July 21, 2025 • 48 mins
We break down and discuss the Women's EURO 2025's final quarter-final matchup: Spain v Germany | Spain vs Germany | Germany v Spain | Germany vs Spain | England v Italy | England vs Italy | Italy v England | Italy vs England
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast partly about women's
football. I'm your host Dino de Suspensis
and as always I'm joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Engel.
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic buddy.
We've made it to the semi final,the final four as it were.
And I would say we have 4 prettyamazing teams.
(00:26):
One, maybe not a lot of people expected to get this far.
Another that maybe people did expect to get this far, but not,
certainly not the way that they've got here.
So I think we have a lot to discuss.
I, I, I feel like we did pretty good.
Well, you know, we'll do a little reflecting on our, on our
preview picks. So a couple of mine, my, my 2
finalists still alive, England, Germany, Germany will feel a
(00:49):
little, little cooler on and them than I am in England.
But, and you've still got Spain alive.
Obviously Sweden bounce, but I think we're doing pretty good.
And then when in terms of drafting, yeah, 2, two and two,
Italy, England, those are both your, your squads, Spain and
Germany both selected by me as part of our picks.
So we'll see what happens. Shout out to us.
We survived the group stage. We survived the quarterfinals.
(01:11):
Here we are still standing. I don't know something like, I
don't know, 20 shows and 25, I don't know some, some crazy
number of shows and some crazy number of days and your boys are
still out here. But let's get to it.
We've got a semi final to talk about.
We've got 2 semi finals to talk about.
Mr. Granig or you want to get started?
I think there's no other choice but to start in chronological
order. England, the 5th ranked team in
(01:33):
FIFA rankings versus #13 Italia.Let's go all.
Right. So Italy, we know how they got
there. Second in their group.
They get by Norway in the quarterfinals with A21 win.
England, you know, they come in second in their group also.
Yeah, second in the group to France.
I feel like Italy might be coming into this one with a
(01:53):
slight edge and momentum. I also heard too, that there's
some rumblings around England with regard to them feeling like
maybe like they've got like a special ability to come back in
these games and like, come from behind and, you know, like,
really feels a little dangerous to me like that, like that, that
sort of mindset. But do you feel like there's a
team of the two that's coming inwith more momentum?
(02:17):
That's a great, that's a great question.
So I mean, obviously Italy has the with the lowest ranking team
remaining. We've scratched out some gritty
victories. Nobody expected us to be here.
They have all that stuff workingfor them.
England gets to come in here andsay we're the holders, we know
how to win. To your earlier point, even if
(02:38):
we fall behind, we don't ever have to be scared about it.
And we just beat Sweden, a damn good team that we had to come
back against and show a lot of grit against.
So who has the momentum edge? I think it's very close.
I think you could make a real argument that maybe Italy has a
momentum edge. I would probably argue, and I
will argue the fact that Englanddoesn't have to care about that.
(03:01):
They'd be like, oh cool, your momentum from a match that has
no real bearing on when R11 takeon year 11.
Yeah, no, that's fair. I think, and I went back the
last time these two teams played, it looked like it was
April of last year. A51 win over England.
I'm sorry, five. One win for England over Italy.
This Italian's had a lot of change since then and I feel
like the game a lot of change aswell.
(03:24):
I feel like we had some teams. I, I don't want to say that, you
know, in some ways I think thoseimpressions from the 2023 World
Cup, you know, from the Nations League last year, from the
Olympics last year, some of themgot burned a little too
intensely into my mind, you know, And I think like watching
this tournament, we know whetherit's like a Belgium or a
Switzerland or a Finland or maybe in Italy, you know, I'm
(03:44):
just like, those teams aren't really like at the same level.
But you watch the tournament unfold and you're like, OK,
well, you know, Italy is sort ofin the mix there.
And I think ultimately there's been a lot of evolution and
growth in the game to the point where I feel like there's a
little bit more parity than we were expecting coming into the
tournament. I think that's totally fair.
I mean, you know, people continue to talk about how,
(04:06):
especially with some of these European teams, maybe the
investment isn't where we as fans and supporters,
journalists, you know, viewers want it to be just yet.
But it has been improving. We're on the steady March toward
it getting better. You know, not to say that
there's not a lot of fight and, you know, negotiation left to
go, but Italy should be investing more in their program.
(04:31):
And when you and I like really start talking about this sport
together and, and then followingit closely and figuring out
that, hey, we should talk about this on the Internet.
Like watching Italy in that 2023World Cup, we're like, they need
a little more development. And as we started covering the
Champions League, we started to see like, hey, these Italian
teams are getting better and that, you know, they're, they're
(04:53):
making sure they, you know, theylock in good players.
And then the development seems to be good.
You see some of their matches onlike CBS Sports Network.
The camera views are nice and the broadcasts are good.
Like all that stuff is like, those are kind of like
bellwethers of like, hey, how much investment is being put in
this sport? How like, what are they doing to
sell it? Just as a quick side note, Italy
(05:14):
should be investing a lot of money into their women's
national team because their men's team stinks.
That's a sidebar. Let's not worry about that.
But all that to say, yeah, I don't think Italy is is terribly
far off. And if you think about them as a
footballing nation, some of the the downswing aside for their
men's team, like this team, likewe, we know the players on it.
(05:36):
And the women's team, they're their Champions League level
players, Champions League caliber players.
So they're not going to walk into this match versus England
with an ounce of fear. They're going to be ready for
it. Well, I mean they've already
taken on Spain, you know, and I think they took a one nil lead
on Spain. They took it to half time one,
one versus Spain in a match thatI don't think anybody had Italy
(05:59):
in that one either with some stakes.
I think that, you know, the the group was still up for grabs at
that point. So Italy's definitely not going
to be scared of anybody. They came in, they handled
Norway, they played tough, they defended, they played harder,
they were more tenacious and they were sharper, you know,
like when they had chances, I think they they were super
precise on those on those couplegoals.
(06:21):
And they were really, really, really hungry defensively.
And I thought a lot was made about the midfield, you know,
like that formation. I think there were 352 for most
of the tournament. And they they just like kind of
pack it in. You know, I think when we think
about players to watch, I'm going to be watching Ariana
Caruso because I feel like she'skind of been lingering.
(06:41):
You know, she's always in a dangerous area.
She's like one of those players where if Italy's on the defense,
she's in the right spot. She's kind of back if, if the
midfield, if, if there's a scramon the midfield, she's there.
If there's a, if there's a chance on goal or if there's
like a, some sort of breakaway, even the, the, the slight
potential of a breakaway, she's in the mix there.
So if she could kind of have themidfield's head spinning just
(07:05):
with her unpredictability of positioning and just kind of
like activity level work rate, Ithink that could give Italy a
real shot in the arm. And again, and from there, if
she's able to move the ball up the pitch or, you know, unleash
a crack or two of her own, that's just kind of like, icing
on the cake. But I'm gonna be watching Caruso
for sure. I think that's a great call out.
I considered her as one of my asmy player to watch here.
(07:27):
But you, you kind of set me up perfectly.
I'm gonna I'm gonna pivot to my England player to watch because
I think, I think Caruso impacts that.
And I'm going to be looking at Alex Greenwood playing left
back. You know, she's going to be
operating on that side where Cantore and Caruso and Oliveiro
are operating as well. And Greenwood's going to need to
(07:49):
be able to contend with those three, you know, in different
waves. She's going to need more than
just like obviously Alex Greenwood offers a lot of like
stellar passing and ball control.
She's going to need to to win the ball.
She'll need to push, you know, Caruso and Cantore into
positions because you know, those two, they'll fire from
(08:09):
anywhere, right? Like they have the ability to
shoot. She'll need to try to push them
into positions where those shotsare less dangerous.
Make them a little easier for Hampton to handle, I think.
Yeah, and I think Greenwood's going to have to get those
players off the ball like Cantore or Caruso.
Like in those moments, I think Greenwood has the ability to
like kind of close down the space and just get the ball away
(08:31):
from because like that's what itallows to do.
They just want to wait until they get the the right perfect
look. And I think if you're Greenwood,
you just have to run run those players off those spots because
they're not really going to RIP a bunch of shots.
But the ones that they do take, they just have the tendency to
be really dangerous. And they've got those other
players that are kind of like inthose poacherous spots.
(08:52):
Could be a real issue for England.
But I do want to switch gears. So obviously this England, I'm
sorry, this Italy side, five goals for five against over the
course of four matches. So you know, obviously tough
competition, you know, you're not you're not expecting, you
know, a big disparity in those numbers.
But England is the stronger side.
They should win this match. I feel like if you look at the
(09:13):
betting odds at any point, you know, there, there's a big
spread between these two sides, but there's still something to
coming off that Sweden performance, watching England
underwhelm for most of it. You know, you're you're the
resident England guy. How how concerned are you?
Or do you feel like form wise, like they're ready?
Do you feel like it's been a little bit of a shaky
(09:33):
tournament? But hey, everybody's going to
look shaky because these teams are all really good and it's a
lot of football compressed into a small amount of time.
What what's what's your read on on the England, the England vibe
right now? I think the optimistic read and
you know it. It worked out for us.
Well, for us, yeah. Like I, I had, I had mentioned
after the the poor performance versus France, one of the first
(09:56):
things I said was well, Kyra Walsh, it's not going to be bad
2, two matches in a row. Georgia Stanley won't be bad two
matches in a row. And that worked.
I thought the match versus Sweden thought Kyra Walsh was
black, like, not like didn't really impact the the match in
ways that we thought she would. I thought Lauren James was fine
(10:18):
versus Sweden, but you know, we had some some some of our pals
hop into the YouTube comments and say, hey, remember when you
you talked about Lauren James asa Balandor contender?
Like maybe she could have done more versus Sweden in this one?
And I thought that was a fair comment.
Like, and now obviously, yeah, and we've talked about a lot on
these on the show is the difference between the greatest
(10:40):
players and the very good players is that kind of
consistency in those moments? I'm obviously go ahead.
My bad. I I have to, I have to just
interject real quick. The LJ cross, first of all, the
dance that she does up the righthand side when she puts the
cross onto Hemp like that just looked like it was.
I can't believe how accurate that cross was because Hemp
(11:03):
doesn't even have to. She doesn't have to divert a
single degree in her run in. She just continues right on the
run, elevates and the ball is just right there.
That cross from Lauren James, absolutely world class.
And what do you look like? What do you expect her to do?
Sweden, I think is is incrediblytough defensive team.
Again, this is EUR like everything's packed in super
tight. So I I don't I don't take that
(11:25):
point that L that LJ kind of wasdropped the ball.
You dropped the ball or didn't come through because that that
cross in and of itself could have been, maybe should have
been a game changer actually. I think that's totally fair.
And yeah, I'm I'm glad you you mentioned it because that's kind
of where I was heading to is like I thought some of those
comments they were, I understoodlike, you know, she doesn't get
it on the score sheet. She doesn't notch that assist.
(11:47):
But to your point, she still hadher moments and you know, she
had such a great match versus Netherlands where it's like if
you hold her then to that standard every time, it's
unrealistic. But I don't think there was a
giant dip in form for her. So now it's just a matter of is,
is something going to happen where she has that goal,
creating action, that great assist or that banger into the
(12:09):
upper 90? And she's capable of it.
And I think Italy is going to beis going to have a difficult
time stopping that from happening.
Yeah, I I kind of agree with you, but I think I think the
match up is tough. I mean, you look at the Italy
defense, you know, Cecilia Salva, 31 years old, plays for
Juventus. Her center back partner Elena
(12:29):
Lenari, also 31 years old, playsfor Roma.
You know, you already know what time it is with those two.
I mean, they're really good and they're really smart.
And what makes this England match up?
Not the bat, you know, like, I feel like this Italy side might
have struggled more with like France's that look a little bit
more athletic on the wing. You know, that could really run,
run them ragged a little bit. But I feel like Italy, if all
(12:51):
they're going to do is get in the passing lanes, get in the
shooting lanes, pack it in, be opportunistic on offense, I'm
not sure if England has everything that they need to
really kind of hurt them. I know England can score for
sure They and I think they they will score in this one.
But I think they're going to have to put do a ton of work and
I think when they if and when they do breakthrough, it'll be a
(13:13):
ball that's got to pass through a lot of a lot of bodies, a lot
of feet, a lot of a lot of bootsto be able to make it happen.
Yeah, I think that's probably, that's probably true.
I'm going to bank on A2. I want to put this player in
that category of somebody who's probably not going to have two
met games in a row. Ella Tune or as the Italian
players will call her, Aya Tune.I think she will.
(13:36):
I, I, I'm going to put my money on her showing up in a big way
also. But with that said, like with
with Tune operating in the midfield, I want to talk about
my Italian player to watch GiadaGreggi.
We talked about her a little in the last episode.
I think she's a super sub. She is five feet one inches of
(13:57):
five feet one inch, pardon me, of just energy and toughness off
the bench. 25 year old midfielder playing for Roma.
She started 17 of 19 matches in Syria this past season.
She only had two goals and four assists in that league season.
But man, she gives you way more than that on the pitch.
And I think she's been an impactplayer in every match that she's
(14:18):
appeared in so far in these Euros.
I think it's going to be interesting to kind of see how
England copes with her energy late in the match.
You know, she's one that I'm I'mdefinitely watching for.
And I want to see what the counters look like, You know,
when Beth Mead comes on the field, if if Greggie comes on
the field as one of their first Subs And Beth Mead has been, you
(14:39):
know, pretty much one of the first Subs off the bench for
England. Is it going to be Beth Mead is
the one who unlocks that great center back duo with a with a
pass, you know, to get to like, you know, whether it's playing
Alessia Russo in or whatever, oris it going to be Greggy's
energy that, you know, gets Italy over the line?
Yeah, I mean, it's a great call,Greggy, Like very creative runs
(15:02):
and like, you know, just puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
You know, with her again, the work rate, the angles as she
takes, you know, like the overlaps.
And I think her passing too is really fun in the final third.
She's she's looking to distribute.
So that could be a player that definitely puts pressure on the
on the English defense for England.
For me, I think the player that I'm looking at, I'm going to say
(15:23):
Chloe Kelly because I, I thoughtI thought Kelly was a game
changer. Obviously hasn't really been
starting, but I wouldn't be shocked if Chloe Kelly started
just because I think she's able to.
She's sort of like a triple threat kind of player.
You know, she can run, pass and shoot, you know, from that
position. I know Lauren Hemp is out there,
but who knows, maybe some thingsmove around.
I think I think Chloe's Chloe Kelly's skill set provides a
(15:46):
very unique set of problems for that Italian defense, just
because she's like very precise and she just has that
versatility. But I think Kelly, a player that
can make quick decisions and I think her distribution could
could be real dangerous. She's a player that can kind of
pick out a player or an opportunity even with, you know,
some, some high traffic situations in the box.
(16:09):
So I think give me, give me Chloe Kelly as my player to
watch for this one. I like it.
You know, I mean, she operates really well out there in the
right wing. I mean, she is she's kind of
creeping up the rankings and I'll have to make the official
rankings here of my mentality monsters in the world.
Because you think about kind of what she went through at
(16:30):
Manchester City toward the end there where she was very clearly
not happy with the way that she was kind of being looked at and
the way she was being used. And you know, Gareth Taylor was
like, now Chloe Kelly, the the woman who scored the winning
goal in the last year olds. We probably don't need her so
much. What are we?
What are we going to put her on the field for it?
It's not like she's super fast. It makes great decisions.
(16:53):
Anyway, I digress. And so they send her to Arsenal,
which is cool for you and other Arsenal fans.
And look at that. She helps them win the goddamn
Champions League. And she's been great in this
tournament too. So I mean, Wiegmann, she doesn't
like, you know, like one of her calling cards is she doesn't
like to tinker that much with her line up.
She made the change after the the France lost.
(17:15):
So, you know, maybe there's another change.
I I I know you're already thinking that Wiegmann might
make a change at centre back andand take pull Jess Carter out of
the lineup. So you know it could be another
double change for Wiegmann. The we'll see.
But Chloe Kelly, man, just whatever you need.
It feels like she comes on the field.
She plays great and a lot of players would be like and that's
(17:36):
why you need to start me gaffer.Why the fuck am I starting on
the bench? Pardon my language, I mean to
drop multiple F bombs within a within a couple minutes here,
but Chloe Kelly, she just goes back to the bench for the next
game and goes, yeah, when do youneed me?
I'll just come on and ball out again.
No, I mean, incredible player. I think I'm excited to see what
(17:56):
happens here. Well, do you have a?
Do you have a prediction? I do.
I'm going to say 21. England wins it late.
I like it. I'm going to go with the old
tried and true 11 England wins in penalty kicks.
Oh wow. OK.
I mean, we, we already got England winning in on penalties
once. England not a nation known for
(18:18):
winning in penalties or on penalties.
Pardon me. So I, I like, I like the faith
you're putting in them. And for anybody who's interested
in this, you talked about betting favorites on FanDuel.
England is currently -210 to winthe draws plus 340 and Italia
plus 500. You know the winds are in
regulation, obviously, so even if England does win on
(18:41):
penalties, that plus 3:40 is right out there for you for the
draw. Tasty.
All right, so we made our picks.We'll be watching.
One last quick note, Hannah Hampton.
I think it's got to be a sort ofa player to watch for me.
I want to see if that form continues, especially if it gets
to added extra time, penalty kicks.
Anything else? Anything else we need to hit for
(19:01):
this matchup? I think that's about it.
I know as me Morgan mentioned inher press conference
availability, we're recording this on Saturday evening, she
mentioned under press availability on Saturday that
she thought Leah Williamson would be available to play.
I'm not, that's not a direct quote, but I think she said she
was optimistic about it and the team will be better with her on
(19:24):
the field. There's ABBC report on that.
So, you know, obviously keeping an eye out for that.
Cannot wait and shout out to youfor nailing the Esme Morgan
pronunciation and then also shout out to it's either L beg
323. Yeah, it's L beg 323 on YouTube
for helping your boys out with little pronunciation help a
(19:44):
little phonetics in the YouTube comments.
So nice. You're appreciate it.
Any pronunciation help. You know, we're already we're
always happy to to take that. So don't be shy about it.
You know, drop in, let us know and we'll we'll make those
changes accordingly. All right, we made our picks
Next up, the second semi final match up.
So we but we both got England inthe final and now we're going to
talk about who the Lionesses might be taking on Wednesday,
(20:09):
12:00 PM Pacific. Spain versus Germany, a big one,
Maybe the semi final match up that everybody had in their
bracket. But to your point earlier,
nobody had exactly how we got here as the route, but here we
are. Absolutely bonkers win for
Germany. Let me just say, I'm getting a
little thirsty. I'm going to crack another
beverage here. Oh.
(20:30):
I like it. You just get that going Saturday
night. Why not?
The football's been great. Cheers to you.
Yeah, I cheers to you, my good man.
Spain. The the victory over
Switzerland, probably closer than most people expected.
What I think I picked, I think Imight have picked 4 to 1,
(20:50):
something like that. So it was, you know, level nil,
nil at halftime. I thought Switzerland really
handled themselves extremely well, but it's one of those
other things that just gave me more faith in Spain.
Spain didn't play their best match.
Switzerland had everything goingfor them.
They're playing at home. They have these young, energetic
(21:11):
players. And I think it was Lori Lindsay
who said something like early on, like we're, I'm talking like
the first like 5 minutes where like shirt and Libe was trying
to like press pottery. And she was like, yeah, look for
that look, look for Shirt and Libe trying to put some pressure
on pottery to, to kind of hold them back.
And that lasted, I want to say, and no disrespect to Double L,
that lasted, I want to say for about 45 seconds because that's
(21:33):
not you. You can't do that.
You can't do that against Spain.They're too good.
And even when Spain doesn't playanywhere near their A game, they
still have 100 other things thatthey can do to you.
Yeah, I mean, Switzerland didn'treally have any bite to their
offense, you know, so no shots on target for the Swiss.
Four shots total on the day, just six touches in Spain's box.
(21:55):
For Switzerland, it makes it a little easier when the other
team can't hurt you. But I still thought that, you
know, Spain defensively put up agreat performance and, you know,
much like Italy, I thought it starts from the center backs.
Leo, Alessandri has been awesome.
Irene Paredes has been really good, you know, and you know,
kind of had didn't have her bestseason, but I thought played
(22:17):
really, really well versus Switzerland.
You know what, we'll, we'll takethe the competition with, with a
slight grain of salt there. But the Alessandri yellow card
accumulation situation, that's not nothing.
You know, I think, yeah, on the German side, they've got
Shukanooski in the same in the same boat.
But I thought Alessandri specifically for the Spain
defense, it's just incredible. Like, you know, really physical,
(22:40):
really aggressive. I think as good as I've seen her
play, her passing's been awesome.
You know, she kind of moves it along and she gets the ball way,
way up field when she's got a, achance to.
And she's got a lot of outlets. But I think they're going to, I
think they're definitely going to miss her.
I think so. And you got to expect, I mean,
unless I'm unless I'm missing something, I would imagine we'll
(23:03):
see Maria Mendez start in that other center back position
probably. I think she's she's what what
like 2425 years old from Real Madrid and we've like what we
saw her in Spain's third match, but we either saw we saw Mendez
(23:24):
play earlier in this tournament might have been against Belgium.
I want to say she's. She's definitely played, yeah.
And, you know, obviously she's nothing, nothing to sneeze at.
It's not like, you know, Mendez isn't a good player.
But yeah, I think Alejandra has played as well in this
tournament as I've seen her playin a while and that's, you know,
somebody who watches Manchester City football games pretty,
(23:47):
pretty regularly. I thought Alexandre's handled
herself very well. So yeah, I think that will that
will make a little bit of a difference.
But you know, it really what it comes down to with Spain is can
you handle when they are high pressing you, when they are
(24:07):
taking away all of your passing lanes, when they're, you know,
I, I always use the term when they're basically just choking
you out when you're just trying to get the ball out of your
defensive 3rd. And I just think, you know,
Claudia Pina, Mariona Caldente, Aitana Bone Mati, Alexia Pateas
have have just been suffocating teams in the press.
(24:31):
You know, I didn't even mention pottery there.
They've just been making it impossible for you to clear the
ball. And then when you have to
withstand so many shots on target, you could be in real
trouble. And and I think that was the the
flip side of that real quick. It's hard to to kind of ISO
here. You know, Spain only had six of
(24:52):
their 23 shots on were on target.
Only six of their 23 shots were on target.
Pardon me. Which is not a great number for
Spain. They'll need to do better
against Germany, especially whenthey have one of the world's
greatest goalkeepers back there on Kochenberger.
So we'll have to see how up for the challenge she is.
But how many times do I? Do you think that, you know,
(25:14):
Spain's only going to get like 24% of their shots on target?
Probably not every match. Yeah, I mean it it it's an
interesting one because again, you know, we we have to do a
little bit of mental gymnastics to decouple Spain for Barcelona
as best we can. But you know, this Spain side, I
think offensively I was thinkingabout the this one player in
(25:35):
particular. Actually, let me flip it on you.
If I told you, you know, all of these players, Spain and
Germany, we're going to throw all them in a pool and we're
going to re pick the teams and you know, you're going to pay.
You'll pick 11, you know, you'llpick 11 and I'll pick 11.
Who are you taking with your first pick?
If I give you any player to choose from?
(25:56):
Spain's roster. Germany's roster.
I think I've I've probably made it apparent over the last few
months I would take Alexia. I will.
I will almost always take Alexia.
Potayas wrong, so let me tell you.
How? What would you take first?
(26:18):
Let me tell you why, and it might not be what you're
thinking. I think first, I feel like you
have to take, this is the playerwe've talked about a lot
recently, you, I feel like you have to take Claudia Pina
because she's the only player for me.
She's the only player that to use a basketball ISM can get her
own shot at any point and can bury that shot at any point from
(26:43):
anywhere on the pitch, assuming you're on the right, the right
side of the halfway line. I mean, she is just devastating
in the rest of that Spain attack.
It's all interconnected. I mean, they're an incredible
team. And it's because and I'll and
I'll, I'll mention that one at the NEA goal against Switzerland
as a, as a, as an example here. So the ball goes deep.
(27:05):
We've talked about it a bunch where the runs go in every
single direction. And on that one specifically, I
tonic gets it in the box and shegains possession and sprints
away from goal, you know, and just like drags defenders,
defender's like what the fuck? Like what is this?
Like, why is she going so fast 1st and why is she going in the
(27:25):
wrong direction 2nd? And it's all just part of like
the misdirection to kind of get the defense moving the other
way. I thought it's going one way at
the Nia's coming the other way, the back heel.
And it's just, it looks so simple, but it's so incredibly
complex. It's it's something that you
just don't see other teams doing.
But the point that I'm trying tomake is like, as beautiful as
(27:45):
that is, it is there are interdependencies from an
offensive standpoint. You know, Athania needs Itana to
be able to do that. Itana needs to be able to do
those inside out runs to be ableto open things up for other
players for the patiuelos. And you know, and Alexia is a
great player on on her own, So is Itana.
Almost all of them are great players on their own.
(28:06):
But Pina to me is on another level and can just score, can
just wreck the game. You know, I mean, you just, I, I
mean, it's Mike Tyson blow to the face.
Like there's not a better way toto to describe what this is.
I like it. It's certainly bold.
(28:27):
You know, I would probably like,if I was just like picking my
own, I would probably have Pina third.
But I, you know, I, we've talkedabout Pina's current form.
I'm probably doing some historical stuff there.
In fact, I know I am like, because if I, if I, my first
three obviously would be Alexia,Eitana, Claudia, Pina.
(28:47):
But no, I mean, we've talked about Pina being maybe the most
informed player in the tournament.
So I think it's, it's a fair argument to make.
You know, Alexia, I, I think certainly can create her own
shots as well. But your, your point stands.
So what that does add up to though, is if I if I'm thinking
(29:08):
about the first players, I wouldtake the first three.
I would take all play for Spain.And you know, obviously we've
talked a lot about you LeBron and and how well she's been
playing on Katrin Berger has been an absolute monster.
Obviously, you know, you you think about Clara Boule also has
(29:30):
been great. So it's going to be, I think it.
I'm still having a hard time though, man.
Tell me if I'm wrong. Tell me if I'm do tell me if I'm
doing a thing here though, because we just got done this
last week saying Germany's got to be finished.
They're not going to be able to withstand with their, with the
(29:52):
red cards, with the injuries, they're not going to be able to
withstand France. And they did it and they put in
a hell of a great performance. But now they have to play
against Spain. I kind of want to say the same
thing. How were they going to be able
to cope with Spain? I think the one silver lining is
(30:15):
Spain is going to wait for you to beat yourself, you know,
which is what they did. You know, like, you know, versus
versus Switzerland. It was, it was funny because
Switzerland plays 65 minutes of very clean football, not perfect
football, can't really, you know, muster too much offense.
But they played really clean. They didn't give anything away,
(30:36):
you know, to Pina or to Alexia or to anybody else.
And then the Itana to Atenia goal happens like at 65, right?
Or let me see, 66. So that is the first instance
of, OK, we didn't let Spain beatus, but they beat us, right?
We made them earn that first goal, right.
(30:57):
So that's that's kind of and then 5 minutes later, what does
Spain do? You know, Vaulti gets
dispossessed. She knows what she knows what's
happening. If you watch the replay, even
like the Jackie Lee made a wholehuge fuss of it, like, oh, you
know, they're screaming for a foul, you know, but in reality,
Vaulti gets dispossessed. She sees Pina's got it.
She sees Pina's winding up and then she turns to the ref is
(31:19):
like, hey, like, what's your what's the writings on the wall
of where the play is going? But to, you know, to to that
point, that was a giveaway, thatwas Vaulti on the ball a little
bit too long, gets dispossessed in a bad area and then one tap
later and it's the balls in the back of the net.
So Spain's the kind of team where if you beat yourself or if
(31:41):
you or if you give them something, they're going to
take, they're going to take it 100 times out of 100.
And then even if you don't give them something, they're still
probably going to score a goal or two just because that's how
good they are. Now the key for Germany is how
clean a game can they play? Can they play, you know, rather
than 65 minutes of relatively mistake free football for
(32:01):
Switzerland, can they play 90 plus minutes of big mistake free
football? And then can they can they steal
something on the other end? I thought, I thought what
Germany did versus France was interesting.
It wasn't just brand on one sideand bull on the other.
You know, Nu skin was busy in the middle.
Sends was a little bit more active offensively.
(32:22):
I thought they, you know, a little bit different approach.
It wasn't it wasn't so Germany vanilla, you know, up the left
and right hand sides. They're going to need more of
that. But you're missing Shukanooskin,
who was a big impact player today, you know, versus France.
And the question is going to be how do you replace her?
You know, Linda Dahlman's there,maybe Laura Fragang's there.
(32:43):
Maybe, you know, we'll see what they do, but it is going to be
tough to think about how do you replace that player and then
keep some of that defensive midfield intensity?
I'm not, I'm not sure they have,they definitely don't have the
perfect player to just kind of drop right in and replace her.
So it's going to take, it's going to take a little look to
figure out what to do here. Nicely done.
(33:05):
Yeah, I think, you know, they'llhave to play physical and, you
know, going back to the vaultingthing, I know I I kind of like
gave the aside there of a veteran move when she kind of
turned. It's a veteran move to sort of
try that. And maybe it's more of a veteran
move if it works. But it's also a scourge on our
sport. Like don't just stop and stand.
(33:27):
You know, just I hate it when when defenders do it when
they're, you know, calling for offside too.
Don't stop playing and put your hands in the air while your
opponent is running with the ball.
I guess this might be my this might be one of my most old man
takes, but will you just play through the whistle, please?
Like you, because you, you, you're actually putting yourself
(33:49):
at a massive disadvantage in those spots.
And of all the teams to do that against Spain.
And you know, it's not like Levolti needs me to lecture her.
She's a the Champions League winner.
But like, come on, man. Like you're putting yourself in
a real rough spot when you do that.
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, the the other one that
gets me is when somebody's on the floor and the player that
(34:11):
gets knocked to the floor and they just grab the ball with
their hands, like to just force,force the official into making a
call. You know what are you going to?
Do I can't remember who it was. Somebody got called for a
handball for doing that recently.
And I, I, I stood up off my couch and applauded it.
I was just like, good for you. And again, I, now I'm put in the
(34:31):
uncomfortable position where I'mdefending the refs, who I always
view as cops. And I don't want to, I never
want to defend cops or referees.But in in that case, I I knew it
was a dive and the player grabbed the ball and they called
for the handball and I was like,OK, good.
Justice was served, at least this one time.
What a narc. All right, let's get back to it.
Terrible, embarrassing. Does Germany, Does Germany have
(34:57):
any? Like let's play the game.
We we've already I already discounted Germany to to no end.
I've said they've got no shot. You know, the the the injuries
keep mounting. The nu skin yellow card
accumulation makes it even worse.
Spain on the other hand, I mean,they look as clean as a whistle.
I'm not sure if I'm having trouble figuring out apologies
if somebody did get very, you know, seriously injured and I
(35:22):
just got it blanked out. But I feel like they've been
flying real high. It's been very clean.
I'd be interested to see if thisgame gets mucked up a little
bit. You know, Spain kind of breezed
through the group. Toughest match up maybe was that
Italy match up where they do fall behind.
They go in halftime even, but they pull it out three to 1.
(35:44):
Switzerland 2 nil. Obviously it's the home country.
You miss a couple PKS, you miss a couple other really good
looks. Could have been way worse.
I think the XG was close to 4 for Spain, but again, much like
with England, I haven't really been, they haven't really dunked
on me yet in terms of like the expectation they get.
(36:05):
They, they got the big win versus Portugal.
That was impressive. Portugal went on to disappoint,
I think for the rest of the, the, the tournament.
But I, I am I am I crazy to think Germany's got a weird
outside shot to kind of like, you know, bruise this game up a
bit and then all of a sudden we're we're late and it could be
(36:26):
Germany up a goal maybe. And we're just look again,
looking around be like, how the fuck, where are we?
What is this? No, yeah, no, of course you're
not crazy. I mean, especially after what we
just saw, like, I think it's, you know, the time for counting
out Germany has ended. Now, if I had to to bet my very
(36:46):
hard earned money on it, I would.
I would bet on Spain, who, by the way, are -220 to win the
game in regulation. Germany's +500.
The draw in regulation is plus 360 for those who are interested
in that kind of thing. You love a draw, You love a draw
bet. Nothing takes you.
(37:10):
Yeah. No, no.
I don't think it's crazy at all to count like.
What a hit today. What a hit today.
That's true, yeah. So I don't, I don't think it's
silly at all to to say that Germany has a chance.
After all, we're playing football and Germany always has
a chance. But I think, you know, Spain has
(37:31):
so much, it's not exactly earth shattering analysis here.
Here's what I'm I'm going to give you here.
Esther Gonzalez didn't really find any joy versus the Swiss.
And it kind of goes back to whatyou were saying where, you know,
she does, she requires like somebit of service.
She makes things happen on her own.
She's you know, she's a good hold up player.
(37:52):
She's a genius, you know, kind of the way she sees the field
and the way she runs in the dangerous areas.
But I'm going to I'm going to gowith she's sitting on four goals
in the tournament. She didn't do much against the
Swiss with Germany's defense. Now you kind of have to make
another adjustment with Hendrickout, Vomser's coming back in, so
(38:13):
that kind of helps. But I I'm going to place one
take chip on Ester finding some space and getting another one
into the back of the net in thismatch.
I like it. We definitely see that.
I thought Esther, Esther just definitely needed more touches
in the Switzerland match for sure.
I think they kind of tried to get her going in the second-half
(38:36):
could be interesting. I think I think it's going to be
I'm I'm interested to see how the game unfolds, to be honest.
Is this going to be another gamewhere because in in versus
France, obviously down a player,Germany was dominated from a
possession standpoint, from a passing standpoint, just from a
field, from most of the the highlevel stats, you know, like they
(38:59):
they just conceded, you know, except for where it counted.
I'll be interested to see at full strength what kind of game
Germany plays. Like do they try to hold the
ball a little bit? Do they try to kind of like chip
away at that Spain, Spain defense?
Or do they just try to go over the top and, you know, see if
they can steal one? I, I feel like that would be a
(39:21):
little bit selling themselves short if they don't try to
possess a little bit, make Spaindefend and, and see if they can,
you know, kind of like, again, just systematically break them
down rather than being a little bit impatient.
Because I think that that has the, that has a chance to run
them a little bit ragged. If you know, Germany's just
defending for 80 plus minutes with not a lot of respite.
(39:42):
Totally agree. I mean, that's one thing that
just has a real, you have a realdifficult time with that working
against Spain. I thought, you know, there were
moments against France where Germany would kind of pick their
spots, especially when they're down to 10 and they're like, OK,
we got to be efficient with these counter attacks.
And see if we can get one over. But Spain, you know, once they
(40:04):
start stringing together 10/15/20 passes in a possession
and you're kind of dancing all over the place.
You know, you could put yourselfin in a real difficult position.
Let me let me ask you, did you have a German player to watch on
your mind or do you want me to go first?
(40:27):
Yeah, go 1st and then I'll, I'll, I'll let my takes marinate
here. So with that in mind, I think
I'm going to put the spot line the spotlight on Yuninga Minga
26 year old from Wolfsburg. Obviously plays could play in
that central and that center back role could play central
(40:47):
midfielder, defensive midfielder.
She was top ten in frown Bundesliga in the following
categories passes into the finalthird progressive passes touches
progressive carrying distance Ariel's won and percentage of
Ariel's won. You know, I mean, I thought she
(41:07):
had an excellent match against France.
I think she has been consistently good throughout
this tournament. They're going to desperately
need her to continue to act as astabilizing force in that
defense. She's needed to from pretty much
the first match when Julia Givengot injured.
So, you know, if if they're going to if they're going to
(41:28):
pull some kind of upset. And again, it always sounds
silly to me saying that Germany winning a football match would
be an upset. But it would in this case.
If they want a chance of doing that, I think Minga will need to
to show up big time in this one.Yeah, I totally agree with you.
I think she was, I mean, she washuge today for sure in a in a
(41:50):
much needed spot. I mean, she was definitely part
of that. Hey, let's flip our mentality
and let's just let's not go out like this.
And her play today was like veryemblematic of that for sure.
I'm going to kind of cheat and say I've got two players.
You know, you mentioned, I thinkyou've already mentioned both of
them. Carlotta Bamsar returning, I
thought had a really good tournament.
(42:11):
You know, a little bit of a brain fart with like the the the
big time save there and the red card.
But that's a kind of player thatat that age and what we saw so
far in the tournament. I'm going to be excited to see,
you know, if, if Bamsar gets a start, what she brings to the
table versus Spain, you know, and, and if and if she's able to
kind of be like, I'm, I'm I'm here and I'm going to be up for
(42:34):
it because we've seen we've seenplayers, we've seen young
players face that Spain side andkind of wilt a little bit, kind
of like, you know, fade into thebackground a little bit.
For some reason. I don't think Vomser strikes me
as that kind of player. I I feel like if she doesn't get
the start, we could see some real fireworks from Vomser and
then on that same side cloud Abuup top.
(42:55):
You know, I just feel like, I feel like there's a moment.
I feel like there's a moment in the chamber for bull.
You know, we talked about the PK, her going like 6th or 7th in
the in the order and just smashing it and us kind of
scratching her heads, but also being like, wow, that was an
awesome PK, but still also why is she going to scissor 7th?
I I feel like there's, I feel like there's a bull moment and
(43:19):
that's a big time player too that comes through in big spots,
you know, like this isn't a player that you know, shows out
against the worst competition, big, big plays and big games.
I can see, you know what, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to put a take ship. I'm going to put a take ship on
a cloud bull goal. Absolutely.
(43:39):
Love it. I think I think you're spot on
and I think that leads us perfectly as we round the finish
line, as we get into like the 88th minute, not literally, but
the 88th minute of this podcast,figuratively from a football
sense. I think that leads us to the
predictions. I think I might join you on that
Clara Bull goal. But I do think I think the world
(44:03):
champions pull it out. Let's give it to Spain. 2 to one
in my book. Nice. 2 to one.
Yeah, I've got it three to two. I'm probably expecting a little
bit more, a couple more fireworks, but give me 3 to 2
and then give me that third goal.
Give me that third goal and added extra time.
(44:26):
Wow, let's go. Yep, third goal and added extra
time from Clara Bull. Give me Germany, give me the
take integrity. Give me Germany.
Three to two. OK, the most unreal, unexpected,
the biggest turn around ever since we've been covering
(44:48):
women's football. Germany 3 to 2 and I get my
Germany England final. David Holy.
Schnikeys, you know I somehow surprised you when I picked
Sweden to beat England incorrectly by the way in, in
the name of Take Integrity, and somehow I still got fooled.
(45:11):
You're the Roadrunner who painted the picture of the
highway and I'm just wily Coyotejust smashing into the wall.
Not sure how it happened, but I,I commend you, my good man.
See, take integrity. It's important.
That's why you guys obviously watch the show.
It's not because we're, I mean, we make great points and we get
a lot of predictions right all the time and we're obviously
(45:33):
very funny. All those things.
It's, it's because of the take integrity.
It's because when we make a pick, we stick with it.
Yep, for the most part. Anywho.
Yeah, usually. I've been, I've been known to
flip a, flip a little, flop a little.
That's all right. Who's counting really?
All right, man, 2 huge matchups,cannot wait.
(45:55):
Tuesday, Wednesday, we'll be back for both of them with
proper post game breakdowns. And I guess after that second
one, we'll do a little, you know, impromptu final preview
before our official official final final preview.
But yeah, man, the tournament rolls on.
We're now roughly, well, now it's Sunday here in California,
(46:17):
but we're roughly a week away from the final.
And I think it's now it's a winning time.
Now it's winning time for us. It's these are the championship
minutes, the championship roundstime to just kind of like, you
know, pull up these compression socks and get out, get out there
and just try really hard, finishup the tournament strong.
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
(46:38):
I think we've done it. I don't, you know, I don't know
if we're quite compression sock age just yet, but I don't know.
I haven't tried them. I I shouldn't knock them yet.
Maybe, you know, maybe they would help.
But no, I think we I think we'vedone it.
I think we've thoroughly coveredthe semi final matches.
I just can't wait, can't wait towatch them.
I'm probably going to have to beno spoilers for both of them.
(47:01):
Maybe sit back and and watch them as the evening rolls on.
I might treat them both as like,you know, 7:00 PM Pacific Time
prime time matches. Either way, I could not be more
excited to watch this. I think we have 4 awesome teams,
interesting storylines. It should be absolutely
fantastic. Hell yeah.
Let's do it. All right, man.
(47:21):
Quick episode calendar, as mentioned, Tuesday, England,
Italy, Wednesday, Spain, Germany.
Cannot wait. I think we did it, man.
There's been another episode of it to the channel.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for watching, listening, hanging out, chiming
in. If you're in no spoilers mode,
definitely stay off the YouTube comments because shout out to
all of our friends on these Internet streets.
(47:44):
They flood in real quickly when the match is over, when we got
something right and even quickerwhen we got something wrong.
So avoid the YouTube if you're in no spoilers mode, like
subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, have a podcast wherever
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
favorite podcast app links to all of our socials except one in
the show notes of this episode and a big thing in my coast as
well. Mr. Grant angle for all right,
(48:06):
man, let's pull up the compression socks.
You know, let's let's sign that reverse mortgage paperwork,
whatever we got to do to kind oflike stay young.
What can I say? I mean, the Sakina Karshawi to
my Selma Bashaw. I appreciate you bro.
Likewise, buddy, you know, podcast Co hosts partners and
(48:26):
and expert pronunciation for European player names.
I mean, you know, we're obviously out here working as a
team. Wouldn't do it with anybody
else. I appreciate you.
Thank everybody for rocking withthe show.
Like Dino said, you know, thank you for dropping the knowledge.
Please keep the comments coming and we will see you all next
time.
OK, welcome to Into the Channel podcast partly about women's
football. I'm your host Dino de Suspensis
and as always I'm joined by my Co host Mr. Grant Engel.
What is up man? I'm feeling fantastic buddy.
We've made it to the semi final,the final four as it were.
And I would say we have 4 prettyamazing teams.
(00:26):
One, maybe not a lot of people expected to get this far.
Another that maybe people did expect to get this far, but not,
certainly not the way that they've got here.
So I think we have a lot to discuss.
I, I, I feel like we did pretty good.
Well, you know, we'll do a little reflecting on our, on our
preview picks. So a couple of mine, my, my 2
finalists still alive, England, Germany, Germany will feel a
(00:49):
little, little cooler on and them than I am in England.
But, and you've still got Spain alive.
Obviously Sweden bounce, but I think we're doing pretty good.
And then when in terms of drafting, yeah, 2, two and two,
Italy, England, those are both your, your squads, Spain and
Germany both selected by me as part of our picks.
So we'll see what happens. Shout out to us.
We survived the group stage. We survived the quarterfinals.
(01:11):
Here we are still standing. I don't know something like, I
don't know, 20 shows and 25, I don't know some, some crazy
number of shows and some crazy number of days and your boys are
still out here. But let's get to it.
We've got a semi final to talk about.
We've got 2 semi finals to talk about.
Mr. Granig or you want to get started?
I think there's no other choice but to start in chronological
order. England, the 5th ranked team in
(01:33):
FIFA rankings versus #13 Italia.Let's go all.
Right. So Italy, we know how they got
there. Second in their group.
They get by Norway in the quarterfinals with A21 win.
England, you know, they come in second in their group also.
Yeah, second in the group to France.
I feel like Italy might be coming into this one with a
(01:53):
slight edge and momentum. I also heard too, that there's
some rumblings around England with regard to them feeling like
maybe like they've got like a special ability to come back in
these games and like, come from behind and, you know, like,
really feels a little dangerous to me like that, like that, that
sort of mindset. But do you feel like there's a
team of the two that's coming inwith more momentum?
(02:17):
That's a great, that's a great question.
So I mean, obviously Italy has the with the lowest ranking team
remaining. We've scratched out some gritty
victories. Nobody expected us to be here.
They have all that stuff workingfor them.
England gets to come in here andsay we're the holders, we know
how to win. To your earlier point, even if
(02:38):
we fall behind, we don't ever have to be scared about it.
And we just beat Sweden, a damn good team that we had to come
back against and show a lot of grit against.
So who has the momentum edge? I think it's very close.
I think you could make a real argument that maybe Italy has a
momentum edge. I would probably argue, and I
will argue the fact that Englanddoesn't have to care about that.
(03:01):
They'd be like, oh cool, your momentum from a match that has
no real bearing on when R11 takeon year 11.
Yeah, no, that's fair. I think, and I went back the
last time these two teams played, it looked like it was
April of last year. A51 win over England.
I'm sorry, five. One win for England over Italy.
This Italian's had a lot of change since then and I feel
like the game a lot of change aswell.
(03:24):
I feel like we had some teams. I, I don't want to say that, you
know, in some ways I think thoseimpressions from the 2023 World
Cup, you know, from the Nations League last year, from the
Olympics last year, some of themgot burned a little too
intensely into my mind, you know, And I think like watching
this tournament, we know whetherit's like a Belgium or a
Switzerland or a Finland or maybe in Italy, you know, I'm
(03:44):
just like, those teams aren't really like at the same level.
But you watch the tournament unfold and you're like, OK,
well, you know, Italy is sort ofin the mix there.
And I think ultimately there's been a lot of evolution and
growth in the game to the point where I feel like there's a
little bit more parity than we were expecting coming into the
tournament. I think that's totally fair.
I mean, you know, people continue to talk about how,
(04:06):
especially with some of these European teams, maybe the
investment isn't where we as fans and supporters,
journalists, you know, viewers want it to be just yet.
But it has been improving. We're on the steady March toward
it getting better. You know, not to say that
there's not a lot of fight and, you know, negotiation left to
go, but Italy should be investing more in their program.
(04:31):
And when you and I like really start talking about this sport
together and, and then followingit closely and figuring out
that, hey, we should talk about this on the Internet.
Like watching Italy in that 2023World Cup, we're like, they need
a little more development. And as we started covering the
Champions League, we started to see like, hey, these Italian
teams are getting better and that, you know, they're, they're
(04:53):
making sure they, you know, theylock in good players.
And then the development seems to be good.
You see some of their matches onlike CBS Sports Network.
The camera views are nice and the broadcasts are good.
Like all that stuff is like, those are kind of like
bellwethers of like, hey, how much investment is being put in
this sport? How like, what are they doing to
sell it? Just as a quick side note, Italy
(05:14):
should be investing a lot of money into their women's
national team because their men's team stinks.
That's a sidebar. Let's not worry about that.
But all that to say, yeah, I don't think Italy is is terribly
far off. And if you think about them as a
footballing nation, some of the the downswing aside for their
men's team, like this team, likewe, we know the players on it.
(05:36):
And the women's team, they're their Champions League level
players, Champions League caliber players.
So they're not going to walk into this match versus England
with an ounce of fear. They're going to be ready for
it. Well, I mean they've already
taken on Spain, you know, and I think they took a one nil lead
on Spain. They took it to half time one,
one versus Spain in a match thatI don't think anybody had Italy
(05:59):
in that one either with some stakes.
I think that, you know, the the group was still up for grabs at
that point. So Italy's definitely not going
to be scared of anybody. They came in, they handled
Norway, they played tough, they defended, they played harder,
they were more tenacious and they were sharper, you know,
like when they had chances, I think they they were super
precise on those on those couplegoals.
(06:21):
And they were really, really, really hungry defensively.
And I thought a lot was made about the midfield, you know,
like that formation. I think there were 352 for most
of the tournament. And they they just like kind of
pack it in. You know, I think when we think
about players to watch, I'm going to be watching Ariana
Caruso because I feel like she'skind of been lingering.
(06:41):
You know, she's always in a dangerous area.
She's like one of those players where if Italy's on the defense,
she's in the right spot. She's kind of back if, if the
midfield, if, if there's a scramon the midfield, she's there.
If there's a, if there's a chance on goal or if there's
like a, some sort of breakaway, even the, the, the slight
potential of a breakaway, she's in the mix there.
So if she could kind of have themidfield's head spinning just
(07:05):
with her unpredictability of positioning and just kind of
like activity level work rate, Ithink that could give Italy a
real shot in the arm. And again, and from there, if
she's able to move the ball up the pitch or, you know, unleash
a crack or two of her own, that's just kind of like, icing
on the cake. But I'm gonna be watching Caruso
for sure. I think that's a great call out.
I considered her as one of my asmy player to watch here.
(07:27):
But you, you kind of set me up perfectly.
I'm gonna I'm gonna pivot to my England player to watch because
I think, I think Caruso impacts that.
And I'm going to be looking at Alex Greenwood playing left
back. You know, she's going to be
operating on that side where Cantore and Caruso and Oliveiro
are operating as well. And Greenwood's going to need to
(07:49):
be able to contend with those three, you know, in different
waves. She's going to need more than
just like obviously Alex Greenwood offers a lot of like
stellar passing and ball control.
She's going to need to to win the ball.
She'll need to push, you know, Caruso and Cantore into
positions because you know, those two, they'll fire from
(08:09):
anywhere, right? Like they have the ability to
shoot. She'll need to try to push them
into positions where those shotsare less dangerous.
Make them a little easier for Hampton to handle, I think.
Yeah, and I think Greenwood's going to have to get those
players off the ball like Cantore or Caruso.
Like in those moments, I think Greenwood has the ability to
like kind of close down the space and just get the ball away
(08:31):
from because like that's what itallows to do.
They just want to wait until they get the the right perfect
look. And I think if you're Greenwood,
you just have to run run those players off those spots because
they're not really going to RIP a bunch of shots.
But the ones that they do take, they just have the tendency to
be really dangerous. And they've got those other
players that are kind of like inthose poacherous spots.
(08:52):
Could be a real issue for England.
But I do want to switch gears. So obviously this England, I'm
sorry, this Italy side, five goals for five against over the
course of four matches. So you know, obviously tough
competition, you know, you're not you're not expecting, you
know, a big disparity in those numbers.
But England is the stronger side.
They should win this match. I feel like if you look at the
(09:13):
betting odds at any point, you know, there, there's a big
spread between these two sides, but there's still something to
coming off that Sweden performance, watching England
underwhelm for most of it. You know, you're you're the
resident England guy. How how concerned are you?
Or do you feel like form wise, like they're ready?
Do you feel like it's been a little bit of a shaky
(09:33):
tournament? But hey, everybody's going to
look shaky because these teams are all really good and it's a
lot of football compressed into a small amount of time.
What what's what's your read on on the England, the England vibe
right now? I think the optimistic read and
you know it. It worked out for us.
Well, for us, yeah. Like I, I had, I had mentioned
after the the poor performance versus France, one of the first
(09:56):
things I said was well, Kyra Walsh, it's not going to be bad
2, two matches in a row. Georgia Stanley won't be bad two
matches in a row. And that worked.
I thought the match versus Sweden thought Kyra Walsh was
black, like, not like didn't really impact the the match in
ways that we thought she would. I thought Lauren James was fine
(10:18):
versus Sweden, but you know, we had some some some of our pals
hop into the YouTube comments and say, hey, remember when you
you talked about Lauren James asa Balandor contender?
Like maybe she could have done more versus Sweden in this one?
And I thought that was a fair comment.
Like, and now obviously, yeah, and we've talked about a lot on
these on the show is the difference between the greatest
(10:40):
players and the very good players is that kind of
consistency in those moments? I'm obviously go ahead.
My bad. I I have to, I have to just
interject real quick. The LJ cross, first of all, the
dance that she does up the righthand side when she puts the
cross onto Hemp like that just looked like it was.
I can't believe how accurate that cross was because Hemp
(11:03):
doesn't even have to. She doesn't have to divert a
single degree in her run in. She just continues right on the
run, elevates and the ball is just right there.
That cross from Lauren James, absolutely world class.
And what do you look like? What do you expect her to do?
Sweden, I think is is incrediblytough defensive team.
Again, this is EUR like everything's packed in super
tight. So I I don't I don't take that
(11:25):
point that L that LJ kind of wasdropped the ball.
You dropped the ball or didn't come through because that that
cross in and of itself could have been, maybe should have
been a game changer actually. I think that's totally fair.
And yeah, I'm I'm glad you you mentioned it because that's kind
of where I was heading to is like I thought some of those
comments they were, I understoodlike, you know, she doesn't get
it on the score sheet. She doesn't notch that assist.
(11:47):
But to your point, she still hadher moments and you know, she
had such a great match versus Netherlands where it's like if
you hold her then to that standard every time, it's
unrealistic. But I don't think there was a
giant dip in form for her. So now it's just a matter of is,
is something going to happen where she has that goal,
creating action, that great assist or that banger into the
(12:09):
upper 90? And she's capable of it.
And I think Italy is going to beis going to have a difficult
time stopping that from happening.
Yeah, I I kind of agree with you, but I think I think the
match up is tough. I mean, you look at the Italy
defense, you know, Cecilia Salva, 31 years old, plays for
Juventus. Her center back partner Elena
(12:29):
Lenari, also 31 years old, playsfor Roma.
You know, you already know what time it is with those two.
I mean, they're really good and they're really smart.
And what makes this England match up?
Not the bat, you know, like, I feel like this Italy side might
have struggled more with like France's that look a little bit
more athletic on the wing. You know, that could really run,
run them ragged a little bit. But I feel like Italy, if all
(12:51):
they're going to do is get in the passing lanes, get in the
shooting lanes, pack it in, be opportunistic on offense, I'm
not sure if England has everything that they need to
really kind of hurt them. I know England can score for
sure They and I think they they will score in this one.
But I think they're going to have to put do a ton of work and
I think when they if and when they do breakthrough, it'll be a
(13:13):
ball that's got to pass through a lot of a lot of bodies, a lot
of feet, a lot of a lot of bootsto be able to make it happen.
Yeah, I think that's probably, that's probably true.
I'm going to bank on A2. I want to put this player in
that category of somebody who's probably not going to have two
met games in a row. Ella Tune or as the Italian
players will call her, Aya Tune.I think she will.
(13:36):
I, I, I'm going to put my money on her showing up in a big way
also. But with that said, like with
with Tune operating in the midfield, I want to talk about
my Italian player to watch GiadaGreggi.
We talked about her a little in the last episode.
I think she's a super sub. She is five feet one inches of
(13:57):
five feet one inch, pardon me, of just energy and toughness off
the bench. 25 year old midfielder playing for Roma.
She started 17 of 19 matches in Syria this past season.
She only had two goals and four assists in that league season.
But man, she gives you way more than that on the pitch.
And I think she's been an impactplayer in every match that she's
(14:18):
appeared in so far in these Euros.
I think it's going to be interesting to kind of see how
England copes with her energy late in the match.
You know, she's one that I'm I'mdefinitely watching for.
And I want to see what the counters look like, You know,
when Beth Mead comes on the field, if if Greggie comes on
the field as one of their first Subs And Beth Mead has been, you
(14:39):
know, pretty much one of the first Subs off the bench for
England. Is it going to be Beth Mead is
the one who unlocks that great center back duo with a with a
pass, you know, to get to like, you know, whether it's playing
Alessia Russo in or whatever, oris it going to be Greggy's
energy that, you know, gets Italy over the line?
Yeah, I mean, it's a great call,Greggy, Like very creative runs
(15:02):
and like, you know, just puts a lot of pressure on the defense.
You know, with her again, the work rate, the angles as she
takes, you know, like the overlaps.
And I think her passing too is really fun in the final third.
She's she's looking to distribute.
So that could be a player that definitely puts pressure on the
on the English defense for England.
For me, I think the player that I'm looking at, I'm going to say
(15:23):
Chloe Kelly because I, I thoughtI thought Kelly was a game
changer. Obviously hasn't really been
starting, but I wouldn't be shocked if Chloe Kelly started
just because I think she's able to.
She's sort of like a triple threat kind of player.
You know, she can run, pass and shoot, you know, from that
position. I know Lauren Hemp is out there,
but who knows, maybe some thingsmove around.
I think I think Chloe's Chloe Kelly's skill set provides a
(15:46):
very unique set of problems for that Italian defense, just
because she's like very precise and she just has that
versatility. But I think Kelly, a player that
can make quick decisions and I think her distribution could
could be real dangerous. She's a player that can kind of
pick out a player or an opportunity even with, you know,
some, some high traffic situations in the box.
(16:09):
So I think give me, give me Chloe Kelly as my player to
watch for this one. I like it.
You know, I mean, she operates really well out there in the
right wing. I mean, she is she's kind of
creeping up the rankings and I'll have to make the official
rankings here of my mentality monsters in the world.
Because you think about kind of what she went through at
(16:30):
Manchester City toward the end there where she was very clearly
not happy with the way that she was kind of being looked at and
the way she was being used. And you know, Gareth Taylor was
like, now Chloe Kelly, the the woman who scored the winning
goal in the last year olds. We probably don't need her so
much. What are we?
What are we going to put her on the field for it?
It's not like she's super fast. It makes great decisions.
(16:53):
Anyway, I digress. And so they send her to Arsenal,
which is cool for you and other Arsenal fans.
And look at that. She helps them win the goddamn
Champions League. And she's been great in this
tournament too. So I mean, Wiegmann, she doesn't
like, you know, like one of her calling cards is she doesn't
like to tinker that much with her line up.
She made the change after the the France lost.
(17:15):
So, you know, maybe there's another change.
I I I know you're already thinking that Wiegmann might
make a change at centre back andand take pull Jess Carter out of
the lineup. So you know it could be another
double change for Wiegmann. The we'll see.
But Chloe Kelly, man, just whatever you need.
It feels like she comes on the field.
She plays great and a lot of players would be like and that's
(17:36):
why you need to start me gaffer.Why the fuck am I starting on
the bench? Pardon my language, I mean to
drop multiple F bombs within a within a couple minutes here,
but Chloe Kelly, she just goes back to the bench for the next
game and goes, yeah, when do youneed me?
I'll just come on and ball out again.
No, I mean, incredible player. I think I'm excited to see what
(17:56):
happens here. Well, do you have a?
Do you have a prediction? I do.
I'm going to say 21. England wins it late.
I like it. I'm going to go with the old
tried and true 11 England wins in penalty kicks.
Oh wow. OK.
I mean, we, we already got England winning in on penalties
once. England not a nation known for
(18:18):
winning in penalties or on penalties.
Pardon me. So I, I like, I like the faith
you're putting in them. And for anybody who's interested
in this, you talked about betting favorites on FanDuel.
England is currently -210 to winthe draws plus 340 and Italia
plus 500. You know the winds are in
regulation, obviously, so even if England does win on
(18:41):
penalties, that plus 3:40 is right out there for you for the
draw. Tasty.
All right, so we made our picks.We'll be watching.
One last quick note, Hannah Hampton.
I think it's got to be a sort ofa player to watch for me.
I want to see if that form continues, especially if it gets
to added extra time, penalty kicks.
Anything else? Anything else we need to hit for
(19:01):
this matchup? I think that's about it.
I know as me Morgan mentioned inher press conference
availability, we're recording this on Saturday evening, she
mentioned under press availability on Saturday that
she thought Leah Williamson would be available to play.
I'm not, that's not a direct quote, but I think she said she
was optimistic about it and the team will be better with her on
(19:24):
the field. There's ABBC report on that.
So, you know, obviously keeping an eye out for that.
Cannot wait and shout out to youfor nailing the Esme Morgan
pronunciation and then also shout out to it's either L beg
323. Yeah, it's L beg 323 on YouTube
for helping your boys out with little pronunciation help a
(19:44):
little phonetics in the YouTube comments.
So nice. You're appreciate it.
Any pronunciation help. You know, we're already we're
always happy to to take that. So don't be shy about it.
You know, drop in, let us know and we'll we'll make those
changes accordingly. All right, we made our picks
Next up, the second semi final match up.
So we but we both got England inthe final and now we're going to
talk about who the Lionesses might be taking on Wednesday,
(20:09):
12:00 PM Pacific. Spain versus Germany, a big one,
Maybe the semi final match up that everybody had in their
bracket. But to your point earlier,
nobody had exactly how we got here as the route, but here we
are. Absolutely bonkers win for
Germany. Let me just say, I'm getting a
little thirsty. I'm going to crack another
beverage here. Oh.
(20:30):
I like it. You just get that going Saturday
night. Why not?
The football's been great. Cheers to you.
Yeah, I cheers to you, my good man.
Spain. The the victory over
Switzerland, probably closer than most people expected.
What I think I picked, I think Imight have picked 4 to 1,
(20:50):
something like that. So it was, you know, level nil,
nil at halftime. I thought Switzerland really
handled themselves extremely well, but it's one of those
other things that just gave me more faith in Spain.
Spain didn't play their best match.
Switzerland had everything goingfor them.
They're playing at home. They have these young, energetic
(21:11):
players. And I think it was Lori Lindsay
who said something like early on, like we're, I'm talking like
the first like 5 minutes where like shirt and Libe was trying
to like press pottery. And she was like, yeah, look for
that look, look for Shirt and Libe trying to put some pressure
on pottery to, to kind of hold them back.
And that lasted, I want to say, and no disrespect to Double L,
that lasted, I want to say for about 45 seconds because that's
(21:33):
not you. You can't do that.
You can't do that against Spain.They're too good.
And even when Spain doesn't playanywhere near their A game, they
still have 100 other things thatthey can do to you.
Yeah, I mean, Switzerland didn'treally have any bite to their
offense, you know, so no shots on target for the Swiss.
Four shots total on the day, just six touches in Spain's box.
(21:55):
For Switzerland, it makes it a little easier when the other
team can't hurt you. But I still thought that, you
know, Spain defensively put up agreat performance and, you know,
much like Italy, I thought it starts from the center backs.
Leo, Alessandri has been awesome.
Irene Paredes has been really good, you know, and you know,
kind of had didn't have her bestseason, but I thought played
(22:17):
really, really well versus Switzerland.
You know what, we'll, we'll takethe the competition with, with a
slight grain of salt there. But the Alessandri yellow card
accumulation situation, that's not nothing.
You know, I think, yeah, on the German side, they've got
Shukanooski in the same in the same boat.
But I thought Alessandri specifically for the Spain
defense, it's just incredible. Like, you know, really physical,
(22:40):
really aggressive. I think as good as I've seen her
play, her passing's been awesome.
You know, she kind of moves it along and she gets the ball way,
way up field when she's got a, achance to.
And she's got a lot of outlets. But I think they're going to, I
think they're definitely going to miss her.
I think so. And you got to expect, I mean,
unless I'm unless I'm missing something, I would imagine we'll
(23:03):
see Maria Mendez start in that other center back position
probably. I think she's she's what what
like 2425 years old from Real Madrid and we've like what we
saw her in Spain's third match, but we either saw we saw Mendez
(23:24):
play earlier in this tournament might have been against Belgium.
I want to say she's. She's definitely played, yeah.
And, you know, obviously she's nothing, nothing to sneeze at.
It's not like, you know, Mendez isn't a good player.
But yeah, I think Alejandra has played as well in this
tournament as I've seen her playin a while and that's, you know,
somebody who watches Manchester City football games pretty,
(23:47):
pretty regularly. I thought Alexandre's handled
herself very well. So yeah, I think that will that
will make a little bit of a difference.
But you know, it really what it comes down to with Spain is can
you handle when they are high pressing you, when they are
(24:07):
taking away all of your passing lanes, when they're, you know,
I, I always use the term when they're basically just choking
you out when you're just trying to get the ball out of your
defensive 3rd. And I just think, you know,
Claudia Pina, Mariona Caldente, Aitana Bone Mati, Alexia Pateas
have have just been suffocating teams in the press.
(24:31):
You know, I didn't even mention pottery there.
They've just been making it impossible for you to clear the
ball. And then when you have to
withstand so many shots on target, you could be in real
trouble. And and I think that was the the
flip side of that real quick. It's hard to to kind of ISO
here. You know, Spain only had six of
(24:52):
their 23 shots on were on target.
Only six of their 23 shots were on target.
Pardon me. Which is not a great number for
Spain. They'll need to do better
against Germany, especially whenthey have one of the world's
greatest goalkeepers back there on Kochenberger.
So we'll have to see how up for the challenge she is.
But how many times do I? Do you think that, you know,
(25:14):
Spain's only going to get like 24% of their shots on target?
Probably not every match. Yeah, I mean it it it's an
interesting one because again, you know, we we have to do a
little bit of mental gymnastics to decouple Spain for Barcelona
as best we can. But you know, this Spain side, I
think offensively I was thinkingabout the this one player in
(25:35):
particular. Actually, let me flip it on you.
If I told you, you know, all of these players, Spain and
Germany, we're going to throw all them in a pool and we're
going to re pick the teams and you know, you're going to pay.
You'll pick 11, you know, you'llpick 11 and I'll pick 11.
Who are you taking with your first pick?
If I give you any player to choose from?
(25:56):
Spain's roster. Germany's roster.
I think I've I've probably made it apparent over the last few
months I would take Alexia. I will.
I will almost always take Alexia.
Potayas wrong, so let me tell you.
How? What would you take first?
(26:18):
Let me tell you why, and it might not be what you're
thinking. I think first, I feel like you
have to take, this is the playerwe've talked about a lot
recently, you, I feel like you have to take Claudia Pina
because she's the only player for me.
She's the only player that to use a basketball ISM can get her
own shot at any point and can bury that shot at any point from
(26:43):
anywhere on the pitch, assuming you're on the right, the right
side of the halfway line. I mean, she is just devastating
in the rest of that Spain attack.
It's all interconnected. I mean, they're an incredible
team. And it's because and I'll and
I'll, I'll mention that one at the NEA goal against Switzerland
as a, as a, as an example here. So the ball goes deep.
(27:05):
We've talked about it a bunch where the runs go in every
single direction. And on that one specifically, I
tonic gets it in the box and shegains possession and sprints
away from goal, you know, and just like drags defenders,
defender's like what the fuck? Like what is this?
Like, why is she going so fast 1st and why is she going in the
(27:25):
wrong direction 2nd? And it's all just part of like
the misdirection to kind of get the defense moving the other
way. I thought it's going one way at
the Nia's coming the other way, the back heel.
And it's just, it looks so simple, but it's so incredibly
complex. It's it's something that you
just don't see other teams doing.
But the point that I'm trying tomake is like, as beautiful as
(27:45):
that is, it is there are interdependencies from an
offensive standpoint. You know, Athania needs Itana to
be able to do that. Itana needs to be able to do
those inside out runs to be ableto open things up for other
players for the patiuelos. And you know, and Alexia is a
great player on on her own, So is Itana.
Almost all of them are great players on their own.
(28:06):
But Pina to me is on another level and can just score, can
just wreck the game. You know, I mean, you just, I, I
mean, it's Mike Tyson blow to the face.
Like there's not a better way toto to describe what this is.
I like it. It's certainly bold.
(28:27):
You know, I would probably like,if I was just like picking my
own, I would probably have Pina third.
But I, you know, I, we've talkedabout Pina's current form.
I'm probably doing some historical stuff there.
In fact, I know I am like, because if I, if I, my first
three obviously would be Alexia,Eitana, Claudia, Pina.
(28:47):
But no, I mean, we've talked about Pina being maybe the most
informed player in the tournament.
So I think it's, it's a fair argument to make.
You know, Alexia, I, I think certainly can create her own
shots as well. But your, your point stands.
So what that does add up to though, is if I if I'm thinking
(29:08):
about the first players, I wouldtake the first three.
I would take all play for Spain.And you know, obviously we've
talked a lot about you LeBron and and how well she's been
playing on Katrin Berger has been an absolute monster.
Obviously, you know, you you think about Clara Boule also has
(29:30):
been great. So it's going to be, I think it.
I'm still having a hard time though, man.
Tell me if I'm wrong. Tell me if I'm do tell me if I'm
doing a thing here though, because we just got done this
last week saying Germany's got to be finished.
They're not going to be able to withstand with their, with the
(29:52):
red cards, with the injuries, they're not going to be able to
withstand France. And they did it and they put in
a hell of a great performance. But now they have to play
against Spain. I kind of want to say the same
thing. How were they going to be able
to cope with Spain? I think the one silver lining is
(30:15):
Spain is going to wait for you to beat yourself, you know,
which is what they did. You know, like, you know, versus
versus Switzerland. It was, it was funny because
Switzerland plays 65 minutes of very clean football, not perfect
football, can't really, you know, muster too much offense.
But they played really clean. They didn't give anything away,
(30:36):
you know, to Pina or to Alexia or to anybody else.
And then the Itana to Atenia goal happens like at 65, right?
Or let me see, 66. So that is the first instance
of, OK, we didn't let Spain beatus, but they beat us, right?
We made them earn that first goal, right.
(30:57):
So that's that's kind of and then 5 minutes later, what does
Spain do? You know, Vaulti gets
dispossessed. She knows what she knows what's
happening. If you watch the replay, even
like the Jackie Lee made a wholehuge fuss of it, like, oh, you
know, they're screaming for a foul, you know, but in reality,
Vaulti gets dispossessed. She sees Pina's got it.
She sees Pina's winding up and then she turns to the ref is
(31:19):
like, hey, like, what's your what's the writings on the wall
of where the play is going? But to, you know, to to that
point, that was a giveaway, thatwas Vaulti on the ball a little
bit too long, gets dispossessed in a bad area and then one tap
later and it's the balls in the back of the net.
So Spain's the kind of team where if you beat yourself or if
(31:41):
you or if you give them something, they're going to
take, they're going to take it 100 times out of 100.
And then even if you don't give them something, they're still
probably going to score a goal or two just because that's how
good they are. Now the key for Germany is how
clean a game can they play? Can they play, you know, rather
than 65 minutes of relatively mistake free football for
(32:01):
Switzerland, can they play 90 plus minutes of big mistake free
football? And then can they can they steal
something on the other end? I thought, I thought what
Germany did versus France was interesting.
It wasn't just brand on one sideand bull on the other.
You know, Nu skin was busy in the middle.
Sends was a little bit more active offensively.
(32:22):
I thought they, you know, a little bit different approach.
It wasn't it wasn't so Germany vanilla, you know, up the left
and right hand sides. They're going to need more of
that. But you're missing Shukanooskin,
who was a big impact player today, you know, versus France.
And the question is going to be how do you replace her?
You know, Linda Dahlman's there,maybe Laura Fragang's there.
(32:43):
Maybe, you know, we'll see what they do, but it is going to be
tough to think about how do you replace that player and then
keep some of that defensive midfield intensity?
I'm not, I'm not sure they have,they definitely don't have the
perfect player to just kind of drop right in and replace her.
So it's going to take, it's going to take a little look to
figure out what to do here. Nicely done.
(33:05):
Yeah, I think, you know, they'llhave to play physical and, you
know, going back to the vaultingthing, I know I I kind of like
gave the aside there of a veteran move when she kind of
turned. It's a veteran move to sort of
try that. And maybe it's more of a veteran
move if it works. But it's also a scourge on our
sport. Like don't just stop and stand.
(33:27):
You know, just I hate it when when defenders do it when
they're, you know, calling for offside too.
Don't stop playing and put your hands in the air while your
opponent is running with the ball.
I guess this might be my this might be one of my most old man
takes, but will you just play through the whistle, please?
Like you, because you, you, you're actually putting yourself
(33:49):
at a massive disadvantage in those spots.
And of all the teams to do that against Spain.
And you know, it's not like Levolti needs me to lecture her.
She's a the Champions League winner.
But like, come on, man. Like you're putting yourself in
a real rough spot when you do that.
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, the the other one that
gets me is when somebody's on the floor and the player that
(34:11):
gets knocked to the floor and they just grab the ball with
their hands, like to just force,force the official into making a
call. You know what are you going to?
Do I can't remember who it was. Somebody got called for a
handball for doing that recently.
And I, I, I stood up off my couch and applauded it.
I was just like, good for you. And again, I, now I'm put in the
(34:31):
uncomfortable position where I'mdefending the refs, who I always
view as cops. And I don't want to, I never
want to defend cops or referees.But in in that case, I I knew it
was a dive and the player grabbed the ball and they called
for the handball and I was like,OK, good.
Justice was served, at least this one time.
What a narc. All right, let's get back to it.
Terrible, embarrassing. Does Germany, Does Germany have
(34:57):
any? Like let's play the game.
We we've already I already discounted Germany to to no end.
I've said they've got no shot. You know, the the the injuries
keep mounting. The nu skin yellow card
accumulation makes it even worse.
Spain on the other hand, I mean,they look as clean as a whistle.
I'm not sure if I'm having trouble figuring out apologies
if somebody did get very, you know, seriously injured and I
(35:22):
just got it blanked out. But I feel like they've been
flying real high. It's been very clean.
I'd be interested to see if thisgame gets mucked up a little
bit. You know, Spain kind of breezed
through the group. Toughest match up maybe was that
Italy match up where they do fall behind.
They go in halftime even, but they pull it out three to 1.
(35:44):
Switzerland 2 nil. Obviously it's the home country.
You miss a couple PKS, you miss a couple other really good
looks. Could have been way worse.
I think the XG was close to 4 for Spain, but again, much like
with England, I haven't really been, they haven't really dunked
on me yet in terms of like the expectation they get.
(36:05):
They, they got the big win versus Portugal.
That was impressive. Portugal went on to disappoint,
I think for the rest of the, the, the tournament.
But I, I am I am I crazy to think Germany's got a weird
outside shot to kind of like, you know, bruise this game up a
bit and then all of a sudden we're we're late and it could be
(36:26):
Germany up a goal maybe. And we're just look again,
looking around be like, how the fuck, where are we?
What is this? No, yeah, no, of course you're
not crazy. I mean, especially after what we
just saw, like, I think it's, you know, the time for counting
out Germany has ended. Now, if I had to to bet my very
(36:46):
hard earned money on it, I would.
I would bet on Spain, who, by the way, are -220 to win the
game in regulation. Germany's +500.
The draw in regulation is plus 360 for those who are interested
in that kind of thing. You love a draw, You love a draw
bet. Nothing takes you.
(37:10):
Yeah. No, no.
I don't think it's crazy at all to count like.
What a hit today. What a hit today.
That's true, yeah. So I don't, I don't think it's
silly at all to to say that Germany has a chance.
After all, we're playing football and Germany always has
a chance. But I think, you know, Spain has
(37:31):
so much, it's not exactly earth shattering analysis here.
Here's what I'm I'm going to give you here.
Esther Gonzalez didn't really find any joy versus the Swiss.
And it kind of goes back to whatyou were saying where, you know,
she does, she requires like somebit of service.
She makes things happen on her own.
She's you know, she's a good hold up player.
(37:52):
She's a genius, you know, kind of the way she sees the field
and the way she runs in the dangerous areas.
But I'm going to I'm going to gowith she's sitting on four goals
in the tournament. She didn't do much against the
Swiss with Germany's defense. Now you kind of have to make
another adjustment with Hendrickout, Vomser's coming back in, so
(38:13):
that kind of helps. But I I'm going to place one
take chip on Ester finding some space and getting another one
into the back of the net in thismatch.
I like it. We definitely see that.
I thought Esther, Esther just definitely needed more touches
in the Switzerland match for sure.
I think they kind of tried to get her going in the second-half
(38:36):
could be interesting. I think I think it's going to be
I'm I'm interested to see how the game unfolds, to be honest.
Is this going to be another gamewhere because in in versus
France, obviously down a player,Germany was dominated from a
possession standpoint, from a passing standpoint, just from a
field, from most of the the highlevel stats, you know, like they
(38:59):
they just conceded, you know, except for where it counted.
I'll be interested to see at full strength what kind of game
Germany plays. Like do they try to hold the
ball a little bit? Do they try to kind of like chip
away at that Spain, Spain defense?
Or do they just try to go over the top and, you know, see if
they can steal one? I, I feel like that would be a
(39:21):
little bit selling themselves short if they don't try to
possess a little bit, make Spaindefend and, and see if they can,
you know, kind of like, again, just systematically break them
down rather than being a little bit impatient.
Because I think that that has the, that has a chance to run
them a little bit ragged. If you know, Germany's just
defending for 80 plus minutes with not a lot of respite.
(39:42):
Totally agree. I mean, that's one thing that
just has a real, you have a realdifficult time with that working
against Spain. I thought, you know, there were
moments against France where Germany would kind of pick their
spots, especially when they're down to 10 and they're like, OK,
we got to be efficient with these counter attacks.
And see if we can get one over. But Spain, you know, once they
(40:04):
start stringing together 10/15/20 passes in a possession
and you're kind of dancing all over the place.
You know, you could put yourselfin in a real difficult position.
Let me let me ask you, did you have a German player to watch on
your mind or do you want me to go first?
(40:27):
Yeah, go 1st and then I'll, I'll, I'll let my takes marinate
here. So with that in mind, I think
I'm going to put the spot line the spotlight on Yuninga Minga
26 year old from Wolfsburg. Obviously plays could play in
that central and that center back role could play central
(40:47):
midfielder, defensive midfielder.
She was top ten in frown Bundesliga in the following
categories passes into the finalthird progressive passes touches
progressive carrying distance Ariel's won and percentage of
Ariel's won. You know, I mean, I thought she
(41:07):
had an excellent match against France.
I think she has been consistently good throughout
this tournament. They're going to desperately
need her to continue to act as astabilizing force in that
defense. She's needed to from pretty much
the first match when Julia Givengot injured.
So, you know, if if they're going to if they're going to
(41:28):
pull some kind of upset. And again, it always sounds
silly to me saying that Germany winning a football match would
be an upset. But it would in this case.
If they want a chance of doing that, I think Minga will need to
to show up big time in this one.Yeah, I totally agree with you.
I think she was, I mean, she washuge today for sure in a in a
(41:50):
much needed spot. I mean, she was definitely part
of that. Hey, let's flip our mentality
and let's just let's not go out like this.
And her play today was like veryemblematic of that for sure.
I'm going to kind of cheat and say I've got two players.
You know, you mentioned, I thinkyou've already mentioned both of
them. Carlotta Bamsar returning, I
thought had a really good tournament.
(42:11):
You know, a little bit of a brain fart with like the the the
big time save there and the red card.
But that's a kind of player thatat that age and what we saw so
far in the tournament. I'm going to be excited to see,
you know, if, if Bamsar gets a start, what she brings to the
table versus Spain, you know, and, and if and if she's able to
kind of be like, I'm, I'm I'm here and I'm going to be up for
(42:34):
it because we've seen we've seenplayers, we've seen young
players face that Spain side andkind of wilt a little bit, kind
of like, you know, fade into thebackground a little bit.
For some reason. I don't think Vomser strikes me
as that kind of player. I I feel like if she doesn't get
the start, we could see some real fireworks from Vomser and
then on that same side cloud Abuup top.
(42:55):
You know, I just feel like, I feel like there's a moment.
I feel like there's a moment in the chamber for bull.
You know, we talked about the PK, her going like 6th or 7th in
the in the order and just smashing it and us kind of
scratching her heads, but also being like, wow, that was an
awesome PK, but still also why is she going to scissor 7th?
I I feel like there's, I feel like there's a bull moment and
(43:19):
that's a big time player too that comes through in big spots,
you know, like this isn't a player that you know, shows out
against the worst competition, big, big plays and big games.
I can see, you know what, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to put a take ship. I'm going to put a take ship on
a cloud bull goal. Absolutely.
(43:39):
Love it. I think I think you're spot on
and I think that leads us perfectly as we round the finish
line, as we get into like the 88th minute, not literally, but
the 88th minute of this podcast,figuratively from a football
sense. I think that leads us to the
predictions. I think I might join you on that
Clara Bull goal. But I do think I think the world
(44:03):
champions pull it out. Let's give it to Spain. 2 to one
in my book. Nice. 2 to one.
Yeah, I've got it three to two. I'm probably expecting a little
bit more, a couple more fireworks, but give me 3 to 2
and then give me that third goal.
Give me that third goal and added extra time.
(44:26):
Wow, let's go. Yep, third goal and added extra
time from Clara Bull. Give me Germany, give me the
take integrity. Give me Germany.
Three to two. OK, the most unreal, unexpected,
the biggest turn around ever since we've been covering
(44:48):
women's football. Germany 3 to 2 and I get my
Germany England final. David Holy.
Schnikeys, you know I somehow surprised you when I picked
Sweden to beat England incorrectly by the way in, in
the name of Take Integrity, and somehow I still got fooled.
(45:11):
You're the Roadrunner who painted the picture of the
highway and I'm just wily Coyotejust smashing into the wall.
Not sure how it happened, but I,I commend you, my good man.
See, take integrity. It's important.
That's why you guys obviously watch the show.
It's not because we're, I mean, we make great points and we get
a lot of predictions right all the time and we're obviously
(45:33):
very funny. All those things.
It's, it's because of the take integrity.
It's because when we make a pick, we stick with it.
Yep, for the most part. Anywho.
Yeah, usually. I've been, I've been known to
flip a, flip a little, flop a little.
That's all right. Who's counting really?
All right, man, 2 huge matchups,cannot wait.
(45:55):
Tuesday, Wednesday, we'll be back for both of them with
proper post game breakdowns. And I guess after that second
one, we'll do a little, you know, impromptu final preview
before our official official final final preview.
But yeah, man, the tournament rolls on.
We're now roughly, well, now it's Sunday here in California,
(46:17):
but we're roughly a week away from the final.
And I think it's now it's a winning time.
Now it's winning time for us. It's these are the championship
minutes, the championship roundstime to just kind of like, you
know, pull up these compression socks and get out, get out there
and just try really hard, finishup the tournament strong.
Anything else you want to hit before we get out of here?
(46:38):
I think we've done it. I don't, you know, I don't know
if we're quite compression sock age just yet, but I don't know.
I haven't tried them. I I shouldn't knock them yet.
Maybe, you know, maybe they would help.
But no, I think we I think we'vedone it.
I think we've thoroughly coveredthe semi final matches.
I just can't wait, can't wait towatch them.
I'm probably going to have to beno spoilers for both of them.
(47:01):
Maybe sit back and and watch them as the evening rolls on.
I might treat them both as like,you know, 7:00 PM Pacific Time
prime time matches. Either way, I could not be more
excited to watch this. I think we have 4 awesome teams,
interesting storylines. It should be absolutely
fantastic. Hell yeah.
Let's do it. All right, man.
(47:21):
Quick episode calendar, as mentioned, Tuesday, England,
Italy, Wednesday, Spain, Germany.
Cannot wait. I think we did it, man.
There's been another episode of it to the channel.
Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you for watching, listening, hanging out, chiming
in. If you're in no spoilers mode,
definitely stay off the YouTube comments because shout out to
all of our friends on these Internet streets.
(47:44):
They flood in real quickly when the match is over, when we got
something right and even quickerwhen we got something wrong.
So avoid the YouTube if you're in no spoilers mode, like
subscribe, follow YouTube, Spotify, have a podcast wherever
you like to watch or listen. Leave us a review over your
favorite podcast app links to all of our socials except one in
the show notes of this episode and a big thing in my coast as
well. Mr. Grant angle for all right,
(48:06):
man, let's pull up the compression socks.
You know, let's let's sign that reverse mortgage paperwork,
whatever we got to do to kind oflike stay young.
What can I say? I mean, the Sakina Karshawi to
my Selma Bashaw. I appreciate you bro.
Likewise, buddy, you know, podcast Co hosts partners and
(48:26):
and expert pronunciation for European player names.
I mean, you know, we're obviously out here working as a
team. Wouldn't do it with anybody
else. I appreciate you.
Thank everybody for rocking withthe show.
Like Dino said, you know, thank you for dropping the knowledge.
Please keep the comments coming and we will see you all next
time.
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