Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / USWNT's future at No. 10; Bonmati Ballon d'Or; and more!

Transcript

USWNT's future at No. 10; Bonmati Ballon d'Or; and more! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
0:08
football. Before we hit the pitch.
0:09
If you enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your
0:11
boys do, come kick it with us already.
0:14
Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
0:17
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
0:19
favorite podcast app, links to all of our socials if you're
0:22
into that sort of thing. In the show notes of this
0:24
episode, I am your host Dino de Suspidis.
0:26
And as always, I'm joined by my Co host, Mr. Grant Angle.
0:30
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
0:33
The football calendar marches on.
0:35
We're in international break, but plenty of things are still
0:37
happening and there's just no shortage of excitement every
0:40
single day it feels like. Yeah, it's like a nice lull, you
0:43
know, like we're getting to the stretch run of the NWSL season,
0:46
playoffs right around the corner, Champions League match
0:49
day three and four. I mean, we're getting into the
0:52
stretch run. So this like nice, this
0:53
international break is a nice fun palate cleanser, a lot of
0:57
fun football. Really excited to get into it
0:58
with you. Quick program reminder, I kind
1:00
of already covered it. So at WSL playoffs kick off
1:03
Friday, November 8th, we'll be back with a playoff preview and
1:06
an award show might combine those.
1:08
That might make a little bit of sense.
1:09
And then obviously Champions League returns November 12th and
1:12
November 13th, we'll be back before those games kick off.
1:15
We dropped an early preview last week.
1:18
Definitely go back and check that out.
1:19
We looked at all 8 matchups, went way way way in depth on
1:22
those. With all that said, where you
1:24
want to get started? Let's get started with a beer.
1:27
And I think it's a beer in honor of the best player in the world,
1:32
Maybe the best player in the world, maybe several of the best
1:38
players in the world is maybe the most diplomatic way to say
1:40
it. Cheers.
1:42
Cheers to you. I think I would like to get
1:44
started with the Balandor winner Aitana Bone Mati.
1:48
I like it. I like it.
1:49
So I think the consensus cooled off on Aitana as like best
1:53
player in the world. Yeah, pretty wild to see
1:55
Barcelona sweep the top three spots.
1:57
Yeah, CGH in the second spot, Salma Patiuela in the third
2:00
spot. So Barcelona in 41 Liga F in
2:03
Champions League matches, 38 wins, 2 draws, one loss.
2:07
Obviously Aitana played huge in a bunch of those games, but I
2:10
don't know, a little bit of controversy.
2:12
I got to say I a little bit surprised.
2:13
I think I had CGH as my winner. What do you think when the news
2:17
dropped? I think it's a fair position to
2:19
hold. I mean, last year during huge
2:22
stretches of the Champions League, obviously huge stretches
2:25
of League F, CGH looked like the best player on the team.
2:29
She looked like the engine for their attack.
2:33
Defenders could not do anything with her going up and down the
2:36
wings. And then if she gets into the
2:38
middle of the field, she's just as deadly.
2:40
You know, I think it's a fair position to have one of the
2:43
votes out there, Lucy Ward, almost immediately put out there
2:46
that CGA should have been the Balandor winner this year.
2:50
So yeah, I think it's totally reasonable to believe that.
2:52
Yeah, Lucy Ward in the final I think had that same position,
2:55
was talking about it as somewhat of a no brainer.
2:57
And when you look at the numbers, you can understand
3:00
where Lucy was coming from. CGH 26 goals, 23 assists, which
3:04
is insane. Itana 14 goals, 15 assists.
3:07
And then when I think when you zoom in, I was actually
3:09
surprised by this. I think I was expecting, you
3:12
know, so those top line numbers strongly favor Graham Hanson.
3:15
But I think the closer you look, it's more than just those
3:17
numbers. So shot creating actions per 90,
3:20
CGH 8.33, Itana 6.08. That's a that's a pretty big
3:24
golf. Yeah.
3:25
Goal creating actions per 90. Graham Hanson 1.6, Itana 1.1.
3:30
And of Barcelona's field players with at least 1800 minutes,
3:33
Itana was 12th on the team. And plus minus per 90.
3:37
The numbers didn't totally back up the selection, but I think
3:40
probably what voters might have been looking at were those big
3:43
game moments. So you look at Barcelona down to
3:46
Chelsea, one nil on aggregate at Stamford Bridge.
3:50
Who cracks the seal on that one? Eitanabo Mateen, 25th minute to
3:54
even the score. This is before the Khadijah
3:55
became a red card to rewind back around in the quarters.
3:58
Barcelona's up on Braun, 2 to one on aggregate in the rematch.
4:02
Eitana, you know, obviously gets another one to crack the seal on
4:05
that one and to put them up three one and kind of like begin
4:08
the separation there. And then the Champions League
4:10
final against Lyon, scoreless until the 63rd, Who scores there
4:13
again? Eitana, her big moments were
4:16
bigger than I think, you know, anybody.
4:18
Anybody else's big moments, pretty much.
4:19
I don't know, maybe worldwide, you might say.
4:21
Yeah, I think that's probably what it comes down to.
4:25
You know, I know people don't like to kind of look at things
4:27
this way, and I totally get why they don't.
4:29
I'm not even sure I'm totally sold on this.
4:31
But there is a level of momentum that comes when you put together
4:34
your second straight amazing year.
4:37
And so she's coming off the World Cup, she's coming off
4:39
another Champions League, another League F in 2023, and
4:42
now she kind of rolls that in the 2024.
4:45
She's the central hub of the midfield.
4:48
You're going to get the people who say like shot creating
4:50
actions, goal creating actions. It's hard to capture exactly
4:54
what bone Mati brings to the field like any time they play.
4:59
But as much as I give credence to that, the numbers are the
5:03
numbers and the, and what I always say is when people like
5:05
belittle, you know, stat nerds and things like that, the
5:09
numbers are just a depiction of what's happening on the field.
5:12
Also, So again, I, I realize I'm, I'm probably doing a quite
5:17
a bit of fence sitting here. I think I'm still a believer
5:20
that Aitana Bomati is probably the best player in the world.
5:24
I ditched the probably, I think she's the best.
5:26
I think her intelligence and the way she kind of dictates the
5:29
geometry of the field for Barcelona, I think that makes
5:32
her the best. I'm just not going to yell at
5:34
anybody who says CGH, they would take her over.
5:37
I like it and I think those two players are 1/2 on pretty much
5:40
everybody. Everybody's ballot.
5:42
Life goes on, as we say. There was also some football
5:45
played in Europe this week. Yeah, I want to go quickly to a
5:48
match that was played today. On the day we're recording,
5:51
October 28th, Germany lost 21 to Australia.
5:54
Who cares? It's a friendly.
5:56
It doesn't matter. The what really was important
5:59
there. We got to give our proper
6:01
respect to Alexandra Pop. Alex Pop of Wolfsburg, of
6:05
course, the German legend. This was her final match for
6:08
Germany's national team. Over the course of her career
6:10
with Germany, she scored 67 goals.
6:13
She LED them to be runners up in the 2022 Euros.
6:17
She notched a brace in the semi finals in their win over France
6:20
to get them to the final. And then in just a really,
6:23
really hard luck moment that you hate to see any athlete go
6:27
through, but especially an elite athlete like that, she gets
6:30
injured in the warm ups of the final of the 2022 Euros against
6:35
England, has to miss that match. England obviously squeaks it
6:38
out. I don't begrudge any German fan
6:40
for saying they probably would have won that final at Wembley
6:43
if they had Pop, even though they'd be wrong and England was
6:46
gonna win anyway. I digress.
6:48
Pop, absolute legend. Played in four World Cups for
6:52
the Germans Bronze boot in 2023 even though they didn't even
6:55
make it out of the group stage in this last in this last World
6:58
Cup saw the third most goals in that tournament.
7:01
German footballer of the year 3 times I want to mention
7:04
Germany's manager Christian Vook.
7:06
You know we don't like to play into some of the European
7:09
stereotypes in this program, but let's just make the joke.
7:12
German folks, maybe not the most sentimental in the world, so
7:16
let's take a look at this quote by their manager.
7:18
Vook quote. All this talk about a goodbye
7:21
game is getting a bit much for me, Vook said on Friday before
7:25
the match there were two other players retiring here, Merle
7:30
Fromms and Marina Hegering, retiring from international
7:33
play, didn't get playing time, didn't get into the squad
7:36
because he wanted to see younger players play to get into the
7:40
future of the squad. So Alex Pop still breaks through
7:44
all that non sentimentality and she's such a legend.
7:47
She still gets her 15 minutes, even though I think when they
7:50
took her off at 15 minutes, I think after the match, yeah, I
7:53
got the quote here. Quote.
7:54
It was a bit short. I was looking up at the clock,
7:56
keeping eye on the time, and I thought, no, it's up already.
8:00
So Germany not here for the emotional celebrations, but Alex
8:06
Pop still gets one because that's how much of A legend.
8:08
She is real piece of work, this guy.
8:12
Shout out to Alex Pop also. How about a bronze medal to kind
8:15
of close out the international career in in the last year of
8:18
activity. And if you recall in the
8:20
Olympics, they had Pop playing everywhere, central midfield,
8:23
defensive, but she was kind of all over totally out of
8:26
position. Just kind of fill in whatever
8:27
spot was needed and kind of leaves this German side maybe
8:31
back on the upswing. I was super disappointing World
8:33
Cup. Now it kind of feels like
8:35
Germany's like back on that very upper echelon and obviously pop,
8:39
her fingerprints are all over that team and that team's DNA.
8:42
So got to salute the legend, the captain.
8:45
Great career. Yeah, and still, still more to
8:47
give for Wolfsburg. So, you know, that'll be
8:50
exciting to watch in the Champions League and to see kind
8:52
of how she rounds out her club career.
8:53
But absolutely legend in the game, in the international play.
8:57
Oh nice mid episode salute. There you go.
9:00
Had to do it for. It Speaking of this German team,
9:02
they were in action late last week against your Lionesses.
9:06
A lot of fireworks. Would you take away from that
9:08
one? Also a friendly, but you know,
9:10
maybe not so friendly. Yeah, I I mentioned the 2022
9:14
Euro final at Wembley. First time these two squads have
9:17
met at Wembley since the Lionesses took home the European
9:21
Championship. Defending was optional,
9:23
especially in the first half of this one.
9:25
There were free runners, defenders kind of getting pulled
9:29
into the middle, completely disregarding wingers running
9:33
free behind them and that's pretty much how the most of the
9:36
goals in this one were scored. I saw Hannah Hampton, English
9:40
goalkeeper, getting a little bit of stick online for a poor
9:44
performance. I will say I think there were
9:47
multiple shots that she should have held.
9:50
She looked by the probably the 50th minute, maybe even it might
9:55
even still be in the first half. She kind of had a look in her
9:57
eyes of like, yo, is this ever gonna stop?
10:00
Like she looked a little overwhelmed out there.
10:03
But that back line did her no favors.
10:06
Yeah, it was. It was pretty gross.
10:08
And I think Hampton almost let one in right before halftime.
10:12
And I think if that would have happened, you know, they had
10:14
already started Mary F herbs just in a warm up gear like
10:19
stone face, like I can't react to, you know, obviously that's
10:22
what they're looking for. But I'm used to when we see
10:25
these friendlies like the offense looking a little bit
10:27
disjointed. And I think that's kind of
10:29
flipped a little bit recently where these players play so much
10:33
on their on their club teams and they have their philosophy.
10:35
They know where to go, where to be.
10:37
And now it's like you drop them in all of a sudden, nobody knows
10:40
what to do, where to defend. And I think it like everybody's
10:42
kind of their their their head was spinning.
10:44
I mean, Millie Brights foul on and Dahlman to kind of like draw
10:47
that first penalty. You already kind of knew what
10:49
kind of game it was going to be. But yeah, Lioness has fought
10:51
back. Yeah, they got back into it and
10:53
credit to him. I think the penalty on Gavin,
10:57
the handball in the box, I think people could say like, that's a
11:00
bit soft. But I think when you go down for
11:02
the slide tackle and your arm is way up and the pass hits your
11:05
arm, yeah, you could probably get away with that.
11:07
I think we could live with that. And then Stanway hits the
11:10
absolute laser off the really nice run of play between Russo
11:13
Mead. But I'll just, I'll just say it,
11:15
man, not to be totally negative or maybe this is whatever
11:18
MyHeritage is, whatever slices of England and the UK are coming
11:22
in here and just creep in the negativity.
11:24
If you defend like that, you don't deserve to win, frankly.
11:27
And credit to him for fighting back.
11:30
But if you defend like that against Spain, you're drawing
11:33
debt. You have a literal 0% chance of
11:36
beating them. And if you defend like that
11:37
against like Japan or Brazil or the USA, obviously.
11:41
Oh my God. Yeah.
11:42
I mean, I would say probably say against the USA with triple
11:44
espresso, you defend like that, you have a zero percent chance
11:47
of winning, but you defend like that against Japan or Brazil,
11:49
you're not beating them either. Yeah, just a super disorganized
11:52
and I think I, I wouldn't expect them to look, you know, that
11:55
way, you know, heading into a major tournament.
11:56
Obviously got the EUR next year yeah, but at the end of the day,
12:00
they're friendlies. We're we're out here kicking the
12:01
ball around. Nobody wants to kind of get
12:03
embarrassed, but you know, not the way that you want to wrap
12:05
that one up against against a big time rival.
12:08
There was also some euro qualifying results last week.
12:11
Everything went kind of as expected.
12:13
Sweden went to Luxembourg, got a BIG4 no win goals from Felipe
12:16
Angel Dahl JRK Cena Blacksteinius Norway heads to
12:20
Albania, they take home A5 no win.
12:23
Frieda Leonards and Manum, she scores a goal.
12:25
Karina Shevik from Valeranga, she gets an assist at a
12:28
Hegelberg goal, assist from right in Norway, back on track
12:31
and Portugal, went to Azerbaijan and got a BIG41 win on the road.
12:35
Sporting CPS and a Capezza had a goal and an assist in that one.
12:39
All three of those teams now head back home to kind of sew up
12:42
these ties and continue their March towards the 2025 Euros.
12:47
Love A5. No victory for Norway over
12:50
Albania or anybody. Freedom Autumn's goal was a
12:53
banger. Love to see that for our
12:55
Norwegian pals out there. Let's go.
12:57
I want them. I want them to get together.
12:58
So I want this team to make a real run here in the EUR and in
13:02
the 27 World Cup. Oh yeah.
13:03
Speaking of the 27 World Cup, we're, I don't know, I feel like
13:07
we're officially in road to the 2027 World Cup here.
13:11
We're going to talk a little US women's national team.
13:13
They obviously go back-to-back against Iceland, a three to one
13:16
victory in Austin. They follow that up with a three
13:19
to one victory in Nashville. What were your big take away?
13:22
Yeah. What were your big takeaways
13:23
from from these two back-to-back three to 1 victories?
13:25
I think in the first match, you know, USA dominates the run
13:29
play. They have pretty much their full
13:31
starting 11 out there, minus Rodman, maybe minus Davidson,
13:35
depending on how you feel about her as a permanent center back
13:38
pairing with Germa. And in the second match, things
13:40
are obviously a lot closer, but that's because you're playing
13:42
without Naomi, Germa, Lindsay Iran, Sophie Smith and Emily Fox
13:46
and you're starting 11 or Alyssa Nair and goal.
13:49
And so, you know, Iceland, we've seen these a lot of these
13:52
players in the Champions League, these are good players on that
13:54
side. And they played to what I
13:56
thought was a fair half of football with Iceland up one
13:59
nil. And I know you had your eyes on
14:02
one spot in the field in particular for USA.
14:05
Yeah, for sure. And I think it's kind of easy to
14:08
overlook. I want to rewind back to the
14:09
Match 1 real quick. Yeah, if you look at it, they
14:12
spent 68 of the 90 plus minutes even on the scoreboard.
14:16
Yeah, you know, just the way that that game broke out.
14:18
So it's like USA was in control for sure and looked the better
14:22
team. But I just kind of wish and and
14:25
obviously where, you know, I just made the point earlier
14:26
about, you know, these international breaks where now
14:29
it's like, right, we're going to drop everybody in and hope that
14:31
there's chemistry there or maybe expect that there's going to be
14:34
some chemistry there. Chemistry was just not there
14:36
offensively. But watching this US side, I
14:38
just wished it was more like build up play where, you know,
14:41
we could break teams down more properly.
14:43
You know, where it's like, OK, we're just chipping away,
14:46
chipping away, chipping away. It's only a matter of time
14:48
before the floodgates kind of open at that point.
14:51
Doesn't ever seem like, you know, or doesn't seem recently
14:53
like, like this USA side is able to kind of create that kind of
14:56
situation. And it kind of got me thinking,
14:58
the number 10 role, the connector, the creator, the
15:02
person that's pinging it around like, you know, just to zoom out
15:04
a little bit too or maybe to rewind back.
15:06
I thought Kyra Walsh for England looked unbelievable.
15:09
Like, Oh yeah, ton of touches, dangerous areas have been more
15:12
advanced placed on the field. A player like that, you know, if
15:15
they are on the US diplomatic team roster, they haven't been
15:18
put in that position. We haven't quite unlocked that
15:21
skill set to be able to create that kind of situation.
15:23
Yeah, I think when you take Koran out of that role right now
15:28
and kind of looking up and down the midfielders and the
15:30
attacking midfielders that you have on this roster.
15:33
I know there are a lot of Haran skeptics out there.
15:36
And maybe not even skeptical, maybe they just they think maybe
15:39
Haran is rated higher than they would like like internationally.
15:43
But she does all those things that you talk about that she is
15:46
she is a calm passer. She will take the ball back and
15:49
be like, OK, we didn't have the angle there.
15:51
Let's reset. Let's kind of start to rebuild.
15:53
You think about to a quick aside, when you used to having
15:57
Trinity Rodman on the right wing and then she's not on the right
16:00
wing, that then takes away all those Fox and Rodman actions
16:05
that you could rely on. It takes away all those Haran
16:07
and Rodman actions that you could rely on that you could
16:10
just go to six out of 11 possessions and just wear down
16:14
the defense. And then all of a sudden you
16:15
switch it and Swanson and and Smith are attacking from the
16:19
other side. So obviously missing Rodman on
16:21
the right is gigantic. But back to that number 10 of
16:23
somebody who can kind of dictate the pace and dictate the action
16:27
Lindsay Horan's don't grow on trees.
16:29
So we we're not going to have one to put in as a backup.
16:32
And I think this leads us into a fun exercise of Lindsay Horan is
16:37
30 years old now. If you ask the question, what's
16:42
the future of the number 10 look like in the US?
16:45
WNT maybe Lindsay Horan for the 2027 World Cup is a fairly
16:50
reasonable answer, but you got to think about some other
16:53
players in that role and that leads us to maybe the draft.
16:57
I like it. Yeah.
16:58
Let's let's name some players, as we like to do before before
17:03
we get there, some funny Balandor results.
17:05
Lindsay Haran voted 5th on the list, one of only two Lyon
17:09
players. Shout out to whoever predicted
17:11
that there would be as many Lyon players as there would be
17:14
Chicago Red Stars on the top. 30th Balandor, what an upset.
17:20
But yeah, let's talk number 10s. Let's kind of explore some names
17:23
of who we think could grow into that role.
17:26
And I think I totally agree with you.
17:27
Haran looked awesome, was a difference maker, has been
17:31
playing really, really great for Lyon.
17:33
And I continue to think that people's biggest beef maybe with
17:36
Haran is like when she misses, she misses ugly.
17:39
But yes, it kind of overshadows all the really good things that
17:41
she does, you know, especially for irrational sports fans, not
17:45
like either of us. But you know, I know that those
17:47
tend to exist on the Internet, but let's get to it.
17:50
Number 10s, who's tracking, you know, towards this?
17:53
Who who could kind of fill this role?
17:55
Let's imagine Haran is maybe more of like a part time player
17:59
once we get to 2027. If I had to take the number one
18:01
pick of who I firmly believe should be the number 10 of the
18:05
future of this program with a bullet, for me, it has to be
18:08
Craig Bethune immediately walks into the NWSL, one of the most
18:12
competitive leagues you could play in and is maybe the best
18:16
passer in the league in her first season leading the league
18:19
in assists. You talked about it last episode
18:21
or maybe the episode before, still leading the league in
18:23
assists and injured her meniscus weeks and weeks ago, probably
18:28
months ago at this point. The vision, the creativity, the
18:31
scoring ability, she is the perfect connector.
18:35
And I know I got real excited early in the season and I stand
18:38
by it. Maybe you can't compare her game
18:41
directly to Lionel Messi, but you can compare her game to Luca
18:45
Moldridge. You can who's also another
18:47
ballot or whatever, you can. She'd compare her game to like a
18:50
Phil Foden type where it's like, yeah, are you a little
18:53
undersized? Sure.
18:54
But you're such a genius and manipulate the ball so well, you
18:58
could absolutely be a number 10 on the maybe the best team in
19:02
the world. Totally.
19:03
I mean, the Modrich comp is great, Foden as well.
19:06
Both of those players or all three of those players are, you
19:08
know, to borrow some basketball parlance, dribble, pass, shoot,
19:11
you know, like I think they could do all of that at a high
19:13
level and her vision is just off the charts.
19:16
I mean, she just will find you and she'll hit you with the
19:18
perfect ball. I wanted to talk a little,
19:21
Corbin Albert, also a young player, 21 years old.
19:24
I had been maybe projecting a player like Albert to be, you
19:28
know, kind of like be on the periphery of this conversation.
19:30
Yeah. But I I didn't quite see Albert,
19:33
like, really ball the way we might have been expecting.
19:36
Yeah. I thought she looked a little
19:37
hesitant. I think physically she continues
19:39
to be one of the more impressive athletes that we have from a
19:44
physicality standpoint. You just a handful to deal with.
19:46
Yeah. Not saying that she can't get
19:48
there, he's still 21 years old. A lot of growth for a player
19:51
like that as well, but kind of left me a little little
19:54
underwhelmed I think with this, with this performance against
19:56
Iceland. You make a great point.
19:58
Obviously with her being a young player, you spotted this pretty
20:02
early on when we realized at PSG she likes to get on the ball and
20:07
RIP shots. Yeah, she's like a head down
20:10
attacking player, a little more in the midfield, push the pace
20:13
like and then and then try to fire shots.
20:15
And maybe this is just a matter of preference.
20:18
I just don't think she quite has the passing creativity and even
20:22
just the kind of on the ball creativity we talk about like
20:25
dribble, pass, shoot, the dribble and the passing.
20:28
I think you would see a little more of that.
20:30
Even though she's young, a very creative football player.
20:34
You can see the flashes of it even at a young age and I'm not
20:37
quite sure she has enough of it. Yeah, she, she tried to, she
20:40
tried a very slick 1-2. Yes, I think in the second match
20:44
that was the right decision. Yeah.
20:45
But to your point, execution wise, didn't the ball didn't
20:48
find target the great idea, the right idea, but not not precise
20:52
enough to kind of like connect that in a tight area where
20:55
there's a bunch of defenders. And I think that's really what
20:57
we're talking about here. Like, yes, who's the player
20:59
that's going to be able to manipulate pretty much all of
21:02
the pieces on the chess board just with their creativity and,
21:06
you know, basically anticipation.
21:08
Anybody else that you that you think could be somebody that can
21:11
grow into that spot? We have to consider and I and I
21:14
realized the injury history is tough, but Emma Hayes loves Kat
21:17
Macario and she should because Kat Macario when she plays is an
21:21
incredible player. Now, she's 25 years old right
21:23
now. She tore her ACL in May of 2022
21:26
and didn't return until March of 2024.
21:29
Obviously a brutal, devastating injury for her.
21:33
She's looked really good in spots upon her return, but I
21:36
want to say she's played like 10 to 15 matches kind of since
21:40
March of 24. Kind of coming back.
21:42
You got to ease her back. You got to be careful with her,
21:44
got to take care of her. She has to take care of herself.
21:47
So we have to see how that load management goes.
21:50
But Emma Hayes very clearly saw her as you are a number 10 that
21:55
I can play underneath the number 9 like Myra Ramirez.
21:58
And if Emma Hayes is seeing that, we should be on board with
22:01
that one. 100% Iceland, not a bullshit team.
22:05
You know, they're they're outside the top ten, just
22:06
outside the top ten. You know, they're currently
22:08
second in their group in terms of euro qualifying.
22:10
They're one of just eight teams who have already qualified for
22:13
the EUR actually 9 counting Switzerland.
22:14
They did smack Germany 3 nil in a match that you know, didn't
22:18
mean nothing. Both teams kind of already had
22:20
the inside track to qualify, but you never want to get just
22:22
rolled like that. And then as mentioned, they hung
22:25
with the USA. I I kind of dropped that stat
22:27
about match one, but in match 2A little bit of the same.
22:30
They spent 35 minutes on even terms. the US say spent 41
22:33
minutes down a goal, you know, so that's 76 plus minutes where,
22:38
you know, the game is either even or USA is -1 We got
22:41
introduced to position less basketball over the last 10
22:43
years. USA was playing in a little bit
22:45
of position, less football in that one where it was just like,
22:48
OK, well, we're just running around, have a good time.
22:51
There was also a lot of new faces, yeah, a lot of new
22:53
players making their debuts for the US women's national team.
22:56
So that's also going to have an effect.
22:58
But yeah, not, not really what I was looking for.
23:00
But luckily, you know, a couple days here, I think we we get
23:03
another shot at watching this team versus Argentina.
23:06
For sure. So that leads me perfectly into
23:09
the last player I want to name as a possible #10 because you're
23:12
right, it's more than just the number 10.
23:14
And you know, again, we're talking about 231 victories
23:17
here. Nothing to sneeze at against the
23:18
number 13 team in the world. But again, we're talking about
23:21
USWNT. We have to pick some nits here.
23:24
We're trying to think about who is this link up player, who's
23:26
this attacking midfielder, this pure #10 who could dribble,
23:29
pass, shoot? What if you put Mallory Swanson
23:33
at #10 Now who you may ask yourself, well, I love triple
23:37
espresso. I like having Swanson, Smith,
23:39
Rodman from left to right up top.
23:41
Well, we saw a young player kind of make some really big strides
23:45
toward the end of the NWSL season and look very, very good
23:49
in these two matches versus Iceland.
23:50
And that is one teenager, Alyssa Thompson from Angel City FC.
23:54
So what if you put Thompson on the left, Smith in the middle,
23:57
Rodman on the right and now Mallory Swanson is your number
24:01
10 and can she dribble, pass and shoot?
24:04
You're damn right she can. She can do all those things
24:06
exceptionally well and her link up play and creativity, it's
24:10
exceptional. We've talked about her, she can
24:11
be a one person offense when you need her to, but her ability to
24:15
connect to those passes and play 1 twos and kind of see the whole
24:20
field is it's just elite. I mean, she didn't finish 6th in
24:24
the Balandor. Voting for nothing.
24:26
So you know, like and what's great about triple espresso?
24:29
Sophie Smith 4th, Mallory Swanson 6th, Trinity Rodman 9th
24:33
in the Balandor. Not a bad trio to have.
24:36
You put Thompson out on the left, you put Swanson in the
24:39
middle. I think he could really be
24:40
cooking with something there. Wow, I hadn't considered that.
24:44
But rewinding back, Swanson was all over the field, especially
24:48
when the second match was in contest against Iceland.
24:50
Like she was just like, no, no, I'm going to run over here and
24:52
get the ball and then we're going to restart this whole
24:54
thing. I think it's a great shout.
24:55
I think she could do it. This is probably the least
24:58
enviable part of Emma Hayes's job is figuring this out because
25:01
you can also consider Jaden Shaw, who had an incredible
25:05
goal. Like when you think about what
25:08
it took physically, athletically, creatively to be
25:11
able to do that, those two like reaching, lunging, stretching,
25:15
touch here, touch there, like you, just the audaciousness of
25:19
those angles was crazy. And then the touch to kind of
25:22
like, you know, squirt it past the keeper.
25:24
Not many players in the world, men or women, could could pull
25:27
off a move like that. It's going to be tough to keep
25:29
her off the field as we approach 2027 the supernova.
25:33
Lily Johannes yet to make a decision.
25:35
I think she could definitely be in that mix.
25:37
And I'll tell you what I thought of Lily watching these Iceland
25:40
matches because when Johannes made her debut, immediately she
25:46
looked like a player that not only could keep up, but looked
25:50
better than a good amount of players on the field in that
25:53
moment. Within that context.
25:55
We saw some players make their debut for USA over the course of
25:59
these two matches. Some of them, you know, you
26:01
know, elevated. But I think Alyssa Thompson's a
26:03
great shout in terms of a player who obviously she was on the 23
26:06
World Cup roster. So she's not making her debut,
26:08
but left off the Olympic roster, still 19 years old and looked
26:12
the part, look the part of a superstar, look the part of a
26:15
player that you could that could just drop right in there.
26:18
I mean, playing like somebody that does not want to be left
26:20
off another USWNT roster for the next decade plus.
26:24
And what Lily did in her debut should have her in that mix
26:27
because she was, you know, that level of explosive, that level
26:31
of creative, that level of productive.
26:33
It wasn't just the potential. She actually, like produced
26:36
results on the pitch. I think she had that goal and
26:38
assist in just, I don't know, 15 or so minutes time.
26:40
But yeah, like I said, Emma Hayes, tough, tough job.
26:43
Hopefully all these players are in great, great form once we get
26:46
to 27. And then it'll just be a matter
26:48
of like mixing and matching, making sure that we can develop
26:50
that chemistry. Yeah, and she's going to have no
26:52
shortage of options. I think we know that from this
26:55
player pool that she's going to have a lot of tough choices to
26:58
make. But, you know, that's why she
27:00
gets paid the salary she does, and that's why she's regarded as
27:03
one of the best football managers in the world, is
27:05
because you have to trust her to make those decisions.
27:08
Even if you might have your questions about the federation
27:10
itself, which I do, and I think many people do, But you have the
27:15
gold standard at the helm. So you got to trust her to do
27:18
this, right? And I'm glad we kind of landed
27:21
on the young player. You know, they're the debutantes
27:25
or, you know, like thinking thinking about maybe the future
27:27
of this tournament. I want to conduct a different
27:30
type of mini draft here. I'm very curious to hear who you
27:34
thought. I don't want to say played their
27:36
way on to the roster. But you know, we like to say,
27:39
OK, a name's written in Sharpie, maybe something that's written
27:41
in in a light pen. Was there anybody that you're
27:44
like, OK, this player now is sort of like in the inner circle
27:47
of players we need to be thinking about as like a core
27:50
player here going forward? I think Alyssa Thompson's a
27:52
great one. What'd you see from Alyssa
27:54
Thompson? Or was there somebody else that
27:56
you you thought was kind of on that same level that just is is
27:58
now in that in that inner circle?
28:00
I would say I don't think there's a player who played on
28:03
the same level in that category as Alyssa Thompson.
28:07
She looked fantastic. Her club form has looked great.
28:11
If you got the ITC record book handy on that Emma Sears goal,
28:15
the whole thing starts with Alyssa Thompson just ripping a
28:20
shot off the post. Oh yeah, creates complete havoc.
28:23
It falls to Sophie Smith, she tries to get it onto her right
28:25
foot, it gets blocked, falls to Sears, Sears knocks at home.
28:29
I think Alyssa Thompson should get an assist for that because
28:32
that it like the whole nothing happens without her getting the
28:35
ball into a good position and just firing a shot for Angel
28:40
City. We're probably going on 8 weeks
28:43
now or so. Something, something in that
28:44
ballpark where she has just looked better and better and
28:47
better every single week. The past, the shooting, the
28:50
vision, she finds the space, she creates a little space.
28:54
And once she has that space for a shot or a pass, she has a
28:58
pinpoint accuracy that really kind of shows.
29:02
The 2023 World Cup was a rough go for her.
29:05
And even stretches of the NWSL season the past two year, year
29:09
and a half or whatever we call a year and 2/3 or whatever it's
29:12
been. She's a teenager out there
29:13
playing against NWSL athletes. She was having a hard time and
29:16
some of those matches keeping up, it appears like, and I'm
29:19
glad you said she played like somebody who doesn't look like
29:21
she's gonna be left off a roster.
29:23
It looks like those days of her being really physically
29:26
overwhelmed might be in the rearview mirror.
29:28
Yeah, I mean, obviously she's she's a lean stature kind of
29:31
player, but the ball just flies off her boot.
29:35
Like she's got dynamite in those boots.
29:37
It's it's insane. And I think as a two way player
29:40
she was impressive. Yeah.
29:41
Like she had that one play where Lindsay Haran turns it over,
29:45
left winger Delia Zoomers ends up with the ball and Alyssa
29:48
Thompson just chased down block style was like, Nope, I'm taking
29:52
this right back. She starts to play maybe 6-7
29:54
yards behind, runs her down, wins the ball back, a player
29:57
that looked like was like twice her size.
29:59
She is just tenacious. And I think just to see a player
30:02
like that playing two way football, incredible.
30:05
And I'm not sure if this was the catalyst, but Alyssa Thompson
30:09
left off the Olympic roster and, you know, obviously wasn't in in
30:12
in the form to, you know, really, you know, make the
30:14
stride. It wasn't a lot of people out
30:15
here losing sleep over, you know, Alyssa not being on the
30:17
roster but left off after being included in the World Cup.
30:20
I wonder if that sort of lit a fire in her and she's like, OK,
30:23
this is over. Like now.
30:24
I mean, I'm ready. I'm here now.
30:26
She's playing like a player that believes that she belongs right
30:29
now, today A. 100% and I think she does.
30:32
Absolutely, I mean, and she showed it.
30:34
Who else stood out to you of, you know, the the youngins, the
30:37
newcomers as a name that's got to be got to be in that mix for
30:40
27 and that's super early mix is super duper early mix for 27.
30:45
Yeah, What can you do? I mean, it's international
30:47
break. We got to talk about these
30:48
things. I want to just get.
30:49
I just want to give and go real quick to you.
30:52
What if I say these words to you?
30:53
Emily? Sam's Naomi Gurma, center back
30:56
duo of the future. That's a nightmare for every
31:01
other team. Give me a second.
31:04
I got the Sharpie out here. You asked me for the ITC record
31:06
book earlier. Don't have it handy.
31:08
It's in a it's in a drawer here somewhere.
31:10
But I've got the Sharpie and I'm going to make a note to myself.
31:13
I think Emily Sam's absolute lock, 25 years old, got into a
31:16
fun debate on Twitter about who the defender of the year was.
31:19
There was somebody making the case for Germa.
31:21
And I'm just like, you know, Emily Sam's best defender on a
31:24
historically great defense with regards to this league and what
31:27
they've been able to do. And she's angry, the whole
31:29
thing, playing a ton of minutes and then you see it on the
31:32
field. Great example of a player that
31:34
looks better than a lot of other players on the pitch is playing
31:37
at the level, is playing above the level.
31:39
I think the Olympics experience was huge.
31:42
Absolutely approaching the if we're having the cornerstone,
31:44
the future potential cornerstone conversation.
31:47
Gotta be on that list from a defensive standpoint, the same
31:50
way an Elissa Thompson would be on that list from an offensive
31:52
standpoint. Yeah, great call by you to say
31:54
that. She just looks better than other
31:57
players on the pitch. When 2 players meet at the ball
32:01
and one of them is Emily Sam's, Emily Sam's is probably the one
32:05
winning the ball in those situations just so consistently.
32:09
You know, Tierna Davidson is a really good and smart center
32:14
back pairing with Naomi Germa. She is in for an absolute battle
32:18
to hold on to that position. I think.
32:20
I think, I think Emily Sam's if like you said, best player on
32:24
the best defense in one of the best leagues in the world, that
32:27
has to matter and I think it does, does for Emma Hayes.
32:30
Even today it's I feel like it's got to be Sam's.
32:32
I mean, she's she's playing out of her like she's like really
32:37
wrecking the game. Yes, you know, the same way a
32:39
Gurma does. And I think like just to have
32:41
them play together And I like like Gurma's in my mind more of
32:45
like a well positioned, smart, great passer, sort of like
32:49
controlled the tempo type defender.
32:51
Sam's is just a dog. Like she's just going to maul
32:54
you. There was a point, I think right
32:56
before halftime or maybe right after halftime in the second
32:58
match where Jones Diltier has like a real look and Sam's just
33:03
stonewalls her, which was like really incredible to see.
33:05
Quick aside on that too. I had to switch over from the
33:08
English telecast to Telemundo. I couldn't take any more.
33:11
I love Julie fatty, love you Julie, but couldn't take any
33:13
more of Julie Fatty calling her John's daughter, like John's
33:17
son, John's daughter. I was like, this is it's just I
33:20
could. I was like, who's daughter?
33:23
But yeah, that's that's neither here nor there.
33:26
Foudy's great. Yeah, of course.
33:28
Yeah. And I will say it was funny
33:30
there. There was a moment too.
33:32
But obviously Foudy's absolute legend.
33:34
I did think it was funny at one point.
33:35
She goes, yeah, John's daughter. She's a nice little player.
33:38
And I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, she plays for Wolfsburg,
33:41
you know, she's actually very, very good young player.
33:44
And I think, and I honestly, I to be fair to Foudy, I think
33:47
that's what she meant, is that she's a young player who's still
33:49
developing. But yeah, I just thought it was
33:51
funny to to describe her as a a nice little player.
33:54
And I was like, well, yeah, you know, Wolfsburg, they tend to,
33:57
they tend to have those. Father would know better than
33:58
me, though. Also want to give a quick shout
34:00
out to Emma Sears, 23 years old. I loved that she got the goal
34:04
late just because it was so instinctive.
34:07
Yes, You know, and I I like when players are not thinking too
34:10
much. And I think player making their
34:12
debut or kind of like very early in their international career,
34:14
you know, you have the tendency to maybe defer or take the extra
34:17
touch. You know, you lose the chance.
34:19
But she was just like, no, right here, boom, let it RIP.
34:22
Perfect placement. That's a player that I think we
34:24
have to watch as well in Hemispheres.
34:26
Yeah, absolutely. Perfectly played off the left
34:28
foot. Like we talked about the
34:29
sequence that gets us there. Sophie Smith tries to get the
34:32
ball onto her right foot after the Alyssa Thompson rocket.
34:35
Smith gets it on to the right, gets blocked by the defender and
34:38
Sears just steps right up. Calm as you like and really got
34:42
all of it. And it gets all the way through
34:44
the ball on her left foot. Yeah.
34:46
And, you know, a lot of credit to her.
34:47
They talked about her some on the broadcast.
34:49
You know, scored 25 goals in her career at Ohio State. 8 Let's
34:53
go. Gets drafted 28th in this year's
34:56
draft, the final draft in the history of the NWSL.
34:59
That's pretty deep into the second round.
35:01
So, you know, chip on the shoulder ready to come out and
35:04
play good size. 5 foot 9 has five goals and an assist in 25
35:08
matches played for Racing Louisville.
35:11
Definitely an interesting player that like you think about US
35:14
women's national team and, you know, in the comments, please
35:17
correct me if I'm wrong. Stacked full of blue chippers,
35:20
you know #1 picks, players who play over, over in Europe.
35:23
You don't get a lot of underdogs making this squad because it is
35:26
so full of elite players and maybe Emma Sears.
35:30
You know, I understand some athletes don't want to be called
35:32
an underdog, but we've seen how the NWSL draft works in recent
35:36
years. Kind of what we tried to prep
35:38
for it and have looked back getting picked 28th.
35:41
Usually teams are able to kind of identify the talent early.
35:45
A lot of teams have to be looking at themselves right now
35:47
going we could use Emissars and we probably could have used her
35:51
a lot earlier than the 28th pick.
35:53
For sure. It's like, how do we how do we
35:54
miss out on that? Yeah, a couple of the players I
35:56
wanted to mention that I thought definitely had some moments.
35:59
Olivia Moultrie, yeah, Yasmine Ryan, I thought looked really
36:02
good in spots as well. All in all, lot to get excited
36:05
about, lot to kind of keep our eye on, you know, some stuff
36:08
that you know, some good stuff, some bad stuff.
36:10
It is a little nitpicky, you know, if we really want to be a
36:13
little self critical. But you know, on the same note,
36:16
they weren't playing in Spain out there, they weren't playing
36:17
in England. They're playing a team that they
36:19
should have been able to handle relatively easy at home.
36:21
And we'll see what this USW and T roster looks like against
36:24
Argentina coming up here in a couple of days.
36:26
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
36:28
I think that's it. I think most people will
36:31
probably be listening to this. Maybe after the Argentina game,
36:34
maybe shortly before the Argentina game.
36:37
Let us know, you know, who did we miss?
36:39
Thinking about the future #10 who did we, we miss?
36:41
Thinking about young players who are going to kind of rise up and
36:44
make this roster. I, I will say real quick, if I,
36:46
if I can do one more thing to hit Laura Harvey up here in
36:49
Seattle has spoken extremely highly of Jordan Bug, another
36:53
center back, and has talked about her as a potential
36:55
international player. This center backroom, this whole
36:58
back line could get real crowded real fast.
37:01
But Jordan Bug's only 17, so she's going to have, you know, a
37:04
few years to get up. But man, she looks really good
37:07
towards the end of the NWSL season.
37:09
I guess maybe the final take away is a lot of good players in
37:12
this country. What a time to be alive and
37:14
special shout out to to great friend of the show Bridie
37:18
O'Toole busy watching women's soccer who had a great breakdown
37:21
of the first Iceland matchup. Go subscribe to her pod.
37:25
It's an incredible show. Great watch, very insightful.
37:28
Shout out to Bridie. Come back soon.
37:30
We we, we miss you around here. Yeah.
37:33
Where you been? What are you doing?
37:34
What are you busy doing? A bunch of cool stuff.
37:37
Geez. Big time nuts over here, you
37:40
know, like and I think we did it.
37:42
There's been another episode into the channel.
37:43
Sincere thank you, thank you, thank you for watching,
37:44
listening, following, liking, subscribing, just playing
37:46
hanging out with your boys and friends of the show hanging out
37:49
with them too. We appreciate it.
37:50
This is a this is a family affair here at the ITC.
37:53
Remember to like if you liked and subscribe or follow into the
37:55
channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast or wherever you like to
37:58
watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
38:00
favorite podcast app, links to all of our socials and the show
38:03
notes of this episode, and a big thank you to my coast as well,
38:06
Mr. Grant Engel for being pretty much the perfect center back
38:10
partner as your boys lock things down at the ITC.
38:14
I appreciate you man. Likewise, buddy, I appreciate
38:17
the shout. I would like to say that
38:18
obviously we're operating into the channels, but we stop
38:22
anybody from scoring into the channels.
38:24
I don't even know where I'm going with this.
38:26
If we're a center back pairing, we're a good center back
38:28
pairing. Appreciate you.
38:30
Appreciate everybody for hanging out with us.
38:32
We will see you.