Yamal assists Spain to semifinals, Ronaldo's Euro 2024 exit, Berhalter decision time

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Alexi Lawless
Hello, sunshine. I'm Alexi Lawless. 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 5, the start of the euros quarter finals and the continuation of the Copa America quarterfinals. As we make our way through this amazing summer of soccer, reminder, we'll be coming to you live each and every day after the euros action and the 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 Mossy, a soccer savant and a Fox soccer researcher and writer extraordinaire. Mossy, how are you on this Friday, July 5, in the year 2024? I'm doing well. What a run for us. We've done four quarterfinals between the two tournaments.

David Mossy
All of them have been tied after 90. Nuts. Nuts. Well, if you are a lover of penalties, this is your summer. This is your summer.

Alexi Lawless
They're coming fast and furious. Read or watch anything or see anything of note that you want to tell the people out there. I have not. Absolutely nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Okay. Do you have work to do tonight but when you get home? No, I am done. All the shows are written for tomorrow. We have four different shows tomorrow.

David Mossy
I'm working, but I'm in good shape for all of them. Well, good. All right, well, we can get some sleep then and hit it back here early and everything. All right. Should we light the scandal, my friend.

Let's do it. All right, let's see here. Brought to you by zillow agents. Tours, loans, homes, all the different stuff. Get home with zillow.

Alexi Lawless
Let's go to today's scores. As we mentioned, euro quarterfinals. Spain two, Germany won, Portugal zero, France zero. France wins on penalties. And then over in Copa America quarterfinals action.

Kicking off. Venezuela won, Canada won, and Canada goes through on penalties. Where should we start, Mossy? How about Spain, Germany? Does that sound good?

David Mossy
Yes. All right. As we said, Spain two, Germany won. I picked Germany to win the tournament. So my bracket is busted as the home team goes out.

Alexi Lawless
I think what we saw today in this Spain Germany game is the one two or two one, depending on where you're placing them. Of Spain and Germany, I think was justified. I think this very easily could have been a final. But I also think that Spain showed why if I had to do a power rankings now, they would undoubtedly be ahead of Germany. Germany left it late, as they have done earlier in this tournament, and ultimately they couldn't finish it off.

It was disappointing from Germany in that, at the very least, I thought they should have gotten to penalties and they didn't kick on from a home field type of perspective and a home crowd type of perspective after they got that goal. As a matter of fact, the way in which they ultimately conceded in extra time, I thought was naive. And I know everybody's tired, and I do know that in order to get that tie in goal, they had to kind of make some substitutions, some very attacking subs which then left when they got into the extra 30, them in a kind of problematic situation where they didn't have a lot of defenders and so it was kind of hectic and back and forth. But still, credit to Spain, I think they're the better team and they are going on. There was an incident early in the game.

David Mossy
Tony Cruz with a really hard foul on Pedri should have been booked. Anthony Taylor should be ashamed of himself for not booking Cruz on that play. And Pedri ends up having to come off. And by the way, in the second half, Cruz hauled down Danny Oma on a breakaway and gets a yellow there. So you're thinking, wow, if he had been booked in the opening minutes, he might have been sent off there.

Alexi Lawless
But when he. When he made that foul, he immediately got up and started screaming at the referee. Was he screaming at him not to give him a yellow or was there something else going on? Cause a very strange reaction, especially given, I mean, the violence of the tackle. And nobody would have said anything if immediately a yellow had come out.

David Mossy
Maybe he was arguing that it was a dive, that it wasn't a foul. That could be Taylor to not show the card. But in any event, Danny Omo ends up coming on for Pedri and becomes the star of the game with a goal and an assist. And it was also interesting to me that in the second half when Spain were winning 10, Luis de la Fuente made the mistake managers often do of closing up shop too early, taking off all his best attacking players. La Mina Mal came off for Ferran Torres and then Nico Williams came off for Michel Marino and Germany equalize, but lo and behold, it ends up being Merino who gets the goal in extra time.

So a sub that looked like a mistake at one point ended up paying off in the end. Did you think that it was a handball on Cucurella? I did. However, the spanish media has brought up that full Krug might have been offsides when the initial cross came in. I haven't seen a great angle on it, but it does look like they might be right on that.

So perhaps. Well, if up in the vir booth they said hey, it's a handball, but there was an offside and so they cancel each other out and there's no need to stop and play on, that's fine. I don't think they did, though. I agree with you. I hope that's what happened.

But if they just judge the handball to not be a handball, that's ridiculous. That was a stone cold handball. Musialo with the shock, Cucurella stops it. I mean, he is making himself bigger. And look, I know we say, well, is he intentionally making himself bigger and is that natural?

Alexi Lawless
And by the way, what is natural in the game of soccer has now evolved and changed, especially with players playing with their arms behind their back and everything. And in doing so, he basically saved a shot on Cole that went by. So I would have had no problem had that been called a handball. And if they then looked back and said there was an offside fine, it. Was frankly more of a handball than either of the Panama, I'm sorry, the Paraguay ones against Brazil in that Copa game when Brazil had two penalties, packet time, missed one and made the other.

David Mossy
So yeah, that was a shocking decision. But I don't think. I don't think Germany can blame it on that. I think ultimately they were beaten. They were beaten by a better team.

I agree. Spain move on to the semis, are going to be down two defenders in the semis. Carvajal got himself sent off, and Norman got a yellow, and he's out for yellow card suspension. You know, ultimately, Spain won the game, but when Lemina Mao came off, I thought he was just so good, and he's a young player, and, like, is he tired or something like that? I thought it was a strange substitute to make because, you know, those wingers for Spain just do so much damage.

I agree. And, you know, he assisted the Omo go. He's the first teenager to have three assists in a euro. So having a very good tournament, living up to it. And, yeah, I would have liked to have seen him spend more time on the field.

Alexi Lawless
Not a bad substitute to put on, who not only repays you, but with a goal, but an assist and almost, it just shows the depth that they have. All right, so next game, can we. Just stay on Germany for 1 second? I saw a few posts on X. Well, they go out in the quarterfinals, but they lifted the nation again and gave them so much pride.

David Mossy
That's a bit of a stretch for me. Germany at home in a major tournament, you got to get beyond the quarterfinals to really push that narrative. And while I know, I do think that this country was coming together, but there needed to be a payoff, and there is a difference. You know, in 2006, when it happened, they didn't win the World cup. Right.

Alexi Lawless
They went out in the semifinals, but there was this sense that they had done more, not just for the country, but even from a soccer perspective, they had done everything. And there was a kind of pat on the back to Jurgen Klinsman and company in what they did. I don't get the feeling that there's going to be that. Even though they lost to a better team and even though this could have been a final. Yeah.

David Mossy
And even though the results the last couple years have been disastrous, they've gone out in the group stage of the last two World Cups. So you could argue this is a step in the right direction. But big picture, your Germany at home in a major tournament. I don't think you should be throwing parties for getting to the quarterfinals. So do you think Naglesman will be the coach two years from now in the World Cup?

I do. I mean, I know I'm contradicting myself right now, but I think he did enough in this tournament that they'll keep going with him. Okay. All right. But congratulations to Spain.

Alexi Lawless
They will definitely keep going in the euros. The good part is, while you want the home team to go on, and it would have been fun, we have seen the crowds here I don't think it necessarily changes the. The atmosphere, certainly the atmosphere at the stadiums, some of these fan fests, and people have flocked to this tournament, even if they just want to drink beer and have a good time. So I think there'll still be plenty of culture and excitement and passion going on. Okay, over to Portugal.

France here. Portugal, zero. France, zero. And ultimately it goes to penalties. But before we get to the penalties, give me your initial thoughts on the actual.

Well, let's go for the first 90 minutes. The first half was disappointing. Rafael Leon was terrific, but nobody else really stood out for me. But as the game wore on, you started to have more chances and the game became more exciting back and forth. Yeah, and it's unbelievable that nobody got a goal.

David Mossy
I mean, you had on one end, Colombuani, Camavenga, Dembele, and the other, Vicino, Bruno Fernandez, Nuna, Mendez, all with great opportunities to score. None of them do. We go into extra time. And then that incredible moment in the middle of the extra time where Mbappe essentially asked to come off, and he did, and we end up going to penalties. And, you know, I look like a bit of an idiot because in the control room, I told Brad Zager that Portugal was definitely going to go through because Diogo Costa is basically the european Emmy Martinez, and look what he did against Slovenia.

And that he didn't come close to any of the France attempts in this shootout. And Jean Felix ends up hitting the post and Teo Hernandez converts the winner and France go through. Yeah, well, don't worry about looking like an idiot, okay? I do it all the time and it's fine. You'll get over it.

Alexi Lawless
I do well. So when I think about this game. So, first off, a couple of things when it comes to the wing play of both of these teams, and it was kind of a mirror, as we mentioned, with Liao going down that left hand side and the clearing out that was happening oftentimes, which is exactly what you want to do. I remember when Kobe Jones, who was working with us today, and certainly I'm not necessarily comparing the two, but I guess I am, in essence, in that we would get Kobe out wide and we didn't want to complicate it for the team or for Kobe in that I don't want anybody overlapping. I don't want anybody running into that space.

As a matter of fact, I want people leaving that space. And if they want to double A team, that's fine because that frees up other people. But we knew that, especially if he got Kobe one on one with any type of space. That nine out of the ten times he was going to beat the guy and there was going to be a cross, and that's a wonderfully valuable thing to have happen. I think the same thing applies when it comes to Liao over there on that left hand side.

Now, not as much, but certainly the left hand side of France was where, and oftentimes Mbappe steps up. We'll talk a little bit more about Mbappe over here, but it was interesting to see this mirror happen. And Conde had his hands full over there on that right side going forward a lot. Big moment in the game relative to Mbappe. He gets hit in the face with the ball and gets hit in the side of the face and hits the face mask.

And obviously that's going to be painful because he's playing with a broken nose, but you could tell it was almost as if he had been tased in that moment. And I don't know what kind of pain he was feeling, but obviously it was not just a lot, but it was enough to ultimately pull him off the field. And it's a pity because we still haven't seen, and we're not going to see 100% in BOPE, but it's just the reality of the situation. Just the worst possible place for it to hit him in the face. I'm frankly wondering about him on Tuesday, France in Spain, in the semifinals in Munich.

David Mossy
Yeah, it was already bothering him more than he was letting on. You could see he's fidgeting with the mask the last couple of games, and now he gets hit in the face again, and it hurts enough that he has to come off an extra time of a game like that. So I don't know. It's only a few days to recover. By the way, not to jump ahead, but there was a player on Venezuela tonight that was wearing a clear mask, so you can make it clear.

Alexi Lawless
And I know he's worried about the periphery and stuff like that. And so, you know, who knows? I'm sure that the french medical team is on it now. Shall we have the Ronaldo conversation? Let's see.

Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. Let's just get it over with. He did not cry today. Yes, that must be so.

He didn't. He was the consoler of those with tears. Yes, but still, he finishes a tournament. Five games, 23 shots, no goals. If you take it back to the World cup, it's more than 700 minutes without a goal at major tournaments.

David Mossy
And I think this narrative that we all talked about as a possibility, I think, came to fruition. That Portugal have all these young, talented guys, and it's just a weird mix, ramming Ronaldo into that team. And I think ultimately Roberto Martinez, when he looks back at this tournament, will think that it's a mistake. He maybe should have approached it differently. Yeah.

Alexi Lawless
So when it comes to Portugal and Ronaldo at this tournament, all right, they have no one to blame but themselves. And when I say themselves, ultimately it rests with Roberto Martinez. He made his beta, and that bed was with Ronaldo in it. And he leaned into it all tournament and propped him up at every chance that he could get, including playing him in that third game, trying to get him a goal. If it was not a player called Cristiano Ronaldo, in any other circumstance, that player would have been taken off the field.

Okay? Not necessarily because he's not good, but strikers are there to serve a purpose, and obviously the ultimate purpose is to score goals and at very least to be dangerous. And sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't. And sometimes there comes a point where you have to mix it up and usually you have other arsenal on the bench that you bring in. Maybe it's a like, for, like, maybe it's a different type of person up there.

And in this case, that wasn't done. And I don't know if it was out of fear or out of respect or a combination of all of it, but what you ended up having Mossy in this tournament was almost a charity game set up for Ronaldo, and that's not even fair. I don't like saying that it's not fair, but again, this is a situation that Roberto Martinez created, and this is a situation that Cristiano Ronaldo accepted and certainly didn't do anything to change with his play or with his. With his decisions. And ultimately, I think it hurt Portugal.

David Mossy
And, you know, he hasn't ruled out playing in the next World cup. So are we going to go through this again in two years, or is somebody going to have an intervention with him and tell him, look, you're 39. It's probably time to walk away from the national team? I mean, you know, and if he's going to stay on, okay, fine. And if it goes to penalties, at least you got him to take penalties.

Alexi Lawless
He stepped up, he took the first one and you could just tell. I mean, he took a bunch of deep breaths, banged it home, and then proceeded to play cheerleader going forward. Cause the pressure was off his shoulder. He did the stutter step which he doesn't usually do. But then, to be fair, he put it perfectly in the corner.

David Mossy
That was a well taken penalty. So, while we're talking about old people in the game, okay, we gotta talk about Pepe, all right? And, yes, he's 41 years old, and, yes, he's incredible. And so whatever criticism we have, I think of Cristiano Ronaldo. I think the opposite goes for Pepe, in that he's there not because he's old and a legend, he's there because he's good.

Alexi Lawless
And he showed it time and time again. And, look, he's not the player that he once was. Nobody is. But if he got beat, he got back up. And multiple times, when he got beat, he got back up and then ended up making the play.

Obviously, after the game, you know, when the tears are supposed to come, they came for him. And I think he felt like, not only had he let down his team and maybe even let down Cristiano Ronaldo, but not winning, but you could tell that there was a finality to this game when it comes to him. And if that's it, man, oh, man, what a soldier. What a wonderful, wonderful player. And then we get to the penalties.

Anything in particular besides Cristiano making his that you want to talk about? No. Just hats off to France. They took them very well. Like I said, you have a.

David Mossy
A very good goalkeeper at stopping him in Diego Costa, and yet it was no problem. They all converted. Okay. All right. Anything else on this game before we move on?

Alexi Lawless
No. So we have France Spain, semifinal. That's a rematch of the 1984 final that France won on home soil. Michel Platini and company. We'll have plenty more to talk about with that game the next few days, but, yeah, that's the match.

Can I just also mention that you mentioned it briefly, but the substitutions are important. And Debelle coming on, I thought. I mean, he fundamentally changed the game. And I almost thought at a certain point, he, at times, deferred, and he was doing some incredible. I mean, he had some really, really awesome runs that I kind of wanted him to just take and finish going forward, but it shows some of the depth that they have, and it shows how dangerous he can be.

And at this point, that was new. Cause it was somebody coming in from the right hand side onto the left and the right. There are certain kinds of players, like Dembele. Leroy Sane is a little bit like this, that you find yourself thinking, man, if they were just, like, 10% more clinical, because they're amazing at getting themselves in positions to score, but they just don't have that end product often enough. Yep.

Yep. All right. Should we go over to Copa America? Let's do it. Okay.

Venezuela, Canada. We're just coming off of this game and all the craziness. All right. So if you didn't watch it, it was ultimately Venezuela won, Canada won, and then Canada went on to win in penalties. All right, first, general comments.

Congratulations to Canada. Congratulations to Jesse Marsh, the american coach of Canada, in a very, very short period of time. And when we're talking the matter of games, he has, I guess I can use the word, resurrected this program. He has done what we had all hoped Greg Berhalter and the us team was to do in this tournament, which is to use the platform, use the opportunity to reignite passion, to get people to believe in the team in the moment and going forward into 2026. And it could not have come for a better time when it comes to this canadian national team.

They had a wonderful pathway in that. If I, before the tournament, had gone to Jesse Marsh and said, jesse, I'll give you the opportunity to play Venezuela. Vino Tinto for the opportunity to go to the semifinal of Copa America, he would have bit my hand off and taken that, but you still got to play the game. This was without a doubt the best worst game that I have seen in a long time in that there was no rhyme or reason. It was back and forth.

Canada probably should have scored four goals. All right. I was not impressed, particularly with Venezuela. And as a matter of fact, the only reason Venezuela, I think, got back into the game ultimately was a boneheaded type of situation that resulted in a fast break with a one on one. And then the chipping of Maxine Crpeau in goal.

That was just insane that it happened and insane that Jesse Marsh let this happen. Off of a long throw in, their own long throw in down there, all sorts of crazy stuff going on, but ultimately, this means that Canada is going on. Canada. I can't even tell you how much mossy, this hurts, all right? And I'm human and I'm an american, and I'm coming off a devastating result when it comes to what the US did in this tournament.

And I got to see Canada. I got to see Canada do this. And, okay, I'll step aside and I'll say congratulations to Canada, but from a US perspective. And I was with Clint Dempsey and I was with Mo ado watching this, I mean, this hurts, man. This.

This. Anybody but Canada, mossy. Anybody but Canada. Wow. On that Venezuela goal.

David Mossy
You're right, it was a mistake. Maxim Kropot caught out of position, but Rondon made that look easier than it was. That was a finish. What a year he's had with the Kokakov Champions Cup, Pachuca and what he's doing in this tournament. But he's out now.

Canada move on. They will face Argentina in the semis at MetLife Stadium. That's a rematch of the opening game of the tournament. Argentina wondeh to nil in Atlanta. What do you think?

Do you give Canada any chance? Well, I mean, I think it is important that they've already played this team. Okay, so they have seen what it is. I think that they are riding high. I think they definitely don't have anything to lose, but I don't necessarily give them a chance.

Alexi Lawless
I'm not putting my money on Canada doing something special, especially if they play the way that they played this Venezuela game. Now, I think the way they played Venezuela was just kind of on offering and they just took it and kind of did it. But they certainly can't do that because they'll get ripped apart by Argentina. But again, when it comes to anybody but Canada, I'm being a little flipped there when I'm talking about it, so I am. There's a little part of me that is happy that Canada did this also in the way that they did it, the MLS influence that they have and the success that it did.

And there's a small part of me that was envious and jealous of what I saw with Canada because there was a. I know I'm going to grumpy old man this thing, but an old school american flair to the way in which they played. And I know it was a lot of rah rah and spirit and physical play and all that, and bend, but don't break at different times and all that kind of stuff. But it reminded me of what America as a team once was. And I'm okay that we have moved and evolved from it, but again, I talk about we can take the good from the past and can carry it on and have the best of both worlds.

And it was nice to see Canada kind of employ that, and I would call it american type of quality, but I'm sure the Canadians would call it and Jesse Marsh would call it ultimately canadian, and ultimately it's successful. And they are in the semifinals. All right. America went home and Canada. Canada is in the semifinals of the Copa America.

This bodes well for their future. Like I said, going, leading into 2026, all of the canadian fans, all three of them, have to be incredibly happy right now. With what is happening with this program going forward. And incredibly bullish about the future under Jesse Marshall. We're going to talk about Greg Berhalter.

David Mossy
Near one for the road. And I have a feeling Jesse Marsh is going to come up in that conversation as well. Especially because Kylo threw in a pretty cheeky question in the rundown. Okay. All right, cool.

Alexi Lawless
Anything else on this game or anything you want to kiss off the la vinotito? I mean, this is still a very good team. This is still a team, I think, heading in the right direction. They got work to do when it comes to Komnebol. But they're sitting in a good position right now.

And I think they will have used this experience. And will become better going forward. And ultimately, this might result in the first time ever going to a World Cup. I agree. Disappointing to go out tonight, but trending in the right direction.

Trending in the right direction. Okay, give us a little preview what we got coming here. Mossy. So, big day tomorrow. Two more euros quarterfinals.

David Mossy
England, Switzerland, industrial. And then Netherlands. Turkey in Berlin. Both those matches live on Fox. Okay, so England, Switzerland and Netherlands, Turkey.

Alexi Lawless
England can't screw this up, right, Mossi? I mean, we just got done talking about Germany and Spain and Portugal and France and stuff like that. This is England versus Switzerland. England can't possibly screw this wonderfully open and easy pathway to the final, can they? Well, you saw Gareth Southgate's comments about that.

David Mossy
He bristled at the suggestion that they have an easy pass. The hubris and the entitlement and all this kind of stuff. But you and I both like this swiss team a lot. They beat Italy pretty comprehensively. They have a really strong spine.

Jan Summer in goal, who? Peter Schmeichel love. He's going to talk about him tomorrow on the pregame show. Akanji at the back, Shaka in the mid middle and Mbolo up front. So there are some very good players there.

I think this is pretty close to a 50 50. I would only give England a slight edge. And we have yet to see England play, I think, a good game. Okay. And they are going to have to play a good game.

Alexi Lawless
And we kind of keep saying, all right, it's coming, it'll figure it out. And, you know, they're getting there and all that. This swiss team, to your point, they will make you pay. And I also think the Swiss, relative to these english players, they feel good about this game. I don't think that they fear by any stretch of the imagination, the players that they play, many of them had experience playing over there, and I think that they look at them as kind of snobby elites that they want to take down a peg or two.

David Mossy
Mark Yehey out. So England are going to have to make a change at the back and we're also going to have a Jude Bellingham feature him discussing the bicycle kick goal against Slovakia last time out. Talk about a back three, possibly when it comes to. Yeah, yeah, they've practiced that way, so we'll see. All right, good luck with that.

Alexi Lawless
All right. All right, so predictions when it comes to England, Switzerland, you still got England going through. I'll go England. Yeah, I'll go Switzerland then. And then the other game, Netherlands turkey.

David Mossy
We've talked about an incredible fan matchup with the Orange army and Turkey and all of their supporters, and a really fun game as well. The Netherlands coming off an impressive performance against Romania, Cody Gakpo scoring goals, van Dyke at the back, Memphis Depai chavez, simone, et cetera. And then turkey have their captain, chileanolu back from suspension. And those young kids yieldees are the goulet. So should be a fun game.

Alexi Lawless
Yeah. This is a situation where, relative to the tournament, I think Netherlands has been less impressive than I thought they were going to be. And I think Turkey has been more impressive. I know we talked about Turkey, but they've lived up to billing and so it's where does ultimately that put them when it comes to this? And which kind of Netherlands team do we see?

They've certainly grown into the tournament. Look, if I'm the Netherlands, I'm not wary of Turkey. I think that they would be looked at as the slight favorite. But to your point, the environment's going to be fun and interesting and obviously colorful.

I probably lean to towards the Netherlands, but I don't know, I really want to pick turkey. What do you think? I will lean Netherlands. You will need Netherlands. Yeah.

I should do it. I should just go turkey. All right. Why not? Okay.

What about Copa America? Well, before we move on from yours, it is worth noting, when we filled out our brackets, I had Germany England as my final. As I mentioned a few nights ago, I looked at Aaron Schechter's bracket. She has Spain, Netherlands. Her final is still a possibility and mine is not.

Wow. Well, we should probably listen to her. We should maybe switch tomorrow. I'll direct the pod, she'll be the analyst. Oh, that would be good.

We would see kind of what a ridiculous show that would be. Okay. Copa America. Mossy. Yes.

David Mossy
We have two more quarterfinals there. Colombia against Panama in Glendale, Arizona, and Uruguay against Brazil in Las Vegas. Okay, so let's. All right, so let's first up with Colombia and Panama. Okay?

Alexi Lawless
I mean, the fact that the semifinals of Copa America could feature two cockacap teams and one of them's not the US, and then the other one. And by the way, the two that are, are Canada and Panama, means we are living in a messed up world. Do you see any world in which Panama is able to get past Colombia? No. Colombia are unbeaten in 26.

David Mossy
They haven't lost the game in two and a half years. I don't think that streak is going to come to an end against Panama. And by the way, if they avoid defeat tomorrow, they equal their all time record of 27, which is a run they had in the early nineties. That great team that you played against, Esprit, Rincon, Valderrama, et cetera. Where is that game?

Alexi Lawless
The Columbia Panama game? Glendale, Arizona. Glendale, Arizona. All right, so that's going to be fun. I think both of us are picking Colombia, unless Panama can just come up with not just a win, by the way, but it would be a win of epic proportions and historic type of day for Panama and for Copa America and for the world of Saudi.

Right, okay. Uruguay. Brazil. My friend. The big story here.

David Mossy
We know Vinicius Junior is suspended and Brazil's coach, Dorival junior, confirmed today Endric will start and it'll be his first international start. Is this a changing of the guard? Is this an addition by subtraction relative to Vinnie junior, who, let's be honest, he's not a problem child, right? He's not a problem child on the field or off the field, but he is their one major star and because of the yellow card situation, he's not going to be there, but in a strange way, by committee and spreading it out and not, you know, pretty nice player to come in and take his place. Are you any more bull, any at all bullish about this team because you've been pretty down on him.

I'm still pessimistic. I think we're going to lose tomorrow, but I will say I'm hard on the coach, but he got this one right. There are a bunch of different ways he could have gone as far as replacing Vanisus and how he would line up the attack and he did what I would have done. Because this has the added bonus of perhaps getting Rodrigo going. It's not working.

In that false nine rule, you shift him out to the left wing, which is his best position. He doesn't get to play there a lot with Real Madrid because of Vinicius, but whenever he does, he's usually very good. So you perhaps get him going and then you insert Endrick and even though, as I said the other night, I don't consider Endrick a true center forward, he still gives you some element of a number nine, which Brazil haven't had. So I think. But Dodi Valjourner got it right and we'll see how it goes.

Alexi Lawless
So when you say he's not a true center forward, so when he's playing tomorrow, how is it going to manifest? Like where is he going to show. Up, do you think, if he's utilized right? Because his best games for Palmeiras have come when they played with two up top and he was kind of the second striker floating behind somebody else and, you know, he's a player that likes to go on slalom runs and he's. Not going to pick up or anything like that.

David Mossy
No, he's not going to do any of that. No. That's what frustrated me about the way dorival junior, he was treating him like he was Weghurst in the first. You throw on late when it's kitchen sink time and see if he can get a go for you like a goal poacher. And that's not what he is.

Alexi Lawless
Okay, cool. All right, well, I'm looking forward to it. As I said, I've been much more positive about your Brazil team here and I think they come together in a way that we have not seen and they come up with a glorious performance for the yellow of Brazil. Anything else in terms of the preview tomorrow? That is it.

Okay. Should we hit one for the road out here? All right, let's roll the one for the road clip there. There it is. We're off in the van there.

Okay. Do you want to read the press release here or anything like that or do you care? I mean, what we're talking about, and I'm sure if you followed soccer, obviously there is a lot of pressure right now when it comes to Greg Berhalter and the United States Soccer Federation. Evidently, according to our sources here at Fox, is going to make a decision and it's going to come, evidently, sometime this next week here. I guess that's good because it's something that from a content perspective is going to give us a lot more clarity as to what is going to happen going forward with Greg Berhalter because obviously this has been a failure of a World cup coming in, or, sorry, of a Copa America coming into this, Copa America.

I think we all recognize that this was going to be a major assessment and maybe even the last real, true assessment that we could make of Greg Berhalter relative to this team. And more importantly, as it's going forward to 2026. And I think we would all agree that he and this team failed. And so are there going to be consequences to this? Evidently, the United States Soccer Federation is going to make a decision.

Now, this decision could be we are parting ways and Greg's gone and they will be looking for somebody new. Or this decision could be from Matt Crocker, who made this decision initially, that I'm sticking with my guy and we're going to continue on. I do think that it has gotten to the point now where if they're going to make a decision, if they were going to make a continue on, that would have been done and they would have ripped that band. Aidan. Now, I do think that there's a real good possibility that come this time next week, the US is searching for a new coach.

David Mossy
I agree. Yeah. So when they said in the wake of the elimination, we're going to conduct a review and we'll let you know, because us soccer has a history of dragging things out like this, there was concern that are they going to take forever to decide? So the development today is through our sources and we confirmed this with us soccer and they said we were okay to report it, that there is going to be a decision one way or the other by the middle of next week. So it's all going to happen fairly quickly here.

And I agree with you all signs to me point to there being a change, because if there wasn't going to be, then they wouldn't make such a big deal. But the fact that the decision is coming so soon. Sure. And there are a lot of countries and cultures and teams that before they even left the building would have made. Ecuador coach, I don't think was even allowed on the plane.

Alexi Lawless
So it would not be a shock relative to changing a coach who has had a massive failure. But this is also us soccer and we know that they certainly take their time. I did want to address something because there was talk and especially with all of the stuff that has gone over the last couple of years when it comes to the United States Soccer Federation and people wondering, and our own Doug McIntyre responded saying, anybody wondering, no. Us soccer wouldn't have to increase the salary of the us women's national team coach Emma Hayes. If they were to hire somebody like a clop or somebody that has a much bigger price tag than does Greg Berhalter or anybody else out there.

And that may be true. Okay? But I do think it's worth noting that the United States Soccer federation over the years has proven itself to be hypersensitive to negative public perception and mainstream criticism out there, especially as it relates to. So let's be honest, they're very public. Us women's national team and us men's national team, pay equity situation and litigation that happen.

So don't think that that isn't being thought about in terms of the messaging and how it looks to the, like I said to the general public out there. But ultimately, if come this time next week, the us soccer federation is looking, or maybe even has already started to look for a replacement. As I've said time and time again, whoever it is, man, woman, child, I don't know. I guess we wouldn't have a child. But who knows?

Maybe you never know. Whoever that person is, I hope that they bring us together. I hope that they unite us. I hope that they can give us things going forward where we can celebrate like the canadian fans are celebrating tonight. On that point.

David Mossy
We know Kyla is a bit of a troublemaker and so she puts in the rundown. Did we hire the wrong american? She's obviously alluding to Jesse Marsh. I'm sure you have thoughts on that. All right, we'll finish it off here because I know there's a lot of people that have had knives out and totally understandably so.

Alexi Lawless
And I think even fairly so given the situation right now. And it is, you know, the situation is made that much worse because an American, a high profile american coach who has had a plenty of work in the United States, work with the federation, work overseas and has a resume who was looked at back at the time when Matt Crocker was making his decision. And ultimately he decided to rehire Greg Berthalter in the form of Jesse Marsh. And so I know there's a lot of people tonight that are looking at what Jesse Marsh has done with Canada and saying, okay, well, we could have had this guy and he could have been doing the same thing with the United States men's national team. Team.

And that's where it's wrong, okay, that's not how it works. Jesse Marsh is exactly where he should be and I think where he needs to be. And I also think where he can do a whole lot of good. It doesn't work where you just say, oh, but if Jesse Marsh was here, that same thing would have happened because it is very apples and oranges when it comes to the canadian national team program and the us men's national team program. I can see completely from the outside why the United States soccer Federation and why Matt Crocker did not go with Jesse Marsh in that moment.

I could even see right now if there was a whole nother round, why they still wouldn't go with Jesse Marsh. Okay. And it would be completely legitimate. And I know it's all subjective and it's in this case, one person's opinion in Matt Crocker, and I know he gets input from others, but ultimately he is there to make a decision. And as I've said before, Matt Crocker, who is the sporting director for those that don't know of us soccer, he is in a pickle right now because Greg Burholter was his guy.

And right now a lot of the headlines and a lot of the talk when it comes to the american soccer community is how Jesse Marsh, who could have been his guy, is now doing well with Canada. I think two things can be right at the same time in that Jesse Marsh is a good coach, potentially a great coach going forward was not the right person for the us job at the time, nor is he now. And he's a really good coach and he's in the right place right now. And he's going to do good things with Canada going forward into 2026. And so if there is going to be a change next week, I hope that they aim as high as they possibly can.

I hope that they spend whatever it is they need to in order to attract the best possible person that is going to come in and do that job of not just getting us to win, but also getting us to unite around this team that we love and making us positive going into the future about this team. Because we'll just keep repeating it in this moment in the summer of 2024, it should be all guns blazing. We should be so ecstatic and excited and passionate and positive about what is coming down the pike and nothing should be standing in our way and we should be cooking with steam when it comes to our team on the field and when it comes to our game off the field. And that's what I want to see. So whoever it ultimately is, whoever that person that comes in, if they make a change, you got to make us feel like that.

And if they don't make a change, obviously there's going to be a whole lot of criticism, but it's going to. If it's going to continue with Greg Berhalter, then he has to find a way. And it's up to him and this team to prove and to win back a lot of hearts and minds right now. And that's not easy. As a matter of fact, it's difficult.

Some may even say it's impossible. But if he continues on as the coach, that's his mandate. That's what he has to do. And it remains to be seen whether he's going to be given that opportunity. We'll find out next week.

It's a nice little cliffhanger. It's a nice little piece of content that evidently is going to drop next week. Anything before we go, Mossy? That's it. All right, we're going to go home.

We're going to hang out. We're going to work. And we got four games tomorrow. When it comes to the two tournaments tomorrow. Again, a reminder.

Tomorrow we got England, Switzerland, 12:00 p.m. eastern time on Fox. Netherlands Turkey, a 03:00 p.m. eastern time on Fox. Then we go to Copa America.

Colombia, Panama, 06:00 p.m. eastern time on fs one. And then Uruguay. Brazil mosses Brazil at 09:00 p.m. eastern time on fs one.

Keep reviewing, keep downloading, keep rating, keep subscribing, keep doing all those things you do. Keep smashing that button over there on the YouTube and subscribing to the podcast. Whether you're listening, whether you're watching it doesn't matter as long as you're intaking the state of the year with myself and David Mossi. We love you so much for it. We will talk to you again tomorrow.

Big day of soccer tomorrow. Come on back with us. And until then, and as always, my friends, size the day.

Yamal assists Spain to semifinals, Ronaldo's Euro 2024 exit, Berhalter decision time

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1: Match Analysis: Spain vs. Germany

2: Ronaldo and Portugal's Exit

3: Implications for U.S. Soccer

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