Speaker 1: Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where we finally
Speaker 1: got to meet Ellie the Elephant. I showed her a
Speaker 1: pick of my Halloween costume. I told her about my splits.
Speaker 1: She kissed me with her trunk. We're basically besties now.
Speaker 1: Don't be surprised if there's a special guest dancer during
Speaker 1: the first Ellie Stomp of the season. It's Thursday, April
Speaker 1: twenty fourth, and on today's show will be joined by
Speaker 1: World Cup and NWSL champion Megan Klingenberg for a thoughtful
Speaker 1: conversation on identity, music and knowing when it's time to
Speaker 1: move on. Plus two dreams are hatched with one shovel,
Speaker 1: breaking NWSL records with diamonds and a reminder that all plants,
Speaker 1: including citrus trees, need a little help to grow.
Speaker 2: That's all coming up right after this. Welcome back, y'all.
Speaker 2: Here's what you need to know today.
Speaker 1: Instead of starting with a sport, we're going to start
Speaker 1: with a place, Portland, Oregon, where earlier this week, ground
Speaker 1: was broken on a new training facility that'll be shared
Speaker 1: by the NWSL's Portland Thorns and the city's new WNBA
Speaker 1: expansion team. Both teams are owned by the Bethal Families
Speaker 1: RAJ Sports. The training center is expected to open in
Speaker 1: early twenty twenty six, just in time for the Thorns
Speaker 1: season and ahead of the yet to be named WNBA
Speaker 1: expansion team's debut. A little more dual sports news, the
Speaker 1: NWSL's BFC announced that they'll play the Washington Spirit at
Speaker 1: Oracle Park, home of the MLB's San Francisco Giants, in August.
Speaker 1: BFC could break the NWSL's attendance record if fans show out,
Speaker 1: because forty two hundred and sixty fans can cram into
Speaker 1: Oracle Park, that's twice as many as BFC's normal venue,
Speaker 1: PayPal Park. The current NWSL attendance record was set last
Speaker 1: summer when the Chicago Stars played against Bay in front
Speaker 1: of thirty five thousand and thirty eight fans at Wrigley Field.
Speaker 2: Yours truly was one of.
Speaker 1: Them to college hoops after three seasons at UCLA, the
Speaker 1: last two as a starter. Guard Lundon Jones, who led
Speaker 1: the Bruins in three point makes last season, has committed
Speaker 1: to RIVEC via the transfer portal. Teammate Janiah Barker, who
Speaker 1: spent two seasons with Texas A and m before joining
Speaker 1: the Bruins last year, has committed to Tennessee out of
Speaker 1: the Transfer Portal. UCLA also saw its entire freshman class
Speaker 1: enter the portal following the season, so it'll be a
Speaker 1: new look bruined squad trying to make another Final Four run.
Speaker 1: Next March to golf, where the LPGA's first major of
Speaker 1: the season begins today the Chevron Championship at the Club
Speaker 1: at Carlton Woods in the Woodlands, Texas. Play begins at
Speaker 1: eight fifteen am Eastern today and teeing off at nine
Speaker 1: thirty two am Eastern. Is the marquee group of defending
Speaker 1: champ Nellie Corda and past Chevron winners Lily Avou and
Speaker 1: Patty Taviatankt. The one hundred and thirty two player field
Speaker 1: is playing for a seven point nine million dollar perse,
Speaker 1: with the winner collecting one point two million and the
Speaker 1: right to jump into the pond post victory, a celebration
Speaker 1: that began with winner Amy Alcott in nineteen eighty eight
Speaker 1: and became an annual tradition starting in nineteen ninety four,
Speaker 1: carrying over from Rancho Mirage where the event used to
Speaker 1: be to the Woodlands, when the tournament moved in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three. You can watch it all on the Golf
Speaker 1: Channel beginning at ten am Eastern today and tomorrow, and
Speaker 1: NBC on Saturday and Sunday starting at three pm Eastern.
Speaker 1: ESPN Plus is also going to have featured coverage today
Speaker 1: and tomorrow starting at nine am Eastern, and Saturday and
Speaker 1: Sunday beginning at eight thirty am Eastern.
Speaker 2: Finally, in hockey, it's official.
Speaker 1: The PWHL announced on Wednesday they'll be expanding the league
Speaker 1: with a team in Vancouver, British Columbia. That team will
Speaker 1: start play this fall, joining the original six teams for
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five to twenty six season. The team
Speaker 1: will operate as PWHL Vancouver until the permanent brand identity
Speaker 1: is announced, but we do know that the team colors
Speaker 1: will be Pacific Blue and cream slices. I'm back from
Speaker 1: New York, where not only did I meet the Queen
Speaker 1: Ellie the Elephant at the Deep Blue Business of Women's
Speaker 1: Sports Summit linked to our selfie in the show notes,
Speaker 1: I also moderated a great panel about growth and innovation
Speaker 1: with folks from Unrivaled together Athletes, Unlimited Softball, the NHRA,
Speaker 1: and Relo Metrics. Really learned a ton from those folks
Speaker 1: about they're innovating. I also got to hear Lauren and
Speaker 1: Siata Bett's chat about playing together at UCLA next year.
Speaker 1: I saw Azy Fudd and Sue Byrd talk about Yukon's
Speaker 1: title run this year, and watched a panel of New
Speaker 1: York Liberty execs share the secrets to their championship season. Plus,
Speaker 1: I absolutely marveled over Chelsea Clinton's thoughtfulness, insight, and impressive vocabulary.
Speaker 1: I need to start using subsumes in everyday conversation like
Speaker 1: she does. There were so many other great panels throughout
Speaker 1: the day. Lots of friends of the show were there,
Speaker 1: including the Valkyrie, Jess Smith, Moulach Kicks, Natalie White, the GISTs,
Speaker 1: Ellen Hyslop, and US women's national team legend Brianna Scurry.
Speaker 1: And it was really cool to get to see a
Speaker 1: bunch of fellow iHeart Women's Sports Network podcast hosts, Carrie Champion,
Speaker 1: mel Reed, Ashlyn Harris, Christina Williams, Treika Foster, Brasby, Aj Andrews,
Speaker 1: Renee Stubbs, the whole gang was there. Speaking of those podcasts,
Speaker 1: by the way, a little teaser keeping here out for
Speaker 1: next week's episodes, because we'll be helping you get to
Speaker 1: know some of those other pods. What was really cool
Speaker 1: about the event was it was a year ago this
Speaker 1: week that I was on stage with Laura Currny of
Speaker 1: Deep Blue, Sue Bird, and Gail Trouberman of iHeart to
Speaker 1: announce the launch of our iHeart Women's Sports Network and
Speaker 1: I crunch the numbers, and in the year since we announced,
Speaker 1: we have launched fifteen podcasts, we've quadrupled women's sports coverage
Speaker 1: across Iheart's broadcast radio network, provided more than six hundred
Speaker 1: hours of content, reached seventy five million fans, And personally,
Speaker 1: not only have I done almost two hundred podcasts with
Speaker 1: our little crew here a Good Game with Sarah Spain,
Speaker 1: but I've done over eight hundred women's sports reports, three
Speaker 1: times daily updates that run on all of Iheart's five
Speaker 1: hundred broadcast radio stations across the country. So when you
Speaker 1: multiply those by three times a day across all those stations,
Speaker 1: that's forty thousand updates where people with no choice have
Speaker 1: heard about the WNBA, the NWSLPWHL, the Olympics, and so
Speaker 1: much more right alongside their weather and traffic, and right
Speaker 1: alongside the updates about men's sports, which we love because
Speaker 1: for decades we have just been driving our cars told
Speaker 1: about what men are doing, and now all over the
Speaker 1: country people are hearing about what women are doing in
Speaker 1: sports as well. So shout out to that conference and
Speaker 1: shout out to one year since we launched the network.
Speaker 1: It's just it's been a really fun year. We're going
Speaker 1: to take a quick break when we come back. It's
Speaker 1: Megan Klingenberg. Last week I caught up with her and
Speaker 1: her Pomeranians, who you can hear occasionally in the interview stick.
Speaker 2: Around joining us now.
Speaker 1: She's a former member of the US women's national team,
Speaker 1: a World Cup champion, two time NWSL champion, and two
Speaker 1: time NWSL shield winner. She played her college ball at UNC,
Speaker 1: played pro for multiple teams in the WPS in Sweden
Speaker 1: and then in the NWSL, playing for the Houston Dash
Speaker 1: for a season before finding a home with the Portland
Speaker 1: Thorns and playing there from twenty sixteen till twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: She's a co founder of lifestyle brand Reinc. A black
Speaker 1: belt in taekwondo, a self proclaimed decaf latte connoisseur, and
Speaker 1: Sudoku master. Her love language is French fries, but she
Speaker 1: ain't salty. It's Meghan Klingenberg.
Speaker 3: Hi, Cling, Hi, Sarah, how you doing.
Speaker 2: I'm good. Nice to see you too long?
Speaker 3: I know.
Speaker 1: Can I just tell you how often? So this wouldn't
Speaker 1: take people behind the scenes briefly. So I met Cling
Speaker 1: at the US women's national team player's ball, but it
Speaker 1: was like a whole fun couple days of events before that.
Speaker 1: We were going to see the national team play in
Speaker 1: New York friendly before the gala, and when we first met,
Speaker 1: we were chatting and I'm like, I'm pretty sure this
Speaker 1: is Megan Klingenberg, but I wasn't sure. And then at
Speaker 1: some point I said something really dumb about like, oh,
Speaker 1: the national team, like did you ever play?
Speaker 2: And it was like me trying to figure out if
Speaker 2: you were you?
Speaker 1: And then you were so humble like yeah, I'd play
Speaker 1: a little, and I was like, I look like an asshole.
Speaker 1: I should have been like very sure that it was her,
Speaker 1: and then now I look like someone who didn't know
Speaker 1: that she was really great and played for the national team.
Speaker 1: And then I like literally thought about it multiple times
Speaker 1: since then, like every time you pop on my social
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, I bet she thinks I'm such an asshole.
Speaker 2: But then we ung out for a couple of days
Speaker 2: and I was like, we're cool. Even though I you know,
Speaker 2: you're just so little.
Speaker 1: Everyone's too little to me for me to think that
Speaker 1: they're the person that they are. That is like amazing
Speaker 1: because I'm just so tall and you're so tiny.
Speaker 3: You know what, I actually do get that a lot.
Speaker 3: I feel like a lot of people like Pinot and
Speaker 3: Press and Sophia Smith, like they can't go on to
Speaker 3: the radar. They just kind of stick out when they're
Speaker 3: walking around town. But nobody expects this teeny tiny little
Speaker 3: body to be able to do what it did. So
Speaker 3: I just had to just like squeeze through crowds and
Speaker 3: I just go to places where people are they don't
Speaker 3: even notice that. They kind of think that I'm in
Speaker 3: high school or something.
Speaker 1: It's a nice problem to have as you get older.
Speaker 1: Maybe not when you're younger and you want people to
Speaker 1: respect you, but as you're older, you're like, oh I
Speaker 1: look extremely young.
Speaker 2: Oh thank you.
Speaker 1: You parted ways with Portland at the end of last season,
Speaker 1: and you posted to social in part quote this isn't
Speaker 1: the ending I wanted, but it's the ending that I chose,
Speaker 1: and as every athlete knows, getting to choose your ending
Speaker 1: is a rare gift. I'm excited for what's next and
Speaker 1: wherever I end up, I'll carry Portland with me.
Speaker 2: Didn't sound like a retirement at the time, was it.
Speaker 3: Well, I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Right now,
Speaker 3: I'm just kind of like enjoying life and just kind
Speaker 3: of seeing what life without soccer feels like. I feel
Speaker 3: like the end of Portland wasn't really that fun. It
Speaker 3: wasn't really what it had been for all of the
Speaker 3: years that I had been playing there. I feel like
Speaker 3: a lot of things had changed and the culture just
Speaker 3: became completely different, and it was hard because we built
Speaker 3: this culture over six seven, eight years and then it
Speaker 3: shifted and it felt like I wasn't meant to be
Speaker 3: a part of that culture anymore, or be a part
Speaker 3: of that group, or be a part of that future.
Speaker 3: Which is fine, those things happen, you know, especially two
Speaker 3: athletes who are on the other side of thirty five.
Speaker 3: But I just feel like it just wasn't really a
Speaker 3: space for me to be my authentic self anymore. It
Speaker 3: wasn't a space for me to feel joy, and it
Speaker 3: wasn't a space for me to play freely, and so
Speaker 3: I just knew that it wasn't really the spot that
Speaker 3: I needed to be in anymore. And regardless of where
Speaker 3: I end up, or if I retire or if I
Speaker 3: keep playing, I just knew that that wasn't where I
Speaker 3: wanted to be. And so I made the decision, a
Speaker 3: very hard decision, that that wasn't someplace where I was
Speaker 3: gonna invest my time anymore.
Speaker 1: You know, I was watching an interview with you last
Speaker 1: year with Attacking Third, and it was sort of an
Speaker 1: innocuous question about what music you've been listening to, and
Speaker 1: you said Chapel Rone.
Speaker 2: You said you've been listening to her for a while.
Speaker 1: You're an og Chapel head, but you were very good
Speaker 1: about embracing the newbies that were starting to love her too.
Speaker 1: You weren't being a hipster about it. You were welcoming
Speaker 1: us all to the Chapel Roan party, but you got
Speaker 1: deep into it. And you said that last season her
Speaker 1: music helped you get to a place where you could
Speaker 1: dance again, that when you're not dancing and singing, people
Speaker 1: should check in on you. You do have this incredible
Speaker 1: light about you that I imagine if it's darkened, people notice.
Speaker 1: And I'd love to hear you talk about that, particularly
Speaker 1: because I think the power of certain music and maybe
Speaker 1: artists that make you feel seen is really incredible. Why
Speaker 1: did you need that last year and how did it
Speaker 1: arrive for you when you needed it?
Speaker 3: I always need music in my life. It's something that
Speaker 3: I don't know if you get this feeling. Apparently there's
Speaker 3: only a certain percentage of people that get this fear.
Speaker 3: I was reading about it the other day, but it's like,
Speaker 3: if a song really sits with you and it it
Speaker 3: makes you feel something, then you get chills. Does that
Speaker 3: happen to you?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I literally have sent my bestdie my concert wife that
Speaker 1: article because it says people who get the goosebumps or
Speaker 1: chill bumps or have awe. I cry a lot at concerts,
Speaker 1: Oh totally, just like I get so overwhelmed by how
Speaker 1: happy I am and how much like it means to
Speaker 1: me that I cry. When I first started dating, my
Speaker 1: husband was like, uh you okay. I'm like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: you'll get used to this. I do this a lot.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, But yeah, that article said that it's actually
Speaker 1: really good for health outcomes, that they're not entirely sure why,
Speaker 1: but that people who genuinely and regularly experience awe at
Speaker 1: the world, particularly things like music, have better general health
Speaker 1: across multiple different indicators.
Speaker 2: I'm like, yes, please, I send it to my friend
Speaker 2: and we're like we're good. Yeah, love that.
Speaker 3: I I think just last year there was a lot
Speaker 3: of stress and anxiety that I really haven't felt playing
Speaker 3: soccer in a very long time since I was very young,
Speaker 3: and like trying to prove myself, and those anxiety and
Speaker 3: stress feelings were really compounding to the point where I
Speaker 3: wasn't really wanting to show up to training or to
Speaker 3: go to soccer, which by the way, is a first
Speaker 3: for me. Ever, the thing that I love most about
Speaker 3: the game is showing up to practice and hanging out
Speaker 3: with my friends and having fun and bopping the ball
Speaker 3: as fast as we can go into the weight room,
Speaker 3: like just hanging out, and that's what brings me the
Speaker 3: most joy in soccer, and so I wasn't getting that
Speaker 3: last year. And when you're not getting that day after
Speaker 3: day after day from something that previously brought you so
Speaker 3: much joy, it became like compounded each day that you
Speaker 3: went like it became harder and harder and harder to go.
Speaker 3: So I decided that I needed to look into this
Speaker 3: more and to figure out what brings me joy besides soccer.
Speaker 3: And I've been really good about that in the past,
Speaker 3: but soccer has been relatively easy for me throughout my
Speaker 3: career in the last ten years. Of course, there's been setbacks.
Speaker 3: Of course there's been heartbreaks, of course there's been losses,
Speaker 3: but overall, it's been such a nourishing and beautiful journey
Speaker 3: that I've felt so grateful for it. And just in
Speaker 3: the past year that completely flipped, and so I was
Speaker 3: just starting to really lean into the other things in
Speaker 3: life that brought me joy, and one of those was music.
Speaker 3: And that's how Chapel Rowan came to be. And I
Speaker 3: just been bopping to her and turning the jams up
Speaker 3: as loud as I could. And one of the things
Speaker 3: that it helped me realize, which was actually quite profound
Speaker 3: for me. I don't know if it would be profound
Speaker 3: for everybody else, but what was profound for me is
Speaker 3: that I realized that soccer never brought me joy. It
Speaker 3: was always me bringing me joy and that soccer was
Speaker 3: just a vehicle for me to bring out my own joy.
Speaker 3: So that was a really big moment for me, and
Speaker 3: Chapel helped me discover that. And so that's kind of
Speaker 3: what I was getting into with the attacking third. I'm
Speaker 3: not entirely sure that that came across in that interview
Speaker 3: because I don't think that I fully recognized what was
Speaker 3: happening yet. But now after reflection and time and space,
Speaker 3: I'm able to put a name to it, is that, yes,
Speaker 3: this is what happened. I was able to have this
Speaker 3: realization and it's actually made it gosh, it's helped me
Speaker 3: like bring about a sense of peace.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 1: Back even in early twenty twenty three, you posted about
Speaker 1: getting your championship rings with the Thorns, and the caption
Speaker 1: was very simple. It was a couple of all your
Speaker 1: you and your teammates on the right carpet showing off
Speaker 1: the new rings, and you just said joy equal success.
Speaker 2: So it feels like.
Speaker 1: You've kind of known all along that it wasn't soccer
Speaker 1: necessarily or winning that was success, but the process of
Speaker 1: doing it and how it made you feel doing it.
Speaker 3: Totally one of my coaches. His name's Jason Goldsmith, and
Speaker 3: I've been working with him for a while now. He
Speaker 3: works with a bunch of PGA players and stuff like
Speaker 3: that on the mental game, and he's taught me how
Speaker 3: to meditate and what meditation means and how it can
Speaker 3: help you with sport in general and life in general.
Speaker 3: And that's his go to saying, which I've totally stolen
Speaker 3: and he has given approval of it. But yeah, joy
Speaker 3: equals success is kind of my motto now, And even
Speaker 3: when I have soccer camps for kids, I make sure
Speaker 3: that they know that the number one thing is that
Speaker 3: we're having fun, and that anywhere that we can have
Speaker 3: fun means that we're being successful. And then I think
Speaker 3: there's also the other side to it too, is that
Speaker 3: when you are having fun, it probably will lead to success.
Speaker 3: So it's kind of a double edged thing. Joy in
Speaker 3: itself is a success, but also joy leads to success
Speaker 3: in the field that you want. Because you're having so
Speaker 3: much fun, how could you not be successful at it?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're probably playing free or and bringing your full
Speaker 1: self and all of that. I remember learning about this
Speaker 1: concept you diamonea. It was from Aristotle and it was
Speaker 1: like the ultimate flourishing in life comes from a state
Speaker 1: of happiness, Like it's distinct from like a simple pleasure.
Speaker 1: It's like basically just like thriving, just like flourishing. And
Speaker 1: I think about it a lot, because for some people,
Speaker 1: happiness is not their ultimate goal. It's something else, and
Speaker 1: then they hope they're happy as a result of that.
Speaker 1: And mine has always been happiness, like will that make
Speaker 1: me happier? Or will it make me richer? If it
Speaker 1: makes me richer but not happier than I'm not taking it,
Speaker 1: If it makes me this but not happier that I'm
Speaker 1: not taking it, and so I feel like joy happiness
Speaker 1: like same vibe, which has really served me too. I
Speaker 1: wonder being on the older side on the Portland Thorns
Speaker 1: team and understanding how much younger people are getting better
Speaker 1: at talking about mental health, about knowing their identity isn't
Speaker 1: just their job or their work, compared to some of
Speaker 1: us that had to learn that much older. When you
Speaker 1: were thinking about your unhappiness there and trying to figure
Speaker 1: out why you were waking up in this rut, did
Speaker 1: you talk to your younger teammates at all about this
Speaker 1: idea of joy or trying to figure out if they
Speaker 1: had figured something out that maybe you needed to circle
Speaker 1: back around and find out at an older age.
Speaker 3: Well, I was always talking to them about different things
Speaker 3: and just checking in with them, whether it was about
Speaker 3: Love Island, USA, which we were all obsessed with and
Speaker 3: oh my gosh, I love that, or whether it's you know,
Speaker 3: just in general, checking in, seeing how they're doing after
Speaker 3: a match, after a loss, after a win, going to
Speaker 3: get coffee. I really tried to connect with a lot
Speaker 3: of different people on the team in different ways. And
Speaker 3: I was really proud of myself because while I wasn't
Speaker 3: being successful on the field, because I wasn't on the field,
Speaker 3: I felt like I had a really successful season off
Speaker 3: the field and felt like I had a really big
Speaker 3: impact on the group outside of the pitch. And that
Speaker 3: made me really proud because while I had done that
Speaker 3: before as a leader, I had to basically put aside
Speaker 3: my ego this year and figure out how to still
Speaker 3: help the group. And don't get me wrong, there was
Speaker 3: a lot of time where I couldn't put it aside,
Speaker 3: and that's okay because that's what makes me me and
Speaker 3: that's what helped me become successful at this sport was
Speaker 3: believing in myself and telling everybody to get the fuck
Speaker 3: out of my way if they're you're not going to
Speaker 3: help me, you know. And sometimes there's just nothing that
Speaker 3: you can do, regardless of how well you're playing, or
Speaker 3: how good of a teammate you are, or how much
Speaker 3: you know, how good of a performance you're putting in
Speaker 3: in any of your minutes, it just doesn't matter sometimes,
Speaker 3: And it's sometimes because you're not good enough. Sometimes it's
Speaker 3: because the coach just doesn't think that you're going to
Speaker 3: give the team what it needs. Sometimes you just don't
Speaker 3: fit the picture. There's a bunch of different reasons why
Speaker 3: it doesn't add up, and it's not all because you're unworthy.
Speaker 3: And I think that one of the things that people
Speaker 3: our age have a hard time with, at least the
Speaker 3: friend that I'm around, is that if we fail, or
Speaker 3: if we're not doing something the way that everybody else is,
Speaker 3: or we're not completing our goals on this timeline that
Speaker 3: we have in our heads, that were unworthy and that's
Speaker 3: just not true. And you know, just talking to people
Speaker 3: about that and talking through kind of just feelings of
Speaker 3: being on the bench and feelings of getting older was
Speaker 3: really interesting this year because I could tell that my
Speaker 3: teammates really loved me because they were just so compassionate
Speaker 3: and caring and really landed an ear whenever I needed it.
Speaker 3: And that was kind of a flip from before when
Speaker 3: I hadn't had to have these type of conversations in
Speaker 3: a season. So I really appreciate them doing that. I
Speaker 3: don't think they even realize how big of a impact
Speaker 3: and how big of like, how how special that was
Speaker 3: to do for somebody. So I truly appreciate that. And
Speaker 3: so no, I don't think that I necessarily spoke to
Speaker 3: them specifically like hey, have you, you know, tell me
Speaker 3: about this, but just talking to them in general and
Speaker 3: was just really eye opening and it's nice to feel
Speaker 3: cared for. And they did make me for sure, and
Speaker 3: that's pretty much the biggest thing you can do for
Speaker 3: somebody that you're working with or friends with.
Speaker 1: What about the opposite direction, because it feels like you
Speaker 1: got to this sort of inevitable but unenviable.
Speaker 2: Position of like, oh, is this is this the end?
Speaker 1: Like am I Am? I done with what I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to do here? Even if I don't want to be
Speaker 1: or I don't feel ready to be. I'm not used
Speaker 1: to being on the bench. I'm not used to not
Speaker 1: being the person that's leading, you know, with my play,
Speaker 1: did you talk to older folks, either recently retired or
Speaker 1: compatriots who are considering retirement to figure out if what
Speaker 1: you were feeling was like a nudge out or you
Speaker 1: needed to push through and think about it longer.
Speaker 3: I didn't talk to anybody who had already been retired.
Speaker 3: It was more talking to Becky a lot, who's my
Speaker 3: best friend.
Speaker 2: And Becky sower Brun.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, sorry, I just assume everybody's Becky with the
Speaker 3: good hair. Yeah. So, Becky sour Brun is my best friend,
Speaker 3: and we sat next to each other in the lockers.
Speaker 3: We hang out all the time. We lived in the
Speaker 3: same place and we'd just been friends for a long time.
Speaker 3: We talked about it a lot. Talked about it a
Speaker 3: lot with Sinki, who did know that she was retiring.
Speaker 2: Christine Sinclair, Yep.
Speaker 3: Sorry, you can do this. You can't do it that, okay, okay?
Speaker 3: And yeah, my coach Jason, and just chatting through with
Speaker 3: my partner Ingrid and just making sure that I was
Speaker 3: getting all of those feelings out. And one of the
Speaker 3: things that I did in this new year that I
Speaker 3: wasn't able to do when I was in the actual
Speaker 3: situation was kind of let go. And what I realized
Speaker 3: was that the letting like I was scared to let go,
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh, I didn't even realize that
Speaker 3: that was the part that was actually hurting me. And
Speaker 3: once I did do it, it was like this huge
Speaker 3: relief and I could actually move forward and start to
Speaker 3: explore new opportunities and new environments. But it wasn't really
Speaker 3: the soccer that was holding me back, like, oh, I
Speaker 3: want to keep playing, but they're pushing me out, you know,
Speaker 3: like those thoughts go through your head. But what ended
Speaker 3: up really being it wasn't the soccer. It was it
Speaker 3: was the me of still holy onto something that just
Speaker 3: wasn't for me anymore. And once I did let it go, Wow,
Speaker 3: it was just such a relief and a completely different feeling.
Speaker 3: And I just feel like a completely different person than
Speaker 3: I did than even like four or five months ago.
Speaker 3: And it's just freeing to note that. But it's also
Speaker 3: just so hard to get to that point.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a lot of people in my life
Speaker 1: in the last couple of years, myself included at certain
Speaker 1: points where it's like, even if you know that maybe
Speaker 1: the thing isn't for you anymore, if it's the thing
Speaker 1: you've always known, going away from it means you have
Speaker 1: to find out what the new thing is, and that's terrifying.
Speaker 1: Even if you're not perfectly happy or things aren't right
Speaker 1: where you are. It's like there's a saying, I think
Speaker 1: it's the misery of I'm gonna forget it, but it's
Speaker 1: essentially like you'd rather have the misery of what you
Speaker 1: know than the uncomfortableness of what you don't or something
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: Correct, But yeah, I think I think a lot of
Speaker 2: people go through that.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: I have to ask, are there any parallels for you
Speaker 1: to the end of your national career, because I imagine
Speaker 1: you felt like you had more to offer there that
Speaker 1: you weren't ready to say goodbye to that yet.
Speaker 2: Either.
Speaker 1: You played a lot of minutes at the twenty sixteen Olympics,
Speaker 1: you played kind of sparingly in twenty seventeen, and you
Speaker 1: didn't get a call up after that, but you were
Speaker 1: only thirty years old. You had so much else that
Speaker 1: you could have done with that team. You refocused and
Speaker 1: set goals for the NWSL. You've had years of a
Speaker 1: great career after your national team career ended, But did
Speaker 1: you feel that way at all in that moment as well?
Speaker 1: Where you had to get to a point where you
Speaker 1: could close the door on that and be okay that
Speaker 1: that wasn't for you anymore totally.
Speaker 3: And it took me a long time to be able
Speaker 3: to let that go. It took me way longer to
Speaker 3: be able to like let go my national team dreams.
Speaker 3: And I was really bitter for a long time about it,
Speaker 3: mainly because I had an injury that went undiagnosed or
Speaker 3: misdiagnosed for a long time, and because of that, I
Speaker 3: was playing through injury when I shouldn't have been and
Speaker 3: needed a surgery, And because of that, my play was
Speaker 3: not up to the standard that it usually was, and
Speaker 3: so that got held against me, and that sucks, but
Speaker 3: that's also life. So I held onto that for a
Speaker 3: really long time, and I don't really think that I
Speaker 3: got over that until I met Jason and really started
Speaker 3: working through like a lot of my stuff and was
Speaker 3: able to be more in the moment and enjoy what
Speaker 3: I have. And when I started doing that, I saw
Speaker 3: my play kind of take this leap that I haven't
Speaker 3: seen it take in a long time, and that was
Speaker 3: really cool. And I kind of realigned all of my
Speaker 3: goals and all of the things that I wanted to
Speaker 3: do with soccer and with my life and realized that
Speaker 3: there was a few things that were really important for me,
Speaker 3: and none of them were about winning, and none of
Speaker 3: them were about being on the national team.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's wild when that happens. Huh uh huh.
Speaker 3: Yeah. So so then I think because I went through
Speaker 3: that experience, this experience with the Thorns, it wasn't easier,
Speaker 3: but I was able to get to a point where
Speaker 3: I was okay faster because I had a coping mechanism
Speaker 3: and I had people in my life that could really help,
Speaker 3: and I was able to see the blessings as opposed
Speaker 3: to all of the row the so called wrongs that
Speaker 3: were perpetrated against me, you know, at my age, things
Speaker 3: that I have. So yeah, And and one thing that
Speaker 3: I also realized too is that, like you know, I'm
Speaker 3: left back, right, and I've been left back on the
Speaker 3: Thorns for nine seasons, and eight of them I started
Speaker 3: every single game that I was available, and that was
Speaker 3: my position. But what I realized is that it's not
Speaker 3: minus nobody's you know, it's not anybody's it. Eventually, even
Speaker 3: if I kept playing and I played till forty five,
Speaker 3: somebody else is going to play that position eventually, and
Speaker 3: it's not theirs. You know, it doesn't belong to anybody.
Speaker 3: It's not mine. And I think that I had this like, oh,
Speaker 3: it's something to lose, it's something to lose. But it
Speaker 3: was never mine in the first.
Speaker 1: Place, right, right, And you weren't owed it either, So
Speaker 1: when it wasn't yours, then it wasn't a persecution. It
Speaker 1: was a decision rather right or wrong, but just a decision,
Speaker 1: and the result was that you weren't playing there anymore.
Speaker 3: It's really hard to work through, especially when you're in it,
Speaker 3: and especially when you feel like the culture is not
Speaker 3: exactly you know, what you spent all of your time building.
Speaker 3: And regardless, I I just feel like I do feel
Speaker 3: like with players who are getting older, who are injured,
Speaker 3: who maybe aren't going to make the level that they
Speaker 3: need to, we need a bit more compassion for them
Speaker 3: because they have put their heart and soul into this.
Speaker 3: And I think that players all they deserve is respect
Speaker 3: and honesty, and I feel like if we give them that,
Speaker 3: they may still be upset, but it's something that they
Speaker 3: will be able to live with because that's just like,
Speaker 3: that's just the way that it is. But I feel
Speaker 3: like when people get uncomfortable, they start telling like not
Speaker 3: lies necessarily, but they'll frame it in a way that
Speaker 3: seems really rosy, but it's just not the way that
Speaker 3: it is. And I think that, you know, to get
Speaker 3: the best out of our athletes, we need to be
Speaker 3: upfront with them and allow them to go through through
Speaker 3: those feelings. Allow them to be angry with the situation
Speaker 3: with you if they need to be, and then work
Speaker 3: through it. That's just life, and that will allow them
Speaker 3: to be their best selves and it will allow the
Speaker 3: team to be its best because if we just don't
Speaker 3: allow them to go through that process, then they're going
Speaker 3: to be stuck in perpetuity just being bitter or just
Speaker 3: being mad.
Speaker 1: Well to your point too, the moments that you couldn't
Speaker 1: get past your ego, you weren't that helpful to the team,
Speaker 1: But when you were able to accept the situation as
Speaker 1: for what it was, then you could find a way
Speaker 1: to be someone who is additive even from the bench.
Speaker 2: So if you're transparent with people.
Speaker 1: And they know their new role and can learn to
Speaker 1: embrace it, they can still add something. But if they're
Speaker 1: in a state of confusion or anger, they don't feel
Speaker 1: like they're being communicated with, they're probably not given much
Speaker 1: back other than energy.
Speaker 2: That's bad for everybody else, correct, Yeah, and some.
Speaker 3: People can still overcome that because they just want to
Speaker 3: be good for the team. But why like, let's help them,
Speaker 3: Let's help everybody, regardless of their on field contributions, because
Speaker 3: quite frankly, everybody on that team is going to make
Speaker 3: it successful or not, whether they're playing or not.
Speaker 1: You know, you keep talking about the culture there. Do
Speaker 1: you think it has more to do with just the
Speaker 1: changing makeup of the roster. Do you think it's ownership?
Speaker 1: Do you think it's something that should still be addressed
Speaker 1: for the players there now or just wasn't a fit
Speaker 1: for you, Like if you were in charge over there,
Speaker 1: would you be addressing the stuff that you didn't think
Speaker 1: was working right last year for the current team.
Speaker 3: Let me first say that I think the players were great.
Speaker 3: I think that it was a great locker room. I
Speaker 3: think people absolutely put their heart and soul into it.
Speaker 3: I think that they were respectful and kind to one another,
Speaker 3: and I really enjoyed being around all the players on
Speaker 3: the team, so let's put them out there first. But
Speaker 3: I do think though, that clearly something wasn't working because
Speaker 3: that team had so much talent and we ended up
Speaker 3: being the lowest finish I think in the history of
Speaker 3: the club. So I would immediately address that. And I
Speaker 3: do think it is a culture issue. I think there
Speaker 3: was a really difficult transition from the old owners to
Speaker 3: the new owners, and I think that the things that
Speaker 3: I wanted to prioritize was not something that the people
Speaker 3: were in charge wanted to prioritize. And I don't think
Speaker 3: that the things that they want to prioritize will make
Speaker 3: them successful, but that's my.
Speaker 2: Opinion, and what kind of things.
Speaker 3: I think that people are more interested then creating a
Speaker 3: brand that's going to be like successful and is going
Speaker 3: to be like world renown, which is great, that's great,
Speaker 3: but I think that that comes from the team doing well.
Speaker 3: And I think that comes from the team being taken
Speaker 3: care of and playing with joy and playing with freedom,
Speaker 3: and like creating an environment where they can be themselves
Speaker 3: and like be their best selves. And I think it's
Speaker 3: about finding players. Like we had great players in the team,
Speaker 3: but I just think sometimes the way that they wanted
Speaker 3: certain players to play didn't fit who they were, and
Speaker 3: then they were trying to play the way that somebody
Speaker 3: else wanted them to play, which happens all the time, right,
Speaker 3: But that doesn't mean that they're going to be the
Speaker 3: best that they can be because they're just not in
Speaker 3: a space to be. But they need so.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or you can get buy in for a different
Speaker 1: style and a different approach, but then people have to
Speaker 1: really be sold on why they're doing it and trust
Speaker 1: you and want to follow you. And then if it's
Speaker 1: not exactly what they would normally do, they could still
Speaker 1: thrive in it if they believe in it, but you
Speaker 1: have to get there absolutely.
Speaker 3: And then I just think that if the player isn't
Speaker 3: the one that you need to be in that system,
Speaker 3: then you need to communicate that to them and then
Speaker 3: bring in the player that is going to be the
Speaker 3: one that fits in that system. Because I know when
Speaker 3: we were successful, like in twenty twenty one with Mark
Speaker 3: Parsons and that group that was playing there, we were
Speaker 3: incredibly talented and there was also other teams in the
Speaker 3: world that probably had more talent that we did, but
Speaker 3: we were all so bought into what we were doing,
Speaker 3: the culture, the tactics, how we were going to go
Speaker 3: about it, and if something wasn't working, we would all
Speaker 3: work together to be able to fix that. And we
Speaker 3: were given that platform to like work on it and
Speaker 3: problem solve together. And that was one of the things
Speaker 3: that I was like so like most proud of building.
Speaker 3: And then I just feel like that wasn't the way
Speaker 3: that it was going to be moving forward.
Speaker 1: Right, we got to take a quick break more with
Speaker 1: Kling after this. So you're out now with you know,
Speaker 1: might join another team, might be done.
Speaker 2: You're figuring it all out. But you've got got this
Speaker 2: quality about you. You're a natural.
Speaker 1: Leader, you're entertainer, You fight for others, you stand up
Speaker 1: for the queer community.
Speaker 2: You have all this vibe. You have tons of vibes
Speaker 2: and energy. Bud you do you do?
Speaker 1: You just bring, like like you said, joy to every
Speaker 1: where you go, even in talking about deep and hard things.
Speaker 1: It's joyful when someone could share that part of themselves
Speaker 1: because it makes other people feel understood and scenes. So
Speaker 1: where are you going to bring all that good stuff
Speaker 1: in the next stage of life, where do you want
Speaker 1: to shine that light?
Speaker 3: That's the question, isn't it. That's the question. I told
Speaker 3: my partner Ingrid. She's wonderful, by the way. I need
Speaker 3: to give her a shout out because she's just the best.
Speaker 3: But she started her own business, the New Savant, and
Speaker 3: it's Fragrant Business, and it's just been really fun watching
Speaker 3: her do that and really inspiring. And anyways, shout out
Speaker 3: to Ingrid. That's all I want to say. But for
Speaker 3: this next year, I committed to being uncomfortable, and I
Speaker 3: decided that I don't want to have any job that
Speaker 3: I'm going to lock myself into when I'm just not
Speaker 3: ready for that yet. And so I I'm just trying
Speaker 3: a bunch of stuff. This is the year that I'm
Speaker 3: going to explore. I'm doing media, I'm trying coaching, I'm
Speaker 3: trying all kinds of different stuff playing and basically, I
Speaker 3: just really want to figure out something like soccer that
Speaker 3: makes me tick, that really gets me up in the morning,
Speaker 3: something that helps me move towards my why, and that
Speaker 3: will be That's just what I'm going to be doing
Speaker 3: this year is kind of figuring that out. And I
Speaker 3: actually just went to Italy. My family is from there,
Speaker 3: and I was I went totally solo, just by myself,
Speaker 3: two weeks in Rome and Naples and Florence, and I
Speaker 3: was calling it my eight Gay Love Tour, and I
Speaker 3: I just was like eating a bunch of pasta and
Speaker 3: pizza and drinking apparel spritzes and talking to people. All
Speaker 3: I did was talk to people, because even when I'm alone,
Speaker 3: I loved chatting with people. And so I booked all
Speaker 3: of these tours by myself and just really stepped into
Speaker 3: that of comfortableness and just made friends on all these
Speaker 3: tours and got their Instagram handles and their emails and
Speaker 3: their everything, and so it was really nice because what
Speaker 3: I realized, and I've known this all along, but sometimes
Speaker 3: it's hard when you're just seeing this constant negative news,
Speaker 3: is that people are kind and people want community and
Speaker 3: people want to connect, and so it was really nice
Speaker 3: to connect with people.
Speaker 2: I would watch that show, by the way, you know,
Speaker 2: Eat Gay Love.
Speaker 1: If you make a digital show called Eat Gay Love
Speaker 1: and you just go around the world and you're like
Speaker 1: everybody's favorite queer, that's like.
Speaker 2: Hey, let me go somewhere where they might not like
Speaker 2: me up too bad? You like me?
Speaker 3: You like me?
Speaker 2: I would watch that. Yeah, just weird full gave great Sarah.
Speaker 3: But I'm not going to North Korea.
Speaker 1: No, No, I think there are some places we can
Speaker 1: cross off the list and we will provide you with
Speaker 1: a really big bodyguard just in case people are like, Nope,
Speaker 1: we still don't like.
Speaker 3: To the friendly places.
Speaker 2: If you don't start there, let's start there.
Speaker 1: You know you mentioned media though you had your show
Speaker 1: My New Favorite Football lista podcast that you hosted for
Speaker 1: NBC Sports. First, I want to just ask, like, what
Speaker 1: made you want to tell stories the way you did?
Speaker 1: You really got into things like cancer and grief and
Speaker 1: mental health. When you were approached with the idea of
Speaker 1: doing a show, did you offer up that that's how
Speaker 1: you wanted to do it.
Speaker 3: Well. The thing about NBC that was so great is
Speaker 3: that they were so collaborative, and so I wasn't the
Speaker 3: official host. They were looking at a couple different people,
Speaker 3: and I was like, going on this call, am I agent?
Speaker 3: He's awesome. He presented it as like I already got
Speaker 3: this job, but I didn't, and so I thought that
Speaker 3: I had the job. I show up on this call
Speaker 3: with all these NBC execs and producers and everything, and
Speaker 3: I'm like spouting off all these ideas of what we
Speaker 3: should do and how we should do it. They were like,
Speaker 3: this is great, this is so great. So meanwhile, it
Speaker 3: could have like totally gone to another person and I
Speaker 3: would have just given them all of these ideas. I
Speaker 3: feel like that kind of shows you, like when you
Speaker 3: really commit to something and you're not trying to gatekeep
Speaker 3: that things can't really work out for you, which they did.
Speaker 3: And it was so fun because when you are a
Speaker 3: celebrity in the soccer space, in a sports space, people
Speaker 3: think only of you in that space. They don't think
Speaker 3: of you as this multifaceted person who has wants and
Speaker 3: dreams and cares and that are totally separate from soccer.
Speaker 3: And we wanted to show that, and I thought we
Speaker 3: did a really great job showcasing people's the things that
Speaker 3: they were they cared about most outside of the game,
Speaker 3: and the things that meant the most to them, and
Speaker 3: really showed such a human side of who they are.
Speaker 3: And it was really wonderful, especially doing ones with my friends,
Speaker 3: especially seeing them open up in ways that they haven't
Speaker 3: on camera and in public spaces or haven't felt comfortable doing.
Speaker 3: And I felt like I was able to provide a
Speaker 3: safe space where they were able to do that. And
Speaker 3: watching open up in that way and talk about her
Speaker 3: grief and talk about mental health because that's something that
Speaker 3: she cared about because of her friend was really beautiful.
Speaker 3: And I actually have had people come up to me
Speaker 3: and say, hey, we've played your podcast. We've played your
Speaker 3: episode with Sophie Smith to our whole entire team because
Speaker 3: they've been struggling with mental health health and we needed
Speaker 3: a way to show them that it's okay to talk
Speaker 3: about these things. Everybody goes through this, even people that
Speaker 3: are older, even people that you think have the world
Speaker 3: by the yes. And that was one of the coolest
Speaker 3: things that I never expected, having people come up and
Speaker 3: say that and felt like, we really need an impact
Speaker 3: that way you did.
Speaker 2: Is the show coming back?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think theres just like you.
Speaker 3: I think that the NBC will do the show again.
Speaker 3: Will I be the host? I'm not sure. I'd love
Speaker 3: to be the host again. I had such a blast
Speaker 3: doing that. But let's see, fingers crossed.
Speaker 2: Just show up again, act as if you already got
Speaker 2: the job.
Speaker 3: I should, I really should.
Speaker 1: We're running out of time, but I have a couple
Speaker 1: of last things that I really quickly want to ask
Speaker 1: you about. So I know you founded re Ink with Tobinheath,
Speaker 1: Kristen Press, and Meghan Rapino, or you still have involved
Speaker 1: in that or working in that.
Speaker 3: You know, it's really Kristin and Tobin that are doing
Speaker 3: the heavy lifting. I'm still on the board and I
Speaker 3: help out in a lot of like high level ways
Speaker 3: in that space. But no, I'm not doing as much
Speaker 3: heavy lifting as I was at the beginning. But that's okay.
Speaker 3: I think they're doing a great job and it really
Speaker 3: hasn't Like I realized that clothing wasn't really the thing
Speaker 3: that was inspiring to me, and it was for them,
Speaker 3: and so it felt like a really smart thing to
Speaker 3: do was have them be at the front pushing it
Speaker 3: forward because it's the thing that they cared about the most.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we recently had Christine Sinclair on the show to
Speaker 1: talk about Canada's new pro league, the NSL, longtime teammate
Speaker 1: of yours, one of the greats. I need you to
Speaker 1: quickly tell us about when you almost ruined your friendship
Speaker 1: over a spilled Margarita in a runaway golf cart.
Speaker 3: Okay, Sarah, that was so fun. We still talk about
Speaker 3: it all the time. She still holds it against me.
Speaker 3: I don't care. There's this golf tournament that the Timbers
Speaker 3: did that was kind of a co branded thing where
Speaker 3: it was a stand together at golf event where people
Speaker 3: would go and then they pay to play, and then
Speaker 3: obviously that money goes to the charity and they get
Speaker 3: paired with certain people or whatever. And so me and
Speaker 3: Sinkie were in the same pairing and we were having
Speaker 3: such a blest. We I don't know how I ended
Speaker 3: up being the person that was the golf card driver,
Speaker 3: but I was, and it was incredible. So we saw
Speaker 3: we were only playing nine holes, but we ended up
Speaker 3: playing eighteen, and we drank as if we were playing
Speaker 3: nine holes instead of eighteen, which, as you can imagine,
Speaker 3: is a real issue. So we got them ore and
Speaker 3: by the way, everybody was buying our drinks. I don't
Speaker 3: think I'd bought one drink while I was there, So they.
Speaker 2: Don't count if you don't pay for them.
Speaker 1: So that's probably why you had too many, because you
Speaker 1: weren't counting.
Speaker 3: I never said too many. I just said, oh.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm so sorry. Yes, an appropriate amount for nine holes, you're.
Speaker 3: Right and inappropriate. Yeah, and it was an inappropriate amount whatever. Anyway,
Speaker 3: so we have our Margarita's in hand, and I decided,
Speaker 3: I think on the ninth hole, that I was gonna
Speaker 3: drive a little bit crazy. And so we got a
Speaker 3: little lost on our way to the ninth hole, and
Speaker 3: I had to make some quick maneuvers to get us
Speaker 3: back on track. So what happened was we started going
Speaker 3: down this hill and I didn't realize that there was
Speaker 3: there was a path, but I didn't realize there was
Speaker 3: what are those on the side.
Speaker 1: Like the little flags that tell you you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to drive there.
Speaker 3: No, it was more like like the stones that.
Speaker 2: Like okay, right, like like.
Speaker 3: We're sidewalk is like, you know, the curb, the curb.
Speaker 3: There was a curbb So I'm coming down this hill
Speaker 3: and like we're going way faster than the golf cart
Speaker 3: should actually go because we're going down a hill. So
Speaker 3: we hit the first one and it's like and our
Speaker 3: Margarita's are like you know, and it's like whoa, but
Speaker 3: it goes back in. Then we hit the second curb
Speaker 3: and it wasn't shinkx Margarita, but it was my own
Speaker 3: Margarita that's spilled on Sink's lap. And I was and
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, and I'm laughing so
Speaker 3: hard and she is so pissed. But I could not
Speaker 3: even keep in my laughter. I couldn't. And I think
Speaker 3: that she got extra mad because I couldn't stop.
Speaker 1: Laughing right right, And she had nine holes with Margarita
Speaker 1: lap also, But I I.
Speaker 3: Got her another Margarita.
Speaker 2: That wasn't the problem. I don't think totally. Well, I
Speaker 2: think that was the problem, but it was a problem.
Speaker 3: But then that the next Margarita made her forget it.
Speaker 1: Okay, good, along with other things. Okay, last question for
Speaker 1: you very quickly. I could not believe I had not
Speaker 1: heard this before. But when you were with the Dash,
Speaker 1: the team had a host family program and you and
Speaker 1: Morgan Brian lived with Jeff van Gundy and his family.
Speaker 2: This is mind blowing to meet Jeff van Gundy.
Speaker 1: For those not familiar, like longtime NBA coach broadcaster, I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with his brother Stan. I don't know Jeff as much,
Speaker 1: but Stan is just the best guy. I need one
Speaker 1: good story from living with Jeff van Gundy and his family.
Speaker 3: Oh my god, there's so many good stories. But I
Speaker 3: guess the thing that would just bring it all together
Speaker 3: is that we would have pancakes Sundays and literally every Sunday,
Speaker 3: we would just make pancakes together. And uh, just I
Speaker 3: would be in charge of the bacon because that's when
Speaker 3: I ate meat, So I would be in charge of
Speaker 3: the bacon. I would make it extra crispy for everyone.
Speaker 3: Kim has wife would be in charge of the pancakes,
Speaker 3: and Jeff would be in charge of eating everything.
Speaker 2: What was Morgan doing nothing was.
Speaker 3: Maybe cutting the fruit.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, good job, somebody needs that job.
Speaker 1: I just I already liked him, but the idea that
Speaker 1: he and his family would host women soccer players and
Speaker 1: I presume a nice mansion because he'd been a very
Speaker 1: successful coach, Like, that's that's very nice.
Speaker 2: How long did you live there?
Speaker 3: I lived there almost two years? To be fair, they're
Speaker 3: very Yeah, they're very down to earth people. They're just
Speaker 3: so kind. We still keep in touch.
Speaker 2: Good family, really good family, and fun.
Speaker 3: They're really fun, very fun.
Speaker 2: I can only imagine.
Speaker 1: Also, if anyone wants to know what the NWSL was like,
Speaker 1: in the early years, professional women athletes were living in
Speaker 1: the family home of random people because of the amount
Speaker 1: of money for housing and whatnot. Anyway, Megan, I mean literally,
Speaker 1: I could talk to you forever. I've already taken up
Speaker 1: way too much of your time, but it's so fun
Speaker 1: to catch up.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited to see what you do next.
Speaker 1: But no, Rush, I think you should be writing down notes,
Speaker 1: by the way, all year about your adventures and explorations.
Speaker 1: Really take an exploratory, scientific approach to like when am
Speaker 1: I happiest, am I around people or not? Am I
Speaker 1: traveling or not? Am I creative or not? And that'll
Speaker 1: help you, you know, figure out what's next.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much, and I will take all the
Speaker 3: advice I can get from somebody definitely who's been through it,
Speaker 3: who's done it, and somebody that I respect. So thank
Speaker 3: you very much. And it's been really fun being on
Speaker 3: the show. Even though you made me talk about hard subjects.
Speaker 2: My bad, you liked it.
Speaker 1: Thanks again to Kling for taking the time, such a
Speaker 1: great conversation.
Speaker 2: We got to take another break when we come back.
Speaker 1: A teammate turns trophy wife. Welcome, Max slices quick shout
Speaker 1: out to Super Slice. Hey guy Alitzer, who let me
Speaker 1: know that I misused the British phrase chuffed in Tuesday show.
Speaker 2: I swear y'all every time I hear it.
Speaker 1: I think it means miffed, but chuffed actually means pleased.
Speaker 1: So my apologies to Britz and others who are surely
Speaker 1: miffed and definitely not chuffed by my butchering of their vernacular.
Speaker 1: And also thank you a guy for the reminder of
Speaker 1: two other great British phrases, shambalic which means chaotic and disorganized,
Speaker 1: and rgi bargie, which means like quarreling or disagreement between people.
Speaker 1: I really need to start using those regularly argie bargie
Speaker 1: and shambalic, and of course also subsumed.
Speaker 2: We love that you're.
Speaker 1: Listening, but we always want you to get in the
Speaker 1: game every day too, So here's your good gameplay of
Speaker 1: the day. Keep sending us your terms for the Good
Speaker 1: Game glossary Ahead of episode two hundred, we're gathering all
Speaker 1: the terms inside jokes and segments that any new listener
Speaker 1: needs to know to get caught up on the show,
Speaker 1: so send us what you think must be included. Plus
Speaker 1: we want to know what too, and only two episodes
Speaker 1: you would recommend to a brand new Slice aka Seedling.
Speaker 1: You can also send us any burning questions you have
Speaker 1: about how we make the show or anything that goes
Speaker 1: on behind the scenes. You got to get them in asap, though,
Speaker 1: so email or message me on social by noon today
Speaker 1: to make sure we get them. Send us your thoughts
Speaker 1: good game at wondermedianetwork dot com or at Spain two
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Speaker 1: at Sarahspain dot com, on Blue Sky, and.
Speaker 2: Don't forget to subscribe, rate and review.
Speaker 1: It's easy watch Megan Klingenberg's twenty twenty one Halloween costume
Speaker 1: rating ten out of ten, absolutely no notes review. In
Speaker 1: preparation for our conversation, I did a little deep dive
Speaker 1: on Megan's social and yes, I scrolled all the way
Speaker 1: back to twenty twenty one. She doesn't post all that
Speaker 1: often though, so I'm not a full stage five clinger,
Speaker 1: but close anyway. All the scrolling was worth it, y'all,
Speaker 1: because she dressed as a dapper old man for Halloween
Speaker 1: Caine mustache, giant gray eyebrows, and then teammate Kelly Hubbley
Speaker 1: dressed as a gold digging trophy wife, complete with an
Speaker 1: actual trophy and the caption for Megan Reid's quote, my
Speaker 1: wife of fifty two years passed away six years ago,
Speaker 1: and I'm so grateful that Chastity has filled that giant
Speaker 1: size hole in my heart end quote, like Midge Purse commented,
Speaker 1: not Chastity. It's too good, y'all. We'll post the link
Speaker 1: in our show notes so you could check it out.
Speaker 1: Now it's your turn, rate and review, come a, give
Speaker 1: us five stars, tell us you love us, Thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: See you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Good game, Cling, good game, daffodils, letting us know springs.
Speaker 1: Finally here you people who still think you're in high school.
Speaker 1: But then you know, at some point in your mid
Speaker 1: twenties when you spot your first forehead wrinkle, and in
Speaker 1: your early thirties when the grays start coming in, then
Speaker 1: I guess it's thank you. Thank you, people who still
Speaker 1: think you're in high school. Good Game with Sarah Spain
Speaker 1: is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep
Speaker 1: Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the
Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Production by Wonder Media Network. Our producers are Alex Azzie
Speaker 1: and Misha Jones. Our executive producers are Christina Everett, Jesse Katz,
Speaker 1: Jenny Kaplan and Emily Rudder. Our editors are Emily Rutter,
Speaker 1: Britney Martinez and Grace Lynch. Our associate producer is Lucy
Speaker 1: Jones and I'm Your Host Sarah Spain