Germany & Switzerland advance, Jesse Marsch makes history with Canada

This episode delves into the latest outcomes from the 2024 European Championship and Copa America, highlighting key matches involving Germany, Switzerland, and Canada.

1. Switzerland and Germany showcased tactical superiority in their respective matches.
2. Italy's performance was lackluster, indicating a need for significant changes in their team strategy and player development.
3. VAR continues to stir debates regarding its influence on the fairness and spirit of the game.
4. Jesse Marsch's leadership has positively impacted the Canadian national team, guiding them to the Copa America knockout stages.
5. The episode also highlights significant refereeing decisions that influenced the match outcomes, particularly through VAR interventions.

1: Opening Discussion

Host Alexi Lawless and David Mossey set the stage for discussing the ongoing Euros and Copa America, emphasizing the high stakes and excitement surrounding the knockout stages. Alexi Lawless: "It's do or die types of situations with these teams."

2: Euro 2024 Analysis

The hosts analyze Switzerland's victory over Italy and Germany's win over Denmark, discussing tactical setups and key player performances. David Mossey: "Switzerland were very, very good and have been throughout this tournament."

3: Copa America Insights

Focus shifts to Copa America, where Argentina's performance without Messi and Canada's strategic win under Jesse Marsch are discussed. Alexi Lawless: "This is what Canada needed to do. They needed to import quality and they did in the form of Jesse Marsch."

4: VAR Controversies

Detailed analysis of VAR decisions in the matches, with opinions on their impact on the spirit of the game. Alexi Lawless: "It was a handball and it was offside."

5: Closing Remarks

The hosts wrap up with predictions and reflections on the potential outcomes of upcoming matches in both tournaments. David Mossey: "Germany went out in the group stage of the last two World Cups and went on the round of 16 of the last euros."

1. Teams should continuously evaluate and adapt their tactical approaches based on opponent analysis to maximize performance in knockout stages.
2. National teams need to focus on developing homegrown talent to maintain competitive edges.
3. Embrace technology like VAR judiciously to enhance fairness in competitions, understanding its limitations and impact.
4. Leadership in coaching is crucial; hiring coaches with international experience can significantly impact national team performances.
5. Fans and teams should advocate for clear and consistent application of game laws to maintain the sport's integrity.

Alexi Lalas and David Mosse broke down the first pair of matches in the Euros Round of 16 and Copa América Matchday 3. Germany and Switzerland both advanced, while the Euros defending champions Italy were eliminated. Jamal Musiala becomes Germany’s youngest goal scorer in the Euros knockout stage, with his third goal of the tournament. In Copa América Group A, Argentina booked their ticket to the knockout round, defeating Peru 2-0 without Messi. Jesse Marsch and Canada also clinched their spot, making this their first appearance in the Copa América knockout round. (1:35)
To wrap the show, Alexi and Mosse discussed transfer news, including Sergiño Dest’s permanent move to PSV. (26:26)

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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 Saturday, June 29, with the start of the 2020 €4 round of 16 and the start of simultaneous third group stage games at the 2024 Copa America. As we make our way through this amazing summer of soccer, reminder will be coming to you live after each and every day of the euros action and the Copa America action, giving you a wrap up and a preview of what's to come. But first, joining me as always, my friend, my colleague, my guiding lights, David Mossey, a soccer savant and a Fox soccer researcher and writer extraordinaire.

Mossy, how are you on this Saturday, June 29 in the year 2024? I'm doing well. The knockout stage at the euros is off and running. It is off and running. It is fun.

It was interesting after a couple of dark days to put that back in front of everybody and to see people come running and to get excited and what's not to love? It's do or die types of situations with these teams. Okay, scores today, euros. Let's go for the round of 16. Like we said, started off today and two games today.

Switzerland two, Italy zero, Germany two, Denmark Zero and Copa. We're back to Group A. And as I mentioned, simultaneous play. Argentina two, Peru zero, Canada zero, Chile zero. Okay, let's start off with the euro action and let's start, shall we say, Italy?

Switzerland, my friend. Like we said, Switzerland. Two, nothing to Italy. I don't see this as a surprise. I don't think that this is any type of a shock if you have watched this italian team, let's be honest, not just in this group play, but over the last couple of cycles, and I know it looms large that they won the euros and they are defending champions and everything like that, but keep in mind that we also have two cycles of World Cups where they did not qualify for the World cup.

This is a team that is devoid of any real stardom that we have come to associate with Italy. It's also a team devoid of any real grit and as we saw today, any real direction. And it looked utterly rudderless. It was one of the most boring and uninspiring performances that I have seen from an italian team, especially in a knockout stage, which is where they're supposed to come alive. I mean, Giorgio was telling us about this innate part of the Italians that, you know, they just kind of meander and figure their way through, which they did again here at the euros.

And then this is where the tournament begins. Well, this is where the tournament began and finished. And let's be honest, before that first whistle, because they were no match for a Switzerland that just tore them apart from start to finish in terms of possession, in terms of opportunities, and ultimately in the result. I agree. When you look back at the last several years, that euro 2020 triumph is clearly the outlier.

David Mossey
This is a country in decline for all of Italy's reputation as a country of Catinacco. They have produced some of my favorite attacking players in history, some of the most elegant players we've ever seen, from Baggio to Totti to del Piero to Gianfranco Zola to even Andrea Pielo, who obviously played deeper in the midfield. Yeah. And you don't see anybody like that on this team. And even the defenders, frankly, you don't see any Maldinis and Barezz and Bonuccios and Kilinis and Canvatos and Nestas.

So, yeah, it's a country that really needs to figure out. Figure things out and get back to producing world class players. Their best player by far is their goalkeeper, and that's just not sustainable. Yeah, I mean, they rode him as they should because he was incredible. But other than that, there was nothing.

Alexi Lawless
They were starting El Shawari and stuff like that, so it was not good. And in that sense, they. They are the Azuri in name only. They are a shell of their former selves. And they got to get their you know what together going forward.

But. And. And that is a big story because of what Italy is, I guess, in this case, what. What Italy isn't. But it also shouldn't over the fact, overshadow the fact that Switzerland were very, very good and have been throughout this tournament and just continued on.

David Mossey
They eliminated France in the round of 16 of the last euros, and they take out Italy in the round of 16 of this one. I agree with you. Very impressive. Remo Frohler in the first half. He played at Bologna this past season, so Sean Sullivan, very familiar with him.

And then Ruben Vargas. What a. What a beautiful goal early in the second half. So, yeah, this was comprehensive. They were clearly the better team.

Deserved it. And they move on to the quarterfinals. All right, so let's take to the next game. Germany, the hosts, two, Denmark, zero. Ari hingst won, and she's moving on.

Alexi Lawless
Our good friend Peter Schmeichel. Sorry, Peter didn't work. I will say that in talking to Peter, he recognized that they were up against it and everybody. I don't think I met one person that said that Denmark was going to win this game. It wasn't that they were just going to keel over in front of Germany.

They would give them a good game. But nobody thought, ultimately, that Denmark was the better team. And that proved out today. And it could have been more than two. It could have been three or four, ultimately.

And so Denmark goes home. From a Schmeichel family perspective, I think he is content and happy because his son Casper, great goalkeeper, actually made a bunch of good saves initially, and there's nothing he could ultimately do in terms of the goalkeeping part of it. I agree. And Neuer made some nice, great goalkeeping in this match. We had a lightning delay in the first half, and play eventually resumed.

David Mossey
It was nil nil at the break. And then everything turned early in the second half with a couple of big VAR decisions. Let's discuss. First off, Joaquin Anderson scored for Denmark, but it was chalked off because Thomas Delaney, in the buildup, was judged to be slightly offsides. And then minutes later, Joaquin Anderson is judged to have committed a handball penalty.

Kai Havertz converts. Musial attacked one on late, his third goal of the tournament. So it finishes 20. But Peter Schmeichel was unhappy about those decisions, especially the offsides one. We've talked about this before.

We all know your position. You can't be a little pregnant. But these millimetric offsides do seem to bother people. Yeah, I mean, you preface this by saying that this was controversy. There's no controversy here, okay.

Alexi Lawless
It was a handball and it was offside. I know that in the moment and after the moment, Peter is emotional as anybody would be. And from a danish perspective, I saw the quotes after the game from the players and they're all, this isn't the spirit of the game. If you would like to have the laws be now relative to this subjective spirit of the game. Do you realize the, you know, what show would happen if a referee just went out there and said, I'm just going to ref it, relative to the spirit of the game?

Okay. I mean, it just doesn't work. It doesn't work like that. You know, Peter was talking about frames per second and all that kind of stuff. Look, we have technology there for a reason.

And in the technology, we are going to see things that the human eye cannot see in real time. And they are going to be small and they are going to be detailed and they are going to be things, like I said, that you couldnt see in real time. And thats why we have them to actually get the call, right? Because immediately, if we dont have them, were going to show them on television. I get the frustration that he has, but I don't understand that the train has left a station and whatever station he would like it to go back to, it didn't exist really in the past and it would be ridiculous to it.

Go back to it now. So. All right. I understand. He's very emotional in that moment.

David Mossey
I understand. We like to rotate and get all our talent in there. And so you weren't on the desk for the postgame, but I really wanted you there because he was going off on how Denmark got screwed and nobody was challenging him on it. And I was dying for you to be there to hit him with that. You can't be a little pregnant.

Alexi Lawless
Yeah, I mean, we said this before. When it comes to. Cause here's what happens in the game now, right? We say, oh, it's so small, and what are we doing here? And we're taking away the opportunity to see goals and these wonderful moments and all that kind of stuff.

And my point has always been, you either are offside or you're not offside. And in particular now with technology, it's very, very clear. And so you can't be a little pregnant. You can't be. Well, he was just a little bit offside, so let's let him have the goal there.

That's just not going to work. And the handball, for the love of God. All right. In this day and age, if you are a defender defending in your box, and you are not putting your hands behind your back, then you are doing yourself and your team a disservice. And you are not being smart in the moment.

And we've seen a lot in these tournaments where defenders are going to block, and sometimes they put one hand behind their back. It's just crazy and ridiculous. And it's easy to call. It's so easy nowadays to call it, because you got the VaR, you can see it. And even if they don't see it in real time, a lot of them have seen it in real time.

Even if they don't, they will go back and they will find it. So I didn't have any problem with the officiating today. I didn't think that anybody ultimately got screwed. The better team won, and Germany goes on as the. As the home team.

And from a tournament perspective, having the home team, especially a home team, that is gravitating to this team. And it's growing and growing and growing. That's a good thing. Again, I'm not a Peter where I have somebody in the race here like he did. Do you remember former us defender Jimmy Conrad?

Vaguely. He played in the 1950s World cup or 50, what, fifties national team more recently than. I'm not sure what he's doing today. But he did post on x after the Havertz penalty. Stutter step penalty should be banned.

David Mossey
Kai Havertz completely stops here. And yes, my family's danish, so I've been 1000% triggered by these last few B's minutes. Okay, so again, this. What was his name? Jimmy Conrad.

Alexi Lawless
Jimmy Conrad character, obviously, either does not know the laws of the game or just refuses to obey them. So when this Mister Conrad, for example, would get pulled over by a policeman for speeding or something like that, he would say, yeah, but I wasn't really going fast. Or I wasn't. Again, when it comes to being, you know, a little pregnant or anything like that, or we'd say, come on, I wasn't doing that. No, you can't do that.

Okay, Jimmy, it is the law. And if you don't like the law, that's fine. But nobody broke the law, whether it's high Havertz or Lewandowski or anybody else. And if you want to change the law, fine. I actually don't want to change the law.

I have no problem with the stutter step. I know a lot of people do. So Jimmy is not alone in his uh, is in his hatred when it comes to the stutter step. I have no problem with, uh, players addressing the ball stutter stepping, and the actual law is in the actual act of kicking the ball. You can't stop, and he didn't do that.

David Mossey
This was Germany's first knockout stage win at a major tournament since Euro 2016. We forget we talked about Italy's recent struggles. Germany went out in the group stage of the last two World Cups and went on the round of 16 of the last euros. So, uh, they've been on a bit of a drought here, and, uh, we'll see if this summer is where they can go far again and do what Germany typically used to do at major tournaments. All right, well, I'm here for it.

Alexi Lawless
You've been seeing the little features that myself and Ari Hanks did over there in Germany. We had another one today on the Berlin wall and just had a wonderful time there. And even while we were there, you could see how they were getting prepared for it. But now that it started, and more importantly, now that they have a team that they can believe in, it's pretty fun to see. I love that feature, by the way.

David Mossey
That's the one I was most excited to watch. Oh, the Berlin Wall one delivered. It was really cool. And as I said on air, for those that didn't see it, Ari and I went and visited the Berlin Wall, and we met with a gentleman who had grown up in East Germany on that side of the wall and had fought the power and had been arrested even at the age of 15. And he talked about what it meant for just that little space to go away and how it fundamentally not just changed his world, but changed his country and ultimately did change the world.

Alexi Lawless
And so there was a lot of emotion to it, but there was also a celebratory type of thing when you go and visit this wall. And it's incredible art, and it's incredibly moving and powerful, but it's also kind of a festival type of type of event. And 70,000 people at the Berlin Watch party today, I mean, we've covered so many major tournaments in recent years, and we've seen when the host nation goes on a run, how it can galvanize the whole country. In Australia with the Women's World cup last year, and Ari Hinks talked about the 2006 World cup and the effect that had on Germany as a country. I think we're starting to see that this summer for sure.

I hope so. I hope so. Yeah. So they go on. All right, so Germany moves on and Switzerland move on.

Okay, let's switch over to Copa Group A, shall we, Mossy? Yep. All right. Which one do you want to do first? So we'll do Argentina.

David Mossey
No messi, no Scalone, but no problem. They beat Peru 20 in Miami. They make it three wins out of three in Group A without conceding a goal. Altaro Martinez scored both four goals in three games for him. He is the runaway top scorer in the Copa America.

Alexi Lawless
We had a lot of talk about Latoro Martinez and this, you know, it's an evergreen type of topic. When you have players that are coming off of the bench and scoring when they are, you know, behind others and whether that means when they do start doing this and do do start doing this consistently, are they just proving your point that you are better as this super sub or are they actually challenging for that position and making a case? Do you think that. Which one of those do you think that Latouro Martinez is? I think he needs to start.

Really? Yes. Okay. I think right now he's a better player than Julian Alvarez, so he's the best option there. You know, we've talked about how success on the World cup stage can inflate your reputation like it did for Ahames Rodriguez.

Tell me about it, buddy. Yeah. Lautaro Martinez is the other case of a guy who's fantastic and just the only bad stretch of form he ever had in his life was in the 2022 World cup. And there are still people that hold that against him and don't recognize what a great striker he is. And so I am glad to see him prove it this way.

We take him. We take him in the US without a problem here. All right, so Argentina to Peru, zero. Like we said, lots of changes. Huge crowd down there in Miami.

It was supposed to be kind of this homecoming, or at least for his new home. When it comes to Messi, he did not play. Certainly not the worst thing in the world in terms of the tournament and the possible tournament title here. But it would have been nice to see him, Aaron. And it's obviously that they sold out the hard rock because of the fact that this was not just Argentina, but this was Argentina with Messi.

A lot of people to see Messi east, he was on the bench, he was there. So you actually could see him, but he was not on the field. They didn't need him. I do feel like we said yesterday that had this been a knockout game, had this been a title game that he would have played, they were afforded the opportunity to rest him. Although head coach Colonni, because of his suspension for the team arriving late, was not actually on the bench.

He was up in the, up in the stands. And then the other group a match was in Orlando. Canada and Chile played to a scoreless draw, which meant that Canada advanced in the next round. There was some refereeing controversy. A lot of people felt like Canada should have been down to ten men early on.

David Mossey
Bombito, that elbow in a chevalier. And then Chile did go down in ten minutes. Suazo got himself sent off in the first half. But I'm not sad to see Chile go. Zero goals in three games and Canada move on, which, as we talked about last night, is an interesting little wrinkle in this whole US Greg Berhalter story, the fact that Jesse Marsh got Canada to the knockout stage.

Alexi Lawless
All right, well, let's give Canada its props. Ok. First and foremost, from an american perspective, congratulations to the american, Jesse Marsh. And this is what Canada needed to do. They needed to import quality and they did in the form of Jesse Marsh.

And he gets them out of the group. A historic achievement for him. So congratulations to him. And really in a matter of months, kind of turning around the program, it might be, might be a little bit much, but at least getting people to look at it in a much more favorable light than when he started and in a very short period of time. The other part of this is, as you mentioned, mossy, relative to the United States.

We said time and time again that Jesse Marsh has been looked at as a potential us men's national team coach. He went evidently through the process, which he did not like. And ultimately the US went a different way in the form of continuing on with Greg Berhalter. And so don't think for a second he doesn't think about that when it comes to this canadian team. We were talking about it on air with Carly and Clint Dempsey.

It doesn't matter how you do it. The canadian soccer public or the canadian public at large does not give a flying. You know what, how the canadian men's national team plays. They don't care that they only scored one goal. They don't care that they, against ten men today, weren't able to finish off this type of game.

All that matters is getting out of the group play. And you know who would have loved to have this type of group scenario and be sitting where Jesse Marsh and Canada are? Well, Greg Berhalter in the US. But the canadian team recognized that they had two winnable games and one, you just take your chances, in essence, what Greg Berhalter and the US have in their group, right? And they got the job done and well done to them in the way that they did it.

I know, like I said, it wasn't pretty, but right now, believe it or not, Canada is flying the flag for Concacaf. Don't know if I ever thought I was going to be saying that. We don't know what's going to happen tomorrow with Mexico playing and the US on Monday, so things could change when it comes to concave right now, but so far so good when it comes to Canada. And congratulations and thank you. From a CONCaCAF perspective and just from a soccer perspective, it's a good story.

David Mossey
And by the way, they will have a winnable quarterfinal match against the Group B team you just mentioned. It's going to be most likely Venezuela, but if not them, either Mexico or Ecuador and they could beat any of those three teams. Absolutely. And the tournament situation, I'll just say this also, this is also about 26 and the success that they have here is going to relate and it's going to help fuel them going forward into 2026 because keep in mind, like the US, they are in the same spot where they're not going to go through qualifying. They're going to play in the Gold cup next summer against competition.

Alexi Lawless
That's okay, but not elite. I and if they have continued success here at Copa America, that bodes well for their future come the summer of 2026. Should we move on to tomorrow? Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

David Mossey
So we have two more euros. Round of 16 matches. England will face Slovakia in Gelsenkirchen and Spain will face Georgia in Cologne. The England Slovakia winner will face Switzerland in the quarterfinals. The Spain Georgia winner gets Germany.

Alexi Lawless
Okay, have you met anybody that is picking Slovakia over England yet? No. Okay. I haven't either and I am not picking Slovakia over England. I think that despite the negativity, and not just the normal negativity, I think that there is some real fair negativity relative to what we've seen so far in this tournament from England and especially relative to what it whether we think they can actually win this tournament.

I think that that has been fair. However, I still think that they're still too good to lose to a team like Slovakia. I think they will ultimately get it done and move on. You know, today we finally got around to everybody filling out their brackets. I saw that you filled one out.

David Mossey
I didn't actually. You didn't. I missed the deadline. If you had. I'm going to trust you here.

Alexi Lawless
If you had what would you have done for today? Cause I got both of them right. I would have picked definitely Germany kind of 50 50. On the other game, I'm not sure which way I would have gone, but, you know, I have Germany and England as my final. We did our brackets on this pod before the tournament and it is possible they're on opposite sides of the bracket.

So what do you mean, so you don't know if you would have picked Italy and Switzerland? I know we're doing it after the fact. I was never put on the spot, so I never really had to think about it. I always viewed that as kind of a 50 50 game. I'm wondering, did the folks here at digital fill out their brackets?

David Mossey
Do they have some sort of pool. Going probably for that other show? Absolutely. All right. Okay.

Let me just say, though, on the other game, this is fascinating. You talk about a David versus Goliath matchup. Georgia, the lowest ranked team in the field at number 74. It's their first ever major tournament. Their win over Portugal to go through was the biggest upset in tournament history.

And now they face Spain. Three wins out of three in the group stage, zero goals conceded. They've looked absolutely imperious and these two teams squared off in qualifying for this tournament. And Spain won both games. One of the matches they won seven one.

So this seems like the most obvious pick ever, which gives me a little bit of pause because we've seen some wacky things happen in this tournament. Yeah, I'm still going to go for Spain. I'm crazy like that. I have no problem. Although I will say this, you know that we do the old power rankings things, right?

Alexi Lawless
So I'm always being asked about the power rankings and as I say on air, I will say to you here, they change with day to day and sometimes the way I'm feeling or what's going on, and it's all subjective and all that, but because of today, where two teams, both Denmark and Italy, that had been in my top ten, are now out of the tournament, they have to go out, which means that I have to place teams that weren't in my top ten into the top ten. And so you start to get into these teams now that we're talking about the Slovenia, Slovakias, Romanias, Turkeys, that kind of stuff, and Georgia and I have somebody who came and made an impassioned case, I mean, everything, but basically a PowerPoint presentation as to why this person felt that Georgia should be in my top ten. And look, I'm not above being wooed and swayed by a by a presentation that is clear and concise and is convincing. And so that's just a little tease for tomorrow. The possibility that your friends from Georgia might make their way into the top ten.

David Mossey
Now that I brought it up, I am curious to know who Erin Schechter picked to win the euros in her pool. What do you think? She's got a. I bet you she's a Spain girl. I think she's like.

Alexi Lawless
Yeah, maybe. I think she's a Spain. I think we'll find out. We'll get that. Okay.

What else, mussy? I thought I would have gotten that information in my ear by now, but apparently she's asleep in there. Mossy, there's. Everybody's gone home. There's nobody even working in the control room here, okay?

I go back there, I hit a couple buttons, and this thing goes on air. That's how we roll here, okay? Haven't you figured this out yet? They have their big show, all right? They got the animals, they got all the props, they got all the people, they got all the lights and all that kind of stuff.

And then we come in, like, kind of Wayne's world here, and we do our show. She picked Germany to win. Oh, really? She got one of today's games wrong. She had Italy beating Switzerland.

Okay. I mean, that's not the worst possible thing. I mean, and you said that it was a 50 50 proposition for me. It wasn't, you know, because I had actually watched Italy and seen that they were crap. All right, should we go over to Copa games?

David Mossey
Yep. So, tomorrow, we have the conclusion of Group B, the big one. Mexico and Ecuador will square off in Glendale, Arizona. Ecuador only need a draw to move on. Mexico need a win.

Alexi Lawless
All right, so we've talked a whole lot about the US with their backs to the wall. Our friends from Mexico are also up against it here. How do you see this one playing out? Do you think that Mexico can rise to the occasion? Well, this particular Mexico team, which we know a lot of people are down on, and rightfully so, given what they have not done.

David Mossey
No, I think Mexico is a mess right now. I think Ecuador get the result and they move on. I disagree with you. Oh, wow finds a way. I think El Tree finds a way.

Alexi Lawless
And I'm doing it because I'm anticipating the worst possible news and hurt that, as an american fan, I can feel. And so it's mounting. And so that's part of where this is coming from. If Mexico do go out, I do need John Marcus to capture Kiara's reaction. Again, that was some fun footage from Mexico's missed penalty last time out.

Oh, my goodness. I mean, the US having to get a result against Uruguay relative to Mexico having to get a result against Ecuador, who has an easier game, obviously, Mexico. I don't know. I mean, you just basically told them that they can't even beat Ecuador. I'm picking Ecuador, but Mexico has a much better chance of being Ecuador than the US has.

All right, what's the other game? The other game is Jamaica, Venezuela. Venezuela already threw Jamaica already out. The only point of interest here is Venezuela trying to get a point to top the group. Okay.

All right, well, we'll see what happens with there, but all eyes are going to be on that. That Mexico games. All right, so we got a fun day of stuff tomorrow. Shall we do anything else before we get to one for the road? I do want to say I ran into Fran Arthur on my way up here.

I'm sorry. Was it okay? Yes. She told me she didn't yell at you, did she? True story.

David Mossey
She told me she couldn't make it tonight because she had to go home and do her laundry. All right. I mean, we're in a tournament time, so we are. We had a couple of nights of. A bit of a crowd there on that couch, but we're back to nothing.

Alexi Lawless
Well, you know, her and all the monkey mucks came up here and people have to, you know, kind of show their face and make sure that they're seen and all that, but now they're gone, you know, we're back to the die hard. Duh. Wait, maybe there's a couple. There we go. All right.

All right. Should we go to Onesville Road? Let's do it. Okay. Roll the tape.

There it is. Oh, my goodness. You and I running around on a van. That was a fun day. That was fun.

Day one for the road. Here is relative to things that are happening, because obviously we're doing the tournaments right now, but there's still all sorts of business that's going on. We come to find out that Sergino dest. Yes, we would love to have had him here this summer. And he is a big miss because of what he brings to that right back position.

He has made his permanent move to PSV from Barcelona. This is a player who, from a very young age, seen and valued and went from big club to big club to big club. Whether we're talking about Barcelona, whether we're talking about Milan, where else? Where else was he? Ix.

Ix. There we go. So he has played a lot of big clubs, but he has finally kind of come back around. And yes, he's had some injuries, but PSV obviously value him and want him to continue that. So I'm happy for him that that is happening.

Other signings that are happening right now, Caleb Wiley is in advance, talks evidently to sign with Chelsea. And this is, Chelsea is an interesting club, as we know mossy, because they sign a lot of players. Very few of them actually end up playing for Chelsea. And that is part of the business plan. It's to sign these young talent, farm them out to many of the satellites that they have.

Sometimes they make good and you bring them back to the mothership. Sometimes they don't. They sell them on, they make money, or they just kind of have them theoretically growing and getting better and evolving. And if and when they want to bring them back, they can. And if not, like we said, they sell them.

I don't know what they actually see as a future for this young player. But still, these are good messages. These are good things to happen in the space that is american soccer. It's fun, it's new, it's different. It certainly didn't happen back in my day.

And the fact that they see not just gold in them, their american soccer hills, from a business perspective, in playing games, but also gold when it comes to mining that talent out there and that american talent that exists, whether it's domestic talent that's produced here or whether it's talent that has come to Major League Soccer or any other professional league, for that matter, in the United States. And the more and more that this happens, the more and more credibility that american soccer has, the more and more credibility that the individual teams have relative to their development, development, developmental status and what they are doing and the structure that they have, this is all good, good news. And the fact that there are young players, like I said, in the United States, that are looked at as, hey, this is a potential player for us, either from on the field perspective or an on field and off the field perspective, because sometimes they're american and they sell tickets and they bring viewers and all that kind of stuff. This is, this is good times. We are living in very, very good times.

It's a good time to be a young soccer player in the United States. Mozzie yeah, there's already talk of him going to Strasbourg, which is one of those teams under the Todd Bowley umbrella there. And to your point, Chelsea, are signing so many young players, including Kendry Paez, who are watching in this Copa America. They just signed this brazilian Stevo who's considered the second coming of Neymar. So all of a sudden, I have the next few years of my life, I'm going to be invested in Chelsea and seeing if they can develop him.

David Mossey
So, yeah, interesting times for sure. How you doing, mossy? How you doing? We've done so many tournaments together. We're right in the nitty gritty meat of the tournament.

Alexi Lawless
And I don't mind telling you, at times we say it's a marathon, and it is like any marathon, you have your good miles and your bad miles and times you have to struggle through and times where you're cruising. How are you doing, my friend? Not going to lie, today was rough because last night, as I said, on my way home, I picked up Bossanova. It was delicious. But then I could not fall asleep, so I had to come in today on, like, 2 hours of sleep.

David Mossey
I was like a pitcher that didn't have his stuff and just had to grind through work two shows. And when you can't fall asleep, do you sit there and stare at the ceiling or do you just have the thoughts floating your head or do you get up and watch stuff or what do you do? Yeah, I just lay in bed staring at the ceiling and frustrated that I can't fall asleep. Because you had a pezante type of meal. You had a maybe.

Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Are you going to be okay tonight, you think? I'm hoping I can fall asleep earlier tonight and get a decent night. You realize this whole thing just, you know, goes, goes down without you here.

Alexi Lawless
I mean, you're holding it up. Yeah. And we have a 05:00 a.m. production meeting tomorrow, so it's not going to be that great a night of sleep. But if I can fall asleep by, say, ten, you know, 6 hours or so.

Hey, there's a lot of people out there saying these are champagne problems, and they are. We were very, very lucky at what we do. Before we go, breaking news. Oh, what you got? I just received a text message from Kat.

Oh, okay. And as I said last night, she's home ill, battling a couple different ailments. She said, I've had a little extra time to watch tv these past few days. Yesterday, I watched the perfect wife on Hulu wild. Ooh.

Okay. All right. A cat recommendation. I had a recommendation today that I'm going to check out if I can tonight. I think it's on Hulu, too.

Is there, there's another lollapalooza documentary, but this one's with Perry Farrell, I think, who's done. It's like a four hour long one or something like that. So I don't know if I'm. If it's the same one that I've seen or if it's a new one, but I'm going to check that out. All right.

Oh, you have one more thing. Go. How many more days are you going to make your son suffer through this? He clearly is not enjoying himself over there. And yet he's here every night now.

Yeah, he's here every night to suffer along with us. Okay. Perhaps he'd enjoy the now show more. Let him come up for that. No, there's no chance that he's doing that.

That's all you know? No, no, he's. Oh, wow. I'm told that he did come up to watch. He is.

He has been getting a behind the scenes look at everything. So he's seeing how this. How old is he? He will be 16 in a couple of months. That is about the level of maturity of that show.

He fit right in. There were, you know, there were barnyard animals running around and real lowbrow humor and all that kind of stuff, so. Yeah, so he did fit in. It was. It was perfect for a 16 year old boy.

All right, we will talk to you again tomorrow. Keep reviewing and keep downloading and keep subscribing and keep smashing that button over there on the old YouTube channel. You're doing great. We're getting huge, huge numbers over there. We will continue to bring this to you every single night here on the state of the union, thanks to zillow, our great partners, and everybody out there for tuning in throughout this tournament.

Oh, my goodness. Round of 16 is upon us, and soon enough, we will be in the knockout rounds of Copa America, too. So don't go anywhere. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, and as always, my friends, size the day.