Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Olympic preview: Germany with Peter Weis

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Olympic preview: Germany with Peter Weis · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:04
OK, welcome to into the channel podcast primarily about women's
0:08
football before we hit the pitch.
0:09
If you enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your
0:11
boys do, come kick it with us already.
0:14
We're doing it every single week, spinning the wide, wide
0:16
world of women's football and the spanning continues.
0:19
We crossed the pond this week. We're going to continue our
0:22
Olympics coverage. Subscribe follow YouTube,
0:25
Spotify, Apple podcast or wherever you like to watch or
0:28
listen at ITC under score pod on X links to all of our socials in
0:32
the show notes of this episode. I'm host Tino de Suspidas and as
0:35
always I'm joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Engel.
0:38
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy,
0:41
and that is because we have a very special guest with us today
0:44
to help breakdown and preview the German national team for the
0:47
Olympics. Our guest today has been
0:49
covering the game we love for more than 20 years as a writer
0:52
and multimedia journalist, including covering every major
0:54
women's tournament since 2011. From my Internet research, I
0:58
believe the media journey started around 2002 while he was
1:01
a student at Louisiana State University Go Tigers, where he
1:05
covered the sport for his blog. Bright green writing, black
1:08
background, beautiful looking blog, especially for the time.
1:12
He recently wrapped up a very cool vlog for the men's EUR at
1:16
Over the Bar, which you should immediately go like and
1:18
subscribe on YouTube if you're interested in German football.
1:21
And you can also find his work at bullynews.com where he covers
1:23
the Bundesliga and all things German football.
1:26
It is a pleasure to welcome to the show Mr. Peter Vice.
1:29
Thank you very, very much. It's a pleasure to make your
1:31
acquaintance, gentlemen, and I thank you for complimenting my
1:34
my blog there. It was very Geocities esque you
1:38
you had that correct. It was a it was a product of its
1:41
time that it was. But greetings from the
1:43
Bundeswehr public. Where?
1:45
Let's go. No wounds from the oral
1:48
elimination on Friday, but I should say that the Fawan Natsu
1:52
Nadaman shaft, that's what it's referred to.
1:54
I know that Wikipedia says the Natsu Naat Ed.
1:56
Might shock you to know that Wikipedia is not always
1:58
accurate. Refer to them as our beloved DFB
2:02
Fallen, the fallen Natsu Nauman Shaft.
2:05
And I can assure you that here within Germany, the German
2:07
women's national team does enjoy a great deal of support.
2:10
People will be tuning in to watch this tournament.
2:13
We don't get a lot of excuses to wave our flags and be patriotic
2:17
and have a safe outlet for nationalism.
2:19
So very proud of our girls, very hopeful for them.
2:22
I think they actually have a very strong team this year and I
2:24
look forward to discussing that with you.
2:26
Let's go. Well, let's start right there.
2:28
So you mentioned strong team. Obviously we've seen this team,
2:31
you know, do well in prior tournaments.
2:33
I think Nations League, there was a good showing there, third
2:36
place finish in that one. What are the expectations in
2:39
Germany with regard to where you guys might expect A-Team like
2:44
this to finish or what? What do you think this team's
2:46
ceiling might be? Well, the topic of expectations
2:50
in Germany is something that's been rolled back considerably
2:53
over the past few years. So when it came to the men's
2:55
national team, we expected the semi finals in every last
2:58
instance. We of course have come to adjust
3:02
that expectation to say that OK, this time the quarterfinals was
3:05
fine. Now with respect to the women's
3:07
team, prior to 2017 they had actually won seven consecutive
3:11
European Championships, so we expected them to be the Queens
3:16
of Europe. As your viewers and and female
3:20
football fans in general probably already know, the
3:22
women's national team has two stars.
3:24
They won the Women's World Cup in 2003 and 2007 and then of
3:28
course, made way once again for the United States, the USWMT,
3:33
which is the dominant force in all of global football coming
3:36
off very disappointing tournaments.
3:39
We did not win the oil rose in 2017.
3:41
That belonged to Lika Martins and Holland.
3:44
We lost the final in 2022. That was the delayed oil rose
3:48
because of COVID. We recall that England won that
3:51
at home. Alex Pop was ruled out at the
3:54
last minute for the final. That's really what's what did
3:57
it. And then of course last years
4:00
Women's World Cup in which which opened up with a thrashing of
4:05
Morocco, but then we didn't even make it out of the group.
4:08
So what's happened with the German women's national team?
4:10
The last tournament that we won was actually the the 2016
4:13
Olympics and that was Sylvia Knight's final tournament.
4:17
After that Steffi Jones, a mixed American heritage head coach
4:21
came in. She was unfortunately sacked
4:23
because of inconsistent results just before the 2019 World Cup.
4:27
And Martina Vos Teklenberg, Teklenberg, if you will, was
4:31
brought in. We had a disappointing showing
4:33
there. We didn't make it past the
4:34
quarterfinals and the group. So Tech Helenborg was sacked.
4:38
Host Krebisch, the German footballing legend of Hamburger
4:41
as foul fame, has taken over the team on an interim basis.
4:45
And Christian Vuerk, who was the man who led Germany to the U-17
4:49
World Championship this past December, is going to take over
4:52
the team afterwards. But Krebesch has done a fabulous
4:55
job. The only match that he's lost
4:57
since taking over on an interim basis, he's coached 10 matches
5:00
was the the Nations League semi final and of course they were
5:03
able to rebound in the 3rd place match and in the process qualify
5:06
for this Olympic tournament. The players are quite satisfied
5:10
with them. We also have a lot healthier
5:12
squad this time around. We were beset by injuries last
5:15
year, I had the Women's World Cup, we have Lena Obadorf
5:18
healthy, we have Julia Gwynn healthy.
5:20
We'll talk about them in a moment.
5:22
The expectations here. I think this is a team good
5:25
enough to take the gold medal. The group is going to be brutal.
5:29
Let's go. But I think that they they can
5:33
do it and this country, this football starved country, would
5:36
be very most grateful if our medals could come through for us
5:40
on this occasion. I believe it.
5:42
I mean, you talk about the roster, you look up and down.
5:45
You know, Dino and I, we started this podcast because we were
5:47
paying close attention to the Women's Champions League.
5:49
Anyway. We wanted to cover it.
5:50
We wanted to talk about it. We were going to talk about it
5:52
with each other anyway. So we figured we'd just do a
5:54
podcast to talk about it. But I mean, you look at the
5:58
number of stars, even from the Champions that we saw on this
6:01
roster, when you think about all those things, what would the
6:04
recipe be for a German team like this to take home the gold
6:09
medal? Well, basically first we need to
6:12
sort out the tactics. One of the problems that we have
6:14
here is that we have a lot of players that are playing out of
6:17
position for country. They play different positions
6:19
for club. I of course took the liberty and
6:22
Germans are like this. We're total tactics, nut cases,
6:25
total nerves. I mean, we look at football as a
6:28
problem to be solved, as a geometric, spatial slash semi
6:32
groups, functional analysis, mathematical problem to be
6:35
solved. And that's what I do as a
6:36
tactics writer. I wake up, I experiment with the
6:39
line UPS, I look at stats, I see who could play off one person
6:43
here, so on and so forth. I mentioned how Germans are
6:46
obsessed with axes and planes and all of this stuff.
6:49
So what we have is we have very much an embarrassment of riches
6:54
in attack. We have to find the right
6:56
formula in attack and how we get all of these in form players
7:00
into the lineup. We also have to figure out what
7:02
we're going to do in midfield. My personal solution would be to
7:05
have Lena Obadorf and this Chelsea's Lady Stars, who you
7:09
guys probably have seen more of her than I have.
7:12
Nuskin. All I can really offer is the
7:14
stats. I was gobsmacked to look up the
7:16
stats today and say what? What she's spoiled how many
7:22
times across all comps for Chelsea, So probably looking at
7:25
a midfield split stagger. You have new skins, you have
7:28
Alexandra Pop, you have Clafa boot, you have Eula brand, you
7:32
have Leia Shula. You also have this New Girl,
7:34
Vivian Endeman. You have Lofa Fry gang.
7:37
How do you piece all of this together into a coherent attack
7:41
and have it click and have it run and have it be consistent
7:45
over the course of the group? So that's going to be very
7:47
interesting. The footballing nerds across the
7:48
Bundeskope public here are going to have a blast with it.
7:51
We're going to have a good time. Makes sense.
7:53
And Peter, very much appreciate all the pronunciation help.
7:56
So that's a tough one for your guys, especially with women's
7:58
football around the world. We're going to be replaying this
8:00
tape internally throughout the tournament just to try to see
8:04
how close we can get to to some of the native tongue.
8:07
But to kind of piggyback off of Grant's question based on the
8:11
axes that you were talking about.
8:12
So this team's got six Wolfsburg players on it.
8:16
Can you talk a little bit more? We were talking about this a
8:18
little bit pre show and I kind of want to pick your brain a
8:20
little bit. What's the philosophy?
8:22
What's the thought process for loading up the team with so many
8:25
players from 1 squad? Certainly.
8:27
So the idea is, of course, to get players who are familiar
8:31
with playing one another with one another on club level.
8:33
It's it's nothing. It's not exactly quantum physics
8:36
or something like this. I mean, that's, that's just
8:38
basically what you're trying to do now.
8:39
Vozburg for many, many years was the dominant force in the
8:43
women's game by and of course also had their titles and they
8:46
had their trophies. And now what we're looking at
8:49
also with the inception of the German or of the Women's
8:52
Champions League, I should say, is that I talk funk foot, which
8:56
was actions actually as sort of a new inception.
8:59
I talk funk for it used to be the FFC funk foot, but there's
9:04
mergers and things like this amongst the amongst the club
9:06
teams. So it used to be the case that
9:08
your German women's national team was comprised perhaps
9:11
almost 80% of Vosburgh players. And there was another club, an
9:16
East German club, Turbina Potsdam, now defunct, that
9:20
comprised the other 20%. So this was almost sacred.
9:23
This was religious to Germans. Maybe perhaps a good example
9:27
would be the way that Dutch insist on playing a 433, whether
9:31
it's for men or women's football.
9:33
How we get it all to to link up here is is interesting because
9:38
now we have Byam who are of course the league champions.
9:42
They did not best votes Borg in the Pocol voice Borg.
9:45
Where are the Pocol winners? I'd talk Frankfurt had another
9:48
respectable season finishing third Hoffenheim.
9:51
That's one of these teams, of course, and Volts Borg as well.
9:54
Hoffenheim and Volts Borg are non 50 + 1 German sides.
9:57
These are company teams. These are privately finance
9:59
teams. One of the the reasons why they
10:02
are such a dominant force or they they can become such a
10:04
dominant force in the women's game because these are not fan
10:07
known clubs and they can afford to play their players a little
10:10
bit more. So what it looks like to me, I
10:14
think what Trubesh is is trying to do right now is he's trying
10:18
to get sort of a, a Bayern access on the left side of
10:22
attack of Volzburg, one on the right.
10:25
And you have a few players that are that are sort of out of
10:29
place, like Newskins, who plays for for Chelsea, whoever is
10:32
going to be the the center half alongside Katrin Henry.
10:35
It might be this this really interesting girl that we're
10:37
going to talk about, hopefully a little bit Schutz Solano.
10:41
So he's going to try to work as many Voltsburg players on the
10:44
right side as he can, as many Bayern players on the left side,
10:47
and then sort out midfield and central defence with some
10:50
interesting experiments that we'll see in these two European
10:53
Championship qualification matches before the actual
10:56
Olympic tournament begins. And I encourage everybody to
10:59
watch those as well. Those are going to be great
11:01
matches. I have notes and graphics and
11:05
things like this that I can like, move up to the camera if
11:08
you like, but it's I told you, we're nuts.
11:12
We're just absolutely. That's fantastic.
11:14
That's what we like to hear and over here in America, sometimes
11:17
the like the the women's euro qualifiers or even in some of
11:20
the Nations League matches that were happening, we've talked
11:23
about it with the with the viewers of our program.
11:25
It's just like, OK, we're looking on Reddit.
11:27
Maybe it's sketchy YouTube streams to try to watch some of
11:30
these matches. They're not all available on
11:32
television, but we're constantly utilizing every Ave. we can to
11:36
watch those matches. I and you get a lot of great
11:37
information from them for sure. You mentioned it and I wouldn't
11:41
go right to it because I mean, we talked about you guys have a
11:43
lot of talent up and down the roster, but you guys have a lot
11:46
of young talent up and down the roster.
11:48
You alluded to it earlier, you talked about potential breakout
11:50
stars. Are you around 23 years old, 24
11:53
years old or younger than that? Who should everybody be looking
11:57
out for in terms of those young players as your potential
12:00
breakout stars? For Germany, well, in terms of
12:02
building the lineup, my biggest challenge was trying to get
12:05
Vivian Endemann. She's Volzberg, winger, right
12:08
flank attacker, trying to get her into to the 11.
12:11
She's had a stupendous season for club.
12:13
It's fifteen goals and five assists and 27 appearances
12:16
across all competitions. She was selected in the Frauen
12:19
Bundesliga 11 of the season by Germany's preeminent footballing
12:23
publication Kicker magazine. She probably did more than any
12:26
other Volsborg player to help Volsborg win the polka that's
12:29
Germany's domestic cup, including scoring a hat trick
12:32
against her old side SKS Essen in the semi finals.
12:36
So I think that she should probably start on the right side
12:40
of the attack. But the problem is, is that
12:42
Julia Bond, who many of her viewers are probably going to be
12:46
familiar with as well, she's even younger.
12:48
We call her Spider Woman because, good Lord, she has some
12:51
incredibly long legs, not above some really crunching tackles
12:54
that she does with those things as well.
12:55
The problem is, is that Volzborg have moved her over to the left.
12:58
And we can't do that because we already have Clara Booed working
13:02
the left behind Leah Schula. And that's a Byron access right
13:06
there. Leah Schuler is the projected #9
13:08
Clara Booed, has started every match on the left wing for
13:11
Frubesh over the past year. So how do we get Endeman in
13:15
there? I think she needs to be in
13:17
there. What we could do potentially is
13:18
slide. You would have Blonde over to
13:20
the 10. But that's where our captain is
13:22
Alexandro Pop, also a voice board player, and she is getting
13:26
up there in years. But she's still had another
13:29
fantastic season for club and for country, and she probably
13:34
needs to start there as well. So how we build this attack is,
13:38
is very, very curious. We want Shula Boo, probably
13:43
Endemann and somehow if we can work Grande in there new skins
13:47
probably works a 66 split stagger above Oberdorf.
13:51
Her greatest strength is is to play sort of as a sweeper.
13:54
She's excellent in driving play forward in directing traffic,
13:58
but her real artistry is is in breaking up play.
14:01
So I would want her as close to the defensive line as as
14:05
possible and the two other young players are in the defensive
14:08
core. Sarai Linder, she this is our
14:10
new left back. We had problems at left back
14:13
injuries with left backs. It's one of the reasons we were
14:16
eliminated from the 2023 World Cup so early.
14:19
So Linda's, she's actually not young.
14:22
She's 24 years old. She's one of those German
14:24
players who went through the United States college system.
14:28
You don't see that all the time. A good a good deal of these
14:30
players have come through your traditional European Academy
14:34
sides like Obadorf made her debut in a German national team
14:38
assured at the age of 12. So she's amazing.
14:43
I mean, that's, that's our Talis mom, That's our our vunderkind,
14:47
if you will. So Linda, she didn't necessarily
14:50
come out of nowhere. She was capped once before the
14:52
World Cup last summer, but she came and displaced Raul, who is
14:57
who's very, very talented left back for the starting left back
15:00
role. And she's not even a natural
15:02
left back. She's a natural right back.
15:04
Krubesh converted her and I believe if memory serves
15:08
correctly, one of the best left backs in German women's national
15:11
team history, Tobeya Kemei, she was also converted right back.
15:14
So Linda is a is a player to watch.
15:17
She's collected 3 assists for club she plays for Hoffenheim
15:20
and three assists for country this season.
15:23
She's got that spot nailed down. If you go over to the right back
15:26
position, Julia Gwynn, who we sorely missed at the World Cup.
15:29
He is an incredible fullback, a Rover.
15:32
You really can't place her in any match.
15:34
She will cover every last blade of grass, also take set pieces
15:38
for us and is our designated penalty taker.
15:41
Also quite young and somebody to lookout for when it comes to
15:44
players like Gwynn Oberdorf, even Nuskin, Ron Pop Sure,
15:48
Labour people are familiar with these players, but I think that
15:51
Linda Endeman and the third player that I want to mention
15:55
that people may not have heard of the central defender of the
15:58
center back, this Basque center back, Bibiana Schulzer.
16:02
Solano is also quite interesting.
16:04
Ordinarily it's Marina Hegering and Hendrix, the two Voltzborg
16:08
players who started center back, but Hegering is again troubled
16:13
by calf problems. So Schubesh has been trying out
16:16
Sarah Dorsun, who is a veteran, but also this this young Basque
16:20
girl who has a very, very interesting story.
16:22
She's from Funkfoot. She plays for the Athletic Club
16:26
and as you know, as you know as football fan, you, you don't get
16:30
to play for Athletic unless you can prove that you have Basque
16:34
heritage. So her mother, in order to get
16:37
her to play for Athletic, had to find her baptismal certificate
16:42
to prove that she is a Basque advantage.
16:46
But who Hubesh? He really, really likes her.
16:48
He has nothing but the kindest things to say about her.
16:51
I think he's been alternating with hegeling hurt.
16:53
He's been alternating between her and Dorsun in starts.
16:57
She actually had a rather disappointing start against
17:00
Poland in in one of the qualification games in May I
17:03
believe it was, but I think that it's possible that we'll see her
17:07
get another audition before we get to the Olympic tournament.
17:11
And she is really just a absolute buzzing little
17:14
bumblebee. I love her tenacity, I love the
17:17
way she never shies away from challenges.
17:19
I love the way she is just so elegant when they complete bow
17:22
arcs out of the back four and things like this.
17:24
I think that she's an amazing talent.
17:26
Could potentially pop up on some radars as well before this
17:28
tournament is out. So you have 3 new players that I
17:32
personally am very, very excited to see and I have not had a
17:35
chance to scout them very much at all.
17:37
And Linda Enderman and Schultz Solano.
17:41
Beautiful name, Wonderful name. Schultz Solano Yeah, that's fun
17:45
to say, listing the talent on this team, you know, everyone
17:50
from Oberdorf, Gwynn, Pop, Schuler, like teams kind of
17:54
loaded. And then when you rewind back to
17:56
the World Cup craziness that final day, you know, obviously
17:59
you drop the tough one to Colombia, then there's the, you
18:02
know, Korea match up and then who knows what's going to
18:04
happen. Morocco, I think and subsiding
18:05
through out of that group, huge disappointment.
18:07
I think we had Germany pencil didn't to knockout Sage.
18:09
Obviously you mentioned a ton of great players.
18:12
We know the squad is loaded. I'm going to put you a little
18:15
bit, you know, under fire here. If this German side is to reach,
18:19
let's just say the final, who's the one player that in your mind
18:23
you're like this player has to deliver?
18:26
Who's the one that you got to have it?
18:28
You got to have a 10 out of 10 performance from them.
18:30
I would say Gwynn who was injured for the World Cup and
18:33
and that's what caused us all sorts of problems.
18:35
I mean, Svenya Hoot, the veteran who's she filled in reasonably
18:40
well at Rypac, but you can see how much we missed Gwynn because
18:43
Hoot is is not as flexible a player, I mean, who does always
18:47
sort of a stay at home right flanker.
18:49
So we need Gwynn switching fields, moving around, mixing it
18:53
up, doing her thing the way that she did it before getting hurt.
18:57
I think that she was probably the most impressive player in
19:00
the day FB during the 2019 World Cup, that disappointing campaign
19:05
when we went out in the quarters against Sweden.
19:08
So we need Gwyn in there, confusing defenses, mixing
19:12
things up, being her unpredictable March across the
19:17
field. Self. close second would of
19:19
course be our captain Alexandra Pop, who is a footballing
19:23
legend. Even people who don't follow the
19:25
women's game, most people follow the German women's national
19:28
team. But I mean, that's the most
19:29
recognizable name in Germany. Everybody knows who Alexandra
19:32
Pope is. She was selected as the female
19:34
footballing personality of the year in 20/22.
19:37
She gets a lot of press coverage both in legitimate press and
19:40
unfortunately also in the tabloids.
19:42
That's the price of fame. But yes, we need her.
19:45
Also probably anchoring this attack as A10 moving forward
19:49
late on in matches, dropping back to help out this sort of
19:54
midfield tandem that hasn't worked together.
19:56
The projected midfield tandem hasn't worked together very
20:00
often at all. I think Newskins and Oberdorf
20:02
only started together once. So yeah, there was a lot of
20:06
Dalmon, de Brits, Lena Magul, all of these players who aren't
20:11
coming this time. They've mostly played in
20:13
midfields for Germany this cycle.
20:16
So our midfield is inexperienced.
20:18
Vin and Pop need to pick up the slack.
20:21
I'm really, really interested to see how Shokanuskin plays.
20:25
I mean, it kind of surprised me to even go back and think
20:28
because Dino and I, we covered the, the World Cup as well, that
20:31
Nuskin got 45 minutes in the World Cup.
20:34
And then kind of like what you were pointing out earlier for
20:36
Chelsea when she kind of came in there.
20:39
I think she came in after like the me official injury.
20:41
I think there were a couple injuries on Chelsea's side and
20:44
Emma Hayes just put Nuskin right in there and she just starts
20:46
scoring goals in the Champions League matches and just starts
20:49
playing well immediately. I, I like how you, you, you
20:52
describe Nuskin in kind of like a six role or maybe like, is
20:56
she, is she like an 8:00-ish? Like what are you really kind of
20:58
seeing for Nuskin here? Well, I think, and this is a
21:02
little bit more of an English tactic than a German one, what I
21:04
like to call a 678 step stone. I mean it is a 66, but it's a
21:07
split stagger in midfield. So I would have, as I was
21:11
mentioning earlier, I'd have Oberdorf sort of hang back and
21:14
work with the the back chain there.
21:16
Nuskin's step forward with pop sort of functioning as a pseudo
21:20
810. So you have that sort of
21:22
triangulation straight up the middle.
21:24
And that can be exceedingly dangerous also considering the
21:27
fact that we have these strong wingers.
21:28
I mean, booed and she was initially a a center forward,
21:33
but she's been absolutely deadly on that left flank.
21:35
Linda, as I said, picked up three assists on that left flank
21:38
as well. Pond and Vin on the right.
21:40
I mean, you have danger coming from all of these areas.
21:43
If we have a nice 6-7, eight step stone in the midfield to
21:48
sort of absorb coverage, absorb marking and free up the rest of
21:52
the players, you know, a player, I think probably maybe the only
21:55
player that we haven't mentioned.
21:56
We practically got into the whole team here, which has been
22:00
I really appreciate the opportunity to talk about my
22:02
medals with you gentlemen. Laura Frigun, another Fantab.
22:09
She's had a fabulous year for club, but there's no room for
22:13
her in this team. She has not been able to do
22:16
anything and she's only started twice in 10 fixtures in this
22:20
current cycle for Rubesh and the and the and the national team.
22:24
So yeah, we don't even have room for her.
22:26
If it weren't for new skins, you could possibly, you could
22:29
potentially do a 424 or, you know, AA532 or something like
22:34
this. But yeah, I, I don't know where.
22:36
I don't know where she goes. And I did a screw bash.
22:38
That's why she's not playing. And she's one of the most
22:41
popular players. If you go to a German women's
22:45
match, pop jerseys, Oberdorf jerseys, followed by fly gong
22:49
jerseys. Those are the most ones that you
22:51
see. Another American educated gal,
22:53
if I'm not mistaken, I think she went to to Penn State.
22:56
So, yeah, I the fact that everybody's healthy and if they
23:01
can stay healthy through these these scores, that's that's a
23:03
breath of fresh air because I mean, we just had hard luck
23:06
injury after hard luck injury last year at the at the World
23:10
Cup. You know, with Vin missing out
23:11
and then Simone getting hurt, Simone getting hurt, Oberdorf
23:16
wasn't fit in time, Hegering had persistent issues and things
23:19
like that. That's what really did us in.
23:21
Of course, as you guys mentioned, what a fabulous story
23:23
that was that Germany demolished Morocco 6 nil in that opening
23:28
fixture. And we were, you know, at the
23:30
time all of us female football fans were were sitting there
23:32
talking and saying, you know, this is horrible that they've
23:34
expanded this tournament to their routine was embarrassing.
23:38
This is bad for the sport and then they qualify out of the
23:41
group. So that was a good story, but it
23:44
certainly broke our hearts. I mean, that's definitely spread
23:47
pretty well, I'll say not not across all tournaments.
23:50
I think Champions League group stage had some surprises as
23:52
well. A lot of people expected Bayern
23:55
to advance out of the group stage.
23:56
They get knocked out. We don't refer to it as a group
23:59
of death here. Group C and the Champions
24:01
League, that was a group of life for us just because the matches
24:04
were just so joyous and and fun. Julie Gwynn, like you mentioned,
24:08
jumps off the screen. I was having trouble placing
24:11
where her starting spot was because every Vinn moment I I
24:15
remember was from a different spot on the field.
24:17
Like you mentioned. The free kicks just kind of
24:19
involved everywhere. You said that we we hit almost
24:22
all the players, but we didn't know goalkeeper.
24:25
Obviously we're we're having a an on Katrinberger moment here
24:27
in the States. She's been on absolute fire
24:30
here. Merle Frahms, we already know
24:32
like her resume. What that's about, who's the
24:35
starter, I'm not sure. It is Frahms until otherwise
24:39
Berger has. She has been capped I think
24:41
three times this year, though, so actually forms herself.
24:47
When she took over for Alan Mutshut, that was quite the
24:49
surprise. Of course, it was a different
24:51
coaching regime, but I I thank you for bringing her up.
24:54
As a matter of fact, I wish I had more time to watch NWSL.
24:57
I'm I'm really glad that that league finally has staying
25:00
powers in the United States. I mean, as a female football
25:04
fan, I've watched so many leagues wink in and out of
25:07
existence. And now we have, I think a great
25:10
league. We have some some great clubs
25:11
there, Gotham and Angel City and all of those things.
25:14
It's great that you guys cover that.
25:16
I would say the WSL and the NWSL have really eclipsed the
25:22
following Bundesliga in terms of being able to to recruit some of
25:26
the better players now. So, yeah, it's it's quite
25:28
possible that Shubesh might have a surprise in store for us.
25:32
I think that she will probably start one of the qualification
25:35
matches. He did alternate between the two
25:37
of them in the other qualification matches.
25:39
So he'll give her an audition. We shall see.
25:41
But Forms has been capped 51 times to bag us 9.
25:45
But Forms displaced short of very surprisingly, Yeah.
25:50
Could I? Yeah, I'll, I'll say, you know,
25:52
as somebody who, you know, Dino and I would kind of pick this up
25:55
a little a little later. I think I really started paying
25:58
attention to women's football around like the 2015 World Cup.
26:02
The first ones where like I could, I had the opportunity to
26:04
watch like a bunch of the matches on television.
26:07
And then my interest kind of grew from there.
26:08
And then I moved to a city that actually had an NWSL team and I
26:11
was able to kind of to watch more there.
26:13
It is funny to think like from our American perspective, like
26:16
you have on Katrin Berger, we knew she was at Chelsea.
26:19
She comes here and she's great. And that number that you that
26:22
you cited, Peter, with Fromms having 51 caps and Berger having
26:26
nine, it reminds me a little of the situation in the men's game
26:30
for Brazil where you have Allison, who is the best keeper
26:34
in the world, and you just have Ederson stuck on the bench
26:37
watching all these Brazilian important matches.
26:40
It's just like, man, that guy's really good too.
26:42
But you know, Fromms is just such an amazing keeper.
26:45
You just, you just can't keep her off the field.
26:47
For football fans everywhere, I mean, you raise an excellent
26:51
point. I mean, there is no justice at
26:53
the keeper position and that applies to the men's game as
26:56
well. A keeper must be displaced, even
27:00
if Manuel Noyer is is, well, his prime.
27:02
And it was definitely turned for Marc Andre Testagon to get a
27:07
turn. That just simply didn't happen.
27:09
And it didn't happen because you haven't established #1 and to
27:14
switch out and establish #1 without any major reason when it
27:18
comes down to nuances, things like, OK, they made one or two
27:21
mistakes here. That's considered to be quite
27:24
the risk, obviously. I mean, it's always been a
27:27
strange position in the world of football.
27:30
I mean, it is the IT is the position in which for all of us
27:34
who have played, you know, the guy who plays keeper on our
27:37
team, is, is, is is the, is the strangest guy.
27:41
Have you played in a guy is smoking a cigarette in between
27:46
the goal posts not called into action very often.
27:52
It is a strange position. It's the black box of of
27:55
football, if you will. I mean, you're really getting
27:57
into some serious hoodoo voodoo when it comes to to goalkeeping.
28:01
It's it's, it's almost superstitious in a lot of
28:04
respects. But I I appreciate you giving
28:06
her a shout out. You raise a a great point about
28:09
a a German national team player that hopefully members of your
28:12
US audience of have enjoyed watching and might want to check
28:15
out further. Yeah, absolutely.
28:17
I want to scoot ahead to the tournament.
28:18
Now. Obviously we're a few weeks out.
28:20
Germany's in the same pool as Australia, United States of
28:23
America and Zambia. I want to ask specifically a
28:26
Zambia question. Barbara Vonda.
28:27
I live in Orlando where Bonda plays professionally now for the
28:30
Pride. Very exciting times here.
28:32
But Bonda got onto our radar after I think it was a a
28:37
friendly against Germany where she just exploded in the last
28:40
5-10 minutes of that match heading into the World Cup.
28:43
A little bit of a World Cup warm up.
28:45
What was that like? Apologies for for the very
28:49
inelegant. Question.
28:50
Well, that was actually, you mentioned some of the, the vlog
28:53
work that I do for over the bar. That was last summer.
28:56
And that was the 1st live vlog that I that I did for those
28:59
guys. Great guys, couple of English
29:02
chaps. We do a weekly podcast on the
29:03
Bundesliga. So the send off game for the
29:06
women's national team was in Fiat, which is a suburb of
29:10
Neuenberg where my colleague Mark lives.
29:13
And I called him up as soon as I found out.
29:15
And I said, look, I'm going to get us tickets.
29:17
And have you ever even been to a women's football match before?
29:20
I mean, you're going to have a great time.
29:22
So we went and we did this, this little vlog.
29:24
Wonderful atmosphere by the way. I mean, we met some Zambian
29:28
fans, actually conducted a an interview with a a German
29:31
Zambian football trainer. He was telling me all about how
29:34
in 2012 when they won the Africa Cup of Nations, he was driving
29:37
down the the German streets in a caravan of one honking his own.
29:44
You know, I had a lot of anxiety watching that match because it
29:48
was actually Germany scored both of their goals in second-half
29:52
injury time. So they they entered second-half
29:55
injury time down nil two. And I mentioned you were a bond
30:00
who was an exceptionally talented player.
30:02
Man, did she employ some some very suspect tackles in that
30:06
game, some tackles that were just that was a little bit the
30:10
harbinger you. You might recall that many of us
30:12
female football fans were very surprised at how physical the
30:16
women's game became over the course of last summer's World
30:20
Cup. I remember watching Braun employ
30:22
those tackles and say, you know what this is?
30:23
It's a very different women's game than the one that I've been
30:26
following for the better half of a decade.
30:28
These girls are a lot braver. They're a lot more willing to to
30:33
employ some crunching slide tackles and things like this.
30:36
You didn't always see that back in the day.
30:38
So that was a seriously anxiety ridden match.
30:42
Leah Shuda and Alexandra Pop, whom I think is is just, I mean,
30:47
I, I, I miss her already. She's not retired yet.
30:49
I hope that she she stays around for a couple more years,
30:52
including next summer's Oyros. So they came back and scored two
30:56
goals in second-half injury time and then we got completely blown
30:59
apart on the counter. Yes, that was a serious
31:02
vulnerability that we had in the 2023 World Cup.
31:05
And as a matter of fact, we lost our our first match back out of
31:09
that tournament to Denmark nil 2IN which we got completely
31:12
blown apart on the counter again.
31:13
That's one of the reasons why I think it's a vital importance to
31:18
stick Oberdorf back there to that 4 chain, almost like a back
31:21
five. I mean, she has so many talents,
31:23
but we just simply need her back there breaking up play and
31:27
orchestrating counters of our own.
31:28
She needs to probably stay at home a little bit more and
31:32
luckily we have Newskin who can can play out front of her.
31:34
But yeah, that was amazing. I have it on tape.
31:37
It's not the best footage of that goal that was scored at 90
31:40
+ 11 that Saturday evening in, in fruit.
31:44
But I mean, I, I, I'm on tape watching it, just going to
31:47
myself. Oh my goodness, what the hell.
31:51
But we, we were sitting in front of the Zambian fan blocks there.
31:55
And of course, I'm, I'm a big Africa football fan as well.
31:58
And I've covered all of the Africa Cup of Nations since,
32:01
since 2012, as a matter of fact. And I, I continue to cover
32:04
Bundesliga players for bullying news and things like that.
32:07
So we gave them a round of applause and we saluted them,
32:10
Barbara Ben in particular, because they just simply
32:13
outplayed the German women on that day.
32:15
They they outplayed them for 90 minutes.
32:17
We came back and had a solid 10 minutes and then they completely
32:23
blew us apart and ruined the German women's national team
32:27
send off match. We gave him a round of applause.
32:29
We we all, we all bowed to them. That was that was really
32:33
fantastic. It didn't it didn't work out for
32:35
Zambia. Obviously at the World Cup they
32:37
weren't able to replicate those performances, but that's big.
32:41
You know, I mean, the German women's national team has in
32:44
previous instances run up the score on African opponents.
32:48
I think it happened in that 2015 World Cup that you were
32:51
referencing. It was in the group stage.
32:54
I remember in 2011, I think they went up the score on an African
32:57
opponent. And the same thing happened in
33:00
2015. They did get past Nigeria in the
33:03
in the round of 16 and in 2019, and that was, I think that was
33:06
only two nails. So it was a very, very
33:08
competitive game. Look, you, you can't help but
33:11
being be happy for for African women's football.
33:14
You know, it's something that in the event that the German
33:17
women's national team gets eliminated, of course, I'm a
33:20
USWNT fan as well, but I will be rooting for African women's
33:24
football to be successful. And congratulations on being
33:28
able to see Barbara Bunda. That's that's that's sweet.
33:32
It's little bit Ellis see her live on a weekly basis.
33:35
It definitely keeps on giving. And umm, you talked about the
33:37
physicality, just how physical the game's gotten.
33:40
I mean, her physicality is just something else.
33:42
And then just kind of seeing it in person, seeing her scoot up
33:44
and down the field and you know, just use her, her stature and
33:48
her IQ, her Padme, she's just a tremendous, tremendous player,
33:51
pretty much born to play in the modern NWO.
33:54
So I would say. For sure.
33:56
And yeah, that was a 10 mil victory over Ivory Coast in the
34:00
2015. Yeah, 22 hat tricks and then
34:04
that one. So I want to pivot a little bit.
34:07
We're going to call this a bonus question.
34:09
You know, when I was looking at your old blog that we had
34:12
referenced, it immediately jumped off that you were a
34:15
student at LSU when you were running, that there's a running
34:18
theme on our show. I am from the Midwest,
34:21
originally a big Ohio State fan. I love college football, and I
34:26
am on a lifelong mission to draw as many parallels to
34:31
international football, to American collegiate football as
34:35
possible. You think about the regionalism
34:37
that's involved, kind of homegrown players, all these
34:40
factors, and just like incredibly passionate fan bases,
34:45
people with money who might influence the way some of these
34:48
colleges or maybe federations operate.
34:50
Can you talk a little bit about your time in Baton Rouge and
34:54
kind of what that experience was like?
34:56
Like Death Valley, where dreams go to die, as people say, for
35:00
their opponents. Am I crazy here or can you kind
35:03
of, can you see some of these parallels between American
35:05
College football and and regular football around the world?
35:08
First, let me get a plug in for my alma mater.
35:10
I got an excellent education at LSU, of course.
35:13
I was a Fighting Tigers fan, of course, but I also spent a good
35:18
deal of my time there in the Middleton Library.
35:20
I had excellent professors. I had a lot of great writing
35:23
intensive courses. For somebody like me who is of
35:27
of mixed heritage, I love state schools in the United States.
35:31
I think state schools are severely underrated.
35:33
You can get a great education at a state school and you can do it
35:37
in affordable cost. And so I absolutely do love my
35:40
alma mater and I support it's a football team.
35:44
The parallels that you speak of, that's very, very important
35:47
point because people say, well, how does club support work In
35:51
Europe? Club support is pretty much the
35:54
same as people support your local club the same way people
35:58
support your local university athletics.
36:01
In the case of Germany, it's even more ingrained because the
36:04
clubs, with some exceptions, are fan owned.
36:07
They are owned by the community. It is legally mandated through
36:10
the 50 + 1 law that they be owned by the fans.
36:14
So the fans have a share, the fans have a stake.
36:17
The fans spend all week working on their choreography and in the
36:22
case of Germany, also protests. We love our protests, maybe
36:26
don't have anything to protest against, but we'll find
36:28
something to protest every Saturday afternoon.
36:33
It is a part of your community, that's what it is.
36:35
It is very much unlike the franchise model of professional
36:40
athletics in the States. The people who come up through
36:44
these, the clubs, are homegrown. They are local lads or local
36:48
lasses in, in that case. In some cases when you have
36:52
stories of teams being promoted up through the tiers, oh, the
36:55
third tier in Germany, this is a professional slash amateur tier.
37:00
And if you go down to 5th, 6th, 7th and so on and so forth, you
37:03
have amateur athletes who are competing at this level.
37:06
Local people, weekend warriors, kids who maybe don't necessarily
37:10
have the physical gifts to compete at the highest level,
37:13
but they are going to help their team get promoted to the next
37:16
tier, to the more professional tier.
37:18
So that then you can have more money and more success and then
37:21
bring in better players and so on and so forth.
37:23
So it's very much a community project.
37:25
There's a lot, lots of volunteerism involved in
37:27
European football. If you go to a, a match, you're
37:31
not just going to tailgate, you know, you're, you're also going
37:35
to maybe sign up for some civic stuff going on in your
37:38
community, make some donations, participate, be part of the
37:43
choreo and, and, and things like that.
37:44
And of course, the most important parallel is that we're
37:46
talking about amateur athletes. We can get into that debate if
37:49
you like. And this is my biggest pet peeve
37:52
about college athletics. I don't think you have the right
37:55
to Boo college athletes. I mean, guys are working their
37:59
tail off. They're taking 15 credit hours
38:02
of courses in addition to doing 2A days.
38:05
You know, there, there is no 90,000 seat stadium for football
38:10
here in Germany like Death Valley in, in Baton Rouge.
38:13
As a matter of fact, now you can fit I think 105,000 people in
38:17
that stadium. It is.
38:18
It is ridiculous when people talk about the European
38:22
football, the closest parallel, you're absolutely correct, thank
38:25
you for bringing that up, is college athletics.
38:28
That's why, that's why people support it, because it's local,
38:30
it's homegrown, and it's something that you can take
38:33
pride in as part of your community.
38:35
All right, check one off the box, Dino.
38:37
I got a real European football fan, oh, based in Europe to
38:41
cosign this this crazy idea I have.
38:43
OK, excellent. I appreciate that, Peter.
38:46
And let's also cosign the no booing of college athletes.
38:49
Yeah, I think I'm with that. Let's go totally.
38:52
Peter, definitely appreciate the time.
38:54
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
38:56
I think we covered a ton of ground.
38:57
I think pretty ready to start looking at this German side with
39:00
a lot of good insights courtesy of you.
39:02
So we definitely appreciate the time, but anything else you want
39:04
to hit before you out of here? Well, I suppose I'll just say
39:07
that as a lifelong advocate for the women's game, I've come to
39:10
appreciate the game for its tactical acumen, for the
39:14
stories, the wonderful stories that it brings in.
39:17
I mean, we talk about professional versus amateur
39:19
athletes. The goal here in Germany now,
39:22
and that's the goal in the States and that's the goal in
39:23
woman's football in general, is that for women who are capable
39:27
and have the talent and the time to play this game
39:29
professionally, they should be given a living wage.
39:33
That is probably the most important thing that everyone
39:35
can do in terms of female football advocacy.
39:38
You know, we look at a player like Lucy Bronze who was the
39:41
female footballer of the year, had to work part time at
39:44
Domino's UKI encourage everybody to watch this tournament.
39:47
I encourage everybody to support women's football because so many
39:52
of these women, they're they're not compensated anywhere near
39:55
the level that the men are. And you'll see in this
39:58
tournament to the difference between programs, you know, in
40:01
which it is their sole. Whole job to play football,
40:04
they're working with nutrition experts, fitness coaches, so on
40:08
and so forth. You'll see the difference
40:10
between those who are full time professionals and those who are
40:15
doing this as a labor of love. And that's what makes this game
40:19
so beautiful. That's why it it's creates so
40:22
many amazing stories. And I don't see any reason to
40:26
watch Olympic men's football, but I see at least 30 reasons
40:31
why everybody should tune into Olympic women's football.
40:34
It's a great game. It's going to be a great
40:36
tournament and I hope that we get some more fans for it.
40:39
Absolutely. I want to say Peter, if I, if I
40:42
may quote you here, I thought this was really great from one
40:45
of your final posts when you're talking about supporting the
40:48
game and when what you do to kind of grow the sport in
40:51
general. I thought you put it pretty
40:53
succinctly. You said quote, just buy a
40:56
ticket. There we have it.
40:57
Your friendly bookie promised to keep it short and to the point,
41:01
did he not? No half baked virtue signalling,
41:04
no shaming, no overt attempt to amass God knows whatever
41:07
dopamine driven like emojis on social media channels.
41:11
All that's recommended is to buy at least 1 ticket to a women's
41:14
club match this coming season. End Quote.
41:17
I thought that was really, that was really well, well done
41:19
Peter. And that's kind of where we're
41:21
at. It's watch the games, go to the
41:23
games. This is a great sport with world
41:25
class players, world class athletes and that's part of the
41:28
fun. That's what we're doing here.
41:29
That's what we like to watch anyway, so why wouldn't we
41:31
support it? Wow, I've I'm touched.
41:34
I thank you for for referencing that.
41:37
And that's, that's, that is my message, you know, buy tickets
41:41
to a club game, go out and support them.
41:44
Bring me if you don't have kids of your own, bring some kids of
41:47
a friend, introduce a young girl to the stars because it's all
41:50
very accessible. They can go shake the hands of
41:53
some professional female footballers and it will make
41:55
their day. It'll make their world on both
41:58
ends. Absolutely, yeah, some some
42:00
legends, legends out here. They're definitely accessible.
42:03
Where are the places that people can find you and all the great
42:07
work that you're doing? Well, I'm currently still the
42:10
the senior contributor@bullynews.com.
42:13
So I'll be covering the German Bundesliga.
42:14
I will be covering the Olympic tournament the for the German
42:19
woman's team along with those two aforementioned European
42:22
qualification matches. I'll give it as as much time and
42:26
and coverage as I can. I will then, of course be
42:30
transitioning to to covering the Bundesliga season again for
42:33
Bully news next year and doing some more in stadium work,
42:37
showing people what it's like to attend live football matches for
42:42
over the bar. And we'll also be doing our our
42:44
weekly podcast along with the vlogs this coming season.
42:48
The the site that I volunteered for last summer.
42:51
Perhaps I could get a plug in for them.
42:52
It's she plays fantasy league. I'm not the biggest fantasy
42:58
football player because I, I, I, I'm just, I'm such a tactics
43:01
nerd that, you know, I mean, I, I, I love shape and, and things
43:05
like this more than I love all of those little, little stats.
43:08
But they built a little site for the, the 2023 Woman's World Cup
43:12
and they're also covering the Woman's Champions League.
43:15
I don't know if I'll have time to do some volunteer work for
43:17
them for the Woman's Champions League next season, but I'm
43:20
going to try if I can have some free time.
43:21
Also my bully news colleague Ben Sully, he is very much into the
43:25
woman's game. I did a vlog on like Frau and
43:28
Bundesliga weekend. I went to go see Eintroft and I
43:30
went to go see Friborg. He and I have decided that I'm
43:33
going to get him over here. He's based in Pompey.
43:35
I'm going to get him over here. We're going to do some Frau and
43:36
Bundesliga vlogs this season as well.
43:40
Awesome. Yeah.
43:40
And Champions League Fantasy. Champions League Next, Next,
43:43
next season. Grant, we might have to get in
43:45
on that. Yeah.
43:46
Yeah, we're in on that for sure, no doubt.
43:48
It's an Australian New Zealand Co production, they did a really
43:52
great job and there's a bunch of NWLSL guys who who do like
43:57
bright fantasy pieces and stuff like that.
43:59
We will check that out. And I had mentioned, you know
44:02
from from the quote, you were referring to yourself back then
44:05
as a bookie you would have some gambling spin on some of these
44:08
articles. Dino and I have been known to
44:10
place a wager now and then at our local establishments.
44:13
So, you know, as this tournament goes on, maybe, you know, we
44:16
might hit you up on Twitter. We might kind of be looking for
44:19
maybe some angles to see, you know, who's covering what point
44:21
spread, who might be the goal scorer in that match.
44:23
You never know. The blog was actually, it began
44:27
as a sports book. I was, I was there, I was 19
44:29
years old and it was, I was, I was there in the LSU computer
44:32
lab and I wanted to keep in touch with all of my
44:34
international friends. So I said I'm going to keep a
44:37
little black book for 20 years. I actually did keep a little
44:40
black book. I am all about friendly bets
44:43
among friends in this business. Some of the, the, the commercial
44:47
money that comes into it can be a little, a little bit on the
44:50
sketchy side, but I, I encourage, I encourage friendly
44:53
bets among friends. I I most definitely do.
44:55
Awesome. Well, you heard it here first.
44:56
Peter Vice. He's got Jeremy 12:50 to take
44:59
home the gold. Bank it lock it in.
45:01
I'm just kidding. All right, gentlemen, I think we
45:04
did it. There's been another episode of
45:05
Into the channel. Thank you for watching,
45:07
listening, subscribing, chiming in.
45:09
Remember to like, if you liked and subscribe to follow into the
45:11
channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast or wherever you like to
45:14
watch or listen. Go support our guy Peter Vice
45:16
for hanging out rocking with us. And a big thank you to my coast
45:19
as well, Mr. Grant Engel continuing to log these miles,
45:23
upgrade our statuses as we kind of like Zoom around the world to
45:26
get ready for this Olympics tournament coming up.
45:28
I appreciate you man. Likewise, buddy, just trying to
45:30
keep our tactics organized, keep us in line, play the triangle in
45:35
this episode. Thanks to everybody for checking
45:37
out the show. As always, thanks again to Mr.
45:39
Peter Vice from bullynews.com for joining us, and we will see
45:43
you guys next time. Pleasure.