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The excitement of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming live on Fox 1, the official English streaming platform to catch every unforgettable moment. Fox 1 brings the action straight to your screen so you never miss a goal. Download Fox 1 and experience the FIFA World Cup Live! Hello Sunshine, I'm Alexey Lawson, welcome to the State of the Union Show presented by Zillow. Some day starts today. This is where we look at the beautiful game on and off the field for the lens of red white and blue-colored glasses. This show is our daily review and preview of the 2026 World Cup, a quick shot of the good stuff if you will on and off the field. Today, it's day 34, so let's light this candle. Now, normally, joining as always is my friend, my colleague, my guiding light, David Lawson. Seeing as it is, let's see, 2.11am on Wednesday, July 15th, the day after the game we're about to talk about, and we know, David Mossy does so much for Fox in front of the camera and behind the camera. We thought we'd let him get a little bit of a rest. So this is going to be a little solo, very, very quick. Wrap up of what was happened today. We jumped on a plane after a slight delay. What happened today? It is time for the winning foundation presented by Zillow. OK, France 0 Spain 2. For most people, this result was a surprise, including myself. I thought that France, given the way that they had played through this tournament, would find a way through, not easily, but I still thought that given the talent that they had, and like I said, what they had shown so far in this tournament, and a Spain that, while had been incredibly successful, we let one goal in, and it kind of just methodically plowed through this tournament. It wasn't vintage Spain, and it certainly wasn't in light of all the other stars and pizzazz, a team that you look to for entertainment purposes. But my goodness, Spain came to play today. It was comprehensive, as they say. From start to finish, France had nothing in response to this Spanish team in the way that they played. And I know a lot of times when we talk about Spain over the years, we've talked about possession. And this version of Spain is not necessarily any different in terms of believing in possession, although possession with a purpose. But what was even more impressive today was when Spain did not have possession and the difficulties and the challenges that they constantly threw at this French team. The high press and the difficulty that the back line of France had to break lines, the way that they closed up all of those passing lanes, the way that it made it difficult each and every time every French player got on the ball, including Olesse, who I thought was one of the better players for France today, but he was obviously just trying and pushing to try to do something and everywhere he went, he was being nipped at on the heels. There's hardly anybody on this Spanish team that didn't play well, but obviously a lot of the attention rightfully so is on Roderick. And he was just incredible to see in person. And he was incredible throughout the day. His composure and his ability to put out fires, even before you even realize that they are fires and that they are dangerous. His leadership, the ground that he covers, the efficiency in which he covers that ground, it's just, it's something to behold. And France had, you know, they got overrun in the midfield, France did. France was doing things that we hadn't seen alternative in terms of unforced errors and uncharacteristic errors in terms of simple passing. And they were just not on their game. And so you can say France had a bad day, but I think it's much more this Spain team knew exactly how to go about having one of their best days. And I think arguably, but I'm going to argue the best day of their tournament. Spain is unbeaten in 37 straight matches, including now three wins over France in their last three meetings. And France didn't make it easy also in giving up a penalty early on with Oriazzabal stepping up. Digné over there on that left hand side was struggling and didn't help himself making a mess out of what looked like a pretty innocuous type of cross. And L'Aminyamal who again did not star, but I think he had a very good game and he snipped out this moment, took the advantage of the moment, earned the penalty and it was a penalty, wasn't even debatable. And Oriazzal stepped up and just buried it. And so now France for the first time in the tournament is actually behind. And they're looking around saying this is not the way that it was supposed to go. And that was a big turning point. As was in the first half the loss of William Salibat who came off injured. We don't plan for that, but we've talked about the depth of France this entire tournament. And when they had to make changes, it still didn't change much. Spain still knew exactly what they were doing. Pedro Polaro ended up scoring the second and the second half on a wonderful, given go. And it was done. Dédé de Champs, it should be said. This is his last game coaching France. He's going out as one of the all-time greats in the international game. Rumors are that Xenitin Zadan is going to take his position. And so we say goodbye to this French team. And before we kiss them off, we do have to say mercy, right? I mean, what they gave us in terms of the stars, in terms of the goals. And in terms of the quality is certainly worth praise. But it didn't end the way that they wanted to, doesn't negate all of the good that they brought this tournament. Kylian and Bapé had a couple of different chances, but again, just couldn't get out in the space that was afforded to him because they limited it each and every time. So many good performances. I mentioned Pedro Polaro over on their right-hand side. Cucurillo on that left-hand side, Z was talking on the post game about playing for half an hour with a yellow card, which is not easy. Naomi, who assisted on that second goal. I mentioned L'Aminia Mall, and then obviously Rodri again just deserves a mention there. D'Ambelli had a quiet game. Didn't do a whole lot. Robbie will got a yellow card early on. Anyway, when we are looking at this game, the better team won. The better, in this moment, the better coached team, the more technical team, the more strategic team, and ultimately, like I said, just the better team won. And so now Spain finds themselves back in a World Cup final for the first time since 2010. And they have done it in a different way than 2010. But obviously incredibly successful. And this was a real marker of a game because of who they beat and how they beat them. And so congratulations to Spain. It is going to be fun. And whoever comes out of the England Argentina game is going to have their hands full against this Spanish team. And this is a huge, huge feather in the cap as they continue it on. I mentioned England Argentina. A few hours, we're all going to get up here in Atlanta. We're going to do it all over again. We had a wonderful time in Dallas. I will say that Dallas Stadium is incredible and long live air conditioning and Roobes. It is a major, major difference, obviously from the outside and from a fan perspective and from a broadcast perspective. But also it's a major difference on the field. And it should be said that this was France's first time playing alternative indoor. Although they didn't have to travel in the way that Spain did. We actually talked in the pre-game about would you rather have to travel more if it meant you could play in an indoor climate controlled environment? Or would you rather like France not have to travel so much they played most of their games on the East Coast but they played all of their games outside? I'm not sure it had any difference ultimately in this game but it is again a big talking point and a big story in this world cup. All right, so a few hours we're going to get up. We're going to put on our makeup and we're going to head out to the stadium here in Atlanta and we're going to see England versus Argentina. Now if the France and Spain game was kind of a elite, classy duel at 10 steps if you will type of a fair, I think a lot of people are predicting that the England Argentina game, given the incredible history both on and off the field between these two countries, is going to be more of a knife fight. But hopefully still entertaining. And they will have seen what happened here today. And you know, this is an opportunity, as we've talked about before for England to go back to a final and maybe it's coming home and for Argentina to potentially win back to back World Cups. And again, a reminder that hasn't been done since 1958 and 62 when when Brazil do it. This will be 39 year old Messi's fourth game in 13 days, although we know he doesn't run around a whole lot and he was kind of quiet in the in the last game, but he has gone 120 minutes, 90 minutes and 120 minutes over the last three games. Also a little speaking of feathers and caps, this game today, sorry it's today, England Argentina will be refereed by Ishmael Elfath from MLS. So congratulations to him and you know, by way, congratulations to Major League Soccer. That is an incredible honor, a semi-final of a World Cup. We talk about obviously the hand of God. We talk about David Beckham's red card. Tyrion Rhee was talking about a lot today about, you know, the Faulkner Islands and all this kind of stuff. There is incredible history when it comes to these two teams. Now these two teams are in kind of, I think, different places in that, yes, they both have stars, but Argentina is almost entirely the hold on to Messi. And if you're going to be able to hold onto a player, that's a pretty good player to do it. And he has shown time and time again that when they when they need to rely on him, he delivers. England has more stars, but again, this is an England team as I said before, that has a grit and I think now a belief that it is within their grasp. But you know, it was that I think Landon Nahnivan today was talking about the fact that he is too often written off Messi. And he's not going to make that mistake again. So we'll see if Messi has another epic performance against England here. Or if England can come in with this likeable type of group that they have and get themselves to a final. At which point it'll just be bonkers come Sunday up in New Jersey. We'll be leaving immediately after the game and after all of our broadcast tomorrow heading up to the New York metropolitan area to continue to bring you all sorts of stuff as we lead into the third place game on Saturday. And then obviously the final on Sunday. Do we think that Argentina has been playing down to their opposition? And do they have something in store? I've talked about before if they go to this well again and they find it empty at the most important time here against England, is that a problem? I do think that Argentina still has plenty to give. I don't know if it's another gear or if it's just another gasp, but I still think it's enough to get them past this particular England team, but I'm telling you right now England is feeling it. Still more fallout from Thomas Tuchel and his post game comments and the back and forth between Tuchel and Jude Bellingham about the different ways in which they saw the game. Thomas Tuchel, the coach of England, German coach of England was not happy about the way that his team played and he made it very clear in the media saying that they were lucky and saying while they had a good mentality and that wasn't the problem, they made it very difficult on themselves. As opposed to someone like Jude Bellingham who was later asked about this and I think rightfully and wonderfully defended himself and defended the players on the field saying well maybe Thomas Tuchel doesn't know what it's like to have to run around in that type of heat and have to deal with this type of game. I don't think it's a problem. I don't think that it soothes any type of problem between the players and the coaches. I think they can agree to disagree while still respecting each other and I think it was by design when it comes to Thomas Tuchel. I made the analogy that if let's say Harry Kane is Paul McCartney and Jude Bellingham is John Lennon, then Thomas Tuchel is George Martin and George Martin as the producer of the Beatles recognized the talent that he had but also it was his job to get them to be better than they thought they could be and also to not rest on their laurels and to push themselves and to push each other and at times yeah it would be probably the bad guy and we'll see if this strategy works because it is very different and I think again it's by design what's happening here when it comes when it comes to England but anyway we'll be talking about that and so much more as we as we get you ready and into this Wednesday July 15th which is where this England Argentina game is going to happen just a few miles down the road here in Atlanta at the stadium and we will have a good time. Before we go my moment of the day I don't know how many of you watched our post game show but within our post game show the great Jenny Taft had an interview with Killian and Boppe and I just want to give a shout out and a thanks and a message of gratitude because you know Jenny Taft for for many of you know at times has been embedded with the US team and then obviously the US went out she speaks fluent French and she's done a wonderful job of embedding herself also with the French team and fostering relationships with the French team and there's a reason why the French players and the French federation trust her and want to talk to her because they know this is a conduit to America but they've also established a relationship with Jenny and she dares there's a tremendous amount of credit for fostering that over a long period of time and so we got Killian and Boppe after the game talking about this loss and talking about how he felt about himself about his team about his coach and that is done specifically because of the work of one Jenny Taft so thank you very much Jenny for being able to do that and for us to be able to get a much deeper look into these players and these teams because of the work that you do and sometimes that work goes goes unknown but not here today so I love the fact that kind of wrapping up this part of the the French campaign I know they have a third place game and you know there's a possibility still of a golden boot when it comes to Killian and Boppe and a third place finish for this very very good French team but it was nice to see that the respect even in this moment of pain for Killian and Boppe and for this French team their respect for Jenny Taft overrode that so well done Jenny. We will be back again tomorrow night although we will be flying up to New York so I don't know when it's going to happen it might be another one of these late night things but I like to do these things we'll try to get Mossy back but again he works very very hard and I think you'll you'll understand if Mossy kind of comes in and out. I'm sure he's got a lot to say about the game that we saw today in Dallas and I'm sure you'll have a lot to say about the England versus Argentina game but my goodness if you can't get up or what's about to happen today here in Atlanta then I don't know what's going on with you. England versus Argentina bring it on my friends that knife fight that I that I talked about keep downloading keep reviewing keep rating keep subscribing keep doing all the different things that you do out there keep smashing that button up and down left and right subscribe subscribe subscribe over there on the old YouTube machine the numbers just keep going up and up and up it's been an absolute privilege and a pleasure and an honor to be able to do this show state of the union each and every day that the world cup is happening here and we're almost to the end here but we want to finish strong we'll continue on after the world cup we want to finish storm in terms of this world cup state of the union uh that we are that we are doing we're having a blast doing it this is uh these are champagne problems you know if the flights delayed or if uh we're tired um it doesn't really matter this is wonderful and it's like Brigaduin it's just gonna go poof and it's all going to be gone in the blink of an eye come this uh come this Sunday so I want to I want to milk it for all its worth and have a wonderful time doing it and I'm glad that you're here to enjoy it with us and so we still got a lot of soccer to go and hopefully some wonderful wonderful moments on the field and off the field we're going to bring you everything leading up to Sunday's final and then obviously the final and after the final with what's uh with what's going on so we will talk to you again tomorrow where I guess today and until then and as always my friends size the day