Happy 4th of July podcast - Women's World Cup Predictions for the Semi Finals

World Cup Semi Final Preview

Dudes who drive dodge station wagons (what are they named?)

Yeah it’s got a HEMI, yeah it looks like a muscle car in the front… but it’s still a station wagon

How crazy would it be if the person fouled in the penalty area had to take the PK? Instead of a designated PK taker. Feel like it would be more in the spirt of who was fouled and how likely that player would’ve been to score, vs the best striker’s opportunity to score? More drama to them… perhaps?

Italy and Netherlands playing in 93 degree heat and this game is 0-0 at the half and the weather seems to be winning this game against both teams, from a quality of play standpoint… looks a lot different than US v France game last night.

Apparently UEFA uses this world cup for Olympic Qualifying for 2020 Tokyo Games. So England has qualified by advancing to Semis and winner go Italy vs Netherlands and the winner of Germany vs Sweden will qualify for olympics. Certainly raises the stakes of these quarter final games even more so. I think that’s fairly cool actually.

2nd half netherlands start knocking on the door to score

69th minute - all Dutch and they finally score on a set piece - free kick to a perfect header past the outstretched arms of the GK.

The Dutch score again — 79th minute. Another set piece, free kick to another header. Seems like they’re the better team

Dutch almost score a 3rd goal off the ensuring kickoff. Good save by the Italian Goal keeper.

The Dutch fans — i think it’s the Dutch — have a Vuvuzela section and they keep playing “pop hits” like "we will rock you”, “hey baby" and and “Baby give it up” by Casey & the Sunshine Band. Classic Hits and Sign alongs for the Dutch.

So the Dutch are moving on to the semis of the 2019 world cup, and have clinched a spot in the 2020 olympics thanks to 2 excellent set piece headers that landed in the back of the net.

First semi-final in Dutch history. They are undefeated in 5 games this year. "6 of their 13 world cup goals have been headers”, says Fox host Rob Stone

Dutch Coach played at UNC with Mia Hamm under a legendary coach — that’s good to know.

Also England is coached by Phil Neville - of Manchester United Fame. Dude played under Sir Alex Ferguson. (Not saying he has Sir Alex’s chops, but you spend that kind of time around excellence… England vs USA match could be fascinating if it comes down to tactics.

Italy hadn’t made world cup in 20 years. Apparently not enough pro soccer in italy — but hopefully this gets things rolling for them, so they don’t have to wait another 20 years.

Futbol in Europe on the women’s side is starting to really pick up. This will make UEFA the strongest at the top, as well as the deepest. This is bad news for US Team over the next 20 years. CONCACAF is weak on the men’s side and it hurts the US i think.

Germany and Sweden are up next - and the Germans are likely a heavy favorite.

Sweden comes from behind - wins 2-1 in a stunning upset. First major win over Germany since approximately 1991

Sweden vs Netherlands in the semis

Netherlands vs USA for all the marbles in the final

US Women's Soccer podcast

US Women’s Soccer - the most polarizing national team in history?

Maybe they are - but for all the right reasons

places listening USA - NYC specifically Manhattan followed by the Bronx both my a mile this week.

Austria and Australia were 2nd and 3rd - Graz Austria got all of their listens so hello to our friends in Graz

#1 and it’s not the topic of this podcast. I believe the USWNT deserves the same pay as the USMNT. But, that’s a whole different podcast, so all I want to do is state for the record, I think they should be paid equally for their training, appearances in friendlies and for their appearances in real competitions, such as the World Cup. (Bonuses for winning games and advancing and such, is also something we should all talk about on a different day as well)

US Team beat a hapless Thailand team 13-0 (the next biggest blowout in the group stage was Italy’s 5-0 win over Jamaica

Thailand shouldn’t have been in the tourney - but here’s the break down of the where the 24 teams came from

AFC (Asian Football Confederation) 5 slots (including Thailand) and Australia actually plays in the AFC

CAF (Africa) 3 slots

CONCACAF (N America) 3 slots

CONMEBOL (S America) 3 slots

OFC (Oceania) 1 slot New Zealand

UEFA (Europe) 8 slots + the host happens to be France so 9 slots

The Final 8 were the US and 7 European countries

The Final 16 were those 8 plus - 2 from Africa, 1 N Am, 3 Asia including Australia, 1 Europe, 1 South America

So, Europe had 9 teams in the tournament and 8 made the round of 16 and 7 made the final 8. So Unless they wanted to add a 10th European team to a 24 team tournament , Thailand had to get in — or somebody else like Thailand…

But Jamaica was rated worse than Thailand in the world rankings, as were all 3 African nations and 2 of the South American teams… but nobody beat those trams worse than 5-0. Teams exercised restraint in their dominance.

The USWNT Tried to destroy Chile - were up 3-0 and then the Chilean Goaltender started trending on twitter - because she stopped everything (including getting in the head of the Carli Lloyd for a PK at the end). Could’ve been 7-0 but only 3-mil - so the Chilean goalie took ‘em down a peg.

Third game against Sweden - won comfortably 2-0 against Sweden - all they needed was the win, final game of group stage. The control they played with against Sweden is the control they should’ve played with against Thailand. It could’ve been 8-0 and they would’ve proven the same point as 13-0.

My biggest problem was them celebrating goals 11, 12, & 13 as if they were each sudden death game winners in the world cup final.

They Showed up inferior players, the way an older sibling ruthlessly destroys their younger sibling. They punched down - and that’s a factor later in podcast

USWNT also struggled mightily with Spain. Spain played an incredibly physical game and dared the refs to call Penalty Kicks… and the refs did. Megan Rapione scored both kicks, and that was important, because Spain scored on some poor defense and goal tending by the US.

So the Mighty team that smoked Thailand, and tried to embarrass Chile, played safe vs Sweden and then was in a dog fight vs Spain. As the games get bigger and the teams get better, beating Thailand means less and less… but the bullseye you put on your own back isn’t going anywhere.

Now the US plays France in the quarters and France is great at home. US is the better team, but we shall see. Winner of this game is the favorite to win the World Cup.

But now politics come into play. Megan Rapione is very vocally opposed to the way the current administration is treating many of our citizens and many of the immigrants who are legally in the US, let alone how they’re treating folks at the border, people of certain religions, people of most races and ethnicities and the LBGTQ+ community.

So, the USWNT are saying they wouldn’t go to the the White House win or lose invited or not. And I feel like this is interesting because they are calling out an administration that makes a living out of “punching down”. The way we treat each other in this country and the way we treat people who are in at risk demographics is MUCH more important than how the USWNT played against Thailand … but ironically them being the “bully” to Thailand and taking joy in it… That’s right out of the playbook of this administration since it took power in January of 2017.

So here were go - there are 4 distinct schools of though on how people feel about the 2019 World Cup USWNT:

#1: Love that they beat Thailand 13-0, hate that they won’t go to the white house (Likely Moderate Republicans)

#2: Love that they Beat Thailand 13-0, love they they won’t go to the white house (Likely Libertarians)

#3: Hate that they Beat Thailand 13-0, love that they won’t go to the white house (Likely Far left Democrats, Green Party)

#4: Hate that they Beat Thailand 13-0, hate that they won’t go to the white house (I actually think this category may not exist in real life, but it’s plausible) Tea Party/ Fan Right folks aren’t very likely to watch soccer - cuz it’s for Sissies (so, i’ve been told)

But if we think about most of our national teams — we care about them as a nation, once every 3 to 4 years at best. The casual american non sports fans isn’t talking about them much. But, right now, they are — so whether or not this team is polarizing, people have an opinion — and that’s genius for a group that is trying to heighten awareness of the “equal pay movement”.

Crazy or Crazy like a fox - they’ve made the most of this world cup appearance, even if they lose to France. And if they keep winning - the snow ball of momentum is only going to grow.

But they’ve got to keep winning — so I hope they saved enough goals to eek out 3 more wins — cuz they certainly didn’t need all 13 they scored in game #1 - but i’m pulling for them to figure it out.