Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / USWNT overwhelms Germany; Canada and Japan win late on wild Olympics Matchday 2

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USWNT overwhelms Germany; Canada and Japan win late on wild Olympics Matchday 2 · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

• 0:03
  OK, welcome to into the channel podcast premiered by women's
• 0:08
  football before we hit the pitch.
• 0:09
  If you enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your
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  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 your
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  favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
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  the show notes of this episode. I am your host Dino de Cespedes
• 0:26
  and as always I'm joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Angle.
• 0:30
  What is up man? No, buddy, I'm feeling
• 0:32
  absolutely fantastic. That was someday of football
• 0:37
  that we got to watch together. That was pretty entertaining, I
• 0:41
  would say. I would say feeling a little
• 0:44
  golden here in the States, you know, still a little work to do,
• 0:47
  but you know, now we're starting to see a little pathway, no
• 0:50
  draws. So if you're out here trying to
• 0:52
  find the draw, apologies. It's been, it's been WS and LS
• 0:56
  up and down the slate and we got a good, we got a good six
• 1:00
  matches. Like you said, I can't wait to
• 1:01
  get into it. Where do you want to get
• 1:02
  started? Well, I mean, there's only one
• 1:04
  place to get started. Again, we'll start it with this.
• 1:08
  I'm going to join you. Look at you outstanding.
• 1:11
  Let you go first, please, after you.
• 1:14
  Oh, thank you. I appreciate that.
• 1:18
  Sounds great, working on our manners over here.
• 1:22
  There we go. Nice.
• 1:23
  Got a little beer spray on the microphone.
• 1:25
  Hopefully that doesn't cost me money in the future.
• 1:27
  It's all right though. The acoustics were good.
• 1:30
  Excellent. Let's start with the US of A.
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  I think they played okay. I would say so BIG41 win over
• 1:41
  the Germans, the USA clinched a spot to the knockout stage.
• 1:44
  And what can I say that that trio upfront, Smith, Rodman and
• 1:49
  Swanson. I think at this point they need
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  a nickname that's that's kind of been a little bit of my own
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  personal crusade here. I wasn't able to come up with
• 1:57
  anything good. I've got a couple options here.
• 1:59
  So I've got I want to hear what you think.
• 2:00
  Let me know what you think about SOF Wind and fire.
• 2:03
  OK, good. Off to a good start right off
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  the bat. Yeah, I figure maybe Trinity's
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  fire, Swanson's wind, I see some, I see some parallels there
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  that kind of feels right. OK.
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  And the only other one I've got is Bell Biv de Goal Oh.
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  Come on, I mean that I really like that one, obviously.
• 2:23
  All right, so the challenge has been late.
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  Anybody watching the show, please tweet at us.
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  We definitely need a name for these three players.
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  I feel like this is going to be an era.
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  I feel like this is going to be maybe multiple Olympics,
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  multiple World Cups of these three players, just upfront
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  devastating teams, you know, and I think we saw it against this
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  German side. So I don't know, I think we, we
• 2:43
  can all kind of come together as a community, see if we can come
• 2:45
  up with something a little bit better than my, my sort of lame,
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  you know, 90s RB inspired nicknames here.
• 2:52
  I mean, Bell biv to goal. Come on man, Every time.
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  Every time they score a goal. Poison.
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  I mean, come on, man. Like, what are we doing?
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  Like, that's incredible. I mean, holy crap, shout to you.
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  I I love it. But yeah, we'll lay down the
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  challenge to anybody else. But I think you're off to a good
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  start. It's a high bar for friends of
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  the program to to try to beat, so good job out of you.
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  I appreciate that. What'd you see in this one?
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  Oh, all right, Yeah, I know enough about that sweet
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  nickname. The big three, they're a
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  complete nightmare. I I just want to start with, if
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  you were to create a right wing in a laboratory, I would want
• 3:32
  that player to be able to cross and pass the ball at speed.
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  I would want them to have the courage and the skill to take on
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  any defender 1V1. And I would want them to have
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  the mental toughness and the fortitude and the unselfishness
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  to track back and play defense. And that's Trinity Rodman.
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  She is the absolute perfect right wing player to have on
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  your squad and she completely bossed that game.
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  I know Smith had the brace, obviously Swanson and then later
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  Lynn Williams said we'll talk about that, let's go.
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  But so much of the action was being dictated by Trinity
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  Rodman. Her connectivity with Rose
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  Lavelle especially, was just cooking Germany's defense.
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  Yeah, I mean their their interplay, I think kicked off
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  the sequence for the first goal, you know, was like Rodman,
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  Lavelle Rodman and then just Rodman darting up the right side
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  Swanson couple couple slick dummies on back-to-back plays
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  and I think the the second one ends up turning into the goal.
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  But yeah, I mean, God also mentioned Lindsay Horan 2
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  assists on the tournament leads the entire field played great
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  again in this one. Lindsay Horan kind of finding
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  her spot amongst those 3 attackers and just sort of being
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  like a hey, I'm here like I'm ready to ping the ball wherever
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  it needs to go. And then Lavelle just kind of
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  like darting in and darting across from sort of everywhere.
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  She's such a wild card and she's just not afraid to kind of like
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  advance and put the ball into play into dangerous areas.
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  I think it's like a really cool, really cool balance amongst
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  those five. Yeah, it's unbelievable.
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  And then you have the the defensive smarts of Haran and
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  Coffee and then the back line. I mean, I we're gonna end up
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  talking about pretty much every player.
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  But when you have done and Fox on the wings and then in between
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  them you have Davidson and Germa Germa.
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  Germa was an absolute brick wall in this match, just stopping
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  everything. Crystal Dunn had a couple
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  moments where she's just taking the ball off Julie Brand, like
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  just taking it from her. I put in my notes.
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  It's going to be interesting to see going forward.
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  Jenna Neiswanger is not like an up and coming player.
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  She is a certified excellent player, a star in NWSLI.
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  Don't know if you can talk yourself into starting her over
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  Crystal Dunn right now. And I think there's a larger
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  conversation to be had. You know, I love this kind of
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  talk from her performance in the 2019 World Cup and Crystal
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  Dunn's willingness to basically cost herself dozens, if not 100
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  international goals and say, OK, yeah, I will go play on the back
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  line and then be excellent at it.
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  She will have a place in the conversation.
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  Whatever the number is, 10/20/25 of the most important players in
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  the history of the program is a pretty good program to be in
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  that place. I just, I just think you can't
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  understate how valuable she is as OK, she could be a goal
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  scorer. She could be player out on the
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  wing as an attacking player, but she allows herself to to go play
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  in the defense, be awesome at it, and then she's able to turn
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  defense into offense. I she you just can't say enough
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  about it. Yeah, totally agree.
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  It's been great seeing done play this well.
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  And I think just the whole defense you called out Germa,
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  Germa is some kind of combination of like a brick wall
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  and a force field and an all pro Free State.
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  I don't know, Sean Taylor, like a prime Sean Taylor, you know,
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  just out there defending, just making it impossible.
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  A couple times. She was the last line of
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  defense, and it was just like, oh, it looked like the lightest
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  of work for her, you know, no full stretch.
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  Like, oh, my God. Like, you know what?
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  I knock it off track with my shoelace.
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  Like, no, she was just like, OK, yeah, it's just me, All right, I
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  got it, You know, And like, it didn't matter who it was.
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  Brand Shuler pool, like Kerman was just up for all of it.
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  Incredible performance from her turn to Davidson, on the other
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  hand, leaves with a little bit of an injury.
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  I don't think we know anything yet.
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  Emily Sonnet steps and for her looked really good.
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  Obviously she's just, you know, rock solid as well.
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  Unfortunately, though, we're so early in the tournament and who
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  I think of, you know, I think Crystal Dunn and Emily Sonnet
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  are sort of the Swiss Army knives of this, you know, U.S.
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  National team. And if Davidson's going to be
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  out for an extended period of time, that means you've got to
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  go to one of those probably Sonnet as more of a full time
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  player. And it just takes away a little
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  bit of versatility, a little bit of flexibility.
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  I mean, it does take a little bit away from the general
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  versatility because now you can't bring Sonnet in at like 60
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  minutes to spell whoever you might want to choose.
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  But you could do a lot worse if you when you need to replace
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  Tierra Davidson. So you're lucky that you have
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  her. But yeah, it's a really good
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  call out that it limits your options a little bit.
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  But obviously you want Davidson to be OK just in general and as
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  any sports fan would. I don't think it's anything, and
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  I don't think you're saying this either, but I don't think it's
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  anything to hit the panic button about.
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  Definitely hope not, that's something we'll definitely keep
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  an eye on. Also want to give Alyssa narrow
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  shot out. So over these two matches, she's
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  faced nine shots on target, only giving up the one goal, which
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  was a screamer from Julie Vin on that German side.
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  And I think, you know, if you're Germany, I think you got to be a
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  little bit disappointed maybe in this one specifically looking at
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  those those three players, Clara Bull, Leia Schuler and you brand
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  like just not being able to break all the way through that.
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  You know, the score ends up coming from a Gwyn strike from
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  real distance. And on a play where I think
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  Coffee fouls Alex Pop a good distance away from goal and the
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  classic, you know, play the advantage defenders kind of slow
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  up for a bit, kind of look around.
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  It was like, right, are we playing?
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  Are we not playing? And that's enough for then to
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  just smash it, you know, and then that catches near a little
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  bit of sleep. But yeah, just just to have
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  given up the one goal, nine shots on target faced, hard to
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  do much better than that. Yeah.
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  And I think, I think you're right.
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  I think there a little bit not expecting that, but I mean it
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  was an incredible angle on the shot from Given.
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  It goes through. I think Davidson tries to make
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  the block, but it goes through her legs.
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  So like Nair reacts like a little late in like a couple
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  different ways. But I mean as good of a shot as
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  you could take low to the ground kind of skipping in there.
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  Just a lot of factors in there to make it great for Given.
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  Yeah. And I think, I think Schuler and
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  Buell, I thought they had a couple chances that they could
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  have finished like in my like live game notes, I was like, it
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  could have been 3/2 at one point.
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  I mean, there's the there's the one where the ball is kind of
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  bouncing around. Look like Schuler was gonna have
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  a tap in. And then Trinity Rodman again,
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  like Speaking of her tracking back on defense, she's down and
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  like she positions her body to kind of like shield the ball.
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  I think Davidson had the first block.
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  Rodman like Shields it and then gets it out of there.
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  It's just like they did everything right Like that was
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  maybe, maybe they didn't do everything right, but they did
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  so much right. It should make other teams
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  fearful to be like, well damn, are they going to have other
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  games where they do even more things right?
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  I mean, everything right is, I think pretty close to on the
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  money. I pulled some stats on this U.S.
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  team. So they're second in the field
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  in possession. They're holding the ball 66% of
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  the time across these two matches, 18 1/2 shots per game.
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  They're averaging first in the tournament, 7 1/2 shots on
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  target. That's nasty.
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  Imagine facing those three players.
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  I tried to come up with a conference for Swanson, Smith
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  and Rodman. Like who do they remind me of?
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  Like even going cross sport and I landed on it would be like
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  playing a basketball team that had Giannis, Giannis and
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  Giannis. You know, it's like, OK, like
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  The thing is like they can all pass.
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  They can all run. They can all sort of like nudge,
• 10:51
  They're fast. They're all they're quick.
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  Also, Sophie Smith had a couple bursts of speed where I'm just
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  like, Oh my God. Like you forget that in a short
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  distance she's just lightning. You know, she doesn't have like,
• 11:01
  I don't think that the straight ahead top end speed or maybe she
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  does. She doesn't, you know, totally
• 11:04
  show it all the time. But from a quickness standpoint,
• 11:07
  when she wants to go, it's just like she looks like a wide
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  receiver, you know, running a route against the linebacker.
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  Like a lot of time it's just like no chance when she's off
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  and running. One last stat here, So US leads
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  the field in this stat as well. They are scoring a goal every
• 11:22
  5.3 shots they take. OK, so that's pretty good.
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  When you're putting out 18 1/2 per match on average, that's
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  going to result in a ton of goals.
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  And I think we know we're definitely seeing it, you know,
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  with the naked eye, we're seeing it playing out on the field and
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  the stats absolutely back it up. I love that you gave the
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  possession stats and now I know it comes with the caveat that
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  they played Zambia in the first match and Zambia's game is not
• 11:48
  really ball control. Down a player.
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  As we'll discuss, yeah, down a player for 60 minutes and as we
• 11:55
  will discuss later, Zambia, they will give up goals, they will
• 11:59
  give up shot attempts. But Germany looked awesome
• 12:03
  against Australia in the first match and USA just came out
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  there and blasted them. We were already in the spin
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  cycle of being like, well, Germany didn't look that good in
• 12:14
  the Euro qualifiers up Germany's back, never right off Germany.
• 12:18
  And I still, I maintain never right off Germany.
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  But Germany looks like a team that had to get everything right
• 12:25
  in order to beat USA. And that's not typically how a
• 12:28
  German football side looks like. Usually they're able to have a
• 12:32
  measure of control and kind of dictate some of the terms, and
• 12:35
  they just weren't able to do much of any of that.
• 12:37
  Yeah, they're actually struggling.
• 12:38
  Like I think both of their matches, stats wise, they're
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  putting just 34 1/2 percent of their shots on target, which is
• 12:45
  definitely near the the bottom of the field.
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  So 34 1/2. The leader in the category is
• 12:49
  France at 52, so it's a huge gap between those two.
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  And there's three more teams that are over 4034 1/2.
• 12:56
  That's a tough go. Yeah, Julie Foudy had a lot to
• 12:59
  say too, about Alex Pop playing in the midfield, not being in an
• 13:03
  attacking position. To me, that wasn't the problem.
• 13:06
  Wasn't the problem that they didn't have Pop in an attacking
• 13:08
  position. The problem was that they had
• 13:09
  Pop in the midfield and she had a hell of a time like connecting
• 13:13
  passes against this US defense. Coffee, Haran, those other
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  players that you mentioned, they just made it really tough on
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  her. And I kind of feel like maybe
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  Pops confidence started to get derailed a little bit because, I
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  mean, she was missing on some easy stuff as the match went on.
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  And then you look at that defense, Katherine Heinrich,
• 13:30
  like she misplays a clearance, gets swiped by Sophie Smith, who
• 13:35
  wins the the 3070 ball. Yeah.
• 13:38
  And that becomes the Swanson put back, You know, not quite
• 13:40
  Germany's day, nowhere near, you know, how good they could play.
• 13:44
  But they were, they were definitely, I think way off the
• 13:46
  mark today. That's fair to say.
• 13:48
  So, you know, we'll continue to maintain our never write off
• 13:52
  Germany ethos, but it'll be interesting to see the next big,
• 13:57
  big squad that Germany comes up against.
• 14:00
  Assuming that they're going to make the knockout stage.
• 14:01
  I think that's probably a pretty safe bet.
• 14:03
  They have Zambia next and we'll see how that goes.
• 14:06
  But once they get into the knockout round, it's like a
• 14:07
  guarantee they're going to face another giant out there.
• 14:11
  I think I'll be I'll be very interested to see how that looks
• 14:13
  for them. Yeah, absolutely.
• 14:15
  So they're actually in second place in the group.
• 14:17
  They still have a two goal, goal differential advantage over
• 14:19
  Australia. So they could be kind of locked
• 14:22
  into that that second place and they get to face Zambia.
• 14:24
  Australia's got to take on the USA.
• 14:26
  So I think they'll they'll get a somewhat favorable draw in the
• 14:29
  knockout stage. But I think either way, if they
• 14:32
  don't get those 3 attacking players on track, I think it's a
• 14:35
  one and done once it once they hit the knockout stage.
• 14:38
  And lastly, Lena Oberdorf, like you, you definitely missed her
• 14:42
  in this one. You got to imagine that she she
• 14:44
  would have made things a little bit more difficult for that US
• 14:47
  attack. Yeah, of course that's a, that's
• 14:49
  a great call. Not to take anything away from
• 14:51
  Braun, Bull and Schuler, but the the other trouble with having
• 14:56
  Pop in the midfield is now you don't have Alex pop to score
• 15:00
  goals up front. So like Pop can't pass to
• 15:03
  herself up there and you know, her finishing touch.
• 15:06
  Obviously that goes without saying.
• 15:08
  So we knew it when it happened. The Obradorf injury is just
• 15:11
  massive for them, but they still have a lot of skill out there.
• 15:14
  So I'll be I'll be very excited to see how it looks against
• 15:17
  Zambia. And then you're probably right.
• 15:19
  I mean against one of the other giants if we look at it.
• 15:23
  So OK, let's say they finished second in Group B, then they
• 15:26
  will take on 2nd in Group A. So it might be France, it might
• 15:32
  be Colombia, it might be Canada, might be New Zealand, it won't
• 15:35
  be New Zealand, but it might be Colombia, it might be France, or
• 15:39
  it might be Canada. Yeah, I think that's a tough
• 15:41
  matchup against either of those teams.
• 15:43
  And I think, you know, for those unfamiliar with Oberdorf's game,
• 15:46
  it it would be akin to losing Kerma right before the the
• 15:49
  tournament. You know, it's just such a
• 15:50
  centerpiece type player. They're just going to be tough.
• 15:53
  I mean, they're sealing probably maybe winning a knockout game.
• 15:57
  Sure, like you said, they got to definitely got to get things on
• 15:59
  track in not quite a must win, but a must result for sure.
• 16:04
  Jeremy takes on Zambia, who just came off.
• 16:07
  I don't know, absolute barn burner in Australia.
• 16:10
  I don't even know where to get started.
• 16:12
  Where where do we get started when a match notches?
• 16:15
  Oh, I don't know, Eleven goals. No defense necessary, my good
• 16:18
  man. That was optional today, yeah.
• 16:20
  I mean forwards or any attacking player you could imagine.
• 16:24
  Just largely running free. The backlines were employing
• 16:28
  these interesting techniques of over shading way to one side,
• 16:32
  creating massive passing lanes, not marking players on set
• 16:35
  pieces. But it turns out a lot of
• 16:37
  players between Australia and Zambia are capable of scoring
• 16:40
  goals in those situations. I mean, we could play a game of
• 16:46
  which of the 11 goals was your favorite and you get to pick
• 16:50
  whatever reason it was your favorite.
• 16:52
  And then we could do which of the 11 goals was our least
• 16:55
  favorite and then give our reasoning for that.
• 16:57
  If you're interested in A in a mini game here within within the
• 16:59
  show A. 100% interested in the mini game here.
• 17:02
  I'm going to go with my least favorite just because I just
• 17:05
  felt bad for this player. Yeah, so Australia's first goal,
• 17:09
  the Alana Kennedy goal, Zambia defender Lucioma Muemba doesn't
• 17:14
  get the memo that Zambia is going to try to hold the line
• 17:17
  here. And what ends up happening?
• 17:19
  I think it's a Steph Catley free kick over the top.
• 17:21
  She plays all five Tilly attackers on site with no chance
• 17:26
  of defending. Like literally like three or
• 17:28
  four. Matilda's could have knocked
• 17:30
  that one in. Like as soon as the ball is kind
• 17:32
  of like leaves Catley's foot, I'm like, oh, that's definitely
• 17:34
  a goal. OK, that's the lead.
• 17:37
  So such a such an absolute whiff defensively and that was just
• 17:42
  the tip of the iceberg really. But I think Moambo was just so
• 17:44
  singled out trying to run alongside 5 till the attackers.
• 17:48
  Just a tough look at it. I didn't like the the feel of
• 17:51
  that one. Yeah, that's totally fair.
• 17:53
  And that's one of those situations where, you know, I I
• 17:55
  mentioned it briefly after match day one, Zambia's goalkeeper
• 17:59
  Musole, you know, she had a pretty rough go of it in the
• 18:02
  first match and she was not without a few mistakes in this
• 18:07
  match too. But that that's a real bummer
• 18:09
  for her. That's that goal is absolutely 1
• 18:12
  trillion% not on her like she has completely exposed in that
• 18:16
  situation. So I will say my least favorite,
• 18:20
  let's call it the own goal that gets called against MU Soleil.
• 18:23
  So a free kick hits the crossbar, which everything was
• 18:26
  bouncing off the crossbar off the post Chaos ensues.
• 18:30
  And then it's in Mwembe again. And then Mwembe tries to clear
• 18:34
  the ball off the line and kicks it right off Musole's back into
• 18:37
  the goal for an own goal at 58. And that was the first of the
• 18:42
  four unanswered goals. And I, I'm not going to pretend
• 18:45
  like I was like, oh man, it's happening now because they only
• 18:48
  had cut it to 5:00 to 3:00. But I was like, the radar was a
• 18:52
  little peaked. I was like, OK, if maybe Banda
• 18:54
  gets her 4th and ices this away, but I don't like the look of
• 18:58
  that. And I didn't like the look of
• 18:59
  any of the players after it happened.
• 19:01
  But obviously you give up a kind of a cruddy own goal like that.
• 19:04
  I, I, I don't expect anybody's body language to be great after
• 19:07
  that moment. This this game was fraught with
• 19:10
  highs and lows for sure, and I think the first high starts just
• 19:14
  seconds into the game. Probably my favorite goal, the
• 19:16
  Banda worldly like just. Yeah, come on.
• 19:19
  The audacity of it. But then also like, even though
• 19:23
  it was a wild goal, like if you give her that look, it's 8 1/2
• 19:27
  out of 10, She's just sticking it.
• 19:30
  She's like, this happens to be my spot.
• 19:31
  This happens to be my situation. And she was like looking for it
• 19:34
  too. It's not one of these sort of
• 19:36
  panic like hacks at it. She was like, oh, like I think
• 19:38
  she was ready for that opening and took it right off the bat.
• 19:42
  And you can kind of see a little bit the tension and a little bit
• 19:45
  of maybe the pressure of kind of carrying, you know, a little bit
• 19:48
  of the football nation, you know, on her back released
• 19:50
  there. And then I think I think you saw
• 19:53
  pretty much that whole Zambian attack, for better or worse,
• 19:56
  really get loose. And I think maybe the the the
• 19:59
  defense maybe a little too loose as the game more on.
• 20:03
  Perhaps I'll follow your lead on that.
• 20:05
  I think Banda's second goal, Mackenzie Arnold's punch, not
• 20:10
  nearly strong enough. But what made me laugh about it?
• 20:14
  I, you know, you obviously feel for Arnold in this situation.
• 20:17
  But imagine you punch for the clearance and then you just see
• 20:20
  it land at Barbara Banda's feet and you're like, I mean, OK, so
• 20:24
  that's not that's that's obviously only ending one way.
• 20:29
  Nightmare situation to find yourself in.
• 20:33
  Credit to Australia though, they pull it out.
• 20:35
  You mentioned those four unanswered goals to pretty much
• 20:38
  save their turn their their tournament.
• 20:40
  Zambia not mathematically eliminated, but Australia right
• 20:43
  up in the mix now a -, 2 goal differential, 3 big points.
• 20:47
  And like we mentioned there, there hasn't been any draws yet
• 20:49
  in the tournament. So everybody's either on zero or
• 20:51
  three or six. Zoom out, you've got eight teams
• 20:55
  that are at three points or above.
• 20:58
  It's amazing. So you know, eight are going to
• 21:00
  go through and I think we and, and the one wild card there
• 21:03
  which we'll get into is Canada, who's on zero points but has won
• 21:07
  both their matches. So, you know, they've got a
• 21:09
  really solid goal differential and with a win like they might
• 21:13
  leapfrog some of these. So if you get stuck on three,
• 21:15
  Canada might is there to leapfrog you.
• 21:17
  Yeah, so huge result here for Australia.
• 21:20
  Yeah, massive like you said it, it saves their tournament.
• 21:22
  OK, so let's let's do this thought exercise then.
• 21:25
  Australia. They just don't have enough to
• 21:28
  beat USA. You know, maybe you get a Kroy
• 21:30
  Bethune goal. Hint, hint.
• 21:31
  Emma put Kroy Bethune in the match.
• 21:33
  I don't know, maybe, maybe Bethune has a great assist to
• 21:36
  one of your great strikers. I don't know, maybe put her in
• 21:39
  the game. But I digress.
• 21:42
  USA wins Australia, they remain on three points and now they're
• 21:47
  goal differential, let's just call it -3 and Canada gets a win
• 21:51
  and now Canada has three points and a + 3 goal differential and
• 21:56
  they move on over Australia. How mad are those Australians
• 22:02
  going to be that the team with the big cloud of the drone
• 22:06
  scandal and the spying scandal goes on ahead of them?
• 22:09
  I'll save my Canada thoughts for when we talk about them and like
• 22:14
  how much of a big deal I think it is or like, I don't know
• 22:16
  however we want to talk about it.
• 22:18
  But they're going to be furious if that happens.
• 22:22
  Yeah, it's a little weird because FIFA makes a six point
• 22:25
  deduction and then it's kind of like, I don't know, this double
• 22:28
  jeopardy apply here. Can they go back and like, you
• 22:30
  know, re punish them for something right or apply another
• 22:33
  layer of punishment on top of that?
• 22:36
  I only really have one thought on this Canada situation and
• 22:40
  it's basically this. Let's all stop with the
• 22:42
  narrative of like, oh, the players didn't do this and why
• 22:45
  should the players be punished and the, you know, the players
• 22:48
  and you know, there's somebody else in it.
• 22:50
  It's like this is an organization thing.
• 22:52
  It would be a travesty for those players to get punished.
• 22:56
  But this is at the organizational level like that,
• 22:58
  you know, like Canada football is the players plus the whole
• 23:02
  infrastructure. It's like the selection of
• 23:04
  players. It's the strategy stuff, the
• 23:06
  tactical stuff. All of it is part of one
• 23:08
  organization. You kind of win as an
• 23:09
  organization, even though the players I think are the only
• 23:11
  ones to take the home medals. Yeah, it's sort of an extension
• 23:14
  of the kid glovesy nature of like, look at the girls out
• 23:17
  there just, you know, having fun for the love of the game.
• 23:19
  And, you know, it's like, you know, this is just a shitty
• 23:22
  situation. Some jerks were doing something
• 23:25
  that they definitely should not have been doing.
• 23:27
  Totally, totally, totally not above board.
• 23:29
  And that's the risk you run when you're doing something that
• 23:32
  nefarious. You might just sync the whole
• 23:34
  thing and it's awful for the players, but you have to
• 23:37
  consider the whole team, you're the whole infrastructure, the
• 23:40
  whole organization as one entity, unfortunately.
• 23:43
  I think you're spot on and I I'm glad you I'm glad you frame it
• 23:47
  that way. You kind of open my open my eyes
• 23:49
  to a couple things here. So of course, obviously if you
• 23:53
  think about Canadian football, you think about Miriam Karabi,
• 23:57
  if she scores bangers. Now she has been covering this
• 24:00
  extensively. Obviously, as you would imagine,
• 24:03
  she had AC Lang from West Soccer Canada on her last couple shows.
• 24:08
  And when you talk about like how far back in this go, is it going
• 24:10
  to be like double jeopardy? This is the thing that I'm kind
• 24:12
  of interested in. I realize we're taking a little
• 24:14
  bit of a detour from what's happening here.
• 24:16
  But if they're the reporting is that this drone scandal might go
• 24:20
  back as far as 2017. And Miriam said it on one of her
• 24:24
  last two podcasts, The 2020 gold medals might be in play here to
• 24:29
  be revoked. And so I'm trying to remember
• 24:32
  how it worked with Reggie Bush. I think I have this right.
• 24:36
  Reggie Bush, American collegiate football player found guilty of
• 24:39
  the crime of accepting money as an athlete when he was in
• 24:43
  College in 2005. Shame on him.
• 24:46
  Yeah, tis tis you got paid for your talents.
• 24:48
  I believe if I remember this correctly, when they took away,
• 24:51
  took away his Heisman, he forfeited the actual trophy back
• 24:55
  to the NCAA or the Heisman Trust.
• 24:57
  I think he forfeited it in 2010. Let me tell you something for
• 25:00
  the Canadian players and I hope that they follow this advice and
• 25:03
  I I'm sure they've already thought about it.
• 25:04
  I don't know how it works in Canada, but you better be
• 25:07
  working for an organization that goes by three letters.
• 25:09
  If you're coming into my house and taking my gold medal,
• 25:12
  because you're not ever, you're not invited in, you ain't taking
• 25:15
  my gold medal. I won that medal on the field
• 25:18
  and nobody is. You can tell me it doesn't
• 25:19
  count. You can tell me I don't.
• 25:21
  I don't get to celebrate anymore.
• 25:22
  I don't get the parades or the free beer or whatever.
• 25:25
  That's fine. You ain't taking it out of my
• 25:27
  house. But I was.
• 25:28
  I was floored when Reggie Bush gave back the Heisman because
• 25:31
  you would have to pry that thing from my cold, dead hands.
• 25:35
  I mean, even then, good. Luck.
• 25:38
  Yeah. For real?
• 25:38
  No, I mean I earned that shit. Yeah, No, no, no, I think, you
• 25:42
  know, if you, if you want to strip something away on
• 25:44
  Wikipedia or something or you know, fifa.com or IOC, some,
• 25:48
  some web archive do that. But my shit stays in the safe.
• 25:52
  How about that? Hell yeah.
• 25:54
  Or I'll just be like, oh, maybe I auctioned it off on eBay a
• 25:56
  couple years ago. You know, times were tough.
• 25:58
  Need a little scratch it now. I don't know.
• 26:01
  I ain't got it. Don't don't come bothering me
• 26:03
  for it. Yeah.
• 26:03
  So that's why I say and you know.
• 26:05
  She ain't home. Yeah, exactly.
• 26:09
  There's there's just a lot in play here.
• 26:11
  And I, you know, Christine Sinclair, like right after
• 26:14
  everything drops, she issued a very strong statement that said,
• 26:17
  I never watched any drone footage in any of my time with
• 26:20
  the federation or with the team. So I'm not going to besmirch her
• 26:24
  character or accuse her of anything.
• 26:26
  I really hope that's true because once you get out there
• 26:30
  with that public statement, and to be fair, I, I do not have a
• 26:32
  reason to believe it's not true. I just want to say we've seen
• 26:35
  really strong denials in the past and then they kind of come
• 26:38
  back to bite folks. So if this is and I I want to
• 26:42
  take Christine Sinclair at her word here.
• 26:45
  If this was like you kind of said, like just a few jerks,
• 26:48
  people with like a lot of arrogance who who just thought
• 26:52
  they could get away with this for years and years.
• 26:54
  Now they get they have to wear that.
• 26:56
  You ruined it for everybody. Now Vanessa Jill has to has to
• 26:59
  have this on her. And that's on, that's on the
• 27:02
  people who are flying the drones, the, the people who came
• 27:04
  up with this ridiculous plan, like all that stuff.
• 27:07
  That's where the majority of the shame should go.
• 27:10
  I think your point about like infantilizing the players or
• 27:13
  being like, oh, you know, don't don't blame them.
• 27:16
  I don't necessarily blame them, but the, the penalties are going
• 27:19
  to be what they are. So I, I think it's fair that you
• 27:22
  say it's an organizational penalty.
• 27:23
  And unfortunately the players are part of part of the
• 27:25
  organization. And now we just get to watch our
• 27:27
  favorite thing in sports, one of our favorite things in sports,
• 27:30
  everybody picking sides because now you're going to have it.
• 27:32
  You're going to have the rule zealots and the people who are
• 27:35
  going to be like, they're cheaters, they're the worst to
• 27:37
  get them out of here. And then you're gonna have the
• 27:39
  people who be like, screw it, win it all costs, do whatever
• 27:41
  you gotta do. And then we're just gonna get a
• 27:43
  lot of sports radio conversation out of that.
• 27:45
  So at least we at least we have that to look forward to.
• 27:47
  That's true. And you know, thankfully, you
• 27:49
  know, this is our show so we can take the we can take our
• 27:51
  conversation wherever we want it.
• 27:52
  Very true. Speaking of this Canadian team,
• 27:54
  how about little Canada 2, France one?
• 27:58
  What'd you see in this one? Yeah, pretty entertaining I
• 28:00
  would say. France looked really good, maybe
• 28:03
  really good as two strong, but they at least looked good in the
• 28:06
  first half. The build up play was was there,
• 28:08
  they just couldn't breakthrough. But when they did 42nd minute,
• 28:11
  who else could it be? Marie Antoinette, Katoto, just a
• 28:14
  display of like 3 quick touches, exactly what we were talking
• 28:18
  about in the last show where she's not operating in a ton of
• 28:21
  space, but it's just OK one one and then she can get the shot
• 28:24
  off. Gio goes for the block, he goes
• 28:26
  between her legs. No real shot for Sheridan to
• 28:29
  save it. And Katoto has three goals in
• 28:31
  the tournament, tied for that Golden Boot race, which I don't
• 28:34
  think there is a Golden Boot in the Olympics.
• 28:35
  Doesn't matter in our hearts. In the ITC record book, there is
• 28:38
  a Golden Boot. Absolutely.
• 28:41
  But then shit, shit changed in the second-half.
• 28:44
  France did not look nearly as good.
• 28:46
  And we always talk about her. The Chelsea blew herself, Ashley
• 28:49
  Lawrence just scaring the crap out of France down either wing,
• 28:54
  right wing, left wing, doesn't matter.
• 28:55
  Whatever part of the field she's on, you're chasing her because
• 28:58
  you're not nearly as fast and as athletic as she is.
• 29:01
  She's so good. She's like, it's crazy.
• 29:04
  You know, she sort of has the you know what you watch like the
• 29:07
  like either NASCAR or F1 racing where the cars are like kind of
• 29:10
  nudging up into each other and like the drive with the good car
• 29:13
  and like the good skill always can kind of like maneuver past
• 29:16
  you and kind of squirt. And then you're just like they
• 29:18
  did it again. Like, you know, it's like that
• 29:20
  just seems to be like the Ashley Lawrence corollary.
• 29:22
  She's just like when she wants it doesn't matter.
• 29:25
  Like it doesn't matter how fast you are, where you're at.
• 29:27
  You know how well your position. She can just get around you one
• 29:31
  way or the like. There's just no stopping Ashley
• 29:33
  Lawrence when she's that determined.
• 29:36
  Yeah, that's a great point. And she did exactly that with
• 29:38
  that determination, with that speed and skill.
• 29:40
  She serves the cross in payroll. Manion tries to get her hands on
• 29:44
  it. So Jesse Fleming right there for
• 29:46
  the toe poke. It's 11.
• 29:47
  I'll just kind of Fast forward to the very end.
• 29:50
  You could just see there is a look on Jesse Fleming's face
• 29:52
  throughout the match where she was like, yeah, this isn't over
• 29:54
  yet. We're not going out like this.
• 29:56
  I think there there's a funny shot of her, you know, like
• 29:58
  those like, it's like applesauce or like whatever that like
• 30:01
  squeezy, like whatever it is. Yeah, kid, let.
• 30:05
  The runners take it. There you go.
• 30:06
  Yeah, I fear it was like a go, go squeeze or whatever.
• 30:09
  I'm sure that's what they're feeding them over there.
• 30:11
  And yeah, there's just a funny camera shot of her just like
• 30:14
  devouring bring the go go squeeze and like with his real
• 30:17
  like serious look at her face. They get the other scrappy goal.
• 30:20
  It's Jill at the end, which was cool to see because Jill, she's
• 30:24
  a hard nose defender and she's like always in the mix.
• 30:27
  So then like in that first goal in the Katoto goal, the ball
• 30:30
  gets, it's scored and it's through her legs and you're like
• 30:33
  heartbreak. And we saw it in the Kaki FW
• 30:35
  Gold Cup. She just gets like some hard
• 30:37
  luck goals because she's just out there defending, you know,
• 30:40
  strikers. So it was good to see her put
• 30:42
  that away for the win. Absolutely.
• 30:44
  And I'm gonna, I'm gonna dust off an old back in my day when I
• 30:47
  used to hoop story. Yeah.
• 30:48
  So this was a big thing for me. You mentioned before, you know,
• 30:51
  I'm a tallish guy, six, 3:00-ish in my prime.
• 30:55
  I could throw it down with the best, with the best of the six,
• 30:57
  three, you know, you know, Bros in that in that high category.
• 31:01
  And I never understood the notion of like, oh, getting
• 31:03
  dunked on. Like for me, I was always going
• 31:06
  up and trying to contest dunks and like, I didn't really care.
• 31:09
  And, you know, you get a hand on one and like, stop a play or,
• 31:13
  you know, maybe it's a timely foul, but you can't just let
• 31:15
  somebody come in and dunk on you.
• 31:16
  Yeah. I think I've been dunked on
• 31:18
  maybe a couple times in my entire career.
• 31:19
  One of them, I was in my late 30s and I don't even know what.
• 31:22
  I forgot how old I was. Right.
• 31:25
  But I've also made some spectacular defensive.
• 31:28
  And I think Vanessa, Jill is like that kind of player.
• 31:31
  She just does not care. She's going to be in the mix.
• 31:34
  She doesn't care. She doesn't care about, oh,
• 31:36
  like, did somebody get me on this one?
• 31:38
  She's just hungry to defend and hungry to win the ball back.
• 31:42
  And like, you know, to say that she's not thinking is not fair.
• 31:45
  But she's so instinctive and so hungry as a player.
• 31:48
  You know, it's, it's like 0% surprising that, you know, the
• 31:51
  ball falls to her and she's the one that that knocks home the
• 31:54
  winner. Yeah, great way to put it, I
• 31:57
  think. I think the the last couple
• 31:59
  things I want to touch on are Canada, they just they keep
• 32:02
  bringing on Evelyn Viens later in these matches.
• 32:05
  Yeah, and and she just creates chances.
• 32:07
  I mean, you're you're just casually bringing on the Syria
• 32:10
  Golden Boot winner off the bench and she looks dangerous every
• 32:14
  single time she's out there. I just felt like France, man, to
• 32:17
  kind of to switch gears back over to them.
• 32:20
  They just started doing the thing where they just knocked
• 32:23
  the ball around in the last 45 and it's like, can you guys just
• 32:27
  like they had they had a chance near the very depth of it.
• 32:31
  Bosher drives the ball down the field and she plays in a nice
• 32:33
  cross to Gay Oreo, and Gay Oreo just whiffs it.
• 32:36
  And I was just like that. And you know, you know, I got a
• 32:38
  love for Grace Gay Oreo, one of my favorite players for PSG.
• 32:41
  It's just like that was probably the one.
• 32:43
  I'm so I'm ecstatic that you brought up that that Bosch
• 32:47
  across in the that the death, because I also took note of that
• 32:51
  play because if we're talking about the same play, the clock
• 32:54
  was like well past the allotted time of, of, of extra time,
• 32:58
  right, yes. And France is just like, you
• 33:00
  know, it's like Karshawi is knocking around.
• 33:02
  Like they all made is in there, you know, like, and I think
• 33:04
  they're just kind of going back and forth and like Bosh is like
• 33:07
  screaming for the ball and like she gets it.
• 33:10
  And like in two touches, she gets to her Bosha spot as she
• 33:13
  gets off her Bosha cross, you know, and like, like, like she
• 33:16
  seemed to be the only one late in that match who had like a
• 33:20
  sense of urgency is like, OK, I know that we're France, that we
• 33:23
  play in a very French way, but we need to score.
• 33:26
  We're losing this match. We cannot lose at home.
• 33:29
  Like they're at a little bit of risk.
• 33:30
  I mean, like, mathematically it's possible they they could
• 33:33
  not advance out of the group stage here.
• 33:36
  So they definitely still need a result.
• 33:38
  This loss to Canada really hurts.
• 33:41
  I mean, I think a draw pretty much ends Canada's run because
• 33:44
  they're still there, who has still been in the negative
• 33:46
  points territory thanks to that points deduction.
• 33:48
  But now that group totally up for grabs.
• 33:51
  France on three points, Columbia on three points and Canada
• 33:53
  within striking distance. Absolutely.
• 33:55
  I and I will say I mean if France loses because I think
• 33:59
  they would have to lose to to not make it out of the group
• 34:01
  stage. If they lose to New Zealand, you
• 34:04
  already know Irvine Renar is is out anyway.
• 34:07
  But the whole technical staff is probably looking on LinkedIn for
• 34:10
  new jobs if they lose to New Zealand at home in the Olympics.
• 34:15
  So they got to get that done and even if if you draw New Zealand
• 34:18
  and you make it through, just start brushing up the resume
• 34:21
  because you're probably not going to be around for much
• 34:24
  longer even though you advance out of the group stage.
• 34:26
  Yeah, we were talking about this a little bit pre show.
• 34:28
  It's funny that these group, these teams are grouped together
• 34:30
  because Columbia feels like a team that always beats the team
• 34:35
  that they should be handily. Like it's just like you line
• 34:38
  them up, knock them down. France, on the other hand,
• 34:41
  they're happy to engage in these like nip and tuck games with
• 34:44
  with teams that they shouldn't really be in like that kind of
• 34:47
  engaged with. They should obviously wax New
• 34:50
  Zealand. But there's something in the
• 34:51
  back of my mind, man, like, you know, you think back to that
• 34:53
  nil, nil, you know, against Australia in the World Cup,
• 34:57
  dropped that one in penalties and France was a heavy favorite
• 35:01
  in that match against Australia, even though they were on the
• 35:04
  road playing as the home team, they were just so much, so much
• 35:07
  more firepower on that France team shot it to the CO2 file.
• 35:09
  It couldn't have been fun watching that one go down.
• 35:13
  But the flip side, you know she was on it.
• 35:16
  Yeah, she was right on it. I mean, and we got encouraged
• 35:19
  from the opener. They played on the front foot
• 35:21
  versus Columbia. They thought like, OK, we could
• 35:22
  take these players on attacking wise and they did that.
• 35:26
  And now you just get this backslide.
• 35:28
  And it's just like what is going on in the culture here where you
• 35:31
  have just supreme talent on the pitch and you just cannot find a
• 35:36
  measure of consistency or like, I like that you point out like
• 35:39
  the sense of urgency at the end of matches and stuff, or even
• 35:42
  it's like, OK, we've been kind of knocking the ball around
• 35:45
  aimlessly. Now, now let's get our sense of
• 35:47
  urgency. It's like, well, we could have
• 35:49
  used that 35 minutes ago or, you know, who knows from the
• 35:52
  beginning of the match, if I could be so bold.
• 35:54
  So I think it's going to be really interesting to see your
• 35:56
  point about Columbia when they go and they beat up teams that
• 36:00
  they should beat up. They beat the crap out of New
• 36:02
  Zealand. I I understand it was a two nil
• 36:05
  game. Didn't look like it like they
• 36:07
  dominated them. Yeah, totally.
• 36:09
  No my Ramirez either. Think we got clarity on the the
• 36:12
  red card suspension issue that we were kicking around last week
• 36:15
  internally. So she's out, probably takes her
• 36:18
  place. And yeah, Columbia just muscles
• 36:21
  New Zealand around the park and they have a big time match
• 36:25
  against Canada. That's going to be really
• 36:26
  interesting. But before we get there, I want
• 36:29
  to talk a little bit about Columbia.
• 36:30
  Obviously we've seen we've seen a great 90 plus from them
• 36:33
  against New Zealand. I think we saw them win the
• 36:35
  second-half against France. Is this a team that is kind of
• 36:39
  rounding into a little bit of shape?
• 36:41
  I think, you know, Kaiseta had a little bit of swagger too on
• 36:43
  this New Zealand matchup, and I think the attacks were coming
• 36:46
  from different places. I think that was like another
• 36:48
  exciting part. I was like, OK, wow, this is a
• 36:49
  Colombian team that can hurt you a lot of different.
• 36:51
  Ways now yeah, 100% I mean Kai Sado was blowing past defenders
• 36:56
  and she not only just using her speed, just real clever play.
• 36:59
  She she had like multiple instances where she was getting
• 37:02
  the New Zealand players off balance and then just tapping
• 37:05
  the ball out of their path and they're completely shattered
• 37:08
  ankles. She's just getting to her spots.
• 37:11
  The Restrepo goal is you know, it's it's falling out of the
• 37:14
  air. She's like just past the top of
• 37:17
  the 18 and she has that swooping volley where how many times have
• 37:20
  you seen it watching any level of football where so many times
• 37:25
  the player hits that and they have to kind of like really
• 37:27
  swing their leg around to get to it and it they just hit a pop
• 37:30
  straight over over the goal or they get over it and they hit
• 37:33
  like a ground ball and that bounces and it's either blocked
• 37:36
  or it gets saved. She hit that thing clean, kept
• 37:40
  it low, kept it on a line and perfectly on target.
• 37:43
  Just magnificent skill. So to your point, between Kai
• 37:46
  Sato, Usmei, Pavi Restrepo, Lacey Santos and now you bring
• 37:53
  back Myra Ramirez, that's a lot of skill and a lot of toughness
• 37:56
  on that side. I mean, you know, we talked
• 37:58
  about him pre pre tournament. This is another one of those
• 38:01
  teams where you hit it on the head, they dominate the teams
• 38:04
  that they're gonna beat. We just got to see him start to
• 38:06
  get some big results against some of the other giants in the
• 38:09
  game. I think they're going to be up
• 38:11
  for this Canada matchup. Oh, I believe it.
• 38:13
  Obviously you, you know, that their DNA like they're just a
• 38:16
  super tough out. Oh, yeah.
• 38:18
  They pushed England to the absolute limit in the World Cup
• 38:21
  and played really great the whole of the entire tournament
• 38:23
  leading up to that against Canada.
• 38:25
  This happens quite a bit when there's like real odds stacked
• 38:29
  against a team. You'll see them kind of like
• 38:31
  push. You'll see them kind of like,
• 38:33
  you know, squeeze something out, like grab something that, you
• 38:35
  know, was really, really tough and then, you know, sort of just
• 38:39
  sputter out at the end just because I could do so much work.
• 38:41
  I mean, like, I don't think anybody was expecting this
• 38:44
  Canada team to clear this group with three wins, a group with
• 38:49
  France in it, a group with Colombia in it.
• 38:51
  They've won their first two now, obviously their backs against
• 38:55
  the wall as well. Their tournament's over with
• 38:56
  anything except a win. A win probably carries them
• 38:59
  through based on the goal differential math.
• 39:01
  But I don't think Colombia is interested in any of that.
• 39:03
  I think Colombia is interested in being like, OK, like this
• 39:06
  would be a nice tune up for us heading into the knockout stage.
• 39:09
  I really like Colombia to get a result here and not back into
• 39:14
  the knockout stage, but fully kind of like shake off that that
• 39:18
  32 loss to France topin and really go into knockout stage
• 39:21
  with some momentum. I think it's one of the two
• 39:24
  matches I'm looking forward to the most.
• 39:26
  Got to be Colombia and Canada. Yeah, it's, it's must watch TV.
• 39:29
  It's going to be at noon over here in the Pacific Northwest,
• 39:33
  man. Canada, do we have to consider
• 39:36
  the magic or the sports movie trope of like our Baxter against
• 39:41
  the wall, our leadership let us down like the all the evil suits
• 39:47
  up top, which, you know, I usually do subscribe to that
• 39:49
  notion. But like management, they acted
• 39:52
  like a bunch of dirtbags and and we didn't realize this was going
• 39:54
  on and now they put us in this bad spot.
• 39:56
  Can that be the rallying cry? Or are you going to see Ramirez
• 40:01
  and Kaiseto and Santos on the field and be like, whoa,
• 40:04
  they're. Really fast, oh man, they're
• 40:06
  playing a lot of good passes in between to each other man, just
• 40:09
  so much intrigue in here. And then we would also get the
• 40:12
  rare 3 victories plus goal differential 3 points for some
• 40:18
  reason. So that's an interesting the
• 40:21
  prospect on the board for. Sure.
• 40:23
  I actually think Canada caught a little bit of a tough break
• 40:25
  because had they beaten Colombia in the second matchup and then
• 40:28
  had that third against France? I think I made me feel
• 40:31
  differently. You know, obviously we saw this
• 40:33
  Canadian team beat France, but there's just something about
• 40:36
  Columbia where they're not going to give a shit about that story.
• 40:39
  They're going to be like, that's we don't care, you know, we
• 40:41
  don't care like that you were wronged or, you know, that this
• 40:44
  is, you know, unjust or an injustice or etcetera, etcetera.
• 40:47
  They're like, we're here to punish you.
• 40:51
  This is a team. It sort of reminds me a little
• 40:54
  bit tough to say because I mean, there, there's a, there's a few
• 40:57
  similarities, but there's also a few key differences.
• 40:59
  But in some ways, it does remind me of like the Argentinian men's
• 41:02
  team where it's like, damn, the pieces are there.
• 41:06
  The infrastructure is not there, obviously, but the pieces are
• 41:09
  there. The play is there, the coaching
• 41:10
  is there, the spirit is there. It's just a matter of like, OK,
• 41:14
  when is this team going to start really knocking on the door of
• 41:18
  the upper echelon teams in the world?
• 41:20
  And I don't think they're far off, man.
• 41:22
  I think that they played France super tough, big win here,
• 41:25
  tremendous showing in the World Cup.
• 41:27
  A AA1 talent, you know, in a couple spots on the pitch on any
• 41:31
  given day. I mean, I like, I wouldn't be
• 41:33
  shocked if this team played Spain to a draw and now it's
• 41:35
  penalty kicks, you know, or beat a Japan or, you know, push the
• 41:39
  USA to the brink. Like this team is like sort of
• 41:41
  like right right there knocking on the door.
• 41:43
  I like it. You you've been on Columbia from
• 41:46
  Jump Street, so I'm here supporting you and I think I
• 41:49
  mean, you're obviously the talent is too good.
• 41:51
  I'm with you on that. I think Ashley Lawrence running
• 41:55
  up against that Columbia defense.
• 41:57
  I think that's going to be something to really watch for
• 42:00
  Evelyn Bien's kind of, you know, in between the center backs and
• 42:04
  kind of trying to to pick out that space, whether it's the
• 42:06
  last 30 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if it's
• 42:09
  the last 45 minutes. If you're just like, OK, bring
• 42:11
  her on early. Let's go to especially depending
• 42:13
  on what happens in the first half, man, absolute banger.
• 42:16
  Absolute banger. I think it's, I think it's the
• 42:19
  one I'm it might be the one I'm I'm most intrigued for.
• 42:23
  It's one or two. We'll talk about the the last
• 42:25
  group here and then, then I can decide.
• 42:27
  Let's do that Group C. So we're almost an hour into the
• 42:30
  pod and let's talk about the world champs here, Spain.
• 42:34
  Spain get that disrespect, health ones I know can't believe
• 42:38
  it. One nil. the Champs get past
• 42:40
  Nigeria, but more importantly get a big win, clinch their spot
• 42:43
  in the knockout stage. What you see in this one?
• 42:45
  I mean, it's another great performance by Spain.
• 42:49
  Some people might think that Spain is supposed to blow
• 42:51
  everybody out of the water, but that would be under selling how
• 42:54
  good Nigeria is. And so because I have so much
• 42:58
  respect for Nigeria as an organized defense with one of
• 43:01
  the better keepers in the world, I think you could look at this
• 43:04
  again and say another fantastic performance by Spain.
• 43:08
  They hold the ball, they wear you out and then they have
• 43:11
  multiple players on the field who can get you that spectacular
• 43:14
  piece of skill. Most notable among them, or
• 43:17
  maybe second most notable among them, two time Balandor winner
• 43:20
  Alexia. Piteas, go and give it to you.
• 43:22
  So Spain, you talked about it, 75% possession over the first
• 43:27
  two matches. Fucking crazy.
• 43:29
  Come on now. They're also leading the field
• 43:30
  in shot attempts, 19 1/2 per their shots on target rate,
• 43:34
  though. That's kind of where things
• 43:35
  break down a bit. And I think we've seen that
• 43:37
  coming into a tournament. You know, we looked at that
• 43:39
  Caldente, Pariuello, Edamoso like kind of attack and you're
• 43:44
  like, they're going to need a little something probably from
• 43:46
  Maitana or Patri or Alexi. As mentioned.
• 43:49
  Their shot on target rate, though, is bottom four in the
• 43:52
  field, under 36%, and they're taking thirteen shots to score a
• 43:57
  goal worst in the field, tied with New Zealand.
• 44:00
  As a reminder, the USA tops. That's that, 5.3 shots to
• 44:04
  Spain's 13. So Spain's definitely being a
• 44:06
  lot to be desired. What I really liked about this
• 44:08
  match, I didn't expect this coming into it, but this is how
• 44:11
  it played out. Like we got a couple different
• 44:13
  moments where Alexia and Anadosi go head to head.
• 44:17
  I think in the first half, there was that one play where Alexa's
• 44:20
  got like like a stone cold opportunity right in front of
• 44:23
  goal, huge save by Inidosi. I think that if I'm remembering
• 44:26
  this right, the play by play announcer was like already
• 44:28
  proclaimed it the save of the he was like, there will not be a
• 44:32
  better save. I was like, I was like, I like,
• 44:35
  yeah, Co signed me up for that. That's a nice bet.
• 44:37
  And then 85th minute, obviously we saw the second moment of
• 44:39
  magic. Alexia beats Inidosi from
• 44:42
  distance off a free kick. I watched this one on Telemundo.
• 44:45
  Shout out to the play by play announcer.
• 44:47
  Who had the following call? Espana Valirecto Porcino, which
• 44:53
  is basically a long drawn out. Why not?
• 44:56
  It's incredible. He just was caught up in the air
• 45:02
  and just slammed it home. Excellent call on that one.
• 45:05
  I love it, Yeah. And you know what?
• 45:07
  It is one of those, and there's a good tweet going around.
• 45:10
  We retweeted it from the ITC Twitter account of the back
• 45:14
  angle from Alexia shot where you see the curve on it from the
• 45:18
  distance. And I mean, it's just absolutely
• 45:21
  unreal. Nothing Inadozi can can do about
• 45:23
  that. I mean, and why not is the is
• 45:26
  the exact right way to frame that?
• 45:28
  It's like, you know, Alexia's got the skill, so why not try
• 45:32
  it? Yeah, and what a great way to
• 45:33
  get her back. And I think I'm glad you
• 45:35
  mentioned that. Nigeria defense master for
• 45:37
  performance from them. Not in defense, but I thought
• 45:40
  Oshawa was great in this one. Very spirited effort, a little
• 45:43
  bit of a chip on her shoulder playing against a lot of her old
• 45:45
  Barsa teammates. Michelle Lozier, who we know
• 45:48
  from the NWSL Houston Dashes, Michelle Lozier, she looked very
• 45:51
  effective. But yeah, they were great on
• 45:53
  defense. I think they've been great on
• 45:54
  defense kind of all tournament. So they're allowing a shot on
• 45:57
  target rate of just 29%. So that means they're crowding
• 46:01
  shooters. That's second in this tournament
• 46:03
  behind France. It just a smidge behind France.
• 46:06
  So like they're really making it tough even to just get a clean
• 46:09
  look and just put your shot on target.
• 46:11
  They're making that difficult. And I got to I got to mention
• 46:13
  it. ITC favorite Christy Ushaby of
• 46:17
  Benfica gets pulled off the match for China County late.
• 46:21
  You know, you got to credit Nigeria and their strategy
• 46:24
  department for trying to play a little bit aggressive.
• 46:26
  But the very next action after you shave he steps off the
• 46:29
  field. Is Alexia bearing that winner?
• 46:32
  Coincidence? Who's to say?
• 46:37
  Who is to say, I'm not sure what shame would have done about
• 46:39
  that, that free kick, But your point stands.
• 46:42
  She put in a full 90 versus Brazil.
• 46:44
  She puts in 85 minutes against Spain.
• 46:47
  I mean, she's a Talisman, like, like player out there kind of
• 46:51
  keeping everybody organized, helping the ball move around.
• 46:54
  There's so much to like about Nigeria.
• 46:55
  We we like begrudgingly had to say before the tournament when
• 46:59
  we did some predictions. It's a bummer to think that both
• 47:02
  teams from the continent of Africa would not make it through
• 47:06
  to the knockout round. It seems like that's probably
• 47:09
  gonna happen, which really sucks.
• 47:11
  But like you definitely want to see both of these countries put
• 47:14
  more and more resources in there because you have an assortment
• 47:17
  of some of the players who like Banda is like the best striker
• 47:20
  in the world and a Dozy is one of the best keepers in the
• 47:22
  world. Chebi is a is a great holding
• 47:25
  midfielder, kind of utility midfielder.
• 47:27
  You have elite players. Let's keep putting the resources
• 47:30
  in these programs and then you can start making some knockout
• 47:33
  rounds, some quarterfinals, maybe a semi final of a World
• 47:35
  Cup or something like that. Because you you have the talent
• 47:38
  and you have with Nigeria super intelligent defense too.
• 47:41
  So they're they're doing a lot of things right over there. 100%
• 47:44
  agree. And I think like, imagine a
• 47:46
  team, I can't do this, obviously, but imagine a team
• 47:49
  combining Nigeria's defense with Zambia's offense, how scary that
• 47:52
  team would be, you know, and I think like, you know, it's just
• 47:54
  a matter of these teams evolving a little bit.
• 47:57
  And I'm glad you brought this up because I had this thought about
• 47:59
  Zambia specifically. So we were excited about them in
• 48:02
  the World Cup, but they were like the longest of long shots,
• 48:06
  right? And they looked it they looked
• 48:08
  like Panama or a Philippines or a you know, like they were sort
• 48:11
  of, you know, in in those waters.
• 48:13
  But in this matchup, they look on the level with Australia,
• 48:17
  obviously know Sam Kerr on Australia, but this Australia
• 48:19
  side is a team that finished fourth in the in the last World
• 48:22
  Cup. Yep, ranked in the top 12.
• 48:24
  And I don't know, to my eyes, Zambia's not too far off.
• 48:28
  I don't think Zambia, I don't think of those players left that
• 48:30
  game thinking like, oh, damn, like that We, we missed a chance
• 48:32
  to like pull the greatest upset in Zambian history.
• 48:35
  No, it's like, no, this we should have beat that team or
• 48:37
  we, we absolutely should have beat that team at the very
• 48:39
  least, you know, taken to a draw, you know, like they're
• 48:41
  very clearly ascending at a speed that I don't think any, I
• 48:46
  don't think we're noticing, you know, to to be honest.
• 48:48
  Yeah, thinking about this Nigeria side, just to switch
• 48:51
  gears, kind of tough. They they've yet to net a goal
• 48:53
  in this tournament. So as good as they've been
• 48:55
  defensively, you have to be able to threaten, you have to go to a
• 48:58
  finish. You know, I think they're
• 49:00
  they're doing fairly well in possession.
• 49:02
  You know, they're getting chances, they're putting a few
• 49:04
  shots on target, but they're not really being able to finish at a
• 49:07
  rate, at any kind of rate really.
• 49:09
  They're still sitting on 0. But I think these two sides, I
• 49:12
  think by the next World Cup cycle, to be honest, you know,
• 49:14
  you're going to have a Barbamanda in her prime or maybe
• 49:17
  entering her prime, you know, come three years from now.
• 49:20
  I think her and Kuna Naji are still both in the 23 year old
• 49:23
  kind of range. And I think athletically, it was
• 49:26
  wild to see Zambia be able to run with that Australia side and
• 49:29
  like see Ellie Carpenter not be able to catch Mopopo from
• 49:33
  Zambia, You know, like just being like, I don't have
• 49:36
  anything for this player. And I think the telecast
• 49:39
  mentioned that. I think she she's got some
• 49:41
  Olympics level track and field in her game, Mopopo
• 49:45
  specifically. But I'm I'm just excited to see
• 49:47
  the the growth of the game on that continent for sure.
• 49:50
  A. 100% you teed me up for this. It turns out the key to beating
• 49:54
  Zambia in the Olympics let Barbara Benda score a hat trick.
• 49:57
  Because in in the last two Olympic tournaments, Benda has
• 50:01
  three hat tricks. OK, that's insane.
• 50:04
  Off off rip. But the Copper Queens have zero
• 50:07
  wins, one draw and two losses in those matches.
• 50:11
  They had the 10, three loss to Netherlands where Benda scored
• 50:14
  all three. They had the four four draw
• 50:16
  versus China, also in Group play at 2020.
• 50:19
  And now they have this 65 loss to Australia.
• 50:21
  So if you let Benda get three in a match, you might be in good
• 50:26
  shape in an Olympic group play. Absolutely.
• 50:29
  And I, I mentioned last week and maybe last week or maybe the
• 50:31
  week prior that I wasn't rooting for anything except for USA
• 50:36
  versus Spain. At some point during this
• 50:37
  tournament. I got to amend that slightly now
• 50:39
  because I think Nigerian and Zambia both on zero points,
• 50:43
  Nigeria yet to score. I'm really rooting for some
• 50:46
  results for both of these teams heading into their final
• 50:49
  matchup. Zambia's going to take on
• 50:50
  Germany. We know the history of those two
• 50:52
  sides and Nigeria, they're going to take on Japan.
• 50:55
  I don't know Japan will will get into them in a second.
• 50:58
  You know, they're holding the ball about 30 1/2% of the time
• 51:01
  over these two matches. That's going to be absolutely an
• 51:04
  opportunity for Nigeria to be able to put some together.
• 51:06
  But I, I really want to see both of these African sides get a
• 51:09
  result, leave this tournament, you know, on a high note, both
• 51:13
  these teams absolutely capable of making that happen.
• 51:15
  For sure, yeah. I, I like that too.
• 51:17
  Just rooting for them to kind of get out of there.
• 51:18
  I think, you know, Nigeria, Japan, that's going to be super
• 51:22
  interesting because the fact is somebody's going to have to play
• 51:25
  with the ball at their feet. I think Japan and Nigeria,
• 51:30
  neither of them have cracked better than 50% possession in
• 51:33
  either of their first two games. I think Nigeria was close.
• 51:35
  I think they had 48% possession in the last match or no, maybe
• 51:38
  in their first match. But yeah, I think it's going to
• 51:41
  be very, very interesting to see how Japan might be able to
• 51:45
  breakdown that really smart defense from the Super Falcons.
• 51:49
  Absolutely. Let's talk about Japan.
• 51:51
  So I don't know, they were able to put something together late
• 51:55
  against Brazil, Japan to Brazil, one, real fireworks in this one.
• 52:00
  Where do you want to get started?
• 52:01
  I felt bad for Mina to knock up. She misses a sitter in like the
• 52:06
  first part of the first half. I jumped up.
• 52:09
  It was like goal and it was not a goal.
• 52:11
  She just shaked it and I don't want to say I started to get
• 52:15
  like nervous, nervous, but I was like, oh, you don't want to
• 52:18
  waste those against Brazil because you don't know how many
• 52:21
  you're going to get with that defense.
• 52:23
  I thought Brazil, they played physical, they created some
• 52:27
  looks on set pieces. And then we had the first
• 52:30
  handball call, which I don't know, I, I want to talk about it
• 52:34
  a little bit. Like I just felt like the
• 52:36
  defender wasn't in an unnatural position.
• 52:38
  They're just trying to play defense.
• 52:41
  Her arms at her side. Well, her arms at her side as
• 52:45
  her arms are working their way back to behind her back.
• 52:48
  Like, you know, I'm saying like this one of the player clearly
• 52:51
  trying to like navigate out of the way and if there's no real
• 52:55
  advantage, it's just such a weird.
• 52:57
  I mean, I don't know, I hate doing like rules talk, but
• 53:00
  that's just not what any of us are here to see.
• 53:03
  I understand the letter of the law.
• 53:05
  It's a handball in the box. The spirit, though, to your
• 53:08
  point, she's trying to pull back.
• 53:10
  She's just playing defense. Her arms are at her side.
• 53:12
  Like it feels like there are a lot of other checkmarks that
• 53:15
  shouldn't have been it. But then we got a real ball.
• 53:17
  Don't lie moment. I thought I felt bad for Tanaka
• 53:19
  when she missed the sitter. That was a rare trio of
• 53:24
  attributes to take a horrendous penalty kick.
• 53:27
  She telegraphed where it was going.
• 53:29
  She did not place it anywhere near she wanted to place it and
• 53:33
  it had no pace. It was an awful penalty, a
• 53:38
  credit to Lorena for still, you know, reading it and then kind
• 53:41
  of realizing, like, oh, all I have to do is fall over to the
• 53:44
  left and I'll stop this. But that was ugly.
• 53:47
  And I think the thing that you see it in professional sports
• 53:50
  sometimes, but it's always a little jarring because, you
• 53:52
  know, like we always talk about every every great player makes
• 53:56
  mistakes. You have bad plays out there.
• 53:58
  You can see players be like, oh, shit, what was I thinking right
• 54:00
  there? That was bad.
• 54:01
  Meena Tanaka was visibly embarrassed after that PK and
• 54:06
  that really sucks to see because she's a great player, but from
• 54:09
  that effort, you know, I I don't blame her for feeling that way.
• 54:12
  No, definitely not mentioning that Lorena could have just
• 54:14
  falled down is like right on point.
• 54:16
  I mean, she literally just could have, you know, fainted from
• 54:19
  heat exhaustion stuff. That ball just hit so.
• 54:24
  So it's awfully. But yeah, the real ball don't
• 54:26
  lie moment. So Rashid Wallace was nodding in
• 54:29
  approval from his from his very lush couch, I'm sure.
• 54:32
  So that keeps it scoreless. A few minutes later, though,
• 54:36
  Brazil's able to get on the board pretty much on an action
• 54:38
  started from a Marta ball to Ludmila.
• 54:42
  And I wrote in my notes, great ball or greatest ball I've ever.
• 54:47
  Seen. Unbelievable.
• 54:48
  It's unbelievable. I mean, let's do another cross
• 54:50
  sport analogy. It's the Patrick Mahomes pass
• 54:54
  that's 50 yards down the field, but he's running to his right
• 54:57
  when he throws. Like for her to be able to turn,
• 55:01
  like she turns and in one motion hits the ball on a dime.
• 55:06
  Exactly. Catching Ludmilla in stride
• 55:10
  around a defender, I like it's mind boggling to even try that.
• 55:15
  Like you'll see players kind of try that pass and it's
• 55:18
  intercepted with no effort whatsoever from the defense that
• 55:21
  was served on a platter to let Miller to set up the goal.
• 55:25
  Yeah, like kind of a hook on that ball worthy of the Masters
• 55:28
  like it would be. But that ball was just filthy
• 55:31
  around the defender was crazy. And then Jennifer, who had just
• 55:34
  come on at that point, she caps it off, puts Brazil up one nil.
• 55:39
  And Brazil got to be feeling good at that point.
• 55:42
  But I think up until then, I think the chances were pretty
• 55:46
  balanced. I think up and down, you know,
• 55:48
  matched to this point, I think we were all kind of waiting to
• 55:51
  see who was and a breakthrough first.
• 55:52
  Dude, I think you're spot on, because I felt like it was still
• 55:55
  relatively even, and it's because Japan just has the
• 55:58
  ability on the counter and on the quick strike to ping
• 56:02
  together four or five passes and then create chances for
• 56:05
  themselves. And they continued to do that
• 56:06
  throughout the match. They were just having some hard
• 56:08
  luck and honestly just some lack of lack of finishing touch in
• 56:12
  different opportunities. Yeah, I think super on point A1
• 56:16
  nil game, a lot of different types of one nil games as you
• 56:20
  get later in the match. This one definitely felt like
• 56:22
  there was something coming, even though game kind of cooled off a
• 56:26
  little bit. And then unfortunately not our
• 56:30
  last handball of the night. We got one extremely late and I
• 56:34
  think a little just as questionable maybe as the first
• 56:37
  one. It's certainly unlucky.
• 56:39
  I mean, Yasmine leaves her feet when you fall down.
• 56:42
  Like everybody's natural reaction is to like, kind of
• 56:44
  like pick yourself back up. And it feels like she's just
• 56:47
  trying to get her balance and she moves her right hand and
• 56:51
  then her hand hits the ball. I think this one, I think I'm
• 56:55
  just going to side more on. It's unlucky.
• 56:58
  It's unfortunate, but you know when the balls on the ground in
• 57:01
  the penalty area and you're on the ground as a defender and you
• 57:04
  reach out and hit it with your hand, it's like, OK, you almost
• 57:08
  kind of force the referees hand, no pun intended to call that
• 57:12
  penalty. And then Saki Kumagai steps up
• 57:15
  with one of the longest damn run UPS I've ever seen for a
• 57:17
  penalty. I don't know why she's like
• 57:19
  standing outside the top of the circle of the 18.
• 57:22
  I thought that was interesting. I'm trying to think of like
• 57:25
  other penalty kicks like I've seen, like Speaking of Brazil,
• 57:29
  like Roberto Carlos used to sometimes take like these
• 57:31
  comically long run UPS to take free kicks.
• 57:34
  I don't know why Crew guy started her penalty that far
• 57:37
  back. I think she was kind of hiding
• 57:39
  amongst some other Japanese players.
• 57:41
  Just want to spring out from the group.
• 57:44
  Or like another player was gonna like, run out and tell you like,
• 57:47
  yeah. I mean, credit to to the captain
• 57:51
  for her, you know, being a little savvy and just an
• 57:53
  excellent penalty. I mean, especially mentally
• 57:56
  coming off, you know, seeing what happens to Tanaka early and
• 57:59
  you're down one nil. This is it.
• 58:01
  This is like I think the foul happens in the 88th or 89th
• 58:05
  minute and then by the time the pit, the penalty kick is taken,
• 58:08
  they're at like 9290. They're way, way deep in this
• 58:10
  match. So a good amount of pressure
• 58:13
  there to essentially keep Japan alive because if they lose this
• 58:17
  one now it's two matches, no points, which was a very, very
• 58:21
  live outcome, you know, as she's taking that that very surprise
• 58:25
  run up. Yeah, definitely.
• 58:27
  And you know, we've talked about it.
• 58:29
  I think Lorena in goal for Brazil, she can give you some
• 58:33
  some nervy moments from time to time.
• 58:35
  I think largely she's strikes me as a pretty good keeper.
• 58:38
  I do not claim to be a goalkeeping expert.
• 58:40
  However, I think she's pretty good.
• 58:41
  I mean, she did have a moment in the middle of the second-half.
• 58:44
  I think it was where she basically just passed the ball
• 58:47
  to Yui Hasegawa, but the the Brazilian defense was able to
• 58:50
  kind of snuff it out. I think overall, I think I think
• 58:53
  she's she's handled herself pretty well.
• 58:56
  And with that in mind, I don't think you can blame that last
• 58:59
  goal on her. I know, I know she's out.
• 59:01
  She's out, out of her area essentially, but when that ball
• 59:05
  comes to Momoko Tanakawa, you know who is actually currently
• 59:08
  on loan to our old pals at FC Rosengart of the Domel Svenskin
• 59:13
  from her parent club Bayern Munich.
• 59:15
  Tanakawa, just an incredible piece of skill and presence of
• 59:18
  mind to look up and hit that from deep for the winner.
• 59:24
  It was a total gut punch for Brazil.
• 59:26
  You could see as soon as Tanakawa hits it, everybody kind
• 59:30
  of looks, but there's one Brazilian defender who just
• 59:32
  immediately goes like, it's like she could tell the exact angle
• 59:37
  that it was on. Perfect, perfect strike from
• 59:40
  Tanakawa. Yeah, it's got to be devastated,
• 59:42
  Devastating. I think we also saw Martz on the
• 59:43
  bench, absolutely gutted after this.
• 59:46
  Brazil's tournaments not, not over.
• 59:48
  Japan's tournaments not over. Still a lot of ball to be
• 59:51
  played. I think looking ahead, though,
• 59:53
  you start to talk about some of these most exciting matchups
• 59:56
  this match. Day three here, coming up.
• 59:58
  Spain, Brazil, Yeah. How do we not lose our fucking
• 1:00:03
  minds? Watching 90 plus minutes of
• 1:00:05
  that, Brazil's on three points and they kind of need to result
• 1:00:08
  against Spain. Unfortunately, they're one of
• 1:00:10
  those eight teams who've got at least three points, but they're
• 1:00:13
  sitting at an even goal differential and they're taking
• 1:00:16
  on the Champs. So a bad loss there could put
• 1:00:19
  them in jeopardy of not advancing for sure.
• 1:00:22
  You know, we we talked about Canada, they're definitely
• 1:00:24
  looming. They've got a a better
• 1:00:26
  differential than Brazil. The only way Brazil probably
• 1:00:28
  feels confident and they're playing the Spain team that's
• 1:00:31
  already clinched. So who knows what the line UPS
• 1:00:34
  look like. Who knows where the where the
• 1:00:35
  intensity level is. But I would love to see Brazil
• 1:00:38
  kind of get something here against Spain and find their way
• 1:00:41
  into the knockout stage. And in the other matchup,
• 1:00:43
  Nigeria, Japan talked about it. Love to see Nigeria put some
• 1:00:47
  together here, at least get on the board.
• 1:00:48
  Would love to see them get a result.
• 1:00:50
  But Japan in that same boat, one of eight teams on three points.
• 1:00:53
  They've got an even goal differential.
• 1:00:55
  So they want a result, but they're a little bit of a,
• 1:00:57
  they're a little bit of a stronger position than Brazil.
• 1:00:59
  Yeah, I think that's the perfect way to put it.
• 1:01:01
  I think if you're Japan and you get a draw with Nigeria, you're
• 1:01:05
  sitting on 4 points. You just got to hope Brazil
• 1:01:07
  doesn't beat Spain. I think if you're Spain, you
• 1:01:10
  might be hesitant and it's not like you can rest that many
• 1:01:13
  players anyway with an 18 player roster.
• 1:01:15
  I think if you're Spain, I think you want to go out there and
• 1:01:18
  take it to Brazil a little bit. I mean, you know, there's a lot
• 1:01:21
  of history and the way these these nations view themselves as
• 1:01:25
  footballing operations. And I know Julia Bellastrendage
• 1:01:30
  talked to us about how Brazil they've been.
• 1:01:32
  I'm lacking in that. A bunch of dudes up top have
• 1:01:34
  been trying to hold back women's football for years and years.
• 1:01:37
  Hopefully there's enough people in that federation that can come
• 1:01:41
  to their senses or people like Julia who are putting pressure
• 1:01:45
  on those people to say, oh, OK, so you're just going to go in
• 1:01:48
  there and just get cracked by Spain.
• 1:01:49
  That's what kind of operation you're running.
• 1:01:52
  And I, I don't doubt the players for a second, but hopefully the
• 1:01:55
  federation can look over at what Spain is doing and think we
• 1:01:58
  should be able to do that. We're Brazil.
• 1:02:00
  I have no doubt that the players are going to be going into that
• 1:02:02
  match with that mindset. That was why I was hesitant.
• 1:02:05
  I know the stakes in Colombia and Canada, but I still football
• 1:02:09
  brain is just like, yeah, but also Spain, Spain, Brazil.
• 1:02:12
  I mean, come on, say we're talking about Spain and we're
• 1:02:14
  talking about Brazil. Like I think that's the one I'm
• 1:02:16
  most excited to watch with Colombia.
• 1:02:18
  Canada close second. There we go.
• 1:02:20
  I mean, just just the color clash to Spain, Brazil, it's
• 1:02:24
  gonna be just a beautiful mosaic of of activity on the field
• 1:02:27
  there and there's real stakes. So definitely excited about
• 1:02:29
  that. All right, man.
• 1:02:30
  And football's back on Wednesday.
• 1:02:32
  I feel like we pretty much covered match day two top to
• 1:02:35
  bottom. Lot of stakes here coming up.
• 1:02:37
  Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
• 1:02:39
  I think I got one more thing I I didn't get to it during the USA
• 1:02:43
  discussion. I was at a a neighborhood
• 1:02:45
  friendly watering hole watching match day.
• 1:02:48
  Two TV's all across the bar. The place is packed.
• 1:02:52
  People are there specifically to watch women's football in the
• 1:02:55
  Olympics. It's extremely good vibes.
• 1:02:58
  The dude who runs the bar is from somewhere in the UK, from
• 1:03:01
  what I could tell. Didn't sound Scottish, but
• 1:03:03
  definitely somewhere in the UK. At any rate, we got USA, Germany
• 1:03:07
  on every single TV. And I said, hey man, how about
• 1:03:10
  on that side one? Any interest in putting up
• 1:03:12
  France, Canada? And he was like, yes, mate,
• 1:03:15
  good. And then he ran over and he
• 1:03:17
  threw it on for me and he was like good taste.
• 1:03:20
  So that's, that's my guy. Shout to him.
• 1:03:22
  But the reason I bring all this up is when Lynn Williams checked
• 1:03:25
  on the whole bar, went nuts. Wow, psyched for Lynn Williams
• 1:03:29
  to even come out and then she scores the goal and the place
• 1:03:31
  explodes. So just let's go.
• 1:03:33
  The NWS LS all time leading scorer seems like just a
• 1:03:37
  genuinely cool and nice person. You saw her in the Netflix
• 1:03:40
  documentary. Everybody obviously gets a piece
• 1:03:42
  of her personality and a friendly's Samantha Muses
• 1:03:45
  podcast for the women's game. It's just cool to have that kind
• 1:03:49
  of player who is like universally loved and and to see
• 1:03:53
  that player kind of come through the program that everybody can
• 1:03:56
  rally around is not the most important player on the side,
• 1:04:00
  but is an extremely valuable piece and could prove the
• 1:04:04
  difference in some of these matches.
• 1:04:06
  So I just thought, I'll be honest, I did not expect an
• 1:04:09
  ovation for her coming on as a sub in a match where they're
• 1:04:12
  already winning three one. And when that happened, I was
• 1:04:15
  like, OK, that's badass. These people know ball.
• 1:04:17
  So that was that was very encouraging.
• 1:04:19
  I'd love to hear that. And very professional finish too
• 1:04:23
  for the goal. Fantastic.
• 1:04:24
  You know, it was like I should score here.
• 1:04:26
  This is a goal. All I've got to do is collect
• 1:04:29
  myself, get the ball where I want it clean, strike on it,
• 1:04:32
  figure out the placement and it was just check, check, check,
• 1:04:35
  check, check, check, check, check for one USA, Exactly what
• 1:04:38
  you would expect from a professional like Lynn Williams.
• 1:04:41
  And it could be more of a role to play left in the tournament.
• 1:04:43
  So I don't know. I wouldn't be shocked if if
• 1:04:45
  that's not the last score from Lynn Williams.
• 1:04:49
  I believe we may hear more from her moving forward.
• 1:04:52
  All right, man, I think we did it.
• 1:04:53
  Spin another episode into the channel.
• 1:04:54
  Sincere thank you for watching, listening, following, liking,
• 1:04:58
  subscribing, chiming in, giving us nickname suggestions or just
• 1:05:02
  plain hanging out with your boys.
• 1:05:02
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• 1:05:04
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• 1:05:07
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• 1:05:09
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• 1:05:11
  favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
• 1:05:14
  the show notes of this episode and a big thing in my coast as
• 1:05:17
  well. Mr. Grant Angle for riding
• 1:05:19
  alongside as we take these important steps on the way to
• 1:05:23
  claiming our gold medal as the Wasso Bros Podcast.
• 1:05:29
  I think we're we're well on our way and I don't think anybody's
• 1:05:33
  coming at us for that title. But if anybody were to do that,
• 1:05:36
  I would give them the same warning that I would give
• 1:05:38
  anybody who goes to play defense against Bell Biv de goal.
• 1:05:43
  And that is if I were you, I'd take precaution.
• 1:05:46
  All right. Thanks for rocking with us,
• 1:05:48
  everybody. We'll talk to you soon.