Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / LIVE FROM OSLO! Barcelona v Lyonnes PREVIEW | UWCL Final | 2026 UEFA Women's Champion's League 🏆

Transcript

LIVE FROM OSLO! Barcelona v Lyonnes PREVIEW | UWCL Final | 2026 UEFA Women's Champion's League 🏆 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
Oh hey, welcome to an Oslo edition.
0:09
I'm into the channel. I am your host Dean de Sesper
0:12
and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Graham Angle.
0:16
What is up man? I'm feeling absolutely
0:18
fantastic, buddy. Media day, match day -1 as they
0:23
refer to it over here in in the UEFA world and I am extremely
0:27
excited to talk to you about something that wasn't a football
0:30
match, but just football happenings.
0:34
You know, your boy loves football happenings and you're
0:37
on the scene. And I got to tell you, up to
0:40
this point, I've just been so proud and just so excited and
0:44
like, you know, it's like the show's there, you're going to be
0:46
there, and it's just been all like, super positive.
0:50
And then you shared a video with me of Gothicoid doing something
0:53
awesome and I got to tell you felt a little jealous.
0:57
I was like, I hate this. Why am I not there?
0:59
Oh my gosh, it was, I mean, you know, still really happy, but it
1:03
it, it knocked me a little bit of wind wind out of me.
1:05
So I want to start there. It's pretty fresh, you know,
1:10
Barcelona. What have you been able to see
1:12
you know from them first hand? Hold.
1:15
Hold your hold your horses. Here.
1:17
Wait, what are we doing? Yeah, I I'm going to try not to
1:20
blow out the mic like I did in the last preview.
1:22
My apologies to everybody for that.
1:24
Can we get started with a beverage, my good man?
1:26
Oh my God. See, this is This is why I'm
1:28
rattled. You know, like what's not just
1:30
you last show, now it's me. This show.
1:32
Let's do it. Cheers to the football.
1:36
Cheers to you. Cheers to you, cheers to the
1:38
football, cheers to the UEFA Women's Champions League.
1:40
I haven't said it in my in the last couple weeks, perhaps even
1:45
more than a month, which is just shameful.
1:47
The UEFA Women's Champions League is a celebration of life,
1:50
my good man. I love that that's such a great
1:52
term coined by you that that's definitely a we should have that
1:56
engraved in the the covers of our leather bound ITC personal
2:00
record books that are sure to be forthcoming.
2:03
But now that we've had our first sip of our adult beverage, Mr.
2:06
Grant angle where you want to get started.
2:08
OK, I want to get started with your question, but in for the
2:11
sake of integrity, I absolutely stole that from Bill Walton, who
2:15
I once saw at like 10:00 at night when we were living in New
2:19
York. Him saying the PAC 10
2:22
tournament, the PAC 10 basketball tournament was a
2:24
celebration of life. I was just like, God, I fucking
2:27
love this guy. RIP Bill Walton, one of the
2:28
greatest players who ever lived. Hit me.
2:31
Hit me with the question again please.
2:34
So I mean, it wasn't it wasn't so much of a question.
2:38
It was more like I'm jealous of you.
2:40
You you get to see the thing that we talked about in the
2:42
show, which is, you know, got that guy springing into action,
2:45
flying, you know, through the air and strong pawing, you know,
2:50
a firmly hit shot away and just spectacular fashion.
2:53
So I was a little bit jealous. So I'm not sure if we want to
2:56
start there. Great video, great camera work
2:59
by you. So shout out to you.
3:00
But feels as good a place as I need to get get the ball rolling
3:04
here. No pun intended.
3:05
No, I think you're, I think you're totally right.
3:08
I just got to tell you, dude, there, there was a moment during
3:13
the training, so this is after the press conference where Barry
3:18
Romeo spoke and CGH, Nitana or pardon me, and Alexia spoke.
3:23
Then they go out to to training media can observe the training
3:26
for an hour. There was a point about 20
3:29
minutes in when they were running these two on one drills.
3:33
And you know, Katakoi isn't isn't pardon me, whoa, Yikes,
3:40
where Katakoi is in goal. And I had the legitimate
3:44
thought, is the team mad at Katakoi?
3:49
They were firing shots at her, dude, just absolute missiles
3:56
from close range. And after I was just like,
4:00
Jesus, why are they being so mean to her?
4:03
And she she made no fewer than 10 saves that were highlight
4:10
reel worthy saves in in big met like big match highlight worthy
4:15
saves. Yeah, and and I got to imagine
4:18
that the the players that were firing those off, you know, that
4:22
there's no better, you know, iron sharpens iron type
4:25
scenario, you know, to kind of get one ready for the match.
4:29
Did you see anybody hit one of those particularly hard or like,
4:33
like particularly explosively? Like who?
4:35
Who left an imprint on you? I'm glad you asked because you
4:39
may recall when we covered the NWSL Championship, It's not the
4:45
final, it's the NWSL Championship.
4:46
When we covered that match and I saw Rebecca Bernal practicing
4:50
free kicks, I said when she would hit the back advertising
4:54
boards, it sounded like a fucking shotgun blast.
4:58
Eva Payor has a fucking bazooka for a right leg.
5:03
I cannot tell you there were. There were multiple shots where
5:08
I was just like, Oh my God, she was killing the ball, absolutely
5:15
destroying it. I've seen, I've seen a few
5:19
times, I'm not sure if we've ever talked about the show, but
5:21
I've definitely seen a few times where the camera work is behind
5:25
a pie or a strike on like the money angle.
5:27
And it's just like, well, the ball's not framed and like the
5:30
camera's just like jittering by. So I am not surprised at all by
5:33
that. Dude, I would say her Claudia
5:38
Pina was absolutely ripping shots.
5:41
I did, you know, we joked about it.
5:43
You hit me with the, with the smart blue sky about Moppy and
5:48
you know, her practicing free kicks.
5:50
She was putting her foot all the way through a bunch.
5:54
Betty Ualo from distance on a couple shots was really hitting
5:59
some rockets too. But you know, I I just could not
6:05
believe, and I'm talking about some of these shots that they
6:08
were absolutely blasting at Ghatakoi were between 10 and 15
6:14
yards. Like they weren't just hitting
6:16
them like these were. It didn't feel like a practice,
6:19
man. And after the first, my first
6:22
thought of being like, oh God, did she piss everybody off?
6:25
Why are they doing this to her? But she was up for it, man.
6:28
And it the set. My second thought was you always
6:31
talking about her ability to spring into action after sitting
6:36
back there for 45 minutes. She's probably she, she could be
6:40
sitting on her couch and somebody fire a shot at her and
6:43
she would dive and make the safe.
6:45
Yeah, I believe it. I mean, you know, you just see
6:48
the twitchiness and she's so smart and I guess it makes
6:51
sense, you know, like facing all those shots.
6:54
Not surprised either that Padillo also can generate some
6:58
power, you know, on some of those strikes.
7:00
You shared a great video too, of Rondo drill action from
7:05
Barcelona. Can you talk a little bit about,
7:08
about that? And, you know, just just the,
7:09
the touches and the, I mean it just the grace looked
7:12
unbelievable. I mean it, it was, it looked a
7:15
little bit like the ballet. Breaking news, a real surprise
7:20
for everybody. I Tana bone mati really good at
7:23
the Rondo drill goodness. I mean just the the unbelievable
7:28
intelligence, just like these ridiculous.
7:31
Like I'm trying to think I'm like of like an NBA comp like
7:36
like the old school, like Jason Kidd passes did the very the the
7:40
Super high level Jason Williams white chocolate passes, which is
7:44
like I'm looking over I'm looking over here and then balls
7:47
going over here. Just the to see it too.
7:52
I mean, I'm standing 15 feet away maybe in in some of these
7:57
cases and they do it too it it's kind of cool.
7:59
And maybe they do this in I'm sure they do this in other
8:01
leagues. I I guess I just never paid like
8:03
super close attention. I don't remember it from the
8:05
NWSL Championship, but they would do a Rondo and then just
8:10
move like 20 yards to so they were like on one side of the
8:14
pitch just a little bit like past the halfway line.
8:16
And then they would move about 20 yards and then do a Rondo
8:19
drill there and then move 20 yards and then do a Rondo drill
8:22
there. And I don't know if it's just
8:23
like, hey, let's just stand on different parts of the pitch.
8:25
Let's not just RIP up the grass in this one piece or whatever,
8:28
but their ability to just thread the needle on hard passes like
8:36
in in limited space was just unbelievable to watch.
8:43
How did Bulmati look physically? Could you see any of the effects
8:47
from an injury? What was did?
8:50
Was she held out of anything you know during your hour there?
8:53
Not that I noticed in, in terms of her being held out, she
8:57
looked like a player with maybe the best touch I've ever seen.
9:04
Like, I mean, you know, and I'm not gonna act like I'm some like
9:07
long term historian or whatever, but just very similar.
9:12
I had AI had a great chat when I was going over to pick up my
9:16
media credential. My Uber driver was from Turkey
9:20
or is from Turkey. And we had a long discussion
9:23
about Hokan Sukar, or I think it's Shukar, great Turkish
9:29
player from our youth. He was 44.
9:31
I'm 40. He's right.
9:32
In our age range, we're talking a lot about football.
9:35
And you know what people say about Lionel Messi or I think, I
9:40
think the quote is Diego Maradona played like the
9:46
football was attached to his shoe.
9:48
Lionel Messi plays like the ball is inside of his shoe.
9:52
And I, Tanabo Mati just has just the utmost control of the ball
9:57
at all times. Well, that's I mean, you know,
10:01
it's fun, it's quick NBA non sequitur.
10:05
I think Dylan Harper's got some of that handle too.
10:07
We'll talk about, you know, maybe offline, but that's
10:09
something sneaky. Nobody's talking about talking,
10:11
talking about handle. But back to the business at
10:13
hand. You also got a chance to attend
10:16
the press conference. Here's some of the discussion.
10:20
You know, any, any kind of high level takeaways on well, what
10:23
were the vibes like? What you know, what was, what
10:25
were the conversation points? When you talked about I'm going
10:29
to, I'm going to go back to the NWSL championship because I mean
10:32
that was a super high stakes match that you and I covered
10:35
together. I remember you kind of talking
10:37
about Gotham and being like, they're ice cold, man.
10:41
Like they were just like they, they look you right in the eye
10:43
and they, they were kind of telling you the way they felt
10:47
and the way they were planning to come in and handle business.
10:50
It's how it felt with with Barcelona.
10:52
So it was CGH and Itana. It was not.
10:56
I did that again. I'm going to do that a fucking
10:58
second time. Jesus.
10:59
My apologies, everybody. It was CGH.
11:01
CGH and Alexia Putais in in the press conference.
11:06
Very reserved, very calm, noticeably so in a way that the
11:12
other journalists started to ask them questions as the press
11:16
conference went on. Like you guys are pretty calm.
11:18
Like you, like you guys are like, really?
11:22
You seem very focused and, you know, Alexia talked a bit about
11:30
not getting it done last year, losing to your Gunners.
11:34
And you know, what they've learned from that, how they have
11:37
kind of progressed as a team. I also really liked.
11:41
And I think it's a fair question.
11:43
I'll tell you, Ben, I mean you, you and I, we've obviously lived
11:47
in the, in the USA our our entire lives.
11:50
And the way local journalists cover the NFL when they start,
11:54
like you can tell they're, they're like going at a coach or
11:57
like going at a player. Like why is the team bad?
11:59
Like what's going on? The the Spanish journalists are
12:03
just like, so if you don't win this game, is the season a
12:06
failure? And like, like, like just real
12:11
like it playing in the league you play.
12:14
And if you don't win the Champions League, could you even
12:17
say your season's a success? And I and Alexia was just like,
12:21
there's a lot of things that going through a season, like you
12:24
don't boil it down to like all one match.
12:26
And so I think they feel, I think they feel a little bit of
12:31
the pressure, but I think that they are embracing it and
12:35
saying, yeah, we, I can't remember which NBA player said
12:40
it, but they were essentially kind of going with the with the
12:44
line. They didn't use this exact line,
12:46
but they're going with the thought process that the
12:48
pressure is a privilege of them being as great as they are.
12:52
Yeah, no doubt. And I think you can see that
12:54
from from the journalist point of view, you know how one could
12:57
get there. But yeah, to your point, you
13:00
know, it's tough to you got to keep perspective for sure, but
13:03
huge match up. You also was there a little bit
13:09
of static? You know, I'm reading through
13:11
your notes. Sounds like there was a little
13:13
CGH static. I don't know if I'd call it
13:16
static. I think she beef, definitely not
13:19
beef, nowhere even approaching beef.
13:24
So I asked the question. I I basically said and I use the
13:29
term I said you guys are heavy favorites in this match, despite
13:36
the fact that Lyon has a lot of great players on their team.
13:40
What do you think it is that, what are you preparing for that
13:45
Leon might be able to do that can that can push you in this
13:48
match? And CGH, you know, calmly and
13:51
politely, professionally kind of rejected the entire premise and
13:55
was just like, I don't, I don't think we're favorites.
13:58
Or I, she said I don't think we're heavy favorites.
14:00
She used the exact terminology that I use.
14:02
She said, I don't think we're, we're, we're heavy favorites.
14:05
And in that moment, I was like, you guys are -600 I did not do
14:08
that because I it was an exercise into restraint.
14:12
Is it -600 that's a huge number. It's.
14:14
Fucking gigantic. I'm pretty sure it's -600 I'll,
14:17
I'll, I'll double check as we go.
14:19
But she just, and, and Alexia had no interest in chiming in
14:26
after, after CGH had said it. And she was just like, and, and
14:30
CGH was just, you know, Leon's a great team.
14:33
These are the two best teams in Europe.
14:35
We have to go in and we have to be focused in order to win the
14:37
match. Yeah, makes sense.
14:42
Any other, well, before we get to Lyon, any other Barcelona,
14:47
you know, takeaways either from training and I mean, we don't,
14:50
we don't have to be so strict with not, you know, circling
14:52
back. But before we make the official
14:54
jump, anything stuck in your mind for me to the presser or
14:58
from training? Two items.
15:00
One, I asked a journalist who is a Catalan how to pronounce.
15:07
Got that Koi. You and I have been right this
15:10
entire time. We have heard our guy Chris
15:12
Sharples has been has been right.
15:15
I believe I there are a couple other folks who who have been
15:22
right. And then there's been a whole
15:24
slew of people who've been calling her gatakole.
15:27
And I asked a journalist who is a Catalan and he said, no, it's
15:30
koi, it's gatakoi. And so I just wanted to like,
15:34
like, just let's put that to bed.
15:35
That's how you say your name. It's the double L and that's,
15:39
you know, that's how it works. And yeah, the, the journalist,
15:42
he was nice enough to tell me. He was like, oh, it's kind of
15:43
like a why I was like, I knew it.
15:45
Yeah, that's a double L right there.
15:48
That that's a, you know, quintessential double L.
15:52
Exactly, Cam Pope of court, you already know our guy Cameron
15:57
Pope always got it right. Man's a linguist.
16:02
So aside from that, aside from a very like self involved piece,
16:07
Keegan Nazareth, already one of my favorite footballers in the
16:10
history of the universe. I just she's just such a joy to
16:17
watch. She loves, you know, and and I'm
16:20
saying this, I've seen her play on TVA bunch of times and now
16:22
I've seen one training. She was having so much fucking
16:26
fun out there. Just I mean, you know, we talked
16:28
about the video. We'll we'll make sure we get it
16:30
up, whether it's a YouTube shorter on blue sky, we'll
16:34
figure it out. I'll figure it out.
16:36
I shot the video, but she was, she's just she was just having
16:42
fun just ripping shots. She's she's doing the thing
16:45
where she's balancing the ball on her forehead.
16:48
Just like, you know, he's like doing kick UPS, just having so
16:53
much fun out there ripping shots, you know, doing tricks
16:58
like it. It's a little bit of a bummer to
17:02
see her kind of like buried on the bench.
17:05
So, you know, you just hope that she gets more playing time.
17:09
But I, I will say watching Keegan Nazareth, whether it was
17:12
the Rondo or the free kick drill or the two on one drill, she was
17:16
just out there just bawling and having the best time doing it.
17:22
I love to hear that and I really hope she gets minutes like, you
17:27
know, 30-30, you know, if not to start like a a significant
17:30
chuckleman. So it would be great to see her
17:32
in there. It reminds me, Carolina Graham
17:36
Hansen did show up on the injury report and was listed as
17:40
doubtful. Did you get to see her in
17:42
training and if So, what you look like?
17:46
Hard, hard to say. Looks like she was going pretty
17:50
much full speed. Like she didn't look like she
17:52
was lagging behind her teammates really much at all.
17:59
Good to hear and I think proves our point.
18:01
They were like, OK, you don't, you don't want to over index on
18:03
those. But great to hear that CJH is
18:05
going to be at full strength or yeah, full strength.
18:09
Let's fucking go. All right, let's talk a little,
18:11
Leon, where you want to start? You're at the presser, you're at
18:14
the training. I mean, you're just, you're just
18:15
everywhere out there where I could get to you where you want
18:18
to get started. Here it's a very small area, so
18:20
it was it was easy for me to cover that much ground.
18:26
All right, so I'll tell you, you know, UEFA has done a great job
18:31
really putting this together. A bunch of the the staff were
18:34
super friendly. Like I came in, I was chatting
18:36
with this, this one nice fellow who was just like, he kind of
18:39
looked to me. He was like, where'd you come in
18:41
from? And I was like Seattle, USA.
18:42
And he was like, whoa. And he was like super psyched
18:44
and like welcomed me and gave me a gave me a nice back slap and
18:47
was just like, great to have you here.
18:49
Kind of explained to me where my press box seat was going to be
18:52
and all that and all that good stuff.
18:53
So shout out to my guy there, but they also had, you know,
18:59
they have the translation technology on deck like you, you
19:02
download the app. I had the app downloaded before
19:04
I showed up. They give you all the media, the
19:07
the info to do that. And so as you know, Wendy Renar
19:12
speaking in French, but also speaks Spanish.
19:15
I think, I think CGH speaks English, Spanish, maybe French
19:21
and Norwegian. You just like I and I think I
19:24
Tana or Alexia, that's that's three times I gotta, I gotta
19:28
fucking relax. I don't know what's wrong with
19:29
me right now. CG it's got you rattled.
19:32
I think so just be like, no, we're not the heavy favorites.
19:36
I just feel like you are the I saw the books.
19:38
I saw the Vegas books. Anyway, I think Alexia speaks
19:44
all those languages too. And and I was talking to a
19:46
couple of Spanish journalists who told me Alexi has been
19:49
working on her English the last year plus.
19:51
So let's just keep that. Let's just keep that with her
19:54
contract running out. Let's just keep that in the back
19:55
of our minds for a minute here. We entered a Sunday.
20:00
So So I asked Wendy Renar about their success on set pieces.
20:09
And for a second I was like. She's staring me down and I
20:14
didn't feel great about it, but then I realized I was like, oh
20:17
shit, she's got the earpiece in she's and she's listening to the
20:21
translation. So I was happy about that.
20:23
Like, I don't want any smoke, man, for real.
20:27
And so I had asked about their success on set pieces.
20:30
And so while I'm like gesturing wildly with my hands, let me see
20:34
if, yeah, I'll pull it up right here 'cause so yeah, the, the
20:38
translation app is super cool. Like, so I had it sound off and
20:41
I'm like looking at it as Wendy Renard is answering my question
20:45
that I asked in English and she's answering in French on
20:48
Francais. And I'm, I'm kind of looking at
20:51
it, she says. And so I said, you know, I asked
20:54
why you guys been, you know, what is it about your team that
20:57
makes you so successful on set pieces?
20:59
And she said, quote, and this is from the translation app.
21:03
So maybe it's not a direct quote, but it's it's close.
21:05
She said, quote, strategy, we're working on that.
21:08
It depends on our rivals as well.
21:11
So we've got our strength on all lines.
21:13
We've got a lot of strength and we have instructions and when
21:16
the positions are well complied with and respected, we're able
21:20
to strike. So I think that four years at
21:23
Lyon, this is a great weapon, all the set pieces and
21:26
especially with the variation that the club brought us.
21:30
End Quote. And so she didn't want to give
21:33
away a lot, but you can. She's the team captain.
21:36
And she, you know, centers the answer around if we if we follow
21:40
the plan, if we do what we're supposed to do, we can execute
21:43
it. I thought there was a lot in
21:46
that answer, you know, to be honest, you know, just the the
21:49
the detail, the degree to you know, how they, you know, the
21:53
all the components, you know, and just the consideration
21:56
around it. It's clearly a storyline.
21:59
You know, I think we talked about it on the show too, about,
22:01
you know, that haven't maybe not having to be, but being an area
22:06
of opportunity for sure. I love, I love that she scared
22:12
you as well. I didn't say she scared me, I
22:15
said she was. I thought she was staring me
22:17
down for a second and I was just like, oh wait, wait a minute,
22:19
she's listening to translation. All right, who is?
22:23
Who's Next up? So I I do want to point out, so
22:27
after, you know, I talked to CGH about, you know, bars being
22:30
heavy favorites, another journalist, like I think was
22:34
speaking Catalan, asked Essiano Tenoraldas about, about this.
22:43
And actually I have, I have part of their question here.
22:47
Later on, another journalist had asked Wendy Renar about it.
22:51
And Renar referenced that Barcelona that she knows
22:55
Barcelona is the favorite or at least considered the favorite.
22:59
And so this journalist asked Wendy said that Barca is a
23:02
favorite for winning this final. Do you see things that Sway and
23:07
Yonatan Geraldes replied quote I believe this is an equal final
23:11
because of history. In recent years, Barsa has been
23:14
in the headlines in the finals for sure.
23:16
But I'm sure and I but I'm sure, let's see.
23:26
But I'm sure, and I know that this is, well, no, I took the
23:31
wrong screenshot. Doesn't matter.
23:33
And let's just end the quote there.
23:35
But Geraldes basically said, Nah, I, I don't believe that
23:40
that Barsa is the favorite. So if we're keeping score, I
23:44
asked CGH about being the heavy favorite.
23:47
She said, no, we're not the favorite.
23:48
Then later, Wendy Renard, when asked, says, yeah, Barsa is the
23:51
favorite. And then Geraldus comes back and
23:53
says, Nah, this one's Even. So I guess you win this round
23:57
CGH because it's technically 2 to one.
23:59
But if you gave everybody truth serum, I'm not so sure that
24:02
people wouldn't agree with me. I agree with you pretty much all
24:07
the time. Likewise, but I.
24:09
Love that, that Jonas, just like, yeah, Barcelona, they've
24:13
been great in recent. Years.
24:16
What a shit flex. I love that.
24:20
Oh my God. I mean talk.
24:22
I mean talk about it. That's, you know, you did it, he
24:27
could talk about it and he gets a chance to to to prove a little
24:30
something extra on the field, which I love.
24:33
Any other press conference takeaways?
24:35
I asked Jonathan Geraldes about dealing with Selma Pettyuelo.
24:40
Speed was very proud of myself when I asked him because I was
24:43
thinking about it on the on the train ride over there.
24:47
I said, I said something to the effect of Pediuelo is one of the
24:51
fastest footballers in the world, maybe one of the fastest
24:54
people in the world. I was I was very excited to ask
24:57
the question that way. And even as I asked the
25:00
question, he was like he kind of like hit me with like I had nod
25:04
like, are you asking me just about her?
25:06
And I was like, yeah, yeah, how are you going to, how are you
25:07
going to deal with Betiuelo Speed?
25:11
And he said they have a quote and this quote from the
25:18
translation app. So please, you know what it's
25:20
it's got to be pretty close. Geraldo's replied quote.
25:24
They have amazing players. Honestly, we, we don't have to
25:28
just put the focus on Selma. We have a very clear individual
25:33
profile of all players to know exactly how we have to face it
25:37
defensively, but also offensively.
25:39
We don't have to pay attention only to those defensive things.
25:44
We know that she's that she's a she has a different profile.
25:49
She's a profile who likes to have situations to cross 1V1, to
25:53
threaten and she's very dangerous in the last meters.
25:57
But I think collectively speaking, we don't have to face
25:59
just a small one, just a small one thing.
26:04
I think correctly speaking, we have to do a lot, we have to do
26:07
a lot of good things to avoid that that player shine and the
26:14
best generators are able to do it.
26:16
Sorry, that was a little clunky, everybody.
26:18
And because especially because as I was reading that, I
26:20
realized and remembered Jonah answered my question in English.
26:23
I was just taking snapshots of the translation app.
26:27
So that was pretty much a direct quote because he, because he
26:29
answered me in English, because, you know, Geraldo speaks
26:31
English. I wondered about that because I
26:33
I spoke to him. Before I was thinking we had a.
26:35
Whole we all. Yeah, he speaks English very
26:38
well actually. All right, Leon, in training,
26:43
you know, we talked, we talked a lot about Barsa, some of the
26:45
explosiveness, some of the sharpness.
26:48
How would you juxtapose the two sides?
26:54
Barcelona's, I mean, Barcelona's training looked faster, it
26:57
looked more explosive. It looks more.
27:00
I mean, I'll say it again, man, it looks more angry at times,
27:05
just like they were just punishing the ball.
27:08
Now, Leon, you know, we talk about their their great players.
27:12
They looked maybe a little more controlled out there, controlled
27:17
in the sense of like they weren't just like absolutely
27:19
destroying the ball. But if you want to talk about
27:22
explosiveness. And now you and I have seen her
27:25
sister play up close. But Tabitha Chewinga, buddy,
27:30
that's an athlete goodness. I believe it.
27:36
Everybody, everybody talks, everyone talks about her and
27:40
with good reason. So I mean, I predicted that if
27:44
they're going to score, that's my pick for, for, for cashing in
27:49
in the final. So glad to see that, You know,
27:53
you, you saw some, some electricity from Chewingca.
27:58
Was there anything that you saw from Lyon that that looked
28:03
better than Barcelona or you know, like something that looked
28:07
like a stand out? You're like oh wow, that's
28:10
didn't see that watching Barsa earlier and apologies for
28:14
putting you on the spot. No, that, that's a good, it's a,
28:17
it's a great question, I will say.
28:20
Had questions and you know why you're thinking about it.
28:23
Shout out to you for asking questions that were storylines
28:27
from our preview that were just like we were talking about just
28:30
like, oh, man, yeah, I know. And you know, like buddy Willow,
28:32
you know, they like. And I mean, I'm so happy that
28:34
you followed up and, and got some extra insight there 'cause
28:38
those were the things that were, were obviously most, most
28:40
interesting to us. Oh, yeah, no doubt.
28:43
I mean, obviously I'm like pulling stuff from like your
28:46
brain. That's the benefit.
28:47
I feel like when I go to these press conferences and I, I think
28:50
you do the same where it's just like we're kicking around ideas.
28:53
It's like, well, I don't know, let me, let me ask the pros
28:55
about it. Let me ask a professional
28:56
manager about it. Like let's see, let's see if we,
28:58
if we're on the right track. I'll say.
29:02
And I think Barsa had this too, but there was a moment where
29:07
Lindsay Heaps buried a free kick past Endler.
29:12
And it might not even have been a free kick.
29:13
It might have been when they were kind of doing like a 12
29:15
drill where just somebody just kind of like leaves off a very
29:18
kind of slow rolling pass to the shooter.
29:23
But heaps, and I want to say it might have been like 19 yards
29:26
out. It was right around the edge of
29:28
the box and she just top bins buddy, just as good as you could
29:33
hit a football just top corner. And her teammates went nuts and
29:40
like they were so psyched for like, you know, they they're
29:44
cheering, you know, run around patting around the back.
29:46
And later Vicki Betcho hit an absolute laser in like the in
29:51
the in the low corner. And then she she runs.
29:55
She does the CU Ronaldo celebration and all of her team
30:00
mates at the same time. When she does, when you know,
30:02
when she lands it and goes all her team mates at the same time
30:05
goes like, and so like they, they really appear.
30:13
And I don't, and I don't think this is absent from Barcelona,
30:15
but they, they really appeared to be like rooting for each
30:18
other, like patting each other on the back.
30:21
They were, they, they did 1 drill where they, they were
30:23
doing like these short burst races.
30:26
And I, I want to say it was, it was, it was Chewinga as she's
30:30
walking back, she got done with hers.
30:32
Wouldn't you know, she won her race And, and as she's walking
30:36
back, Johannes raced. I think it was Heaps because
30:40
Johannes and Heaps were like kind of warming up together in
30:42
the beginning. And Chewinga turns around and
30:47
she goes, Lily, did you win? Lily, did you win?
30:49
And like, and it's just like there was a really cool
30:54
camaraderie with their side. Yeah.
30:57
I mean, I could see that. And, you know, we talked about,
31:01
you know, them being a little bit of the comeback kids this
31:03
season, you know, not not to such an exaggerated, you know,
31:07
place, but. Sure.
31:09
We've seen the own, you know, kind of like when they're not
31:12
when they don't have it that day, like not really be able to
31:14
summon a little bit extra. But this season I think it's
31:17
been a little bit different. So not surprised to hear that
31:20
the togetherness is there is is there and you know, the vibes
31:23
are good because that's what you need, you know, to be able to
31:26
kind of pull together, you know, when the roller coaster is
31:29
heading down and you need to kind of figure out, right, where
31:31
do we go from here? Let me see, Leon, how did Lily
31:36
look? Strong, confident, there was
31:41
one, like they're doing the two on one drills.
31:43
So it's basically, you know, you have, you have players lined up
31:47
on each side of the goal. It's relatively short.
31:49
I think the goals are probably, if I had to guess about like 30
31:52
yards apart from each other. And then you have two lines on
31:56
each side and then you have the line of players, you know they
32:00
go 2 on one verse a defender and then the goalkeepers behind,
32:06
they go 2 on one, they try to score and then one of those
32:09
players is is on defense. And then they and then two
32:13
players from the other side go at them.
32:17
And of course I record 1 where Johannes misses the target by
32:23
like 5 yards left. And then I'm like, I'm like,
32:26
fuck it with my phone. I'm like like doing stuff to try
32:29
and get ready. And then I look up and Johannes
32:31
goes again and she just rifles a shot past handler.
32:34
And I was just like God, Jesus Christ.
32:36
And so like I, I didn't capture that on video, but a couple
32:42
different journalists. I think there was, not
32:45
surprisingly, there was a Dutch journalist who asked
32:47
specifically about Lily Ohannes growth and Hegerberg and Renar
32:51
just heaped praise on her for like her maturity and her growth
32:57
and what she's been able to do. They talked a little bit about
33:00
what they saw when she played for IX and yeah, I mean, she
33:04
looked strong out there was was ripping a lot of good shots.
33:10
Seems like she's pretty good friends with chewing gum.
33:12
You know, when we talked to her, she talked kind of talked about,
33:14
you know, her as a, as a practice player.
33:18
Obviously she was training with heaps quite a bit.
33:22
And so, you know, she seems to be, you know, ingrained in the
33:28
culture in a way to it, You know, and this is me.
33:31
We're going to do the journalist thing where we kind of watch
33:34
some stuff and and try to make some broad conclusions.
33:38
It seems like people kind of it seems like the rest of the team
33:41
are kind of looking at her like keep it going, young kid, like
33:45
let's go. We're going to, we're going to
33:46
build you up because we know you're you should be a
33:48
cornerstone of this club. Love to hear that.
33:53
I'll tell you what though, if I'm a Lyon fan, what I don't
33:55
love to hear how many times you saw balls rifling pass Endler,
34:00
because I I think that might be the second or third time you
34:03
recount the story. I'll tell you though.
34:04
That was the case. And then, you know, coming off
34:06
the, the category, you know, footage and, and, and, you know,
34:10
those stories, I don't know, maybe maybe we were on to
34:13
something. It could be Endler made some
34:16
great saves too. I don't.
34:17
I don't want to discount that, but yeah, man, I mean, they were
34:22
just there were there were a couple kind of like Koi moments
34:25
where like she she like came out off her line a couple times and
34:31
like the Barsa players were just like leaping over her because
34:33
she's just out there like a freight train to just get it.
34:36
And I was just like, goodness, so cool.
34:38
This team trains hard dude. I love that.
34:42
All right, I got one last question and then, you know,
34:45
I'll clear out if you got any, any final things.
34:47
But you know, your boy is the purveyor, the creator, the
34:53
genesis of the term boshable. Did you get a chance to see any
35:00
boshable? Several she is and I'll tell you
35:06
man, like you see it on TV, we we've referenced it.
35:09
She is, and I don't mean this pejoratively.
35:12
She is a diminutive player compared to a lot of players.
35:16
I'm I'm not sure her exact height.
35:17
She's probably around 5 four if I had to guess.
35:20
Maybe 5-3 even. Oh, I would have thought, I
35:22
would have thought I would have said five.
35:24
I mean I'm I'm not sure but I would have I would have taken
35:26
the under on 5/4. Yeah, I you're probably right.
35:31
For a player like you think about, I mean you think about
35:36
any, any kind of undersized athlete, Fat Mob has her at 5
35:40
foot 3. You think about any under?
35:43
Cashes. The under cashes I'll have to
35:47
let, I'll have to ask CGH about the odds on that.
35:50
The for any undersized athlete, you have to be super good.
35:57
Like, you know, you like, I mean, Lionel Messi the greatest.
36:01
Yeah. You know, Yeah.
36:02
She's 25. You know, Lionel Messi, he's the
36:06
greatest player who ever lived. He's he's small.
36:10
You think about like we, we talk about Craig Bethune, you think
36:13
about like Phil Foden, like you see, you see these like young
36:16
players. I know Phil Foden didn't make
36:18
the World Cup roster. We'll talk, we'll talk about
36:20
that offline. But like she Basha is so God
36:26
damn good because she has to be that good because she doesn't
36:29
have any size advantage whatsoever.
36:32
She not only can hammer the ball, but yes, as you might
36:37
imagine in training when you think about those passes that
36:40
she's able to hit in high level competition, yeah, buddy, she
36:44
can hit those passes in training too.
36:46
Can you talk about the flight of the ball like because on TV, you
36:51
know, like, you know, you'll I'll see long passes that look
36:55
like, you know, bloopers into left, center, right, but her
37:01
shots look like drives off the tee.
37:04
Sometimes, you know, they could they kind of rise and they look
37:06
like late. They have a just a different
37:08
trajectory. Is that am I being silly about
37:11
this or could you see anything from that perspective where the
37:15
geometry of what she was doing is just different?
37:18
You're not being even a little bit silly.
37:20
They're they're ropes, to use a baseball term like she's just
37:24
hitting him on. Like you think about one of my
37:26
favorite ball players of all time, Ichiro Suzuki, throwing
37:29
somebody out from right field like she's just, and they're,
37:35
and they're just stupid accurate, just unbelievable.
37:40
And, and, and I'll tell you, she's a she's clearly a super
37:44
well liked player too. And you know, you get that from
37:47
some of those players, like, you know, Wendy Renar and Lindsay
37:51
Heaps, Tarsiane Damaris, I'd say Damaris impressed the the hell
37:57
out of me on the training field too.
37:58
I mean she is a just a baller but got a starter.
38:02
There you go. Come on, Tona.
38:04
Those bigger players, they, they surely know like, hey yo, this
38:10
is a, this is an unbelievable player because I got 6 inches on
38:14
her and she's still cooking out there.
38:17
Yeah, and you know, I'm really excited to see your recounting
38:22
post game of what she's able to do physically.
38:25
Yeah, because on the screen too, she's no pushover, you know, at
38:28
that position, you know, she doesn't get steamrolled.
38:30
She's she's up for it, you know, and obviously she's she's got
38:34
our limitations, but not a player that, you know, isn't it
38:39
Will will back down in situation.
38:41
So I'm excited to see what that looks like on the pitch.
38:44
Any other finally on thoughts? I think one just kind of like
38:49
little quirky funny thing toward the end of toward the end of the
38:55
hour long practice or training, Wendy, Renar and Damaris were
39:03
were standing like about 40 yards away.
39:07
And then we're standing about 40 yards from Endler and Elise
39:11
Sombath and Sombath and Renar are mostly practicing their long
39:18
passes. And a lot of it was Renar
39:21
practicing long passes through the air and Sombath passing,
39:26
practicing long passes that were much lower to the ground.
39:30
And there was just a funny moment.
39:32
And I think about this and again, to not compare in any way
39:36
whatsoever but the cruddy high school football that I played.
39:40
But there was a pass that Renar hit that was an absolute laser.
39:45
And sombath chest, sit down. Chest sit down and returns the
39:50
pass on the ground to to renar and after she chests it down,
39:55
she just goes and like kind of like exaggerates it a little
40:01
bit, but when she thuds it all when she chests it down, I was
40:05
just like, yo, that hurt. I know that hurt.
40:10
I mean, hey. Oh my God, yeah.
40:11
That hurt me just hearing that story.
40:15
How did I mean? So that's a little bit
40:18
encouraging. I'm always kind of rooting for
40:20
my takes, you know, a little look behind the curtains, you
40:22
know, you know, whatever boys got a little little tiny,
40:25
minuscule ego. You know that that that I like
40:27
to see my takes, you know, come to life.
40:31
But seeing those players, Well, when we talked about sunbath,
40:33
you know, maybe as an option there, but you know, practicing
40:37
those long passes, you know, if it is chewing Gah and EULA bran,
40:41
you know, up, up top and you know, like that, that would make
40:43
some sense in terms of like some kind of approach.
40:46
I have one last slightly unprofessional request of you.
40:52
If possible, let's say let me paint a picture here.
40:57
Please. Post game, the final you you go
41:01
to fat mob you you sort touches you know by you know from you
41:06
know most the least and Bosch is up near the top of that list and
41:11
she has a good game. Maybe she gets an assist I.
41:14
Guess. Can you invoke the phrase
41:17
boshable into a question to either Salma herself, which
41:22
would be incredible, or, you know, don't herald this, I mean.
41:28
This, this is the lock of the century.
41:30
I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm ashamed that I didn't think of this
41:34
before. Buddy, of course you have my
41:37
goddamn guarantee. Whereas I I think in in some
41:41
cases I've used this professionally.
41:44
Luckily people still work with me, but sometimes I like to call
41:47
it the grand angle. Garen goddamn tea that
41:50
something's going to happen. So yes, I will throw out the
41:53
grand angle. Garin goddamn T especially if
41:56
she has a lot of touches or if she hits a pass.
41:58
We're we're taking Bosh a ball mainstream Bubba.
42:02
Let's go. Yeah.
42:03
I mean, we might. T-shirts might be in line.
42:05
We'll see all the proceeds going to a good cost for sure, I'm
42:08
sure. But, you know, I I know the.
42:13
I know that's the best cause, to be honest.
42:17
I know the intent is there, you know, but it is a final, you
42:20
know, So if it doesn't, if you don't get the opportunity or,
42:23
you know, the stars don't unwind, you know, shout out to
42:25
our guy Sharples. I'm not going to hold it against
42:28
you, but I didn't want to. I did just want to, you know,
42:31
give you a little nudge to kind of get you in the right
42:33
direction. All right, anything else you
42:36
want to hit? Before we get out here, I think
42:37
last thing, yes and yes, if if it is written in the stars to
42:41
quote our guy, then I mean, it's 100% happening.
42:44
I will not allow it to not happen.
42:48
Two players who haven't got a ton of run.
42:50
And I know we talked about Vicki Betcho, you know, getting a lot
42:53
of run in league play, not so much in Champions League play,
42:58
obviously not to the level of Eitanabone Matisse, one of the
43:01
greatest players who ever lived, Vicki Betcho and a Rondo.
43:04
If you're playing defense against Vicki Betcho and a
43:06
Rondo, you're in for a bad time. She is so God damn clever, so
43:11
calm. And what stuck out to me about
43:14
Betcho and Tarsiani, they are. And I, I do not mean this as a
43:21
slight in any way because they play for Lyon and we know they
43:24
can do good things because we saw Tarsiani play at at Houston.
43:27
They're awesome training players, man.
43:30
Like I there there is a reason why they get signed for a big
43:34
club like this, like on the 2 on one drills.
43:39
You know, I, I will rewind a little bit.
43:42
There was a Barcelona two on one where it was Alexia and
43:48
Shurtenleib who come out on the two on one and I couldn't even
43:52
contend. I just laugh.
43:52
I just started laughing. I was just like, OK, yeah, who
43:56
are you going to put back there? Who's going to do anything
43:59
against that? And so I think one of the only
44:03
two on ones that I saw that were not successful, not because of a
44:08
of a shot that either hit the post or was not on goal, was
44:11
Tarsiane just being too big and too fast and just striking the
44:17
ball away and just tackling somebody, Not a slight tackle,
44:20
just tackling it away. And I I came away Betcho and
44:24
Tarsiane incredible on the training pitch.
44:27
And you know, it should be unsurprising, but I got to see
44:29
it with my own two eyes, so figured I'd say it.
44:33
That's so cool and I think, you know, Tarsiane, her skills are
44:37
tantalizing, you know, and she's still you know, she's so she's
44:41
so mature physically and forget that she's still a young player,
44:44
you know, and like, you know, makes young player, you know,
44:47
missteps. But when she shines, it's like,
44:51
damn, that's like that's like pretty much the highest.
44:54
Is that the highest level that we we could get to?
44:57
So that was that's super cool to hear.
44:59
All right, man, I think we did it.
45:01
We did. This has been another episode of
45:04
it to the channel. Thank you.
45:05
Thank you for watching, listening, hanging out.
45:07
If you enjoyed the show, leave us a review or like, comment,
45:10
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of official into the channel merch links.
45:26
All the above and much, much more in the description of this
45:29
episode. And a big think in my clothes as
45:31
well. Mr. Grant angle for I mean, I
45:35
don't know what, what what can't this guy do?
45:37
What won't this guy do? I mean our MVP, our 2026 MVP,
45:41
our 2026 player of the tournament for sure.
45:44
I appreciate you bro. Likewise, buddy couldn't do
45:47
without you always, you know, kick kicking knowledge like you
45:50
like we said, or like I said earlier, like I'm coming into
45:54
this boosted by your knowledge and your good takes.
46:00
So you know, I appreciate you. Thank you to everybody who's
46:02
been checking out the show. I'm going to make sure that when
46:05
I post this, I let people know if you're a football nerd like
46:08
us and you want to know like what does the training look
46:11
like? Well, what's going on?
46:13
Hopefully you enjoy the show, so please spread the word.
46:15
When I was talking to my Uber driver, he was, you know, we're
46:18
talking men's football, but he was just like, so you cover
46:21
women's football. I was like, bro, watch, watch
46:24
the games, go to a game. Like I was like, dude, here in
46:27
Norway, you have great teams and a great footballing culture.
46:31
Let's spread the word. Let's continue to grow this
46:33
amazing sport. I know Dino and I don't do this
46:35
a lot because I feel like a lot of women's football journalism,
46:38
it, it feels more like advocacy than like talking about the
46:41
games, but also the advocacy is important.
46:44
It's like a big dance that we're that we're all trying to do.
46:47
But I mean, seriously, like this has been an eye opening
46:51
experience. Just kind of watching it the way
46:54
everything's handled over in Europe.
46:56
I couldn't do it without any of you guys.
46:58
So thank you for always dropping knowledge, helping inform our
47:00
questions that we ask the players and the managers.
47:03
We appreciate you. Thank you for watching and we
47:06
will see you now this time for sure after the final.
47:10
Look at our, look at our guys celebrating life.
47:12
I love it. See you then.