Messi misses, Argentina advances on penalties, State of the Union 500th Episode!

Alexei Lallis
Hello, sunshine. I'm Alexei Lallis and welcome to the State of the Union podcast. 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 4 on the start of the Copa America quarterfinals and the eve of the euros quarterfinals as we make our way through this amazing summer of soccer.

Reminder, we're coming to you live each and every day after the euros action and the Copa America action, giving you a wrap up and a preview of what is to come. But first, joining me as always, my friend, my colleague, my guiding light, David Mossey, a soccer savant and a fox soccer researcher and writer extraordinaire. Mossy, how are you? On this July 4 in the year 2024? I'm doing well on this anniversary for the country and a milestone show for us.

Yes, 248 glorious years of the greatest country in the world. Happy birthday, America. But also 500 shows for the state of the union. My, my, my. How far we have come.

As the saying goes, you come a long way, baby. And we have, in terms of the content, in terms of the performance, in terms of the aesthetic, in terms of the people, it's just pretty amazing. So we are. We are. I don't want to speak for you, but we could not be more thankful of everybody over the years that has supported us and made us look good.

It takes a village, as we know, and everybody that has come into the state of the union tent here and the more and more that come into it. Because, by the way, mossy, not only is it our 500 show, but we come to you with incredible news. And we are so humbled by the fact that so many people have, you know, joined us on this ride over the years and more and more people coming in, like I said, to join us. All right. On Apple Podcasts, we are the number one soccer podcast in the United States.

So congratulations to everybody here on the show. Like I said, that makes us look good. How does that make you feel, ossie? So this occurred during Kyla Morris's stint as producer. Just saying, just saying.

Just, just saying, you know, Sean Sullivan is awesome. Love him. Incredible pro and all that kind of stuff, but just saying. Just saying to results business, Lex. Now, we should mention, Sean has started attending our shows.

David Mossey
He was here. Interesting how that works. Tuesday. And he's here again tonight. He's awesome.

Alexei Lallis
And he's kicking ass over there at that. What's the name of that show over. There, they did a hot dog eating contest tonight. Did you see that? Yeah.

You know, I mean. I mean, it kind of writes itself, right? And for them, obviously, that's something that they want to do as we settle. I'm sure that's what Lester captain and Premier League winner Wes Morgan thought he was signing up for. Yeah, it was.

I mean, like I said, it does write itself, and there are all sorts of jokes, but this is good news. Oh, and by the way, I also should say that we are getting wonderful news when it comes to, I mean, just the sheer numbers that we have over at digital right now, 440 million views over there on social. And that's. We know whether that's the Bears podcast over there or state of the union or all the different shoulder stuff that we are doing in digital. So, again, hats off.

Congratulations to everybody. In front of the camera, behind the camera, people are tuning in, and people like what we're doing. All right, should we light this candle, my friend? Let's do it. Okay.

Obviously, only one game today, and it was a doozy. Today's match, Argentina versus Ecuador, it ended up one one, and ultimately, in penalties. Messi and company prevail. Sandra Martinez scores. Enter Valencia has a penalty off the post.

Rodriguez, right at the death, equalizes it for Ecuador. And then we get into some craziness going forward. But just in general, in this game, I thought that Argentina was the better team through most of it. And then all of a sudden, something clicked with Ecuador at the end. Great environment, though.

It was 70,000 people or whatever. It was so fun type of game, but we still haven't seen a dominant Argentina yet. But, you know, they're. They're kind of ugly at times, and they don't apologize for it, nor do they care, because ultimately they still win. It's going to be interesting.

David Mossey
They have such an easy path to the final at this Copa America that they really haven't had to get out of second gear. It almost caught up with them tonight. They dodged the bullet in the end, but I expect them to get past either Venezuela or Canada in the semis. But then they would face Uruguay, a Colombia. So are they going to be able to raise their level for that match after playing lesser competition on the way to the final?

Alexei Lallis
Now, I know Ecuador ultimately took them to penalties, but there was a lot of talk coming into this tournament about where Ecuador is, where it's going. Obviously, they're doing very well in Conan Bull and all that. So are you buying this Ecuador team in terms of heading in the right direction. No, I was disappointed with their play in this Copa America. They hired Felix Sanchez, John Strong lookalike, who's considered this romantic spaniard.

David Mossey
And I thought he would implement a more attractive style of play, but we really didn't see that in this tournament. Yeah, you know, enter Valencia, who before this game, and by the way, a player who has played with this Ecuador team since 2012, I think that's when he got his first cap, said that this was the most important game in his national team career. And then misses a penalty, gets taken off the field. Ultimately they go on in terms of going to penalties and all, but yeah, I was a little disappointed too. I thought I was going to see more.

Alexei Lallis
I thought Ncapier, I think, is a really, really good player on that left hand side. So there's absolutely some talent. And obviously, you know, Kendrick Paez, we're going to follow this. This kid. Now.

David Mossey
We covered the last Copa America that was held in the United States. Argentina faced Chile in the final. It went to penalties. Messi famously skied his first kick. Argentina ended up losing that shootout when he missed that first penalty.

Tonight. Did you have a bit of deja vu? I did. I don't think it fazed him as much as that last one. He's won a few things since things have been okay.

Alexei Lallis
And look what he was trying to do in the panenka, right down the middle, um, would have worked. He just hit it a little softer. And so it's one of those things. And here's arguably the best player ever to play the game who it can drop dimes all over in the midst of just insanity going on in that. In a stationary ball type of situation with what amounts to an empty goal.

Because the goalkeeper went, he put it over the bar. Now he got bailed out because Argentina have the greatest penalty kick stopper I think I've ever seen in my life. An Emmy Martinez. And just to put some numbers on that, with the national team, he's faced 24 penalties between regulation and shootouts. Only twelve have been scored.

David Mossey
It's a 50 50 proposition with him, which is incredible. Anybody that ever has played sports will have played with somebody like Emi Martinez in a team type of situation. In that, Emi Martinez is an okay, but he is. If you're on the team, it's okay. Cause he's your a hole, okay?

Alexei Lallis
And you want him on your team. And you'll put up with his antics, you'll put up with his craziness. Goalkeepers just in general, are a little bit crazy, right? There's an awkwardness to him in that, you know, he doesn't, he doesn't command in terms of his stature necessarily or in terms of his athleticism, but there's something going on and he has whatever the formula is, whatever the equation is, he's got it figured out. And some of the stuff that he does off the ball, maybe some of his teammates roll their eyes.

But I got a feeling that, you know what? Ultimately, I know that when the, you know what hits the fan, that guy is going to make the save, he's going to bail us out and whether it's in the course of the game. And we've talked about arguably the greatest save in a World cup that he made last World cup, or in a penalty type of situation where he smells. He smells the situation and he smells what is going to happen. And he's like a precog and it's just amazing.

David Mossey
Yeah, he denied Mena and Minda in the shootout and then in regulation. You mentioned Anner Valencia. Missed and misses like that, I think have a lot to do with Emmy Martinez as well. He's in the heads of the takers. You think you have to be so perfect and put it in the absolute corner and that's when you end up hitting the post or shooting wide.

Alexei Lallis
And even in the saving, he does some incredible things. He had one tonight where he guessed right, which is not anything new, but he almost guessed too early and he was falling down. That was the mida one, I mean, just the one hander. And he reaches up with his paw and still saves it. So it was almost, he was like too far ahead of the curve.

He saw too much into the future and had to come back like a wrinkle in time and come back and put his hand up. Do you remember when Argentina got to the 1990 World cup final? They had a goalkeeper, Goy Cortea, who was great at stopping penalties. You might have played against them at some point. And Emmy Martinez is sort of the second coming of Goyco chair, but even better, I think.

And I thought it was good for Rob Stone to point out because we sometimes make fun of goalkeepers and they make it very easy for us at times, but for him to in the moment to show his human side and go over and congratulate the other team and console other goalkeeper and do all that. He is not two faced by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he is more layered and textured than maybe we give him credit for. When I saw an interview, Gabriel Martinelli did on brazilian television once where he said that when he arrived at Arsenal as a teenager, the guy that took him under his wing was Emi Martinez, was like a big brother to him. Gabriel Martinelli stayed at Emmy Martinez's house. Emi Martinez would drive him to practice every day.

David Mossey
So even through all his antics, that's always stuck with me that there is a different side to Emmy Martinez. I think he inhabits almost a costume and a Persona and a personality on the field in order to enable him to do his job. And whatever it is, it works. And so maybe he's a very different person off the field, but, man, oh, man, it is fun to watch. And I asked you about Ecuador here, before we finish off here, we still haven't seen an Argentina that's great.

Alexei Lallis
Yet. And yet these are the world champions and these are the Copa America champions. They have Messi playing with them and they just seem to find a way. I mean, this team, for all of its talent and all of its ability, from a soccer perspective, I think they came out on the field today, and by the way, the field looked like a patchwork type of situation, pasture. And I think that certainly had an effect.

And it was hard also to even dribble at speed on that. But I think they came out on the field and they said, you know what? It's not going to be pretty today no matter what we do. But I just get to feel like these guys, these guys will cut you. They are badasses in terms of the aura that they have individually and collectively, and yet.

So they'll cut you, but they will also romance you to death at different times. But we didn't see a whole lot of that. Are you still fine? I have them. That's still at the top of my power rankings.

Do you disagree with that? No, no, I'm fine with that. Yeah. And the brackets we filled out, I picked an Argentina Uruguay final and I'm sticking with that. You are?

David Mossey
Yeah. Interesting. All right, so what do we have tomorrow, Mossy? So tomorrow we have the start of the euros quarter finals. And I was yelled at today for not putting in the script that this is the greatest day of quarterfinal action ever.

Evidently, that's a self evident thing that we should have all thought about. It just slipped your mind or you don't agree or. No, I hyped it up. It's a great day. Epic.

Incredible. But I didn't refer to it as the greatest day of quarter final action ever. I mean, I'd have to go back through all the different euros and determine. That if we say it on television, mossy, it's true. Okay, so just.

Alexei Lallis
Just write it. Yes. So the games we're alluding to, we've got Spain, Germany in Stuttgart, followed by Portugal, France in Hamburg. I'm not sure why I said France. I know, but it was kind of affected, but I'm going to let it go.

It's okay. Both live on Fox. I mean, I don't know, to your point, historically, if it's the greatest, but it looks pretty scrumptious from here. All sorts of stories. I think there's a lot of people that are looking at the Spain Germany game and saying it's great that we have it, but it would have been nicer if it came later in that a lot of people are picking these two teams to win.

One of these two teams to win and that one of them is going to go home is going to be a shame, especially when you look at the easy path that England has on the other side. Yeah, they're the two most successful countries in the history of this competition. Both three time winners. I think they've been the two best teams in this edition of the tournament. They're the two leading scores.

David Mossey
Germany with ten goals, Spain with nine. So many great players. I'm excited for the midfield battle between Tony Cruz and Rodri. I'm excited about all that young talent on both sides. Musialen wirtz for Germany and then Nico Williams and Lamin Yamal for Spain.

So should be an incredible match. All right, so that is at noon eastern time on Fox, the Spain Germany game. I have Germany winning it all. So obviously I am picking Germany tomorrow. Are you picking Germany or Spain?

Spain have never beaten the host nation in a World cup or Euros. So, yeah, I think Spain is the better team, but I'm leaning Germany. I think they'll find a way. Really? You think Spain's a better team?

Alexei Lallis
In what way? Just what I think they've played. Both have been very impressive, but just their play in this euros, I think they've been a notch above. Now, one interesting subplot to this match. A few nights ago, after we finished taping, I went into the control room and I saw the brackets that everybody filled out in there and I believe both Kyla and Aaron have Spain winning.

The whole thing really going on through. Interesting, interesting. Well, I mean, I don't think you can go wrong in that game. I don't think anybody's going to argue against you. This is the first go around for Kyla.

David Mossey
Erin had an embarrassing bracket in Sydney. She's been waiting a year to redeem herself. She did all the scouting, crushed tape research. The teams put a lot of thought into it. And so we'll see how it works out this time around.

Alexei Lallis
As I can attest to, there are no embarrassing brackets. Okay. All right. Doesn't matter. All right.

People love to be right relative to what you do. Did you see, by the way, world. Soccer talk took the bracket you showed on this pod in which you had the US in the final, and they created a whole narrative that Fox Sports was counting on the US to reach the final. And so this is a massive blow for us, the fact that they went out much earlier than that. There is nothing that people love more than to see somebody on television saying something and to believe the opposite and then have that come to fruition.

It gives you a sense of superiority. It gives you a sense of power. And so I am a benevolent person, Mossy. I am giving them that opportunity on a continual basis. Also, I saw a clip circulating today.

David Mossey
Remember the first time we had Greg Berhalter on? We talked to him for like 40 minutes and asked him a lot of serious soccer questions. And at the very end we had some fun with him throwing the ball to the. And somehow people have taken that one clip as if that was the only thing we asked him as an example of how the soccer media in this country isn't serious and all the rest. You saw that, right?

Alexei Lallis
Yeah, they sound really fun, those people. It's ridiculous. Okay, look, have edit in terms of Greg Burholt, I know the knives are out and fairly so, so go, go to town on that, but this is what you're going to use as an indicator of what american soccer is, that at one point we actually asked the head coach of the national team, who had been doing the back passes on the sideline in a fun, little entertaining type of way to talk about it. And in doing so, we got a little bit more of his personality and character in an entertaining and fun and funny type of segment. If you can't understand that, number one, from a pure business perspective, or if you are in the content generation business, if you can't understand why that is a no brainer, then you're a moron.

Secondly, if you are offended by it and it hurts your sensibilities because this is not what american soccer should be about and this is not what should be talking, then you're no fun. And I don't want to hang out with you. All right, let's get back on track here. So Spain, Germany is the first match, and then we have Portugal, France, which we're going to hype up as Ronaldo versus Mbappe. We played a clip today from the press conference of Mbappe praising Ronaldo.

David Mossey
He's somebody they looked up to and they have a good relationship. Ronaldo obviously coming off that interesting match against Slovenia when he missed the penalty an extra time and was crying, but did convert in the shootout in Portugal advance when Diego Costa had an Emmy Martinez like performance in that game. So we'll see what Ronaldo does tomorrow. There's no chance that Ronald does not start tomorrow, right? I don't think so.

But you're hesitating. No, no, no. I think he'll start, but I think it should be a question. Really? Yeah.

Alexei Lallis
You think they are a lesser Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo starting? It should at least be a conversation. He has started all four games. He's taken 20 shots in this tournament, has not scored a single goal. If it was any other player in any other team, it would at least be a consideration that, hey, should we swap strikers?

David Mossey
Get somebody else in there? But because it's him, I don't think Roberto Martinez even considers it. Isn't this what we've been talking about since the beginning of the tournament, how that dynamic can bite them in the ass at a certain point? Yeah, we'll see tomorrow. Oh, my goodness.

Alexei Lallis
I predict tears. No matter what, win or lose, I predict tears from Ronaldo, and I'm here for it. I'm tuning in and I can't wait to see it. I hope he starts. If he takes another free kick, I hope at some point he gets one that actually comes good.

But I don't think that Portugal wins this game. I think France wins this game. I think when they interviewed Mbappe today, I think he was being magnanimous and honest to a certain extent, because this is a hero of everybody and this is somebody that has been at the top and where Mbappe Ikadaru is, or certainly is heading towards in terms of who he is as a player. But I don't think that Mbappe fears Cristiano Ronaldo one bit, nor do I feel that France fears Portugal. By the way, a lot of history with both these matchups.

David Mossey
Portugal, France. That's obviously a rematch of the 2016 Euro final that Portugal won in France and extra time. Ronaldo came off injured in the opening minutes. France got him in the 84 and 2000 Euro semifinals en route to lifting the trophy. France also beat him in the 2006 World cup semis.

Spain Germany. I mean, forget about it. You've got the Euro 2008 final that Spain won, the 2010 World cup semi final. Even recently in the last World cup, they played in the group stage. It was a draw.

But yeah, they've faced off a million times in major tournaments. So yeah, both games are going to be incredibly fun. And Mo Ado was talking about the young players you mentioned in that Spain Germany game. It's just amazing how young some of these players are in both of these tournaments that we are doing. And they're not starting because they're young, they're starting because they're good and they're continually starting.

Alexei Lallis
It's not just a one off type of thing. Let's just see what happens when you name the eleven, you know, le minimal and you know, all the players, you know, and it just goes on and on and on. They're in there and it's not even a question. It's in Penn. Amazing, amazing, amazing.

All right. What else do we have Copa America wise? Yes. We also have a Copa America quarterfinal tomorrow night at, at and T Stadium, Venezuela, Canada, live on fs one. Did I hear correct?

David Mossey
Jesse Marsh was a guest on the now show a couple of days ago. Wow, that's an impressive get. Really good get. Now he's been in the, didn't you have a translator? I want to ask you about this because I do have an issue with him getting asked about the US and actually talking about how disappointed he is and the lack of discipline and all the rest.

To me, that's one where you got to say, hey, I'm focused on my team, nobody else. I'm surprised he went there. And it's now getting a lot of play with Jesse Marsh said about, I. Mean, you know, he, to the victor go the spoils relative to Copa America. And even though he didn't get the job he wants, you can bet he's going to poke every single time that he gets an opportunity.

Alexei Lallis
And what I have an issue is that before the tournament, when Jesse was asked about the situation, he immediately, and I think we talked about it on the pod, he immediately went to how disappointed he was in the process. And if you're going to talk about it and bring it up, then I want to know the details. I want to know what was disappointing. I don't know. They didn't fly it to the right place or the questions were wrong.

And I think I would, if, you know, if we were talking to Jesse, I would want to know what was so disappointing to you in terms of the process why do you not feel that it was appropriate or you weren't given a fair shake relative to anyone? And I know he didn't get the job and you lost out to Greg Berhalter and everyone's going to feel a little bit irritated about something like that. But then if you are going to, to your point, continue to talk about it and I think you got to provide some detail. But you know what? He gets to play in the game.

And they get to play in a. Game against now Venezuela with three wins out of three in the group stage, they're feeling good about themselves. It is worth noting Fran Arthur wearing a messy jersey today and you asked her if she would wear a Venezuela jersey tomorrow and she said no, she doesn't own one. Well, I mean, you know, they've, they've had their problems over there in Venezuela in terms of, you know, producing things and all that kind of stuff. So, you know, maybe she just couldn't find one out there.

But, you know, maybe we can scrounge up something for her. I mean, some sort of purplish thing that she could wear. But she was very, very happy today about ultimately what happened with Argentina and Messi and still the possibility looms out there. Right? Boy, I'd love a camera on her when Messi missed that penalty.

David Mossey
That would have been delicious. I would have just watched that on a loop on my way home. All right, who are you picking here with? Our friends from the great white north. And Vino Tinto, Venezuela.

Alexei Lallis
You are? You don't think this is a magical Cinderella story under Jesse Marsh and they get through here and they can close. Game, but I think Venezuela go through. And Tejan Buchanan out sounds like a very serious leg injury. We're sending out our thoughts to him and Canada is what they are.

But again, take away the Jesse conversation that we just had for Canada to be doing this performance is what we had hoped from the us team to do something that hasn't been done before. And in doing so, give yourselves hope as a team. And I guess more importantly give, in this case Canada hope that they are heading in the direction relative to 2026. No matter what happens. Congratulations to Jesse Marsh and this team.

But don't stop here. Keep going. And they got a great draw. As we've been saying, and we should. Say the winner of this game faces Argentina in the semis at Cats favorite venue, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

Oh, my goodness. Anything else, mosuk, with regards to tomorrow or anything? That is it. That's it. All right.

Well, listen, it's time for our one for the road. As we mentioned, this is our, our 500th show and we've come along. I mean, we're even, you know, showing a tease here for our show and all that kind of stuff. We have come a long way. And I know when we were back at the 400 show, we talked a little bit about it, and it bears repeating because the fact is, as we mentioned, there are a lot of new people that have come into the state of the union tent here and a lot of people that are, you know, learning stuff as you go along.

And, you know, we'll slow the bus down a little bit every once in a while. I'm not going to completely stop it. And so you'll figure it out. For example, why I say size, the day at the end, and all that kind of stuff. And if you go back, you can find some of it, or if you stay here long enough, eventually we will talk about what happened when it comes to how long we have doing this.

We started this again. Remind me, February 2018. Does that sound right? Correct. Oh, my goodness.

It seems like yesterday, but we were in a very different location. I think we got some footage here. So this is, you won't hear it, but if you are watching, you can see me and you've probably seen this shirt, and it doesn't look a whole lot different, but I can tell you it was very different in that we were in a closet over there in Playa out here in Los Angeles, and at that point, we were talking about the ongoing presidential election for the United States Soccer Federation that included people like Kyle Martino and Eric Wynalda and all that kind of stuff that was going on, right? That's correct. Oh, my goodness.

What do you remember about those days in the closet, Mossy? I'm wondering what Alex Dowd is up to. Producers. We've had a lot of producers over the years. Should we do a producer power rankings?

We could do that. That would be good. Sean's over there. Yeah, we should. And then he goes, wait, hold on, hold on, hold on.

Power rankings, they can be cruel or they can be kind, but, yeah, I've. Mentioned this before for a little perspective. When we did our first episode, Kyla was still in high school. Aaron Schechter was a freshman at USC, and our intern Ari, I don't think. Was even born yet, so makes us feel great.

I had done a pod at Fox earlier, and we knew we were going to do some different things. I had been listening. I knew you, but I also had been listening to you for some time doing stuff with Eric Winalda on Sirius, right? Is that correct? Yeah.

So I knew you were already awesome. Okay. And I knew that if we were going to do this, this was somebody that I wanted to have. And look, I've been riding your coattails the entire time and I couldn't be happier. So, anyway, all of that is to say is that over these years, it has grown.

It has changed. We have had people come in. We have people go out and. And then people even come back in at different times. And everybody has been wonderful in terms of growing it out there.

And while originally it was much more of a audio type of podcast, and then it expanded much more into the video and everything that we are doing now. And the fact that we come on, on our 500 show today and find the good news about where we are in terms of rankings, I think it says a lot about all the work that everybody does. And so, Mossy, if I haven't said it lately, thank you so much, because I have had so much fun doing this show. Here's to another 500 more. You make it so much fun to work here and do this show, and you provide so much.

And as I tell you, each and every time I go out there on the road and people will come up to me and talk to me about the state of the union, and invariably they will want to talk about David Mossy. Tell Mossy I said hi. Tell Mossey he was right on this. Tell Mossey he was wrong on this. How is Mossy?

Does Mossey ever take his hat off? You know, what does Mossey do when he's not thinking and talking about soccer? All these different things. The public out there loves you as I love you, my friend. You know, whenever you say nice things about me and I don't return the favor, my mother gets very mad.

David Mossey
So you're a pretty good guy yourself, Alexei. I appreciate that. That's enough of that. Now, I didn't get a chance to mention this on Tuesday because we had Rob Stone on Kat back, your son doing God knows what over there. So there was a lot going on.

But, you know, there's a new popular item circulating among the fox soccer crowd. For those of you watching us, my logo has been turned into a card that's being distributed. I brought a few tonight. So if people like Kyla and Aaron want theirs, I can get. There's an element of, you know, it's almost, you know, like when the warriors.

Alexei Lallis
You know, it's. I feel like I'll see it painted or graffitied elsewhere and, you know, like, fight the power. So mossy as the fox symbol there. And we talked about. It's really cool.

So if you can get your hands on one of these things, because they're hot little items, these stickers out there. Count yourself lucky you got something else. Last thing, so we can end on an intellectual note we mentioned. It's July 4. Why stop now?

David Mossey
I always say my favorite historical coincidence is the fact that Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both died July 4, 1826, on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson is on Mount Rushmore behind you with George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. I've never been to Mount Rushmore, by the way. I'd love to go. You haven't been to Mount.

Alexei Lallis
Maybe we should do a show from there, right? Do you think that's in the budget? Yeah. All right, well, listen, on this July 4, also, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that 30 years ago today, the United States played your Brazil mossy in Palo Alto in the 1994 World cup. We ended up losing 10 two.

The eventual winners, Brazil. So I know exactly what I was doing 30 years ago today. As a matter of fact, this night, 30 years ago today, I was doing shots of tequila and Jagermeister with the guys from Metallica back when they were still drinking. So that's how I drowned my sorrows after bombing out. Not bombing out, but going out of the World cup back in 1994.

So it seems like yesterday. I can't believe that it's been 30 years. But here's to another 500 shows. Here's to another 30 years for all of us out there. And here's to everybody for tuning in and all of you that are new, welcome.

It's. Come on in. The water's warm. And if you've been with us for years and years, thank you so much for, you know, consistently being with us and propping up the show and doing all the different things that you do. And speaking of those things, downloading and subscribing and rating and reviewing and doing all the different things, including smashing that button over there on YouTube.

We keep numbers, just keep going up, up, up. Can't believe I'm doing this. Maybe I should do it this way. But smash that button out there. All right, we'll talk to you again tomorrow.

Big, big games tomorrow. As we mentioned, Spain, Germany, Portugal, France and Venezuela, Canada. Come on back and hang with us here in the State of the Union. We'll talk to you again tomorrow. Until then, always my friends size the day.

Messi misses, Argentina advances on penalties, State of the Union 500th Episode!

Primary Topic

Episode Summary

Main Takeaways

Episode Chapters

1: Introduction and Celebrations

2: Match Analysis: Argentina vs Ecuador

3: Implications and Expectations

Actionable Advice

About This Episode

People

Companies

Content Warnings:

Transcript