Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / USWNT POSTGAME | USA 0 Japan 1 | April 14 2026 USWNT v JAPAN RECAP ⚽️ Maika Hamano

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USWNT POSTGAME | USA 0 Japan 1 | April 14 2026 USWNT v JAPAN RECAP ⚽️ Maika Hamano · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:04
  Oh. Hey, welcome to Internet channel
• 0:08
  podcast, primarily Bones football.
• 0:09
  I'm your host, Dean of the suspicious.
• 0:11
  And as always, I am joined by my coast Mr. Grant Angle.
• 0:16
  What's up, man? I'm feeling fantastic buddy.
• 0:19
  Regained my warmth post USA, Japan.
• 0:23
  It was worth it though battling the elements it really.
• 0:25
  It really wasn't even that cold out here.
• 0:28
  I got could have went sleeveless if I needed to.
• 0:31
  Get your schluter on. I love that.
• 0:34
  Can't wait to hear about your experience of the game I have.
• 0:37
  I've got a bunch of takes to to blow through.
• 0:40
  In short, a lot of my enthusiasm.
• 0:42
  My my, my bubble filled with enthusiasm.
• 0:45
  A lot of it seeped out of that that that that poor balloon.
• 0:49
  So I've got maybe I can help have you talk me off the ledge a
• 0:52
  little bit. But Mr. Grant Angle, where do we
• 0:55
  get started? Let's.
• 0:56
  Get started with a beverage buddy.
• 0:59
  I need real hoops on Tuesday. What a day.
• 1:03
  We actually had also hoops with the Miami Heat going out in the
• 1:06
  playing in spectacular fashion. Shameful behavior.
• 1:12
  Shameful behavior by Lamello Ball.
• 1:14
  Look, we don't get on here and chastise athletes very much.
• 1:17
  What are you doing, dude? What are you doing?
• 1:20
  You know, and he's just such a straight up guy, like you just
• 1:23
  never hear anything about him of the sort, you know, So just it
• 1:27
  makes it doubly, doubly odd. But I I want to talk about some
• 1:31
  of this football with you. Let's do that.
• 1:33
  Let's start in the most logical place.
• 1:36
  Japan won United States women's national team nil.
• 1:42
  What was the first thing you looked at?
• 1:43
  I mean, I think the lineup and I had talked about on the show
• 1:47
  last episode, I'm like, I wonder if Emma is going to do that
• 1:50
  thing where she trots out all the youngins.
• 1:52
  They take one on the chin and then, you know, she gets to do
• 1:55
  the thing where it's like, oh, well, you know, not as good as
• 1:57
  we thought we were. Even having said that on the
• 2:00
  last episode, watching it play out in real time, I didn't like
• 2:03
  it whatsoever. Like this, this super beefed up
• 2:07
  midfield with we have like 5 or 6 or 7 midfielders going in
• 2:11
  every direction. I don't know what I don't know
• 2:13
  what what the what the game plan was.
• 2:15
  What was what was your you were there, you were in the building.
• 2:17
  Is is this an overreaction or or what you see right out of the
• 2:20
  game? I came away pretty impressed
• 2:22
  with Japan having a plan of, OK, we won't, we won't have much of
• 2:28
  the ball in this case. And you have to decide what
• 2:32
  exactly you're going to do with it.
• 2:34
  And I think your point about the youth and maybe a little bit of
• 2:39
  maybe skill redundancy in, in some, in some ways in the
• 2:43
  lineup, not to put word in your mouth, he didn't say this go
• 2:45
  redundancy part, but I'm curious your your thoughts on that.
• 2:49
  I'll take it. But like, I think maybe that
• 2:52
  that played into it a little bit.
• 2:54
  But you know, I felt like if you're looking at like a 4231
• 2:58
  with Sentinor as the tip of the spear, which kind of felt like
• 3:01
  it, it morphed into that at times instead of like a 433.
• 3:06
  I didn't have a huge problem with it.
• 3:07
  And that when I, you know, I was walking into the stadium right
• 3:11
  at 6:00 when the, when the lineups were announced, pull up
• 3:14
  the old fat mob app. And I thought Dino was right,
• 3:18
  took the age column on the spreadsheet, sorted it by age.
• 3:21
  It was just like, all right, I'm going to throw Sonnet out there
• 3:24
  to help with that. But other than that, we had a
• 3:27
  lot of young players out there. Yeah, I think, I think the
• 3:29
  report on the telecast that Sonnet had taken a knock in
• 3:31
  practice was slated to start the first one and then had to, you
• 3:35
  know, do the swap to kind of like take her spot in this one.
• 3:38
  But I just thought to your point about the the skill redundancy,
• 3:42
  they also mentioned it on the telecast where it's like, OK,
• 3:44
  well, Jaden Shaw, Ali Sentinor, both of them are like, you know,
• 3:47
  nine and a half, 910 in and out. That's a fun idea in theory, but
• 3:53
  you can't have two of them at the same time because it means
• 3:55
  you have you have really none of them.
• 3:56
  You don't really have real 10. You don't have a real 9.
• 3:58
  And what what what kept happening over and over was
• 4:04
  Avery Patterson, Lily Real, Claire Hutton, you went, you win
• 4:08
  a ball back and you don't know who's where.
• 4:10
  Like, like, like they kept kicking it into space where
• 4:13
  there's nobody. And like, it's like, there's
• 4:15
  supposed to be somebody there, but Sentinor's up and Shaw's
• 4:18
  back and or vice versa. Ms. Sears also for some reason,
• 4:22
  kept having to track all the way back and try to connect with
• 4:24
  Lily Real. And for whatever reason that
• 4:27
  that connection was was way off as well.
• 4:30
  Yeah. It wasn't really clear to me
• 4:33
  what the what the offensive game plan was it, it kind of felt a
• 4:37
  lot of like, you know, trial and error, but a lot more error, you
• 4:41
  know, if that makes sense. It did then, you know, in that
• 4:44
  in that first half, it felt like even with USAI don't know if
• 4:48
  they so much dominated the ball in the in the first half, It
• 4:51
  felt like they they were winning possession relatively handily in
• 4:55
  the first half. But even then felt like the
• 4:57
  majority of the play was happening in USA's defensive
• 5:01
  half. Like Japan was, you know, if
• 5:03
  you're Japan, you're a OK with that.
• 5:05
  And I think what happens sometimes when you have like a
• 5:10
  young team out there is that then they tried to they tried to
• 5:14
  beat Japan with long passes and they and Japan just kept
• 5:18
  intercepting him. And they like a lot of them were
• 5:20
  like, you know, thigh high. And they would just, you know,
• 5:23
  put get their boot up and just play it forward and then take
• 5:26
  control and get it downfield. And then, yeah, USA was taking
• 5:28
  the ball back and and holding the ball, but Japan just seemed
• 5:32
  pretty, pretty comfortable out there.
• 5:34
  And you know, if you look at it. So they're right back.
• 5:37
  Recess. Shimizu, she plays at Liverpool.
• 5:41
  You know, Moloka mean to me. She plays at Brighton, the
• 5:44
  legend Saki Kumagai, she plays for London City.
• 5:47
  Lionesses, obviously she has a historic career with Leon and
• 5:50
  ASAS Roma before she goes to London City.
• 5:53
  You know, those players like if you play at Liverpool, Brighton
• 5:57
  and not, you know, obviously Kumagai's a a certified legend.
• 6:01
  They didn't care about the elements.
• 6:03
  They're fine in the rain. And you know, I I will say
• 6:06
  emissaries pride of the Ohio State University.
• 6:08
  She looked physically, she didn't give a shit about the
• 6:11
  rain either, but the the weather in general.
• 6:15
  But I just felt like Japan was like, OK, you want to try to
• 6:17
  play those long passes, We'll just read them and intercept
• 6:19
  them. Yeah, yeah, they mentioned that
• 6:22
  when I think when the US goes into halftime down a goal, I
• 6:26
  think they were talking about the the the rain.
• 6:27
  It's like it was a rain and I'm like, I'm sitting at home and
• 6:30
  like, yo, so if it's rains, we can't, we're not going to win
• 6:32
  the World Cup. If it's raining out there, we're
• 6:33
  just that's it. We're not going to.
• 6:35
  Win. I hope it doesn't rain in
• 6:36
  Brazil. Is there any, is there any kind
• 6:39
  of forests there that? I think they got a couple of
• 6:42
  water to at least. But yeah, it was, it was, it was
• 6:45
  tough, tough sledding. I think I thought Ali Sentinor
• 6:50
  had had a rough a rough go of it, you know, but it's tough to
• 6:54
  really kind of blame her. She wasn't really in great
• 6:56
  positions to to kind of make it happen.
• 6:58
  And I think the other thing I noticed Japan pretty much the
• 7:02
  entire match, I only counted one time where they gave the ball
• 7:07
  away on a lateral pass or a back pass.
• 7:10
  They only gave the ball away on like progressive forward passes.
• 7:14
  They never caught themselves off guard.
• 7:16
  And then on the flip side, there was one play where Jaden Shaw
• 7:20
  like 70 yards away from goal, you know, does the thing that
• 7:24
  you're definitely not supposed to do or you just kicks it into
• 7:26
  the middle of the park to nobody.
• 7:28
  And like, Sam tries to chase it down.
• 7:30
  And and it really was just so obvious that nobody knew where
• 7:35
  anybody else was going to be. You know, it just kind of kept
• 7:38
  happening over and over. I think the lack of structure
• 7:42
  really hurt them in this one. And I think to zoom out even
• 7:44
  further, I think a wasted opportunity from Emma Hayes to
• 7:48
  kind of like put together a real team because this was a, it was
• 7:52
  kind of a bullshit lineup, honestly.
• 7:54
  Like to me. It was like the lineup was was
• 7:57
  silly. You know, it's it's tough to
• 7:59
  have a lineup that ends with A2, you know, a 352 or whatever.
• 8:03
  When one of the two is sent more, you know, you're just kind
• 8:06
  of put putting her in a bad spot.
• 8:08
  It's like that's it's tipped the wrong way for me, you know, and
• 8:12
  I think Japan, it was kind of easy for them to to kind of shut
• 8:16
  it down. Like for the most part on an
• 8:18
  action, we might have 1 runner or a second runner, but that was
• 8:22
  pretty much it. So I'm not sure what, what the
• 8:25
  closest chance we had on the date was.
• 8:26
  It was probably that that Ms. Sears one that kind of dragged
• 8:29
  across where where Hakuna makes that save, but not, you know,
• 8:33
  no, no huge threats like, you know, over the course of the
• 8:35
  day. I think that's probably right.
• 8:39
  So Ms. Sears had that good chance.
• 8:43
  Wilson had one that was an easy save.
• 8:46
  Yeah, Wilson had that shot, Yeah, but she was, she was too
• 8:52
  far out and wasn't going to be able to get enough on it.
• 8:54
  That was around the what, the 71st?
• 8:58
  And then there was the one play where heaps like pops it up and
• 9:03
  you know, it's it's Rodman down the wing, plays it into Senora,
• 9:06
  kind of bounces around and then Shaw hits it just wide.
• 9:10
  I think it's probably between that and the Sears chance early
• 9:14
  are probably their best chances. Heaps had that chance later in
• 9:16
  the match, but she was offside and she looked offside pretty
• 9:20
  clearly from from the stadium. But then when I went back and
• 9:24
  like watched watched the match on TVII did see, you know,
• 9:29
  father. He was like who?
• 9:30
  It's it's tight, It's barely offside and I was like, I don't
• 9:32
  know, it's like half her body seemed to be offside there.
• 9:34
  It seemed like, you know, I don't know, it looked pretty
• 9:37
  clear. For Lindsay, that's pretty
• 9:39
  close. Yeah, there.
• 9:41
  You go. I thought, yeah, I mean, well,
• 9:45
  let's talk about the goal, you know, but what was your what was
• 9:50
  your. I mean, there's a lot to unpack
• 9:54
  there. Obviously, Michael Mano, you
• 9:56
  started nothing about Chelsea, just them deciding, all right,
• 9:59
  we don't really need this player anymore.
• 10:00
  But I think the thing I'm going to take away is at the end of
• 10:05
  it, you know, before the strike happens.
• 10:07
  And Lily Real had a tough, you know, you know, possession on
• 10:10
  that one, a couple a couple missteps to to to kind of open
• 10:15
  up that chance. But home on was going to do that
• 10:16
  to a lot of players for sure. But by the time the strike
• 10:20
  happens, there's five attackers in the box versus 7 US defenders
• 10:26
  off of something that didn't really even look like anything.
• 10:29
  And it's just so crazy how quickly they can turn a little
• 10:32
  scramble mode until like now we're all here.
• 10:35
  We're going to make you like we're going to like put all
• 10:37
  seven of the defenders on their heels.
• 10:39
  And it was enough to give Harmano the space, you know, to
• 10:43
  give PTJ, you know, like a a tough play to make.
• 10:48
  I think that's spot on. And I mean, you know, we saw the
• 10:51
  Harmano wonder goal to win the Asian Cup where you and I
• 10:56
  talked. I mean, that that was a
• 10:58
  significantly better goal than this one where she, you know,
• 11:00
  she plays it with her back to the goalkeeper and then spins
• 11:03
  and and hits it. But from from where I was.
• 11:06
  So it was on like the other closer to the other end of the
• 11:10
  pitch from from where my seats were, but you could tell once
• 11:15
  she turned it in, it was like and she kind of cooks real and
• 11:19
  then gets it on to her left. I immediately go, she's going to
• 11:23
  shoot and then she shot and you know, with AI did I did like
• 11:27
  this how he pointed out on the on the broadcast, you know, with
• 11:31
  a wet ball like that, if if PTJ is only going to get fingertips
• 11:35
  to it, it's just going to be too slick and it's going to it's
• 11:37
  going to slip over and get under the bar for the goal.
• 11:41
  Emma Hayes. 27 we got to we got to find a way for it to prevent
• 11:44
  this rain in 27 it could be the bigger, bigger problems.
• 11:49
  We, we don't want to, we don't want to Dome in, in Seattle.
• 11:52
  We don't need it. We play in the elements, you
• 11:56
  know, Hayes mentioned a couple times in the post match presser.
• 11:59
  Like it was a preventable goal. And I think it was mostly, and I
• 12:02
  don't think that was a shot at PJ.
• 12:04
  I think it's exactly what you're talking about, just allowing
• 12:07
  that kind of space for Himano. And who knows better than Emma
• 12:09
  Hayes what Himano was capable of.
• 12:11
  So you just can't give her that room to turn in fire.
• 12:14
  On on that play too. Shout out to Mina Tanaka, who
• 12:18
  who who's the one that you know, pulls all the gravity and you
• 12:22
  know she goes right at Sonnet Sam's and then also that and
• 12:25
  then kind of nudges closer to Lily reel to to draw real closer
• 12:28
  in. And then real has to wheel all
• 12:30
  the way back around. And it's because she's like
• 12:34
  overcompensating and trying to like get back into the play,
• 12:38
  like in an over aggressive way that hermanos like you're
• 12:41
  cooked, You're you're coming too fast, too hard at me.
• 12:44
  And then she just jukes her off the off the screen or like an
• 12:46
  incredible move there and a goal that wasn't.
• 12:49
  I wasn't super surprised to see, you know, because they had they
• 12:53
  had been kind of playing it close to the vest and that's how
• 12:56
  they were playing and super opportunistic.
• 12:58
  And you mentioned it, you mentioned it earlier about where
• 13:03
  the US had the ball. In my notes, I kind of jotted
• 13:06
  down Japan winning the field position matchup because they
• 13:10
  were happy to just kind of like advance the ball 1520 yards and
• 13:14
  then get a throw. And, you know, and just kind of
• 13:15
  like keep nudging it forward, forward, forward and like not,
• 13:19
  not give up the space the other way.
• 13:21
  And they just kind of had a really good control of where the
• 13:25
  action was being played. I I love the way you describe
• 13:29
  that. That makes it.
• 13:30
  That makes a lot of sense. And it was something that I was
• 13:32
  thinking about in the second-half.
• 13:35
  You don't like when you're at a football match and you know, one
• 13:40
  team, particularly specifically, actually the home team looks
• 13:45
  like they have a little bit of a break and then they'll they'll
• 13:48
  push the ball up like 30 yards, but then one of the players kind
• 13:50
  of pulls it back. And then, you know, tries to
• 13:53
  recycle and, and, and, you know, pass the ball around a little
• 13:57
  bit. And like, you can hear fans like
• 13:59
  when the break starts, they're like go, go, go, everybody.
• 14:02
  But and but then the player pulls up and stops and people
• 14:05
  are just like, but like, you know, foot in football was such
• 14:08
  a big playing field. I know this is pretty some basic
• 14:11
  stuff here, but like, you're not going to run and gun the whole
• 14:15
  the whole match. You can't.
• 14:16
  Everybody's going to be exhausted by the 20th minute.
• 14:19
  And we're talking about the second-half here.
• 14:20
  And I was thinking about that too, because fans in Seattle,
• 14:23
  like when USA had was trying to do some of that in the
• 14:26
  second-half and people are like, oh, keep going, go on the fast
• 14:30
  break. And I was like, they just want
• 14:31
  to stop playing the ball in the defensive, in their defensive
• 14:35
  half at, at points. And so I think I think you're
• 14:38
  right. I I would bet that Emma Hayes
• 14:40
  and the coaching staff recognized and talked to them in
• 14:43
  halftime about like, hey, how about we play with the ball in
• 14:46
  the attacking side of the field and see what happens then.
• 14:50
  Yeah, and a little bit of that after the Subs came in too.
• 14:54
  You know, I thought, you know, Heaps was was involved in that
• 14:56
  Rodman, you know, I thought David Davidson, you know, kind
• 15:00
  of like was, I mean, some beautiful balls over the top and
• 15:03
  just, I mean, her game is so smooth.
• 15:06
  She looks so good. You know, of the of the if, if
• 15:10
  that was the second unit or whatever.
• 15:11
  I mean, I'm not sure where people slot, but I thought she
• 15:14
  looked great. Jamice Joseph too, looked like
• 15:17
  AUS swimming national team player to me.
• 15:19
  But I also took in my notes because this was the, you know,
• 15:24
  this was sort of like B team versus B team for the most part.
• 15:28
  And, you know, the telecast made a big deal of, you know, the USS
• 15:32
  wave of Subs. You know, you will get the the
• 15:34
  dramatic shot of Giselle Thompson turn to Davidson,
• 15:38
  Rodman and Wilson. And, you know, the the the din
• 15:41
  of the crowd, you know, as you know, starts to crank the volume
• 15:43
  up a little bit. But if I put this question to
• 15:47
  you, who brought in which team brought in the sixth most
• 15:53
  talented players, right? I'll start with US.
• 15:57
  I named the first word Giselle Thompson, Tina Davidson, Rodman
• 16:01
  Wilson and then Heaps and Jamice Joseph.
• 16:04
  That's six in the US side. Japan, Yuihasagawa, Minaka
• 16:10
  Matakubo, Momoko Tanakawa, Hinata Miyazawa, Alba Fujino,
• 16:15
  Rico Yuaki. Which sticks you taking?
• 16:20
  OK, I like, I like that because yeah, they also brought in
• 16:22
  Kinigawa and Yamamoto, but they, they used all eight of their
• 16:26
  Subs, which by the way, I don't want to sound like an old man
• 16:28
  here, but when I heard in these friendlies and they were like,
• 16:31
  yeah, they can use 8 Subs. I was even.
• 16:33
  I was even an old man, shaking, yelling at a cloud or shaking my
• 16:36
  fist. But.
• 16:37
  But I I did, I did like figuratively clutch my pearls
• 16:40
  like hate hate Subs. What happened to the sport I
• 16:45
  love? But like, sure, like that's
• 16:46
  fine. It's whatever.
• 16:47
  It's a friendly who gives a shit.
• 16:50
  I mean, those 6, I don't know. I mean, Sophie Wilson, man, I
• 16:54
  mean, you know, two time Golden Boot winner in the, in the NWSL,
• 16:59
  you know, all time player, Trinity Rodman, rookie of the
• 17:01
  year, NWSL champion. I, I don't know, I mean, it's
• 17:07
  it's way when you put it in those six versus the other six.
• 17:13
  And accounting for current form, he had a good argument for
• 17:18
  Japan. They're a really good argument.
• 17:21
  UE UE is in the best 11 in the world conversation, no?
• 17:25
  That's fair. Matsukubo is the midfielder of
• 17:28
  the year in the NWSL Tanakawa superstar LED her team leading
• 17:34
  her team into the the semi finals of the Champions League
• 17:37
  at like 20 years and something days.
• 17:40
  Fujino Miyazawa and this is this is these are the six that they
• 17:43
  brought in six of the 8. Thank you for for rounding out
• 17:46
  the the whole slate, but I think it was much closer and I'm not
• 17:50
  sure I'm not taking Japan 6 to be honest, considering current
• 17:54
  form for sure because I think Rodman worked her way into the
• 17:59
  match started to look really electric down the stretch
• 18:03
  physically. Wilson, I think has a little bit
• 18:05
  of ways to go. Davidson had mentioned looks
• 18:09
  further along than I was expecting.
• 18:10
  I thought, I thought looked really sharp physically was look
• 18:14
  like a bruiser and I think just so smooth in terms of like on
• 18:18
  the ball and was putting it wherever she wanted.
• 18:20
  I thought that was awesome to see.
• 18:22
  Yeah, and Emma Hayes agreed with you in the post match presser,
• 18:26
  Emma Hayes said quote, I think Tyranno looked like she hadn't
• 18:30
  been away. I thought, well, this is going
• 18:32
  to be a tough game for her to go into, but she didn't show that
• 18:35
  End Quote. I totally agree.
• 18:37
  She used her size. She used her skill and like, you
• 18:40
  know, and I, I know I and you know, feel free to to blast me
• 18:44
  in the chat to our pals if I'm doing this too much.
• 18:47
  But like the 2024 Olympics when you had Davidson and Germa as
• 18:52
  your two center backs, they were unbeatable.
• 18:55
  They're playing everybody's best team and nobody could hold them.
• 18:58
  And because you just couldn't do anything on offense against
• 19:01
  those two. It's so true that that they they
• 19:04
  definitely are, are additive as a pairing.
• 19:07
  With that said, I thought Samson saw it had a little bit of of
• 19:12
  IQ, you know, mind meld going on early.
• 19:15
  I think I thought that it unraveled a little bit down the
• 19:18
  stretch, maybe as folks are to get tired or as it start to rain
• 19:22
  harder start it. But I thought I thought they
• 19:27
  they had some good connectivity and that I'm not sure they've
• 19:29
  logged a lot of minutes together.
• 19:31
  So I thought that was cool. Jay and Shaw just to kind of
• 19:34
  round things out some exciting moments, but it it just took her
• 19:38
  so long to figure out how to be, you know, how to kind of take
• 19:43
  the lead in the match without a, you know, you know, impose her
• 19:46
  will. I don't know, to me, rewatching
• 19:49
  it, rewatched it again today, like the first half an hour just
• 19:53
  looked so, so disheveled. You know, I mean, it was pretty
• 19:57
  it was pretty clear that they were not going to score.
• 19:59
  They were not going to score. I think their best chance was
• 20:01
  when they brought in those wave of Subs.
• 20:03
  But even then, a little, a little bit straight, a little
• 20:06
  bit too straightforward on the day.
• 20:08
  Yeah, I think that's right. And we, you know, we talked
• 20:10
  about it earlier when they started to hit those passes,
• 20:13
  those long passes and you know, Japan when they they pretty
• 20:18
  easily snuffed out like the first three or four, I was like,
• 20:21
  all right, let's check that off the list.
• 20:22
  It doesn't appear like that's going to work.
• 20:24
  But also, you know, how many times do you see that in a, in a
• 20:27
  match where like it doesn't look like that's going to work.
• 20:29
  But Emma Sears, she was running like a deer out there at times.
• 20:32
  And I was like, she might get one if, if, if one works.
• 20:35
  But you know, if you are if when you are the number two team in
• 20:41
  the world and you are playing the number 5 team in the world,
• 20:43
  who it's it's an amazing point by you whose depth is about as
• 20:48
  good as yours. Like you could probably make the
• 20:50
  argument not quite as good as the US, but on the day and
• 20:53
  considering current form whose depth is about as good as yours,
• 20:56
  you have to somehow win in the margins and and you know, take
• 21:00
  advantage of a slight moment and you're playing percentages and
• 21:03
  the percentages just didn't fall in US as favor in this one.
• 21:06
  Yeah, it's so true. And I think winning on the
• 21:08
  margins is going to be something that we're going to have to get
• 21:10
  used to. I mean, all these top teams have
• 21:12
  to get used to, but I wanted to cut a lot 1 last point in the
• 21:16
  match because it wasn't a ball over the top.
• 21:20
  But let me just see if I could find in my notes.
• 21:22
  It was a little bit later in the match, 54th minute.
• 21:26
  Lily Real plays a great ball up ahead to Jaden Shaw.
• 21:30
  Kind of like through traffic gets to Jaden Shaw, Jane Shaw
• 21:35
  drives it down to the end line like like a really great like
• 21:39
  move, great spin on, on on reels pass right into her path.
• 21:44
  And then Shaw, like, gets on to it, whips across like right into
• 21:48
  the danger area, and there's not a single US player there.
• 21:52
  Oh, I know you. Know, and then it's like, you
• 21:55
  know, Moultrie ends up trying to like, she literally runs onto
• 21:59
  the frame, you know, because there's nobody there.
• 22:01
  And then, you know, tries to, you know, do something with it,
• 22:04
  but is nowhere near it. And like I said, I think I'm
• 22:09
  going to walk away from, you know, think about this being a
• 22:11
  little bit of a wasted opportunity because that 11 is
• 22:15
  never an 11 that's going to play, you know, like as is, you
• 22:19
  know, so we're getting so close and then the opponent is so in
• 22:23
  form and sharp. Like, why not try to like
• 22:26
  construct something like that somewhat realistic because like,
• 22:29
  I just don't feel like that that we would ever see that 11.
• 22:33
  And it kind of makes it feel like maybe a little bit of a
• 22:35
  wasted a wasted opportunity. And and that play kind of
• 22:39
  captures the whole thing. You know, it's like great ball
• 22:41
  from real Shaw wins, great crossing.
• 22:45
  And it's like nobody there because nobody knows to be
• 22:48
  there. You know, it's like every like
• 22:50
  everybody's in in a different spot.
• 22:51
  So I left that one extremely frustrated.
• 22:55
  And I, I sort of highlighted that play a couple times in my
• 22:58
  notes just being like this. This sort of summed it up for
• 23:00
  me. I think that makes sense.
• 23:03
  And, and I, I understand the framing of it being a missed
• 23:08
  opportunity because you could probably look at Japan's 11 and
• 23:11
  think, well, how many times is that 11 ever going to play?
• 23:14
  Like how many times are they going to be in a situation
• 23:16
  where, you know, we're playing a match 3 1/2 days later, you
• 23:20
  know, and, and we got to like reshake the snow globe or I
• 23:24
  guess just shake the snow globe. So what was it?
• 23:26
  It was 9 changes for Japan and 11 changes for USA.
• 23:33
  So like wholesale change for the USA, but still a a big rotation
• 23:38
  for Japan. So but I I could see the point
• 23:41
  of like, well, who cares how Japan changed their line up?
• 23:45
  Like we should have put together a line up that you might think
• 23:47
  like, do we need this in a World Cup match?
• 23:50
  I think that's, I think that's fair game to point out.
• 23:54
  Is there any value though, and when you put a line up like that
• 23:58
  out to just like is Emma Hayes trying to uncover well, what is,
• 24:05
  is there a secret connection or maybe something that she saw in
• 24:09
  practice? Because I doubt she's just like
• 24:11
  putting players out there who have like no connectivity or no
• 24:14
  chemistry. She's.
• 24:15
  Like Hunger Games. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 24:17
  Like there's obviously, there's very clearly a method to what
• 24:21
  Emma Hayes is doing. Do we think can, can we, can we
• 24:25
  hypothesize that maybe she was like, OK, let's put him in a
• 24:28
  real world scenario against a great team who he knows can also
• 24:32
  going to be heavily rotated and maybe there's a little more
• 24:35
  magic to A to a pairing or a trio Then we thought, do we
• 24:40
  think maybe that's what she was going for?
• 24:43
  I mean. It's possible, but like, you
• 24:46
  know, you look at real to Emma Sears, that was a mess.
• 24:50
  You know, I mean, I think like Shawn Sentinore couldn't figure
• 24:53
  out who was going where. That was pretty obvious.
• 25:00
  It was just really clunky. It was like kind of too clunky.
• 25:02
  And I think, you know, I kind of think about some some of these
• 25:04
  things in NBA terms where it's like what you got to think about
• 25:07
  your lineup. You know, you don't just have
• 25:08
  five players and you have another five players, another
• 25:10
  like did you have to sort of mix and match to give yourself an
• 25:14
  opportunity? And I just don't think that who
• 25:17
  was out there. It was tough to see like, you
• 25:20
  know, Moultrie had nothing to do, you know, because it's like
• 25:24
  you got 55 other midfielders, you know, you could lump
• 25:27
  centenor in there too. And so it was like everybody was
• 25:30
  looking for the ball in the same place and nobody had anybody to
• 25:33
  pass because they were all kind of, I don't know, in the in the
• 25:35
  same headspace a little bit. So I think if you if you are
• 25:37
  going to send that group out there, kind of do it with with a
• 25:42
  directive which which that wasn't kind of obvious.
• 25:46
  And then that leads me to my my final point.
• 25:49
  You know, as we approach the World Cup, you think about you
• 25:53
  think about styles of play, Japan, Brazil, Spain, Germany,
• 26:00
  France, maybe England a little, a little less.
• 26:02
  So, you know, England's a little like, you know, tough, hard
• 26:04
  knows kind of, you know, they're very Workman like less of a
• 26:09
  style, maybe a master of many styles.
• 26:11
  But I was a little troubled too that this U.S. team looked
• 26:16
  completely different in playing style than the first night.
• 26:20
  He like it didn't look like the same country.
• 26:23
  And and that left me a little bit worried, you know, because
• 26:28
  like when you watch Brazil, Brazil always looks like Brazil,
• 26:31
  France always looks like France, you know, German, you know, like
• 26:34
  so I, I don't know it did this didn't this 11 to look like the
• 26:37
  the other 11. It's like, why is that?
• 26:39
  Like why? What are we missing?
• 26:40
  Here, it's sharp by you because even when we do talk about Japan
• 26:47
  and we see those matches where they'll have 58% of the ball,
• 26:53
  63% of the ball and they're playing, you know, they're
• 26:57
  knocking it around and it looks like, you know, it looks
• 27:00
  natural. It looks almost scripted to a
• 27:03
  point, but it's free flowing enough to where it's clearly not
• 27:05
  rigid. But then in this match, what I
• 27:08
  mean, I wanted did they have 37 percent, 30, they had 33% of the
• 27:15
  ball, according to our pals over at fat Mop and that, you know,
• 27:19
  so they can play counter attacking football and then they
• 27:23
  can play possession based football.
• 27:25
  But I, I, I think it, the reason I say it's sharp by you is
• 27:28
  because like you can play those two different styles, but still
• 27:32
  play within your footballing ethos and within your
• 27:35
  footballing identity. And so I do think it's, it's an
• 27:39
  interesting shout. I'm going to have to Mull it
• 27:42
  over a little more because you kind of blew my mind with this
• 27:44
  of like USA kind of almost with that, with rotating all 11
• 27:48
  players almost looking like, what is the identity, which you
• 27:53
  said at the top, like what, what was the plan out there?
• 27:56
  I think it's a fair question to ask.
• 28:00
  Yeah, and I think something that will track, I'm really glad that
• 28:02
  these these teams are locking back up in a couple days here.
• 28:05
  So we'll get we'll get some Friday night action.
• 28:08
  Your boys will be back. The full recap here.
• 28:10
  You know what time it is. Cannot wait for that just
• 28:13
  because I think it's set up pretty nicely to, you know,
• 28:16
  figure out who, who the line, who's who's going to play and
• 28:19
  you know, who will come out on top in this in this three-game
• 28:22
  set. And if I can, one more thing on
• 28:27
  this one. I thought Emma Hayes had a
• 28:30
  couple interesting quotes in the in the post match presser.
• 28:34
  This one's not a direct quote, but when she was talking about
• 28:38
  those, those lineup changes that you were referencing, she
• 28:42
  basically she made like an analogy of like, well, if
• 28:45
  somebody gives you a Michelin star recipe, you might hear from
• 28:49
  your kid, Mum, you can make this.
• 28:53
  And then he's like, well, yeah, I'll, I'll have a go.
• 28:57
  Which it's one of those moments where sometimes coaches like
• 29:00
  have these like kind of long drawn out analogies.
• 29:02
  And I just, I, I don't know if I'll ever have the guts to do it
• 29:05
  myself as a journalist, but I always want a journalist to
• 29:08
  raise their head and be like, hey, excuse me, What the fuck
• 29:11
  are you talking about? Like, we're, we're getting like
• 29:12
  way off in the like, what are we?
• 29:15
  Yeah, Like, what are we, What are you saying?
• 29:17
  But I thought it was funny when she said that.
• 29:18
  But, you know, she also did say, you know, here's here's an
• 29:25
  interesting piece. Sorry, let me let me get my shit
• 29:28
  together here. She had two quotes that I
• 29:30
  thought were very interesting. The first one talking about
• 29:32
  Japan, Emma Hayes said, quote, they're Speaking of Japan.
• 29:38
  They're one of the best teams at getting back into position and
• 29:41
  protecting their box. They put bodies in central
• 29:43
  areas. If you're not decisive with
• 29:45
  that, they'll clog it up. And quote, I thought that was
• 29:49
  very true and very obvious of what was happening with all the
• 29:52
  interceptions. Then here's the other part that
• 29:54
  I really, really liked and it was a mini flex in there, which
• 29:58
  I always appreciate as well. She talked about this being kind
• 30:01
  of the second match in the three match series.
• 30:03
  She said. Quote, I always felt when I was
• 30:05
  coaching in the Champions League, if you won the first
• 30:08
  game, the second one was always tougher because the losing teams
• 30:12
  always studied the things they needed to do better.
• 30:15
  End Quote. So one I like that is a little
• 30:18
  bit of flex, a little bit of a flex because she was always in
• 30:20
  the Champions League. But it's just true, man.
• 30:23
  Like you do, like we were talking about basketball
• 30:25
  earlier, like you see in the seven game playoff series, like
• 30:28
  usually teams that have a better coach, they can kind of win in
• 30:31
  those margins sometimes. Or if you have more vets,
• 30:34
  playoff experience matters. And but like you're just going
• 30:37
  to have an extended chess match between the players and and the
• 30:41
  managers. And you know, if you win the
• 30:44
  first one, you got to really look out because you are, you
• 30:46
  are almost guaranteed to get the absolute best shot from your
• 30:50
  opponent in the second match. Yeah, I I think that definitely
• 30:54
  checks out. Something tells me, though, that
• 30:58
  there's going to be one extra best shot from Japan in this
• 31:00
  third one, too. I doubt it.
• 31:03
  You know, we're nowhere near kind of, you know, the seat is
• 31:06
  nowhere near any. Now it's lukewarm, not even near
• 31:10
  lukewarm for me. But I'm very curious.
• 31:13
  I'm very curious to see what this looks like in this third
• 31:16
  one to see if there's an adjustment to see if there's an
• 31:20
  unlock or a thing that makes Japan sweat a little bit because
• 31:25
  you know, I don't think there was any that was I don't think
• 31:26
  there was much today. The first, you know, the first
• 31:30
  match up, I kind of rewind back the Roosevelt go, I think 8th or
• 31:34
  9th minute. That was the USS first box touch
• 31:38
  in that match, you know, and it was only the second time that
• 31:41
  the ball even went in the box in like 9 minutes, you know, so and
• 31:46
  the goal not, you know, with not fluky, you know, Roosevelt
• 31:49
  create, you know, makes that goal happen, but maybe not so
• 31:53
  replicable. You know, when we talked about
• 31:55
  both goals coming from the midfield in that one.
• 31:57
  So I don't know. I think this is kind of secretly
• 32:00
  an important an important match from me, as I'll say.
• 32:04
  I like it. That's a good take.
• 32:06
  You. You always surprise me with
• 32:07
  these. Thanks, man.
• 32:10
  Like, yeah, like, I hadn't even really, I hadn't considered
• 32:13
  that. But like she, she's going.
• 32:15
  That they come out and they look flat and they lose 2 nil, you
• 32:18
  know, and now, now it's like 2 in a row and it's like, OK, it
• 32:22
  kind of you kind of recontextualize that first one.
• 32:25
  You know, if that happened, you know, it's a big what if, but it
• 32:28
  would, I don't know, it would, it would rock me a little bit.
• 32:32
  It would be something and she had also mentioned in her in her
• 32:35
  post match presser after this one as she described Japan as
• 32:39
  playing them off the park a year ago in the she believes cup.
• 32:42
  And so, you know, she was that that was obviously cause for
• 32:47
  some concern back then, but also a reason to be happy with the
• 32:52
  result a few days ago on Saturday when they when they
• 32:55
  notched the 21V. Yeah.
• 32:58
  You know, I mean, she's she's talked about, you know, like
• 33:01
  they want to play in these friendly matches.
• 33:03
  They want to play Brazil, they want to play Japan, they want to
• 33:05
  play Canada. They want to play those teams in
• 33:07
  the top 10 because that's who you're going to have to beat in
• 33:10
  the World Cup. So if if you go out and you lose
• 33:12
  the rubber match, to use a little baseball parlance for any
• 33:16
  of our pals up there, like America's not former pastime or
• 33:19
  I guess it's coming back, though.
• 33:20
  Baseball's coming back. There's sidebar.
• 33:22
  I digress. Marcus Future.
• 33:26
  Yeah, I guess, I guess it would be a little, a little weird, but
• 33:29
  I just think like, and we'll talk about some of these
• 33:31
  international matches. You just got a lot of good
• 33:34
  players on both of these teams. And I do think we, we live in a
• 33:37
  reality where, you know, I, I think it speaks to that 2019
• 33:45
  Women's World Cup USA team. It they weren't out there
• 33:49
  playing a bunch of plumbers and farmers, that's just happens to
• 33:53
  be maybe the greatest team ever assembled.
• 33:56
  And maybe, you know, maybe Spain since 2023 has a has a legit
• 34:00
  argument to rival them, but that that just not going to happen a
• 34:05
  lot anymore. Yeah, juggernauts, absolute
• 34:08
  juggernauts. You mentioned some of those
• 34:10
  international matchups and we talked about in the last show a
• 34:12
  Tuesday slight to, you know, to to to be envious of for sure
• 34:19
  somewhere in my heaven. That's every day when I get up
• 34:22
  there. We'll see.
• 34:22
  Fingers crossed. But I want to talk about a
• 34:25
  couple of those matches. England, Spain, what you called
• 34:27
  out earlier. And I, I, I went, I went end
• 34:31
  wire to wire over here watching Netherlands, France, edge of my
• 34:34
  seat. You know, I was minding my sad
• 34:37
  because I did get up every every so often.
• 34:39
  It's good, you know, get the wiggles out.
• 34:42
  But England, Spain. What'd you see in that one?
• 34:45
  England won Spain nil. Let's go, England.
• 34:48
  Waste no time. Alessia Russo gets an assist
• 34:53
  from her back where she's able to.
• 34:55
  The ball falls fortuitously to her right foot.
• 34:58
  She's laying down, able to flip it up to Lauren Hemp, who just
• 35:02
  is like, oh, cool, pass off your back, let me do a spinning
• 35:06
  karate kick to get the ball over the line.
• 35:08
  It barely gets over the line, but there's goal line technology
• 35:13
  over there and it was. It was clear the ball was
• 35:14
  clearly over the line for the goal.
• 35:16
  You know England came out in attack mode early.
• 35:18
  Spain got into their passing groove.
• 35:21
  There were chances on both sides.
• 35:22
  Olga hits the crossbar. Lauren Hemp later hits the post.
• 35:26
  Battier had some chances. Matthew Leone's corner kicks
• 35:30
  were just terrifying if you were rooting for the Lionesses.
• 35:36
  Leon also. Matthew Leon also saved a Russo
• 35:38
  goal on a fast break. Vicki hits the post beta Uelo
• 35:42
  had a play where she heads the ball to herself.
• 35:46
  She hits the header like just past the halfway line and just
• 35:50
  flies past Lucy bronze. Lucy bronze.
• 35:53
  I understand she's she's more advanced in her career.
• 35:56
  She's not slow and I just beta Uelo is so ridiculously fast.
• 36:03
  It's just crazy and she looks like she's about fully healthy
• 36:06
  at this at this point. But I will tell you my my, my
• 36:09
  final take away from that match because Edna Amade had a header
• 36:17
  later in that match that should have gone in.
• 36:21
  But that leads me to the big hit take away Hannah Hampton as a
• 36:25
  goalkeeper. Come talk about it, I mean.
• 36:29
  Everybody knows what it is and maybe a little bit of a, you
• 36:33
  know, get back for, you know, the, you know, Chelsea's on
• 36:37
  ceremonies exit. But I mean, 27, it's starting to
• 36:41
  bubble. It's it's really, really
• 36:43
  starting to bubble on this end. Well, first shout out to Alessia
• 36:48
  Russo, who, you know, some, some players fall down and get get up
• 36:52
  and dust themselves off Alessia Russo falls down and gets it
• 36:55
  assists versus spade. That's it.
• 36:56
  You know, just just that's just how life goes.
• 36:59
  But I I clocked the full 90 like I mentioned Netherlands, France
• 37:03
  on ESPN at which, interestingly enough, no announcer.
• 37:07
  And you know, I'm I'm I can go either way, but a kind of
• 37:11
  peaceful, delightful experience just rocking with the the crowd,
• 37:15
  you know, Odange style and, you know, just a great, great
• 37:20
  environment for sure. Netherlands gets to win 2 to
• 37:22
  one. I want to shout out a player,
• 37:25
  Renee Von Austin, who they played at center back.
• 37:29
  Yeah, alongside Verla Boorman from Chelsea, who I think is
• 37:34
  also 19, and Von Austin on a set play, I think against.
• 37:40
  Oh my God, I'm blanking on who it was.
• 37:42
  Well, it was either lacrosse or who was the other center back
• 37:47
  and Bach, you know. So I mean, it was against some
• 37:49
  of you like really good. You know, Von Austin heads the
• 37:54
  ball up. This is a center back, a 19
• 37:56
  center back heads the ball up and off of volleys, smacks it
• 38:00
  pass pero mignon and like puts them up one nil.
• 38:03
  And I wrote in my notes of honest and plays for IXI wrote
• 38:07
  my notes. Who the hell is this?
• 38:10
  Yeah, like this player is like and and the the the the match
• 38:15
  was star-studded on France's side.
• 38:17
  You know, you got Millard, you got, you know, Sandy Baltimore,
• 38:20
  like they're playing pretty much all all 11 players are are
• 38:25
  recognizable, but a really tough match.
• 38:28
  Netherlands was tough. It it just felt like a great,
• 38:31
  you know, we're we're heading to the NBA playoffs like a great
• 38:33
  four or five matchup or a great like 2-3 match over.
• 38:36
  It's like these might not be the favorites in any of these big,
• 38:39
  you know, tournaments, but they could play with anyone.
• 38:42
  They could beat anyone in a given day and they're right
• 38:44
  outside the inner circle. So incredibly enjoyable.
• 38:48
  You're a qualifying just, you know, hitting another gear for
• 38:53
  sure. I mean, Marie Antoinette Katoto
• 38:55
  had what I thought was going to be a certain goal.
• 39:00
  We're familiar with the work of Marie Antoinette Katoto, but
• 39:04
  your goalkeeper, Arsenal's number one Dafty von Damsel, are
• 39:08
  hell of a save to preserve that win.
• 39:11
  Pause, I mean. You know, just and a big game
• 39:15
  keeper like I feel like Von Damsel are my favorite thing
• 39:19
  about her is she'll let in a weird.
• 39:22
  Goal. You know, as she did in a
• 39:24
  midweek or, you know, WSL match. So you're just like, you know,
• 39:28
  it really kind of leave the bad taste in your breath.
• 39:30
  But then in the big matches like it like like all the chips on
• 39:33
  the table and she just make like she just is there for it.
• 39:38
  You know, it's not perfect, but it never will give you 1.
• 39:42
  You know, like seemingly she's always you really, really,
• 39:45
  really have to beat her in those moments.
• 39:47
  She just could is able to lock in.
• 39:49
  I've really liked that whole Netherlands squad.
• 39:52
  They're they're secretly assembling a really, really good
• 39:54
  team and like A next generation that's going to be, you know, a
• 39:57
  whole squad to watch for sure, no doubt.
• 39:59
  And I mean, you know, we. We've seen it with IAX, they
• 40:02
  they develop young players. Obviously Lee Johannes moves on
• 40:05
  to Leone as May Bruce moves on to Barcelona.
• 40:08
  But if, if, if IAX is churning out great international talent,
• 40:14
  who's going to go to the big clubs that's still good for for
• 40:18
  Team Orange? Yeah, no doubt, no doubt.
• 40:21
  All right, man, I think we did it.
• 40:23
  Is there anything else you want to hit before we get out of
• 40:25
  here? I think the only my last piece.
• 40:28
  From that Netherlands, France matches when, when Netherlands
• 40:32
  scores a goal, and I'm glad you point out like the no announcers
• 40:36
  on the on the feed. You could very clearly hear that
• 40:40
  song to the tune of Auld Lang Syne.
• 40:43
  And I was like, what? Now that's a Scottish song.
• 40:46
  So what are we doing here? But the lyrics are adapted and
• 40:51
  they, the the Dutch fans are singing.
• 40:54
  They Hauden van or Anya, which just means we love orange, which
• 40:59
  I mean, if you look at their jerseys, if you look at their
• 41:00
  whole steeze, it's true. They love orange and I and I
• 41:04
  understand why they produce a lot of great players.
• 41:06
  I I love that it's not part of their flag.
• 41:08
  Like their flag is like, like no more.
• 41:10
  It's just like completely different.
• 41:12
  It's like, that's like a cool flex.
• 41:13
  France, Netherlands. Fun.
• 41:15
  Flag match up of where you just kind of take the French flag and
• 41:19
  then just you turn it like 45° and that's the Netherlands flag.
• 41:24
  What you gonna do about it? Exactly just.
• 41:26
  Took their old Steve's. Yeah, and talking about the
• 41:29
  badge, shout out. To them too, with the they they
• 41:31
  they also dipped into a little bit of the the free from desire
• 41:34
  UAF Open champions that they danced to until they win.
• 41:39
  So that was that was a lot of fun for sure.
• 41:41
  All right, man, I think we did it.
• 41:43
  This is another episode of channel.
• 41:44
  Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
• 41:47
  out. If you enjoyed this show, leave
• 41:49
  us a review right here where you're watching or listening.
• 41:50
  Just stop what you're doing, you know, open it up, hit the stars
• 41:54
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• 41:58
  can leave us a little little comment and we'll do our best to
• 42:02
  to engage and also be sure to like subscribe follow everything
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• 42:07
  channel. Great way to support the show
• 42:08
  into the channel merch, which means all of us are worrying
• 42:10
  right now. Don't worry about that.
• 42:11
  We'll talk about that one later. Another great way to support the
• 42:13
  show links all the above much much more in the description of
• 42:17
  this episode and big thank you my coast as well Mr. Grant angle
• 42:19
  for always being always being willing to have a go.
• 42:23
  I appreciate you bro. Likewise buddy and speaking to
• 42:25
  people who. Are always willing to have a go
• 42:28
  shout out to all of you all all the people who are you know
• 42:30
  dropping knowledge in the comments shout out to our pal
• 42:33
  Flanga Slommer asking questions about the the Claudia Dickey
• 42:37
  versus PTJ you know battle for USA goalkeeper really smart
• 42:42
  stuff in the comments are pal Kobe Bach Delta checking in
• 42:45
  Christian Michelle real quick I got a hit real quick because I
• 42:48
  had in my. Notes.
• 42:51
  I think Dicky stops that one. Wow, let's go.
• 42:55
  I think Dicky too little stronger.
• 42:57
  I think Diggy 2 hands it. Two hands it and then and then
• 43:00
  slams it and like, let's get the offense going.
• 43:02
  So shout out to flying the slumber.
• 43:03
  But I I had to hit that before we get out of here.
• 43:05
  Did you know she played basketball?
• 43:08
  I did know that, yeah. And and I.
• 43:10
  Think, you know, it might be something that we need.
• 43:13
  You know, she might have nudged your way, you know, into, into
• 43:16
  the paint. We'll say, wow, it'll be
• 43:18
  interesting to see. Obviously, you know, Gretchen
• 43:21
  checked in on the comments on the last video.
• 43:23
  We just appreciate you guys. You guys are the absolute best.
• 43:26
  We like I always say, we have found, I believe we may occupy
• 43:30
  the only corner of the Internet that is populated by actually
• 43:35
  nice, kind people. So we are very grateful to all
• 43:38
  of you for that. Thanks for hanging out with us
• 43:40
  and we will see you all next time.