Transcript

0:05
Kate, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about
0:08
women's football. I'm your host, Dean of the
0:10
Suspicious. And as always, I'm joined by my
0:12
coast, Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:16
Buddy, I am feeling fantastic. As we have mentioned for
0:20
probably folks, I'm guessing if you're watching this, maybe you
0:22
watched Part 1 when we talk about when we preview some of
0:26
these, these next matches coming up in the UEFA Women's Champions
0:28
League. I mean, we just couldn't be more
0:30
back. There's just no way for two
0:34
dudes talking about the UEFA Women's Champions League who
0:36
live in America to be more back. I, I think, yeah, we're back.
0:42
It's back. Couldn't be more back.
0:45
I totally agree with you. We're at Max back and we're now
0:49
in Part 2 of like, like just the layers upon layers just keep
0:54
adding up. We've got another 4 awesome
0:57
match ups to talk through the Thursday slate.
0:59
If you missed Part 1, we talked about all five Wednesday
1:03
matchups loaded Wednesday sleep. What do we have here?
1:06
Valerie Wolfsburg, Leon Zing, Poulton, Roma, Barcelona, Louvin
1:11
FC-20 and what could be the match of the day without about
1:13
that Or actually we talked about that in Part 1, so we won't be
1:15
talking about that later. Let's get to Thursday. 4 big fun
1:19
matchups to talk to big clubs, big club Thursday we're going to
1:23
learn some stuff. We've got the Champions of
1:25
Germany facing the Champions of Italy, the Champions of Europe
1:29
facing the Champions of Portugal.
1:31
I mean, like, this is a loaded, loaded slate.
1:34
You know, maybe the silver medalist in France and silver
1:36
medalist in space, like a ton of places where we can get started.
1:40
Mr. Grant Angle, where should we get started?
1:42
Well, look, I think it's well established on this podcast that
1:45
I am the Barcelona guy. However, my best pal is the Real
1:51
Madrid guy. So let's just go ahead and do
1:53
this. Let let's start with 1 Perry's
1:57
Angerman verse Real Madrid. Goodness gracious.
2:01
Obviously a lot to talk about the Real Madrid's V6 goals on
2:08
Roma in, in in a great display of we've got a lot of good
2:13
players, you know, and I think in a lot of ways we've been
2:15
waiting for this. I actually went back and looked
2:19
because even a player like Caroline Weir, you know, who,
2:22
who had that kind of sort of devastating injury, missed a ton
2:24
of time. I went back she, she was ranked
2:26
44th on the 2023 guardian list of top 100 footballers and we
2:31
just hadn't seen that in the Champions League, right?
2:33
You know, like, you know, that she, she's got the skills you've
2:35
seen in flashes, But now it kind of feels like, wow, this, this
2:38
might be Caroline Weir just being like in the middle of
2:41
everything and like everything happening around her in a
2:44
really, in a really great way. Linda Caicedo in the in the in
2:47
that first match. Unbelievable.
2:49
Evan Navarro has been awesome this season.
2:52
I mean, they're just Sarah, Sarah Debritz, always a player
2:56
that I very much enjoyed. You know, didn't get a ton of
2:59
minutes at Leon or got like kind of like low leverage minutes.
3:02
So awesome to see a player like that logging almost 70 minutes
3:05
to open the Champions League connects on 36 and 39 passes,
3:09
four chances created for debits. I think could really find a home
3:14
in that Real Madrid midfield. But like a great performance,
3:17
like kind of what we were waiting for, you know, You know,
3:19
me and my fellow, my fellow Blancos and Blancos, probably
3:23
we're waiting for this one. And you should be I I mean, I
3:26
think there's no real like, you know, it's, it's been discussed
3:30
that written Real Madrid as a club wanted to throw their hat
3:34
in the ring of playing in Liga F, You know, pardon me, my
3:37
ignorance. If one of our pals could remind
3:39
me. They kind of they acquired a, a
3:42
Liga F team and then just kind of microwaved it and just put
3:45
them in Real Madrid shirts and just said, Hey, we're going to
3:48
start investing in women's football.
3:50
If there's one thing we know about Real Madrid, there's no
3:53
half stepping like they're going to try to go out here and try to
3:57
win trophies because they are Real Madrid.
4:00
So when they pick up an Alva Redondo, when they develop Linda
4:03
Caseo, when they pick up Felipe Angel Doll, Sarah Dodrance,
4:07
these type of players, like they are here to lift trophies and
4:11
they have an incredibly tall task playing in the same league
4:15
as Barcelona. But like what's Real Madrid
4:18
going to do be like, oh, well, I guess we can't beat Barcelona.
4:21
No, that's not in their DNA. They're going to try to they're
4:25
going to try to make this this club as great as they possibly
4:27
can, this women's team as great as they possibly can.
4:30
And I think, you know, in that 62 drubbing, we've watched them
4:34
grow up a little bit just in these past two years of the
4:37
Champions League, like when we first started covering it in
4:39
2324, it was disappointing. And then last year in the 2425
4:43
Champions League, they got better.
4:46
I don't think they're accepting anything less than another step
4:49
in this tournament. I think it's got to be
4:51
quarterfinals for Madrid, especially chasing, you know,
4:55
Barcelona, and they probably want to see if they can crack
4:58
into the semi somehow. They certainly have the talent.
5:01
You know, you mentioned, you know, Linda Caseedo, 3 assists
5:04
in this one, five chances created and just, I mean,
5:07
dazzling. Not a player that you could do a
5:09
whole lot with. I think.
5:10
I think Naomi Feller has been really good as well, you know,
5:14
just getting into dangerous areas, being like really
5:17
creative. And we talked about somebody
5:19
that seems looking risk averse and she's the opposite of that.
5:21
She'll take a crack. You know, it doesn't really
5:23
matter if she's got if she's got a little crevice, she's going to
5:25
try to make something happen and super skilled.
5:28
I just really like this team. I think, you know, this is a
5:32
team that I think has the belief.
5:34
I think that first season 23 where we were covering didn't
5:37
seem like they had that belief. I think they were really very
5:40
much in Barcelona shadow, still in Barcelona shadow, but I think
5:44
they at least feel like they can punch with them.
5:47
And we've seen them, you know, compete with Barcelona, stay on
5:50
the same pitch. This is a different a different
5:52
look, you know, Barsa. But again, this is a long a long
5:55
tournament and there's time for Madrid to to grow into this
5:58
tournament and they're heading to Paris to take on PSG.
6:03
Olga Carmona revenge match. A lot of revenge on the on the
6:06
on the docket, you know, this this week, but we'll see.
6:09
You know, you know what what that looks like PSG obviously
6:12
coming off that disappoint. We talked about that a bunch in
6:15
Part 1. What do you think this matchup
6:18
has in store for us? I mentioned it in Part 1 when we
6:22
talked about Perry FC and now we're obviously talking about
6:24
the Gigantic. Club.
6:25
Oh wait, can we drink something? Whoa.
6:29
I mean, you don't need to tell me twice, buddy, Are you
6:32
thirsty? Because we could just make this
6:33
happen. Super parched.
6:37
I'm not quite in knockout stage form, I'm still in qualifying
6:41
form. No, it's totally understandable.
6:44
I am drinking and you know, how fitting is it?
6:47
They were talking about Real Madrid.
6:48
We're talking about like a team from a Spanish speaking country.
6:53
I'm drinking El Suenito out of Seattle and even more
6:59
appropriate night shift. This is a delicious brewery in
7:03
the Fremont neighborhood of lovely Seattle, WA.
7:07
And they just make some. They have some heaters, dude.
7:10
It's an absolutely phenomenal brewery.
7:13
El Suenito I think that's like a little little sleep or A Little
7:16
Dream or a little sleepy. Yeah, No, it, it, it matches, I
7:21
think. I think it matches the motif of
7:23
the can for the. Sleepy boys podcast as well.
7:26
I mean could the synergy be synergizing anymore?
7:29
I mean, Jesus, I didn't even realize that.
7:32
Yeah, I mean, I feel bad that we get a free plug, but I'll talk.
7:36
About that one later. So, you know, look with with
7:39
PSGI thought Jennifer Etchageni looked looked good in some
7:44
spots. Jackie Grunden had a tough own
7:46
goal versus Wolfsburg. I'm I'm pardon me, I'm referring
7:49
to PSG smash versus versus Wolfsburg.
7:52
But what I think we might discover here, I'm going to go
7:55
out on a limb and I don't think it's just the El Suito beverage
7:58
talking here. I think we might be in a spot
8:01
where we see that Real Madrid might be on a different tier
8:05
than PSG. I'm telling you, man, I'm I'm a
8:08
little down on PSG after seeing that performance versus
8:13
Wolfsbury. And I don't have any reason to
8:16
doubt Real Madrid. We already talked about it like
8:18
they have a lot of good players. They seem to have a good plan.
8:21
I don't know, man, I have a feeling if I could just go out,
8:26
I'm going to go out and make the prediction.
8:27
I think this might be a three one in favor of Las Blancas in
8:33
France because I think the gap might be that big.
8:38
You know, Real Madrid dominated Antrac Frankfurt 5 to 1 on
8:42
aggregate to make the league phase.
8:45
That's not a bullshit team. That team was like pushing for
8:48
Cranville to see the title way, way down the stretch last year
8:51
probably was as good or maybe I don't know.
8:55
I would have liked to see PSG Antrac Frankfurt, you know, down
8:57
the stretch out of neutral field last season.
8:59
But PSG, my issue with PSG, this is a high variance team.
9:04
You know, you don't, you don't really get teams that can beat
9:08
Real Madrid, you know, two, one or two nil at home and that can
9:12
also lose 4 nil to Wolfsburg. You know, it kind of look like
9:15
the same team, you know, So I, I think that's probably what PSG
9:19
is going to look like. I think we're going to get a lot
9:21
of up and down performances. We're going to this team's going
9:24
to look like a, you know, a team that could crack the semifinals
9:28
or a team that's not going to make the top 12.
9:31
And I think they might look like that in the same match or they
9:33
might look like that in this match against Real Madrid.
9:35
So we'll we'll be watching and it'll just be a matter of can
9:38
they put it together, you know, enough over the next five
9:43
matches to kind of stay alive. That's kind of like the game
9:45
that they're playing because they've got, let's see who
9:48
they've got, you know, down the stretch.
9:51
They're hosting Real Madrid. They've got to go to Manchester
9:54
United, then PSG hosts Bayern Munich, then they host Louvin,
10:00
who we've talked about, and then they finish the league face at
10:03
Benfica so. That's a tough stretch.
10:07
There's a lot of losable, withdrawable, you know, dates on
10:12
the calendar. They're going to have to, you
10:13
know, they're going to need a solid performance against Real
10:17
Madrid because if they come out and they lay another egg at
10:19
home, you could see the spirits of that side, especially a
10:24
truncated league phase. Again, only 10 weeks.
10:27
This thing wraps up in December. So I mean, if you're, if you're
10:30
already way, way behind the 8 ball, you can see a team being
10:33
like, maybe we kind of switch gears a little bit and this is
10:36
not the year that that we kind of make it happen Two matches,
10:38
probably a little early, but if they if they kind of no show
10:41
this one, I, I could see some of the air getting let out of those
10:44
sales. I think that's totally fair.
10:47
And I think you know who will be oddly disappointed by that will
10:51
be Lyon, because they Lyon is in a position to now be looking at
10:55
Perry FC and Perry Zaman and looking at them going, don't you
10:59
embarrass us. And they might just be
11:01
embarrassing them out here, like they might just be embarrassing
11:05
the Premier League. And you talked about it in the
11:07
last episode, which obviously everybody should go watch.
11:09
It's absolutely free on YouTube. I don't know why you would not
11:11
watch. It is that we might be in a
11:14
space where people who have loved to dog on Liga F and say
11:19
that Barcelona's out here beating a bunch of plumbers,
11:22
that maybe Liga F, it gets to kind of walk around here and
11:24
say, hey, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, not so bad, huh?
11:28
Maybe our league is better than everybody thought.
11:30
Yeah. And they could, they could be,
11:32
it could be evolving that way. That could be what we're seeing
11:35
happening in real time. But I do want to talk about the
11:37
next matchup on the Thursday slate.
11:39
Benfica hosting the holders, My Arsenal Benfica obviously not
11:45
not the I don't think either of these teams the start that they
11:48
were looking for. What do you even expect?
11:53
I mean, are we expecting like a like an Arsenal bounce back?
11:56
Usually in this spot, Arsenal will kind of like lay a big
12:00
number on a Benfica side that doesn't really have the same
12:03
bite offensively, you know, not a ton to be scared of.
12:07
I can see Arsenal getting a little bit busy in this one, but
12:09
Benfica is tough. Their physical, you know,
12:12
they're going to be there for all those duels.
12:14
They're going to make you feel that they they play with a ton
12:17
of pride. But I think the town disparity
12:19
probably just too big. What's going to be your
12:21
expectation with this one? I think all of our our pals who
12:25
might listen to sports radio, not necessarily American sports
12:28
radio, because I know they do these, they use these clever
12:31
tricks over in Europe on Talk Sport and other and various
12:36
other networks. So this is going to be me as a
12:40
Manchester City supporter and just a giant Arsenal hater.
12:44
Here's here's the trick that I'm going to use.
12:47
Arsenal better win this match big where they or they should be
12:51
disappointed or maybe this Champions League won't go like
12:55
it did last time where like a lot of things had to go right
12:57
for them to lift the trophy. Yes, they lifted, they lift,
13:01
they lifted the trophy. Congratulations to them.
13:04
But why are we talking about old shit?
13:05
I'm talking about this year. So like I, I think if your
13:09
arsenal, yes, like you, you made some unforced errors and, and
13:14
you, you know, and you kind of got, you made some unforced
13:18
errors versus Lyon and you can take something away from that
13:21
and be like, hey, if we play play Lyon again in the knockout
13:24
round, we should be better. But also, why were you so
13:28
nervous making those, those errors against Lyon?
13:31
And so you got to beat Benafica. Sorry, go ahead.
13:35
No real quick on that. You you're totally right that
13:38
the the mistakes were the difference in the match.
13:42
But for most of the rest of the match, Leon also outplayed
13:45
Arsenal. The big problem like you know it
13:48
like they didn't score in those like out playing moments.
13:50
They scored in the mistake moments.
13:52
So it's like, yeah, you could eliminate those mistakes, but
13:56
doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win that match. 100%
13:59
and so well before. Before I say that though, I do
14:04
want to point out that Caitlin Ford could have had the
14:08
equalizer verse Lyon in that second-half.
14:12
I think it was relatively early in the second-half.
14:14
Sorry, my memory is a little cruddy on some of this stuff,
14:18
but you can't take a moral victory after you lift the
14:23
Champions League trophy. There are no moral victories
14:26
against Lyon. If your Arsenal, like you have
14:28
to be like, OK, we lost, it's a it's a fine margin.
14:33
We got to do better. So I it goes back to my hater
14:36
opinion that you should beat Benfica by two goals.
14:39
And if you don't, then maybe you need to be thinking about what
14:43
the rest of this tournament is going to look like for you.
14:45
Yeah, I mean, Benfica, didn't you know, they kind of hung in
14:50
some spots. So you look at touch, you know,
14:53
they were they were able to advance the ball essentially
14:55
versus Juventus touches in the in the opposing half, 146 to
14:59
121, Benfica sort of in the ballpark.
15:02
Touches in the opposition box against Juventus, 3523 in the
15:05
ballpark again, but just four chances created for Benfica.
15:09
So it's like they've got the possession, they can kind of
15:11
knock it around, they can kind of hold it a little bit, but tip
15:14
of the spear just kind of not there.
15:17
And against this Arsenal side, unless it's a super spirited
15:20
effort, I think it could be two goals would be that would
15:25
probably be like on par for what I'd be expecting even on the
15:29
road. But I could absolutely see
15:31
Arsenal kind of like hanging a big number here and just kind of
15:33
getting on track mentally. This is a spot where this isn't
15:37
a team that you haven't necessarily circled on the
15:40
calendar. Could be a tricky environment,
15:42
but this is a get right game for sure.
15:45
I so I kind of agree with you there.
15:47
I'm going to I'm going to join you in putting a little pressure
15:49
on Arsenal to kind of put together a good showing here.
15:52
But I do want to scoot ahead another really intriguing match
15:56
up, Atletico Madrid who obviously smacks St.
16:00
Bolton and gets smacked by Barcelona in their in their home
16:02
league hosting Manchester United who who also made their day
16:07
debut last week in this tournament.
16:10
What are you expecting in this one?
16:12
If I had a dollar for every time I watched an Atletico Madrid
16:16
match and said, quote, I like the look of this Atletico team,
16:21
then I would have at least 5 or $6.
16:25
You know, over the past few years of us doing this and me
16:28
watching them in League F and now watching them qualify for
16:31
this league phase and, and playing last week, I, I like
16:34
that they are just committed to, we're going to run directly at
16:39
you up and down the wings. We're going to play the ball
16:42
into the middle. We're going to try to make every
16:44
time we make those fast runs down the wings, we're going to
16:48
try to make at least two players available in the middle on two
16:51
different levels to try to score and make your defenders make
16:55
difficult choices. I like all of that stuff.
16:59
You know, in in Part 1, you and I talked about we had some some
17:02
higher expectations for Saint Paul and our pals from Austria
17:06
and Atletico Madrid made it very clear they are in a different
17:11
tier. I don't think there's any
17:13
question about that. But now the question is going
17:17
back to our this country versus this country, this league versus
17:21
this league. Manchester.
17:23
United has a hell of a lot of good players in their own right,
17:26
and that Letty has to go out there and prove hey, man, you,
17:30
we're on the same tier as you. Yeah, and I.
17:33
Think you know, it's going to be a wild environment as well.
17:36
I mean, this is there's got to be some excitement for I'd letty
17:40
like, you know, you, you win a match 6 nil you, you catch 3
17:44
points. You got to you have a plastic
17:45
school differential. You're probably feeling like
17:48
you've got a shot right to advance to certainly be part of
17:53
that top 12 mix and then see how long you can survive there.
17:56
So very excited to see what happens from that standpoint.
18:00
They're their attackers are just very, you know, aggressive,
18:04
willing to make runs. You know, they they play
18:07
together, like there's a great connectivity kind of in every
18:10
direction. A lot of times you'll just see
18:12
the ball kind of going player A to player BA to BA to BA to B.
18:16
But like, I think athletic, they mix it up really, really well
18:20
and they just kind of keep defenses on their heels.
18:22
Now when you're thinking about the defenses in Manchester
18:25
United, you have to talk about Miley CCA, who is kind of making
18:31
a real leap, you know as a footballer, like just impossible
18:37
not to notice what she's doing defensively, passing wise.
18:41
I pulled together some numbers against Valarenga.
18:45
She drew 3 fouls, which was the most in the match.
18:48
She completed 130 of 132 passes. That's. 2 of 100 and. 32 passes,
18:56
short passes 3333 for 33 medium 77 for 77 long passes of 30 plus
19:04
yards. She was 20 for 22.
19:08
That's unbelievable distribution in the WSL.
19:12
She leads the league in middle third touches as a center back.
19:16
Just fun, you know, like, and then she always, she also leads
19:19
the league in the number of medium passes completed with
19:23
256. She's completing those at a
19:25
93.4% clip in the WSL. Again, that's passing between 15
19:29
and 30 yards. So she's absolutely automatic.
19:32
She's a headache defensively. Her intensity's off the charts.
19:36
She's clearly putting imprints on that team and this could just
19:42
be the year. We're just like this player has
19:44
to be considered like in the upper echelon or probably is
19:48
tracking towards that. I mean, it's just playing a
19:51
dominant style of like. I mean, it's awesome watching
19:55
her play. She's having such an awesome
19:56
impact. I mean, look.
19:59
For everybody who's kind of like joining us new, first of all,
20:03
welcome aboard. Thank you for rocking with us.
20:05
But we are lucky enough to have the privilege of, and I'll say
20:09
maybe I'm getting a little too familiar here, but I feel like
20:12
we're friends with Champions League winner Leanne Sanderson,
20:16
Arsenal legend, you know, great for sure.
20:19
Friend of the show, no doubt. I think we could call her, call
20:23
her a friend and great radio presenter, broadcast presenter
20:27
over in England and here in the NWSL.
20:30
But I, I think it was her just very recently who just said
20:33
Serena, Serena Wiegmann for the English national team just has
20:37
to look at Mya Leticia, you know, 23 years old.
20:41
Is this going to be a cornerstone player?
20:44
And I don't mean to put words in Leanne's mouth, but I know
20:46
Leanne was just saying Wiegmann has to look at Mya Leticia
20:50
moving forward as an important player for the English national
20:53
team. She has a gigantic, potentially
20:57
gigantic future in front of her. And she and she's plays that way
21:01
right now. So you know, me as a Manchester
21:04
City supporter, begrudgingly, I am giving respect to this
21:08
Manchester United team. And I think we, you know, we've
21:11
talked about it. People talk about the the
21:13
concept of this in the United States.
21:15
This team is beating the respect out of me because every time I
21:18
watch him play, I'm like, man, I really wish this team wasn't as
21:22
good as they are because I really don't care for them, to
21:25
be honest. But man, they got a lot of good
21:28
players as as we like to say, yeah.
21:31
It's. It's awesome watching, you know,
21:32
molar on one side and just park, you know, kind of on the other
21:35
and Turlin and, you know, just kind of everything they're
21:38
doing. Riviera's a good, exciting young
21:40
player. Like they?
21:41
Yeah, I don't know. It's it's hard to to.
21:43
Dislike what they've got going on.
21:45
PTJ obviously and goal, I don't know what time it is there.
21:48
It's not that hard to. Dislike it, but I understand
21:50
what you mean. I let's we can root for the
21:52
players. Let's root for the players.
21:54
We like these players, nothing against players right, all
21:57
right, so we'll see we'll see we're not really going to be
21:59
rooting for any of these teams. I think we're just going to be
22:01
locked in. I'd let the Manchester United
22:04
really fun, fun, super fun match up, which leads just one more
22:08
match up on that Thursday slate. Bayern Munich, champions of
22:12
Germany, Juventus, champions of Italy, another chance for some
22:18
real. There's a there's a chance that
22:19
this one's a little bit of a snooze fest, but there's also a
22:22
chance there's some fireworks in this one.
22:23
Because I think, I don't know, I think I think both these teams
22:26
are going to take this match up a little bit seriously that
22:28
they'll, they'll, they'll take a little slice of that, that, you
22:31
know, kind of like nationalistic, you know,
22:33
approach of like, let's represent our league the right
22:36
way. You know, let's kind of make a
22:37
statement here. Match day 2.
22:39
Nothing huge, huge on the line, but let's let's come out and
22:43
like really stamp our our, our spot here.
22:46
I think that's totally fair. I mean, we, we talked about the
22:50
last match, Atletico versus Manchester United, that's Spain
22:53
versus England. Now we get a Germany versus
22:56
Italy match like, and, and like you said, it could be a snooze
23:00
fest, Germany versus Italy clubs or it could be very exciting
23:04
Germany versus Italy clubs like you, you don't know how, you
23:07
don't know how this is going to go.
23:09
Like, Bayern Munich, they have to look at the last match versus
23:13
Barcelona and just kind of throw their hands up and say, OK,
23:17
yeah, that one got away from us. Like, they can't take anything
23:21
else away from that and say, oh, man, yeah.
23:25
I mean, look, they're Bayard. What are they gonna say?
23:27
Like, oh, maybe we don't belong in this tournament.
23:29
Bullshit. Like, they're Bayern Munich.
23:31
They belong in the Champions League.
23:32
They should always be in the Champions League.
23:34
They have to come back out here and say, we are still on a
23:38
different tier than Juventus. And, you know, sorry for
23:42
everybody who might get sick of me being obsessed with like how
23:44
these teams are tiered, but like, they need to look at this
23:48
and say we have more of a pedigree than Juventus.
23:52
We can win this match and I think they'll come out and play
23:55
that way. I agree.
23:57
I agree with you. The fun part is, you know,
24:00
obviously like, you know, we saw Bayern Munich and Wolfsburg this
24:04
weekend. You know, we saw Wolfberg kind
24:06
of fall a little bit short to, you know, like maybe like that
24:09
the the Bayern Munich side that's got a little bit of a
24:11
bigger sibling feel. Two of them now Wolfsburg for
24:16
the from the last few years is going to is going to be playing
24:19
a little bit in fire and shadow Juventus.
24:21
I don't think it's going to bring that same energy.
24:23
You know, you look at you know, what Barbara Monuncia did in the
24:27
first match up. You look at Christiana Giarelli,
24:31
the chances that she got. I love what Emily Vangsgard did
24:34
and her runs because she is the perfect counterweight to those
24:39
other two players. Barbara Monuncia very heady and
24:43
no pun intended, but you know, like a very kind of smart,
24:45
crafty kind of players. You really, you know what she
24:47
wants to do. She wants to just kind of like
24:49
take chances free, free herself up with some space in a
24:53
dangerous area, put her head on it and see what happens from
24:56
there. And I thought what Vangs guard
24:57
does is really just provides like a little like like a wild
25:02
card that used to have to keep an eye on, even though you've
25:04
got these two like kind of killer offensive players that
25:07
you also have to track. So I really love the balance of
25:10
those three players, the three different skill sets and the
25:14
chemistry that's it that's able to develop.
25:16
You just have to do a lot defensively to be able to kind
25:19
of keep up with what they're doing.
25:20
Now, Byron may be built for that, but I think Ube is going
25:24
to really push in this one. And and really, you know, you
25:29
can see them kind of going for the draw or holding a draw or
25:31
like really just being like, we want to at least be at the level
25:34
of this team and we want them to know that we're going to be
25:37
here. We want everybody else to know
25:39
that we're at the same level. You know, tears be damned, you
25:42
know, Grant Angles, tears be damned, you know we're here.
25:45
They're watching. No, I think that I think that's
25:48
totally fair. Now let me just make sure I have
25:51
this right, because Vonsgaard in their mattress Como, which they
25:56
lost by the way. So Juventus loses one nil to
25:59
Como in Siria Femenil. You know, Vonsgaard came on in
26:04
the 59th and left in the 87th. So my apologies if I'm not sure
26:10
if she suffered an injury or not.
26:12
So we'll, we'll, we'll track that.
26:16
But they did. Play a rotated squad in a lot of
26:19
respects verse verse como. Bonancia didn't start, Vaulti
26:24
didn't start, Bangsguard didn't start.
26:26
Obviously Kampiagi didn't start, but they ended up losing that
26:29
one late. I think it's going to be, you
26:34
know, are they going to play that Cata Naccio, sit back,
26:39
absorb Bayern's pressure and then try to beat them on the
26:44
counter? I think who Ventus has that gear
26:47
in them. But that could also be a recipe
26:49
for you just getting a, a weird, weird ish 2 nil loss against
26:54
Bayern Munich because maybe they just finished the chances and
26:57
then you're not able to hit him on the counter as badly.
27:00
I, you know, you know, we love big names.
27:03
I especially love big names. Bayern Munich versus Juventus.
27:08
Come on man. Like, what more can you ask me?
27:10
Awesome. It's going to be absolutely
27:12
awesome. I cannot wait.
27:15
For me, it's going to come down to I don't like I don't know if
27:19
you I don't know if you caught it, but Bayern scored a goal
27:22
today against Wolfsburg where Julie Gavin runs down a ball
27:26
that's about to get to the end line, just cuts it, you know,
27:29
just dinks it back into into a nice area.
27:35
Kawa runs onto it from off the frame.
27:37
You know, there's no way I don't know if Gavin is is is trying to
27:40
do that or just trying to put it into a dangerous spot.
27:43
But the ball lands right on Tanakawa, a really tough, tricky
27:48
finish. But it it looked like it went
27:51
exactly like Tonica was trying. You know, it was Yep, exactly
27:55
what she was going for. I don't want to say fluky,
27:58
little fluky. And I feel like Bayern's goals
28:01
sometimes are, you know, it's like you might get a Leia
28:05
Schuler kind of like a skipped header or they get a lot of own
28:08
goals. Like they they do a lot of
28:10
positive stuff, but I don't know that they have out of outside of
28:14
cloud bull. Like, I don't know if they have
28:15
somebody that you're just terrified of that's going to
28:18
really be able to break you. So I'd really be interested if
28:21
if Juventus is able to shade some defense to bulls side, kind
28:26
of play them heads up a little bit, get a little bit aggressive
28:29
so that it's not just you've a sitting back and and and Byron
28:33
trying to like trying to like kind of go at the at the bus.
28:37
Yeah, I I think it's going to be a little bit more open than
28:40
that. And I think you've a in spots at
28:43
least. I think we're going to see them
28:44
really go for it. It's going to make for a, like I
28:46
said, just awesome, awesome match up, I will say.
28:50
I, I mean, you know, in, in my estimation, I literally wrote in
28:55
my notes, Julia given is up to her old tricks when she hit that
28:59
ball into the middle, 'cause I, I do think, and you know,
29:03
obviously it's always 5050. Sometimes you play the ball,
29:07
well, it's not always 5050. But you know, I'm trying to say
29:09
here is that sometimes you play the ball into a dangerous area
29:12
and say, hey, let me see what happens.
29:14
I wouldn't put it past Julia Given to have said Tanakao will
29:17
get there. Let me just put this ball right
29:20
in that general spot because she is such a genius that that match
29:25
over against Wolfsburg over the weekend was her first full 90,
29:31
as far as I can tell, since the injury, since the MCL injury in
29:35
the EUR. And she looked fast, she looked
29:37
smart, she looked active. And obviously that pays gigantic
29:42
dividends for Bayern Munich. So, you know, it's one of those
29:45
things we talked about it when we talked about Barcelona in
29:48
Part 1. They didn't look terrible versus
29:51
Barcelona. They're just not on that tier.
29:53
Barcelona is living in a different tier.
29:56
I thought this. Was a typo and it could have
29:58
very well been a typo. But according to FB ref the the
30:01
XG for Barcelona Bayern Munich was 2.0 to 0.5.
30:07
A big difference between 7.5 0.5 for Bayern 2 point O for
30:12
Barcelona, but Barcelona can score seven goals.
30:15
Like you know, I'm not sure if there's I'm not sure who's doing
30:20
the math on that. If that's correct.
30:21
I I assume it's correct because all the other XG lines look
30:24
correct, but you know, yeah, they they just unloaded on
30:28
Bayern and you can definitely expect to bounce back for sure
30:31
seeing given back in the mix. I absolutely love.
30:35
I wanted to kind of like throw you a bit of a curveball.
30:37
Apologies for that. No, we.
30:39
Were we tried? To record a preview that got a
30:42
little bit derailed. So apologies for not having a
30:45
pre match day one preview, but we didn't really ever get a
30:49
chance to make any predictions on who we like top four, who we
30:54
like top 12. I'm not sure if you have those
30:56
handy. Oh.
30:58
Boy, all right, let me grab them.
31:00
All right, so I got I got it pulled up.
31:03
So I mean, if we're asking in the in this context, I have
31:08
Bayern Munich 6th on my list, Bayern 6th.
31:13
OK, I've. Also got them 6th.
31:16
All right, So you don't have them top?
31:17
Four, what do you have top 4I have?
31:19
Barcelona, and I mean Barcelona lives in their own tier in my
31:23
view, just there kind of like almost in the world.
31:29
Now, Kansas City current is not competing in this tournament.
31:32
So we'll we'll leave them out of it for now.
31:35
Separate. Separate.
31:36
Tier separate. Yeah, separate, separate list of
31:39
tiers. My top four, I have Barcelona,
31:42
Leon, Chelsea, Arsenal. All right, I've got Madrid.
31:45
Instead of Chelsea late switch, I changed.
31:49
I like that. I think Chelsea's too flat.
31:51
I think Madrid's going to make it happen.
31:53
So that would put for me Chelsea and we could just do 5:00 to
31:59
12:00. So that leaves me with Chelsea.
32:02
Byron, who we mentioned, Wolfsburg's got to be in that
32:05
mix. That's three Manchester United,
32:10
that's 4 Twente. I'm going to put them in my top
32:14
12. Athletes in my.
32:16
Top 12 and I've got two more spots, Juventus and then I've
32:24
got to pick one from Valarengo, St.
32:26
Bolton, PSG, Louvin. I'm going to put Louvin in my
32:31
top 12. Oh my God, you are the best.
32:35
You're just the best in the world at this.
32:38
That's so fantastic. I thought I was doing something
32:43
spicy. Because I put.
32:46
Louvin over Barry FC And I was like, that'll be cool.
32:52
I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm going to show them There's the
32:55
tiny dead. They they weren't almost pretty
32:58
much over them. Well, well, no.
32:59
No, I mean before before they started because we created all
33:03
before before. Oh, I totally cheated.
33:05
I I I updated mine. My bad.
33:07
I cheated. OK.
33:08
No, no. No, that's totally fair.
33:09
I, you know, But we did see a game be played.
33:13
So here, here's my top 12 before the tournament started.
33:20
I have Barcelona, Leon, Chelsea, Arsenal.
33:22
Then I have in the second tier, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich,
33:27
Wolfsburg, Manchester United begrudgingly and then I have
33:31
Benfica, Atletti, Roma, Twente. So I have you know, Juventus,
33:40
Paris, Ajerman, St. Polton, Valarenga, Louvin and
33:44
Perry. FCI have them all missing, you
33:47
know, missing that that knockout stage.
33:49
So you've got. Roma and Benfica in, right?
33:52
I do. And then so that means I have
33:54
Louvin and who else do I have and Twente in?
33:56
You don't have Twente. I have Twente in.
34:00
I have. Twente was my last team in, if
34:03
we could use NCAA basketball parlance, I have athletian.
34:08
Do you not have athletian? I have Athletian.
34:11
So my 4 out or PSG is it's 4 out right, 12?
34:15
Oh no, it's 18. It's six out.
34:17
OK, yeah, I have PSG. PSGS out, they stink.
34:22
Zane Colton's out, That's two. Ballering goes out, that's
34:25
three. Yeah, for me, Roma's out, that's
34:29
four. Pre FC is out, that's five.
34:31
Benfica's out, six. Those are my 6 out.
34:33
OK. So the difference is I have Roma
34:37
in. That's the only difference.
34:40
And you have Louvre. In it, right?
34:42
All right. Let's go love it.
34:45
And then we have some discrepancy.
34:46
Top 40 Tay's Day. Very exciting.
34:50
I'm glad, I'm glad we kind of went back and squared the circle
34:54
on that guy. Got our takes on wax.
34:57
I appreciate you for playing along with me, of course.
35:00
I like if, if match day one was any indication, how good is this
35:07
tournament going to be? I mean this this is going to be
35:11
I look, I I had my doubts. I had my questions with the
35:16
change in format of the Champions League, the league
35:19
phase and all this stuff and like who's who's getting into
35:22
one no clock and all this That was a bummer.
35:24
Yes, right, but after match day one, and even when you and I
35:29
were kind of talking about this, like leading up to the preview,
35:32
that didn't happen, but we kind of had our our our fun preview
35:35
where we drafted the match day one matches like, you know,
35:40
UEFA, I, I, I have my qualms with with everything you do.
35:46
Seems like it seems like you've done another good job.
35:48
I say UEFA and FIFA, man, I hate a lot of the things you do, but
35:53
I'm always watching. You always get me there.
35:56
True. The UEFA is I I feel like
35:59
they're like half a tier of a tier above the terrible
36:03
organizations ahead of FIFA and talk about that quick episode
36:07
calendar. Go back and listen to Part 1 if
36:10
you missed that. We hit all of the Wednesday
36:12
matchups and we're going to have some NWSL playoff talk looming
36:16
and then we'll be back next week as well into the Champions
36:19
League again. We'll recap match day 2 take a
36:22
quick look ahead We'll look look down the road to match day
36:25
three, November 11th, November 12th.
36:28
Those will be here before we know it cannot wait for match
36:31
day three, but before we get to that match day 2, there's some
36:34
match day 2 business to iron out all right man tons of football.
36:39
I think we did it two parts in the books.
36:41
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
36:43
I think that's. It, buddy.
36:45
I mean, this tournament has all the makings to just be an
36:51
absolute classic. I I'm I couldn't be happier to
36:55
be talking about it with you, my good man.
36:57
Yeah, it's so true. It's so true.
36:59
I think year year 2 was the, I think a little bit of the wonky
37:02
year and I think year three we're going to get everybody's
37:05
best. And I think everybody, well,
37:08
Barcelona knows we're beatable, right?
37:11
And everybody knows Barcelona is beatable because we saw it last
37:14
year. So like last year kind of had
37:17
that foregone conclusion. And that's not so much playing
37:19
out. The string felt less open.
37:22
This year feels weirdly more open, even though we are looking
37:27
at a Barcelona site that is absolutely terrifying.
37:31
Like you said, man, all of it stacks up to get us into a
37:34
position to have a really, really great tournament.
37:36
This has been another presented into the channel.
37:38
Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
37:41
out with your boys. If you enjoy the show or love
37:43
them to football as much as we do, make sure you're kicking
37:46
with us each and every single week.
37:47
Like subscribe, follow, leave us a review, YouTube, Spotify,
37:50
Apple podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
37:51
We're going to be doing this pretty much as long as this
37:54
Champions League tournament is going and maybe a little bit,
37:57
you know, thereafter we'll see if you want to support the show.
38:00
patreon.com session to the channel.
38:01
Great way to do that into the channel.
38:03
Merch available right now. My guy Grant is wearing the shit
38:07
out of that hoodie. I appreciate you bro.
38:09
Thanks to all of the above. Much, much more in the
38:11
description of this episode and a big thank you my coast as
38:15
well. Mr. Great Angle for always
38:17
looking sharp mid beer, post beer, pre beer doesn't matter.
38:20
This is my guy Part 1 Part 2. I know what time it is.
38:23
This is our time of year bro and I appreciate you.
38:25
I appreciate you kind of going along for the ride.
38:28
You know, strap it in preparing for what we're about to embark
38:31
on and nobody. I'd rather do it with men.
38:34
Likewise, buddy, I mean and and nobody we would rather do it
38:38
with as a as a label. I can't, I can't remember what
38:44
what Suge Knight said as a label, a, a staff and a crew.
38:50
I think it was AMF. In crew in there, Yeah, I know
38:53
the punctuation was AMF in crew for.
38:55
Sure. No, nobody we would rather do it
38:57
with than all of you. Please for anybody in these, in
39:00
these countries or supporters of these teams, if we've missed
39:03
something, if there's a player we haven't considered, if
39:06
there's something in the match that you think we we overlooked
39:09
in our, in our preview here or in our, you know, kind of match
39:12
day one review, match day 2 preview, please let us know.
39:15
Drop knowledge in the comments. We always appreciate it and we
39:18
will see you all next time.