Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / USWNT draws England 0-0 at Wembley

Transcript

USWNT draws England 0-0 at Wembley · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK. Welcome to Into the Channel, a
0:07
podcast primarily about women's football.
0:09
Before we hit the pitch. If you enjoy the show or love
0:11
women's football as much as your boys do, come kick it with us
0:14
already. Subscribe, follow YouTube,
0:15
Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
0:18
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
0:21
Links to all of our socials in the show notes of this episode.
0:24
I am your host, Dino de Suspiris.
0:25
And as always, I am joined by my coast, Mr. Grant Angle.
0:30
What is up man? I'm feeling pretty good, buddy.
0:32
We had some football, we had some international football that
0:34
we did digest over the weekend and I thought it was pretty
0:37
enjoyable. Enjoyable.
0:39
Is a great word for it. You know, there's sometimes the
0:41
nil, nil draw gets a little bit of a, you know, the bad rap.
0:44
But I thought there was a lot to look out for.
0:46
We didn't learn a whole lot, but I think I think we learned a
0:49
little little Nuggets here and there that we picked up.
0:51
I'm interested to hear what you saw and I kind of want to get a
0:53
little temperature check from you on what I saw.
0:56
So as mentioned, USA, England went down at Wembley.
0:59
Mr. Grant Angle, Do I get started?
1:00
Well, let's start there. I think you know, when we saw
1:03
the squads for each of these teams selected earlier, we knew
1:07
there were going to be some players missing and deservedly
1:09
so. Like we we mentioned as soon as
1:11
the rosters were announced, Mallory Swanson, Sophie Smith
1:14
and Trinity Rodman, they deserve a break.
1:16
So it's time to kind of look at some other players, look at some
1:19
some other options that you might have in those forward
1:21
positions. And then on England's side, no
1:24
Lauren James because of injury, no Lauren Hemp because of
1:27
injury. Those are two glaring loss for
1:30
England side. So yeah, are we going at this,
1:33
you know, kind of a missing a few players on each side, yes,
1:36
but I felt like the star power was still there.
1:38
Star power was awesome. Like when the when the ball
1:41
kicks off, there was like a hit a nice haze, you know, at
1:44
Wembley, you know, probably probably had some nice fireworks
1:47
going that left a nice misting. You know, that just kind of, I
1:50
don't know, gave it like a little little wintery, spooky
1:53
kind of feel. And then you just look at the
1:54
line UPS. I think the thing that stuck out
1:56
to me early was the matchups. I think we got some extremely
2:01
tasty matchups. You look at Beth Mead, Emily Fox
2:04
couple Arsenal team mates kind of going at it.
2:06
Georgia Stanway had some some gnarly fouls on her and early I
2:10
think she took that that match up personal.
2:12
Lindsay Horan, Kyra Walsh, just meeting of the minds in the
2:15
center of the park. That was great.
2:17
You had like the young Emma Sears on the right going to Alex
2:20
Greenwood. I think my favorite though was
2:22
on the left you had Alyssa Thompson going at the vet, Lucy
2:26
Bronze. That was a great chess match in
2:28
and of itself. You had, you know, Alyssa trying
2:30
to use some of her athleticism, physicality.
2:33
Lucy Bronze obviously brings Max level football IQ and it was a
2:37
great battle because it kind of went back and forth there.
2:40
Yeah, I thought it was a great battle.
2:41
I thought when those two were matching up, Thompson and
2:44
Bronze, it was kind of like lean forward time a little bit to be
2:47
like, OK, what is it? What exactly is this going to
2:49
look like? We know, we know what time it is
2:51
with Lucy Bronze. She's an all time great.
2:53
But to see Alyssa Thompson, who came in a hyped player coming
2:56
into the 2023 World Cup, didn't quite live up to it, started to
3:00
round into really good form in the NWSL season.
3:02
So you kind of wanted to see what that looks like.
3:04
But you mentioned 2 words real quick before we get too far into
3:07
this podcast, Tasty matchups. And then you also mentioned haze
3:11
coming over the field. My man, I have a beverage here
3:14
that people could describe as tasty or with a bit of a haze in
3:18
it. I'm going to crack that and
3:19
honor this matchup. I like it.
3:22
I'm going to join you. There you go.
3:25
I had a feeling you'd be there. No, no, there were no losers.
3:29
So we're going to celebrate that.
3:31
There you go. Cheers to you.
3:33
Cheers to you. But yeah, I think the matchups
3:35
were good. I mean, the midfield especially,
3:38
and I think DeMarcus Beasley touched on it in the post match,
3:41
too. And when he talked to Lindsay
3:43
Horan, I mean, Kyra Walsh, Georgia Stanway, Jess Park on
3:47
one side, Lindsay Horan, Sam Coffey, Rose Lavelle on the
3:51
other side. That's a group of six
3:53
midfielders that really, I mean, unless you're talking about like
3:56
Spain's midfield, maybe Germany's midfield, we're
4:00
talking about two of the absolute elite groups of
4:03
midfielders in the. World, absolutely.
4:05
Yeah. You look at that match up as
4:06
well. It was like a sort of like A tag
4:08
team like Lavelle Horan against Walsh and Stanway was like
4:12
incredibly engaging. I walked away from this one.
4:15
Talk about takes Rose. Lavelle still has her entire
4:19
bag. I mean, we spend a lot of time
4:21
and I feel so dumped. I was I I raised my hand as high
4:24
as I could possibly raise it figuratively.
4:27
We talked a lot about Roosevelt's like her injuries,
4:29
she getting older. She looked not only like the
4:32
best player in a bunch of spots in the match, athletically,
4:35
physically, super fluid, her movements, she looked great.
4:39
She had that kind of like that pre season Sheen, you know, to
4:42
her game, just like moving kind of wherever she wanted.
4:45
And I think her touch was there. I think, you know, her, her
4:48
vision was there. I mean, she had a great game and
4:50
I think we spent a lot of time talking about, you know, that
4:52
number 10 role and like the US midfield more generally.
4:55
I think Roosevelt was like, all right, everybody's got to chill
4:58
a little bit because like, there's no, there's no
4:59
discussion about next year, 2027 that doesn't have me included.
5:03
Yeah, I mean, she's 29 years old.
5:05
She was really in that, I want to say, and please, pals,
5:09
correct me if I'm wrong in the chat, but it felt like that 2022
5:13
and 2023 season. And obviously I saw some of that
5:16
in Seattle with her one season with the rain.
5:18
She was really laboring through. It seemed like nagging injuries
5:22
for a while, so I don't think we were totally off base and
5:25
wondering, can this 29 year old central midfielder, is she going
5:29
to be around for the 2027 World Cup?
5:32
It seems like she has found something with some more time to
5:36
heal because she was taking some of that time off.
5:38
We talked about it in the Olympics too.
5:40
Even on that tight schedule, she was coming out and looking great
5:43
in pretty much all of her minutes.
5:45
In the Olympics. It seems like she has regained
5:47
some of that and, yeah, has planted herself firmly in the
5:51
central midfielder conversation. The States and I raised my hand
5:54
along with you. I think we did.
5:55
I think we did like a full 15 minutes talking about
5:57
midfielders and didn't say her name.
6:00
And then had to come back the next episode and be like, Oh,
6:01
yeah, by the way, this superlative player who helped us
6:04
win the 2019 World Cup, she's in the mix, too.
6:07
Absolutely. And shout out to the couple
6:08
folks. Don't have your name on hand,
6:10
but you know who you are who kind of gave it to us in the
6:12
comments, like, all right, all right, guys, come on.
6:15
Yeah. I think, you know, the injury
6:17
point is a good one. I think the 2023 World Cup is
6:20
another good one. I mean, the showing was so poor
6:23
offensively. I mean, I'm just speak for
6:25
myself. I just kind of look at the whole
6:26
roster. I was like, all of this has to
6:28
get rethought. All of this has, you know, not
6:30
not that we have to kind of totally clean house roster wise,
6:33
but this needs to get reset from the top down that that ends up
6:37
being what happened. And we definitely shouldn't be
6:38
surprised that a few of those players are going to make it
6:41
through that transition, even though, like organizationally,
6:44
we've already seen major overhauls pretty much from the
6:47
top down South. You know, lesson learned, you
6:49
know, from from a young podcaster.
6:52
Shout out to Rose. You already know what time it
6:54
is. Legend.
6:55
But what was your main take away from watching these two teams go
6:59
out in the first half? I tweeted it from the Into the
7:01
Channel account. It's just one of those haves
7:04
where there were a couple moments there where England was
7:08
able to get on the ball, hold the ball, get into the attacking
7:12
third, but then never really come away with any shots that
7:16
felt overly threatening. And you see this so many times
7:19
with the great teams, and I think, I call me biased, I think
7:22
England is a great team themselves.
7:24
But when they go into the dressing room, nil, nil.
7:27
And you could be like, OK, England played him really close.
7:31
I was just kind of left shrugging my shoulders going,
7:33
how close is it really if you never have a good look on goal
7:38
and Mary Earps on on our side, sorry, on England's side had to
7:42
make a couple key saves. Like to me it definitely didn't
7:45
feel as close as it looked, if that made sense.
7:48
That's interesting because I think I think the US definitely
7:51
won the first half. It looked like the better side
7:54
had the better chance, but a little bit listless offensively
7:58
as well. Like when you think about the
8:00
early chance, the Ms. Sears cross that finds Alyssa
8:02
Thompson, it's kind of one of those connections where it's
8:05
like it goes all the way from the right side, crosses a bunch
8:08
of bodies, gets all the way to the left.
8:10
Thompson's kind of running in, you know, back right, you know,
8:13
with with the ball. So it kind of like a a sequence
8:15
that you don't really see too often and maybe kind of caught
8:18
England a little bit off guard. I thought defensively England
8:21
looked really good, except early when Leah Williamson was, you
8:25
know, not quite up to speed, let's say for the 1st 2025
8:27
minutes. I think she got off to a slow
8:29
start. But I also left the first half
8:31
from AUS perspective a little bit underwhelmed and obviously
8:34
no triple espresso. So, you know, the bite to the
8:37
offense kind of lacking. But I kind of wish I did see a
8:40
little bit more creativity or diversity in the attack.
8:44
But it just kind of seemed almost like a sparring session
8:46
where it's just like we're just kind of working up a sweat in
8:48
this first half. We're going to save our stuff
8:50
for a little bit later in the match.
8:51
Yeah, I think that's a great way to put it.
8:54
I think you're right about Leah Williamson.
8:56
We've talked about it in the Champions League a little bit.
8:58
I know obviously she's one of your Gunners.
9:00
We've seen it a little bit in the WSL.
9:03
She has had some moments that have been pretty tough and you
9:06
know, she's a good player. She's the captain, she has the
9:09
respect of her teammates. There have just been sometimes
9:12
where it's like, oh, she can be had in the middle of the field.
9:15
And I felt like Jess Carter and Alex Greenwood and obviously
9:19
like Lucy Bronze in Sharpie, double underline, don't even
9:23
think about it, don't even worry about it.
9:25
But like I thought Alex Greenwood, Jess Carter, Lucy
9:27
Bronze, I felt like those three really kind of provided some
9:31
cover for Williamson in a couple, in a couple spots to
9:34
kind of make those chances for the USAA little more difficult
9:37
than they otherwise would have been.
9:39
Yeah, for sure. And I thought Williamson up,
9:41
yeah, as the match went on and had a couple key stops, you
9:44
know, later, definitely in the second-half, yes, with somebody
9:46
that you could pick on a little bit less for sure.
9:48
But defensively, I thought England look great.
9:51
Switching gears to the US, though, that US defense also
9:54
looked pretty, pretty awesome. Before I get there, though,
9:57
there was one key matchup that I thought was really illuminating.
10:00
I talked at the top about the 1V1 matchups that were really
10:04
interesting to watch, the one where I thought the US had a big
10:07
time advantage. Actually, before I get to that,
10:09
my big take away matchup wise was there really was no
10:12
massively discernible difference in talent.
10:15
Pretty much any 2 pairings of players that you looked at
10:18
talent wise, I think things were pretty even except for one spot.
10:22
I thought just Park kind of really struggled up the central
10:25
channel at Emily Sonnet, Naomi Garma.
10:27
That was just not going to work obviously.
10:29
And those are two elite players that she's trying to go at.
10:32
But I thought talent wise, the matchups were really great.
10:35
You just kind of stack up 11 versus 11 and kind of any
10:38
pairing of the two. It was like, OK, oh, here we go.
10:40
Let's see what what this what this matchup looks like.
10:42
Yeah, it's specifically on Jess Park VS Germa.
10:45
That's probably a tough matchup for anybody going off against
10:49
Germa in the center of the field.
10:51
When you have that trio of Sonnet Germa coffee, it's a lot
10:56
of intelligence. One thing that that strikes me
10:59
more and more as I watch more and more of Naomi Germa play
11:03
teams are even a little, at least from what I can tell, even
11:05
a little afraid to press her. Like they layoff her a little
11:08
bit to try to limit her passing channel because you're not going
11:12
to put real pressure on her when you run up on her.
11:14
She's going to be completely calm.
11:15
She'll play it back to the keeper and you might be exposing
11:18
other passing lanes on that. So I mean, I think people
11:20
respect her intelligence. There was one moment where Park
11:24
is like streaking down the right hand side and Gurmas on her.
11:27
So she resets, plays a ball back.
11:30
I can't remember who she played it back to.
11:32
It might have been Russo, but she plays it back and then
11:34
immediately spins for another run for a give and go.
11:37
And then she's able to kind of get the ball on toward goal.
11:40
I thought that was really smart by just part because if you if
11:43
you want to try to get away from like a superlative defender like
11:46
that, you got to give and go your way away from them.
11:49
So I thought that was good. But Germa just continues to be
11:53
the backbone of a dominating defense.
11:57
When you have those, those central 3, especially, you know,
12:00
when you play Sana back there, we've seen Davidson play that
12:03
role. You and I, I think firmly
12:05
believe Emily Sam's could play that role.
12:07
Plus Coffee. You just kind of rule out taking
12:11
the ball through the central channels like you were talking
12:13
about. I mean, I understand Swanson,
12:16
Smith and Rodman are incredible and their goal scorers and the
12:20
goals make the highlights. I just think when you have, I
12:24
think we could probably safely say the best center back in the
12:27
world that becomes central, no pun intended, to your identity
12:33
as a football team. You can't get away from that.
12:36
Like she dictates everything that happens up and beyond her,
12:40
and everything that's happening up and beyond her is the entire
12:43
field. Yeah, they talked about in the
12:44
telecast, Wyman and Julie Foudy about Kyra Walsh on the other
12:48
side, just sort of like taking the offense for England.
12:51
And I agree with you. I think Germa plays that role
12:54
for the US. And I think we're starting to
12:56
see Emma Hayes's philosophy a little bit.
12:58
You know, obviously like no niche Wangar on the left, you
13:02
know, she's replaced by Casey Kruger.
13:03
Shout out to our guy by AC and Emily Fox.
13:06
She took her opportunities to kind of get up field, but I do
13:09
feel like she was sitting back just a little bit more to kind
13:13
of firm up things defensively. And I think we're kind of used
13:15
to seeing nice longer, like way up field and like sort of like
13:18
the defence kind of shape all the way around that way, like
13:21
the shell just kind of rotated. But I agree with you, Coffee,
13:24
and maybe it's a function of the competition, but Coffee sitting
13:28
back really harassing Kruger back there, really playing great
13:31
defense. Sonnet, you already know what
13:33
time it is. And then Fox, I think like 10%
13:36
less of an offensive upfield, you know, type strategy for the
13:40
match. You really made it difficult.
13:42
Alessi Russo, you barely heard her name until we got to like
13:45
the second-half. Jessica Nazz on the right.
13:47
She also had a slow start, came on a little bit later in the
13:50
match for sure. And then the Beth Mead Emily Fox
13:53
matchup was just such a great, great one V1 with Fox probably
13:57
getting the better of her. But Mead definitely had her
13:59
moments I think all the way throughout the match.
14:01
She was probably 1 of England's more consistent players on the
14:04
day. Yeah, I mean, that's typical
14:06
Beth Mead. She puts on the England shirt
14:08
and she's pretty much always great.
14:10
It left me wondering, you know, I tend to do this and I love to
14:14
do this in my notes. I put in probably around like
14:17
the 40th minute and I will say just again to raise my hand on
14:21
this, in my older age, I have become less emotional about
14:25
sports and sports teams in general.
14:27
But when I watched the England's men's national team and
14:30
England's women's national team, I don't know what they still
14:33
bring it out of me a little bit. But around the 40th minute I
14:36
just jotted down in my notes, you got to take out Nas and put
14:39
in Aggie Beaver Jones because you've got to try to create some
14:43
some threat beyond the center back started up the field.
14:47
We've seen Abj's speed and they're just kind of like
14:50
cutting tactical runs. It just felt like England was
14:54
missing that. But I'm not you know, I'm not so
14:57
sure how much it would have helped, even though later you,
15:00
like you mentioned, not started to play better as they got into
15:02
the second-half. But then it turned out Serena
15:04
have even opted for Fran Kirby and Chloe Kelly, which I think
15:08
probably when you put Chloe Kelly in her speed, her like
15:11
smart runs. It seemed like we were kind of
15:13
kind of on the same page with my pal Serena, obviously a big
15:18
Chloe Kelly guy. She plays for Manchester State
15:19
Football Club, scored a goal for England to win the Euros in
15:22
2022. Let's go.
15:23
I'm nitpicking here. I think I would have liked to
15:25
see ABJ. I agree with you.
15:27
I mean, you know, Aggie's got the the finishing from distance.
15:30
Yeah, part of her game that I think could have made it a
15:33
little bit tricky for the US defenders.
15:35
Just kind of one extra thing to think about.
15:36
And I think in a game like that obviously ends nil, nil, you
15:39
could see somebody in a flash kind of getting something like,
15:42
you know, we talked about that series crossed to Alyssa
15:44
Thompson early. That's the kind of goal that
15:47
gets scored the first 5-6 minutes.
15:48
And then you're in the 80th minute.
15:49
It's still one nil because it's just like, Oh yeah, like, how do
15:51
we how do we let that one get by?
15:53
And you mentioned the ABJ potential swap for Nas on the
15:57
right. Emma Hayes on the other hand,
15:59
real quick, quick aside. Emma Hayes and her extremely
16:02
drippy black on black leather varsity jacket.
16:04
Come on, if if the if the lineup of Kruger, Sonnet, Fox, Germa
16:10
and Coffee didn't set the tone for what kind of day she was
16:13
going to try to make her for for England, that jacket, yeah, it
16:17
was going to be, you know, there was not going to be any scoring
16:19
going on today. But back to it.
16:21
Emma Hayes makes a change to start the second-half.
16:24
Bring on Yasmine Ryan 4 Emma Sears on that right hand side.
16:28
And I think my main take away is Yasmine is now elevated herself
16:32
to borderline sharpie status because it wasn't like coming on
16:36
in the 70s 5th minute or the 75th minute.
16:38
Yeah, we're going at tired defenders and it's just like,
16:41
OK, you're just feasting. This is like right at the start
16:43
of the second-half, everybody was still relatively fresh and
16:46
she looked a gear faster. She looked more creative.
16:49
Her her runs were like super direct.
16:51
She used her strength really well.
16:53
She put a lot of pressure on that England defense.
16:56
And you just kind of feel like if there was one other member of
16:58
triple espresso to kind of finish one of those, you know,
17:01
crosses or just kind of possessions or sequences game
17:04
might have looked very, very different.
17:06
But I thought he has been Ryan was probably one of the my main
17:09
takeaways is like, this is a player that is now firmly in the
17:12
mix for the US national team. I think she has to be.
17:15
I mean, definitely for 23 player squads moving forward.
17:19
I mean, I know we talk about this a lot.
17:21
It's just kind of a fact of professional sports.
17:24
Lynn Williams up there and age a little bit, you know, you need
17:27
somebody to kind of fill that 4th striker role, somebody you
17:30
can put into the rotation. It seemed pretty obvious from as
17:33
soon as Emma Hayes took the job that she had identified you as
17:38
being Ryan, as a player who could play in her system.
17:40
And she's spot on with that. I mean, I remember being like a
17:43
little surprised. I was like, Oh yeah, I know, I
17:46
know Ryan's good for Gotham, but that's that's an interesting
17:50
pickup. And who?
17:51
Who would have thought? Emma Hayes perhaps greater
17:54
foresight than you or I when it comes to this football managing
17:57
stuff and the 1st 10 minutes out of the half she was absolutely,
18:02
unequivocally the best player on.
18:04
The field, yeah, super threatening.
18:06
And I kind of it's made me rethink, you know, because
18:08
obviously you think about that Gotham team when you think in
18:11
NWSL, you're like, oh, they got so much talent.
18:13
And so Yasmine Ryan doesn't usually get named in my own mind
18:16
like until like 3rd or 4th or sometimes a little bit later
18:18
because you've got so many of these big name players, like
18:21
household name type players. But then when you think back on
18:24
those moments that Gotham had this season, so many moments
18:27
she's powered by or, you know, just like integral to those
18:31
sequences, you know, in my notes, I'm like, you know, which
18:34
you want one of the more underrated players and end up
18:36
yourself probably. But yeah, it turns out hey is,
18:38
like you said, has properly rated Yasmine Ryan and her skill
18:41
set. Yeah, it would appear so.
18:43
I I did feel like after those 10 minutes where Ryan was just
18:47
creating a lot of havoc, it, it felt like England was able to
18:50
kind of snatch the game back, create some more chances.
18:53
They were actually able to challenge Nair a little bit,
18:56
challenge the defense there. But again, that defense, it was
18:59
stepping in front, it was getting blocks.
19:01
It was, you know, making sure nobody was really comfortable
19:04
while they were shooting. The game started to kind of open
19:07
up a little bit. It felt like his players got
19:08
more comfortable. I talked about Chloe Kelly
19:11
coming on. I thought she was all right.
19:13
If we can maybe talk a little more about the back and forth
19:16
she had with Casey Kruger, where I'm I feel pretty sure that
19:19
Casey Kruger got the better of those exchanges.
19:22
To nine round Kruger. Yeah, I think so, but I I did.
19:25
Speaking of Subs, though, I did feel like friend Kirby changed
19:29
the geometry a little bit. You talked about Jess Park.
19:31
She was. I thought Jess Park put in a
19:33
good shift and had to work really, really hard.
19:36
I think Jess Park working so hard was part of her being like
19:39
what is girl of players a lot. It's like really good, maybe not
19:42
even better than she thought. I'm sure she has great respect
19:45
for her, but I'm sure Jess Park was like, hey, yo, she's she's
19:48
everywhere. Frank Kirby comes on, she's done
19:51
it all, seen it all. She looked pretty good out
19:54
there. But even with the open play, it
19:56
felt like there was I think the announcer, Wildman even even
20:00
said it felt like there was a goal left in it when we were at
20:03
like the 75th minute and it did feel that way.
20:05
But there was never just nobody had like a clean enough look or
20:09
there wasn't like. Like a spectacular moment of
20:12
quality to kind of get across the line.
20:14
And so we leave nil, nil. Share the spoils, yeah.
20:18
Totally agree with you. I thought, Speaking of was there
20:20
was there not another goal in this match?
20:22
I thought England looked just as likely, if not more likely for
20:26
roughly a 25 ish minute stretch in the second-half.
20:29
I'm just like, OK, they they might get it here.
20:31
Yeah, I thought Alessi Russo really came on in the
20:33
second-half. Yep.
20:34
Started to like really embrace the physicality of the match.
20:38
It was like, no, I'm not going to draw a foul.
20:40
I'm going to like, really get physical back.
20:42
And, you know, there was one play where she tried to split a
20:44
double team on a ball where she probably didn't have a bunch of
20:47
business winning. But she's like, she went after
20:49
it 100%. Yeah.
20:50
And I think from there it was just like, this is just how I'm
20:52
going to play. Yeah, I don't know if we're
20:53
talking about the exact same play, because I think she had
20:56
tried it in a variety of ways. Just another example of Germa,
20:59
though there was a moment might have been Walsh, who plays Russo
21:03
forward and she runs to get it. And Germa and Kruger just
21:07
converge and just squeeze her out of it and just completely
21:10
kill the chance. And I can't remember it was.
21:12
It might have either been Walsh or Stanway.
21:14
And you can see on the replay their face in the background.
21:16
They just because they can, they can just tell.
21:19
Yeah. They're just like.
21:20
Damn it, they could just tell that Germa and Kruger have the
21:23
perfect angle. They're not going to like, bump
21:25
into each other or do anything stupid.
21:27
They just like, OK, Yep, and now you don't have that space
21:30
anymore. And now the attack's done.
21:31
Yeah, they literally like closed the door.
21:35
Yeah, crazy. I I jotted another one in my
21:36
note. Jessica Naz had had a really
21:38
nice spin off of Germa, you know where, you know, she kind of
21:42
felt her on her back, spun to the left, runs onto the ball and
21:45
Garma just runs her down from behind.
21:47
Oh yeah. Kicks it away, Nicks it away,
21:49
the chance totally extinguished. And it's just like, Oh my God,
21:52
you know, she she gets spun off of, left in the dust.
21:55
Even when she gets beat, she still comes out on top.
21:58
Just an unbelievable player, but not much more we can say about a
22:00
player like that. Can we throw out a basketball
22:03
cop? I can't.
22:03
I can't remember if we've used this before, but I know you're a
22:08
fan of the great basketball podcaster writers, Zach Lowe.
22:11
I always thought he had a funny line when he would talk about
22:13
Kawhi Leonard, where Kawhi Leonard as a defender would just
22:16
run up on the person with the ball and say, OK, I'm going to
22:19
take this now. Thank you for your part in this
22:21
exchange. It just feels like that's kind
22:23
of how Naomi Germa operates herself.
22:26
She just feels like she is so calm just on the level
22:29
throughout. And like you said, I think Russo
22:31
spun off her. They were trying to play like a
22:32
little bit of bully ball because Russo obviously has pretty good
22:35
size. And they were doing that where
22:36
she would have her back to Germa and then try to receive the ball
22:39
and spin. And Grim was just like, oh, OK,
22:41
you're going to try that. Then I'll just kind of cut off
22:43
your angle and now I'm taking the ball from you.
22:45
Thank you very much. And I'll start distributing.
22:47
It's just like your margin for error is tiny with her.
22:51
And even then, you have a hell of a time coming up with any
22:54
answers anytime you meet her at the ball.
22:57
Absolutely. The closest cop I could come up
22:59
with is like prime Mariano Rivera.
23:02
Yeah. Girl.
23:03
But it's just it's just a wrap. I mean, we could just kind of
23:06
play it out, but we already know how this one's going to end.
23:08
Really great crowd in Wembley. The atmosphere was pretty live.
23:11
I thought the production was really good.
23:12
You know, I haven't been the the biggest fan of of Wowman and
23:15
Fawdi as a pairing, but I thought they brought it really
23:17
good information, kind of felt like a World Cup level of
23:21
production and, you know, Polish, you know, to the whole
23:23
thing. So really excited and I'm I'm
23:25
excited for for this next match. It's coming up against the
23:27
Netherlands. I want to talk a little.
23:28
Alyssa Nair, yes, you mentioned earlier, you know, I know that
23:32
she had the retirement announcement earlier this week.
23:34
We're not really sure if we've seen the Last of Us in there.
23:37
Yeah, I do think we're talking a little before we turn the
23:40
microphones on. I mean, a little strange that
23:42
they're not just saying like openly, like a listener will
23:45
start at The Hague against Netherlands and that will be
23:48
your final match. I was like waiting for them to
23:50
say that. And then some of the post match
23:52
questions kind of like made it feel like a little bit like,
23:55
yeah, playing here at Wembley, packed stadium, 80,000 people.
23:59
I was just like, wait, was this the last one?
24:01
Like, is anybody gonna say this out loud?
24:04
So I would imagine, I would hope that if that was really the last
24:08
one, that they would have said something.
24:10
So I guess I'll expect her to play against the Netherlands and
24:13
deservedly so. We'll run through it quickly.
24:15
She's the backup goalkeeper for the 2015 world champion USA at
24:19
the World Cup. At the 2019 World Cup, also won
24:21
by the United States, if you remember, she allowed three
24:24
goals across seven matches. She won an Olympic gold medal in
24:27
2024. As I'm sure you recall, she won
24:30
the CONCACAF W Gold Cup earlier this year.
24:33
She was on the best 11 of that tournament.
24:35
She won the CONCACAF Confederations Cup in 2018.
24:39
From what I can tell and I we've lamented it many times, Some of
24:41
the records keeping on women's football leaves a little to be
24:44
desired at times, but I believe she won the she believes cup 6
24:48
times. I want to go back to the 2019
24:50
World Cup real quick. A memory that sticks out to me.
24:54
Semi final verse this Team USA goes up, they're up to one.
25:00
Everybody remembers the Alex Morgan T celebration when she
25:03
gets that second goal. Kristen Pres scored the first
25:05
goal on a great header. USA is up to one on a breakaway.
25:09
Becky cyber and fouls. I think it's Ellen White in the
25:12
box penalty concedes a penalty. We're talking we're in the 85th
25:16
minute here. Manchester City legend captain
25:19
Steph Houghton steps up to take the penalty.
25:22
Alyssa Nair saves it, preserves the two one lead.
25:25
They obviously go on to win that semi final.
25:27
They go on to take on France in the final, a stacked French team
25:30
in the final, beat them, win the World Cup and now you know.
25:34
I know we saw it later in the Kaka FW Gold Cup.
25:37
We saw it in the Sheba Leaves Cup earlier this year.
25:39
She always came up with those big saves in those big moments
25:43
and it just turns out saving penalties is just another save.
25:47
For a listen there, I just wanted to point out in the
25:49
pantheon of great saves to make a save to preserve A21 lead in
25:55
the dying embers of a semi final, that's something that
25:58
lives on forever and it's absolutely crucial to them
26:00
winning that 2019 World Cup. Great career to look back on.
26:04
I think when I think about Alyssa Nair, I'm going to
26:05
remember basically like her athleticism, her ability to, you
26:08
know, I was watching when I, when I heard the, the
26:11
announcement, I kind of went back and watched some Alyssa
26:14
Nair career highlights and it was so funny how many times,
26:17
obviously it's an Alyssa Nair YouTube mixtape essentially, but
26:20
so many times where I'm just like, oh, she's not getting that
26:22
10. She got it every other every
26:26
other clip, I'm just like, oh, wow, okay, okay, so her
26:29
athleticism, obviously off the charts, instincts off the
26:31
charts. But then all the intangibles,
26:33
her intensity, her leadership, the fear factor she put into
26:36
other teams, whether she was trying to defend a penalty kick
26:39
or she was taking a penalty kick.
26:40
And she just unleashed, you know, the Thunder of a really
26:44
unorthodox kind of like approach and strike, but was basically
26:48
unstoppable even on the other side of the penalty kick.
26:50
Not to mention she's the person that's just blocking all of your
26:53
penalty kicks. So I think just mentally, she
26:55
just had a way to to really impose her will on the game.
27:00
And then even when you think about, you know, you mentioned
27:02
those two World Cups that the US won.
27:04
You could even look at the 2023 World Cup.
27:06
Obviously, the US bounced in the quarters.
27:09
Not the result anyone was looking for.
27:11
But across four matches, Alyssa Nier gives up one goal.
27:13
Yeah, like, you don't really expect the US to lose that early
27:18
in a tournament when you give up one goal in four matches.
27:21
Obviously props to listen here for that as well.
27:23
But yeah, just an absolute legend worthy of pretty much
27:25
every every good thing said about her.
27:27
Yeah, and you know, we still get to watch her in the NWSLI.
27:30
Look forward to watching her continue to play for the Red
27:32
Stars. You know, they'll get Sam Staub
27:35
back. You see what another season of
27:37
Lauren Donaldson is able to do. Obviously, Mal Swanson, you
27:39
already know what time it is. That'll be really interesting to
27:42
see how Chicago kind of progresses.
27:44
Yeah. And I was going back and the
27:46
same as you, I'm. I'm going back and watching some
27:48
of these highlights. In that penalty shootout, she
27:50
saves penalties from Adriana Lyon, Jordan Heidema and Jesse
27:54
Fleming all in a row, and that makes the penalty on her own.
27:59
It's just like, like you said, deserving of every good thing
28:01
that's ever said about her. Yep, 100%.
28:03
And hopefully we get to see her at least for a couple of minutes
28:05
or in some capacity here against the Netherlands in a couple
28:08
days, but who knows. The US Federation, they're
28:11
they're an unpredictable bunch. Can I make a prediction?
28:14
Yeah. Let's say Emma Hayes.
28:16
What if she does? You start her, let her play the
28:19
first half, the 1st 5 minutes of the second-half, and then you
28:23
take her off and let everybody at the hay kind of give standing
28:26
ovation, get the props that way. I like it.
28:29
That'll be my prediction. I think that'd be a cool way to
28:31
go out. Yeah, I kind of want it.
28:33
Definitely hope we get that moment.
28:35
That would be really great. All right, man, No nil at
28:38
Wembley. I don't think it delivered
28:39
everything we're looking for, but it definitely delivered on a
28:41
bunch of really the interesting stuff.
28:44
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
28:46
If Lauren James played, we would have won that game.
28:51
I mean, you know, it's not that far off, man.
28:53
I mean, to be honest, I think especially because, and and it's
28:56
funny, you brought the basketball comp, but Jess Park
28:59
going at Gurman's on it. You know how like when an NFL
29:02
team has like a massive nose tackle and all that person's
29:05
supposed to do is just occupy the two, like the center and the
29:08
guard, You know, just that's kind of what they sent Jess Park
29:11
out to do. Just like, yeah, go go attract
29:13
attention from Sonnet and Germa. Let's see if that opens things
29:16
up. So put her in a tough spot, but
29:18
I think yeah, LJ in that spot. You think about Lauren Hemp,
29:20
like you mentioned, Ella Tune doesn't play.
29:22
Millie Bright doesn't play. You know, could have been a
29:25
different matchup, but I think I'll walk away thinking that
29:28
these teams were pretty even and even when you think about triple
29:32
Espresso big name players. But I agree with your earlier
29:35
appointment. I think Emma Hayes is building
29:36
this from the back. Yeah, this is how this is what
29:39
she wants to do. Let's set up the fortress.
29:41
Let's make it impossible. And we know that we have the the
29:44
talent and the skill and the quality upfront to breakthrough
29:47
on pretty much anybody. You know, I didn't get it done
29:49
today, but I think there's enough talent where that's a
29:51
pretty good bet if you're Emma Hayes.
29:52
Yeah, I think you're spot on, man.
29:54
I mean, her track record speaks for itself.
29:56
I think, you know, she to make sure that she makes it virtually
29:59
impossible for you to score. And then you kind of play
30:01
forward from that. And then you have this like
30:03
amoeba like attack where it's you don't know what side it's
30:07
coming from. Different players are playing to
30:08
their strengths all over the field.
30:10
So go ahead, everybody yell at me in the comments.
30:12
Well, if triple espresso would have played, we would have beat
30:14
you 3 to nothing. That's fine too.
30:15
I stand by my story. I'm saying if Lauren James would
30:18
have played in that match with no triple espresso, I think we
30:21
would have won. How about that?
30:22
I like it. I like it.
30:25
I'll be sure to see what will kind of come as we get off that.
30:28
But before we get there, quick programming reminder, we will be
30:30
back with a special December fest episode talk in Germany
30:33
with our guy Peter Vice. We're going to talk a little
30:37
buyer in Wolfsburg and their prospects in the UAFO Women's
30:40
Champions League. We'll talk about Fran,
30:41
Bundesliga, what the tables looking like there, the German
30:44
national team as well. And then we will be back next
30:46
week. Little match Day 5 preview.
30:48
Champions League returns December 11th and December 12th.
30:51
We'll talk some machinations. We'll talk some key matchups,
30:53
check in on the big clubs. And with that said, all right,
30:57
man, I think we did it. There's been another episode
30:58
into the channel. Sincere thank you.
31:00
Thank you for watching, listening, following, liking,
31:01
subscribing, just plain hanging out with your boys and remember
31:04
to like if you liked and subscribe to follow into the
31:06
channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you like to
31:09
watch or listen, leave us a review over your favorite
31:11
podcast app. Thanks to all of our socials and
31:13
the show notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my coast
31:15
as well, Mr. Grant Angle for being enemy for a day.
31:19
But a Rove for life outside of that.
31:23
Really, really appreciate you man.
31:25
Likewise, buddy, thank you for putting up with my nonsense.
31:28
Look, man, I, I was 12 years old playing FIFA and I was like, I'm
31:31
going to root for England. I think that's where my
31:33
ancestors came from. I mean, look at me.
31:34
It's a probably a pretty good bet.
31:36
So thank you for putting up with my nonsense.
31:39
Likewise to to all our pals out there, thank you for putting up
31:42
with it. Drop your comments in there.
31:43
I'm I'm a big boy. I can take it and we will see
31:46
you all next time.