Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #518: Olympics — USWNT v Germany recap

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

A very good performance against a very good team, and the first big win of the Emma Hayes era. Greg and Belz recap it in some detail. 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. Boom, boom, boom, boom. We'd like to save the Acapella intro for the big wins, and this was a big one. A legitimate opponent, a serious contest against the fourth-ranked team in the world. Came out and scored an excellent early goal, absorbed an equalizer, came back and put three more on them. I'm flying. Greg, how you doing? Bell soccer is a party, as I like to say, and,

If you had forgotten that, I feel like yesterday, the entire day, was a great reminder of what this is supposed to be like to follow the sport and love it. How'd you like that late Japan winner? I mean, Japan. Japan scores two goals an extra time. Their Olympics was on life support. The Zambia game against Australia was a circus in the best possible way. and then we got to watch the U.S. women play like some lovely stuff, a really good, a really, I mean, a pretty solid soccer contest against a good team. And one that, you know, the score line might be flattering a little bit, but it's like it was just a really good performance from us.

And we came out of it with a really nice 4-1 win. Yeah, not that there's nothing to work on, but it does, it feels like that Emma's got the front three humming. more and more every time they go out, there's still more, there's still more, there's still more they can give us, I know. But that's only because they're so good to begin with. It is fun to watch them play soccer. Yeah, it really does feel.

I mean, there's definitely things we can do to get better. We are, but again, the nice thing is, you know, we've seen things in the past five games since Emma's taken over, like, oh, they could get a little bit better at this. And then what's amazing is like the next game, they're like a little bit better at it. They do. They do actually get better at stuff.

What a world. Yeah. Well, we were talking, what was it, like three games or three games ago? We were talking about the patterns need to be a little cleaner. The decisions need to be a little smarter in the final third. The comebacks, right? They definitely have gotten better on both fronts. Yeah, team wide, team wide, like not just the player on the ball, like picking a better execution.

But, I mean, last last match we were talking about making the, that sacrificial cutback where you make a run, you know, when the ball's getting to that zone, somebody might have to actually run themselves out of scoring position just to draw the attention, draw the block over to force them to respect that area instead of just hoping that the ball gets to your foot. And we saw within a couple of attacks early on, like that exact run being made, nice little dummies and scoring chances and eventually goals come from it. Yeah, Mal Swanson making a extremely sacrificial near post run on the first on the first goal, which was, I don't know, that was pretty cathartic for me to see that goal.

I scared the daylight, the living daylights out of my kids when it went in. Because it was just perfect. It was like everything about it was beautiful. Never would have happened in the Vlocco era, it feels like. No, it just didn't exist. That whole sequence didn't exist in Vlako's era. And again, we're set, what? eight games in to Emma.

It's six, but now we're guaranteed to at least have eight. Okay, I see. She won't be fired before her eighth game. Now, this time I could go on for three hours if I let it. So let's get right to it. Unless you got any other opening thoughts? No, no, let's get the timeline. Because, again, it's so fun now to actually talk about the plays that we're seeing.

Yeah. So lineups first. Yeah, it's the same lineup that we played. against Sambia. And so it's Nearing goal, Fox, Germa, Davidson, and Dunn across the back line. Dunn seems to have it seems like she's

the starting left back in a first choice lineup over Jenna and Icewarner, which I think was some question about that going into the tournament. Seems settled now, and I'm happy with it. Dunn's been rock solid, I think. Coffee,

Horan, and Lavell in the midfield, and then, of course, Rodman. Sophia Smith and Mal Swanson across the front line. Seems like this is the unit for this tournament. I mean, there probably will be some rotation against Australia, but Dunn is clearly the first choice over Nyswanger, and Shaw is out with a muscle strain,

which means Lavelle is getting the nod at attacking mid. Shaw didn't dress for this one again, and so Bethune was back in the game day roster. It'll be interesting to see if they can get Shaw back to fitness. And then, yeah, even if Shaw does get back, I doubt that we swap her straight in at this point. One, because she might not be 60, 70 minutes fit, and two, because Lavelle's been doing a solid job in there. Certainly had some nice moments against Germany. Yeah.

I think people were just going crazy about how good they thought she was in the scuff Discord server. I did not see that. I thought she was, well, the thing I liked the best about her is how she hustled back on defense. I knew you were going to. I knew you were going to love those. A couple of them. Who doesn't love it? I didn't love how necessary it was in those moments.

Sure. But I do really appreciate it because we need it. I mean, coffee and Horan are not exactly the best at putting out fires. I mean, they're decent at it, but like when that fire is running away, away from them. They don't always have the speed to catch up to said fire. So it was definitely, it was definitely like Lavelle or no one. That's true. Yeah. Yeah, it's wonderful that she's doing that because I didn't think she, I mean, she did have a couple nice touches, like the interplay leading up to the first goal.

And the interplay leading up to the chance right before the first goal. Yeah, that's the best part about that first goal is like it just replicated itself. Yeah. But in both cases, Lavelle was crucial. crucial and her movement and her first touch pass. You know, she was solid. She was solid. All right. Germany, it has Anne-Catrin Berger and goal.

Julia Gvin, Catherine Hendrick, Marina Hegering, and Felicitas Rouch across the back line. U. LeBrand, Janina Minga, Alexandra Popp and Clara Buell across a band of four. and then I don't know how to say the first name, but Shilke Nuskin and Leia Schuller as the strikers. Now, Pop, of course, is a striker, but because Lena Oberdorf had an ACL injury a couple months ago, I think,

or not even more recently than that, right? It was very recent. Yeah, yeah. Just play it. So Pop has to go back and play the six, which is not ideal, I don't think, from a German perspective. and Yulea Braun, she was kind of the danger person for Germany in the game. I just want to say quickly, from this 11, they have eight players playing in Germany,

so four at Wolfsburg, three at Byron, one at Freiburg, and then one at Chelsea, and then the goalkeeper Berger plays at Gotham, and left back Rauch, who got picked on by Trinity Rodman all night, plays for the North Carolina courage. Just give you an idea where their players are coming from. To the timeline? Timeline. All right.

Early on, actually kind of nervy at the beginning of the game. We allow a whipped ball in from the left. It's cleared nervously by Dunn, and then recirculated and then a whipped ball to the backpost from the right side, just beyond the reach of Schuller. But Germany, you know, Germany's trying to score goals here too. and having some success at building up chances.

I mean, having some success at just whipping in hopeful crosses, Germany. I mean, that one, the second one was like a foot from getting, you know, from Schuller getting a foot to. But yeah, I guess you could call it hopeful. No, it did. It gave us the appearance of being a little nervy back there. I'm not going to disagree with that. Okay.

So right at the three-minute mark, some high drama. Pop, playing the sixth, like I said, for Oberdorf, out of position nearly gives it away with a back pass, I think in the direction of Hendrick. It kind of skips right over Sophia Smith's foot. She's ready to pounce. So Germany avoids a little catastrophe, and then about 10 seconds later, they get a massive chance

on a very similar situation. Yule LeBron reads Lindsay Horan, a book. So she receives a pass, I believe, from Dunn, and then just blindly plays it back to Davidson. Braun knew that is what she was going to do. Herand didn't check her shoulder. So Braun pounces on it. She's running at Davidson full speed. She kind of spins her back and forth a couple times and then goes onto her left foot. Instead of shooting, she plays it, slides it over unselfishly to Schuller, who takes it first time, has a lot of the goal. to shoot at here and hits it right at Neyre who's diving down to her left.

It's just a terrifying giveaway from Lindsay and a gift for Germany. Very relieved it didn't result in a goal. Yeah, and shame on anyone who at any point has doubted to listen to Neier in the last two years. Any person or people, any podcast host. Any new listeners Greg is mostly referring to himself, I think. I have issues with Nair's positioning generally, but this was an outstanding save.

Was it? Yeah, I'm going to say it was. It's just, I mean, it's doing everything right and then hoping the ball hits you in the ball hitter. Okay. That counts in my book as a goalkeeper. That counts as an outstanding save. The Hurrayan giveaway is baffling.

I guess when I rewatched it, it actually made more sense. I actually thought that she clocked that runner and actually set her up to chase. Like, I thought she was essentially, in real time, I thought she sort of showed her hips, like she was going to hit that dropped fast to send the striker chasing it. And then was going to just open back up field, you know, with all the time in the world,

like Horan does because she has outrageous situational awareness. That's like her magic power. So she, you know, sends the player running behind her towards Davidson. and then now has the field open and she starts to open up and then just hits the back pass anyway. But no, on rewatch, she didn't check. She didn't actually know that's what she was doing. And so she just completely rewarded the German hustle and industry.

And yeah, then you're like nervous because the player's running at Tierna and not Germa. Like if we're going to do that, we just pray it's Germa that's doing the 1B1 defending. She gets TIRNA a little bit crossed up. Germa may be overcommitted a little too soon to come help and leave her player, but it's a real tough call because if you don't go, you're just like, well, I guess we're going to put it on Neyer to save the other shot from eight yards out.

Like, it's a shot coming from eight yards out either way. So, um, yeah, it's super dramatic. And, um,

again, this is, this is very much a ball go in moment for the U.S. where we're, we're all yucking it up because we've got this four one blow out of Germany. Uh, but what happens, right?

if that ball goes in. Yeah, if Germany score three minutes in on this situation. Yeah, I guess I acknowledge the point that Neyer did everything she could in that situation. And the ball did hit her. But, I mean, Schuller will want that chance back, right? I mean, any soccer player in that situation who doesn't score, it's like, well, I had a lot of the goal to shoot at. So, yeah, it's a, is a huge missed opportunity for Germany. and we probably deserve to be down on zero at that point.

Yeah, and again, just we've been a team of whoopsies for a while now. That hasn't gone away in the Emma era. It's not usually Haran doing the whoopsian, so let's hope that she gets her stuff straightened out for the knockouts. That's an interesting thing about this game is Haran, if you'd have told me before the game, we'd beat Germany 4-1, and Haran would have her. probably her worst game in the shirt, what, for two years?

I mean, it's been a while since she's played this poorly. As she did as she did in this game, I'd have been like, you're crazy, no way. But. Right, right. We did. So much, so much of what we've been doing well has relied on the little things that Herand does. Right. And yes, this was, this was, I would say, by far her worst game.

She sets, she usually sets a really high floor performance-wise in a game where we are are trying to possess and doing it well. So this was uncharacteristic. And that is for me again, that's the good news, is that we did this on a Horan off day. Yeah. And I don't expect there to be another, I mean, not a Haran off day of this caliber, again,

not anytime soon. So there's going to be more negative Haran stuff, and it's coming at you. Seven minute mark another giveaway from her, which is going to compound the criticism from the earlier giveaway. This one not nearly as costly because we got a lot of shirts behind the ball, and it's an attempt at a line-breaking pass.

Then another Horan giveaway. She tries a lofted ball at the back line. It gets headed past... This isn't a giveaway exactly, but she tries a lofted ball at the back line. It gets headed back past her to Bron. And then two things happen. One, Horan doesn't even try to recover.

I mean, she is the nearest person to the ball. She doesn't really even try to get back. I mean, she sort of... She starts jogging back. but Rose Lavelle just sees what's happening, books it past Horan, and runs Brand all the way down, pokes it away from her to Germa

and draws a foul on brand. So, yeah, Haran not recovering and Rose LaVelle doing everything she can to recover. Pretty interesting to me. Yeah, so the Hurran not recovering, I mean, I kind of get, like, I'm not trying to give her a free pass. It's Haran not also realizing that that is about to happen.

Like she tries to clip it forward and it doesn't get headed over her. It gets headed like past her. And the attacking player runs right off of her hip and Horan just kind of allays her and lets her go through. I don't know if she thought that Fox was there to just clean it up uncontested. Like this is where again, Horan's job then is to be like, well, I'm not going to catch this player. So I better just wreck her as she runs right past. to just kind of give her that free runway

through was crazy. She does look over her shoulder and then puts her head down. So I do think she has this instant reaction, like, oh, no, there's no one back there. I do think she thought that she could just let everyone go and Fox would just pick it up. But Fox wasn't there.

Fox had already moved. So I guess it's just another like poor awareness moment for Lindsay Iran. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. her to think that there was, you know, to assume that Fox was going to be there. But, but I mean, if we're going to dwell on the positive, it's Lavelle, um, you know, doing the lunch pail stuff. Yeah.

That's really good news. I mean, and I mean that sincerely because, uh, you hope she doesn't have to do of it that much, but it's such a bonus to get that from her in that position. Yeah. And in these big, these big games, like a couple of those plays, uh, will matter.

He matters so much. So nine minute mark, we get our first bit of cut and thrust. from the USA. It's keyed by Lindsay Horan. So we've got to remember she's also doing good stuff in this game. Rodman squares it for Haran.

She's under duress from Pop. And she just does this sort of vintage for Haran stuff. She holds her off and turns sort of completely eliminates Pop who is, you know, a formidable person physically, you know?

And she turns, finds Rose's feet. Rodman races down the line and Rose plays it neatly into her path. Robin is past Rausch and she cuts it back to the penalty marker. Swanson smartly, in my opinion, dummies it near the penalty marker and skids through to Dunn on the other side. She takes a touch and shoots and it's blocked. But this was slick on the right side and something we know we can go back to.

Yeah, a really good buildup into a really good, like, fast attack where it's very deliberate. And then you get that nice judo moment, or I'm sure, watching some of the other competitions at the Olympics to roll. pop over her. Her ain't even like goes to goes to a knee to get that leverage to get that low man wins. And and yeah, that's what that's what you need from her, right? And that's what you expect is her to do that stuff. Really nice touch from Rodman on the Lavelle 90 degree pass to to put it out in front of her and get going. And then yeah, we get we get, we get Sophia pinning the centerback and then Mao slashing hard to the ball. Not necessarily like total sacrificial run here.

Like she could be beating someone to the spot to score. She's in a decent scoring range. But just the decision not to wait for a ball to come to her, but to move into towards it, towards that window, I think it was important. And also necessitated her to dummy because there's no way she would have been able to score that

with it coming as hot as it was coming. Yeah. Really hard to get your feet right for that kind of thing. Well, we go back to the, we go back to that. that pattern immediately. And it's a goal, a lovely goal for the USA. So it starts with the ball getting cleared to Davidson.

And she and coffee just kind of settle it, you know, mundanely just inside Germany's half. And then it's over to Germa to Fox on the right side, up the line to Rodman, and then a very similar pattern to the one just a few seconds earlier. A Rodman, one touch to Rose inside. Rose touches it in behind Rausch again

for Rodman as Rose kind of gets gently clattered into and Rodman is racing to the cutback zone with the ball Swanson makes that hard near post run which we talked about which is absolutely crucial here

and Rodman clips it low just behind her and then Smith I mean you watch on the replay her movement is really good too She's coming at the backpost, but when Julia Gvin loses sight of her, she ghosts in on her right shoulder, you know, as the ball is coming across.

Just like, it's a poetry to watch, and she just meets it with the inside of her left foot. Basically a tap-in, but a lovely, lovely goal. Yeah, that's one of those where you watch it, you know, you want to watch that five, six times, and each time just watch, the interactions between a separate pair of players. And it's like it's Sof and Mal, it's Trin and Rose.

But then it's also, it's very much Sof in that fullback. Because, yeah, Sof goes, Sof starts out like way wide, wide of the box. Yeah. And she just slashes straight at the far post, right? She's going straight to goal. And you see the, you see the defender like check over her shoulder, sees that Sof is going as hard as soap is going. And you have to respect it because if you don't go with her right then,

you'll get beat to, like, Trin could just put that ball behind everyone. Sof runs into it free and taps it in. So that defender has to commit as hard as she does to just run at her own goal. And as soon as she starts doing that and faces the goal again, Sof cuts like plants and cuts in horizontally across the field. And at that point, she's definitely going to beat her man at the spot. And as long as the ball arrives, Sof's going to arrive. And you get just a brilliant tapping.

Yeah. I love that kind of movement from a striker. Any attacker, really. Well, how were you receiving this goal when you saw it for the first time? Because, I mean, it's a lot of the stuff, you know, I mean, we're just a podcast, but we have been talking about this stuff for a while, some of this stuff. Yeah, this was like, yeah, this is running around your house, right? This is, it's middle of the day in Iowa. You're just, you're just running around the house celebrating like a fool.

Because it's so, like, it's so fun. It's so fun to see this play out with these players. Again, it's like after the cycle we kind of watched where we played so little actual soccer when we had the ball. To see both of these sequences play out in a row, right? The one that led to the done shot, Germany clear it. we immediately build this next sequence and score on it in a really pleasing, aesthetically coordinated fashion. What is not to love about this? Like,

it doesn't mean you watch this and say, this is it, we are gold medalists. I mean, I obviously am saying that I did when we scored it. But, you know, we're not.

We could lose in the quarterfinal still. This doesn't, you can be this good and you can be doing all these things right and you can still lose a soccer game. But, well, if we, we're not going to, we're not going to lose because we are just

leaving so much soccer on the table. Like we now have all these good players. This is a good team we're doing this against. This isn't, I mean, respectfully, this isn't Costa Rica. This isn't Zambia. This is Germany. And we are still doing it and we can do it. And the players are getting a taste for it.

That's the other fun thing is they are having fun doing this. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. To go from feeling like we were just underperforming so dramatic. dramatically with the talent we had to this. I mean, yeah, we are winning the gold medal. We are back.

It's over. All right, one zero USA. So we start, after the goal, kind of start controlling the game, patient bit of attack. I mean, it's not over at all. Like, Germany is definitely still in the game, but we feel, it feels like we're confident. We're controlling things a little bit more. Smith gets into the cutback zone on the left side, wins a corner. We do kind of a slick short corner.

Swanson accepts it short and then dribbles sort of back away from goal. And then a really nice little reverse pass to Rose, who's cutting into the space vacated by the short cornerers. And she crosses it at the near post. Coffee gets a foot to it. It looked like to me, and then it goes off of Berger's chest for another corner. But, you know, it's a decent chance. We pointed out these reverse passes too

And the reverse passes like that That's how you know the players are feeling it Like those little things where there's there's such And you can't make that pass Without like the understanding of what we are doing It's going to affect our opponent You know that anticipatory like This movement that we are that we are doing

As a small group of three in the corner Is going to force Germany to do this And it's going to leave them exposed right here And I'm going to trust that my teammate is going to move into that space and I'm going to be able to hit that pass. Like, you have to be thinking and executing all those things ahead of time for that reverse pass to exist. And again, it's just another sign that we are doing those things.

Yeah, it's a, I mean, it's a credit to Emma, right? I mean, really. Credit to Emma. And again, just an affirmation that the gals are capable of it and always have been. They didn't, they didn't like, they didn't need to wait. year have a World Cup disappointment to know to to figure this out it was just they someone just needed to ask them to do it or demand that they do it. Wonderful.

Fox bullies, brand in the 14th minute and takes the ball from her in the open field. I mention it because Fox did this a few times. Vince mentioned it on the call-in show. He called it her, her mozy, like where she would just kind of mosey her shoulder into you a few times just to get enough of an angle so she could take the ball off you.

She did this repeatedly, and this was, I think, the first time I noticed it. She was excellent in this game. And it was very noticeable. And it was all these little defensive jobs that she was doing. She still hasn't been like a game-breaking, attacking player for us. And I don't know if she ever will be. But she wasn't like a mess in possession. And, you know, we've been giving her credit for what she's done defensively in the past several games.

And that was still there, again, against a team like Germany. And she was fine. She was like a sort of she's a stay-at-home right back at this point in the Emma system. And she seemed fine, keeps possession moving. And very important defensively in this match. Yeah. I feel like the entire back four is very solid. I mean, Germa is, I mean, what do you even say about her?

She's so good. She's so good. She's got to be the best center back in the world, right? I mean, she's the best one I watch regularly because I don't, I don't, Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah. A lot of the French league.

Right. So yeah, Germa, what do you even say? Just almost another nearly flawless performance from her. But I think Dunn's been really good. Davidson was good until she got hurt. Hopefully she's okay. I guess she's going to be evaluated on Monday. That's today, actually, evaluated today.

Smith shows how many weapons she possesses in around the 15 minute mark by just receiving the ball on the left sideline cutting in and then whipping a ball through the penalty area just outside of the reach of Rose Lavelle. I mean, this was close. It was not far off from a connection.

Yeah, foot closer to Rose and it's a deflection for a goal like a couple of feet closer than near post and Sof might score it herself. Right, right. I guess I don't know if she was shooting or passing but don't really care. The point is she just can collect the ball

in a non-dangerous situation and totally make it dangerous all by yourself. Yeah, foreshadowing. There's be a little bit more of that later. Swanson chases down a heavy coffee through ball and then dribbles along the end line in the 16th minute and tries Berger from a tight angle. Fairly comfortable save.

Maybe could have passed it. I don't know. Didn't look like anything was obviously on. A little spell of possession from Germany. at the 17 minute mark, across is flicked on, out of danger by Davidson. It's out to Smith,

and she holds off Hendrick, draws a yellow card. So, I mean, gets cleared out to Smith. She holds off Hendrick, draws a yellow card on the center back, who had a tough night, I think.

She had a tough assignment all night long. It was a sliding challenge from behind, and because Smith was off to the races. Yeah, and again, it's just a perfect example of, like, this is a nothing play that you'd expect to send her back to

this should be their bread and butter to eat this kind of thing up. And instead, she was barely able to even foul Sophia. Like she, it was very close even if she's just trying to drag her down to not even being able to do that. And this is the kind of danger

you can just instantly put into your 11 by just putting Sophia Smith on the field. Yeah. She's so strong in the holdup and uses that power to like, to turn. and go, you know. It's not just holding it up and passing it backwards.

21st minute, which would be fine, you know, that's a normal part of soccer. 21st minute we have a little trouble playing out of the back. Fox plays it back to Neier, and she plays kind of a scary pass on the ground up the gut to coffee, who is sprinting desperately back towards it to get to it first. She sprays it out to Fox, and then it goes, she plays it to Heran, and Iran's like, screw all this, and she just kicks it out about. for a throw-in, but a little bit of a little bit of worry there. And then it unfortunately leads to a Germany goal.

So 21-minute mark, Roush takes the throw from the left side after her hand bangs it out of bounds. Minga backboards it to her, and then she plays a kind of a crisp pass into the center of the park to Alexander Pop. Coffee reads it, you know, coming from the top of the box, but she's a beast. late. She puts her foot through Pops' ankle or foot just as Popp flicks it on to Nuskin at the top of the box. I don't know how much Pop intended that pass to go to Nuskin or what because she went down, you know, clutching her ankle immediately.

But Nuskin takes a touch and passes it backwards to Gwynn. Actually, the pass is to Vinn's wrong foot. You know, she wants it on her right foot, but she takes a touch with the outside of her foot, puts it right foot, sets up a shot. shoots from 25 yards or so. And it's a goal. It goes through Davidson's legs, which I think gives Neher some,

some, what is it, deniability here. But it bounces twice before it goes in the net. So I don't know. You're the guy to answer this question. What do you say about Alyssa on this one? I don't think I got a good angle of her positioning from all the replays. She has a tendency to hug her near post, but I didn't see anything suggesting that she was really tight to that left,

her left side post to allow this. It's just, it's just a tough one. I mean, it sneaks just inside, just inside the far post. And it does go between Davidson's legs. So,

I don't know that I even say she's unsighted here. She probably sees it the whole time. It's just a lot of ground to cover. A longer keeper might get to it, to be honest. but, you know. It was extremely well placed. Well placed.

Hit hard enough. Even though it bounces twice, it's still hit hard. It's just low. It's just a little grass cutter. Yeah, it sucks because it didn't feel like that dangerous of a situation that we were in. Even as they find that player, she collects it 30 yards out and has to shift it over and shoot through a body from that far. So, you know, what do you do? I guess what you do is eventually get your own super unlikely goal later in the match.

Right. Maybe even more unlikely. But I guess I'm saying, I didn't think there were like a series of breakdowns from the U.S. Even to allow this shot to develop. It was, we felt like we had it buttoned up and then suddenly the ball's in our goal. Yeah. Yeah, I guess, I mean, coffee did seem a beat late on a few instances, which, I mean, we've, you know, she's not an elite athletic figure. she's out there for her smarts and her work in possession,

her industry. So I think she's going to be a beat late sometimes. You know, that's just the kind of player she is. Yeah, and again, just to defend her a little bit, she didn't even like allow a pass. Like she just fouls it. She fouls German here and the ball basically just deflects off of the German player falling down and goes to the German player's teammates.

So it's not like she, you know what I mean? Like there's, if I'm assessing coffee, There's like a difference in how I grade that out. She let a ball slam into the German player nearest her, but she didn't like get beat by a move, and then that player then found the space behind. It's just, it's basically a deflection. It turns into a little bit of slop that Germany capitalized on.

Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. 25th minute, we get a chance. Rodman gets it. She's facing up Carla Buell and stop starts past her with ease. She can do that anytime she wants to just about anybody. She plays a good pass across the face of the centerbacks. Between the midfield line and the center back line, I mean the defensive line, to Smith just above the arc.

Smith dribbles to her left and pokes it to Dunn as she's tackled. Dun sends a ball into the box for Haran. So kind of just lofts a ball at the back post. Haran deftly heads it down, deftly heads it down into Lavelle's path. Lavelle takes it on the half-folly and just gets it wrong. goes skyward. Lavelle had pulled back to the top of the box looking for just this opportunity.

So it was all sort of by design. Yeah, it's a lot of intentional, a lot of intentional decision-making and execution. Yeah, I like the choice from Rodman. I like the, I mean the variation in attacking approach. You know, she can go right at the end line. She can play a pass across the middle. And then, of course, love the knockdown from Horan. So, you know, we dinged Horan a couple of times.

and I think the dinging is deserved in this match. But again, she had some key moments too, and even though Lavelle skies this ball out of the stadium, the laydown from Horan is really smart, really good soccer here. 25-minute mark, goal USA. Davidson dinks it forward. She's just cleaning up a loose German touch in the middle of the park, just kind of clears it forward.

It's sort of curling one of those balls that when it hits the ground, it spins in a funny way. And it lands right next to Smith and Hendrick. And Hendrick kind of misplays it, probably partly because she's got to deal with Smith at the same time. It goes off her back. And then Smith kind of collects it on her chest, brings it down on her left foot. And Hendrick cannot jockey Smith out of what she wants to do here, which is to dribble to her left and eventually shoot.

and Smith does that. The shot is from the edge of the box. It's okay. Pretty close to Berger, but Berger dives and can't catch it. I think she tries to catch it, right? That was her problem. That was her mistake.

And it spills, and Swanson pounces immediately. You know, Swanson is just everywhere and laces it under Berger's outstretched arm. Yeah, so Hendrick has a nightmare here. Because she has so many different ways

to deal with this that she doesn't end up doing. The other thing, though, is Germany should know better. You're watching Hendrik as this ball's bouncing, and there's three German players around, Hendrik's the deepest, which is the problem. Everyone should be like, oh, that's Sophia Smith. Like, Hendrick's good. She's a starter for Germany, but that's Sophia Smith.

We need to assume that Sophia can do something here and force a mistake. So there was a little lack of urgency from Germany for too long. and they waited until Hendrick had actually had the whoopsie and then they all kind of kicked into gear and it was just too late to catch. So for that point and honestly you've given Mal enough of a head start too because Mal's not waiting and you don't just catch Mal Swanson.

So that's how Mal can beat everyone to the rebound is everyone's late to everything as they were watching to see if Hendrick would deal with it. They must have just assumed Hendrick would deal with it? Yeah, and she should have. I mean, she should, but you got to, like, you know, we talk about with Barbara Banda. Like, you don't, you just don't. You don't assume that even a Naomi Germa will just solve it.

You, you add insurance all of the time. And if you don't, she scores another hat trick. You might beat, you might beat them 6'5, but you just do not give Barbara Banda or Sophia Smith the opportunity to be one-on-one against you with a goal on the line. Right. So it's 2-1 We'll get immediately another patient chance On some quick passing from Smith, Swanson, and Horan in the box It's not something we need to go into great detail on

But just seeing that right after we go up 2-1 against Germany I'm in heaven I'm in heaven 32nd minute we get cut open a bit down our left side It's a really nice move from Germany To be fair Brond and Gvin Some good one-touch passing

And then a one-touch pass from Nuskin back to Gavin, who's running at the goal. I do think coffee maybe gets caught in No Man's Land a little bit here, and Huran isn't going to cover very well. So those seem like sort of minor problems to me, but Gwyn shoots from the edge of the box, it goes over. Maybe I thought of you on the replay when I saw Germa do a pretty good job of cutting off the far post angle on the shot. Maybe I'm imagining that, but I... No, I think we can give her credit for that. I think she's got the... Like, again, that awareness to know how to help her goalkeeper

take away as much as goal as possible. Coffee gets wrecked in the 34th minute, leads to a German counter and a little sustained spell of pressure. The key moment was probably Yule LeBron traveling across the top of the box and then trying a lovely little knifed through ball to Schuller. Germa reads it, though, slides and deals with it, deals with it.

Just an incredible player. I think Schuller might have been offside, too. So I guess what I would just say here again, jumping in is this feels like an even soccer game. I mean, it's great that we're winning. It's great that we've created the looks we have. But it has felt like a somewhat evenly matched game for me. Yeah. Which, again, I think that's great.

I think that's great. I think we don't get enough of these kinds of games. So I love that we are, love that we're getting to watch our team play against another top team in the world. Yeah, I think it wasn't, it wasn't even game. Maybe, would you say it was even all the way through? Did it feel, I mean, but by the,

after the Williams goal, it felt like they were, their spirits were broken a little bit. Oh, for sure after the Williams goal. I mean, I guess I would just say it's like, it's an even, you're watching a good game against really competent teams. and then it's just like we have that front three. Yeah. It's really what it starts to feel like.

And Germa. And Germa. Yeah. Okay. Another nice tackle from Lavelle on Brond in the 36th minute and we're off to the races. Man, it occurred to me at this point. You mean you just do not want to be pushing for a goal against us. Swanson carries it forward.

Then down the line for Smith. Her cross is not at away, but we're back to attacking. 39 minute mark, not a goal. great game so far from coffee, but she makes a good tackle on Brond, who seems to be continuously rambling downhill at us from the middle third. Right. I feel like this is where I started to wonder if teams just look like they're always

running downhill against us because our midfield is coffee and heran. Like, I'm at least wondering that. No, it's something I'm wondering too. They've got a little bit of a downhill slope to them. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not like there's any, but it's not like they should be benched either of them, you know?

You just got to bake that in, and that's why you need your attacking mid to do some dirty work sometimes. And that's why you've got a Germa. Yeah. And a fox. Fox was fantastic. Yep. And somewhere in here, Davidson gets fouled pretty hard by Brand, I think,

and she ultimately has to come off with the knock. Sonnet ends up replacing her in the 44th minute. But first we score again. We do a short corner in the 44th minute. Lavell and Fox and Swanson. Over to Dunn more in the center of the park. She lofts a ball at the back post. It's headed away.

Out to the kind of the corner of the box. Smith goes over to it, tries to kind of slap it on the half folly with her left foot. I don't know if she was trying to shoot or pass with that, but she misses mostly. She still manages to track it down in an extremely non-threatening position. Back to goal. Corner of the box. You know, the box is full of both teams at this point.

But when she goes and tracks it down, she turns Nuskin on her back, just a lovely pirouette. Just a great little pirouette. Yeah. Like a quick little cut touch, you know, off the kind of a half-folly touch. And Roush lunges, so she takes a couple touches in and shoots, Roush lunges to get a foot in the way. and what she ends up doing is deflecting the shot,

which arcs over everybody, over the goalkeeper, and then in off the tings in off the far post. Totally unstoppable. A bit of luck, but you can't say Sophia isn't making her own luck here, too. Yeah, yeah. And again, it's just a matter of Sophia. This is another thing I wanted to comment on. Sophia's body intelligence is so good

that she can make up for so many, like, mist touches. touches that should end, end any, you know, not just in the box here, but like at midfield, you know, a ball comes in and it's like, oh, well, she popped it up to herself and it's like, oh, she's just adapted to this new situation and will out leverage the player now again. So does the same thing here with the whiff to start things and then just like, well, I whiffed that time. Now I'll get this player on my hip, get her leaning just a little bit to the outside and spin her into the middle and then I'll get my shot off. Yeah, not much more to say on the Sophia shot. You did say that this goal happened before Sonnet came in,

but it was after Sonnet was in because I just love Sonnet. She caught my eye before the clearance. Like as it goes in first, she cuts into goal. Like the first cross comes in from done, right? Sonnet makes, like it goes over her head. And I'm just, I love watching the intelligent movement of players in the box who have like that sense of the play is still alive. You know,

certain players just always the play is alive. So as it goes over her head, she immediately like curves her run around, loops around to shape the goal and be ready for any ball that clears out. It clears out the other way. She's now, you know, she's at the side of the goal

that the corner was originally taken from. Germany's header goes out to the other corner where Sophia collects it. And you just see Sonnet just say totally dialed in and she's got this one German defender on her still. And she actually like post her up and starts backing her, into the goal line, which does so many good things.

Like I'm watching this like, this is fantastic. Like, it's going to keep everybody on side as she brings this other defender all the way to the goal. She's just screening the goalkeeper like a player in hockey at the crease. So if we do get a shot off, Sonnet will be just an absolute disaster to deal with. Anyway, I mean, it's nothing. It didn't end up mattering at all. But I love watching players do these kinds of really smart movements in the box.

in these scramble ball situations. Yeah, I love that stuff too. I totally missed that. Obviously, I didn't even think Emily was on the field. So, yeah, well done, Emily Sondit. And I, you know, to speak briefly about her performance in general, I didn't even barely clock her the rest of the game, you know? I mean, there was a little bit here and there,

but she was totally, totally adequate against a very good opponent at centerback. So that's another really good thing, I think. That's what she is on this roster to do. Be totally adequate at one and a half to three and a half positions. Rodman puts Hegering on the ground in the 49th minute in a way that I think bears mentioning after a clearance and then slides it over to Sonnet. You know, it's another one of those just balls bouncing away from the German box and she just puts her shoulder right into Hegering. she's just bullying bullying Germans out there.

I mentioned, also in stoppage time, 49th minute, I guess, 45 plus 3.5. Great speed from Germa to recover when Brann tries to put, Braun tries to push it past her. And I said in the last episode

that Germa doesn't always look like she's fast, but in this case she did actually look fast. She's fast. She's obviously fast. Yeah, because it seems, It seemed like it seemed like Braun had it. It seemed like Braun pulled off the move and got Germann to the outside to the sideline and got the ball to the inside and had the had the positioning. So, uh, real important that GERMA was able to do this.

Yeah, it was a little bit like in the Princess Bride when the, when Wesley says, I'm not left handed either, you know. It wasn't really like that at all. I just came to mind. But yeah, she's, she's, man, what a player. 51st minute, a good chance for Germany. Again, up our left side, maybe coffee's recognition is a little slow, but Gwynn and Braun combined pass done. I don't think Crystal did anything wrong here.

Vinn is running onto it towards the end line. Coffee is chasing. Gvin whips in a gorgeous ball onto Nuskin's head between the penalty marker and the six, and she just heads it wide from close range. But this was, you know, she scores this. Nobody is going to be surprised. I don't think. Right. And again, it's just a reminder of how competent Germany are.

We're in our 4-4-2 shape here at this point, just probably trying to see out the half. And it's like Mal gets caught a little bit watching where they pull her up field, hit the ball in behind her. Dunn comes up to defend her player. And then as a player from the next layer back starts to run past Dunn, Mal doesn't track it. She's not playing like a forward instead of playing like the left-sided player in a 4-4-2 that we kind of needed her to in this moment. and we just, I mean, we get away with it, but it's going to be something to watch to see how, how focused our players are in that 4-4-2 block

because Germany are competent, but I still don't know that they're as ruthless or as deliberate about exploiting those mistakes as like a Spain will be. Yeah, Spain looms. It's all about Spain. I'm not trying to, I just use Spain as an example. No, but yeah, they're the, they're sort of the gold standard right now.

Yeah. It could be Japan in a knockout match. Yeah. Okay, that's the half. We're going to take a little break. We'll be back in a minute. If you want to skip all the ads, join the Patreon. The link is always in the show notes.

We're back. It's 3-1, beginning of the second half. 47th minute, we get to see something I love, though I didn't come off. Fox sends Smith into the space between the centerback and the right side line with a kind of a actually really nice ball through the lines. And Smith is running in the box

with the ball. Hendricks, you know, totally flustered out of sorts at this point having to deal with Smith all night. And she's giving Smith a little more space now. Smith, she's not like right up to her. She's just kind of tracking alongside her.

And Lavelle is arriving inside Smith to the, like right at the top of the box coming in from the right side. and Smith tries to cut it back to her. It's just the exact right choice, in my opinion, because Rodman hadn't been able to shake loose of her marker running at the gold mouth. Unfortunately, Hendrik's trailfoot catches it

and cuts it out, which is a little unlucky, I think. But, man, I love that choice from Sof. Yeah, and again, just an example of how lightning quick it can be for us to just be knocking around the back three that we build with, and one of them can just hit it between Sof and the sideline. And, you know, what's the sentiment? centerback going to do. It's like, okay, well, I can't take it from her, so they just will have the ball now at the edge of the box.

And hopefully we get numbers back to protect. And all four of our defenders can hit that pass, too. I mean, that's another thing. Another Rose tackle at the 48 minute mark. Running back to poke it away from Pop after Rose had given it away in Germany's defensive third. Buell gets a little look in the 57th minute Like a look on goal Cutting in from the left on Fox Just doesn't hit it very well 58th minute Buell does Fox again And plays a ball across the box

It's collected by Brand And she shoots through Dunn's legs It doesn't look all that dangerous But it does hit off the post It did seem like Neyer had it covered probably We're going to say she did Nair was heroic in this game, so I'm giving her all the credit. Okay.

59th minute, Horan plays Rodman into the corner against a set German defense, and nobody tracks her a bit sleepy from Germany. I wonder what you think happened in this sequence, because they just, like, forgot about Trinity Rodman for a second. She strides along the end line and then fizzes one through the six. We've got everybody attacking the goal here done, and by everybody I mean Dunn and Swanson both. Dunn is there for the tap-in, I think.

And Swanson is just charging pell-mell at the mouth of the goal and kind of jockeys with Dunn for this to get to this ball. Swanson gets their first. Maybe they put each other off a little bit. Swanson's shot goes wide. But they had both beaten their markers to the spot. On replay, I see it did take a little deflection off the near post-defender, which probably put everyone off.

I mean, definitely put everyone off. But really, really dangerous, dangerous stuff from us. Yeah, and you know what I'm going to harp on is the four-player diamond we built out on that right sideline to put Trinity in that position. I don't know how Germany lost Trinity specifically, but I doubt they would have lost her if Fox and Lavelle hadn't also been there tapping the ball around with Haran. Right. So, again, just the night and day difference. because this wasn't even the first move on that right side. Like it just started out with just Lavelle Haran and Trinity out of the corner of the box first.

And they had a little attempt to go forward. And when it didn't come off, instead of just kicking the ball into the box, Trinity does a nice little back heel to Heran as she's drive, Trinity drives the end line, back heels to Heran. Instead, again, instead of Heran clipping that wide open ball into the box, normally we would have done. It's just like, no, it's just come out here and play more. and they just all play, and it's delightful and fun,

and we end up with Trinity running alone at the N-line, picking out her past two wide-open players for tap-ins. I mean, if this doesn't restore your faith in humanity, I don't know what will. I mean, people can change. Teams can improve. It actually works. 62nd minute, big chance for Germany.

Rodman gives it away over on the right sideline. It gets worked over to the top of the box, and then bronze sole drags it into Buell's path right at the top of the box and Buell goes right at Dunn or kind of right past her, not past her, tries to go around her. Dun tracks her, Buell fizzes it across the 6th for Nuskin. She has a shot, first time shot, somewhat tame, saved by Nair, over in the direction of Schuller, who gets a chance at it,

but just can't bundle it home. and we didn't get the replay until much later in the game, but basically Fox swings at it off of Neier's save and catches just enough of it to spin it up awkwardly and Shuler can't. So Shuler swings and misses. And then Rodman kind of corrals it on the goal line and gets it out of there.

Yeah, I mean, it's a real awkward moment for Fox. I mean, it's tough. It's tough to react to that because it's spinning and bouncing. And it's all very awkward. And then obviously Shuler can't react to it either, for the exact same reason. So it's a let-off. It's a let-off that the first one isn't converted.

And it's not just a let-off. It's a Melissa Neyer save, again, where it might seem a little bit lucky, but it's her doing a lot of the little, it's doing little things right to block that tap-in. So again, that's a hero save from Neyer in a big game. And again, this is where it does feel like this has been an even match. And a Germany goal there would have,

have would have been like, yep, there's the Germany goal. At 3-1, this still feels a little bit like the game is in the balance. Whereas, you know, against Zambia, we were up to 0, 15 minutes, and it's like this game is over as a contest. And it's just, yeah, just you know Germany have the pieces to threaten. And we are not a team that, you know, as good as Germa is, we're not a team that you can just be like, well, we will shut all this down and never concede another look at goal.

for the rest of the way. Well, you know, the limitations of, you know, saying we have Germa, therefore we can do whatever we want. We're really clear, even on that, you know, that early chance in like the third minute. Because she's behind Davidson, I think you even said this. She's sort of behind Davidson as insurance in case Brant, Braun gets past her. But she can't, she just, there's nothing she can do in that situation. Like, somebody's going to get a shot off.

Exactly, exactly. So we aren't, we aren't above giving up. goals. So again, as far as I'm concerned, that's the, it makes it more fun. There's just, there's, this has just been a thrilling, uh, game so far. And, uh, we've, we've had a little bit of the better luck. And again, we have that front three. So.

Yep. Okay. We're getting, we're getting closer to the end here. 65th minute Haran giveaway above the arc on a pass from Dunn, wide left. It's, um, she just gets caught on the ball like several times. in this game. That situational awareness was maybe a little, just a little off or something. She looked a little feeble sometimes. Anyway, Fox rescues it with a good tackle.

On the ensuing sequence, Franz sprays it to Swanson down the line. And Swanson kind of wastes the counter as she's cutting across with an errand pass in between Smith and Lavelle. But, you know, we're racing forward. Lavelle, Smith, everybody's like arriving in the box. it's not going to come off perfectly every time. 67th minute, another chance for Germany on the counter after a Rodman's shot is blocked and they're off. It results in a gvin shot from the top of the box,

easily claimed by Neier. But two observations here. One, coffee and Horan, continue to struggle, disrupting things in the middle. And number two, Germany's been the better team for the past 10 minutes. So like you said, this doesn't seem like it's over at this point. No, it just, it does feel. good knowing that we got that third goal to give us this nice cushion.

Like that's what it feels like is like, oh man, we got a little wiggle room. If we do have a, if we do have a, if Germany do pull something off, they're going to have to do it twice. So it felt a little nicer to be in that position. I'm frankly surprised you haven't completely wet blanketed the whole thing by saying, you know, same game could have resulted in a, you know. Oh, I feel like that's four zero lock. No, I wet blanketed by saying like we can, we can be playing as well as we're, playing right now and we can still get knocked out in the in the first elimination game like that's just something that can happen you just got to uh exist with that possibility yeah 69 minute mark

another haran ball loss uh this is where it really hit me like man we we beat this team four one but Heron is playing fairly badly by her standards. 69.40, so 70th minute, some cheat code stuff from Swanson and Smith. Dun blocks a Buell Cross straight to Heran. She plays it to an open space on the sideline, and Swanson just miraculously gets there first, lunges and plays it up to Smith. Smith holds off her marker and turns her as she does. I mean, she does lose it, but just the fact that we were able to get out of that situation

with those two duels is that most players don't get to the ball swans and got to and most players aren't able to receive the ball smith received so yeah and like shortly after that we get uh i mean so haran started that sequence with just like uh almost like a decision where she realized she hadn't been doing very well with the ball and so she literally just hit it towards the sideline was like whatever i'll just pass this towards the sideline i'm not going to get it taken from me so she didn't wait for something to really open up nothing was

open. So she just hit it through a window that existed to nobody. And Swans was like, well, I can still get to that. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. That's what it looked like to me, too, from Iran. We start to settle down a little bit, get a hold of the game.

We're knocking it around more, maybe fewer, you know, mistakes, fewer giveaways. After that little spell of German ascendancy, 79 minute mark, we have a little trouble working out of the back against some moderate. pressure. It goes back to Germa. And then she, this is another thing we can do. It's just another tool for us. She just bypasses everybody straight to Smith. Smith plays a lovely flick into Coffee's path on the sideline.

And, I mean, coffee's return pass to Smith is not very good and it gets cut out. But that's just the easy way for us to get out of things, you know. If we can't play it out of the back, we can still totally find a way to hurt you. Yeah. Yeah, and that's going to be discouraging for our opponents. Yeah. It did look like Germany had given it a real shot, you know, in the minutes 50 through 60, and then they were starting to run out of steam.

It felt like we weathered it. And then, you know, there's some mention of this, I think, in the Discord, too, about, like, there's also an element of coming in second in the group being better in the tournament. Oh, yeah. Germany might have some point just been like, well, we gave it. give it a shot. We want to win. We're competitive by nature. But like, the consolation. We'd rather play Brazil. We don't play Japan. Yeah. It's not even Brazil. I think, well, I think now they might end up getting France. Like, it's Canada. Oh, because, because you don't necessarily play

one, the teams from one group. It depends on, ah, yeah, yeah. Okay. If we win our group, we are going to be cross-matched with somebody from group C, which will either be Spain, Brazil, or Japan, probably not Spain because they're going to win their group, but Brazil or Japan is who we're looking at in the quarterfinal, which is awesome. Again, you love this tournament. Finishing second in the group, if that's where Germany land, puts them in group, matches them up with Group A, which could be France or Canada. There's, I mean, there's just, there might only be one really easy quarterfinal

opponent. It's just a really, this is a really competitive tournament. Japan is scary, man. Can you believe they beat Spain 4-0 at the last week? What a fever dream that must have been for them. It's 83rd minute. I mean, there's some more mess from Horan. She puts done in a tough spot.

Give away. It's cleaned up promptly by Germa in this 80th minute. 83rd minute, Swanson is just so active. She's doing everything. Recovers a loose pass from Germany and R half. Over to Lavelle. Takes kind of a loose touch, but she recovers it and then slides Robin down the wing in space. Robin drives at Rausch and then tries that left-footed curler,

which you've probably seen the highlight of. Just a little too close to Berger, draws a good save. Maybe could have squared it to Smith, but, I mean, there would have been some nice symmetry, some sort of a nice literary closure to all three of the front three scoring in this game. So I think that was worth pursuing. I don't mind because of the angle she's hitting it from. If she's got that left foot where she knows she can lift it a little bit,

it's real tough for women's goalkeepers to cover that backpost from that angle, like a bulk looping in over them. Just didn't get quite enough under it, right? Or around it. Williams, Lynn Williams then subs on for Smith. And it does feel at this point, like you said, Germany gave it a good shot. But at this point, it doesn't feel like they think they can muster anything, anything more.

Which is interesting because to this point, our only substitute has been sonnet for the injured TIRNA. We are doing this with the same 11 that started the match, which I think is just, you know, it says something about the fitness that this team has that we don't appear to be slowing down at all despite not making any changes. We didn't look like the more tired team. That should be studied. And then we get our fourth goal And it maybe kind of felt like it was coming At this point in the game. 88th minute, Rodman dispossesses Buell,

just like taking candy from a baby. I mean, it's so easy. And then, you know, kind of steps on it and drags it back and then goes, drives forward, finds Swanson in the middle of the park in lots of space. Germany's stretched and broken, I would say. Swanson, drives at the box, gets Hendrick to commit just a little bit away from Len Williams,

you know, holds it long enough to get that a little bit of commitment. And then a crisp pass over to Williams on the left. She settles it and then slots at far post with her left foot on the ground. No chance for Burger. Real nice, clean finish. 401 USA and it's party time. Yeah, now it definitely is. And again, this is Mal, Trinity, and even Rose here as not fresh legs.

right but it Germany all look like they're in the last like hundred meters of a marathon yeah and our gal walking marathon yeah and our gals are just still flying uh which which is awesome and now we do get to I assume you know rotate some of them uh to go into that knockout game pretty fresh I don't know how we're going to handle Australia but um it would make a lot of sense to to see seven new starters oh come on that That's not going to happen. Is it?

I would not put it past us at all. Hmm. I, yeah. Well, I guess we can get into sort of the longer-term stuff with the player pool on another day. But I'm going to give the stat lines real quick. Smith has two goals and one assist so far in these two games. But she's also been pretty much involved in everything we've done, in some way or another. Swanson now has three goals.

and an assist. Rodman, one goal and one assist, but also, I mean, those three have been involved in so much that doesn't show up on the stat line. Horan has two assists

and Williams has one goal. So, yeah, the trio, the trifecta, as Julie Fowdy kept calling them on the broadcast, they are,

they are good, aren't they? Oh, man, they are running free. It's a blast. Like, we are lucky that we get to enjoy this as the front three of our favorite team. I mean, I don't know how else to put it like, you just got it, you have to revel in it.

Yeah. And if you allow yourself, you can be a little fussy that we didn't get to see it sooner. But then again, you know, like, we couldn't have seen it in the World Cup anyway because Mal did her tell her tended. Right. Yeah. I'm still fussy about that. I'm allowing myself to be fussy. Because you knew we wouldn't have seen it anyway.

Like we weren't going to see it. No, no, no, no. Okay, yeah, you can be retroactively, hypothetically fussy. Yeah, I am. Okay. Germany gets one more chance off of Sydney. A Sydney Lohman draws a good save from Neyer with a rip from the top of the box with a left foot. And then Nice Warner comes on for Rodman.

Kruger comes on for Fox to close it out. And that's pretty much it. We got Australia on Wednesday. and then it's on to the knockout rounds. As a programming note, I think you're not going to be able to do the recap of the Australia game. No, I'm traveling. I'll be scrambling to watch some of these games, but I'll find a way. I will find a way.

Yep, yep, yep. And you'll be back. We may have a little bit of delay on the first knockout round recap. I just want to tell people this now. So it probably is going to come out on Monday A week from today And then we'll cross those other bridges When we come to them, I suppose

I think that's it. No, I was just going to say It's a nice job of not jinxing anything So you can't be held accountable Right Oh, yeah Any closing thoughts before we get out of here? Just again, just going to enjoy the hell out of Australia

And I really do hope we see I hope we see seven new players start and then and then the triumph writ comes in for 20 minutes and just gets to wreck people for 20 minutes. Yeah. Because it looks, it appears at least like Australia is not locked down in the back through their two matches. I mean, I was going to say they're probably also missing Sam Kerr, but they did score six goals against Sam. They've conceded eight goals in two games. Yeah, that's crazy.

There are some goals to be had. Should be fun. And of course, the boys play tomorrow, right? The little boys, the U-23s. So we'll be recapping that some way somehow. Thanks, everybody, for listening. We'll see you.