April 18, 2023 • 27 mins
Welcome back to the Crown & Anchor, Greyhounds! In this episode Christian has a conversation with Portland Thorns defender Meghan Klingenberg!
Christian chats with Meghan about her early Ted Lasso Superstan status, what she loves about the show, and what it’s like playing with such an incredibly talented group of players in Portland.
For those of you who aren’t caught up on season 3 - this is your official spoiler alert, as there is some light discussion of various plot points contained within this episode.
More extensive show notes can be found on our website: www.tedlassopod.com/meghan-klingenberg-portland-thorns-nwsl-uswnt-ted-lasso
Richmond Til We Die is an episode-by-episode conversation about the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. When you're here, you're a Greyhound!
Christian chats with Meghan about her early Ted Lasso Superstan status, what she loves about the show, and what it’s like playing with such an incredibly talented group of players in Portland.
For those of you who aren’t caught up on season 3 - this is your official spoiler alert, as there is some light discussion of various plot points contained within this episode.
More extensive show notes can be found on our website: www.tedlassopod.com/meghan-klingenberg-portland-thorns-nwsl-uswnt-ted-lasso
Richmond Til We Die is an episode-by-episode conversation about the Apple TV+ show Ted Lasso, where we explore the characters, their relationships to each other, and how they're able to make us laugh until we can hardly breathe one moment and then feel with the deepest parts of our hearts the next. When you're here, you're a Greyhound!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Welcome to the Crown and Anchor Greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die,
a conversation about the Apple TV Plusshow ted Lasso, where we explore the
characters, their relationships to each other, and how they can make us laugh
until we can hardly breathe one momentand feel with the deepest parts of our
hearts the next. I'm Christian andif I sound a little brazier than normal
(00:35):
today, it's because I'm in fullon fanboy mode. For today's episode,
I have the opportunity to interview professionalfootballer Megan Klingenberg of the Portland Thorns.
Megan is an accomplished defender, havingplayed on the United States two fifteen World
Cup winning squad, for the twentysixteen Olympic team, and on Thorne's teams
(00:55):
that have won two NWUSL Supporters Shields, two Nwuslups and an NWSL Challenge Cup.
Off the field, Meghan is avocal proponent for equality within the soccer
world as well as in broader society. She loves grilling and has performed in
a high school production of Andrew LloydWebber's Cats, which won an award for
(01:17):
the best High School musical in thePittsburgh area barbecue and musical theater. Big
ted Lasso energy, y'all. Infact, Megan was one of the first
NWSL players banging the drum for tedLasso, and as with anything she's passionate
about, she spread the word withpanash style and tenacity. A big shout
out to Katie from the Thorns forhelping us get this conversation set up and
(01:40):
pulled off because it almost didn't happenon account of an RV fire in Portland
that engulfed fiber optic lines and knockedout Internet throughout the city when we were
scheduled to conduct the interview. Ifthat sounds a little weird, well that's
kind of Portland's brand and so Greyhoundplease welcome Megan Cleaningberg to the pod.
(02:04):
Welcome, Hello, Hi, Thanksfor having me as the first biggest supporter
of ted Lasso in NWSL to thepoint where you got interviewed by the Washington
Post and you got memed by theleague. How early were you to the
ted Lasso game? Oh, Iwas like probably one of the very first
(02:25):
adopters. My dad and I kindof came across some commercials of it.
I think it was back in twentytwenty, right, Yeah, during the
Dark Ages, Yeah exactly, Andso we were like, oh, this
is awesome, like a show,a comedy about soccer in the prem like,
we're so in So we ate thatshot right up, and we watched
(02:50):
like almost every single episode in twodays, and we became evangelist for ted
Lasso, and we would, youknow, tell everybody watch it. I
think to the point where I talkabout it so much that I annoyed my
team, and then I got mycoach to watch it, and then it
kind of like was a trickle downeffect to the point where we eventually had
somebody on the team be like Thornson twelve. That's how you know you've
(03:15):
been effective when the show gets invokedinto real life conversations and situations. Yeah
exactly. I mean we have ablast. We always try and do like
something a little bit different depending onwho's calling the cheer at the end of
practice, and so somebody decided togo Thorns on twelve and it was epic.
It can be difficult to really enjoyand appreciate something that is fictional and
(03:38):
then based on something that you liveand breathe every day and that you're super
good at. So what was itabout the show once you decided to check
it out that kept you there andkept you engaged? Well. For soccer
shows in general, I honestly tryto take the soccer totally out of it
because it's never that good, youknow, So I leave that part off
(03:59):
the table, and then I justtry and think about if it's a show
that I like, if it's somethingthat speaks to me, if it's something
that makes me feel sort of connectionor reminds me of how we go about
things each day. And I thinkted Lasso does that incredibly well, because
to me, my favorite parts aboutthe game are the connection with my teammates
and how much joy it brings me, and you know, bringing smile to
(04:24):
people's faces when we are out onthe pitch and connecting with our fans and
things like that, and I thinkted Lasso is just like amazing at those
parts of the in the show.And so it really relates back to the
Thorns for me very much, andI like that part of it a lot.
But also it just makes me laugh. I mean, it just makes
(04:44):
me laugh. One of the thingsthat we try to impress upon folks who
listen to our show and watch tedLasso, but maybe aren't super familiar with
the soccer world. Is the relationshipbetween soccer clubs and their fans and their
supporters kind of equated In the UnitedStates. I think people are probably most
familiar with it with college sports becausethere's something about, you know, colleges
(05:06):
that feels very travel like those areyour people. And there's been a unique
relationship between the Thorns and their fanssince the Thorns joined in WSL. And
it was cool to watch it,you know, on TV and kind of
be jealous that we weren't there overthe weekend. But what was it like
having one the NWSL championship last yearand then to have the offseason and to
(05:30):
come back to a full stadium andto be able to play in front of
people who have been so supportive ofyou. Well, these last couple of
years have been a little bit roughbecause of the pandemic, so we haven't
had the type of crowds or fansthat we normally did before. And so
just this past year in twenty twenty, we started filling up the stadium again
(05:55):
and there was this one game intwenty twenty it was our semi final against
the San Diego Wave. We completelysold out the place. We played our
asses off, and then at thevery last minute we scored this ridiculous goal
and the place went totally fucking wild. I hope you can edit that out,
(06:18):
and like an outpouring of joy andrelief and just feeling like we've been
so resilient. The city has beenso resilient. We have been doing our
best to keep people safe and healthy, and now we get to celebrate with
our team and with our community insuch a joyful, emotive way, and
(06:43):
you could feel all of those emotionsin this one goal, in this one
moment just erupting through the stadium,and it was so frigging cool. And
so then we got to do thatand then go play for the championship,
which is always amazing and super funand thinks that we truly live for and
(07:04):
play for. But our team doesn'tjust play for championships like we play because
we love it and we have otherthings that, you know, keep us
going. So then you kind oflike come back, you celebrate a little
bit, you go off, youdo your trading, and then you come
back together as a team. Andthen finally the band gets back together for
(07:25):
the first for the first opening Sunday, and you know, the stadium's pretty
darn full and everybody's just having absoluteblasts. And I think that what's so
great about it is that people cometogether around the sport and people find each
other through the sport. It's likethe sport is the connector the sport is
(07:47):
something that is like so beautiful andjoyful and brings people like so much passion
and they love it so much thatthey can connect to other people around that
love and create a community of friendsand family in it. And we need
to be a part of that.And how far and cool is that?
Yeah, it's a that is agood PSA for why people should check out
(08:11):
NWSL. You know, a lotof to lots of folks, like maybe
they haven't watched a lot of soccerbefore, and here's NWSL. And not
only do you get to see ahigh concentration of the world's greatest players,
it's a league that's growing and likegrowing to new cities and new fan bases,
and there's passion. And then it'spretty accessible because you could, you
(08:33):
know, watch it on one streamingservice on Paramount Plus. And then I
get some bonus things CSI and othersoccer and whatnot. But it's such a
great league to follow. You havebeen associated with NWSL for a long time
and and you have played soccer inthe United States for a long time,
in college and in pros. Howhave you seen the game grow and what
(08:56):
do you think is like the nextstep in the progression of the growth of
the women's game in this country.The really cool part about the game is
that I think is at the bottomof a j curve, and I think
it's just going to explode exponentially ingeneral soccer, but also the women's game.
(09:18):
And I've been through two World Cups, played in one of them,
while there's been the end of acell. And after the World Cup in
twenty fifteen, there was this,you know, really big interest in the
league and in those players, andthen it kind of waned off a little
bit, and then the same thingin twenty nineteen. But I actually think
(09:39):
that there's no World Cup bump anymore. I think people love watching the World
Cup. It's the greatest sporting eventin the world, and I stand by
that statement. But this league isdrawing interest because the league is interesting,
not because people want to see theseWorld Cup players in the league anymore.
They do, and these players areamazing, but they also just really want
(10:03):
to root for the Portland Thorns becausethey created this community and friends around this
team and around this city and aroundthe joy that we create by playing the
game. And so I personally thinkthat there's no end in sight when it
comes to growth for this league andespecially for this team and for this fan
(10:24):
base. The only thing that Iam a little bit skeptical about is how
to involve and include the players thathave done so much for the game and
a lot of the work in thatvalue, Like, how do we include
the players and make sure that they'retaking care of because they're the ones that
(10:46):
are putting their bodies and minds andhearts and souls on the line every week
and doing all these things to makethis league great. How do we make
sure that we reward them and tomake sure that we take care of those
players that did so much for theleague but maybe didn't get paid the way
that they were supposed to get paid. So I have all of these incredible
(11:09):
things to say about the league.I think it's going in such a great
direction. I also hope that weremember who got us to this point.
Yeah, we had a chance tovisit with Breece Scurry a couple of months
ago after her book came out,and she talked about some of the things
that she experienced, and that wasobviously pre NWSL, even as the US
women's national team was having to breakthrough just tons of initial barriers, and
(11:31):
they've continued to do that work,but to make sure that people's health after
their playing careers is taken care of, to make sure that they're appreciated for
the work that they've done, andthen obviously included in this next kind of
iteration, whatever the next version stepis, as that Jay curve intensifies and
(11:52):
goes up, to make sure everybodygets to be involved with that after you're
done playing someday, which hopefully isalways away. How would you like to
be involved with the league? Management, front office, broadcasting? Where do
you see yourself? Honestly, Iwant to own a club, you know,
I want to be Rebecca right right. Yeah, I don't have that
(12:16):
type of money, but I knowthat it would be a dream job and
it would be something that I wouldcombine all of my interests because I love
I did business school in college andgraduated with my degree in business, and
I love the sport. I neverwant to get away from the sport.
But I don't think coaching's for me. So I think they're combining like my
(12:41):
interest with soccer and knowing the gamereally well, and then also combining my
interests around business and there's other things. Would be Yeah, that would be
the dream. In the meantime,say AFC Richmond Women's Club got promoted,
yes, and they made you anoffer you could refuse, and so you
decided had a chancefer a window togo across the pond and play for them.
(13:07):
Who is one person that you've playedwith or against that you would encourage
them to recruit for the team,knowing that they would have to add something
special to the locker room because thisis a special locker room. So like
you know, you'd want them goodon the pitch, but you'd also want
them to be good on the TVshow. Yeah, wow, wow wow,
um oh gosh. I would encouragethem to recruit Marta in her prime.
(13:33):
I played with Marta when I whenI played in Sweden, and she
was the most dynamic player I've everplayed with my life. And I've never
seen somebody with such control over theball on their body. And then she
also just does the work. LikeI played, she played winger too on
the left side. I played outsideback on the left side and she would
(13:56):
do the work as a winger toIt made my life much better at having
a forward in front of me thatwould actually do the work. And then
on top of that, I thinkshe does a great job getting to know
her teammates. She also loves tobe a part of the community. Speaks
English, Swedish, Portuguese. Imean, she's just an all around good
(14:18):
person on top of being a fabuloussoccer player. I think that if you
could get Marta, you know,when she was in her prime, then
that is chef's kiss. The NFCRichmond team, they're kind of the plucky
underdogs. Portland has had success onthe field and y'all are just coming off
(14:43):
a championship and it's an incredibly talentedteam. Like you take a lot of
the corner kicks and free kicks onthat left side especially, and so you
have a lot of options of peopleto send the ball into. What does
your mindset and mentality have to bewhen everybody's like chasing you when you go
to people's towns and there's zero percentchance they're going to overlook you. How
(15:05):
do you have to approach the matches? Honestly, I never think about anybody
else except us, And honestly,our mindset is that we know if we
play with joy, remember that thisis a process, that mistakes are just
learning opportunities. That the reason whywe play is not because we all want
(15:30):
to win. Why did we startplaying because it was fun? Because my
cousins played, Because I mean,there's all these different reasons of why we
start, and so I think ourteam just always tries to go back to
our why, What's what's at thecore of us, what's our purpose?
And we play from there. AndI think that when you play from that
(15:52):
kind of space, these outside pressuresfrom other people that they try and put
on you, they don't matter becauseyou're playing from a place where you know,
like, hey, we're doing thistogether. We're playing because we have
a lot of fun. We knowthat when we have fun, we play
at our best, and so insteadof just trying to play our best,
we try and have fun because weknow that it's this weird thing that happens
(16:18):
in this world that when you trytoo hard, things become harder, right,
but when you're just having a blast, it becomes easy. So we
always try and bring it back toyou know, why we're doing this.
As you've watched, said Lasso,what's like a quote or a scene that
I stuck out to you as beingpersonally poignant. Oh gosh, there's a
(16:42):
few. I would say. There'ssome like in a really amazing way,
and then there's some in a reallybad way, took in the bad way,
Like I really hated that Rebecca datedSam. That reminded me a lot
of the bad things that happened inour league these past couple of years,
(17:04):
and how players have been taken advantageof. And I know it happens in
the league. I wish that theywould have talked about that differently and and
expressed an outcome that probably would havehappened differently there, because I understand,
when there are humans, there aregray situations, but at the same time,
(17:26):
like we need to make sure thatwe treat those gray situations in a
way that you know is being responsible. So that part really stuck out to
me because that reminded me a bitof some of the stuff that we have
been really trying to eradicate in ourleague. And then there's just so many
more positive things too, though,like the way that the team and the
(17:51):
players rally around Ted when he's havinghis panic attacks, because it's just tough
to deal with divorce, moving acrossthe country, you know, trying to
coach a sport at the highest levelwhen you've never done that before, and
to see the team and the ownershiprally around him is really special. And
(18:11):
then just seeing the way that Tedinteracts with his players, I love that
so much because for him, it'salways just about being a human being and
being a good human being. AndI truly believe, even at the highest
level, when you're getting paid millionsof dollars, that it's still about being
a good human being. And soactually seeing that on screen is so powerful
(18:37):
and it made me. It bringsso much joy, and it brings a
huge smile to my face every week. Just seeing how he interacts and tries
to help these young people become betterand to self reflect and not just focus
on soccer, but focus on howthey can be the best teammate. That's
really cool, and he does itin a way that is tough, but
(19:00):
also it makes you laugh it makesyou feel closer to him. It's it's
really a great show. Yeah,yeah, I appreciate you bringing up that
Sam Rebecca dynamic and relationship, andI know that that's one thing that we've
tried to, you know, exposethe listeners of our show too, in
bite sized pieces, because it ishard to explain it all to folks who
(19:23):
may be like just not aware ofwhat's been going on in NWSL, And
we certainly tried to address that grayarea and that tension. Like in some
ways with those scenes, barriers willbe being broken down, like seeing an
interracial couple and like seeing an olderwoman with a younger man, like that's
cool. But then obviously me beinga Thorns fan, it was like,
(19:45):
yeah, but in real life,like, that's really tough. And I
know that when we recorded one ofour episodes, our first episode after y'all
had won the title, like wedid mention, there's always a tension there
because they are succeeding on the fieldand it's amazing and all of you know,
the bravery that they've had to conjureup and keep conjuring up to keep
doing what they love and what theycalled to do in play a game and
(20:06):
all that stuff like soccer, likelife, like media. Everything is so
complicated and it can be joy andpain at once. And maybe that's just
like the tough thing that we haveto keep learning how to do. But
we also have to just keep learninghow to treat people better and value people
more. And you know, Ihope that as people look more into end
will sell like they will at leastdig into that full picture right to be
(20:29):
able to appreciate what's going on inthe field for y'all, as you know,
the fullness of your humanity. Yeah, that's such a good way to
put it, the fullness of humanity. And I think this sport is just
a microcosm of society, isn't it. It's just things are heightened in sport
that are already happening in society.And I think that every league has their
(20:52):
issues. Maybe they just haven't beenreported or maybe they just haven't been highlighted
like ours have because we've done thework to try to get rid of this
and to protect the players. AndI mean, if you look around the
world and men's leagues, racism isan incredibly hard thing that they're trying to
(21:14):
eradicate from sport. And like homophobiain men's leagues. Like, I just
think that there are different issues indifferent leagues. So this is something that
we're dealing with. And I actuallyam really proud of our group and the
players because we're taking a head onand I don't know if necessarily other leagues
are. And so say what youwant. Maybe there's a lot of bad
(21:37):
press sometimes about the league, butthat's because the players are doing something about
it and saying no and standing upfor what they know is right. So
yes, that comes with bad headlines, but what does that also come with
new rules to keep players safe,new people coming in that have an understanding
(21:57):
of, you know, where theplayers are now and how to treat each
other. And I just think that, yes, it is the fullness of
humanity and we need to look atit like that. And we kick ass
on the field, but we're alsokicking ass off the field too. Yeah.
Yeah, And hopefully part of thatj curve that you mentioned with the
league isn't just amazing players and amazingyou know, matches, but in the
(22:22):
spectacle, like the spectacle is awesome, but then hopefully it's empowerment too,
and we've seen that in some clubsyou know that now have women who are
in leadership and who are in ownership, and hopefully that stuff that that continues
to increase and get better as aresult of this long overdue process and reckoning
(22:44):
and the difficulty that that has,I guess just kind of foisted upon all
of you as players. What's beenthe biggest joy for you over the last
year. I think rediscovering myself Thispast year was really hard personally for me.
I won't go into why, butit was. And I think sometimes
(23:10):
when you're going through something that's reallydifficult, you kind of go in your
shell and just do things to getby, and you just do your absolute
best and you want to be there, but you're also just doing and you're
doing what you can, you know. And so this year, I feel
like I've finally gone to a placewhere I can start to experience joy and
(23:34):
experience self reflection and things that Ihadn't been experiencing as much in the past
year, and just kind of digginginto that and expanding my worldview and healing
and so being able to do thosethings is bringing me a lot of joy.
That's awesome. We one of thethings we talk about on our show
(23:56):
a lot is the music in tedLasso, because it creates this extra dimension
to what we're seeing, and Ithink it really intensifies, you know,
the feelings as people watch the show. So, is there music that's been
particularly meaningful for you throughout the lastyear and or was there a musical moment
(24:17):
in the show that just kind ofgave you pause? Yeah? So I
love music so much because it makesme feel so many things. You know,
it could make you feel like thepain or help you through a breakup,
right, or it could help youexperience joy just because it makes you
(24:38):
want to dance, right, Like, music is so powerful and it is
amazing. So this past year Igot a record player. Oh I know,
I'm fancy, and so it hasimmediately become one of my favorite purchases
ever. And I kind of likego to the old, through all the
(25:00):
old records. And I started outwith like my nineteen seventies rock music,
whether it's like Fleetwood Mac or aCDC or Van Morrison or whatever, right
and now I'm kind of like evenfurther back, I'm like Frank Sinatra,
Sam Cook, like Smokey Robinson,al Green, like really into that kind
(25:21):
of stuff right now. But itjust brings me, like, it brings
me so much joy because it makesme want to dance, or it makes
me want to cry, or itmakes me it just makes me feel.
And the moment in ted Lasso whichI loved the most was when Rebecca sang
let it Go for her god Daughter, because I feel like it was a
(25:44):
way that music helps her connect.And that's what I love about music,
is how it brings all these feelings, and so that part to me was
really pointing because it was really coolto see her making right or at least
the beginnings of making right with herfamily and her God better. Yeah,
because it's always a journey that itwas a pivotal moment for her too,
(26:07):
because it was part of her likeletting her guard down exactly allowing herself to
heal as well. Well, Megan, it's been a joy for me to
be able to visit with you asa fan of someone who's appreciate what you've
been on the field and off thefield. And we love that we get
to talk to people who are inthe sport who love ted Lasso, and
so we do hope the best foryou for the rest of this season,
(26:30):
and we'll be following closely and hopethat you enjoy season three as much as
the rest of us. Thank youso much, Go Thorns, go Richmond
Rotten for all of us, andthat's our show. We hope you enjoyed
our conversation with Megan Klingenberg. Youcan find links to her social media accounts,
(26:52):
as long as other topics we coveredin this episode in our show notes.
We'll be back soon with more tedLasso goodness, but you keep the
conversation going with us on Twitter andInstagram in the meantime. Our handle on
both platforms is at ted Lasso Pod. This episode of richm Until We Die
is brought to you by Gin andKerosene Productions, who is produced by me
(27:14):
Christian and Brett. If you're enjoyingthe podcast, please take thirty seconds to
subscribe to our feed and give theshow a five star review on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify. Heck, if you'refeeling generous, you could even do both.
As always, we appreciate all theways you share your love and support
with the pod. I'm Christian signingoff for Megan. Thanks for listening.
(27:34):
Until next time, Cheers y'all,
Welcome to the Crown and Anchor Greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die,
a conversation about the Apple TV Plusshow ted Lasso, where we explore the
characters, their relationships to each other, and how they can make us laugh
until we can hardly breathe one momentand feel with the deepest parts of our
hearts the next. I'm Christian andif I sound a little brazier than normal
(00:35):
today, it's because I'm in fullon fanboy mode. For today's episode,
I have the opportunity to interview professionalfootballer Megan Klingenberg of the Portland Thorns.
Megan is an accomplished defender, havingplayed on the United States two fifteen World
Cup winning squad, for the twentysixteen Olympic team, and on Thorne's teams
(00:55):
that have won two NWUSL Supporters Shields, two Nwuslups and an NWSL Challenge Cup.
Off the field, Meghan is avocal proponent for equality within the soccer
world as well as in broader society. She loves grilling and has performed in
a high school production of Andrew LloydWebber's Cats, which won an award for
(01:17):
the best High School musical in thePittsburgh area barbecue and musical theater. Big
ted Lasso energy, y'all. Infact, Megan was one of the first
NWSL players banging the drum for tedLasso, and as with anything she's passionate
about, she spread the word withpanash style and tenacity. A big shout
out to Katie from the Thorns forhelping us get this conversation set up and
(01:40):
pulled off because it almost didn't happenon account of an RV fire in Portland
that engulfed fiber optic lines and knockedout Internet throughout the city when we were
scheduled to conduct the interview. Ifthat sounds a little weird, well that's
kind of Portland's brand and so Greyhoundplease welcome Megan Cleaningberg to the pod.
(02:04):
Welcome, Hello, Hi, Thanksfor having me as the first biggest supporter
of ted Lasso in NWSL to thepoint where you got interviewed by the Washington
Post and you got memed by theleague. How early were you to the
ted Lasso game? Oh, Iwas like probably one of the very first
(02:25):
adopters. My dad and I kindof came across some commercials of it.
I think it was back in twentytwenty, right, Yeah, during the
Dark Ages, Yeah exactly, Andso we were like, oh, this
is awesome, like a show,a comedy about soccer in the prem like,
we're so in So we ate thatshot right up, and we watched
(02:50):
like almost every single episode in twodays, and we became evangelist for ted
Lasso, and we would, youknow, tell everybody watch it. I
think to the point where I talkabout it so much that I annoyed my
team, and then I got mycoach to watch it, and then it
kind of like was a trickle downeffect to the point where we eventually had
somebody on the team be like Thornson twelve. That's how you know you've
(03:15):
been effective when the show gets invokedinto real life conversations and situations. Yeah
exactly. I mean we have ablast. We always try and do like
something a little bit different depending onwho's calling the cheer at the end of
practice, and so somebody decided togo Thorns on twelve and it was epic.
It can be difficult to really enjoyand appreciate something that is fictional and
(03:38):
then based on something that you liveand breathe every day and that you're super
good at. So what was itabout the show once you decided to check
it out that kept you there andkept you engaged? Well. For soccer
shows in general, I honestly tryto take the soccer totally out of it
because it's never that good, youknow, So I leave that part off
(03:59):
the table, and then I justtry and think about if it's a show
that I like, if it's somethingthat speaks to me, if it's something
that makes me feel sort of connectionor reminds me of how we go about
things each day. And I thinkted Lasso does that incredibly well, because
to me, my favorite parts aboutthe game are the connection with my teammates
and how much joy it brings me, and you know, bringing smile to
(04:24):
people's faces when we are out onthe pitch and connecting with our fans and
things like that, and I thinkted Lasso is just like amazing at those
parts of the in the show.And so it really relates back to the
Thorns for me very much, andI like that part of it a lot.
But also it just makes me laugh. I mean, it just makes
(04:44):
me laugh. One of the thingsthat we try to impress upon folks who
listen to our show and watch tedLasso, but maybe aren't super familiar with
the soccer world. Is the relationshipbetween soccer clubs and their fans and their
supporters kind of equated In the UnitedStates. I think people are probably most
familiar with it with college sports becausethere's something about, you know, colleges
(05:06):
that feels very travel like those areyour people. And there's been a unique
relationship between the Thorns and their fanssince the Thorns joined in WSL. And
it was cool to watch it,you know, on TV and kind of
be jealous that we weren't there overthe weekend. But what was it like
having one the NWSL championship last yearand then to have the offseason and to
(05:30):
come back to a full stadium andto be able to play in front of
people who have been so supportive ofyou. Well, these last couple of
years have been a little bit roughbecause of the pandemic, so we haven't
had the type of crowds or fansthat we normally did before. And so
just this past year in twenty twenty, we started filling up the stadium again
(05:55):
and there was this one game intwenty twenty it was our semi final against
the San Diego Wave. We completelysold out the place. We played our
asses off, and then at thevery last minute we scored this ridiculous goal
and the place went totally fucking wild. I hope you can edit that out,
(06:18):
and like an outpouring of joy andrelief and just feeling like we've been
so resilient. The city has beenso resilient. We have been doing our
best to keep people safe and healthy, and now we get to celebrate with
our team and with our community insuch a joyful, emotive way, and
(06:43):
you could feel all of those emotionsin this one goal, in this one
moment just erupting through the stadium,and it was so frigging cool. And
so then we got to do thatand then go play for the championship,
which is always amazing and super funand thinks that we truly live for and
(07:04):
play for. But our team doesn'tjust play for championships like we play because
we love it and we have otherthings that, you know, keep us
going. So then you kind oflike come back, you celebrate a little
bit, you go off, youdo your trading, and then you come
back together as a team. Andthen finally the band gets back together for
(07:25):
the first for the first opening Sunday, and you know, the stadium's pretty
darn full and everybody's just having absoluteblasts. And I think that what's so
great about it is that people cometogether around the sport and people find each
other through the sport. It's likethe sport is the connector the sport is
(07:47):
something that is like so beautiful andjoyful and brings people like so much passion
and they love it so much thatthey can connect to other people around that
love and create a community of friendsand family in it. And we need
to be a part of that.And how far and cool is that?
Yeah, it's a that is agood PSA for why people should check out
(08:11):
NWSL. You know, a lotof to lots of folks, like maybe
they haven't watched a lot of soccerbefore, and here's NWSL. And not
only do you get to see ahigh concentration of the world's greatest players,
it's a league that's growing and likegrowing to new cities and new fan bases,
and there's passion. And then it'spretty accessible because you could, you
(08:33):
know, watch it on one streamingservice on Paramount Plus. And then I
get some bonus things CSI and othersoccer and whatnot. But it's such a
great league to follow. You havebeen associated with NWSL for a long time
and and you have played soccer inthe United States for a long time,
in college and in pros. Howhave you seen the game grow and what
(08:56):
do you think is like the nextstep in the progression of the growth of
the women's game in this country.The really cool part about the game is
that I think is at the bottomof a j curve, and I think
it's just going to explode exponentially ingeneral soccer, but also the women's game.
(09:18):
And I've been through two World Cups, played in one of them,
while there's been the end of acell. And after the World Cup in
twenty fifteen, there was this,you know, really big interest in the
league and in those players, andthen it kind of waned off a little
bit, and then the same thingin twenty nineteen. But I actually think
(09:39):
that there's no World Cup bump anymore. I think people love watching the World
Cup. It's the greatest sporting eventin the world, and I stand by
that statement. But this league isdrawing interest because the league is interesting,
not because people want to see theseWorld Cup players in the league anymore.
They do, and these players areamazing, but they also just really want
(10:03):
to root for the Portland Thorns becausethey created this community and friends around this
team and around this city and aroundthe joy that we create by playing the
game. And so I personally thinkthat there's no end in sight when it
comes to growth for this league andespecially for this team and for this fan
(10:24):
base. The only thing that Iam a little bit skeptical about is how
to involve and include the players thathave done so much for the game and
a lot of the work in thatvalue, Like, how do we include
the players and make sure that they'retaking care of because they're the ones that
(10:46):
are putting their bodies and minds andhearts and souls on the line every week
and doing all these things to makethis league great. How do we make
sure that we reward them and tomake sure that we take care of those
players that did so much for theleague but maybe didn't get paid the way
that they were supposed to get paid. So I have all of these incredible
(11:09):
things to say about the league.I think it's going in such a great
direction. I also hope that weremember who got us to this point.
Yeah, we had a chance tovisit with Breece Scurry a couple of months
ago after her book came out,and she talked about some of the things
that she experienced, and that wasobviously pre NWSL, even as the US
women's national team was having to breakthrough just tons of initial barriers, and
(11:31):
they've continued to do that work,but to make sure that people's health after
their playing careers is taken care of, to make sure that they're appreciated for
the work that they've done, andthen obviously included in this next kind of
iteration, whatever the next version stepis, as that Jay curve intensifies and
(11:52):
goes up, to make sure everybodygets to be involved with that after you're
done playing someday, which hopefully isalways away. How would you like to
be involved with the league? Management, front office, broadcasting? Where do
you see yourself? Honestly, Iwant to own a club, you know,
I want to be Rebecca right right. Yeah, I don't have that
(12:16):
type of money, but I knowthat it would be a dream job and
it would be something that I wouldcombine all of my interests because I love
I did business school in college andgraduated with my degree in business, and
I love the sport. I neverwant to get away from the sport.
But I don't think coaching's for me. So I think they're combining like my
(12:41):
interest with soccer and knowing the gamereally well, and then also combining my
interests around business and there's other things. Would be Yeah, that would be
the dream. In the meantime,say AFC Richmond Women's Club got promoted,
yes, and they made you anoffer you could refuse, and so you
decided had a chancefer a window togo across the pond and play for them.
(13:07):
Who is one person that you've playedwith or against that you would encourage
them to recruit for the team,knowing that they would have to add something
special to the locker room because thisis a special locker room. So like
you know, you'd want them goodon the pitch, but you'd also want
them to be good on the TVshow. Yeah, wow, wow wow,
um oh gosh. I would encouragethem to recruit Marta in her prime.
(13:33):
I played with Marta when I whenI played in Sweden, and she
was the most dynamic player I've everplayed with my life. And I've never
seen somebody with such control over theball on their body. And then she
also just does the work. LikeI played, she played winger too on
the left side. I played outsideback on the left side and she would
(13:56):
do the work as a winger toIt made my life much better at having
a forward in front of me thatwould actually do the work. And then
on top of that, I thinkshe does a great job getting to know
her teammates. She also loves tobe a part of the community. Speaks
English, Swedish, Portuguese. Imean, she's just an all around good
(14:18):
person on top of being a fabuloussoccer player. I think that if you
could get Marta, you know,when she was in her prime, then
that is chef's kiss. The NFCRichmond team, they're kind of the plucky
underdogs. Portland has had success onthe field and y'all are just coming off
(14:43):
a championship and it's an incredibly talentedteam. Like you take a lot of
the corner kicks and free kicks onthat left side especially, and so you
have a lot of options of peopleto send the ball into. What does
your mindset and mentality have to bewhen everybody's like chasing you when you go
to people's towns and there's zero percentchance they're going to overlook you. How
(15:05):
do you have to approach the matches? Honestly, I never think about anybody
else except us, And honestly,our mindset is that we know if we
play with joy, remember that thisis a process, that mistakes are just
learning opportunities. That the reason whywe play is not because we all want
(15:30):
to win. Why did we startplaying because it was fun? Because my
cousins played, Because I mean,there's all these different reasons of why we
start, and so I think ourteam just always tries to go back to
our why, What's what's at thecore of us, what's our purpose?
And we play from there. AndI think that when you play from that
(15:52):
kind of space, these outside pressuresfrom other people that they try and put
on you, they don't matter becauseyou're playing from a place where you know,
like, hey, we're doing thistogether. We're playing because we have
a lot of fun. We knowthat when we have fun, we play
at our best, and so insteadof just trying to play our best,
we try and have fun because weknow that it's this weird thing that happens
(16:18):
in this world that when you trytoo hard, things become harder, right,
but when you're just having a blast, it becomes easy. So we
always try and bring it back toyou know, why we're doing this.
As you've watched, said Lasso,what's like a quote or a scene that
I stuck out to you as beingpersonally poignant. Oh gosh, there's a
(16:42):
few. I would say. There'ssome like in a really amazing way,
and then there's some in a reallybad way, took in the bad way,
Like I really hated that Rebecca datedSam. That reminded me a lot
of the bad things that happened inour league these past couple of years,
(17:04):
and how players have been taken advantageof. And I know it happens in
the league. I wish that theywould have talked about that differently and and
expressed an outcome that probably would havehappened differently there, because I understand,
when there are humans, there aregray situations, but at the same time,
(17:26):
like we need to make sure thatwe treat those gray situations in a
way that you know is being responsible. So that part really stuck out to
me because that reminded me a bitof some of the stuff that we have
been really trying to eradicate in ourleague. And then there's just so many
more positive things too, though,like the way that the team and the
(17:51):
players rally around Ted when he's havinghis panic attacks, because it's just tough
to deal with divorce, moving acrossthe country, you know, trying to
coach a sport at the highest levelwhen you've never done that before, and
to see the team and the ownershiprally around him is really special. And
(18:11):
then just seeing the way that Tedinteracts with his players, I love that
so much because for him, it'salways just about being a human being and
being a good human being. AndI truly believe, even at the highest
level, when you're getting paid millionsof dollars, that it's still about being
a good human being. And soactually seeing that on screen is so powerful
(18:37):
and it made me. It bringsso much joy, and it brings a
huge smile to my face every week. Just seeing how he interacts and tries
to help these young people become betterand to self reflect and not just focus
on soccer, but focus on howthey can be the best teammate. That's
really cool, and he does itin a way that is tough, but
(19:00):
also it makes you laugh it makesyou feel closer to him. It's it's
really a great show. Yeah,yeah, I appreciate you bringing up that
Sam Rebecca dynamic and relationship, andI know that that's one thing that we've
tried to, you know, exposethe listeners of our show too, in
bite sized pieces, because it ishard to explain it all to folks who
(19:23):
may be like just not aware ofwhat's been going on in NWSL, And
we certainly tried to address that grayarea and that tension. Like in some
ways with those scenes, barriers willbe being broken down, like seeing an
interracial couple and like seeing an olderwoman with a younger man, like that's
cool. But then obviously me beinga Thorns fan, it was like,
(19:45):
yeah, but in real life,like, that's really tough. And I
know that when we recorded one ofour episodes, our first episode after y'all
had won the title, like wedid mention, there's always a tension there
because they are succeeding on the fieldand it's amazing and all of you know,
the bravery that they've had to conjureup and keep conjuring up to keep
doing what they love and what theycalled to do in play a game and
(20:06):
all that stuff like soccer, likelife, like media. Everything is so
complicated and it can be joy andpain at once. And maybe that's just
like the tough thing that we haveto keep learning how to do. But
we also have to just keep learninghow to treat people better and value people
more. And you know, Ihope that as people look more into end
will sell like they will at leastdig into that full picture right to be
(20:29):
able to appreciate what's going on inthe field for y'all, as you know,
the fullness of your humanity. Yeah, that's such a good way to
put it, the fullness of humanity. And I think this sport is just
a microcosm of society, isn't it. It's just things are heightened in sport
that are already happening in society.And I think that every league has their
(20:52):
issues. Maybe they just haven't beenreported or maybe they just haven't been highlighted
like ours have because we've done thework to try to get rid of this
and to protect the players. AndI mean, if you look around the
world and men's leagues, racism isan incredibly hard thing that they're trying to
(21:14):
eradicate from sport. And like homophobiain men's leagues. Like, I just
think that there are different issues indifferent leagues. So this is something that
we're dealing with. And I actuallyam really proud of our group and the
players because we're taking a head onand I don't know if necessarily other leagues
are. And so say what youwant. Maybe there's a lot of bad
(21:37):
press sometimes about the league, butthat's because the players are doing something about
it and saying no and standing upfor what they know is right. So
yes, that comes with bad headlines, but what does that also come with
new rules to keep players safe,new people coming in that have an understanding
(21:57):
of, you know, where theplayers are now and how to treat each
other. And I just think that, yes, it is the fullness of
humanity and we need to look atit like that. And we kick ass
on the field, but we're alsokicking ass off the field too. Yeah.
Yeah, And hopefully part of thatj curve that you mentioned with the
league isn't just amazing players and amazingyou know, matches, but in the
(22:22):
spectacle, like the spectacle is awesome, but then hopefully it's empowerment too,
and we've seen that in some clubsyou know that now have women who are
in leadership and who are in ownership, and hopefully that stuff that that continues
to increase and get better as aresult of this long overdue process and reckoning
(22:44):
and the difficulty that that has,I guess just kind of foisted upon all
of you as players. What's beenthe biggest joy for you over the last
year. I think rediscovering myself Thispast year was really hard personally for me.
I won't go into why, butit was. And I think sometimes
(23:10):
when you're going through something that's reallydifficult, you kind of go in your
shell and just do things to getby, and you just do your absolute
best and you want to be there, but you're also just doing and you're
doing what you can, you know. And so this year, I feel
like I've finally gone to a placewhere I can start to experience joy and
(23:34):
experience self reflection and things that Ihadn't been experiencing as much in the past
year, and just kind of digginginto that and expanding my worldview and healing
and so being able to do thosethings is bringing me a lot of joy.
That's awesome. We one of thethings we talk about on our show
(23:56):
a lot is the music in tedLasso, because it creates this extra dimension
to what we're seeing, and Ithink it really intensifies, you know,
the feelings as people watch the show. So, is there music that's been
particularly meaningful for you throughout the lastyear and or was there a musical moment
(24:17):
in the show that just kind ofgave you pause? Yeah? So I
love music so much because it makesme feel so many things. You know,
it could make you feel like thepain or help you through a breakup,
right, or it could help youexperience joy just because it makes you
(24:38):
want to dance, right, Like, music is so powerful and it is
amazing. So this past year Igot a record player. Oh I know,
I'm fancy, and so it hasimmediately become one of my favorite purchases
ever. And I kind of likego to the old, through all the
(25:00):
old records. And I started outwith like my nineteen seventies rock music,
whether it's like Fleetwood Mac or aCDC or Van Morrison or whatever, right
and now I'm kind of like evenfurther back, I'm like Frank Sinatra,
Sam Cook, like Smokey Robinson,al Green, like really into that kind
(25:21):
of stuff right now. But itjust brings me, like, it brings
me so much joy because it makesme want to dance, or it makes
me want to cry, or itmakes me it just makes me feel.
And the moment in ted Lasso whichI loved the most was when Rebecca sang
let it Go for her god Daughter, because I feel like it was a
(25:44):
way that music helps her connect.And that's what I love about music,
is how it brings all these feelings, and so that part to me was
really pointing because it was really coolto see her making right or at least
the beginnings of making right with herfamily and her God better. Yeah,
because it's always a journey that itwas a pivotal moment for her too,
(26:07):
because it was part of her likeletting her guard down exactly allowing herself to
heal as well. Well, Megan, it's been a joy for me to
be able to visit with you asa fan of someone who's appreciate what you've
been on the field and off thefield. And we love that we get
to talk to people who are inthe sport who love ted Lasso, and
so we do hope the best foryou for the rest of this season,
(26:30):
and we'll be following closely and hopethat you enjoy season three as much as
the rest of us. Thank youso much, Go Thorns, go Richmond
Rotten for all of us, andthat's our show. We hope you enjoyed
our conversation with Megan Klingenberg. Youcan find links to her social media accounts,
(26:52):
as long as other topics we coveredin this episode in our show notes.
We'll be back soon with more tedLasso goodness, but you keep the
conversation going with us on Twitter andInstagram in the meantime. Our handle on
both platforms is at ted Lasso Pod. This episode of richm Until We Die
is brought to you by Gin andKerosene Productions, who is produced by me
(27:14):
Christian and Brett. If you're enjoyingthe podcast, please take thirty seconds to
subscribe to our feed and give theshow a five star review on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify. Heck, if you'refeeling generous, you could even do both.
As always, we appreciate all theways you share your love and support
with the pod. I'm Christian signingoff for Megan. Thanks for listening.
(27:34):
Until next time, Cheers y'all,
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