Latest / I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth / I Hate Soccer #129- Scott Kreitmier, Elmbrook United's MLSNext Academy Director

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I Hate Soccer #129- Scott Kreitmier, Elmbrook United's MLSNext Academy Director · I Hate Soccer with Jason Collinsworth

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: I hate soccer.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: And we install like like I sell it, install it, kind of shift, like all that.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_04: So how'd you get into that?
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: Fell into it.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: Have you always done it?
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: I owned a poultry company back in the day.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: My German my dad was a German butcher.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: And then I came back from germ from playing and I didn't want to go back to school.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: So then I started my own poultry company.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_01: Wow.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: I did that for a while.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Then in 2009, the economy took a shit and basically everything fell apart.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then I got into coaching.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I was never really Yeah.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: I started coaching because of my kids.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_04: Oh really?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_04: So you're one of those.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_04: So my never really ballot.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: So before I sign you up into something, we're going to do a little rec, see if you like it.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'll coach.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: And then I went to a different club, and then it was well, can you pick up this team?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: The coach quit or something.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: I can't remember.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, sure, I'll coach a team.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then it just spiraled from there.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_04: Really?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_04: Can you like uh coach that mic and just make it sure so it's pointed there?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_04: You perfect.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, that's perfect.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_04: And then that's so we can hear.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes that phone will ring, just hit like ignore or whatever.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_04: It went off.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_04: It went off a couple times with um Juliano.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a good dude.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: So you got into coaching because you were done playing and then you were never gonna get into coaching until you had kids that wanted to play.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_04: What year was that?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like what year were you done playing versus when you started coaching?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh man, that's a great question.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: I I stopped playing professionally when I was in my mid-20s.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_02: I tore every ligament in my knee.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it was the year before MLS next, before MLS started.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so 95, 94, 95, 96.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_02: So back then it was you could play with the Milwaukee Wave and you could play with the Milwaukee Rampage, but you couldn't do both.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so if you played with the Wave, they didn't get along.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: So then you if you played Milwaukee indoor, you had to go play somewhere else A-League outdoor, and vice versa.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_02: Really?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I was playing with the Milwaukee Rampage A-League.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then I played with the Chicago Power indoor.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because Boro Susevich was the coach of the Rampage, and then he became the coach down in Chicago.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: So a bunch of us drove down there and played, like Tony Sana and Mike Q.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Weiler, and all we all went down and played in Chicago.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then I uh tore every ligament my knee.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_04: Is the is the rampage still around?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: Whatever happened in the A-League?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_04: I remember that was really that was really my first outside of the 94 World Cup.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_04: That was the first time I really got to watch the soccer with the A-League.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_04: And it was like the Rochester Rhinos.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_04: And who else is Minnesota Thunder?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_04: Minnesota Thunder.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: Battery from Tar uh Oh, what was the New Jersey team that Miola used to play for?
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: Was it wasn't Metro Stars.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_04: It was um maybe he played for the maybe he played for the Rhinos, actually.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_02: It was crazy.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like we had there were a lot of really good players, you know.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like our our first rampage team had like Brian McBride, Tony Senna, Steve Kuntz from St.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_02: Louis, like Chris Kelderman.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like we were stacked.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then we would go play Minnesota Thunder, and they had like Manny Lagos and Gerard Lagos and Amos McGee and all those guys.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_02: So it was like Bob Gansler was our coach after board.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_04: Like you had you had Gansler?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_04: And then that ended in '94 for you because of the injuries.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_04: I was done.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_04: That sucks.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_04: It sucks when like uh career ends because of injury.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_04: It's like it's out of your control.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_04: And so you probably never had like, did you have closure?
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: No, I came back.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: I played a little bit.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: I played with the Bavarians.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a local amateur team.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: We won like four or five national championships.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I was like, I'm gonna go play indoor.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I played one more year.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: I came back and played with the wave for one year.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, then we won the championship, it was great.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then I was like, this is something.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: And then you've been here ever since?
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was coached at S.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: C.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Waukesha.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean here.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'm in like in Wisconsin.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, in Wisconsin.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_04: Well, did you fall in love with it or like I mean, were you born?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_04: You were born here.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_04: I was born in Brookfield.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_04: You're born and raised here.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: Oh wow.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: Went to Berkfield Central High School.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_04: Do people uh leave or do uh like Buffalo?
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's like people will leave, yeah, come back, but then they all come back.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_04: Whereas Michigan, for the most part, like most of my friends that left, they never come back.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's 50-50.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, it's a good mix.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, this is a great area, yeah.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, in your facilities is unbelievable.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's been uh so I started here this will be my fifth year.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_04: At Elmbrook?
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: So when I started four years ago, five years ago, like we had grass fields.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: I had to train, I trained like three miles up the road at a park.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then after those two sessions were done, I had to get my car and drive over to Brookfield East to train over there on their practice field, which had like no grass, bad lights, mosquitoes, like you wouldn't believe.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then and then it's just slowly started turning here.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_02: We were doing things the right way.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: And we got a great board, Joe's a great DOC, great presidents we've had, and just forward thinking, and this has just been a step-by-step process.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, and we talked about it earlier about the tour or during the tourist just the importance of having a facility and having just a central location that is yours, or or you know, where where you see everybody.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_04: Because, like I said, a lot of clubs are just a collection of coaches and a collection of teams that are not all on the same pathway, they're not all trying to build, they're more focused on their own career versus trying to actually build like an entire club.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_04: And and that's why I mean, I was blown away.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: You guys undersold what was out there uh uh on our club.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Five o'clock, it's pleasant, really, yeah.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_02: Whistles are being blown, kids are playing, you know, it's it's good.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_04: So, where were you before five years ago?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_04: I was coaching at SC Waukeshaw, which is now Wave, which is now Wave, because Wave always had the pro team, yeah, and then they had the youth underneath, and that's where S.C.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Waukesha.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_04: That's where Giuliano came from, too, right?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, got it, and Liz Lawrence and Rolf.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, really?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but it wasn't really a merger or anything, like that, just like you guys just all just it was time my time you saw like my time was up there.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_04: You saw the writing on the wall, and just be like, I when Elmbrook is doing.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've known Joe for a long time, and you know, I tried to I was talking about leaving the year before, and then COVID hit, and it was just kind of like you know what now's a good time for me to go.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_04: And then and then that was right when the MLS next started.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_04: Were you guys in the first year?
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, because you're anything.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you just got in the academy.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_04: Academy's only a year or two old, right?
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: No, this like this club again has been just step stone.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, just you know, we started in when I came, I started with the U-12s, and then we played into MRL, and then we we got into Premier One MRO.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: I miss MRL, and then we and then we won Premier One MRO.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_04: Uh-huh.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then we went to National League, and then we won our National League group, and we went to Nationals.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like we just kind of like built, just built the girls' program, same thing.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like just fantastic, you know.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, we try to get into some of these other leagues, and for whatever reason, you get blocked or you get however that works.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_04: So, but I feel like MLS next is doing a better job of just like let hey, we're gonna open this up and allow as long as you have some standards that you hit it, we're gonna let you in.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_04: And there's there's talks of a third tier and a fourth tier coming on the ML side, and that's what I that's that's what I want.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_04: No worries.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I want.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_04: I want, I mean, everybody is gung-ho about pro rel at the pro level and whatnot.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_04: I would I just want an open system at the youth level, just let everybody in and just tear it out, yeah, and allow people to climb as they can.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: Because sometimes I think they let they let some clubs in at the top tier, and this is both platforms, or really all three, if you don't count GA and MLS next as one, but they allow people in like the homegrown that maybe isn't ready for homegrown or ECNO, and it's just because of who you know or who you are, and it's like why are why are they stuck in RL and they don't get in for each?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, no, let's just let everybody in, but then everybody complains that it's diluting the the product.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: I disagree.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: I I think there's good teams in every league, yeah, there's bad teams in every league.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_02: So to make this statement like, Why play in the MLS next top division?
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's the best.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, is it is the ECNL the best?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: Probably not.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, are there really good teams in each division?
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh absolutely, right?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_02: They're not are there some bad teams?
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, it's just I'd like to see it where it's MLS next with all the MLS clubs, and then the monster clubs are in with them, and then everyone else is in B.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: And if you have a good year, you know, then you get to go to you get to go to the MLS next cup, and you get to put you play in that tournament against the big boys, but only that's the only time, or there's like an interregional tournament where maybe you play you mix, you know, right?
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: But it depends on how you do, and it's merit-based.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because there's clubs in MLS next and the top, like you said, they probably don't belong.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: And what good is it?
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: What good is it to go like for us?
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do I really want to go down with all our teams to some to a big MLS club for one game?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_04: One game is going to be competitive, the others might not be.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm supposed to coach my butt off, so I only lost four-nothing, and that was a win.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: But the whole time I wasn't coaching soccer, I was coaching how to defend how to play two low blocks, yeah, you know, waste some time.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: You know, yeah, like so.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: What good is that?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't good for my team, and it probably wasn't good for them, them either.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, do you wish that it was kind of like a team-based?
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_04: Or can it be?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_04: Because you coach three teams, it would be harder.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_04: Let's say your eighteens or nin teens are homegrown, and then your other two are academy.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: It would be kind of tough.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: It'd be like all the MLS clubs, okay?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: And then like Cedar Stars or Stock Gallagher.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_02: They're in there, and then every other club is in two or three.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then you never move up into that.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: You just, if you have a good year, that you get to play.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: You get to play in that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: You get to still go to MLS Next Fest and do all those same things.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: I like that.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the year, it's like, hey, we won the Academy Division, the second tier, you know, North Division.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: We get to go play in MLS Next Fest again, a cup against.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, we're in the group with you know, whoever.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: So that's not bad.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of like that.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it would even everything out.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think it would make it competitive.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think that the high level MLS clubs, they get good games every weekend.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_02: So it's not like, wow, we had a good game and then then we won nine-nothing.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_04: How many MLS next clubs are in Wisconsin?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_02: There's two homegrown.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Two homegrown.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's one, two, there's like four, five, five Academy.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: But two of them are, you know, the homegrown second teams have to be.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: And how do they do?
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: They don't do great.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think I wish.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: But like it's hard, you know.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_04: That's another thing that one of my frustrations, just watching, you know, the obviously the DA previously, and then like the ECNL and ECNL RL.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, I wish they didn't allow second teams.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_04: Like imagine if you had an open system and everybody was allowed in, but it's all everybody's first teams.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_04: I think that would be because in Buffalo, on the girls' side, the second best option is the RL.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_04: In all of Buffalo, the second best option is just to play on their RL because there's not clubs.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_04: And which which I don't understand how you guys have four or five MLS next clubs.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_04: You have one ECNL club, and then you have four GA or five, four or five GA teams.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_04: And you're the same.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_04: Milwaukee is basically the same size as Buffalo, New York.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_04: And then you have Madison about the same distance as where Rochester is.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_05: Hour.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: And we it in Buffalo, you have Western York Flash and Buffalo, and then you have RNYFC who just left MLS Next.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_04: Because I mean we could get into that, but they are they left MLS Next and went to ECNL because they were getting dropped from homegrown to Academy.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: And it's hard to compete and say that you're the top or that you're better than the Flash when you just got dropped to the second tier.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's not like they are a new club new to the MLS next, like you guys, and then you guys got to like approve your way or whatever.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_04: And then you guys will get in the homegrown.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_04: I am probably sure of that.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, how many guys have you sent to Minnesota already?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Five?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I sent two this year.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_02: We sent one to FC Cincinnati a few years ago.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um Larry sent him.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Two others?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: I know Larry played with Larry.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um we had two that got offered spots that they ended up not taking.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_04: Oh really?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: Just because they didn't want to move away from the home.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: When push chambers shove it, it's just tough is tough.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_04: But that's a good, I mean, are the are the standards clear cut of like when you guys are going to be able to make that jump to to homegrown?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: Is it like what's on the field, or is it what you're developing and pushing out towards the MLS Academies?
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_04: Or is it college placement?
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what is it?
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like for us it's college placement at the moment.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, okay, find the best players we can.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like if they're special, we try and move them along, get them out of here, get them to MLS next clubs, right?
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, after that, it'd be college placement.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: So we're finally in this, you know, Elm Gro before it was Brookfield Soccer, then it was Elmbrook, but when the merger happened, it's been a while to get it right and get everyone playing on the same, everyone on the same page.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I'd say, like, and not this isn't to disparage the former players here, but I think like as groups uh aged out, yep, and the new blood has come through.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're finally at that point where like I'm gonna be coaching the new 18-19 team this year.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think every kid's gonna be playing in college.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like they've already half of them got offers already.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_04: Not everybody can say that.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_04: Not every MLS next, not even homegrown clubs can't say that.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, at a at some level, they'll all be playing.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: And that, I mean, and you've been five years, and then we have juniors now like being looked at already, and it's finally happening.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because the the big thing here is like oh play in college, you know.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: So you have it's it's without name and call, you know, it's like, oh, if you don't play here, you you can't play in college, you know.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_04: So it's just a false advertising, yeah.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_04: We talked about that uh with Gio, about I it's like it's like political talking points.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_04: All right, oh, 44% of the of this freshman class is all played at this platform.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's like okay, but then another club six states away post the exact same stats.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_04: And then somebody in Washington posts it, and then somebody in Florida, and then somebody can it's like, yeah, are you guys just all copying each other or are you guys told to post this?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_04: That's and I mean I know the answer, but I mean luckily and what I like about the MLS next is that it's ran by the MLS.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I know I'm called the MLS profiteer.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_04: I am, it's ridiculous, but why it just because I've gone to Fest.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_04: It's like if this was if this was a political show and I could get Donald Trump and then the next week I could get Kim Jong un or Il or whatever, I would have both of them on.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean why not?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's like of course I'm gonna go to like fests if they say, hey, come out here.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_04: It's the biggest soccer festival in the country.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: Why wouldn't I go to that?
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's like I'm sorry that I have access to some MLS next people, yeah.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: Like, okay, like if I had access to ECNL people, I'd I'd go there too.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's so dumb.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_04: And this this war, this like fake war, and then people are rooting for it to fail.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, why?
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_04: And what I've learned in throughout this podcast, I used to be the pessimist.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_04: I used to blame everything on not having promotion and relegation and then not having this or that, and my mentality or my thought process has completely flipped.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I feel so much more positive about the country as a whole.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, sure, we have our problems and gatekeepers and you know uh the sky is falling people, but I think it's think about 30 years ago.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, you got injured when there wasn't an MLS.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, now look at us.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_04: I think I mean sorry that we're not La Liga or we're never gonna be La League.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_04: We're never gonna be the Premier League.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: No, we don't have to be either.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: But look at just here and what's happened in the last five years.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: If I'd have brought you here five years ago and been like, hey Jason, this is where I train, you'd be like, What?
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_02: Now I take you back there and you're like, holy crap, like this is told you.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're right.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: I mean like this is legit, you know.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: If you pulled up and said this is the so-and-so academy from, you know, you'd be like, Yeah, I believe it.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_04: Were those fields there before?
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_04: Or was it just all land?
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_04: Those are fields, those were fields, but they were all grass, they were all not lit.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_04: I can't believe you have lights on that one.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then everybody has lights.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Turf the other ones and put lights back there, and you can train and uh small.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_04: So you train you guys train till like nine or ten, or is it like ten the latest?
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: No, like nine thirty, ten.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, and up on top, the fields you went up top, they I don't know if you noticed they had some brick, some concrete um risers on the sides of the fields.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: So they bring portable lights there.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: And then we start we train up there, and and they're great, they crank way up.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean they're not ideal, but but it's a way of getting all our teams training all the time.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_04: And then so you can't have everybody here.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_04: Do you have all of your select here or are they kind of like spread out between the second location?
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Uh well, to keep everything fair, like one day a week.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: We gotta go.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: So like on Thursdays, I go to the other campus.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_04: But that's turf too.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_02: Oh yeah.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, oh no.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I mean because the Flash, the Flash, they have two beautiful turf fields side by side.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_04: But then when they don't keep things fair, yeah.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_04: Their second teams and their third teams, especially at the younger ages, they have to go to a grass field with that they don't cut.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_04: That it's like that's the highest that camera sometimes seems it's unbelievable.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_04: And and it's it's like, guys, like you you're your customers see that and see how you treat your first team.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: versus your second or third teams.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like you have to kind of whose idea was it to be, hey, let's not, let's try to get everybody the same experience.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Joe.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because we're a club for everyone.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, yeah, we have elite teams.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: We have rec teams.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: We have third teams.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: It's a community club.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's a community club that we want to give soccer to everyone.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_02: You know, then Joe takes it very serious.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, you know, the third team coach has to be just as good as the top team coach.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like they're held to the same standard.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: So and we're big on so in inner promotion.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't go out and recruit.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't get, if someone calls me and says, hey Scott, we want to look at each course, I'm going to sing the praises of Ellenbrook and everything we can do for you.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't actively go out and find players and say, hey, come over here.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: Come play over here.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: You're oh you're too good.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: Play here.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: I don't do that at all.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: So what we like to do is promote from within.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: So we have a ton of second team players that were second team players at U13, 14 who are now the best player on the U17 team.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like the leading scorer at the MLS Next Cup for the AD for our 17th lost in the semifinals to Club Ohio in PKs in the semifinal, the leading scorer of that was on a B team at U 14.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: And now he's being now he's got like four or five schools calling and talking to him.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_04: What do you think the difference is was with him size?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like he hit puberty late or something?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_02: I think he just like we do a really good job of developing our kids.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_02: And making them better and trying to play the right way.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that's a you know what's the right way but you know like it's not just about winning and losing I even though that's important.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's about how we look as a team.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: What are you learning?
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: I always want it so that any kid that I coach whether he makes a different team or he goes and tries out and makes it or not the coach will always say well that guy, that kid was coached.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: He knows what he's doing.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe his talent isn't there but he he knows how to position his body.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: He knows where to like those are really important things for me when people come and watch our teams play.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_03: Well yeah I mean how so it's a community club in the biggest platform.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_04: And that's I I hope everybody listening to that that realizes that community clubs can turn into or build or you don't always just have to be like oh well worth a community club.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah you can be you can be both right and I'm sure I mean I don't know maybe at nine years old everybody thinks that they're going to be college and everything but like as long as you do have those options I think and I left a community club because I was sick of losing players to the platform clubs the DA and the ECNL about those people never tell you what they never tell the kid what they're going to do for him or how they're going to make him better.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh no they just talk about the platform the five letters that are the whatever they absolutely you're absolutely and it's like my director at the community club got so upset when they left like Jason would have trained you guys five five nights a week if if if that's what you if that's what it took to keep you guys and they did so I had a 2000 boys team and all of them six of them went to um var one of them went to wolves okay and then and then I I took over a 2000 girls team and I had them for about two and a half years and I was like uh oh I'm about to lose five or six to the ECNL yeah and I was like and then at that point I just went with them.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like I'm going with you this time because I'm done I'm done doing all the work or help helping along the journey and then losing you guys.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_04: And so I was like I'm done but the grass isn't always greener.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_04: So I go over I go over to Vardar expecting you know I'm going to get all these kids right and it's like oh I have to actually like recruit kids to come there because they didn't have like the youth academy set up underneath they didn't have anything they just they went along the if you build it they will come mentality of like well we'll get get them later we don't need to we don't need to worry about the six seven eight year olds yeah we they'll just come later.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's what happens around here.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_04: Is that what happens around here?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah where I'm more like we're gonna build from the ground up we're gonna you know we had at our U12 tryout we had 150 kids trial for the U2 U12?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah pre MLS next or whatever you guys call it yeah or is that the academy that's pre-MLS next okay so go into okay select is your MLS next and your G13 through 19 and then 11s and 12s are pre-MLS next or pre-G A.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yep and then there's a and then youth academy is like U6 or something until U10.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: Got it.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: But we had 150 kits right and it's like wow that's a lot I'm like yeah but I'm my head I'm like the best player at U12 it could be on our fifth team right now.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_04: That's true.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Because look at the kid because we just have so many right so it's like train them well teach them right you know they might fall more in love with the sport they get more athlete they get into it next thing you know they make the fourth team and the third team then the and then boom they're up there.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: But that's what makes a good club is that we have the numbers yeah and identifying like hey he's not there yet but he has the profile of someone that could be there and by the time he's 14 15 he could be the best player that's ever played in our club.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_04: And that takes the communication with the parents yeah because so how many times do you leave when there's a when there's a lot of options in one area they all leave they all leave because well I want to be on the first team and the first team is worse than our third team but but it doesn't matter because you want that well yeah a team mentality and I feel like D1 or bus or a team or boss to all the parents no one's recruiting your kids no one's coming to watch your kids till they're juniors in high school so you got all this time.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_04: You don't need to worry about that I got a DM from a parent I forget where they're from and the kid is this is boys he's going into freshman year and he's talking about do we need to start contacting college coaches no who is who is your coach who is your club director that's not educating you guys on like you're lucky to get it is rare right now in this climate to have juniors commit yeah let alone seniors yeah we had one junior commit last year D1 at to Milwaukee okay and then all the other kids I talked about are going to play in college they all have options right now but not I mean they're going into their senior year they haven't picked a school yet exactly and it probably won't happen until February why are you stressing your kid out more years when you don't need to hit you 11 gosh how much of your job or your role as an MLS next director is parent education uh it's gotten a lot less like I feel like they're listening.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess you think parents are more educated than ever before I think they are I think the funny thing is when you have I you know I have my meeting and then I lay it on the line with everyone you can tell the people that are looking at you like yeah you're right but you're talking about all the other people in the room not my kid like my kid's the special one you know yeah it's just like hey just let them enjoy soccer and I give the story of my son you know my my my younger son went and played at FC Cincinnati.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_02: So he went down and played for Larry he went at U15 he left after his freshman year high school and he moved down there and he played there for two years.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: Came home was COVID and there's like a whole thing with that and then he came home then went back and played high school and then played club and went on to college was injured all the time he's 21 years old and he doesn't play soccer anymore.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_04: Quit and and he was pretty good well yeah if he's at FC Cincinnati's just like you know I've lived it as a player I've lived it as a coach I've lived it as a dad like calm down like enjoy it let me be the jerk let me yell at your kid let me make him better you just tell him he did a good job ask him if he had fun you know yeah if he's not working hard fine get on him for to work a little harder but don't tell him what to do you know that's the biggest thing that cracks me up like I don't know the I don't know about you but I don't know the first thing about baseball I've watched enough baseball on TV teach it I can't teach it I couldn't run a baseball practice I don't know the intricacies of like how many steps you should take up before you steal all that stuff like I don't I don't know the numbers of double plays like oh is a three six nine double play like what the how does that so are you gonna go to your son's baseball game and sit on the fence and tell him what to do or coach him up I wouldn't because I wouldn't know what I'm talking about like listen to the coach you know but here in soccer these parents who never kick the soccer ball for some reason want to tell everybody how to play right just like you know I remember when I was teaching some younger kids and we I teach play the ball back you know we play the ball back at it they'd come the other team would rush we'd make one pass beat four guys and now we'd have a 3v2 or 4v1 the amount of parents that would lose their freaking mind because you played the ball back just something simple like that uh huh it's like why are you yelling that oh my bad and even after we score four or five goals they're still screaming it my upset one is don't pass it across the middle I'm thinking oh my lord have watched soccer please just watch soccer just like yeah it's okay to pass back to your goalkeeper especially today oh god but they live and die with every you know I tell the parents like don't lose your mind in the 10th minute of a U12 game because the ref got the throw in wrong like who cares right it's that's our ball it's like it's 10 minutes in it's coaches too it's like oh is he gonna change his call because you yelled at him you might get the next call but like that's dumb.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's dumb all that it's just you know it's like on any given Saturday how many U12 games are going on in this country oh boy too many to count probably right so to be at Brookfield watching your oh my kids the like oh like let's just let's just keep it in perspective let's enjoy it and let's just see what happens you know it's just like or you tell them hey remember last October when you lost your mind at that U12 game that we lost two to one?
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like looking back did it really warrant all that anger and ups you know it's like right when your son was about to quit did you see the writing on the wall or was it kind of just like you know what I I get it or he was always hurt.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_02: So like the he went to northern Kentucky he was he had a stress fracture in his back got there and couldn't play right off the bat.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: So he was out for almost the whole season then he came back then he was playing he was doing well then he got mono then he rolled his ankle then the next year he came back was like he could never get on the field.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think the kid played a game in two years like did he I guess he was just sick of practice you know so then he transferred to Eaure they played UW Green Bay in a spring season Eauclair had recruited him earlier so he's like I'm just gonna go there plays against Green Bay started played 70 minutes played great after the game I get to call like I I don't think I want to play anymore.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know it's upsetting for about a minute and then it's like well it's his life and if he's not happy exactly and if you're always hurt I get it he doesn't seem like somebody that was like identified as a soccer player.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_04: He had like other interests and and whatnot or was he the soccer guy?
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: He was a soccer guy.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_04: Because I feel like so many kids are scared to make that decision because they're gonna let down mom and dad and some mom and dads want that ROI.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: They want the ROI of he might have quit earlier because of that.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: Like he he may have quit earlier but didn't because of well you know worrying about letting me down and I you know looking back if I went through it again there's probably a lot of things I would change of how I handled him and things like that.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_04: And you're a professional coach imagine a parent that's not well versed in soccer and they s and they handle things very poorly like the pro the problem I see is that I was an okay player.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I know what I did to get to where I was but more importantly I know what I didn't do that kept me from going to where should have like I was always right there but you know did I did I train the hardest did I eat the best did I you know did I not go out when I on a night that I should have stayed in did I you know like all those things so when I'm coaching I'm not just coaching what I know it's like okay I know what I didn't do.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: So like that's just as important as what I know.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_04: I relate to that so much you know and that's a lot of reason why we all got into coaching because it's like if I had me back you know what I mean right I think I think a lot of coaches think of it like that as like if I had somebody pushing me like I'm trying to push you guys I would have made it higher and you're absolutely right I would have I was I was a terrible practice player I was my own coach said you're a gamer yeah it's like because I hated practice right you know and it's like and now and I coming up in the in the years where like the training to game ratio was like two to two one to one yeah you're excited to go play a game exactly if you left the state you were like oh my god road trip oh that's huge right we're going to Ohio and now it's like well I'm going to Missouri getting on a plane exactly I never got on a plane to play like you got in the van I didn't I didn't yeah I even in college I don't I don't think I got on a plane to play.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah isn't it crazy I saw somebody told me this that college soccer travels less than youth soccer I believe it think about that yeah so like University of Buffalo is a good example they they're Mac but sure they fly uh occasionally and stuff but their furthest game right now is like NIU okay yes okay um their furthest game is NIU yeah friggin' flash goes to Tennessee for elite game that's an 11 hour drive it's wild and I don't know when they said that I was like well think about it you guys went to Utah for Cup yeah and it's we go to Phoenix for for Fest and it's gonna be there again and I mean it's yeah that's crazy but uh I can it be smaller I mean can we make it smaller?
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_04: I think you could but I think like the you know the toothpaste is out of the tube so it's yeah how do you get yeah how do you put this genie back in the bio so it's kind of and isn't it interesting and I I was talking to Gio about this think about this area you have four or five MLS next clubs you have four or five G A one ECNL isn't that weird I feel like that's weird I feel like if if if if we're if I'm being completely honest if I if we are that good of a platform I would want to offer it to more people personally but people think that because you're exclusive it means better I don't necessarily agree with that at all.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't but there's nothing you can do about it.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_04: I know there's a gatekeeper and that's just the way it is and and you just I mean and then some people say that MLS next has gatekeepers I'm like where look at who look at who's growing the GA is now bigger than than the ECNL there's more clubs in the GA through a spire and everything it's like our girls just went down and played Gallagher I don't know if Julian was talking they just did fine they won more than they lost they were just in Michigan playing the Jags and the wolves and all like they just sent there's a sophomore that just do you get designed to just going to play a Madison like there's a like so the girls are gonna go to uh the Jags showcase are you gonna do anything with the boys like what do you do with the boys outside of the MLS next showcases what else do you guys do to try to get in front of college coaches uh not much you should go to the Jags you should go to the Jags games okay we're setting up like some friendlies to go up there and play like Jags Wolves he's gonna set it up we're gonna go up there perfect yeah when do you guys start when was your first games our games are at the end of the first week of September we start with the 12 12s 13s and 14s and the high school yeah because you guys oh my god yeah high school boys don't start they're in high school right now they're in high school right now yeah so we'll probably go to like Michigan in November yep there's some league games and then go to Fest so you don't get to see the 16 17 15 four well yeah 15 16 17 and 18s at all I see them but maybe but like during high school season yeah no you don't see them for three months or so no no so tonight it's gonna be the 13 the the 12s 13s 14s yeah tonight's 13s and 14s tomorrow's 12s and 14s and then okay we mix it to hey every team gets three three sessions a week how'd the age changes go for you guys it was great yeah yeah so we have big club there's big over there's a big overreaction right it always is I mean we went through this when it went the other way it's it's all the same exactly and that's what parents don't realize is like why don't we why doesn't our coach or why doesn't our club care more it's like because we all went through this eight years ago yeah and it's not that big of a deal it's not somebody who's like I want you you should do an episode of all the clubs that failed during the age change I'm like what and I was and my first question was have you had a game yet with your new team no have you had a tournament or have you traveled with your new team yet no it's like then talk to me in six months when you're not even gonna care.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_04: No and well it doesn't make a difference it doesn't it was big out of proportion it's like I don't want my son to redo U12 he's ready to for 11v11 it's like no this is such a good thing for your son it's he is such an advantage you don't even know it.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: And when parents ask me I give them my I'm like I'm giving you my professional opinion and I'm giving you my opinion as a father if it were my son play U 12 again play you 13 again that's what I would do with my son no matter how good he was right and if he's really that good then we'll move him along to an MLS club or we'll get him you know but he's gonna fall behind Really?
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_04: So so such an overreaction.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_04: It is.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_04: Do you think as a coach it helps relating to parents and uh basically communicating with parents?
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_04: Does it help having a son that was successful?
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's I think it helps coaching having kids in general helps coaches coaches.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think having a son or daughter that play that a decent level, I think helps even more.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Because I just done that.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've done the crazy.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like don't, you know.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've had, like I said, I've should I wish I could change some things, right?
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: But just that competitive and and a lot of it was seeing things that I again had shortcomings or failed on that I didn't want to see him.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like if you're not good enough, you're not good enough.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's fine.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're not good enough because you're not working hard enough or you, you know So my big thing is don't tell me what like I need evidence.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Don't tell me how great you want to be if I don't see you trying to be great.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_02: So and that was my biggest, like, I got I got by on, but like again, I I was okay, but it could have been more.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_03: And then you just I mean again, that's why coaches got into it.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_04: It was like guys, trust me, you don't want to look back on your career and be like, I regret not working harder.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_04: Because I think about that all the time.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and how hard was it to coach your son?
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_04: Or did you coach your son?
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: I coached him up to like you 13.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then it was then I stopped.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_02: Others, and my wife and I were basically like, You can't coach your son, he can't coach Gavin anymore.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_02: Some's gotta give.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but what's funny is it's like, fine, I'm not your coach, but you still gotta get in the car with me.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_02: You're still eating dinner with like I'm still talking to you.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: Where did he play?
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: He played at SU Walkershaw.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, Walkershaw.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, where you were, okay, got it.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then was like, you know, like you gotta you're still gonna hear it from me.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_04: Were they in MLS next?
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, this was this is a long time ago.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_04: How did how did uh Cincinnati see him locate him?
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: He was actually he went to Europe with Minnesota United.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, Tim Carter, yeah, and then he was gonna go play at Minnesota and then they disbanded their uh Academy when COVID came.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: So then I called Larry and was like, Larry was gonna go to Minnesota, and then he just went down to Cincinnati.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_04: And then when did they bring you back?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_04: Three years ago?
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe four.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe five.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_04: Whenever MLS Next came on?
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because Amos runs it now.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_04: How so it sounds like you guys have the best relationship with Minnesota?
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then how is relationship with like Chicago Fire?
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_02: Not great.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_04: Not great?
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_04: Do they only care about like the Chicago area?
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_04: Chicago land?
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Chicagoland.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they got enough.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I guess they they can just rely on all Chicago kids.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and then there's a territorial, you know.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think that we're up in Minnesota.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_04: Are you guys a free state or are you guys Minnesota?
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_04: Minnesota.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_04: You're in Minnesota territory?
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, that makes sense, yeah.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_04: And then people want that to go away, which it probably will, because not any even the MLS Next guys don't like it, or even the MLS Academy guys, they want that gone because they want to be able to have whoever they want.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_04: Which I think we're headed there.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_04: But they have they have territories and stuff like that in Europe.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_04: Manchester United and when like Man City, they have yeah, no-go zones.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_04: Where they don't.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_04: That's what Renee Mjolnisteen was telling me.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like everybody complains or everybody wants to be like Europe.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, do you really know what's going on in Europe?
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_04: Probably not.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_02: It's I played there when I was 19.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_02: And it was In Germany?
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_02: 1860 Munich.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, left college, went there, tried out, made it.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: I played there for I was there for three years.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_04: What three what division were they in when they were second?
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: Second, and then I got bought by Lohof, which was in the third.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I played there for a while.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_02: Should never came home, and then I got homesick and like I heard uh.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_04: Is that like another regret of uh coming in and I'm gonna try to play MLS?
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_04: And then injuries piled up and yeah.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I did all that, you know, Olympic festival stuff, under 20s, went here, went there, you know, but never could I was never good at trying out.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: That wasn't my, you know, come here for four days and we'll see.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: We'll show with all these guys, and it's like, well, you already have the team picked, but like, you know, so I was I was always on the cusp, you know, but I could never does that has that not being great at tryouts has has that shaped you as a coach at all?
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: I'd be like, let's not judge this kid based on six hours.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's you know, that's that's always the hard thing with tryouts.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you got 150 U12 kids running around and you've got I can't imagine.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_04: That'd be so stressful.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_02: So then you take and recommend okay, I'm talking to the academy coach, I'm talking to the K.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like it's hard, right?
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: But at you think on a national level we get a little bit better right, more right.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_04: How how do you like bring new kids in?
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_04: I know that's mainly community, but like let's say a kid from Madison wants to come over.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_04: Well, how do you how do you handle that?
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_04: Because everybody does it something different.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_04: How do you guys handle it?
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_04: Do you just come and be like, hey, you can train with us?
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_02: Basically, that's it.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_02: Just come train, see if you like it.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_04: As many times as they want, or do you like set a standard of like I let them come?
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you know, you're not training for free because you know, you can't just come and that is gonna be my next question.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_04: Do you charge?
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_04: No, you don't charge, but they can come and train and you know, and then after a certain time, it's like, hey, uh, you need to get a release and just go ahead and come.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_04: Because I know there are some clubs that charge their trial players or they're uh like winter training players and stuff like that.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_04: Stuff like that.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's we don't do that.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: No, no, do you guys just rely on like a tryout day that's run by the state or or or well you guys get to do tryouts when you're uh we don't do I don't do early offers, we don't do any of that stuff.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's you come, you try out, you make it's not I'm not playing these games where hey I got an early offer from Club A.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I need to know.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: Well, our tryouts aren't for a month.
• 51:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I need to know otherwise, well, then you should probably take that offer because I can't, you know.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_04: Does that happen with your current players where they have like a a different tryout day, and then like, hey, I got this offer.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, have fun.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_02: Good luck.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_02: There's a club in this state that'll just, if they know they're coming from here, they'll just they'll just give them an offer.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_03: Oh god.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_03: Really?
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'm just like, then then you then you need to go.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'm not.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: And of course there's the the kids that are really that on the top of your team know they're gonna make your team, right?
• 52:15
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, these other ones that come from um I can't do that.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_02: They're just doing it just to try to bury you.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_02: Bury us or lock people in, you know, that I I don't know why they do it.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_02: Because I I'd have a hard time like building my roster and then having tryouts, and then being like, oh crap, I promised three kids a spot.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_02: But they're not turns out they're not good enough to be on the team, but now I gotta go back and tell them, like, yeah, I still want to be doing that.
• 52:48
  unknown: Man.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: But you get that like early offer.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: So now it's like three months before tryout season, they're already getting early offers.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like, when is tryout season?
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_04: Everybody's different.
• 53:00
  SPEAKER_04: It's like Michigan, their girls' side had it in February because uh high school is in March.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like, wait a minute.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_04: Like we used to have tryouts Father's Day weekend, that was the Michigan standard, and now everybody is like different, and now there's some NLS clubs that do it like in November.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_04: If if they uh are playing high school, they do it in November after the high school season.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's like they have all these different rules, so there's a like the state rules don't apply to the ECNL.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: So the ECNL can do whatever they want, they can recruit kids, they can cold call kids, they can do whatever they want.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_02: I had I had a kids, we're at a smaller club in the state, I won't name it.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_02: During winter, the like three or four of them said, Hey, could we love to check out your club, see what see what it's like, see if we could come train with you.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we're thinking of maybe coming next year.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_02: Great.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_02: We trained on Tuesday, like down in the middle field here.
• 54:01
  SPEAKER_02: So they came, they trained.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_02: Didn't offer them like just train, you like it, yeah.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, they came like three or four times.
• 54:12
  SPEAKER_02: I got that club went after me through the state and tried to get me suspended or pay a fine because I was poaching players.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_02: I never once called them, I never once told them to like they reached out to me.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_02: Can I come so come train, right?
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: 12 years old.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_02: Meanwhile, ECNL plays with different roles, they can call kids, they can tell kids to come do whatever they want.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh MLS, you know, they can do it, and even though we're an MLS AD, like I don't recruit, right?
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we had to end up paying a fine, and I got like I got in trouble, and I was like, they called me, but with all these other clubs, it's okay.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so it's what what you're getting at is there's no it's like the wild west.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_04: I was such an idiot when I was coming up because I mean, I would get so mad about like those kids leaving for the the big platform, and I would like contact the state and be like, hey, he's poaching, that's against the rules.
• 55:17
  SPEAKER_04: They're like, no, it's like oh well, they're they're a development academy club, they can do whatever they want, or it's US Club Soccer, where like Michigan used to have a rule where if you go from club A to Club B, you cannot coach in the same age group so that you don't wreck two clubs.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_04: Because if I leave here and I take I can take my entire team here, and then this team, this club has no like their A team is gone, right?
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_04: Also, their A team became the B team, and I get to still coach.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, there used to be rules, but then U.S.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_04: club soccer, they're like, Well, we're a U.S.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_04: club soccer team uh club, so we don't have to abide by the the uh Michigan youth or MSYSA or whatever.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like they just lost power.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_04: And we were talking about you know how the Wisconsin State Association's doing, and I feel like there's they're trying.
• 56:17
  SPEAKER_04: There's US soccer is trying to get power back into the states, and MLS Next is actually trying to help them a little bit.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_04: I don't see again how we put this genie back in the bottle.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because there's always gonna be multiple leaks, there's always gonna be somebody unhappy, and then they'll just start.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, ECNL and MLS Next are gonna merge.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, somebody is going to get upset and break off and start their own thing in three years.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's gonna always happen.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_02: Every three years, it's like a the new thing that you gotta get into, which is amazing because think about just club mergers.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_04: This seems like this has gone beautifully.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that I don't know if it always started off that way.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_02: Correct, you know, you'll have to talk to Joe.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'll talk to Joe's about that.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_04: What when was the merger eight years ago?
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_04: Eight years ago now, maybe nine.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_04: And that was before obviously M Oz NAS GA.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_04: Because it was still the DA and the girls DA back then, right?
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_04: But they weren't in that.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_04: How?
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_04: Go ahead.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_02: So we like so back then Brookfield would lose all its players.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_02: To a platform club, or was it?
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's all platform, but it would be like to to us at as at Waukesha.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, you know, because it was like they got to U 16 and it was like, oh, so the two or three best players would leave all the time.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, but now it's kind of we don't lose, you know, a ton that's that that's good.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_04: I mean I feel like most of the clubs that want to get into these platforms, it's because they're sick of losing kids to the platforms.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like again, a community club.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_04: Why can't you guys become the next MLS next club or the next ECNL RL club?
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_04: Because what Michigan is doing in the ECNL, they are kind of doing what like GA Aspire is doing, and there are there's nine ECNL clubs in Michigan.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_04: RL clubs.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I like it.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_04: I and I don't think it's depleting.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think it's I do I don't know how you guys feel about this, but like, do you have to really educate your parents about the difference between academy and homegrown?
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think they know.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_04: They know?
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_04: Again, they're more educated now.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: They know.
• 58:50
  SPEAKER_04: Because I don't know, um, what was it?
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_04: Was it the Jags?
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_04: Somebody, maybe Midwest.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_04: Ah, I think it was Midwest.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_04: They were upset because I think it was MFA.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_04: They're like, oh, where MLS next?
• 59:06
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, no, your academy.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_04: And I mean, they will be homegrown eventually.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_04: It's kind of like it doesn't, it really doesn't matter.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but that'd say like here, it's well, you play in the B league.
• 59:20
  SPEAKER_02: You're not in the people say that?
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're not in the top MLS League.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: So why don't you why are you playing there?
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_02: You're playing in the B League.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_02: Go to Fest.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's like, well, well, play us.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_02: But then won't happen.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_04: And go to Fest and go and watch the Academy level, go and watch the homegrown.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_04: And if you really can't tell what's homegrown and what's academy when you're at Fest.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_04: All you know, and it's kind of easy, is the pro player pathway.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_04: They play on the grass fields.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_04: But other than they have nine coaches, and and they have nine coaches, they all came in a bus and a massage table.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_04: That's so true.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_04: How many do you guys travel with?
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's so true.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_04: That was one of my first questions.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_04: Every time I have an MOS Academy director, I go, How many guys did you travel with?
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like, uh, 13.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_04: And then I'll ask like uh Paul Richie.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_04: I asked him, and he's like, uh three.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're at three.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's how it is.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_02: Goalkeeper coach and Joe and Chris Kelderman and myself.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's four.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_02: But I so we played at Fat, our four teams played last year, right after San Jose was playing Galaxy, LA Galaxy.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, boys, I know you got you're gonna go hiking or whatever, but I want you to stay and watch the first half of this.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_02: Because you guys all talk how you want to play in this and you want to all so just stay and watch.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: So they watched, and then I was like, okay, what are some takeaways?
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, they had like 10 subs.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, how many subs did he make in the first half?
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, not.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_02: And then they had six coaches, and they had like it's professional.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm like, so there's no complaining about, oh, I didn't play, you know, this tell you all like it's cutthroat.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so like, be careful what you want, right?
• 1:01:10
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not, I mean, your son knows, I mean, it's not easy, it's it cannot be an easy environment.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: Every day there's someone from somewhere else coming to try and take your spot.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_04: All over the country, all over the country.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's cutthroat and it's it's hard, and the expectation's different, you know.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: There's no, you know, here it's sometimes, you know, my argument.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like, do you come to practice because you want to be here and train, or is it Tuesday at 4:30 and this is where you get dropped off?
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_02: And Wednesday at 4 30, you go to your trumpet practice, and that's where your mom drops you off, and you just kind of go.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_02: Where at those academies, you're there, like you're like it's on.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we're here, it's kind of like, well, mom dropped me off, and that's what I do on Tuesdays.
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_04: I tell I tell this story all the time.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_04: We had a kid at Vardar, Caleb Stanko.
• 1:02:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he's I think he's still playing in Greece professionally.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_04: He was gonna go to IU and he went to Freiburg instead, and he did go didn't play college soccer.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_04: But when he was about 14, the wolves had a partnership with Darby County.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:02:16
  SPEAKER_04: The wolves said, Hey, we'll take Caleb with us because we know that uh his level and he needs to be seen.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_04: First, Darby County said the only kid that could hang with us is Caleb.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_04: But Caleb said that when he came back, he said that he really saw the difference of what goes on over there versus here.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_04: Over there, every single one of those kids at U-15 want to be a pro, and they train like a pro, and it is intense, and that's all they eat, sleep, drink, think about is being a pro.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_04: Over here, he's on a DA national title-winning team.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_04: Not all of them want to play college soccer, right?
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_04: Some players just miss playing high school soccer, and they they want to quit the DA because they just want to play high school soccer with their boys.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_04: It's a different beast, it's a different animal.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm starting to see that at the MLS Academies.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_02: When I went to Germany and I got, I mean, it's a great story, but so they my dad and I flew over.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_02: I went and watched 1860 play on Saturday.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_02: They lost 3-0.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_02: I go on Monday for the training.
• 1:03:30
  SPEAKER_02: I show up, the little grounds guys like, come down here, puts me in the locker room, gives me some stuff, cleats, what shoes you wearing?
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like a D.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, You gotta wear Puma.
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't have any Pumas.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, here, gets it size 10 and a half, gives me him, hands me a Derby Star Ball that's pumped up like a concrete rock.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_02: Sitting there, and the players start coming in and they're looking, they, you know, another new guy, another new guy, right?
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_02: And all of a sudden the coach comes in, slams the door, and just starts going nuts on him.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then he turns and he who like who the F are you?
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, this guy crap wearing.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_02: So he's like, get out of here.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_02: You're not on this team.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I got up, I got out, went on the training field.
• 1:04:11
  SPEAKER_02: There's like maybe a hundred people, 200 people there to watch practice.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm out there like kind of juggling, waiting for the team to come up.
• 1:04:18
  SPEAKER_02: They come out, and the first thing they do is play 5v2, right?
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's like in a 5v2 square.
• 1:04:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm playing Wisconsin American 5v2, trying to make guys like shoes coming through the motions, just like flicking and tricking, slide tackling and screaming, and the balls moving, and it is like on like a whole nother level.
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_02: That alone is the difference.
• 1:04:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like that 5v2 was so intense, not a warm up over there, it's not, it was crazy.
• 1:04:49
  SPEAKER_04: We use it as a warm-up.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, guys, it's a social out.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah exactly.
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_02: Let's, you know, this was like no joke.
• 1:04:57
  SPEAKER_02: I was in the middle for torn like getting screamed at.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_04: Could it's that obvious is mentality?
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_04: Could a coach instill that, or is it player driven?
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's player driven.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, a coach could yell at you all you want, but you might not really change.
• 1:05:16
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's it's from within, it's right.
• 1:05:19
  SPEAKER_02: Those players, it's competitive, it's wanting like it's just that that grind.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_02: We don't, you know, and like you said, we we talked before, it's you know, it's when the US loses a World Cup game, everyone loses their mind, and it's like, oh we need to blow up the system, and all every single youth coach in America sucks.
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone sucks, and and all the pundits are telling everybody what to do, yet they do none of it.
• 1:05:43
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you, Landon Donovan, who's never coached youth.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's easy to say pay to pay is a pro pay to play is a problem, but I don't see those kind of guys going out and donating their time.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_04: Then tell me, and you're worth millions.
• 1:05:57
  SPEAKER_02: How about you donate your money?
• 1:05:58
  SPEAKER_02: Because I don't know the answer.
• 1:06:00
  SPEAKER_02: I know the country's too big, you know.
• 1:06:02
  SPEAKER_02: I know some obvious things, but I'm at this grassroots level.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: I sent two kids to Minnesota United.
• 1:06:13
  SPEAKER_02: Now I feel like it's up to them to maybe turn them into the next step.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: Like I did my step.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's the next step.
• 1:06:19
  SPEAKER_02: Or I'm is it my job to f to create world-class player?
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: I I just it's I mean it's hard.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_02: And then when a kid is really that good, they move on because we they outgrow us.
• 1:06:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like it's like, well, we have all these amazing players in this country, but because of pay-to-play, they're all just sitting on their couch.
• 1:06:40
  SPEAKER_02: No, if there's great soccer, they're all playing and they're playing for free because someone sees them and gives them free soccer.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_04: Have you seen any MLS next or maybe even non-platform clubs block a kid from going to an MLS academy?
• 1:06:59
  SPEAKER_04: I haven't.
• 1:07:00
  SPEAKER_04: I don't I mean, obviously, I I I would love to know.
• 1:07:04
  SPEAKER_02: No, not that I've no.
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: Not that I've heard of.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, why would you?
• 1:07:09
  SPEAKER_04: No, I mean whenever a parent says like they're trying to navigate everything, it's like, well, if if you really think that your son is this uh special, you need to do anything you can to get on an MLS Academy.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because it's free.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's free, and uh their training to game ratio, their approach to everything, like they say uh they travel with a staff of nine, they have mental health professionals traveling with them, they have psychology coaches, they have nutritionists, they have everything, right?
• 1:07:49
  SPEAKER_04: That's what you that's where you want to be.
• 1:07:51
  SPEAKER_04: And but they're like, Well, what about ECNO or MLC?
• 1:07:54
  SPEAKER_04: It doesn't matter, they'll find you.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, if you're that good, you'll yeah, everybody knows everybody.
• 1:07:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, this the soccer world is actually very, very small, absolutely, right?
• 1:08:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like I've had Larry on, you know, Larry, your son played for Larry, yeah, and it's like it's so small.
• 1:08:11
  SPEAKER_04: I've never met you before uh a month ago or whenever we were on that call.
• 1:08:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's like, but we know everybody knows each other.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like if we sat down right now and I and I started saying, Okay, well, how did this you're the guys that I know from Michigan?
• 1:08:25
  SPEAKER_04: You'd be like, I know that guy, I know well, how did this all get set up?
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, just because of James, right?
• 1:08:30
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like I played with plenty of guys from Michigan, yeah, you know that we either knew or you heard, you know, Jeff Cassar.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:38
  SPEAKER_02: Goalkeeping, yeah, goalkeeping logic.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I played with all those guys, like, you know, it's like, of course, soccer's a small world, but soccer's also subjective, right?
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_02: So when you go to these academies, you think you're I'm so good.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, well, not to me, you're not.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 1:08:58
  SPEAKER_04: And that's that's one of my favorite things about the sport, and it kind of sucks.
• 1:09:03
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because I could look at a player and be like, this girl is unbelievable, she's a great kid, but every coach that she has like can't stand her.
• 1:09:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's like maybe I just maybe I'm just wrong.
• 1:09:17
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 1:09:18
  SPEAKER_04: But then, yeah, every coach looks at players differently, yeah, and they have different thoughts.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like the girl that played for Wisconsin, she was center back.
• 1:09:27
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, she is going to be an unbelievable center back.
• 1:09:31
  SPEAKER_04: Doesn't play center back, she doesn't play center back, and she's playing 90 minutes as a freshman at the six.
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's like I was wrong, yeah.
• 1:09:40
  SPEAKER_04: But maybe, maybe but different eyes and different just like different different eyes, different thoughts.
• 1:09:47
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like, why is it why isn't my son playing more?
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'll ask him.
• 1:09:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like he usually knows the players pick the lineup, like I don't, like he doesn't train good.
• 1:10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Shoes I was untie, balls flat.
• 1:10:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I mean, we I come out with a provided balls, but like you know, little things like little things here, yeah.
• 1:10:11
  SPEAKER_04: You know, if you're late, if you're late, you can't drive.
• 1:10:14
  SPEAKER_04: Are you running the practice or are you just walking to the with your crocs on?
• 1:10:19
  SPEAKER_04: With your cro Oh my god, with your crocs on.
• 1:10:22
  SPEAKER_04: I had a rule, I had an unwritten rule at my training facility.
• 1:10:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's like none of you drive here.
• 1:10:30
  SPEAKER_04: I'm okay if you're three minutes late because you yeah, there's a driveway to parking lot rule, but then there's parking lot to field rule.
• 1:10:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, parking lot to field, that's in your control.
• 1:10:42
  SPEAKER_04: Can you run here with your cleats on?
• 1:10:45
  SPEAKER_04: I cannot stand it when a kid shows up three minutes late and they still got their across on.
• 1:10:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, what were you doing in the car?
• 1:10:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and then they're slow to get going and they're well, my mom didn't tell me this is not your mom.
• 1:10:59
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_04: I hadn't one of my mentors, and I still do this to this day.
• 1:11:04
  SPEAKER_04: I cannot stand it when parents carry their bags.
• 1:11:08
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, how heavy is that bag?
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_04: Is that bad?
• 1:11:10
  SPEAKER_04: Is that bag uh uh too heavy for you?
• 1:11:13
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I just I just played a game, I don't care.
• 1:11:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's not your it's not their bag, right?
• 1:11:19
  SPEAKER_04: Who packed the bag?
• 1:11:20
  SPEAKER_04: Right, exactly.
• 1:11:23
  SPEAKER_04: Parents, stop doing that.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_04: Stop.
• 1:11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Put a just a little bit of more when you coach, did you have a ton of parents watch practice?
• 1:11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, or did you have a rule against that?
• 1:11:33
  SPEAKER_04: Or did was it kind of when I was coaching teams?
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_04: I loved training on a gym floor.
• 1:11:40
  SPEAKER_04: I could lock parents out, yeah, and I locked them out.
• 1:11:43
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, at my training facility, it's hard.
• 1:11:47
  SPEAKER_04: It was hard just because they're actually like paying me for like extra training, yeah.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_04: But I loved it.
• 1:11:54
  SPEAKER_04: I had I had a parent room that was behind glass, you couldn't hear anything.
• 1:11:58
  SPEAKER_04: So like I just tried to make sure that but no, do you guys allow it?
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:12:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's no rule, right?
• 1:12:08
  SPEAKER_02: So there's some parents that watch.
• 1:12:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, and there's some parents that treat it like a game.
• 1:12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, and then the issue too is a lot of times and yeah, I catch the kids like looking, constantly looking.
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_02: Is he watching?
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Did he see that?
• 1:12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Did he you know?
• 1:12:23
  SPEAKER_02: So then it's like, well, maybe just drop them off and pick them up.
• 1:12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, trust me.
• 1:12:29
  SPEAKER_04: I've had there's been players where their best session what is happening when mom or dad isn't there, yeah, and then all of a sudden they walk in and it goes boom.
• 1:12:45
  SPEAKER_04: It's like that's not good.
• 1:12:48
  SPEAKER_04: No, and parents need to I don't know.
• 1:12:53
  SPEAKER_04: Did you watch your son play?
• 1:12:56
  SPEAKER_04: Or uh train?
• 1:12:58
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes.
• 1:12:59
  SPEAKER_04: A lot of times you were on the field, probably.
• 1:13:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I was I I watched him train more to watch the training, like it was a combination of the stuff.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:13:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like uh and I but I was a dad who I never ever and you can ask my wife this sat with anyone when the game was going out.
• 1:13:20
  SPEAKER_02: I would go by myself, watched it.
• 1:13:23
  SPEAKER_02: I couldn't stand there's no chance.
• 1:13:27
  SPEAKER_02: Because I'd either say something I probably shouldn't say, or I just but but it's always the people that parents would ask you questions, probably.
• 1:13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but see, like watching a game with you would be great because it'd be a different kind of conversation because it's just like we're watching the game and talking, but we're not right.
• 1:13:46
  SPEAKER_02: And then there's other parents who, you know.
• 1:13:48
  SPEAKER_04: Was that a foul?
• 1:13:49
  SPEAKER_02: What would you have done there?
• 1:13:52
  SPEAKER_04: Why why isn't John playing in the six?
• 1:13:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, why is he playing out wide?
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:13:57
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't that practice?
• 1:13:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's like I don't make the decisions, stop asking me.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 1:14:02
  SPEAKER_04: It's like and then parents should just like look at you and was like, if you're if he's not freaking out, I'm not gonna freak out.
• 1:14:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I it's actually what I say in my speech.
• 1:14:11
  SPEAKER_02: I say, let me say I have a pretty good relationship with all the refs around here.
• 1:14:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't really lose my mind.
• 1:14:19
  SPEAKER_02: If you don't see me getting upset, there's no reason for you to go exactly, I'll protect your kid.
• 1:14:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like if something's going on, I will protect your kid.
• 1:14:26
  SPEAKER_02: I will be the first one to like scream and all that.
• 1:14:29
  SPEAKER_02: But if you don't see me getting upset, you know, like we're driving to the game.
• 1:14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Consider this the ref's probably gonna make five really bad calls, right?
• 1:14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Three might go our way, two are gonna go the other way, it's gonna all even itself out, and it's just gonna all be fine, right?
• 1:14:45
  SPEAKER_04: And like the ref's probably a 14-year-old kid who does like and we want to keep him in the game, yeah, or we want to keep her in the game, so let's treat them kindly.
• 1:14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's and that's what I always say.
• 1:14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, think back to that game in October that you lost your mind in.
• 1:14:58
  SPEAKER_02: Did you flash terror?
• 1:15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Does it matter?
• 1:15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what changed today?
• 1:15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you feel stupid?
• 1:15:05
  SPEAKER_04: So that was one thing.
• 1:15:09
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so I go to the flash, yeah, and I'm coaching the NWSL, but then I'm also helping like the you nine girls.
• 1:15:15
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so so what a oh my god, it's insane.
• 1:15:22
  SPEAKER_04: And and basically, I asked I did I might have asked Sidney LaRue or I asked like Sam Muis and Abby Doll Camper, girl uh women have won the World Cup.
• 1:15:37
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I go, Do you remember a game at nine years old that you lost?
• 1:15:42
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 1:15:43
  SPEAKER_04: Do you remember a game at nine that you won?
• 1:15:47
  SPEAKER_04: No, not really.
• 1:15:49
  SPEAKER_04: And I would tell those parents, guys, I just talked to the pros.
• 1:15:54
  SPEAKER_04: This game, there you're not gonna remember.
• 1:15:58
  SPEAKER_04: You might remember for nostalgia, or if you won a trophy because of this game, but for the most part, you're not gonna remember this.
• 1:16:07
  SPEAKER_04: I will my favorite thing to do at Fest is at night.
• 1:16:10
  SPEAKER_04: I just walk the I I would just walk the fields and just watch as many different games as possible, all levels, the academy, homegrown, everything.
• 1:16:19
  SPEAKER_04: Whatever game's going on, you're watching, and it's so quiet.
• 1:16:22
  SPEAKER_04: If you've ever done that walk, it is so quiet.
• 1:16:27
  SPEAKER_04: Imagine that complex if it was a U9 tournament.
• 1:16:31
  SPEAKER_04: It would be insane, yeah.
• 1:16:33
  SPEAKER_04: It would be so loud.
• 1:16:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, every goal you would hear, and there were some goals nobody cheered.
• 1:16:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, because it was just like, yeah.
• 1:16:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, I mean, there was one game that was like what a thousand people or whatever, but uh but yeah, it's just I wish it how many games do you remember?
• 1:16:59
  SPEAKER_02: The earliest game that I remember I'm saying total handful, a handful, and you played in thousands of games, played in thousands, coached thousands, yeah.
• 1:17:12
  SPEAKER_04: Do you ever do you ever work with somebody that has insane recall of games?
• 1:17:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and you're like, how do you remember this?
• 1:17:20
  SPEAKER_04: I do you're like that, yeah.
• 1:17:22
  SPEAKER_04: I am not.
• 1:17:23
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, yeah, and then a corner, and then and then the ref, and then and then, and then we had a we got him on a counter.
• 1:17:30
  SPEAKER_02: I remember what like what kind of shoes the guy had on, and all that kind of stuff, like weird stuff.
• 1:17:34
  SPEAKER_04: So you're one of those.
• 1:17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like I still can't remember that you know playing.
• 1:17:40
  SPEAKER_02: No, I remember like a few moments.
• 1:17:43
  SPEAKER_04: I think I was like my my fondest memory, or my best one of my best games was like when I was like 15.
• 1:17:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that game kind of stucks out in my head, but it's like two plays, yeah.
• 1:17:54
  SPEAKER_04: It isn't like the whole thing, right?
• 1:18:00
  SPEAKER_04: Soccer.
• 1:18:01
  SPEAKER_04: Isn't that crazy?
• 1:18:02
  SPEAKER_04: Isn't it a crazy sport?
• 1:18:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's great though.
• 1:18:06
  SPEAKER_04: It is great, and everybody's like, well, why do you why are you here?
• 1:18:10
  SPEAKER_04: Why are you here if you hate soccer?
• 1:18:12
  SPEAKER_04: It's like if you only knew, if you only knew the politics uh of some of it, or the heartache, or the gatekeeping, or whatever.
• 1:18:23
  SPEAKER_02: So you mentioned before, like you would get so upset, you know, when you lose players.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:18:28
  SPEAKER_02: Did that ever change where you were like, you know what, or is or did you just leave?
• 1:18:35
  SPEAKER_04: Part of it was my my fault because I also coached at that club.
• 1:18:40
  SPEAKER_04: I did the goalkeeping for the DA.
• 1:18:42
  SPEAKER_04: So I was at the community club and and uh doing the goalkeeping at the DA.
• 1:18:48
  SPEAKER_04: And I would just go back to that U9, U10, U11 boys team and be like, guys, you need to come and watch.
• 1:18:55
  SPEAKER_04: And that was guys that played he's it was like Caleb Stanko, who played 12 years overseas.
• 1:19:03
  SPEAKER_04: It was Zach Carroll, who's played in the USL for 10 years, and now he's a coach at Michigan State.
• 1:19:08
  SPEAKER_04: Fataya Lashe, who played at Michigan State, played at FC Cincinnati in the MLS.
• 1:19:13
  SPEAKER_04: It was like those guys, and I'm like, guys, you need to come and watch.
• 1:19:17
  SPEAKER_04: And then that kind of opened their eyes and that backfired on me.
• 1:19:20
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 1:19:21
  SPEAKER_04: So when the when the girls, so I had the boys and I sent them, and then when I saw the girls, I'm like, guys, you need to go.
• 1:19:31
  SPEAKER_04: It's time.
• 1:19:32
  SPEAKER_04: Like I grew up as a coach when that first wave left.
• 1:19:36
  SPEAKER_04: I was like 24, 25, and that was like my first team that I like really loved.
• 1:19:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I'm like, this I felt like it was mine because I had them at like eight years old, and I got to see them grow.
• 1:19:49
  SPEAKER_04: Right, and that's how I felt, right?
• 1:19:51
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I don't know about you, but I went through going from when I started coaching, I felt like I was a fraud, I had no idea what I was doing.
• 1:20:03
  SPEAKER_04: Then I felt like I knew everything, and everybody else was an idiot, and then it's like something happens of like, this is it truly takes a village.
• 1:20:16
  SPEAKER_04: I know it's cliche, but it that's another question that I would ask the pros.
• 1:20:20
  SPEAKER_04: I go, how many coaches made an impact on you in your life?
• 1:20:23
  SPEAKER_04: They had all rattled off, like nine.
• 1:20:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, how many coaches?
• 1:20:27
  SPEAKER_04: I I've known so many coaches, like I developed her, I developed her, I developed her, but like you had a part of her development, right?
• 1:20:34
  SPEAKER_00: But there was like nine of you, nine of uh nine coaches that had the same, the same uh everyone that ever coached me is either in the Wisconsin or National Hall of Fame from the time I was eight years old till I was stopped playing with the Bavarian men's at 33.
• 1:20:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like Bob Gansler, Herbert Schweiner, Willie Wessels, Sasha Sharowski, Ryan Tompkin's Brian Tompkins.
• 1:21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like it just goes on, like So I grew up at the Bavarian Sigh, I just had these German Did that help you develop as a coach?
• 1:21:15
  SPEAKER_04: Did you like remember all that stuff or did you forget?
• 1:21:18
  SPEAKER_02: I forgot a lot of it, but it was just like that's one thing I took a little piece of this and that, but it was I've I've grown up a lot in the last 10.
• 1:21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like everything used to bother me.
• 1:21:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I wanted to fight well, I didn't not fight with it, I wanted to argue with everyone, you know.
• 1:21:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's like I don't agree with that, or I lost a player.
• 1:21:36
  SPEAKER_02: I that was me.
• 1:21:37
  SPEAKER_02: Everything bothered me.
• 1:21:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:21:38
  SPEAKER_02: And now I'm just like.
• 1:22:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, and I just wish, and you you played for literal legends, yeah.
• 1:22:27
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like man it was no joke.
• 1:22:29
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I grew up in that, like is Wisconsin an old um an old soccer community, yeah.
• 1:22:38
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like a St.
• 1:22:39
  SPEAKER_04: Louis, it's like a New Jersey, it's like a Michigan.
• 1:22:42
  SPEAKER_02: So the Bavarians were like the German club, and the sport sport club was the other German club, and then there was like Club Latino, and then the United Serbians, Croatian Eagles, Verdi were the you know the talent, like so it's this ethnic league, and then you had the Milwaukee kickers or like the you know American, but right, but that's how we grew up.
• 1:23:01
  SPEAKER_02: So when I grew up, it was like German coach after German coach after German coach, and it was uh it was good.
• 1:23:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, and then when you started coaching, did you try to like get mentors, or were you like, no, I I have a good idea of what I mean, uh you play you were a pro.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_04: Kind of did it.
• 1:23:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, just I I'm a much better coach today than I was five years ago than I was 10, and I'll be a better coach five years from now.
• 1:23:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm always trying to learn and I I read a lot and watch, but I just always go back to those roots of you know, it's just training hard, holding yourself accountable.
• 1:23:43
  SPEAKER_02: And then I just like the way, you know, there's three ways of playing through a team, around a team, or a team.
• 1:23:49
  SPEAKER_02: I like to go through a team, I like to teach and play.
• 1:23:53
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's like I infiltrated.
• 1:23:54
  SPEAKER_02: I've always said if I have to sit and watch, if I'm coaching and I'm gonna watch, then I want to enjoy what I'm watching.
• 1:24:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good that's a good thing to live by.
• 1:24:07
  SPEAKER_04: Because how many times?
• 1:24:08
  SPEAKER_02: And the winning will come with it.
• 1:24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Like it'll come like yeah, I I'm as you're compet we're all competitive.
• 1:24:13
  SPEAKER_02: We're all competitive, we're all competitive.
• 1:24:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like I hate losing.
• 1:24:16
  SPEAKER_02: I hate losing a board game, I hate losing it, doesn't matter.
• 1:24:19
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:24:20
  SPEAKER_02: But if you can teach them to play the you know the way you want and they follow along, and you're gonna win more than you lose.
• 1:24:28
  SPEAKER_02: But the problem with coaching now is that parents don't understand, okay, I gotta play everybody, but I only have three moments to sub these many kids in.
• 1:24:38
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:24:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then they can't go back in in that half.
• 1:24:40
  SPEAKER_02: I have to develop them, have them look good, like have them play well, hopefully get recruited, right?
• 1:24:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I gotta win games, and I gotta retain all these players, exactly and I gotta do that game after game after game, and then I gotta take the phone call from the parent at eight o'clock, you know.
• 1:24:55
  SPEAKER_02: Well, what happened?
• 1:24:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, not that that ever, you know, but I'm just it's oh I'm sure it's part of coaching, right?
• 1:25:01
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 1:25:02
  SPEAKER_02: So they think it's just the simple formula, but it's not like that's all going through your head while you're coaching.
• 1:25:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, when can I sell like, for example, your team's playing amazing, right?
• 1:25:14
  SPEAKER_02: You're 20 minutes in, the goals come in, and they're just playing spotless, just beautiful soccer.
• 1:25:21
  SPEAKER_02: Everything you worked on is looking great, and now you're like, I'm 22 minutes in, and I probably should be making a song.
• 1:25:27
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:25:29
  SPEAKER_04: And another thing is that like you have to like okay, your oldest roster, how many kids uh how many players are on your roster?
• 1:25:37
  SPEAKER_04: 20.
• 1:25:38
  SPEAKER_04: So you have to worry about 20.
• 1:25:40
  SPEAKER_04: They, the parent, are worried about one, right?
• 1:25:44
  SPEAKER_04: And it's just they I don't know.
• 1:25:49
  SPEAKER_04: I hope that uh more realize what the coaches go through.
• 1:25:53
  SPEAKER_04: It's why it's a lonely profession.
• 1:25:55
  SPEAKER_04: That's why there's a lot, there's a shortage.
• 1:25:57
  SPEAKER_04: I feel like there's a shortage in some areas, and I feel like a lot of people leave the when you go when you're like, hey, let's what who can we bring in?
• 1:26:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like it was another good coach we could get, you know.
• 1:26:09
  SPEAKER_02: You start going through the list, you're like the good, the really good ones are taken, and they're not gonna leave.
• 1:26:15
  SPEAKER_02: And the rest is kind of like, yeah.
• 1:26:18
  SPEAKER_02: You know, right, because the young kids think they know everything.
• 1:26:22
  SPEAKER_04: And they want to skip steps.
• 1:26:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, they don't want to coach the one of the number one messages I get is like, how do I get into coaching or how do I get into college coaching?
• 1:26:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, dude, you're 22.
• 1:26:36
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, go and coach a youth, a you9 team because you might coach a U9 team and you fall in love with it and you don't need to.
• 1:26:45
  SPEAKER_04: But I was a chaser, I was always trying to climb.
• 1:26:50
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I always wanted to like so I was at that community club, and then I would lose those players and like I want to be a DA coach, I want to coach ECNL.
• 1:26:58
  SPEAKER_04: Would I went and did that?
• 1:27:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, wasn't really for me.
• 1:27:02
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I I didn't want to do that.
• 1:27:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I wanted to coach college, so I go to University of Detroit and I coach.
• 1:27:09
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't for me.
• 1:27:10
  SPEAKER_04: I want to be a pro coach.
• 1:27:12
  SPEAKER_04: I go to NWSL and I hated it.
• 1:27:16
  SPEAKER_04: And and then I realized like, what was my favorite?
• 1:27:20
  SPEAKER_04: Like, my favorite is nine to like 12 or 13, and getting to work with those players and develop a foundation.
• 1:27:28
  SPEAKER_04: So and then I can, and that's why I started the technical training company.
• 1:27:33
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not affiliated, I'm not coaching games because I'm not the tactical guru that I used to think that I was.
• 1:27:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I just want to work on the technical foundation of every single player and raise that just a little bit.
• 1:27:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's like the girl that I was watching last night, I've been training her since she was nine years old.
• 1:27:51
  SPEAKER_04: That is the most one of the most rewarding things that I can do now.
• 1:27:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, the piece of that.
• 1:27:56
  SPEAKER_04: I don't care about like winning a game on Saturday.
• 1:27:59
  SPEAKER_04: Like I I got I I it took coaching 12 years to realize to have that um to have that perspective of myself to have my self-awareness of like I don't want to coach on Saturdays, I don't want to coach on Sundays.
• 1:28:19
  SPEAKER_04: That's good.
• 1:28:20
  SPEAKER_04: And then I just uh and and I think coaches want to skip steps.
• 1:28:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:28:25
  SPEAKER_04: So like if you started coaching and you went right into D1 coaching, you're never gonna get into the club game, you're never gonna coach a U9 team.
• 1:28:35
  SPEAKER_04: Like, and you might find yourself in 20 years and you hate coaching, but you you never did it all.
• 1:28:44
  SPEAKER_04: You never coached that U8 team, their U9 team, all the way to an MLS next or whatever.
• 1:28:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:28:52
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:28:53
  SPEAKER_02: Coaches, it gives me a high, it's it replaces the the playing, right?
• 1:28:59
  SPEAKER_02: So there's times I'm driving a training and it's been a long day, work, whatever, and I'm like, uh.
• 1:29:05
  SPEAKER_02: But the minute I get there and the kids, and then I get energy, and then it just all just goes into flows.
• 1:29:12
  SPEAKER_04: Over like the last 11 years, the number one question I would get is do you miss coaching teams?
• 1:29:18
  SPEAKER_04: Or are you ever gonna start a club?
• 1:29:20
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, one, no, I am never starting a club.
• 1:29:24
  SPEAKER_04: Do I miss teams?
• 1:29:25
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes, once in a while, I do.
• 1:29:28
  SPEAKER_04: And this is when when I would get a team in August and I get to see them in July and see the growth.
• 1:29:35
  SPEAKER_04: That was the best.
• 1:29:36
  SPEAKER_04: I loved I loved losing to a team in the fall and then coming back and beating them in the spring.
• 1:29:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like stuff like that.
• 1:29:43
  SPEAKER_04: That was like what I missed.
• 1:29:45
  SPEAKER_02: The teams like my team this month is not going to look like it is four months from now.
• 1:29:52
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 1:29:52
  SPEAKER_02: So these are like the beginning steps, these are what we're working through.
• 1:29:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm also not the type that I feel soccer is a very simple game.
• 1:30:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the players, you know, all this over tactical talk, and it at the end of the day, I can I can have the greatest tactics, and one really good player can blow it all up, and it doesn't matter.
• 1:30:15
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 1:30:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then I have some players looking at me like, well, coach, you told us like, yeah, well, he dribbled three of you, and I don't know what to tell you.
• 1:30:21
  SPEAKER_04: That's another thing about like Pep and like Spain in 2010, right?
• 1:30:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, all right, it's the 75th minute, it's a thousand passes to 230, zero shots on goal.
• 1:30:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, how are they gonna break through?
• 1:30:37
  SPEAKER_04: And then it took one moment of brilliance from Messi and he dribbles 10 or 15 guys, and and then he scores, and it's like, oh, pep's a genius.
• 1:30:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's like you're telling me they didn't work all week to like how are we gonna minimize Messi getting the ball?
• 1:30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Where are we gonna where do we want him to have the ball in the field?
• 1:30:57
  SPEAKER_04: Like, oh, if he gets it out here at midfield, we're okay with that, or right, and then boom, he dribbles eight guys, and so and then it's like, well, what well, look at and like the tactical genius of Argentina this year against England.
• 1:31:10
  SPEAKER_04: That was brilliant of just like knocking him back, put in uh what's his security guard's name uh from Inter Miami, DePaul, right?
• 1:31:19
  SPEAKER_04: It's like okay, you got Messi on the right, and you got DePaul right behind him, and then I remember in the Mexico England game, it would always they would always try to go to the get to the goal line and then cross.
• 1:31:32
  SPEAKER_04: Whereas what would happen if you watch that Argentina game back, DePaul was sending early crosses, good ones, were serving early crosses, and then that kind of like lulled England to sleep, and then that allowed Messi to get on the ball, and then and then finally, whereas Mexico, it was so predictable, and it was the same ball over and over and over.
• 1:31:55
  SPEAKER_04: But you're right, it's like those situations, and again, a moment of brilliance.
• 1:32:02
  SPEAKER_04: We can we could talk about and try to copy Argentina all we want, but when it at the end of the day, it's it ended because of a moment of brilliance from the best player in the world, yeah.
• 1:32:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's how Michael Jordan.
• 1:32:16
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 1:32:17
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, we gotta copy the triangle offense.
• 1:32:20
  SPEAKER_04: We're all Phil Jackson's.
• 1:32:21
  SPEAKER_04: Well, how good of a coach was Phil Jackson?
• 1:32:23
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know, because he had Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, and then he gets and then he sucked, and then he did suck, but like, and then he went to the stumbles.
• 1:32:34
  SPEAKER_04: Well, no, he goes to the Lakers and he's Jack and Kobe.
• 1:32:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, my point is like he wasn't coaching the books, exactly.
• 1:32:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like he wasn't taking the bucks to the like he had Jordan, exactly, and again, like the team could work all week long at how we're gonna stop Jordan.
• 1:32:50
  SPEAKER_02: He'd score still score 40 points, doesn't matter.
• 1:32:52
  SPEAKER_04: Are you a Packers fan?
• 1:32:53
  SPEAKER_04: Of course, I'm a Cheese fan.
• 1:32:55
  SPEAKER_02: Ugh.
• 1:32:56
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry, but I've been through it.
• 1:33:00
  SPEAKER_04: I like my first quarterback that I ever watched was Steve DeBerg.
• 1:33:05
  SPEAKER_04: I we went from Joe Montana and we didn't win a playoff game until we had Alex Smith.
• 1:33:11
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, so I've been through it.
• 1:33:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:33:14
  SPEAKER_04: And then everybody, and then imagine I'm a Chiefs fan living in Buffalo the last 11 years, and they're like, well, if Josh Allen went to Andy Reed, he'd have all the Super Bowls.
• 1:33:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, wait a minute, Andy Reed didn't have any Super Bowls until Mahomes shows up.
• 1:33:33
  SPEAKER_04: Can you give Mahomes just a little bit of credit and name a great quarterback who won a ton of rings that didn't have a world-class coach?
• 1:33:43
  SPEAKER_04: You had Joe Montana had uh Bill Walsh, you had Troy Aikman, had uh Jim Jimmy Johnson, you had, I think, uh LA had Shanahan, Shanahan's a great coach, and then we get into Belichick and Brady, and it's like, okay, you can't have Bradshaw had um oh my god, what's his name?
• 1:34:04
  SPEAKER_04: Chuck Noel.
• 1:34:04
  SPEAKER_04: Chuck Noel.
• 1:34:06
  SPEAKER_04: It's like all of them have great coaches.
• 1:34:10
  SPEAKER_04: Why are you but are they great because of those players that put them over the hump?
• 1:34:18
  SPEAKER_04: Belichick had a go look at his record without Brady.
• 1:34:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, go look at him with Brady.
• 1:34:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, but does Brady turn into Brady without Belichick?
• 1:34:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's like But that's a new soccer to circle back.
• 1:34:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like I probably get too much credit when we're doing really well, but I also probably get too much blame if it's not going well.
• 1:34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:34:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like it's that's why it's a lonely profession, too.
• 1:34:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's all of it, you know.
• 1:34:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I've I'd I'd love to have you know 11 world-class players, it'd be easy to coach.
• 1:34:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then you get blamed.
• 1:34:52
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, you have favorites.
• 1:34:55
  SPEAKER_04: No, that's our best player, you just don't want to admit it.
• 1:35:00
  SPEAKER_02: Come on.
• 1:35:01
  SPEAKER_02: We all played on youth teams where it was like get the ball to so and so.
• 1:35:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 1:35:08
  SPEAKER_02: Get the ball to the Italians, like beating a screaming.
• 1:35:11
  SPEAKER_02: That'll be a lot better.
• 1:35:12
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:35:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's really good coaching.
• 1:35:15
  SPEAKER_04: You don't think that like Erling Holland, it was like get the ball to Erling when he was 12, yeah, 13.
• 1:35:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:35:25
  SPEAKER_02: Where Harling's not getting the ball enough, it's like get it to Odegaard because so he can create, get it to me.
• 1:35:31
  SPEAKER_04: I used to always say that no matter the level, if you have a goalkeeper that can keep you in games, make one, two, three saves in a game and organize their back line, and then somebody that can put the ball in the back of the net or create quality chances, you're gonna be very competitive and you're gonna win probably a lot of games.
• 1:35:56
  SPEAKER_04: If you have those two things, and then you add like a workhorse in the middle, that's a luxury, and then you have like a really strong center back, that's a luxury.
• 1:36:05
  SPEAKER_04: But if you just have those two things, you'll be okay.
• 1:36:07
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna be okay.
• 1:36:09
  SPEAKER_02: If you have a player that can break a team down by beating one guy and putting pressure on the defense, you're already like okay.
• 1:36:19
  SPEAKER_04: But then when did we just turn into everything has to be pattern play and game model?
• 1:36:26
  SPEAKER_04: And we forgot like developing the individual.
• 1:36:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there's a club in in New York that you have to play their system, you have to play their decision making.
• 1:36:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's almost like it's built for you, you have to decide everything before you ever get the ball, and it's already like predetermined by the coach and by the style of play.
• 1:36:48
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, then how are you ever gonna develop anybody that's special?
• 1:36:52
  SPEAKER_02: Soccer's art, and you're painting the picture.
• 1:36:55
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing our coaching Monday through Friday at practice when the game starts.
• 1:37:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I can sub a kit or tweak something here or there, but it's a player's game.
• 1:37:05
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're playing.
• 1:37:06
  SPEAKER_02: By the time I yell something in, that's good, that's done.
• 1:37:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's over with.
• 1:37:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like you can look for it the next time, but it's already too late.
• 1:37:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's art, and that's a player's game.
• 1:37:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why on this the game days, it's a it's about the players.
• 1:37:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:37:20
  SPEAKER_02: And there's not much I can do as a coach other than because it the tactics in a U13 game.
• 1:37:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, come on.
• 1:37:29
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, and that I mean, how often have you seen teams or coaches skip steps with their teams?
• 1:37:37
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you know what, we don't need to play another 9v9 season.
• 1:37:40
  SPEAKER_04: Let's go ahead and just play to 11v11.
• 1:37:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's like they should have stayed in 9v9 because think about the more touches.
• 1:37:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's what's going on now is everyone's in a hurry to get to 11v11.
• 1:37:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, right?
• 1:37:50
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, let's keep it small.
• 1:37:53
  SPEAKER_02: Let's MLS, I gotta give them credit for U13.
• 1:37:56
  SPEAKER_02: They they shortened the field, yeah.
• 1:37:58
  SPEAKER_02: Size four ball, and it makes sense because I got kids on my U13, they're this big, they couldn't kick a size five ball, right?
• 1:38:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then on a really big field, I mean you were down in our stadium field, U13 game on that.
• 1:38:14
  SPEAKER_02: No, if the ball gets on the right side of the field, it's gonna be over there for 15 minutes, and there's a little bit of a wind, the left side of the field may never see the ball.
• 1:38:23
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:38:24
  SPEAKER_02: So, what development is that?
• 1:38:26
  SPEAKER_02: But then the parents are like, Well, my kid plays up, right?
• 1:38:30
  SPEAKER_02: You didn't touch the ball, yeah.
• 1:38:31
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 1:38:32
  SPEAKER_02: How'd he do?
• 1:38:32
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, he never touched the ball.
• 1:38:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, yeah, you play he played for 20 minutes, which is a lot in a half, and he touched the ball once, and it was on a throw-in.
• 1:38:42
  SPEAKER_02: Whoever, whoever attacked first, the other team can't get out of their half.
• 1:38:46
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
• 1:38:48
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, yeah, that's the stuff I don't miss.
• 1:38:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then you got a goalie in a regular size goal.
• 1:38:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:38:57
  SPEAKER_04: If it gets on frame, if it if it gets on frame, it's probably in the back of the neck, because they can't cover a 22-foot goal.
• 1:39:04
  SPEAKER_02: No, or there's a corner, and then no one can kick it.
• 1:39:09
  SPEAKER_02: The size five balls.
• 1:39:10
  SPEAKER_04: Everything has to be short, yeah.
• 1:39:13
  SPEAKER_04: Or it goes out for a goal kick every single time.
• 1:39:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so what do we well?
• 1:39:19
  SPEAKER_04: Look at what the FA is doing.
• 1:39:20
  SPEAKER_04: The FA is not starting 11v11 until like 15 now, and it's like 4v4 until U11.
• 1:39:28
  SPEAKER_04: It's smart, yeah.
• 1:39:29
  SPEAKER_04: And part of it, I've like in 10 years, maybe they win the World Cup, and then everybody's gonna be like, okay, we need to cover uh copy what England does.
• 1:39:40
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, no, we need to cover, we need to copy, not starting 11v11 until 15.
• 1:39:47
  SPEAKER_02: But we'll always copy.
• 1:39:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, but it's again, it's uh what do we even know?
• 1:39:51
  SPEAKER_02: We didn't win the world cup.
• 1:39:52
  SPEAKER_02: What's you know, what's wrong?
• 1:39:53
  SPEAKER_02: We lost to Belgium.
• 1:39:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know what?
• 1:39:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, Mexico's never won a World Cup.
• 1:39:58
  SPEAKER_02: England won one, and it was 1960.
• 1:40:01
  SPEAKER_02: And if there was var, they might not have won it.
• 1:40:04
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:40:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there's all these country Holland has zero.
• 1:40:09
  SPEAKER_04: Well, yeah, one of probably the most influential nation, yeah.
• 1:40:17
  SPEAKER_04: Most influential nation on US soccer in terms of coaching development has never won a World Cup.
• 1:40:25
  SPEAKER_04: And yet we're supposed to just copy everybody that wins it.
• 1:40:28
  SPEAKER_04: Why doesn't England copy Spain?
• 1:40:30
  SPEAKER_04: Why doesn't they blow it up?
• 1:40:32
  SPEAKER_04: No, and you know what?
• 1:40:33
  SPEAKER_04: Spain didn't either.
• 1:40:35
  SPEAKER_04: No.
• 1:40:35
  SPEAKER_04: Renee, was it Renee Mjolnistein?
• 1:40:38
  SPEAKER_04: He was talking about how oh no, it was Ian Barker.
• 1:40:41
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I had Ian on.
• 1:40:43
  SPEAKER_04: He's a Wisconsin guy, um, kinda um, he was talking about when Spain had that little lull and like when they lose to Russia in 18, they didn't blow up their system, they didn't have a DOS root reboot like Germany, right?
• 1:41:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, what good is that?
• 1:41:03
  SPEAKER_04: They just waited, and then they had their U17 coach go to the U-20s, go to the U-23s, and then he became the you know, a world champ.
• 1:41:14
  SPEAKER_02: But it's you know, it's this it's like wow, we we suck at size, we can't.
• 1:41:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a lot of countries haven't won it.
• 1:41:21
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard.
• 1:41:22
  SPEAKER_02: It's like guys, it's uh Belgium's never won it.
• 1:41:25
  SPEAKER_02: They just beat you four to one.
• 1:41:26
  SPEAKER_04: They they've never made it to like one of my one of one of my best friends growing up.
• 1:41:32
  SPEAKER_04: I played with him, he's the head coach at Elmhurst.
• 1:41:35
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, um, Tim Dean, and he was adamant.
• 1:41:40
  SPEAKER_04: He was adamant.
• 1:41:41
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, US, we're winning a World Cup.
• 1:41:44
  SPEAKER_04: This is like 2010.
• 1:41:46
  SPEAKER_04: We're winning World Cup.
• 1:41:47
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, no, we're not.
• 1:41:48
  SPEAKER_04: And he's like, we're winning World Cup.
• 1:41:51
  SPEAKER_04: And then in 2014, you know, we had that game against Belgium, and he's like, Man, I still think it, I still believe it.
• 1:41:58
  SPEAKER_04: We're right there, and then in 2018, when we don't qualify, I text him, he's like, Are we gonna win the World Cup this year?
• 1:42:03
  SPEAKER_04: Whoa, shut up.
• 1:42:05
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, dude, it might our entire nation has to be third generation soccer players.
• 1:42:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, your son's kid might see a World Cup, yeah, right?
• 1:42:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, maybe.
• 1:42:20
  SPEAKER_04: Uh can we win another one on the women's side?
• 1:42:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like, let's make sure that our women are still like the best of the best.
• 1:42:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like, we went what 99 to 2015 without winning a women's.
• 1:42:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we've only won one youth women's world cup.
• 1:42:38
  SPEAKER_04: We never sniffed one on the boys' side, right?
• 1:42:40
  SPEAKER_04: We don't qu we barely qualify for for uh the Olympics, and then everybody just thinks promotion and relegation will fix everything, or getting rid of pay to play will get that doesn't solve our culture.
• 1:42:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're still getting rid of pay to play, who's coaching?
• 1:42:58
  SPEAKER_00: Who's who's paying for what you see out there?
• 1:43:02
  SPEAKER_02: Things cost money, and not every billionaire or millionaire likes soccer.
• 1:43:06
  SPEAKER_02: Some as simple as goals.
• 1:43:08
  SPEAKER_02: Who's getting all the little like all those goals?
• 1:43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Who's lining the fields, who's refing?
• 1:43:12
  SPEAKER_02: Who's like these leagues cost money?
• 1:43:15
  SPEAKER_04: The like you know indoor fees, yeah.
• 1:43:22
  SPEAKER_04: It can't like and it's people that say that that have never ran a business.
• 1:43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's not like we're just making millions of dollars and we're just sitting like I'm on the field every night till 8 30.
• 1:43:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm on I was on an MLS next call this morning.
• 1:43:40
  SPEAKER_02: I was on uh, you know, I talked to parents, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, and then on the weekends, I coach Monday through Thursday, and then on Friday, I get in a car and I drive to another state and I spend the weekend there.
• 1:43:50
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I'm on the field from eight in the morning till seven o'clock at night.
• 1:43:55
  SPEAKER_02: And no one has a gun to my head.
• 1:43:57
  SPEAKER_02: I want to do it, of course, but it's not I'm not the reason the the national team didn't win.
• 1:44:02
  SPEAKER_04: But that's a yeah, but we're getting all the blame.
• 1:44:06
  SPEAKER_04: But I used to be like that too, though.
• 1:44:07
  SPEAKER_04: Like when we didn't qualify, like I blame every youth soccer coach.
• 1:44:11
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, well, that is a stupid thing to say because like we're doing a pretty darn good job, and we do a lot of things that they do over there, it's just culture.
• 1:44:20
  SPEAKER_04: I think uh it's just we're so behind culture, and we talked about your son when he was uh at Cincinnati or Caleb Stanko or when you were playing Rondo's 5v2, it's just different, it's different, and we're not there yet.
• 1:44:34
  SPEAKER_04: And you know what?
• 1:44:35
  SPEAKER_04: It's okay that we're not there yet.
• 1:44:37
  SPEAKER_02: We're so competitive, or we're so we're not because we're not okay with hearing the truth.
• 1:44:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because the minute you get hard on somebody, you're right, or you're too honest, then it's like you're full of crap, and I'm leaving, I'm going to another.
• 1:44:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you're right.
• 1:44:52
  SPEAKER_02: They don't want to hear the they don't because in Germany they just tell you to leave.
• 1:44:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like when I grew up at trials, hey, is your dad still here?
• 1:44:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you can leave, you're not good enough.
• 1:45:01
  SPEAKER_02: Now you gotta send an email, and it's got like, do we really want to be like what do we want?
• 1:45:08
  SPEAKER_02: Do we really want to be cutthroat?
• 1:45:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, do we really want that?
• 1:45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Because but are academic are academies like that?
• 1:45:15
  SPEAKER_04: Well, because they're free, like people wanna uh people, yeah.
• 1:45:19
  SPEAKER_04: People want to say, be careful what you wish for, because you want the people are like, oh, we are we're gonna open up the system.
• 1:45:29
  SPEAKER_04: There are gonna be a lot of less youth kids playing because they're gonna realize much earlier that they can't play pro, and then people coaches are going to be way more honest, way earlier.
• 1:45:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's what Eric Eric Winaldo was like.
• 1:45:43
  SPEAKER_04: The difference between over here and over there is that the 16-year-old kid over there is told you're done.
• 1:45:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, go go find something else to do with their time.
• 1:45:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, whereas we we are allowed to like let that kid that was on the second or third team come through and be on the first team and be your best player at 17.
• 1:46:04
  SPEAKER_04: They don't have that, they don't always have that patience.
• 1:46:07
  SPEAKER_04: No, that's why a lot of them come over here to play college soccer, yeah.
• 1:46:11
  SPEAKER_04: The toilet, but then we get yelled at for telling the truth.
• 1:46:15
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, guys, it's okay that we're not the best at something, but you won't admit it, or you have an identity crisis, or you think that you've arrived because we won a group or or whatever, we won, you know, two games for the first time ever.
• 1:46:31
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, well, we can win a World Cup.
• 1:46:34
  SPEAKER_04: Good luck.
• 1:46:35
  SPEAKER_04: I hope we do.
• 1:46:36
  SPEAKER_02: When's the last time Brazil won a World Cup?
• 1:46:38
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 1:46:39
  SPEAKER_04: 2002.
• 1:46:41
  SPEAKER_02: When were they like even relevant?
• 1:46:44
  SPEAKER_02: They're not even getting.
• 1:46:45
  SPEAKER_04: I would say when you guys, Germany, smashed them.
• 1:46:48
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, everything died.
• 1:46:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:46:50
  SPEAKER_04: Seven and one.
• 1:46:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that's when the music died.
• 1:46:53
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:46:54
  SPEAKER_04: But they we credit them for just developing the beautiful game.
• 1:47:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's why it's called the beautiful game.
• 1:47:02
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:47:02
  SPEAKER_04: They can't win a world cup.
• 1:47:04
  SPEAKER_04: Italy can't get into a world cup, Italy who's won it four times.
• 1:47:09
  SPEAKER_04: And and I'm telling you right now, Italy when Italy gets in, they're probably gonna go and win it.
• 1:47:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, because they're we they'll be organized, just like Italy always is.
• 1:47:20
  SPEAKER_04: Well, it's that team you don't want to play.
• 1:47:22
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 1:47:23
  SPEAKER_04: Because they're good on the counter and stuff like that.
• 1:47:25
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, I was so glad when Pep didn't take that job.
• 1:47:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I was like, great, Italy's just gonna come and win it.
• 1:47:32
  SPEAKER_04: And Klopp now, that's gonna be fun to watch.
• 1:47:35
  SPEAKER_04: See what he does, because I think he's gonna revamp their youth system, not like not from a club standpoint, but from the youth uh uh national teams.
• 1:47:44
  SPEAKER_02: My brother, we don't get me started out, Jeremy.
• 1:47:48
  SPEAKER_02: They just and then Renee is trotting off the old like, come on, right, and but I think yeah, I need young, you need a youth movement, like we and I think Klopp will do that, yeah.
• 1:48:01
  SPEAKER_02: Because he did that at Liverpool, and those those teams get too comfortable, so like Emmanuel Neuer, Muller, when all those guys play, like they've won everything.
• 1:48:11
  SPEAKER_04: He was not, he's not the same.
• 1:48:13
  SPEAKER_04: He almost tarnished his legacy a little bit.
• 1:48:16
  SPEAKER_04: It's almost like he doesn't like he almost tarnished his legacy just a little bit with this World Cup.
• 1:48:22
  SPEAKER_02: But we don't have younger, hungry, you know.
• 1:48:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:48:26
  SPEAKER_04: And then it was Renee, he said, if Pep ever got the England job, it'd be over.
• 1:48:33
  SPEAKER_04: Because he knows the English player.
• 1:48:34
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he knows the English player better than any English coach.
• 1:48:38
  SPEAKER_04: It's like if Pep took that over, they'd probably win.
• 1:48:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, thanks for doing this.
• 1:48:46
  SPEAKER_02: That was great.
• 1:48:46
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate it.
• 1:48:47
  SPEAKER_02: That was funny.
• 1:48:48
  SPEAKER_02: I could sit here for absolutely.
• 1:48:51
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, we yeah, we could for sure.
• 1:48:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's easy.
• 1:48:54
  SPEAKER_04: That's it's just talking.
• 1:48:56
  SPEAKER_04: It's just people are like, oh well, what are you gonna ask me?
• 1:48:59
  SPEAKER_04: And I go, I have no idea.
• 1:49:02
  SPEAKER_04: We're uh we're just gonna talk and it's just gonna be a conversation and we just flow.
• 1:49:06
  SPEAKER_04: Bill Maurer has uh yeah, what's that with the one where he does in his basic the one, yeah, where it's two chairs and yeah, and it's great, yeah.
• 1:49:14
  SPEAKER_04: But he just talks, but he just talks, and it's not like gotcha, it's not a gotcha journalism the same thing in politics.
• 1:49:20
  SPEAKER_02: What you'll find is that we probably agree on 80 percent of everything we're talking about, absolutely, and I think that's the same like in politics.
• 1:49:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like, if you sat down with someone, it's you'd probably agree on most of it, but and all the arguments and all the fighting and stuff like that, it's like this would not happen in person.
• 1:49:39
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's just happening because you're you're behind a screen and I'm behind the screen and you don't like something I say.
• 1:49:47
  SPEAKER_02: But if I sat down with you, yeah, we would be cordial and then we'd be good, like comes off different as well.
• 1:49:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like exactly me writing something, you might be like, What a jerk! And it's like, Why didn't you mean it that way?
• 1:49:59
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 1:50:00
  SPEAKER_04: Context of like my I could be smiling and be like, You're an idiot.
• 1:50:05
  SPEAKER_02: I got like, oh my god, I got in on one on Pro REL, jumped in and made a comment.
• 1:50:11
  SPEAKER_02: And I got like, Oh yeah, and it's not how I'm I'm like, it's just not gonna work.
• 1:50:14
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, and they're vultures, it's not gonna work here.
• 1:50:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like, and they're vultures.
• 1:50:19
  SPEAKER_04: This the Pro Rel bros, the hashtag bros, I call them, they are vultures, and it's like another one of those things where it's like, but they don't have an answer.
• 1:50:28
  SPEAKER_04: Are you guys they won't answer quote simple questions and like, oh, you're an MLS shill, or you're a profiteer uh trying to protect your boys and your system.
• 1:50:38
  SPEAKER_04: I go, guys, all I'm asking is how is it going to be split up?
• 1:50:43
  SPEAKER_04: I ask, is there going to be a salary cap or are we gonna turn into Europe where there's only one club in Germany that can win?
• 1:50:49
  SPEAKER_04: There's only one club in France that can win, there's one club in Italy, or maybe two.
• 1:50:54
  SPEAKER_04: There's if you look at the last 15 years of the EPL, five of the five, I call them the five families, they all finish in the top four.
• 1:51:04
  SPEAKER_04: Only one year did it only have two.
• 1:51:07
  SPEAKER_04: Other than that, every year it has either three or four of the top those five clubs.
• 1:51:12
  SPEAKER_04: Is that what you really want?
• 1:51:13
  SPEAKER_04: But those you want the Dodgers to just win every single year?
• 1:51:16
  SPEAKER_02: But that's in England, the community they support their club.
• 1:51:20
  SPEAKER_02: Like here, who name a US, like name a team that could Miami.
• 1:51:25
  SPEAKER_02: I mean promoted.
• 1:51:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh DCFC, maybe, but they have 5,000 people.
• 1:51:35
  SPEAKER_02: That's my point.
• 1:51:36
  SPEAKER_02: How are they gonna afford the travel, the fan, the stadium that they gotta have now?
• 1:51:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like none of that works.
• 1:51:42
  SPEAKER_04: I had play where in England it's already set up, like it's I I had the vice president of Peoria City, they're a USL 2 club.
• 1:51:51
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it cost them to go to playoffs, it cost them five thousand dollars to charter a bus for the weekend.
• 1:51:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, five thousand, and that was it at a discount.
• 1:52:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, how is a team in Nebraska supposed to play in Chicago or Kansas City?
• 1:52:08
  SPEAKER_04: Madison, the flamingos.
• 1:52:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's like what are we doing?
• 1:52:11
  SPEAKER_04: How are they gonna how and nobody wants that?
• 1:52:14
  SPEAKER_04: And then you or then you just ask, okay, how many regions are we gonna have?
• 1:52:19
  SPEAKER_04: Well, we're gonna have like a thousand teams.
• 1:52:21
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, okay, how?
• 1:52:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, in the first year, we're gonna have a thousand teams.
• 1:52:26
  SPEAKER_04: By year three, we're gonna have like 250 because everybody's gonna realize, hey, uh, wait a minute, where are all these magic investors are gonna be like, wait, where's my ROI?
• 1:52:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and I don't know if you know any good investors.
• 1:52:43
  SPEAKER_04: Most investors want an ROI.
• 1:52:46
  SPEAKER_04: And and then the and then the private equity, and it's like private equity is good when it comes to facilities because they can build things that maybe normal clubs cannot.
• 1:53:00
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:53:00
  SPEAKER_04: That's when private equity makes sense, but that's not gonna end pay-to-play.
• 1:53:06
  SPEAKER_04: No, they might raise prices because they want that ROI.
• 1:53:11
  SPEAKER_04: Hey, we fronted you$10 million for this for this indoor facility.
• 1:53:16
  SPEAKER_04: We want that back in two years.
• 1:53:18
  SPEAKER_04: How are you gonna pay it back?
• 1:53:20
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 1:53:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, well, we're gonna have to raise everybody's prices by$500 or$1,000, and that's how they're gonna get you.
• 1:53:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, good luck.
• 1:53:31
  SPEAKER_02: We're still relatively, I'd say we're cheap for everything we offer.
• 1:53:35
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I'm not gonna say it on air, but your facility costs was shocking.
• 1:53:41
  SPEAKER_04: It's low compared to what I hear I was telling uh Geo The Jags, Wixham eight hundred and twenty-five dollars an hour for an 11v11 field.
• 1:53:54
  SPEAKER_04: Oakland University, they put a bubble up at$1,000 an hour for an 11 v11 field.
• 1:54:02
  SPEAKER_04: That's where most of your money to clubs goes.
• 1:54:08
  SPEAKER_04: Coaches and facilities.
• 1:54:11
  SPEAKER_04: But everybody thinks that we're all millionaires or we're making we're sitting on millions.
• 1:54:15
  SPEAKER_04: Like, where is all this money going?
• 1:54:16
  SPEAKER_04: I said, they don't have that much money, just do the math, yeah, but they don't understand what lighting a facility like this costs.
• 1:54:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, there's a reason why most clubs do not own an indoor facility, right?
• 1:54:30
  SPEAKER_04: Because it's a losing proposition, right?
• 1:54:32
  SPEAKER_02: But we have you pay one time, so there's no extra like in the winter training.
• 1:54:37
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, now you owe this.
• 1:54:38
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, now you owe that, and pay any extra when we travel.
• 1:54:42
  SPEAKER_02: There's no, hey, everyone has to give 75 bucks for the coaches travel.
• 1:54:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's covered, so there's no nickel.
• 1:54:48
  SPEAKER_02: They pay one time and that's it.
• 1:54:49
  SPEAKER_02: They don't get nickel and dime.
• 1:54:51
  SPEAKER_04: That's the one thing that I can tell by how a club is well run.
• 1:54:55
  SPEAKER_04: And when I went to a club in western New York and I saw how they did things, I go, This is awful, and this is not properly ran because we're constantly going back to parents and we give them the sheet at tryouts and say, This is at your cost, and then they come back a year later, like that was way more than what we were told.
• 1:55:17
  SPEAKER_04: But then they don't change it.
• 1:55:18
  SPEAKER_04: And then I'm trying to tell them, like, this is how we did it at Vardar, this is how we did it at my old club.
• 1:55:23
  SPEAKER_04: Everything was and everything was included.
• 1:55:25
  SPEAKER_04: And they're like, No, we're not gonna do it like that.
• 1:55:27
  SPEAKER_04: And I think they still do that, they still like nickel and dine and say, Oh, now you owe ref fees.
• 1:55:33
  SPEAKER_04: Now you uh well, we're doing an extra showcase, so you have everybody has to pitch in for the coach's flight.
• 1:55:42
  SPEAKER_02: This club's amazing.
• 1:55:43
  SPEAKER_02: I'll go on a road trip and I'll get I'll come back on Monday, and I'll be out there coaching, and uh guy will walk up and hand me a a check for my expenses.
• 1:55:55
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my god, that is nice.
• 1:55:58
  SPEAKER_02: And it didn't come from the like I had to oh my god, don't even get me started.
• 1:56:02
  SPEAKER_02: He's actually like emailing me on one, like when can I are you gonna train?
• 1:56:05
  SPEAKER_02: I'll drop it off.
• 1:56:06
  SPEAKER_02: Like, okay.
• 1:56:07
  SPEAKER_04: Or how about tracking down having to go to the club owner's house every single time you wanted to get paid?
• 1:56:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's not good.
• 1:56:17
  SPEAKER_04: Not good, guys.
• 1:56:19
  SPEAKER_04: Not good.
• 1:56:21
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'll leave it in my mailbox.
• 1:56:23
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, it's like okay, but what time do you get home from training?
• 1:56:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, well, oh I get home at I get home at uh at 10 o'clock.
• 1:56:33
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so you want me to come to your mailbox at like 10:30 and come and get it?
• 1:56:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, great.
• 1:56:41
  SPEAKER_04: If you guys coach at a club like that, leave.
• 1:56:43
  SPEAKER_02: Flashlight.
• 1:56:45
  SPEAKER_04: Find a new club.
• 1:56:48
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 1:56:49
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I appreciate it.
• 1:56:50
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, man.
• 1:56:51
  SPEAKER_04: Almost two hours.
• 1:56:53
  SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
• 1:56:54
  unknown: Thank you.
• 1:56:54
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate you.
• 1:56:56
  SPEAKER_04: I got uh no, you got tens in.
• 1:56:58
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I got tens in it.
• 1:56:59
  SPEAKER_04: So tenny's good.
• 1:57:01
  SPEAKER_04: All right, man.
• 1:57:02
  SPEAKER_04: All right, thank you so much.
• 1:57:04
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 1:57:04
  SPEAKER_04: Pleasure.
• 1:57:05
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, now your gears are free.
• 1:57:07
  SPEAKER_04: That was awesome.
• 1:57:08
  SPEAKER_04: That was fun.
• 1:57:08
  SPEAKER_04: I hate soccer.