Football Yanks

Euros Weekend One: Germany Dominates Scotland! Young Spain Uncertainty Through Injuries!

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In this thrilling episode of Football Yanks, hosts Ryan and Derek plunge headfirst into the exhilarating opening weekend Championships. The dynamic duo starts with a spirited discussion, pitting Emma Hayes against Greg Berhalter in a hypothetical coaching faceoff, complete with witty banter about sneaker savings. They then share their disapproval of Brazil's decision to play Paquetta amid a betting scandal and express their outrage at Bentancur’s offensive comments about Asian people, highlighting the stark cultural differences and moral standards in soccer.

The conversation shifts as they critique soccer matches that weren't paywalled, with a spotlight on Spain vs. Croatia and Germany’s dominance against Scotland. Injuries to Spain’s young stars, Gavi and Jeremy Pino, and questionable coaching decisions, like not starting Scotland’s Billy Gilmore, are put under the microscope. Ryan and Derek also delve into the US soccer scene, celebrating Christian’s stellar goal against Brazil and debating the performance of US goalkeepers.

England’s strategy and coaching are criticized as they dissect the recent match against Serbia. They criticize Southgate’s conservatism and lament the team’s underwhelming tactics. They then explore the multi-club model’s rising relevance post-Brexit and the commercial interests driving it.

From Netherlands’ missed opportunities to Eriksen’s triumphant return for Denmark, this episode is brimming with passionate takes. They wrap up with a banter-rich recap of Italy’s hard-fought victory over Albania and the Netherlands’ star-studded win against Poland, sprinkling in their trademark blend of humor and insight. Plus, there's a dash of fun as they discuss a player's headband fashion and Luke's exceptionally well-behaved dog, Bowie. Tune in for a rollercoaster of emotions, expert analysis, and the hosts’ signature blend of humor and insight.

Join Ryan and Derek for all this and more on Football Yanks! Remember to subscribe, leave a review, and join the conversation on their Discord community.

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Football Yanks podcast for the week of June 17. Ryan and Derek here know Luke this week, but we'll be getting into recapping some analysis of all of the euro games, even the ones that aren't televised, because Ryan still makes me talk about those. And we'll be getting into some really world class coaching and tactics, in particular for this England team under Gareth Southgate. So tune in for that. We'll also wrap up with some commentary on the us women's national team and the us men's national team, in particular men's game against Brazil, and some. Some reactions to off the field things related to that game and elsewhere around the Premier League. Thanks, everybody. My adrenaline has finally come down from the England match, so. Yeah. Ready to rock? Yeah, let's be. All right. Welcome to the Football Yanks 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 EPL and abroad. Enjoy today's episode. So how's it going, man? How was your day? How was the farmers market with. So. Didn't make it the farmers market, but did get to watch. Watch the planes again because I didn't realize that was going on today, so I got to see those from the roof in Fet Hill. So that was cool, I guess, out. And you guys probably don't hear those. From where, you know, we. We do. We get you. Yeah. I was doing interviews on Friday for a couple positions on my team at work, and I had to be like, I don't like, we're getting invaded or something. Like. Buzz, it's good to know that as a. You know, as a former us hero, you're well aware of fleet week activities and what's going on. Yeah. Had. Had no idea. I did know, like, weirdly, I know that plane, the f 22, or at least that's what they were flying on Friday. I don't know. Yeah. And that's because. So that's like a reasonably new plane, I guess. I mean, it's probably about ten years old now or more, but. Yeah. Fifth generation fighter. Yeah. Yeah. So that when the military added that to their roster, I guess the one of the first bases that they flew them out of was the one I was stationed at. Interesting. Yeah. I could, like. Like, often just walk outside and watch them, and they're. They're fucking wild. Like, they get a thrust vectoring is pretty cool. Yeah, they can. They can just, like, stop. Yeah. Yeah, I saw that. They'll do this, like. Yeah, sort of thing. Yeah. So those. Those are fucking wild, but I, like, know the sound of that plane, so when I heard it, I was like, there's some sort of demo going on, or, like, we're super fucked if we're 22s are out. Or we should just discontinue this interview. Cause it's not gonna matter tomorrow. Like, hey, hey, Brev, you should probably be grabbing your bug out bag right now. Hope you had one in the car and drive. Yeah, yeah. So anyway, we could totally hear them. And I'm watching Bowie for Luke right now. How does Bowie deal with them? Bowie not. Not a fan. Not a fan of. No. Not a fan of planes at all? Not a fan of, like, I mean, I think this is just dogs. So. So, frankly, have you spent much time with Bowie? Like, how much time have you spent with Luke's dog? Not. Not much. It was interesting because I was with my friend's dog, Bo, and not to be confused with Bowie, and he was just chilling, just, like, looked out the window. So Luke's dog is a God tier dog, in my opinion. Like. Like, I don't know. Like, I don't know where that. Because I know how busy they are. I know that they got Bowie during the pandemic, so they. They probably had a lot more time to spend training him. Aren't they, like, living on a farm part of the time? Yeah, I think they got him out there while they were living on a farm in Minnesota or whatever. Yeah, but he is crazy. Well behaved. Like, he just chills. True. Yeah. I've never seen him, like, misbehave or anything. He seems like a very under control dog. Yeah. And I, like. Like, I love watching him because, like, him on a leash is ridiculous. Like, I've never seen a dog that well behaved on a leash. Like, he will just walk right past any other dog completely ambivalent to them. Yeah. They can be freaking the fuck out. And I will just walk. Yeah. And. And I have this, like, like, unjustified sense of pride. Like, I get to be the dog owner with the crazy, well trained dog, and I did fucking nothing. Yeah. Yeah. You might as well be like, hey, what? What the fuck's wrong with your dog? How come you didn't train it back? Because mine's well behaved. Yes. See? See what's going on here? Yeah. So at one point, I. Maybe he'll correct the record. I don't. I don't know that he listens to these when he's not a participant, but we can ask him next week. But I. I asked him a while ago and I think he said that a lot of it is just temperament for Bowie. Like, he. He. They did spend time training him, but he was just a. Just a kind of. Just had a great temperament. So, like, my brother has another. Patrick has a. Has a really well trained dog. But my understanding is that it took an immense amount of effort to get. Whiskey is the name of his dog to be as well behaved as he is. Sorry. My camera keeps going in and out of focus, and even then, I think Bowie, like, bowie can intuit everything that I want him to do. It's. It's really. It's really bizarre. Like, I'll be like, stay on the couch. Yeah. And he'll just lay back down. Yeah, it's really weird. So anyway, yeah, I'm chilling with Bowie, watch the euros I've been recovering from. I jam the shit out of my toe last. I was actually the last podcast we did. I was gutting it out. I was in a lot of pain recording that episode, and I'm in much less pain this week, but this weekend. But I am exhausted. Like, I haven't been able to sleep because I, for whatever reason, I curl my toes in my sleep. I don't know if that's bad, but I definitely do it. I think in general, like, foot, knee, leg stuff, even currently there's people that are having trouble sleeping because of this. But I remember it, like, for my knee surgeries and other things. And ankles, like. Yeah, it just makes it tough to fucking sleep. It's like if your back was screwed up, like, it's just tough to get comfortable and you wake up and. Yeah, it's just. It's a fuck situation. Until it gets better. Yeah. So. So I just keep curling. Like, I was looking for things that could just hold my toes. I tried to wrap them and stuff. Yeah, it didn't seem to help. Like, I, like, I would still, like, even splinted me. Pressing down on the splint to attempt to curl my toes still caused extreme pain. So I've been, like, waking up every hour to hour and a half for the last week. So I. Yeah, anyway, I'm white, I'm really tired, but, I mean, we did. Live in Baltimore, so opiates are an option in many different forms and varieties. Yeah. Availability. Yeah. On doordash. Yeah, yeah. Just. Just place your order. Yeah. So I guess we should talk about the euros. We watched a match together yesterday. I don't care about the euros. I'm only talking about us soccer the rest of the summer. Oh, okay. They didn't play, did they? I mean, they. We have the Brazil talk about stuff that happened. Yeah, we didn't. We didn't talk about the Brazil match. We could. We could start off with euros, though. Yeah. What's. Luke isn't here, so I'm just trying to derail things as quickly as possible. Cuz, you know, if I'm not gonna do it, nobody's gonna do it. Yeah. Let's see. We had Hungary and Switzerland, which I unfortunately can't comment on because of some stupid tv deal with Fubo TV. Yeah. I actually. Now thinking about this in this moment, I actually like this bad tv deal because unlike the Premier League where like, for some reason I'm contractually obligated to talk about Burnley games, I'm not gonna have to talk about hungry games more than once or twice the next two weeks. It works out pretty well for me. Is it just hungry's games that were part of the deal? It's the lowest rated ones, it looks like. No. So there's five games in the group stages, to your point, that look like they're on Fubo only, but they look like bat. They're the non, like primetime games early in the morning and they're the lowest. They look like the lowest rated games, all of them. Okay, well, so neither of us watch. That because it's not available. Yeah, I'm not paying. I don't know what Fubo would have to do for me to subscribe to them, but it would take a lot more than hungry. Switzerland. Yes. Yeah. And on top of that, I don't care about hungry. Swit. Hungry. Switzerland, Hungary, Switzerland. Why am I. Why does it sound so weird when I'm saying it? Probably because I. Are you hungry right now? I've never. I've never wanted to. I've never. I've never imagined such a dull. Anyway. Yeah. Like, certainly this isn't going to compel me to get Fubo TV. But I don't know, looking at the. Who scored? I mean, it was three one. I think that's one of the story. Was England the only team to keep a clean sheet? I think they were. Dude, that England game was fucking. We'll get to that. But I think England are in trouble if I didn't watch it. But it looks like it. Okay. Yeah. I mean, they might want to sack Southgate tonight. Yeah. And try to try to perform surgery. Yeah, I said. Yeah, I said that this week. Like, I. I can't even conceive of rooting for a Garrett Southgate team. But, yeah, we don't. I think hungry. Yeah, hungry. We won't have to talk about in, you know, two weeks because the groups will be over and they'll be out. Probably won't have how many go through there? Are there three team? No, there have to be four teams in a group. So Switzerland, maybe two in each group. Yeah, yeah, we'll go through. All right. So Spain. Oh, Spain kept it clean. Sheet. I forgot about that. Spain, Croatia. This is the. The match that we watched together. Yeah, they had the disallowed goal and that would have been it. So, yeah, three nothing, right? Yeah. So the things that I found interesting about this match, one, I took a note and it was to shout out the Premier League for not sending Anthony Taylor as our representative reference appeals. That's. I didn't pick up on that, but that's probably the most important. The first note I made was thank you for sending Michael Oliver. Because I don't know how many more times next season I can hear the announcers call Anthony Taylor the best in the business without tearing my fucking tv off the wall. So hopefully this. I think Michael Oliver has been consistently excellent. I think you had some issues with him in this match, but I think he's been great for the most part. And I thought he called this game pretty well, although there was one really weird call, which was the Rodri, the penalty that was awarded. You remember this? Yeah. The guy who flopped, simulated whatever it's called. Yeah, I mean, I didn't see, I don't know if I ever saw a definitive angle that suggested to me that, like, he was actually fouled. That was Petrovic, right? Yeah, but I mean, he went down. Like Petrov took a 50 cal to the knee joint and yeah, Roger may have barely touched him, but not enough. He was already going down too. He went down early. I think he kind of expected somebody to come in there or was ready for the contact. On the other hand, like, why Roger would stick his leg in there, like, you're just asking for a penalty regardless. So, like, I don't know, like, Rodri's had some hot headed, bone headed moments in the last twelve months and for me, this is another one of them. And so, like, I think it's bullshit that, like, that doesn't get reviewed and there's not a yellow card for simulation, but at the same time, like, I don't feel bad about Rodri taking, taking the, taking the foul there. So I have watched a lot of replays of this it was one of the first things I did this morning, and I can say with very high confidence that this dude Petkovic was not touched. Yeah. And so how is this shit not going to var in a major tournament? So it just don't get it. It did go to various, but they. Didn'T ask Oliver to look at it. No. Yeah, they confirmed. Yeah, they reviewed it and confirmed. They reviewed it and confirmed it. And so this is like. So there is. There is like a foot. So one thing I observed is that, you know, being a Chelsea fan, I haven't had to watch a lot of UEFA competitions this, this season. No. They actually be exactly zero. You. You. A competition. I did. I did watch the Champions League, obviously. But a thing that I've picked up on now that I'm consuming a lot of UEFA content, is that they're very. They do not dwell on VAR calls the way the PL does. And I think the trade off is. Is that the, like, the game keeps moving, but the trade off is. Is that you have misses like this. So they, like, very quickly went with the call on the field. They did not dwell on this hardly at all. And that, like, the result is that they got the call wrong. And my issue on top, like, with all of this, is the correct call was to. To overturn this and give a yellow card for simulation, Petkovic. But if you're going to make the call that you did, Rodri stopped a clear goal scoring opportunity, and he should have been given a red card. So, like, in all versions of this world, I think the call is wrong. Yeah. Like. Like, it's just a bad call any way you slice it. Like. Like, no matter how you feel about. Yeah, I feel like there's a precedent for them not giving reds in a lot of those situations, even though they are clear going goal scoring opportunities. I'm not sure what the reasoning for that is. I get. I think there's this mindset of, like, oh, the PK, because the. The rate it's converted in the yellow card are enough. I don't know if he even took a yellow in that, but I'm assuming he took for that. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I agreed, like, yeah, for the be. That that screwed up either way is kind of disappointing for. For this level of competition. Yeah. So I. I guess, like, it is Petkovic, right? That's who drew the foul. I think that's who it was. I don't. I don't have that info in front of me, but whoever it was, you're a bitch. It's like, all you had to, like, he's staring down an open goal and, yeah, he got exactly what he deserved here, which was that they did not convert. And Simone, I think is how you say his last name. The keeper looks like on who scored. He was given man of the match, certainly because he saved that. I thought he had some shaky moments. He plays some weird balls. I think we talked about, like, it seemed like part of the game plan was to just punt it to Nico Williams. Yeah. He played, like, a 90 yard ball on the ground at one point. Williams general vicinity, I think that they. Had identified that stanisic is just hot garbage. And they were like, we're just gonna run at this dude all game. And he was pretty bad. Like, I thought he was. He was not great. Yeah. So maybe that was. That was, like, sound scouting, I guess, for them. Vardy all was all over the place trying to. I'm, like, looking at the. I thought Kovacic looked good. Ku Korea played out of his fucking mind. And I thought. I thought he looked great in this one. We were memeing a little bit and being like, the whole. Just the whole backing wall. He was telling people to get the fuck off his side of the feel because he's got it covered. Yeah. You gotta worry about somewhere else. This is my. Was the whole black back line. Yeah. And Gary Neville roasted this dude before the match. Like, yeah. He was like, this guy doesn't belong. Like, he can't, like, wash the jockstraps of the other players on this team. I don't know why they give that. Like, they've got that zoo crew of Keen, Neville and Carragher that, like, they not only should they not be on tv, they should all be in a home together at this point because there's clearly not, like, a full stack of iq between the three of them. Wow. The alternatives are apparently, like, Keelini. Yeah. He probably has more intelligent things to say, but he's getting talked over by Alexi Lawless, who again, like, is this really the best we can do for the premier soccer competition of the summer? Is this bunch of yokels? I think Alexi Lawless, I mean, he's obviously there for the us audience, and I think that he's. I actually think he's a good announcer. He's obviously not the best at analyzing the game, but he's. He's funny. I like, hey, I'll give you that. He has some funny shit to say, but that's charismatic. Yeah, I don't. I've been tired. He's, like, overly though it sounds. It all sounds so contrived the way it comes off. He doesn't fucking roast players for no. Reason and then he roasts us players. But, like, and I got fed up with his shit a long time ago, so maybe that, like, that shades things. Like, I've just been done with him for like, I don't know, four or five years. I haven't wanted to listen to him talk, but, yeah, like, he's not the worst on there when you got these other jackasses, as you alluded to, never probably being the head of that crew. Yeah. So anyway, Kukure had, I thought, a great game. Marotta. Yeah, look great. Went down with an injury. Like, literally. You're right about him, though. Like, he, he goes down at, like, you know, if somebody would have hit his back calf with a feather, he's going down. Or if he feels the wind blowing from like, the wrong direction, he's going down. It's like, dude, I don't understand your Spanish, but I don't know who told. Him he should be a fucking nine. But yeah, he, he does not. He's like the softest. He has to be the softest nine at that level of visibility, let's say. Where does he play now? Is he. Is he at Juventus again? Oh, I thought he was at Letico, but I could be still. But maybe not. He plays for. I think. I think you've Ventus courier return it. No, he's Atletico. You're right, he did return to Juventus and then he moved to athletic. I don't pay attention to La Liga or Syria for that matter. Except for the us players in Syria. Yeah, dude, he's soft. But I mean, like, let's see if there's an update on his injury. He did. That was like a decent finish and he could not continue. Literally signaled, like, asked the ball to be kicked out so he could be subbed off. Yeah, apparently his first time picking up an injury because every other player in this competition knows that you go down and then you get subbed. But he decided that throwing a fit and waving his hands around would probably. Would be the most proactive measure to take. Yeah, he started arguing with the coach and, and, and, sorry, I was going to fix something, but I've, I've aborted on that idea. Anyway, he started arguing with his coach manager or whatever and it was just petulant and stopped playing altogether and then they finally, like, subbed him off. But all that is to say that, like, I guess whatever was wrong with him was bad enough for all of that. So that's a concern. And then Rodri had to come off with an injury. So those are. Those would be two big losses, if those are at all significant injuries. And then my last thought on this match was, I mean, it'd be crazy if we didn't call out Lamenia mall, who I think was the youngest player to ever start in a year in a match in the euros. I think that's what they were saying. The announcers were just gushing about this guy, and he did. He got an assist, he balled out. I thought, for a lot of the game, there was a moment where they had five people surrounding him, where crow, she had five people around him, and he still managed to slip the ball back to, like, Pedri, I think. And it's not like he's, you know, he's starting for Spain. Right. Which. Which is a whole nother level to, like, how great of a talent you have to be to break in that early. Yeah, it's different than, you know, he'd probably go out there and play at 13. He would have been playing at 13 or twelve for hungry, I'm assuming, but, yeah, yeah. And ten for the US. Correct. So this dude's a talent. Like a world class future ballon Dor winner. He's fine. Watch, too. Yeah, he's. He takes players on. Yeah, he's. He's just fucking sick. And I think that it. So the question mark with him will be, who is it that the German? Is it Hansi flick is taking over at Barcelona. That's if they can, like, get their wage bill down enough to even register a manager, which I read is an issue for them. But that's not here nor there. Javi Alonzo was managing Lamenia mall really well. He was. I remember watching him protect him. Like, people would be like, is this the next messi? And Jobi would. Alonzo would just shut that shit down. And it would have been very easy to just play this kid in every match. But he played him in about half the fixtures available to them this season. Well, in fairness, about, like, 10% of the matches Barcelona plays in are competitive in a given season. Yeah, but still, I just think. I thought they were doing an excellent job managing him. Now he's starting for Spain. He looked really spectacular, and he's just gonna be a real treat to watch for the next, I don't know, 15 years. Yeah. So, yeah, so, yeah, that was cool to see Croatia. Like, I thought there was some record that was broken. I don't know how long it was. But interestingly, and we talked about this while we were watching it together, this is not the boring tiki taka high possession set up Spain that we are used to. They were very direct and very willing to take a chance and give up the ball. Yeah, I don't know if that will be the plan in all their fixtures, but I read somewhere that it was like a years long multi year streak where Spain had the highest possession figure in all of their international matches and this was the first time they did not. I think, oh, it's right here in front of me. Yeah, it was 53.3% for Croatia, so, yeah, it was pretty interesting. And part, like we were saying earlier, like, they were bombing the ball out to Williams to go chase and that's just not something like Pep Guardiola would, would fucking rip your head off if you did that. I think in fairness, right, in those, when they didn't have that or when they were doing that, they didn't have Nico Williams and Lamina Mall playing out wide. In fact, they didn't even have an established striker. Like, it's crazy thing about Morata is like light years better than the strikers they were playing with for a large swath of the last ten to 15 years. And so, yeah, yeah, it's interesting to see them adapt, but it makes sense to me. So I think they can be successful to it and they still do have those midfield players obviously, to play that possession based game when they need to and when they need to weather it and when it's going to be harder to break through. But, yeah, I mean, Croatia's defense was something they felt like they could take advantage of and frankly, I mean, there's, it's going to be tough to match backs up with, with those guys. Like if they end up playing England, for example, you know, Lavinia mall against Luke Shaw, like that. Whatever version of Luke Shaw is going to trot out there, I will be something. I'll watch with a bag of popcorn. Yeah, yeah, that, that would be ridiculous. I don't think we're gonna get to see that, though. We can talk about that in a second. Yeah. And behind Mirata, they have. I pointed this dude out to you this, this weekend, Samu Omarodian. I think he's backing him up. No, he's not backing him up. I'm just saying, like, they have a 20 year old fucking monster of a striker who is coming through in Spain. He played for their U 19s in 2023, April 2023. So he played for the U 19, spanish national team. He has five caps or appearances for the Spain U 21s as well. And he is a physical monster. He's like six, 4200 pounds. He's quick, he's, he's ridiculous. So they will have a true striker coming through at some point and that'll be, that'll be interesting. Whenever, like, Murata phases out, this dude, I imagine will phase in and that'll just add a whole nother dimension to this. This team, like Spain is. They're, they're like golden generation, phased out and they're. They've got this new wave of talent coming through right now and like, javi is not even available because of the knee injury. I think it was a knee injury. Maybe it was an achilles. And who's the other? They have like Jeremy Pino, he's out with an injury. So they have this other gangster. I think he's a right winger. Yeah, he, he did his ACL this season, so he like, and he, he's like crazy good. So he would be backing up Lamina mall. Yeah. Anyway, I guess, like, what, what foot does he. I don't know what foot is the strongest. I can't scan this fast enough to figure that out, but I guess if he's right footed, they could still put him out on the left and have him cut in. Pedri's hurt, right? He's one of the. Petri was in Pedri played, was he? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, Javi is. I'd mentioned that a second ago. G a v I. Gavi or. Okay, Gavi. Javi. Yeah, I think. I think at some point both of them were injured this season. Pedri is obviously back because he played yesterday and then Gavi is still recovering, but, yeah. Ridiculous. Those are ridiculous midfielders. They have ridiculous wingers. They are fairly deep at nine. Yeah, I don't know. They're good. They're a good squad. Man, that was fun to watch. I thought that was a fun match. Yeah. Croatia's attack is kind of toothless, but they do have a still very well organized and competent midfield. Vardy all gives them something unique, you know, in addition to just being a good, great player. They torched him in the ratings, though. Interesting. I mean, what do you want the guy to fucking do? He's covering half the field. Whatever. I guess he's been up and down that points, but giving him the low, they give him the lowest rating. Yeah. Seems a bit unfair, but yeah. Well, speaking of killer midfields, we skipped right over Germany, the opening match as the host nation they played on Friday. Well, that opening match was only 20 minutes long. They beat the fuck out of Scotland. That was a bloodbath. Scotland. Excuse me, Scotland, who scored a single goal off an own goal from Antonio Rudiger. Excuse me, who are. Sorry, Scotland. They had a zero XG for this match, I think, but still managed a goal because of the Rudiger own goal. Well, it's good to get them off the island every once in a while, I guess. But the Germans weren't showing any appreciation for the tourism investment, that's for sure. Yeah. The joke I made is that Scott McTominay must not be used to being surrounded by this much talent with the Scotland squad. Didn't even phase me when you said it. Yeah, you can get that and more in our discord. Every one. Every. Every Saturday or Sunday. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta get that. That's got to make its way to Levi. But. But, yeah, Jim, Germany looks like they're up for it, right, with home field advantage. So. This was. This was a statement. I mean, they just. They just played right through Scotland and a. I don't know what they. How did this team line up? Let's see if I can find the lineup. Who was there? So they did use Kai as they're nine. Yep. Okay, so, I mean, talk about, like, their midfield is Vertz, Gundogan and Musial. Yeah, they're attacking mid and they're. They're like cruises behind them. Yeah, that's fucked up. I mean, Musiala and Vertz are two of the, like, I'd kill to have either of them on Chelsea. Musiala came from the Chelsea academy and we let him walk for practically nothing. I think we have a good sell on clause, but that's like, both of those guys could be ballon Dor candidates down the road if they. They put together a really good season. I think. I think musial is, like, a little better on the dribble and Vertz is a better passer of the ball, but. Yeah, two just world class tens, I guess. Flank like that starting lineup, right. Is kind of like three tens behind Everts. Right. But they, like, they're. They're gonna. Well, obviously it worked in this one. I think that's something they could work with. Like, I don't think it's gonna be an issue. You have Sonny coming off the bench, can give you kind of a different look at that, right? Full crew coming off the bench. Or maybe he starts a few of these, gives you a different look versus the type of player. Havertz is a more out and out nine. Gross can play like four or five different positions, so him coming off the bench definitely helps too. Yeah. I mean, it's an interesting team. I wouldn't say they're quite as deep as like Spain or even the Netherlands or France, but I mean, that. That starting eleven, the first couple. And they have some impact subs behind that. I mean, yeah, they. I mean, they brought on Pascal gross. Full krug, Thomas Muller. Yep. Sane and Amir Khan. I'm looking at who they have. Yeah, I guess they are a little. A little thin. They've got Undav as well. Yeah. I mean, they have some guys. Yeah. Schlatter. Beck didn't even play in this slaughter back. Yeah, he's probably makes sense to rest him. He had a long campaign. Yeah. I mean, getting then I think I discounted until I started paying attention. The. The impact that home field probably is going to have on. On this tournament, especially in the group stage. Right. Yeah. It'd be interesting to see if they can go on a run with that behind them. What do you think went into the decision for Scotland to not put Billy Gilmore in the starting lineup? It's. It's as you alluded to. Right. Just such a plethora of talent that. It'S tough to figure out how you get too deep. Yeah. I mean, we've only seen him be basically the most valuable player on the field in matches. It's Scotland's matches before. Yeah. Yeah. I think many times. Maybe a poor run of form in. Was he injured? I don't know. I would say it's worth looking into more, but Scotland's not going to be a talking point in two weeks anyway, so. That's true. Okay, what else do we have here? We. I got lost. Is that all of yesterday's games? Oh, we didn't talk about Italy, Albania. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I guess this. This game. So this game finishes two one in favor of Italy. Albania scored in what, the first 90 seconds of this? They could have scored two. Yeah. Gates and just punched. Yeah. Yeah. Which isn't surprising to me in the sense that, like, to me, like, Italy has historically been a little bit of a mentally wishy washy team. And you talked about that like, struggling to qualify for the World cup. You know, they're. They're very up and down and they're. They're not. I wouldn't say they're not. They're not like the epic talent levels they were historically either. Like, they've made. I think they've turned. This is more of a team than it is, like, individual talent at this point in time, and maybe that's just a moment, but this. They. They reacted really well. Like, they. They went basically ape shit, closing down the ball, um, and clawed their way back into the game and really just took it to. To them after that. Um, and granted, like, they had a big. Even with not generational talent for Italy, I think there is a talent gap between Italy and Albania. I don't think that's a controversial thing to say. Um, but Albania was clearly up for this game. Yeah. And granted, they only won by one, but, you know, after going down like that and just having the start, they did. Italy really put pressure on the entire rest of the way. It seemed like, yeah, Brujah has two. More matches to bag a couple goals. Help. Help the sail along. I did think he looked good in this match. Like, he looked. And he looked. He looked very fit. He looked up for it the whole match. Right. I mean, I guess he came off at some point. When did they. They subbed him out? 77th minute. Uh, yeah, he, um, he looked good. So hope. I hope he keeps playing well and that we cash in bigly on him. Yes, that's my hope. Let's see, we had. So this morning, I ended up being able to watch the watch alive. I did watch the entire Poland Netherlands game. Okay. I watched Slovenia and Denmark. That was. Ended up watching both of them, to be honest. I left the house. But, yeah, you want to cover? Which. Which do you want to cover? Well, I think so. Poland Netherlands, I think, is an interesting. I think they're both interesting to talk about to some extent. Right. To me, I was. I was definitely more interested with the Netherlands. You know, I think from. I like rooting for the Netherlands because they're a good team and they've got, like, a dynamic mix of players, in my opinion. They're exciting to watch. They have some flair to them. You think about players like Depy, for example. They are kind of not just capable of the spectacular, but go for it pretty often, sometimes. So, yeah, I was interested in this game. I think I told. I told Tom, right, that I was rooting for Netherlands, Poland, Ukraine. I think in retrospect, probably Netherlands is the one I'm more so interested in than the other two. Poland did look dangerous on set pieces. Obviously, that's how they went up one nothing. I think that'll continue to be a strength for them, especially Lewandowski coming back. So he wasn't available on this one. So overall, they, you know, they played pretty well, they were well organized and they're up for it and gave the Netherlands Netherlands a game. But I think there's still a significant talent gap there. And, you know, not to say anything of Poland, but definitely a ton of athleticism in the Netherlands relative to Poland. Right. But there's some, like, there's just a lot of fun players to watch, like Depai, van Dyke, Ake Raiders, Dumphrey's Gakpa. Like, those are all top tier players from a club standpoint that are competing for european trophies every year. So I think there's a, it's a little bit of a sleeper team in, in my mind. When people talk about like, Spain, Germany, France, England, the Netherlands is kind of like an afterthought and some of that's fair because they've underperformed at times, but it'd be. I'm interested to see if this team can go on a run, uh, here the rest of the way and definitely live impact substitutes, too. Uh, that can't come under the. Came for this one. Where the fuck is Frankie Deyoung? Uh, that is a good question. I did not pick up on, on that one. Oh, he's been injured for a while. Hasn't. Has some kind of ankle injury. Yeah. So he's. Yes, he was. Yeah, I noticed he didn't play. But I like while you were just giving your analysis on the match, I was looking at the whole roster and he's not on the roster. Verbgan saved Netherlands. Yeah, true. Like, verb Rugen played out of his fucking mind in this. And this is a keeper who is very, very, very highly rated, considered one of the brightest up and coming keepers. He's at Brighton right now and I. There are like loose links with Chelsea. Like some sort of transfer this season. Chelsea obviously need a keeper because the ones they have are hot garbage. But, yeah, I mean, he, he looked like, he looked great in this match. I thought we just don't. We just order against a blanket po at this point if we want a player from Brighton. Yeah. So why didn't, like, I wonder if it would have been cheaper if Chelsea, if blue Co just bought Brighton. Like, when they bought Chelsea, like, what if they just bought Brighton, the club? That's an. Yeah, but then that's a how if blue Co did. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think. I don't think it's legal. Like, I don't think you can do it. Yeah. They were already having trouble with one of cities holding holdings playing in this or. Sorry, United's hole. Was it United's holding plan city? I said there was some discussion of United not being able to play in Europa League because they had. There was another team playing in there that might get Chelsea bumped up. Maybe it was city. Yeah, maybe. I think it was city because hitafe, maybe that's qualified. Yeah, yeah. We didn't want run afoul of that, so, you know. Yeah, yeah. At any rate, I. Yeah, I mean, I thought. I thought that this could have gone either way. Netherlands has definitely a star power over Poland. I thought Zaluski looked really good from what I can remember from this match and the celebration from what's his name. Sorry, I'm pulling it up. Yeah. So, yeah. Did you see any backstory to that? Yeah, yeah, yeah, apparently. Yeah. I mean, so, you know, it's interesting, he was pretty pissed off, it seems, about not starting that. You know, I guess it kind of makes sense to an extent. Like the pie probably could have played where Xavi Simmons was playing. Bakers could have started there. But, yeah, I mean, responded really well, but, you know, definitely a clinical finish there. So be interesting to see how that plays out. But again, like, this is a team that has players of impact coming off the. Off the bench and in the starting eleven. Yeah, I think it's crazy that Frimpong doesn't start. Yeah. He's an example. Right. But he's such an exciting player and useful attacking player to put out there as an impact sub or super sub that maybe that's the role that's best for this tournament. And, you know, the one thing I think I will say to your point, right, is this game could have gone either way because the Netherlands continues to not be a very clinical team. Depy in particular gets off a lot of shots, but doesn't necessarily convert enough of them relative to what the talent level is. And I think that's been a knock on him for a while and frankly, it's a reason that he hasn't achieved at the club level the way, yeah, he was expected to when he first came in the league and, yeah. So, yeah, I think some of that plays into this perception of the Netherlands not being in that top tier. And so certainly this one wouldn't have changed the narrative when you've got 66% possession and, you know, kind of have to eke one out, two to one. Yep. So then you have Slovenia and Denmark and I thought that this was a very interesting match. Yeah. I mean, beyond the storyline of Ericsson coming, coming back to life, you know, pun intended right. Three years later and scoring a goal, which, you know, it's great to see. Right. I think it's. It's great for that team. It's great for. For the audience. Right. I think it's a great story in general from a life perspective, to see somebody persevere to that extent. Extent. And not only score, but, like, he. You could tell he kind of had this team on his back in this one. Yeah. And probably is the only, you know, certainly the only reason they're able to eke out the point here. Yeah. Sorry. I am trailing in this one. Never really kind of grew into the game, um, it seems, for whatever reason. Um, I don't. I don't think he's a bad player. Uh, and I don't think it's necessarily he's a bad fit for the international game. But something wasn't gelling there, um, you know, in a team where Hoiberg's a starter, like, I would expect more. Oh, man, I thought so. I was trying to look up the XG for this while you were talking. I thought that it would be more even on XG, but it was 1.09 for Slovenia, 2.07 for Denmark. Huh? Yeah. I mean, Slovenia looked more the threat for huge chunks of this game to me. But they had moments. I don't. I don't know if I feel quite that way. But, I mean, they. They were up for it. They played them tough. And I think it's a disappointing result relative to the talent that Denmark has. And I just don't think that. That Denmark has the teeth to go very far, based on what I saw against, you know, admittedly out matched Slovenia team. Yeah. Hoyland, whatever. Like, I didn't. He didn't do that. Your hot take? Yeah, I mean, I'm looking at, like, I'm looking at, like, the PL stars in this one. He. He was kind of a nothing burger, right? Yeah. His movement, like, he couldn't figure out the movement to get the ball part of the time, I think, was part of the problem. They didn't give him good service either. It just didn't. Didn't work out well. And then Sesko Sheshko, however you say his name, I thought he looked very dangerous. He didn't score. He hit the frame. That was a great shot. Yeah, scored on that one. Yeah. He. He was just bullying people out there. And this is a dude who's linked to Chelsea and Arsenal. I believe he recommitted to Leipzig. I believe is where he plays right now and has signed a new five year deal with them. So he declined to go to Chelsea or Arsenal, but, yeah, I mean, I would have been. After watching this match, I would have been pretty stoked about having him on Chelsea. I think he's 20. I don't know, Benjamin, I realize, is that young? Yeah, I agree. Like, he was definitely the standout for them. Yeah. 21. Yeah. He's very young. So, yeah, I would have been really pleased with that signing if we had nailed that. Pretty interesting that he declined both Arsenal and Chelsea, but, yeah. All right, final match, the big one. Serbia and England. I didn't watch this one, but did you want to know an interesting fact? Only one player in the starting eleven for Serbia has a last name that doesn't end with IC. Oh, who is that? I don't know who the guy is. He probably feels pretty awkward, though. Wait a minute. Looking at the. Wait, do all of them. What is serving. I may have. May have fucked up this interesting fact here pretty well. Yeah, no, all of a deal. All right. Sorry. Starting eleven. Yeah. Where? Doge namania Gwenage. Gotcha. Like that? Yes. He's. I don't know. His parents fucked up. Couldn't figure out a name on my own. Out. So this match. Oh, you want to talk about the actual match now? Yeah, yeah, I. Not really. I already had to watch it. Well, you didn't have to watch it, but you're. You're not an England apologist like most people I know. Yeah. So. Well, I mean, I. I don't understand rooting for. For anyone, but, like, we don't have to. Like, I follow the PL, so. For the revolutionary war rhyme. Yeah, well, I mean, I root for America first. They're just. They don't play in the euros for. Obviously, always an enemy. So this. The XG philosophy, their tweet about this match was that England versus Serbia saw less XG created than any Premier League game last season at zero, a combined 0.69. This is a team. That is what is Serbia's ranking. Let's see. Dude, how. What kind of game has three corners? Like, what were they fucking doing? Just passing the ball around? I'd love to see a heat map of this. This was passing the ball around the back? Yes. Well, I think. Well, who had. Who had the higher possession? Oh, England did, but, like, no. No fucking planet. Should Serbia have 46.6% possession against England? Like, that just should never happen. Fair. And so, like, my experience watching this was England just, like, scored that. Bellingham scored the goal, which was a phenomenal finish. Like, it was not a guaranteed goal that he put in, but he scored very early on. And then England just played the numbers from that point on. They let Serbia have the middle of the pitch and they just sat back and Southgate is a fucking terrible coach. I'm going to say. Like, that doesn't, like, you're not preparing yourself and nor should you be winning one. Nothing against Serbia. To your point, Serbia is for a team that has. 33rd. Yeah, 33rd in the FIFA world rankings, which aren't, like, everything, right? Yeah, that's Randall horrendous. It's. But. But either way, right? Like, this is a team that they think is championship caliber. And Fred, like, I'm not. And actually, I would agree, right, like, this is a team that talent could easily win it. But I've said it all along, like, I don't think they're going to win it with Southgate. Yeah, he just. I mean, he is just crazy conservative. And by being that way, he has overperformed with worse, worse England rosters in the past. But the talent is too. There's too much talent on this England, England team for this shit to be happening. Like, absolutely. It is maddening. You have. I mean, I. You probably disagree with this. All right, I'll. I think Kane is the second best striker in the world, but Nico Jackson, let's just. Yeah, behind Nico Jackson, let's just say he's a top five. You have a top five striker. You have a ballon door candidate playing ten, the ten behind him. You've got Sokka Foden, rice, Alexander Arnold Gate. Well, the defense is suspect, right? Like, Gehee is a little sketchy Pickford. I've never been, like, of a believer. You can make the argument, right, that Kane, Kane is the best player in the Bundesliga, Bellingham's the best player in La Liga, and Foden's the best player in Premier League. Like, maybe that's not this case, but you could. Or maybe that you make that case. You can't, like, just reject that statement out of hand. Like, it. It is. Yeah, it's crazy talent. Yeah. It's. It's just. It's just incredible that they are this listless and devoid of ideas. And there's something I would say, right. It's like we talked about the us team, right? Whether it's coaching, whether it's talent. And I think you have the debate about any team. But my take here is, like, if that's. Those are the players on the pitch, like, I don't give a shit that my coach is dumbass. Southgate, like, I'm gonna go throttle this team three to nothing minimum and figure the fuck out. And they. To your point, like, they're. They didn't do that. So I don't. I don't know where they go from there, but if you. If. Let's. Let's do a hypothetical here. If they. Their next match is Denmark in England. Right, on Thursday. If they tie that game, do you think Southgate gets to coach the third group? They're. They're. They're. They're committed to, like. Yeah. What if they lose to Denmark? I mean, they. They're committed to say they're not going to fire a mid tournament, but, yeah, man, it is. This is tragic. Like, the England FA or whatever, whoever manages this team, they are despicable. I think they should bring ten hag in for the next game. Salvage. Well, I mean, the rumors were that we should talk about that, too. The rumors were that, like, ten hag was gonna go out and Southgate was gonna come in for Man United. And that would have been like, I would have. I would have. We call that a, like, for, like, swap. Dude. Oh, man. Ten hag is, like, more exciting than Southgate. Like, ten hag at least lets his players counter. Anyway. I have no other comment on this fucking match. Like, I want my 90 minutes back. Fuck you, Southgate. That's. That's my review. Now, at the end of the day, like, things can change quickly. They can, you know, you know, win out in the group and take a top spot in the. In the lamination round, but. Yeah, I know. I think it was Schmeichel. They, like, they have the song that, like, it's coming home or something that they sing in England about the Euro trophy. And Schmichel is like. Like, this was the, like, banter with the. The, like, backroom commentators or whatever on one of the matches that I watched, I think, this morning, and he was like, how can it come home when you've never had it? Yeah. Then, like, some. One of the announcers during this. This match was like, they said that the. That song has existed for, like, 50 years or something. The other announcer was like, yeah. Do you guys just keep changing the lyrics? Yeah, I mean, there is. There's some truth to this and, like, there is a sense of entitlement or air of entitlement around this team. Right? Like, yeah, that's actually probably a piece that bothers me more than Southgate, I guess. Right? Like, I don't. I don't have a problem rooting for any of these players. But, like, the. The kind of fan the fan base is as such. I don't know, but, you know, they have had a bad run the last four or five decades, so you kind of feel for them in a sense, but it's like, oh, yeah, we're back. We're going to win this one. It's like, I'm not sure you've proven that in any way to this point. I guess Shaw is injured. Yeah. I don't know why I was talking about Shaw. It's trippier. Started this. They've tripped playing out of position. Yeah. Like, he normally would play down the right flank, so. And then what? That. Yeah. So how does Palmer. Palmer Watkins. Tony, nobody makes it into this game and it's one nothing. Yeah. He only used three subs. Like, I don't. Well, it's because he had a lead. Like, he didn't need to make any progressive subs. He doesn't have. Like, you get a lead, you give. Up a goal and then you're fucked. Like, that's not gonna work against Spain, Germany and France. But, I mean, he's literally just playing the odds. Like, he's playing the safest possible match. And that is the difference between, like. Him and a real coach. England came out with what's his name? Fuck it. Who's their coach? I can't think of it right now. He's like 35 years old. I'm looking it up. It would come to me, but I. You're joining England's coach? No, Germany. Sorry, Germany's Naglesman. I think I kept saying England, but I meant Germany. Like, Germany. Naglesman took his dick out and just slapped Scotland about. Like that is. That's a. Like. And you're gonna see that from France, too. Like, these teams that have, like, wall to wall talent, they let the talent play. You only have to play the numbers with your national team. Like, you only have to establish a restrictive system when the talent isn't there. And that's how you get them to over perform. England has too much talent for this shit. Yeah, it doesn't. It doesn't make sense, the strategy. Yeah. Trying to win a championship with this level of talent. Yeah. They're not going to beat France. They won't beat Italy with that strategy. Then again, like, no other team would have showed up with Jordan Henderson either, so. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we can move on. Let's talk about the US match against Brazil real quick. Yeah. What were your. I told my brother that this was going to be eight nothing. I was wrong. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know if I had a prediction in mind, but, I mean, I'm not going to overreact any more than I, than I reacted to the Columbia loss. I mean, like, this is a good tie, it's not great, it's not a great result. But, you know, Brazil is a top team in the world. I don't think they're, you know, ignoring what, you know, convicted felon Ronaldinho has to say, like, this isn't the best Brazil team we've seen, but they still have a lot of talent and should be, probably should be on the talent beating a US team. We played them tough. I think it could have gone like, yeah, I mean, it could have been a six to one game. Either way, there was a lot of shots in this game. It was pretty open. But the, you know, the US didn't play poorly. I don't think they deserve the loser. Six to one. Did they really deserve a tie? I don't know. But, you know, the results matter in soccer, right? Not how you get there. And so pulling out a one one tie against Brazil isn't that bad. And you had a world class goal from Christian, who, you know, again, is the first or second most important player on the field and he delivered. ESPN ripped them apart in the ratings, but we've talked before that. I don't think. I think whoever's doing the ESPN ratings is chugging like more beers than

Luke at 10:

00 a.m. and then just throwing ratings out there. They gave Christian a six. It's like, okay, fine, he scored the only goal. Whatever. I do think having Noosa in the midfield helped starting. Yeah, you know, I think it's not to take anything away from Cordo, so maybe it's. Maybe he's just a little bit young still, but, like, the team, the midfield just played better and maybe Moosa had a more moose. It seems to always play well for the us team, I'll say that, like, his talent comes across a little bit more, apparently than maybe it does from Milan at times. But anyways, I think that was a good switch by, by our good buddy Greg to put him in the starting lineup. Yeah, I don't have much more to add. I mean, it is a friendly. I don't want to overreact. I thought the US looked much better, obviously, in this match than what I saw of the. I ended up watching highlights for the. I guess we should talk about turn. I mean, Turner stood on his head and we did give him a hard time after after last game, I think some of that has, like, you're thrust into a position where you have to make it stop a ton of shots and then you happen to do so, like, part of its opportunity meeting, preparation. Right. Like everybody else is getting pummeled. Like he was in this game. Yep. Yeah, I did. I texted my brother and said that I'm gonna eat a lot of crow for how harsh I was. I mean, I still think he looks bad. Like, even in that match. Like, he made saves, but like, one, he's so shaky with the ball in possession, in possession that he causes a lot of the damage that he then has to react to and to. It just. Did you ever watch those like, Scott Sterling YouTube video? Like, his saves always feel like that. Like he's got his fucking eyes closed and the ball just like, hit him in the face like he is. I just have no confidence in him. Like, none of the. None of those, like, not none of them. But, like, a lot of the saves against Brazil looked, like, almost coincidental. Like, none of them are like, confident saves. I mean, it's different than. Yeah, it's. It's different than watching, you know, Ederson as a contract, right? Yeah, yeah. But, you know, he's delivered in a lot of, in a lot of important games for us. Right. And seems to rise. I want him out, but who else, who do you want in there? Slow Nina, who's playing like the fifth division of league. Yeah, I know, but I think he's not compared to the alternatives. It's, it's. I take it as a positive, let's put it that way. On the other side of things for the US, we didn't get a chance to catch up, but yeah, the US women's team played two games. I think these are the. What the, these the first two games under Emma Hayes. I forget what we talked about, but. Anyways, we talked about one of them. Yeah, so, but, so, yeah, these are the first two, I think, under, under her for this team lining up in the 4231 again. I think the big takeaway here is they held Korea scoreless for 180 minutes. And like, Korea hasn't been an uncompetitive team in women's world soccer over the last couple decades. And so, so good to see that on top of the fact that, like, you look at the goals they're scoring, the chances the US is creating, like, there's elite, elite talent on the attacking end and throughout the midfield, but they, but they also have like, real finishers and maybe that's the biggest difference I saw today that coffee was hurt. May not be fully healthy for the summer. I don't. That's disappointing. But I think, again, it'd be interesting to see how Corbin Albert comes in or out of the fold, given her off the field issues, continuing to play well, just from a raw talent standpoint, I think she's as good as anyone in that. In that side, but, yeah, I don't know. A lot of. Not a lot of positives, not a lot of concerns. So I'm pretty bullish on this team to see what they can do the rest of the summer. I will listen to you tell me what they do for the rest of the summer. And plus, it's more fun to watch an Emma Hayes coach team. That is a Greg Berholter coach team. So, yeah, I mean, there is that. Look at Greg wondering. They should have made Emma Hayes the coach of the men's team. Yeah. Just get laid. Yeah. Like, have her do the whole thing. Yeah. I mean, she. Yeah. I think it would save the US, the federation a lot of money on, you know, sneakers and sneaker cleaning kits. Half of Emma Hayes attention is better than Greg's full attention. Yeah. On the team. Another interesting one about here that I want to rant about while we have, like, ten, but this won't take the full ten minutes. But what the fuck is Paquetta doing playing I for anyone at this fucking. Yeah. I don't know. I. Like, I get that they're different governing bodies, right? But, like, this isn't like. It's not like Paquetta, like, was, like, betting on his team to win or something. Like, he was betting to take. Take yellow cards. Yeah. Right? Like, this is such. I understand that. I'm not saying that, like, that he doesn't deserve a second chance. Down somewhere down the road, he met, he probably isn't gonna get one. But, like, if you're saying it's that much of a problem from a club perspective, what difference does it fucking make that he's playing for his country? And why do you want somebody, like, what does that say about Brazil? That that's who you're trotting out there and starting in the game? I mean, I can tell you what I think it says about Brazil, but, I mean, like, am I. Like. I guess I'm surprised that I'm the only one that latched onto this. Maybe there was some backlash about it, but I didn't see it, so I'm trying to. What is the joke here? So, Piquetta is playing for Brazil while being part of a massive betting scandal that he'll almost certainly be banned for what is effectively the rest of his career. I can only imagine as a result of that in club soccer. But they. Brazil was faster to act on Antony than, excuse me, Man United was. I don't know what the joke is there. There's some sort of, like, there's something there. I don't know what it is. But anyway, that. I think it was the moral ambivalence that. That Brazil seems to have about everything. Yeah. But they were quick to ban Antoni anyway. Yeah, I. The same thought. I couldn't believe Paquetta was in this match, but whatever. Also in the. I don't know if you caught this, but Luke's boy Benton Kerr, just. Just doing son dirty. I said that to you. I posted. Yeah. Okay. That came from you. Yeah. So how. Why do I have to do. Deleted. Okay, Ryan. Oh, wait, that's right. I'm supposed to have a role in this podcast, right? I did your research for you. Yeah. All I had to do is deliver it. I couldn't even do that. But anyways, Benton Cruz, a piece of shit, treats his teammate like a piece of shit and then has to apologize for it. That's the quick summary. Yeah. He literally said that all asian people look alike was like, effect, effectively. It wasn't literally what he said, but they, like, some interviewer asked if. If he could have one of son's jerseys and he vent occur, said it would be easier to get it from one of the other players on their national team or something because they all look the same, I think is what he said. I don't know. Really stupid. But also, like, a little bit like the, like, social norms in different countries are different, I guess. And I. To me, that I would say. Somebody said. I would say they're lacking. Yeah, yeah. They're lacking. Right. Not different. Like, things have progressed at different rates in different points. Yeah. Countries. And I think that that's just like, I'm not giving him a pass on it. And I think he apologized. Right? Yeah, yeah. But sometimes I see stuff like that, and it reminds me that, like, the United States has a lot of work to do, but if somebody said that shit, there, there would be, like, pretty broad condemnation very quickly. The interviewer would be like, did you mean to say that shit? And. And so, like, we have made progress. Not to get, like, super preachy, but. But, yeah, I think that's what it comes down to is just like, you know, the different places that different countries are at on that progression. Yeah, I mean, I think it's something to be proud of, right. As an American. Like, if I draw an analogy, right? Like, in a. In another country, Corbin Albert's comments on social media or actions may not have even registered. Yeah. And so, like, it's good that we're having these conversations and in a productive manner, broadly speaking, as well. But, yeah, it's still kind of like, it's a wake up call when you see this kind of shitty stuff coming out of, like, mainstream players that, like, we watch every week that just. Are just fucking oblivious to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was silly. That was my. For the variety show. Did you see that? League on. League on. Is that you say, what do you. Look, did Luke pay you? French. The French. I had to listen to Luke talk about league un, League one. I don't know how you say it. Anyway, I call it league one because. That'S how it's fucking written. But you two were like. But you. You're trying to pronounce it correctly, and then Luke just thinks he's being comical because he is it. All right, whatever. They, like, I don't know the details, but I do think that the, like, end result is funny, which is that they have no tv deal in the United States. They. They, like, fuck that up somehow. And it looks like they just won't have a tv deal here, which is hilarious, especially because, like, a lot of these, like, these multi club model teams, one of the first places, like Chelsea is an example. Ennios is an example. One of the first places they buy teams are. Is in league un or whatever. Why are they doing. Why are they looking there in particular? Well, I think that France. France produces a lot of talent. Like, look at their squad. So that's not what I was thinking of. Okay, that's fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that that's, like. So the reason that the multi club model has become relevant, broadly, is that England did the Brexit thing. And so they can't pull any, like, practically any player who's under the age of 18 into their own academy. So they're basically forced to set them up outside to develop talent until they're 18, and then they can get a permit to go to England. And so that's the big driver behind this. But, I mean, there's also, like, commercial interest, and if they don't have a fucking tv deal in the United States, the most lucrative commercial market, that's just silly stuff. I'm guessing they didn't have where I was going with this. And I think now it's becoming a problem, right. Is initially they probably were able to invest less to get better value because they didn't have as big a revenue stream for these teams in general. And now, like, they've invested in them and they're not going to be carried on tv. So the values going down. Yeah, it's, it's, it's problematic and it's not like great to see. But we've long said that this is a one team league, right. And it kind of became a one player league and now it's going to become a league that nobody has interest in, which isn't good for. I don't think it's good for world soccer. I don't think displacing talent to the saudi league, for example, helps anyone. And so as things have kind of dispersed between the saudi league and MLS and other play China as another example. Right. Like maybe the league one's kind of taken a disproportionate hit for that. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think ultimately they'll find somebody to carry it. Yeah. Imagine there's some monetary value there. It's not good that they have just one crate like that. The PL really needs to make a stand against City and Newcastle because Chelsea. Doesn'T seem to think so, but. Yeah, I know, I know. But like that is, it is not good if you allow a league to be that top heavy. The Pls pretty top heavy, but it's also very competitive. And yeah, if like this is the opportunity to make the stand because otherwise, yeah, I mean, Lee Ligon is very boring. And even with Mbappe leaving, PSG is still like far and away the most talented team there. And they, they have like recruited all the, they've just sucked up all the good french talent. Like Warren Zaire. Emery is a fucking g and he's a. He's from their academy. Like, they're, they're starting to deploy these academy products now. Like, PSG is getting younger, but they've only been able to do that by like doing the Galactico thing while they set up their, like, they basically just took all the talent under one roof. Yeah. And so, like, maybe this is, you know, you're right, like, maybe PSG drops out of like the Champions League contention, but, like, it doesn't actually within BOPE leaving doesn't really change the dynamic in that domestic league. Less interesting. All right, I'm back. Yeah, guess that's it. That's probably. What did you make of the pays headband, do you think he was playing, like, a couple sets of tennis after or before the match. I bet he tried a few on before settling on that one. Yeah, there's an interesting look, but flare. Guy, so I. Yeah, yeah. Just not. Not with the ball. Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, I'd have a problem with. It was Harry Maguire. If you're not gonna. If you're not gonna bag any goals, then your headband game better be strong. You know, he hit a couple kids in the stands, but. Yeah. Yeah. Not bagging them. All right, well, that's the podcast for this week. That was your first euro recap. And thanks for tuning in. Sorry about the lack of Luke this week. We think he'll be back next week. He's a very busy man. But who are we apologizing to, exactly? I think that most people are here to listen to Luke. Got it. All right, fair enough. I'm gonna go find some alcohol. My night. It's Luke's world, and we're just living in it, man. Yeah. Like, and subscribe or leave a review. All of that helps quite a bit. And we will come to our discord. That'll be linked down below. And, yeah, thanks. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you guys next week. Thanks, everybody. 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. It.