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It’s possible you know Kahleah Copper best for a photo of her that circulated widely in the 2021 WNBA playoffs. Yes, the one where she’s bending down over Sophie Cunningham on the floor, Copper’s face inches from Cunningham’s and a coy, almost calm smile playing on Copper’s face after a three second tangle for the ball that was anything but.

The Sky would go on to win the WNBA championship and Copper went on to be named Finals MVP. It was just her second season as a starter, and she rode the momentum to Spain in her offseason to be named an MVP of the Spanish League, EuroLeague, and make All-EuroLeague First Team.

What you should know Copper for, however, are her incremental improvements season over season, like finishing this past year with career-high points. Or for the way she can dash down the floor, making eagle-eye reads at either end, and control her body midair to make impossibly contorted floaters look graceful or impossibly deep shots like she’s zoomed in on the basket.

At the end of this past season, Copper entered into a partnership with Gatorade. To kick it off, returned to her hometown of Philadelphia to give 400 pieces of new equipment to kids in the community with the Fuel Tomorrow Initiative. Copper took a few minutes out of her appearance to chat with Dime about her progress, Candace Parker getting on her case, her stint as an assistant coach at Purdue Northwest, and why giving back to the community that shaped her is important.

Something I don’t think people fully grasp when we talk about athletes staying ready is what actually goes into that. You came off the bench for a few seasons before you were consistently starting and then you went on to have your championship season. How were you keeping yourself ready physically and also mentally? What were you focusing on day to day?

Personally, I just take pride in getting better every single year. There’s plenty of things that I know I can grow at in my game. I’m working out every day, but most importantly, I’m getting stronger. That’s what’s going to be a big thing for me this offseason. You know, before this season, nobody really knows but I don’t lift. I don’t lift weights cause I don’t like it, but I’m getting a little older these days. I’ve had many conversations with my teammate Candace Parker — I make fun of her for being old, but she makes fun of me because she says I’m not strong.

So I think this offseason, a big thing for me is about getting stronger. Right now I’m lifting, I’m taking care of my body, and working on different, small parts of my game. But most importantly was being healthy coming from the World Cup and getting stronger.

Do you like that feeling of putting in rep after rep? I know with some athletes it can feel kind of monotonous. But do you like seeing the change at the other end of it?

Yeah, I think I’ll never get bored. Looking at my career, seeing myself continuously get better but also looking and like, “Damn, I’m just scratching the surface.” You know, there’s so many things that I really want to tap into as far as my game. I think the sky is really the limit. Like, it’s super cliche, but really, that’s what I believe.

Something you’ve said you want to focus on is making an All-Defensive team by building on your ability to be an impactful two-way player. Do you set goals for yourself, season to season like that?

Yeah, I think it’s important to set goals. It gives you something to look forward to and it keeps you motivated.

Between seasons in 2020 and your Championship season in 2021, you were an assistant coach at Purdue Northwest — how did that opportunity come about?

So [head coach] Courtney Locke went to Rutgers University, and I think that sisterhood there is very strong. I was home during the offseason, and we’re friends on social media, and she saw that I was home — it was really random — she’s like, “Hey, what do you think about coming to coach with me?” And I’m like, you’re joking, right? She’s like, “I’m serious!” COVID was still around and really bad in Europe, so I decided not to play overseas and was like, this can’t hurt, right? And it was right outside of Chicago, so I was like I’ll do it. That was a really good experience, it definitely showed me a lot. I think it helped on my side of being a better leader, a better communicator, and I was seeing things differently.

Is that a place you could see yourself going back to down the road, into a coaching role?

Yeah, I definitely have to give a major shoutout to the young women that I coached, because they were like sponges. They just wanted to learn, they wanted to get better. They made it so easy for me. And I appreciated that because they listened. For me to be able to really teach, and then for me to see the growth in them, their progress, it’s like okay, I’m doing this thing right. That was special for me. I could definitely see it for me. I’ve had so many great assistant coaches in my life so I know how important those relationships are. That was a special time, and it led me into a great season.

You’ve talked before about [Rutgers] coach C. Vivian Stringer being a reason why you could see yourself going to the WNBA. What did she instil in you to make you feel that would be possible?

I think coach Stringer was the ultimate leader. She poured into me not only as a basketball player, but a young woman, she humbled me from day one, which was very important. She just loved on me, and that was what I needed. I needed that leadership, I needed that love, and I needed that tough love. And not only was she teaching me the game of basketball, she was teaching me how to come up in this world as a young woman and how to be successful.

What does it mean to you to now be instilling that same sense of belief in girls and young women, whether they’re fans or they’re the women you’ve coached, who’ve watched you make jump after jump in your career thus far?

That part of it is so inspiring. They have moments and they have times where they just feel they aren’t good enough, and for them to see my career, it’s like wow, anything is possible. For them to see that, it’s not super cliche — you work hard, you get the results. And for them to be able to really see me, and ask questions, and for me to tell them there’s no cheating the game. You put in the work, you get the results. For them to be able to witness it first hand — because I was doing player development at Purdue Northwest — I was also developing myself. So for them to see me work out with them, and then to see the results, it was like okay, I need to work out [laughs]. This is what I need to do, there’s no getting around it, that’s just the blueprint to it.

On that note, you’re partnering with Gatorade and are in your hometown of Philly to launch that partnership. Could you tell me a bit about the Fuel Tomorrow Initiative?

The Fuel Tomorrow Initiative, along with Good Sport, was special because we were donating 400 pieces of new equipment. That was important because we’re creating opportunities and just being able for them to have the things that they need. When I was growing up, I didn’t have all the new equipment, I was working with the things that I had in order to be successful. I think sports has the power to change lives — this is working to create more opportunities and equality and belonging in sports.

Why is it important, and what does it feel like to be back there and be able to give back to your community like this?

It’s special for me because Philly has really shaped who I am. It’s made me the player and the person and the competitor that I am. For me to come back where I’m from and to see little girls that look like me, for them to see that I’ve accomplished so many things that they’re automatically inspired, and they know that it’s something that is possible.

Candace Parker has previously been a part of this same initiative. Growing up, you’ve said she was one of your favourite players, now she’s your teammate, but now you also share your contributions to this program. What’s that like?

It’s special. Like you said, I grew up watching Candace, watching her play, and seeing her be successful. But for me to become her teammate and be able to learn her off the court, and see how important giving back and creating these opportunities are also important to her, so we share some of the same values and views. For us to both have this partnership with Gatorade, and for them to really pour into us and see our vision and want to support our vision, and the things we’re passionate about, it’s very important. We appreciate and love that.

Candace Cameron Bure has been pretty open about her conservative views over the years (she was on The View after all), but after Hallmark started producing movies with gay couples, it was the final straw for her! And now she is openly opposing same-sex couples, which is not panning out well.

Earlier this week, the Fuller House star very confidently stated that her new network will be keeping “traditional marriage at the core” and likely have no gay characters. “My heart wants to tell stories that have more meaning and purpose and depth behind them,” the Christmas Movie Queen told The Wall Street Journal. “I knew that the people behind Great American Family were Christians that love the Lord and wanted to promote faith programming and good family entertainment.” Unsurprisingly, people were not happy about that.

Hilarie Burton called Bure a “bigot,” while Jojo Siwa took to Instagram to rant about Bure. This is months after the mini “feud” the two had over a TikTok trend when Siwa called Bure “the rudest celebrity she had ever met.” Maybe she wasn’t too far off after all?

That’s when Jodie Sweetin, Bure’s former co-star and someone who knows a lot about good family entertainment, commented in support of Siwa. “You know I love you,” the comment said, paired with a heart, which seemed to indicate that Sweetin was not on board with Bure’s controversial comments.

Bure has not responded to the backlash, though her daughter Natasha defended her mom on Instagram. DJ Tanner would have never done this….she knows that the best families are non-traditional and feature a cool uncle who throws rock shows in the living room!

(Via Page Six)

Paramore fans might have noticed a change on the band’s self-titled album art on streaming platforms, as the swap is clear and significant. The band removed their ex-bassist, who was present in the original photo for 2013’s Paramore, out of the updated art completely.

The original art featured lead singer Hayley Williams, guitarist Taylor York, and then-bassist Jeremy Davis posing together. Now, the photo is simply of Williams alone — and she is wearing a jacket that reads, “Grow up.” So, some shade might be being thrown in Davis’ direction…

Making matters worse, Davis (who left for the third and so-far-final time in 2015) eventually sued the rest of Paramore. He claimed he hadn’t been fairly compensated for his contributions to the band. However, by 2017, the lawsuit was settled in court.

Now, the trio consists of Williams, York, and returning drummer Zac Farro. Paramore’s new album, This Is Why, drops early next year under this same lineup. The band has played a handful of shows in New York and Los Angeles as they gear up for two major tours next year: both to support their new record and as an opening act for various Taylor Swift tour dates.

Continue scrolling for some additional reactions to Paramore’s album art swap.

Paramore is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Meghan McCain has never been shy about her disdain for Donald Trump, even during the times when she held her nose and defended his administration against their shared enemy: The Democrats. But when it came time for Trump to announce his 2024 presidential run on Tuesday night, McCain did not hold back. After watching the party suffer a humiliating defeat in the midterm elections, McCain is joining the growing number of Republicans who would like to see Trump go away now, please.

The former The View co-host started in on her target before he even took the podium. She posted a GIF of Jack Nicholson drinking in response to the campaign’s official FEC filing, which made it clear that Trump was actually going to run.

Once the announcement began, McCain mocked the event with a notably Trumpian insult. “LOW ENERGY” she tweeted in all-caps before asking, “Why is this so boring…?” McCain then likened the speech to a scene from Napoleon Dynamite. “The whole vibe is giving Uncle Rico talking to Napoleon about what a great football player he used to be in high school.”

You can see McCain’s live-tweets below:

McCain capped off the night by retweeting the following In Bruges meme that roasted the current state of the GOP:

Not content with dragging Trump on Twitter, McCain devoted her latest Daily Mail column to letting the former president know he’s going to have to do “a hell of a lot better than this” if he wants to compete against candidates like Ron DeSantis:

This was no repeat of the ‘Golden Escalator’ moment from the 2016 campaign, when he descended into the lobby of Trump Tower and proceeded to shock the nation with his first announcement of a White House bid.

Frankly, it was low energy. Trump was not bombastic, enthusiastic or compelling. The speech was flat, and it lacked purpose.

“He didn’t offer any new vision for the country,” McCain wrote before placing the lack of a red wave at Trump’s feet. “In fact, he just repeated the GOP talking points that led to one of the most disappointing midterm election results in modern political history.”

(Via Meghan McCain on Twitter, Daily Mail)

Tokischa is experimenting with Mexican corrido music for the first time. The rising Dominican star released her music video yesterday (November 15) for “Kilos De Amor” featuring Mexican singer Natanael Cano.

Tokischa is known for helping globalize Dominican dembow music. Rosalía enlisted Tokischa for “La Combi Versace” on her Motomami album. Madonna later tapped into Tokischa’s dembow sound for a remix of “Hung Up” titled “Hung Up On Tokischa.” Her latest single marks a sonic departure from the dembow genre.

For “Kilos De Amor,” Tokischa teamed up with Cano, who is known for leading the corridos tumbados movement in regional Mexican music. Cano’s sound blends the traditional Mexican corrido with a trap music flow. On the fiery corrido track, Tokischa and Cano trade verses about dealing out their love like it’s some kind of drug. Tokischa digs deep to deliver a punk rock-like performance. Though it was an unlikely pairing, Cano complements her well with his Mexican swagger.

“This song I feel is so different and so special to me,” Tokischa told Uproxx. “The way that I wrote this song is so different, and I feel very proud of the lyrics. It’s one of my favorites. [It’s] probably in my top three of my songs.”

The “Kilos De Amor” video that was directed by Raymi Paulus was shot in Mexico City. Tokischa and Cano pay homage to Frida Kahlo, her husband Diego Rivera, and Mexican culture with the video’s creative styling.

In her latest visual from her album, Sometimes, Forever, Soccer Mommy takes a trip to the countryside.

Early on the video, Soccer Mommy, whose real name is Sophie Allison, hops into her pick-up truck, which is bedecked with stickers reading “A woman and her truck, it’s a beautiful thing,” “Goddess on the loose,” and a Buffy The Vampire Slayer sticker. She drives through the country, rides through the woods on a horse, and practices some solo live-action role-play.

On the song itself, Allison details the mixed emotions that come with getting older.

“I got a truck out in the drive / And it made me a hundred thousand miles / And it still runs good, yeah, she gets the job done / Drinkin’ regular from the gasoline pump / And I got a heart that beats too fast / And I shake in my hands and a pain in my back,” she sings on the song’s opening verse.

“‘Feel It All The Time’ is a song that felt really easy and honest for me as soon as I wrote it,” said Allison in a statement. “It uses this idea of an old truck to kind of compare this feeling of aging too fast. There are also these glimpses of light and freedom, from something as simple as the wind in your hair, that can make you feel alive.”

Check out the video for “Feel It All The Time” above.

21 Savage has been on a press campaign to promote his and Drake’s new album Her Loss for the past couple of weeks. The tour appears to be doing double duty as a shade campaign, though, as he’s found ways to annoy both fans of hip-hop greats like Nas and his own contemporaries, such as fellow XXL Freshman Kodak Black. After saying Nas “isn’t relevant” and that he’d “smoke” Kodak in a Verzuz hits battle, fans of both protested loudly on Twitter, prompting him to wonder, “Where all y’all fans be at when these n****s drop albums?” Savage, indeed.

While Nas has yet to respond, instead focusing on encouraging his successors not to fight over being the best, Kodak had time this week, posting a response on Instagram. “Homie, that ain’t gangsta,” he wrote. “You n****s know what I done been thru in this shit! Anddd you n****s had a whole consistent run with no hiccups fr and yall 30 years old plusss! Im a yung n**** doing this shit since I came in the game I was in and out of jail! And yall still aint really doing nun to where I gotta catch up. I’m doing pretty damn good for myself still like I ain’t never been nowhere! Imagined if I didn’t though. But let’s see how this sh*t go now that I been home and I’m consistent wit this sh*t.”

He’s … got a point. He has been “in and out of jail,” as he puts it, although to be fair, most of that was his fault. That’s just what happens when you are accused of sexual assault, burp your way out of court-mandated anger management (given in lieu of jail time), and try to transport guns across international borders (he’s also got a new slew of drug charges to deal with after receiving a pardon from Trump). Granted, Kodak hasn’t had too many mentor figures but considering his habit of lashing out anytime someone offered to play that role, again, most of this is on him.

Plus, it’s not like 21 has had the smoothest ride either. For the past few years, he’s lived under threat of deportation over an expired visa, curtailing his own ability to travel for work and losing a significant amount of tour time to his own lengthy detention in ICE custody. For what it’s worth, though, his last solo album, I Am > I Was debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 131,000 equivalent units, winning a Grammy Award for the hit single “A Lot,” so from a pure mass appeal standpoint, it’s easy to see why he feels the way he does.

For most people, friendships change when they reach their 30s and 40s. The carefree days of youth give way to new responsibilities such as marriage, family and career. Unfortunately, that pushes a lot of important relationships to the sidelines.

A 2012 analysis published in Psychological Bulletin found that friendship groups tend to expand until the age of 25 and then begin to contract rapidly.

Our relationships change as we get older, but that doesn’t mean they’re not important. According to Psychology Today, having meaningful social relationships is one of the biggest predictors of longevity.

Amy Weatherly, 39, a parenting blogger and author of “I’ll Be There (And Let’s Make Friendship Bracelets)” wrote a poignant Facebook post about how friendship changes in people’s 30s and 40s and it resonated with a lot of people. It makes the point that although relationships may begin to look different and happen in new places as we get older, they are still just as valuable.

“Friendship looks a little different in your 30’s & 40s than it used to,” Weatherly writes. “Now it looks like hanging out together on the bleachers at baseball games. … Now it looks like ‘I’ll come, but only if I can wear stretchy pants.’

“Whatever you have to do, however you have to do it — make time for your friendships,” Weatherly concludes the post. “Make time for the people who feel at home, because they matter and don’t come around very often. We need them just as much now as we did back then.”

Friendship looks a little different in your 30’s & 40s than it used to.

— Now it looks like hanging out together on the bleachers at baseball games.

— Now it looks like “What kind of concealer have you been using? I need a good one.”

— Now it looks like a quick hug in the parking lot at school pickup time.

— Now it looks like “Hey, how was your mom’s surgery? I’ve been praying for you.”

— Now it looks like group texts that make you laugh out loud.

— Now it looks like “Ok, I’m coming, but I’m so tired I may fall asleep right in this glass of wine.”

— Now it looks like half-conversations at birthday parties that keep getting interrupted by screaming kiddos.

— Now it looks like “Was that really 5 years ago? Seems like yesterday.”

— Now it looks like hiding in your closet for a 3 minute conversation on the phone.

— Now it looks like “Hey, why don’t y’all grab lunch and come hang out while the baby naps?”

— Now it looks like quick little chats in the aisles at Target.

— Now it looks like “Girl, I know. I’ve been there too, and it is so hard. I’m here for you.”

— Now it looks like showing up in your rattiest sweatpants and not even flinching because you know they won’t judge you.

— Now it looks like Marco Polo messages and Snapchat pictures and tagging each other in memes on Facebook.

— Now it looks like “I dropped off a cup of coffee and a box of cookies on your front porch.”

— Now it looks like “I’ll come, but only if I can wear stretchy pants.”

— I’m coming over for coffee tomorrow and I’ll have a box of donuts. I really wanna see you. Does that work? I can even help you do laundry.

— Now it looks like “I’m not free until 2026.”

— Now it looks like “I miss you” and meaning it with your whole heart.

Whatever you have to do, however you have to do it — make time for your friendships. Make time for the people who feel like home, because they matter and they don’t come around very often. We need them just as much now as we did back then.’

Love, Amy

“It was honestly just a quick list of things that I put together, probably while I was sitting at one of my son’s baseball games, realizing how much I enjoyed that time,” Weatherly told Good Morning America. “Because yes, I love watching my son play baseball. But that is the only time that I had to connect with other women my age.”

What’s moving about the post is how even though the circumstances surrounding friendships may change, it doesn’t mean they should be seen as less valuable. In some ways, we begin to value time together more as we get older because it’s harder to get together. When free time is at a premium, who we choose to spend it with matters even more.

A lot of people tagged their besties in the post and used it as an excuse to make plans together or remind them of how much they are loved. “Let’s put something on the calendar,” Kelli wrote to Michelle.

“Angelica, bring me some donuts and coffee and do my laundry,” Stephanie wrote.

In the end, it’s worthwhile putting in the time to cultivate these friendships as we get older so they don’t fall by the wayside.

“I just want people to know you do have to be really intentional because that time is not going to fall into your lap,” Weatherly said. “I think people, with friendship, it’s like they want the tree but they don’t want to actually plant the seed and that’s not how it works.”

Horses often invoke feelings of passion, freedom, and graceful power. And though they might not get the title of “Man’s Best Friend,” horses share a special bond with humans.

Just ask Clare Staples, founder of mustang and burro rescue organization Skydog Sanctuary who recently raised a whopping $17K to help two horses —simply by writing a heartfelt post on Facebook.

“I grew up in England where there is a huge culture of horse loving people,” she told Upworthy. “When I was growing up I lived in a sort of imaginary land where I rode everywhere on an imaginary horse, which is a bit crazy, but my love of horses was born at such an early age. I’d be going on long car rides with my family and swiveling my head to look in every horse trailer or every field to see if I could see a horse.”

Growing up, horses became Staples’ “happy place.” In particular, she loved watching American TV shows like “Bonanza” and “Little House on the Prairie”, along with other westerns where “you would see a band of wild mustangs gallop through and steal the mares.”

Considering the image as a “romantic symbol of the American West,” Staples was shocked and sad to later discover that the American mustang’s reality was much less glamorous. As she explained, mustangs who run free on public lands get rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management, making more room for mining and livestock interests. “It makes the American government a lot of money and wild horses don’t.” These captured horses and burros receive a Bureau of Land Management “BLM” brand, then get sent to kill pens or get auctioned off.

Staples became determined to offer her hooved friends a place of refuge, so she founded Skydog Sanctuary—a 9,000 acre ranch near Bend, Oregon where wild mustangs and burros can live out their lives peacefully in their natural habitat. The sanctuary also has an 11 acre location in California. In addition to rewilding equines, Skydog aims to raise awareness about the plight they face, in order to bring about change.

Earlier this year, two young mustangs caught Staples’ eye, as they bore an uncanny resemblance to one of her own horses from Skydog. Sure enough, by looking up their BLM IDs, Staples confirmed they were related. She then posted a Facebook fundraiser to get the siblings reunited.

Within only two weeks, people rallied enough support to reunite the two mustangs—now named Rising Sun and Presley, in homage to Elvis—with their native family.

With around 220 horses and 50 burros to look after, and no grant money, Staples relies heavily on her ever-growing social media community. Luckily, Facebook doesn’t take a percentage of their fundraisers, which gives people all the more incentive to donate, since they know exactly where their money is going. Plus, the platform has expanded Skydog’s reach tenfold—with nearly half a million followers, and fundraiser videos racking up nearly 20 million views.

Staples is especially excited for Giving Tuesday, when Meta, Facebook’s parent company, matches funds up to a total of $8 million dollars. “It means a lot to our followers to know if they donate $10 we’re actually getting $20. Every year we just break records for ourselves. It’s a really fun day. I feel like Facebook are our partners, because they’ve helped us grow and then [GivingTuesday] is a real day where we can celebrate them too.”

Connecting with people who care and want to help, combined with the power of social media, gives Skydog the resources needed to rescue horses from the very worst of situations. And for Staples and her followers, “seeing them come back to life and watching them heal on this land is just the most beautiful thing. Rewilding them and giving them their freedom and space back is one of the most extraordinary experiences. It never gets old.”

Landon Donovan’s bonafides in the world of American soccer are unassailable. He’s worn just about every hat one can wear, as the greatest player to ever wear the red, white, and blue consistently did it for club and country before moving on to a number of other endeavors in the sport. Currently, Donovan spends his time with the USL club San Diego Loyal SC, for which he is the manager, co-owner, and executive vice president of soccer operations.

But like all great footballers, Donovan’s most well-known moment involves the World Cup. Back in 2010, the United States needed a win against Algeria to wrap up group play and move on to the knockout round. Try as they might, the Americans could not find a goal as the game entered injury time in the second half. Tim Howard saved a headed attempt, sprung a counter-attack with a pristine ball to Donovan, and after a Clint Dempsey effort was denied, Donovan was there to clean up the mess. The rest of the American squad put Donovan at the bottom of a celebratory dogpile while Ian Darke famously screamed “goal, goal, USA!”

It is almost certainly the most well-known moment in American soccer history, the sort of clip that pops up in compilations and on Twitter whenever the United States is about to participate in a World Cup. That, of course, is only a few days away — the 2022 World Cup in Qatar begins on Sunday, and the USMNT will kick off its tournament on Monday afternoon against Wales.

Before that happens, we caught up with Donovan through his partnership with Autotrader to discuss this American side, his advice to USMNT talisman Christian Pulisic before his first World Cup, what it’s like to score a goal on this stage, how USL can play a major role in growing the sport in the United States, and much more.

What do you have going on with Autotrader?

Well, little did I know, a few weeks ago, my wife told me she … we have a 2008 BMW we were trying to sell. And I leave those things to her, and she said, “This was pretty amazing, I went on Autotrader and was able to sell it within a few minutes.” As you’re getting ready for the World Cup, there’s a lot of things you’re trying to check off the list, and that was one of them. So, that started the process for us, and it was an easy and fun process. Of course, the problem was, then she spent the next hour searching for cars, and we don’t need a car, but that’s generally what happens with these kinds of things. But it was an easy, enjoyable process for her and anything that makes her life easier makes me happy. So, it was an easy partnership to come together.

Are you a big car person? Or are you someone who got keys to one car when you were 18 years old and went “alright, that’s it, I’m going to be a BMW person forever”?

I’m not a big car person. Although now, I drive a Tesla and I probably will never drive another car in my life. I generally just want something that gets me from A to B. My wife, on the other hand, as I said, can spend hours on the Autotrader website and look for cars. My job then is to convince her that we actually don’t need a car. But when you have the largest selection of cars sitting in front of you, it makes it challenging.

Let’s talk a little bit of soccer, the World Cup starts for the United States one week from today, how you feeling about the team?

I guess excited and nervous. It’s hard to know, because this World Cup is so unique, what to expect. It’s unique, obviously, in the time of year, but the most important factor, I think, is that the teams have very little time to prepare. So, in past World Cups, if the team wasn’t playing great in the months leading up, you would have about three or four weeks together as a team to iron out any issues, play a couple of friendlies, feel good about yourself going into the tournament. But this time, they will not. The U.S. team arrived — some of them arrived over the last week and a few of them arrived today, I believe. They have no real time to prepare as a team, no friendly matches. So, it’s going to make it very challenging in that way. But hopefully, this group of players has had a lot of experiences together over the last couple of years, and hopefully that that comes in handy as we start.

I know over his time, Gregg Berhalter has really hammered “we have our core group,” and you basically have to hope that core group has played together so much that they’re able to fend off any issues that might pop up with how quick this turnaround is.

Yeah, in that way, I don’t know if that was intentional or not. But I think that’s really smart, because you just don’t have time to integrate one or two new players. And there were a few players who really made a push to be part of the roster, either through their performances with the national team or with performances with their club team. But Gregg was pretty consistent in saying, “I have the group of guys that I trust, and we’re going to stick with them.” And I think that will be helpful for them.

I want to get your thoughts on the roster — was there anything that really surprised you? When you think about the fact that Gregg has had the guys that he’s viewed as his core group, do you look at that and go, “oh, yeah, everything there sounds about right”?

You can make a case for anyone to be on — well, not anyone, but a lot of guys to be on the roster and not be on the roster. I think a couple that surprised me, a couple of omissions, the Zack Steffen one is interesting. I can see, now that I’m a coach, I can understand from Gregg’s perspective, last thing you want in a World Cup is a situation where you have basically two number one [goalkeepers], so that if one goalkeeper has the smallest mistake, now the pressure piles on to play the other, and you just don’t want to deal with that. But Zack Steffen is a top, top goalkeeper, so it’s hard not to have him on the U.S. roster.

The other one that is a little bit of an outlier, but that I thought would have been a perfect fit in a 26-man roster — which is different now, in the past, it was 23-man and now it’s 26. So, you have a few other guys who basically you can bring along knowing that they likely won’t play, but are really good in the locker room, good in training every day, and really help you. And for me, Paul Arriola would have been a guy to bring for that reason. If he does play, no problem, you can trust him. If he doesn’t play, he’s never going to complain about it, never gonna rock the boat, gonna show up and train hard every day and [be] really good in the locker room. So, that would have been one for consideration.

Everyone always wants to ask about the players who didn’t make it, but on the players who did make it, is there an individual, a collection of players, a certain position, anything that you’re most excited to see over the next three — or a few more than that — games?

The strength of this team is through them through the midfield, I’ll say. I’d say if there’s weakness, it’s a little bit in the defensive part of the field, and then with just a pure number nine, nobody’s kind of grabbed that and made it their own.

But through the middle of the field with Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Brenden Aaronson, Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna, Timothy Weah, Luca de la Torre, Kellyn Acosta, just really, really good depth and really good players all through the midfield. So, I think as that midfield goes, so we will go, and if our midfield is is really good, then we can absolutely succeed in the World Cup.

I spoke to Stu Holden a week or so ago and he also said the midfield. For the fan who just gets into soccer during the World Cup, what is it about this midfield that you think makes it so special?

They complement each other well. So, between Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Kellyn Acosta, you have three players who are athletic, can get around the ball, and around the field really well. But then, certainly in Weston’s case, you also have guys who can attack the box and get on the end of crosses and score goals. When you add in Aaronson, Pulisic, Reyna, those guys are more vertical, more runners. Yunus Musah I missed, Yunus Musah. All those guys can pick up the ball and carry it 30, 40, 50 yards and make a play, and are all really dynamic and explosive in the way they play.

And so, the key for Gregg will be, which guys do you get on the field together? What’s the best pairing to get them on the field? And then how do you spread around enough minutes so you give guys enough opportunity to have an impact on the game, because they’re all really, really talented players.

As you know, heavy is the head that wears the crown. And for the United States, the number 10 is Christian Pulisic. If you get five minutes with him before the World Cup to just talk to him about what’s coming, what are the things that you would want to say to him about this experience that he’s going to have for the first time in his career?

My hope for Christian is that he plays freely, and not worried about the outcome and the pressure. And it’s easy for me to say, but my experiences when I was 20 years old in a World Cup, I played free, and it was probably my best World Cup and some of the best performances. I didn’t care about leading, I didn’t have to worry about pressure, I wasn’t responsible for the results. I was just out there playing freely, and that’s when I was at my best. And when Christian does that, he is electric, and he’s really, really good. So, my hope is that he can do that, and play from that headspace. And if he does, I think we have a really, really good chance to be successful.

I’ve always thought with Pulisic, for club and for country, you can tell when he’s just out there playing and when he’s putting that pressure on himself, because he’s such a competitive guy.

Yeah, you can see it on his face, right? It’s clear. And so I hope that he can play carefree.

I want to ask about scoring a goal at the World Cup, because the list of Americans who have done that is short, but you’re on it and you’re at the top of it. The gravity of doing that, is that something that hits you right away? Or is it just another goal in that moment, and you don’t really give yourself time to think about how you’ve done the thing that you’ve wanted to do since you were a kid until after the game?

It’s a great question. If you go back and watch, my first goal and in a World Cup is in Korea in 2002, and we’re losing to Poland, I think it’s 3-0 at the time. And I score to make it 3-1. And my first instinct is such pure joy, because I realized I scored a goal in a World Cup. And then within a second, I realize, oh, we’re getting our ass kicked. [Laughs.]

So, generally speaking, it depends on when the goal is scored and what the score is, how it feels in that moment. But there was at least one or two seconds where I had such pure joy. But mostly, once I got that monkey off my back, it was just pure elation, because you were able to really enjoy it and appreciate it, but also, all within the context of what the score was. So, depending on what the score was, and when the goal came, was a different feeling.

Soccer in the United States, you’ve experienced it in so many different ways — as a player, manager, television, front office, all these sorts of ways. When you look at the kind of existential crisis that people had about men’s soccer in America in 2018, where do you think things have come the farthest over the last five years?

Ushering in a new group of players. Very young, inexperienced, but a new group of players that will hopefully play in the next three, including this one, the next three-plus World Cups. So, we had just gotten to a point where it was time to move on and move to a new generation of players. And that’s what Gregg has done so well, there’s [so many] players under 25 years old who will now be a part of this roster, hopefully for the next three World Cups. So, I think that’s where we needed to go. It doesn’t mean that you bring in new players and all of a sudden you’re gonna succeed, there’s a process involved. But there are now so many young, talented players playing all over the world, in MLS and Europe, who are going to be a big part of this roster for years to come.

I want to ask about USL, and I swear to God, this is not a pro/rel question because lord knows that debate is tired. But how does USL — and just how unique it is and how many communities it’s in — become a league like the Championship or 2. Bundesliga, where it’s this really prominent, really popular division in the United States that is maybe in communities that MLS isn’t getting into?

The challenge with our country is just its size, right? So, you need to touch as many communities as possible. If the ultimate end goal is to, I always say not win a World Cup, but be realistically competing for a World Cup every time, competing to win every time, you have to exhaust every community in the country to find the best players, the best talent, and then have enough good coaches, infrastructure, etc. to develop that talent.

And that’s what USL has done very well so far, and will continue to do. Between the USL Championship and USL League One and League Two, you now have, I don’t know the exact number, but 80-plus communities across the country that were not being looked at when only Major League Soccer was involved. And casting that net wider and wider is really valuable, and it’s not just the USL first teams, it’s then what do their academy players look like, and how are you developing those players, and then moving them on so that they compete at the highest level? And I think USL has done that really, really well.

And then my last question, I want to head back to the World Cup and take a little bit of a bigger picture look. Who do you have winning the whole thing?

It’s a boring pick, but it’s hard not to pick Brazil. Just historically, in a hot weather climate, European teams really struggle, or at least struggle when they get to the end. And it’s not because they’re not good enough to compete against Argentina or Brazil, but it’s more over the course of seven games in a month, you just really get worn out with playing and training in that kind of weather.

Now, the one advantage for those European teams is that there’s no travel involved. So, if you play in England your whole life, and all of a sudden you go to Brazil, and it’s 88 degrees, and you’re traveling three hours here, four hours there, that’s not anything you’ve ever been accustomed to, and you’re going to struggle and suffer. So, that challenge is taken away with the travel. But the heat factor, I think, is very real, and that makes me think Brazil is gonna win.