Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / The UWCL heads to the knockout stage

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The UWCL heads to the knockout stage · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:05
  OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about one's
• 0:09
  football before we hit the pitch.
• 0:10
  If you enjoy the show or love them in football as much as your
• 0:12
  boys do, come kick it with us already.
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  Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever
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  you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over at your
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  favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
• 0:22
  the show notes of this episode. I am your host do you know de
• 0:25
  suspicious and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant
• 0:29
  Angle. What is up man?
• 0:30
  I'm feeling all right buddy, fighting through a little
• 0:32
  something, but I've been told that alcohol kills germs, so I
• 0:37
  think I'm ready to go. I've also heard that talking
• 0:40
  about the UEFA Women's Champions League also can help you heal,
• 0:43
  so smash the like and subscribe buttons for more organic health
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  tips. I think that's something
• 0:49
  Youtubers do. You should.
• 0:50
  You should always trust Youtubers with these kind of
• 0:52
  things. No, but I digress.
• 0:54
  Right off the bat, to start the show, I'm feeling great.
• 0:57
  I'm ready to talk about some football.
• 0:59
  Let's do it. So are we cracking these?
• 1:01
  Yeah. Yeah, I might as well.
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  I'm ready. Cheers to you.
• 1:06
  Cheers to you my good man. Cheers to the group stage.
• 1:10
  It's pretty good, pretty entertaining.
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  Totally agree. Quick programming reminder, next
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  week we'll be back with our best 11th of 2024 and back in the new
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  year to talk player movement. The NWSL has been pretty lit
• 1:21
  along that dimension. In January we will be back.
• 1:25
  I think we're going to shift focus to Europe.
• 1:26
  I think that's going to make the most sense.
• 1:28
  WSL Fran, Bundesliga, Liga F, Syriafemeniel, the Premier
• 1:32
  League and February 7th. As you know, we'll be back live
• 1:36
  on YouTube after the UEFA Women's Champions League
• 1:39
  quarterfinal draw to talk about those matchups.
• 1:43
  GMC quarterfinals returns March 18th.
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  March 19th. That wraps up our very quick
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  programming reminder. Thank you for being with us.
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  Mr. Grant Angle, where do you want to get started?
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  I believe. This might be.
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  I believe it is. It's not even that I believe.
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  I know for a fact that it is our last opportunity.
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  It is our last opportunity to go in alphabetical order, which I
• 2:03
  think we should do. I love it.
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  Let's do it. So according to my ITC personal
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  record book, that means we should start with Group A Yes,
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  let's kick it off. Leon, 18 points from six
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  matches, pretty good. Nineteen goals scored, just one
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  allowed. I think offensively they look
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  really strong. You know, I think kind of
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  typical Leon, but I think defensively is I think where
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  they've really stood out. Just one goal allowed, as
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  mentioned over the six group stage matches.
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  That's pretty impressive. And then sort of sneaky fun
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  fact, when you look at their defenders, Wendy Ranaro,
• 2:33
  Vanessa, Gio, they combine for five goals in the group stage.
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  That's pretty awesome. Tough to stop Leon when you're
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  getting that kind of productivity from from all the
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  way in the back. On offense though, 9 different
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  goal scores for the squad. Seven different players notched
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  an assist over the six matches. And I think when you zoom in a
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  little bit on that defense, two matches versus that high-powered
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  Wolfsburg attack, zero goals, just four shots on target.
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  I mean, they shut the water down on pretty much on pretty much
• 3:00
  everything that Group A kind of threw at them.
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  I think I'm going to remember Leon's defense, but like I said,
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  they were able to kind of hold Wolfsburg in serious.
• 3:08
  Check for sure. I'm glad you mentioned that
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  because if it for anybody who likes fun stats.
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  So in the group stage, Lyon conceded nine shot attempts on
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  target across those six matches. And I'm glad, I'm glad you
• 3:21
  mentioned Renar and Jill because by themselves, Diani, Renar and
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  Jill combined for nine goals in the group stage.
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  Wow. So they're only giving, Yeah,
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  they're only letting you shoot on target 9 times and just two
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  center back, one winger equal for nine goals total.
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  I think it was a pretty dominating performance.
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  There were no hiccups like last year's group stage.
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  Obviously last year that magical evening in Bergen, Norway, they
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  had that draw versus the mighty SK Braun.
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  And then in the final group stage match last year, they had
• 3:51
  that kind of wild 22 draw with our old pals Slavia Praha.
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  That was on the strength of a superhuman goalkeeping
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  performance by Olivia Lukasova and an unfortunate own goal by
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  the aforementioned Vanessa Giel, who we saw have like a a bad
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  mistake in the I think it was either she believes or the
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  CONCACAF W Gold Cup. Vanessa Shield has pretty much
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  eliminated those type of mistakes.
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  I mean she has been absolutely fantastic.
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  I feel like she is in terms of just like since you and I have
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  been closely covering, which is only till 2023, so I'm not, I
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  can act like we have any kind of like deep, deep historic
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  knowledge. But in that time frame, I would
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  argue Vanessa Giel is one of the most improved players that we've
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  probably closely watched. I love that take and I think,
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  I'm not sure if you were the one that mentioned it, but she
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  started playing ball relatively late.
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  I believe in her teens. Yeah, that's wild.
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  Yeah. And I think, yeah, physically,
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  she's just such a force. She plays with tenacity.
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  And yeah, I think her decision making, her instincts have
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  gotten better. I mean, you could just see it
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  like they they shut everything. They shut everything down.
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  And offensively she's kind of of a threat to in match day six
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  against Willsburg. That one ends one nil.
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  I kind of like that Leon basically started all their
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  their starters. It was just like, now we're
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  going to actually come out here and like really give it
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  everything. No Lynette Berenstein, no you
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  LeBron in the starting lineup for Wolfsburg.
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  But Braun comes in a little bit later.
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  She crosses over Danielle Vander Dunk in this one, spins her
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  totally around. Vander dunk recovers,
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  dispossesses her perfect ball ahead into the path of DNE, who
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  just is dazzling on the ball. I mean, total wizardry shit and
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  then puts a ball back into the box and Daniel Vanden Dog gets
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  on the end of it just kind of like, you know, finesses it into
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  the goal to get to make it 1 nil.
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  I thought the announcer had made a mistake because I was like,
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  there's no way Vanden Dog dispossessed it for you.
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  LeBron at the halfway line and then was the deepest player to
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  take the pass from DNA and finish.
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  I was like, oh, announcer fucked that one up.
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  That's impossible. And I was like, Oh my God, she
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  she she sends the ball to Dion and the Dion is just magic.
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  And it kind of like was part of the magic trick of like fooling
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  me into thinking that there was no way that Vanadon got there,
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  but she did. It was a given goal that covered
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  4040 yards. Got it done.
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  And I think just a credit to Leon, their professionalism and
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  they're just, you know, willingness to be like, Nah,
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  we're we're going to win all six of these and go in completely
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  unblemished. Yeah, I mean, I think the mental
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  toughness is pretty clear. That's just like who Van de Dunk
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  is of just like always hustling big time motor.
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  And yeah, the the finesse on that touched little kind of like
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  back heel ish. It's kind of going through the
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  legs. You just give it a little bit of
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  guidance to get into the goal that DNE has he to get herself
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  open. She completely fools the
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  defender. But I mean, if you're the
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  defender, you have no other choice there because when DNE
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  pulls up like that, you're terrified she's going to cut in
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  and then she'll score top corner like that.
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  But then when she kind of hits you with the Hesi and then she
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  she streaks toward the end line to play in the past, you're dead
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  either way. So, you know, not a lot you can
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  do as a defender there. They look incredibly strong even
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  against Wolfsburg, a team that I believe is particularly strong.
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  But I feel like you might have some other ideas about our pals
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  from Germany. Well, I took a look at the
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  betting odds this week and I was actually surprised to see
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  surprised and not surprised. Wolfsburg's got the 7th best
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  odds out of eight teams, so that means the odds makers believe
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  that six teams are more likely to win the tournament than
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  Wolfsburg is. The only team behind them would
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  be Real Madrid. Sure, I was a little thinking I
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  was a little. Surprised by that, but I can
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  kind of see how it checks out. So it does feel like this team
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  might be drawing dead against every one seed except Arsenal.
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  I don't think based on what we saw against Lyon, again, zero
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  goals, just four shots on target.
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  They lose that two match tie 3 nil on aggregate to Lyon.
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  Not that it's counted that way, but weren't able to get anything
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  going against Lyon. I'm not sure they would fare
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  much better against Barcelona or Chelsea.
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  Arsenal, you can make a case, but I think Leon provide a
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  little bit of reality check on maybe where their expectations
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  might be And and maybe it just says that Wolfsburg is a good
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  team, not a great team. When you consider OK, the teams
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  at the very, very top of Europe, where do they stack up?
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  There is a Wolfsburg Ohio State Buckeyes football comparison I
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  would like to make, but I will not waste everybody's time with
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  this. I think it's an interesting
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  observation. I think you're probably right.
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  You know, you kind of go back and and think about the matches.
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  Did Wolfsburg just kind of pad their stats?
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  Did they skew the data with two 25 nil victories over
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  Galatasaray? Now they ran it up against Roma
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  in their second fixture against them after dropping match Day 2
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  to Roma. Alex Pop had three of her four
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  goals in the group stage in one of those five nil wins over
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  Galatasaray. I mean, she's leading the
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  competition with 24 shots, but only seven were on target.
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  So I just think there appears to be a little bit of a lack of
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  connectivity in their attack. And when you see like some of
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  the goal scoring numbers, you're like, OK, yeah, it looks like
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  they're well. But when you kind of dig just
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  that 1/2 step deeper into the context, I think you're right to
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  have some real concerns. I will say at the end of the
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  Leon match, you LeBron isn't going to get credited for a shot
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  on target because it went just wide.
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  But she absolutely could have equalized in the dying embers of
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  that match. She had Endler totally beat.
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  It looked like it was maybe a foot or maybe even less than
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  that wide of the left post. But you're right.
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  I mean, they just couldn't really put anything together.
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  And between Leon, Barcelona and Chelsea, there's not a ton of
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  difference there. So if you can't score on Leone
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  and we've talked about their great defense, it's not like
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  Barcelona and Chelsea defense are that much different.
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  I think you could you could ask some questions about Chelsea
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  defense more so than Leona and Barsa.
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  But I think you might be right. Maybe a good team, not a great
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  team. A good chance we see that bear
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  out once we get to the quarterfinals.
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  I do want to touch on the other two teams to round out Group A
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  salute to one of my favorite squad.
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  My favorite. My Siri off Eminem side for
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  sure. AS Roma couple highlights.
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  You had the Julio Dragoni's 74th minute goal to put them up one
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  nil away versus Lyon. Again, that was the only goal
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  that Lyon allowed in six group stage matchups.
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  So no, nothing to seize out there.
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  Manuel Giuliano, Lucia de Guli, Elmo, both played really, really
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  well over the six matches. We can think back to Giuliano's
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  14th minute PK to put them up versus Wolfsburg.
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  One nil and then match day 6. Shout out to Rosanna Ventrilia,
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  who turned 17 years old on December 13th.
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  Happy belated Rosanna. So she makes her professional
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  debut on December 14th, a week ago with Roma down one nil at
• 10:19
  Napoli. So Spoonia puts her in in the
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  79th minute. She gets 12 minutes, one shot,
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  one shot on target, one goal creating action.
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  And Roma goes on to score two goals in the 87th and the 92nd
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  to beat Napoli, come from behind 2 to one win.
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  And then versus Gal Tasri comes on in the 61st.
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  It's one nil. Roma, she gets a goal in the
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  82nd. The in house AV starts blasting
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  all the small things by blink 182.
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  Pretty fun moment, just Max volume.
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  That was fun, amazing. And then 90 + 3 a smart layoff
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  to Elena Lenari to notch an assist.
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  How about that for Ventrilia? So nice moment.
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  You need to maybe carry into Serie off of Neil, a player to
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  definitely keep our eye on. No doubt, but if you want to
• 11:00
  hear something that's slightly less pleasant than that.
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  If Ventrilia turned 17 recently, she was not born for another
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  five years when all the small things came out.
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  So just just for everybody watching this show, I think that
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  the metrics show that we're all roughly the same age.
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  Yeah, that one, that one struck me a little bit when I thought
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  about that, I was like, oh, I think that came out in like 99
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  or 2000. So that's fantastic.
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  There you go. Good chance she has.
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  She got no clue what. Just looking around like what
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  the hell is this? Yeah, something tells me her
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  parents might not be blasting the Blink 182 back catalogue,
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  but but shout to Roma. You know you love them for good
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  reason. I remain enamored with Valentina
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  Giacchini and Manuela Giuliano, of course.
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  They improved 9 points in the group stage this year.
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  They only had five last year. Losing Evelyn Vien to that minor
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  muscle injury, you know, without them giving a ton of other
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  context as to what that was, I think, I think she left.
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  I don't know if she left or got hurt in that 41 loss to Leon on
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  November 20th, but I think that was the last match she played.
• 12:00
  So that obviously didn't help matters.
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  We talked about it a little bit. It just felt like they didn't
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  have enough offense to go to. They have some young players.
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  You mentioned Ventrilia, you know, I think about Julia
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  Dragoni. She's 18.
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  Alice Corelli is is 21. She scored in both of the
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  matches versus Galatasaray. They just need to beef up that
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  depth in the attack, give Giacinti a little bit of support
• 12:22
  and hopefully we'll see him back again next year.
• 12:25
  Yeah, I'd love to see Giacinti with a little bit less pressure
• 12:27
  on her. I mean, just a little bit more
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  space to see she's always taking on two or three or just having
• 12:32
  to go really quickly. Yeah, great player.
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  And then the other depth for sure.
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  We saw them kind of stall out two different times that match
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  against the where they were up one nil and then obviously the
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  second one to Wolfsburg when they just get worked that last
• 12:45
  20 minutes. Yeah, one more team group.
• 12:47
  A real quick Galatasaray shout out to them.
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  Really enjoyed watching players like Andrea Stashkova who scored
• 12:53
  versus Roma keeper Gamson near your man ITC favorites fucking
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  go 61 saves on those 88, and that's against Leon, Wolfsburg
• 13:02
  and Roma. I mean, a ton of work to do.
• 13:05
  Stepped up really big will definitely be the first player I
• 13:08
  think of from this group stage. Yeah, I knew she would be busy,
• 13:12
  but goodness, I did not expect the numbers to skew that
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  heavily. So I mean, unbelievable
• 13:18
  performance by her. Even when you end up with a big
• 13:21
  negative goal differential like that.
• 13:22
  She was clearly putting in a ton of work out there.
• 13:25
  I'm glad you mentioned Stashkova.
• 13:26
  Great piece to build around 24 years old.
• 13:29
  They'll need to replace the 34 year old legend Kata Usmei at
• 13:32
  some point. But I I think it's worth
• 13:34
  mentioning of the 20 players who appeared in this tournament, 11
• 13:38
  of them are 27 or younger. So they have a good mix of
• 13:41
  players who are kind of entering their prime or in their prime.
• 13:45
  So I I look forward to watching them play.
• 13:47
  Maybe next year we'll we'll see if something tells me the
• 13:49
  qualifying and then the league play like the new format, I
• 13:54
  think we're in for some major surprises and and a lot of new
• 13:57
  faces. Yeah, here's hoping.
• 13:58
  That's definitely exciting. Let's shift gears.
• 14:00
  Group B, your domain. Where do you want to get
• 14:03
  started? Group B.
• 14:04
  Let's start with the winners. I think that this is a good path
• 14:06
  that we're on here. Chelsea Football Club six
• 14:08
  matches played, six matches one similar to Lyon.
• 14:11
  They're the only two clubs in this tournament to achieve that
• 14:14
  this year. Oh, as predicted by your boy
• 14:16
  Chelsea, 6 for six. Let's go.
• 14:18
  I said they they might be the only one you know, but you know,
• 14:21
  not too bad. Still counts.
• 14:22
  Absolutely counts. Shout to you and nicely done
• 14:24
  Sir. Pat on the back.
• 14:25
  My bad. Got to I'm not what are we doing
• 14:28
  here? I mean, if anything, this is
• 14:29
  pretty much an entire exercise to pat ourselves on the back.
• 14:34
  So Chelsea can certainly win this tournament.
• 14:37
  But it's funny that some of these basic stats didn't really
• 14:39
  jump out among the teams that qualified for the knockout
• 14:42
  rounds. So they had nineteen goals 4
• 14:44
  that's tied for third with Leon. It's behind Barsa and Real
• 14:47
  Madrid. They had six goals conceded.
• 14:50
  That's tied for third with Bayern Munich in Manchester
• 14:53
  City. The 32V over Real Madrid on
• 14:55
  match day one wasn't quite as close as the scoreline
• 14:58
  indicated. Real Madrid, they pulled one
• 14:59
  back down from 2O, then they pulled one back down from three
• 15:02
  one. But it was odd that Chelsea
• 15:04
  never really slammed the door shut at home like that.
• 15:06
  Then they had that 21V over Celtic, which was harder fought
• 15:09
  than I think most folks really expected.
• 15:12
  And now when you look at their recent form, you have the
• 15:15
  strange 11 draw to Leicester. And then they went down in the
• 15:18
  first half on match day 6 to Madrid as Caroline Weir was just
• 15:22
  bossing that entire first half. And it brings me to this.
• 15:26
  So Sonia Bone Pastor, after the Leicester performance, here's
• 15:30
  what she had to say. Quote, if you analyze this game,
• 15:32
  the first half was not intense enough from us.
• 15:35
  We did not show our intentions, and I think we got punished for
• 15:38
  that. The second-half was better.
• 15:39
  We created more chances and opportunities, but we only
• 15:42
  scored one. We were not efficient enough to
• 15:44
  win this game. So that's on the 11 draw versus
• 15:47
  Leicester. Now on the Madrid performance
• 15:49
  quote, I was not happy at halftime.
• 15:51
  I said we need to be on the same page.
• 15:53
  We only have 45 minutes to achieve our goal and after you
• 15:57
  will be on your vacation. So just give it everything you
• 15:59
  have. End Quote.
• 16:01
  They obviously look like a powerhouse.
• 16:03
  They are a powerhouse or Chelsea Football Club.
• 16:05
  They've won the WSL five times in a row.
• 16:07
  This recent run, if you can call it a run, two matches where they
• 16:11
  kind of fall behind in the first half and bone Pastor is very
• 16:15
  clearly annoyed with it. I think is a little tiny baby
• 16:19
  red flag, but I won't react too much to it just yet.
• 16:23
  I think that's fair. Well to talk real quick about
• 16:25
  Chelsea, Real Madrid, I thought their poise really showed in
• 16:29
  that match and that's probably something that Scott bone pastor
• 16:33
  fingerprints all over it. They kept their cool.
• 16:35
  Literally nothing changed after the weird.
• 16:37
  I mean in my house should change after the weirdo.
• 16:40
  I was losing my damn mind. For Chelsea, nothing changed at
• 16:43
  all. Normal day at the office, they
• 16:44
  stuck to it and they were able to work their way back into the
• 16:48
  match and then regain control the match.
• 16:49
  I think more importantly, but one maybe another baby red flag
• 16:53
  for me. Well, a couple of them actually,
• 16:55
  I don't think my Ramirez has been able to fully, fully, fully
• 16:58
  get going under bone pastor. And I think that has coincided
• 17:02
  with the somewhat meteoric re ascension of cat Macario, you
• 17:06
  know, and I think maybe it could just be that Macario is more of
• 17:09
  a bone pastor player than Ramirez.
• 17:10
  I'm not really sure I'm that's a little bit above my my pay
• 17:13
  grade. But I think the other red flag
• 17:15
  that I'm kind of like checking in on is that back line.
• 17:18
  Yeah. You know, they've got five
• 17:20
  players with real experience to choose from for four spots.
• 17:25
  Neem Charles, Lucy Bronze, Millie Bright, Natalie Bjorn,
• 17:28
  Ashley Lawrence, a couple of, you know, injury history things
• 17:32
  to think about with those five. Obviously bronze is a little bit
• 17:36
  older. Millie Bright is coming back
• 17:38
  from that devastating injury and just not a lot of depth.
• 17:40
  And I think when you look at it, you know, you mentioned it, they
• 17:43
  can they can see the six goals, but they also can seeded in five
• 17:47
  of the six group stage matches. So that's a little worrisome,
• 17:50
  especially when you got Leon on the other side giving up one
• 17:52
  goal in those six matches and whatever, like 5, whatever,
• 17:55
  whatever you mentioned in terms of shots on target, some
• 17:57
  ridiculous number. So I think offensively they'll
• 18:00
  get it sorted. Vika Kaptine, definitely a
• 18:03
  revelation offensively, no LJ just yet.
• 18:07
  I think we're expecting her back in the new year.
• 18:08
  Cannery I think has cooled off a little bit.
• 18:10
  But Goro right on the other side, I think she started in WSL
• 18:14
  and goals, which I think is a little bit of a surprise because
• 18:16
  you don't really think of her as their go to, you know, number
• 18:18
  one goal scoring option. Yep.
• 18:20
  So I think offensively they'll get it sorted, but defensively I
• 18:22
  don't know something to keep an eye on.
• 18:24
  I think you're right to kind of wave a little bit of attention
• 18:27
  to that. I think that makes a lot of
• 18:28
  sense. And you're definitely right
• 18:30
  about Macario being a Sonia Bone Pastor player.
• 18:33
  She played under her at Lyon before she came over to Chelsea.
• 18:36
  So I think that's that's natural.
• 18:38
  But I also think people should be very, very afraid that if Cat
• 18:41
  Macario and Myra Ramirez start intertwining their play from #10
• 18:47
  and #9 it could be real scary hours for everybody else.
• 18:52
  I mean, Mercario comes on in the second-half of this Madrid game
• 18:55
  and just wins the match for them in the first 10 minutes of the
• 18:58
  second-half. I mean, just wins it for him.
• 18:59
  I mean, Olga Carmona, I don't know if I've ever seen her have
• 19:03
  two bad moments in the course of five matches.
• 19:08
  She had two bad moments in 10 minutes, like she was in a vice
• 19:14
  versus Cat Macario. No shots at Olga.
• 19:16
  I mean, obviously I would argue if we're not the number one Olga
• 19:20
  Carmona appreciator podcast, we're we're definitely top five.
• 19:23
  But I mean, Macario just looked like an absolute world beater.
• 19:26
  But I think you're right. Lucy Bronze looking at Olga
• 19:28
  doing great things. Olga Carmona beat bronze really
• 19:32
  badly in one moment. Obviously the legend is not done
• 19:35
  yet, but I I think you're right. If there is any vulnerability
• 19:38
  and you pointed it out last week and maybe the the week before,
• 19:41
  the Khadija Buchanan injury is going to be something to monitor
• 19:44
  because you're going to need some big physical defenders.
• 19:48
  We're going to talk about Barcelona hitting the weight
• 19:51
  room and playing the way they played.
• 19:53
  We'll save that for the Group D discussion, but you're going to
• 19:55
  need some defenders with with some muscle mass in there to
• 19:59
  play in these knockout stages. Yeah, no doubt.
• 20:01
  And I think, you know, God forbid any injury kind of like
• 20:04
  just thins things out further. And we talked about it also a
• 20:06
  couple weeks back, that WSL slate.
• 20:08
  I mean, Chelsea needs to hope that they stay in control of
• 20:11
  that league because if they've got to play all those players
• 20:14
  big minutes down the stretch, that could spell real trouble
• 20:17
  for them in the back. But still a lot of time to kind
• 20:19
  of get things sorted out. Let's side ahead to the team
• 20:21
  that Chelsea beat to take the group, Real Madrid.
• 20:24
  They finish the group stage with 12 points.
• 20:27
  Really great showing, especially considering what happened last
• 20:30
  year to this squad. What were your main takeaways?
• 20:32
  Senior Brune was on a rampage after she netted that brace on
• 20:36
  match Day 2 versus Celtic and then scored in each of their
• 20:38
  next three matches. She was held scoreless against
• 20:41
  Chelsea, but I thought there was a really interesting move on
• 20:44
  match day six. It didn't seem like Brune and
• 20:46
  Kaiseta were really getting a lot done versus Chelsea.
• 20:49
  As we say, we have some questions about their defense.
• 20:51
  It just might not have been Brune and Kaiseto night that day
• 20:55
  and they both get subbed off in the 60th minute.
• 20:57
  But it's for Naomi Feller and Alva Redondo, which is a great a
• 21:01
  great switch. We talked about that depth.
• 21:03
  Now we get to see Anthony return.
• 21:05
  She's going to add a little more attacking depth.
• 21:07
  I think it's going to come down to really that BIG4 Brune weird
• 21:11
  Kai Sado, likely Redondo coming off the bench to create some
• 21:14
  scoring opportunities and just take some pressure off of Misa
• 21:17
  Rodriguez in that defense. I do want to mention one thing
• 21:19
  about Antonia. I think it was middle of the
• 21:22
  second-half, a pretty telling moment.
• 21:24
  She is, you know, going for the ball and basically just hits
• 21:28
  Lucy Bronze with a stiff arm directly in the nose, gets
• 21:31
  called for the foul. I got to tell you, and I didn't
• 21:33
  expect her to. Antonia didn't seem particularly
• 21:36
  remorseful about delivering the blow to Lucy Bronze Mike be some
• 21:41
  leftover Barcelona. Real Madrid dislike there, but
• 21:45
  that's that's football. Yeah, love to see that kind of
• 21:47
  competitiveness and physicality. This was a tough, tough match.
• 21:51
  I mean, I think Real Madrid really wanted this one.
• 21:53
  Such a night and day switch from last year where they really
• 21:56
  mailed it in. I mean, they obviously got
• 21:58
  eliminated early. I think it was like 4 matches of
• 22:00
  the six they had are they were already out of it.
• 22:01
  Yeah. But even before then, the spirit
• 22:04
  just kind of wasn't there in this match.
• 22:06
  You mentioned it, a little bit of a mental breakdown from Olga,
• 22:08
  a little bit of bad luck as well, just so you know.
• 22:11
  Oh, hand in the wrong place, you know, just kind of unlucky.
• 22:17
  No, no, no. You know, it's a tough one.
• 22:20
  It's a tough one. Maybe at the handball I'll
• 22:24
  probably unlucky. I'd too.
• 22:25
  Yeah, the other foul is just a foul.
• 22:27
  It's just a bad foul. Unlucky that they called the
• 22:30
  foul, I suppose. Real Madrid outshoots Chelsea,
• 22:34
  they dodged 15 shots but just three on target despite 57%
• 22:38
  possession in the match. But then you look at senior
• 22:40
  Bruin Alba Redondo, zero shots attempted.
• 22:43
  For those two players. It's like, give me a little bit
• 22:46
  more from them. But in my notes, I wrote better
• 22:49
  here than in the knockout stage. You can kind of get this downer
• 22:53
  of a performance out of your system.
• 22:55
  You still make it through. They got a small bounce back win
• 22:57
  today, 2 nil at Villarreal. Redondo scored, Teresa Abayera
• 23:02
  scored. So nice to see them kind of
• 23:04
  getting getting things back on track.
• 23:05
  I think this team's going to dust themselves off and really
• 23:08
  make a good showing of it once they get to the quarterfinals.
• 23:11
  I mentioned the betting odds at the top.
• 23:13
  Real Madrid has the worst odds to win the Champions League.
• 23:16
  I'm not sure I like that though. I mean, I love the mental makeup
• 23:19
  of this team. I like their toughness.
• 23:20
  I like some of the veterans. I mean, we've talked extensively
• 23:23
  about adding Redondo and what she does.
• 23:25
  Felipe Angle is a great addition also.
• 23:28
  I think there were some concerning metrics though and
• 23:31
  they kind of bear it out. From watching them play, I
• 23:33
  probably would have guessed that they attempted more shots from
• 23:35
  outside the danger area than they actually did.
• 23:37
  It felt like they attempted a lot, but when I kind of was
• 23:40
  combing through, I was like, OK, maybe not as high a percentage
• 23:42
  as I thought, but I think it's interesting to look at Madrid
• 23:46
  throughout the group stage. They don't have a single player
• 23:48
  in the top ten in progressive passes, passes into the final
• 23:52
  third or passes into the penalty area, which is kind of why I
• 23:55
  thought those shots outside of the penalty area might skew a
• 23:58
  little higher. But to be fair to them, in terms
• 24:00
  of progressive passes, both Olga and Angledahl are tied for 11th.
• 24:05
  So they're not in the top ten, but they're just outside.
• 24:07
  Olga's also 11th in passes into the final third and both
• 24:10
  Caroline Weir and Felipe Engeldahl are three passes into
• 24:14
  the penalty area behind Lindsay Horan, who sits in 10th.
• 24:16
  So they're just they're hovering outside the top ten in those
• 24:19
  metrics. But I did think it was
• 24:20
  interesting, like when you kind of look at FB ref one of our
• 24:22
  stat go twos, it was odd when you when you go down and you
• 24:26
  look and you don't see any Real Madrid in those top 10s.
• 24:28
  But how about some good metrics? Linda Kaiseto, number one in
• 24:32
  goal creating actions with 9. She's first in progressive
• 24:34
  carries. She's first in carries into the
• 24:36
  penalty area and 3rd in progressive passes received.
• 24:39
  So why don't all of those players have progressive passes
• 24:41
  and passes into the final third? Because Linda Kaisena was just
• 24:44
  cruising down the field with the ball at her feet, which I think
• 24:47
  is not a terrible strategy. But like you and I always say,
• 24:51
  you got to have a change up to go with that fastball.
• 24:53
  Absolutely. Kaisena's been another dazzling
• 24:56
  player to watch and I think she looks a little stronger this
• 24:58
  year from the waist down. I can kind of mistake her for
• 25:02
  Manny Pacquiao. Nice.
• 25:05
  But finishing wise, I think they've got to get the ball in a
• 25:07
  little closer, maybe work on some of that chemistry in the
• 25:10
  final third to really get past some of these top, top teams.
• 25:13
  But excited that they made it through.
• 25:15
  For sure, let's keep it moving with the rest of Group B here.
• 25:18
  FC Twente 6 points recorded both of their victories over Celtic.
• 25:23
  They had to win four matches to get into this tournament, and
• 25:26
  they did it by a margin of 20 to one.
• 25:28
  They had a real chance to equalize versus Real Madrid on
• 25:30
  match day 4 before Redondo scored a Backbreaker.
• 25:33
  They had nine goals 4 and 19 goals against.
• 25:36
  I know a -, 10 goal differential is not good, but I feel really
• 25:40
  comfortable. They belonged in this
• 25:42
  tournament. They they looked good, they held
• 25:44
  tough. The defense was very busy.
• 25:46
  The only leak led the group stage and dribblers tackled with
• 25:49
  16. She was second in total tackles,
• 25:52
  one and a Knoll and captain Denique van Ginkel.
• 25:55
  They were top ten in blocks. Kaylee van Doren she finished
• 25:58
  with four goals. She had a brace in the opening 2
• 26:00
  nil win versus Celtic and a goal in each of the final two group
• 26:03
  stage matches. I know we have our reasons to
• 26:06
  want to see IAX in this tournament moving forward, but I
• 26:09
  feel like there will always be room for more Dutch presence, so
• 26:12
  I look forward to seeing our pals Twente come back in this
• 26:15
  tournament soon. Yeah, no doubt.
• 26:16
  Totally agree with that. You mentioned the goal
• 26:18
  differential. I mean, that's kind of
• 26:19
  acceptable, right, For this team of the team that's going to
• 26:21
  finish third. They did score in five or six
• 26:23
  matches. Twente did.
• 26:25
  And they, I think more importantly, they showed that
• 26:27
  physically they could hang, yes. So a little bit of the opposite
• 26:30
  of what we saw last year with Benfica.
• 26:33
  You know, I always looked a little small against those big
• 26:35
  tough teams or a Roma who just kind of fades down the stretch
• 26:38
  of some of these tough matches. Tuente is kind of the opposite.
• 26:40
  Yeah, I think physically they hung and they look like a
• 26:43
  handful of pretty much at anytime they were on the pitch.
• 26:46
  Wanted to also give a quick shout out to defenders Liska
• 26:48
  Carlier, Alika Tween, both 23 years old, who are holding down
• 26:52
  that left side. 21 year old forward Nikki Van Dyke, also
• 26:56
  effective and Amanda Andrew Dotier who scored versus Madrid
• 27:00
  also had a really good tournament.
• 27:01
  Tons of talent on that side. Really enjoy watching them play.
• 27:04
  I agree with you man. I hope to see them back, but
• 27:06
  maybe not at the expense of IX. Yeah, hopefully we can get a get
• 27:09
  both in there. I love it.
• 27:11
  All right, last team in the group here.
• 27:12
  Celtic, sitting on 0 points, weren't able to notch a win or a
• 27:16
  draw, but it was an interesting debut in the Champions League
• 27:19
  for the Hoops, who I maintain has one of the coolest supporter
• 27:22
  sections in the sport itself. They were outgunned in every
• 27:25
  match, and that's understandable, but I use the
• 27:27
  term hanging tough. By Twente.
• 27:30
  Celtic did the exact same. In the first match versus
• 27:32
  Madrid, they were down one nil until the 72nd minute and lost
• 27:36
  four nil. In the second match versus
• 27:38
  Madrid, they were down one nil until the 71st minute and lost
• 27:41
  three nil. They had that 21 home loss to
• 27:43
  Chelsea where Murphy Agnew netted their lone goal at the
• 27:46
  group stage. But that game was absolutely in
• 27:49
  the balance for long stretches it did.
• 27:50
  It didn't look like, I'm not going to try to rewrite history.
• 27:53
  I don't think Celtic ever looked like winning that match, but a
• 27:55
  draw was absolutely live while that match was being played.
• 27:59
  They were another busy defense. Kelly Clark, Caitlin Hayes, Emma
• 28:03
  Louise Lawton, They were 2-3 and five respectively in clearances
• 28:06
  and they needed to. They they're playing that low
• 28:08
  block, they're trying to soak up pressure and try to get the ball
• 28:11
  out on the encounter. Clark was also fourth in
• 28:13
  interceptions. Celia Barclay was fifth in Ints.
• 28:17
  And I thought she held up pretty well about as well as you could
• 28:20
  ask somebody to hold up against Kaiseto in the second Madrid
• 28:22
  match. You know, obviously you know
• 28:24
  you're going to take some wins and losses when you're playing
• 28:26
  Linda Kaiseto, but I think the Hoops, they have some work to
• 28:29
  do. Last time I checked they have a
• 28:31
  little bit of work to do in the Scottish Women's Premier League
• 28:33
  to get back here. But I would be remiss if I did
• 28:36
  not mention my Probably one of my biggest regrets from our
• 28:39
  coverage is that I did not mention 31 year old Swedish
• 28:43
  manager Elena Sadaku more often. While we were talking about the
• 28:47
  Hoops. She was among the 8 nominees for
• 28:50
  FIFA2024 Best Woman's Coach after winning the SWPL and
• 28:54
  qualifying for the Champions League.
• 28:56
  Let's go. The fact that Celtic was in some
• 28:58
  of these matches as long as they were is an obvious testament to
• 29:01
  the players. I think you and I look at
• 29:03
  players first. They are the ones who win and
• 29:05
  lose matches. But on those margins that we
• 29:08
  talk about where managers kind of affect the game, that's where
• 29:11
  you have an impact too. Do you play teams that are
• 29:13
  better than you, closer than you should, or do you blow out teams
• 29:16
  that you should? And I think obviously the former
• 29:19
  is what was happening here. And I think Sadako is obviously
• 29:23
  a clear influence on that. Absolutely.
• 29:25
  Yeah. Great calling the manager.
• 29:27
  Totally agree with that. Also, I think that some of the
• 29:29
  players you called out, Caitlin Hayes, had a great tournament.
• 29:31
  Good. Murphy Agnew. 26 year old
• 29:33
  American Murphy Agnew. Let's go.
• 29:35
  That was a cool moment to go ahead versus Chelsea at home.
• 29:39
  I think we were pumped about seeing that environment against
• 29:41
  Chelsea. I think you could see some a
• 29:43
  little bit of natural rivalry. You know, Aaron Cuthbert,
• 29:45
  there's that. There's that overlap there.
• 29:47
  A couple other players I enjoyed watching, Lucy Ashworth,
• 29:49
  Clifford and Amy Gallagher also played really well.
• 29:52
  I don't know, I like this team. I thought they were good.
• 29:54
  They kind of are where they are in their life cycle.
• 29:57
  Yeah, no doubt. And I, I look forward to seeing
• 30:00
  their growth. And I think obviously if the
• 30:02
  Scottish Women's Premier League is going to grow, I think it's
• 30:05
  pretty safe to say say Celtic is going to grow Glasgow City,
• 30:08
  Rangers, Hearts, it. It only makes sense that those
• 30:11
  kind of like four major clubs will grow the sport in that
• 30:14
  country so they're able to compete in this tournament more
• 30:16
  often. No doubt.
• 30:17
  Yeah, excited to to see that come to pass for sure.
• 30:20
  Let's skip ahead though. Group C my Arsenal, 15 points.
• 30:24
  They take the group as I predicted pretty much from the
• 30:27
  beginning. We can we got never wavered.
• 30:31
  This match was a little bit mixed.
• 30:34
  You know, we had the sideways reign that I think already threw
• 30:37
  threw things a little bit out of whack.
• 30:38
  Byron outshoots Arsenal in this one.
• 30:40
  Also had the shots on target advantage six to two, twice as
• 30:43
  many big chances according to her friends at Fat Mob.
• 30:45
  Also a slight edge in possession and passing.
• 30:47
  You look at Arsenal, they had the more accurate crosses, more
• 30:50
  touches in Byron's final third. They were a little bit more
• 30:53
  instinctive offensively. Daphne von Damsler, she was
• 30:55
  great, three big saves. Caitlin Ford was great,
• 30:58
  unpredictable, really kept Byron on their toes.
• 31:01
  And then and then you get, I mean, it was just weird because
• 31:04
  you get the first goal, the own goal and biggest O tier.
• 31:07
  Then you get 2 Magdalena Erickson goals and then you get
• 31:09
  the camera cutting to like a worried looking Renee Slager's
• 31:13
  like now down 2 to one and now you've got 2 Subs that are like
• 31:17
  in that the other team just scored.
• 31:18
  Let's get our 2 Subs into the game.
• 31:20
  Kind of what you know, moment in the match where you see it's
• 31:22
  just so often. Not to worry though.
• 31:24
  A minute after Erickson's second goal, Katie McCabe corner, who,
• 31:27
  by the way, McCabe versus Julie Gminn was pay-per-view pretty
• 31:31
  much all day. That was a great match up to
• 31:33
  kind of key in on. But McCabe's corner into Alessia
• 31:35
  Russo. Mamatovich overruns it and Russo
• 31:39
  does what she does, evens the match.
• 31:41
  Mariana earns a penalty a little bit later, tucks away the
• 31:44
  penalty kick. Three to two Arsenal wins the
• 31:46
  group. Did you take away anything from
• 31:47
  this match? You mentioned the word poise
• 31:50
  when we talked about that W London club that wears the blue
• 31:54
  jerseys. How about your North London club
• 31:56
  in red? I thought poise jumped off the
• 31:59
  screen. That is Alessia Russo's.
• 32:01
  I, I Wikipedia this, her middle name is actually poised.
• 32:05
  I don't know if anybody knew this, but yeah, I mean, Russo
• 32:09
  and Caldente, you talked about them last week or the week
• 32:12
  before. That is a 12 people might look
• 32:15
  at and be like, well, OK, you can't totally build your club
• 32:19
  around one of them, but if you have both of them, they create a
• 32:23
  significant amount of danger. Katie McCabe, you mentioned her.
• 32:27
  She's tied for thirds and assists throughout this group
• 32:29
  stage. And you know, your squad has 17
• 32:33
  goals 4 and 13 of those were assisted by another player.
• 32:37
  So we're not talking about just like, you know, run up ISO ball.
• 32:40
  We're talking about moving the ball around.
• 32:42
  I feel like Slager's has to have her fingerprints on some of
• 32:45
  that. Mariana Caldente is number one
• 32:48
  in progressive passes and #2 in passes into the penalty area.
• 32:51
  And just for a little extra for you, because I love this stat as
• 32:56
  well. Mariana Caldente tied for 6th in
• 32:59
  blocks. That's a little thing.
• 33:01
  That's a little thing we call getting it done on both ends,
• 33:04
  buddy. Well, that's what you know,
• 33:06
  that's what I was talking about last week where she just wants
• 33:08
  to be around the ball like I can compete with you.
• 33:11
  Like it doesn't matter where where it's on the pitch or who's
• 33:13
  on the other side. She feels like she's going to
• 33:15
  win that match up. You look at Slagers now.
• 33:18
  Ten wins out of 11 matches, eight wins in a row, 31 goals, 5
• 33:22
  allowed over that stretch. Russo has scored an 8 of those
• 33:27
  1110 goals total over that stretch.
• 33:29
  She's on absolute fire. And then I mean, five goals
• 33:33
  allowed in 11 matches, 31 to five.
• 33:36
  This team gave up five goals to Byron.
• 33:39
  The. First time around I gave myself
• 33:42
  a little bit of a mind Bender here and what sparked it was I
• 33:46
  think one of the disown announcers of apologies, I can't
• 33:48
  remember who, but was talking about Real Madrid having more of
• 33:51
  a chance to win the Champions League than League F, which I
• 33:54
  don't think is incorrect. I don't think they have a chance
• 33:56
  to win either, but I think they've got a better shot
• 33:58
  winning the Champions League. I think that also applies to
• 34:00
  Arsenal. You look at the the WSL, they're
• 34:02
  6, three and one. They're in 3rd place after 10,
• 34:05
  seven points behind Chelsea, and they have a 2 to one home loss
• 34:09
  to the Blues. Unfortunately, Chelsea looks
• 34:12
  like an absolute freight train right now.
• 34:13
  I wonder, not that they would ever explicitly do this, but I
• 34:17
  wonder if they're looking at the Champions League as a shot to
• 34:20
  say, hey, we got the one seed. We're going to face one of the
• 34:23
  two seeds. Maybe we go for it.
• 34:25
  Let's sort of like plan around these big time quarter final
• 34:29
  knockout stage matches, figure out our line UPS, make sure
• 34:32
  everybody's fresh, make sure everybody's ready, figure out
• 34:34
  our chemistry stuff or just try to maximize it.
• 34:37
  Because I think to your point, the chemistry's been there, but
• 34:40
  maybe this is kind of like the new focus for this season based
• 34:43
  on how things have shaken out and and grabbing that one seat.
• 34:46
  I love it. I love it as a concept and I've
• 34:48
  heard it in like every league, every every Football League that
• 34:51
  has multiple competitions, which is pretty much all the ones that
• 34:54
  I've ever seen. They talk about this this like,
• 34:56
  what would it mean to win the FA Cup if you focus on the FA Cup a
• 35:00
  little more and you prioritize rest for FA Cup matches.
• 35:04
  I don't know if that's what Manchester United did last year,
• 35:08
  the women's team that won the FA Cup.
• 35:10
  It didn't feel like in the time. And please, you know, drop some
• 35:13
  knowledge on us in the comments. If I'm misremembering this, It
• 35:15
  didn't feel like United was was really like prioritizing the FA
• 35:19
  Cup. But I've heard a lot of folks
• 35:21
  talk about this. It's actually funny you mention
• 35:22
  it. I think it was like a few weeks
• 35:24
  back. Great football podcast.
• 35:25
  They primarily talk about men's football on there, but it's the
• 35:28
  rest is football. Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer,
• 35:30
  Michael Richards. They were talking about this
• 35:32
  with should you prioritize these kind of competitions if you
• 35:35
  think you're out of it in the league?
• 35:36
  And they talked about just like, frankly, the financial interests
• 35:39
  in finishing high up in the league and the danger of falling
• 35:42
  down in league play or possibly, you know, the frustration that
• 35:44
  comes with more matches not going your way or players
• 35:48
  becoming unhappy with their playing time, things like that.
• 35:51
  But I think it's very real. I'm glad you mention it.
• 35:54
  And I want to ask you the question because it it sounds
• 35:56
  like you're hovering around this and I'm not asking you to like
• 35:59
  make a pick or make a commitment, but I honestly came
• 36:02
  into this episode wanting to ask you, do you think Arsenal can
• 36:04
  win this tournament? No.
• 36:10
  Amazing. Amazing.
• 36:13
  OK. No, they can't answer it.
• 36:15
  And you know, I'm not going to. I don't want to.
• 36:18
  I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this show,
• 36:20
  but Steven Blaxenius and her spot and it's tough because you
• 36:27
  know, they're they're you know, there's a lot of moving pieces
• 36:29
  and you know, the manager changes and there's some players
• 36:32
  coming in, players going out, you know, even a player like
• 36:34
  Alessia Russo. I think that that equation has
• 36:37
  essentially been solved, but the Blaxenius equation still TBD.
• 36:41
  Marionis covered up a lot of stuff there.
• 36:43
  I think Caitlin Ford has really, really come on recently, you
• 36:47
  know, as just like a hey, I'm going to, you know, mix shit up
• 36:49
  and be flying up and down the field and across.
• 36:51
  And I'm going to just just going to give you another thing to
• 36:53
  think about and a really great counterweight to like Mariona's
• 36:56
  like more thinking kind of football, like Caitlin Forge, a
• 36:59
  straight fast twitch, really cool to watch.
• 37:01
  But I don't think this team can win the tournament.
• 37:04
  I mean, I'm really honestly, I'm a little bit I don't you know, I
• 37:08
  wouldn't be shocked if they got bounced in the quarters, to be
• 37:11
  totally fair. I mean, I think a Wolfsburg I
• 37:14
  think would push them. I think Madrid is not as good as
• 37:16
  Arsenal. They should definitely win that
• 37:18
  one. I mean, if it's city, city's
• 37:20
  been, I mean, there's a lot of injuries there, but but I would
• 37:23
  expect this team to make the semis.
• 37:26
  I wouldn't be shocked if they got bounced versus one of those
• 37:28
  two seeds though. OK, that's fair.
• 37:31
  We can talk about, obviously we'll discuss Citi in Group D.
• 37:34
  I'm going to do the thing and I'm not trying to be a pain in
• 37:37
  the ass here. I think you're making the semis.
• 37:40
  I think you're in. I think whatever team Arsenal
• 37:42
  faces, I think you look too good.
• 37:44
  The vibes are too good. I think Blaxstedius will figure
• 37:47
  it out. She's a genius.
• 37:48
  She's an experienced player, especially when you have Russo
• 37:52
  and Dente who should be able to serve the ball up to her in
• 37:55
  attacking positions. I think you guys are a lock for
• 37:58
  the semis. Well, I mean, I'm going to push
• 38:00
  back a little bit in a must win game versus Bayern.
• 38:03
  Obviously the weather was insane.
• 38:05
  Yeah, you managed two shots on target.
• 38:08
  Sure. You know, it's like, I get it,
• 38:10
  there's a lot of really good players, but I think this team
• 38:12
  is still very, very, very much finding their identity.
• 38:16
  This is not a fully formed team. We're not sure if this is where
• 38:20
  they're going to top out, you know, and I think with a a lot
• 38:22
  of flux and with a lot of changes, it'll keep the other
• 38:25
  team on their toes. Not a lot of tape.
• 38:27
  You can't really like figure out.
• 38:28
  And this is how we're going to stop this team.
• 38:29
  I think like once things start to settle, I do think that it's
• 38:33
  possible that teams are able to defend them a little bit better.
• 38:36
  I mean, if they draw Lyon and that defense, I mean, I think
• 38:39
  it's a really long day. It's a really long 180 plus for
• 38:42
  for my Gunners. And then there's the added
• 38:44
  downside of playing in the WSL, you know, and to your point, I
• 38:47
  think you're I think you're 100% on the money.
• 38:49
  This team is in 3rd right now. They don't want want to fall out
• 38:52
  of a Champions League spot, whether it's like United or
• 38:55
  Brighton or I mean, there's a lot of stuff can happen.
• 38:57
  There's still a lot of WSL football to be played.
• 38:59
  You don't want to risk being out of next year's Champions League
• 39:02
  in any way, shape or form. And even finishing third, it's a
• 39:06
  lot of work to get in you. You still have to go places, you
• 39:09
  have to win matches, you still have to do a bunch of shit to
• 39:11
  get there. Exactly.
• 39:12
  So I don't think it's a slam dunk at all.
• 39:14
  I think the semis is probably where this team tops out, but
• 39:17
  we'll see. I mean, I'm definitely
• 39:19
  encouraged and I don't think they're done improving
• 39:21
  potentially. I think Slagers, he still has
• 39:24
  the stuff, maybe, you know, up her sleeve, up the organization
• 39:27
  sleeve. A lot of good players have yet
• 39:30
  to kind of find their role. I mean, it could, I mean, if
• 39:32
  Plaxtenius gets unlocked, I think my answer could change a
• 39:35
  little bit. I think A-Team like Arsenal
• 39:36
  could maybe shock one of the other one seeds you've.
• 39:39
  Thrown me through a loop. Here is my math, Right.
• 39:42
  It's the quarters, then the semis, right, Because it goes
• 39:45
  from 8:00 to 4:00 to 2:00. Yeah, I just so you guys
• 39:48
  wouldn't get Leon until the semis, which obviously I think
• 39:51
  the road might end there. Right, Well, it's probably going
• 39:54
  to be Leon Barsa or Chelsea in the semis, right?
• 39:57
  If you wish to go chalk. Yeah, which obviously tough
• 40:00
  sledding no matter what, but I, I, I favor you guys over any of
• 40:04
  the any of the two seeds, frankly.
• 40:06
  We'll obviously talk about Manchester City's injuries and
• 40:08
  I'm not trying to pour mouth my own team and be like, no, we're
• 40:11
  underdogs. We don't have a chance.
• 40:12
  But like, you know, the injuries, man, they're serious.
• 40:15
  But we'll we'll we'll get to that.
• 40:17
  And and honestly, it's not even just that.
• 40:19
  I just like your squad and maybe there is a little.
• 40:22
  It leftover. It wasn't even a must win last
• 40:25
  year, it was just a must be a bunch of haters and stop
• 40:28
  Manchester City from winning the title.
• 40:30
  But Black Stenia scores those two goals in the last five
• 40:33
  minutes and loses the title for Manchester City to Chelsea.
• 40:37
  That is seared into my brain as I'm sitting in the press box
• 40:39
  just watching it happen. I hear that.
• 40:41
  No, that's totally fair. All right, it's a lot of Arsenal
• 40:43
  talk. Let's shift gears.
• 40:44
  I want to talk a little bit about Byron.
• 40:46
  So this team right up at the edge.
• 40:47
  I mean, this is team we got to remember bounce last year didn't
• 40:50
  even make the quarterfinals. So you should think about their
• 40:53
  situation. Are they happy making the
• 40:55
  quarterfinals this year? Are they disappointed going to
• 40:57
  Arsenal, feeling like, hey, we pushed them, we couldn't get out
• 41:00
  of there with a draw and then really take the one seat in this
• 41:03
  group. You know, looking at these two
• 41:04
  teams, I do think Byron is a smidge better than Arsenal.
• 41:07
  I mean, it does pain me to say that, but it's going to come
• 41:11
  down to can they get chances? Because you look at when they do
• 41:16
  get chances, they're first in the tournament, 0.2 goals per
• 41:19
  shot. That's a goal every five shots.
• 41:21
  Five shots is not a big number. So they're cashing when they
• 41:24
  when they get a boot on the ball, they're second in the
• 41:27
  tournament goals per shot on target, 0.41 That's roughly one
• 41:31
  goal every 2 1/2 shots on target.
• 41:33
  The problem is they're not getting up shots.
• 41:36
  They only got 82 shots of the six matches, 14 shots less than
• 41:40
  AS Roma, so they're 6th. So they're sixth out of eight,
• 41:44
  total shots per 96th out of eight and shots on target per
• 41:47
  90. They've got to be able to get
• 41:49
  more out of their elite passing and elite possession.
• 41:53
  They're just not able to put enough pressure on defenses in
• 41:57
  the final third. If they're able to unlock that,
• 41:59
  I think that really helps this Byron squad.
• 42:01
  I think it's a great point man, and I think so I have some
• 42:03
  supporting stats to bear this out.
• 42:05
  I do want to start with the question though.
• 42:07
  I wonder if Pernille Harder starting the proceedings, the
• 42:10
  hat trick against your Arsenal on match day one.
• 42:12
  That's a good way to end up leading the group stage in
• 42:15
  goals. She had three in that one match
• 42:17
  and she added another three. But I don't know if her numbers
• 42:20
  are frankly her impact. I'm not saying for Neil Harder
• 42:23
  is not a great player. She obviously is.
• 42:25
  But I don't know if her impact might look a bit inflated that
• 42:27
  it actually was from netting that hat trick on match day one.
• 42:30
  And then you think about, you know, Cloud Abul and Julia
• 42:33
  Gavin, they each have 3 assists. They were able to kind of pass
• 42:37
  the ball around like you're talking about.
• 42:38
  They need to add this scoring. Georgia Stenway is number six in
• 42:42
  the tournament in progressive passing distance with 2961
• 42:46
  meters. That's a little less than two
• 42:48
  miles of passing. So it's funny to hear you talk
• 42:51
  about like, all this passing, but they're just not getting
• 42:53
  shots on target. Stenway's also number one and
• 42:56
  passes into the final third with 75.
• 42:59
  Second place is Ingrid Eggin. She has 57.
• 43:02
  Oh, my God. So we're talking about, you
• 43:04
  know, 18 more then. So they're passing the ball
• 43:07
  around. Stanway is also number one in
• 43:09
  progressive carrying distance with 1004 meters.
• 43:12
  So they're moving the ball around.
• 43:14
  I think it's funny that you kind of talked about they're holding
• 43:16
  it, but they're just not really creating these quality shots on
• 43:19
  target. Is that going to happen in the
• 43:23
  quarters? Could it happen in the semis?
• 43:26
  It might be tough. It might be tough to kind of
• 43:27
  figure that out when you're playing the the other elite
• 43:30
  teams in the tournament. I think a matchup with Chelsea
• 43:33
  could be interesting for Bayern. I think that's the one team just
• 43:37
  because of you know, how thin Chelsea is in the back and how
• 43:40
  technical Bayern is. And I think, you know, Arsenal
• 43:43
  got past them with like 3 weird an own goal.
• 43:46
  I mean the Russo 1 was great off the McCabe corner and then
• 43:49
  Mariano draws the penalty. It wasn't like they went in
• 43:52
  there and just overran them late in that match.
• 43:55
  I think if Bayern's was able to get it together, Chelsea's a
• 43:57
  good match up for them potentially, but they just need
• 43:59
  more connectivity deep, whether it's Zadrazil or Bool, Stanley's
• 44:03
  been awesome. Yeah, harder, I think has
• 44:06
  definitely cooled off, but she still, you know, put a shot on
• 44:09
  target. She forced Von Dumpsler into
• 44:11
  like a real big time save. Could have definitely changed
• 44:13
  the match. Yep.
• 44:14
  But they just need more. They need more kind of like
• 44:16
  movement, a little bit more creativity.
• 44:18
  They seem to be a little bit easy to defend down there.
• 44:20
  I think that's a, that's a good way to put it.
• 44:22
  They can hold the ball, they can play their style.
• 44:24
  But then when they get into that final third, it's just like
• 44:27
  what? It's just everything.
• 44:28
  Not everything, but things often seem about half a click off and
• 44:32
  just not totally working for them in spots.
• 44:35
  If you are half a click off and you end up drawing Barcelona,
• 44:39
  enjoy your vacation. Yep, it's over.
• 44:41
  All right, couple more teams. Group C Quick shout out to your
• 44:44
  Juventus. 6 points off A1 nil and a three no win over
• 44:48
  Valarenga. On the downside though, they
• 44:49
  were outscored 11 to 0 in four matches versus Bayern and
• 44:53
  Arsenal. Still a little bit a little bit
• 44:55
  of growing up to do for the Italian side.
• 44:56
  Sofia Cantore quick shot out there, two goals.
• 44:59
  She had the 29th minute winner versus Valarenga, another 56
• 45:02
  minute goal in the rematch. Barbara Bonancia, I think had a
• 45:05
  really good tournament and I think this is the team also lost
• 45:08
  Estelle Cascarino, who that made a big difference.
• 45:11
  I think defensively she was playing really well and she was
• 45:14
  also able to get things started in kind of creative ways from
• 45:17
  deep. You can kind of see the
• 45:19
  Cascarino DNA in there. Obviously Delphine and Sister, I
• 45:22
  think we have to talk about this.
• 45:23
  I think that was like a kind of like a a little bit underrated
• 45:26
  underreported injury for that side.
• 45:28
  And I think their tournament just got absolutely derailed
• 45:31
  once they lost Cascarino A. 100% Look, we got to hold ourselves
• 45:34
  accountable on this. So I brought up that I that I
• 45:37
  regretted not talking more about Celtics manager Elena Sadiku and
• 45:42
  I've heard her last name pronounced a couple different
• 45:43
  ways. I know we have pals in Sweden
• 45:45
  who watched the program. Shout out to you.
• 45:47
  We appreciate you guys. Let me know please if I'm
• 45:49
  butchering Elenae last name, but I'm glad you mentioned Estelle
• 45:52
  Cascarino. She is the literal twin sister
• 45:56
  of one of our favorite players from this tournament last year
• 45:59
  and she's an excellent player and I feel like we didn't
• 46:02
  mention her nearly enough, so I'm raising my hand.
• 46:05
  We should have talked about Estelle more.
• 46:07
  She was good before she ended up getting the knock and then going
• 46:10
  out. But I think you're totally
• 46:10
  right, her loss was a big impact on Juventus.
• 46:14
  Absolutely one of the team to hit Group C Valarenga.
• 46:17
  They finished the group stage with one point.
• 46:19
  They did cash three goals over the six games.
• 46:21
  Tilda Linvall against Arsenal, Olog Fed 10 scored at the
• 46:25
  Emirates. Fucking go and Elise Dorseness
• 46:27
  with the 88th minute equalizer to give them the draw.
• 46:31
  One one versus Bayern, great moments.
• 46:33
  Karina Shevik, great tournament. Emma stolen.
• 46:35
  Godo also jumped off the screen defensively.
• 46:38
  Only 2 1/2 goals allowed over the six matchups, and that was
• 46:42
  with them pitted against Bayern, against Arsenal, against
• 46:45
  Juventus. Really good teams and I think a
• 46:47
  lot like FC-20. I think physically they held up
• 46:49
  and really were able to push some of these bigger squads with
• 46:53
  bigger payrolls. Yeah, absolutely.
• 46:55
  And I think what makes that that physicality jump out to me a
• 46:58
  little more is I, I did this with Galatasaray and they have
• 47:01
  about half their players who appeared in these matches are
• 47:03
  either in their prime or entering their prime, 27 or
• 47:06
  younger. Of the 20 players who appeared
• 47:08
  in these group stage matches for Volaringa, 18 of them are 27
• 47:13
  years old or younger. So we're talking about a real
• 47:15
  young roster here. But it is a good point that you
• 47:18
  raised 28 year old Karina Shevik.
• 47:21
  She was number one in successful take ONS in the tournament.
• 47:23
  She was tied for fourth in key passes.
• 47:26
  She often jumped off the screen as this Norwegian side's best
• 47:29
  player. They will definitely be in the
• 47:32
  mix next year for the Champions League on the strength of
• 47:35
  winning top Serie in this year they squeaked by the mighty SK
• 47:38
  Bron by 15 points, so that's not important.
• 47:42
  They won the league, might have been by several points, it
• 47:45
  doesn't matter. Maybe, just maybe, we can be
• 47:47
  lucky enough to see Valarenga and our pals from Bergen in the
• 47:51
  tournament next year. I mean, let's fucking go.
• 47:53
  I'd love to see that shout out Valarenga, great watching you.
• 47:56
  But yeah, next year that might be a different ball game.
• 47:59
  But that's a different topic for a different episode.
• 48:01
  Let's shift gears. Group T got to start with the
• 48:04
  Champs, got to Barcelona. You experienced it first hand
• 48:08
  with some stakes. Got to be honest with you buddy,
• 48:11
  going up against this team, not a pleasant experience.
• 48:14
  And really anyway, now that first match on match day one,
• 48:18
  being able to beat them to nil was great, felt great.
• 48:22
  Still often terrifying as I believe we talked about shortly
• 48:25
  after the match where I was just like, wow, every time Alexia has
• 48:27
  the ball, I'm certain she's going to score this match.
• 48:31
  Much more uncomfortable. I think a moment that is true in
• 48:35
  pretty much every match I watch Barcelona play is that there is
• 48:39
  some time in the middle of the first half where Barcelona's
• 48:42
  high press is just destroying every pass.
• 48:46
  City can't do anything to move the ball up the field.
• 48:50
  And then at some point in the middle of the first half, Jess
• 48:52
  Park is able to go for a run up the pitch and she shoots it from
• 48:56
  beyond the 18 with not a ton of momentum.
• 48:59
  She's not really able to kind of get not even get set, but just
• 49:02
  like get the ball with strength to put a hard shot on there.
• 49:06
  And that's just what happens. Like we've talked about it
• 49:08
  before, teams go up against Barcelona and you're just
• 49:11
  getting choked out because they don't let you do anything.
• 49:14
  There are so many moments where it looks like Barcelona has 13
• 49:18
  players on the field to your 11. And I just I wrote in my notes,
• 49:22
  Parker takes the shot and you know, she is a heady player for
• 49:26
  a 23 year old. She is really clever.
• 49:28
  But she rushed that shot because she's just been getting squeezed
• 49:32
  by a boa constrictor for 20 plus minutes.
• 49:35
  And she's just like, I got to shoot this or else the chance is
• 49:37
  going to go away. And it's hard to to reconcile in
• 49:39
  that moment. You're not going to make that
• 49:41
  shot. You're never going to beat
• 49:43
  Katakoi from that distance when you're not hitting an absolute
• 49:46
  laser. So they choke the lifeout of you
• 49:48
  man. Yeah, we talked about this last
• 49:51
  year where they just take away every pass.
• 49:55
  They take away the first, the second, the third, the 4th of
• 49:57
  it. They just were like, no, there's
• 49:58
  nowhere you're going to be able to go with the ball and all of
• 50:01
  their players defend like maniacally.
• 50:03
  It's pretty awesome to watch. Can we talk about one of those
• 50:06
  defenders, let's do it, who is a great defender, but Esme Brutes
• 50:10
  is a left back but double S as a nuclear weapon on office.
• 50:16
  So like you're trying, you're trying to figure this out as
• 50:20
  they choke the life, as they're pressing you at the top of your
• 50:24
  own defensive 18. And then Brutes is there.
• 50:27
  Eva Payor just does that thing that I think you have.
• 50:31
  You have put this in my brain and it just makes so much sense.
• 50:33
  And I put it in my notes higher in that match is just like, Oh
• 50:37
  yeah, let me just find my range here and I'm just going to take
• 50:39
  a couple shots and, you know, maybe that.
• 50:42
  Yeah, she's just calibrating and just setting you up.
• 50:44
  And I know she didn't score in that in that match, day six
• 50:47
  match, but I wrote in my notes she's for sure going to score
• 50:50
  like it looked like it. And even though she doesn't
• 50:52
  score, she's making devastating things happen.
• 50:55
  And here comes Claudia Pina, who just is right there for a
• 50:58
  rebound. Put him up one nil.
• 51:00
  I just think about Claudia Pina. We talk about her.
• 51:02
  We talk about how great she is. We talk about the fact that
• 51:05
  sometimes she's the eighth player mentioned on this squad.
• 51:08
  She's so great. I can't decide if she's still
• 51:11
  somehow under discussed while we're always talking about how
• 51:14
  she's under discussed. I think she's definitely under
• 51:17
  discussed, but you know, I do want to rewind back a couple
• 51:20
  weeks where I think the discussion between you and I was
• 51:23
  like what What if they find a spot for Pina and like like a
• 51:26
  specific role from her a little bit from distance?
• 51:29
  Because like that's kind of where she likes to play.
• 51:32
  And that goal from Pina was just one of those where this is what
• 51:35
  happens when you put 8 devastating offensive players
• 51:39
  like in the box. You're able to get everybody
• 51:42
  forward offensively and you know, to be honest, you're not
• 51:44
  afraid at all of City's his attack.
• 51:47
  Like if you get beat by something over the top and you
• 51:49
  give up a goal, I don't think they would have lost any sleep
• 51:52
  at all. Much like Chelsea, game plan
• 51:54
  doesn't change at all, but the ball is pinging around and you
• 51:57
  just have devastating offensive players.
• 51:59
  Anybody can get their their boot on it.
• 52:01
  But Pina specifically is one of these players.
• 52:04
  It's it's we talk about the NBA was like, well, players don't
• 52:06
  get a lot of plays called for them, but are able to
• 52:09
  opportunistically like maximize. She just is like, I'm going to
• 52:12
  maximize every chance I get. She's so good.
• 52:16
  I did the exercise and I'm like, I think she might be one of my
• 52:18
  favorite Barcelona player. So then I was like, all right,
• 52:21
  is she my favorite? I'm like all right, go OK, Kik
• 52:23
  of Nazareth. She's got to be up there.
• 52:25
  OK, CGHI love CGH Itana. Obviously, you know, world
• 52:28
  beater. Long story short, I talked
• 52:31
  myself into a circle, but I think Pina's definitely in the
• 52:34
  conversation for my favorite Barcelona player for sure.
• 52:37
  Definitely needs more minutes and definitely needs more
• 52:40
  attention because I think she is an absolute super talent.
• 52:43
  I think you're exactly right where if she's just hanging out
• 52:46
  in the attacking third or she's hanging out in the penalty area
• 52:50
  and the ball comes to her, she's probably going to score because
• 52:53
  she just has instincts, fast twitch reflexes.
• 52:56
  She has every skill needed to kind of put the ball away when
• 52:58
  it just bobbles out to her in any situation.
• 53:01
  A couple other quick thoughts I had on this match that kind of
• 53:04
  translate to every other match is Pyor nearly scores on a
• 53:08
  perfect low shot to the corner, but it takes Keating's
• 53:11
  incredible diving ability to keep it out.
• 53:14
  This was in the 49th minute. And as I'm sitting there taking
• 53:18
  notes, I just write and I know you get always get a kick out of
• 53:21
  this because I'm 1000 year old man.
• 53:22
  I write Jiminy Christmas. It's only been 5 minutes because
• 53:26
  every time you play against Barcelona, if you care about the
• 53:30
  team playing against this Barcelona team, they're just
• 53:32
  pelting you with shots and you're like, well, surely 15
• 53:35
  minutes have gone by. Glad we survived that.
• 53:37
  Nope. It's been 5 and they're they
• 53:40
  were due for 200 more shots, it feels like.
• 53:43
  And the last thing I want to talk about that I think you had
• 53:46
  in your notes as well. If I looked at the doc I I try
• 53:49
  not to spoil what I see you're going to write as well, but I
• 53:52
  think you notice this is a ton of bone Mati on her goal.
• 53:57
  She stays on side because her instincts are absolutely
• 53:59
  incredible and she times her runs as perfectly as any
• 54:02
  midfielder could ever do. She times her run perfectly from
• 54:05
  just inside the the halfway line.
• 54:07
  She gets the ball and then despite a relatively sizable
• 54:12
  size disadvantage, she fights off Wahhabi and then nutmegs
• 54:17
  Keating for the goal. And it's just, it's one of those
• 54:20
  things where I was just like Darren Sproles in the NFL was
• 54:24
  never the best player. He was never the best player in
• 54:27
  the world the way I, I Tanabonimati is.
• 54:29
  But I was just like, that is a diminutive person who still puts
• 54:34
  in so much work in the weight room on their core strength.
• 54:38
  The fact that she has all of the skills and the talent and the
• 54:41
  genius that she has. And then on top of that, I can
• 54:44
  still muscle up when I have to to score a goal.
• 54:47
  That's just unbelievable. That play was unreal.
• 54:50
  You can see the size difference between her and Wahhabi.
• 54:53
  Like with the naked eye, it's like obvious and Wahhabi can't
• 54:57
  get anywhere. It can't even foul her, can't
• 55:00
  even do. There's nothing that can be
• 55:02
  done. Jesus.
• 55:03
  It's almost like the bigger sibling and younger sibling and
• 55:06
  he's just holding the younger siblings top of their head and
• 55:08
  just keeping them at Bay. That's kind of what she did and
• 55:11
  then was able to finish between the legs of Keating under
• 55:14
  pressure, just disregarding the defender.
• 55:17
  A real top level defender at that.
• 55:20
  Like if she was nothing, yeah. I mean, an unbelievable play.
• 55:24
  Had to feel like a Backbreaker. And then the Alexia missile.
• 55:27
  Come on now. I mean.
• 55:28
  What are you going to do? OK.
• 55:29
  I'm going to do a little announcer corner here real
• 55:31
  quick. Yes, on that play, Alexia just
• 55:34
  fires a fucking dart that, yes. I mean, it doesn't feel like any
• 55:38
  other player in the world could do exactly that.
• 55:41
  And then the commentator is like Alexia had Keating rooted to the
• 55:45
  spot in a very British accent translated into American frozen
• 55:50
  goalkeeper. So I can go.
• 55:52
  And I also want to give the announcers on the zone en
• 55:55
  Espanol a little bit of a shout out.
• 55:57
  I lamented the lack of spoiler alerts in football.
• 56:00
  Got a spoiler alert from the Spanish commentators in this
• 56:02
  one. Let's go.
• 56:04
  I wasn't able to grab the name of the of the announcing team,
• 56:07
  but the announcer says vamasavad UN pequeno spoiler.
• 56:10
  And before going on to talk about Salma, some up on you
• 56:14
  Yellow showing up in the starting lineup.
• 56:15
  I was like let's fucking go. This is what we've been waiting
• 56:18
  for. So shout out to the team rooted
• 56:20
  to the spot. Fucking awesome.
• 56:22
  And then unpec Eno spoiler from Desone and Espanol.
• 56:26
  Much appreciated from your guys. Salute the entire Desone squad
• 56:29
  for sure. I knew I knew the Desone team
• 56:32
  was watching these podcasts. So you put you planted that
• 56:35
  seed. That's I'm you absolutely get
• 56:37
  credit. That counts as like, also like a
• 56:40
  good prediction. That counts as.
• 56:41
  You nailed that prediction as well.
• 56:43
  So I appreciate you for your service.
• 56:45
  Yeah, definitely. A memo went out in the zone
• 56:47
  offices that I'm not sure where those are or if they exist or if
• 56:50
  everybody's remote, who fuck knows.
• 56:52
  But anyway, shout out to them. I want to talk about city.
• 56:56
  That's your squad. Obviously it was tough, you
• 56:59
  know, kind of going through it. My first thought, the injuries,
• 57:02
  I mean, tough to overcome those when you're playing against a
• 57:05
  team like Barcelona. My second thought, roll the
• 57:08
  tape. If you give up too many shots on
• 57:11
  target, the ball spends too much time in the wrong third of the
• 57:14
  field. I I mean, whether it's battery
• 57:16
  or Pina or Bomati or Alexia, like they're just loaded with
• 57:20
  players. I'm going to go the other way.
• 57:22
  Hate to do it to you buddy, that's but I'm going to say 3
• 57:27
  nil. Barcelona doesn't doom city in
• 57:29
  the quarterfinals. It's a result that's at least
• 57:32
  respectable, especially considering the injuries.
• 57:34
  And then both these teams kind of head into the knockout stage,
• 57:37
  you know, on a, on a somewhat positive note, I would say.
• 57:39
  I just wonderful job by you. You told me you tried to tell
• 57:45
  me. I let my hubris get in the way.
• 57:47
  I talked about it the whole time.
• 57:49
  I was like, oh, I got a bad feeling about this.
• 57:50
  I did my little Star Wars quote, thought I was funny, all that
• 57:53
  stuff. But then was like, no, but we're
• 57:54
  still going to find a way. And you, you were dead on.
• 57:57
  Shout to you just nailing the predictions in this episode.
• 58:01
  Chelsea win in all six matches. Spoiler alerts from the Dozone
• 58:05
  broadcasters. And now this three nil.
• 58:07
  You're on fire, my good man. Go play the Lotto immediately.
• 58:11
  Unpacking your spoiler for next week, I'm going to have some
• 58:13
  good predictions. Damn right, I hear that.
• 58:19
  So you tried to tell me you were obviously dead on.
• 58:22
  I want to crank up the excuse machine.
• 58:24
  But first I did mention at the top of this podcast, I'm a
• 58:26
  little under the weather and the doctor said to get plenty of
• 58:29
  fluid. So 2 beer show.
• 58:32
  Let's see everybody just just just be responsible, everybody.
• 58:35
  I mean, that's what I'm trying to do out here.
• 58:37
  Nothing crazy. I'm an old man.
• 58:39
  But anyway, let me let me crank up the excuse machine Manchester
• 58:43
  City Football Club desperately needs to get healthy.
• 58:46
  I just don't see a path for that to happen.
• 58:48
  When you think about that match day six match versus Barcelona,
• 58:51
  Mary Fowler, 21 years old, Lily Murphy, 18 years old, Alba
• 58:55
  Fugino, 20, the aforementioned Jess Park, 23.
• 58:57
  They're part of a fantastic young core.
• 59:00
  But if you want to keep some control in any kind of attacking
• 59:03
  position versus Barcelona, you need experienced players with
• 59:07
  big match experience. And so if you just think about
• 59:11
  the top four, there's no Lauren Hemp.
• 59:13
  Now, she's only 24 years old, but she played in all 6/20/22
• 59:18
  Euro matches and logged more than 500 minutes, and she also
• 59:22
  played more than 500 minutes across all seven matches in the
• 59:25
  2023 run to the World Cup final. I haven't seen anything since
• 59:28
  the club announced that she had successful knee surgery on
• 59:31
  November 19th. So let me just tell you buddy,
• 59:34
  that doesn't seem good to me. I cannot find any details and
• 59:37
  please drop in the comments if I'm if I'm missing something.
• 59:40
  I haven't seen any real updates from the club since that
• 59:42
  November 19th announcement. That said, successful knee
• 59:45
  surgery doesn't specify what ligaments it's on, nothing like
• 59:49
  that. So I don't know what that means
• 59:51
  for Lauren Hemp. Obviously in this last match
• 59:53
  there's no Bunny Shaw. She's 27, she's physically
• 59:56
  strong enough to battle it out with Barcelona.
• 59:58
  You know, she's never scared. Gareth Taylor said after the 2nd
• 1:00:01
  St. Bolton match that he didn't
• 1:00:03
  expect Bunny back until the new year, and then he had some
• 1:00:06
  pretty concerning quotes about how at that point they were
• 1:00:08
  still looking at the injured area.
• 1:00:10
  Got to say, don't like that, don't like extended
• 1:00:14
  investigation and any injury. Next there's Viv Medema.
• 1:00:17
  I know she's new to the club but she's 28.
• 1:00:19
  She's the record goal scorer in the WSL here.
• 1:00:21
  You know what time it is with her.
• 1:00:22
  She had four goals in the €2017.00, including a brace to
• 1:00:26
  win the final. She had three goals in the 2019
• 1:00:28
  World Cup, led the Dutch to the final in that World Cup, losing
• 1:00:31
  to the United States. You just need a player in the
• 1:00:34
  center of the park like her if you're going to compete in a big
• 1:00:36
  tournament like this. Taylor said about Midima on
• 1:00:38
  December 11th that she is back on the training pitch.
• 1:00:41
  So a little more encouraging news there.
• 1:00:43
  And he expects her to return to play in early January.
• 1:00:46
  So that is somewhat reassuring. And then the last player I want
• 1:00:50
  to talk about, Alex Greenwood, 31 years old, the captain.
• 1:00:53
  She was a substitute in the 2022 Euros, appearing in five
• 1:00:56
  matches, but she played every second of every match in the run
• 1:00:59
  to the World Cup final in 2023. She's a critically important
• 1:01:02
  player. She is a smart player and
• 1:01:04
  organizer of the defense. And the club announced that she
• 1:01:07
  had successful MCL surgery on December 19th.
• 1:01:10
  So from what I can remember, if you're having surgery on your
• 1:01:14
  MCLI, think you're usually out. And please, again, I'm no doctor
• 1:01:18
  even though I'm giving you medical advice on how to recover
• 1:01:21
  from flu like symptoms. You could probably expect her to
• 1:01:23
  be out at least three to four months.
• 1:01:26
  I think that's like if my, if memory serves on MCLS.
• 1:01:28
  And sometimes you see players take longer than that to recover
• 1:01:31
  depending on the severity of the injury.
• 1:01:33
  I think ESPN story said the Lionesses might have to look at
• 1:01:36
  playing the 2025 Euros without Alex Greenwich.
• 1:01:39
  So all that is to say, you have no shot of beating Barcelona in
• 1:01:44
  a spot like that because those four players are supposed to
• 1:01:47
  buoy the young talent that you have and propel your squad to a
• 1:01:52
  deep run in a Champions League. So I don't mean to sound
• 1:01:55
  defeatist, but that's just the nature of sports sometimes is
• 1:01:58
  that you have a great team, you have a good run.
• 1:02:00
  You thought you were going to challenge for the league.
• 1:02:02
  You thought you could possibly challenge at least, maybe even
• 1:02:04
  make a final depending on how the draw shakes out.
• 1:02:07
  You beat Barcelona in that first match on match day one and
• 1:02:11
  everything's coming up roses and then all of a sudden the
• 1:02:14
  injuries pile up and now it looks like there's a legit
• 1:02:16
  possibility that you're out in the quarters.
• 1:02:18
  Yeah, it's not even just the injuries piling up.
• 1:02:20
  It's those. I mean, medium is obviously, you
• 1:02:24
  know, legend, but Hemp, Shaw and Greenwood were bawling this
• 1:02:29
  year. I mean, like those are three
• 1:02:30
  players that you cannot afford to lose.
• 1:02:32
  You mentioned the kind of the youth movement.
• 1:02:34
  You could throw Kiara Keating in there still just 20 years old
• 1:02:37
  who had a really good game. I mean, great, huge stop, you
• 1:02:40
  know, stare down Eva Payor got a got a big time save.
• 1:02:44
  You could look at Jill Roord. She rocked the crossbar 37
• 1:02:48
  minute. You kind of needed that one.
• 1:02:49
  I mean, like talking about like a little bit of magic that you
• 1:02:52
  you just need something, right? Like, you know, when you're
• 1:02:54
  playing a Barcelona, you need things to kind of break your
• 1:02:56
  way. I thought Lily Murphy look good.
• 1:02:58
  I think she could have came on the smidge earlier.
• 1:03:00
  But to your point, without those vets kind of connecting things
• 1:03:03
  and elevating a player like Murphy, you know, she's a little
• 1:03:06
  bit out on an island. And then the last player I
• 1:03:08
  mentioned, Mary Fowler. I know it's against Barcelona.
• 1:03:11
  I know it's a tough, tough matchup.
• 1:03:13
  I wouldn't like to see more from Fowler.
• 1:03:16
  I don't think she kind of put enough pressure.
• 1:03:18
  It's still fresh on the mind, but like Caitlin Ford was able
• 1:03:21
  to put pressure on Bayern Munich just through work rate, just
• 1:03:24
  through effort. I don't think I saw the same
• 1:03:26
  thing from Fowler. I think I saw a couple little
• 1:03:29
  flashes. But Esme Bruce, who you
• 1:03:30
  mentioned on the other side is kind of more what I want to see
• 1:03:33
  from Fowler. It's like, let's just fucking
• 1:03:35
  gun it. Like let's, let's use some of
• 1:03:37
  the physicality. Let's use some of those physical
• 1:03:39
  tools. Give ourself the opportunity to
• 1:03:42
  kind of like unleash some of that talent when the moment
• 1:03:45
  calls. And I think Fowler was a little
• 1:03:46
  bit passive in this one. Didn't totally love the look.
• 1:03:48
  Obviously still young player as well.
• 1:03:50
  Yeah, I think without, without those four excellent players,
• 1:03:53
  it's going to be really tough this Champions League season for
• 1:03:56
  sure. Yeah, and we, and we've talked
• 1:03:57
  about it with Fowler where there are times where you look at her
• 1:04:00
  and be like, oh, this is for sure one of the best young
• 1:04:02
  players in the world in terms of passing and anticipation.
• 1:04:06
  But she has those matches where she just kind of disappears.
• 1:04:09
  And I don't mean it pejoratively.
• 1:04:11
  It's not like a character flaw. It's just something that happens
• 1:04:13
  in athletics where you have great players and then
• 1:04:15
  sometimes, you know, not every player can be great every single
• 1:04:19
  match. Like that's that's just the way
• 1:04:20
  it goes. I wrote at one point in my
• 1:04:22
  notes, not the right game with those four players out.
• 1:04:25
  This just couldn't be the game where Fowler didn't have a big
• 1:04:29
  impact. Like you just needed her to
• 1:04:31
  really kind of be there and kind of create those those scoring
• 1:04:34
  opportunities for her teammates. So again, it's Barcelona not
• 1:04:38
  going to hold it against her. That's going to happen against
• 1:04:41
  the best team or maybe the second best team in the world to
• 1:04:43
  the Orlando Pride. Obviously, I will say if I want
• 1:04:46
  to do a little dive into the stats, there aren't a ton since
• 1:04:49
  these injuries have kind of have come into play.
• 1:04:52
  But Fowler is. She's tied for first in through
• 1:04:54
  balls. She had four kind of creating
• 1:04:56
  those dangerous passes in Group play.
• 1:04:58
  Yui Hasegawa is top five and passes into the final third
• 1:05:02
  through balls, tackles, interceptions.
• 1:05:04
  She remains an absolute baller despite a couple tough moments
• 1:05:08
  throughout this this group stage.
• 1:05:10
  But she is one of those players. We still have a decent amount of
• 1:05:13
  of experience losing Greenwood in, you know, in the back 4.
• 1:05:17
  But the experience outside of Keating you mentioned as a young
• 1:05:20
  up and coming * Kasparai Wahhabi, Alexandri Alana
• 1:05:24
  Kennedy, Yu Yasagawa. It's like as you get forward,
• 1:05:29
  though, you start to lack that that experience in that age.
• 1:05:32
  And like you said, that's just going to make it hard to win
• 1:05:35
  matches. I don't mean to sound overly
• 1:05:38
  pessimistic, but you know, do you see them beating Lyon over
• 1:05:42
  two matches? Do you see them beating Chelsea?
• 1:05:45
  Do you see them beating well, they're not going to draw
• 1:05:46
  Barcelona. I honestly, I have a hard time
• 1:05:50
  thinking that City in this state could beat Arsenal.
• 1:05:53
  And let me just tell you, if I'm talking about having bad
• 1:05:56
  feelings about things, I have a bad feeling that we're going to
• 1:05:59
  draw your Gunners. Wow.
• 1:06:02
  That's not a good match up for city.
• 1:06:04
  No bad. You know another.
• 1:06:06
  You can also look at Chloe Kelly, who is not available.
• 1:06:08
  You know, wasn't wasn't available for this one.
• 1:06:10
  The other thing about losing elite players is it just puts so
• 1:06:15
  much extra pressure on other players.
• 1:06:17
  Like you see a player like Yui Hasegawa, who I thought had a
• 1:06:20
  good game, but had a lot, had to do a lot more work than she's
• 1:06:23
  used to to get the same result, you know, And then when you look
• 1:06:26
  at bars on the other side, who has all, you know, 10 field
• 1:06:29
  players defending when they feel like it.
• 1:06:31
  And all 10 players kind of like in dangerous offensive positions
• 1:06:36
  when they when they feel like in the balls there, it's such an
• 1:06:38
  advantage to be at full strength and the flip side, such a
• 1:06:41
  disadvantage to not have all your players makes it really
• 1:06:43
  tough. I do want to shift gears though.
• 1:06:45
  Couple other teams, Group D, let's give them a proper salute.
• 1:06:48
  I want to start with hammer B. What are you going to remember
• 1:06:50
  from the same? Beside, I like to watch them
• 1:06:52
  play and I want to watch them play more.
• 1:06:54
  So I talked about this earlier. So I want to do the whole thing
• 1:06:57
  now. Who is going to do the thing
• 1:06:59
  where they secure the rights to Donald Fenskin, top Syrian air
• 1:07:03
  dev, Izzy Brown, the Scottish Women's Premier League?
• 1:07:06
  Who's going to secure the broadcasting and the streaming
• 1:07:08
  rights for those leagues so we can watch them here in the
• 1:07:11
  United States of America? I would like to see that happen.
• 1:07:14
  Maybe, you know, pull in some sponsors and maybe it could be
• 1:07:16
  the newly formed ITC Media Corporation.
• 1:07:19
  There you go. You never know man, and we'll
• 1:07:21
  see what you know. I got to check the bank account
• 1:07:23
  to see how much we can pay for the rights.
• 1:07:25
  Might be tricky. Yeah, I'm not sure if these beer
• 1:07:27
  sponsors are going to write a check big enough to let us get
• 1:07:31
  that, but who knows? I mean, who?
• 1:07:32
  Who are you bidding against? That's a good question.
• 1:07:34
  I mean, you never know, ITC Media Corp, we could always call
• 1:07:38
  the great Cameron Pope the great Chris Sharples.
• 1:07:40
  Maybe Leanne Sanderson might want to do a broadcast.
• 1:07:42
  She was actually on the pregame show for the Arsenal match,
• 1:07:46
  which was fantastic on the zone. Always great to see the legend
• 1:07:48
  out there. Shout out to Leanne.
• 1:07:49
  Of course, I digress. I want to watch these games.
• 1:07:52
  I want to watch more Donald Fencing and I want to watch more
• 1:07:54
  Hammer be in general. I think maybe my favorite stat
• 1:07:57
  from the group stage, at least from this group.
• 1:08:00
  Katinka Tonberg, the dangerous forward who had a goal in each
• 1:08:03
  victory over St. Polton in the group stage as
• 1:08:05
  currently tied for seventh in XG.
• 1:08:08
  She also leads the tournament in fouls committed.
• 1:08:13
  Let's go. She has 16 fouls committed and
• 1:08:16
  her colleague, her teammate Julie Blocks side is number 2
• 1:08:19
  with 15 fouls committed. So I like hammer B style.
• 1:08:23
  Don't come up in here. No, no chance.
• 1:08:25
  It doesn't matter if I'm a forward, I'll still follow you.
• 1:08:28
  They're about that business over there, so I love the way they
• 1:08:31
  play. I want to positive question to
• 1:08:33
  you that nine nil loss to Barcelona on match day 2.
• 1:08:38
  So Barcelona loses on match day one, then they go home and play
• 1:08:42
  their first home match of this tournament, their title holders,
• 1:08:45
  and Hammerbee has the misfortune of being the pinata frankly in
• 1:08:51
  that match, losing 9 nil. Do you think that has an impact?
• 1:08:55
  And that sets a tone for the rest of the group stage?
• 1:08:58
  Do things shake out differently for Hammerbee?
• 1:09:01
  Maybe they don't finish second above Manchester City, but do
• 1:09:03
  things look at least a little different if they're not put in
• 1:09:06
  that absolutely unwinnable situation on match day 2?
• 1:09:10
  I don't think I think so. I mean, this team still notched
• 1:09:12
  6 points in the group, two wins over Zeng Bolton.
• 1:09:15
  They weren't going to beat Barcelona and I'm not sure they
• 1:09:19
  were going to push City that far.
• 1:09:22
  Now the other thing to consider, you know, you mentioned her,
• 1:09:25
  Tinka Tomberg, 20 years old, Ellen Vanderheim who also played
• 1:09:29
  really well, 20 years old, Julie Blocks that you also mentioned
• 1:09:31
  23. This is a young team that I
• 1:09:34
  think we expect to be back. They kind of didn't really, I
• 1:09:38
  don't know, they we didn't really see any kind of like
• 1:09:41
  lasting effects from that that match.
• 1:09:43
  I don't think. I think they came out pretty
• 1:09:45
  tough. They might be just young enough
• 1:09:47
  where they've got that amnesia. It's like, all right, well,
• 1:09:49
  yeah, it was OK. It's Barcelona.
• 1:09:50
  Like Barcelona must seem like giants to some of these young
• 1:09:53
  players that are that are just basically still roughly just
• 1:09:57
  graduating from their from their teenagehood.
• 1:09:59
  So I don't I don't think there was a negative effect that I
• 1:10:02
  would say I think it was probably good experience.
• 1:10:04
  You know, like it's good to kind of take an L like that against a
• 1:10:08
  real, you know, you know, the second best team in the world.
• 1:10:10
  What are you going to do? Right.
• 1:10:12
  And, and like I said, I think this team still has some growing
• 1:10:16
  to do, but not in a way that's disparaging.
• 1:10:18
  Yeah, these are young players that that show real flashes that
• 1:10:22
  play really hard. So it's not you need them to
• 1:10:25
  grow up, you just need them to kind of mature into the fully
• 1:10:27
  formed footballers that they're going to end up being.
• 1:10:29
  That is, yeah, I think that's really well said, man.
• 1:10:32
  I'm I'm with you on that. And they definitely like the
• 1:10:35
  difference between like growing up and then maturing into a
• 1:10:37
  fully formed football player. They are another squad similar
• 1:10:41
  to Valeringa that have a physical presence already.
• 1:10:44
  I know I, you know, I kind of make it a little silly talking
• 1:10:46
  about the fouls, but they play strong, they play tough.
• 1:10:51
  We said a lot of the similar things.
• 1:10:53
  Now, obviously BK Hacken was a significantly more experienced
• 1:10:56
  team. They had some great veterans on
• 1:10:57
  that on that squad. But it makes me want to watch
• 1:10:59
  more Domus Fensk in football. I want to see them back in the
• 1:11:02
  in the Champions League next year.
• 1:11:04
  Now do I, do I want to see Hammerby back in the Champions
• 1:11:07
  League at the expense of Benfica like what happened this year?
• 1:11:11
  I don't I am very greedy. I want to have Benfica and
• 1:11:14
  Hammerby and possibly BK Hacken in the Champions League next
• 1:11:17
  year. So I realize throughout the
• 1:11:19
  course of this podcast, I've named several teams that I won
• 1:11:22
  in the Champions League. So I you know, however it works,
• 1:11:26
  let's let's get them all back in there.
• 1:11:27
  All right, let's go 2014 field. Let's let's go.
• 1:11:30
  Yeah, last last quick down on hammer beat held Barcelona to
• 1:11:32
  three goals at home next time around.
• 1:11:35
  So there you go two wins over Sam Bolton, like as mentioned
• 1:11:38
  and great community fans, minus that one fucking asshole that
• 1:11:42
  threw something about your shot. We'll talk about that one later.
• 1:11:44
  But outside of that, fans, pretty cool, you know, on the
• 1:11:47
  whole. Let's talk about that last score
• 1:11:49
  sank. Bolton didn't notch a point
• 1:11:51
  unfortunately, but I think, you know, a good showing.
• 1:11:54
  What are you going to take away from from their 2024 group
• 1:11:57
  stage? I totally agree in a good
• 1:11:59
  showing. And I'm curious if you agree
• 1:12:01
  with me on this. I don't care that they did get a
• 1:12:03
  point in the group stage because I think they were a revelation
• 1:12:07
  for two newbies like me and you to watch them last year.
• 1:12:10
  And they kind of think like, oh, this team, they win the Austrian
• 1:12:13
  league every year. We're kind of getting our
• 1:12:15
  bearings. We're figuring out more European
• 1:12:18
  women's football. They're like, OK, they obviously
• 1:12:20
  dominate the Austrian league, but they have no shot in the
• 1:12:23
  Champions League. This team is so much better than
• 1:12:26
  they were last year. Oh yeah.
• 1:12:27
  Camila Dubkova led the way for the Austrian side with two
• 1:12:30
  goals. Melanie Bruntaler and Valentina
• 1:12:33
  Medo chipped in with one. HI thought Sarah Matner Tremblow
• 1:12:37
  did a really admirable job in the midfield.
• 1:12:39
  She was top 10 and tackles, 1 dribblers, tackled and
• 1:12:42
  interceptions. And she was also tied for second
• 1:12:44
  and fouls drawn with her teammate Bruntaler.
• 1:12:47
  So they were able to get a little more on the front foot
• 1:12:51
  than they were last year. This is the incremental progress
• 1:12:54
  that we talk about. So if they continue to just
• 1:12:56
  blast teams over in the Austrian league and continue to just kind
• 1:13:00
  of sign players, work on their strength and conditioning, get
• 1:13:03
  these reps in the UEFA Women's Champions League, I look forward
• 1:13:07
  to seeing them back. They clearly, even though
• 1:13:09
  they've come in here, this is 2 Champions Leagues in a row that
• 1:13:11
  they haven't notched a point. They get through the qualifying.
• 1:13:14
  They're doing something right to get here.
• 1:13:17
  I'm really excited to see them play and I, I, I know I
• 1:13:20
  mentioned her every time we talk about a 25 year old Slovakian,
• 1:13:24
  Maria Mikhayova. She scores a fair amount of
• 1:13:26
  goals in domestic league play. She hasn't got on the board yet
• 1:13:30
  in the Champions League. I think she can.
• 1:13:32
  I like her creativity. I like that she's seemingly
• 1:13:35
  standing in the right spot in a lot of situations in Champions
• 1:13:37
  League play. So I'm calling it right now.
• 1:13:39
  They make it to the Champions League next year and they're
• 1:13:42
  going to get a win in the Champions League at some point
• 1:13:45
  next season. Oh, a win.
• 1:13:46
  I like that. I really like that.
• 1:13:48
  I could definitely see that that I would say a step up this year.
• 1:13:51
  So they they double their goal output.
• 1:13:53
  I I totally agree with you in terms of like what they look
• 1:13:55
  like offensively and just cohesively, you know, so they
• 1:13:58
  notch four goals in the six matches played.
• 1:14:00
  You mentioned the maid O goal that was against Barcelona.
• 1:14:02
  How about that? It's fucking go assisted by
• 1:14:05
  Maria Mikolajova, who you mentioned.
• 1:14:07
  She also wore the captain's armband for their last four
• 1:14:10
  group stage matchups. So that's that's a real player
• 1:14:12
  right there and I'm happy to do the honors.
• 1:14:15
  We're closing things out with think Bolton salute to Korea.
• 1:14:18
  Karina Schluter. You already know this is a maybe
• 1:14:21
  we're not the world's foremost AS Roma podcast or IAX podcast
• 1:14:25
  or Benfica podcast or Kika podcast.
• 1:14:27
  This is the world's foremost English speaking Karina Schluter
• 1:14:32
  podcast. I will not hear any other
• 1:14:36
  conversations over. It's over.
• 1:14:38
  Karina Schluter that's our keeper in spirit for sure.
• 1:14:42
  Another really solid showing no sleeves to be seen a a real
• 1:14:46
  gamer. She's out here trying to have,
• 1:14:48
  there's only meetings. She's ready to bang the gavel
• 1:14:51
  and when she's not, she's saving shots.
• 1:14:53
  ITC favorite through and through.
• 1:14:55
  I'm glad we're dismounting on Karina Schlitzer.
• 1:14:57
  Absolutely wonderful player, was in at least one team of the week
• 1:15:02
  in last year's Champions League. Just a phenomenal player.
• 1:15:05
  Love her energy, love her shot stopping ability in goal.
• 1:15:08
  She just ends up being under siege in a lot of these matches
• 1:15:11
  when she holds up as well as she possibly could.
• 1:15:13
  I'm with you man. I'm glad we hit it with the
• 1:15:15
  dismount. Tough as nails to could
• 1:15:17
  absolutely play offensive for the Green Bay Packers.
• 1:15:20
  Never sleeves, not out here doing that.
• 1:15:23
  Doesn't care what the temperature is.
• 1:15:24
  She's out there toughing it out. Love that.
• 1:15:26
  All right, quick programming reminder.
• 1:15:28
  Next week we're going to be back with our best elevens for 2024.
• 1:15:32
  We talked about this little bit on text.
• 1:15:33
  We're going to do a draft. So each of us are going to draft
• 1:15:36
  and then we're going to combine joint forces like Voltron to get
• 1:15:40
  our show's best 11. I, I want to kind of like mind
• 1:15:43
  meld. I want to share notes.
• 1:15:44
  I want to whiteboard to make sure that we can have the best
• 1:15:46
  possible best 11. We seen a lot of crap lists,
• 1:15:49
  shout out to the expected on goals guys as well who did a
• 1:15:51
  great breakdown of of all these crap lists and some of them, you
• 1:15:54
  know, not so crap lists. So we're going to try to do our
• 1:15:56
  best not to have a crap list. And I think the draft leading
• 1:15:59
  into the melding is probably like our formula to be able to
• 1:16:02
  make that happen. We're also going to be back in
• 1:16:04
  the new year to talk player movement, NWSL.
• 1:16:07
  Things are heating up there. In the new year, we're going to
• 1:16:10
  switch gears a little bit. We're going to, you know, go a
• 1:16:12
  little European, get a little bit more culture in our lives,
• 1:16:15
  talk a little WSL from this legal league, FC Neil and the
• 1:16:20
  Premier League and February 7th live on YouTube.
• 1:16:23
  You already know, make sure you're following, make sure
• 1:16:24
  you're subscribing because we will be covering the
• 1:16:28
  quarterfinals draw of the UAE Women's Champions League live on
• 1:16:32
  YouTube. As mentioned, the football kicks
• 1:16:34
  back off March 18th and 19th, so there'll be a little bit of a
• 1:16:38
  lull, you know, Champions League wise between now and March.
• 1:16:40
  But I think there's going to be a ton happening.
• 1:16:42
  And as mentioned, your boys are going to be diving way, way, way
• 1:16:44
  in to all the great football being played in Europe.
• 1:16:47
  So make sure you're subscribed. But Dino, are you guys going to
• 1:16:50
  be streaming during the quarterfinals draw or will you
• 1:16:54
  be streaming live after the quarterfinals draw?
• 1:16:57
  That's a good question. I mean, honestly, it might be a
• 1:16:59
  little rough on you buddy, because I think, I think they
• 1:17:01
  run that thing like 7:00 AM. Oh, shit.
• 1:17:04
  Yeah, that is true. Wow.
• 1:17:05
  All right. What?
• 1:17:07
  I coincidentally have the day off from work.
• 1:17:09
  Don't everybody keep this quiet. Don't talk to my.
• 1:17:11
  But I had other things to do that day.
• 1:17:13
  We don't need to talk to anybody's employer about all
• 1:17:15
  this. I have the day off for the
• 1:17:17
  quarterfinal. Drop Wonderful.
• 1:17:18
  Yep, same disease. All right, man, Anything else
• 1:17:21
  you want to hit before we get out?
• 1:17:22
  Of here, I think that's it. I think I've properly
• 1:17:24
  incriminated myself actually. It's never a crime.
• 1:17:27
  Let me just tell everybody, all your days off that you earn are
• 1:17:30
  yours to take for whatever reason you want.
• 1:17:33
  So no shame here. We earned our days off.
• 1:17:35
  We take them for the reasons we like.
• 1:17:37
  I think we've covered. I think we've substantially
• 1:17:39
  covered it now that I've somehow chosen to go down this road.
• 1:17:45
  I think we did it in a roundabout way.
• 1:17:47
  There's been another episode of Into the channel.
• 1:17:49
  Thank you. Thank you for watching,
• 1:17:50
  listening, following, like subscribing, commenting, just
• 1:17:52
  plain hanging out with your boys.
• 1:17:53
  And remember to like, if you like to subscribe or follow into
• 1:17:56
  the channel, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you
• 1:17:58
  like to watch or listen, leave us a review over your favorite
• 1:18:01
  podcast app links all of our socials in the show notes of
• 1:18:04
  this episode. And a big thank you to my coast
• 1:18:06
  as well, Mr. Grant Angle powered through.
• 1:18:09
  I appreciate you, bro. I mean, a successful group stage
• 1:18:12
  couldn't have done it without you.
• 1:18:14
  Likewise, Buddy, we made it through six matches.
• 1:18:17
  I mean six match days, really 12 match days if you think about
• 1:18:21
  it, because two each match day, a lot of matches of football.
• 1:18:24
  I'm not going to try to do the math right now because I'm not
• 1:18:27
  going to be good enough at that. But I wouldn't do it with
• 1:18:29
  anybody else, Buddy, Appreciate you rock with us and we wouldn't
• 1:18:33
  do it with anybody else other than you guys who are for
• 1:18:35
  helping us produce the show, watching the show, chiming in,
• 1:18:37
  dropping knowledge in the comments.
• 1:18:39
  We greatly, greatly appreciate the participation for you guys.
• 1:18:41
  Thanks for always keeping us honest and we will see you all
• 1:18:44
  next time.