Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England Dominant | Netherlands Disappoints | France Blasts Wales | WOMEN'S EURO 2025

Transcript

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 England Dominant | Netherlands Disappoints | France Blasts Wales | WOMEN'S EURO 2025 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK. Welcome to Into the Channel
0:07
podcast primarily about one's football.
0:09
I am your host Dino de Suspitis and as always I am joined by my
0:12
Co host Mr. Grant Angle. What is up man?
0:16
Well, I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
0:18
I thought those were two pretty entertaining football matches.
0:21
Lot of people happy with those results.
0:25
Yeah, I know. Maybe one or two for sure.
0:28
Yeah, some, some, some, some cream might have risen to the
0:31
top. We'll talk about that.
0:33
Whether that's true or whether, you know, there might have been
0:36
some anomalies today. But big time football, big time
0:39
teams in action. Mr. Grant, Angle, lot to cover.
0:42
Where do you want to get started?
0:44
Let's get started with a celebratory beverage, my good
0:46
man. I think that's we'll make sure
0:48
we get that out of the way. Cheers to you.
0:54
Cheers to you, cheers to the football, and when in doubt, we
0:57
always go in chronological order on this program.
1:01
So let's start with England 4. Netherlands nil.
1:07
Just an ass kicking pretty much from the jump.
1:10
Could also go in alphabetical order and would land in the same
1:13
spot so that that would have worked.
1:16
I think we can start First off with some of the line up
1:19
changes. So obviously meed out Ella
1:22
TuneIn in the midfield. I thought tune looked really,
1:24
really good in the first match up.
1:26
So I was really glad to see her, you know, get these minutes and
1:29
then we get Lauren James out on the right.
1:31
And I don't want to. I don't want to oversimplify it,
1:34
but I kind of also want to say the rest was history.
1:38
That worked. I think it's also it wasn't a
1:41
small change that Serena Wiegmann moved Alex Greenwood to
1:46
left back and put Jess Carter as a center back.
1:49
And so all my hand wringing about like, you can't play
1:52
Carter out there. You got to play Neve Charles.
1:55
And like shout to like all our pals on the Internet who were
1:58
like, I don't know how much of a difference Neve Charles is going
2:00
to make out there on the left. It would turn out Serena
2:04
Wiegmann much smarter than I am and was just like, what if we
2:08
just did that there? And then to your point, you, you
2:11
put tune in the middle. We also talked about it in the
2:14
last preview or pardon me, in the post match after the the
2:17
England France game that Stanway and Walsh weren't going to play
2:21
poorly 2 matches in a row and they certainly didn't with tune
2:25
out there. I do just real quick, I I set up
2:28
a video clip for you Speaking of like our predictions and real
2:32
cogent analysis. I just want to go back to
2:34
something that was uttered on this program maybe 24 hours ago.
2:39
You know what? I'm going to wake up tomorrow
2:41
and I'm going to watch England wash.
2:44
Netherlands. What I mean, I'm a simple man.
2:49
It was a simple prediction. Hard to get it more accurate
2:55
than that. Did you wake up this morning?
2:57
I did, because England certainly washed the Netherlands.
3:00
I mean, thoroughly, thoroughly, thoroughly.
3:03
I was a little bit disappointed, to be honest.
3:05
I mean, a good day of football, I'm happy a lot of a lot of
3:08
players played really well. A couple that you mentioned.
3:11
I'm glad you called out Stanley and Walsh because I was a little
3:13
bit less confident that they were going to be able to turn it
3:15
around for different reasons. Walsh has been a little, you
3:18
know, performance is a little bit rocky and then Stanley
3:20
obviously working a way back from injury.
3:22
So for a couple different reasons.
3:23
I was a little a little bit cooler on on that side of the
3:26
prediction. But damn, they look so good.
3:29
They looked awesome. Stanway.
3:31
What I love about Stanway is she got herself out of the funk of
3:35
the first match with which is I love this with defense and
3:39
intensity and press and pressure.
3:42
And like some players need the ball like they need the ball.
3:45
They need the ball at their feet or they need the ball at their
3:47
hands or talk about pass. Well, they need shot, they need
3:49
touches to be able to get out of the funk.
3:52
But I love players like stand away.
3:54
They could just be like, no, no, I'm going to I'm going to Rev my
3:57
body back up and I don't even need the ball.
3:58
I just want to run and smash and press and and really make it
4:02
make it a long day for you. And that's how I'm going to get
4:04
into the match. And then she paralyze that into
4:08
into the second goal. It's such a good call because
4:10
that's just kind of like what what type of player she is too.
4:13
Like we've talked about her and Walsh obviously since 2023 when
4:18
you and I started talking about this sport like regularly with
4:20
each other. Like you'll have an entire half
4:24
and be like, Oh yeah, Stanway was really good that half.
4:28
And you kind of like have to like, recompute it.
4:30
But it's like after like the fifth or sixth time where you're
4:33
like got in the way of that disrupted that attack.
4:36
Oh, nice pass there. Nice connection.
4:38
Like just consistent. And yeah, I think she clearly,
4:42
both her and Walsh clearly came into this match thinking, well,
4:46
that's not going to happen again.
4:47
And they they even talked about it like different players.
4:49
Alessia Russo was pretty vocal about it too post match after
4:53
the France loss where they're just like, that's not who we
4:55
are. We know we're not going to play
4:56
like that again. We just have to go out there and
4:58
do it. Yeah, absolutely.
4:59
And they they played great and they all played great.
5:02
You know, Russo played great. But we got to talk.
5:04
We got to talk about, I mean the one and only at this point.
5:09
So September 29th later this year is a key date on the
5:13
calendar and I'll tell you why. It's when Lauren James turns 24
5:16
years old still still still a pre a pre prime player could
5:23
just do things that other players just can't.
5:25
They just can't do. I mean I jotted it down and I
5:28
kind of want to go to it. These are all like kind of sort
5:31
of micro plays that I just noticed and I'm just like, Oh my
5:33
God, like nobody else can really do this.
5:35
So obviously the goal, let's start there off the right wing.
5:38
She comes in couple touches, hits it, you know, cross back
5:41
the other way, just perfect placement.
5:44
And I'm totally digging the sound effect of that that rattle
5:47
when you get the top corner. It's just it's chilling and I
5:52
very, very much enjoyed that that LJ goal.
5:54
But there was another few moments she puts a cross into
5:58
Russo in the first half where there's two defenders and
6:02
they're just reminding me of like Mahomes where it's like,
6:04
oh, that, you know, it's completely covered, like, and
6:07
the cross just skips just over the two defenders right to
6:11
Russo. She's not really able to corral
6:13
it. But unbelievable play there.
6:14
LJ again goes one-on-one versus Esme Brooks deep on the right
6:18
hand side. A nasty duel.
6:21
LJ just stretches and reaches, makes contact with the ball and
6:25
turns that contact into a cross that gets to Russo at the edge
6:29
of the 6th. I'm just like what the fuck was
6:31
that? And then on the stand way goal,
6:33
she puts the free kick in kind of like way past any of her
6:38
offensive like players, but soft enough where the the the
6:42
Netherlands defense couldn't really they couldn't really
6:44
bring it down and they couldn't really clear it with any kind of
6:47
power. So it just sort of like squirts
6:49
and dribbles like out to the AT and finds its way to stand,
6:53
which he cracks it. And it was funny because Carly
6:55
Lloyd on the I think it was in the post game, Carly was like,
6:58
Oh, Leanne, I was even telling you what is what is James doing
7:00
on that play? It's so weird.
7:02
So it's like, I can just imagine that Carly Lloyd just befuddled
7:04
just being like, oh, who is this player and what is she doing?
7:07
Like it's, I mean, it was, it was a master class and I've just
7:10
never seen these things on the pitch before.
7:13
Mahomes is a really interesting comparison.
7:17
I mean, sometimes Jason Kidd would throw passes and then she
7:21
just like, oh, I didn't realize that was you would think of
7:25
something like that or like, you know, Tiger Woods would hit a
7:28
golf shot where it's just like, wait, what club does he have?
7:31
What's he thinking about doing? It's just like to even have the
7:35
idea of what she's going to do takes a genius mind of like, OK,
7:39
well, I'm going to hit it with this force at this speed and
7:42
it's going to bend and it's going to land right there.
7:44
And if my, if my teammate is on the same page with me, that'll
7:47
work. But then to be able to execute
7:50
it at full speed to compute that at full speed and then execute
7:54
it. Like you said, she's
7:55
one-of-a-kind man. Like not even 24 yet beyond
7:59
spectacular. And she is thinking of about
8:02
the, the game. There are times 2.
8:04
I, I was, I'm glad you bring this up because I was thinking
8:06
about this like sometimes play will stop, like the ball will go
8:10
out for a throw in and the camera will pan to her.
8:13
And she's just kind of like looking around the field too.
8:15
I know like every player does that.
8:17
But there's something with her where like the sonar is going
8:20
off and she's like already deciding like, oh, OK, I think I
8:23
know what you're doing, what you're doing.
8:25
And this, I'm going to play it when when she's executing,
8:28
there's just nobody that can stop her.
8:29
Yeah, no, absolutely. I think I, I, I kind of hesitate
8:32
to kind of give, give this title away, but Lauren James is my
8:36
favorite player in the women's game.
8:39
I think like, she's just so creative.
8:41
She's so gifted, you know, so it's like not only does she know
8:45
the game, play the game technically, like there was that
8:48
moment where she controls the ball in the midfield, like it
8:51
was like a little a pop up and then it kind of lands on her
8:53
foot and then she controls it. The control was just out of this
8:57
world to begin with. And then she just do a spop,
8:59
bop, bop, bop and then dances around 3 defenders until and
9:02
then kind of like outside of the foot sit too.
9:04
I think it might have been Kira Walsh.
9:05
But both both announcers, you know, the USBD and the play by
9:11
play were just like mesmerized. They're just like, oh, I guess
9:14
that's just what what she does. I mean, add to that the two
9:17
goals and just, you know, can play anywhere.
9:21
Like I think LJ was asked after the game, Wiegmann put you on
9:23
the right. That must have worked out.
9:25
Is that your best spot? She's like, I'm, she was like, I
9:27
don't see, I'm paraphrasing here.
9:28
She's like, I, I, she chuckles and she's like, I really don't
9:31
know where my best spot is. And, you know, she's not
9:32
bullshitting. She's like, she really hasn't.
9:35
It's sort of like how computers for forever couldn't figure out
9:37
chess or couldn't solve it for the whole game.
9:39
Like she's just like, I don't know, it could be there.
9:41
It could be, you know, I don't know, maybe I'm a goalkeeper,
9:43
who knows? I mean that could be able to do
9:46
all of it. Like, if you gave her minutes as
9:49
a six, I I'm fully confident that she would be great at it.
9:53
Like, because she she, she'll RIP the ball off players, too.
9:56
She takes better angles than players, like defensively or
9:59
even when she's running onto a ball in an attacking position.
10:02
Yeah. Like, you just cannot say enough
10:04
about this player. She's absolutely spectacular.
10:06
Now, you know, there are moments and you've seen it with Chelsea.
10:09
She's been battling injuries too, where we've had those those
10:13
matches in the Champions League where we're like wasn't an LJ
10:16
game. So like you, you want to see
10:18
what happens as she progresses into her apex prime.
10:22
But this is what happens when you have those kind of
10:25
superlative players. Like we talk about shirting
10:28
lives ceiling being a Balandor. I mean, I think Lauren James has
10:32
the exact same same thing. I mean, you know, she could just
10:35
have a a monster season where maybe maybe she won't, you know,
10:39
she won't be a twenty goal scorer, but she could absolutely
10:42
dominate the run of play. And if she doesn't consistently
10:46
throughout a season, you know, you've seen those kind of
10:48
players win that award in the. Past absolutely and I think you
10:52
know honestly, I think she could be a 2020 goal scorer if that's
10:57
if that's what you know the situation called for I mean I I
11:00
don't think she's going to be on a team that is going to
11:02
necessitate that, but I don't know it's such a tremendous
11:04
player, but I I do want to talk about the Netherlands a little
11:08
bit because I thought this was AI mean a poor poor poor
11:12
performance, no real adjustments, no real defensive
11:17
strategy. You know, I think like you have
11:19
a team and this is the other part real quick, last last
11:22
little bit about LJ actually have two two little quick things
11:24
like LJ. But for a player that young to
11:28
essentially emotionally kind of like throw England on on her
11:32
back and just be like, hey, like, I know that our backs
11:34
against the wall is a little bit tricky, but you know, don't
11:37
worry. And when she smashes to the
11:38
first goal, she just kind of half smiles, just like, you know
11:42
what, like I like come on, like we don't want to.
11:44
I told you we'd have to worry about this.
11:46
Not that anybody was worried. Which leads me to card corner.
11:50
Let's go. So this one is a Lauren James
11:56
rookie card from the 20/21/22 Topps Chrome set, which was the
12:00
first Topps Chrome set since women's football cards started
12:04
being produced by Top Scrum. So this is the first year Top
12:06
Scrum very special. Lauren James rookie.
12:09
It's autographed. There's only 75 of these.
12:11
It's the Inferno edition. And yeah, Lauren James was in
12:15
Fuego today. So I think that's that's pretty
12:17
fitting. And yeah, real, real LeBron
12:21
James game 6IN Boston vibes back against the wall, you know,
12:25
prodigy wait, waiting for wait, I think.
12:28
I mean, I was waiting for this LJ game, like in this type of
12:31
situation, back against the wall, a lot of questions
12:34
surrounding her and I mean stepped up in a massive way.
12:36
You know, the broadcast, at least here in the States, was
12:40
was really harping on the fact that no defending Euro champion
12:45
has been knocked out in the group stage.
12:47
And I think it I think the stat even extended to no champ.
12:50
No, you know, title holder has even lost their first group
12:53
stage match in the in the following tournament.
12:56
So you know, the their backs were against the wall.
12:59
You read stuff over in the Guardian or on BBC and people
13:02
are just it's amazing how short people's memories are.
13:05
But it's just like, oh, you know, the the fires rising
13:08
around Serena Wiegmann, They they're literally the Champions
13:11
of this tournament going in and they made the World Cup final.
13:14
But OK, I get, you know, fine, it's a short career in like
13:18
international football managing. So I guess it makes sense.
13:21
I won't be, I won't get too up in arms about that.
13:23
But to your point, she put the team on her back and then you
13:27
nailed it earlier too. There wasn't a bad performance.
13:30
There was. There was hardly even an average
13:32
performance across the entire 11 today for England.
13:36
Yeah, that's a great point. You can think about everybody,
13:38
like even Hannah Hampton has that sick pass.
13:41
That pass was just ridiculous. I mean, but that kind of also
13:45
makes me think about the Netherlands and being again, a
13:47
little bit disappointed. I don't think I saw a single
13:51
first half adjustment. I don't think I saw a single a
13:54
single like defensive strategy, kind of like take take shape.
13:58
It was just a lot of like, all right, go out there and find the
14:01
person closest to you and then stay close to them and we'll see
14:04
what happens. Because I mean, it was really,
14:06
really porous and and offensively just couldn't get
14:09
anything going. I mean, like this Netherlands
14:11
side is only going to attempt four shots in the match, the
14:14
first one coming at the 25 minute mark, one shot on target.
14:18
I had one other stat here. So England touches in their own
14:23
half, 154, touches in Netherlands half 154,
14:27
Netherlands in their own half, 202, opposition half 82.
14:34
They just could not get the ball across the line.
14:37
I mean, we talked about Jill Roord after, you know, their
14:40
first match against Wales and how, you know, she's known to
14:44
calibrate and get a lot of shots off.
14:46
She had one shot today, obviously not on target.
14:50
I think the most glaring wild stat, and this is courtesy of
14:55
our pals at At Foot Mob, Viviana Medema had 10 touches in the
15:02
match in her time on the field. And if she's just never going to
15:08
get the ball, was she? She played 66 minutes and it
15:11
felt like what? So they were down, yeah, they
15:15
were down 3 nil at 66. And then, you know, they take
15:18
Meatema off and you get the two in goal like shortly after that.
15:22
Even when they took Meatema off, that felt like white flag time.
15:26
Like it was, you know, and obviously you're down at that
15:28
point. You're down 3 nil with, you
15:30
know, 25 minutes left. But I thought that was that was
15:34
interesting and to to get Meatema off the field, like, OK,
15:37
you've barely touched the ball. We know your health issues.
15:40
We're just going to get you out of here.
15:41
Just a bitterly disappointing the performance from her.
15:45
I mean, I think the one thing to mention there is the goal
15:49
differential is a huge tiebreaker, so.
15:53
That's fair. Even if you go down to nil,
15:55
three nil, it's like you can't really, you can't really pack it
15:59
up like that Could be that fourth goal, the LA two goal
16:05
could be the difference between advancing and not advancing.
16:07
I thought the Subs were weird. You know, you take off estimate
16:10
Brooks really early in the match, Don't replace her with
16:12
the same level of firepower. I don't know, a lot of
16:16
befuddling things. And then I think you add to that
16:18
that Yonkers on the way out, I think this is his last kind of
16:21
hurrah at the helm. Yeah, I think, I think the Dutch
16:24
Federation announced that earlier in the year.
16:27
And you know, forgive me, I can't remember the assistant
16:30
coach for England, but he's going to be stepping into his
16:34
place. I'll tell you, when I heard that
16:37
on the broadcast, I was like, and hopefully nobody's sharing
16:39
any information either way, but I was like, OK, you know, you'd
16:42
be, you would be risking your entire career doing something
16:44
stupid like that. So like, obviously, but it was
16:47
just weird to think, you know, how often those situations can
16:50
come up. But yeah, and it was weird to
16:52
see, you know, Mitimo comes off and Daniella van de Dunk comes
16:55
on and it's just like, you know, for a player like her to be
16:59
brought on in that situation, you know, you get your team's
17:02
just getting stomped at that point.
17:04
And, and she played so well and in the in the previous match,
17:08
it's like a real rough spot for her as well, I thought.
17:11
I mean, like at this point with the performance like that, you
17:13
have to imagine that they show up versus Germany and get
17:17
absolutely rolled again. I mean, I think they I think, I
17:22
think it's just seemed like 123 Cancun type territory.
17:25
Like I don't know that any of them really wanted to play that
17:28
hard. Nobody really wanted to defend
17:30
that hard. I mean, they they couldn't move
17:32
the ball. Like this team is not four goals
17:35
worse than England. I think the I think the smart
17:38
money is probably on France in that third match.
17:40
Yeah, it's going to be it's going to be very, very
17:42
interesting to see because I think when we were talking about
17:46
Group C yesterday and we were talking about Germany, like in
17:50
the build up. And again, I can't remember if
17:52
it was a Nations League match or a friendly.
17:55
I want to say it was Nations League, but Germany stomped
17:59
Netherlands 4 nil in one of those matches.
18:02
So like they have this in them. They still they still have a ton
18:05
of talent. They have a lot of players with
18:06
a with a lot of pride and a lot of pedigree.
18:09
These some of these players were on that 2017 Euro winning team,
18:13
Viv Medima included, of course. So I don't know, you kind of you
18:18
see these ebbs and flows and you know, you have to account for
18:23
France and what they might do in a very big spot.
18:26
So I'm still I'm still very much looking forward and I know you
18:30
are too. But like, I'm, I'm very much
18:32
looking forward to what match day three in this group holds
18:37
because I think I think it's fair to say that they were flat
18:41
and they didn't play well in this match.
18:43
And you're like, oh, they didn't get up for it.
18:44
If you can't get up for this match against France for your
18:48
tournament livelihood, then you don't have a pulse.
18:51
And I, and I believe these players do.
18:53
I'm, I'm with you, I'm like 90% with you there because I don't
18:57
think it's an effort. I don't think it was a player.
18:59
The players weren't up, up for had effort.
19:01
I I don't think that they knew what to do.
19:03
Like I don't think that they were ready for LJ on the right.
19:06
I don't think they were ready for Ella Toon.
19:07
I don't think that they were ready for that lineup or, you
19:10
know, Greenwood and Carter, that switch.
19:12
You know, they had, you know, Boerman in there who gets subbed
19:16
off at at halftime. You know, the, the teenager and
19:19
you know, she's kind of having a battle battle on the LJ side.
19:22
Russo obviously had a massive game 3 assists.
19:24
I don't think we've mentioned her yet, but she was
19:26
unbelievable. You know, everything she did was
19:29
was accurate and correct. So I think, you know, I think I
19:33
feel like it's going to be France, England pretty easily.
19:37
But I I absolutely take your point that France could
19:40
absolutely France and could just turn turn this whole thing
19:44
inside out. And Speaking of Leblu, France
19:48
for Wales one, where do you want to get started with this one?
19:53
I, you know, credit to Wales, man.
19:54
They, they fight. Let's just, let's just talk
19:57
about. I know that it wasn't the first
19:58
goal that was scored. Just motherfucking fish lock.
20:02
Come on. What is that?
20:04
That's exactly what I had in my notes.
20:07
Are you serious? Yes.
20:08
Yes. Oh my, I didn't mean to step on
20:11
your line. I mean, but just like, what else
20:13
can you say about her? Like I it's so great that she
20:15
got that goal. I don't know that I was going to
20:17
say it on the show, but I certainly had.
20:19
It's right here at the second point.
20:20
It's right in my notes. Oh yeah, I nice.
20:24
I loved the Jackie Oatley Goatley.
20:28
Her call was was really something.
20:30
I think she kind of knew that this was going to be, you know,
20:33
work its way up into the annals. But when she hit the whales get
20:37
their goal at long, long lost. I was just like, it was so
20:43
dreamy and picturesque. I was just like, I I think I'm
20:46
going to be seeing this clip for a very long time.
20:49
She definitely met the moment. So shout out to Goatly for sure.
20:52
Maybe not the last shout out Goatly's going to get on the
20:54
show. Talk about that one later.
20:56
But yeah, Congrats to Wales, big time history.
20:59
You. This is another one that you
21:00
called that you wanted to see. I'm not sure.
21:02
Did you say fishlock or? No, this was, this was halfway.
21:05
I feel like this is halfway getting a prediction right
21:09
because I was talking about I want to see Poland score in
21:12
their final match and get their first ever euro.
21:14
Goal. Oh my bad.
21:15
As debutantes, no, I'm taking, I'm taking 50% credit for this
21:19
too because I want to, you know, when you have a debutante in a
21:22
tournament, we talked about it with Jamaica in the 23 World
21:25
Cup. You, you don't want to see a
21:27
team just make it for the first time and then just get blanked 3
21:30
times in a row like it's, it's cool to get that goal to break
21:33
that seal, open the account, all the all the football cliches you
21:37
want to throw out there. And for it to be her.
21:40
I know I use this phrase a lot. It had to be her and it was.
21:44
It was amazing to watch. The crowd reaction, her
21:47
reaction, her teammates, everything about it was just
21:50
beautiful. Yeah.
21:51
And then the game situation, which we talked about earlier.
21:54
So, you know, if this wasn't a four nil going to four one, this
21:58
was a one nil going to one one that they carried almost into
22:02
the half, which would have just been, I mean, the first half was
22:05
was dazzling just from that standpoint.
22:07
And for like, I, I want to read you just some stats real quick
22:11
because I think these are very telling touches in the
22:13
opponent's half. France dominates that stat 316
22:16
to 41 touches in the opposition box, 37 to 18 for France.
22:22
So even though they were like almost 10X, they're only double
22:26
when it gets when it gets gets to getting into the box, which
22:28
means that Wales super efficient.
22:31
They only had 41 touches in the opposition half.
22:34
Eighteen of those they, they got all the way into the 18, so and
22:38
then six shots and four on target, you know, so like
22:41
incredibly efficient. They did they they squeezed
22:44
every bit of value out of what was available to them.
22:47
They played their asses off. And it was just really
22:50
inspiring, you know, and I think to see the performance that they
22:54
had, especially in that first half, and then to juxtapose that
22:56
between England and Netherlands, what Netherlands did, it was
22:58
just like such a disappointment, you know, to see whales come out
23:01
and just be like, we're way, way undermanned.
23:04
But we're going to play so much harder.
23:06
And we're going to make this a game for for as long as we
23:08
possibly can. Yeah, and it, I mean, it goes
23:11
back to, you know, the ethos of of their team.
23:14
I mean, you have Fishlock, I thought.
23:17
Sherry Holland, Liverpool player who had the assist on that.
23:21
Just like how like how emblematic of is is that of the
23:25
fight in that team where she's on her back and just knows if I
23:29
can just get this little poke to the captain, to the legend and
23:33
she'll make it happen. And pardon me, Angra James
23:36
Turner was the captain of this match, but still, you know,
23:37
Fishlock, the the icon of the team and for her to just get
23:41
that poke to her for her. I mean, they they were ready to
23:44
scrap it out in in typical Welsh style.
23:47
And you know, they held on, like you said, completely underdogs
23:51
in the in the in the talent perspective, but they held on as
23:54
long as they could. And that's worthy of of
23:57
anybody's. Respect.
23:58
I think on the France side we got to talk about Clara Mateo.
24:01
I mean, yeah, involved in everything, you know, pre FC
24:04
superstar, FC league leader and goals.
24:07
I mean, whether it's scoring goals or earning penalties that
24:11
become goals or assisting on, she was just involved
24:14
everywhere. I mean, it kind of like a
24:16
showcase moment for Mateo because that's not a player that
24:19
we've talked about quite a bit, you know, And I think, you know,
24:22
such heavyweights in that forward room for France kind of
24:26
take Mateo for granted a little bit.
24:27
But this was a great, great performance from her.
24:30
Just like instinctive, hungry, twitchy, like a head, like a
24:34
step ahead. Almost every opportunity I
24:38
thought was a really big time performance for Mateo.
24:40
Yeah, gigantic. I mean, and it was once she had
24:43
the press, the steel and the assist on.
24:46
Lingerie's goal is then when I did the math, I was like, OK, so
24:50
she scored the opener, then drew the penalty, and now this.
24:54
I was like, OK, have yourself a day, Claire Mateo.
24:57
Like, that's pretty fantastic that that one's going to live on
25:00
forever. It's something just to hit that
25:03
assist Demajorie, you know, so then you you add to that, like
25:08
ripping it off the keeper, you know, like, you know, possessing
25:10
it like kind of like clearing up the space, Like there's so many
25:13
little things that built up. And I think that's that's what
25:16
you see with those great scorers.
25:18
It's not just the one thing we talked about that with the with
25:21
the Hegeburg goal early in the tournament, just like the pivot,
25:24
pivot step, step, step, you know, like weaving through to
25:26
get to that spot. It's it's what these great
25:29
players are able to do. It's all the little moments in
25:32
and around the action that that really kind of separate them.
25:35
Yeah, no doubt. And you know, to think she is,
25:39
she's often going to be behind Marie Antoinette Katoto, one of
25:43
the best number nines in the in the world.
25:45
So now you have this like change of speed.
25:47
They'll come in and out of matches for each other.
25:50
Just no relief for the opponents.
25:52
You just have you have to always ask yourself, is France going to
25:57
see this through that still, that still remains a question.
26:01
I'll tell you what's absolutely going to help is Grace Gay Oro
26:04
being nearly impossible for him opponents to deal with, at least
26:08
in these first two matches. I mean, we talked about she she
26:10
was kicking England's ass out there in the first match and she
26:13
followed it up again, a goal today and just looked like a a
26:17
total stunner out there. So good, I mean, two shots, 2 on
26:21
target and a big game player. You know, we've seen her dudes
26:25
in the Champions League like, you know, match in match out.
26:27
I mean, like they need it, they need somebody to step up and and
26:30
she's she's just that type of player.
26:32
And with all of the I thought it was really interesting too.
26:35
All the roster turnover, you know, so seven different players
26:39
make appearance in today's starting lineup.
26:42
Gayoro, one of the players that was not swapped out, you know,
26:45
so it's like, all right, we're going to make these kind of
26:47
changes. We need a pillar here, you know,
26:49
we need somebody that's going to keep everything, you know, on
26:51
time and on track. And that's exactly that player
26:54
and a big game today for Gayoro. Yeah, no doubt.
26:57
I mean, obviously Diani gets the scores of the penalty, not her
27:03
best penalty, but she squeaks it, squeaks it through.
27:06
She also has the assist. I thought it would look like if
27:09
I took a penalty only I would be trying my best, right?
27:13
I just pray the keeper only gets a toe on it.
27:16
Yeah, I mean, in Dongola was good.
27:18
Had some real kind of cheeky moments in Dongola, real real
27:21
clever defender. Just kind of like makes makes
27:24
the moves. Had a had a perfectly executed
27:27
dive late in the match too to to like draw a foul that was so
27:32
clearly a dive but completely fooled the referee.
27:35
The talent speaks for itself. Some players got some some well,
27:40
well deserved rest in this match.
27:42
And now they have to go beat the Netherlands and they have to
27:46
beat the allegations. They have to beat the fraud
27:48
allegations. Well, you know, 'cause people on
27:51
Warsaw, blue sky can be a treacherous place and they'll
27:55
they'll let you know if they think you know you're you don't
27:58
live up to your potential. Ask, ask Norway, ask France.
28:03
So Twitter or blue sky, pardon me, is not super friendly about
28:08
those kind of things. Or, you know, it's it's usually
28:11
in good fun, but I can see how some of those players, if they
28:14
look at some of the stuff, might not think it's a big barrel of.
28:17
Laughs. I certainly hope that the blue
28:19
sky doesn't turn on this team because I I think they're
28:22
they're definitely on the right track.
28:24
Interesting machinations. So Netherlands still can advance
28:28
if they out point England on match day three.
28:31
So they'll just start there. So they need to win and England
28:34
draws, they get through. If England beats Wales,
28:37
Netherlands needs to beat France by three or more goals.
28:40
So I think all the like right there, you know, it's kind of
28:43
like definitely up against it gonna be tough.
28:46
I think France pretty much in the driver's seat.
28:48
I think all they need is a a draw, right?
28:50
Yeah, all they have to do is avoid a loss to the Netherlands
28:54
by a margin of three goals or more.
28:56
OK, yeah, And that's it. That's if England went because
29:00
England would need to get up to six points.
29:03
So yeah, I think this one's probably going to be England,
29:05
France, Group A back in action tomorrow.
29:09
A really fun one. I really like too that all the
29:11
matches go concurrently now. So now we're just sitting in
29:14
that 12 PMPT time slot. We can make some some business
29:18
decisions on what we're watching live and we want to screen one
29:21
screen. What do we want to do?
29:22
I think tomorrow for me, it's going to be Finland,
29:24
Switzerland. I think I'm going to lock in on
29:26
that one, figure out who's going to grab that second spot and
29:29
then cardio alert Norway and Ireland and the other Group A
29:33
match, you know, So I I probably will highlight that one unless
29:36
something crazy happens. But yeah, Norway already
29:38
clinched ice and already eliminated, so don't expect a
29:41
ton of drama there. I think you may have said, and I
29:44
hate to be the guy. I don't, I don't hate to be the
29:46
guy. I think on that first reference
29:48
you may have said Norway, Ireland.
29:51
So just remember, Norway plays Portland tomorrow.
29:54
That's right, yeah. Portland, Ireland.
29:57
That's right. So I'm going to be on full no
30:00
spoilers mode. I got to be totally locked in.
30:02
I got something big that I'm working on.
30:04
So I'm going to watch that match after work.
30:08
We'll we'll do the live production.
30:09
If you watch all of Switzerland, Finland, I'll watch all of
30:12
Norway, Iceland, and then maybe we'll we'll collaborate in case
30:16
anybody could possibly care about that everything before
30:21
tomorrow's episode. We're talking to you, single
30:24
listener on the edge of your seat, figuring out who's going
30:26
to cover which of the which match exactly.
30:28
Man, I think we did it. Anything else we hit for you out
30:30
here? That's it man.
30:32
That's another great day of football and like you said, now
30:35
we're in the concurrent matches we're on to.
30:38
I think I've heard some people refer to it as round 3, which I
30:41
think is typical football parlance.
30:43
So round three to the group stage, we made it at first, we
30:48
didn't make any promises. We were just like, Oh yeah, we
30:50
won't guarantee that we're going to cover every day.
30:53
I mean, we're we're cruising there now, dude, like this,
30:56
we're up. I've got Irene Nil.
30:59
I've got Ireland playing Portland in the final.
31:02
I can't read. I can't do math.
31:05
No, that's that's fair. But look, you know what?
31:07
You gotta go through the trials and the tribulations to make it
31:09
through a tough stretch like this.
31:12
I think we're doing it. I think we're gonna get there 12
31:14
in a row. Debutantes, have you given some
31:16
slugs our first year? So what are you gonna do?
31:18
That's right, man. This has been the episode of
31:20
Into the Channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
31:22
for hanging out and tolerating us and all our foolishness.
31:26
If you enjoyed the show or love ones who fall as much as your
31:28
boys do, make sure you're kicking it with us each and
31:30
every single week. Like subscribe, follow YouTube,
31:33
Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
31:35
Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app, links to
31:37
all of our socials except one in the show.
31:40
This episode. And a big thank you to my coast
31:43
as well. Mr. Grant Eagle for Group A,
31:45
Group B, Group C, Group D match days, match weeks, doesn't
31:49
matter. You're a champ in my book, the
31:52
only running running mate that I I could ever imagine knocking
31:55
out so many shows and so many days at this glorious tournament
31:58
with. So I appreciate you bro.
32:00
Likewise, buddy, I mean, I, I think it's safe to say we might
32:04
not know the winners of Group D just yet.
32:07
I think into the Channel one group DI don't think there's any
32:09
questioning that. So congratulations to you as we
32:13
make our way into to match day three.
32:16
So now we get we get to get some cardio in these in these last
32:19
few matches. So I think I think that'll be
32:21
nice. And thank you to everybody for
32:23
hanging out with us. Dropping knowledge in the
32:25
comments. I got replies coming.
32:27
You know, with with this plus the day job, it's been a little
32:29
tricky, but we appreciate all the knowledge you guys have been
32:31
taking to us. So we'll make sure that we we
32:34
reach out to you soon and we will see you all next time.