SoccerWise - U.S. Soccerwise | Dan Helfrich on the Future of U.S. Soccer + USMNT Coach Search

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

U.S. Soccer COO Dan Helfrich joins David Gass to discuss the future of U.S. Soccer, the USMNT coaching search, youth development, preparations for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup, and what's next for the federation.Welcome to the first episode of U.S. Soccerwise, our new weekly show covering the biggest stories across the U.S. men's, women's, and youth national teams.Dan shares how U.S. Soccer is approaching the search for the next USMNT head coach, the federation's long-term vision for player development and expanding access to the game, preparations for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup and the 2028 Olympics, and what's ahead for the USMNT and USWNT.0:00 Welcome to U.S. Soccerwise 2:07 Meet U.S. Soccer COO Dan Helfrich 7:49 What Should U.S. Soccer Be Doing? 11:55 How U.S. Soccer Can Grow the Game 17:31 The U.S. Soccer Pathway: Youth to Pros 28:53 Evaluating the 2026 World Cup 32:14 The USMNT Coaching Search41:24 The Future of the USWNT: Road to 2027 47:23 Exciting U.S. Soccer Moments Ahead#USSoccer #USMNT #USWNT

to soccer-wise and what a big day it is. Our first U.S. soccer-wise special. We are going to be doing this show every single Wednesday, every week till the end of time. So we have a great set of hosts that are going to be alongside me over the course of the next few weeks and months as we head towards the Women's World Cup, as we head towards Concaf Nations League and Gold Cup and Youth World Cups and so much more to cover on the U.S. men's, women's, and youth side. So I am going to to be joined and lucky enough to be joined by Walker Zimmerman, a World Cup veteran, Brianna Pinto, who has played in the U.S. Women's National Team programs as well as, of course, Jordan Angeli, Tom Boger, Matt Doyle, and many of the other hosts that we have in our ecosystem.

We're going to talk about call-ups. We're going to talk about rosters, coaching hires, coaching fires, and of course we're going to be breaking down all the big performances, starting with the U.S. Women's National team in October against the reigning world champions in Spain. and it sounds like the U.S. men's national team in September and October, again, some of the big World Cup opponents that we saw. So we are going to be here every Wednesday. Feel free to send us any of the things you want us to talk about.

We're going to talk the men's national team. We're going to talk the women's national team equally across all of our shows. But we still, of course, have our MLS and NWSL coverage and everything else across the week. For our first ever show, we have a nice little guess. we are going to talk to the chief operating officer right now of the U.S. Soccer Federation in Dan Hellfridge. So he is working day in and day out to help hire the next U.S. men's national team coach. And just to warn you, when we had this conversation on Friday of last week, there was no

official news around who is the coach of the U.S. men's national team. Dan, thanks for being here. Love it. Good to be here, David. So you have a unique background. And when we got set up to do this interview, the first thing I thought about was when I came out of college, I was working and calling games for something called the Biggie's Digital Network. And I was doing St. John's and Seaton Hall games and Villanova games. And one of the other names that would be on my email thread and on my list was a name Dan Helfrich.

And I watched a lot of Georgetown soccer games because Brian Weiss was putting together a monster team that has continued through. And now you are the CEO of U.S. soccer. Broadcasting was never exactly who you were, but you are a sicko at heart. Tell people a little bit about how you started out doing that and how you went from being a fake version of one of me to sort of a real power player. I love that. You and I were on email chains before we knew each other. Yeah, look, soccer has been the most central and most influential part of my life since a. I learned most of what I know about leadership and about culture through the trials and tribulations of life as a player, including how to get cut and how to succeed.

And I played in a lot of places. I got to wear the U.S. jersey once or twice as a teenager. and then ultimately played at Georgetown. And when I was exiting Georgetown and trying to decide what I wanted to do with my career, I had two paths. One was a broadcasting path, and I had some pretty cool opportunities there. The other was starting in a business career. I ended up choosing door number two, but saying to myself, a soccer-neutral.

needs to remain central to my life and B, I want to see if I can create a side hustle broadcasting so that I continue there. And so the easiest way for me to do that was in the early ages of streaming and broadcasting to become the play-by-play voice of Georgetown where I played. And more than 20 years later, I've done across mostly college, I've done some pro stuff. I've probably broadcast 700 or so matches while having a business career, but while also staying really close to the game in many dimensions, as a coach, as a volunteer, as a broadcaster, as a parent,

as someone who most of his best friends are coaches and scouts and front office staff and people who are deeply in the game. So the game is deep within me. And so this opportunity is a great place to give back to the sport that has given me so much. I was jealous because you got a lot of Big East championships that you got to call. All those tournaments were down at Schafield. They were. And calling final eight games with a birth to the final four on the line are some of my greatest life highlights.

If you go back and listen to, you can probably find it on YouTube, my call of an overtime goal to send Georgetown in 2012 to its first final four. It was prepubescent, voice cracking, high-pitched Dan Alfrich calling the goal by Melvin Snow. I was going to ask, Stevie Newman on that team, right? Stevie Newman on the team. Melvin Snow, a freshman first career goal to send Georgetown to the to the final four against San Diego. So I think the credentials have been laid out there. You are a soccer sicko, and you worked a long time at Deloite in some big-time business roles, and now you have shifted to become the COO of U.S. soccer.

When did you decide that work in the soccer space was of interest and why the U.S. Soccer Federation? So I decided, you know, when my time as, as CEO at Deloitte Consulting came to its natural end after about six years that I did the classic soul searching and said, what's drawing me above anything else is to want to be in service to the sport. And when that hit me that hard, then it didn't take long to say, where can I impact the sport in the most ways across the most levels, grassroots to elite women and men,

and the Federation was the obvious place. And look, it's a good group of people. And the opportunity and the challenge ahead of us is real. but the excitement and belief that we have a lot of work to do and we need to roll up our sleeves and do that work is profound. And so it was a pretty easy decision to put the Crest jersey on every day and get to work. We're going to talk about coaching, hiring, sporting director hires some of the specific roles and some of that work. But I actually want to talk about the Federation overall because I think one of the things as the conversations come out of the World Cup and people

who are outside of soccer start to enter the big conversations around soccer, I think some people get lost a little because there isn't a central point in the U.S. the way, if we're talking about basketball, something's coming out of Adam Silver's office, right? If we're talking about football, Roger Goodell and his group, they affect it. Soccer is more disparate. So I'm curious, what do you see as the role for the United States Soccer Federation as you talk grassroots through the pro ranks and what is the work that USSF should be doing? Yeah, look, the role overall at its broadest sense is orchestrator, not owner. And if you're going to have, as we do, so many different pieces of the mission and so many

stakeholders across the mission, then it's really important to think of how can I orchestrate this in an aligned way versus how do I tell everybody what to do? But to do that, you must lead. And you also can't let fragmentation and scale of country get in the way of creating the alignment that we know we need if we're going to continue to compete at the highest levels in the women's game and create the platform to compete at the highest levels in the men's game.

Like we have real work to do. And so the Federation has what I think of as a profound privilege, and I feel the privilege very personally, to, try to connect all levels of the game. And the Federation needs to spend time as we do on everything from, how do I create access, free of charge for people to get introduced to the game at the early stages of their life to how do I create incentives and excitement for people

to become coaches and referees and grow in that way to how do I, cast a net across not only the country, but the world, to find talent and then cultivate and develop that talent into our youth and senior team pathways. Like, the Federation has to do all of that, I think gets to do all of that. And so you've got to build a team that understands that the breadth of the soccer responsibility that the Federation has is wide. And yes, David, are there, quote-unquote, new people who, you know, take a narrower lens to what they think the Federation is in the wake of a men's World Cup, sure. And but every day, 365 days a year, it's the breadth of the mission that's driving us. But the last thing I'd say is it's a beautiful thing that this many people have decided

that the passion that you and I feel and the sickos feel about the sport, it's infecting others. And I want those people on the bus. And I am thrilled that they have opinions, including contrarian ones, about the way the bus ought to be driven, because none of us think the bus is on autopilot, headed in a perfect direction,

to Nirvana. There's a lot of work to do. And so I actually am pretty heartened by passion and debate that's occurring right now. I don't have a good version of using the bus analogy. So I'm just going to try and move to the next one. But a huge conversation that you have taken apart in already publicly is in youth development. And the pay-to-play model that exists across the U.S., whether it was purposeful or not. it is the nature of a lot of the sort of youth landscape that's outside of soccer as well which

I think is a conversation that all of this is getting pulled into you have spoken about trying to change that and you've given some quotes about restructuring or changing the way people engage with the game as young people how do you see the landscape in a best case scenario what is it that you would like to build the first thing is that we want the system to start with a really wide funnel that is widely accessible, which means in practical terms, you've got to meet people where they are in their communities, in the activities and rhythms of their daily life, and you need to make soccer present in those. So that means schools, and it means parks and rec departments,

and it means those places in highly dense metropolitan areas where there's a lot of competition for different sports. So we have to catalyze, instigate, orchestrate, whatever word you want to use, more action in those places, and we are. And so when you see an announcement last week with the mayor of Atlanta, that we're going to have soccer in every public school in Atlanta for free, you're seeing a small but meaningful part of what a new system looks like because it has to start with a wider pathway that's more open to more.

Then as you progress, you have to find ways for players and families to get exposed to, better coaching and more fun environments to develop technical skills on the ball skills with coaches and people who are well suited to those age groups. And so we're designing ideas and things, again, in partnership with communities to make that happen. Then you start to graduate towards, okay, we now have a wide funnel, we have a broader technical base for a bunch of folks in a much wider set of communities. Then how do you construct a competitive team system where you start to play against one another in competitive environments that is, um, locally based.

And right now, the fragmentation that you reference, one of the most dangerous and damaging things about that fragmentation is the time and financial cost to play matches, because people are flying slash driving long distances, staying overnight is a huge barrier to the annual cost of playing the game. And so a new system changes that and creates alignment such that where in the New York metro area or in greater Atlanta or the DMV near the nation's capital or in Southern California, there are plenty of players,

right, and plenty of teams who can and should compete with one another. And then the final thing is, you, a new system has to, as players get into their teenage years, we have to have more environments where players are coming together

with the best other players in their area and are exposed to, to top level coaching from the professional clubs in the area, from the colleges in the area. And if you do that, then the funnel stays open for longer. And we aren't down selecting to too small a group of players too early. So the first half of what you talked about is it feels like there's sort of like two concepts we're all working on. One is how do we create a soccer culture?

how do we make America a soccer country? The other is how do we win a World Cup, which I don't think they're not connected. But it feels like the first piece of what you talked about is if you can get people around a soccer ball at 5, 7, 8, 10 years old, they'll get into soccer. And that, I assume, from a U.S. Soccer Federation point of view, that is a leadership spot of can you tap into local governments,

federal government, other programs. Is that sort of the drive on that side of things? No question. And then as that grows, now we get into, as players start to develop more of a pro scene, I saw you with Arson Venger a couple days ago. In France, it's Claire Fontaine, right? It is these 13 or 14 academies that the Federation has set up around the country that bring the best players. Is that a place you think U.S. Soccer Federation should step back into with residency having been around about 30 years ago?

I get I get worried when when people say step back into because it implies people have a vision of residency. People have a vision of a development academy system. So we are not seeking to step back into anything. But if you use the France example or a similar example in Germany, and how they created a federation of academies geographically. I'd say two things. The first is we ain't going to copy and paste for a broad set of reasons

what has been done in other countries. However, we will absolutely look at, well, what are they trying to accomplish there? And one of the things they're trying to accomplish is better geographic coverage with more elite coaching and environments across the country that are free to play. So do we need a system that creates more free, highly accessible academy level environments in what? way, way more places in this country than the 27 MLS academies that exist today. Yes, we need them in way more places. And part of the plan that we are building, again, in conjunction with all the professional

leagues and others, I think will lead to that type of expanded access to higher level coaching, higher level competitive environments in a broader set of places, but it's going to be the American Academy, not Claire Fontaine. Right. So you mentioned the pro leagues. Obviously, that is a huge part of the work U.S. soccer does. And I'm curious about the connections with how you work amongst them. Mainly, we have a unique setup in which we have multiple First Division women's leagues in

U.S.L Super League and NWSL. We obviously have USL championships or USL's claim to now push into a first division alongside Major League Soccer. We have two third divisions. How do you as a federation work amongst all of that? And what should your role maybe be in terms of, I don't know if policing is the right term, but helping make sure that all the resources are going in the right direction? Look, as it relates to the youth game, it is our responsibility in our view to, get all of those professional leagues who clearly have fan interest, player development interest

in an improved youth system at the same table. That's our responsibility. And so obviously, as we are talking about creating new systems, then some of the co-authors, of those new systems have to come from the professional leagues. And that includes NWSL, USL, and MLS, all of whom have slightly different current setups relative to the youth game. And that's fine. But, and I think that will continue that they'll all look at the youth game in slightly different ways.

But we must have their voices at the table. and I'm happy to report that we do. And, you know, for example, we had a big conversation at the National Training Center in Atlanta a couple months ago before the World Cup talking about some future of youth soccer stuff. And it was, according to many, the first time that every state association, all the major youth leagues, and the professional leagues, all were actually in the room, productively attending breakout sessions together. And so my optimism is partially because that's what I observe, is that when we sit in front of a room, not we, U.S. soccer,

but you or me or anybody who cares about the sport as much as we do, and says there's a better way, The head nod is very, very fast-paced. And so that's where you start, a common view of the destination we're trying to get to and a common view that we aren't yet in an aligned path to get to that destination. I feel good about the commonality of perspective there. And now, you know, we have to lead and we have to, we got to get to work and diagnosing a situation and having a vision is a really good start, but we should be measured

by the actions that are taken in the years to come so that, you know, we're in a measurably better place a few years from now. Obviously, the training center is a huge opening for U.S. Soccer. A lot of the stuff you're mentioning, it's a lot of work across a lot of different people. I know you've talked publicly a bit about the expansion of the Federation. What are sort of the steps from an organizational point of view to allow U.S. soccer to be able to affect so many communities and cover so much of the country? Well, you got to have the human capital and the financial capital to do that. And so I think if you think about the vastness of the responsibilities we've talked about, that requires a vastness of soccer expertise.

It also requires a vastness of management and organizational expertise because you need all the commercial and financial and human resource expertise. But let's just talk about soccer expertise for a second. We require an extraordinary range of soccer expertise. And so as you're building a team, you're trying to go, you know, sign up a lot of different people with a lot of different types of soccer expertise to then, you know, come together to create a team that can go do the vastness of things that were, you know, charged to do. And it's, you know, I hear people ask questions about soccer people and as if there's one definition of a soccer person.

Right. Given our mission, we need hundreds of, of different types of soccer people, and the key is to assemble them. So that's the human capital side. And we will continue to be in the business of acquiring more soccer talent in more areas, but the foundation's actually quite strong. And then you need financial capital in order to invest in things like the National Training Center, to invest in the human training center, to invest in the human capital that I just described. And so certainly over the last few years and, you know, our CEO, J.T. Batson has talked about this pretty publicly. The, you know, a journey from, you know, call it $100 million in sort of annual investment capacity to, you know, three or

400 million. Well, that creates the ability to do things like build a national training center. It creates the ability to have more youth national team camps, more full-time youth national team coaches. And that creates more development experiences for more players, which is good for our national team system. It's good for the pro leagues. And certainly we're going to keep investing because that's what the mission requires. We've got to keep investing in technology that allows us to do things like enhance the scouting that we're doing not only across the United States, but across the world. And so we're still in the raised financial capital business and we're still in the acquire new human capital business because we won't achieve this mission or our ambitions without that. You talked a little bit about, you know, all the leaks coming together on the youth side of things and working together to build this youth development.

On the pro side of things, you have sanctioning across multiple divisions with multiple leaks. Is there a worry that that causes friction that wastes energy and capital in resources? Where do you see U.S. soccer's role in terms of you've set parameters and maybe how many can sit inside of a certain amount, you know, a certain level? division or how many leagues maybe there should be? I'll leave the details of that to the folks who are administering, you know, pro league standards. I would say that a healthy, vibrant professional ecosystems really important to the future of the game and the country.

And when we talk about that, we need to talk about the fact that the state of the professional systems are quite different on the men's and women's sides right now. And so, you know, certainly among the things that are things we get asked questions about and that we spend time talking about is, you know, what's the evolution of a women's domestic system that may be, gosh, we take advantage of the momentum and there's more communities that want to have real professional teams. How do you help enable that? Those are all things that are on the, those are all things that are certainly on the strategic agenda. Let's talk about what we just went through, 2026 World Cup.

I think let's start with what is the internal process of how you assess everything that happens. You know, we all are having conversations around it, but what is the process of looking at it and saying what went right, what went wrong, and sort of what is the feeling of what the experience was? the feeling is extraordinarily positive for the World Cup as a whole. But when you say the World Cup as a whole, that's comprised of a lot of different characteristics and variables. And, you know, our assessment is at the variable level. So we can talk about the momentum that this has created. And it's pretty extraordinary. The viewership, you know, most people that listen to this have seen the data,

but it's worth describing, again, because it really hits you that there were several matches in the tournament, including one of ours, including the final, that were the most watching. sporting events non-NFL in the country since 1994. Yeah. That people talk cavalierly about whether or not will ever be a soccer country. And those ratings imply 3x NBA finals, 4x major league baseball world series. like these are these are not soccer sickos envisioning a future this is the reality that we're living in and so there's growing the game growing the interest variables that we assess and

you know those are extremely positive now it's our job to say how do you turn those into people that will continue to invest in the sport and believe in the sport, etc. And then you look at all the other variables on and off the pitch, and the process looks like looking at both data and observations, having people from both inside the federation and outside the federation invited to the table to talk about them. And you learn from that not only to prepare for 2030, but some of those things you use to help the women prepare for 27.

And that's everything from how to deal with certain interpretations of new rules, how to manage hydration breaks if those continue. And so all those things are on the, we talk about how that we're a learning organization. And so we're in learning mode from all of that from this World Cup. While being in learning mode, you also have to be in active mode because Maricio Pochitino's contract ended with the World Cup. So how do you hand in hand assess what happened and then also now walk through the process of filling in one or maybe two of the biggest roles, excuse me, in U.S. soccer with the head coach and sporting director.

Well, I think Marizio is a big part of the conversations we've had about the future of the sport in the country before the World Cup during and after. And his perspective and ideas have been really important. And, you know, key, for example, you know, has been a big part of discussions we've had about the development of a really compelling generation of players that are emerging in the system. And something like the Olympics in 2028 being a really important platform for, you know, those players to grow. And so, you know, as we've said, you know, previously and publicly, you know, Marizio, therefore, a key collaborator on hiring Steve to be the, you know, Olympics coach, which we did during the World Cup. So that having access to that expertise and that perspective as we think about the future of the sport in our country is invaluable. And the conversation with him about his future inside.

the team, his future as the head coach, how do you do that hand in hand with the competition and then sort of the, I assume, exhale that has to occur for someone who's been in the trenches for weeks, if not months? Yeah, look, if you have a good trusting relationship with clear communication, which we have in this case, then what it looks like is pretty simple. You've agreed to take some time to exhale or rest or reflect whatever word you want to use. And you spend some of that time talking about the future. And so that's where we've been. And I'd say a normal, predictable process amongst people who have a high degree of respect

for one another and who clearly care about the future, not only of the men's national team, but of the sport in the country. The next set of games we're hearing reports already of matchups coming in September and October. It's a huge window with four potential games in there. How big a factor is that in in the timeline of where you guys want to work? Well, I can promise you we're going to have a big window and we're going to play as many matches as we're allowed to in that window. And that window is going to be really important to the development of, you know, our players. and our journey into the next set of competitions that come.

So we're all together planning for that window in the ways we normally would. And so I think in something measured in probably days from when people listen to this, we'll all know officially who those opponents are. And then the process we would normally go through to gather perspective from all the places we gather it in terms of creating a roster for that next set of windows is the process that we're going through. One of the big pushes is high competitive games, high profile games. We saw the window coming into the World Cup, Belgium, Portugal, NFL size stadiums. One of the reports we're seeing around the World Cup is a conversation around Copa America, 28. How inserted is U.S.

soccer in conversations from Concaf to other federations and how big of an event would that be or any sort of more official relationship with Conmable? Yeah, I'm not, there's no breaking news on that at this point. What I would say is we're, you know, our job is to create the maximum amount of highly competitive environments we can for our senior teams to put them in the best position to compete at major tournaments, including World Cups, and that's what we're doing. Look, and that can come in many ways. If you're a fan of the WNT, you know, find yourself a ticket to October 10th in D.C. or October 13th in Philadelphia, where we're going to play Spain in a, in, you know, sort of a

classic. It's fall, so it's college football season, right? It's a pretty classic one versus two battle, and that's us saying, how do we get the most competitive environments in this case for the women? I was down with Emma and team in Brazil in June, same logic to matches in really intense environments in Sao Paulo and Fortaleza. You know, and so- We saw the cramping on TV. Don't worry. Yeah, I was almost cramping on the sidelines. But the point is people should be very clear that we view creating more highly competitive

matches for our teams as a huge objective because it prepares the team. it prepares the coaches. And from a player development standpoint, it accelerates people's trajectory. I want to dig in a little more on the women's national team because the World Cup coming up next year, I think all the numbers we've seen, everything we've talked about,

a lot of it compared to 2014, I think having a women's World Cup team that could go on a deep run and our time zone is going to be pretty special. But one last thing to ask you about it before we get there is the role of sporting director, which Matt Crocker, left right before the World Cup.

And I wonder how you see that role now as you talked about how you want U.S. soccer to grow and what the process is to replacing that, or is it splitting that role in different ways? Look, you know, as I said, we're in the business of acquiring soccer talent to lead the Federation across the wide range of soccer-related decisions and choices we need to make. And so the first thing is the soccer expertise on the team today is terrific and multifaceted. And everyone from Emma Hayes to Ogouchi-Añeywu to Tracy Kevin's to Barry Powell's, these are all leaders who come from actually very different environments, but bring really important and unique expertise to the table. And we'll look at what the right and are looking at, what the right

medium to longer term structure is for the overall set of soccer things that we have in front of us. And I think we'll be in the business of trying to add some talent to that team. But it's somewhat funny at times to hear people talk about one person and one role as if one person and one role can possibly architect design and decide everything in the range of outcomes we've talked about in this conversation from the grassroots and the competitive youth space through our 11 v. 11 youth national teams to our extended national teams in beach, futsal, and disability soccer to the scouting and high performance areas required to service all those teams and to support, you know, some of the world's best managers at the senior level.

Like, that requires leadership, but it requires an array of talent and expertise. And we're assembling the array of talent and expertise required to do that. So let's talk about 2027. I think my first question is, how do you generate the connection maybe that we felt this year that we felt in 2015 where the World Cups were physically very close in a World Cup that will be on our time time. I think the games will be in prime time, but maybe won't be as physically as accessible to people. Like what is maybe the learnings from this year of how you can move that energy over to next year? Yeah, the first thing is Americans want to see elite level

international competition. It's why Americans love the Olympic Games. It's one of the reasons the Americans fell in love with not only our team in this tournament, but with the competition overall. And so part of our job over the next nine months is to show people elite international competition and the intensity of it in the women's game. And so again, what people are going to see in October and the way that's presented both in the stadium and on television and in social media becomes really important. And we've certainly learned lessons about, you know, how those things play out and what techniques we might use to increase that. But based on, you know, things I saw earlier today in terms of the interest level of these games in October, in terms of

how they're selling and how desperate people are to get tickets right now, I'd say we're off to a really good start. And then we need to make our players and our coaches accessible to the world. So that people get to know Lindsay Heaps and they get to know Emma even more deeply and they get to know Naomi Germa and they get to know Emily Fox and on and on. and so you'll see us doing that as well. Is there any learnings that you had from Basecamp, time at the National Training Center, when you leave, when you go, that you guys feel really confident about positively affecting 2027?

Absolutely. The post-training pasta bar at the National Training Center with your choice of pesto or marinera and any protein you want, huge hit. And so that's the kind of thing we'll recreate. But yeah, there's lots of lessons. But what I would tell you is, and this is really important when you think about our strategy overall. And Emma talks about this so deliberately and eloquently, which is we're going to apply a female lens to all that we do. And so it may be that the travel rhythm to a match looks different for the men and the women,

you know, not because the men did it great or wrong, but because when we take into account the full range of things we need to consider, that a different strategy is, you know, appropriate. And the last thing I'll say is music is a real galvanized. connection between our fans and the teams. And, you know, I don't know that Country Roads is going to jump the, you know, jump to the women's team. But creating cultural connection between music and culture into our teams actually is

pretty important to growing the game. And so we'll lean into that as well. Yeah, you mentioned sort of the work that Emma has led with the WNT way, and she has been very vocal about feeling like the U.S. women's national team can change conversation, can change activities, can change science around the world. It is this keynote team, and they are one of the great sports teams on the planet when you talk to players who have played in it. Like, they understand that responsibility.

It's the New Zealand all blacks. It's them. It's Serena Williams as an individual, but they're the great winners. how do you as a Federation manage that greatness with expectations and pressure at the same time and what you want to build around how far they could go and sort of the energy around them? Look, I think, you know, Billy Jean's pressure as a privilege, quote, resonates with lots of the leaders of the women's national team and certainly with me. And so I think the staff do an extraordinary job of leaning into the privilege that we have to be one of the world's most successful teams and the nation's most popular teams.

But to not have that carry with it the everyday anxiety and stress of expectation. And so how you do that? There's a lot of art to that and a little bit of science, and we're spending time on some of the science. But one of the reasons that we have one of the greatest managers in any sport leading our women's national team is because of her ability and instincts to navigate that situation. So we started this off talking about your sickle credentials and where you sit and then a lot of work in between. Now, there's a lot that we talked about that is exciting these games in October for the U.S. Women's National Team Against Spain. Friendly is coming up for the men, the World Cup. From a soccer point of view, what has you most excited right now?

Or what maybe on the horizon is something that you cannot wait for? Look, I can't wait for the Women's World Cup in Poland in September. U-20s. I've spent a lot of my week trying to make sure that we, have the best roster possible to compete in that U-20 World Cup. And why does that get me excited? Because it's a little under the radar. And I know that for those 21 women,

they're going to have one of the most foundational experiences, not just of their soccer journey, but of their life journey. And a bunch of them are going to find their way into a lot. Olympic Games and World Cups down the road, and I'm excited about that. But the journey, the soccer journey is what really excites me. And so I get like goosebumps when I think about 28 and the Olympics. And I, you know, I get it for both our teams. But I think about, you know, we've never won a men's soccer medal before ever and i love the idea that we're going to try to do everything we can to create the conditions that we can go compete for a medal and maybe we get

both the men's and women's team in the summer of 28 galvanizing the country in the way that the men just did uh like that stuff gets me incredibly excited. And then to go back to where we started, you know, I'll be, I'll have the headset on and I'm still broadcast. You're still doing the games. I'm still doing it. So, you know, in August, I'll start another fall of broadcasting a lot of college soccer games. And I, it's a particularly special fall for me because my son will be the captain at Georgetown, down 29 years after I played. And so to get to broadcast him and see him in his final year in the blue and gray

will be a pretty fun fall. Man, we could talk about the future of college soccer for an hour. We could talk about youth development for an hour. There is so much to talk about. I'm sure you are doing all of it throughout your job. I appreciate you taking the time to come chat with us for a little bit. Excited about a lot of the work that you talked about. Can't wait to cover it from afar and tune in

for some of these college soccer games as we get into the Big East season. So thanks again, Dan, appreciate it. Thanks, David. And to everyone, you know, watching, listening, keep the ideas coming. Keep the feedback coming. Keep the criticism coming.

Keep the praise coming. We need all of it because for this movement to go where it needs to get, we have to all acknowledge and realize that there's a lot of work to do. and, you know, my ears and our collective ears are open to people's ideas about how to make this a better place. Well, an awesome time talking to Dan, and as he said, the lines are always open. So feel free to hit them up on social media.

You can, of course, hit us up as well. Follow soccer-wise on Blue Sky on Instagram. Follow our YouTube page as well where all of our shows come out via video. And, of course, subscribe to our podcast. We are going to be talking Major League Soccer once again with Tom. Tomorrow we've got some big interviews coming in our new Friday interview show. And of course, we'll have all your MLS and NWSL weekend recaps coming up early next week. So thanks once again to U.S. soccer and to Dan for taking the time to join us.

And we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.