Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #100 - Alecko Eskandarian, from MLS player to the front office!

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I Hate Soccer #100 - Alecko Eskandarian, from MLS player to the front office! · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: The second episode from my time in Utah at the MLS next couple playoffs was Alecko Eskaderian.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: Aleko is currently in Major League Soccer's front office.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: He is the vice president of player relations and player development, where he kind of uh oversees all the homegrown contracts.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_02: But we talk about kind of his career a little bit.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we talk about his dad starting his own soccer shop and the importance of having soccer shops because you know in Buffalo there are no soccer shops.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: You have to go to like Dick Sporting Goods or order online.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um we talk about how how to beat an assassin or a killer in front of goal.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, this guy he scored 50 collegiate goals for Virginia in 60 appearances, including like 25 in 2002 where he won the Herman trophy.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: But uh we talk about the the future of MLS next and MLS and US soccer, and we talk about uh the upcoming World Cup.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: We talk about is this the best generation of soccer players in this country?
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and I I mean just to be able to sit down with him was a was really a privilege.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh again, as always, please like, subscribe, uh, share everywhere.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: If you feel very generous, uh please leave a review or a comment and just help get this out in front of as many people uh that will enjoy it.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: We just hit 62,000 downloads.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to get to 100 by Christmas or 100,000 by Christmas, so enjoy the show.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just saw that hat and then I was like, I gotta get that hat.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then now you're wearing it.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: Is that from your dad's shop?
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes, it is actually.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, tell me about that.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I have spent the last 11 years in Buffalo, New York.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: I what took me out there is to work with the Western Europe Flash and NWSL.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then I uh and then they sold and they moved to North uh Carolina, but um I started my own training company.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and uh Buffalo does not have a soccer-specific store.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I come from Michigan, where we have tons of soccer-specific stores, and it's like, what made your dad want to start a store?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_01: Or my dad?
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, honestly, um, he's he's probably better equipped to answer it.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: But my my dad played in the 78 World Cup from the 78 World Cup, got signed by the New York Cosmos in their heyday, played um up until 85, and I think at that moment NASL was like dissolving and all that.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think he had opportunities to go abroad and and other places, but I was young, I was probably three years old at the time.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh my older brother is three years older than me.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think they were just settled in New Jersey and and wanted to stay involved in the game and and not relocate.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, it just uh happened pretty organically.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I'm pretty sure it was the first soccer store at that time in the entire state or eastern region, even so it was uh pretty pretty forward thinking for sure.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And New Jersey, I mean it's a hotbed, you know, because 94 World Cup changed my life.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's when I really fell in love with the game.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew about like John Harks and Tony Miola, they're all Carney, New Jersey kids.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: What is it about New Jersey?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: Is it just because it's old or or it's a set you like think about yourself?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: Are you second generation or are you a third like my my parents?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean soccer player though.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that you look at New Jersey.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_02: I I talked to uh Wade Weber from uh Seattle yesterday.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: He Seattle, St.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Louis, all these older generations where you're second and third generation soccer players.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: For sure.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that makes all the difference in the world, absolutely, and but for me, New Jersey is a special place, man.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh immigrant hotbed, and um, that to me was the coolest part of my childhood.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, for me, my childhood was different growing up going to Cosmos games and juggling the ball with Pele and Carlos Alberto and Franz Beckenbauer, like those are like my buddies uh as a kid.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but growing up through the club scene, it was awesome how like every club team I played on was like United Nations.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: You had a couple Jamaican guys, a couple Colombian guys, a couple Italian guys.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's just a mix of of guys whose families were not born in in this country.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think the passion for soccer was probably a lot stronger within those households.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And for me as well, like soccer was number one.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: We are like through and through a soccer family.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I feel like there were a lot of like-minded families in New Jersey, which as I got older, I I learned to realize that's not the case in in other parts of the country.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: How okay, you and obviously you came up, you were playing high school.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: You you played you played club, obviously, way different landscape now.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and then where did you play college?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: UVA.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah, Virginia, and then obviously MOS.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: When okay, I asked Wade this yesterday.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: What what was your first year in the MOS?
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: 2003.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so it's uh what eight years, nine years old?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_02: The the league at that time, yeah, and you saw what what your dad's league went through.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: Did you feel like an obligation or something?
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like not an obligation, that might not be the right word, but just wanting to make sure that this stays alive.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_01: I had not to not to toot my own horn, um, but it's something I look back on and and I and I wonder.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I had opportunities, I had offers from Sporting Lisbon, um, from uh Gatafe in Spain, from um uh club in Denmark, Alborg.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: There were like plenty of opportunities abroad to to go play.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And to be honest with you, I feel like my entire uh generation of call it guys born from like 1980 to 85, we had a sense of pride, even with our youth national teams, of like putting the US on the map.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: And my my uh U7 age group was the one with Landon and Demarcus Beasley and Oguchi Oneyebu, Bobby Convy, all these guys, Kyle Beckerman.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Were you at residency at all at IMG?
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was a late bloomer though.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I got called in at the very end, right before uh the team went off to New Zealand and I did really well.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: John Ellinger, the coach, pulled me aside and was like, I'm sorry, we didn't know what you were capable of.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: I've had guys that have been in residency for two years, I can't cut them, and you've only been here for two months.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I was only in residency for like two months.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that is what changed my career because I it created a monster.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: I had a huge chip on my shoulder after that, where I was like, I know I should be on this team, I know I'm I'm good enough.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but it was uh a learning lesson for me where I was like I wasn't showing enough in in my earlier years.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was a little bit more reluctant and and and uh probably uh not as confident.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that moment changed my soccer career where I was like, I'm never gonna leave this to doubt ever again.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like every time I step on the field, I'm doing everything I can to show what I could do and help my team win.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh but yeah, that that that's that cut cut deep uh uh in that uh I I never played the same way again after after being cut from the 17th National team.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: One of my first one of my first entry points into like elite soccer was a guy named Kellen Kalso.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, he was on the team, yeah.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: He was there, yeah, you know, and and he his dad owned a soccer shop in like in my hometown.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: I forgot, I did I just don't remember.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: That was Chubbs.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh god, yeah, and and he was legit, and he was the best player, you know, around whatnot.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: But no, that that group that we had for our use of the national team is like every guy went on to be a pro and have top careers, so like it we we had a huge sense of pride of beating kind of the the big name countries around the world, and I think it carried over when MLS started, where we're like, we want to be part of this, we want to make this league uh become one of the top leagues in the world.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_02: So this episode is brought to you by Camp Shutout.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: Camp Shutout is the largest goalkeeper camp in the entire world.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: Camp Shutout was founded in like 1989, and I think I think there were three goalkeepers.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: I think there are three goalkeepers.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_02: Now there are over 500 in the big show.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_02: The big show is ages like 14 and up, and the little show or little big show is ages 10 to 13, and I think it's another 400 this year.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: The little big show is July 13th to the 17th, and the big show is July 19th to the 24th.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: I actually had Stan Anderson, the founder of Camp Shutout, on I hate soccer number 73.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_02: I went out to his roadshow in Grand Rapids in December.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: If you're a goalkeeper, you gotta you gotta get to this camp.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a goalkeeper guy.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm trying to get to this camp.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: There are still spots available, and you can register at campshutout.com and follow follow along.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: They have great social media at uh camp shutout.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't we have residency anymore?
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: Why why why'd we get rid of that?
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: I think do you think it could come back?
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: Potentially.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're seeing now with the academies have their own residencies now.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think we're seeing a bunch of mini versions of residency now, but I think it it went away because there was a group that had a bad experience, and I don't know, maybe it was leadership, maybe it was the kids.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure exactly what happened there, but for me it was fantastic.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Getting away, playing soccer every single day, multiple times a day was the best thing we could we could ask for.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: And do you I mean, now with your role in the MLS, and I was just talking to Andrew from uh from uh Colorado Rapids, and I've had Jordan Nown on from Real Salt Lake, and do you think that we're headed to where all the MLS academies have residency?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: I hope so.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I just think it's uh a critical component, and I think it's you know the benefits.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when we talk about best practices globally, it's not a secret that a lot of these top players at some point were in a residency uh that helped, you know, boom their their success.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I do hope that we get to that point.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: With that said, the US is such a different landscape than the rest of the world.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: There are so many different uh factors to uh consider.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: But um, I do think some of the clubs that have adopted the residency model are seeing a lot of benefits from it.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Go back to how you were saying that uh you turned down going overseas because you wanted to help uh build something and and sustain something, and obviously you've made your life dedicated to it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, just go into the importance of because everybody still questions like Landon Donovan, like why didn't he go overseas more or longer?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like he might have been in that same uh thought process as you were, right?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, with Landon was different.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: He when we were at residency with the 17s, he was the first guy to go to Levercrucent.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think he was 16 at the time and and have those opportunities.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I think yeah, but a bunch of other guys had had opportunities, but there's something to be said about you know being respected in a way with with you know, when you go abroad, especially at that time, you were already going in with like lack of support, lack of expectations, and I I feel like it was almost taboo to have like an American playing at a European club in those days.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I think that pissed a lot of us off.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so being able to be around our peers with uh North American players in MLS and and and try to beat those guys is something that a challenge that I think we wanted to take on.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and obviously we took it on with the national teams as well.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, okay, and I get frustrated and getting in these arguments is like everybody's talking about right now and and our generation of current players right now, and it's it's the best ever because everybody's in Europe.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Who's saying that?
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, so exactly, and I am right there with you.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: I am right there with you, and I feel that the only thing that has changed is that the more there's more opportunities given to Americans now because they respect us just a little bit more.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that these guys are better than what was coming up through the 90s or the early 2000s.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: No, it's there are some trailblazers that need to be thanked and recognized for opening the doors for Americans to play in Europe, right?
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Guys like Brian McRid and Clint Dempsey, Carlos Bocanegra, Tim Howard, right?
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like you could almost go positionally, right?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: Because there was a while where it was like, all right, goalkeeper, all right, we'll take your USA is the best goalkeepers, Gaffkeepers, but everyone else, you know, push them to the side.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, that's where guys like Clint I think made a big difference.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Landon, even going back, uh, made a big difference of just earning respect.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and now you see Christian and West and all these guys find success out there as well, which is great.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: But it's never it's not that they weren't good enough before, it's just that they weren't wanted or respected uh, you know, two, three decades ago to even get those opportunities.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: And now you're seeing uh not not only get the opportunity, but it's actually now in part with the uh level of American ownership that's out there as well.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's seen almost as uh uh a benefit to be American to get happy opportunities to make that your right, and I mean the hoops to get your work visa and stuff like that, that's even easier than it was 10 years ago, let alone 20 or 30 years ago.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean thinking about your dad, what brought him to the United States?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like what what it what what wanted make what made him stay here?
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm sure he had maybe options too.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, his his uh it's his story to tell, but his decision was Real Madrid or New York Cosmos.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I have uh my dad is a special human being, is one of the best people I've ever met in my life.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: But um, when you ask him, it's to give his family a better life.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh obviously growing up in Iran, they dealt with their own set of hardships.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, although this was a previous regime to the one that is there now.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh yeah, I think just very forward thinking of what would be a place to raise a family, and uh they decided the the US and and New York, New Jersey was was the place to be.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: So very, very grateful for that.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: Although I do wonder what my life would look like if uh if he was a Madrid player, but um yeah, it's it's interesting.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: But all those guys on the Cosmers, when you look at the stars that came over, it was a responsibility to grow this game in in the US, right?
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the odds of it to heart.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Did they take the the closing of the league to heart too?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: Did they feel like yeah, well, what was that?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: What was that like for them?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Did they feel like they failed?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I think it was uh business decisions that failed.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I think that was ultimately uh where you know maybe is uh too much expansion too soon, and uh a few people maybe bit off more than they could chew.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: But uh ultimately, I think when you look back at the New York Cosmos legacy, they were selling out a giant stadium week in, week out.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And to this day, every week someone reaches comes up to me or sends me a DM or something of like, I grew up with your father's generation of watching the cosmos, and that's what inspired me to play this game or be involved in the game.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I think they they uh far exceeded uh any of the expectations.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then you coached the cosmos.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: I did, yeah.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: What was that full circle moment like?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty cool.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty cool.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um obviously a different chapter of the Cosmos.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and uh when Gio Salvarisi called me with the opportunity to coach them, uh it just made all the sense in the world.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, it took a great sense of pride.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it was it was definitely a full circle moment because those were my earliest memories playing the game and and being at Giant Stadium, and uh yeah, to see the the brand and the club reincarnated was uh a great feeling, and to have guys like Marcos Senna and Raul wear the shirt and and uh bring back a bit of those blurry years was a special feeling.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_02: And now and now your role with the MOS is the league healthier than it ever has been?
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, absolutely.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's never been a better time to be a young American soccer player uh in this country.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh the opportunities are endless, and the investment that's being made uh in player development in the youth is is special.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_02: How old were you in '94?
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: 10, 12?
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: I was 12 years old.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_02: So you remember how big that World Cup was?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: It changed all of our lives.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: That Columbia game, that USA Columbia game was the one.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_02: I went to the one in Michigan uh at the Silverdome, USA versus Switzerland the the week before.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: But it was the Columbia game that really just that I was done.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, anyway, I was sold.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: And do you feel like we have a chance to do that again to capture the minds of kids all over the country?
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: To me, I was just telling someone earlier today, regardless of the results, I just hope the team inspires because I know how much I was inspired by by the World Cup.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: Seeing the US win, you know, beat Colombia and compete against world powers.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but even again, yeah, being able to watch some of the other top players uh from the other countries.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: I watched Christoph Stuitchkov, Bulgaria played a couple games at Giant Stadium.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I watched him play, and I'm a left-footed striker like him.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_01: He was like my idol.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: I had his poster on my wall.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: Fast forward eight years later, he's my teammate at DC United.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like you have all these full circle moments, but you draw it back to those moments that really inspired you.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe fall in love with the game.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like uh this group has a great opportunity to inspire the next generation of stars.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: And it doesn't only have to be the United States, it could be just just great games.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Stop about the drama, about like the ticket pricing and everything, which I mean to get into a Buffalo Bills game in their new stadium is like$800 right now.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, and that happens every single year.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_02: So why uh I mean this is every 30 years, literally, every 30 years the World Cup is gonna be here, you know.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um okay.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Some people are talking about Geo, like Geo Reyna coming back to MLS.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: And then they're acting like it's a failure.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: I am so sick of people that don't watch MLS ripping on the MLS.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: And like, how do you how frustrating is it for you?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: To be honest with you, you don't listen to the noise?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think there's a lot of people that just don't want the game to succeed, to be honest with you, because at the end of the day, or they're just looking for clicks trying to make a living or whatever it is, stir up drama.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so for me, yeah, I don't I don't take any of that seriously because there's no merit to it, right?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: There's there are people out there that literally are just looking for things like you said to complain about or to stir up the pot or to create noise, and it's usually for their own self-interest, if we're being totally honest here.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, any player, whether it's Gio Reino, whether it's Christian Ronaldo, whoever we're talking about, and it goes back to my dad.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like you have opportunities in your life to make a decision that's best for you and your family.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: No one else's opinion matters, right?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's a very personal choice, personal decision.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: All we can focus on as a league is trying to make our league as attractive as possible, to improve the quality of play, to uh support these guys off the field as well and just make it a place that players want to be.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: And as long as we do that and we were able to convince one of the greatest, if not the greatest player in the world to do that, I think we're doing something right.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: With that said, we have a ton of work to do.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: There's no question about it.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: We we are very uh humbly optimistic in in our league offices about the work that needs to be put in, but we're willing to do it, and we have great support, great ownership that has shown time and time again that they want this sport to grow in this country.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, the outside noise, people are always are are always gonna find something negative to say no matter what.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: And we're always open to cons constructive criticism, but I feel really good about the progress that we've been making.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean you talk about outside noise, the obsession.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: With promotion and relegation and opening up the league and stuff like that.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I was at a soccer expo last summer.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: I talked to like Alexi Lawless, but I was gonna have Peter Vermise on.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: Nice.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: And Peter Vermees had a QA and somebody asked him that question.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, good luck talking to billionaires into maybe losing millions and millions and millions of dollars by getting relegated.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's like that I don't I don't see that happening here because who how many how many uh teams lose money every year?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then not necessarily MLS, but just like in the USL or whatever the league all over the world.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is this is uh like Rex almost closed.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: The the funny thing for me, and and where I stand with provisional relegation, I'm just speaking for myself, I'll never say never, right?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I do think that at some point there might be a time where it makes sense for everyone evolved that maybe that is an option.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: With that said, it's very interesting to me how many top officials from top clubs around the world have come visited our league offices and been like, we like this model so much better.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: I know they want to get rid of promotion relegation, they tried to do the super league during COVID, right?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and it's like, guys, why are they trying to copy our model?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like yeah, and I there's a lot of smart people out there that if if there was a way to do it uh that protected the investment, I I think they would be all for it, but we'll see.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: Personally, I don't okay, the relegation battle is exciting.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: Tottenham, you know what's not exciting?
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_02: The top, because it's always this I'm talking purely the EPL.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's the same five clubs in the top four out of the last 12 years.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_02: Only one year did they not have at least three of those top five clubs in the top four?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's like how that's like literally the Dallas Cowboys winning every or being in the Super Bowl every single year.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's fun.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're dealing with the Dodgers like that, you know.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, are you a Yankees fan?
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a Mets fan.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_02: So long suffering.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, yeah, what is your role right now with the ML?
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: Well, first of all, why okay, what is your role in the MLS?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I'll get to that uh by second question.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I wish I had like a one-sentence response for you, but I I wear a ton of different hats, but my focus is on the pro player pathway.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_01: So everything from grassroots all the way up to that results in a pro contract, um, I think my fingerprints hit some aspect of it.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: My focus is on retaining our top talent.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: So assisting all 30 of our clubs to make sure that they are offering the right pathway, the right IDPs, and ultimately a professional contract to these top players that are coming through their academic.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: That stretches out into a lot more because with our single entity model, every contract is with the league, not with the individual clubs.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: So, my department, we help draft, execute, and distribute every single contract for every single player in MLS.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: I focus more on the technical side based on my background expertise.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I offer support to all 30 of our clubs anyway that I can.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: And so when you say retain, you're saying keeping them from going to Euro.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what you mean by retain?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I would say making sure that if they're on the pathway in this country, that it results in a pro-contract with MLS.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: We would love for these top players to start their careers with MLS.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I think in hand in hand with that, is you've seen a lot of a lot more movement of players that sign MLS that are given opportunities abroad, and we've facilitated dozens of transfers uh just over the last five years alone, which was non-existent back when I was playing.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_02: Think about this season.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: This season alone, there are so many more kids playing, and I love it.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yep, same.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a little bit it's about time.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's about time.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a little upset about our roster, didn't go the same route.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get frustrated when I see a 16-year-old Spanish kid or a 16-year-old uh Colombian come onto the field and we're we're subbing in a 24-year-old striker.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's like just give the Kevin a chance or just let him be a part of the tournament and see what goes into that because he's gonna be part of the next cycle.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, or some uh some maybe not him specifically, but you know, I I thought some of our some of our top young players uh made a good case for themselves based on their their production in the early part of the the season that they should be considered, and I know that they were considered ultimately.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the coach has to make the best decision for for his own roster, but um, but I think the most important thing is that we have not just one or two, which it used to be just Landon or just Christian.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're seeing seven, eight guys that are really getting quality minutes as teenagers that you're like, damn, this could be the next wave of talent that's gonna represent a national team, which is really exciting.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_02: What I was gonna ask you is that okay, so you coach the Cosmos and then you're off the field.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_02: But why did you get off the field?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_02: Or do you miss it?
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I I I miss being on the field, I miss being in the locker room, I miss uh having that impact in a player's career and and kind of paying it forward uh with everything that I learned and experienced in my career.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: But I feel like I could have more of an impact in my role now with MLS.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a lot more, I don't know, it's it's fulfilling for me to try to make changes that I think are gonna help progress the entire sport in the entire country and North America.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I I get a lot of gratitude and and uh fulfillment from that.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so I haven't I haven't turned back.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: I don't miss the travel schedule of of coaching, even though I travel just as much, if if not more now.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I feel like there's a larger impact, and and that's what that's what I was put here for.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: What are you doing here this week?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: Here, uh just evaluating the talent that's out here.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for me, it's important to have a pulse on who kind of the next up-and-comers are.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, seeing how our clubs are operating, the MLS Academies, and then obviously the entire MLS next landscape.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but then this is you know, boots on the ground.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: This is where the true soccer people are.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: So tons of different meetings.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there are a couple players here that we're in the midst of negotiating with and and signing to MLS Homegrown Contracts.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: So checking out those players, speaking to some agents, speaking to some of the club uh officials that are here.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but ultimately I think it's important for me to have a presence at events like this.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: What goes into the the MLS homegrown contracts and everything that you're doing?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: How is it all from MLS Academies?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: Or is it from MLS Next as well?
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_02: Or maybe a Cedar SARS, or how does it how does the whole process work?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, an MLS contract would be with an MLS club, right?
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: So obviously the player would be with the MLS Academy at some point.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: So whether they come from another next academy or elite academy, whatever it is, they would have to be joining that MLS bug to then be on Got it.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: And you deal with those contracts.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Got it.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: So do the clubs so does the clubs contact you and then you facilitate or essentially we work together.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's collaboration, right?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: Got it for to me, it's just helping to support any way that I can, whether that's uh completely stepping the club's shoes and helping them execute or just offering assistance any way that I can.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: But ultimately, my group would be the one that drafts the contract.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: So we are hand in hand with the clubs in terms of negotiating the terms and so now.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, do you see some?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need to name names.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do you see some clubs or maybe some areas of the country that are just maybe just doing a better job?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Or is it just because of volume of player?
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, because we talk about New Jersey, we talk about uh Seattle, we talk about St.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: Louis.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: What I mean, do you see anything like any Yeah?
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: The the beautiful thing is we're finally at a point where every club has their own identity, their own philosophy, their own pathway.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so what Philly does might be different than what LAFC does, might be different than what FC Dallas does, might be different than what Colorado does.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: So they all have their own unique identity now and their own pathway, and it's up to them to convince their players that that pathway is the right one for them.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, again, we like that individuality.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: We like that clubs uh have their own benchmarks and their own process in terms of signing players.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: You saw with San Diego, even without their academy completely established, they went out and traded for a bunch of homegrowns that they gave minutes to.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Guys that were signed with other clubs but not getting minutes.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: Luca Bombino, David Vasquez, uh draft picks like Manudua, Ian Pilcher, like it was a little bit unheard of at that time for this many young players to be in a starting lineup and then to go out and win the West.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think everyone was like, wait a minute, the kids can play a little bit.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not there, used to be this myth that oh, if I play the youth, I'm gonna lose and I can't make the playoffs.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's just not the case, right?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you have to coach them up a little bit differently, but I think more and more clubs are showing that you can play the youth and win.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I mean that's being proven all over, and it's also I think it's the world obviously shows that.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, one of the best players in in the world is them all, yep, you know, and he's gonna be 18 in this World Cup, 19 maybe.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_02: So boy.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_02: How how do you think okay?
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we talked about 20 years, 10 years.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_02: What is it gonna look like 10 years from now?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, are we gonna expand more clubs?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: Are we going to I mean, I've talked to Luis a little bit about this of what he wants to see in the MOS next, you know, and more clubs, and then everybody's talking about how oh you're just diluting or or uh depleting the the level.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I don't agree with that at all.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: I want as many clubs in this environment as possible because then you know what you're up against.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: And were you at FEST at all?
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_02: I my favorite thing at FEST was how the pro player pathway were on those four grass fields, and then you saw all the academy kids and all the homegrown kids watching that, and it sometimes you think like, oh, I could go and play them, they're not that good, but most of the kids watching were like, Oh my god, right?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: There's just layers to this.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: You guys like why not open this up and and it and allow more in and not be an exclusive, you know.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody from US Soccer told me, it's like they're talking about it's a gated community.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: MLS Next isn't no, not at all.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_01: And and we're definitely doing everything in our power to change that, to change the landscape.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_01: To be honest with you, there's been, and I don't think this is anything uh controversial that I'm saying, but the lack of clarity in the youth landscape over the last call it 30, 40 years has been disastrous towards player developed.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: When we think about all the different acronyms that that exist, and for me, I talk to parents every week.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: And and my age now, a lot of my kids, uh a lot of my uh friends have kids that are playing, and it seems like every week there's a new acronym.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, Do you know about this league?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Do you know about this?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_02: What's N1?
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, and and I think for us with MLS Next, one of our goals was to bring clarity to this landscape and to try to um bring professionalism and standards and minimum requirements, and uh to try to separate uh ourselves from the rest from a technical standpoint, from a professionalism standpoint from a pathway standpoint.
• 34:11
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I do think the country is large enough that you still need these other leagues and and other pathways, absolutely, right?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: The more kids playing soccer, period, the better for everyone.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_01: With that said, I I think we are focused on ourselves.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Rising tide lifts all boats.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: As long as we focus on making this the best league, the best product possible, increasing the level of of play, increasing the the uh professionalism of all the clubs that are participating in it.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: I think it the rest will take care of itself.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_02: How important do you think it is that MLS is the league or MLS is uh looking over that?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I don't see other uh professional leagues run the youth.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's like there's not an EPL youth league, although they have youth teams, you know what I mean?
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I think the clarity that you speak of keeping that MLS in your name provides that clarity because you know that it's MLS.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it certainly helps, but again, the the standards are what we make it, right?
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: So as long as we put the work in to try to make it as as you know the best product possible, then that's where we're most folks at.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_01: If we had a terrible product, then that would reflect on the MLS name as well.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: So uh I think we take a lot of pride in in the work that we put in.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: And like I said, we're very fortunate to have owners that are investing millions and millions of dollars into this because they believe in the future, they believe in the youth and they believe in what this pathway is is going to us out.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: Hey guys, thanks for watching this episode with Alecko Escadarian.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: In addition to the main show that you're watching right now, I also have a Patreon account where I host bonus episodes.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_02: Here's an excerpt from a bonus episode with one of my players, Ava Plezia from University of South Florida, after she transferred from Kentucky.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some coaches would reach out to me first, but then they kind of reached out to him first, and then he reached out to me.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of thing.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: What you said that you weren't gonna go into the portal 100%?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: No, I was like, it was oh my gosh, I don't even know.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: My brain was like a mess because I originally like I had been thinking about it for a couple weeks.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I talked to Brittany, like we were still in season, but I like she was like obviously like she played in college, so I talked to her and I was just like kind of talking about like how I'm not really enjoying soccer or whatever, just getting her advice.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: She was super helpful.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then um, she was like, call Eric, and then I talked to him, and then he was the one that brought up the portal.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't even really thinking about the portal, and then he was the one that brought it up, and so then I had like started talking to my parents about it, and this was like this was like before even like the SEC tournament, like this was like in season.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: Check out this full episode on the I Hate Soccer Patreon account.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_02: And how I mean Luis uh talks about this the other night.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you you say about the owners.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's like Lamar Hunt built a lot of what soccer is in this country, right?
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: And Clark Hunt, his son, is not gonna allow things to fail.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: Robert Kraft is not gonna allow our um um Atlanta the um Arthur Blank.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: Arthur Blank.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's not gonna allow this to fail.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, look what he just did for U.S.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: soccer, right?
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: He's the bit one of the biggest donors to US soccer, and and everybody's talking about, and we don't have to get into this, but I get frustrated when everybody's like USL and or ECNL, and it's like billionaires versus millionaires.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: Usually the billionaires are winning the win.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: Usually, but we don't need to get into that.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: I don't view it that way though, because at the end of the day, the club that I grew up playing for in Jersey, we didn't have jerseys, we had t-shirts, club t-shirts, or uh camp t-shirts were our jerseys, and it was the best environment that I could have ever asked for.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because there were a lot of former pros that were running the club.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: We had immigrant players from all over that were top talented players, and at the end of the day, everything else is noise.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, we live in a world now where social media and Instagram and TikTok and everyone's trying to like advertise themselves and and showcase all these things.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Being in a top soccer environment, it's not about the bells and whistles, right?
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_01: Right, sure, it's nice when you have it, but to me, I'm I'm grateful that I had to uh grow up in not a perfect environment where we faced a ton of adversity, we didn't have the nice fields to practice on.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like that only made us better in the long run, where you earn the right and the privilege to play on those nice fields.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like um our kids are a little bit pampered and spoiled.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: And when I compare the top talents from around the world to where we're at, one thing those guys have in common is facing adversity and facing pressure at these young ages.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's something that we are we are still trying to get to uh in this landscape.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when we talk about adversity and and pressure, sometimes that's just hardships through life, right?
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's life circumstances, which a lot of our kids are very blessed and and and lucky to not have to deal with those things.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not something that we want to replicate, right?
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: To have kids that are like at 15 years old thinking, I have to make this team or else I'm gonna be a bus driver for the rest of my life, right?
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's a real that's a real pressure for a lot of kids in other parts of the world that our kids through education and college and scholarships and so on.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think any of the kids here are are really facing that dilemma.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you could understand that how that shifts your mentality, right?
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a young player thinking this is my only avenue out to make it to better my life, better my family, you're gonna play with a different type of grit.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: We need to find ways to make our kids adopt that same mentality and grit without having those same hardshares, if that makes sense.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think that we've abandoned that?
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because US soccer, our national teams used to always be grit, um uh persistence, right?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh never say die attitude.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_02: And are we are we losing that a little bit?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: I hope not.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_01: It needs to be part of our fabric.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: And um I think it's up to it's up to all of us to make sure that we don't lose that.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: That that goes from the players themselves to their parents to the club coaches, leadership, all the way on up to the pro teams, pro leagues.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: It's important that that always stays a part of our fabric because if we want to compete, if we were we are serious about being uh one of the top countries in the world, that has to be part of it.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because like I said, any one of those guys that you talk to, all those guys that made it, it wasn't just through being told that they were the best from 10 years old up.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: They had to fight and claw and earn it because the uh the outcome, if they didn't make it, would be disastrous.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: And our kids don't have that.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I think again, I talk about New Jersey, an immigrant uh family.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_01: For me, that was ingrained from my from my parents, right?
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like what they went through, I did not have to face, but they made sure my brother and I understood and appreciated what we have.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think that that education needs to be part of our capital.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember Brendan Rogers when they when he was coaching Liverpool and they had a uh they had a documentary.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: He was like, I wasn't born with a silver spoon, I was born with a silver shovel.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I always think about that as like that's what we need.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_02: And and yeah, you can have all these great things to your disposal, but at the end of the day, you have to have that fight and suffer and sacrifice.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_02: Think about a lot of these MLS next, or not the MLS next, think about the MLS Academy kids.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them are they they're from New York, but they live in Kansas City with a host family.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's a sacrifice, that's a sacrifice that a lot of parents are are giving their kids, and and some I uh in Michigan there was a family that just up and moved to New York so he could play for Red Bulls, right?
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that at that time they had a rule.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if they still have that rule or not, that they don't do host families and whatnot.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: But that's what exactly what you're talking about, that struggle that's the suffering and listen.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: When when I watched U-17, U-20s Olympic team losing to Morocco.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, a lot of talented players on that those Moroccan national teams, but the biggest difference for me was that look in their eye of like willing to fight and claw for every single ball, right?
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: Every single 50-50, every pass, every like important play in that game.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_01: You just see a different level of like fight and and care and commitment in those guys' eyes.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's something that we are lacking.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that our national team used to have, and we used to have to rely on that because we didn't have the technical standards of other countries.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think now we've made so much progress uh in the US with the technical standards, we can't lose that grid.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the one thing I've seen that's that's holding us back from getting to that next level.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_01: We can't lose that.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: One of my old mentors used to say that the difference is if the U 17s play Brazil, if the Brazilians lose, they go back to the ghetto.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: R 17s lose and they get to go to Duke.
• 43:59
  unknown: Correct.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what he would always say.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, no, kind of.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: I said, my dad told me when I was a kid growing up, my dad pulled me aside at a very young age and said, When you're out there, you got to play like you're starving, like you haven't eight.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: People on the outside should wonder if you're homeless because of your grit and determination that you have when you're playing.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you and off the field, be a respectful, good guy, good, get good grades in school, all those things.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: But on the field, when you step on those white lines, there has to be a different edge, a different mentality that you're out there like that ball is food that you haven't seen in weeks.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, it took me time to like understand that and grasp that.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: But that became a part of who I was.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, you have to be a different character when you step on that field.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: And if not, as my dad would say, go play ping pong, go play some other sport because you're not going to make it if you're going to go in and just be happy to participate and just want to get the ball in positions that you like and do your thing, make a couple nice passes and look good.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, you might might work okay in a league game on the weekend, but if you really want to make it in this sport, you need a different mentality.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the things that I noticed the difference a little bit here this week versus FEST.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because Fest is more of a showcase and there's not a do or die mentality.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: This you see so many different tactical changes, and the players' decisions are maybe a little bit different because it's it's single elimination.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: Games of consequence, games with pressure, right?
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: There's a little bit more on the line.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's we need more of that.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that we've we've lost that a little bit in some capacity.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I always bring this up.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I ran a technical training company in uh Buffalo for the last 11 years.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: Had my own facility and everything.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: And when my put my girls, ACNL girls would come back, I asked them about their showcase.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: How did it go?
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, Yeah, we lost all three games, but I played really well, and then blank school was there, and they saw me play well.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, wait a minute, you're happy, you're okay with losing.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_02: And we remember like the whoever came up with development over winning, right?
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: We kind of like winning is part of development and being competitive and being that grit that we talked about.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, we can't lose that.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: I I hate when when people say uh it's not about uh winning or or losing.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's all about winning or losing because you have to learn how to win, you have to learn how to lose.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that is part of development.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: That loss should be painfair, right?
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and that's how you develop.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: When when you understand what goes into winning and also understanding what contributes to losing, that's how you grow, right?
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_01: And yes, at these young ages, that shouldn't be the sole purpose of these cards playing.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_01: Of course not.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_01: But it's we also can't abandon it.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: It's a really important part of a child's development to understand how to win and understand how to use taking losses in the right way to know what you have to do to get better to get on the on a better result, taking wins in the right way to know that hey, this is just one step of a much bigger picture.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: So that education is huge.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you're taking away winning mattering, then you're making losing okay.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then what it what are we what are we learning from from losses?
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because you know, the cliche is like, oh, we don't we never lose, we learn.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: And and that is true.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you learn from your suffering more at times, you learn more about yourself.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_02: And if if if we take away the meaning of a game, of the score, we're taking away the scoreboards.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: That I don't we're not gonna develop the killers that we need in the game.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: Exactly, exactly and that goes to the whole mentality piece.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: When you face adversity, when you face challenges, there are gonna be some people who are gonna be like, Oh, I'm not, I'm not ready for that.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm scared of that.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't I don't want that smoke.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have other players, other people who are like, I want another crack at that, right?
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right, it's no different than a younger player moving up an age group and playing.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: And now all of a sudden, wow, like this guy's faster than me, stronger than me.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe my moves don't work or whatever it is.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: Now I'm being challenged in a different way.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: What are you gonna do?
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: Are you gonna keep making the same mistake over and over again and go back to your own age room?
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: Or are you gonna get a bit more creative, challenge yourself to think, maybe I gotta think a little bit quicker, maybe I have to find other ways to find success.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_01: Those that's what breeds professionals, right?
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: When I think there was a study done with I don't know how many years ago it was, but asking some of the top professionals in the in the world, soccer players, what was like what what helped uh your development the most?
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it was playing with older players.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: Because you're not you're not successful right away, you're failing constantly, you're making mistakes.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: But now when you're able to like figure out and get those little bit of taste of success against older players, that just sparks like a whole like new level of confidence of like, wow, I could actually do this.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: You talked about La Mina Mall.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_01: La Mina Mall didn't just start as a as a 13, 14-year-old and walk right into the Barcelona dressing room and start dominating.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_01: No, there were steps that he had to take, right?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: But all those steps involved failure, adversity, and then the will and the grit to overcome that and and rise through the ranks.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it's we have a lot of room to catch up there.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like some of our kids are sheltered from making those mistakes.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_01: Or I hear from from parents even of like you know, not wanting their kids to be exposed to that.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or, oh, this this coach isn't playing them in the position that he likes to play.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um you need to change clubs.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, to me, that's that's a red flag.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, really?
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what you want your kid to how to deal with adversity of run away, go find somewhere else that's more comfortable.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's not that's not what uh breeds exults, right?
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, okay, I didn't realize the importance of scoring a goal until I was coaching in the NWSL because I saw the work that is put in the week of in a pro environment of basically you have all week's work based on this situation right in front of goal.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: And when you score that goal, or when you miss a sitter, you feel that weight of like I just let my entire team down, or I just that there's a reason why there's celebrations like there is at the pro level because of all the work going into it, for sure.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_02: And I didn't learn that until I was working with Sidney LaRue at The Flash, you know, and I mean you score plenty of goals.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_02: But did you feel that?
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: Did you ever feel the weight of that or look at it like that ever?
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: Or no, for me as a forward, it was that was my job, right?
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so, like you said, there's a ton of work that goes into it, right?
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_01: And the entire team is involved.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: I liked being that guy that was a killer in front of goal of give me one chance and I'm gonna I'm gonna knock it horn.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_01: But that's just me doing my job.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone else did their job to get me in that position to do my job.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's all a team effort.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, you you need to celebrate because it's uh, you know, when you talk about managing a match, a game, I think it's all about, you know, finding finding ways to get a result.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: And especially at the professional level, you don't care how that's them, whether it's the defender slips and you score a goal or whether you connected 80 passes that then results in a goal.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, it's it's just trying to get a win and and and managing that uh as best as you can.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_01: But uh I think everyone recognizes what the amount of work that goes into it, everyone's a part of it.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I came up as a goalkeeper trainer.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: I was a goalkeeper and a goalkeeper trainer, and that's how I cut my teeth, coaching at the D, the old DA and ECNL level, and then college, and then that's how I got my job at the NWSL.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: So, but then I transitioned because I didn't want to just be known as the goalkeeping guy, right?
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because I've always had mentors that were really the technical side because I played on the field too.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_02: We I played in the day where you you know you played multiple positions for most of the time.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_02: But in a one-on-one breakaway, who's usually calmer?
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: The guy on the ball or the keeper?
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: I, as a goalkeeper, I know I was calmer, I was calmer and I was more confident than maybe the guy because how many times do you see somebody in on goal and then they take too big of a touch?
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: So but the killers in front of goal, they're calmer than the goalkeeper.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the best goal scorers that I've ever been around are calmer than the goalkeeper.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: And so when I work with players in front of goal, calm, breathe.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 53:18
  SPEAKER_02: Think about snipers, right?
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_02: Think about military snipers, they talk about breathing, they talk about breathing more than anything else.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: Be calmer than the goalkeeper, and you'll be a killer in front of the goal.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_01: It's all like for me when I played up top, all I thought about all during a buildup was where am I gonna be?
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: What, like, how am I positioning myself to get on the end of something to put something in the net?
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where my work is being done before the ball even gets anywhere close of how am I gonna be one step ahead to then put myself in a position where it's second nature.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be a goal no matter what.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: Being on a breakaway, it's like the hard work is done.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, I just decide am I gonna be the killer and just slot this, or am I gonna mess with the goalkeeper and try to throw enough to fix my angle anyway that I can?
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_01: But he's playing my game, I'm not playing his game.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, if you trust your touch, you trust your instincts, you trust your speed, like all that stuff.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's I have the ball.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can move him.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: He's not gonna move me.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_01: The ones that get nervous are the ones that, oh, the keeper's sprinting all, and that's when they get thrown off a little bit.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_01: But anyone, like you said, that's seasoned in front of the net, you've put so many thousands of hours that you almost have a smile on your face as as uh a goalkeeper's coming out off his arm.
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: And you talk about like moving the opponent.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's one of the things that has transitioned from the pro game down to this level the most is about how can you manipulate the defense and that teaching and that um just that principle of play.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and and what I uh what I'm very excited about is where this is gonna be in 10 years, where MLS Next is gonna be in 10 years.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like I've always dreamt of us of a system, a youth system where everybody every single player in the United States is under one sister, kind of like how it used to be, right?
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_02: And then and then there's tiers, tear it out.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_02: That would be nice, right?
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_02: You got homegrown, and then you got the academy, and then you got the third, and then you got the fourth, fifth, sixth, and then and then there was maybe there's promotion and relegation, or there's standards or club standards or team standards to to climb, and then just everybody, and it's gonna trickle down because to be it will bring back that grit, it'll be bring back winning mattering and hopefully develops more players with those thousands of hours of being in front of goal in an important right situation, right?
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, how many times do you go to a high school game and it's especially in New York, it's 15 to nothing.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: What are we learning?
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_02: What are we learning in that?
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the whole reason why the DA started in the first place, is more meaningful games and whatnot.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think the most important thing for the youth landscape is alignment.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, based on decades and decades of fractured alignment, is the product that we have today, right?
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_01: With that said, I think there are a lot of great leaders in all these different organizations that are understanding now how important alignment is.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm very cautiously optimistic that we'll get to a point um where we can all coexist and work together to bring alignment and clarity to landscape.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that will be a game changer, um, as you said, with what this will look like and what you know the level of understanding players will have of what they need to aspire to get to, rather than thinking, wait, I'm I'm dominating this league.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_01: I think I'm one of the top guys, and not really understanding that there's levels to all this.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: And you talk about clarity, clarity of message.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_02: How do you think, how do you think we could better?
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think that's one of the reasons why I'm here is to get this message out of what this is.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the day, I guess everything is in marketing.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it's it's it's how you market it, is how you s you talk about it.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's things behind the scenes that are so great that I'm afraid that people don't get to see right because not everybody gets to come to Salt Lake, not everybody gets to go to Arizona at Fest.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: It's like if you only knew, if you only knew what was going on behind the scenes.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm watching Luis is talking, uh he's constantly asking people questions of what they think about this.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: What do you think about that?
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_02: Bouncing ideas off of each other, and that's people think that it's just all about the MLS Academies, or uh like that's all they care about, or they only care about pro and they don't care about collar soccer.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, guys, it's so much there's so many layers to this that you don't even know.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, it's frustrating.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's why it's called I Hate Soccer.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that's where you know we're guys like myself and Luis, we're grateful for the opportunity to try to fix it and try to change it.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important for us to work with the Federation, to work with all these leaders of these other leagues and organizations and show up with open, open arms, open hands, and say, we want to make things better.
• 58:28
  SPEAKER_01: And how can we work together and make this happen?
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it'll take a year, maybe it'll take 10 years, maybe it'll take a hundred years.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, but we're gonna do everything we can to be on the right side of history of trying to make the landscape better.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for your time.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, my pleasure.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_02: Full circle.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: What is the name of your soccer shop?
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_01: My dad's shop is called Birkenmeyer Sports Shop.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was actually Huber Birkenmeyer, who's the goalkeeper for the Cosmos, who opened it first, I believe in 1979 or 80.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then my dad bought it from him, I think, in 82 or something like that.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_01: So uh Hubert is still there as well.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_01: So my dad and Hubert are best of friends, they're like brothers, and so yeah, I think everyone in North Jersey uh gets a kick out of going and and uh talking to a couple legends and and getting all their soccer gear uh from the shop.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_01: Can you buy online from them?
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can.
• 59:23
  SPEAKER_01: You can I'll I'll be honest, the website's probably a little bit outdated, but they're not technical guys at all.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_01: The the in store uh experience is is better, but yeah, that you can buy online as well.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, it's my pleasure.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_01: I hate soccer.