There is no way I ever would have had an opportunity on the men's side to coach at higher and higher levels.

On the women's side, I could see that as possibilities.

But also, while the Title IX thing was going on, we were doing everything we could to expand the game at a collegiate level.

That was Anson Dorrance, our guest on today's episode.

And this is founding football.

In many ways, this project exists because of Anson Dorrance.

I've said in previous episodes that my passion for soccer was built on the countless

hours watching my daughter fall in love with and forge her own journey with the game.

That's her story, playing and working and aspiring to reach new heights on a soccer field.

My related story, then, is learning and falling in love with the sport as I became completely

immersed in it through her experiences.

Being the dad of a female soccer player and falling in love with the game

then is a large part of the story of soccer's growth in America. And if that's the case,

then Anson Dorrance is embedded in every soccer girl dad's narrative, even if he doesn't realize it. See, I didn't realize it

initially either, and I'm not sure I fully understood how interconnected my daughter's journey

is to Dorrance until I explicitly stopped to think about it. Maybe not everyone shares this

level of interconnectedness, but I bet it's more common than most

people realize.

While our connection with soccer started long before the 2015 World Cup, that U.S.

Women's National Team changed everything in our house.

That team and its run to the final captured our imaginations and elevated my daughter's

interest in and pursuit of playing the game at increasingly high levels. Two of her favorite players

...