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This is Rebecca Lo or Rebecca Loa if you listen to suboptimal radio and you are listening to Men in Blazers on the NBC Sports Network.

It's unbelievable!

Welcome to Men in Blazers pod special.

Our guest today, one of the people behind what now after certain recent events in Trinidad and Tobago,

is what I hope will be a much needed, positive American football story.

Indeed, it might just be the feel-good story of the year that we can all learn from.

The rise and rise of Atlanta United FC.

Yes, it's a tale of an expansion team that made the MLS playoffs in their very first year of existence.

Thanks to the savvy assembling of an explosive, entertaining young squad and the recruitment of a former Barcelona and Argentine national team coach.

But the narrative ran a far deeper than that.

This is really a story.

About an expansion team that by definition should barely be scoring never mind winning games, taking root in Atlanta,

part of our nation long considered to be arid land for football, a region in which people proclaimed soccer could never grow.

But a hand-picked back office built an emotionally intelligent strategy to develop ex-Nahilo a massive,

delirious, uniquely empowered fanbase, recruit a peerless management team, and then set about the alchemy of squad building,

defying well-defined MLS truisms to an earth young, South American jewels that are now coveted across Europe.

As of the crowd sizes have drawn to their brand new spanking hoe.

In September, the five striped set MLS's all-time attendance record, hosting more than 70,000 fans,

70,000 fans at Mercedes Ben Stadium, a record they've gone on to break since then.

So we welcome to the pod for the taping of a show that could be called How to Get Ahead in MLS without really trying.

The president of Atlanta United FC, the most successful expansion team in MLS history,

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