Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UEFA Women's Champions League returns!

Transcript

UEFA Women's Champions League returns! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
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football. Before we hit the pitch.
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If you enjoy the show or loved ones football as much as your
0:12
boys do, come kick it with us already.
0:14
Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify podcast wherever you'd
0:17
like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
0:19
favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials,
0:21
every single one in the show notes of this episode.
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I am your host. You're very sad host Dino de
0:27
Suspicious. And as always I'm joined by my
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Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:33
I am feeling fantastic, my good man.
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I I commiserate with you. I'm sorry that happened to you.
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We'll talk through it. This will be a therapy session.
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Appreciate that. But it doesn't change the fact
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that we are so back. We're back.
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Back. We couldn't possibly be more
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back. We got to watch Champions League
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football and I believe each of us watched roughly 3, 60 minutes
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each of Champions football, 180 minutes each evening.
1:01
And that was quite nice. Yeah, I.
1:03
Think I might have logged a little extra time there as well.
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But yeah, we are definitely back, Max, back all the way
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back. I know this is a formality.
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I'm going to do it anyway. Mr. Grant Angle, where would you
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like to get started? I'd like to get started by
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cracking a beer. I'm going to crack one with you.
1:19
I think you should. I'm glad you are.
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As one, Stugot says, softens the blow.
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Always. Cheers.
1:29
OK, cheers to you. Where do I want to get started?
1:32
Oh crap. I'm going to screw up the intro.
1:34
Can you just give me like one second here?
1:36
Sure. Yeah, I just got to take care of
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something real quick here. OK, sorry about that.
1:41
So I think I'd like make sure I got that in there.
1:46
OK. Yeah.
1:46
So I think I'd like to start with Manchester City Football
1:48
Club to Barcelona. Nil.
1:52
I love it. Let's go.
1:53
I'm. This Man City.
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Incredible, by the way. Appreciate that.
1:59
Thank you, Sir. I.
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Got some Macho Man vibes going on over there.
2:05
So huge, huge win. Obviously I kind of want to
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clear out here my first take away.
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City started fast and they kept playing fast.
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If you watched the 1st 45 minutes of this match and didn't
2:19
have prior information, you would leave saying Manchester
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City is decidedly a better team than Barcelona.
2:28
Might be true, might actually be true.
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I mean, I think one thing you think about is like sneaky a lot
2:33
of turnover with this Barcelona side.
2:36
You think about like Irene Peretta is not in the starting
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lineup by Theuello not there, Caldente not there, Pie or in,
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you know, she looks incredibly, yes, incredibly scary.
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They couldn't quite get her going.
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And I think you also need to throw Hidalas in there as
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probably like 1 gigantic missing piece that was not there.
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And they just don't look as cohesive.
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It doesn't look like it's coming so easily.
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You got to give City credit. I think defensively they were
3:01
really good. CGH.
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She hits the post in the fourth minute with that warning shot
3:05
early just to kind of remind everybody that they're there.
3:09
But threatening wise, it didn't seem like there was a ton there
3:12
to be afraid of, which was a shock in and of itself.
3:15
I'm glad you mentioned that CGH shot, that warning shot in the
3:18
fourth minute. It's off one of those weird
3:20
angle runs that you have pointed out early in last year's
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Champions League where they just, they like come running
3:25
across the pitch. You're like, oh, they can't
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really do a ton from that. And then CGH is turning and
3:30
firing a missile on goal. Yeah, should have been a corner
3:33
kick in that situation. Yamashita clearly had her hand
3:36
on it before it went out. But you know what?
3:38
We'll take it. That's fine.
3:39
Goal kick it is. But like, seriously though, I,
3:42
I, I will say, yeah, City looked like the better team in the
3:45
first half. And I say it, you know, if you
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had never had any other prior information, you might think
3:50
City is decidedly better. We do have prior information.
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Barcelona is still absolutely stacked.
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We'll talk about them in a little bit.
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You talk about City dominating that first half.
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Viv Medema, Jess Park, Mary Fowler, just absolutely
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excellent getting the ball up the pitch.
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Mary Fowler's passing in the first half was just pinpoint.
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She was doing everything right. Jess Park looked fast,
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confident. She was sure of every move that
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she was making out there. And then you talk about the
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defense from left to right, Kasparite Greenwood, Leia
4:23
Alexandria and Naomi Lazelle. Lazelle obviously playing a huge
4:28
factor in the first half goal that back 4 plus Yui Hasegawa
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just kept moving Barsa into areas where their shots weren't
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quite as dangerous as they usually are.
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That's a great point. And I think it does kind of
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connect to my earlier point about who's missing there.
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Because usually you get that ball to a danger area and then
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either it's like Bodyuello with her back to the goal that you
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could kind of feed it back into or Caldente out in the wing, or
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you can kind of recycle it. And then bathroom is maybe a
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little bit deeper and she's going to let one.
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But it seems like their attacks. So they got like 70 or 80% of
5:04
where they got last year just in the terms of like number of
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passes and just kind of like how how deep they were able to push.
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I'm glad you bring up Naomi Lazell.
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This is only her third appearance for a city, so she
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comes over from Bristol City. She's 20 years old, playing
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against Barcelona, so her first, first Champions League action to
5:23
do that and then to be able to notch an assist on Bunny Shaw's
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second, I mean, come on. I mean, I think like, Bunny
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looked great acceleration wise. You know, she didn't look
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blazing fast at the start of a run, but when she hit top speed,
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like she cooked battier on one, like it was clear, like she's
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faster on the field than she is on tape.
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I think if you're if you're one of those Barcelona defenders and
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then on top of that, Bunny Shaw is basically a world class
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center back for anything aerial coming into the box when she's
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got when she's got a chance to stand there and set up what an
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incredible advantage to basically close the door on
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something that maybe Barcelona was going to try to look to to
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maybe sneak one in a. 100%, I mean, she was clear and it felt
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like she was getting on onto any corner kick that Barcelona had.
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You heard our pal, friend of the show, Chris Sharples, the
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legend. Let's go, he said, headed away
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by Shaw. Like at least like four or five
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times off of corner kicks. She was everywhere.
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But we have to say, when the second-half started, I had a
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sinking suspicion. I know it's easy for me to say
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after the fact, but I would be surprised if a lot of football
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fans didn't think watching that match.
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Barcelona's hasn't had their full say here yet and they came
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out in the second-half absolutely on fire.
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Their high press started to work pretty well against City.
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City could barely hold the ball. Barcelona had 61% possession in
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the second-half. They had 13 total shots to two.
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They had three shots on target to one.
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Now, obviously the Bunny Josh, I was on target and it and it
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landed. So there's a big difference
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there. But still, I mean, you know,
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they completed nearly 100 more passes in the second-half.
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That's a dangerous dangerous. It goes without saying that's a
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super dangerous Barcelona side. They kind of started to get
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their wits about them in the second-half.
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But again, credit to that back 4 Yamashita in goal.
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She had some kind of nervy moments back there in both
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halves. Really, you know, Barcelona
7:20
could have scored in this match, but the fact is that they didn't
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and now they have to kind of go back and regroup.
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And let me ask you this, though, if you're Barcelona, isn't it
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kind of easy for you to say, OK, Manchester City is a top side.
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We know what time it is. They're they're one of the
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better teams in this competition roster wise.
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It's their first time back in the Champions League for a
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while. Emotions are running high.
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The crowd is super into it and they're at home.
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You know what, fair play to you. You win this one.
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We'll see you guys obviously right before we go to the
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knockout stage, but then we'll probably see in the knockout
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stage. They could say that.
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I think that would be at the most responsible course of
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action because I think they got beat pretty handily.
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And shout out to the color commentator on the match,
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whoever was that kind of running point alongside our guy Chris
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Sharples. But she was mentioning that
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Manchester City was playing so hard and chasing so hard that
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she was like really questioning whether or not they were going
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to be able to uphold that for the entire game.
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And the reality is they played harder.
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And I think that was led by 1, Lauren Hemp, who was an absolute
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goddamn maniac out there, like chasing everything and just
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making sure that City's presence was felt.
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I think City was the better team.
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I think City could push Barcelona even away.
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Wow. It really comes down to, and I
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kind of want to have a conversation really quick about
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Barcelona manager Pede Romeo, who according to Wikipedia is
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either 30 or 31, who replaces Yonatan Hidaltes, who's 32.
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I kind of feel like maybe this is a little bit of arrogance
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from the Barcelona brass. Just be like, yeah, we could
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just we just manufacture young 30 something managers that are
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geniuses that know more about football than anybody in the
9:00
world. Like, I know that they probably
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weren't going to go get a bomb pastor or, you know, obviously
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Emma Hayes was going to be off the market.
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But if you're Barcelona and you are at the very mountaintop,
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don't you at least say what's possible here?
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Or it's just like, OK, no, next. It's it's not quite next man.
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You know, it's like, well, for them was literally next man up.
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But I think when you watch them on the field, they don't seem to
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have great ideas. I still kind of think Alexia and
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Aitana, the chemistry not totally there.
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Like I think when they're both on the field, it just feels like
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Aitana is a little bit less effective, maybe deferring a
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little bit to Alexia. It's like they clearly have not
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figured out how they're going to attack.
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I think that Barcelona team that we saw loses to two, maybe three
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teams in the field with a performance like that.
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Wow, OK, it's bold, my Goodman. I mean, I'm really interested in
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the idea that Alexia and Itana, they don't totally look
9:53
cohesive. I think I'm I'm in with you on
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that. I think Itana seems to look a
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little lesser than we saw her just when she was an absolute
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maestro and some of those matches before Alexia came back.
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I got to say though, buddy, Alexia looks great out there.
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Size, speed, smarts. Jesus.
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There were several moments in that match where she's running
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toward the 18 with the ball and I was like, well, this probably
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isn't going to end great for us. I will say like there were also
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stretches in the match where I was like, where's Boma Teebin?
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Yep. So I I think that's I think
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that's an interesting point. I mean this all Tees up
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Barcelona at home, Hammerbee coming to town riding a little
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bit of wave themselves. It very quickly for me turns
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into maybe the most must watch match of match day 2 because you
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got to think wounded animal Barcelona with all that talent.
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And I get what you're saying about the coaches.
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I think that is a pretty established thing on both the
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women's and the men's side. I think it is just a Barcelona
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football culture of you came up with us, you're in the system,
11:00
you know the way we play. So I think it's absolutely where
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the question of like is there brain drain?
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Do you have to look outside of of your company, of your of your
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club to find that next manager? We have to see a lot, lot more.
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So that's a question that's worth asking.
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But but I mean, it's super valid to ask though, because there
11:18
were stretches there where they look totally out of it.
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But I will still say to the Barsa fans, MLS, who, you know,
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you're still our guy. I'm not giving up.
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I mean, I know you're not either.
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Nobody's giving up on Barsa, just to be clear.
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But if you're sitting, you got to celebrate this because, and
11:33
it's worthy of celebrating because Barsa is so great.
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Absolutely. You mentioned that Barsa team,
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they're back in action next week, Wednesday October 16th,
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3:00 PM Eastern, hosting Hammerbee.
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That one should be a banger. I want to Fast forward though.
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Let's let's let's crank the happiness meter down pretty much
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all the way to the men. Bayern 5, Purdue a harder 3,
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Arsenal 2. Fair.
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What a fucking disaster all. Right, let's just we can just
12:00
end the visual gag. Plus the scarf is making me a
12:03
little warm. I was not thrilled when I when I
12:05
saw this. Oh yeah, for to let people
12:07
behind the curtain. I mean obviously Dino and I live
12:09
in America. It's a no spoilers world that
12:12
we're living in. Shout out to our guy.
12:15
You can remain unnamed. 1 of me and Dino's guys almost spoiled
12:19
the city resolve for me. I started to open his WhatsApp
12:22
and then immediately closed. It was like, oh, he's going to
12:24
spoil that for me. And it almost got me because I
12:28
got to because the match happens in the middle of my work day and
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I had like very serious things going on.
12:32
And I was like, OK, I have to watch this match later.
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So I almost got spoiled. But obviously you know who you
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are. Appreciate you for checking in,
12:40
but shut up. I digress.
12:42
You let me cook. I was not thrilled to hear about
12:45
the result. What did you see in this Arsenal
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match? Yeah, well, First off, I was
12:49
right there with you. Zero Dark spoilies mode.
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We had the Hurricane Milton hitting Florida.
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That made it a little tricky. So man, you boycott a few of
12:57
these on on a little bit of a delay.
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But before we get into Arsenal Byron, I want to I want to reach
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back into our comments section from last week.
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We had a few of our great friends at the POD chime in and
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these friends had quite a bit to say about my Arsenal.
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Give our friends a little bit of shine at teacher for Life quote,
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Arsenal will lose or draw against Byron.
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End Quote. Teacher for Life also had some
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some really nice words about the show.
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So I appreciate that at TCN 82O2 also had some nice words about
13:22
the show. Appreciate it.
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Who the hell is Arsenal in the woman's game?
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They are still yearning to be as relevant as they were back in
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the 2000s. Their first English test this
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season was against Man City. Not convincing, period.
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Second test will come against Chelsea on October 12th.
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Period. If that's our second test, I
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don't want to know what this Byron match was.
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And the third comment, I want to mention our guy, Carlo Wilson.
13:42
Carlo Latrobe, PA population 8060 as of the 2020 census.
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You already know Arnold. Please don't be angry, Dino.
13:50
But Arsenal might not get out of the group.
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End Quote. Wow.
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I mean, I got to say, reading those words really, really hurt,
13:57
but they're absolutely fucking true.
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We stink. It was a really good chance
14:01
we're not going to get out of the group.
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Oh my goodness. All right.
14:04
This one a tale of two halves. The first half Arsenal outshoot
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Byron five to three shots on target, four to three.
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In the second-half, Arsenal gets worked like a speed bag.
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Byron outshoots Arsenal 3:50 shots on target 7 to 2.
14:19
And I think the turning point for me, and I want to know if,
14:22
if, if this kind of hit you in the same way. 56th minute,
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there's a Byron throw in to pretty much no one in
14:27
particular. The ball bounces right in a spot
14:30
in between Kim Little, Leah Williamson and Leah Valti.
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The ball is just bouncing around and Clara Boole just picks it up
14:36
right in stride. And I kid you not, her first
14:39
touch on the ball. I muttered under my breath.
14:41
I was like, oh, fuck, like she's 55 yards away from goal, but
14:45
just the, the visual of all the Arsenal defenders just bumping
14:48
into each other like this was an episode of, I don't know, the
14:50
Flintstones or something. I just thought that that was
14:53
such an ugly, like such an ugly display of defense that I was
14:57
like, I, I just got immediately terrified.
14:59
Again, to let folks behind the curtain, so people who've been
15:02
following so far I've been assigned Groups B&D, Group Bravo
15:08
and Group Delta, if you will, if you're into that kind of thing.
15:11
Those are the the four matches that I watched.
15:14
And then I catch the highlights. And then obviously Dino is
15:16
covering Group A and Group C, Group Alpha and Group Charlie
15:20
again, if you're so inclined. So I watch the highlights of
15:23
this match. So I couldn't tell in real time,
15:25
but when Loman scores that goal and they go ahead 21, to me it's
15:31
a great shot by Loman, beats the keeper near post, it's low, it
15:34
has great velocity. It didn't feel like a total
15:37
killer to me. But I'm missing the context in
15:40
between because I'm just watching the wonderful
15:42
highlights that the zone provides.
15:44
They're like the 8 minute sections.
15:45
Did it feel it felt like a killer to you in the moment?
15:49
Yes, and I'll tell you why in the highlights package they
15:52
don't show the throw in. Right.
15:54
So you the highlight just picks up from Bull running up the
15:58
field like straight galloping finds Loman, Loman smashes and
16:02
it looks like just a ho. But when I tell you this throw
16:05
in four players should have gotten to it.
16:07
And then when when Bull catches it in stride and it's just
16:11
sprinting, Codina and McCabe are still behind her.
16:14
They're still in defensive position somehow.
16:17
Well, McCabe takes a terrible angle because she she makes a
16:20
play on the ball, you know, towards Bull, even though she's
16:23
she's 2 defenders away. It was just an absolute shit
16:27
show. I see.
16:29
When I zoom out, actually, I'm going to go to something real
16:32
quick. I need to show you this graphic.
16:34
So I grabbed a screenshot. I never, ever do this.
16:36
Let's go. So to give you the context here,
16:39
I'm leaking confidence at this point.
16:41
Now I'm going to show this to you and I want you to tell me
16:44
what kind of defense you think Arsenal's running here.
16:47
OK. Yeah, sure.
16:51
Yes, yeah. We call that the the U-10
16:55
soccer. Everybody stand in a cluster.
17:00
I've seen this. I've been a part of this.
17:02
What am I supposed to even do with this?
17:04
What do I do with this? I mean, this is this is an
17:08
embarrassment and I think when you watch it, this is just a
17:11
still that image encapsulates the throw in that I'm talking
17:14
about with everybody just kind of standing around looking the
17:16
wrong way, going the wrong way. I encourage you to go back and
17:19
kind of like watch the 30 seconds that preceded the Loman
17:22
goal just to kind of see this. But it just felt like Arsenal
17:26
kind of lost their will. And with every Bayern goal,
17:30
Arsenal just felt further and further out of the match.
17:33
And I think when you think about the makeup of a championship
17:37
type team, Barsa falls behind. You see kind of like how they
17:40
respond. Arsenal was up in this match.
17:43
You know, they even at halftime like they were they were kind of
17:45
like on the level and I think they just kind of wilted.
17:48
It's hard really not to think about Jonas Eid of all and what
17:52
exactly the adjustments are. I kind of read them up top, like
17:56
the difference between the stats between the first half and the
17:58
second-half. Yeah, doesn't seem like there
17:59
was a single adjustment made, you know, And I think even when
18:03
Bayern are start to put together some offense, they looked great
18:06
in the second-half. No adjustments.
18:08
The starting lineup was weird. Alessia Russo not in the
18:11
starting lineup. Beth Meade, not in the starting
18:12
lineup. Connie Cross, Ruben Moy, like
18:14
there was there's a lot of shakeups in the and ID of all is
18:17
like also switched keepers too. He's gone from from Zinnsburger
18:21
to Von Domslar. Watching that second-half was
18:24
kind of like when you watch that that beach house on stilts, yes,
18:28
And there's hurricane coverage and you just kind of see it
18:30
swaying and just like, OK, this, this is this, this little clip
18:33
is going to end with this house floating into the ocean, never
18:36
to be seen again. That was kind of what it was
18:38
like watching, you know, Arsenal just basically fumble away the
18:40
second-half of this match and get off and basically almost, I
18:44
don't want to say derail this group stage campaign because we
18:47
did mention this was their toughest yeah match, hopefully
18:50
of the six, but just not the way you want to start.
18:53
Sure, I concede that totally -3 goal differential, start with a
18:59
loss. But you know, it's, it's an away
19:02
match at Bayern. It's your return to the
19:06
Champions League. You know, we've talked about the
19:08
value of like, have you played in the Champions League before?
19:11
And obviously a lot of your players have.
19:14
Bayern looked really good from the attacking standpoint that I
19:17
saw, kind of helped out by some of those defensive mistakes by
19:21
Arsenal. I think it's early.
19:24
I think it's really, really early to start the doom and
19:28
gloom for your Gooners. Loman's goal after halftime,
19:32
that's a pretty big power punch. And Codina still comes back with
19:35
a nice header to bring you guys level to get you back on 2/2.
19:40
For Neil Harder, have yourself a day.
19:42
You get a Hattie in the last like 15 minutes, like 20 minutes
19:47
of the match essentially. That's hard to come back from
19:50
the Vigostodier goal to good Lord, bring things level.
19:54
Climb the ladder, climb that Icelandic ladder.
19:58
I know I'm separated from it because I don't follow the club
20:01
like you do. I won't lie to you buddy, it
20:03
wasn't great. You got a lot of time to make
20:06
this stuff up. You got too like Mariona looks
20:09
really, really good. And even though maybe like Kim
20:12
Little and like Stina Black Stenius, at least from what I
20:15
saw, it didn't look like they played very well.
20:17
You still got Katie McCabe there.
20:19
You have this core of players who are going to be able to kind
20:22
of look at each other and be like, all right, that went
20:25
poorly. We're going to circle the wagons
20:27
here. Every single sports cliche
20:29
you've ever heard, we're better than this.
20:31
We know we can be better than this.
20:33
Let's get this thing back on track.
20:34
And they're going to go against some teams that I think they'll
20:37
have the ability to get things back on track against.
20:40
I'm rocking my Orlando Pride shirt today.
20:41
Congratulations to the Pride 2024 and to BSL Shield winners
20:45
go. The story of their season has
20:47
been intensity. That is definitely not what we
20:50
saw from Arsenal. The intensity.
20:52
I mean, I think McCabe had definitely some moments.
20:55
Well, let's see Russo when she came on, played really hard and
20:58
and was, you know, a shot in the arm for that squad.
21:01
Outside of that, you know, Kim Little huge struggles
21:03
defensively, the whole backline struggles defensively.
21:06
Stena Blacksteinius, you mentioned it's a tough spot for
21:09
her. She's an offensive player.
21:11
Glottis Perla Vigas Totier, a defensive player and the roles
21:14
reversed on that, on that Vigas Totier goal.
21:16
But like you said, Vince Carter, Frederick Weiss climbs the
21:19
ladder, just bullied. And I mean, Vegas Totier, she's
21:24
capable of that. She's a wonderful player.
21:27
And I really do think we talked about that Champions League
21:30
experience. You mentioned it, Arsenal have
21:31
players that have played in this tournament before, but Bayern
21:34
has that extremely sour taste in their mouth from last Champions
21:38
League season talked about them being one of the three revenge
21:41
tour teams. And I feel like Arsenal missing
21:44
a little bit of that institutional championing
21:47
knowledge as a unit. So we have good players.
21:50
McCabe played really well, two assists on the day.
21:52
Mariona played really well, plenty of touches in dangerous
21:55
areas. She gets the goal.
21:56
It's funny because McCabe to Codina almost cashed early and
21:59
then they figured out the next time around for the for the
22:02
actual second goals. That was really great.
22:03
But outside of that, I mean, no, no other team in the group stage
22:07
gave up more than three goals, you know, and this is a team
22:11
that you're supposed to be at least at the level of Bayern.
22:14
And it's not like that's a cauldron to go in and you're
22:17
like, we can't expect the result go into almost every group of
22:20
live team last year went in there and and had a little bit
22:23
of success. If you look at just the
22:24
second-half, I feel like Arsenal actually played worse than the
22:28
scoreline, if that's possible. OK, it's bold.
22:33
You're in a dark place right now.
22:35
I'm sorry. I'm sorry this happened to you.
22:38
Giant swing of beer incoming. Yeah, you know what, you know,
22:44
you got to go through the stages of grief, my man.
22:47
But there there will be days ahead for the squad to redeem
22:50
itself. Here's hoping so one of those
22:53
days ahead. How about October 16th?
22:55
Next Wednesday Arsenal. They'll be at home hosting
22:58
Balarenga. 3:00 PM Eastern. Feels like a pick em at this
23:01
point. All right.
23:04
Let's go ahead though. Let's jump over to Group BI.
23:07
Want to talk a little? Chelsea Real Madrid Group stage
23:10
rematch from last season ended in a draw when these two teams
23:13
met last year at Stamford Bridge.
23:16
They run it back to open up this year's champs eight group stage.
23:19
Chelsea three Real Madrid 2 What do we need to know about this
23:23
one? So I want to set the scene
23:25
first. Chelsea's last match prior to
23:27
this was on September 27th. It was a 7 nil away win at
23:32
Selhurst Park versus Crystal Palace.
23:34
Sonya Bone Pastor had some feelings about their cancelled
23:38
match versus Manchester United, which was I think it was
23:41
scheduled for either Saturday or Sunday before this Champions
23:44
League fixture Sunday, Sunday. Yeah, and I quote this was in a
23:48
this was in a pre match press conference.
23:50
I believe bone Pastor said, quote, we were disappointed as
23:54
players and staff. Speaking of the cancellation, I
23:56
think everyone has to understand we were supposed to play.
23:59
She went on to say we were in a very good team dynamic and I
24:02
think not having the opportunity to play change everything in
24:05
preparation for the game with Real Madrid.
24:07
When you have the opportunity to play one game a week with this
24:10
decision being made to postpone the game.
24:12
Now we have been out of competition for 10 days, which
24:16
is completely different. If you look at the situation,
24:19
the decision is not good. I think it is not good for all
24:22
the English clubs who are in the Champions League competition.
24:25
And quote sounds like Sonia Bon Pastor is a fan of Into the
24:29
Channel and wants to have a rest versus Rust discussion.
24:33
She was clearly concerned about the rust, but you know what,
24:36
Maybe she just got the benefit of the rest because Chelsea
24:40
started that match and they looked super fast and they
24:43
looked super decisive and Johanna written Kana rude.
24:47
She is a fucking nightmare out there sometimes for the
24:52
opponents. Like when she took the ball on
24:55
that first goal and she is flying up the right hand side.
25:00
She stops on a dime to get the ball on her left foot to play in
25:04
that pass to show Kanuskin to get the opener. 2 minutes in.
25:08
I was just like hey Sonia, don't worry about the rust.
25:12
The legs look fresh right now. Absolutely.
25:15
I mean, mostly the same roster makeup from this Chelsea side.
25:20
Sure, Really kind of like Bon Pasteur is like the the main
25:22
injection of like, OK, some some variants here.
25:25
I was also excited about Real Madrid because to your point,
25:28
obviously JRK shot out of a cannon, You know, Nu skin puts
25:31
Chelsea on the board. Last year's Real Madrid side, I
25:34
think maybe we see a different kind of response, but they're a
25:37
little bit more weathered, a little bit more mentally
25:39
tougher, I would say, going to this tournament.
25:41
Yeah. And they had an opportunity to
25:43
to kind of give up and maybe just kind of start parking the
25:47
bus and just hope to hold it totally to like A2 nil loss.
25:50
Like when the penalty comes in like the 27th minute, which I
25:54
was like, OK, with the penalty, like I could have lived without
25:58
it. You had two players kind of
25:59
challenging for the ball, like two players kind of high kicking
26:02
a little bit in that spot in the box trying to either trying to
26:05
win the ball or clear it. So I could have gone either way
26:07
on that. I don't think it was an
26:08
egregious penalty call. I do know that Girl Leighton's
26:11
penalty was a laser into the box bottom corner.
26:16
So you go down to nil in that spot, you're less than 1/2 hour
26:20
into your Champions League. Real Madrid had every single
26:23
reason to be like Jesus. We are snake bitten in this
26:26
tournament. But here's the thing about Real
26:28
Madrid. We're talking about Real Madrid
26:30
in the Champions League. They believe don't matter of men
26:32
or women. This is supposed to be our
26:34
trophy, It's our birthright. We're Real Madrid and this is
26:37
the Champions League. So I thought when they were able
26:40
to pull it back, you had a great line.
26:42
And I know people have used this on other players, but you
26:45
described Alva Redondo as a professional goal scorer.
26:49
That goal she gets before halftime where the ball is kind
26:52
of bouncing around and she's able to real calmly get it under
26:55
control, blast it into the bottom of the net.
26:58
You pull one back before halftime.
27:01
That's professional goal scorer type of stuff to kind of settle
27:04
things. Absolutely.
27:05
And I think that's that's the benefit of kind of going after
27:09
players from different backgrounds that have played,
27:12
you know, obviously she's got, you know, national team
27:14
experience as well. And that's why you sign her.
27:16
Yeah. Like any ball that finds Redondo
27:19
in a dangerous area, I mean, you already know, mentally she's got
27:22
she doesn't even need the green light.
27:23
She already knows internally she's got the green light.
27:25
That's basically, I mean, they were missing a lot last year,
27:28
but that's a big, big component of one thing that they were
27:31
really, really missing. Obviously, like they were so
27:33
dependent last year on Olga starting the offense from way,
27:36
way, way deep and just basically trying to pull all strings, you
27:39
know, cover the whole 100 plus yards of the pitch, right?
27:42
But having Redondo in there just to kind of like flip the game
27:44
back your way. We just not something we saw
27:47
last year from this side. Yeah, great point.
27:49
And you know, you get to go into halftime, it's like, OK,
27:52
everybody regroup this, we're back in striking distance.
27:54
And then they had another opportunity to kind of pack it
27:58
in and give up. When I will say there, there had
28:01
to be a bit of a defensive lapse because the amount of space that
28:05
Lauren James had to serve in that cross in the 53rd minute
28:09
after halftime, you could be closing Lauren James down and
28:13
she will hit a perfect cross. She had about six or seven yards
28:17
of space to hit that cross to Myra Ramirez and Ramirez hits a
28:21
really genius kind of looping header.
28:23
Misa Rodriguez is like in an awkward spot to try to like
28:26
she's falling backwards, diving, trying to get to it, perfectly
28:28
executed by LJ and Myra Ramirez. Now you're down three one.
28:33
What kind kind of metal do you have?
28:35
Can you pull it back again? And they're able to do it in the
28:38
84th minute. And this is what I love about
28:40
group stage football. That still matters.
28:43
Changing your goal differentially from -2 to -1
28:48
that's absolutely massive. And to have the mentality,
28:51
you're at the bridge and you and you need to at the very least
28:55
you feel like, can we pull one back not only to see if maybe we
28:59
could do something miraculous and get the equalizer, but just
29:02
to kind of level set ourselves. I thought it said a lot about
29:05
the mentality of the Madrid Estas.
29:08
And I like them. I like it for them moving
29:10
forward. Absolutely, yeah.
29:12
And as you mentioned, Kaiseto gets that goal, makes it 32,
29:15
pretty much the resolve that I wished, you know, Arsenal were
29:18
able to kind of summon late in the second-half.
29:20
Yeah, didn't see any of that. But you know, that's also a
29:23
byproduct of kind of like as a unit coming together and be
29:26
like, OK, this is not happening again.
29:28
So who knows, next year might be Arsenal's here.
29:30
If I could point out one more thing that I think that I
29:32
thought was pretty interesting. Something to monitor in like the
29:35
89th minute. Felipe Engel, doll for Real
29:38
Madrid foul the shit out of Lauren James.
29:41
And it wasn't like particularly a dirty foul, but it wasn't
29:45
intentional foul. LJ kind of sat there on the
29:48
ground for a second like, well, what the hell was that all
29:50
about? Like?
29:51
And I just think there's no love lost between this Real Madrid
29:56
side. And I know Angle Doll played for
29:57
Manchester City last year, so it's not like she's like deep
30:00
embedded in the rivalry, but she knows what time it is.
30:03
She's a good veteran, a smart veteran player.
30:06
And for them to kind of be like, you have to pull us off the
30:10
field in this last game, yeah, we're going to lose 3-2, but
30:12
we're going to be here the whole time.
30:14
And, you know, some of those Madrid players still remember
30:17
seeing Lucy Bronze in that, in those Barcelona colors across
30:20
the field. And now she's playing for
30:22
Chelsea. Totally.
30:23
I just, I re I cannot say enough.
30:25
I liked Madrid's attitude in this and I think it will bode
30:29
well for them going forward. I totally agree.
30:31
And I'm I'm a little bit of absolute dummy.
30:32
I I knew I was missing somebody when I was rattling off those
30:35
Barcelona players that were so pivotal last year that didn't
30:38
appear this year. Lucy Bronze got to be in that
30:40
mix as well. I think they really missed her.
30:42
Just let's mix shit up kind of energy where it's like, oh, I'm
30:45
up here and now I'm back there and now I'm in the middle.
30:47
You know, it's like she's still just kind of spring up anywhere,
30:49
wherever the action is. And I've actually looked really
30:51
good for Chelsea as well. Next week, Chelsea on the road
30:54
they travel to the Netherlands, take on FC-20, that one going
30:57
down Thursday, October 17th, 3:00 PM in the late slot.
31:01
Switching gears back to Group A Leon 3 gal, Tesseri 0.
31:05
This one, I was excited about this one and it even though it
31:09
wasn't totally in contest, I feel like it kind of delivered.
31:11
All right, this. I'm glad to hear you say that.
31:13
As a person who watched the match, you know, I I saw the
31:16
highlights of this one. Knowing this was your turf, can
31:18
I just ask a question? Does Tabitha Chiwinga look
31:22
faster than she was in last year's tournaments somehow?
31:25
I think she well, tough to say. I think I think the jury might
31:29
still might still be in that match.
31:30
She looked faster for sure. Now I got to imagine if you're a
31:34
gals house right defenders again did not see that no way to
31:38
simulate that speed in traffic. It's just going to be a problem
31:41
on that day and the numbers bored out for sure.
31:44
Leon outshot gals house right. Get ready for this 40 to 3:00.
31:48
OK, sure. Yeah, that's a normal thing,
31:51
Big. Big day shots on target 16 to
31:55
two advantage Gallup put two on target.
31:57
There you go in the 18th minute they showed a graphic showing
32:00
the possession stats 6634 in favor of Lyon.
32:03
And I thought 34 was extremely generous because I think to that
32:07
point I think you can only remember barely double digit
32:10
touches for the Turkish side. So I thought that obviously
32:13
Chewinga, who you mentioned, look great as part of that front
32:16
3. And I think that front 3 Diani
32:19
Melchi du Mornay tablet Chewinga can make a claim to the the best
32:23
front three in the world. In my opinion, they're just
32:25
devastating. Chewinga and Melchi are athletic
32:28
marvels. And then you have DNE, who has
32:31
the craft who could score from pretty much anywhere that a
32:35
human could score, score from she she has that that skill set.
32:39
And they were incredibly productive in this one.
32:40
So DNE managed 10 shots. Lindsay Horan Captain America
32:44
managed 7, Melchi du Mornay Notch 6, Chewinga, only three
32:47
shots, but two assists for Tabitha.
32:49
I want to hit you with a quick Lindsay Horan NBA comp.
32:52
I think at this point in her career she reminds me a ton of
32:56
Phoenix Suns Chris Paul. Oh, OK, Yeah, I can see that.
33:00
Kind of like I'm in control. I know where everybody is.
33:05
I'm not the like, dazzling you with athletic ability compared
33:09
to some of my teammates. But I I'm moving the chess
33:12
pieces around. And that's exactly what she did.
33:15
Yeah, she looked great. She was in dangerous areas.
33:17
She was distributing. She just seems to be more
33:20
involved in the Leon offense, which is really, really cool to
33:23
see. One other quick note on the Subs
33:26
that Leon was able to bring on. How about this for for for five
33:29
Subs, Sarah Dabberts, Sofia Huerta, Ada Hegerberg, the
33:33
mayor, Sagarola and Amel 5th gear.
33:36
Marjorie, I'm working on that working, working nickname.
33:41
She just comes on the pitch and she's just full speed and she
33:43
can still kind of drop into 6th gear when when the situation
33:46
calls. I thought Gal Tasaray
33:49
defensively, they did play hard. They were super engaged as
33:52
mentioned, and they were extremely busy. 12
33:54
interceptions, 6 blocks, 11 saves from their keeper Gamsa
33:58
Yaman, 57 clearances, and they had to defend 502 Leon passes in
34:04
their half. So they earned their they earned
34:07
their paychecks this week for sure.
34:09
Absolutely. Let me say quick shout out to
34:11
the zone because the Amel Majri call me celebration is in like
34:16
the build up package, like the the video package.
34:19
Those are 5 pretty good players to bring on to the field.
34:22
I would say I'm an adventure to say they would probably start
34:25
for several teams in the world. They might get some starts here
34:28
in the group stage later on. I believe it.
34:30
All right, looking ahead next week Thursday, this one's going
34:34
to close the week as well. I think You know, you mentioned
34:36
Barcelona, Hammerbee, how about a little Wolfsburg hosting Leon?
34:39
It's good. Thursday, October 17th, 3:00 PM
34:43
Shout out to the zone. What a luxury for us to be able
34:46
to kind of catch all these games live or on replay.
34:49
Avoid the spoilers. I made the mistake on Wednesday
34:51
of trying to get to YouTube and got had a couple of Wednesday
34:54
matches spoiled for me. That was a little bit of a
34:56
bummer. But for anybody that's in Zero
34:58
Dark spoilers mode, like your boys tend to be from time to
35:02
time, just go to Dezone's website.
35:04
They do a great job of keeping things under wraps.
35:06
You could just kind of go in there blind, watch the match, no
35:09
spoilies and and really enjoy it just as if it was in real time.
35:13
Yeah, and it's in beautiful high definition, you know, and when
35:16
we were in the qualification stage of the Champions League,
35:19
there were some, there were some dicey streams that were being
35:22
used in those points that were, I will say I'm no visual medium
35:26
expert didn't appear to be in high definition.
35:29
So it is nice to watch these matches on the zone, real
35:32
commentary, cool pre and post game and halftime, you know,
35:36
analysis interspersed zone obviously crushing and
35:40
Wolfsburg, Lyon. I think we're going to talk
35:42
about the German powerhouse here soon.
35:44
But you make a good case. If I'm talking about Barcelona,
35:46
Hammer B Wolfsburg, Lyon, that's going to be important.
35:51
Totally agree. Can't really go wrong with the
35:53
with the entire slate. I do want to scoot ahead though.
35:56
Also in Group A. How about this for a result?
35:58
I kind of feel good. Well, I kind of feel good and
36:00
you should. I cheated a little bit.
36:02
I mentioned last week, wouldn't be shocked if if Roma was able
36:05
to get past Wolfsburg in this one.
36:07
And I mentioned a few weeks prior I had Wolfsburg penciled
36:10
into the group stage. So I had all my bases covered,
36:12
we'll say, but I think my my more recent prognostication, I
36:16
think came true here. Roma won Wolfsburg nil.
36:18
I just thought Roma played a Roma type game.
36:21
And I think in my head when I was thinking about AI, think
36:24
Roma can get a result here. That was the kind of match that
36:26
I was thinking real scrappy. Wolfsburg did have chances.
36:29
They they did put a couple balls onto the woodwork, but
36:32
ultimately the Manuela Giuliano penalty becomes the difference
36:36
in the match. Little sidebar.
36:38
You mentioned girl writing, talking away, that penalty.
36:41
We talked about Lindsay Horan too, for Leon Manuel Giuliano.
36:44
Are there? How many players would you
36:46
rather have stepping up to a penalty?
36:49
Because first of all, she fucking blasts it every time and
36:53
she's so ice cold and she's so precise.
36:56
I think she might be at the very top of my list in the women's
36:59
game of somebody that I feel the absolute most comfortable
37:02
stepping up and just burying it in a tough spot.
37:05
It's a that's a great question. I think our our pals, our
37:10
friends who are watching this program, please let us know who
37:14
who we might be missing. Can I submit from your Lando
37:18
pride, the legend, the greatest of all time, Marta, who scores
37:22
the penalty to seal the NWSL shield.
37:26
She's a great penalty taker. Can we throw out Alyssa Nair?
37:30
She's an incredible penalty taker in world football.
37:34
You mentioned Haran, a girl writings was a but yeah, I mean,
37:38
Giuliano, from what we've seen in these past 2 Champions
37:41
Leagues and from what we've seen in Syria trying to make sure we
37:44
do our prep, she's absolutely in that conversation, no doubt
37:47
about it. I was a little worried about
37:49
this Roma side they had fallen down to well, they're still in
37:52
fourth, Siriofa Manil, there are 6 points behind UVA already and
37:56
eight goals behind the goal differential.
37:58
So they're off to a very slow start and this clean sheet
38:03
versus Wolfsburg, their first of the season, Impressive.
38:06
Good time to kind of dust that one off.
38:08
Wolfsburg did kind of win some of those counting stats,
38:11
obviously, they out possessed 58 to 42.
38:14
Not the biggest shocker against Roma, but they did outshoot the
38:17
Italian side 23 at 13 shots on target, though even 5:00 to 5:00
38:21
to put 5 on target out of 23. That's a little tough.
38:24
Yeah. From Wolfsburg, I think you can
38:26
look at their two wingers, Lynette Bjornstein and Svendis
38:29
Jones Dautier, Only one shot attempted for Bjornstein, 0 for
38:34
Jones Dautier, and neither of them obviously put a shot on
38:36
target. So that's a little tough, you
38:38
know, from your from your wingers.
38:39
I think you're expecting a little bit more in a match like
38:41
this. But that Roma side, they just
38:43
make it very, very difficult. You know, you look at Linari,
38:46
you look at Minami, Camellia, Chasar, like it's just, that's
38:50
just the way they play. And I think they they want to
38:52
steal one, they want to steal 2 and they want to just kind of
38:55
shut down your water. Yeah, I'll tell you, man, that
38:57
Italian style of play, that Cata naccio as they call it over
39:02
there, like we're going to pack the box, we're going to make
39:04
things difficult. That works.
39:06
Can I just say about Camellia Chasar, add her to the list of
39:11
Syria players who have easily fooled me this dope into
39:15
thinking they're Italian. I mean her name is Camelia
39:18
Chazar. She's Romanian for sure.
39:21
Thought she was Italian. And so it's Evelyn Vien's Julia
39:24
Grosso and now Camelia Chazar. I just, I see it players playing
39:30
in Syria and I'm like Shirley is Italian.
39:32
Do they play for for the Italian national team?
39:35
Nope. Romanian.
39:38
That's a learning podcast. It is Evelyn VN All Stars
39:42
welcome to list communities Wolfsburg not quite at arsenal
39:46
levels of ring the alarm. But you know, and this was gonna
39:48
be a tough match one way or the other.
39:50
But I feel like if you are Wolfsburg, you gotta be a little
39:53
bit disappointed considering how you came in.
39:56
Consider your expectations considering your historical
39:59
resume in this tournament. Do you feel like they should be
40:02
mentally in a place where they need to kind of like catch their
40:05
breath in, reset, or is it just going to be kind of business as
40:08
usual? It's so tough because now they
40:10
have to play Lyon, but they're they, they're going to be home
40:13
versus Lyon. You can make the case that their
40:16
second most difficult fixture is coming up because obviously
40:19
their most difficult fixture is going to be at Lyon.
40:22
They just have so much quality. I think if you're them, you kind
40:25
of look at it similarly to maybe the way Barcelona looked at it,
40:28
where now for Barcelona it's we were away and a good side and we
40:34
lost a match and we played pretty well and we probably
40:36
could have scored a goal. If you're Wolfsburg, you say,
40:38
OK, we held the ball, we played away.
40:41
Roma has more recent Champions League experience, obviously,
40:44
whereas Wolfsburg got bounced by Perry FC last year.
40:48
So you could probably look at it and say like, OK, we lost one
40:52
that we shouldn't have lost, but you don't get any respite now
40:55
you have to play Lyon. So Yep, I will agree.
40:59
I'm a Wolfsburg believer. I stand by that.
41:01
I'm not. I'm not hopping off the the
41:03
bandwagon just yet. I think they're going to be
41:06
fine, but it's a tough spot. You at least need to have a very
41:11
good performance against Leon. Even if you lose it, I think you
41:14
need to at least look pretty good.
41:16
Yeah, I totally agree with you. And the points start to become a
41:20
factor because obviously you've mentioned Wolfsburg hosting
41:22
Leon. That's going to be a tough
41:23
matchup. Now, if they happen to drop that
41:26
one to Lyon and they're sitting on 0 points, four matches to go.
41:31
Looking at last year's standings, Group C was the group
41:34
that sent teams into the knockout stage with the fewest
41:38
amount of points, which was 10. So let's just say 10 is the
41:42
minimum. Oh, I'm sorry, Benfica had 9.
41:44
So let's say 9 is the the absolute floor and you have
41:47
everything to break your way. Yeah, if Wolf Springs drops this
41:50
one to Lyon and then has to go to Lyon, they could be on the
41:55
bridge. I think all these teams that
41:57
lost match day one are in the same boat where got to get a
42:01
result here. I think even a draw, it's a
42:04
point for you and it's a point for whoever you're battling in
42:06
the standings. That's valuable.
42:08
But I think any way that goes down 02, you really have to
42:11
catch fire in the back half of the group stage to have any kind
42:15
of chance. Yeah, great point man.
42:17
It makes it even more important to try to hold serve at home.
42:22
Leon. No easy task I do.
42:24
I do also want to point out we have four former winners of this
42:29
Champions League trophy in the tournament.
42:31
Wolfsburg lost, Arsenal lost, Barcelona lost, Lyon won.
42:38
Looking at one in three for the former winners coming out of
42:41
this match day one, I don't think anybody would have
42:44
predicted that. Definitely, definitely.
42:45
I mean would have got tremendous odds on that.
42:48
I want to pull one. I want to pull a couple more
42:50
data points here. I mentioned this last week and
42:52
actually went back and checked it.
42:53
I had predicted that the goal differential for match day one
42:56
would probably be less than last year.
42:58
So I actually went back two years.
43:00
Match Day 1/20/22 The aggregate goal differential across the
43:04
matches. 24 goals. Okay, so roughly three goals was
43:09
the average across eight matches. 24 goals two years ago.
43:12
19 goals last year, 15 goals this year.
43:15
There we go. So that's a 21% drop.
43:18
The field get closer. And it's not just the goal
43:21
difference because, you know, Barcelona went from obviously
43:23
winning to now -2 and losing. So it's like, you know, to your
43:27
point yet all those champions not having the success that a
43:30
champion would necessarily expect.
43:32
But I do think the field's getting tighter.
43:34
Teams are catching up, players are catching up, tactical and I
43:37
think it's being reflected on the pitch. 100% that's such a
43:41
banger of a stat. That's why you're the stats guy.
43:43
That's why you shouldn't be too down about Arsenal.
43:45
You'll be crunching the numbers, they'll be crunching the
43:48
numbers. You'll be back in this thing in
43:49
no time. I appreciate it, thanks buddy.
43:51
I was counting either. Let me back up.
43:53
Let's. Shift over to Group C Valarenga
43:56
hosting Juventus. This one was a fun one.
43:59
Valarenga early, I thought they looked really great.
44:02
They looked bigger, they looked more organized, they looked more
44:04
professional. Ultimately this one ends one nil
44:07
to Juventus big three points on the road, only adding a little
44:12
bit more doom and and another couple dashes of gloom to my
44:16
Arsenal hopes for them getting out of the knockout stage.
44:19
For Juventus to be able to go on the road and get three points
44:22
here, I think when the moment called for it, they stepped up
44:25
and basically did what teams that make the knockout stage do,
44:29
grab their moment. Yeah, man.
44:31
I mean, Volaringa beats Juventus in possession 58 to 42.
44:35
They beat him in total shots 25 to 14.
44:38
They beat him in shots on target 7:00 to 4:00.
44:40
And they had two big chances to Juventus is one big chance.
44:44
All of those stats courtesy of our pals over at football.
44:48
But Juventus beat them them in the most important step bangers
44:52
that Cantori strike Absolutely, absolutely phenomenal from the
44:58
left side of the box. Cantori is able to just hit an
45:00
absolute missile side netting. Only place she could have put it
45:04
probably to really beat the keeper in that spot.
45:07
And Volaringa, it just looked like there was a lock on the
45:11
goal. They had a lot of chances where
45:13
it looked like, OK, this is it, this is the one and it just
45:16
didn't happen for them. Again.
45:18
That Italian captain Naccio, the door lock, that'll just come up
45:21
and bite you sometimes. I'll say though, man, Ballering,
45:25
you look good. They did look good and they get
45:27
a chance to bounce back. They get the wounded Arsenal.
45:32
I'm just like good full on just just Arsenal ball are going to
45:35
happening next Wednesday, October 16th 3:00 PM Eastern and
45:39
on the flip side, 12:45 PM slot UVA host Bayern Munich going to
45:44
be some. Bangers.
45:45
Oh my gosh. Couple of small, absolute.
45:48
Group C This is just some Group C bangers next Wednesday.
45:51
Very excited about that. Let's scoot ahead though.
45:53
A couple more matches to hit, sliding over to your side of the
45:56
pitch. Hammer B2 Zang Poulton nil.
45:58
What'd you see here? Let me throw.
46:00
Let me throw a scenario at you. A Nordic team that we don't know
46:04
a ton about heading into the tournament scores two goals in a
46:08
win in their opening in Group stage match versus Saint Polton.
46:12
Sound familiar at all? I feel like I've heard this one
46:14
before, yeah. Make no mistake about it, I will
46:18
never leave you Bron Battalion. I love you more than anything.
46:20
Thank you all for always rocking with us, of course.
46:23
But man, I got some interest in this Hammer Bee side.
46:25
Now obviously they play in Donald Svenskin.
46:28
Bron is in top serial, so I don't think I'm crossing any any
46:31
real lines there. But dude, this Hammer Bee team,
46:36
I like the way they play. Vilda Hassund hit a just
46:40
absolute laser beam into the bottom corner of the net.
46:43
It was a beautiful setup. Vonger Heim just kind of like
46:46
lays it off to her. She's like just to like a step
46:49
or two inside the 18 plays the pass perfectly to just kind of
46:52
like, OK, you're running on to it, I'm just gonna leave it for
46:55
you. And it was a great call out by
46:56
the announcer to mention it was Hammerbee's first ever goal in
46:59
the UAE UAFO Women's Champions League group stage.
47:02
I thought that was that was a great moment.
47:04
This Hammerbee team tough. And it's not just all defense.
47:08
They have a lot of skill and smarts and scoring ability up
47:12
top. Yeah, you had pointed in the
47:13
direction of of a Katika Tamberg good I think a couple weeks back
47:18
and that is a real pleasure. She's she's very, very good.
47:22
Absolutely handful really, really good a nose for the
47:26
action yes, like as soon as as soon as like the intensity
47:30
starts to ratchet up. It's almost like she just kicks
47:32
it into gear and is going to work harder than anybody on the
47:36
pitch and is going to just I don't know, like just try to
47:39
flip the game. She's just like a game flipper
47:42
and I, I just kind of like love her energy and made a big
47:45
difference in this one for sure. No doubt I I do want to call out
47:49
our pals St. Bolton STP.
47:52
They had an equalizer right there for themselves.
47:54
In the 64th minute, Valentina model puts a Peach of a cross
47:59
right into the danger area. Dubcovo, who was involved in a
48:03
lot of action for STP all night. She just couldn't get it on the
48:07
end of it in the middle and then Peckel has it bounced to her and
48:10
it just hits her right in the knee and goes out of bounds at
48:13
the back post. It was big chance Laura Harvey,
48:17
the the manager of Seattle Rain FC always says this in the in
48:20
the postgame press conferences. Goals change games, which I
48:24
think it's a it's a simple saying, but if they get that
48:26
equalizer there, who knows how this thing shakes out.
48:29
The whole dynamic would have changed, but I just think hammer
48:32
be, they just keep coming at you.
48:35
And to your point about Katiga Tanberg, she gets a great entry
48:39
pass from Asado Miyagawa to kind of play her in.
48:43
And Tanberg's just at least from what we've seen of her.
48:46
And again, we're not claiming to be total experts here.
48:49
It's hard to watch Thomas Fenskin over in America, but
48:51
Tanberg never looked like she was going to miss that chance.
48:55
And from the matches we've seen her play, exactly to your point,
48:58
she's a game flipper. She's a game changer. 20 years
49:01
old. Holy shit, didn't know that.
49:05
Let me just say learning podcast, Yeah, come on.
49:07
I mean, and, and Speaking of learning podcast, Katiga, if you
49:10
ever watch this, Seattle is a beautiful place to live.
49:14
The mountains. There's great food you can get
49:17
to the city. You know, if you're ever
49:20
interested in scoring goals for Seattle Rain FC, come on down
49:23
you. Know North London's a little
49:24
closer? Sure, that's fair.
49:28
Seems reasonable big three points for Hammerby needed that
49:32
one if they want to maintain their chance to get to knockout
49:36
stage, which I think you know, they did what they need to do
49:39
and they got they got a good result.
49:41
Barcelona dropping points and I mean a chance to really, really
49:44
make some history next week when they visit Barsa. 3:00 PM
49:48
Wednesday, October 16th. That was going to be banger.
49:50
As mentioned, I think that was on the top of your power
49:52
rankings in terms of matches that have got you excited.
49:56
Another one up your alley Wednesday as well. 12:45 PM
49:58
Eastern the same thing. Poulton side hosts your
50:02
Manchester City Sky Blues. It's not hope for a let down
50:04
there. That'd be big time to to go into
50:07
the into the reverse pivot against Hammerby wants 6 points.
50:11
Any early kind of preview? Did you see anything from the
50:13
Zinc Poulton side? Do you think anything that that
50:16
SCP is doing could give City problems potentially?
50:18
You know, I, I think they, they hung tough.
50:21
The the thing that really surprised me about the match,
50:25
and this is kind of what, you know, I know I make the Braun
50:28
comparison because obviously this is a Bron podcast, but the
50:31
thing that surprised me was Hammerby played that match like,
50:36
hey, St. Polton, you're just not on our
50:38
level. Like we're just going to
50:40
dominate a lot of facets of this game.
50:43
And what I love about Saint Polton, though, is that they
50:45
still hang super, super tough. Like they'll be physical with
50:50
you. And Duke Kova is a real player,
50:52
looks really good in spots. They hang about as tough as they
50:55
can. And it's tricky because, you
50:58
know, St. Polton ends up with 17 shots and
51:01
Hammer B had eighteen shots. But the difference is that
51:03
Hammer B still had seven shots on target.
51:06
St. Polton only had one shot on
51:07
target and they never really looked, you know, aside from the
51:10
big chance they had that, you know, Peckel hits outside of the
51:14
post, none of their shots look super dangerous.
51:16
So I don't think a let down is is in the cards for my
51:20
Manchester City Sky Blues. But you know, you got to travel
51:23
to Austria, you got to see how things play out.
51:25
So we don't take anything for granted.
51:27
I'm going to do the Pep Guardiola.
51:28
They have a great coach, they have a great team.
51:30
We need to go in there and take them seriously.
51:32
It's business as usual. I like it and I like, I like how
51:36
it's like Paul's played this year.
51:37
I think they look a little friskier.
51:39
They do a little bit more energetic, a little bit more
51:41
engaged, a little bit more threatening.
51:42
Yeah, to your point, they didn't.
51:43
They weren't able to put a ton on target, but I think it's
51:46
definitely A-Team. Arrow pointing slightly up.
51:49
People say I like it. One more match to hit Group B,
51:52
Celtic nil, FC Twente. Two big three points for Twente.
51:56
What'd you see in this one? First things first, over the
52:00
broadcast, over Des Zone's airwaves sounded like a goddamn
52:03
proper football match. The chanting, the singing.
52:07
You saw the the flag waving from the ultras on the home end.
52:10
I love the atmosphere. Celtic sings You'll never walk
52:14
alone before the match starts. I thought that was cool that Des
52:16
Zone brought that in early. Player to watch from Celtic.
52:19
Shannon McGregor, she had four passes into the final third.
52:23
She was really good on a lot of her set piece deliveries.
52:26
I like her craft, I like her passing.
52:28
But Twente, they dominated the ball in the first half without
52:32
feeling super dominant. But they really kind of just
52:35
over the stretch of the game, they just wore Celtic down.
52:39
Celtic wasn't able to really get anything done in the final third
52:43
and as Twente kind of just kept like wearing them down and
52:46
wearing them down. We get into the 44 4th minute.
52:48
Dutch left back Liska Carlier, she plays a long aerial pass
52:52
right over the middle. You could tell Twente was just
52:55
setting Celtic up to kind of hit that long bomb that Hail Mary
53:00
throughout most of like the first 40 minutes.
53:02
Carlier she's able to connect Kaylee van Doren, who has just
53:06
looked great in qualifying. She hits a genius chip over
53:10
Celtics keeper Celtics American keeper Kelsey Doherty.
53:14
The chip looks like a pop fly and it just falls beautifully
53:17
into the net. I want to do a quick side note
53:19
on Liska Carlier, this 23 year old, She's not just a great
53:23
pastor out of left back. She has her Master's degree in
53:26
clinical exercise Physiology. I do want to say it is from
53:29
Arizona State University. So I do want to point out that
53:32
maybe a master's degree from Arizona State might just be 4
53:36
1/2 years of seeing how many vodka Red Bulls you could drink
53:39
while playing golf, but I digress.
53:43
No, at least seriously. No, no disrespect like I, I just
53:47
thought that was super cool. Educated in America and we can
53:49
always make our jokes about Arizona State.
53:52
And you know what? In the spirit of Arizona State,
53:55
I'm going to crack a late. That's a great Pierce key
53:57
because the fucking Champions League is back, buddy.
53:59
All of that to say, I think Twente is even a little more
54:03
dangerous than I originally gave him credit for.
54:06
I agree with that. This is a team that obviously
54:08
won at a divisive round last season and they played like a
54:12
championship side. They did like, they played like
54:15
champions. They played like, no, this is
54:17
trust the process and we're gonna walk out of here with
54:19
three. So obviously Group B, Chelsea,
54:21
Madrid, you know, probably, you know, penciled in maybe like
54:24
pen, you know, maybe like a 0.1 or 0.2 thickness.
54:28
Sure, written into the knockout stage, but I do think Tuente is
54:33
going to really push them. And I think for that to happen,
54:36
going to Celtic, picking up three points, knowing that
54:39
Celtic's going to come back our way, that could potentially be
54:42
6, maybe 4. We'll see.
54:43
Like I said, Tuente just feels like a Championship side.
54:46
I think Valeranka had a little bit of this as well.
54:49
Like they know what it takes to win.
54:50
They might not win every game, but they know what it takes to
54:52
win and they know if they're losing, they know why they're
54:55
losing. And just a shit out of my
54:56
Arsenal side one more time they were Arsenal was losing, had no
54:59
clue how, how and why they were losing.
55:01
They were just totally scrambling.
55:04
But I think these two sides, Twente, Balaranga have a little
55:06
bit of that winning DNA that sort of is a prerequisite for
55:10
getting through the group stage, getting into the knockout stage.
55:13
So Twente absolute team to watch.
55:15
Totally agree man. I think Celtic held as tough as
55:18
they could. I think it's hard to say this
55:21
one match in because you know, I'm telling, I'm telling you
55:24
like please don't overreact. You're not listening to my
55:26
advice whatsoever. As an Arsenal fan, that's fine.
55:28
I understand. Obviously Barcelona fans, no
55:31
need for them to overreact. Wolfsburg fans don't overreact.
55:34
With Celtic, I liked the way they played.
55:37
It feels like there's a little bit more of a maturation process
55:41
for for them to like play like Champions League, Champions
55:44
League football. But I want to give their their
55:46
supporters credit. Couldn't tell if they were
55:49
singing the exact words or if it was just the tune, but when they
55:53
were down one nil, whatever chant they were doing was to the
55:56
tune of Don't Worry, Be Happy by Bobby McFerrin.
55:59
Funny 90s song. Funny song to sing when you're
56:03
down one nil. And obviously they're just
56:04
enjoying Champions League football.
56:06
Something tells me those Scotty's may have had one or two
56:09
drinks before they showed up to the football match.
56:11
Hard to say. I also just want to point out
56:13
real quick, 23 year old right back Leonie Vliek drives the
56:16
ball down to the end line for 20 and then cuts it back to Van
56:21
Doren who just hammers the ball home for the dagger to end it to
56:26
put it to nil. Kaylee van Doren, she looks
56:30
really smart in like getting into space, she looks really
56:34
under control. Van Doren last year, according
56:38
to our pals at Foot Mob, she had 9 appearances all season in Ari
56:44
divisive round and one goal for 20 this year for FC28
56:50
appearances and nine goals in league play.
56:54
So she's she is coming back and cooking and I mean she just she
56:59
just looks like one of the leaders of the team.
57:02
I'm really interested to watch her play as the group stage
57:04
progresses. 100% agree with that and I I like your Celtic call
57:08
out too. I think this is a team that is
57:10
going to play tough. I mean, obviously they're
57:12
they're they're champions as well.
57:13
I mean, the group stage has a way of really separating the
57:19
wheat from the chaff, the contenders versus the
57:21
pretenders. However, whatever 22 subsets you
57:24
want to kind of like juxtapose against one another, the
57:27
Champions League group stage absolutely does that.
57:29
And I think that's why we see, you know, some of these legit
57:32
champions need to, you know, go through that maturation process
57:36
like you mentioned and others basically able to ride that DNA
57:40
to to real results either way. I mean, these are some of the
57:43
best teams in the world. I can't believe we got five more
57:45
group stage matches to go. Extremely excited.
57:49
Quick programming reminder here. We will be back after match day
57:53
2. We're going to break it all
57:54
down. We're going to do a little bit
57:56
of a preview for those match day three and four reverse fixtures
58:00
where things start to get a little chippy.
58:02
We've already got those matchups on the calendar, so excited
58:05
about that. Anything else you want to hit
58:07
before we get out of here? We covered it, buddy. the
58:09
Champions League couldn't be more back, and we're back.
58:13
What a time to be alive. I'd love that you phrase it that
58:16
way because I want to give a quick shout out to at 10 Minutes
58:18
Success story on YouTube who commented on our last UWCL video
58:23
quote. We're back Celebration emoji
58:27
celebration emoji celebration emoji heart.
58:29
End Quote. So shout out to you at 10 minute
58:31
success story. We are back.
58:32
God damn, that's fucking damn right.
58:34
At Morton, you already know. At MLS architecture, you
58:37
mentioned earlier at Michael Cocaine 1246, that's our guy.
58:41
She boy named Blue. Not a bot, by the way, at
58:44
Michael. Damn, Very, very important
58:46
distinction. A real, a real person.
58:48
At Blade Runner, our guy, you already know, Omar Bach, Rooney,
58:51
he's back. We've gotten the band back
58:53
together, man. I don't know what.
58:55
I don't know how else to put it. Like, everybody's just as hyped
58:57
as us. We're all excited.
58:59
I'm going to try not to let my arsenal doom and gloom sink the
59:03
rest of this, this Champions League journey.
59:05
I'm not going to let that happen.
59:07
This is elite football. Our people are excited, We're
59:10
excited. Going to be an absolutely great
59:11
tournament. 100% And there was something that came over me
59:15
while I was watching Manchester City Football Club get that
59:18
great victory over Barcelona, when I was watching that back
59:22
for Casparai Greenwood, Alexandre Lazel plus UE.
59:26
And I was just inspired watching them play.
59:30
And I thought about the words of the late, great poet Earl
59:33
Simmons, also known as DMX. Get at me, dawg.
59:37
Because that's how they were playing.
59:38
And now that's how I feel about this tournament.
59:41
Let me just say that hunger, that's what comes with the
59:45
Champions League. Like we've talked about a
59:48
celebration of life. We got five more weeks, like
59:51
Dino said, of the group stage. Then we get the knockout stages,
59:54
then we get the final. We're back.
59:56
This thing is here, and we're glad that you guys are here with
59:59
us. A. 100% All right man.
1:00:00
With that said, I think we did it.
1:00:01
There's been another episode into the channel.
1:00:03
Sincere thank you, thank you, Thank you for watching,
1:00:04
listening, following, liking, subscribing.
1:00:06
Just plain hanging out with your boys and leaving comments.
1:00:08
We were definitely appreciate that.
1:00:10
Remember, like if you liked and subscribe or follow into the
1:00:12
channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast or wherever you like to
1:00:15
watch or listen, leave us a review over your favorite
1:00:17
podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
1:00:19
the show notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my coast
1:00:22
as well. Mr. Grant Angle.
1:00:23
He's got that championship DNA. He's going to give it to you
1:00:27
like our guy Earl. So good guy.
1:00:29
I appreciate you man. Likewise, buddy, you know what?
1:00:33
Why do we Rob and steel? Why do we podcast?
1:00:35
Not because we want to, but because we have to.
1:00:38
Thank you guys for rocking with us.
1:00:39
We will see you next time. Nicely done.