Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / RECAPS! 🇸🇪 Sweden Beats Denmark | 🇩🇪 Germany 2 Poland 0 | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 Group C MD 3/12

Transcript

RECAPS! 🇸🇪 Sweden Beats Denmark | 🇩🇪 Germany 2 Poland 0 | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 Group C MD 3/12 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast, primarily on football.
0:09
I'm your host Dino de Suspitas. And as always, I'm joined by
0:13
Mike host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:18
I'm feeling all right, buddy. I think we're 3 for three on
0:22
entertaining days of football in this young Euro tournament.
0:26
So I'm once again, we saw some some great teams today and I'm
0:30
excited to talk to you about them.
0:32
Another great day of football, more learning.
0:35
I mean, you already know what kind of podcast this is.
0:37
I think there was a lot of lot of little stuff that I picked up
0:41
on today. I think I'm, I'm, I'm starting
0:43
to a little bit premature, but I'm starting to get a little bit
0:46
excited about match day 2 because I, I've got all these
0:48
little notes and all these little things.
0:50
I'm like, heck, I look out for this once once these teams
0:52
circle back, but very excited to talk about match day three
0:56
schedule Group C. Well, actually, before we get
1:00
started, comments section's been pretty, pretty active, pretty,
1:04
pretty engaged, pretty exciting. So I I actually just want to
1:08
take a quick second call out a few friends of the show.
1:12
Melanie Lopez, you already know Carlo Ciao for now.
1:15
I I mentioned Carlo. Excellent sign off that we we
1:18
need more of that from Carlo. Boy named blue.
1:21
That's our guy. That's our boy Bard from across
1:24
the pond. Let's go giggity Woo.
1:26
Just a fun name to say Justin. I mean, that's one of the goats.
1:30
I mean, shout out to Justin Macdaley on Spotify, CTX on
1:35
threads you already know, and our guy MLS who properly popped
1:41
into the comments section and talked about quite the snafu
1:45
from the show. We talked about that Spain,
1:48
Portugal match and failed to mention what we talked about
1:51
Claudia Pina a little bit. You had mentioned that her
1:54
current form, she's like arguably the best player in the
1:57
world on form right now. And we didn't even talk about
2:00
how she put in all the work for the, I think was it the final
2:05
goal of the match? Was it the fifth goal?
2:07
That was the. 4th and the 5th. Yeah, 4th Martin Prieto CMP the
2:11
the newly the newly minted CMP was the 5th.
2:14
That's right. And you mentioned to me pre show
2:17
that you had a bunch on it. I want to see if we're aligned
2:20
on here. I literally had in my notes
2:23
Claudia Pina, ITC record book has to be an assist there.
2:28
And if somebody were to tell me that she did that on purpose by
2:31
going to the end line and banking it off the post, I don't
2:34
know how could I argue it. She could do anything with the
2:36
football right now. Well, I mean, that's that's
2:39
precisely the the argument our guy MLS made it in the comment
2:41
section. I don't totally disagree, you
2:44
know, but you know, Pina, we have to talk about this play.
2:46
Just I know they tell you aim for the far, aim for the far
2:50
post, but from that angle, falling out of bounds to be able
2:53
to actually hit the far hit the far.
2:57
I mean, that was inches from actually scoring from that
3:00
angle. And then just the the the great
3:04
fortune of Ester being right there to kind of smack it in.
3:06
So absolute assist for Pina. I I'm I'm I'm tempted to almost
3:11
give her a goal. The ITC personal record book
3:15
just. What a feat.
3:16
You know, there's nothing there's nothing wrong with it.
3:19
And two and and Ester, like if you would have told me one that
3:23
Claudia Pina meant to purposely bounce it off the post and also
3:26
was like, hey, I'm going to bounce it off the post in a way
3:28
that it literally just falls on to a stairs foot and bounces in
3:32
the goal or over the line. Like I think that would be fair
3:35
game too, because it didn't even look like Ester put much on it.
3:38
It was just kind of like, it's like, oh wait, this is on my
3:41
foot. It it was kind of like you.
3:43
Don't you remember at Madden when you would play the computer
3:45
and they would throw a pass and it would hit a player's helmet,
3:47
go 10 yards across the field, and somebody else would catch it
3:49
and run for a touch up? You're just like, this has never
3:51
happened in any football game at any level, and this is how I'm
3:56
losing it. Nevermind, I digressed.
3:58
All right, let's talk about some football.
4:00
Mr. Credit or you wanna get started?
4:02
Let's do chronological order today, because we had a couple
4:05
heavyweights. I don't think anything merits
4:08
skipping or reliable chronological.
4:11
Sweden won Denmark nil. I thought Sweden looked pretty
4:17
tough in long stretches. Not tough like in a bad way.
4:21
Tough like tough to beat throughout long stretches of
4:25
this match. The defense was overwhelming,
4:30
the press was overwhelming. I mean, they just kind of like
4:33
smothered a lot of what what Denmark was trying to do.
4:37
I thought Denmark hung in pretty well, but Sweden just able to,
4:42
you know, kind of like beat them to more of the balls, kind of
4:44
like control possession, work the ball up field and just kind
4:48
of like learn more on that skill.
4:50
But yeah, I think Sweden was able to extinguish a lot, pretty
4:54
much almost all of the attack that Denmark was putting forward
4:58
outside of what Purdue Harder was able to do.
5:00
And I think even most of that was either at the end of the
5:03
first half or kind of sprinkled throughout the second-half.
5:05
But first 30 minutes you could really see a difference, even
5:10
though I thought both teams really kind of like showed up
5:12
and both played well early. I think that's totally fair.
5:14
Like I think that's what kind of leaves me more impressed with
5:19
Sweden then I maybe I would have normally been is that Denmark
5:22
was largely up for it. They were just having a hell of
5:24
a time really kind of getting anything done.
5:27
Sweden just needs to kind of turn that defense into offense.
5:31
And you know, we talked about we've talked about that with
5:33
with them in the past and that's kind of been something that can
5:36
come back to bite them. But I think a little more
5:39
variety in the middle of the field and then just knowing when
5:43
to go back to JRK on the right wing.
5:46
Johanna Written Cannerud Obviously Chelsea superstar,
5:50
Like that element, like that's going to be there for for a lot
5:55
of opportunities now. Some teams are going to be able
5:57
to cut her off at times. We've seen it happen at Chelsea
5:59
where she might kind of drift into the background.
6:02
But if you can get some things going in the center of the park
6:06
and then that's open, she can be extremely dangerous.
6:09
The center of the park is interesting because Kosovar
6:11
Aslani, I thought, had a good game.
6:14
But. I mean, I'm not sure if she
6:16
didn't cover a ton of ground, but it just kind of felt like
6:19
where she was effective was sort of a smaller bubble on the
6:22
pitch, you know. So I think if you're thinking
6:24
about what to do with that offense and obviously Sweden,
6:27
you know, very kind of high-powered from a talent
6:29
standpoint, only able to notch a single goal.
6:32
You look at some of the shots stats, 19 shots, just four on
6:36
target. That's not a great percentage.
6:38
And then they cash it on one of the four also not a great
6:41
percentage. So I think they're a little bit
6:43
underwater on both of those, but enough to walk away with some
6:47
encouragement. But the JRK point is interesting
6:49
because I think there might be a case to be made to like almost
6:54
like be running more of the offense through JRK and then
6:58
sort of like tilting what else is happening?
7:00
Because I think Aslani was in more of a traditional spot,
7:04
Unogi traditional spots, Tina up top, kind of like they they were
7:08
all sort of like set almost like a foosball style.
7:11
And then you've got JRK kind of freestyling, playing jazz, and
7:15
you almost want to like loosen things up up top because I think
7:18
I think things were pretty, pretty stuffy up there.
7:20
I, I can definitely see that and I think, you know, I mentioned
7:25
her in the preview. Obviously we got to, to see her
7:28
play for Hammerby in this past Champions League.
7:31
I wanna see Ellen Vongerheim play in the next match versus
7:35
Poland because I think she has some of that in her game.
7:40
And I this is not a call for Steena Black Stenius to not
7:43
play. She'll still have a role.
7:45
She should. I would love to see her come on
7:47
in the 60th or like you know, somewhere in the around that
7:50
hour mark. But let's get some Vonger I'm
7:52
minutes and see if she can get into some of those dangerous
7:55
spaces. See how she plays with House
7:57
Lani, the JRK and the wing, as you mentioned, Jinogi as well.
8:00
So yeah, I, I hope to see like, I don't think there's anything
8:04
like terribly disappointing about a one nil victory over
8:07
Denmark, you know, where the defense plays well, but let's
8:12
see some other looks and I I'd be a little surprised if we
8:15
don't. I, I, I would agree with that
8:18
probably maybe outside of I think Angledahl and JRK have to
8:23
be like locked in, like Angledahl had a monster game.
8:29
I love the moment where she takes a crack in the first half
8:33
felt like she should have had it, but her reaction to, to
8:36
missing it and not scoring, I mean, just a, a complete
8:40
visceral emotional explosion. She's like, oh, like that was it
8:43
right there. So you could just kind of sense
8:46
like the calibration part and we'll get into Germany a little
8:48
bit later and you know, sort of like their lack of, you know,
8:52
they weren't, let's just say that their attack, I don't, I
8:54
don't think as locked in as Angledahl was today, you could
8:58
just tell that things were trending towards, you know,
9:02
either she's getting a goal or he's getting super close.
9:05
Yeah, best player on the field for sure.
9:07
I think for them during imagine, like you said, Aslani played
9:10
pretty well too. Cannery played well.
9:12
I, I do also want to point out like when we're talking about
9:14
like turning defense into offense.
9:18
So Linda Sembrandt and Natalie Bjorn as a center back duo.
9:22
Sembrandt completed 28 of 29 passes.
9:25
That's good for 97% highest percentage of anyone who played
9:29
more than 45 minutes. That stat is a courtesy of our
9:32
pals over at Foot Mob and Natalie Bjorn.
9:35
Obviously Chelsea defender completed 85% of her passes.
9:39
They kind of fortify that spine of the defense.
9:42
Lundquist and Anderson completed a lower percentage.
9:46
I think they're like in the 70 seventies range, I want to say,
9:51
but that's not what they're there for.
9:53
You know, they, they want, they kind of, they need to be out
9:56
there to, you know, stop the wingers and, and get people like
9:59
basically funneled into the, the stronger defenders.
10:02
So Linda Sembranch, I think she's 38 years old.
10:06
I think she's she's a little up there in age for an athlete.
10:09
She won Syria three times with Juventus and she's obviously
10:14
playing at Bayern Munich right now and one frown Bundis league
10:18
at twice with them and obviously Natalie Bjorn 2 leagues with
10:22
Rosengaard and another 2 with Chelsea these past two years.
10:26
So you got like championship medal in there and I think that
10:29
that's going to go a long way in this chairman.
10:31
Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, they they looked very
10:34
tough. They weren't going to get
10:35
outplayed today by Denmark, which is always somewhat of a
10:38
challenge as you know, the favorite coming into a specific
10:42
match. You know, it's like, can you
10:43
match their intensity? I think they definitely,
10:46
definitely did that offensively. I think we'll see what kind of
10:49
adjustments they're able to make defensively.
10:51
I think they just, it looked just fine, like a really good
10:54
kind of sparring session against this sort of live Denmark
10:57
attack. I thought harder was good.
10:59
As mentioned. Emily Vangsgard though went a
11:02
little bit, missing 2 touches in the opposition box, nowhere near
11:06
enough. I thought snarl in the in the
11:09
midfield was good. Yanni Thompson I thought it was
11:11
OK. Some definite positives for
11:14
Denmark. Obviously pretty harder, smacks
11:17
the crossbar very late in the match.
11:20
They definitely had chances. I think they were close, but
11:23
Sweden for sure cut above for sure.
11:26
It deserved the win. Definitely could have scored
11:28
more than just a single goal. And you know, you can kind of
11:32
make the case. I want to, I want to get to the
11:33
Germany match before we had this conversation.
11:36
But just to set the stage, I want to talk about which group
11:39
Seaside look the best of the four.
11:43
Same thing we did for group. AI like that I'll be ready.
11:46
I'll be happy to have that conversation and I'd be remiss
11:49
if I just didn't mention you know, Jennifer Faulk every time
11:52
we see her play, whether it's for BK hackiner now for the
11:55
Swedish side. You know we we watched her in
11:58
not this past Champions League, but the the Champions League
12:01
before it's like, oh, she could have the best match day or the
12:05
best match week of any goalkeeper in the tournament any
12:09
week. She is, she is such a great shot
12:11
stopper. And I think, no, I'm going to
12:13
shout out our pal Van Crisp from the Cooler Guild, the great
12:17
Seattle Rain FC podcast. Van Crisp has goalkeeper
12:20
credentials who has kind of explained to me that sometimes
12:24
goalkeepers make saves look easy and you're like, oh, easy save
12:27
for the goalkeeper. But it's actually just because
12:29
she's standing in the absolute perfect spot at that time.
12:32
And that's why it's easy. It feels like Jennifer Faulk has
12:35
a lot of that. It's a lot of parallels between
12:38
Germany and Sweden because Katrin Berger, I think you could
12:40
make the same case, like that's a player that could win a match
12:44
or two or a tournament just flat out.
12:47
I think, I think both of those keepers, you know, sort of at
12:50
the same level. Anything else you want to talk
12:53
about? Sweden, Denmark.
12:56
I mean, we need to get informed because I didn't even crack a
13:02
beverage here. What are we doing?
13:04
Sleepy boys living sleepy. Cheers.
13:08
Cheers to you. Let me tell you something too.
13:10
I had AI had a meeting, a lunch meeting yesterday.
13:13
I was and I could have drove to, but I was like, you know what,
13:15
it's only 2 miles away. I'm going to cycle, I'm going to
13:18
ride, I'm going to ride the bike over there, 2 miles there, 2
13:21
miles back, little extra on top of the gym, a little bit of a 2A
13:26
day just to make sure, like if I'm going to have a beverage
13:29
nightly talking about this football again, I got to I got
13:31
to make sure I'm burning calories.
13:33
So, you know, elite athletes got to got to take care of
13:35
themselves. I like it.
13:37
I like it. That's, that's the, that's the
13:38
playbook right there. I, I went with a different
13:41
playbook. I just switched to seltzer water
13:43
because I mean, if you thought if you thought we'd been sleepy
13:46
before tonight was stacking up to be a real snoozer.
13:52
Understandable. All right, let's.
13:54
Let's shift gears. Germany to Poland Nil.
13:59
Good match up. I think a little closer than
14:01
expected. Poland came out real hot first
14:04
couple minutes, but I I think held up really well.
14:07
Another another kind of parallel with Denmark held up pretty well
14:10
defensively go they go into half nil, nil and then Germany, you
14:16
know, does more German things. But when you think about this
14:18
match, are we a little underwhelmed with Germany?
14:22
Do we feel OK? You know, obviously the XG
14:24
number pretty astronomical for them, 3.29 to 1.03, but they
14:30
only obviously not just the two goals.
14:34
I I'm sort of 5050, I'm sort of in the middle.
14:36
I'm sort of like, OK, this is a good team, very, very high
14:39
ceiling. But the flip side is like, I
14:43
think they should have cashed in quite a bit more and maybe there
14:46
should have been a little bit more distance between Germany
14:49
and Poland. Where?
14:49
Where do you land? I think that's probably fair.
14:53
You know, it's interesting and this is, you know, this is the
14:56
world's greatest women's football podcast.
14:58
It's also the world's greatest geography podcast.
15:01
And so we know that Germany is close to Switzerland.
15:05
And so I wonder, is there a little bit of ancillary pressure
15:10
for them too, not just the host country, but the fact that they
15:14
that, you know, people are going to come into the to these
15:16
matches in droves. They're going to be well
15:18
represented. And like you said, they're going
15:21
to be 1. They're considered one of the
15:22
favorites. They have a ton of talent.
15:23
They have. It's German football.
15:25
There are high expectations and no excuses at any time.
15:29
So, you know, maybe it, I think it's OK to be a little nervy in
15:34
the very first group stage match.
15:37
And I wonder if some of that was a part of it.
15:39
I just want to like something in my notes.
15:41
Dolman has a volley and it just misses.
15:44
And this is we're in the second-half now.
15:46
So we, we have the nil nil first half.
15:47
Poland plays well. Dolman hits a volley and it just
15:51
misses. And I put in my notes, the Poles
15:53
are going to have to survive that for the rest of this match.
15:56
And that was around the 48 minute mark because I was like,
15:59
and so many of those attacking players are capable of a moment
16:02
of brilliance like that. And then it was 5 minutes later,
16:05
EULA Brand happens. And if you're Poland, what or
16:08
any other team, what the hell are you going to do about that?
16:12
I mean, Germany really came out in second-half and was like we
16:15
we need to do something a little bit different.
16:17
You look at the shot disparity in the first half, 5:50,
16:19
second-half, 15 to 4. And to your point that Dalman
16:23
volley, that was the second big chance of the of the second-half
16:27
because I think Bron had one like within the first minute.
16:31
So they definitely came out with something to prove.
16:34
I also want to talk about kind of like that devastating Julia
16:37
Govan injury, of course, I mean, awful to see a player like that
16:44
taken off the field, just clearly unable to continue
16:47
going. But then when you think about it
16:49
happens on a play where she basically saves a goal, you
16:53
know, against Pajor in a match where Germany was not quite
16:57
sputtering, but kind of driving in circles a little bit and
17:01
Poland was in a very like bend but don't break kind of defense.
17:06
And whenever teams are like that, you either have to
17:09
overwhelm them with just shot after shot after shot, you know,
17:13
and just break the dam that way, or you've got to beat them with
17:17
a strike like what you LeBron did to kind of like crack the
17:21
seal in the game. It was just like, there's there
17:23
is no stopping this. You could put Fock and and catch
17:26
a burger in there. You could put the the Poland
17:28
goalkeeper and the Portland goalkeeper.
17:30
Doesn't matter like that that that that strike was was was hit
17:33
in the back of the net one way or the other.
17:36
I love it. No, it's I mean, and they have,
17:40
and then this might even be conservative like if you think
17:42
like, you know, knock could it has been known to score bangers
17:46
too. They have 5 players on the pitch
17:49
who could do that to you. Like that's and that might be
17:52
the low estimate like, and the when Braun finishes it, she she
17:56
gets it on to her left foot and she strikes it right before
18:00
Comcheck closes her down completely.
18:03
And it's just it's one of those things I always think about like
18:06
with baseball, like I don't know how they figured out the physics
18:10
where if you hit a ground ball and the shortstop has to go to
18:13
his left or to his right and somehow you're a good enough
18:17
shortstop to when you throw the ball to 1st, it just beats the
18:21
first baseman, right? It's like what a perfectly like
18:24
engineered like game. I just, and that's kind of what
18:27
I was thinking about you, LeBron.
18:28
I was just like if she waited another quarter of a second,
18:32
Camcheck blocks that shot and she and she just rips it and the
18:36
keeper had no chance. Yeah, placement unbelievable,
18:39
the sound effect unbelievable. But but where I was going with
18:42
the the Julie Quinn injury, obviously, again, devastating
18:46
the captain. You know, you hate to see a
18:48
player like that player we talked about extensively in our
18:50
preview, but her replacement, Carlota Vomser Vomser came on
18:56
ready, very ready to play, very ready to play football because I
19:00
mean, she looked great, created a couple chances, I think gets
19:03
credited with an assist later in the match and just was I mean, a
19:09
a race car out there like just was absolutely ready took that
19:13
took that opportunity a young player to different a different
19:17
profile from Julie Gavin. So also if you're Poland trying
19:20
to defend against that, I mean, it's a real curveball.
19:23
But Vonser really, really took took a full advantage of that
19:26
opportunity. I think had a really good game.
19:28
Yeah, and you know, we're not going to pretend like we're
19:31
frown Bundesliga experts, but like as we are kind of
19:34
monitoring things, I mean and what we saw in our maiden voyage
19:38
covering the Champions League, I'm track.
19:41
Frankfurt has a great program and so vomsters out of there.
19:45
I think she was playing at Cologne the year before, Yes,
19:49
yes. So she was at Cologne for a bit.
19:51
Now she's back from loan to Eintracht.
19:54
So I mean, you know, she has some pedigree in there and I'm
19:57
totally with you, man. She was, she was up for it.
20:01
And there is something to be said for when, because we've
20:05
talked about it, Givens arguably the best right back in the
20:08
world. I think you could you could make
20:09
a real argument for that. And at worst, she's in the top
20:12
4. And so there's no way that
20:16
Poland wasn't game planning for her specifically, like spending
20:20
time thinking about what how to counter her play.
20:24
And now you have a totally different look.
20:26
And now, of course, there's never a benefit to losing a
20:28
great player. And I just hope the injury is
20:30
not serious because you know, we saw with Glottis Vigo Stoder for
20:36
Iceland. Like, are we going to have two
20:39
really competitive teams? Germany obviously more so than
20:41
Iceland, but Iceland's not not a crap team by any chance, by by
20:45
any stretch. Are we going to see 2 great
20:47
captains, defensive leaders out both on match day one?
20:51
Hopefully, hopefully not. Yeah, pretty, pretty awful.
20:55
I mean, I think the one thing I'm holding out for is when
20:58
Vin's knee goes into the turf. That's not usually how you kind
21:03
of tear an ACL That could sort of maybe be like, I mean, this
21:06
is sound like a dummy sayings, but maybe like a meniscus or
21:10
like a kneecap kind of issue. Like it could have been
21:12
something like that, which could also be really bad.
21:13
But ideal. Hopefully it's just maybe a bad
21:17
bruise and something that she could maybe work her way back
21:20
from without that extended recovery time.
21:24
But yeah, looking at Vonser's numbers, just to kind of close
21:26
the loop on that. 31 of 32 passes completed, 50 minutes
21:32
played, two chances created, 4 passes into the final third and
21:37
just didn't really do really anything wrong.
21:41
Just was kind of really good and as mentioned, was involved in
21:44
the build up of the second goal. When it goes Vomser you LeBron
21:49
and Leia Schuler and just to give myself a little pat on the
21:51
back. That's after I the previous note
21:54
right before that was Vomser also came on super ready to
21:57
play. So you could see that one
22:00
bubbling too. And Schuler.
22:03
Schuler gets the goal, but also kind of part of that
22:06
underwhelming German attack. Like, you know, she had a weird
22:11
back heel early. You know, she had a chance she
22:14
could have taken that. She didn't.
22:16
And then later in the match she gets a really good look.
22:18
Hadn't really gotten the chance to calibrate.
22:21
So this one definitely could have been a much, much bigger
22:24
score line. I kind of, and now I'm, I'm, I'm
22:27
making a decision. I left that one underwhelmed
22:29
with Germany. I, I, I sort of talked it out
22:32
and that's, I think where I'm landing.
22:34
Could have been, yeah, could have been 4 nil pretty easily.
22:37
Nuskin missed an absolute sitter like I I couldn't believe that
22:43
she missed it like. It's even possible.
22:47
Clara Bull played really well too.
22:49
Like I think I'm, I think I'm with you, I'm leaving this
22:52
underwhelmed. But man, they left a lot of
22:54
stuff on the table like, and I don't like how many times is a
22:58
German team going to not execute in those spots.
23:01
So I think, you know, I think you could look at it both ways,
23:05
like were they just really nervy and this was like opening match
23:08
jitters? They know they have a lot of
23:09
supporters, they know there's a lot of pressure on them,
23:11
etcetera, etcetera. Or is it, hey, you know, are
23:15
they're coming out there a little sloppy?
23:16
Maybe they thought it was it was going to be a walk over Poland.
23:19
It's like shut down, shut down pie or and we're good and like,
23:23
you know it. It could be either one.
23:26
But I don't blame you for for keeping an eye open, especially
23:30
with them being your pick. Yeah, that was a little nervy,
23:34
but I totally agree with you. Kabul.
23:36
Kabul, I think was a player of the match for Germany.
23:40
She was just unstoppable, just beast, whatever she wanted to
23:44
do. That's that's that's what was
23:46
happening. Incredible player.
23:49
And, you know, it's weird you LeBron on the other side sort of
23:54
feels like a not quite a mirror image, but a younger alternative
23:57
version of like she's definitely clearly going to some of the the
24:01
Clara Bull finishing school, you know, and learning some of
24:04
those, but has her own, you know, style and approach and,
24:08
you know, ways to really hurt you that are slightly different.
24:11
But great call on Bull. I thought she was awesome.
24:13
Just to say what's what's horrifying, and you are right
24:16
about it. What should be horrifying to
24:18
European opponents is that yes, you, LeBron is the quote UN
24:22
quote younger version of Clara Bull.
24:24
Bull is 24, Brand is 22. So that's not great for European
24:29
opponents. Yeah.
24:31
Going to be good for a while. I mean, I don't know, man, I, I,
24:37
I want to believe that the finishing's going to come.
24:40
But to your point about, you know, well, was it an off day,
24:43
you know, first match or was it did they take Poland low
24:46
lightly? One of my first half notes was
24:49
Germany needs to stop trying to pass the ball into the goal.
24:54
Like, you know, you need to kind of kick it hard at some point
24:58
and, you know, make somebody try to make a play defensively.
25:00
But like this whole, we're just going to walk it in and, you
25:03
know, like the, you know, we're Germany and they're Poland and
25:06
that should be that. I hated that I, you know, I
25:09
thought that was gross. So I was really, really
25:13
enthused. But by the way they came out in
25:15
the second-half, you know, you want to see them finish more
25:17
because they're going to need those as the tournament, you
25:20
know, unfurls here. But that first half of it, my
25:24
pick, I was not, not not super happy about where I landed with
25:28
my finals pick. You know, it's it's it's bound
25:31
to happen. Like I took some angry notes
25:34
about Norway and the first half of that match and you know, I'm
25:37
obviously locked in there. I didn't I picked them to make
25:39
the final four. So like or the semi final.
25:42
Pardon me, American parlance there.
25:44
Who looked better, Germany or Sweden?
25:46
I think, I mean, who looked better?
25:48
I think Sweden looked better, I think, I think probably because
25:54
they're deep and you describe their Sweden's defense as
25:57
smothering. I think that's what it was like.
26:00
Germany's defense looked good, but like we know there are
26:04
limited options for for Poland and Pyor is again, one of the
26:08
best number nines in the world, no doubt with a bullet.
26:12
Everybody came. It was a beast out there, did
26:15
everything she possibly could. But I you know, Sweden, just
26:22
they have you talked last episode too about just like
26:26
teams who know their identity, who knows their identity as well
26:30
as Sweden. I that's a great point.
26:35
And I think the identity's kind of changed a little bit since
26:38
the World Cup, you know, like I know we talked a lot about like
26:40
tall girl bias and you know, the set plays and the free kicks.
26:44
And but I, I think watching that Sweden attack today looks
26:48
totally different. You know, like obviously, like
26:50
no roll forward, no illa stead. No, you know, none of like it
26:53
just, I don't know, different a different kind of makeup, which
26:56
I think could be cool because I think, you know, if you, if you
26:59
got all of those different moves to go to, that's for sure
27:04
advantageous. But I agree with you.
27:06
I think Sweden look like the best Group C team today.
27:09
And, you know, now we get to see what happens, you know, in the
27:13
next match. So, you know, Germany taking on
27:16
Denmark, now we kind of get that that equal comparison.
27:19
Now we get to see what Sweden looks like against Poland.
27:22
So, you know, that was a pretty, that's a pretty simple breakdown
27:26
by me because that's just talking what the schedule is.
27:30
But that's the beauty of the tournament.
27:32
Now we we get a direct comparison for these two
27:35
juggernauts. Yeah, and a great segue into
27:39
episode calendar. All right, 12 days of UEFA
27:43
Women's EUR 2025 group stage, football on the horizon. 3 down,
27:48
9 to go. I mean, I'm, let me just double
27:50
check my math here. It's 25% of the way through the
27:53
group stage. Next up.
27:55
Group. D the big one, The biggie?
27:59
Perhaps the main event of match week 1.
28:02
Some might say Netherlands takes on Wales and then England, your
28:08
beloved England takes on France. Oh my goodness gracious, what do
28:12
you? What's the game plan for you
28:14
tomorrow watching these? In just a in a diabolical twist,
28:20
something that I did not expect. And you know what?
28:25
Maybe there there might be some kind of like karma here.
28:29
I have to take my French bulldog to get her nails trimmed.
28:33
So. I'm going to, I'm going to like
28:35
watch the first hour of England, France.
28:40
Well, you know, I'm, I'm going to watch Wales, Netherlands in
28:42
its entirety. And then I'm going to watch the
28:43
first hour of England, France. And then I have to pause it.
28:46
I'm going to drive my my Frenchy juice box.
28:49
I'm going to drive juice box to the vet.
28:51
She's going to get her nails trimmed.
28:52
Then I'm going to drive back and then I'm going to unpause and
28:56
watch the rest of the match. And like I say, it's always a
28:58
nice benefit to, you know, be off social media.
29:03
It's like one of my favorite things about the no spoilers
29:05
mode. So that's always nice because I
29:07
I have no interest in looking at social media, but that's going
29:11
to be the experience. So if if England is down like
29:14
one nil, then I'm just going to be driving juice box to, you
29:18
know, to get her nails trimmed and be like, OK, like wondering
29:22
about all the scenarios knowing it's happening live.
29:24
But I totally I totally spaced when we scheduled the
29:28
appointment. So that's on me.
29:29
But that's what the experience is going to look like.
29:33
What does the I mean, a little bit taken aback, my guy Grant
29:37
too, too fancy for an English bulldog needs, needs a French
29:40
bulldog. And now I'm not sure how the
29:42
football gods are going to, you know, respond to that, you know,
29:45
with with where we're at. But I think we'll we'll stay
29:48
positive and just kind of like let the football happen
29:50
tomorrow. All right, man, this has been
29:53
another episode of into the channel.
29:54
Thank you. Thank you for hanging out.
29:56
If you enjoyed the show or love one's football as much as your
29:58
boys do make sure you're kicking with each and every single week.
30:01
Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
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you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
30:06
favorite podcast app links to all of our socials except one
30:09
show notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my coast
30:12
as well, Mr. Grant Angle, for being either the sleepy, not the
30:16
sleepiest maybe, but the second definitely the second sleepiest
30:19
of the sleepy boys. I appreciate you bro.
30:23
Likewise, buddy, I appreciate you powering through.
30:25
I know you got a lot going on over there.
30:27
I mean, we're 3 for three so far.
30:29
We never promised anybody that we would absolutely, definitely
30:32
do all 12 days. I do feel I was very careful
30:35
about that. No, that was great.
30:37
It was a great move by you setting expectations.
30:40
I feel like we're crushing it so far though.
30:42
I agree with that. Yeah, I think so.
30:45
But I always think that's true. And and you know, thanks to
30:49
everybody who's who's watching the shows.
30:50
You guys have been incredibly nice.
30:52
Thank you for dropping knowledge in the comments.
30:53
And I think I can comfortably say we will see you all next
30:58
time.