8-7-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

Hey there, dog lovers! It's time to show your furry friend a little extra love and attention.

After all, they're not just pets, they're family. At Get Joy, we provide top-of-the-line nutrition and wellness services to improve the lives of dogs and their families. Get Joy's dedicated team of animal science and vet nutritionists have expertly crafted their recipes to give your pup maximum health benefits. With options like gently cooked fresh meals, freeze-dried meals with pre-, pro-, and post-biotics for optimal gut health, and single-ingredient beef treats. Your best friend just got upgraded to a whole new level of pampering.

And the best part? Get Joy's meals are made with wholesome ingredients right here in the USA with no fillers or artificial preservatives. Plus, when you subscribe to a Get Joy Food plan, you'll be connected with a board-certified televet with services available 24-7. As a special offer to our listeners, visit GetJoyFood.com and use the code PODCAST at checkout to get a 50% off your first order today.

That's GetJoyFood.com and use the code PODCAST at checkout to get 50% off your first order. I can't believe it's August 6th. I know I say that this time of the year, but it really seems like this summer is flying by. And if I would stop counting Sundays until the NFL season, maybe it wouldn't be quite so emphasized, but I do it.

It's who I am. It's how I operate and how I think about summer. How many weeks until football kicks off and I no longer have summer. So are you ready for the cold hard truth? I mean, it's not cold anywhere yet, but well, except in the hotel rooms and quarters for Team USA at the Women's World Cup.

If they're even still there, they may actually be back in the United States or over the ocean somewhere headed back to America after their unceremonious exit. We will get to that coming up, I promise. But Sunday, this Sunday, as in today, exactly five weeks. You guys, that's it. Five weeks until we are immersed in NFL Sunday week one.

How is that possible? Five weeks. But that's what we're looking at right now.

Since I'm headed back to Houston for Labor Day weekend, kind of counting down the days for that trip, but I realize coming back from Labor Day weekend on the Tuesday morning, so that's early September, will be within 60 hours of the NFL season kicking off. So as much as I want Labor Day weekend to get here and I'm excited about taking another trip and my last little mini vacation, that'll be it. I mean, that'll be it.

No more time off until Thanksgiving, I think. Oh, oh, never mind. Please slow down. Please slow down.

We do love the NFL here on the show and we certainly know NFL drives the bus on after hours, so it's always good for business to have the NFL front and center, but five weeks. What's your reaction to that? Day by day. Thank you, coach. That helps me out, actually. Stop looking ahead.

Go day by day because fairly soon the dog days of summer will be over and then it's poof, it's go time. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Yes, speaking of go time, it is time to start another work week. You can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio. I was in fact musing about the five weeks until NFL season and you should see my hashtag.

I'm not going to tell you what it is. You have to go look at it, but it really does in one word describe how I feel about five weeks to go. So right, check it out on Twitter, A Law Radio. Maybe I'll throw it up on Facebook as well so you all don't feel left out. Facebook page Easy Peasy named after the show. Same thing with our YouTube channel. We haven't done anything recently as in the last couple weeks, but we do have the latest video version of Ask Amy Anything as well as, and it's the summer version of Ask Amy Anything, as well as some material going back to last football season.

We always enjoy football and the antics that come with football. But yeah, Jay, it's actually time to start thinking about some new ideas for football season. We don't have much time left.

Five weeks, five weeks. We haven't even gone to our Mets game yet that I owe you. I don't want to go see the Mets. I know. Well, we're going really to see the Angels hopefully when they're in town and see Otani.

That's the reason. All the Angels right now, they are sinking once again. Six consecutive losses. So all the ground they made up after the All-Star break in keeping Shohei Otani, in adding a couple pieces that were critical or they thought could be critical like Lucas Giolito, they've now given all of that momentum back and it's been snuffed out. Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug. And while the Angels appeared to be the windshield for a brief fleeting moment in time, now they're back to being the bug. And get this, they have faded to seven games out of the last wild card.

In fact, this kind of blows me away. They're four and a half games back of the Mariners for the last wild card. They just got swept by the Mariners, right? It was a four game season, four game series. So they have, they, and this is really interesting too because you've got three teams in August who haven't yet won a game. Jay, can you name them?

I just gave you one. The Angels are one team in August that have not yet won a game. The Mets would be another. The Mets are another. Now they're not a playoff team, so okay, that one stands to reason. But the Angels had designs on the playoffs and the other two do as well. Can you name them?

Hmm, not sure off the top of my head. Diamondbacks have not yet won, so they're right in that same boat with the Angels where they're really, I don't want to say the division title is out of reach, but it's not their top goal. The other team that is, and this one blows me away, the other team that has not won a game in the month of August, the Reds.

Wow. Mm-hmm, so the Reds who were leading the NL Central, and there was so much buzz about them with their young crew sparked by Elie De La Cruz and his call up to the majors, but the Reds have dropped six in a row, the Diamondbacks have dropped six in a row, the Angels have dropped six in a row, and then the other team that hasn't won would be the Mets. They've also dropped six in a row. How about that? In Major League Baseball right now, four different teams with six consecutive losses.

That's hard to do. So we'll get to some of the other nuances and headlines from the weekend in sports. We certainly want to talk about the Pro Football Hall of Fame induction and some of the emotional stories told and connections made, some of the cool moments.

We've got football, just because it's nearly football season, as I say. Logan Wilson signing a contract, a contract extension with the Bengals. Dan Campbell, oh fantastic. I don't know, Mike Tomlin better watch out because I might be transferring my loyalties in terms of best coach, best coach speak, best coach press conferences in the NFL. I might be transferring that title to Dan Campbell from Mike Tomlin. The hype train. I don't, I'm struggling with it a little bit. I might though. It's up in the air.

Dan Campbell can win me over this year if he continues with, well if he continues with more of the hype train, if you will. So find us on Twitter or Facebook. Our phone number 855-212-4227.

That's 855-212-4CBS. Did you see that Sean Payton is asking the Denver Broncos starters to play in the preseason? Number one.

Number two. Bryce Young will start against the Jets in their preseason opener. Not the Jets, sorry, the Panthers, but it's the Panthers preseason opener against the Jets who just played in the Hall of Fame game on Thursday. So yeah, a lot to talk about. Plus I have to tell you my story of Tanglewood. There's good news and there's bad news at Tanglewood.

The photos though and the videos. Whoa. Whoa.

I don't know that I've ever been to an outdoor venue with better acoustics than Tanglewood in the Berkshires where I had no phone service and it became a major problem for one reason. I'll explain. You know me. I always have stories.

It's just, I don't know what, I don't know what it is about my life. It's never routine or boring. I'll tell you that much.

It's never routine or boring. I'll tell you that much. All right, let's hop in with the earliest exit for the US women in a World Cup ever. There are a lot of words that we could use to describe the round of 16 shocker between the US and Sweden. Not because Sweden isn't a quality team and doesn't also have designs on winning the World Cup. This was no guarantee that the Americans would three-peat. But to go out in the round of 16 and the way they went out in the round of 16.

Earliest exit ever and 238 minutes without scoring. That is not Team USA. We're not talking about the men's team, you guys.

That's their problem. The men's team frequently has trouble generating offense. No, this is the women's team that had three goals in its opener against Vietnam and only scored one more goal in the three matches after that. That's unheard of for Team USA. Four goals in four matches. But really, if you take out the three goals in the opener, including the two by Sophia Smith, she never scored again.

All the promise, all the excitement, all the young players. Remember we had spoken about this World Cup with Stephen Goff when he joined us from Down Under, going back to before their first match. And we talked about all the rookies, meaning the World Cup rookies. Not that they'd never played with Team USA or that they weren't incredible players in their own right, but there were a bunch of rookies on this team that had never experienced the World Cup stage specifically.

But then Sophia Smith comes out and has this dazzling debut and they crush Vietnam and they're off. One more goal after that, and it was against the Dutch. They had to score the late goal by Lindsey Heran late, and then they didn't score again. They never scored again other than penalty kicks, and that's not scores, obviously.

Not for lack of trying, though. Even if you weren't awake at 2 a.m. Central, 5 a.m. Eastern on Sunday morning, and I confess I was not. I did not watch it live, but it did get replayed on Fox Sports. I think it was FS2, actually, on Sunday afternoon. I watched it.

I knew the result, but I didn't know much about the game, so I watched the replay on Sunday afternoon. Chance after chance after chance. The goalie for the game, the goalie for Sweden, was absolutely brilliant. Zakira Musovic. I don't know how you say her first name. Musovic is how you pronounce her last name. She was awesome. We'll call her Z.

Z Musovic. She stonewalled the Americans, save after save, and I mean the kind of saves that are pure instinct, reaction time, and just the preparation, and sometimes the guesswork. How often does it happen with point blank shots where the keeper guesses correctly and happens to be in the right place?

She was brilliant. One particular save, and there were a couple of point blank ones, but one particular save she made, Lindsay Aran had a ball that was curving off of her foot, just bending it like Beckham, and it was headed for the far right corner of the net. A diving save.

I mean, Musovic, all out, complete extension, parallel to the ground to make the save, and it was all she could do to get her fingertips on it. Soccer is a game similar to hockey in which it doesn't matter, obviously, how many shots on goal you generate if they don't go in, but in theory, the more shots you generate, the better opportunities you have. The more shots you generate, the more traffic you generate in front of the net, well, the more that you increase your potential for getting one to go in, or if not actually the shot, well, then you increase the possibility that there's an offensive rebound and a putback for one of your teammates.

The more traffic, the better. For two reasons, duh, in sports, you'd rather have the ball or the puck in the other zone than in your own, so it decreases the chances that you're going to give up a goal, but it also increases your chances to score. The U.S. dominated in generating offensive opportunities but could not get one in the back of the net.

22 shots for Team USA against Sweden. Even Messi had a ball bang off the post on Sunday, but he was right there for his own rebound because that's what he does. My goodness, does nobody bother to put a mark on him? Did they just forget? Are they busy watching Messi? That's what's happening? The dude's not 22, he's not out running guys on the field, but he goes in for a shot, he bangs it off the post, and then follows home his own rebound because there's nobody else in front of him.

It's like, where's the traffic? Are you just standing around watching? It's like they don't want to be the guy to knock Messi down or get too physical with him because he's such a legend, right? Oh my gosh, yeah, it's kind of embarrassing how wide open he is in MLS.

I'm starting to change my opinion about Major League Soccer. These are not the best players in the game because Messi is having a field day and I'm not kidding. There are times when I get it that he's brilliant with the dribbling, but when he does get through traffic and puts a shot on goal and nobody's there to wrap up the rebound or to get in front of him. All right, I mean, I get that he's really good, but he's embarrassing you.

He's humiliating you right now in MLS, but I digress. Back to the Women's World Cup. 22 shots for Team USA, 9 for Sweden. I think I saw, don't quote me on this number, but I believe that I saw their last 39 shots they came up empty. So that goes back to the end or the, I don't think it was stoppage time, but late second half against the Netherlands two and a half games ago. 39 shot attempts. No goals.

Painful to watch, even more painful to experience as you can imagine. And now here I am touting the Swedish goalkeeper, Z. Mushavic. Pretty proud of myself just for that part. Z. Do you think her friends call her Z? Zakira? That's a good name. Zakira?

That's a good nickname. Not Shakira, but Zakira Mushavic. She actually didn't have to work. Well, it's stressful to be in goal for penalty kicks, especially when they go sudden death, but she's not the reason Team USA failed in PKs. Did you all see Megan Rapinoe, Sophia Smith, missed a wide open net? So Mushavic dives the other direction. So if you're looking at the goal, we're going to say she dives, well, she dives to her right, our left, twice against Rapinoe and Sophia Smith on back to back PKs for the US. Both times she gets wrong.

She goes to the right. The net is cavernous. They could have barely touched it with their toe and the ball would have rolled because she was diving the wrong direction. And yet Megan Rapinoe airmails one that goes up and over the top of the crossbar.

Again, wide open net. And then Sophia Smith, high and right. And the two of them, Rapinoe was laughing, which I don't love, but I understand it. She was incredulous. It looked, the optics weren't great when Rapinoe's giggling over the fact that her shot didn't go in. But again, she was stunned. Sophia Smith started crying right on the spot.

Just couldn't believe it. And she'd had some near misses in the last couple of games and hadn't been able to break through. Even Alyssa Nair scored for Team USA. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever seen a straight on penalty kick, but she didn't bother to go left or right. She just kicked it straight ahead.

No air under it. I don't want to say no skill because clearly she scored, but she just walked up to the ball, didn't even really set, just boom, straight at the middle of the net. And Mujovich had, I think she dove to her right again and just... It's pretty smart.

Yeah, it is. Because the goalie's thinking already, I'm going to dive one way. I'm not just going to stand there. The keeper's thinking that of course they're going to go corner, left or right. And so Alyssa just, the keeper for Team USA just walks up, boots it straight in and walks back to her own goal. Who better to know the strategy than the other goalie? Good point.

It's a great point. All right, so we'll get the reaction from Alyssa Nair, who thought she had a stop on the final PK for Sweden and had to wait through a bit of a review. Then some of the veterans, Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Julie Ertz, Captain Lindsay Aran, and what's the future of Vlaco Andanovsky, who is the keeper. I'm not sorry, the keeper. He's the manager who's just gone through this four-year rotation.

Will he survive? Stunning exit, but they did not play well in terms of capitalizing on opportunities. You know, actually they have something in in common with the Padres.

The Padres certainly have plenty of opportunities and don't always capitalize. I suppose we'd come up with some runners in scoring position stat for Team USA, but if you watch it, you know how many near misses, how many point blank shots, how many wasted chances. In sports, you only get away with that for so long. It doesn't matter how good you are, you only get away with it for so long. Ask the Bruins, right?

Hockey and soccer, they can be cruel. On Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page, After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Can't wait to connect with you, so find us on social. Our podcast is well available every weekday morning, and we always put the link up on social. Once you bookmark it, you don't need us for the link, and I know a lot of you keep in touch on the podcast, so hello if you're listening via pod. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast.

Karting! Can it go in? Waiting on the signal. No. You've got to be kidding. Well, they're waiting. They're going to check.

The AR can't intervene. I couldn't top from here. I thought it was going in, but it happened so quickly. Wow! Sweet wins!

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. A stunning finish to the World Cup run for Team USA. Earliest exit ever. They've never bowed out before the semi-finals, but in the round of 16, they fall to Sweden in sudden death penalty kicks. Talk about excruciating. The call's there on Fox Soccer.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. A listener in goal for Team USA also had a penalty kick that was successful, though Megan Rapinoe, Sophia Smith, theirs went high and tight and wide. We just lost the World Cup by a millimeter.

That's tough. I'm proud of the fight of the team tonight. I think we knew that we hadn't given our best in the group stage, and we wanted a complete team performance. The team came out.

I thought we played great tonight. A number of great chances. Hats off to the Swedish goalkeeper, obviously.

A number of fantastic saves on her end to keep it 0-0. It's a tough one for sure. We'll go around. We'll pick our heads up. I'm just proud of the battle, proud of the fight of the group.

I think we showed that American mentality again, that's been standard for this team. To come up short hurts. It's going to hurt for a long time, but I'm proud of the fight of the group. It's a tough moment, obviously.

It's a moment where it's hard to go through. Until the last whistle is blown, you have hopes that the ball didn't cross the line. From what I understood now, obviously the referee calls it, it did. I see pictures now, I still can't see it, but that just shows how cruel this game sometimes can be and how small of a detail makes a difference between winning and losing.

You hear first from Alyssa Nair and then Vlado Andonovsky. I resist this idea that their entire World Cup came down to a millimeter or a missed penalty kick. They did actually make their first three pks against Sweden and then we saw Megan Rapinoe and Sophia Smith back to back go wide and they never got their mojo back after that. And you hear on Fox, and maybe you've seen it, the last goal for Sweden, it kind of bounced up in the air off of Alyssa's hands and she thought she prevented it from going over the goal line. But regardless, they were down to their last chance anyway. They had already used all of their nine lives, potentially could have been eliminated by Portugal, a team that was outside the top 20 in the world standings, if not for a ball that clangs off the post. Was it a stoppage time, right? Clangs off the post in stoppage time, otherwise they'd already be out.

So the idea that it came down to a millimeter is bunk. That's making too little of the fact that they went 238 minutes without scoring. The men's team can do that and does sometimes, but the women's team should not be doing that. Sweden is the number three team in the world, I believe, so they're a really good opponent.

They're terrific. Their goalie obviously, we'll use the hockey term, standing on her head. She was amazing, but they screwed around enough that this was the matchup they got. Because of how they played in group stage, and remember Carly Lloyd was so angry, she was so agitated, what she felt like was not a lot of effort wasn't an effort worthy of the name on the back of the jersey, the name on the front of the jersey, the colors or the stage. So that's the part that's stunning is how many opportunities they had that they wasted.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Megan Rapinoe, as we say, was one of those who missed a wide open net with a penalty kick that went high and off to the right. Obviously to miss penalties, that was like a dark, sick, dark joke in there somewhere for me personally. Yeah, just not our day. I mean, that's the cruel side of this beautiful game, but really proud of the group.

I thought we put on a great performance tonight. Couldn't find the back of the net, but this group has such a bright future. Hopefully they, don't take this one too hard.

They'll be right back here in four years. It's tough. I mean, you never, obviously we're proud of the way that we've played, but we didn't put anything in the back of the net. I mean, the penalties was tough as well. I think for me, it's just emotional because it's probably my last game ever being able to have the honor to wear this crest. So I think it's just, it's just tough. I feel like it's just an emotional time.

So it absolutely sucks. I mean, penalties are the worst, but it's an honor to represent this team. And I'm excited for the future of the girls. That's Julie Ertz, who just finished up her third world cup. So she does have two world cup championships. She was part of, of those with team USA, the last two, but she has said that this is her last one. We knew Megan Rapinoe was also retiring.

So she ends her U S career on this painful loss. What about Alex Morrison? Well, I mean, I think it's, it's, it's, it's, what about Alex Morgan?

That's a big question. Morgan did not play well in this world cup. She's been the striker that usually has the ability to break through, has the ability to change a game or turn it on its head. Obviously when players get older, sometimes they lose speed.

They become a step slow. And it was Rapinoe who subbed in for her late in the game on Sunday. So there's a lot of talk that even if Alex wants to play again, and you'll hear from her personally in a second, she was also devastated. Even if she wants to play again, she may not make the team again, because it really did seem like the offense bogged down a bunch when she was out there.

And it's her job. It's her job as a striker to create opportunities and to find breakthroughs, to find seams. Sophia Smith, she had a bunch of changes, just couldn't get anything to get into the net after the opening game. But the younger, the speed, the explosiveness, that's what Alex Morgan used to be. So what is her place on Team USA moving forward?

Well, she was asked about her future. And long-time US men's national team member Alexi Lalles has a theory about a change that he believes is on the way. So plenty to get to in the wake of, gosh, a round of 16 exit for Team USA. Forget falling short of a third consecutive World Cup title, which would have been unprecedented, would have been their fifth, I think, in national history, but they don't even make it to the semifinals. And also exactly five weeks from today, we'll be talking about NFL Sunday week one, just for perspective.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Just devastated. Feels like a bad dream. And I don't know, the team put everything out there tonight. I feel like we dominated, but it doesn't matter. Then the day we're going home, and it's the highs and lows of the sport of soccer.

So yeah, it's just, it doesn't feel great. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. I would say that's an understatement for Alex Morgan, who was in tears, as were many of the American players. There's certainly some question about whether or not Alex plays on the national team moving forward. We know about Megan Rapinoe. We know about Julie Ertz.

Those two are retiring. Is that where Morgan is headed? So she was asked on Fox. I saw this interview. I'm trying to remember who it was from. Her name escapes me right this second, but the interview was done in the wake of the game on Fox, and she was asked about her future. I don't know.

I was so focused on the World Cup that I don't know. I'm just ready to get back to San Diego, get back to work, go from there. She doesn't sound like she's retiring. Doesn't sound like it will be her choice. Ready to get back to work, but it may not come down to what she wants to do. Jenny Taft, thank you for reminding me, yes, as I watch the interview myself.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. I mentioned Megan Rapinoe, longtime staple on Team USA, and only because I'm a little more old school and traditional. I didn't love that she had a big smile on her face after she missed her penalty kick. I get it. Sometimes you're so incredulous. You can't believe that just happened, and that's what she said afterwards. That's why I had a smile on my face.

I'm like, you've got to be bleeping, kidding me. I'm going to miss a penalty. I mean, honestly, I can't remember the last time I missed, and yet that's what this was. A perfect storm of sorts for Team USA, where not just Rapinoe misses a wide open net, but Sophia Smith, when was the last time she missed a penalty kick? And in both cases, the Swedish goalkeeper, she dived the other way.

She wasn't even in the same half of the net. Messi would never miss that. Do you think Messi ever misses? Well, he did hit a post, actually. On Sunday night, he hit a post on his initial shot for Miami, but then it was like a rebound in basketball. When you shoot, you always know, it's what they say, follow your shot because you're the one who knows where it's coming down. There was nobody in front of him.

Nobody. I think that's the second or third time he's done that so far in MLS. He's an old man. Why are they so afraid of him? Are they afraid if you get too close to him, you might get struck by lightning? I mean, I've heard of give the guy some respect, give him some space, but a little bit too much space.

Give him space? When do you ever give people space in soccer? Unless they can dribble around you, which Messi could, but it's not like he's going to beat you up the field. You wouldn't think so.

No, he's definitely not going to beat you up the field. All right, Megan Rapinoe, that explains the smile, but what about what went wrong? Eventually, you got to put the ball in the back of the net. PK's included, so it felt like we had a lot of chances.

Lindsay had an amazing chance. Obviously, a great save by the goalkeeper from Sweden in the second half, but yeah, just couldn't find it today. Sort of out of sync with our performance because I felt like we played really well and controlled the ball and had a lot of joy out there. I thought the team defended very, very good. Very proud of them and devastated for them that we have to go out the way we did. I thought that we deserved a lot more. We deserve to win this game. I thought we created enough to win this game. I thought that we put up a fight, a battle. I thought that we represented this country proud and showed what we stand for and did everything right.

Not quite everything, but I do understand the sentiment of Vlacko Indanovski. Four total goals for Team USA in four games and three of them were in the opener. That was their best performance, right? They peaked in the opener. Early too.

That's not what you want, exactly. Sophia Smith had, what, two goals in the first half of that game against Vietnam. Once they were pushed, once they were challenged, I thought they would respond after the game against the Dutch in which they salvaged a tie. Lindsay Aran scoring late in that game, they salvaged a tie.

They very easily could have had a loss in that one because they trailed a good portion of the game. Now, she's the captain. She did make her PK and she had a couple of other opportunities that were stonewalled by Muscovic, the goalie for the Swedish, but it's up to her, right, to keep this team driving forward at least at this point because she's in a leadership position. First and foremost, I'm so proud of the team. A lot went into this performance and it was kind of changing gears and playing like us and playing our style and being confident and patient and all those things. We went out and did it and I think we played beautiful football today and we entertained and we created chances. We didn't score and this is part of the game. Penalties, to be frank, they suck.

They're cruel. I've gone through too many in my career and this is, you know, I'm proud of every player that stepped up to take a penalty today. You know, score or miss, it's courageous to go take a penalty, so I'm very proud of my team.

I like her a lot. She's one of my favorite members of the team. I do appreciate the contributions of Julie Ertz, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, but it's a very definite feeling that this is the end of an era for Team USA. Just like it was with Carly Lloyd before that, Abby Wambach, you remember some of the staples for Team USA and it happens for every team in the World Cup, not just the U.S. women, but they squandered a major chance to make history. Never really played well, maybe too much turnover, maybe that's the case, but according to Alexi Lalas, long-time member and broadcaster for U.S. soccer, the manager, in this case, Andanovsky, he believes should be a change, that there should be a new coach for the Americans. I don't think that Vlad Kondanovsky is going to continue on in the coaching capacity for this national team. I think that, you know, this is a logical conclusion to his cycle and not for nothing, but two big tournaments, they bombed out of both of them and historically they have failed.

And so I think it's, as I said, I think it's just a logical thing. I don't think that his time has been unsuccessful with the national team in terms of identifying some new players. And also to be fair to Vlad Kondanovsky, he's in this weird position, and you've talked about it many times on this pod, where you have these two extremes. You have the old players who have already done that, and so there's not the urgency for them because they already have their hardware and their fame and fortune over there. And then the young ones that don't know yet, but want to do it, but there's no urgency for them because they have multiple opportunities coming forward. So it was a difficult time.

He needed to transition, I think, out of that old, you know, guard maybe quicker than he thought he needed to do. But ultimately, the results are the only thing that matter. Here we sit today in a place that we haven't sat ever from a national team perspective in a World Cup. And certainly given the last couple of World Cups, this is very, very early to be having these types of conversations. Alexi Lawless on Fox Soccer. We've looked for some Carly Lloyd reaction, but short of going back to the actual broadcast, haven't seen anything at this particular moment. We'll keep searching, but that's lawless. And not so much because he thinks that Vlad isn't a good leader moving forward.

That's what he called him, Vlad. But because they did fail miserably in their last two tournaments, there are some positives, but there are also some negatives. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. We'd love to hear from you.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, or on our Facebook page. They bombed out, failed miserably is what he said. And you know what, too much is given, much is required. The US women are the best in the world. They take the best shot from everybody else. All the other nations understand what it means to beat the Americans. That is a blessing.

Pressure is a privilege, as Boomer Esiason says all the time. So we'll hear from you. And top of the hour here, we're going to turn our attention to baseball. Not only do we have an actual brawl over the weekend between Chicago and Cleveland, but we're going to talk Padres as they get closer to 500. What does that mean?

They're just out of a wildcard spot. Before we get to the top, Jay and I were looking through the Fox Soccer Twitter. We're going to retweet this video from an Olympian and a former pro named Melissa Ortiz, who's now an analyst. She works for MLS and for Fox. Apparently, she went to the Sydney Zoo in Australia to ask a lion who will win the World Cup. I want to know, you need to watch the video. Again, we're putting it up on Twitter after our CBS.

Would you do this? Okay, the lion was in a cage. Regardless, Jay and I nearly threw up watching this video.

No joke, I think Jay peed his pants. So you've got to go to our show Twitter after our CBS and watch. It's a short video with Melissa Ortiz and a lion as she attempts to predict the outcome of the Women's World Cup. I want to know if you would do it. Would you stand there in front of that cage? Would you interact with the lion the way that she did?

And there's a reason why the lion is growling at her but you got to go watch it. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. The official Winning Time podcast from HBO is back. I'm Rodney Barnes, executive producer on the show. Magic and the Lakers are back to defend their title. Join me as I break down each new episode with sportswriter Jeff Perelman and the actors, directors and key collaborators who brought the 1980s Showtime Lakers to life. It's not about basketball. It's about winning. Listen to HBO's official Winning Time podcast on Sundays after the show airs on max.