Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / USWNT beats South Korea 3-0; Lily Yohannes scores in her debut

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USWNT beats South Korea 3-0; Lily Yohannes scores in her debut · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK. Welcome to Into the Channel
0:07
podcast primarily about one's football before we hit the
0:10
pitch. If you enjoy the show or love
0:11
one's football as much as your boys do, come kick it with us
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already. We are doing this every single
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week, spinning the wide wide world of women's football.
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Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast wherever
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you like to watch or listen at ITC under score Pod on XA bunch
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of other places on the Internet you can find us.
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I am your host Dino de SES Podesta and as always I am
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joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
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What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.
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I would say it's a pretty entertaining match.
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Two days ago. I know we're I know we're
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getting to it a little after the fact.
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You know, Dino and I, we talk about the day jobs, so pardon
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the delay. Thank you for the patience.
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But yeah, some pretty interesting happenings in that
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one. Yeah, you might.
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For those that were patient, you might get rewarded with a little
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bit of an exclusive courtesy of the ITC.
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We'll get to that in a second. So USWN T3, South Korea, nil, A
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lot to talk about. A lot, a lot, a lot to talk
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about, especially for ITC fans, especially for your boys.
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Where exactly do you want to get started, Mr. Grant Engel?
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Oh, I don't know. I mean, we got a lot of, we got
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a lot of options here. There we go.
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Sounds delicious. I don't know.
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I mean, typically we start games in chronological order.
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I'm trying to think of like, what would a logical starting
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point be? Should we should we start with
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the beginning of the match? You think no.
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So. OK.
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We had some momentous happenings.
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You know, if you want to rewind back a week, you know, props to
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you calling out coach Emma Hayes, putting her feet to the
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fire, sitting her in the hot seat.
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You know how we do here at the ICC, My boy Grant asked for 20
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minutes. So can we just get 20 minutes
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for Lily Johannes? Can we?
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And got it done. But that wasn't the end of it.
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I then came over the top a little bit.
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I'm like, what if it's incredible that that was my
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honest question. I'm like, I want to see it.
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I want to see the, you know, the chemistry.
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I want to see if she's up to speed or whatever.
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I feel comfortable saying it far exceeded my expectations.
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I just about lost my mind. Where was your head at as Lily's
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getting onto the field? What are you thinking?
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I'm thinking, OK, cool, she's getting the 20 minutes that I
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had asked for. So that's, that's a fun little
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coincidence. And I just thought, OK, she's
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going to take some time, get into the game, get a couple
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touches on there. We we've talked about it during
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her her entire run with IX that we've been following closely,
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that we've been covering in the Champions League.
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She's gonna be patient. She's gonna be smart.
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She's gonna look good out there. Have faith.
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I trust our eyeballs in our assessment of this player.
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And yeah, she got into the game, buddy.
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She got well, well into the game.
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I thought it was kind of interesting when she did get on.
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It did seem like the ball wasn't quite finding her, but then
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there was that first touch with the inside of the boot kind of
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over a defender to Rodman, who couldn't quite corral it.
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Like it got to her. And I was like, that was pretty
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slick. And I think the first thing I
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noticed was like that level of decision making felt quick.
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Yes, it felt pretty instantaneous.
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Good vision on that play. And it was just shoot, the ball
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was just pinging off her, off her boot to exactly where it
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needed to go next. That was the first thing I
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noticed. Yeah, her, her very first touch
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of the match was just a very cool kind of like get the ball
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on the half turn, help it swing over to the right side.
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And that's where I was like, OK, I'm emboldening my own take
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here. Like she's gonna, she's gonna be
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smart. She's gonna take her time, help
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the ball swing around. Yeah, and you're totally right
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about that little pass to Rodman.
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That first pass to Rodman, we'll call it that, was great.
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But then comes the Patrick Mahomes fucking laser 30 yards
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down the field. Let's go aerial through ball.
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What are we talking about? You remember that match it was
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happening in aired Devizi Brown in the Dutch league where we
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were watching the highlights. We were reduced to the
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highlights because we couldn't watch the full match where Lily
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hit a through ball and the announcer goes, oh, if that that
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Dutch guy was sitting at home watching that US women's
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national team, when he hit that long pass to Rodman, I guarantee
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he had the same reaction. Big oh.
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Huge OH. Huge Dutch OH.
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I want to also give a shout out to great Twitter account at
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Optajack who dropped some just fantastic stats for Lily
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Johannes. 18 minutes, 19 passes attempted, 19 passes completed,
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1/2 of three duels, one for one on tackles, one chance created,
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which is coming up soon. And that's not even the the
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Mahomes, the laser upper field. She also found Trinity Rodman,
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who nearly decapitated the crossbar.
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And I just absolutely love when you can see the rain explode off
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the woodwork because the ball was just struck so thunderously.
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That was just, I mean, I don't want to compare this to Rocky,
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one of the great sports movies, but it just felt like her impact
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was growing with each touch, with each step, with each kind
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of like Sprint, with each kind of like track back.
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And the plays were getting more and more impressive.
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Yeah, You're just kind of cranking up the volume on the
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match. I was at a loss for words.
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Absolute loss for words. It was incredible.
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I think that is such a great way to put it.
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It was. Everything was just getting
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progressively more comfortable, a little more daring, more
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confident, and then what do you know, Rodman has the ball on the
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wing, in comes the cross. I just, I love the instinct and
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the wherewithal to go. Oh, OK, yeah, let me drift back
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away from the goal into the space.
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I think the ball goes. I think Swanson and Smith both
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let it go through. And there's Lily with the ball
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at her feet around six yards out.
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We get a fucking goal 10 minutes into her national team career,
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man. Oh man.
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Come on, 10 minutes in. I mean, I mean sports movie
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shit, what else can you say? You know, your boy had to do it.
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So I put I put the call in to see if we can get Lily on the
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show. We must have been one of 1000.
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Shows I would guess. But I did ask her a question.
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She follows your boys on ITC. So appreciate you Lily shout
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out. So I asked her.
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Your vision, decision making and instincts were all 100% on
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point. As you're stepping onto the
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field and during the 20 plus minutes you're on, what are you
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telling yourself to allow you to have such an impactful debut?
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That was what I was curious about.
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Like as a 16 year old mentally, how do you even wrap your head
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around? It's incredible.
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Lily got back to us and she says and I quote, when I subbed on, I
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was trying to be in the moment and take it all in, stepping
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onto the pitch. I was locked in so I can go.
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That was my interjection. She didn't and was just trying
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to play my game. I knew my role when I came on,
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so executing that and trying to make an impact, getting my first
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couple of touches to get comfortable and growing into the
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game as it progresses. Scoring was such an amazing
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moment. The team clearing the bench to
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come celebrate with me was super special.
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Super grateful for the opportunity.
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End Quote. Look at that reporter Dino
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getting the exclusive quote. We got sources out here, man.
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Look, we're we're a plucky little podcast.
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Speaking of Rocky, the Rocky movies, I feel like we're we're
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running through the streets of Philadelphia right now trying to
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grow the podcast. But enough about us.
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Perfectly described by her. Obviously she's the one who
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lived it. To have that confidence and that
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composure at that age. You know, we've been careful
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this entire time covering the Champions League.
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You don't want to heap too many expectations on a young person
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like this, I just think, and you don't want to take too much from
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one game. You don't want to take too much
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from 20 minutes in one friendly match.
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I just think it is pretty obvious we're talking about a
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special player here. Absolutely.
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I mean, it's funny to hear her say first couple of touches to
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get comfortable and grow into the game as it progresses.
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That's exactly what we saw. Yeah.
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So imagine kind of coming on with that mentality and you have
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the skill set to be able to execute and just have a massive
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impact of the game win player of the match.
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Just wild, wild stuff, man. Where?
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Where do you want to go from here?
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So I mentioned Trinity Rodman hits that pass and I think it
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was both Smith and Swanson who kind of dummy it and let it go.
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And so let's talk about a nice little wave of substitutions in
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the 62nd minute, where the US Woman's National Team brings on
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Sam Coffey and the aforementioned Sophia Smith, Mal
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Swanson and Trinity Rodman. Immediately, the attack starts
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to look overwhelming when you bring on those four players, but
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the three forwards, specifically, Sophia Smith gets
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a goal 5 minutes after she steps onto the pitch after Rodman
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sends it in. You know, we love an acute angle
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here on the ITC. That's about as acute of an
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angle as you could get. She's what, at an 87% angle when
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Smith finishes that? Max Acute, absolutely.
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And what I loved about that, too, is kind of her persistence
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on that. Hell yeah, Swanson again.
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You know, kind of trying to back heel it.
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I like that. To Smith, who probably had a
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better look, she just was not going to be denied.
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Like she was just like, okay, that's a little stop here, work
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around, work around. And the wild part about Smith is
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she puts the ball into that spot, forcing herself into at
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acute angle, knowing that she could fucking bury it.
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Yep, it was wild. I think her.
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Balance and her feel for scoring is even more elite than I
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realized. And she's a two time Golden Boot
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winner in the NWSL and it's just like, damn, she's even better.
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Like then you really think like you know, she plays on a great
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team for the thorns. She was the number one overall
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pick, but when you see it when it gets unlocked on this US
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women's national team, and we talked about, we talked at
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length about the struggles in the 2023 World Cup.
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But once she is playing with confidence, which you see this
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with a lot of forwards is like goals sometimes bigot, more
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goals and more goals after that. And she just has a level of
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freedom with those two other forward players in Rodman and
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Swanson that now she's like, yeah, I can dish.
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I mean, she's basically LeBron James, Luka Doncic.
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I'll drive and dish, I'll drive and finish.
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I'll pull up and shoot. Like I got everything in my bag
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and I can just use it wherever. I mean, you know, you look at it
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still just 23 years old. So this is not even a finished
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player. Like this is a player that's
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going to continue to get better. I don't even know her in her
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prime yet. The thing that I kind of
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overlooked a little bit is her athleticism.
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She had some plays where in a short burst when she got a
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little sniff of the goal, I mean, she hit Max speed in like
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2 strides, which, you know, she's not really thought.
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I mean, I don't know, I don't want to say she's not thought
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of. I don't really think of her at
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that same, you know, kind of pacey kind of play.
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And maybe she's more in a short like 5-10 yard window.
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She's as fast as anybody. I mean, like she just got shot
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out of a can a couple times when she got, you know, a little bit
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of a look at, OK, this might turn into something and you
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know, we talked about the World Cup a punch.
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Mallory Swanson is just an absolute difference maker.
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You know, like she's smart enough to know, OK, I've got a
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look here, but man, somebody's got a better look here in the
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ITC personal record book. Absolutely an assist to Mel
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Swanson. I know it's a friendly, which I
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actually I actually watched one of the replays in in Espanol and
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I learned that friendly is called an Amistoso.
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How about that? I love that.
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Doesn't matter. Mel Swanson, you're awarded an
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assist on that Sophie Smith goal.
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Hell yeah. Anybody who disagrees, just take
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a walk. Get out of here, Vamanos.
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Yeah, I feel like, you know, we love a good hockey assist here,
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even though we don't watch much hockey.
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I feel like Rodman and Swanson got to get the assists on that,
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two assists on that one goal. Easy money there.
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And you know, and that's not to say we're talking about these
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three Super. I mean, Super Subs in this
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scenario. Obviously they're going to start
12:41
the majority of matches in any match of like real consequence,
12:45
but you're also bringing on Sam Coffey to absolutely slam the
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door shut on any kind of offensive attack your opponent's
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going to have with her as a defensive midfielder.
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So that wave of Subs at the 62nd minute when I saw him come on,
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like at that point, you know, we're working backwards here in
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the match. I'm still like, OK, I'd like to
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see you guys bring on Johannes here.
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But these four nice combination. I definitely shared that
13:09
sentiment also. That must have been what it was
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like the Dream Team when you know, Jordan and Barkley and
13:17
Magic and Larry Bird are checking all at the same time
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and you know, you got poor Angola over there trying to
13:22
figure out what to do. I wanted to kind of make a quick
13:25
note on Emma Hayes because and we'll talk lineups here in a
13:29
second. So I want to pre empt that just
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a little bit. I thought it was really clever
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by Emma Hayes to kind of like run out the A-Team first in the
13:37
first match because usually when you have an underdog coming back
13:42
for the rematch, they're a little hungrier in that second
13:44
match and they kind of are up to speed a little bit.
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So Emma Hay is putting sort of some of the Subs and sort of
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like the the bubble type players into the starting line for that
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second match to take on a Korea team that was up to speed.
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I thought was pretty smart because you got to really see,
14:02
OK, these players that we're going to try to make a decision
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on what do they look like. And obviously this second match
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goes one nil at halftime. Definitely, definitely in the
14:10
balance. Korea didn't look super
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dangerous, although they did force Murphy into some saves.
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But I did like that little touch from Emma Hayes.
14:16
Yeah, totally agree. I think it was a great look.
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I think it was a smart look. I think it was a way to also get
14:21
some of those players who, you know, we can call like kind of
14:24
bubble Olympics players or fringe Olympics players.
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I think the term you used. Let's take a look.
14:30
So those players that we're referring to, Alex Morgan up top
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and then Jayden Shaw, Rose Lavelle, Crystal Dunn, Corbin
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Albert and Lindsay Horan as your defensive midfielders.
14:42
And then from left to right in the defense, Jenna Nicewung or
14:45
Emily Sonnett, Sam Stubb, Casey Krueger on the right, and then
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Casey Murphy and goal. Those are a lot of good players
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still. And I think some of them as we
14:54
as we discussed it when we did our Olympic team draft, most of
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those players we don't really consider bubble players.
15:00
I think they'll be on the roster that's still a hell of a good
15:03
team, but it's great for them to get S Koreas best shot at the
15:08
beginning of this match. Absolutely, I have in my notes
15:11
here. Where would the US second second
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team rank worldwide that I was like, OK, are they 4th?
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Are they third? Absolutely stacked.
15:19
And obviously I don't make the rules.
15:21
Only 18 can go to the Olympics. That has absolutely been the
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talk this week after we've gotten a chance to see
15:27
everybody, Jill. And obviously like the explosion
15:29
of the the supernova Lily Johannes, That's another funny
15:33
moment here. In the 64th minute there was a
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graphic that ran that said Mallory Swanson was named the
15:38
Auto Trader key sub of the game. All right, oops.
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Hopefully Otto Trader gets a discount on the on the next go
15:46
round for but or, or only maybe geeks like us notice that stuff.
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Keenan Thompson does not approve.
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He would have definitely picked. He would have waited and picked
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Lily Ohanis for sure. What's the rush?
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Yeah, come on. So I mentioned Emma Hayes kind
16:00
of playing it cool, trying to see what she's got in the second
16:03
match up. Korea returns 8 starters from
16:07
the first match up, so they sort of had their A-Team.
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Everyone think about it locked in.
16:12
Did you see anything from that Korea side?
16:14
Yeah, for sure. I thought I thought they put in
16:16
a good effort, especially defensively in the first half.
16:19
I thought Casey fair definitely looked like she belonged out
16:22
there. I mean, obviously no shame in
16:25
being the second best 16 year old on the pitch in this match.
16:28
But seriously, no, just like I thought she handled herself
16:31
really well. And I want to shout out our pal
16:34
Blue, who drops knowledge in the in our YouTube comments from
16:37
time to time. Blue pointed out in the last
16:39
episode, I did mention that Casey Fair is the first
16:42
interracial player to play for South Korea.
16:45
And I think I said she was born in Jersey.
16:47
But Blue pointed out in the YouTube comments, Fair was born
16:51
in South Korea to her Korean mum and her American pop then moved
16:56
to New Jersey. So Blue, thank you for the
16:58
education. I got that one mixed up and they
17:01
actually mentioned it on the broadcast.
17:02
So Blue on top of those things. Shut up.
17:04
Blue for sure. And I thought Ju Min Lee
17:08
brightened forward. I thought she had some pretty
17:10
good moments out there, but the entire South Korea attack had
17:13
difficulty with Emily Sonnet and Sam Staub playing in those
17:17
center back roles and they would be the second choice center back
17:21
pairing behind Naomi Girma and goal scoring machine Tierna
17:25
Davidson. So, but I, I still thought Lee
17:28
played played pretty well out there and then got a shout out
17:32
Seattle Reign FC player G so young playing against her, her
17:36
favorite manager, Emma Hayes from her Chelsea days.
17:39
G was going to score that free kick.
17:41
I mean, that was very obviously going in and I think against a
17:44
lot of keepers that's going in right around the wall looks like
17:48
it's going to side netting. It's a more interesting game for
17:51
sure. I think it's a little bit of a
17:52
different game if G scores that, but Casey Murphy with the strong
17:56
dive and and you know, we love a strong wrist game on the ITCI
18:00
thought it was a fantastic save by Murphy.
18:03
Yeah, fantastic save by Murphy, fantastic camera work.
18:06
You got a real gnarly angle just to see that ball kind of bend
18:10
around the wall and then see Murphy kind of dart out from
18:13
behind. And the sports movie vibes
18:15
continue. What can you say?
18:16
And I totally agree on gunman Lee.
18:18
And she's so young. Lee was, I mean, she was she was
18:21
a dog in the midfield. I mean, I think she she was
18:24
listed as a, I think one of their forwards on the line up,
18:27
but she was just kind of all over the field, just going 110
18:30
miles an hour. Wasn't surprised to see that
18:33
she's AWS seller. Also, I think I believe a former
18:35
mansions for city player. So shot out.
18:38
We're kind of going backwards, right, you know, with, with our
18:42
with our coverage. So let's continue that trend.
18:46
So we're winding all the way back to right around the 13th
18:49
minute. I would say one of the ITC
18:50
favorites, but also one of the ITC maybe bubble names.
18:54
And again, we're not in charge. Don't come at us.
18:58
It's nothing personal. We love Crystal Dunn.
19:00
There's been a lot of hubbub about seeing her maybe in a more
19:05
advanced position. We got to see it and pays off
19:08
Crystal Dunn and that's the goal. 13th minute.
19:10
What did you see there? Yeah, I feel like she went a
19:13
little later when we did our team draft, which by the way, I
19:16
know we've referenced this a few times.
19:18
Easy to find on YouTube, easy to find on Spotify.
19:21
Please check that out. Well, we got damn near like 5000
19:24
views on that on YouTube, so we're cooking a little bit.
19:28
Still a couple of you guys out there haven't seen this ever.
19:30
Check it out. Yeah, come on, where are we at?
19:31
So I feel like Dunn went a little later in that draft.
19:36
Spoiler alert, but I do feel like she's passed the bubble.
19:39
I think you've got to put her on the squad for the exact reason
19:42
that you're alluding to, and she played in this match.
19:45
She played at fullback later in the match, but she gets that
19:48
goal off. Just a brilliant cross from
19:52
Jenna Neiswanger. And you mentioned Neiswanger
19:54
being one of our favorites. I think she's quickly ascending
19:56
to one of my favorite American players.
19:58
I think she's an auto start. I think the passing is just too
20:01
good. The cross comes in perfectly, it
20:04
has the perfect angle. It swings right to Dunn, who
20:07
times the run absolutely perfectly.
20:09
Looks like she's shot out of a cannon running down there to
20:12
make the finish. And all I got to say is if
20:15
you're a Bats fan, you got to be looking at that and going, yeah,
20:19
we would like to see a little more of that.
20:21
More of that, for sure. I was so happy for Crystal Dunn
20:24
too, because I think the commentator also mentioned it.
20:27
Morgan is kind of driving up the field, fading off to the left,
20:31
and Dunn is just wide open on the right.
20:34
I mean, I think any ball to her, you know, would have been
20:36
extremely dangerous. And I love the nice one or point
20:40
because she had a defender right on her.
20:43
And so many times you'll see a player like that try to reset,
20:47
make another move to create, create a little bit more space
20:50
to then retry the cross. Then by that time, maybe there's
20:53
a second defender. The whole thing kind of fizzles
20:55
out. But to Nicewire's credit, she's
20:56
like, all right, you're there, I'm just going to visit by by
20:59
your little boot. And and it found its way to
21:02
Crystal Dunn and she obviously buries the finish.
21:05
Very, very cool moment for the US women's national team.
21:08
And I think now we have some pretty recent proof, not that we
21:12
needed it, that Crystal Don obviously could play pretty much
21:15
anywhere. Oh, yeah, that was a great
21:17
checkpoint for her to have hit in this friendly just to kind of
21:20
ease some of the maybe maybe some of the pressure around.
21:24
OK, like, where can we put her? Because I think it's just so
21:27
tricky. I mean, you just do the math and
21:29
it just like hurts your brain thinking about you take two
21:32
goalkeepers that leave 1610 start.
21:35
That's six, you know, as a sub, those six need to be very, very,
21:40
very versatile. Yeah.
21:41
And I think Crystal Dunn absolutely smashed that point
21:44
home that, you know, she is versatility on the pitch. 100%
21:48
And you know, a lot of people pointed out on well, so Twitter,
21:51
I mean, Crystal Dunn's time in Chelsea was part of like the
21:56
inflection point of the well, maybe we could take this great
21:59
attacking player and player as a defender.
22:03
And Emma Hayes was a part of that.
22:05
And I would just say like watching the 2019 World Cup live
22:09
and just really soaking it all in.
22:11
That team was so unbelievably stacked where there were moments
22:15
where I was like, oh, well, Sam Ewas is our best player.
22:18
Oh, wait, well, maybe Alex Morgan is our best player.
22:20
Maybe Megan Rapinoe is our best player.
22:22
Just like trying to figure it out.
22:23
There were several moments in that tournament.
22:25
I mean, there are several moments in that tournament where
22:27
Rose Lavelle was the best player on the field.
22:30
But then there are a bunch of other moments where I was like,
22:32
is Crystal done actually the best player?
22:34
And like, it was like I was always trying to figure out
22:36
like, Jesus crisis. This lineup is so stacked.
22:39
I think there's a world where Crystal Dunn has twenty 30-40
22:44
more US women's national team goals.
22:46
But she is such an unselfish player, such a leader, such a a
22:50
quality player. When you had her playing in the
22:54
defense in the 2019 World Cup, it was that piece that made the
23:00
USA almost completely unbeatable.
23:03
Interesting. That's going to lead me right
23:05
into my point. But before I get there, I wanted
23:07
to see if you kind of saw the same thing.
23:09
So obviously we see the lineup cards before the match.
23:11
Jenna Neiswarner is always kind of listed there as a left back,
23:14
but she spent 90% of the 90% of the freaking game in a more
23:19
advanced position than Corbin Albert or Lindsay ran.
23:21
And defensively, you know, she's a player, but she's not, you
23:25
know, she's not a world beater defensively.
23:27
Like she has her elite skills, right.
23:29
And I think like, we understand, OK, if Nicewarner is going to be
23:33
on the pitch, which I fully believe she's almost as close to
23:37
a locked in starter. She's just so, so dangerous.
23:40
I think so. But defensively, you know, we
23:43
played most of that match sort of in a back three with Sonic
23:47
Kruger and Staub. Does that kind of change
23:50
anything with regard to who you think we might take, who might
23:53
start, what that might look like, just because it's sort of
23:57
to me signals if I'm in Hayes, I'm probably running stuff in
24:00
these matches that I'm going to be running at least through the
24:03
Olympics, right? So if we think that this is
24:06
going to be the set up, what does that mean for defensively
24:09
what we want to do? Are we maybe thinking that it's
24:12
back four on paper, but ultimately it's a back three?
24:14
And then does that mean something specifically maybe for
24:17
like an Emily Sonnett, you're our resident formation lineup
24:21
shifting tack shifting defensive guru.
24:24
So. So how do you see this whole
24:25
thing? You nailed the exact player
24:28
Emily Sonnett playing center back in this match.
24:31
That's not a coincidence that Emma Hayes wanted to see that
24:34
look. I mean, Emily Sonnett is a is an
24:36
established genius defensive midfielder.
24:40
She was good. You have to make sure that she
24:42
also has the ability to play multiple positions I think.
24:45
I think that was already known that you could play her at
24:47
defensive field and then she could kind of drift back a
24:50
little more into the defense. But for her to to be in a centre
24:54
back pairing that added versatility, that's a real
24:58
thing. And you have Staub out there who
25:01
has a little more size than sonnet.
25:03
Now you have these four players between Girma and Davidson who
25:08
are kind of your traditional centre backs.
25:10
And obviously you already know what time it is with Girma auto
25:13
start Sharpie, the thicker like with the the brown and white
25:17
striped marker like even thicker one than a Sharpie Germa first
25:21
name you write on there. Absolutely.
25:24
To know that you have an ability to put Emily Sonnet or Sam stop
25:28
back there. Or you could maybe put Crystal
25:30
Dunn at left back if you don't think it's the right look for
25:33
Nice Swanger, and then you move Sonnet up to the defensive
25:36
midfield and nice swagger. She's a converted midfielder
25:39
from what I understand. So yeah, she has.
25:41
She has that ability. I think that's pretty on point
25:44
because she basically plays in the midfield.
25:47
So if you're going at a team where you want a little bit more
25:50
defense, you have stop, you have Sonnet, you might have done if
25:54
all those three are on the roster and then maybe you can
25:57
move nice swagger up. And then obviously Subs matter,
26:00
right? So you can kind of change things
26:02
up on the fly. I think we're really starting to
26:05
get some some interesting little looks into where Emma Hayes Head
26:09
might be at. And we haven't even, I mean, we
26:11
alluded to her in the 62nd minute wave of Subs, but Sam
26:15
Coffey is pretty close to a writer and in Sharpie also as a
26:19
defensive mid. So you gotta think it's, you
26:23
gotta think it's Coffee and Horan back there 'cause I think
26:26
Horan has really done great work in that spot as well.
26:29
And we saw her, she's getting minutes like that in Lyon too.
26:33
So I mean, you just got a lot of depth and a lot of versatility
26:37
in that back six. And you're gonna need that
26:40
against France, Germany and Spain.
26:43
You hell, you might need it against Ambia.
26:46
You never know. Yeah, it's definitely looking
26:49
like, I mean, I wouldn't. I wouldn't be shocked.
26:51
We will see. I wanted to put forth one last
26:54
question. The Lily honest minutes were off
26:57
the charts. Now, we've talked about not
26:58
wanting to put a lot of pressure, but let's just make it
27:02
a whole team thing because we can also rewind back a little
27:04
bit. Look at those 3 Subs Sophie
27:07
Smith, Mal Swanson, Trinity Rodman.
27:09
When you collect all of these players and you've got the
27:12
chemistry developing, does the addition, I love a Lily Johannes
27:17
when I was going to say she needs to play like this, but if
27:19
she's able to play, how do I want to describe this?
27:23
If she's able to play to her average, right, which is smart,
27:27
fast completing passes. You don't need to score a bunch
27:30
of goals to get a bunch of assists.
27:31
Just needs to kind of keep it moving, make the right decision,
27:34
do it quickly, utilize her vision.
27:36
Does that catapult this U.S. team into the favorite slot for
27:41
this upcoming Olympics? Spicy question, my good man.
27:46
I don't think anybody's favorites over Spain, like where
27:51
like the USA is great. The addition of Johannes adds a
27:55
an additional layer to that versatility we're talking about
27:59
in the back six. Like we talked about Sonnet and
28:01
Coffee in that defensive midfielder spot.
28:04
You can put Johannes in that defensive midfielder spot or you
28:07
could put her in a little more forward leaning midfield spot,
28:11
but man, Spain has two of the three best players in the world
28:16
in Bon Latte and Betty Uelo. I think it's hard for anybody to
28:20
be the favorite over them right now, but they're walking right
28:24
back into being the second favorite for sure.
28:28
There's no Great Britain in this tournament, obviously, Co.
28:30
Favorite. Yeah, I think that's fair.
28:32
Maybe I just got no, I got a little excited at the moment
28:36
just kind of thinking it through to juxtapose 2023 World Cup from
28:40
2024 Olympics and just how different this looks, just how
28:44
dynamic this team looks. It's exciting.
28:47
But I did see one troubling stat.
28:49
I think it ran around the 55th or 60th minute where possession
28:53
was 5050. That was a little tough just
28:58
thinking through, OK, what's it, what is it going to look like
29:00
chasing Spain around? You know, if they're up in the
29:03
60s in terms of possession and we're just getting the ball and
29:07
kicking it up field and then they just win it.
29:08
But right back and it's two or three minutes of defending for,
29:11
for the US, that would be a long day and probably pretty tough to
29:15
deal with. But I think from an
29:18
explosiveness standpoint, I think offensively, I think the,
29:21
the US is the best, the best offense.
29:24
I mean, you just look at those three players that came on.
29:26
There's not a defense in the world that is going to feel
29:29
comfortable staring down those 3 and being like, Oh yeah, we've,
29:32
we've got this. Just, you know, let's let's play
29:34
our game, you know, like it just has to send a shiver, you know,
29:37
through your spine seeing that level of, of finishing ability.
29:41
That's totally fair. I think you're right on the
29:44
money with that. And Kat Macario did not make an
29:46
appearance in this match. She's kind of still playing her
29:48
way into form. I think it would be silly if we
29:51
didn't give the the proper respect and the shout out.
29:54
I know I mentioned Roosevelt spent long stretches of the 2019
29:57
World Cup looking like the best player on the pitch no matter
30:00
who USA was playing. Got her 100th cap in this one.
30:04
Deservedly got it in a start. You think about those 3
30:07
attacking players. Even if you give Macario the 1st
30:11
60 minutes at kind of that number 10 role to distribute to
30:15
those 3 incredibly dangerous attackers, you could then take
30:19
her off and they either put on your choice of Jane Shaw or Rose
30:24
Lavelle. And then defenders have to look
30:27
at each other again and be like, OK, new set of problems,
30:30
everybody, like everything is going to be a totally different
30:33
look than it was before. That's a great point because I
30:35
think Emma Hayes is going to have to account for this for
30:39
sure. You know, just thinking about,
30:40
right, you could figure out the pathway of who you might face.
30:44
You know, you'll figure out, OK, in our group, are we going to
30:46
finish? We'll hope to finish first, but
30:47
obviously we got Germany. Anything can happen there.
30:49
The group that we're in is loaded.
30:51
You mentioned Zambia already and then you've got Australia who
30:55
they're already getting ready. They already made their
30:56
announcement. They know who's going to be
30:57
there. They're probably doing burpees
30:59
somewhere down under, just getting ready for all this.
31:03
One final, final question, Sorry to keep.
31:06
I know. I love that you would.
31:08
All of these questions and concerns are just kind of
31:10
bubbling up in real time here. Do you think that the US might
31:15
be at a disadvantage for essentially never playing games
31:19
internationally that are not on US soil, other than apparently
31:23
the Olympics and the World Cup? That is an awesome question and
31:28
one that I had not given a ton of consideration to.
31:31
Obviously, I think teams come over here to maximize the amount
31:35
of money that they can make. Well, you know, maybe I should
31:37
be careful. I'm not sure how much of the
31:39
gate they get. I would imagine that's got to be
31:41
part of it. There's obviously A level of
31:43
exposure all the teams get. I'm sure there are a bunch of a
31:46
bunch of benefits. I could see that playing a role
31:51
a little bit, but maybe even some ugly Americanism
31:55
exceptionalism, if you will. They were absolutely incredible
31:58
in the 2019 World Cup in France. So it's a nice little, nice
32:02
little return to that venue. Obviously we're we're talking
32:05
about a completely different squad, but France is a tough
32:09
opponent. You might have to face them
32:12
going through to on your way to the final, you know, without
32:15
kind of reciting the bracket off the top of my head.
32:17
But I don't think it's going to play much of A role.
32:20
I think we have such a mix of players who who play a tough
32:23
schedule all the time in the NWSL.
32:26
And then you always have, as we've joked about before,
32:28
Lindsay Horan, she can go around, show them the spots,
32:32
show them where to go hang out in France.
32:35
You know, we didn't even hear from Ava Gatino.
32:38
I don't know if she's going to make the squad, but if you bring
32:40
her in, she'll show you where to show up in Paris, where to go in
32:43
Paris, so. Corbin Hobart.
32:46
Corbin Albert could be a possibility, although I'll say
32:48
that defensive midfield looking awfully crowded, I don't know.
32:51
It's going to be real tough for Albert to make the squad.
32:54
Yeah, she does look like a player, though.
32:56
I mean, yeah, she's a good player.
32:59
I pulled the stat here. We're going to do a, we're going
33:02
to do a fun little UFO Women's Champions League favorite 11
33:07
coming up here probably later this week.
33:09
And I grabbed a fun Corbin Albert stat in the entire
33:13
Women's Champions League tournament, from the group stage
33:15
to the final, she was second in tackles.
33:18
Corbin Albert, she's not even a full time starter, so I do like
33:23
her game. Athletically, she's really good.
33:26
She's a smart player. She's young, she has a ton of
33:28
growth as well. I wouldn't be bummed to see her
33:30
on the squad. Sure, there are going to be a
33:32
ton of tough cuts. I know Canada's manager Bev
33:35
Priestman had talked about the need to expand beyond 1818
33:40
roster spots. Yeah, last little note there.
33:42
The commentaries mentioned this as well.
33:44
NWSL will be in season. That's true.
33:47
And European leagues will not be so I think the energy levels
33:51
could differ. Sure.
33:52
You know when you think about the meat of the NWSL season
33:56
versus right, we're in the offseason in Europe.
33:58
That could play into some of the decision making from a haze.
34:01
Hopefully we see this roster announcement coming up pretty
34:03
soon here. A couple fun matches against
34:05
South Korea in the books. 7 nil in aggregate.
34:08
Anything else you want to hit for you out of here?
34:10
I think the last thing we barely we mentioned her in passing.
34:14
Jane Shaw is still great. I still think she could end up
34:18
being one of the best players on the side.
34:21
I saw the line up ago, Jane Shaw on the wing.
34:24
I like her playing more in the middle of the park, but I think
34:27
it was only right to get Lavelle her 100th cap as a starter, not
34:30
to like bring her on for her 100th cap.
34:33
So I can understand that. And I have bemoaned putting Rose
34:37
Lavelle on the wing in the past. So like, obviously if you have
34:40
both of them on the pitch, like you might want to try to, I
34:43
don't know. If you're going to play four
34:44
midfield players and try to play them both centrally, one of them
34:47
is going to have to get a little more comfortable on the wing
34:50
unless you were in a full rotation for those players.
34:53
But other than that, I just think it's a pretty good problem
34:56
to have when I'm picking out. I don't like Sean the wing
35:00
because you got to play Rose Lavelle in the center.
35:02
Or maybe it might. I come to the factorizing.
35:04
I don't like playing Rose Lavelle on the wing because you
35:05
got to play Shaw in the center. So these are all very good
35:08
problems to have. Absolutely.
35:10
I'm I'm happy that you and I are here talking about it, not in
35:13
some humid office somewhere trying to figure out who's
35:16
actually going to be on this team and having to make those
35:18
calls that they mentioned on the on the broadcast as well.
35:20
The Mia is going to call each and every player that was
35:23
invited, let them know personally whether they're in or
35:26
out. All right, man, I think we did
35:28
it. This has been another episode of
35:29
it to the channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
35:31
for watching, listening, liking, subscribing, just playing,
35:33
hanging out with your boys. Appreciate you blue appreciate
35:37
you Dan appreciate you Lily remember like if you liked and
35:41
subscribe or follow into the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple
35:45
podcast, wherever you like to watch or listen and a big thank
35:47
you to my Co host as well, Mr. Grant Engel for being well on
35:51
his way to his 100th cap. What are we in?
35:54
This is episode 42. We're almost there buddy, almost
35:56
halfway there, so stick with me, we're going to make it happen.
35:59
You know what, I'm glad that we are the center back pairing.
36:02
We are in Sharpie in the into the channel lineup.
36:06
I wouldn't choose anybody else to do it with buddy.
36:08
One more shout out to our guy Dan Johannes.
36:11
I got to tell you, watching the match with my wife Jennifer
36:14
sitting next to me who is AUS women's national team super fan,
36:18
she was like a little emotional watching that happen.
36:21
When the Johannes goal happens, she looked at me and said this
36:25
is a feeling that we haven't had for a a little while as a
36:28
national team. And then for her to see Lily
36:32
achieve that in her first cap 10 minutes in, obviously knowing
36:36
that, you know, we we kick it with Dan and and talk to him
36:39
over over those internets from time to time.
36:43
Just a magical, magical moment in the history of the national
36:47
team and one that I think probably projects
36:50
forward-looking good. So cheers to you, Dan, and we
36:53
appreciate everybody for rocket with us.