Messi leads Argentina to Copa América finals, Spain's Lamine Yamal scores historic goal

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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 July 9 with the euro semifinals. Yeah, and the Copa America semifinals as we make our way through this amazing summer of soccer. Remember, we'll be coming to you live after each and every day of euro action and Copa 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 Tuesday, July 9, in the year 2024? I'm doing well. No guests tonight, so you must be driving yourself home. Yes, we have a couple of days of work here. So I so for this tournament and for anybody that's followed, you will know this.

But if you're just coming to the scene here, we are doing two tournaments at the same time. And while I live here in Los Angeles, this is where we're doing the tournament from. It didn't make sense because of the late nights and the long days that we were doing for me to go back and forth. So I actually have a hotel room that I have been staying at. So I will head back there tonight and then get back up tomorrow and all sorts of action going on.

Anything interesting happened in your life since we last spoke? I've ripped through the first five episodes of the new season of the Bear and eh, eh, well, you know, what happened here is this is season three, and the show originally was only going to be three seasons. The creator was very clear about the fact that he only had three seasons of story, but because the show was so successful, they compelled him to do four seasons. And this third season feels like they're just kind of vamping because they don't have enough story to fill out two more seasons. Story as old as time, or at least as old as episode type of things when it comes to cranking out content over there, I watched it's called Lala, the story of Lollapalooza, and it's a three part documentary.

I think it's over. I think it's paramount plus. And it goes through the whole festival. For those that don't know, it was a very popular festival through the nineties and kind of came to represent the nineties and how it was started by Perry Farrell and how it grew. And like a lot of these documentaries, the rise and at times fall and then kind of the resurrection of it over the years.

But it's really interesting in terms of all the footage that they have of a lot of these massive bands, your pearl jams and your nirvanas and all just different types of bands out there and how they kind of started out and used this as a stage initially, and it was just to be cool, and then it became something much bigger and it gets into all the corporate stuff and all that. One more note, which will actually segue nicely into the first match we're going to talk about today. I read that there's going to be an american remake of the Bureau, which is this television show about the french equivalent of the CIA, which I'm obsessed with. I think it's one of the greatest television shows ever made, and now they're making an american equivalent of it. Speaking of remakes, I must have missed this, but we were watching in the green room today, and an advertisement came on for it might be a remake or a continuation, alien aliens type of thing for Twister.

You remember the movie Twister? Yes, but there's a twisters now that is coming out, and I don't know if it's a remake or I don't know if it's. The kids of the original Twister crew are now chasing tornadoes or anything like that. But there were a couple people that as soon as that came on, were very, very excited. They ended up acting like they knew it was coming.

But this is news to me. So Twisters evidently is coming. All right, my friend, should we light this candle here? Let's do it. All right, let's go to the scores.

First and foremost, from today, only two games, but we were in the semifinals and certainly in the business end when it comes to both of these tournaments. Euro semifinals, Spain two. France won. Spain advance to the final. And Copa America semifinals, Argentina two.

Canada zero. Argentina advanced to the finals. All right, big moments of the day. Victory unlocked. Brought to you by Zillow agents Tours loans homes.

Get home with Zillow. Let's start with the Spain France game. This was, I think, at least in this tournament, the purest vision and version of this spanish team that I know you were very high on coming into this tournament and has certainly lived up to billing in terms of being the most consistent, persistent and even, dare I say, the most beautiful team in the way that they played. I thought that they were ultimately the better team against this France team. They are doing it in a different way, as we have talked about all month, but it is still incredibly successful.

It is still incredibly, at times, beautiful. There are some individuals, including a 16 year old, that are just doing it on a consistent basis. Certainly warranted when it comes to having Spain go on and beat France and be in the fight. What was interesting was I thought France got off to a great start. The first 15 minutes of the game was the best they've looked all tournament.

David Mossey
Didier Deschamps made a big call, leaving Griezmann on the bench, starting Usman Dembele. And the front three combined on the goal. Dembele to Mbappe, beautiful cross to Kolomuani. Mbappe was abusing 38 year old Jesus Navas, who started in place of the suspended Danny Carvajal. But then that La Mina mal goal changed everything.

Then minutes later, Spain took the lead. Danny Omo, his third of the tournament, and he's tied for the golden bootlead. And then the rest of the way, they were clearly the better team, so it was a deserved victory for them, for sure. A couple of things. We can't talk enough about Lamina Mal and kind of waiting for the depth and the importance to be a weight on him, and yet it never comes.

Alexi Lawless
You mentioned Navas. Navas evidently is older than La Mina Malsite father, which is insane. We'll talk a little bit more about 16 year olds and what they do, but he. Again, yes, he's 16, but he is there for a reason, because he consistently takes players on and he is providing magical moments, including a goal today that is one of the best goals of the tournament. And this whole off wing type of situation where somebody plays on the right, even though they're left footed and able to cut into there.

Stronger foot was on display here. And to your point, France started out okay, but then Spain just took over with those magic moments and then just the control of the ball. I have to come up with a top five goals of the tournament that we're going to run during the pregame show for the final. And there's some debate about Lamina Mao versus Jude Bellingham's bike, which is number one. I think I'm going to go with Bellingham's bike, but everybody will have to wait and see on that.

David Mossey
But, yeah, it was an incredible strike by Lamina Mal, just to put some numbers to it. 16 years, 362 days. Youngest scorer in euros history. Youngest scorer in the Euros or World cup. He surpassed Pele in 1958 in that regard.

So we are seeing the start of an incredible career here, for sure. I love the fact that he's not afraid, and I can't remember who was being interviewed at one point, but they were talking about how he doesn't seem fazed by it now. It could be that he is that mature at a young age, or it could be that it's just so big that he's too young, and I use this word dumb, to even recognize the weight, and therefore he just kind of is having a good time. So just to put a ribbon on France. Disappointing tournament for them.

A french player finally scored a non penalty goal today, but they got one all tournament. They crash out. You know, Didier Des champs, he tried in the second half to change things. He brought on Griezmann, Kamawenga, Barkola, and then eventually, Olivier Giroud and unmasked Mbappe. Too.

Unmasked Mbappe. Olivier Drew, who we know is heading to MLS now, but no, they just could not get going today and all tournament long. I know they got to the semifinals, but overall, a pretty disappointing showing for such a talented squad. Let me ask you something, Mossy, and this is apart from the game, but I think it's a more general type of question, because we have a friend, Ben, who just is so irritated and angered by the use of goals in the run of play and the added value that we seem to put on them, because in his mind, if somebody dribbles through, the entire team gets fouled and then somebody scores, it's just as valuable as anything else. And I started to think about it.

Alexi Lawless
Any sense to that any credence when it comes to that? Yes. I guess the issue with France is they scored four goals all tournament and two of them were own goals and then you had a penalty and then the goal today. So it was pretty paltry for such a talented team. Now, to your point, you probably could just say the goals and games, and that drives the point home.

David Mossey
People feel they need to take that extra step and even pick apart the goals they did score and pointing out that some were own goals or penalties and all the rest. So I guess that's what bothers your friend Ben. Yeah, I mean, a lot bothers my friend Ben, but I sometimes listen to him and in this case, he got me thinking of it because we. We just throw that out there constantly as if, okay, well, they. This team sucks because they're not scoring the run and play.

Mbappe, though, has still not scored a euros goal from their one to play. He has one career euros goal and it came from the penalty spot. So it's amazing for all the success he's had in World Cups, for whatever reason, this competition gives him trouble. Hey, did you think that almost as bone goal? Cause it would start.

Alexi Lawless
It started as. That was interesting because all the angles. That I saw, it looked like it was going past the post. Yeah. It was initially ruled a Jules conde on go, which would have been our 11th of the tournament.

David Mossey
They changed it to Omo. I wonder if the folks at Wafer are starting to get a little sensitive about all the jokes about ongoing the leading scorer in this tournament. Plus it put him in the running because he gets to play another game and everybody gets. Well, no, there's no third place games. He gets to play another game to it because that would be his third goal of the tournament.

Yeah. So we have five players tied on three, including Cody Gakpo, though, who still gets to play in his semifinal. Cody Gecko. All right, well, congratulations to Spain. As we said, I think it's not just a feat to get to the final, but I think it's.

Alexi Lawless
It's also the story about how they are playing and the different way in which they're doing it. I probably should wait until the final to see if they win it, but I am cultivating a take that Spain right now is the great footballing nation on the planet. When you take everything into account, club, country, men, women, the players they produce, the coaches, the influence on the game. When you take it all into account, I just don't think there's a nation right now that's functioning on the level that Spain is. We had this conversation on air, but I will ask you, because when it comes to the way that this spanish men's team has changed, it's always going to be compared to that generation that fundamentally changed the way that we think about the game, the way that we play the game.

Is this team that we are watching right now as good? And I know it's subjective, but is this team as good as that? I don't think so. I know you're saying this one has a different element that perhaps that one didn't have with these two wingers, but I just think that team, the quality they had where they didn't need a plan b, they were so good at their plan a. Okay, I think.

I can't remember who I was talking to. It might have been. Might've been Mo. But there was the. There was the belief that this team is more entertaining than the tiki taka, kill him by a thousand passes type of situation.

David Mossey
Brad, I like the Tikitaka stuff, but I get that some people found, well. You'Re gonna lead a snob when it comes to your right. Okay. So I get that. Yeah.

People like the directness of wingers like Lamina Malo, Nico Williams, for sure. Okay, well, Spain two. France won. Spain goes on. All right.

Alexi Lawless
Switching over to the Copa America over there, Argentina versus Canada. Certainly on paper, a mismatch, a a repeat in that we saw these two face each other in the group stage in the very first game of the. Of the tournament. That was 20. This ended up being two nothing.

I don't think that this is surprising to anybody, whether it's us here, whether it's the players on the field, or whether it's Jesse marsh on the. On the sideline. And certainly is no shame in Canada ultimately losing to Argentina, the defending World cup champions, and the defending Copa America champions right now. But did you see anything before we get to Argentina? Real quick on Canada, did you see anything in terms of the way they played this game that references back to that first game when they played against Argentina?

No. They were fairly similar in the sense that in both cases, Canada put up a decent fight, gave a respectable account of themselves, but Argentina's quality just shown through in the end. Yeah. All right. Okay, let's talk about Argentina for a little bit, and then I want to circle back to Canada to finish this up.

So, Argentina, we have still not seen the best of Messi, although he gets a goal tonight, and even an ugly Messi goal is still worthy of talk and worthy of plenty of words that will be written about it. But we haven't seen the best of Messi and I don't think we have seen the best of this Argentina team. And it should be said that they got a much easier draw and side of the draw. And what was anticipated and predicted by most has come to fruition now. Not necessarily a Argentina Canada semifinal, but Argentina has done what they've done.

At times it's been okay, at times it's been ugly, but we're still kind of waiting for them to do something spectacular or I guess messy to do something spectacular. And we haven't had that yet. Couple of notes on Messi's goal. It was his 14th career Copa America goal. He has scored in six different Copa Americas.

David Mossey
That ties the record with this brazilian player, Zizino from the forties and fifties, who was Pele's childhood idol. And I looked this up for Copa America, right? Correct. Scoring in six different Copa Americas. When Messi scored his first career Copa America goal in July of 2007, La Minama wasn't even born yet.

Alexi Lawless
Just remind the folks out there, the scheduling of Copa America is a little willy nilly, right? Yes, there have been a zillion. What are you, what are you bristling at? Well, when we're talking about World Cups or when we are talking about euros and stuff like that, it's pretty much decided that four years types of cycle here and yet Copa America, they just. Kind of make it up as they go.

I mean, we have not bad. So the record is Messi became the second player ever to score in six different Copa Americas along with this great brazilian player, Zinnia, from the forties and fifties. So you decide whether that's something that's. I'm just saying, worth celebrating, you know, because if it was just every four years that they were having a Copa America, that's, you know, 24 years. Right.

David Mossey
I see what you're saying. Playing in six different Copa Americas doesn't necessarily mean a long span. It doesn't exactly centenarios and all that kind of stuff, but, you know, that's how comfortable roles we get it. I understand. But onto the other goal, I mean, what a luxury Argentina have.

You have the top scorer in the tournament, Laotado Martinez, and you can leave him on the bench and start Juliana instead and he gets a goal, his second goal of this tournament, both of them were against Canada. So the fact that they can toggle back and forth between those two players up top is such a luxury. A couple of things on this game, 80,000 people over there in New York. When I say New York. I mean New Jersey at.

Alexi Lawless
What's the name of that stadium over there? Giant Stadium? Metlife Stadium. Metlife Stadium. So.

And it was. Let's be honest. It was completely Argentina. This. We saw them again in Times Square.

And this bode. Bodes well for the next couple of years. And obviously the summer of 2026 they are going to be another home team. The fervor. Whether it's Argentinians coming from around the world or Argentina or whether it's already here.

This is a team that people want to see. And this is a team that people will pay a lot of money to see. And this is a team that creates an atmosphere like it is a home game for this Argentina team. And again them literally getting the lay of the land for tonight, by the way. In New Jersey.

Where potentially they will be playing for the title if they go all the way through and defending their title in the World cup in 2026. Remember in the Hulu Bon Jovi documentary Bruce Springsteen told the story of when he first came up? Record labels wanted him to brand himself as a New York artist because it had more cachet. And he stood his ground and said, no. I'm a New Jersey artist.

New Jersey. You respect that? I respect that. Yeah. On the topic of music, one person for whom this was a costly defeat tonight for Canada was the rapper Drake.

David Mossey
Toronto native who bet lots of money on Canada. Now before we started taping, I heard Kyla Morris schooling you on the Kendrick Lamar Drake feud. Did you absorb anything she said? I'm going to need some more help here because the only thing that I know about Drake is he's. He's a not a Disney kid.

Alexi Lawless
What was the other one? The other kids showed the degrassi thing? Is that. That what he did? I don't know.

I thought. I thought he was like Degrassi. Degrassi. Thank you. Whatever.

So he's a kid. He was a kidde or actor and singer I'm assuming. And then he's gone on to big things. And then the other thing I know about is he likes to place big bets but that he loses them a lot. And so I think he did his country because he's canadian.

Right? Correct. I think he did his country a disservice by placing $300,000 bet on Canada. If he really wanted to do Canada a service, he would have placed that bet on Argentina and then it would have been the reverse type of jinx there. So.

But the Kendrick character who's who's, what does he do? He is a fellow rapper from Los Angeles. So there's a rap beef going on right now. All right. And it's, is it done in words or is this spilling over and this is just words?

David Mossey
Thank God. I know you studied up recently on Biggie and Tupac. That's a beef that unfortunately went beyond. Unfortunately it did. So I hope that it just remains in the artistic form of the battle going forward and there.

Alexi Lawless
And so they're slinging it back and forth is what's happening here. And I'm Team Kendrick. You are? Yes. I think he's the far superior lyricist and is going to flame Drake the longer this goes on.

Wow. Wow. I don't know if that's a hot take. Can we kiss off Canada? I know they're going to play the third place game and that's important.

We will certainly cover that on Saturday. But this is where it ends in terms of the dream of winning Copa America. But as we said before, they were playing with house money. Jesse Marsh was really kind of screaming and yelling today. He was really animated, and I get that, but it seemed a little forced and a little much at times and it's probably going to get old.

But he was not happy with his own players. He was not happy with the refereeing. He was not happy with a lot of things. But that's neither here nor there because what Jesse Marsh has done with this team is going to serve him and this team well over the next couple of years. Now in both Copa Americas in which the US reached the semis 95 when you were involved, and in 2016, the US lost in the semis and then lost the third place game as well and finished fourth.

David Mossey
And you've said that that third place game in 95 is one of the biggest regrets in your career, the fact that you guys didn't take that game seriously. Mentioned to see how Canada under Jesse Marsh approaches this one. Yeah, I remember. I think I've told this story before. So we ended up playing that third place game and we were so close to getting to a final and we were in rarefied air and there was so much energy and resources that we put forth.

Alexi Lawless
And then you lose that semifinal and you have to play. You have to play. It should be looked at as an opportunity and an honor. And different teams, given who they are, might take it differently. And we did not take it seriously.

And I never forget Bora Milutinovic, who had been our coach in 94. I saw him later and he almost scolded me, saying you guys have no idea what you had. You had an opportunity to finish third rather than fourth. And in his infinite wisdom, he said, third is better than fourth. And it's not that we didn't understand that.

It's just we should have looked at it in a different way. I hope that Jesse Marsh and I would assume that he's going to make sure people understand on this team that, hey, you have the opportunity to continue to make history. And this is resonating. This is resonating around the world. This is resonating.

Certainly back home, I saw Mick Jagger over in Vancouver with the Stones that are on tour right now. And at one point during the show, he congratulated the canadian men's national team for being in the semifinals of Copa America. And so this has permeated through, and this is something that is being celebrated now. And as I said before, this team did what we hoped the US was going to do, which was use this, harness this for good and for positivity and for inspiration going forward into 2026. And you are a Stones over Beatles guy.

No, I'm a beatle, so. Well, no, yeah, because I think the Stones fall back on the blues stuff too much, and I will not have any of that. So when the Stones are not blues, it can be. It's as good as anything. Okay.

But I think the Beatles understood more. I think they were more melodic, and I think they wrote more good songs. But, yeah, I think there's a whole part of the stones catalog that is just, for me, ridiculous blues fluff, by the way. It must be a boring show tonight because kat just walked out on us. She was sitting there.

And so now we're down to three, maybe four, depending, you know. Well, we're almost done, guys. Don't worry. We'll get home. Okay, let's see what else.

When it comes to this. Should we preview tomorrow? Yes. Okay, so Spain, France, I neglected to mention, was in Munich. Tomorrow we have the second euro semifinal.

David Mossey
The Netherlands and England will square off in Dortmund, England looking to get to their second straight euros final. Okay, so this is everyone I talk to. Seems like quiet, not quietly, but just confident of the english supporters out there. They seem much more confident. Maybe the angst will amp up when they wake up tomorrow morning and realize what the potential is for them to go out here in the semifinal.

Alexi Lawless
But they've already seen their team winning penalties and not even necessarily play a great game. And this is not a great Netherlands team, but this is a classic type of matchup, and there will be no love lost between these. These two. I still think England gets it done. What do you think?

David Mossey
I think it's a 50 50 game. I like this dutch team. You've got van Dyke at the back, gak poi. So they've got some weapons. So I think it'll be a very, very good game.

Alexi Lawless
All right, so you're not going to pick anybody? No. Now, Lex, we are on the precipice of one of the great redemption stories in sports history. Oh, okay. Lay it on me.

David Mossey
What's happening for Aaron Schechter after her humiliating sidney bracket? To come back and pick the correct final of this tournament would be remarkable. She has Spain, Netherlands in her bracket. Wow. So she needs Netherlands to come up big.

Alexi Lawless
She needs England to fall flat on their face. Now, I'm not sure how the point system works. If she picks the final, does that mean she wins the pool or. Not necessarily. I don't know.

We'll probably have to consult the rulebook on that. But, I mean, for her, it should just be enough that she came back from the abyss. Apparently Mason came up with the rules, so it's probably convoluted and nonsensical. We'll see how it all shakes out at the end. All right, so that is, what is it?

03:00 p.m. eastern time on Big Fox over there. What else do we got here? And then we've got the second Copa America semifinal, Uruguay, Colombia, in Charlotte. That's live on fs one.

Yeah, I was watching the walkthrough because we have some cameras that show the stadiums and I was watching the teams come through and walk through there in Charlotte. The grass looks incredible there. I think it's going to be electric. Obviously, we have an Uruguay team that is coming off of just a ridiculously ugly and dire and just, you know, trash type of performance against your Brazil team where no soccer was played, but they ultimately got the win and move, move on. And then you have a Columbia team that they're not under the radar because it's still Columbia.

But the re resurrection, I guess, another one. When it comes to Hamez leading this team and what they are and not a lot of drama and playing very well and scoring a lot of goals. When it comes to Colombia, I mean, I think we talked through this tournament. A lot of people have said that, Uruguay notwithstanding the last game they had, because you can throw that out, were the best team because we still haven't seen the best of Argentina. And yet it wouldn't surprise me in the least if they go out there and lose to Colombia tomorrow?

David Mossey
Not at all. Colombia look great. They're unbeaten in 27 games, which equals their all time mark. If they can avoid defeat here, they would set a new record. And I agree with you, frankly, Uruguay's last two games, I didn't love the way they looked against the US.

And then, obviously against Brazil. Have raised some questions in my mind about how good they truly are. So I would actually make Colombia slight favorites in this game. Have they raised any questions in your mind about the manager over there? You're idle.

Absolutely not. You still like Mister Bielsa? Love the guy. Even after his TED talk the other day. In fact, that's going to be a conversation.

The pregame show tomorrow. So is it. We'd have some fun, but yeah, no, this is. They played in a World cup qualifier last October. It was two.

Two. They played in the quarterfinals of the last Copa America. It was. No, no. Colombia went through on penalties.

So very evenly matched teams. I expect another good game tomorrow. As you mentioned, James in great form. Luis Diaz. We've got Darwin Nunez, Federico Valverde on the other side.

So excited for this one. And on tomorrow's state of the union, we will have Melissa Ortiz on as a guest to help us recap this match. Her beloved Columbia involved. Yeah. She's going to finally do a proper show.

Alexi Lawless
Do some real television. Right. Do you think she's at all aware of how many shots we've taken at that show this summer? Oh, I think they catalog it. I think that there's maybe an excel sheet somewhere that Jimmy Conrad keeps.

You know, Jimmy Conrad is. I don't know if you know, he's the host of that show. I can't remember the name of it. But, yeah, I think that they know exactly what is being said about them at all times. Or they have somebody.

Minion type of intern that charts each and every time that we say something, so. Hi, Jimmy. Okay. What to now, Mossi? All right, next sort of business.

David Mossey
The US named their final Olympic roster the men's team. 18 players. The three overage players are Georgy Mikhailovich, Walker Zimmerman and Miles Robinson. The goalkeepers are Patrick Schulte and Gaga Slonina. Other notable players in the midfield, you've got Tanner Testman.

John Luca. Buzio. Jack McGlynn. Up front, you've got Duncan Maguire. Kevin Paredes.

Pax and Aronson. So some pretty good talent there. A reminder of the three group games against France, New Zealand and Guinea. Yeah, I mean, I look at the Olympics, as I've said, as a developmental type of situation. And so unless there are players that you think are going to shine this summer and use this platform to announce their presence, and we've seen a lot of these players at times in the national team because Greg Berhalter has kind of filtered many of them through.

Alexi Lawless
But unless some are really going to rise to the top and matriculate in the next couple of years to full fledged members of the national team, I don't care. I want the US to do well. And I get excited when anybody is representing the United States, and in this case I hope somebody comes on. I know there's a lot of talk about players that there are, aren't there, and that's part of the controversy. Ultimately, it's a human subjective type of opinion as to who's there and who's not.

So, for example, Diego Luna, good player, but obviously they didn't feel that he was appropriate for this team going forward, and that's certainly their prerogative. There's no conspiracy theory, okay? I know plenty of teams do a campaign relative to their players and they promote their players and that's all. That's all fine and well, but ultimately you have to pick a group of players and it's not always the best players. It's the best collection of players, ultimately, or what you think is going to be the best collection of players.

I hope somebody comes out of it, Mossy. I hope somebody rises to the occasion, whether it's in a position that we need to fill a number nine position or another right back or another center back or something like that. Although these center backs here, we've seen them, so I don't think we're going to learn a whole lot. But if nothing comes out of it, then is it really a developmental team? I go back to when we played in the, what would have been the 1992 Olympics and two years later of that 92 team.

Talk about matriculation. Myself, Kobe Jones, Brad Friedel, Mike Lapper, Mike Burns list goes on and on and on. A real group of seven or eight guys made it to the national team and stuck with the national team. Joe Max Moore, and ultimately found themselves in the. At that point it was 22 man roster for the World cup two years later.

So it almost mirrors it now in terms of that. Well, does mirror it in terms of the two years before. So we'll see if anybody shows up this summer. So Argentina named their squad a few days ago and Julian Alvarez, who scored tonight, is on it. I'm surprised Manchester City would let him play in both tournaments.

David Mossey
But yeah, you know, we forget our. Our summer is coming to an end here with these two tournaments. But there's a whole other soccer tournament, the Olympics, both men's and women's. That's going to get a lot of attention. Yeah, I'll watch it.

Alexi Lawless
I mean, I'll watch it because it's the US playing. And like I said, maybe somebody pops up that we haven't seen before that takes a place. And then, from a women's perspective, is the first time that we are seeing Emma Hayes guide this team into this new erade with these new players, but with the same expectations of winning as we always have when it comes to the Olympics. Anything else there, Mossi? That's it.

All right. Should we get out of here and do our one for the road here? Let's do it. All right. Roll it, roll it, roll it, roll it, roll it.

So we were talking about Lamina Mal, a 16 year old phenom, if you will. And both of these tournaments and over the last month, we've talked about a lot of teenagers that are playing the game. And many of them are playing very well. Some of them are kind of curiosities and some of them are just getting on the field. I mean, Amal certainly isn't.

He is a full fledged starter. And provided that he stays healthy, he is going to be for a long time when it comes to this spanish team. And because you have him and Nico Williams on the other side, you can play in a different way. So I got it thinking about where was I when I was 16? And certainly I wasn't contemplating going out for Spain in a euros and starring.

I was a moron 16 year old. So the summer of 1986, I would have been. I would have just turned 16. I would have gotten. There's a little picture of probably what I looked like back then.

Just a moron teenager. Just got my license back then. I know the kids don't do it now, but we really cared about getting our license as quickly as possible. And on the day that you turned 16, you took your test. I can tell you exactly where I drove.

And, you know, I was just a stupid 16 year old with very little insight or knowledge when it came to the world or anything else that didn't involve, you know, I don't know, MTV music, girls and little caesars and slurpees or something like that. And obviously I was growing up in a very, very different time. And we grow up in this day and age where we talk so much about specialization and the incredible resources and how early we start these players and we equip them, hopefully from a young age to be able to do things that haven't been done in the past. And when it comes to sport, we also have a history that is littered with players that have been phenoms and have burnt out or have not lived up to billing. And so when it comes to the US and the way that we think about development, as I say many times, while we certainly, if our only goal is to produce better soccer players, that's fine and well, but I do think that we have a responsibility to produce better young men and women that are going to lead what I feel is the greatest country in the world.

And so thinking about the other 22 and a half hours is important in terms of creating these better soccer players. We are seeing it and we continue to see it, and it's not necessarily a bad thing. As a matter of fact, I think it's a sign of the resources and the progress that we have, that we have younger and younger players that are able to compete, that are able to make a living and that are able to have starting spots. We see it in MLS many, many times and we will continue to see it going forward. And they used to say that the prime for a soccer player is about 28.

When both your physical capabilities and your mental capabilities and the way you see a game match up and then the balance starts to shift from there. We probably have to amend that going forward because of all of the young talent that is coming through, many of it, when it comes to the US, certainly bypassing the traditional pathways, especially when it comes to college, to, I don't know, probably 24 or something like that, when the real prime is, and notwithstanding someone like novice or anything else, certainly you are able to play later. Given the medical situation that we have and the training facilities and the resources that we have and the facilities that we have on the field and all that kind of stuff. But it's fun to see and we get excited about it because oftentimes we extrapolate it out. In the case of the minya mall, we don't necessarily have to do that because we're already seeing somebody that is not only making an impact, but his starring.

And while Mbappe in this moment couldn't do it, not because he's not great, but just in this moment couldn't do it, the star of the show was a 16 year old, and I hope that he continues on and I hope that with all the different ups and downs and peaks and valleys and challenges that everybody has in life. I hope he continues on and gives us many more moments of magic. What were you doing when you were 16, Mossy? Watching soccer all day and afraid to talk to girls. Remarkably similar to today.

David Mossey
But one note on Lamin Yamal. He turned 17 the day before the final. So today was the last game in which we got to call him a 16 year old. He'll be 17 come the final on Sunday against either the Netherlands or England. It's amazing.

Alexi Lawless
It's amazing. Hey, Mossi, before we go, do you think that Canada, the national team, is better than the US men's national team? No. I agreed with what you said tonight. They had a better Copa America.

David Mossey
But I still think you hold up both teams side by side. The US has the better team. Yeah, because you're a smart American. Okay. We will talk to you again tomorrow.

Alexi Lawless
As we continue on. Let's make sure we promote this again here. Netherlands versus England. Oh my goodness. That's going to be fun.

My friend Daniel Sturridge is going to be quaking in his boots. That's at 03:00 p.m. eastern time on Fox. And then Copa America semifinals Uruguay and Columbia 08:00 p.m. eastern time on fs one.

That's going to be fun. Come back tomorrow because we'll do it all over again. As Monster said, we got some guests and some interesting things that are going to happen going forward. We only got a couple more of these days. When it comes to Copa America and Euros.

We got tomorrow semi final. We got Saturday with the third place game and then the doubleheader title games when it comes to Sunday. So it's coming down to it. The final stretch here. We'll talk to you again tomorrow.

Keep reviewing and downloading and rating and subscribing. And pound that YouTube subscription thing. Hit that thing. Hit that thing. I'll talk to you again tomorrow.

Until then, and as always, my friends size the day.

Messi leads Argentina to Copa América finals, Spain's Lamine Yamal scores historic goal

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1: Introduction

2: Analysis of the Copa América Semifinals

3: Euro Semifinals Breakdown

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