Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UEFA Women's Champions League Qualifying: Round 2 Preview

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UEFA Women's Champions League Qualifying: Round 2 Preview · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to into the channel podcast primarily about women's
0:08
football before we hit the pitch.
0:10
If you enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your
0:12
boys do, come kick it with us already.
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Subscribe follow YouTube, Spotify podcast wherever you
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like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
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favorite podcast app links to all of our socials, every single
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one in the show notes of this episode.
0:24
I am your host, Dino de Suspicious and as always, I am
0:27
joined by my coast Mr. Grant Angle.
0:30
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
0:33
Let's get right into cracking these celebratory beers, man,
0:39
because I believe we are so back with the return of the Champions
0:46
League again. It hasn't left us very long this
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time. We're here for the first leg of
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Round 2 of qualification. I'm going to start us off with a
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little stat, nothing too in depth, but at the very least we
0:58
will have 4 new groups of friends joining us in the group
1:02
stage of the Champions League. And there is a possibility, if
1:05
it breaks the right way, we could have all 12 of the winners
1:10
be people and be teams who did not participate in last year's
1:13
Champions League group stage. Oh, my God, That would be
1:15
incredible. Yeah, I think that that checks
1:17
out. All 12.
1:19
I mean, should we be rooting for that or what do we do now?
1:21
We can't know if it could be. Well, Arsenal, City, we, they
1:23
would constitute 2 of the new teams.
1:25
So those two, it's at least 2, yes, that's a great step.
1:29
All right, you know what, I'm trying to pull my weight around
1:31
here. You're the math guy, you're the
1:32
stats guy. I just need like every once in a
1:34
while I can, you know, sometimes your center back gets a goal and
1:38
you're just like, all right, we can use one of those once in a
1:40
while. So that's what I'm trying to do
1:41
here. No, you crushed it.
1:42
All right, man, We're here Round 2, just a couple matches away
1:47
from the group stage. Can't believe it.
1:49
We're going to know our 16 pretty, what are like 10-11
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days. We're going to know exactly
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who's going to be, I don't know, battling it out over those
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couple of a group stage magic. I'm very, very, very excited.
2:00
As mentioned, round two kicks off here on Wednesday.
2:03
The it's a little bit of a spread schedule wise.
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There's a few Thursday matches, there's a Sunday match.
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Where do you want to get started?
2:09
I think the most logical place to start is BK Hackin versus
2:13
your Arsenal in Gothenburg, Sweden.
2:16
I think this might be the most compelling match of the bunch.
2:18
I think you're right on about that.
2:20
This Hackin side obviously down a Cafagi maybe not flying as
2:25
high as we saw them last season. Looking at where they're at this
2:28
season, I mean the dumbest Vinskin table is pretty mad.
2:32
We talked about it with with with the shady gang Rosengaard
2:36
19 O&O at the top of the table there.
2:39
Their goal differential Rosengaard here is plus 77.
2:42
Hacking is sitting in second place in the table, plus 29 goal
2:45
differential. Crazy.
2:47
But hacking, probably feeling like there's some unfinished
2:50
business. They lost the league last
2:52
season, they were even on with Hammerby, but dropped the league
2:56
basically by one goal and goal differential.
2:58
Yep. So I kind of feel like they're
2:59
going to be coming out with something to prove here.
3:01
Oh yeah, at home we saw that atmosphere last year in the
3:05
Champions League. Arsenal is going to be a big
3:07
draw, so I gotta imagine that building is going to be at
3:10
capacity. It's like a little bandbox in
3:13
there where like we've talked about it too, it felt like the
3:15
sound is just getting pushed on to the pitch.
3:18
Even when you're I think they're like 8010 thousand seats in
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there somewhere in that in that ballpark, No pun intended, but I
3:26
I just think they're going to go out there and play physical.
3:29
In their last match in Donald Fenskin, they had a one nil away
3:32
win versus IFK nor Koping. Jennifer Falk rested 29 year old
3:37
Philippa Kermark, who started most matches this season.
3:40
She came in in the 72nd minute. Your forwards, Alice Bergstrom
3:45
and Tabby Tindall, they came off at 62 and 72 respectively.
3:50
So they're already kind of trying to play the game of, all
3:54
right, let's let's get some of these players rested.
3:56
And we get the age-old question because you've talked about it.
3:59
They're in the middle of their season.
4:01
Rest versus Rust. So I've been on record as a rust
4:05
guy. I don't like when teams are
4:08
coming in cold. I don't like when the the
4:09
Fighters walk into the ring without, you know, a coat of
4:12
sweat. They're not properly warmed up.
4:14
So kind of maybe going against my own grain here and hoping
4:18
that the the rest is going to benefit Arsenal.
4:21
I think there's another interesting twist to this,
4:23
though. You have with Arsenal, the more
4:26
pedigreed players, right? Like the players playing in
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maybe the tougher league, the more expensive players.
4:32
We can think about it that way. But with this BK Hackins inside,
4:34
they've got the Champions League experience, obviously having
4:37
gone deep into the tournament, rolled right from that
4:40
tournament into their league season, and obviously they're
4:43
having a great league season here as well, in a position to
4:46
return to the Champions League next season.
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So we also have that dynamic. Yeah, it's a it's a good point
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and it's a funny point because Arsenal is the only English club
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to ever win the Women's Champions League.
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I shout out to our our pal legend Leanne Sanderson, winner
5:02
of that lifter of that Champions League trophy. 2007 let's go.
5:06
Hell yeah. So it is funny to think about
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Arsenal coming in here with less recent Champions League
5:11
experience than a than a team from Sweden.
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But like we've talked about, I mean, whether it's Rosengaard
5:16
who had like a a strange season in Donald's Fenskin last year
5:19
where they finished like mid table.
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So now they didn't even have to bother with Champions League
5:24
qualifying this year. And they're just running away
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with the Donald's Fenskin now. But you just think about like,
5:29
yes, the WSLI think it's fair to say that is a better league,
5:32
probably top to bottom than The Donald's Fenskin.
5:35
But man, we've seen these these Swedish teams and they are tough
5:39
and smart and organized. You know, I'm not trying to put
5:42
a scare into you here, buddy. I think they're going to come
5:44
out really strong versus Arsenal and it's going to take a lot for
5:48
them to to get by, get a win. I think if Arsenal leaves with
5:52
A11 draw, I think the Gunners should be pretty happy with
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that. I agree with that.
5:57
I mean, obviously you want to hold out for the win, but A11
6:00
draw in a match that you know, is going to be physical, you
6:03
know, it's going to be painful. And obviously you talked about
6:05
it, The environment. Yeah.
6:07
I mean, it's loud, it's intense. And those fans, no ball for
6:12
sure. Hell yeah.
6:13
I'm actually feeling pretty confident.
6:15
I kind of like having drawn hack, and obviously it's a tough
6:18
test, but this Arsenal team wasn't in tournament last year.
6:21
So there's some teams in the field here of 24 towards the
6:24
bottom of our Google Doc here that, you know, like it would've
6:28
been cool to kind of draw well, you know, one of these teams
6:30
from a lesser league that just feel, it felt maybe more like a
6:32
walk. But I kind of like that if
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Arsenal is to make their group stage, they'll sort of really
6:38
have earned it with those first two wins and a semi tough draw
6:41
here against BK Hackin. I like that.
6:43
I think that's that's a really great point because let's say
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they walk over a lesser team and then you get drawn into a group
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and like by some curse, you're drawn into the group with
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Barcelona and then like PSG and you're like, OK, everybody get
6:59
ready. Like we have to play the elite
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teams in the world. Yeah, I mean, there's tough
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teams just amongst this 24. Oh yeah.
7:06
And you know that every group's going to get one of those BIG4,
7:09
Chelsea, Leon, Bayern. And I knew I was going to
7:14
Barcelona, was going to happen to Barcelona.
7:18
I'm leaving that funny bucket. That's a funny one to forget.
7:21
I like that. Anyway, this one is going down
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Wednesday, 1:00 PM Eastern. I want to shift gears and hit
7:30
your team. Manchester City will be heading
7:33
to Paris to play Perry FC. Where's your head at for this
7:37
one? I mean, in a similar space to
7:39
how I feel about Arsenal, I mean, when we joined the
7:43
illustrious podcast Shades of Blue, the greatest Manchester
7:46
City football podcast on the Internet, neither of us were
7:49
really happy about the draw. I mean, Perry FC, we saw what
7:52
they were able to bring to the table in last year's Champions
7:55
League. I think they have a weaker back
7:58
four than Hakken, and I think City might be able to take
8:01
advantage of that. But in these samples of a home
8:05
and home, you're going into Perry to play them, they're
8:08
going to be amped up. I feel like I'm in a similar
8:11
spot to you. And you could also do the same
8:13
thing to me, be like, hey, you ought to be worried about this a
8:15
little more. But I think I'm in the same spot
8:17
as you in the sense that I'm confident we can win.
8:20
But there's just that thing in the back of my mind like, yeah.
8:23
And then in in in a dozy game that could be really tricky.
8:28
It's also tricky too, like WSL is not in season.
8:30
Yes. So it's not quite like we be
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like, well, you know, bunnies really cooking, you know, it's
8:35
like, it's more like bunnies looking great in practice, kind
8:37
of we're kind of that stage of the season.
8:39
So that makes it tough. And yeah, Anadosi, you already
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know she's going to be locked in, in Paris, on the road,
8:46
another team not in the field last year and a really tough
8:49
test. I think the one the one place
8:51
where Arsenal maybe has the edges.
8:53
They they did get those couple matches last week in the week
8:56
prior just to kind of, you know, get warmed up and then have some
8:59
stakes, you know, sweat out that Rosenborg second victory a
9:02
little bit, you know, So I think City's going to come in a little
9:06
bit colder, but with more talent.
9:08
So we'll see if that's able to carry them.
9:10
Yeah, and I mean, you know, you think about the field players
9:12
for Perry FC, you know, Claire Mateo and their win over Sparta
9:16
Prague in the 36 minutes she scores an absolute banger.
9:20
Hell yeah. She gets it on to her left foot,
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curls it in. Prague keeper still got a hand
9:24
on it. All she was able to do is just
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push it further into the upper 90.
9:29
Perry FC, they have players who can score.
9:31
I think the real question is are they going to sit really low and
9:34
try to win on the counter? Or maybe they try to sit like
9:38
mid block and then try to win on the counter.
9:40
Or are they going to try to play a more up and down style, which
9:44
is what they were playing against Slavia Praha.
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Now obviously, no disrespect to Slavia Praha, Manchester City is
9:51
not them, but going to be really interested to see if Perry FC
9:56
goes, OK, screw it, we're going to go for it.
9:58
We're going to be at home. We're at home, home.
10:00
Let's go for the win. Let's try to hold the ball as
10:01
much as possible. And if they try that, do you
10:05
then get picked apart by Jess Park and Vivian Medema and
10:10
they're passing the ball up to Bunny Shaw and Lauren Hemp?
10:13
Chloe Kelly might be running around there at 1000 mph.
10:17
So I'm really interested to see how Perry FC is is going to
10:22
approach this. Do they play strictly underdog
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football or they try to crank it up a little bit on the attack?
10:28
It's funny because like when you imagine each of these teams
10:30
scoring, you imagine that it's on the break going back to the
10:33
last Champions League season, that that is how they wanted to
10:36
get out and score. Gay time teen A, their 37 year
10:39
old ageless wonder actually led the team last season in goals
10:43
with 9. So I think they definitely
10:45
spread it around. Clara Mateo had an awesome game,
10:48
the one that you're mentioning. And then quick correction, not
10:51
Slavia Praha was actually Sparta Praha that Perry FC was able to
10:54
clip 2 nil. So thank you very much.
10:57
A lot of Prahas that we got to keep track of, but, you know,
10:59
doing our best to stay above water.
11:02
And I will say, now that you say it, I know Sparta Praha and
11:06
Slavia Praha are bitter rivals. So my apologies to the fans of
11:10
those clubs. Didn't mean to confuse you.
11:12
Ignorant American raising his hand over here.
11:15
We made it right. We went and lose as a team bar.
11:16
You already know that. That's right.
11:19
So ultimately, how are you feeling?
11:21
I think they'll be OK. I think they can.
11:23
I think they can get a win similar to Arsenal where it's
11:27
like, I think I'd be OK with a draw.
11:30
I actually think Perry FC would be less OK with a draw than I
11:34
would because I don't think they're going to feel good
11:36
coming into Manchester, coming into Joy Stadium thinking that
11:39
they could get an outright win. If this one ends in A11 draw or
11:43
A22 draw or something like that. I think I would be very happy
11:46
with it. I wouldn't want to see a nil,
11:47
nil draw because I think that would look really sketchy for
11:51
Cities attack. I will say, you know, with the
11:53
WSL season not started, I went back and watched the Perth, I
11:57
think it was the Perth International Cup, I think was
12:00
the name of it. It was part of that Australian
12:01
tour that the city women's team did and Bunny looked good.
12:05
They played in the final versus PSG.
12:07
Mary Earpest wasn't out there for PSG and you know, City had
12:10
were broke rotating players. Bunny got 61 minutes.
12:14
She was turning toward goal and ripping shots.
12:16
Katarina Kedrenik for PSG, she played it in instead of Mary
12:20
Earps and she really kept him in the match.
12:23
Like she she made a bunch of really good saves.
12:25
There was an absolute horse hockey no call by the referee
12:29
where Bunny Shaw gets pulled down in the fucking penalty
12:33
area. No foul.
12:34
It should have been a penalty, but I digress.
12:36
Bunny looked good. I want to point this out though,
12:39
because this is true of the French teams and the WSL team.
12:42
So this is something that Arsenal, City, Perry FC and PSG
12:45
are all going to have to deal with.
12:46
These matches are happening on. I think they're all those teams
12:49
are playing on the 18th and then the opening of the D1, Arkema
12:54
and WSL happen later that weekend and then they have to go
12:58
back for the second leg and then they have to go play Week 2.
13:01
So I think all four of those teams I mentioned, Arsenal,
13:04
City, Perry FC and PSG, I think they're all going to play four
13:08
matches in the span of 11 days between September 18th and
13:13
September 29th. And I just got to say that's not
13:16
great. I don't think it's cool.
13:17
I don't think the calendar should work out that way.
13:20
So unless I'm totally missing something, because usually foot
13:22
mob will do be the solid and and like cross out fixtures when
13:25
they're going to be rescheduled. So yeah, you know, Fact Check me
13:29
if I'm wrong, folks. But like four matches in 11 days
13:32
seems a little sketchy. I mean, we had trouble doing 4
13:36
pods in 12 days during the Olympics keeping up with that.
13:38
So imagine need some load management out here.
13:42
All right, so we'll be locked in city pre FC.
13:45
That's that's going to be one of the I mean, it's right up there.
13:48
I think we've got four or five like tier one matches can't miss
13:52
matches. Let's get into one of those
13:54
right now. Juventus hosting the
13:58
aforementioned PSG, this one also going down Wednesday, 1:00
14:01
PM Eastern. What are you going to be looking
14:03
for when these two teams lock up?
14:05
We'll talk about some of the other clubs later.
14:08
I am excited for all the Italian teams in this tournament.
14:12
We talked about Juventus a little bit with the shades of
14:14
blue guys. Please go back and watch that
14:16
show. Those guys are awesome.
14:17
This past Saturday, yesterday at the time of this recording,
14:20
Juventus won four to two over Como Women.
14:23
It was a second match of Syria Femoneal.
14:25
So I think Syria has timed this perfectly to kind of get them a
14:29
little bit of a runway. Juventus looks looks good.
14:32
They got shocked early. There was an opening banger from
14:35
Slovenian Zara Kramzar. She's on loan from Roma, but who
14:38
they was able to fight back and they scored goals in just
14:41
multiple different ways. Absolute laser from midfielder
14:44
Ariana Caruso. It was like a knuckler that hit
14:47
right into the upper 90. There was a beautiful passing
14:50
combination that led to 21 year old Swede Hannah Bennison's
14:54
goal. They scored on a corner kick.
14:56
There was a fourth goal that came off a long aerial pass
14:59
during the run of play. Like Juventus has a bunch of
15:03
like change of speeds it looks like just from the few matches
15:05
that I've watched. So I don't claim, I'm not
15:07
claiming to be an expert alerting podcast, but they got a
15:10
lot of people who can hit the ball off the volley with skill,
15:14
with good timing. I like the look of a man I am.
15:17
I am super excited to watch this one.
15:19
Yeah, same. I think the thing about Juventus
15:22
is like they're wide open style is pretty apparent in the
15:25
league. In the two matches, ten goals
15:27
they've scored, five goals they've given up.
15:29
That's going to make for a really interesting style match
15:32
up against this PSG side. So obviously we've got the US
15:36
women's national team connection with Eva Gaitino, Corbin Albert.
15:39
I'll be interested to see who gets playing time.
15:41
I think Corbin Albert's probably like you can almost pencil her
15:44
in. She was getting real minutes
15:45
last season and I think her games definitely progressed.
15:48
Eva Gaitino, you know, definitely looking for her to
15:50
get some minutes. Then two big signings that we
15:53
talked about, Mary F Earps, Romae Luta from IAX.
15:56
How do they fit into the squad? And then two big departures,
15:59
Taba, the Chewinga, Sandy, Baltimore.
16:01
I mean, that's a ton of productivity.
16:04
That's a ton of pressure on back lines and defenses.
16:07
So I'd like to see how the pieces get moved around.
16:10
They realized and we we talked about it like as D1 Arkama
16:15
wrapped and as the Champions League wrapped up, from watching
16:18
the way they behaved in the transfer window, they knew they
16:20
were like 3 or 4 players short of really, really competing with
16:25
Leon. And now you have to try to do
16:27
some math to figure out like you, you lose Tabitha Chewinga
16:30
and Sandy Baltimore, you got to do a lot to replace those two
16:34
players. So it's like, OK, we feel like
16:36
we're a few players away and then two of your major pieces
16:39
leave and you knew that you needed probably needed to get
16:42
better at goalkeeper. So you sign Mary Erps and you
16:44
bring in Rome Luke to try to bring back some of that from
16:47
Chewinga in Baltimore. You don't know how that's gonna
16:49
look. And on top of that, like we
16:50
mentioned, D1, Arkima hasn't even started.
16:52
So now PSG, they kind of got to get going.
16:55
Like I mentioned, they played at Man City in that Perth game on
16:58
September 1st, so they got to they got to get going against a
17:02
Juventus team that's already cooking.
17:04
I think you've got one team in Juventus, like we mentioned,
17:07
that's not going to feel like they can't score.
17:10
I think they're going to be going for it.
17:11
And then you've got a PSG side that will maybe be trying to
17:15
prove to themselves that they can score with the best squads
17:18
in the world. So style wise, I think this is
17:21
the matchup. I mean, it's happening at the
17:23
same time as a city in Prairie FC.
17:25
But I don't know. We'll we'll sort it out.
17:28
All the football will get watched one way or the other.
17:30
Yeah, man. And the real bummer is that your
17:34
boy has a very busy day at the day job on Wednesday.
17:38
So I'm going to be what did what did LeBron used to call it?
17:42
The thing where he was just he was just announced to everybody
17:44
that he wasn't looking at social media that you would call like
17:47
Zero Dark 30 or some some military term, some ridiculous
17:52
to let everybody know. I mean he's not checking
17:54
Instagram. Zero Dark working.
17:57
Yeah, exactly. So I, I got to be locked in on
18:00
the day job. So I'm not going to open the
18:01
Foot Mob app, even though all of you should.
18:03
And you should immediately download that app.
18:05
They're very helpful to us. I am not going to look at that.
18:07
I'm not going to look at Twitter or anything.
18:09
And then I'm going to come home, I'm going to decompress and then
18:11
I'm going to watch the football. So this is the official no
18:15
spoilers alert. Fair enough.
18:16
Yeah. And I'm just waiting for those
18:19
sponsors to come in and swoop us up and leave us of all these
18:24
extra duties just so we could focus on the the real action
18:27
here. Of course.
18:28
All right, so we hit the, I think we hit the first big three
18:30
matchups, a lot of different directions we can go.
18:33
What do you have Next up on your list?
18:34
I talked about the Italian teams, Italy versus Germany, and
18:38
football tends to be pretty big. Fiorentina versus Wolfsburg,
18:41
that feels like a juicy matchup. Fiorentina has has looked
18:45
impressive. Wolfsburg always tends to look
18:48
impressive. They are a legacy team.
18:49
They're A2 time UEFA Women's Champions League champion
18:52
Fiorentina is looking to get back to the Champions League for
18:56
the first time since the 2122 tournament.
18:59
They're playing hungry. I love everything about
19:01
Fiorentina. With Sophie Bredegaard, their 22
19:04
year old Danish right wing. She scored two goals in their
19:07
two league matches. She had an absolute banger off
19:09
of volley in their two one win versus AC Milan on Saturday.
19:13
She also scored their first match against Napoli, where she
19:16
came on the pitch in the 65th minute and scored in the 67th
19:19
minute. Like.
19:21
Born ready style and we talked about it on shades of blue, but
19:25
Vero Boqueta, 37 year old Spanish legend in the matches
19:28
that I've seen the first two matches of Syria and the and the
19:31
Champions League qualifiers, Boqueta is just like, what do
19:34
you need? You need me to play like a
19:35
number 10 for 30 minutes. OK, I'll do that.
19:37
I'll distribute the ball. You want me to be a little more
19:39
of a false 9? I could do that.
19:41
You want me to be a true #9 I could do that too.
19:43
Like she's just everywhere. I don't go into this lightly,
19:46
but I think it fits because of the pedigree.
19:48
She's a previous Champions League winner.
19:51
Big Marta vibes coming from in terms of like I'm 37, but I can
19:56
still really fucking go and I can smash one if you if you have
20:00
your head turned for a half second and I'm setting up all my
20:03
all my team mates and all my team mates love me.
20:05
I mentioned this up top as well, the dark horses of the
20:09
tournament at this point, I think we're on teams 7 and 8.
20:13
This is our 4th matchup, any of the eight that we've hit.
20:16
Do they sort of fit your criteria for a dark horses
20:18
Fiorentina in that mix? I know they've got a tough, a
20:21
tough draw here. Who did you, who did you have
20:22
your eye on for? For the Dark Horse.
20:24
I don't know if I mean, it's funny too, because you look at
20:27
the names of these clubs, like who's ever calling who've a dark
20:32
horse in any tournament, like Manchester City and Arsenal,
20:34
we're not allowed to call ourselves dark horses in any
20:37
tournament in any situation. That would feel a little silly.
20:41
But yeah, if we're talking about a dark horse in terms of
20:43
somebody who can make it through this qualification and then make
20:47
some noise in the group stage, I think Fiorentino will count,
20:49
considering they haven't been in this tournament for a few years.
20:52
So yeah, team to watch Dark Horse to watch Fiorentina.
20:56
I like it. Tough opponent here to get over.
20:59
It's gonna be rough to make it happen.
21:01
But I mean, they're on. They're on a bit of a tear here.
21:03
I would probably rewind a little bit.
21:05
Juventus, who you mentioned, Obviously I'm not the tiniest
21:08
club and this is a team that went five straight league titles
21:11
before Roma's two recent Syria feminial titles and as
21:14
mentioned, they've got that wide open style.
21:16
So I kind of like it. PSG knocked out before the group
21:20
stage. That would be incredible.
21:21
I'm going to hold one of my dark horse cards in my pocket.
21:24
I might want to pull one out a little bit later.
21:26
Got my eye on a couple teams here, but sticking here with
21:28
Wolfsburg pedigree. We talked about seven time
21:31
winner from Bundesliga you LeBron still just 21 years old.
21:36
Lynette Berenstein I think looked great.
21:38
They've still got Alex Pop, Ariana Arias who they brought
21:40
over from Barcelona. Those editions are going to try
21:43
to fill the void left by Eva Pajor and Lena Orbeidorf and
21:47
Philly Rauh who moved over to the NWSL.
21:49
And then the last thing I had to hear, Wolfsburg.
21:51
Little bit of slow start to the season.
21:53
A home draw to Verta Bremen who finished 7th in the table last
21:58
year. 33. Maybe not the way you want to
22:01
open up the season. A tough draw for them as well
22:03
against this plucky, exciting Fiorentina side.
22:06
Yeah, absolutely, man. And the three three draw with
22:09
Verta Bremen was absolutely bizarre.
22:12
I mean you have the own goal where Lena Latvine like tries to
22:15
pass the ball back to the keeper and just like passes it past
22:20
froms. Perfectly placed.
22:22
Yeah, and then Alex pop like jumps in front of the goalkeeper
22:26
trying to make a clearance and it bounces and it just barely
22:28
gets over the line. A lot of weirdo things happened
22:31
in in that one. I I do want to bring up they
22:34
were able to kind of get a little back on track.
22:36
So Wolfsburg, they had a dominating 6 nil victory over
22:39
HSC Bertha and the DFB Pocal, which is just the German Cup for
22:43
all of us English speakers. And they also they took care of
22:46
business this last week. They won one NIL over football
22:50
club Carl Zeiss Yena and I wouldn't be doing my job if I
22:54
didn't mention this, that this club is named Carl Zeiss Yena
22:59
because they're in Yena, Germany and the club was formed in 1903
23:04
by employees of the Carl Zeiss Optics Factory.
23:07
Let's go. Carl Zeiss optics is still
23:09
around. They're publicly traded on the
23:11
stock market, if I if my research is correct and they
23:14
make like camera lenses, telescope lenses and like other
23:17
optical tech. So I don't know, you know, I
23:19
like a digression, but it is just funny to me that this, this
23:22
club, the Wolfsburg beat, is named after a scientist from
23:26
like the 1800s who like invented lenses.
23:29
That's wild. And they started the team in 19
23:33
O 3. Yeah, factory workers were just
23:35
like, all right, we're putting this football club together and
23:37
then they just started the football club in 19 O 3.
23:39
There we go. Incredible vision.
23:41
Where do you want to go from now?
23:45
Let's go to. I do want to say that in that in
23:49
that match against Carl Zeiss and his is telescope
23:53
footballers, Berenstein's gravity looks incredible.
23:57
So Fiorentina is going to have to really compete with that.
24:00
And when Berenstein is pulling players away, Alex Pop is going
24:04
to be right there to possibly knock ankles.
24:06
So I think it's going to be incredibly difficult for them.
24:09
Yeah, Berenstein looks physically different.
24:12
I think she had an elusiveness about her.
24:16
And I'm not sure if it's just the New Jersey and like the new
24:17
color scheme, but I don't know. It looked like she was flying
24:20
around out there on top of, you know, kind of like what we know
24:23
about her game, the kind of like her physicality and her nose for
24:26
goal. So could end up being like a
24:28
really, really great fit for Wolfsburg.
24:31
Bright green. The highlighted green definitely
24:33
suits her, it would appear. OK, I've waited long enough.
24:36
I I want you to tell me about the Portuguese teams.
24:39
Let's start with Sporting CP taking on your I think I I can
24:44
safely call them your Real Madrid.
24:47
Oh my God, this one hurts a little bit because on one hand
24:51
I've got Sporting CP who I'm taking longing looks at them for
24:56
that second dark horse spot. They are in the Champions League
25:00
here for the third time. Zero group stages though for
25:02
Sporting CP. They got here with a huge win
25:05
over Eintrac Frankfurt. I think Frankfurt notched 5
25:09
yellow cards in that one big win for Sporting CPI.
25:12
Think it says a lot about that league, the Portuguese league,
25:15
the Campionato Nacional Feminino.
25:17
They finished two points behind Benfica last season.
25:20
So I think watching Champions League, we both had the feeling,
25:23
OK, well, you know, it's the Portuguese league, you know,
25:25
kind of watch. We had just watched them in the
25:27
World Cup the summer prior. You kind of see the maturing
25:30
that they were going to be able to do as a nation.
25:32
But now you've got Sporting CP like right there and knocking
25:36
out handily a team that made the group stage last year.
25:39
And I track Frankfurt, so I think they're going to be pretty
25:42
stiff opponent for a Real Madrid side that's definitely going to
25:45
be looking for some revenge. This matchup has some dogfight
25:48
to it as well. What are you going to be looking
25:50
out for on the Real Madrid side? Well, I could tell you when we
25:53
talk about Real Madrid right now as it stands on whatever he is
25:57
September 15th at the time of recording, let's not forget top
26:01
of the Liga F table, Real Madrid.
26:04
They have two wins and no draws, no losses, as does Barcelona, as
26:09
do six teams. But Real Madrid won their first
26:12
match over Espanol, 5 nil, Won their second match over Real
26:16
Batiste, 3 nil. So they're sitting there with
26:18
that plus eight goal differential.
26:20
Barcelona's goal differential is +5 right now.
26:23
Something tells me Real Madrid is going to have to score a lot
26:25
of goals to keep Barcelona at Bay, but I digress.
26:28
Like you said, Madrid is going to come in here revenge tour
26:31
style. They did not look good in the
26:33
group stage last year. They made big changes on the
26:36
roster to reflect that. They were not happy with the way
26:39
that turned out. We've also talked talked about
26:41
Real Madrid is not doing anything to finish second to
26:43
Barcelona in anything ever. I think this one was sporting.
26:48
It's going to have a lot of that dogfight mentality, like you
26:51
said, because sporting is going to come and play scrappy and and
26:55
muck up the game any way they can to win.
26:57
I also think Madrid is going to have a lot of that too, because
27:00
I think they're going to come in here and say do not take a
27:02
single minute of any of these games for granted.
27:05
This reminds me of what we were talking about up top with
27:07
Arsenal. You know, when you get bounced
27:10
in the qualifying stage, it's like a one match, right?
27:13
You go to, you know, Perry FC, it doesn't break your way.
27:15
A little bit of an off day and now it's over.
27:17
Real Madrid, if my memory serves, they didn't win a single
27:21
match in the group stage. I think they had a couple draws.
27:24
I think they ended with two points.
27:25
But yeah, roster, tons of upgrades to get Caroline Weir
27:29
back. Lacrosse.
27:30
Melanie Leopold's Evan Navarro have started both of those
27:33
League F matches. And I think that that five nil
27:36
victory to open the season had a little bit of like message
27:39
sending us to it. Yeah.
27:41
I think of the the sort of like big sister, little sister
27:44
dynamics across Europe. You know, where you've got Leon
27:47
and PSG, you've got Chelsea, City and Arsenal.
27:50
I think Real Madrid might be the closest.
27:54
They're investing very seriously.
27:56
Some identity development there. Yeah.
27:58
So I actually wouldn't be shocked if they really push
28:01
Barcelona the season. I don't know how I wouldn't put
28:03
it past them. They're still, you know, players
28:04
like Kai Sado still looming. You know that obviously they've
28:08
got players that could take over games.
28:10
I love it and I'm glad you bring up Linda Kai Sado.
28:12
I mean you think about with at the NIA Del Castillo also Del
28:16
Castillo is what, 23? Kai Sado is younger than that, I
28:19
think, or maybe she's right in that same ballpark.
28:21
So these are players that actually they could get better
28:24
during this season too. They might have like 10 games
28:27
into the season. They might still be getting like
28:29
way better. So I love it.
28:31
That's AI mean. It's bold, buddy.
28:33
I would be curious what your fellow Gunners would say to Are
28:37
you telling me Real Madrid is closer to Barcelona than we are
28:41
to Chelsea? They might want to fight you in
28:43
the street over that, but I I like your.
28:45
Boldness. I mean, to me, it goes back to
28:48
the experience, to how thoroughly Real Madrid got
28:51
thumped last season. And you could just see it.
28:53
The last couple group stage matches, they were just like,
28:55
get us out of here. Like we don't want to be a part
28:57
of this anymore. They just were not interested in
29:01
going back at at some of those teams they were with hacking
29:05
right and Peru FC. Yeah, they it was hacking Peru
29:08
FC and Chelsea and I think I feel like their best win, Real
29:13
Madrid's best win in the group stage was like a.
29:16
Big draw at Chelsea to open it. Yeah, yeah.
29:20
Their best win was the draw at Chelsea.
29:22
Absolutely. That's that was like the highest
29:24
point for them. And again, we're talking about
29:27
Real. Madrid literally all down to all
29:29
from there. Yeah, they don't, they don't
29:32
rock with that. They that's, that's unacceptable
29:34
in in those facilities. Yeah, I mean, well, they made
29:38
some big time moves to try to make an impact.
29:40
So Sporting Real Madrid, Thursday, 11:00 AM Eastern.
29:44
Hopefully your Thursday is a little a little bit cleaner
29:46
calendar wise, because that one's going to be an absolute
29:48
banger as well. Oh yeah, definitely just more
29:51
must see must see matches here. Oh, yeah.
29:54
All right, I want to skip ahead. Well, we'll stay in the
29:57
Campionato Nacional Feminino and talk a little.
30:00
Benfica versus Hammer B Benfica, Four straight CNF titles,
30:05
obviously a team that kind of stole my heart, maybe stole our
30:07
heart last season, made some changes, but still a lot of
30:11
talented players on that side. They will be one of those squads
30:16
with, I'll say, you know, a little bit of a recent
30:19
experience advantage over Hammer B, who won the dumbest Fenskin
30:22
last season, finished even on points with BK Hackin just by
30:26
the single goal and goal differential.
30:28
This season though, they're 15 wins, no draws, 5 losses.
30:31
They're the Bay FC of Domus Penskin.
30:33
They sit in 3rd, 2nd best goal differential plus 38, a shade
30:38
under half of Rosengard's plus 77.
30:40
That that that number is still blowing my mind.
30:42
Either way, excited to see Hammer be in a competition like
30:45
this one against a real Benfica squad.
30:47
People always say Rosengard is the Barcelona of Sweden, I think
30:52
I've heard that many times. So that would explain the the
30:54
massive goal differential. I'm going to be really
30:57
interested to see how Hammer Bee looks in this match.
31:00
They won a domestic double in 23, so you know, they have a
31:03
little bit of pedigree themselves.
31:05
They won the league and they won the Swedish Cup.
31:08
They have players with a lot of confidence.
31:10
But I mean they're leading scorer right now, at least last
31:12
time I checked, a 20 year old Swede, Ellen Wongerheim, who has
31:16
ten goals and two assists. And I think this is another
31:18
occasion where you know, this match is going to be played in
31:20
Stockholm. I think they're going to be
31:22
really, really amped up. You get a big name legacy club
31:26
like Benfica coming into that country to play.
31:30
I think the vibes are going to be good and I think Hammerbee is
31:32
going to really be looking to get a win at their home
31:37
ballpark. I mean, certainly capable of
31:39
doing it should. And that that would set the
31:41
stage for a massive 1 heading back to Lisbon.
31:45
It's it's why this is probably what like the 6th or 7th match
31:48
on the docket. And I'm just like, this is going
31:49
to be another one. It's like can't miss, can't miss
31:52
it. I want to quickly scoot through
31:55
some other fun matchups. So obviously we've got another
31:57
team from Sari Alpha McNeil, another show favorite, associate
32:01
Sione Sportiva Roma, who are off to a little slowish start, no
32:07
wins, 2 draws, no losses and Syria off at McNeil.
32:10
They're sitting in 6th place at the moment on just two points,
32:13
but they're the two time defending champions of their
32:16
home league. They take on Servat FCCF from
32:19
the Swiss Women Super League. I'm be excited to see Roma.
32:22
They've got three goals on the season, I think one for
32:25
Giacinti, one for Giuliano, one for Elena Lenari, if a memory
32:29
serves. So, you know, the band's getting
32:31
back together, They're having fun, and we'll see them back in
32:34
action early Wednesday morning, 8:30 AM Eastern.
32:37
So that one's going to kick. I'm going to kick off my day
32:38
with that one. Nice, excellent choice.
32:41
I mean, we just loved Roma so much last year.
32:44
The first thing I was going to say, it has been too long since
32:47
we have watched Manuela Giuliano and Valentina Giacinti play, so
32:51
I am very, very excited. Yeah, we get Evelyn Vien back in
32:55
the mix. Let's go after a torrid run
32:59
playing international ball. So we'll see if she's able to
33:01
carry over some of that success there.
33:03
Can I just point out real quick, Evelyn Vien and Julia Grosso
33:07
last year when we, this is a learning podcast, when I'm, when
33:10
I'm coming up on these people, two footballers, I was certain
33:14
we're Italian. Julia Grosso was playing over at
33:17
Juventus and Evelyn Vien playing over at AS Roma.
33:21
I don't know. I just automatically assumed.
33:23
Turns out both Canadian didn't know at first.
33:26
I've been, I've been up on it for more than a year now.
33:29
I just want to say, at first glance very much thought they
33:32
were Italian. That's a real melting pot up
33:34
there. I'm going to go from here.
33:37
Sorry to throw you off on that random non sequitur.
33:41
No, I mean, it's it's very valid.
33:42
I mean, Evelyn via it sounds a little French to me.
33:44
I mean, yeah, I think it was a total.
33:46
There is nothing more charming than figuring out that
33:49
somebody's from somewhere else. My favorite, and I don't know if
33:52
he's actually from Poland, but the fact that Maddie Cash on the
33:54
men's side, so that's excellent, still blows me away.
34:00
That's awesome. I can't imagine there's a lot of
34:01
Maddie's running around. Any who let me know if any of
34:07
these are get you excited or if there are any, you know,
34:10
potential dark, dark, dark horses in this mix.
34:12
We've got Oceac taking on FC Twente Wednesday, 8:30 in the
34:16
morning, we've got Anderlecht versus Valeronga Wednesday, 1:30
34:20
PM Eastern. We've got Galatasaray versus
34:23
Slavia Praha, not Sparta Praha Thursday, 12:00 PM, and St.
34:27
Polton and Murrah Mura Mura. There are the Slovenian Women's
34:31
league, they lock up Thursday, 1:00 PM Eastern.
34:34
And then we've got to wait till Sunday morning, 7:00 AM Eastern,
34:38
to a round out the first leg of round one when Forskla from the
34:42
Ukrainian Women's Pro Football League takes on Celtic.
34:45
I think all those are going to be interesting and we we've
34:47
talked about this in the build up.
34:49
It's what we liked so much about the tournament last year and
34:51
even that last year we picked up the tournament from the group
34:54
stage. It was a genesis in this
34:55
podcast, as I've probably said 20 times over the course of the
34:58
last few weeks. I I'll stop saying that.
35:00
But one of the most fun parts of this is just kind of like
35:03
discovering as the teams progress, OK, who are the people
35:06
on here? Who are the stories?
35:08
What are we rooting for? What's kind of style of play Do
35:10
we like? You know, Slavia Praha and St.
35:12
Polton, they held up as well as they possibly could.
35:15
I think the first Polton Braun match was really what kind of
35:20
led us to discover like, wait, should should this tiny team
35:23
from Norway really have been that much better than St.
35:26
Polton Like, and that was kind of what set the alarm bells off
35:30
and kick started our whole Braun fandom.
35:32
So like you just you never know what you're going to get from
35:34
these teams, these lesser known. I use that in quotes because
35:37
we're just American dudes over here who can't follow any of
35:40
these leagues really. That's going to be fun to watch.
35:43
If I had to name ones that I really want to keep my eye on, I
35:46
think FC Twente, obviously for Mary to busy frown over and in
35:50
the Netherlands, very curious to see how they match up.
35:52
And then also, of course, because I already mentioned
35:55
Braun, we have to talk about top Syrian at all times, Volare
35:59
versus Anderlecht. Really interested to see if
36:02
Valeranga is able to kind of maybe try to steal some of
36:05
Lebron's Thunder and make it into the group stage of this
36:07
year's Champions League. Twente I'm I'm I think that's a
36:10
great call out by you. So they've only lost twice at
36:13
home in the last 12 months. They lost three nil to Ajax at
36:17
home. Still bums me out there with no
36:18
Ajax left in this field. And then you have to go all the
36:21
way back to last October in a match that you brought up on
36:24
this show, 2 to one to BK Hakken in this very round heading in to
36:29
last year's group stage. So this is a team that's going
36:31
to be really tough to deal with at home.
36:33
So Oceac uphill battle, got to imagine FC-20, probably a team
36:37
that we're going to see in the group stage.
36:38
And to your point, I don't know, we're we're kind of like out on
36:42
the market now. Again, you know, it's like we're
36:44
looking for those teams that are going to end up being, you know,
36:46
our 2024-2025 Champions League darlings here on the ITC.
36:51
And that's a good feeling, just knowing that we're opening up
36:54
our heart to this year's field. That's it, yeah.
36:58
So to all these football clubs, you know you can win these two
37:01
matches, or you know, you get a win and a draw.
37:03
However you want to get through, you get to the group stage, you
37:06
have the opportunity to sweep 2 American dudes off their feet
37:10
and have us become fans of your club.
37:12
What more could you possibly want?
37:14
I mean, you know, a couple 100 subscribers here and there that
37:17
we could probably wrangle it as we've been known to do.
37:20
But we'll continue to do our prep here, continue to have the
37:23
Apple 2 E running in the background.
37:25
Try to keep the temperature controlled nicely just so it
37:27
doesn't overheat. This is a tough time of year for
37:29
the old girl. Anything else you want to hit
37:31
before we get out of here? I think that's it.
37:33
I think we've previewed these nicely while admitting that for
37:36
some of these clothes, it's, it's hard to gather data
37:38
sometimes you're watching grainy YouTube videos to kind of watch
37:42
even in 2024. But I think that's part of the
37:45
charm of the tournament. Like you said, let's just get to
37:48
Wednesday, Let's kick the ball off.
37:49
Let's see how these go. And let's, I mean frankly for me
37:52
and you, let's live in a little bit of fear whilst feeling very
37:57
alive for 90 minutes as our two teams kind of battle for this
38:00
position. Oh my God, let's just get get me
38:03
there. Let's go.
38:05
Quick programming reminder, after the first leg this
38:08
weekend, we will be back with reactions, recaps.
38:11
We'll preview the second leg. Hopefully we're not too stressed
38:14
out. Hopefully we're not too anxious
38:16
about our, our, our standing as it pertains to this tournament.
38:19
NWSL coverage domestically, That'll be back very shortly as
38:22
we hit the stretch right. Another season.
38:24
All right man, anything else you want to hit before we get out of
38:26
here? Yes, as I often say, this is a
38:29
journalistic enterprise and I've mentioned our podcast, our
38:32
Champions League preview episode we did with the fine folks over
38:34
at Shades of Blue. I do want to thank our guy board
38:38
and then Sapphire on YouTube, Sapphire 01001 who correctly
38:45
reminded us that we were transposing Rosenborg, which is
38:49
a Norwegian club and Rosengarde, which is a Swedish team.
38:54
I think I am the the culprit on this one where I was like
38:57
completely mixing them up. I have, I have I probably during
39:00
the course of that show mix them up in like 3 different ways.
39:03
So I'm like was like all over the place.
39:06
So bored. Sapphire, appreciate you guys.
39:08
Thank you for clearing that up for us.
39:10
Absolutely. I want to give it a couple extra
39:12
shout outs. Julia Castro on YouTube, we
39:14
appreciate you. Regina Filangi on Twitter, just
39:16
the best one of the O GS the the OOOOOG community member.
39:22
We appreciate Regina Filangi tremendous Twitter name as well.
39:25
Carla Wilson, you already know we appreciate you chiming in and
39:27
as always, hope you cracked one when we got this episode started
39:31
and you know we're going to be the opposite of Real Madrid last
39:34
year in the group stage. It's pretty much only uphill
39:36
from here for your boys. You talk about uphill.
39:38
Let me also shout out Philip Sullivan in the YouTube comments
39:42
came at us with his arrows. He's got the arrow pointing up
39:46
for Washington spirit arrow pointing down for Chicago Red
39:50
stars. I think Phillip is probably spot
39:53
on there. Even though Chicago was able to
39:54
get a win, and as Dino pointed out, as we start to round into
39:58
Champions League form here on ITC, I believe our arrow is
40:01
pointing up as well. And I mean, we fucking nailed
40:04
our arrows. Go back and check out that
40:06
episode if you're Seattle rain come through.
40:08
I think we're 4 for four. I will tell you publish the
40:11
arrow pointing up episode and then they loan out Sofia Huerta
40:16
to Lyon and I was just like, that's not doing my Arrow any
40:19
favors there. I have a good feeling about it.
40:22
I think we're going to go 4 for four.
40:23
Tough competition rolling into town.
40:25
But I like Laura Harvey. You having, you know, put the
40:28
pressure on her all season in these post game press
40:31
conferences and you know, it's just about accountability and I
40:33
think you've done a great job. Thanks.
40:38
Well, iron sharpens iron, that's what it is.
40:41
Surely it's my influence. You already know, I mean we're
40:45
out here, but no, you're Seattle rain definitely out here could
40:48
be trending toward the playoffs. It's exciting.
40:50
We're going to be back, as mentioned in in a little over a
40:53
week with our next NWSL show. We're just in full on shame Zeke
40:56
mode until round two wraps up. And with that said, I think we
40:59
did it. There's been another episode of
41:00
into the channel. Sincere thank you, thank you,
41:02
thank you for watching, listening, following, liking,
41:04
subscribing, providing corrections, you know, keeping
41:07
us, keeping us accountable. How about that more just plain
41:10
hanging out with your boys. Remember to like if you liked
41:13
and subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
41:15
podcast or wherever you like to watch or listen.
41:17
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
41:19
Links to all of our socials in the show notes of this episode.
41:22
And a big thank you to my Co host as well, Mr. Grant Angle
41:26
for pretty much just I mean, at least Co driving the ship,
41:30
driving a lot of the ship Champions League season 2.
41:33
I think we're ready. I think we needed those little
41:36
snafus on the shade. It's a blue podcast.
41:39
I think we needed a couple. You know, me forgetting
41:40
Barcelona. Don't kill me.
41:42
You know, I'm saying half my brain still in the NWSL.
41:46
But I appreciate you, bro. You are you are the Co host, the
41:49
copilot that I need, you know, to kind of keep this thing on
41:51
track. Well, likewise, buddy, I think
41:53
I'll lean on my naval experience.
41:55
So you know, you keep the captain can't drive the ship the
41:58
entire time. You gotta you gotta sleep, you
42:00
gotta take you gotta take different shifts.
42:02
So I appreciate you Co piloting with me.
42:04
And again, thank you to everybody for checking this out.
42:07
You guys are definitely can we keep using the nautical terms.
42:10
You guys are the first mate of the USSITCI.
42:15
Don't know who who even knows what we're talking about at this
42:17
point. This is a football podcast.
42:18
But thank you guys for watching the show and we will see you
42:22
next time.