Into the Channel ⚽️ A Podcast Primarily About Women's Football

The first leg of the UEFA Women's Champions League Quarterfinals is in the books, and they were a magical group of fixtures. We start, where else, in Bergen, Norway -- where SK Brann gave everything they had in a 2-1 loss to the most talented side in the world: Barcelona. We dive deep into this one, covering the brave effort from Aurora Mikalsen, the toughness of Karoline Haughland (The Termin...

What else can we say? The UEFA WOMEN'S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE IS BACK. Dino and Grant talk about all the matchups ahead of the games, and give some thought into how the matches might play out. We got into: - Ajax vs. Chelsea - Benfica vs. Lyon - BK Häcken vs. PSG - SK Brann vs. Barcelona (a very calm and neutral preview) Around the 45:45 mark, we switch gears and talk about what jumped out at us fro...

Friend of the program Cam Pope, the freelance broadcast journalist who's done excellent work calling the UEFA Women's Champions League for DAZN, returned to the show to chat about Brann-Barcelona. But before that, we took a brief detour to ask Cam about his work at Manchester United TV, where he was on the call for Sunday's epic (men's) FA Cup Quarterfinal at Old Trafford between U...

Into the Channel will continue to stay LOCKED IN on the UEFA Women's Champions League, but you know your boys can't get enough football, so we're talking about the upcoming NWSL season in this episode. With Dino in Orlando and Grant in Seattle, we now consider ourselves the world's premier Orlando Pride/Seattle Reign podcast. We start with our hometown clubs, then we talk a little...

Lindsey Horan scored the winner as the USWNT managed to stifle Brazil's talented attack en route to winning the first-ever CONCACAF W Gold Cup. In this recap, we discuss the great contributions from players on nearly every part of the pitch, including the ironclad defensive duo of Naomi Girma and Tierna Davidson; holding midfielder extraordinaire Sam Coffey; and total footballer Trinity Rodman...

USWNT is going to face Brazil in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup Final. USWNT defeated Canada in dangerous conditions, but we try not to harp too much on the obvious stupidity of playing football on an unplayable pitch. Brazil defeated Mexico in a match where they looked like the better team, but a (semi-questionable?) red card colored some's view of the match. And even with those caveats, football is...

We kickoff this episode by discussing USWNT's promising 3-0 victory over Colombia. There was some great skill, some wild shithousery, good subs, and maybe some not-so-good game-planning. After that, we talk about Brazil's 5-1 drubbing of Argentina and why that rivalry match looked so one-sided. Then we talk about Mexico-Paraguay, where Mexico was in control, then it was slightly in doubt,...

Spain took home the UEFA Women's Nations League title with a 2-0 victory over France with a dominant defensive performance. Dino and Grant talk about how Spain didn't allow any of France's world-class attackers to get going, then marvel at the sheer volume of battle-tested players younger than 25 La Roja have on its roster. It wouldn't be an episode of ITC without a good hypothetic...

Mexico scored a decisive 2-0 victory over the USWNT on Monday in the CONCACAF W Gold Cup. But was it poor form, bad strategy, or the wrong 11 for the stars and stripes? Or how about some other options: Was Mexico just as physical and prepared? Does La Tri just have excellent players who showcased their skill in a huge spot? We tackle those questions and send our apologies (in two languages) to Mex...

The US Women's National Team looked great against Argentina! ***Editorial note: This episode was recorded after the USWNT beat Argentina 4-0, but before the USA lost 2-0 to Mexico. We'll be talking about USA-Mexico on the next episode*** In this episode, we talk about Jaedyn Shaw's incredible performance and USWNT's willingness to try different combinations of players on the pitch....

Are the remaining giants in the UEFA Women's Champions League starting to show some weaknesses? Dino and Grant take a look at two VERY interesting match results from the last week. First, Grant's Sky Blues scored a 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Kingsmeadow, where MCFC Goalkeeper Khiara Keating put in another phenomenal performance. City is now level on points with Chelsea at the top of the W...

The past week was light on Champions League football, but there was still plenty of elite women's club football to watch from around the world. Dino and Grant started with the Division 1 Arkema clash between Lyon and PSG (whaddya know, two UWCL teams). This match had a little bit of everything, and we left thinking our new pals from Paris should be feeling quite confident right now. After that...

The UEFA Women's Champions League Draw was held on Feb. 6, and just like the entire tournament up to this point, it delivered. In this episode, Dino and Grant utilize the very-American "draft" format to choose their favorite quarter-final matches: Brann-Barcelona - Brann is matched up against the best team in the world, so we discussed how the "Bullies from Bergen" should a...

Matchday 6 of the UEFA Women's Champions League delivered edge-of-your-seat drama until the final whistles in Group C, as well as a mix of re-affirming, concerning, and downright celebration-worthy performances in the other groups. In the audio version of this week's show, we start by talking about Group C, or as Dino correctly named it early in the proceedings: "The Group of Life.&qu...

Matchday 5 in the UEFA Women's Champions League produced two great days of football. In this episode, we start with Brann advancing to the knockout stage for the first time in the club's history -- and your boys were FIRED UP about it. We also spent a few minutes wrapping up Group B by discussing Lyon's dominant 7-0 victory over St. Pölten. From there, we turned our attention to Group...

The UWCL returned with Slavia Praha getting a victory over St. Pölten in the final game of Matchday 4. We talked about the "tale of two halves" in that match and how Praha was able to hold on and stay alive in this tournament. Then, it was time to preview the full list of excellent matches on deck for Matchday 5. We discussed: Group B: Slavia Praha v Brann; St. Pölten v Lyon Group C: Rom...

In this week's episode, Dino and Grant talk to Christopher Gerrish, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of SoccerDossier, about the NWSL draft. Christopher is one of the few journalists out there who is closely analyzing the NWSL draft, and he shared some interesting insight into which players in this draft have the pedigree to be successful, which teams fared the best throughout the draft, and who mi...

2023 was a landmark year for women's football. Between rapidly increasing in-stadium attendance and television viewership across both domestic leagues and in the World Cup, we're past the whole "women's football is up-and-coming" thing: Women's football is here, and it's a powerhouse. So, we used this episode to talk about the greatest players in the game through the...

Dino and Grant go "Into the News," on this episode of Into the Channel. We cover some of the most important football news in the USA: - Gotham FC shook the NWSL by signing Crystal Dunn, Tierna Davidson, Rose Lavelle, and Emily Sonnett - The NWSL draft is happening (this was recorded prior to the draft), and we wonder aloud if the draft is the best way for the NWSL to acquire talent as in...

It's been a few weeks since Netflix released "Under Pressure," the four-part documentary covering the US Women's National Team's run at the 2023 World Cup. With the documentary fully out of the "spoiler alert" zone, Dino and Grant talk about some of the things that jumped out to them, and they try to assign responsibility using the "Responsibility Pie" met...

***Note: The match between Slavia Praha and St. Pölten was postponed after a mass shooting in Prague on Dec. 21, 2023. Dino and Grant briefly discuss some of the circumstances surrounding the shooting before moving on to the distraction of football. The UEFA Women's Champions League provided us with another incredible match when show-favorite Brann found a way to score a late (LATE) equalizer...

The UEFA Women's Champions League continues to deliver great matches and surprising results (in some cases). In this episode, Dino and Grant discuss all the action in Group C and Group D from Matchday 4. In Group C, first-place Ajax is only three points ahead of fourth-place Roma, with PSG in second and Bayern Munich in third. Dino has coined this as "the Group of Life," and that&#39...

We kicked off this episode by discussing Lyon's 3-1 victory over SK Brann, where Lyon looked like one of the tournament favorites, but our newfound favorite club in Norway showed they have a bright future. From there, we kept it in Group B and talked about Slavia Praha v St. Polten, a match where Praha looked better than they have all tournament, and STP more than held their own. Then it was t...

We were treated to an epic Matchday 3 of the 2023-24 UEFA Women's Champions League last week! In this episode, we broke down both matchups from Group C and Group D: Bayern Munich 1 Ajax 1 PSG 2 Roma 1 Chelsea 0 BK Häcken 0 Paris FC 2 Real Madrid 1 Some of the players covered in this one from Group C: Georgia Stanway, Katharina Naschenweng, Lea Schüller, Linda Dallmann, Sydney Lohmann, Regina v...

We kept things pretty U-S-A this episode. Your boys started out talking about what they're looking forward to regarding Netflix's US Women's National Team USWNT Documentary, Under Pressure. (This episode was obviously recorded before the documentary dropped. We'll have a recap show with our thoughts next week.) In this episode, we also discussed ESPN's piece on abusive social m...