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