Into the Channel

Round 2 of the UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying stage is nearly here, and we're back to talk about the biggest matches in the bunch.

0:00 - BK Häcken vs. Arsenal

7:30 - Paris FC vs. Manchester City

13:55 - Juventus vs. Paris Saint-Germain

18:25 - Fiorentina vs. Wolfsburg

24:35 - Sporting CP vs. Real Madrid

29:55 - Hammarby vs. Benfica

31:55 - AS Roma vs. Servette FCCF + the rest of the field

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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The 2024 NWSL season is more than 75 percent over, but the playoff picture has yet to come into sharp focus.

In this episode, we take a look at the match of the week between top-of-the-table Orlando Pride and the somewhat-reeling Kansas City Current.

After that, we play a game of "arrow pointing up" or "arrow pointing down." You can probably guess the gist of the game.

0:00 - Orlando Pride vs. Kansas City Current

17:35 - Seattle Reign FC

24:35 - Bay FC

30:00 - Portland Thorns FC

38:15 - Programming notes (UWCL) + Shout-outs!

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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We joined Shades of Blue, the internet's finest Manchester City FC podcast, to talk about the UEFA Women's Champions League. There's obviously a fair amount of MCFC discussion here, but we talk about several other teams in the tournament, as well.

We covered a lot of ground from what happened in Round 1 of qualifying to the draw for Round 2, so here are the highlights:

Thank you again to Shady Gang over at Shades of Blue for having us on their fine program. If you like football, laughing at football-related things, and smart people making you laugh about football-related things, then you should follow them expeditiously.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@shadesofbluenw

Spotify: Shades of Blue Network

Twitter: https://twitter.com/shadesofbluenw

Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@shadesofbluenw

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shadesofbluenw/

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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X/Twitter: @itc_pod 

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Orlando Pride kept their scorching form vs. Gotham FC this past weekend, and Dino was in the press box to witness it.

We start this episode with the undefeated Pride, their seemingly endless list of excellent players, their stout defense, and their gutsy style of play.

After that, we take a trip to the middle of the table, where big results in Matchweek 18 has set us up for another round of bangers this coming weekend.

The four teams from 8-11 are only separated by four points in the table, and they play each other this week:

- Angel City FC vs. Seattle Reign FC

- Bay FC vs. Racing Louisville

We talked about the implications of those matches and the overall chances of the teams battling for the final two playoff spots.

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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The UEFA Women's Champions League is returning, and we are PSYCHED.

For those who picked us up over the last couple months covering the USWNT, the entire genesis of this podcast was built on us wanting a place to talk about last year's UWCL, and we've made dozens (DOZENS!) of internet friends since.

In this episode, we talk about the early qualifying stages of the UWCL, which kickoff Sept. 4 and Sept. 7. We bounce around and talk about some of the first matches and clubs that have piqued our interest -- some more surprising than others:

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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Matchweek 17 in the NWSL provided some very interesting results all across the table. We talked about the implications of those results and what we think we'll see in the remaining 30-ish percent of the season.

0:00 - Washington Spirit jump out ahead of the KC Current and never look back

8:15 - Dino discusses the Current's results against playoff teams this season, and a spicy take emerges

15:30 - Orlando Pride remain unbeaten

19:55 - The Orlando Invincibles?

22:15 - Seattle Reign FC get dramatic win in Rapinoe jersey retirement match

28:30 - Reign's new acquisitions pay dividends + Emeri Adames' storybook goal + Jordyn Bugg's NWSL debut

34:10 - The NWSL talent pool is growing quickly as young players gain experience

37:05 - Gotham FC handles Portland Thorns FC

39:40 - Angel City FC takes care of San Diego Wave FC

41:40 - Is this the top-8 that we'll see in the playoffs?

43:50 - Racing Louisville beats Chicago Red Stars 3-1

46:45 - Utah Royals are interesting to watch, even as the team at the bottom of the table

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

Check us out:

X/Twitter: ⁠@itc_pod⁠ 

YouTube: ⁠www.youtube.com/@intothechannelpod⁠

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The transfer window has been quite eventful around the globe.

Naturally, we held a draft as an excuse to take turns talking about the transfers that have us intrigued, excited, hopeful, concerned, or any other human emotion you can associate with football.

We each picked five players, then we tried to name as many honorable mentions as possible. Turns out a lot of important players moved around, so we didn't give everybody the time they truly deserve, but we never promised that we'd be good at this.

Programming note: The 2024-25 UEFA Women's Champions League kicks off with qualifying matches on Sept. 4. We are excited. We know you are excited. We'll be heavily focusing on the UWCL again this year, especially once we get to the group stage draw on Sept. 27 and the group stage matches in early October.

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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X/Twitter: @itc_pod 

YouTube: www.youtube.com/@intothechannelpod

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After a week to reflect on the USWNT's triumph at the 2024 Olympics, we welcome back Bridie O'Toole of Busy Watching Women's Soccer to recap what she saw in the tournament and what she expects to see with the team in the short- and long-term future.

We talked about the squad and the coaching staff's adaptability; the physical play and dominant defensive backline; the remaining questions in the midfield; the dynamic trio of "Triple Espresso;" and the players we expect to fight for a spot in the team moving forward.

We highly recommend you subscribe to Bridie's Patreon to catch all of her brilliant technical and tactical analysis. If you're looking for a preview into that, follow her on Tik Tok.

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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X/Twitter: @itc_pod 

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Hey! Did ya hear?

The USWNT defeated Brazil 1-0 to win the Gold Medal in the 2024 Olympics.

We talked about that football match. Brazil was fast, smart, and aggressive early. The USA's defense and goalkeeping held up. It was entertaining.

We also talked about hydration breaks, who played "the better match," a bright future for Brazil and USWNT, and so much more.

Toward the end of the show: Germany upset Spain to win the Bronze Medal. How the hell about that?

Immense thanks to everyone who's listened to or watched the show throughout this tournament. We greatly appreciate the comments and conversations we've had with all of you, and we look forward to more.

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the upcoming UEFA Women’s Champions League.

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X/Twitter: @itc_pod

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Before Germany took home the bronze medal vs. Spain, we sat down with our new pal Peter Weis of Bulinews.com to discuss how this tournament played out for Frauen-Nationalmannshaft.

Peter talks in depth about the exhaustion the team was facing leading up to the semifinal vs. the USWNT, the tactics that seemed to work for Germany, the impact of legendary manager Horst Hrubesch, what he saw from Ann-Katrin Berger, and plenty more.

Come for Peter's great insight into this German side, and stay for Grant butchering Horst Hrubesch's name so badly that he lost all confidence mid-show.

Subscribe now to catch all of our women's football talk, including our ongoing coverage of the NWSL and the 2024 Olympics.

Check us out:

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