So when you sat down with the front office with people like Jen and you started talking about the kind of players that you were looking for that you wanted to bring here, what sorts of traits did you want them to have?

Yeah, I think first and foremost, we wanted people to understand what we're trying to build here and buy into the real community element.

We wanted to build this for our fans.

I said before, the for Denver FC movement was right in the foundation of this organization.

So it wasn't just come and play for a team.

This team is special.

I feel it every day when we play in Centennial and when we played in Dix and when we played in Empower.

And there's no such thing as a good rivalry without a good rival, right? Now that you coach this team that has several members of the US Women's National Team on it, do you and Emma get to work together? What has that been like?

And Coach Cushing, who has coached at some of the best facilities in all of football throughout the world, including Manchester City women, put it the simplest way.

I think... difficult to say what my favourite part is because it's incredible throughout the fields probably where I do the most part of my work and to have two fields that are in incredible condition and to be able to look at our stadium while we practice gives us energy every day right but the preparation the recovery the social areas this facility gives us every opportunity to be the best we can be right and it gives us a no excuse culture it

How do you handle that dynamic?

I think it's complex.

And I think that being put in that position of naming a captain for the first part of the year, bringing in another captain after the first captain has done incredibly well, it's difficult.

But I think I'm in a really luxury position in because those two players are really close friends.

So in that situation, they played here for Real Colorado and... play against each other as juniors and have always wanted to play on the same team and have been in regular communication through the start of the year.

And we were really clear at the start that, to me, leadership is about how you are present and your influence and how invested you are in the team.