Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to another SDH network one v one.
Speaker 1: I had the opportunity to catch up with former Atlanta
Speaker 1: United player and MLS legend in Dax McCarty. We talked
Speaker 1: everything about him starting out in his new job with
Speaker 1: MLS season past this season, as well as the transition
Speaker 1: from going from being a player to then being a
Speaker 1: part of the media and what that transition is like.
Speaker 1: And then we also talked a little bit about this
Speaker 1: upcoming thirtieth season for MLS.
Speaker 2: Without further ado, here's Dax McCarty.
Speaker 1: Dax, I think my first question is, you know, how's
Speaker 1: retirement life been for you.
Speaker 3: It's been great. Retirement life is awesome. You don't have
Speaker 3: to run fitness with the other guys. You don't have
Speaker 3: to chase around a bunch of teenagers. You know, the
Speaker 3: aches and pains are more muted. I'll say, you know
Speaker 3: how aging is. You still wake up with a sore
Speaker 3: back every now and then, but now you don't have
Speaker 3: to to put that sore back and those sore legs
Speaker 3: through like rigorous workouts every day. I'll still try my
Speaker 3: best to stay in good shape, but it's been really nice.
Speaker 3: Been able to spend a lot of time with the family.
Speaker 3: Just got back from a quick little ski trip where
Speaker 3: I was teaching my five year old how to ski.
Speaker 3: I mean, just little things like that where you can't
Speaker 3: you can't ever really do that, you know, in preseason
Speaker 3: or during the season. Definitely things that I'm very grateful for.
Speaker 1: And I think my next one is, so, how did
Speaker 1: the offer come up for you to do Apple and
Speaker 1: MLS season pass?
Speaker 3: Well, I mean that's a long winding road with how
Speaker 3: we got there, but I'll try to give you the
Speaker 3: cliff notes version. It's essentially just I started thinking about
Speaker 3: post what post retirement life looks like, you know, years ago.
Speaker 3: And it wasn't ever because I thought I would have
Speaker 3: to retire in my early thirties. It was just because
Speaker 3: I didn't want to be one of those athletes who,
Speaker 3: you know, older age and retirement sneaks up on you
Speaker 3: and then you're kind of just left not knowing exactly
Speaker 3: what direction you want to go. So towards the latter
Speaker 3: stages of my career, when I was in Nashville and Atlanta,
Speaker 3: I really started to be intentional about the different things
Speaker 3: that I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to
Speaker 3: stay involved in the game. That was always priority number
Speaker 3: one for me. I mean, I love soccer and I
Speaker 3: love being involved with it, so I knew that it
Speaker 3: would be something in the game. And I explored both,
Speaker 3: you know, coaching media, potentially you know, joining a front office.
Speaker 3: And when I added everything up, the media stuff really
Speaker 3: called to me more in terms of what my heart
Speaker 3: was telling me to do. Coaching. The coaching life is
Speaker 3: a difficult life. And if you're a player and you
Speaker 3: do become a coach, then you know, your schedule it
Speaker 3: pretty much doesn't change, and then it actually gets significantly
Speaker 3: worse with the time commitment that you have to be
Speaker 3: prepared for. And that's not for everybody. And you know,
Speaker 3: I just decided, with a young family with two boys,
Speaker 3: my wife being super supportive and following me everywhere I went,
Speaker 3: that instead of living that nomadic coaching lifestyle that sometimes
Speaker 3: coaches have to live, I wanted to have a home base.
Speaker 3: I wanted to be settled. I wanted to be able
Speaker 3: to say that my kids can grow up in one
Speaker 3: house for the most part. And so that's what I
Speaker 3: decided to commit to the media because you have a
Speaker 3: little bit more flexibility in terms of, you know, how
Speaker 3: you work where you work, the travel schedule, and so yeah,
Speaker 3: the conversations with MLS went pretty fast. You know, I'd
Speaker 3: been in contact with them a few times throughout the
Speaker 3: last couple of years, just kind of picking. They were
Speaker 3: picking my brain. I was telling them my interests and
Speaker 3: that I wanted to keep playing. But everything kind of
Speaker 3: came together in Atlanta when I knew in the summer
Speaker 3: that it was going to be my last year. You know,
Speaker 3: we didn't speak officially until after the season ended, but
Speaker 3: we got a deal done pretty quickly because they knew
Speaker 3: it was what I wanted and I think they wanted
Speaker 3: the same thing. And then, you know, I'm on a
Speaker 3: flight out to MLS Cup as my first official gig,
Speaker 3: which is pretty cool if you really think about it.
Speaker 3: You know, being able to say that your first official
Speaker 3: job as a member of the media is covering the
Speaker 3: final game of the season you just retired from. So
Speaker 3: definitely a surreal experience and I'm just very grateful for
Speaker 3: the opportunity and i feel like a rookie all over again.
Speaker 3: I'm really excited.
Speaker 1: I was actually going to ask you about the MLS Cup,
Speaker 1: you know, just how quickly it was. What was that experience,
Speaker 1: like you know, getting your first taste of being on
Speaker 1: camera with MLS Season pass.
Speaker 3: Well, it was a wonderful experience, if not a little
Speaker 3: bit stressful. I literally agreed to my deal with MLS
Speaker 3: and my contract on the Friday before MLS Cup on
Speaker 3: the Saturday, and so I flew out on the last
Speaker 3: flight out of Atlanta. I got into LA at about midnight,
Speaker 3: and it was all a whirlwind from there. You know,
Speaker 3: I woke up at seven in the morning, get to
Speaker 3: the stadium to prepare for the game and meet everyone.
Speaker 3: And there's probably I mean, I don't know if people
Speaker 3: actually realize this. I certainly didn't, but putting together a
Speaker 3: big production is a lot more than just a couple
Speaker 3: of camera operators and some talent and one producer. There's
Speaker 3: like fifty sixty people involved in a big production, maybe
Speaker 3: even more, maybe one hundred, And you know, just meeting everyone,
Speaker 3: trying to remember names, going over the show and the
Speaker 3: rundown of how you know everything is going to go,
Speaker 3: just coming up with storylines and for the game, and
Speaker 3: you know, being available, and it was just a and
Speaker 3: it was a really great experience, and it was kind
Speaker 3: of like something I've been hearing a lot is you
Speaker 3: know on this in this job, you kind of drink
Speaker 3: out of a fire hose, and that's kind of what
Speaker 3: it's like. You just take on board all this information
Speaker 3: and you try to articulate that to the viewer, to
Speaker 3: the audience as quickly and succinctly as you possibly can.
Speaker 3: So really cool experience and definitely one I'll never forget.
Speaker 1: That's something I'm gonna have to use because that's really
Speaker 1: really accurate with what you have to.
Speaker 2: Do, especially being on air and stuff like.
Speaker 1: It's it's crazy, like the stuff you have to know
Speaker 1: and like what you have to see you out and
Speaker 1: it's nuts.
Speaker 2: I've never heard that one before.
Speaker 3: I'm mighty, it's a good one.
Speaker 2: Take that one for me, Take it, steal it.
Speaker 1: When looking back, I mean being a player and now
Speaker 1: being on air, what were some of the biggest challenges
Speaker 1: for you when you made that transition or for you.
Speaker 2: Was it a little bit easier because it's different for everyone.
Speaker 3: Right, I'd say that the transition hasn't been too bad
Speaker 3: at all. I was, like I said before, I was
Speaker 3: very intentional in the way I went about preparing to
Speaker 3: go into the media world. I said yes to almost
Speaker 3: every media obligation that was offered me to myself when
Speaker 3: I was in Chicago, Nashville, Atlanta, even New York. Going
Speaker 3: back to my New York days, I just really wanted
Speaker 3: to make good relationships and show my personality a little bit,
Speaker 3: because I feel like in this day and age, especially,
Speaker 3: you know, when you're a player, you can get your
Speaker 3: voice out there in a number of different ways. You
Speaker 3: can show people who you are off the field in
Speaker 3: a number of different ways, and so I wanted to
Speaker 3: make sure that, you know, my face was out there,
Speaker 3: my voice was out there. How I spoke about the
Speaker 3: game with my teammates, was how I spoke about the
Speaker 3: game with the media, because I think there's too many
Speaker 3: athletes who, you know, and this is not a slight
Speaker 3: on these athletes, but there are a lot of athletes
Speaker 3: out there that just don't really care and they just
Speaker 3: don't really want to give, you know, media members the
Speaker 3: time of day when it comes to trying to answer
Speaker 3: questions or you know, break games down. And so that's fine,
Speaker 3: you know, some people are like that. That's that's some
Speaker 3: people's personality, But that was never mine. I was always
Speaker 3: an open book for better or worse, and I think
Speaker 3: that really, you know, translates well when you're trying to
Speaker 3: transition from playing to then talking about the game. And
Speaker 3: so I started my own podcast. Obviously that's been a
Speaker 3: great help with trying to get me prepared for what's
Speaker 3: to come. And so just being in front of the
Speaker 3: camera as much as possible, speaking about the game as
Speaker 3: much as I can and having fun. I feel like, honestly,
Speaker 3: like I'm not just saying this, I feel like, other
Speaker 3: than playing the game, being able to talk about the
Speaker 3: game with smart, like minded people is the second best
Speaker 3: job in sports. And so I'm just, like I said before,
Speaker 3: really grateful. I know I'm gonna make mistakes. I know
Speaker 3: it's not going to be you know, smooth sailing the
Speaker 3: whole time. Like I said, I'm a rookie all over again,
Speaker 3: and so I've got to ask questions, I've got to learn,
Speaker 3: I've got to be open minded, and I'm just going
Speaker 3: to do my best to make sure that I'm authentic.
Speaker 3: That's the one thing that I think keeps popping up
Speaker 3: in conversations I have is just be yourself, be authentic,
Speaker 3: and I think that'll translate to the viewer.
Speaker 1: And you got some good good names to help you
Speaker 1: out with that. You got Kevin Egan, you got Sasha Question,
Speaker 1: you got all of them. We've been doing it for
Speaker 1: a little bit.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, great.
Speaker 3: We know Kevin.
Speaker 2: He's a friend of the network.
Speaker 1: He helped me actually in my early years of doing this.
Speaker 1: I met him in twenty twenty one.
Speaker 3: So I'm not just saying this, but they the entire
Speaker 3: MLS three sixty crew is brilliant. Obviously, I know Sasha
Speaker 3: Question and Bradley Wright Phillips very well, so that transition
Speaker 3: has been pretty seamless. Obviously, we you know, we have
Speaker 3: a great rapport right off the bat. I think k
Speaker 3: and Kyle is one of the best in the business.
Speaker 3: She can host, she can be an analyst, She's very
Speaker 3: knowledgeable about the game. And then Kevin, like you said,
Speaker 3: for me, I knew Kevin just because we cross paths
Speaker 3: before and randomly in the soccer world, but also, you know,
Speaker 3: living in Atlanta and being able to see him and
Speaker 3: be around him a little bit. I didn't realize how
Speaker 3: great at his job he actually is until you see
Speaker 3: how he prepares, you see how he treats everyone. He
Speaker 3: treats everyone with the utmost respect, whether it's the top
Speaker 3: producer or his coworkers or a showrunner or you know,
Speaker 3: the person who's setting up our mics. Like he's just
Speaker 3: he's a great He's been a great influence for me
Speaker 3: for the last two months and just asking questions, helping
Speaker 3: me through with different things, picking his brain on different
Speaker 3: ways to you know, articulate things. He's just been wonderful.
Speaker 3: So I truly feel like I couldn't be a part
Speaker 3: of a better crew, in a better cast. I'm just,
Speaker 3: you know, gonna try my best to keep up with
Speaker 3: all of them, because they're all really really good at
Speaker 3: their jobs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, everything that they do over there up in MLS
Speaker 1: three sixty and Apple, they've done a phenomenal job, and
Speaker 1: especially with promoting the game and everything.
Speaker 2: And this season's going to be fun.
Speaker 1: And speaking of this season, we'll go ahead and talk
Speaker 1: about kind of what you're expecting from this season.
Speaker 3: What are some of the.
Speaker 1: Biggest things that you're excited to see about from this
Speaker 1: season from all over MLS.
Speaker 3: Oh Man, there's too much to talk about. I will
Speaker 3: I will try to keep it fairly brief for me.
Speaker 3: The biggest this might be slightly biased, and I admit
Speaker 3: that The biggest storyline for me is easily a Landa United,
Speaker 3: the amount of money that they've spent in this transfer window.
Speaker 3: You know, Garth Loggerway is putting his money where his
Speaker 3: mouth is or Arthur's money where their mouth is, and
Speaker 3: so they said they would spend and they did. Obviously,
Speaker 3: Miguel al Maron's return is a major major talking point
Speaker 3: for me. I'm absolutely fascinated to see how he does
Speaker 3: in the sequel because obviously the original with him and
Speaker 3: Joseph was it was must ce TV, and so at
Speaker 3: Lanti and Nighted's attack obviously adding Emmanuel Latte lot as
Speaker 3: the number nine, the most expensive transfer fee and MLS history,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be box office stuff, and there's gonna be pressure,
Speaker 3: you know, Landy and Night it always comes with pressure,
Speaker 3: But now I think that's ramped up and the expectations
Speaker 3: are high with a new coach and some very very
Speaker 3: good players, and so I think at Lanti and Night
Speaker 3: it's going to be a fascinating watch in the you know,
Speaker 3: in the season into Miami, how do they how do
Speaker 3: they recover from a very disappointing end to their year.
Speaker 3: Obviously the best team at Regular Sea team in MLS history,
Speaker 3: setting the points record and then you know, kind of
Speaker 3: floundering in the playoffs and losing to an Atlanta United
Speaker 3: team that was quite frankly, probably overmatched in a lot
Speaker 3: of ways, but managed to get the upset. And so
Speaker 3: I think that they have a bitter taste in their
Speaker 3: mouth with how the season ended. Be fascinated to see
Speaker 3: if the new players that they brought in, some younger
Speaker 3: players that maybe are a little bit less experienced, can
Speaker 3: come in and make a big difference for them. And
Speaker 3: then how do Messi, Suarez and Busquetes hold up. You know,
Speaker 3: they're all a little bit older. You know, Messi had
Speaker 3: a pretty bad injury last year with Argentina and he
Speaker 3: missed a significant amount of time. If Messi stays healthy
Speaker 3: for twenty five to thirty games, I think it's realistic
Speaker 3: to imagine him winning MVP again and setting lots and
Speaker 3: lots of records in the league. That's how good I
Speaker 3: think he still is so fascinated to watch inter Miami
Speaker 3: and then out West. I'm fascinated with with with two
Speaker 3: teams that were very bad last year, San Jose Earthquakes
Speaker 3: and Austin FC. I think both of those teams are
Speaker 3: going to make the playoffs and be much much better
Speaker 3: than they were. Obviously, Bruce Arena coming back int MLS.
Speaker 3: I think it's a great thing for the league. I
Speaker 3: think that he will want to end his career on
Speaker 3: a high note, and so I'm fascinated to see how
Speaker 3: San Jose does. And then Austin spending ten million dollars
Speaker 3: on Brandon Vasquez to be your number nine. I think
Speaker 3: that's a great acquisition. But the transfer fee, again, it
Speaker 3: comes with a lot of pressure, and so I think
Speaker 3: Austin will be better. I expect them to be better,
Speaker 3: but there's a lot of pressure on Brandon Vasquez the shoulders.
Speaker 3: And then the La Galaxy are the defending champions. They
Speaker 3: have so many question marks going into the season. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think they lost four or five starters. They lost
Speaker 3: the MLS Cup MVP. You know, obviously Ricky Pooge one
Speaker 3: of the best players in the league. He's not going
Speaker 3: to be back for a number of months. So there's
Speaker 3: a lot of questions surrounding the Galaxy at this moment
Speaker 3: in time. And they were the rightful champions of MLS
Speaker 3: last year. They were brilliant pretty much all season, played
Speaker 3: a really exciting, aesthetically pleasing brand of soccer. I think
Speaker 3: it's going to be a challenging year for Greg Vanny
Speaker 3: to try to make the pieces fit together and navigate
Speaker 3: through these injuries. Joseph painTill is out for the beginning
Speaker 3: of the season, and so I think Greg Vanny is
Speaker 3: one of the top three coaches in MLS, so I
Speaker 3: think he will be able to navigate that. I still
Speaker 3: think the Galaxy are going to be one of the
Speaker 3: top five or six teams in the West. But again,
Speaker 3: you know there's a lot of question marks surrounding that team,
Speaker 3: so those for me are the big storylines. And of
Speaker 3: course season thirty in MLS, San Diego thirtieth team coming
Speaker 3: into the league. How do they fare. I, obviously as
Speaker 3: an expansion team, know what it's like. I have San
Speaker 3: Diego last in the West. I hope they proved me wrong.
Speaker 3: It's just hard to know with expansion teams, it's just
Speaker 3: hard to know how they're going to do because these
Speaker 3: are a group of players that have never been together.
Speaker 3: So I'd love nothing more for them to prove me
Speaker 3: wrong and make the playoffs and make a big splash.
Speaker 3: But that remains to be seen.
Speaker 1: That's the biggest question mark for me too, is definitely
Speaker 1: what San Diego is going to bring, because you know,
Speaker 1: they brought in these players and you look at it
Speaker 1: and you say, oh, well, this is this seems like
Speaker 1: it could work. But expansion teams, it's so all over
Speaker 1: the place, because you know, we've had experiences where expansion
Speaker 1: teams are bottom of the table. Then we have expansion
Speaker 1: teams who make it all the way to the top
Speaker 1: and they win MLS Cup and like they're able to
Speaker 1: do it in their second year. Like it's very, very
Speaker 1: It could be interesting to see how it fares.
Speaker 3: Anyone who says that they can accurately predict an MLS
Speaker 3: season before it starts is a fool. It's not possible.
Speaker 3: I don't care what anyone says. You can come up with,
Speaker 3: you know, a couple of teams who you think are
Speaker 3: going to be great, the usual suspects that have great
Speaker 3: coaches and that spend a lot of money typically are
Speaker 3: very good. And then the rest of the conferences it's
Speaker 3: a crapshoot. I mean, every team I think feels like
Speaker 3: they can the playoffs, right, and when you feel that way,
Speaker 3: that is what MLS wants. It's parody, and it's just
Speaker 3: a very difficult thing to do to ask people to
Speaker 3: accurately predict in the preseason where things are going to
Speaker 3: shake out. So fascinated to see how San Diego does.
Speaker 3: Like I said, I would be I would be the
Speaker 3: happiest guy in the room if they prove me wrong.
Speaker 1: Well, Dax, I wanted to say thank you so much
Speaker 1: again for coming on to the network to chat about
Speaker 1: the thirty season. You making your first ever appearance, not
Speaker 1: ever you did MLS Cup, but sure.
Speaker 3: Started this MLS three sixty.
Speaker 2: Sixty first run.
Speaker 1: I know that everyone here in Atlanta's looking forward to
Speaker 1: seeing you on there and looking forward to seeing your
Speaker 1: journey with it, and it's going to be a ton
Speaker 1: of fun.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: I'm actually kind of bummed that I'm not going to
Speaker 3: be in Atlanta for that. For that first game, it's
Speaker 3: going to be electric. I mean, someone need I mean,
Speaker 3: I'm sure I'll see it on Twitter, but someone needs
Speaker 3: to record, you know, when they introduce Miguel al Moron
Speaker 3: to the crowd again and just hear the roar, it's
Speaker 3: going to be an electric atmosphere. I'm excited to watch
Speaker 3: that game.
Speaker 2: Don't worry, I'll send a video to you.
Speaker 3: Don't worry.