Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / 🏆 Barcelona Chelsea Lyon Arsenal Thru to UWCL Semifinals + Champions League Quarterfinal RECAPS!

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🏆 Barcelona Chelsea Lyon Arsenal Thru to UWCL Semifinals + Champions League Quarterfinal RECAPS! · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:05
  Hello Kate, welcome to into the Channel podcast primarily about
• 0:10
  when. So Paul, I am your host Dean
• 0:12
  Desuspers and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant
• 0:16
  Angle. What is up man?
• 0:18
  I'm hanging in there, buddy. The word for today's podcast is
• 0:22
  resilience, and so I think we'll talk about that in many
• 0:25
  different ways because there was some great football played and
• 0:28
  depending on your perspective, maybe some not so great football
• 0:32
  played. Fair enough, fair enough.
• 0:35
  Obviously huge Champions League quarterfinals get, you know,
• 0:39
  that gets wrapped up this past week.
• 0:41
  We get a chance to get excited, look ahead to the semis.
• 0:44
  We know who our semi finalists are.
• 0:46
  I think it's worth kind of going through these 4 matchups that we
• 0:49
  witnessed this past week. Quick preview of the semis.
• 0:54
  And then, you know, just basically do how we do, get
• 0:57
  everybody pumped up for the proceedings and then, yeah, just
• 1:02
  break it up, break it, break it down as only the boys from the
• 1:05
  ITC can do. That sounds good to me.
• 1:10
  Yeah. I mean, you know, I'm sure there
• 1:11
  will likely be another preview. What?
• 1:13
  So the first leg of the semi finals, the first one starts on
• 1:17
  April 19th. So we got a little bit of time.
• 1:19
  So we'll probably do a proper preview right before then.
• 1:22
  You'll see what happens. Maybe hopefully not any
• 1:24
  injuries, but maybe some changes in availability, maybe some
• 1:26
  players coming back. But yeah, I think a little quick
• 1:30
  breakdown of this little baby preview right now and keep it
• 1:33
  pushing. Let's go.
• 1:35
  I love it. All right man, where you want to
• 1:36
  get started? I well, I mean, we got to start
• 1:38
  with your Gunners. Well, look at I mean Arsenal
• 1:41
  three Real Madrid nil absolutely electric match.
• 1:45
  I mean, can we crack a beverage for your Gunners and just for
• 1:50
  you in general, my good man I. Appreciate that.
• 1:53
  Yeah, let's do it. Cheers to the Arsenal.
• 2:01
  Cheers to you buddy. To you as well, man.
• 2:05
  OK, Arsenal three, Real Madrid nil.
• 2:09
  I was really surprised by this. Obviously I picked Arsenal to
• 2:14
  win 21, but I thought Madrid would advance on the heels of
• 2:17
  how good they looked versus Arsenal in the first leg.
• 2:20
  And then obviously beating Barcelona, say what you want
• 2:24
  about that match was a huge victory for them.
• 2:28
  I think the story, the thing I'm going to remember from this one,
• 2:32
  and I want to start here, Alberto Toriel, who we talked
• 2:35
  about, you know, potential ITC show watcher.
• 2:40
  But in all seriousness, I wasn't sure what they were doing, you
• 2:44
  know, doesn't make a sub until the 76th minute.
• 2:47
  Madrid looked super flat. I think in my notes I wrote
• 2:50
  down, we're 5 minutes into the game and the only touches Madrid
• 2:55
  has had has been clearances and blocks.
• 2:58
  Like literally nothing, you know, to start with and then
• 3:02
  just to have sort of that kind of hapless performance early,
• 3:06
  not make a tactical change, really not make a line up change
• 3:09
  until 76 pointed like 5 sixths of the matches is over.
• 3:15
  That that struck me as just bizarre.
• 3:17
  Just because they looked, you know, they looked aimless and,
• 3:20
  and, and a little bit gassed to be honest.
• 3:24
  I mean, I just couldn't agree with you more, man.
• 3:26
  It's it's funny to hear it from an Arsenal fan's perspective.
• 3:29
  You know, I do. I consider myself a neutral.
• 3:31
  Like, obviously I root for your team to do well, but I don't
• 3:33
  have nearly as much skin in the game as you.
• 3:36
  And I was like, you know, after that just absolute nightmare 15
• 3:40
  minutes that they had to start the second-half in my notes.
• 3:44
  And I quote, Real Madrid is still alive, but man, oh, man,
• 3:51
  oh, man, they are barely holding on.
• 3:53
  They need a shot in the arm named Elba Redondo in the worst
• 3:58
  fucking way. And I wrote that around the 60th
• 4:01
  minute. I have no idea what took so long
• 4:03
  to get her in the match, if if she was gassed to or if she just
• 4:06
  said, like, you know, hey, gaffer, like, I don't have
• 4:10
  enough legs in me to give you a full 30 or give you a 45 or
• 4:13
  something. Like, I guess we don't know that
• 4:15
  part. But that game, they were dying
• 4:19
  for a substitute and it just didn't come until it was way too
• 4:22
  late. Yeah, man, totally, I think, and
• 4:25
  I don't think it it had to do necessary with fatigue because
• 4:28
  Dodiel Subs in three players at the same time yes, meme Redondo
• 4:32
  and and Feyer like so it it couldn't be that all three of
• 4:36
  them were like hey, I only got 15 minutes of me the other 10
• 4:40
  the other ten. Oh, OK, I could give you 75.
• 4:44
  I thought I thought it was really rough too.
• 4:46
  They their office couldn't get it going at all.
• 4:48
  You look at the touches, Caroline Weir 31, senior Brune
• 4:52
  28 in in only 75 minutes at the NEA 28, Linda Kaisedo 20 touches
• 4:59
  and and those other three players played 90.
• 5:01
  They played the full 90. You look, Beth Mead alone in 17
• 5:06
  minutes had 20 touches, the same as Linda Kaisedo in 90 minutes.
• 5:09
  Unbelievable. You know, to kind of like, yeah,
• 5:12
  just fumble the opportunity that poorly.
• 5:15
  Mariona had 93 touches in this one, like just and, and all over
• 5:21
  the field a ton in advanced positions.
• 5:24
  I, I think Madiona has been undoubtedly the Arsenal MVP this
• 5:29
  season. I think that's definitely
• 5:31
  straightforward. You know, she obviously gets
• 5:33
  the, the big goal in this one. But for me, this was the Alessia
• 5:37
  Russo game. We saw Alessia Russo at the 9
• 5:39
  again and I think I, I think I put together what we're seeing.
• 5:44
  I think you, when you see Alessia Russo fall deeper play,
• 5:49
  make, you know, with precision, with great decision making, it's
• 5:53
  tantalizing. But the reality is Russo is a
• 5:56
  nine. She's an elite finisher of
• 5:59
  crosses. She's she gets into great
• 6:01
  position. Her work rate.
• 6:02
  We've talked about a ton on the show.
• 6:04
  And then in big matches, this was a big match.
• 6:07
  She comes up huge. You know, for me, this is like
• 6:09
  now this is the Alessi Russo game.
• 6:11
  Yeah, it's 100% the Alessi Russo game and talk about great touch.
• 6:15
  You know, the dagger to win off that modem cross.
• 6:19
  You know, the the touch to just kind of give it that little bit
• 6:22
  and then it still goes kind of far post from where she is to
• 6:26
  score it. It's an absolutely phenomenal
• 6:28
  touch. I mean it's superstar type stuff
• 6:30
  from Alessia Russo. It's it it was her game.
• 6:34
  She could have had damn four goals in this one.
• 6:36
  Like if you know they if some luck had changed.
• 6:38
  She was. Barely off?
• 6:40
  Yeah, she was barely offside on that one.
• 6:43
  Yeah, just Real Madrid. They just didn't have anything
• 6:45
  for it. I I'm glad you mentioned senior
• 6:48
  Brune. Like you said, she played 76
• 6:50
  minutes. She had 0 touches inside the
• 6:55
  attacking 18. You like, I know she's not the
• 7:00
  entire offense, but she is a very good player.
• 7:03
  But your chances if you're Madrid of doing much of anything
• 7:07
  are very much slimmed. If she doesn't have any touches
• 7:12
  inside the opponent's box, like you know, that's, that's a
• 7:15
  recipe for disaster in itself. A. 100% yeah.
• 7:18
  And you know, we, we've talked on the show a ton about
• 7:21
  calibration. You know, the the idea of like
• 7:24
  getting shots, getting looks, working stuff out through the
• 7:27
  course of the game. So that when it's like prime
• 7:30
  time championship rounds, you, you sort of have a feel for the
• 7:35
  ball, the conditions, the defence, the angles, you know,
• 7:37
  like what what's available to you And watching Madrid kind of
• 7:42
  scramble late, you know, I think at the Nana had a chance and she
• 7:45
  was like nowhere close. I'm like, this isn't her first
• 7:47
  chance. We're like in the 80s like like
• 7:50
  how why would she be able to like just pull out some magic?
• 7:54
  This is her first real look at goal.
• 7:56
  I I thought it was real negligence on the part of total
• 8:00
  total fumble. I think in terms of game plan
• 8:02
  and like, you know, just approaching this one, you know,
• 8:07
  the zone flash to graphic somewhere.
• 8:12
  Pardon me, the zone flashed a graphic somewhere in the first
• 8:15
  half that had the possession 6832.
• 8:18
  And those numbers reminded me so much of Barcelona last week.
• 8:21
  And I'm like, is Madrid just coming here and playing Arsenal
• 8:25
  as if they're Barcelona? Like because we we talked about
• 8:30
  how even these teams could be and any given day, if if Madrid,
• 8:34
  you know, plays to their potential, they're winning.
• 8:36
  If Arsenal plays to their potential, they're winning.
• 8:39
  I think these teams are are a little bit more even than the
• 8:41
  stats showed, I think even across the two matches.
• 8:44
  But for Madrid to either have shown Arsenal that level of
• 8:49
  respect, borderline fear, or to just maybe they were just
• 8:52
  gassed, I think it's one. It's one or the other.
• 8:54
  But either way, I think it was pretty clear that the game plan
• 8:59
  was off. They were off and it was going
• 9:01
  to be an up, up, uphill battle. Even having them be up to two
• 9:05
  goals on aggregate didn't feel great.
• 9:08
  You know, from the, the, the, the, the Real Madrid fandom
• 9:12
  slice in my brain or in my heart, whatever you want to
• 9:14
  think about. That was just like not going to
• 9:16
  be today for Las Blancos. Hey, you're absolutely right,
• 9:21
  man, it it and maybe it's just a a mix of the game plan wasn't
• 9:27
  great. You know, maybe there were some
• 9:29
  tired legs. Maybe there was some of that let
• 9:31
  down match stuff that we had talked about.
• 9:33
  Like they come off the these two gigantic wins and they're like,
• 9:36
  all right, we're here now, like we we we're going to go ahead.
• 9:39
  We're going to kick Arsenal's head in again and they just
• 9:42
  wasn't there for him. I think, you know, the they had
• 9:48
  two shots on target in the entire match.
• 9:50
  They just didn't do anything and and your point about?
• 9:53
  Four shots total. Yeah.
• 9:55
  Yeah. What is total I mean?
• 9:57
  Yeah, it's not going to get it done, man.
• 9:58
  And I think it's a great point is to to ask, did they did they
• 10:03
  look at the great success against Barcelona?
• 10:05
  Be like, OK, maybe that's let's just do that again.
• 10:08
  Arsenal is a totally different team with different attributes
• 10:11
  who you match up with way better.
• 10:13
  So like, it's not a it's not a cookie cutter thing.
• 10:15
  You have to adjust your your style every time.
• 10:18
  So it's a bitter end for Las Blancas, but you know it, it
• 10:22
  finished better than last year's Champions League.
• 10:25
  They're on an upward trajectory. It's just a it's just a really
• 10:29
  gross way to go out. Yeah, rough day for sure.
• 10:33
  Last quick note here, obviously our guy Sharples on the call.
• 10:36
  I mean, as soon I I love to zone because you don't you never know
• 10:39
  who's going to be on and then as soon as like as soon as the
• 10:42
  voice comes in, you hit play on the stream.
• 10:44
  You're just like big game our guys on it.
• 10:47
  And it was funny because I don't know if you talked about this on
• 10:50
  the show, but and I don't want to like put his business out
• 10:53
  here, but suffice it to say he's not a fan of Manchester City.
• 10:56
  And he had a funny quote in the match where he's talking about
• 10:59
  Chloe Kelly. Let me get blood up here.
• 11:00
  And he says, I don't know if you picked up on it, but he's like
• 11:04
  Chloe Kelly quote. She seems to be enjoying
• 11:07
  football again, End Quote. Definitely felt like a subtle
• 11:10
  dig again again City but true pro tough to notice unless
• 11:15
  you're really really locked in. I did notice that, in case you
• 11:18
  were curious. Yeah, Sharples is the best man.
• 11:21
  I mean, he was phenomenal in that match, gave it the weight
• 11:25
  that it needed. His goal calls were incredible.
• 11:27
  The, you know, the anytime anybody's hitting the woodwork,
• 11:31
  his reactions are just fantastic on it.
• 11:33
  I mean, you know, he was absolutely on top of his game
• 11:37
  and, you know, he got that was a good shot by him.
• 11:40
  He got that one up there. Got that.
• 11:43
  I was like, we got to hit this, all right, Should we move ahead?
• 11:49
  Leon, Leon, Bayern. Let's do it.
• 11:51
  OK. Leon 4, Bayern 1.
• 11:53
  Leon takes the tie in aggregate, six to two.
• 11:57
  What'd you see in this one? You know, like I say about Leon
• 12:01
  almost every time we talk about him, the Super weapon is fully
• 12:04
  operational right now. The the, the defense is
• 12:08
  incredible. The scoring is great.
• 12:11
  They string together passes that, you know, go from defense
• 12:15
  to attack extremely quickly. But I want to give Bayern a lot
• 12:19
  of credit here. Like, I thought, I really liked
• 12:21
  their first 15 minutes. I thought they came out and
• 12:24
  played with great energy. They are holding the ball
• 12:26
  without looking too pressured. And in the 18th minute, Dzone
• 12:31
  showed the graphic Bayern had 55% of the ball up to that
• 12:36
  point. And I'll say even though they
• 12:40
  stretched it, I think they ended up stretching it to like
• 12:42
  somewhere around. I think they ended in the.
• 12:43
  Half of the 60s. Oh OK.
• 12:46
  Oh my bad. No for the for the mats.
• 12:47
  They were 5941. There we go.
• 12:50
  And yeah, and I think it it leveled out in the second-half,
• 12:54
  but according to our pals at Foot Mob, they stretched it to
• 12:58
  about 62% in the first half alone.
• 13:02
  But even then, you could start to see some signs where Leon was
• 13:06
  looking a little more dangerous kind of as the first half went
• 13:11
  on. And it was like, OK, so you
• 13:13
  know, Bayern, they they obviously have a lot of work to
• 13:15
  do here. But you know, there's, there's
• 13:20
  just, there's just too much. There's there's too much over
• 13:25
  over at Leon to really to really to really stop.
• 13:30
  And sorry, I'm jumping around here.
• 13:31
  The Clara Bull goal was fantastic.
• 13:35
  I'm gonna go to I'm gonna I'm gonna go to my notes here.
• 13:40
  This is what I wrote in real time after the Clara Bull goal.
• 13:44
  We get to halftime. It's a great half by Bayern and
• 13:48
  here's what I wrote. Quote.
• 13:49
  Am I regretting my flippant 3 to one Leon prediction based on
• 13:53
  what's been happening in the match so far?
• 13:55
  Question mark. And then me, because I'm a total
• 13:57
  jerk, of course not exclamation point, I feel better about it.
• 14:01
  Exclamation point, which I'm not sure how true that was.
• 14:04
  Bayern got their goal out of the way and the three from Leona
• 14:07
  incoming. So End Quote.
• 14:09
  And so I was like talking myself into like, you know, because at
• 14:12
  this point, I'm still, I still have faith in my hot prediction
• 14:16
  streak from the week before because this was the first match
• 14:19
  that I had watched. So I was like, OK, yeah, the
• 14:23
  Sandman's here. Like, I, I'm still a soothsayer.
• 14:26
  I still, I still know exactly what's going to happen in these
• 14:28
  matches. We'll kind of talk about that
• 14:30
  more as things go along. But Bayern had a great first
• 14:34
  half. It's just you.
• 14:36
  It's almost impossible to sustain against a team like
• 14:38
  Leon. I totally agree with that.
• 14:42
  I love the I love the Bayern start for sure.
• 14:45
  Well, I had something here. Yeah.
• 14:48
  The the the one thing that really hurt Pernea harder, 67
• 14:52
  minutes of action, 0 appearances in my game notes.
• 14:55
  That was tough. And that Leon front three, I
• 15:00
  think, you know, we've talked a lot about Leon's defense this
• 15:02
  season. Haven't talked too much about
• 15:05
  their offense, but that front three I think maybe is the best
• 15:11
  front three in the world. Chewinga DNE du Mornay and then
• 15:17
  if you want to expand it out, who's the First off the bench?
• 15:19
  Ada Hegerberg and you know, play that game.
• 15:22
  Who's the best 3 + 1? I think Leon's got it as well.
• 15:25
  I mean, I think they're just unbelievable and what they
• 15:28
  unlocked in this game. Deoni, her service, her passing,
• 15:35
  her vision. Like, I think you, you know,
• 15:38
  there's so many, the, the goals come from everywhere at Leon,
• 15:41
  you know, for, for such a long period of time.
• 15:44
  And I think, you know, Diani has the profile of like this goal
• 15:48
  scorer. She's got such great skill,
• 15:50
  great touch, great creativity that I feel like maybe there's
• 15:54
  been a lot of pressure for, for her to, to score.
• 15:59
  And maybe like the, the, the, the passing vision hasn't
• 16:02
  necessarily, I mean, she's got it.
• 16:03
  But in this match she was dealing like she was just like,
• 16:07
  OK, I'm going to I'm going to draw you out, draw you create a
• 16:10
  lane and then just drop an absolute dime.
• 16:13
  I mean, she gets the two assists.
• 16:14
  You look at the, you know, the what is this the first 3 DN need
• 16:18
  to do Marnay to make it 11. The the tie is probably over at
• 16:22
  this point. I wrote probably over and the
• 16:24
  DND unassisted a few minutes later.
• 16:27
  And then I wrote definitely over at this point.
• 16:29
  And then she gets another assist to chewing gum.
• 16:31
  I mean, if she can distribute like that in and around the box
• 16:37
  or just like in the final third, but she's always playing so, so
• 16:40
  far up field that if she's got the ball there and she's looking
• 16:42
  to pass, I mean, Leon's got the runners and they've got the
• 16:45
  finishers. I mean, you could even throw
• 16:47
  heaps in there as somebody that you can find with a good ball
• 16:50
  who's going to be able to finish that.
• 16:53
  That takes that offense up a level for me.
• 16:56
  That's a great call out. I think I'm going to.
• 16:58
  I'm going to stand up for MLSP 3.
• 17:05
  I know some of our other pals, I apologize, I'm trying to do this
• 17:08
  from memory, but our, our Barcelona pals beta Ualo Pie or
• 17:14
  CGH as your three. And then First off, the bench,
• 17:18
  Pina, I, it's clear. I, I think I take that over
• 17:23
  Leon's 4. Not by a ton, though.
• 17:25
  Your point stands. They're arguably the best front
• 17:29
  3 + + 1 in the world. I mean, it's those, it's those
• 17:32
  two, right? Yeah, I I would say, I mean, CGH
• 17:36
  is really what kind of takes it up a big level for sure.
• 17:41
  But Pajor, I honestly, I've got to see Pajor do it in in some of
• 17:46
  these high, you know, at week it's a semis, you know, we'll
• 17:49
  see Barcelona, Chelsea, I'd like to see Pajor.
• 17:52
  Do, you know, do some finishing in that matchup And kind of like
• 17:56
  really, because like I'll tell you what, Pina, you're First off
• 17:59
  the bench. If I'm a payor, I might be, you
• 18:02
  know, breaking a sweat or two, you know, looking over my
• 18:04
  shoulder, maybe kind of like pulling a muscle, watching what
• 18:08
  Peta's doing out here. So that we'll we'll get to that
• 18:10
  a little bit later. But I think I still would take
• 18:12
  Leon just because of the physicality, the athleticism.
• 18:17
  There was a play where Ziggiotti for Bayern is trying to reach
• 18:22
  out and grab Du Mornay and foul her and just end the chance.
• 18:26
  And it it it's just like grasping at a ghost, like, you
• 18:30
  know, she she should have been able to grab her and end it is
• 18:33
  not able to do it. I think they scored on that
• 18:34
  play. Just an incredible, you know,
• 18:40
  offensive, you know, display by Leon, the defense, you know,
• 18:44
  there as well. Basha ball's back.
• 18:46
  You know, she had a she had an absurd laser to Ada Hegerberg
• 18:50
  that gets kind of caught up in her feet.
• 18:52
  But a ball that looked like it travelled 35 yards and didn't go
• 18:56
  higher than 17 or 18 feet in the air, just like a absolute rope.
• 19:01
  And it it it it harkened back to I had to go way back to kind of
• 19:05
  find the comp here. Let me see.
• 19:08
  I've got it here in my notes reminded me of basically there
• 19:14
  was a there was a Tiger Woods drive.
• 19:15
  I think it was a 2017 Hero World Challenge in Bahamas.
• 19:18
  I don't have it in the duck, but it was a par four, 336 yards, a
• 19:23
  7th hole. He and and Woods blast one from
• 19:27
  the tee and he reaches the green 336 yards, 16 or 17 feet away
• 19:33
  from the cup. And then he's got a putt for
• 19:35
  eagle and of course he buries it.
• 19:36
  Of course, that that's basically the the the the golf equivalent
• 19:42
  of Boshable. I love that.
• 19:44
  I mean, I've, we've, we've compared footballers to a lot of
• 19:48
  different sports. I have golf is one that we've
• 19:51
  rarely used. I know we've used it a couple
• 19:52
  times in the past, but that's, that's a good shout.
• 19:55
  I love that. So you're larger.
• 19:56
  I got, I got, I got one more on Bosh before because I can't, I
• 19:59
  can't miss this. Did you catch the one in the
• 20:01
  82nd where there's a ball that like kind of like?
• 20:04
  Squirts out, Bosch is the only one you know near it, and Boscha
• 20:08
  runs away from the ball just so she could turn around and get a
• 20:11
  run up and then do one of her Boscha ball crosses.
• 20:13
  It was like super comical. I was just like, Oh my God, I've
• 20:16
  never seen this before. But it was like, yeah, of
• 20:18
  course, of course, do that. Yeah, and because she knows the
• 20:21
  angles, she knows like where where she wants her plant foot
• 20:24
  to be to, you know, to be when she hits the strike.
• 20:26
  Yeah. I mean, she's just she's such a
• 20:28
  next level genius. Obviously ITC favorite for a
• 20:32
  good reason. I I think your larger point
• 20:34
  stands about, you know, DNE the distributor on top of DNE, the
• 20:38
  goal scorer. It makes them, you know, wildly
• 20:41
  dangerous at all times. And you know, again, credit to
• 20:47
  Bayern, excuse me, but they, they just don't, they just
• 20:52
  weren't ever going to have enough.
• 20:54
  Leon is on a mission. They are on their March to the
• 20:57
  final, I believe. And you know, they're, they're
• 20:59
  trying to lift this trophy once again, and it doesn't look like
• 21:03
  they're going to let much get in their way.
• 21:05
  Yeah, I definitely don't think so.
• 21:07
  I mean, the the last thing I want to mention we we talked
• 21:11
  about the Leon defense for sure. One thing I picked up on in in
• 21:15
  this match is when they press you or when they trap you,
• 21:20
  they're almost perfect at like the geometry of the trap, like
• 21:25
  it's never two players like approaching one spot.
• 21:28
  It's like, it's almost like they they're like, oh, I'm going to
• 21:31
  cut this 360 into 180. You take this half.
• 21:35
  I take this half and the trap is always just so effective.
• 21:38
  And it's like they just know. It's almost like some ESP they
• 21:41
  know when they're going to Sprint and dart towards the ball
• 21:45
  and the you know, the, the whoever's, whoever's carrying
• 21:47
  the ball and it they're just unbelievable at it.
• 21:50
  Like they just don't let once they've once they've reached
• 21:53
  you, you're not getting out and like just watching the geometry
• 21:56
  of the of the trap and the press is it's crazy impressive.
• 22:02
  Like you're just like they might what what is the counter to
• 22:04
  that? I mean, it's really it's really
• 22:06
  tough and they've got big physical defenders in the
• 22:11
  defensive midfield at center back and and athletic too, Like
• 22:16
  Wendy Renar, watching her in this one get around and track
• 22:19
  people down. You know, Byron's not the the
• 22:21
  fastest team out there, but to see her like really always in
• 22:24
  position, sometimes half a step ahead, sometimes a full step
• 22:27
  ahead. You're just like, damn, like,
• 22:29
  like you, like you said, Byron was absolutely drawing dead
• 22:32
  today. Yeah, man.
• 22:34
  And you know that I think that comes from they just have a
• 22:37
  level of like, I don't know if it's institutional knowledge,
• 22:41
  but like, you know, we talk about a lot of their players.
• 22:43
  All, every player they have on the field is an incredibly savvy
• 22:47
  player. They're incredibly smart
• 22:48
  players. So to your point, you know, they
• 22:50
  cut off those angles and then they know where each other are
• 22:52
  going to be. Why we've, I know we've talked
• 22:54
  about that quite a bit. They're and you know, I, I, I
• 22:57
  use the word for them and Barcelona and now Orlando Pride,
• 23:01
  the the reigning double winners here in America.
• 23:03
  These are juggernauts. These are teams that you you
• 23:06
  have to get almost everything right and then pray they have
• 23:11
  some misses to even have a chance.
• 23:13
  Yeah, absolutely. And I think they've got, they've
• 23:17
  got really solid depth too, you know, and a player like Du
• 23:20
  Monet, when they do sort of like swap out that front three, like
• 23:25
  in, you know, a 5 minute period where they bring in Hegeburg,
• 23:29
  Marjorie and Leslie Mayer and then like Du Verde just drops
• 23:32
  back. And now it's like, OK, this is a
• 23:34
  whole other set of problems to deal with.
• 23:36
  Really makes them a a a tough a tough competitor.
• 23:41
  I'm going to be doing a lot of a lot more thinking about this
• 23:43
  Leon side, obviously, as as Arsenal approaches the semi
• 23:46
  final match up. I want to kick it to you,
• 23:49
  though, off the top. I mean, you know, just thinking
• 23:55
  through it it, it does feel like it's going to be super uphill
• 23:58
  for Arsenal. Absolutely.
• 24:00
  I mean, I think Leon's better defensively, they're better
• 24:03
  offensively. I'm not sure where Arsenal has
• 24:06
  an advantage, if anywhere. I'd have to really think through
• 24:10
  and kind of like dig deep and try to put something together.
• 24:13
  But what's what, what was your, what's your first?
• 24:15
  As you start to kind of consider that match up, what are you
• 24:19
  thinking about? What are you looking at?
• 24:21
  I mean, you could have some giant, you know, you get well, I
• 24:24
  mean, first of all, you got to hope for two giant Van Tom solar
• 24:27
  games, I think. Who's good?
• 24:31
  Who's good late against Madrid for sure.
• 24:33
  Absolutely. I you know, the my mind is going
• 24:37
  to, you know, we, we talk a lot about Leon's defense and then,
• 24:42
  you know, we've we've spent a decent amount of time here
• 24:44
  talking about Leon's attack like their front three.
• 24:47
  I don't know, man. And and this is this might be
• 24:49
  kind of like your cliche, like if you think about American
• 24:52
  football, like this game's going to be one in the trenches type
• 24:55
  of cliche. But I'm really interested to see
• 25:00
  Leon's midfield verse Arsenal's midfield.
• 25:04
  So let's think about Leon. And and you know, going by
• 25:07
  minutes in league play and then some of the Champions League
• 25:10
  games, you're you're almost assuredly going to get heaps
• 25:14
  Damaris and Motto Jean. And then off the bench you have
• 25:18
  Marjorie de Brits and Van de Dunk.
• 25:21
  That's your Leon's side. And then you think about your
• 25:23
  Gunners, you're going to get Caldente, Manum and Little,
• 25:28
  assuming that Slagers doesn't try for the let's put Russo at
• 25:31
  the 10 and play Black Stennis up top.
• 25:33
  But as you pointed out, I'm guessing Renee Slagers listen to
• 25:35
  the show and she heard you. It was like, OK, yeah, that's
• 25:37
  not a good idea. I won't stop doing it.
• 25:40
  So you have Caldente Manum and the legend, Kim Little.
• 25:45
  And then coming off the bench, you're usually going to get
• 25:47
  Cooney, Cross, Vaulti and you know, Ford will play some
• 25:50
  attacking and then she'll like she'll drift in the midfield.
• 25:53
  So you kind of think about those six, you know, kind of going up
• 25:57
  against each other. I feel like that's probably
• 26:00
  where these games are going to have to be. 1 If your Arsenal
• 26:05
  can Arsenal 6 at least play, at least play 2 a draw with with
• 26:13
  that Leon midfield, like not not draw in terms of scoring, but
• 26:17
  like a draw, like hold their own against them And then maybe
• 26:20
  give, you know, give Russo a chance to maybe score some goals
• 26:24
  up front. But I'm curious where your
• 26:25
  head's at. Yeah.
• 26:28
  I mean, I think, you know, obviously you called out those
• 26:30
  possession numbers, Byron and Leon earlier.
• 26:33
  I mean, I think that that would be a little bit of a formula.
• 26:36
  Just try to hold the ball, you know, and like keep it out of
• 26:39
  the out of the hands of those players.
• 26:41
  Maybe not not commit so much so much of that midfield forward if
• 26:45
  you're Arsenal and maybe try to more be like, OK, we want to
• 26:48
  steal when I thought Chloe Kelly was really good.
• 26:51
  Could be dangerous. That's a player that could give
• 26:54
  Leon some problems. Also very creative.
• 26:57
  I think I think the lineups are going to be huge.
• 27:00
  I would definitely expect to see Leo Valti off the bench Cooney
• 27:04
  cross. I mean, hasn't, you know, didn't
• 27:07
  look sharp in her last chambers of gouting.
• 27:10
  I think that's only going to get magnified against a team like
• 27:12
  Leon. And then I think the biggest
• 27:16
  issue is probably going to be that Leon front 3 where there's
• 27:23
  absolutely a physicality, a speed and a strength advantage
• 27:27
  pretty much at every at every position.
• 27:30
  There are three versus R4. You know, I mean, we've got
• 27:33
  McCabe that's going to, you know, kick you in the shin if if
• 27:35
  need, if need be, which is always appreciated.
• 27:39
  Emily Fox too, you know, happy to kind of like muck it up a
• 27:43
  bit. That's going to be an absolute
• 27:45
  battle. But yeah, it is.
• 27:47
  I don't I don't quite see a pathway and definitely not too
• 27:51
  many pathways for Arsenal, you know, to advance to the I mean,
• 27:56
  we're talking about the final potentially, you know, for a
• 27:58
  team that that that didn't even, you know, make make the the the
• 28:02
  group stage last year. So huge victory, you know, huge
• 28:05
  victory in and of itself. But I definitely would expect
• 28:09
  Leon to to reach a final again this season.
• 28:13
  Yeah, I'm I'm right there with you and it I think this is a
• 28:16
  successful run for Arsenal. Like you pointed out, they
• 28:18
  didn't even make the group stage last year.
• 28:20
  I mean, you're kinda you're running up against Leon, who is
• 28:23
  at absolute worst, the third best team in the world.
• 28:27
  And yeah, and you know, Leah Williamson has been shaky in
• 28:32
  spots and the last group of forwards that you want to be
• 28:37
  shaky against is especially 1, led by Melchi du Mornay.
• 28:42
  But then, you know, you you think about the others around
• 28:44
  her. If Williamson has one of those
• 28:46
  weird mistakes that she has had a couple of it seems like in the
• 28:49
  past few matches, those will get cashed in.
• 28:53
  That's all. That's almost in a a given that
• 28:55
  Leon will cash those in. Yeah, yeah, yeah, All right.
• 28:59
  So that's something that we'll we'll definitely keep an eye on.
• 29:01
  Maybe they they've got a couple of weeks to kind of put together
• 29:05
  some some wild Wildcat offense or something that you haven't
• 29:08
  seen before. OK, we're doing something
• 29:10
  something crazy. Let's go ahead, though, to the
• 29:14
  Thursday matchups. Sorry, buddy.
• 29:18
  Chelsea 3 Manchester City Football Club nil.
• 29:22
  Chelsea takes the tie three to two on aggregate again.
• 29:27
  Going to kick it to you. Where do you want to get started
• 29:29
  with this one? I was even looking at my notes
• 29:33
  in real time. I don't think I really lost my
• 29:36
  optimism until like the 70th minute, right around right
• 29:42
  around the 73rd minute where Viv Metema had a chance and it
• 29:45
  looked like she was going to bring bring city back level on
• 29:49
  aggregate. And then like anything was going
• 29:52
  to happen. But when that went what maybe
• 29:54
  like a foot, maybe a foot and a half wide left, I don't even
• 29:58
  know if it was a foot wide left. Once it doesn't.
• 30:02
  It was very close. Once that missed, I was like,
• 30:06
  OK, that probably did it. But for me as, as our pals who
• 30:11
  watched the program with us, usually I, I tend to be I, I can
• 30:15
  get a little pessimistic from time to time.
• 30:17
  Even though I went into this match, you know, predicting A21
• 30:19
  city win and things did not look great from the start.
• 30:23
  I just thought like, OK, we still have meet Emma out there.
• 30:27
  She could, she could make something happen.
• 30:28
  Getoline could make something happen.
• 30:30
  I do need to say on the front end that I, I blanked in the in
• 30:34
  the predictions part, pre show pre match where I mentioned
• 30:39
  Yamashita. I did, I underestimated the
• 30:42
  severity of of her injury. So I did not, I think I missed
• 30:46
  reporting on hers. And then I also predicted a goal
• 30:49
  from Alba who Fujino who was not available to play.
• 30:53
  I think that what I think that the severity of her injury and
• 30:57
  Shaw's injury were disclosed by Cushing after we recorded.
• 31:01
  So let me just crank up the the excuse machine on those.
• 31:03
  But we know, we know Fujino has been dealing with that with
• 31:06
  those injuries. But no Fujino, no Shaw, no
• 31:09
  Yamashita, which I still think Kiara Keating did great, did
• 31:12
  everything she could in Yamashita's absence.
• 31:15
  But all that to say, it was just, it was too much from
• 31:20
  Chelsea in the first half. But even with that, I, I'm not
• 31:23
  walking away that disappointed. I mean it, it's a brutal way to
• 31:27
  lose, but they they still had a chance to to get an equalizer on
• 31:32
  aggregate 70 plus minutes into the match.
• 31:34
  I I don't think it's anything to be ashamed of.
• 31:37
  Definitely not anything to be ashamed of.
• 31:39
  And I think I, I'm with you. When I read, when I reread my
• 31:43
  notes, I was like, oh man, I'm like this.
• 31:45
  This felt a lot closer in my notes than it did in memory,
• 31:49
  which is which is a little trippy.
• 31:51
  I think the first, first red flag for me was when they
• 31:54
  flashed the substitutes, the line UPS at the beginning.
• 31:57
  The city's got like 4 field Subs.
• 31:59
  Coombs Park, Lazelle wine writer.
• 32:01
  I'm like, that's not great. So I mean, you mentioned those
• 32:06
  players that were out and that's already in addition to the two
• 32:09
  that have been mentioned pretty much all seasoned, HAMP and
• 32:11
  Greenwood. It was always going to be tough.
• 32:14
  The Lucy bronze strike early in the match that that bounces into
• 32:19
  like open space. And it was like one of those
• 32:22
  cameras playing tricks on you kind of situations where, you
• 32:25
  know, you're not sure who's going to run onto it because the
• 32:28
  person that's going to run to is not in frame.
• 32:30
  And then when you see it's Sandy Baltimore running onto it, I was
• 32:32
  just like, oh, no, this is not going to be good.
• 32:34
  And she just tattoos it into the net to give them that score.
• 32:39
  And then Natalie Bjorn in the, you know, she, she clearly
• 32:42
  doesn't want to give up that centre back spot.
• 32:44
  She doesn't care how much money they paid for Naomi Germa to get
• 32:47
  those 3 headers. And, and, and obviously
• 32:49
  defensively, I think she played really well too.
• 32:52
  And then the last thing I'll say here, I, I thought Chelsea
• 32:54
  played a really smart game. So when you look at the stats,
• 32:57
  possession, sort of even, you know, Chelsea doubled up on
• 33:00
  shots, doubled up on shots on target over City.
• 33:03
  But I thought they sat back a bit and played as if they wanted
• 33:08
  to give Myra Ramirez LJ later in the match, IE Beaver Jones room
• 33:14
  to run. You know, that they weren't.
• 33:16
  And JRK as well, who was, was an absolute menace.
• 33:19
  You know, they clearly wanted to protect their side of the field
• 33:23
  and give those attackers more space, which totally neutralized
• 33:27
  Fowler and Ketaline. You know, I think I thought that
• 33:29
  was a really smart play by Bon Pastor just because we're like
• 33:32
  we're not going to play in our attacking third all game and
• 33:35
  then give Getoline a chance to just run wild foul or a chance
• 33:38
  to run wild Murphy as well. So I thought I thought that
• 33:42
  little stroke really took air out of the city attack Getoline
• 33:47
  whenever she did have the you know, chances.
• 33:49
  I mean, it was I mean it was she was playing in a phone booth
• 33:52
  basically with with three other people in there with her.
• 33:54
  It seemed like for most of the match and it it just didn't
• 33:57
  didn't feel like a getoline game that that meet him a chance.
• 34:00
  I I I totally agree with you. That was it.
• 34:02
  It was so close when she caught it and struck it, I was like
• 34:05
  there. It is like it just felt, you
• 34:07
  know, and I'm and I usually know when it's wide, you know, or
• 34:10
  when it's off and I'm just like, Oh, she got that, you know, I
• 34:13
  was like, Oh my God damn. Like it's just not going to
• 34:15
  happen today for them. Yes, yes, you're preaching.
• 34:19
  You're preaching to choir on that one.
• 34:21
  That was I thought it was going into for sure.
• 34:24
  And it's such a great point by you about Gettolene.
• 34:26
  I mean she had the one shot that our guy Chris Sharples again,
• 34:30
  another Sharples match referred to, I think I want to say it was
• 34:36
  first half. It might it might have been
• 34:38
  first half or might have been early second-half.
• 34:41
  And Sharples referred to it as a palm Stinger for Hannah Hampton,
• 34:45
  who was definitely up for it. And it was a good shot by
• 34:47
  Gettolene. But that was her best chance of
• 34:50
  the match. Really kind of felt like her
• 34:52
  only like legit chance, but but Hampton was always going to save
• 34:56
  it. She was she was all over it.
• 35:00
  There was there was another good.
• 35:03
  I thought I didn't. And Oh, yeah, sorry to to to
• 35:07
  kind of expand on why I think you're you're dead on about the
• 35:10
  way Bon Pasteur kind of let let get a lean and and Fowler kind
• 35:15
  of come at them, you know, at times, but but keep them at Bay.
• 35:20
  I thought Fowler played pretty well.
• 35:21
  I thought Fowler was probably the the her and Hasegawa were
• 35:25
  probably the best field players for city, which just they
• 35:29
  weren't allowed to ever as Fowler in particular, she had
• 35:32
  one really good chance where she gets the ball under her left
• 35:35
  foot. I think she was either just
• 35:37
  inside the 18 or just outside the 18.
• 35:39
  She was right there on the boundary and she ripped 1 and
• 35:42
  Hampton was up for that one too. So, I mean, you know, once you
• 35:46
  kind of you limit city's best attacking players chances and
• 35:53
  then you you have room to run. Cause kind of the inverse of
• 35:56
  that was, you know, all those goals where they're just like
• 35:59
  kind of they are dead on sprinting at city's defense and
• 36:05
  nobody will ever convince me otherwise that Lucy Bronze did
• 36:08
  not call Bank and purposely hit that off the post so Baltimore
• 36:12
  can score it. I know that's not realistic, but
• 36:14
  I want to. I'm going to believe that in my
• 36:16
  head because Bronze is such a legend and such a genius.
• 36:20
  You know, it's just they were too much.
• 36:23
  You're dead on about Natalie Bjorn.
• 36:25
  And you know what, Natalie, if he won a lot of playing time and
• 36:29
  they're going to bring in Germa, you know City has a couple of
• 36:33
  bucks. No, no, we got bigger fish to
• 36:38
  fry, buddy. Like this is for look, man, I
• 36:42
  wore the hoodie because I never running from the squad.
• 36:45
  I always Rep my team no matter what happens, disastrous results
• 36:49
  or not. Natalie Bjorn, come to
• 36:51
  Manchester, come play for Manchester City.
• 36:53
  We got a spot for you. I love that.
• 36:55
  I love that. Yeah.
• 36:56
  And that Speaking of that backline, wild to see
• 36:59
  Alexandria. What my Ramirez physically able
• 37:03
  to shrug off a player like Alexandria was just like, Oh my
• 37:06
  God. Like her strength is just off
• 37:08
  the charts. Wahhabi had a rough, a few rough
• 37:13
  moments. I'm not sure what she's doing.
• 37:15
  A 30 yard back pass to Pryor, you know, that's that's the one
• 37:18
  that gets picked off. I'm just like, where where was
• 37:20
  that going? You know, I mean just just
• 37:23
  totally off kilter, but you know what we talked about in terms of
• 37:28
  factors coming into this one, this is the fourth of four
• 37:31
  matches against Chelsea, one of the four or five best teams in
• 37:36
  the world at worst. And then you add to that the
• 37:39
  injuries. Chelsea already had a depth
• 37:42
  advantage just coming into this season before anyone goes down,
• 37:46
  you know, like just line up, you know, player for player.
• 37:48
  They have a massive depth advantage over almost every team
• 37:51
  in the world. So to kind of like the like the
• 37:55
  the war of attrition nature of like these back-to-back to
• 37:58
  back-to-back, you know, matches between these two teams, It was
• 38:04
  kind of always going to go this way.
• 38:06
  But even, you know, to to your point, City held up so, so well
• 38:11
  was in it to the absolute very end of it.
• 38:16
  You know, they just didn't they, they didn't have the personnel,
• 38:19
  they didn't have the depth, they didn't have, you know, the, the
• 38:22
  extra legs, you know, they didn't have the Subs that they
• 38:24
  were able to bring in. You know, you watch a player
• 38:26
  like Lauren James just skating out there just flowing just like
• 38:32
  she looks like, you know, like like a roller skater in the 80s,
• 38:35
  just backwards, sideways, just weaving in and out, just do
• 38:38
  whatever she wants, barely breaking a sweat.
• 38:42
  And then, you know, that's just the benefit of having that much
• 38:46
  talent on one team. Chelsea gets it done.
• 38:51
  They advance to the semis. Yeah, man, you know, I I think
• 38:56
  we talked about in the first like I really liked Lily
• 38:59
  Murphy's performance in the first half of the first.
• 39:01
  Like I really liked Gracie Pryors performance in the first.
• 39:05
  Like they, you know, they're twenty.
• 39:08
  Well, how old is Lily Murphy? She's a damn teenager, I think.
• 39:11
  Yeah, she's 19. Gracie Pryor is 20.
• 39:13
  They did not play well in this second leg, and I don't begrudge
• 39:17
  them for a millisecond about that.
• 39:19
  They're 19 and 20 years old in the in the second leg of a
• 39:22
  Champions League quarter final. I, I'm going to push back a
• 39:25
  little bit on Pryor because they were going at Pryor.
• 39:29
  They were going at that matchup. It looked like in the NFL, the
• 39:32
  backup corner just like, well, let's just throw out that guy
• 39:34
  all day. Like let's let him grow up or
• 39:37
  not grow up. They were going at Pryor.
• 39:40
  Like that was where Chelsea wanted to go.
• 39:42
  Clearly by design. I thought she started out a
• 39:46
  little wobbly. I thought she settled into the
• 39:48
  game pretty well. Jay, you know, that's fair.
• 39:52
  And she settled into it better. It was the first, I think it
• 39:55
  might have been both in the 1st 15 minutes where LJ rips one
• 39:59
  offer. LJ ripped the one offer in like
• 40:01
  the first like 8 or 9 minutes. And I was like, oh boy, we can't
• 40:04
  have that. And then she had, she made a,
• 40:06
  she had another giveaway in like the 15th or 16th.
• 40:09
  And I was like. Yo, Gracie, like you got to get
• 40:12
  it together here because of her else we're going to be in huge
• 40:14
  trouble. And you you're right, she came
• 40:16
  she came into the game a little better later on.
• 40:19
  But again, like, you know, I just don't expect it it it was a
• 40:23
  bonus when they played well in that first like and this
• 40:28
  experience is ultimately going to benefit them in the long run.
• 40:31
  Like I mean it. It's a relatively famous quote
• 40:35
  When when Guardiola took over the men's side at City and he
• 40:38
  kind of and like, everybody's like, OK, well, you're going to
• 40:41
  show up and the goal is to win the Champions League.
• 40:43
  And Pep said something to the effect of this club has no
• 40:46
  history in the Champions League. Like we have to do stuff in the
• 40:50
  Champions League before you can actually try to win it.
• 40:53
  And so I, I, I take that approach with players.
• 40:56
  I know we've talked about it with young players in the NBA
• 40:58
  too. Like you don't just show up and
• 41:01
  win and win big right away. Like you have to go through some
• 41:05
  stuff before you do it. And I and I expected from Murphy
• 41:08
  and Pryor, you and I have talked about them.
• 41:09
  They're obviously good players. They're just, they just need to
• 41:12
  kind of build that resume. Yeah, and I think I, I want to
• 41:15
  circle back real quick too. When we're talking about the
• 41:17
  young players, Kira Keating, 20 years old, we mentioned 7 big
• 41:21
  saves, you know, stepping in for Yamashita.
• 41:23
  You look, you look at the FOP Mob app and they don't even have
• 41:28
  the name or the player profile for who the backup keeper was
• 41:31
  for City. It just says keeper with no fun,
• 41:34
  amazing, no profile, no thumbnail or anything.
• 41:37
  I'm just like, Oh my God, I went back and I was just looking into
• 41:40
  that. I thought Keating was really,
• 41:42
  really solid. And there was a time early in
• 41:45
  the season, you know, they bring in Yamashita.
• 41:48
  That's got to like rock a player's confidence a little
• 41:50
  bit, you know, just kind of be like, all right, where do I
• 41:52
  stand in my, is my future here? Is it somewhere else for her to
• 41:56
  come back, play really really well and hold her own 100% after
• 42:01
  that early season wobble? So cool to see.
• 42:05
  She even had a weird moment in this match where she she played
• 42:09
  a pass out that was a a dangerous pass.
• 42:12
  And, and, and Sharples goes Cara Keating, goodness me, which is
• 42:18
  they were, I think they were at least I think I remember 3
• 42:20
  goodness me's off the top of my head.
• 42:24
  But you can always count on at least one from our pal.
• 42:28
  Chris Sharp was one of the best announcers in the game.
• 42:32
  Was it who snuck into Goodness me into when we interviewed him?
• 42:35
  You can't remember. You cruise me.
• 42:37
  Down. Yeah, you hit it on the intro,
• 42:39
  which is just fantastic. He he his call, his call in the
• 42:46
  mediuma also almost goal was great too.
• 42:48
  So good. He's like a mediuma.
• 42:50
  I was just like, oh, nailed. He's just the best.
• 42:55
  He's the best. Yeah, yeah, absolutely
• 42:57
  fantastic. But but to your point, like for
• 43:01
  for Keating to perform like that in an extremely high leverage
• 43:06
  match, I think it speaks a lot to her, her mentality on top of
• 43:10
  just her, her shot stopping ability.
• 43:13
  That's not nobody's up for questioning that, that we we
• 43:16
  know what that is. So it's it's good to see her
• 43:19
  check that other box as well. Yeah, absolutely.
• 43:23
  All right, so Chelsea advances and who do they have?
• 43:27
  Let's see, Let's build up some drama here.
• 43:29
  No, we want Barcelona 6. Wolfsburg 110 to two on
• 43:32
  aggregate. Barcelona in straight sets with
• 43:34
  it with almost a tennis score. 4161 Nice to get past Wolfsburg.
• 43:42
  1:50 on aggregate. I joked last week that I thought
• 43:45
  Parsona was going to win. 30 to nothing. 1:50 Not so far out of
• 43:50
  the ballpark. It's kind of out in the parking
• 43:52
  lot, you know, I'm just saying, you know, it was tongue in
• 43:55
  cheek, but I was just like, OK, how close to 30 are we going to
• 43:57
  get here? I thought the the IT was a great
• 44:01
  signal for it. And you know, a lot of things
• 44:04
  can happen in a football match, But when Alex Pop loses
• 44:08
  possession and she loses possession on her half of the
• 44:12
  field, I think probably if we're split in the field in thirds, as
• 44:14
  we like to do, it was right around the boundary of, I think
• 44:18
  the Wolfsburg's defensive third. She loses the ball and she loses
• 44:23
  the ball to Aitana Bone Mati. The first thing that's very bad,
• 44:27
  You like, you don't like of all players in the world to lose the
• 44:31
  ball to, you would prefer not to lose the ball to her.
• 44:34
  The second thing, which just compounds the mistake by like
• 44:37
  roughly 100 times, is Selma Pediuelo is running in roughly
• 44:41
  20 yards of open space while the balls had the feet of Bone Mati.
• 44:46
  And it's pretty much easy money. It's on.
• 44:48
  It's Lob City at that point. Betiuelo scores in the 11th
• 44:53
  minute. And I was like, OK, this might
• 44:56
  be this might be a match where I watch the entire first half and
• 45:00
  then in the interest of my sleep schedule, watch the highlights
• 45:04
  of the second-half. And that's pretty much how this
• 45:07
  how this played out. We talk about Leona as a super
• 45:09
  weapon. Do you know?
• 45:11
  I mean, Barcelona is the Death Star right now and it's fully
• 45:15
  operational. Yeah, 100% yeah. 21 to four
• 45:19
  shots advantage. 15 shots from inside the box, touches inside
• 45:22
  the opposition box, 36 to three. That's quite the advantage.
• 45:27
  Shots of shots on target, eight to two.
• 45:29
  Scoring spread out all over the place.
• 45:31
  Barriola gets a second goal to about 10 minutes after the first
• 45:35
  with an assist from SME Brooks. SME Brooks scores right before
• 45:38
  half time to make it three. I thought Brooks had a great
• 45:42
  game. Three shots, 2 on target, one
• 45:43
  goal, one assist, and she covers so much ground.
• 45:48
  Almost allows Sparsa to play like a 343.
• 45:50
  Like you just see her and she's always it's way up field and she
• 45:53
  could, you know, she could drop all the way back.
• 45:56
  She can get all the way forward and, you know, pretty much be
• 45:59
  effective everywhere in between. And then the last quick note on
• 46:02
  Barruello. I think it's awesome for
• 46:05
  Barcelona to have Barruello back in scoring form in the Champions
• 46:11
  League. That's huge for them.
• 46:13
  Yeah, I mean, she she was running, you know, up and down
• 46:18
  the field. Obviously we know her track and
• 46:19
  field background. She looked more confident that
• 46:22
  it feels like she has in the in the last few weeks.
• 46:26
  I'm glad. I'm glad you point out brutes as
• 46:28
  well. I mean, you know, we've referred
• 46:30
  to her as Barcelona's nuclear weapon back there at left back.
• 46:34
  I wrote in my notes when she added the third goal, that was
• 46:37
  just her detonating from 20 yards out.
• 46:41
  And I mean, if anybody recalls my prediction, I predicted
• 46:44
  Barcelona 3 nil that what you may not you may not have heard
• 46:50
  it in the last. That was my halftime prediction.
• 46:52
  So right on there. I totally nailed it.
• 46:54
  Yep, I went too hard with the edit.
• 46:57
  I I cut off that last bit. That's it.
• 46:59
  Apologies on there. Yeah man, this one.
• 47:01
  Everything for Barcelona on display.
• 47:03
  Constant movement, precision passing, the spacing perfectly,
• 47:06
  time runs, the the instinctive strikes.
• 47:09
  You know, you talked about that Bruce strike that was like right
• 47:12
  there, like they just did everything in this match that
• 47:16
  Barcelona does, you know, to, to, to pretty much smash A-Team
• 47:19
  like Wolfsburg 6 to one, not a bullshit team.
• 47:23
  This was a big win, a really, really big win.
• 47:27
  Kind of a statement win for them, I would say.
• 47:31
  And I, I thought everybody was locked in.
• 47:33
  You look at Barcelona, they had seven players that completed 93%
• 47:38
  of their passes. Seven players.
• 47:41
  That's ridiculous. Moppy, Yana, Bon Mati, Peretas,
• 47:45
  Brooks and then 2 Subs Engen and Shirt and Libe.
• 47:47
  I wrote my notes like at the 20th minute I'm like get Shirt
• 47:50
  and Libe in there there. We.
• 47:53
  Go and then to see Shirt and Libe in the defensive midfield
• 47:57
  with Alexia was really cool. I think they're they're
• 47:59
  definitely looking for a place to put like where where what are
• 48:03
  our options here? I think was what Romeo was
• 48:06
  doing. To see her there was pretty
• 48:07
  cool. Yeah, man, I mean, and what
• 48:11
  evidence do we have that she can't play almost anywhere on
• 48:15
  zero? I don't know.
• 48:16
  Yeah, like play her at centre back.
• 48:18
  She has great size too. I don't know, like you just
• 48:20
  figure it out at that point. I mean, they just have, you
• 48:24
  know, they're, they're just the Monstars all all over the field.
• 48:28
  They're bigger than you, they're faster than you, they're more
• 48:29
  skilled than you, they're smarter than you, all these
• 48:32
  things. And and like you said, Wolfsburg
• 48:34
  is is full of talent and they had no shot in these two ties,
• 48:39
  absolutely no shot. Yep, totally done.
• 48:42
  And then, you know, we talked about Pina up top, bringing on a
• 48:46
  player like that. Pina gets 32 minutes of action,
• 48:49
  22 touches. We talked about Kaisto up top as
• 48:52
  well. 20 touches in 90 minutes, like night and day there.
• 48:56
  So with her 22 touches, Claudia Pina, four shots, 2 on target,
• 48:59
  two goals. I mean unbelievable.
• 49:03
  Moppy Leon hits the free kick, you know, to just the absolute
• 49:07
  icy on the cake, absolute stunner of a free kick.
• 49:10
  Probably that might be free kick.
• 49:13
  Probably the best free kick goal I I had seen in I would say 13
• 49:18
  or 14 minutes since Pina's freaking but also knocked enough
• 49:25
  off the post. Just ridiculous.
• 49:28
  Just ridiculous to have like that much skill be able to score
• 49:31
  every every possible every imagine every imaginable way
• 49:35
  Barcelona can beat you. Let's we like to do it on this
• 49:38
  on this podcast, so we might as well date ourselves again.
• 49:41
  The Michael Jordan Larry Bird commercial where they're playing
• 49:45
  horse. And they're doing like off the
• 49:47
  backboard off or no off the scoreboard, off the, you know,
• 49:51
  row H and off the backboard. Like it felt like that's what
• 49:54
  Pina and and Mappy were doing at that point were just like, OK,
• 49:57
  yeah, I'm going to try to like carve it right off the the
• 50:01
  intersection of the post in the crossbar here.
• 50:04
  It's just like what? Like you're, you're, you have no
• 50:07
  chance as a goalkeeper in those situations.
• 50:11
  No, I mean they're lasers and they're pinpoint accurate.
• 50:15
  So you think you're you think you're doing something
• 50:17
  defensively fouling, you know, stopping the chance and you're
• 50:21
  just you're just delaying the inevitable.
• 50:23
  It's really brutal. Obviously Barcelona either the
• 50:27
  probably the favorites, at worst, the Co favorites to win
• 50:30
  the whole thing. They get Chelsea in a rematch of
• 50:34
  last year's semi final. We talked a lot last year about
• 50:39
  Chelsea's, you know, probably feeling like they they let that
• 50:42
  one get away. You know, they go to Barcelona,
• 50:45
  get the goal, get the win, you know, come back to Stanford
• 50:48
  Bridge began a red card. You know, they, they, they, they
• 50:52
  give up two good goals, you know, but like, you know, like
• 50:56
  kind of like almost like scrappier, you know, type goals
• 50:59
  had to feel like they left that on the table.
• 51:04
  I think they're going to come into this one.
• 51:06
  It's it's weird because they do feel a little bit roughed up.
• 51:08
  They feel a little bit more roughed up than they did last
• 51:10
  year. Chelsea, it felt like they were
• 51:12
  in better rhythm offense was humming, I think a little bit
• 51:16
  better last year, but they do have some wild cards.
• 51:18
  Bone pastor, we saw what she did to kind of like neutralize
• 51:22
  cities attack Sandy of Baltimore, another addition.
• 51:25
  We saw what she was able to do Bjorn getting more playing time.
• 51:29
  That's been a big improvement. JRK we talked about the you
• 51:33
  know, can rude super hot start at the beginning season, cooled
• 51:37
  off a little bit mid season and now seems to be back in top top
• 51:41
  top form. I think Sharples also talked.
• 51:44
  He was either Sharples or his partner who apologies, but the
• 51:48
  caller can I do it real quick? Yes, please.
• 51:50
  So so Chris's partner on the Arsenal Madrid match was
• 51:55
  Courtney Sweetman Kirk who was fantastic and then Sharples
• 51:59
  partner on the City match was Lindsay Johnson and they were
• 52:04
  both fantastic, both teams absolutely great.
• 52:08
  Yeah, I kept, I kept writing stuff down and being like, oh, I
• 52:11
  think I got something here. And she would just nail my point
• 52:14
  and like do it 10 times better. I was like, OK, scratch it out.
• 52:17
  Get that out of here. I mean, she, I mean, great
• 52:20
  added, you know, ton of insight into kind of what was happening.
• 52:26
  So I think, yeah. And I think she had talked about
• 52:28
  Ken Rude deserving a goal after that performance, you know, and
• 52:32
  and she was definitely hunting for it and she was right on the
• 52:34
  money. I thought Ken Rude was really
• 52:36
  great. What do you think about this
• 52:39
  match up? Do you think Chelsea's got a
• 52:41
  shot? Yeah, they have to have a shot.
• 52:46
  It would be. I think it would be too
• 52:47
  disrespectful if I said they didn't have a shot.
• 52:49
  It's put my odds maker hat on. I would say Chelsea minus or
• 53:00
  pardon me, Barcelona -222 advance.
• 53:05
  OK, yeah, I had, I had -275 in my mind I was like, I think
• 53:08
  probably a little little lengthier.
• 53:11
  You know, I'm thinking back to the semi final last year.
• 53:16
  Barcelona didn't have any answers for Ramirez and Ashley
• 53:20
  Lawrence on the left side of the field.
• 53:22
  Like that link up. You know, the physicality, the
• 53:25
  the length, the strength really, really gave Arsenal problems.
• 53:29
  I don't think Joe's going to be able to do the exact same thing.
• 53:31
  You know, like, you know, obviously the the personnel is a
• 53:34
  little different and parcel is going to be a little bit better
• 53:36
  prepared for it. But I do think that physicality
• 53:41
  could it could, it could be something.
• 53:44
  And I think LJ, we've been we've been joking that she's maybe in
• 53:48
  3rd gear, second gear. Sometimes she'll kick it up to
• 53:51
  4th if she's feeling a little frisky.
• 53:54
  I, I still feel like we haven't seen absolute peak, you know, 24
• 54:01
  and under Lauren James yet. You know, that, that basically
• 54:04
  that LeBron versus the Pistons moment, you know, where it's
• 54:07
  just like, oh, OK, this player is just going to take over now.
• 54:10
  Like this player is going to just own this next 2025 minutes
• 54:14
  of the match. I think that's well within her
• 54:17
  skill set. She's playing that way.
• 54:20
  They haven't quite needed it, but I think against Barcelona,
• 54:25
  we're going to need to see a very special edition of Lauren
• 54:29
  James in addition to Ramirez Kannarud, maybe Aggie Beaver
• 54:33
  Jones has something to say about it.
• 54:35
  Cuthbert, who saw what she did last year at Barcelona.
• 54:38
  They're going to need everybody. You know, like Natalie Bjorn,
• 54:40
  another perfect example. A player that elevates, you
• 54:43
  know, like, I mean, she's three real good looks like goal, you
• 54:46
  know, puts one off the crossbar needs Medema to kind of like get
• 54:50
  a a wicked block off the line to to to prevent the second one.
• 54:54
  And then a player like Natalie Bjorn gets the third one.
• 54:56
  Very cool to see. They're going to need a lot of
• 54:59
  that. They're going to be pretty much
• 55:00
  everybody either performing at their potential or or maybe even
• 55:04
  exceeding the potential. But it's possible.
• 55:06
  I think, you know, we've seen, you know, Barcelona's not, you
• 55:10
  know, they're not invincible. I think, I think we've already
• 55:14
  seen that this season, but somehow still feels like
• 55:16
  Barcelona's still with with very much the upper hand heading into
• 55:22
  the to the semis. Yeah, you got to, I mean, until
• 55:25
  proven otherwise, and, you know, I mean, obviously as the
• 55:28
  Barcelona guy, that's why I pointed out, I think I'd take
• 55:30
  their forwards over Leon's forwards.
• 55:32
  I think it's well established at this point.
• 55:34
  I am the Barcelona guy on this podcast.
• 55:36
  You just have to, you have to assume that they are, that the
• 55:41
  champ is going to hold their title.
• 55:42
  They have to be knocked out, you know, both figuratively and
• 55:46
  literally before I think we start really looking at other,
• 55:50
  other options here. But I I'm so glad you mentioned
• 55:53
  Ashley Lawrence because she was fucking huge in that in those
• 55:56
  semi final matches last year, especially in the first leg.
• 56:01
  She has not played in a Champions League match since she
• 56:05
  played 19 minutes on December 17th, 2024 against Real Madrid.
• 56:13
  And you know, she was on the bench of her city in this last
• 56:16
  match. And so that that Chelsea defense
• 56:21
  that held Barcelona to only four shots on target across those two
• 56:26
  legs last year included Jess Carter, Kadisha Buchanan and
• 56:32
  Ashley Lawrence. And we're not going to see,
• 56:34
  we're definitely not going to see Jess Carter and Kanisha
• 56:36
  Buchanan. And I don't mean to chuckle
• 56:38
  about Buchanan, who suffered an injury, but Jess Carter lives in
• 56:40
  New York now. So, you know, I mean, like,
• 56:43
  we're not going to. It's a totally different
• 56:45
  defensive makeup that's going to go up against this team.
• 56:48
  And Chelsea at some point is going to get the Sydney Sheridan
• 56:53
  live experience. And they're going to, I'm sure
• 56:55
  they're going to be similar to us.
• 56:57
  Now, they're professionals and they're great.
• 56:58
  They're great athletes. But at some point somebody's
• 57:00
  going to look at the other person to be like, what the fuck
• 57:03
  is this with Sheridan live? Because she seems to have that
• 57:06
  effect on people. So, you know, I, I think the
• 57:10
  last point I'll make is, you know, we talk about these this
• 57:14
  Chelsea backline who I'm starting to call as long as
• 57:17
  Gurma is not playing the killer bees, you know, Baltimore Bright
• 57:22
  Bjorn and bronze. We saw Sandy Baltimore have some
• 57:26
  problems with Gedolin and now she's going to have to go up
• 57:29
  against JRK and you know, whether or how you rate Gedolin
• 57:34
  versus Ritz and Sandy. Baltimore is not JRK.
• 57:39
  She's going to. Yeah, she's she's sorry.
• 57:42
  She's she's playing JRK. I'm sure she's playing with JRK
• 57:45
  on the same team. This is what happens when your
• 57:47
  boy is tight. She's going to have to play
• 57:49
  against Carolyn Graham Hanson on the right side.
• 57:54
  So that's going to be tricky. Sorry.
• 57:56
  Yeah, I got my got my notes there.
• 57:58
  JRK is Swedish. CGH, CGH.
• 58:03
  We got a Swede and a Norwegian. I've made all kinds of mistakes
• 58:06
  there. My apologies.
• 58:06
  Thank you. Thank you for catching that.
• 58:09
  Yeah, but like, so it doesn't get easier going against going
• 58:13
  against CGH. So I'll be very interested to
• 58:16
  see how how Chelsea's defense holds up.
• 58:20
  You know, early prediction, like we said, I I just think
• 58:23
  Barcelona has to be the favorite.
• 58:25
  But I'm very interested to see what that first leg is going to
• 58:29
  look like because let me just do another quick Fact Check.
• 58:32
  First leg is in Barcelona, just like last year when Chelsea got
• 58:36
  that very improbable one nil victory.
• 58:39
  So yeah, you know, that's probably looming large in in the
• 58:43
  back of the heads of of a lot of these bars to players as well.
• 58:47
  Yeah, yeah. I think, you know, we talked
• 58:49
  about young players for sure certain live you mentioned on
• 58:51
  one side Veeka Kaptan, the other I, I I think we've seen her play
• 58:54
  really, really well. And then also maybe kind of, you
• 58:58
  know, not disappear a little bit into the background in some of
• 59:01
  these matches, but this is going to be a huge spot for, for a
• 59:05
  young player like that. Definitely within the
• 59:09
  possibility. I, I still kind of feel like
• 59:14
  it's weird because I feel like Chelsea got better and Barcelona
• 59:20
  probably at worst is as good as last year.
• 59:23
  But I, I, so for, for some reason, I feel like Barcelona
• 59:25
  maybe has a, a wider advantage than they did last season.
• 59:29
  I'm not, I'm not sure what's at play there.
• 59:32
  I, I just think it's a good match up.
• 59:34
  I think it's a good match up for Barcelona personnel wise.
• 59:36
  I think they're really, really cooking coming off that
• 59:39
  Wolfsburg, you know, those two matches, the scoring is just
• 59:43
  there, you know, and I think like if they get chances,
• 59:47
  they're just going to put the ball in the back of the net.
• 59:49
  And I think we've seen Chelsea's offense kind of stall out a
• 59:52
  little bit if it's not the right 10 or if it's not the right line
• 59:56
  up or if it's just, you know, kind of like not set up the
• 59:59
  right way from the onset. So I think they could.
• 1:00:03
  I, I, I came into the tournament thinking Chelsea.
• 1:00:06
  Might be in the driver's seat. I, I definitely have cooled off
• 1:00:08
  there. I definitely I, I kind of feel
• 1:00:10
  like Barcelona. I don't, you know, the more I'm
• 1:00:13
  talking about. I think they make slightly easy
• 1:00:16
  work of Chelsea and, and part of it I think too, I think, I think
• 1:00:19
  part of it too is it's been a it's been a slog this year for
• 1:00:24
  the Blues. They've had a ton of tough
• 1:00:25
  matches. You know, you would imagine with
• 1:00:31
  the line ups and who was available against City that they
• 1:00:33
  would have had maybe a bigger score line And like, you know,
• 1:00:36
  maybe like like that, that tie was in the balance.
• 1:00:41
  The latest of the four matchups, like I think Arsenal and Madrid
• 1:00:45
  was a wrap. We talked about that one
• 1:00:46
  earlier. So I I don't think there's
• 1:00:49
  something about Chelsea that's not quite fully clicked.
• 1:00:53
  And, you know, maybe bone pastor, it's going to take a
• 1:00:55
  season or two to make it happen. This is off your first year.
• 1:00:59
  But there's something that doesn't quite feel right about
• 1:01:02
  their chances against Barsa. I think Barsa Cruz is relatively
• 1:01:05
  easy. I like it and I'll, I'll share
• 1:01:10
  this bit of information. I was talking to the shadow
• 1:01:12
  executive producer about this. I'll tell you, you know, I'm an
• 1:01:17
  objective journalist, but some of that, some of that hater is,
• 1:01:23
  is rising up in me and I was just like, you know what I think
• 1:01:26
  I'm about sick of this Chelsea team.
• 1:01:28
  I I'm I'm still mad that city lost the title last year and
• 1:01:33
  like when they lost that game to year Gunners, then Chelsea went
• 1:01:36
  out and and beat Bristol like 8 to nothing or something like
• 1:01:39
  that to totally erase the gold differential on the same day.
• 1:01:42
  And I'm just like, you know what, I I think?
• 1:01:45
  I think I've had my fill of Chelsea Football Club and you
• 1:01:49
  know what, and and and obviously I'm the Barcelona guy on the
• 1:01:52
  show. So like no disrespect to the
• 1:01:53
  players on Chelsea, but I am here for for a mopping of
• 1:01:59
  Chelsea in this one. And hopefully, you know, I don't
• 1:02:02
  even want to say hopefully I I want to see good.
• 1:02:04
  I want to see good matches. But I agree with you.
• 1:02:06
  I think I think Barcelona's going through to the final
• 1:02:09
  second year in a row or well, for them multiple years in a
• 1:02:12
  row. I think it's going to be
• 1:02:14
  Chelsea. I think, pardon me, I think it's
• 1:02:15
  going to be Barcelona, Lyon in the final yet again.
• 1:02:19
  Yeah, I could definitely see that happening.
• 1:02:22
  And yeah, just to rewind a little bit, get well, Khadija
• 1:02:25
  Buchanan, the 5th B and the killer bees, you know, didn't it
• 1:02:29
  definitely did make mean to make light of of that injury.
• 1:02:33
  I miss seeing that player for sure on the pitch.
• 1:02:36
  But I agree with you. You know, I I loved seeing
• 1:02:38
  Chelsea lose well before, you know, this this foray into
• 1:02:42
  women's football I ever got started.
• 1:02:43
  So like, I think I'm with you in spirit.
• 1:02:46
  Let's let's let's go. I want to see Barcelona in the
• 1:02:49
  final, maybe against by Gunners, but realistically Barcelona,
• 1:02:54
  Leon, I think would be a juicy match up and then just to jump
• 1:02:57
  way, way into the future. I, I might like Leon in that
• 1:03:01
  match up. We'll see.
• 1:03:03
  There's a lot of football left to be played.
• 1:03:04
  We're going to see we're going to see health wise, but I, I
• 1:03:07
  feel like I don't want to say that's the best team.
• 1:03:10
  I, I, you know, that's an interesting what, what do you,
• 1:03:13
  who do you feel like is the best team you've seen through this
• 1:03:16
  stretch? Because I feel like for me, I, I
• 1:03:19
  think it's Leon 1A Barcelona, one BI think when you, when you
• 1:03:23
  stack it all up, the defense, the midfield, the finishing, you
• 1:03:28
  know, the, the punishing physicality, you know, it, it's
• 1:03:33
  tricky because we watch our Chema and we don't really learn
• 1:03:37
  a ton. But then when you see Leon and
• 1:03:40
  the Champions League, you know, and we're constantly like, oh,
• 1:03:42
  well, let's see, let's see what it looks like.
• 1:03:44
  You know, I remember feeling, well, let's see what it looks
• 1:03:45
  like. It's Byron, you know, like a
• 1:03:48
  real team, the Champions of Germany.
• 1:03:50
  It's a fucking walk. Like, you know, shout out to
• 1:03:53
  Byron. They came out, they played super
• 1:03:55
  hard. Like you mentioned.
• 1:03:56
  It reminded me of of when I ran a 5K in my early 20s.
• 1:04:00
  And you know, I, I wanted to feel how Byron felt.
• 1:04:03
  I, I wanted to just Sprint at the beginning and just be up at,
• 1:04:06
  you know, in the front, just be like, oh man, you know, and you
• 1:04:09
  know, I might surprise you in that five Ki start.
• 1:04:12
  I sprinted probably the first mile and it was a terrible
• 1:04:14
  strategy. Like I, I ran my, my slowest 5K
• 1:04:17
  of all time. Yes, but, but, but I was, I was
• 1:04:21
  up front in the first 3-4 minutes and it felt, it felt
• 1:04:23
  fucking amazing. But Long story short, Leon I
• 1:04:28
  think, I think is probably, I think I think they're peak Leon
• 1:04:34
  for me. Ah, it's tough to say.
• 1:04:35
  It's really tough to say. That's my thing.
• 1:04:39
  I, I'm, I'm really, I, I'm, I'm glad we're going to get a few
• 1:04:42
  weeks to sort all this out. We're going to get to watch more
• 1:04:44
  football. We're going to get to, you know,
• 1:04:46
  crunch some numbers, you know, get the old apple, you know, 2
• 1:04:50
  E, you know, cranked up, plugged back in, dusted off smoke coming
• 1:04:54
  out of the top of it. And then really kind of figure
• 1:04:57
  out, you know, how to make a proper prediction.
• 1:04:59
  But I'm not going to say that it's Barcelona's tournament to
• 1:05:02
  lose. I guess I'll leave it at that.
• 1:05:05
  I that's fair. I, I don't know if it's
• 1:05:08
  Barcelona's tournament to lose And I, I think the reason I, I
• 1:05:12
  blurted out that's my thing is when you said like you started
• 1:05:15
  to say, is peak Lyon better than Barcelona's peak like is Lyon
• 1:05:21
  has Lyon probably had the most consistently impressive results
• 1:05:27
  in the Champions League this year?
• 1:05:29
  I think so, but at their absolute apex between both
• 1:05:34
  teams, I think I think it's Barcelona by a nose.
• 1:05:40
  Because when when like Pyor, Betiuello, Bonemati, Alexia
• 1:05:48
  Pina, you know, Kika of Nazareth for a while who's now out with
• 1:05:52
  an injury. But like when they, when they
• 1:05:55
  hit their ceiling or when multiple players on the field
• 1:05:58
  are hitting their ceiling at the same time, it just feels like
• 1:06:02
  they're nearly impossible to beat.
• 1:06:05
  So I, I think I like Barcelona's apex a little more, but in the,
• 1:06:08
  in the context of this broader tournament, you know, you don't
• 1:06:12
  get a trophy for it. But I I think Leon has probably
• 1:06:15
  been the best team over the course of the of the Champions
• 1:06:18
  League matches that have been played.
• 1:06:20
  Yep, Yep, Yep. I think probably I I think that
• 1:06:29
  the totality of their performances, offense, defence,
• 1:06:33
  possession, midfield, you know, just take advantage of chance
• 1:06:35
  and like I think that that that has been they've checked every
• 1:06:38
  box for me, you know, and I think we've seen new Barcelona,
• 1:06:42
  you know, come and go. You know, they're just so good.
• 1:06:47
  That's why they play the games. That's why we do the show, to
• 1:06:50
  have fun, you know, you know, working these noodles, figuring
• 1:06:53
  out who we want to or what we want to predict what we think is
• 1:06:56
  going to happen and then break it down what actually happened.
• 1:06:59
  That's what kind of what makes all this so fun.
• 1:07:00
  Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
• 1:07:04
  I think that's it. I mean, people can Fact Check me
• 1:07:07
  on this, but like so Leon didn't lose in the group stage, Chelsea
• 1:07:11
  didn't lose in the group stage. Pardon me, Barcelona lost one in
• 1:07:15
  the group stage to City and then I Chelsea loses that first leg
• 1:07:20
  match. I think Leon is the only team in
• 1:07:23
  the tournament. Yeah, they got to be the last
• 1:07:26
  four. Leon's the only team that has
• 1:07:28
  not lost a match. But I I still so I think that
• 1:07:33
  get that that speaks to your point of the totality apex
• 1:07:37
  Barcelona, the only team that I think can challenge them
• 1:07:40
  obviously resides in Orlando, FL.
• 1:07:42
  Let's go you. Already know what time it is.
• 1:07:44
  Just as anybody, any football fan, would expect.
• 1:07:48
  I will say, though, I I'm not that map that might be free
• 1:07:52
  kick, that peanut free kick. Love Anna Morehouse.
• 1:07:56
  I don't know if oh, Anna's not reached either of those, but not
• 1:08:00
  a lot of keepers are No, no knock on her.
• 1:08:03
  Quick look ahead. I want to do something NWSL
• 1:08:06
  wise. Obviously three weeks in the
• 1:08:07
  books. I don't think it's worth
• 1:08:10
  necessarily breaking down this past weekend, but I kind of want
• 1:08:12
  to do like a three-week, you know, check in.
• 1:08:14
  We got an international break coming up.
• 1:08:17
  You know, maybe we'll put together some power rankings.
• 1:08:19
  We'll we'll figure out what we do there.
• 1:08:21
  But I do want to talk to some NWSL now that we have a pretty
• 1:08:23
  decent sample size. In addition to that US, Sweden's
• 1:08:28
  national team in action back to backers against Brazil, one in
• 1:08:31
  LA, one in the Bay Area. That will be really fun.
• 1:08:35
  I think we saw Brazil's line up get announced here very
• 1:08:38
  recently. So we'll definitely have really
• 1:08:43
  solid coverage along those lines as well.
• 1:08:47
  And yeah, I'd already asked you this, but is there anything else
• 1:08:49
  we need to hit before we get out of here?
• 1:08:52
  No, I think that's it. I just want to, I wanted to get
• 1:08:54
  off that. I think Leon's undefeated so far
• 1:08:57
  in the Champions League, but you know who else is undefeated?
• 1:09:01
  SK Bron. That's the last thing I want to.
• 1:09:03
  I want to throw in undefeated in Top Serial right now.
• 1:09:05
  And obviously everybody knows there's an SK Bron podcast.
• 1:09:08
  Yep, Bergen versus everybody. You already know what time it
• 1:09:10
  is. There's been another episode of
• 1:09:12
  into the channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
• 1:09:13
  for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show or love
• 1:09:14
  in football as much as your boys do, make sure you're kicking out
• 1:09:17
  with us each and every single week.
• 1:09:19
  Like if you liked, subscribe, follow you to Spotify, Apple
• 1:09:21
  podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen.
• 1:09:23
  Leave us a review over your favorite podcast app.
• 1:09:25
  We want to hear from you. We love hearing from you.
• 1:09:27
  Links all of our socials in the shown us of this episode.
• 1:09:30
  Step one and a big thank you Michaelis as well.
• 1:09:33
  Semi fun. I don't know Pete Grant.
• 1:09:36
  Have we seen Pete Grant yet? I'm not sure yet, but Apex,
• 1:09:39
  we've seen Apex Grant in flashes, but I think this week
• 1:09:43
  we definitely saw an extended run of Apex Grant.
• 1:09:46
  I appreciate you bro. Likewise, buddy, I, I appreciate
• 1:09:50
  you, you looking out for me. I think Apex Grant felt more
• 1:09:54
  like those first legs where I was crushing those predictions
• 1:09:56
  as opposed to me getting pretty much a lot of things wrong in
• 1:10:00
  the second week. But you know what that that's
• 1:10:02
  why we do this and we appreciate all of you dropping knowledge in
• 1:10:05
  the comments, always helping us out, helping fill in the gaps,
• 1:10:08
  you know, chopping it up with us.
• 1:10:10
  Thank you for that and we will see you all next time.