Latest / Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football / UWCL: Second leg previews (Sept. 26 matches)

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UWCL: Second leg previews (Sept. 26 matches) · Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

0:05
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast primarily about women's
0:08
football. Before we hit the pitch, if you
0:10
enjoy the show or love women's football as much as your boys
0:12
do, come kick it with us already.
0:14
Subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever
0:18
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
0:20
favorite podcast app. Links to all of our socials in
0:23
the show notes of this episode. I am your host, you know the
0:26
suspicious and as always I am joined by my Co host Mr. Grant
0:31
Angle. What is up man?
0:32
No, buddy, I'm feeling absolutely fantastic.
0:35
I'm ready to talk about the results from this week.
0:39
I was very happy with some of the results.
0:41
I was empathetic for some of the other results, very much ready
0:45
to get into those. As you mentioned, we're going to
0:47
be covering the Thursday matchups, so 8 of round Two's
0:51
second legs happened on Thursday.
0:53
We covered the first four Wednesday matchups on Part 1 of
0:56
this episode, so go back and check that out if you haven't
0:59
already. But yeah, big, big slate on
1:01
Thursday. Where do you want to get
1:02
started? I.
1:02
Don't know, I'm trying to consider where where I'm
1:06
interested, what I'm interested in talking about.
1:09
Let's talk about Manchester City versus Perry FC.
1:12
If you don't mind. Let's go start the bidding
1:14
there. Breaking news before the match.
1:16
So we had talked about this last week and I was like, OK, I have
1:20
like 3 important meetings right around this time.
1:22
I'm not going to watch a single minute of this, a single second
1:25
of this thing live. I'm going to go Zero Dark 30, no
1:29
social media, no foot mob app. I'm not going to look at any
1:32
televisions. Luckily in America, you know
1:34
you, I'm not really walking past any places showing UEFA Women's
1:38
Champions League matches. You're always the best about,
1:41
you know, the no spoilers rule. So I was like, OK, I can do this
1:44
and I can save it all completely for after.
1:47
I will say I look like a complete dope when I'm searching
1:50
for the full match on YouTube because I like I like hold my
1:53
hand. Oh yeah, like over the over the
1:55
screen to be like, OK, because I don't want to.
1:58
I don't want it to say the score on the card or the YouTube
2:01
preview. I avoided all that.
2:02
That's always the most dicey part.
2:04
And then when I open the YouTube video of the match, I like
2:07
immediately, I'm like immediately clicking to close
2:09
the comments because I don't want to like on the side.
2:11
I don't want somebody to be like, you know, Perry FC wins or
2:15
like whatever. So I have I managed to avoid all
2:19
of that. And then I sat down to watch the
2:21
match and I see on there, because I'm completely avoiding
2:24
spoilers, I see the lineup get posted, the lineup graphic.
2:29
No Bunny even in the squad. Yeah.
2:32
So I don't I have no frame of reference for why she isn't
2:35
there. Can I ask us some who like got
2:38
to absorb this at least passively in real time?
2:41
How did you digest the Bunny Shaw out of the squad for Visa?
2:45
Issues news. I mean, I think I caught the
2:48
news courtesy of Miriam Karabi from She Scores Bangers.
2:51
Nice. Great Twitter follow.
2:53
Obviously the best. Speaking of, shout out to watch.
2:56
Congratulations are moving on. It's being a great Twitter
2:58
follows Nice. It was a kind of like a scary
3:00
moment, you know, knowing that she wasn't gonna play.
3:02
Those are tough rotation decisions to make and not short
3:05
a time period. You're obviously traveling into
3:08
the continent playing an unfamiliar team on the road.
3:11
Just seeing the shot of the pre FC stadium where Arsenal
3:15
champion ended last season gave me more PTSD.
3:18
We'll get into a little bit about why I was so upset later.
3:21
It was obviously a big loss. I think City started really well
3:24
though, but the game felt pretty even.
3:27
I think pre AFC had a couple chances, 1st 15 minutes.
3:30
I think it even cranked it up a little bit more about, OK, is
3:33
this Bunny shot absence going to really be the difference in this
3:36
game potentially. Like I really was trying so hard
3:39
to avoid spoilers. So I see she's not in the side
3:42
and I just text you. And I've done this in the past
3:45
to take people up behind the curtain when Dino knows I'm in a
3:48
no spoilers mode. I want to get a take out there
3:52
1st to just let him know like OK this isn't something I'm writing
3:56
after the fact. So I immediately text you
3:59
something to the effect of I'm just looking at Perry FC lined
4:03
up pre match and their arms are locked.
4:06
I think I'm scared or something very close to that.
4:10
And I was like, you know, I mean, the players, yeah, like,
4:13
obviously I follow City, but like, the players are still so
4:16
recognizable from last year's tournament that I was like
4:20
looking at them all. And I was like, OK, there's
4:22
Graeb of all. There's Hossein, there's Anna
4:24
Dozy, like Bordeaux, Gatantine. Like, I was like, all right,
4:28
we're in Paris for this. We gotta come away with some
4:31
points with no Bunny. I think you're right.
4:33
I think, I think Perry FC, they had some chances by like 20
4:37
minutes into the match. I felt like, OK, we're we're
4:40
able to hold the ball pretty well.
4:42
We're starting to kind of dictate the terms a little bit.
4:45
I started to feel a little more comfortable and then once we got
4:49
past the half hour mark, we started to kind of ratchet it
4:51
up, tighten the vice a little bit.
4:53
Perry FC was having a hard time holding the ball at all.
4:56
They clearly figured out like, OK, we got to play underdog
4:59
football. Manchester City's midfield was
5:01
really out playing Paris FC's midfield and that led to Vivian
5:06
and Medimas first. I'll call it first big time goal
5:10
for Manchester City. Not it's it's her only goal in
5:13
this match, but as we project forward, I believe it will be
5:16
her first big goal of many for the Sky Blues.
5:19
Yeah, that one hurt. Pile it on, meet him a looking
5:23
great sky blue, great player. Obviously I was going to ask you
5:27
about the the Medimer experience, like how you
5:29
absorbed it, but just watching the impact that she was able to
5:32
make on the game, she just has the great ability to be
5:35
professional scorer and top level playmaker.
5:39
That's what the situation calls for.
5:41
And if Bunny Shaw's back, we saw no Bunny Shaw last year late in
5:45
the season for City and there just seemed to be a Bunny
5:48
gigantic Bunny size hole in the attack.
5:50
And it's just almost like they're playing the same way
5:52
without that player right there. So Medima is like a great player
5:55
there just to be able to provide a different look, eat up some
5:58
minutes, you know, maybe 2 headed attack a little bit like
6:01
there's just a lot, a lot that they're going to be able to do
6:03
a. 100% And I mean, I think for two for a couple of Johnny come
6:07
lately's like me and you who really started really, really
6:10
started to dig in in 2023, like when you and I were watching the
6:14
World Cup and like kind of covering it and kind of doing
6:17
our thing. I wanted to look this up to make
6:19
sure I got it right. So Mitimo was in the guardians
6:21
top 100 best female footballers in the world in 2017, nineteen,
6:25
2021 and 22. She's the all time leading
6:28
scorer in the history of the WSL.
6:30
It's just these injuries have just like kind of derailed
6:33
pieces of her career. She has eighty goals in 106
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appearances for your Arsenal. She had 35 goals for Bayern
6:42
Munich and her 61 appearances there between 2014 and 2017.
6:46
So, you know, she can score goals.
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But man, she is such a genius as the central hub of your attack
6:54
in that number 10 role. It's not kind of #10 she's a,
6:56
she's a genius #10 her with Jess Park and Hasegawa right there
7:02
alongside her. That's a lot of intelligence
7:06
wrapped up in one midfield that you can start to really
7:09
distribute. And like you said, we got the
7:11
Bunny Shaw sized hole there, but you still had Lauren Hemp, You
7:15
still had the the young Dynamo Alba Fujino out there.
7:18
Oh my God. And you can.
7:19
You could just make a lot of things happen.
7:22
I'm glad you brought up a couple of those players because
7:24
obviously on the men's side, going back to our previous
7:26
potting days, we always referred to Manchester City's Phil Foden
7:30
as our diamond. Same with Peck, preferred to him
7:33
as his diamond. Of course.
7:34
Who's the diamond on this Manchester City women's football
7:38
team? It's a great, it's a great
7:39
question. So to give the additional
7:41
context, Pep Guardiola in one of his many unhinged press
7:45
conferences where he just has like, sometimes he just says
7:48
stuff and I'm waiting for a reporter to just kind of raise
7:51
their hand and be like, hey, Pep, what the fuck are you
7:53
talking about? But nobody, you know, nobody
7:55
ever does. Because you can't question the
7:57
guy. That's until you get a hold of
7:58
him. Yeah, that's right.
8:00
I'll hold him accountable. I'll be like Pep, will you sign
8:03
this? But you're my hero.
8:06
Slap my shirt. Thank you for everything.
8:11
But like, in in a press conference where Pep is talking
8:14
about Phil Foden, he refers to Foden as our diamond.
8:18
And then he cups his hands as if to as if he is holding a
8:22
precious jewel in his hands and talks about how important it is
8:26
for them to, like, make sure Phil Foden has a good career.
8:28
And he's set up that for success.
8:30
And, you know, he's a wonderful player.
8:31
So who is our diamond? I mean, Jess Park is 22 years
8:35
old. She can shoot, she can pass, she
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can run, she's smart, she does a lot of things.
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She's got a lot of Foden type qualities.
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It feels like she should be our diamond.
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But then like you point out, we got Fujino there who's very
8:51
young also and is an especially dynamic player.
8:55
I think it's hard to pick. Fujino was the one that launched
8:59
the question in my mind. I'm like, yeah, is she the
9:01
diamond? And then it's like, I think it's
9:02
between her and chess park. Those are the two that I have.
9:05
And I think Fujino, we talked a lot about some of the changes in
9:08
our transfer show. We even had a ranking.
9:10
We had a draft, if I'm remembering correctly.
9:13
I think Fujino might have went five.
9:15
I think you had, I think you took Fujino 5 or 6.
9:17
I'm not sure who went first in that draft.
9:19
I remember thinking in the moment, I love Fujino.
9:22
I love the signing, love the player.
9:24
But maybe this is a little early.
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I was like coming, you know, was this a stretch?
9:28
Did we did, you know, did we fall in love with a player here?
9:31
But now I might be swinging the other way.
9:33
She might be. She might.
9:36
She's definitely swing a couple of matches.
9:38
She's just that good. Yeah, she'll, I mean, she'll be
9:40
great. I think immediately, man.
9:43
And we talked about it going back to the 23 World Cup.
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She plays with an audacity, an audaciousness that's just like,
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yeah, I'll RIP this shot from 5 yards outside the 18 and I'll
9:54
probably make it. And she plays with just a
9:56
supreme confidence. She gets on the ball, she'll
9:59
drag her foot over it. She'll and one you as many times
10:02
as she wants like she would. She will take on anybody
10:05
completely fearless. She is the perfect player that I
10:10
think if you play her next to or alongside some combination of
10:14
just an absolute physical bulldog like Lauren Hemp, who's
10:18
just going to be punishing you with runs and will play physical
10:21
from the forward position and then an absolute goal scoring
10:24
monster like Bunny Shaw. And now you have this other
10:27
player who's like, OK, let me take you on and I'll do 5 pieces
10:30
of skill and we'll see if you can keep up with me.
10:32
At the same time, it's just gonna have defenders looking
10:34
around like, my God, where is the relief on this frontline?
10:38
I mean, that's a great point. Fujino is a great outlet, yeah.
10:41
Oh yeah. You have something build up, you
10:42
have something build up and now you want to like take a step
10:45
back to take you know another step forward or just reset.
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You know, just start over. Great player to kick it back out
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to because you don't know what the fuck she's she could just
10:54
let it RIP there. She could just basically reset
10:56
the offense like a point guard. Pretty much everything's on the
10:58
table. One other thing I wanted to
11:00
mention really quick, obviously city runs rampant over Perry FC.
11:04
This one ends 5 nil and Dozy had a weird.
11:07
I think that was the turning point in the game that you know,
11:10
when you mentioned these don't really go, you know, 5 nil, 7
11:13
nil. These aren't normal score lines
11:15
unless there's something like that where you're big bad in a
11:18
Dozy. It gets her pocket picked by
11:20
Mary Fowler, who I believe listens to the ITC because not
11:25
only not only did we question, OK, what what's Fowler's, you
11:30
know, contribution going to be in the Olympics, is Fowler going
11:32
to be able to step up for city in this Champions League?
11:34
Because I think they're really going to need her.
11:36
But you've also been one to celebrate the skills, the field
11:42
player level skills of Chamaca Nandozi.
11:44
And I believe I posit that Mary Fowler listened to these
11:48
episodes and said I want to see how good Nandozi's skills are
11:52
when she's on the ball, came up, picked her pocket, made a huge
11:55
play and effectively ended the game. 100% an absolute howler
11:59
from in a Dozy. Hated like half of me hated to
12:04
see it because I love the way she plays.
12:06
We talked about it on Shades of Blue.
12:08
I think I had said In a Dozy has some Edison in her game going
12:12
make it another Manchester City men's team comp where sometimes
12:15
she's out there with the ball. It's like we'll get rid of it
12:18
and then she just does. And you're like, OK, yeah, she's
12:20
she's good. But I don't know if it was she
12:23
didn't have her in her peripheral vision or she
12:26
completely underestimated Fowler's speed.
12:29
And she just completely takes it.
12:30
I think it was off her left, but just completely robs her of the
12:34
ball and tucks it away to, like you said, to effectively end the
12:37
game. If Mary Fowler is listening to
12:39
this podcast, I will say it is because we had the great
12:43
Samantha Lewis from ABC Australia on previewing the
12:46
Australian Olympic team before the Olympics.
12:49
So thank you Samantha for that and thank you Mary for listening
12:52
and nice goal. Thank you for that as well.
12:56
Yeah, I think she saw she I think she probably saw Edozi one
12:59
too many times, tried to pull that crossover, you know, like,
13:02
yeah, bait you in. And she was kind of ready for
13:04
it. And then she met the ball where
13:06
it was headed. And then that was that was a
13:07
wrap from there for sure. And Edozi, though, somehow still
13:10
had some monsters, like some tremendous say.
13:14
It was like like she's still really, even though they're like
13:17
a really memorable bad game. She had some some amazing
13:20
moments. Oh yeah, All right, so City,
13:23
yadda yadda. Huge win over Pre FC.
13:25
Congratulations. I'm very happy for you.
13:28
These two teams lock up again next Thursday, 2:00 PM.
13:30
Half an hour later though, next Thursday, yes, my Arsenal, my
13:34
Lady Gunners, my North London squad, they will be hosting BK
13:41
Hacking, facing a one goal deficit.
13:44
I mean I'm I'm a little bit of a mess.
13:47
When you saw the score line, when you saw the highlights, I'm
13:49
not even sure what you saw. I'm not sure how caught up you
13:51
are, but what was your first thought when you when you saw
13:54
where this 1 ended up? I watched.
13:56
All of City and it was like, I'm still not going to check any
13:58
social because obviously I don't want to, I don't want to spoil a
14:01
minute of it. And then after I watched all of
14:03
City, I was like, OK, you know, I got to go to bed.
14:05
I got another word today before, so I'm going to watch highlights
14:08
of the other matches. The highlights I put on did not
14:12
say what the score was, but I think the highlights started at
14:16
like 30 something minutes and it was nil, nil.
14:19
And I was like, OK, it's a hacking match.
14:22
It was loud in there. You could hear the Swedes and
14:24
Gothenburg going wild for their team and then I watched the
14:28
highlights and you guys could have won, I think.
14:32
I think you could have scored a couple goals.
14:34
Jennifer Falkman, she is a brick wall and she may have got a
14:37
little, had a little bit of luck on her side with a couple of
14:40
those. But I got to hear it from you as
14:43
a man who watched the game. What did it feel like watching
14:46
that transpire? It felt awful, really awful.
14:51
I think the moment that you're mentioning might be the Kafaji
14:54
strike at around the 3536 minute mark where she puts it off the
14:57
bar, off the turnover where she's basically by herself and
15:01
and takes a crack at it. Can I do a old man reference my
15:05
laptop, my MacBook? You remember the old Nintendo 64
15:08
rumble pack? Like you would put the thing in
15:10
there. My computer actually shook when
15:12
Kavaji hit the crossbar. She hit that roughly 10,000
15:16
kilometers per hour and it. Shook my laptop.
15:19
I mean, she blasted it that hard, Falling backwards, sliding
15:23
after she struck it. She was a mess on the floor and
15:26
still was able to fire it that hard.
15:28
So yeah. So Kafaji rocks the crossbar
15:30
later in the match, Freedom on him, does the same off the
15:33
crossbar on the other side. Beth Mead puts a point blanker
15:37
right off Jennifer Fox face. I mean, like, there was just, no
15:41
matter what we tried to do, it was just an absolute force field
15:43
on the goal. And I'm glad you mentioned the
15:45
30 minute mark because that's pretty much when I knew this
15:49
wasn't going to work out. This was just not going to be
15:51
the day we talked about Wolfsburg putting like something
15:54
ridiculous like 13 of 16 on target.
15:57
Arsenal out possessed BK hack in 6832.
16:00
Arsenal also outshot hack in 17 to 4, but only four are on
16:05
target to hack into one on target, which in a Yeah, the
16:09
difference in the match. Hackett just has a way.
16:12
I mean, their defense continues to be a marvel.
16:16
Yep. They're totally In Sync.
16:18
They look like like a different species of animal that just is
16:21
like in perfect, you know, synchronicity with, like,
16:24
understanding the timing of everything.
16:25
They move together. They're all looking the same
16:27
way. They don't get beat by anything
16:29
dumb. And it's very telling that the
16:31
Kafaji chance came off a turnover.
16:33
Yeah, like a bad one. Every other chance that they got
16:36
at any point in the match was heavily contested.
16:39
Bodies everywhere, bodies in the mix everywhere, a lot of shots
16:42
from distance and the disappointing part for me, we
16:45
talked about units. I'd of all coming into this one,
16:47
I don't think there was any real game plan for this hacking
16:50
defense. I mean, I texted this to you and
16:52
I think this was probably my best encapsulation hacking mid
16:55
season form Arsenal preseason 4. Usually you want to bring on
16:58
Subs to kind of like change a pace, change a look, like really
17:02
put some pressure on and it was really much just like kind of
17:04
like for like, let's try the same stuff.
17:06
And it was right around that. Definitely by halftime I'm like,
17:09
we're just going to have a really, really hard time
17:12
breaking through and I'm like, can we keep it nil, nil.
17:14
Can we steal one? I mean, it was.
17:16
It got pretty dark over here. Well, I'm sorry to hear it
17:20
buddy. I absolutely empathize.
17:22
You know, I put in my notes, this one feels like hacking,
17:25
really hacking to the shit out of you guys.
17:28
Like that was like, like you said, the defense.
17:31
They're like a puzzle that you're trying to solve.
17:34
I think you encapsulated it perfectly.
17:36
They move like an amoeba that's like going in the same
17:39
direction, like they're a singular Organism.
17:42
As a defense, it's hard to get anything past them, and like you
17:46
said, when you do, they're contesting it.
17:48
I will say the Beth Mead header with the Jennifer Falk header
17:52
save to directly off of her face, that feels really, really
17:56
unlucky. I think probably 8 times out of
17:59
1085, times out of 100, that's probably a Beth Mead goal.
18:04
I mean, she's a professional goalscorer.
18:06
That's a lot of forces working against you when hacking all
18:11
shrinks your margin of error just by virtue of their genius
18:14
defense. I think I would agree in most
18:16
situations, but defensively they're just such a handful and
18:21
I know the announcers. Like I'm not sure how much fuck
18:23
knew about that one. She knew about it after because
18:25
I'm sure she had a rebel, but she was in position.
18:29
She's there. That's true, you know, and and
18:31
there's other defenders in position.
18:33
There's a reason why there's nowhere to go with the ball,
18:36
right, Like, you know, so you you have to give her credit for
18:38
being there on a different day against a different goalkeeper,
18:41
a different score, like different stakes.
18:42
I'm sure you know, MiTo puts that one home, but it wasn't
18:44
going to happen this day. And you have this hacking
18:47
defense controlling the game. Yes.
18:49
That was the part that was awful as a fan is like, you know,
18:53
Arsenal, they're playing like, all right, we've got possession,
18:56
we're knocking it around, we're in control.
18:58
But I mean, for watching this hacking side last year, I knew
19:01
we weren't in control. I knew the hacking defense was
19:04
in control, and they're just sort of letting you knock it
19:07
around, have a little fun with it.
19:08
But when it gets time, when it gets the winning time, you're
19:10
not getting past whatever line in the sand that they've drawn.
19:14
And Arsenal ultimately not able to breakthrough.
19:17
Now, a team that defensively can play like that.
19:20
Obviously, the scariest thing is facing a quick counter, right?
19:24
And there was a Clarissa Larissa warning shot in the 65th minute
19:28
where she hit side netting ball over the top.
19:31
I think she beats Codina, gets past the defense and that sent a
19:35
chill through me. At that point I'm just like oh
19:37
fuck, like now not only can we not score, but Hackens looking
19:41
and playing for this one counter that's going to break the game
19:44
open. Didn't happen there, but it came
19:46
a little bit later in the match. Yeah, perfect pass, Tabby
19:49
Tyndall runs on to it, gets the goal.
19:52
When I saw that on the highlights, I was like, oh, is
19:56
Arsenal going to be able to get one to bring it back?
19:58
Because I mean, we had talked about two.
20:00
And you know, I love being the Sandman and and trying to get a
20:03
take exactly correct. I was like, we did say Arsenal
20:06
might be OK with coming back one, one on aggregate here.
20:09
Maybe that's what the rest of the highlights were.
20:11
But then I kind of look at the YouTube bar.
20:13
I'm like not much time left for highlights.
20:17
So yeah, I had a feeling that would be tricky.
20:20
And like you said, what Hakken has 2 total shots, one on
20:24
target. The one on target is is the one
20:26
that beats you. That's getting hacked.
20:28
Definitely got hacked. Last thing I'll mention here,
20:31
Steena Plexenius, former BK Hakken player comes on in the
20:34
71st minute. I wasn't sure how she would be
20:37
received. Yeah, in Gothburg, but very warm
20:41
standing ovation. I like it.
20:43
Christina Baxenius, which I was excited about.
20:45
And I think it was calculated. I think they kind of softened us
20:48
up. You know, they, they're, they're
20:51
playing mind. They're playing
20:52
three-dimensional chess. 4 dimensional.
20:54
How many different dimensions of chess there are.
20:56
That's what Hackins playing. They softened us up.
20:58
I wrote my notes. Oh, all class this bunch.
21:01
Speaking of these Hackins fans, Nice. 5 minutes later, Tyndall
21:05
is breaking the game wide open and yeah, pretty much sending
21:09
the fear of God through your boy.
21:10
It's gonna be a long time to do now, next Thursday.
21:12
I don't blame you buddy, I empathize.
21:14
I'm sorry that it happened to you.
21:16
I like that the the Swedes took the opposite approach.
21:19
Like when Caroline Graham Hansen from Barcelona came and played
21:23
at Braun in Bergen and they just booed the shit out of her for
21:27
every time she touched the ball. It's an interesting social
21:31
experiment that two Americans can play.
21:33
Like the difference between the way Bergen Norwegian fans treat
21:37
a player and the way these folks in Gothenburg, Sweden are
21:40
treating a player. I'll say you guys have a great
21:43
program. You turn people out to these
21:46
matches, you have a great fan base.
21:48
It's going to be amped up. I guess we could play the game
21:51
of like, is that going to make the players a little nervy?
21:54
This goes back to your kind of like recent Champions League
21:57
experience point. But you know, you got Beth me
22:00
down there, you got Alessia Russo.
22:02
Like you got some real players who have big match experience.
22:06
I mean, you got Emily Fox, Kim Little, for God's sake.
22:09
You guys got a lot of really great players.
22:12
They're going to be in front of their home crowd.
22:14
It's not over yet. Definitely not over yet.
22:16
I'm not throwing in the towel by any means.
22:18
I do hope that London crowd, though, kind of shows out
22:22
because, I mean, this is not a big name.
22:23
This isn't Juventus, this isn't PSG, you know, this is a, you
22:27
know, less of a brand name I I guess than those two teams.
22:30
Sure. So I really hope that Arsenal
22:32
crowds not looking at them kind of being like, yeah, this will
22:35
probably be a three No 4 nil and then we'll move on.
22:37
As mentioned, this one going down Thursday, 2:30 PM.
22:40
You already know your boys can be locked in.
22:42
I want to hit some of these other matchups, though.
22:44
This was probably the shocker of of the slate.
22:46
PSG 1, Juventus 3. Let's fucking go.
22:51
These teams run it back. Thursday 12:45 PM Eastern is one
22:55
of the early matches. What do we do with this one?
22:57
This was a wild scoreline, wild result.
22:59
You know, I, I came in here saying I liked the Italian
23:03
clubs, I liked the looks of them.
23:06
I was dead wrong on Fiorentina versus Wolfsburg as discussed in
23:10
Part 1 of this of this episode. And shout out to Tom Bomb from
23:13
Shades of Blue who told us? Yep, that he had a feeling that
23:17
Juventus was gonna look good and I was like, I don't know, they
23:19
lose Berenstein. I would say of the three Italian
23:22
clubs, I had some questions about Juventus.
23:26
I totally discounted Amelie Vanguard revenge game.
23:30
Let's go. My first thought I mean she
23:34
looked very excited to score that one and just kind of
23:37
cracked the seal on the game. That was an awesome, awesome
23:39
moment. So she gets it going one nil,
23:42
PSG comes back, ties it up with AI mean a banger banger I'm.
23:46
Going to crack one. I'm going to crack one for that
23:48
banger by Somora. That was a that was a rocking of
23:52
a shot. Hell yeah. 2 beer show for that.
23:56
Damn, I want to take a 2 beer show too.
23:57
I'm going to take a quick 22nd time out here.
23:59
All right, I'm going to join you.
24:01
Let's go. As mentioned, not my finest hour
24:04
as a football fan, as a Gunners fan.
24:06
But that's why they play 2 legs. That's right.
24:10
And you know what? Two legs, 2 beers, let's go.
24:12
There you go. Yeah, that's the synergy you
24:14
were talking about. Cheers to you.
24:17
Back to it though. PSG, Juventus, we mentioned it,
24:20
Samora ties the game and then we get a moment of brilliance,
24:25
beauty, grace, magic, whatever you want to whatever you want to
24:28
call it. Sofia Cantore from Juventus just
24:31
goes John Wick and I imagine John Wick from the John Wick
24:35
storyline from the Wilsburg Revenge also goes John Wick on
24:39
this one. Just as a like, I'm gonna just
24:40
do all of this myself. I'm gonna just create my own and
24:43
one mixtape. Yeah, I mean, everything from
24:45
the Megan Greigenbach and you and I, I think I feel like we
24:49
are aligned. We like that one extra touch
24:51
that sometimes an attacker will take to just create like that
24:55
little bit of extra space. It's almost like, Oh yeah, like
24:57
the James Harden step back or you'll see Steph do it.
25:00
Well, it'll take one more dribble to just create like a
25:02
little more room to get the shot off, and Cantore does that
25:05
perfectly. Just one more little touch to
25:08
get a little bit more room and she just hits a rocket off her
25:11
right foot. Mary Earps, I thought had a good
25:14
dive, had a good stretch and athletic save attempt.
25:18
Couldn't get to it. It was too perfectly placed.
25:20
It had too much velocity on the shot to save.
25:23
It was kind of like a great crossover at the Park Nice where
25:27
you got to knock that three down once you get a pass after
25:29
somebody crosses somebody into oblivion.
25:31
Only on this one Cantore crosses her into oblivion and then also
25:35
knocks down the three or smashes home the goal, however you want
25:37
to think about it. So I think that one was a little
25:39
bit preordained. Erps wasn't gonna get close to
25:41
that one and three one. Juventus going back to Paris.
25:45
I jotted this down. My no.
25:46
I wanted to kind of send it your way beforehand.
25:48
How much trouble is the reigning semifinalist PSG in going into
25:53
next week? It's hard to imagine a scenario
25:56
where even when you're going home that you're down two goals
26:01
and you feel good about it. You got to be in a pretty
26:06
substantial amount of trouble. Like maybe if you're if you're a
26:10
big club and you get a red card, a weird red card 5 minutes in
26:15
and you lose a match to nothing on on the away leg.
26:18
Maybe you can talk yourself into like, OK, we're coming home,
26:21
we're more talented, we can at least win this thing.
26:24
Two nil in regulation or three one in regulation.
26:27
But we're talking about Juventus here who have good players who
26:30
have some pedigrees. Ariana Caruso, I thought played
26:33
pretty well in this match. Hannah Bennison was another one
26:35
of the goal scorers. We already talked about Cantore
26:38
and then Amelie Vangsgaard. Like this is a really, really
26:42
tall order no matter where the match is played.
26:45
You could be playing it in Mary Erb's backyard in in Paris where
26:48
she's living. You got to make up two goals
26:51
against a really good squad. You could win this match 2 to
26:55
one and completely outplay Juventus and you're still going
26:58
home. Yeah, we talked about Juventus
27:00
is like too to just play a wide open game in Syria.
27:04
Feminio coming into this one, after the first two matches, ten
27:07
goals scored, five allowed. So it's like they wanna go up
27:11
and down. So it's like you can't, even if
27:13
you're PSD, you can't even be like, right, we're gonna get 2
27:15
nil. Are we gonna get 3 nil?
27:17
Because you just feel like event is going to score because that's
27:19
how they play. They'll sell out to do it.
27:21
And then we highlighted a big time Tabitha Chinga, Sandy
27:25
Baltimore out. Rome looked her in Vanguard out
27:28
as well. I mean, she was a little bit
27:30
buried on that side but did get minutes in last year's Champions
27:33
League. So that's a lot of attacking
27:35
firepower out the door. You know, it's a lot to put on
27:37
roommate Luchter, just a single player taking a step up going
27:40
from IX to PSG. I, I don't, I don't know if PSG
27:44
kind of quite has the finishing to get to three goals against
27:48
this side. It's it's funny to say because
27:50
you and I loved the trio of Chewinga Katoto and Baltimore.
27:56
I don't know, don't let me speak for you, but I, I thought that
27:58
was, that was definitely one of my favorite parts of like going
28:01
through the journey and we watched him get all the way to
28:03
the semis. I love that trio and to see them
28:05
broken up as a bummer. Obviously, we always want Sandy
28:09
Baltimore and Tab the Chewinga to go go get your money, go play
28:12
where you want to play, live where you want to live.
28:14
No disrespect there, but it was a bummer to see those 3 broken
28:17
up. And I like Luke there as a
28:18
player, but man, they were missing that punch in the final
28:23
third. If Tab the Chewinga and Sandy
28:26
Baltimore are going to give you anything, they're going to give
28:28
you a big punch. They're going to give you speed
28:30
and physicality and intelligence and path passing its speed in
28:34
the final third. That's a massive hole to fill
28:37
and I don't know if they're going to have time to kind of
28:40
build that chemistry and then just create more of a coherent
28:43
attack. I think they can do it in league
28:45
play in D1R Chema. I don't think they got the time
28:48
to to fix it in a week before they take on who Venice again.
28:51
That to me is the point right there because you lose those
28:55
players and it's almost like you take some air out of Katoto's
28:59
sales as well. Of course, because how many
29:01
times did Katoto is just what kind of right place, right time
29:04
now without those two players advancing the ball, putting
29:08
pressure on the defense, putting pressure on the keeper.
29:10
Yep, and you know the other side of the chain Z coin is obviously
29:13
12 of these teams that we're covering on these two episodes
29:16
are going to be home. Yep, this time next week it'll
29:19
be it'll be a wrap. So PSG tough draw, pulling
29:22
Juventus out of the hat, I think in real, real trouble.
29:25
And that would be a shocker. That would be a shocker pretty
29:28
much full stop. I think it would have to be and
29:30
you know, we like PSG as much as the next person, but it would be
29:34
shocking to come back from two goals down against a good side
29:38
to then qualify. But crazy things happen in
29:41
sports, so I think it's still an absolute must watch on Thursday.
29:45
Oh my God yeah. Hell, a desperate PSG.
29:48
Exactly. Hell yeah, that's what it is.
29:50
I'm dying to watch that. Let's go ahead, though.
29:53
Another one of our darlings, my darling.
29:55
You know, actually, I want to. I was going to point this out to
29:57
you, last week's episode when you're like, I think A-Team, you
30:00
know, near and dear to your heart, Real Madrid.
30:03
In the moment, I was like, I don't know, do I like Real
30:05
Madrid? And then as I was watching it
30:07
play back at the edit, I was like, I learned something about
30:09
myself. Yes, it's a learning podcast.
30:14
I appreciate you, bro. Like you, you brought something
30:17
to to my attention that I didn't even know.
30:18
But yeah, it turns out I do have a spot, a soft spot for Real
30:21
Madrid. They took on Sporting CP in a
30:23
legit clash. This one was interesting.
30:26
Real Madrid, the more talented side.
30:27
Sporting CP played real, real hard at home. 2 to one.
30:31
What'd you see in this one? I want to start with the fans,
30:34
the supporters of Sporting CP. What an atmosphere.
30:39
That looked great. That looks like a good time
30:43
hanging out over there. Please, Vespa, forgive me for
30:46
lauding the fans at Sporting CP. I know you're a Benfica
30:49
supporter. You know our you're our guy.
30:51
But yeah, that looks like a place.
30:53
Honestly, within the first like 10 minutes, I was like, I think
30:56
I want to go watch a football game there.
30:58
That's a place that I think I would very much enjoy again.
31:02
We talked about it with Benfica in the in the last episode.
31:06
They were playing physical man. And in that 2023 World Cup, I
31:10
think it was like it was half the roster either played for
31:13
Benfica or Sport CP, or at least they would go on to play for for
31:17
either of those clubs. This just feels like a major
31:20
part of the Portuguese women's football journey where these
31:23
players are getting stronger. They're clearly, it seems like,
31:26
and please viewers of the show, correct us if we're wrong, maybe
31:29
the the federation might be slacking.
31:32
It just felt like they looked bigger, stronger, faster, and it
31:35
was a tough place to play. And they gave Real a hell of a
31:39
match. Absolutely.
31:40
And I think both Sporting and Benfica, I mean, they're great
31:44
athletes and they make you feel it like it's really cool.
31:48
It's like sort of like an NWSL style.
31:49
It's good goal for Sporting. I mean, obviously they had, they
31:52
hung really, really tough. They're at home.
31:54
They they, they really, really wanted.
31:56
This one took Real Madrid pretty much to deep waters.
31:59
This one was 11 heading into stoppage time.
32:03
Tough game though for Sporting keeper Hannah Siebert, 29 year
32:07
old American from Redlands, CA involved sort of in in both of
32:12
Real Madrid's goals. So there was an 11th minute gift
32:15
cashed in by Anthony del Castillo.
32:18
And then one of those new signings, no, those new
32:22
offseason signings from Chelsea. Melanie Leopold's right at the
32:25
death. This one was really, really,
32:27
really right at the death. 90 + 5.
32:30
My favorite part of this was the announcers in Spanish right
32:35
before Olga puts the ball in the color commentator is basically
32:39
screaming vanga vanga vanga vamos Olga, which basically
32:42
translates to come on, come on, come on, let's go Olga.
32:46
Yes, Olga puts the ball in Leopold's great pass, knocks it
32:50
home. I was a little worried about my
32:52
my Real Madrid take. I think City's going to put the
32:55
City's going to be the one that put the most pressure on that
32:58
take. But I think PSG probably taking
33:00
a step back, Arsenal TBD. City looks like they're going to
33:03
be right there to to compete with Chelsea, but I don't know
33:06
when Real Madrid was looking at a draw in this one.
33:09
I was like, oh, that takes neck, not going to age great, but they
33:12
pull it out and now they're heading back to Madrid for the
33:15
rematch here in a couple days. Yeah, I mean, Olga just
33:18
continues to be awesome. I think I've talked about her so
33:22
much. Maybe I'm learning something
33:23
about myself. Also, every time I watch her
33:26
play, she's just one of my absolute favorite players in the
33:29
world. She's such a genius.
33:31
The first touch is brilliant, the passing is so smart.
33:36
She's a general out there. You could put her anywhere.
33:39
You could just close your eyes and then pick a spot on the
33:41
field and be like, OK, I guess you're going to play number 10
33:44
today. I bet you she could do it.
33:46
Oh, yeah. Everything about her game is is
33:48
absolutely fantastic. She's the captain of the squad.
33:51
And now you put her out there. Like, and you had mentioned this
33:53
last week, the addition of Caroline Weir coming back off
33:57
injury. There is a different geometry to
34:00
Real Madrid's attack from what we saw.
34:03
Like, and again, I'll call us this again.
34:06
Where? Where Johnny come late to to
34:08
women's club football. And part of what I like seeing
34:11
here is like, OK, well, here comes Caroline Weir.
34:14
I've read about her. Like I've heard intellectually
34:16
like, OK, she's a good player. I've watched some highlights and
34:19
now you see her on the pitch and now she's flanked by Redondo and
34:23
Atenea. And it's like, OK, they're super
34:26
cooking with something. They add a veteran like Felipe
34:29
Engel Dahl from from my Manchester City to kind of round
34:32
out the midfield. They needed to add some heft to
34:36
their roster from what we saw in last year's Champions League.
34:40
I think they've successfully done that.
34:42
You know when you talk about your your take of like, has Real
34:45
Madrid closed a gap with Barcelona?
34:48
We're not going to know the answer to that.
34:50
Even after this match with the second match with Sporting.
34:53
I think we'll know the answer to that at the end of the league of
34:55
half season. It certainly feels like this
34:59
might be an all time great take. We just need Misa Rodriguez to
35:02
stop fouling people and playing with complete reckless
35:05
abandoning goal. They'll definitely close the gap
35:08
some. It'll be interesting to see how
35:10
much. Yeah, I agree with that.
35:11
I mean, I think I'm not, I'm not saying the take's going to be
35:15
proven correct, but it wasn't invalidated or immediately out
35:19
of the gate, which I was happy about.
35:20
The last thing I mentioned about Olga, So cool to see a player
35:24
with all those tandem players on that roster, 24 years old,
35:28
pretty much sharpened in as the captain of that squad with all
35:31
those players. That's fucking really cool.
35:34
You know, obviously her big gaminess dates all the way back.
35:37
It's the World Cup and probably before that.
35:38
But I'll be excited to see what Real Madrid is able to do
35:41
against the sporting side. I think sporting, much like
35:44
Hammerbee, who he needs to go on the road and get a result here.
35:47
I think there's we're still going to hear a little bit from
35:49
the sporting side. Yeah, I did want to hit one more
35:51
match real quick, though, serve at FCCF versus Roma.
35:55
These teams run it back Thursday, 1:00 PM.
35:58
And I don't know, man, Roma, we're back.
36:00
All of our favorite faces, all of our stress, all of our blood
36:04
pressure rising and falling, and all of it back.
36:07
With this room aside, they definitely, definitely,
36:10
definitely make it interesting. Yeah, well, I mean, we'll never
36:13
fault them for making a match boring.
36:15
I mean, they had a lot of the ball in this match.
36:18
I didn't get to watch much of this one.
36:19
So I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you to please, you know, can you,
36:22
can you break out the, the Tom Brokaw?
36:24
Can you report the news to me? From what I watched, it felt
36:27
like they were getting a lot of the ball but not creating a lot
36:30
of great chances at first. But tell me if I'm off base with
36:33
this. I think that's pretty on point,
36:35
you know, so so me and me sneaks one in 38th minute to kind of
36:38
break the seal on the match right after halftime, though,
36:42
And I got to say at halftime, it's one nil Roma and shout out
36:45
to great friend of the pod board who tipped just soft as the
36:48
Servat team talked about kind of like their sharpness.
36:51
They they played really, really well.
36:53
I'll say and another thing that we've kind of lamented on this
36:56
show, the Valentina Giacinti complained to the ref situation
37:00
actually kind of cost them a goal in this match because she
37:03
gets kind of like a clipped right at the halfway line.
37:06
She's sort of like gesturing and angling for a call.
37:09
The cameras actually fixated on her.
37:11
By the time the camera cuts to the game action, the strike is
37:14
already in the air on its way to the goal.
37:16
And all it took was a really great Passover.
37:19
The top from Dana Borma that just sneaks over mean to me,
37:23
which is funny because she's the one that scores.
37:24
The goal finds its way to Cassandra Corhanan, who ties the
37:27
game 11. And now at this point, I'm
37:30
really worried about Roma. I'm just like, OK, they're at
37:32
home. We talked about the two draws
37:34
that they had to start Siri off at Mineo.
37:36
So I was already worried about that.
37:37
And I'm just like, all right, I want a result here.
37:39
One nil. It's a little bit.
37:40
I'm like, maybe that's not enough.
37:41
They got to go back to Switzerland from here.
37:43
Then it goes 11 and I'm really worried.
37:46
But after the game gets knotted at 1-4 minutes later, Alessandro
37:50
Spunya brings on the Terminator Evelyn Vien, who we talked about
37:54
not Italian, Canadian. Not Italian, but doing great
38:00
things for Italia. Absolutely.
38:02
Oh my God, what a sub, What a moment.
38:05
VN comes on and is just a game wrecker.
38:08
I mean, like she's playing with that international competition
38:12
confidence. Like I already I already been
38:14
playing on like these big state. I'm already, you know, like I'm
38:17
ready for all of this. I'm ready for any of this.
38:19
And she kind of played like it. She notches two goals, one in
38:22
the 84th, one in the 93rd and the second one, I'm not sure if
38:26
you saw this one, then one in the 93rd corner kick in from
38:28
Giuliano. Sonny Nielsen heads it back
38:31
where it comes from. So the corner comes in, Nielsen
38:33
heads it back the other way. The ball's in the air forever.
38:36
VN is in, is at the back post with like two or three defenders
38:39
and the keeper within her vicinity and she just looks like
38:42
Shaq. She's just like, nobody's going
38:44
to get near me. Nobody's going to do anything to
38:46
get in the way of what I'm about to do here.
38:48
Elevates over everybody just bodies.
38:50
Everybody heads it in, basically a tap in bodies all over the
38:54
floor afterwards. 31 and it goes from essentially a nervy type
38:58
situation to just full on party. I love it.
39:02
I mean, she's she's such an absolute baller.
39:05
I think you're right. I think it's a great point.
39:07
The confidence is coming from the international play.
39:09
She knows exactly what she's supposed to do in this Roma
39:12
squad. She's 27 years old, she's in her
39:14
absolute physical prime. So you bring her onto the pitch
39:18
and she just changes everything about the way Roma attacks,
39:22
their confidence, the way they look.
39:24
Nothing, nothing against her vet.
39:26
They got to make up two goals against Roma.
39:29
Stranger things have happened, of course, but I think we might
39:32
be on the road to seeing Roma again in the Champions League
39:35
group stage. Very much here for it, yeah.
39:38
That'd be awesome, Yeah. And Sir, that's definitely a no
39:40
bullshit team. I think they're going to be
39:42
yeah, they'll be heard from. Maybe not this tournament, but I
39:44
mean, they're they're going to be around and they played really
39:47
well and they pushed Roma pretty deep.
39:50
I think if that one does end 11, that's a whole different ball
39:53
game going back to Switzerland. So props to them.
39:56
They played hard and obviously still some more football to be
39:58
played. Couple more matches to hit real
40:00
quick. FC Twente BIG41 win over Oceac.
40:03
This one also feel a little bit like a wrap at this point, but
40:05
they run it back. 1:45 PM Eastern next Thursday.
40:08
Anything else? Any takeaways from this one?
40:10
You know, we talked about Twente, they might come in with
40:12
an advantage. They got to be feeling
40:14
relatively confident. They absolutely destroyed Ajax
40:17
in the in the Super Cup over there in the Netherlands.
40:20
So looks like we'll be getting to learn a lot more about our
40:24
Dutch pals over at Twente. Yeah, they look good.
40:27
They look big. They look wrong.
40:29
I wrote my notes. I think their smallest player is
40:31
still bigger than OCX biggest player.
40:33
Oh boy. Or.
40:34
At least that's what it felt like.
40:35
And you could kind of see why this team kind of outlasted IX
40:40
last year because they just look, you know, not to make this
40:44
the differentiator, but they look like adults, like sure in
40:47
in their prime, physically mature, just strong, confident
40:51
in the sense of they know where they're like there was just
40:53
really no missteps. I mean, they look very organized
40:57
and just a tough team physically to stand up to.
40:59
So OCIC was definitely up against it.
41:01
SC20 gets a big win and now they head back home in a pretty low
41:05
stakes match. And I think I'm actually really
41:07
looking forward to seeing 20 in the group stage.
41:09
I think they're going to be able to legit, legit make some noise.
41:12
Yeah, it'll be interesting to see.
41:13
I mean, total football, Netherlands style.
41:17
We don't get IX, we don't get Lily Johannes in this year's
41:20
Champions League, so we might as well embrace our new Dutch pals
41:25
FC Twente in the final 16. Yeah, we'll see.
41:28
I'm still, I'm still not over the the IX departure.
41:31
It's rough. Let's run it by Dan.
41:33
Let's see. Yeah, Dan, if you're cool with
41:35
us, like embracing Twente, let us know.
41:38
If you're not, say the word boss, We'll, we'll, we'll we'll
41:41
start hating on them. It's a wrap.
41:45
OCX jerseys are in the mail. One more match to hit.
41:47
I didn't catch any of this one. As mentioned up top.
41:49
Couldn't even find a stream for this one.
41:51
Let's fucking go. You know what this was another
41:53
glaring take away from all this. Props to the zone.
41:56
I mean, I can't tell you how much I missed the zone during
42:00
these trying times where all I want to do is watch 11 matches
42:04
over the course of a 30 hour period.
42:06
Can't even do that. I was relegated to pretty much
42:09
just third party commentary for this Murrah Zing Bolton match.
42:12
Zing Bolton gets a big win, 3 nil.
42:14
Fully expect to see Zing Bolton advance and make another
42:18
appearance in this year's group stage.
42:20
You know, they, they held as tough as they could.
42:22
And we had talked about it a week or so ago.
42:25
Good to have STB back, driving faster in my car, falling
42:30
farther from just what we are. Look, St.
42:33
Polton comes back. I'm giving you a lot more Stone
42:36
Temple Pilots lyrics as we go on in the tournament.
42:39
If you don't like that, then you probably don't like the show.
42:42
But luckily all of you are very kind to deal with my nonsense as
42:45
it happens. So I, you know, look at looking
42:48
forward to have an STP back in in our program.
42:50
Yeah, and Dan, let us know how you feel about Snowden.
42:52
Foot nums Kidding. That's he's one of the shadow
42:58
executive producers of the show at this point.
43:00
Yeah, for sure. It gets one of those honorary
43:03
credits. Quick programming reminder,
43:06
we'll be back next week with two shows.
43:08
I think early in the week we're going to put together a little
43:11
NWSL preview for match Week 22, hitting the home stretch there.
43:15
Also, another quick side note, we've noticed a little bit of a
43:18
division between our Champions League audience and our NWSL
43:22
audience. Let's go ahead and let's bring
43:25
all that together. This is world football.
43:27
Some of the best players in the world are hop, skipping and
43:30
jumping across the pond to and fro.
43:32
We're doing our best to kind of cover all of it.
43:34
So if you're not an NWSL type, you're a Champions League type,
43:36
or vice versa, I strongly encourage you make the jump,
43:40
open it up. I mean, what are we doing here?
43:42
There's tons of good football. Why deny yourself?
43:45
That's what I want to know. That's totally fair.
43:46
And like I pointed out when I was over I at a brief vacation
43:51
over in England, every match of the NWSL when you're in Europe
43:56
is NWSL after dark. So you never know what kind of
44:00
craziness might happen. So yeah, please, you know, if
44:03
you have the ability and we've already had some folks, like a
44:06
lot of our pals over in Norway have kind of hit us up and be
44:08
like, hey man, some of these NWSL matches are awesome.
44:11
So, you know, like Dino said, take the advice if you're
44:14
interested in the NWSL or if you're interested in kind of the
44:17
American style of, of football, give watch.
44:20
Let us know what you think. Absolutely, Yeah.
44:22
I mean, then you're the building covering Giso Young and Laura
44:25
Harvey, and some of the great things happen in Seattle.
44:28
I've got Barbara Banda and Adiana and Marta and a bunch of
44:32
young players, Seb Hines and and the undefeated Orlando Pride
44:35
here. So definitely lock in on that.
44:38
We will also be back next week to talk a little Champions
44:41
League group stage. Way too early preview.
44:44
We're going to have our 16 teams.
44:46
We're going to be reacting to what we saw in the second leg of
44:49
this Round 2. So definitely come back and
44:51
check that out as well. So next week will be a two week
44:54
show. It might be a three beer week or
44:56
a four beer week. We'll see action.
44:59
Looks like you know across the two shows.
45:02
OK gotcha. Let it RIP at that point.
45:04
Just doing some quick quick math here.
45:05
You're the stats guy. I like to crunch the numbers.
45:10
Anything else before you get out of here.
45:12
I think that's it. I think you covered it.
45:14
I, I don't want to totally backtrack on what we said about,
45:17
you know, hey, if you're watching this for Champions
45:19
League, which you obviously are if you're watching this episode,
45:21
please check out our NWSL. I'm very psyched to come back
45:24
again next week and talk more Champions League. the Champions
45:27
League. It's the best, buddy.
45:28
It's the best. It's the best.
45:30
I mean, I, I missed probably way too much round one action and I
45:35
was like, this is not happening again. close schedule.
45:37
Round two, I, I got a really sinking because now we're at the
45:40
point where I'm like, as these two teams are running around one
45:42
of these teams going to the group stage.
45:43
That's kind of where the light bulb clicked.
45:45
So this round two, I was as locked in as it could be.
45:49
All things considered, we're going to get a bunch more
45:50
football next week. I think we could probably cross
45:52
out a couple of those matches where there's a big goal
45:55
disparity. But either way, I think we get
45:57
9-10, maybe 11 really, really fun matchups next week playing
46:01
for pretty much maximum stakes. You want to stick around with
46:04
the group stage? You want to play another few
46:06
months of Champions League football?
46:07
You better show up next week, no?
46:09
Doubt and then you get the draw. I love the way UEFA is doing
46:12
this is which is by the way, drink for that sentence because
46:16
that is something you'll very rarely hear me say.
46:18
I'll give UEFA or FIFA credit for anything UEFA, you're still
46:22
on our shit list for the way you treated Braun.
46:25
Another topic for another day. The draw is on Friday the 27th
46:29
of September. So we get to watch these matches
46:31
and then the draw happens right on the heels of it.
46:34
I think that is a really good decision.
46:36
All jokes aside, that is a good decision by UEFA.
46:39
Kind of capitalize on all that interest.
46:41
So we get our way too early preview.
46:43
We get the draw happening. I think you're right.
46:46
This may be a three to four beer week worth of shows following
46:50
that second leg. So you're totally right.
46:52
Just like you get the action, then you get the draw, then we
46:56
get the speculation, we get the predictions.
46:58
I get to be wildly, hilariously wrong about a couple of things,
47:02
and then I get to be exactly right about some things, which
47:05
isn't the only thing I'm going to really pay attention to, and
47:07
then we just go from there. That's how we do that sounds
47:10
pretty much right on the money, right on brand for the ITC.
47:12
That's where I can go. I like it.
47:14
All right, man, I think we did it this one of the episode A2
47:18
part episode of the into the channel podcast.
47:20
The sincere thank you, thank you.
47:21
Thank you for watching, listening, following, liking,
47:23
subscribing, just playing hanging out with your boys.
47:25
And as I mentioned that realize forgot to do my shout outs.
47:29
We already mentioned our guy bored.
47:30
Appreciate you, Melanie. You already know it's Blade
47:32
Runner Abdul Kieran, Kieran's back in the mix.
47:36
You already know Kieran just pokes his head out for Champions
47:39
League. That's all right.
47:40
I think he's a Chelsea guy. Apple on another new new friend
47:42
of the show, Vespa's back, Vespa.
47:44
This is going to be, I think, another run buddy, another big
47:47
Benfica run buddy. Keep it locked here.
47:49
I know what time it is going to be awesome and remember to like
47:53
if you liked and subscribe or follow into the channel,
47:55
YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcast or wherever you like to watch or
47:57
listen. Leave us a review over your
47:58
favorite podcast app links to all of our socials, every single
48:01
one in the show notes of this episode.
48:03
And a big thank you to my coast as well, Mr. Grant angle for
48:06
being I don't know, man, the ultimate champion of champions
48:09
in this Champions League preview show.
48:11
Or maybe we're Co champions. I don't know.
48:13
We're we're something we're doing something right.
48:15
Either way, I appreciate you. Likewise, buddy, we're on the
48:18
same team. We both get to take turns
48:19
lifting the trophy. We both get the medals.
48:22
We do the the whole thing. Yeah.
48:23
I mean, so Carlo Blue, Vespa, obviously making fun of me for
48:28
talking about these Italian names for Canadians.
48:30
Thank you, Vespa. I appreciate you, Melanie.
48:33
Thank you, Blade Runner. You're one of the goats.
48:35
Thank you for rocking with us. Everybody.
48:37
Like Dino said, we get the second leg, then we get the
48:40
draw. Like we were talking about. the
48:42
Champions League is in full swing.
48:44
Let's go get this money. We appreciate you guys and we
48:47
will see you next time.