2 Burst results for "Mallory Pew"
ESPN FC
"mallory pew" Discussed on ESPN FC
"Great to have you with us here on football America's first things first. Producer beto tells me that you had full access to Alyssa Thompson. Tell us what is full access mean. Full access means exactly what you can imagine full access. So I actually got a signed the Alyssa Thompson story back in October, November. And we originally thought it was going to be about her being a forward and maybe competing for that spot on the U.S. women's national team. Then I contacted her team, I contacted her parents and it quickly turned into Alyssa Thompson is going to be the number one draft pick in the NWSL and do you want to tell her profile her big feature story? And I said, absolutely, but only if he can have exclusive rights to it. And I want to do it big. And that means being in those really personal familial moments, being at her senior night at Harvard westlake, you know, hanging out with our family, eating dinner, just bouncing the ball around, dribbling in the backyard, going on those family walks. I wanted to be there for all of it. And I was there for as much of it as I could be. For me, it was so important to really tell the narrative of who Alyssa Thompson is not just the soccer player, but the 18 year old. And I think with all access, I was able to do that. And I think you can kind of see she's an 18 year old who likes Drake and thinks about going to her prom, but she also has this unbelievable talent and that's what the story is all about. So Charlotte, she's not the first kind of teen phenom that we've seen in American soccer in a women's game. We've seen Mallory pew who had kind of a very similar rise just a few years ago in a men's game. You know, everybody always brings up the name Freddie do. From what you know from what you've seen of her, how is she different? Alyssa is different because she has this competitive fierceness and the speed to her, but also just this natural talent. And I think the thing about Alyssa is she is that teenager that, again, wants to go to prom, wants to hang out with her friends, wants to go to the mall. But she's also this unbelievably fast player who knows the game. And when she's on the field, she's there to win. And we've only seen her with angel city twice so far in a friendly match and in her professional debut and already you can see that Alyssa is all around the field and she is ready at all times. Scoring in her 11th minute in her professional debut, I think tells you exactly what you need to know. Alyssa is here to score. She's here to win and ultimately she's here to change the game for women's soccer. You know, it's great that you bring up the speed of play because usually when you see younger players in the advanced first team football, that's what they struggle with, Seth. That's something they struggle with Charlotte. So I got our senior against club America, the speed of play was immediately something that stood out to you. The changing gear, she was just a step faster than everybody. All right, it's a club game. It's for
ESPN FC
"mallory pew" Discussed on ESPN FC
"For going on really two seasons in the NWSL and really carrying into the U.S. picture here. So, you know, I think undeniably, especially with how important wingers are in this system, she's the most important player for them right now. Jeff, what's the biggest change you've seen in Mallory from that Olympic era, the Olympic moment of not getting called in until now? Yeah, you know, I think she's been really introspective. I mean, look, this is a player who was a teenager when she started. She came in with a lot of pressure. I mean, it was four years ago or so now that I think every media outlet that we could imagine had sort of the think piece on this being Mallory pew's time to break out and shine and it came with a lot of pressure and she still relatively very young player and she's matured quite a bit. I would say since that Olympics, even in those that year or so before that, she's talked about it. I've talked about it with her about she had a couple of trades within the NWSL that sort of opened her eyes and I think she's sort of processed all of these things that you could look at and say maybe that was a negative or you could let fester and become a negative if you're a player and she kind of looked within herself and said, you know what? I need to look forward. And I think as simple as that might sound and you know her, I mean sometimes the mental aspect of that, you just got to get that right and get out of your own way sometimes and I think she's talked about quite a bit that she's been able to do that, not let herself get dragged down by perhaps some negative news in the moment and look forward and really the past two years she's been on a tear. Absolute task she's absolutely figured it out. The question now I have for you let's shift into the midfield is has lacto figured out the midfield. So, I mean, I think he's had it figured out in his mind, right? I mean, Andy Sullivan, Lindsey Iran, rose lavelle. That's been the trio for most of the past year, even in this transition. It's been clear that that's what we're looking at, especially with the unfortunate injury to Katarina macario, who should be back soon and trying to figure her out in the ten and last year in spring. So I mean, I think the starting midfield core, he has known what I think we learned in the she believes cup, at least a little bit more, is about his depth. I think Ashley Sanchez in particular Roosevelt missed the first two games with a slight injury and we saw, you know, Ashley Sanchez, I think did pretty well in that number ten role. We saw her in New Zealand as well when Roosevelt dropped deeper. You know, I think we saw there a player who certainly lavelle is the starter there, right? But you're going to need some rotation, you're going to need to rest some players at times when you can or hopefully you can at a World Cup. And I think we saw from Sanchez in particular that she is up for the moment, whatever that moment might be when that time comes. I think we saw a little bit more of Christie mues first time starting in about a year over a year now. And a player who, you know, you look at the she believes cup and if you're a player who's not getting minutes now with only one international window to come before the World Cup roster is named, you're probably worried about where you stand. And we hadn't seen a lot of Christian U.S. and then we saw her in multiple rules at this tournament. So I think perhaps an indication too of how black going to seize her as a depth player in the midfield. So I think we learn more from this tournament, maybe about the reserves and the depth and certainly we'll see roster rotation at the World Cup than we did about the starting trio because I think we knew who that was. Absolutely. Let's talk about a little bit more of a change. A proposed change in calendar for the NWSL from fall to spring. What can you tell us about this? Yeah, so I've been reporting on this for a few weeks. I mean, look, it's early stages. It is an idea that's on the table. And I think the key, the key thing to figure out here, the key thing to say is in the past, I think people would dismiss this. And I know we've got some MLS news already about some weather problems at the start of the season here, right? So people are rightfully pointing out that there are plenty of markets where the weather is bad. But what I know from reporting right now is that this is an idea that is being taken seriously in a way that it was not previously. And the NWSL, which we've talked about on this show a few weeks ago, needs to find solutions to a serious calendar problem that isn't going away. And they finally sort of started to realize that in a way that they've got to look at a fall to spring idea at the very minimum. What could this look like? What could it be as a proposal? And they have to take that seriously because one FIFA's calendar is based on Europe. That's not going away. FIFA's calendar is getting more crowded. And we're about to have a second division women's league in the U.S. that runs on a fall to spring calendar so there might be a bit of a template there. Look, I don't know if this gets across the line if it gets anywhere close to that, but it's something that is in the conversation which right now is heating up and by summer or so there's going to need to be some kind of a solution for the long term of what this NWSL calendar is going to look like. Hey, Jeff, before I let you go, I have to ask, you going back to the she believes cup. Has blocko under ansky has blocked on danowski under delivered with this U.S. women's national team heading into this World Cup. So I'm probably going to be in the minority here, I think from a lot of folks that I've seen talking about this. Look, my answer to that is no, because if you look at what he was tasked with, and of course, the World Cup is going to tell us everything, right? I mean, at the end of the day, you have to get results there and the task there is significant a third straight World Cup title for the U.S., but we've got to, when the value in this, like you've got to rewind this three and a half years and look at why was he brought in and what was he brought in for, right?