Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #511: USWNT v Mexico recap

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

Second to last tune-up before the Olympics. A bit of muted revenge for the defeat earlier this year. Greg and Belz do the full recap. 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, we beat Mexico 1-0 on Saturday. Greg and I are ready to recap it. Greg, how are you? Doing good bells. Not quite as emphatic of a score line as we wanted for our revenge match against Mexico, but certainly felt like the score could have been higher. Yeah, I would say pretty emphatic in the way the game played out. out. Yeah.

I think that, I think our underlying emphaticism was solid. Yeah. What was it like two and a half to point two or something like that? That's what I saw. That's what I saw. When we get into the timeline, we'll talk about how that's still a little misleading in our favor,

I think, for some of the dangerous moments Mexico had. But that really feels like the takeaway is that we have an outrageously dangerous group in attack, and we kind of have a little bit of like clown shoes going on in the back time. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's going to be, it could be exciting, but man, it makes me nervous for an Olympic knockout scenario.

Well, the thing is, we have one absolute queen who is just totally, like she's the smartest player on the field. She's the most composed. and I'm talking about Naomi Germa of course and then around her is just yeah a lot of chaos like it's the contrast is really remarkable

so let's get right into it the lineups listen to Aering goal Emily Fox Naomi Germa Tierna Davidson and Jenna Nysewanger across the back line I do want to sort of exempt Nyaswanger from that criticism a little bit I think I don't think she was quite as clown shoes as

the other two names. Would you disagree? Well, no, I don't necessarily disagree. I don't think Nice Wonger was clown shoes. I got issues with Niswanger. I don't know that we have a better option waiting necessarily. I almost pushed back because I thought Tierna was solid, and Tierna actually added a lot to playing through some of Mexico's more aggressive pressing moments.

Okay. So, yeah, so we just, I think our, you know, our bosometers just have to be recalibrated for, against who we put in full full bozo categories. Sure. Okay. To round out the lineup, Haran coffee is the, you know,

the central midfielder's Rodman, Lavelle, and Swanson across the band of three. I know you're going to probably completely rework this lineup I'm giving. And then Sophia Smith as the striker. But, you know, LaVelle was the,

I guess, the third midfielder. Yeah, that's what I say. And that was kind of a new addition, a new emphasis, because Lavelle very much was coming back to help us in the buildout against Mexico. Something we pointed out, she doesn't always do, hadn't always been doing.

Last cycle, even in the twilight days, I think often to our detriment, where we just kind of relied on like, okay, well, the front group will literally just be totally separate and watch to see what the back group does in build out. And this time, Lavelle very much coming back with mixed outcomes, I'd say. but definitely a new feature. Yeah. The other thing I wanted to mention about this 11 is that with the exception of Niswanger,

like this is very much a group that had played a large role in last cycle. I know we lost Swanson right months before the World Cup, but for most of the cycle, all of these players would have been available. And I'm just bringing that up because, again, of the discussions last cycle about can this group play soccer? Can they actually try to play soccer or are they just sort of, is that beyond our personnel and we, you know, the way that we were playing in Flotko's era was just the best we could hope for with these groups with these players. And I would say, you know, we got plenty of evidence that no, like we didn't, we don't just have to wait for new types of players to emerge.

These women can play like legitimate soccer with real soccer ideas. Yeah. Well, you know, one player who barely got a sniff under Vlako is Sam Coffee. And I, in my instinct is to, you know, to attribute a lot of the improvement in the general play of the team to her presence. And I'm probably overstating that. But she, and I wouldn't even say she had a fantastic game on Saturday. But I think she does make a big difference. And Vlako didn't see it and didn't bring her to the World Cup.

I think what she got like two caps under him or something? That sounds about right. I mean, they're memorable because we often had the coffee where to double shirt-tuck-in players out there. And you can, it's easy to remember that. If it's a bit, she is absolutely committed to it. We have the decision-making, right? And we got some great post-game comments from Emma Hayes, the whole team, where they totally talk in detail about sort of the kind.

kinds of decisions when in the game they need to be making those decisions and it's all like again just tailored specifically for for us and in the discussions we've been having for four years now what were the highlights for you of the post game comments because i don't have any clips cut but like what's the what stuck out to you the most so sanjay's article in in back healed uh covered so much of this. So if you haven't read that yet, I'm sure we'll retweet it again in the next, before the game tomorrow. But a huge thing

was Emma Hayes, for me, was saying that, you know, as we get close to the box and the defense is set, we need to essentially think about other ways that we can beat them and not just like, basically not just go straight at the goal, not hammer the ball to Cole, which is, again,

something we have been hammered on, moaning about. I mean, we just whine about it. Really, we just have been, whining time and stop about why do we just hammer the ball at the goal and then hope something good happens

and again you saw it this was within within two minutes of this of this game we'll bust out our old sky aft stat that we created to just sort of show

how low the bar was for the U.S. women's play in possession as we got into the final third and that was successful consecutive intentional actions in the attacking third.

We're literally all you're saying is, did we pass a ball to a player we wanted to? Did we get a shot off when we attempted to shoot it? Could we do that three times in a row? Could we pass the ball three times in a row to the player we're trying to pass it to in the attacking third? And we very rarely did that for an entire cycle.

And that is just nuts to me. And so then, yeah, to watch the players, not always, again, it's not always fluid. It's not always super choreographed and smooth. But you're seeing players in the box, like making an actual decision. Yeah. Looking at the scenario, making calculations in their head, and then choosing something and executing it successfully, which is just a huge level of progress, as sad as that is. It's a huge, yeah, it's hugely significant.

I think Sophia Smith is maybe the poster child of it from this game because several times where she would get the ball in the box and she, like last cycle or maybe even when you watch her with Portland, she just turns and shoots, which works, you know, a certain number, a certain percentage of the time. She was finding somebody's feet inside the box, you know, I guess sky aft, colloquially known as soccering through it across the nation. she was soccering through it. Yeah, and again, you know it's team-wide, because when you string together four or five passes, I mean, we're beyond just the attacking third. We're talking now, you know, within 20 yards a goal, and we're stringing to the other passes,

looking for that opening, looking for that mistake that the defense finally makes as they have to scramble one after the other. And, and again, just, you can tell we're doing it, and so the hope is we keep getting a little bit better at it, game by game, training session by training session. That was the other comment that really stood out in Sanjay's piece was Lindsay Horan saying, we are just ready to be coached, which obviously, depending on how you're, how you view the last

administration is a, is a pretty damning comment. Please, someone just coach us. Yeah, okay. It's all very encouraging to me, honestly. Mexico's 11, and I think it's worth mentioning six of them were born in the United States. are, so these are our sisters. Yeah, look, if you, if you're a country and the neighboring country is a massive soccer, soccer crazy nation, you got to take advantage.

So I don't blend Mexico at all for leaning into soccer crazy United States. Yeah, yeah. Lots to unpack there, and I won't do it. But Stephanie Barreras in goal, Karen Luna, Greta Espinosa, Kimberly, Rodriguez and Renna Reyes across the back line Rebecca Bernal and Jocelyn O'Rejell

in the midfield Elizabeth Ovae Maria Sanchez and Scarlett Comberos across a band of three nominal band of three Oval of course the sort of the talisman for this team

very very dangerous player and then Keanu Palacios at Stryker so that's how Mexico lined up you know, Ovaea, she had some moments, but a pretty quiet afternoon, it turned out.

Yeah, quiet. Because we mostly kept her quiet. And then I think it was Oviah who had some of their most dangerous chances, but just didn't quite, they didn't quite come off like they did in their two zero winning against this summer where they definitely came off.

Yeah, well, she, the one, the biggest one was, the biggest one was when she picked off that Neyer pass to Tierna. Yeah. And I kind of blame both Neier and Davidson for this misconnection. And then she got, she got it, she had it swiped away by, by Germa, who kind of wrote in and saved the day, as she does. So to the timeline. So I got, I got one right away.

No, but I've got a, I mean, 20 seconds in, I've already got one. Okay. And this was our, this was us building out of the back. And it's Germa, who we think is pretty safe. and it's just a nothing play but it's just coffee coming back to get it from her and just that misread that you see often where coffee checks back

doesn't get it from Germa right away instead of sort of holding in that space where she still has a little bit of separation she starts to check away again and she checks away right as German hits it to where she is and so coffee ends up running away from the ball and Mexico swoop in and get it and that's sort of you know I want to point it out

because they don't get they don't turn it into anything, but it is a really, uh, it's a bad mistake, right? Like, Mexico aren't really that good. We still have to say. Uh, and we make a lot of these mistakes in the game. So I just wanted to say within 20 seconds, we had our first one.

And these are the kinds of things that in an Olympic knockout game, man, you do this to Spain, you do this to, uh, Germany. Like, you're, you're asking for a lot of heat. Yeah. Yeah, there were a few of these kind of moments. Like you said, I guess, I guess at the top of the show. Who do you blame more, Germa or coffee? Both.

This one, yeah, this one's just one of those sort of flukes. So it's a little bit different of a category. There are plenty of other ones, and they probably won't all make the timeline. But there are a bunch of other versions of this where we do hit it to either a coffee coming back or a Lavelle coming back, particularly Lavelle, where it's like you have to hit it to the right side of their body because they're checking back. They have a defender on their hip, and you're just trusting. them to be able to hold the player off. And we'll either sort of hit it right in the middle of the player where the defender has

some access to it. And then you also combine that with coffee and Lavelle just aren't like impossible to get around. Lavelle, again, in particular, is like very easy to get around. She has almost, there almost isn't the right side of her body to play it to because no matter where it goes, she's so wispy that like, that pressuring defender can just move her slightly to either side and be on top of that ball. So we saw that a lot. And, you know, that'll come into my hope for the next match in the Olympics

is that Shaw starts in that position because Shaw is not in any way, wispy. No. And I guess we should also mention it, we didn't mention it yet, that probably the reason Lavelle started in the midfield is because Cat Macario is out, going to miss the Olympics with some kind of tendonitis, I guess, knee irritation, hopefully not too directly related to her ACL injury. but yeah, Macario's not there. She seemed like she was going to be the incumbent at that sort of attacking midfielder position.

She's out now. Lavelle starts the next game. I'm going to go ahead and agree with you on that. Although I thought Lavelle had several nice moments in this game. She did. For me, still not enough. And so if I just do the Lavelle bit now, she did have some nice moments. As a team, we created a lot of good attacking moments.

for her. Yeah, so she was put in position I don't want to make it too passive of like she just locked into these positions. She had a lot of opportunity to do good things and it was a mixed bag. And so my thought is if you're doing a mixed bag at the stuff

we need you to do really well, that's not going to be enough if you're also a little bit weak in some of the other areas like helping in the buildup. So that's where I'm ready to toss Shaw in there and sort of see how she does. Yeah, it's like you mentioned the wispiness,

but if Lavelle, if Lavelle had like a magical first touch, you know, she could get away with it. She could get away with being so wispy and receiving the ball in traffic. But the fact is she doesn't. She doesn't.

She like, her touch fails her in tight spots. Pretty regular. So. Yeah, I mean, we talked about it after the South Korea friendlies. Kat is the player who I would trust the most in that scenario to be able to collect a ball with that player directly on her hip.

And now we have to figure out which of Shaw, Lavelle, gives us a closer version of that. Because I remember that because I was scandalized that you didn't think Shaw was good at it. But I think upon further reflection, I realize you were right. But I do think Shaw is better at it than Lavelle. Yeah. I think Shaw will at least make it more difficult and essentially, like, if she doesn't keep it clean, she won't just let the other team run right past her and be running right at our goal

as she's taken out of the play completely. So she'll at least turn it into more of a battle. Yeah, okay. And again, and I also think Shaw would be good in the situations that Lavelle is also good in. You know, when we do find Lavelle in space and in that sort of downhill running mode, Shaw is also very good in those situations. so I don't think we lose a lot going from Lavel to Shaw, even in those scenarios where Lavel is good, and I love to see Lavel thriving in those spots.

Yeah, I agree. So two-minute mark, going back to the timeline, Nice Wonger is like just trying to keep a ball in bounds down on the left side, and she just plays it way down the line. Swanson tracks it down into the corner and finds Horan kind of streaming to the inside. Rand touches around a defender and finds Sophia Smith at the penalty marker. So where this starts on the left sideline moves to the inside. This is a kind of a perfect example of what you were talking of the sky afts you were talking about earlier.

Smith patiently finds Rodman to her right and Rodman just can't beat her defender 1 v1. And it gets tackled away from her. Falls to Rose. Rose plays a little slip pass to Emily Fox who's overlapping. He crosses, it's deflected, but falls to Smith. Smith swings on the half folly as it bounces and the keeper saves it. So, I mean, a pretty decent chance for Smith after all the kind of, you know, all the things that happen in the sequence.

Yeah, there's some real naive stuff from Mexico to kind of give, give us this to, to let Mal run that ball down in the corner. They just sort of switched off, maybe thinking that Nice Warner wasn't going to keep it in play and that it was going to be an obvious throw in. and then as Mal got there, Mexico turning their backs on Heran to let Horan just get it for free in that space. And then Horan kind of has a mistouch. And I thought that that was one of the other themes of the first,

almost the first 50 minutes of the game is really imprecise from the U.S. as we were trying to do these things. So it wasn't always executed particularly cleanly as we had ideas to try to execute. Yeah. Was the field a little sticky or something or just, you know, sort of random acts of sloppiness happening out there? I felt more of just a random acts of sloppiness. We always, what was funny is our body language, like, we always looked assured of what we were trying to do.

We looked confident as we sort of, like, totally mishit a pass. And again, there are still differences in, like, watching us attempt to hit the right pass that you can very clearly see on television. is like, oh, yes, that's the right player moving into the space and we're trying to hit them in a nice, nice like combination movement. And we just, you know, miss it slightly compared to some of what we've been watching in the past. I have no idea what her options would even be. I don't know what her choice was trying to accomplish in the moment. It's always bad when it doesn't even look like she has a chance to, like, go back to the goalie and reset.

Like, we were just in that mode for so long that just to see the, the small group choreography existing at all is a nice, nice change up. Yes, I agree. It is, it is, I don't know what the sort of general fan feeling about it is, but it does, well, it just looks so much better to me in so many ways. I don't, I don't know if that's like what everybody's talking about these days, but that's what I'm talking about. Welcome to my podcast.

All right. Shortly after that, Fox gets put into roughly the same spot by Rodman, and Rose meets her cross at the 6th with her head. Another kind of diving but comfortable save from Barreras. We're moving forward with the Lackardy at the four-minute mark. Nice, Wonger, in-swinger, on the run. deflected out to Smith. Her shot from the edge of the box is pretty comfy for Barreras,

the goalkeeper. But the nice thing here again is that that's literally three consecutive possessions for the U.S. Going from the one where Mexico kind of fell asleep, their keeper puns it out. We control it. Again, a nice switch from the keeper punts it down to our left side of the field. A nice choreographed switch to the right side of the field to open up that space for Fox's cross, which is a decent cross. Again, like we had her in behind everyone who got Mexico tracking back, so Fox swinging it in is a decent choice. and then Mexico's keeper punts it out again,

we control that again and come right back through Nicewanger's side and create that Sophia Smith shot. It just, again, there's a real purpose and a real intention to work the ball forward as a team and get into the box, again, three straight times. This is solid stuff if you're looking for it. Nice Wonger's choice here on her, on her foray forward. Didn't love it. Like this is one of the ones where you pause it and you just,

you do kind of wonder what what her calculations are here because she just she just decides to hit it in the box to nobody and it's a Mexico player just kind of weakly clears it and Sophia just yeah Sophia just collects it and takes her touch and uh goes for the worldly nice one we had a few of those I would say she's she's got the she still has that in the the the lumping instinct I think a little bit that's and that's my that's my thing on her right now is that she's not she's not adding good good math, uh, in the,

good calculations, um, in possession. And she's, she's a little bit, I mean, she plays a little bit small in defense. So again,

for me, it's like, okay, well, if you're, you're not just going to be an absolute monster defensively, then you got to be something special or,

or something positive going forward. Uh, and I thought, mixed bag going forward, though, don't you think? Because sometimes she soccer's, sometimes she lumps, but.

I'd give her that. I would, no, I'd give her. that. I think you're right on that. I mean, even in this play, like, she starts it, uh, or, you know, she keys the sequence to move forward. Um, the camera work is atrocious in this game, by the way. It feels like you're watching like a mid-2000s college game where they, close, they, they switch to close-ups at the wrong time and then linger on the close-up, like, after the ball has left

that player's foot. They like, stay on them to watch how they react to their past. And that's what happened to your nice, longer hits a, what seems to be a really nice vertical pass into somebody's feet and then moves really well off of it to get it into that position. where she hits across to nobody. So she does have that soccering instinct in her. Yeah. Okay, eight minute mark, a very professional foul from Sam Coffey on OVA

after a nice, longer giveaway. No yellow is given, but this is a yellow card foul, and Ovaee protests. It's just early enough in the game where you can get away with it, I think. It was just subtle enough of a tug. Yeah.

I suppose. A messy stretch in the 11th minute. We get the Tierna giveaway in the middle, just a bad pass from deep. And then Rose gets mugged in the box facing our own goal. I'm like, come on, Rose. We can't be like dilly-dallying over that. She is saved by coffee's clearance

because the ball kind of squirts right across the center of the penalty area. Coffee runs over and clears it just before somebody gets to it with a maroon shirt on, I guess. Yeah, and so we should point out here, Mexico are intent on making it at least challenging to play through them. I know they're like in that sort of 4-2-3-1, but a lot of their times their defensive shape almost looks like a 4-2-4, where their two central players don't actually go up and press our centerbacks. They're two central players start as the highest players, but they actually just lock on to Horan and coffee. and then they're wide players come around the outside

and start to gradually press the centerbacks. So they get very narrow. And we were inconsistent in finding Nye Swanger and Fox in that big open width that was left to break through them. So again, we put a lot of pressure on our midfielers because we tended to try to play into them. And again, the results were mixed and it created a lot of ugly soccer for kind of the next 15, 20 minutes.

Yeah. We did have, so here's another ding on Nyeswanger, but it starts nicely from the team. It's about the 12-minute mark, a nice vertical pass from Heran with her left foot, sort of with a defender on her back, plays it to Swanson. Swanson takes a good touch and then sends Nicewanger down the flank,

so making that, I guess, third run. she gets her ball across completely wrong, kind of doinks it right at the keeper, maybe hit the turf or something. I believe she was trying to curl it to Smith running at the gold mouth, but it is, there was probably a higher percentage option

in that case, I would imagine. I like the option. Sorry, Belle, sorry to wrong foot you here. That's okay. I was pandering to you, and then I, so I deserve it. It's exactly the right option. Like, Sophia has the step,

but the trajectory has to curl around to her. You know, you have to bend it around those backs. And I, from the way she's shaping her body, it looks like she's trying to. And she just, she just fails at it, which happens. And sort of pings it straight to the keeper. But yes, this, this.

Perfect choice. Like I'm trying to tell you. The build from Horan here is the, is again, just like the cheat code that we have against the team that wants to press us. So it's, I continue to say that it's going to be so interesting to see how teams handle us. because you can try to press.

And unlike Lavelle and coffee even a little bit, who don't deal with a player on their hips so well, Perrin is so right at home with a player on her hip. She wants you to come right up to her so she can just get you just to overcommit just the slightest little bit and you can't get around her. And then she hits a blind pass. She already knows where everything's going to be

up to Mal Swanson's feet in a bit in a giant pocket. And then Mal, again, tremendous. technique here to control it, shift it slightly to almost create that little seam and hits a brilliant ball. I don't know, I feel like this is a new thing that we see from Mow. And I don't know if it's like she's added it recently

or again if just the change in coaching approach and style has opened this up for her. We've seen this number of times now where she's hitting people in the seams to put people in. So love this little against a press, two passes, and we've got nice, Wong are trying to feed Sophia Smith in the box.

Yeah. Yeah. And if, you know, to your point about how our team's going to handle us, if people try to press Horan like that, I mean, when she's able to complete a pass like this one to Swanson, it basically opens up the whole field, you know, so. Not just opens up the whole field, but again, opens up the whole field for Mal Swanson, Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman. And that, in Roselvel, too, or Jaden Shaw, whoever it is.

And that is, that's got to be, I reiterate, that is terrifying. Yeah. 1325 mark, great ball from Germa for Smith down the channel. She rounds Barreras and just can't find the open net from a tight angle out to the right. It would have been an outstanding finish. I don't, it's not like a big ding on her that she misses the frame. But the thing that I, one thing I noticed after watching the clip you posted in the Discord is, how many times Germa had to dribble and sort of, I don't know if she was making motions with her head,

to get Smith to make the run, you know? It's like Germa, Germa starts with the ball at the edge of her own 18, and she kind of keeps dribbling on a diagonal line towards the midfield touchline for, I don't know, 20 yards. And it seems like the whole time she has in mind that she's going to pass it to Smith. And Smith kind of, Smith does make the run, and it's effective. but it could have, I think she could have made the run a beat or two sooner. So what's insane here? What's insane here is that like,

German just knows that this is on, even though it's not on. Like there's nothing about Mexico's positioning here that suggests we should be able to beat them with the Sophia Smith direct run. Like, uh, and again, the beauty of this as a U.S. fan is that this is what Sophia Smith gets you. We didn't see her play a lot of striker, uh,

over the past four years. but now that she is, you don't need, I mean, we just talked about the last sequence, which was two passes, and then Nice Wonger's going to play Sophia Smith into the box.

Who needs that if you can just do it in one pass? Like Naomi Germa, we didn't break their press. We literally just say, all right, Soph, go. And she's being, you know,

bracketed by two centerbacks and at least against Mexico's centerbacks, uh, like they aren't strong enough to disrupt her run. You can see one, the one that's tightest to her is trying to like, stiff armor to keep her from, going. But as soon as that

ball's hit, like that's it. The ball side centerback can't cut catcher. The goal side centerback doesn't even try. She basically retreat straight to goal and takes an angle where she's completely given up on even defending Sophia Smith

and she's just going to go protect the goal. And then the goalkeeper makes kind of a probably a rough choice to come all the way out to the edge of the box with no chance at getting there. And she's just going to try to defend Sophia Smith's 1V1 at the edge of the box. which is not, I guess you could say it's a winning choice and she pushes her wide enough that she misses an open goal. But it's more just getting a little bit lucky.

Yeah. And I mean, don't sleep on the ball itself. Oh, yeah. It's really like perfect, perfectly placed. Absolutely. And it's again, it's one that we were, I think, both optimistic that we would see this kind of thing happen from an MAA's team. Like, hey, if you can hit it into the space like between. I mean, again, German in this case,

hits it into the space between the center, back and the sideline, but perfectly curls it around, so it ends up being a central, the ball ends up being central for Sophie to run onto. Brilliant pass. But it's such a, again, it's such a cheat code to have this option.

And, and again, goes back to how will teams defend us? If you try to sit up high with us, you can be in good position and still get beat by Sophia Smith. Yeah. I can't imagine.

Do you think we're going to get pressed a lot at the Olympics? I honestly do. I was playing against the U.S. Yeah, I guess I'm not sure. The Netherlands came out and did it, you know, in the World Cup. Sweden didn't sit off of us necessarily. So I don't know how teams will adjust for what worked against us under Vlato versus how much sort of they're going to worry about what an Emma Hayes team

will do to them. And obviously, we've added Swanson back to the lineup. Yeah. I mean, I guess the calculation would be, okay, if we press, we might get beat over the top by Sophia Smith, but at least we can force one of their fullbacks or somebody into a mistake and get a goal that way. So I guess, yeah, I don't know what exactly people are going to do.

21 minute mark, the lovely move up the right with Rose's little outside of the boot past Rodman for that cutback. This is just a lovely pass from Rose. So the sequence starts with a ball from Germa into Rodman's feet. We get a third runner in Lavelle as Rodman lays it off for Fox. This kind of classic pistoning action. Rose runs on to the pass from Fox. It's all, I mean, it's all very slick.

And then takes a touch and then slips Rodman into that cutback zone with the outside of her boot. Just perfect weight and curl on the pass. Kind of no look, too. it's all very, there's like a suddenness to it that's just lovely to see. And then Rodman cuts it back for Smith, who meets it first time as she's falling down a bit and just hits it right at Barreras, unfortunately. But this was our best move of the game up to this point, I would say. Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

And this is, I want to say this is the nail in the coffin of the U.S. being a zero pass ahead team, where our players sort of thinking zero passes ahead. This was slick. And with six players involved. Could, I mean, could it, you know, just a slightly different contact would have been a goal. So 23rd minute, Ovae steps in front of that casual neir past Tirna out left. Everybody's just a little too slow and careless here, I think, except Germa who steps in and smashes it away from Ovae as she's about to shoot,

kind of a little bit of a heavy touch from Ovae A right to set up her shot, I would say. Yes, yep. This is one where Ovié bails us out. On the XG scoreboard, Mexico get nothing here, even though if Oviah just decides to shoot instead of taking that last touch that ended up being a bad touch, it's a, I mean, it's a very good chance. Yeah. You really like her chances from that spot if she just shoots instead of,

I don't know what she's trying to do. Like, I could either shoot now and just try to beat Neyre, or I can take it at Naomi Germa. Yeah. All right, 24th minute, Rose on the counter. sent free by Swanson, cuts in it. So, I mean, this is sort of a back-to-front move, cuts in, and sort of floats it out to Smith on the left side. Smith and Rodman are both out there with one defender, this total transition moment. And then Sauf gets dispossessed,

dispossessed trying to find a shot. Rodman collects it and tries to curl it in at the far post, and it's just wide. But another really good chance, this one. when a bunch of Mexico is way up on us, I think. Yeah, they took a short corner, and Nice Wanger does, actually some tremendous work. I said she played small, and maybe it's because just the aesthetics of it, but she's actually, like, goes to ground early and then takes, like, three touches to dispossess Mexico while she's on the ground and, like,

is doing some kind of a circus, circus breakdancing move on the floor to defeat it out to Swanson, who, again, just hits this brilliant. Brilliant. I mean, she has a ton of space because it's just Lavelle racing free down the right side with no Mexico players on that half of the field. So she can put it anywhere. But she again, just hit. She knows instantly, all right, we are running. She feeds that ball out and off we go. Again, we've had a couple of these in the Hayes era where like on the other team's corner kick, we get out running the other way. And it is, it's nightmare fuel. So Sophia's going. Trinity and, I'm sorry, Lavelle is going on the ball. Trinity and Sophia are both. cooking of the field and we find both of them free on the far side right if this ball doesn't get collected by sophia is rolling to trinity who's also free and mal who started the play is up the closest player of the goal by the time sophia shoots it so mal's run 95 yards to join in this and beats every mexico player to the to the goal line so it's just it's it's a little bit i mean i guess you want to say it's a little bit unlucky that we don't get a better shot out of it but it's

It's a great racetrack moment for the U.S. Yeah, it's a great template for how to, you know, how to score off when the other team has a set piece in your end. I just wish Smith, you know, Smith, Smith is a cheat code in a lot of ways. Like, beating a player 1B1 is not really one of them. Is it? It can't, I mean, it can be. She's just such like a wrecking ball. She's such a little bowling ball.

Like she's got that thing where the other player will get like a tackle on touch on that ball as it's at her feet and she still usually somehow ends up with it. This one just didn't shake out that way. Okay. I want her trying. Unless she has a wide open square to like Mal coming on the weak side or a wide open slip to Trinity as the defender closes her down. I want Sophia trying to get that shift and shoot moment. Yeah. I mean, foreshadowing.

But yes. So 25th minute, 26th minute, we get Fox. What the hell passed to nobody. I mean, it wasn't to nobody. It was to, I think she was trying to spray it out to Rodman, but she just played the past was like four yards off. She just chunked it, right? She like punched it with her foot.

And I don't know what technique she was trying to do, but like her foot just didn't go the way she thought it was going to. Yeah. And then Horan kind of a what the hell passed to nobody turning instead of that beautiful left-footed pass that she played to Swanson, sort of roughly in the same area of the field. She tries to, like, she uses her right toe to, like, sort of lift it. But there's, like, three Mexican shirts there and not, and one white shirt.

So, and then, yeah, this is when they have that, immediately have that cross into the box that Camberos takes down in front of, Fox and Garma and Fox do manage I mean Garma does plays the key role here kind of poking it away to Fox they do manage to dispossess her and then Swanson plays a pass

25 yards backward that gets cut out then comes back and fouls Sanchez for a free kick there's a good delivery and it skims just ahead of a Mexican forehead and the danger zone so Neer collects it on the bounce but three straight kind of like what the heck is going on here ladies kind of moments yeah in Mexico turn it into some danger again that cross in over Germa is a real dangerous moment

credit to Fox and Germa for snuffing it out and then just a little bit of luck on our side that Mexico don't nod that free kick home and I'd say between the Oviah chants from earlier and in this little sequence this is where it's like Mexico can score on us like Mexico can do this if we keep sort of handing these these looks to them yeah yeah Okay, 30 minute mark. A quick restart. Swanson and Smith catch out the Mexico defense on a throw-in, and Smith is in on goal.

Can't quite keep her advantage over Espinosa, who tackles her, the ball spills out, and this was sort of, there were a bunch of car crashes in this sequence. Ran runs into a defender and the goalkeeper, as she's trying to get to the ball, and then it squirts away from that pile up, and coffee clatters into the goalkeeper again. goalkeeper goes down holding her head

which was fake her head didn't get hit at all look it's hot out there you need some water your head hurts it makes sense yeah yes another one where sof doesn't make the most of her right she gets sort of leaned into

from that weak side defender on the wrong side of goal and she doesn't hold up well enough under that under that weight and we don't really get a good shot off when we really should because it was a really heads-up play on this throw-in. Yeah. So lucky for the Mexico goalkeeper, there was a water break after that for Bareras. And then things are a little messy for a while,

but we're still trying to pass through them on that right side, which is great, in my opinion. Ovaeia gets fouled by Nicewanger in the 39th minute, sails the free kick over from 25 yards out. 44th minute, the ref fails to give advantage as Lavelle goes running free down the right after Rodman passed from White. I mean, she was just, she was going to be just as free as she was on the one when she hit it over to Smith and Rodman that one time.

The refused, but the riff went back and called a foul from like 30 seconds earlier. Like, what the heck? You see, so our players are obviously furious. Emma, they cut to Emma talking to the fourth official on the sideline. And the fourth official, I'm certain reading her lips just said, we messed up, which is basically all they need to say, right? Like, yeah, we messed that one up. It happens. Like, what can we do?

We blew the whistle. We can't make it right. So, you know, like, sorry. And Emma wasn't particularly bothered by it. She wasn't. She wasn't. She was sanguine, as they say. It's a friendly, right?

If that happens in Paris, probably people will be a lot more. distraught. Yeah. Then Ovae gets a yellow card going to ground from behind Swanson and kind of rolling onto the back of her feet, which, you know, Swanson just kind of looked her, gave her a dead eye look. And, yeah. Then Rose loops a free kick well out of bounds in the 47th minute. Need a little bit or better from her on deliveries, a little more consistency than that.

And the half arrives. Let's take a little break. We'll be back in a minute with the second half. Okay, we're back. Hayes said it after the game, we made some good adjustments at the half. What did you see? Did you see, what did you think the adjustments were? So the one, she laid it up pretty specifically.

I'm sorry, she didn't lay it out specifically because she was being very intentionally coy about it. But the big picture, obvious change was moving Horan upfield and just leaving coffee back as a single pivot in the buildup. I would sort of disagree that it was that it had a particularly good effect again for the first 10 or 15 minutes it was

we had a lot of difficulty playing out of the back from that setup and it kind of put a lot of the onus on Fox and Nyswonger and they weren't really up for it

so I didn't I mean I didn't think it was a it was a great outcome for future reference, but things improved basically after the goal. Yeah. Yeah, I wonder if we could get,

still get Giselle Thompson in on the over there right back. I, you know, I'm not giving up on Emily Fox. I think she, you know, she's had a bad run, but... She's had an average run. I mean, that's kind of what I'm saying. It can, I mean, I, I guess I'm quibbling. Like, you could call it a bad run,

but her defense was actually very good. Like, she was on, because I wanted, I was ready to say she had a bad run as I'm rewatching this, right? I'm like, man, add something, please, Emily Fox. But then also, on numerous occasions where we had clown shoes, she was the player back there, making a real good last-ditch play that prevented any kind of a shot from developing,

which is how Mexico can end up with 0.1xG on the day. So it's very much like she is doing some of the defensive stuff really well. In possession, she is just still looking lost. So if Emma Hayes is going to do the fullback whispering we need, she's got to do it for Emily Fox on the possession side. Yeah. It does not seem. I guess what I'm thinking is it does not seem like a hopeless situation.

I think Fox can play a lot better than she has played for kind of a while now. Um, 47th minute. We get a chance for Swanson. Rose plays a vertical pass to Smith. Smith eliminates Rodriguez on the turn. It's really slick. It's also kind of poor from Kimberly Rodriguez defensively drives and then slips Swanson in. And this is a, I mean, this is a golden chance.

I mean, the shot is low and wide at the near post, but she is in on goal. The angle isn't perfect, but really good stuff from us, I think. So this is a perfect sequence because it hits all the things we just said. This, this play starts with us building her on the back casually to Nice Wenger on the left sideline and she just drives the ball directly into the Mexico defender six yards off of her and it turns into a chance for Mexico coming back at us and they hit a ball on the ground to a forward trying to slash in between Germa and Fox and Fox makes a really nice defensive play. Like Fox breaks it up, uh, coffee slides it out to Lavelle and now

we get to transition back in Mexico. So now we're in our wheelhouse. and this is how it keys the Lavelle pass which was a little bit off like it was not perfect the work between Lavelle and Sophia but Sophia does her little like touch that looks like a mistouch but still manages to eliminate the defender

and that's what frees her up to look downfield but yeah so all the things present in this one sequence I like the choice from Smith to slip it for Swanson too it's really really good yeah yeah again when so if Sophia's doing this and she's done it now for consecutive windows.

If she is that threat on her own and she can be this little setup player, which isn't necessarily something that I would have said she could definitely do. Even as we were clamoring for more soccering, it was always like, I don't really know if Smith can do that kind of soccering, but I want that soccering going on around her. If she's pulling strings like this at the level she has been for the last couple windows, again, we are in business here on this end.

field. It turns out she can. Turns out she can do this stuff. Like to pass the assist to Swanson. Yeah. South Korea and Mexico. We got to keep some powder dry here. Okay.

Yes, sir. Then we went in the press. Swanson over to Rodman, shot wildly off target from the edge of the box. I kind of want to say something about Rodman. Watching her in this game was kind of frustrating for me in possession in the attack. but as I as I watched, you know, made it through the second half and tried to watch pretty carefully. She does so much work defensively. I know other people have said this before, but she is, she does so much other stuff besides the stuff on the ball that I really appreciate.

But I do what she would be a little less sloppy with the shooting, with the, you know, with the passing, I guess. the choices right when we get it out wide to her again she could because she's so impressed because she can hold the ball like at will for as long as she wants to it becomes almost more frustrating when she makes a choice like oh you didn't have to do that

you had so many other things that you personally Trinity Rodman are capable of that other people aren't yeah this was a this was a good moment this is another Mexico naive one this trend of the sequence that leads to Trinity shot they're taking a goal kick they set up really

strangely for it. They hit it long, but you know how you put like your two players in the box just right next to the goalie? They had that going on, but then they had another player also on that same line, like at the edge of the 18 for some reason. So that, that, I don't know what that player's purpose was, but it was hilarious. That's what they had. And then hit the ball long, not particularly long and coffee just pinged it right back up so when you freeze frame it it's going to Lavelle at the top of the box

and we have five U.S. players at the top of the box and Mexico's defenders are not even like halfway out of the box yet so it's a terrible moment for Mexico and they kind of get bailed out because Lavelle's touch is horrendous she's like one touches it five yards behind Lindsay Haran I think she's trying to just set it for Horan to run forward onto and she pings it all the way back to coffee.

But anyway, just another weird moment from Mexico. They got a lot of credit, I think, for their win against us as being like this, you know, really organized, hardworking team. But they are kind of a mess a lot of the time. They just wrote some variance in that one, you're saying? I mean, they, a little, I mean, definitely a little bit of that. But they got some things they got to clean up for their buildup to the next. next cycle.

Yeah. Okay. 49 minute mark, coffee gets wrecked after a poor touch. Swanson picks it up and we have a nice sequence ending in a nice, Wonger cross that's blocked out for a corner. I don't know. Where does this Nice Longer Cross fit into your matrix? I don't love it.

So right when Mal hit this, I don't know that she was even hitting it to Nice Wanger. She's driving towards goal in the right half space. But it's nice that we have, again, it's nice that we have so many attackers running forward in these moments that, like, you miss one, and the ball's just going to carry to the next one. But she starts, nice one. Again, starts out by playing soccer.

It gets to her at the corner of the box, and she doesn't just drive it in. Like, she hits it to Heran's feet, which I always like having the ball at Lindsay Heran's feet. And Heranne hits this nice little, this cute little, like, four-yard chip, which is just, again, a silly choice. And then a set of one that I really appreciate to Rose Lovell in the box. so we're still doing a bunch of soccer stuff in the box. This is where I wish Lavelle, rather than giving the onus to Niswanger, she's got it with no one on her. Like, stop, pivot, face the goal, and, like, play a little soccer with Sophia and Mow.

Rather than be like, all right, Jenna Nyswonger, you take the ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because once it gets out to her, she doesn't have a lot of options, so trying to just curl it in. We have numbers in the box. It's not a terrible, terrible idea. I just wish we would have kept it with Lavelle in a tighter radius to the goal with Horan, Sophia, and Mal. Okay. I'm getting greedy, right?

Well, okay, on the set piece, Rodman nearly steers it in with the outside of her boot on the volley. And it's just in a crowd. And it's just nicked wide of the post by her marker. This was close. I think if that doesn't get that slight deflection off the Mexican boot, it's a goal. And then 52nd minute, Horan gets it on the roll from Neyer,

plays Smith in down the left. Just, I mean, she's running free pretty much. She cuts in and her shot is blocked by the keeper. Then she collects it with an empty goal and just can't quite bring it down and settle it in time and has it tackled off her.

Yeah, she doesn't collect it very well in the second one. But this is another one where we make a mess. trying to build out, right? The reason Neyr has this ball to collect is because Fox, Lavelle, and Trinity just combined really poorly playing up the right side

under what shouldn't really be considered pressure, right? Like we weren't like in a tough spot. We played ourselves into a tough spot. And it's the spacing between the pieces, you know, where these, we're making these longer, these longer passes along the sideline, which allow, you know, as the ball's taking longer to get there, Mexico get to close down faster.

no one has the wherewithal to find the actual opening left by Mexico's pressing players. So we are playing ourselves into smaller and smaller corners. And it ends up being Lavelle hitting a pretty bad pass to Trinity. That sets Mexico running at us. And then, yeah, the Hiranda Sophia Smith shortcut is outstanding. Yeah. Was that, how good of a ball was that? my memory fails me.

I'm calling it. I mean, I'm kind of, it's hard to tell because of the camera zoom. It's an incredibly easy once. Heron's under no pressure when she gets this ball from Neer. So credit to Neier, this is, her distribution was mixed for the evening. But this is just another like really naive setup from Mexico

where their fullback on Sophia's side is just eight yards higher up the field towards, nair than their centerbacks are. So Sophia just gets to get a 12-yard head start on a player who she would only need a... She wouldn't even need a head start. She could start in a deficit and she'd still get past her. But it just turns into it like comedy. I mean, the fullback doesn't even bother trying to catch it.

She's just like, I hope the centerbacks can get there. Okay. And then, yes, Sophia creates her own shot and then totally bottles her chance for the second shot, which should have been a relatively simple, like, settle one touch into the nearly open goal from the keeper's first save. Yeah. Okay, 55-minute mark. Nice from Ovay, from Mexico to backheel, Luna in on the overlap.

She fizzes it across, and this is another great moment from Emily Fox. She does extremely well to get to the spot ahead of Keanu Palacios, who is arriving to hit that ball into the goal. There you go. So that's Fox. She's been on, she's been defensively on the spot all match.

Yeah. 59th minute, Robman plays a hospital ball back for a giveaway. Like I said, kind of a messy game from her in some ways. But we can deal with it, at least against Mexico. And a lot of the good stuff we're doing in possession

is happening around Trinity as well. Like that one, well, I don't know about a lot, but some of it, at least. That one, the sequence we talked about in the 21st minute, which was the one that put the nail in the coffin of the critique that we can't.

Sock, we can't think a pass ahead. She was, you know, part of that. So the Trinity giveaway here, again, some of this continues to be on, this one isn't really on Fox, but like the Fox Trinity side of the field just is not working for me in buildup. And like, as hard as it is, like, it improved quite a bit when Sonic came on. And I don't know if that's because Mexico also made some changes, and they were now down a goal. But our buildup down that side, definitely calmer and more composed with Sonnet and Trinity than Fox in Trinity.

Interesting. Yeah. It's not what you like. You'd rather just have Fox like eliminate that franticness. But you know what they say? Facts don't care about our feelings. We're still waiting. Still waiting on that freneticism to ebb.

61st minute chances are starting to stack up a little bit for the U.S. Robman wins it in the press off of Sanchez, straight to Smith, who turns and slips Swanson in expertly. Swanson rounds Barreras, tries to slide it in at the near post and is denied on the goal line by Bernal. Oh, wait, Swanson was offside, so wouldn't have counted anyway. But it's nice stuff. Yes, absolutely.

again, shades of the earlier Sophia Smith pass in to Mal, shades of the South Korea goal from Denver, where the same thing happened. 64th minute goal, USA. As is so often the case, the move starts with a good Germa pass. This one finds rows out wide in our half, and she hits a right-footed pass down the line for Rodman.

Turns and plays a right-footed pass down the line for Rodman. Rodman beats the left back to it. Of course she does. And it's a cut back for Swanson. Swanson, patient in the box. You know, takes a couple touches, slides it over to Smith. Just doesn't see a window she likes for shooting. Slides it over to Smith to her left.

Smith dances in on her right foot and then curls it in at the far post. It's a lovely goal. It's that sort of step to the inside and shoot that you were talking about earlier. Yeah. one zero yeah she's got sophia smith has a great shift and shoot uh she can do that all the way up to like 19 20 yards away we she had just had one moments earlier that was saved and then again bottled the rebound but same kind of concept here um just create a tiny window to shoot through and and then hit it uh all the pieces leading to it were were really well executed decisions

um that rose pass really impressive uh to put it beyond full nexos fullback again Again, I think Mexico's fullbacks in this game were just below the, below par. So that's going to be the big change as we level up to the Olympic competition. So it'll be, it'll be the challenge to find ways past better defenders. But really a great buildup here for this Sophia Smith finish. Well, the thing is we're not going to level up against Costa Rica. or at least Costa Rica is not going to be any stronger than Mexico. So hopefully we can compartmentalize in our minds a little bit

what the different opponents are going to be like. Subs, like you said, Sonnet came on for Fox, Albert and Dunn come on for Haran and Nyswanger. So both fullbacks and Haran get some rest. Maybe, and maybe, you know, who knows, maybe Sonnet is in contention to be a starter ahead of, Fox. Probably not, but we'll see. We're still very patient in possession. Also, you see a little of Albert's bite in midfield right away, winning the ball, finding someone's feet in a scramble.

I thought this was one of her better performances of late. That sounds right to me. Yeah, she's definitely good at the thing she's good at, and running, like, clattering into people is a strength of hers. Absolutely. I mean, I mean that respect to me. Yeah. Seventy first minute, Germa finds coffee's feet in a pocket. Good movement from coffee here. It plays it up to Rodman. It's clipped into the box for Swanson. And she, I mean, this was going to be lovely.

She back heel flicks it into Smith's path. And Espinosa just gets to it a moment before Smith does. But the whole combination was really, really, you know, excuse my French, sexy. Well, and this is what we need, right? We need a bunch of these kinds of sequences and we're now getting them. and that's what we're all here for. Yeah. So that said, I'll go real fast through the rest of the timeline.

Starting to carve them up, Albert to Swanson, Swanson turns and plays a good through ball to Smith. Smith hits the post. That's in the 73rd minute. More good buildup finds Swanson in the box. She lays it off for Rodman at the 74 minute mark. Mexico's closing speed is significantly slower than it was earlier in the game. She has a free hit from 20 yards and misses the frame badly with her,

left foot. Did you have anything to say about that post hitter in the 73rd? No, no. We are just, we're cooking. We are literally cooking and we'll compile all these for the Discord to just watch over and over again because again, this is the kind of stuff that you just love to see your team doing. Yeah. Lynn Williams comes on for Smith and Jaden Shaw comes on for LaVelle just in time for a water break. And then Smith and Hayes had a lot, a long chat on the sideline after she came off. And it seemed like they, it seemed like it was pleasant for both of them. Yeah, definitely, I feel like everyone would have noticed this.

But it did seem very positive and like definitely like a lot longer of a chat than a sub usually gets to they come off the field, right? Yeah. I mean, some teams, the player, the coach doesn't even greet the player when they come off the field. Right. Right. Right. It's left to the assistants. Yeah. So I would love to hear what Emma was saying. I would do. Whether it's just like, hey, all the chances over there, whether it's like, hey, we need a little bit more focus so more of those chances turn into gold. Like, what was going on?

I don't know. Yeah. I wish I knew. Croy Bethune comes on for Swanson. It's a debut for her, the Washington Spirit player. and that's pretty cool. She allowed herself. She was stone-faced when she came on, but couldn't completely suppress her smile. And then she waved at somebody, just a quick smile. I didn't think she had a great performance, to be honest,

but, you know, she gets a mulligan on the first, on her debut, I think. Yeah, the first one's just a celebration. And then I don't know how much more we're going to see from her and how much how much will we all take from anything we do see from her ahead of Paris should note like I feel like we had talked about this I didn't want to even bring it up because part of it is also

kind of feel like we jinxed things but when they announced the roster and the alternates I swear we did like if something happens to cat or Rose or Shaw we didn't expect to see Croix Bethune replace them in the full roster I feel like we were all just like it will be Lynn

the striker coming in for a playmate. Yeah. Yeah. So we might have also, we might have actually jinxed cat there. Yeah. I mean, on the evidence of this game, I don't know if, yeah. Well, I'll just keep moving here. Bethune does get a chance at the 82 minute mark.

Rodman cuts across and finds Albert's feet. She's patient and lays it off for Bethune, who shoots from 20 yards. And it's wide. It's not that far wide, but it's wide. Pretty cool. And then 86 minute, Rodman Cooks. She megs somebody under pressure down on our sideline. Really lovely stuff.

And it is to poke it up where Williams can compete for it and win it into the corner. And then Rodman flies into the box and kind of Croix dummies it to cut back into a dangerous spot when it comes from Williams. There's just nobody there. I think Croix was the closest white shirt.

But we get the reaction shot of the U.S. coaches on the bench from the field level camera as Trinity Megza player. And it makes, again, that's really what we're here for. That's what it's all about. Are those clips. Yeah. Okay. Final whistle. And I, you know, I thought it was a solid win, just not on the scoreboard.

Yeah. I mean, it's solid if you think about our attackers because of how good they are. solid when you think about what Germo is doing with her passing up the field. Tirna has a couple of moments where she steps past the Mexico press, which I think is important, even though it doesn't always make a timeline. But there's definitely enough there to be worried

about what we kind of can self-inflict to give another team chances. And it's like you're watching, you're watching like these incredible attacks, on this half of the field just waiting for these players in the back who are kind of struggling. And it's going to be really tough if we crash out because some of our fringe players are like gifting the ball away. So we're going to have to solve that and either change what we're asking them to do or change the players we're asking to do it, I think. Because that was a lot.

I mean, that was too many. Like for me, that's too many opportunities that you sort of gift wrap for Mexico. Yeah, that's fair. fair warning. While watching our attackers is an absolute joy for progressing in a knockout tournament, we've got to solve a couple of these things. It really is about, you know,

if we've learned anything in this past month, these tournaments are about buttoning it up. Yeah. Okay, anything else, Greg? Let's, again, I know Costa Rica's not going to be the biggest challenge, but let's swap out our goalkeeper, both fullbacks.

And Lavelle for Shaw. Okay. That's what I want. I'm in. I'm in for that. So that would be... Start Don at fullback. That's another thing to note is Dunn came in as a fullback and then played super high up the field, just ridiculously high of the field as the left side of fullback when she subbed in.

So Emma had been using Dunn off the bench as an attacker, listed as an attacker in the Olympic roster, but came on as a fullback here. and I say put her at fullback to start the next game. Okay. Yeah, she was really high up the field, which confused me because even though I put in the notes and said out loud that she came on for Nicewanger, I kind of forgot that she came on. That's the fullback.

Yeah. All right. Well, we'll recap the Costa Rica game at some point. And then it's the Olympics, guys. you know, two weeks from last Thursday. No, I'm just kidding. First game is on July 25th. That's right, isn't it?

Yeah, right, 25. Against Samia. 29, and they're all reasonable times to watch after the World Cup of middle of the night stuff. Yeah. First game is July 25th at 3 p.m. Eastern Time, 2 p.m. Central. versus Zambia. And it's in Nice. Should be a nice place to visit.

Some of you are probably going there. I haven't checked for you. I haven't checked the temperature yet. In Paris in 2019, it was like historical heat waves. So I haven't looked at what July in France is going to be this year. But we're getting close to have a forecast. Historical heat waves in France are. child's play for us here in the U.S.

though, right? I mean, no, it was legit. It was like 99. It was upper 90s. Okay. To make a soccer reference. Yeah, it looks like they're getting some 70s, some 80s, and some 90s all over the next week.

You know, here in Central Iowa, I'm here right now, too. It's pretty hot. It's pretty hot. 10. We are triple digits. All right. Hey, thanks everybody for listening. You know, join us on the Patreon.

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