Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UWCL Quarterfinals RECAPS! 🏆 Madrid-Arsenal | Bayern-Lyon | Wolfsburg-Barca | Man City-Chelsea

Transcript

UWCL Quarterfinals RECAPS! 🏆 Madrid-Arsenal | Bayern-Lyon | Wolfsburg-Barca | Man City-Chelsea · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:02
  OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about one's
• 0:07
  football. I'm your host, Dino de
• 0:08
  Suspicious and as always, I am joined by my coast Mr. Grant
• 0:13
  Angle. What is up man?
• 0:15
  I'm feeling pretty fantastic, buddy.
• 0:17
  Dare I say? I think all four of those
• 0:20
  football matches lived up to their billing and then some.
• 0:24
  Yeah, I I enjoyed three of them. The 4th one, we'll talk about
• 0:28
  it, but I mean, we were talking about this a little bit pre
• 0:31
  show, a big jump from last year's quarterfinals where I
• 0:35
  think the the opening round was a dud.
• 0:38
  We kind of knew even after that first leg who was going to get
• 0:40
  through. It was going to be straight
• 0:42
  chalk. But now this year, definitely a
• 0:45
  lot more intrigue. Very, very excited.
• 0:47
  Where do you want to get started?
• 0:50
  Before we before we do that though, the SK Brown match in
• 0:53
  the quarterfinals was an absolute banger.
• 0:55
  But I think that was the only one of the four if I remember
• 0:58
  correctly. I mean, I'm sure somebody will
• 1:00
  correct us if we're wrong. Good point, but.
• 1:03
  And we'll, we'll talk more about Brown later because as everybody
• 1:07
  knows, this is an SK Brown podcast.
• 1:09
  That's right. So where do I want to get
• 1:11
  started? Well, let's, I mean to the
• 1:14
  football, my good man, we got to crack these frosty beverages.
• 1:17
  Oh baby, that we do. That was some excellent
• 1:23
  football. Cheers, Cheers to the excellent
• 1:26
  football. Cheers to you.
• 1:33
  Cheers to doing it live as well. This is turning over a new leaf.
• 1:36
  Very exciting and I'm ready to get into it.
• 1:40
  I like it so. Oh boy, I got a chill.
• 1:44
  OK, this beer is freezing. Let me hold on a second.
• 1:47
  It's cold here. Jesus, OK, where do I want to
• 1:51
  get? Started over there.
• 1:52
  Yeah, seriously. I mean, sun, it's a little
• 1:54
  chilly in Seattle. 44°, not terrible, but I think this beer
• 1:58
  is making me cold. OK, so let's see here.
• 2:02
  All right, Manchester, you know, it's really cold.
• 2:06
  Hold on, Hold on a second. 1st for our, for our audio audience,
• 2:12
  for those not joining live, first of all, what are you
• 2:14
  doing? Because we have a great time
• 2:15
  here live, even though this is only our 4th or 5th.
• 2:17
  But for the audio audience, Grant just slid on a couple
• 2:20
  Manchester City scarves. And yeah, he's layering, he's
• 2:26
  got layers and he looks nice and toasty over there.
• 2:29
  I appreciate that. Yes, First scarf, obviously
• 2:32
  member of the club got to have that scarf.
• 2:34
  This other this, this darker blue one straight from the Yeti
• 2:38
  hat from my trip there last year.
• 2:41
  So. OK, All right.
• 2:42
  Well, where shall we get started?
• 2:44
  Is that is the score? Is the score even right in the
• 2:48
  dock? Let me get my reading glasses on
• 2:50
  here. OK?
• 2:52
  OK. Manchester City.
• 2:56
  Manchester City Football Club to Chelsea Football Club.
• 3:00
  Nil. That happened.
• 3:05
  It definitely happened. Looks City played with
• 3:07
  incredible confidence for a team missing its leading scorer and
• 3:12
  its living legend, attacker Viv Midima, starting on the bench.
• 3:16
  And it just felt like, you know, in the first half and then
• 3:19
  especially in the second-half, they just forced Chelsea into an
• 3:23
  aimless attack that was never really able to maximize any real
• 3:28
  chances. At least that's how it felt from
• 3:30
  my perspective. Where did you land on it?
• 3:33
  I mean, I thought the same. It it's funny because I mean, I
• 3:37
  love to compare, you know, women's football to the fight
• 3:39
  sports. And this reminded me a lot of,
• 3:42
  you know, when you have a season champion and then you have a
• 3:44
  young, you know, maybe it's like a southpaw coming in and all of
• 3:48
  a sudden it starts early. And then like the young
• 3:50
  unproven, you know, fighter is like making progress.
• 3:54
  And then you're sort of like, OK, you just you just sit and
• 3:55
  wait and wait and wait for the champion to kind of get it
• 3:58
  together. Just never happens.
• 3:59
  I mean, it happens kind of all the time.
• 4:00
  It's like sort of one of the one of the tropes of the fight
• 4:03
  sports. This struck me as exactly that.
• 4:07
  You know, we talked about the City kind of like taking a stand
• 4:09
  here. You know, you lose the League
• 4:11
  Cup, you're heading into the first leg of the Champions
• 4:14
  League. Like it's like you sort of like
• 4:16
  clear the deck. But also what just happened is
• 4:18
  still fresh in everybody's mind as well.
• 4:21
  It is tough to beat a good team twice.
• 4:23
  But just, you know, I went back and looked at this, 'cause I'm
• 4:25
  like, what, what? What went wrong for what went
• 4:29
  wrong for Chelsea, 'cause they had no bite to their attack
• 4:32
  check. So check this out.
• 4:34
  LJ just 28 touches in 58 minutes.
• 4:39
  That seems weird. Myra 24 touches in 72 minutes.
• 4:43
  That's like one touch every 3 minutes.
• 4:45
  That's rough too. And then who else am I looking
• 4:49
  at here? Cat Macario 20 touches in 45
• 4:52
  minutes and I think ABJ in 90 minutes had 60 touches almost
• 4:59
  more than all three of them combined.
• 5:00
  So it was clear that cities with with shading defense, you know
• 5:04
  towards those, you know, kind of like just called big three LJ
• 5:07
  Myra and Cat Macario and Chelsea didn't really have an adjustment
• 5:12
  to the adjustment from there. You know, you think about the
• 5:17
  the She Believes Cup final. Yui Hasegawa to Cat Macario,
• 5:23
  Nil. If.
• 5:24
  We're if we're thinking about this, I mean, well, I guess you
• 5:26
  have the the League Cup, but I mean, this is another big spot
• 5:30
  where Hasegawa played absolutely out of her mind.
• 5:34
  I mean, her pedigree, her resume is unimpeachable anyway, but you
• 5:39
  just she just comes up huge every single time.
• 5:41
  I'm glad you pointed out the lack of touches for Macario.
• 5:44
  There were stretches where she was just like pretty much
• 5:47
  invisible on the pitch. She was like a non factor.
• 5:51
  LJ had had a really nice cross into Ramirez, I think at one
• 5:56
  point point in the first half, but it got sent wide.
• 5:59
  There was good defense on Macario did not really let her
• 6:02
  square up to it. At least I or pardon me, I think
• 6:04
  it might have been to Ramirez fight by Melts, right.
• 6:08
  But I, I just think even with Chelsea having most of the ball
• 6:14
  and they had City had a little more of the ball in the first
• 6:16
  half, but then Chelsea was really dominating possession in
• 6:19
  the second-half. City was able to just have those
• 6:23
  moments and I'm going to start with the first half where Lily
• 6:28
  Murphy, you know, she didn't have a super high foot mob
• 6:31
  rating, but it felt like when she was making runs and just
• 6:34
  trying to push the pace when City did have the ball, it was
• 6:37
  really effective. And you know, we well, I'm sure
• 6:40
  we're going to talk more about Ghetto Lynn, but this was by far
• 6:44
  her best match in the city. Sky Blues.
• 6:47
  I mean, she was she was pinning back.
• 6:49
  She was enough of a threat. Her and Jill roared Murphy and
• 6:53
  Park. They they were just pinning back
• 6:56
  bronze and Baltimore and kind of neutralizing those wing threats
• 7:00
  that Chelsea is usually able to bury teams with.
• 7:03
  Yeah, absolutely. And I thought, you know, when I
• 7:05
  saw the line up going into this one, you know, you look at
• 7:09
  Fowler, you look at Murphy, you look at Catalin and you're just
• 7:13
  like, OK, I mean, this is an interesting.
• 7:16
  We've never seen this line up for sure.
• 7:17
  It definitely didn't get in a match like this.
• 7:19
  But one thing that that match up, one thing that that line up
• 7:22
  did afford City was like great movement, great
• 7:26
  unpredictability. Those are three players that can
• 7:28
  go in any direction, change direction, go fast, go slow,
• 7:32
  change speed, you know, just kind of keep you on your heels.
• 7:35
  And that's exactly what they did.
• 7:37
  And then Catalin did it to a very, very high degree in this
• 7:41
  match. She must have been pumped to see
• 7:42
  that. Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:44
  I mean, there were times I I mean, she absolutely cooked
• 7:48
  Millie Bright a couple times, at least once.
• 7:51
  I mean, she was she that Baltimore was really struggling
• 7:55
  with the Brazilian. I I just thought, you know,
• 8:00
  Ketaline was absolutely fantastic.
• 8:01
  Fowler She she blew a chance like somewhere around the half
• 8:06
  hour mark where she kind of like like she she like passed the
• 8:11
  ball like a little too wide and and like didn't, didn't give her
• 8:16
  teammate the opportunity to kind of make something of it.
• 8:19
  But you know, even when Chelsea would give up the ball with most
• 8:24
  of the with with most of the possession, the joy stadium
• 8:28
  crowd would get into it. Just when city would push the
• 8:31
  ball up, even if they were just pushing it like 30-40 yards and
• 8:34
  just kind of creating that space.
• 8:35
  It was just like the crowd was adding to Chelsea's frustration
• 8:40
  that they just couldn't really put anything together, even with
• 8:44
  all. That time on the ball yeah, no,
• 8:47
  I mean, I'm not sure if it was Carlo, if it was blue last week
• 8:51
  in the chat. And shout out to Sadaq for
• 8:53
  joining us. Welcome to the party watching,
• 8:59
  you know, sort of like, yeah, as many like, I think Carlo, I'm
• 9:03
  not sure if it's Carlo or blue, as I was mentioning, talked
• 9:06
  about Sandy Baltimore maybe being not the right choice at
• 9:11
  left back because, you know, a, that's our natural position.
• 9:15
  That's not where we saw her in France last year.
• 9:17
  And I think this was just the match where it's like, OK, we
• 9:21
  saw the limits of sending Baltimore left back.
• 9:24
  And and what that would mean against a player like elite,
• 9:26
  obviously former NWSLVPA, tall, tall, tall task.
• 9:29
  A lot of people are going to struggle with that.
• 9:31
  And then I think, yeah, Baltimore specifically on this
• 9:35
  day, just, I mean, had a really, really hard time.
• 9:38
  But I mean, it wasn't just that it, you know, you can't, it's
• 9:40
  tough to kind of point to one match up because, you know, I, I
• 9:43
  had thought a lot about that city back line.
• 9:46
  You know, obviously they, they had the Greenwood injury.
• 9:47
  That was tough. We've seen Alessandri struggle,
• 9:51
  we've seen Wahhabi struggle. But I think those two players
• 9:55
  plus Kasparai on the other side, you also got what you mentioned
• 9:58
  Yamashita, unbelievable in this match, you know, 6 up, six down
• 10:02
  saved. Everything was just, I mean,
• 10:05
  locked in every single second. But I thought City's back line
• 10:09
  played really great, you know, really decisive, you know,
• 10:13
  decisive in the sense of like, there's danger.
• 10:16
  I'm not even going to think I'm just going to attack it, you
• 10:19
  know, And there was no like, sort of like I'm caught in
• 10:21
  between like the pass and, you know, the drive and I'm not
• 10:24
  really sure. Everything was like deliberate.
• 10:26
  Everything was fast and it was a little faster than I think
• 10:30
  Chelsea was comfortable with. Definitely seemed that way.
• 10:35
  And yeah, and I, I thought Gracie Pryor, I mean the 20 year
• 10:38
  old in a Champions League quarterfinal, she just went out
• 10:42
  there and just played real physical.
• 10:44
  And I, I love that you use the term decisive.
• 10:46
  I, I thought they were all definitely decisive in terms of
• 10:50
  just like, you know what, I'm just going to kick this one out
• 10:53
  of play to the side or, you know, I'm going to lower my
• 10:56
  shoulder. And if and if it's a foul, it's
• 10:58
  a foul. You know, I, I think that there
• 11:01
  was a great team defense and, and Sadak has it right in the
• 11:04
  comments. Chelsea needed to be more
• 11:06
  clinical, but I think they're getting they're just getting
• 11:08
  pushed out of their comfort zone and that may have affected what
• 11:12
  their touches look like. Yeah, I think, I mean I want to
• 11:16
  get to two of your predictions, but what in particular that I'm
• 11:21
  going to go go to here if you if you give me a second here to
• 11:24
  fire this thing up. I am going to take because that
• 11:28
  that fluky goal off of off of Hasegawa.
• 11:31
  I'm going to take Manchester City football club to Chelsea
• 11:36
  one and it's going. Do I feel great about it?
• 11:41
  No, but I picked them to to get through in the in the preview
• 11:45
  episode. So Carlo, don't yell at me, but
• 11:49
  and I'll I'll say City wins 21 at home and it's a meet him a
• 11:53
  game. I meet him a comes out and is an
• 11:55
  absolute force. OK so let me just apologize for
• 12:00
  my for my terrible prediction. First of all it wasn't 2/1, it
• 12:04
  was 2 nil. And secondly, which I watch I
• 12:07
  feel even worse about. I was dead wrong.
• 12:11
  It wasn't a meat in my game, it was a meat in my half. 45
• 12:14
  minutes was all she needed to come out there and I, I had in
• 12:18
  my notes, 'cause I really like the way Murphy played in the
• 12:22
  first half and I was just like, OK, here's what my notes say.
• 12:25
  Surprised to see Murphy exit the match after playing so well.
• 12:29
  But we're bringing on Viv Medema, so that's probably just
• 12:33
  fine. And you know, the next thing I
• 12:36
  have is I wonder if the plan was for Murphy to just give the best
• 12:39
  45 she's ever played and then bring on the legend.
• 12:42
  And it would turn out that Nick Cushing, good plan, buddy.
• 12:47
  That worked. Crushed it.
• 12:50
  I mean, I think he totally crushed it.
• 12:52
  The thing with Midima, and again, I think Murphy's going to
• 12:56
  be she's already really good. I mean I think she you can see
• 12:59
  that the experience isn't there, but that's a player that's got a
• 13:03
  massive future. But the thing about Midima is
• 13:06
  like, it's such a luxury to be able to bring on a player that
• 13:12
  at some point in their career, or maybe at many points in their
• 13:14
  career, many days that they spent playing football, they
• 13:17
  were the best player in the world.
• 13:18
  Like on that day. Like they just were like, I'm,
• 13:21
  I'm just the top dog, you know? And it's like Mita was not
• 13:24
  necessarily at that stage in her career necessarily every second,
• 13:27
  every day anymore. But players like that know how
• 13:31
  to summon, you know, kind of like moments and like, kind of
• 13:35
  dig deep and they've kind of seen everything and like, you
• 13:37
  know, you're not really going to kind of get them frazzled.
• 13:40
  That was such a cool moment to see a player like that just not
• 13:44
  even really turn back the clock. Just be like, I know exactly
• 13:46
  what to do here. And I'm going to do it.
• 13:49
  And I'm going to do it twice. And I'm going to bury this team
• 13:52
  and make sure that we head to Stamford Bridge, you know, in a
• 13:54
  really strong position. Yeah, man, I, I mean, you know,
• 14:01
  on the other side of those devastating injuries, you know,
• 14:04
  everybody knows the book on meet Emma.
• 14:07
  I, I want to try to recite this from memory.
• 14:09
  I, I think it's pretty basic though, you know, wins the EUR
• 14:12
  with the Netherlands, 2nd place finisher in the 2019 World Cup,
• 14:17
  all time leading scorer in the history of the WSL.
• 14:20
  She's now on the other side of these devastating injuries.
• 14:23
  So they said she's still only 28.
• 14:25
  So I mean, like, you know, is there still a little more like
• 14:29
  recovery from those injuries that kind of like come back and,
• 14:32
  and really cement is like, Hey, I'm, I'm back.
• 14:34
  I'm like the 8th best player in the world at worst or something
• 14:38
  like that. I I don't know, it's hard to
• 14:39
  say. You never know.
• 14:40
  I think there are times where the, you know, she doesn't move
• 14:43
  like she did in the in the 2019 World Cup, obviously, but.
• 14:47
  You know, I, you know, I think she, she, she doesn't move the
• 14:51
  way she did for sure, but I like where she's playing like closer
• 14:55
  to the center of the park because it, it allows you to
• 14:58
  utilize her vision and she's still happy to like drive the
• 15:01
  ball up field and she's still smart.
• 15:04
  You know, so it's like you're not even if she's like sort of
• 15:07
  like a little deeper, you're not taking her out of the, the mix
• 15:09
  offensively, you're just giving her more options.
• 15:12
  And I think just the fact that, like, you know, City can move
• 15:15
  the ball forward on the heels of a lot of different players, I
• 15:19
  think that's kind of a sneaky, like an interesting way to
• 15:22
  probably extract more value from what Meatham was able to do.
• 15:26
  I think that's fair. I mean, what one of the things
• 15:28
  that I, I felt like was really obvious is she came onto the
• 15:32
  field and it like changed the entire geometry of the way the
• 15:35
  game was being played. Again, even with City not having
• 15:38
  much of the ball, I think what they had like 34% of the ball,
• 15:43
  37%, pardon me, 37% of the ball in the second in half, but they
• 15:48
  still had more shots 9:00 to 8:00.
• 15:50
  They were equal in shots on target 5:00 to 5:00.
• 15:53
  And then they had those two big chances.
• 15:54
  And it's because it's Viv Medema.
• 15:57
  She fucking buries both of them. And you know, I, I want to point
• 16:00
  out too, that is it kind of from the Chelsea perspective here is,
• 16:06
  you know, we talked about Shoka new skin on the preview episode.
• 16:10
  And I would say that on any given day, new skin is a very
• 16:15
  good to excellent player in a lot of the in pretty much all
• 16:20
  the matches that that we watch, there's got to be something
• 16:24
  weird when you bring that player on at the 59th minute.
• 16:30
  So it was Nuskin and Ritzen Connerud on for Kira Walsh and
• 16:34
  LJ in the 59th minute. And when you bring those two
• 16:38
  players on and Nuskin just didn't have a good game like the
• 16:44
  the the half hour plus that she played, it was it was it might
• 16:48
  have been one of the the lesser performances I think I've ever
• 16:51
  seen out of Nuskin. She got shook real bad by Fowler
• 16:54
  to set up the first meet him a goal.
• 16:56
  And then she was just having a rough goal of it.
• 16:58
  There's got to be something mentally where you're like, oh
• 17:00
  damn, I thought that sub was going to work and it's clearly
• 17:04
  not working. Yeah, absolutely.
• 17:06
  I'm looking at. I'm looking here because I was
• 17:09
  checking pre show and nu skin. Let's see.
• 17:17
  Yeah, so nu skin she attempted 14 passes and connected on just
• 17:22
  eight of them in 31 minutes. And you, I mean, she definitely
• 17:26
  was off and I think, you know, probably not used to, you know,
• 17:31
  coming off the bench and in a game like this.
• 17:33
  And like, I don't know, like these like really tough time
• 17:38
  crunch schedules, like really make it super difficult to cut.
• 17:43
  Chemistry's going to be like a really big deal.
• 17:44
  And I think we're, you know, we'll get to varsity here in a
• 17:46
  second, but Varsla kind of zagged the other way, you know,
• 17:50
  and we'll get to Arsenal even later, you know, in the show
• 17:53
  where you can tell the the some of these managers are like, all
• 17:57
  right, well, let's try to keep things a little bit fresh.
• 18:00
  Some managers are like, let's make sure the chemistry, like
• 18:03
  we've got like little pockets and triangles that are going to
• 18:06
  work in this one. But yeah, I mean, it's it's
• 18:10
  something to definitely it's tough to do.
• 18:13
  Like I think, and I think that's probably like one of the sneaky
• 18:15
  hardest things a manager has to do in a tournament.
• 18:18
  Like this is like you have so many good players.
• 18:21
  You know, Chelsea has a ton of good players, Barcelona has a
• 18:23
  ton of good players. How do you build a line up to
• 18:26
  counteract what the other team might do, who they might play a
• 18:30
  player like Caroline, like we haven't seen her before.
• 18:33
  We talked about her in the preview and I think like that's,
• 18:37
  that's a perfect example of, you know, just where, where you
• 18:41
  could just step in it as a manager.
• 18:43
  And I, and I think on this day, Bon Pastor kind of wasn't able
• 18:48
  to make it happen. And I think no adjustments came.
• 18:51
  The Subs didn't work. I'll be interested to see kind
• 18:54
  of like how they come back necessarily, because it does
• 18:58
  feel like, you know, and you talked about this after the
• 19:00
  League Cup that you thought City played better.
• 19:02
  And and I think a lot of people saw what what you saw, what we
• 19:05
  saw in this match, it was very apparent City was the better
• 19:10
  team On this day, JRK comes in and she's got like a couple of
• 19:13
  good looks, hits the post on one.
• 19:15
  But outside of that, it's like, you know, City was out shot,
• 19:20
  even though they had more possession and had more passes,
• 19:23
  they had less shots on target than City.
• 19:27
  So you know, Chelsea, I don't know if they're going to, well,
• 19:30
  I'm, I'm dying to see what kind of what kind of adjustments
• 19:32
  we've got coming around the corner here.
• 19:35
  Yeah, for sure. And and I'll say some of those
• 19:37
  adjustments had your boy nervous at at times.
• 19:42
  I mean, you know, you predicted A11 draw and I think your
• 19:45
  prediction obviously wasn't far off when Canon root smashed the
• 19:49
  crossbar. It was like off A2 pass sequence
• 19:52
  that took them from midfield inside the 18 in like 3 seconds.
• 19:57
  That was a little terrifying. And this is coming directly from
• 20:01
  my notes after they brought on Micah Homano.
• 20:04
  And this is obviously from the Manchester City fan perspective.
• 20:08
  I wrote and I quote, I fucking hate it every time Himano is on
• 20:12
  the ball. And I, I wrote that in the 83rd
• 20:15
  minute because I was just terrified that she was going to
• 20:18
  do something. And it, I, I thought there was
• 20:20
  one thing that was funny too. When Himano comes on the pitch,
• 20:24
  she comes in for Ramirez in the 72nd minute.
• 20:27
  And Himano just had a giant smile on her face, like, oh, I
• 20:31
  get to go play football with my friends now.
• 20:32
  And I was just like, oh, God, she's she's going to kill us.
• 20:35
  There's something terrible's going to happen here.
• 20:38
  You know, me, I can be filled with the existential dread from
• 20:42
  time to time. But I mean, you know, I, I think
• 20:45
  it goes back to, you know, the energy was great.
• 20:48
  The plan was good. You bring on Medema in the
• 20:51
  second-half and you know, our pal, I want to, I'm going to go
• 20:56
  with Kels mentioned says in the chat that City prioritized this
• 21:01
  game over anything else and wanted it more.
• 21:03
  And they have Viv meet him. A, that's an excellent point.
• 21:06
  Our pal P is here pointing out that we said it needed to be a
• 21:09
  Viv game, you know, coming off the bench.
• 21:13
  And, you know, I just think that City looked great.
• 21:17
  They looked cohesive. They looked like they had a plan
• 21:21
  and it worked. I mean, you know, and now you
• 21:24
  get that second one near the death at like the 89th minute.
• 21:28
  And, you know, I'm going to do some real basic math.
• 21:32
  Increasing your lead by 100% right before you have to go into
• 21:36
  the second leg is at just feels absolutely massive.
• 21:42
  Do you? Yeah.
• 21:42
  I mean, I was going to ask you about that going from 1:00 to
• 21:45
  2:00 for, for this rivalry specifically.
• 21:49
  You know, if, if we're talking like Barcelona, Wolfsburg, you
• 21:51
  know, I'm sure it's like going to be at Barcelona, go back
• 21:53
  home. You don't think they're going to
• 21:53
  be able to make it up, but this has been a slugfest.
• 21:57
  You know, these two teams kind of battling it out.
• 21:58
  Like, I mean, I think the consensus Chelsea's better.
• 22:02
  But on the pitch, you know, we've seen that they're this is
• 22:05
  definitely like a a back and forth.
• 22:07
  And it really just kind of depended on the day going from
• 22:10
  1:00 to 2:00. Well, how did you feel when the
• 22:12
  second one goes in? Buddy, it was loud our our pal.
• 22:17
  Well, it wasn't too loud, but our pal P mentions that
• 22:22
  everybody was great and they could have gotten him fired.
• 22:26
  You know, the second goal could have had me wake up the other
• 22:31
  people in my house. But I I managed to keep it
• 22:33
  together because I had to watch it after work over here in
• 22:35
  America, a busy day. So I'm watching it and like the
• 22:38
  by the time the match is almost ending, it's like 11:00 PM out
• 22:42
  here in Seattle. And when she when she knocks
• 22:45
  that home, I mean, there was it. I stood up off the couch.
• 22:50
  It was a big fist pump and I was just like that might that might
• 22:54
  do it. I I think I mean, it's they got
• 22:58
  to go to the bridge though, man. And you know, city is getting or
• 23:01
  pardon me, Chelsea is going to throw everything they have and P
• 23:06
  mentions in the chat. What if they put Sam Kerr out
• 23:09
  there in the second leg of the Champions League?
• 23:12
  Wouldn't that be something? Is it something I want to see as
• 23:14
  a city fan? Not so much.
• 23:17
  Is it something I want to see as a football fan?
• 23:19
  You damn right it is. Yeah, I mean, definitely want to
• 23:22
  see it. I mean, if I'm Chelsea, I mean,
• 23:26
  I love Cat Macario and I know that she's been a great for him,
• 23:28
  but I feel like I've got to get LJ closer to the center of the
• 23:34
  pitch and give her more of the ball and give her more options
• 23:37
  because she had a A. She also had a shot that looked
• 23:41
  like it was fast forwarded. I was like, I was, it just
• 23:45
  looked like I was like on one point 5X on my screen.
• 23:47
  I was just like, Oh my God, that player's able to do that.
• 23:51
  Friend of the show Leanne Sanderson's talked about LJ kind
• 23:53
  of being the key to, you know, Europe at the EUR.
• 23:57
  I don't think it's much different for this Chelsea side.
• 24:00
  You know, Sam Kerr could make a huge difference.
• 24:02
  Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't.
• 24:04
  Maya Ramirez, I mean, a wonderful player, you know, in
• 24:09
  her own right. I think she's, for me, she's
• 24:11
  kind of captain of the, you know, the, the, the, the defense
• 24:14
  to stop Ramirez is like hope they miss, you know, 'cause
• 24:17
  like, if, if she wants to get to a spot and get around you or get
• 24:20
  through you or go, you know, whatever she wants to do, like
• 24:23
  too often she just puts you on her hip and then she's just
• 24:27
  doing what she wants to do. And then it's just hope she miss
• 24:29
  kind of defense. I think Vanda's probably in that
• 24:32
  club as well. So it's not like Kerr would be
• 24:35
  coming in and replacing, you know, an unproven 19 or 20 year
• 24:38
  old. Like, I mean, I think I don't
• 24:40
  think Ramirez was necessarily the problem, but I don't know,
• 24:43
  we covered a ton of ground to you.
• 24:44
  So all right, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit
• 24:47
  does. And I know you're a man of great
• 24:49
  take integrity, you know, so I'm not trying to, you know, hit you
• 24:53
  with some gotcha journalism. But do you think in your heart
• 24:56
  of hearts, does Citi advance to the semis?
• 24:59
  Yeah, I do. Let's.
• 25:01
  Go and not just the, not just the take integrity.
• 25:04
  I think I've seen enough now over the 180 minutes of these
• 25:08
  two matches. Do you want, do you want the
• 25:11
  prediction? Are we doing predictions or is
• 25:12
  that is that for the next preview show?
• 25:16
  Is there a preview show live producing on the live show?
• 25:20
  Maybe, I don't know. Let us know.
• 25:22
  Let us know the shot. What, what are we talking about
• 25:25
  next Wednesday here? We can knock out a lot of
• 25:28
  previews. There's just not, not going to
• 25:29
  be much football, you know, actually probably not NW cells
• 25:32
  back. You know, it's going to be big
• 25:33
  NW cell weekend. We might preview that, but we'll
• 25:36
  definitely be back early next week with a recap there.
• 25:38
  I think we maybe, maybe we just kind of sit out and and see what
• 25:42
  happens, but we we're not going to close the door on no preview
• 25:45
  for leg two. We might be back.
• 25:48
  Make sure, make sure you're subscribed, hit that little bell
• 25:50
  button. Do what you need to do.
• 25:53
  Nicely done. This man's a marketing.
• 25:55
  It's a marketing professional I do this podcast with.
• 25:58
  All right, I appreciate that, bro.
• 25:59
  All right, let's move forward. So 1 prediction down.
• 26:03
  You came super close, so props to you.
• 26:06
  I want to drop one more here real quick.
• 26:09
  Let me get this thing loaded up and let's rewind back to, you
• 26:14
  know, what you thought might happen with Wolfsburg Barcelona.
• 26:18
  I'm also going to predict five goals.
• 26:20
  I'll say 41. Barcelona.
• 26:23
  I think Wolfsburg gets one at home, but I don't think it's
• 26:27
  ever, I don't think the result's ever in doubt.
• 26:30
  Who's that guy? Cooking.
• 26:32
  Cooking the youth of Champions League predictions.
• 26:37
  Let's go. I appreciate that, thank you
• 26:40
  very much. And real quick shout out to pee
• 26:42
  in the in the comments. He's in California and a teacher
• 26:46
  watching in their desk drawer, trying to control the emotions
• 26:50
  for all four games. Like respect to you, pal.
• 26:53
  So I, I work for, in case I, you haven't seen some of the other
• 26:57
  shows, I work for a labor union and I I help represent
• 27:01
  classified staff. So like groundskeepers,
• 27:03
  custodians, food service. Just shout to everybody who
• 27:05
  works in education, like we got your back.
• 27:07
  We're, we're, we're fighting for our lives out here.
• 27:10
  Much respect to everybody who, who works in those in those
• 27:12
  roles. I mean, to the football,
• 27:17
  Barcelona is just immense like that line up they put out.
• 27:23
  I know I, I, I think I had texted you that morning that
• 27:29
  like they put that they announced that line up obviously
• 27:32
  an hour before the match. And the question I had to pose
• 27:35
  to you, because we always have to, we love to compare these
• 27:38
  things to the NBA, was that Barcelona's death line up in the
• 27:42
  spirit of the Golden State Warriors, Because that, I mean,
• 27:47
  that was an unbelievable 11 to put on the field.
• 27:52
  You know, I I alluded to a little bit early where when I
• 27:56
  saw Arsenal's line up, which was not their deathiest death line
• 28:00
  up like it was very much a OK, all right, let's see what this
• 28:04
  11's got even down to the goalkeeper Von Von Dom Solar, I
• 28:08
  think was nursing an injury. We get Zinsburger there.
• 28:10
  So just a ton of change with Arsenal, but and I had to even
• 28:14
  in that in the in those early moments, I talked myself into
• 28:18
  OK, well, it's it's a it's actually 180 minutes of football
• 28:21
  that we're talking about here. You know, it's like, all right,
• 28:23
  well, 90 here, 90 there. It's not really a match match.
• 28:27
  So that was like the, you know, rationalization that I was
• 28:29
  doing. And I'm like, all right, slagers
• 28:32
  got it in slagers we trust for sure.
• 28:34
  And then I see Barcelona's line up and I'm like, they clearly
• 28:37
  are not doing the 180 minute thing.
• 28:39
  They're like, we want to slam the door shut on this team
• 28:43
  immediately. Bariuello, Eva Pajor, CGHA
• 28:47
  midfield, Alexia Bata di Aitana, three of those six or seven best
• 28:53
  players in the world maybe. And then the back line, Esme
• 28:55
  Bruks, Mappi, Irene Pereides, Welcome back Yana Fernandez and
• 29:00
  then Katakoy. Like, I don't even know there.
• 29:05
  There's no relief in that line up whatsoever.
• 29:07
  You look at the Subs too off the charts.
• 29:11
  I was actually surprised, you know, my my five goal prediction
• 29:14
  didn't hit. But Congrats to you for for
• 29:16
  definitely nailing it. I mean, there is a chunky part
• 29:20
  in the middle of the match in my notes, like after the half when,
• 29:25
  you know, Barcelona's Death Star starts, starts to show that it's
• 29:30
  fully operational that I was just like, oh, Dino's did Dino
• 29:34
  pick enough goals for this five nil prediction?
• 29:37
  I was like, because I thought your prediction was I thought 5
• 29:40
  nil was absolutely going to hit if they didn't accidentally
• 29:43
  score a touchdown. You know, Bone Mati looked and
• 29:50
  and tell me if I'm if I'm talking crazy here.
• 29:53
  I know bone. Like we've talked about bone
• 29:54
  Mati's athleticism on top of her just like binding skill.
• 29:59
  And we've talked about her strength.
• 30:01
  She looked crazy fast in this match too, like she had a couple
• 30:05
  times like racing down the right wing.
• 30:07
  That's kind of what helped create create that that first
• 30:12
  goal. But it just looked like bone
• 30:14
  with he had like a little extra juice in her legs that night.
• 30:17
  Dude, I'm so glad you mentioned this because watching her in
• 30:20
  this match, I'm like, did I just never notice this like that
• 30:24
  she's this fast and she's this and I'm like checking your age.
• 30:27
  I'm like, I don't know, she's like mid in her mid 20s and I'm
• 30:29
  like, I was like this. She looked so fast and so quick,
• 30:34
  especially on the the opening goal that I thought was a pie
• 30:39
  yard goal, but I think it ended up being a score as an own goal.
• 30:43
  CGH hits her with a pass and like Itana starts like if she's
• 30:47
  kind of like fading towards like the sideline and then plants her
• 30:52
  foot the in cut to like dart through the center of the park
• 30:57
  and then loop back outside. You know, like to just roll
• 31:00
  right around. I think it was manga that she
• 31:02
  was running with. And then CGH bends the past the
• 31:05
  other way. The geometry on all of that was
• 31:07
  fucking bananas. Like it just broke my brain just
• 31:11
  seeing all the different angles that are happening in real time.
• 31:14
  Perfect ball from CGH, perfect ball in for Maitana, you know,
• 31:18
  like the the the bend on that ball just kind of like pulls
• 31:21
  Aitana out and gives her the angle to bring it into Pyor.
• 31:24
  And then it ends up being an on goal to kind of open up the
• 31:26
  scoring. But that was pretty much perfect
• 31:29
  football. Like, you know, like that to me
• 31:33
  was like peak football in the sense of it's not a spectacular
• 31:36
  goal from like 35 yards out or it's not, you know, a flying
• 31:39
  say, you know, it's like, it's just so easy and so simple that
• 31:45
  you're just like, wow, why, why can't they do that all the time?
• 31:47
  Like they make it look so easy. And it's just like, like, it's
• 31:49
  the hardest thing to do in the sport.
• 31:51
  And I was just in awe just from that moment.
• 31:53
  I'm just like, wow, these players are so good and they're
• 31:56
  able to do that in this spot on the road.
• 32:00
  You know, there was talk too about like we talked about like
• 32:02
  that environment from the beginning of this year's
• 32:05
  Champions League. It's going to be fun to watch
• 32:07
  Wolfsburg. It's going to be fun to see big
• 32:08
  teams go there in big spots and see like what the what the
• 32:11
  vibe's going to be like and how they're going to respond.
• 32:13
  And you know, Barcelona slowish start.
• 32:16
  But once they got rolling, I mean, like, they were marvelous.
• 32:21
  Yeah, 100%. I mean they they just have a mix
• 32:25
  of like we, you know, we talk about the death line up.
• 32:28
  It's just a mix of unbelievable athleticism, unbelievable skill,
• 32:33
  unbelievable football intelligence, and it's just all
• 32:36
  wrapped into one giant package. And Speaking of the death line
• 32:39
  up, Kiki, first of all, thank you for educating me on trying
• 32:42
  to pronounce the name. I got too focused on the LC at
• 32:45
  the end. Kiki points out that, you know,
• 32:48
  obviously Ona Battier and Claudia Pina are out right now,
• 32:53
  but if they if Kike was making the death line up, it would be
• 32:56
  Battier instead of Yana Fernandez and Pina instead of
• 33:00
  Soma Betiuelo. Just based on current form.
• 33:04
  I think that's I think that's a a real look at at the potential
• 33:08
  death line up. I think that makes sense.
• 33:10
  But I mean, you know, we're, we're just, we're operating out
• 33:13
  there with, with four Balandors. And, you know, would it be crazy
• 33:20
  to yeah, CSA and counting. Would it be crazy to think that
• 33:24
  CGH doesn't get one in the next two or three years?
• 33:27
  Selma Padiuello is 21 years old. Eva Payor is 28.
• 33:33
  So she's getting, she's getting a little up there, but would it
• 33:37
  be, would it be nuts if Paiur got a got a Balandor in the next
• 33:41
  two years? If, if, if it's one of the ones
• 33:44
  that maybe CGH doesn't grab. I mean, cause Paiur is a goal
• 33:47
  scoring machine out there. Even though she could be a
• 33:50
  little, she's got a little bit of Erling Holland in her in her
• 33:53
  game sometimes where it's like they're just there's some
• 33:56
  baffling decisions she made. She made one where she decided
• 33:59
  to pass when it looked like she was one-on-one with the keeper.
• 34:03
  And I put up my notes like it was is Pyor like doesn't want to
• 34:06
  embarrass her old team. Like I wasn't exactly sure what
• 34:10
  it was. It just seemed like she kind of
• 34:11
  got in her own head there. But you know, once they started
• 34:15
  to pile it on in the second, in the second-half, you know, it,
• 34:20
  it was over and the quarterfinal is essentially over.
• 34:24
  And, and no disrespect to Wolfsburg, it's, it's just
• 34:26
  you're running up against a juggernaut.
• 34:29
  Yeah, yeah, it's it's unreal. You look at the some of the
• 34:33
  stats bars out shoots Wolfsburg 27 to four shots on target,
• 34:38
  eight to two accurate passes. Wolfsburg 173, Barcelona 626.
• 34:47
  Just insane. A couple more year passes in
• 34:51
  passes inside the final third, 230 to 16.
• 34:56
  Touches inside the opponent's box, 53 to five shots inside the
• 35:00
  box, 16 to 2. Barcelona was dominant.
• 35:03
  You look at Wolfsburg's big guns, Alex Pop, Lynneth,
• 35:07
  Bjornstein, you LeBron, Rebecca Bloomkist, those four big, I
• 35:10
  mean attacking players combined for zero shots.
• 35:13
  Shots 0 from those four. You were you were talking about
• 35:17
  a Beard side game and they didn't get any shots from
• 35:19
  anybody. Really, really rough day for for
• 35:22
  Wolfsburg in this one. They did get the goal and it
• 35:25
  kind of a nice moment. So I think, let me check my
• 35:27
  notes here. Lena Ladvine, she earns a corner
• 35:31
  in like the 80 something minute and shout out to the Wolfsburg
• 35:36
  audience that was in the building 'cause they kind of
• 35:38
  like definitely warmed up and were like, OK, let's go.
• 35:41
  I like it. We earned a corner.
• 35:42
  Well, I like it. Let some some come in the very
• 35:45
  next play or, or associated with it with that sequence.
• 35:47
  I think after the corner, that's when you need a Minga gets the
• 35:50
  goal, you know, so they were on it.
• 35:52
  They know their team. That was a cool moment to see,
• 35:55
  you know, we talked about the the vibes and kind of connecting
• 35:57
  the dots there and then once it went three one, I was like, here
• 36:01
  we go. Your your prediction's super
• 36:03
  live. I was happy for you, but
• 36:06
  ultimately Wolfsburg unable to do it for Strut.
• 36:11
  Yeah, I mean, you know, shout out to Svenya, who the the
• 36:14
  veteran, the captain who I thought, you know, maintained
• 36:18
  her form and and played a good match.
• 36:20
  You LeBron had had some good moments, had some other kind of
• 36:24
  questionable moments. It's it's hard to to put
• 36:27
  together a great, you know, entire stretch of football.
• 36:31
  They took brand off right around the hour mark.
• 36:33
  But I thought, you know, she I thought she gave what she could.
• 36:37
  I it's just, there's just too much and you know that stat
• 36:41
  about those four not having a shot like Alex Pop, It's hard to
• 36:46
  survive if you're Wolfsburg if Pop and Berenstein combine for
• 36:50
  zero shots, let alone the other two players.
• 36:55
  So I mean, it just, it's, it's just going to be in like we talk
• 36:59
  about it. There's no margin for error when
• 37:02
  you play Barcelona, even at home, even with the crowd behind
• 37:05
  you, even when you're trying to do it for Stroot.
• 37:12
  One knock on our guy Strew, who it wasn't done for on this day.
• 37:18
  Why on earth? You know the corner kicks that
• 37:24
  they that Barcelona kid just kept taking short.
• 37:26
  So Moppy's taking the corner kick.
• 37:28
  CGH is standing next next to her.
• 37:31
  I mean you would think when Moppy and CGH are are are near
• 37:36
  the quarter there with pretty much every angle at their
• 37:40
  disposal because they're both geniuses that can do anything
• 37:43
  that they want. Why you would have one defender
• 37:46
  there is just beyond me because those two will murder your 1
• 37:53
  defender no matter who it is. I mean, it's just that defenders
• 37:57
  at just such a supreme disadvantage and what they ended
• 38:00
  up doing for the last chunk of the first half and most of the
• 38:03
  second-half was like, oh, OK, well, you're going to give us a
• 38:05
  two on one. We're just going to walk this
• 38:07
  ball in. And that's basically how they
• 38:09
  they cashed in more goals when Mappy, you know, gets the ball
• 38:12
  into Paredes and like, you know, it, it just paid huge dividends
• 38:17
  for that. And and I was surprised to see
• 38:18
  Wolfberg not make an adjust. I think they they made an
• 38:21
  adjustment like around the 78th minute.
• 38:23
  We're like, OK, we'll, we'll we're going to put 2 here.
• 38:24
  We're not just going to walk it in.
• 38:26
  You know, it's just like the corners is the quarter is
• 38:28
  dangerous as is and you know, they were just giving them
• 38:31
  another 10 or 15 yards and a better angle to just make a more
• 38:35
  different, you know, a more dangerous ball in.
• 38:38
  So they they sorted it out. But that that I think was a big
• 38:42
  miss from that Willisburg coaching staff.
• 38:44
  Not sure it would have made a difference in in the grand
• 38:46
  scheme of things, But I was like, I I was just watching
• 38:50
  that. I'm just like, Oh my God, like
• 38:51
  they're just going to let them do it again here.
• 38:54
  Right. And yeah, the, the free kick
• 38:56
  situation was interesting too, where they would put Mappy and
• 38:59
  CGH out there and then it just kept map or CGH just kept
• 39:03
  running over the ball and Mappy would hit the deliveries.
• 39:06
  And I was just waiting for whatever the whatever the other
• 39:08
  shoe to drop was going to be. If it was going to be CGH runs
• 39:11
  over and then Mappy just hits a short pass to CGH.
• 39:14
  You're like what, what how many variations Barcelona is going to
• 39:18
  have out of it. Let me let me shout out real
• 39:21
  quick. We got we got some legends
• 39:23
  checking in P3 Maggio checking in.
• 39:25
  Good to see you, pal. Casey says hello from Berkeley
• 39:29
  been into our channel or into the channel, if you will look at
• 39:32
  that since Susie Rance was on the episode a few weeks ago.
• 39:36
  Susie Rance, the legend, the one of the great journalists in the
• 39:39
  NWSL. Appreciate you for rocking with
• 39:41
  us, Casey. I I just think, I mean P3 Maja,
• 39:47
  of course, comes in with the immediate banger of a stat.
• 39:50
  Barcelona had more touches in the opposition box than
• 39:53
  Wolfsburg had in the opposition half.
• 39:55
  What are you going to do with with that?
• 39:57
  There's nothing you could do. Wild.
• 39:59
  Yeah, no, it's it's brutal. And I think want to get one more
• 40:03
  step before you get out of here? Irene Peretas, Eden and Peretas,
• 40:08
  fun to see her back in the mix. Look at check out these passing
• 40:11
  stats. Short passes 29 for 29.
• 40:15
  Medium passes 40 for 40, Long passes 6 for seven.
• 40:21
  She she missed one pass on the day and it was a long pass.
• 40:24
  What is that 6975 out of 76? Unbelievable.
• 40:30
  It's. Like what the fuck are you
• 40:31
  supposed to do? Wolfsburg's not a bullshit team,
• 40:33
  like and they just have these advantages at different spots on
• 40:38
  the pitch where it's just like, OK, this quarter is, is closed
• 40:42
  like this. You know, it's like walking
• 40:43
  through like a an abandoned shopping mall and like it's like
• 40:46
  90% of the stores are closed. You're just looking for like, I
• 40:48
  don't know, like a, like a Auntie Anne's, like you're
• 40:51
  looking for something that might be maybe still open.
• 40:55
  Is there anything that can help us here?
• 40:57
  Yeah, that is a that is a fair question to ask.
• 40:59
  And I mean, the pass off the short corner to Mapi Lyon, who
• 41:05
  that I mean, that pass to put it As for the goal, it was a heat
• 41:09
  seeking missile right on the Paretta's right foot.
• 41:13
  And Borbe just has legitimately no chance in the world at saving
• 41:19
  that from that range at that speed that it that was so
• 41:23
  perfectly executed that there there's not a single goalkeeper
• 41:27
  alive who would on purpose save that.
• 41:30
  Maybe if they tripped and at fell action accidentally into
• 41:33
  the path of the ball, but there you have no shot at stopping
• 41:36
  them. Yeah, as soon as it hits Peret's
• 41:38
  foot, it's like that's a goal. Like, yeah, if it touches the
• 41:40
  foot, it's going to go. It's it's going in and they're
• 41:43
  cashing Sama Paddy yellow. She gets on the board too.
• 41:46
  I thought she played great. I think we've seen her kind of
• 41:48
  struggle in some of these big matches, especially when they
• 41:52
  get, you know, real, real close knit, kind of more technical.
• 41:56
  But I thought today she was awesome.
• 41:58
  Dangerous positions all day. Was really, really happy to see
• 42:01
  Sama get a goal. So that was definitely exciting.
• 42:04
  And yeah, I think this one's a wrap.
• 42:05
  I don't think anybody's picking Wolfsburg to kind of go to
• 42:08
  Barcelona and turn this into something more competitive.
• 42:11
  So we'll just kind of go ahead and Sharpie.
• 42:14
  And I think I'm with you on city.
• 42:16
  I think City does get through here.
• 42:19
  I think Bone Pastor, we could have something, but you know,
• 42:23
  the first season she's going to have sometimes solve a bunch of
• 42:26
  problems. It's not a lot of time to to be
• 42:28
  able to do that. So I think I'm with you on City
• 42:30
  getting through. I'll assume that you're with me
• 42:32
  on Barcelona getting through. Pass Wolfsburg here into the
• 42:36
  semis. Let's head to the third match up
• 42:39
  though. Bayern Munich nil Leon 2 and
• 42:44
  stop me if you've heard this one.
• 42:46
  Got another prediction. Shout out to my guy.
• 42:49
  Give me a second. Let me get this thing loaded up.
• 42:51
  Let me get my prediction out of the way.
• 42:53
  I think it's I think it's a 2 nil victory.
• 42:55
  We haven't even. I want to give the the credit.
• 42:59
  Leon's defense is just suffocating right now.
• 43:03
  Come on. I don't know man.
• 43:07
  It's like God damn soothsayer he's doing here.
• 43:11
  A seer of seers here. I want to I want to get in your
• 43:15
  head like, you know, like a, like a, like some CBS drama.
• 43:18
  How? How are you able to piece all
• 43:19
  this together, you know? When you know ball No, what do
• 43:25
  we do? I don't know, man.
• 43:26
  We're just fucking making guesses out here.
• 43:28
  You know, like me and you we're you know, we're all we're we're
• 43:32
  just out here. We watch ball.
• 43:33
  I'd like to think we know ball. We've got some good cosigns from
• 43:37
  some other knowers of ball. You know, I, I think Leon, I, I
• 43:45
  hate, I don't hate to say it, but it just looks like we're on
• 43:48
  a, it feels like we're on a collision course for another
• 43:51
  Barcelona Leon final. And I think it, I think it could
• 43:55
  be even better than last year's. I know I think you and I have
• 43:58
  slightly differing opinions on how close last year's final was,
• 44:03
  but I think Leon can give them a real run.
• 44:05
  Man that defense is super super duper legit.
• 44:11
  Super legit totally agree with that.
• 44:13
  I think the, the main difference for me with Leon last year to
• 44:17
  this year, last year I think was a little bit not really
• 44:23
  transitional, but you know, Ed Hegerberg still kind of around
• 44:27
  like Samara was. Listen, Samara's getting a lot
• 44:29
  of minutes and you know, no Chewinga there and Diani is on
• 44:32
  the right having come from PSU a couple of season 2 prior to
• 44:36
  that. Now it feels like things are
• 44:38
  solidified. You know, you've got heaps,
• 44:41
  you've got Du Mornay, you've got Diani on one side, you got
• 44:44
  chewing on the other. Like I want to say they're kind
• 44:48
  of like pretty locked in with what they've got.
• 44:50
  You know, offensively, defensively, they just keep
• 44:54
  getting better. Like, you know, you you sort you
• 44:57
  sort of look at a player like Sama Basha and you're like, OK,
• 45:00
  this is a, you know, a little smaller player.
• 45:01
  You already know what she's good at.
• 45:02
  You close your eyes. Alright, Basha ball, you already
• 45:04
  know what you know what time is with that and then you see her
• 45:06
  defend, you know, and be like, no, I can get up to the level of
• 45:11
  our killers back here of like a Renard or a Gio or a Carpenter
• 45:14
  on the other side. And it's just like, Oh my God,
• 45:16
  like she's going to defend like defend like this and all she
• 45:18
  wants to do is win the ball and you know, put a dime, you know,
• 45:21
  put a dime 45 yards up field onto somebody heaps or chiminga
• 45:25
  or whatever to get to get things rolling.
• 45:28
  They are they are exciting because I think there's some
• 45:34
  real there's some real like structure to their to their team
• 45:41
  in their line up now, even like matter Jean and Damaris, you
• 45:45
  know, as like kind of like defensive ish type midfielders,
• 45:48
  but players that you're happy to see up the field with the ball,
• 45:51
  doing stuff involved in in offense if they're linked up
• 45:53
  with with the right other, you know, couple players in attack.
• 45:57
  So I I think they've really cracked the code of that line up
• 46:01
  and they just look so, so difficult to score on.
• 46:05
  I mean, I think, you know, Byron, Byron had chances.
• 46:08
  You know, Byron gets 12 shots, only one on target.
• 46:11
  And you have to credit that Leon defense for just making it
• 46:14
  difficult, putting them in, you know, getting them a little bit
• 46:16
  off their spot and not allowing them to, you know, have it come
• 46:21
  as easy as it comes, you know, against a weaker competition.
• 46:25
  Yeah, man. I mean, they just, you just
• 46:28
  can't get comfortable with them back there.
• 46:33
  And I mean, I really, I do wonder the impact of Chewinga du
• 46:39
  Mornay. I guess I don't really wonder
• 46:41
  the impact of Chewinga du Mornay and DNE.
• 46:44
  You just can't, you can't cheat forward if you're anybody on
• 46:49
  the, on the opposition, like even Bayern Munich, like you
• 46:52
  just have to protect yourselves in every way because the
• 46:58
  Chewinga running forward is horrifying.
• 47:01
  And the way Matajan was passing in that match, you know, that
• 47:05
  led to that led to Chewinga's opener.
• 47:10
  I thought Matajan was great. She ended up having, according
• 47:13
  to our pals at Foot Mob, the lowest rating, the lowest game
• 47:17
  rating, which I'm a little surprised by because I thought
• 47:19
  Matajan hit some, hit some awesome passes.
• 47:21
  I thought she played a little better than Damaris, to be
• 47:24
  honest. And it's not like Damaris didn't
• 47:27
  play well, but so they have. You make a great point.
• 47:31
  You've talked about this before. The attack is set like Leon
• 47:34
  knows who they are. They know what they're going to
• 47:36
  do. Everybody has to respect Du
• 47:39
  Mornay's great skill, her ability to put you on her hip
• 47:42
  and kind of just do what she wants.
• 47:45
  Dionne maybe the most, I don't know, one of the most skilled
• 47:49
  players on the team, at worst, the third most skilled player on
• 47:52
  the team in terms of like dribbling and shooting, you
• 47:55
  know, shaking players, getting away from defenders.
• 47:58
  And so you just have no respite there.
• 48:01
  And then you have Carpenter, Jill, Renar and Basha.
• 48:04
  And it's just like, how can I even pay attention to trying to
• 48:08
  get past those defenders when I'm worried about all this stuff
• 48:11
  up front? And oh, by the way, those
• 48:14
  defenders are all super strong. Yeah, yeah.
• 48:17
  And I think when you have those type of defensive chops, even
• 48:20
  heaps in the midfield, you know, like more in the tenth spot is
• 48:24
  going to rough things up defensively or, you know, if if
• 48:27
  she's involved in a duel, you know, she's going to make you
• 48:29
  feel her. They they just they, they defend
• 48:33
  as a team, which is awesome. And then with those attacking
• 48:38
  players, they're they're able to capitalize on anything.
• 48:41
  You know, Linda Sembran, she makes the mistake in the first
• 48:44
  half, you know, where it's a 5050 ball, but Chewinga's
• 48:48
  running really fast the other way.
• 48:50
  And you're trying to kind of like at least hold the ball or,
• 48:52
  you know, get it, get it up field a little bit.
• 48:56
  The ball bounces in a way that is very harmful to Bayern
• 48:59
  Munich, ends up in Chewinga like in, in just almost in stride.
• 49:04
  She's able to take it and just kind of go with it.
• 49:06
  Then at that point, there's no catching her and that strike
• 49:09
  that she put on the on it for that first goal, like that
• 49:12
  slicing, I mean, talk about no chance.
• 49:15
  I mean, there was nothing that Gross was going to be able to do
• 49:17
  with that. I mean, just slicing away and
• 49:20
  just look like it was ready to burn a hole through the net.
• 49:23
  That was unbelievable. And then Leon's second goal,
• 49:26
  Renar puts a ball, what, 50 yards, 50 yards in the air to du
• 49:31
  Mornay. And then du Mornay wins a duel
• 49:34
  against two taller players, you know, and then is able to kind
• 49:37
  of like head the ball onto heaps, heaps, You know, I think
• 49:41
  two or three touches gives Dumane a chance to kind of build
• 49:44
  up another head of steam, lays it off right into her path.
• 49:47
  And then that's a wrap from there.
• 49:49
  Dumane, you know, slams the door shut on Bayern Munich to get
• 49:52
  that second goal. I mean, I picked Bayern Munich,
• 49:57
  you know, to win. I thought, I thought they were
• 49:58
  pretty live and I didn't think they played poorly.
• 50:02
  But they they clearly were a class, maybe a class and a half
• 50:05
  below A-Team like Lyon. I think that's probably fair.
• 50:09
  I mean, they're in that second tier.
• 50:11
  I I would say. So you know, whether it's like
• 50:14
  you're thinking about yeah, like I, I Bayern, I think Wolfsburg's
• 50:22
  in that tier. I think you make the I think
• 50:23
  some people would make the argument that City and Arsenal
• 50:26
  are probably in that tier. It's just you're not, you're not
• 50:30
  8. We'll discuss that later.
• 50:35
  You know, it, it's just hard to get in the Chelsea, Barcelona,
• 50:42
  and this is not an order, obviously, but the, the
• 50:44
  Barcelona, Lyon, Chelsea, Orlando pride tier.
• 50:48
  It's it's just hard to to get in there and they're like, where's
• 50:51
  Washington spirit in that tier? They might be they might be in
• 50:54
  that second tier, but they're absolutely knocking on the door.
• 50:57
  Where's Kansas City current? Are they knocking on that door
• 50:59
  to get into that tier? So it's just hard to get there.
• 51:02
  So I I don't think it's an insult to Bayern Munich.
• 51:04
  And like you said, they don't have to play poorly to lose 2
• 51:09
  nil at home to Lyon. That's just like that speaks
• 51:11
  more to what Lyon is than what Bayern is.
• 51:14
  Yeah, I mean, I think this one came down to the shots.
• 51:17
  Ultimately. I mentioned Bayern just one shot
• 51:20
  on target from 12. The other side, though, Lyon
• 51:23
  manages 20 shots, 10 on target. So when you're giving Leon ten
• 51:27
  shots on target and you're only forcing Endler into one save,
• 51:31
  that's not a formula that's going to work.
• 51:33
  Home or away doesn't matter. It's fair to say that this tie
• 51:40
  probably a rap too. Does Bayern have any chance
• 51:42
  coming back here? Obviously, you know, I I
• 51:44
  mentioned Linda Sembrandt, they clearly missed Lotus perlovigas
• 51:48
  Dodier, who would have been in that spot.
• 51:50
  That's like their sort of defensive stalwart wasn't in
• 51:52
  this match. I'm not sure if if that's enough
• 51:55
  to kind of make up the ground there, but I don't know.
• 51:59
  Does does Byron have any chance of surviving here?
• 52:03
  I don't think so, man. I mean, going going to France
• 52:06
  for the second leg. I'm glad you mentioned like just
• 52:09
  the shot disparity. Antler doesn't have to do much.
• 52:12
  I'm going to do some of this from memory.
• 52:15
  I just have like I I have it in my notes to to nod to it and I
• 52:21
  didn't spell it all out. So I'm going to do some of this
• 52:23
  from memory and I'm going to apologize for some relatively
• 52:27
  violent imagery here. But this is what I thought about
• 52:30
  right around the hour mark. And this is when Lindsay Heaps
• 52:36
  dished to Chewinga, who missed it wide.
• 52:39
  But it just felt like it just felt like Leon was loading the
• 52:44
  Super weapon. And you know, like most people
• 52:47
  when watching women's football, I thought about a line from the
• 52:51
  great Jamaica, Queens based poet Curtis Jackson, also known as
• 52:55
  $0.50, who in the song Heat is describing a gun battle.
• 53:01
  And he says when the window rolls down and that AK comes
• 53:05
  out, you can squeeze your little handgun until it runs out.
• 53:08
  You can run for your backup, but those machine gun shells are
• 53:11
  going to tear your back up. Now, the reason I I was thinking
• 53:16
  of that is just Lyon can just hit you with several rounds per
• 53:21
  second and they just come at you and at you and at you.
• 53:25
  And Barcelona does the same thing.
• 53:27
  And it is, it is as if you are operating with a handgun and
• 53:32
  they are operating with a fully automatic machine gun.
• 53:35
  And again, apologies for the, the violent imagery there, but
• 53:39
  it's just you, you're just, you're just operating at A at a
• 53:43
  lesser level than them. And it's almost impossible to
• 53:47
  keep up when they're when they're, you know, firing on all
• 53:50
  cylinders like that. Yeah, stuff.
• 53:52
  I mean, so many of their players can can play offense and and
• 53:55
  also defend makes it really, really difficult.
• 53:57
  And then they get those goals in ways that's just like, how are
• 54:00
  you supposed to like, what's the game plan for Reddy Renard just
• 54:03
  kicking about 50 yards through the through the Munich air in on
• 54:08
  on Thursday night? Right on, right on the spot.
• 54:13
  I can imagine some some GPS coordinates that she was
• 54:15
  calculating your mind just to get it right to du Mornay to get
• 54:19
  that goal. But yeah, I agree with you.
• 54:20
  I think Leon gets through. Shout out to Shinta in the chat
• 54:23
  who says Leon versus Barsa final winner takes on Orlando.
• 54:26
  Please sign me up for that so I can go.
• 54:31
  Absolutely right, Shinta. Great call.
• 54:33
  See, then we got people producing our show.
• 54:34
  We got people, people producing the world football.
• 54:37
  I mean, Shinta couldn't be more right.
• 54:39
  Like, look, you know, whoever wins the Champions League, you
• 54:43
  know, they should be in pretty good form.
• 54:45
  I I realize they'll kind of be at the end of the season, but
• 54:48
  Orlando Pride will be in the throes of their season.
• 54:51
  If you're going to try to mix the two footballing calendars,
• 54:54
  that would be the best time to do it.
• 54:56
  I love it. Yeah, let's do that.
• 54:59
  Well, we'll see We'll see what the second best team is.
• 55:01
  I'd be excited for something like that, no doubt.
• 55:06
  Let's Fast forward one more match on the docket.
• 55:08
  Let's see. Go through my notes here.
• 55:10
  Go through my notes here. OK.
• 55:12
  Oh, I found it. Arsenal nil, Real Madrid 2.
• 55:16
  Let's go. Big win for my Blancos.
• 55:18
  My Blancos get a big win versus my winners.
• 55:20
  Let's go. You know, we're we're on quite
• 55:23
  the tear with our predictions. So I don't know.
• 55:27
  What do you say we keep it going, buddy?
• 55:29
  I'm going to go Arsenal 3 to one, I think.
• 55:32
  I think they kind of like big girl, this Real Madrid side.
• 55:40
  Oh, buddy, so, you know, we're going to have those.
• 55:46
  Credit to us. Credit to us for, you know, we
• 55:49
  don't just play the good predictions.
• 55:51
  And, you know, the Lord knows we get a lot of shots up on this on
• 55:55
  this podcast. Not all of them are on target.
• 55:59
  No, not on target. Yeah, that wasn't the only thing
• 56:01
  that wasn't on target. Arsenal 13 shots.
• 56:03
  Just one on target. Cena Baxenius responsible for
• 56:06
  that one. No player on Arsenal's attack.
• 56:11
  No. No player on Arsenal's team
• 56:13
  notched more than two shots. That makes it tough.
• 56:16
  And I want to rewind back to something we talked about last
• 56:19
  week. I was obviously exuberant, say,
• 56:22
  OK, well, we're going to score. And this, you know, the
• 56:24
  snowball's going to happen. And Arsenal's the kind of team
• 56:26
  that, like, feeds off the momentum and, you know, Ford
• 56:29
  scores and then Russo, you know, now gets a shot in the arm and
• 56:33
  Mariona comes in and now things get cooking.
• 56:35
  And buddy, the complete opposite happened.
• 56:38
  I think, you know, things, things went bad.
• 56:41
  The weather was bad, the snow was or the field was muddy.
• 56:46
  It was nasty. And I think Arsenal mentally
• 56:50
  kind of retreated a little bit, you know, from from just kind of
• 56:54
  like a head in the game kind of standpoint.
• 56:57
  I don't think they wanted any part of that Madrid side, how
• 57:00
  physical Madrid was playing the field conditions, kind of like
• 57:04
  the nastiness. I mean, you know, it was, you
• 57:08
  know, I thought Arsenal would come in and be like, hey, we're
• 57:10
  the better team. We got more skill, more talent,
• 57:15
  and that wasn't what this game was about at all.
• 57:18
  It was a physical match up and I think the elements definitely
• 57:20
  played a factor. And Arsenal kind of like outside
• 57:23
  of a 20 minute stretch in the second-half where they really
• 57:27
  want to scratch and claw them and maybe try to level the
• 57:29
  match, you know, there just was not much, you know, from Arsenal
• 57:34
  from an offensive or a defensive standpoint.
• 57:38
  I yeah, I mean, you're totally right.
• 57:40
  The, the physicality really jumped out that and I, and I did
• 57:46
  not expect it. And I don't think it's just AWSL
• 57:49
  versus Liga F thing. I just, you know, and, and we've
• 57:53
  talked about, you know, you think about some of the players
• 57:55
  that Real Madrid has, like Olga diminutive in physical stature,
• 58:00
  plays way bigger than she is, plays way tougher than she is.
• 58:04
  I know people, you know, I I have some disagreements with
• 58:06
  some folks on, you know, is she more of a passer?
• 58:09
  Is she more of an attacking player?
• 58:11
  And yeah, that that element of her game is great.
• 58:13
  But she plays with incredible spirit, incredible heart.
• 58:17
  You know, Kaiseto, even with her speed in the attack, she has a
• 58:21
  she has a strength to her game. I think senior Brune play plays
• 58:25
  a physical style, people angled Angledahl plays plays with with
• 58:28
  some physicality. And they just, they kind of
• 58:32
  enforced their will on Arsenal here.
• 58:37
  I and I, I just want to ask the question because like, we've
• 58:40
  talked a lot about Mariana for Arsenal and I thought she was
• 58:43
  probably the best player for Arsenal in this match, at least
• 58:46
  in in my view, she continues to deliver in big games.
• 58:49
  That's, that's who she is. It seems to be what she does
• 58:53
  when Linda Kaisedo is just taking on all comers and she is
• 58:59
  just going to do battle with Emily Fox and not flinch and not
• 59:04
  give an inch. Do you think it's true that
• 59:06
  Arsenal is, pound for pound, a better team than Real Madrid?
• 59:15
  That's a good question. I'm going to say probably.
• 59:20
  Damn. It's it, I, I asked the question
• 59:23
  because I just think it's, it's way close.
• 59:26
  It's super close. We might be splitting hairs with
• 59:29
  these two. It it's definitely close, but I
• 59:35
  mean, I think based on what we saw, I mean, Kaisto feasted on
• 59:41
  Emily Fox and you know, and, and back when you, you think about
• 59:45
  the preview, I was worried about the other three.
• 59:47
  I was talking about, you know, Fox, I was talking about Catley
• 59:51
  and I was talking about McCabe. I said go right, Fox and McCabe,
• 59:54
  you know, they they they kind of Mosey around Catley, you know,
• 59:58
  has been, you know, half a step slow here and there, you know,
• 1:00:00
  maybe one a couple couple too many times this season for my
• 1:00:03
  liking. In this one, Leah Williamson was
• 1:00:08
  in scramble mode, you know, and I think on on the one goal and
• 1:00:12
  and shout out to you, You you talked about Oh, well, maybe
• 1:00:14
  Kaisedo. I think I I forgot the the
• 1:00:16
  specific apologies. I didn't pull this clip, but you
• 1:00:18
  talked about Kaisedo kind of breaking away and squirting
• 1:00:21
  through or doing something, which is exactly what happened.
• 1:00:24
  You know, Leah Williamson misplays the ball.
• 1:00:27
  And Kai Sado breaks through and Fox is sort of around.
• 1:00:32
  She's sort of in the vicinity. She's not in great position to
• 1:00:35
  kind of like, you know, be a backstop and had no chance by
• 1:00:39
  that point. Kai Sado had been working Fox,
• 1:00:43
  you know, like it was just, you know, it wasn't even a battle.
• 1:00:47
  It was like a we're going to go to this mismatch, you know, for
• 1:00:51
  Madrid. And that was like, oh, my God, I
• 1:00:54
  hated seeing that. That was really brutal.
• 1:00:56
  And then Williamson gives it up. And then Kaisedo just shrugs off
• 1:00:59
  Fox. You know, it's like, OK, well,
• 1:01:01
  you're, you're kind of you're in the frame.
• 1:01:03
  You know, you'll be in the highlight, but you're not going
• 1:01:05
  to get anywhere near what's going on here.
• 1:01:07
  And just this the coolest, calmest finish that you can
• 1:01:10
  imagine. And yeah, Kaisedo, even at her
• 1:01:15
  young age is a player that we cannot stop, you know, and when
• 1:01:19
  you think about, you know, we talked about Leon, Damaris,
• 1:01:23
  Marjan and even heaps if she's kind of like dropping a little
• 1:01:26
  deep, Even this Madrid side, you know, like, OK, in this at the
• 1:01:29
  center back spot, they got Mendez, they got lacrosse.
• 1:01:32
  But then their midfield Toletti is kind of involved, you know,
• 1:01:35
  senior Bruin, she's dropping a little bit deeper.
• 1:01:38
  Leopold's who you mentioned is a real player with real Champions
• 1:01:42
  League experience and kind of like can can mix it up with the
• 1:01:44
  best of them. For sure.
• 1:01:46
  We don't have that, you know, in our defensive midfield.
• 1:01:50
  We we had, you know, our, our, our back four.
• 1:01:52
  And then it's Kim Little and it's Kyra crony cross who are
• 1:01:55
  not going to necessarily strike a lot of fear in a player like
• 1:01:59
  Linda Chaisedo or Caroline Weir or an Athenaea.
• 1:02:03
  Like it's it's a bad it's sort of a bad match up.
• 1:02:07
  And I think it if Arsenal on the offensive side isn't going to
• 1:02:11
  put any real pressure on you, then it's, it's, it's, it's over
• 1:02:15
  like this Madrid team should, should advance.
• 1:02:20
  I've been thinking more and more about this and so our pals Kike
• 1:02:23
  and P3 Maja, you know, mention this in the chat here, Kike
• 1:02:27
  says. You know, there's nothing truly
• 1:02:28
  objective making Arsenal favorites.
• 1:02:30
  There's simply a tendency to overrate English clubs,
• 1:02:33
  especially over Spanish clubs. P3 chimes in exactly might be
• 1:02:37
  due to their results against Barcelona Speaking of Real
• 1:02:40
  Madrid and why some some folks might underrate them.
• 1:02:44
  I got to say and our you know, OG friend of the show MLS
• 1:02:49
  architects usually kicking it in our in our YouTube comments
• 1:02:53
  dropping knowledge with us. The absolute legend has
• 1:02:56
  mentioned this too. And and I got to say for Spanish
• 1:02:58
  football fans, there's got to be some level of frustration.
• 1:03:02
  And this is, and this is very apparent on the men's side of
• 1:03:06
  football, where English pundits talk about English football in
• 1:03:11
  the Premier League and, and talk about how it's the most
• 1:03:14
  competitive league in the world and it's the best league in the
• 1:03:16
  world. And if you're a fan of a Spanish
• 1:03:18
  football team, especially Barcelona or Real Madrid, you're
• 1:03:21
  just kind of looking around going, why do we have all the
• 1:03:24
  European trophies then? Isn't that weird?
• 1:03:26
  Like you guys are so great, your league's so competitive.
• 1:03:28
  And then when our teams line up and play, seems like we're the
• 1:03:31
  ones always lifting the trophy. How does that exactly work out?
• 1:03:34
  And I got to say it like, you know, there there has to be
• 1:03:37
  something to that. And and, you know, MLS brought
• 1:03:40
  that up to us, you know, talking about in the context of saying
• 1:03:43
  the NWSL in America is the most competitive women's Football
• 1:03:46
  League in the world. Now, do I think that, you know,
• 1:03:50
  Orlando Pride or Washington Spirit would just go out and get
• 1:03:52
  rolled by by Barcelona? Absolutely not.
• 1:03:56
  I just don't think, I just don't think the talent disparity is,
• 1:04:01
  is real in any way there. I I, I don't know if I'm going
• 1:04:05
  to go that far, but like I just don't see pride getting rolled
• 1:04:08
  by anybody. But back to the point that I
• 1:04:12
  just think with that team, we didn't even see Albert Redondo
• 1:04:15
  for Las Blancas in this one. There was another player that I
• 1:04:18
  was thinking about. We didn't even we didn't even
• 1:04:20
  see Yasmin and Yasmin has looked great for real, like immediately
• 1:04:25
  stepping in. So I I think, you know, there,
• 1:04:29
  there might be something too. And we had talked about that,
• 1:04:33
  though, especially in those two Coba de la Arena matches where
• 1:04:36
  Real just gets absolutely cracked by Barcelona.
• 1:04:39
  Maybe it's time to not hold that against them so much.
• 1:04:43
  Even as disappointing as those results are, we got to remember
• 1:04:46
  this team still is absolutely loaded.
• 1:04:50
  Yeah, I think I, I don't, I don't disagree with any of that.
• 1:04:54
  I don't necessarily think it's AI, don't think it's AWS.
• 1:04:57
  You know, to be honest, I don't think it's a WSL versus Liga F
• 1:05:01
  versus, you know, Arkema or I, I don't think it's really about
• 1:05:04
  that. You know, look, I mean, this is
• 1:05:05
  another reason I hate XG. Arsenal wins the XG about a 1.1
• 1:05:08
  to 0.7. Is that what we watched?
• 1:05:11
  So they were, you know, to to to some extent they were getting
• 1:05:15
  into positions where you would expect them to be able to create
• 1:05:19
  more goals and more offense. But just that.
• 1:05:21
  Yeah, again, the the one shot on target really sunk them.
• 1:05:24
  But I think we haven't really seen this Madrid line up
• 1:05:28
  necessarily. I think versus Depot D, like
• 1:05:30
  their last draw at center back, I think they were playing
• 1:05:34
  Antonia and I can't remember who else, but it definitely wasn't
• 1:05:38
  Lacroix. And I think in the midfield it
• 1:05:40
  it was really, you know, sort of a hodgepodge as well.
• 1:05:44
  So I think we definitely got Madrid's best line up here.
• 1:05:48
  They did what they were supposed to do to, you know, take full
• 1:05:51
  advantage of that first one at home and really come out and
• 1:05:55
  just be like, you know, the thing that we've been lamenting
• 1:05:58
  for months on this show. Stop falling behind.
• 1:06:01
  You're really fucking good. You're really good players.
• 1:06:03
  We know you can come back against a lot of these league up
• 1:06:06
  teams or during Champions League qualifying or or or what have
• 1:06:09
  you. Stop falling behind.
• 1:06:11
  You know, play from the jump. And that's what they did like,
• 1:06:14
  you know, they they they weren't going to give up any cheapest
• 1:06:17
  Arsenal. They played tough and when the
• 1:06:21
  when the opportunities kind of presented themselves, they
• 1:06:23
  pounced both times. You know, we talked, we I think
• 1:06:26
  we talked. It might have been pre show, but
• 1:06:28
  that 20 minute stretch in the second-half where Arsenal's
• 1:06:31
  really, really trying to level this match.
• 1:06:34
  I think it was like from the 60th minute to roughly the 80th
• 1:06:36
  minute, they're giving everything they can, they can a
• 1:06:39
  bunch of shots, a bunch of possession, pushing the ball
• 1:06:43
  deeper and deeper, you know, as as best they can.
• 1:06:46
  And then as soon as that run is over and they kind of
• 1:06:49
  collectively exhale, take a breath.
• 1:06:51
  As a team, we're just like a simple one pass, 2 pass, three
• 1:06:56
  passes, we're up field Tatania one move.
• 1:06:59
  Like just the, the the Arsenal defense on that play looks like
• 1:07:03
  just 4 statuettes makes made of jello.
• 1:07:07
  Like they just didn't, they had not there was there was no
• 1:07:12
  positive movement in any sort of direction where they were going
• 1:07:14
  to pose any kind of throw like 0 resistance whatsoever.
• 1:07:17
  The easiest, the easiest Champions League knockout stage
• 1:07:21
  goal that Antonia I think is going to score in her career for
• 1:07:24
  sure on that when they definitely deserve the win.
• 1:07:27
  And, and I think, yeah, we'll see.
• 1:07:29
  We'll see what what what the what the reverse pivot has in
• 1:07:32
  store. Yeah, I think a great shout on
• 1:07:38
  Antonia and I, I think that just I think this qualifies as an
• 1:07:45
  Antonia brace is so here, here's what I have in my notes.
• 1:07:48
  Atenea comes on for Kaiseto in the 74th minute.
• 1:07:52
  Next note, Atenea comes in and immediately fouls Emily Fox
• 1:07:56
  because of course she does. That's the 75th minute.
• 1:07:59
  And then in the 84th, Atenea gets the ball on the counter and
• 1:08:03
  is able to score. So I think coming into the match
• 1:08:07
  immediately hard fouling an opponent and then scoring a
• 1:08:10
  goal, I think if, if I may, I would like to start calling that
• 1:08:14
  the Atenea brace. I like it little little combo.
• 1:08:19
  I like the combo. Last last quick thing here.
• 1:08:24
  I think you know the arsenal lineup.
• 1:08:27
  I I had talked about it too in the preview.
• 1:08:29
  I'm like, damn. You know, I think we landed on
• 1:08:30
  something here, you know, with Russo at the 9 freedom on him,
• 1:08:36
  Caldente on the left, maybe Chloe Kelly on the right.
• 1:08:39
  And then in this match we get Steena Blaxenius at the 9, Russo
• 1:08:44
  at the 10, Mariona on the left, Beth Meet on the right.
• 1:08:47
  So a big shake up from that. And I'm just, I'm kind of, I
• 1:08:53
  feel like I might be done with Alessia Russo at the 10, like.
• 1:08:56
  Oh. I'm not sure I like it.
• 1:08:59
  I think it feels like something that Arsenal's trying to talk
• 1:09:02
  themselves into just so that black standings can be on the
• 1:09:05
  field at the 9:00. But I don't.
• 1:09:07
  I don't really like the fit. Russo, I think, is AI.
• 1:09:12
  Don't know to my, my, my eye test, you know, my very basic,
• 1:09:16
  my very basic eye test I think is a better 9 than A10.
• 1:09:20
  I'd rather have her up there. Her work rate's crazy.
• 1:09:24
  She's going to create chances. She's going to create chances
• 1:09:26
  out of nothing. Let's give her the opportunity
• 1:09:28
  to do that rather than try to be in that spot and distribute.
• 1:09:31
  I kind of feel like my Leona might be better there, like, you
• 1:09:33
  know, just with her IQ and you know her ball.
• 1:09:36
  So you just can't take the ball off her.
• 1:09:38
  But either way, that that four, that front 4 did not work at
• 1:09:43
  all. Beth Mead had a look, but you
• 1:09:45
  know, you could see that Beth Mead's chemistry, obviously a
• 1:09:48
  tremendous player, but her chemistry was off.
• 1:09:51
  Like she's just not used to playing with those players in
• 1:09:54
  that spot. And they weren't able to link up
• 1:09:56
  with anything, anything at all really that was that was any
• 1:10:00
  kind of threatening. So I think there's definitely, I
• 1:10:05
  don't know, Sega's going to have to go back to the drawing board
• 1:10:06
  in a really big way, I think. Yeah, probably.
• 1:10:10
  I, I think, I think you raised a good point.
• 1:10:12
  I I do wonder if if Blaxtenius was able to finish that early
• 1:10:17
  chance where Russo played her in.
• 1:10:19
  Like, do we feel better about Russo at the 10?
• 1:10:24
  Like, I mean, it felt like, it felt like there were a couple of
• 1:10:27
  things that that loomed really large.
• 1:10:30
  Caisado's speed despite the elements felt like that was a
• 1:10:34
  huge factor. But Extenius not scoring that
• 1:10:37
  early chance when, when Russo plays her right in that felt
• 1:10:40
  that just felt huge. Beth Meade not getting the shot
• 1:10:45
  on frame right near the end of the first half where they could
• 1:10:50
  have been able to kind of pull that one back.
• 1:10:52
  I think that that felt really big even in the moment.
• 1:10:56
  And then, you know, Ateneo obviously gets the second goal.
• 1:11:00
  I almost wonder if the, you know, let's say Beth Meade
• 1:11:04
  scores right before the end of the first half.
• 1:11:06
  Was the second goal in that match, no matter who scored it
• 1:11:11
  going to end up being kind of the de facto winner, so to
• 1:11:14
  speak? So it, you know, all those
• 1:11:17
  things combined, I think your point stands though.
• 1:11:21
  I freedom on them is really good at the 10 and she has good
• 1:11:25
  chemistry with Russo at the 9:00.
• 1:11:26
  So I think I would go back to that and I'm just going to raise
• 1:11:30
  my hand again and just ask, is Rosa Cafagi going to play for
• 1:11:34
  your team? Yeah, yeah, it's tough.
• 1:11:38
  I mean, we saw her, you know, ball last year in the Champions
• 1:11:42
  League. I, I can't really wrap my head
• 1:11:44
  around why this player cannot be even just depended on as a, as
• 1:11:51
  a, as a regular sub to get 253035 minutes consistently
• 1:11:57
  because it can't be that the system is so complex.
• 1:12:02
  Like this is not really doing anything like, you know, like
• 1:12:04
  let's get a player in here that is unpredictable.
• 1:12:07
  And I think, you know, on the other side of, you know, you
• 1:12:11
  think about Madrid, I keep thinking about Caroline Weir,
• 1:12:14
  who's like a great player who gets the ball, you know, up
• 1:12:18
  field for for the that second Ateneya goal.
• 1:12:21
  Kafaji could be doing stuff like that, you know, winning balls
• 1:12:25
  deep, driving the ball, you know, up field or just
• 1:12:28
  distributing from deep and like connecting, you know, long,
• 1:12:31
  medium range passes. And at the very least, you know,
• 1:12:35
  it's it's a change of pace. You know, like I think Kyrie
• 1:12:39
  Kreetik, Kyrie Kostin, this one struggled.
• 1:12:42
  You know, I think she was, you know, playing a little bit, you
• 1:12:45
  know, laid back a little LAX, you know, like she had a couple
• 1:12:48
  balls picked off that were, you know, they they probably get
• 1:12:52
  through when you're playing like Lester or, you know, Everton or,
• 1:12:56
  you know, the whoever in the WSL on a or, or some weird.
• 1:13:00
  Yeah, I mean, like, but in this match wasn't going to happen.
• 1:13:04
  I think Cooney Cross was, was not on point this day, even
• 1:13:08
  though she's I think he's a good player with a good future.
• 1:13:10
  But I, I don't, I don't understand why a player like
• 1:13:13
  that can get minutes, Cafagi can't get minutes when we've
• 1:13:16
  already seen Cafagi excel in this tournament against teams
• 1:13:20
  like Chelsea, against teams like Real Madrid.
• 1:13:23
  She fucking bossed Real Madrid last year at the group stage.
• 1:13:25
  So I don't know. That's something that we've got
• 1:13:27
  to look at. Either way this line up I I
• 1:13:31
  would be happy not to see this line up again.
• 1:13:34
  Yeah, and I, I don't think, I don't think he will because they
• 1:13:38
  got they got one more, they got one more crack at it and they
• 1:13:40
  got to do something big in London.
• 1:13:43
  So it it's it's going to be, it's going to be nervous Nelly
• 1:13:48
  hours for anybody who is only an Arsenal fan.
• 1:13:52
  But luckily some people are Arsenal and Real Madrid fans, so
• 1:13:55
  they can also be happy if the result plays out the same way
• 1:13:59
  next time. Win some, lose some, as they
• 1:14:02
  say. All right, man.
• 1:14:06
  Quick look ahead TBD on which shows we're going to be doing or
• 1:14:10
  not doing. We'll see, but I know fair
• 1:14:12
  enough. We we will be back talking about
• 1:14:14
  NWSL going down this weekend, some big match ups.
• 1:14:18
  Friday night Portland play Angel City.
• 1:14:20
  That'll be fun to kick off the weekend, the Courage play your
• 1:14:23
  Seattle rain. Washington Spirit led by Yuna
• 1:14:25
  Hidaladas take on the KC current led by their own, you know,
• 1:14:31
  monster manager Vladko Adonovski on his second year revenge tour
• 1:14:35
  a little. We'll see what happens there.
• 1:14:38
  My future team, Bay FC Racing, Louisville, that'll be fun.
• 1:14:40
  Utah, our Utah Royals, San Diego wave, see what's happening
• 1:14:44
  there. Saturday night, Gotham FC versus
• 1:14:46
  Orlando and to close out the weekend, Chicago stars Houston
• 1:14:49
  Dash. I'll clock in and catch some
• 1:14:53
  dash. I'll be excited for that Sunday
• 1:14:55
  night. And then next week, champs ING
• 1:14:57
  returns Leon host Byron to open up the proceedings. 1:45 PM
• 1:15:00
  Eastern, 10:45 PM Pacific, Wednesday, March 26th.
• 1:15:04
  Following that one, Arsenal hosts Real Madrid at 4:00 PM
• 1:15:06
  slot and then the following day, Thursday March 27th, the Champs
• 1:15:10
  Barcelona hosts Wolfsburg 1:45 PM Eastern, 10:45 AM Pacific and
• 1:15:16
  then to close out the quarterfinals, Chelsea host your
• 1:15:20
  Manchester City Sky Blues 4:00 PM Eastern, 1:00 PM Pacific.
• 1:15:23
  You must be pumped for that one. It's gonna be exciting.
• 1:15:27
  I mean, you know, round three fight, you know, in the boards
• 1:15:31
  of Mortal Kombat. I'm I'm ready to see it.
• 1:15:33
  Let's go. All right man, anything else you
• 1:15:35
  want to hit before we get out of?
• 1:15:36
  Here we got to hit it. I mean, obviously P3 Maja just
• 1:15:39
  just mentions in the chat we did not.
• 1:15:43
  I don't think we really talked much about Sydney Sheridan live
• 1:15:51
  when we talked about Barcelona and just hear quickly from my
• 1:15:56
  notes when she comes onto the pitch.
• 1:15:59
  Dude, bro, what the fuck, my guy?
• 1:16:06
  Like, I mean, what are we talking about here?
• 1:16:10
  That strike her movement, her size, her speed, her
• 1:16:15
  decisiveness? She's a teenager, man.
• 1:16:18
  Like, what are we? What are we looking at here?
• 1:16:21
  Yeah, well, when you were talking about the the balloon
• 1:16:23
  doors, I'm like, I don't know, she might be she.
• 1:16:26
  Might win, yeah. Certainly might be four years.
• 1:16:28
  Five years, yeah. Unbelievable.
• 1:16:31
  I mean, she she made Minga, you know, Minga gets the goal for
• 1:16:34
  for Wolfsburg, but Minga was probably involved in a couple of
• 1:16:37
  the goals the other way. She had Minga going in circles.
• 1:16:40
  You know, I like just oh, completely gives away the ball
• 1:16:43
  overruns it and she's turning around the other way.
• 1:16:45
  Sheraton live just got her on on a like as if she's attached to a
• 1:16:49
  yo-yo, just completely dominant the strike.
• 1:16:52
  Unbelievable. She almost got a second goal.
• 1:16:55
  I mean, a a tremendous player right now.
• 1:16:59
  Again, like not a player that like, all right, five years will
• 1:17:01
  circle back. This is a tremendous player
• 1:17:03
  right now. I think she's giving Barcelona
• 1:17:06
  real options from a substitution standpoint.
• 1:17:10
  And then the last thing I want to hit.
• 1:17:11
  So shirt and live comes in for the legend Alexia Pateas.
• 1:17:15
  And after the shirt and live goal, you know, like, you know,
• 1:17:19
  you get you get the, the, the, the standard, you know, Pateas
• 1:17:22
  like taking up the armband stone faced or walking over.
• 1:17:26
  I think she gives it to pot 3 so that, you know, very unhappy.
• 1:17:28
  You know, she wants to let us know she's not unhappy.
• 1:17:30
  She's coming out of the game. And then shirt and live scores.
• 1:17:34
  The camera cuts to the Barcelona bench and you see Alexia just
• 1:17:37
  like, but you know, she's just got a smile on her face like yo,
• 1:17:41
  like if she's going to do that, I mean, you let me know when I'm
• 1:17:45
  when I'm when my shifts up and I'll just sit down and watch.
• 1:17:47
  You know what, what, what? Sydney's got up her sleeve.
• 1:17:49
  That was a cool moment. Unbelievable.
• 1:17:52
  Yeah. There's a great photo too, of of
• 1:17:54
  them like kind of high fiving each other, like as sharing
• 1:17:57
  lives coming off the field. Boy, does that look prophetic.
• 1:18:03
  Interesting, man. I mean, Vicki Lopez, I thought
• 1:18:06
  she came on and played really well and she was still somehow a
• 1:18:11
  distant second on best teenager who came in into a Champions
• 1:18:16
  League match. I mean, I I guess wait and see
• 1:18:19
  with with Sheridan live. I mean, how high is the ceiling?
• 1:18:23
  I don't want to get too crazy, but like what She had the two
• 1:18:25
  assists against Tenerife. We've seen her play even like
• 1:18:28
  this season as she started to come on me and you were just
• 1:18:31
  like, that's an awfully good player right away.
• 1:18:35
  And then just that explosion on that strike, oh boy, the rich
• 1:18:40
  get richer. Yep, No, I'm becoming excited to
• 1:18:43
  see her kind of grow into her own, for sure.
• 1:18:47
  I I'm going to make a little side prediction here.
• 1:18:51
  That won't be the last goal that we see from Sydney Sheridan live
• 1:18:54
  in this tournament. So put me down.
• 1:18:57
  Put me down for that. I think that's fair.
• 1:18:59
  I was honestly, I put in my notes.
• 1:19:01
  I was surprised, even though I know she hasn't played much,
• 1:19:04
  she's still a very young player. I was still somehow like a
• 1:19:06
  little surprised that that was her first Champions League goal.
• 1:19:09
  I was like, oh, she didn't get in in like the the 9 mil
• 1:19:12
  drubbing versus Hammerbee or anything.
• 1:19:14
  I don't I don't even think she was really getting many minutes.
• 1:19:16
  Then you know, somebody will correct me if I'm wrong there,
• 1:19:18
  but I even then Barcelona's so stacked that I was just like,
• 1:19:22
  oh, OK, yeah, I guess. I guess that is her first
• 1:19:25
  Champions League goal. Interesting.
• 1:19:27
  So like you just never know where the goal those are coming
• 1:19:29
  from there. Yeah, definitely won't be the
• 1:19:31
  last. All right, man, there's been
• 1:19:33
  another set into the channel. Thank you, thank you.
• 1:19:35
  Thank you to everyone for hanging out with us live.
• 1:19:38
  We really, really appreciate it. If you enjoyed the show or loved
• 1:19:41
  ones football as much as your boys do, make sure you're
• 1:19:43
  kicking it with us every single week, maybe multiple times a
• 1:19:45
  week. Yeah, we still got some stuff to
• 1:19:47
  work out, but suffice it to say it'll be more than one time per
• 1:19:50
  week, especially now when the calendar is getting definitely
• 1:19:52
  hot and heavy. Like if you liked, subscribe,
• 1:19:54
  follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you'd like to
• 1:19:57
  watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
• 1:19:59
  favorite podcast app. We want to hear from you.
• 1:20:00
  We love hearing from you. Links to all of our socials
• 1:20:02
  except one in the show of this episode.
• 1:20:05
  And a big thank you to my coast as well, Mr. Grant Angle.
• 1:20:08
  For being our rising star, our Champions League semifinalist, I
• 1:20:13
  think, you know, we're, we're all, we're all pulling, we're
• 1:20:15
  all, we're all a little sky blue this week.
• 1:20:18
  Kind of kind of hoping that that your squad is able to make it
• 1:20:20
  through. At least one of our squads will
• 1:20:22
  make it through. So we're excited about that.
• 1:20:23
  But either way, I appreciate you bro.
• 1:20:26
  Likewise, buddy, I mean, look, you, you can't lose here.
• 1:20:29
  So one of your squads is getting through.
• 1:20:31
  Hopefully my squad gets through. We appreciate everybody for
• 1:20:34
  hanging out with us. KC Key KP 3 Patrick Chuck
• 1:20:39
  checking in for Rep in Sheffield United Gold Blades.
• 1:20:43
  Let's go. Thank you guys for rocking with
• 1:20:46
  us. We will talk to you.
• 1:20:47
  You know when the next show is. We're trying to figure that out.
• 1:20:50
  We'll probably we'll probably take a couple minutes after the
• 1:20:52
  show and figure that out. But thank you again for watching
• 1:20:55
  and we will see you all next time.