Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / INTO THE CHANNEL with LILY YOHANNES! Lyon, Ajax, USWNT, Sherida Spitse, Giggs and much much more!

Transcript

INTO THE CHANNEL with LILY YOHANNES! Lyon, Ajax, USWNT, Sherida Spitse, Giggs and much much more! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:04
  Oh hey, welcome to episode 200, Part 1 of Into the Channel
• 0:11
  podcast Premier about football. I'm your host Dino De Suspicious
• 0:14
  and today we're joined by a very special guest as well as my Co
• 0:17
  host Mr. Graham Angle. How's it going?
• 0:21
  I'm feeling fantastic buddy, and that is because our guest today
• 0:24
  is one of the most dynamic young footballers in the world today.
• 0:27
  She burst onto the professional scene in 2023 as part of the
• 0:31
  legendary Dutch club IX, where she became the youngest player
• 0:34
  to ever start a UEFA Women's Champions League match.
• 0:37
  She went on to receive the Johann Kroy Talent of the Year
• 0:39
  award for the 20/23/24 season. Then in November 24, she
• 0:44
  committed to representing the USA in her international career,
• 0:47
  a blockbuster move that was met with significant fanfare from US
• 0:51
  supporters. In the summer of 2025, she
• 0:53
  signed with the legendary French club Lyon and is now on a quest
• 0:57
  to help them secure their 9th Champions League trophy.
• 1:00
  It is truly an honor and a privilege to welcome to the
• 1:02
  program Lily Johannes. Thank you guys for having me of.
• 1:06
  Course, thanks for joining us. Great, great intro.
• 1:08
  Thank you so much. Appreciate that.
• 1:11
  Crushed it. Lily, thanks so much for joining
• 1:14
  us. You know, obviously you've
• 1:15
  you've you've been a part of legendary clubs already
• 1:18
  mentioned. I asked he was from his national
• 1:20
  team. Leon.
• 1:21
  I, I got to know, have there been any vets or like Ogs that
• 1:25
  have kind of taken you under their wing and kind of taught
• 1:27
  you a little bit of like the secret sauce or I don't know
• 1:30
  who's who's really made it impact for you from a veteran
• 1:34
  standpoint? Yeah, I think honestly, I'm so
• 1:36
  grateful to been in so many environments with so many vets,
• 1:41
  legends of the game and from IX to the national team at Leon now
• 1:49
  there are just so many experienced players that I'm so
• 1:52
  grateful to be able to learn from at I starting, you know,
• 1:56
  Sharita Spitz, of course on the national team, Lindsay Horan,
• 2:03
  Lindsay Heaps, of course, and at Leon as well.
• 2:06
  And yeah, I mean, you have Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnet, so many
• 2:12
  vets there and at Leon now we have, you know, Wendy Renard at
• 2:17
  the Heckenberg. Yeah.
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  I mean, I can, I can name so many.
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  But yeah, I think just just being able to learn from them
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  every day and every chance I get, just trying to be a sponge.
• 2:29
  And yeah. I'm glad you mentioned Sharita
• 2:32
  Spitza. So, you know, tiny bit of
• 2:34
  background on us being Dino started this show when we were
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  like talking about the 2324 Champions League.
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  And you know, I mean, Spitzer, she's a legend.
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  Her toughness just like jumps off the screen when when we
• 2:49
  watch her. Can you give us like maybe a
• 2:51
  little bit of info on like what it's like to play with her?
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  She feels like a culture setter, but this is all us just kind of
• 2:57
  guessing from the outside. What was your like direct
• 3:00
  experience with her like? Yeah.
• 3:02
  I mean, I definitely understand the the toughness that you that
• 3:05
  you read from that. I think especially like as an
• 3:09
  Academy player coming up, you definitely see like, oh, wow.
• 3:12
  Like that's Charita Spitz son. Like she definitely had carries
• 3:17
  herself as this, yeah, like this leader, this bet.
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  And, and I think one thing I can say is that she always brings
• 3:24
  this really like strong winning mentality to the group.
• 3:30
  So competitive, every training session, every match, she wants
• 3:34
  the top standards and she demands that from everybody and
• 3:38
  from herself as well. And yeah, I think as you get to
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  know her, of course, it's also nice to joke around and you get
• 3:46
  that other side of her. But for sure, yeah, really a
• 3:48
  great leader and and the legend of the game.
• 3:51
  Lily, I want to talk to you about defense.
• 3:55
  You know, you mentioned Sharita Spitzer and the toughness.
• 3:57
  I looked at some of Leon's numbers, Leon slightly better
• 4:00
  defensively in terms of giving up slightly fewer goals when
• 4:02
  you're on the pitch versus when you're off the pitch.
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  There's a lot that goes into that.
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  So it's not just about you, but we do recognize that you
• 4:08
  definitely have a little dog in your game and you don't when you
• 4:11
  want to go get the ball, you you have a tendency to kind of go
• 4:13
  get it, just kind of put your head down and make that happen.
• 4:16
  Can you talk about defense and, and like your commitment to it
• 4:20
  and kind of like how you you approach that part of the game?
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  Yeah, I think that's definitely a part of the game that's that's
• 4:26
  necessary, especially in my position.
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  And yeah, I definitely like to get into a tackle with if needed
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  and yeah, win the ball for the team because we obviously love
• 4:36
  to have the ball. So if I can win the ball and
• 4:40
  keep the ball for the team, that's something that I
• 4:42
  definitely like to do. And I'm just continuing to grow
• 4:45
  in that aspect. And I just feel like that's
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  becoming, yeah, an even greater strength of mine and something
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  that I want to continue to grow in with, you know, positioning
• 4:57
  tactically and, and the physics physicality of it.
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  I think I'm growing so much. And yeah, if I can help the team
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  in that, in that area, I definitely like to.
• 5:07
  Unsurprisingly, you've played a perfect pass to me for the next
• 5:11
  question that I have written here.
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  So you like, you talk about like the defensive mindset kind of
• 5:18
  coming into the club. You've talked about the legends
• 5:20
  that you're playing with. When you come into Leon as a
• 5:24
  major signing, you're you're automatically put in there with
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  like some of the world's greatest players, a historic
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  club. They also bring in, you know,
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  Marie Antoinette, Katoto, you LeBron, Ashley Lawrence, others.
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  What kind of strategies or what can you describe maybe a little
• 5:39
  your mindset of, OK, I'm coming in here, I got to show out.
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  I got to be the player I know I could be.
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  But what is like the chemistry building with a great club and
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  those great players? What does that look like for you
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  to kind of fit into the style but also continue to show your
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  strengths? Yeah, definitely.
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  I think we have so much quality in the team with the new players
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  coming in, with the players that we already had, I think we just
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  have so much quality and so many class players.
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  Not only that, but great people and a great environment.
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  I think we have such a great bond and within the team, great
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  vibes. And I think that just translates
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  to the pitch as well. And yeah, as as a new player
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  coming in, you just want to to be yourself, to adapt.
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  And I think I've done that well. And yeah, I'm just trying to
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  continue to help the team as best I can.
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  And yeah, I'm just really enjoying it, really enjoying the
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  group, the new staff. And yeah, I'm really, really
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  loving my time so far. Lily, you mentioned all those
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  fantastic players at Lyon, not just the new additions, but the
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  the players that have been there as well.
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  Has there been anybody in practice that's just giving you
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  a nightmare? You just haven't been able to
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  figure out that just is is like you're you're not quite your
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  your mortal enemy. But maybe, you know, I'm just
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  something that that is a big pain in the butt for you.
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  I think the first one that just kind of jumps out is like
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  chubbing A tabby's pace. Her face is crazy.
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  Like it's, it's unbelievable. So I think you definitely have
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  to like pick your battles and know when to get tight or when
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  to keep your distance. But yeah, really, really crazy
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  pace. So that one for sure I would
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  say. I'd imagine, I'd imagine many
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  players all over the world have felt the same way.
• 7:35
  Yeah, yeah. So Speaking of, you know,
• 7:39
  thinking about Lyon, the trouble that you guys have been able to
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  give other teams in the Champions League, I think, you
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  know, I mean, it blew up over social media over here.
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  You have a long range missile against St.
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  Polton, you know, thinking about like the club culture as a
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  whole. I'm really curious, you know,
• 7:58
  playing for Yonatin Geraldes, how does he empower players to
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  basically so you feel comfortable, like pretty close
• 8:08
  to midfield to turn and fire a long range shot like that?
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  Does he tell you like, hey, if you think you have a look, have
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  a go or how does how does that work?
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  Yeah, yeah. Jonathan is just a really great
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  coach. I think just learning from him
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  everyday, there's always something new to learn and, and
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  to take in from the little details to our philosophy of how
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  we want to play and just every everyday growing that, that,
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  that game plan, that the different tactics.
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  And yeah, I think he really just makes, makes everything really
• 8:44
  clear. And for me as an individual, I
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  think he, yeah, makes my role clear each game.
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  And yeah, what he wants from me, what he wants to see from me.
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  And, and within that, I think he knows, he, he says like, just be
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  yourself within that, though, obviously we have our, our
• 9:01
  rules, our game plan, but to just be ourself within that as
• 9:05
  well and to show our qualities in the right moments.
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  And I think that just gives me confidence, I guess, to, to do
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  that and to, to be myself. And yeah, if I think I have a
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  look to, to take it. And yeah, awesome.
• 9:21
  You mentioned that confidence. I want to rewind back a little
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  bit to your US was national team debut versus Korea.
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  So obviously, you know, there was the first Korea match.
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  You didn't get into that one. Your boys were salty.
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  You know, we didn't, we didn't really get too mad about on
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  social media, but you know, we were feeling, we were feeling it
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  in private. But a few days later you make
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  your debut and a spectacular debut.
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  Obviously you get you to get the goal, the crazy celebration.
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  I'm very curious as to what change with regard to your
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  mindset before kind of it going being a little bit hypothetical
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  to now we've checked this box. Like did your mindset change
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  from like pre match to post match or is or is that
• 10:01
  simplifying it too much? Well, I mean, I think firstly,
• 10:07
  like that's just a moment that I've dreamt of since I touched
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  the football and to have that happen and to, to be embraced by
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  the team like that in that way, I, I just felt so loved from
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  everybody from from the team to the staff, the coaches, the
• 10:28
  yeah, the fans, everybody in my family, friends.
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  And yeah, I think when you dream of that moment and it happens,
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  you definitely let it sink in for a bit.
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  But it also just, I think for me made me, yeah, I guess hungry
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  for more and, and let's go just determined to to want to
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  continue to help and help the team and to help impact and to
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  have more moments of, of joy and, and moments like those for
• 10:58
  sure. When you talk about like feeling
• 11:01
  that love from your teammates on the US women's national team,
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  it, it goes back and you know, Dino and I, we talk a lot about
• 11:08
  the way teams play together. Like, you know, you watch
• 11:12
  Barcelona, you watch Leon, you watch these teams that, like you
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  said, hungry for the ball, share the ball together.
• 11:17
  Are there differences like building that chemistry with
• 11:21
  your teammates? You talked about, you know,
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  obviously doing it at Leon, but it feels like with these short
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  windows in the national team, is it more challenging?
• 11:29
  Like how, I guess I'm asking can you explain the difference
• 11:32
  between like bouncing from the national team to to work with
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  your club? Obviously national team you have
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  shorter periods together while in the club.
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  At club you are with each other every single day.
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  Yeah, at national team, you really have to make the most of
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  every second in in in camp, whether that's in meetings, on
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  the pitch, in your free time, just trying to yeah, keep making
• 11:59
  steps together with as a team as well As for yourself.
• 12:03
  And you also have more of the day together, I would say.
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  So you try to to use those moments whenever you can,
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  whether that's just building relationships with the players.
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  I think if you have, yeah, good chemistry off the pitch that
• 12:21
  also translate on the pitch and doing doing different film
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  clips, trying to just keep keep getting steps, steps in your
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  game. And I think at club as well.
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  I mean, you obviously have everyday together and it's it's
• 12:36
  a different dynamic, I would say.
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  But yeah, I think that in camp we definitely try to make the
• 12:42
  most of our time. And I guess they're they're
• 12:44
  different environments, but both used in in the best way I guess.
• 12:50
  I had a quick follow up question about another U.S. team.
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  She believes versus Colombia. There was 1 moment and apologies
• 12:59
  might be putting you on the spot here, but you played a ball up
• 13:01
  at the Yasmine Ryan who plays it across and that ends up being
• 13:05
  the Macario go to kind of open things up.
• 13:07
  The ball was unbelievable. You were in a ton of space in
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  that moment and from, from observing you play and correct
• 13:15
  me if I'm wrong, because I'm very curious about this.
• 13:18
  Sometimes I kind of can sense a little spice like, oh, wow, I've
• 13:21
  got this much space. And like the, the, the pass that
• 13:23
  you played was perfect backspin. You look like a little bit like
• 13:26
  an angry golfer that was, was upset that he put the ball in
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  the you just got to like whip right through it.
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  Perfect backspin ends in a goal. And I've kind of seen you like,
• 13:35
  you know, not quite sided, but but put some energy out there.
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  So Lily Johannes, I'm very curious.
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  Are you the the trash talking type?
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  Are you the silent kind of killer type?
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  Or are you I'm going to let my play do the talking type?
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  Like what is it like to be out there against you?
• 13:50
  Just just to kind of let let everybody know.
• 13:54
  That's a tough one. I think.
• 13:55
  I think it it depends. Depends yeah, the game, the
• 14:01
  moment, the the feel. I just I I think I just feel the
• 14:04
  game out. I'm usually pretty like calm and
• 14:08
  composed and maybe I don't show like the side of me, but I
• 14:14
  definitely have that in me for sure.
• 14:17
  And I mean, I wouldn't say trash talking, but I mean I think I
• 14:23
  give what I get maybe there. You.
• 14:27
  Go. But yeah, I definitely have a
• 14:29
  fire in me, I think. And I definitely like I'm very
• 14:33
  competitive. So I just yeah, try to do what I
• 14:37
  need to do to win and to help the team win.
• 14:39
  And I think my game is calm and composed, but in the right
• 14:44
  moments, I let that let that show for sure.
• 14:48
  Very cool. So we, we've asked, you know, we
• 14:50
  talked about the long range goal versus Saint Paul and Dino
• 14:53
  references, the great pass. I'll ask, I'll ask for yourself
• 14:57
  and maybe you know what, what other players do.
• 14:59
  Also, do you watch your own highlights out of curiosity?
• 15:05
  Sometimes for sure, yeah. I mean, I I always watch my
• 15:08
  games back and watch my my clips of of myself and see, yeah, just
• 15:14
  analyzing what I can do, what I've done well, what I can do
• 15:17
  better and what I can take on to the next games.
• 15:22
  And yeah, after the math, I think, I mean, I definitely
• 15:26
  watched like my debut goal back and just special moments.
• 15:36
  I think special moments I definitely watch back.
• 15:39
  Yeah, for sure. Very.
• 15:41
  Cool. And with regards to other
• 15:42
  players, if we if we got some access to your YouTube or IG
• 15:44
  search history, what other players are you watching
• 15:47
  highlights of? Like who's who?
• 15:49
  Who have you logged the most hours of watching highlights of?
• 15:52
  I think #1 is definitely Neymar. Let's go.
• 15:56
  Yeah, I've, I think since I was a little kid, I've always
• 16:00
  watched Neymar and yeah, it's just like pure entertainment
• 16:04
  watching his move, skills, goals, assists.
• 16:09
  And yeah, I think he just has a certain flair.
• 16:11
  That's that's just I just love to watch.
• 16:15
  I think I also watch like players that are more in my
• 16:18
  position for sure. I would say like Pogba, I watch
• 16:22
  Pogba's highlights, Hazard and then like, yeah, some like
• 16:28
  players nowadays that I just love to turn on the TV for, I
• 16:32
  think, or like Ryan Hoffenberg, Paisley, yeah, I can name a
• 16:39
  couple more, but Shirky, Ryan Shirky.
• 16:43
  But yeah, I think I definitely would love watching football.
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  So if it's just for like entertainment, I I watch
• 16:51
  highlights of of different players, but also just watching
• 16:55
  games and and learning as I as I do.
• 16:58
  Very cool big shirky supporter over here too.
• 17:02
  So so you know, I, you've been very generous with your time.
• 17:08
  We very much appreciate it. I we know you got things to do,
• 17:10
  You know, busy trying to win some trophies over there,
• 17:13
  thinking about this year as it goes on.
• 17:17
  You know, obviously your team goals, personal goals.
• 17:21
  What are you kind of for your game personally?
• 17:25
  And you know, if, if, if it's giving away too much strategy
• 17:28
  here, you can tell us to mind our own business.
• 17:30
  But what are you looking at in your game specifically to kind
• 17:35
  of build on this year? Yeah, I think, I think many
• 17:40
  things like I feel like I can continue growing in, in every
• 17:44
  aspect. I think building on my strengths
• 17:48
  and also developing places that I can improve in as I as I play
• 17:54
  more games in, in high, high stake games and high level
• 17:58
  matches, I think I feel like I'm just growing each one.
• 18:03
  And yeah, I'm taking like the experience in, I would say yeah,
• 18:09
  I think when you feel out different scenarios, you can can
• 18:14
  improve in the in the next one. And, and I feel like as a
• 18:18
  midfielder, just having that, that like feel for the game and,
• 18:24
  and knowing after you've experienced a certain situation,
• 18:30
  then you can adapt at the next one.
• 18:32
  And I feel like at Leon I'm in at the in the national team, I'm
• 18:37
  in two really great environments to to continue to grow my game
• 18:43
  and to learn from 2 amazing coaches so.
• 18:47
  Awesome. Well, Lily, I want to get you
• 18:49
  out of here. And one last question.
• 18:51
  I want to I want to Fast forward.
• 18:52
  We're going to go straight to the Champions League final
• 18:56
  pregame an hour before a kick off.
• 18:58
  I want to I want to know what you're listening to what what
• 19:00
  the what's, what's the what's the process like?
• 19:03
  Is there a playlist or is there one on repeat or I don't know.
• 19:06
  How do you how do you get all the way up to to 100 before a
• 19:09
  kick off? It's a tough question, you know,
• 19:12
  because I, I do definitely have like a pregame song, but it
• 19:17
  depends like the like a period, like there's certain periods
• 19:21
  where I can remember that that period by the song that I was
• 19:26
  putting on repeat before games. I would, I can say like, for
• 19:31
  example, our champions of the year, I was playing this one
• 19:35
  song or we would always put this on before the game.
• 19:39
  Sorry, I'm going to search it up because that.
• 19:43
  Was a group of life here. Sorry, This is this is a good
• 19:46
  scoop. No, we'll, we'll wait.
• 19:47
  I got. It Yeah.
• 19:51
  You can't play it though. We got serious copyright issues
• 19:53
  here, OK. I won't play it.
• 19:55
  I can cut it out anyway. Oh wait, OK, incredible sauce
• 20:02
  gigs and featuring Dave that song like I remember the
• 20:07
  Champions League year at IX from because.
• 20:11
  It's like talking about playing in the Champions League.
• 20:14
  So then we always would put that on before the matches.
• 20:17
  For this year, before matches, we always play giving the Scoop
• 20:24
  a Leon here. We always play this song called
• 20:28
  Charger. Charger.
• 20:30
  It's like Charger. Yeah, we always play that song
• 20:33
  and it gets us all hyped. And yeah, it's a.
• 20:36
  It's a fun one. Love that.
• 20:38
  There we go. We appreciate the giving us the
• 20:40
  scoop, the exclusive reporting, the.
• 20:42
  Young song, thanks. Somebody inside the locker.
• 20:45
  Love it. Lily, thank you so, so, so much
• 20:48
  for, you know, joining us. Obviously we've we've enjoyed
• 20:52
  watching your career kind of take off.
• 20:55
  We've coined, well, I've coined you the supernova or supernova.
• 20:58
  I'm like in the social network is like, do I drop the the OR do
• 21:01
  I keep the the I don't know, but we're still workshopping it.
• 21:04
  I'm going to keep using it even if it's a unapproved.
• 21:07
  But either way, thank you so, so, so much for the time and we
• 21:11
  appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much for having me.
• 21:15
  My dad tells me that you guys have been really supporting me
• 21:18
  from from really early on, so I really appreciate that and
• 21:22
  everything you do covering women's football, so appreciate
• 21:25
  it. Well, thanks for that, Lily.
• 21:27
  We appreciate it and good luck out there.
• 21:29
  Thank you. Shout out to Dad.