Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #496: USWNT v South Korea recap (Commerce City edition)

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

Greg and Belz recap the 4-0 win over a non-threatening but reasonably well-organized South Korea side. Mal Swanson is fully back, the ladies are playing soccer at pace with the ball on the deck, and while it wasn't anywhere close to perfect, the Emma Hayes process seems like something we can trust.———Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and our full catalog of historic recaps, plus right of first refusal on our next Scuffed trip to Europe: 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, Greg, how you doing? Boots on the ground in Commerce City. Oh, but what'd you think? I was doing great. It was a blast to watch the gals playing for Emma. It would have been nice if they'd been able to be playing for Emma forever ago, but it's still good to be doing it now with a little lead-up into the Olympics. It does feel like, what have we been doing this whole time?

You know, so last episode when we talked about the roster and some of the new faces, and it was like, would it have mattered if Emma was here, you know, six months ago? And to get some of these new faces on, no, I don't think it would have. But now that we're seeing the team in action, I mean, it definitely would have helped to have been, to have started this process, you know, seven games ago. Every game, I think, is going to matter. And the more we have, the better. I still think we're in a good, we were looking good.

What about 30 games ago? You know, why not, right? Like, had we decided not to keep Vlachau on, you know, in late 2022, I feel like that could have been late 2021. Yeah. Like, we could have, we could have snagged Emma Hayes, an MAAs. And, you know, one of the things we'll get into is like, you also don't have to have the MAs, right? Right. Does it have to be her?

Is she the only one capable? No, she's total overkill. It's awesome that we did it. And I mean, why not? Again, if she'll say yes, you get her. Yeah. No, no, it's not like, oh, if we had had anyone else, we couldn't be doing any of the things we're doing.

But you feel really good knowing that the team is in the hands of M. Hayes. At least for now, again, this is one game against South Korea we're talking about. Oh, yeah, and it wasn't perfect at all. But the process, right? The plan. Yeah, the process. There's a lot of talk from Emma and from Lindsay Horan's press conference after the game is also a good watch, I would say. A lot of talk about lots of new information.

You know, we're working on it. Actually, let me play a couple of clips from Hayes because I think they set the tone pretty well. In terms of what I'd asked from the group, what we'd prepared for, The execution of that, we've made steps in the right direction. I felt for the first 30 minutes, there was technical execution where we struggled. We scored in our first three chances, so we were efficient, we were clinical. We were controlled from there on in. Second half, players coming in, added value.

And all round, like I'm really happy with a first person. performance and it's just, you know, one step in the right direction. And let me play one more clip. This is in response to a question from Stephen Goff, which was like, it was sort of a silly question, are you relieved at the end of the game? And she says, no, that's not how I think about things. I'm just, I'm happy to be doing what I love with a bunch of players who are really good. And then she said this.

Want to coach this group. And they want to be coached. And I think you can see we're building something. There's lots of work to do. There's lots of holes in our play. No question, but it was a good start. So that's the tone from Emma, you know, not triumphant at all. Just, you know, we got a lot of work to do.

And it does seem true that we have a lot of work to do. Yeah, 100%. And it goes back to, you know, another thing that we kind of anticipated, knowing that Emma was coming in was that Emma or any coach who was coming in. would watch the team playing. You'd watch it on TV and be so eager to take these very obviously talented players and like fix some of the very what appeared to me to be fixable issues that we've been having. And you would be like, yes, roll the sleeves up.

Let's get on the field. Let's get on the training field. Let's do these things. Which goes back to, I think so many of the things are fixable. And it also goes back to like an extra seven to ten games. We would have fixed more things. So there will be that kind of hanging over us going into the Olympics. But it's good that it is good that we're doing this now.

Yeah, for sure. The process, as it appears to be playing out right now, is one that's sort of easy to trust, as they say. I mean, I guess I'll just be explicit about what I liked. We were, I mean, even more than in some of the previous games with Emma as sort of the shadow coach and Twyla as the one on the touchline, even more than in those games, which I thought were kind of encouraging, we were really trying to play with the ball on the deck,

trying to find people between the lines and then find feet. And I loved that. Like she said, the technical execution wasn't that great, especially early in the game. But the intent was there very clearly. Yeah, super easy to spot. Again, it was easy to spot in the stadium. I had bad angles for it.

We were kind of like field level almost. Oh, it's the worst. It's the worst. I know, like I'm complaining about it because, you know, from a tactical view, you love that overhead look, right, way up high. But when I'm like, my wife likes to go to these games too, and she likes the, like the adrenaline that you get from being right next to the players. Yeah, I can see that.

So they're both awesome experiences, just different kinds and what you can kind of glean in one viewing. But then on TV, it's clear, too. Like, the distances, that's what I was key on. In the attacking third, the distances between players in which kind of passes we're trying to pick out, right? So there were so many more short passes, two feet, two players in the box. When, you know, we'd get the ball wide. And what we'd grown accustomed to for the past four years was you get it wide. As soon as someone can get their plant foot down and drive it into the box, that's what we're doing.

And that just is no longer the case, which I view is. already very good progress. I don't want to dwell on the negative too long here, the negative in the past. Sure. But what, is that how Vlako thinks you're supposed to play soccer? Like, what is, what happened? What is going on?

I don't know. Because, like, now he's coaching the best team in NWSL. I'm not an expert on how they play, but, I mean, I'm like, why wasn't, why wasn't this addressed long time ago? I don't know. I don't know if it's just something that sort of like snowballs where like you start to do it. And then it's just so easy.

Like it's, you know, we've all played in before the, before the like anti, I mean, basically before the Barcelona revolution, right? It felt, it feels good to like run onto a ball that somebody put down the corridor for you down the channel and like in stride and get a good swing and drive a ball into the box. And like it just wall a bit. It feels good to do that. It feels dangerous. Like anyone could run onto this. Even the other team could put it into their own goal. And so it's one of those things that feels like the right thing to do.

And then, you know, we've just come a long way and knowing that percentage-wise, it's just really inefficient. Particularly if you are the team with all of the good attacking players. Yeah. Players who can soccer their way through it to use a Velasquezism. Well, I'll do the lineups. Let's start with that. Jane Campbell and goal. got her eighth cap

I think a lot of sickos were excited to see her get her chance maybe even you know more casual fans were too but she she didn't have a lot to do but she I thought she looked pretty good I'll continue with the line

well since you paused I'll jump in after you stop the pause and now I'll do it awkwardly it's another one of those things where I don't know you know there's two games so maybe there's just always a plan to split but it might be that that Ember thinks Campbell the number one, which is just another one of those reminders

that when you do bring in a new coach, there are tons of positions that could be, the depth chart could be completely turned upside down. It doesn't seem like we're going crazy here, given the rest of the lineup. No. But that is always a possibility that at some spot, it's just like the new coach just might not see

this, you know, a player who's been a staple at all, like be factoring in. Right. And we do have this sort of odd interim period. in the rear view where Emma was, we think, oh, and I think very clearly it was picking the lineups. And so it's not going to be a big shift from the lineups that she was picking a couple, you know, a few weeks ago.

So anyway, okay, Campbell and Goal, Fox, Emily Fox, Naomi Germa, Tierna Davidson and Jenna Nysewanger across the back line. No big surprise there. Coffee and Horan and Macario in the midfield, although we do need to talk about how the midfield set up because it was kind of interesting. And then Rodman, Smith, and Swanson across the front line. Now, you correct me if I'm wrong, Greg,

but I think basically it was a box in possession midfield, where coffee and Horan were the sort of a double pivot. And then Macario and Swanson sort of functioned as the two tens. And then you get Rodman out wide right, Nyes Wonger providing the width out left, and then Smith up front. although, you know, I wouldn't say she was like pinned to the back line. No, not at all.

And it's, we saw this, I'd say we saw pretty similar in she believes. And it was basically just Shaw for Macario. Because, yeah, Shaw was the midfielder, but then it was still Swanson in her like, come back from injury. Swanson was the one who would pinch in, which I didn't know, I didn't know if we would see that. Because Swanson doesn't like immediately strike. He was like, oh, she's going to come in and be at 10. She could easily operate as more of like a line-hugging winger. but that's what she did in She Believes.

So this was, I think, really similar to the She Believes style and game plan, where, yeah, we kind of adopt that 325 with coffee and Horan in the early stage of the buildup, sitting deeper and being the first outlet. Macario, maybe more likely than Shaw had been and certainly more likely than Lavellhood is as that third midfielder to rotate back to be an outlet, not to go all the way back to take the ball off the centerback's feet, but she'll drop a little deeper, I think, in the line than what we usually had seen from Shaw.

Okay. I'm not saying that's why she's preferred. It could just be that, you know, she's preferred. I'm not sure. That was the big, that was the other big kind of like, would you call it a surprise? No, Shaw in the starting lineup? Yeah. Although it's, I mean, it is an age, it's becoming an age-old dilemma.

There's just too many talented players in that, you know, front six. somebody's going to be out. I'm not sure it should be Shaw, but we'll see. Because when Shaw came on, she slid into the Swanson role, and Swanson slid into the number nine role. Yeah, in Levelle. Yeah, Levelle played as the sort of nominal central midfielder, but one of the tens.

Although there were some tweaks there, too, that we'll discuss when we get into that stage of the game. Okay. The South Korea lineup, this was not a, this is not a very not a threatening at all team uh with the ball and um you know not particularly didn't look particularly good but um kim jeng mi and go unyung lee hong he jiji and yunagao across the back line of the nominal three four three and then kang chai rim chosohohun Li Yongju and Chu Hiojo

Chiuhu as the band of four So Chiu number 22 Just had a Long, long, long day Long, long afternoon In the Sun out there Against Rodman

And against Dunn Yeah, and it was warm out there South Korea again Is not a very good team But they are sort of like Again, again, baseline organized.

baseline competence about them. They went out in the group stage of the World Cup in 2023, but they only gave up one goal in the tournament. I'm sorry, they only scored one goal in the tournament. They only conceded four, though. So it's not like they just get run through. And this was against teams that were pretty

desperate to score against them. They famously knocked Germany out of the tournament in the group stage by getting a draw against them. So, you know, again, they are organized, but yes, they offered... Absolutely nothing going forward.

Yeah. I had one kind of good volley in the second half, but comfortably saved by Campbell. Not too comfortable with bells for... You didn't think it was that comfortable? Went through her hands and she had to, she like turned around and chased it out of bounds and conceded a corner kick. Oh, somehow I missed that.

Yeah, yeah. I just saw it didn't go in. It was a rough moment. Okay. Thank you for that clarification. Cho Uri, G. Soyun and Casey Fair across the front line. Yeah, that's Korea. So let's go to the timeline.

Why don't you give us the first item? So about two minutes in, we get this good vertical carve-up that kind of is a carryover from She Believes, where we're connecting through the middle. And it's Germer with a simple ball to coffee, who's kind of stationed in between the 4-4-2 of South Korea. I mean, Germann was already past half when we start this. So we've got South Korea already pinned pretty deep or they just set up very deep. Yeah, I called it a 3-4-3, but it turned out to be a lot of times, a 5-4-1. Yeah. So coffee collects it sort of in between the front line of pressure.

It zips a nice ball to Macario's feet, one line up on the floor. And again, it's a nice, like, part diagonal, part vertical, cool, good vectors here. And that one other note, like, we are fizzing the ball around on the floor. floor too and that matters. I feel like that is an intentional thing that we've emphasized is how much pace we're putting on simple passes to feet as we're building around the back. So anyway, this ball gets to coffee with some urgency. Coffee fires it over to Macario, again, in a nice pocket. And then Macario keeps the zigzag action up by zigzagging it back into the middle to Sophia's feet, you know, dead center of the field, 25 yards out.

and Sophia one times it towards Trinity around the corner, running, breaking around the outside edge of the back four for Korea. And Sophia just puts way too much on it. Didn't need to. Could have been a lot better touch. And Trin gets there just as it crosses the line and tries to cut it back. But again, you see right away the kinds of like spaces and pockets we're trying to identify and exploit and we're happy.

We're watching it and we're very happy. Yeah. I love this sequence. I mean, the weight of the past was off, as you mentioned, but it's exactly the right idea. Because if she takes a little off it and Trin can get to it, I think Mal is on coming at the back post. Yeah, it's a beautiful setup for Mal, and she's seen it too, so she's breaking, and she will get there first. Like, this would be a square behind the entire South Korea, like Trinity would be able to square this behind the full South Korea back line. it shouldn't even be a cutback.

Like if the touch is right for Mal, this should just put Trinity in to be able to touch it like 10 yards from the end line, right? Not all the way to the end line even. And it should just be a simple square tap in. And if you want, you could even take another layer to it. And if Mal is a little bit more attentive, a little sooner, like she could even try to make a run and be on for the ball that goes into Sof.

So as Macario plays this into Sof, if Mal is identifying this two passes earlier, she could be starting to make a dragging run across the field where Sof could slip her in instead of Sof going around the edge to Trinity. And that might come into play later. Who knows? I see. Yeah, yeah. I get you. I saw this in the notes and I'm like, what are you talking about? Sof's going to just dummy it for Mal or no, I get it now. Yeah. So these are the kinds of timings and things we can improve on. And these are the

kinds of holes I think Emma's talking about, right? It's this full team coordination. It's great that we even have three or four players coordinating. But as coffee is hitting that ball up to Macario, and then as Macario is about to feed Sophia Smith in the middle, like Sophia's kind of got her back to the goal, right, to collect it from Macario. And that's the signal, that should be the cue that weak side attacking

wing player, Mal Swanson in this case, should be starting to break past Sophia. If the strikers coming back a little bit to play, then that weak side attacker, that's sort of a cue, or often a cue, it doesn't have to be the same thing every time. But we'll see sometimes where Mao will break in behind and exploit the attention.

that everyone's paying to Sophia Smith. Yeah. And so Sophia just needs, like, to catch a flash of Mal out of the corner of her eye. She could probably turn probably to her left and then put her, like, player in. Yeah. So what you're thinking. Well, and you get to the point where she doesn't need to even see her. Like, it's one of those things where it's like, if I feel this defender coming here,

then if I were Mal, I would be doing this. So I'm just going to trust that Mal is doing this. Yeah. You know, and that's, that's like the next level sort of awareness that gets, a lot of times that's what gets called creativity. It's like when you just understand how all of the pieces are going to react and then what this player should do to exploit it and just play it on that trust,

that's how you get that real top-tier coordination. Yeah, can't wait for that day to come. Yeah, so on the ensuing goal kick, Macario wins a cage match, 1 v2, feeds Nicewanger wide and Nicewanger plays a tight give and go with Mal at the corner of the box. Yeah, just a great example again of like in the past when Macario hits that ball out to a Nice Warner, who's kind of arriving, you know, late as a nice late runner. I want to guarantee that Nice Wonger just runs onto that and just clips it into the box.

But instead, she plays this nice little tight one-two with Mal Swanson. So it's like a four-yard pass and Mal hits a nice little four-yard return pass and it's all looks very tidy. And then S Wonger does clip into the box from their turnpast. But we've added a little bit of soccering. Right. There's a few hoops to jump through before you can clip it across. I noticed some good 1V1 defending from Rodman,

who didn't have a great night, a great afternoon, but she clamps chew early in the game, just goes and bodies her and takes the ball and then gets fouled. And then kind of had her way with Chew a few times later in the game. Yeah, they didn't have a lot of answers for Trinity other than just chopping her down over and over. They did do a lot of chopping. While we're on the chopping note, seventh minute is sort of the first Lindsay Horan trademark chopped pass directly up to field where her hips are,

you know, like totally facing the wrong direction. And she just fires a ball to Mal upfield in the pocket. Mal's first touch is atrocious on this one. Yeah, it's too bad. It was a nice pass. But again, we're going to do this a lot. We're going to hit these passes a lot. And Mal is definitely going to show throughout that when she does get it cleanly, man, can she just glide away from the rest of the players on the field.

Yeah, what a player. What a player. She was a little sloppy in the opening, you know, 20, 30 minutes. So was Macario. I think that did even out as the game went on. Eighth minute, Lindsay plays it through to Macario. Macario tries to spray it to Trinity on the touchline. But I guess in my opinion, so that everybody's like, well, this pass was off.

And it was, I guess, off. But also, Trinity just a little too narrow here. Maybe this is one of the holes in the game. Holes in our play that we're talking about. Just, you know, got to stay wide. Give that, give Macario a big window to pass into. Instead, she tries to play it to Trinity's outside shoulder. And Robin just lets it run out of bounds.

Yeah, same note. for me is just make that pass a little easier for Macario because even if she hits the pass through the window that, you know, the smaller one, you can still just very easily race onto it with your hips facing the goal. Yeah. But it is. It's good buildup. It starts from Campbell with a nice zipped pass to Lindsay Horan. So we are fizzing that ball around. Horan actually kind of underhits the one to Macario that also throws the rhythm off a little bit. Yeah, that's true. It's good to nitpick. We're in the weeds.

We're deep in the weeds. 12 minutes, Swanson's way offside when Smith tries to slip her in. So Smith is kind of driving at the top of the box. And then Swanson makes a sort of diagonal darting run across Smith. And I don't know. I guess I don't really know if Smith just needs to release it sooner or maybe there was just no window for her to release it. And Swanson needs to do a better job of holding her run. But, you know, she was like six yards off.

side by the time she received the pass. I love the run from Swanson. I think Fowdy commented on it too, but we get finally like a little criss-cross action on some of these breaks, which we've been missing. It's been a lot of everyone staying in lanes on these downhill runs we get. I would say in this scenario, I think South Korea did a good job of taking the window away, at which point you can't pass it earlier, but you probably need to pass it actually a little bit later.

So we didn't have to release it right then. She held it long enough to get a decent window, and then she has to hold it a little longer and Swanson has to recognize that she has to flare her run out as she's about to run past everybody and can't get it can't get it at the first moment and you kind of have to like keep yourself closer to being on side so that if Smith can keep driving them back on the dribble that eventually the defender sort of catch back up to you and then she can slip you right also Macario was open off to the left and was a little a little exasperated I think get the choice to...

So the thing I noticed on a lot of these downhole runs is that Smith and Swanson go. Like, they get going and they are, they are, like, the burst that they show in the acceleration is crazy. Macario right now does not have that same level of burst, right? Like, I mean, you saw there, as Smith is dribbling at pace, Swanson races ahead of her and cuts in front. Like, Macario just doesn't right now have the burst to, like, catch the play and run past Sophia to be that extra like advancing runner.

She's definitely just going to be like holding level or a little bit behind as the trailer. I wonder if maybe she's just a little more, she's more accustomed to the Hayes ideas. And she's like, I don't know, just more used to that. And so she's like, I'm going to just flare out to the left here. This isn't on with Swanson. I'm just going to hang out here and we're going to sock her through it. But I'm, you know, I'm just making. stuff up as I go along here.

I think Emma might have commented on the altitude for Macario. So I think maybe the air hit her a little bit. Yeah. Yeah, I heard that too. And actually, Macario did plenty of good stuff in this game, too. I mean, she's really tough to knock off the ball. It's kind of similar to Shaw in that way. They both can receive the ball in traffic and not give it up.

13th minute, good cross from Rodman. sales through the box at waist height, pretty dangerous. Oh, sorry, you can mark that. I was just, I was for some reason, checking London's elevation bells, because that's just what I do sometimes during a live recording of a podcast. What is London's elevation? London elevation, for anybody wondering, is 80 feet, 80 feet. So that's not quite triple digits.

Okay. They're down there in, like, New Orleans territory. Muscatine. Yeah, that cross from Rodman's great. It came from another vertical pass to Macario's feet in the left half space. I think maybe from Tierna. Yeah. Tierna was hitting some of those too.

So, again, the willingness and the intent to find those passes and then let our ball players play ball is going to pay off for us, I think. Certainly an entertainment value. That's the other thing. Oh, yeah. And it's a lot. Go ahead. It doesn't guarantee us medals. It doesn't guarantee you.

trophies, but man, is it going to be way more fun to watch the team that looks competent. Oh, yeah. I don't even care if we win anymore. No, I'm just kidding. It was a lovely diagonal from Macario, too. This was awesome, right on Rodman's foot. And then Rodman does 22 chew very easily, and that's when she whips it across the end line. So one other thing, I know, I know like I just get so into the weed.

here, but that's like the third time that Macario in this game has tried to, like, hit Trinity on something like that. And what I love is, again, we've had the past four years where we, like, try to hit these home runs all the time. But our home run balls would always just be to, like, the striker in the middle of the field running vertically. And we would just hit, like, a ball over her head when we'd see her running. And it would always just run to the goalkeeper and end the play.

And, like, we aren't doing that. Macario's hitting these home run balls, but they're the home run balls to the wide player out in the channel where she can actually get it. use the sideline to her advantage as a protection and get the ball in, and we're not trying to just hit a home run right to the goal. We're trying to hit a home run to somebody who is very dangerous to set someone up. Yeah. Yeah.

And then after the ball swings through, Nice Warner collects it, and she, you know, doesn't whip a ball in. Plays a short pass to Horan's feet. Horan plays a pass to Macario's feet. Macario dances past. somebody and has a pretty decent shot from 18 yards. Kind of a weird save, but it is saved. Yeah, throws like her shin blockers at it, like a hockey boy.

Like stacks her pads and blocks it into the middle of the sixth. So we're not like, you know, we're not creating bunches of chances or anything, but we're doing a lot of good stuff. So what's next? 14th minute, we get a throw in on the right side line, sort of edge of the attacking third. We just go square to Horan in the middle of the field. She kind of lets it go by her and then switches to the onrushing Nyswanger. Nicewanger, again, not trying to just drive a ball to the box,

gets it sort of at speed and just glides past the first defender to the inside, very nicely, real aesthetically pleasing. And then again, just slides this really perfect ball to defeat of Sophia Smith at the top of the box. Her shot's blocked, but again, just the aim of what we're doing to hit these entry paths. is to players' feet for Sophia to even be looking for this pass instead of just having five attackers with their hips all facing the goal, like running away from Nyswonger. Again, it's just going to make it so much more enjoyable

for me personally to watch. Yeah, it's encouraging. And I love the phrase on rushing Nyswanger. There's a lot of power in those syllables. Yes, keep finding feet, feet, feet. We're just hitting people's feet. So, and when we are going, uh, to put the ball in front of people, it's that Macario one to Trinity, like, out on the edge where there's all that space to work with. And it's not just like super low percentage.

Yeah. Or you just have to like flick it with your head over the goalkeeper in a tiny window. No flicks. A remarkably flick free game. Well, not flick free. There was the one, there was the one on the chalked off goal. It was a pretty nice flick. Okay.

All right. But yeah. Um, you got some. Thoughts on Emily? I mean, so 15th minute we get consecutive giveaways from Fox. The first one's a pass. And this, I mean, we talked about the passes Macario's making to use the sideline as protection. Like Fox had a couple of these giveaways that are just really basic understanding of like where to put that pass, right?

So she's got players making dragging runs to the sideline. And instead of just passing the ball parallel to the sideline upfield for that player to run onto and keep the defender on, you know, goal side of her and collect it with ease. she plays it like at an angle into the player. And so now they have to like stop and they just get cut out. So a couple of giveaways for her. They weren't even her first giveaways of the match. Not her last either. And yeah, like I'm kind of just waiting for that Emily Fox game.

I feel like she's sort of considered the default best fullback we have. And I keep waiting for like the U.S. game where she's clearly like an added, a value added player. Maybe she's just, you know, comprehensively downloaded. the Arsenal DNA and she hates having a Chelsea coach. Maybe that's what's up. It's going to have to be it. Kruger was an improvement, though, I have to say, when she came on. Different game state and everything, but you didn't notice her nearly as much,

and that was in a good way, you know. What else? What else? Just shortly after those turnovers, we've got coffee creating a turnover at midfield where she kind of just smashes bodies in the center circle. A couple of simple passes. Coffee just feeds it to Iran, Heran,

um, vertical pass to Swanson. And this is where Swanson just collects it, turns, and she just goes like hers. She's standing at a standstill when she gets it from Iran. And then she just explodes out of that standstill, uh,

and leaves the Korean defenders like inner dust. Uh, she's a Ferrari. Yeah. She's got, she's got Sof and Macario either side of her. And again, Macario's not going to catch her and run past her.

But she's just, Macario's just kind of escorting the break up the field. And so kind of she tries to, I think, slip Swanson in. I'm sorry, Swanson tries to slip Sof in and it gets cut out. Yeah, it was close, but it looked like it took like it took Smith a little while to figure out how to shape her run in this case. She did not run across Swanson's face. She kind of like ran straight at the defender and then tried to circle around her. kind of the same nitpick on this one is that so uh geez between sof swanson and it's just it's just getting too much

uh it is yeah we got shaw smith soph swanson did not was not forced to release the ball yet kind of a thing like the korean defenders had not committed to stopping her and the window wasn't really on that it had to go into smith's run right then so it's like she could have just kept driving and pushing korea back until they sort of made her either. I mean, at that point, you're close enough to just create your own shot and go for it. Yeah, it's true. 18th minute, slick from coffee to play on the half turn

and then spray it to Nice Wonger out wide left. And then Nice Wonger 1-2 is with Swanson and wins a corner trying to send it across. I mean, tons of little slick bits of interchange like this in this game. I noticed in the 20th minute that Hayes on the touchline said the opposite pocket is on. and I don't really have any further commentary on that. I just noticed it. That's something that was apparent in this game too. The opposite pocket was always on.

So this is where we, you know, this was a good run-through, if we want to call it that. This game is certainly not the test. I just mean it was too easy, I think, almost to play that opposite pocket. It's good that we got to hammer that stuff home in this game. but even when we get to like Mexico in the sendoffs, I think that's going to be, that's going to be more like a real dress rehearsal.

Right. Okay, 22nd minute. We get a Haran goal chocked off. It's a driven ball from Davidson to Swanson's feet. Well, not really to her feet, kind of to her thighs. Yeah. And Swanson, this is that flick I was talking about, flicked it on for Haran,

who was just, you know, a step offside. Is it too much? And then, of course, she slotted it in, but she was flagged for offside. Is it too much to ask her to stay onside here? Probably. This was actually one of the old school hero balls

that we almost got to work. Right. So Swanson and Horan both actually started to make the run into the box. And Tierna just kind of drove it towards their general area. So it wasn't a lot of intentionality here. And so Swanson just read the ball

that was sort of under, or hit behind them both and adjusted well to it and just kind of did whatever she could do to keep the play alive. So, no, I don't think that that Horan was going to be in a position to, like, adjust her run to that. Everything was kind of not planned out very well. Right. Okay. Yeah, it was kind of one of those old school, just drive the ball at the backline kind of moments. 25th minute, we get another chance off of a turnover.

We turn them over in sort of the half. There wasn't a lot of high press from us. We were, and it wasn't just like South Korea not passing the ball. Like, we were very deliberately sitting back in like a pretty mid block. I don't know if that was like the heat. Love a mid block. I don't know. You know, it was hot.

We're at altitude. We got a bunch of kids who are coming back from injury. So it could be a very deliberate plan. I'm not going to conclude now that we're not going to ever be a pressing team. But we definitely weren't really up in their faces in this game. But they still would turn it over a lot. So we get a turnover here. Swanson, Sophia ends up with it.

I think she just took it off her feet. She kind of gets dragged down. Would have been a foul, but in the dragging down process, the ball just falls to Swanson, who picks it up, drives straight at goal, gets a decent shot off. I think it's another unorthodox save.

Yeah. Swanson just loves to dart in there. She just darts in. She's always darting. Yeah, I thought that was actually pretty good work from Sof on the turn. there. I didn't realize that she had won the ball herself as well. I might have gotten that one conflated with a later turnover that she takes.

Yeah, she does take it from the centerback one time later. There's a Trinity cutback that's only partially cleared and Sam Coffey gets a pretty nice chance to take it on the, I guess, would you call it on the volley when it's coming at you on the ground like that? It's coming straight at her and she winds up. She just hits it well wide. Yeah, I mean, in the stadium, it looked a little, like it was closer than maybe a TV made a look, but it's one where it's rolling out to you so nice, so all the power is sort of in that ball rolling towards you. So you just take the easiest, nicest technical cut you want, and you know you're going to fire that thing. Yeah.

That was a, you said, you're saying this is a Tierna home run ball to Mal down the left side that keys this. a home run ball in the derogatory sense? No, we're in a new era where now home run ball is like, that's the one you hit. And it's the same thing. She just sees the gap behind the back line to the sideline. And, you know, because the centerbacks are always going to be protecting that space in front of the goal.

But it's like, oh, we can get mal. If I just put this ball anywhere between Mal on the sideline, we get to gain 40 yards of real estate. So that's the ball she hit. And that's something we were expecting and hoping that we would get in the Emma era, because Emma would do that a lot with Sam Kerr and Chelsea. Everyone has to be so preoccupied with protecting the goal behind Sam Kerr that if you just hit it anywhere away towards the sideline,

Kerr gets to beat the centerback to it. The centerback has to be cautious and just kind of, you know, escort that player out there, but they can't go and try to actually win the ball. So it's a really cheap way to pick up a ton of real estate. Swanson did really well on this, too, to bring it down and then cross. It crosses a little heavy.

It goes all the way over to Trinity, and then she does chew again before she cuts it back. 27th minute, we get another Fox whoopsie, and it's just like we're building her on the back and we're fizzing that ball around. And so we fizz it out to Fox and her first touch pops up on her. And then she gets kind of... Smashed. Yeah, she gets a little sistered right there. And she goes to ground, maybe wanting a call, but it's like, come on, you got to like, you've got to be the one who puts the other player on the ground. So Fox is on the ground.

German comes and cleans up the mess. They try to nutmeg her, and she says, no, thank you. I'll just take that ball. It's a perfect 35-yard outlet on the ground to Mao, who turns and runs like 65 yards up the field. Does a little combo with Macario, gets it into the box, but her cutback is deflected, sort of straight into the goalkeeper's arms. Yeah.

It was Casey Fair who tried to make Germa. Oh, thank you. Get out of here. Still pretty messy from us at this. point in the game, I noticed that after this moment, a coffee give away, coffee got blown up twice in our half, which, I mean, it's going to happen every now and then, but a little, I'd like her to be a little cleaner than that. Just a full game of never getting dispossessed with your back to the goal, receiving the ball from the centerback. But outside of that,

I would say coffee was quite good in the game. Nice, Wonger had a giveaway in there. Rodman had a giveaway, but then come our goals. And the first one was just a true pleasure to watch. So at 34th minute, Cria's backed way up in that essentially 541 inside their defensive third. Macario had drifted into the right channel as the ball went over to the left and then it comes back around through Davidson. Germa gets it from her and then steps, I mean, she's almost at the blue line here. She steps and plays it to Smith's feet at the top of the box kind of sharply. Smith turns with strength

and then just kind of rolls the ball through two defenders into the path of Swanson who is making that diagonal darting run through the top of the box she meets it first time just coolly slides it in

at the near post on the ground it's so bang bang it's like it takes everybody by surprise kind of how fast it all happens but that's it that's what we're looking for one zero yeah and you're you nailed it right

it is lightning fast once it's just I mean our center back with the ball to our striker to Swanson for the goal. It's not, but it's not, it's certainly not a lightning fast possession. We have, we have possession for like 40 seconds leading up to this, and it's very deliberate, like, it's very composed and calm, and no one's taking any huge risks, but we're still doing things that we just didn't used to do.

So even in this possession, I won't recount the whole thing. We do, we're in the weeds enough as it is, but we'll definitely post the extended one on the Discord, because it's just really, like, it's all the things you like to see of poking and prodding, right? So Germa, or I'm sorry, Horan and Macario, kind of with these little combinations inside the amoeba. We end up with a vertical, an attempt to go into that pocket first on the left side, where I think it's Tierna to Mal again, and then we go all the way around the back, the other way to Germa, and that's what sort of sets it up. But it's very much just like waiting for that moment where they let their guard down. And, and Horan helps the cause here

with that run she tries to make behind. And in the past, maybe we would have played that hero, that home run ball to Haran trying to run behind. But instead, we use the space that she creates with that run to hit Sophia's feet instead. Because, again, Haran's run pushes that. The backline is right on Sophia's hip. Horan makes that run, and they all drop four yards.

And that's an ocean of space for a striker to work with now that Sophia's got four extra yards to play with it. So, I mean, that's the difference, right? When she gets it now, she can turn and she's not immediately tackled off the ball. And there we go. We're in business. Yeah.

And so Haran's movement is really important here. Also, Rodman, I think, does well to just get out of there, you know, get out wide to bring her defender further over. Yeah, just really love it. We're going to win the Olympics. Well, it's a low block, right? And so, again, we're going to face better low blocks than South Korea. But this is what we talk about.

What are ways to beat a low block that aren't just like hit it into 12 bodies and then win the scramble and and bumble it into the goal? Yeah. And this is a way. Fox really having a rough one. So moving on, Fox really having a rough one. Another giveaway. 37th minute Smith wins it off the centerback in the press, skips down the right flank and cuts it back. Swanson and a defender meet it right at the top of the box.

But Swanson leaves it, which I love to see. Then Heran meets it, about 20 yards out, tries to go far post with the side foot and draws a pretty good save, I think. I think she was trying to trick the goalkeeper into diving to her right with the shape of her body. It's a very clever idea. The goalkeeper just didn't bite. I love that she hit it one time. She probably didn't need to. There was no other defender in the picture.

The only other defender had, you know, Chase Swanson because she had to. That's true. I didn't even think of that. I think the play, the aesthetic of soccer demanded that Haran hit this first time. Yes. When you get the dummy like that,

you have to, then the next action has to be, you know, guiding it into the goal. Okay. Yeah, I agree. The aesthetic gods must be appeased. Let's see, 38th minute on the ensuing corner after this Haran shot is saved. It's just a pretty straightforward.

Katerina Macario corner kick to the back post. Davidson out jumps her marker and just rainbows it back across the face of the goal in at the far post from where she was. Buckets. Assist for Macario to zero. We couldn't tell in the stadium, and I still haven't been able to figure it on all the different videos I've seen of it. What is the actual sequence that leads to this ball going in?

Is it just Macario and then just off of Tiron's head? Because the way Tirna is so high above and almost like stooping down, it doesn't look like it makes sense, physics-wise, for this ball to loop into the corner. I think it short-hops off the Korean defender's head onto Davidson's forehead. So it skips up off of Davidson's head and then loops. I think so. That's my theory.

I think that's possible. I think it could also be Davidson heads it down into the Korea player's head and then it loops up. Oh, yeah. And then the only other possibility is that Davidson doesn't touch it at all. And it literally just like hits the side of the Korean defender's head and goes right back towards the goal. The Korean defender is like looking around not expecting it to have gone that way. Hmm. I don't know.

I still can't tell. But the physics doesn't make sense for it to just be. Tierna getting a, like, it looks like she's trying to head it down into the ground like she does in the second half. Yeah. Well, she gets credited with the goal, which is kind of cool.

She got a brace in this game. And, you know, on the subject of set pieces, Hayes was asked about it a little bit in the post game, and she said, well, she said it's a big priority. They've been training it a lot, training on set pieces a lot. 30% of all tournament goals are scored on set pieces and she said, quote,

I've seen historically this program be good at it and I want a return to that, end quote. Shots fired at you, Vlako and Ananski. Yeah, I mean, so the new goalkeeper coach, I think, is also the set piece coach. And we got good looks in this game for sure. We did. That one wasn't actually a particularly good look,

but if we get a centerback one-on-one and they just have to climb over someone, we'll take that. Yeah. Um, yeah, worth pointing out again, as the game sort of starts to wind down, which it sort of did at this point. Um, South Korea is still, I didn't really threatened. And the half arrives. And let me just say, if you are enjoying this and you want to support this podcast, join us on Patreon. In the last two years, we've published almost, did you know this, Greg? Almost 200 episodes for paying subscribers. I'm bad. I'm bad. I'm bad.

You're kind of a machine, bells. emergency pods when big news breaks, call-in shows after games, when we take questions, or when we organize a trip to Venice, or when we do a call-in show, patrons get first dibs. Consider subscribing the links in the show notes.

And, oh, we are going to host a call-in show on Thursday, Thursday night, late on the East Coast for bold predictions or specific demands of the U.S. men's national team this summer. That's an important or. My understanding is that, or is an important conjunction. You don't get to do both.

Waki's going to hang you up if you try to do both. So follow the rules. All right. Kruger comes on for Fox at the half. Very curious if that was a planned substitution or if that was a response to what we saw in the first half. Interesting, yeah. And we score almost immediately.

Our third goal, it's a Swanson corner that we won on kind of a nothing, Nysewanger kind of, I think Nysewanger's trying to clip it in with her right foot and it just got whacked out of bounds by a Korean defender. Swanson takes the corner. Davidson's totally free at the backpost

heads it down off the turf and it bounces up and in back across the face of goal. We just ran a little stunt, I guess, with Germa, Rodman, and Davidson. The three markers followed German and Rodman. And it's a free header. Totally free. It doesn't seem like rocket science.

Yeah, and it becomes totally free because goalkeeper's on a bit of a walkabout, like flashes out to the top of the sixth to watch it go well over her head. They do still have field players on the line that could make a play on it, but it's just one of those brilliant ones that bounces off the turf and then up over the helpless defender. Both of her, these headers are totally unstoppable once they're in the air, you know, in a weird way. 50, so that's it, 3.0. 59th minute. That's the decent hit from Cho Uri that I thought was saved comfortably, but turns out... No, it was...

Not comfortable. Nearly a howler, and that's where, like, Campbell had done very good fizzing passes along the floor, which was about all she'd been asked to do. Like, it was noticeable, how clean her passing is. And then the one shot they have, like, she kind of makes a meal of it. And you're like, oh, no. Like, what does this do for a player? Or how strongly is Emma's rating of her set

or how much will it be affected by a nervous moment like that? Yeah. Yes, we'll see. Sixty-first minute we get Shaw for Smith. So Jaden Shaw comes on for Sophia Smith. Sam Stob comes on for Davidson. Rose Lavelle comes on for Mercario. And Crystal Dunn comes on for Rodman.

Some intriguing stuff here. So like we said earlier, Swanson slides over. over into the nominal nine spot that makes Shaw the sort of nominal left winger slash 10 in possession and then Lavelle is of course the 10 the other 10 she's the nominal 10 and also the in reality 10 on the right side and then Dunn is in at right wing which was foreshadowed by the fact that Dunn was called up as a forward but still kind of interesting to see you know after so many so many caps as a defender now she gets to play right wing I know I'm terrified that like we've been wanting it for so long and it's just going to be like too late like like

attacking winger uh striker it's a if you're not the sort of target type it's it's it's a young woman's game and so I'm like this is what we've wanted but is she going to be able is done going to be able to do it at a level that's going to hold off the uh the younger kids coming up yeah I'm gonna reserve judgment on that I am I'm hopeful because I think if there's two you know, if we want to get Shaw on the field to start this game against South Korea on Tuesday, who could come off? And for me, if we're going to continue the Macario at the Ten experiment, which I'm fine with, I think I'm good with that,

then it's got to be either self or Trinity, right? Yeah, I mean, I assume unless you want to get really cute and use the Trinidad Rodman drops and takes over Emily Fox's position. I'm not. I don't even think that's cute. I mean, again, when you're going to have 90% of the ball and you're going to be in your possession shape for almost the entire game, then you can sort of say, like, who cares?

Can she just do the defensive job mostly for the four times in the game that she's asked to do it? And the rest of the time, just be our wide attacker. I mean, I'm sure she could. 100% she can. Yeah. I mean, I'm not taking Mal Swanson off. She's, I mean, assuming we're not just rotating, you know, for the sake of rotation tomorrow. So then you could take SOF off and then move Maldos Stryker like she just was. And then you've got Macario and Shaw's your tens, right?

Yeah. And like the interesting thing here is like it was notable that Swanson moved over to play Stryker. But then that gets caveated because Emma after the game says, Alex Morgan had some tightness. And that's why she wanted to be safe with her so that she could play on Tuesday. And we don't know if that's just softening, you know, like doing ego management or if that's really the case. It didn't seem like it. It could be a little bit of both.

Maybe. I mean, she said it was, you know, she talked about her pelvic floor and the fact that I'm not joking about this. I'm being serious. her pelvic floor and how, you know, mothers have to be careful with that. It seemed like a pretty serious thing she was talking about. Yeah, certainly specific enough to not just be like, ah, we wanted to rest her, you know,

she had a little tightness, like you could say about 90% of soccer players. Right. At any point, you could always give them a little bit of a break. Yeah. But that was, and that was something I wanted to bring up. No, Alex Morgan for very specific tightness. and so she said there's nothing in it.

There's nothing to take away from it. She wants her to be fresh for Tuesday. Well, it gave us a look at Swanson as the nine, and there were some payoffs. Did you like Swanson at the nine? I thought she was fine there, yeah. I mean, the game kind of went off the boil a little bit for a stretch there, and again, it's altitude.

It's hot. Our seats were in the shade, which was nice. We felt for anyone who was not in the shade, including the players. Yeah. Yeah, you had, I guess there's this idea that if you're up near the mountains, then it's cool, but that idea is not true, is it? It wasn't on that particular day.

Well, let's talk more about the lineup for Tuesday in a second. We get lovely build-out from the back in the 66-minute, keyed by coffee and Horan, and then do you remember this one where Haran plays it up the gut to Macario? Macario does really well to corral that under some duress, plays it out to Lavelle. Lavelle kind of drifts in and plays it out left to Nicewanger and then Nicewanger whips it in. Maybe a little, maybe a little impatiently. But she had Rose making a run at the near post and just missing it with her right foot outstretched. It gets a scramble ensues.

It spills back out to coffee at the top of the box and her shot is blocked for a corner. Yeah. So it's a beautiful build up the gut. And then I just wanted to speak on Macario because I feel like in this game what we saw was a little bit of the difference between Macario and Shaw. And I do think Macario collects a ball

a little bit better than Jay and Shaw. I thought Macario's sloppiness was like what she did with it afterwards sometimes, was just kind of missing some passes. But Shaw, as effective as she has been in getting production for the national team, will have long stretches for us where the ball goes into her

and it's not always like handled safely. you think so I mean it's I'm talking on a relative term here but yeah she's just been a little bit loose in that way

and again Macario was loose in this game too just usually in with what she would did after she had once she had already collected it yeah yeah I mean even now

I'm doing all this shaw just about scored on the corner kick that we got on this play yeah she just misses over with her head another good set piece this one was actually a good look

and I think she can do better on that header too. I'm not taking sides yet on a Macario Shaw, one or the other situation here. I am very much thrilled if we are in a position where we think we only need to play one of them and we have, and this is just where we are, talent-wise. I like both of them so much

because I think they both bring, you know, a certain soccer elegance to the game. That's why I'm not. I'm a little more interested in, you know, maybe finding a way to get Shaw on for Smith. But, I mean, Smith is, Smith is just so, I mean, she's so good. And there's so, I feel like there's just so much more that she can,

that she can do in this new regime, you know. So, good problems to have, as we like to say. Let's see, 72nd minute, Corbyn Albert comes on for Horan and Germa gets the captain's arm band. Albert comes on and immediately just wax the ball at Sam Coffey's feet. Like hits it like 100 miles an hour. I know we're trying to have good pace on our passes on the ground, but good grief. I read that one because, again, you know, there's a look when it's not quite right.

I read that as Albert was actually trying to hit the ball to stop. Oh, maybe so. So that was the pace of the ball was going halfway to its target where coffee was. and it just hit coffee's feet. And coffee did a nice job to control it. Yeah. Albert noticeably played higher up than Horan in the buildup. So it became, I mean,

Iran would float forward, but usually early in the buildup, Horan and coffee were sort of both back there. Once Albert came on, it looked kind of like a clear shift to just coffee being sort of the pressure relief or the buildup target for that line. Yeah, that's interesting.

we went to a single pivot and then Corbyn was where exactly? She wasn't in either of the 10 spots. No, well, she kind of was. So she actually was kind of up there by Shaw. And then Lavelle was actually just higher than them. So Lavelle was just kind of like almost just like this extra attacker in the line higher than the tens. Okay. Interesting.

I have to keep an eye on that. We got a goal and like three other things to talk about. So a goal in the 74th minute, Kruger tries kind of an ambitious curling ball between the left back and the centerback to try to spring Dunn. It was on. I think Dunn had it.

Dunn was going to pull away if the ball got through, but ball wasn't quite good enough. Number 22 cuts it out, but right to Rose LaVelle, who strides forward very brightly, just full speed with the ball in her first touch and kind of drives towards the middle of the field and disguises her intentions just enough, tucks a little pass into the penalty area for Swanson,

who takes a touch, steadies herself, and slots at far post 4-0. Yeah, this is vintage Lavelle, right? This is Lavelle looking in total control of a transition moment. And it wasn't, it was a very tight window to get this ball into Swanson.

You think so? Yeah, she just, she got the defender, like, it was, the line was tight, where Swanson's right on that defender's line, and then the actual gap to be able to lead Swanson to go. I mean, you could get it to Swanson, but to actually put it in front of her where she doesn't have to stop to receive it.

That was the tricky part. And again, just executed beautifully from Roosevelt, who we said she needs to show us something. And she absolutely did in this game, be like, oh, yes, this is what we want to see from Roseville. Yeah, I thought she was bright again in the 76 minute. It gets sprung down the right side line, cuts in and leaves it for done.

for a curling shot that was going to go was going wide even before it got pawed away by the keeper but good i mean that whole combination of lavelle done and kruger was uh was doing some nice stuff um this is the dream right so this is what emma says that the the the subs who came in added value and and this is what we want we want to make these changes where we take off outrageously good players uh you know we take off the band of three ridiculous players and put on three more ridiculous players. Like that's where we want to be. Yeah.

I mean, yeah, when you think about it that way, what a wonderful, you know, 15, 20 minutes of soccer we got from those three over there, all coming off the bench. I want to mention some coffee sauce in Zone 14 in the 77th minute. She kind of receives it behind her and then Crois, a defender. I mean, it's not like she wound up and hit a Galazzo or anything. She just squared it over to Kruger. And then Kruger's maybe a little trigger happy with the cross there.

But it's defense midsauce. That counts as demid sauce, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. It's fully certified. And then 80th minute, Albert has one from distance. It's sort of the classic chop shot. And it's just over the goal. Five yards further out, and it beats the goalkeeper.

And it's a, you know, it's a banger. And then another lovely, combo up the right from Lavelle Dunn and Krueger under duress. Krueger's cross, you know, Krueger gets sprung this time and she, her cross sails over to Nicewanger who can't quite corral it. And that's the last thing I have on the timeline. Who do you want to start on Tuesday? Well, anything else to say?

I mean, if you're in the Discord, like there are, again, I know we're tedious in our timeline already. There are going to be tons of little sequences that it's just like, this was fun, you know, where there's just a little, we get a little, rondo's and you know how we love the rondo in the rondo mindset so uh we will we post the rondo lifestyle we'll be posted those probably a combination from the two games uh in the lead up to the olympics um two so tomorrow who do we want to start uh i mean i would have no problem if we just ran it back no problem at all same i mean

We may have a little problem, but not a big problem. Is it just Jaden Shaw? Is that the only problem? That's the main thing. You got to start her once. But maybe, you know, maybe she's not showing it in the way that Emma wants or two. So, I mean, we certainly don't have to run it back. Like, again, pretty quick turnaround.

We just played at altitude. I know it was kind of a sleepy game at times. Again, I think intentionally. But we have, there's almost nobody who could start this game where I'd be like, I don't get this. realistically. So if we make eight changes, I'll be like, cool.

I'm very excited about this. Yeah. I guess I'd like to see Jaden in there somehow. And if she gets to start over Macario, I think I'd be cool with that. I'd like to see that. And then if there's some way for her to come in for Smith, I think I like that too.

but like you, I'm not, I'm not going to be mad if, if Jaden doesn't start. And I think maybe Kruger, maybe Krueber, Kruger can get a start here. I don't know if that, would that be punitive against Fox? I mean, it's not punitive. It's, again, this isn't like, you made one mistake, and so now we're going to, you know, we're, we're going to penalize you. Like, again, she just, she hasn't looked convincing. She hasn't, she hasn't been catastrophic by any stretch.

but she doesn't look like anyone who is like cost it would cost us if she's not out there. Yeah. It's weird how things change because like six months ago it felt like she was the most reliable player on the team. And maybe again, maybe I'm being overly harsh and everyone will sort of jump on and say, no, you're missing all these good things she's doing. I don't think so, not in this game. So we'll, if you do think that, let me know and I'll try to get back and, do some comps, but I've kind of been, I was already kind of comping her from Shiba Lees and

I was like, what are you doing for us, Ms. Fox? Interesting. So yeah, start Kruger. Why not? And otherwise the same backline, same midfield, except maybe Shaw for Macario. And I don't think, I don't think Rodman should be untouchable either, but I'm sort of agnostic about it at the moment. Watching Trinity Rodman in person is, is unbelievable.

Again, just the sheer dominance that she exerts over whoever is around her, whoever's in her area. I feel like she's not going off the field. Okay. Well, I won't complain if she doesn't. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.