Hello, Sunshine. I'm Alexei Lalas and welcome to the State of the Union podcast.

We look at the beautiful game on and off the field through the lens of red, white, and blue colored glasses.

We are coming to you from SoFi Stadium, a special State of the Union, immediately following the United States loss to Panama in the semifinal of the Nation League.

My friend Stu Holden is here to join me with some instant reaction.

Our friend David Mossie will be with us later in the show.

All right, Stu.

Not good, my friend.

No, Bueno. Panama, again, getting the better of the United States.

Look, it's the same old story.

There was no red card tonight for the United States

and yet the same result. They end up losing against the Panamanian team. I thought the U.S. had,

for the large part of the game, control of the game and the possession, but not really dangerous.

And that's the biggest frustration when it comes to this team. It's the chance creation. The game

was slow. The game was flat.

But you know what you were going to get against Panama. You knew they were going to set up in a

5-4-1. They were going to lock down space. They played very narrow in the middle. And yet we're

trying to jam the ball through the middle of the field to find Polisic, who, by the way, I thought,

had a very poor game today for the United States. Came came in a great forum from his club

form with A.C. Milan. Josh Sargent ultimately had no real chances in front of

goal. Tim Wea, one of the few bright spots. But outside of that I'm struggling to

find anything that gives me real confidence and hope off the back of this team. Now,

it's not everything is falling from the sky, but yet we were saying for Maricio

...