Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / 🇪🇸 Spain Beats Italy 3-1, Takes Group B | Belgium Ends Portugal | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 MD10

Transcript

🇪🇸 Spain Beats Italy 3-1, Takes Group B | Belgium Ends Portugal | UEFA WOMEN'S EURO 2025 MD10 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:03
OK. Welcome to Into the Channel
0:07
podcast primarily about women's football.
0:08
I am your host Dino De Suspicious and as always I am
0:11
joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
0:15
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic buddy.
0:18
Day 10 of the UEFA Guns Euro means go.
0:22
We're pretty much there. We we didn't know if we would
0:25
get through 12 straight shows. I'd say we've done it handily.
0:29
Yeah, well, I still don't know if we're going to get through 12
0:31
straight shows, but let's see if we get through 10 straight
0:34
shows. It's still early.
0:36
It's early in the proceedings, man.
0:39
Good day of football. Some of it pretty
0:41
straightforward. I think, you know, some of the
0:44
air sucked out of it. Just understanding that, right.
0:46
We we kind of knew the way that the the quarterfinals was going
0:51
to shake out or who was going to get through.
0:53
But I think a, a good amount to talk about.
0:55
We have two teams that are advancing, one of them an an
0:59
absolute behemoth. So a good bit to get into Mr.
1:02
Grant Ingle where you want to get started.
1:04
Let's get started with a beverage, my good man.
1:06
A celebratory beverage celebrating Spain and Italy,
1:10
obviously. Cheers to one of those teams.
1:15
Cheers to both of them. Cheers to the football.
1:17
A little less cheers to Italy, though, let's be honest with
1:19
ourselves, at least over on this side of the of of the stream.
1:24
You mentioned that we, we now know who's going through and
1:28
that's obviously true. We have the results.
1:30
I just want to do a quick early shout out to OG friend of the
1:35
show, ITC Lifer, you could say for at least for the lifespan of
1:39
this program. Carlo Wilson, one of our
1:42
absolute best pals on YouTube, drops a comment on yesterday's
1:46
video. And he's been doing this
1:48
routinely, predicting scores and winners and what do you know,
1:52
his prediction for today's Spain, Italy match.
1:55
Spain three, Italy won. And that's where I want to get
1:58
started. Oh, wait a minute.
1:59
Let me make sure. Oh, yeah, I'm just going to
2:01
repeat myself. Spain three, Italy won, just as
2:05
Carlo Wilson predicted. And I had mentioned to him, you
2:09
know this, he obviously makes his prediction well before the
2:11
match. I replied to him and said hey
2:13
man, I checked on FanDuel that exact score line +1000.
2:18
So Carlo, I hope you placed your bet and I think everybody else
2:22
check out the comments of these videos.
2:24
Carlo continuously drops his match predictions and let's get
2:28
those 401 KS lined up. Let's figure out what kind of
2:31
retirement plans were cooking up based on Carlos bets.
2:34
Cheers to you, my Goodman. I mean, Carl, I mean, he almost
2:38
hit 11. Belgian Portugal too.
2:40
That one dude, that one went right down to the wire that
2:43
we're talking massive parlay numbers.
2:46
You, you, you stick those two together.
2:48
But yeah, shout out to Carlo Ciao for now.
2:50
That's our guy DD. Another couple people chimed in.
2:54
DTDTDTE efficacion on YouTube. Appreciated your wrestling
3:00
promo. Meg MO Giggity woo.
3:02
You already know Joe Steen, BL's a duck.
3:06
Excellent, excellent handle. Yeah.
3:10
And, you know, just definitely appreciate the community and I
3:14
love that the, the, the country folk are, are coming out for
3:17
their teams. You know, so it's like each
3:19
video, each group, we're, we're getting to know a different, a
3:22
different clan of, of folks that are into the football and then
3:26
absolutely appreciate everyone who's who's rocking with
3:28
multiple videos, which we're seeing some of the audience kind
3:31
of stick around and just enjoy the tournament with us, which
3:33
it's been an absolute banger for sure.
3:35
It's the best part about doing this is that we've I always say
3:38
we've discovered we've found the one corner of friendly people on
3:43
the Internet. And so I know we usually say
3:44
this for the end of the show. And I get, you know, this isn't
3:47
some like big acceptance speech, but just thank you guys for
3:49
rocking with us, man. It's it's it's the fun part
3:51
about like having a little Internet community where we can
3:55
all talk about the football and just share knowledge and and
3:58
make stupid jokes. And thank you for playing along
4:00
with me. Some turning into rowdy Roddy
4:03
Piper for 45 seconds or however long maybe that ran.
4:07
Went 5 minutes of of me celebrating Norway, a country
4:10
I've been to once, and it was on a layover on a flight.
4:14
So I've been to the Oslo airport.
4:16
That's my extent. But I will get, I will.
4:18
I will get there eventually. Get back there eventually for
4:21
sure. Yeah, no, no doubt.
4:24
Let's get let's get to the football, though.
4:25
Spain three, Italy won. Spain takes the group as
4:29
expected, but this one had a little bit of intrigue to it.
4:33
Italy came out ready to play like, you know, they they
4:35
obviously notched their only goal, but that wasn't their
4:38
first chance. Like they were very active
4:41
looking to counter. I thought they they maybe
4:44
uncovered a little something, you know, because Spain is a
4:47
team that loves to you know, when you think about Patri, like
4:50
way up the pitch and maybe like Battier on the outside way up
4:53
the pitch, that's going to leave space in behind.
4:55
And Italy with with a player like cantore is a team that's
4:58
going to be able to kind of take advantage of that.
5:00
And I thought they kind of cracked, cracked a couple of
5:02
holes in that Spain defense early.
5:05
I thought Spain adjusted pretty well.
5:07
But Italy? A really nice start in this one.
5:10
Yeah, for sure. I mean, they came out like a
5:12
team who knew they wanted to get something from the game.
5:16
And now obviously they don't, they don't get any points, they
5:18
lose, but they're the ones who came out how I thought Portugal
5:22
was going to start off now we'll talk about that much later.
5:25
But like, that was a total role reversal for me where it looked
5:29
like Italy came out thinking they needed to to get points and
5:32
get goals early. And like you said, I do think
5:35
teams look for that and say, OK, if Spain's going to push up on
5:39
one side, if they're going to try to send the right back or
5:42
the left back up forward, we're going to try to get in behind
5:44
there. And that is a fine strategy to
5:47
talk about and draw on the whiteboard in vision when you
5:52
lay your head down on the pillow the night before the match.
5:54
And then you step on the field and then you have to play
5:57
against Spain. And, yeah, they, they did it for
5:59
a little bit early, But, you know, the margin for error is
6:03
tiny. And in order to do some of those
6:05
things, you have to survive Spain's press.
6:07
And that is much, much easier said than done.
6:11
Yeah. Spain's press obviously
6:13
devastating, 74% possession for Spain.
6:16
You know, the the touches. Spain gets 434 in Italy's half,
6:20
Italy just 40 in Spain's half. So almost 12:50.
6:24
I'm sorry, almost 11 to 1 of a disparity there.
6:28
But even with all that said, you know the shots, you know, 20 for
6:32
Spain, 13 for Italy. You look at shots from inside
6:35
the box, 12 for Spain, 9 for Italy.
6:36
So I thought Italy definitely found some success, absolutely
6:39
maximize their chances. The Oliviero goal early was a
6:44
really a really fun moment to kind of get it going, but then a
6:48
little chill down the spine when Alexia and Athania come back
6:52
down the other way like 2-3 minutes later.
6:54
It wasn't just the goal. It wasn't just the given goal
6:58
nature, you know, the slickness of the goal.
7:00
I love Altenea's run there. Just knowing that Alexis is
7:03
going to get the ball back to her.
7:04
She's like, it's, it's a dish. And then I was like, I'm not
7:06
going to slow down at all. I mean, I'm able to try to speed
7:09
up a little bit because I know this ball is coming right back
7:11
to me. It does.
7:13
She cracks it, gets the goal and then I love the celebration.
7:17
It's like no smiling, no, no, nothing, no running, no sliding.
7:21
No, it's like we, we went down one nil and now we, we, we made,
7:25
we made good on that. And now let's get back down to
7:27
business. I thought, I thought a very
7:29
business like performance from Spain.
7:31
For sure. I don't know much about comic
7:33
books. I think it's the Incredible Hulk
7:36
where the phrase comes from. But when they scored that, I
7:40
immediately thought, ah, you won't like them when they're
7:43
angry. And I I think that every time
7:45
A-Team scores early against Spain or put some pressure on
7:48
them, it seems like all you're doing is poking the bear.
7:52
And also, if you will, I believe it might be a Spanish bear if I
7:56
remember correctly. Nailed it.
7:59
Excellent. I mean, I got to keep brushing
8:02
up. I mean, Spain's not going
8:03
anywhere for a while, so I might as well learn as much Spanish as
8:05
I possibly can. The chill down the spine is a
8:09
good way to put it because they were so cool with it.
8:11
The little back heel by by Alexia.
8:14
I mean it's just like no, no real pressure.
8:16
We're down one nil. We're going to come back.
8:19
You know, I of course had to try to be a smart ass on blue sky
8:23
and it was like 4:00 to 1:00. I'm going to go with four to one
8:26
like after after the goal. I guess I wasn't that far off.
8:29
Obviously not nearly as accurate as our guy Carlo, but it's just
8:34
hard for me to ever doubt this team.
8:35
This is the talent disparity. You know that what?
8:38
They rotated like 5 or 6 players here, but all the players that
8:41
they put on the pitch are still awesome.
8:44
Italy is not a talent deficient team by any strange they have.
8:49
They have several good players on their own, it's just you
8:51
can't match up against the squad.
8:54
Yeah, you definitely can't. I mean, they're so loaded and,
8:58
and I agree with you because, you know, we've watched the
9:00
Spain side in the Nations League.
9:02
We watched them in the Olympics last summer.
9:04
I was definitely much cooler on them during that Olympics during
9:08
they just don't look that good. I think all of that is now for
9:12
the most part behind them. You know, Alexia, a player that
9:15
after the injury World Cup, you know, post World Cup, I think
9:18
Alexia working, I don't want to say finding a, finding a role,
9:20
but finding a superstar role, let's say.
9:23
You know, I, I feel like that's done.
9:25
I feel like Alexia now has carved out any, you know, space
9:29
that she wants to in the middle of the park and you know, kind
9:32
of like is back to being the centerpiece of the offense.
9:35
Tremendous group stage for Alexia.
9:37
Padilla's three goals, 4 assists, you know, 90 plus in
9:41
all three matches fought vibrating 9.19.79.1.
9:48
And in this match, I mean from the midfield, so she gets the
9:52
assists obviously to the Athenaea that we mentioned, but
9:54
from the midfield, 70 of 75 passes completed from that spot
9:59
on the field is absurd. That's an absolute absurdity.
10:04
And three chances created on the day 5 passes into the final
10:07
third. Just, I mean, looking like the
10:09
best player in the tournament hands down.
10:12
I would agree. You mentioned the three goals, 4
10:14
assists on Spain. She's number one in progressive
10:18
passes. She's #2 in progressive passes
10:21
received and you could just sell.
10:23
I mean, it wasn't just that back heel.
10:25
I mean she's had several moments.
10:27
You know, she had the Super cool finish against Portugal.
10:31
She's just out there styling on opponents too, which is just,
10:35
you know, she she is in a zone. And we we had talked about it
10:39
after the first match where, you know, she lifted that World Cup
10:43
trophy, but was coming off the injury.
10:45
And we don't have to rehash the whole thing.
10:46
It was just like, it's not that winning the World Cup is
10:49
unsatisfying. But like, I think your point is
10:52
spot on about us having a superstar role.
10:55
She didn't have she and she shouldn't have had a superstar
10:59
role on that World Cup team because she's so fresh off the
11:01
ACL. Now she is all the way back.
11:04
And I think she is looking at, OK, I'm adding this major trophy
11:08
to the trophy cabinet and I want people to look back on it and
11:11
say this was the Alexia tournament and she's well on her
11:14
way to accomplishing. That's that's super interesting.
11:17
We also talked a little bit about Balandor and you know,
11:20
Mariona's place in that. I think Alexa started to
11:23
separate herself for sure, but the Balandor has there's a fun
11:28
quirk to it where Alexa gets two in a row, Itana gets two in a
11:31
row. There's sort of sometimes a
11:33
split the vote kind of situation and like, and now I think there
11:36
could be a little bit of pressure on the voters because
11:39
this effectively becomes not not really the tiebreaker because
11:42
you know, you don't know what's going to happen in the future,
11:44
but sort of the tiebreaker for this five year period.
11:47
And I think Alexia is making a great case, and if she can kind
11:50
of carry this team all the way through this tournament, I think
11:53
that award might be a wrap. Yeah, I mean, it, it will.
11:56
She'll certainly put a stranglehold on it if she ends
11:59
up, you know, being the best player, like really showing out
12:02
as the best player in this tournament.
12:04
I mean, obviously, you never know if Barbara Benda leads
12:07
Orlando Pride to another double where she could land.
12:11
You know, he can't forget the legend over over here in the
12:13
States. But, yeah, I mean, it'll be
12:14
interesting to track. And we'll be there to track it
12:18
all along the way. And Spanish fans can yell at you
12:22
for picking Mariona Caldente in the comments.
12:26
Why would they yell? Maybe Barcelona fans she's
12:28
Spanish too. Like what are we talking about?
12:31
You know, I, I got a little Spanish blood too.
12:33
Check the 23 RB. Check the tapes on that good.
12:38
Enough. Let's, let's, let's talk about
12:42
Spain's match up Friday burn, 12:00 PM Pacific versus
12:48
Switzerland, the home country. I'm not sure how much of a
12:52
fight. So it's just going to be able to
12:54
put up in this one. But I I wanted to look at this
12:56
match from a couple different angles.
12:58
So you obviously talked about whether or not Alexis is going
13:00
to be able to keep up this form over the course of the
13:02
tournament. We're halfway through three
13:04
matches down. There's only three matches
13:06
maximum left, you know, through the quarterfinals.
13:08
So we'll we'll keep an eye on that.
13:09
But two players that I want to call out, these are players that
13:12
a lot, a lot of folks that follow the show know that that
13:15
we know about, for me, Salma Bariuello, Vicki Lopez.
13:20
So I feel like we've seen some flashes, probably more so from
13:24
Vicki than Salma, but we've seen Salma do it in the Champions
13:28
League. We saw her do it in the 23 World
13:30
Cup. I sort of feel like there's some
13:33
Bariuello moments looming and I'll tell you why.
13:37
I think as the competition starts to get ratcheted up,
13:41
Spain will have more opportunities to counter and run
13:45
play back and forth. That's a perfect opportunity to
13:48
get Barryuelo in the match, you know, And I think if they're
13:51
playing, spending a little bit more time on on the opposition
13:53
half as well. You know, obviously today they
13:56
only give up 40 touches to Italy.
13:58
But I think as that number starts to increase, a player
14:01
like Vicki Lopez, especially maybe later in the match coming
14:04
on as a sub, you know, who knows what's going to happen there?
14:06
But I think those two players are on track for some major,
14:10
major moments because I think their profiles are really going
14:13
to fit, you know, the competition as Spain kind of
14:16
like continues through the tournament.
14:18
I love it and we've seen it from Beto Uelo at Barcelona too.
14:21
Like, I mean, she has the massive 2023 World Cup and then
14:24
you and I were like super excited to watch her play at
14:26
Barcelona, watch her play in the Champions League.
14:28
And then she'd have a couple matches where it's like she's a
14:31
world beater. Should she be your permanent #9
14:34
Like we had all these questions and it's like she's been a
14:36
little quiet lately. Maybe she is better out on the
14:38
wing and and then she just comes right back.
14:41
So she she does have a little bit of a like a pendulum swing
14:45
to her game now. She's still a very young player
14:47
to to your other point, but it's like a ticking time bomb.
14:51
You're just waiting for her to go off again.
14:54
And Vicki Lopez wise beyond her years.
14:58
I mean, right now, if you had to pick your front three, you're
15:02
looking at Pina Astaire and then they've been playing Mariona up
15:07
front on the right, right. But I mean, now you have to,
15:10
you're kind of have to choose First off the bench between
15:14
Lopez and and Pattiuelo or I guess not really because they've
15:17
just been doing like full line changes at at times with those
15:20
3. But I think it's a good call
15:22
because you know those two are going to come on in, in big
15:25
moments. You're muted.
15:29
Thank you. Oh, yeah, Staying in, you know,
15:33
it goes both ways. Damn.
15:37
You know, San Francisco training outside my windows and make a
15:40
bunch of ruckus. Any who I think yeah, I think I
15:44
think it's going to be match up dependent.
15:45
So Vicki Lopez, you know, I think is more of like a
15:47
midfield, you know, type option, you know, especially with Itana,
15:51
you know, we'll check out what the minutes look like.
15:53
But again, I think Barriollo if it's Barriollo or Pina, I think
15:57
it's going to be match up dependent.
15:58
So if you're playing like a France or Germany or maybe
16:02
possibly in England and you expect to be more, you know,
16:06
like have more up and down, I think that's perfect for
16:08
Barriollo because in a match like this, she's out there, you
16:11
know, she's taking corners, she's taking free kicks.
16:14
She can't run anywhere. She's just kind of like it's all
16:16
clogged up in there. Great situation for Patty, who
16:20
just gets to RIP shots from outside the box with everybody
16:23
worried about everything else. Massive game, 123 touches, 94
16:28
passes completed out of 105 dispossessed just one time on
16:32
the day gets a gets a goal right coming out of halftime to
16:37
separate Spain from Italy and just do what Spain does come out
16:41
of halftime, You know, just let him know.
16:43
Just remind, you know, remind everybody that this was fun, but
16:47
where Spain were the Champs. And you know, it's going to take
16:50
a lot more than that to to get us out of here.
16:52
Yeah, no doubt. And I one of the things I love
16:56
looking at on on the website Foot Mob is the head to head.
17:01
And so between these two teams, Spain and Switzerland, Spain,
17:04
four wins, 0 draws, 0 losses. These teams last played each
17:10
other in 2023 where they saw each other three times, twice in
17:15
the Nations League, where once with Switzerland as the home
17:19
team on Halloween, things got real scary.
17:22
Spain won 7:00 to 1:00. And then once in September at
17:26
home in Spain, Spain won five nil.
17:29
So that's not great. And I think some people might
17:31
also remember in the round of 16 of the 2023 World Cup, Spain won
17:36
that 1/5 to 1 and the only goal that Switzerland mustard was
17:41
Alea Codina own goal. So it's been a rough go.
17:46
And now 2023 was a massive year for for Spain.
17:49
And you know, they were juggernauts.
17:52
Turns out 2025, they're still kind of juggernauts.
17:56
I know the Olympics didn't go that well and they were like
17:58
very obviously exhausted during that 24 Olympics.
18:01
But it's going to be real tough for Spain.
18:04
I mean, or pardon me, it's going to be real tough for
18:06
Switzerland. I think they're going to try to
18:08
run it like maybe at the middle of that defense run at those
18:10
center backs to see if they can get Shirt and Libe into some
18:13
space in there to to fire some shots and hold on to hope and
18:17
maybe hope that Shirt and Libe can impart some wisdom from her
18:21
Barcelona experience. But I'm not counting on it.
18:25
Yeah, whenever your strategy hinges on looking towards a
18:29
teenager for wisdom, that's always, that's always a rough
18:33
bet. But I did go through the
18:35
exercise. It wasn't interesting enough to
18:37
make the show, but I did look at that 23 Switzerland roster
18:41
versus the 25 Switzerland roster.
18:43
A lot of overlap. A lot of overlap except for all
18:47
of the young players. So it's like mostly the same,
18:50
you know, Moritz faulty like, like you can you can kind of see
18:54
you can kind of see it, but then there's no Pilgrim shirt and Lib
18:58
Benet Fondler like, so it's like, all right, yeah, this this
19:02
same core. And then you, you lose Bachman
19:04
and some of the other vets from from 23, but it's the same core.
19:08
And then let's inject four or five young players and young
19:11
runners, you know, like that want to counter that want to run
19:15
and want to kind of put balls over the top and just fucking
19:18
like, let's see what happens. I think this, this, this game
19:21
has a chance to be really fun for like 2025 minutes.
19:25
I mean, I think, I think it could be, I think we could have
19:28
a really fun opening to this match or maybe, you know, a, a
19:32
string of like a couple of goals going back and forth for a few
19:35
and like some rock'em sock'em type type action.
19:38
But ultimately, you know, I meant to on the show, I think
19:40
it's going to be shark week out there for Spain, you know, big,
19:43
big old bucket of BBQ chicken, you know, Switzerland style, you
19:47
know, for the Champs. I I I expect something along
19:50
lines of like one of those 4151 type score lines that you write
19:54
off there. And it's not like it's not
19:56
totally unusual when you see like the host country, they make
19:59
a nice run, they advance out of the group stage and then they
20:02
just run into they, you know, sometimes the way the draw
20:05
shakes out, you just run into one of the game's giants.
20:09
And that's just what's happening here.
20:11
So they have a lot to be proud of.
20:13
The crowds have been awesome. I don't, I don't think we've
20:15
talked about it nearly enough. But you know, this is obviously
20:18
a geography podcast. But the scenic views around
20:22
these stadiums, like as they're, you know, as they're panning
20:25
around, that's another country definitely on the list.
20:28
I got to go see. I mean, it looks absolutely
20:30
incredible out there. So I just think, you know,
20:32
Switzerland has handled themselves well, even when their
20:36
team goes out against Spain in this quarter final.
20:39
I think they have a lot to be proud of and, and we've talked
20:41
about I want to buy as much stock as I possibly can in all
20:45
those young players in that young core because I, I think
20:47
they're, I mean, they're building something that I think
20:50
could be really special. I totally agree with you.
20:52
And kind of best possible outcome for that young core
20:55
because you get to the quarterfinals and then you get
20:58
the whole match versus the Champs.
21:00
And I think what do you hear coming out of all of these
21:03
matches? I'm sorry, out of all of these
21:05
tournaments, the home country always benefits, you know,
21:08
whether it's Brazil or Germany or like, you know, like
21:11
Australia, the World Cup, you know, and I think A-Team like
21:14
Switzerland, just seeing what happened in 23 World Cup where
21:16
they were just really like, and also ran a little bit to now
21:20
they're, they're one of the main characters of this tournament.
21:23
And now a great spot to say, all right, now we're going to get to
21:25
play Spain at home. We made the quarterfinals.
21:28
We'll get our moment. We'll get that moment where all
21:30
the eyeballs are on us and we'll get a shot to kind of make make
21:33
a little bit of history. Yeah.
21:35
I think that I think that's probably about how this is going
21:37
to look. And I mean, just imagine what if
21:39
something roughly similar to what happens in this Italy match
21:44
happens with Switzerland. What if shirt and Libe scores,
21:47
you know, top bins in like the 14th minute or something?
21:51
The place is going to go absolutely bananas.
21:54
Honestly, there's no downside to this for for Switzerland right
21:58
now. It's like, it's not like it's
21:59
not like they're going to make this round and then lose to a
22:02
team that they think is inferior.
22:04
Like there was no real way the draw was going to shake out like
22:08
that. So I I think it's overwhelmingly
22:11
positive for the program. Yeah, absolutely.
22:14
Let's talk about the other quarterfinals match up that's
22:16
now in the locked in. This Italian team that we saw
22:20
today on Wednesday will be taking on Norway in Geneva,
22:24
12:00 PM Pacific. I mean, how much scouting were
22:27
you doing? Do you have your notebook and
22:29
your your little your clipboard that's got the the little soccer
22:32
field on it and you're drawing X as the nose and you're furiously
22:35
pointing as you've been known to do?
22:37
I mean, obviously, you know, I'm thinking about formations, I'm
22:39
thinking about who's gonna who's gonna be out there.
22:42
You know, we, you know, we talked about it after we stopped
22:44
recording yesterday when I tried to do like my my 11.
22:48
The more I think about it, I think maybe you move right into
22:51
the bench to put gallop set out there on on the left hand side.
22:55
And then now you have girl Reagan coming off the bench to
22:57
maybe, you know, inject some energy and some passing late,
23:00
late in the match. I think Italy is going to try to
23:03
run right at you know, I said this about Switzerland.
23:07
They're they're probably going to have to try to attack the
23:09
middle of the field. I I expect the same from Italy,
23:12
You know, Manuela Giuliano trying to put those those long
23:15
passes over the top in the middle.
23:17
I'm going to try to attack Norway center backs, which, you
23:20
know, have caused some concern at points, you know, during this
23:25
tournament for the people who aren't nearly as confident as
23:28
me, obviously for the people who don't know that this team is a,
23:30
a, a sleeping giant. But yeah, you know, I did a
23:33
little bit of scouting and I think Italy's going to play
23:36
hard. They're going to foul, they're
23:38
going to waste time. They're going to pull your
23:40
jersey. They're going to dive.
23:42
They're going to do all that stuff.
23:43
And Norway just needs to keep their wits about them, stick to
23:47
the plan, pass amongst each other, use those connections,
23:51
and then get the ball up field. And you know what I always say
23:54
for the people who who question Norway's defense, the best
23:58
defense is a good offense. Love it.
24:00
Yep, that one opens up the quarterfinals, so let's go all
24:04
eyes on that one as well. Wednesday, right in that 12:00
24:07
PM Pacific Time slot. So pumped for that one.
24:09
Another game was played though today.
24:11
I want to hit that one very quickly.
24:12
Belgium 2. Portugal one a couple of ways to
24:16
look at this. Obviously you already know this
24:18
is a very Portugal friendly podcast.
24:19
Shout out to our best bar guy. But Belgium nice performance,
24:24
like started strong, ended strong, kind of like the goals
24:28
bookend the match. You know they get to exit this
24:31
tournament on a real high note, you know, because you know
24:34
you're taking on a Portugal side that needs a win that's still
24:37
alive. Everything to play for, might be
24:40
a little bit strong, but lots to play for, we'll say.
24:44
And Belgium took care of business like they've played
24:47
well this entire tournament. Tessa Woolert gets a goal early
24:50
in this one. Great to see that.
24:52
And I thought Belgium was the better team.
24:55
They got out shot, but they were sharper.
24:57
They were crisper. They wanted this one, not to say
25:00
that Portugal didn't, but they were able to make plays down the
25:03
stretch and and you know, kind of when it counted.
25:06
Yeah, I mean, Belgium has an interesting profile because you
25:08
think about it. So I want to make sure I get the
25:10
ages right. So you know, Volert is 32.
25:14
Blom from Tenerife, the other striker, she's 30.
25:18
Van Havermont is 33. She's 30s, right, I think.
25:23
She's like, yeah, 36, yeah, yeah, absolutely 36.
25:26
So they had vets out there who knew this is pretty much like,
25:31
this is probably like Last dance territory for them.
25:35
So they kind of needed to leave the tournament with a good
25:38
feeling. And even in in the some of the
25:40
other matches, I thought they they handled themselves pretty
25:44
well. I was so I was, I've been
25:46
pleasantly surprised by Belgium throughout this tournament.
25:49
I look forward to seeing kind of how the program moves forward
25:53
and seeing how they look in in future nations leagues.
25:56
But yeah, I mean, there were three teams that, well, really
26:00
there were two teams that needed to come out and look absolutely
26:04
desperate to get a result. And it was Italy and Portugal.
26:07
And the two teams that came out looking desperate to get a
26:09
result were Italy and Belgium. And that's unfortunate for
26:14
Portugal, who just came out looking kind of flat.
26:17
You know, Kika Nazareth, who we should we should talk about.
26:21
I'm a little dismayed by the the pronunciation of her name.
26:24
We've been under the impression it's Kika Nazareth for years at
26:28
this point. And then just in this
26:30
tournament, everybody started calling their Kika Nazareth.
26:32
And I don't love it, I hope. I mean, if that's the proper
26:35
pronunciation of her name, that's fine.
26:37
We'll do that. But I don't love it because then
26:39
it takes away our nickname, Kika of Nazareth, which is coined by
26:43
you. And in my view, Sir, one of the
26:46
greatest nicknames in the history of this podcast.
26:48
I appreciate it. We could still rock with Kika of
26:52
Nazareth, whether or not it's Nazareth.
26:53
I mean, you know, it's 1 is a place and 1 is a, you know, a
26:57
surname. So whatever, we'll we'll keep
27:00
rocking with it. But yeah, I agree with you, man.
27:02
I echo that disappointment with regards to this portal
27:05
performance. I thought they, you know, they
27:07
played, they showed up, you know, but ultimately you give up
27:10
the goal that early, you have chances that you can't cash in.
27:14
And whether it's Annika, PETA, multiple chances, Deanna Silva
27:18
over the course of the tournament, Jessica Silva today,
27:20
Kika had a chance to, that just starts to compound.
27:24
You get a little frustrating. You're already up against it.
27:26
And the goal differential situation is it, you know, it
27:29
looms. You know, you know, you've got
27:30
to make up five or six goals. You know, whether it's Spain,
27:34
you know, doing that to Italy or you doing that to Belgium.
27:38
And once it's not happening, it's kind of sets in that this
27:41
just isn't going to be the tournament.
27:43
I think ultimately Portugal have to do a couple things.
27:46
I think they have to, again, carve out more of a legitimate
27:51
identity where it's like we can do this at a high level and if
27:55
we do our thing the way we know that we can do it, we can
27:58
compete with anybody on any given day.
28:00
I don't think that they have that.
28:02
And then I think the quality, you know, in the final third,
28:05
like it's kind of easy to say, but this is the team that I
28:08
think suffered the most, you know, able to get chances, able
28:11
to kind of move the ball down the field, get into spots and
28:14
then somehow get nowhere near scoring goals.
28:17
This is really tough to see over the three these three matches.
28:19
Yeah, I think you're absolutely right.
28:21
And you know, it's hard to develop, but you got to, I mean,
28:25
you, you're right. Diana Silva and Jessica Silva,
28:27
they can they can produce some really good moments in that
28:30
final third. But there's just so many times
28:32
where just like the last touch isn't there, where the shot
28:34
isn't quite there. And you know, going back to
28:37
Kika, she looked good. She was very clearly their best
28:40
player. And I think you could.
28:41
I think there's a pretty good argument she was the best player
28:43
on the field today. That pass to play in Telma for
28:48
the goal was just phenomenal. A delightful pass by by Kika of
28:52
Nazareth. A miracle, one might say, and.
28:56
Water and water and the wine with that one.
28:58
Exactly. With that said, she wasn't
29:01
nearly as dynamic as we're used to her being like, you know,
29:04
peak kika, like Benfica kika. You know what we've seen there
29:10
in even early with Barcelona, I mean, you know, she's just not
29:14
quite healthy yet. So unfortunate timing for the
29:17
superstar. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
29:19
We didn't get got a little bit robbed of that.
29:21
But you know, a team that's trying to breakthrough has got
29:25
to be able to survive that a little bit better.
29:28
You know, it's not like she wasn't there.
29:29
She's she's still there and then, you know, doing stuff.
29:32
But either way, I think a big disappointment for Portugal.
29:35
I think Belgium gets to walk away with their head held high
29:38
for sure. Last Belgian player I want to
29:40
mention Mariam Talaba quickly moving up my probably that's got
29:44
to be roughly my favorite. You know, Belgian player doesn't
29:47
quite fit the age profile of some of those vets 25 years old
29:50
still plays for Andrew, like central midfielder, you know,
29:54
rough and tumble kind of player. And I thought played really
29:56
well, was able to get way, way, way advanced today, where I
29:59
think we've seen to Loba like be effective in the attacking half.
30:05
But today I think she was able to push up a little bit further
30:07
and be be a problem. She she had that goal called
30:10
back hits the crossbar a little bit later.
30:12
But that's a player that I think has got some WSL, you know,
30:16
written on her, potentially some NWSL.
30:18
That's a player that I'd love to see, you know, play in a
30:21
different league and like a league that, you know, can
30:25
appreciate some of the skill set that she brings because, I mean,
30:27
she's tough, she's aggressive, she's smart, she's fast.
30:31
I mean, that's a player that I think I'm excited to watch for
30:34
sure. And glad that you know that her
30:37
performance over these three group stage matches kind of hit
30:40
my radar in a major way. All right, Talova to Bay FC
30:43
confirmed. Let's make it happen.
30:45
Let's make it happen. You can use the midfielders.
30:48
That's a nice fit right there. Speaking of Speaking of NWSL
30:51
moves, how about the ME official, the Seattle rain?
30:54
OK. We didn't get we didn't get your
30:56
official take on that. That's a good move.
30:59
That's that's a big deal, Bubba. That's I think that could I
31:03
think that could work out pretty well with Lynn Willey or pardon
31:07
me, I I do formerly known as Lynn Williams, Lynn Biendolo,
31:12
move her over to the right wing and then, you know, you got to
31:15
make the decision. Is Maddie Dalene going to
31:18
continue to kind of play in in the wing back position or are
31:21
you going to move her over on the left and have a have a front
31:24
three of Dalene official Biendolo?
31:30
I mean, you could also put, you know, the young talent, Emery
31:33
Adamus. She's great on the left.
31:35
So you could have Adamus official Biendolo in that front
31:38
3 with. Dalene behind the sound.
31:40
Nasty. Yeah, well, let's go.
31:43
All right. Very excited.
31:44
Well, back to it. EUR What do we need to hit Group
31:49
CS tomorrow? Yes.
31:51
Germany. Sweden.
31:52
That's a full punch. Germany, Sweden, that's the one
31:54
that we need to watch and then Poland, Denmark in the in the in
31:58
the cardio match up. But yeah, Germany, Sweden
32:00
playing for the group and I'm a little bit bummed that we're not
32:03
going to get the seeding football.
32:04
A couple people chimed in on the comments saying, well, you know,
32:07
you get to avoid Spain if you sort of like play play your
32:10
cards right. But I think in a tournament like
32:12
this, playing Spain in the semi final or the final, like what?
32:16
I'm not sure there's a ton of difference there.
32:18
I think it's going to be an awesome, awesome matchup
32:21
tomorrow between those two. I want to give another we got to
32:24
do a couple of more quick shout out so from YouTube, Wesley
32:28
Holmes chimed in on the Norway video was like a grant me
32:31
official to Seattle. Good huh.
32:33
I shout out to you, Wesley. Yes, agreed.
32:36
Very good. Wesley broke that news for me
32:38
too. That's how I learned about it
32:39
and I immediately texted you. So shout out Wesley for sure.
32:42
Absolutely, thanks for rocking with us.
32:44
And then Geronimo 4592 who mentioned that like German
32:50
footballers and like, you know, we lean into some of this stuff
32:54
sometimes. I I think there are, you know,
32:56
different federations of different countries have
32:57
different ethos about like the way you play the game.
33:01
Like, I mean, that's very evident in the style of play.
33:04
But he brought up, you know, I'm not sure if if our pal Geronimo
33:08
like was was making this direct reference.
33:10
I always think about NBA coach Greg Popovich, who often would
33:14
use the term respect the game, which I which I always loved and
33:19
talk about playing the right way.
33:21
And he talked about the German cultures respect for the game.
33:25
You go out there to win the match.
33:26
You play a great opponent like Sweden, you field your best 11
33:30
because you want to beat them because you need to beat great
33:32
teams to win an important tournament like this.
33:34
Anyway. So I thought that was an
33:35
interesting point from him and it it gives us something to look
33:39
forward to, you know, one hour before the match.
33:42
Because I think when we see those lineups, and I know you're
33:44
talking about it when we were talking about Group C last time
33:47
around, I'm almost as excited, you know, there are degrees in
33:51
this, but I'm almost as excited to see the lineup reveal an hour
33:55
before as I am for the match itself.
33:57
Because that's going to be the, that's like the perfect primer
34:00
for like, OK, what are we going to watch here?
34:03
Yeah, and I think both teams are so good.
34:05
We talked about this too on on the last Group C episode.
34:08
Both teams are so good that it doesn't matter who's out there.
34:10
It's going to be a great game, even if you get what one team's
34:14
being a bottom 11 and the other team's top 11, it's still going
34:17
to be competitive just because of the talent.
34:19
Cannot wait to watch that one and I'm glad we don't have to
34:21
two screen it. Well, I was a little annoyed
34:23
today. You know, I'm trying, I'm trying
34:24
to watch Spain. I'm trying to watch, you know,
34:26
like and I know the Portugal, you know, result was probably
34:29
sewn up really early as soon as they concede, you know, in the
34:32
first few minutes. But I still had to watch.
34:34
You never really know. But I think tomorrow, none of
34:37
that, we get to just kind of lock in on Germany, Sweden.
34:41
I think tomorrow's show will be very germy, sweet and heavy.
34:45
So prepare yourselves for that. So let's all hope for some big
34:48
time, big time football. OK, real quick, quick episode
34:51
calendar. So we alluded to a little bit,
34:53
but we'll have a Group C show tomorrow, Group D show Sunday
34:56
night. Then we'll get a couple couple
34:58
days off, couple travel days for your boys.
35:00
We'll hit the ice bath, you know, those massager guns and
35:03
just be kind of, you know, just massage gunning, you know,
35:06
different parts of our, of our body from all these, all these
35:09
office chair hours. And we'll be back when the
35:11
quarterfinals returns. You know, Long story short,
35:13
recording pretty much every day that there's quarterfinals
35:16
action, that's four days, four shows.
35:18
So definitely, definitely, definitely keep it locked in for
35:21
that. One more quick note, we're
35:23
getting a ton of people watching the show.
35:25
We're not getting the same ton of people subscribing, but I, I
35:28
know that our returning viewers is a much higher number that are
35:31
subscribers. So if you're returning, do
35:33
yourself a favor, you know, take one little activity out of the
35:36
workflow, you know, hit that subscribe button.
35:39
The videos just comes right to you.
35:41
And then you don't, you don't even have to worry about
35:43
returning. We'll return to you.
35:45
We'll return to each other. It'll be, you know, very
35:47
beautiful and very harmonious. What a deal.
35:49
I didn't even consider that. And it's totally free.
35:53
So I, you know, I didn't even think about the concept of you
35:55
don't even have to start to type in into the channel, whatever.
35:58
It'll just, it'll just show up right there in the fee or right
36:02
there in the feed with no fee, completely free of charge.
36:06
Love it. All right, man, I think we did
36:08
it. Anything else you want to hit
36:09
before we get out of here? There is one more thing I don't
36:11
want to short our guy Carlo one more.
36:15
He also predicted in the video before last Switzerland, Finland
36:19
11 draw. So I'm I'm saying here, there
36:22
might be I need to go back. I know he's been he's been
36:25
giving the predictions. I've been like eyeballing them.
36:27
But then, you know, I'm like in the flow of the show and all
36:29
this stuff. I mean, our guy might be just
36:31
giving out sound financial advice, let alone, you know,
36:35
good football opinions. I might need to swing over to
36:38
the casino out right outside of Seattle.
36:40
Just make sure I just like, hey, Carlos picks.
36:43
That's how I'm going to. That's how just how I'm going to
36:44
walk in at this point. Yeah, our own, our own personal
36:47
Sam Rothstein. This been an episode of Into the
36:51
Channel. Thank you, thank you, thank you
36:52
for hanging out. If you enjoyed the show or love
36:55
women's football as much as your boys do, make sure you kick in
36:57
with us each and every single week.
36:59
Like subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast, wherever
37:02
you'd like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over for your
37:04
podcast app links all of our socials except one in the show
37:08
notes of this episode and a big thinking Michael says well, Mr.
37:10
Grant angle for being easily the the biggest free agent signing
37:15
this show has ever made. You know, a signing that's
37:18
worked out years later down the line.
37:20
I appreciate you, bro. None of this is possible without
37:22
you. So again, thank you for for
37:24
partaking with me. Likewise, buddy, I mean, you
37:27
know, just to take people buying the curtain.
37:28
Dino is the general manager, the manager, the number 9, pretty
37:33
much every every important role there is on the show.
37:36
I'm just happy to play a part in it.
37:39
And just like you guys, the real engine behind the show.
37:42
We appreciate your rocket with us and we will see you all next
37:46
time.