Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #418: World Cup — USWNT v Portugal recap

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

Greg and Belz on the tire fire our talented team has found itself in, with a little bit of reminder that we've got good enough players (and defensive soundness) that we might still do well at this World Cup.----Consider subscribing on Patreon. Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for U.S. men's national team players every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get our full interviews (recently Dave Sarachan), access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: 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. Final game of the group, we needed a result, and we got the zero zero draw versus Portugal. Job done. Right, Greg? Look, if you think you're going to get me to waffle on my World Cup as a party philosophy, you are wrong, sir. It's a party and we are still at the party. Yeah, it's a party for other people, I think.

It's not really a party for me. That sucked. That was horrible. It was, I would say, a wrenchingly terrible viewing experience. The team seems to be getting worse. Vlako has no solutions. On the bright side, I do believe on any given day we can beat anybody, but it feels more likely we crash out against Sweden,

who is our likely opponent in the round of 16. Yeah, Sweden are like four goals to the good going into their last game, so they would need like an eight-goal swing, something stupid like that. they might be 10, I think they're 10 goals to the good on goal difference. So we are playing Sweden in the round of 16. And that is a big deal for our probability to continue staying at the party. Sweden much better than whoever finishes second in that group. So that hurts probability-wise.

But you are totally right. Even in this really frustrating, anxious, tense match, where I think it's fair to say we feel like we are underachieving as a team. And watching our opponent yet again feel like they are overachieving as a team. That's the pattern. We created several good chances and we conceded very little until that very end when suddenly we conceded a lot. Yeah. Yeah. I want to get into the, um, just sort of the anti soccer of it all, the way we were playing.

Um, because I think there's a, there's a debate. Well, go, you go ahead. Well, I was just going to say because a lot of people are talking about that now. And for everyone who's talking about it, like, welcome to the party, pal. Like, This is not a new development. This is not a thing where we were playing very good soccer leading up to the World Cup. And now the nerves or whatever else have acted up.

Like, we have not been a coherent side with the soccer ball since this team has sort of materialized in the, you know, after the Olympics when we had a real changing of the guard, I think, personnel-wise. And these new faces have come in in like the Conca Calf Championship in 2021. This has been the team. This is who we are and have been for a while. while now. Yeah. And I, you know, we, we had, we picked on a bunch of Concaf teams and Concaf qualifying. And I wonder, you know, is it fair to call us a bunch of Pirates of the Caribbean? I mean, yes and no. We, we pick on Concaf teams, but we also pick on Columbia. And we also, you know, we beat Canada in, in that championship. And then we went through, she believes,

with three wins against Canada, Japan and Brazil. Yeah, that's true. We beat good teams because this was mostly with Mal Swanson. Yeah, Mal Swanson available. But we can beat good teams because we continue to have very good players. And like I said, even in this game that was frustrating and felt like a terrible experience, created a ton of, not a ton. We created lots of good chances. On another day, we convert any of those.

And that's it. It's curtains because Portugal were doing nothing. And their hope was to keep doing nothing until we made some kind of a mistake. goalkeeper walkabout two players colliding as they go up for ball, whatever, and they get a gift. And we nearly did it a couple of times. But that was their game plan, right? And as soon as if we had gotten one, that would have been it. It would be over because Portugal, no, they're not going to get two gifts and convert two goals to win the game.

So it was very much like we can sneak one. But if we just got any of those decent chances that we had, very good in some cases, that would have been it. We just didn't. And so it was nervy. Yeah, I mean, I guess I would slightly take issue with the word lots, lots of good chances. That's fair. And also Portugal doing nothing. I mean, they did, they didn't, they only got 0.35xG on the night.

We got 2.4. That seems like, I don't know, it seems not exactly reflective of the performances. But I felt like Portugal was, you know, they outpossessed us, 57 to 40. 33% and they they were they were cruising through our midfield getting into the attacking third once they got there You know either either Germa came and like solved the problem or they just didn't have They just didn't have any ideas even that like that would they had that really good chance in the first half Where um carol Costa just played it right through the middle of the field and I who was it? Nazare Nazarene turn and just played played

played Silva in behind a very sleepy Crystal Dunn. And it was like she was in on goal. And she, I think she kind of panicked, didn't, didn't maybe take the chance as well as she could have dragged it way wide. But that's a like, that's a,

that was a better shooting opportunity than anything we created. Well, almost. It's up there. It's up there with anything we created in the first half, you know? Yep. I'll give you that.

That was a slick play in a, in a slick moment and not one that they were able to repeat. That's true. It was a very good moment for them. And again, so yeah, I should, I should qualify. They did create that. That was them. I wasn't a gift.

But they weren't able to do it any other time until we did gift them, gift them a couple of looks that would have knocked the U.S. women's national team out of the World Cup. I do think it maybe was a gift from Andy Sullivan, who was just bumbling around the midfield, running around like a very large chicken with her head cut off. It's a lot. It's in the timeline, I'm sure. So we'll dissect. it a little bit when we get there. The, you know, one other thing, so two things I want to cover are number one is it, do we overestimate the players?

Because this is a thing, this is a thing that a lot of people who are new to the party are saying, you know, like the women are, or not just people who are new to the party, people watching, say, we're getting, we're getting caught up to by the rest of the world. It's not, we do have great athletes. We do have good, you know, individual talent, but the sort of tactical acumen, slash technical, I mean, I don't know about the technical ability, but that's being said, is getting caught up to by the rest of the world. What do you think about that?

I have some thoughts, but I'm curious what you think. I mean, I think it's totally fair to say they're closing the gap, right? And even just, that's not just for the U.S. That's sort of across the board. You're seeing the much weaker teams historically, standing up to some of the better teams in at least they, there are still some blowouts. But you were seeing these close games where that previously wasn't the case. I mean, we expanded the field to 32.

So you'd think there would have been a lot more of the blowouts, Netherlands, Vietnam, notwithstanding. Yeah. But you've seen like, you know, England struggling for two of their three games. You know, Jamaica's holding up against Brazil and France. Like the gap is closing, but across the board from bottom to top. I think that's happening. And I do also think that the gap from the U.S. to the like tier right around them,

I do also think that gap is closing. I don't think there's, I don't think that's controversial at all. Teams are putting way more resources into their women's programs, women's leagues. So the development is improving. And absolutely,

at least in the current regime, our tactical execution has left a lot to be desired. And that helps teams to narrow a gap that might otherwise be larger. Yeah. And again, because it's so easy to put so much of this on Vlacho, because again, it's not new. We've been watching this sort of go unaddressed since that summer of 2021, just being like, nope, they're not going to change anything.

They're just going to keep doing the exact same thing every time they take the field. It's hard to know where the instructions and game plans hit our tactical limits and where the player's actual understanding of the game hits its limit. It is. It is hard to know. I think that's what I'm struggling with. I guess the part that I sympathize with is this, I think if I can sort of interpret the zeit guys for a moment, is that the, you know, possession is a good team possession is built on a like a giant foundation, you know, of players who not only have the technical ability to control the ball and make it do, make it do what they want it to do, but also know how to show for each other and move off. the ball. I mean, we've talked about this for years, right? The old Mexico before they went into their current famine was, you know, we always felt like they were like that. There was just like a team-wide competence and understanding that they could move the ball and combine with each other. And we don't have, I mean, we don't have that on the women's national team right now. There was none of that last night. There was no energy to combine. I mean, the off ball movement from players

like Rose Lavelle, Lindsey Horan, you know, generally considered world-class soccer players. Terrible. I mean, like, they're just standing around. And, you know, Sophia Smith and Lynn Williams would receive the ball under pressure on the sideline with their back to the goal. And they would have nobody to pass to. They'd have four red shirts closing in on them and then a bunch of white shirts either running away or standing still.

Yeah, running away, standing still. And even those players who aren't moving well are 25 to 30 yards away from them. I mean, like the nearest triangle is, is, it would actually like demonstrate the curvature of the earth. Like they are really, they are really spaced out. And some of that again, like Alex Morgan is just posting up on the centerbacks. Like that's sort of what she has taken her role to be. Yeah. So again, it just gets really hard to know who's being asked to do that.

And I would love it if they just were of that mode, of that mentality to just be like, no, we got to go, we got to go soccer with our teammates when they have the ball. But I don't know how that hasn't been sort of demanded. and required of them from the manager to be like, no, when we have it here, we need triangles. Like we need to build triangles around the ball in ways that aren't 35-yard passes. And we just, yeah, we just have not seen that. Don't expect that we will see it anytime soon. Okay. Well, yeah, it's very discouraging.

And re-watching the game only made it worse, I think. The other thing is how did they manage to shut us down on the flanks like that? and also overrun our midfield. Like, now, now it's true we did create more chances than them, but like in the sort of like the natural flow of a soccer game, we built nothing,

basically. And Portugal did build some stuff. How did they manage to, they had some kind of four, four, should we do the lineups and then talk about it? Yeah, let's hit the lineups.

All right. So Portugal was in a four, well, I'll do the U.S. lineup first. Aaron goal. It's basically the same thing we've been having, except Williams started for Rodman. So it's Emily Fox, Julie Ertz, Naomi Germa, and Crystal Dunn across the back line.

Andy Sullivan at defensive midfield, Lindsay Horan and Rose Lavelle as the other two midfielder's. And then Lynn Williams replacing Trinity Rodman at right wing, Morgan at Stryker, and Sophia Smith at left wing. Any surprises there? So the question was whether Lavelle had the minutes in her to start? whether she was cleared for it she obviously did um and whether again we were going to continue with the earth centerback uh lineup which we did and then i don't know if it was ever really a question but whether or not it would be morgan up top or whether we would try sof there with williams and uh another winger and obviously flotko is watco thinks morgan's morgan's the answer yeah that

ain't gonna happen we're not i don't think we're gonna well who knows who knows what'll happen but it doesn't seem likely. Portugal was in a 4-4-2 diamond. It was Inish Pereira in goal. Anna Borges, Deana Gomesh, Carol Costa, and Caterina Amado across the backline. Borges was up against Smith the whole night. Kind of pocketed her, if we're honest.

Delora Silva as the base of the diamond in the midfield. Tatiana Pinto and Andrea Norton as the second band of midfielders in Francis, Nazare, as the, I guess, number 10, and then Jessica Silva and Deanna Silva as the two strikers. And I guess what I noticed is whenever we would try to play the ball, so we'd get the ball to one of our fullbacks and then play it to one of the wingers,

we'd have, you know, one of the strikers pinch down and apply pressure. The fullback would pinch up and apply pressure, and then three of the four midfielers would close down on the inside. side. So we just kept running into this dead end on both sides of the field, Smith's side and William's side. And we could not solve it. I mean, that's the, that's the diagnosis right there. And so, you know, we've talked about how our players aren't going to get the ball. Our center midfielers don't run and go get the ball and they're outnumbered. And they're not sort of Rondo merchants anyway for the national team. Right. So we've talked about that before. That's a big

problem is that we just don't have that mentality to go solve a short, the small group problem. We don't even think about the small group problem. That's not how we approach our style of play. And so the other thing, so we already have like that structure built into the national team. And for me, something I feel like I've noticed is in this tournament, we've also gotten really conservative with our fullback positioning. So through all the cycle and the tuneups and the preparation for this, you know, Fox and Dunn or Huerta or whoever it was playing fullback.

would be pretty aggressive getting upfield. And I feel like we have not done that. And in this tournament, I feel like we've been really cautious with them in their positioning. And that's kept us narrow as we get up the field because they're not offering that width. And it keeps us narrow number wise. Like even if Soph does go out wide and get it, that's when you say,

why is she doubled with no help? It's because we normally would have like Sophia pinched in a little bit more with done getting around her on the left side. And that's just not the pattern we're executing in this tournament. So I feel like that's how you can end up outnumbered in both the midfield and on the flanks against a 4-4-2 diamond is because we are not bringing our fullbacks in to create the extra body. So maybe we're just trading some defensive stability for just an absolutely anemic attack? I mean, it really could be that. And it's not necessarily a bad gamble.

Again, you look at what we have allowed against our group stage opponents. and it's very few clear-cut chances. And we have still had the individual attacking ability to create chances without that full-back help. So, I mean, you could just say this is a gamble and we've been a little bit unlucky with our finishing. And so it's felt like a really bad strategy. But I feel like that's still to be determined

if that's what we keep doing in the knockouts. Again, if our finishing kind of reverts even a little bit, we're not in this nervous wreck of a position. Yeah. Okay. There are other reasons that we can be nervous wrecks, but we wouldn't feel like it was so underwhelming attacking-wise. Yeah.

If we had just managed to bundle a couple of those chances across. Well, yeah, and I guess I should, the one positive for me is something you just mentioned, which is just how defensively reliable we've been. I mean, we've, that's a good, that's a good tournament strategy to be good at defense, I think, and not concede a lot of chances. And

that's definitely been the case in all three games. I mean, that's essentially like what 2009, the 2019 team did. Like, we had incredible attacking firepower, but we didn't really play an expansive open attacking style. We were very much like, safe,

get it out wide to Rapino, and Tobin and then and then see what see what can happen. It wasn't like free flowing interchangeing. Like that wasn't really our recipe in 2019 to win the trophy. Okay. Draw some penalty kicks. Right. Set peace goals.

All right. Let's do the timeline. We get right off the bat, we get our best passing sequence of the game. I feel pretty confident about that. It's a kickoff routine where it goes back to, Ertz and then up the right sideline ends up with, you know, like three or four passes to get Lavel down in the corner. And then she crosses it from Morgan, can't get good contact with her head.

But worth noting because I think it was the only significant coordinated passing sequence of the match from the U.S. Also worth noting because it's a nice wrinkle. Like, that's a very intentional thing that we did there. So props to our set pieces or whoever cooked that up because all through the preparation for this World Cup and then through the first two games, our kickoffs were the long. which had also been fairly successful in getting, you know, at least some threat. And so we set up like we were doing that again.

I'm sure everyone to watch the tape on it. So we dropped it back and I think we even did like the big wind up like we were going to do that. And then no, we hit a little disguise pass up the sideline and attacked with three players up the sideline. So kudos for that little for that little playbook. Yeah, maybe we should spend a little less time on our kickoff routines and a little more time on the overall game plan. I don't know. third minute there's a slip pass from Fox to Williams. It's kind of after a scramble,

after one of Sophia Smith's many sort of aimless, whacked balls into the box. But it ends up in a scramble out to Fox. She slips Williams in. Williams is kind of a little slow to recognize the space, honestly, but Fox slips it in for her. And then she fizzes it across the sixth for Morgan. It's actually a pretty good chance.

Morgan gets the outside of her boot to it. tries to flick it in at the near post and a sliding defender, one of the centerbacks, deflects it out for a corner kick. I feel like this has been a theme for a lot of our chances in this tournament is that they end up being on these really narrow angles where we're meeting it beyond the near post. Morgan has another one later. So I mean, our corner kick chances have come from similar. So yeah, that's the space we're going for.

And I don't have much for it. Like, that's, it's, Alex Morgan can do something cool there. So. Yeah. I mean, it might have been on frame. We didn't get a good replay of it. But, um, yeah. Uh, six minute, Horan does somebody down in the left corner and curls a left footed ball at the near post. This is that other one.

Morgan meets it cleanly with her left foot on the volley, but she's, again, way too far inside the near post. And it's a several, several yards wide. Yeah. If you had stacked up a second goal next to the actual goal, uh, I think, I think that would have snuck in. Yep. At the near post of the second goal.

Eight minute, 20 second mark. Portugal has gained a little... So we looked definitely the protagonist in the first opening minutes, but Portugal starts to get a little handle on the game, and they're down in our corner by Dunn, and there's a throw-in, and I think it's a throw-in, and a nice little back heel from Yiska Silva, Silva passed Dunn to Pinto to eliminate Dunn, Smith, and Horan.

Not trying to pile on, but Haran spent a lot of time getting eliminated in this game. Pinto cuts it back for Norton at the top of the box, and it's actually a decent shooting opportunity. She takes it first time and skies it under some pressure from Lynn Williams, so good on Lynn for jumping in and making it a little more difficult. First shot for Portugal on the night. first shot and we did our we did our neer near post watch on this one and uh i regret to inform you that nehr is almost holding on to that near post so uh she's glitching out a little bit because again that this is what her mo is because it had been out on the side on the end line on that right side she gets all the way to that near post which is you know fine but then as it gets

very predictably and uh you know the visual cues are all there for the cut back to the top of the box almost central she does not make up all of the ground round to the center line of that goal. And so, you know, no harm, no foul here as the ball skies over. Yeah, but if she, you know, chips at far post, it's a, it's a goal, basically, right? I mean, or it's with even moderate speed. Any solid contact, any trajectory to the far post would be, would be pretty similar to that Netherlands goal.

Okay. I'm marking this because, do you hear the weed whacker? I do not hear anything. Okay. Maybe it'll stay. Maybe I can noise can. cancel it out. All right.

Thank you for the near post watch. The 930 mark. Silva does a little Robona right in front of Vlako. I just noticed this because they're over, they're sort of pinned against their sideline. Silva and two of her teammates. And they pass right out of it. It's Silva doing a little Robona right in front of Vlako.

And then racing pass Dunn, who is a little sleepy on this in this moment too. It doesn't result in anything. It results in Germa shepherding Deanna Silva out of bounds. But still, it's like they can sort of show for each other and dice us up in a short passing sequence in a way that we didn't do all game, basically. You mean, you just make some triangles. Just find some ways to use your players you have. It's not rocket science.

Build some triangles out there. We didn't do it. We just move after you pass it. We expect the ballback. Actually didn't do it all game. Am I wrong when I say that? No. Like I don't think, I don't remember a single like fluid triangle moment.

Like a slick little rondo to solve a problem. No, it's not what we do. It's, we do a lot of dribbling. We have some good leverage players. But yeah, this is not our, not our thing in this cycle. we've already talked about I guess what's happening on the sideline do you have any other thoughts on that because we keep we just kept losing battles on especially on our left side but you know Silva was beating us in cage matches uh we're just pocketed smith I think that's pretty fair so we keep losing battles on the left side and you know we keep turning it over on the left because we keep going down on the left so it's not like we were doing really poorly on the left and then comparatively doing fine on the right like we know we know we never touched the right side of the field. And ironically, or maybe as a consequence, maybe it's a feedback loop, Portugal stayed on their right side of the field. So the ball was just right in front

of the camera side for the entire half. It was actually crazy. Again, maybe that's partly because we're so narrow. So we have a hard time switching it out once it gets into a spot. It's just locked in for good. Well, I noticed that. Like there were sometimes, I didn't clock them, but there was a time where we were sort of it was pinned on our, you know, on that near side on the broadcast and then it's played to,

it, it, we did play it to Huran. And instead of opening up and finding Emily Fox, who, I mean, eight, nine players for Portugal are on this side of the field. And Hauran,

instead of opening up and hitting Fox, uh, tries to dribble past somebody and loses it. You know, this was somewhere in this portion of the game. And I think it's partly, that's partly on Huran, but,

uh, Lavelle did the same thing with Williams on the other side, where she, you know, instead of opening up and switching the point of attack, she would just play it back to Fox and then Fox would play it back to Williams and then Williams would get dispossessed. And I think it's on both of those midfielders. It's all, it also didn't look like Fox and Dunn. And this maybe goes back to your point. It didn't look like Fox and Dunn were like charged up to, to like to take advantage of that open space. Like every time the ball would go out to them, it'd be like, oh, yeah. And then they'd like run it down to the sideline, gather it, and then we'd sort of start up again. I'm like, what is going on

here? That's exactly like the, again, a visual cue that feels so foreign, right? And feels off is when we would finally be like, oh, we have the giant space to the right sideline and we'd feed what should just be a routine ball out there. Fox would be so far in that the ball would run past her to the sideline and she has to like turn and run to the sideline to get it. Whereas what you're used to seeing is a player with their hips and body open to the field just collecting it while looking up the whole time because you've expanded into your possession shape. And that just was not our possession shape. I'm just laughing because that's what the,

that's what you are just doing right there was sort of the experience. And again, it has been the experience. So if the, it's individual talent doesn't kick on for a game and, or we don't convert the chance that the individual talent does create, uh, this is life for the US women's national team fans.

You're not, you're not going to love the X's and O's, uh, as it's happening. No. We get another good Bell's international soccer Like you can't just

International teams can't just do that anywhere Probably any of them Can't just do what Play great X's no soccer Where everything's fluid And you think three passes ahead And everyone's sort of coordinated Doing the right things at the right times

That's just not a thing that international teams can do This is coming from the greatest Japanese national team fan on the planet See that's why I'm doing good here because the U.S. are through. We're still alive. We can keep doing our thing with our individual players. Plus, for my exes and O stuff, I've got Japan.

I'm good here. I get to watch the optimal soccer going on while I keep watching my team stay alive. Yeah. And I thought, I mean, just to digress for a moment, I know everybody was like, well, Spain sucks or

Spain was no good in that game. I thought Spain, you know, I'm trying to imagine Spain in this game against Portugal. they would have created a lot of triangles and done some stuff, you know, and probably not

given up four goals because I don't think Portugal is nearly as dangerous as Japan on the counter. So, I mean, we got, it's a long road to the final here. It's an awesome road to the final. If we do it, we're going to earn it.

That's what I'm going to keep telling myself because Sweden and then Japan probably and then one of Netherlands, Spain, and then England or Germany or whoever, or France or Brazil waiting for us. Like, you know, just buckle up. Yeah. I might not buckle up.

I might just keep my seatbelt off on Sunday morning and see what happens as we go through the first part of the journey. So we get a chance in the 14th minute. Germa from Deep floats a ball at Morgan. It gets intercepted by, I think, Gomes, and she knocks it back to Horan. And then Haran volleys it over the back line for Smith. Everyone's running away from her. I don't know.

Did you take a screenshot of this to see Smith kind of standing by herself over there? Yes. And here's why I don't have a problem with it. Normally I would, right? Normally I won't soccer. But for me, like, this sequence is what we should be doing since we can't pretend like we're going to be a team that is building out of the back. That's just not our team.

That's not what we're going to do. So we saw it at the end of the Netherlands, too. when we just target it up to Alex Morgan, sometimes she can get a flick on herself, sometimes it'll be a layoff or sometimes it'll be a sloppy clearance from the opponent, which is what we get on this case. And Horan goes to win the second ball.

I mean, it's old school soccer, right? It's not pretty. It's certainly not, wouldn't be considered like modern, but we have to abandon the idea that we are going to be a modern team in this tournament. So this is what I think we could do and get some decent revenue out of. So German just floating it up to Morgan,

hopefully, even though more, Morgan doesn't win it. Horan gets to it and Sophia Smith has a runway. And so we hit Smith into the runway and this is the transition moment. Like I don't need us to go play soccer with Sophia now. This is like the same thing that Japan did really well against Spain was once you get that ball knocked forward, you just go. You just go to the goal and take your best chance at it. So I didn't need us to slow down and send numbers out to Sophia on this one.

It's like she ends up crossing it in, right? So this for me is a fine attack and exactly the kind of pattern we should focus on since we can't do the other stuff well. Okay, Sam Allardyce. Yes. We talked about it, you know, right when we realized, I think it was after our three losses in November last year in a row and thinking like, okay, well, now maybe we'll change up and we'll, you know, have learned things and we'll come, we'll find Jesus. And we absolutely did not. And so it was like, okay, at some point we have to give up on this idea. and we would be better off just playing very direct, hunting packs upfield and go.

And so this is a really decent, dangerous, threatening moment to get that ball up to Williams who could either head for goal, which I don't think she was doing because she was, I think, very clearly cushioning it with her technique. She's trying to cushion it back across from Morgan for tap-in. Perfectly good decision, just a little off on the execution. Not an easy header to get exactly right either. I guess I just think, you know, I mean, it did result in some danger for sure. It was a good ball from Smith.

But I just like, I would like to see when she, you know, pulls up, sort of comes to a stop and cuts back onto her right foot, wouldn't it be nice if there was somebody making a dragging run behind the defender that's facing Smith to sort of make that defender look and maybe Smith can, you know, soccer a little bit more. It's just not that. Maybe the whole situation happened too fast for anybody to join her. But every situation in the entire game happened too fast for anybody to join anybody. Yeah, that's what it would have been. The only player who could have joined who didn't would have been Horan in this case, I think. So we're not going to get Horan making that, making that she's not winning a hundred meter race. Yeah, not on the regular at least.

So LaVelle got up there and we ended up with three in the box against Portugal's two and a half. So this is where I'm like, that's everything here is fine for me. And if Sophia hadn't crossed it, then I would have. wanted to just try to skin the one defender in front of her and create a scramble moment more in the manned city zone. I feel like those were sort of the two two choices. And again, I wish we would be doing more of that exact pattern, even though it's sloppy and ugly and whatever. Why didn't we do more? It didn't seem like we played to Morgan's head coming back to the ball as much as we did against the Netherlands, especially in the second half of that game against the Netherlands. Why didn't we do more of that? I guess I'd say it's because we are an incoherent mess from the top down.

Fair enough. I mean, no disagreement here. All right. So 14 minute mark, I just clocked that Williams is running into the same problem as Smith. On the other sideline, I kind of described this play already, but it was, we play it to her, with a player on her back on that sideline, two defenders to her right. She does manage to find Lavelle's feet, but Lavelle can't switch the point of attack or doesn't try to. She plays it back to Fox.

Fox doesn't try to change the point of attack. She plays it back to Williams. So we have a little triangle, but it's sort of a dead end triangle. And then Williams gets crowded off the ball and Portugal is off into the attack, into the attack, kind of a decent AVP, you know, like a decent running at the backline moment and they just play it through. I can't remember which player it was played through ball. That was way too heavy.

Yeah, they take our little Rondo moment, but we're 3V4 and turn it into their little Rondo moment of like 2 v2 and actually do kind of do Horan and Sullivan in the 2v2 version of but to create that AVP. Sullivan and Iran, like you've said, have a tendency to get eliminated. But despite that, for all three of these games, again, don't know if it's just flawless play from a back line. Teams are struggling to turn those into clear-cut chances. Yeah, that's true. It's good.

It's the small bit of silver lining here. A big chance for Portugal at the 15-minute mark. It's that, which we referred to earlier, that pass up the gut from Carol Costa. it eliminates the, you know, the front three very easily and then also splits Haran and Sullivan. Nazare picks it up in Zone 14 in miles of space and plays a very nice ball in behind for Silva, Yaska Silva, who's cutting in past Dunn, who is ball watching and gets absolutely left for dead.

Silva, like I said earlier, kind of drags it wide, maybe panics a little bit, doesn't get the shot off that she wanted. But that's a really good scoring opportunity for Portugal. So I'll say it's a really good incisive movement. I feel like the scoring opportunity isn't as good as you're making it out to be. What if she just takes another touch and then she's what she would have needed to do. But you can tell she is, she is hearing footsteps. You can tell her body language.

She's like, she's turtling up the entire time. She's receiving it. Yeah. That's a credit to Germa and how quickly she can close that down. And also, again, just a reminder that Portugal's players aren't quite at our players level. If maybe, maybe that's not fair since we didn't exactly look ruthless in our chances that we did get. But the buildup. Yeah, if that's Mal Swanson, she's scoring two goals on that play.

The buildup to this one is, is not a good moment for us. And again, the silver lining is it's not happening to us over and over again. But this is pretty similar to the Netherlands opener in that we aren't putting any pressure on the ball as they're moving around their back line. Williams and Morgan had switched at some point. So Williams was sort of the lead defender and Morgan was split out wide right. And I don't know if there's just sort of confusion about what their jobs are in this configuration. But we end up with Lavelle stepping up to pressure their centerback with to get on the same line as Lynn Williams. So it creates a split between those two, and we're down a center midfielder now,

and we're relying on Horan and Sullivan to find the right gaps to occupy to prevent this sort of entry pass, and they just do a really bad job of it. Sullivan probably closer to the right spot than Horan, but they leave a wide open window, and Portugal exploit it really well, identify it, hit it, and then really nice technique to who hits it, who hits it, Nazareth. Yeah, Nazar. Yeah. So she does really well to collect it, sort of kill it dead,

and then quickly turn and efficiently get it into her attacking player's feet. And again, it takes that level of efficiency to do it. But we're going to play teams in the knockouts that will do this. So if we're going to be nervous, it's about, I think it is, but this is what it's about. It's about that midfield two and how well they can protect our backline. Plus, we're nervous about an error. I'm nervous about pretty much everything

but I don't have Japan to fall back on the way you do emotionally you know I don't have the same feeling for them 21 minute mark Smith turns gorgeous so one of the few times she gets a little we get a little bit of forward momentum down that left side and then instead of finding a meaningful pass and it did seem like she had Iran running in the channel inside of her she just waxed off a CB a centerback

and it just felt like she never could get into a rhythm out there. And that is not, that's also not unusual for Sophia Smith playing wide for us. Like the tapes, the tape of her smashing it into the shins of the defender in front of her, as she has room to do some soccer stuff, is long through this cycle. And, you know, again, not to sort of beat this over and over, but she's, she's not really a winger. She is a striker. And, I mean, she's capable of doing some really cool things out there on the wing,

especially sort of dancing by people. but she's not a winger. This isn't this isn't really her position. I mean, from my point of view, I mean, why not? May as well try it, you know? Like, nothing is working. Like, things aren't working this way. But I don't think Velako sees it that way.

He doesn't, he seems to be much more placid and unconcerned about this. And again, this also strikes me as wild, right? Like, the fact that trying the most dominant striker in the NWSL, I mean, an outlier in dominance at strike. is thought of as like a last resort. Yeah. If it's even thought of as that by Vlako. Let's see.

We learn at about this point in the game that the Dutch are up four zero over Vietnam. So, you know, winning the group pretty much becoming impossible as the game goes on. 27th minute, we get a good chance for the USA. It's a throw in from Dunn on the left side. And they're attacking in their defensive third. She throws it to Morgan. Morgan kind of slips by Gohmsch and then dribbles around the corner past her and tries to cut it back. It falls, it ultimately falls to Williams who pokes it over the goal.

Did she get two bites at it? She does. So we end up kind of with three bites because Morgan smashes it, you know, at a nice angle back. And originally Portugal's player puts it at her own goalkeeper. So her goalkeeper pauses that away. and Williams reacts quickest to it and gets under it a little bit but hits it right back into the keeper

and then it falls right back to her again and that's when she hits it over. There's traffic, there's bodies like she's lunging for it. So it's not like a super embarrassing moment but these are two really good chances for Lynn Williams and we need one of the nerds who listens to this podcast to tell us how the XG in this scenario is calculated because I'm nearly certain you don't get to add them.

Like you don't add both of Lynn Williams' chances to the total. But I've heard that you just take, this is important. What, Bells, don't, don't roll your eyes like it's important to get to the bottom of this. I, I've heard, I think, that you just take the better chance, which seems like the wrong way to calculate it to me, because obviously getting two chances means you were more likely to score than if you just had the one lone better chance. So I feel like there's got to be some kind of like calculate the probability of failing to convert both and then subtract that from one. But we're going to need one of the nerds to clarify how this, how this adds up in the

models. Yeah. Get, get, get, get, get, get, get, get out of nerds. Because that would have been a lot of constellation had Portugal converted their chance and knocked us out to, to know that this was a better chance than the math models had. Well, the way it has, it is on the on the, on the XG stair stearsteper graphic is just one shot. And it's a big, but it's a big jump.

but we jump from about half a goal to 1.25. So like it looks like about 0.7 XG in this moment. I mean, it is right in front of the goal. And the 38th minute, LaVelle gets a yellow card. She's trying to win the ball in midfield. Looking a little like she's running underwater. Not as bad as Horan, but not quick to second balls in general. And she kind of, she runs into somebody's legs from behind.

And I don't know. Some people were upset that it was a yellow, but whatever. Yeah, it's whatever. And it feels like a lot of our players at this point are like trying too hard. That makes sense. Like everyone's frustrated. And this is the danger of, of these games is we're frustrated. And so we're overtrying on an individual level.

It's not like we over-try to like a lot of times a message from a manager might be to just focus on doing the easy things right. Keep doing the easy things. But a player's tendency is sometimes the opposite where it's like, I'm going to just do everything right now. I'm going to make that. Yeah, let me, let me, that reminds me of something I want to say about the broadcast. You know, everybody, half of the discourse about the game is about how bad the Fox broadcast is and commentators are and stuff. And I do, I did find, you know, when Carly Lloyd talks about like a lack of heart or something or a lack of desire to win, I don't know what she's talking about. Like, it looks like they're trying really hard, you know, and looks like they're trying really hard.

But I did really appreciate some of Allie Wagner's comments because she kept saying that as they came out at, after the first half, at the beginning of the second half, they need to find a way to create some small groups to play with each other. And she said that like several times. And that is exactly, I think, what the problem was. And so kudos to Ali Wagner for, I think, nailing that. Ali's probably the best soccer commentator in the U.S., best English commentator that I listen to on a regular basis.

She does not, she's not an ex-G disciple the way I think the nerds would like her to be. but um 39th minute uh nazaree last one over just simple as you like for her to receive in that same pocket that she received the pass in earlier this one from a shorter distance out to our right um done has to release from sylva out wide to put any kind of pressure on her because sullivan is back holding hands with her hurts on the back line and um you know luckily nazare hits it way over the goal but what in the hell like why Sullivan on the back line.

What is going on here? And this is, we picked up on this in the Dutch game too. There are some weird positioning quirks from Sullivan where she's been dragged somewhere that you just wouldn't expect. And I don't know if we just take it for granted or if it just happened to show up more on the tape than in any defensive mid we play would have that issue. But yes, this didn't make any sense. Like, it was coming right off that set piece after Lavelle,

was cautioned. So this, so I don't know if, but, but it's not like Portugal set up and, you know, had everybody at field. Like they just played short and possessed and ended up just hitting, uh, Nazareth in that wide open pocket of space. So yes, inexplicable positioning from Sullivan and the two centerbacks. Ultimately not all that dangerous. It turned out, but yeah, still, um, happened, happened off screen. So again, like literally could have been like down tying her shoe or something was like surprised when that's because that's how far out of position she was. Yeah. right before half in the 47th minute. So in stoppage time, we have a corner kick that drifts across,

and Ertz plays it back to Fox, and then Fox plays it back to Germa, and then Germa floats it into the box. Williams brings it down and has one on frame, kind of on the volley. It's a pretty good shooting opportunity. She had a lot of the goal to shoot out. She had a defender closing in from her left, but she hits it right at the keeper, just like she did with those earlier chances. She might have hit it with her hand to bring it down.

Like it might have hit her arm to bring it down. I do think actually VAR might have come in and said, no, that's not a goal because it's a handball. So, yeah, and VAR might have done that. They might also, I think maybe caught Morgan for knocking somebody over in the buildup to it. Oh, really? But, I mean, I'll move.

Moop point, yeah. So then it's the half. And we come back out. No changes. Alarms are going off in the stadium, literally. like a smoke alarm or something which just seemed like what a great metaphor for the U.S. Right.

And I haven't read any of the reports from the journals who are there but I have to imagine at least a couple of them made good use of that alarm bells in their lead. Wove that in, yep. I think Henry Bushnell did actually based on one of his tweets. I haven't read his article yet. Um, the Smith, Smith giveaways are kind of coming regularly out there. I guess it could be, it's a combination of nobody combining with her and her not being a winger,

but she's dribbling into dead ends. She doesn't have ideas. And I'm, at this point, I'm feeling kind of embarrassed that I kept saying she was one of the best, like maybe the best attacker in the world. So, and she's going to come off pretty soon. So I'll just do this now. I have no idea what to make of it. Like we have been talking our up like crazy as this, you know, super dangerous player,

but she also is playing out of position. And so, you know, when she ends up coming off, I'm like, this, it still feels crazy to me. We don't have a good coherent plan. We are relying entirely on like individual skill breaking through and set pieces. And Sophia Smith is one of the most dangerous individual attacking players in the pool, if not the most dangerous now that Swanson's out. Yeah. And so it remains nuts to me that we just keep using her wide.

And when that doesn't work, we took her off the field. Because in my head, I'm like, imagine Australia Trot and Sam Kerr out as like an outside midfielder. And then when it's ineffective being like, well, this experiment's over, time to get her off the field. Like at some point, we have to try to use this dominant striker at Stryker when we're struggling to score a goal. Yeah. That's just me. This is me spitballing. No.

I mean, it's hard to argue with. One thing that occurred to me last night and I'm still thinking about it is so maybe, maybe. Smith is good against, you know, lesser opponents and lesser competitions and at Portland, where she's just surrounded by talent, like, uh, Hina Sugita, Kina Sugita, who is a fantastic Japanese midfielder and midfielder slash winger, and then, uh, Christine Sinclair, and she's got Sam coffee in the midfield. And they, you know, they, they do all kinds of triangling, and then it's just out to Smith and she scores a goal, you know? And, um, you know, maybe Maybe she needs that supporting cast like that.

And she doesn't get it with the national team in a tough game. So there is, there definitely is some of that. But I still think the variable that you have to at least try first is playing her as a winger instead of a striker. Because there are also, there are also times where Sophia Smith totally creates the chance herself out of nothing. And again, when that seems to be the actual approach of our national team is to see if somebody can create a chance out of nothing. it seems crazy to me to not play a player who can do that in that spot. And again, like, I mean, she's the outlier. She's why Portland's, she's at least part of why Portland's stats are absurd.

Like you don't just say, well, she's playing for the best attack in the league. It's like, yes, but she is a huge part of why it's the best attack in the league. Yeah. No, it's true. And I think it's obviously true that the first step should be to player at Stryker. That makes all the sense in the world, great. And I'll still jump in and say, looks Morgan hasn't been like bad.

She hasn't been a shambles out there whatsoever. She's created some things. But I still think that we have to at least check this out. And I also think it will add to what we would be able to do defensively with a higher, more aggressive, more pressing line that can chase a little bit more than what we can do with Morgan, certainly more than what we can do with Morgan and Rapino on the field at the same time. But let's continue with the time.

Yeah. I just have bad news. I just don't think it's going to happen, you know. 54th minute Lindsay steps to pick off a pass in the middle Just a lazy pass from the left side from Portugal into the middle She steps drives forward And then one of those rare or the rare occasions in the game She plays a good through ball for Alex Morgan

Who's kind of making a run from left to right in behind I mean rare occasions for us as a team of like a dangerous decision made in the final third Morgan tries to round the keeper and sneak it in But it's blocked by gomsch at the near post out for a corner. And so this is actually a perfect time because I just talked about Morgan not being the player who can chase. She was chasing on this play.

This is how we created this turnover in part. Morgan is chasing a centerback with the ball. They played out wide. Lynn Williams chases aggressive. Like, again, we're hunting here, forces Portugal to cut in with the ball under pressure and then tries to hit a ball that they shouldn't hit. And Horan intercepts it. And again, if we can't soccer with the ball, then we should be trying to create more

chances like this. Hunt, chase, like high turnovers and then run at them. So again, this, this for me is, this is repeatable. We can get chances like this. We can create these,

uh, turnovers, especially even as we play better teams who will want more of the ball. Uh, like we actually have a decent chance of doing this. Yeah. I mean, we can also start to move off the ball a little bit as a team too.

You're getting so greedy, Bell. You want to have everything. 57-minute mark Lavelle steps in the middle and takes the ball, similar to the situation with Horan earlier. Drives into zone 14, the area right in front of the box. And it's a 4v3, and she tries to poke it out to Smith and just, I don't know, mishits it, plays it out of bounds.

Wasteful, not good. Lavelle has been really hard on Sophia Smith so far in this episode. I thought Rose Lavelle was very not good in this game. Yeah, I mean, she wasn't great and she's suspended for the round of 16 match. So I think we're going to get Demello, I imagine. So we'll see if it's a big draw. It's not a world beater. I don't think DeMello's like, you know, she's not a talent on the level of Lavelle,

but she provides some pitch control, I think. You know, and that's a good point. You know, when we were talking about those giant triangles that we form, because, you know, technically any three players not in a line form a triangle. Math. Lavelle is often so far away, and I don't think that's Domello's M.O. at all. I think DeMello wants the ball. So I think almost just by that personnel change, I do think overall there's a drop-off in talent,

but that's like peak Rose Lavelle, and I don't think we have peak Rose Lavelle right now. So I'm not that worried about Lavelle not being available. I'm not either. I mean, I'm worried that Lavelle isn't the level we wish she was for the duration of this tournament, and hopefully she improves throughout. you know again from what we are getting from her to de me isn't that that steep of a drop yep and then we see we get the news that megan ripino the visual evidence that megan ripino is warming up so your whole idea about her getting a testimonial against vietnam gone man this so like i said

a lot of what we are doing in this tournament is not a surprise like the way we play uh the frustrating possession, not a surprise. So that hasn't really changed my like sort of rating of our chances in the tournament. Vlatko thinking that Megan Rapino is like the actual key feature substitute

does change where I put us in the tournament. Because I think this hurts us. Like I think this hurts us a lot that it's Rapino coming on for Smith and not even Alyssa Thompson, the child. Like I think the child would add more threat. 100% she would add more threat. Lisa Thompson is the is a combined We talked about this too.

She likes to combine. And she is rapid. It's so fast. So you think about that press that we were talking about where we just got a chance from Iran getting on the end of a turnover and then LaVelle. Like a front three with two players of Alex Morgan after 70 minutes and Megan Rapino is not a ball hunting aggressive front three anymore. Yeah, I was so frustrated.

after Rapino came on that, I almost have no timeline items after she comes on the, on the field. I can imagine what a lot of them will be if you're, if you're watching it with a frustrated eye towards Megan Rapino. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to,

I'm not going to pile on. She's a, she's a legend for the team, but it is crazy that we get to, you know, Columbia gets Linda Cicado and our, our player, Alyssa Thompson doesn't get to play so that 37 year old Megan Rapino

can whiff on a volley in the 90, 92nd minute. I mean, like, what in the, Dickens is going on here. I'll just, I just want to be fair here. Rapino, despite like several poor choice, poor execution instances, does hit a nice ball.

Am I jumping way too far ahead in the timeline? No, no, I mean, we might as well go right to it. She hits a ball in that curls right around Portugal centerback, and the centerback goes to ground thinking she can play it and doesn't. And Alex Morgan is kind of in on goal in the 90th minute. and then Morgan, you know, who has been running for 90 minutes, somewhat running, she gets a chance from a tight angle and blast it over. That's the one you're talking about with her left foot.

Yep. Yeah, there was a blind switch from Pino in our defensive third in the 76th minute that nearly launched a counter. She did a lot of kind of reckless ball playing from wide. But yeah, she did have that good through ball in the 91st minute. Let's go straight to the Portugal chance. It's Pinto,

Pinto, floating a ball at the back line. And then there's two subs on for Portugal who combined for this moment. It's Telma Encarnasau, who rises and flicks it behind German Ertz. It's a lovely flick. It's perfect. And for Ana Capeta, who is another sub,

and Capeta just rips it off the near post. Neyer was beat. Lucky for us, still zero, zero. And as everybody's been joking, the MVP of the game for the U.S. was the goalpost. Because that, you know, that goes in. That's two inches to the left in it, and we're going home. We're on a plane this morning.

And you got to let your, you have to let your brain go there and be like, what would that be like? So we have three centerbacks at this point, right? Sonom just come in to play third centerback. Yeah, Sonnet came on for Iran because we're like, well, we're definitely not scoring here. Let's just bunker and play for the draw. And we still manage to let them behind us.

So, you know, this is poorly played by the centerbacks. And I don't know if I don't want to put this on Germa because Germa is a treasure. But as this ball's floating up, if Eertz is the one stepping to it, like, Germa and Sonet both need to retreat quickly. And we don't quite get there in time, like obviously. So, you know, It is okay to say that Germa did something wrong. It should mostly be on Sonnet.

Like, Germa's coming from the wrong side. So even if she'd done it right, she'd still be trying to clean up Sonnet's mess for not getting deeper sooner. But like fractions of seconds matter. And so Germot was a little bit slow to do her retreating. And then, you know, when the shots taken, she ends up direct like right on the hip of the player. So you can see how going a fraction of a second sooner would make a, would make a difference here. And I'm more concerned about Germa because Germa is going to be the one playing 90 minutes against Sweet. not Emily Sonnet.

Yeah. I mean, Germa has been fantastic in this tournament. She's like perhaps the lone bright spot in the whole tournament. Okay. But yes, definitely. I'm not. But as I was saying, let your mind go there. What were you feeling as this happens after watching us and being frustrated with us for 90 minutes?

And let's be honest, for like the entire cycle in our ideas and our style, as we were about to get knocked out in this ball. has left the shooter's foot and you see it beyond, beyond a listener before it's hit the post. Like, what is, what's your emotion at this moment? I hesitate to say it, but I mean, there is, there was a part of me that hoped it would go in. Because, you know, I don't think we're going to go all the way. And I want to see that self-satisfied complacency wiped off of Lacko's face. and I just like no none of these performances has done it so we just like knocking us out of the World Cup is the only thing that can do it so there's there's no hope for us to be like a fun soccer team to watch for this tournament so that's my excuse

but there was a part of me who that was like too bad that didn't go in because we deserve it but ultimately I'm happy we advance yeah I'm not I'm not an asshole I don't think there's anything I feel like that's a thing. And for me, it's not even necessarily about, like, you know, Vlako needs to be taken down a peg. It's just like, again, I talk about the sports justice of it all. And we outplayed Portugal in this match, right? We had more

chances. So just looking at it, if you're looking at it in a vacuum of two, you know, who performed better, we probably did on the balance of play. But we should, because we have the history we have, and Portugal's history is not that. And it's like, the sports justice is like, Portugal is getting

more out of their team than we are getting out of ours. So if they do everything right that they possibly can and then get their moment to execute and do it, it'd be like, good for them. Like, well done. And, you know, you talk about the scale of it. Like, we cheer for up, humans cheer for upsets all the time. So you can get caught up in that, even when it's your favorite team. And for us, this is the only time it can be a huge upset at a World Cup, because the men's team is never going to be such a favorite that, like, there would be this earth-shattering upset at a World Cup, whereas it's only possible for us for the women's team.

Yeah. It's not going to be that way for the men, at least for a couple centuries, I would imagine. Yeah. So this doesn't have to be like, I want to be proven right about, you know, who should have been playing or anything else. It can just be like, almost just out of like appreciation for what Portugal have done through this 90 minutes and 55 seconds against, you know, Goliath. There's a reason that people would cheer for David.

I do appreciate your magnanimity, but I had none of those feelings. Mine was all pettiness. Let's see. Well, because the other thing is if we go out to Sweden now, it's going to be boring. Like, Sweden's good. We could go out to them and then it's just like, oh, well, that was a boring exit and we're disappointed. This would have been, like, at least spectacular. Yeah.

Like, I want that comet to explode in the atmosphere. I don't want it to just, like, harmlessly graze the earth and keep going on its way. And we never see it again. Right. Does that make sense? Is that an analogy? It does make sense. I just, I,

I, yeah. I don't want this character to die off screen. Like I want it. Right. No, I mean, it, it,

it felt in the moment like it was, uh, I don't know, fate was just so close to, you know, real, being realized and then it wasn't. And,

um, but, you know, it was, it was an emotional time for me at 4.30 in the morning today. The only other thing, uh, I think, I thought Rodman,

Rodman did come on and, um, for, who did she come on for? Williams. And I thought she was a little, she was a little disappointing when she came on, like didn't really,

didn't really provide much. And then we have the, in the 95th minute, Neyer, uh, flapping out a set piece. That just goes all the way through. So even after Portugal,

I mean after Portugal nearly scored, Neyer made it possible for them to nearly score again. Um, going on a, Zach Stephan-esque walkabout. It's a bad one. I mean, it's a really,

really bad one, isn't it? This isn't like she goes up and, like, you know, can't quite get there because a body hits her at the last second.

Like, she goes and she is nowhere close. She gave herself the old Lindsay Horan, just eliminated herself from the play. The goal is vacant. She probably, her going probably like confuses our centerbacks a little bit, uh,

about what they should be trying to do. And any, any touch, not even, not even a good one. Any touch towards the friend. and once again we would be eliminated from the World Cup. Yeah, you could totally see that hitting one of our players' thighs and just trickling across the line.

I mean, again, I got to, she's a liability and I'm not sure exactly if Flotco sticks with her probably does. It'd be, I mean, it'd be the end of her if we switch at any point. You wouldn't switch and then never come back to her again. Like she'd be. Yeah. That'd be her testimonial. We'll see. Thompson and O'Hara come on in the 97th minute.

So finally we get some Melissa Thompson basically as a time wasting sub. I don't know. I'm done. Sunday at 5 a.m. we face Sweden. You got to reset. You have to reset because, again, there is no rhythm to this team. Tomorrow's new day and it will be the same, which has the potential for explosive attack. It's not going to be fluid, but it can be.

explosive. And I mean, if we score an early goal against Sweden and then we, they're, you know, they're sort of drawn up and then we have all kinds of space to work with in the, in their, in their half, you know, maybe we have, maybe we have some fun on Sunday morning. Who knows, but it doesn't feel fun today. We're still at the party, bells. The party, the party is still going. We're a little queasy. We've maybe had a little too much, but we can rebound. I'm like that, You know, that meme with like the guy standing by the door saying they all don't know. People at the party don't know how few triangles we make. That's how I feel.

But, you know, yeah, I'll be there. We'll be, we'll be watching on Sunday morning. We'll recap that as soon as we can afterwards. Anything else, Greg? I think we're okay. And I mean that not just you and you and I think we're going to be okay for. You think we're going to beat Sweden? I don't know.

Yeah, I can't say that. Again, I wasn't even, I was on Woso with Joey the day before this in Portugal game. And I was just like, there was a little bit of talk of would we be able to get the goal difference to win the group? And I was like, I don't know that we, I don't know that we win the game. This is our team. And we don't, can I just run through the analogy? I know you're ready to go. But go for it. Yeah. The analogy I have here, and I'm going to use Japan, of course. We already talked about Portugal just getting more from their players. I am extremely confident that in every game Japan play from here on out, they are going to be set up to get as much from their players as they can for that opponent, for that game. They're going to squeeze all the juice they can out of the talent they have. And we just will not do that. I'm very confident that we will not even come close to that.

And so it just comes down to, do we have just enough juice, in the talent where we don't need it all. That's what it's all going to come down to is we can definitely lose to Sweden, but we can run through four knockout games in Win a World Cup. Yeah, that's it. Two quick announcements. You mentioned Woso. Woso Daily is a podcast being put on by young Joey from the scuff Discord.

Hats off to him for making this happen. And it's a good way to keep up with what's going on in these games that often happen while we're all asleep. And then we've got WOSO Wednesday coming up tomorrow with Tara and Vince, which should be, I think, really fun, full of energy. Other thing is join our Patreon. The link is in the show notes. You get the Monday review, which is about the men's national team,

and you get our full interviews, and you just get to support us being an ad-free podcast, which is a fact. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.