Ari Hingst joins the Pod, Germany Advances & Shaqiri's amazing goal

Alexi Lawless
Hello, sunshine. I'm Alexi Lawless and welcome, welcome to the State of the Union podcast where we look at the beautiful game on and off the field through the lens of red, white and blue colored glasses. Today's show is brought to you by Zillow agents tours loans homes. Get home with zillow. We are coming to you once again live here.

Wednesday, June 19, following our 6th day of the 2020 €4. As we continue on into this amazing summer of soccer, reminder, we'll be coming to you live after each and every day of the Euro action and Copa America, which kids kicks off tomorrow. And at the end of each and every day of games, we will give you a wrap up and a preview of what is to come. But first, joining me as always, my friend, my colleague, my guiding light, David Mossy, a soccer savant and a fox soccer researcher and writer extraordinaire. And.

Wait a second, wait a second, people. Also, a special state of the Union guest. You know her, you love her. Two time World cup champion with Germany, a veteran of multiple men's and women's World cup broadcasts. With us here at Fox, my travel companion, the great Ari Hanks, ladies and gentlemen.

Woo hoo. Give me some excitement here. Come on, boy. Ari, I have to ask you, what did you think of our new show opening? I know you just saw it for the first time.

Ari Hanks
I'm not surprised seeing Alexi like this. But wow, you nail it like, you get all your hair like. That was the stiffest dance move I've ever seen it. But no, you did well. You did well.

David Mossy
You're not alone in thinking that, believe me. Our boss, Judy Boyd, was not impressed. She was not impressed. But, Ari, it's interesting that we bring this up right off the, off the bat. And for those that are listening to the show, pull it up on YouTube or Spotify where the video is, because seeing the open that we've talked about on a number of different episodes, now, it's worth its weight in gold just to see David Mozzie in an eagle suit and all the other things that we did.

Alexi Lawless
And it turned out great. But what it has done, it has also spawned the creativity out there of people in this building and beyond. And this is kind of, you know, something that has gone on over the years. David Mosse, ladies and gentlemen, is beloved here at Fox for the person that he is and obviously the work that he does. But that doesn't put him above or beyond ridicule.

And the, what do they call them, the memes out there. Memes. And pictures and all this kind of stuff. You know, nowadays, we got to be careful of misinformation, disinformation, deep fakes, all that kind of cheap fakes, all the stuff that's going on out there. And I think we have some pictures already that are starting to circulate around the building of David Mossey.

And what people have done, and I'm not going to name any types of names, but what people have done is they have taken that open and they have taken out different pictures from that open and placed you into interesting scenes. And so we have you when it comes to being in dune. We have you when it comes to being, let's see, guns n roses. Evidently Mossy, the usual suspects. And this is just the beginning.

This could be an. I mean, look at this. Mossy and guns n roses. So people are taking it out of our open and then placing him into. For those of you who are listening to it, can't see what's on the screen here.

And it is just absolutely glorious. David Mossey next to Izzy and Axel and Slash and Duff is just. It's just incredible. So keep them coming out there from the outside. We have them coming from the inside here at Fox, but keep them coming from the outside.

All right, listen, Ari hingst, thank you so much for being here. You're a very happy german, as I know a lot of your countrymen and women are, after what. Best day to be on after what happened today. But listen, we, on this show, we usually start off talking about things that we are watching, reading. Do you have anything that you have watched of late that you would like to share with the State of the Union folks?

Ari Hanks
First thing I got to add, like when you were talking about Mossy, there wasn't even a little smirk. You know, you look at the pictures and you must. Come on, give me a smile, mossy. Well, first off, I am going to name names. It's a guy named Brad Weimer who has made a career out of this.

David Mossy
If you recall, last summer in Sydney, he circulated a lot of memes of me. So, yeah, that's how he entertains himself. And here we are again this summer, doing this again. Well, that's the best entertainment for me. But I don't get that many laughs from you.

Ari Hanks
Just a little. No, no, it's fine. I get a kick out of it. He showed me them this morning, and I laughed when he first showed them. I had seen all of those already.

Okay, so now it's boring stuff. All right, what are you watching? What are you watching your question. Young Sheldon is my choice of show so far. I love the big bang theory.

So, of course, obvious choice to go to young Sheldon. Okay, so big bang. And then the spin off was young Sheldon, and that is your go to Mossy. Have you seen anything since last we spoke? It's been 24 hours.

David Mossy
No, I think that House of the Dragon is going to be the only show I'm going to be able to watch over the course of these tournaments. When we were on air yesterday, you were not preoccupied because you're a man who was able to work on multiple fronts, but you had a lot of work to do yesterday. You were here burning the midnight oil. I was here till 09:00 p.m. last.

Alexi Lawless
Night doing three different shows or something. Yeah, I had to write a bunch of shows for today. Well, tomorrow we have and we'll get to it. Four different games tomorrow. So are you back at it again when we're done here?

David Mossy
I will be here. Not as late tonight, but still pretty late getting ready for tomorrow. Okay. Shall we light this candle? Let's do it.

Alexi Lawless
Where should we start? As if I even have to ask. Well, we have our first team that secured a knockout stage berth at euro 2024, so we might as well start with them. We go to group A host. Germany made it.

David Mossy
Two wins out of two. They beat Hungary 20 in Stuttgart. Mozziel in the first half, Gundogan in the second half. With that result, Germany is off to the knockout stage. Ok, so Germany getting out of the group is nothing new.

Alexi Lawless
Oh, I mean, relative to previous World Cups, I guess. But still, in general, we expect Germany, even this, Germany, even at this time, to get out of their group. They have done it with a precision and not necessarily a ruthlessness, but again, an expectation. And this second game wasn't the dominant game that it was in their first game, but it was still very comfortable. Ari, initial thoughts on this performance and especially relative to that first performance.

Ari Hanks
First of all, great. Getting six points, getting out of the group, everything is secured. Second point. Finally, we managed to hold the zero back. Neue had a fantastic match, but this game also showed why I can't say 100% we're going to win this euros because we have a problem in the defense, the whole defense line.

Hungary had way too many chances. Then there are teams out there waiting for the Germans that are way better than Hungary. So this is where I see them struggling a little bit. But if you want to win a tournament, you got to win it with all the forces you have. And now you got the country behind you and the expectations are growing as well, but also the joy and atmosphere and this could also carry them on the big wave.

So let's see what the next. But I know you're german, but you can't have the expectation that the opposition isn't going to create any chances, right? You're just saying that the chances that they are giving up are concerning because the competition is only going to get better, right? Exactly. With all due respect to Hungary, but they're not the best teams out there.

Of course, some of them, like me, had them as the dark horses, but they didn't play that well so far. And the chances they're giving away are way too easy right now and tougher opponents waiting, and they're going to have even more chances and most likely going to score out of them. Mosik Manuel Noyer, you mentioned, made an incredible save on Sobislai, but Joshua Kimmick, I thought, really struggled defensively, which he can sometimes. I remember that Champions League semifinal, second layer against Real Madrid, in which Venicio junior ate him alive. So that might be a bit of a concern for you moving forward.

Oh, absolutely, I agree. The first half, the first seconds of the match, Joshua Kilnich wasn't even there. Yeah, he had this one save, but definitely when it comes to defense work, he's got to pick up his game. Now, on the positive front, Jambal Musialis scored again. Alexi and I have talked about this.

David Mossy
Even as Germany were struggling the last couple years, it never felt like a personnel issue. They have a lot of talent and we're seeing it at this tournament with these two kids, Wirtz and Musiala. If you were building a team for the next ten years, and you could have either Florian Wirtz or Jamal Musiala, which one would you take? Oh, there's no choice in between them. You can't leave one out of it.

Ari Hanks
It's impossible. You could tell it today, the combination in between the two of them. They're both the same age. They have fun on the pitch, but also off the pitch. And you can tell this chemistry they're having.

So if I had to pick one, I'm going to smash them together and it's going to be. Come on, Ari. Come on.

David Mossy
Musiala. By the way, he is our golden boot leader on two goals. Finally, we have the first player to reach two that has two goals. One last question, then I'll throw it back to you. Tony Cruz, where does he stack up in the german pantheon before the opening?

Match. They honored Franz Beckenbauer, who passed away earlier this year. Obviously he's number one. You have people like Gerd Mueller, Rumenega, et cetera. But Tony Cruz has built up quite the resume.

A World cup winner. Everything he's done at club level, winning the Champions League with Bayern Munich and then five times of Real Madrid. Would you say he's in the conversation as one of the top six or seven greatest german players of all time? Well, the interesting part about this is just recent days, years, months. Kroos was okay, but no one ever hailed him as much.

Ari Hanks
Everybody was happy for him coming back. And now knowing it's the last time we ever gonna see him play soccer, if we don't talk about any friendless for any projects later on, people start talking more and more about him and how important he is for this german team. He made his name up there. I mean, with all the triumphs he has out there, and if he were about to win this euros, he would definitely be on the same page like all the other big names out there. Beckenbauer, Muller.

Yeah. Maya. There are a lot out there. Ari, you've won two World Cups. You know that a tournament type of situation for a team is very different than a club situation or a one off type of friendly situation.

Alexi Lawless
So now Germany's through. Two wins, no goals against. Plenty of talent out there for this third game. Do you anticipate changes being made? And how did you feel when you were one of the starters and there came a point where they said, ah, you just rest?

Did you. Were you okay with that? Could you see the bigger picture or you just wanted to play every single game? Yeah, I guess I could have seen the bigger picture, but I never was subbed out, so that sounds good, but here we go again, right? Yeah, definitely.

Ari Hanks
I think most likely we're going to see a lot of changes because you also, in this big squad, you want to keep the spirit up higher, but also you want to give other players game time. And then now you have players sitting on yellow cards, so you want to risk them getting it second yellow and potentially not being available in the quarterfinals. So there will be some changes, but the core is going to stay the same. And nevertheless, whatever changes you make, it's still going to be the goal to get out of this group with nine points. This is the goal that is set.

Alexi Lawless
We're going to talk a little bit more about your beloved Germany here later on in the show here. But we came on the air and the crowd was singing. Major Tom coming home. I maintain that this is, I think, one of the best non english songs to English. And for people that don't know, this was a song that came out in the eighties.

It was done in German and then it was translated in English. Both hits in both of them right now, how did it come to be this chant and this mantra for Germany? The interesting part, it's only been there out for a couple of weeks. There was one, I don't even know who it was, YouTube star, whatever from social media. And he just said, like, we need a new hymn whenever we score.

Ari Hanks
Right before that, we had, back in the days, films, like, really old fashioned one. It's still nice, but they said it was time for something new. So he came up with this song and first of all, the reaction was like, no, typical german. It's new, we don't want it. And now everybody's riding this wave and it's just so great to hear it.

Unfortunately, they won't be playing it during the euros, but when they score, because they have the year for him, but after the match, they will listen to the song and everybody's using it out there now, and it's just fitting. Well, first off, if you actually listen to the song and the lyrics, one of the reasons why I say I think it's one of the greatest translated songs is that the english version, if you actually listen to the. And read the lyrics, they're. They're incredible and they're deep and they're nuanced. And it was a response to Bowie's song.

Alexi Lawless
Anyway, I digress. Anything else on this game before we go? Anything else you want to say about Hungary or Germany? Either of you? Yes.

No. No. Hungary. I don't have to mention. You mentioned Muzialler, but also, let's talk about captain Gundogan.

Ari Hanks
He is such a key player for this german team. You might not always see him, but the. He's so smart and the runs he makes and open up spaces, and now getting an assistant, even scoring, it was a joy to watch him play today. And the art of getting wide in any game and then cutting the ball back and then those late runs, delayed, runs into space. And we've seen it now multiple times, actually.

Alexi Lawless
We've seen it at times outside of the box. Gundogan was in the actual box to finish it. But sometimes when wingers get wide and they have huge eyes and what are they going to do? And they. Sometimes they smash it across or they put it into nowhere, sometimes having that patience where everything slows down and the ability to drop it back is ultimately the best thing to do.

All right, where should we go now, Moss? Move on to the other group. A match which took place in Cologne. Switzerland could have advanced with a win, but they were held to a one one draw by Scotland, who played much better than they did in the opener against Germany. Scotland actually took the lead.

David Mossy
McTominay took a shot to deflect it off Fabian char. We briefly had our fifth own goal of the tournament, but then they changed it and gave it to McTominay. Switzerland equalized through Shaqiri, who became the first ever MLS player to score in this competition, a fact that we passed along to Jules breach. He couldn't care less. If it had been Rob Stone, it would have been a ten minute conversation in the postgame show.

Nevertheless, it finished one one. My goodness. Good old Shaqiri. The history that he is able to make. Not in Chicago minded, but can he do it in a cold, rainy Wednesday night in Chicago?

Alexi Lawless
It was a wonderful goal, by the way. It was a gift in a bad backpass, and so that certainly happens. But he took it. He took it first time, and there's a wonderful camera angle of it from behind, which just sees how difficult it is. And he's got a wonderful left foot, so his ability to curl it into the upper 90 was wonderful.

David Mossy
I mentioned yesterday Arthur Guiller's goal was an early candidate for a girl goal of the tournament. But Shaqiri today, you're right, he scored one. That's in the conversation as well. You mentioned that Scotland played better. I mean, it was a pretty low bar considering their first.

Alexi Lawless
Their first game. This Scotland team is not good. Okay, it's it. But they've given themselves a chance to potentially go on the outside part. You know, everybody's screaming and yelling and the kilts and the beer and the singing and the trombones and all that kind of stuff is all.

Is all fine and well, but at least they brought it tonight. Now they will be without two center backs, with injury, with injuries and red cards now, so they're going to have to shuffle. But at least in the third game, they actually have something to play for, all to play for going forward. Ari, any thoughts on this Scotland Switzerland game? Well, you said it like Scotland didn't really play well, but they left their heart out there.

Ari Hanks
Like what they were missing against the Germans. They were fighting, they were emotional. They were into this game and they made it their game. I was surprised by Swiss. There must have been a moment where Switzerland should have calmed down.

It and just get it from the emotional level more to the soccer level because this is where Switzerland is so much better. But that's the reason they didn't manage to do so, that the Scots are still in the mix to eventually make it out of the group. So, I mean, they're not playing well, but they got the emotions and the heart out there and that's all I got to say. Yeah. Scotland almost let in the second go.

Alexi Lawless
Breland Bolo had one called back and it went right down the gut again, by the way. That guy, what a finisher he is. He scored a beautiful one against Hungary and then. Great finish here. Unfortunately, it didn't count.

David Mossy
He was offside and he's on a breakaway and sometimes nifty chip over the goalkeeper. He's good. It's a nice sub to have coming off the bench. And by the way, Scotland almost snatched the late winner. Manuel Akanji.

Had to make an incredible intervention and a ball that crossed their goal line there. But I do want to ask you about Switzerland because that is Germany's last group stage opponent. We know they've got some players, like Shaka, who plays for Leverkusen, just won the bundesliga, and they do have a knack for getting out of group stages at major tournaments. They've done so the last five times. How tough an opponent do you think Switzerland will be for Germany in that third game?

Ari Hanks
It's definitely the toughest they're going to be facing because Switzerland is so much smarter with the ball. Hungary is more a team where, you know, okay, they're really good defensively and then they're good in the transitioning game. Whereas Switzerland, they didn't show it today against the Scots, but they showed a little bit in the first match against Hungary. The way they play, the tactical issues, the technique they have. You named a few players.

So this is going to be the biggest challenge for Germany. It's going to be interesting to see how many changes Switzerland is actually going to make for the last match. Do they go full in? Do they say a draw is enough? Yeah, I already said interesting, isn't it?

Alexi Lawless
All right, should we move on? Yes. What was actually the first game of the day took place in Group B. Croatia, Albania in Hamburg, and it was an absolute thriller. Albania scored first in the 11th minute with Lachi.

David Mossy
They led most of the way, and then Croatia scored twice in two minutes in the second half. Cromwich made it one one. And then Jasula, who had just come on as a sub, scores an own goal. And it looks like he's going to be the goat and Albania going to lose. But then who else but Jasula, deep in stoppage time, gets himself the equalizer.

So we technically have our first multi goal performance of the tournament. That's what I asked when I came in. Yes. And it finished two. Two.

Alexi Lawless
Incredible game. And, Ari, you were up for this, right? Oh, absolutely right. And early it was back and forth and just when he thought, okay, Croatia, finally they get the experience back in. They have it there and no, they didn't experience.

Ari Hanks
Their experience wasn't enough. I mean, if you two one up, you just control the game and you don't go full in anymore. And they could have even almost lost it. That's. I mean, look, I think ultimately Albania is going to go home, but they are going to again play spoiler and they are going to have left a good impression.

Alexi Lawless
And this is the second game in a row where they have done incredible things and entertained us. And again, in the same way that I was talking about the previous game, Albania still has an opportunity. Okay, so they got themselves a point. Things can happen. You never know what's going to happen.

Ari Hanks
Opportunity against Spain. That's interesting. But let's talk about Croatia. All right. This still didn't change my mind when it comes to what Croatia is or I guess, what Croatia isn't.

Alexi Lawless
They are still, as we said, long in the tooth. They are still fallible in a way that I don't think we have seen them necessarily. And so this is a far cry from the Croatia that we have seen in the past. They might scrape by as a third place team, but they're not long for this term. And I agree with you.

David Mossy
Now, two questions I want to ask you guys. We did have an own goal in this game. We briefly had one in the Scotland Switzerland game, although, as I said, it was changed to McTominay goal. Did you two ever score some har own goal in your career that you look back on and still have nightmares about? I definitely scored an own goal, but there was, I don't even remember if it was a friendly or qualifying match, which we ended up qualifying anyway.

Ari Hanks
So it was never really this heartfelt moment. So thankfully nothing any big, decisive. Yeah, I scored for the national team. I scored an own goal for. I played in Italy.

Alexi Lawless
I scored an own goal when I was playing over in Italy. So, and again, I'm in the back line. So it happens. It happens to everybody. You don't want it to happen where it's an obvious type of thing, but usually no matter what, especially when you're running back in the opposite direction.

Sometimes those balls are coming so hard and you're trying to figure it out. And especially now in a days where you're curling that cross around, it's just. It's very difficult. So no matter what it happens, it happens to everybody. You just got to be able to pick it up and.

And go forward. Speaker zero. And we've already had four in this terminal. Four out of the 42 goals have been own goals. One more thing I want to ask you guys.

David Mossy
This Croatia Albania match took place in Hamburg. I know we're going to talk about your Germany travels later in the show, but every shot we have of the Hamburg fan fest, it is absolutely berserk. And I've heard a friend of Alexi and mine, Ian Joy, played for St. Pauly and he's always telling me about how crazy Hamburg is as a city and when I should go and visit. Is it really that insane?

Because based on everything I've seen from this tournament, it looks like an absolute party in that place. It's a special city, right. It has the sea as well, so it makes it a special atmosphere. Then you have a club like Saint Pauli, unlike any other club there is in Germany. With their fans, it's more like the left wing thing.

Ari Hanks
They're adventurous. They do things so differently. So it's a special city. And another fact, like Jazzula, he actually plays for Hamburg. So he's known this stadium.

He scored an own goal in his own stadium and then he scored a goal that actually mattered the most. It was pretty awesome to see someone kind of. Not that you have to make up for it because, like I said, it's a mistake, but that you can counter this error that you made. That doesn't always happen. So it was a feel good type of moment, not just for Albania, but for also the player.

David Mossy
And Komrach, by the way, scored on his birthday today, turned 33, scored his 29th international goal. So that was a neat story as well. He shares a birthday with somebody else. Yes, we should probably sullivan or not be mentioned. We'll be magnanimous and mention it, despite the way he's treated us this summer.

But, yeah, right before we started taping, they brought in a cake. There was a whole special ceremony for. Well, there was a huge crowd, too. Yeah. As we mentioned.

Mind you, I didn't partake in it. I was talking to Ari. Mossy was singing the loudest. No, no, no, that's not true. We were right next to Sean having a conversation as soon as I saw the cake coming in my direction, decided I'm not playing any part in this nonsense.

I went into the control room and hung out with Aaron for a couple minutes until the crowd dispersed. Yeah, Mossy is just not having any of this here. I mean, as we stare into the abyss of our empty studio that we have here, but still, both of you. Okay. Hey, folks, it's your man, Keyshawn Johnson here to talk about Angie, formerly known as Angie's list, your go to home services marketplace for getting all your jobs done.

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That's Angie, your trusted ally in home services. Okay, let's look a little bit to the future here. Speaking of getting up, Ari, we're getting up early tomorrow. Glad? Happily.

Ari Hanks
Don't. We love it. There's nothing better than a 02:00 a.m. wake up call. 02:00 a.m.

Alexi Lawless
245 downstairs, ready to go. And we got some meetings, and then we have three euro games and then the start of Copa America. Want to take us through Mossi? Yes. So the first euros game tomorrow is in group see.

David Mossy
Slovenia against Serbia in Munich. Slovenia, you might recall, coming off a pretty impressive draw against Denmark and their opener. And Serbia gave England all they could handle, losing 10 in their first game. We're going to have a profile on this slovenian player, Benjamin Sheszko. Who is going to be right at home in Germany.

He's coming off a very strong season with Leipzig. He's been linked with some Premier League club. He's been compared to Erlen Holland. So the focus will be on him in the pregame. So this should be an interesting match.

Alexi Lawless
You were that impressed with Serbia against England. I still think that Serbia is the most overrated good team, and it's a continuation from the World cup before. And I know it's a real small sample size from this tournament here. Second half, they were much better against England, and yes, they did have some opportunities, but I am still waiting for the real Serbia team to show up because the talent that they have on the field, they should be better. No, you're right.

David Mossy
You look at the names. Vlachovic, Mitrovic, Kostic, Milinkovic, Savage. Yeah. The whole probably doesn't equal to some of the parts with them. That's fair.

Her v one nil win for England. But they only had the moments because England took off in the second half. They were basically sitting down, and that was the second half of England. That was poor. And that's why Serbia got back into this game and created some chances.

Should we go there next? Let's do it. Yeah. So the other game in Group C, Denmark will face England in Frankfurt. That's a rematch of a great semifinal.

At the last euros. England won two one in extra time. In controversial fashion. The Danes are still upset about that penalty in extra time. We'll see what happens here, but, yeah, a lot of criticisms in England for their performance.

Phil Foden's getting hammered. Harry Kane was quiet. Gareth Southgate. Why can't he get the most out of all these great stars? So we'll see how England respond in their second match.

Alexi Lawless
I think that Denmark is. It will look at this game as they will see England in a different way than others do. I don't think that. It's not that they don't recognize that it's a quality team that they are playing against, but I don't think that the level of reverence and respect that maybe others have will be what Denmark, by the way, it should be said that our own Peter Schmeichel will be there on the side of the field reporting for us. He took off yesterday.

He's back. Obviously, he gets to see his son play in this big event and against a big team like England. So he'll be, I'm sure, excited. And we'll go back and forth in terms of our broadcast there. Ari, who ends up winning this game.

Denmark, England, or does nobody win it? That's the interesting part when you talk to Peter and he goes, like all the team in Denmark, they're full of self confidence and they're in a good spirit and in good mood. Even after they draw against Slovenia, which nobody would have expected them to do, I don't think that they actually have it to beat England, despite the fact that they didn't perform that well in the first match. And maybe Southgate made some interesting choices or whatever, but Bellingham was outstanding. Fulton wasn't there yet.

Ari Hanks
I think he's going to be much better, even though Harry Kane didn't have the best game. But still, this one moment, he was there and he almost scored. So you can never write off a hurricane. So for me, there's no doubt that England is going to be winning that one. Rossi, what do you got?

David Mossy
First off, I should say with an England win, they advance in the next round and I think they get it. I think they played better than they did in the first game and they beat Denmark. Okay. All right, let's see what the third and final game from a Euro perspective. Third and final game is.

A great one in Group B, Spain versus Italy and Gelsenkirchen. A lot of history here. They've met in the knockout stage of the last €4.00. Eight quarterfinals, twelve finals, 16 round of 16 and 20 semis. Giorgio Colini played in all four of those, so we're going to have him reminisce about those games tomorrow.

Can't wait for that. Yeah. And this is the latest chapter. Should be a great one. The winner advances to the next round.

Alexi Lawless
On paper, and I haven't talked to bear yet, but Spain should probably win this game where they are at this point right now, even as defending champions with Italy, we've talked about the fact that, you know, they've missed the last two World Cups. There's been a massive changeover in terms of the personnel, in terms of their first games. We saw Spain crush Croatia, but maybe Spain isn't that good and Croatia isn't that bad. I think we've seen that Croatia possibly could be that bad. We'll see if Spain really is that good.

And this type of performance here against Italy, I think, could really stamp their mark on this tournament. It's an interesting midfield battle. You've got Georginio Barrel and frates on one side, Rodri Pedri and Fabian Ruiz on the other. But as we've talked about. But Spain doesn't necessarily have to win the midfield battle anymore because they have these two great wingers, La Minamala, Nico Williams.

David Mossy
So they won 30 against Croatia with only 47% possession. So first time since 2008 or whatever. First time they've lost a possession battle in a competitive match since the Euro 2008 final against Germany, which I'm sure Ari remembers well. But Spain, Italy tomorrow, what do you think? Yeah, you mentioned that the style that Spain plays has changed, but also has the style that Italy has played changed.

Ari Hanks
So it's going to be interesting to see what happens there because Italy is so much more forward playing than they were back in the days. Also, another interesting part, you mentioned Giorgio Chiellini, and we were at the store earlier this day on the morning or whatever time zone it was, I don't even remember. And he goes, well, Italy will be happy to just get a point out of this because the only goal is get out of this group and then advance to the knockout stage. So he's actually saying that Italy might go into this game. Let's just draw it.

You can't be true. I mean, every player goes for the three points. He said, yeah, we italian, we can do that. So this is going to be interesting to see. I got Spain winning, though.

Alexi Lawless
You got Spain winning. I got to win Spain winning. A couple more notes, just in general, we saw Kylian Mbappe actually training. He had a little thing on his nose, no mask, but we don't know ultimately if you're going to see him in these next couple of games for France after him getting smashed in the. Nose, we should correct that because on yesterday's pod, we made it seem like he was definitely out for the second game against the Netherlands.

David Mossy
That was a french media reporting, but the federation saying he's questionable, there's still a chance he might play. And, yeah, those images I saw from training today, he looked fine, had a bandage on. They weren't doing a whole lot. They were just kind of running around. So I think he can do that.

Alexi Lawless
But at least he's breathing and running around, which is a. Which is a good thing. All right. As we mentioned, breathing is a good thing. Exactly.

In my expert opinion, breathing is good. All right, so tomorrow it happens. The arrival and the start of Copa America and both of these tournaments happening on the same days. We have one game tomorrow and it'll be our fourth game when it comes to what we're doing. Fox and it is Argentina versus Canada.

All right, quick question for you here. We have Killian Mbappe and we have Cristiano Ronaldo and the list goes on and on. In terms of the stars that are involved over in the euros, who is the best player in the world right now? We all know it can only be messy. Okay, that's the messy.

Well, you know, we are going to get to see him for the first time playing for Argentina in a competitive environment, in a tournament setting, defending not only the Copa America, but also, as I said, the first time since we have seen him as a world champion, winning the. Winning the World cup in his new backyard as they take on Canada. Jesse Marsh, american proud american, now coaching Canada. This is going to be an interesting, interesting game. I mean, Jesse Marsh took the job and he started out with the Dutch, France, and now Argentina.

Good luck with that, Jesse. They did get a draw against France, played well in that game, so I suspect he'll probably repeat the same starting lineup with Jonathan David, Kyle Lahren up top. Buchanan will be on one of those wings, stocky on the midfield, Alfonso Davies flying down that left flank. They've got some names of notes to potentially make this game interesting, but Argentina are flying high. They're very confident.

David Mossy
Some interesting lineup stuff for them. I'm curious to see if it'll be Lisandro Martinez or Ota Mendy alongside Romero at the back, which midfield combination he's got. Rodrigo de Paul Leon, Alexis McAllister, Enzo Fernandez. A lot of options to choose from there. And then the Julian Alvarez la Altaro Martinez dynamic in this tournament will be interesting.

Also, they've got some kids, Carboni, Garnacho, who could be breakout stars in this cop of America. So how much Scaloni utilizes them, I. Feel so bad for them. Yeah, a lot of stuff going on with Argentina, but of course, you know, the story is messy. We had a diminutive left footed MLS playmaker, Shaqiri, score a great goal today.

We'll see if Messi can do the same in another major tournament tomorrow. Yes, we shall see. And as I said, we will be segueing right into our Copa America coverage, and that will continue day after day after day for the next month. So we're really excited to get that part going. We have a bunch of talent coming in and talent on the road, so we will welcome them into the family, and it's just basically from breakfast to dinner and late night.

Alexi Lawless
It is soccer here when it comes to these two tournaments. All right, anything before we get to one for the road, that's it. All right? So as we get into having these two tournaments happen at the same time, I know there's going to be a lot of compare and contrast out there and people are going to say, ah, euros are better than copper or Copa is better than euros, and, you know, these teams are better than these teams, or, you know, these stadiums are better than these stadiums, or these fans are better than, than these fans. This culture is better than this culture.

And I get it. You know, that's, that's to be expected when they're both happening at the same time. And I'm, I'm okay with that compare and contrast. But I will say right now that they're going to be different and they're going to be uniquely different in, in a good way. They are going to reflect the different cultures that we have involved.

They're going to reflect the different countries where, where this is happening. The style on the field is going to be different. And that's a, you know, that's a good thing. We come on with pictures of the crowds and the thousands of people, and you mentioned the fan fests and all that kind of stuff. I do think that Copa America, relative to the euros, is going to be more of a slow burn as it gets going, and more and more people have an understanding of what it is and that it is happening.

But there's also a lot of people, and I've told you this story before, I was just talking to somebody who planned their summer with their son, who just graduated from high school around Copa America, and he recognized that this was a once in a lifetime type of thing. And they are going to travel from place to place to place. And so I think that a lot of people already know, and I think a lot of people are going to find out how much fun this is, the parties that are going on. And just because something is different doesn't mean that it's not as good. Couple things.

David Mossy
First off, you know, we now have a video to intro the one for the road segment. You didn't really set it up right. So poor Aaron in there, I don't think, was sure when to throw the video out. She eventually did, but you gotta do a whole bunch time now, for one, for the road. You didn't really make it sort of.

Ari Hanks
A semi, semi angry idea. Wow. Number two, you're going rogue because the comparison Kyla wanted us to make was euros versus World cup, and you just completely disregarded the rundown and you turned it into a euros versus Copa America thing, which is fine now that you've. It's better. Now that you've started down that path.

Alexi Lawless
It'S better to do that. Okay. Because euros versus the World Cup. I wouldn't even dignify that, okay? I wouldn't even have that conversation and debate that.

That is below me and that is below the World cup speaker one. Now, Killian Mbappe said the euros is tougher to win than the World cup. Do you think there's any legitimacy to that, Ari? Well, so you're talking to person, an expert who won the World cup two times and won the european championships four times. So?

David Mossy
So they're both easy to win. Is your asking a gym and how easy it is to win? Come on, there's no doubt about it. I can't say about cup of America. That might be harder to win.

Ari Hanks
No, in all seriousness, it's different tournaments and you get the different excitement. For me, I'm just glad and happy that I live in Germany, a country that is in Europe, because I get to see the best of both tournaments. It's so much harder, obviously, being in Europe and watching Copa America, which we hardly do, but I get to see the World cup that is totally different from the euros. And yeah, there's. I mean, the best teams of the World cup are competing here.

David Mossy
What about the Copa America? We know you're european, that's more of your focus. But nevertheless, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, do teams like that excite you? Are you looking forward to following this tournament? That's the interesting part.

Ari Hanks
So if it wasn't for Fox, most likely I wouldn't even recognize that it's going on because in Europe we don't really pay attention what's happening on the other side of the world whilst we have the biggest tournament going on. But of course, it's a lot of excitement. You get Brazil, you get Ronaldinho going off, like complaining about his team, and you get the emotions. And when South America is involved, there's definitely more emotions than any other in the world. Well, notwithstanding Ari's elitism, when it comes to soccer over there, I love her so much and I have had a wonderful time working with her now, like I said, for multiple cycles, multiple places.

Alexi Lawless
And I had just an incredible experience. And I know I told you all about it last month when Ari and I traveled around Germany. And part of what was wonderful was the way that I got to see Germany through her eyes. And obviously she's a proud German, but we exposed her to all different things, some things that she had seen, some things that she hadn't seen or hadn't even talked about for years. And it was wonderful, Ari, to hang with you, but I do want you to tell a story that you told me while we were on the road about the significance of the World cup, the men's World cup in 2006 to Germany and what that meant beyond the actual kicking of the game.

But they used soccer to bring a sense of pride back, I guess, to the country. Can you tell that story? Because I just thought it was so. Powerful and wonderful to hear, especially you being american. That must be so new for you to hear.

Ari Hanks
I saw your reaction to it. Like you said, soccer has the power to change things on and off the pitch. And we all know the history of Germany, which isn't the best history. So we've been a country with a lot of shame. And actually, back in the days, if you were going out there, you wouldn't swing your flag or being a proud German out there wearing any colors of that because of the history we had.

And so when we had the World Cup 2006, things slightly changed. It was okay for us being proud of our country again, and not only being proud of the country, but showing the flag and singing the national anthem out loud and just being out there and having this connection with joy and pride and, of course, referred to soccer, but also showing what Germany is about to the world. We are funny, we are exciting. Sometimes. We can be annoying, apparently, but it's so much more to this country.

So everything says has changed since 2006, and I'm really grateful for that. And it's just a story how soccer can change the world for the better. Now, listen, Alexei can tell you I am a massive history buff. I know all about that german history. I'm fascinated by the country.

David Mossy
So that is very interesting to hear you talk about that. And I also love to travel. I've never been to Germany. I thought I was going to be there this summer. I'm devastated that I'm.

No, I want to go. I think I might plan a trip next year, but I'm devastated I'm not there this summer. So I am living vicariously through your segments. We saw the Cologne cathedral today. Tomorrow we're going to do Munich.

You guys surfing the river there. So those segments have been so much fun. The Frankfurter one was great, so keep them coming. That's what I would tell our producers because I can't get enough of those. I love it.

It looks like you guys had a fantastic time together. We had a good time and we got plenty of work to do here going forward. Ari Hanks, thank you so much for coming on the show. We're going to bring you on again, by the way, because once you're it can't be just be one, right? Germany keeps winning.

Ari Hanks
I come back. Thank you very much. Like I said, I love you so much for everything that you, everything that you bring. You are incredible in terms of your smile, in terms of your attitude, in terms of your smarts, and in terms of your energy. It is just absolutely beautiful to see.

Alexi Lawless
And we are better for it when it comes to Fox and the things that we are broadcasting. So we will bring you back. Massa, you are pretty good, too. But everybody here, and when I say everybody, all two or three of us here that are in the studio, thank you so much for hanging out. But more importantly, thank you out there for tuning in each and every day.

We will come back again and give it to you again tomorrow. And as I said, starting tomorrow, we're adding Copa to the mix. It's gonna be awesome. Keep reviewing, keep downloading, keep rating, keep subscribing, keep doing all the things. Subscribe over there on YouTube whether you're watching it or listening to it.

Thank you so much for hanging out with us here at the State of the union. We'll talk again tomorrow. Until then, and as always, my friends, size the day.

Ari Hingst joins the Pod, Germany Advances & Shaqiri's amazing goal

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1: Introduction

2: Germany’s Performance

3: Cultural Impact of Soccer

4: Tactical Analysis

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