascarino's coming on to give
1:27:00
you 30 at the end of a match. And it's just a could just be a
1:27:04
nightmare for opponents. I wonder if like, and again, I'm
1:27:08
not a this might be a stupid idea, but like I wonder if based
1:27:12
on what we've seen Cascarito do in NWSL for San Diego wave, I
1:27:16
wonder if you could play Cascarito at the 10.
1:27:18
You know, she's obviously distributing let's go, you know,
1:27:21
dishing, you know, center of the park.
1:27:23
She's a handful. You don't you don't totally take
1:27:26
advantage of her speed. I mean, DNA can also dish from
1:27:30
that spot. I think they'll figure it out.
1:27:32
They've got they've got a lot of, I mean, a little bit
1:27:36
different than England in the sense that they've got players
1:27:38
that could play in different I, you don't know, you look at this
1:27:41
France, they could, they could do a lot of different approaches
1:27:44
here with who they put together. So I think I will give them
1:27:46
credit from that standpoint. They they have a lot of
1:27:50
different moves in the midfield and up the field, you know, with
1:27:54
with who they've got. I think they're going to make it
1:27:56
interesting. Totally fair.
1:27:58
I think that I think that's that's a good point.
1:28:01
And I mean, if you want to talk about playing players in
1:28:04
different positions than some people expect, I mean, I'm your
1:28:07
guy. Let's go.
1:28:08
I'll I'll sign up for that. Let's move the chess pieces
1:28:10
around. Free your mind, man.
1:28:12
We can we could like we just got to think about player skill sets
1:28:15
and where we want to put them on the field.
1:28:17
I'm glad you mentioned Amel Majri, who anybody who's been,
1:28:21
you know, hanging out with us on this program knows Amel Majri,
1:28:24
one of my absolute favorite players in the world. 32 year
1:28:26
old attacking midfielder for Leon Hit hit The great Call me
1:28:32
Sally a couple years ago is when my I mean just.
1:28:36
And legend. She's the she's the perfect
1:28:38
player to do it too. Coming off the bench for Lyon to
1:28:42
just hit you with the call me after she scores a banger, just
1:28:45
fantastic. She was out with an ACL in the
1:28:48
last EUR and she wasn't selected in the last Olympic squad for
1:28:54
France. So which, you know, by the way,
1:28:58
Irvay Renard, what are you thinking, buddy?
1:29:00
Like, I mean that to this day, that is a baffling decision for
1:29:04
that Olympic squad. Well, we did.
1:29:07
We heard from a little birdie that it might have come from a
1:29:10
little higher up there. Renard could have been political
1:29:13
related to unfortunately. So, you know, we're not the only
1:29:17
ones dealing with some of the foolishness.
1:29:19
But anyway, we get some of Mel Madre in the 2025 Euros and I
1:29:24
don't think things feel a little bit more right now that now that
1:29:28
we've hit that data point, I do want to get to my last, my
1:29:33
eighth team, my only Group D representative, the Netherlands
1:29:39
led by our guy. Not a big fan of the US women's
1:29:41
national team, but it's it's still an entertaining fellow.
1:29:47
Andros Yonker. Netherlands are plus 1600 to win
1:29:50
this tournament. A ton of talent, too, on this
1:29:54
squad. You know, you look at, you know,
1:29:56
the, the, the, the forward room. I mean, Vivian Medema, Romy
1:30:02
Luchter, Lynette Bernstein, Chastity Grant.
1:30:05
The midfield also pretty loaded. Jackie Roonan, Vika Kaptine,
1:30:09
Victoria Polova from Arsenal, Jill Rohr, Danielle van der Donk
1:30:13
and Damaris Egorola. Orlando's own.
1:30:18
That's right. I like this team.
1:30:21
I mean, yeah, I'm not quite, you know, like pretty loaded and I
1:30:28
think another team with great gold distribution in the Nations
1:30:31
League. So you look at who scores.
1:30:33
Versus Scotland, it's Joe Roord, versus Austria it's Captain van
1:30:37
de Donk and Midima. Against Australia it's Grunen,
1:30:41
Damaris and Spitza. Against Scotland it's Linneth,
1:30:45
Bernstein, Chastity Grant. Against Germany, Bernstein gets
1:30:48
2 at home in A22 draw versus the Germans.
1:30:52
So another team that could hit you from a lot of different ways
1:30:55
obviously played the US stuff in the in the last World Cup.
1:30:59
I feel like has left some results on the table in these
1:31:02
types of tournaments. I think we're generally maybe
1:31:06
waiting for this, this Dutch side to to elevate all the way
1:31:09
up, you know, all the way up to the penthouse.
1:31:11
But I'm not sure if this is the tournament to do it.
1:31:14
But I I like what they've put together from a from a roster
1:31:16
standpoint. Yeah, I mean, that's a, that's a
1:31:20
great point by you. I mean, they just, you know,
1:31:22
it's one of those things where I used to say it about the Golden
1:31:26
State Warriors, like during their dynastic run where people
1:31:31
like, oh, man, Steve Kerr, you know, he knew.
1:31:34
He knew when to put Andre Iguodala in the game.
1:31:37
Great, great adjustment. I'd be like, OK, cool.
1:31:39
And Steve Kerr is a great coach. He'll go to the Hall of Fame.
1:31:41
He's one of the better coaches in the history of the league.
1:31:44
That's fine. He's proven that out.
1:31:46
But also it helps when you have Andre Iguodala to put into the
1:31:51
game and he's a great player. He's a great player.
1:31:54
So I think when you look at this Netherlands team or you talk
1:31:58
about teams like France, England, Spain, obviously the
1:32:01
USA, not in this tournament, but you know, you look at these
1:32:05
teams that have a ton of talent. It's just like you've got to be
1:32:08
able to put a good eleven out there and then also be able to
1:32:11
kind of pull some strings. And the Dutch, they're right
1:32:14
there in, in this class. I mean, you know #11 in the FIFA
1:32:17
rankings, made the final in the 2019 World Cup, of course, won
1:32:21
the year. The, the, I keep screwing this
1:32:24
up. Won the 2017 Euros.
1:32:27
That COVID year, you know, was tricky if anybody remembers,
1:32:31
kind of kind of threw everything off there for a little bit.
1:32:34
But yeah, when's the 2017 year olds?
1:32:37
You have to account for them as a team that like you talked
1:32:41
about with France or or with England, like you think about
1:32:45
all the great teams in this tournament.
1:32:47
Can you can I make a convincing argument or can anybody make a
1:32:50
convincing argument why Netherlands definitely won't be
1:32:53
in the semi finals? I don't think so.
1:32:56
I think they can get there. Yeah, which is wild because they
1:32:59
also share a group with England and France, who have much, you
1:33:02
know, shorter odds. But I mean, I didn't even get
1:33:04
to, I mean, I just focused mostly on the forward in the
1:33:06
midfields. But you look at defensively,
1:33:09
Este Brooks listed as a defender who might be I mean, on on on on
1:33:16
a given day, could be the most devastating offensive player,
1:33:21
you know, like in in a moment capable of of of summoning
1:33:26
greatness there. Kirsten Kaspari from Manchester
1:33:28
City, are you familiar with her? Sharita Spitzer, the captain,
1:33:32
Lynn Wilms from Volzburg, I mean, right there.
1:33:35
That's for, you know, professional defenders that
1:33:39
could that could do it at a high level.
1:33:40
Didn't even mention Dominique Hansen in Fisher United and then
1:33:43
in goal Daphne von Domslar. Obviously the the first
1:33:47
experience that we got von Dumpsler or that I got with von
1:33:50
Dumpsler was in that 23 World Cup and I think she's only grown
1:33:54
from there. Still just 24 years old.
1:33:56
Yeah. And again, I really think it
1:33:59
counts for something like be coming off a Champions League
1:34:02
win. Like, you know, you're just
1:34:04
walking in with supreme confidence.
1:34:06
Hey, I just won a gigantic European trophy, especially in
1:34:10
the way that they won it like. Barcelona, you know, staring
1:34:14
down at that attack. What I'm saying like, like there
1:34:17
are easily, they're just six, maybe 7 teams that I just won't
1:34:24
even really bat an eyelash at if they're in, if they're in the
1:34:28
semis or even in the final, that's just like, yeah, OK,
1:34:32
that's, that's an understandable result.
1:34:36
Absolutely. Yeah, they're they're on my
1:34:37
short list for sure. Well, let's pick some.
1:34:39
Well, but we got one more, one more squad to hit and then let's
1:34:43
pick some semi finalists, finalists and pick a winner
1:34:47
before we get out of here. Yeah, don't you dare forget our
1:34:51
other Debbie tons. I think I said that weird Debbie
1:34:55
tons. And I think in a weird twist of
1:35:00
fate in if we even got rid of the groups and went full
1:35:05
alphabetical order, Wales would still be last.
1:35:09
So let's talk about Wales. Obviously have never appeared in
1:35:13
Euros before. And you know, I'm up here in
1:35:16
Seattle, WA where Jess Fishlock is a legend.
1:35:20
She's the 2021 NWSLMVP. It's a long time coming for her
1:35:26
to to appear in this tournament. She is the legend of that
1:35:30
program. Wales has three Seattle Reign
1:35:34
players. Jess Fishlock.
1:35:36
I'm around James Turner and Lily Woodham.
1:35:38
Lily Woodham is out on loan to Crystal Palace at the moment, I
1:35:42
think. I think that loan is still going
1:35:44
on. But this is a team full of
1:35:47
experienced players. So obviously at Fishlock, she's
1:35:50
38 years old. Sophie Angle, 33 years old,
1:35:54
played at Chelsea for a long time.
1:35:55
Kaylee Barton at 37. And even I'm around James
1:35:59
Turner, who goes by has in the in the Seattle Arena FC locker
1:36:03
room, 31 years old, sixty caps to her name for Wales.
1:36:09
They have a bunch of WSL players all over the field.
1:36:13
And this is just an incredible scenario for the Welsh program
1:36:19
to to get into this tournament. It's toward the it's in the
1:36:22
twilight of Jess Fishlock's career.
1:36:24
She has inspired a generation of footballers after her.
1:36:28
This is a, this is a great punctuation on an all time
1:36:33
career for one of their greatest footballers in the history of
1:36:36
that country. I've I've talked to Jess
1:36:38
Fishlock after victories for Seattle Reign.
1:36:41
I've talked to Jess Fishlock after defeats for Seattle Reign
1:36:45
FC and she doesn't take losing well because she is a just in
1:36:49
life as a footballer, she is a, she is a winner.
1:36:53
And so she's not showing up to to just wave at everybody and
1:36:57
say, hey, look, we did it. We made it to this tournament.
1:37:00
They're ranked #30 in the FIFA rankings, they're the lowest
1:37:03
ranked team in this tournament. I can tell you, I'm not going to
1:37:06
pretend like I know this person in any like real way.
1:37:11
She does not care though. I can tell you that with
1:37:13
confidence. She does not care that they're
1:37:15
the lowest ranked FIFA team in this tournament.
1:37:17
She's showing up to win football matches.
1:37:19
It's going to be a tall order, but that's what she's there to
1:37:22
do. I believe it.
1:37:24
I mean tall order. That's that's one way of putting
1:37:27
it. I mean, they they've got they've
1:37:29
got three legit giants in that group and as a debutante, it'll
1:37:33
just I mean, the the one thing in their favor, I think you you
1:37:36
mentioned their, their experience.
1:37:38
I think they'll come in and you know, they're they're not going
1:37:41
to. I don't think they're going to
1:37:42
necessarily get rolled by anybody or even if they do give
1:37:45
up goals. I I don't know that the games
1:37:47
are going to necessarily get away from them in, in that way
1:37:51
that we're used to seeing. So I'm excited to see some the,
1:37:54
the, the whales moments that kind of spring up in this
1:37:56
tournament. But yeah, they're just drawing,
1:37:59
drawing so short with that competition and that group.
1:38:03
Yeah, I think that's that's totally fair.
1:38:05
And so if they provide a level of friskiness and determination
1:38:10
and they're kind of able to to put a scare in a couple of the
1:38:14
big dogs in that group, I think they will have served their
1:38:18
purpose. But this is another one like you
1:38:20
mentioned, England, France, Netherlands, three absolute
1:38:24
giants in the sport. And then this kind of plucky
1:38:27
underdog in Wales. I got to tell you, Group D has
1:38:33
some Group of Light vibes to it. Remember that.
1:38:39
Who do you? Who do you like to get out of
1:38:41
the group? England is going to get out of
1:38:46
the group and I think I hate I'm going to pick France, I'm going
1:38:55
to pick France and I might regret picking France, but I
1:39:03
think they're going to do it. Stuff.
1:39:09
I mean, I'll tell you what, I'm picking the Netherlands to get
1:39:14
out of the group. I don't.
1:39:16
Yeah. I don't blame you.
1:39:18
And then it's a matter of England and France.
1:39:22
I gave, I gave it, I gave it a long thought.
1:39:25
I gave it a real long thought. Did I want to come on the show
1:39:30
and predict that England wouldn't?
1:39:34
But I, I can't do it. I can't, I can't even, I can't
1:39:36
even do that. I I can't in good conscience
1:39:38
knowing what we seeing, what we've seen, picking France to,
1:39:43
to survive the group in a big high stakes tournament.
1:39:47
So give me England, Netherlands. Good night.
1:39:51
Oh, I hate it so much. I hate betting against Viv.
1:39:54
I hate betting against Viv. Me tomorrow.
1:39:56
What a stupid thing. She's healthy.
1:39:59
What a stupid thing to do. No, no, no.
1:40:02
Take integrity. I picked France.
1:40:04
I picked France and I'm not and I won't do that.
1:40:07
Like well, I was in between on it.
1:40:08
I'm not. No, no.
1:40:09
Half stepping. Our pal OK Living legend
1:40:13
champion. Listen, it's almost, it's almost
1:40:15
1:00 PM I'm sorry, it's almost 1:00 PM It's almost 1:00 AM
1:40:19
Pacific, so. I'll, I'll, I'll.
1:40:23
Rescind the take integrity the the the the cloud of take
1:40:27
integrity. If you want to make a change
1:40:29
here, it's late. We're loopy 2 beer show.
1:40:32
It's a Saturday. I I want to, I want you to feel
1:40:36
good about your picks. There's so many good players on
1:40:42
France. That's just it's just madding.
1:40:45
It doesn't make these last couple.
1:40:47
Yeah, these last couple tournaments.
1:40:49
Do I want to bet? Do I want to say that Viv Mitimo
1:40:53
won't make it out of this group? OK.
1:40:57
No, I'm. I'm sticking to my story.
1:41:01
I like it. Jean Appel, Grant Avec into the
1:41:03
Channel. I'm picking.
1:41:06
I'm picking France. I like it.
1:41:10
All right, so we got our we, we got our group stage picks.
1:41:13
Who do you like reaching the semi finals?
1:41:16
Give me your 4 semi finalists. I mean, do we know?
1:41:22
Do we know how things are? Like things are reseeded and all
1:41:26
that or? They can go kind of any
1:41:28
direction because any team could be in first or second or I don't
1:41:32
know that. Yeah.
1:41:33
I mean, I guess there's scenarios where two teams would
1:41:36
have to meet in the semis and not the final.
1:41:39
I don't know. I think we can just pick the
1:41:41
four that we think would survive, and there's probably a
1:41:44
mathematical scenario that that would make that possible.
1:41:49
All right, so. You probably just can't pick
1:41:51
three teams for one group. I think that's the only yeah
1:41:54
limiting factor I. Guess so.
1:41:55
I guess so. I'm not.
1:41:57
I'm not great with mathematical scenarios, but let's go with.
1:42:02
I'm going to go a little chalky here, but I'll say Spain, I'll
1:42:11
say Norway. Give me Norway to make make the
1:42:16
last four. Maybe that's maybe that's my
1:42:18
bold take out of this. So give me Spain, Norway,
1:42:23
England and I'm going to say Sweden, Spain and I think.
1:42:32
Norway, England, Sweden. And I think those are our, I
1:42:36
think those are the four group winners.
1:42:40
And so I think that could happen in the in the in the last four.
1:42:44
I'm not sure how this happens, I'm not sure about the
1:42:48
machinations, but I'm going to take Spain, Germany, England and
1:42:55
the Netherlands. I think however it shakes out
1:42:59
England, they can't even yeah, I think they whoever Group D, I'm
1:43:03
just going to assume that Group D maybe will will will pretend
1:43:06
that you're going to face group AI.
1:43:07
Don't think any of those Group A teams are cut out for the semis.
1:43:12
So that would mean that I'm picking 4 semifinal teams from
1:43:15
BC and D So I'm just going to stick with that.
1:43:18
We'll see if it could actually happen, but those are my picks.
1:43:21
And then in the final, again, not sure if this would happen,
1:43:25
but I would take. Give me, give me an England,
1:43:34
Germany final. I think Spain gets bounced in
1:43:37
the semis and then give me Germany to win.
1:43:47
Germany to win the tournament. Look at you.
1:43:50
I love it. Yeah.
1:43:51
Give me Germany. Germany over England in the
1:43:53
final, That's my pick. The bone with T.
1:43:58
That's a real one that counts. They have a lot of other good
1:44:03
players, so it's my thing. I know, but that's the best
1:44:06
player, right? That's yeah.
1:44:08
So it's 2:00. That's two Balandors off the
1:44:11
board. So they only have two Balandors
1:44:13
still on on the roster. OK, I yeah, I think I just feel
1:44:26
foolish. Give Spain Sweden in the final
1:44:38
and Espana takes it. Give me, give me my guy,
1:44:43
Christian Verk. We're going to left this trophy,
1:44:47
our guy, me and feisty. We're going to be partying and
1:44:50
come 3-4 weeks from now. I think Spain, I think they
1:44:54
overcome the bone Matee absence and they stamp it and it's a
1:44:59
World Cup and a euro. You know, I mean, the narrative
1:45:03
fits it. It's reminded me of last
1:45:07
Olympics in the summer because I remember we were like, are we
1:45:10
really going to bet against Spain?
1:45:11
Are we really going to like, you know, this is Spain we're
1:45:13
talking? And then like, even with the
1:45:15
flat performances, we're like, yeah, But like when it comes
1:45:18
out, you know, and then they just never were able to put it
1:45:21
back together. I'm not saying that that's going
1:45:24
to happen, but I feel like that +200, that's a little heavy.
1:45:30
That's a little heavy for this tournament and this field.
1:45:33
I feel like this field's pretty loaded.
1:45:35
They're going to have a tough time.
1:45:37
Once once you get to the knockout stage, it's going to be
1:45:40
real, real football at that point.
1:45:43
There's going to be no, they're going to have to play all 90
1:45:44
minutes, cover all the blades of grass for sure.
1:45:48
And I feel like they've played a lot of football and we'll see
1:45:52
how much is left in the tank. I mean, it's a tough time of
1:45:54
year to to really summon to, to, to dig that deep.
1:45:58
So I could see them kind of stalling out and then I could
1:46:00
see a Germany A-Team that's been kind of knocking on the door,
1:46:03
really just fully busting through.
1:46:05
I really love just the make up. The roster makes a ton of sense
1:46:08
to me. I like it.
1:46:12
It makes sense. I mean, you know, Germany's
1:46:14
absolutely one of the teams that that could win this tournament.
1:46:18
So I, I don't, I don't blame you for a second to, to MLS, to P3,
1:46:24
our great pals. Just remember, remember who's
1:46:27
got your back now the Barcelona guy, now the Spain guy, you
1:46:32
know, make it out there again sometime and you know, and enjoy
1:46:39
some of the delicious cuisine, see the sights and hopefully
1:46:43
watch some football out there. Hopefully I, I, I am welcomed as
1:46:47
a, as a, you know, honorary citizen of Spain.
1:46:53
Yeah, get you some paella. I mean, you know, I'm just
1:46:58
trying to hit these predictions. You know, I'm not going to pat
1:47:02
myself on the back too hard. But you know, two straight years
1:47:04
of Champions League final predictions, including the fall
1:47:08
of the the mighty Barcelona. Real lonely out there making
1:47:12
that that that pick that that one nil Arsenal over Barcelona,
1:47:15
but nailed that one and feel pretty good about my Germany
1:47:18
over England in the final here in this one too.
1:47:20
We'll see. I'm easy to.
1:47:22
Like I said, I'm easy to find. Very easy to.
1:47:26
You stand on the takes. I'm just out here trying to get
1:47:29
some Paellas bravas, you know, maybe a little occasionally.
1:47:34
A sponsor Kill us. All right, man, We're 107
1:47:40
minutes, 107 minutes into our mega mega MB of Undersold it
1:47:45
Mega Monster preview. We made our picks.
1:47:49
We covered all 16 teams. For anyone still listening, God
1:47:52
bless you. I mean, I really cannot believe
1:47:55
that would be possible. But we appreciate you singular
1:47:59
person out there that's still rocking with us.
1:48:02
It's going to be a great tournament.
1:48:03
We're going to watch this football together.
1:48:07
I don't know, cover a ton of ground man.
1:48:08
Anything else before we get out of here?
1:48:10
I think that's it. Like I always say to folks, let
1:48:12
us know what we missed and we'll keep an eye out for it as the
1:48:16
matches are played. All right, man, all all that's
1:48:19
left is a football just a few a couple days away here.
1:48:22
I think we did it, man. There's been another episode of
1:48:24
Vincent channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
1:48:25
for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show or loved
1:48:27
ones football as much as your boys do, make sure you're
1:48:29
kicking with us each and every single week.
1:48:31
We're going to try to do a thing.
1:48:32
We're going to try to cover these matches a little bit
1:48:36
quicker. There's going to be 12 straight
1:48:38
days of football. I'm not making any promises that
1:48:41
we'll have 12 straight days of shows, but well, we're going to
1:48:46
see how close we can get. There's just too much going on,
1:48:50
too much to share. And I'm not going to make any
1:48:51
promise that we're going to watch every second, but we're
1:48:54
going to be locked in and we'll be we'll be here with you for
1:48:57
the whole tournament. So definitely keep it locked.
1:48:59
If you enjoyed the show or love it as much as your boys do, make
1:49:02
sure you're kicking with us. Like if you liked, subscribe,
1:49:05
follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you like to
1:49:07
watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
1:49:08
favorite podcast app. We want to hear from you.
1:49:10
We love hearing from you. Links to all of our socials
1:49:12
except one in the show notes of this episode.
1:49:15
And a big thank you to my coast as well, Mr. Granengle, for
1:49:19
potting well into the well into Sunday morning.
1:49:22
I appreciate you, bro. It only comes around for every
1:49:25
four years. I already know I can count on
1:49:27
you. This is sort of prime, you know,
1:49:30
prime time extended for your boys.
1:49:31
Not quite Champions League season, but it's right there in
1:49:34
terms of, you know, prestige and importance.
1:49:37
And I already know I don't. I don't have to fret about
1:49:42
whether, you know, how locked in you're going to be or whether
1:49:43
you're going to be here with the takes and, you know, kind of
1:49:46
like blowing my mind with what you're picking up in terms of
1:49:49
watching all this football. Long story.
1:49:51
Short. I appreciate you bro.
1:49:54
Likewise buddy. I knew you'd be locked in as
1:49:56
well. I mean, the data is outstanding
1:49:58
per usual. I'm just excited to watch the
1:50:01
football, see how the matches are played, see what these teams
1:50:04
look like. Again, I mentioned it.
1:50:06
I've mentioned it multiple times.
1:50:08
If you're from some of these countries, if you're watching
1:50:11
these teams closely, if you've seen some of these players play
1:50:13
in your favorite domestic league, on your favorite clubs,
1:50:16
let us know. What are we missing?
1:50:17
Well, who should we be looking out for?
1:50:19
You know, we only covered a couple players from each squad.
1:50:21
So, so tell us if we if we have a big blind spot on any of
1:50:24
these. We always love hearing from you
1:50:26
guys. You get constantly educating us,
1:50:28
you know, having great conversations in the chat.
1:50:31
We very much appreciate that. Just kind of, you know, enjoying
1:50:34
talking to nice people on the Internet, which is actually a
1:50:37
thing that exists in 2025. It's a miracle that we found it.
1:50:41
We very much appreciate all of you.
1:50:42
We're looking forward to watching the football with you
1:50:45
and we will see you all next time.