Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / Arsenal 2 Lyonnes 1 | UWCL MATCH BREAKDOWN | Postgame Recap Analysis | Arsenal v Lyon | #UWCL

Transcript

Arsenal 2 Lyonnes 1 | UWCL MATCH BREAKDOWN | Postgame Recap Analysis | Arsenal v Lyon | #UWCL · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
Oh, hey. Welcome to into the channel
0:08
podcast, our metal belt one super.
0:10
I'm your host, Dean of de suspicious and as always, I am
0:13
joined by my Co host, Mr. Grant Angle.
0:16
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
0:19
That was another entertaining semi final first like match that
0:23
we got to watch. Are we doing this episode a
0:25
little later? Yeah, but you know, sometimes
0:28
life gets in the way. But as a wise man once said, in
0:31
a park full of recreated dinosaurs, life finds a way and
0:35
here we are back again. Yeah, and as the one
0:40
Philadelphia 76er once said, your boy can't do back to backs
0:43
anymore. I need a Dave off in between.
0:46
There it is. All right, man, obviously we're
0:50
here to talk. Arsenal Lyon leg 1 Gray for
0:54
Women's Champions League semi final lot to cover where you
0:57
want to get started. Let's get started with a
0:59
beverage my good man, because even if it is, even if it is, a
1:02
day later, we should celebrate your squad getting that W with a
1:06
beverage. That's a go.
1:08
Big, big W How confident am I that they advanced?
1:13
Talk about that in a little. Bit I'll be interested to hear
1:16
it. I'll be very interested to hear
1:18
your thoughts on that, but cheers to you.
1:20
Cheers to the football. As we've alluded to, Arsenal 2
1:25
Leon won in London to take the lead.
1:30
Tale of two halves. Tale of two halves.
1:33
Well, sort of I think the first half was pretty even.
1:36
You know, I'm I'm curious to get your take, but you know, 5149
1:40
possession Arsenal out shoots Leon 4 to 1.
1:44
Leon has the one goal lead. I kind of feel like either team
1:47
could have had the one goal lead at the half.
1:49
Leon definitely had some moments.
1:50
The goal unbelievable. We'll get to that in a in a few,
1:52
but I want to actually start at the very, very top.
1:56
What did you think of the Leon lineup?
1:58
Because we talked about it. I'm not sure if I've if I've
2:02
seen that 11 before and I thought I thought it was
2:06
interesting. We'll get to the goal.
2:08
But like Ashley Lawrence, Sophie Suava, Lily Honest you LeBron
2:13
not full time first teamers all involved in that goal and just
2:17
you know, an an interesting starting lineup.
2:19
It's a good shout by you. I like those players in the
2:23
starting line up together. I mean, you know, we've talked
2:27
about it. I think, you know, we are full
2:30
proponents of the Haitian sensation Melchi du Mornay.
2:35
I want her in the starting line up every single chance we get.
2:39
So I probably would have played du Mornay over Schrader.
2:43
I like, you know, you put you put Heaps back into a more
2:46
defensive role. You have Johannes kind of it as
2:48
a #8. Yeah, I would play du Mornay as
2:50
a #10. Now I will concede Jonathan
2:54
Gerald does knows a little bit more about football than I do
2:57
and probably knows his team slightly better than I do.
3:00
I'll concede that. Slightly.
3:03
But it is close. But yeah, I, I mean, I thought
3:07
like the the line up largely made sense and it is kind of
3:09
cool to see like an all American midfield.
3:13
But I, I don't know, I mean, the shots, I'm, I'm glad you brought
3:16
up the shots, like one shot in the first half, kind of similar
3:21
to like that first Barcelona goal in the in the Bayern match.
3:24
Like everything kind of worked out perfectly for that goal to
3:28
happen. And then there really weren't.
3:30
They didn't have any other big chances throughout the rest of
3:33
the match. No, not at all.
3:35
I think talking about that 118th minute, I wasn't shocked that
3:39
they give up the goal because I got in my notes probably like
3:43
10:50 minutes. And you know, Arsenal looked
3:45
super haphazard early with their defensive positioning.
3:48
Like everybody was everywhere. You know, I, I'm not sure how
3:51
many minutes Leo Williamson, lots of women, Moy and Kim
3:54
Little have logged together as like that triangle in the
3:57
middle. Defensively, they looked, you
3:59
know, kind of like out of sorts. And at the 18 minute mark you
4:02
get you have Caitlin Ford trying to receive a pass like 7 yards
4:05
away from goal, Ashley Lawrence strict all over her, Lily in the
4:09
passing lane. Ford, you know, falling over,
4:11
tries to get into Smiths Fava closes in, gets it to Lily, one
4:15
touch to brand. And then what if you LeBron does
4:19
to give little? I mean, didn't like it, didn't
4:23
like it, but that finished, man. Oh, she smacked it.
4:27
Full confidence. I think you could see in the
4:29
background, I can't remember if it's Johannes, puts her, puts
4:32
her arms up, like to celebrate. I think I remember that being
4:35
caught on the replay. But yeah, Braun absolutely
4:39
hammered it. DVD gets a touch on it, but it
4:42
was too strong and that was going in the back of the net.
4:46
Yeah, so made the most of their one one shot in the first half.
4:49
They did. But like I said, I thought they
4:52
it was pretty even. You know, a lot could have
4:55
happened. And I thought the Arsenal
4:58
defense for sure snapped into place maybe about 5-10 minutes
5:02
after that. You know, they kind of kind of
5:04
figured out what they needed to do, but then offensively
5:07
couldn't totally get it going. I mentioned kind of Kim Little.
5:11
Yeah, I thought the Kim Little Mariana Caldente pairing
5:15
couldn't really, you know, find their footing.
5:17
Money only had just a weird first half, like weird corner
5:20
kicks, free kicks. There was one point where she
5:22
gets dispossessed from behind by Corbin Schrader.
5:25
I'm like, didn't have that on my bingo card.
5:29
And in the second-half, I got this in my notes too.
5:31
She rushes, she rushes the throw in for no real reason and then
5:35
throws it right to Lindsay Heaps when I heard two interceptions
5:37
on the day. I'm glad you had that in your
5:39
notes. Like that happened and I was
5:40
just like, whoa, what is going on?
5:42
It was so weird. Been like I don't know if she
5:45
was gassed or I don't like I can't imagine she was nervous in
5:48
that spot but very uncharacteristic either way.
5:52
Yeah, I'm, I'm glad you point that out.
5:54
But I mean, you know, when you when we talk about these teams,
5:57
I thought a lot about what you said, like what are we going to
6:00
do if Arsenal wins the Champions League again?
6:03
And you know, we think about like this big three in women's
6:07
European football and we kind of talked about it.
6:10
You have to put Arsenal in there.
6:12
It becomes a BIG4 and you feel like they're kind of nudging
6:15
Chelsea, you know, to the periphery of that.
6:19
I think it speaks to the depth and the skill that Arsenal has
6:23
where we talk about Mariana Caldente, like, she came into
6:26
the squad last year as an established Champions League
6:29
winner. And of course, like England or
6:31
pardon me, Arsenal already had European champions on their
6:35
squad. But, you know, we talked about
6:38
Caldente as like the serial winner and kind of a, you know,
6:42
a date and on the pitch leader. Now they're just chock full of
6:47
those now. Now, you know, a lot of them
6:48
have those Champions League winners medals, and they have
6:50
that experience. And this is a team that was
6:52
playing. So Chloe Kelly wasn't available,
6:56
Beth Mead wasn't available, and Steph Catley wasn't available.
7:00
And there they are, just still with the medal and the
7:04
wherewithal to withstand that opening goal and just, you know,
7:09
see things out the rest of the match.
7:11
Yeah, and we'll get into a little bit later, but didn't
7:14
didn't love Leon's response in a couple spots.
7:17
I think there was a couple of points in time, especially down
7:19
the stretch where I'm like, I would have, we would have liked
7:22
to see them kind of respond a little bit differently.
7:25
Not not quite the killer instinct, but I'm looking
7:28
through some of my other first half notes kind of mentioned
7:30
Emily Fox. 27th minute. I got a note that just says
7:34
Emily Fox is awesome. Because she is.
7:37
It's a good observation. I mean, she's just she has every
7:40
tool, She's super fast. She's a great defender.
7:44
You know, she could run, pass and shoot.
7:46
She's creative. You know, she just like kind of
7:51
like an on on the breakaway. She can kind of take any lane,
7:55
you know, just like, oh, she's going that way and she just kind
7:57
of knows to go the other way and just always makes really great
8:00
decisions. One of I'm not sure if this is
8:03
hyperbole or prisoner of the moment, but I thought this was
8:07
one of the best games I've seen someone play without notching a
8:13
goal or an assist. I like that.
8:16
I mean, she and she's super informed right now too and has
8:21
been for a while, like for both USA and Arsenal.
8:26
You know, I'm not sure what like the flash ball moment for you
8:29
was for Fox in this match. For me it's later in the match,
8:34
Vicki Betcho comes on as a sub for Lyon and there's a moment
8:38
where a ball is played downfield.
8:41
Beto has a step and 1/2 on Fox and could.
8:44
Fox. Absolutely dusts her in the.
8:48
Couldn't believe it wasn't even a competitive race.
8:50
Absolutely flies by her. Yeah, and with a little nudge,
8:55
like a little a little muscle in there too.
8:57
At the moment, that really kind of, I'm not sure what happened
9:01
in 27 the minute that that that, but I've got something in my
9:04
notes. Fox opens up the second-half
9:07
like almost seconds into it with a sizzling ball head just right
9:11
up the pitch. Justina Blackstenius foot race
9:14
there between her and and Christian Endler.
9:17
But that was a good bellwether. Just what was to come from Fox
9:21
and that Arsenal attack. She also had a crazy 40 plus
9:24
yard run. She gets ahead to Olivia Smith,
9:27
who hits the side netting. And that was kind of the first
9:29
one that got the crowd back into her like, oh, OK, we're we're
9:33
probably going to score in the second-half.
9:35
Warning shot for sure and I'm glad you give the shout to
9:37
Olivia Smith. I thought she was excellent
9:40
throughout the match. Tough match up for Svava, who
9:43
we've talked about is a good player, obviously involved to
9:48
quickly get the ball to Johannes on that, on that opening goal
9:50
for Lyon. But I think that's what what
9:54
Smith will give you is that she just has so, or, pardon me, she
9:59
has such good instincts in the attacking third, whether it's,
10:04
you know, pull it back, pass it, shoot it.
10:08
And yeah, when she ripped that shot off the side netting, I
10:11
thought about you, my guy. And I said, ah, calibrating.
10:15
And then that she was and I, I thinking about, you know,
10:21
Smith's game, she took a lot of punishment in that first half
10:24
from Svaba. I thought Svaba was good today,
10:26
too. I mean, you know, no, no knock
10:28
on Svaba, but Smith took a bunch of fouls.
10:31
Leon was racking up the yellow cards early and I thought the
10:35
physicality wore down in the second-half.
10:38
I'm not sure if it was like a conditioning thing or, you know,
10:40
if they're a little bit more hesitant from those that yellow
10:43
card accumulation. But Arsenal kind of had their
10:48
way with that Leon defense in the second-half, kind of was
10:51
toying with them a little bit. Leon just couldn't keep the ball
10:54
for some reason, Not, you know, some of the sequences that had a
10:59
little bit more composure in the first half felt a little bit
11:02
more panicked. They kind of regained their
11:05
composure down the stretch, but there was like a good 30 minute
11:07
stretch in the in to open up the second-half where Liam just
11:11
didn't look like themselves. And Arsenal, you know, we've
11:14
talked about it before, and I think it's their hallmark.
11:17
And you know, as the as the great Kevin Garnett once said,
11:20
they let the defense set the tone and like, they just swarm
11:25
to you. You just can't do anything in
11:27
the second-half. Yeah, Leon maybe had the slight
11:30
edge in possession. They have five shots.
11:32
None of them are on target. I will say, you know, when I
11:35
said there what they didn't allow another big chance, there
11:37
was the moment where Kim Little almost had another really bad
11:41
moment. Or at least I'm I think it was
11:42
Kim Little where she tries to play a pass back and she's like
11:46
falling down. And then that's the D&E, you
11:49
know, one V one chance where she gets out and she just absolutely
11:52
rattles the crossbar. That could have been a disaster
11:56
if that goes in. And with DNA, you know, it could
11:58
always go in. But, you know, other than that,
12:02
you know, Leonas is in that mode in, in the second-half, Leon
12:07
commits 7 fouls, Arsenal commits 3.
12:10
Leon only has one corner. Arsenal has three corners.
12:14
It just shows that, you know, and you know, I like to think of
12:19
myself as a pretty eloquent guy. I think I said a few episodes a
12:24
few episodes ago, Arsenal's defense doesn't let you do any
12:28
of your shit, which is just, I, I think that's just what it is.
12:32
They just, they just muck everything up for their
12:34
opponent. Yeah, I think once they, I, I
12:37
mentioned that they kind of snapped into place after the
12:39
goal and they just were like, let's just play it, play them
12:44
straight up and see if they could beat us.
12:47
And I actually think a little bit of a look ahead into to the
12:50
second match up. I think Leon's in some trouble
12:54
at the number 9 spot because I don't think out of Hegerberg,
12:58
I'm going to say I don't think she could score against Arsenal
13:02
and I don't think Katoto can score against Arsenal.
13:05
You know, like a total came in completely ineffective.
13:07
Hagerberg, you know, want to kind of come out and like you
13:10
said, set the tone. So with physicality she had that
13:12
really found Williamson, but she just doesn't that Arsenal
13:16
defense is a bad match up for those two number nines.
13:19
So in my notes, I think if Leon's going to advance, they're
13:23
going to either need something from DNE or from Joinga or from,
13:28
you know, like, but those are probably their best bets.
13:32
And if I'm, you know, Geraldus, I'm probably thinking how can I
13:35
unlock one or both of these players?
13:39
Can we yeah. Can we run by can we run by
13:45
Arsenal? If you're going to play chewing
13:47
and, you know, DNA in that spot, I think that I think that makes
13:50
sense. I think, I mean, you know, I'm,
13:55
I'm endlessly optimistic about Katoto, but you're you're right.
14:01
Look, Ada Hagerberg, she's a legend.
14:03
She's the all time leading scorer in the history of this
14:05
competition and she's only 30 years old.
14:08
Man, She didn't look very effective in in this one at all.
14:15
I mean, you know, we we talked about this with Bayern and
14:18
Barcelona. You learned a lot of stuff when
14:21
you're just like, oh, OK, this is the four teams left, you
14:23
know, and it's like, you know, if we have these are at least
14:26
these are maybe four of the best six teams.
14:28
You could you could quibble if you want to, but these are four
14:31
excellent teams. And all of a sudden, you know,
14:35
you get to see AI don't know Kim Little versus Lily Honest or
14:39
Vicki Betcho versus Emily Fox or, you know, Emily Fox versus
14:43
Kototo. So sort of things that are more
14:46
kind of like fantasy league type thing.
14:47
You get to actually see him on the pitch.
14:49
And those were some real takeaways.
14:51
I think, you know, Braun could be a problem asking if they're
14:56
going to need always a problem. But I don't know.
15:02
Leon's going to need a little bit more dynamism.
15:04
Obviously they missed du Monet for, you know, for sure.
15:08
Lindsay Heaps was was tough. I think if if I'm Geraldo's,
15:11
maybe I want that sub back. You bring in Demaris, you take
15:14
off Johannes, you leave heaps on there and you know didn't didn't
15:18
get better. I mean, the pass that Heaps
15:22
plays Dangan for the for the the winner, or if you're looking at
15:27
it from Leon's perspective, the loser.
15:30
Like that was a tough pass to Ingrid.
15:33
And you could see like on the replay that Heaps kind of goes
15:37
palms up there, like, what are you doing?
15:39
But it's like, Lindsay, I don't think that was.
15:42
I don't think you did your teammate any favors there.
15:45
And now it never looks good when your defender smashes into your
15:48
goalkeeper. But I, I think the whole thing
15:52
kind of started from an error by heaps.
15:54
I I think you're right about I think maybe Jonah would take
15:56
that suck back. Yeah, and again, credit to
15:59
Olivia Smith on that play. You know, you've got Engen
16:05
Andler, you know, two big bodies and you know, you got a three,
16:09
three person pile up and then you come out, you know, the the
16:12
least scathed and you're able to kind of finish.
16:16
And I think like how many times do you see that ball go out
16:20
wide, the the attacker not really able to get a lot on it
16:25
and then somebody's coming backside, slide in and then
16:28
you'll be able to like extinguish the chance.
16:30
I love that you know, Smith even going away from goal monster
16:35
backswing to make sure she got enough out to be like nobody's
16:39
going to slide in and and and do anything with with what I'm
16:42
about to do here. She's strong dude. 21 years old,
16:47
you know, the Canadian, I mean, yeah, I I loved it.
16:50
It's great. I'm glad you you bring that up
16:52
like it's a pile up. She not only is she strong, she
16:55
popped right up from the collision too, to kind of get
16:58
her feet underneath her to square herself and put some put
17:02
some smoke on the ball. So yeah, you know, huge game
17:05
from from Smith, like it's a bad pass from Heaps, but without
17:10
her, without Smith's pressure, the goal doesn't happen.
17:14
Yeah, and you see Smith pretty much react instantaneously when
17:19
she sees, you know, Heaps make contact.
17:21
She's like, there's a, there's a, there's a chance here.
17:23
I gotta, I might have a look here.
17:25
Yeah, yeah. The year of the Heaps, maybe
17:28
arrow pointing? At least sideways.
17:33
Yeah, at best, or maybe at best sideways.
17:35
Yeah. Yeah, I think I've got my notes
17:39
too. Down the stretch.
17:39
I I I love the the pressure that Olivia Smith and Caitlin Ford
17:43
were able to keep on that Leon defence.
17:46
I mean, even the the match ends even with Caitlin Ford driving
17:49
and and putting a shot on target on them there.
17:51
I like that. And you know, shout out to
17:53
slagers, you know, for leaving those two players on, you know,
17:57
and like kind of like feeling, feeling something coming because
18:02
Ford was an like a firecracker. I mean it was awesome to watch
18:06
her just pick. Oh, I gotta look here as you
18:07
just I mean you there was no predicting where she was going
18:12
to go, like limbs going everywhere.
18:14
And I mean just she was on on 1.25 speed for sure.
18:18
And and Smith, we talked about the toughness and then the big
18:21
time finish. What about the first goal,
18:23
though? What was your, the, the Mariana
18:26
ball like on that free kick that Endler fumbles?
18:30
It was put in at such a weird angle that when she puts it in
18:34
and I wrote that in my, in my nose, my, I kind of quoted
18:37
myself, but when she puts it on, I was like, Oh, nice.
18:40
Because I, I just, you don't really see like balls like that.
18:42
It was, it was very like unorthodox.
18:45
I think that's what's so cool about it is that like, so we
18:49
talked about it like it's not it wasn't a Cal Dente game.
18:52
She had a lot of weird moments, but she's such a genius.
18:56
And you know, there's there's got to be some something from
18:58
the training ground on that. But it was like it was a
19:01
knuckleball almost. I wrote that in my nose.
19:05
It definitely. It it was, it was a weird,
19:09
unorthodox thing to do and it and it worked out perfectly.
19:13
And I think it goes down like when you see it happen in real
19:16
time. I mean, in my notes I had wrote,
19:18
Ooh, a Howler by Endler, but it was just weird.
19:21
And and Endler has black Stenius bearing down on her.
19:25
It was and it it it very clearly seemed to catch everybody on
19:30
Lyon by surprise. So I think that like, it had a
19:34
it was just several elements to make it weird.
19:37
And yeah, like, I think, you know, obviously Endler wants to
19:41
hold that or at least like push it far enough away, you know,
19:45
out into the wing. But credit to to Mariona, like
19:49
in those big spots, we've talked about it before.
19:52
You want to make your opponents make decisions in like in a
19:57
weird space and and she did that.
20:00
Yeah, make a make a play for sure.
20:03
Little Ingrid, Ingrid Ankin credit with the own goal.
20:08
Except for the ITC. Yeah, they're not in the ITC
20:11
record book. That's in their OG for me.
20:13
You know, I mean, you can't can't do anything like that.
20:17
But yeah, I mean, a really tricky ball to deal with.
20:21
Like, you know, on that overhead shot, you can see how much
20:24
movement there was in the ball. So I do not envy Endler at all.
20:27
Just having to be like, well, we should, you know, like, you
20:30
know, cuz, like you, you don't, you know, you should go that
20:33
way. But like every instinct is like,
20:34
don't go that way cuz somebody, somebody's gonna come and knock
20:37
it the other way. You know, she really struggled
20:39
with it. Tough moment, tough way to give
20:41
up a goal. But I think on the day, Arsenal
20:45
kind of dominated a lot of the big time stats.
20:48
Shot out, shoots Lyon 16 to 6, six to one advantage, shots on
20:52
target, pass completion. They're both in the same
20:55
category. But double the amount of touches
20:58
in the opposition box for Arsenal.
21:00
I think 21. I think the right the right
21:02
score line. I think so, yeah.
21:05
I think that's totally fair. One more, one more thing on it
21:07
cuz I want to, you know, I grew up a huge baseball nerd back
21:11
when it used to be the most popular sport in our country.
21:15
It was the type of knuckleball that not even a knuckleball
21:18
pitch. But sometimes when you see, you
21:21
know, the batter hits the ball and then the center fielder has
21:23
to be like, and then try to make the catch.
21:26
That's kind of what it was the what it reminded me of.
21:29
It's just like a, it's just a, a bizarre action on it.
21:32
But I do, I do think you're right.
21:33
I think 2/1 was probably the fair result, even if the two,
21:38
the two goals by Arsenal looked a little bit bizarre.
21:43
I want to talk about, you know, Arsenal's defense here real
21:47
quick. So do you a a dealer's choice
21:50
here? Do you want to hear the number
21:53
of shots Lyon has taken in every Champions League match so far?
21:59
Or do you want to hear the number of shots on target in
22:02
each match in the Champions League Lyon has taken so far?
22:07
I wouldn't hear shots because they they're usually pretty
22:11
prolific there and on target is usually a function of that.
22:15
So give me the give me the shots number.
22:17
OK, total shots. So in the first match against
22:20
Arsenal and the opening match of the Champions League, Lyon took
22:24
22 shots and then against St. Bolton they took 46 shots in the
22:31
90 minutes. I won't, I won't name the rest
22:34
of the teams here, but after the 22 and the 46, then they had 21
22:39
shots 2615321937 and then in this match against your Gunners
22:47
6. Wow.
22:51
They're going to have to, they're going to have to figure
22:53
out what to do there. I mean, I think, I think that I
22:58
think the midfield kind of remains the key.
23:00
I thought it was really weird. You know, obviously this is a
23:04
pro Liliana's podcast, but I thought it was really weird when
23:08
Yona took her off and there was a moment like in the 80s, I bet
23:12
you pick this up like maybe like 8485 where Wendy Renard got the
23:16
ball and she's like kind of like inching up the field and inching
23:20
up the field. And she's like, there's
23:23
somebody, somebody supposed to be here like 10 or 50 yards
23:26
ahead of me that I can kick it to.
23:26
It's like, why is there nobody here?
23:28
Where is everybody, you know? And I just couldn't help but
23:31
think like that's where Lily was about the most of the first
23:33
half, like great pressure valve, you know, and was active, you
23:39
know, almost in that patri roll like box to box everywhere, you
23:43
know, in line, you know, like sideline to sideline, you know,
23:45
just kind of like all over the place.
23:47
So I don't know, they're going to have to kind of figure out
23:51
where they think Arsenal might be soft.
23:53
They didn't figure it out today at all.
23:55
You know, I think the goal, you know, not fluky, great play, you
23:58
know, all around from from those 3 four players to make it
24:00
happen. But they they didn't.
24:03
They didn't crack any more of the code over the rest of the
24:07
match. No, I, I, I totally agree with
24:10
you. So I think, you know, Arsenal is
24:13
going to have to find a way to come up with something a little
24:18
different because Geraldes is is going to be in the lab trying to
24:22
cook up what to do differently in that in that home match.
24:27
I got to think that the Leon supporters are going to be, you
24:31
know, pretty amped up to kind of get this comeback.
24:35
I mean, especially that would be a great way for them to avenge
24:40
left when they won two one in London last year and then just
24:44
had the complete implosion in the second leg at home in last
24:49
year's semi final. But I mean, you know, it's
24:53
getting it's getting hard to bet against your Gunners, buddy.
24:56
I mean goodness, the defense is just smothering.
25:01
I mean, I don't want to end the episode without mentioning the
25:07
absence of also of Selma Bosha today, who kind of has become a
25:11
real hub for Lyon offensively. Like we it's pretty, you know,
25:15
it's fairly common to see Bosha Lee Leon in touches, you know,
25:21
so I think that was a huge mess. You know, you can imagine Du
25:24
Monet coming in making a big splash, but I think it's more
25:29
than just swapping out players. I think it's it's also got to be
25:33
some tactical kind of big time shifts, because I think it's got
25:38
to you know, like it's not like all right, well, you know, well,
25:41
there's not the upgrades aren't that big, You know, and like I
25:44
said, I I think Arsenal has flat out solved Hegerberg, Kototo,
25:49
maybe those that those words come back to bite me, but I
25:52
don't think those players can can make a dent.
25:55
And then you know if if you and then it's like, what else do you
25:58
have to work with if you're all a lot to work with.
26:00
But like we said, a lot of ways to kind of get that, get that
26:03
not exactly right. Yeah, I mean, I I'm, I'm really
26:09
glad you mentioned that because, you know, obviously you're the
26:12
creator of the term Basha ball. This is an extremely pro Selma
26:16
Basha podcast, but you know, she's going to play left back.
26:19
So is she a gigantic improvement over Sophie Spava?
26:24
Not not a gigantic improvement. You could argue she's a decent
26:27
improvement over her. But like if you swap out Bosha
26:30
for Spava, I don't think it changes the result of this
26:34
match. But I, I, I do suppose you could
26:36
get, you know, you can get an elite Bosha free kick or
26:40
something like that or a cross in, but Spava's capable of doing
26:43
all that stuff too. So, you know, I, I think it's
26:47
going to have to be something tactically.
26:52
I think Tarziani is dealing with like a bit of a knock.
26:54
Chris, Chris Whittingham mentioned it on the broadcast
26:57
that there were like multiple players who had picked up
27:00
injuries relatively recently, but we're all cleared to play.
27:05
But then none of them really played in this match.
27:08
So you know. Yeah, it looked like I saw
27:11
Tarziani warming up, but yeah, I'm, I'm looking.
27:13
According to Five, it looks like Basha Tarziani, Du Mornay and
27:17
Tabitha Chowenga all available. Yep, yeah.
27:23
And so I mean, we'll see like, you know, Elma Intil and Nail
27:28
hug, I mean, she's out there. But like, these are all
27:32
excellent players, but I just don't think that really changes
27:34
anything. Like it's not going to change
27:36
Arsenal's defensive identity and what they're going to do.
27:39
I would say the only player, the two players, I would raise my
27:42
hand and think that they could really change that would be
27:46
obviously Du Morne and Chewinga. But I guess you know, I guess
27:50
Basha changes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she's got.
27:52
It she changes what you do defensively, Yeah, that's fair.
27:55
So those three, I mean, we'll see how they're how they're
27:58
feeling. But yeah, I mean, another,
28:03
another season coming, coming home.
28:06
Now you, you're not playing with the lead here, but you know,
28:11
you're trying to get back to this, to this Champions League
28:14
final if you're Lyon and it's, it's going to be an uphill
28:18
climb. I kind of agree with you, but
28:23
why do I feel some trepidation about, you know, you know,
28:28
punching my my figurative ticket to the final as an Arsenal
28:31
supporter? I think there is, I mean,
28:35
there's more than enough talent there and they've got to have a
28:39
little get back on their mind. You know, if you know, if you're
28:42
Leon at this point, you know, you beat this team in match day
28:45
one. You lost them last year, got
28:46
eliminated. You lose from ahead today, even
28:53
though you kind of get outplayed a little bit.
28:56
And I didn't really like their they they felt a little
29:02
complacent down the stretch. Did you kind of feel like like
29:05
that? Because I kind of think back to
29:07
when Kim Little almost gets fouled in the box.
29:12
It goes to VAR, you know, and Wendy Renar's like, you know,
29:15
she's kind of like kind of dismissive of like she knows
29:19
it's not a foul, but she's also like kind of chuckly about it.
29:23
Like we know this is what are we doing here?
29:25
You know, like, let's get on with this so we can, you know,
29:28
go on to the final. And I don't know, things got
29:32
weird. They're down the stretch.
29:34
I thought I thought I thought a lot of it backslid in terms of
29:39
their performance and players that were playing well for an
29:41
hour, you know, like I just all of a sudden are, you know, kind
29:44
of losing their way a little bit.
29:46
But I still sort of feel I don't know, something's telling me
29:49
Lyon. I don't want to say they find a
29:52
way. I don't know if it's, you know,
29:53
scared Arsenal fan here, but. Why don't you be?
29:56
Why would you be pessimistic as an Arsenal fan?
29:59
You know he. Won the Champions League last
30:03
year. Well, what's your read on it?
30:07
Who do you expect to advance? Well, I'm not an Arsenal fan,
30:11
but I'm going to pick Are we doing predictions?
30:15
Yeah. I think I, I, I was thinking
30:20
like all day, I was thinking about this, you know, in between
30:24
doing my, my day job, I'm going to, I'm going to say I think
30:32
the, the second leg ends 1:00 to 1:00 and I'm going to say it
30:38
goes to extra time and Arsenal gets a goal in extra time.
30:43
But I think Leon jumps out to an early lead.
30:47
Well, if it's one one, it wouldn't go to extra time,
30:48
right? It would if if Leon ends the 90
30:53
minutes up one nil, then it's 22-ON aggregate.
30:56
Over. OK, so you're thinking one nil
30:59
and then it ends 11. But yeah, yeah, yeah, that, that
31:02
is more clear. Yes, yes, because I, I think
31:07
what Arsenal was able to do in the second-half, I think they'll
31:09
replicate in extra time in this one in, in France is that
31:14
Arsenal, whatever cliche we want to throw out, they don't they
31:18
don't blink, they never say die, they don't give up, etcetera,
31:23
etcetera. They're just going to do their
31:26
stuff and and figure and and find a way to to top it off with
31:31
the cliches. And I think it's going to be, I
31:35
think Russo puts in a Herculean effort and Russo gets the winner
31:39
in extra time. I know I lamented like the 910
31:44
thing, but I love Russo at the 10.
31:47
I mean, to me, I kind of figured that you have to be able to do
31:50
both to be able to like make it happen.
31:53
And you need a level of physicality and you need to be
31:57
like, you have to have every instinct of a #9.
32:01
So I think, you know, she was, she was huge today.
32:04
I'm going to make a prediction. I'm still going to say Arsenal
32:09
advances. But I would hope so the.
32:11
The curveball is I feel like Leo's going to score the first
32:15
two goals in the second leg and go up three to two on aggregate,
32:20
and then we're going to see Arsenal somehow claw their way
32:23
back and and ahead. Yeah.
32:25
I mean, it feels 5050 enough that something like that would
32:30
happen in in a tie like this. All right.
32:33
I like it. So is it is the final score 2 to
32:36
2 in in the second leg, is that what you're predicting here?
32:40
Yeah, I'm going to say 22 actually.
32:43
Yeah, I don't want. Yeah, I'm not going to predict
32:45
any, any P case. Let's avoid that.
32:49
I mean, it'd be exciting. No, it'd be terrible.
32:54
Be awful. It would be the yeah, the
32:57
feeling of feeling very alive, but also wanting to die at the
33:01
exact same time. So yeah, I, yeah, you don't need
33:04
to go through that. Although I will say as a neutral
33:08
would be quite exciting to watch.
33:10
So yeah, I mean, I, I would, I wanted all day to be like, I
33:14
think I'm going to pick Leone. I think I'm going to do this,
33:16
but like, I don't know, man. I, I just think, I just think
33:21
Arsenal's identity is so ingrained in them right now and
33:26
maybe Geraldes needs one more season and maybe, you know,
33:31
another transfer window or two to really, kind of really get
33:36
everything in place with what he wants to do with Leon.
33:41
I mean, I, I, I imagine that's possible.
33:44
I just something's telling me that there's a lineup and a game
33:48
plan that beats Arsenal, you know, and it's just a matter of
33:52
of of him finding it and not a bad bet if you're if you're
33:56
trying to pick somebody and a roster that that could make it
34:00
happen. So I don't know we'll we'll keep
34:02
an eye on that. Let's hit the football calendar
34:04
real quick leg to going down next weekend Saturday.
34:08
Well, that'll be here pretty soon here May 2nd, 6:00 AM ish
34:12
Leon versus Arsenal in the return match up and then Sunday,
34:16
May 3rd, 7:30 AM Pacific Barcelona host Byron and we'll
34:20
be back to cover both of them. I'm not sure if we're going to
34:22
do back to maybe we should just not do it back-to-back and you
34:25
know, land the plane on Sunday night when we've got, you know,
34:29
2 two matches of having watched under our belt and WSL also came
34:33
back this past weekend. Any thoughts on that?
34:37
I know you had a, you're doing a little bit of reporting, some
34:41
light reporting. It did yeah, NWSL returned.
34:45
I watched live from the press box Seattle rain football club
34:49
get beat 3 nil by Utah Royals a little overshadowed by you know,
34:56
but frankly just a frightening looking injury to Welsh legend
35:01
Jess Fishlock, who recently announced her retirement their
35:05
retirement effective at the end of the season.
35:08
Yeah, she she like hopped up to as a shot was coming in, took an
35:14
awkward fall, seemed to be in really significant pain.
35:20
Medics immediately called for the trainers.
35:22
They put an air cast on her leg. She gets stretchered off.
35:25
She's taken to the taken to the hospital via ambulance.
35:28
But some reporting from our pals over at the Equalizer, that's
35:31
Bella Munson over at the Equalizer and then sound her at
35:34
heart said the X-rays were negative.
35:37
So not a broken ankle. Got to look for soft tissue
35:40
stuff. But yeah, just overall you get
35:44
drubbed 3 nothing you you concede two goals in the 1st 7
35:48
minutes to Utah overall. And then you're, you know,
35:51
legendary player and honestly arguably the best player on your
35:55
team even at you know, 38 or 39 years old.
35:58
Just fishlock gets hurt. Ugly match for Seattle rain
36:01
football club. But hopefully the injury is not
36:04
too bad and and you know, it's early.
36:06
They they bank some points early so hopefully nothing too
36:10
disastrous for the club. Yep. 33 nails were going around
36:14
this weekend. The FC also fell to Gotham.
36:16
That same score line. All right, man, this has been
36:20
another episode of end of the channel.
36:21
Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging
36:24
out. If you enjoyed the show, leave
36:25
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36:43
All the above. Much, much more in the
36:45
description of this episode. And a big thing in my coast as
36:48
well. Mr. Grand Angle for being as
36:51
rock solid as they come, never wavers, never read, never loses
36:56
his composure. Doesn't matter how how deep into
36:59
the tournament we get. Doesn't matter how deep the
37:01
waters get. I appreciate you bro.
37:04
Likewise, buddy and in in the words of the great Bo Monte
37:07
Jones, Great American sportscaster, leave us five
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stars. If you leave us four stars, I'm
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inclined to believe you are a hater.
37:15
I mean, what's the difference really between a four-star and a
37:18
five star? Just leave the five star rating.
37:19
It's it's totally fine. But as Dino said, we always
37:22
appreciate you guys. You guys are rock solid, always
37:25
dropping knowledge. There's some great comments are
37:28
pal Carlo predicted an Arsenal win.
37:31
I think he might have got the score right too.
37:33
I'll have to go. I'll have to go back and go.
37:35
But yeah, you guys are the absolute best.
37:36
Thank you again for being the only corner of the Internet full
37:39
of nice people listening to my ramblings.
37:42
Always Co signing with us and you know, drop a knowledge when
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it when it's needed. We always appreciate you and we
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will see you all next time.