Welcome to Into the Channel podcast premier about women's football.

I'm your host Dino de Suspicious and as always, I'm joined by my Co host Mr.

Grant Angle.

What is that man?

I'm feeling fantastic, buddy.

Now we're two days into the UA for Women's Champions League.

Let's go.

I feel better.

I feel even better than I did after day one.

I mean, some might say we're 1/3 of the way through.

I mean, that's, that's no joke.

We're, we're making some real progress here.

So very excited match day 2 good matchups.

I feel like we learned some stuff, but also some stuff got muddled a little bit.

I'm excited to kind of talk about these nine matchups.

Where do you want to get started?

Let's get started with PSG one, Real Madrid 2, and I'm just going to move right to that because when you said we're 1/3 of the way through, it was very obvious on my face that I was like, wait, how does that work?

You confused me with math right off the top.

It doesn't matter.

Let's just easy math.

Real Madrid had two.

That's double what PSG had one an important victory for Las Blancas away.

Big victory for Las Blancas.

I mean, I think I was pretty encouraged by this one because both teams obviously come into it, you know, from different angles, right?

PSG, obviously the terrible showing, but let me let me rephrase that.

The terrible result, OK, ish showing, but you never want to walk away, you know, with that kind of score line.

I thought PSG kind of impressed early in this one.

I thought their press was good.

I thought their intensity was good.

You could see their athleticism.

You could see the directness and kind of had, you know, Madrid on their heels a little bit.

I think things turned right maybe like in the 20s, twenty 324, Linda Caisedo had a great run that kind of depressurized the whole situation because like PSG had been pressing some shots coming across and like, you know, like it.

It really made Madrid, I think really uncomfortable.

But that one run and Caisedo had to do a lot of work.

She went a little bit beast mode, kind of go through, go through some bodies, make some moves, get creative.

But she's like, no, we can, we can, we can move on this team.

We just kind of have to do, you know, like we have to play how we know how to play, you know, be a little bit more, you know, kind of like not practical, but a little bit more deliberate in our movement and our decisions and we'll be all right.

And that's kind of how how the rest of it kind of, you know, like unfurled from there.

It's a skill that she obviously has and I feel like the the best wingers, the top tier wingers in world football have that ability to I'm going to get down the wing and I'm going to depressurize things kind of as you put it.

So yeah, she's, I mean, she's amazing at that.

We've seen her do it in multiple different tournaments, in multiple different shirts, whether it's for Columbia or Real Madrid at this point.

I'm with you.

I thought I really liked PS GS 1st 30 minutes.

There were some some things I put in my game notes where I was like, oh, OK, I perhaps I overreacted a little bit to that first match result that they had when I was asking the question, are we going to find out in this match if Real Madrid is on a totally different tier than PSG?

And, you know, sometimes I just got to be reminded every time we get back into this tournament that it's like, OK, what?

Get a couple results in.

Before I start really wondering these or asking these questions, I will say, and obviously it's a little easier to say because Real Madrid won the match, I think I do think Madrid is better than PSG.

But if I were tearing teams in the tournament, they're probably roughly on the same tier.

Am I crazy for saying that?

I would say, I would say so I would, I would, I would.

I would still think these teams are in different tiers.

I mean, when you look at you look at that run, I mean, I had I put Real Madrid, I thought, I think they're going to I still think they're going to walk away with the top four spot and cruise into the quarterfinal.

So I'm going to I'm going to stick with that pick that I made last week.

But you just look at the talent like on the first goal, you know, So I was mentioning Linda Kaisedo.

So she's working with Eva Navarro on the right, just trying to make some stuff happen.

Navarro puts in a cross, gets knocked back out and then check this out.

It goes Maria Mendez to Yasmim, Naomi Feller, Sandy Toletti, Yasmim again, Toletti again, Yasmim again.

And then Feller has that beautiful, just kind of like tiny, tiny, you know, the, the deftest of touches to kind of put Real Madrid up 1.

And just like you could see the skill level, you know, the skill difference, I would say between the two sides.

And then if it wasn't apparent after that one, the second goal, it's Naomi Feller again, cooks Elisa Dale made a around the left hand side where it's like a true 1V1 duel.

It's like, right, somebody's going to win this duel, Somebody's not going to win this duel.

And Feller won the duel.

And I mean that that ends up becoming the second goal.

It gets out to we're you know, we're, you know, Earps gets their hands on it, hits the post and then ricochets out.

And who's there?

Albert Redondo, of course she is kind of look at these names.

And you're just like, yeah, you know, this, this team is really, really good.

You know, and I and I think when you look at Madrid, you don't look at a lot of 1V1 matchups against a lot of teams in this, in this field and be like, they have a disadvantage at that spot.

I think at every spot they're solid.

They've got professionals.

They don't have that that one 1617 year old that's like, let's let's see if they can hold up in that one in the midfield or like, you know, at at left.

But you know, like they have real, real pros at every spot.

And this was a tough match because the 1st 25 minutes, like I said, Madrid was on their heels.

But I mean, I walked away really more impressed from this W than the last week's for sure.

Can we can we crack a beer?

Make it?

Yes, let's crack a beer.

First of all, thank you.

Live producing on the program.

I appreciate that.

No problem.

See, what are we at?

We're at the six minute mark, you know, Takes us 6 minutes to crack a beer.

Takes Sesame Bruce and Barcelona 94 seconds to score a goal.

But talk about that one later.

Yes, we cheers to you, cheers to the football.

We certainly will talk about that as May Bruce Cole, I'd also like to make a commitment.

Let's do, let's do tears.

Let's make tears in it.

We have some time between now and November 11th.

Let's do an an episode in between match day 2 and match day three of the Champions League.

Let's make the tears 'cause I think you.

I am just I'm waffling on this like I I, I remain down on Perry FC and it wasn't even really, you know, obviously they were going to get blasted.

We knew they were going to get blasted by Chelsea.

That's whatever.

I really I liked that first half hour by PSG and I liked the the what like the last like 2025 minutes from PSG against against Madrid.

Now, obviously you got to put together a full 90 to beat the elite teams.

And with that said, I would probably put what it whatever tier I'm talking about.

If I had real and PSG on the same tier, I'd probably have rail like at the top of the tier and then PSG at the bottom of that same tier.

But we can we can figure that out.

I I I'm I'm totally with you.

I mean, the individual talent is great.

Fellers touch on on her goal.

It was like, so so now you have her and Redondo who are just absolute professional goal scores of I got AI got a nose for it.

Like I, I know like the exact deafness that I have to use and I'm going to be in the right position to score goals.

And when you have a combination of that with somebody like Linda Kaisedo, PIPA angled all I thought played well in spots.

She was just a bull in a China shop at at some points.

I think they should be all right.

We should keep an eye out on that Merla Franz injury, though.

I'll be I'll be checking for updates on that because I thought Misa Rodriguez filled in well, No offense to Misa Rodriguez.

She's a young keeper.

She's going to continue developing.

She's not as good as Merla Franz.

Yeah, and you could see it.

I mean, I think we'll definitely keep an eye on that injury for sure.

Yeah, I just like I continue to like what Real Madrid's able to do.

I'm not I'm not going to count PSG out.

So I'm with you there.

When you look at who they've got, they got to go at Manchester United, they're going to host Bayern Munich, they're going to host Levin.

That's a tough one.

And then they got to go at Benfica.

So not impossible, but they they definitely have some work to do.

Uphill battle.

There's currently sitting in 16th, no points -5 goal differential.

But let's go ahead a little bit.

Let's talk about another.

I mean, this was one of the matchups that I was really, really excited about.

Got the like the full, the full billing Thursday morning.

Byron mention two, Juventus one, yeah, the German champs versus the Italian champs.

Anything from this one catch your eye?

Well, I think you know, Bayern Munich has some professional goal scorers themselves.

I mean for Neil Harder's header was an absolute thing of beauty.

I thought Bayern probably could have could have done better with some of the other chances that they had.

I think Clara Bull may have taken a goal away from Tanakawa.

I want to say it was second-half.

I might I might have a wrong.

I should have put it in my show notes here, but there was a cross in that Bullheads and Tanakawa was right behind her with like in a better position with momentum and it looked like it was going to be a certain goal.

So I think you know, I think Bayern could have could have added a little, could have probably had the go ahead goal sooner than when what when they got it and probably a little, I guess less in quotes, controversial controversially than when they got it.

But yeah, I think I think we saw in this one, you know, Juventus is good.

I I just think Bayern is better and they just ran into a buzz saw and then match week 1 again or match day one, pardon me versus Barcelona.

Yeah, no, that, that's definitely for sure.

And you know, I would say a good bounce back win for Bayern.

You know, they Oh yeah.

The thing that they you have to kind of keep in mind, like the thing that they have to keep in mind is like this is so much different than Fran Bundesliga in the in the competition there and like the game, the game scripts that they need to employ to kind of try to get a win.

Because in this one, you know, Byron was trying to do like the the very sharp, clinical Byron type offense like these like crosses that were pinpoint, you know, trying to like really make it happen.

The pretty hard to go was beautiful.

And then Clara Boo almost made another goal happen like minutes after the pretty hard to go.

So they were really getting it going.

And then the second-half, like over time, like that style just gets a little stiffer and stiffer as the defense kind of figures it out.

We've talked about Clara Bull being like just the creator that, you know, kind of like so much runs through Julie Given, I think as well.

But there was a moment in the second-half where Julie Given puts it across to Clara Bull like a perfectly, you know, perfect angle, great placement.

Clara Bull is really close, gets a foot on it, but it's it's why she's not able to kind of tuck it in.

And they, it almost felt like they're trying to like perfect the goal, the ball into the goal, you know, and it's, it's so funny that the, the, the way that they end up winning ends up being like a somewhat of a mad scramble, you know, like, you know, ball coming in again for Neil Hardy.

She gets the assist.

Just get the ball into the, into the mixer.

And then you've got Leia Schuler, You know, not the prettiest, not the prettiest goal, but I mean, makes makes it happen.

And to me, kind of emblematic of what Bayern is going to need to do to stick around this tournament to advance is you you're going to have to win ugly.

And like, you know, Juventus isn't, you know, a monster club that you is going to keep you up at night, but that that's a professional club too, Champs of Italy.

And they made it tough and they were there kind of like at every turn.

But Bayern's going to have to employ a little bit more of that.

Like, hey, let's get a little improvisation.

Let's let's let Momoko Tanakawa maybe drive us up field a little bit versus all right now.

Let's do all right.

Is it bull or is it win or, you know, like, what are we doing?

Like so I think, you know, Georgia Stanway, I think had a really good shot from distance rocks the post.

They're just going to need more unpredictability than I think they they they've put forward in that first match.

And then I think the first 2/3 of this one.

Yeah, and, and I mean, you hit the names.

I think Alara can offer some of that.

She has that in her game.

Dahlman can give you some of that as well.

Yeah.

I mean, Alara looks like she's a superstar in the making.

I just quick Fact Check of myself.

Yeah, 18 years old Alara.

I mean, come on now.

That's that should be.

That's frightening.

I even think they've missed like a Jovana Damianovich too, just somebody that could do some different, you know, different angles, different or now like we've got to contend with this player for the last 15 minutes, that's going to come in different and like just, you know, give us stuff that we're not used to seeing.

But yeah, on the Juventus side, I want to kind of hit them real quick because you know, even though they were out possessed 7525 out shot, you know, they did manage more shots on target.

And like they they do play that like very, you know, maximize, maximize the chances that we do get.

And and again, like I think they're they're a tough team.

They're you know, I was shocked actually, when I kind of bring this back up.

It was so funny because we were talking about our top, you know, 1216 last week we couldn't, somehow we went through it like 3 times.

So we couldn't figure out which two we didn't have The big, the big block for me was like, you didn't have Juventus in your top 12.

And I just think at the moment I couldn't wrap my head around it.

I'm like, wait, who do you have?

Who do you not have?

Who do you have?

And then when I played it back, I'm like, oh, he didn't put Juventus top 12 to me.

I think they're, they're firmly top 12.

But I'm, I'm very curious to see if, if they, if they change your mind at all or what, what do you think you know from for about their prospects?

I mean that free kick by by shots are curling, you know, off the left foot away from the keeper.

That was that was fantastic.

I thought I like every time I see Bone and Saya play, you know, back going even going back to the EUR, I'm like, yeah, she has good size, she has good speed, she has good skill.

Like I like the way she plays a lot.

Yeah, exactly.

They add Leavalti, although I thought I felt like Vaulti had a little bit of like a quiet match in this one.

Yeah, I mean, I get, you know, how reliable are Vangsgaard and and Kombiagi going to be kind of as as your two tips of the spear, so to speak, like in your attack, can you get enough goals from them against some of this great competition?

I think is going to be the question.

And you know, they, they have Atleti next, then Leon, then they play Saint Polton and then they finish with Manchester United.

So I mean, they're, they're going to be tested and there's really no iteration of the schedule.

I know we've talked, we've joked about this with, with champions like that.

We look at everybody's schedules like, oh, tough one was like, Oh yes, all of these clubs are literally either champions or came very close in, in their home league.

So I think we're going to find out with who they, I, I think you're probably right that they could be top 12 I or that they should be top 12.

I think they might be more on the bubble than you than you think, though.

But we'll, we'll, you know, we'll see if I'm just low on them.

One of the one of the announcers was talking about, you know, was kind of theorizing how many points teams might need to advance.

And I think he was saying, you know, 12 points should be enough for top four.

And I think he said six points maybe might be enough for top 12.

I think 6 is couldn't could make some sense.

7 probably is like super duper safe.

But you know, both these teams, Byron and you, they both on three points.

So it's true.

I don't, I don't want to say you're halfway home, but you're kind of having, you know, if you get 7 points, you you're going to make the top 12.

It's going to be really hard.

I I think there could be some 6 point, there could be a 5 point team that makes it.

I think if you look at like how the math breaks out.

So we'll track.

I think you guys are on a pretty good track and I think they're a good team.

And I think there's some some euro spillover from how well Italy played and how many players are on that on that roster.

You know, we've seen that, you know, and and I think we're seeing we've seen on the field too, like they're playing a little bit more confident.

Not the same Juventus from from last year.

And even when you watch Roma play, they still feel like they're Roma from a couple years ago, like where they feel like a second or third tier league team, kind of like in the Champions League, where Juventus feels like, hey, we can we can at least compete with some of these big teams.

You know, we're not going to beat everybody.

We're not going to drive everybody, but we're not going to get played off the field.

And they didn't on this day either.

Yeah, I think, I think that's totally fair.

Yeah, seven.

Yeah, I guess 7 makes sense like it or yeah, six or seven because you, if you average like a point per match, that's interesting.

I want to.

I want to move.

I want to chew on that a little.

I made a note to myself to go check the men's one to see, yeah, how that one's stacked up.

But I think there might be a little bit, I'm not sure if we could totally compare, but we'll track it.

I think either way, if you've got three points, you're probably feeling pretty good at the at the moment.

Yeah, I mean, you know, Twente is is in 12th and they have one point.

And so, you know, everybody else, you know, Bayern is sitting in 11th and they're on three.

So, you know, they, they got to feel like they're in the right trajectory at this point.

Let's talk a little Twente.

So Twente had a tough one.

They had to head to Belgium into the cauldron to take on the team that I try to tell everybody what's going to finish top 12.

OH, Luvin, what a game.

I mean, I I, I feel I I think I also predicted that this would be one of the games of at least the Wednesday slate for sure.

Check that box.

This one was an absolute banger.

Dude, you said this, said the potential to be match of the day.

I I think it, I think it was, I mean, Vollering A Wolfsburg had an interesting ending, obviously, but like pound for pound, like throughout the the full 90, this was the best match of Wednesday.

I think you should bet yourself on the back.

I think that counts as a correct prediction.

Yeah, I feel like I nailed it and I I just really have started to enjoy enjoy watching this team like they play tough, cool environment, you know, player, a player like Sarah Pushtai, like I mean, when she gets that winner, I mean, well, First off, like, you know, they Lubin's down and you know, Twente, you know, they've got that professional more experience kind of vibe to them.

They look bigger, they look stronger and they look, you know, like more experience, you know, more more poised.

I think that's a word that we've used to describe them.

And they obviously take the one no lead on on a great, you know, very Naomi Feller, like another tap that took incredible touch from Jamie Ravensburg in the 39th minute.

The assist Alika Tween and, you know, credit to Lumen.

Like they hung.

They hung all the way in the match, like all the way through.

Like there was no point where we're like, you know, shoulder slump.

And that happens all the time.

Like even with good teams, you give up something stupid and like, but this team was like flying high, didn't miss a beat and they just chipped away, chipped away.

They get the plan about the 82nd and then 90 + 5.

Oh my goodness.

Like watching Sarah, Sarah pushed.

I get it.

It reminded me.

So you know, for if you missed it, definitely go back and watch it.

But she basically gets it and has decided when she's around the halfway line, I'm going to score a goal and we're going to win.

Does the give and go and basically does the equivalent of like I used to love when LeBron would do this where he'd, you know, he'd get the ball in the break and he dished away and then immediately big.

Just like let's go, let's go and then head down and just, you know, it's like a little low like a LeBron, you know, like a robotic run and then take that loop And you already knew it was going to be like Sports Center level flush.

So pushed.

I definitely exerted some of that energy, you know, in this moment.

Dude, they're an exciting team, man.

Like I've I've really enjoyed both their matches.

I I gotta say, like credit to Twente, who gay, who, like, like you said, looked like the, the like professional, like, Hey, we belong in the Champions League team.

And and Louvin just didn't blink.

Like, like I'm, I'm having a hard like I'm struggling because like when I, I really like Twente, I came away from this match like even more bullish on Twente.

And as I was kind of like thinking about how we're going to talk about this on the show.

I know how much you like Louvin.

I think I like Twente more because they played well against Louvin and Louvin's the damn debutantes.

But that was like you pointed it out too.

That was a crazy environment.

Their fans seem like they are super rad.

Like they were chanting like that place was rocking.

I'm not a huge fan of the song Sweet Caroline, but I do find it hilarious that when they score a goal, they sing Sweet Caroline.

Like, I guess Neil Diamond reaches Belgium too at this point.

Like, I, you know, I don't know what's going on there.

But look, man, I mean, let's just call a spade a spade.

And I know Belgium has a level of diversity to it.

Like any nation, white people love Neil Diamond, Sweet Caroline.

I don't know why, but we like it.

Yep, that's what I've heard about y'all.

I think 20 they're going to be, they're going to be kicking themselves for this result.

You know, 62% possession, they connect on 86% of their passes.

They double up Lubin on shots, shots from inside the box, twice as many touches.

But credit to Lubin, according to Fat Mob, only 29% of 20s touches were in the opposition half.

So Lubin did a great job just right, you can keep the ball, you can knock it around, but we're going to keep you at Bay.

They definitely did that.

The Ravensburg and goal also took a lot of work like that one.

You know, the the the moment I'm going to remember from that goal was the Sophie Proust when she gets the ball and does that weird stop, pivot free, you know, like pivot spin to get it to tween.

I was just like, what the fuck was that?

That looked like I was I always say when I love when players go like SEC wide receiver on me, I'm just like, Oh, I didn't know you could move that quickly laterally up and down, up and back and and, you know, just kind of like leave a defender in their dust.

But that was a very key play from Proust.

But it took a lot of work for Twente to just get that single goal.

I think the announcer was pronouncing her name Prusht.

I think Sophie crushed.

I think I'm going to I'm going to rock with that until somebody hopefully corrects us in the comments.

But so I just want to I just want to just throw this out there to general public because I think we mentioned her briefly after match day one.

And now here we are talking about Sophie crushed again.

Is anybody looking for Sophie crushed stock because it's too late.

I've bought all of it.

I am the I own, I own the rest of it That was available.

She plays.

She was styling on Lumen in a lot of spots.

Like I love the confidence she plays, but she is 18 years old out there playing like that.

the Champions League, she had 54 minutes.

I I want to say somewhere right around there in last year's Champions League.

So clearly, you know, wasn't quite ready.

She's ready now.

Like I loved a lot of parts of her game in this match.

Now she did pull up with what looked like a little bit of a hammy near the end of the match.

So we'll see kind of, you know, what happens there.

It looked like she was moving around OK when they took her off as a sub.

Hopefully it was more of a cramp than some kind of pole.

But yeah, dude, she's a serious footballer.

Yeah, and and a piece they didn't, I mean, you take it to your point, they did have her last year, but didn't have that attack last year.

This is fun and this is exciting and we already saw it, it, it pay off here in this one.

And, you know, gold differential still matters, you know, so A-Team, like Twente, you know, they're sitting on 0 points, but they're just -2 you know, so I think like, I'm sorry, no, they're on one point because they, they should be.

And they're on.

-1 then.

Yeah, that's my bet.

I always mix them up with Valerie.

It's moving on to not Valeriega.

We'll talk about that later.

Lyon 3.

Zang Bolton.

Zang Bolton, Nil Lyon, maybe.

I think I I went back and double checked it.

I think a fully rotated starting 11.

I mean, obviously household names up and down the 11.

But I want to say that Yona talk about, you know, styling and stunting on people was like, let's let's see what the second team's got, you know, for for Zhang Poulton and then credit to him.

I thought that was pretty savvy just to be like, let's see who who steps up, who shines, you know, without the benefit of being surrounded by first team players in a Champions League environment.

I thought that was pretty slick.

And you know, Leon gets a big win.

What are you going to take away from this one?

I'm going to take away that you, you helped me out pre show as you typically do because yes, they did, I think they did rotate everybody.

I think you're right about that.

But I still kind of walked away with couldn't they have been a little more efficient?

I mean, like the I mean, the numbers were pretty weird at one point.

What, like, I mean, at the end of the match, 46 shots, but only 15 of them on target.

Whether that's around like 32%, which isn't like terrible, but I feel like if you're if you're Leo and you should be more ruthless with your attack when you just have a even with your second team, you have St.

Bolton totally outgunned.

No doubt.

And I think like, I'm, I don't have her first name, but Brunold on Saint Bolton, the attacker had a couple good looks in the first half and was kind of keeping herself for not finishing one of them.

That was like borderline Gimme.

I mean, it's tough.

You're playing Leon, you know, it's a big spot.

Wouldn't make the difference anyway.

I think Leon still walks away with three points.

But I think, you know, 15 out of 46, not terrible, but just three goals from 15 shots on target.

If you're Lyon, you're probably looking at that and be like, all right, we got we got to do better than that now, Grant.

I think so.

Those were versus one of the Patreon Saints of the ITC, Karina Schluter, 12 big saves.

You know, I mean, I think any other keeper it's a different story.

But I thought Schluter was really good again in this one.

Yeah, like a good keeper.

I just I feel so bad for her because like she's usually Zane Poulton's best player.

Most I'll say most standout player, no doubt that just like you're just like, Oh, wow, that was that was really good.

And it's not because she's getting a lot of opportunity.

She makes plays and she's super smart and she makes good decisions in in in AI mean in the snap of a failure, like in a blink of an eye.

She's just so quick and I just really like her game.

I just, you know, I mean, with that said, not the worst showing for Zane Poulton.

I mean, you know, they they didn't come out and wash.

I think you mentioned like a six, six nil or seven nil a couple years ago in this same fixture.

Yep, yeah, they lost seven nil the second go round.

They lost seven nil at home to Lyon two years ago.

So, you know, to go to France in this one and lose 3 nil.

I mean, you know, I mean, we're talking about this, this, these are some of the realities of this tournament where you have a giant, you know, the the record holder, record holding winners of this tournament, Leon versus Saint Paul and the team from Austria.

But yeah, I I think we've talked about it too.

In some of these matches, you're going to get these big numbers and you can still kind of look at the goalkeeper performance and be like, yeah, it played pretty well actually.

Like that's just kind of how it goes.

And there was no stopping under any circumstances.

I don't give a crap who your goalkeeper us that Lily Johannes strike from damn near midfield.

Surprise, surprise, surprise.

Oh, what's this up?

She's shooting too late.

It's in the back of the net, I mean.

You know, they don't call the supernova for nothing.

That looked like a shooting star flying, flying, flying through the French knight before it gets, you know, nuzzled into the net.

I thought she played.

She also played really well, you know, very confident, you know, had good chemistry with Hegelberg.

You know, obviously involved, you know, in in some of the build up early in the first half had a very cool slick back heel.

I think was credited with five chances created according to foot mob seven shots, 4 on target.

Love to see that.

And obviously the the supernova of the goal.

I it's going to be exciting to see how Lily grows into this match.

I think for me, you know, if if I'm Yona and I'm looking at OK, who do I who do I remember standing out?

You know, obviously Haggerberg, you know what time it is Vicki Betcho obviously involved in that first goal.

Lily Harris, no doubter.

I think Alice some about on defense was really good as well.

And then you get you get the LeBron goal like, you know, just cracking the seal on now this is this is a Leon player and I loved that first goal just because it was like everybody filling the lane.

It's like right, Vicky's out on the wing.

We know this ball is getting whipped in.

Let's all just run.

Let's all just give her a target and the ball ends up finding Lebrons and you know, they they were off from there.

So I think some some good learnings, Leon probably happy with with some of that second team production and you know, they're they're sitting pretty 6 points.

I, I think I'm, I feel comfortable saying this about you, LeBron.

She, I thought she was the best player on the field.

She was an absolute menace out there.

She completed 87% of her passes.

She had a goal and an assist.

She won the most duels in the match with 10.

Those stats are courtesy of Fat Mob, but also, I think courtesy of all of our eyeballs.

I thought she, I she was jumping off the screen.

I was like, hey, yo, she's like dominating this match.

Yeah, no, she.

Definitely she owes Lily at least a cappuccino because her assist was on that Lily goal.

Yeah, didn't have to do a ton of work, but shout out to you, LeBron.

Shout out to Lily Goodwin for Leon.

Excited to see them come back and see, you know, kind of like what the I think if you're young and you do that because you want to shake some things up down the stretch and I think you think, all right, what I my 11 now is not going to be the 11 down the stretch.

You know, so I think we're going to learn some stuff and see this team evolve.

I'm super excited about that.

Let's talk about the team that probably keeps Leon up at night a little bit and that's FC Barcelona.

They get a BIG4 no win at Roma.

What did you see in this one?

The Juggernauts roll on.

I mean, we talked about Esme Bruce scoring that goal within like 94 seconds or whatever it was just right down the pitch, kind of doing what they want.

How about Kika of Nazareth out muscling the defender to get that header to like right on the line to just kind of knock it over and get the second goal.

You know, the the Roma defender is kind of looking up like, hold on, where's the foul?

It's just like, Nope, Everybody was just playing football on that play and and Kika ended up being stronger than you.

And I think she does have a kind of like, I don't even know if if wire, pardon me, I don't know if wiry is the right phrase for it, but she has like a deceptive strength to her game that I really like about Kika.

So I mean, we've talked to like we talked about Benfica players hitting the weight room.

Obviously Kika moves from Benfigo over to Barcelona and I'm I'm going to guess they have a pretty good weight room facility over there in Catalonia.

So I mean, what do you do?

What do you do with Barcelona?

You can you can hope.

You could hope that maybe Alexia Putais will miss a penalty kick, OK.

And then she'll just make the next one.

And then they'll continue to just kind of hold you hostage in your own defensive end of the field.

Yeah, take.

A penny, leave a penny miss a pen, make a pen.

That's right.

I thought Kika, you made me laugh because you already talking about Kika hit the weight room because on Kika's goal, the second one, you know, she she's gets an opportunity at the edge of the box and she's so wide open that if you rewatch the replay, she takes like a step and a half back as a wind up.

She's a thing.

Oh, I got this.

And then she's like, it's just like backing it up and it just hammers it into the net.

And I'm just like, oh, let's go.

You didn't have you didn't have any anywhere near that kind of time at Benficus.

You got the time.

You might as well take it.

You talked about the Alexia penalty.

And then they get for the 4th 1A Carolina, Graham, Hampton Tappan, you know, just from, you know, again, death by 1000 cuts.

They work the ball all the way up field and then the play ends with Pina, you know, sliding the ball across.

And CGH is imagine CGH just staying there alone because as a defense, you're just like, OK, I can't, I can't make a we can't afford one.

We can't.

There's not one more rotation in our bodies to get to Carolina.

Graham Hansen to stop this.

So well, I'm going to walk away.

This Barcelona performance, they scored every kind of way you can, you know, and they they they did it without totally breaking a sweat and held held Roma totally in check.

And you know, just a super professional win for, you know, for a team that's probably maybe the over the overwhelming favorites.

Can we say that?

I think so.

I mean it, you know, what tournament are they walking into where they're not the favorites?

And just real quick, let me just could do the the live correction myself.

Yeah, I was conflating the first goals and the second goal.

Right.

So Kika went up for the header on Bruke's goal and Brukes taps it in.

Yeah, yeah.

No, but she.

OK, She just kind of clear out.

No, that first goal, it was Kika and Selma in the mixer.

And then it I just laughed because I'm just like, imagine you have bodies like Kika's at their side.

You're like, all right, we held them at Bay.

And then Brukes is just five feet behind, ready to just uncork one, like, take somebody's head off.

It's just there's no, there's no defending it, unfortunately.

Yeah, for sure.

And.

From the Roma perspective, you know, you go into halftime and you're only down one nil.

So like, they should be feeling good about themselves, right?

Sort of.

At that point in the first half, Barcelona had 37 touches in the opposition box.

Roma had zero, a big donut.

So even if you're only down one nil, you can't feel great about that.

You look at the second-half numbers there, How much did it improve?

Well, Barcelona only had 35 touches in the opposition box, 2 fewer.

And Roma had two, two more than they had in the first in the first half.

So look, I mean, we, we talked about it like it's not like we're going to bag on Roma for, for losing convincingly to Barcelona.

But it just, it does, it just shows there is a clear separation there.

And Roma has a ton of work to do, man.

And I think they are in real, real, real trouble of not making that top 12.

Their zero wins, 0 draws, 2 losses, obviously -8 goal differential.

There's second to last on the table.

I think it's a real uphill climb here, Yeah, no.

It's going to be tough.

I mean, you go at Real Madrid versus bar, so those could be two top four teams.

That's going to be tough.

And I think Roma in a lot of ways, like PSG in a little bit of a transition year.

We talked about all those players that have moved on, Elena Linari, Saki Kumagai, Moi, Kaminami Giacinti, you know, like there it's been a lot of movement.

I'm forgetting a few players to you know, as well.

So, and they've been replaced by some younger players.

I'm thinking of Elia Pilgrim from Switzerland, who's shown, you know, in the EUR over the summer, Julia Dragoni, who I believe maybe is unknown from Barcelona or I'm not sure if that's permanent or temporary, but she's a super young player.

So I think Roma's kind of in flux, a lot like PSG, a lot of movement there.

You know, watching PSG, you're just like, OK, it's I, I know Karshawi, I know Olga Carmona, I know the Almeida.

And then it's a lot of young, exciting players, you know, like, you know, Ajibade who scores, Romy Luter, you know, so I think there's a couple teams that are at the wrong point in the cycle.

I think Roma's probably one of those teams.

So I, I agree with you, man.

I don't expect them to clear the top 12 bar, you know, unfortunately, as much as I'd like to see it.

But let's talk about another, you know, sort of WSL league F measuring stick match, potentially a team that you really like, Athletico Madrid versus team you don't like very much at all.

Manchester United.

What'd you see in this?

Don't say yeah.

Don't care for Manchester United, I'll go on the record with that one.

But man, like I've, like I've said about them before, they're kind of beating their respect out of me.

I think that's kind of like how how it happens.

You know that that opening goal free Lena Rolfo just say just gets her foot all the way through it.

It's a laser.

I know it's point blank range.

I thought Ziggiote hit a great pass to get it in there.

Fernandez is like fighting with Tune to try to clear it.

You know Tune does exactly what she needs to.

Like to your earlier point about like what Kika and Beto Uelo did on on the Bruce goal, Tune is fighting for it with Fernandez and then Rolfo just crushes it in the net.

And then they just needed to like really hold on.

And you know, Atletico, they're going to run.

And I've talked a lot about them going up and down the wings.

They have like good, creative, skillful passing in the middle of the park too.

Like I, I really do just like, and I, you know, I mean, it's no secret.

I I appreciate the the Spanish way of playing football, but man, like they do it better than I expected.

Even in the past, like couple years of us paying attention to league F you.

I can feel them getting, I mean, correct me if I'm, if I'm just like making this up, but like they are better at it this year than they have been in the past two years that we've been watching them.

I think the confidence has grown.

I think, you know, I think they've got, you know, they've got good players.

They've they've got some connectivity and they play really hard.

You know, I mean, I was really surprised in this one because the stats like they they really, you know, leaned athletes way, you know, obviously they're at home.

So you kind of expect that.

And this is I mean, it's unfortunate.

It's a growing pain type match, you know, because you you have players.

Maybe Manchester United hasn't been there before, but you look at who they've got.

Ella Tune.

Miyazawa Millar, like, you know, I know just Park wasn't in this one, but Leticia, yeah, Leticia.

And and the one that I want is Rolfo most Frieda Rolfo because, you know, this is a player I love when like Frieda Rolfo is like A1A type player.

Like this is a player that her whole life has been the biggest, baddest player on almost every pitch that she's been on, right?

Yeah.

Goes to Barcelona kind of nudged out a starting line up.

Can she play left back or right back?

You know, what can we do?

You know, and it's like, OK, no, let's get Friedo Friedo ruffle back into A1A type position where she gets touches and she ripped shots.

You know, she that wasn't her first shot of the game.

She she let one RIP really early, I think cleared the bar by quite a bit.

But that's what that's what she needs to be doing.

Like she needs to be in there just smashing it and that needs to be kind of like her role.

And I love seeing her in like that one, a type, you know, full green light type situation.

And finally in this one in a huge spot, it paid off.

And like I said, those veterans know enough to be able to kind of like hold a lead, you know, in a tricky environment like that against a team that's a little bit younger.

You know, you obviously talk about, you know, like, I mean, the red card on Jansen early, that should have been a boon for Athleti and they kind of fumble the bag on that one.

Alexia gets her own red card a little bit later in the match and that they give that advantage right back.

And then at that point it's like, well, you didn't you didn't equalize.

You had half an hour or 35 minutes or so to do it.

You're not going to do it when it goes 10 V 10, you know, and you're a little bit more tired and, you know, like so I think they they kind of let an opportunity slip, but I think it's growing pains.

I think I'd still be really, really encouraged if I'm in the I'm on that outlet decide.

Yeah, totally agree with that.

Let's talk about it because I'm sure a lot of people are already talking about it.

Please, you know, let us know in the comments what you think.

Should that have been a straight red for Jansen?

What?

What did you think?

I mean we, we open.

This with this segment with how, how much I do not care for Manchester United.

So I wanted to tell you that I held two things at the same time.

1 Did I laugh?

Oh, absolutely I did because I did think Atleti was going to be able to, to, to capitalize on that.

But I'll say just in the interest of just like I, I don't know if it's fairness or just like my football eye when she, when she goes to make the tackle, she, you know, she traps Gio's left foot like, you know, she's like traps her left ankle and it looks extremely painful and it's a bad tackle.

I don't know if it was like malicious or violent.

I think is typically the term that referees will use when talking about that.

So I thought a yellow card made sense and I was a little surprised that it was a straight red.

So I don't think I would have shown straight red, but I don't have any FIFA or UEFA referee classes under my belt or any qualifications like that.

I I but to just be totally honest, as much as I was hoping it would be the downfall of Manchester United, it felt harsh to me.

Yeah, I think, I think.

It felt a little harsh.

I kind of, I used, I the, the rubric I use is like, you know, is it clear and obvious?

You know, is it a clear and obvious error?

Even though we're not, you know, you know, talk about instant replay in the NFL and for me, I was like, maybe that was a maybe that was an error.

Maybe they they go back and review it and say it should have been.

But I think it was close enough that I think just kind of keep it moving at that point.

You know, we talked about the football gods, the football gods, maybe, you know, even the scales a little bit down the line or you know, maybe Alexia did that herself.

But either way, I think, you know, United, you got to give them props, man.

I think, you know, you, you you've put it very succinctly in the last couple weeks.

They they definitely beat the respect out of you.

And this is a team that if we're thinking tears, I kind of feel like they're they're in that second, you know, that 5 to 8 kind of range.

I think they they they're loaded enough.

They they play a good brand of ball.

You know, I kind of had some fun poking some fun at Mark Skinner, but I got to give him props and I I like the approach, you know, like it's true, Like, you know, like I, I think what they're doing is working.

You know, like through Leticia, you kind of lock down, you don't do anything.

You know, I thought another key stroke that was really cool in this one, moving Millar deeper into the midfield because she's dynamic, she's fast, she's strong, she's creative.

Get her the ball early.

She could pass and she could run and that really kind of open.

You know, it just kind of opened up the field that, you know, we talked about the depressurization.

I thought that was a great depressurization move, like getting Millar just more touches in the middle 3rd and then making athletic contend with that.

So quick shout out to Skinner.

I think he's he's been doing a good job here through these first couple in this tournament.

I haven't done one of these.

In a while, so let's let's make this the Men Play Football 2 segment of of this episode.

I refer to this as the Rude Van Nisselroy example, where I loved Rude van Nisteroy for the Netherlands and I, he's a wonderful player to watch.

And then when he went to Manchester United, I was like, I don't want to like this guy anymore, but I fucking love the way he played football.

And Melvin Millard is of a similar vein where I, I'm totally with you moving her to the midfield with how, you know, with her style, her vision, like her shiftiness, like I really like watching her play.

It's just a real problem while she's wearing that shirt.

So I don't like that as much.

But yeah, I'm totally with you.

I thought that was a good move.

2222 year old Swedish defender Anna Sandberg, I thought she held up well after the red card.

Jay Riviera, Canadian played well.

Leticia, you already know what time it is.

They brought on Gabrielle George at halftime.

Leah Galton came on around the hour mark and she made a super important tackle, a really well timed tackle near the end of the match on Gabby Garcia.

So yeah, they stood tall.

Those defenders stood tall.

And Speaking of standing tall, how about that American, Fallon?

Tell us, Joyce, who's just all, who's just all limbs, who's basically an arthropod back there just snatching up everything.

I mean, she made an amazing save in the first half and then I think some of the other saves were were less like dynamic, but she just eats up the ball in situations where she is like go, go gadget arms and she'll just reach out and snatch one from you.

Yeah, that I think if you're talking.

About the same saves.

She kind of like jumped up and back and reached up and like just that was fantastic.

Whoa, that was.

That was great.

Yeah, she's definitely, if you've seen.

The movie Arrival, like the The Visitor, Yeah.

Got some?

PGJ Energy she was she was unbelievable as well.

You know I think a player like that is really going to be able to keep you keep you in some matches, but they're playing well shout out to them couple more matches to hit before you get out of here Benfica nil Arsenal 2 the holders.

Now you said it.

You said arsenal's going to have to come out and at least win by two here now.

That's what happened and I still don't have that warm and fuzzy feeling that I was supposed to have even though they got it.

They got done what you said they needed to come out here and get done before I, you know spin wildly into, you know the depression and anxiety over my team and then they're you know, very slim prospect of of repeating.

What did you take away from this Benfica Arsenal match up?

Don't worry buddy, I'm here to come.

For you, I appreciate they don't look.

They don't look nearly as good as they should.

Yeah, I mean, like, it's so the only thing that I think, no, it's not the only thing.

The first thing is that you have a a lot of great players who have literally lifted the Champions League trophy before and then met a few more who have also lifted 2 Euros trophies.

That helps.

But the the second thing that I think I I didn't, I don't want to swing too wildly on is I think this team is building toward something as the matches progress is that they're probably they have to be looking at this and like what we saw from Renee Slager's last tournament, like I'm not going to get in the business of betting against her plan.

And I have to imagine that there is some ramp up going to happen and that as that that they will figure things out as this tournament progresses or specifically this league phase.

So I will say I don't think they played nearly as well as I would have liked to see them play.

And obviously you as an Arsenal supporter, I didn't think they played as well as you would like to see them play.

But I'll tell you one thing, that Chloe Kelly pass off the free kick.

Boy, that was executed.

Well, if you get a bottle up some more of that every once in a while, I think that'll help.

Yeah.

It turns out she's pretty skilled.

I I was listening to Leanne show on talk sport.

Go subscribe if you haven't done that already.

It's a great show.

But Leanne was saying that she thought that Caitlin Ford and Katie McCabe.

This was before the matchup were kind of like not the lifeblood, but like, I wish I had the exact quote, but like, sort of like the the DNA of Arsenal.

Like when they're when Arsenal's playing like Arsenal, it's because Caitlin, you know, Caitlin Ford and Katie McCabe are dictating how, you know, how we're going to play like Arsenal today, which I thought was an unbelievable point.

You know, yeah, good, really good players.

You know, not like, you know, the like the, the absolute upper upper echelon, but in terms of driving, you know, the action.

I I totally agree.

And I think without those two players, you know, there was some, some rotation here.

You know, Beth Mead is obviously in the lineup, Olivia Smith, Kyra Cooney cross, Ruben Moy, Taylor Hines at left back.

So you know, there's been some flux for sure.

Not quite what we saw at Lyon, but it's enough to really make you feel like it it.

There's no formula here that's been figured out.

And I think actually, if you think back to Champions League last year, some of these questions still kind of remained.

It's like, well, Chloe Kelly, why is she not starting?

She's so productive.

Beth Mead, why is she, you know, what happens to her?

She's so good.

And like Russo, Blackstenius, has that been sorted out?

Obviously Russo kind of like, you know, gained some, you know, some distance in that.

But then Blackstenius obviously has a huge goal in the fight.

You know, so we almost went into the season with a lot of questions, even though last year ended on such a high note.

And then you sign a big ass check for Olivia Smith to bring her over.

You know, more than it's cost you any other any other player on the on the roster.

And you know, that's another thing to kind of contend with it.

I'm going to say it's like throwing a complete monkey wrench in it, but it's made it that much tougher to kind of sort out right.

Who's playing where?

How are we playing?

Who's dictating things?

Like, you know, where is the offense running through?

We want Mariona involved.

Who gets it to Mariona?

What's, you know, what are the, the, the, the, the adjustment to there, the adjustment to the adjustment.

And, you know, thankfully there's a lot of time to figure it out.

I do expect, obviously this team to, you know, clear the top 12, but you know, they do have the potential to finish top 4.

You know, and I think and they, and, and based on how things are shaking out, there are a lot of scenarios where they don't finish top four.

And I think that would be kind of somewhat problematic for a team, you know, from confidence standpoint, You you want to see them finish on the on the high note.

And the last thing I'll mention, match day 6.

There's a date at OH, Luvin looming, buddy.

And I don't want to be in that position.

I'm already going to have to be match day 4 versus Real Madrid.

And I'm not sure what I'm going to do it.

This is this is stacking up to be a very, you know, emotionally tumultuous tournament for your boy.

So I appreciate you, you know, offered to support me.

It means a lot.

Of course, that's what.

That's what I'm here to do, obviously.

I mean Bayern.

Madrid, Twente, Luvin again, is this going to be a running theme?

You know, please feel free to make fun of us in the comments.

So we're like, man, a lot.

You got to play a lot of good teams in the Champions League.

But like, not not much relief there.

A little bit of a revenge game versus Bayern, you know, after, you know, obviously they got their revenge last year and then some by lifting the trophy.

But it'll be interesting to see, you know, going back to Germany to play that match.

Yeah.

I mean, Olivia Smith, you talk about kind of some flux in the lineup.

There can't be any.

And, and I know that you're you're talking about the the additions.

There's no flux there.

Once you pay that fee, she's playing.

So you got a player as as many times as possible and figure out how, how the fit's gonna look.

And I think honestly, the fit is gonna probably be just fine.

She's a, she's a good player.

I like her attitude.

I can't get like she has.

She has some toughness out there to her game.

I think she will fit well with Russo.

So you know, I, I will say, as much as I would like to be a pain in your ass and be like, whoa, wasn't that convincing.

Like you had to go to Lisbon and beat a feisty Benfica team and you didn't really let them up for a ton of air.

Like I thought you Chevy for for for Benfica was probably maybe put in their best performance.

And when the person who puts in the best performance for your side is a is a center half, that usually means you're probably having a rough go of it throughout that match.

So, you know, Arsenal, they handled business and you know, I think about it, let's compare it to to your birds in the National Football League, the American football where people there's a lot of hand wringing going on about a team that has a winning record that is, you know, the the reigning champions.

So let maybe let's give them some time.

I'm I'm with it, but you know, I'm also on the record of like, you know, it usually, you know, let me not even say it just a long season.

There's time to turn it around.

But if I said that Chelsea is constant as currently constituted couldn't win, I feel like Arsenal is no further than Chelsea, let's say in in that department.

So there's going to be a lot they're going to have to figure out a lot of adjustments to make.

And I agree with you, Olivia Smith, big price tag.

She's got to play.

But there's a lot of good players and there's you know, you have to move.

That's true.

Unfortunately, you have to move a lot of stuff to make that work.

I'm glad that's not my job.

Shout out to the Champions League winning coach Renee Slagers.

I'm who I'm sure will figure this out before we're out of here.

But with that said, one more match to hit let's let's let's kind of Sprint through before we get here.

Valeranga 1 Wolfsburg 2.

This was a fun match up another one that ends well.

This one it couldn't have ended any later.

The last kick of the match ends up being the decider a really fun one though What what anything any big takeaways from this one?

I just.

I feel bad for haters though.

Dear Who?

Yeah, gave away that goal to to Wolfsburg.

I mean, you could see like on the replay from like the the behind the goal camera when she when she makes the pass, everybody's like, Oh no, it's like, and then it's the passes.

It's basically a through ball or it's a ball to play in Linneth Birnstein.

And so you're pretty much finished at that point.

But look, I mean, they got, they got the equalizer right back like what, like 180 seconds later it felt like.

So, you know, I, I like Valarenga's spirit.

Wolfsburg is another one of those teams where it's like, OK, how much are we calibrating as we go through these match days?

But you know, if you're Wolfsburg, you got to be feeling pretty great sitting third on the table.

Plus five goal differential, 6 points to your name, you know, and, and if, if you can feel like, hey, we're still kind of ramping up and that's where we are in this league phase, I think you should be, you should be operating with quite a bit of confidence.

Yeah, no.

Doubt.

I think a lot to be confident about.

For sure I would.

I had looked down.

You mentioned that Heidi's daughter giveaway.

I looked down for a second right before that happened and when I heard I heard the kick, like I heard the thump of the kick and then I heard the crowd like kind of audibly gasp and I immediately looked up and I thought it was Justine Keelan that had kicked it to Berenstein like perfectly.

I was like, oh shit, nice one, you know, like.

And then the announcer was like, oh, what a terrible gaffe or whatever.

And I was like, what, what, what, what?

And then I saw those haiders Zozier like put a perfect.

It was a.

Perfectly play ball.

A perfect ball.

And then a perfect finish from Berenstein.

Berenstein on the day 13 for 13 passes, obviously gets the goal, 28 touches, 8 in the Valarenga box, 4 shots, 2 on target, putting pressure on Valarenga all day long.

I also liked Wolf for playing through Korsakai up the left hand side.

20 year old German played all 90 minutes passing super on .6 touches in the opposition box was shooting.

Create some chances if they're going to play through Zakai, I think that's a really, really nice counterweight because Berenstein loves to run, you know, kind of like from that opposite end and you know, to kind of dart in and and make trouble.

And then lastly, quick shout out to Michaela Kovach, 28 year old American Michigan State Spartan.

Shout out to my black guys Tom and Tony.

You already know what time it is One chance created and obviously get to the assist on that hurt a goal.

No, no relation to Kayvon Wolfsburg, 20 to 20 shots to five for Volarango.

So they kind of dominated their dominated possession.

I don't want to say they they deserve the win.

They were certainly the better team, but that last, you know, that last call was so, so brutal.

Tough to see them kind of losing that in that way.

But I don't know this this tournament could kind of break your heart that way.

They certainly felt like they deserve the point.

I just think if you're the ref and the, you know, the, the people working VAR, you just have no choice.

That's a handball.

Like, I mean, she, you know, they're, they're both coming for the ball.

She has her hand, she has her arm up and it moves the ball in what could be considered like a strategic move or a, a, a move to benefit the defender.

So you got to call it a handball.

And yeah, it is an absolutely soul crushing.

Call, but it's a call that I think had to be made.

I do I let me also just quick shout out to Wolfsburg's left back Janu levels the the Dutch international, 24 years old.

I think she's put together like 2 pretty good performances already.

And so just I want everybody to mentally prepare yourselves for if she continues to play well for Dino and I as 2 old men to just say at different points, there's levels to this because I mean, there's just no way.

Like there's no way we can resist that.

Yeah, no doubt.

I mean, a truism is a truism, right?

You already know what time it is the last, the last quick note.

You know, the handball gets called right, and they're you're well past the allotted you're we're an extra extra time at that point.

And then, you know, I I feel like Papa still in the game, Beers sign still in the game, and then, you know, you need to make a steps up and I know she's a good penalty taker and I'm and I'm still, you know, caveman.

I'm like, I don't know if I you know, I don't know.

I feel like I would make a switch there but Minga fucking blasted that.

Thing that's why I I mean, it was there was a.

Violence, you know, emanating from my screen after that one.

And I'm just like, OK, let me sit down and shut the fuck up.

You know, she's, she's taking that penalty for a reason.

So shout out to you, Dean and Minga.

I am.

I'm sorry that I doubted you for a fraction of of a microsecond, but, you know, maybe there's some comfort in knowing that I was proven terribly, terribly wrong after you blasted into the net.

And, you know, Gabe Wilsberg, a big, a big win that I think could catapult them.

I mean, am I crazy to kind of think that like, you know, the same way a bad loss can kind of like really derail you, you know, take the air out of out of out of your balloon.

I feel like a win like this could be like, hey, we, you know, we lost the Byron at home.

That was a little bit of a deflator.

But now we're back and we're on 6 points and we're kind of in control of our destiny a little bit.

I think you know the top 4 is not outside of the realm of possibility for a team like Will Spur with that much talent, no.

Not at all.

Now I I think the thing that's they be their must watch.

They're absolutely must watch for the rest of the tournament.

They take on Lyon on November 11th.

Everybody hold your breath.

For somebody to make some clumsy veteran's day jokes about a French team and a German team could be me, you never know.

November 19th they're at home to play Manchester United.

December 9th they go to Real Madrid and then set on the 17th of December their home for Chelsea.

So they got Lyon, United, Madrid, Chelsea, all of those appointment television.

All bangers for sure.

Yep.

And kind of like I mean.

Outside of Lyon, that's going to be a tough game for Willisburg to win at Lyon.

But all of these are are winnable and all of them are also losable, which makes no doubt like, I mean, to your point of appointment television, what a slate.

I mean, but credit to Wolfsburg.

You open with PSG and Malarenga and you walk away with six points.

Now that the slate gets a little trickier and we'll see, you know, kind of like what's left in the tank for them.

But very excited about that.

I want to hit a quick episode calendar, a very quick episode calendar.

All I know is we've got U.S.

National team news coming up.

We'll be talking about it.

Couple friendlies coming.

We'll talk about those.

Yeah, UEFA Champions League.

I I want to do a tear show.

I think I think after after two match days, that seems like a lot of fun and we've already got the natural top 4 second four, third four last six out and you know, we can update those rankings.

Quick update.

My top 12 from last week is the actual top 12 year.

What type of move on?

We have to.

We don't have to spend too much time lingering on that.

So we'll have some Champions League shows coming up and the NWSL playoffs right around the corner.

We've got one more match week after this weekend, and then it's three weeks of a magical playoff run in the NWSL.

Cannot wait for that.

The final taking place in my hometown or in the Bay Area, we'll say down in San Jose.

So I'll be in the building for that hopefully, and hopefully you'll be joining us and we'll have some.

The festivities will be happening, so make sure you're subscribed to be a lot of fun stuff for our NWSL fans out there.

All right, man, I think we did it.

Anything else you want to hit forget out here?

2 questions.

One is the NWSL final in Hialeah 2.

It should be.

I mean appeal to the appeal to the NWSL parking.

What are we talking about man?

Let's go question number 2.

Is it a bit?

Are we doing a thing that?

Is this some kind of London Derby rivalry?

We didn't talk about Chelsea versus Perry FC.

Did you do that on purpose?

Did you do?

That on purpose.

Anything goes with it before.

We had to get out of here.

Sure.

Chelsea 4 pre FC-0 and Chris Whittingham.

How about how about our guy Chris cooking?

He was.

He's good on that call.

Yeah, Yeah, he's go ahead.

Yeah.

No, Sir, Go ahead.

No, no, what you got?

No, he's a, he's a good.

Announcer, man, I've heard him call Syria matches for CBS that he's called at some NWSL matches.

He called the The Bay Washington Spirit match that was in the baseball park down there.

Oh shit, yeah.

That dude.

He's a hell of an announcer.

I think My.

Daughter was being born on that day.

Oh, yeah.

You were preoccupied.

Yeah, but yeah, shout out to Chris.

We all love all the the Dan Lovatard, you know, the family, you know what time it is.

But my main take away from Chelsea, you know, 26 shots, we talked about them not totally being able to finish.

I'm not sure if four goals from 26, considering one of them was a penalty.

He's going to, you know, give them all the the warm and fuzzies.

The last quick note, you know, I asked you, I think last week, you know, what Chelsea would be able to do kind of unlock that often to be able to produce more.

Turns out Alyssa Thompson might might just be that piece to kind of unlock some stuff there.

I thought I thought she was really good considering here she just got there.

And, you know, I mean, I don't want to you don't want to compare players, but, you know, Naomi Girma, also another player with a big price tag coming up from NWSL, you know, has not been able to make that same level of impact.

So you got to be for Alissa Thompson fans.

You got to be really encouraged, you know, to think about what what's possible there at Chelsea considering the early results.

Yeah.

And I think she's.

Is she still?

I think Germa might still be dealing with the calf injury.

I think so.

But but I totally hear you and I'll and I'll say there was just a moment where Millie Bright played a through ball to Alissa Thompson.

And I just kind of chuckled.

And I know it's like it's been settled for weeks.

Like the deal happened and she she moved over to Chelsea.

But I just kind of started laughing like Millie Bright is passing the ball to Alyssa Thompson.

That is, that is like a weird.

That was just a weird thing for my brain to compute in that moment that I was like, I did not expect.

Like if you would have told me a month ago that this would be happening, I'd be like, oh, damn, Millie moved to LA That's cool.

Good for her.

Like if she'll enjoy the sunshine.

So yeah, I think I'm you.

Know I'm obviously no.

Chelsea supporter either, but you know that roster is what it is.

The looping header by JRK was fantastic and they're just going to start doing this thing where they where they bring on Sam Kerr to help finish out these matches.

And what do you know, Sam Kerr scores off a set piece when they when they line up and the and the camera goes like inside the box on this corner kick and they have Sam Kerr, Lucy Bronze and Millie Bright all near the keeper around the six yard box.

That is a fucking nightmare for the defense in any scenario.

Yeah, no, it's.

It's impossible.

I had that same moment when when Kyra Walsh fed it to Alyssa, I was just like, this is kind of weird.

Yeah.

That.

I mean, we'll see.

Chelsea, I think a lot like Arsenal, like they're nowhere near where they need to be, but you know, the talents there, they've obviously got more talented Arsenal, they're deeper, probably better top end talent.

So maybe, maybe a better bet to make it happen.

But I think both of those teams have a lot of work to do down the stretch to to get to that point where, you know, they're contending, you know, to be able to lift the trophy.

So we'll see.

We'll we'll track it.

A lot of good football, a lot of good distribution of football.

So we're going to have to fire up a lot of these streaming solutions to make sure we're catching all of it.

And like I said, make sure you're subscribed.

There's a lot of fun stuff happening.

And before I get out of here, I want to quick give a quick shout out to some gear I picked up.

Look at celebrating the 2024 NWSL champion Orlando Pride.

Pick this up from our country store.

So was able to, you know, click a little linky link from our Orlando Pride gear.

I wanted to grab something to kind of commemorate that 24 championship season.

The first year I covered, you know, the NW cell in person from the press box, like a real, you know, grown up journalist, which was very exciting.

So yeah, was able to grab some gear and we've got some jerseys in there, some USW and T gear for, you know, some upcoming dates.

So if you're in the market, pop over.

We had a great selection of stuff.

It gets delivered by Fanatics.

So don't worry, it's not Grant and I shoving jerseys in boxes and putting masking tape and running into the post office.

Totally professional outfit, but we do get compensated for anyone that does pick something up.

So we do appreciate it.

patreon.com/into the channel.

If you want to support there, go check out our link tree to find us in all of our other various spots on the Internet.

We always appreciate it.

All right man, anything else we want to hit for real, for real before we get out of here?

I think that's it.

Yeah, thank you to to everybody who had very nice things to say about us returning.

You know, the day job's been busy.

Dino's got a day job and a newborn trying to keep up with all the football.

We appreciate all the patience from you guys and you guys, I mean, you guys are Alyssa Thompson, you guys are Kyra Walsh, you're Chloe Kelly.

You just deliver in the big moments every single time.

We just appreciate you guys rock with us.

It's always more fun to just learn and, and, and chat with you guys.

So thank you for all of that.

And I think we've done it, my good man.

I think so too.

Man, there's been another episode into the channel.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching, listening, hanging out.

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You don't know what time it is.

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Mr.

Grant and go for never be in a coast that I have to, you know, question, you know, their, their, their prep, their professionalism, their, their, their, their level of research.

You know, I mean, my guy brings it each and every single week, sometimes twice a week.

I appreciate you bro.

Likewise.

Buddy, I I appreciate you saying that you never questioned my approach where sometimes it is a little bit of a questionable approach.

But you know what?

We got each other back though.

I don't.

Question you might be, you know, you're working some stuff out here.

I don't, you know, you know, I don't question your stuff.

You know what?

Yeah.

We're we're.

We're trying stuff.

We're we're Jonah Gerald does you know what I mean?

Like we got we got to see what what works here, but we know one thing works for sure.

It's rocket with all of you guys.

Thank you so much for checking out the show and we will see you all next time.