Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / ASSILE TOUFAILY Talks EURO 2025, France, Aitana Bonmatí, and NWSL!

Transcript

ASSILE TOUFAILY Talks EURO 2025, France, Aitana Bonmatí, and NWSL! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
Hello. OK, welcome to Into the Channel
0:06
podcast part mail about women's football.
0:08
I'm your host, Dean de Suspetus, and today we're joined by a very
0:11
special guest who will be introduced by my Co host, Mr.
0:14
Grant Angle. What's up, man?
0:16
Buddy, I'm feeling fantastic. And that is because our guest
0:21
today is a PhD candidate, a freelance journalist and editor,
0:24
as well as a football consultant extraordinaire.
0:28
She's currently working with Football Co as an editor at
0:30
Indavisa, where she helped launch the very first Arabic
0:33
platform solely dedicated to women's football.
0:36
She's also a former midfielder for Lebanon's women's national
0:39
team, and she has written in Sharpie as into the channels
0:43
starting #10 forevermore. She is an advocate.
0:47
She is a powerhouse. She is our friend.
0:50
It's an honor and a privilege to welcome back to the program a
0:53
CO2 Filey. Hey guys, thank you so much for
0:57
this introduction. Like I'm I'm shy now.
1:01
So thank you so much for for your nice words Grant of.
1:04
Course you deserve it pal all. Right, let's see, you'll shake
1:07
it off. Let's go, let's talk some
1:08
football. Just joking.
1:13
Very, very happy to have you back.
1:15
Well, obviously we're just coming up to Euros, so that that
1:18
feels like a good starting point.
1:19
It's going to, I have a lot I want to talk to you about
1:21
specifically, but the Euro final, we've had a couple days
1:25
to kind of decompress from it. What do you feel like are going
1:28
to be your 123 biggest takeover? I don't know what are you going
1:33
to take away from the final. From the final.
1:37
We'll get to France soon. We get to France soon.
1:39
Like I, I wrote, I wrote a tweet about it that I felt I felt like
1:45
the match was divided into two halves.
1:47
The first half was kind of boring, or maybe they because
1:51
the two teams were very scared of trying to keep their
1:54
defensive composure. And then the second-half and the
1:57
extra time we had the completely other different game.
2:01
But what I'm like taking from this final is that Spain had to
2:05
finish it very early on because they had the lead.
2:08
They missed a few very big chances with Caldente, with
2:13
Ettenia. And you can't, you can't, you
2:16
can't put yourself in danger against an English side who who
2:20
loves to like dominate in the last 20 minutes and press.
2:23
And this is what happened. So this is what I take from
2:26
technical point of view. I really thought Spain was going
2:28
to win. But this English, I don't know
2:32
if it's a passion or if it's just this dominance or the depth
2:36
in the squad or in the bench gave England this this lead
2:41
second. It shows that a coach can have a
2:44
very big impact. Because if you want to compare
2:46
this Spanish side from Jorge Vilda's time, even though I'm
2:50
not a very big fan of Jorge Vilda to what Monte Tommy is
2:54
doing now, you can see the very big difference.
2:56
Like we used to talk about Spain for a few 2-3 years as the
3:00
biggest powerhouse on women's football and now like we feel
3:03
like other nations, especially England, even Germany managed to
3:09
put them in a uncomfortable position.
3:13
Tommy isn't, isn't bringing, bringing us the same image that
3:17
we have like this dominant Spanish side.
3:19
So and I just read somewhere that the the federation has 100%
3:24
trust in Tommy. So I'm not very happy with this
3:27
decision for the Spanish side. And lastly, I'm just happy to
3:32
see if it's full stadium. I think we had 29 games out of
3:36
32 or 31 with a full stadium. The final, the fact that we had
3:40
the two biggest nations in Europe with the biggest women's
3:44
football fan bases, I loved it. Like it felt like this cherry on
3:48
top or a great tournament organized by Switzerland who
3:53
performed like managed to put on a show throughout the
3:56
tournament. Yeah, I think that's a, that's a
3:58
great point because I, I know there was, I don't know if it
4:02
was like, I don't know, fear, maybe fear is a little too
4:05
strong, but Switzerland's not a nation with like a super rich
4:09
footballing history. So I know people were kind of
4:12
thinking about like what those crowds were going to look like.
4:15
And you're totally right. I mean, the crowds like blew
4:18
people away right away. The, the atmosphere, Germany's
4:22
fans came out. A lot of French, French fans
4:25
came out as well. It felt like a big tournament
4:28
the whole time. I want to go back to what you
4:31
were talking about with with Spain and Monsa Tomei and kind
4:35
of like the changes. How much of that, how much of
4:39
that do you think is just, and maybe this is different in
4:42
women's football compared to men's football, especially like
4:45
as things progress, but how much of that is just, it's really
4:50
hard to dominate for several years on end?
4:53
Like you think about like in men's football, you had the
4:55
Spanish side who won the Euro, the World Cup and the Euro
4:58
back-to-back to back. We we've seen Spain be
5:01
absolutely dominant after winning that World Cup.
5:04
Like, is it just too high of an expectation to have to expect
5:10
Spain to continue a run of dominance like that over three
5:14
years? The thing is if you look at the
5:17
squads, Spain didn't have much changes in the two squads like
5:21
we have like the core, the core is still there.
5:23
Like you still have Bon Marti, you had Potayas who had an
5:26
excellent start of the EUR and this is one of one of my
5:29
favorite things out of this EUR that we're finally having or
5:33
getting back. Alexa, like pre ACL injury Patri
5:38
is here, like many of these players are still here.
5:41
England was also managed to to keep most of their key players,
5:46
even though we didn't have Mini Bright and Mary Herbes.
5:49
But like, if you want to talk from a dominance point of view,
5:52
it shows that women's football is on like on the rise.
5:55
And it's not just about the spectators filling the stadiums.
5:58
It's about players becoming better from a tactical point of
6:02
view, technical point of view, physically.
6:03
Because I remember the US women's national team used to
6:08
dominate the world in Europe. German used to dominate Europe.
6:12
They, they won way too many European titles in a row.
6:16
Olympic Lione used to dominate the Champions League club level.
6:21
So we used to have these periods in women's football where one
6:24
nation was able to dominate because they had two 3-4 better
6:29
players than the other nations. They just needed one or two
6:32
stars. We've seen lately that even a
6:35
team like Italy can can compete because they have this structure
6:41
or the squad where you don't have one star.
6:43
Because if you look at the Italian squad for non women
6:47
super fans, they most certainly, certainly won't recognize any
6:51
players. While if you look at the French
6:52
squad, some will recognize Karl. Shall we Katoto like some of
6:56
these icons. So it shows that Italy knew that
7:00
they didn't have the best squad. They're not the favourites.
7:03
They might be underdogs or consider themselves underdogs,
7:07
but they were a solid compact team.
7:10
And this is this shows the stuff the the development.
7:14
And one last point, quick point is that the different
7:17
development of the goalkeeping position.
7:20
Because I personally, whenever I used to have the baits with
7:24
people around women's football, the first argument they used to
7:27
throw at me is how bad goalkeepers are.
7:30
You have to make the goals smaller for the women.
7:33
I don't know what. And then when you when you see
7:35
when you see saves like and Kathleen Berger save, when you
7:39
see a Catacols double save and the last minute against Germany
7:43
and you don't see the way they're playing with their feet.
7:46
It shows that all you need is time not only for the game to
7:50
become a better, to have a better ecosystem sociologically,
7:54
economically, etcetera, etcetera, but also from a purely
7:57
football point of view, year after year it would be hard for
8:00
one nation to dominate. Yeah, that that's a great point
8:03
of steel. And I think it makes me think a
8:05
couple things. I think Spain was maybe so
8:08
surprising in 2023 and like they even had less players because
8:11
they had the, the players like protesting.
8:13
They were so surprising and and so dominant in spots that I
8:16
think all of us were just like, Oh my God, I guess Spain is just
8:19
unbeatable now and nobody's going to beat them.
8:20
And I totally agree with you because there were spots in this
8:23
tournament where Germany had less talented players, whether
8:27
through injury or red cards. And it seemed like as the
8:29
tournament progressed, they, they played better even with
8:32
less talent, less players. And we, I think in the entire
8:35
tournament, we saw the talent not necessarily dictate the
8:39
outcome. You know, whether it's teams
8:42
like Denmark that had like real professional big players that
8:45
play for huge teams not really able to put it together or
8:47
Italy, I think is a great example.
8:48
On the flip side, which kind of leads to it's, it's not the
8:54
smoothest segue, but I want to talk about France.
8:57
Obviously some real highs, real lows for the French team.
9:02
I want to hear from you. What was the experience like
9:04
tracking this team peak? You know, you beat England, what
9:07
that what the vibes are like. And then out toward the end, you
9:11
know, did did France exit the tournament with some enthusiasm
9:15
Or, you know, were the vibes a little sour?
9:17
Like, first of all, I just want to like have one word put out
9:21
there for this French. I don't know, I can't even find
9:27
the words like like this French adventure at the Euros is roller
9:32
coaster. Yeah, there we go.
9:34
I, I swear roller coaster because and I, I, I don't want
9:37
to like go back a month, a month ago because we don't like, we
9:39
were not going to go back that much.
9:41
But look, we have to start talking about this team.
9:44
Ever since Luhom Bonadini took charge of the team after after
9:50
the Olympics, because since then Luhom Bonadi tried to implement
9:55
his method. We felt like he's he had
9:57
something else that Verona wasn't showing.
10:00
He he flew to the US where he spent a few weeks to watch the
10:03
players over there. He was flying from one country
10:05
to the other. So he was putting this effort
10:08
into bringing something new to the table, maybe like giving
10:12
another opportunity to Malvin Malach with Manchester United.
10:15
So he he brought something the the results, the new Nations
10:21
League were good. So we're like, OK, but then
10:24
because if you want to talk about the EUR, you have to talk
10:26
about what happened before making such a decision 5 weeks
10:31
prior to the tournament, leaving 3 mega experienced players aside
10:37
is is shocking and it's kind of the first wrong step towards
10:43
doing what you want to do. Because I understand that he
10:45
wants to build for the future, but you could, you could have
10:47
built it right now, like on the 1st of August.
10:50
So start now. Why did you start 5 weeks before
10:53
the the EUR? And Lindsay Heaps, Lindsay
10:56
Horan, Lindsay Heaps said at an interview that when Giovanni was
10:59
putting the effort day in, day out with Lyon, because she was
11:02
preparing for the EUR, because every football player focuses on
11:06
one tournament and prepares throughout the season for this
11:11
tournament. I understand that Eugenie
11:13
Lesammer wasn't giving as much as she used to before.
11:17
But also if you look at the reasoning behind it is that he
11:21
wants to rely on on other players or younger players.
11:25
And if you look at his attack, I just have the names right in
11:27
front. Katoto, Gianni, Matteo and the
11:30
Fincas Carino are the very like famous French names.
11:34
We knew that they're going to be there.
11:35
So then we had two more spots, the first one for Melvin
11:38
Mallard, OK, reasonable, she did a good season and was between
11:42
her and Vicky Bishop from Leon and the other was Kerry Gaggle.
11:46
Gaggle played 25 minutes throughout the tournament.
11:50
It's great for Gaggle because it's her first international big
11:53
tournament. She's going to get this, this
11:55
experience of being at Clarefontaine, travelling with
11:58
the team, discovering this high level football.
12:00
But playing her 25 minutes against Wales and not bringing
12:04
her at all in the other games, like three other games, shows
12:08
that most probably you don't have faith in her or faith in
12:12
her being able to impact such big games.
12:15
So why not offer Gaga chance after the EUR and bring Ogeni
12:19
in? Because Ogeni could have helped
12:20
you 5-10 minutes per game. So that's where the issue
12:24
started with me. I had a lot of people disagree,
12:27
saying that he's right, he has to rebuild.
12:30
I just I didn't like the timing. I thought he could have waited a
12:33
bit right after the EUR. That's my opinion.
12:36
Yeah, the the EUR game I was happy.
12:40
Great open opener. The match against Wales was
12:43
great. Excellent match against the
12:45
Netherlands with their fingers. Kahima putting on the the level
12:49
we know, the performance we know.
12:51
Then the Germany team game game and you felt like you had the
12:57
most amateur French side ever since I don't know how many
13:01
years. And like that they gave you like
13:03
we knew that we had a very hard chance with the group of death.
13:07
They gave you this boost and confidence that we might
13:10
actually make it to 0 at least play Spain in the semi finals
13:14
and then disappointment again. I'm still angry, I think, I
13:18
think you can see it. I'm still angry.
13:19
I'm still disappointed because like you can't have two very
13:25
different faces like from the group stage, the Germany much?
13:28
They were two different sides of France.
13:31
Yeah, I I totally agree. And going to the the Wendy Renar
13:34
point, I mean Wendy Renar, Eugenie Laissemer, Kenzo Dali
13:38
being left off the squad, there was something that was being
13:41
said during the broadcast here in America.
13:43
I'm guessing it probably was bouncing around over in in
13:47
France too, where I don't. I don't know if it was an exact
13:51
quote from Bonadie or it was just like the the idea, but it
13:55
was this narrative of well, they didn't win a trophy with Wendy
14:00
Renard and Eugenie Laissez, so why not try something different?
14:04
But to your point, well, first of all, I mean, I know when Dino
14:08
and I talked about it, there's no football team ever that
14:12
wouldn't be better with Wendy Renar on it.
14:14
There's just full stop the the no team exists that would not be
14:17
better with her in the squad. But but secondly, when you talk
14:21
about the difference in the performance from the England
14:24
match and the group stage to just having a leg up, you know,
14:28
playing with A1 player advantage against Germany and not being
14:31
able to get across the finish line, there's no way that people
14:34
couldn't convince me that Renar and Lisa Mare and possibly Kenza
14:39
Dali would not. Their veteran leadership would
14:41
not help in that situation. Yeah, yeah.
14:45
The thing is football is a sport of subjectivity, so you can have
14:50
an opinion of your own and others would disagree.
14:52
That's normal. But watching the game and I
14:55
watched it again like 2 days later I watched it and I tried
14:58
to see if Germany were too good defensively or France was
15:03
struggling to find the. It's both, but it's mainly
15:07
France because if you look at the match and I tweeted about it
15:11
and this is my problem ever ever since Sonia Bo Pastor stays with
15:14
OL, is that this whole France system or generation is based on
15:21
the ball passing through the middle playing to Selma Pasha on
15:24
this or the side who crosses the world.
15:26
You do it once, twice, 3 * 10 times.
15:29
If it's not working, it's not gonna work.
15:31
You have the German players who they can literally kill you
15:34
physically and then you have Clara Matteo in the in the box.
15:38
Like what will Clara Matteo do? What will Sonji Batimao do there
15:42
physically? Like there's there's years and
15:44
years behind, like physically there and at some point whenever
15:48
Selma Basha was crossing, you could also feel like she's
15:51
crossing, but there's no one in the box.
15:53
So maybe one ball from Wendy Hona would have at least saved
15:57
France or like gave France 1 hope of, I don't know, an
16:02
opportunity, a chance, a crossbar, maybe a goal.
16:05
You can never know. And from from a leadership point
16:08
of view, in my opinion, if I don't know if you if you heard
16:13
about it, but if Hona was there, there's no way Alice at least
16:19
some bot would have taken the the size of penalty.
16:22
And Selma Bosch are saying that she didn't take hers because she
16:26
she's taking more responsibility.
16:28
Like where on earth do you take responsibility by not taking a
16:32
penalty? That's what she said.
16:33
She said that since she's one of the leaders of the team, she let
16:38
Alice shut because she's responsible.
16:42
Like it's the other way around. You have to take up or like be
16:45
responsible or a leader and take one of the shots.
16:47
So if you had Wendy Ronald there first, she was she was going to
16:51
shoot one of them. Second, such.
16:54
I don't have to say it, but you can't convince me that you
16:57
weren't afraid of shooting because Selma.
16:59
Selma missed the last shot against Australia and at the
17:02
World Cup. It's definitely this.
17:04
But these these details, these extra things would have
17:09
definitely helped. But again, many people will tell
17:12
you she didn't help us in the World Cup in Talos at the
17:15
Olympics, didn't help us at the 2019 World Cup at home soil.
17:20
But she's it's not a individual sport.
17:22
When Giovannach at the 2019 Euros World Cup scored the
17:26
scored two goals, gave France the the win, she did her part.
17:30
It's a whole system that wasn't working.
17:33
And, you know, it doesn't help. And obviously we're here in
17:35
America, it doesn't help when you run into the 2019 US women's
17:39
national team, who might be the greatest team of all time.
17:42
When you look up and down that roster, of course, you know, an
17:45
American guy has to has to throw that out there.
17:48
But yeah, and just the the renar, the talk around Renar
17:52
just seemed patently ridiculous to me.
17:54
Yeah. And I just want to add something
17:56
like at some point I was like, OK, I have like, at some point,
18:01
even if even if you're a journalist, you have to have a
18:04
subjective side. Like this is normal because you
18:07
grew up watching a player, A-Team, whatever.
18:09
But at the same time I tried to be as objective as possible
18:12
saying OK Janice, Janina Summers decision was reasonable, I might
18:19
accept Wendy Renard's decision, I might say OK but not taking
18:24
Kenza Dolly who was having an excellent NWSL season and I was
18:29
waking up at 2:00 and 3:00 AM France time to watch her and
18:32
Delphine because now I can't not watch.
18:35
These are two of my favorite all time player and and Kenza.
18:39
Kenza was dominating the every single match in the midfield.
18:43
How can you not take her again? Don't put her as a starter, but
18:46
don't convince me that she can't bring bring something up in the
18:49
last 15 minutes. She can't add something and she
18:53
kind of have has this technical touch as a playmaker that you
18:58
might need to create some chances because if you like look
19:01
at Francis midfield, Sakina is now a midfielder.
19:05
She's she's a left back. Amel Masri.
19:08
I would have taken cancer and left Amel at home because cancer
19:11
played more minutes to see them than Amel.
19:14
See if he's taking if he's he's talking purely about the
19:17
performance part of you. Grazge, Yoho, Toiletti, Orion,
19:21
they all have the same profile, this physical profile.
19:25
A lot of duels like you don't have this playmate.
19:29
I'm I'm, I'm actually waiting to to listen or to hear what Kenza
19:34
wants to say or has to say because I I she said that she's
19:37
going to talk after the EUR. But how can you leave such
19:42
players at home? And you know that you have a
19:46
group of death and like your your reasoning is the age.
19:50
Look at Lucy Browns, look at look at Girelli from Italy.
19:53
Look at all these experience better than players like this is
19:57
the international, yeah. It could go way up in age.
20:02
We, I think we actually wait for these tournaments to see these
20:06
players because this is what they need.
20:08
This is what they strive for. Like let her, let her take her
20:12
whatever she wants to do. Stop playing football right
20:14
after the EUR but give her the opportunity to play for France.
20:17
See. There's been a lot of talk this
20:20
NWL season just about the mileage that Kenzie Dali is is
20:24
running in the league. She's just basically outrunning
20:27
everybody and is a real engine for that San Diego offense.
20:32
And I think your point about all right, ball in the middle, Bosch
20:35
on the left cross in let's see what happens.
20:38
Kenzie Dali's a great a great player to mix that up.
20:43
You know, even get a start here, come in half an hour there and
20:46
it's it's it's wild because this is definitely a new Kenzie Dali
20:50
in the NWSL that not used to seeing.
20:52
So I think I think form wise, conditioning wise, that one
20:57
Wendy Renar is a is a massive mess up.
20:59
I agree with you on Lesselmeier, but Dolly, I think is is
21:02
probably just as bad. You could even you can maybe
21:04
even make an argument that's a smidge worse than than leaving
21:08
Renar off. But where does France go from
21:10
here? Did did you see any young
21:11
players? Did you see anything hopeful
21:14
that that you're like, OK, got a little something that that we're
21:16
excited about or still sore? But The thing is like Lohan Bon
21:22
and he built his entire analysis of the fact that he wants to
21:27
build for the future. And then we had a journalist
21:30
analyse the squad. Most of these players were
21:33
present at the Olympics or at the at the last World Cup.
21:36
So he didn't really bring in new players.
21:39
Like if you put aside Kelly Gaga, who played 20 minutes, 25
21:44
minutes against Wales, he he brought up new players and
21:48
defence like Lubuga Meluin and my favorite Alice Sombat because
21:54
Alice had to cover for the absence of Wendy, but the
21:57
absence of Guy Jaan Bog as well. Other than that, I don't really
22:01
see how he's building for the future.
22:03
Because if you want to build for the future, you have to do like
22:05
Spain, who brought Lopez, Vicki Lopez, or you have to do like
22:11
England, who brought Michela Jimanc and scored two decisive
22:15
goals. So if you really want to build
22:18
for the future, you have to start calling up the likes of
22:21
Cassia Busi, the likes of Mylene Mendy, What's her, what's her
22:28
name? Lunari Badera, the striker who
22:30
signed with Chelsea, Leanna Joseph.
22:32
So these are the youngsters who you have to build your future
22:36
on. You can't bring in someone who's
22:38
25 years old, as in Menfil Malaf and say that you're building for
22:42
the future. That's just an excuse to say
22:43
that you want to leave these players out.
22:45
That's my opinion. So where do we go from here?
22:48
He said that this Euros is a preparation for the World Cup.
22:53
I've never heard a coach say that he's going to sacrifice a
22:55
major tournament for another, but he's sacrificed the EUR for
22:59
the World Cup. Let me guess, he said that
23:01
after. No, no, no, no.
23:03
Before, before he said that. Oh, really?
23:06
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Pure chaotic management.
23:09
Yeah, he said that that France isn't the favorite, aren't the
23:12
favorites. And this, this yours will be a
23:15
test for the future. I know what and with the new USA
23:21
squad, with the youngsters coming, Germany who have a lot
23:26
of depth, England, Spain, all these players, I don't think
23:30
like France is heading into 2027 and Brazil as the favourites
23:35
without counting Brazil, Colombia and the others up.
23:39
So where's the what? What about the future of France?
23:42
I'm not hopeful. Like I was waiting for this
23:45
tournament to maybe boost my hopes.
23:47
Again, I'm not hopeful. We're clearly in a situation
23:52
where you need to structure the league and the the entire
23:56
football scheme in France before focusing on the national team
24:00
because England has the best league in the world alongside
24:04
the NWSL and like who's winning the EUR?
24:08
England. So we need to structure the
24:10
entire French league. I got a quick follow up to that,
24:14
just because I'm still a little bit in shock about that, that
24:18
taking that position before a tournament.
24:20
You know, we talk a little bit. I mean, it's it's it's funny
24:23
because like, you know, obviously we're in the USA and
24:26
you know, I can guarantee you that, hey, this is a warm up
24:29
tournament for the next tournament.
24:30
It's all right, no worries. Has never been said in for in
24:34
the US women's actual teams sphere before any before
24:37
anything physical has ever happened.
24:39
I don't think they've ever gone out and been like, well,
24:40
whatever, we're not going to win this one.
24:42
It's OK, let's see what happens. And yeah, if you're a player, if
24:46
you're a Selma Basha or you're a Alice Sunbath or somebody
24:49
younger and I'm looking at Kelly Gaga.
24:51
I didn't know she was 26. So that that's another one.
24:54
I'm like, wow, this is a real a real head scratcher.
24:56
But if you're one of these young players and you hear that, how
24:59
do you go into a tournament? How do you look at Germany or
25:03
Spain and be like we're beating them to like it seems
25:06
impossible. Yeah, but at the same time, like
25:09
we're like when you look at the group stage, you felt, you can
25:12
feel like they were playing with 0 pressure on, I guess
25:15
especially I guess England like they they kind of felt like, OK,
25:19
we're heading into this tournament as not even the
25:22
underdogs, like as non favorites.
25:24
England are the title holders. Netherlands are here to prove a
25:28
point. So we just got to play our game.
25:30
It worked in the same in the in the first game, England were
25:34
very bad as well. So we have to focus on this
25:36
because England woke up at the towards the end of the match
25:41
match score that that one goal. So it's tricky because you might
25:45
feel like this is some sort of trick, trick game by Lubona De
25:49
to put the pressure away from the side trying to boost their
25:53
confidence. Maybe I don't like these
25:55
matters. I'm something I'm someone who's
25:57
very reasonable. Like you can't tell your players
26:00
we're there, but you're not the favorites because there's no way
26:02
they're going to give their 100% if they know that they're going
26:05
to end up losing against pain. We were, you talked about this,
26:10
the Stardino, like we had this dominance of Spain and then
26:16
Barcelona. And you like you can feel that
26:20
some of these French players are scared of playing Spanish sides.
26:25
Like I believe that if you managed to beat Germany and play
26:30
against Spain in the semi final, maybe Spain would have managed
26:34
to easily win the game because you feel like there's this
26:38
mental issue. But at the same time, after the
26:42
game many people in the squad said that it's not about a
26:45
mental problem, it's not something mental, it's not
26:48
something like psych. We just we deserve to win.
26:52
Like how can you deserve to win if you didn't manage to overcome
26:57
the game or like to score in against the German side who
27:00
played with 10 players? So there's something, there's
27:03
something, I'm not going to say fishy, but there's something
27:06
that's not correct in this French squad.
27:09
I believe that one of the ways to develop is to have more
27:12
players move abroad because the Fin Cascadino said that she's
27:17
been there for a few months or a year and something in her second
27:20
season. She said that she never ran in
27:24
Lyon as much as she runs in in the NWSL, because in the NWSL
27:29
you have a San Diego is a is an average team, but you also have
27:33
many other average teams. But San Diego is able to beat
27:36
every single other team in the in the league, while in Lyon,
27:40
she can, she can like jog on the on the yeah, jog and end up
27:46
winning 50. And she, she talked about this
27:48
in the episode with Sam Lewis. Great episode.
27:52
She she did it entirely in English.
27:54
So thumbs up for that film. But yeah, for for players in
27:58
France, this is huge. And she said that she discovered
28:02
a site in her that she didn't know about because she had to
28:04
run all over the field. And she's running now more than
28:08
she ever ran in her life. So maybe we need these players
28:12
to move like we need to see Selma playing in another league,
28:16
maybe see Sakina abroad, maybe see Katota abroad.
28:18
I didn't want to see Katota with Leo.
28:20
I wanted Katota to go abroad, play with Real Madrid, for
28:23
example. I wanted them to like, paste
28:26
another tactical approach to the game.
28:29
But yeah, you can feel that I'm disappointed.
28:34
Understandable and also for for our long time viewers, maybe not
28:39
the most surprising thing that a seal wanted to see Mary
28:42
Antoinette Katoto go to Real Madrid.
28:45
I thought that was an that's interesting coming from you, a
28:47
seal. But let me I want to say
28:50
something about the about the French league and I want to tee
28:54
you up for this because anybody who likes football and who's
28:58
watching this show, you should immediately follow a seal on
29:01
Instagram, a seal under score T the number 10 we do in the NWSL.
29:07
We do have a playoff system. And I would just like to toss it
29:11
up to you because obviously D1 Arkema instituted a playoff
29:16
system and I thought you had a great post and some thoughts on
29:20
on a playoff system. Can you please tell us how you
29:24
feel about the playoffs in football?
29:26
OK, I'm gonna explain it first like to to really show the
29:30
difference from the start between the playoff system in
29:33
the US and in France. In the US you have they shall to
29:37
start. You have a lot of like more
29:39
teams than in France, so more teams.
29:42
This means that when you head into qualifiers I think you have
29:45
8 teams playing quarters, semi and the finals.
29:48
So you have 8 teams, one fight. In France the league is composed
29:52
of 10 teams or like I forgot 8 or 10 or 12 something like this.
29:57
And then you have the top 4 qualify.
30:00
And this is like, this is one of the reasons I like watching the
30:03
NWSL is that you never know who's going to win because all
30:06
you need is to have Trinity Rodman ready to play with the
30:09
Washington Spirit and she's going to win you a game.
30:12
While in France, despite all the efforts, as long as PSG and Pfc
30:17
aren't going to invest as much as OL, the league is heading to
30:20
OL. So they tried to change that,
30:23
give more opportunities to other teams.
30:25
They decided to do this display of system where the 1st 4 head
30:30
into a playoffs first against fourth, second against third and
30:34
you play a fun. And that the posts I wrote about
30:38
it, the articles I wrote is that it makes absolutely zero sense
30:43
for a team who had a 20 points lead throughout the regular
30:47
season to have to play playoffs and put the entire danger like
30:51
season in danger just because the Akema with Canal police.
30:55
So the TV rights owners owners wanted more competition.
31:00
Imagine OL who invest 10,000,000 a year, €10,000,000 a year, lose
31:05
their Akema because PSGA got a penalty in the 93rd minute and
31:11
PSG didn't do anything throughout the season.
31:13
Their star players are leaving the club.
31:15
They don't want to invest and this is a PSG who is investing
31:19
millions and billions with them boys team.
31:22
But they don't they don't want to invest in the women's team.
31:25
Is it a lack of confidence in the team, lack of interest?
31:29
They they feel like there's no return on investment, A lot of
31:32
factors, but go to England to the go to the US.
31:35
Women's football has an excellent return on investment
31:38
if you know how to invest in it. So yeah, the and playoff system
31:42
and came up with me, Nick. Makes no sense actually.
31:47
Yeah, I tend to agree. I, I, Dino and I talk about it
31:50
in the NWSL. Even even with the playoffs, I
31:54
still don't like it. I mean, and you know, I grew up
31:56
in America obviously, but just like I I always feel like the
32:00
most fairway to determine who wins the league is every team
32:04
plays each other twice, once home and away.
32:06
And that's it's a fair barometer.
32:09
So I liked in your in your Instagram post, you referred to
32:13
it as an absurdity. And I I agree with you.
32:16
Yeah, yeah, okay. Like it's not, it's not a cup,
32:18
it's not a cup tournament. It's literally a league.
32:20
Like a league. Like you go play against the
32:23
others, if you manage to accumulate as many points as
32:27
possible by you, you win the league.
32:28
It it makes sense. See like the I'm I'm not that
32:31
much of an expert on the NWSLI. Also know that there's no first
32:35
and second division. So it differs like wanting to
32:38
put playoffs, but maybe we'll see in a few years.
32:41
The NWSL having first and second division with teams going up and
32:45
down, you never know, especially with the salary cap now and no
32:50
trade system, all these developments.
32:52
But yeah, in France it makes no sense.
32:55
If you have one team investing, 2 teams half investing and the
33:00
others are nowhere to be seen, it's not the same.
33:02
Yeah. Yeah, really, really
33:05
disappointed in PSG. I think their their run year
33:09
before last to the Champions League got us really excited.
33:11
Obviously they reached the semi final and then it feels like
33:13
it's been a backslide from there.
33:16
See, I got one quick question before we get you out of here.
33:18
Grant mentioned your Instagram. I came across another one of
33:21
your posts that I wanted to ask a follow up about because you
33:24
put up a poll. I saw the poll results, but I
33:27
didn't see your vote. So quote, I love Itana, but do
33:30
you think she deserves the Euro MVP award?
33:34
End Quote. So for those at home, no won the
33:38
poll 66 to 34, but CO2 finally. Where do you land on that
33:42
debate? I actually tried to put the poll
33:44
to let let people help me decide because I adored Chloe Kelly's
33:52
EUR. The way she's she was impacting
33:55
the game and every single game was amazing.
33:57
But at the same time she wasn't a starter.
33:59
So can a super sub win an award for best player in the
34:05
tournament? She wasn't playing Martha.
34:07
See, this is where it gets tricky.
34:08
So she was one of these people who could have won the the
34:13
trophy. I also appreciated Alexa Puteras
34:19
judo the way she she had to overcome the first injury and
34:23
the second and when she shot down again, like she had a very
34:27
hard way back then she produced an excellent season with
34:30
Barcelona. Like Alexa starts the season are
34:34
insane. Even though some will say that
34:35
she plays in Spain. So it's easier than I don't know
34:39
a certain Lauren James in England.
34:41
So I was kind of hesitant between Kelly, Eitana and Alexia
34:47
that that's why Itana is one of my all time favorite players.
34:50
That one ball against Germany, the game was tight.
34:54
There was no way for Spain to score.
34:57
And then she literally just did body faint.
35:00
She left Germany defense like behind her.
35:06
She left her she lifted her her head.
35:08
She saw that Berger was already running and she shot from an
35:11
unbelievable angle. And in football, in football,
35:15
you just need one moment of magic by one of these greats.
35:18
And this this what separates a good player from a great player.
35:22
So I think even though she didn't win it, she deserves it.
35:25
I don't think she played the best final, like in terms of
35:29
performance, but it's like, maybe we can leave this to
35:32
another episode, but I feel, I feel like it's not working for
35:36
Spain. Whenever you have both Antenna
35:37
and Alexa on the field like this, this might lead to a lot
35:42
of debates. Yeah, a lot of debates.
35:45
But I feel like because they're both like alpha players and they
35:49
both want to have the ball and like dictate their play star or
35:52
dictate their tempo. And sometimes I feel it's not
35:55
completely working for them. But to keep it short, I talked a
35:58
lot. I I'd give it to Itana.
36:01
Yeah, no, I to answer your question, can you give it to a
36:04
sub? Yes, you can give it to a sub.
36:06
I made, I made the I made the point with Grant earlier that I
36:10
just think that we're going to look back on this tournament and
36:13
we'll Chloe Keller will be the first player that we think
36:15
about. And then with Itana, I love
36:17
Itana, you know, I mean, the player for me in the world, but
36:22
she missed the penalty kick, you know, in the final.
36:24
And it's like, it's really hard. And I'm sure that was eating at
36:27
her as she's walking up and grabbing that award.
36:30
And I think for me, like you, you, you exit the tournament and
36:34
like 5 minutes before I kind of missed, you exit the tournament
36:38
30 seconds before Chloe Kelly ends the tournament after that
36:41
crazy run. You know, I think it's something
36:43
that maybe we'll be talking about for a while, maybe we
36:46
won't. Maybe we just move on.
36:47
But I didn't want to just got to share, share that note quick
36:51
episode calendar. So much happening into the
36:53
channel as a seal mentioned NWS LS back champ C qualifying here
36:58
already. It's soon.
36:59
It's like it's happening. I think tomorrow we get some
37:02
football at the very earliest stages of that tournament just
37:06
five weeks away from the return of the WSL as well.
37:09
I can't believe all this happening so quickly, but here
37:11
we are a seal. Thanks for joining, Grant.
37:13
You already know what time it is.
37:14
Anything else you guys want to hit before we get out of here?
37:17
I definitely want to get more from a seal on her current work.
37:22
I'm going to I'm going to try this Cecile.
37:23
I'm going to have to butcher it. So when you when you tell us
37:26
about everything that you that you're doing, could you also
37:29
talk to us about Rousseau Femme Dongle Sport?
37:34
Yes, it took some time for me to understand that, but.
37:38
My, my French was so bad. I'm sorry.
37:40
I'm sorry I put you through that.
37:43
Those were technical difficulties.
37:44
I was just as he'll try to translate.
37:46
He started he. Started the.
37:47
Show so I'm like, what about you so oh.
37:51
Yeah, like a less year. I appreciate.
37:52
Yeah, I appreciate you helping me out.
37:54
It was just bad French. Yeah, I'm OK.
37:56
So it's been a very hectic year because I have the PhD defense
38:01
on the 2nd of December. That's that is definite now.
38:05
So it's the last straight line towards the defence and starting
38:09
to apply for jobs or stress all over the place.
38:13
I've helped Football Cove create this first ever Arabic website
38:19
on women's football and we entirely focus on women's
38:22
football. Of course we have a preference
38:24
for Arabic football. We try to focus on the Saudi
38:27
league, on the players playing abroad, but we also focus on the
38:31
EUR on on other leagues. And like, this is what I wanted
38:36
to do all along because I wanted to kind of offer women's
38:39
football to the Arab world who's still in this place where I go
38:43
back to your kitchen. Women's football is not fun to
38:45
watch. I want to break this.
38:46
And if you look at the parade that England just did for the
38:49
Dionysus, you'd feel you'll see millions and millions of men
38:53
participating. So I want I want to help create
38:55
this change. Just change.
38:57
As for the Hazel, Hazel from Don Spa.
39:00
So this is like I created some sort of a community because I
39:04
felt like in sports in France, it's very hard to build
39:08
connections between people and especially between women because
39:12
some women feel like intimidated to help other women because
39:17
places are very expensive and you might lose an opportunity if
39:22
someone else takes it from you. So I wanted like, facilitate
39:25
this, this exchange of culture and experiences and help people,
39:31
like, find jobs, help some girl find a PG opportunity, maybe
39:35
even help myself later on, find a job through these connections
39:39
without around 300 people, now 250.
39:42
We have some club presidents in the group.
39:45
That's very cool. Yeah.
39:48
A lot of journalists, some former players.
39:51
We have the legendary Marinette Pichon, the group, the French
39:55
forward. So it's nice we're trying to
39:58
build this connection and my objectives, try to turn it into
40:01
some sort of NGO or association where we can like host events
40:06
and webinars to like, because it's nice to have women playing
40:11
football, like female footballers, but also have to
40:13
have women in football or in sports working around the game.
40:17
So that's my main objective. OK, Dino, just just for editing
40:22
Resu femme de la sport, just just edit me in there.
40:26
Just just just take that and just switch it and then cut down
40:29
a seal's delay that I don't look like such a dope.
40:34
Yeah, and I'll definitely edit this part out too.
40:36
Yeah, he's not gonna do any of that.
40:37
That's OK. He like he likes when I make a
40:39
fool out of myself trying to speak other languages.
40:42
I'm not gonna, no, I'm not gonna disparage you at all.
40:44
You went, you went out there, you, you took a, you took a
40:46
swing at it. You made contact, you know.
40:49
Stupid. That's more than more than what
40:51
I. Yeah, you also decided to like,
40:53
speak in the most complicated language at once without
40:57
practice, like technique, just French, French.
41:01
Oh, goodness gracious. Yeah.
41:03
And I see. I'll definitely echo the.
41:04
I mean, really great work. I really hope that some folks
41:08
in, in our community have a chance to kind of like build a
41:11
bridge and maybe try to connect and, and become a part of it.
41:14
So if you have links, please send them our way.
41:17
We'll add them to the show description in case anybody
41:19
wants to follow up. Also, you know, with, with any,
41:22
any projects that you're working on and totally echo your point
41:25
about French players in the NWSL Samba, Basha, Sandy, Baltimore.
41:29
I could think of about 5 or 6 that that I would love to see
41:33
here stateside, you know, mixing it up in our league.
41:36
But with that said, this has been another episode of into the
41:39
channel. Thank you as CO2 file for
41:40
hanging out. I've enjoyed the show or love of
41:43
all as much as your boys do as much as we all do, really make
41:45
sure you're kicking with us each and every single week.
41:47
Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify up a podcast wherever
41:50
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over for your
41:53
podcast. Stop.
41:53
Thanks to all of our socials except one in the showness of
41:56
this episode. And a big thank you to my coast
41:57
as well, Mr. Grant Angle for keeping it sleepy. 6 AMPT
42:01
doesn't matter. We're ready.
42:04
We'll be here. You already know what time it
42:05
is. I appreciate you bro.
42:06
Likewise, buddy, thank you again to you a seal.
42:08
Thanks for everybody for checking out the show.
42:10
Remember a seal under score T10 on Instagram.
42:13
We'll have links to her other work.
42:15
Thanks for everybody for checking out the show and we
42:17
will see you all next time or a voi abiento.
42:22
Perfect. Thank you.