And it is time to welcome back.
I feel like we need like the big intro with the pyro and everything. It's been a while, it's been too long, but we bring in Jamie Watson to come and hang out with us here to put a bowl on a Thursday. Jamie, my friend, it has been too long.
Great to see you, John, I'm so happy to see you man. And no pyro necessary. That was a very kind introduction. And following Nico, who does a great job. Sounder at hard is a must read when it comes time to prep for a Seattle Sounder game, and so just like soccer down here with you, it's you know, there's some local must read must support people doing some great work in markets. Nicos one of them, and John you're one of the best as well, my friend.
No, I thank you.
I mean it's me and Jason and Jared Smith and the Nico Lafey, Maddy Cruse and the Castle.
What a crew, What a crew that is right there.
I know we're half past crazy. That's the reason why. What cup of coffee you on?
By the way?
Oh boy, you know hey as a data three normally what is it? It's ten am Central here eleven Eastern. I'm at least three deep at this point. What about you?
You host a show, so you've got to be just an IV.
Of it, right, Mountain dew, I don't do coffee.
Do you just standard mountain dew? Or is it like the Code red?
Oh no, no, no, no oh, that's like.
Well, I'm sorry. I didn't realize there was a hierarchy.
Of Mountain Dew class here, and I just showed that I'm lower class.
No no, no, no. To me, Code red tastes like Vix formula forty four M.
That was wildly specific.
And now I'm not going to be able to think of anything else when I have a Code Red, I'm gonna be thinking. This taste like vis forty four m red whatever you said.
It tastes like cough syrup.
Brother, It's that cough syrup we had when we're growing up, you know, the red cough syrup with the vis Vix formula forty four M, the red cough syrup.
That's what red taste like.
To me.
I am die hard original and I have caught so much clap. Oh you don't like the you don't like the Baja blast. No, I don't just give me the original. It's like, look, I'll own the market. Give me all the original. You guys can have all the weird flavors to yourselves and boost the market share.
I'm just an original guy. Look full disclosure.
By the way, hey, look any Mountain Dew executive, but yes, there we go.
Any Mountain New.
Executives that are die hard fans of the show. There's an easy sponsorship right there. All leverages out the door for you.
Huh correct, Absolutely true.
A couple of reasons that we wanted to bring you on, and I am hoping that you will take advantage of the open door and walk through it on Friday's in the last hour at ten Eastern because we're kind of kind of turn it into a Friday free for all and just like drop in, give your thoughts, drop out, go finish your coffee.
That's kind of what I think we're gonna do this year.
The reason, the first reason that we wanted to have you on is because there is some international women's soccer that is going on, but folks kind of need to follow.
You know, it's not just I believe, it's not just you believe. It's not just we believed, but it is. She Believes and you're.
Getting ready for that, and it's a handful of matches in a very short period of space from thirty thousand feet.
What are you anticipating here?
First of all, that is that's hilarious.
I'm probably gonna steal that joke when there's a new audience, So thank you for that one, like.
All my good ones.
Look, it's the tenth annual She Believes Cup, which has become the pre eminent tournament in women's world football. Four teams in the top twenty one this year, two new teams, two new countries. You've get Japan who's returning for the third time, obviously, the United States, who host and have been the dominant team in this tournament year after year. You welcome in Colombia for the first time, very young, up and coming program in world football, ranked twenty one
right now. And then you also welcome in Australia fifteenth overall, a name that we familiar as manager in interim role as Tom Smani. It's his third time being back with Australia as a coach and former Orlando Pride coach as well too, so he knows the lay of the land in this country. Very well, so tonight we'll have a doubleheader starting at five eastern. We've got Japan taking on Australia. That one will be on MAX. You can stream that one.
I will be alongside a woman who needs no introduction, comes to her accolades, but I'm gonna give it anyways.
Three Olympics, four World Cups and five was.
The voted third best women's footballer in the world. Shannon Box will join me in the both one hundred ninety five caps, so I get to have her experience and her relationship with Tom SMANI will be pretty incredible.
So Japan Australia.
Will kick off five pm Eastern on Max and then immediately following that coverage will start at seven pm on TBS Linear and you can also stream on Max as well. That will be the hour long pregame show where you've got Sarah Walsh taking you through. Melissa Ortiz will be on the desk as well, and Julie Foudy is there and we welcome in a new member. Becky Sauerbrunt will be joining and it's exciting to have Becky because she's got over two hundred caps.
Of the team.
Being with Becky yesterday at training. He couldn't go further than two feet with her seeing a former player and coming up and talking. And then you've got Boxy and you've got Julie Foudy and it was incredible. And then Luke Wildman will be on the call for that one that kicks off at eight pm Eastern. So USA taking on Colombia should be a good matchup and a good test if you knew new faces in camp and some younger players. So it's an exciting time for the US Women's national.
Team doubleheader at Helenaschelle and that is tonight, as you say, and then on Sunday double header and Glendale, Colombia and Japan, followed by the USWNT in Australia. Then everybody heads to snap Dragon for Wednesday Australia Colombia at seven thirty Eastern. Yeah, they get the afternoon sunshine at snap Dragon, and then it's the WNT taking on Japan at ten thirty. So
that your triple, your three days of double headers. One of the things that I thought was interesting, and we have Bart Keeler from the Soccer for USPOD on every Monday, we discussed Emma Hayes and this particular group, and it's not just been this group, but it's been a couple back.
Emma Hayes has made a point to bring in some newer faces, newer faces into camps and newer faces getting their first caps, being put in these kinds of situations, and I you know, because you don't have triple espresso, you got to do something. And so Emma's looking in places I think that either others just didn't or they might have just kind of put to the side and tried to look at for other folks. But you're getting a lot of new faces in these camps and for these competitions for the WNT.
Which is really cool to see and I'm really excited to see how this group holds up to that challenges.
You know, A list and a Are.
Now has retired from international women's football as a goalkeepers. Now you get Jane Campbell who plays for the Houston Dash, so she'll get a chance to be a goal here. But you're right, there are some new names. Another Houston Dash player that I'm really looking forward to. I think she was wildly underrated, and that's partly because Gotham were so good last year and have so many good players.
Yasmine Ryan was traded in the offseason to Houston Dash So those two players I've really got my eye on. Cat Mercado comes back into the group and getting to be back in with the US women's national team. She has a wild story after being out for nearly eighteen months getting a chance to come back in and compete with the group. That is something that we spoke to her about yesterday and she said it was mentally challenging, but you appreciate it more when you're back in, so
that'll be interesting. There's some good, real good storylines you've got, like Emily Sands, who defended her the year for Orlando Pride. She was a converted center forward to center back now one of the best in the world. Young players though, like Ali sent Nooor getting called up. She was the NWSL Rookie of the Year. Jaden Shaw goes from the
wave to the courage. She's in with the group. Let's see, there's there's just so many players that are trying to make a impression in front of m Hayes and that's what I'm looking forward to most.
And when we talked to her, she said, look, there are sixteen.
Of twenty three NWSL players, And I said this yesterday, and I think what she's saying is, I think there's a real value on this league as being the best league for women's soccer in the world. And now we're going to give some players who did well in that league an opportunity and we're going to find out where you fit because if you're not quite at the US women's national team level, which that level, I don't know
why I put here. It should be way up here right off the camera first, to you know, first in the FIFA World rankings. Hayes wants to put an INMPAS on this, and I thought this was really key. She says, Okay, then we can use the U twenty threes as a growing and developmental route that has maybe been skipped over in the past. So I think Ema Hayes is looking at this holistically. How can I use this tournament to identify players that are ready to surpass the U twenty
three level. But if you're not quite ready, it's okay, because we're going to put you at the twenty threes and we're going to give you an opportunity to grow. So I think the US women's national team much like we spoke about with Australia, and Colombia will be looking to be able to try to establish where players fit going forward in this group. And Japan will be an interesting one as well too in this tournament because they've got a brand new coach for the first time, a
non Japanese coach. So it's a lot of storylines going into this tournament, and I think it's one of the she Believes Cups where every team will feel as though they have a chance to win it and some will have an easier role than others. But at the same time, I think that it'll be a tournament in which there could be some surprises and I'm excited to see it unfold over the next week.
No triple Espresso, no Rose Levell, no Naimi Girma. So then let me ask you this. You mentioned a tournament of surprises if, and like I said, this is just an if that I'm putting out there, and with the time that you spend covering the women's national team in soccer in general, this is why I'm going to ask this question, because you're out there far more than I am.
If for some reason, you know the you know Bain comes by and it's like hines Field and he blows up, you know, the turf and everything, and the US does not win. She believes cup for whatever reason, you know, you get a loss of deflection whatever if they don't come away with the title, even though it is anticipated as such. If something happens and they don't, then how
do you think it will be received? I guess externally and internally for fans watching, and then Emma Hayes looking outbound with all of this youth and the first timers that are there.
So I'll start off by saying, I think it would take something extraordinary for the US women's national team to not be the team standing at the time of the Mountain this time next week, right, I do think that they will win the tournament. I do think that they have the best team in the world, but also especially in this tournament.
But let's play the what if game? What would happen?
I think that right now with this group, what it would do is it would really help solidify where that next wave of US women's national team players are going to come from.
I don't think that there will be.
Any downfall Tom Hayes or should we looked at differently after this tournament, I think that I actually truly believe that being around Ema Hayes, she has this level of respect and control from top to bottom. Emma Hayes quite frankly doesn't care about what happened before she was here. She cares about what's happening while she's in here. She
has this assertiveness in this confidence that commands respect. I'm really impressed when I'm around her and how she carries herself, and I don't think she cares that she impresses me and has my respect, Like it's almost actually an admirable quality as a human being that she has such belief and conviction and what she wants to do in her everyday life, but also with the US women's national team program.
So I think that regardless of how results go in this tournament will be it the expectation, and I believe
the belief is that US will win this tournament. I don't think that it will change anything in the big scheme of things, because there's a bigger picture to this, and so I think what players can do is they can really help themselves in this tournament and really give this as a launching point to say when it comes time to tournament football, I can be a part of this group and contribute, or it may just say for some players, Okay, your path that maybe is just going
to take a little bit longer because you're going to need to go prove that again at the twenty threes and then when you get your opportunity again with the full.
Team YEP, four players uncapped, Claire Hutt and Giselle Thompson, both nineteen. Terry mcew and Michelle Cooper all forward international experience in the twenty sive for the US, and that is she believes it is six matches, three days of doubleheaders, starting at Hele Michelle and Houston tonight, then going to Glendale, then going to snap Dragon in a week's time. Jimmie Watson here crashing the party on a Thursday, as you darnwell should.
Uh.
I just I just have this vision like if something happens and the world opens up that you will that it will be uh some fans taking to it very very calmly and just running out in the street and going, ah, you know, you know you have one.
You have one of those moments.
And that's kind of what I was asking is is everyone that you have seen from a fan perspective, Do they understand where Emma is coming from here and looking at things in a larger picture, just step at a time. We're here to learn and figure out the future and immediate results. Yes, why we anticipate winning. There's a bigger picture to play here. Do you think a lot of folks from the outside get that. With Emma Hayes and what she's trying to do, I don't know.
And and the reason I'm not one hundred percent sure is because I think and believe the way that Emma Hayes views her role as the manager of this program. And she said a word in the middle of it of the press yesterday, and a little phrase that I thought was so telling, but also I caught and I noticed, and I hung on to and it's worth mentioning now,
you know. So one of the questions was from the media about, you know, the younger players and getting the chance and will they be okay you know with the moment or something along those lines, and she remembers saying that, you know, there's my job as a manager.
I don't I don't need to motivate because.
When we we all wake up and we put this crest on, and this is the phrase she goes, We're all renting the ability to wear this crest, and for how long that's none of us know, but we all know what a privilege and an honor it is. And John, I was a part of the seventeens, the eighteens, the twenties, the twenty threes. I played for every part of the youth national team except for the full team, So I understand what it feels like to put on on the crest.
And I've done a lot of things I'm very proud of but in my playing career, but wearing the US Soccer crest is up there.
I mean, it really really is up there.
But for Emma Hayes, who's the leader of this program, to say that and feel as though even herself is renting the ability to wear a US Soccer crest goes to show that everyone understands how much of a privilege it is to do it, and even the top of the total pole does. And I think that there is a mindset that is being instilled with this group and a level of confidence that she is the right leader for this program, and so does everyone outside of that
understand it. I don't believe so yet, but I think they will continue to the more that they get to see what this group is evolving into. How she is as a leader. Every time she speaks, how it just seemingly adds another layer of respect and command and shows capability. So I think the mindset, if there were any doubters about Hayes, I would just encourage you to listen to her talk for five minutes and it will remove a lot of those doubts because she.
Is a competent and capable leader.
And I would have loved to have played for somebody like Ima Hayes in my playing days.
Strong Jamie's hanging out with us talking, she believes, and he full well knows that I can't let him go if if we don't talk about Major League Soccer, because.
Absolutely let's do it.
I don't know if folks have heard, but there are games that are gonna matter coming up this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. We've been going over it. We did it Tuesday, we did it a little bit this morning. About the separate tiers in the east and the west when it comes to this particular side of the Mississippi. Considering this is where you live Eastern conference to you, what are the highlights and the big storylines that you're going to be looking at here as we head into match week one.
Man, I think that we'll start off with Atlanta, right, because I think that's going to speak to a large portion of your viewers. Even though this is broadcasted worldwide, I think there is a large contingencies of fans in the chat that'll be very curious to hear. How it's how you know other people outside of Atlanta viewing what Atlanta Night have been up to. I first and foremost
think that the off season was wildly successful for Atlanta. Look, you've got an owner that willing, is willing to spend and has continued to show that and put it put it in perspective. I think just the latte leaf, Am I saying that right? I got a practice on that one.
It's a hard tea, So it's a latte lot. It's almost like a lot. There we go like you're slurring the tea in the h together, So it's a latte.
Lot, laatee lot.
I got to get my pronunciations right before I get Atlanta in a couple weeks on the dock here I think what is rumored transferfrea about twenty two million dollars perspective. Philadelphia Union came into MLS to believe in about two thousand and nine, and they've gone sort of the homegrown route and have spent less than that on total transfers of players in so Atlanta United in one player this offseason have surpassed what Philadelphia have done, and their cumulative
of transfers in reportedly right. All these numbers. We don't know how it completely works in the back end of it. I don't read the books math Man. All that to say, it is Math's hard man. I gotta count the fingers and toes and all that stuff. All that is to say, I do believe that Atlanta United have every reason, the faithful there and the seventeens have every reason to be optimistic of a top four finish in the East, which obviously would have felt like a million miles away at
certain points last year. They'll have to cope with losing Dax McCarty, who I felt like his leadership at times was maybe under appreciated and undervalued. But with that, this group has added layers each window, and with Garth Logerway and now Chris Henderson there as well, who I thought should have been the Executive of the Year last year with the way that he was able to be a gymnast and be flexible with that salary cap. In Miami, Man,
you've got two masterminds putting it together. And I'm just very excited to see what this group can do in Atlanta. I think top four should be the expectation for them, and then from there, you know you're gonna have to battle against Miami, and they were able to pull it off last year and one of the best most shocking upsets in MLS playoff history to everybody outside.
Of the four or four.
But man, it was incredible and I think there should be even more optimism this year for Atlanta. But I still think Inter Miami will reign supreme.
In the East.
Yeah, Messi and Friends that top tier in the East. Some combination of Messi and Friends, Atlanta United and hell Is Real, Columbus and Cincinnati and Wilford NANCI will probably just continue to be on the tour of Yet this is me. This is what we do. I don't care who's here, and we're just gonna continue to win. I mean, he doesn't he's missing sa Ram, he doesn't have Kucho, and it's just like, yeah, okay, whatever, and we're just
going to keep being who we are. So I think that that four is what it's crazy on the top of the year.
Yeah, I mean it.
If wil for Nanci can do it this year after getting rid of you know, christ Nramiraz and sending him off and Kucho leaving, if he can continue to do that and just replace with the next wave of you know, Jason Russell Row and players in Now we're really talking about wilfer Nance being one of the most elite coaches this league has seen in its entirety. But man, it's it's all this is the best time of the year. Man,
it's it's optimism. It's thirty teams in thirty fan bases that feel as though this is their year and what an achievement. Thirty years Major League Soccer and now thirty teams. Man, I'm so excited for this year to go and this one. Honestly, anybody that tells you they know how this year is going to go right now is looking you at the
eyes and lying. Right now, John, Man, it's so fun to get to talk about it in the excitement and then I don't know, this guy is falling over when an MLS Cup come, you know, Sunday morning, Monday morning, when it's all said and done in week one is in the book.
So we'll see and see how it plays out.
But there should be a lot of optimism in the South right now for a landing United.
Hit the promo for me one more time. What are you doing and working folks?
Watch man if you'd be so kind obliged to tune into Max today. We've got Japan Australia starting at five pm. Then stick around on the app or head over to TBS and you can watch my good friends call the game. Starting coverage will start just shortly after that seven pm Eastern TBS on linear television, and then we get the ground running MLS season Pass starts this year, thirtieth year in Major League Soccer. It will be incredible. John, this
is incredible to be with you. I'm such a big fan of the soccer down Here network and everything that you do, Jason and crew, Maddy, everybody that I didn't name just now because there's a cast of a thousand stars, so you know, tune in, enjoy engage these We need more people like yourself and what you guys are doing with the SDH network, so keep going. We're big fans. Thank you for me and from the fans that don't get to say that to you, and thank you to
everybody in the chat for joining and participating. Man, this is what it's all about. We love this game and it's only the future is only getting brighter and bright in this country, both domestic and internationally with the national team.
So it's exciting times, man.
No doubt. Love you brother, have a great call.
May everything stick to the cards when it comes to interviews, and we'll be watching you tonight and hope that they only just give you a dusting of makeup because HD pulls out there. Look that's what they told us when they got to HD cameras. They're like, look, you don't have to put on a lot of makeup because people will know when you're wearing too much makeup. So just a little powder style and profile and we can't wait.
Have a great call. We'll catch up with you soon, my friend crashing, I'd.
Be lost without you. Thank you, John, thanks for having me.
Be good.
There goes Jamie, and it's great to catch up with him. It's been entirely too long since Shamie was here.