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USWNT v JAPAN PREVIEW 🏆 SheBelieves Cup 2025 | Starting XI Predictions | Players to Watch + More! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:05
  OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about when's
• 0:09
  football? I am your host Dino De
• 0:10
  Suspicious and as always, I am joined by my host Mr. Grant
• 0:14
  Angle. What is up man?
• 0:16
  I'm feeling all right, buddy. I think we have ourselves a de
• 0:19
  facto Cup final to look forward to, and I guess also a de facto
• 0:23
  3rd place match, if you want to call it that.
• 0:25
  But I'm looking forward to watching it all and chopping it
• 0:27
  up with you about it. I like it, yeah, hopefully,
• 0:29
  yeah, the US can come out on top.
• 0:31
  If so, facto another Cup and then we're on.
• 0:33
  We're on our way and great call in the 3rd place match.
• 0:35
  Yeah, Columbia and Australia both -5 gold differential, no
• 0:39
  wins, no draws, 2 losses. So yeah, we will get a
• 0:42
  definitive 3rd place winner and also definitive, she believes
• 0:47
  Cup Hoyster. Very excited about that, that
• 0:49
  one going down Wednesday and some good news.
• 0:52
  We will be live. Little bit of ITC after dark.
• 0:56
  How about that immediately or pretty close to it After the
• 0:59
  game wraps, your boys will be turning the mics on going live.
• 1:03
  It'll either be really happy or maybe a little somber or maybe a
• 1:05
  little bit of both. We'll see, but should be a lot
• 1:07
  of fun. Make sure you're locked in for
• 1:09
  that four matches down to to go a lot of different places.
• 1:12
  We can start the show, but Mr. Grant Angle, where do you want
• 1:15
  to get started? Let's get started with USA 2
• 1:18
  Australia One in a match that featured an entirely rotated
• 1:22
  lineup for the United States of America that a single player who
• 1:26
  started versus Colombia started versus Australia, and I felt
• 1:29
  like the play reflected those changes.
• 1:32
  I think in this kind of tournament though, it's a
• 1:34
  logical strategy to take where you kind of take these big
• 1:38
  swings in terms of just like starting 11 construction.
• 1:42
  And the fun parts were that the team still gets to play for a
• 1:45
  trophy on Wednesday. So that's nice.
• 1:46
  And then secondly, Emma Hayes gave us plenty to discuss in the
• 1:50
  meantime. So I'm curious before before I
• 1:53
  start, will you tell me what was your biggest take away from the
• 1:56
  Australia match? I definitely saw a little bit of
• 1:58
  the same, you know, I think the chemistry was lacking.
• 2:00
  You know, we had talked about on the last episode, Hey, maybe we
• 2:03
  see some new injection here, some new players, some new
• 2:06
  combos. Didn't think that we would go 11
• 2:08
  for 11 with regard to the the line up reshuffle.
• 2:11
  And I think a couple things really jumped out, you know, and
• 2:14
  I think what we'll talk about them a little bit in this
• 2:16
  episode. But I thought Emma Sears right
• 2:18
  out of the gate, a real difference maker, you know, and
• 2:20
  a tough assignment versus Ellie Carpenter.
• 2:23
  I mean, I think that was that was the match up of this one.
• 2:26
  It was it was so able to see those two players go head to
• 2:28
  head so many times. I think it was just like there
• 2:31
  was a Sears Carpenter duel I think every 30 or 40 seconds.
• 2:35
  It seemed like it was pretty awesome.
• 2:36
  I thought Claire Hutton was really, really sharp.
• 2:39
  I think Hutton and Sears were probably my my players of the
• 2:42
  first half. And I thought, you know, player
• 2:44
  like, you know, I kind of hate to kind of get get here so
• 2:47
  early, but I thought Jaden shot took her.
• 2:49
  It took her a while to kind of get into rhythm properly.
• 2:53
  There was some spots early where I kind of felt like she was
• 2:56
  ripping shots when she had opportunities kind of like lay
• 2:58
  it off to either Thompson or Sears.
• 3:00
  And then that had a follow on effect because I think later in
• 3:03
  the match when she did try to like play make and kind of like,
• 3:07
  you know, create for others, her calibration was just like a
• 3:10
  little bit off, but she did have that super slick ball to sent
• 3:13
  more really, really late in the match.
• 3:15
  So we kind of did see like, you know, vintage Jaden Char or as
• 3:19
  vintage as we have from a USWNT standpoint, right?
• 3:23
  But it did take a minute. And I think that was a function
• 3:25
  of kind of what you mentioned, the chemistry, you know, just
• 3:28
  taking a second to kind of like call us here.
• 3:30
  Yeah, as vintage as you could see from a 20 year old player.
• 3:33
  But I understand. I understand exactly what you
• 3:35
  mean. But before we go any further,
• 3:37
  Speaking of vintage, let's go with these frosty beverages that
• 3:42
  are aged to perfection. No doubt we've waited too long
• 3:47
  to crack. These cheers to you.
• 3:53
  Cheers to the USA. The US women's national team.
• 3:55
  But yes, so and cheers to you buddy.
• 4:00
  The fairies mutual. But yeah, I think we should get
• 4:03
  to Shaw because we we can always go backwards a little bit.
• 4:06
  I thought it was, I thought Shaw played really well as the game
• 4:10
  progressed. To your point, I like the passes
• 4:12
  that she was making, especially late in the game.
• 4:14
  You, you mentioned the pass in the middle of the sentinor.
• 4:16
  I thought she just started to distribute a little more
• 4:19
  naturally, kind of got her, got her wits about her as the game
• 4:22
  developed and you could already see.
• 4:25
  I know I, I, I said it to our guy Mike Watts and our NWSL
• 4:29
  preview when we talked about Jaden Shaw.
• 4:31
  People have those questions. Is she a nine?
• 4:33
  Is she A10? Is she a nine and a half?
• 4:35
  The the reason those 9 1/2 or 10 questions exist is because she
• 4:40
  has some of those pieces her game and I thought it was
• 4:43
  evident especially like. It's, it's funny, like in other
• 4:46
  sports that you know, we have that that term like a tweener.
• 4:49
  She's not really a tweener. She's more of like a can do
• 4:51
  both. Yeah.
• 4:52
  But weirdly on this team, she's not the best 9, she's not the
• 4:56
  best 10, right? So it's sort of kind of puts her
• 4:59
  in a little bit of a tight spot. And I think that's kind of what
• 5:01
  what Emma Hayes going to have to kind of figure out here.
• 5:03
  Yeah, and I and I think you know what, it was the Columbia match.
• 5:07
  I just want to make sure I have my line UPS right here.
• 5:09
  Yeah, of course in the Columbia match they play heaps at 10
• 5:12
  naturally, where she typically plays and then Macario at 9.
• 5:17
  Obviously we know Macario often plays 10 at Chelsea, so now we
• 5:21
  have two players and I would say Macario is a because of
• 5:25
  experience and just general like playing competitive ball at a
• 5:29
  high level. Macario is definitely a superior
• 5:32
  #10 to Shaw, but I think it's probably a little closer between
• 5:36
  them at #9 We keep throwing around these numbers.
• 5:39
  The fact of the matter is Shaw is incredibly fast.
• 5:41
  She can push the pace. She fits well when she has some
• 5:45
  other fast players around her. I like the, like you mentioned,
• 5:48
  the combination that she had with Sears and Thompson.
• 5:51
  I thought that worked all right. I think I saw some mixed reviews
• 5:55
  about Sears play on Warsaw Blue Sky, but I I'm with you.
• 5:59
  I I thought Sears played pretty well, especially in the first
• 6:02
  half. I like that that match up.
• 6:04
  I like that she's a youngish player who who's going right at
• 6:07
  Carpenter. Yeah, it's anybody who who did
• 6:09
  take even the slightest bit of issue with Emma Sears play.
• 6:12
  She's going against a world class defender, Ellie Carpenter
• 6:16
  and kind of giving her the business.
• 6:19
  I mean sort of creates that first goal.
• 6:22
  We're talking about Jaden Shaw to who gets the assist to then
• 6:24
  be in Dole. They could kind of get them on
• 6:26
  the board. But Sears, a young player, a
• 6:28
  player with less experience internationally, you know, is
• 6:32
  going at Carpenter like that and creating and like just kind of
• 6:35
  giving Carpenter fits. I mean, like, that's not
• 6:37
  something that we're used to seeing you like kind of even in
• 6:39
  the Champions League. I thought Sears was really good.
• 6:41
  Yeah. I thought she put a lot of
• 6:43
  pressure on Australia. I thought she just was kind of a
• 6:46
  handful. And I think the Jane Shaw point
• 6:48
  to kind of rewind back a little bit to to to Shaw, she's a
• 6:51
  matchup nightmare. You know, whether or not, you
• 6:54
  know, she kind of kind of like hits, you know, Max productivity
• 6:56
  in a match. She's somebody that you have to
• 6:58
  account for and somebody that puts a tremendous amount of
• 7:02
  pressure on the defense, can pass, can shoot.
• 7:05
  But yeah, I thought Sears was great.
• 7:07
  And as mentioned, Sears and Hutton, those were my players of
• 7:09
  the first half. Yeah, great call on Hutton.
• 7:12
  I thought that, you know, as the game went on, she got put in
• 7:16
  some pretty tricky spots at times, was able to, it was
• 7:19
  mostly able to cope with those. So for her, especially at her
• 7:23
  age when she's 19, to be a teenager out there dealing with
• 7:27
  Australia, veteran Australia players, Caitlin Ford running
• 7:31
  right at her like that was, I thought that was a a very solid
• 7:35
  performance from Hutton. We'll get into it, but I think
• 7:38
  if you get put in a tough spot and you need to sub on a
• 7:41
  defensive midfielder in this de facto final versus Japan, I
• 7:45
  don't know, she might get a look.
• 7:46
  Yeah, I would definitely say so. And Speaking of Subs and nines
• 7:51
  and 10 ends and you know who's going to be playing where and
• 7:53
  who should be playing where, I thought we'd have a little fun
• 7:56
  with this one. So this lineup situation worked
• 7:59
  out beautifully because we got real looks at almost all 23.
• 8:03
  I think all 23 players have seen the field over these two matches
• 8:07
  and with the final looming, gives us the opportunity to
• 8:09
  maybe have a little fun constructing a lineup,
• 8:12
  channeling our own inner Emma Hayes to kind of put together an
• 8:16
  11:00. We we haven't synced up on this
• 8:19
  except for the idea of actually doing it on the show.
• 8:22
  So I kind of I'm excited to see who you have for a year 11.
• 8:26
  I'm excited to share my 11:00 And then hopefully we can, you
• 8:28
  know, jam these things together like Voltron and and put
• 8:30
  together a killer lineup that can really keep Japan up at
• 8:34
  night, you know, in a cold sweat, I'm sure.
• 8:37
  That's right. So I want to go back to front
• 8:40
  and I want to kind of kick it to you.
• 8:42
  Well, let's hit the goalkeepers and then let's let's let's jump
• 8:44
  to the back line and have the conversation build out that back
• 8:47
  line. All right, you heard us.
• 8:49
  Nils Nilsen, manager for Japan. We're going to put together a
• 8:53
  line up. Obviously, we know Emma Hayes
• 8:54
  watches the show and then she's going to take some of our advice
• 8:57
  and you're in trouble. Nils.
• 8:59
  I'm proud. I might be Butcher butchering
• 9:01
  his first name. He's Danish.
• 9:02
  I think it's I think it's Nils. I don't think it's Niles.
• 9:05
  No disrespect to the guy, all right?
• 9:09
  No disrespect to the guy Nils Niles thing.
• 9:12
  Whatever, I think I know what it is anyway.
• 9:16
  All right, we'll start with goalkeeper.
• 9:18
  I thought Mandy Mcglinn was fine and in the same game she had a
• 9:21
  couple good punches that I thought were were pretty
• 9:23
  impressive. I could see why she was out
• 9:25
  there, but I think Jane Campbell's the the choice here,
• 9:28
  the experience size. I just trust her back there if
• 9:32
  that makes sense. Totally agree.
• 9:33
  Yeah you could might be able to make a case for Mcglinn.
• 9:36
  I think she she played fairly well as younger maybe has a like
• 9:40
  more of an inside track on the kind of the future of that of
• 9:43
  that goalkeeping position. But yeah, I definitely agree
• 9:45
  with you. I think a game of this magnitude
• 9:47
  probably want to have Jane Campbell back there.
• 9:49
  OK, now let's do a little formation talk.
• 9:52
  So when I put together my 11, as you know, as I am one to do, I
• 9:57
  put together A4231. Where did where did you land?
• 10:01
  Same place. OK, awesome.
• 10:03
  All right. How do you want to do this?
• 10:05
  You would you want me to do my back four and then you do your
• 10:07
  back four or do you want to go 1 at a time?
• 10:09
  Yeah, let's go one at a time. Well, we'll do left center backs
• 10:12
  and then right back. Okay, like that, my left back
• 10:15
  Giselle Thompson. Wait, is she in the left or the
• 10:18
  right? She play both.
• 10:19
  She primarily plays left in the NSL.
• 10:22
  Nice, okay. She is right footed though.
• 10:25
  Would this line up a little righty heavy?
• 10:28
  But I'm gonna play Thompson in the left back.
• 10:29
  OK. I like it.
• 10:30
  Yeah. And I kind of struggled a little
• 10:32
  bit at left back because I was probably just kind of limiting
• 10:35
  it to done versus nice longer, sure, but I love it.
• 10:38
  Let's get just that one there. I thought she had a tremendous
• 10:41
  game. Yeah, she's got me.
• 10:43
  She looked. Electric One, one of the players
• 10:45
  of the match for me too. I mean she, she gave Australia
• 10:47
  real problems. Yeah, she's another player who
• 10:50
  plays bigger than she is. I like I like her toughness a
• 10:54
  lot. Super tough.
• 10:55
  Yeah, love it. She was definitely in my 11.
• 10:58
  So we're off to a killer start. All right, let's hit our center
• 11:01
  backs. All right, well, I'll go first
• 11:02
  here. Yeah, go ahead.
• 11:03
  So first match we obviously get Teremy Kyon, Emily sonnet.
• 11:07
  Second match, we get Emily Sam's Tuna Davidson.
• 11:09
  Now, you know, I I am probably the preeminent Emily Sam's fan,
• 11:14
  podcaster. Maybe on the planet.
• 11:15
  Yeah, probably on the planet. Yeah, I'd say.
• 11:17
  But I thought Sam's struggle a little bit, kind of a little
• 11:21
  indecisive, you know, not super duper sharp.
• 11:24
  Could be a function of the chemistry issues.
• 11:27
  I'm not sure if she's gotten minutes with Tuna Davidson, but
• 11:30
  it wasn't just that connection. But I think like just wasn't on
• 11:33
  point. I think defensively she did
• 11:35
  mostly all of the right things. But and again, it's
• 11:38
  international. So I think we saw a lot of good
• 11:40
  players across all four teams, You know, maybe not hit the
• 11:44
  level and I probably think Samson was in that camp, but I
• 11:48
  would still give her the nod. I think I would go Davidson and
• 11:51
  Sam's and I, I kind of do like Emily's Sonnet as a potential
• 11:56
  sub just because of the versatility.
• 11:58
  So if you start Sonnet, who's got all the experience, you sort
• 12:01
  of take her off the board as a potential sub.
• 12:03
  You're kind of locked into that. I'm not sure you could put Sam's
• 12:05
  anywhere else on the field but at center back.
• 12:07
  So for that reason, I would go Sam's Davidson.
• 12:10
  OK, yeah, I like that. Am I screwing up the rules of
• 12:14
  this? I thought we were each picking
• 12:15
  our own. Or did you tell me who your left
• 12:18
  back was? Oh, good call.
• 12:20
  So I had Crystal Dunn at left back and I think just because
• 12:25
  it's Japan, Dunn defensively also super tough, super
• 12:30
  experienced, not going to get rattled, can cover a lot of
• 12:33
  ground on the field. You know, I think Crystal Dunn
• 12:35
  brings a lot, but if you side Dunn obviously to the bench,
• 12:39
  it's the same kind of Emily Sonic corollary.
• 12:41
  You know, it's it's a super versatile bench piece that Hayes
• 12:44
  can kind of put in multiple different places, yeah,
• 12:46
  depending on how the game goes. Yeah, I like that, that that
• 12:49
  makes a lot of sense. Sorry if I'm like screwing up
• 12:51
  the format here, but that you know what, to all our pals who
• 12:53
  watch the show, you're, you're just like, yeah, there's Grant
• 12:56
  screwing up the format again. That's kind of just how the show
• 12:58
  goes. I'll stop there.
• 12:59
  There's no format where you know, that is we're quite doing
• 13:02
  it live, but we're sort of always doing it live.
• 13:05
  Giving too much credit to us even having a format.
• 13:08
  All right, fair enough. Sure.
• 13:10
  OK, so my center backs were we're overlapping on 50%.
• 13:14
  Tierna Davidson thought it was super rad that she wore the
• 13:16
  captain's armband for the first time in her career in an
• 13:19
  international match. I realized that in our preview,
• 13:22
  I honestly, I have a weird blind spot where I don't know if I'm
• 13:25
  like going back in time to the 2019 World Cup, but sometimes I
• 13:30
  forget that Tina Davidson has like sneaky a lot of caps for
• 13:34
  the national team. Like I think she I think it was
• 13:36
  her 66th cap when she wore the armband.
• 13:40
  So I, I don't know, there's just I have a weird blind spot on
• 13:43
  that. I know she's obviously an
• 13:44
  excellent player, but sometimes I forget about just how
• 13:47
  experienced she is and she holds up well back there.
• 13:49
  I mean, we talk about her as Germa's center back partner.
• 13:52
  She just does a lot of smart things back there.
• 13:55
  I think this is kind of this is funny that would that we
• 13:57
  switched this because pretty much most of my reasons for
• 14:00
  having Sonnet as her center back partner in this, in this final
• 14:05
  versus Japan. Pretty much what you said about
• 14:07
  done is now we have done on the bench and she can kind of be our
• 14:11
  utility player if we need. But I like that center back
• 14:14
  pairing of Davidson and Sonnet, so that's what I want with.
• 14:17
  All right, so this is our first break point, so we've got to
• 14:20
  make a call here. Actually, let's put a pin in it.
• 14:23
  Let's see how the rest of the line shakes up.
• 14:25
  OK? All right, so all right, so so
• 14:26
  we have Sam's and we have Sonnet's potential center backs.
• 14:30
  All right. Who did you go with on the
• 14:32
  right? Emily Fox, I believe she is the
• 14:35
  correct choice for your gooners. Very curious who you might have
• 14:40
  on the right. So this is fun.
• 14:42
  I actually had Giselle Thompson over Fox and I and I know, I
• 14:46
  know Fox is like a a staple like of that back line for sure.
• 14:51
  And obviously a tremendous player, but Giselle Thompson
• 14:54
  was. She played great.
• 14:57
  She was unbelievable, like she was just a handful.
• 15:01
  And you could imagine, right, if you're Australia, you're not
• 15:03
  probably spending a ton of time being like, right, how do we
• 15:06
  stop Giselle Thompson? But they clearly didn't put any
• 15:09
  time into that because, you know, Giselle was was a force in
• 15:13
  that one. So I actually had her a smidge
• 15:15
  ahead of Emily Fox. I had her in my starting 11.
• 15:18
  But now I get the best of both worlds.
• 15:20
  We get to sell on the left, Fox on the right, so I think we're
• 15:23
  cooking. Okay, I mean, yeah, if you're
• 15:26
  cool with that, then I am absolutely cool.
• 15:29
  I mean, I'm never going to deny Emily Sam's a center back spot.
• 15:33
  So if we want to put Davidson Sam's, if we want to go
• 15:35
  Thompson, Davidson Sam's Fox, it's a hell of a back 4.
• 15:39
  Well, let's, let's hold off on Sam Sonnet until we have the
• 15:42
  full 11 because, you know, I don't know, we might need to
• 15:47
  have some machinations, some moving pieces.
• 15:49
  All right, fair enough. Who you got in?
• 15:50
  Defensive midfield so there I've got damn.
• 15:53
  I think I think you've got to put Claire Hutton there and I
• 15:58
  think you've got to put Lily honest there.
• 16:00
  But if we're going 4231, those are my two.
• 16:02
  I think Hutton, you know, not only does she make great
• 16:05
  decisions, but she's got dynamite in her boot.
• 16:08
  Like the the ball just flies off her boot, like wherever she's
• 16:11
  trying to go with it, the ball gets there like with with with
• 16:14
  certainty pretty much. And she's always making good
• 16:17
  decisions. She's always in great position.
• 16:19
  She's always an outlet for whenever there's a little bit of
• 16:22
  trouble, the ball sort of like near the sideline or you know,
• 16:25
  that maybe there's a press coming.
• 16:27
  She's always nearby to kind of like, you know, give the player
• 16:31
  on the ball an option and then she's making great decisions
• 16:33
  from there. I thought she started
• 16:35
  tremendously well in the match, kind of cooled off a little bit
• 16:38
  as the the tenor and the geometry of the of the game
• 16:41
  changed. But I saw enough to be like,
• 16:44
  this is a player that, you know, not going to be a great player.
• 16:47
  This is already a great player and a player that's probably
• 16:50
  going to push Sam Coffey for that spot a lot sooner than
• 16:54
  maybe people were expecting. All right, Sam Coffey is
• 16:58
  definitely who I have. I I thought we would agree on
• 17:02
  both of these. So that is that's a good
• 17:04
  curveball by you. And no disrespect to Claire
• 17:06
  Hutton. She is 19.
• 17:08
  Japan's going to come into this match and play lightning fast.
• 17:11
  You see how the way they move the ball in the attacking 3rd.
• 17:15
  So I I think whoever you have back there is going to have
• 17:18
  their hands full. I went with Coffee based on the
• 17:21
  experience, the way we saw her play in last in, you know, in
• 17:24
  the Olympics, in the Gold Cup in last year's, she believes, I
• 17:27
  mean, Sam Coffee came up huge in some of those Gold Cup matches.
• 17:31
  So my pairing was as unsurprisingly Sam Coffee, Lily
• 17:36
  Johannes. I just like I said in Sharpie,
• 17:39
  in the line up, every big game, every roster moving forward,
• 17:43
  Lily Johannes has to play. She was so impressive against
• 17:47
  Columbia. You can't keep her out of the
• 17:49
  out of the match. Yeah, no argument there.
• 17:52
  And to see Johannes against this Japan side.
• 17:55
  And if we do get Hutton and Johannes, I have a feeling it's
• 17:57
  going to be coffee. But if we do get Johannes and
• 18:01
  Hutton against Japan, I mean, we're going to learn a ton.
• 18:04
  I think this is that's a real big test from an international
• 18:07
  football standpoint. Yeah.
• 18:09
  So that that'd be exciting to see.
• 18:10
  The the one thing I'd say about coffee is she does have the
• 18:13
  tendency to not be as accurate with her.
• 18:18
  You know, she she she will kick a ball a few yards off target.
• 18:23
  And I think against this Japan side that can sort of flip the
• 18:26
  field really quickly and can connect medium passes, long
• 18:30
  range passes, that could be a killer.
• 18:32
  I mean, a lot of I'm stacking a lot of ifs on top of each other.
• 18:36
  But I think in this matchup, if it's me, based on what I saw, I
• 18:39
  think Hutton gets the nod for me.
• 18:40
  So love it. Do we want to make a call that
• 18:43
  we so Lily's penciled in? Yeah, on to the three in the
• 18:47
  4231 I'm. Going to go with Alyssa Thompson
• 18:51
  on the left wing. I realize I'm skewing a little
• 18:53
  righty heavy, but I I like her creativity out on the wing.
• 18:58
  I think her quickness is going to be important against against
• 19:01
  Japan. So give me the youngster.
• 19:03
  We're starting the sisters in the final.
• 19:05
  I don't hate this, and I think this would have been a
• 19:08
  surprising choice before watching that match, but I
• 19:11
  thought Alyssa Thompson played really well.
• 19:13
  Yeah, you know, and she was really solid, but the kind of
• 19:16
  the icing here is, you know, no surprise, but the chemistry
• 19:19
  between Giselle and Alyssa, off the charts, I think they, they
• 19:23
  kind of like were, were heavily In Sync at some point, you know,
• 19:26
  it looked like there were 3 or 4 Thompson sisters out there.
• 19:29
  So I like the pairing. I had Eliza Thompson in my 11.
• 19:32
  So no arguments there. We are in agreement she's in.
• 19:35
  All right, this is where things are going to start to get a
• 19:37
  little interesting here. It might not seem like it at
• 19:40
  first, but I think what you start doing, kind of doing the
• 19:42
  math on how this works at #10 I have one Katarina Macario from
• 19:48
  Chelsea Football Club. Let's go realize what that.
• 19:51
  Means sign cosign, cosign, cosign, cosign.
• 19:55
  She's she's in incredible form. She was dominant versus Colombia
• 20:00
  in the first match. I just don't think there's any
• 20:02
  way. And you know what, if you, if
• 20:04
  you want to give her 6065, maybe 70, you know, just to take care
• 20:09
  of her as she, as she continues to build back from the injury,
• 20:11
  that's fine. But I if I can get an hour of
• 20:14
  Macario minutes in the match, then I'm I'm taking an hour of
• 20:18
  Macario minutes. Absolutely, Yeah, I had.
• 20:20
  I had Macario 2 at my number 10. That bumps Lindsay Heaps down
• 20:24
  the list a bit. Yeah, obviously sidelines Jaden
• 20:26
  Shaw in this exercise. Well, at least for me.
• 20:29
  But a little spoiler alert. But yeah, I had Macario 10 now
• 20:32
  on the right. I might surprise you here.
• 20:34
  I might not. I had a Messiers.
• 20:36
  OK, All right. You did surprise me a little
• 20:38
  bit. Tell me why.
• 20:39
  Again, I thought her her aggressiveness and forcefulness
• 20:43
  on offense, like she had like a fearlessness and she showed
• 20:48
  great ball skills like in tight spaces with pressure, she was
• 20:52
  able to kind of like squeeze through a couple tight spaces
• 20:54
  distribute. She obviously gets the ball to
• 20:56
  Shaw, who then moves along to be Andolo.
• 20:58
  But that whole that whole opening goal was created by by
• 21:01
  Sears action, right? And I think she's just tough to
• 21:04
  deal with and a player that I think a has a lot of room to
• 21:07
  grow and I think is still ascending.
• 21:09
  I think it kind of feels like every time we see her, she's
• 21:11
  getting a little bit better. Yeah.
• 21:13
  I don't think she's going to be, I don't think this moment's
• 21:15
  going to be too big for her against Japan.
• 21:17
  I I think physically she, you know, poses a a tough match up.
• 21:21
  She's going to be somebody that you're going to have to, she's
• 21:23
  going to attract a lot of attention.
• 21:24
  And that should open things up for a lot of other attacking
• 21:27
  players. And I think based on, you know,
• 21:29
  kind of like what we saw, I think she kind of earned that
• 21:31
  spot. I love it.
• 21:32
  Yeah, you won't get any argument for me.
• 21:34
  I have a different player on the right wing, but still, I won't
• 21:36
  argue with series. I think you're right.
• 21:38
  She helped. She created that that first goal
• 21:40
  I had Yasmine Ryan, I love her form.
• 21:43
  There is something now I don't I don't know, we we make our
• 21:47
  basketball comparisons here. And I just want to say on the
• 21:51
  front end, I believe overall, like pound for pound, Yasmine
• 21:54
  Ryan is a better player than this player.
• 21:57
  But is there something to the Evan Fournier comparison where
• 22:02
  Evan Fournier all of a sudden he puts on the France jersey and
• 22:05
  he's all of a sudden like a world beater?
• 22:08
  Like, but Yasmine Ryan is is good for Gotham too, But I it's
• 22:11
  just and hopefully she will be for Houston dash.
• 22:14
  But like I like the way Ryan is played.
• 22:17
  There's something about her that makes me feel like she'll be a
• 22:20
  big, big match kind of player as well.
• 22:23
  But to your physicality point, that could be important against
• 22:27
  Japan. The two that I was trying to
• 22:29
  decide between were Yasmine Ryan and honestly, Michelle Cooper,
• 22:33
  because I love, I have loved her game in this tournament so far.
• 22:38
  I've loved the minutes that she's gotten.
• 22:41
  But I think I'm, I'm fine with Sears.
• 22:43
  But really between Ryan Cooper and Sears, I it, Mike Watts kind
• 22:49
  of corrected me on this way. He said, well, you could get it
• 22:52
  wrong. You like you can lose like
• 22:54
  talking about like Emma Hayes making those choices.
• 22:57
  But honestly, like my point to that is I don't think there's a
• 23:00
  player if if Hayes puts either Sears, Ryan or Cooper there, I'm
• 23:04
  just not going to be at the end of the match and go, well,
• 23:06
  should have played the other one just like totally play the
• 23:09
  result if they happen to lose or if they draw and lose uncle
• 23:12
  differential. Like I don't care about that.
• 23:14
  I think you you could make a great case for any of those 3.
• 23:17
  I definitely agree with that. Cooper was awesome.
• 23:20
  Yasmine's been awesome as well, I think in spots for sure.
• 23:24
  I thought you were Evan Forney. That one hurt a little bit.
• 23:27
  We could have gone Dennis Schroeder too, for for Germany,
• 23:29
  who plays real big internationally.
• 23:31
  I thought you were going to go baby James Harden, you know,
• 23:33
  kind of like in the shadows a little bit, gets traded to
• 23:36
  Houston and then kind of like explodes a little bit.
• 23:39
  You know, it's a Team USA. You know, I don't know, there's
• 23:41
  some, I mean, maybe that might be overselling, but I think
• 23:44
  Yasmine has been great and we definitely have not seen the
• 23:48
  best of her for the US women's national team.
• 23:50
  So I think all three of those need to be in the mix.
• 23:54
  Let's pick our #9 and then we'll kind of like circle back to who
• 23:57
  we've got sharpied in, so to speak, and then we'll we'll make
• 24:02
  some final decisions and then we'll land our on our final 11.
• 24:04
  So #9 who you got? I have a feeling we might
• 24:08
  overlap here. I have Ali Centnor playing
• 24:10
  number. Nine.
• 24:10
  That's fucking yeah. She has to.
• 24:12
  Let's go. No, she's she's in.
• 24:13
  She's in too good a form right now.
• 24:15
  Let's just say you play Macario for 60 minutes and then you want
• 24:20
  to spell her. I mean, honestly, like if me and
• 24:23
  you were running the team and we ran this line up out here and
• 24:25
  then we we took Macario out at like the 63rd minute and put in
• 24:29
  Jayden Shaw. I do feel like some people might
• 24:31
  throw things at us and say why the fuck aren't you playing
• 24:34
  Lindsay Heaps? Obviously people know Horans
• 24:37
  resume. She's got the World Cup, she's
• 24:39
  got the multiple leagues for Leone, she has a league in the
• 24:42
  NWSL for the Thorns, she's Champions League winner, you
• 24:45
  know the gold medal. She's got everything.
• 24:47
  But this is me and Dinos exercise here.
• 24:49
  We're playing some of the younger players, but if you went
• 24:52
  from Macario at #10 and then Jaden Shaw at #10 and we saw
• 24:57
  Shaw and Sentinor's creativity, I just think there's no other
• 25:01
  answer other than Ellie Sentinor at #9.
• 25:04
  Yeah. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna
• 25:06
  distance myself from your take. I don't have any issue going
• 25:10
  Macario Shaw and and having heaps sort of like as a as a
• 25:15
  backup to the backup. And not to take anything away
• 25:18
  from the legend, Obviously you you know, we all know her, her
• 25:20
  bona fides for sure probably got like 9.
• 25:23
  She believes cups in her cupboard somewhere as well.
• 25:27
  But we've we've got to, you know, sort of like match fire
• 25:30
  for fire. And I think, you know, when you
• 25:32
  look at a player like Ali Sentinor and her emergence, and
• 25:35
  when we think back ten days ago, kind of having the conversation
• 25:38
  was like, alright, well, you know, maybe there there could
• 25:40
  maybe there could be a player that kind of like explodes here
• 25:43
  and now becomes a player that has to be taken seriously that
• 25:47
  that almost writes their name into the 2027 roster.
• 25:50
  I mentioned almost we had a couple people on YouTube be like
• 25:52
  everybody pump the breaks a little bit.
• 25:54
  So agreed, but Centinor, I mean, it's hard not to get excited
• 25:59
  about a player like that and Lindsay's probably somebody
• 26:02
  that, you know, kind of represents maybe a previous
• 26:03
  generation and like still has a role.
• 26:05
  But you know, like in a match like this, you could I I don't
• 26:08
  think I'm I wouldn't lose any sleep no matter how the match
• 26:11
  goes, if she doesn't see the field because of, you know, just
• 26:13
  sort of the way the lineups break out.
• 26:15
  So let's go let. Me say one thing here real
• 26:18
  quick, just to be totally clear, there is a 0% chance that
• 26:23
  Lindsay Heaps does not start this game like she is 100% she's
• 26:27
  going to start. There's no way.
• 26:30
  I think, I think you and I are right and it doesn't mean we
• 26:33
  know anything about football compared to Emma Hayes.
• 26:35
  That's interesting. There's no chance that Heaps
• 26:39
  doesn't start. There's no way would Emma Hayes
• 26:42
  make that choice. Damn.
• 26:44
  All right. Well, I mean, I'm, I'm a little
• 26:46
  taken aback by that just because what do you do?
• 26:49
  Like, so I mean it's either, I mean she has to play at the 10,
• 26:54
  yeah. So that means Macario's at 9,
• 26:57
  which means Centinor is either on the wing or not in the
• 27:00
  starting line up like. I think the line up that Hayes
• 27:03
  is going to play and let's just do the the front 4 is Macario's
• 27:09
  going to be at the 9, Aran's going to be at the 10,
• 27:11
  Centinor's going to be on the left wing.
• 27:13
  And then she I think she'll play Yasmine Ryan or Ms. Sears on the
• 27:17
  right. No, no, I don't think she'll
• 27:19
  start Elissa Thompson. OK, that makes sense.
• 27:22
  And see why you'd want to have heaps over Alyssa Thompson.
• 27:26
  Fair enough, right? We'll see.
• 27:29
  We'll see what happens. I'm going to say I'm on wax with
• 27:31
  it now. So if I'm, if I'm totally up, I,
• 27:33
  I have the bold take that there's a 0% chance Haze doesn't
• 27:37
  start heaps. But I just, I just don't think
• 27:39
  you can do that to your historical captain who's on the
• 27:43
  squad. You got to do it at some point,
• 27:45
  right? Happens to everybody at some
• 27:46
  point, you know, like, you know, there's really great players,
• 27:49
  you know, they they move into a different role and you know,
• 27:52
  heaps isn't, you know, hasn't really been a world beater for
• 27:55
  this team. You know, she's a super solid
• 27:57
  player and like widely considered when you look at like
• 28:01
  sort of like the the European centric list, she's always near
• 28:04
  the top of the list. She's great for Lyon, obviously.
• 28:06
  Yeah. But it kind of feels, I don't
• 28:08
  know, maybe like slightly like a different ball game.
• 28:10
  But I'd be excited to see the line that, I mean, this is going
• 28:13
  to be a much anticipated lineup for your boy.
• 28:15
  I'm especially now that we've gone through this exercise.
• 28:18
  Yeah. OK.
• 28:18
  So let's let's sort of close out our list.
• 28:21
  So we've got Jane Campbell in the back to sell.
• 28:22
  Thompson, Tina Davidson, Emily Fox on the right.
• 28:26
  Sharp eat in. Lily Ohana Sharp eat in.
• 28:28
  In the midfield, Alyssa Thompson, Kat Macario, Ali
• 28:32
  Sentinor, 3 of the front 4. Sharp eat in.
• 28:35
  So we've got to make a decision between Emily, Sam's.
• 28:39
  The Emily's. Like that, I got so tripped up
• 28:42
  by that. The Emily's, I was like, what's
• 28:46
  happening here? Emily, Emily's same.
• 28:49
  So one of the Emily's going to, you know, there's only room for
• 28:51
  one Emily. Emily, Sam's Emily son.
• 28:53
  And then we've got to make a decision between Claire Hutton
• 28:56
  and Sam Coffey. And then we've got to make a
• 28:58
  decision between Ms. here, as you guys mean Ryan, Michelle
• 29:00
  Cooper, based on the names that we've got.
• 29:03
  Let me ask you this. Yeah, I want to switch gears a
• 29:05
  little bit. Which do you feel strongest
• 29:07
  about? I think I think I feel strongest
• 29:10
  because it's a cup final and I again, Claire Hutton is an
• 29:14
  awesome player because it's a final.
• 29:16
  I think I want Sam Coffee in the lineup because I know for sure
• 29:21
  that she's been in these. But I could also.
• 29:23
  I would honestly, I would trade you if you want to put Hutton
• 29:27
  and Sam's in there, give me Yasmine Ryan up top and I think
• 29:32
  I'm good. I.
• 29:32
  I love Yasmine Ryan up top. OK, I have no problem.
• 29:35
  I mean, I don't want to say she hasn't been put in the best
• 29:37
  position, but she's squeezed the most out of the opportunities
• 29:41
  that she's been she's been given over these these first couple.
• 29:44
  So I I'm happy to like lock in Yasmine Ryan and I'm definitely
• 29:48
  happy to take Claire Hutton. That Hutton was actually the one
• 29:50
  I felt strongest about. Oh, OK.
• 29:51
  Because I think we saw, I think we saw Hutton and Coffee
• 29:56
  obviously play the same position.
• 29:57
  You don't. And I you would have wanted to
• 29:59
  see Coffee kind of like, I don't want to, I don't want to do
• 30:01
  more. But I didn't walk away from that
• 30:02
  one anywhere near as impressed with like kind of what Sam
• 30:06
  Coffee did in comparison to what Claire Hutton did.
• 30:09
  I thought Claire Hutton was tremendous and just played like
• 30:12
  a player that could do whatever she wanted.
• 30:14
  Like kind of has some of those Johannes vibes.
• 30:15
  Like I can do anything here. I can put the ball wherever I
• 30:18
  want it. But but I definitely agree with
• 30:20
  your Sam Coffey big game experience there.
• 30:23
  And I don't think there is a wrong answer, but I, I, I
• 30:26
  definitely feel, I don't know, I think Hutton, I think Hutton
• 30:28
  kind of has that young prodigy like got up, you know, it's like
• 30:32
  Australia's really struggling to kind of get a hold of this
• 30:35
  player. So let's let's let's call it,
• 30:38
  we'll take Yasmine, we'll take Claire Hutton and and then we've
• 30:41
  got to make a decision on the Emily's here.
• 30:43
  I could go either way. I mean, I'm I'm a huge fan of
• 30:46
  both, obviously. Let me mention one quick thing.
• 30:49
  If we have Lily and Claire Hutton in the midfield, that's a
• 30:52
  young midfield, right? That could be an argument to
• 30:54
  kind of go your way and maybe look at Sonic.
• 30:56
  I think that's totally fair. And it's actually funny that you
• 30:59
  say that because I was actually, I was thinking kind of the the
• 31:02
  same thing earlier, like, OK, if we're going to have two
• 31:04
  teenagers as our double pivot midfielders, you probably want
• 31:09
  Davidson and Sonnet kind of backing him up.
• 31:12
  All right, I love it. OK, back to front.
• 31:14
  Campbell, Giselle Thompson, Tina Davidson, Emily Sonnet, Emily
• 31:17
  Fox. What 3?
• 31:18
  Emily's back there in the next Lily, Johannes, Clara.
• 31:21
  Clara and Alyssa Thompson. Kent Macario, Yasmine Ryan, Ali
• 31:25
  Centnor. Zero.
• 31:27
  I'll say this. Zero chance.
• 31:29
  This is the actual. Yeah.
• 31:30
  No actual lineup. Yeah, no way.
• 31:34
  All right, I feel comfortable saying that.
• 31:35
  Wonderful. I think we crushed it.
• 31:37
  Yes, well done by you. And for everybody who was
• 31:39
  probably listening to us go oh, yeah, it's only between 2,
• 31:43
  Emily's Emily Sam's and Emily Sonnet there.
• 31:45
  I guarantee there are people going Fox, you idiots, Fox,
• 31:48
  Emily Fox, you dummies. But that's OK.
• 31:51
  You know what? We never said we were going to
• 31:53
  be good at this. No, I mean, yeah, Tekken center
• 31:56
  backs here. What are you like, you know,
• 31:58
  come on now. Give us a break.
• 32:00
  Let's shift gears here. I want to talk a little bit
• 32:02
  about Japan, who's looked incredible and I think extremely
• 32:07
  dangerous. I mentioned it earlier.
• 32:09
  I think what they do is they just stretch you.
• 32:12
  Like basically there's not a spot on the field where they're
• 32:15
  not threatening you just because they've got the accuracy,
• 32:19
  pinpoint accuracy to put the ball wherever they want.
• 32:21
  And if there's a spot in the field, it could be 20 yards up
• 32:24
  and 30 yards over. If somebody's out in space, the
• 32:27
  balls go in there, you know, whether it's it's just one pass
• 32:30
  or two and now you're on your heels trying to kind of defend
• 32:33
  that. So they really make you defend
• 32:35
  the entire field and make it really, really hard.
• 32:38
  And as they stretch you, they're just kind of cutting through
• 32:41
  wherever there's like a little lane, they're just kind of
• 32:43
  grabbing at that. I think they've they've been
• 32:45
  excellent. What level of problems can this
• 32:49
  Japan side create for for US international team?
• 32:52
  They can kick your ass no matter what team you are in in the
• 32:55
  world, they can end up kicking your ass like they they can
• 32:58
  really I I love the way you describe, no matter where they
• 33:02
  are on the field, they can cause you problems.
• 33:04
  They can they can stretch your defense and it's just because
• 33:08
  all the little pockets of players that they have all over
• 33:11
  the field are capable of playing one twos to each other and it's
• 33:15
  immediate. It's pass and move, pass and
• 33:17
  move, pass and move no matter where they are on the field.
• 33:20
  There are a couple goals where it was like a 12 here.
• 33:23
  And then as the other player, they're the one who gives the
• 33:26
  the first pass. They're already streaking into
• 33:29
  open space. The the player who received the
• 33:32
  ball is playing a 12 with another player who's then who's
• 33:35
  then said, you know, playing the through ball in and, you know,
• 33:38
  every announcer says, oh, beautiful football, great
• 33:41
  movement. We've all done it.
• 33:43
  Probably playing FIFA in various video game systems.
• 33:46
  It works because defenses can never quite figure it out in the
• 33:50
  moment. I mean, no matter what level of
• 33:53
  football you're playing, it works every time when you
• 33:56
  execute it well. And so they are just capable of
• 33:59
  doing that, like you said, in any spot in the field and they
• 34:03
  can do it to you in a way that like you're seemingly not
• 34:06
  expecting even though you are trying to play defense against.
• 34:09
  It yeah, I mean, they just make you defend.
• 34:12
  You know, we talked about this with with Barcelona and their
• 34:15
  defense a little bit with Leon as well, where they just take
• 34:18
  away your second and your third and your 4th.
• 34:21
  Look, Japan is almost the inverse of that, where it's like
• 34:24
  they always have a second and a third and a fourth look to go
• 34:27
  to. And so you feel like you have
• 34:28
  things covered. You're like, oh, OK, I see
• 34:30
  what's going here, a little triangle here.
• 34:32
  And then the triangle becomes like some sort of weird
• 34:34
  parallelogram. And now you're like, you're
• 34:36
  getting beat and now they're scoring.
• 34:37
  Yep 100% and I mean they just have absolute genius players who
• 34:42
  are able to do it. Yeah, absolutely.
• 34:43
  Let's talk about some of those genius players.
• 34:45
  So we're not going to recap the the, the, the two smashings that
• 34:48
  they they administered to Columbia and Australia, but I do
• 34:51
  want to hit on a couple players to watch going to the final.
• 34:55
  As mentioned, your boys will be live after the final.
• 34:58
  So this is de facto our preview of the final.
• 35:02
  So we want to give you a couple players to keep an eye on.
• 35:04
  Let's do a little, little mini draft.
• 35:06
  I want to do 2. I want you to do 2.
• 35:08
  I'll kick it to you just to kind of give you the 1st pick.
• 35:11
  You're too gracious, my good man.
• 35:13
  I appreciate that. I will take the number one pick
• 35:15
  and you'll probably yell at me for it, but I think it's gotta
• 35:18
  be Micah Hamano. I mean, she has the she has the
• 35:22
  ability to be the best player on the field.
• 35:24
  Are you surprised by this? Was she not on your board?
• 35:27
  She. Was not on my board.
• 35:30
  Obviously she scores a goal. Holy shit no, they're stack.
• 35:33
  Yes, they're so stacked. Five players of my board, Hamano
• 35:37
  obviously scores and and a real difference maker at Chelsea, but
• 35:42
  was it in my 5 that I'm kind of keeping an eye on?
• 35:44
  This is wild. All right, tell, tell me why
• 35:46
  Mike Amano. I mean, not that I need to know,
• 35:48
  but tell us why Mike Amano is something that is going to scare
• 35:52
  you come Wednesday night. I mean, even as an Arsenal
• 35:54
  supporter, I know you are somewhat of a Chelsea admirer in
• 35:57
  the in the women's game. Yeah.
• 35:59
  I mean, I just my first note about her is she can win the
• 36:02
  game for Japan, like on her own. She had like her ability to hit
• 36:06
  from distance to play players in, to run into dangerous areas.
• 36:10
  All the stuff that we talked about that are are absolute
• 36:12
  staples of the Japanese attack. She does all those things for
• 36:15
  Chelsea Football Club. I just think that she has the
• 36:18
  ability to uncork a upper 90 shot, you know, from the top of
• 36:24
  the 18 that no keeper is going to be able to save.
• 36:27
  And so I, I just think that, you know, whether it's coffee and
• 36:30
  Johannes or Hutton and Johannes or Hutton and coffee, whatever
• 36:34
  that whatever the combo is, they're going to have their
• 36:36
  hands full. With Amano, absolutely.
• 36:39
  Yeah, obviously tremendous player.
• 36:41
  I had a 1A1B on my list. I got to go.
• 36:44
  Momoko Tanakawa. Yeah, sure.
• 36:46
  When you when you talk about uncorking from the top of the
• 36:48
  18, Tanakawa uncorked from about 40 yards.
• 36:52
  Yes. Like 16 seconds into the match,
• 36:55
  fastest goal in the history of she believes cup.
• 36:57
  We've seen her wreck games for Bayern.
• 36:59
  We saw her wreck games for Rosengard.
• 37:02
  I mean, I'll admit you called her a superstar.
• 37:05
  I think 2 weeks ago, 3 weeks ago.
• 37:08
  I didn't necessarily recoil at that, but I kind of filed it
• 37:10
  away. I'm like, OK, you know, she's
• 37:12
  really good, a really exciting player.
• 37:14
  Now I'm like, I mean, like, is she going to be on Barcelona
• 37:17
  next year? Like, like what?
• 37:18
  What's the ceiling? Like what's the ceiling for this
• 37:21
  player? Because I'm not sure we're
• 37:23
  seeing players do things at this same level, at this same
• 37:28
  frequency with this level of audacity and and just the power,
• 37:33
  the the creativity, the fearlessness, the accurate.
• 37:36
  Like this is wild. Like she's just, I mean, talk
• 37:39
  about a player who could win the match, win the Cup, when I mean,
• 37:42
  like she's right there with Hermano.
• 37:44
  Absolutely. I mean, just an explosive,
• 37:47
  explosive player. Yeah, no doubt.
• 37:49
  I mean, we talked about her before, you know, Golden Boot
• 37:52
  winner in the Damos Fenskin this summer.
• 37:54
  It was like, oh, OK, played my summer football now time to go
• 37:57
  back from the loan back to Bayern Munich and play in the
• 37:59
  Champions League. So, yeah, I mean, she can, she
• 38:02
  can win that. I, I, you know, it's, it's a
• 38:04
  funny question to ask. Could she play for Barcelona
• 38:06
  next year? I I wouldn't put it past any
• 38:09
  footballer to want to do that. But you know, we have great
• 38:12
  Japanese restaurants here in Seattle, WA.
• 38:15
  And if Momoka Tanakawa would like to come to the beautiful
• 38:19
  Pacific Northwest, we would welcome her with open arms.
• 38:22
  Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, San Francisco, too, my
• 38:24
  baby. Talk about that later.
• 38:26
  Sure. All right, who's Next up on your
• 38:29
  list of players to watch? I'm going to go with Moeka
• 38:33
  Minami and the reason I choose the Roma Center back is she's
• 38:38
  going to have her hands full with the USA attack.
• 38:41
  And I and I think if you're looking for weaknesses in this
• 38:45
  Japanese side, I think it's going to have to be in that back
• 38:49
  forward. Now you got to get there.
• 38:50
  You got to get the ball from them and not get it stolen and
• 38:54
  then get killed on on the counter attack.
• 38:56
  But I think me to me is is really like if she is matched up
• 39:01
  against Sentinor, who might not have a decided size advantage
• 39:05
  over her, but we've talked about the way Sentinor plays tough and
• 39:08
  plays bigger than she is. Cat Macario is going to have a
• 39:12
  substantive size advantage over me to me.
• 39:15
  So I think that's something that I'm really looking at and that
• 39:19
  if I'm, if I'm Emma Hayes in this situation, how can we
• 39:23
  attack the center backs in any way possible?
• 39:25
  Yeah, that's a great call. And I think we've seen Mina me
• 39:28
  at in Roma, like, I mean, she plays in every big game that
• 39:31
  that that they're involved in. And she she also gets a goal
• 39:34
  here in the in the first one, gets Australia late in that one.
• 39:37
  So she's definitely active from from front to back.
• 39:40
  And that leads me to my second pick.
• 39:42
  I got to go with Hikaru Kitsagawa, 27 years old signs
• 39:46
  with BK Hakin this past season. So we we didn't get a chance to
• 39:50
  see her ton in the Champions League 2 assists versus
• 39:51
  Australia. And she's another one of those
• 39:53
  players that put the ball right there 35 yards up the field and
• 39:57
  I've got a little bit of space in a couple seconds, kind of
• 40:00
  collect myself and try to make it happen.
• 40:01
  And she's putting the ball exactly where she wants it.
• 40:04
  A super dangerous player, solid defensively, kind of like in her
• 40:07
  athletic prime. I think that's going to be a
• 40:09
  player to watch, you know, at that left pack position could
• 40:13
  put pressure, you know, on the US defense.
• 40:15
  She can. Kind of like drive it deep as
• 40:17
  well. And and like if if you don't
• 40:18
  step up and kind of stop the ball, like she can really kind
• 40:21
  of make you pay and just gives her more and more options to
• 40:24
  kind of distribute to. I love it.
• 40:25
  She was on my board as well because now you think she is
• 40:28
  playing left back for Japan. So what's going to win the day?
• 40:33
  Is it going to be Kitagawa playing up, playing forward and
• 40:36
  the US having to adjust to that? Or how often are Emily Fox or
• 40:41
  maybe Giselle Thompson on that right hand side?
• 40:43
  And then whoever your your right winger is, are they they're
• 40:46
  going to be able to keep Kitagawa pinned back.
• 40:48
  I think that's going to be a very interesting chess match
• 40:50
  throughout the match. Yeah, it'll definitely be a
• 40:52
  match up to watch for sure. Did you have any honorable
• 40:55
  mentions? Alba Fuji know, I mean, you
• 40:57
  already know what time it is with me.
• 40:58
  I mean, she hasn't scored a goal yet.
• 41:00
  So I don't know if that makes people think like, oh, OK, she's
• 41:03
  not, you know, she's not playing that great.
• 41:05
  She looks good out there. Then the first two matches she's
• 41:07
  helped set set stuff up. And if she hasn't uncorked 1
• 41:11
  yet, I don't know if she might be due.
• 41:13
  So I would I would keep an eye out for.
• 41:15
  Her dude I'm so happy. This is wild.
• 41:17
  I'm gonna read you my notes specifically on Gino.
• 41:19
  Nothing explosive yet. Feels like she might be due and
• 41:23
  at the very least defensively you have to respect her.
• 41:26
  Yeah, I mean, no, that's all facts.
• 41:28
  And she's been in good form for City recently and she's looked
• 41:31
  good in these two matches. It's only a matter of time
• 41:34
  before you get the explosion. So I think, you know, if you're
• 41:37
  USA, you got to really watch out.
• 41:39
  Absolutely. I'll definitely be watching
• 41:40
  Fujino, a couple other names here.
• 41:42
  I want to hit real quick Yui Hasegawa.
• 41:44
  She gets the hockey assist on the Micah mono goal versus
• 41:46
  Australia, plays the full 90 plus against Australia, doesn't
• 41:50
  play versus Colombia. So we might get a fresh Yui
• 41:53
  Hasegawa to kind of deal with. Could make it make things tough
• 41:57
  for the US national team. And how about Mina Tanaka?
• 42:00
  Yeah, I mean you mentioned. Six or seventh in our draft.
• 42:02
  Only four goals and two assists. Also draws a penalty, Buries the
• 42:07
  penalty kick. Sends to keep it the wrong way.
• 42:09
  No big deal comes in 7th or 8th in our big board of players to
• 42:14
  watch. Unbelievable collection of
• 42:15
  talent for Japan. Yeah, absolutely outstanding.
• 42:18
  We haven't. We didn't mention Saki Kumagai,
• 42:20
  who played against Australia. I don't know if this is a
• 42:22
  Kumagai game. Obviously an absolute legend.
• 42:25
  I'm I'm interested to see UE play like if, if, if Hasegawa is
• 42:29
  out there, she's going to have some of the some of the same
• 42:32
  matchup issues with Macario and Sentinor.
• 42:35
  You know, that I that I talked about with me to me, but they
• 42:38
  they have to figure it out. I mean, and Hasegawa makes up
• 42:40
  with it, makes up for that, that size disadvantage in situations
• 42:43
  with unbelievable intelligence and great and great ball skills.
• 42:47
  So yeah, this is just set up to be an absolute.
• 42:50
  Banger Oh my God, yeah, I I totally agree.
• 42:52
  I think it's going to be a legendary matchup that I think
• 42:55
  we we think about and are kind of thinking about for a while.
• 42:58
  And, you know, it wasn't that long ago that Japan thrashed 23
• 43:04
  World Cup champion Spain in the group stage had Spain's head
• 43:08
  spinning And then Spain goes on to win the World Cup.
• 43:11
  Japan kind of bounce that disappointing fashion.
• 43:13
  So they've definitely been knocking on the door.
• 43:14
  Could be, you know, like a real clash of the Titans here.
• 43:17
  Very excited about that. As mentioned, we will be live
• 43:20
  after this massive clash. Japan on absolute fire, roughly
• 43:24
  12:30 AM Eastern. Your boys going to, you know,
• 43:27
  maybe sneak in a little late night latte, maybe a triple
• 43:30
  espresso for your boy, you know, just in respect for our, our,
• 43:35
  our American heroes that that were missing out on 9:30 PM
• 43:38
  Pacific. Make sure you're following us on
• 43:40
  the YouTube so you can kick it with your boys for the audio
• 43:42
  files. The show will be up on Spotify,
• 43:43
  Apple podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen shortly
• 43:46
  thereafter. All right man, anything else you
• 43:47
  want to hit before we get out of?
• 43:48
  Here, I think we did it, man. I think we talked about a lot of
• 43:50
  players. I think we talked about the
• 43:52
  matches pretty in depth. I think we could go on for
• 43:55
  hours, but this is probably the right stopping point.
• 43:57
  All right, man, I think we did do it.
• 43:58
  Let's spin another episode into the channel.
• 44:00
  Thanks for hanging out with your boys.
• 44:01
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• 44:03
  single week, subscribe, follow you to Spotify, Apple podcast,
• 44:06
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• 44:10
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• 44:12
  of our socials except one in the show notes of this episode.
• 44:15
  And a big thank you to my coach as well, Mr. Grant Angle for
• 44:18
  always being in championship form.
• 44:20
  I appreciate you bro. Likewise, buddy, you know what,
• 44:22
  we're out here. We're playing like veterans,
• 44:24
  even though I guess maybe in the grand scope of football
• 44:26
  podcasting where we're a little younger, maybe the only thing in
• 44:30
  life where we're still a little younger.
• 44:32
  So we appreciate all you guys with us and we will see you all
• 44:35
  next time.