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April 7, 2025 15 mins

Melissa Ortiz, who was on the sidelines in Inglewood, CA to call the first ever women’s sporting event at Sofi Stadium, takes us behind the scenes of what her day was like preparing for and calling the soccer friendly between the US and Brazil.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
What is up.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
This is Melissa Ortiz aka Meli, And this is a
segment that I want.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
To call Extra Time with MEDI. Extra Time why.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Because I just covered the US women's national team against
Brazil today and I wanted to walk you through what
a day is like and kind of like a recap
of what it was, what my life is like going
through a day as a broadcaster, and also what it's
like after a game as well, so the before, the

(00:35):
after and not gonna lie. It's twelve fifty one right
now in the morning. I'm tired, She's tired, guys. Is
the Conca raconta. But here we are like, this is
the moment where I wanted to just like be my
true self. I just took my makeup off and I
wanted to connect with you all.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
So here it is Extra Time with MEDI.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
So, as y'all know, or maybe some of you don't know,
I work for TNT in which they have the rights
of all the US most of the US soccer games,
meaning US men's National team and the US women's National team,
and so my role is I go to all of

(01:23):
their games year round, which is around almost thirty games
that I fly to, and I am the sideline reporter
and sometimes analyst for the Games, and honestly, it's been
a really great experience working for TNT. I fly a
lot all over the country. I get to interact and
interview with amazing athletes that both represent the men's and

(01:46):
women's national teams, and I also get to just be
around really incredible people and our talent team. On the
women's side, I get to work with Olympical medalists and
World Cup winner. I don't even know how many times
she's wanted to be honest with you. She doesn't either.
She actually doesn't even know where her gold medals are
or gold medal is. And that's Julie Foudy. I also

(02:08):
work with Shannon Box, who was also a gold medalist
recent audition, Becky sower Brun, also a World Cup winner,
and Sarah Walls, she was our host, Luke Wildman, who
is their play by play, And that's on the woman's
that I'm on the men's side. I work with Kyle Martino,
with Brian Dunsath, with DeMarcus Beasley, who has been to
four World Cups. We cover the US national teams. What

(02:33):
does a day look like when you're on the road
covering games, and I get this question all the time,
like what do I like, what is exactly that I do,
and what is it like being like a broadcaster. Today
was game day a Saturday, So I get into market
on Thursday around Thursday afternoon or night, get dinner with
the team. The very next morning, which was Friday, I

(02:54):
wake up around I don't know, like eight am. I
try to get in a workout in if possible, and
we get picked up around nine third in the morning
and we head over to the fields where the team
is going to be training at. So before they start training,
we have to go through like press meetings, and what
happens is like the coach takes interviews by all of

(03:15):
the press national media, local media that last round fifteen
to twenty minutes. Then after that we go and interview
some of the players one on one, and all of
this is really to get some inside stories and prep
work so that we can storytell and like narrate and
talk more about the players and get more insights. So

(03:35):
we have all of this during our actual broadcast of
our game. Then we watched the training session and afterwards
this is one of my favorite parts. Actually, we get
to have like a sit down meeting with the head coaches,
meeting with the women's national team. We get to sit
down with Emma Hayes, who is absolutely brilliant, y'all. Like, honestly,

(03:55):
I've learned so much just from being in the same
room as her. She'll talk to us about the tactics,
the tactics that she's putting out for the team, a
lot of reasons why she's moving things around or implementing
such strategies, talking about, you know, what her principles are
of this team, and how the principles never change but

(04:18):
positions do, and how she's just implemented this strategy getting
you know, taking the reins of this US women's national
team just a few months before the Olympics if that,
and then going on to win the gold medal. Guys
like that is incredible, especially a year after the US

(04:39):
women's national team had one of the worst Women's or
the worst Women's World Cup performances in its team's history.
And so that sit down with Emma for me after
their training sessions is just it's priceless. We get to
ask her all these questions about why she's implementing this,
who is the starting eleventh and then after that we

(05:00):
head back to the hotel. We probably usually get lunch,
and then it's study time, and you know, the night
before a game, I'm studying for around like four to
five hours, just prepping, writing all the information I know
about the players and also making sure I know more
storylines than the usual. And that's really like my role
as a silent reporter is a storyteller. So when I'm

(05:22):
on the mic and I'm on the side of the
pitch and the game is going on, I'm giving more
insightful information, some background information, but also even some personal
or cultural or lifestyle information about a player, about a team,
about a moment even in time relating to the game
of course. So I just wanted to share with you
a little bit about like what my role is on

(05:43):
TV and of course working for TANT which is Warner Brothers.
And so on game day, our pickup was at nine
am because it was an early kickoff, and head to
the stadium and guys, the craziest thing happened today, which
we have different pickup times, and so Sarah and I

(06:03):
usually head to the stadium first because I think we
personally take longer for hair and makeup. We also have
a lot of hair and we like to get a
little bit more makeup, and the next bunch is like
Julie and Shannon and Becky, So it goes like at
different times for pickups so that our hair and makeup
artists are ready for the next you know, round of talent. AnyWho,

(06:24):
this leads me to this, which embrace yourselves if you
are perhaps claustrophobic or scared of elevators, y'all. Becky Sourbrun
got stuck in an elevator today for forty five minutes
and luckily she was I don't even know if this

(06:45):
is luckily. It's probably unlucky for that one. But she
was with US women's national team current players Avery Patterson
and a lot of cook and two other random people.
So there's five people in this elevator. And if you
guys aren't familiar, Becky Cyerbrunn is a former US women's
national team player who is a legend on the team.

(07:09):
Spent many, many many years I think over a decade
representing the US women's national team, and one a Women's
World Cup and so on and so forth, and she's
so lovely. AnyWho all goes to say that all of
a sudden, this morning, we get a text in our
group text and it's like, hey, guys, I'm stuck in
an elevator. And when you get that text, you're kind

(07:30):
of thinking like like ha ha, you laugh it off,
thinking like it's going to be resolved quickly. Well, that
wasn't the case in this In this scenario, fire truck
shows up, Then another fire truck shows up, and they're
trying to like give them instruction on how to open
the elevator from inside, and like nothing's working for them.

(07:51):
They even said, you guys should wrestle open the door.
And guys, you have like three professional and form of
fresh athletes on this elevator. You know that their strength
can open these doors. But it wasn't happening. And she
kept on saying to her group text, like oh my god,
I'm so sorry. I'm gonna be late to you know,
our call time, and like nobody cared about the call time.

(08:14):
It's more like are you okay? She was like, guys,
it's so hot in here. She's shared with us that
inside the elevator as they're trying to get like plowed open,
they were talking about like home ownership, amongst each other
and like, I don't know, you soccer experiences h bonding time,
let's just say the least. But eventually they did get

(08:36):
pulled out through a probably like a two foot opening
that they created and they had to like kind of
crawl out. You guys got to check out this video.
It's on social media. You could check it out on
Becky Souerbrun's instagram.

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Y'all. It's like, I literally was cracking up.

Speaker 2 (08:51):
And I'm personally like the worst person to like either
a get injured in front of or like have a
funny story because I laugh at like everything. I don't
know if that's a good thing bad thing, but it's
a true fact.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
That's how the Monday morning consisted of.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
So I got to the stadium that all was happening,
unfortunately for Becky, but I was getting my hair and
makeup done at the during the time, and so that
takes that whole process around like two hours. I'm still
prepping and working while I'm getting my hair and makeup done,
which is crazy because like you always feel like you're
never prepped enough.

Speaker 1 (09:23):
And then we did our rehearsals.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Then the game started, you know, and I got to
interview today in her pregame Trinity Rodman, which was her
first time back on this US women's national team since
winning the gold medal at the Olympics eight months ago.
She's been going through a back injury, which unfortunately, she
says she doesn't think she'll ever be the same, but

(09:48):
she sure looked the same today. I mean, she is
a beast and she also scored a goal today. The
US one was actually team also beat Brazil to nil
if you did see the score line, and it was
a chippy game. Brazil was definitely the aggressive team to
play against, and the US broke through their lines patiently.

(10:08):
And also Lily Johannes, a young teenager, got onto the
field which she went into the box. She got fouled
in the penalty box and they got to PK. Lindsey
Horan converted the penalty kick which made it too nil.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
But yeah, it was a great game.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Look, SOFI Stadium here in Los Angeles is a massive
and today mark the first day or the first time
a women's professional sporting event was ever played at this stadium.
They had around thirty four thousand fans at this game
today for a friendly, which just speaks wonder of itself
and also the growth of women's sports, and I'm just

(10:47):
proud to be, you know, somewhat part of it, you know,
covering the game, covering the growth, covering the team, and
from the sidelines. And I think about younger Melly, just
like thinking, how I wish I would have had these
types of moments to see as a young girl, because
you got to see it to believe it. And I

(11:09):
never believed I would have become a professional women's soccer
player yet alone a broadcaster, And now you know, young
girls are able to see themselves, hopefully in the future,
being a soccer player, being a professional athlete, or being
a broadcaster, and that's what it's all about. And so

(11:29):
I wanted to just like hop on here and just
share that how cool it was to witness that live
in action. But after the game, I got to interview
fall intele as Joyce, who y'all, I will want to
give more insight information, but an incredible story of a
goalkeeper who went undrafted when she graduated from the University

(11:53):
of Miami, went to play Division two league in France
for friends, got transferred into the NWSL, played for the
Rain and then made a move to Manchester United, where
she was the backup keeper to Mary IRPs. Once Mary
IRPs made a move to PSG, that opened up this
huge opportunity for Fallin. And that's kind of like the

(12:16):
life of what a goalkeeper is like. You have to
wait for your moment because well, there's only one position
for a goalkeeper on the field, and so it's either
you're really really good or you got to work your
way to being really good and getting your shot and
proving yourself. Today she got her debut and she did fantastic.

(12:36):
What's so unique about Fallin is that she says she's
an introvert, but in her interview she was quite the personality.
She has a diving license, like AKA, she is a
scuba certified diver. Something that she studied at University of
Miami was biology and she's really passionate about the ocean.

Speaker 1 (12:56):
And so in my interview, I literally.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Asked, what would your younger fall And say to yourself
as you just got your first cap on this US
national team, and she said, well, first off, that I
would be a scuba certified diver, and second off, I
just debuted for the national team. I'm like, what one
of the best responses I've ever had, And to be

(13:21):
honest with you, but I'm really excited to, you know,
get to know her more as she gets more opportunities
in front of the net. And Trinity Rodman, y'all, I
know I touched upon her before, but interviewing her is honestly,
is is quite electrifying. It's energetic, and there's sometimes when
you do when I I guess I do, or you know,

(13:43):
you interact with with athletes and everybody has their own
personalities and respectfully so, but as a broadcaster and an interviewer,
it's always so like just more unique, refreshing, not only easier,
but also more vibrant and attractive when you get to

(14:05):
interview someone that gives out so much energy, and that,
y'all is Trinity Ron and she just shows her personality,
she shows her energy.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
She's so confident in who she is and what she does.

Speaker 2 (14:18):
And I really appreciate that, and I think so much
so many of us, whether you're on the field, they're
off the field, they're on you know, watching as a fan,
we appreciate athletes like Trinity because you get to see
who they are wholeheartedly.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
That's it, y'all.

Speaker 2 (14:32):
I did the interviews, I did some content after the game,
and I went to go meet up with some college friends,
had dinner, and after that went through a few drinkies
with a great friend of mine Columbiana. She played for
Medio Nadios Natalie Melo. She now worked for US Soccer.
Complete badass and that led me to coming home. Finally,

(14:54):
There's so much we want to do as we continue
to grow this podcast as stay tuned because we're going
to have some incredible guests from actors to athletes, to
Grammy Award winners, musicians. You just wait, y'all, brace yourself
for Kay product or a Shoa is an iHeart women's

(15:15):
sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment.
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