Kennedy Fuller interview & what next for the Chicago Stars?

Full Time with Meg Linehan: A show about women's soccer

The Athletic

News, Soccer, Sports News, Sports

4.8 • 756 Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week's Full Time Focus, host Jillian Sakovits is joined by Angel City and U.S. youth national team midfielder Kennedy Fuller. The teenager, in her sophomore season as a professional, talks about how she's grown from her rookie season, the challenges young players face in the NWSL, her relationship with Emma Hayes, and her USWNT ambitions. PLUS: Jillian and producer Theo discuss what's next for the Chicago Stars after firing head coach Lorne Donaldson just six matches into the season, and more NWSL news to know ahead of the weekend's matches. _______________ Mentioned on the show: ⁠Chicago Stars fires head coach Lorne Donaldson⁠ The Chelsea dynasty: How they celebrated an ‘unbelievable’ sixth Women’s Super League title in a row Tom Brady tells Birmingham fans to ‘show up’ for promotion clash with Michele Kang’s London City Lionesses _______________ HOST: Jillian Sakovits GUESTS: Kennedy Fuller PRODUCER: Theo Lloyd-Hughes VIDEO PRODUCER: Lia Griffin EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: Emily Olsen _______________ Get in touch: ⁠[email protected]⁠ Follow on Instagram and TikTok: @tafulltime Subscribe to the Full Time newsletter ⁠here⁠ Visit the Yahoo Women's Sports hub ⁠here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, everybody.
0:14.1	It's Jillian Sackavits and welcome to full-time focus and is presented by Amazon
0:19.7	Business.
0:21.0	What a show we have for you today.
0:23.2	First, we'll be discussing the Chicago star's firing of head coach Lauren Donaldson
0:27.3	and why the club made the decision.
0:29.5	Was it the right call and what comes next?
0:32.5	We're also so excited to be hanging out with Angel City midfielder Kennedy Fuller,
0:35.6	the 18-year-old and U.S. Youth National Team Star,
0:38.5	that has been stepping even further into the spotlight now in her sophomore NWSL season.
0:43.8	And then we'll close out with three things you need to know before we head into the weekend.
0:48.0	Let's get into it. Now to discuss Lauren Donaldson out as head coach of the Chicago stars, I bring it our producer, Theo Lloyd Hughes. Theo, hello.
1:08.0	Hello, hello. I wish I was here under better circumstances, Jill, but it's always
1:11.8	nice to see you. Always nice to see you. Always nice to talk to you. Nice to be on this side of the
1:16.5	glass, as they say. You are listening in and all over this press conference. So I want to get
1:20.9	into this with you a little bit. Let's do a timeline. The decision was made on Wednesday morning
1:25.5	and made public the same date. Donaldson
1:27.6	took over the club ahead of last season. They finished 8th in 2024, getting that final
1:33.3	playoff spot. They are one of four teams in the NWSL with one win on the season. They've got five
1:40.5	defeats from six games. General manager Richard Foyt held the press conference Thursday to answer more questions about the first NWSL coaching dismissal of 2025. It feels a bit early. Why did he say that it was the time now to move on from Donaldson?
1:58.5	Yeah, it's interesting. This press conference was a really good one for a bit of back and forth between Richard
2:05.2	Foyt's, the general manager and the media, because I think there's a disagreement there.
	...

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