Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #307: USA v Ghana (U20 Women's World Cup)

Episode Date: August 12, 2022

Vince in Louisville and Tara in Philly join Belz to talk about the first group stage game of the World Cup for the U.S. women's under-20 team. We beat Ghana 3-0. Lots to discuss, including Jaedyn Shaw, Olivia Moultrie, Michelle Cooper, Korbin Albert and Trinity Byars, among others. Please support Scuffed on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the SCuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, tonight we're going to recap the U20 Women's Comfortable 3-0 victory over Ghana in their opening game of the U20 World Cup. I've got Vince here with me, one of the three pillars of the Monday review, and we have a new contributor, Tara from Philadelphia, who is famous on the SCUF Discord. Tara, welcome. Thank you so much. I don't know about that, but I'm so excited to be here. I'm a little worried I'm going to be too hyperbolic about my deep new love for this team. But let's go. I feel like that's very much in the spirit of this podcast, like hyperbolic about U-20s, kind of.

Damn right. Right. I will be with you all in the boys, men's. Sorry. Sorry, Mabel. I mean, it's fine with me if we call them boys. But Vince, how you doing? I'm just chilling, man.

Just chilling. I want to kind of get you guys in on this part here, but I think perhaps the overarching question for a lot of people going into this tournament is the rest of the world catching up to the U.S. in women's soccer. And I mean, is that the overarching question, or is it one of the, at least one of the questions? Yes, this is the overarching question for me. And this is why I'm so pumped up for this tournament,

just because I've just been hearing a lot of chatter over the past month, two months, whatever. Like, oh, there's no way we're beating England. There's no way we're beating the Netherlands, France, with this current team or whatever, whatever. To be honest, I think that's all a bunch of malarkey, you know what I'm saying, if you will. A bunch of hoo-ha.

Yeah, exactly. And so, yeah, that's why I'm pumped to see this tournament and just to see where we really stand. And I think that we're going to be where we always are. The question is, is the world catching up? But to me, it's also, are we still going to remain a powerhouse? It's, it's, did we have this longstanding golden generation? And I'm so excited to see that there are young people fighting for a place in pro teams and dominating this game already. I'm excited to see what's left to come. Yeah. Yeah. And it's the scene. senior team already has, I know Terry, you're really excited about this. I am too.

I think everybody is that already has a bunch of young players pushing out the older generation. And this would be the sort of the next step. I mean, it's the next generation after the Sophia Smiths and the, you know, Ashley Sanchez's. And yeah, it's exciting. And I think that maybe the rest of the world would catch up. But we're starting to see this trickle of teenagers. into the NWSL. And I think that being able to start players as pros sooner will just keep us ahead, basically.

We are only going to be able to remain a powerhouse, in my opinion, is if we continue to play the youth. And U.S. soccer put out this fun little piece of trivia. I wanted to hold until later on in the tournament, but hopefully we can marinate it on a little bit. From 2002 to 2018, the U-20 Women's National Team has produced roughly about six people to graduate onto the senior team, six people per year per team. And I really hope by the end of the tournament we can try to draw some conclusions on who those six could be. That's what I'm excited about.

I feel like I already have a idea of at least a couple of them. Right, but we got to wait. We got to wait. Okay. All right. Let's marinate on it. The U.S. came into this tournament having won their last 12 games, which is all the games they've

played together as a group. That includes a, what was technically a draw against the Netherlands. What was the name of that tournament? The... Sued? Yeah. F-U-D. Ladies Cup.

Okay. And, but we did beat them in penalties. so I'm counting it as a win. 12 wins in 12 tries. We beat Mexico 2 to nothing to win the CAF Championship in March and in that tournament where we played the Netherlands

and beat them in penalties. We also beat France. We've been dominant and that carried over into the first match of the U20 World Cup. Wouldn't say Ghana ever really threatened. Goals from Michelle Cooper,

Alyssa Thompson, and Ali Sentner did the job for the U.S. before we get into the lineups in the timeline. let me just say if you are able, please consider subscribing to the Patreon. We're an ad-free podcast, and that's how we make money. And if you're able to subscribe and you're interested even a little bit in women's soccer, you'll get to join the Discord, and I'm desperate for people to talk about women's soccer with.

So it's kind of a win-win. And Tara, you're that, you're sort of that rare person who is like, like, it seems like you're equal. interested in men's and women's soccer. It's like you're you're not a, you're not just there for the women's soccer. You're there for both, right? Right. I love our men's team and I love, you know, both national teams, but I've

definitely been a fan of the women's team longer. Okay. Okay. All right, let's do the lineups. The U.S. was in goal, Mia Justice. On the back line from right to left, Elaine Rouse, Emily Mason, Lauren Flynn and Samar Guidry

Gidri and Rauss the fullbacks Talia della Peruta was the six Olivia Moultrie and Corbin Albert were the eights and then Alyssa Thompson Michelle Cooper and Jaden Shaw were across the front line although Jaden Shaw did do a lot of playmaking and drop deeper into the midfield as the game went on Ghana was in more of a 4-2-3-1 I guess

though they were backed into their defensive third much of the game. They were missing somebody though, right, Vince? Yeah, supposedly their best player, Evelyn Badu, traveled to Costa Rica and suffered what seemed to be a ankle injury that was bad enough for her to not even be registered for this tournament. Yeah, so that news came out yesterday. I follow a Ghanaian journalist named Gary Allsmith that I just follow for general you know football takes and whatnot and I saw this come across timeline another day and I was like wow

but um yes supposedly uh she's a really big deal and she's already uh pretty pretty famous in Ghana it seems so yeah that's too bad yeah the ref was if you watch the game she she was on screen a lot she played kind of a big role in the game her name is laura lee and she is australian so I don't know how interesting that is everybody but there it is. Yo, I just want to say something about Laura Lee. She gave off like camp counselor vibes. Like sometimes, you know, you would see, she was just smiling very wide the entire game. And that was fun to see even though she made, you know, well, we'll get into it.

She made some rash decisions at points. But sometimes, you know, when it was just a routine file, she would, you know, come onto the camera and just like, come on, you know, you can't do that. Just a very large smile It just seemed very lovable She was likeable I thought What, Tara? And this is very much not

At all relevant But there was a TV show I know Vince watched Where a main character Was named Laura Lee In Yellow Jackets Do you remember that Vince? Which one's Laura?

A little long girl Who flew her plane into the sea Spoiler Right, right, right Of course Yes, yes, yes The religious grew. But that's all I could think about, which adds some context into what my mindset was

going into this game. You just thought she was going to fly a plane into the sea. I thought she was unhinged. I mean, I agreed with a lot of her decisions, but unhinged nonetheless. Okay. All right. Let's get to the timeline. Why don't you kick us off, Tara? Yeah. And I definitely want to take this seriously. But the game did start with, with a crowd chanting down from 10. Did everybody notice that? I noticed that, yeah. It was peculiar, no?

It is peculiar. I feel like I've seen it before somewhere, but I can't say where. Okay, well, beside the point, you're definitely peculiar. Okay, good. Right at the first minute, Flynn was a little messy from the start.

I know many people in the Discord noticed it. even online she she had some nerves which was expected I guess but it was a bit of a theme throughout the first half Mason was the more reliable of the two and she also grew into the game but somebody I was really excited to come into this tournament and watch was della peruta that's how I would say it Yeah. Anyway, she had two pretty major giveaways in the first minute. And I bring it up because it was a bit surprising for me as she is one of the more, if not the most experienced youth national player we have. She is a four-time Concoqaf champion.

She holds that record between the men and the women. She won with the U-15s. In 2016, she won with the youths. 17s in 2018. And then she won with the U-20s in 2020 and 2022. So I was coming into this game expecting her to dominate. And we do get there. But in this first minute, she had a few slip-ups, which I noted.

Yeah. I thought we were, I mean, that's skip ahead too much. But I thought we were pretty messy pretty much until the first 10 minutes were up. And we had a right around the 930 mark, we had a big chance. But up until that, it's like difficult for us to connect two or three passes together. And I'm just going to chalk it up to nerves pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, it had to be nerves.

Everyone was like chasing their first touch and stuff. It was, yeah, it was getting a little wild out there. And I think Ghana played into it a little bit because they just, they came out flying. And I don't know if we necessarily were ready. for the amount of physicality that they were playing with. They were coming in the challenges physically, you know. And yeah, very hot. And yeah, like I said, I don't know if we were necessarily ready.

And it took us about, yeah, five or ten minutes to get warmed up. You should talk about that little moment in the third minute from where Shaw does something that almost comes off that doesn't come off. because there's a foreshadowing to it, I think. Okay, yeah. So in the third minute, Alyssa Thompson picks up the ball in midfield and plays a nice ball to Jalen Shaw, who's cutting across the face of goal, leaving her left-wing position coming into the middle of the pitch.

And she receives it with a very nice first touch, which also was a constant theme of this game. Whenever she's making these darting runs, her first touch, really never let her down the entire game. But so after the touch, she ends up trying to play a backheel to, I think it was Cooper. But it ends up getting cut out. But yeah, it was a, it was some foreshadowed because, you know,

we ended up having some backheel magic later in the game. Yeah. There was also a cutback attempt from Alyssa Thompson after she got sprung, down the right wing by Moultrie, but it was cut out. But, you know, there was, there were a couple good things. But for the, like I said, for the most part, first nine minutes of the game were sloppy. Our first, you know, big chance of the game comes in the 10th minute. Flynn plays it on the ground to Cooper.

So, you know, Flynn does come in for some criticism for sure, but this is a nice pass through the lines to Cooper, who's dropping deep from her number nine position lays it off for Corbyn Albert and Albert plays in Moultrie who is sort of making an exchanging run with Cooper filling the space that Cooper vacates Moultry's shot

Mouc's basically one-on-one with the goalkeeper but her shot is blocked off her foot by the goalkeeper who's just flying out at her and gets to her right inside the box yeah and Flynn you know she did have the rough start but she she definitely grew up the game and showed really showed a lot of quality after the after the inconsistency to start

the game i ended up being pretty pretty impressed to be honest me too and she's one of the youngest out there i mean i don't have her age on hand but i did look it up she is one of the youngest out there is she yeah she she was swashbuckling sort of a what's the how's the phrase go is it nothing risked nothing earned that's not it but gained yeah that's something yeah yeah But that seemed like sort of her theme for the day. Because she was carrying the ball deep into the other team's half and trying to do stuff from her centerback position. The goal comes around the 11-minute mark.

It's a good diagonal from Lauren Flynn to Thompson on the right wing. Thompson exchanges a couple passes with Jaden Shaw, who shows good strength to ride a tackle and then play Routher. The right back in behind, down the right wing. It's a good ball. Rouse lets it run past her, then cuts the defender from the sideline onto her left foot and hits a pretty gorgeous curling ball for Michelle Cooper to nod in from point-blank range. Cooper had lost her marker on the back post.

1-0 USA. She didn't just lose her marker in the back post. There were three defenders just standing around her. It was gorgeous. It's what I have seen Michelle Cooper do in the very few videos I've found from her playing with Duke, but it was so exciting. It was so, it was beautiful. Yeah, and just, I guess, doing my research on West Cal before the tournament, this is basically what I saw from Lainey Rouse when I watched her college games from last season.

she's just extremely dynamic for her right back and loves to be in positions like the one that Shaw put her in where she's 1 v1 you know she I mean she found herself 1 v1 maybe like four or five times in this game and every every single time you know she's not playing any games she's going she's going to try and go at her marker and make something happen and yeah this was just real nice the nice little chop to get on the left foot and the the ball too is just that's a nice piece of nice piece of quality to see right there. And aside from Michelle Cooper, I'm so sorry.

Aside from Michelle Cooper's goal, I thought Alyssa Thompson and Jaden Shaw were really sparking. You could see a lot of chemistry there already. And I mean, it was only the 11th minute, but again, foreshadowing for what's to come. But I'm really excited about those two together. 17 minute mark,

there's a set piece scramble. It falls to Flynn, and she actually hits a pretty good left-footed volley that's cleared off the line. Worth mentioning, so I mentioned it. Yeah, and this is where Flynn really starts, where she really gets into her marauding bag. Like, it's been, this is probably like her third

carry all the way up the pitch, and she dribbled by the Ghanaian midfielder Nyama to open the field up. After she dribbled by at Nyama, she got the ball to Olivia Moultry and then, yeah, Moultrie tried to hit a, hit a, it was a nice ball, hit a nice ball to Cooper, who was in the space on the left wing. It ended up going out on the touchline. Corby and Albert won the ball back, then won the corner. And this is the ensuing quarter. Okay. So in the 23rd minute, a switch off a Ghana throw-in leads to a 1v1 with the right-wing of Tay and anchors a space against Samar Guidry. And Tay ends up taking like really like a, for a dangerous situation, she ended up kind of making it a little bit less dangerous than it should have been because she just popped a shot from like the top of the box. It was non-threatening to our goalkeeper. This is just something I've noticed

I noticed in this match where we had Samar Gidri covering an entire side of the field to herself because our two centerbacks are kind of like pressed up and trying to just win the ball off the throw in and so what ends up happening is our two centerbacks are like

10 to 15 yards apart and both of them on the right side of the pitch it was Samar Samar had to do it and this happened a couple times and each time she came out, you know, looking good. Yeah, going into the 28th minute, we see some of the best defending of the game, in my opinion, from Gidri again to track down TAY after a cross-field switch over our defense to our left side. So at this point, the nerves from our backline are,

to me, completely clear up. They're feeling confident. Gidri is dominating. that side and she stops one of the few nice chances gone ahead. Do you guys agree? Yes, I do. I mean, it didn't even result in a shot, right? Because she... No, she got it. She got it too quick. Yeah. But it was, it looked dangerous when as the ball was a nice pass across the field to... So it looked dangerous, yeah. And I just think it's funny because Like when we're in possession, our centerbacks are like damn near on the touchline. But then like, I'm pretty sure this came off another throw-in situation too. And then for whatever reason, we're just extremely narrow on the defensive end.

31st minute, might have been the 32nd minute right in there. The red card is shown to Jacqueline Owusu for Ghana. she got Corbyn Albert in the back of the ankle with her studs pretty good as the replay showed. It didn't, it wasn't even called. I don't think it was even called as a foul in the, in the moment, but. No, it wasn't. But VAR alerted Laura Lee that the plane was going down. No, I'm just kidding.

And she listened up and she gave her the, she gave her red, which seemed deserved, right? It was completely earned. I mean, it wasn't vicious, but her studs were up on the back of her leg. That's an easy red. Yeah. Like, I was just a little disappointed just because, you know, I just hate to see it. Early red like this. Really just want to see what this team is made of just to start the tournament out.

You know, I haven't seen these players other than the clips I've watched on Waskout, which were most of them were almost a calendar year ago during the College Cup. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, we'll get that on, we'll get another game on Sunday, you know, so it's all good. But, yeah, just a little disappointed. Yeah, it was a silly way, silly way to get sent off. Like you said, didn't seem intentionally vicious or anything. It did affect the flow of the game.

Rouse gets a yellow a few minutes later for a tactical handball after she kind of gives it away. I noticed that she, you know, you were singing her praises, Vince, and I agree. I think there's still some, a little bit of an area for improvement. Like, she got a good diagonal around the 25th minute from Flynn and just kind of wasted it. And I felt like there was a little bit of that from her. Yeah. I mean, that's just her, like, aggression, though, because that, that, that, that diagonal she received, you know, she, she went for the medic. You know what I'm saying?

That's right. That's right. I can't, I can't begrudge anybody for, fair enough. It was a cool opportunity. It was a piece of effort. She would have looked awesome, but instead she gets a yellow cook.

All right. And the second U.S. goal comes right around the 38 minute mark. Tidy work from Corbyn Albert in the middle of the pitch to slip Cooper into the left channel. Cooper is, you know, running hard at the end line

and she's got three runners to pick from. One at the six, and that's Alyssa Thompson. And then two in the coming at the penalty marker, I think one of them was Albert. I'm not sure who the other was. And I was thinking to myself, man, cut it back, cut it back, cut it back. And she didn't cut it back. She just laid it right across the six.

And Thompson met it with the side of her foot put into the roof of the net. So I was mistaken on my couch there, 2-0 USA. And we need to sit with this for a second because Alyssa Thompson is a high schooler. She plays for a U-17 MLS Next team. She's a track star. She's the youngest high school athlete to ever sign with Nike. We just need to praise her of it. She was pretty excited, too.

You could see it. She was so excited. It was so nice. Yeah, definitely. And I think, like, when Cooper picks the ball up right there, I, like, went back and looked at Alyssa Thompson's run. And she had just basically like boxed our marker out to where, you know, she wasn't getting around her. And I think when Cooper picks her head up and sees Alyssa in that situation, like, I think there's just no way she's going to come back at that time. Yeah. So I think that's how that came about.

Yeah. I'm mostly just using this as a confessional opportunity to say I was wrong, you know, in the moment. So Alyssa Thompson is how old is she then? She's 17 and she has a sister who is 16 who also just signed with Nike as like a pair. She just won Conca Calf Championship with the U-17 national team. So we have our very own errands and siblings, I guess we could say, but better. and I'm so here for it. Awesome. All right.

41st minute, this is what we were trying to foreshadow with the backheel talk earlier. Just wonderful work from Jaden Shaw to carry it into Zone 14. And then she sort of gets turned away from the goal a little bit and tries to backheel Moultry. And she actually does backheel Moultry and splitting. two defenders, just a gorgeous piece of soccer there. Moultry takes a touch and then blasts it in the stands, but it doesn't do anything to diminish the buildup there. Yeah, it was real nice.

Once again, Alyssa Thompson's evolved, and she delivers the ball to shaw after a nice one-two with her and with her and Olivia Moultry. And really, that would have been, you know, just pure champagne football right there if we would have got the finish. Yeah. But speaking of immensely talented 17-year-olds, Jaden Shaw, Jaden Shaw recently signed to the San Diego Wave and made her NWSL debut

I think two weeks ago, a week ago, yeah. A week ago, yeah. A week ago, okay. And it was like just watching that match, it was absolutely amazing to see. just like a 17-year-old absolutely jumping off the screen in her first NWSL minutes. Like, I mean, if there's a player better than Jaden Shaw in this tournament, I would like to see her. Scoring in some of her first NWSL minutes. Right.

I mean, like, to even get minutes with the wave right now who are second in the league, it's so impressive. Yeah, definitely. And yeah, her goal. This match was against the Red Stars. And her goal was just absolutely disgusting. You know, picked it up in the box and had the wherewithal to fake the shot on the right, chop it to her left. So like sat down a listener. Like fooled her a listener with it.

I mean, all this is 17. It's just too much. It's just too much. Yeah, for me she was the best player on the field today. Moultrie's also 17, right? Isn't she only 17? I think she might be 16. Okay.

I'm not sure. I mean, I'm not positive, but. Yeah, and Shaw is interesting because, you know, she started on the wing, but she seemed to do a lot of her best work centrally, sort of as a playmaker. Yeah, and. Really back, too. She would push back a lot. I was, that's what I was impressed about.

She wasn't really doing that with the wave, like getting back in our half as much, but it rules. Yeah, sometimes she was in like the left back space picking the ball up and, you know, just trying to dictate the game. But yeah, in that match against the Red Stars in her NWSL debut, she was playing mostly right-wing, switch over to the left a little bit too. But yes, just an absolute baller. Yeah, definitely one to watch. And I hope I'm not speaking out of turn here. Tara, when I say that she's going to be one of those six who goes on to the national team.

No, it's all but guaranteed. It's all but guaranteed. All right. 40. Oh, no, you got the next one, Tara. Yeah. So shortly after in the 42nd minute, we had a fun little set piece that I got a lot of amusement out of. There was a traffic jam between Albert and Cooper.

Albert can't really sort it out, kicks it out of bounds, but she's getting chance after chance. And it didn't result in anything, but it was intriguing. Yeah, it was kind of instead of trying to play it over the wall, I think it maybe was Della Peruta who was on the ball. Yes, yeah. She played it on the ground just to the left of the wall right in front of the goal. And it could, like either Cooper or Albert could have. picked it up and they both kind of touched it and Cooper got tackled and then Albert got it back and yeah as you describe 47th minute we get a big chance for Corbin Albert a lovely turn from Shaw

on a throw in from the left side she plays so she turns a defender you know receiving the ball that's that's you know about waist high and then she plays a clean pass on the ground back toward the top of the box for Albert who just punishes it first time off the cross bar very nice still two zero yep and well while we're giving uh player bios so corbin albert um plays in notre dame and really uh it was probably the player that had me the most excited last night when i was when i was doing on my research at like two in the morning um we really didn't see she had a solid game she had a solid game but we didn't get to see her her her entire package there.

She can really get cooking off the half turn, really turn and just embarrass people on the dribble. So there's more to come. There's more to come. It'll be interesting to see how Tracy Kevin's trots everybody out against the Netherlands on Sunday. Who's going to be the midfield? Is Jaden Shaw going to play on the wing again?

I'm very curious. We shall see you. All right. Well, at the half, Ali Sentner comes on for Michelle Cooper. 48th minute, a good ball in behind from Moultry to Thompson, whose cut back finds nobody spills to Moultry.

She tries to swivel and blast it with her left foot. It goes well wide. I think, you know, Moultry, I thought Moultry was at times untidy. You could see her quality. I think she's going to probably have better games than this one in this tournament. is how I would put it.

Yeah. And she was still good. Yeah, she was. I was just saying she was untidy, but she did what she needed to do, which was get the ball to the attackers and let them score. So like she had some sloppiness, but I'm expecting come Sunday a brand new Olivia Moultrie. And sometimes when we were like, struggling to progress the ball.

Like, I always felt good when I saw somebody pass into, when I saw somebody passing to Olivia. And did you see her at all in the countless water breaks? Like, she just looked furious the entire time. And I love that. That's my kind of girl. Yeah. She is.

Also, not my bad. No, no, no, not I think about it. For those of you that don't know, I live in Louisville, Kentucky. Racing in Louisville, season ticket holder. And I saw her first minutes. Her debut came in Louisville. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.

Maybe I'll be able to, I'll be able to tell my grandkids that one day. Yeah, if all you've ever heard about Olivia Maltrey is that she was signed as a 13-year-old and you might think, well, she's probably a small person because you think of her as a 13-year-old. She's not. She's a big physical midfielder. and, I mean, dominant, really, in her physicality. It was, like, really difficult to push off the ball, a lot to contend with for the opponent. And in Portland, where she plays with the Thorns,

she's often paired up with Christine St. Clair and warm-ups and training. And, I mean, like, how doesn't that give every American fan goosebumps? We're going to have our own Christine St. Clair. It's going to be amazing. Yes. Always led to steal from Canada We can We should praise Shaw a little bit more

I think there's a good ball from the right side Who is it who hit that that ball Like a curling ball into the box From from Rouse Okay And Shaw just takes a lovely first touch To give herself the room To have a shot

She tries to shoot it at the near post And it kind of tings off the outside of the post But another good chance Yeah it's just it's interesting to see because Jaden's basically going to be able to play in the attacking position that she wants to play on any

given day, you know, when you just see the array of stuff that she just does in this game just casually. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's like no effort is really put into it. Yeah, I'm stoked. 51st minute goal USA.

It's a good combo through the middle of the field. is it Yeah, Delapuruta to Centner to Maltry and Centner passes to Moultry like a little square pass and then immediately makes a run into the space between the centerbacks

actually between one of the centerbacks and the left back and Moultry waits the return pass perfectly I think that should not be understated how lovely the weight was on that pass and then Sentner blasts it

and the goalkeeper gets an arm to it, but, I mean, it's a good arm to it, but it's still trickles through 30 USA. Right. No disrespect to Sittner, but like, we can't, we can't talk about mulchry being sloppy or even like a little untidy and not mention how that pass was gorgeous. That pass was all her. Thank you, Sittner, for getting the goal, but I was, I was really impressed with a three

ball. It's such an easy pass to get wrong, you know? Like, she had this plenty of space to put it into, but to put the weight on it so that Senator can just run onto it and just blast it. Good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And so Ali Centner is one of the players that didn't have any Weis Cow clips because she sat out her freshman year at Duke because she tore her, she tore her ACL. I think, like almost a year ago.

I know the man commentating said last August. So It's, you know, happy Happy return to plan, you know what I'm saying? Get you a goal. You got to be feeling good. She was a positive presence, I thought. Busy, like, active off the ball.

53rd minute, we start getting some subs. I-O-OK comes on for Gidre at left back and Trinity Byers comes on for Alyssa Thompson at the right wing. the 50, right around the 58 minute mark, Cecilia Nyama, a midfielder for Ghana, nearly gets another red card. She put her studs slightly into the back of Shaw's ankle,

which, you know, I think there should be extra points against her for that, that it was Shaw. But initially shown red, but then after the VAR check, Laura Lee gives her a yellow card. So there you go. Kind of the opposite of what happened earlier. Yep.

And this is just, you know, back to the camp counselor vibes. You know what I'm saying? She might have felt bad for the prior red. And she was like, you know what? Let me go ahead and you could stay. You could stay. What did you think, Tara? I felt like it was a favor to us because if Gano were together,

get two red cards, this result would have just been laughable. It would have been like, well, it doesn't even matter. Ghana got two red cards. But, I mean, she had her studs in the back of somebody's ankle that is a red card, isn't it? Yeah. I mean, I wasn't mad at it, but to me, it was a red card. Yeah, it didn't seem like it was enough in the video to overturn the initial decision, which was a red.

But why are they putting studs in the back of people's legs like that? Come on, Ghana. 62nd minute. Andrea Kidahada. Andrea Kidahada comes on for Delapuruta and then plays on the left wing and then Shaw basically moves to the six, right? Didn't she? Yeah.

And I found that interesting because Delapuruta is really our strongest defensive midfielder just from my own research so I think we're going to see her the rest of the week and I was happy to see her come out relatively early

so I was really looking forward to possibly seeing Sally Minty play but it was released today that she tore AC on training yeah yeah so terrible news terrible news terrible news for her

you know, wishing good vibes and a quick recovery. But yeah. For me, the rest of the games was sort of a seeing-out process, but we got some half chances

here and there for Centner and Byers. Yeah, I just want to say like since coming on, Byers has been like extremely lively. She was causing havoc up and down the touchline from the moment she stepped on the pitch.

Yeah, she was, in my research, consisted of just like trying to find clips of this French cup they played in June. And in that cup Trinity Byers was our leading goal score. So I was really, really excited to see her come in. And then skipping ahead into the 80th minute, we see some really promising things from Trinity buyers. So 80th minute, we have a clever throughball from. Albert for Byers. Her touch is a little bit much, shot blocked off of our foot, basically.

Corbyn Albert has worked really, really well in the middle, and I think everybody would agree to that. She was one of the more consistent players, even in that first shaky half defensively. But Byers has been close a few times at this point. I am curious to see if we keep seeing. her as Alyssa Thompson's backup or maybe she gets a start somewhere soon. That's what I'm looking forward to.

She definitely was lively, just not, didn't quite have the finishing touch in this game. Did she play, do you know if she played any left wing in the sued ladies cup? Not sure, I'm not sure. Okay. Well, Albert

Moultrie and Shaw were still on the field. I think you know, probably our three most important players in this game. We're still on the field after the 80-minute mark. Finally, the 84th minute, Karina Liguerre comes on for Albert. And what else, guys? What else happens? Yeah, in the 89th minute, after a cleared Moultry Corner,

so OK picks up the ball and plays a nice one too with Flynn that leads to a pass to Andrea Kedahada. and it was showtime at this point. She proceeds to make two Ghanaian defenders fall on the dribble. With the second being, it's almost her trademark, her stepover. She hits it all the time, watching her games at Stanford. She loves a step-over, loves it. And, you know, yeah, I love to see it.

I love when you can make a defender touch the pitch, and she got two bodies here. in a, what, 20 minutes of appearance? So, you know, her bodies per 90 is, is looking good. But anyway, the ensuing cross from her was sent over by a Ghanaian defender. But, you know, just a little senseless violence that I love to see. So she came on in the 62nd. If she got two bodies, that means six bodies per 90.

It's a lot of bodies. Right. Correct. Correct. Keep an eye on that. What else, Tara? Anything else? No, no. I was just, I just wanted to kind of note, looking ahead, Japan did beat Netherlands this afternoon, one to nothing. I was watching while I was working, so it did not have my full attention. But from what I did see, I didn't think it was too much of an exciting game.

Japan did have plenty of shots on goal. Those shots on goal, I believe it were eight or nine shots on goal. They clearly got one in, but the rest weren't incredibly strong or anything. So I am cautiously optimistic. Japan did have most of the possession. They did play very high. Just some important context going into when we played Japan on Wednesday. next week.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I only watched the two-minute highlight video that FIFA put out, but it did look like Japan was shelling the Dutch. It was a flattering video. I watched the video as well. Really? It was very flattering.

I don't know. I didn't think the game was... I mean, it was a good game. It just wasn't as dominating as. I am reading some people fear. Okay. Good. That's good to hear.

Japan, as many of you know, won the 2018, U-20 Women's World Cup and beat us in the group stage in that tournament. So vengeance will be ours. You're damn right. All right, so the Netherlands on Sunday and Japan on Wednesday, and we'll be back to recap both of those the night of. Hopefully we can pull that off. Thanks everybody for listening.

Thanks, Tara. Vince. See ya.