Carli Lloyd & Rob Stone join the Pod, Brazil falls short, James Rodríguez lifts Colombia

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Alexi Lalas
Hello sunshine. I'm Alexei Lalas, and 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 live July 6 at the end of the Euro's quarterfinals and the end of the Copa America quarterfinals as we make our way through this amazing summer of soccer.

Reminder, we'll be coming to you live each and every day after the Euro action and the Copa action, giving you a wrap up and a preview of what is to come. But first, joining me as always, my friend, my colleague, my guiding lights, David Mossy, a soccer savant and a Fox soccer researcher and writer extraordinaire. Mossy, how you doing? On this Saturday, July 6, year 2024. And look what's happening.

We got some history. First time ever in the State of the Union podcast. We have two guests. We have four people coming at you. The great Carly Lloyd is back joining us, and rob stone.

The great Rob Stone wearing, evidently a shirt that is not retro. This is not, you know, something that he picked up and had made. This is something from 1986. Can I request a camera? Simsbury High.

David Mosse
Look at this. Stand up, Rob Stone. Give the people what they want. Real high brow art there. Show us those muscles.

Carli Lloyd
They went deep with this one, didn't they? Oh my God. This was actually a gift at my banquet. Ah, your soccer banquet. My senior soccer banquet.

And my mom had saved it and handed it on to me. And for some reason, I grabbed it out of the drawer today. Talk into the microphone, Rob, so everybody can hear you. Okay. Rob brought his.

Alexi Lalas
His own pop tarts, too. For those that don't know, Rob Stone. Is a shame already. Can we just talk about the muscle shirt? Have you been lifting, dude?

Carly, is the shirt small, or are. You getting the shirt small again? I got it in high school. I mean. Oh, okay.

So that is an original. This is an original shirt. What do we wear? Is there a brand new in high school? What were we looking at, Rob?

What were you weighing in there at high school, bro? When I checked in at Colgate, bro.

Carli Lloyd
Sound like my kids, bro. I was like a buck 30 on a good day. Seriously. 130 pounds. 130 pounds.

Starting starting in division one soccer. 130. Bulked up. To see video footage of that right. There is video of me versus UConn my freshman year against Dan Donegan.

Remember Dan Donegane? Dan Donegan? It was my first game ever was against UConn. I was playing on him on the sideline. He came down, beat me, and then crossed it into my nose, and I bled like a stuck pig.

Alexi Lalas
And the entire crowd, for people that have ever gone to UConn, it was one of the few places at the time, back in the eighties, where you actually had a huge crowd and people were screaming and yelling, and I was bleeding all over the place. So that's my. That was my amazing atmosphere in Storrs, Connecticut, back in the day. Yeah. So much fun.

Oh, my goodness. Carly, how you doing? I'm good. How you feeling? Feeling good.

Legend back with us? I didn't really have a choice. Well, I know, exactly. We're driving you home, so we're making. We're putting you to.

Carli Lloyd
When you say we're driving you home. When I say that, I mean Rob Stone is driving me home. Mossy, how you doing? We're burying the lead. Can we get to Mossy?

Alexi Lalas
Okay. Mossy, how you doing, my friend? Because we come to you here live after your brazil team has gone out. Something that you predicted. And I know we will talk about it more, but just general thoughts.

How you doing, buddy? I'm doing okay. I'm excited. As podcast guests go, this is Ruth and Garrick tonight, so we're doing pretty well. Those are the baseball players, right?

David Mosse
Yes. Oh, my goodness. This is good stuff here. This is good stuff here. Okay.

Alexi Lalas
Should we, you know, should we. Should we like this candle, mossy, or what? Let's do it. Okay. Let's just get through the scores first so everybody understands what's going on.

Euro quarterfinals today. England won. Switzerland won. And ultimately England wins on penalties. Yes, you heard it right.

Netherlands two, Turkey a one. Netherlands go through Copa America quarterfinals. We got Colombia with five. They pounded five there on Panama zero and Uruguay zero, Brazil zero. And ultimately Uruguay goes through on penalties.

All right, let's start with the euros, shall we, mossy? Does that sound good? Yeah. Let's start with England. So it was a one one draw against Switzerland.

David Mosse
Switzerland scored first. Brillian Bolo in the 75th minute, and then England came right back. Bukayo Sacco in the. We stayed tied through the extra time. We go to penalties.

Jordan Pickford saves. Manuel Acany's attempt. That was the only miss. And England converted all theirs. And Trent Alexander Arnold scored the winner.

England are off to the semifinals. You know, I was saying on air when we were doing the game that, you know, I, along with many other people, whether they will admit it or not, love to watch England suffer. Love to watch England lose. It does give me a perverse pleasure to see that I was. You know, I did experience a little joy today in seeing England go through.

Alexi Lalas
What kind of ridiculous moment are we in where England can't even lose in penalties? As a matter of fact, they win and there's a feeling of confidence and they're going forward and potentially it's coming home. They did not look great in the game, but they haven't looked great all tournament. And yet, when it came to this historic moment in the penalties, they found a way through. They were very, very good, ultimately, and they go through.

Carly, did you watch any of this game? I did watch that one and you said it. I think their pks were better than the way they've looked the whole tournament. Are you buying this as an England team that could possibly take it all the way this time? They could squeak through, but I don't think so.

You're not very good. A lot of talent, but they just haven't been able to put it together. Not a team, then. Rob, what about you? Watched it and then drove on the 405 listening to it.

Carli Lloyd
And if you thought the game was boring watching it, let me tell you. The audio wasn't good. I mean. I mean, this eyelid was flicking constantly. I had to feel like I was going to pull over at some point because it was putting me to sleep.

It was dreadful. But Carly's point was spot on. The five penalties that England stroked magnificent, and that. That was the best they've looked this tournament, I think. I mean, obviously, the Jude Bellingham bicycle kick and the Harry Kane immediate goal and response and extra time.

But the way they took those penalty kicks, I think we're over that conversation. I think they've put that conversation to bed. So now I think England is just saying, well, if only we can get to penalties, we're in good shape now. Mossy, are you buying this England team anymore after this one? Does this change your mind anymore?

David Mosse
Yeah, we keep waiting for a better England to emerge. It hasn't happened yet. Harry Kane and Phil Foden have had disappointing tournaments. SOC at least got going today. I thought he was pretty good and scored the goal.

And Bellingham had the moment in the previous game against Slovakia. So if they can get one more guy going in that attack, they might be in business, but we'll see. They keep finding a way. They're only two wins away. It's like the French right now, too.

Alexi Lalas
Right? Like, you keep thinking that there's more and you're waiting for it and wanting it and it doesn't really appear yet. They move on. Yeah. Frankly.

David Mosse
Of the top team, Spain is the only one that's looked really impressive in reaching the semifinals, would you say? And I know it's subjective, but of the beautiful soccer that is being played and in the way that you see. Beautiful soccer, like the uruguayan way. Right, exactly. Would it be Spain as the only.

Team playing the best football in the tournament? For sure. Okay. All right, so they're winning and playing beautiful soccer. That's.

Alexi Lalas
That's something. Okay. So they go through. Goodbye, Switzerland. They gave, you know, a good shot.

David Mosse
Heartbreaking for them. The last euros, they went out on penalties in the quarterfinals to Spain. They go out on penalties here. So it's a country that can't get over that hump. But I like what I saw from them in the tournament.

I thought they played well. Okay, let's spin it forward to Netherlands Turkier. Yeah. So the England game was in Dusseldorf, Netherlands. Turkier was in Berlin.

Incredible scenes with those two fan bases. Turkey scored in the first half. Akaidin and then the Netherlands bossed the second half. Devry made it one one and then Cody Gakpo bundled it over for a two one. Initially we thought it was going to be his goal, which was going to give him the lead in the golden boot race.

But then it was ruled an own goal by Mulder, our 10th own goal of the tournament. Nevertheless, the Dutch hold on two one. They go off to the semis as well. The own goal that was ultimately ruled an own goal. If it is an own goal, then the defender put the ball in his own net, right?

Correct. But if the defender put the ball in his own net, then the dutch player, the way I'm looking at it, would have had to kick the defender's foot for that foot to hit the ball going into the back of the net. I haven't heard anybody talk about it as it possibly being a foul. I watched it after the fact and I was like, well, if that's what I think it is, that looks like a foul, but everyone just played on. It was fine.

You're right. That's a good point. It should either be a Gakpo goal or a foul, right? Yeah. And there wasn't much talk about that, so.

Alexi Lalas
You're right. I feel good about that. Do you feel good about this Netherlands team? Because again, another team that comes in with incredible history and pedigree, but hasn't quite lived up to billing, although in this moment, they found a good five minutes where they scored their two goals and broke turkish hearts. I thought the whole second half they played well and they played well in the previous game against Romania.

So they're substitutions with Voot. Yeah, they are trending in the right direction. I do think that. Carly, anything on this game? I was getting lunch during majority of the.

What'd you get? I got like a bowl of some sort. Chicken, Brussels sprouts, lemonade. Went to lemonade. Lemonade, right by your hotel?

Rob Stone
Yeah. Rob, what were you eating? Whatever they were serving that was stale and cold in the avocado room was what I was eating. Turkey. I'm excited for Turkey's future.

Carli Lloyd
I think in 2026, they're going to be a fascinating team here at the World cup. And it gets. Oh, yes. No, no, go ahead. You made a move, like you're ready to ask.

David Mosse
Oh, I'm ready. I wanted to get into a defensive posture first. What other country out there needs to rebrand themselves? Right? Czechia?

Carli Lloyd
Turkey. Who else out there in Europe should rebrand themselves? I mean, I would think, like, you can't be just like a classic, so it can't be, you know, an England or something like that, but like an Albania type of thing. So we're talking Eastern Europe, right? Maybe.

But maybe Hungary for some reason. I don't know why a Malta, Faroe island type of thing, maybe, you know. Yeah, that's good. This is good content. I'm glad I brought it up to.

David Mosse
Bring it back to football. We've seen some incredible young players in this tournament, obviously with Spain, La Mina Mao, Nico Williams, Germany, Wirtz Musiala. I love Arda Goulaire. And I've mentioned this before, when people talk about how loaded Real Madrid are next season, with Mbappe arriving there, they don't even mention Goular. And he's a player that I think they're going to try to find a way to get on the field because he's too good to.

Alexi Lalas
You think he's going to get on the field or do you think they'll loan him out? I mean, he doesn't want to go out on loan. He's made that clear. He thinks he's good enough to play for Ramirez right now, and I agree with him, but it's going to be tough with all the other players. Who's he playing over?

David Mosse
It's tough, frankly. Why do you agree with him and you can't tell me who he plays over? He should definitely be above Endric in the pecking order, that's for sure. Here we go. We're starting the Brazil talk.

Alexi Lalas
Here we go. We're almost there, Mossy, hang in there. Goodness. To your point, Rob? Yes.

Turkiye, I think, is heading in the right direction. It was fun to see what they brought to this tournament on the field, and obviously what they brought to this tournament off the field. But, you know, the Netherlands go through and we have a matchup when it comes to England. Netherlands. Shall we transition over to Copa?

David Mosse
Yes. We had the last two quarterfinals there. First, Colombia, Panama. In Glendale, Arizona. A five nil demolition.

For Colombia, it was Cordoba, Hamas Rodriguez, Luis Diaz, Richard Rios and Miguel Borja with the goals. Hamas put on another show. A goal, two assists. He's up to five assists in this tournament, by far the most of any player, and also leads the tournament in chances created. What a tournament for him.

Alexi Lalas
We're going to get to the Uruguay situation here in a second, Carly. But a lot of us have been talking about Uruguay, Uruguay, Uruguay. Have we been downplaying and not giving enough respect to what Colombia is? And I know it's against Panama, so you have to take it with a grain of salt, but are they better than we are giving them credit for in the pecking order when it comes to this? Comes to this tournament?

Rob Stone
I think they've been flying under the radar a bit, but they're unbeaten in how many now? 27. 27? Yeah. I mean, I like this squad.

I think that they're exciting. Jaime, I mean, incredible. I mean, he's having the. Probably the best tournament out of everybody. He's money, huh?

Scoring, but, yeah, I mean, I think that's probably how they want to kind of just fly under the radar. Yeah, they are a little bit. Talk about Uruguay, talk about all the. Others, but I think that they've been more dominant as far as their play than Argentina and Uruguay as well. So they're unbeaten in 27, which equals their all time record.

David Mosse
They said in the early nineties, that great team with Valderrama, rinconas, Pria, and today in the avocado room, I had a good conversation with Juan Pablo and hell about who is the greatest colombian player of all time. Does James have a good claim to that, or would you put one of those early nineties players? And Juan Pablo said he would definitely put James above Valderrama, the one guy from that era. Damn. Really?

The one guy from that era that he would maybe put above Jamaz Espria, who I'm sure you played against and had to defend. Did you think he was as great. When he said, they're very different types of players, obviously, and I would. A comp is much. Valderrama, obviously, he looks different and he has a different type of stature on the field, but they both kind of influence the game in the same way, or try to influence the game in the same way.

Alexi Lalas
So I don't know. I'd still. Although he made a pretty good case for James. The guy was a top scorer in the World cup, played for clubs like Real Madrid, Bayern Munich. He probably is the most accomplished colombian player of all time, but Espria was an absolute nut, by the way, Warren Barton played with him at Newcastle, and he's got some incredible stories.

Yeah, I went out with Esprit one night in. Where was Milan? I think I have pictures of it. Where'd you end up? Where did you finish the night?

I remember the beginning of the night, but I do have one picture I didn't remember until I saw the pictures. After is a picture at one point with me, Espria, two buddies that had come over just to kind of hang and do ridiculous things, and Fabio Capello in some nightclub somewhere. It was insane. It was insane. All right, so we are all buying Columbia as certainly a potential when it comes to winning this tournament, and we're giving you much more credit.

And they are kind of flying under the radar, as Carly said. Should we get to it? Yeah. The other copa quarterfinal tonight, Uruguay, Brazil in Las Vegas. It finished, neil nil.

David Mosse
An absolute foul fest, 41 fouls, red card. Nandez got sent off for Uruguay in the second half. Finished, no nil. We go to penalties. Eder, militone, saved by Rochette, and then Douglas luis hits the post.

Ugarte scores a winner. Uruguay. Go on. Brazil are out. All right, take your heart away from this for a second, just purely as a game that you watched.

Alexi Lalas
All right. Was there any redeeming value in this soccer game? Yeah, there were some, lex. Oh, I'm sorry. That's for mossy.

David Mosse
I apologize. No, I thought it was one of the worst soccer matches I've ever seen in my life. One of the worst 2 hours of my life. Just because of the fouls? Yes.

Carli Lloyd
The lack of passes being strung together. Correct. Yes. The bodies hit the floor. Yes.

Rob Stone
How many? The most amount of passes that were made without a foul. It was insane. It was every 20 seconds. Now, let's set it up like this.

David Mosse
Brazil's mediocrity. I think I've made my thoughts clear on that. Really. The disappointing team tonight, if we're being honest, was Uruguay, because we thought they were capable of something better. And this comes on the heels of Marcelo Bielsa making all sorts of comments the last couple of days about the state of football, and again, talking as if he's coming at it from this place, as if he's the ultimate romantic, and he gets to criticize everybody else for the way they play.

And I know that rubbed you the wrong way. Thank you, mossy. I appreciate you pointing that out. Okay. Because Bielsa has positioned himself, and fairly so at different times, as this Yoda esque figure, transcendent, thinking about the game on a completely different plane.

Alexi Lalas
Romantic. And you have talked about your love for Bielsa. Okay? But this is a reflection of him, because this was a disgrace to the game. And I.

I like a street fight. I like a bar fight, and we talk about that all the time. I like it when they muck it up. Sometimes it can be interesting. You know, the Venezuela Canada game, for example, that was not what this was.

This was not a soccer game. And there's plenty of talent on the field. I know it's not your favorite Brazil team, but there was plenty of talent on the field. And so for Bielsa to come out in this moment and talk about the business of the game, and it's heading in the wrong direction, and we're not going to be able to celebrate romantic, beautiful players or the game the way that it's supposed to be and then put out this crap. Come on, give me a break.

But they go through. They found a way to go through. This Brazil team, to your point, was doing the most un brazilian types of things that we have seen. Long balls out of the back. And they mucked it up, too, it has to be said, in the way that they.

In the way that they played. But ultimately, I think that this proves your point that this is not a brazilian team in any. By any stretch of the imagination, in the way that they play. So you feel a little vindicated in that they were bad, too. Right?

But it takes two to tango. You know who was not impressed with Brazil tonight? Stu holding. If I read you some of the texts he sent me as he was. Calling the match, really, he was able to do that.

David Mosse
But a couple of thoughts and then we'll move on. Can a brazilian player just step up and take a penalty without a goofy run up every single. Well, it's. Everybody's doing this, right. The stutter step seems to be the in thing this summer.

Alexi Lalas
I know. Rob, still. Rob. Go, Robin. Give me, give it to me.

Carli Lloyd
Going, are you grumpy, old man, in. This thing or what? What's the problem with the stutter step? It's stupid. It's ridiculous.

Just step up and smash it, right? All these little. These, like, high knees, high knees, high knees. Everybody's doing, like, high knees. Like, if they're.

They're like, at some tech workout, like orange theory, we got to get high knees to get our heart rate going right now. And then the pause and the body going. And I give them credit because I'm always amazed that they have enough energy and forward momentum to actually strike the ball when they literally approach it and stop, like, six inches before you're coming to it. So I have no time for it. And then who was taking the first?

I know you know this. Who took the first? Brazil penalty kick editor, millitone, swinging it around. By the way, an interesting choice. A center back who I don't think has ever taken a penalty in a game in his life.

David Mosse
That's your first guy. It took him about 20 minutes to get to the actual ball, too. Put on a show. And I think Uruguay, you know, when they went down to, man, they're like, let's get the penalties. Cause we're gonna win it.

Carli Lloyd
Because they're a mature, experienced team, and we've been talking about this youthful squad that is still kind of coming together for Brazil. I just don't think, mentally, they had it in them to fight through penalty kicks at that point, and they're trying to strut around and be all this and be all that and high step here and high step there. Just step up and strike the damn ball. A bit of fake confidence going on in that speaker. Zero.

Yeah, they're forcing it. They're trying to be Brazil and they're not Brazil. So, second point on Brazil, the way this tournament played out ends any notion of moving on from Neymar. The second he's fit again, he's coming right back into the team. Did you want to move on from Neymar?

David Mosse
There was some thought, you know, did. You want to move on from Neymar? Well, I needed to see how the team would look without him. There was some thought that if they played well, Neymar's getting up there in age. He's had a lot of injuries, he's coming off on ACL and then, you know, maybe it wouldn't be such a given that he would come right back in, but I think now it is.

But still, that sort of misses the point. Brazil is in this place where it's become too much about a star just leading you to glory. Whether it's going to be Neymar or Vinicius or. We even tried to turn Hendrick into that and there's nothing solid being built there. There's not a strong enough collective.

You need to build a foundation to give those stars a chance to shine. And right now that team is. The midfield play is just horrid. And, I mean, unless that gets straightened out, no star that you put on that team is ever going to be able to play at his best. In as part of that larger context.

Alexi Lalas
To your point, though, if this is, as Rob was saying, a work in progress, can Brazil be a work in progress? I mean, Carly, you played for years with the us women's national team. We don't buy them being a work in progress. Hey, even this summer, where it is a massive changing of the guard with the Olympics and then obviously onto the next World cup, we're not going to kind of sit around and say, oh, it's a work in progress, everything is fine. This is still a team like Brazil where we expect the best on each and every time.

So do the brazilian fans. Are they going to be patient? It's tough. I mean, you can rebuild a little bit, but there's still a base standard that you have to maintain even as you're rebuilding. And Brazil isn't doing that right now.

David Mosse
I mean, this is three wins in the last twelve games. It's mind boggling. They sit in 6th place and the tie six automatically qualify, right? Yes. I'm not even joking.

Alexi Lalas
Oh, here it comes. Here it comes off. Here it comes. Brazil is one of the great benefits beneficiaries of the tournament being expanded to 48. If it was just four automatic, I would not feel good right now about Brazil's chances of qualifying.

Carli Lloyd
Damn. That's crazy. Wow. How the mighty Venezuela. You feel better about Venezuela getting to the World cup than Brazil?

What world are we living in? Carly, do you feel good about Brazil? No, not at all. I haven't for a while. But it's sort of the same thing on the men and women's side.

Rob Stone
Like it's always been, that there's just an abundance of talented, a lot of stars that supposedly roll through. But I don't know if it's a cultural thing or what it is, but, yeah, unimpressed. And Endric, it's not happening yet. Gave me the full 90 today. Yeah.

David Mosse
Which I didn't agree with. I thought he was in over his head and probably should have come out. He was a marked man too. Early on, they were coming for him. Well, that's a little bit of a Real Madrid Barcelona sending a message.

Hey, kid, this is what you can expect in Spain whenever we play you so. Oh, my goodness. Mossy, tell us what we have coming up. We are dark for the next two days in that we won't have any shows for the next two days. Everything is closed.

Alexi Lalas
Everybody's going to relax and circle back to the semifinals. So what do we got? So, on Tuesday, the semifinals begin. For both tournaments in the euros, it's Spain versus France in Munich. That's live on Fox.

David Mosse
And then that night, Argentina Canada at MetLife Stadium, live on fs one. All right. What are you going to do on your days off? I'm gonna relax, maybe go to the beach, perhaps hiking, something outdoorsy. Yes.

Alexi Lalas
Yeah. We've been kind of, you know, cloistered away here, and we haven't gotten a lot of sun and outdoors. What about you guys? What are you doing, Carly? I think tomorrow I'm gonna get together with my cousin, and then, I don't know, maybe the lawless and stones will hang out now that I'm in Manhattan beach.

Rob, what do you got? I'm afraid to go home. I'll be honest with you. Why? What's going on?

Why? This is a safe place for me. There's no lists, there's no demands, there's no screaming and yelling and cars getting parked on the wrong side of the road and tickets that need to be paid. I am going to find a game tomorrow to work and call. I don't know if it's just some sort of random.

Carli Lloyd
It could be anything. It could be with the Canadian Premier League. Lex, were you excited to see Jerrel Embiid at the Uruguay Brazil game? I have no idea who that is. He plays for what team and what sport.

Rob Stone
Come on. I could not. I have no. I have no idea. Honestly.

Alexi Lalas
Tell me. So I cannot. I can guess. What is it? Trust the process.

Rob Stone
The process of process, indeed. That's his name. Trust the process in Philly. He's a Philadelphia union player. What is he, Sixers?

Alexi Lalas
All right. Basketball, right? Yeah. I never heard of him before. I never tire this game, by the way.

I've never heard of the guy. Random sport. Never heard. Alexia knows who Wally Pip is, but not Dro. It took a while.

Carli Lloyd
It took a while. By the way, your thoughts on rush? I think that they are, like I said on air, when I listen to rush, my mind says, this is a bad musical group. And yet I can't stop listening to them. Why are they bad?

Alexi Lalas
And when it comes to power trios from Canada. All right. I stand, as the kids say. Or they used to say a long time ago, for triumph. Okay.

And I will die on the Triumph Hill relative to Rush. So that's. That's how I roll. Who was a good assist man today? He.

Rob Stone was good. He. And he just snuck it in. He didn't point it out or anything like that. But he had a bunch of triumph quotes to bring us on air today.

David Mosse
Wynalda loves Rush. Yeah, I know. I remember when we did the raider show. He would be John Lennon. Like, you gotta get Winalda on here in the pod.

Alexi Lalas
Yeah. You think that's a great idea? That's a fantastic. It was gonna happen at the convention, but he didn't. He's a hard man to pin down.

He's a hard man to pin down, but he is interesting. And you. A microphone in front of him, and anything can happen. Speaking of putting a microphone in front of people. Should we close this up and get out of here?

All right, let's get one for the road. I'm going to call Carly and Rob out here. Not call them out, but you call out for their help here. When it comes to one for the road. Because one thing that we've tried to do over the years.

Is give you a little peek behind the scenes. You know a whole lot more about David Mossey than you have before. Maybe more than you care to. But he is fascinating in what he is. In terms of what he presents.

But also behind the scenes, I think it's fascinating to hear what Mossi does. And I will tell you, as I go around the country and people come up and say, hey, I listen to the pod and all that kind of stuff, inevitably, they will ask me, what is David Mossy like? Well, I'd like you two to give a little idea about what's going on behind the scenes. Rob Stone, you've been in this industry a long time. You have seen a lot in front of the camera and behind the camera.

All right. And we were talking earlier about a work in progress. We're all works in progress, but you're pretty progressed, my friend. It is what it is. This is it.

But how did you get to this state, my friend? How did you become Rob Stone? And what I'm trying to get at is give the folks a little peek behind the curtain as to who you were many, many years ago, because we have interns and people running all over the place here, and I want just a little peek, like I said, of how you became the great Rob star. All right. My dad asked me when I was in, like, junior high, high school, like, he was very big about looking forward, you know, planning out your future.

Carli Lloyd
And he said, what do you want to be when you grow up? And I wrote down, I want to be the next Bob Costas. Did you really? Yeah. So at that age, I knew I wanted to be in sports television.

I knew the concept of I liked being around sports. I would find myself on the sidelines of just, you know, my normal soccer games constantly kind of, like, chirping to my buddy next to me about what's going on on the game. So I had it in me. I was never fearful of a microphone or a stage or an audience. So I just kind of said, I don't really want to work in the insurance industry.

Growing up in the Hartford, Connecticut area, I would like to do this, and if it works, great. So I did everything I could to get in that business. It started at Colgate University, where your daughter will be going. And I did campus radio, and I auditioned to do play by play basketball and hockey and then wrote for the paper and then actually at a funeral service for one of my friend's moms who passed away. I was living at home after college, and the gentleman in front of me was the father of one of my teammates.

He was a longtime employee at ESPN, and he turned around in the pew and he said, rob, how you doing? I said, I'm here with mom and dad at a funeral. We could be better. And I'm living in my bedroom, and I'm working as an assistant coach at my high school, not getting paid. And he said, I can get you an interview, but that's all I can do.

So I got that interview at ESPN, got the job, and then just kind of kept charging up the food chain and fighting through Albany, Georgia to Tampa, Florida, back to Connecticut, and then here to Fox. Oh, my goodness. Well, we are the beneficiary. Good journey. We are the beneficiary.

Alexi Lalas
Carly, we know how you became one of the greatest soccer players to ever grace the earth. How did you get into television? Well, I retired at a good time. 2021. A lot of things coming down the pipeline.

Rob Stone
Men's World cup in 22, women's World cup in 23. So my agent is pretty good friends with Brad Zager and Judy and everybody here at Fox. Fox. And so he put a call into me and said, hey, Fox is interested. And I kind of put it off.

I think I was talking myself out of it for a long time because it's, as a player, crossing this, this line into them in media is, you know, it's a little different. So I pushed back. My agent said, look, you only retire once. This is an amazing opportunity. Fox is great.

So I kind of dragged my feet for a while. I think I came and did one friendly with the us women's national team. And, you know, the comfort level of stating what I see and being open and honest was a little challenging that first time around, but I gave it a try and they only committed me to a couple weeks in guitar. I think they didn't want to overload me and have me not ever want to come back. But it was the people and everybody at Fox that wanted me to keep coming back, truly.

And I think that, you know, if you enjoy where you're at, you enjoy the people. You can thrive in any place. So I gave it a try and took what I did on the field, the preparation, just tried to be the best that I could take little nuggets from. You guys ask questions and. Yeah, just trying to improve.

But I've been enjoying it. Oh, good. Well, that makes us feel good that you're enjoying it. Yes, Mister Moss. You guys know how Alexei got into media?

David Mosse
He got fired from three jam dugs. He got into media because he took a sabbatical from the Kansas city whiz to chase the love of his life. There's always a girl involved in these stories. That's a story for another day, right? You don't know this, Mossy.

Alexi Lalas
It's a story for another day. We got a lot of shows to. What are we. Number 512, math is hard. 502.

502. Well, look, like, like I said, we are the beneficiaries of both of your talents and the friendship that we had behind the scenes and all that kind of stuff is. Is genuine, but it also comes out on camera. You want to tell the people how you got involved with Fox, or you want to save that for another day? Nah, I'll save it for another day.

Rob Stone
I like that you've been wearing your hat up a little bit more. I like it. I know. Yeah, people have pointed that out. I could actually see my eyes.

David Mosse
No. But I do want to compliment Rob Stone tonight. I know you were breaking in material for your next Bill Simmons appearance. Ah, there we go, man. Talk to me when the US is in.

I was excited. We got you as a guest, and then the next day, I see you on Bill Simmons. I'm like, well, he's gonna say the same thing, and 40 times more people are gonna hear it. No, no. This is the number one podcast.

Carli Lloyd
That's right. Number one population. That's right. How dare you? Whatever.

What is this thing called? The state of. The. State of the union. There it is.

Alexi Lalas
There we go. I know what it's called. Everybody's got to go home for two days and relax.

It's going to be just fine. All right, listen, as we said, we got euro semifinal action coming up on Tuesday, Spain versus France. That is 03:00 p.m. eastern time on Fox. And then also on Tuesday, Copa America semifinal, Argentina versus little old Canada, coming up at 08:00 p.m.

eastern time on fs one. We are going to recharge the batteries for the next couple of days, and we'll be back with all of the action here. Thank you, Carly, for staying up late with us. Thank you, Rob Stone, and thank you for driving me home later on. See you in the garage.

All right. Enjoy your hike and everything else that you do. Keep downloading, keep reviewing, keep subscribing. Smash something, right? As Rob Stone has said, keep smashing that button over there on YouTube, people.

Smash it. Smash it. Smash it. We'll talk to you again in a few days. All right?

Enjoy your time off until then. And as always, my friends, size the day. Smash it.

Carli Lloyd
Smash it.

Carli Lloyd & Rob Stone join the Pod, Brazil falls short, James Rodríguez lifts Colombia

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1: Introduction and Sponsor Mention

2: Euro Tournament Analysis

3: Copa America Highlights

4: Guest Insights and Anecdotes

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