Naomi Girma

It will be Lindsay Heaps.

It will be Tierna Davidson or Naomi Girma.

all players who have played for the last 12 months, who the perception of them will completely shift if the U.S. goes and wins the World Cup, which I think shows how loose some of the restrictions are.

And I think it's less, you know, an indictment on U.S. players and the U.S. system right now and more on the global field.

Yeah.

But, yeah, Naomi Girma has been, is probably out for another few weeks, I think they said, because of that calf.

Yeah.

Just, at this point, come home, Naomi.

So there's like so many more like context-based interactions versus, yeah, like you score goals and you're crazy for it.

The funny thing is, after saying this, three of the last four rookies of the year have been defenders, and that's Girma, Nyswonger, and Real.

But the context for that, you go a little bit further, and it's because Nyswonger and Real were playing as wingbacks.

And then they get the offensive production that people can point to and be like, wow, pretty.

Assist here, assist here.

And I

think Girma is just a

beast.

Yeah

... and certainly Naomi Girma's.

But to Ali's point, I think you could say Spain was missing even more talent, if you look at the sum of those parts.

So, um, I think, you know, you saw the change with Clare Hutton in the second game, to Natalia's point.

... uh, in, in, in the goal.

But what we're seeing, and I know you said that Spain is a couple of steps ahead of the US, but how far is this US team with their best core versus a Spain also with their constantly impressive players at the highest level?

level?Well, I feel like, uh, we need some player like a Naomi Girma or Sam Coffey that for me they are really big names and they can change completely the situation, right? But I feel like, um, uh, Spain was playing with a B or C team, with all due respect for all the, the player, right? The good thing that Spain have is doesn't matter what player is coming to the team, they understand perfectly what is the style of play and they fit so quickly.

Mm-hmm.

And then you have two different goalkeepers behind you.

And I mean, a lot of that is you got Girma who's injured.

And ever since she's been at Chelsea, Emma seemed very not okay with the way that's being handled at Chelsea with some of her remarks in pressers about the fact that she's still injured.

And then you also, of course, have Emily Sonnet with her knee injury, which is, you know, hopefully, knock on wood, she can make it back.

It was great to see her get a call up.

Well, she was called up originally to the U23 team, then she was bumped up to the full team when I think it was Naomi, Naomi, Naomi Girma was sidelined with injury.

But anyway, she got to play a little bit and looked good, and I'm very happy for her.

She was always...

And I'll just read them out because it is an extraordinary list.

Um, for the US it's Naomi Girma, Sam Coffey, Croy Bethune, Katerina Macario, Emily Sonnet, Olivia Moultrie.

And for Spain it's Aitana Bonmatí, Mapi León, Irene Paredes for the first game, Vicky López, Cata Coll, Claudia Pina, Olga Carmona, Mariona Caldentey, and if you really wanna stretch, stretch things back, Teresa Abella and Lea Alexandri.

What the hell are we supposed to learn about Spain given how many of those players are gone? And how much is Spain supposed to learn about the US given the players that they were missing?