Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #109 - Willie Diaz, Strikers FC Irvine MLSNext Director

Transcript

I Hate Soccer #109 - Willie Diaz, Strikers FC Irvine MLSNext Director · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Will we be as is the MLS next located in California?
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: We see them last month in YouTube MLS next.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, this is one of my most fun episodes because it's fun to come to the realization that even though that I'm in Michigan and spent the last 11 years in Buffalo, and he's in California, we see a lot of lot of issues.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: Weather next in the last snacks.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: The future of where youth sucker is.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: The gatekeeping that might be going on with discuss where we have started to love coaching.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we are very similar in that aspect as well.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he, just like me, he started training on the side.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: He does extra supplemental technical training that's club neutral on the side, where he works with some of the best players in California, especially on the girl side through his through his private training.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: This is a blast of an episode to listen to.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: I just re-listened to it, and it was I forgot some of the stuff that we talked about.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and it is a fun episode.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I will definitely be having Willie on again in the future next time we meet up.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: As always, please share, like, subscribe, and enjoy getting to know Willie like I did.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: I hate soccer.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're my third in a row from Cali, which is the Cali game.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of yeah, and it's so my background is Michigan.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I came up as a player and a coach.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: And then I've spent the last 11 years in Buffalo, New York.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: Oof.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: In the middle of nowhere.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: But uh um, and Michigan is such a larger hotbed than Buffalo, yeah.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: And it's just like one club, and they kind of have a monopoly, yeah.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_01: In Buffalo, in Buffalo, in Michigan, completely different.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_01: You have options, of course.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: And and then you guys are that on steroids.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_03: A little bit, yeah.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how do you guys compete for kids when there's all the MLS academies?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then there's all the uh you know, the other academies.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: I just had Paul uh Richie.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Rich is uh maybe four, maybe 45 to an hour away from us.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, yeah, he's in Carlsbad, San Diego.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's not a bad area to be at.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, how do you guys like how do you guys stay?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've known your name forever, and I've known that club forever.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you guys stay and like just keep it ahead?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's we do I think a lot has to do with like a little bit of the culture that we've created.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um we're in a very unique market where Orange County has a lot of talent, and we're maybe 45 minutes, maybe 50 minutes away with no traffic from LA.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_02: But with traffic, it's it's it's back.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_02: Two hours?
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: But so being able to being able to draw from there is it's a little difficult, but there's enough talent in Orange County that that can that's you know that can fulfill whatever a need of a club could be.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, it's just the competition is is is um it's unique for sure.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: How is player movement in terms of like I've I've talked to some people from uh uh Dallas area, and they talk about there's player movement like every single year because they're always just the grass is always greener over there.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And how do you guys compete with that and and just educate?
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: Is it really about educating the parents and the players about this is a process?
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, yeah.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we don't get a lot of player movements of players leaving to go to another like another non-MLS Academy.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't actually and then if you get guys to the MLS Academy, yeah.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: We like the those are conversations that like a lot listen.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: I think the MLS will always come and pluck away our players.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: They always will come and you know, we're losing four from one team, one H for four from one team, not from other.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: What's that gonna do to that team?
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a tough team.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: We're losing on the average on the average every year, about 10 players.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: You're losing 10 players a year for MLS Academy.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: What what year uh does the MLS Academy really like come and step in and try to take your players?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is it the U15 level?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Is it U16 level, or is it all?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_01: Is it 13, 14?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Everything.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: How much of a how much do we want to open Pandora's box right now?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_01: It is up to you as long as I will get I'll get your number after this and I will give you full edit.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'll give you final cut.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you know, we have clubs like LAFC and Galaxy who are now recruiting U10s and U11s, which I think it's a little bit of a concern, if I'm being honest with you.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: But I think they're they're starting to pluck away players at a younger, younger fit age that we don't even know how good they're gonna be at.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's insane that you're gonna put them in a situation when they have to drive three hours for three days out of the week just to go say, hey, I'm a U-10 player at LAC or Galaxy.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's I mean It doesn't make sense.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: Doesn't make sense, you know.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And there's the allure of saying you're an MLS is really strong in Southern California.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like people want to go, so people will do you and do crazy things to go there.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: Instead of saying, hey, they be patient.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: There is a process, there's there's trust us.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we've listened we've had a lot of players that we've sent.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: Ten per year.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: On a good on a bad year is ten.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_02: So you're just doing something, right?
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, definitely.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we you know uh do you guys market that a lot?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: No, I think it's one of those that everyone knows.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, there's a the totem pole in Southern California is strikers FC, MLS next, MLS clubs.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it's MLS Clubs, strikers FC, and then TFA.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then it's there's some that compete with us in not a lot of clubs in SoCal compete with us across the board, six age groups.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's how I value Arag.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're not like a club that's only has one good team and then the others are in last place.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_02: All our teams are either first or second.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Every age group.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Every age group on a down year like this year with the 2010s, that team lost seven players from one like seven players left us to go to MLS, to go pro route.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that team finished in fifth.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Still, still fifth.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And probably the hardest conference in the country.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: One of the most one of the most competitive, yes, hardest conferences for sure.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it has some wild.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, so I I have a problem if like a kid is 10 years old and it's stuck looking to leave already, and you're like, really, just be patient.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I I think we have a good track record of of saying of guiding parents.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes you gotta have these uncomfortable conversations to tell them, hey, listen, this might not be the best time for you.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: Be patient.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: Give give it time.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: There's a time, there's a good time to go.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'll give you an example.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: Aiden Hazakani.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Aiden Hazakani left.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: We will we lost in the finals of U-16 against Atlanta United.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: There is interest from Real Salt Lake.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: I spoke to dad M Long and said, hey, it's time for him to go.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: He needs to go.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, cool.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: A year later, signs a homegrown contract.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: Starting now with RSL's first thing.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: Getting called into Linder 20s natural.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's there's no right time to go, but we could really you could be we could we could really benefit by being a little bit more patient.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: Not taking away what uh MLS clubs do, because they do great, but not every guy there they develop is gonna be maybe a guy needs a little bit more time.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: You talk about like opening Pandora's box.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: I did that a couple years ago and I just said this is just just me spitting off.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: I go, not everybody at La Macio, La Messio makes it.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_01: Who did Messi replace it when he got there at 13?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody got somebody got bumped.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, what happened to that kid?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody asks like Lamasia like Barcelona develops, and every single player was with them at eight.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And and like us through coaching education, what were we shoved down our throats?
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: We were shoved down to all these European academies and their style or whatever they do, and it's like we got to do them, but then you go and you go and watch them train, and like I do all that stuff, it's not that's special.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I was just talking to Paul about this.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's like at the end of the day, the best players develop themselves.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we're not that good at having kids develop themselves, and it's all about you know, and I'm in somebody's DM or somebody's in my DMs about we need to identify kids at nine years old.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what are you talking?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: No, you don't let them play with strikers, let them play with Vardar, let them play with Michigan Wolves, let them play with, you know, and they're gonna have more attention.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Me personally, I feel, and this is this is my advice when somebody asks me in Buffalo, like, yeah, when do you go to the Western Euroflash for girls?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's a very good, it's it's a strong girls' club.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: I say be careful going too early because the earlier you go, the more they find out what's wrong with you.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and they're gonna try to replace you if there's something wrong with you.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_02: That is um unfortunately, that's the trend that does happen, you know.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um and even in MLS news, they'll take a kid, might be 13, they see that hey, there's oh, there's another kid over here that's just as fast as just as quicker, maybe he's not as skillful as the one that you just pull from his current club.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: And now you gotta say this kid, all right, we're bringing him in.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Now you're out.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know, my I've I I'm a big advocate, and I've I think I've been one of the few that always says to these MLS like, the same energy that you do in recruiting them to come to MLS when you don't want them anymore, but that same energy to help them go back to their home environments.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: Because some of them don't they don't facilitate, they don't help.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's just they say, it's a transaction.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you're no longer here.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, you're you're cut.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: You as a as a parent, you're left as okay, where does he go now?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: And they're gonna say, well, we can't really tell you to go to strikers, or we can't really tell you to go to wolves, or we can't tell you to go to Vardar, or we can't tell you to go to West End, but we can recommend you to and this is my like this is my biggest thing.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's like we gotta we gotta help everybody.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_02: If he left uh if you if he left a Vardar or he left a Mich a Michigan Jack, if he left on a Liscopus, call that director, say hey, we're gonna release so and so.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: Do you guys want them back?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now there's some clubs that do it, but more of them need to be proactive in doing it.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Do you feel like the relationships are good between non-MLS academies and MLS academies?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends it depends on the guys.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_02: It depends on the market because there's some guys that are cool, there's some guys that are really cool.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: But now we're we're getting into a uh another Okay.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Originally was intended to be academy director to academy director, right?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: MLS Academy Director to an MLS non MLS Academy Director, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's how the communication should be.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: But now you have scouts, directors, scouting that technically don't have a say if a kid is cut or not, right?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_02: Their job is to identify talent, bring it.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: So these some of these guys are just I want you, I want you, give me numbers.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because they get paid per player.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever they're structuring.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Or or whatever, yeah.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's it's just one of those that you're like, man, like how much are you how much investing are you doing in evaluating a talent for then for you to say, I'm gonna pluck him from this environment, I'm gonna pull him from a strikers, I'm gonna pull him from a from a Weston, uh, Vardar, uh, or whatever top academy that there is in that that focuses on developing.
• 13:39
  unknown: Right.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_02: That's and they don't, I'm saying that's what we do.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: You have to do that, right?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: To compete with MLS.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_02: How much time goes into really saying, Am I gonna watch a K time?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Or do you go by when when I hate soccer posts, this guy's the best, has 20, 50 goals.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_02: So now every every scouting director is like, oh look, I hate soccer, ranks this guy really high.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: I got why haven't I seen him?
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: Let's bring him in.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: Lazy recruiting.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Be diligent, be thorough, do your homework, do your homework.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: I be better.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_01: I just had the women's uh head coach from Michigan and I asked him that question.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: I go, how often do you want to see these players?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I want to see them in the rain, I want to see them in the snow, I want to see them when it's hot, I want to see them when it's cold, I want to see them when it's windy, I want to see it all the time.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then sometimes in in some environments, it's like if you I'm just gonna go by your word.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, if you tell me he's good, I'm gonna uh I'm gonna sign, sealed, and delivered.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's like good luck with that.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but that's what's happening in college soccer.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's a big uh, you know.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, we we we do a really good job of promoting our players to college, you know.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um I saw something recently that you posted actually.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no, it was really good.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: You gave us a you gave us a little bit of a credit, you know, and I give you a little bit of oh, that was you guys, that's right.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, I gotta give kudos to to Roy, Roy Chingurian at our club, too.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, he's like, you know what?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: We need to be different.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: And he came up with the idea of like saying, Hey, we our guys are are our guys.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: 13 years.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: 13 years, like since junior had three or four of them.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and then and even the ones that have left of left us, they still claim us over.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Of course.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's true.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: If they're with you for 10 years and with Galaxy or somebody for or who else all lake, whoever, name club.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's it's yeah, it's not just one coach.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just one.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it can be one club.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: It could be one club, you know, but there is a there is listen, everyone plays a part in their journey in the player's journey, right?
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like everyone in this soccer journey is you gotta be like just grateful to be part of it.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: You're not the sole person driving it.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, you're not.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: They are, yeah.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: You're just guiding off.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: My frustration is being with the flash, right?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: And they got a girl for six months.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she commits to Penn State.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: What's your name?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Western Europe Flash?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, can you shout out the little the club her old club just a little bit?
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know what?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Look, uh I understand that.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we have a guy who played one year with us, was at Galaxy Forever, came to us, and we helped them, right?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: I just think like if you show more of like how your code's built, then people will say, you know what?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: These guys do the right thing.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's doing the right thing is what a lot of people have a tough time doing.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: Just do the right thing.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: Who is this about?
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: Is it about you?
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: Is it about you the administrator or the director?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's about the players.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's about it's you know what, and one thing I will tell you, Don Ebert has always been Don Ebert is the is a technical director.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: He's the owner.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_02: He's okay.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: He's Don Ebert is alleged.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: The OG.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: The OG, triple OG.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he doesn't come around, and when he does, and people recognize him, they're like, Shh, Eves.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: Many times I've been with him, and people come and say, Man, I grew up playing the watching the steamers, man.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_04: I used to watch you, I have your jerseys.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: Guys like that.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Set a certain standard, Falls, to do things right.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, how long have you been at Shrek Everest?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in seven, my seventh year.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Where were you before that?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_02: I was an academy director at TFA, Florida Football Academy.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: How were we how long were you there?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: I was there seven years.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then before that, I was at a club called Real Socal.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay for 10 years.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: TFA, were they were they in the DA?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: We were in the DA the last two in the last year before it folded.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: Were you in the process?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, obviously, you were in the process of trying to get them in the DA.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: We were we got denied 15 times.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Every year we got denied.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of it has to be with the facilities that we were at and the circumstances.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: But back then, double pass was very a big a big, big part of it.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Where's that data, by the way?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm curious to see where that all that data that they gathered and how it translates to where we are we are now, you know?
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: So I just felt like f when we finally got given 13s and 14s, that club that was uh that was an integral part of like a culture, a Latino culture fully funded.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: It created so many players.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: It gave a lot of players.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: But that that our c that club at the time that I was directing was a straight feeder to like every gods.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: They literally would come and take teams and go.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: And here you go.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: Many, many, many, many.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you know, when we finally got it, it gave us a little bit of an opportunity, but then obviously the DA disbanded.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And but you were at you started at strikers when they were in the DA.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Or when the DA was still here.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Seven years, no?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: I was at I was at I was at when the I when I was at TFA, and then I left to go to Strikers and then it disbanded.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And then now it's MLS decks.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: We went to ECNL for one year.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: Strikers did?
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, one year.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh boy.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you want to oh you want to talk about more ECNL, huh?
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we went to ECNL.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: Six of us from the DA from Southern California went.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because you didn't get in the MLS network or no, they weren't.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_02: No, we had conversations with them.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: They they we we just felt like because it's COVID, we didn't really know what was happening.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Don said, hey, listen, I think it's best strategically to be aligned with some of the guys that were in the DA.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: Cool, they stay surf, us, Pats, Riawa, SoCal, um, Arsenal, which now is called Sporting Um California.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: Those six clubs stay together.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: Because we said, hey, we have six, we can really like at least in our market, we could be together.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: Six of the better clubs.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: So but we did ECNL.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_02: And we just I felt like it worked.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: We needed to move to be more challenged.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: So obviously we made the move from ECNL.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: We were in first place of ECNL in a lot of the age groups.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: So we then said, you know what?
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: MLS is doing something here.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: We want to play against MLS teams.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: We want to play against the higher, the better competition.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: So we made the move.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: When we made the move, your best friend, Christian Labors, and the ECNL group.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: Your best friend.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_02: What happens when you leave ECNL to go to MLS?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: But that doesn't happen.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's a lie.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: I I I I I I'm told that that's a that's a lie and that it doesn't happen.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: What does it happen?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna let me airless editing.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: Final cut, she said.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because dude, this happened to uh it's happened to a couple.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: I got twelve messages that it happened to them.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, it happened to them.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_01: So when people say it say bullshit it doesn't happen, you're lying.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're lying.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: You are lying to my face.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: You're but listen, they have to lie to to to continue to provide an image of what they think they are.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: ECNL is a great marketing machine.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Christian Laver says that.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: He says that at their at their at their meetings.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_01: They say we are not a soccer league, we are a marketing and media company that does soccer.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's a hedge fund now, so it's different.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Don't even get me started on that.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know what my goal is?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: I want to go to DC and talk to like uh Senator like Corey Booker and uh I forget the congressman from uh Pittsburgh, but they are the authors of the bill that's trying to uh break up PE in really in uh youth sports, and so I'm trying to get to DC and like yo, I want to talk to you guys because you're all focused on it's not black bear, it's something something that's in the hockey industry, and uh they're trying really trying to focus on them.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, look into pioneer, yeah.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Look into pioneer and see what they're doing and and the conflict of interest and everything.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, I don't know if this is gonna air.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, um, it's just one of those things like um being look at the end of the day, they made a move because they felt like they want to compete with them else and they want to have a certain image.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: But there is no competition.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: Did you guys say you don't think there's a competition?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: There is no competition.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: There is no competition.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Did you make or did you say yes or okay, see ya, because you're primarily a boys' club and you have more boys' teams?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: Or uh go into that.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: I think we made a decision because we are stronger on the boys.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, we're stronger on the boys.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: And if you were if you're our let's say crossfire uh-huh in Washington, you're stronger on the girls, and you get more money from the your girls' programs, of course you're gonna stay ECNL.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: You think that you think that if they allowed it, if if they could have that go back in the day when I was a coach at Vardar, we had girls ECNL and we had boys Vardar.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Or boys DA.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_01: And you could have both.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: You're telling me that Crossfire wouldn't want to be in the MOS next.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, I've had conversations with Bernie James, the legend.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, oh my god.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you didn't hear from me though, so I'm in.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but yeah, there's a I've had listen, I've been very blessed.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: I um have a lot of res a lot of people have respect for me.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people like me, a lot of people enjoy my company because I'm a very genuine, truthful, and honest person.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: And in these in these conversations, I might be somewhere and I'm talking and they're just divulging information to me.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just like, oh man, how are you crazy?
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly what I'm doing.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you're telling, you're talking to me and telling me what like exactly.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like and then and then I get attacked.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, guys, I'm just telling you what I was told.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean there's listen, youth soccer is it's crazy, as you know, and I think it's getting crazier and crazier.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: Is it getting better?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's getting better.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, I've been doing this over 20 something years.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_02: I've seen it evolve.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_02: And again, I've had layers like David Vasquez at San Diego that's played for me.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: Aidan Hazakan.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_02: We've had a countless guys, too many to need to like start name-drop it.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: But boys and girls, by the way.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_02: This you can edit for sure, but Olivia Moultrie played for me and TFA.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: I was the one who said I'm gonna bring a girl to play with boys.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_02: Southern California, Olivia Moultrie.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_02: I took him to Spain.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: I took her to Europe.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_02: TFA to I had Giselle Thompson.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: I had Alyssa Thompson.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_02: I had not I, me.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: TFA.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: I did, I took that jump and said, hey, you know what?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna have my two captains were in the quarterfinals playing against Atletico Bilbao.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: Guess who my two captains were?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: The Thompsons.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_02: No, Giselle Thompson and a Labour Multi.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_04: Here they go, two little girls in the middle.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_04: They're like, what the fuck?
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because it doesn't happen over there.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: Not two girls playing with boys.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: At a at a at a at an elite level tournament.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I love about this, is that you guys are open to doing that.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: Well, yeah, you know, it's so I mean, strikers is a different breed, but at TFA when I was there, that's what we did.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: We opened, we we opened the path for that.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: It becomes a little bit too much that every girl now thinks they're gonna do it, but people don't understand.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you have to be really, really special in some right.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, and I think that if we want to develop the let's just talk about women's soccer real quick.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_01: If we want to develop the women's game, these girls have to be playing with boys for as long as they can.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: You can, exactly.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_01: And like, and they wanted to play in specific age groups and all that.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, guys, like it doesn't matter.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: All that doesn't matter.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, look, Alyssa's and Giselle's trajectory was there, you know.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: And they they played and they played with girls, they came back to boys, you know, they they were special, you know.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Olivia, the first one to do it though, the trailblazer.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um she doesn't talk about it a lot, but like she really liked at 13 going her thorns, right?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: And not being able to play, sitting, you know, fighting illegally to be allowed to play.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, the you know, the the labor laws.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so she's a minor.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I mean, that's something to get into too because like how much does that show us back?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: If you're special, look at Matt, another girl that I that I had a little bit of part to play with in in terms of her training and development was Matt Whitham.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_02: I trained her also, so she had to do some of that just to be allowed at Gokam.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I guess if you're gonna do something like that, I think there's you have to be so special, you have to be so unique, you have to be the one percenter.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean it's how you say that we have gotten better.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_01: When you went from DA to ECNL to MLS Next, was it like is it getting in the MLS next like a whoa, this is different?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: This is different than the DA.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Or is it the same?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Because everybody, and then this is me too.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, oh, it's just uh it's they just sold or they changed the name.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it's nobody.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Luis was still playing when the DA was going on.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Fred Libka wasn't part of the DA, he was part of MLS Ola's, so it's not the same.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's not this at least it's not the same people, it might be the same concept.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the same concept, it's the same idea, but it's hard.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, there was listen, if you talk to the old guys, some of the old veterans, they say, man, the DA was phenomenal because it was just 18 of the best, and you had to qualify and you had to be here to tier.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: As you start tiering things here, it becomes difficult.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: The cost of traveling is so much now in comparison to how I was 10 years ago.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like listen, strikers had to go to Vancouver and Seattle.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: How many flights are do you guys have?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: Think about that.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: You have to fly to go play separate, separate ones.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like the cost is just too much now.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, but it is it yes, could it be better?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it could always be better.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but and it will continue to sharpen.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that they do a pretty good job of listening, listening to a lot of things.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: And making adjustments, like listen, if you're a good leader, you listen, you take in some of the information, and you say, hey, um, that's interesting.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: You should apply something.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: We should apply this.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_02: This is a good idea.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: This works.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: How do you feel about like do you the MLS Academy is playing up instead of I think that I I I like it too?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: I like it.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Again, and I and I it puts it it puts an onus on them to not strike out on a kid.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because if they're playing up, they gotta identify a guy that says, man, this guy has tools that can allow him to like problem solve right at a high level.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: When guys are bigger and stronger and faster.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it puts more onus on them.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's it gives them more of a challenge.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_02: It isn't as easy, but look, F19s, they should be like to see right now, all four of them.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Should be MLS Academies.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now, you might have the exception like we've pulled and being the first U19 strikers, 19 champions, non-MLS.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: That probably won't happen again.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but maybe not.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: Not with so many of these guys signing guys and saying now you can come play down.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Pros that have signed MLS next pro deals can come and play U19.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like so it's gonna be harder.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: Teams like Cedar Stars, teams like us that compete with them at a very national, at a national level, at a high level, it's gonna be hard, it's harder.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we were looking at the board the other day, and we were looking at the quarterfinals and everything, and I'm and I'm like, hmm, four MLS academies and four non.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's really good.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: And somebody was like, not really, and I'm like, whoa, yeah, what do you mean?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I I look at that coming from a non-MLS academy book background, and I'm like, I want to feel like we're one or yeah, or all in this together.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: And if you just allow at the at the like the middle of the DA, I used to think that why don't just the MLS academies just play each other because this is ridiculous, because they won't win in everything and it annoyed me.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: And and and I think you know, I love seeing non-MLS academies now.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: I I appreciate what they're doing, and that's going to help us catch up hopefully to the rest of the world and give us a little bit more of a professional environment than at an earlier age.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but they all came from somewhere.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they sure did.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: They quickly forget that and don't bite the hand that fed you.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like, hey man, uh, you're this close, and I'm never sending you a player again.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Or you're very careful, are you very careful?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because I see this in the college recruiting process where like coaches are very guarded about who they support in that college recruiting process because they don't want to ruin their relationship with that college coach.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like if I send you a girl that just doesn't like is a flake or bad grades or just parties all the time, that coach might get pissed off at me because I went to bat for you and you screwed me over.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Does that happen in the MLS academies, really, or not really?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_02: Not really.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: I think listen, our job is to try to promote as many players as possible.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we like I tell the guys, like listen, yes, we want you to go.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: Just go to the right time.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: Know when the right when is the right time?
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody knows, but there you could be better off maybe physically or mentally more mature.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's phases where you you could feel like you're ready to go.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like there's some areas that you're there's there, there's some players that say, shit, there's nothing left for me here to do.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: I gotta go.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: You've gotta go.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's but it's it's not easy.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: And like you lose too many players all at one time.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: We're losing four from one team.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're losing two from another.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: We're losing another two on another one.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not including what what we're losing underneath.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: In the foundation phase where nine, ten, eleven, these guys are getting poached now already.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: No traffic.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: What is your radius of players?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_02: No traffic?
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: No traffic.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: Two hours?
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: Nah.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mean hour?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like most of our guys are local guys.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: In Orange County.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: 10, 20 minutes.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, do we have some guys that come from a little bit from the outside of it?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, of course.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_02: There's a kid from Paramount, which is 45 minutes.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_02: A kid from Lam, which is a hill.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a kid from LA.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, but we don't have 50 kids from LA.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's you know, two, three from the valley, another two or three.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have most of our players who are from Orange Space, Orange Cages.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: What and what do you guys provide?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like in terms of sessions and how many like why uh how are you guys so successful at putting guys in the MS Kang?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: What are you guys doing?
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, our we put a lot of emphasis on our sex accuse.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: I I I we don't really recruit some on the outside.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: You promote from within.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: I promote from within.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't happen a lot.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, hence why you see on our post 13, 8, 10.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: On that list, on that picture that you reposted, right?
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_02: With all the kids on the on the thing.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Mm-hmm.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: 13, 8.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I think there was one player.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: There was one player with one Liam.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, Liam.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: From here, there's 12 players here, right?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: Seven of them at some point played in our second.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: What?
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_02: Six or seven.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: So late developers.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: Or or they they were they believed in what we were doing.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: And saying, hey, listen, you're not ready, quite ready for the first team.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go on the second team, train with me two or three times a week, play with the second team.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: And when it's ready, you'll move.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_01: And you probably know in the back of your head, hey, we're gonna lose four of those of these guys every single year because we're going, they're gonna get plucked by an MLS Academy.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna need you in a year.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: You ask.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you're not lying to somebody.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: You're not saying that you're on a bubble and then you're on the bubble for eight years.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: The hardest happens.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's how that happens a lot though.
• 38:08
  unknown: Fuck.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: But I tell they say you bring your son and we're looking, and I say, hey, I'm gonna put him on the second team.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: I know it's not what you want to hear, but you see that field right there?
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because we train, we have one field here, and then the other field here.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like we're running next to each other.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: I say, look, see that field?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_02: That guy was on our second team.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_02: That kid was on our second team.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: You see on that half?
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_02: That guy wasn't our second team.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_02: That guy was on our second team.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: There's proof in what we're saying.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_02: We do what we say.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: We're patient.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna allow you to.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: We have we're gonna allow you to play.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because you need to play.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: And when you're ready, guess what?
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna come.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: But the the whole premise is like we know we're gonna lose a guy every year.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: There hasn't been one year where we haven't lost zero players.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: So do do the math.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm losing a good chunk every single season.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: The 06 team that went to the finals and lost at DC United on our first year here.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: That team lost nine players.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: The whole starting lineup.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: And I had to replace it.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_02: Brought up our second.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: Our 07s, same thing.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: Lost 10 11.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: Now we've had Aiden Hazakani, pro.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: Ephraim Solis, pro.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: This is my next question.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: Santi Hago, pro.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: We've How many guys that you've moved on are now pros?
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me the success stories.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: Nathan Madrasco.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_02: Nathan Madrasco signs with LAFC.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Skylar Kaplan.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: What a journey that kid had.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: Since he was since our juniors program.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_02: Little one.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: Rise up.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: We lost in the finals.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: Goes to RSL.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: Goes to RSL.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: Comes back.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't getting the playing time.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_02: Whatever decision he made.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_02: Came back midway.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: We rebuilt.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: Boom.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_02: He went to Galaxy.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_02: Boom.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: Galaxy then says, hey, we're not gonna sign you.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Comes back to us again.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: Then signs with LAFC.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: Now he's uh now he's signed with LAC.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: LHC too.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: MLS next pro contract.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: Aiden Hazakani at uh uh at RSL.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: We have um who else do we have?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um and this is just in the last seven years.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: That's not including what guys that have left us to sign uh F Rain Solis left to go sign with OCSE USL.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Santi Hidago, Hirera, just who just scored by the way.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_02: 16-year-old just scored, playing at USL with A.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_02: V.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_02: Alta.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we have uh um Oliver Baugh in France playing in the highest league for the 19-year-old.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: He's there.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: Eastline um Sandy Berger in Germany.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: You just lose so many.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: But again, our job is to provide a an environment that allows them to to develop and attempt to fulfill their dreams.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you guys don't want to market that.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: You guys don't want to market that they the of the alumni that you have.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh you talk about the align the alumni is is even crazier.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_02: Chad Marshall, Bornstein, um Chris Parnias.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_02: The list, you should see the list of guys have played for striker UB, you be an A's.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you guys have like an office or like a facility of your own?
• 41:55
  unknown: No.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's gotta be Hardy, California.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: I was just wondering, because like you could have like a Hall of Fame.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you could have something like this.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_02: What if you would have just to give you a perspective, I was looking and I asked.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: Two fields.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: Side by side with a little clubhouse at this in in the city a little bit outside of Orange.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: Not it's in Orange County, but like it's called Lake Forest.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: I asked, I go, how much do you think it was?
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: Ten million dollars.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: Just because of the land, the cost of land in California, it is unreal.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: We have a car, we talk about competition.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: You want to hear about competition?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_02: I have two fields.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're in a complex like this, a little bit more tighter, more we're a little bit more congested.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: There's more fields in between each other.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: So I have a field, I have two fields.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: 10 and 11, it's strikers.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: So weird.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: We we cross the just a crosswalk here like this.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: We just cross the next side, so calred's MLS next.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_01: At the same at the same facility.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: So parents can just walk by and be like, oh, I like that training session.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that happens a lot with this.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: So then, not as that's nothing.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: We look this way Pat's Patsy Doris, ECNO.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, hold on.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_02: You look like this, stop.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, slammers, easy and know.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you go this way.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, there's West Coast.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: ECNO.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my god.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: So you gotta be dialed in all the time.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: You literally do on it on your sessions.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: You do.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, listen, we've created such a good culture at our club that like people understand like strikers is the place to be.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: Some of the best coaching, some of the best players, the environment.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: The platforms, what we do, college, how we promote, how many we promote every year.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: Roy does a phenomenal job of of promoting guys to the next level.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: Division one, division two, division three.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_02: Our 06 team had twenty-two guys on the roster.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: I think 19 of them went to D-wins.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: If I could show you the list of how many players we pushed to college, you'd be like, and that's just no matter where.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like Stanford.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: Northwestern.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: Cow.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: Think about all these.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: What about your girls?
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_02: How we lost our girls.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: You lost your girls entirely.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: They broke off and they're and they stayed in the ECNL.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or they they went to they stayed in the East Clown.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_01: So the moment we lost ECNL girls, um, most of those girls just disbanded and they went to the slammers, surf, yeah, everything.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: So we've had to like restart from ground up.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_01: And financially, that hurts your club.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's hard.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: And and I okay, so wolves and hawks had a divorce, right?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, more clubs should do this.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: If if up if one platform is going to keep another one out of it, then there needs to be more divorces.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: But then I had the director of nationals on, and he was like, it's way harder to be so um financially stable if you have both.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Do you guys see that or not?
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's good.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_02: Not in our market.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm gonna be honest.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever okay?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: How many teams are you coaching right now?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: Me?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: Personally, two.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: Two.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_01: Have you ever coached three in your life?
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_01: I used to have a mentor that said, I don't want any of my coaches coaching three teams.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: And here's why.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: He goes, because one team always gets kind of left behind.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're gonna be focused on one team and then your second team, and then that third team kind of gets less of you, I guess you could say.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think clubs are like that too.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: Where yeah, you could be uh you can have boys and girls, yeah, but you as a uh the executive director or the founder of the club, you started it because you wanted to build a boys' academy or you wanted to start the girls' academ uh uh you know ECNL or whatnot.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I think I wish we lived in an ecosystem where okay, ECNL, girls only.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, MLS the MLS handle the boys.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_02: But we don't live in but we don't live in that world.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: We don't we're we don't live in utopias.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: No, because obviously there's one thing that at the end will matter more than any of them.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: Money and power.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, really, just money.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: Money.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: First you get the money, then you get the power.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Shh.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's son of a bitch.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_02: The locks.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, you know, it's just look, we're in we're at a we're at a place now where I think the MLS has done they don't promote or they don't market like like ECNL does.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I think they're it's one of the reasons why Luis brings me out here.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: So, but it's and I think we are similar.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_02: My club strikers are similar.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: We really don't promote or we do say, yeah, we we're moving this guy up.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, congratulations, Aiden.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, congratulations, Skyler, hey, congratulations.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's a raspo.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, congratulations.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, we congratulate all, but it's not like this is what we do.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: So when it's not when it's normalized, it's hard to promote something that you you should do normally.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_01: So why is this special?
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, we've been putting in 10 kids or 20 kids into college every single year since 1999.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: Why is it special?
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because you have to do it, but that's because everybody else does.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_01: Since that post, you know how many people have copied?
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: Every single time I have not seen it.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: I have not told him today.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody sent it to me to um yeah, you had it.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: I I couldn't see it.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_02: It was like a blue, it's blue.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_02: Someone went blue with a blue color.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_02: I forget the club.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know what club it was, but it's summer in Pennsylvania.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was a Pittsburgh club, and they started doing it, and they said, and then I'm like, changed.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it started with you guys.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I yeah, you did thank you for that.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_02: We're really uh Rory's gonna have a kick when I tell him though.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and it it does suck because most of the people that I have on, I hate social media or that they'll say that, right?
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I don't like social media or I don't post a lot, I'm not on it.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and it's like that's okay, I understand that, but it's becoming something that this is how you grow now.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, I'm what I think I think I do a pretty good job of of you know, on the social media front.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm not out there with a camera uh constantly, but right, I do capture moments.
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think in life this thing can go really fast.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_02: And if I can go back and say, hey, oh man, I did this, that's crazy.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because you forget, you get like, oh my god, you you get into your day-to-day, my kids and that, and sometimes you're like, Oh yeah, fuck, like, dude, I did this.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I it's funny because uh I was talking to somebody, I was talking to a former player.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: I I hate when this happens, you know.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm walking, oh, and they're like, coach, coach.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, coach really, and I'm like, and I'm like, yeah, what's up?
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_02: He's with his kids, and I'm like, what's your name again?
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_02: What's your fucking name, bro?
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_03: Like, you don't let this name you don't fuck, yeah, I had you when you were 12, that you're an adult now.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: What the hell?
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_03: You know how many kids I've coached.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_03: You know me, kids I fucking team.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_02: Have you ever thought about that?
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, I think about it more and more now, like it's crazy.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I talked to this guy, and then he was like, Hey coach, man, thank you, man.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_02: We went, remember when we went to Surf Cup and we won it?
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, fuck, when was that?
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: So he's like 2010.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_02: No, 2006.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, oh shit, 20 years ago, fuck.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: And then you start thinking, and then so it got me thinking, like, you know what?
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_02: Let me see if I can like what other pictures I have.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't have a lot of pictures from like when I first began coaching, you know, and I'm like, let me see.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then you start talking to like, you know, I still keep in touch with some of my players, so it's like, hey bro, do you have any pictures?
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_02: Tell mom to send you a picture.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: And then you start getting one.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: 2006, 2010, 2000, 2015.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: I started getting more.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, uh, like when I was at TFA, we there was a lot of documentation of yeah, because like we watched it.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's what it is, it's documenting.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 51:00
  SPEAKER_02: And just being able to say shit, and like so.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: I started thinking.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was telling uh Roy, and I was like, every five years, I want something here.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_02: But when you win, all these kids move on, and you're like, what did it what did I take away from this?
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's why coaching is a lonely profession.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's when you it's listen, there's when just like you're rising and your your numbers are increasing, the more you rise some more you're the more I'm gonna forget who I talked to.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you are here.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: You are, and then you're gonna go back and you're gonna be like, shit.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_02: I need to reach out to Willie.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're gonna talk to him in your life.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that guy was pretty interesting.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, like, or or whoever, right?
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's just sometimes like you get lost into it because you're day-to-day.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: You go into your head down, you work, and just go in and you forget about moments.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_02: You ever like I told my son was here.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_02: We took a picture.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'd go to the f as a family, and I go, buddy, you don't know if you're gonna play here next year.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: So let's take a picture here.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_01: And this, and maybe you do, but it might not be in Utah.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_01: Take a picture of that map.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_03: Like, yeah, yeah, I did.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_04: I took a picture, and then posted it, and everyone's like, Oh, that's so cool, coach.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_04: You should be a you should be a photographer now.
• 52:26
  unknown: No.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a soccer coach.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, but like, do you ever do you ever open up your phone and then you get those you get memories?
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like memories, and you're like, I didn't know this picture it was in this phone because it's my new phone, and then like, oh my god, and I got that in my circle, in my circle of frames, I'm the one who always posts pictures of like all they're like, how the hell you still have that one too, exactly, bro.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because or when I post a kid that just signed, right?
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I have a picture of us on the team, and they're like, How you have that?
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think a bit I've getting a little, I'm getting a little better at like capturing moments so that I can remember them and revisit them.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, yeah, I love those friends too.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I went to Mexico in 2018 with a big group of friends, right?
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I wasn't really big into Snapchat, yeah, but they were, and so yeah, and then all of a sudden, like Snapchat memories comes up and they'll send it as and I'm like, oh my god, the corona is me in Mexico.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like me with a corona.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh take care off.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: Did we delete this?
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: How have you not deleted this?
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_01: How is this still out there?
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, shit.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so it's like, you know, it's I think I do, I think I feel like I do a good job, but I also do a lot of things within soccer that allows me to again touch more people.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the first team you coached?
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: What year was this?
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_02: 2001.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_02: 2001?
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: How old are you?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_02: What year were you born?
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: 78.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_02: 78.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'm in 84.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh 78.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um 2001.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_02: 2001.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_02: I was uh, I think I was like 21, I think, maybe.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I was playing at Calsey at Northridge.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: I was playing as an I was playing at Calspirate Northridge.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um then my buddy, one of my buddies from high school who's a coach, uh comes up to me.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, dude, I got four teams, dude.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think you should coach.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, really?
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: I go, Fuck, I don't have time, dude.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm playing, I'm practicing, I'm he's like, dude, practices are at five at at the park right next to C Sun.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, really?
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a minute away from me.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_02: All right, what what am I coaching?
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_02: Girl soccer.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, oh, okay.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_02: First, not knowing anything.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: I I asked my um, I asked my my buddy, I go, hey, well, what do I do?
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_02: Just I don't know, just have them run and this is exactly my start.
• 55:05
  SPEAKER_04: It's have them run and dude, go have them like do fitness, dude.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_04: They this it's a bronze team, so they need to be fit.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, okay, but yeah.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: So the first day I go practice and I meet the parents, meet the kids, beat the girls, they're 12-year-old girls, and I'm like, motherfucking let's go.
• 55:24
  SPEAKER_03: There's a hill thing, they're running the hill.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_03: The poor girls are running up the hill.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah, I didn't know anything.
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then I went to my uh college coach, I go, dude, I'm coaching this team, man.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, he's like, he turned out to be my mentor, uh, Terry Dabila, a really good guy who helped me a lot in life.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, pulled me out of some really bad, bad scenarios in life.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_02: And uh was a guide for me.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, he goes, dude, just do the things that we do here in Northridge, like some of the things.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_02: What do we do?
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: Knock on the ball, touch the balls, you know, possessions, pattern plays.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I go, okay.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's how I started.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_02: That would we would have practice at Ceciland, and I would say, shit, I like this part.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: This part was fun.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_02: I would take it back.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I would do fitness with the ball, and then we would do the one fun exercise that I did, pulled it from there and used it with the girls.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_02: And well, we went the first year they went 0 and 12, and then next year we got promoted.
• 56:20
  SPEAKER_02: We went 12 and 1.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the beginning.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: What team was it that made you really realize that like I love this?
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I'm going to do for the rest of my life.
• 56:34
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I was really lucky.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, um, Terry Davilet just got the job at North Ragia.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_02: He had a girls' program and the boys' program, so he was coach, coaching both.
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he he had a really good team at this club called Sambo.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_02: Back in the days, if people know Samba was really, really good.
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_02: Before he merged with SoCal United to create Real SoCal.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_02: So he goes to me, alright.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're good.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think you're ready.
• 57:07
  SPEAKER_02: Come and be my assistant.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: But you're gonna coach these games, you're gonna coach this team.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_02: And this team was phenomenal.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_02: Really good team.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_02: And the whole year I coached these girls on Saturdays and Sundays.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and then that team, that's a team that allowed me to like really understand a little bit of what I can do.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_02: Understand a little bit at a young age where I felt like I was still very naive about the game.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think those girls allowed me to really enjoy and go about coaching uh uh differently because I never knew I was just throwing into it.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, oh, they taught me a little bit.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um so that really shaped me a little bit because I I I understood the patience that it had to take to coach girls.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um but you know, after a while, um and we went all the way, one stay cup, went to nationals, one of the best.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think that one allowed me to discover a little bit.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_02: But my like my team later on, I I think I feel I I always felt like I was close, but like to finding like a coach's identity, like or you know, when you when like when you coach a kid or they come and watch you play, say, man, that's a that's a that's that's how that's right.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's every striker team plays that way, or or every voter team plays that way.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that guy's coach, though his players play this way, you could tell immediately, even without seeing who the coach is, like, ah yeah, yeah, that guy's this guy.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_02: At TFA, when I left, when I left Real Tokal, and I went and it took a different route in my trajectory of coaching, and I went to TFA, Paul Lomido.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_02: Ines gave me a uh a blank canvas that said, here, I have the players you created.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_02: I had an 06 team that was unbelievable.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_02: Unbelievable.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, really good.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um that team allowed me to really be create like what I eventually would love to see like all my teams great.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that team had David Vasquez, that team had Christian Diaz, who's upgrown at LAFC, David Vasquez is uh San Diego C.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um it had it had Matt Evans, who's uh LAFC homegrown.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it had Adrian Wivolo, homegrown LAFC.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um it was unbelievable attempt.
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_02: But we played pop and that allowed me to find like how I wanted to see Sor being played.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_02: And we did well.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: That team was unbelievable.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh crazy story.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_02: We went two years without losing, and we went everywhere.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: From U10 to U12, we went everywhere.
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_02: People would call me, Willie.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: We want to we want to bring you guys out to this tournament.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: I have this team says the rankings.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_02: The rankings.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, they say they're number one in the country.
• 1:00:30
  SPEAKER_04: Got soccer.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_04: Has you has your number one, and we wanna the number two team wants you out there.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, okay, we have this many points.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 1:00:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I'm like, oh.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_02: So um one year in Surf Cup, was we had played everybody.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: We had one, we had a lot, everybody.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_02: There was not one team I didn't beat.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: So we go to Surf Cup and we're in the finals, and we're U12.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: I remember vividly.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_02: We come and we're playing, and who is this team from Michigan?
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: Who the fuck is these guys?
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_02: So I went to, you know, we're in the finals, TFA versus Michigan Jabbers.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, green team, yeah.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_02: They had fucking monsters, they were big.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_02: They smashed us, they killed us 4-1.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: We've never lost 4-1.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_02: That was our first loss.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I told the kids after we lost, obviously, they they celebrated.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_02: They celebrated, they celebrated, but uh the guys for none of us.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they celebrated as they should, you know, they knew who we were, so it was a big thing for them.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_02: My boys felt relief.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, okay.
• 1:01:47
  SPEAKER_02: I agree with that, right?
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was just a and I fast forward, right?
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we're in um we're in Dallas playoffs.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_02: My 07s on our way to the finals played Jaguars in the stadium.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_02: It was uh it was uh it was on YouTube, it was on one of the games that they're streaming live, right?
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_02: And and I go to the coach, and I go to the coach, man, you know what?
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_02: I know I don't know if you noticed, but or remember there was an 06, there was another there was an 06 Jaguars team, you guys, and you guys beat and you went to T and you went to surf and you beat this team.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_02: And he goes, Yes, dude, he went there for like he was told, he remembered.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, Yeah, that team had this guy, that guy.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_02: I go, that was a team, my team that you guys beat.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: He was like, No way, I knew you looked familiar.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_02: But they've done a great, they did a great job at the a lot of those guys went somewhere too.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_02: I was like, Man, that's correct.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: Pretty crazy.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember the coaches nick?
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm the worst, I'm the worst.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'll find that I'll find that out because uh they're a partner of the show.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, again, it was just a like a good I guess for the kid, I think they felt like okay, fine.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then we went on another run.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then we didn't lose again until we lost until we move until we lost maybe another year and a half later to um Chelsea.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I asked that question because like uh about like what team made you fall in love with it, because I relate my first team.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think I was I was in college and uh it was 19 or 20 years old.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea what I was doing.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_01: I it was imposter syndrome 1000%.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know what to do, and I also didn't know what I could get away with and how hard I could push kids and stuff like that until I really worked with my mentor and went to go see him coach, or he came to my sideline and be like, I'm gonna step in here, yeah, and then he'd like whoa that uh but what made me fall in love with soccer was this U10 to I coached them U10 to U13 girls team.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_02: And girls, here we go.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_01: And my so my first experience, we were at this tournament and U10 girls, and it was one of those games where the coach pulls a player off because they're beating us so bad, and then they beat you know what I mean, and at a little time he's and I remember the coach John Sikorsky.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_01: If he watches this, it's okay.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_01: So he turns around and he's watching a game on the other field, and I'm like, oh my god.
• 1:04:31
  SPEAKER_01: And but and that was my first experience.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, three years later, we beat that team, and but that team that the that girls group and that parent group is what made me realize like I love coaching, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, and that's what it and do you ever now?
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_01: You're uh part of strikers and it's boys only.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_01: Do you ever like miss the girls and like heartbreak about the girls?
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I just closed my training company, yeah, and I moved and I'm moving back to Michigan so that I can focus on the podcast because there's more soccer.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm gonna miss the relationships I built with most of my players because uh how I started this podcast, I was just talking to my players and then I had to get DMs be like, I love how much you talk to your players and the relationship you have with my players.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna miss that.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm trying to get off the field to focus on this, but it's like I kind of want to be on the field too because those relationships.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you know, listen, um yeah, I miss do I miss coaching girls?
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_02: In the world we live in right now, it's it's I think it's it's a different sport, it's a different sport now, you know.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think everyone, every coach has to adapt, every coach has to change, every coach, regardless if you're coaching boys or girls, there's a an adjustment that everybody has to make when you're coaching, when you're coaching kids, when you're Coaching young girls.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um I mean it's been a long time since I coached girls.
• 1:06:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um 2012 was the last time I coached.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, okay.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: A girls team.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: The last time that I worked with a girls team, I worked with a girl.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_01: You still have girls young wish.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_02: I still worked with some girls, but for the most part, like me really like coaching girls has been 2012.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, I mean it's just sometimes like you sometimes I say to myself, I say to people, I go, you know, I tie you mean.
• 1:06:36
  SPEAKER_02: I I had a friend of mine call me.
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, hey, we're here, we're we're my uh my daughter's playing slammers.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh HPK.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um we're gonna be here.
• 1:06:45
  SPEAKER_02: I go, where where?
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_02: What time?
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_02: 8 a.m.
• 1:06:47
  SPEAKER_02: on Sunday.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: All right, bet.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm there.
• 1:06:49
  SPEAKER_02: I go, I pull up.
• 1:06:50
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm really good friends with with HBK staff and their um and their owners, uh, Wally and Zia.
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh great guys.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I'm there talking to my buddy.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_02: C Z sees me.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_02: He calls me.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_04: Zia calls me and says, get your ass over here.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_02: Go five.
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_02: What are you doing after?
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_04: Ah, my boy here, he's like, oh, kick.
• 1:07:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, watching his daughter.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, so we're talking, and I go, man, what would I do?
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_02: I would kill it if I would coach on the girl's side.
• 1:07:25
  SPEAKER_02: I would kill it.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I could say it so confidently that I would I would kill it.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_02: I would have a brand that you would be like, now why wouldn't you do this more?
• 1:07:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a type of soccer that you play that is unique.
• 1:07:47
  SPEAKER_02: Not different, it's just unique.
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because soccer's all the same.
• 1:07:50
  SPEAKER_02: There's three ways, right?
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_02: You can go around the player, you can go through, you can go all over.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_02: But the intricacies of like player relations, uh interchangings, like where the where the where the game is going have always been fascinated.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_02: Of the the the small details of like hey, this guy's in here, you can go there.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, if he goes there, if you don't manipulate the defender, can we bring him here?
• 1:08:19
  SPEAKER_02: So that you can create space for that guy.
• 1:08:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like that kind of stuff intrigues me more.
• 1:08:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I I always say, if I was in the girls, then I would do that.
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_02: Because girls don't have egos when my boys are a thousand percent.
• 1:08:35
  SPEAKER_02: They would say if I say stay wide, stay wide.
• 1:08:37
  SPEAKER_02: They would stay white.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then you yell at him for being too wide.
• 1:08:42
  SPEAKER_02: You just told me to be wide, you know, but I just I enjoy it.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I still get a little bit of the of the feel of coaching girls because I I do work with some of the elite girls.
• 1:08:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've worked with some very elite girls that are on some of the best teams in the country.
• 1:09:02
  SPEAKER_02: I've I do have a little bit of a following where people say, hey, this guy's this guy's pretty trainer.
• 1:09:09
  SPEAKER_01: What's the difference between Slammers and Slammers co coach?
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_01: Coach?
• 1:09:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, coach, coach.
• 1:09:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, HBK.
• 1:09:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's like HBK, yeah.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so they have like a separate entity where that that is like their pro team in so they have two licensing for ECNL.
• 1:09:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then that one is Slammer's HBK, which which is connected with the pro team in Denmark.
• 1:09:29
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:09:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then this one's their like their second one.
• 1:09:32
  SPEAKER_01: Is one like 10 months, and then the other is like eight months, and they can play high school?
• 1:09:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're all the same.
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_01: All the same, okay.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because there's a Michigan Hawks, they have Hawks, and then they have Hawks Magic.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_01: And the difference now they have two licenses as well, but it's really the same club, it's the same coaches, it's the same everything.
• 1:09:48
  SPEAKER_01: But one is 10 months and they do not play high school, and then the other one is eight months and they do play high school.
• 1:09:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, no, they play high school.
• 1:09:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just one that's the girls, you know, the girls is different.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, you know what I mean?
• 1:10:01
  SPEAKER_02: I I still get to work with some of these girls, so uh, it gets me the the oh, okay, cool.
• 1:10:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't have to really coach girls.
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_02: Let me just push these girls who are some of the best.
• 1:10:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and that had girls.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Hey coach, I'm I play for so and so, and we're in the ECNL showcase.
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Can I come train before my game?
• 1:10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like we land on Thursday, and we don't play until Saturday.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Can I come train?
• 1:10:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yeah, come.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_02: And I set up through training sessions and interviews.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do you train on the side?
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:10:31
  SPEAKER_01: I still have private and small groups.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, small group and private.
• 1:10:35
  SPEAKER_02: I I feel like I feel very I feel that I can help.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like I don't I'm not like I'm not like these other guys that and no, it's no disrespect to anybody here or they oh he's talking about me.
• 1:10:50
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's like my regular job is being the director of academy for strikers.
• 1:10:57
  SPEAKER_02: Monday through Thursday, I'm on the field.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_02: So when you who don't coach and all you do is train, you can train.
• 1:11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:11:06
  SPEAKER_02: I do it just because I thoroughly enjoy it.
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_02: But I only work with the best.
• 1:11:11
  SPEAKER_02: So if you're not in one of the best teams, or you're not one of these girls that are competing to go play or or go to a national team invite or or or or getting ready to go to college, or or girls coming back from college that want to stay sharp.
• 1:11:28
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but so that's why I get I get my itch or I do it, I do it out of just pure passion.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:11:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't do it for financial.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's yeah, you can make it there.
• 1:11:39
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm like, if I don't, I'm here right now.
• 1:11:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I don't no one's telling me, oh, I have to do it.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_02: No, I do it out of just the love.
• 1:11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Are you able to use strikers' fields for that?
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, I don't know.
• 1:11:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, you go somewhere else.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I I don't that's one thing.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's like keeping things separate is this is a big thing for me.
• 1:11:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because like again, I'm my own brand, just like strikers is their own brand.
• 1:12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Do you do you uh train any strikers players that you coach and train?
• 1:12:06
  SPEAKER_01: See, I think that's smart because I coach girls.
• 1:12:09
  SPEAKER_01: You only do the girls with your private and oh okay, got it.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_02: I do have some boys here and there, but for the most part, no, it's 90% girls.
• 1:12:19
  SPEAKER_01: I can't stand it when I hear of club neutral.
• 1:12:22
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I was club neutral and and not affiliated with any club, but back when I was coaching club, I would do private training, but I it wouldn't be invite only.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_01: So anybody could come.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no.
• 1:12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then that one of my another favorite girls team, what they did, uh I would open it up, and about five or six would show up consistently.
• 1:12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what happened to those five or six?
• 1:12:49
  SPEAKER_01: They got better, yeah, and they became the best five, the you know, the top five players.
• 1:12:55
  SPEAKER_01: And what happens with your top five?
• 1:12:57
  SPEAKER_01: They usually play more.
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then I get yelled at for I get yelled at from the parent of number 13 of them like, oh, you're you have favorites, you uh you're biased.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_01: They're paying you extra, so that's that's why you play them.
• 1:13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Work harder, put extra time, and it doesn't have to be with me, it doesn't, but just make sure that you're developing you're working on your own.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:13:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I don't I mean but it that's why I I try to be well, I am club neutral because I don't like I don't do striker players, so I don't really run into it.
• 1:13:33
  SPEAKER_02: And then when you want to come and complain to me, oh Willie did talk to your coach.
• 1:13:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, but yeah, it's it's fun.
• 1:13:40
  SPEAKER_02: It's I I I thoroughly enjoy it.
• 1:13:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I I I think I've created a niche in my in the short time that I've been in in Orange County of like doing something unique with my training too, as well.
• 1:13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Do you ever train like your old like players that are in college?
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, some of them, yeah.
• 1:13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, look, uh in the summer, I have I had some of these pros come here.
• 1:14:05
  SPEAKER_02: Cruz Medina, um Cruz Medina, who's at Chivas US, uh Chivas uh in Walladahara, uh David Basquez, uh Aiden was at RSL.
• 1:14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um a lot of these guys come.
• 1:14:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like and they they have buddies who are Harbor Miller, boom, he can't bring a guy.
• 1:14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then they bring a guy, and it's and then they bring a girl, and then they're oh my god.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:14:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it's all the best young players are training here with me, and everyone's like, how the fuck?
• 1:14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, this is how the fuck.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:14:35
  SPEAKER_02: Everything we do is like intentional, the purpose, yeah.
• 1:14:38
  SPEAKER_02: And it's high intensity, which these guys want.
• 1:14:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's another thing that I'm gonna miss of my facilities, like in the summers, you know, and then I would do college pickup of all my college players, and then they would bring their teammates and stuff like that.
• 1:14:52
  SPEAKER_01: And what I would ended up doing is like my my facility was perfect for five aside.
• 1:14:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, nice.
• 1:14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And and what I would do is like, let's say I had 15 players.
• 1:15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm not making three kids of five.
• 1:15:04
  SPEAKER_01: What I would do is two teams of five, one team of three, one team of two.
• 1:15:08
  SPEAKER_01: The team of three you have next.
• 1:15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, pick two players off that loses, and then everybody just like rotates through, and so it's not you get stuck in the same team, and then it really becomes like one kid always is never picked.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then one kid plays every single game for three hours, and it's like, yeah, that's you know what?
• 1:15:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I miss those days.
• 1:15:29
  SPEAKER_02: I you know what I really miss, or I wish we could do more of is like, and I don't know how you feel about that, but uh about this, but cleaning other sports.
• 1:15:38
  SPEAKER_02: Mm-hmm.
• 1:15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I I mean I grew up in South Central A, okay?
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_02: When a really big really really bad neighborhood.
• 1:15:46
  SPEAKER_02: But I play baseball.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_02: I play basketball.
• 1:15:52
  SPEAKER_02: We would get our guys from our from our building and be like, we'll challenge that other building right over there.
• 1:16:00
  SPEAKER_02: We don't I don't feel like we do that with our kids anymore.
• 1:16:03
  SPEAKER_01: No, I think it's the European influence, no offense.
• 1:16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the European that's right.
• 1:16:09
  SPEAKER_01: Fucking mates.
• 1:16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's the European influence because that's what they did.
• 1:16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's like I'm sorry you only had one sport growing up.
• 1:16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my bad.
• 1:16:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I played basketball, football, you know, baseball.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's just I mean, how do you judge uh uh kids can't hit the body anymore because kids because they don't fucking judge it, they don't know how to judge a fly ball and say, oh no offense, or get a big girls or get a rebound.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_04: Oh box, yeah.
• 1:16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Do they know how to box out, use their body?
• 1:16:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, and because we're too how often do you watch a kid on a corner kick jump?
• 1:16:44
  SPEAKER_01: That ball was 15 feet in the air, guy.
• 1:16:47
  SPEAKER_02: I see it a lot.
• 1:16:50
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I see it a lot.
• 1:16:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm at the field still.
• 1:16:52
  SPEAKER_04: Remember, I'm still in the field.
• 1:16:55
  SPEAKER_04: I'm still tens, I'm still tens toe down on that field over there.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_04: You're over here.
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_04: I know that you're over here now.
• 1:17:01
  SPEAKER_04: I am over there, you know, talking to the mic, you know.
• 1:17:05
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
• 1:17:06
  SPEAKER_02: Isn't it creating viral creating a viral clip that everyone's sending you messages about how bad?
• 1:17:11
  SPEAKER_02: How good is this?
• 1:17:14
  SPEAKER_01: But no, you're right though.
• 1:17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, me growing up, okay.
• 1:17:18
  SPEAKER_02: I grew up with your best friend Christian labors, yeah.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And but okay, one movie would come out one weekend.
• 1:17:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm watching Little Giants.
• 1:17:29
  SPEAKER_01: You know what?
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_01: I want to want I want to play football.
• 1:17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Next week, I watch Little Big League.
• 1:17:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, oh you know what?
• 1:17:35
  SPEAKER_01: I want to play, I want to play baseball.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
• 1:17:37
  SPEAKER_01: Big green.
• 1:17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm gonna play soccer this week.
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_01: It's like that's what that's how it was with almost all of my friends.
• 1:17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, mighty ducks, let's go play hockey.
• 1:17:47
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of it has to do with your environment too.
• 1:17:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, we didn't like where I was growing up.
• 1:17:51
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't have soccer fields.
• 1:17:54
  SPEAKER_01: It did, but not like it is.
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_02: What changed?
• 1:18:03
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:18:04
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe I think the just remember the new communities, new new suburbs, they're able to build more and they're able to create more sports parks.
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_02: Building and building, yeah, you know what I'm saying?
• 1:18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, but if you're from an inner city, like you're you're you're you don't have a lot of parks.
• 1:18:19
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:18:20
  SPEAKER_02: If you really look at the landscape of this, hey, yeah, let's go to LA.
• 1:18:24
  SPEAKER_02: You go to South Central LA, how many fields is between uh Vermont and Crenshaw, and from Mart Luther King all the way to Slaussen.
• 1:18:39
  SPEAKER_02: In that 10 mile radius, how many parks are there?
• 1:18:43
  SPEAKER_02: I feel one two.
• 1:18:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it and they and they say parks with a basketball park.
• 1:18:50
  SPEAKER_02: They have a so it's just it's just changed.
• 1:18:56
  SPEAKER_02: A lot has changed, and I mean it depends where you're living too, but page a big park.
• 1:19:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a lot of people think that like there are messies just rolling around that park.
• 1:19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, and and then we're missing them and uh they're falling through the cracks.
• 1:19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think that's real?
• 1:19:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, well, man, could it be real?
• 1:19:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it could, but is it really real?
• 1:19:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, whenever somebody says that, I go, please take your phone next time and record this kit for a half an hour.
• 1:19:29
  SPEAKER_01: I will post it on my social media so that Willie will see it and be like, hey, we need to get this kid to the strikers.
• 1:19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, you mean listen, we we don't have messy messy's upbringing as well documented.
• 1:19:46
  SPEAKER_02: And the one common thing says that he was playing in the street and being freedom Ronaldinho.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing.
• 1:19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Freedom.
• 1:19:58
  SPEAKER_02: Go look at the Netflix thing.
• 1:20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Freedom.
• 1:20:01
  SPEAKER_02: All these guys, all these elite, the greats that we call the greats.
• 1:20:06
  SPEAKER_01: Even an American, Quinn Dempsey.
• 1:20:09
  SPEAKER_01: Who's your best American player?
• 1:20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Ever?
• 1:20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Ever.
• 1:20:13
  SPEAKER_02: Not a goalkeeper?
• 1:20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Not a goalkeeper?
• 1:20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, no.
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_02: Who do you think is our best?
• 1:20:17
  SPEAKER_02: If I tell you who is Argentina's best player ever.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, it could be a debate.
• 1:20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Or let's say Brazil's best player ever.
• 1:20:24
  SPEAKER_01: I would say Pale.
• 1:20:25
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:20:26
  SPEAKER_02: So who is America's best player?
• 1:20:32
  SPEAKER_01: Ernie or Tab, probably.
• 1:20:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm different.
• 1:20:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm not I'm not on the kick of Landon Donovan.
• 1:20:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm certainly not on the kick of Christian Polisic.
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_01: What about him?
• 1:20:42
  SPEAKER_01: Fixing used soccer, you said.
• 1:20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, well, we're the best that we've ever been.
• 1:20:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's we finally have guys that are playing in Europe.
• 1:20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 1:20:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, talk to anybody here.
• 1:20:52
  SPEAKER_01: No, they're given more opportunity to play over there because the Europeans finally respect us.
• 1:20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it.
• 1:20:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's the only reason.
• 1:20:58
  SPEAKER_01: There's you're telling me that the guys in the in the in the early 90s, more those guys.
• 1:21:03
  SPEAKER_01: Lannon could have played his entire career in Europe, but he didn't want to.
• 1:21:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, who was it?
• 1:21:08
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody was telling me that um somebody, oh my god, what big time.
• 1:21:12
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody was more it was more important to play in the MLS to help build the MLS and become more sustainable.
• 1:21:20
  SPEAKER_01: But he had options.
• 1:21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Alecko was talking about his dad.
• 1:21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he had the choice of cosmos or real madrid.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and he picked Cosmos.
• 1:21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, right?
• 1:21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like best player, yeah.
• 1:21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Who you got?
• 1:21:37
  SPEAKER_01: But I fell in love with soccer in 1994.
• 1:21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a little that's a little biased.
• 1:21:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I wanted to become a goalkeeper because of freaking Tony Miola, who isn't running that federal goalie.
• 1:21:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Tony Miola against Columbia.
• 1:21:50
  SPEAKER_01: That game changed my life.
• 1:21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:21:52
  SPEAKER_01: 1994.
• 1:21:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I went to USA Switzerland, but I didn't remember.
• 1:21:56
  SPEAKER_01: I uh didn't end up that game at all.
• 1:21:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think, and that's the best USA player ever.
• 1:22:03
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of it we we we categorize the best ever with stats.
• 1:22:09
  SPEAKER_02: You associated with a stat, right?
• 1:22:10
  SPEAKER_02: So if Clint Dempsey had the most goals ever, oh he should be, he's our best.
• 1:22:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:22:14
  SPEAKER_02: But it's not really the case.
• 1:22:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and there's a lot of things that can factor into maybe he had a big influence.
• 1:22:21
  SPEAKER_02: But we haven't had a guy yet, though, that can influence Americans.
• 1:22:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, and we were close with goalkeepers, but then that's gone.
• 1:22:31
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 1:22:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's gone.
• 1:22:32
  SPEAKER_01: Timber remember when it was just Brad Friedel was like, that's what we do.
• 1:22:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we do with goalkeepers.
• 1:22:39
  SPEAKER_01: What the hell happened to that?
• 1:22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we stopped playing multiple sports.
• 1:22:43
  SPEAKER_01: That's what happened.
• 1:22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Probably.
• 1:22:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, you asked one of these guys, hey, what how many sports you play?
• 1:22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:22:49
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I played uh competitively, I played two.
• 1:22:53
  SPEAKER_01: I played I played soccer and I played basketball.
• 1:22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I like that.
• 1:22:56
  SPEAKER_01: Help me get off my line, be able to judge a ball.
• 1:22:59
  SPEAKER_01: Know that instead of jumping and having it be 13 feet, I knew that I drop back and then attack the ball.
• 1:23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like what team did you support in basketball?
• 1:23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Me, bulls.
• 1:23:11
  SPEAKER_01: So listen bandwagon.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_01: I got a story.
• 1:23:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yo, yeah.
• 1:23:14
  SPEAKER_01: Pan wagon free.
• 1:23:16
  SPEAKER_01: I got a story from you.
• 1:23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:23:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm born in Kansas City.
• 1:23:19
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:23:20
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 1:23:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a diehard cheese fan since I was five.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Are you a Niners?
• 1:23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Raiders.
• 1:23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, man.
• 1:23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry for your loss.
• 1:23:32
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, they're in Vegas now.
• 1:23:33
  SPEAKER_01: They're a freaking other state.
• 1:23:34
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's where the next MLS club should come from.
• 1:23:37
  SPEAKER_02: So go on.
• 1:23:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a diehard cheese fan, right?
• 1:23:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 1:23:40
  SPEAKER_01: When I'm six, we move.
• 1:23:43
  SPEAKER_01: My dad gets promo um like a promotion and uh relocated to Michigan.
• 1:23:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 1:23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's 1990, 1991.
• 1:23:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's the the golden era of the Pistons.
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:23:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the mover, the moving company goes, Oh, you're gonna go be a Pistons fan.
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_01: What's a Piston?
• 1:24:04
  SPEAKER_01: What's Pistons?
• 1:24:05
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know what basketball was.
• 1:24:06
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have an NBA team.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have an NBA.
• 1:24:08
  SPEAKER_01: We lost the Kings way before I was born to Sacramento.
• 1:24:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I wasn't, and then what happened when I get there?
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's when Jordan gets over the hump and beats the Pistons.
• 1:24:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so immediately and I was a yeah, I admit I was a bandwagon fan, but that made me fall in love with basketball.
• 1:24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean I remember watching Jordan do something, and then I'd go out in the driveway and try that exact booth.
• 1:24:33
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have that in soccer?
• 1:24:35
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have that in soccer, not Americans.
• 1:24:38
  SPEAKER_02: No, we have them like if you're gonna every kid's gonna say, Oh, I want to be like Messi, or I'm gonna be like uh you know, Ronaldo, you know.
• 1:24:44
  SPEAKER_01: So but but are kids in our country, are they again going back to like can we develop ourselves?
• 1:24:53
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, are they watching Messi and then going outside and trying something?
• 1:24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Are they allowed the freedom to try things that they see Messi do?
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas in basketball, you're telling me that Kobe Bryant wasn't developed by Michael Jordan?
• 1:25:07
  SPEAKER_01: You're telling me that LeBron wasn't developed by Kobe Bryant?
• 1:25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, of course.
• 1:25:11
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:25:12
  SPEAKER_01: We don't have that in soccer, not in this country.
• 1:25:15
  SPEAKER_02: But you know, listen.
• 1:25:16
  SPEAKER_01: But that's why all these academies get all the credit.
• 1:25:19
  SPEAKER_01: La Mesia is amazing.
• 1:25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get me started with this.
• 1:25:22
  SPEAKER_02: No, because look, here's one thing that I have a big problem.
• 1:25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Our system's a little bit rigged too.
• 1:25:29
  SPEAKER_02: Broke it before it's no coincidence that every kid that gets into called into a national team is MLS or some European.
• 1:25:40
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 1:25:41
  SPEAKER_02: Very rarely, very seldom do you see a kid from a non-MLS club.
• 1:25:48
  SPEAKER_02: And and this I know won't be make it, but they literally don't allow other countries are no other countries don't judge a talent by by what club what MLS club they're in.
• 1:26:12
  SPEAKER_02: But here we do.
• 1:26:14
  SPEAKER_02: You look at the list of the U-19s or the U17s called in.
• 1:26:17
  SPEAKER_02: Every player is from an MLS club.
• 1:26:19
  SPEAKER_02: There's not one that says, Oh, I'm from Vardar.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:26:26
  SPEAKER_02: Look at it.
• 1:26:27
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're right.
• 1:26:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's everything is either MLS.
• 1:26:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I get it, I think.
• 1:26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like that on the girl side too.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_01: The perception like that.
• 1:26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it is.
• 1:26:38
  SPEAKER_02: The perception is that like if you're elite, you're already in one of the pros.
• 1:26:44
  SPEAKER_02: But our country is too big for you to say that.
• 1:26:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:26:49
  SPEAKER_02: We should have four national teams.
• 1:26:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like they did back in the world.
• 1:26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Seriously.
• 1:26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Regions.
• 1:26:54
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, they do kind of regionalize it, but they don't really regionalize it.
• 1:26:58
  SPEAKER_02: They don't.
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_02: California alone could be its own country and have a really, really good national.
• 1:27:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 1:27:08
  SPEAKER_02: Florida.
• 1:27:10
  SPEAKER_02: Alone.
• 1:27:12
  SPEAKER_02: New York, New Jersey area.
• 1:27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:27:14
  SPEAKER_02: Alone.
• 1:27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 1:27:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I just talked to uh uh Paul.
• 1:27:20
  SPEAKER_01: I talked to uh to Paul from um uh from oh my god, what club is he from?
• 1:27:25
  SPEAKER_02: City of C.
• 1:27:26
  SPEAKER_01: City of C.
• 1:27:28
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he so the Western Europe Flash Girls ECNL has a team in Tennessee.
• 1:27:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's 11-hour drive.
• 1:27:37
  SPEAKER_01: I go, if you could drive from Scotland back home 11 hours, what country would you be in?
• 1:27:42
  SPEAKER_01: Belgium.
• 1:27:43
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like, and that's what people don't realize is that we are we are not a country.
• 1:27:49
  SPEAKER_01: We are basically Europe.
• 1:27:51
  SPEAKER_02: And we all of Europe.
• 1:27:52
  SPEAKER_01: Except more.
• 1:27:54
  SPEAKER_01: And people don't realize that.
• 1:27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And then people, oh my God, how about the obsession when Win double pass.
• 1:28:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god.
• 1:28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Double pass.
• 1:28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Belgium is amazing.
• 1:28:06
  SPEAKER_01: Belgium's in the top five.
• 1:28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Let's go do what they do.
• 1:28:08
  SPEAKER_01: Iceland goes and makes the semifinal or whatever.
• 1:28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Let's do what they do now.
• 1:28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, every all of a sudden all these Americans travel to Iceland to go watch them do rondos.
• 1:28:19
  SPEAKER_02: Or how about when Netherlands all of a sudden came to the US and now we gotta be like Netherlands?
• 1:28:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was then it was oh now we gotta be like the English.
• 1:28:28
  SPEAKER_02: The English.
• 1:28:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then it's now it's now just everybody here is now it's Spain.
• 1:28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's the Spanish.
• 1:28:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know, will we ever have our own?
• 1:28:38
  SPEAKER_02: Probably not.
• 1:28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Ours was grit and fight and a dog, a junkyard dog.
• 1:28:44
  SPEAKER_01: We're that's gone.
• 1:28:45
  SPEAKER_01: Look at these players that are on our roster.
• 1:28:48
  SPEAKER_01: Our dog is gone.
• 1:28:50
  SPEAKER_02: We're hurting our youth right now.
• 1:28:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because they come to events like this where they don't where they're thinking they're professionals at 15 years old.
• 1:29:02
  SPEAKER_02: They're thinking they're professionals at 15 when they're not even close.
• 1:29:10
  SPEAKER_02: A 15-year-old right now in Europe is probably what?
• 1:29:13
  SPEAKER_02: Battle.
• 1:29:14
  SPEAKER_02: Competing.
• 1:29:16
  SPEAKER_02: Playing at the highest levels, playing up, playing against older guys.
• 1:29:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know how pissed off I'm gonna be when I'm watching a Columbia group stage game and they trot out a 16-year-old, and we are trotting out Gio Reina.
• 1:29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and Gio's good, uh you know, and but he's not what everybody thought he was gonna be.
• 1:29:41
  SPEAKER_01: And but why is that?
• 1:29:42
  SPEAKER_01: Is it because he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth?
• 1:29:46
  SPEAKER_02: Why can't we have a guy, whoever you're gonna wanna anoint, as a young one, like Brazil did with to Ronaldo, like Argentina did with Messi.
• 1:29:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, give them the exposure so they can see it, they learn and say, hey, and maybe that shapes up.
• 1:30:04
  SPEAKER_01: Where's that?
• 1:30:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know what Vardar used to do in State Cup days?
• 1:30:07
  SPEAKER_01: They would bring up, okay.
• 1:30:09
  SPEAKER_01: So let's say there's U-15 State Cup quarterfinals, semifinals.
• 1:30:12
  SPEAKER_01: They would bring up the the best U-14.
• 1:30:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, hey, you're traveling with us for special.
• 1:30:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's what we do so that so that you learn, yeah, and you learn how to fight.
• 1:30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't we have a national team that does that?
• 1:30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Is it because we have an Argentinian as a head coach?
• 1:30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
• 1:30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Does he really care about the United States development?
• 1:30:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think Emma Hayes does, and she's not American, yeah.
• 1:30:34
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, the girl soccer, man, it's it's way more way, way more political, too, though.
• 1:30:42
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, that could be a whole nother podcast, and you know it.
• 1:30:49
  SPEAKER_02: This will never make it, but some of it will.
• 1:30:54
  SPEAKER_02: Some of it, not this though.
• 1:30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Oh god, crazy.
• 1:30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Why are we having gatekeepers?
• 1:31:01
  SPEAKER_02: You see what's happening now in like these tournaments?
• 1:31:04
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean?
• 1:31:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um I just saw something that happened at uh I mean ocean site.
• 1:31:11
  SPEAKER_02: These parents' behavior.
• 1:31:13
  SPEAKER_02: You haven't seen it?
• 1:31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, I did see it.
• 1:31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Eric uh from uh homegrown uh podcast or whatever.
• 1:31:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, was there, I think.
• 1:31:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what a crazy how about that parents fighting in front of kids?
• 1:31:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's wild, man.
• 1:31:29
  SPEAKER_02: Things are changing now.
• 1:31:31
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think it's getting depleted?
• 1:31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like everybody's like, oh, MLS is just letting everybody in.
• 1:31:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's like East and L's doing it too.
• 1:31:38
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, I don't want the gatekeepers anymore.
• 1:31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Let everybody in, but make them start at the bottom, yeah, and make them work their way up.
• 1:31:47
  SPEAKER_01: That's what they do in Europe.
• 1:31:49
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody is obsessed with promotion and relegation, so let's just do that.
• 1:31:53
  SPEAKER_01: That MLS, listen, we're it's not stopping at the academy level, it's coming where there's gonna be a third, there's going to be a fourth, there's going to be a fifth, and everybody just needs to deal with it.
• 1:32:04
  SPEAKER_02: Listen, um, I think like we need to go back to a little bit of like how the DA was where you kind of have to tier it.
• 1:32:11
  SPEAKER_02: And and yeah, my the travel we talked about earlier, right?
• 1:32:15
  SPEAKER_02: How much travel, but it is diluted.
• 1:32:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's so diluted.
• 1:32:24
  SPEAKER_02: In every league, it don't matter where you go.
• 1:32:26
  SPEAKER_02: ECNL's gonna say, oh, ECNL's gonna say this, oh it's only your top three that are better.
• 1:32:33
  SPEAKER_02: Your seventh and eighth and ninth place teams, they're garbage.
• 1:32:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm like, because I'm you know we go to all these events and I'm playing against ECNL teams and we're beating ECNL's teams four or five, zero, and they're like, oh, it's just you guys.
• 1:32:47
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone else in your league is not that good.
• 1:32:50
  SPEAKER_02: I I looked at, okay, so if if your guys are so good and and we're beating your top four or five zero, what makes you think like your your bottom is any better than ours?
• 1:33:04
  SPEAKER_02: No, if if we're beating you four or five zero and you're beating your bottom four or five zero, what's not that gonna be?
• 1:33:11
  SPEAKER_01: What are we gonna do now?
• 1:33:16
  SPEAKER_02: Should they go to RL?
• 1:33:19
  SPEAKER_02: They should go to Academy Division?
• 1:33:21
  SPEAKER_02: What should they do?
• 1:33:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like I just think it's diluted.
• 1:33:26
  SPEAKER_02: If we can go back to where we can have like the best clubs still in the same league doing playing against each other, then I think it'd be better.
• 1:33:34
  SPEAKER_02: But we're like we said earlier, the money or maybe the grieve, or maybe the gatekeepers, or maybe pioneer, or maybe someone.
• 1:33:44
  SPEAKER_02: Someone has to come in and say, and if it's not gonna be US soccer, it's not gonna be our federation.
• 1:33:50
  SPEAKER_01: Fuck, they don't care.
• 1:33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because if they did, if they did care, they wouldn't have folded.
• 1:33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Or okay, and they let's maybe or maybe that was because of the the lawsuit for making from the women, maybe, yeah, whatever.
• 1:34:01
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe they say, hey, let's care about it because this is the right thing to do.
• 1:34:07
  SPEAKER_01: They don't care.
• 1:34:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's why they allow any platform to just do whatever they want.
• 1:34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't it be great to have some leadership?
• 1:34:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're the only nation in the world, we're the only nation in the world that has competing governing bodies.
• 1:34:22
  SPEAKER_01: It's like why yeah, where's our federation?
• 1:34:25
  SPEAKER_01: If you think the FA just allows like again, we're too big.
• 1:34:32
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't it nice though?
• 1:34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, we're too big, but I am from Michigan, yeah, and you are from California, and we see eye to eye.
• 1:34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there's more people like us than oh for sure, and they just need to be more vocal and they need to be heard and they need to have a voice.
• 1:34:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I guess that's why Luis brought me here is because to see different perspectives.
• 1:34:55
  SPEAKER_01: He wanted he was adamant about me having non-MLS guys on, too, because that's why relate to more, yeah.
• 1:35:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I talk to one of the MLS academies, that's like a different language to me.
• 1:35:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't compute with that.
• 1:35:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:35:12
  SPEAKER_01: They they're we don't have an MLS team in Michigan, and we did in New York, but it was six hours away.
• 1:35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we don't I don't relate to any of that.
• 1:35:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's no and you think NYC or uh yeah, NYCFC is coming to Buffalo to for players?
• 1:35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Nope.
• 1:35:31
  SPEAKER_02: Man, but the landscape's as big as it is, it's getting better.
• 1:35:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think it is too.
• 1:35:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and I see this and I have hope.
• 1:35:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like though, with the different tiers and stuff like that.
• 1:35:43
  SPEAKER_01: No, any club could say, oh, we're MLS next.
• 1:35:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, no, you're MLS next academy, and your ATM is the academy.
• 1:35:52
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, can you be a little I love the inclusiveness, but it's just we need to like sometimes you do need to create a little differentiation differentiation between one and the other.
• 1:36:03
  SPEAKER_01: Everything should be uh said, but part of the vision is if I look at these two fields, I know that like I I'm not supposed to know which is homegrown and which is academy, and it's like well, your eyes don't lie either.
• 1:36:18
  SPEAKER_02: Your eyes don't lie.
• 1:36:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, this is a little different over here than this one we hear.
• 1:36:22
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, especially if fast when when only some teams played on the grass.
• 1:36:29
  SPEAKER_02: So, but yeah, I understand that port that part of like, oh, you're not supposed to, but sometimes like when you're I don't know, when you're a player, you you want to know that's another homegrown team there.
• 1:36:43
  SPEAKER_02: And we might be playing that team.
• 1:36:46
  SPEAKER_02: No, not oh this guy that's that's A D.
• 1:36:50
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:36:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for doing this, yeah.
• 1:36:55
  SPEAKER_01: No, my pleasure.
• 1:36:56
  SPEAKER_01: I will give you final cut.
• 1:36:58
  SPEAKER_01: No, you it'll be a couple weeks.
• 1:37:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know.
• 1:37:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm always available, you know.
• 1:37:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like if anything, if you wanna if you ever want to do something else, like, or I'd like to come out to California when you see what all is going on out there and more in depth.
• 1:37:11
  SPEAKER_02: You can, you know, I'm always available.
• 1:37:12
  SPEAKER_01: Just send me a message and I'll get your number after this.
• 1:37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 1:37:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks, brother.
• 1:37:17
  SPEAKER_01: Great to meet you.
• 1:37:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, pleasure.
• 1:37:19
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 1:37:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now your ears are free.
• 1:37:22
  SPEAKER_01: I hate soccer.
• 1:37:25
  SPEAKER_01: This episode is brought to you by the North American Soccer Expo.
• 1:37:29
  SPEAKER_01: If you remember last year when I had Alexi Lawless on, so many of you were blown away and kept on messaging me, how did you get Alexi Lawless to talk to you?
• 1:37:40
  SPEAKER_01: And to be honest with you, it was the North American Soccer Expo.
• 1:37:44
  SPEAKER_01: The Expo has workshops and seminars and field presentations from top coaches and industry experts.
• 1:37:52
  SPEAKER_01: I will be there this year.
• 1:37:54
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 1:37:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'll be set up on podcast remote.
• 1:37:57
  SPEAKER_01: In addition to the podcasts that I'm going to be filming there, I'm also going to have an open hour where any coach at the expo or anybody at the expo can come sit down at the chair and have a one on one 15 minute chat with me, and you guys can just come and chat and talk about whatever you want.
• 1:38:15
  SPEAKER_01: North American Summer Expo, July 30th to August 1st, Novae, Michigan.
• 1:38:21
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you there.