Inside the USMNT Docuseries with Director Rand Getlin

I'm Heath Pierce, former US men's national team player with stops in the Bundesliga MLS Denmark and Sweden. You can predict the summer soccer showcase action all the way to the final match with Fandall predicts. All you have to do is sign up to get your $25 bonus. From the opening game to the final whistle, stay locked in with every pass, every goal, and every moment that moves us closer to crowning a champion. Sign up for your $25 bonus on Fandall predicts. Go to fandall.com/predix to sign up. That's fandall.com/predix to get your $25 bonus. Listen to Orange Lices sponsored by Fandall predicts wherever you get your podcasts. Offered by Fandall prediction markets LLC, a registered futures commission merchant 18 plus. Bonus is nonwithdrawable and expires seven days after receipt. Trading derivatives involve significant risks and may not be suitable for all investors. Manage your activity with our consumer protection tools, restrictions apply. C terms at fandall.com/predix/p bonus. Offered terms. We got there round. That's where we're going to fly. We're speaking of he takes me so I need to take some back. So thank you for reminding me. So we got there like 11 o'clock but it's like an hour drive from a bus ride from the airport that we were at. All the way to our hotel. Hit traffic. So it's like an hour and 30-40 minutes. All right, so it's already a bit long as it is. So now we get to lunch. We spend afternoon at the hotel, taking nap. Cool. Normal pregame. Long day kickoff said nine. Have our pregame meal meeting. And there's 9 p.m. stuff was going to 9 p.m. 9 p.m. I was here late once. They decided to do. Yeah, they decided to do a Sunday night kickoff 9 p.m. for everybody across the league. Okay, so it's going to be Saturday night 9 p.m. But they moved it to Sunday night 9 p.m. Making it spend full. Get that feeling of like, oh my gosh, this is my juice. We're solid in the middle of the table. Okay, we're cool. We're just packed in there. We're not going to be in Europe unfortunately, but we're fully safe. So it's not much outside of just that feeling of ending the season on the note that we want to end it on. For not, however, they're being relegated. And it's been official already for a gamer to now. And there were there were rumors that stuff was going to pop off. So you go into that game, you're like, all right, what's going to happen? It's really going to pop off. Is it just a bunch of, you know, hearsay? What's going to happen? We get to the stadium. We're driving. It looks like they got the SWAT units from the whole region of Northwestern for Northwestern France. All right, we got truck after truck. We got police escrow. We got motorcycle escort up front. Then we've got the riot, the riot gear prepared as you step into the tunnel and you're going, bro, it's mad. And the worst part is the stewards are just there. You know, the stewards are all around the stadium. But what are they going to do if something happens? They have no equipment. They're like the first line of after the wall. They're the first line of like, oh god, you're about to get rid of it. The job is in the name. You know, you're stewarding people. You're not like a private security force, you know? Exactly. Exactly. So we go off and warm up. They cheer us and they whistle their plays. I'm like, oh boy, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. So then we go, we walk out for, you know, right before kickoff and they're whistling. They're whistling. I'm like, I was going to go down first corner kick in five minutes. They start throwing stuff. You know, mind you, how it lines up is there actually playing in front of their altruz. So the goalkeeper is right. His back is to the altruz. I feel bad for him because I'm like, this guy, you know, he's he's not going to know what hit him until the last second. So first corner kick, they're throwing stuff. What's it called? Lighters. This that in the other in the field. Nothing crazy. 10 minutes later, we get another corner kick. I kid you not. It sounded like a call of duty map with how many like bombs and flares were going off. It was. And you just see green and white mass flooding the field. I was like, Oh gosh. Oh god. So now you see the stool where it's kind of running because they're like, Oh crap. You know, I get paid. I'm not getting paid to deal with this. Yeah. You know, we got our security who are kind of posted up around the field because they're prepared for something was going to happen. You got the rest running off the field. But I think I was probably the first one off. I might even scared to say that I was one of the first ones off. I'm not dealing with that. But I don't think you realize the ultra's out, you know, out in Europe, a no joke. So we're going to we're going to locker room waiting 20 25 30 35 40 minutes. The captain goes to meet with the other captain. They're trying to play the game. The police. They finally get the ultra's off the field. The ultra storm to field again for a second time while we're still waiting. So we're looking at all of this. Everybody got their phone out, you know, on FaceTime. I'm like, Yo, my you won't believe this. Hey, yo, yo, honey, like this is crazy. You know, you got the game on your phone. Then you guys are watching the other games trying to figure out what's happening in the other matches because we're still waiting. Then they come back like, yeah, game suspended. Oh, bet. So me and Mrs. and I, we got our flight 1250 today from Barcelona to Philly. So we need to get back because I got a taxi to take us five o'clock in the morning to Barcelona. It was like three hours away. So I like, hey, when I get back at three, I'm going to get back like 1 a.m. The game was suspended 20 minutes at the 20 minute mark. Guys, take a shower. Let's go. We're getting to the airport early. Boom, boom, boom. Well, we stuck on my bus. They say, yeah, guys are just not here. So what you mean? It's really not just not here. Yeah, it actually, it actually never left Italy where it was stationed while we were here. We're here during the day because of the technical issues. What? So now my head, I'm like, okay, we got back up plan. You know, yeah, the back up plan is the team, the plane that was going to take rent back to Mars, yeah, rent back to rent from Marseille. Their plane has to pick us up, but they're going to take us to Marseille, but we have no transportation to get back from Marseille. So Marseille is a three and a half hour drive for me. So I'm like, all right, I'm doing a math here. So it's about an hour or 20 flight. If we leave a wine to get back there, boom, boom. All right, maybe we could do it. No, they shut that down canceled. Then we're like, all right, but we got another jet. We got the bus driver. The bus driver, he can take us down. He will drive the right guy for the game. Nope, canceled. He's got too many hours. Oh my god. Oh my gosh, man. So long behold. Me and my teammate who played a red boy, ironically enough, cost of days. We ended up getting a taxi. It's five and a half hours. But what taxi pulls up? A Tesla. To all my EV drivers, respectfully. You man are not built for long distance driving, especially when you're in a time crunch. Respectfully. Okay. Like I'm here. I'm all for saving the earth. Absolutely. But bro, when I, when I tell you we had to stop four times to charge that car up again, I never wanted to destroy a Tesla more of my life. It, it, it was, it was a whole whole experience. Because now we've left directly from not to drive back to to loose. And I'm not even, I'm looking at the clock. You know, when you see the clock is going up incrementally and you just see five 20, five 25, five 30, five 35. I'm like, okay, at the latest, I have to be at my house at six 30, at the latest, and we need to hit the road immediately. But I also have a seven month old child. So we've got to drive four hours, two bars Luna. Get through check in security, the customs, all in an hour and 20 minutes. And then pray to it. So yeah, we're here now. So yeah, it was a, it was a great mark. I'll tell you, man, you know, I see a lot of, you know, God's plan and humility on your Instagram. I haven't seen none of that today. I haven't seen none of that. Today, you know, when you, when you've been, when you've been, when you've been, when you've been really put to the test, I haven't seen any of those humility posts, you know, listen, you know, when you're, when you're sitting in it, and when you're sitting at that electrical, electrical charger in the middle of nowhere and you got some ground to cover, you know, I don't think, I don't think I have been so quiet in my life. Like the prayers that were going through my mind at in, in that first two hours of babe, are we actually going to make this? And I'm sitting on my Lord, Lord, you know how much we want to get home. Lord, you know how much I miss your making food. Lord, you know how much I need some chick for lay. Lord, my wife, she misses a cold cut sandwich. She knows a little thing, you know, you know, you know, you're like, Lord, please. Yeah, he said, yeah, okay, listen. Listen, patience, patience is virtue. All right. Yeah. Well, you learned it. You learned it. I mean, that's crazy. I want to, I want to ask you at the end of the show just because we got a, we got a great, special guest with us. But I want to ask you at the end of the show, just a couple of these, you know, stories that you might have also like if that's your, your kind of craziest experience and stadium, you know, the fear because a lot of people, you know, would this kind of things be back to Conker Cap and some of these places you gotta go to where you know you're most of the time you're like okay that was good and now no worries but then there's always that little bit of edge where you're like you know what's about to happen right now you know and and I think intuitively you get a feeling when you know like you said goalie's got his back to the to the ultra's and then all of a sudden you can just feel something's about to go down so I want to ask you more about that we'll get to that towards the end of the show but we have a special guest on on the show today is the director of the new five part HBO Max Docu series the U.S. against the world which follows us as a national team through the journey of the twenty twenty two world cup and Qatar and the brink of this summer's world cup here in the U.S. Canada and Mexico welcome to orange slices Rand Getlin appreciate you joining us man thanks for having you guys did you did you get a chance to listen in to to Mark's story and like you know are you sort of like why why did we wrap filming already because we need these are the things we need man I'm telling you if we had cameras like literally everywhere deployed with all the guys all around the world the stories that you would be able to tell it's insane the stuff they deal with and and you know the vast majority of people at home have no idea what they're navigating on a day to day but bro bless your heart I'm you're a good man you're still smiling still upright listen I could I couldn't miss this chance you know the connect I don't need with my boy he but Rand you know we spent a lot of time together over the last few years so when I heard you know we have Rand I said you know what Lord maybe you did line yourself a reason you know what I'm saying maybe I did you know as much as much flag as I'm gonna get from my wife for us missing this flight you know this was this was on purpose so yeah man I have to say though you know when Mark messaged me hey I'm actually still in and to lose I was like the way he wrote it I was like there's like four things in here I'm going to bed like I'm not they're not all connecting the dots of like the plane and the flight and the and then you know our producer Mike sent me the the ultra storm in the field I was like this is more than I can capable of dealing with I was on low sleep so I was like I'm gonna pick this up in the morning so here we are and Mark's marks here Rand you're here I you know just just to start this project spans over four years with the US men's national team cameras are everywhere in the locker room at training often at home with the players and their families what was the the the process because they think a lot of people think about like wouldn't it be cool if right but what was the process of actually getting the federation to buy in and then building that trust amongst the players knowing that you know potentially their entire careers image and brand are are in your hands yeah I mean first and foremost I think it's always really important to point out this really started with the players you know we met Tyler Adams in 2019 and he was you know playing his first year at life and I knew nothing about the sport but we had this show called prodigy where we got to choose a to the world's best young athletes under the age of twenty one who we thought had a chance to be ascendant so you know not knowing the sport but knowing sports at a very high level used to cover the NFL I covered the NBA like trust my talent identification ability in terms of just like raw athletic ability right and I'm watching like YouTube highlights of Tyler Adams and a handful of other players and I see Tyler hit this crazy pass that interesting right it's like Tyler and it's a long pass but it was the precision on it was such that I it like made me perk up like oh because I could conceptualize if a quarterback were to do that but it's arm we'd be like wow you do that on a rope that was crazy and and you can tell the scale of the field is larger right so like these things are connecting for me and having having been like a long time sports guy and and I'm like let me watch more and then as I'm watching him I'm like oh he doesn't score many goals and he doesn't serve up a lot of assists but this guy would be held to play against look at how quick he is look how quick he's able to identify where he needs to be next and he seemed to be operating a split second faster than everybody and have the physical ability to map the early recognition to action and was just destroying stuff so I started with no knowledge of the sport behind those guys the destroyer and you know I was back in 2019 seven years on like perfect description of Tyler Adams guy is a destroyer you know he's world class at it and anyway long story short we we had such a great experience working with Tyler that as we were talking to him we're like man this guy has it made he's in Europe Sarah and him had just moved in he's got his girl with him life's good and and then we say you know what's the biggest honor in your life I want to play for the US men's national team at the highest level it would be an honor to one day captain the US men's national team now I know what the US men's national team is because I'm an American and every once in a while the world comes around and we cheer and outside of that we're paying very little attention that the average NFL you know fan and and when I heard him say that it was another moment where I kind of perked up like oh that's interesting that's the most in the NBA I want to win NBA championship in the NFL I want to win a Super Bowl in soccer I want to win for my national team that's different so you start double clicking like Tyler earlier all your teammates like are they good guys man greatest guys and so that was it for us like it it sparked we knew the world cup was coming we couldn't understand why America wasn't paying closer attention we had these amazing young guys that are all over the world trying to make it happen and and make the country proud right like that's their ultimate aspiration and we started talking to the US soccer federation in 2020 about this world shuts down for covid literally right after and I still don't know anything about the sport really but because I'm at home for a long time I play 2000 games a FIFA ultimate team I learned tactics I learned players right I learned the game like at a high enough level where I can actually now converse with these guys and I'm watching a lot I'm watching covid ball so I can hear the communication on the field and all these different things and I'm like I'm in it at this point right now I don't even have like the full fan experience but like I'm in it and so that's interesting because I went from covering the NFL I was an NFL inside national on air guy like that was my job to not caring at all about the NFL at that time and and only caring about soccer so that was another aha for us in terms of Janina and I think about what could this be or like oh everybody could have this experience because it's worldly it's got you know rich history rich story etc and and we kept pushing and may of 22 we got a call from US soccer after all this time of talking today if you could be in camp in 48 hours we're ready we're ready to go and we've been cameras up ever since we showed up in in Cincinnati and may of 22 with a carry on Janina had 48 hours get ready for 27 days on the road and you know what kind of an experience can you get at the outset that maps to the players experience we hear that all the time I was on my way to Disneyland I got a call I had to tell the family I'm sorry and get on a you know playing and go show up for the national team so yeah man ever since then we've been on the ride and it's it's been an honor Mark what was that what was that experience like for for for you as a player to go through that because I think the world's different right when I was a player and it's not even that long ago you can you can go out you can most of the time you were in safe spaces right now I think that the life of an athlete has significantly changed the microscope the spotlight people's access to you to be able to gain something from you anywhere you go right if you you this to lose thing happens you end up you go to a bar or nightclub people are right there being like you know I could get something some people have good intentions but some people have bad intentions so knowing there's a camera around and that you got to build that trust what was that experience like for you I think the biggest thing that at Ranjian and and and the park stories crew made it clear was it was about us you know it wasn't a thing of what they were trying to embarrass us sort of thing of trying to get dirt on us or a thing of trying to simply get the best pieces so that way they could be successful they wanted it to be something where it truly encompass school you were as individuals but ultimately as a collective right to to to build the stories around each player and person and from there to build it out on a collective basis where you have now 20 some odd stories 30 some odd stories and their individual journey is coming into camp going out of camp coming to the see you in your your home city or or coming to see you at your club or coming to the match or then at in camp you know the small moments where we're chilling the players lounge or coming by and you're on a facetime call you know those those intimate moments where they allowed it to be more about us I think was something that we appreciated but also it not being a thing of them violating us and and and crossing the line where it's put nothing to a bad light potentially you know or making us come out is as different than we actually are so it was natural in a sense because we're used to cameras around us but it was refreshing because it was a real respect and a real genuine love for not only what we do and for for the individuals but ultimately wanting to see us on the highest level you know to to see us perform at the highest level but also to make sure that the thousands of millions of people who are going to be we see in this documentary now understand who we are in this real as way so yeah I think that was was probably like the DC from from my take now I'm sure it's plenty of guys you can express that I'm Heath Pierce former US men's national team player with stops in the Bundesliga MLS Denmark and Sweden you can predict the summer soccer showcase action all the way to the final match with Fandall predicts all you have to do is sign up to get your $25 bonus from the opening game to the final whistle Stay locked in with every pass, every goal, and every moment that moves us closer to crowning a champion. Sign up for your $25 bonus on Fandool Predicts. Go to fandool.com/predicts to sign up. That's fandool.com/predicts to get your $25 bonus. Listen to Orange Slices sponsored by Fandool Predicts wherever you get your podcasts. Offered by Fandool Predicts and Markets LLC, a registered Deuters Commission merchant, 18+. The bonus is none with drawable and expire seven days after receipt. See terms at fandool.com/predicts/predicts bonus offer terms. Let me ask you this because I want to get into some of the more vulnerable stuff that will come out in this series, but because there's a lot of wrong moments. But give me a player who's never seen a camera they didn't like. I think it's Wes and McKenny. I think that's the guy. Give me a name or two of somebody who just was like, "Oh, cameras here, no problem." Either they can ramp it up or they just love, they're just natural in front of the camera where they've got a life after playing the game. Yeah, honestly, one of the things that was also really cool and revelatory was so many of the guys have amazing personalities, and this collected is awesome. I know this is a cop out, but it is true. You're going to see guys really well reflected throughout the series in dimension and in over a long horizon. Did you get a chance to see episode one? I think you did. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so you see it, right? We look for these very natural on-ramps and off-ramps to give you some context on who a player is. We do that throughout the show and you get introduced to different guys along the way in different ways, right? Because you want to make sure that you try to make it as true to them as possible. In camp, it's fun because the guys are hilarious. I mean, you know, it's like if you guys would have had cameras running at all times, it would have been an amazing show as well. And so, for us, I would say they're all great. Mark is amazing. Turns out like running to the camera, nobody. Literally nobody was looking for the camera. I would say that like, yeah, Weston pops, of course. He's fun to be around. Tyler is a guy that is going to talk a lot and that's entertaining. He gets on guys and it's hilarious. Matt Turner's great. Matt Freese who's come in later in the game has been great. You know, Sir Geniuses and you'll see like literally all the guys sit down and I think they're all entertaining for different reasons. Hey, did anybody do the like more of the office style where they address the camera regularly? You know, something happens and the camera, they break that, break the fourth wall. Like it's just the natural look to the camera of like, hope you got that. Yeah, I mean, it starts to happen more as the show goes on. You'll see it. So it's like, you know, episode one is year one. So we're just right. But by episode five, we've been with them for four years. And so you start seeing these things where I don't want to give any spoilers, but there is one where a guy looks directly to cam and addresses something that just happened at training. Like, can you believe that? Can you believe that? And we were, you know, we're sitting there at home like, I love that because what it shows is it over time. And so that's owed to our, my co-director, Luke Corver, unbelievable, right? Like he's, uh, he doesn't say much. He's because he's, he's like, you see them, you tell him, Mark, I mean, what's the like working with Luke? He's the best. Right. Bro, I love Luke. This guy, he doesn't say, but bro, his, his, you, you get around him. You're like, you know, Luke is there. You know, you know, he want to say something, you know, but he's like, ah, you both look at each other in the corner of the eye. And you just have that unspoken, you know, that unspoken tolerization. So he's the best we told him. So Luke Corver worked with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Michael B. Jordan, you name it, the greats of the greats and like phenomenal director of photography, great co-director. And he's the one that has shot almost all, basically, 85, 90% of what you see on screen that's not gameplay came out of Luke's camera by himself over four years, which is insane. But he, he knows where the, the story is at, right? But the guys have become so comfortable with him because his energy signature is like this, which is one of the things we love most about him. And they know that he's there to, to, to tell the story is fully and accurately as possible. And funny moments, you know, he's in there. And like the guys are cutting up and having a good time and they speak freely. It's our job to edit it down to make sure that, you know, the, the free speaking, you know, stays on the right side of the line, which is great because 99% of the time these guys are on the right side of the line. Every once in a while we make an adult joke and we're like, yeah, you're probably not going to put that one out. But what you want to do ultimately is, and Mark, you said this earlier and it's very important to us. And we made it clear to them for moment one. This is about them. Okay. And I'm a journalist. I grew up, you know, as an actual like formal reporter and needed to be, you know, accurate. But I always felt like as reporters, it was impossible to be accurate about these incredibly complicated stories. If you don't spend a year or two researching them, right? Like how could you possibly know everything? But the business doesn't allow for that. You got to turn things around quickly. So naturally, there's a lack of actual substance and understanding when they go to write these things that are definitive. And so our model has always been, no, no, live in the spaces and learn what is accurate. The one time a guy has a bad thing happen. That's not who that person is, right? That's the one bad thing that happened in their life. And so we need to make sure that we contextualize who they actually are so that when that one bad moment happens, it's properly analyzed, right? And a good, you know, example of that. He spoke publicly about this as Tim Weyer. Unbelievable human being, you know, Mark, you guys could not be closer like like we love Tim Weyer. You know, he's amazing, amazing dude. And in episode two, it's Copa America. So we know that he had a moment that still haunts him to this day out there against Panama and it was just a moment. And so for us in the show, it was wildly important that you meet Tim Weyer in episode one and get to know his story in episode one so that by episode two, when this anomalous thing happens, there's once in a career that for him thing happens, it's properly contextualized. And you see the way we're all the way on the inside. So Mark, you haven't even seen this yet. But like we're there. We're in the locker room. We know everything we saw, everything, and we put it on screen. And there's a reason for that is because, you know, these guys were like, we want you there for all of it. We want you there for the good. But we also want people to understand what it looks like when it's bad. And it's not, this is me speaking. After four years with them, it's not for lack of effort. It's not for lack of caring is the opposite. Nobody could care more. You know, you cut these guys, each one of them is bleeding red, white and blue like they bleed and you know this he'd like, they bleed from bad, it's everything to them. And yet, you know, you listen to the people on the outside for the past four years, me as a former reporter, I pay real close attention. There's been like a lot of people that were just loud and wrong about who these guys are, what they stand for, what they care about. And that to us as filmmakers and storytellers is the absolute number one thing is we're going to tell the truth. And we think people will love that truth to the extent that there are people frustrated that the truth doesn't match the narrative that they had. We're okay with that. And when we suspect there'll be in the minority, there'll be the folks that are they just want to be mad and upset. And that's okay. There are people like that and they're entitled to their opinion. But I think the vast majority of people that walk away from watching this five hours on this US men's national team will walk away being like, damn, what a great group of guys. Like what a great group of guys. And that's how we felt. We feel that's the truth. You know, and this is for both you, there's obviously some really broad moments in the show, Tyler Adams talking about struggles with family and the special bond, Matt Turner's wife and his situation. There. Did you get a lot of crying? Did you get a lot of people to kind of go down that route where maybe it's like, fool of man, you know, opened up something here that we've got to work through? Yeah. I mean, I think that's what makes this show different. You know, when we first told the guys about the show, and again, I said it started with them. The players association in addition to the US soccer Federation are partners with us on the project. It might be the first project in the history of professional athletics where you've got a players association, the Federation as it were, right? And in a studio together to say, we're going to tell this story together. And we're going to do it in a fair and accurate way, right? Like for the Federation as well as a big leap for them to open up their doors and say, okay, we trust you to do this properly. But it was really because the players wanted it. And so that changes dynamics. Usually when these shows happen, they go to the league or they go to the team and then they're forced upon the players. This was the opposite. This was the players bringing it to the Federation and the players association saying this is something we want to do. And because of that, you know, it ends up being extremely personal because we wouldn't have done it without the human stories. So we needed the players bought in and fully bought in. And what happens is you come up with a guy like Tyler, so well respected, and he says, these are our people you can trust them. pretty quickly you have a couple guys that immediately are like okay boom that's good enough for me and then you've got other guys who you know we have to kind of like work your way out in the circle. The hardest thing for us is every time we walk into a room, we know who we are, right? Like we know our heart, we know what we intend to do. New people do not know that, you know, people that we're meeting, they don't know that about us. And so trust is not something that is just granted and you have it forever. It's something you have to earn every day, right? Access is earned every day, just like in our relationships and life. And so we wanted to invest in the guys and part of the way that we were investing is being like, we're gonna be here every single day. You know, when it's up, we're up with you. And when it's down, we're navigating the valley with you as well. But we're here for you. And so man, the amount of emotion, heat in this show and we truly believe this. Like we set out to create the best sports documentary series of all time full stop. You know, people shy away from saying things like that. You know, you can't say that. Like yes, yes, we're out here to take second. We're not out here to take second. We want to make the best show ever. You know, like I don't understand why this is controversial. And so in order to do that, you have to shoot it beautifully, Luke Corver, it needs to be edited unbelievably well. That's Lucas Harger, Jazzy Kent, Mac, and Sam Bammante. It needs to be from a relational standpoint, invested in in ways that allow people to open up. And that's Janina, myself and Bryce Ciri, our producer. And it is our job to get these guys and their families to a place where they can be their fullest selves, right? Because it's for them, it is our job to make sure that by the time you learn Mark's story, you learn how much he and his family have sacrificed to get to this point, that you walk away with reverence for their path, which is exactly how we felt. And I will say this, if there were guys on the team that I did not like, I just wouldn't talk about them. You know, I wouldn't talk down on them. But I just wouldn't talk about them. I swear to you, there's not a single guy on this team that we do not feel like deserves to win. Every one of them deserves to win. And that's hard, 'cause only 11 guys walk out on the pitch and only 26 make the team. But there are more than that that you want to see win. So, you know, the emotion is crazy, moms, wives, girlfriends, fathers, brothers, you know, the range of emotion in the show is intense. And I think that's why people are gonna love it. You do not have to care about soccer. We're probably speaking, you know, on this podcast to a more hardcore soccer crew, you know, group of fans. I think that it's gonna be a really compelling show for people that know nothing about the sport, but really care about powerful human stories. And that's our sincerest hope is that we can super serve the US soccer crowd and that they learn something new about these guys, how much they care, how much it means to them, and just to be there. You're in the locker room at the World Cup. I've seen people complaining about different things online. You know, I do pay attention. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I do see it. I do see it. And I'm keeping, we also keep receipts, you know, by the end of the episode file. Let's see what they're saying. Anyway, you know, it's interesting. Like, there's never been a show in the history of soccer, right? It's the greatest sport in the world. Never been a show where there's all access inside a national team's locker room at the World Cup. That's on TV right now. You know, any soccer fan in the world should be interested by that. It's real. So, you know, when you get to episode two, Copa America, that's an episode I think is going to get a lot of people's attention for different reasons. People like to see people stumble. And, and this team stumbled at Copa America, and we can't hide from it. But what I think is really rad is, is, uh, despite all the, the difficult stuff that came out of that. I mean, I'll give you another example. Greg Brearhalter. Unbelievable. Unbelievable dude. We really, from our experience with Greg, like for a coach, to be like, you can be anywhere you want. You can be anywhere you want, and I want this. We want to grow this sport in American. I get that it might be hard at times. But you've got it. You've got carte blanche. Really rare, you know, some massive kudos to him. And at the end of episode two, of course, we know how that ends after Copa for him. And it bummed us out because we saw how hard he worked. You're never going to outwork that man. You know, you're not going to outcare that man. And so you say what you will about him, but like, he bled for the, for the crest, same thing. And so is it challenging when he loses his gig as humans, right? And filmmakers, yeah, man, I would, it was so, so bummed for him and his family. But then a new coach comes in and you've got that transition. And we got to earn the new coaches trust as well. And in doing that part of what I tell all these guys is like, listen, to the extent that something difficult happens along the way, we're going to we're going to walk through it together. Because I have to tell the story. We're going to walk through it together. The same thing with Greg, you know, he's someone who, who we think is very deserving of a lot more praise and respect than he probably got on the way out the door. And I think the show will help to contextualize why. And I think that a lot of people will probably reframe how they view the guy. But the Greg knows, you know, we've always, we've stayed tapped in with him. We make sure that nothing is a surprise. You know, I want everyone to be aware of, of, in advance, you know, on this team, they've trusted us to be in their universe. The least we can do is make sure that they're aware that these difficult moments exist. And two of men and woman, because I have all these incredible women in their lives, you know, everyone has just been like, we trust you. We trust you. We know it might be hard and it might be difficult. But it's very important because they all are committed to the same thing. We want to change the way the world views, that we want to change the way Americans view soccer first. And then the way the world views Americans and soccer here. And what an unbelievable aspiration, right? What a massive thing. And people have spent enough time on this. I'll leave you this because I know I'm going along. But what if it all works out? What if they go on a special run this summer at the World Cup? What if in one thing I find in the US soccer fan base unfortunately online at least is they're jaded. You know, I get it. Fans want to see their teams win. Nobody wants to win more than the guys. Like they want to win for you. And so we have to help them achieve that. Right? If you really want to see somebody win, do you spend all day tearing them down? Or do you spend your days being like, you got this? You're going to make it out of this. And a lot of the conversations we've had with the guys over the last four years are those. You know, ask any of them who've gone through it. We're usually right there behind the scenes, not with the cameras in their face being like, tell us about how this hurts. That's not what we do, right? But I'm on WhatsApp with them. Yo, are you good? I just want to let you know we're thinking about you. I want to let you know this is a moment in time. You know, over a long horizon, there's going to be peaks and there's going to be valleys. And you're going to navigate them all and you're going to finish on the mountaintop. And you know, that's important. And I think as a country, we could learn a lot from these guys. If we paid closer attention to just say, if we can put a battery in their back and give them a little bit more fuel, they will run through walls for us. They're already doing that despite the fact that we don't really support them as much as we should. Imagine what would happen if the entire country got behind them. And so it's our sincerest hope that this show plays a small part in catalyzing more support for the guys. Because after four years of watching them struggle and grind, you're like, man, nobody deserves it more. Yeah, that's great context. I think for everybody, Mark, Mark for you, you go back to 22, you miss out on the team, making the team. And then this growth curve of you, change clubs, life changes, you get married, you start a family. But along the way, right? And I think this is an interesting thing is, regardless of the national team's success or struggles or whatever, there's still the individual that fits within the context of it. And the national team's a unique place because you always want to be on the field. Part you kind of deal with this ebb and flow of like, man, I'm in the national team. I guess you'd be happy. But then the personal ego and ambition is like, I need to be playing. I need to be starting. I need to be a lock. I need to be respected. I need all these things. So for you, did you experience times through these last sort of four years where you feel a little vulnerable because the cameras are there? Or you're dealing with the good and the evil on each shoulder of like, I want to say something, but I shouldn't say something. Because there's just like, sometimes a camera can be a friend. And sometimes it feels like it can be an enemy. In all honesty? And we've ran and I've had multiple conversations about this just throughout this cycle. Going through the period of like being in camp and then not playing and then playing a couple of games and then not playing and then missing out on the world cup and then being part of the next cycle and then you come in. You play some more. You move to a new club changing your life with family. You get married. You have to chop all these things happen, right? And balancing it all was challenging at moments. But it was always refreshing going back into camp because I knew I had people around me who actually-- well, with me, who actually cared about the journey, who understood the ebbs and flows that come along with the career, the ebbs and flows that come along with the national team. And understand that there's going to be moments where you don't want to talk at all. There's going to be moments where you want to let it all out. And whatever's in between there. So they ran in Geneva and Luke and the whole team. They did a great job of finding that balance of allowing us that freedom to speak what was on our chest and what was on our hearts, while also understanding not everything can go in. You know, not everything is going to be, not everything is necessary to be released. Some of it you just need to then, some of it you just need to release and get it out. But I think for me it was, like I said before, it was just refreshing. So the stuff that I was saying, I tried to be as real as possible as authentic as possible and let people understand that you have that battle within yourself, especially when you step into the national team, understanding yes you want to be a competitor and yes you want to play every game and yes you want to be on the page and yes you want to go and play in Copa America and World Cup and Gold Cup and yes you want to win trophies and but the collective is also extremely important. And what role am I playing in this, right? And similarly what Rand was talking about is providing a battery pack to guys. I think in periods where maybe I didn't want to push guys or because I wasn't playing, I had to fight that and say, you know what? To heck with my feelings and my emotions, you know, those are going to jack me up even more than anything. It's going to put me in a state of now when I get my opportunity, I'm going to screw up even more because I've now not even invested in the guys around me and tried to be part of something bigger than just myself and that's hard to do. I think in any environment each of us can talk about being in situations where you're like, I don't feel like doing this, but getting out of your feelings and saying, no, it's not about that. It's not about that. It's not, I got to fight that. I got to put that down and that's what I really tried to focus on more than anything else is providing that for the guys around me. You'll see this, honestly, this period where I wasn't even playing in a lot of, in some of these clips, you know, but being there for guys, being energy for guys when you needed being a support, being able to communicate with guys, being able to bounce around between the tables, you know, being able to speak a little Dutch research and understand my leak is it's coming in and he's a fresh kid on the new kid on the block and he's young and fresh face. And then you bounce over to Wes and Tyler and Tim were all been around the group for a while and then you got East Mamba and Chris, Chris Ritches and I, you know, who go back and so being able to connect and you got you got a grandpa Tim who's OG in the team, you know, I mean, we all love Tim, but you know, being able to connect with him in a different way, you get married and you have kids and then it's like, oh, wow, you know, so I think that's real. Then you bounce over to the physio room where you bounce over to Sam and Kristen in the team, Lee is on office and then you go down to your chat with the comp's team and you're in there bouncing back and forth and figuring out, oh, how do you work this camera? And oh, what is this? You know, you're letting in all the FPS on this and I got this gaming device I'm trying to use. You know, you guys got to eat in that K-Wike. So I think all of that is those are spaces where I really tried to work in because there were periods where I was playing and were here as well. I wasn't. But at the end of the day, if I can be the guy who is dependable, not just on the field, but off the field, that I feel like provides so much more. So now you have not only the trust and confidence of the guys and people around you, but now when you do get your opportunity, it's the same thing for them. You know what I mean? So, yeah, man, I think we all understand that, but it's easier said than done. But yeah, yeah, that's my philosophy. Rand, take this. However you want as a question. But in like you soccer, my daughter's soccer club here, they say that like no parents are allowed inside of the space, right? This is a, because we don't want sideline coaching, we don't want distraction, we don't want all these things. But then there's the occasional question that goes that even some of the coaches ask that go like, well, maybe we should open it up to the parents being able to be here because that holds me as a coach more accountable, right? It creates accountability if I've got people watching me. And so there's like this tradeoff of what's the right thing to do. So for you with regard to the cameras, do the cameras bring out at times a bit of a facade? Do this, does it bring out a better behavior where somebody goes like, I'm under oath right now and maybe ends up putting him in a positive, more positive like spin because they know that like, you know, five hundred and hundredths have a second to process a thought. And on this thing here, it could process all my worst thoughts or it can actually snap me out and make me like present and go, you know, I need to be the better version of myself regardless. But the cameras here hold some accountability. Yeah. So it's a great question. And look, I think like the way most productions happen, we would have came in with four or five cameras, two or three producers for each camera. I all these people become with a massive footprint. You disrupt everything. You shoot their team walk with all of those cameras. And then for all five episodes of the series, you see that same team walk from different angles in slow mo guy walking through the right, like you see this in sports stock all the time. We have one camera. So it's actually not cameras. It's a camera and it's the same guy that has been with them since May of 2022. And as Mark mentioned, he's brilliant human. But when he's working, he doesn't, he's not a talker. Like he's there to tell the story 15 hours a day. And so I think, you know, the benefit of telling a story over four years is these guys can't hide from us and we can't hide from them. We see each other, right? And when you're grinding and camp, I mean, bro, the the gold cup run was how many days? It's like 46 days. Like you can't hide things. You know, he's like, it's not always good. Sometimes it's got to Mark's point. Like sometimes they don't want to talk. And our thing has always been no pressure. You know, if you want to talk to us, we are here. And if you don't want to talk to us, absolutely no pressure. Now I have a job to do. So I'm going to ask you, will you come talk to us? But it has never been a moment that a guy has said, you know what? I need some time or not right now or whatever. They were not like, okay, cool. No problem. Hit us if you want to catch up later. And so I think that that also allows them to have really profoundly human moments in private when they need them. But by allowing them that grace, now when the cameras roll and they're cutting up on the bench and having conversations that are usually just between teammates, you know, they don't censor themselves. They really do trust us. And so, you know, we captured 300 days in production. We captured 600, 600 hours of footage of these guys in their homes and in competitive environments. So you know, we distill it to the five that feel truest to us. 600 hours down to five. But imagine what could happen in the future. If think about, you know, you asked who has a possibility to do stuff in media, etc. Obviously, Mark. Tim Reem is great. Matt Turner could do it. Tyler Adams could do it. Weston could do it. Tim Weas hilarious. I think he would do different formats. Like all these guys are going to do what you guys have done, which is continue to grow the game in other aspects as they grow into their lives and build their families. And so what happens if we win a World Cup in the next, you know, let's call it a little bit and and and and and we've got this vault that tells the definitive story from at least 22 through whenever that happens. Imagine the story you could tell with that. So I think they get that. The guys get that and they don't want to hide from the camera. But they also are not pandering to the camera. The camera is a natural element of their environment. It's there and and they just accepted that. And so that allows us as storytellers big and we this was many years ago. We were like, okay, we're in it with them now. Like there is nothing off limits to us. We may just need to give guys a second to process some of the harder stuff on their own. So let's talk to us about it. Let me ask you, let me ask you this because like you said, you keep receipts. The soccer, the soccer world is a very intense negative place, especially around our US min's national team. And this is my last question. How do you find the balance, right? You can't give editorial say to the players, right? Because you're a storyteller. You have to tell that story yourself. You can't cave to what people are going to say on the internet about being, you know, there could be anything from you being just like a mouthpiece for US soccer, right? This is a PR campaign. This is whatever that is. How do you find that balance where you stay true to yourself as a storyteller and filmmaker without succumbing to the fact that like the reality is is like PR, the comms team from US soccer definitely wants to have a word, right? The players definitely want to have their vision shaped by their view. The perception of US soccer wants to have a say and either seeing us fail or seeing us succeed and anywhere in between is you just being a mouthpiece. How do you find that balance? Yeah, so we really did that work at the outset, you know, it was a bedrock for us. It's like, we will not come in to tell a sanitized version of this story, period. Like I won't sign up to give you four years of my life for this. And again, remember, we with the players are pitching US soccer in the US Players Association. And then the US Players Association and US Soccer came to the table and were like, we get it. You've got creative basically, and this is for anyone that would ask that question, we had full creative autonomy as between us, US Soccer and US Players Association. There was nothing off limits except for medical, right? So we couldn't just mob into the physio room without asking. But we earned those permissions from the wonderful folks on staff over time. They were like, no, you can come in as long as the players are okay with it. We're okay with it. And the players invite us in when they're getting worked on, right? And so you're there. - Mind you. - Hey, and mind you. Some of them, some of them-- - That's the best. Some of the moments in the physio room, right? - That's the only room, you know? That's the barber shop. - The best. - The best. - That's where you find out all the real stuff because there's a lot of-- you put a lot of miles in that room. - That's right. That's right. And the relationships are real. So what I would say to you is like, for anyone that's questioning like, is it a version of the story that you as soccer wanted to tell? They had zero creative control over the process. Now to your point, does everyone want to be represented well, of course? But we also started with that. We're not out here to make you guys look bad. We're out here to make you guys look as good as humanly possible and the truth will dictate what as good as humanly possible looks like, right? Like if we were to got inside, it would have been a group of bad guys. Now I'm stuck. I'm doing a show for HB only got a group of bad guys. And we're just-- it's not the kind of thing that we want to do. We want to build long-term relationships. But in this instance, and I told you that it was Tyler, and Mark, and Chris, and all these guys, we got to know them. And we're like, this is-- this is going to be the easiest thing we've ever done. Because this is who they really are. And so you'll see in episode two, go in that locker room after Copa and tell me that this is something that any other team on the planet would have willingly allowed us to share with the world a super low moment. You know, everyone has been open. And because of that, by the time you get to the end of episode four, which covers the gold cup, man, you're on the ride. And again, it's this. And I think that that's what's going to make it compelling to everybody's when you watch the show. Sure, there's going to be stuff that the fans say, why didn't you cover this? Or why didn't you cover that? And I'm happy to address all of it. But like, for the most part, what we said is, into the players and everybody is, we're here to cover what happens with this team. And we're here to dive deep on what happens with this team. And so any individual offshoot that would require 30 minutes or 40 minutes to contextualize this thing over here with these people over here, we're not doing that in this show. That's for somebody else to do. This show is about this team. And so for us, we feel fantastic as journalistically sound, documentary, documentary, story tellers. We feel wonderful about the thing we put on screen. There's a lot of hard moments in the show. There's a lot of vulnerability. There's a lot of emotion. And there are some amazing times as well. And here's what I'll leave you with. We're going to be filming all the way through this world cup. And after four years of watching how this story is unfolded, Mark and I have had conversations like this quite a bit. It does not seem to me that the story ends with anything other than something extremely memorable. And we've been betting for four years on these guys and we'll continue to do so. We think that they can do anything they put their minds to in the summer. I know they're going to go out there and give everything to make the country proud. And I think we all need to be behind them. Because if we can give them 10% more, can accomplish really anything. Yeah, love that. And again, appreciate you Mark joining us. And thank you for joining us, Ryan. Episode two of the Fightport series drops tonight Tuesday, May, Teen Than HBO Max. Mark and I will be back with you guys later on this week. And we appreciate you all for listening, subscribing. Leave a review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen and follow us on Instagram at slice of soccer. We appreciate all those things. Get those comments in and make sure you subscribe across all the platforms. We appreciate all of you on behalf of myself as well as our production team. Thanks again for joining us for Orange Slice and we'll see you guys on the next one. Peace!