Welcome to the Scuff Podcast where we talk about US soccer. Our guest today is Naomi Germa, one of the bright new stars on the U.S. women's national team.

She started both friendlies against Germany in the past week,

indicating she might be the first center back on the team sheet now.

It's been a meteoric rise.

She was the number one draft pick out of Stanford

and just finished her rookie season with the San Diego Wave,

in which she won both NWSL Rookie of the Year

and Defender of the Year.

Not just Rookie Defender of the Year, but Defender of the Year for all of

NWSL. Sanjay Sujanta Kumar, the roving scuffed correspondent, interviewed Naomi on Saturday

between the two friendlies against Germany, covering everything

from her Ethiopian-American background in the Bay Area to her academic work in symbolic

systems, which she explains.

After the interview, Greg and I will discuss the loss and the wind Germany and

Vlatko Andinovsky's performance in general.

That starts just after the 24-minute for now. Here's Sanjay and Naomi

Welcome everyone to the Scuff podcast. This is Sanjay. I'm joined by US women's National Team Defender Naomi Germa.

Naomi, thanks so much for being on the show today.

Hi, thank you for having me.

Tough question, right off of that, you grew up and went to school in North Cal,

and you now live in

so tell in a city many people would love to live in.

...