The US Women's National Team is about to travel to Brazil to play two really, really difficult games against a really good team.

And the group that Emma Hayes has just called up to take that task on is starting to look a little world cup.

Welcome everybody to this week's edition to the late sub presented by Ally Bank.

I'm your host, Claire Watkins.

It is Wednesday, May 27th.

And yes, we have a 26 player

US-man's national team roster set to head down next week to play Brazil. We're seeing the team

really turn into something with a core, with some chemistry, with some really important returns,

a lot of experience, and a few players that maybe are surprises. But we got some really good explanations today from Emma Hayes on why she

picked who she picked. Let's dig in.

So the NWSL is almost on its June break.

And it's about time for the US toS. to head down to Brazil for its two

friendlies against the 27 World Cup hosts playing Brazil in Brazil. Really exciting opportunity

for the players. And I think even just us to watch it. As Emma Hayes has noted many, many times,

the U.S. does not leave U.S. soil very often just by the nature of the way that global football works. And I'm

very excited to see what they're going to be able to do in an unusual environment and get that

really important World Cup prep. And I think the roster that we saw today, which is what we're

going to break down, indicates a team in at the tail end, I guess, of a transitional period where

we've seen them establish a lot of depth. We've seen them look at a lot of players. But I do

think if you look at this roster specifically, you're saying, okay, we're starting to see some

maybe reversion, some reduction into, I think this core group that Hayes is going to take to qualifying and then

also take to the World Cup next year. So it's going to be a 26 player roster going down to Brazil,

...