Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / USWNT and Germany win big + more

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USWNT and Germany win big + more · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
0:09
football. Before we hit the pitch.
0:10
If you enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your
0:13
boys do, come kick it with us already.
0:15
Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
0:18
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over at your
0:20
favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
0:23
the show notes of this episode. I am your host Dino de Suspitas.
0:26
And as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
0:31
What is up man? Oh buddy, I'm feeling extra
0:34
fantastic today. What a glorious day of football
0:37
we had. And that obviously calls for one
0:39
very important thing. We'll just get a crack in here.
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Oh, he's got one himself. Nice.
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You know, time of year only comes around I guess every four
0:51
years I. Think that's how it goes?
0:53
Yeah, I believe that's how it works.
0:55
Cheers. Cheers to you my Goodman.
0:57
I think it's more than worth it today.
0:58
I think we had some pretty incredible football today.
1:01
I think we earned it today. We didn't log that many
1:03
kilometers, no shots on target for your boys, didn't get off
1:06
the bench. But we put in work today, I'll
1:08
say that. I hear you.
1:10
Obviously anybody who's watched a show.
1:12
I'm live from an undisclosed location this evening, but you
1:16
know what? I got it done.
1:17
I dug deep. You know, I'll say I don't mind
1:20
saying it myself. I thought it was a relatively
1:21
heroic performance for me to consume all that football on a
1:24
travel day. So I'm proud of myself.
1:27
You know, big podcasters record big shows on big days.
1:32
What could we say? That's right.
1:34
Yeah. What a hero.
1:38
All right man, where do you want to get started?
1:39
I think the United States of America played a football match
1:42
today. And that's right.
1:44
You know, I always say on this podcast, you're the numbers guy,
1:47
but judging from the numbers of people who consume this podcast,
1:51
probably interested in US talking about the US women's
1:53
national team versus Zambia. So I I'd suggest we start there.
1:56
I like it and I'm also interested in talking US women's
1:59
national team today. I think there was a lot to talk
2:02
about. Let's start from the very, very
2:03
top, the lineups so obviously done in for nice longer Lavelle
2:09
to 10 to kind of start things off.
2:11
Anything that you noticed or stuck out to you?
2:13
I mean, I think you hit the the two big ones right off top.
2:17
I mean done in for nice longer. I thought that was a really
2:21
interesting look. I'm, I'm still kind of trying to
2:23
put my finger on why. I'm curious if you have a theory
2:28
on it. And then Rose Lavelle at the 10,
2:31
I think, and not in a bad way. I think Emma Hayes kind of
2:33
telegraphed that. I think she figured that Lavelle
2:36
at the 10 was the best solution going in.
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So I wasn't usually surprised about it, but it was good to see
2:41
it confirmed. Yeah, So no nice swarm in this
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one until later in the match, you know, done grabs that spot.
2:46
We know that she's been dealing with the the old Kawhi Leonard
2:49
load management situation. A lot of parallels between those
2:52
two players, of course. And then we also learned before
2:55
the match, Jaden Shaw dropped for Corey Bethune, also injury
2:59
reasons, as far as we know. And I think you mentioned
3:02
Lavelle in the number 10 spot. I'll tell you what, I think as
3:06
the game played out, we could just kind of start here.
3:08
Yeah, I thought Lindsay Oran, you know, also continued her
3:11
impact from the Costa Rica match.
3:13
Just I think playing a little bit more forward.
3:15
I think she's been shining these last two matches.
3:18
Yeah, that's a great point about Lindsay Oran playing more
3:21
forward. And I think Zambia played right
3:23
into Emma Hayes's hands with kind of their alignment.
3:26
And they're like attempt to like really push their forwards,
3:31
especially Banda, push her up way high and creating just a ton
3:34
of space in the middle and then giving her in a little more time
3:37
to operate and a little more time to operate up forward.
3:40
And then you had the Zambian defense who was kind of spread
3:44
out and that was a nightmare for them.
3:46
So I think Zambia's coach, who obviously has a lot of issues
3:51
right now, I don't think he put him in a position to succeed and
3:55
I think it it allowed her and to really flourish.
3:58
Absolutely. I think, I think it's a great
4:00
point about the traps that this U.S.
4:03
National team and Emma has set for Zambia.
4:05
It was basically like, Oh yeah, bring it forward.
4:08
I think you, you know, you got it.
4:09
You're a rhythm like, and I think all we did was just kind
4:12
of kick it over to the top or run around them.
4:14
I think it was great to see Smith, Swanson, Rodman just
4:18
sprinting forward, You know, so often just like, OK, this dam's
4:22
going to break pretty quickly here.
4:24
I think that was the feeling at the beginning of this match.
4:27
Yeah, and it didn't take very long for USA to look kind of
4:30
threatening and for those traps to kind of start working.
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Crystal Dunn had a great moment right around the 15th minute
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where she's on the ball on the left hand side, if I remember
4:39
correctly. And you could tell that the
4:41
Zambian defender is like, OK, I'm going to press and Dunn's
4:44
going to go backwards. And Dunn just turns toward goal,
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completely fools the defender, sets up a Swanson header that I
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think hit the crossbar. And then Lindsay Aran had a go
4:54
and it got blocked in the 15th minute.
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And from right there, you were just like, oh, boy, if the
4:59
Zambian defense is going to look that stretched this early, could
5:03
be a long day for him. And it was.
5:05
Yep, 100%. I think a couple minutes after
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that, Trinity Rodman, she gets the US on the scoreboard.
5:11
It's so good to see Rodman, who's such a fast twitch player.
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That's her strength. So you never really want her to
5:17
kind of shy away from that. But just the control that she
5:19
showed, the processing power to be like, OK, I'm just gonna
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like, flick this little kind of reverse pivot, give myself
5:25
space, give myself a little time, and then turns it into
5:28
like the easiest of finishes. For sure, and you know, when we
5:31
talked to Brady O'Toole of busy watching women's soccer, a
5:35
YouTube show that you should immediately subscribe to, she
5:37
talked about like maybe things could get a little hairy or they
5:40
could kind of start to put a little pressure on themselves if
5:44
Zambia makes it out of like the 1st 20, the 1st 25 minutes like
5:48
and it's still nil nil. And you talked about it too.
5:50
Maybe the USA kind of starts like trying to force the issue
5:54
and in moments where it's not there.
5:55
So for Rodman to get that goal in the 17th, I also want to
5:58
point out that kind of the that led to that.
6:01
I think there was a high turnover by Zambia that led to
6:04
the throw in that then led to the sequence of that goal.
6:07
So it was just like all the stuff that if you are a Copper
6:10
Queen supporter that you didn't want to see, all kind of started
6:13
to happen in that moment, and then that snowball started
6:17
rolling downhill. Yeah, definitely got worse from
6:19
there. That kind of kicked off, I don't
6:21
know, a nightmarish 15 minutes for our copper Queens.
6:25
So obviously one nil US and then we get the Mallory Swanson
6:29
minutes. What'd you see from from Mel?
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It just felt like easy passes, like it, like that interplay
6:35
that we have talked about between Sophie Smith and Mallory
6:38
Swanson. It seems like that just leads
6:41
two awesome things happening. I do want to point out and you
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know, we we try not to like really pile on players when they
6:48
don't play well because you know, that's what happens in the
6:50
game. You play long enough, you play
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any stretch, you're going to have bad games.
6:54
I know it's a it's a common saying over in in England and
6:57
maybe across Europe, but I always associate it with Gary
7:00
Lineker because he always said it.
7:01
But Zambia's goalkeeper, Musol, she was having a shocker out
7:05
there that was not going. She was not in the right spot.
7:09
A lot of these times she was was kind of all over the place.
7:12
She was out of position. She looked a little confused.
7:15
That was not going great for her.
7:17
And then when you have that combined with Smith and Swanson
7:21
and like you pointed out, Haran and then Crystal Dunn is out
7:23
there being way smarter than everybody, you're going to get
7:26
cooked. And I like you describing them
7:28
as the Mal Swanson minutes. That's exactly what started to
7:31
happen. And she just does the thing, and
7:33
I know we've said it before, she just turns into an offense in
7:36
and of herself. Yeah, totally agree.
7:39
And I jotted in my notes that in a tight space, pace at pace, I
7:42
think she's like the best in the world.
7:45
Like inside the 18, like she can just go full speed.
7:48
Her control's awesome. She's very creative.
7:51
She just was like, OK, you're going to take this away.
7:53
I'll just, I'll take the other thing.
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And it's all the same to me. The ball's going to go in the
7:57
back of the net. So I think just when they're
7:59
flying up there, I don't know her control just like her
8:02
composure too. She's just so cool.
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Like you rarely see her totally whiff on something.
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It's usually either back of the net or really really just right
8:13
outside the frame. No, that's a great way to put
8:15
it. Just unbelievable skill and just
8:17
a A level of consistency that I think the US women's national
8:21
team sorely, sorely missed in the 23 World Cup.
8:25
I think that's a complete tournament changer, which
8:28
probably, you know what, on the spiciness level, not very spicy.
8:31
If you're missing Mel Swanson, it's a devastating blow to your
8:33
squad. So I won't pat myself on the
8:35
back for that one. So we get we get the two goals
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in the span of what felt like two minutes.
8:41
Felt like 30 seconds. It really did.
8:44
Like, yeah, it was back-to-back. But then we get the red card and
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so USA's up three nil and now Zambia's down a player.
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The play happens, they call a free kick, the yellow card is
8:55
issued. Then our arch nemesis VAR rears
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its ugly head. What did you think about the
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call itself? I thought it was harsh, to be
9:05
honest. I mean, it's an opportunity,
9:07
sure, but they're kind of scrapping for the ball.
9:10
You see, you see that foul quite often and you almost feel like
9:13
if that's three or four yards back the other way, you they're
9:17
they're outside the box anyway. Like the 18 yard box exists for
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a reason. Yep.
9:21
The 18 yard box exists to tell you anything that happens,
9:24
anything nefarious in here deserves a penalty, right?
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So we have that box for a reason, so to say.
9:29
OK, yeah, it's a couple yards outside the box.
9:31
And that that also, you know, be one of our harshest penalties
9:35
that we can kind of hand down. I didn't really like it at all.
9:38
Our guy Calvin Chikenge came on and told us about the excitement
9:41
around this player, specifically 19 year old Pauline Zulu.
9:45
And she's obviously like in tears and, and, and also coming
9:48
off, you know, giving up a string of goals and like just
9:51
kind of having this game kind of dissolve right in front of your
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eyes. And now you're you're red carded
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a young player like that. Hope that she can get back into
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this tournament and kind of like get that taste out of her mouth.
10:02
For sure. Yeah, you hate.
10:03
You hate to see that. I will say a real quick detour
10:06
here. We're going to talk about the
10:08
show in the show when we've been doing these interviews, these
10:11
previews, you and I have turned into, you know, Walter Cronkite
10:16
and Dan Rather here. We we've cut down the profanity.
10:20
I can't remember the last show we did together.
10:22
I feel like we we've also, I think we've just been cursing
10:25
less on the program. I don't know if that is just a
10:28
force of habit from the other interviews.
10:30
So I'm going to edit my notes here.
10:32
I bleeping hate var so much. Absolutely bleeping embarrassing
10:36
call. Everyone involved in that should
10:39
be bleeping ashamed of themselves.
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So in the moment, you know me in my notes, in the moment I was I
10:46
felt pretty cruddy about it. But I think you're right.
10:48
I think the right level and you always help me with this.
10:51
The right level is to say I think it was harsh.
10:54
It was a little too harsh. I think you're right.
10:57
They're clearly outside the 18, which was really frustrating me
11:00
on the broadcast when they're like they're checking to see if
11:02
she's in the 18 for the foul, I go, she's not it's not even
11:07
close. That's not even kind of close.
11:10
And then when they're like, oh, but it they're checking for a
11:12
dog, so and I was like, oh Lord, OK, And I and I think you're
11:16
right. I don't even know how prescribed
11:18
it is, but the fact that Smith is a little out on the wing too,
11:23
kind of makes me feel like it's less of a dog.
11:25
So and then I have I'll just use the words from my notes here
11:30
referring to Var. Just abolish this shit.
11:33
This is what I what I typed in my notes so I think you're
11:36
right. I think harsh is the right way
11:37
to label it. Of course from my notes I make
11:39
it sound like it's a crime against humanity at first, but I
11:42
I didn't love it. The commentating this
11:45
tournament, I'm not going to say anything negative about it, but
11:48
all I will say is you and I and probably a lot of other people
11:51
might have gotten accustomed to a different, different type of
11:55
commentating. You know, kind of like watching
11:56
NWSLWSL, Champions League, etcetera.
11:59
A little bit shaky. One thing that kind of bugged me
12:01
out all day was, you know, obviously we'll talk about
12:04
Germany, Australia that went three nil.
12:06
This one was also three nil. And the announcers are just
12:08
like, well, you know, this one's just about a wrap.
12:11
And I'm like, this is a group stage with three matches where
12:14
goal differential is crucially important as a third place team,
12:18
you could get through, you could not get through.
12:21
Like this is like really vital, right?
12:24
And like, like, like nobody's like really addressing this on
12:27
the, on the telecasts, multiple telecasts driving me freaking
12:30
crazy. And then I think in Group B
12:32
specifically, you have Germany and the USA, three points, +3.
12:37
You have Australia and Zambia, no points -3 each of them.
12:41
Yeah. So shout out to Zambia because
12:44
to go down to 10 to lose center back, you're already down three
12:48
nil. The blood is just is like
12:50
gushing at this point. It's you're, you're, you're in
12:52
really big trouble just thinking about this match specifically.
12:55
And Julie Foudy also, I cut it freaked me out in the beginning
12:58
because she was like, you know, when John champion asked her
13:01
about the her expectation, She's like, well, you know, you'd like
13:03
to see the, the USA get 3 points and hopefully, you know, be able
13:06
to hang 3-4 or five goals on this team.
13:08
And I was kind of like, whoa, whoa, that's all right.
13:10
Let's let's kind of like chill a little bit.
13:11
But she was on it. They got to three, but then
13:14
Zambia kind of like packed it in and and kind of held it there.
13:18
Yeah, despite being down a player.
13:19
I thought that was a pretty like noble effort from them, you
13:23
know, just to be able to kind of like lock that down because
13:26
obviously they're still alive. They're going to face this
13:29
Australia side, they're going to face this Germany side that
13:31
they're definitely not going to be afraid of.
13:32
I don't think either of these teams, they had some moments in
13:35
this match, but I don't know something that they can I think
13:38
be pretty proud of. Yeah, totally.
13:40
I mean, when they go down to 10 and they've just given up two
13:44
goals in the blink of an eye and they're down three nil, I had
13:47
the thought this could end up being a touchdown game.
13:51
Like you could lose this game six or seven to nothing.
13:53
But yeah, you're you're totally right.
13:55
I think they should be proud of that.
13:56
And I think we would be remiss if you recall the aforementioned
14:01
Brady O'Toole when she came on this very program and Dino
14:05
Desespatus put her on the spot and said I need a prediction
14:08
from you in the Zambia match, Brady said three nil USA, come
14:14
on, let's go. That's our guest.
14:16
That's our guest list. Unbelievable.
14:18
I mean, what a prediction that that one that one's going
14:22
actually let me ITC Yeah, books in the regedy 3 nil nailed it.
14:28
I got to tell you, Brady O'Toole building a Hall of Fame resume
14:31
in the in in the potential ITC Hall of Fame.
14:34
I don't want no spoilers. She's building a resume.
14:37
I like it. I mean that it's a pretty
14:39
stacked field though, you know, in terms of the commentating
14:42
talent that have joins us on the show.
14:44
So let's see, you know, we've got this calendar year, we've
14:48
got eight spots left in the ACTC Hall of Fame to fill.
14:51
But I like the idea of like putting some some on air talent
14:55
on there, not just players. I mean, let's this is a whole
14:57
global community that we're building.
14:58
Let's go got to last thing on Zambia.
15:00
I think they lost their Olympics opener in 2020. 2:50 So.
15:08
That was the. 10 three-game, so I think a three nil kind of hang
15:11
in there red card against this USA team that looked good.
15:15
Got to be pretty encouraging. My favorite thing about that 10
15:17
three victory for the Netherlands over Zambia?
15:20
Barbara Banda hat trick. Not quite enough.
15:24
Not quite enough, but she got the hat trick.
15:27
She could have two more hat tricks that are still would have
15:29
been enough unfortunately. It would have been a big game.
15:34
I want to switch gears here to talk about Germany, obviously
15:37
USA, Germany that's coming up this weekend.
15:40
This German side kind of put it on Australia.
15:42
I'm going to give myself a little mini pat on the back.
15:44
I had Australia, you know, ranked 4th in this group.
15:47
Australia was probably the team out of this first day's matches
15:51
that I had the clearest read on. I will say a lot of the other
15:54
matches, I think there were surprises pretty much all across
15:56
the board. Yeah, I think that's fair, man.
15:58
You were all over this. You had some Australia
16:00
skepticism. I don't know something about the
16:02
Tilly's. I I thought that they might be
16:04
able to have a stronger showing here.
16:06
Like you said, we have two more matches.
16:08
I think I might have just been way too high on the Tilly's.
16:10
But I think you're right about Germany kind of collecting
16:13
themselves because they looked good.
16:14
So I want to quote friend of the program, Russ Hammond at Russ
16:18
Hammond 7 on Twitter. Here's what Russ tweeted at us.
16:21
Germany gave the strongest first impression.
16:23
USA showed a good next step. Spain is still the favorite.
16:27
Fingers crossed for Sophie Smith.
16:29
So if we're going to talk about Germany and the USA before we
16:34
talk about Germany, Australia, I think we got to talk about what
16:36
I think it was like the 42nd minute or somewhere shortly
16:39
before halftime, Sophie Smith goes down with an apparent ankle
16:42
injury. I don't like the sound of that.
16:45
It didn't look too serious in the moment, I'll say.
16:47
But one thing that I think was scary was usually see those like
16:51
4243 minute injuries just get rolled over into halftime.
16:55
You can kind of go and get treatment, make a decision.
16:58
But it does seem like the rosters, the substitutions, all
17:02
of that is like very kind of delicate.
17:04
I think one thing about Emma he is that I was pretty pumped
17:07
about was these Subs were coming kind of early and off and I was
17:10
like, all right, here we go. 42 Corbin Albert at halftime in the
17:14
60s. Another three players are coming
17:15
on. I I liked the sort of like
17:18
aggressive forward use of the Subs yeah, to make sure that,
17:22
you know, these miniature are actually being managed.
17:24
So I think we can hope that pulling Smith was just
17:27
precautionary. I sure hope so.
17:29
I mean, I'll be, you know, glued to all the news Breakers on
17:33
Wolso Twitter to make sure that they get the first thing that
17:37
comes out. She's just such I mean, you know
17:39
what? What more can you say about
17:40
multiple time MVP, multiple time NWSL Golden Boot winner as just
17:45
a massive piece to the team's success?
17:48
You just have to hope it it works out well, because the way
17:51
Germany looked, you're going to need all the help you can get
17:54
against them. 100% yeah. So switching back to Germany,
17:56
Germany, we were pretty crushed. I'm sure our guy Peter Vice was
18:00
was crushed when we all heard about the Lena Oberdorf injury.
18:04
I believe he referred to her as both their Talisman and their
18:08
wunderkind. So go back and list that episode
18:10
that was loaded with a great German quirks and and
18:13
pronunciation was just 100 out of 100.
18:15
So if you're into that sort of thing, it's a great video to
18:18
kind of go back to. But Germany, they looked
18:21
impressive, and I think they looked explosive.
18:24
I think defensively they looked organized.
18:26
They had total control of the game.
18:27
And the longer the game went, the more organized they looked
18:30
and the more scrambly and disorganized Australia looked.
18:33
And they just looked like they were getting further and further
18:36
away from being able to claw their way into that match.
18:38
Yeah, I mean, pardon the expression, but that was that
18:41
was an ass kicking. Germany looked like the superior
18:44
team pretty much from near the beginning of the match.
18:47
You know, I don't want to separate my shoulder patting
18:50
myself on the back. But you know, we we like to do
18:52
that a little bit on their show set pieces in our preview, I had
18:56
said, you know, set pieces and not giving up high turnovers and
18:59
having an organized defense that those would be key to Germany
19:03
living up to some some level of expectations in this tournament.
19:06
They did the hell out of both of those things today.
19:09
Obviously, two set piece goals. Jewel brand was an absolute
19:14
nightmare for for Australia's defense so good even way before
19:19
she scored like she was she was dicing them up even before that.
19:24
And then she ends up getting her goal.
19:25
That's that's like one of the beautiful things about football
19:28
that you will see a player have a great match and they just
19:30
don't have the finishing touch early and then they get that one
19:34
and you're like, Yep, that was deserved.
19:35
Like it's almost like that should count for 1.5 in the
19:39
record book. But luckily we haven't into the
19:41
channel record book. So I I say one .5 goals for
19:44
Jewel brand today. I like it.
19:47
I I appreciate you keeping that record, by the way.
19:49
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
19:50
I wrote it right there, right next to brand.
19:51
I love the brand goal that you made.
19:53
I'm glad you brought it up just because it was an awesome bit of
19:57
decision making from Leo Schuler.
19:59
So she's running the break. She's got brand wide open to her
20:03
right and then like Sarai Linder to her left is.
20:07
You know, in a little bit more traffic, but rather than kind of
20:09
go to Brand early and kind of like have the chance sort sort
20:13
of fizzle, she's like, I'm going to go to Linder, who I know is
20:15
going to kick it past me to Brand and it just made it that
20:18
much easier. And then gets the tap in.
20:21
It's just like, damn, like that's how you play football
20:23
right there. Yeah, totally absolute beautiful
20:26
football, which was kind of strewn throughout this match for
20:29
Germany. One thing that kind of surprised
20:31
me after watching it, I go to ESPN to to check the stats.
20:36
They calculated possession at about 5050.
20:39
And I got to tell you it did not feel like that watching that
20:43
match. Germany had seventeen shot
20:46
attempts to Australia's eight. And I don't know if it's if it's
20:49
just it didn't feel like possession was that close
20:52
because Germany was just doing so much more with their
20:55
possession. But that's kind of where my
20:57
where my brain goes. And obviously the shot attempts
20:59
would would indicate that. But I say it, I love to say it
21:03
never right off Germany. I think I invented that that
21:06
saying, but you, you shouldn't do it, it turns out.
21:10
I think they were able to contend with Australia speed
21:12
pretty well. Yeah.
21:14
And they let them have the ball, but it's kind of like that
21:16
position where you don't really have to chase.
21:17
You're just like, all right, we've got bases covered, you're
21:19
not going to go at goal from here.
21:21
So let's just see what you're able to do.
21:23
And I think it was a lot of that kind of empty ish possession.
21:25
Yeah. But what will you be looking
21:27
for? USA, Germany on Sunday.
21:29
I think a lot of it is going to hinge on if Smith is there.
21:32
Because if you try to play that kind of defense and you and you
21:35
word it perfectly, if you try to force your opponent into kind of
21:39
empty possession and you have two players who can play
21:42
together like Mal Swanson and Sophie Smith, then they break
21:46
that code. They're like zone beaters in
21:48
basketball. Now you remove Smith from that
21:51
scenario, you might be able to kind of push them back, let them
21:54
knock it around and take the ball off them and then kind of
21:57
hold possession on your own. So, I mean, I'm not exactly
22:01
inventing cold fusion here, but I would say Sophie Smith is
22:05
going to be a massively important part.
22:07
And if she's not there, I think you're gonna end up having a lot
22:09
of trouble with Germany. And I want to shout out another
22:12
friend of the program. And I'm just going to be totally
22:14
honest with you. I was concerned or I thought
22:16
that this person might be a sophisticated Twitter bot.
22:20
So if you are not Michael Cocaine on Twitter has zero
22:27
followers on Twitter. So that's concerning, right?
22:30
Concerned he could be a bot, whether it's a bot or a person.
22:33
And please don't take offense if I'm calling you if I have
22:35
suspect you may be a bot, but the zero followers concern me.
22:38
But now you have one follow because you've earned a follow
22:40
from me. Because if you are in fact a
22:42
Twitter bot, then you are too sophisticated.
22:44
He said after that long preamble quote.
22:47
I was at the Germany Australia match.
22:48
Brand was the player of the match.
22:50
I predict another done start, and it looks like Pop has taken
22:53
over the Oberdorf role. My eyes welled up watching the
22:56
Germans include the Oberdorf jersey in the pregame huddle.
22:59
Sunday could be a classic. So you tell me if that is a bot,
23:03
that is an unbelievably sophisticated Twitter bot.
23:06
So I don't believe it. I believe in you, Michael.
23:08
I believe that you're real. And if you're not a bot and you
23:11
watch this program, you could just tweet it and you're like,
23:13
hey, dude, not a bot. And then this whole thing will
23:15
be settled. Wouldn't a bot tweet you with
23:18
that? Oh, that is true.
23:19
God damn it. Shit, Yeah.
23:23
Especially a sophisticated, potentially sophisticated bot.
23:30
But I will tell you, even if it is a bot, it seems to no ball.
23:34
So like, whatever the information, it's it's scraping.
23:37
And again, Michael, if you are in fact a real person, please
23:39
take no offense to this. We just can't trust anything on
23:42
the Internet. He can't trust it.
23:45
Takes are good, insights are good.
23:47
Michael's got himself a nice thumbnail.
23:48
It looks like he's having a nice brunch or something in a fine
23:51
look at establishment with some nice artwork hanging in the
23:54
back. So shout out to you bot if
23:56
you're a bot. I definitely agree with those
23:58
takes as well. I know Germany looked rock solid
24:02
the set pieces like you mentioned.
24:04
There's something about their free kicks.
24:07
They're fucking missiles. Like, you know, they don't.
24:10
There's no loopers, there's no kind of like, you know, where
24:13
the header just gets popped up in the air back and forth and
24:15
there's none of that. Yep, Julie Vin is like a master
24:18
at that. She obviously finds Marina Hager
24:20
in early, the vertical leap of one Leia Schuler on that second
24:24
goal unbelievable. I mean, that was just majestic.
24:28
You know, they just look really, really on point when you could
24:31
make decisions quickly and your passing is sharp.
24:35
That's just such a dangerous combination.
24:37
Like it's high IQ plus the ability to execute on that and
24:40
just move the ball quickly. And maybe that's why the
24:43
possession felt not like 5050, because Germany's possession was
24:47
just so much more quality. I think that's what it was that
24:50
because it just didn't feel quite 5050.
24:52
But yeah, I mean, precision, the chemistry, he was there.
24:56
You know, we had talked about with Peter Vice about kind of
24:59
having those axes of those Wolfsburg players and some of
25:02
those buying players. That all came through in spades
25:05
in this one. And I think we're in for a
25:08
potentially incredible match, USA versus Germany.
25:11
And if Sophie Smith is not there, then it's going to take a
25:14
massive effort from USA and they got to show that they're up for
25:17
it as much as they can be. And if they do have Sophie
25:20
Smith, then we got a heavyweight fight on our hands.
25:22
I wanted to ask about her ran specifically if Smith is out,
25:27
would you think about moving Lavelle out And then her ran
25:30
into the tent? She looks like she's really kind
25:32
of feeling herself right now. Like the audacity is, you know,
25:35
kind of cranked up a little bit. She's like, I could stick this
25:38
past, you know, I like I got this.
25:40
And and she's hitting at a pretty high clip.
25:42
I think she looks pretty effective up there.
25:44
And Lavelle looked not quite all the way 100% aligned,
25:49
comfortable in that spot or, you know, maybe playing off off the
25:52
rest of the attacking players. I think in some spots it was a
25:55
little crowded and you know, maybe the the movement wasn't as
25:58
fluid as as it's going to look as we get later in this
26:01
tournament. I think that's a great call.
26:02
I think it's I think it's absolutely on the board.
26:04
So let's say there's no Smith. I think you have Lynn Williams
26:08
on the left wing. I would play Mal Swanson at the
26:11
nine and then Trinity Rodman at right forward.
26:14
Obviously that's in ink. You play her, ran the 10 and
26:17
then maybe you try to back her up with coffee and maybe Albert,
26:21
maybe Hirschfeld. I mean, depending on on how you
26:24
feel, you could even put Emily Sonnet out there kind of as a
26:27
defensive midfielder type. Bridie had mentioned it on on
26:31
our USA preview that some people kind of malign Lindsay Oran as a
26:34
little bit of a slow player. You know, Germany's game isn't
26:38
built on speed. I mean, they they kind of play a
26:40
little bit of Champions League football.
26:42
They play that European style football.
26:44
And you already know what time it is with Lindsay Oran.
26:46
She is well versed in Champions League football.
26:49
I think you're super on point there.
26:50
I think that's that's high on the board, I would say, yeah.
26:53
And I think when you have heard a more advanced spot on the
26:56
field, you're kind of relying less on her longer runs.
26:59
You know she's already pretty situated and you're just using
27:02
her brain and her passing ability.
27:05
I would lean on that passing ability.
27:06
Yeah, 100%. All right, let's switch gears to
27:10
a couple other favorites I would say in this tournament.
27:12
This one kicked off the day. I mean, like, I feel like I've
27:15
been waiting for this tournament forever.
27:17
Speaking of waiting for this tournament forever, I want to
27:19
rewind real quick this fucking Bruce Mwape investigation.
27:23
They mentioned on the on the on the telecast today that it's
27:26
still being investigated, something that happened a year
27:29
ago at the 2023 World Cup. Seems like what exactly is left
27:33
to investigate in a year? Like, what are we doing?
27:35
An investigation like this, taking a year is an absolute
27:38
farce. Like, do your jobs, figure out
27:40
what the situation is and at the very least iron things out
27:44
before we get to the tournament. I'll leave it at that.
27:46
The two heavyweights went head to head to kick off what was a
27:49
great day of football, Spain versus Japan.
27:52
I think he nailed it, man 2 heavyweights, probably two of
27:55
the favourites. Man, that Alba Fujino wonder
27:59
strike, she came to play in the 2023.
28:02
I mean, I've been I've been a fan like look, man, from that,
28:05
that 2023 World Cup, I was like, but this is an audacious player
28:09
with a ton of talent. Who knows?
28:11
She has a ton of talent that hit.
28:13
Katakoi has no shot at really saving that.
28:16
I mean, it would have taken a superhuman dive to push that
28:19
away. Unbelievable hit by her outside
28:22
of the box. You know, Alba, we got a great
28:25
culture in Seattle. It's a temperate climate.
28:28
I think you'd enjoy it there. This is a sidebar so you know
28:32
that's any any place you'd ever like to live.
28:34
I would hope that the new ownership group in Seattle, they
28:37
got a couple bucks laying around to possibly make that happen
28:41
because that's a player right there.
28:42
Absolutely. Might need to wrangle up more
28:45
than just a couple though. And that's true, Yeah.
28:47
Yeah, we pay it, pay it, put in a bunch of bags, whatever you
28:51
got to. Happen.
28:52
This one was interesting because Japan had some chances early and
28:56
they had Spain kind of in scramble mode a little bit.
28:59
Oh yeah, Spain was chasing. They were a little bit behind on
29:01
some of these passes. I'll say it looked a little
29:03
rusty. I'd have to go back and check
29:06
some of the Euro qualifiers just to see exactly who got run in
29:09
those matches because there was a couple of Spain players.
29:11
I won't call anybody specifically, but looked a
29:13
little slow to kind of get started.
29:14
Japan looked definitely a step faster and that pays off with
29:18
that first goal. But real heart of the
29:20
championship, Spain just kind of chip away, chip away, start to
29:24
like pull back control of the match, kind of little by little,
29:27
closing things off a little earlier, holding the ball a
29:30
little bit longer, trying to crank up the pressure, you know,
29:34
on their press as the first half wore on.
29:36
And then it pays off. They get the equalizer.
29:39
They're a vice man like they their defense.
29:42
Perfect. They just keep twisting it and
29:45
you just got nowhere to go with the ball, man.
29:48
And we've talked about Japan's organization and their ability
29:51
to pass the ball between each other and Spain just doesn't let
29:55
you do that. And I will say too, there was a
29:58
pretty big discrepancy in the number of called fouls.
30:01
I think that's whatever was happening in the Spain locker
30:04
room. I'm guessing they they watched
30:06
film of that four nil drubbing that they took at the World Cup
30:10
in the group stage. And they went out there and they
30:12
played physical too. So like, you know, you think
30:14
about Spain and you think about like a little bit of finesse.
30:17
And I know they do play a physical style in La Liga or
30:20
Liga F. But when you people talk about
30:23
Spanish football, they talk about about the passing and the
30:25
beautiful game and all that kind of stuff.
30:27
But they're out there playing hard nosed stuff too.
30:30
Like they're they're making their physical presence a real
30:33
factor in the match. And that's why they just kept
30:36
kind of tightening that vice. And then they end up with around
30:38
70% possession. And I got to say, like Japan is
30:43
good enough to score under those conditions, but it just shrinks
30:47
your margin of error to virtually nothing.
30:49
Yeah, and then you also have to start defending because also
30:51
where the ball was on the field, it wasn't like they were just
30:54
kicking the ball between center back, like between center backs
30:57
and good and the goalie, like they were in dangerous areas.
31:00
The commentators commented on this too, mentioning that I
31:04
think the 1st 15 or so minutes it was 5050 and a graphic went
31:08
up in the 64th minute. Possession to that point was 73
31:13
to 27 to start the game, 5050. That means that the next 4950
31:20
minutes of the match was even more than 7327.
31:23
Just a a total suffocation of the possession and the ball and
31:28
the match. Another funny note, the color
31:30
commentator, apologies I don't have the guys name.
31:33
Speaking of Spain here said they've been allowed by Japan to
31:38
run the game. And it's like, buddy, I don't
31:41
think there's AI don't think allowed is is part of this
31:45
equation. I think that Spain just
31:47
squeezing, I mean, squeezing the vice is just like the perfect,
31:50
you know, analogy for the way Spain plays, especially
31:53
considering the tremendous start that Japan got off to.
31:56
It wasn't just the goal. They looked like they were ready
31:59
and it was. It was just a matter of time
32:01
until Spain unlocked what they were doing.
32:03
Yeah, I'm with you on that. Saying that Spain has been
32:06
allowed to do something would imply that Spain does not
32:09
dictate the terms of every football match they always play.
32:13
So yeah, that's a good catch. I did it.
32:15
I didn't hear that one. The broadcast.
32:17
I had to write that down. I'm like.
32:19
Come on, man. Yeah, bro, that's not how this
32:22
goes when when Spain is on the field.
32:24
I will say, you know, this is a pro kata koi podcast.
32:29
She had some moments out there where she was kind of out and
32:33
about, you know, like you see on a sitcom.
32:35
I don't know if you ever pulled this move with your parents.
32:37
They say, where are you going? And you say out and they're
32:40
like, oh, you better tell me specific.
32:43
Like got to Koi. She was just out for a while.
32:47
Like she was just floating around the top of the eighteen,
32:49
maybe a little outside the 18. But you're heading the ball out
32:52
there. And it's just like, hey, yo,
32:54
like you are in some dangerous spots here.
32:57
Japan was never really to take it able to take advantage.
33:00
I think there was one like in the 58th minute where a toe poke
33:04
from the attacker would have beat got to Koi because she was
33:07
way out. And it was it was close.
33:09
It was a Bang, Bang play to use baseball, but she got through
33:13
it. But I will just say not super
33:16
inspiring from Katakoi today, but you, you still get A21 win
33:20
and she her record speaks for itself.
33:22
You you know what time it is with her.
33:24
She's a she's an excellent goalkeeper, but I thought that
33:26
was something to monitor going forward.
33:28
It's always. Fun watching her.
33:30
That's goalkeeper. I mean, it's never a dull
33:33
moment, that strike from Fujino, you know?
33:36
Katakoi she she got a. Hand on it and she had covered a
33:39
lot of ground on that space and, you know, you know, credit to
33:42
Regina for for still blowing past it.
33:44
But I mean, she just covers a ton of ground.
33:46
She's a just a really good goalkeeper.
33:47
You know, does she kind of meander through the park and,
33:51
you know, get caught looking at her phone and Snapchatting
33:53
friends and get, you know, has got one Airpod in her ears so
33:56
she could listen to a podcast while she's, you know, you know,
33:59
defending goal probably. We've seen that.
34:02
Yeah, absolutely. I know she's locked in, but
34:05
yeah, I just love, I mean, I love the way she plays big game
34:07
goalie. I mean, total confidence with
34:09
her there. It's going to be interesting.
34:11
You know, some Ederson vibes. I'll I'll say there'll be stuff
34:15
to talk about after the fact, but she gets it done.
34:18
Credit to her and also credit to the newest lady gunner, Mariona
34:22
Super Mariona Caldente gets the goal.
34:26
The difference in this match, I wanted to call it out just
34:28
because it was such a cool move by her.
34:31
You know, the ball kind of gets knocked into her path.
34:33
She could have just one timed it, but not one touch.
34:37
The one touch kind of gets a little bit of space that gets
34:40
everybody kind of the the defense reset and and chasing a
34:42
second spot. And then there's a second touch
34:45
and then she's just she goes from a studio to a three
34:47
bedroom, you know, with that second touch.
34:50
And then just easy peasy, little little kind of tap in side
34:54
netting like that spot right there.
34:56
I'll take that spot. And yeah, like I said, Lady
34:58
Gunner, you know, you already know what time it is that I
35:00
think that kind of like maybe settled things down for her very
35:03
mind body at peace kind of situation now that she's found a
35:07
new home professionally and pays off for Spain.
35:10
Something to be excited about for your london-based club out
35:13
there. Yeah, I mean, I I think you
35:15
nailed it, man. The presence of mind to have the
35:18
the third touch, that's gorgeous.
35:20
That's genius level stuff. That's like moving the chess
35:23
board around to be like, oh, wait, I think I got because how
35:25
many times do you see it where it's like, oh, I got one more.
35:27
Oh, no, I didn't. And then there are three
35:29
defenders on top of you. Like she knew exactly that third
35:31
touch would do it. So yeah, I mean, well deserved
35:34
when Yeah, I thought it was a it was a banger of a game.
35:37
The announcer did get it right when Spain equalized on the bone
35:40
with T goal, which was really well set up in its own right.
35:44
Obviously, you know, bone with T's gonna finish that.
35:46
The announcer got it right when he was like, this one's living
35:49
up to the billing right away, which I think he was right.
35:52
And I think, you know, Japan is nowhere near dead.
35:55
So I want to go back to Japan being able to take advantage
35:58
even when they have a limited time on the ball.
36:00
I went back and looked at some of the stats because I remember
36:03
us talking about it in real time.
36:04
But that four to nil big victory Japan over Spain in the World
36:08
Cup group stage. Japan only had, according to our
36:11
pals at foot mob 23% of the ball in that match.
36:16
And it was just all counter attack all.
36:19
We steal the ball and we're running.
36:21
And I know that's an outlier result and people are like,
36:25
yeah, but the group was kind of in a weird spot in that
36:28
situation and all that stuff. Here's who was on the field for
36:32
Spain in that group match, Selma Pede, Uelo, Jennifer Hermoso,
36:36
Mariona Caldente, Bone Mati, Abuera Puteas, Olga Carmona
36:42
Paretas and Batier. And yeah, Misa Rodriguez was in
36:45
goal for that one, but that's pretty much all the big guns for
36:49
Spain. Yeah, who were out there and
36:51
they lost 4 nothing to Japan. And now I think Brady touched on
36:54
it too, though, that Japan game that was wild how perfect every
36:59
single touch was for Japan. We talked about with a small
37:02
margin of for error. When you play Spain, they
37:05
operated well within even that tiny margin for error.
37:09
But I I say all this to just say, OK, Japan had a one goal
37:13
loss to Spain if it plays out. And I think we talked about this
37:17
if, if Japan, I, I still think Japan is super live to finish
37:22
second in this group. If USA wins their group, we're
37:25
lining up, we're looking at USA, Japan, even though they lost the
37:29
match today, Japan, nothing in this in this match made me
37:32
think, oh, Japan's in trouble. I I almost feel better about
37:34
them. Yeah, I, I totally agree.
37:36
I mean, there was a couple times in the second-half and Japan
37:39
didn't even look that great. But just the fact that they're
37:41
this is a game, you know, it's sort of like a boxing match
37:43
where it's like, all right, one person's winning, but like this
37:46
is still clearly in the balance. Yes, a couple times in the
37:49
second-half I thought to myself, these might be the two best
37:53
teams in this tournament. And I know the tournament just
37:55
started, but like it just looks that way.
37:58
And I think one thing that we can't overlook, especially when
38:01
we look back at that four nil defeat in the World Cup, is I
38:05
think they were mentioning that this is Spain's first Olympics
38:07
today. Oh geez.
38:09
Debutantes, if you will. Yeah.
38:13
So when you consider that, you know, this is not the most
38:15
experienced national team, despite how good they are,
38:19
right? So it's like it really kind of
38:21
recontextualized that loss in the World Cup, right?
38:23
Because it's just kind of like, OK, like this is this is weird.
38:26
And like this Olympics super slow start to this match as
38:29
well. So it's kind of like, I don't
38:31
know, you can see why it's not perfect, even though this team
38:35
is incredible and probably the best team.
38:38
You know, I think you could easily explain this away.
38:40
They're just kind of like really getting their reps in.
38:43
It's I mean, it's just incredible to say that they're
38:46
not the most experienced team. They're the reigning World Cup
38:49
winners. But you're you're exactly right.
38:51
I mean, it's weird to even think this is their first Olympics.
38:56
They're just getting this thing really ramped up.
38:58
And we already know what kind of problems their federation was
39:01
having before the World Cup happened and while the World Cup
39:05
was happening. So yeah, it's trouble, trouble,
39:08
trouble for everybody else. If this T, if this organization,
39:13
the federation isn't even operating the best it can and
39:17
this is what we have so far, that's, uh, scary hours for
39:20
everybody else. I would agree with that.
39:22
All right, so let's talk about the hosts.
39:24
We had a CO2 finally on the show, got us excited.
39:28
And then also a little disappointed about.
39:30
I was I was very conflicted after the OCL episode.
39:33
I was like, are they good or they do they stink?
39:34
Like, what are we what are we talking about here?
39:37
One thing I do know, Herbe Reynard, that's a handsome man.
39:40
Holy shit. Like, yeah, I could see it.
39:42
Yeah. I mean, if he wants to work at
39:44
the ITC, whatever, he's got a job here any day that we.
39:47
Yeah, that's fine, buddy. If you replace me with him, I
39:50
wouldn't blame you for a second. I'd be like, you know what, what
39:54
can I do? You know, I got a lot of.
39:55
Editing to do he could he could grab my spot.
39:59
You guys could talk and talk out formations and and line ups and
40:02
shit France, Colombia this one ends 32.
40:06
My main take away was this Colombian side right?
40:10
We had three teams today fall down three nil, Zambia,
40:14
Australia and Colombia and of the three.
40:18
Columbia was like, fuck this, like this, like this isn't
40:23
anywhere near over, you know, And I think just to see kind of
40:27
like the heart, the way that they play, how they just kind of
40:30
unleashed all of that emotion after those school, like I just
40:34
love this team, man. You know what, as handsome as he
40:37
is, Irv, a Renard could never give a take that good.
40:39
That's money, buddy. That's why me and you do this
40:42
show. So that is that is so great.
40:45
That is such a great point about the other teams that went down
40:47
three nil and you're just like, oh boy, how out of hand is this
40:50
one going to get? And not for a second did you
40:53
think with Columbia that they were going to stop playing
40:56
because they never show you that they're going to stop playing.
40:58
That's just like part of their style.
41:01
And I will say they had reasons to be.
41:04
He discouraged that That first goal, the opening goal from
41:06
Katoto was a howler from the defense.
41:09
They just give the ball high turnover to France and Katoto
41:12
finishes it. And at that point, you like, you
41:15
see a lot of teams kind of look at each other and they're like,
41:18
well, you, what'd you do wrong? You know, you see people
41:20
pointing at each other and they start like, you know, gesturing
41:22
at each other. This team, you, you never see
41:25
that from them. No, they're they, they stay 100%
41:28
locked in. And to give Katoto, you know,
41:32
her props here, you know, she obviously gets on the score
41:35
sheet twice. She was cooking.
41:36
Professional goal scorer just like any little crevice of
41:41
anything. Sometimes you get mesmerized by
41:43
players when the goals are like spectacular you're just like, Oh
41:46
my God, that's that's a tremendous player.
41:48
But in reality, it's just like a stick of dynamite just explodes.
41:51
And, you know, you think to yourself, I'll never see a goal
41:54
that good like again, right? Katoto is just kind of the
41:58
opposite of that. She knows, like, how to sniff
42:01
out opportunities at any point. And then when she's got to look,
42:05
she's just finishing. She just is.
42:07
Yeah, I mean, you're 100% right. I, I feel like Earling Holland
42:10
has a little bit of that where everybody just like, oh, all he
42:13
ever does, all he ever does is tap it in.
42:15
It's like, well, how come he's always in the right spot to tap
42:18
it in? And I feel like you kind of get
42:19
that with with Katoto. And I will say she could have
42:22
had a Hattie because Catherine Tapia, Columbia's goalkeeper in
42:25
the 12th minute, saved a Katoto header in what I can only
42:29
describe as a superhuman effort from Tapia.
42:33
That header, it comes off the corner kick.
42:36
I'm going to cite the one base, maybe one of the few current
42:39
baseball players I actually know.
42:41
That header coming off of Katoto looks like a Paul Skeens
42:44
fastball. And I know him.
42:46
I think he dates like a a TikTok star woman, I believe.
42:50
But I do know he throws the ball like 102 mph.
42:53
And Katoto bashes this header and Tapia diving save is able to
42:58
push it away. Unbelievable save from her,
43:00
unbelievable effort from her. But yeah, you're totally right,
43:03
Katono. She's in the right spot.
43:05
She knows how to finish. She could finish aerial balls
43:08
like that. But then she also has just a
43:10
real presence of mind about about her where she's just like,
43:13
Oh yeah, quick step over right footed shot.
43:15
Like it's real crafty. Well, exactly what you're
43:18
saying. Everybody remembers like the
43:19
Thierry Henry, like play the ball off my chest and turn and
43:23
drill a shot. But you also need a little bit
43:25
of craft in those tight spaces inside the six, even if you just
43:30
want to tuck the ball away and that, and that's Katoto's game.
43:32
Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of like nudging and positioning and
43:35
angling and angles, and I think she's just so good at that.
43:38
Yeah. In between the two Katoto goals,
43:40
though, Kenza Dali. Let's go.
43:42
Oh buddy, that's that's a good hit.
43:46
Talking about some of these explosive goals that that kind
43:48
of stick with you, that you remember, you know, they all
43:50
count for one. But that Dolly go, Oh my God,
43:53
that. Maybe Gabby Nunez is kind of in
43:55
this conversation too. But probably the goal of the
43:57
day. If I remember correctly.
43:59
Well, I'm glad you bring up Nunez.
44:01
I think they both scrape the crossbar and fall in.
44:04
I think with Dolly and Nunez, I that's that's a great goal.
44:07
I don't know what the name for that goal is.
44:09
I know we like a looping header, but yeah, that Dolly hit it
44:12
reminded me. You brought up a CL2 Filey,
44:15
former Lebanon #10 for their women's national team.
44:17
Our great friend of the pod, another another player, a player
44:20
and commentator trending toward the ITC Hall of Fame.
44:23
But a SEAL was talking about France's lack of goals from the
44:27
run of play. That was one of the first things
44:30
I thought when I saw that Dolly Wonder strike where I was like,
44:33
OK, that's in the run of play. That's an aggressive hit, and
44:37
that's an aggressive way to play football.
44:39
And so we mentioned handsome Irv A Renard earlier.
44:42
Let me just say Irv A, we'll get you in touch with a SEAL because
44:45
I know you watch the show. And then you can figure out your
44:48
way to properly compensate her for the coaching advice that she
44:51
gave in the last program because she talked about playing more
44:54
attacking. I think Cass Carino spent some
44:56
time on the right hand side in this match.
44:59
It seemed awfully coincidental all the changes you made that
45:04
kind of lined up with what a seal was thinking about for the
45:07
shape of France. So we'll make sure that we can
45:10
get you in touch every. So, you know, a seal can be paid
45:13
for that, for that knowledge. A. 100%, yeah, talked a lot
45:15
about the middle of the field kinds of Dahlia right from that
45:18
spot. I think Fujino is also was a
45:21
scraper right? So did we get 3?
45:23
Oh yeah, that is right. Yeah, because the Fujino go,
45:25
it's off Akatha Koi's left hand and then off the side of the
45:28
post all. Right.
45:29
So we got 2 1/2 good day of going.
45:31
So I mean, I didn't think I must say.
45:33
Oh, yeah. So, yeah, excited to see kind of
45:35
where France goes from here, excited to see where Colombia
45:38
goes from here. And the other two teams in this
45:41
group, Canada, New Zealand, they also got a little busy today.
45:45
Anything happened with those two teams?
45:48
I don't think so. I mean, it's, you know, I just
45:49
watched the game, bro. Like it's not really following a
45:53
no, I mean drone gate pretty wild.
45:55
I think one of the wild, not even one of the wild.
45:58
It's Is that one of the five wildest stories of the women's
46:00
football at the Olympics? I don't know, man.
46:03
It's pretty weird. Like you have some stuff that's
46:06
very serious. It's very strange.
46:10
I gotta say. That is one thing about football
46:13
and really any sport is that like we say, we watch the games,
46:16
bro. We're out here talking about
46:17
shots that scrape the bottom of the crossbar and like movements
46:20
that players make. But you also just get like, hey,
46:23
this these two assistants, they are flying a drone over New
46:26
Zealand's practices. Like, wait, what?
46:28
What's what are we talking about here?
46:30
What's that? Why would they do it over New
46:32
Zealand's practice? Like you just, they're just many
46:35
questions that are raised after this kind of stuff.
46:40
Yeah, well, they're sitting somewhere saying we watch the
46:42
practices, bro. So bizarre and then did like Bev
46:49
Priestman like recuse herself from this game?
46:51
I don't did you. It was like a self-imposed
46:53
suspension. I don't know, maybe I'd misread
46:55
that it was just see it's even the old things seem very.
46:57
Very weird. Yeah, I, I will say here's what
47:00
I have in my in my notes here. Is that what I'm most upset
47:05
about? And I don't, I don't even know
47:07
if I want to say upset. I don't know if I want to pull
47:09
out a parenting trick here and just tell the Canadian
47:11
federation this. Maybe I'm not mad, but I'm very
47:14
disappointed in you. And let me tell you why.
47:18
Because what you've done to our friend of the show, Miriam
47:21
Karabi, if she scores bangers, I don't appreciate that.
47:25
Miriam deserves much better than this.
47:28
So you guys better tighten up. I don't know.
47:29
We're going to let the reporting happen.
47:31
We're going to let the investigation play out.
47:33
But I don't like the stress that you're putting Miriam under.
47:35
So you guys got to figure that out.
47:38
And if you're spying, why are you spying on New Zealand?
47:41
Because you have way better players than them.
47:43
You are capable of beating them without filming their practices.
47:47
It's sick, sick, I tell you. Ridiculous.
47:51
Well, you have Belichick over there working for you.
47:53
What is happening? Terrible, terrible.
47:56
Well, even with all the the illegal spying, Canada still
48:00
found a way to fall behind one nil too lowly New Zealand.
48:04
Yes, that was an absolute banger from Mackenzie Berry to open up
48:10
the scoring. Totally surprising.
48:12
Felt like some level of karmic justice happening there.
48:16
Mackenzie Berry is a defender. We know that from seeing her
48:20
lineup. She has played more than 4300
48:23
minutes for the Wellington Phoenix in the A League in
48:26
Australia over the past three seasons and she has not
48:29
registered a goal or an assist in that time.
48:35
And so let me just say, I don't care that you guys lost the game
48:39
and I'm sure you do it. I don't mean that pejoratively,
48:40
Mackenzie, but let me just say somebody in team operations,
48:44
somebody in communications, hell, maybe Canada has a drone
48:48
shot of it. But what you need to do is get a
48:51
photograph of you scoring that banger of a goal in the Olympics
48:55
and frame that. And you should hold on to that
48:57
forever because what an amazing professional moment that is.
49:01
A great goal from Mackenzie Berry.
49:04
Tremendous goal, pretty cool moment for them to kind of come
49:06
out, jump ahead against a real team.
49:09
Oh yeah. And then on the flip side,
49:12
pretty gutsy win by Canada, I would say, when you talk about
49:15
giving up a goal and like those slumping shoulders and those
49:19
like looking around and pointing and you know, the the impromptu
49:22
players only meetings that that happened in the field sometimes
49:25
after a goal. I think we saw a little bit of a
49:28
different response this time from this Canada side falling
49:32
behind. Yeah, they played tough.
49:34
They stuck to the game plan. They're able to score before
49:36
halftime. Really nice sequence.
49:39
They just strung together. Sometimes you're just able to
49:41
string together a few like lowish probability passes and
49:44
you find yourself in a good spot.
49:46
Credit to the cast for for getting Canada on the board kind
49:50
of right before halftime and changing pretty much the whole
49:53
tenor, like pretty much all the dynamics surrounding this one.
49:57
I'm just going to reuse the same line and I know we can say this
49:59
about a lot of teams, man, Canada has a lot of really good
50:02
players on the field at one time.
50:05
The Lacasse goal, that's obviously great.
50:07
So we see this a lot in football where the underdog gets a goal
50:10
early and then the team that just has more talent is like,
50:13
OK, everybody, we got this, let's play our game.
50:17
And we got, you know, in this case, it was 77 more minutes of
50:22
regulation to kind of get this thing done.
50:24
Canada speed and skill just ended up being way too much for
50:28
the Football Ferns. And that's no slight against
50:30
them. The Canada, they're the rating
50:32
defending gold medalists. Ashley Lawrence is just
50:35
barbecuing everybody out there. She is.
50:39
She had an incredible match. I thought Jesse Fleming, who we
50:43
have talked about a few times on this podcast, she did the thing.
50:46
She did the Jesse Fleming thing where she just has a run of play
50:50
where she is the best player on the field that assist to Evelyn
50:55
Viens to win the match, essentially the the winner.
50:58
Shout out to the color commentator again.
51:00
We'll we'll gather. It feels like we always kind of
51:02
like we got to gain some steam in these tournaments and kind of
51:06
watch the matches a little bit and then we start jotting down
51:08
commentators names. But the commentator described
51:11
her past Evelyn Viens as quote absolutely magnificent End
51:15
Quote. And he got that exactly right.
51:17
I mean, Fleming was just even on the Lacasse goal.
51:21
Lawrence and Fleming play a little 1-2 to set up the Lacasse
51:25
goal. So I mean, Fleming was great,
51:27
Lawrence was great. None of those things are
51:29
surprises. Evelyn Viens comes on and she
51:32
scores. That's not surprising either.
51:34
It's going to be really interesting to see how all of
51:36
this kind of upheaval. Now, the reporting, the last I
51:39
saw before we we came to record this podcast is that at first,
51:44
Bev Friesman, she kind of like it was reported that she was
51:46
stepping away for this match. Now she's just going home for
51:49
the rest of the tournament, according to the reporting that
51:52
I've seen. Yeah, it seems like more
51:54
information is kind of coming out as to how this how the
51:58
spying scandal started and then how it was executed.
52:01
And so it's going to be interesting to see how how they
52:04
deal with all that. That's wild.
52:06
Well, I'm glad I retired from. I'm betting on women's soccer.
52:12
How do you even foresee something like that?
52:14
Just pretty insane. That's going to make things
52:16
tough for Canada. Apologies, Miriam.
52:19
But when you juxtapose that against Colombia's, like, also
52:24
gutsy performance. Yeah.
52:25
Against France. I mean, this might end up being
52:28
the group. Well, we did mention this in our
52:30
Tears preview episode that it was pretty likely that the group
52:34
with New Zealand in it would get three teams through.
52:37
Because you have to imagine that's more points, probably
52:40
more gold differential as well, even though New Zealand hung in
52:42
today. But again, a lot swirling around
52:44
Canada. So this could be the group where
52:46
all three go through. And I think I might be feeling
52:49
really good now about Colombia. We had them advancing in our
52:53
tears episode, for sure. Canada, though, they've got two
52:56
tough matches coming up. I mean like, that's gonna be a
52:58
rough 180 plus against those two squads.
53:01
Canada with France on Sunday, that's gonna be a tricky one.
53:06
And obviously that leaves Colombia to take on New Zealand.
53:09
So you see if New Zealand has any has any remaining good vibes
53:13
leftover from their close defeat to Canada.
53:16
But something tells me that Colombia is going to be coming
53:18
out there with something to prove.
53:19
You didn't get a lot out of Chi Sato in Colombia's match against
53:23
France, so that's not going to last forever.
53:27
Game against New Zealand. Football Ferns might be in
53:30
trouble. Yeah, I believe that got a poppy
53:32
goal though. How about that?
53:33
There you go. She scorched car shot we on that
53:36
one and tremendous finish. Now now that we know kind of
53:39
like a little bit about the schedule.
53:41
Canada, Colombia in the third group stage match.
53:44
They might be playing for a spot in the knockout round, which,
53:48
yeah, sign me all the way up for that.
53:50
Let's go. That's a football game right
53:52
there. Hell yeah.
53:53
I mean, Ashley Lawrence, you can obviously put her anywhere on
53:56
the field V Myra Ramirez. So we get a little we get a
54:00
little insight into what some of those Chelsea trainings might
54:02
look like and then I guess it's going to look pretty good.
54:07
Oh my God, And I hope there's stakes.
54:09
I hope there's like big time stakes in that match.
54:12
That's just going to be, I mean, this whole tournament stacked.
54:15
Like what did we do to deserve such great football here?
54:18
One more match on deck to cover. What did you see?
54:21
Nigeria. Brazil.
54:22
I'm going to do a thing here because the football was so
54:25
glorious. I'm going to make it a 2 beer
54:27
show because that's how much go I enjoyed this.
54:34
This was a banger. This was on at the same time as
54:37
Germany, Australia. Once that kind of started to get
54:40
out of hand, I flipped over to Nigeria, Brazil, and then I went
54:43
back and watched a little more of it.
54:45
Marta completely bossed the game for long stretches again.
54:48
We're going to do another announcer shout out here.
54:51
You know, we love announcer talk.
54:52
We've already done it a few times on this show.
54:54
I thought both announcers were really good in this one.
54:57
I hope I I'm looking forward to them doing more games throughout
55:00
this tournament. But they just it was deference
55:03
to the GOAT from from the moment I flipped over to that match,
55:09
they just kept talking about how she was a genius.
55:11
So, you know, obviously, you know, what can you say about
55:13
Marcia that hasn't already been said?
55:15
But even if they weren't planning on doing that, she
55:17
forced their hand into doing that because she was playing so
55:20
well with the distribution. She had a goal called back
55:22
because of an offside. But I will say, even with Brazil
55:26
playing with great skill and great flair like they typically
55:29
do, Nigeria was up for this. They were really creative on
55:33
some of their set piece chances. They had a really creative
55:35
corner in the first half that resulted in a header that went
55:38
just over the crossbar. Nigeria forced Lorena into some
55:42
tough saves. You know, felt like a fistfight
55:44
at times, but not like in an ugly football kind of way.
55:48
It just felt like two teams that were super up for the match,
55:53
relatively evenly, evenly matched, and it was entertaining
55:57
football. I mean, we say it about Nigeria
56:01
all the time. Is that similar to Canada?
56:03
You look up and down the roster and you go, OK, there's a lot of
56:05
smart, creative talent on this side.
56:08
They were threatening up until the very end, but we got to talk
56:11
about it. The Gabby Nunez goal which we
56:13
referenced earlier in this show, that's a banger, I mean.
56:16
It's right there for goal of the day.
56:17
That one was. Come on man.
56:19
Well struck, we'll say. Absolutely.
56:24
I would say yeah, absolute rocket kisses the crossbar falls
56:30
over the line. I think there were some moments
56:33
too where Brazil's creativity, I think they could have probably
56:37
got the second goal and a few opportunities.
56:39
I'm I'm certain they're fans who you know, Julia Belas Trindage,
56:44
who she referenced in our Brazil preview episode.
56:47
They have high expectations for this side.
56:49
I think they would have probably preferred A2 nil win to stretch
56:53
it a little bit, but I feel like you don't get a lot of two nil
56:56
wins over Nigeria. They're too tough, they're too
56:58
smart, they're too organized. They have an an adozi in goal.
57:01
You're not going to beat her a ton of times unless she's like
57:04
super exposed back there from the back line.
57:06
So Nigeria is tough as hell. It really just cemented for me.
57:11
This is the group of life it has.
57:13
To be the group of life. Every single matchup in this
57:18
group is must see television. I, I mean, I totally agree with
57:21
that. And I think when I was doing my
57:23
tears and predictions and preview research, I'm like, this
57:27
group's going to be wild. Like I think we're going to see
57:29
some crazy score lines. I don't think it's going to be
57:33
chalk. I think we're going to see some
57:34
wild goals. This feels like the big play
57:37
highlight reel kind of group and also group that's going to go
57:41
down to the wire. Yeah, I think you're totally
57:43
right. I mean, on Sunday, Nigeria plays
57:46
Spain. Let me just give you a thought
57:48
exercise here. And I know, you know,
57:50
geographically speaking, thinking about the weather, a
57:53
lot of people might not compare Norway to Nigeria.
57:58
But if you're Nigeria, maybe you watch some SK bronze tape
58:02
against Barcelona and the Champions League and go, we
58:06
could do that. We could muck things up for
58:08
their offense. We could try, we could try to
58:10
push them back. We could be super physical with
58:12
them if we want to. Why don't we try to employ that
58:14
strategy? I love that and we've seen
58:16
Spain, whether it's some of those players via Barcelona or
58:20
Madrid or the Spanish national team, get a little rattled when
58:23
things get physical. I think we got a little miffed
58:25
at France for not maybe taking the game there the way they they
58:29
might have been able to in the Nations League.
58:31
And then if Spain's playing Nigeria, that means we're going
58:34
to get a little Japan, Brazil this weekend.
58:37
I mean about how about little styles make fights with those
58:41
two? Lock up this weekend 0.
58:43
My goodness. 11:00 AM Eastern Time, 8:00 AM Pacific.
58:47
That's a football game, Bubba. That's, I mean, you cannot ask
58:50
for more. I if this has to be the group of
58:53
life, there's no combination that's not fantastic.
58:56
And I just want to go rewind real quick for anybody who
58:59
thought that in a tournament that doesn't feature Norway that
59:02
I wouldn't be. Able to get in an.
59:04
SK Brown reference Shame on you because I was absolutely getting
59:08
one in no matter what. It's funny you say that.
59:09
I almost wore my bra jersey today.
59:11
I'm going to break it out at some point.
59:12
Yes. Just totally total non sequitur
59:15
like an international tournament does.
59:17
A feature at Norway is probably a perfect chance to to dust that
59:20
one off. So maybe next week we'll see.
59:22
Actually, no, we'll be back Sunday.
59:24
After the Sunday slate. We're going to record again and
59:26
breakdown as much of Sunday's action as we can.
59:29
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
59:31
I do. I got one more reply for you
59:34
here from our pal Friend of the show.
59:36
Apologies if I mispronounced the last name Omar Baroni at Omar
59:40
Baroni. He tweeted at us.
59:42
Alexia is injured and that's scary for Spain.
59:45
Germany looked the most convincing overall.
59:47
France had two faces, one in the first half that looks scary and
59:51
the other one that looks shaky. And I thought that was I thought
59:54
that was good analysis as well. So obviously got to lookout for
59:57
Alexia's health. That's a great point by him.
1:00:00
I wanted to shout that I appreciate all you guys always,
1:00:02
you know, chiming and letting us know what to what to lookout
1:00:05
for. So I want to make sure I get
1:00:07
Omar in the show. Before we peace out of here.
1:00:09
Shout out to our guy Omar and who's our guy on Spotify?
1:00:13
Yes, thank you for the reminder, Diedrich.
1:00:16
We appreciate you go. Thank you for checking out the
1:00:19
show. Leave in the comments on
1:00:20
Spotify. Diedrich, that's our guy, a A1
1:00:24
from the jump. So Diedrich, thanks for rocking
1:00:26
with us, man. If you hit us up with whatever,
1:00:29
with whatever you're looking for in the show we got, we got you.
1:00:32
Yeah, maybe we do, maybe we don't, but we appreciate the the
1:00:34
support. That was Dino.
1:00:37
Dino said it. Not teacher sucker.
1:00:39
I already know. All right, man, I think we did
1:00:41
it just been the episode into the channel.
1:00:43
A sincere thank you to everyone who watches, listens, chimes in,
1:00:48
leaves a review, uploads a video, subscribes, follows,
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tells a friend. Remember to like this video if
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listen. Leave us a review over your
1:01:01
favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
1:01:03
the show notes of this episode. And a big thing, thank you to my
1:01:07
Coast as well, Mr. Grant Engel for showing up, locking in
1:01:11
undisclosed location. Doesn't matter.
1:01:14
My guy's always here. He's always ready.
1:01:16
You know what, even if if I'm in a undisclosed location for a
1:01:20
very short amount of time, yeah, man, you know, the the podcast,
1:01:23
Mike, it fits neatly in the suitcase.
1:01:26
Do I feel maybe some bit of shame that I know somebody in
1:01:30
TSA is looking at it in the checked bag going, OK, this guy,
1:01:34
he's got a microphone. I'm sure he has very important
1:01:36
things to say. Yeah, maybe I do feel a little
1:01:39
bit ashamed. But you guys who rock with us
1:01:41
and give us your kind words, give us the information, keep us
1:01:44
in check if we're if maybe we're floating a little far afield
1:01:48
sometimes. That's what we enjoy doing about
1:01:50
this. That's why the Internet was
1:01:51
invented, to make sure that, you know, people who like these kind
1:01:54
of things can connect with each other.
1:01:56
So we appreciate you guys for rocking with us for sure.
1:01:59
Keep it locked to us and we will talk to you guys very soon.
1:02:03
Yeah, it's anybody at TSA. My guy does have important
1:02:05
things to say, all right, So leave them alone.
1:02:09
That's right. I mean, come on, We got women's
1:02:10
football to talk about. This is the Olympics.
1:02:12
Lock in. Let's go.
1:02:14
Hell yeah.