Good Game with Sarah Spain welcomed Olympic medalist and center back for Gotham FC and the U.S. Women’s National Team Tierna Davidson on Tuesday, July 23, ahead of any action on the soccer pitch in Paris. The good thing is this episode is worthy of a listen, even though the 2024 games have commenced. More specifically, this episode dropped before the USWNT won their opening game against Zambia 3-0 on Thursday, July 25.
Hosted by the Emmy and Peabody award-winning sports journalist, ESPN veteran, and former college heptathlete Sarah Spain, this conversation with Davidson ranges from important and timely discussions around the women’s game to the less pressing yet deeply interesting details, like who is the USWNT’s locker room DJ.
Notably, the USWNT heads into this Olympics after the devastating loss at the World Cup last year, and this competition is the first with the decorated Emma Hayes as the team’s head coach. Davidson discussed the style differences between Hayes and former head coach Vlatko Andonovski and highlighted Hayes’s interest in “tactical flexibility” and a smaller, more flexible roster.
“I would say that she is really trying to instill in us a lot of tactical flexibility. I think that over the past few camps that we’ve had with her, but also extending into when Twila [Kilgore] was our interim coach and Emma was kind of starting to implement from behind the scenes, you saw a lot of different shapes that we were playing, a lot of people in different positions. Whether it’s on the field or tactically, just kind of shifting a little bit differently. I think that’s really helpful, especially with the game and how it’s evolving. You have to be able to be flexible. You’re going to see a lot of different pictures and you need to be able to counteract that with different tactical choices on the field. So I really feel like we’re playing a chess match and it’s fun and it’s exciting and I think a lot of us are learning a lot, which is definitely challenging, but also a welcome challenge.”
Davidson also spoke candidly and thoughtfully about teammate Korbin Albert, who shared anti-LGBTQ+ content on social media:
But, yeah, I mean, it’s been difficult. It was difficult for me when it first happened, and it’s been hard to hear how fans have been taking it because I feel like I want to be able to represent the queer community really well on this team. I want to have fans feel really welcome and feel like they can see themselves on this field, in this team. I don’t want there to be any sort of feeling that they’re not welcome here. So, again, I believe in people being able to evolve and being able to learn and I’m not someone that’s going to meet any sort of hate with, with hate. She’s one of my teammates and I respect that and I respect her as a player. But, you know, it is something that you have to go through with life, you encounter and work with people that you don’t always agree with. That’s something that you wanna try and help people to change. You want to try and help them love, and you know, that’s what we’re trying to do.”
Davidson also dove into what it has been like, mentally and physically, to recover from the ACL injury that took her out of the game for a prolonged period. The player also shared pre-game routines, like journaling with prompts to focus her mind. Spain and Davidson’s back and forth about the best pens to write with is incredibly endearing. All of that and more awaits in this episode of Good Game, a “one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s sports” from iHeartPodcasts’ new Women’s Sports Audio Network.
Quotes have been edited and condensed for clarity. Listen to the episode in its entirety to receive the quotes in context and in full.
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