Carli Lloyd joins the Pod, USMNT fails to advance, France and Portugal set to face off

Alexi Lawless
Hello, sunshine. I'm Alexi Lawless, 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 1 with the continuation of the 2020 €4 round of 16 and the continuation of simultaneous third round group stage games of the 2024 Copa America. As we make our way through this amazing summer of soccer.

Reminder, we'll be coming to you live after each and every day of Euro's action and Copa America action, giving you the wrap up and the preview of what's to come. But first, joining me as always, my friend, my colleague, my guiding lights, David Mosse, a soccer savant and a fox soccer researcher and writer extraordinaire. Wait, mossy, mossy? Who's back, baby? Oh, yeah.

You know her. You love her. The legend has joined us. Carly Lloyd. Okay, so that's about as chipper and happy as I'm going to get, at least for the beginning of this show, because we do come to you after a United States loss.

And not just a loss, but a bombing out a grouping of the Copa America. Mossy, how are you? I'm doing well. It's great. Now, whenever we have a guest to see their reaction to our new opening.

Carli Lloyd
I know. Can we talk about that for a second? Sure. Where was that shot? It was here in LA.

Alexi Lawless
We have some incredibly capable and smart and creative young people that work behind the scenes. Nobody here, but there's some of them around here that put that together. And Mossy and I were taken out into this warehouse out in the middle of nowhere. Probably, you know, they probably, you know, doubles as like a porn shoot or something, but it was awesome. We had a wonderful time and they got us costumes and we dressed Mossy up as an eagle and did all that kind of stuff.

And that's what you see there. Credit. That was awesome. Looked really cool. Well, thank you very much.

That's the best part of the show. Mossy, have you watched anything? I'm trying to avoid getting to it as long as I possibly can, but have you watched anything? Do you got anything planned for tonight? I have not watched yet the latest episode of House of the Dragon, and I probably won't get to that tonight either.

David Mosse
But sometime in the next couple of nights, I will watch that. Okay. Should we light this candle? Let's do it. All right, well, let's first off.

Alexi Lawless
Just click off the stuff that happened today. Today's scores from around euro and Copa Euro round of 16. France won, Belgium, zero, Portugal zero zero. With Slovenia, it went to penalties, and ultimately Portugal prevails. Three to nothing and penalties, and they move on.

Copa America group C, USA, zero. Uruguay, one. Bolivia, one. Panama three. Let's get to the best moments of the day and don't bore us.

Get to the chorus, don't bury the lead. All the different stuff. Yes, we are coming to you a mere few hours after. Well, not even a few hours after the incredible failure. And that is all it is of the United States to not only beat one of the elites of the world out there, but even to get out of the group.

And there's a part of me that is, you know, when your parents say, I'm not angry, I'm just disappointed. I mean, I've ceased to be angry. All right. Because, let's be honest, this is a groundhog day type of thing when we see this team fail to beat, let alone to be competitive on a consistent basis with the elites out there. And so I had a lot to say after the show, as did Carly, but I'm not telling you anything you don't know.

It's not a good day. And we are two years away from the most important summer in american soccer history, the summer of 2026, and the return of the men's World cup here, and the opportunity and the platform that it affords. And I'll leave you with this, and I want to hear your guys thoughts here, but I want to be excited about this team, and I want to be excited about men's soccer, and I want to be excited about the World cup in this next two years. And right now, I find myself here on Monday, July 1, not excited about this team going forward. And that sucks.

And that hurts. And that should not be. We should be on a rocket right now of excitement. And, yeah, there's a little delusion because it's sports, okay, but I don't even have that. We should be being propelled by all of this wonderful positivity and energy towards the summer of 2026.

And yet, at least I find myself in the exact opposite position. Carly, thoughts on the game, but more big picture on where we stand here in July of 2024 relative to 2026. Well, I know it's different, but I want to sort of compare it to the women's national team, where you just kind of see a trend and a direction that is happening and you hope that they pull it together and it's you know, somehow they come to the Copa America. They get out of the group and play well and all those things, but I just think that today's game, I mean, they, they came out and they played well and the intensity and, you know, creating some chances. They looked hungry.

Carli Lloyd
I thought it was a good, it was a good game for them, for some parts of that, but it's like too late and in a sense, and, you know, when you don't control your own destiny, this is what happens. And, you know, they could have easily walked away with, well, they should have easily walked away with six points heading into this game and they didn't. And I don't want to blame it on the red card. I don't want to blame it on, you know, anything else.

The reality is, is they didn't get it done. And when you look at a team like Canada who actually got out of their group, you know, scoring one goal, you know, it is a failure. We do not want to see Canada getting out of the group in a Copa America tournament. So. Can't believe it.

You know, something needs to happen and, you know, we were talking about, you know, whether Berhalter is the right fit for the job, yes or no, whether he is or isn't, I just think things need to be shaken up and moedu, you know, you know, had some, some thoughts and, you know, about the Federation and, you know, this is, this is all of it. And I think that there really needs to be some deep diving evaluation that goes on. Rossi, I think the US had a good 1st, 30 minutes. The camera angle was a bit funky, but what really struck me was you and I started doing this podcast in early 2018 in the wake of the qualifying disaster, and all anybody wanted to talk about then was player development and coaching. And then this talented generation of players emerged and we sort of got off that.

David Mosse
But tonight, Clint Dempsey on the postgame show brought up the fact that the US doesn't have enough creative players and it has to do with the coaching and the player development and all the rest. And so it's amazing to me that all these years later, we're sort of back to that now. Yeah, I mean. All right, so let's first just talk about the actual game, because I think Carly is right. There were some good things, but context is important, right?

Alexi Lawless
This is ultimately about winning and postgame. And I made a point of talking about how the american soccer culture and the american soccer history is unique and it's very different. And it is a little apples and oranges when you're comparing and contrasting with the rest of the world, I know we do it, but that's just the reality when it comes to how we play America, and this is not just american soccer fans, but America. When they tune in and watch. And if we are doing things to increase, people come into the tent, whether it's World Cups or anything else, all they care about is winning.

That's okay. There is a american ness to that. And, you know, Greg Berhalter and this team will talk about the behind the scenes and the dynamic that goes on and the camaraderie and the Kumbaya and all that kind of stuff, and I don't give a crap about that anymore. All right? I'm not saying it's not important.

I'm not saying it can't help you be better at winning soccer games. But ultimately, the american public, when it comes to sports in general and when it comes to things in general, they want to see the best and they want you to win, and they don't care how you win. And we've talked a lot about style and identity and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so tonight, yeah, they played well. But the time for moral victories has come and gone a long time ago.

And while this at times was a good performance, it wasn't nearly good enough. And you can't blame MLs, MLs players over there, all right? You can't blame resources and pathways and opportunities, because it is night and day, and not just to back in the 19 hundreds when I was running around even 1020 years ago, in what they have been given. And again, I have no problem with that. I'm very proud that this generation has more, but they're not living up to the agreement we've given you more, so much more.

And yet I don't think that we've progressed. Carly, where we sit today, to Clint Dempsey's point, do you think that we have progressed? Because I think it's a little simplistic to think that we haven't progressed at all. If we haven't, then we're in big trouble. I mean, I think that there has been.

Carli Lloyd
Yes, I think there's been some progression, but it's so hard to tell because of the opponents they've come up against. This Washington, this was the true, first true, true opponent. I mean, the friendly against Brazil and Colombia, that was before Copa America. You know, the loss against Colombia was really poor. The tie against Brazil, Mossi, you don't think the Brazil team's that good anyway, so, you know, it's all.

It's all relative. But I just think that there's just been so much hype, so much talk about this golden generation, about these players. What you just named the, the resources, the things that they have, the things that us soccer federation provides. It's. It's no different than on the woman's side.

So you kind of look at, okay, well, if this is supposed to be the most talented group, then why aren't they winning big games? Why aren't they doing well? And are we being grumpy old men and women by saying that mossy, they. Need to take some old school approach, that the identity that, that needs to be there still. And I'm not sure that, that Greg Berhalter is enforcing that.

I don't really know what he wants to do. If he wants to play pretty, if he wants to, you know, play out of the back and, you know, beautiful football. But at the end of the day, the american mentality on both the men and women's side is to be dogs, to be a nuisance, to be intense. Right. And then you can put your flair on that.

And that's what Emma Hayes is doing, coming into the woman's side. So I just think that there's just some comfortability going on. You know, they love Greg. It's all good. You know, where's the accountability?

Where. Where's the tough love and the conversations that are being had with some of these players to push them to make them better? And that's. That's sort of what I question. Yeah, I agree.

David Mosse
The US is in this no man's land right now, and this effort to be more progressive. They've shed some of that toughness, some of that blue collar identity that past generations had, but they're still not talented enough to beat the best teams in the world, so. Good way to put it. Yeah. You know, it puts you in this sort of weird place.

Alexi Lawless
A couple of things on the actual game. I know there's a lot of talk about the referee. I thought he was horrible. It wasn't the reason why the United States lost. He was out of his depth.

And some really, really interesting calls. Yeah. The play in the first half where he whistles a foul and shows a yellow card to Chris Richards and then lets Uruguay take the kick quickly, was one of the more bizarre things I've ever seen in my life. I don't think I've ever. I've never seen that before.

And by the way, just. Public service announcement. Okay, well, I know, and I also encourage you to yell and scream at me and call me names out there. I wish I could take credit for. As Mossy mentioned, the camera angles.

This is all comnable, all right? So channel your hatred and your anger towards comnable, all right? There's plenty that you can yell at me for, but this was all Komno bowl. We did succeed to get it at least fixed for a little bit. But if you had been here in the Fox studios during that game, people were not happy.

David Mosse
Let's put a name to it. That was Brad Zager. Quite deflected by him. He looked at that and said, I'll take care of this. Made a couple of phone calls and next thing you know, the camera was.

Alexi Lawless
Fixed because it was ridiculous. But just staying on the referee for a second. Can we talk about the Uruguay goal? Yeah, go ahead. I felt like they applied an MLS philosophy to that play because I've talked about before an MLS, they don't like to chalk off goals.

David Mosse
So they really stretch that clear and obvious to a bit of a farcical degree. If a goal is given, it has to be night and day clear that it wasn't a goal, that it was offsides. And so I don't know. I mean, to me that looked like offsides, but I guess it was close enough. And the call on the field was goal.

That the referee felt like maybe it didn't meet that threshold of clear and obvious. But that was a pretty interesting moment. I mean, Tim ream win the hitter. So again, I just like, I feel. Like that play, though, just encapsulates like everything that's been going on with this team.

Carli Lloyd
You know, it's like just the smallest margin and another breakthrough mistake of some sort. Like, it just. They were a set piece, coach. I talk about set pieces and then what happens? We lose on a.

Alexi Lawless
We lose on a set piece. So. And, you know, there were 50,000 people here, by the way. The crowds for this us team have been incredible and they deserve so much more. So first off, thank you, everybody, that whether you watched, because we've gotten great numbers in terms of people viewing, people want to love this team.

People want to be inspired by this team. And as it relates to Greg Berhalter and his future, let's be honest, any federation around the world would make a change and nobody would bat an eye. It would be normal proceedings. Okay? I know the.

I say soccer federation isn't necessarily normal and they might decide to continue on if that's what they feel is appropriate, fine. But again, I want somebody in that position that is going to bring us together, that we're all going to be excited about. And right now there's a lot of people are not excited about this team because they don't feel that it has the right person in charge. As Stu Holden said multiple times on the broadcast, you can't fire the players, but you can fire the coach. Does that fix all the problems that we're talking about here in terms of development and where they are?

Not necessarily. But leading up to the summer of 2026, I want somebody there that everybody is on board with. You have people that don't like it, but I want the majority of people to say, yeah, I believe that this is the person that can do some things that we haven't seen before. And when I talk about doing things that we haven't seen before, I just want to remind everybody out there that this us men's national team in major tournaments has beaten the likes of Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Spain, Colombia. I mean, the list goes on.

And England, the list goes on and on and on. So again, doing it on a consistent basis where it's not a surprise and historic moment every single time it happens, that's what we were promised, that's what we want and that's who we need in charge of this team going forward. Carly, anything else on this game? I feel like I've talked too much. Okay, fine.

Mossy, anything else on this game? I will say one of the few bright spots for the US in this Copa America was Balogun, and that was a big blow, having him come off late in the half. Pepe came on. So at the very least, I think the US comes out of this terminal feeling better about the number nine position and the fact that Balogun looks like he could be the guy. Yeah, but I'm left with, with more questions.

Now. I don't think that Matt Turner is, is up to it right now. So I have a question in goal and I don't see anybody coming in behind. All right, the backline, especially in the center back position with Richardson ream, I'm not having it scally is serviceable. But if, if Sergino dest isn't there, then we got a problem.

I thought Jedi actually was one of the few bright spots for this tournament. And I like him up and down that left hand side again. Gioreno was kind of invisible. He had a nice little volley and everybody oohed and awed, but let's be honest, he needs to impose himself on a game. Christian Pulisic, I thought had a good tournament and is the most dangerous thing on the field.

Westin, I thought, grew into the tournament, but he's still not at the level that we need. Musa finally came on the field and then didn't do Musa things. Tyler Adams showed up at the tournament and evidently can only play a half of a game. Balogun, at least he scored a goal. It would be nice to see him continue on, but there's nobody waiting behind the wings in terms of Pepe and sargent that are going to cause any.

Cause any problems. So. And if. If Weston goes to the MLS. Yeah, right.

Carli Lloyd
The big talking point. I'm not so sure that would be best for his career. So that's another question mark. I know you think form is fallacy, but I think even you would acknowledge that it's optimal to have your players at least playing at club level. Yeah.

Alexi Lawless
Wherever you are, I want you playing. Yes. So we do need to start having a conversation about whether it's worth bringing players in who aren't getting any playing time at club level. Because you notice guys like Pulisic and Anthony Robinson who are coming off good club seasons. They played pretty well in this tournament while guys like Raina and Turner did not.

David Mosse
So I think there is a potential issue there that needs to be looked at moving forward. My goodness. All right, so we have the Olympics coming up for both men's and women's. And, you know, I think there will be some eyes certainly on the women's team in terms of what's happening this summer because of Emma and this new page that has been turned. And I think a lot of people are actually maybe that weren't excited about where the women's program was heading, are now more excited.

Alexi Lawless
And so that's what I'm talking about when it comes to whoever is in that leadership position, someone that is new, someone that is different and someone that excites it. And again, Greg Berhalter, I don't think he's a bad coach, but some things run their course, some things get stale. And sometimes, yes, change is important in order to bring in a new type of attitude going forward because this team cannot continue to do what it's doing. I'm done. Like I said, with these successes that we look at, it's a success, but we lost.

No, it's not just win, as the saying goes. Anything else on this game, mil? I'm ready to move on. All right. We mentioned that Bolivia, Panama ended, Bolivia won.

Panama three was an interesting moment where Bolivia tied it up and everybody was screaming and yelling said, oh, my God. But to Rob Stone's point tonight, that we are relying on frickin Bolivia kind of shows how much of a failure this was. Give credit to Panama. Thomas Christensen doing a good job there. They were very good in the Gold cup last year, got to the final, and here they are in the knockout stages of the Copa America.

David Mosse
So suddenly Panama has a little something going on. I think all four goals in that game were good. Quality goal, right? Bangers. Man, oh, man.

Alexi Lawless
So it was, you know, at our expense, and we could view some of those goals going forward. All right, so I guess congratulations to Panama. Okay. And we'll talk a whole lot more in the coming days as we go on. Before we move on, do you have an issue?

David Mosse
The cameras apparently caught Giorena trying to swap jerseys with Luis Suarez at the end of that game. Do you have an issue with that? Oh, I didn't see that. I don't care about swapping jerseys. It really doesn't matter to me.

What about the referee not shaking Pulisic's hand? That's ridiculous. Yeah, I mean, I don't get that, but this referee was ridiculous. It was a joke and should not referee. Do they, do, you know, a review of these referees in Copa America?

Carli Lloyd
And of course they do yank and. Pull just as Greg Berhalter is going to do a review of the federation and everything that went on, as he made in his press conference, very, very clear that he's going to do that. I mean, we just saw the fricking review. There it is. All right, you lost again.

Alexi Lawless
That's the review. I know I'm being a little glib. And you know what? It's sports. It's sports.

And I will say this. We know these people. I know Greg. He has a family and all that. And I know it becomes sport to say this guy should be fired or this person should be fired and all that kind of stuff.

And there are human beings and there are families and there are lives that are affected and directly affected and indirectly affected when it comes to these things. Greg Berhalter has been, like we said, just been given so many opportunities, but. It'S no different than Blocko Andonofsky. I mean, he's a nice guy, right? He's a good coach, doing well in club now.

But maybe we don't need a nice guy. There just, there needed to be a shake up on the woman's side. And I now think that there needs to be a shake up on the men's side. Just a refreshing face. Rob Stone said something tonight as if it's self evident that it's true.

David Mosse
And I think it's something that's worth debating. He brought up the fact that the US should go after people like Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. And he said, this is a very appealing job. And I do wonder sometimes if we overrate that, if this notion that the US has this amazing young talent, this potential to do great things in the next World cup is something that sort of in our bubble here, we think. But I don't know if it's really translated to the rest of soccer world.

Do you think the top managers in the world look at the US as a team right now, where if you walked in, you would have the players to potentially try to compete and win the next World cup? No, I don't think Pep or Klopp would look at the US saying we're going to win a World Cup. I do think someone like Klopp and Pep, who is prone to taking sabbatical types of things, would look at it as, hey, for two years, because that's all it's going to be and I don't have to qualify and it's in a country that is going to love me and it's a national team that hasn't done great things. Yeah, I think that that sounds good. However, these are also coaches that have gotten most of their success, in some cases all of their success relative to the elites and the super clubs that they have coached.

Alexi Lawless
And that is not what the US men's national team is now, nor will it be in 2026. I do get a sense, I'm not saying this is right, but it's just the way it goes, that if they do get rid of Berhalter, the pendulum is going to swing towards a foreign manager. Now, it seems to go back and forth with that quick last question. Do you think they think Bielsa? I think Bielsa would be an awesome speaker.

Two, don't do this. You say his name and he starts. It's just ridiculous. I feel like he would fit the US. I feel like he would just fit the team.

He's got to leave himself a pretty good gig right now with this. I know we're dreaming. Quick. Does the US soccer Federation make a change and fire Greg Berhalter?

Carli Lloyd
What I want them to do, they will do nobody. I honestly, I don't think they're going to. I think they should, but I'm not so sure. Again, I keep saying we have to put ourselves in the mind of somebody like Matt Crocker, who conducted this extensive search and came out of it feeling like Greg Berhalter was the best guy to lead the US in this cycle and into the next World cup. And so it's going to be a higher threshold for him to get off of that than it would be for people like us who had some question marks about bringing Berhalter back.

Alexi Lawless
Yeah. Because he has to admit he screwed up. Yeah. I mean, this is as much on. Oh, I don't think they're going to do it at all.

No, no. I don't think anything that we say or any type of public. So they'll just, they'll bomb out of 26 and then it will be like, okay, we'll get somebody else. Yeah. And it will be a historical waste of an opportunity.

I mean, like I said, the likes of which that we have not seen, and it will be nobody's fault but our own for letting this happen. And the people in the leadership positions, obviously, it's maddening. All right, well, you know, we move on, onward and upward. All right, should we go to the other games, mossy? Sure.

All right, let's go to euros, right? Yeah. So we had two round of 16 matches today. France, Belgium and Dusseldorf did not live up to the billing. Pretty boring match.

David Mosse
I think a lot of it had to do with Belgium's approach. Domenico Tedesco, very negative. And where he played, de Bruyne today almost turned him into a defensive midfielder. Yeah. Lukaku got no service.

So the French, I thought, at least had a bit more of the attacking impetus and created some chances, and they were rewarded. At the end. Colombone takes a shot, deflects in off vertagen. Our 9th own goal of the tournament. Unbelievable.

Alexi Lawless
So France advance, and they completely shut down Lukaku. All right, so, I mean, not a whole lot happened. And France advance. Mbappe didn't score again, wore the mask. Does not seem comfortable with that mask.

David Mosse
They got to get that sorted before the next game. This was, if I looked, if I was, if I saw correctly, it was kind of a different mask today. The back was different. Yes. All right, so he's trying.

Carli Lloyd
Yeah, but a mask is. It's just hard. Your whole peripheral, it's just. Did you ever have to wear one? I did.

And not as carbon fiber, you know, kind of. I mean, his is pretty thin on the face. Mine was a bit more bulky. Oh, my God. It was hard.

Alexi Lawless
Yeah. I can't even imagine. Okay, other games. And then Portugal and Slovenia in Frankfurt, it ended nil Nil went to penalties. Portugal prevailed.

David Mosse
Diogo Costa, the hero, made three stops in the shootout. First keeper in euros history to do that. Also had made an incredible save in the extra time on Shesko, reminiscent of Emmy Martinez on Kolomani in the World cup final. And he bails out Ronaldo, who had missed a penalty in the extra time. Jan Oblock with the save.

And do I want to talk about Ronaldo crying? I know you're dying to go there. So Ronaldo misses that penalty, and while the game is still going on and his team might advance, he is crying on the field, which I know you had a major issue with. All right. It's a bit of an ugly cry, too.

Alexi Lawless
Where do I start here first, Carly, have you ever cried on the field during the game? Never. And I would never, ever allow myself to thank you.

I. As the kids say, or they used to say, I stand for Ronaldo and have for many, many years. And, you know, I love him as a player. I love him as a personality. I love that he is emotional and passionate and fiery and almost this larger than life superhero type of figure and often delivers.

But that's a bad look, man. I mean, we all were turning to each other, and again, if you want to cry, it's fine. This isn't against people that cry. We all cry. I've cried on air, okay?

But it. For someone that has built his entire image on being strong and being that guy, it was cringey. I was looking at going, no, no, no, don't cry, Ronaldo. No. Are you kidding?

That's not who you are. And it just, in one fell swoop, this superhero crumpled into not just humanity, because all superheroes ultimately have parts of humanity that you see, but, like, I don't want a less than superhero Ronaldo, and I don't want a crying Ronaldo after the game, you want to cry and scream and yell and do all that? All right, fine, knock yourself out. But during the game, this was. He missed a penalty during the game and then started balling.

And then, by the way, at the end of the game, he made the penalty. So it was just very, very strange. And maybe everybody says, yeah, you don't understand the pressure that's on. No, I don't understand the pressure that's on. And I know he's under pressure, and I know he's old, and I know people are talking, and he hears all that, and he wants so badly to score a goal.

But come on, man. Grow up. Ronnie, a couple of things on that Jan Oblak, once upon a time, was not considered a good penalty kick stopper. Famously, in the 2016 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid at the San Sero, it was farcical how bad he was. Real Madrid converted every penalty with him, not even getting close to any of them.

David Mosse
But he's really worked hard to improve that part of his game, and that was an amazing save. That was a well taken penalty by Ronaldo, and he guessed right and made a sensational but yeah, on the crying. It made me think of 2014 World cup round, the 16 in Brazil. Brazil played Chile. It was one.

One after 120 minutes. Thiago Silva was Brazil's captain that day. And right before the shootout, when he should have been rallying the troops, he was sort of wandering around with tears in his eyes, looking very scared. And in Brazil, he's never lived that down. As respected a player as he is in Europe, in Brazil, you bring up the name Thiago Silva and you still get derisive comments because of that moment.

Now, I don't think Ronaldo is going to encounter the same grief, but, yeah, I mean, for the guy that's supposed to be the leader of the team, to not be able to shake that off and still kind of get everybody together and let's go, we can still do this. That was bizarre scenes and frankly, his whole performance. I mean, does he have to take every free kick? I mean, can he let somebody else have one? You have guys like Bruno Fernandez 60.

Carli Lloyd
60 free kicks, and he's made one or something. It's amazing. Yeah. He's so obsessed with getting a goal that, you know, we've talked about this in some of the previous games in this tournament, I think he's actually played well. Even though he hasn't scored, he obviously got the assist.

David Mosse
Bruno Fernandez, we made a big deal about that against Turkey in the group stage, but today was a game where his obsession with getting a goal was to the detriment of the team. And so that's something they do need to sort out moving forward. Oh, my goodness. Carly, anything on these games before we move on and get you out of here? No.

Carli Lloyd
I mean, I think with Ronaldo, like, anytime, anytime any striker is trying their hardest to score goals, you usually don't score forcing it, so it's like, you know, you got to just let it flow. Well, they get to go on, so he's going to get another opportunity. And, you know, Peter Schmeichel was not happy with. With Cristiano Ronaldo and, you know, he's. Sort of at that equivalent part of his career that you were in in the 2019 Women's World cup, and you were willing to accept being a sub and reduce role, you know, at that point in your career.

I mean, willing. I was. I was just able to. Can you put yourself in his head right now? How tough is it for somebody who's been a great player for so long and the star of a team to accept that?

David Mosse
Maybe you reach a point in your career where you maybe need to let other players have free kicks and not have it be all about you? I mean, is he struggling with that right now? Yeah, I mean, I think that in my time, those decisions were made about free kicks and who would take them. And, you know, that was kind of worked out before, but, I mean, it's Ronaldo. I don't know.

And one thing we learned tonight is that you hated your coaches. You made that very clear on tv. Some of the coaches. But I must say, yes, our group, you know, we weren't fond of some coaches, and we went up, went out, and ended up winning. I mean, look, was anybody a true fan of.

Carli Lloyd
Why am I drawing a blank? Patriots coach Belichick? Yes. You know, he may have gone, you know, a little too extreme and too far, but I can. You think he can coach soccer?

Alexi Lawless
All right, all right, listen, let's wrap this thing up. We'll talk more, and sometimes you have to let these things marinate, and we will continue to talk about it, and we'll see how we feel in the light of a new day. Just whip through quickly what we have tomorrow. So, two more euros. Round of 16 matches, Romania versus the Netherlands on fs one.

David Mosse
That's in Munich. Austria versus turkey on Fox. That's in Leipzig. A bit of a home. Do you guys either have anybody besides Netherlands and.

Alexi Lawless
Well, I have Netherlands in Austria. Anybody differ? I agree with that. Okay, you have a pick on those? Yeah, I would say Austria and Netherlands.

David Mosse
That Austria turkey game. A bit of a homecoming for Ralph Ragnick. He had a couple of stints as. Leipzig coach, and we've seen the crowds that Turkey has been able to summon. It might be a home game for Turkey and away game for Austria.

And then in the Copa America, we have the conclusion of Group D. Brazil will face Colombia in Santa Clara. At the same time, Costa Rica, Paraguay, I believe that's in Austin. And if Brazil beat Colombia, they would top group D. Colombia only need a draw to finish in first.

They've already clinched their quarterfinal berth. And let me say this. Now that we know that Panama finished second in Group C, and that's the quarterfinal. Opponent for the winner in Group D. I want Brazil to go all out tomorrow to try to win that game.

Play even the guys that are on yellows, I don't care, as long as you win. If they all get booked and get suspended, it's Panama. It's fine. To me, it's worth it. So I hope Brazil adopt that mentality.

Carli Lloyd
Panama beat the US, so, you know. Didn'T you just talk about Panama earlier? These comments might come back to bite me, but nevertheless, I think that would be pretty close to a layup. Well, are you picking Brazil over Colombia tomorrow? No, I think it's a draw and Colombia tops the group.

Alexi Lawless
Oh, really? I got you, Brazil. I got them. I got them. I'm more brazilian than you.

I'm going to go with Brazil and I'm going to go with Costa Rica, Paraguay. Zero. Zero. Yeah, something like that. All right, let's get to one for the road and get Carly out of here.

And Mossy's got to go do some different stuff. So if you want to roll it, there it is. One for the road. Everybody gets excited. At least Carly gets excited when I see it.

Carly, I was sitting next to you today and we were doing the game, and I was so angry and emotional and everything. I know in those moments, they try to tell us to have some perspective, but again, it's sports, right? And it's our country and we feel it, and that comes out in the emotion. And I immediately was brought back to Marta. Great Marta.

Incredible. Speaking of Brazilians, incredible brazilian player. And years ago, after, I think it was the Olympics or something, she had this incredibly emotional postgame speech where she spoke directly to the future generations. And you can find it on YouTube out there. And it's really incredibly powerful and emotional.

And so as good as she was on the field, she's also an incredible ambassador for the sport and for the future. And the passion came from her imploring those out there, especially young women, to take up the fight, if you will. And I thought about all the people that were watching this us team and all of the young men, boys out there that are watching this us men's national team and are playing soccer. And many of them now aspire to be professional soccer players and maybe one day represent the United States and play in World Cups. I hope that they were watching it because we've talked about 26.

It's going to come and go like that. All right. There's only so much in the next two years that we can do. We can do stuff, but there's only so much that we can do. And so I hope that there is a generation that was out there and was watching this failure.

And while it hurt, and I hope it hurt. And while you may have been disappointed, I hope there's also something that is lit, something that is ignited in some of these young players that are out there that again, have all of these resources that we're talking about at their disposal to want to do something bigger, to want to do something better, to want to do something that I never even came close to or I never even dreamed about, also to do something that the christian politics and this group have never done. And in that inspiration over the next however many years, I hope that at some point, even though this is a moment of pain and we're down and were blue about what happened, maybe many years from now, there will be a young man who grows into a 20 something and talks about how, yeah, I saw that and I didnt like that, but I saw opportunity and I wanted to change things and I wanted to do what weve kind of talked about now for the last cycle is do things that havent been done in the past. And that, like I said, as important as 2026 is its going to come and go. And so im thinking much more in the future.

And so if you are out there, you are that future. You are the hope, all right? And recognize that you are going to be given lots and lots of opportunities and many more so than the previous generations had. And I think that you can do great things. And I hope that you are watching tonight and I hope that it, I hope that it hurts you.

I hope that you feel it inside. And I hope that you say, you know what, on my watch and in my generation, we're not going to let that happen. On my watch and my generation, when we walk out there on that field and look, I might be around, I might not be, but when we walk out on that field against a team like Uruguay in Kansas City in front of 50,000 people that love us, we're going to reward them. We're going to reward them from the moment that whistle blows with what they see in terms of first and foremost the result that they get because they expect us to win and we provide that and also the way in which we get it. And we're going to make our country proud.

We're going to make everybody that is watching proud because I think that's important. And if there's any kind of hopefully silver lining to come out of it. Maybe there's a generation that will have watched that and say, you know what? We're not going to let that happen going forward remains to be seen what's going to happen in the next couple of years. Carly, thank you so much for staying up late.

I know you're working hard here in. Not as hard as you. Well, no. But you know what? You're doing a wonderful job.

It's always such a pleasure to have you and to work with you over the years. I've really enjoyed that. And we got a lot more to do. Again, congratulations on your, on your pregnancy and this human being that we have coming into the world later on in the fall. I cannot wait.

I think you're going to be as good, if not better a mother than you ever were as a player. And I can't I tell you how happy I am for you and your husband. Mossy, anything before we go? Well, first off, I don't think I've congratulated you on your pregnancy, so thank you, Mossy. Second thing, the last time we interviewed Carly on this podcast, that interview was nominated for an Ambie award.

David Mosse
So. Really? Really. Yeah. That's a lot to live up to.

We did not win, by the way. We lost to Julia Louis. Dreyfus apparently has a podcast and some interviews. She did one, but it led to a fun night in downtown LA where I lost my car keys.

Will happen after this interview. It was fun. It was fun. All right, listen, we've gone long tonight, but I hope you've stayed with us. And thank you for staying with us.

Alexi Lawless
Thank you for tuning in and reviewing and downloading and doing all the different things that you do. Thank you so much to zillow for the partnership that we have. Smash that button over there on the YouTube, as the kids say, keep smashing it as much as you possibly can. We're doing great numbers over there, but whether you're watching or whether you're listening, thank you. Thank you.

Thank you for tuning in each and every day right now through the tournament and then going forward. And if you're new, this is what it's all about. We have great guests like Carly Lloyd. We got my great friend, what's your name again? David Mosse over here.

And then you got to stare at me. You take the good with the bad. We'll talk to you again tomorrow night as the Copa America and Euros roll on. Until then, and as always, my friends, size the bayou.

Carli Lloyd joins the Pod, USMNT fails to advance, France and Portugal set to face off

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1: Introduction and Overview

2: Interview with Carli Lloyd

3: Analysis of Euro Matches

4: Future of US Soccer

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