Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Looking ahead at the USWNT's future
Transcript
- 0:05OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
- 0:08football before we hit the pitch.
- 0:09If you enjoy this show or love women's football as much as we
- 0:12do, come kick it with us already.
- 0:14Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
- 0:17you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
- 0:20favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
- 0:22the show notes of this episode. Special guest rejoining the ITC
- 0:26today. But first I am your host Dean de
- 0:28Suspicus and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant
- 0:33Angle. What is up man?
- 0:34I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. I'm feeling rested.
- 0:37We've had a few days in between shows.
- 0:40It's about time we got a break. Obviously, you know, I'm
- 0:43guessing some of the footballers out there in the Olympics are
- 0:45probably happy that they got a break, but part of the reason
- 0:48why I'm feeling fantastic. Of course, as you mentioned, we
- 0:51are joined by the founder and host of Busy Watching Women's
- 0:55Soccer. She's making her second
- 0:56appearance on the show. She is hopefully she accepts the
- 1:00role. The director of tactics and
- 1:02strategy for the Into the Channel podcast.
- 1:04Please welcome once again Brightie O'Toole.
- 1:08Thank you. That is a great title, I will
- 1:09gladly take it. Yes.
- 1:11Let's go TBUSA back. Back in business.
- 1:17As Grant mentioned, what a whirlwind that tournament was.
- 1:20No rust here, kind of podcast. Very much a rest podcast.
- 1:23Definitely excited to get into it.
- 1:24Grant, I'll kick it to you. Where?
- 1:25Where should we get started? Well, first I almost forgot.
- 1:28See, maybe there was a little rust involved.
- 1:30I almost. Forgot.
- 1:32The cracking of the celebratory beer.
- 1:34So let me just, I'm going to do this on my side.
- 1:37We're just going to enjoy over here.
- 1:41Look at that. Just a great team over here.
- 1:44The symmetry. OK, so with that out of the way,
- 1:49I want to start with a question that I have to think has been on
- 1:52everyone's mind since the closing ceremony.
- 1:54I'm going to frame this in the most normal way I can.
- 1:57OK brighty, let's say a time traveler came to you from the
- 2:01year 2424. Four hundred years in the
- 2:04future. And in this scenario, we're
- 2:07pretending the Earth hasn't been burnt to a crisp from big oil
- 2:10and other mega corporations ruining the planet in the name
- 2:12of record profits. I digress.
- 2:15This traveller comes to you and asks how did the US Women's
- 2:19National team manage to win the gold medal in the 2024 Olympics
- 2:23after such a disappointing 2023 World Cup?
- 2:26If you had to pinpoint it, what aspect of their play would you
- 2:30point to 1st? Top of mind for me absolutely is
- 2:33adaptability. And it wasn't just can we do
- 2:36different things, it was can we can we really execute in
- 2:39different looks and execute different styles of football
- 2:41across opponents. And that was I think my favorite
- 2:44thing to watch was how structured the team was against
- 2:48certain opponents, how free playing they were against
- 2:50certain opponents, and they just really looked like a team that
- 2:52could do it all, which was amazing With Hayes being there
- 2:56such a short time, it was really impressive.
- 2:59Yeah, definitely got a hint of that.
- 3:00I mean, I think one thing that we'll remember is kind of like
- 3:05the triple espresso knee nature of of this tournament.
- 3:08But in reality, you look at those 3 knockout stage matches,
- 3:11obviously the US six up, six down, six wins didn't feel like
- 3:15that. You know, I think there was some
- 3:16some nervy moments there throughout.
- 3:18But the three knockout stage matches, one nil, one nil, one
- 3:20nil. Alyssa Nair, standout football,
- 3:23two goals allowed, Naomi Graham, a huge part of that, that
- 3:26backline, a huge part of that. What do you think the US was
- 3:28able to defensively to kind of like impose their will and make
- 3:32sure that these games played out in a very one nil kind of way?
- 3:35Yeah, they looked really composed, really confident,
- 3:38which is great for defenders, but they just really managed
- 3:41their, you know, not even the defensive 3rd, but just they're
- 3:44half, they're half of the pitch. They were just so dominant.
- 3:47And you can just see them all defensively working, all
- 3:51understanding what their defensive roles are.
- 3:53And I think the main thing for me is just, you know, letting
- 3:56individual stars be stars. You know, Naomi Gurma has a
- 3:59great read on thing. She knows when to step.
- 4:01She knows when to backtrack. And especially the Brazil game,
- 4:04I think that was one where you really saw people go kind of
- 4:06one-on-one defensively a little bit more.
- 4:08And you just saw great moments from Done.
- 4:10You saw great moments from Davidson.
- 4:11And I mean, just let them loose. Let them do their thing.
- 4:14Yeah, I totally agree. You had a great video on your
- 4:16Patreon, which everybody should go seek out and subscribe to.
- 4:20By the way, we'll have a link to that in the description of this
- 4:23show. I think he had a couple moments
- 4:25from the match just kind of pointing out Davidson's
- 4:28physicality in that Brazil matchup.
- 4:32She was clearly still a little dinged.
- 4:33I think what they took her off in like the 60th or the 70th
- 4:36maybe in the final, were you surprised at all that she was
- 4:41kind of able to still do that, like based on on her history or
- 4:45did you expect USA to kind of have a physical game plan going
- 4:48into the match? Not at all, actually.
- 4:50I mean, in hindsight, everything makes sense.
- 4:52And I think about Emma Hayes and I think about how well prepared
- 4:55she is and it goes well. Yeah, of course.
- 4:57She watched Brazil play an incredibly physical game against
- 4:59Spain and she had her team incredibly well prepared.
- 5:01And I think I've said it before, but typically in football you
- 5:04fight fire with fire. So that often seems to be her
- 5:06approach. But even if you think, OK, the
- 5:09coach might be going in with that approach, that's just not
- 5:11what we've seen from a team before.
- 5:12It's just not what we've seen them execute, David said.
- 5:15I was really impressed by because I do think you could see
- 5:17a little bit of the discomfort there, especially as time went
- 5:19on and it was just a willingness to just battle through it.
- 5:23It's like getting into the cliches, but it's like, who
- 5:25wants it more? Who's willing to fight more?
- 5:26Who's willing to tough it out? And and they all were.
- 5:30Absolutely. You know, we talked a lot on
- 5:31this show. I'm glad you brought up that
- 5:33Davidson sub, Grant, because Sonic comes on for Davidson and
- 5:37we were just kind of gushing over the sonnet minutes in this
- 5:40tournament. You know, not the flashiest
- 5:42player, but the perfect player to kind of step into multiple
- 5:45roles and even kind of elevate like a tear to Davidson.
- 5:49Her last 10-15 minutes of the match.
- 5:51Going from that, obviously a great player dinged up like you
- 5:53mentioned to a fresh sonnet was just such a breath of fresh air.
- 5:58And then obviously that those games unfolded in a very
- 6:01defensive way. What a huge piece to have on
- 6:03there. Did you notice anything
- 6:04tactically that the US was doing defensively to kind of cover
- 6:07some things up above and beyond, like imposing a physical nature
- 6:11on the match? I think for one thing I shot saw
- 6:13was a big shift to cover the right wing where Lib Mia was.
- 6:17They were just really getting burned with the speed and I
- 6:20think Brazil was just, they were moving balls so fast, so far, so
- 6:24quickly that if you weren't cutting it off at the source,
- 6:27you were going to have a problem later on.
- 6:28So I really liked they kind of played defense higher up the
- 6:31pitch. I think they did a really good
- 6:33job at that all tournament, but especially against Brazil.
- 6:35I mean, they made adjustments quickly.
- 6:37The 30 minute cooling break. They did a lot, I think to shift
- 6:40people over and get the midfielders a bit more, more
- 6:42freedom to cover on the in the wide areas.
- 6:44Nobody hydrates like the USA. That's how we do it a big
- 6:48hydration team over here. So let's work our way forward up
- 6:52the pitch because you talk about defending a little higher up the
- 6:55pitch. I want to talk about the
- 6:55midfield a little bit. Do you know, I had a great
- 6:58framing of it in our last episode where he kind of talked
- 7:00about all right, so USA wins the gold medal, but questions remain
- 7:05in the midfield in terms of who are you going to play there?
- 7:08What kind of style is that midfield going to play?
- 7:10Like are they are they more connectors?
- 7:12Are they more kind of hang back double sixes?
- 7:15Like, how is this thing going to look in the midfield?
- 7:17And I realize I'm saying this after the team wins the gold
- 7:20medal. What needs to change moving
- 7:23forward? What might the ideal rotation
- 7:26look like? And just frankly, do we know
- 7:29anything about the midfield as it stands right here on August
- 7:3318th, 2024? I know no secrets, but my my gut
- 7:37instinct is they want to use the midfield more.
- 7:40One of the trends I kind of saw over the games is and it just
- 7:43seems like haze. I don't know all the background
- 7:45of her Chelsea days, but she seems like she does really like
- 7:47those wide channels. She's very happy to go double
- 7:50width that she needs to and, you know, happy to do the the big
- 7:52crosses into the box if she needs to.
- 7:55But at some point you do want to dominate that midfield and you
- 7:58do want to be able to unlock things through the midfield.
- 8:00And tempo control, I think is a huge thing that's missing right
- 8:04now. Naomi Gurma is doing so much of
- 8:06that from the base of the structure, deciding, you know,
- 8:08when are we connecting with single passes?
- 8:10When are we going to try and break lines?
- 8:12And I I would imagine that you want to move some of that
- 8:15decision making into the midfield.
- 8:17So I think that's probably going to be a really big thing for
- 8:20them over the next year is trying to shore up how can they
- 8:22control the tempo of the game from a midfield more.
- 8:25That makes a lot of sense. Bridie, what was your take on
- 8:28how Lindsay Oran played in this tournament?
- 8:30I, you know, we all have like personal bias and I think maybe
- 8:33sometimes I have a little bit of bias towards Lindsay Huran
- 8:36because I just really like that style of play where she unlocks
- 8:40things really quickly, a lot of one touch play.
- 8:42But I do think we could see that there's an area of the pitch
- 8:45that she's much more comfortable and she wants to stay central,
- 8:48She wants to stay pretty high up.
- 8:50And I think sometimes when she wasn't in those positions, she
- 8:53just looked a little uncomfortable.
- 8:55My general feel with her is that she's always kind of two or
- 8:58three steps ahead of teammates. And then by being so far ahead
- 9:02of them, it kind of ends up making her look like she's far
- 9:04behind them. Because if somebody doesn't
- 9:06catch up to you, then you've you got to go to your second or your
- 9:08third decision. So I don't know, I think it's
- 9:10just a case of can we, can we be consistent and get somebody
- 9:13where they're comfortable or you know, do we, do we have to start
- 9:16looking at some other rotations maybe?
- 9:18Yeah, I think that's a question worth asking.
- 9:20I think Lindsay Horan, she might be exactly 30 years old as
- 9:24things stand right now. So, I mean, she's not going to
- 9:26play forever, but it's not like she's well past her prime.
- 9:30I think, you know, it's fair to say in football, you hit 30
- 9:32years old, you do kind of usually start to hit some kind
- 9:35of dissent at that point. Her midfield partners for a big
- 9:41chunk of this tournament. She had Sam Coffee until Sam
- 9:44Coffee had the yellow card accumulation and she had Rose
- 9:47Lavelle, who I think on paper and Dino knows and I think you
- 9:51probably know by now. Brighty.
- 9:52I do like I do sometimes get caught up at looking at these
- 9:55things on paper coffee and Lavelle with her an feels like a
- 10:00natural fit and I thought it looked like it in some
- 10:03stretches, but they still it was a lot of Emily Fox to Rodman.
- 10:07It was a lot of Germa passing way up top.
- 10:09What did you come away with thinking about that combination
- 10:12of coffee and Lavelle in the midfield with her in?
- 10:15It just doesn't feel like it's quite 100% clicking.
- 10:19It feels like we have the pieces to get the job done.
- 10:21And, you know, it's hard putting together a complete team.
- 10:24So you do have to accept that there's going to be, you know,
- 10:27maybe some things that are a little less than perfect, but
- 10:30just the chemistry in terms of working as a complete unit, as a
- 10:33kind of group of three. I, I don't feel that's quite
- 10:35there. I feel like you're always seeing
- 10:37somebody at the, the bottom of the structure kind of
- 10:39repositioning people, especially when people are playing with
- 10:42their backs turned. It seems like there's kind of a
- 10:44lack of understanding of how to, you know, once you pass the
- 10:47ball, move and help continue things progressing up the pitch.
- 10:50So it's a tough one. I, I, it's a weird one where I
- 10:55think, I might say I think I preferred coffee over a
- 10:57tournament from Lavelle. I'm not sure Lavelle really got
- 10:59to do her thing as much, but Coffee definitely did get to do
- 11:02her style of football. Yeah, definitely.
- 11:04Big time play from Sam Coffey. I feel like I want to change the
- 11:07tenor a little bit of the pod because it sounds a little
- 11:09somber. And then I remember that we won
- 11:10the gold medal and that the USA is back on top.
- 11:15Bridie, who do you think raised their stock the most over the
- 11:18course of this tournament? That's a great question.
- 11:21It it's really for me it's between Swanson and Rodman
- 11:25because I think when you look at their club play, which is very
- 11:29good, and you look at their international play, you say,
- 11:32wow, this person came out and performed a lot better than I
- 11:35see them on an average game day. And I, you know, I don't want to
- 11:38punish anybody else for being so excellent throughout normal
- 11:41course of business that they just come and do, you know, like
- 11:44grandma always looks great. But I think in terms of, you
- 11:47know, showing a difference and showing that you can step up,
- 11:49yeah, Rodman and Swanson really, really came through.
- 11:52Like Rodman's tournament, like she was just a menace down the
- 11:56right hand side. She had some moments where she
- 11:58was switching over to the left just to cause chaos from over
- 12:02there. She looked faster than almost
- 12:04every opponent she was out there with.
- 12:06She looks stronger. She looked more clever.
- 12:08She does that, that trend spin where she just gets out and it
- 12:12feels like it works every single time where she just draws the
- 12:14defender to the touchline and then she just spins around them.
- 12:18And nobody ever sees it coming. And I don't blame them because
- 12:20they're probably just freaked out trying to guard it.
- 12:22Yeah. It's not an area of the pitch.
- 12:23She does it a lot. I feel like kind of that halfway
- 12:26line on the wing and she pulls people in and it's not an area
- 12:29where you're kind of worried about giving up space.
- 12:32So I am amazed. I I know people are watching the
- 12:35film. I know they see it.
- 12:36And somehow she still seems to get someone every time.
- 12:38Yeah, she kind of there's you in.
- 12:39I love Rodman as an answer because, you know, I think in my
- 12:42mind she still has a little bit of that top US prospect kind of
- 12:46brand to her. And then in long stretches of
- 12:48multiple matches, we're just like, oh, she's just dominating
- 12:51this game and lines ten line defensively just physically like
- 12:55Grant mentioned. And then on the ball, I thought
- 12:56she was she was really great and a great kind of like
- 12:59counterpunch. I thought Smith and Swanson had
- 13:01really good chemistry on the left hand side and kind of like
- 13:04overlapping with each other and kind of seeing each other.
- 13:07And then once it came came back this way, it was Rodman and Fox
- 13:10and then Haran kind of get involved.
- 13:12And it was just a completely different look offensively.
- 13:15I don't know that the US was able to cash in, I think as much
- 13:17as we would have liked, but I think the threat was there.
- 13:20Grant and I were talking about this little bit earlier today.
- 13:23I think the US for as much, you know, ballyhoo as there was
- 13:26around, you know, short rest, short rosters, I thought the US
- 13:30had a massive advantage when you look at strength and
- 13:32conditioning and how deep the roster is, right.
- 13:35So of all 12 teams, it kind of felt like those conditions serve
- 13:39the US the best. Now in a more traditional
- 13:42tournament, like a World Cup style, do you think that we
- 13:45would visibly see less distance between the US and like the
- 13:49next, you know, crop of teams there you you would you expect a
- 13:52more competitive tournament? How much of what the US was able
- 13:55to do do you chalk up to their depth And like I mentioned, the
- 13:58strength and conditioning? I think probably a decent amount
- 14:01because Hayes just coming in, you have like, what was it four
- 14:05games or six games to prepare or something Like you're not going
- 14:07to completely change a team in that time.
- 14:09So you're working with a very, very good foundation.
- 14:12And we know, you know, historically the Americans have
- 14:15had significantly better strength and conditioning.
- 14:17You can still see it to this day.
- 14:19So I think it's definitely a part of it.
- 14:21I think confidence is the other thing, you know, short
- 14:23tournament, when things start going well, you're just building
- 14:25on momentum. So it is probably something that
- 14:27they benefited from. And I think the depth as well is
- 14:30just I mean, when you're taking out Swanson and putting in a
- 14:35Lynn Williams, I mean, like where, where where are you
- 14:37getting relief is the opposition?
- 14:38You're not at all. Yeah, totally.
- 14:41I I think that that really carried a lot.
- 14:43I mean, we talked about, you know, you take out Davidson, you
- 14:46put in Sonnet, you take out Dunn, you put in nice longer or
- 14:50you might make another sub and then you're moving Dunn up
- 14:52forward and every team is like, Oh my goodness, not a brand new
- 14:55set of problems, new set of geometry that we kind of have to
- 14:58compete with. I would like to play one of me
- 15:02and Dino's favorite games in in just all of sports previously
- 15:07known as in the other sports that we used to watch previously
- 15:10known as let's name some dudes. We have now renamed it rebranded
- 15:14it to let's name some players, let's name some players here.
- 15:17So we talked about this midfield and we kind of talked about the
- 15:20the general rotation and kind of what's next.
- 15:23If we're looking into the future, you know, we talked
- 15:25about Haran at 30 years old, you know, you have to start looking
- 15:29at some plans. Well, we talked about it during
- 15:31the last episode as well. Jaden Shaw is going to continue
- 15:35to develop and and come into her own and she is somebody you can
- 15:39fit into that midfield. We have mentioned at great
- 15:41lengths, and I'll stop after this player, we have mentioned
- 15:44at great lengths the addition that 17 year old Lily Johannes
- 15:47would bring to this roster. I think we might go from a point
- 15:51where this midfield we're kind of looking at like, OK, what are
- 15:54we going to do to, oh, wow, we have a lot of midfield players
- 15:58available in the pool. How are we going to get all of
- 16:03them involved? So, so my question here,
- 16:05Brighty, my very long way of asking this question is I think
- 16:08the midfield is going to get crowded.
- 16:10Who are the players who you think are going to kind of come
- 16:12knocking on the door for Emma Hayes to really consider and
- 16:16maybe in some cases have to get on the roster in the midfield?
- 16:19Yeah, I I mean, we're definitely going to see more of Bethune and
- 16:22Hirschfeld. I think there's no way that
- 16:25they're in their training for that and don't continue to come
- 16:27back. I just, we've barely seen both
- 16:29of them and we know they're very capable players.
- 16:31There's also just so much young talent in NWSL right now and I
- 16:35think, you know, now is going to be the time for experimentation.
- 16:38Hopefully Hayes brings in a bunch of players and just tries
- 16:40to see what she's got. I really like Claire Hutton over
- 16:43at Kansas City, great young player.
- 16:46I like Kennedy Fuller, an Angel City.
- 16:48I think she's got some interesting ability.
- 16:50So you know, there's a lot of different styles of midfielders
- 16:52out there right now, especially kind of in that sort of like
- 16:5417/18/19 age range. But if you if you're looking at
- 16:57them now, they they could be a starter by the time you get to a
- 16:59World Cup. Yeah, you're totally right.
- 17:01I mean, the NWSL just absolutely chock full of young American
- 17:06talent. You know, Olivia Moultrie from
- 17:08Portland Thorns, 18 years old now, was playing in the NWSL at
- 17:1215 years old. I think she might still have the
- 17:14record for back in 2021 when she appeared at 15 to be the
- 17:18youngest player to play in the league.
- 17:20The pool is big Dino. Who comes to your mind when you
- 17:23think about like, who might be able to crack this midfield?
- 17:25I mean, it's interesting because I think I, I would still
- 17:28probably put Corbin Albert, 20 years old, kind of in that same
- 17:31pool, you know, where I think there's still some room for
- 17:34growth there. Friday, I want to get your take
- 17:37on Albert's play on the field because I think we saw some some
- 17:40nice moments, saw some really shaky moments and a lot in
- 17:44between when you zoom out and look at her tournament.
- 17:47What was your take on on Albert's play on the field?
- 17:50I think she had a great tournament.
- 17:51I think when it really mattered, you know, she stepped up and,
- 17:54and she did what was required. I, I think the shakiness looked
- 17:57very normal to me for a young player with a lot of people
- 18:02watching them, you know, and she, she would just look like
- 18:04she took a little bit of time to settle.
- 18:06But I mean, she just looked really comfortable once she was
- 18:09able to do her thing, which is OK.
- 18:11I want to counter press. I want to just distribute balls
- 18:14quickly. The one thing that maybe, maybe
- 18:16two things, my one thing that I've kind of been harping on for
- 18:20a while with her is the header. She's just just not getting up
- 18:23in the air and a little bit hesitant to do it.
- 18:25But I have seen some improvement there, a little bit more fight.
- 18:28And then the other thing sometimes is you'll see the
- 18:30defenders needing to position her a little bit when she's
- 18:32playing more of that defensive mid role.
- 18:34And it's that same thing with your back turned, making sure
- 18:37you're creating the right angles to open things up for people.
- 18:39But the part of her game that she's, you know, comfortable
- 18:41with, the opening up, the attack with the through balls, the the
- 18:45quick play, the quick decision making shot from outside the box
- 18:48like that just looked so developed and so ready to go.
- 18:51Yeah, that's a really great point.
- 18:52You see some of that. We saw some of that at PSG in
- 18:55the Champions League as well. She kind of came on a little
- 18:59late. I think she had one Champions
- 19:01League goal. She didn't get a ton of burn
- 19:02like in the group stage, if I remember correctly, or maybe she
- 19:05got some during the end of the group stage just off the top of
- 19:07my head. And I mean, in that role, kind
- 19:10of like your forward running, attacking type midfielder, she's
- 19:15just going to have a lot of company in there to compete
- 19:18with. I mean, and we have we have not
- 19:19even mentioned the number one pick in the 2024 NWSL draft out
- 19:24of North Carolina, Ali Sentinor, who's having a really nice
- 19:27season for Utah Royals. She can obviously Sentinor can
- 19:30play a little on the wing. She can play central.
- 19:32I just wanted like in kind of thinking about this whole group
- 19:35coming up. Ali Sentinor is top ten in the
- 19:38USL in assists in total shots and shots on target.
- 19:43She's third in the league in key passes with 33, which is only
- 19:47two behind Carson Pickett and one behind Trinity Rodman.
- 19:51Not bad company to keep. She is also tied for second in
- 19:55shot creating actions, tied with Croix Bethune at with 66,
- 20:00trailing only Temwa Chiwenga who has 73.
- 20:03So I mean, I realize there is a little bit of.
- 20:07The Royals don't have a ton of talent around her, and so she is
- 20:11the focal point of the attack. But for somebody who is 20 years
- 20:14old in their first year in a professional league, I mean,
- 20:17that's just dynamite. And you could see it in her
- 20:19play. She's a dynamic type of player.
- 20:22I mean, I I have to think Haze and company are looking at her
- 20:25like, OK, this is another player.
- 20:27Like her and Johannes are two superlative players.
- 20:30It's like, how are we gonna talk anybody out of keeping them out
- 20:33of the lineup? Sent N's coming in for sure.
- 20:35Those stats surprised me. Those are amazing stats, but I'm
- 20:38not shocked. I mean, when you see her play,
- 20:40she's just so individually talented and her her game IQ is
- 20:44it's on fire. My biggest question for her is
- 20:47one, when does she come in? Hopefully it's soon as part of a
- 20:50kind of evaluation period. And just like you mentioned,
- 20:52where, where does she come in? Because I really think she's one
- 20:54of these players that could kind of do it all and it's sort of a
- 20:56decision as to what do you have her develop and work on next.
- 21:00She does look a little more complete to me as a forward, but
- 21:02I think a lot of the the tools for the midfield are there.
- 21:05Yeah, great point. Yeah, she plays role hungry too.
- 21:08Like, you know, I mean, that Utah team is they spend a lot of
- 21:11time trying to make up a a deficit, but she's the exact
- 21:14type of player that's not shy about pushing forward and and
- 21:18putting on putting on her offense.
- 21:20I mean, there's going to be some real decisions for Emma Hayes to
- 21:22make because obviously you can't invite everybody to camp.
- 21:24But yeah, tons of talent. I want to shift ahead to the
- 21:28forward spot. Obviously, you know, those three
- 21:30players up front, you know, not even unfortunately, because I
- 21:33think in some ways they're overshadowing like the defense a
- 21:36little bit, but they will be one of those things that we remember
- 21:39from the tournament. You know, whether you remember
- 21:41the Trident or triple espresso or bell bib de goal, wherever
- 21:45you land, you know, no discrimination here.
- 21:46But what are you going to remember from the interplay
- 21:49between those three, specifically?
- 21:51Trinity Rodman, Sylvia Smith, Mallory Swanson?
- 21:53You know, I hadn't really thought about it before, but you
- 21:55made a really interesting point around, you know, about left
- 21:57side was really a combination of Swanson and Smith, and that's
- 22:00really what good at done was, you know, the quick passing
- 22:02between the two, the the way that they would just interchange
- 22:04and easily overlap underlap. They just had such great flow
- 22:07chemistry and then on the right hand side, it doesn't take a
- 22:10whole lot to set Rodman up. It could be one little pass and
- 22:13then she's going to run half the pitch and then shoot on her own.
- 22:16So I think it was really fantastic that you're offering
- 22:19such different things on each side at the pitch.
- 22:22You know, it's a completely different thing to defend
- 22:24one-on-one than it is to defend quick passing sequences.
- 22:27And you mentioned it, if you want to throw a spanner in the
- 22:29works, you just move Rodman over for 5-10 minutes at a time and
- 22:32then bring her back. So it's just such a well-rounded
- 22:36front 3 to me. The fact that, you know,
- 22:38probably any of them could play any position.
- 22:40There's so much interchangeability.
- 22:42Chemistry is great. It was, it was just fantastic to
- 22:45watch. Like there were very very few
- 22:47moments where I wrote notes of improvement points.
- 22:51Not a lot of room for great improvement there between those
- 22:56three. You know, Sophie Smith, multiple
- 22:58time MVP of the NWSL Trinity Rodman in the MVP race this
- 23:01year, Rookie of the year, Mallory Swanson, absolutely the
- 23:05incredible player in her own right.
- 23:07I'm curious. So you have those three and
- 23:09those three looked great. Like like Dino said, they kind
- 23:12of shown as the stars of the show and a lot of in a lot of
- 23:16aspects, let's say. And obviously we we don't want
- 23:19to see this, but let's say one of them is unavailable and now
- 23:22you only have two of the three. Again, I feel like I'm talking a
- 23:25lot about ages here. And again, this team won the
- 23:27gold medal. So not all, you know, we're
- 23:29we're picking knits here, but Lynn Williams, what I want to
- 23:33say 33 somewhere in that ballpark, I think.
- 23:38Let's say Swanson is is busy. Let's say by some miracle the
- 23:42Cubs make the World Series again and she and Melody Swanson has
- 23:45to go support dance meeting Swanson at the World Series and
- 23:48she's not available for a match. Can the frontline be as
- 23:51effective with two out of those 3 instead of all three and and
- 23:56who do you look at moving forward of like OK, this is the
- 23:58person I would I would slot in there.
- 24:00Yeah, my gut just tells me no, I think there's just some really
- 24:03magic between those three. Like I think it's just fantastic
- 24:07chemistry, but there's also, I think like a degree of
- 24:08competition between them, you know, like I'm happy for you to
- 24:11score, but now I want to go get the next one.
- 24:13So I, I really think if you take even just one of them out,
- 24:17you're really messing with something good.
- 24:19So I'm, I'm really hoping that baseball doesn't baseball
- 24:22doesn't take over here. Who would I look to?
- 24:25I, I don't know. It's a tough one.
- 24:27I, I'm so desperate to see Jaden Shaw up top in in the nine.
- 24:33I just really, I, I just think she has something there.
- 24:36I think her one touch ability on the volley.
- 24:38I just want to see more of it. I really think we haven't seen
- 24:41all of Jaden Shaw yet. Tremendously interesting.
- 24:44I kind of get that feeling too, though, because I think she she
- 24:46definitely has a nose for goal. She's good finding space when it
- 24:49gets a little crowded. And I think Grant, to your
- 24:52question, it makes me think about the 23 World Cup where we
- 24:55had Smith, we had Rodman, but we had Morgan in that Swanson spot
- 24:58and you know, a lot of differences between those two
- 25:01teams. It wasn't just that, but we saw
- 25:03a version of just two of the three.
- 25:06Righty, I want to ask you about the US scoring wise group stage.
- 25:10Obviously we saw them be a little bit more prolific.
- 25:13We talked at the top about how the game slowed down quite a
- 25:16bit. The knockout stage.
- 25:17You obviously get the Germany rematch where you're not going
- 25:20to see another 4-1 score line disparity.
- 25:23Were you troubled at all going from like more of a high-powered
- 25:26offense in the group stage to that more, you know, defensively
- 25:30kind of match? Not even remotely because it was
- 25:33like a switch that they flipped at will.
- 25:36And that is absolute best case scenario to me.
- 25:39The game against Japan was fascinating to me because it
- 25:41almost felt like we'll score when we want to.
- 25:44We're not in that much of a hurry.
- 25:45We'd much rather make sure that we're controlling the flow of
- 25:48the game and we have things going our way.
- 25:51And, you know, like, yes, of course they wanted to score, but
- 25:53they just seemed way more concerned about, you know,
- 25:55controlling the ball, making sure they had possession, making
- 25:58sure Japan couldn't be doing what they wanted to do.
- 26:00And I just think it's, it's wild to be able to change things up
- 26:03at the drop of the hat like that.
- 26:05I think it really speaks to what you had set up top is that I
- 26:08think what other countries might be looking at here.
- 26:12We've talked about the strength and conditioning edge, we've
- 26:14talked about the development, we've talked about the Elite
- 26:17League that the NWSL is. But your point at the top of the
- 26:20adaptability of the roster and now you have Emma Hayes pulling
- 26:26those levers. If your other countries looking
- 26:28at the USA, it's like, OK, where it exactly, exactly are the weak
- 26:32spots here? They have the elite manager in
- 26:35the world and now they have a crop of some of the elite
- 26:38players in the world. I love the way you frame it.
- 26:40You can flip the switch and be like, OK, yeah, we want to shut
- 26:43Brazil's water off on the right hand side.
- 26:46They have the players to do that.
- 26:48Yeah, it's it's awesome to see them just execute something
- 26:51special for each opponent. Brazil especially, to me, that
- 26:54was the most different game to what they played of all the
- 26:56games. I think we saw a really heavy
- 26:58emphasis on possession throughout all of the
- 27:00tournament, but the Brazil one to me was OK, maybe we can give
- 27:04up on possession a little bit. As long as we're controlling
- 27:06where the ball is, I'm not so worried about who has it.
- 27:09I'm way more worried about where it is because that's when things
- 27:13can change quickly and we can get hurt.
- 27:14That to me is a really big change.
- 27:16That's really priority. Changing your priorities as a
- 27:18player, how you make decisions, how you execute, that's a big
- 27:22thing to change your last game. Absolutely.
- 27:25Looking ahead, do you feel like this team might adapt a specific
- 27:29style change or just be a sort of Jack of all trades kind of
- 27:32team? I think we're going to see them
- 27:34continue to be very possession focused.
- 27:37The one thing I'm going to be really watching for is do we
- 27:39start using the midfield more or are we really, really committed
- 27:42to the wide channels and kind of skipping the midfield a little
- 27:46bit? Why change something that's
- 27:48working? You know, we're nitpicking.
- 27:49So much of it is working. You didn't you didn't concede in
- 27:52a, in a knockout game, in a meaningful game.
- 27:54So I would think Hayes is probably very, very happy with
- 27:57how they're doing right now. Yeah, 100%.
- 27:59I mean, no reason for her not to be happy as she kind of looks at
- 28:03herself in the reflection of the gold medal.
- 28:05Actually, I don't, I don't think the coaches get gold medals.
- 28:08So maybe she's just kind of as her players are talking to her,
- 28:10she's seeing her reflection in the gold medal.
- 28:12I want to go back to the forwards and kind of who's going
- 28:15to come back. My apologies to Lynn Williams
- 28:17live Fact Check on the show 31 years of age.
- 28:20Sorry I said you're around 33 Lynn.
- 28:23I would not take kindly to that myself sorry for adding those
- 28:26two years. You're so good and so
- 28:27experienced. That's why I did that is is the
- 28:30obvious reason it's. A maturity level, obviously.
- 28:33Yeah, totally. So thinking about some of those
- 28:35other players though who are going to come in, I have to keep
- 28:38reminding myself and as in Seattle Reign watcher and now
- 28:42somebody who who covers the team, I think back to the NWSL
- 28:46final. Midge Purse was a nightmare for
- 28:49the Reigns defense in that match.
- 28:51She suffered the unfortunate injury earlier this year, taking
- 28:54her out of the national team and out of the league for a while.
- 28:57As somebody living in Seattle, somebody who covers the Seattle
- 28:59Reign, I think about that NWSL final last season against Gotham
- 29:04FC, where Midge Purse was the MVP of the final.
- 29:09Gotham probably doesn't to win that match without Mitch Purse.
- 29:11Obviously she suffered the unfortunate injury, but Purse is
- 29:14going to come back and she can fit into.
- 29:16I think she's traditionally a right wing, but she can play on
- 29:19the left wing. She might be somebody who I
- 29:21think will immediately put herself back into contention for
- 29:24the team. As it stands right now, she's 28
- 29:27years old. I think also me official is
- 29:29rehabbing from her injury. I mean, she is a physically
- 29:33gifted, smart, tough player, obviously getting great
- 29:37coaching, continuing over at Chelsea Football Club in
- 29:40England. So you know, when we talk about
- 29:42like who is going to step up and brighty, I think you you nailed
- 29:45it too. And you said Sentinor can can
- 29:47also fill into that, that forward room.
- 29:51I think your point stands that triple espresso bell Biv de
- 29:55goal, etc, etc. That's the apex probably of the
- 29:59three forwards. But if you kind of start moving
- 30:02them around and maybe you play me official at 9 and Sophie
- 30:06Smith on the left and Rodman on the right, I think you might
- 30:09have some some winning combinations there too.
- 30:11So it all goes to the flexibility, the adaptability.
- 30:15And when you played me official up there, you could kind of play
- 30:17her like a Mira Ramirez, just like, hey, just go start
- 30:19bulldozing defenders up there. Yeah, those are two really
- 30:23interesting names to me because I think when I picture of him
- 30:26coming in, I picture of him coming in so differently.
- 30:28Mitch Purse, that one V1 ability.
- 30:31I mean, we're talking about how, you know, Rodman runs the right
- 30:34wing on her own. You could have Purse do that.
- 30:36It's would be kind of a like for like sub.
- 30:38And we know Hayes likes to have, you know, role players that fit
- 30:41a specific role. When I think about me official,
- 30:43that's when I think, OK, well, well, who's playing that role
- 30:46right now? And I'm not sure we really had
- 30:48that big kind of like feel like this is a basketball term.
- 30:50But power forward, you know, I love a good power forward.
- 30:55I if it was up to me, every ball in the box would be across and
- 30:58we just try and get somebody on the end of it.
- 31:00It's not winning football. But I mean, I love watching it.
- 31:04So, yeah, I mean, maybe if you want to bring me official in,
- 31:06which hopefully she does, she's a great player.
- 31:07And then you maybe have to start making a couple tweaks up front
- 31:10because she's a very, very different player to what we got
- 31:12so far. Abby Wombach believes that's
- 31:14winning football. She knows a thing or two.
- 31:17She does. Hell yeah.
- 31:20Friday, So USW and T Next up, October 24th, a matchup against
- 31:25Iceland and all those dotears that, you know, like to get in
- 31:28there and mix it up and cause trouble.
- 31:31Is there anything specifically you're going to be looking for
- 31:34as maybe a new wrinkle or I don't know, the ball starts
- 31:36rolling around? Where's the 1st place your eyes
- 31:38are going? To go, I think that back line
- 31:40might be challenged a little bit throughout the whole tournament.
- 31:43I mean, everybody's approach was kind of the same.
- 31:45Let's see if we can get balls in behind.
- 31:47You know, these girls are really good defending in the box.
- 31:49We have to try and beat them vertically.
- 31:51And Iceland looked very, very good at beating people
- 31:55vertically. So I'm, I'm really interested to
- 31:57see that match up and if Kerma has a day or if maybe she's a
- 32:00little challenged for the first time, I don't know.
- 32:02We'll see. That's gonna be really
- 32:04interesting with Iceland kind of physical style like you
- 32:07mentioned, like the good size that they have.
- 32:09I'm gonna I'm in a place this is an easy bet.
- 32:12So I'd have to really double down on the amount I would bet.
- 32:16I'm gonna, I'm gonna imagine that Emily Fox is going to be in
- 32:20a wrestling match through most of most of that game.
- 32:24I could definitely see that. The one thing that gets me with
- 32:26her is like where how do you have the speed and the
- 32:28physicality combo? You know, going to Arsenal, the
- 32:31stunner, some real good. You could see the British
- 32:33football throughout the tournament, it was great.
- 32:36Yeah, she was definitely my short list of players whose
- 32:38stock I think appreciated the most over that 17 day period.
- 32:43Brady, did we miss anything super obvious?
- 32:45Any any any takes that you need to kind of unleash any last
- 32:48ones? I don't know, I, I feel like our
- 32:51only thing is we're, we're dit picking here and like, what are
- 32:54we dit picking at? We're making more work for
- 32:57ourselves. I guess that's the nature of the
- 33:00game, right? Like we don't have anything to
- 33:01talk about unless we're looking for some things to, to work on
- 33:04and being forward thinking. But I just am so impressed with
- 33:08players, the coaching. I, I imagine for a lot of people
- 33:11it's pretty shocking to see what happened at the Women's World
- 33:13Cup and then to see this Olympic result.
- 33:15I'm not entirely shocked because I think all the pieces were
- 33:18always there, but it's just such a testament to what high level
- 33:21coaching can do and what that kind of investment in a team can
- 33:23do. Oh yeah, I think Grant and I
- 33:25were talking about it maybe in our gold medal match recap that
- 33:29there are a lot of different age bands on this roster
- 33:32specifically. You know, there's some like the
- 33:34teens in early 20s, then there's like those mid, you know, mid
- 33:3720s, I think kind of caps out at Haran.
- 33:38And then we've got AI don't know, a handful of of 30 plus on
- 33:42the squad. I'm just expecting a lot of
- 33:44turnover. Yeah, I I was surprised when the
- 33:46roster came out and this kind of shows my naivety and probably
- 33:49lack of understanding of real world coaching.
- 33:51But you know, there are a lot of older players.
- 33:53Older. We've already corrected
- 33:55ourselves that, but you know, we've had a lot of players with
- 33:58more experience on the roster and that surprised me.
- 34:01I was kind of expecting Anna Hayes to go sort of a little bit
- 34:04heavy on the younger players and just consider this an an
- 34:06investment opportunity and time to learn.
- 34:09But I think they showed if you're, if you want to win, you
- 34:12you have the players to do it. You could put together A-Team to
- 34:14do it. So I think that's going to be
- 34:16the question going forwards is like, how much do we look to the
- 34:18veterans for leadership and guidance and how willing are we
- 34:21to take risks and just start investing in new players?
- 34:23And they're going to have to start conceding goals at some
- 34:26point to learn from them. So who are you willing to to let
- 34:30get scored on and learn that lesson the hard way?
- 34:33Yeah, that's a that's a great point Is that that you, you're
- 34:37not going to make it through any tournament without facing some
- 34:41adversity. And I would say, you know, the
- 34:43one nil, one nil, one nil going to extra time versus Japan.
- 34:47I think that was the level of adversity that the USA faced in
- 34:51this Olympic tournament. There is zero chance that you
- 34:54make it through a World Cup without really kind of having
- 34:57your back up against it at some point.
- 35:01And we are we are picking Nets. But I think the exciting part
- 35:04about this is that, you know, Dino mentioned that USA back on
- 35:08top, they leapfrog Spain. They're the number one country
- 35:11in the world in the women's FIFA rankings now.
- 35:14I think it sets up for just a gigantic target on US as back
- 35:20going into and you know, we'll see how the rankings change over
- 35:23the next few years before as we build up to the World Cup used
- 35:25to have the EUR that are going to happen.
- 35:27But some of the discourse that I saw, I'm going to throw out a
- 35:30little bit of a wild card question here.
- 35:32Some of the discourse that I saw was this is a majority NWSL
- 35:36lineup on the field for Team USA.
- 35:40And you know, there's always this kind of, I don't know if
- 35:42it's so much tribalism or whatever you want to call it,
- 35:45but there's a lot of puffing out of the chest from USA fans
- 35:49going, yeah, that's because our league is the best league and we
- 35:54can dominate this sport because we do have the NWS L How much
- 35:59stock do you put in? OK, The majority of our players
- 36:02play in the best league. That's why we're the favorites
- 36:05to win. Not that much, honestly.
- 36:07And I think one of the great things probably about this team
- 36:09was, you know, you had a lot of different type of experience.
- 36:12You had some of that Champions League experience.
- 36:14You had two players that actually live in France and are
- 36:17probably feeling a little bit more comfortable and can help
- 36:19the team get comfortable. And then you had a bunch of NWSL
- 36:21players. And I think if you went in with
- 36:23just NWSL players, you're probably missing some of the
- 36:25context. If you leaned really heavy on
- 36:27the European side of things and you're losing a lot of the
- 36:30chemistry that you would have. Not that they can field a full
- 36:32team of of players playing in Europe, but they will be able to
- 36:35at some point I'm sure. Yeah, and you saw some of that.
- 36:38That was a big. I know we don't talk about men's
- 36:40football too much, but that was, I remember that being a thing
- 36:43with the US men's national team. Like they feel that a team
- 36:46earlier this year that they said, like, this is the first
- 36:48time the US men's national team has had all players who play in
- 36:52international leagues. And, you know, I have some level
- 36:55of bias or some level of bitterness against that side.
- 36:57They still stink if you ask me. It doesn't matter.
- 36:59I mean, they don't play together.
- 37:01Whatever, I digress. But what basically what I'm
- 37:04saying is I'm with you. I don't hold a ton of stock in
- 37:07that. I think the NWSL is one of at
- 37:09worst, the two elite leagues in the world.
- 37:13But I'm totally with you. It is nice to have, even if it's
- 37:16just a little bit of sprinkling in there of like some players
- 37:20from D1F, some players from the WSL, obviously, I mean Emily Fox
- 37:24from Dino's Arsenal, as I see the cannon on his chest right
- 37:26now. I think it's it's a benefit.
- 37:30It's always benefit to have a little bit of diversity and just
- 37:33the style of football that your team can play.
- 37:36Yeah. And you could really see it.
- 37:38Fox was very, very physical at times.
- 37:40There were some shoulder charges that I know would have been
- 37:43called in the NWSL that do not get called in the WSL.
- 37:47You know, there are moments where Albert and Horan playing
- 37:50at their back turned. It just looks very NWSL the way
- 37:53they're doing that. So it's great that that variety
- 37:56of experiences really, I think has made the team so much
- 37:58better. All right.
- 38:00I know you guys are both also England Team England enthusiasts
- 38:04or England supporters, but for the purposes of US 3 getting
- 38:07together, this is a Team USA podcast.
- 38:10Team USA. Anything else we want to hit
- 38:11before we get out of here? USAUSA, there's nothing else to
- 38:14say. It's sort of rhyme scheme there.
- 38:19Yeah, I know, I know. This, this pod had a little bit
- 38:22of a somber tone. Maybe they grant.
- 38:24I think you're right at the top. Probably a little bit of rust.
- 38:26You know, we've been offline for, I don't know, feels like a
- 38:29year, to be honest. But it was only roughly about a
- 38:31week. I'm excited to get back to it.
- 38:34That leads me to my last question, Bridie.
- 38:36So obviously you've got a killer page busy watching women's
- 38:39soccer. Anybody who's not a fan head
- 38:41there immediately. You've got your YouTube, you've
- 38:44got your Patreon. Now that the Olympics are a
- 38:46wrap, though, what's Next up for you?
- 38:48What's Next up for the channel? Where does your focus shift to
- 38:51now? Yeah, so I got two things I'm
- 38:53working on for YouTube specifically for my my much
- 38:57awaited return. I want to do a little kind of
- 39:00whiteboard tactic style breakdown of how, you know, how
- 39:04the West was won. I suppose, you know, Hayes.
- 39:06Hayes, I think has a really interesting way that she sets
- 39:08the team up in possession and in defense.
- 39:10And I think it'd be fun to kind of breakdown those two.
- 39:13And then the other thing for YouTube is I really want to
- 39:15start focusing on player studies.
- 39:17The player that I'm just really drawn to right now that I want
- 39:19to talk about is Haran. I just think there's so much
- 39:21noise in the media. I really like her as a player.
- 39:24So I'd like to try and do something and maybe prove out
- 39:26that maybe she didn't have as bad of a tournament as everybody
- 39:29thought. I love that.
- 39:31I think that's really great and I thought the the post match
- 39:34press conference after the final Emma Hayes kind of talking about
- 39:38what Lindsay Horan kind of allowed her to do as the
- 39:41incoming manager and Horans role as a captain.
- 39:45I thought that it clearly meant a lot to her and when Emma Hayes
- 39:48talked about it, but it it just shows Emma Hayes great with the
- 39:52tactics, great with, you know, filling out the team sheet.
- 39:56She has a player management aspect to her as well that it
- 40:00just I mean she's just one of the elite managers in the world.
- 40:03And so I just look forward to kind of her continuing to set up
- 40:07the team and I look forward to continue to watching you, the
- 40:11elite tactical breaker downer on the Internet people Patreon.
- 40:16Dot com Busy watching woman's soccer?
- 40:20It's easy to find. You can even Google Patreon.
- 40:22Busy watching women soccer? You'll find it.
- 40:24It'll pop up. You should watch it immediately.
- 40:26I appreciate it. Thank you.
- 40:27Yes, good content for everywhere in the works.
- 40:30Very excited. All right, team, much like the
- 40:33US film special team, I think we did it.
- 40:35There's been another episode of into the channel.
- 40:36Sincere thank you to everyone who watches, listens, follows,
- 40:39like subscribes, just plain hangs out with the squad.
- 40:42And remember to like if you liked, subscribe or follow into
- 40:45the channel, YouTube, Spotify, podcast or wherever you like to
- 40:47watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
- 40:48favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
- 40:51the show notes of this episode. Big thank you to our special
- 40:53guest making our second appearance on the show.
- 40:55And a big thank you as well to my coast, Mr. Grant Engel for
- 41:00shaking off the rust getting back into mid season form.
- 41:04I appreciate you bro. Likewise, buddy, thank you again
- 41:06to Brady O'Toole from busy watching women's soccer.
- 41:10Thank you to everybody else for checking out the show.
- 41:12The comments were great throughout the Olympic
- 41:14tournament. We definitely took notice of all
- 41:17the all the comments, all the tactical breakdown in in just
- 41:21our YouTube comments. We thought you guys were very
- 41:23mindful. We noticed when you guys had a
- 41:26little bit of disagreements in there.
- 41:28You're still very polite, very demure.
- 41:31So we appreciate appreciate all that and we're going to be
- 41:33coming back. I don't know, I did.
- 41:35Somebody told me to say those things.
- 41:37I don't really know what any of that means.
- 41:38I'm just talking at this point. But let me just say we are going
- 41:42to be back. Hopefully we'll be talking about
- 41:43Brazil in the in the coming days here.
- 41:46And we will also be talking about this busy, busy, busy
- 41:49transfer window in global women's football.
- 41:52So please keep it locked for that.
- 41:53Thank you all again for watching and we will see you very soon.