Welcome to the Crown and Anchor Greyhounds. This is Richmond Till We Die,
a conversation about the Apple TV Plus show 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 moment and feel with the deepest parts of our
hearts the next. I'm Christian and if I sound a little brazier than normal
today, it's because I'm in full on fanboy mode. For today's episode,
I have the opportunity to interview professional footballer Megan Klingenberg of the Portland Thorns.
Megan is an accomplished defender, having played on the United States two fifteen World
Cup winning squad, for the twenty sixteen Olympic team, and on Thorne's teams
that have won two NWUSL Supporters Shields, two Nwuslups and an NWSL Challenge Cup.
Off the field, Meghan is a vocal 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 Lloyd Webber's Cats, which won an award for
the best High School musical in the Pittsburgh area barbecue and musical theater. Big
ted Lasso energy, y'all. In fact, Megan was one of the first
NWSL players banging the drum for ted Lasso, and as with anything she's passionate
about, she spread the word with panash style and tenacity. A big shout
out to Katie from the Thorns for helping us get this conversation set up and
pulled off because it almost didn't happen on account of an RV fire in Portland
that engulfed fiber optic lines and knocked out Internet throughout the city when we were
scheduled to conduct the interview. If that sounds a little weird, well that's
kind of Portland's brand and so Greyhound please welcome Megan Cleaningberg to the pod.
Welcome, Hello, Hi, Thanks for having me as the first biggest supporter
of ted Lasso in NWSL to the point where you got interviewed by the Washington
Post and you got memed by the league. How early were you to the
ted Lasso game? Oh, I was like probably one of the very first
adopters. My dad and I kind of came across some commercials of it.
I think it was back in twenty twenty, right, Yeah, during the
Dark Ages, Yeah exactly, And so 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 that shot right up, and we watched
like almost every single episode in two days, and we became evangelist for ted
Lasso, and we would, you know, tell everybody watch it. I
think to the point where I talk about it so much that I annoyed my
team, and then I got my coach to watch it, and then it
kind of like was a trickle down effect to the point where we eventually had
somebody on the team be like Thorns on twelve. That's how you know you've
been effective when the show gets invoked into real life conversations and situations. Yeah
exactly. I mean we have a blast. We always try and do like
something a little bit different depending on who's calling the cheer at the end of
practice, and so somebody decided to go Thorns on twelve and it was epic.
It can be difficult to really enjoy and appreciate something that is fictional and
then based on something that you live and breathe every day and that you're super
good at. So what was it about the show once you decided to check
it out that kept you there and kept you engaged? Well. For soccer
shows in general, I honestly try to take the soccer totally out of it
because it's never that good, you know, So I leave that part off
the table, and then I just try and think about if it's a show
that I like, if it's something that speaks to me, if it's something
that makes me feel sort of connection or reminds me of how we go about
things each day. And I think ted Lasso does that incredibly well, because
to me, my favorite parts about the game are the connection with my teammates
and how much joy it brings me, and you know, bringing smile to
people's faces when we are out on the pitch and connecting with our fans and
things like that, and I think ted 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, and I like that part of it a lot.
But also it just makes me laugh. I mean, it just makes
me laugh. One of the things that we try to impress upon folks who
listen to our show and watch ted Lasso, but maybe aren't super familiar with
the soccer world. Is the relationship between soccer clubs and their fans and their
supporters kind of equated In the United States. I think people are probably most
familiar with it with college sports because there's something about, you know, colleges
that feels very travel like those are your people. And there's been a unique
relationship between the Thorns and their fans since 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 over the weekend. But what was it like
having one the NWSL championship last year and then to have the offseason and to
come back to a full stadium and to be able to play in front of
people who have been so supportive of you. Well, these last couple of
years have been a little bit rough because of the pandemic, so we haven't
had the type of crowds or fans that we normally did before. And so
just this past year in twenty twenty, we started filling up the stadium again
and there was this one game in twenty twenty it was our semi final against
the San Diego Wave. We completely sold out the place. We played our
asses off, and then at the very last minute we scored this ridiculous goal
and the place went totally fucking wild. I hope you can edit that out,
and like an outpouring of joy and relief and just feeling like we've been
so resilient. The city has been so 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 in such a joyful, emotive way, and
you could feel all of those emotions in 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 that and then go play for the championship,
which is always amazing and super fun and thinks that we truly live for and
play for. But our team doesn't just play for championships like we play because
we love it and we have other things that, you know, keep us
going. So then you kind of like come back, you celebrate a little
bit, you go off, you do your trading, and then you come
back together as a team. And then finally the band gets back together for
the first for the first opening Sunday, and you know, the stadium's pretty
darn full and everybody's just having absolute blasts. And I think that what's so
great about it is that people come together around the sport and people find each
other through the sport. It's like the sport is the connector the sport is
something that is like so beautiful and joyful and brings people like so much passion
and they love it so much that they can connect to other people around that
love and create a community of friends and 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 a good PSA for why people should check out
NWSL. You know, a lot of to lots of folks, like maybe
they haven't watched a lot of soccer before, and here's NWSL. And not
only do you get to see a high concentration of the world's greatest players,
it's a league that's growing and like growing to new cities and new fan bases,
and there's passion. And then it's pretty accessible because you could, you
know, watch it on one streaming service on Paramount Plus. And then I
get some bonus things CSI and other soccer and whatnot. But it's such a
great league to follow. You have been associated with NWSL for a long time
and and you have played soccer in the United States for a long time,
in college and in pros. How have you seen the game grow and what
do you think is like the next step 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 bottom of a j curve, and I think
it's just going to explode exponentially in general soccer, but also the women's game.
And I've been through two World Cups, played in one of them,
while there's been the end of a cell. And after the World Cup in
twenty fifteen, there was this, you know, really big interest in the
league and in those players, and then it kind of waned off a little
bit, and then the same thing in twenty nineteen. But I actually think
that there's no World Cup bump anymore. I think people love watching the World
Cup. It's the greatest sporting event in the world, and I stand by
that statement. But this league is drawing interest because the league is interesting,
not because people want to see these World Cup players in the league anymore.
They do, and these players are amazing, but they also just really want
to root for the Portland Thorns because they created this community and friends around this
team and around this city and around the joy that we create by playing the
game. And so I personally think that there's no end in sight when it
comes to growth for this league and especially for this team and for this fan
base. The only thing that I am a little bit skeptical about is how
to involve and include the players that have done so much for the game and
a lot of the work in that value, Like, how do we include
the players and make sure that they're taking care of because they're the ones that
are putting their bodies and minds and hearts and souls on the line every week
and doing all these things to make this league great. How do we make
sure that we reward them and to make sure that we take care of those
players that did so much for the league but maybe didn't get paid the way
that they were supposed to get paid. So I have all of these incredible
things to say about the league. I think it's going in such a great
direction. I also hope that we remember who got us to this point.
Yeah, we had a chance to visit 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 was obviously pre NWSL, even as the US
women's national team was having to break through just tons of initial barriers, and
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, and then obviously included in this next kind of
iteration, whatever the next version step is, as that Jay curve intensifies and
goes up, to make sure everybody gets to be involved with that after you're
done playing someday, which hopefully is always away. How would you like to
be involved with the league? Management, front office, broadcasting? Where do
you see yourself? Honestly, I want to own a club, you know,
I want to be Rebecca right right. Yeah, I don't have that
type of money, but I know that it would be a dream job and
it would be something that I would combine all of my interests because I love
I did business school in college and graduated with my degree in business, and
I love the sport. I never want to get away from the sport.
But I don't think coaching's for me. So I think they're combining like my
interest with soccer and knowing the game really 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 an offer you could refuse, and so you
decided had a chancefer a window to go across the pond and play for them.
Who is one person that you've played with 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 this is a special locker room. So like
you know, you'd want them good on the pitch, but you'd also want
them to be good on the TV show. Yeah, wow, wow wow,
um oh gosh. I would encourage them to recruit Marta in her prime.
I played with Marta when I when I played in Sweden, and she
was the most dynamic player I've ever played with my life. And I've never
seen somebody with such control over the ball on their body. And then she
also just does the work. Like I played, she played winger too on
the left side. I played outside back on the left side and she would
do the work as a winger to It made my life much better at having
a forward in front of me that would actually do the work. And then
on top of that, I think she does a great job getting to know
her teammates. She also loves to be a part of the community. Speaks
English, Swedish, Portuguese. I mean, she's just an all around good
person on top of being a fabulous soccer player. I think that if you
could get Marta, you know, when she was in her prime, then
that is chef's kiss. The NFC Richmond team, they're kind of the plucky
underdogs. Portland has had success on the field and y'all are just coming off
a championship and it's an incredibly talented team. Like you take a lot of
the corner kicks and free kicks on that left side especially, and so you
have a lot of options of people to send the ball into. What does
your mindset and mentality have to be when everybody's like chasing you when you go
to people's towns and there's zero percent chance they're going to overlook you. How
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 this is a process, that mistakes are just
learning opportunities. That the reason why we play is not because we all want
to win. Why did we start playing 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 our team just always tries to go back to
our why, What's what's at the core of us, what's our purpose?
And we play from there. And I think that when you play from that
kind of space, these outside pressures from other people that they try and put
on you, they don't matter because you're playing from a place where you know,
like, hey, we're doing this together. We're playing because we have
a lot of fun. We know that when we have fun, we play
at our best, and so instead of just trying to play our best,
we try and have fun because we know that it's this weird thing that happens
in this world that when you try too hard, things become harder, right,
but when you're just having a blast, it becomes easy. So we
always try and bring it back to you 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 being personally poignant. Oh gosh, there's a
few. I would say. There's some like in a really amazing way,
and then there's some in a really bad way, took in the bad way,
Like I really hated that Rebecca dated Sam. That reminded me a lot
of the bad things that happened in our league these past couple of years,
and how players have been taken advantage of. And I know it happens in
the league. I wish that they would have talked about that differently and and
expressed an outcome that probably would have happened differently there, because I understand,
when there are humans, there are gray situations, but at the same time,
like we need to make sure that we 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 bit of some of the stuff that we have
been really trying to eradicate in our league. And then there's just so many
more positive things too, though, like the way that the team and the
players rally around Ted when he's having his panic attacks, because it's just tough
to deal with divorce, moving across the country, you know, trying to
coach a sport at the highest level when you've never done that before, and
to see the team and the ownership rally around him is really special. And
then just seeing the way that Ted interacts with his players, I love that
so much because for him, it's always just about being a human being and
being a good human being. And I truly believe, even at the highest
level, when you're getting paid millions of dollars, that it's still about being
a good human being. And so actually seeing that on screen is so powerful
and it made me. It brings so 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 better and to self reflect and not just focus
on soccer, but focus on how they can be the best teammate. That's
really cool, and he does it in a way that is tough, but
also it makes you laugh it makes you 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, and I know that that's one thing that we've
tried to, you know, expose the listeners of our show too, in
bite sized pieces, because it is hard to explain it all to folks who
may be like just not aware of what's been going on in NWSL, And
we certainly tried to address that gray area and that tension. Like in some
ways with those scenes, barriers will be being broken down, like seeing an
interracial couple and like seeing an older woman with a younger man, like that's
cool. But then obviously me being a Thorns fan, it was like,
yeah, but in real life, like, that's really tough. And I
know that when we recorded one of our episodes, our first episode after y'all
had won the title, like we did mention, there's always a tension there
because they are succeeding on the field and it's amazing and all of you know,
the bravery that they've had to conjure up and keep conjuring up to keep
doing what they love and what they called to do in play a game and
all that stuff like soccer, like life, like media. Everything is so
complicated and it can be joy and pain at once. And maybe that's just
like the tough thing that we have to keep learning how to do. But
we also have to just keep learning how to treat people better and value people
more. And you know, I hope that as people look more into end
will sell like they will at least dig into that full picture right to be
able to appreciate what's going on in the 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
issues. Maybe they just haven't been reported or maybe they just haven't been highlighted
like ours have because we've done the work to try to get rid of this
and to protect the players. And I mean, if you look around the
world and men's leagues, racism is an incredibly hard thing that they're trying to
eradicate from sport. And like homophobia in men's leagues. Like, I just
think that there are different issues in different leagues. So this is something that
we're dealing with. And I actually am really proud of our group and the
players because we're taking a head on and I don't know if necessarily other leagues
are. And so say what you want. Maybe there's a lot of bad
press sometimes about the league, but that's because the players are doing something about
it and saying no and standing up for 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
of, you know, where the players 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 at it like that. And we kick ass
on the field, but we're also kicking ass off the field too. Yeah.
Yeah, And hopefully part of that j curve that you mentioned with the
league isn't just amazing players and amazing you know, matches, but in the
spectacle, like the spectacle is awesome, but then hopefully it's empowerment too,
and we've seen that in some clubs you 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 a result of this long overdue process and reckoning
and the difficulty that that has, I guess just kind of foisted upon all
of you as players. What's been the biggest joy for you over the last
year. I think rediscovering myself This past year was really hard personally for me.
I won't go into why, but it was. And I think sometimes
when you're going through something that's really difficult, you kind of go in your
shell and just do things to get by, 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 place where I can start to experience joy and
experience self reflection and things that I hadn't been experiencing as much in the past
year, and just kind of digging into that and expanding my worldview and healing
and so being able to do those things is bringing me a lot of joy.
That's awesome. We one of the things we talk about on our show
a lot is the music in ted Lasso, because it creates this extra dimension
to what we're seeing, and I think 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 last year and or was there a musical moment
in the show that just kind of gave you pause? Yeah? So I
love music so much because it makes me feel so many things. You know,
it could make you feel like the pain or help you through a breakup,
right, or it could help you experience joy just because it makes you
want to dance, right, Like, music is so powerful and it is
amazing. So this past year I got a record player. Oh I know,
I'm fancy, and so it has immediately become one of my favorite purchases
ever. And I kind of like go to the old, through all the
old records. And I started out with like my nineteen seventies rock music,
whether it's like Fleetwood Mac or a CDC or Van Morrison or whatever, right
and now I'm kind of like even further back, I'm like Frank Sinatra,
Sam Cook, like Smokey Robinson, al Green, like really into that kind
of stuff right now. But it just brings me, like, it brings
me so much joy because it makes me want to dance, or it makes
me want to cry, or it makes me it just makes me feel.
And the moment in ted Lasso which I loved the most was when Rebecca sang
let it Go for her god Daughter, because I feel like it was a
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 cool to see her making right or at least
the beginnings of making right with her family and her God better. Yeah,
because it's always a journey that it was a pivotal moment for her too,
because it was part of her like letting 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 as a fan of someone who's appreciate what you've
been on the field and off the field. And we love that we get
to talk to people who are in the sport who love ted Lasso, and
so we do hope the best for you for the rest of this season,
and we'll be following closely and hope that you enjoy season three as much as
the rest of us. Thank you so much, Go Thorns, go Richmond
Rotten for all of us, and that's our show. We hope you enjoyed
our conversation with Megan Klingenberg. You can find links to her social media accounts,
as long as other topics we covered in this episode in our show notes.
We'll be back soon with more ted Lasso goodness, but you keep the
conversation going with us on Twitter and Instagram 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 and Kerosene Productions, who is produced by me
Christian and Brett. If you're enjoying the podcast, please take thirty seconds to
subscribe to our feed and give the show a five star review on Apple Podcasts
or Spotify. Heck, if you're feeling generous, you could even do both.
As always, we appreciate all the ways you share your love and support
with the pod. I'm Christian signing off for Megan. Thanks for listening.
Until next time, Cheers y'all,