Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / The Olympic semifinals are set: USWNT vs. Germany + Spain vs. Brazil

Transcript

The Olympic semifinals are set: USWNT vs. Germany + Spain vs. Brazil · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:03
  OK. Welcome to Into the Channel
• 0:07
  podcast primarily about women's football.
• 0:08
  Before we hit the pitch. If you enjoy the show or love
• 0:11
  women's football as much as your boys do, come kick it with us
• 0:14
  already. Subscribe, follow YouTube,
• 0:15
  Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
• 0:18
  Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
• 0:21
  Links to all of our socials in the show notes of this episode.
• 0:24
  I am your host Dino de Sespitas and as always I am joined by my
• 0:28
  Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
• 0:31
  I'm feeling fantastic, buddy. That was a full morning of
• 0:36
  football. Big day.
• 0:37
  That was pretty much that felt like a full work day of
• 0:40
  football. We put in real work today.
• 0:43
  I got to tell you it was it was non-stop, but your boys did
• 0:46
  pretty good. Go back, check the tapes.
• 0:49
  But I must say so myself. And that's obviously why you
• 0:52
  guys are watching to hear our prognostications and then grade
• 0:56
  them. So there you go.
• 0:57
  You're welcome. Absolutely.
• 1:00
  I like that. It's good energy.
• 1:02
  I don't want to spend too much time on it, but I do want to
• 1:04
  review really quickly everything that we got right.
• 1:06
  So top to bottom, Grant, my Co host mentioned if the USA is
• 1:10
  going to win, it's probably going to be an extra time.
• 1:12
  Bingo. Nailed it.
• 1:14
  Your boy said Colombia, A-Team built to play Spain tough.
• 1:18
  We're going to get into that soon as if I can go.
• 1:21
  I think we both agreed Brazil would upset France.
• 1:24
  Nailed it. We also talked about all the
• 1:26
  pressure, the weight of the world on those French shoulders.
• 1:28
  Nailed that. I think we had Germany, Canada
• 1:30
  as our most even matchup. That one played out I think
• 1:33
  yeah, I think we're four for four at this point.
• 1:35
  I'm sure there's a couple others in there.
• 1:37
  I didn't, you know, go back and read the entire transcript, but
• 1:39
  uh, I don't know. Suffice it to say we nailed it.
• 1:41
  We're flying high. We're going to talk about these
• 1:43
  quarterfinal matchups. We're going to preview the two
• 1:46
  big semi final matchups and try to get you ready for Tuesday's.
• 1:49
  Action. I like it.
• 1:50
  Let's do that. But before we do, before I
• 1:54
  forget, I'm back. I'm healthy, feeling much
• 1:56
  better, immune system, who's fighting back, much like a
• 2:01
  football squad that whose back was against the wall and is not
• 2:03
  France and can actually come through in pivotal moments.
• 2:07
  So I'm back, buddy. I'm gonna crack this celebratory
• 2:09
  beer for the football. Yes, I love it.
• 2:12
  Sounds great too, by the way, over there.
• 2:14
  Thank you, I appreciate it. Listened back to the past
• 2:17
  episode, did not sound great in the last episode but I
• 2:19
  appreciate you working with me. Yeah, you were wild then.
• 2:25
  I was buddy, I was fighting through and cheers to that.
• 2:29
  Cheers. All right, with that out of the
• 2:31
  way, where should we get started?
• 2:34
  United States of America one Japan nil.
• 2:38
  Let's go. Speaking of things we got right,
• 2:41
  let me toss the credit back over to you because you didn't
• 2:44
  mention this up top. I believe you said this feels
• 2:48
  like a 70 percent, 30% possession game.
• 2:51
  And according to our pals over at Foot Mob, 71% possession for
• 2:56
  the US of a 29% possession for Japan.
• 3:00
  You saw it coming. I think a lot of our audience
• 3:02
  saw it coming. But nevertheless, it it played
• 3:05
  out pretty close to how how we expected it, except I think the
• 3:09
  score line was probably a little surprising to some folks.
• 3:12
  Interesting quick follow up to that.
• 3:15
  Surprising you think people are expecting more goals or?
• 3:17
  I think so. I think with USA, if they're
• 3:21
  holding the ball for 70% of the match, I think you might expect
• 3:24
  two to to go in and maybe not extra time.
• 3:27
  I mean, obviously you and I are soothsayers and we we thought
• 3:30
  that it could go to extra time. I do think though, it was still
• 3:33
  in the back of my mind too, like we always look at the range of
• 3:36
  options here. I thought it was on the board
• 3:38
  that USA puts up to maybe they win 2 to one.
• 3:41
  I also thought it was very possible that Japan would would
• 3:43
  nick one in themselves on the counter.
• 3:45
  They've been so effective at that, so efficient at that.
• 3:47
  So for them to be pretty much completely locked down
• 3:51
  throughout, I would say that was unexpected too.
• 3:54
  Yeah, it's funny, I almost went with the 7129 as my possession
• 3:57
  prediction, but shield away from it last minute, even with the
• 4:00
  possession sort of disparity there.
• 4:02
  The total shots, 15 for the USA, 13 for Japan.
• 4:05
  So that was kind of in the ballpark.
• 4:07
  Neither team really shot the ball that well.
• 4:09
  We saw the defenses shine. We saw that pretty much across
• 4:12
  all four matchups with special emphasis on I think the
• 4:15
  goalkeeping was pretty out of this world this weekend.
• 4:18
  Only three shots on target for the US out of 15, only one out
• 4:21
  of 13 for Japan. I think part of that was just
• 4:24
  ineffectiveness, you know, being able to finish.
• 4:25
  But like I said, the other part of it was those back lines, I
• 4:28
  think really playing quite well, pressing, harassing at a very
• 4:31
  high level. Yeah, blocking shots, getting in
• 4:34
  the way, making things difficult.
• 4:36
  That's where you kind of got to start if you're looking at USA
• 4:39
  and how they're able to pull out the win.
• 4:41
  We've talked so much. I don't think you can talk
• 4:43
  enough about Crystal Dunn, but the combination on each end of
• 4:48
  the back 4, Crystal Dunn on the left, Emily Fox on the right,
• 4:51
  who we'll talk about more later. They're just in elite
• 4:54
  combination as a left back, right back pairing.
• 4:57
  And then you put Germa in the middle of those two and you just
• 5:00
  have one of the world's best defenses.
• 5:03
  Japan's attackers could not do shit with Dunn or Fox for the
• 5:08
  entire match. Yeah, total lockdown.
• 5:10
  I think I wrote in my notes that Germa looks like an All Pro free
• 5:13
  safety and Sonnet stepping in for Davidson looks like maybe
• 5:16
  like a Pro Bowl. Yeah, strong safety, right?
• 5:19
  Like, so she was up a little fire, but I think they they
• 5:22
  played pretty well off of each other.
• 5:24
  But so much of that is probably on the account of Naomi Gurma
• 5:27
  and just kind of like her special play.
• 5:29
  But yeah, like I think I totally agree with you.
• 5:30
  Crystal Dunn back there defensively, she had a couple
• 5:33
  huge stops, I think where she was just like the last line of
• 5:36
  defense on the angle that Japan had and she came through
• 5:40
  massive. I kind of found myself thinking
• 5:43
  about like Jenna Neiswa or like earlier in the match when I
• 5:46
  thought offensively, creatively, maybe missing a little bit of a
• 5:50
  spark. Yeah.
• 5:51
  You know, I think, you know, you just kind of close your eyes,
• 5:52
  you like nice longer running up the left hand side and firing
• 5:55
  across. I think they kind of really
• 5:57
  missed her attack. But hard to look at Crystal Dunn
• 5:59
  and be like, maybe we should have made a change.
• 6:01
  You know, like, I think Dunn was just awesome.
• 6:03
  Like best game of the tournament, I think by a pretty
• 6:05
  good margin. Yeah, I think that's fair to
• 6:07
  say. I think we'll we'll get into it
• 6:09
  when we talk about the semi final match up.
• 6:12
  I think there are some ways that you could that you could play
• 6:15
  nice longer and Dunn at the same time.
• 6:18
  And I wonder with the way this one played out if Emma Hayes is
• 6:23
  really gonna look at that. And so I think we we have to
• 6:26
  address it. I alluded to it up top.
• 6:28
  Emily Fox did leave the match like right near the death, like
• 6:32
  right around I think she left in the 120th minute with an
• 6:35
  apparent knee injury. Probably a lot of the US women's
• 6:39
  national team pals who watch who watch this program know that
• 6:43
  Emily Fox has two previous ACL injuries.
• 6:46
  So a lot of collective holding of breath.
• 6:49
  She looked very upset coming off the field, which usually is like
• 6:53
  a bad sign. We don't know anything yet.
• 6:56
  I've been kind of furiously looking around.
• 6:57
  I know everybody does immediately post game, even
• 7:00
  though it's very rare for for updates to come out like in the
• 7:03
  immediate aftermath of a match like this.
• 7:06
  I will say and again, I am not a doctor and nor is the person who
• 7:11
  I'm going to quote here, but there is a Twitter user who
• 7:15
  posted a video of how that injury occurred.
• 7:18
  That Twitter user goes by the name at Unbiased Arsenal, so you
• 7:23
  know, it's trustworthy. But joking aside, they grabbed a
• 7:26
  video of of what happened and it's basically Fox trying to
• 7:31
  make a play on the ball that was coming in for Rico Uecki.
• 7:34
  And it looks like, you know, she kind of kicks at it and then it
• 7:37
  looks like her leg almost like went too far up.
• 7:41
  And this user was throwing around like hyperextension while
• 7:44
  fully admitting they're not a doctor like at unbiased Arsenal.
• 7:47
  If you watch the show or if this comes across your desk, I'm not
• 7:49
  shitting on you here. I'm glad you posted the video
• 7:51
  because I was hoping when I Twitter searched Emily Fox
• 7:54
  injury, I was hoping somebody had done exactly what he did.
• 7:57
  So we shout out to you for posting the video.
• 7:59
  But like, you know, sports fans can become armchair doctors or
• 8:03
  whatever. I, I haven't seen ACL injuries
• 8:06
  look like that before. But again, we're all just kind
• 8:09
  of in the dark here and we just got to see what it is.
• 8:11
  But Needless to say, if she can't go, it's a massive,
• 8:15
  massive impact on the tournament as a whole and especially USA of
• 8:19
  course. Absolutely.
• 8:20
  And I think we'll we'll get to the goal.
• 8:22
  But, you know, Rodman and Fox, you know, obviously the
• 8:26
  chemistry there is pretty great. Great.
• 8:27
  That was the first person that Rodman runs to, you know, after
• 8:30
  she breaks the tie in this one and puts the US ahead.
• 8:33
  Yep. So, yeah, definitely be hoping
• 8:34
  for the best possible news for Emily Fox.
• 8:37
  Yeah. But I think we've seen the
• 8:39
  workload of this tournament really kind of catch up with
• 8:42
  these players, not just on the US side.
• 8:44
  I mean, I think pretty much every team has kind of felt
• 8:46
  this. So did a little thinking, you
• 8:48
  know, your boy likes to kind of like ID 8 brainstorm, you know,
• 8:52
  a little flare and focus trying to, you know, see all the chess
• 8:55
  pieces. I have a wacky idea for how to
• 8:57
  fix this tournament. Let's go.
• 8:58
  So instead of six matches in 17 days, or how about this, instead
• 9:02
  of three groups of four, why don't we just have four groups
• 9:04
  of three and then you just play two group matches and then
• 9:07
  whatever like that. We can still do a top eight.
• 9:10
  But if you take away one of those group stage matches, it's
• 9:12
  essentially an extra 2-3 days over the 17 day period.
• 9:16
  And I think that really releases a lot of the pressure and you
• 9:19
  lose almost nothing because you could just have, you could
• 9:22
  invite the same 12 teams, problem solved.
• 9:24
  Look at you professional problem solver.
• 9:26
  I don't see any holes in it. I don't know.
• 9:28
  I mean, I've, I've just heard the idea, but I think everybody
• 9:32
  will look at it and say, OK, if you can find a way to buy us a
• 9:35
  little more time in these. I mean, maybe like traditional
• 9:38
  footballing fans would be like groups of three.
• 9:41
  What are we doing? That's blasphemy.
• 9:42
  You're like, whatever. I was like, who cares?
• 9:44
  This is the, this is the Olympics.
• 9:45
  Like whatever. Seriously.
• 9:46
  Well wait till I get to my let's abolish added extra time idea.
• 9:51
  No, there we go. What are we, what are we solving
• 9:55
  in the in the, in the extra 30 that we didn't solve in the 90?
• 9:58
  The same two teams doing the same stuff?
• 10:00
  Or how about this? How about if we just do 15
• 10:02
  minutes of running around after the 90?
• 10:04
  It is kind of ridiculous to have, you know, these teams
• 10:07
  putting 120 plus and then you add like the 1516 minutes, it's
• 10:11
  a stoppage time. It's fucking ridiculous.
• 10:13
  Yeah, I would love to be part of the crusade for four years from
• 10:17
  now, part of the Advisory Board, you know, put me in the think
• 10:20
  tank because I just hate to see players going down.
• 10:23
  It kind of feels like we're not even really seeing the actual
• 10:25
  natural outcome. You can make the case that the
• 10:28
  intense, you know, workload of the Super quick turnarounds make
• 10:31
  it a little bit charming, but I don't want to see people get
• 10:33
  hurt. This is just not a part of it is
• 10:34
  like, I don't know, I'm not, I'm not really into this, this
• 10:37
  intense of a competition packed into such a.
• 10:40
  Small window? Yeah, that makes a ton of sense.
• 10:42
  Like the intensity of it packed into a small window.
• 10:46
  Oh, and by the way, smaller squads.
• 10:48
  Come on, guys. Like some of this stuff.
• 10:50
  Something has to give on a couple of these items.
• 10:53
  Totally agree with you on that. I do want to talk about the
• 10:57
  added extra time that I just bemoaned and the massive fucking
• 11:00
  goal that Trinity Rotten scores take me through.
• 11:02
  Kind of like what your added extra time experience was up
• 11:06
  through the goal. I mean, I thought it looked like
• 11:08
  more of the same in that first extra time period.
• 11:10
  It was USA dominating the ball. They were creating the lion
• 11:14
  share of the chances. I just never felt like at any
• 11:18
  point in the match, it never felt like Japan had like a big
• 11:21
  chance. Yuihasagawa is trying like
• 11:24
  everything she can to play players through and get the
• 11:27
  ball. The players out wide.
• 11:29
  I thought Japan's probably spent a little too much time playing
• 11:32
  out wide and then trying to serve in crosses.
• 11:34
  So many of those were just dead on arrival.
• 11:37
  They were not getting through. And then you had the other part
• 11:39
  that we've already touched down with Germa and Fox.
• 11:42
  There was one point where I can't remember which attacker it
• 11:44
  was, but they were just trying to go at Crystal Dunn for like
• 11:47
  the third time out of like 4 possessions.
• 11:50
  I was just like, okay, like if you just want to be on an island
• 11:53
  versus Crystal Dunn, then we'll take that every single
• 11:57
  opportunity that you would like to try because it's probably
• 11:59
  never going to work. And so I felt like that first
• 12:01
  period of extra time, it was just more the same, more the
• 12:04
  same. And Rodman, when she's able to
• 12:06
  just collect an absolute dime from Crystal Dunn, of course,
• 12:11
  and she cuts the ball in, it felt like she had made her mind
• 12:14
  up in a good way of like, OK, I'm having a go at this because
• 12:19
  we got to try to end this thing. And I mean, it's just an
• 12:22
  absolute laser from her. I can't remember on the on the
• 12:25
  parade of things that that we have got right.
• 12:27
  I can't remember if we gave her honorable mention for our player
• 12:31
  of the group stage. I don't think I mentioned her.
• 12:33
  But now she is quickly climbing. And in terms of the massive
• 12:36
  impact she has had in every match for the USA, she's looking
• 12:40
  like one of the best players in the tournament.
• 12:42
  Totally agree with that. She's a big defensive place to
• 12:45
  track. Huge much all the way back.
• 12:46
  Yep. And what I love about it, you
• 12:48
  know, we always talk about like kind of calibrating for kind of
• 12:50
  like putting shots on frame. She had a shot after a somewhat
• 12:54
  similar sequence minus the crystal Dun dime that she kind
• 12:58
  of blasted over the goal probably like 3 minutes earlier.
• 13:01
  So you kind of wonder like if she doesn't take that rip, you
• 13:04
  know, does she bury the one a few minutes later, you know, to
• 13:07
  kind of end the match? Pretty awesome.
• 13:09
  The last thing I'll mention, against Australia, against sort
• 13:12
  of a similar low block or maybe a similar commitment to defense,
• 13:16
  we'll say took the US almost 45 minutes to breakthrough against
• 13:19
  the Tillys in this one, obviously, you mentioned it, 105
• 13:23
  minutes +2 plus whatever stoppage time was before that to
• 13:27
  breakthrough Japan's defense. I think that's something that
• 13:29
  we're going to want to keep an eye on, especially as we preview
• 13:32
  USWNT entering the semis. Like, is this a formula for
• 13:36
  stopping them? Is there a counter to the
• 13:38
  counter? The book is definitely a little
• 13:40
  bit out on this US attack in terms of like maybe how to how
• 13:44
  to kind of keep them at Bay a little bit.
• 13:45
  But ultimately the dam does break in this one and USA gets a
• 13:49
  huge one. Yeah, it's interesting to think
• 13:50
  about. Like is it the book for stopping
• 13:53
  the USA or is it just your only option to try to keep those like
• 13:58
  Core 3 Bell Biv de Goal, of course, I'm speaking about are
• 14:01
  those three, those 3 attacking forwards, Is that your only way
• 14:04
  to hold them off for as much time as you possibly can and
• 14:07
  pray that that you can get counter?
• 14:09
  I think it'll be very interesting to see how Germany
• 14:13
  tries to employ that strategy, if they try that strategy at
• 14:16
  all. Absolutely.
• 14:16
  We'll get into that a little bit more as we preview the two
• 14:20
  semifinals matchups, but I do want to scoot ahead.
• 14:22
  We're going to keep this in chronological order.
• 14:24
  Next match up, Spain to Colombia to this one goes to penalty
• 14:28
  kicks. The world champions survive a
• 14:31
  pretty nervy 1, pretty nail bitey.
• 14:35
  I don't I don't want to rehash it, but your boy was kind of all
• 14:37
  over this one as well. What do you think?
• 14:40
  Spain. Colombia.
• 14:41
  Never a doubt I told you Spain would win.
• 14:44
  Ohh stop no yeah my God man. Spain dominated the ball but
• 14:50
  they were getting mashed on the counter.
• 14:52
  I had written in my in my notes. Dino deserves to take 7000
• 14:57
  victory laps on this one. I know there was at least one
• 15:01
  YouTube comment who found some humor in me pointing out like
• 15:05
  the only match we can ever point to is is the one Chelsea match
• 15:09
  in the in the semi final of the Champions league.
• 15:12
  But I mean, you were right, man. Like the key piece of that is
• 15:17
  Myra Ramirez is a bulldozer with a Lamborghini engine in it.
• 15:23
  And she is just unguardable for for those defenders.
• 15:27
  Like the way she just gets away, like almost like skips away from
• 15:31
  Paredes on on the goal where she just kind of plays one touch and
• 15:35
  then she's completely away from her.
• 15:37
  I was just like, you know, you don't see people do that to
• 15:41
  Paredes that that often. And she's just cool as you like
• 15:44
  with the finish. Right now she is building a
• 15:47
  resume of I'm the Barcelona Spain Kryptonite.
• 15:51
  I love that. I think that's right on the
• 15:53
  money too. She's just not guardable.
• 15:56
  She's strong. So if you want to go out her
• 15:58
  that way, she's gonna beat you. And that that just kind of like
• 16:01
  little dip of the shoulder, kind of like shuffle through the the
• 16:04
  defenders to kind of essentially get through untouched.
• 16:06
  It was like pretty wild grace. And then she's one on none
• 16:11
  versus got that guy. And I don't know who's the
• 16:14
  scare. I I kind of wrote this in my
• 16:15
  notes, but you're a keeper on a breakaway.
• 16:17
  Who do you want to see less? Maya Ramirez?
• 16:20
  Barbara Benda. It's a great question.
• 16:23
  I mean, depends on what side of the ocean you're on, I guess.
• 16:26
  But I don't know. I think I the fact that we're
• 16:30
  asking the question says enough with with Banda being the most
• 16:35
  informed striker in the world. But I think maybe Myra Ramirez
• 16:38
  would raise her hand and be like, you sure about that?
• 16:39
  You sure she's the most informed striker in the world?
• 16:42
  Because I'm standing right here. Yeah, she's such a beast.
• 16:44
  I also want to give her a shout out too, because she she there
• 16:47
  was a play where Leia Alexandria can't do anything except grab
• 16:51
  her jersey in plain sight of every single person in in the
• 16:55
  building and millions watching on on Peacock.
• 16:58
  And Myra Ramirez just stops the game.
• 16:59
  She's just like, what are we going to do about this?
• 17:03
  What's going to happen right now?
• 17:04
  What's going, what are we doing? What are we doing?
• 17:05
  Because I'm not playing football anymore.
• 17:07
  If they're like, it was just such a like a OG boss move to
• 17:10
  do. Like she was just like, Oh yeah.
• 17:12
  And you know, obviously the ref scoots over and pulls out the
• 17:14
  yellow card, which I'm not sure she was going to give, even
• 17:16
  though it was such an egregious jersey tug.
• 17:19
  But I just, I just love that I was like, I stayed on my guard
• 17:22
  though. I think in my notes specifically
• 17:25
  I wrote and obviously Columbia goes up two nil at that one
• 17:28
  point. Talk about that second goal
• 17:29
  later. But in my notes I wrote, if
• 17:31
  Barsa gets one, I think a pretty good bet that they're going to
• 17:34
  get two behind. Spoiler alert, that was that was
• 17:37
  just a few minutes away. I didn't exactly abandoned hope
• 17:40
  either, but it didn't make the second goal any less exciting.
• 17:43
  I mean, so you know, Lacey Santos, she ends up curling it
• 17:47
  in after Linda Kaiseto creates the chance, blasts it off the
• 17:50
  crossbar. I want to shout out announcer
• 17:53
  Mark Faliwell, who just out of nowhere after Santos scores the
• 17:57
  goal hits us with and I quote. And if you don't know, now you
• 18:01
  know Colombia is here to play and quote.
• 18:05
  Now it's just like, wait, why did we get a rant?
• 18:07
  We got a random notorious BIG quote out of this.
• 18:09
  That's fantastic. After quick Google follow.
• 18:12
  Well, does the play by play for the Dallas Mavericks?
• 18:14
  So the synergy between this podcast, women's football and
• 18:18
  the NBAI thought that matched up pretty nicely.
• 18:20
  But I like that. Yeah, I mean, Santos gets the
• 18:23
  goal and it's two NIL, but you can't count out Spain.
• 18:27
  I know that's like, I know that's a cliche, but the cavalry
• 18:30
  came in like right after that. That goal was scored.
• 18:34
  I think Santos scores in the 52nd and then Patri comes out
• 18:38
  for Abayera. And I honestly, I didn't really
• 18:41
  count that as the cavalry. I was a little more confused
• 18:44
  about that. But I don't know there.
• 18:45
  There's still something about it where I was like, OK, they still
• 18:48
  have 40 minutes, 40 plus minutes depending on what stoppage time
• 18:52
  was going to be. I didn't think they were dead,
• 18:54
  but I thought they were in huge trouble.
• 18:56
  I agree with that. And I thought when you said the
• 18:59
  cavalry, I thought you were going to mention when they bring
• 19:01
  on Hermoso and Alba Redondo maybe a few minutes later.
• 19:04
  And then just like, yeah, you're like, OK, this is getting
• 19:06
  interesting because he used some fresh legs here.
• 19:08
  And I think a little bit before that.
• 19:10
  I mean, you know, he talked about like sort of like the the
• 19:13
  grueling nature of this tournament.
• 19:14
  But Pavi, she's injured at around 45, can't make it to
• 19:18
  halftime. And then from there, it was just
• 19:20
  like a bevy of Columbia players just kind of getting struck
• 19:25
  down. Yeah.
• 19:25
  And you understand it because they were playing like maniacs.
• 19:31
  They were physical, they were pressing.
• 19:33
  They were just like they were treating Spain like it wasn't
• 19:37
  quite Billy Madison playing basketball against a bunch of
• 19:39
  third graders, but they were just bullying and like just
• 19:42
  being physical. We're like, we're not afraid of
• 19:44
  you and I and I loved how they were pressing like basically
• 19:47
  Spain's on one side of the field.
• 19:49
  They were overloading that side of the field.
• 19:51
  Yeah. If you have three, we're going
• 19:52
  to put four out there. If you have five, we're going to
• 19:54
  put seven out there. Like they never got caught in a
• 19:57
  bad one-on-one situation pretty much the whole match.
• 19:59
  And they? Knew when Spain switches fields,
• 20:03
  they had the athleticism to get across and they were committed
• 20:06
  to doing that. So it's like they could press on
• 20:08
  the left, they can press on the right.
• 20:09
  And they were just going to make Spain just kind of keep kicking
• 20:12
  it, you know, in a, in a perpendicular fashion, you know,
• 20:15
  just kind of keep keeping them pretty much at Bay.
• 20:17
  That press was devastating. But obviously a game like this
• 20:21
  goes into added extra time and, you know, the injuries and the
• 20:25
  fatigue starts to add up and ultimately they couldn't quite
• 20:30
  hold that that kind of magical lead that they were able to
• 20:32
  build. Well, so yeah, you mentioned, so
• 20:34
  Pavi goes has to be taken off at 45.
• 20:37
  Kaiseto has to be taken off at 66.
• 20:41
  So now we're down to absolutely outstanding key cogs of the
• 20:46
  attack. I will say you're right.
• 20:49
  The real moment where the cavalry came on for Spain is in
• 20:51
  the 65th minute. That was Hermoso and Redondo
• 20:55
  coming onto the pitch. And I will say Hermoso coming on
• 20:58
  for Poteas. Poteas not thrilled that she was
• 21:01
  coming out of the game. And I gotta say I don't totally
• 21:04
  blame her. I don't know if she might have
• 21:06
  like a long term like minutes restriction.
• 21:08
  I thought potatoes was playing fine.
• 21:10
  It's like winning time has been her time in this tournament,
• 21:14
  like the end of the matches. She's been the one coming up
• 21:16
  big. So I got to think that was
• 21:18
  probably part of her frustration with coming off.
• 21:20
  And, you know, Hermoso's a legend.
• 21:22
  I don't dispute that in any way. But I thought it was odd for her
• 21:25
  to come on instead of poteus. What do I know?
• 21:28
  Hermoso's the one who gets the opening goal, kind of sparks
• 21:30
  everything, kind of gets everything going in the right
• 21:33
  direction. And then once they did get that
• 21:36
  one, I think you're right. It's just like, oh, boy, OK, How
• 21:39
  how much pressure now we have these other great players for
• 21:43
  Columbia. They they've had to go off.
• 21:45
  Now it's one goal and their and their level.
• 21:48
  And then, you know, toward the end of the match, you got to
• 21:51
  ask. And, you know, maybe Santos and
• 21:54
  Ramirez were out of gas, but they both come off in the 86th
• 21:58
  minute. And it's like, I don't know,
• 22:00
  coach, you might have to play another.
• 22:02
  You might have to play another 30 minutes of ball here.
• 22:05
  Yeah, tough to second guess. I mean like.
• 22:07
  Yeah, of course. You kind of clarified this point
• 22:10
  for me months ago. I would say really, you know, we
• 22:12
  were talking about it. And like, this is kind of what
• 22:14
  we really start to, like, break down the game a little bit more
• 22:17
  seriously. I think you were lamenting,
• 22:18
  like, taking players off at like, 87th, 88th minute, 89th
• 22:21
  minute just to have them play 2 minutes.
• 22:23
  And then when you really start watching these games very
• 22:25
  closely, you start to see, wow, OK, this person can't even flex
• 22:29
  their leg, right? Like, you know, this, it's been
• 22:31
  so grueling. Sometimes you just don't have an
• 22:34
  option. Yeah.
• 22:34
  And I think there's a reason why when a player's injured early,
• 22:38
  it's a good 5-6 minutes before the decision gets made.
• 22:41
  OK, you cannot re enter the game, you know, like, yeah,
• 22:44
  we're going to have to, you know, use a sub here in this
• 22:46
  spot. Either way, though, tremendous
• 22:48
  effort from Columbia. And I want to give a quick shout
• 22:51
  out to the color commentator on Telemundo, who I mean, like for
• 22:56
  any Spanish speakers out there, I'll say I'm having a better
• 22:58
  time watching it on Peacock Universal that I am on on the
• 23:02
  regular American Peacock. I believe that.
• 23:04
  But the color comment commentator, she referred to
• 23:06
  Linda Caisedo as Talentosa, which loosely translates to
• 23:12
  overflowing or exploding with talent.
• 23:14
  You know, like just the talent is like, we don't even know what
• 23:17
  to do with it. I thought that was an excellent,
• 23:19
  an excellent description for a great player who played really,
• 23:22
  really well. She obviously set up the action
• 23:24
  like you mentioned for the second Lisa Santos goal.
• 23:27
  I just, I was so close to to kind of like nailing that
• 23:30
  prediction. Although I think where we landed
• 23:32
  was Columbia's the team to be able to push spade and one last
• 23:37
  player that we've talked a lot about, I think in the previous
• 23:39
  weeks here got that going in goal.
• 23:41
  Yeah, she has the monster monster stop just minutes before
• 23:46
  the first one. I mean the difference between 3
• 23:49
  nil and two one. It's over, Yeah.
• 23:51
  You know, it's like a totally different match and I think when
• 23:52
  you saw that goal and it's so funny because Ramirez went one
• 23:56
  on none against, got that going in the first half and then
• 23:59
  loosely kind of has a similar type scenario in the
• 24:02
  second-half. Got that where it comes up huge.
• 24:04
  And then I like that was I don't you know, I would love to say,
• 24:07
  you know, you knew something was coming.
• 24:08
  I didn't know something was coming, but I was like something
• 24:10
  could be coming here. No, that's totally fair.
• 24:13
  I mean, you know, I, I hate to sound so definitive, but what
• 24:16
  that chance, that chance for Ramirez?
• 24:19
  OK, I'm going to try to rack the brain here.
• 24:21
  I know. I realized it happened today,
• 24:22
  but the Panetta's goal happens at like 90 + 7.
• 24:26
  The Ramirez goal that that could have pushed it.
• 24:28
  What that happened? Like sometime in the Did that
• 24:30
  happen before Hermoso's goal? Yeah, it was before.
• 24:34
  Yeah, so I mean, even with 20 minutes left, Hermoso scores in
• 24:37
  the 79th with 10 minutes left, if you are down three nil, I
• 24:42
  think it's over at that point. Totally.
• 24:44
  So Ramirez, that one's going to stick with her.
• 24:47
  But you know, all credit to Katakoi for for sticking the
• 24:50
  boot out and cutting off the angle and getting out there.
• 24:53
  When you say if you think about the most feared players that you
• 24:57
  might be looking at 1V one, Ramirez is right up there on the
• 25:00
  shortest of short lists. Just outstanding work from Koi.
• 25:04
  Yeah, absolutely. On Spain's second goal, 90 + 7
• 25:08
  roughly. Yeah.
• 25:09
  I also wanted to mention this too.
• 25:10
  There was a lot of time wasting down the stretch from Colombia
• 25:14
  and obviously like they're gassed, you know, and I think
• 25:17
  like any, any sort of like little collision, they're
• 25:19
  they're using that as an opportunity to take 5,
• 25:21
  rehydrate, catch your breath, do what you can't.
• 25:24
  I think ultimately those multiple breaks, I think there
• 25:27
  was like two or three kind of like multi minute breaks down
• 25:30
  the stretch. I think those actually helped
• 25:31
  Spain. Yeah, kind of like game plan a
• 25:33
  little bit because it felt like it's almost like a Eric's
• 25:37
  bolster coming out of a timeout, you know, like there's you got
• 25:39
  to know there's something something, yeah, real clean
• 25:42
  drawn up for that. I thought they were ready.
• 25:44
  And then the last super savvy champion thing I saw right at
• 25:48
  the death, right before PK's cross comes in on a battier,
• 25:52
  runs just full Sprint at Columbia Hupertapia and then
• 25:56
  just shoulder right to the sternum, like knocks her ear
• 26:00
  out. I, I challenge anybody to kind
• 26:01
  of go back and watch this as Onabati is jogging away from the
• 26:05
  play because she knew what she did.
• 26:06
  Oh yeah. She cannot hold down the, the,
• 26:08
  the sly smile underneath. She's like trying like her
• 26:12
  absolute hardest to just stone face just, you know, but she's
• 26:16
  like just like just battling like, yeah, I know, I got her.
• 26:21
  And then obviously you go to PK's and Spain takes care of
• 26:24
  business from there. That's amazing.
• 26:25
  Yeah. I mean, they're they're just
• 26:27
  full of crafty veterans and even their younger players play like
• 26:31
  smart veterans. It's a team full of geniuses.
• 26:34
  It's a team full of Uber talented players.
• 26:36
  I think we would be remiss we talked a little bit about Selma
• 26:40
  better you a lo, how she has been a little bit invisible in
• 26:43
  some of the group stage matches. Two assists on the day to kind
• 26:47
  of bring them back. Absolutely buries her penalty.
• 26:50
  Never a single doubt on her penalty kick either.
• 26:53
  She felt like a massive influence on this one.
• 26:57
  And I know we've talked about like I've always said, like just
• 26:59
  player at the nine, she can do it.
• 27:01
  Just let her get some reps and let her do it.
• 27:03
  She was really effective floating out into the wing to
• 27:06
  kind of help create both of those goals.
• 27:07
  So I'm still, I remain optimistic.
• 27:11
  You're the OG owner of the better UA low stock.
• 27:15
  I, I immediately tried to run to it after you, after you had
• 27:19
  educated me on it. I think there's still something
• 27:21
  that could be done with her kind of filling that 9:00-ish type
• 27:24
  role. But out on the wing, she really
• 27:26
  figured something out today where she was able to to put her
• 27:29
  teammates in position to score. And I think that could have been
• 27:31
  a function of, you know, moving some of the pieces around
• 27:34
  because I think you probably put, you know, Redondo and
• 27:36
  Hermosa in like a more advanced central position than Patiuello.
• 27:39
  And then I think you give Pariola like chance to run and
• 27:42
  use her speed and on that, on the second one where she puts
• 27:45
  the cross in that Paret is another just fucking OG.
• 27:50
  What a great player on your team.
• 27:52
  She smashes at home. Salma was like in and out and
• 27:55
  darting. She was like, that was kind of
• 27:56
  like a I'm not going to be denied kind of run.
• 27:59
  Like I'm going to find a way, whether it's inside, outside or,
• 28:03
  you know, some combination of the two or flip it, reverse it,
• 28:05
  whatever you want to do. I'm finding a way and I'm going
• 28:07
  to put this cross in and credit to her excellent cross parade
• 28:10
  smashes at home and the thing that we were afraid of happening
• 28:14
  swoops in in full effect. And then I think ultimately at
• 28:16
  that point you knew, okay, now it's just a matter of time.
• 28:20
  You know the Spain did the hard part right?
• 28:22
  Yeah, that. That's how it goes.
• 28:23
  Desperate champion down to the wire.
• 28:26
  Need to get it done. Once the equalizer hits, it's
• 28:29
  like OK one way or another. And you know, with all of with
• 28:32
  the vast majority of Columbia stars out, there's really only
• 28:35
  one way that was going to go. Yep.
• 28:37
  Shout out to Columbia though. Yeah, great.
• 28:39
  Another great run for them I think.
• 28:41
  I continue to think this is like one of the next teams just right
• 28:44
  on the precipice of being like upper upper echelon.
• 28:47
  Myra Ramirez, 25 years old, Pavi, 23 years old Kai Sato, 19
• 28:52
  years old. Now Lacey Santos is 28.
• 28:55
  Restrepo is 28. That's a good young core kind of
• 28:59
  entering. I mean Kai Sato, you could even
• 29:01
  make an argument. She's not even really near her
• 29:03
  prime yet and she's already awesome.
• 29:06
  So with Santos and Restrepo, you know, they can kind of help kind
• 29:10
  of usher in these other players as Ramirez as Pave enter their
• 29:14
  absolute prime, as Kai Sato enters more of her pre prime, I
• 29:18
  guess we'll call it. That's that's a a pretty good
• 29:20
  set of players to build around. Absolutely.
• 29:23
  Yeah. I was just looking up a Daniela
• 29:24
  Adios, who had a monster game, too.
• 29:26
  She's 29. Yeah, excellent player.
• 29:29
  She was just a brick wall back there.
• 29:31
  Really set the tone defensively. Let's shift gears though.
• 29:34
  Want to talk a little? Canada, Germany, nil, nil here.
• 29:36
  This would go to penalties as well.
• 29:38
  The Germans prevail. What are you going to take away
• 29:40
  from this big matchup? You know, a herculean effort
• 29:43
  from Canada after everything that they had kind of been
• 29:45
  through. I know you and I thought that
• 29:47
  they would probably squeak through this.
• 29:49
  I, I think we knew it was going to be an even matchup.
• 29:51
  I think we knew it was going to be tight.
• 29:53
  I think in our show bracket, we ultimately picked Canada just
• 29:56
  like in Spain, Colombia. When you say you like got your
• 29:58
  prediction almost right, like I think you got your prediction.
• 30:03
  You should give your yourself full credit because 22 go to
• 30:06
  penalties. It's a coin flip at that point.
• 30:09
  And I think that's what happened with Canada, Germany, Canada,
• 30:12
  they had less possession, but they had more shots.
• 30:15
  They looked a little more threatening, but I don't know,
• 30:19
  this is probably boring analysis.
• 30:20
  They looked a little more threatening, but not that much
• 30:23
  more threatening. It looked leggy.
• 30:25
  It looked a little tired. To your earlier point, about
• 30:28
  like kind of the grueling nature of this tournament and neither
• 30:32
  team's able to punch it in. You have two absolutely
• 30:35
  outstanding goalkeepers out there and you got you end up
• 30:38
  having to settle the thing over penalties.
• 30:40
  Yeah, kind of a fitting end to how this one was going to go.
• 30:44
  Last week on the pod. I mentioned a couple things.
• 30:46
  You know, one, what would those attacking players for Germany
• 30:48
  look like? And then I think two, more
• 30:50
  importantly, what was the tone going to be like?
• 30:52
  Like were we going to see Canada like really imposing their
• 30:55
  physical will on this match? Yeah, I think Germany was up for
• 30:58
  it. I think they kind of dominated
• 30:59
  the 1st 15 minutes. That's true.
• 31:01
  Canada gets cooking, you know, Guy, they start getting, they're
• 31:04
  not quite cooking, but they preheating, you know, from
• 31:06
  around the 20 to 30 minute mark, they start to warm up just a
• 31:09
  little bit. But yeah, I don't think the
• 31:11
  chances were there. I didn't really like the Canada
• 31:14
  lineup to be honest, so not totally sure how I felt about no
• 31:17
  VNS, no Leone, Nola Cass for the 1st 56 minutes of the match.
• 31:23
  Maybe the idea was to bring on kind of like a bit of an
• 31:25
  onslaught of fresh legs, like right at the same time and like,
• 31:27
  you know, like a shift change. Very Canadian hockey style.
• 31:31
  But it's to me, it's just too many minutes without your best
• 31:35
  offensive threats. Yeah, maybe kind of kind of out
• 31:38
  thought themselves. But the flip side is I think,
• 31:41
  you know, fatigue is real. This is a team that like we
• 31:44
  mentioned at the top, this is their fourth straight must win
• 31:46
  game that they're engaging in and it just gets a little a
• 31:50
  little exhausting. So I think your point about kind
• 31:52
  of looking a little leggy pretty much right on the money.
• 31:55
  Yeah. And.
• 31:56
  Losing Jesse Fleming for 1/2 of the match, you know, with the
• 32:00
  head injury, really hope she's all right.
• 32:02
  Head injuries, obviously a very scary thing that's pretty
• 32:05
  devastating. We've talked a lot about Jesse
• 32:06
  Fleming. She was critical throughout the
• 32:09
  the entire group stage. So to to lose her and you know
• 32:13
  she's the type of player who can give you 90, she can give you
• 32:15
  120 if you need it. So to lose her for the half that
• 32:18
  is pretty devastating. I think you make a really good
• 32:20
  point about the the Subs coming on Chloe Lacasse, she had
• 32:25
  herself a football game coming out there and after the 57th
• 32:28
  minute she immediately looked good and kind of changed the
• 32:32
  temperature for Canada going forward.
• 32:34
  So I think you raise a really good point.
• 32:35
  Might have been nicer to have her out there for the full 90.
• 32:39
  Yeah, totally keepers though in this one.
• 32:41
  I think those they're they're both the story.
• 32:43
  Caitlyn Sheridan, she was, she was on point, didn't quite reach
• 32:46
  the upper stratosphere the way and Katrin Berger did on the
• 32:49
  Germany side. So Berger faced five shots on
• 32:52
  target, Sheridan only one. She wasn't the same type of
• 32:55
  challenged that Berger was. And then obviously that goes to
• 32:58
  PK's and we get a couple, couple more memorable goalkeeper
• 33:02
  moments, I'd say. Yeah, I mean, Berger just
• 33:05
  reading the the penalty takers excellently, I was really
• 33:08
  bummed. I mean, obviously I think we've
• 33:10
  made it well known on this podcast.
• 33:12
  This is a very pro Ashley Lawrence show.
• 33:16
  Not a good hit from her on her effort.
• 33:19
  I mean, you know her quality, so you know she's capable of a
• 33:22
  much, much better penalty than that.
• 33:25
  But still, you always have to credit the keeper.
• 33:26
  Berger was able to save it. You know, she did the thing.
• 33:30
  She saved a couple and then she blasted one home for the win.
• 33:33
  Hmm. And she, she was classy about it
• 33:35
  too 'cause she almost kind of like, you know, kind of emoted
• 33:38
  at Caitlin Sheridan and then like, kind of quickly pivoted
• 33:41
  away towards, just sort towards, towards the crowd.
• 33:43
  She kind of wanted she kind of wanted to, but yeah, savvy vet
• 33:47
  move there from burger. But yeah, total sports movie
• 33:50
  shit. I'd love to see the USA prevail
• 33:53
  in the semis when they take on this Germany side.
• 33:55
  But I will say I'm not not rooting for USA, Germany going
• 33:59
  to PK's, get a little on Cochran Burger, Alyssa Nair because you
• 34:03
  know you're going to get the the cross goalkeeper.
• 34:05
  Kicking at each other, that's true, yeah.
• 34:07
  That way, the way we could get some some legitimate hardcore
• 34:10
  barking if if if that's how that match ends.
• 34:14
  I love it. Yeah.
• 34:15
  I mean, they're kind of similar in a way, right?
• 34:18
  Like a little stoic, not the most emotional, but then you'll
• 34:21
  see they'll have kind of have like, those explosions a little
• 34:23
  bit. I like this.
• 34:24
  I like this as a comp on Katrin Burger, German Alyssenaire, or
• 34:28
  maybe Alysenaire American on Katrin Burger.
• 34:30
  Who know? Depending on your perspective I
• 34:32
  guess. I like it.
• 34:34
  Let's hit the fourth match up and then we're going to circle
• 34:36
  back to some of these previews. France nil.
• 34:39
  Brazil won, boys. We're on this one too.
• 34:43
  If I could go. All over it.
• 34:46
  What'd you see in this one? You know, I think when we had
• 34:49
  our questions about France maybe being a little unserious, they
• 34:54
  didn't go full on Sirius in this one.
• 34:57
  I thought it required a gutsy performance by Brazil.
• 35:01
  And I think, you know, as you, as you've alluded to it kind of
• 35:04
  it kind of played out similarly to the way we thought.
• 35:07
  But I still hoped nothing against Brazil.
• 35:10
  It's not like I was rooting against Brazil.
• 35:11
  I just I thought maybe France will just prove us wrong because
• 35:15
  of all the great players on their team sheet, all the great
• 35:18
  players they put on the field and they just don't do it, man.
• 35:21
  Underwhelming in the World Cup and now underwhelming in this
• 35:24
  term, underwhelming in the UEFA Nations League final against
• 35:28
  Spain. And I understand Spain is hard
• 35:29
  to beat but like at some point the results are going to have to
• 35:33
  marry up to the way your roster looks and France just is not
• 35:39
  doing that in these past couple years.
• 35:41
  Yeah, I'm going to take it up a notch.
• 35:44
  I think this whole French program we're at like almost
• 35:47
  like tear it down and restart it, you know, kind of territory
• 35:50
  where it's so funny because exactly what you said is exactly
• 35:54
  what I also felt especially kind of like listening back to some
• 35:57
  of the episode last week before today's games.
• 35:59
  I'm like, ah, but still France though, and they're at home.
• 36:02
  Like we were like really shitting on them left.
• 36:05
  We're pretty, we're pretty ruthless with it.
• 36:07
  But I mean, it was true. Like they barely get past New
• 36:10
  Zealand and it's like, OK, is this Brazil side going to be any
• 36:13
  easier? And I think we've just seen
• 36:15
  them, you know, kind of like mentally implode a little bit,
• 36:18
  you know, not be able to put a solid game plan together, not be
• 36:22
  able to like utilize their weapons.
• 36:24
  It's, it's hard to understand like how this many good players,
• 36:27
  it's not like they have like 5 good players.
• 36:28
  Like they have like great, all good players and they're, and
• 36:31
  everybody, their bench is good. It's like they have really good
• 36:34
  players to the bottom. There's just something about,
• 36:36
  you know, when things don't go their way early.
• 36:38
  They had like a little bit of a misstep early here with the
• 36:40
  penalty kick. They obviously give up the goal
• 36:42
  later, but as soon as Brazil goes up one nil, it's almost
• 36:45
  like you also knew in this one this is over.
• 36:48
  Like this France, this France team is not coming back.
• 36:51
  Like it's just not. It's not going to happen for
• 36:53
  them. Yeah, I'll say, you know, 83rd
• 36:55
  minute, the Gabby Portillo goal where there's a clear
• 36:59
  miscommunication between defenders.
• 37:02
  Portillo kind of walks in one V1 with the keeper and buries it.
• 37:05
  I will say this, I knew there was going to be a decent amount
• 37:09
  of stoppage time. I did not think there was going
• 37:11
  to be 16 minutes of stoppage time.
• 37:14
  It's just like, what are we doing with that?
• 37:17
  Let's get let's go with the Dino rules here.
• 37:20
  But even then, like I assumed I was like, what?
• 37:22
  They'll probably give them like 7 or 8 minutes of stoppage time.
• 37:24
  But even then, I thought the goal on the 83rd, I thought it
• 37:26
  was over to your point, like you just didn't see France picking
• 37:30
  themselves up off the mat. Yeah, and now this is two
• 37:32
  straight tournaments, big tournaments, where they go out
• 37:36
  not scoring a goal. They didn't score against
• 37:38
  Australia, they go out in this one not scoring against Brazil.
• 37:41
  All that firepower. Tough to kind of understand, But
• 37:44
  I keep thinking too about something that a Seal said when
• 37:47
  she joined us on the show probably could use the Bell
• 37:49
  Madri at some point, you know, during these these four matches
• 37:53
  just for a little extra magic. I think we've seen that with
• 37:56
  Spain. I'm going to rewind back to
• 37:57
  Spain here for just a second Yeah.
• 37:59
  The forwards aren't getting it done.
• 38:00
  So I was kind of positing. OK, it's got to be probably like
• 38:03
  Haitana or Alexia or Battery or, you know, Ona or Olga, you know,
• 38:08
  something something that's a little bit different than you
• 38:10
  know, just to kind of like the straightforward OK, our three
• 38:12
  forwards are going to clean things up at the end here and
• 38:15
  France a little bit similar when things are not working, you kind
• 38:18
  of keep going back to that same. Well, OK, you know DNE Katoto,
• 38:21
  like, you know, Cascarino, she's got you know, like, right, this
• 38:23
  is not working. That's where a Majori can kind
• 38:26
  of like create a little bit of magic, even with her passing or
• 38:28
  her runs or just her striking from distance.
• 38:31
  She just kind of gives you an extra thing to think about
• 38:33
  without a player like that. Like, you know, we talked about
• 38:36
  this too with a seal, like when you know what's coming, a lot
• 38:38
  easier to defend a. 100% and I'll boldly say this might be
• 38:42
  the most pro Sakina car shall we?
• 38:45
  Women's football podcast hosted by two Bros in the entire world.
• 38:49
  Cosine. We couldn't be more pro car,
• 38:51
  shall we? And they were very clearly, they
• 38:54
  moved her up into a more forward type position and all throughout
• 38:58
  a lot of this game, I know that's part of her game, but
• 39:01
  they very clearly wanted to get her a little more involved in
• 39:04
  that part of the offense. And I think it's because they
• 39:06
  didn't have that with a player like Marjorie, what they didn't
• 39:09
  bring Kenza Dali on until like the 90th minute or something
• 39:12
  like that without that extra layer.
• 39:15
  I think you're spot on, man. Like you have to change.
• 39:19
  I'll use a baseball reference here.
• 39:21
  Like you have to change the eye level of the hitter when you're
• 39:24
  pitching to them. Like you got to change speed.
• 39:26
  You got to have something else that they have to consider.
• 39:29
  And they they just like, they never have that.
• 39:32
  And it's just like we've talked a lot about the aimless passing.
• 39:35
  It's it's just like people should be more afraid of this
• 39:39
  team. They should be more threatening.
• 39:41
  Yeah. And it just never looks like
• 39:42
  that. I'm gonna ask you one more quick
• 39:44
  thing. You think about Japan, You think
• 39:46
  about USA, Spain, Colombia, Brazil, these teams have a
• 39:51
  style, they have a DNA, they have like a persona, They have a
• 39:54
  way that they play. France doesn't really have a boy
• 39:57
  that they play, just a bunch of fucking good players running
• 40:00
  around like it's almost like a training session.
• 40:02
  But you think about all, even Australia, even Australia has
• 40:04
  got its style to how they play. Yeah, France there, there's no
• 40:08
  discernible way that they play. And when you don't have a style,
• 40:13
  you don't have a thing that you can go to.
• 40:14
  Yeah, that's just like, OK, this is this thing kind of like
• 40:16
  releases a lot of the pressure cools down.
• 40:19
  The situation that we're in, we know what we can do.
• 40:21
  Let's just do the thing that we're really excellent at They
• 40:24
  have excellent players, but they're not really excellent at
• 40:26
  any kind of like one part of the game that they can kind of go to
• 40:30
  when things get really tight. They just kind of keep doing the
• 40:32
  same thing. Good player, knock it to the
• 40:33
  other good player and like, all right, let's try this now let's
• 40:36
  try that now and then obviously set pieces.
• 40:38
  They weren't creating a ton of chances there.
• 40:39
  That's usually something that is helpful to them.
• 40:42
  Yep, but I think to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if the
• 40:46
  post Irv a Renar era, you know, kind of represents a little bit
• 40:49
  of turning point for this team. Yeah, I think they might just be
• 40:52
  fucking done with. There's like, get this guy out
• 40:53
  of here. Like it's just like, let's let's
• 40:55
  get to the next thing already because this is just not.
• 40:57
  Working. I wouldn't blame them if they
• 40:59
  do. I think you're spot on.
• 41:00
  I don't think they have a real identity.
• 41:02
  And I know like sports talkers love to say that, but like, what
• 41:05
  would somebody tell us it is when you bring on DNA?
• 41:08
  Is it her serving in crosses? We talked about it with a seal.
• 41:11
  Cascarino was made to be a player on the right wing, but
• 41:14
  Diani has been taking that space.
• 41:16
  But in this tournament they're like, OK, no, no, Cascarino, you
• 41:18
  go out and play on the right wing and then we'll bring on DNE
• 41:21
  later in the match. It's like, OK, well, now we get
• 41:23
  our solution is fewer DNE minutes.
• 41:26
  I guess. Like I love Cascarino.
• 41:28
  She's she's a super talent. And from our Champions League
• 41:31
  shows, we established ourselves. We like Sandy Baltimore a lot.
• 41:35
  Rough one. Rough one for her out here, man.
• 41:38
  To put her out here on an island on the left hand side.
• 41:41
  This was just a tough one for her.
• 41:42
  Let me just double check. I mean, she's 24 years old, so
• 41:46
  she has some growing to do. And we know, we know about her
• 41:49
  smarts. We know about her athleticism.
• 41:51
  I'm sure she'll be fine. But this was this was a tricky
• 41:54
  tournament for her, it felt like.
• 41:55
  Yeah, not just her. I mean, I think a lot of great
• 41:58
  players didn't do. I mean, I don't think that we
• 42:00
  didn't get a single DNE or Cascarino goal.
• 42:03
  I don't think so. If I'm not mistaken, I don't
• 42:05
  know that we got a Boscha assist.
• 42:07
  No Boscha assist, no Cascarino goal.
• 42:10
  I can confirm those off rip. And DNE.
• 42:13
  Yeah, no DNE. Yeah.
• 42:14
  Their scores were five Marie Antoinette Katono goals and one
• 42:18
  Kenza Dali goal. Wow.
• 42:20
  Well, we bid France adieu. They don't have to go very far.
• 42:24
  They're already home. That's true.
• 42:26
  OK, no sad, no sad flights. That's that's a plus or a VOI.
• 42:31
  Hop on the tube and, and off you go.
• 42:34
  And Congrats to Brazil. We also predicted this one.
• 42:36
  We had a, we had Brazil in our semifinals.
• 42:39
  And Speaking of the semifinals, let's get into it.
• 42:41
  Where do you want to get started?
• 42:42
  We've got two options. USA, Germany, Spain, Brazil.
• 42:45
  Both of these matchups represent a group stage rematch.
• 42:49
  We can dip into some old stats and see if we pick up some
• 42:51
  insights from there. But which of these two you want
• 42:54
  to get started with? Well, I think there's only one
• 42:56
  reasonable place for us to get started, and that would be the
• 42:58
  United States of America versus Germany once again.
• 43:03
  Let's go. So obviously these teams locked
• 43:06
  up, I think maybe roughly a week ago, a little bit more than a
• 43:08
  week ago. Who knows, who could tell.
• 43:11
  The stat that had the most disparity was I think the score
• 43:13
  line. So obviously USA 4, Germany one
• 43:16
  possession, pretty much in the same ballpark shots on target,
• 43:19
  seven to six for the USA, total shots.
• 43:21
  Germany actually outshot the USA 12:00 to 10:00.
• 43:24
  So I think it was a little bit closer than we thought.
• 43:27
  I think you had mentioned too that there was that mad scramble
• 43:30
  again, Trinity Rodman for the, I don't know, 15 or 18th time
• 43:34
  getting a mention on this weeks episode.
• 43:36
  She makes the big stop, but that could have been that.
• 43:39
  I think that sloppish goal opportunity could have made it
• 43:42
  3-2. Totally different ball game.
• 43:45
  What do you think we might be able to take away from that
• 43:47
  first matchup that could be instructive with regard to how
• 43:51
  this semi final match up might go?
• 43:53
  That's a great question. I think if you are the USA, you
• 43:58
  might look at those possession numbers and say, OK, we held the
• 44:02
  ball 53 to 47 and we won 4:00 to 1:00.
• 44:06
  What if we hold the ball 59% of this match?
• 44:09
  What if our midfield? What if we ratchet up the
• 44:12
  midfield play and the possession?
• 44:14
  What if we're a little more strategic with our passing?
• 44:17
  What if we are a little more careful with the with the times
• 44:21
  we pick when we want to go forward?
• 44:23
  Can this be a three nil match? Can this be A2 nil match where
• 44:26
  it's never really in doubt? I will be very, very interested.
• 44:30
  Obviously we've already talked about the Fox injury is going to
• 44:34
  be absolutely massive. If she is out, then I think the
• 44:39
  maybe the only logical and you can correct me if I'm just going
• 44:41
  overboard on that. I would think the the most
• 44:43
  logical at the very least solution would be Casey Krueger
• 44:47
  at right back. But I have seen smart people on
• 44:49
  the Internet who do exist, you and I included, who posited the
• 44:53
  idea. What if you play nice Swunger at
• 44:56
  left back and then you move Crystal Dunn into the midfield
• 44:59
  and you have some kind of combination of Dunn and Lavelle,
• 45:04
  maybe Iran in that midfield to just kind of hold the ball, be
• 45:10
  able to come back on defense and then play it forward.
• 45:12
  I think this is a long answer to your short question.
• 45:15
  Can can we dominate the midfield a little more and frustrate
• 45:18
  Germany on our way to beating them?
• 45:21
  It's an interesting thought. I just don't feel like the US
• 45:25
  roster, obviously we get like, you know, Corbin Abbott gets to
• 45:27
  start today. Haran, I think was pretty good
• 45:29
  today. You know, Rose putting in
• 45:31
  minutes, putting pressure on defenses.
• 45:33
  I think that's that's been great, but hasn't quite been
• 45:35
  able to kind of like make make all the connections I think
• 45:38
  she's capable of making. So I don't think the midfield is
• 45:42
  where the US is going to make their money in this game.
• 45:45
  And actually I want to switch over to the German side because
• 45:48
  we saw today Germany start pretty fast against Canada, you
• 45:52
  know, and you're like, oh, wow, OK.
• 45:53
  Like it's going to they're going to look like this like Schuler
• 45:56
  Cloud Bull, like this is just going to be what we're in for
• 45:59
  for 90 plus. OK.
• 46:00
  And I had talked last week about, oh, let's see who comes
• 46:03
  out more intense, like what the vibes are like early.
• 46:05
  Like in my mind, I thought Kennedy was going to be a little
• 46:07
  bit grittier, but I think in reality, Canada was maybe a
• 46:10
  little leggier to your point. I think that was that's that's
• 46:12
  kind of right on the money. But what I will say is I feel
• 46:15
  like the Canada defence was able to figure out the German attack
• 46:19
  with pretty good success. By the the second-half of the
• 46:22
  first half, 30-40 minute mark, you kind of got the feeling that
• 46:26
  Germany was a little bit possibly out of ideas.
• 46:29
  So I, I actually would like the US to probably be a little bit
• 46:34
  more comfortable defending, if that makes sense, because that
• 46:40
  gives them the ability to run up lanes.
• 46:43
  Because I think we saw it today too versus Japan.
• 46:46
  You know, Japan was like in a 541 basically Rodman and Smith
• 46:51
  and Swanson and, you know, Lavelle and Horan trying to
• 46:54
  like, really, there are no lanes, right?
• 46:57
  Because like, yeah, Japan's already pretty much set.
• 46:59
  Japan wants to get out and run. And I think Germany, if you kind
• 47:02
  of like draw them out a little bit, you know, you're always,
• 47:04
  you know, comparing women's football to college football.
• 47:06
  I love comparing women's football to boxing.
• 47:08
  So, you know, when you're a counter puncher, you kind of
• 47:11
  want your opponent to come up and kind of like try to swing
• 47:14
  and try to, you know, push the action because that creates
• 47:16
  opportunities for you. And I think this USA team, the
• 47:19
  possession, it's great that they're possessing the ball.
• 47:22
  It's great that they're connecting passes, but it's not
• 47:24
  really bearing a ton of fruit. I'll say.
• 47:27
  It's not like we're able to kind of like possess and chill, you
• 47:29
  know, and like really grind teams down through that
• 47:32
  possession and wear them out. Like we're just kind of
• 47:35
  possessing and then trying to like do our fast strike offense
• 47:38
  thing and like they're already ready for that.
• 47:40
  They're set for it. So I think if you embrace, I
• 47:43
  think defending a little bit more, open up the field, give
• 47:45
  yourself some space and then just say we're going to catch
• 47:49
  and run and go. Could be a little bit of a
• 47:51
  better recipe and I think I still continue to hold that.
• 47:54
  I do believe that MA is is kind of like keeping that tactical
• 47:58
  approach sort of in the chamber maybe for a Spain matchup.
• 48:01
  Man, I like that a lot. Obviously multiple ways to win a
• 48:05
  football match. And I know we talked about this
• 48:08
  concept last week where it was like, OK, was Japan, were they
• 48:12
  looking at like some of their over the top passes or some of
• 48:15
  their entries into into the attacking third?
• 48:17
  Were they looking at that as a way to kind of practice when
• 48:21
  they're going to go up against the US?
• 48:23
  If you're going to employ that style that you're talking about,
• 48:26
  this would be an interesting time to kind of practice that
• 48:29
  before you go and play against Spain.
• 48:33
  And I don't think it is a coincidence that Germany and
• 48:37
  Spain that you know, I'm not AI was not a great geography
• 48:40
  student, believe both those countries are in Europe and they
• 48:43
  tend to play different styles, a more European style, although
• 48:48
  different offshoots of it. If Germany has to kind of hinge
• 48:51
  on OK, Alex Pop is going to be a little more of a distributor and
• 48:55
  you're going to kind of draw them forward.
• 48:58
  You know, they have the players to destroy you on the counter
• 49:02
  with Swanson, Rodman Smith. You already know what time it is
• 49:05
  and and Lavelle, well, frankly being a part of that.
• 49:08
  But the thing I wonder about that is I feel like you and I,
• 49:12
  we've got it turned into a little bit of Lindsay Horan
• 49:15
  defenders because I can see her continuing to get a little bit
• 49:19
  of razz on Woso Twitter. And I know Woso Twitter is not
• 49:22
  the end all be all. But I will say the transition
• 49:25
  game is not necessarily Lindsay Horan's game.
• 49:29
  And I know you and I have called for Kroy Bethune.
• 49:33
  I think Emma Hayes has pretty much made that clear.
• 49:35
  Kroy Bethune is a we have the game well in hand and we're
• 49:38
  going to get you some minutes or everything has to be completely
• 49:41
  off the rails before I put Bethune in here for the major
• 49:45
  minutes. And maybe it's that she thinks
• 49:46
  she's too young. Maybe it's that she hasn't got
• 49:49
  enough run with the rest of the team.
• 49:51
  But if you want to play a transitional style now they will
• 49:55
  have coffee back. That's sorry.
• 49:57
  That's what I that's what I screwed up earlier.
• 49:59
  This is a live in it in my move Crystal Dunn into the midfield
• 50:03
  example. It would be Coffee, Dunn and
• 50:06
  Lavelle. And I realize who is the odd
• 50:09
  person out in that in that scenario.
• 50:12
  But I think if you if you are looking for a ball control
• 50:16
  passing kind of midfield, that's what I would do in your
• 50:19
  transitional midfield. Who are you playing?
• 50:22
  And while you answer that question, I'm so back, I'm so
• 50:25
  healthy again. The the organic press juice
• 50:29
  worked. Maybe it was also medical
• 50:30
  science and a vaccine. I'm back to A2 beer show buddy,
• 50:34
  let's. Go shout out to whoever pressed
• 50:37
  the shit out of that juice and got my guy up to speed.
• 50:41
  They hooked me up. You know, interestingly enough,
• 50:44
  I love the Corey Bethune call. I mean, now we're getting into a
• 50:47
  little bit of lineup talk, which I you know, I'm always here for
• 50:49
  that. Let me let me just kind of go
• 50:50
  through my lineup points. One would love to see Jenna
• 50:52
  Neiswanger, you know, back in the mix.
• 50:55
  Just like, I think, you know, the US missed a little bit of
• 50:57
  that creativity and she provides you a little bit of that end to
• 51:00
  end offense. Yeah, I think Corey Bethune is a
• 51:03
  great call. But she didn't dress today,
• 51:05
  which was odd. Jaden Shaw dressed, didn't play.
• 51:08
  Oh, that's right. That's odd too.
• 51:10
  Like do we need to take anything from that?
• 51:12
  Is she physically ready? Why was Corey Bethune not
• 51:14
  dressed? What?
• 51:16
  What's what's going on there? Now let's say we do play this
• 51:19
  counter attacking style. We're going to sit back a little
• 51:21
  bit. When I take the ball and run, I
• 51:23
  think actually a combination get a little wacky here.
• 51:26
  Yes. Give me Sam coffee, give me
• 51:31
  Croyde Bethune and give me Corbin Albert.
• 51:33
  OK, as like my midfield. That's grab it.
• 51:37
  Go quote our guy John champion here, smash and grab like I
• 51:42
  love. I love that.
• 51:43
  I love that trio to be able to do that in a game where where
• 51:47
  that becomes a little bit of the game plan.
• 51:48
  And I love the Lindsay, her and truthers point because I
• 51:51
  continue to believe she's an excellent player.
• 51:54
  She's an important player, but the optics of her game, like
• 51:58
  really just piss people off to no end.
• 52:00
  You know, I saw her today. It was so funny too.
• 52:03
  She looked like like a 50 year old banker that's just playing
• 52:07
  soccer, you know, like where we used to play Brooklyn Bridge
• 52:11
  Park, you know, after hours where she's just like faking a
• 52:14
  run and she's not even really trying to like run.
• 52:17
  She's just going like this like leaning and then leaning back
• 52:19
  like to try to like, you know, make the appearance as she's
• 52:23
  she's threatening a run. I just think the optics of her
• 52:25
  game are a little funky. But on the field, I think Bridie
• 52:28
  O'Toole on our show did a great job of mentioning that a lot of
• 52:32
  our action starts with her winning the ball back.
• 52:35
  And I think since she said it, I think I see it all the time now,
• 52:37
  like she'll just win a ball back.
• 52:40
  She makes the right connecting pass, but I continue to believe
• 52:43
  that she's a great player, a very important player, and I'm
• 52:45
  sure behind closed doors she's in that an absolute leader for
• 52:48
  this team. It just might come down to the
• 52:51
  matchup. I'll say I think Germany,
• 52:53
  there's definitely real for her to play, Spain probably as well.
• 52:56
  But, you know, really just kind of depend on how those games
• 52:58
  unfold. Yeah, totally.
• 53:00
  I think that's fair. I think that would be that would
• 53:01
  certainly be an interesting look.
• 53:03
  Your proposed coffee, Bethune Albert Midfield.
• 53:07
  I want to make sure I give credit where it's due because I
• 53:10
  as I you know, I'm always I'm always looking at the lineups.
• 53:14
  I was emboldened by our pal great friend of the program at
• 53:18
  Iron Ghazi Stan on Twitter, who had also thought and this
• 53:22
  emboldened to me. I'm going to quote you Iron
• 53:24
  Ghazi Stan here. Quote.
• 53:26
  I have never been more of a Crystal Dunn fan at the 8 than I
• 53:30
  am right now. Quote coffee Dunn rose.
• 53:33
  Say it out loud. It's destiny.
• 53:36
  That's what Sam said to her every morning in Manchester.
• 53:40
  The Germany defence will be better start Jenna, focus on Mal
• 53:44
  Jenna, Crystal triangle. End Quote.
• 53:47
  So as soon as I read that they had written coffee done Rose, I
• 53:51
  was like Jess, OK, I did that. I did the Leonardo DiCaprio
• 53:54
  pointing at the TV thing. I was like, OK, I think this
• 53:56
  could work. Now do you employ it in the semi
• 53:59
  finals of a major international tournament for the first time?
• 54:03
  I don't know. Maybe that's maybe that's a
• 54:05
  tough decision to make, but I'm with you Iron Ghazi stand.
• 54:09
  I Co signed that idea. But you know, they're they're
• 54:12
  more than one way to win a football game against against
• 54:16
  different sides. Unless you're playing Spain or
• 54:18
  Barcelona, then the only way to possibly win is play Mayra
• 54:20
  Ramirez. All 120, by the way, none of
• 54:25
  this 858687 Yeah, and appreciate you calling out at Iron Gauzy
• 54:30
  stand for chiming in with that one.
• 54:33
  I think we're definitely cooking up some some synergy here.
• 54:35
  So let's definitely keep that going.
• 54:36
  I did want to give a shout out to to one of our friends of the
• 54:40
  pod. I think you know, Twitter X wise
• 54:42
  at Alyssa J Salter who chimed in with a nickname for Smith
• 54:48
  Swanson Trinity Trio. She dropped I think a fucking
• 54:53
  absolute banger. The three forwards of the
• 54:55
  apocalypse. Oh yes, fantastic.
• 54:59
  I mean, yeah, I was kind of holding on to Belle Bib de
• 55:01
  Golis. This is our go to.
• 55:03
  We by joy. You know, we're going to
• 55:04
  continue to use it. But three forwards of the
• 55:07
  apocalypse, I think is just right on the money.
• 55:09
  Shout out to you, Alyssa. We appreciate you.
• 55:11
  I'm ready to kind of call that new leader in the clubhouse.
• 55:14
  So that's the bar that you got to.
• 55:15
  Clear. I like it 'cause you can see
• 55:17
  them all, all three, each riding a horse flaming spear.
• 55:21
  They are the three forwards of the apocalypse.
• 55:23
  Excellent shout by Alyssa. Yeah, we're about to get
• 55:26
  biblical on some of these teams. Let's let's get into a quick
• 55:30
  prediction here. USA, Germany.
• 55:32
  Do you think it's roughly the same as the first one?
• 55:36
  Is there being able to kind of like keep this one a little bit
• 55:38
  closer? Is it a different style game
• 55:40
  like you mentioned where it's a little bit more constricted and
• 55:42
  USA kind of suffocates the lifeout?
• 55:44
  What are you expecting USA? Germany, I think Germany
• 55:46
  definitely keeps it closer. I think in a semi final you're
• 55:49
  not getting a four to one. If I may be so bold, I
• 55:53
  definitely see a one nil or A21 in this kind of spot.
• 55:58
  I would not be shocked, you know, Felicinaire and Naomi
• 56:02
  Germa gutted out and keep a clean sheet, even if if you
• 56:06
  don't have And I that I mean, as I say it, maybe I'm talking,
• 56:11
  maybe I'm talking a little too crazy because if you don't have
• 56:14
  Emily Fox and Tierna Davidson and then you keep a clean sheet
• 56:18
  versus Germany, I think that would be pretty Herculean.
• 56:20
  So it it might take two goals to beat Germany in this case, but I
• 56:26
  think USA will get it done. I think the attack is real fast
• 56:29
  and real smart for Germany's defense.
• 56:32
  And I don't know if the tape that they have, the experience
• 56:36
  that they have from that last match, I don't know if that's
• 56:39
  going to quite help them kind of fill that gulf.
• 56:41
  Yeah, I agree with that. I mean, I think I'm still kind
• 56:44
  of debating a little bit internally because on one hand,
• 56:47
  I think Germany feels a little one-dimensional if you can kind
• 56:51
  of stuff their main thing. They don't have a lot of
• 56:53
  secondary tertiary things to go to from there.
• 56:55
  The flip side that is I think the US attack pretty much peaked
• 56:58
  during that Germany match was the second group stage match.
• 57:00
  Australia didn't look as crisp. Obviously Japan a little bit
• 57:04
  tougher matchup, but took forever and ever to kind of like
• 57:06
  breakthrough against Japan as well.
• 57:09
  Germany defensively, you know, not the scariest team to go
• 57:12
  against, although they do keep a clean sheet today against Canada
• 57:15
  and burgers playing out of her mind.
• 57:17
  That's the the key cog I think defensively for them.
• 57:20
  But ultimately, I think if I have to make a pick, I could see
• 57:23
  this one, maybe one one at halftime can see Germany scoring
• 57:26
  early, kind of keep themselves in the match and then maybe the
• 57:30
  USA kind of pulling away as Germany kind of has less and
• 57:33
  less to go to as the match progresses.
• 57:35
  But I think to your point, and it's an excellent one, who's
• 57:38
  going to be in the lineup because there is a lot of
• 57:40
  variance with regard to like, OK, you know, do we have
• 57:43
  Davidson? Do we have Fox or do are we
• 57:45
  looking at Krueger and nice winger and Emily Sam's?
• 57:48
  Is she going to get her very first, you know, minutes here in
• 57:51
  the semi final? Like, I mean, there's just not a
• 57:53
  lot of moves to go to. So personnel wise going to be a
• 57:56
  huge factor. But ultimately, I think USA, I
• 58:00
  think we do pull it out easy. For us to say couple American
• 58:03
  Bros, they're coming off a four one victory over Germany, just
• 58:07
  like you said like a week ago. But you know, Germany's number
• 58:11
  four in the FIFA rankings, USA is number 5 in the FIFA
• 58:14
  rankings. I might have my quibbles with
• 58:16
  those based on past results. Maybe USA's demise was a bit
• 58:21
  overstated after the World Cup, trying to think of a good big
• 58:25
  change that the that Team USA made between then and now.
• 58:30
  I think there is something quite important that changed where you
• 58:33
  move from a, and you know, no disrespect of Wacko, you move
• 58:36
  from a good club manager to one of the elite managers in the
• 58:40
  world. I think we're watching that play
• 58:42
  out right now. I definitely agree with that and
• 58:45
  seeing a a lot of growth, I think from match to match with
• 58:48
  regard to like maybe it's more new wrinkles, which I think you
• 58:51
  know, some of them are are hitting, some of them are right
• 58:54
  now they're a little bit TBD and this team just looks looks like
• 58:57
  a tough out. I think at the very least can
• 58:59
  take a lot to knock this U.S. team out of the tournament.
• 59:02
  And if the USA does progress to the final, they will take on the
• 59:07
  winner of the other semifinal matchup, that one going down
• 59:10
  3:00 PM Eastern on Tuesday, 12:00 PM noon Pacific in another
• 59:14
  group stage rematch. I'm not sure if we have to break
• 59:17
  it down. If you want to, you know, go
• 59:18
  back and listen to our prediction in the last week when
• 59:20
  we filled out our wacky bracket, We covered this one in in not
• 59:23
  great detail, but minor detail. Let's preview this one more
• 59:26
  properly. Spain, the best team in the
• 59:29
  world, the best team in the world taking on oh.
• 59:31
  That's that's you. I'd let the record show I didn't
• 59:34
  make those air quotes. No, I'm just joking.
• 59:38
  If you do go back to last week's episode, though, I did say I
• 59:41
  think Colombia gives Spain a much tougher time than Brazil
• 59:43
  does. You had the great point of
• 59:45
  saying that, you know, there's tape now from that first match
• 59:49
  up. And I think we both kind of
• 59:50
  landed on the same note that, OK, the tape might benefit Spain
• 59:53
  a little bit more than it does Brazil.
• 59:55
  They've got more things to go, more moves that they can make as
• 59:58
  a result. But ultimately, this one kicks
• 59:59
  off Tuesday. What are you expecting when
• 1:00:01
  these two teams lock up again? I mean, it's going to take a
• 1:00:05
  mountain of an effort from Brazil.
• 1:00:08
  But if you're a Brazilian supporter and you're listening
• 1:00:11
  this show, you might say, oh, it might take a mountain of an
• 1:00:15
  effort for us to win a match. You mean like beating a team
• 1:00:19
  with a talent advantage in their home country in a major
• 1:00:23
  tournament with our tallest person, greatest player in the
• 1:00:27
  history of our program out? OK.
• 1:00:30
  I hope we can find some way to draw off that experience in the
• 1:00:34
  past. So Brazil fans and Brazil
• 1:00:37
  football fans, you never need my permission.
• 1:00:40
  You do it all the time anyway. Talk your talk, do your dance,
• 1:00:45
  say everything that you got it. You know, pat yourself on the
• 1:00:48
  back, puff out your chest, whatever, whatever kind of
• 1:00:51
  action you want to take, they should go in there with with a
• 1:00:54
  lot of confidence. And I'll tell you this, this is
• 1:00:57
  my this is my big prediction. It's probably not that bold of a
• 1:01:00
  prediction. This is going to be a physical
• 1:01:03
  football game, I believe. That obviously Columbia laid the
• 1:01:06
  blueprint a little bit on how to be physical with this team.
• 1:01:10
  We're going to see because I think think about the Columbia
• 1:01:12
  side specifically, their conditioning looked out of this
• 1:01:16
  world like, yeah, I mean, they were just flying wherever they
• 1:01:20
  wanted to go, wherever the ball was and they wanted to be there.
• 1:01:23
  They were there. Now watching this Brazil side, I
• 1:01:26
  don't think physically, athletically, they're kind of at
• 1:01:28
  that level. But I do think, you know, from a
• 1:01:31
  from a, you know, punishing standpoint, I think that they
• 1:01:34
  could play that that game too. A lot of chicken wings, a lot of
• 1:01:36
  just clogging up of lanes and a lot of kind of like mucking up
• 1:01:40
  of the game. And, you know, a lot of the some
• 1:01:42
  cards, some foul, some kicks and, you know, I, I think we're
• 1:01:45
  going to, we're going to be in for that kind of game a little
• 1:01:48
  bit potentially. And I think we're going to see
• 1:01:50
  how the Champs respond because we continue to see a team that's
• 1:01:55
  loaded, obviously A-Team that's coming off a World Cup
• 1:01:58
  championship, but still a team that has yet to like really look
• 1:02:02
  absolutely overwhelming in this tournament.
• 1:02:04
  Like they look great. You know, they look good.
• 1:02:06
  The players look great. You know, and I'll give you the
• 1:02:08
  perfect example, Like I tied up on my T playing in the midfield
• 1:02:12
  on the opposite side of Alexia. Think she was playing more or
• 1:02:15
  more on the right side. She just seems to not really be
• 1:02:17
  getting the ball. You know, it's like, and again,
• 1:02:20
  there's only one ball, you know, So if Spain wants to go up the
• 1:02:23
  left hand side with Olga and Alexia, you know, and like just
• 1:02:27
  kind of like play, play that Channel, that's fine.
• 1:02:29
  But then you just kind of have Itana sitting there a little
• 1:02:31
  bit. And I think we saw Itana today
• 1:02:33
  in the second-half come out and rip a couple shots just to be
• 1:02:35
  like, you know, I'm here like, you know, like, I'm going to try
• 1:02:40
  to affect this game because we need something.
• 1:02:42
  With Brazil specifically, though, you had commented on
• 1:02:46
  this last week. You are like, OK, well, they
• 1:02:48
  give up the penalty kick in Spain and then they give up the
• 1:02:50
  late Alexia wonder blast. You know, like, you know, it's
• 1:02:54
  just like, what are you going to do about that?
• 1:02:56
  I'm not sure either of those are are totally replicable.
• 1:02:59
  So does Brazil have something maybe for Spain in this one that
• 1:03:03
  we haven't seen yet? Oh, I think that's a good, I
• 1:03:06
  think that's a good question. What could they have for Spain
• 1:03:10
  in this? But I think Gabby Portillo is
• 1:03:13
  playing with a lot of confidence.
• 1:03:14
  I think Adriana is playing with a lot of confidence due to
• 1:03:17
  Sampaio. I thought put in a good shift.
• 1:03:19
  I think they sucked her out like around like 60.
• 1:03:21
  But I thought before, before that happened, I thought she put
• 1:03:24
  in a really nice shift. Hafael a Tarsiane Ferrero looked
• 1:03:29
  good on the back line. So you know, do you get a
• 1:03:33
  Jennifer moment of brilliance or do you get a wonder strike from
• 1:03:38
  Angelina? Get a lean who we talked about.
• 1:03:41
  She came in in the 63rd of this match.
• 1:03:45
  You know, she should be a little a little rested.
• 1:03:47
  You know, I'm sure, I'm sure they're very carefully
• 1:03:50
  monitoring her minutes. Lewd Mila only only came in
• 1:03:53
  very, very late, like right before the 90th minute.
• 1:03:57
  So yeah, I think I think that's on the board.
• 1:03:58
  I think when you anytime you talk about Brazilian
• 1:04:01
  footballers, you think, OK, which one of these players are
• 1:04:05
  capable of that wonder strike and unfortunately for the
• 1:04:09
  opponent, probably like nine out of the 10 field players on the
• 1:04:12
  field and maybe even the goalkeeper is capable.
• 1:04:16
  Well, I mean, Lorraine has been on one too, so I mean when I
• 1:04:19
  wouldn't put it past her. I'm just kind of chuckling now
• 1:04:21
  because I remember last week also you mentioned.
• 1:04:23
  Well OK, if Brazil is gonna beat France, can Brazil string
• 1:04:26
  together 3 passes, you know, and turn that into a goal?
• 1:04:29
  Can France defend that? Turns out they only need the one
• 1:04:32
  pass on the Fortilia at all. Yeah, one, one die with two
• 1:04:36
  defenders running into each other.
• 1:04:38
  I don't think they're gonna get the same comical level of
• 1:04:40
  defending in the most highest leverage moment from the Spain
• 1:04:43
  side, but I do think that they have the skill and hopefully the
• 1:04:49
  tactical game plan to kind of keep this one close.
• 1:04:52
  Now, it's been discussed, this Spain side, this is their first
• 1:04:56
  appearance in the Olympics. You know, obviously this is not
• 1:04:58
  a traditional powerhouse. They obviously win the World Cup
• 1:05:01
  last year. Now, this isn't something that's
• 1:05:03
  been discussed just because I think their previous coach was,
• 1:05:06
  you know, had a bunch of, you know, Jode Jode build that had a
• 1:05:09
  bunch of, you know, stuff looming around him.
• 1:05:12
  But I think ginger bag, I think there.
• 1:05:17
  No, I won't miss that opportunity.
• 1:05:18
  Sorry, sorry, sorry. No worries, You know, you know,
• 1:05:21
  Jay Kidd lobbied up to Kenyon Martin.
• 1:05:22
  Let's go. But their current coach, Monte
• 1:05:26
  Tome, I don't know. And honestly, I don't know
• 1:05:29
  enough about football to be like, right, this is the
• 1:05:30
  problem. But this team doesn't look
• 1:05:33
  exactly as you know, and I'm not sure if the the tape is out now.
• 1:05:38
  We know what they're doing. And now we're a little bit more,
• 1:05:40
  you know, adjusted We being the collective we that's, you know,
• 1:05:43
  every other footballing nation in South Spain.
• 1:05:45
  But I think from a coaching standpoint, from a tactical
• 1:05:48
  standpoint, it doesn't feel like all the pieces are necessarily
• 1:05:52
  getting maximized. I think in the first half and a
• 1:05:56
  good chunk of the second-half today, I would have loved to see
• 1:05:59
  like more like on a Battier, you know, kind of initiating.
• 1:06:02
  She had the ball and she was kind of just immediately giving
• 1:06:04
  it up and ultimately taking herself out of the play, you
• 1:06:07
  know, and it happened so many times.
• 1:06:08
  I'm like, this has got to be like a tactical thing.
• 1:06:10
  But I love seeing Battier all of a sudden, you know, she's in
• 1:06:13
  defense and all of a sudden now she's like at a dangerous spot,
• 1:06:15
  being able to put it across, You know, Salma's in there,
• 1:06:18
  Maliona's in there. Alexia is sort of like an outlet
• 1:06:20
  that's a little bit deeper, but still danger, you know, And I
• 1:06:23
  think that has been sort of totally taken off the bored
• 1:06:26
  probably in favor of like Olga doing that.
• 1:06:29
  But you've got 2 fucking world class players.
• 1:06:31
  Like mix it up. Like, you know, to your point,
• 1:06:33
  like you don't want to keep throwing the same two punch
• 1:06:35
  combination over and over going to figure out what it is.
• 1:06:37
  So yeah. I.
• 1:06:38
  Do get the inkling that tactically Spains not really
• 1:06:42
  getting everything out of out of their talent.
• 1:06:45
  And it could just be that, you know, they're they're playing it
• 1:06:47
  slow, you know, trying to figure out, OK, what are the matchups?
• 1:06:49
  What do we need? What do we not need?
• 1:06:51
  You know, this is there. There's still a final looming.
• 1:06:53
  But I'm curious to hear. Have you noticed any big
• 1:06:56
  differences between, you know, what the Spain side looked like
• 1:06:59
  a year ago or what they look like now?
• 1:07:02
  Because I think coming into this tournament, it's like, OK,
• 1:07:04
  they're the overwhelming, you know, like they're just top of
• 1:07:06
  the mountain where everybody else is.
• 1:07:08
  Playing for silver hasn't quite felt like that.
• 1:07:10
  That's a great question, man. And I, I think about like when
• 1:07:13
  you and I were watching, we were tracking the UEFA Nations League
• 1:07:17
  and you know, Tomei was, was, was coaching him through that as
• 1:07:20
  well as far as, as I recall. And, you know, they went up
• 1:07:25
  against France and it just looked like France was drawing
• 1:07:28
  dead. And we're like, damn, man,
• 1:07:30
  there's just no way to beat him. But I I really, I take your
• 1:07:33
  point on, you know, is Battier getting involved enough or does
• 1:07:37
  the team like look like they have this freedom to kind of
• 1:07:42
  share the ball and be like, you kind of have this like amoeba
• 1:07:46
  like effect where it's like, well, sometimes all the
• 1:07:48
  pressures coming from the right side.
• 1:07:50
  You raised a great point about bone Mati.
• 1:07:52
  Also. I hate it when bone Mati looks
• 1:07:54
  like she's out of the game, right?
• 1:07:56
  Because it's just kind of like, hey, like maybe, I don't know,
• 1:08:01
  maybe the Balandor holder should like have the ball for some
• 1:08:04
  time. Like I think that would be a
• 1:08:05
  good strategy. So.
• 1:08:07
  Quick follow up to that though, whose team is it?
• 1:08:11
  There you go. Yeah.
• 1:08:12
  Is there a power struggle do we have?
• 1:08:14
  Do we have jealousy going on? Yeah.
• 1:08:16
  Let's give all the all the sports radio commentary we could
• 1:08:19
  possibly get. I can't wait till we find out
• 1:08:22
  who Spain's Skip Bayless is. Who'd like the guy who just says
• 1:08:27
  I Tana boma? T's not that good until he
• 1:08:30
  Withers away into retirement and everybody laughs at him.
• 1:08:32
  I digress, but I'm just. Going through the head if like
• 1:08:36
  I'm like, should I be the Spain Skip Bayless?
• 1:08:40
  Lucrative is that, by the way? Because that dude, he made a lot
• 1:08:42
  of money. Use the extra euros.
• 1:08:45
  It's fair. But no, I think I think it's a
• 1:08:47
  fair question to ask. Is this team getting the most
• 1:08:51
  out of their talent? They have the most talent in the
• 1:08:54
  world. They won the World Cup clearly
• 1:08:56
  got a lot out of it there even with that that old bum as their
• 1:09:00
  as their coach, the previous guy.
• 1:09:01
  But to the flip side of your question, I was kind of smirking
• 1:09:04
  when you're asking the question because I've been wondering, and
• 1:09:07
  this is just and you know this about me with my paranoia.
• 1:09:09
  Are they just lurking? Are the players just like, OK,
• 1:09:14
  we can get past Nigeria one to nothing.
• 1:09:16
  We can get past Brazil one to nothing in the group stage.
• 1:09:20
  We just play 90% of our game. Nobody get hurt out there.
• 1:09:24
  We'll execute and we'll win these matches.
• 1:09:27
  And then it's like, OK, now, now it's turn up time and now like
• 1:09:31
  we're in the semis, we get into the gold medal match and now
• 1:09:34
  we're going to be looking at either USA or Germany.
• 1:09:37
  Then we mash down the gas pedal. I don't know it's hard to say
• 1:09:41
  but I I think your point is valid and if you would get a
• 1:09:45
  silent bone mati game in the semi final or the final I think
• 1:09:49
  a lot of people are going to look at monster autome and be
• 1:09:52
  like hey I don't like that. Yeah, I agree with that.
• 1:09:56
  Could they be lurking? It's too much of A stretch for
• 1:09:59
  me to think that that that could be what's happening.
• 1:10:01
  I continue to think that from an attacking standpoint, like those
• 1:10:04
  players that they have a front just have not been effective
• 1:10:07
  enough. That's fair.
• 1:10:08
  So I think it's more tied into that and I actually did a little
• 1:10:11
  bit of a quick thought exercise. Who's attacking units would I
• 1:10:15
  take ahead of Spain's? I think I would take the USA's.
• 1:10:18
  Sure, that was fair. I think Colombia, there's an
• 1:10:21
  argument that Maya Ramirez, Linda Kisedo might be a little
• 1:10:24
  bit more valuable than than Sama.
• 1:10:26
  You know, Maiona and whoever that is in that third spot in
• 1:10:29
  this, you know, fake exercise. Germany, there's a Leia Schuler,
• 1:10:32
  Ulibrand, Glarbul conversation that we could have.
• 1:10:35
  France, and I think that's where we start to get a little bit
• 1:10:38
  like, all right. But even France got Ketoto, who,
• 1:10:41
  you know, has been mashing in goals left and right.
• 1:10:43
  Now they haven't got anything else.
• 1:10:44
  But I do think that that's where that that is.
• 1:10:47
  That is Spain's one weakness. It's like when they need a goal,
• 1:10:50
  like, look what they had to do today.
• 1:10:52
  It's our most off the bench crossing from Bariolo, another
• 1:10:55
  crossing from Bariolo to Perettis.
• 1:10:57
  You know, and these are obviously being a big game, big
• 1:10:59
  experienced players to be able to like, you know, get that
• 1:11:03
  second goal at the last minute. And, you know, at that point,
• 1:11:06
  they're really minutes away from the end of the tournament.
• 1:11:09
  You know, like they were they were just they're literally
• 1:11:11
  right there. And we could be talking about
• 1:11:13
  this team being out. Luckily, we don't really have to
• 1:11:16
  answer this question. We've got football coming up on
• 1:11:18
  Tuesday that I think it will teach us a little bit.
• 1:11:21
  Spain, Brazil. I think we're gonna learn a bit
• 1:11:22
  a little bit more about this team.
• 1:11:23
  But ultimately, if Spain's able to survive, I think either
• 1:11:26
  matchup, USA, Germany, whatever, back-to-back, that looks like
• 1:11:29
  Spain having to beat Colombia, then Brazil, then either USA or
• 1:11:33
  Germany, they'll have earned wherever it is that they land.
• 1:11:36
  And then lastly, you know, we hinted that last week, kind of
• 1:11:38
  joked about it. You know, would Marta be able to
• 1:11:40
  make a return? Here we are.
• 1:11:43
  They're going to get, they're going to get us.
• 1:11:44
  They're going to get another match.
• 1:11:45
  Either it's going to be a gold medal match or a bronze medal
• 1:11:47
  match. Either way, we're going to see
• 1:11:49
  Marta again, God willing. So very excited about that.
• 1:11:52
  Yeah, it's going to be absolutely fantastic.
• 1:11:54
  So like, you know, Marta, I honestly, let's say Brazil pulls
• 1:11:58
  off a massive upset here and they play in the gold medal
• 1:12:02
  match. If they play against, you know,
• 1:12:05
  USAI mean if Brazil plays against Germany in the gold
• 1:12:09
  medal match, Oh my God, no offense.
• 1:12:11
  No offense to our guy Peter Vice AKA vice AKA vice city.
• 1:12:16
  No offense to you and all of Deutschland.
• 1:12:20
  We'll have to be pulling for Marta.
• 1:12:22
  I would have a hard time if Brazil played against USA in the
• 1:12:27
  gold medal match. I'd be like, well, it would be
• 1:12:29
  cool for Marta. I I would still be rooting for
• 1:12:31
  USA. There is AUS women's national
• 1:12:34
  team super fan living in my house.
• 1:12:36
  I just root for USA because I should.
• 1:12:39
  But I will say some Marta magic at the end of this tournament
• 1:12:43
  is, is very, very welcome. But I, I get the feeling and we,
• 1:12:48
  we've already predicted it. We already filled out the show
• 1:12:50
  bracket and it's still super live.
• 1:12:53
  I think we're trending toward a USA Spain final where Emma Hayes
• 1:12:57
  last words as she walked out of that final Chelsea press
• 1:13:00
  conference of I got to go figure out a way to beat Spain that
• 1:13:04
  that has proven to or it looks like it's proven to be quite
• 1:13:08
  prophetic. Might be one match away from
• 1:13:10
  being able to see it play out on the field.
• 1:13:12
  That was the one thing I was rooting for.
• 1:13:13
  USA, Spain on the pitch. And we're oh so close to that.
• 1:13:17
  All right, quick prediction, then we're going to get out of
• 1:13:18
  here. What do you think?
• 1:13:19
  Spain. Brazil.
• 1:13:21
  I think Spain kind of walks away with it.
• 1:13:23
  I think it's a two nil, maybe a three nil with a late with the
• 1:13:26
  third one coming late. Massive respect to Brazil to to
• 1:13:30
  pull out that win over France. I know we've had our issues with
• 1:13:34
  with France and they and they, you know, they underperformed
• 1:13:37
  frankly. But like Brazil, you have to go
• 1:13:39
  out there and win the match to get it done.
• 1:13:42
  And you have to do it without Marta.
• 1:13:44
  You have to do it with tired legs.
• 1:13:46
  I'm pretty much out of the betting against Spain business.
• 1:13:48
  I'm right there with you. I'm taking Spain 2 to one, with
• 1:13:52
  the second one coming in added extra time.
• 1:13:55
  And let's say Itana gets it, just to let him know.
• 1:13:59
  To quote the great Mark Faliwell, if you don't know, now
• 1:14:02
  you know. Itana's here to play.
• 1:14:05
  I love it. I love a very like Steph Curry,
• 1:14:08
  like I'm here, I'm still here type of type of moment.
• 1:14:11
  I I like that. That's right.
• 1:14:13
  That's right. Alright man, Anything else you
• 1:14:15
  want hit forget out here. I think we've done it, buddy.
• 1:14:17
  That was I mentioned at the top that felt like a full work day
• 1:14:21
  and not in a negative sense, but it was just like, OK.
• 1:14:24
  And then every match, what we got like more, we got 450 plus
• 1:14:29
  minutes of football with all like three of the matches go
• 1:14:32
  into extra time. And then one of the ones that
• 1:14:35
  didn't, you get 16 minutes of stoppage time, a lot of
• 1:14:39
  football. And it's all going back-to-back.
• 1:14:41
  And then it's like, OK, well, this one's in the extra time.
• 1:14:43
  So now I'm gonna have to put the other one on the second screen
• 1:14:45
  to watch the beginning. Like you said, obviously the
• 1:14:49
  real heroes, all of us, everybody who, who, who had to
• 1:14:53
  watch all this football shout to us.
• 1:14:56
  We put in a great shift on a Saturday and I, I beat it.
• 1:14:59
  Not just me and Dino, all you guys who I know who are watching
• 1:15:02
  all these matches to figure out how to do it.
• 1:15:04
  Be proud of yourselves. I hope I'm sure you've already
• 1:15:06
  enjoyed your adult beverages for the evening.
• 1:15:09
  You should be, you should be very proud of yourselves for
• 1:15:11
  watching whatever 8 plus hours of of football.
• 1:15:15
  Absolutely, yeah. And I think and your boys not
• 1:15:18
  only put in eight, put in a little overtime where we're at,
• 1:15:21
  what, our 45 year of the pod. But that's all right.
• 1:15:25
  This only comes along every four years.
• 1:15:26
  So I think, you know, we'll survive.
• 1:15:29
  All right, man, I think we did it.
• 1:15:30
  This is another episode of Into the Channel.
• 1:15:32
  Sincere thank you to everyone watching, listening, following,
• 1:15:34
  liking, subscribing, chiming in in the comment section, letting
• 1:15:38
  us know everything we got wrong, everything we got right,
• 1:15:41
  everything we got wrong. Again, remember to like if you
• 1:15:44
  liked, subscribe, follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify,
• 1:15:46
  Apple podcast or wherever you like to watch or listen to all
• 1:15:49
  the great friends of the pod out there.
• 1:15:51
  Leave us a review over at your favorite podcast app.
• 1:15:53
  We very much appreciate it links all of our socials in the show
• 1:15:56
  notes of this episode. And a big thank you to my coast,
• 1:15:59
  Mr. Grant Angle for drinking all his cold pressed juices,
• 1:16:03
  following all his protocols. Do what he needs to do so he can
• 1:16:06
  be up and ready for this post quarterfinals semifinals preview
• 1:16:10
  show. I appreciate you man.
• 1:16:12
  Likewise, buddy, thanks for the, the patience, the good coaching.
• 1:16:16
  You know, you're, you're a lot like, a lot like Marta yourself.
• 1:16:19
  You're the heart and soul of the program.
• 1:16:21
  You're the undisputed leader of the program.
• 1:16:23
  I just didn't want to let you down, buddy.
• 1:16:24
  So thank you for the inspiration.
• 1:16:26
  You know, I'm I'm well in from time to time.
• 1:16:28
  I'm not above a high boot when the situation calls for it.
• 1:16:32
  I appreciate that cop. That's why I follow you into
• 1:16:36
  battle though, so that that's why we're out here.
• 1:16:37
  So thank you to everybody for following us into battle.
• 1:16:41
  We appreciate you and we will talk to you next time.