The CBS reporter joined Mic'd up to discuss the U.S. national teams, women's soccer in Mexico and Champions League
Jenny Chiu remembers her days as captain of the Mexican U17 national team, being asked to tell reporters that her country badly needed a domestic soccer league. She was there, in the formative times in which the women's game, in particular, was sorely lacking in investment and coverage.
But now the landscape is markedly different, and Chiu is on the other side. As sideline reporter, analyst and studio host for CBS Sports, Chiu is a journalist covering the game, on both the men's and women's side. For her, the immense development of soccer in the United States is a sort of vindication of her own personal journey.
"I was told out of college to do football, to do basketball, there's no money in soccer… And I was like 'I'm only in this because I like the game and enjoy soccer, and that's what I grew up with.' And thank goodness, because now it's paying off," Chiu tells GOAL.
Chiu was on the wave early of women's soccer growth, and has long followed USWNT Emma Hayes. Chiu spent time breaking down her tactics and making U.S.-based content for Chelsea women when the prolific manager was winning everything possible in the WSL and in Europe. These days, it's a full circle moment, with the former Mexican youth national star now covering the manager she analyzed from afar.
And Hayes couldn't be a better fit, she argues.
"After our failures over and over again, and falling in the world rankings and all of those things, Emma Hayes came in at a great time with the respect of the players, with the respect of the organization. I think it's only up from here with he," Chiu said.
But that's not her only focus. Chiu is also handles sideline reporting for Champions League, as well as coverage of the USMNT. She can see the impact that new manager Mauricio Pochettino has had on the team.
"We've needed it for so long. For someone to elevate how seriously we're taken, you also needed a manager to be at that level," she said.
Perhaps most importantly, though, Chiu is cognizant of her position in the space. Texas-born to Chinese and Mexican parents, Chiu is part of a far-too-small group of minority women at the forefront of the game. But her fluency in Spanish helped her get off the ground as a reporter. And in an ever-changing, ever-growing, but always global game, she might be the perfect example of how the sport can touch different corners of a country.
Chiu discussed the USWNT's success under Hayes, Pochettino's influence on soccer in America and more in the latest edition of Mic’d Up, a recurring feature in which GOAL US taps into the perspective of broadcasters, analysts and other pundits on the state of soccer in the U.S. and abroad.
ImagnON WOMEN'S SOCCER IN THE U.S.
GOAL: After such a successful NWSL season, after the U.S. wins the Paris Games, what do you think the state of women's soccer is in the US at the moment?
CHIU: I think it's in a wonderful place. We've seen such a great trajectory. We've seen the fact that the viewership has grown so much, the attendance at stadiums has grown, and then that means the investment has grown in all areas of the game. So, this is something that women's soccer has needed for a long period of time, and this is finally the fruits of our labor.
For me, as a broadcaster, I think that what comes into my head is, "How do we maintain that growth while not offending our OG fans?" There's people that have been here for the last 10-15, years that know the storylines, and then when we're broadcasting, how do we appeal to the newer fans and tell those stories without offending or mansplaining everything from the originals? So it's like this weird balancing act.
GOAL: So how have you been doing that? Or how have you tried to do it?
CHIU: Stay away from the mansplaining and assume knowledge, assume that people know. That's a safer bet than alienating the people that have been here from the beginning. Like, assume that the people that are new are going to catch on and learn themselves.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportON EMMA HAYES
GOAL: Emma Hayes has been a massive influence on the US Soccer landscape. What have you made of her job, or how she's done so far, not just from the success, but the way she handles herself?
CHIU: I think it's exactly what U.S. Soccer needed in this moment. I feel like we've had a bit of a pendulum effect, when we talk about the different managers that have been at the helm of the U.S. women's national team. You talk about Jill Ellis and her being viewed in a certain way, and then you have Vlatko Andonovski on the other end of the spectrum of whether it's respect from the players, respect from media, either which way. I'm not saying one is right or wrong, but I think that Emma Hayes kind of plays that middle game and she is very well respected by the players.
I was a host for Chelsea USA's channel. So every week, I made a video on the men's team and the women's team. So I've kind of followed Emma Hayes with Chelsea for a couple years prior. I have a lot of experience with how she speaks to the media, her relationship with the players, how the players speak of her, and I have just massive respect for how she handles herself. This is what the U.S. needed, this level of professionalism that is kind of common in Europe. And yeah, we needed it. I don't mean that to talk down on U.S. soccer, it's like this next step.
Also, just to have an outsider coming in. She coached in the U.S., and then she left Chelsea, but she's brought all these different ideas and shaken things up in a way that maybe if you were within the system and within NWSL you can't. It's not necessarily a certain personality can't do it, but the way that the structure has been put in place makes it hard to make big changes. And Emma Hayes came in with a credibility where she's able to make big changes, which I think was very necessary.
You'll hear me on Attacking Third, when I used to host a show three times a week, about how you needed change – but change is not always possible for everyone. Emma Hayes has the kind of pedigree that can come in and make change, and it will be accepted and allowed. After our failures over and over again, and falling in the world rankings and all of those things, Emma Hayes came in at a great time with the respect of the players, with the respect of the organization. I think it's only up from here with her.
Getty ImagesON THE GLOBAL WOMEN'S GAME
GOAL: Do you think that there should be more international tournaments or higher profile international games for women's soccer? Obviously you had the US-England friendly, which was big, and you have the Olympics, but it doesn't feel like the calendar is as packed or filled with significance. Do you think that there should be more?
CHIU: I think we're dealing with a very interesting moment where we're talking about the ACL injuries on the women's side, specifically, and the condensing of games that lead to these injuries. And that's one part of it. But then they're saying that the science is not there and the research is not there. Is it the games, or is it the fact that they don't have the proper support in terms of cleats that fit their bodies?
Is it the fact that there is not as many training staff, physical therapists, all of these things with the team as well? So when [injuries] come into the question, I'm kind of reluctant to say "we need more" if injuries are a part of that. We see it on the men's side and the women's side.
But if you look at the calendar, yes, I think that the moment that we're in for soccer is growth. We're seeing unbelievable, unprecedented numbers, and how do we capitalize upon that and make sure we continue to grow? Yeah, international tournaments are the way to do it right now. I'm looking at like the different parts of the calendar year, and we have definitely openings for the ability to do that right now. In January to March, we have international friendlies. How do we make it so that those friendlies count? Because that's how you get more viewership and importance.
GOAL: Right, because I'm not sure what the U.S. learns from playing Iceland, for example, twice in a row.
CHIU: We have to be playing matches that matter, and we've seen this over and over again. It's elite competitions that count. I work in the game, and I'm like, "Oh, you're going to play Iceland again? We just played them!" Just the place that we're in, in the growth of specifically women's soccer, you have to have matches that count to pull these people in, for them to understand what this is, and the power of the game and these personalities. I think that one of the things that's lacking, or we need to do better, a better job of, is telling these player's stories, because they're so interesting.
GettyON WOMEN'S SOCCER IN MEXICO
GOAL: You played for the Mexican youth national teams. You now cover primarily, the U.S. women's game, but what do you think Mexican women's soccer needs to do to improve?
CHIU: I think we have to lay out the positives, like the fact that there is a league. When I was playing with the national team, I remember – I don't know if this footage existS – but I captained the national team at the U17 level, and we had press conferences where the message to get across to media was, "We need a league." At that point, we didn't have a league.
GOAL: You were told to say that to the press?
CHIU: 100%. That's what was lacking. So these players are coming into the national team, and they have been working their normal jobs, not training at all. They're all coming in unfit and unready because there's no infrastructure to keep these players ready. So then every time they come into camp, the responsibility is to get fit for the first two weeks, and then you can work on your tactics. And that doesn't allow for you to compete with the U.S. National Team, which has a league, they have continuity, they have all of these things.
So I think that that was a huge point. And now for seven years, Liga MX has just continued to rise and become better and better. The most recent Liga MX women's final had 50,000 fans. And that's amazing. One thing that I've always said is that the fandom of, I'll say, specifically, Latino and Mexican fans… they are strong fans. They will follow everything you do and be 100% invested in the people that they like, the teams that they like.
GOAL: It's on another level, right?
CHIU: The selling power that you have with Latin followers, supporters, whatever it is, is so much heavier. I've used this example a million times, and no one ever really understands how important it is. When the league started for Mexico, if you compare the NWSL players and the Liga MX players, the amount of followers that each player has – I'm not talking about the best player. I'm not talking Alex Morgan and Rebeca Bernarl. I'm talking like just in the league – Liga MX players have so much following and power over young women or women who have never been empowered. It's a machismo culture that is now changing, and you now have these women that are empowered to be strong athletes and speak their minds on things. It's been such a change.
