Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Manchester Derby Preview w/ Crunk Chocolate 🌊

Transcript

Manchester Derby Preview w/ Crunk Chocolate 🌊 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:04
  Okay. Welcome to Into the Channel
• 0:08
  podcast, primarily about one super.
• 0:10
  I'm your host, Dino de Suspicious.
• 0:12
  And as always, I'm joined by my host, Mr. Grant Angle.
• 0:17
  What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy,
• 0:20
  and that is because we have a very special guest today who is
• 0:24
  a podcast super producer who is the football equivalent to DJ
• 0:28
  Premier, The Alchemist, No ID, or any other legendary figure
• 0:32
  you want to name. He is the owner, producer, Co
• 0:35
  host and visionary behind the indomitable Shades of Blue
• 0:38
  Network where he not only drives thoughtful conversation about
• 0:41
  men's and women's football leagues around the world, but
• 0:44
  our guy is out here building an incredible roster of journalists
• 0:47
  and podcasters that would rival any network in the game right
• 0:50
  now. For the purposes of today, we
• 0:53
  are going to lean into his love for Manchester City Football
• 0:56
  Club as we chat about the upcoming Manchester Derby in the
• 0:59
  WSL this weekend. It is an honor and a privilege
• 1:02
  to welcome to the show Crunk Chocolate.
• 1:05
  Wow, usually I'm the one who gives our guests all of the
• 1:11
  positive affirmations, so I am incredibly overwhelmed.
• 1:14
  I appreciate and am thrilled to be here.
• 1:17
  You guys yourselves do fantastic job.
• 1:21
  Us and our little city bubble. We just cover city and we every
• 1:27
  now and then we venture out and talk about the world of
• 1:29
  football, but the way that y'all just so effortlessly cover just
• 1:34
  women's football in general and you know your your specialty in
• 1:38
  the Champions League, it is admirable also.
• 1:41
  I appreciate that man. Thank you very much.
• 1:43
  I mean you, I feel like you guys obviously got the city focused,
• 1:46
  but you know, ball all over the world and so I think it it
• 1:49
  translates well. We do, We can.
• 1:51
  I appreciate it. Absolutely, no doubt.
• 1:53
  And, and you mentioned Champions League, it's obviously Champions
• 1:56
  League time of. Year we're.
• 1:58
  In the midst of match day three. Match day 4 coming up next week,
• 2:01
  but this weekend the Manchester Derby.
• 2:04
  The reason why we're all coming together here, I'm actually
• 2:08
  going to drop off. I've got some some dad duties
• 2:11
  here. Nothing too serious, but I'm
• 2:14
  going to step aside. But I don't want anyone to
• 2:17
  worry. These two gentlemen have have
• 2:19
  assured me that this conversation will be straight
• 2:22
  down the middle. Super objective, just 5050 as as
• 2:25
  clean as you like. And I'll just we'll just leave
• 2:29
  it there. Crunk.
• 2:29
  I appreciate you bro. Glad to have you on the ITC
• 2:32
  community. Appreciate you opening the doors
• 2:35
  to our show and you already know what time it is.
• 2:38
  I appreciate it and I cannot wait to listen back.
• 2:41
  Thank you, thank you. Good luck with the dad duties.
• 2:43
  Appreciate it, Dino. See you later.
• 2:48
  No, wait for him to disappear here.
• 2:50
  I think that should happen. Maybe.
• 2:52
  I guess they'll hear him in the background.
• 2:54
  I don't know. Either way, we we can fix it in
• 2:56
  post. The Arsenal fan he's.
• 2:58
  Gone. The Arsenal fan is out of the
• 3:01
  way. All right, bro.
• 3:04
  So yeah, like we, like we said, big match coming up, There's
• 3:07
  Champions League implications, there's WSL table implications.
• 3:12
  I just, you know, I'll, I'll lob up the first question.
• 3:15
  Hit us with your opening thoughts.
• 3:17
  What do you what do you see heading into this Derby?
• 3:23
  I would love to be thrilled and excited because of the fact that
• 3:29
  City are top of the table, shut out to Arsenal, do you know?
• 3:35
  But. Like United did the big thing
• 3:40
  against City last season, then in matches where I totally
• 3:44
  thought City would be able to handle any of them.
• 3:46
  United, they bullied us truly and honestly.
• 3:50
  They were way more physical than City were totally prepared for
• 3:55
  whether the ref held their whistle.
• 3:57
  We, we should be used to that by now in women's football, let
• 4:01
  alone the WSL. So I, I guess I'm just looking
• 4:05
  forward to the 1st 10 minutes. How do City women are, what we
• 4:11
  like to call them, our baby blue baddies handle that first 10
• 4:14
  minutes. I love it.
• 4:16
  It's a, it's a great point by you.
• 4:18
  And I feel like when you have, you know, superlative scoring
• 4:22
  threats and like somebody who is, you know, as experienced as,
• 4:27
  as like Viv Midima, it feels like Midima and Bunny like at
• 4:31
  the whistle, they're like off to the races right away.
• 4:34
  I, I, I, I love that as a point. I think that could work out for
• 4:38
  us. Oh, most definitely.
• 4:40
  Midima has been so great. We know she's a nine, but they
• 4:44
  have her playing at 10. They gave her the 10 number and
• 4:47
  she's been a consummate professional, a fantastic team
• 4:51
  player. There was a clip in the Everton
• 4:54
  match where it was after the City goal.
• 4:57
  She's, I don't know who she's talking to, but she's like, I
• 5:00
  mean, it might have been Bunny, but she's like, I stay and you
• 5:02
  go and basically like telling them, hey, like we can't all run
• 5:07
  forward. So just be mindful of each other
• 5:09
  and what we're doing. And she's bestowing her
• 5:12
  knowledge to her teammates. And only good things can come
• 5:16
  from. That I love it.
• 5:19
  So you know, obviously, you know, Medema and Bunny, you
• 5:23
  mentioned them specifically. So Bunny has five goals.
• 5:25
  She's leading the WSL, tied with Melvin Millar from Manchester
• 5:30
  United. Medema has three goals herself.
• 5:33
  You know, maybe non Bunny and Medema division.
• 5:38
  What have you liked about our Sky Blues so far this season?
• 5:42
  What what comes to mind is like the things that you have liked
• 5:45
  seeing from them. The new players and the babies
• 5:48
  stepping up. Alba Fujino has been fantastic
• 5:54
  with him going out. She's been able to play on the
• 5:56
  left. She's been able to drop back a
• 5:59
  lot, gleeking up with UE a lot in the build up.
• 6:03
  Blenkilde Brown, oh, she's been amazing.
• 6:08
  The fact that we have two of our like our pair of midfielders,
• 6:15
  our boxing box and our holding midfielder, they're like 5 foot
• 6:19
  5 foot 2 and they are going in and they're just taking the ball
• 6:24
  from players significantly larger than they are.
• 6:26
  They've been fantastic. Jade Rose having to step up, I
• 6:30
  knew she was going to be fantastic senior with Canada.
• 6:34
  She's got that Harvard mind. I like pushing that a lot.
• 6:36
  And she, the way that she's been able to just step in and
• 6:40
  establish herself as the the right back, right center back,
• 6:46
  she's there. That position is hers.
• 6:50
  I've been loving it. Yeah, that's what I've been
• 6:52
  really impressed with is just the young players stepping up
• 6:55
  and doing their thing. For sure I wouldn't.
• 6:59
  I mean, they're certainly unbeaten.
• 7:02
  Yes, it's Chelsea. Yeah, so it's seven wins in a
• 7:06
  row that I always that Newcastle, you know, draw that
• 7:10
  they they took after that was the League Cup.
• 7:13
  But yeah, seven wins on the spin in the league.
• 7:16
  Obviously a lot to like you. You teed me up perfectly here as
• 7:21
  the as the Super producer. Like I mentioned, you mentioned
• 7:24
  Lauren, like Alba Fujino stepping in for Lauren Hemp.
• 7:28
  Lauren Hemp got a little bit of run versus Everton.
• 7:31
  We're still waiting on Catalin to come back.
• 7:34
  What do you think, Lasso? You know, we'll, we'll wait for
• 7:38
  Catalin's timetable. Obviously we know what time it
• 7:41
  is with Lauren Hemp, but what how do you think she's going to
• 7:44
  reintroduce to to this kind of trifecta that we have right now
• 7:48
  of Bunny, Medema and Fujino? It's, I mean we saw it in the 30
• 7:53
  minutes that she was on with Everton.
• 7:55
  Her first touch of the ball was like that 40 yard run and then
• 8:00
  just put the ball at Medema's foot and she just completely
• 8:06
  very unmedema like that a chance with that, with that volley.
• 8:11
  And then she also did the same thing with Bunny.
• 8:13
  She put the ball right in front of her foot and she wasn't able
• 8:15
  to get anything out of it. Her being able to put Fujino
• 8:20
  back on her stronger side, the right side I she just helps
• 8:25
  everyone play at their best. We know Bunny and Hemp, they
• 8:30
  have so many assist goals together.
• 8:32
  They seem to always know where each other are.
• 8:37
  The team has sort of struggled offensively, even though I'm
• 8:40
  pretty sure they're like, top of the league and they they have
• 8:43
  the best offense in the league. Yeah, but that has been with
• 8:47
  many key contributors missing. You mentioned Carolyn, Loman,
• 8:53
  Clinton. They really haven't been able to
• 8:54
  consistently insert themselves into the team.
• 8:57
  You know they've been able to do what they've done even with key
• 9:01
  contributors missing. Yeah, it's a great call out on
• 9:05
  Loman too, an exciting German player that you kind of I wonder
• 9:10
  how she's going to like, you know, fit in to this group.
• 9:16
  How about how like, I guess we should probably broach it a
• 9:21
  little bit here because I they're there are two teams in
• 9:25
  this match coming up and so. Yeah, they're called Manchester
• 9:32
  United. I think that's what they're.
• 9:34
  About yeah, the other Manchester team, that's right.
• 9:38
  So I mean, you mentioned they they took it to us last year,
• 9:42
  man, in big spots. I'm glad you pointed out the
• 9:45
  physicality. What, what's kind of your
• 9:47
  impression of them in terms of what you've seen this year?
• 9:52
  They haven't dropped in form and that has been surprising.
• 9:59
  And I know Dino said we were going to be a little unbiased,
• 10:04
  but I have been disappointed that they are continuing their
• 10:07
  their great play. I've definitely watched their
• 10:10
  match against PSG yesterday and being like, come on, PSG,
• 10:14
  though, I know PSG really hasn't been playing at their best like
• 10:18
  they usually do. Yeah, they just seem to keep
• 10:22
  winning. Millard has hit another level.
• 10:25
  She's really doing her thing. They, the players that they were
• 10:29
  able to bring in, have seemed to like step up and really help
• 10:33
  contribute to the team. Just Park, as much as it hurts
• 10:37
  me to say, like that's why she left to United.
• 10:42
  She the way she's able to piece things together, the way she's
• 10:46
  able to be the spearhead to their attack and she's being
• 10:53
  able to highlight why she is the fantastic player she is, why we
• 10:57
  call their spark on while she was at City.
• 11:00
  Now she's just Jess Park. Right, Jessica Park, if we have.
• 11:05
  At this. Point it's it's a formal
• 11:08
  relationship now. No, it's, it's a good call out.
• 11:12
  Man. I'm glad you mentioned that that
• 11:13
  match first PSGI, you know, we talked about it on your show.
• 11:17
  I, I expected United to possibly bury PSG.
• 11:21
  It wasn't nearly as lopsided as I expected, but it's such a good
• 11:26
  call out on Melvin Millard that that goal that she just, I mean,
• 11:32
  I think the announcer said it perfectly that she has a lot to
• 11:34
  do while he while she was running on the ball and she did
• 11:38
  every last bit of it, man. I mean, she she really cooked
• 11:42
  Griegenbach on that, on that goal.
• 11:45
  I mean feels like a super like at least a star right now.
• 11:52
  I think she's almost like a no doubt superstar level player.
• 11:56
  Oh, she's definitely getting there Yeah, because the defender
• 11:59
  with the ball around Mary Irps yeah, we have WSL podcast part
• 12:05
  of our group and they they've been calling it for weeks.
• 12:07
  The Mary Irps Darby and Mary Arps Mary Irps lost in the
• 12:12
  Starby and you know, with her book coming out, she seems to be
• 12:15
  losing with that as well. So it's, it's unfortunate
• 12:20
  because their manager, I'm not going to say his name, the bad
• 12:26
  guy, he has been rotating the team and it's been successful.
• 12:32
  They don't really necessarily have that deep of a squad
• 12:35
  either. So the fact that he's been able
• 12:37
  to trust players and they've been able to step in and do
• 12:41
  their thing, shout out to him. Yeah, I mean, credit where it's
• 12:47
  due, I'm, I'm definitely with you on that.
• 12:50
  When they started that match versus PSG, I couldn't decide
• 12:53
  whether not starting Elatune was disrespectful to, to PSG or if
• 13:01
  their manager, who shall go unnamed was just like, OK, check
• 13:05
  it out. Like we're we're going to rotate
• 13:06
  in and we and we think we can still, you know, put pressure on
• 13:12
  a on a top French side. And they certainly were able to.
• 13:15
  I mean, you know, again, like I said, like it wasn't like super
• 13:18
  lopsided, but I don't know if I ever felt like United was ever
• 13:25
  in serious danger. How did you experience that?
• 13:29
  I am 100% with you. They're the midfielder at PSG.
• 13:37
  Awoho she or sorry, that's at Baylin.
• 13:42
  Sorry at Baylin. I'm butchering her name.
• 13:45
  She was very loose with the ball.
• 13:49
  Like there were so many times where she would win the ball in
• 13:52
  a really nice spot but then would immediately give it right
• 13:54
  back to United. And I think it was more just PSG
• 14:00
  couldn't lock in long enough to really scare United.
• 14:05
  But you're correct, they very much looked in control most of
• 14:09
  the match. Yeah, man, and it's it's it's a
• 14:12
  great call out on a Bay. I I want to say it is a a
• 14:17
  baylin. I don't know.
• 14:18
  We can I'll, I'll, I'll be your brother in arms and and
• 14:20
  butchering that name with you. But yeah, it's like, I thought
• 14:23
  she she played all right, but you're right.
• 14:25
  There were some there were some key duels that she lost.
• 14:27
  I know she won a lot of duels too, but it just felt like
• 14:30
  United was like, OK, you can have better than 50% of the
• 14:33
  possession. We'll just we'll RIP it off you
• 14:35
  at times and then we'll be, you know, as threatening as we need
• 14:38
  to be. How much of that should we be
• 14:43
  now? Obviously, you know, Bone
• 14:45
  Crusher, we're Manchester City fans were never scared, but how
• 14:48
  much of how much like slight concern should we have?
• 14:52
  Yeah, again, well, our spark like they they have players who
• 14:59
  are playing with so much confidence and that's really the
• 15:02
  most important thing where I feel like last year United were
• 15:07
  playing bad and so they just saw the chance to beat City as no,
• 15:13
  let's ruin their season, which they did.
• 15:18
  So now this is they have just as much confidence going into the
• 15:23
  game. And I'm kind of hoping that that
• 15:24
  might be their downfall as they're come in too confident
• 15:28
  and maybe try to do a little too much.
• 15:31
  But being able to rest Turlin, being able to rest Ella tune
• 15:36
  that is unfortunate. The biggest thing to me is will
• 15:41
  Fallon tolis joy start like if she doesn't start like shout out
• 15:47
  to their backup, shout out to Patel.
• 15:49
  Like she did a fantastic job in the match.
• 15:52
  But I am significantly less worried about her than I am
• 15:55
  Fallon tolis joy. She is just amazing and and goal
• 16:00
  like truly. It's, it's a great call because
• 16:03
  I think in these kind of, and you know, obviously it's in the
• 16:06
  context of the season and all that, but like we said, it has,
• 16:09
  it has real table implications. And one of the, you could say
• 16:15
  this about like, I feel like a great #9 a great #10 and then a
• 16:18
  goalkeeper is you are just one superlative performance by a
• 16:24
  player like PTJ of just like, well, we just couldn't beat her
• 16:28
  on that day. Like if, if Telus Joyce is like
• 16:32
  on top of it, then you, you're going to have it, it
• 16:35
  significantly decreases your chances of winning.
• 16:37
  So I'm totally with you there. And I, and I did think, you
• 16:41
  know, Patel played, played well, but you know, there are just
• 16:45
  levels to like any kind of any time you have different
• 16:48
  positions kind of rotating in and out.
• 16:52
  If we were going to, OK, let's say you know, me and you, we're,
• 16:56
  we're in the, we're in the dressing room here.
• 16:58
  We're we're cooking up the tactics.
• 17:01
  We're looking at Bunny, we're looking at Meatima, we're
• 17:04
  looking at Fujino. And we're like, OK, how are we
• 17:07
  going to attack these Reds? What are you what?
• 17:12
  What are the first? What's the first like thing or
• 17:14
  two that kind of comes to your mind?
• 17:17
  We're probably going. I obviously I completely trust
• 17:22
  and back everything that Warren Hemp can do, but I think the
• 17:25
  right side is going to be a little bit easier to attack.
• 17:29
  Sandberg still really trying to prove and earn that position
• 17:33
  over Jade Riviera. She's been amazing this season
• 17:38
  and this is what angers me. They have so many players where
• 17:41
  I'm just I'm fans of theirs and it's unfortunate.
• 17:45
  And yeah, so that right side, I assume Park is going to be on
• 17:49
  the right as well, even if she's in the midfield helping out on
• 17:52
  the right. But that's going to be a lot of,
• 17:58
  especially if we lose the ball on that right side.
• 18:00
  Like Hobby, I'm a little worried about her.
• 18:03
  We know what she can do to help with the attack, but defensively
• 18:06
  she's food and that worries me. Yes, I think, I think I'm with
• 18:13
  you on that. I, I feel like there are a lot
• 18:16
  of times where the defense kind of city's defense kind of shades
• 18:21
  to let's protect Layla a little bit in in some of these
• 18:24
  situations. So yeah, I, I hear you there.
• 18:28
  OK. Again, I don't want to, I don't
• 18:30
  want to be negative here. I'll ask you for the percentage.
• 18:34
  What percentage chance we might be in for a Jessica Park revenge
• 18:40
  game? So what I'm hoping the players
• 18:48
  have randomly shared on like Instagram and things where
• 18:52
  they're still hanging out with her.
• 18:54
  So part of me is hoping that that is like the long, long term
• 19:00
  storytelling. I'm into wrestling where, you
• 19:02
  know, we hang out with you. It's still positive vibes.
• 19:06
  Maybe you you want to do well, but you can't entirely kill us
• 19:11
  because you still love us. You're still low key or blue.
• 19:15
  Well, I'm hoping that was just like the mind games that our
• 19:17
  ladies were playing and then they beat them down and then
• 19:19
  after the masking, like ha ha, ha, ha loser.
• 19:22
  But after City played Arsenal, they were still showing love to
• 19:28
  Chloe Kelly. And so I, I still think, you
• 19:32
  know, in the, in the end, they're humans.
• 19:35
  And I know sometimes we tend to forget about that.
• 19:37
  We just think about the game, the athletes on the pitch, their
• 19:42
  performances. I'm just hoping for that.
• 19:44
  But it's at at minimum 50%. She's going to ball out and at
• 19:48
  most it's a guarantee. Like I, I definitely, I
• 19:51
  definitely think she's going to have a good match.
• 19:54
  I'm I'm with you on that. She's just too good of a player
• 19:56
  and I mean, and that's why we we liked her so much.
• 19:59
  I've so I haven't I haven't watched in in quite a while, but
• 20:04
  I would like whatever the equivalent is to I've seen this
• 20:07
  clip. People use it in hilarious ways
• 20:11
  of like old Shawn Michaels hitting Rick Flair like a super
• 20:15
  kick. It'd be a.
• 20:18
  I'm sorry, I love you, but hey, you got to go.
• 20:20
  So I think if we could get our Manchester City version of that,
• 20:24
  I think that's what we're looking for.
• 20:26
  Yeah, and it's totally possible. I I'm a little worried about
• 20:32
  again, Rebecca Knack, that left side, because she just returned
• 20:36
  the goal that they gave up against Edgerton was the ball
• 20:40
  just flew over her head. She just kind of watched it.
• 20:43
  It's it'll be interesting to see how healthy she is.
• 20:47
  Obviously she's not she was subbed off of around the 60
• 20:50
  minutes mark, so not 90 minutes fit.
• 20:53
  And then Gracie Pryor, I appreciate how much she has
• 20:58
  grown, but she is still very green around the ears.
• 21:03
  Like there's a lot of learning that she has to do.
• 21:08
  She kind of telegraphs a lot when it comes to her thoughts
• 21:11
  and passing, and she's growing. But if we have to do another 30
• 21:18
  minutes of Gracie Pryor against this United side, I'm worried.
• 21:24
  I'm worried. That's fair.
• 21:27
  I think it's, it's a, it's a fair assessment.
• 21:30
  You're right. Like we kind of have these, you
• 21:32
  know, we talked about Wahhabi helping in the attack 11 stat
• 21:37
  that I, I always I, I take a look at it, I take it with a
• 21:40
  little bit of a grain of salt, but I don't think it's nothing.
• 21:43
  Gracie Pryor 94.7% completion percentage on passes between 15
• 21:49
  and 30 yards, kind of like those mid level passes now, obviously,
• 21:53
  which is second best on the team behind Jade Rose, who is at
• 21:56
  96.6%. Roses completed 201 of 208 of
• 22:03
  those passes between 15 and 30, but the Pryor's completed 161 of
• 22:07
  170. So not a tiny sample size from
• 22:09
  her, but you are right. The the young player, I know we
• 22:12
  talked when I was on with you guys last time and we last year
• 22:15
  actually, and we were talking about city.
• 22:18
  There was just, you know, we were just kind of curious why
• 22:22
  Pryor was getting so much playing time.
• 22:26
  But you know, like you said, she's a young player has to grow
• 22:29
  into it. Not quite sure a Darby with like
• 22:35
  critical points and table positioning is like the best
• 22:38
  time to like really be like OK, like give us an hour out there.
• 22:42
  So I don't know if we're if we're going to get that.
• 22:45
  And I'm thankful for that. Like knacks, I'm sure they're
• 22:48
  protecting her. They gave her Nancy today.
• 22:53
  Like the a lot of their first posts of the day were all about
• 22:57
  Rebecca Knack and the way that she's been able to make the
• 23:01
  position hers and her call up to Germany.
• 23:06
  They seem to be very excited about her, and I'm hoping that
• 23:09
  this is the boost that she needs to just kill it this weekend.
• 23:14
  Yeah. I'm with you.
• 23:17
  Can I ask and if you, if you want to, if it's you're saving
• 23:20
  it for your network, I totally understand.
• 23:22
  I totally respect it. Do you have a prediction?
• 23:27
  So I've already done a match preview with All for United.
• 23:32
  I had them on and we did like a combined starting 11.
• 23:35
  So that was a fun conversation. I I talked out of both sides of
• 23:40
  it. I was like, I could see either
• 23:43
  team winning 21, but it wouldn't surprise me if CD also win by
• 23:48
  like two or three because of the fact that they step up.
• 23:52
  I Lauren Hemp being back, that's just another piece fitting back
• 23:59
  into where it needs to be. Benay, you could kind of see
• 24:03
  that she didn't have the explosion that she's had at the
• 24:06
  beginning of the season. I don't know if she's battling a
• 24:08
  knock or if it's just all of this playing because again,
• 24:11
  she's 19 years old, she's a baby.
• 24:14
  She has not been playing this much football.
• 24:16
  That's been an adjustment. There are players that can go
• 24:20
  back to, you know, just being a super sub, A big feature of when
• 24:29
  Loman and Clinton were able to come on, like them standing side
• 24:34
  by side, they look like the Bass sisters, like truly like, yeah,
• 24:37
  I was like, oh, yeah, here we go.
• 24:39
  Some signs of physicality going to come in and finish off the
• 24:42
  rest of the match. Any crosses they were able to,
• 24:45
  like, send away. I like now that we have players
• 24:50
  healthy, our bench Subs can happen and there's not like this
• 24:55
  awful drop off where the team can keep the quality, they can
• 24:58
  keep the intensity, they can keep pressing.
• 25:00
  Whereas I am not sure if United are able to do that and they
• 25:05
  just played a game a few days before, so I don't think all of
• 25:09
  their players will be at 100%. I think it's, it's a great
• 25:13
  point. It's one of the, I mean,
• 25:14
  obviously everybody's always playing for Europe, but then it
• 25:17
  it puts you through the ringer in those seasons where you're
• 25:20
  playing those European nights during the middle of the week
• 25:23
  and then you still got to compete in the league.
• 25:26
  And I did they have, sorry to interrupt, but they, they still
• 25:30
  have a pretty tough run of games.
• 25:31
  They play us and then they have Wolfsburg and then they have
• 25:34
  West Ham United. So that should be a win.
• 25:36
  But then they have Michelle King's French team to play and
• 25:40
  Tottenham and then Juventus. So like the the the intensity
• 25:44
  continues for them. Not only do they have to be in
• 25:48
  the moment, they have to think, hey, what am I going to do in
• 25:51
  the next three or four days? It's a great point a lot of that
• 25:55
  it's like just an extra level of prioritization and like other
• 25:59
  things that they that they got to think about.
• 26:01
  I will I will join you with I'll make my prediction here.
• 26:05
  I'll say it's 21 city and give me a Bunny, a Bunny brace
• 26:12
  physical. I'll I'll take it one step
• 26:15
  further. One's going to be a header of
• 26:17
  just like slam dunking on on the opponent.
• 26:20
  I think so. So all right, if you've been
• 26:25
  very generous with your time, if I could, if I could switch gears
• 26:27
  here briefly. You know, I obviously talked
• 26:30
  about shades of blue up top. I know this is like kind of like
• 26:34
  a big picture question, man. But like, you know, I know
• 26:37
  probably a lot of our pals, I know a lot of our folks watch
• 26:40
  your show. People have seen you on the on
• 26:43
  the NBC fan zone. Can you just like for, for maybe
• 26:47
  some of our viewers who haven't seen, can you kind of talk a
• 26:50
  little bit about what you have created and what you have
• 26:53
  cultivated with shades of blue? Because I just, I just find it
• 26:58
  endlessly cool and fascinating. And I'm just kind of curious
• 27:01
  like how do you the view it in your mind?
• 27:06
  So it started off because I live in, it's called the Quad Cities,
• 27:11
  Illinois. It's a very small area, like
• 27:15
  Milwaukee's three hours away, Chicago's three hours away.
• 27:18
  I don't have a football culture here.
• 27:21
  There's no bar that I can just go to and hang out with other
• 27:25
  people. I missed all that.
• 27:29
  I mean, there was back then, there was football Twitter and
• 27:34
  I, I was able to build a nice little group of people with
• 27:37
  that. Four years, five years ago, City
• 27:41
  did the US tour down in Texas and I went to that game and I
• 27:47
  met so many of the other city content creators and I just felt
• 27:52
  at home. I was able to meet Ariel
• 27:55
  Castillo. She's one of the head people
• 27:58
  when it comes to Man City's social media now, but she was
• 28:01
  like the head person of just Man City US and just making those
• 28:06
  connections. I, I wanted to participate more
• 28:10
  somehow, some way. And I created Shades of Blue.
• 28:14
  I knew I specifically wanted to give opportunity for people who
• 28:19
  look like me, you know, the melanated kind, the culture and
• 28:23
  everything. And so I reached out, I ended up
• 28:26
  doing like 1214 interviews, but the people that I connected with
• 28:29
  the most are the show Bros that I'm with now, Tom Bomb, Sharpie,
• 28:33
  Charlie and Tarek. I also knew that there weren't
• 28:38
  anybody else who was covering city women.
• 28:40
  And with us already being a niche with us being black men, I
• 28:44
  knew we needed to also show city women some love.
• 28:48
  I wasn't the most familiar with them.
• 28:49
  So shout out to Tom Bomb who's now killing it with Shea Butter
• 28:52
  FC and covering Casey Current. Oh yeah, he was basically our
• 28:56
  lead city woman person where we would any questions she would
• 29:01
  answer as easily until finally we felt comfortable enough to do
• 29:06
  our thing and build and grow. I honestly didn't find the most
• 29:13
  success once we started the podcast with other city content
• 29:18
  creators, which forced our hands to connect with a lot of people
• 29:22
  outside of the city spectrum. And then that's when I started
• 29:26
  becoming more comfortable with other leagues and men's and
• 29:30
  women's teams all around. But I always wanted to keep the
• 29:35
  fun. I wanted to always build a
• 29:37
  culture where people could either.
• 29:40
  I always tell people you can be as nerdy or as goofy or whatever
• 29:44
  as you want. I'm just going to follow your
• 29:46
  lead. But I always want you to feel
• 29:48
  welcomed and comfortable. From there, we've been able to
• 29:51
  build. We now have AWSL podcast, we
• 29:55
  have it Arsenal podcast, but they're most old people and
• 29:58
  they're super busy. So they're inconsistent.
• 30:00
  But we do our live stream on Thursdays where we bring guests
• 30:04
  on and everybody supports a different team.
• 30:07
  And so just being able to build just this culture of loving
• 30:13
  football and where it doesn't have to be super like nerdy
• 30:18
  tactical, but if you want to, we can do that.
• 30:22
  But I there's so much more that goes on between on the off the
• 30:26
  field, the drama, the culture, the clothing.
• 30:30
  There's so much more than who else I look at when this person
• 30:34
  does this. So I just want to have fun, but
• 30:39
  also be able to show that we know what we're talking about.
• 30:43
  Oh yeah, that's kind of where we are now.
• 30:46
  It's just trying to continuously establish ourselves and be seen
• 30:52
  and to many other people. Well, that's why I'm incredibly
• 30:55
  thankful for people like you and Dino for having me on here to be
• 31:00
  able to connect with people who aren't familiar with us.
• 31:02
  Like it's crazy that people want to ask me my thoughts on
• 31:06
  anything, honestly. So I'm just, I'm just really,
• 31:09
  really thankful for being able to build the community and the
• 31:13
  culture that we have with Shades of Blue.
• 31:17
  I'm, I'm with you, man. It, it is funny to like you.
• 31:20
  Like I always refer to like our, our viewers as like our Internet
• 31:23
  pals. And it's just like there is such
• 31:27
  a like Internet culture around football and women's football.
• 31:32
  Like for me, like I, I think about like NBA Twitter, like I
• 31:35
  loved NBA Twitter, like in the, you know, mid twenty 10's and
• 31:39
  all that. And then you could just meet
• 31:42
  nice, kind hearted, funny, smart people in this whole space.
• 31:49
  And that's been like the most like joyous part of doing doing
• 31:54
  the show. And then on top of that, like I,
• 31:56
  I want to shout this out because like you've had Derek Ray on
• 32:00
  your podcast, like a legendary announcer.
• 32:03
  You had you, you and Tom Bom talked to Steph Houghton,
• 32:07
  Manchester City football club legend.
• 32:09
  I mean, like us doing this, you know, I think people like act
• 32:15
  like, I'm going to put it in quotes a little bit, but like
• 32:17
  actual football, people like will come and talk to to guys
• 32:21
  like me and you sitting in our offices at home.
• 32:24
  Because I feel like what you guys do so well is that those
• 32:28
  people can recognize, Oh, this is a this is a genuine person
• 32:32
  who cares about the game, who, you know, doesn't come on here
• 32:35
  and say, play it like this player sucks.
• 32:37
  And then like, like you said, like it can actually be a fun,
• 32:40
  cool thing around it. And so that it leads me to my
• 32:44
  question, I realize I already I already threw out Derek Ray and
• 32:47
  Steph Hodon, but who who are some folks that you've had on
• 32:51
  the show that you were like when you you like you made the ask
• 32:55
  and then you're like, oh, OK, they will actually come on the
• 32:59
  show. Yeah, they were definitely some
• 33:03
  of the people honestly being able to connect with Manchester
• 33:07
  City Women's supporter group. They the way that they have
• 33:13
  welcomed us and they retweet, reshare anything and everything
• 33:19
  that we do. They've started to come on often
• 33:24
  even like it's just really the the city culture, other podcasts
• 33:30
  like struthless Plantains, being able to come on and they're like
• 33:34
  Arsenal United people. The fact that they can come on
• 33:37
  and laugh and do their thing. It, it's really, and that's also
• 33:43
  a thing that I really am proud about is the people that we have
• 33:47
  on like, I don't really feel like there's like ever a guest
• 33:50
  that we have on and they aren't like amazing in in their own
• 33:55
  way. Like they they have that
• 33:56
  passion, they have that love and it's just a great time.
• 34:02
  And we've really tried to red or wings this year and talk to more
• 34:07
  people. Like shout out to the 50 plus
• 34:09
  donor coming on and talking about this Liga.
• 34:11
  We've had people come on and talk Argentinian football,
• 34:15
  naturally, MLS and NWSL and stuff like that.
• 34:18
  But that's really what we've been trying to do is bring
• 34:22
  people on to talk about the clubs that they like, our match
• 34:28
  previews that we have. We always bring on someone who
• 34:31
  supports or writes or covers the other team well.
• 34:35
  That way it's not necessarily me guessing or trying to make up
• 34:39
  some things. It's you're hearing about these
• 34:42
  teams. Because the more I learn, the
• 34:46
  the more I know I don't know things.
• 34:48
  I just try to not take people down a wrong lane or give them
• 34:55
  misinformation or disinformation.
• 34:57
  I try to just set everybody up for success in the best way that
• 35:01
  I know. It's a it's a great way to look
• 35:05
  at it and I'll tell you I I don't usually get, I guess
• 35:10
  there's no other any other word. I, I guess I don't usually get
• 35:13
  jealous of other podcasts, but I got to tell you buddy, in the
• 35:16
  nicest way possible that the the show name breaking bread, the
• 35:22
  series Krunk is talking about here where he is breaking bread
• 35:26
  with opponents before matches in in a kind way.
• 35:31
  Very jealous that you came up with that name.
• 35:33
  I was like, God damn, that's a great name for a, for a podcast,
• 35:36
  you know, series man, that is excellently done.
• 35:39
  I I love a good illustrious like saying like that's where shades
• 35:45
  of blue came from because it's like a triple entendre,
• 35:49
  naturally different shades of blue, but also everybody who is
• 35:54
  a fan, they come in different shades themselves.
• 35:57
  But we're all Blues. And yeah, so I whenever I try to
• 36:01
  think of anything, I want it to be a fun name.
• 36:05
  And that's kind of where you have to be in this world where
• 36:07
  there are so many podcasts, so many people talking football,
• 36:10
  you need something that kind of sticks out.
• 36:13
  And I think the names are the first thing to grab people.
• 36:17
  So I appreciate that. I really do.
• 36:20
  Of course, man, a little bit of game for everybody who's
• 36:22
  interested in doing their own podcast too.
• 36:24
  So I appreciate you, you know, giving kicking a little
• 36:28
  knowledge to everybody. All right, man, you have been
• 36:32
  incredibly generous with your time.
• 36:33
  I appreciate you kind of going down that additional Rd. with
• 36:36
  me. Can you tell all of our Internet
• 36:39
  pals here where they can find the illustrious Shades of Blue
• 36:42
  podcast? First off, truly thank you for
• 36:46
  having me. I'm always here to come and
• 36:49
  spread the gospel of sky blue. I'm I'm here for it anytime and
• 36:54
  you've always said so many kind words to me.
• 36:56
  I appreciate it and warm and fuzzy shades of blue at shades
• 37:01
  of blue Northwest on any social media app that we are on and
• 37:05
  we're basically on all of them threads, Tiktok, Twitter,
• 37:09
  Instagram, blue sky, we're on all of the stuff.
• 37:14
  YouTube, you can just youtube.com slash at shades of
• 37:19
  blue and W. We have podcasts.
• 37:22
  You can listen to us audio and if you feel so moved, we also
• 37:26
  have a Patreon. So we offer many things.
• 37:30
  Match previews, weekly shows. We do watch alongs for every
• 37:33
  city men and women match and interviews, lots of interviews
• 37:38
  with people and I that's my big chance for me to listen and
• 37:43
  learn about clubs, cultures and leagues that I might not be most
• 37:49
  familiar with. Go check this out.
• 37:52
  Absolutely, and I will mention that you have you mentioned
• 37:55
  interviews earlier and I forgot to get to it, but I would be
• 37:58
  remiss if I didn't for for our, you know, fans of this program.
• 38:03
  Krunk has a conversation with the absolutely wonderful A Seal
• 38:07
  to Filey, who's a show favorite here.
• 38:09
  Every episode we do with a Seal does numbers because she is the
• 38:12
  absolute best. So everybody make sure you
• 38:14
  check. That out, she's awesome.
• 38:17
  All right, so now, Crock, you get a front seat for me to
• 38:20
  butcher the outro of the show that Dino usually does.
• 38:23
  So let me I'm going to try to get through this here, OK?
• 38:27
  This has been another episode of Into the Channel.
• 38:29
  Thank you for watching, listening and hanging out.
• 38:31
  If you enjoyed the show or love women's football as much as your
• 38:34
  boys do, make sure you're kicking it with us each and
• 38:36
  every single week. Like, subscribe, follow, or
• 38:39
  leave us a review on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
• 38:41
  wherever you like to watch or listen.
• 38:43
  If you want to support the show, you can go to patreon.com/into
• 38:46
  the channel. We got merch on there.
• 38:48
  There's a merch store. Dino goes into a lot of stuff.
• 38:51
  I'm not going to do all that. There's links to all of those
• 38:54
  above much, much more in the description of this episode.
• 38:57
  And a big thank you once again to Krunk Chocolate from the
• 38:59
  Shades of Blue Network. I appreciate you coming on,
• 39:01
  buddy. I think you'd help it.
• 39:05
  Yes, I appreciate that and from a producer, you know, that's I
• 39:08
  think that's the best I could do.
• 39:11
  All right, everybody. Thank you all for tuning in
• 39:12
  again. Make sure Shades of Blue
• 39:14
  Network, Shades of Blue Network, Shades of Blue Network, Go check
• 39:16
  it out and we will see you all next time.