World's Most Publicized Press Conference

Yup, I was there. And not only was I there, but I conquered it. Seriously. I showed up early. I got a great seat. I greeted coaches and players. I was kind of a big deal. Yup, I was there for the press conference for the USC women's soccer team announcing their game against the Mexican Women's National Team on Feb. 22nd.

What's that? You didn't hear about it? Well I resent that comment. It was fairly easy to hear about. All you had to do was type "usc soccer mexico coliseum feb 22" into Google and it would have found it for you. Maybe next time you shouldnt be so lazy.

Mexican Women's National Team head coach Leo Cuellar and USC coach Ali Khoshroshahin.

Anyways, USC's women soccer team just wont the NCAA championship - the first one in school history. This is a huge deal. I did the color commentary on the women's home games this year, and I must say, they deserved it. They are an amazing team.

Today they had a press conference for their scheduled game against Mexico. In most sports, a college team playing a national team wouldn't have that much, if any, competition. But in women's collegiate soccer, there really isn't that huge of a gap. USC features one USA National Team player, Amy Rodriguez, and have a handful of players that are playing on youth national teams or are in the process of trying out for national teams.

The camera on the left is BBC, the one on the right is CNN. AP and Reuters were behind me.......ya, im lying.

Ok, so I lied about the press conference being huge. But everything else was true. Even NBC showed up. NBC, people! The press conference was interesting because USC Coach Ali believes USC not only should be competitive, but has a chance to win. In all honestly, I agree with him - to an extent. USC's women are just starting their spring season.

USC players Janessa Currier and Ashley Sandoval. Sandoval looks particularly excited to play!

What is spring season? Well for me at my undergrad, spring season meant drinking lots of beer on weekends, not going to the gym unless forced to, playing more FIFA than real soccer, and sleeping in 'till 11. So if the USC girl's spring season mirrors anything like mine, I doubt they will be in the condition they need to be to compete with a team like Mexico.

My boss at NBC, Luis. He was the only news outlet there.

I've been looking deep into Coach Ali's eyes in this picture. I don't know what he's trying to tell me.


For anyone that's interested, the game will be played at the Colisseum on Feb. 22nd. Since we live in Los Angeles, expect a pro-Mexico crowd. Tickets are less than $10 and there will be lots of those bacon-wrapped hot dogs for dinner.

This was my goal while I was at CSU Bakersfield. I wanted this trophy. I would have taken it over a diploma.