Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ENGLAND, EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS! | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 FINAL | EP 157 | England v Spain Recap

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🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 ENGLAND, EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS! | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 FINAL | EP 157 | England v Spain Recap · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
Oh. Kay, welcome to into the channel
0:09
championship edition of into the channel podcast primarily about
0:11
win so far. I'm your host, Deeno de suspitis
0:13
and as always, I am joined by my coast Mr. Grant angle.
0:18
What is up man? No, I'm feeling fantastic,
0:20
buddy. I'm feeling victorious today.
0:22
As a matter of fact, I think I just like to.
0:25
I appreciate that. I think I'd just like to crack
0:27
the beverage right away. I like it.
0:30
I like it. Cheers to you.
0:33
Cheers to you, cheers to the football, cheers to the European
0:36
champion Lionesses. But I mean, obviously I think we
0:40
can both agree. Cheers to me most of all for one
0:43
of the greatest, most well executed reverse jinxes
0:47
anybody's ever pulled off in women's football podcasts.
0:52
Didn't see it coming. Didn't see it coming.
0:54
What are we? Sunday night, 1026 Pacific PM.
0:58
And I'm just now learning of this reverse jinx perfectly
1:01
executed by you. Congratulations.
1:03
Another congratulations are in order for you, my good man.
1:06
And a couple of our friends. How about this John Rollins?
1:11
Yeah, I know what time it is in the comments.
1:13
Came in and dropped a little score prediction 21 and added
1:16
extra time. Got super close, super close
1:19
even. Even had Spain scoring first and
1:23
England tying it and then stealing a goal an extra time
1:26
and then I think we had one more, We had one more that came,
1:30
I don't know, I think pretty, pretty close to a bull's eye.
1:32
Who else did we have on the list?
1:34
Obviously the legend Carlo Wilson, long time friend of the
1:37
show, great friend of the show, some might say.
1:40
Now he had the score. In the YouTube comments it said
1:43
three, one England. And you know what?
1:45
They won three, one in penalty kicks.
1:48
So you know what, Carlo? I feel like you're right there,
1:52
buddy. So congratulations, Carlo, who
1:54
hit several other exacto scores throughout this tournament.
1:58
I mean, he's a legend for a reason.
2:01
Oh, yeah. My God.
2:02
Yeah. Congratulations, Carlo.
2:04
Well, well done by you. But now we're going to talk
2:06
about some football, so Ciao for now.
2:08
OK, Mr. Granogo, where are you going to get?
2:11
Started. England won, Spain won.
2:13
And as we mentioned earlier, England wins 31-ON penalty
2:17
kicks. England was tough.
2:20
And I just want to say like the mentality stuff, it plays, it
2:25
tracks. They have a team with a great
2:27
mentality. But because I am the obnoxious
2:30
person that I am, I just want to say let's ease up a little bit.
2:35
They didn't just win because of mentality.
2:38
They have great players. England has great players.
2:40
We've been, we've been saying it for, you know, our entire time
2:44
covering this sport. You win that match because you
2:47
bring on Chloe Kelly and she's one of the better players in the
2:50
world. Lauren Hemp plays physical
2:52
throughout the entire match. Lucy Bronze, you know what time
2:55
it is incredibly tough. Leah Williamson had multiple
2:59
interceptions in that match. Alex Greenwood was able to
3:02
squeeze 4 Balandores off the ball multiple times throughout
3:07
the game between Itana and and Alexia.
3:10
It was a badass performance. And it wasn't all just like, oh
3:14
these plucky underdogs with their guts and their heart, man.
3:18
These were the reigning European champions and they went out
3:21
there and they handled it today. They definitely handled it
3:24
today. I think they won in the way that
3:27
they needed to win, which is basically, you know, like we
3:31
know what our limitations are. We know we're not just going to
3:33
come out here and smother the Spanish team.
3:35
We know that we're not going to win possession.
3:37
I loved that. I I feel like I was happy with a
3:40
couple of my predictions because I was really looking forward to
3:43
England coming out and trying to steal one early and Lauren James
3:47
third minute was just right in a spot.
3:49
And I think if we get 100% Lauren James, that's that's a
3:52
goal. England goes up one nil and then
3:54
the whole thing is a little bit different than what we saw
3:57
because I feel like we got Spain in control of that first half.
4:02
I thought I'm I'm interested to hear how you experienced the
4:04
first half because for me, I thought Spain was in control.
4:08
England had some moments early and then England just could not
4:11
get the ball off of Spain. Like it's just like unless it
4:15
was two or three defenders just well positioned because I don't
4:19
know, Spain just kicked it to the wrong player.
4:20
That was the only way they're getting the ball back.
4:22
Unless Spain just kind of like was forced into an unforced air,
4:25
kicked out of bounds, did something, did something weird.
4:27
But it felt like Spain had a real stranglehold on that first
4:31
half. Yeah, I totally agree.
4:33
I did sarcastically write in my notes.
4:36
Great 1st 6 minutes though. Great.
4:38
Yeah. Like the open, the opening 6
4:40
minutes, like open, yes, like an opening drive in the NFL where a
4:44
crappy team like, and obviously England's not a crappy team, but
4:47
like where the underdog comes out and the first drive is
4:49
really good and you're like, OK, that that all went exactly the
4:52
plan. And then things stop going
4:55
exactly to plan shortly after that.
4:57
But that's who Spain is too. Like, like these are two great
5:01
teams. You make a great point about the
5:03
possession. I think we had talked about it
5:04
in the preview. As long as England wasn't just
5:08
always living in their defensive 3rd and just getting shots fired
5:12
at that at at Hannah Hampton. Like we had a lot of faith in
5:16
Hannah Hampton going into this match.
5:18
That faith has proven out over the course of this match.
5:22
But she wasn't she wasn't going to survive if she was getting a
5:24
bunch of a bunch of shots blast casted at her throughout the
5:28
first half. So players came through and got
5:30
blocks. You know, they were they looked
5:32
a little not entirely, but they looked a little German ish in
5:37
some of those spots where they were able to kind of get in some
5:40
of those shooting lanes. And like I've mentioned already
5:42
once, like crowd players off the ball.
5:45
I thought Fox did a good job during the broadcast of like
5:49
occasionally putting up the possession numbers.
5:51
I know they do that. I think they do that for most of
5:53
the broadcast. But after those goods, the those
5:56
good first 6 minutes, you know, Spain started to kind of tighten
5:58
the vice At 24 minutes, possession was 5446 Spain.
6:04
And I just put in my notes. That's fine.
6:07
That's actually great for England.
6:10
Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think I feel like they
6:12
started to kind of warm back up one player you didn't mention
6:16
when you're kind of rattling off some of those players that were
6:19
about it physically. How about Jess Mother Carter out
6:24
there just showed up way ready to play, Way ready to play.
6:29
And I think this is, I mean, what, what are we like 7 minutes
6:31
into the pod? I need to, I need to mention
6:33
Serena Biegman. And I think listening to, you
6:37
know, front of the show, great front of the show, Leon
6:38
Sanderson talk about like in Serena, we trust.
6:41
I always kind of was like, yeah, OK.
6:43
Like, you know, we'll, I want to see what happens in this
6:45
tournament. Obviously, you know, like resume
6:48
unmessed with a bull, right, For Wiegmann already coming into
6:51
this tournament. But I'm like, you know,
6:54
football's changed quite a bit. You know, I want to see kind of
6:56
what happens here. And I thought Wiegmann played it
6:58
beautifully, You know, obviously giving Carter the game off after
7:03
the abhorrent, despicable stuff she had to deal with.
7:05
And by the way, if you are one of those people or if you sit
7:10
next to one of those people or go to the game with one of those
7:12
people or just loosely condone it or loosely tolerate it, just
7:17
go fuck with another show. Just go to another show like out
7:20
of here. But I thought Carter was awesome
7:23
and Wiegmann A masterstroke. Saving Jess Carter getting
7:27
arrested up Jess Carter to take on Gotham FC teammate Ester
7:31
Gonzalez. It's a great quirk of the match.
7:34
It's like, OK, how often do you see this player?
7:36
Oh, all the time in training. And Carter handled herself
7:40
extremely well. Yeah, it was it was her best
7:42
match of the tournament by far. Hell, I mean, she was, she was
7:45
super locked in at centre back. And, you know, her partnership
7:49
with Williamson, their spacing was good.
7:52
They just knew where each other were going to be.
7:54
Yeah, it was perfectly executed by Wiegmann.
7:57
I'll tell you, I was a little, I was a little shaken though, when
8:00
when Lauren James had to come off the pitch.
8:02
And I think it was like the 41st minute in the first half where I
8:06
was like, OK, we're using a first half sub.
8:10
I never love that. But big picture, if Lauren James
8:14
says, let me go like gaffer, I'm going to give you, I'm going to
8:18
give you all the time. I can give you and you know, 70%
8:22
Lauren James is still better than a lot of players out there
8:25
in the world. I do think your point stands on
8:27
that early 1 though, when she didn't get to that, that
8:30
rebound, I was like, oh shit, should she, should she even be
8:33
out there? Like, because that would have
8:35
been really positive had had that gone in, obviously.
8:38
But I, I think I see the vision of give me what you got, and
8:43
then we'll take you off the field when it's too
8:45
uncomfortable for you. It feels like that was your
8:47
plan. Yeah, no doubt.
8:49
And it reminded me immediately of Andres Yonker and Viv Mitima.
8:53
You know, when Mitima couldn't go in that third match up
8:56
against France, Like, I just can't really go the full 90s.
8:58
So he's not going to play. Match gets out of hand and she
9:01
doesn't play anyway. So it's like, yeah, it, it
9:03
doesn't really make any sense to not utilize those minutes
9:07
because, you know, obviously and and obviously LJ had a shot
9:10
early, couldn't cash in. But if that one goes in, the
9:13
whole thing's different. Even if she can only give you,
9:15
even if she can give you less 1015 minutes, you'll take it
9:19
just because you're not going to, you're not going to put
9:21
Lauren, you're not going to put in an injured Lauren James at
9:23
the 75th minute of a match that could go to extra time.
9:26
And you know, it's like, so you got to do what you got to do.
9:28
But I thought it'd be even was was great.
9:30
I thought Monte Tome on the other side made a pretty
9:33
interesting gamble starting at the NIA ahead of Claudia Pina.
9:37
But I kind of also saw the vision there because I'm like,
9:40
OK, you know, and and my my prediction was 11 and then three
9:44
one an extra time with a Patiuello goal, which came close
9:47
a couple times. I think she had a couple
9:50
different, you know, she ended the match with four shots
9:52
attempted, which which led the match and she came off the
9:55
bench. So she definitely had looks.
9:57
I really felt for her not being able to cash in and then
9:59
obviously later in the penalty in the penalty kick section.
10:03
And then when you have to play Pina Bariuello and Vicki Lopez
10:06
down the stretch and then they can't cash in the last at the
10:10
back half of those minutes. And then you go into the, you
10:13
know, like now it goes to penalty.
10:15
Like it it's sort of backfired a little bit.
10:17
Even though I thought the logic was right because at the now
10:20
coming into it, I think had been Spain's most accurate shooter of
10:25
a dangerous player. She led the match today.
10:27
Touches inside the inside the opposition box, so very active.
10:31
Couldn't really turn those into shots.
10:33
An interesting gamble didn't didn't ultimately pan out,
10:36
though. She's been good.
10:37
Every appearance she's had on the pitch throughout this
10:40
tournament. I mean, I know we've talked
10:41
about her a couple of times. We've we're obviously a great
10:44
admirer of her work at Real Madrid, her toughness.
10:48
What I mean, she broke her collarbone like earlier.
10:52
It was either late last year or earlier this year and came back
10:55
in like a matter of weeks. You know, she's always good.
10:58
I, you know, the Atenea hat trick is a goal, a yellow card
11:04
and an assist in my in my view, because she's good, yes, because
11:09
she's going to hard foul you at some point.
11:11
I love the way she plays. She's involved in that first
11:15
goal for Spain, where Bone Mati is able to find some space out
11:19
of nowhere with Wait Wait all over.
11:22
Go ahead not not able to find some space that was a Derrick
11:25
Henry stiff arm when when Oatley had she had commented she's like
11:29
oh who is under stay away. She's like, oh, stay away all
11:33
over at the NIA not giving her any room.
11:35
And I was like. Off this off this, yeah, it was
11:40
great, great strength from from bone material who I who we talk
11:43
about a lot is a diminutive player, but had possesses great
11:47
strength for someone of her size, a really great strength
11:50
for anybody's size. And so she she gets Stanway off
11:54
of her plays the pass into Ateneya, who plays Bhatia yen
11:57
perfectly cross to Mariana. Rest is rest is history.
12:01
Opening goal. But yeah, I mean, you know, the
12:04
the Real Madrid striker, she's been great all tournaments.
12:06
So while we are Claudia Pina, admirers, appreciators,
12:12
stockholders, I thought it was, I thought you could get away
12:15
with it, starting your over Pina.
12:17
Even with Pina being as informed as she is, I thought you could
12:20
argue it. Yeah, I, I think it's, I think
12:23
it was a fair argument. And actually the lineup, as I
12:26
was thinking about the lineups and the rotations, I think the
12:29
big mistake honestly was Tomei not playing some of these other
12:34
players in those earlier matchups against the Portugal
12:39
against Italy. Like, you know, you know,
12:41
Spain's going to make it through the seating.
12:44
The one versus 2 doesn't totally matter.
12:46
And I feel like the the place where it really bit them the
12:49
hardest today was was with Alexia, who just looked a little
12:53
gassed a little, you know, not really first to the ball, not
12:58
really kind of like putting that pressure.
12:59
Like I think, you know, we talked about England having to
13:02
get the ball out of their defensive 3rd and the players on
13:06
Spain who could make that difficult and turn a quick
13:09
turnover into an opportunity. And I don't think we saw very
13:13
much of that at all today. And Alexia, who usually is good
13:16
for a couple of those in a couple quick strikes, we just
13:19
didn't get much of that at all. And I think I think the minutes
13:22
probably just caught up with her.
13:23
This is like a real, this is a real Sprint after a Sprint after
13:26
a Sprint of a tournament. And then you look at like
13:29
players like a Vicky Lopez and like you, some of the other
13:32
Anatane has another one. Even though she had to start
13:34
today, I thought the minutes could have maybe been bounced a
13:37
little bit better, especially during that group stage and
13:40
maybe saved a little bit of of gas in the tank, you know, for,
13:44
for a final like this. Well, I mean, part of my reverse
13:47
jinx was picking Alexia to score the game winner, obviously, so I
13:52
could put some kind of hex on her.
13:55
But in in all seriousness, I mean, I'm going to do a little
13:57
bit of a thing here because I I was tracking this throughout the
14:00
match because, you know, I did. I did think that she would she
14:03
would get them over the line because that's who she is as one
14:06
of the greatest players who ever lived.
14:07
So I just have like these these things highlighted in my notes.
14:11
In the 34th minute, Lauren James just ripped the ball right off
14:14
of her. Now Spain won it right back, but
14:16
it was Alexia and I want to say she was like near the top of the
14:19
18. LJ just takes it off her in the
14:22
39th minute. Alexia and Beaumati play like a
14:26
little like 2 player game where they're kind of passing it back
14:28
and forth and then Alexia chips it up into the 18 cleared by
14:31
Williamson. The let me go to my next thing
14:37
you know, there was there was another play, yeah, in the 66th
14:41
where Kiera Walsh just again, just rips the ball right off of
14:44
Alexia and then tries to play Russo in on goal.
14:46
But it was just like a little too far for her.
14:49
And it was Alexa, Alexia just didn't have much of an impact in
14:54
the run of play. And then when she came off for
14:56
Peanut in 71, you know, it's like I that's a defensible, A
15:02
defensible sub to make at that point.
15:05
I think it kind of had to be done.
15:09
Yeah, definitely had to be done, but it was one of those where it
15:13
it it kind of swung things into a weird balance.
15:18
You know, you have Alexia in the midfield, you know, Pina again,
15:23
I mean it, it's weird, but Pina and Sam are are used to
15:25
switching off at that left left winger spot.
15:29
You know, now it's like, OK, Atenez and Caldente.
15:32
I think Caldente, according to the line of guard moved over to
15:34
the left and it was just a like the shuffling the pieces.
15:38
It didn't. The Spain offense didn't really
15:40
feel like it had a lot of cohesion to it.
15:45
And I think once Pina came on, they stopped playing through Bon
15:49
Mati and and Batri, you know, to kind of like see if Pina had the
15:55
answer. And then playing through Pina is
15:57
not quite the same. You know, she's not the
15:59
playmaker that Alexia or Aitana or Patri is, even though she's
16:04
she's an excellent player. So that was a little bit of a
16:07
downgrade, you know, time to go to that.
16:09
And I think later they went, they went back to kind of like
16:12
what they had been doing. But then when they bring in
16:14
Solomon, Vicki Lopez, they kind of come in as like a a tandem
16:20
and we're kind of, you know, like playing off each other and
16:22
then including peanut in it. So it was like weird.
16:25
It wasn't really like cliquish, but it didn't it didn't mesh.
16:29
It definitely didn't mesh. That Spain attack today.
16:33
Yeah, I think that's fair to say.
16:35
And yeah, I'll probably walk back a little bit the.
16:38
The Alexia sub had to be done. I think that's just me just
16:41
using a stupid cliche, but yeah, 'cause you never have to sub off
16:45
again, who I maintain is one of the greatest players who ever
16:47
lived. But yeah, I I think it didn't
16:50
quite, it didn't quite mesh. That's a good term by you.
16:53
I liked Vicki Lopez's minutes. She was aggressive.
16:56
She was running at England's defense.
16:58
There were multiple times like she got to the end line, I think
17:01
2/2 times where I thought she was really putting England in
17:04
some dangerous situations. But yeah, they were.
17:08
There just was not that connectivity.
17:11
And you're, you referenced it earlier, bad match for Selma
17:17
Bettyuelo. There's just really no way to
17:20
sugarcoat that. That just she didn't have an
17:23
impact when she came in as a sub.
17:26
She had one that, you know, she needed a quick reaction to get
17:30
the tap in, but you expect her to tap that in like she like.
17:37
She missed it by shot. She missed it by so much.
17:40
That was the problem. It's like you could miss that
17:42
one. But like, it felt like her foot
17:44
was, it feels like it felt like she needed glasses or something.
17:47
She's just like looking at the wrong thing, Like her foot was
17:49
way behind and not anywhere near that one.
17:53
And yeah, your Vicky Lopez point.
17:54
Just want to bring it up real quick because let's see.
17:56
What's it, 1234? So 123-4566 matches.
18:01
She played 201 minutes in six matches, so 30 and change, you
18:07
know, roughly the workload of of a sub very highly rated, you
18:13
know, just looking at like her game scores.
18:15
So that might be a player that probably could have spelled
18:18
itana maybe gotten the start, who knows, maybe in that I guess
18:23
she's got to start in Portugal. But I mean, yeah, I think I
18:26
think the balance was just not, not kind of what it could have
18:29
been, especially in that midfield, just basically from
18:32
what we saw, they just were not able to.
18:34
And maybe it also could have been Germany that ran them
18:37
pretty ragged, you know, and, and now I think this is maybe
18:41
the second time because you alluded to it too in the
18:42
preview. Spain's like endurance level,
18:45
their stamina level at the Olympics last year.
18:48
And it was like it was different because you're like, oh, you
18:50
know, they won the quadruple Champions League.
18:52
You know, they won, you know, like coming off the World Cup
18:54
last year, you know, so it was like it we, we were looking at
18:57
it as like a 14 month window, right.
19:00
But now you can look at that Spain team and be like, all
19:01
right, well, conditioning, if if you're ready, you know, if
19:05
you're in shape and you can outrun them, you know, maybe you
19:08
could maybe maybe you can give them some problems because I
19:10
think we've seen them fade down the stretch, you know, now in a
19:13
couple, two straight big tournaments here.
19:16
I think there's, I think there's definitely some of that.
19:18
And you know, I'm not going to try to like separate my
19:22
shoulder, patting myself on the back.
19:24
But really, you know, even as the the possession stretched
19:29
like it, we talked about it in the preview.
19:31
So it eventually ends up being 6535 Spain.
19:34
I think some of that is a little skewed because England barely
19:39
had the ball in extra time. It was 8119 in the second extra
19:43
time and 6535 in the in the first extra time.
19:48
You know, we had got to let's see here.
19:50
Let me find the last one that I, that I put on there.
19:54
Maybe I, maybe I didn't track all of them, but it was around
19:59
6040 in like the 36th minute. I mean, it was, it was obviously
20:03
stretching. But what, what England was able
20:07
to do when they did have the ball is that they were able to
20:10
stay calm. And the things that we talked
20:13
about in the preview was, you know, and there were a couple
20:16
times where Leah Williamson was was involved in this and same
20:20
with Alex Greenwood where they were like.
20:22
Don't panic, get the ball to the next player, maybe play it right
20:26
back to me and then we're going to hit somebody out on the wing
20:30
for the outlet just to let us breathe for a minute.
20:33
And they were able to get that done a couple times.
20:36
And because you have Lauren Hemp and then once Chloe Kelly came
20:41
in, Lauren Hemp is perfect for get the ball to Hemp and let her
20:46
charge up the wing for a little bit just to give us a just to
20:50
give us a breather and she'll charge and then pull it back,
20:53
recycle the stand way, recycle the Walsh and just kind of start
20:56
moving the ball just so you can at least allow, you know, your
21:02
defenders to kind of get their wits about him again.
21:04
And it turned out, you know, Lucy Bronze is is great at kind
21:08
of starting that too, But you needed to after the revelation,
21:12
you know, post match from Lucy Bronze that she's been playing
21:14
with a broken tibia. You you needed every second of
21:19
rest like on field rest you could possibly get for those
21:22
players. Yeah, no, it's a great point.
21:25
And Lauren Hemp, I love the drive it up, pull it back and
21:28
then drive it up again as soon as you start.
21:30
Like it's like a great, great double dip move from Hemp just
21:34
to just to really keep you on your toes as a defender.
21:37
But I thought, I thought she was great.
21:38
I thought Alessia Russo too with some of her hold up play like
21:41
all right, you, you connected on the pass with me here.
21:44
It's like what we talked about. I'm going to post you up like
21:46
Jokic, hold the ball for a couple seconds, let some let
21:49
some movement happen around me and and see if I could find
21:52
somebody almost, you know, was it was able to turn that into an
21:56
opportunity in the first half, but early second-half.
21:58
So obviously you mentioned Chloe Kelly comes in 41st minute and
22:04
then 57th minute is involved in the build up.
22:08
You know, obviously we get something we've seen a million
22:10
Times Now. Chloe Kelly run up the left hand
22:12
side, get the ball into Russo. And I thought I thought Russo
22:16
was doing some of this and and I thought Ester on the other side
22:20
too. It was like which which number 9
22:23
is going to, you know, nozzle into the perfect space in
22:25
between the two center backs and be able to cash in on something.
22:29
Turns out it was Russo. She had Alessandri closer to
22:32
her, Paretes a little bit further away and just was able
22:35
to drift, contort, elevate and get a lot of power on that
22:40
header. Perfect placement.
22:41
And I mean, that's just, you know, the a pros pro goal in a
22:46
massive moment. Yeah, 100%.
22:49
I mean, it's the I I think it counts as the, you know, the
22:54
axiom of send the cross back where it came from, because I
22:58
mean, it is, it is kind of cat a corner, but like it's still you
23:01
use that, you know, that momentum to to punch it the
23:04
other way. Got the Coy was sunk she.
23:07
No chance. Yeah, no shot whatsoever.
23:10
And and you know, it had just like the perfect angle to hit
23:13
like corner netting. It's a, it's a brilliant pass by
23:18
Chloe Kelly. I mean, we'll, we'll have to
23:20
talk about, you know, the legend at this point.
23:24
We'll, we'll talk about her as we as we progress in the show.
23:27
Interesting word choice. I'm going to.
23:29
I got something on that. Well, I, I don't know if you, if
23:33
you recognize something that, pardon me, that happened in real
23:37
time. So we'll have to we'll have to
23:40
convene on this this Chloe Kelly legendary status.
23:43
But yeah, I thought it's a it's a great point you make about
23:46
Kelly's or pardon me, Alessia Russo's hold up play and how she
23:50
buys time. And she's always good for when
23:53
she does post you up like Shaq and she kind of has the ball for
23:56
a second. She's just good for that little
23:58
toe poke to Keira Walsh or or Georgia Stanway.
24:02
Just be like, OK, that's enough now I'll give it to you.
24:05
And then we then we get it out to the wing.
24:07
So I mean, they were tough man. And the IT it wasn't it like
24:13
wasn't a huge Allatoon game, but like she was, she contributed
24:18
enough. Like they just, they like they
24:24
were just able to be physical enough with Spain, get into the
24:29
shooting lanes, push, push Spain into some uncomfortable
24:34
positions. I, I, you got to think, you
24:37
know, you talk about Serena Wiegmann.
24:38
There were some things that she was able to pluck from that
24:42
German game plan that felt like they worked pretty well here.
24:46
Yeah, I would say so. And I think I mean probably more
24:49
defensively, you know, there was a lot of like the let's just get
24:53
into the right position. You don't have to be on them.
24:56
You don't have to take the ball from them.
24:58
You know, which, which has to be weird if you're England, you're
25:00
just used to all right, who you know, whoever shows up or going
25:03
to RIP the ball from them. And now it's like, right, don't
25:05
do that. Like keep them in front of you,
25:08
stand in the lane. Don't, you know, don't give up
25:10
an easy pass like directly toward goal or or a strike and
25:13
just kind of just stay in positioning.
25:15
And I think they that was definitely from the German book
25:18
and worked, worked super swimmingly today for sure.
25:22
Serena Wiegmann. There was some talk about a
25:25
statue potentially I think that had been approved after the 2023
25:31
or in 2023 after the 2022 Euros win.
25:34
So now €3 in a row for Sarita Wiegmann, 2 for the lionesses.
25:42
The statue we got to get, we got to get it happening.
25:44
And, and I'm going to petition right here on this episode of
25:46
the ITC that the Serena Wiegmann statue is an image of her giving
25:53
Chloe Kelly some final instructions before ushering her
25:57
onto the field as a sub. And that that should be the the
25:59
statue collaboration. Serena Vigman whispering
26:03
instructions to Chloe Kelly before she runs onto the pitch.
26:07
I love it. No, I think that makes, I think
26:09
that makes a ton of sense. It's either that one or her arms
26:13
crossed, just totally stone faced.
26:16
Like there are like there are so many, like even Nations League
26:19
matches that I've watched where it'll show her and she's just
26:23
standing like completely just poke her face.
26:27
And then, you know, play will go on for 15 minutes and then the
26:30
camera will cut back to her and it looks as though she has not
26:33
moved or maybe not even breathed like since.
26:36
And it's just like, OK, she's locked in.
26:38
Like I love it. I mean, it's very, it's just
26:41
like a very like Dutch. Yeah.
26:42
I mean, she's amazing. It's just a Dutch football, like
26:46
the supercomputer is like working at all times as she's
26:49
like scanning the field. The thing that I wanted to point
26:51
out, Speaking of statues, Speaking of legends, I don't
26:55
know if you, if you noticed this because you asked, you texted me
26:58
well after the match was over. And obviously we always respect
27:01
no spoilers. We got a lot of things going on.
27:03
We always try to be considerate of each other to make sure you
27:06
texted me at 3:00 Pacific Time. Be like, hey, man, are you all
27:11
caught up? And I said yes, I am.
27:13
And that's when it dawned on me that he may not have realized
27:16
something that happened. So when Chloe Kelly scores the
27:20
match clinching penalty kick. I think I do good.
27:25
OK, you do know, maybe I don't know me.
27:28
So I saw something OK. You immediately put on blue sky
27:34
from your personal account. Build the statue for Chloe
27:37
Kelly. Yeah, build the fucking statue,
27:41
Yeah. Of course perfectly said by you
27:47
and I. I think mine came 40 seconds
27:50
after, but it's because mine as anybody will.
27:53
Anybody who listen to this show will will find this hard to
27:55
believe. My blue sky was more long winded
27:58
than Dino's very concise point. I tweeted from or blue skied
28:04
from the Into the Channel account.
28:07
Start the sketching, commissioning, and construction
28:10
of the Chloe Kelly statue right now.
28:13
Those two posts came out within 30 seconds of each other.
28:17
Fucking. Go, let's go.
28:19
So. So we're locked in and I, I have
28:22
my Chloe Kelly statue idea. Now, obviously I think a lot of
28:26
people would think, you know, when she scored the winner in
28:30
the 2022 Euro, the €2022.00 of her waving the jersey above her
28:36
head, I think that would be a great statue.
28:37
I think that makes a lot of sense.
28:39
Here's my proposal though. What if the statue is left knee
28:44
up? Her kind of standing straight up
28:47
the, the start of the hop. Come on now.
28:53
Because she does it before. When she comes on the field as a
28:56
sub, she does it there too. That's, that's, that's better
29:01
than the Heisman pose. Like that pose that, that's just
29:04
like, it's like the knight in the chess board.
29:07
Like, I don't know. It's just, it's, it's an
29:09
incredible call out by you. That's that's perfect.
29:12
I want to see it. I don't, I don't care where it's
29:14
built. If it's outside of Wembley,
29:16
well, it needs to be somewhere like historic, somewhere with
29:19
high traffic. But like, put it outside a Big
29:22
Ben, knock down Buckingham Palace where the royal tax
29:27
thieves live and build the statue there.
29:29
I don't care whoever build that woman a statue immediately.
29:35
Yeah, no, right. Yeah, right on the, I don't
29:38
know, Tower Bridge Globe theatres, a couple couple
29:41
things. We can shuttle along and create
29:43
some space for to to to make to commemorate the legend.
29:48
And I want to recount to you that, you know, obviously
29:51
England gets it done in PKS 3 to 1.
29:53
And as I'm watching it, tough stretch, as mentioned.
29:57
So, you know, obviously Arsenal legend Mariona Caldente misses
30:02
the first one. I think it's yeah, it gets it
30:04
blocked by Hannah Hampton, tough.
30:06
One who not who looked like she read it the whole way like
30:09
Hampton. Like had it looked like Hampton
30:11
was in Mariona's brain when she made that dive?
30:15
I agree with that, but it turns out walking up to the ball and
30:18
hitting it not very hard with the inside of your foot, not
30:21
maybe not the best strategy didn't help.
30:23
I think, you know, kind of lost her way and then taking PKS and
30:27
then for Spain, Bonauti misses or I'm sorry, gets it saved by
30:31
Hampton. So it's two and then then
30:33
Barriola misses, misses wide. That was that one was a
30:36
heartbreaker. I, I was just like, and I, and I
30:39
was like, I was like, come on, let her hit this cause she got
30:42
so close against Jeremy, so close out of her time.
30:44
I was like, this, she needs this.
30:46
Couldn't get it done. And at that point it's 21.
30:51
I, I know the math and I'm like, OK, if England hits this one,
30:55
it's over. And I didn't know who was taking
30:59
the kick, you know, like I I wasn't sitting there locked in,
31:02
you know, I got my kid with me. I got my jittering notes.
31:05
I'm like, all right, Beth Mead, right.
31:06
That was a weird, you know, regular kick, whatever that is,
31:08
right? Jot it down.
31:09
So I'm not really playing the right, who's up next?
31:11
I'm just like, I'm just watching along.
31:13
And when I see Chloe Kelly, when I see the camera go to her, she
31:16
just got the ball. She's just like, she does have
31:19
Chloe Kelly, like pucker, pucker lips walk up and I'm just like,
31:22
oh, my, like my partner was next to me.
31:25
And I'm just like, Oh my God, you understand, that's a legend
31:29
right now. She's going to make this kick
31:30
and this entire funky tournament's over.
31:32
It's over. That's it, It's over.
31:33
Watch, it's over, It's over. I just I just lost my I I like
31:39
totally spazzed out just seeing, you know, not knowing who's
31:42
going to take the 5th kick, seeing slowly Kelly and explain
31:46
to my partner who knows nothing about what what what's going on
31:50
and trying to do it in like the four seconds from seeing Kelly
31:55
on on on my television to the run up that you mentioned, just
31:58
trying to cram as but as many takes as I can in for my partner
32:02
who could really careless of. Course no, that's that's
32:06
incredible. I literally like when I when the
32:10
blue sky thing happened and our our posts were within 30 seconds
32:13
of each other. The, the shadow executive
32:18
producer of the, of this show was, was in the living room
32:21
watching the match with me. And she looked at me and was
32:26
like, you guys might be talking about football with each other
32:29
too often. And now I'm going to have to, to
32:34
tell her this. Well, she's going to see, she's
32:36
going to see on the show. But I, I'm right there with you
32:42
now. Me as a as an England supporter,
32:45
it's just my heart's in my stomach the whole time.
32:48
So Betty Uelo Shanks it and before she does, I would before
32:55
she when Betty Uelo walks up, I go, she's she was playing bad
32:59
all like ever since she came on as a sub.
33:02
That's like the first thing I said.
33:03
And then she Shanks. I was like, oh man, terrible
33:06
match from her. I feel bad from her for her, but
33:09
you know, that's OK that it's not.
33:12
It's not bad for us. And then the Shadow EP looks at
33:17
me and goes, who's going to take it?
33:19
And I had to like do the Rolodex 'cause I'm with you, 'cause I'm
33:22
just like freaking out. And it's like, I can't.
33:24
I like my brains not totally functioning.
33:27
The camera goes and it's that back for you.
33:29
So you see 18 Kelly and I just go Chloe Kelly and she's going
33:35
to make it and we're going to win.
33:41
And she's just like, and now, you know, she's looking out for
33:44
my best interest. And so she kind of glances at me
33:47
and it's just like, oh, man, this, this guy is going to be
33:50
heartbroken if this doesn't work out.
33:54
And she just drills it, man. And there was never a doubt.
33:56
And, you know, like, I sometimes I can really waffle like with
33:59
some of my teams and like, like, I could feel super confident at
34:03
times. And then other times I'm like, I
34:04
could be very, very pessimistic. I think, you know, like anybody,
34:07
but I have never been more certain.
34:10
Oh yeah, that when she was walking to the spot, I was like,
34:13
this is over now. Yeah, no, the the only thing
34:18
that would have been more devastating was if like all the
34:21
lights went off, she somehow elevated from underneath the
34:25
ground and the undertaker music came on while she walked up to
34:28
the spot because there was no. And Katakoi I think got a hand
34:32
on it too. Like didn't matter.
34:34
She was close, at least. Yeah, she was.
34:35
Very. I'm glad.
34:37
I'm glad she didn't walk away with any hand to drink at that
34:39
point because there was something getting the way of
34:42
Chloe Kelly being the difference in that game.
34:45
Which leads me to my last take. So congratulations.
34:49
I Tana Bomati, ITC Hall of Famer, you know, player of the
34:53
tournament. Great player, greatest player
34:56
going right now. Maybe great moments in this
34:58
tournament. Yeah, but tough to be the player
35:05
of the tournament when you had a shot to hit a penalty gig, you
35:12
didn't get it done. And Spain's tournament lasts
35:16
maybe another 4 1/2 minutes afterwards.
35:18
Tough, tough spot. You don't have I I know it's not
35:24
all about goals, but there are at least two players on our team
35:28
who had more goals in her, Esther Gonzalez and Alexia.
35:34
I'm not sure where she ranked there.
35:36
I was, I was a little surprised what she she came on as a sub in
35:40
the first match. I just, I don't know how, I
35:46
don't know how Chloe Kelly doesn't get that award.
35:48
And I know she was a sub throughout this tournament, but
35:53
I mean, the way she impacted matches every single time she
35:57
came on, I think Hannah Hampton has an argument for that award.
36:02
But she probably, she probably LED in too many if you think
36:05
about the France result. But yeah, I mean, I was, I was
36:12
surprised by that. You know, it's another, it's
36:15
another trophy. She already has a ton.
36:17
Really. She's only missing 1 trophy.
36:19
And it's the European, you know, it's the Euro trophy.
36:23
Something tells me I'm going to tell you I'm going to really
36:26
take a gamble here and put a take chip on.
36:29
She's going to have another real good shot at it in four years.
36:34
But yeah, I, I'm with you. I, I was, I was surprised when
36:38
she walked up when Michelle Ajaman got young player of the
36:42
tournament told I was, you know, psyched for that, you know,
36:46
massive impact in those last two matches against Sweden and, and
36:49
Germany or no, wait, what? What am I saying?
36:55
Sweden and Italy. Sweden and Italy.
36:57
Sorry. Thank you.
36:59
Yeah, 'cause I kept. Yeah, Sweden and Italy and I, I
37:03
think you're right. Like I, I've had Germany on the
37:05
brain because I think that Germany, Spain match really
37:07
loomed large in this, but I digress.
37:09
But yeah, Ajaman was great. She deserved young player of the
37:13
tournament. I thought the Bodomati choice
37:15
was a little curious. Yeah, I think I I thought it
37:21
was, I thought it was pretty weird.
37:22
I mean, I think thinking about I, I don't know that how Chloe
37:26
Kelly's not the first person you think about during this
37:30
tournament. Like it's just she was
37:32
unbelievable, the biggest moments and like just the fact
37:38
that England didn't really rock this tournament.
37:41
I thought they came close to losing a couple times.
37:43
I thought this was a really good performance today from England,
37:45
but they came pretty close, you know, on the brink.
37:49
And I think Kelly coming into these matches just injected a
37:53
bunch of good juju into the squad.
37:56
And I think good things happened after she came on and then just
37:58
the bookend nature of her, you know, knocking home the final
38:04
penalty kick. And I thought I thought what you
38:05
were going to go to, I mean, your idea for the statue 100
38:08
times better than this. But I was like, all right, are
38:10
we going to get like the pump the brakes, Chloe Kelly?
38:13
Maybe it's a candidate. I thought today it was a little
38:17
ice cold and I wasn't sure. You know, I'm old, so I'm not
38:21
you know, I don't really know all the lingo I see apologies.
38:25
But I thought she ran by Katakoi and like flashed the L at her
38:29
like yo, you lost and like she ran right up on her, flashed it
38:34
and then ran past her like, you know, it's like, but like kind
38:37
of looped to give her like a little blow by.
38:40
I wasn't sure if that was a little something, but she
38:42
definitely did it. And who knows what, you know,
38:45
what the connotations are, but just an unbelief.
38:48
I mean, like just a killer, an absolute killer.
38:51
And she plays for Arsenal. Let's fucking go.
38:53
Last, last, last, last note. Arsenal's winning the fucking
38:56
WSL next year. All right.
38:58
Here, Beth Mead, Ajaman, Chloe Kelly, Alessia Russo, Mariona
39:03
Caldente. Just shake, shake it off, Marty.
39:05
Like, yeah, let's let's get you back to North London.
39:08
Where, where? Where?
39:09
Where Things are good. And you know, I think this team,
39:13
I don't know. We'll see Champs League's still
39:15
still still up in the air. It's going to be tough.
39:16
But I think, I think they're the driver seat for the WSL.
39:19
I'm not not I'm 0% afraid of Chelsea at this point, OK?
39:23
That's I'm glad, I'm glad we got to that.
39:26
I mean, you guys already won the Champions League.
39:28
You you have the you have full right to gloat as as we go into
39:33
this season, my team will not be competing in in the Champions
39:38
League. So I got to hope that we get you
39:40
guys in the WSL, but yeah, you're definitely wait.
39:43
Braun is in this year. Oh, that is true, yes.
39:47
So OK, sorry my team is actually team is in the Champions.
39:50
League August August 27th a month from today, SK Braun,
39:55
Inter Milan Little Champions League qualifying action.
39:59
But that go, go ahead, get that on your calendar, August 27th.
40:03
Let's go. You already know we're going to
40:05
be locked in. We just got to find whatever
40:08
extremely sketchy stream weekend to watch it in the United States
40:11
of America. You locked into that too.
40:14
Yeah, we'll figure that out. I do want to say though, so
40:18
Speaking of Chloe Kelly moving to Arsenal and you know, my
40:23
bitterness as a Manchester City Football Club supporter, I want
40:26
to, I want to highlight one other quote from the legend, the
40:30
future, the future statue inspiration that is Chloe Kelly.
40:35
She said she had a line in her post conference, in her post
40:39
match press conference interview that I thought was very
40:41
interesting where she said quote, thank you to everyone who
40:45
wrote me off, I'm grateful. End Quote.
40:51
Gareth Taylor, it's on site. Dude, what is your problem, man?
40:56
What is your problem? What are we doing here?
41:02
We got to be better than that. Please, please let Garrett
41:07
Taylor somehow join the Seattle Rain staff so somehow you can
41:12
have this conversation in real life.
41:14
Bring it back. To the show.
41:15
Then I have to live, live up and be like, oh, it's on site, huh,
41:18
mate? I'm like, yeah, I guess.
41:20
I mean, I guess we got to do this.
41:23
I mean, I'm a man of my word, What can I say?
41:25
Take integrity. Yeah, I mean, you know, I'm, I
41:27
don't put it past you. I mean, like, that's why I
41:29
wanted to see it happen. There we go.
41:32
Yeah, man, don't worry. I mean, there's a lot of yeah,
41:33
we'll see. It's a revolving door.
41:36
The players come and go, but just so happens that my team's
41:39
got a lot of good players right now.
41:42
Anyway. Episode calendar.
41:44
All right. Well, dude, we did it.
41:47
We we closed out our UEFA Women's EUR 2025 coverage.
41:52
I'm not sure how we're both still standing.
41:54
We're neither of us are standing.
41:55
We're both sitting, but you know what I mean.
41:57
Great, Ron, I appreciate you. But we will be back during the
42:00
week to talk to some old friends of the program, talk about the
42:03
EUR, talk about some will so happenings, some fun guests.
42:06
We're really excited about that. So definitely make sure you're
42:09
subscribed. And to our European friends, it
42:13
doesn't end here. You know, this is a Champions
42:16
League show. This is a show birthed from
42:19
covering the UEFA Champions League, but we also cover the
42:23
NWSL in person. I'm Grants in Seattle.
42:26
I'm here in San Francisco. So, you know, a league with some
42:31
some interesting players on Kochenberger, Estero, Gonzalez,
42:34
Delphine Cascarino, just MF Carter, you already know what
42:38
time it is. Yanni Thompson, Hannah
42:39
Lundquist, Sophia Cantore, European champion Lioness, Anna
42:45
Morehouse, the Orlando Plants champion goalkeeper.
42:49
You already know what time it is.
42:50
So if you're interested in those players and a bunch of other
42:52
players, those are those are just the players that appeared
42:54
in this European tournament. So NWC got a whole lot of other
42:57
players outside of those. So you already know what time it
43:00
is. Come join us, come rock with us
43:02
for that. And if you're more of the
43:04
Champions League persuasion, don't worry.
43:05
As mentioned earlier, qualifying actually kicks off July 30th in
43:12
a few days. Cardiff City and a bunch of
43:14
other Champions League Champions Path teams will be in action and
43:20
then some of the other teams will kick off August 27th.
43:23
So some some old friends of the ITC, Rosengaard, Volarenga,
43:29
Slavia Praha, FC Twente, SK Braun, ever heard of them?
43:33
August 27th, as mentioned, mark your calendar.
43:36
Champsy will be rolling around very, very soon.
43:38
Very excited about that. But Long story short, if you
43:41
came for the EUR, stay for the fun.
43:43
There's a bunch a bunch coming down the Pike and we're going to
43:46
be happy to to rock with you, so definitely stick around.
43:50
All right, man. With that said, anything else
43:52
you want to hit before we get out of here?
43:54
I think we've done it. What an incredible run.
43:59
I, I just appreciate everybody for rocking with us.
44:02
I do, I do what I'm actually, I do have one more thing.
44:05
So this is from a friend of the program, Claire McEwen.
44:08
She wrote a book called She Can Kick It, and it's about the
44:11
history of women's football. And I just want to I just want
44:15
to read a quote that I've read before on this podcast, but I
44:19
think it rings especially true. So this quote is from Carol
44:24
Thomas, who was the captain of the English women's football,
44:28
England's English women's national team in 1984 team that
44:31
also won the EUR. And this is her ITC Hall of
44:35
Famer Carol Thomas in fact, and this is what she had said kind
44:40
of in in reflection of that 1984 Euros victory quote.
44:46
I think the most disappointing thing is what could have
44:49
happened had we had full FA backing.
44:51
From that point on, we were one of the best teams in Europe, if
44:55
not the world, with the right investment of time, resources
44:58
and money. Just think what could have been
45:00
achieved in the following years, not just for my generation, but
45:04
for all subsequent generations of international players.
45:07
End Quote. Well, Carol, this is the proof
45:12
of what is possible. And if you, if you look at the
45:15
attendance at this tournament, this is the elevation of an
45:21
already great sport, of an already popular sport.
45:24
And we watch this, this growth continue to happen.
45:27
And we don't talk about this a ton on the show because Dino and
45:30
I, we, we love the football. We talk about the football.
45:34
And I think sometimes there is a bit of a a patronizing tone when
45:37
people say like, oh, this is, you know, the, the sport is
45:41
really growing. Like we all know that.
45:43
But the Lionesses are now two time defending European
45:48
champions in this current format.
45:50
And it's because of people like Carol Thomas and because of
45:53
historians like Claire McEwen who continue to to grow the
45:57
sport and, and make sure that that it is in good hands and
46:01
that it is that custodians of the sport, journalists and then
46:05
people like that are making sure they they craft narratives and
46:09
then talk about and keep the history of these great players
46:13
and then these great leagues. So I just want to say the, the
46:17
European Championship, to quote the, the legend Bill Walton in
46:21
the NBA, who used to say this about the PAC 10 tournament.
46:24
I felt like the women's 2025 year old was a celebration of
46:27
life. And it truly was.
46:29
And so I just for everybody who joined us for, for these shows,
46:33
we appreciate you and thank you for rocking with us.
46:36
Absolutely Yep, and there's been another episode of into the
46:39
channel to echo my my Co host grants point.
46:42
Thank you for rocking with us. If you enjoyed the show, if you
46:45
enjoyed our entire euro coverage run or even just a snippet of
46:49
it. I mean make sure you're kicking
46:50
with us each and every single week or you know what time it
46:52
is. We cover this Woso thing all
46:55
across the globe. Well, actually mostly Europe and
46:57
then the USA, but that's OK. A little South America little
47:00
little wolf com you kind of dip a toe in but that's for another
47:03
day unless you had something. I did.
47:07
Congratulations to Nigeria who like Wavcon happens like as the
47:10
European Championships are going on.
47:12
Morocco has great players. I look forward to the growth of
47:15
their program. Issue #1 for Morocco, the thing
47:19
they need to do, fire that fucking bozo Jorge Villa, get
47:22
them out of here and you'll be more successful.
47:25
But seriously, congratulations to the Super Falcons of Nigeria.
47:29
Hell yeah. And I sat up for all of one of
47:32
the our our local Bay FC superstars out here in the Bay
47:35
Area. So very excited about that.
47:37
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app, like
47:40
subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
47:43
you like to watch or listen links to all of our socials
47:45
except the one and shown us in this episode.
47:47
And a big thank you to my coast as well, Mr. Grant Angle for
47:51
what can I say, man, Champion of champions.
47:55
We, we, we talked last week about lifting that trophy, you
47:58
know, after the final whistle. And here we are a bunch of shows
48:02
and a bunch of days. Got it done.
48:04
This concludes our EUR 2025 coverage.
48:08
Can't wait for 2029. Just sign me up already.
48:10
I'm not even sure where, where it's going down at, but you
48:13
know, you already know what time it is.
48:14
You're I mean the the ultimate coast, the ultimate copilot.
48:18
You know that my my my running mate in the 442 that is the
48:21
ITCI. Appreciate you, Brooke, and
48:24
congratulations to you and the Lionesses I.
48:27
Appreciate that and the feeling is mutual.
48:28
My good man. Wouldn't do it with anybody
48:31
else. I think you know the Sleepy Boys
48:34
podcast, it made it a full month being very sleepy boys.
48:38
But you know what we got? We got there.
48:40
We lifted the trophy. We couldn't have done it without
48:42
everybody who supported the show.
48:44
Thank you guys so much for rocking with us and we will see
48:47
you all next time.