Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / USWNT and Brazil go for gold; Spain and Germany battle for bronze

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USWNT and Brazil go for gold; Spain and Germany battle for bronze · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK, welcome to into the channel podcast primer about women's
0:08
football. Before we hit the pitch, if you
0:10
enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your boys
0:12
do, come kick it with us already.
0:15
We're doing this every single week, sometimes twice a week.
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Subscribe follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
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you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over at your
0:22
favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
0:24
the show notes of this episode. I am your host Dino de Suspitas.
0:28
And as always, I am joined by Mr. Grant Angle.
0:32
What is up man? Oh, I'm feeling fantastic,
0:34
buddy. 2 football matches were played today.
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There was intrigue, there was some drama, there was some
0:39
suspense, there were some surprises.
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There were some things that maybe we expected.
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It was everything that we love about football and I'm ready to
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talk about it. And we got to crack the
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celebratory Beerskies for this one.
0:53
No doubt sounds congratulations to us, we made it gold medal
1:00
game still alive. Made it to the final.
1:03
Let's go. Let's go get this hardware all
1:06
right. Where do you want to get
1:08
started? United States of America won
1:10
Germany nil, much closer than the last time these teams came
1:15
together. I thought there was a lot of
1:17
interesting things just even from the beginning of the match
1:21
if you're ready to do a little bit of line up talk.
1:23
Oh, I'm ready. We had the full complement.
1:25
Dunn, Davidson, Germa, Fox. How are you feeling when you
1:29
looked at that? Very happy.
1:31
So saw the post. Obviously we got some inklings
1:35
that Fox was going to be back. I think there were some shots of
1:37
her kind of getting warmed up. So to see her and Davidson back
1:41
in the lineup, that was pretty awesome.
1:42
Yeah, I thought, I thought it was encouraging.
1:44
On the other side, some big absences for Germany, No Leia
1:50
Schuler, no Alex Pop and then obviously Lena Oberdorf already
1:54
already out of there with the long term injury.
1:57
You know, even though we like when USA does well, we root for
2:00
USA. We are American dudes after all.
2:02
Little bit of a bummer when you don't get to see the clash of of
2:04
the two full strength squads, as full strength as you could be
2:07
with this ridiculous Olympic schedule and and the short
2:10
rosters. But still you wanted to see all
2:12
the best players out there. So that was a little bit of a
2:14
bummer. I was definitely bummed.
2:16
Obviously those are two big time players and you mentioned Jeremy
2:19
is already short handed. I didn't think that necessarily
2:22
made this game a shoo in for the US because even though those
2:26
towns and players go off, I think we saw Moran, Yomi today,
2:29
saw some Fry gang. She got in as a sub, provided a
2:32
little bit of a different look that I'm not sure the USA was
2:35
totally ready for. I think the chances that Germany
2:37
was put together early, I think made the first half pretty
2:40
interesting. So you would love to see Germany
2:43
at full strength, but obviously not what we got.
2:45
But they still came out, played really hard, played really well
2:48
I think in the first half. Yeah, for sure.
2:50
I mean, they had absolutely No Fear of the US I think, you
2:54
know, they're Germany. They their football and culture
2:57
stands on its own. But I will tell you, no matter
3:00
what team you are, it just feels like when you play the USA you
3:05
are going to run into a brick wall multiple times and that
3:09
brick walls name is Naomi Germa. Absolutely.
3:11
We got to talk about it, man. I thought she was the best
3:14
player on the field. You know, and I might even, I'm
3:17
probably late to this. I know people on Wolso Twitter
3:19
have talked about it. She's the best American player.
3:21
She's the best player for US women's national team.
3:24
Pound for pound. I mean, obviously the the three
3:26
forwards of the apocalypse, they score goals and they get the
3:29
offense going. But pound for pound, Germa is
3:31
the best player. I think she has to be in the
3:33
conversation for one of the five best players in the world at
3:37
this point. She's just, she's the central
3:40
hub of everything on this team. Absolutely.
3:43
Emma Hayes definitely agrees with you.
3:45
So shout out to Henry Bushnell at Henry Bushnell on Twitter,
3:49
who quoted Emma Hayes, I think from the postgame presser, Emma
3:52
Hayes on Naomi Garma says, and I quote, look, she's the best
3:56
defender I've ever seen, period, ever, period.
4:00
And well, okay, that's pretty good.
4:03
So we've got an ally. Definitely agree with you on
4:05
Germa. She was the story of the match
4:07
for me in my notes. I'm just like, Oh my God, okay,
4:09
Naomi again, Naomi again, want to stop like every fourth or
4:13
fifth note, it's a, it's a Germa related note.
4:16
And I think zooming out, we have to give the combination of Germa
4:19
and Nair like incredible props here.
4:22
I, I also jotted my notes. It's like having two goalies.
4:25
It's just like somebody just like you have to beat 2 goalies
4:28
if you want to beat this U.S. team.
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Both of those players, Germa and Nair, they've put in five full
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90s and then 230 minute added extra time periods in a 13 day
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period in that time. I'm talking about Nayer here. 19
4:44
shots on target, only two goals. That's what the US has given up.
4:47
The USA's team is +9 over those five matches.
4:51
Eleven goals for two against. Ridiculous.
4:53
Yeah. Second best in the tournament
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still is Canada plus three. Wow.
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So you know, USA has lapped the field twice.
4:59
And yeah, I think Germa is going to be the first thing I remember
5:03
from this match. Absolutely.
5:04
Yeah, man, I mean, she's she's certified.
5:06
I think one moment relatively early in the match that kind of
5:10
stuck out to me that Germa's involved in, that just kind of
5:14
like encapsulates a little bit of what the squad has looked
5:17
like. And then we talk a lot about
5:19
Emily Fox. Obviously you're an Arsenal guy.
5:21
I love the way she plays. There's a moment early in the
5:24
match where Germa just pokes the ball away from one of the German
5:27
attackers and it looks like it's going over the line for a goal
5:30
kick. And Emily Fox just busts her ass
5:33
to get there. Flies to the end line, takes the
5:36
ball off the end line to avoid the corner kick, and then gets
5:40
the ball up to Rodman. And then Rodman draws a foul and
5:43
then we get a free kick. And then you just like
5:44
everything's reset. You have position the German
5:47
possessions over. And I was just like that right
5:50
there. Those three, that is like who
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they are in a nutshell. Absolutely.
5:55
It reminds me of something a SEAL said on the show where she
5:58
I think was interviewing. I'm blanking on the player's
6:00
name, but I think it was a French national team player who
6:03
was talking about couple either a couple of Olympic school or a
6:06
couple of World Cups ago. And she was saying, yeah, we had
6:08
the best team, the best players, but the Americans were just
6:13
willing to die on the field. I think that was the seal
6:17
quoting, you know, one of the French national team players
6:19
recounting that tournament. And I've thought about it
6:21
probably like 10 times since then because that's exactly what
6:25
you're talking about. There was a moment where Emma
6:27
Hayes also is sort of like trying to coach up Emily Fox
6:31
right before halftime, just being like, all right, come on,
6:32
let's go. You know, like, you know, like
6:33
just like almost like a personal trainer would like, you know,
6:36
like a little bit faster pick up space, you know, like, because I
6:39
think she could kind of sense that halftime coming.
6:41
Things are sort of like starting to like exhale a little bit.
6:45
And I think she wants to keep the intensity up.
6:46
But yeah, that is just how they play.
6:49
And I think you see players, whether it's a sonnet or a Dun
6:52
or a fox, like you mentioned, even a Sophie Smith.
6:55
Yeah, we'll we'll get to her goal.
6:57
But there's a lot of other strikers who don't even get to
7:00
that ball based on the body positioning.
7:02
This team just digs so, so way deep to do what they got to do.
7:06
And it's it's sort of like part of the culture, which is so
7:09
great to see. I think we've seen some other,
7:10
you know, nations kind of limp out of this tournament.
7:13
Not something that I think you'd ever see this U.S. team do, even
7:16
in the World Cup last year. Disappointing showing, but it
7:19
wasn't for lack of effort. That is a great call, man.
7:21
And yeah, OK, again, I fully admit, as you guys may be able
7:25
to tell, Dino and I are Americans, so maybe this might
7:28
sound a little hokey, but if you we talk about that DNA, that
7:32
culture within the US women's national team, that's the stuff
7:37
of like Michelle Akers and like Brandy Chastain, Ham, Megan
7:42
Rapinoe, Christine Lily. Like, that's what we're talking
7:46
about. Of like, you show up to camp and
7:49
you know what time it is. Like, this is who we are as
7:53
players. The stars that over the Crest
7:55
for the World Cup victories, They didn't.
7:57
They're not there for decoration.
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Those were earned through very tough competition.
8:01
So hell yeah. I think that's like, it's a
8:04
massive part of who they are, like you said.
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And I want to flip it back real quick to Germa, if I may,
8:10
because, you know, I love doing this.
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And I throw out. She might be in the
8:14
conversation, one of the five best players in the world.
8:16
Let's talk about center backs. Mappy Lyonne, You know what time
8:19
it is. She's great.
8:20
She's battling the health issues.
8:22
Wendy Renar, I would say Millie Bright, I would say Amanda
8:25
Ellistat from Sweden, and I'm just get throwing.
8:28
Alex Greenwood. She plays for Manchester City.
8:30
She also plays for England. She's also very good.
8:32
So Wendy, Renar, Mappy and Millie, I would say closest to
8:37
Germas class. I don't know, man.
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I mean, I think it's between Mappy and Germa because Renar,
8:43
you know, at the end of her prime, Millie not quite as quick
8:47
a devastating set piece threat. So I love, you know, I mean, you
8:51
know, I'm an England supporter on top of like I'm both sides.
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So I'm a big Millie bright guy. I I think Germa probably clears
8:59
everybody and the closest the closest competitor right now is
9:01
Mappy Leon. I agree with that.
9:03
I think Germa definitely clears everybody.
9:05
I mean, she's controlling kind of everything defensively.
9:09
Yeah. And and it's not even just
9:10
defensively like you look at. I think we can kind of Fast
9:13
forward to the goal here, obviously 95th minute because
9:16
this is important, Germa. It starts the action.
9:19
You know, it goes. Germa Coffee, Swanson, Smith
9:23
game. Yeah, it's in that order.
9:25
You had trouble keeping track of all of the times that Germa just
9:30
stuffs a chance. That felt a little scary in the
9:33
build up. We're just so used to like this
9:35
build up being like, OK, some OK, what are we going to do?
9:39
OK, Grandma got it. Like, you know, and it's like at
9:41
some point of 8/10/12 times of that happening, you're just
9:45
like, wow, she just gets everything.
9:47
Yep. It's the positioning, the
9:49
physicality, the tools, the IQ, pass accuracy, the offensive
9:54
minded nature of her game as well.
9:56
Like she understands when to go laterally, she understands when
10:01
to go up field. And I think in a game like this,
10:03
when the chances are, I don't want to say they're few and far
10:06
between, the really good chances were few and far between.
10:09
Yeah. To get something that is
10:11
initiated from a Naomi Garma stop take away.
10:14
Now we're off and running straight up the middle of the
10:16
park, too. Yep.
10:17
It's one of those things where the pass begets the next good
10:21
pass begets the next good pass. And I think it all starts with
10:24
that first one Garmet of Coffee to kind of get Coffee up and
10:27
running because she's even got the understanding that Sam
10:29
Coffee is playing that kind of game today.
10:31
Yes. It's not like deep in the cut
10:33
Sam Coffee. It's like front foot Sam Coffee
10:36
hell, you know, she was taking it another one or two touches
10:39
each time and just kind of pushing the offense a little
10:42
farther up, farther up, farther up.
10:43
And then obviously we get the breakthrough late here.
10:46
Fucking great shout from you, Coffee.
10:49
She just had so many moments. There was one where there was
10:52
like a little bit of an in between ball and Haran is kind
10:54
of tracking back on it and then Coffee's just like, Nope, I got
10:57
it. And then you see like Haran back
10:59
off and Coffee like zooms up with it to like force the
11:02
action. She was on fire today.
11:04
I mean, obviously, I'm guessing she entered this match thinking,
11:08
OK, yellow card accumulation out last match athletes, they do
11:12
that kind of like I let my teammates down kind of thing.
11:14
Like I don't think she let anybody down.
11:16
I think it was just, you know, circumstances happens, you you
11:18
accumulate the yellow card sometimes.
11:20
But like she very clearly came into this match thinking, I'm
11:24
establishing myself within the context of the team.
11:27
And when she plays like that on top of the way Germa plays.
11:31
And then again, I'll reference the three fours of the
11:33
apocalypse. Shout to Alyssa, our pal Alyssa.
11:36
They're almost impossible to beat.
11:38
The margin for error is so tiny against the USA when when those
11:42
players are humming like that. Yeah, and I think the the three
11:45
forwards point is huge. I agree with you.
11:47
Shout out Alyssa, because you don't know what the
11:50
combination's going to be. Right, like.
11:53
It's Fox and Rodman, or it's like Smith and Swanson or it's
11:58
Smith kind of dishing it across. And then Haran's there all of a
12:00
sudden trying to try and do something and like, you know,
12:02
and then like Lavelle's kind of in and out trying to pair up
12:04
with Rodman, you know, So the variance is kind of all over the
12:08
place now. I think it's fitting that the
12:11
goal came up the middle of the field because it's one of those
12:15
things where, you know, it's been a running theme, I think
12:18
for the last few weeks. You know, when the other team
12:20
knows what you're going to do, it's a little bit easier to
12:21
defend. I thought it was really telling
12:23
right up the center of the park catch you slip in a little bit.
12:27
And then obviously it takes a a great display of determination
12:30
from Sophie Smith to kind of like find her way to that ball.
12:33
And then the finish. Oh my God, like full stretch,
12:37
exquisite. Biggest moment of the match.
12:39
A quite literal dig deep kind of strike.
12:42
Yeah. It looked like, you know, just a
12:44
pitching wedge, like, you know, whacking half a pound of grass
12:47
into the air, you know, just to get the lift on it, get the
12:50
placement right and effectively just put the game in a place
12:54
where it must have felt like if you're if you're a Germany fan
12:57
or for German player or part of the earth, it must have felt
13:00
like an insurmountable lead, like A1 nil lead, 95th, 96th
13:03
minute. You fought so hard, had chances,
13:06
couldn't quite cash in. There was still some chances to
13:08
come, but just a massive, massive goal.
13:11
Yeah, great call, man. I mean, just great energy play
13:15
by Smith there to to get the poke or the the the sand wedge
13:19
and get it over over burger. I'm very excited to ask our pal
13:24
from bullynews.com, Peter Vice, who's going to be joining us.
13:27
So we're going to record with him.
13:29
I'm really curious how he feels about on Katrin Berger's
13:32
positioning on that play. It felt like even after the poke
13:37
happened that she almost like was raising her hand, like she
13:40
had her hand up to block it. And then she kind of like left
13:42
it up and like waved it a second to be like, I don't think I
13:45
should have been out there because she was kind of out in
13:48
no keepers land, like in the middle of the box, Like if she
13:52
would have got there, no harm, no foul.
13:54
And that's what so much of sports is, right.
13:56
Like you got a dope like me in Seattle.
13:58
Be like, I don't know, I'm Katrin Berger.
14:00
Maybe you made a mistake there. You've been trading your whole
14:02
life. You're one of the elite
14:03
goalkeepers in the world. But I I would be, I'm curious to
14:06
hear her thoughts on it, obviously.
14:08
But, and I always say playing keeper is, is not like any other
14:12
position in football. So even my cruddy experience
14:15
playing football growing up, you fool around in in goal sometimes
14:19
he's like, yeah, let me play, let me play goalie for a little
14:21
while. So I don't know if she was in a
14:23
really bad position. It didn't seem like she was in
14:26
great position though. That's fair.
14:29
But I mean, I wrote in my notes that that ball was a 3070 ball
14:34
for Sophie Smith. She was at a complete
14:36
disadvantage. It's almost like she takes one
14:38
step on the outside, realizes that's not going to work, takes
14:40
another step the other way to find a path to the ball.
14:43
And then she's only got time and space and reach for that one.
14:48
Sort of like lean back and like just, you know, slap at it.
14:51
That's all she was able to do and then just perfectly
14:54
executed. You just sort of wonder if
14:57
Berger was in a different position, would Smith a beater
14:59
another way? Yeah, just because, like, it was
15:01
just one of those types of, you know, moments where those
15:05
forwards weren't going to be denied.
15:07
That's a great call. So yeah, we'll we'll get it from
15:10
the ITC personal frown Bundes trainer Peter Vice some haro.
15:17
So I'll be interested to hear his opinions on that.
15:19
You know to take people behind the curtain.
15:21
Obviously we've mentioned it we have a little Google doc, we
15:23
keep our notes. Well, we're making sure we're
15:26
this isn't all off the Dome, if you could believe.
15:28
And even though sometimes it kind of looks like that, you
15:30
would mention some stuff about Emma Hayes's rotation and what
15:34
the lineup looked like. My personal US women's national
15:38
team super fan who I was watching the match with today
15:41
while we were working pointed out to me that Julie Foudy loves
15:45
telling you that you should get some Subs in during a broadcast.
15:48
Like Julie Foudy is locked in to be like, hey, might be a good
15:52
time to get some Subs in here. What did you think about the
15:55
rotation? I wish there was a better like
15:59
Germany gets frown Bundes trainer as like a hyphenated
16:03
word. We just have US woman's national
16:05
team manager. I wish we had a more fun name
16:08
for it. But what do you think about
16:09
Hayes rotation here? I thought it was awesome.
16:11
I mean, she goes sonnet for Davidson.
16:14
That one looked probably injury related.
16:17
That worked. Then it's Williams for Lavelle,
16:20
felt Lavelle. I mean, shout out to Roosevelt.
16:22
We had been talking about her. I mean, we could we could keep
16:25
it real probably maybe on the bubble, you know, like of the
16:28
roster. I think she probably was not
16:30
necessarily penciled in as a starter.
16:32
And then all of a sudden I think the way things break, she's
16:34
playing just starter minutes, you know, on this like every 3rd
16:38
day insane schedule and you know, she's played really well.
16:42
Like I think when you get to this point in the tournament, I
16:44
think it's really interesting that you call out the burger
16:47
situation on the Smith strike. We're really splitting hairs
16:50
with regards like, of course, did this have been this like we
16:53
don't see at this point in this tournament, you don't really see
16:55
like these gigantic gaffes. We didn't really see any in this
16:59
game. I think it was a pretty clean
17:00
game. So Lavelle's had a clean
17:03
tournament, even if she hasn't been peak Rose Lavelle.
17:06
I think he's been super solid. So bringing on Lynn Williams I
17:08
thought was really great change of pace, an attacking player,
17:11
some that Jeremy was going to have to think about.
17:14
And then Hayes goes nice long for done, Corbin Albert for the
17:18
captain, Lindsay Horan to start extra time I have been calling
17:22
for actually both these layers, I thought nice one creatively
17:25
just provide something a little bit different.
17:27
And then Corbin Albert a little bit more just dynamic, more of a
17:30
physical presence. Yeah, again, the beauty of these
17:35
Subs, they're players that are somewhat like for like with
17:39
regard to position on the field, but the playing style totally
17:42
different. You know, like Crystal Dungeon,
17:43
a nice longer. That's a fucking big adjustment.
17:45
Defensive. You got to make Corbin Albert,
17:47
you're chasing her after like chasing Lindsay her.
17:50
And it's a completely different makeup, you know, So I think
17:53
those moves definitely kept Germany on their heels.
17:55
And then you look at the timing of these moves, nice longer and
17:58
Albert come in at 91, the goal hits at 95.
18:01
So who knows correlation, causation, what what's going on
18:04
here? Sure.
18:05
But I think it's safe to say that those two events definitely
18:08
had a through line passing through them for sure.
18:10
Yeah, I mean that's what that's part of what coaching is, right?
18:13
Like, you know, we talk about the margin for error, whether
18:15
it's trying to beat A-Team like Spain, we'll talk about that
18:17
later, or trying to be the US women's national team, Coaching
18:21
is in that margin for error. It is kind of like making the
18:24
moves in those margins to basically set your team up for
18:28
the best chance for scoring opportunities in a football
18:32
match. Yeah, I will say pessimistic me.
18:34
Speaking of our notes, the first thing I wrote was, OK, Haran and
18:38
Dunn off Nice swung her and Albert on.
18:41
That is a swap of a lot of big game experience for not a lot of
18:47
big game experience. But it worked.
18:49
And I think to your point, it goes back to what we were
18:51
talking about in the last episode.
18:53
It's a change of speeds. It's a change of eye level.
18:56
It's a change of shape and geometry and all those things,
18:59
and that's why Emma Hayes gets paid the way she does and that's
19:01
why she's regarded the way she is.
19:03
Absolutely. And I think the last thing on
19:04
the Subs real quick, prior to Smith's goal, we saw four US
19:08
Subs come in, but the four players that linked up on the
19:11
goal were all starters. Yeah.
19:13
So it's almost like Hayes brought it a bunch of kind of
19:16
like, not quite smoke and mirrors, but enough to kind of
19:18
like shake the snow globe and kind of like make things a
19:21
little confusing and then still falls back on those on those
19:24
central players. Germa Coffee, Swanson, Smith to
19:27
kind of like, take care of business.
19:29
That's a great point. And this has apparently become
19:31
the notes segment for me, just referring to it.
19:35
Going back to your Gurma point, we always try to capture what is
19:38
like the build up to the scoring.
19:41
And we just have this device that I noticed you and I both
19:43
use where we just write the names in a little dash to show
19:47
the passing sequence. How many times does that passing
19:50
sequence start with Gurma dash and then whatever the sequence
19:54
is. And that's why she's one of the
19:55
best in the world and it ended up working out for USA, getting
19:59
past Germany today. Couple quick hitters before we
20:01
wrap up. USA, Germany one.
20:03
I'm feeling really good about my Sophie Smith carving out a spot
20:06
on USW and T Mount Rushmore. Working on.
20:09
Heading into this tournament, that being, you know, a very
20:12
legit possibility. I think we're getting getting
20:14
warmer by the moment here. That's one.
20:16
I saw this in your in your section to you that you brought
20:18
it up. The whole conversation that
20:20
champion and Julie Foudy had about the US coming into this
20:24
with low expectations. I was like, shit detector pretty
20:28
much. There was smoke coming out of
20:29
it. Yeah, that was that was bizarre.
20:33
They're the betting favorite entering the tournament.
20:35
I was like, what do we do? Like, what is you?
20:37
We don't have to do this, Julie. We don't have to do this.
20:40
Nobody believed in US. Yeah, seriously, nobody gave us
20:44
a chance. Especially not those dummies at
20:46
the ITC. No, I'm just kidding.
20:49
The third bone I have to pick with the telecast here.
20:51
Apparently there's a notion that we we should be calling these
20:54
three players the Trident. Don't like it?
20:59
Kind of hate it. It's awful.
21:02
It's a chewing gum. What are we doing?
21:07
Yeah, and it's like the Trident. Yeah, I get the Trident has has
21:10
three tips and like a spear like device, but like what did the
21:15
champion goes? You know Germany gets hit with
21:18
the Trident or what did he say? I got it here.
21:20
Germany have been speared by the Trident.
21:23
Even he couldn't even he was upset about his delivery.
21:27
Even he was like half hearted. He's like look at he's like to
21:30
come on. This is I'm not saying this one.
21:32
I'm not doing this one anymore. So yeah, when John champion
21:35
can't make it work, we've gotta we've got to do something.
21:38
I'm still team Melissa here. 3 fours of the apocalypse.
21:40
I I think still wordy, but we've got time routinely 20 plus extra
21:45
minutes in each of these matches.
21:46
So we're not, we're not quite pressed for for time here.
21:49
We're still workshop and three forwards of the apocalypse is
21:52
great. Don't sell yourself short Bell
21:54
Biv to goal, obviously. All time banger in my book.
21:58
We're exploring the space. We're looking to figure out what
22:01
this with this long term nickname is.
22:03
I think we can say the Trident. Probably not it.
22:07
Not on this show. No, we don't recognize that.
22:12
You better go to one of them other podcasts with that one.
22:15
I want to talk about the save. Oh yeah. 119th minute on that
22:19
play. It was pretty interesting.
22:21
Like Claire Bull, obviously Germany gets a free kick
22:23
initiated by a great ball in from Schultz to Solano that I'm
22:28
sure Peter Weisey was excited about.
22:29
Just to be able to repeat Schultz to Solano, of course,
22:32
then Clara Bull steps up for the free kick whips it in hits the
22:36
wall, bounces back so quickly and like Emily Sonic kind of got
22:39
caught up in real time. It looked clearly offsides.
22:43
Yeah, I went back and tried to watch it.
22:45
Probably not offsides or really, really close.
22:48
So that was a very it was more dangerous on replay than I
22:52
thought it was a real time, real time.
22:53
Like definitely upsides, but it didn't look like it once you
22:55
slowed it down. Fry gang gets ahead on it.
22:58
A listener. I mean, what can you say?
23:01
Just the most improbable, the most improbable of saves with
23:06
the most improbable of body parts and body positioning in
23:09
that moment. Pretty much whatever the
23:10
situation calls for. If it's in a listener's power to
23:14
contort her body a specific way or get to a specific spot on the
23:17
field or, you know, mentally get whatever it is she's doing it.
23:22
She did in this one 119, like you just can't get any later in
23:26
the match. Yeah.
23:27
And I think Germany is one of those sides where you look at
23:31
Burger, you look at some of those skill players, maybe not a
23:35
team you want to get into a penalty shootout with.
23:37
No, especially with a younger US side a little, you know, like a
23:40
less experience. You know, we talked about some
23:42
of those young players that are probably in line to take some of
23:45
those PK's Burger on absolute fire still from what she did to
23:49
Canada. So that could have been a metal
23:52
saving, a tournament saving just massive.
23:54
Like, I mean, one for the history books, Absolutely.
23:57
Totally. It's as good as a goal.
23:59
Like that save is immense in the tournament.
24:03
You're totally right. And I think sometimes folks
24:05
might talk about like a a penalty shootout, like it's just
24:09
like a coin flip. Then maybe they're not doing it
24:11
on purpose, but that kind of takes away a little bit from the
24:14
skill and the strategy involved. But you're exactly right.
24:16
Like you get into the shootout with Germany, you can lose.
24:21
You very well might lose that even as good as USA has tended
24:27
to fair and penalty shootout. So you're up in the air and then
24:31
she needs to kick out the left foot to make it.
24:34
I agree with you. I think Fry Gang was on side and
24:37
I had the exact same experience. I was like way off, not going to
24:40
count. And then I see the replay.
24:41
I was like, I think that would have counted.
24:44
I'm pretty confident that would have counted.
24:46
So it's just another moment on Nair's resume that she's just
24:52
building as probably at this point it's hard to argue that
24:56
she's not the greatest keeper in the history of the program.
25:00
I like it. Who else is in that
25:02
conversation? It's her solo and then Brianna
25:04
Scurry. I would think, Oh yeah, shout.
25:06
Let us know in the comments. Give us the more historical
25:10
perspective. I mean, narrow 100 caps, the
25:12
World Cup in 2019, obviously the Gold Cup this past year.
25:17
I'd be curious if people tell me I'm wrong.
25:19
I mean, Hope Solo, when I really kind of started to pay much
25:22
closer attention in 2015, Hope Solo was a monster back there.
25:28
I would be curious if people are gonna educate me on that one.
25:31
So let us know. Tell me if I'm talking out of
25:33
school on this one please. We'd love to hear it.
25:35
Give us your Mount Rushmore's fill in some gaps for us.
25:38
Last thing when hit before we scoot over to
25:40
spainbrazilgoal.com defines XG as a statistical measurement of
25:45
the quality of goal scoring chances and the likelihood of
25:47
them being scored. The reason I bring this up is
25:50
because Fry gang in that moment, I mean, let me rewind real
25:54
quick. You talked about the penalty
25:56
shootout. Imagine the momentum attached to
25:59
119th minute equalizer, yes, against the team that smacked
26:04
you like 9 days ago, Like, and now you're just a couple penalty
26:08
kicks away from the from the gold medal match.
26:10
So it's not even just the coin flip nature of it.
26:12
Like there's a lot stacked up against, you know, AUS team that
26:17
concedes that late in the match, that has to go independent
26:20
kicks, face that keeper. Very glad that we avoided that.
26:23
In my mind, the difference between XG and real G is like
26:28
history. Obviously in that moment, Laura
26:31
Frye, Gang Germany, a very high XG moment.
26:34
Bull puts the ball in, it's essentially one on zero nares.
26:37
Like, she needs to get really lucky at that point, gets the
26:41
stop, becomes part of history and essentially, like a very
26:45
substantial high XG moment for Germany.
26:48
Doesn't matter. Yeah.
26:49
And I think that is the magic. The magic is when the play on
26:52
the field can transcend what the probability is based on the
26:57
circumstances. So it's like, you know, who
26:59
cares about probabilities? Like, we could just run a
27:00
computer simulation and figure out some probabilities here and,
27:03
you know, be like, OK, yeah, Spain wins this tournament 78%
27:06
of the time. Not so fast, though.
27:08
They've got to play it. And I think what gets us
27:10
talking, what attaches us to this sport emotionally,
27:13
spiritually, however you want to think about it, is those moments
27:16
where the real G diverges big time from the XG and then we get
27:22
left with a magical memory, something that I think we're
27:25
going to take into the future. That makes a lot of sense.
27:27
And I, I mean it, it fits perfectly because I mean, the
27:30
way Alyssa Nair plays, she's a real G out there.
27:35
Like just, I mean, tough as you could possibly hope for will
27:40
score during penalty shootouts. You nailed it perfectly.
27:43
Does exactly what she needs to do to make the big saves.
27:46
You see it in basketball too. Like, and I know we we jokingly
27:49
say it like real hoopers know like what's the Kevin Durant
27:53
tweet? Somebody was talking to him
27:54
about percentages or something like that.
27:56
And he goes, Who wants to talk about math in a basketball
27:59
conversation? And it's like.
28:01
I see the spot for both. Like if you were in the front
28:05
office and you're making decisions like probabilities
28:07
matter, that makes sense. Then you've seen Shane Battier,
28:10
a great Miami Heat player, part of those like Big 3 Championship
28:14
who talked about probabilities in his defending.
28:17
But when the rubber meets the road and you are on the court or
28:20
on the pitch, it's those moments.
28:22
I I think you, I think you've said it perfectly, man.
28:24
Like, yeah, the probability exists, but there's also the
28:28
other side of the probability. And that's where like great
28:31
players live in that of like, Oh yeah, you had the chance to
28:35
score, but I made the play to stop it.
28:37
Or you didn't think there was a chance to score and I made it
28:40
happen. And that's why we love this
28:42
shit. That's why that's sports are
28:44
awesome. Total cosign on that.
28:46
Let's scoot ahead, though. There was another semifinal
28:49
match. Yes, there was.
28:50
That went down today. Some might call them the
28:53
favorites, maybe the greatest women's football team ever
28:56
assembled. They took on Brazil, a Martellus
29:00
Brazil, a Brazil that was still maybe probably reeling from a
29:04
little bit of a, we'll call it a thorough handling of their team
29:08
by this Spanish national team. And from jump, this one felt
29:12
much, much different than that croup stage matchup between
29:16
Spain and Brazil. What was the first thing that
29:18
stuck out to you as this one got rolling?
29:20
Brazil looked confident. They looked like they could do
29:25
what they wanted to do against Spain and.
29:28
It's a great point. I don't know if it's just like
29:31
mentality and just like the general culture and the team.
29:35
They were zero percent scared. What I don't know if this metric
29:38
counts whatever negative percentage you're scared.
29:41
They were. That's that's how not scared
29:43
they were. And you talked about it in the
29:45
preview. They were not afraid to play
29:47
physical and they were going to be creative and they were going
29:50
to take their chances. They knew Spain was going to
29:52
hold the ball, but they're like, OK, you can hold the ball, where
29:55
are you going with it? We're not going to let you go
29:57
where you want to go with it. And nobody does that against
30:00
Spain. You know, I'm I'm glad you
30:02
brought this up because I had to stop watching the game where
30:05
you're used to seeing Spain kind of like ping it back and forth.
30:09
They really love to do that 1-2 where it's at a funky angle,
30:13
yes, but one, one person will will kick it and then take a
30:16
little like a like a non obvious run, but it's a 12.
30:20
And instead of like, maybe like running across goal, they're
30:23
kind of like running out into space.
30:25
And then it just becomes like, oh, like, wow, now Mariana's
30:27
like out there by herself, who's got like 15 yards of space.
30:30
And I think there's something about this Brazilian side where
30:33
they also kind of play like that.
30:36
Like they like that a little bit unorthodox 1-2 quick passing,
30:39
quick pivoting. Yeah.
30:41
And I think there was a bunch of times early in this match where
30:44
Spain tried to be a little slick with it.
30:45
It's like a little bit, no, look like it's like a 12 and I'm
30:47
going to look this way and I'm going to kind of like tap about.
30:49
And then they were all over it. Brazil was like, we invented
30:52
this shit like all. Yeah.
30:56
There was something too about Brazil being like, you're not
30:59
going to out fancy us, you're not going to out clever us.
31:02
Like you might be a little bit more precise over a 90 minute
31:05
period. You might have more individual
31:07
talent in one-on-one matchups, but we've seen all of this
31:11
already. We're Brazil, we're a football
31:12
nation. That one was a little bit of a
31:14
surprise where I'm like, OK, now Spain's not going to be able to
31:16
like just pull the the wool over our eyes and just kind of like
31:19
do whatever they want out here. That was evident from the jump.
31:23
And then when you get just a catastrophe on the Spanish side
31:28
of an own goal, I will say, and I thought the announcer pointed
31:31
this out correctly and it might actually have been Danielle
31:34
Slayton on the color commentary. Danielle Slayton just a triple
31:38
plus every time she's on any broadcast, any time she's in the
31:41
booth given like in the in the studio given analysis, just
31:46
always great. It was either her or the OR the
31:48
actual play by play commentator who did say, OK, if you're
31:52
Spain, at least that happened in the sixth minute and you have 84
31:55
minutes to kind of recover from it.
31:57
But even then, you know, Katakoi tries to to hit the clearance.
32:02
I'll say it's it's unlucky, but she she allowed the opportunity
32:06
to exist with how close she was going to cut it anyway.
32:10
And she's probably made that clearance hundreds of times,
32:13
maybe thousands of times. But when you have two players
32:16
right there, you have one of your own players and a Brazilian
32:19
player right there, that's a tricky one.
32:21
Again, not to like I'm obviously Monday morning quarterbacking
32:24
this, Monday morning goalkeepering this if you will,
32:27
but the chance was there and maybe it's one out of 100 times
32:31
that happens, but it happened today and it was not favorable
32:35
for Espana. Not favorable at all.
32:38
You bring up such a great point when you talk about Brazils
32:41
confidence, because when we spoke to Julia Bellastrand Dodge
32:45
before the tournament, just kind of get a little temperature
32:48
check on Brazil. She talked about mentally their
32:51
propensity to kind of like lose their cool a little bit.
32:54
You give up a goal and now it's frustrating.
32:56
Now they're frustrated and like they're not supposed to be down,
32:58
but they're down and can't really quite get on track.
33:01
I thought about that immediately after the first goal.
33:03
So I'm like, that's out the window.
33:05
Yeah. You know, now it's like absolute
33:06
game on. We don't have to sort of like
33:09
try to hold serve here against Spain and try to like take a
33:12
chance and then like give a chance, take a chance.
33:14
Like now we're out ahead, we're out in the front foot.
33:17
We can just go. And that's exactly what they
33:20
did. I loved the game plan.
33:21
Even from there. It was like almost like, let's
33:24
be even more aggressive, like let's squeeze harder, let's
33:27
press harder, take our chances even faster.
33:30
I thought it was. I thought it was awesome, Like
33:33
tremendous way to approach this matchup with a team of the
33:38
stature of the Spain. Yeah, totally.
33:40
And getting out on the counter as much as they could.
33:43
So in the first half, according to our pals over at Foot Mob,
33:46
Spain had 75% possession to Brazil's only at 25.
33:51
But Brazil had the lead in shots eight to seven.
33:54
They had more shots on target 3:00 to 1:00, and they had more
33:57
big chances, three to zero. Just in that first half, you
34:01
know, Spain was able to have five corner kicks.
34:03
Maybe you can correct me if I'm wrong or maybe somebody could
34:05
drop it in the comments, but like, I can't remember any of
34:07
those 5 Spain corner kicks that I ever thought were real
34:11
dangerous or real sketchy. That might be a little
34:14
revisionist history on my side. But the bottom line is to your
34:18
point, when Brazil was running at Spain, especially on the
34:22
counter when they had their chances and you know, this is a
34:25
pro Olga Carmona podcast has been since the Champions League.
34:30
They were going right at her and saying, oh, OK, you want to come
34:32
up and and play attacking football.
34:35
And Spain has used that pressure to really kind of flustered
34:38
teams in the past. We'll just run right at you
34:40
then. So now you have to track back
34:42
and we'll try to take advantage in numbers on that side.
34:44
I thought that was a brilliant coaching decision by Arthur
34:47
Elias. Yeah, and on Spain's left side,
34:49
where Olga's sort of supposed to be defending, that's where like
34:53
Ludmila Yaya early they were just like, we'll take the space.
34:57
And Olga, you want to play up, You want to be on the other side
35:00
of the halfway line? I'll bet you can't catch me.
35:03
There's a couple of times where Olga's just really gunning it
35:06
and she's just not closing the gap on on a Ludmila as an
35:10
example. And I think it just made it a
35:11
really long day. And then on the other side,
35:14
Brazil was happy to kind of like defend and press.
35:17
I was talking to you about this pre show a little bit.
35:20
I was surprised Spain versus Colombia, how fast Colombia
35:23
looked, because I think going into that, I wasn't going to be
35:26
like, right, Colombia's got a clear speed advantage, right?
35:28
I was like, no, Colombia's got a clear toughness, nastiness
35:31
advantage, even though Spain, you know, it could be tough and
35:34
nasty for sure. Yeah.
35:35
But Colombia was just a it's just a different, you know,
35:37
weight class when it when it comes to that.
35:38
But in that match, Colombia looked faster.
35:42
Like I was just like, wow, like, what are they doing?
35:44
Is there like some new strength and conditioning?
35:46
Are they, you know, are they up in the mountains and in Bogota?
35:48
Like, are they, you know, kind of like limiting their oxygen
35:51
intake and getting ready for this?
35:52
But no, I think in reality, what we saw was Spain sputtering out
35:56
a little bit. Yeah.
35:57
In that match, because today Brazil looked even faster.
36:01
Yeah, Colombia did last week. The third goal, the Adriana goal
36:05
where she gets the header and then ends up with the put back.
36:08
Mariona is chasing her and is just DOA.
36:11
She's like, no chance scorched in that moment by oddity.
36:15
And then, like, Mariona runs past Adriana, the ball, you
36:19
know, kind of finds the other side of the goal, makes its way
36:22
back to Adriana, and Mariona is still having outran Adriana,
36:26
like kind of catching her breath.
36:27
She's like out of bounds. She's like on the wrong side so
36:30
she just like couldn't work her way back into she's like 4 feet
36:34
away from my idea just like I can't, I can't get there, sorry.
36:38
Yeah, that's a tough one. It was, it was trippy to just
36:41
see them like, you know, on E, like, you know, to that extent,
36:45
like they had nothing left. Yeah, I mean, they they were
36:48
clearly some tired legs out there.
36:50
There was actually a really good conversation in the YouTube
36:54
comments of our last video, the the semi final preview between
36:58
friends of the show, Javier Love and at Eithan 1977, who kind of
37:04
just talked about if you think about Spain's 2023 World Cup
37:09
schedule. And then all those Barcelona
37:11
players and all the tournaments that they had to play, the
37:13
league games, the Champions League, their league tournament,
37:17
you know, the cups, all that stuff, UEFA nations league, Euro
37:20
qualifiers and now Olympics. Like that's that's just an
37:23
incredible amount of football that they have had to play.
37:27
And so the tired legs, I think is, is a great point.
37:30
It's something that I think I, I underestimated coming into this
37:34
match when I was loud wrong, thinking that Spain would walk
37:37
away with this game. I'm not going to shy away from
37:40
pointing out how loud wrong I was.
37:41
I do want to rewind a little bit real quick to the Portillo goal.
37:45
Beautiful pass by Yasmine, kind of like curling the ball around
37:49
a couple defenders right into Portillo's path.
37:52
Yasmine at least like announced herself to to me at the Conca FW
37:57
Gold Cup Genius passed by her. And then Portillo, she scores
38:01
the goal, the cross is coming in and it's curling in toward her
38:05
and Portillo hits it near post. And so like, what she has to do,
38:10
like physically to hit the ball that way instead of taking it
38:14
back across the face of goal is that you really just have to
38:16
like turn your foot and your ankle in such a flexible way to
38:20
keep it near post. And it's just like you're
38:23
running And you have to do that. Like what It's just it's like an
38:26
amazing, like understated athletic feat to do that and to
38:31
get it on the frame of the goal. And then Portillo hits the very
38:35
rare, at least to my knowledge, goal Selly of score, run a
38:40
little bit, then twerk and then pray, which I got to say not a
38:47
you know what? I have not seen that combination
38:51
of a Celli very often. And to you, Portillo, let me say
38:55
I'm cracking my second beer of the show for that Celli because
38:58
I thought it was incredible. Tremendous.
39:00
Cheers to you Portillo. You also maybe undersold that
39:03
Yasmine Cross a little bit. I actually went back and watched
39:06
this like 10 times. That cross genius whizzes by 4
39:10
Spanish defenders with 1/5 who I believe is Mariana on the other
39:15
side of Portillo. Like he has me scoot to pass
39:19
roughly 5 Spanish defenders. Right on the money.
39:23
All Portillo has to do all all she has to do the ball is in her
39:28
path and she's able to kind of like make a play on it and the
39:33
finish super tidy. And then in my notes, I'm like,
39:35
all right, here we go again, Spain down to nothing again to
39:39
another Latin American team, but this time didn't have the same
39:43
feels, didn't like the look of this one, didn't like the
39:45
lineups, didn't like the body language.
39:48
I think a lot of it was off. I think against Colombia, it was
39:51
surprising to see Spain come all the way back, but also not
39:54
surprising in this one. I thoroughly would have been
39:57
surprised if Spain had come back because they just looked a step
40:00
slow pretty much for most of the game.
40:02
And then I think the other thing we talked about the manager last
40:06
week, Monsito May for Spain. I mean, tough to know what's
40:09
going on behind the scenes, but if you're going to go with that
40:12
non tradition of a lineup. It just kind of felt like there
40:15
had to be a little bit more thought to it because it looked
40:19
disjointed with all those new players, even when the the game
40:22
got a little desperate. Now you see like body real as an
40:25
example. I just he's like, I don't care.
40:26
I'm going to be out in the wings.
40:27
I I need space to run. I don't care where I'm supposed
40:29
to be. This is now where I'm just going
40:31
to be reminded me of CO2 just being like, who cares what they
40:34
just do? What's the coach going to do?
40:35
Alexia doesn't come on until the 77th.
40:38
She comes on and just rips a couple.
40:40
That got really close. I really tested Lorena who got a
40:44
hand on on both of them. The first one hit the woodwork
40:48
from Alexia, but Alexia it just basically was like I got to see
40:51
what I wrote in my notes here. Alexia.
40:53
I wrote Alexia with two absolute why the fuck have I not been in
40:57
this game? Rockets.
40:59
Yes, I mean, I have to think that there is a physio involved
41:05
in this or a team doctor or something.
41:08
She's been one of their most informed players throughout the
41:12
whole tournament. So I'm going to reserve a little
41:15
bit of judgment to think that maybe the call was out of Tome
41:19
and Alexis hands because otherwise I don't think it's a
41:22
defensible position to be like, no, I just didn't think, I
41:26
didn't think I needed her for the 1st 77 minutes of the match.
41:29
That that just that can't be right.
41:31
It definitely can't be right. And there might have been some
41:34
physio stuff. You know, obviously Germany, we
41:36
see some some of the attrition strike them as well.
41:39
But Athenaea, Leigh, Alexandre Bhattati and Alexia, none of
41:44
them in the starting lineup. They all come in at various
41:47
points in the second-half. My players are tired.
41:49
There's been a lot of travel. We're running on fumes a little
41:51
bit. What can I do to buy myself a
41:53
little little something extra? But you know, it wasn't just the
41:56
lineup because we talked about this last week like we got 76
42:01
minutes of the bone mati without Alexia and didn't look awesome,
42:06
didn't look connected. She didn't look like anywhere
42:09
near the best player in the world.
42:10
It's not a criticism of her. The link UPS weren't working.
42:13
The chemistry wasn't there. You know her as a focal point
42:16
that you would maybe want to go to, especially as things are
42:19
kind of getting out of hand a little bit in this Brazil
42:21
matchup didn't quite quite happen.
42:23
I also wrote in my notes that they look much more likely to go
42:27
into second or third gear than they do to go into 5th gear.
42:30
You know, once they went down a couple goals, you know, I think
42:32
like it's kind of seemed like it was going to get worse with more
42:35
probability than it was going to get better.
42:37
Yeah, and that's and that's essentially how it goes.
42:40
I mean, really cool to see Keteline get on the on the score
42:43
sheet 90 + 1. Nutmeg's got that koi to to get
42:48
that finish and really put the the final dagger in Spain.
42:52
I mean, better you alo gets the brace toward the end.
42:54
I'm with you that I had the same experience where they go into
42:57
halftime down to nil and I was like, OK, Spain, they can mount
43:01
this company back. But then they get back on the
43:02
field and I'm like, oh boy, this hill is steeper than I even
43:06
thought. That's the first time that the
43:08
real doubts started to creep in that that Spain would be able to
43:12
to get back in and they just never could.
43:13
I kind of loved the ghetto lingo.
43:15
I like got that guy, you know, as a player.
43:17
She obviously a little little little off the rails today.
43:20
But then she got into it. I think with Gabby Nunez, like
43:23
right at the death where she's like kind of it was either Nunez
43:26
or Portillo, but she's in one of the Gabby's faces and like one
43:30
of the Gabby's like chill. Like we're playing football
43:33
here. We're not trying to fight like,
43:34
you know, like, Yep. But got that guy was pissed.
43:37
And then I think Cataline got her like 30 seconds later.
43:40
Yeah. And I think knew what she was
43:42
doing. It was like, I'm going to I'm
43:43
just going to sit you down right here like the nutmeg.
43:46
And now it's got that guy on her backside.
43:48
Game over. Just like slam the door on this
43:51
team. And then Cataline ice cold Sally
43:53
too after just stone face statuesque like an absolute
43:59
fucking boss. I just loved everything that
44:01
Brazil didn't today pretty much. I mean, it was an awesome,
44:04
awesome showing very cool too with regard to the dynamics of
44:08
this competition that you win your semifinal matchup, you're
44:12
getting a medal. Yes, you have earned a you're
44:14
going home with a medal. I don't want to say it's icing
44:17
on the cake. Both these teams really, really,
44:18
really want to win, you know, especially for Brazil, who's
44:21
sitting in the semifinals with Germany, with Spain, with USA,
44:24
you know, So they they got to be, they're going to be
44:26
confident. But they loosely have the short
44:29
stack if you think about like FIFA rankings or recent history
44:32
or however you want to think about that.
44:33
Yeah. So to win and know that they're
44:35
going home with the medal, really awesome.
44:37
That is pretty incredible and you raise a good point.
44:39
It's the first time I've really kind of thought about this is
44:42
like you see players in the World Cup, you lose the World
44:46
Cup final and they give you that second place finishers medal.
44:50
How many players do you see? They put it around their neck
44:52
and the players are almost like they're almost sick to their
44:55
stomach and they immediately take that second place medal off
44:58
because it's just like, I don't know if I'll ever get here
45:00
again. This was everything my career
45:02
was culminating to. And they are just almost
45:05
inconsolable in that match in the Olympics.
45:08
Like, of course you want to win the gold like you're saying, but
45:11
a silver medal in the Olympics, maybe I'm, I don't know if I'm
45:13
making this up or not, but it feels like a silver medal in the
45:17
Olympics. I'm going to use parlance that I
45:19
should not. I have no business using perhaps
45:21
hits different than a second place medal in another
45:26
tournament like the EUR or the OR the World Cup or even like,
45:29
you know, like a Gold Cup type situation.
45:31
Yeah, I mean, it probably comes with like growing up having
45:34
watched track and field or boxing or swimming, or you see
45:38
the podium and then you see the anthems and it's a whole kind of
45:41
moment. They got the flags in the in the
45:43
crowd and all that. I mean, it's cool to have an
45:45
Olympic medal, but winning the EUR, winning the World Cup, you
45:49
know, that kind of puts you in a different stratosphere.
45:51
Historically. I think that's kind of like what
45:53
it is. It's like there's such a big gap
45:55
between winning the World Cup and coming in as a runner up
45:58
history wise. But a medal, you know, it's a
46:01
tactile, tangible thing that, much like Reggie Bush's Heisman,
46:05
can't be taken away unless it's handed over voluntarily.
46:08
So scratching our heads over that one, Reggie.
46:10
Of course, yes, Hold on to those gold medals.
46:13
Canadian gold medal champions from the 2020 Olympics?
46:16
Hold on to them for dear life. Cold, dead hands All right,
46:20
let's scoot ahead. Based on today's action, that
46:23
means we are getting a USA Brazil Olympics gold medal
46:28
match. Who could have thought it?
46:30
Who could have predicted it? I can't really take credit
46:32
because I think I've put this U.S. team in the gold medal
46:36
conversation. I put him in my silver tier with
46:39
Bridie. I was like, yeah, this is this
46:40
team's the favorite. The next week I was like, Nah,
46:42
this team's not the favorite. I've been, I've been all over
46:44
the place with this US side, so I'm not going to take any
46:47
credit. And I don't think anybody had
46:49
Brazil in the gold medal match, really wild.
46:52
But final will be here Saturday. I'm sure we'll be locked in.
46:56
Great journey so far, absolute whirlwind.
46:59
What are you going to be looking for when the final kicks off?
47:01
Well, we get ourselves a rematch of the CONCACAF W Gold Cup
47:06
final. That's exciting.
47:08
USA won that match one nil from a header off of Lindsay Iran 45
47:14
+ 1 in that match. Different rosters, really
47:17
totally different Brazilian team.
47:19
I'm going to look for the exact same thing that I looked for in
47:22
the semi final versus Germany. Is what's the team sheet going
47:25
to look like on the back line when they announce the starting
47:29
lineup? Are we going to get done
47:31
Davidson, Germa Fox? I would hope so.
47:34
You mentioned earlier that Davidson came off at half for
47:37
Emily Sonnet. I really like that.
47:39
It looked like a protective measure.
47:41
Just OK, tier. Now we're working you back into
47:43
this. Hopefully it was nothing more
47:45
than that. Hopefully she didn't aggravate
47:47
any kind of injury like that. This team is built from the back
47:52
moving forward. Like you have Nair the stalwart,
47:55
you have Germa and Fox. And then I mean, obviously you
47:59
cannot discount Crystal Dunn. But like if you have Crystal
48:02
Dunn, whether it's Emily Sonnet or Tierna Davidson there, that
48:05
is like the straw that stirs the drink essentially.
48:08
And then you play the ball forward and even with the
48:11
questions in midfield, you get the ball up to your forwards
48:13
there. So it's going to take an effort.
48:15
I mean, we talked about Brazil's confidence.
48:18
We talked about Brazil's physicality.
48:20
They're going to try to test Germa Dunn and Fox and every
48:24
opportunity that they have. And if they think Davidson might
48:26
be dinged, it's not unethical for them to test Davidson at
48:30
every single opportunity that they have with physical play,
48:34
even on the attacking side. So I'm looking at the defense
48:37
first going to this one. How about you?
48:39
I agree with that and we're lucky enough to be in the
48:42
position where this is the final matchup.
48:44
Yeah. So if you got a sticks on it
48:45
there and Davidson spot and ask her for 90 or 90 plus or
48:49
whatever, I think she's up for it.
48:50
I think she had another really good, really good game.
48:53
So consistent. Apologies to Emily Sonnet.
48:55
I think we had you on our roster, but I think she was one
48:59
of our bubble selections. If I yeah, she was on.
49:01
It we had her in though, yeah. I'm just apologizing for even
49:05
considering having heard anywhere near the bubble
49:08
conversation because she's been tremendous this tournament.
49:11
Super valuable. Just the way kind of like the
49:13
injuries broke. Couldn't imagine a better player
49:16
to have to kind of fill in that gap, be able to play in multiple
49:19
spots. Another really good game today.
49:21
So I think it does start defensively.
49:23
And when you look at the five opponents that the US has
49:28
played, Germany twice, Japan, Australia, Zambia, and I tell
49:33
you that they've only given up two goals in five games.
49:37
Two of them had an extra 30 attached to it.
49:39
I mean, that's that's an insane level of defensive efficiency.
49:45
So I do think it absolutely starts with the defense and
49:48
something that we talked about with the USA, Germany preview.
49:50
I like when the US is sort of giving up a little real estate
49:54
just to be able to give themselves a chance to run a
49:57
little bit. Because I think it's it's a
49:59
totally different team when we're able to do that.
50:01
Obviously the goal comes from a similar type sequence.
50:04
I can see some of that with Brazil too, where we're able to
50:06
maybe draw them out a little bit.
50:08
Tracy on it, she doesn't give a fuck.
50:09
She just play, but she'll just run wherever, like wherever the
50:11
action is. She's just like, oh, I'll go
50:13
over there and mix it up. Yeah.
50:14
So she's that past getting herself a slightly out of
50:18
position great player as well. But I think we're going to be
50:20
able to find little alleyways, little avenues, little
50:24
boulevards through and around that Brazil defense.
50:28
And I think, you know, give me Gurma, give me Nair, give me the
50:31
rest of that back line to look at, lock things down.
50:34
And I think there's no reason to believe this team is all of a
50:37
sudden vulnerable to offensive fire.
50:40
You know, like even if it's Brazil and we haven't, you know,
50:42
we haven't necessarily seen this version of him, I still put my
50:45
money on on US defensively to be able to kind of hold it.
50:48
It's hard not to at this point. I mean, I think the the resume
50:52
is there. The question is like, can
50:55
Brazil's creativity and they're kind of doggedness in terms of,
50:59
OK, when we attack on the counter, we're attacking with
51:02
full, full force. I think that's going to be their
51:06
best chance if they can nick a goal in like the first like 25
51:11
minutes, I think that'll be really interesting to see.
51:14
I also think it's worth pointing out Brazil's goalkeeper Lorena
51:18
has looked hurt for three matches now.
51:22
She is laboring out there like, and I know you've you've done a
51:25
good job of talking about in the past episodes what a gutsy,
51:29
tough player she is like to be out there as a goalkeeper and
51:33
she's not afraid to put her body on the line.
51:35
And I know there is a difference between being injured and just
51:38
hurt. She looks injured and she is
51:41
really gutting it out. Absolutely gutting it out.
51:44
Absolute gamer and making huge saves, right?
51:48
Alexa strikes. These are like full, full
51:51
extension flying through the air.
51:53
You know, Lorena just gets just enough on that first one to
51:57
redirect it, to get it just to the woodwork to get it, just to
52:01
get a ricochet off back into the field of play.
52:03
I mean, she's making massive, massive stops.
52:06
Yeah, she's got the hot goalie, you know, kind of like, you
52:09
know, situation going on where it's just like, OK, wow.
52:11
We're not just not going to beat.
52:12
It's not going to be able to beat her with anything today.
52:15
And I think when you think about the USA side, that is where
52:17
things have gotten a little bit sticky.
52:20
Like you can go all the way back to the Australia match, the
52:23
Japan match. I, I think the, the first
52:25
Germany match was the, the last time we saw the offense really,
52:28
really humming through and through.
52:30
Since then it's been I think one goal, one goal, one goal, if I'm
52:34
not mistaken, Actually Australia, we had a couple and
52:37
they seem to be getting later and later.
52:39
So. Yeah.
52:39
You know, like you kind of wonder, did Emma Hayes out think
52:42
herself, you know, kind of like constructing this whole like,
52:45
how do we beat Strip Spain strategy?
52:46
And now we got to figure out a way to beat Brazil.
52:48
That is going to be really fascinating to watch.
52:52
And like I pointed out, so like in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup, that
52:57
final, Brazil had 55% of the ball.
53:00
That game was managed by Twyla Kilgore and Alex Morgan was
53:04
playing the 9. So we're talking about a
53:07
different set of circumstances. Brazil LED in shots 12:00 to
53:11
7:00, but USA LED in shots on target six to three.
53:15
USA had committed 15 fouls to Brazil, only committing 8.
53:18
So like the physicality was kind of leaning a different way
53:22
there. I think there are some things to
53:24
take from that final, but this is a completely different set of
53:29
circumstances. And we talk about Brazil looked
53:32
way faster than Spain. We talk about how leggy Spain
53:35
looked. USA has looked kind of gassed,
53:38
especially toward the end of some of these last two matches,
53:41
Japan and and Germany specifically in the knockout
53:44
stage. I don't think Brazil is not not
53:48
tired. Wait, did I do that right?
53:50
I think Brazil might be tired is what I'm trying to spit out
53:53
here. So I think both both squads are
53:57
there's battling exhaustion as well as battling each other on
54:01
there. And if it comes down to a battle
54:04
of whose defense is going to hold up, then I think the
54:08
advantage is USA. But it's one single game of
54:12
football. So it could come down to
54:14
something totally different than that.
54:15
Yeah, there's something telling me that this one is going to be
54:18
a one nil 21 type of Fair. Sure, Just because I think
54:23
United States definitely has the advantage defensively. the US
54:27
has more talent in the attack, but I kind of feel like Brazil
54:31
has done more with their chances in this tournament.
54:35
And now, you know, we talk about the legginess, we talk about the
54:37
fatigue. There's an extra day, you know,
54:40
so obviously like we're recording this Tuesday night,
54:42
matches went down Tuesday final is not going down until
54:45
Saturday. And now you have Marta, who is
54:49
super well rested, Yeah. Like, she's going to be
54:52
absolutely the most rested of of any player, I think, on the
54:54
pitch. And then when you rewind back to
54:56
that CONCACAF W Gold Cup, that one was played in San Diego.
55:01
So effectively a road game for Brazil, home game for the USA
55:05
and still very much in contest. I think what got us excited
55:09
about that Brazilian team, especially coming off last
55:11
summer's World Cup, I think like we've now seen them come to pass
55:14
in this tournament. Even the the telecast mentioned
55:17
it that this team snuck in as a three seed.
55:19
Yeah, they got in on gold differential and now they find
55:22
themselves in the gold medal. Like it's just a very cool
55:24
situation. It's fantastic.
55:26
What what a team. And I mean, you look at like
55:28
they're kind of midfield attacking players.
55:31
I thought Priscilla had some really good moments.
55:34
We've talked about Ludmilla, Angelina, you know what time it
55:37
is. Yaya has played really well.
55:39
Jennifer has had a couple good moments as well.
55:42
You know, she had the goal in the last match, if I, if I
55:45
remember correctly. You know me, I am one of the
55:47
world's foremost Jennifer appreciators.
55:50
Just Jennifer as a name as it goes.
55:52
Side note. But yeah, they can score.
55:54
They're tough, they're creative. This is what football's all
55:57
about. One game sample.
55:59
You know, you have a little bit of the surprise versus the
56:01
betting favorite. The little bit of a surprise
56:04
knocked off the Giants on their way here.
56:07
This is what we play for. You play for trophies, you play
56:09
for medals in this case. And we get to, we get to enjoy
56:12
it on the Saturday, maybe with a couple of Frosties as as we
56:15
watch, you know who's got it better than us.
56:19
Nobody. Last note, Cataline.
56:25
Come on now. Got a little extra rest saying
56:28
getting out a little Springer step, might have a couple NSL
56:32
MVP going heads up this Saturday.
56:34
That's gonna be pretty awesome. I mean, this Brazil team, I
56:37
think if you're a fan of the NWSL, a lot of these names are
56:40
going to stick out. Angelina to where the captains
56:43
are, man, for Brazil. I just keep thinking about the
56:46
the conversation we have with Julia where she was just like
56:48
obviously very guarded, still a little bit wounded from the
56:52
world from the World Cup last summer.
56:53
Julia Duff got to come back on the show.
56:55
We'll do a little bit of a vibe check, see what things are like
56:58
as it pertains to the Brazilian women's National Football team.
57:01
How about a score prediction? I know it's early and it's been
57:04
a long day. Hate to do it to you.
57:07
I went on record. I think this one's going to be
57:10
one nil, maybe 11 PK's, 21 type game.
57:13
This one's going to definitely be in contest very late.
57:15
Yeah, I'm going to do one nil USA, let's go.
57:20
I think the goal comes between the 60th and the 75th minute and
57:24
I think it's a Mallory Swanson goal.
57:26
Let's get let's get that. Let's get that in there.
57:29
I will say there was a moment and you mentioned it earlier,
57:31
and I'll do this like real quick.
57:32
When they took off LaBelle and put on Lynn Williams, I was
57:36
like, oh God, I love how aggressive that sub is because
57:39
it's not it's, it's sort of like for like like you were talking
57:42
about, but Labelle's a midfielder and Williams is a
57:44
forward. Now you we basically have 4
57:46
forwards out there and they did the thing that we have talked
57:50
about of like, OK, well, maybe you just drop Swanson or Smith
57:54
and play them in kind of like that number 10 ish role.
57:57
And I love Swanson there. I love Swanson there as much as
58:00
I love Smith in that role because they're both such genius
58:04
distributors in the middle of the park and things like that.
58:07
So I'm going to, I'm going to stake my claim on this is the
58:10
match where Swanson comes through again, gets the goal.
58:14
Maybe it's a 12 with Smith, something looking like that, but
58:17
we've called Mallory Swanson a one person offense.
58:19
She doesn't have to be in this scenario with all these great
58:22
players around her. So I'm going to place my take
58:25
chip on Mal Swanson to score the winner.
58:28
I like it. I like that goal scorer is
58:30
interesting. I think I'm going to guess that
58:32
we get like a non traditional goal scorer trying to think
58:36
about who would fit the bill there.
58:38
Maybe like a tear in a Davidson header or maybe like a Germa,
58:42
like just if Germa wanted to kind of solidify, solidify her,
58:46
her her best, best player on the team, but maybe sort of knocking
58:50
on the door, best player in the world kind of conversation.
58:52
A game winner here on like off like a set piece or some
58:55
something. A ball finds the ball finds its
58:58
way to her. The ball trickles out-of-the-box
59:00
like on on a set piece, and she's just like I'll have a go
59:03
and she just like upper 90s one. Could you?
59:05
Could you woso Twitter in America would meltdown?
59:09
Bloods and Crips will be in the street, just hugging it out,
59:12
just burying the hatchet. It's all love.
59:16
Awesome. All right man, anything else you
59:17
want to hit before? We get out here, I think that's
59:19
it. Once we've got to the Naomi
59:21
Gurma Saves America part of the show, I think, I think that's, I
59:25
think we've covered everything. No stone unturned here at the
59:27
ITC. All right, man, I think we did
59:29
it. There's been another episode
59:30
into the channel. Sincere thank you for watching,
59:32
listening, following, liking, subscribing, just plain hanging
59:34
out with your boys throughout this glorious, glorious
59:37
tournament. Remember to like if you liked
59:38
and subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
59:41
podcast or wherever you like to watch or listen.
59:44
Leave us a review over at your favorite podcast app.
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It's at least you can do. Actually, the least you can do
59:48
is nothing, but it would be a very nice gesture.
59:50
If you're able to do that for us.
59:51
We'd very much appreciate it. Links to all of our socials in
59:53
the show notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my Co
59:56
host as well, Mr. Grant Angle for what do you know, just a
1:00:01
couple of American Bros in the gold medal match.
1:00:05
We will be back Saturday to recap all of it.
1:00:07
Actually, we're going to be back tomorrow talking to our guy Vice
1:00:09
Peter Vice. The news get to get a little
1:00:12
temperature check on Germany, get a little preview for the
1:00:14
bronze medal match. So if you were holding out for
1:00:17
our thoughts on that, just give us another day or so.
1:00:20
We'll be back with the head of our Germany news desk, Mr. Peter
1:00:24
Vice check it in. But I appreciate you, man.
1:00:26
Great tournament so far. We're we're right there.
1:00:28
We're knocking on the door. Just one more match to go.
1:00:30
Couple more sleeps until it's medal time.
1:00:33
Yeah, I mean, you could say Peter is the tip of our Trident
1:00:38
when it comes to German football.
1:00:41
I don't know, maybe me and you just like, I don't know,
1:00:43
thinking about Ninja Turtles. Maybe we're nunchucks.
1:00:46
I don't know how like the two person nickname would go either
1:00:50
way. We appreciate all of you for for
1:00:52
watching the show for chiming in the comments are awesome and
1:00:56
YouTube. We very much appreciate you guys
1:00:58
know ball. Thank you for rocking with us as
1:01:00
people who are like constantly helping us, educating us,
1:01:03
keeping the conversation going and there's still plenty of
1:01:05
intrigue to go on in that bronze medal match.
1:01:07
Germany, Spain is going to be incredibly interesting.
1:01:10
We got one of the best in the the business.
1:01:11
Peter Vice joining us. So please check out that episode
1:01:14
and we will see you guys very soon.