Breaking Down the CL Final: Real Madrid's Win, Courtois's Heroics, and Ancelotti Legendary Status!

In this thrilling episode of Football Yanks, hosts Ryan and Derek dissect every crucial moment of the sensational Champions League Final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund. With their signature blend of insight and humor, they break down the performances, tactics, and key player contributions that shaped the outcome of this unforgettable match.

The hosts shift gears to discuss the broader football landscape, exploring potential transfer rumors and player movements that could shake up the summer market. Will Manchester United retain Ten Hag? Which clubs are eyeing Greenwood? And what is Chelsea planning for their squad? Derek and Ryan leave no stone unturned.

We also examine Gio Reyna's and Christian Pulisic's seasons, examining their futures and potential impacts on their respective teams. The talk doesn't stop there—Musa's promising prospects at AC Milan and Giroud's retirement from international football are hot topics, too.

Real Madrid's extraordinary ability to succeed under La Liga's financial constraints, where others fail, their strategic acquisitions, and the anticipated arrival of Mbappe are discussed at length. Comparisons between managerial greats like Ancelotti and Guardiola add an intriguing dimension to the episode.

Humor and personal anecdotes provide a lighter touch as Ryan recounts the chaos of cat-sitting gone wrong. Derek narrates the story behind Luke missing his planned Champions League final pizza party.

From our exclusive expert analysis of the game to intriguing speculations about future transfers and delightful light-hearted banter, this episode is a treasure trove for football enthusiasts. Join us for an immersive exploration of the footballing world, only on Football Yanks.

We value your support, so don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave a review. Join our vibrant Discord community for more football discussions and to connect with fellow Yanks. Your active participation fuels our passion! Until next week, Yanks Nation!

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Transcript

0:01

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Football Yanks podcast. This is. We'll call this our Champions League retrospective special finale, given that we'll be discussing the results. The Real Madrid Borussia Dortmund final from yesterday. At length. What's that? At length? At length. It's been a long time. This is going to be a retrospective indeed. Deep dive combined into one. But there's a lot to digest and, you know, good, good final, right? If you want to hear about every transfer fee that Real Madrid has ever paid, this is the episode for you. Yeah. Bonus content. We're taking you behind the paywall to Ryan's, and then we'll get into a little bit. We'll start recapping a little bit about some of the Yanks and the ranks, their seasons starting off with Pulisic. We'll talk a little bit about GMO situation and wrap up Moose's season as well at AC Milan. Then quickly touch on some, some results from the women's team as well. And notably, no Luke. No Luke this week. Yeah, that's all you're going to get from Luke this week. Welcome to the football you got podcast. Yeah, we're american, but we're talking about soccer here. Hosts Derek Ryan and Luke are all football fanatics tracking our fellow yanks in the EPA and abroad. Enjoy today's episode. Yes. So how. How did the night go with Luke after I left? He was so confused. Well, yeah, so we need to set the stage here, right? So I don't know if we. If we talked about it at all or you guys, the pod, but Luke a couple weeks ago, as he usually does, like, oh, we should hang out. And then, you know, we know how that usually ends. But, yeah, he's like, we should get together for the Champions League final. We should have a pizza party. And you and I were like, yeah, it sounds good. Like, we'll figure out who will host. I knew I was going to Europe, so I'd bring back, you know, an ass ton of whiskey for us to drink. And so we set the stage for that. And then, you know, inevitably, Luke, you know, pings us. The week of is like, this is a no go, unless you guys want to watch the game on replay. And in fairness, we never, like, told him we weren't going to watch it on replay. We just kind of moved on with, you know, our lives because we weren't going to wait for him. So we invited other people over, you and I got together, then he pigs us in the middle, like, halftime of the Champions League game, and he's like, all right, I'm headed your way. I'll be there in, like, 30 minutes. And we're like, look, looking at our watch, like, yeah. Okay, so you'll be here to watch replay? No. Yeah. And I was, like, trying to convince Ryan that, you know, I think we need to respond to him. Cause he seems like he's on his way over and thinks we were, like, waiting to watch the replay. Basically, you two are like. You're, like, passing him on your way out, and he's like, what do you mean? You're leaving? You're leaving, and I'm stuck here with Derek. He seemed really upset. Yeah, it didn't seem like you wanted to hang out with me much. That's how I took it. Yeah. I wouldn't even say that was implied. Yeah, he was pretty direct about it. Yeah, he went straight to the end game with that one. Yeah. Luke will invite me to hang out if he's had, like, four drinks and he's. And he's, like, looking for somebody else to come drinking with him, but otherwise, he's like, I don't, I don't really have a need for Derek to be around. We don't need to make this a thing. Yeah. Yes. So then I I queued up the replay for him because he hadn't seen it. I don't think he had necessarily seen the final score until I think he came across it later in the game. But, yeah, once he realized that, you know, there was, there was beer and whiskey for him, you know, he had cheered up a little bit, but to the situation. Yeah, he was trying to, you know, get more. I don't know if he's less comfortable with himself or with me, but, you know, the alcohol helps. So, yeah, we had a good time just watching the replay, and then the women's friendly was on. So we're kind of watching that in the background as well. It was interesting to see the game replayed. Not that I really missed a whole lot during the watching it live, but it's interesting to see some stuff a second time. Yeah. And we'll, we'll recap that here in a second. I wonder if you'll have, like, picked up having seen it twice. I wonder if you'll have picked up more than I only watched at the one time, but, well, as most normal. People would, they just watch it once. Right. When you're living in Luke's world, you know, you have to make certain allowances. So I'm watching Luke's dog right now. So part of part of, like, why I had to leave is I'm. I've actually been on the hook for taking care of three different animals that I personally have. No pets. Right. But Shannon was running her hundred k, which she. She broke her previous pr on this race. So this is the world's end 100k that is in. It's a. I think it's called world's end national park in Pennsylvania. And she shaved 90 minutes off her previous time, which is huge. And, yeah, we're just. We're just heading toward the goal race for her, which is the hundred mile cascade crest. So we. That's. That's the race that she dropped out of last year. Got. What is it? Water poisoning? So she's in significantly better shape this year than last year. Yeah, I always. Yeah, my concern was always that Shannon wasn't in very good shape, so that makes sense. Yeah. So now that we can take that concern off the board. Yeah. Yeah. She's got a new car, too. She's really turned her life around. I guess we give you the credit for that. Is that how that works? Yeah. Yeah. She handed the wheel over to me, and I've been writing the ship. You might want to give her a trigger warning before she listens to this episode. At this point, this is about, like, we're about in the window where she'll listen to it, too. Like, she catches the first intro, and. Then she's like, oh, they're talking about content now. Step aside. Off. So. So anyway, I. I'm watching my neighbor's cat and Shannon's cat, and now Bowie. And the funny thing about. I don't know how to, like, stick the landing on this joke, actually. I should have thought about it ahead of time. But the funny thing about Bowie watching Bowie. Luke's. Luke got into an art show. That's why he's not here today. It's in New York, so he has to head up to New York, and at the last minute asked if we could watch Bowie or if I could watch Bowie's at my house. And I said, sure. And that was, like, Monday. And then I think yesterday, he sent a text or maybe Friday, and was like, I didn't verify that you could watch Bowie. Are you still good to watch Bowie? And I felt like he was projecting a little bit of his own dysfunction on me. A little, like, yeah, dude, when I say I'll be somewhere or do something, I will do it. Most other people in my orbit behave the same. It's interesting. Like, there's people. I actually had this conversation recently with somebody where they were like, yeah. Like, certain people, like, if they don't confirm with me, like, I just assume, like, the plan is, like, not happening. Oh, but. But I think. So that has to do with lead time, right? So, like, if it's the same week, like, they're like, hey, can you do this on Wednesday? It's like, all right. Yeah. That's. That's now etched into my schedule for the week. Yeah, yeah. I. I mean, that's how. I don't. I mean, you've known me for a decade. I think I'm fairly reliable. I think irrespective of the. The length of time. Like, yeah, I will. If. If, like, I had committed to something like that weeks ahead of time, and then I had, after the fact, put something else on my calendar. I will. I'll just shift things. Like. Like, I. I bail on the things that I committed to, like, that I made the mistake with. I don't know. So I think there's this sliding scale between, like, where we are and being just, like, corporate whores and being like. Or, like. Versus what a liquor salesman in their twenties might act like. Right? Yeah. Yeah. There's different lifestyles. And he's. I mean, he's. He is juggling a lot. And I love the guy. Like, it's. I'm giving him a hard time, but it's. It's just job. He's got the podcast. He's got his art career. He's got his production career. He's got his dog. Yeah. He's got a lot of pots on the stove. But. So after I left, eventually we'll start talking about soccer here. But after I left, I. So, job one was actually to go to my neighbor's cat, Jolene, and I was gonna spend. They're. They're concerned there. I don't know what they're traveling, but they blasted a text out to everyone in the neighborhood, I think, or, like, a. I don't. There were. There were, like, eight people on this. Give my cat some attention. Yeah. They were like, could you guys, like, stop in on Friday and Saturday to keep the cat? Give the. Give the cat some attention and make sure the water bowl is full type thing. And so I plan to hang out there for 30 minutes. So I get back, I go over to the neighbor's house, bring my laptop so I can play football. Manager, obviously. And I'm sitting there with the cat, getting along great. Filled the water bowl, and someone knocks on the door, and I assume they knock twice, actually. And I assume that this is somebody else on that distro that they asked to help with the cat. Yeah. And I'm like, all right. I'll, like, answer the door and tell them I got it. And I open the door, and it's some guy who's, like, holding a tool of some sort, like a wrench or something. And he sees me and he goes, you're not Pete. And I was like. You're like, yeah. I was like, yeah, they're out of town. And he's like, well, what are you doing here? And so it, like, he. I could see that he's, like, freaked out by the fact that I'm in their house. And so I start, like, talking him off the edge, and in the middle of that, the fucking cat runs out. Oh, nice. So now I have to. I have to chase the cat. I scoop it up. It's like. It's furious with me. It's contorting and hissing, and I've got a. And they have a. I'd love to see the camera. They have a doorbell camera. I'm gonna ask them to see this. So I I'm, like, having to, like, wrangle this fucking cat, get it back into the house, deal with this guy who showed up, and then, like, did. He help you wrangle the cat? Or were you just like, hey, you want to pitch in here instead of just standing here like a lump of shit? Yeah. No, he did not. He did not help out at all. Yeah, so that was a. That was a fiasco. And, oh, and then the cat, like. Like, I went to pet it after that dude left, and it immediately bit me because now it. Now it's like, we're, like, no longer friends. There's a bit in the league where, like, Andre gets assaulted by the cat because he's in an abusive relationship with his cat. Basically, I just watch it basically mirrors exactly what you're describing. So you might want to, like, I don't know, take the cat that counseling with you or something to work things out. I think that the relationship with the cat is probably over. So I basically was like, I guess my work here is done. And I went and I rotated over to. Don't think I'm providing any more benefits. Shannon's cats. Yeah, so that's what happened. So let's. Let's talk about the Cl. I mean, what everyone thought would happen happened in that Real Madrid got the job done. And it's significant because they're definitely going through a transition period where the sort of old guard is finally letting go of this team. I think it's the 6th win for some of them of the Cl. Is that right? Sounds right. For like Crows and. Mudrick Modric. Yeah, yeah, that could be the two. That probably makes sense. Yeah, yeah. So Carva hall wasn't there that quite that long. Right, I'm pulling up. Make sense? Um, yeah. So I thought that for the, the bulk of this game that Dortmund did what they had to do. I mean, you get into these finals and you have a puncher's chance of winning. Right. And that's kind of in the story of Dortmund in this tournament for. For a while now. Like, they had already overperformed by a lot. But I like maybe two phases of this tournament they performed. But I thought they looked really good, the tactics were good. I thought that Adiemi. So my thoughts, my thoughts overall on the match, I thought Adiemi came out too early. I don't know what was going on there. He was, I felt like the most effective attacking player for Dortmund. For the. What was he on for like 65 minutes? Trying to look find. When he came off. He came off really early. 72 minutes to that point. I thought he was their most effective attacker. He for sure should have scored a goal. Courtois, I think this was his first match coming off injury. And he looked great. He looked spectacular. And I, before the match, we were talking, I thought this was a mistake putting Courtois right back in. And I told you that I thought he had been dropped for the euros. Yeah, I'm pulling that up right now. What was his injury? Yeah, Cortois unlikely to be. I thought he tore his ACL. Unlikely to be with the Red Devils at the euros. As he announced last. Oh, he announced last December. So he announced he was skipping this tournament despite being medically cleared. Oh, it says he's played several league matches. I just don't pay attention to La Liga anyway. But he had been. Yeah, he had been hurt for like the last month. At least I wasn't tracking it before that. Yeah, that doesn't sound right. How would he have played several league matches? It was left out of the Belgians. So he has officially been left out of the belgian squad, which does not make the 25 man, to your point. Still doesn't make any sense. If he's healthy in, like, if he's healthy enough to play in the final, you'd think he'd be. Not just play, he was. He could have been a shout for like, if Carvajal hadn't done what he did, he could have been a shout for player of the match. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Who scored? Has Bellingham as a 7.6. That must be because he hadn't had one of the assists. Because I thought. I thought Dortmund were very effective at nullifying Rodrigo and Bellingham. I thought they were just absent from this game when I watched it. And the other observation that I made was Carvajal earlier in the match. He got through on goal, on a corner and nearly scored. And that was like a warning shot. It was funny. Cause the announcers, you know, I listened to the replay. The announcers on that play were like, look at the smallest guy on the field going to the near post and winning that. And they perfectly foreshadowed. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It really was. I remember them saying that. Yeah, I thought Vinnie was super effective. The announcers we were listening to made it seem like he's. He should be a shout for the best player in the world. And I guess in this match, he. He sort of looked it. He's. He's just really powerful. Really quick. Really, like a lot of flair on the ball. Very technical, good finisher. And these guys are gonna be good for a long, long time. Too many was not featured. They've got Bellingham comma vinga. I guess there's some flux at keeper whenever courtois hangs it up. He's. He's 32. They could maybe pick up a defender or two here. Yeah. Militau. I get the feeling he's on his way out, but these guys don't really seem to have any trouble finding somebody to plug in. Yeah. And basically pick whoever they want. Right? Yeah. And they officially announced, um, mbappe to. To. To Real Madrid. And they're getting him for free. Like. Yeah, yeah, it's ridiculous. Dortmund, like, we documented last episode, they will receive a large, in terms of direct financial benefit from this specific match. Obviously, they would have made more from, like, swag sales and other ripple effects of winning the. The Cl, but they. They actually stood to make more direct cash from this if Real Madrid won because of the way they had structured the Bellingham deal. So they're definitely, you know, they're not coming away from this empty handed. And then the last thing Matson committed, a fucking nightmare of a. An error for the second goal. I don't know where he was looking with that pass. Those. I mean, that was shambolic, really. But he's looked really good for Dortmund. I thought, I'm a full year. Sorry, what's that? You thought he looked great or didn't look great? I thought he looked great in the game. I thought he looked dangerous in the game. Yeah, that one moment is really bad. No overshadow what was otherwise a pretty dangerous display, I'd say, overall, for the team, the one through ball he played that. Yum. It was just. Was just fucking silly. Chef's kiss. Yeah. And, you know, I don't. I thought Adiemi played well. I think that play in particular wasn't great. He probably needed to get a goal there. Right. But, you know, at the end of the day, this, he wasn't the only one that couldn't score and, you know, Sancho had a relatively ineffective game. I'd say, um, you know, Sean maybe could have done more. Sabiza had an okay game, but, yeah, I thought the. The rating of Madsen was unfair. And Schlatter, back, on the whole, was, like, very inconsistent. He might have had, like, the one play the game at the point when he. When he blocked Bellingham's shot inside the a team, but, yeah, outside of that, he was kind of. Kind of all over the place. Um, both keepers had great games. It. Yeah, should be said. Yeah. Is it Cobel Kobel? I don't know. I don't know how exactly you're supposed to pronounce his name. I mean, he let two goals in and still has a six seven on who score. Yeah. So, I mean, that, like, he made. There was one save where he was heading the other direction and just, like, barely got his hand up to tip away a shot. I forget who took the shot, but it was a great shot and, yeah, he made. He made some fantastic saves. Courtois, fantastic saves. Carvajal open. Finally opened the scoring sheet at the 74th minute and then Vinnie sort of scuffs a shot. Assist from Jude Bellingham off the air from Matson and the 83rd minute. But, yeah, I mean, it was entertaining. I was very entertained. What is possessions in Real Madrid's favor? I was looking for total shots were even. I wonder what the XG was. See if I can pull that up real quick. Yeah. I mean, on the whole, not a disappointing final at all, which is what you might worry about when you see a team that, you know, didn't win their. Didn't win their. Their league coming into. Yeah. You know, but the team that kind of was considered, I think, the. The best team in the world most of this season and has a history of success, obviously, in the Champions League, especially in finals. Right. And, yeah, cover hall, to your point, had a. Had a killer game. As much as it pains me to say that even aside from the goal, he was a fucking menace. He was turning on people left and right, winning the ball back left and right. Really kind of a silly display. Yep. So Dortmund 2.06 XG to Real Madrid's 1.0 and interestingly, Real Madrid lost on XG in the round of 16 to Leipzig in the quarterfinal to Man City. They beat Bayern Munich on XG and then lost on XG in the final against Dortmund. This is a team that just finds a way every year and it's. It's hard to even explain, really. They're going to get a lot better next season with Mbappe and, you know, any other additions they make that again, they're getting Mbappe for free, but they have. I mean, they lost. Who? Everyone, I think, at the time, considered the most effective striker in the world for free. Like, he just ran his contract out and went to Saudi and just kept on going. I think they missed. They. Well, they obviously didn't win it last season because City won it and now they're right back in it and win it again. I mean, these guys are just serial winners of the most lucrative tournament in soccer. And for the past few seasons, they. They don't have, like, they haven't had a bona fide superstar on the team, like, since Ronaldo left. It's. It's not like. I mean, they have great players, but it's not like they have the best player in the world now. Bellingham, maybe this season. I think the last I looked at the odds, he was the shout for the Ballon Dor. But we'll see with Mbappe coming there, they'll have like a true Galactico again, as they. They like to put it. So, yeah, I don't know. Did you see. Well, before I pivot a little bit, did you have any other thoughts on this match? I mean, I think some of, like that. I think it's being overplayed to say that Vinicius is the top, the best player in the world, as they were kind of saying in the. During the commentary yesterday. But I do think that you can make the case that Bellingham and Vinicius are top five players in the world, meaning they had two of them. Right. And I mean, furthermore, Carl hall looked like the best right back in the world in that game. And so Modric. I think his age showed a little this season, more than Crows, but Crows had a huge impact on this game. And so, you know, that dude is. Like one of the most precise aerial passers I have. I don't watch a lot of La Liga, right. So I haven't seen a ton of crows, but that game, like, he, he looked dangerous. All game is his ability to place a pass exactly where it needs to be is, is like really special. Yeah. And he'll do it from anywhere. Right. He'll drop him behind Rudiger, pick up the ball, play at 40 yards diagonal, or he'll move up. Like he'll overlap. Coma vinga come up and play a through ball to, to Vinny. Right. Like he's, he's, he's all over the place and he can deliver all those different types of balls, which makes him kind of impossible to stop when somebody is going to have that kind of work rate and is able to do all of that. I think I see similarities in losing him to what city lost in Gunduan last season. And, you know, then again, we saw city. You know, he kind of had foden step up and De Bruyne came back. They kind of, I think, fill some of that void from a, you know, build up standpoint if we want to call it that. Right. So, but it'll be interesting to see how they, how they do with that. I mean, they've got, certainly got guys like Val Verde, comavinga, chewing many that, that they can play in those roles. But that's a, that's a big, a big gap going into next season for them. It's wild seeing. So, like, if we break this down and this might take a minute. Oh, did I close? I think it was this, but, yeah. And I think, you know, from an individual talent standpoint, I think there's a little bit to be said that. Yeah. Like, but I also think it's a different league now. Right. Like you kind of have, you have like Mbappe and maybe acomon and I don't know, there's not like, it's not like when you had Neymar, Ronaldo and Messi every season, right, going at it to competing for, to be the best player in the world. But it'll be, I mean, maybe Mbappe really cements himself in this team. I mean, he should cook, right? Theoretically. And they'll have Endrick too, who, who ripped it up in, I think, the Euro friendlies or whatever it was. International friendlies. I mean, they're friendlies. But he looked. Yeah, he looks the business man. Yeah. I mean, like that front three. Like belling, if you, if you have a front three or some at front four, whatever you call it, with Bellingham Junior and Mbappe. Right. Like, I don't know who's, who's coming even close to that. I forgot they also have Arta Guler who could come good. Arta Guler is a baller. This, like, turkish wonder kid that they picked up, I think, at the end of last season. But. So what is. When did you come across that scouting report and football manager? Like two years ago. Okay, he's two years ago, like football manager time or like two years ago like real life. Real life time. Yeah. Like, he's been a known quantity for. For a while. Um, so they paid by, I think, by far out of the players on the pitch, the most expensive transfer they made was Bellingham. Looks like the total fee is€103 million, is what they paid for Bellingham. Worth every penny. Probably like courtois 35. They picked up Vinnie for 45. What's Rudd like? They're just, they're so good at this. Rudiger. Rudiger was free, right? Yeah. Rudiger was free. Yeah. I mean, by the way, wearing my. Wearing my Rudiger jersey. Congrats to Rudiger on his second champions League. Yeah, I still like watching that guy. For sure. Harva hall has been there since the 1314 season and they paid 6.5 million for him. They. Let's see, chew a mini. They paid 80. So that's a big fee. And he wasn't even in the, in the match. Yeah, Valverde, he was. Where is it? They, they got him on a free, it looks like. Wait, that can't be right. Yeah, I think he got him on a free. Yeah. So they have this ability to basically do what they did with Mbappe and be like. Right. I mean, they're doing it with Davies right now. They're like, run your, run your contract down and, and we'll sign you and you'll come play for the biggest club in the world and you'll be the biggest star you could ever imagine, you know, and, and, and they're, they're able to compete. So, like the, the PSR or whatever. FFP rules in La Liga. We've talked about that with respect to Barcelona. They're fucked up. They're like really, really strict and real navigates them and wins La Liga and, and are able to be in the mix for the Champions League final and win their fair share of them while being under a far stricter financial management process than exists in the plastic. And they do that by being, I think, objectively the biggest franchise in sock. In soccer. In world football. Yeah. They kind of decided that at some point, right. And just kind of align their strategy around it and, I mean, they couldn't be more polar opposites from Barcelona, right. In that they've been completely mismanaged and they're also, like, delusional, which I really enjoy because people like, think that because now they have, like, all these young, talented players still that, like, they're going to be able to compete. But I don't think that, I think that's ignoring this. The concept of insolvency, which, you know, as you can, you know, from my professional career, I can tell you exists. Right. And so, you know, you can't just, you can't just ride it until the end, like at some point that runs. Out and, yeah, you run out of levers and it makes it. And frankly, I think it makes it easier, uh, to pursue winning a Champions League every year for Madrid because, like, they don't necessarily have to try as hard against Barcelona now. Yeah. So that definitely helps the. I would, I would posit that the PL being as competitive as it is, makes it much harder. And, yeah, the way the PL schedules their fixtures and there have been a lot of complaints about this from, from the big PL teams that they don't. The scheduling doesn't help the Premier League teams perform in Europe the way they go about it. Like how December is a fucking nightmare. Like every team, basically, regardless, because you're, you've got the Carabao Cup, FA cup, whatever's going on in Europe. And the PL fixtures all converge on December and they basically, regardless of what you're competing in as an english team, you are playing two matches a week. And like, that was when, like, really Chelsea, what? Chelsea season started to turn around in January and it really, if I remember correctly, kind of came, the wheels really came off in December and that was they had an injury crisis and they had this insane run of fixtures throughout the month of December and they went deep into the FA cup where they didn't have the luxury that Tottenham had to just be out of every meaningful. Tournament, to not be competing for trophies. Every single, just let's bomb out of the Carabao cup at the first opportunity. Thing that matters is place they lose. To at the Caravan Cup. I don't know. Because it happened at what, November, December? No, it happened before. It was literally their first match. Oh, they played Fulham first, dude. They were eliminated from the Carabao cup on August 29. August 29. That's tough. Just, just clear, clear the fucking schedule. Wonder, wonder why we're killing it. Like people were calling them champions in October anyway. Luke's not even here to defend himself. Rodrigo, 45 mil and Kamavinga 35 mil. I mean, these guys are just so. And they've got the Tottenham thing going for them where they have this outrage. Outrageous stadium. The Burnabyo is amazing. It's a beautiful stadium. They host massive events there. If you have not seen it and you're listening to this, you should look up on YouTube the way the pitch like now goes under the stadium. They have a greenhouse under the stadium to keep the pitch pristine while they host like, Taylor Swift concerts and shit. And, yeah, I mean, this is just an institution that is as well run. It is the opposite of Barcelona. It is the opposite of Chelsea. What's going on at Chelsea? It's, it's, it really is something. And they're like, they're not going to slow down. Yeah. I think to your point, the Premier League, you know, obviously to burn your last season going out early in with an injury in the Champions League final, no less. And granted they won anyways, but I think that's a good example of where there's, there's a strong case to be made. I'm sure the underlying data and statistics substantiate it and that's compounded by the depth of the league. And I think, you know, Fulham beating Tottenham, while it's, it, while it's also hilarious, is a good example of like, the fact that english football is just on another level at the top tier and the middle tiers versus, you know, every other region, at least in terms of depth. Right. But, yeah, but it's just, it's disappointing as a, obviously we're very, we're Premier League focus. Right. To kind of see us not do great in the Champions League this season. It's, it's embarrassing that the PL did not secure one of the coefficient, one of, one of the additional spots. Like, it is embarrassing with the amount of money. It was. It was a absolute disaster how poorly England performed in all Europe competitions this season. Hopefully that, that isn't the norm. I believe that it's the most competitive league in the world, but it definitely doesn't look like it when every team bombs out of the now. Well, we didn't do ourselves any favor by letting fucking Man United represent again. Yeah, yeah. I hadn't even thought about that piece yet. Yeah, I guess that we might as well just assume we have one less team in the champions league next season. Well, they're in there in Europa. Yeah. Europa. Yeah. Which they, they crashed out of in the opening round. The. What are the group stages this season? Yeah. Like Galatas Array and was it Copenhagen advanced from their group. Yeah, you're right. It was Copenhagen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyway, and then you look again, this will be the last thing I say on Real Madrid. So you look at how. So in response to Real Madrid going out and signing who everyone at the time thought was the most promising talent coming out of Brazil, and Endric, certainly the most talented striker. In response to that, Barcelona was like, well, we need a talented, young brazilian striker. And they went out and grabbed Vitor Roque, who, depending on who you talk to, he is. Every bit is he might compete with Endric on raw material. Depending on how they're managed, there could be a world where Vitor Roque is a more effective nine than Endrick long term. But the word coming out of his camp is that since he signed with Barcelona, he hasn't heard from them. And Barcelona wanted this dude, Esteva Willian, who, who Chelsea just signed. They wanted him. And he grew up. The word is he grew up a Barcelona fan. And Vitor Roque's management team were like, do not deal with these clowns. Maybe it's just, you know, because the. The phone company ran a credit check on them. The fax machine doesn't work or whatever there is that they had to sell the fax machine for parts. Like, I don't know, man. Yeah, Bart, it. It's a mess. But kudos to Real Madrid. Not like there was. Did you see what Jose. Jose Mourinho said that he. He was interviewed by, I think, Micah and somebody else on the pitch, either before or after the Cl. I don't know if you caught this. No. Yeah. So I think he's going to Fernabache and I'm going to have to paraphrase, but the. One of the interviewers asked him, Mourinho, if or if he had heard or if he had any thoughts about Pochettino leaving Chelsea and Marie. Marino looked, well, this will be. Luke will be sad. He missed this. Marino look looks shell shocked. I mean, he just, like, he did the. What's that meme where the guy, like, blinks his eyes in disbelief. Like, I forget he did that. And he was like, you know, you look at Tottenham, they. They want to finish 4th, fifth, and they finish fifth. They hit their targets. They're very smart about their business. They have a beautiful stadium. They're running a wonderful business. He was like, Chelsea, I don't know. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know what's going on over there. And you could tell it hurts him because he. He is a Chelsea fan. He's the greatest Chelsea coach of all time. And he's just like, I don't know what the fuck these guys are doing. It's inexplicable. So, I mean, I. Given the end of this season, like, I don't understand be like, as. I mean, he's not a neutral observer, but as a fan. Yeah, he's made vested interest. Right. Like, I don't understand being that down on the situation unless it was just the Pochettino thing. But, like, if that piece is frustrating, right? Like, unless. Unless somebody's. It's almost like somebody is not telling the truth in that situation between management and these coaches that keep going and revolving door, or the coaches are just such. Really. Just such narcissists that they don't give a shit. I don't know. It's tough. Cause Mourinho's a narcissist in a lot of ways, but, like, he also found a way to funnel it and shape it. In most ways, he is a narcissist. Yeah. I don't think there were special ones. Yeah, yeah. But there are players that, like, gravitated towards that. Right? Like, yeah. Even hazard, like, liked playing for him despite that. The fact that, like, Mourinho, like, you know, he didn't. Yeah, he wanted Hazard to be a complete player and, like, you know, stuff like that that he wouldn't adapt to. But, yeah, dude, it's too. It really is too bad that Azzur, his body just fell apart when he got to Real Madrid because this just. This just occurred to me, as you were saying that, like, ancellotti is a. You know, he's. He manages on vibes like, he's not. He's not like a. I'm gonna make you a complete player or a. I'm building this system that everybody has to follow, and if you receive the ball at this spot, you have two options for what you can do. Like, he's not a pep type manager. No, he's, like, really old school. He's like, I got these incredible players, and I'm going to let them do incredible things. And peak Hazard would have cooked under those circumstances. Yeah, but he. I mean, he was just, you know, too many cheeseburgers and. Yeah, yeah. And, I mean, those things just happen, right? Well, he spent a decade, eight years, whatever, in the pl get smashed. The most fouled player. Yeah. So. And then not training in between. Right. Yeah. Like, who knows what he was doing to recover between those fouls. I mean, shit, I mean, the word from, like, basically every coach was that they couldn't get Azzard to practice and. The players basically said the same thing. Like, they would try to tack to him about tactics and he'd tell them the fuck off and give me the ball and then go. And, like, it didn't matter, right? Like, I'm just gonna do my things that just watch me cook. Guys. He was so good at, like, he didn't. Like, the other guys that, like, John Terry, like, literally didn't fucking care. Right? Like, he was just fucking. It's today, just laughs about it the same way he did back then. It's like, fine. But, yeah, I mean, he could have been so good, Ancelotti, you know? Yeah. He. He's quietly become one of the best coaches in history, in my opinion. Is he, has he won the title in all five major leagues? I'll look that up. You keep talking, keep ripping on Ancellotti. But I think, to your point, nobody will ever think about him as being the master tactician, but his player management and his ability to win and let players do what they do best within a system. Right. It's not like they don't have a system, right. But, like, I'd say it's very free flowing and it's not like his version of a far through three is anything, like, revolutionary, right. But he's just gotten it done. Right? And, like, he may not have been, like, the exciting signing that Zidane was, for example, for real, but, you know, going out. Going out with another win. Right. And has, you know, I've got to imagine they're the odds on favor, at least for me, in my mind, for next season to repeat, even with some of the pieces that are leaving. Yeah. So Ancellotti has won two Club World Cups. He has won or no three club World Cups. What is the difference between the world's best club co. Okay, so that's like the balloon door for coaches. So he's won two of those five champions leagues, three club World Cups, one EPL title, one with Chelsea, one by with Bayern Munich title, two spanish champions with Real Madrid, one italian champion with AC Milan, one french champion with Paris Saint Saint Germain. He. Is he the greatest coach of all time? I don't. I don't think that he's ahead of. Pat, but he's won an FA cup. But. But it's kind of. Maybe it's some of its demeanor they've got about it more quietly. This fucking ridiculous. Like, the stuff he's won, huh? Yeah, I mean, he. Maybe he's more like. More like top three than he is top ten or top five, though. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. I mean, I can tell you right now that overall. Well, so it depends on how you. I don't know. I'm looking at the Pep Guardiola's. Yeah. The comparison. Yeah. I mean, the fact that he's won six Premier leagues is wild. He won the German. I mean, whoever's coaching Bayern is going to win or for the most part, up until now. So he won three with them. Three with Barcelona. Yeah. I mean, he hasn't done it in the italian league or the. Or in Paris, but I mean, he could go to PSG for a season, scoop that up. I think he definitely has more. He had more of an impact on the game in that way. The games. Yeah. But, yeah. That's interesting. When you look at the. Look at the achievements, it's not really that wide of a margin. Yeah. Anyway, I think that probably wraps it for the Cl, for us and the season. That's it. That's all she wrote. So now we are in Ryan's rumor mill is the transfer rumors, and there's going to be some meaningless games played until the euros, and then we'll probably cover that. The euros a bit. I think that there were some interesting omissions from teams. You know what we never, at least when I've been on the podcast, what we never covered in its potential impact is the injury to dest, who, you know, say what you will about his club career. He has, like, performed very well for the national team and I imagine he's not available for Copa America. Right. Yeah, he's not. And that's a big hit for us. Right. I. Maybe I. My comments on this were more around the fact that I at least feel good about having Joe Scally behind him. Yeah. To provide defensive cover. Right. And I think, you know, that maybe the tactics change a little bit without him as a desk being more of an offensive weapon. But, yeah, I mean, it's. It's a. It's a blow regardless. Right. And, you know, he had a great season at PSV, as did. As did Tillman. And, you know, Papi also had a pretty good season for them, so. But, you know, wish him a speedy recovery. Seems like he's doing well with recovery from what I've seen of him on social media, which is good. Those an ACL, right. That he did, yes. Yep. So, yeah, big blow. But anyway, what do you want to talk about? You had some notes you wanted to roll through. Yeah, I mean I think building on kind of the, the us season, I think it'd be interesting to recap a couple of them. Right. Pulisic almost seemed like he had like quietly a fantastic season and I don't know if that's because like AC Milan was in my mind and for most people like out of the title race so early and that they, you know, they didn't do great in Europe, crash out of the Champions League early. Right. But you know, all in all they had a really good season and he was kind of the main driver behind. Beyond that. Like I think he had more of an impact in my opinion than Liao did on the season. It'll be interesting to see because Giroud's gone now, right? Is he. I wanted to say Drew is retiring but I'd have to, I need to go back and look at that. That was front in my mind but you know I, before I went 37, that's today, I was thinking to myself why did he quietly have like the best, the best season of a us player and in top in a top five league in history? And I saw some rankings on it but you know ultimately I think so what were the stats for Pulisic? So Pulisic in Syria was twelve goals and eight assists and Dempsey's top season, which I think was it, 1112, whatever, his best season for Fulham was 17 and six. I don't know. To me they were comparable, very comparable. I can understand saying, oh, like Dempsey had five more goals, right. But I think that team was more dependent on him for goals, frankly. And I think Pulisic did more to just was constantly at the focal point for the attack of a team that had Liao on the other side. Right. And I think he overshadowed Liao a lot of this season which is saying something for, for a player coming in a new situation. But again it's, and I think it's interesting to see him kind of evolve and improve this season under Pioli. And my only hope is that Gio as an example, right, will find himself in a better situation next season and really flourish. The right Pulisic did under the right management manager and the right system, the right players around him. And some of it comes down to having a good team around you. You know, the defense. This team was kind of up and down. Sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit. But, but overall really fun team to watch for most of this season and I'm bullish on them again next year. So I'm not, I'm interested in kind of your thoughts on, on his season. Granted, it was in Syria, not in the Premier League. So I get that difference between him and Dempsey as well. Yeah, I mean, I think he obviously had a great season, a real comeback season for him and especially early season. He, he came on real strong. I remember him winning, I think, their first player of the month for AC Milan. I didn't realize how uncompetitive Syria was. Like, AC Milan finished second, but the delta between them and inter was huge. Like, it was just a golf. Yeah, I don't know. I think we've done an okay job of covering Pulisic and his club season on the podcast as it's, you know, throughout the year. So, yeah, I don't see it as, as a surprise. Like, like at this point I'm unsurprised by this, like the stats that you're throwing at me, I guess. Like he, he had a fantastic season and this was obviously a great move for him. I like an interesting thing about his move to Milan for me and actually loftus cheek is they were like, they didn't have injury, like, they didn't, they didn't fall apart and it, again, like, I mean, I would buy that the PL is, is more physical, but it can't be that much more physical. Right. Like you go to any of these leagues and everyone is trying to compete as hard as they can, so. Sure. And you can look at games in the, what was it, the one game he drew two red cards. I mean, there are times where like people decided it was better off just the foul. Yeah. Then, then let them play soccer. And so, yeah, you're right. That exists in any league and if you're that good. Right? Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know that I buy it. I just like, I mean, again, I think this is, it's a. The Chelsea, whatever is going on with Chelsea and their training and their medical department, like, they really, they really pummeled these two players. They've pummeled many players. There's still like Reese James, but yeah, I wonder, like, he couldn't stay fit. Mount couldn't stay fit. Loftus cheek couldn't stay fit. It, I don't know. But now they, I mean, Loftus cheek look great in some of the matches. I watched Pulisic always look dangerous this season. I was trying to look up who, like, where does, what does Reina do? Like, he clearly is not wanted at Dortmund anymore. Forest, what barely do. He needs to find a new team. Yeah, I don't know where. And I haven't, I haven't been plugged into the rumor mill. I don't think there has been much on. Like, there's not going to. Nothing. I'm looking at, like, I'm looking at the. Like, the. The site that aggregates transfer rumors, and he's not linked with anyone right now. You know, maybe if Sancho and Royce are out, then maybe there's a spot for Geo to fit in there somehow. But those aren't. It's not, like, for, like, what the fuck? I know I've asked this, but what do they do with Sancho if they keep ten hog? Now? Just. Dude, I'll tell you what I'm doing about it. I'm buying popcorn. Cause it's gonna be fucking hilarious no matter how it plays out. It makes, you know, it's more shit on the shit pile, and there's already too much shit in the shit pile. Like, I mean, you've got the whole Sancho situation. You've got the Greenwood situation that's somehow not resolved. Oh, yeah. You get Anthony still on the roster? I did see someone wants to buy Greenwood. I forget. Yeah. Yeah. I did see something firm on that. Right. And maybe these guys all just get sold, but. And that kind of makes it go away. Right? That's probably the best thing for the Premier League and best thing for Manchester United. Just sell all of them because. Yeah, and, like, it's. It's even weird in a ten hog won the cup. Right? Like, he doesn't need the. If he somehow he sticks around because they still haven't done anything with him yet. Right. With ten hog now. Yeah. They were supposed to do a review this week and come to a decision. Listen, Enneas, I am begging you. Keep ten hog. It's too good for the podcast. Keep tennis. Yeah. The fuck are they gonna do with Anthony? I thought we were gonna have to spend the whole season making jokes about Harry Maguire, and he was relegated to, like, fourth or fifth on the list by, like, the first end of the first month. Guys, if they. If they keep ten hog, we might have to do, like, a mini episode. Like, we might have to separate the man united shit from the normal podcast and do, like, a mini weekly update. Yeah. 15 minutes. Here's. Here's your update on Man United. Yeah. There are a lot of clubs rumored to be in for Greenwood, which is crazy, but. Yeah, I don't know. Probably most of them are spanner, Italy, or, you know, Spain. A little bit more expensive. The recent one. The recent one was Dortmund. Hmm. That's not gonna. I. I can't imagine that they do that. But that's the, that's the one I remember reading this week. He scored, hit eight. Right. I don't think full krugs going anywhere but yeah, whatever. Yeah. I don't know that I don't have any insights into that other than, you know, I think there's definitely some players that are gonna be moving this summer. It's not just gonna be in BOPE, which is good because that's already sorted. So it'll be interesting to see who else moves around. Yeah, it will. I mean it's always, it's always like really silly. Like it's gonna be a crazy summer. I think Chelsea are gonna be very active. Chelsea already signed. I'm not even gonna try to say that. Or at least the, the rumors are. It's basically a done deal. This Tosin Ada Rabio, I think is how you say his name. Fulham center back and he's a very good ball playing defender. And the interesting thing about him is he's a right footed center back and he, I mean he looks the business but you've got Fafana, Chalaba Desassi that also want to play in that position. Right. Like Desassi's got to go and Chalaba, like I think this means Chalaba is for sure going to go. He's linked with Man United and he'd go, he'd go right into Man United starting squad. You don't think he'd have to compete with too many players? No, I, they were starting. Evan, what? You have Ryan's hot take for the hot take for the episode right there. Clip that one. Yeah. Well, we like doing business with United. The Mount transfer was great anyway. No doubt. Yeah. I'll be really interested in seeing what happens with Geo this summer. It's, I just, he's so talented. I can't believe that nobody is interested in. Yeah, I mean, I stick by, you know, I'd say two things right. For me this season removed any doubt for me. I don't think I had doubt before, but I think this, this should further cement for everyone that Christian Pulisic is the best, best USA Soccer player we've ever had in terms of talent and achievement. Yes. And, but I would, I also still believe that Geo Reyna is the most critical player to the potential success of this, this group of players because he does some things that nobody else can do. He, I don't think he has the same overall impact on the game, but I think he, he can do Tony Kros like, stuff to unlock defenses and so that is the. The. What I will be following most closely this summer is to see where Geo ends up because, yeah, the last two situations have been absolute dog shit. Yeah. Similar train of thought, you know, I think I was bullish on Moosa coming into the Milan situation. I thought he was going to be hard to break into that squad. And then it was most of the season. Right. That became kind of the reality, though. He did play 1500 minutes in Serie A, over 300 minutes in both the Europa League and the Champions League. So got minutes, got playing time. Maybe can carve out a bigger role next season. I don't know. It's tough because Raiders and Loftus Cheek were playing really well there, but, you know, I don't. It's kind of this middle ground where it's not necessarily a disappointing season. Especially came. I think he came in hurt or maybe it was just the fact that he transferred late to try and establish himself there. But I'd rather see him in a situation playing in AC Milan and getting minutes than probably playing at a lesser team. Getting more minutes is kind of how I look at it. And he played well. Like, I think he's up for that level of competition in Syria. His passing percentage was 89% in Syria, which, you know, is pretty, pretty good. Yeah. So I don't know if you have any thoughts on him but, you know, I think I, like, I'm being pretty content with him playing another season, AC Milan. I think that's. That's what's going to end up happening anyways. Right. And being there with Pulisic, I think that'll be another team for me to kind of root for in serial. Be fun next season. Yeah. I don't know enough about their squad to know what is in the way of him and more minutes. I. Yeah, I think Loftus cheek playing. Well was the biggest one in terms of like, incoming players there, but, you know, things could change. Loftus cheek is. I mean, he's really good. I don't know. Yeah. Another integral player for the us team. But it maybe, you know, maybe depending on how his summer goes and the Copa, that'll kind of shape. Shape things in terms of me comes into. Yeah, I'll probably bike over to M and T and see those guys play Barcelona. If Barcelona can afford the plane ticket to the United States. Yeah, it's questionable, like whether, like what they're going to be willing to sell me a ticket for because, yeah, I think I'm of the same mindset. Like, I'll just spend $6 on an upper deck ticket like the day off. Yeah. Yeah. Because I don't want to funnel any more income towards Barcelona anyways. Right. So it's probably the right thing to do. Yeah. So yeah. Other real quick just to clean one thing up. I forgot I looked it up while you were talking. Jerud announced his retirement from international from. From France after the. I don't think he's made an announcement about his club career yet, but he is linked with MLS teams. Yeah, I kind of thought they had said their goodbyes for some reason but we'll see what happens with that. Also in the us note, us women's national team played friendly against South Korea yesterday. Notably Emma Hayes first game as the coach. I think in my mind she kind of pulled the right strings in terms of the lineup. Granted that's been more cemented over the last couple months, which is good to see. You know, particularly I think Sophia Smith and Mallory need to be starting every game and they are. Trinity Rodman probably should be starting every game. She was out there. Alex Morgan did not start, which I also think is right. And Kat Macario I believe started in that game which is interesting too. So I don't know. That's a pretty. It's a pretty crazy attack. They played a pretty. They kind of took it to South Korea. They play it. I think they play another like game against them next week so maybe they'll experiment more with the lineup. But good start to kind of Emma Hayes's leadership role there. I don't know anything about the system she. She tries to play. I should I guess because she came from Chelsea. I think they were playing a 4231 similar to what we have been playing then the last couple competitions in the lead up. But yeah, beyond that, not all that familiar with it, right? Yeah, I think that was. Oh and then I didn't get a chance to say it. I think you guys got to talk about it. But yeah, fuck Jesse Marsh. Would anyone want with Canada? Good. Yeah, fuck Canada. No, actually Canada is very nice but yeah, I mean who the hell goes and cares about what goes on in Canada? Yeah, I think he's been. He's been throwing his sour grapes all over the place ever since he felt like the interview process for the us job wasn't handled well. What he means by that is he wasn't good enough to get the job so now he's going to coach in Canada for Canada. So. Yeah. Cool. You know, I will always. He'll hold a dear place in my heart for his part in getting leads relegated and they remain in the championship after failing to beat Southampton. Right. Sometimes you just gotta fail upward. Right? I mean, I've made a career of that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, do you think Canada is our biggest. Not, like, rival, but do you think they're the biggest competition we have at this point? I think the biggest competitive. Mexico. Yeah, I think it's the second most competitive team. I mean, Mexico, I think. I would agree, but, yeah, Mexico just. Doesn'T have it going on in terms of talent, actually. And I don't know if it's. They're headed in an opposite direction in Canada, too. Right. I don't know how long it's going to take them to get back if they do. Right. There's, you know, there's obviously advantages and disadvantages to being Canada versus Mexico, but I don't see an impetus for that to change anytime soon. Yeah. Yeah, I think. I agree. Well, I think. Think that's all we had. Right. All right, well, thank you for tuning in. Wherever you're listening to this, if you can, like, subscribe, give us a review. All of that stuff, I am told, helps us get into more ears. So if. If you enjoyed what you heard today, even in the absence of Luke, if you could help us out, that'd be awesome. Yeah. As far as we know, to be clear, Luke will be here next week. Yeah. But. But it doesn't. But also, to be clear, that means nothing. I'm not saying there's any type of probability. Yeah, it could be 80%. It could be 20. I don't know. Right. Yeah, join our discord. We've been fucking around in there for a while. It's, you know, sometimes there's productive conversations and sometimes Derek's there. So that's a good summary, actually, about discord. Yeah. So, yeah, come check us out on discord. And, yeah, thanks for the support, and we'll catch you all next week. Thanks for tuning in to the Football Yanks podcast. Be sure to subscribe wherever you heard this podcast so you never miss a future episode. We'll see you next time.