Hot Take: Canada vs. USA Women's Soccer Olympic Semi Final
In this Hot Take, Shireen Ahmed, Amira Rose Davis and Lindsay Gibbs talk all about Canada's 1-0 victory over the U.S. in the women's soccer Olympic semi final.
This episode was produced by Tressa Versteeg. Shelby Weldon is our social media and website specialist. Burn It All Down is part of the Blue Wire podcast network.
Transcript
Amira: Hey flamethrowers, Amira here along with Shireen and Lindsay. Earlier this morning, Canada has done what they have not done for 20 years. They have beaten the United States in the Olympic games 1-0 and are moving on to the gold medal game. They are guaranteed to hashtag #changethecolor. They will be playing Sweden. United States will be playing Australia that same day, but we are here to break down the match. There will be ranting. There will be cheers – mostly from Shireen. I will go ahead and tell you, Shireen, that me and Lindsay have the capacity for you to take the first let's say 35 seconds to a minute to get all of your stuff out. So I will let you do that. And then my capacity–
Lindsay: I appreciate your optimism for brevity, Amira.
Amira: I'm trying to put it on a clock [laughs] because it will be the whole thing. And we have lots to discuss.
Shireen: [C-A-N-A-D-A plays] I just wanted some Raffi in here.
Amira: Is Raffi Canadian?
Shireen: [laughs] Yes!
Lindsay: What is happening right now?! [laughing]
Shireen: I am so excited about this. C-A-N-A-D-A, bitches! Yes! For everybody out there that's like, “oh, the Olympics are too easy for the US women's national team” – well, take those steps back! All the soccer pundits out there being like, oh, we won the world championship…Yes. Arguably the United States is the most incredible women's soccer team. I feel that. I know. We’ve lost y'all for 20 years. I completely understand this. However, however! Give us this Olympic space, because last time, 2016, I remember a certain team also imploding. Okay. So this is what I'm saying. I'm not superstitious, but I believe the soccer goddesses wanted this to happen. I believe that when on Friday we knew this matchup would happen this morning there was like a trepidation. There was a tension, there was a palpable tension on the pitch this morning at 4:00am nonetheless.
Now, I will say this: y'all were ready to smack talk me and be like, oh, there goes Canada! But guess who's coming back like a tidal bore! Yes, exactly. According to Raffi lyrics, we're playing for gold. And I mean, don't get me wrong. Bronze is really important, but I am glad that y'all will be there and we won’t! That's all I'm saying. What I got to say about this is that 2012…And I was on Meg Linehan's podcast talking about this. This wasn't just…I’m excluding a lot of joy. I'm trying to be respectful on Twitter right now, but right here, you guys can hold space for me to be absolutely obnoxious!
Amira: Well, for another 10 seconds.
Shireen: Go for another 10 seconds. What happened in 2012? Abby Wambach pressing on Christina Pedersen to make that call on Erin McLeod. We did not forget. Je me souviens, yes amies! Je me souviens! So, guess what? Today the call, the result of the match, very much predicated on a foul on Deanne Rose. And guess what Deanne said later, my friends? She said–
Lindsay: Bullshit, call bullshit, call bullshit! [laughs]
Shireen: So y'all know how it feels, right?! Anyway, Deanne Rose is like, “we made it right for the veterans.” Yeah. Deanne Rose said that. So I'm going to leave you with some more Raffi and I'm going to leave you with me being in my happy place. And guess what? I wasn't even caffeinated until the second half. Maybe that's the rule.
Amira: Okay. So, I have two things. One: I just would like the record to show that I absolutely did not talk shit to you and I very clearly said that I wouldn't be because the US women's national team has not put together any type of coherence during this Olympic tournament. I had no faith that they would suddenly wake up and find, I don't know, rhythm, possession, Press goal scoring, any of that. So, I explicitly did not do that. Second of all, I'm mostly stuck on the fact that Raffi is Canadian and I feel like my childhood is a lie. [Shireen laughs] So that is like actually the space that you've now put me in. And I'm like knee deep in his Wikipedia as we speak, [laughs] but to pivot back to the game, we hold space for your joy and, you know, happy for Christine Sinclair. We’ll talk about that. I now need to hold a little bit of space for Lindsay and I to rant a little bit. Lindsay, I'll let you rant about that penalty of which I also think was not the most cutest thing. I mean, look, me and Shireen and Jess did a whole episode on refs and technology and like this entire topic–
Shireen: VAR don't lie. VAR don't lie! [laughs]
Lindsay: Here's a thing. It was a crap call, and I hated the most…Because Tierra Davidson, I think, was one of the best players for the US this tournament, one of the only players that wasn't a staggering disappointment. And so I hated that it came down to that. And also that, you know, Adrianna Franch was in goal and, you know, had just had to fill in for Alyssa Naeher who was out. Mind you, if Alyssa Naeher was in there I don't think that we'd be having this conversation right now. And that sucks as well, because we know Alyssa Naeher doesn't let any penalty kick by her. But it just sucks because I feel like two of the players that like don't deserve at all to be blamed for this loss are the two that were in the spotlight for that moment. And I hate that. But overall the US did not deserve to win, and I firmly believe that. They just did not. Canada’s defense is really good. We know that. They've shown that all tournament, they’ve shown that for a while.
Shireen: Kadeisha Buchanan. Yeah.
Lindsay: I'm not sure surprised their defense is good, but like, I'm sorry, like, I don't think you can have the conversation without also saying there's something off with the US. And seeing Megan Rapinoe afterwards crying, you know, and talking about how hard this was, like, she was also at a loss for words, right? And while Carli…Did you guys see the interview where Rapinoe was talking and Carli Lloyd is literally doing sprints behind her? [laughs]
Amira: First of all, Carli's ridiculous. But–
Shireen: She was doing sprints?
Amira: She was doing wind sprints.
Lindsay: Yeah. After the game.
Amira: Because who knows, it’s Carli Lloyd. But Rapinoe, if people haven't watched for Rapinoe’s postgame I highly recommend it. One, because it's emotional. But two, also made me laugh because there's this one moment where she was like, “you never want to lose to Canada.” And then there's a long pause and she goes, “I don't think I've ever lost to Canada.” [laughter] Like, she had that realization. But it was emotional. And, you know, obviously talked about Carli, she talked about like how the person was like, why haven't you guys had better rhythm? She's like, listen, we've been trying to figure that out too! You know, we haven't been playing with the joy we usually have. She talked about it, you know, obviously she choked up talking about being closer to the end of the career, and she was like, probably the last Olympics. She's like, you never know, but probably, and talking about that was really emotional.
But I do think like part of the raging about this game is this disappointment, is the fact that the lineups felt messy, there wasn't really a rhythm, the middle and possession, just like…That kind of frustration of also watching a lot of players that they've had in development play in camps, but then not be brought up, but then the exact problems that those players would have addressed be what was on display was frustrating game after game – especially when you're waking up at like four in the morning, this morning three in the morning, to watch this. By waking up, I mean like, you know, not sleeping. But also, I think the other part that was frustrating about this game was that when they came out in the second half at least it was like a moment, a glimpse of like maybe they're starting to get on track.
Because you know, I saw Shireen, you said you definitely don't like obviously a lot of American journalists and sportswriters and stuff like that, United States journalists and sportswriters are centering this as a US loss. And Shireen is like, okay, enough with exceptionalism. Let's talk about Canada's win. And I absolutely understand that and agree with you to an extent, but I also think, you know, part of that frustration is like when that PK came at that point, US was absolutely dominating. Like, the ball hadn't been in that part of the field–
Shireen: I think the possession there was 60-40–
Amira: It was 60-40, absolutely. But I–
Shireen: Yeah, I don't know if I'd call that dominating, but–
Amira: I would absolutely say that at that part of the game. 60-40 is against the whole game, right?
Lindsay: Yeah, I want to see stats on that.
Amira: We can look at 60-40. We can look at 60-40 for time of possession, double the amount of shots, 16-4 in terms of shots, 4-2 in terms of shots on goal–
Shireen: Shots on goal, yeah.
Amira: But also shots in general. And it's because the flurry of that second half, that was like the first ball in to even the 18 when that happened. It had been one of those, you know, when you're watching a football match and you feel like one's coming because it's like shot after shot? How many corners? It had been like four straight corners.
It
Shireen: And it had been lots of lots of set pieces. Like, I know that you guys were like three set pieces and we had…One of my complaints was we botched all of our… Becky just couldn't get her corner kicks straight.
Amira: I think like that is part of it, right? Is because it felt like, oh my gosh, they're finally about to maybe click – or like maybe not click, but like do something. And then it felt like that took all the little bit of wind. It wasn't even like a burst of wind. It was like a gust. It was like a mediocre gust. And I think that's kind of what we're trying to work through, is that to have this ongoing disappointment over the course of the tournament, to have finally a moment where it felt like they were putting together some cohesion, and then to have a call that felt like, huh, okay.
Shireen: Well, it’s ironic that we're talking about calls because that's exactly…And I will always come back to this. The call changed the trajectory of the game completely in 2012. That's exactly what we're talking about. So I do have empathy for what y'all are feeling because literally went through this against the same thing in 2012. So the momentum shift, there was a complete pivot in the way that the mental game was being played. And Jessie Fleming, it was reported that she said she had practiced because Christine Sinclair was not going to shoot on Franch. They play together in Portland. So she handed it over to Jesse Fleming, and Jesse had practiced where she was going to put that ball, and that's exactly where she put it.
So like, I totally hear what you're saying about the momentum. I mean, I would argue in the first half, I think Canada played a lot more on the USA in the first half of this match, but the second half, you know, the US dominated more than they had in the first, because I mean, there was no shots on goal in the first half at all, like, an hour went by and there was nothing. So, I mean, you're right about the momentum in that way. I mean, we're here…Again, US can come away with a bronze, which is amazing.
Amira: Yeah. I'm not even confident in that. [laughter] Honestly, that's the thing. And Linz, I’d love to know where you think it kind of goes from here, because I think that part of it has been like…Especially to go from camps and watching some of the possibilities, right? Like, having flashes from Press, having Lynn, seeing this, and then…Like, every time a lineup came up for this tournament, I was like, what are we doing? What is this. Like, what is this? And I think a lot of people even thought like when Carli was going and stuff like that, like, oh, veteran presence on the bench, et cetera, et cetera. But there was like, no way that you're going to have that be your starting line with no speed…And like, what is your strategy? And I think that is the frustration. But Linz, I saw one of the things you tweeted is like, just a gentle reminder that it is mad hard to go back to back Olympic/world cup, right?
Lindsay: [laughs] And there’s a reason!
Amira: Right. And so I wanted you to A) talk about that…
Lindsay: And people were like, well, there's an extra year. And it's like, there was a pandemic year! There was a pandemic year in between. That's not like an extra bonus year of like [laughs] rest and relaxation and practice, right? That doesn't count. It's really, really hard. The US, when they win the Olympics, they don't win that corresponding world cup, right? When they win the world cup, they don't win that corresponding Olympics. That's been the pattern, and that's the reason for that. A) there's a lot more depth in women's soccer than anyone ever gives it credit for, and B) it is hard to do, right? It is hard.
Amira: And the fact that they're either winning one or the other is a testament to the strength of the program.
Lindsay: Is just a testament to their greatness! Look. I just want to say, it's hard for…I get caught in between two ends because I think, you know, Twitter can be a really, really, really negative space, right? So in the one hand, there's the Twitter that is just like, it feels sometimes like people rooting for just these veterans to fail because they want new blood on the team. And like, I understand that. I want new lineups. These lineups were super questionable. I completely agree with that. I also think like, you know, Rapinoe and Lloyd both scored a lot of goals in the lead up games, and it's hard to leave them all them off when they're doing that. And you know, I think that goes to probably the quality of competition that they were going against in the camps as well as the friendlies, which is then also a COVID problem, which is also a depth problem. Do you know what I mean? Like, there's just so many here. But I would say it is hard for me…You know, Pinoe did play like shit.
Amira: Actually I think Pino didn't play terribly. She was like the only fucking person who could cross of ball correctly.
Shireen: Well, I mean, when Press and Lloyd and Pinoe came on, there was a palpable sense of. There's a dread when they got subbed on. And I was like, it's coming! I was saying, it's coming. Like, this is the holy trio of this storied team. And Carli load was out here to prove a point.
Lindsay: That's what I'm saying. Like, it's not that easy. It’s not like they're completely…People act like they're coming on with like canes and shit, do you know what I mean? [laughs] Like it just gets really drastic. I will say–
Shireen: Carli Lloyd is in the best shape.
Amira: She was running wind sprints!
Lindsay: She was running wind sprints.
Shireen: She was running wind sprints.
Lindsay: But it's hard to see them…Look, there's no doubt that they have lost some speed. But also that they're playing with this pressure and that’s what really gets to me, right? This equal pay lawsuit is once again ongoing during this tournament. They have a target on their back from all directions, and it is tough. I mean, the pressure is a privilege, but I saw them reckoning. And you can see, I think in that postgame interview, Pinoe reckoning – which, I give her credit for taking all the postgame stuff, even though she wasn't on the full time. She takes it, she steps up. I also saw someone would be like, “Christine Sinclair gave away her penalty kick, Rapinoe would never do that.” And I was like, because Rapinoe is great at penalty kicks! [laughs]
Shireen: Well, I don't think that…I don't think that's the narrative around that, actually.
Lindsay: I saw that on Twitter, a few places though. And I was just like, this is dumb. [laughs]
Shireen: I just don't think we need to do that. She has scored the most goals in the history of soccer for international teams.
Lindsay: Yeah! She’s great at penalty kicks. But anyways, I get defensive of her, because we also see it coming from the right wing in the United States, right?
Shireen: Oh yeah, for sure.
Lindsay: This group just like reveling over their loss and, you know…
Amira: Absolutely. I mean, I think that's such a big point, Lindsay, because we just had just last week the former administration literally asking people to boo the women's national team, and some of the first comments were like, “thank you, Canada, from the real patriots in the US.” So like, absolutely that target and that pressure is layered in there. I do want to kind of center it back on both teams here to think about the future, because one of the things that I was impressed about with Canada was it has largely felt to me like it was Sinclair and like a few other bright spots, but they never had enough depth to like get past the bronze, right? And one of the things watching them today was just like a real appreciation for that development, that depth that has happened within that system and within that federation. And I think that the US is poised to have that as well.
I think that your points are well noted, Linz, about veterans. Like, I’ve never had beef with Pinoe because she is still prolific on the wing in terms of that. I think a lot of it was about literally offensive strategy and like controlling the mid, and it's like offensively you can't run a strategy that is based on being able to press and generate offense like that and not filling a lineup with people who have speed off of possession. Like, those are the things that are like…You know, it's not a terrible problem to have. You have aging vets who are still really dope and you have people coming up who are really dope.
Lindsay: I want them all to get a chance to, I don't want to sound like I don't want to then…I find myself getting defensive, right? Because people act like it's like this easy decision to just like, keep these vets off the roster and not have them play. And I'm just like, what world are you watching?
Shireen: One of the things about Pinoe and like, if she's coming to the end of her career, because don't forget, we've got vets on our team that are like way…Like this is arguably definitely Sinclair's last Olympics. But Pinoe is an incredible playmaker and there's something to be said about that. Her game level of IQ is stunning. She reminds me of Andrés Iniesta in the way that she creates her set pieces. I'm terrified of Rapinoe and her corner kick. Very much so. And Rose Lavelle is not there yet. She will get there, there's no doubt in my mind, but she's still raw. So when Pinoe comes in there and starts her magic – which to Linz’s point didn't happen today – but she's one of the best that I've ever seen. It's not just her personality that we've seen emerge in the last five years or so. She's a legitimately an excellent footballer, and I think people lose sight of that, how technically apt she is.
And, you know, I think that's something that needs to be said. With Canada, we're in that transition as well that's like Erin MacLeod, this is her third or fourth Olympics. Like, we are coming. There’s five on our roster that were part of that 2012 games almost 10 years ago. So we're also moving on, and I'm interested in both sides to see where they go next. I mean, the story is not over.
Amira: Absolutely. And I think that's a wonderful way to wrap it up. The best thing perhaps about what's coming immediately in the Olympic games is that that gold medal match is at a very reasonable 10:00pm Eastern. [Shireen laughs] Look at us. It’s all of our rewards for all of these early, early mornings that we've been doing–
Lindsay: Let’s not talk about what time the bronze medal game is. [Shireen laughs]
Amira: I know. That is at our good old friend 4:00am – or 3:00am my time.
Lindsay: But I am happy for Canada, and Shireen. I want to say that. I am happy for Canada and Shireen.
Amira: I'm very happy for Shireen and Raffi. [Shireen laughs] I am! I love him, like, Down By the Bay is extremely my shit.
Shireen: I know. We’ll jam do it next time. I’m adding that, of things we will do together.
Amira: Okay. [laughs] We’re going to have a De Colores jam turn up. Who turns up like this? Anyway–
Shireen: Baby Beluga! [laughter]
Amira: And now we've gone completely off the wires because we all got up at an obscene hour to watch footy. So anyways, congratulations to Canada. Hugs to everybody, honestly. My favorite tweet of it was that every time the United States and Canada plays, it's like whoever wins is who has the most people standing after 90 minutes. [Shireen laughs] It does turn into a little bit of a blood bath, people flying everywhere. And at the end of the day, so many of these people play with each other, went to college with each other, have so much love for each other. Shoutout to all of them. Shoutout to Quinn who is absolutely going to make history as a medalist and non-binary medalist, trans medalist, which is lovely to see after all the hoopla that people have been going on about. Shoutout to Christine Sinclair. I know it means so much to Canada to finally get her in position to get a different color medal, and we will be pulling for you against Sweden, just because exact revenge for us.
Lindsay: One quick thing. I want to read a tweet from Biff Parker-Magyar that said, “I watched this game on the Qatari channel where the Arabic speaker announcer called every blonde American Lindsey the entire game.” [laughter]
Amira: So for all of those flamethrowers out there who got Lindsay, who were a Lindsay know that you're probably in good company! It's a big day for Lindsay. [laughter]
Lindsay: Lindsey Horan had a terrible and amazing game all over! [laughter]
Amira: All over the place. Oh my gosh. Well, from me, Shireen and our Lindsay, this has been a Burn It All Down hot take. I wish you well, flamethrowers.