Latest / Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos / USMNT Concerns + Alex Ramos on Elite Training & Growing Up with Tab

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USMNT Concerns + Alex Ramos on Elite Training & Growing Up with Tab · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

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Speaker 1: I played in a charity match where Ronald Dino actually
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Speaker 1: assisted me for a goal, and I think that that
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Speaker 1: was by far the coolest thing that I've ever done,
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Speaker 1: And that was.
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Speaker 2: Something that I never thought I could even say.
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Speaker 3: Wait, better than than my assist in the basement.
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Speaker 1: That's uh, definitely definitely a little bit.
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Speaker 2: More exciting for me.
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Speaker 4: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. I am us MNT
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Speaker 4: insider Tom Bogan. I am joined, as always by one
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Speaker 4: of the greatest players in US soccer history, vetter than
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Speaker 4: the three World Cups, my good friend tab Ramos. Tab
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Speaker 4: You're not the only Ramos that's gonna be on the
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Speaker 4: show today. Your son Alex will be joining us very
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Speaker 4: very soon. Are you worried that there's gonna be any
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Speaker 4: embarrassing family stories to come out of this?
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Speaker 3: That's what I'm hearing.
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Speaker 5: And I mean, I have to tell you, I lost
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Speaker 5: a little sleep last night thinking about this one.
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Speaker 3: No, I think it's gonna be great.
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Speaker 5: I'm really looking forward to this because I think, you know,
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Speaker 5: Alex will have a lot of good things to talk about,
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Speaker 5: you know, and I think it'll be a fun show.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, Alex is here to talk about training. He is
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Speaker 4: a renowned individual trainer in particular, and with a very
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Speaker 4: large social media following his own his own business, all
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Speaker 4: this stuff. I can't wait to dive into it with
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Speaker 4: Alex in a bit. But first we are going to
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Speaker 4: discuss the player performances from the US national team over
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Speaker 4: the weekend, including a goal is draw between Christian Pulisik
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Speaker 4: and Weston McKinney in Syria. Alex Freeman gets his first
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Speaker 4: start with Villa Real Giorna, got some minutes off the bench,
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Speaker 4: and I think we're gonna have some thoughts about that.
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Speaker 4: So let's get right into it with that AC Milan
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Speaker 4: versus Juventus game. Christian pools like for Weston McKinney, no,
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Speaker 4: no draw, which sounds about right for what AC Milan
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Speaker 4: has been doing, particularly over the second half of the season.
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Speaker 4: And unfortunately tab this continues the theme of Christian Polisk
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Speaker 4: completely going dry. He's got zero goals, one assist since
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Speaker 4: December twenty eighth for a CM Milan. That's sixteen games
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Speaker 4: and of course we've mentioned it before, but that's zero
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Speaker 4: goals for the US national team since twenty twenty four.
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Speaker 4: I know he can't change that while he's at AC Milan,
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Speaker 4: but it is a drought for both club and country.
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Speaker 4: For politic yeah, I mean I think.
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Speaker 5: A little bit of the concern there, and you know,
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Speaker 5: I continue to not worry so much. I think that
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Speaker 5: the main concern if you had an opportunity to watch it.
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Speaker 5: For those people who had an opportunity to watch the game,
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Speaker 5: I think the main concern is that in this game
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Speaker 5: he didn't get on.
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Speaker 3: The ball that much. And by the way, it's not
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Speaker 3: that physically he wasn't ready.
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Speaker 5: He made a lot of right runs, he got into
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Speaker 5: the box a lot, he was at times in good
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Speaker 5: places to receive a good pass and he just didn't
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Speaker 5: get it.
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Speaker 3: So I'm not as concerned because I.
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Speaker 5: See that he's still he's still in the game, and
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Speaker 5: I think he's still doing the right things. Unfortunately, on
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Speaker 5: the scoreboard is not We're not seeing his name there.
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Speaker 5: Goal contributions continue to not be there. But I continue
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Speaker 5: to think that Christian politics is still in good enough
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Speaker 5: form to be able to give us a lot this summer.
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Speaker 4: So I would disagree with good enough form, but I
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Speaker 4: firmly agree with and I don't think it dissuades him
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Speaker 4: or precludes him from showing up the first game of
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Speaker 4: the World Cup group site. Hell, even the two friendlies
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Speaker 4: before the World Cup. I'd feel better if he was
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Speaker 4: at least performing well with the national team in recent windows. Again,
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Speaker 4: at eight games, it's not a huge, huge sample size,
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Speaker 4: though it does go back to twenty twenty four. On
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Speaker 4: the other side of that, Wes McKinney a key player
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Speaker 4: for Juventus again and again the Neio no draw. There's
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Speaker 4: unfortunately not a ton to talk about here, but both
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Speaker 4: of these clubs are on course to make the Champions League.
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Speaker 4: Milan has sixty seven points, Juve has sixty four and
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Speaker 4: fits and six. Roma and Como on sixty one, so
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Speaker 4: that's three points behind Juve and six points behind Milan
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Speaker 4: just four matches left in Syria. Both of these clubs
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Speaker 4: are on track to make the Champions League next year.
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Speaker 4: Wes McKinney will be at Juventus. We don't know if
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Speaker 4: Christian Polisik will be at a Similani. He's got one
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Speaker 4: year left on his contract.
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Speaker 5: Another performance from Weston where he ate up the field.
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Speaker 5: I think during the game at one point he was
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Speaker 5: he had the most, he had run the most of anyone,
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Speaker 5: he had the most distanced of anyone. And I continue
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Speaker 5: to feel like I'm not even sure where he plays
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Speaker 5: because he was sort of he was sort of listed
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Speaker 5: to be starting on the right side, but most of
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Speaker 5: the time I saw him in the middle right, he
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Speaker 5: was behind the forwards. He's making runs into the box,
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Speaker 5: he was going to the left side to receive balls.
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Speaker 3: I mean, he was all over the fields.
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Speaker 5: Is at a very good moment, I feel now to
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Speaker 5: really help our national team.
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Speaker 4: Honestly, I think this is the best six months of
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Speaker 4: his career. And he's had a lot of highs too,
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Speaker 4: so that's no small feat for Western McKinney. And yeah,
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Speaker 4: it's funny this time last year, or maybe even in
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Speaker 4: September last year, we would be asking questions of ah,
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Speaker 4: does he make sense in this team? And how quickly
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Speaker 4: you go from a few questions crucial starter a few
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Speaker 4: questions to I don't care where he plays, he has
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Speaker 4: to be a starter for this team. I think we
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Speaker 4: all know that we're going to talk much more about mcginney.
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Speaker 4: To get close to the World Cup. We got another
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Speaker 4: player making a big stride to Europe, Alex Freeman. His
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Speaker 4: first start for VA, he looked impressive, town.
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Speaker 5: Very I would say very and and and actually I'm
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Speaker 5: you know, I'm a big fan of Alex Freeman. I
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Speaker 5: think he's gonna be a great player. I'm actually surprised
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Speaker 5: at how well he played because he hadn't been playing.
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Speaker 5: Uh and he stepped into a v Oreel team and
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Speaker 5: by the way, against Celta that was Celta is a
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Speaker 5: pretty good team. Celta is fighting for European positions and
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Speaker 5: this was a big game for vi Oreel to keep
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Speaker 5: the third place in the in the Spanish League. And
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Speaker 5: uh and I'll tell you what he was. He had
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Speaker 5: a great performance. Had you seen for those people who
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Speaker 5: didn't get an opportunity to watch the game. For for
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Speaker 5: someone who saw the game, would never know that Freeman
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Speaker 5: was not the everyday starter for Viareal, because that's how
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Speaker 5: well he played, how well he connected in this game.
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Speaker 4: I think that's a brilliant way for the high praise
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Speaker 4: because he did not look out of place. He did
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Speaker 4: not look like a kid who just arrived in January
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Speaker 4: from Orlando City. He had one year as a starter
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Speaker 4: for Orlando City and he played all ninety minutes. For
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Speaker 4: really reality, you can again. I think that they've posted
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Speaker 4: some highlights as well, like he made a few last
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Speaker 4: ditch challenges. He just was super super comfortable as they
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Speaker 4: won two to one over South of the Vego. Like,
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Speaker 4: I'm just every time that this kid gets a new level,
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Speaker 4: he smashes it and it's really impressive and that.
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Speaker 3: Will only make our national team better.
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Speaker 5: Because after seeing what I saw this weekend, now I'm
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Speaker 5: a little bit more comfortable in terms of Okay, you know,
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Speaker 5: if Pochettino wants to play way out of that white
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Speaker 5: position or plays desk in that white position, I feel
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Speaker 5: a little bit more comfortable with Freeman now being that
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Speaker 5: bright sided center back, you know, with Richards and someone else.
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Speaker 5: But I feel a lot more comfortable after seeing what
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Speaker 5: I saw this weekend.
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Speaker 4: And what's interesting is his his what he was best
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Speaker 4: at Orlando City was playing like a wingback role, like
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Speaker 4: it would be you put a center back in the
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Speaker 4: wide spot behind him to let him go attack and
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Speaker 4: be great. Yet with the national team, like he said, tab,
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Speaker 4: it took me a little while just because of like
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Speaker 4: I think he's at his best when he's attacking, but
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Speaker 4: over the last half year, it's like, oh no, if
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Speaker 4: you need him to be a stay at home right back,
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Speaker 4: slash right center back. He can do that too, And
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Speaker 4: I don't know, man, Usually, particularly for young wing backs, fullbacks,
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Speaker 4: like the defensive side of your game comes least right,
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Speaker 4: Like there are a lot of times wingers turn into
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Speaker 4: to fullbacks if they're not gonna make it as a
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Speaker 4: winger pro. So usually you need all the reps to
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Speaker 4: be this good defensively and this intelligent defensively. And he's
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Speaker 4: again like probably has what fifty games for the first
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Speaker 4: team in his career, give or take, Like that's that's
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Speaker 4: wild that he looks like this already, and particularly on
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Speaker 4: the defensive side.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I can't wait to see what he's
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Speaker 3: going to turn into.
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Speaker 5: Because on top of it, you know, as you know him,
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Speaker 5: you probably know him personally better than I do, very
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Speaker 5: focused type person. You can tell that he's he's picking
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Speaker 5: up information, he's learning, he gets better smart, seems to
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Speaker 5: be a smart kid.
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Speaker 3: You know. I think sky's the limit at this point
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Speaker 3: for him.
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Speaker 5: Hopefully he continues to play, you know, in terms of
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Speaker 5: the way he played this week, and I can't imagine
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Speaker 5: he's out of the lineup for the next game for
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Speaker 5: Rio Real because honestly, so so hopefully he can have
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Speaker 5: some continuation between now and the World Cup, and that
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Speaker 5: will be tremendous because that's a great gain for us.
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Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more. And yeah, he's he's a good
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Speaker 4: kid too on top of everything else. And even before
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Speaker 4: he was getting minutes at Orlando, I heard, you know,
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Speaker 4: really good things about his professionalism, is work and all
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Speaker 4: that stuff. So these are the kind of people that
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Speaker 4: you're happiest for to see them get their chances and
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Speaker 4: take every moment of it. Elsewhere, we have Gio Urina
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Speaker 4: fifteen minutes for Brucio Much and Glodbark came off the
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Speaker 4: bench in a nil nil game and the game ended
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Speaker 4: nil nil. Much and Glidback did not create a ton,
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Speaker 4: while Joe Scali became the fastest to reach one hundred
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Speaker 4: and fifty appearances in the Bundesliga for a non German player.
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Speaker 4: So that was very impressive and a nice achievement for
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Speaker 4: Joe Scalley. But I want to talk about Gioranna. What
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Speaker 4: did you make of his performance?
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Speaker 5: Yeah, first I'll say, you know, it's I'm very happy
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Speaker 5: for Scally because he's been a very consistent player, you know,
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Speaker 5: and that you know, playing one hundred and fifty games.
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Speaker 5: Obviously that that shows it shows it and that's not easy,
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Speaker 5: by the way, not no, you know, so a lot
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Speaker 5: of credit to him for that because he's fought his
9:17
Speaker 5: way through that.
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Speaker 3: As far as.
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Speaker 5: Geo is concerned, you know, at least he had a header, right,
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Speaker 5: he had a header that hit the you know, hit
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Speaker 5: the post you know you'd want to see. I'll say
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Speaker 5: this because I have been a little bit negative with him,
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Speaker 5: and I should be, by the way, because he's not
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Speaker 5: playing right. And in this game, I saw his body
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Speaker 5: a little bit different than in the past.
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Speaker 3: I saw that although.
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Speaker 5: He didn't connect any significant good passes, that that had
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Speaker 5: any effect in the game. I saw him moving better, quicker,
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Speaker 5: he pressure the ball a little bit better. I saw
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Speaker 5: a little bit of a different Geo arena. That gives
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Speaker 5: me a little bit of hope for for a roster selection.
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Speaker 4: I've think that's all positive. And I again, I think
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Speaker 4: for Geo it's about continuing to get minutes. Hopefully the
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Speaker 4: performances will come. But for him, we're never gonna question
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Speaker 4: his technique. We're never gonna question I guess the hypothetical
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Speaker 4: of what he could show in the attack. It's more
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Speaker 4: about his legs, his explosiveness, his ability to get into duels,
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Speaker 4: his ability to drive the ball in wild dribbling as
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Speaker 4: well as passing. So that's encouraging to hear. And we'll
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Speaker 4: see how the Bundesliga season wraps up for him a
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Speaker 4: few more here. Staying in Germany, American winger Mattie Albert
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Speaker 4: debuted for Bruisia Dortmund sixteen years old, breaking Giorana's record
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Speaker 4: as the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga. This
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Speaker 4: is a highly highly rated US youth international talent. He
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Speaker 4: is One scout describes him as on the level like
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Speaker 4: the same tier or similar tier as Cavin Sullivan, who
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Speaker 4: I think is more known to the average fan. So
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Speaker 4: Mattie Albert gets his debut and his first foots in
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Speaker 4: his first feet in first team soccer.
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Speaker 5: Well, you know what I and you know he played
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Speaker 5: five minutes, so not much we can say about, you know,
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Speaker 5: the actual play. But I think we all know how
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Speaker 5: much it means to play at a big club like that,
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Speaker 5: and I think the most encouraging thing in this case
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Speaker 5: is that he's the right he's at the right club
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Speaker 5: to develop right because you know, Dortmann is one of
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Speaker 5: those clubs that gives young players opportunities. We saw it
11:21
Speaker 5: with both Polistic and ge Arena. They gave plenty of
11:25
Speaker 5: opportunities over a period of two or three years where
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Speaker 5: they started building them from playing just a couple of
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Speaker 5: minutes in a few games to then the following season
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Speaker 5: playing twenty thirty minutes in a game, to then potentially
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Speaker 5: becoming a starter for the team.
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Speaker 3: And so I'm.
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Speaker 5: Projecting that this is going to be a nice sort
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Speaker 5: of ascension for him into the Bundesliga. I'm happy that
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Speaker 5: he's at the right club to get the opportunity, because
11:50
Speaker 5: he will get the opportunities.
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Speaker 4: Yeah, I saw a joke on social media from somebody
11:56
Speaker 4: in Germany where like Welles, how does Briscy Dortman every
11:59
Speaker 4: few years just had another really talented sixteen year old
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Speaker 4: American player making a debut. It comes from Polistic first,
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Speaker 4: then Rena Cole Campbell and now mets Cie Albert. So
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Speaker 4: that's a nice that's a nice little American tradition at
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Speaker 4: Dortmund and I'm excited for Albert. Albert came from the
12:14
Speaker 4: La Galaxy academy. His father is French, so he has
12:17
Speaker 4: an EU passport. That's why, like Pulisik has a creation passport,
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Speaker 4: he was able to go to Europe at sixteen rather
12:23
Speaker 4: than eighteen, or at least be debuting at sixteen rather
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Speaker 4: than eighteen because of registration. The Galaxy wanted to design
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Speaker 4: to the first team, but same thing with Gioreina. N
12:32
Speaker 4: YCFC wanted to design him too. It's a little bit
12:34
Speaker 4: more tricky there because Claudia Arena's father was a sporting
12:36
Speaker 4: director of NYCFC in that moment, but still the Galaxy
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Speaker 4: really wanted to keep him and have him start his
12:42
Speaker 4: career with that club. But look, the Dortmund was the
12:45
Speaker 4: right path for him because of his talent, and I
12:48
Speaker 4: think you're seeing that. Like you said in the five minutes,
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Speaker 4: you can't have a big breakdown on how he performed.
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Speaker 4: This is we are happy with your development. We are
12:57
Speaker 4: proud of you. This is your reward for what you're
12:59
Speaker 4: doing on the training pitch rather than oh my god,
13:01
Speaker 4: we need you to impact this game.
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Speaker 5: No doubt that Dortmun is doing a great job in
13:06
Speaker 5: terms of scouting, right because all the obviously all the
13:10
Speaker 5: players you just mentioned, also Junior floor Is at one
13:12
Speaker 5: time was our best wo under you, under seventeen player,
13:17
Speaker 5: and he also ended up at Dortmund, so.
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Speaker 3: They really were able.
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Speaker 5: They have been able over the last I would say
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Speaker 5: over the last decade. They have been able to pick
13:28
Speaker 5: off some of our best talent at the right time.
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Speaker 3: So they're doing things right and and by the way.
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Speaker 5: It's it's for the most part, it's working out for
13:36
Speaker 5: our players as well.
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Speaker 3: So I really like this.
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Speaker 4: I would certainly agree tab. I'm going to round up
13:41
Speaker 4: some of the news from MLS. You pick whichever you're
13:43
Speaker 4: interested in, go whatever direction, but I'm just gonna throw
13:45
Speaker 4: a lot of bullet points at you. Smashin Burholts Are
13:48
Speaker 4: ninety minutes and another Vancouver white Caps win. Brian White
13:50
Speaker 4: also scored two goals. Diego Luna Xavier Gozo were an
13:53
Speaker 4: action for RSL in their loss at a Galaxy. Both
13:56
Speaker 4: looked good, very good, i'd say for both. Joint Hall
13:59
Speaker 4: ninety minutes as the Red Bulls lose to Cincy. No
14:01
Speaker 4: Miles Robinson for Cincinnati, no Tim Raim for Charlotte. He's
14:05
Speaker 4: missed the last two games of a growing issue. Christian
14:07
Speaker 4: Rodin did not play for the Seattle Sounders. He is fine, though,
14:10
Speaker 4: eight and more is ninety minutes in a Burrow win
14:13
Speaker 4: and then going to goalkeepers. Matt Turner I think has
14:16
Speaker 4: slightly outplayed Matt Freeze in MLS this season. I don't
14:20
Speaker 4: think it's a huge huge margin, but Matt Turner is
14:23
Speaker 4: vying to try to take back that starting job from
14:26
Speaker 4: free So anything in there where do you want to.
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Speaker 5: Go, Well, you're gonna be surprised by what I'm gonna pick,
14:32
Speaker 5: because I'm actually gonna pick Brian White on this one.
14:35
Speaker 5: And I know that you've been You've been sort of
14:38
Speaker 5: pushing Brian White a little bit more than me. I've
14:40
Speaker 5: kind of left him aside, not because he's undeserving, but
14:44
Speaker 5: because I felt like, which man just are the other
14:47
Speaker 5: guys are just so much better.
14:48
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what you know.
14:50
Speaker 5: For those people who had an opportunity to watch Vancouver
14:52
Speaker 5: this weekend, Brian White is just making all the right
14:56
Speaker 5: runs at the right time. He's always in the right place.
14:59
Speaker 5: I mean, I mean, Tom, I'm gonna have to agree
15:02
Speaker 5: with you on this. Brian White is a great.
15:04
Speaker 3: Number nine who potentially should.
15:07
Speaker 5: Be on the I know he's on the outside looking in,
15:10
Speaker 5: but I think someone definitely to look on to potentially
15:15
Speaker 5: come off the bench for our national team.
15:17
Speaker 3: You know, I'm really impressed with the way he played.
15:21
Speaker 3: I will go on to the next one.
15:22
Speaker 5: The next one, I would say, I'm a little bit
15:23
Speaker 5: concerned about the Tim Reems situation because of his age.
15:27
Speaker 3: And now not playing games on top of it. That's
15:29
Speaker 3: a concern.
15:31
Speaker 5: Not so much that he's going to be on the roster,
15:33
Speaker 5: because I think certainly Fortino would like to have him
15:35
Speaker 5: on the roster, but I'm I'm a lot more concerned
15:38
Speaker 5: now about the potential of having Tim Reim be a
15:43
Speaker 5: starter on the left side and coming into the World
15:46
Speaker 5: Cup not playing consistent games.
15:48
Speaker 4: So I don't know what time you were listening to this,
15:51
Speaker 4: dear listener, Searlotte devec are playing Tuesday night against Atlanta United.
15:56
Speaker 4: I don't have word on if he's playing tonight or not,
15:58
Speaker 4: but maybe this could be all for not Maybe he'll
15:59
Speaker 4: be back after tonight. They have five more matches in
16:03
Speaker 4: MLS before the World Cup break, so he still has
16:05
Speaker 4: a little bit of time. But like you said, tabs
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Speaker 4: as the absences, if the absences pile up, that'll become
16:11
Speaker 4: more and more concerning for a player of his age
16:13
Speaker 4: and just I can particularly for him with the starting lineup,
16:16
Speaker 4: and hey, if he misses a few weeks, how long
16:19
Speaker 4: will it take him to get back to full gear?
16:21
Speaker 4: What will he look like in those pre World Cup friendlies?
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Speaker 4: So those are a lot of questions, and and Tab
16:25
Speaker 4: you said that I might be surprised by which traction
16:28
Speaker 4: you go. I would have been surprised if you wanted
16:30
Speaker 4: to talk about Matt Turner and Matt Freeze and the
16:32
Speaker 4: ins and out of the goalkeeping.
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Speaker 3: That's true, that's true.
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Speaker 5: You're You're absolutely right that that would have been the
16:37
Speaker 5: biggest surprise.
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Speaker 3: Maybe this was the second.
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Speaker 4: That sounds good? All right, that is the week that
16:45
Speaker 4: was for us A players in soccer. We're gonna take
16:48
Speaker 4: a very quick break, but up next we are very
16:51
Speaker 4: very excited to have Alex Ramos join the show, So
16:53
Speaker 4: please rate, review and subscribed Inside American Soccer, Tom Bogert,
16:56
Speaker 4: Tab Ramos wherever you get your podcast. We'll be right
16:58
Speaker 4: back with Alex. Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We
17:12
Speaker 4: are now joined by one of the top soccer trainers
17:15
Speaker 4: in the world. He has worked with players like Marcelo
17:17
Speaker 4: and Jack Grealish. He was a pro player in Mexico
17:19
Speaker 4: for Pachuca and Leon and oh yeah, it happens to
17:22
Speaker 4: be the son of tab Ramos. We welcome in Alex
17:25
Speaker 4: Ramos to the show. Alex. I am delighted for you
17:27
Speaker 4: to be here. I think that this can go in
17:30
Speaker 4: a number of different directions, even if it's a family argument.
17:34
Speaker 4: I'm here for anything that's on the table. Yeah, well,
17:36
Speaker 4: thank you for having me. I'm really excited.
17:38
Speaker 1: Obviously, to be on the show with my dad is
17:41
Speaker 1: a special opportunity, so couldn't pass that up.
17:45
Speaker 2: But yeah, excited to talk to you guys, talk to
17:47
Speaker 2: you a little bit more about what I do on
17:49
Speaker 2: the day to day, and talk soccer.
17:52
Speaker 4: Alex. I thought that the biggest honor here might be
17:55
Speaker 4: talking to me. We've played I don't know, maybe three
17:57
Speaker 4: games forever together. I thought that might be the highlight
18:00
Speaker 4: of yours because I wasn't good enough to hold your boots.
18:03
Speaker 4: So you know, it's okay, We're just gonna keep moving.
18:04
Speaker 4: You're gonna focus on your dad and not not one
18:07
Speaker 4: of the You were pretty people you played with.
18:09
Speaker 2: You were pretty good on those friendship fields down at ODP.
18:14
Speaker 4: So let's let's get into it. I want to start
18:16
Speaker 4: with the family stuff before getting into your your really
18:19
Speaker 4: awesome career. So when did you realize that your dad
18:23
Speaker 4: maybe wasn't just a regular dad.
18:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I would say the clearest memory I have
18:30
Speaker 1: is we were leaving Giants Stadium, because I think a
18:34
Speaker 1: good amount of his career was when I was really young,
18:38
Speaker 1: so I don't remember a lot of that stuff, nor
18:40
Speaker 1: was I really aware of what was going on. But
18:43
Speaker 1: I have a clear memory of being in the car
18:45
Speaker 1: leaving Giant Stadium and fans being like crowding around our
18:50
Speaker 1: car where he couldn't actually pull out, like, and I
18:54
Speaker 1: just remember being in the back seat like looking out
18:56
Speaker 1: the window, and guys are like, he's like coming out,
18:58
Speaker 1: going out the windows sign autographs, and I was like,
19:02
Speaker 1: I don't think this is normal, but but I also
19:08
Speaker 1: I also thought it was amazing, just like you know
19:12
Speaker 1: that that all these people wanted just to him to
19:14
Speaker 1: sign their jersey or an autograph, and and so like
19:17
Speaker 1: that's really where the dream for me to become a
19:21
Speaker 1: soccer player started.
19:23
Speaker 5: So let me let me backtrack on that, because obviously
19:26
Speaker 5: that's that's as far back as he can remember.
19:29
Speaker 3: Uh, but I can tell you how it started, right.
19:31
Speaker 5: So Alex was born in Monterey, in Mexico, and uh,
19:35
Speaker 5: obviously I was playing for Tigris at the time. So
19:39
Speaker 5: the day that Alex is going to be born, obviously
19:41
Speaker 5: we have to go to the hospital and we have
19:42
Speaker 5: to go through the birth, the whole thing. And of
19:45
Speaker 5: course me like every dad in the world, because I
19:48
Speaker 5: do think that having children is the greatest gift that
19:51
Speaker 5: you can have. And I've told you that Tom about
19:54
Speaker 5: you know, being a dad is the greatest title you
19:57
Speaker 5: can have.
19:58
Speaker 3: And so I remember going to the hospital with my
20:01
Speaker 3: little camp quarter.
20:02
Speaker 5: Right because back then the phones we had cell phones already,
20:05
Speaker 5: but they really you couldn't count on the you know,
20:07
Speaker 5: on the video. So but I do remember going to
20:09
Speaker 5: the hospital and I, you know, I walk into the
20:11
Speaker 5: delivery room and I have my little camp quarter and
20:15
Speaker 5: there's like three or four doctors there. And the three
20:18
Speaker 5: or four doctors happened to be Ti Grits fans, so
20:21
Speaker 5: they're like, oh no, no, we'll film.
20:23
Speaker 2: It for you.
20:24
Speaker 5: So they actually one of the doctors, I didn't even
20:27
Speaker 5: have to hold the camera.
20:28
Speaker 3: One of the doctors filmed like obviously.
20:30
Speaker 5: From the side Alex's birth, and another doctor when Alex
20:34
Speaker 5: came out.
20:34
Speaker 3: They go we have a new t grade.
20:36
Speaker 5: So before Alex even had a name, he was already
20:40
Speaker 5: like in the soccer world.
20:42
Speaker 3: I mean, in the first second, before he could breathe,
20:45
Speaker 3: he was already in the soccer world.
20:47
Speaker 5: So obviously won't remember that moment, but at that moment,
20:50
Speaker 5: it was already a little bit different.
20:53
Speaker 4: Tom. Really quickly, they're like Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who
20:58
Speaker 4: played Harry Potter. He has kids and he hasn't told
21:01
Speaker 4: them about him, like his career success and all that
21:04
Speaker 4: his kids are watching Harry Potter with him without knowing
21:07
Speaker 4: that that's their dad. What was it like parenting if
21:11
Speaker 4: sessly like in the soccer world of like he'll figure
21:14
Speaker 4: it out one day on his own, like all my
21:16
Speaker 4: dad guades. But I just kind of just want to
21:18
Speaker 4: be dad for a bit without him knowing anything other
21:20
Speaker 4: than I'm just dad.
21:21
Speaker 5: Well, I mean I don't really ever think that. I
21:24
Speaker 5: sat Alex on the couch and said, Alex, look, these
21:27
Speaker 5: are all the things I did.
21:31
Speaker 3: Well.
21:31
Speaker 4: When he told the story of like figuring it out himself,
21:34
Speaker 4: it's like kind of before that, yeah, of how how
21:37
Speaker 4: do you naviget?
21:38
Speaker 5: Yeah, So it's you know, sometimes it's not easy because
21:41
Speaker 5: of what you can hear from your friends, you know,
21:43
Speaker 5: depending on what your dad does.
21:44
Speaker 3: In my case, you know, is a fun thing being
21:47
Speaker 3: a soccer player.
21:47
Speaker 5: And I recall, you know, I always took advice from
21:51
Speaker 5: good people, and I recall people telling me, hey, you know,
21:53
Speaker 5: when you have kids, really take time to enjoy them
21:56
Speaker 5: because it goes by so fast, and it really does
21:58
Speaker 5: go by really fast. But I but I did take
22:01
Speaker 5: that advice and I did enjoy it. So like I'm sure,
22:03
Speaker 5: as Alex will explain from his memories, I hope obviously,
22:08
Speaker 5: but but that was no but that was the biggest
22:10
Speaker 5: part for me. Like, you know, I would leave the
22:13
Speaker 5: Metro Stars training right or whatever, and I would drive
22:15
Speaker 5: home and I don't say Tigres before that because he
22:18
Speaker 5: was just a baby at the time, but you know,
22:21
Speaker 5: I you know, my dad, My dad had already drilled
22:25
Speaker 5: goals into our basement walls, so we had like drill goals.
22:29
Speaker 5: Like Alex as soon as he could walk, he had
22:31
Speaker 5: goals to shoot at.
22:33
Speaker 3: And so that's that was our life.
22:34
Speaker 5: I would come home, you know, from training, and as
22:36
Speaker 5: soon as I walked through the door, it would be
22:39
Speaker 5: Alex saying, Dad, let's go to the basement, so I
22:41
Speaker 5: couldn't even have lunch at home before I had to
22:44
Speaker 5: be downstairs and we were already playing.
22:45
Speaker 3: So that was kind of, you know, my recollection of
22:48
Speaker 3: a lot of his youth.
22:50
Speaker 5: But obviously, you know, Alex, you know, I don't know
22:53
Speaker 5: how much he remembers of all of it, but you
22:55
Speaker 5: know that I know that that was a big part.
22:58
Speaker 4: And Alex, you said that you dreamed of being a
23:02
Speaker 4: soccer bay so that all came naturals just in your
23:04
Speaker 4: blood and things that you just gravitated towards.
23:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think what obviously, there's there's many kids that
23:11
Speaker 1: dream of being a professional soccer player just from watching
23:14
Speaker 1: on TV, and I think I just had a little
23:16
Speaker 1: bit of a deeper look of what that actually looks like.
23:19
Speaker 2: And yeah, it looked great to me.
23:22
Speaker 1: I mean, he was he was home in the middle
23:23
Speaker 1: of the day and he was he was relaxing at home,
23:26
Speaker 1: got to spend a lot of time with me. But
23:28
Speaker 1: it's also like, you know, when it's your dad and
23:32
Speaker 1: that's what you see them as in how they earn
23:35
Speaker 1: their living, you feel like it's a lot more achievable
23:38
Speaker 1: and attainable than maybe even someone whose dad just works
23:42
Speaker 1: a regular nine to five job and they're you know,
23:44
Speaker 1: watching La Minya mal on TV. It seemed a lot
23:48
Speaker 1: more attainable for me, even though you know, I found
23:51
Speaker 1: out as I went on. It's it's it's pretty hard
23:53
Speaker 1: to do.
23:55
Speaker 4: What was the dynamic like when because I'm sure he
23:59
Speaker 4: I know he coached a lot with the same his club,
24:02
Speaker 4: at the club that we both played at growing up.
24:05
Speaker 4: What was that dynamic like for both of you of
24:07
Speaker 4: son and dad coach, but particularly was he a good coach?
24:11
Speaker 4: Did you enjoy those times or was it like there
24:13
Speaker 4: are some kids that no matter who their dad is,
24:15
Speaker 4: I got, God, I don't want my dad to be
24:17
Speaker 4: the coach. But then those others who are excited about it.
24:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, there was never that. There was never that I
24:23
Speaker 1: didn't want my dad to be my coach. I think
24:26
Speaker 1: a lot of it was because I knew he knew
24:28
Speaker 1: what he was talking about.
24:30
Speaker 2: It's kind of hard to argue with that.
24:32
Speaker 1: We had kids that would drive two and a half
24:35
Speaker 1: hours each way to training just to train with him,
24:38
Speaker 1: So I always knew that he was the best coach
24:40
Speaker 1: for our team regardless. So it's a little bit different
24:43
Speaker 1: than like your typical dad is my coach situation, and
24:47
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed the constructive criticism that I would get
24:52
Speaker 1: from him, you know, in the car after the games.
24:55
Speaker 1: I looked forward to that, even if it was negative.
25:00
Speaker 1: Sure was a fair amount of time I look forward
25:04
Speaker 1: to it. I think it made me better and like
25:07
Speaker 1: I always wanted the truth, you know, I never wanted
25:10
Speaker 1: my games to be sugarcoated or my performances to be sugarcoated,
25:13
Speaker 1: and it really helped me become an elite athlete to
25:18
Speaker 1: constantly get that feedback. When I got older, I was
25:22
Speaker 1: able to evaluate myself on a much higher level from that.
25:27
Speaker 4: You see, there seemed to be a little hesitation when
25:29
Speaker 4: he said constructive criticism. I don't know if you were
25:31
Speaker 4: if you were going to be looking for a different
25:33
Speaker 4: word there, but no, that sounded genuine, no.
25:36
Speaker 1: And and it was constructed because I liked it and
25:39
Speaker 1: I wanted that. I know not every kid responds well
25:42
Speaker 1: to that, but but for me, I did. So I think,
25:45
Speaker 1: you know, every kid is so different and you can't
25:48
Speaker 1: you couldn't possibly treat each kid the same. And so
25:51
Speaker 1: I'm not saying that that that style would work for everyone,
25:54
Speaker 1: but for me, he didn't even have to start talking.
25:57
Speaker 1: There were a lot of times that he didn't start
25:59
Speaker 1: talking that I would be like, I would score a goal,
26:03
Speaker 1: but I would know that it didn't really work too hard.
26:05
Speaker 1: I'd be like, how do you think I played? And
26:07
Speaker 1: then and then you know, I'd always get to the honesty.
26:10
Speaker 5: You know, I wanted to say that because it wasn't
26:12
Speaker 5: just you know, so I would I would coach Alex
26:15
Speaker 5: in this team, and by the way, I think I
26:16
Speaker 5: was a fair coach. I never put Alex in a
26:18
Speaker 5: situation where he could only succeed. And maybe you know,
26:21
Speaker 5: sometimes as a dad, you know, a lot of dad
26:23
Speaker 5: seemed to do that.
26:25
Speaker 3: I just don't think that helps, and so I never
26:28
Speaker 3: did it. Really.
26:29
Speaker 5: I try to treat Alex like every other player always,
26:32
Speaker 5: and and a lot of the times that we got
26:34
Speaker 5: in the car, yeah, of course, sometimes I started the conversation.
26:38
Speaker 3: But you know, Alex is very much he communicates.
26:42
Speaker 5: Really well, and as you can tell by all the
26:44
Speaker 5: things that he does now, he's a good communicator.
26:47
Speaker 3: And a lot of the times he would he would
26:49
Speaker 3: start the conversation, Dad, what do you think of this? Dad,
26:51
Speaker 3: what do you think of that?
26:52
Speaker 5: And so it was a little bit easier for me,
26:54
Speaker 5: to be honest, because he would recognize that he would
26:57
Speaker 5: need feedback and he would ask for it.
27:00
Speaker 4: Alex, what was the best advice your dad ever gave you,
27:02
Speaker 4: whether that's life or soccer.
27:05
Speaker 1: It's tough to say, because, you know, as we were
27:07
Speaker 1: talking about with with every time I left the field,
27:10
Speaker 1: I would get advice after every after pretty much every training,
27:13
Speaker 1: every game. So it's it's hard to pinpoint one thing.
27:17
Speaker 1: But I think the best advice that my dad ever
27:19
Speaker 1: gave me was to stop playing professionally in Mexico and
27:23
Speaker 1: and to come home start a career and really, you know,
27:29
Speaker 1: look out for my future. That obviously came a lot
27:33
Speaker 1: later in life, has nothing to do with youth soccer.
27:38
Speaker 1: But again, he's given me advice throughout my life. So
27:41
Speaker 1: but but that's what comes to mind because I was
27:43
Speaker 1: going through a really hard time when I was playing
27:46
Speaker 1: pro and I feel like, you know, I needed guidance
27:49
Speaker 1: and he was at the time the you twenty national
27:52
Speaker 1: team coach, and he just gave me the reality of
27:56
Speaker 1: where players are and he's like, I have guys in
27:59
Speaker 1: my twenties that can't get a contract. He's like, it's
28:03
Speaker 1: really difficult to make substantial amounts of money in this game.
28:07
Speaker 1: And he's like, obviously, I'm always here to support your
28:10
Speaker 1: dreams and your passion, and if you want to keep going,
28:12
Speaker 1: by all means you should. But he's like, you know,
28:15
Speaker 1: I think it may be the best decision for you
28:18
Speaker 1: to come home, you know, and and start working with
28:20
Speaker 1: kids and see if you like that. And that was
28:22
Speaker 1: the best advice I've ever.
28:24
Speaker 4: Received, Alex. So I want to go more into that.
28:28
Speaker 4: You played, I believe one year in college and you
28:31
Speaker 4: played for the reserves at Leona Bajuca, which is again
28:34
Speaker 4: it's very very high level. Just to be abundantly clear,
28:38
Speaker 4: you were again, if someone growing up in the same area,
28:42
Speaker 4: I think you would be fair to say one of
28:44
Speaker 4: the best in your age group in New Jersey, right, Like,
28:47
Speaker 4: so you were somebody who had the ability to play pro.
28:50
Speaker 4: Maybe not the multimillion multimillion transfer to Madrid or something
28:55
Speaker 4: like that. So in your mind, how is it different
28:58
Speaker 4: and something that you're training for every day your whole life?
29:01
Speaker 4: This was your dream as a child. What was those
29:04
Speaker 4: moments like in Mexico before you came home and that again,
29:08
Speaker 4: that conversation with your dad about okay, like wow, like
29:11
Speaker 4: maybe this is over.
29:13
Speaker 3: Yeah.
29:13
Speaker 1: So I was in the position that I would say
29:16
Speaker 1: the majority of people who leave college are in I
29:19
Speaker 1: have a lot of friends that are still playing, whether
29:22
Speaker 1: it's USL, USL two local leagues that you know, are
29:28
Speaker 1: still trying to fulfill that dream. And I think for me,
29:32
Speaker 1: I always like I started to realize that that's kind
29:34
Speaker 1: of the pathway I'm going down, and I'm going to
29:36
Speaker 1: be twenty nine years old. You know, maybe in the
29:41
Speaker 1: USL two, which there's nothing wrong with, but for myself
29:45
Speaker 1: and my goals, that just wasn't in the cards for me.
29:48
Speaker 1: Like I wanted to build a business, build a career,
29:52
Speaker 1: and like that was something that I had always known.
29:55
Speaker 1: Whether my pro career went parabolic or if it went
29:59
Speaker 1: complet downhill, I still wanted to build a business one day.
30:04
Speaker 1: And I know that the older you get, the harder
30:06
Speaker 1: it is to build a business, because you want, you
30:09
Speaker 1: inevitably are going to make mistakes, You're inevitably going to
30:11
Speaker 1: go through challenges, and so the younger you are, obviously
30:14
Speaker 1: the easier it is. I didn't have kids, I was,
30:18
Speaker 1: you know, still dating my wife at the time, and
30:21
Speaker 1: and so like, you know, I didn't have much responsibilities
30:24
Speaker 1: outside of working hard and figured it out. So I
30:27
Speaker 1: think the timing was really good. But yeah, I think
30:33
Speaker 1: that the decision when I came home became very easy
30:37
Speaker 1: because of how much I loved working with with kids.
30:40
Speaker 5: Let me let me dig into that a little bit more, Tom,
30:43
Speaker 5: because I think it's a really good point that Alex
30:46
Speaker 5: makes about me being involved with the obviously U twenty
30:50
Speaker 5: national team at the time and me seeing some of
30:54
Speaker 5: the you know, of course, the top you know, four
30:56
Speaker 5: or five players on the U twenty national team are
30:58
Speaker 5: on their way, usually at you know, to a very
31:01
Speaker 5: long career into making let's say, a good living out
31:04
Speaker 5: of the game, some great and some average, but the
31:09
Speaker 5: rest of them normally end up bouncing around places right,
31:12
Speaker 5: and they end up, if not at the bottom of
31:14
Speaker 5: an MLS roster, they end up in the USL somewhere.
31:17
Speaker 3: And I kind of was seeing that picture and I
31:19
Speaker 3: just want to.
31:20
Speaker 5: Make sure that Alex saw that that was that could
31:22
Speaker 5: have been in the card. So by the way, I'll
31:25
Speaker 5: say this, Alex is one of the most skillful coach
31:28
Speaker 5: players that I coached. He has an incredible ability to
31:33
Speaker 5: hit a ball perfectly. And that's why I think he
31:37
Speaker 5: can teach, because he can actually demonstrate things that only
31:41
Speaker 5: professional players can do. So could Alex have been a
31:45
Speaker 5: ten year USL player or an eight year USL player
31:49
Speaker 5: and a two year MLS player where he got signed,
31:52
Speaker 5: you know, to maybe a minimum contract and play there
31:55
Speaker 5: for a little while and then back. And I just
31:56
Speaker 5: thought exactly what Alex is saying, which is, you know,
31:59
Speaker 5: do you I want to find yourself at thirty thirty
32:01
Speaker 5: two years old?
32:02
Speaker 3: Then trying to figure out what you're gonna do next.
32:04
Speaker 5: And because I saw the level of skill that he
32:07
Speaker 5: had and the ability that he has to communicate, I
32:10
Speaker 5: thought that he would love doing that.
32:12
Speaker 3: And I think when he, you know, when he.
32:14
Speaker 5: Took on the responsibility of coaching, which a big responsibility
32:18
Speaker 5: to teach kids, you know, I thought it was a
32:20
Speaker 5: great idea and now the results are obviously amazing.
32:24
Speaker 4: Yeah, that that is so fascinating to me. And I
32:26
Speaker 4: didn't know the exact backstory, but we're gonna dive a
32:29
Speaker 4: whole lot more into it. Because I was Ramos, the
32:32
Speaker 4: professional soccer trainer, the owner of Art Soccer Training, I
32:36
Speaker 4: know that social media following doesn't equal everything in life,
32:40
Speaker 4: but more than three million on social media. I think
32:42
Speaker 4: is a good way to demonstrate how serious and how
32:44
Speaker 4: successful this guy is. So we're gonna take a quick
32:46
Speaker 4: break and we're gonna dive in with Alex about all
32:48
Speaker 4: of that. So please rate, review and subscribe to Inside
32:52
Speaker 4: American Soccer with Tom Bogan Tabramas wherever you get your podcast.
33:04
Speaker 4: Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We're back with Alex
33:07
Speaker 4: Ramos again. Alex, you started your own training company. What
33:13
Speaker 4: what was that like? What were the challenges early and
33:15
Speaker 4: how do you even get that ball rolling?
33:18
Speaker 3: Yeah?
33:18
Speaker 1: So I started out working for my dad's company, which
33:22
Speaker 1: which was basically goes into local clubs and runs their
33:28
Speaker 1: travel programs. And so I got a taste of every
33:31
Speaker 1: age group from U seven, which is the intro to
33:35
Speaker 1: travel soccer all the way to I coached a high
33:38
Speaker 1: school team, so right away I got to see the
33:41
Speaker 1: different levels, the different cognitive levels, and really experienced how
33:50
Speaker 1: to train different ages because that I think that's something
33:54
Speaker 1: that until you train each age group, you don't really know,
33:58
Speaker 1: Like you just think I know soccer, so I'll be
34:00
Speaker 1: able to teach these kids, and you don't realize that,
34:03
Speaker 1: like it's more than that, and you have to understand
34:06
Speaker 1: how each age responds to a coach. And so at
34:11
Speaker 1: the U seven level, they're just looking to have fun,
34:13
Speaker 1: they're looking to follow the ball around, and you have
34:15
Speaker 1: to find a way to teach them within that environment,
34:19
Speaker 1: whereas a high school team is looking to you to
34:23
Speaker 1: really explain things in depth and tell them where to
34:26
Speaker 1: go and where to be and how to do it.
34:28
Speaker 1: And so obviously you have different priorities at different ages,
34:32
Speaker 1: but that really helped me in the beginning learning kind
34:36
Speaker 1: of how the team environments went. Then I went to
34:38
Speaker 1: a higher level where I was coaching at a what
34:42
Speaker 1: is now an MLS next club, and so I was
34:44
Speaker 1: training really high level younger boys team. So one was
34:48
Speaker 1: twelve years old, the other was ten, and I would
34:52
Speaker 1: say we were one of the better teams in the state,
34:54
Speaker 1: and so it was a high level environment. I got
34:56
Speaker 1: to feel a lot more pressure for and parents in
35:00
Speaker 1: a good way where like, you know, every minute matters,
35:03
Speaker 1: every play matters, and so you know, especially twelve years old,
35:07
Speaker 1: like that's the thick of it. That's when when you're
35:09
Speaker 1: really like all in on the sport, regardless of if
35:12
Speaker 1: you're going to become a professional or not, and so
35:15
Speaker 1: I got to experience that. But I had always had
35:18
Speaker 1: this passion to work with players on an individual level
35:22
Speaker 1: because I always felt like I'm the answer for that. Obviously,
35:25
Speaker 1: there's many coaches that have walked the walk that I
35:29
Speaker 1: have and are are just as qualified, if not more.
35:33
Speaker 1: But for me myself, when I would have players their
35:36
Speaker 1: parents come up to me and say, well, we want
35:38
Speaker 1: to do more. What else can we do? Is there
35:40
Speaker 1: anything you can recommend? I would always feel like I
35:43
Speaker 1: kind of feel like I'm that guy, you know. And
35:46
Speaker 1: so obviously, when they're your players, you can't It's a
35:52
Speaker 1: conflict of interest, so you don't really want to say, hey,
35:55
Speaker 1: come train with me on the side, and you know, also,
35:58
Speaker 1: I'm going to start you this weekend.
36:01
Speaker 2: But that's kind of how I got started.
36:04
Speaker 1: Was I through those the players that I've trained and
36:07
Speaker 1: worked with, anyone who was on a past team of mine,
36:10
Speaker 1: I reached out to to say, Hey, I just want
36:12
Speaker 1: to leave the door open. I'm doing some private training.
36:15
Speaker 1: If you ever want to get some extra work in,
36:17
Speaker 1: let's do it. And once I got a couple clients,
36:21
Speaker 1: I thought, you know, if I could get three clients
36:23
Speaker 1: why couldn't I get twenty You know, if there's three
36:25
Speaker 1: people that are interested in this, why wouldn't twenty people
36:28
Speaker 1: be interested? And so that thought alone kind of had
36:31
Speaker 1: me speculating, like, could this be something that I can
36:35
Speaker 1: turn into a career. And so when COVID hit was
36:38
Speaker 1: a perfect time to try it because everything was shut
36:41
Speaker 1: down anyway, And so I found myself on people's front lawn,
36:46
Speaker 1: in their backyard, you know, keeping the social distance. But
36:51
Speaker 1: that's really where I found some momentum and decided to
36:56
Speaker 1: take the leap of faith to really go all in
36:58
Speaker 1: on private training alone. So that's where it all started,
37:01
Speaker 1: was just me, just me doing private training, posting videos
37:06
Speaker 1: to kind of promote that, and also posting just inspirational
37:10
Speaker 1: videos that didn't necessarily have to do with my private
37:14
Speaker 1: training but were under the same umbrella as just.
37:17
Speaker 2: Soccer and youth soccer in general.
37:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, follow at Alex Ramo's training. That was where I
37:24
Speaker 4: was going to go next, because I want to make
37:26
Speaker 4: it clear that you were a trainer first, but you're
37:28
Speaker 4: also really adept at social media, and some of those
37:32
Speaker 4: videos are really instructional and intuitive. It isn't like trick
37:36
Speaker 4: shots or something to watch me hit this ball in
37:39
Speaker 4: the upper ninety a few times because I'm really good
37:41
Speaker 4: and I have a good technique. It's like, no, this
37:42
Speaker 4: is the part of the foot you use. This is
37:44
Speaker 4: the way that the art of dribbling and stuff, and
37:47
Speaker 4: I think that's why it's resonated so well. So what
37:49
Speaker 4: was the I guess one, the thought process behind like, oh,
37:53
Speaker 4: like this will be good for my business, will be
37:55
Speaker 4: good for me, this will be just good to do.
37:57
Speaker 4: And two, could you ever have imagined that you're up
38:01
Speaker 4: to a point again, one point two million on Instagram
38:03
Speaker 4: and you're going to Real Madrid, You're working with some
38:07
Speaker 4: of the top players in the world for some of
38:09
Speaker 4: these opportunities. Could you imagine when you were starting to
38:12
Speaker 4: put videos out that anything like this was possible?
38:14
Speaker 5: And by the way, before Alex answers that question, which
38:18
Speaker 5: is a very long question full of different questions within
38:20
Speaker 5: the question, I will say this, you know I've had Obviously,
38:25
Speaker 5: I'm around Alex all the time, or at least as
38:28
Speaker 5: much as I can, and I think a lot of
38:30
Speaker 5: people come up to me at different times and say, hey,
38:32
Speaker 5: you know, Alex's doing so well with social media, and
38:35
Speaker 5: they just think the extent of being on social media,
38:38
Speaker 5: it's just you record yourself and you post it and
38:41
Speaker 5: that's the end of it, and then you get lucky
38:42
Speaker 5: that people watch it. And I'd like for Alex to
38:46
Speaker 5: get into a little bit more into the specifics of
38:49
Speaker 5: the requirements of just posting one video, because I've been
38:53
Speaker 5: with Alex on trips where he has to post a
38:55
Speaker 5: video and it's five, six seven hours of work of
38:59
Speaker 5: actual work between the editing and getting it online. So
39:02
Speaker 5: I think that a lot of people don't realize how
39:04
Speaker 5: much work goes into doing this sort of thing full time.
39:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, so first I would say yes, I always felt
39:13
Speaker 1: like that social media would be able to propel me
39:16
Speaker 1: to a place where I can work with the top
39:18
Speaker 1: clubs and the top players. I think, as in anything,
39:22
Speaker 1: you have to believe it yourself in order for it
39:24
Speaker 1: to happen. And I always was lucky because when I
39:29
Speaker 1: was back in Mexico, there's a guy called mo Ali
39:32
Speaker 1: that is still very prevalent in the space and one
39:35
Speaker 1: of the larger accounts, and I would say he was
39:40
Speaker 1: the guy that I really looked up to because he
39:43
Speaker 1: was already paving the way. And if I had to
39:45
Speaker 1: name one guy that paved the way for soccer training
39:48
Speaker 1: and social media. Not that he's a super serious trainer
39:52
Speaker 1: that trains youth players, but he made it fun to
39:57
Speaker 1: train and made it fun to watch training. And I
40:01
Speaker 1: think that that's something that I took from him and
40:04
Speaker 1: really thought, well, I love training players. How can I
40:09
Speaker 1: maybe do some more game realistic drills but still make
40:13
Speaker 1: them fun and fun to watch. And so because he
40:17
Speaker 1: had already been paving the way, I already knew that
40:19
Speaker 1: there was a space. How big the space was going
40:22
Speaker 1: to get, I did not know, but I knew there
40:24
Speaker 1: was a space, and so that's what really motivated me.
40:28
Speaker 1: And you can ask my dad. From day one, I
40:30
Speaker 1: always believed. I always thought that this would be something
40:32
Speaker 1: that could be huge, and this is where it's taken me.
40:39
Speaker 1: And I think this is still very early on. I
40:43
Speaker 1: think there's a lot more to come, especially with the
40:45
Speaker 1: World Cup coming this summer. There's a lot to do there,
40:48
Speaker 1: and people are just becoming used to watching soccer content
40:53
Speaker 1: online that wasn't a thing ten years ago, where like
40:55
Speaker 1: that was one of the things on your feed where
40:58
Speaker 1: I think there are a lot of young players that
41:00
Speaker 1: they want that in their feed. Because your feed is
41:03
Speaker 1: what really inspires you throughout the day. Obviously, not everything
41:08
Speaker 1: you watch is inspiring, but I think having that mix
41:12
Speaker 1: of the things that you like and your interests is important,
41:15
Speaker 1: and especially like for myself, I like to watch other
41:18
Speaker 1: soccer creators content, and so I always saw the vision.
41:23
Speaker 1: I always knew that it would get somewhere, but it
41:25
Speaker 1: was the main reason I posted was to inspire players
41:29
Speaker 1: like myself. When I was a kid, I would have
41:32
Speaker 1: loved to be able to scroll through a tablet or
41:34
Speaker 1: a device and see guys like myself doing different things.
41:39
Speaker 1: I think the earliest stuff that I watched was probably
41:43
Speaker 1: the f two Freestylers, and I really remember those days,
41:48
Speaker 1: like going on seeing them do something and then trying
41:50
Speaker 1: to go like replicated myself. So I wanted to be
41:56
Speaker 1: that guy in other players' lives. And that's all I
41:59
Speaker 1: try to do on the day to day is create
42:01
Speaker 1: content that kids can say like, oh, yes, I watched
42:05
Speaker 1: Alex Ramos do that, and now I'm going to go
42:07
Speaker 1: do it in my backyard.
42:09
Speaker 4: I really liked the dynamic of that what's a typical
42:12
Speaker 4: day look like for you?
42:15
Speaker 1: So a typical day for me would be to start
42:17
Speaker 1: out with trainings in the morning. I have quite a
42:19
Speaker 1: few homeschooled players that are youth national team players or
42:23
Speaker 1: just players that are really serious about their game. So
42:26
Speaker 1: they feel that high school is for their goals and
42:29
Speaker 1: their lifestyle, not a waste of time, but they think
42:33
Speaker 1: that they can optimize their schedules a little bit better,
42:35
Speaker 1: so they homeschool. They come here in the morning, and
42:39
Speaker 1: then they train with their teams in the afternoon. So
42:41
Speaker 1: I do private trainings anywhere from six thirty to nine
42:46
Speaker 1: thirty ten o'clock.
42:47
Speaker 2: Then I immediately come.
42:49
Speaker 1: Inside to my office and I work on social media,
42:52
Speaker 1: so that could be anywhere from like ten to three
42:55
Speaker 1: o'clock to thirty three o'clock. I do everything from strategizing
43:01
Speaker 1: and ideas. I'll do edits for this week next week.
43:07
Speaker 2: I plan.
43:10
Speaker 1: Sites that I want to go to, whether it's New
43:11
Speaker 1: York City, I go into Pennsylvania. Sometimes I plan my
43:16
Speaker 1: brand deals, so I have a lot of project management
43:18
Speaker 1: with timelines. Right now, I'm working with four brands at
43:23
Speaker 1: the moment that all have different timelines, different posting schedules,
43:27
Speaker 1: and so there's a lot of that and really just
43:32
Speaker 1: treating that like a company because it is making sure
43:37
Speaker 1: that all areas are covered, from film dates to production dates,
43:41
Speaker 1: to editing, to planning the next posts different ideas, and
43:47
Speaker 1: also going through my numbers seeing how these posts performed,
43:52
Speaker 1: what I can change, what I can tweak. So every
43:55
Speaker 1: day I have a different theme, but I try to
43:58
Speaker 1: between Monday and Friday make sure that I tackle each
44:01
Speaker 1: area as if I had somebody.
44:03
Speaker 2: For each area.
44:04
Speaker 1: The only thing that I outsource is a is a videographer,
44:09
Speaker 1: but everything else I do I do myself, from the
44:11
Speaker 1: edits to the production to.
44:14
Speaker 2: Going live.
44:16
Speaker 4: Is your videographer on this call with us?
44:19
Speaker 2: No, he's not on this he's not on this car
44:20
Speaker 2: with us. It's not my dad.
44:23
Speaker 1: And then I and then I close out my day
44:25
Speaker 1: with more training. So between three point thirty and a PM,
44:30
Speaker 1: I'm training. And I also have a club that I
44:34
Speaker 1: run with about three hundred and fifty players. We just
44:36
Speaker 1: had four hundred and fifty at tryouts last week. So
44:40
Speaker 1: keeping myself busy and uh and regimented because that's that's
44:44
Speaker 1: really the only.
44:44
Speaker 2: Way to tackle everything that I'm doing.
44:47
Speaker 4: TAB going back to your career as well, what does
44:50
Speaker 4: that sound like as as as a schedule for you?
44:52
Speaker 5: No, yeah, yeah, no, pretty back well, and that's that's
44:55
Speaker 5: what that was what I was referring to before that.
44:58
Speaker 5: You know that going into this social media you know,
45:00
Speaker 5: obviously it's a world that I don't understand as well.
45:03
Speaker 3: Because I could.
45:04
Speaker 5: I could barely post something on Instagram, like sometimes I
45:07
Speaker 5: have to give Alex my phone to say, Okay, what
45:10
Speaker 5: do I have to do?
45:10
Speaker 3: Oh I have to contribute to this. I don't even
45:13
Speaker 3: know what that means, but I do it anyway.
45:14
Speaker 5: Okay, So so I don't know, but I have to
45:18
Speaker 5: tell you I have learned a lot through Alex about
45:21
Speaker 5: about the social media aspect of it because I know
45:24
Speaker 5: that he you know, he puts, he puts in all
45:27
Speaker 5: that time, and he you know, I like, I didn't
45:29
Speaker 5: know that there were even certain times of the day
45:32
Speaker 5: when it's better to post and other times, and so,
45:34
Speaker 5: you know, regardless of all of these things, I think
45:38
Speaker 5: it's important that you know, no matter what career path
45:41
Speaker 5: you're going to take, that you have to be serious
45:44
Speaker 5: about it. You have to be honest with yourself as
45:47
Speaker 5: to how far you can go. And I have to
45:50
Speaker 5: tell you, what I've seen from Alex always has been
45:52
Speaker 5: that he he has been as he said, because he knows.
45:55
Speaker 5: I believe that he has been a believer of his projects,
46:00
Speaker 5: and when he gets involved in something, he really goes
46:03
Speaker 5: after it and leaves no like, no leaves unturned. He
46:07
Speaker 5: goes he goes after it hard, and that's why he's
46:09
Speaker 5: having success.
46:11
Speaker 4: You've done again with Jack Greuis with Barcelo, You've gone
46:13
Speaker 4: Real Madrid, You've done again. I'm sure there's ten other things.
46:16
Speaker 4: Off the top of your head. What do you think
46:18
Speaker 4: has been your coolest experience thanks to your training career.
46:23
Speaker 1: So this jersey behind me right here is a kid
46:26
Speaker 1: Super jersey. And so I played in a charity match
46:30
Speaker 1: where Kid Super was the captain and the first player
46:33
Speaker 1: that he chose for the team was Ronaldinho. And so
46:37
Speaker 1: when I when I got news that I'm I was
46:39
Speaker 1: going to be playing on the same team as Ronaldinho,
46:42
Speaker 1: I was extremely excited. And I also found out that
46:45
Speaker 1: Kaka was going to be on the other team. And
46:47
Speaker 1: so I played in a charity match where Ronaldinho actually
46:51
Speaker 1: assisted me for a goal. And I think that that
46:55
Speaker 1: was by far the coolest thing that I've ever done.
46:58
Speaker 1: And that was something that I never thought I could
47:00
Speaker 1: even say, you know, obviously it's it's.
47:03
Speaker 3: Its way better than my assist in the basement.
47:05
Speaker 1: That's uh, definitely, definitely a little bit more exciting for
47:12
Speaker 1: me and something that that's only gonna happen once.
47:16
Speaker 2: But that was the coolest thing.
47:18
Speaker 4: Now it's Cocott tried to meg you in that game, right,
47:20
Speaker 4: but you yeah, you close the door.
47:22
Speaker 1: Well, I think I think anytime that you're anytime that
47:25
Speaker 1: you're near a legend like Hakai, you just need to
47:27
Speaker 1: make sure you don't get humiliated and you don't get meggs.
47:32
Speaker 4: Another cool thing that you got to experience with your dad.
47:34
Speaker 4: So tab, how is it going to a Champions League
47:37
Speaker 4: game at Real Madrid with.
47:39
Speaker 5: Alex Well, you know, it's uh, let me start with
47:43
Speaker 5: a little bit deeper where they started. So my dad
47:46
Speaker 5: sort of made me a real Madrid fan when I
47:48
Speaker 5: was little, you know, the times of one Eto and
47:51
Speaker 5: and uh and the you know, early you know, late
47:54
Speaker 5: seventies around that time.
47:56
Speaker 3: And I you know, because I follow Real Madrid.
47:59
Speaker 5: You know, I'm not an avid fan with like, you know,
48:01
Speaker 5: everything's important because I realized what football's about. But I
48:05
Speaker 5: am a little bit of a fan and I followed
48:07
Speaker 5: him and I've made Alex a fan, and uh I
48:10
Speaker 5: got lucky this year that Alex was working with one
48:12
Speaker 5: of his brands and he came up to He came
48:15
Speaker 5: up to me and he said, he asked me, if
48:17
Speaker 5: you know, to go to the real Madrid game on
48:20
Speaker 5: you know, the Champions League game against Men City. And
48:23
Speaker 5: so it was it was a lot of fun because
48:26
Speaker 5: we both we both you know, like the team and
48:29
Speaker 5: enjoyed going to the stadium and and seeing that stadium.
48:32
Speaker 5: Neither one of us had been at a game there. Uh,
48:34
Speaker 5: so it was, uh, it was amazing. And also he
48:37
Speaker 5: made a video that I don't know if you saw
48:39
Speaker 5: about going to the Champions League.
48:40
Speaker 3: It was really funny. Yeah.
48:41
Speaker 5: But but anyway, yeah, you were not it was a
48:43
Speaker 5: lot of Yeah, I was not a good actor in
48:45
Speaker 5: the in the video.
48:46
Speaker 3: Let's just say that.
48:48
Speaker 4: Well you weren't acting because that was all that was
48:49
Speaker 4: pure genuine excitement.
48:51
Speaker 3: Well it was, it was exciting actually, but it was.
48:54
Speaker 3: It was really a great experience that we had.
48:57
Speaker 5: We were in Madrid four or five days and you
49:00
Speaker 5: got to work with Marcello and we got to meet
49:03
Speaker 5: you know, Roberto Carlos and we and we were in
49:06
Speaker 5: the Madrid locker room right before the game, and we
49:09
Speaker 5: were meeting the players on the way into the stadium,
49:11
Speaker 5: so we we you know, we were able to get
49:14
Speaker 5: some really nice treatment at Real Madrid ALEX.
49:18
Speaker 4: When you are training kids who are hoping to make
49:20
Speaker 4: the jump from academy to professional soccer, what's the most
49:24
Speaker 4: underrated and most overrated skills to be working on.
49:27
Speaker 1: I would say that the most underrated skill that you
49:33
Speaker 1: should be working on is shooting the ball when the
49:38
Speaker 1: ball is moving, because I think a lot of players
49:41
Speaker 1: work on free kicks, especially when when they're training on
49:44
Speaker 1: their own, and I think that it is just so
49:47
Speaker 1: much different when you're going in different directions and trying
49:50
Speaker 1: to get that shot off. It's really not the same
49:53
Speaker 1: thing hitting a free kick. You have measured steps, you know,
49:58
Speaker 1: obviously you in one space, so you can just stare
50:02
Speaker 1: right at the ball and being able to hit it
50:05
Speaker 1: that way while the ball is spinning while you're running
50:07
Speaker 1: in a different direction. That's something that I feel like
50:11
Speaker 1: not enough kids train that. And so even though shooting
50:15
Speaker 1: itself is not an underrated skill, I would say that
50:18
Speaker 1: training finishing with a moving ball while you're running with
50:23
Speaker 1: speed in a direction is something that kids don't train enough.
50:28
Speaker 1: And I would say the most overrated skill, I don't
50:31
Speaker 1: think that there is one, because when you look at
50:33
Speaker 1: the most entertaining players in the world, like the Lamina Mals,
50:37
Speaker 1: the Doku's, they just they have such an array of
50:41
Speaker 1: skills that they can pull out at any time that
50:43
Speaker 1: that's what makes them unpredictable. I think the only thing
50:48
Speaker 1: that I would say that's overrated is maybe static ball mastery.
50:53
Speaker 1: Doing things in a single place where you're not really
50:56
Speaker 1: going anywhere. It's the least realist, sick style of training.
51:01
Speaker 1: Having said that, when you're six seven years old, static
51:04
Speaker 1: ball mastery is perfectly fine, and so I would say
51:08
Speaker 1: for an academy player that that's what I would say
51:11
Speaker 1: is the most overrated would be static ball mastery. But
51:16
Speaker 1: it's better than nothing. So I'm not you know, I
51:19
Speaker 1: don't really feel if you're touching the ball, I think
51:21
Speaker 1: you're you're that's already.
51:22
Speaker 2: Half the battle.
51:24
Speaker 4: If you're training a future number ten attacking midfielder for
51:28
Speaker 4: the US men's national team, what would be I guess,
51:31
Speaker 4: your most important skills or traits that you'd beat looking
51:35
Speaker 4: to drill home.
51:37
Speaker 1: So I would be looking at their ability to get
51:40
Speaker 1: shots on goal. I would look at their first step
51:44
Speaker 1: out of a dribble, like when you're you're going at
51:46
Speaker 1: a player, how quickly can you create a shot. I
51:49
Speaker 1: would look at their their long balls. They're different techniques,
51:53
Speaker 1: making sure that they can they can hit a ball
51:54
Speaker 1: in each different way. And I would also want to
51:57
Speaker 1: watch their games. I would want to see how active
51:59
Speaker 1: they are. I would want to see all the pockets
52:02
Speaker 1: that they find, how often that they're getting on the ball.
52:05
Speaker 1: A lot of what I do with my higher level
52:06
Speaker 1: players is breakdown game film, and so what I like
52:10
Speaker 1: to look at is off the ball movements because ninety
52:13
Speaker 1: nine percent of the game you're going to spend without
52:15
Speaker 1: the ball your feet, and so how can you make
52:17
Speaker 1: a difference within that time to impress a coach or
52:21
Speaker 1: to show a coach that you're able to make an impact?
52:25
Speaker 1: And so I would say we would spend some time
52:28
Speaker 1: watching their game and we would really find what they're
52:31
Speaker 1: doing well off the ball and where they can be
52:33
Speaker 1: a little bit more proactive and how they can find
52:36
Speaker 1: the ball more often.
52:38
Speaker 4: Two more, looking at the World Cup, do you have
52:42
Speaker 4: your World Cup favorite or maybe a World Cup dark horse?
52:45
Speaker 4: This summer.
52:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I would say the only difficult part about
52:50
Speaker 1: this question is that you don't know who's going to
52:51
Speaker 1: get hurt within the next month. Of course, that is
52:54
Speaker 1: something that could really change my opinion, Like Leminn Yamal
52:57
Speaker 1: right now is hurt. So where a Spain may be
53:00
Speaker 1: a favorite, you know, that may affect a lot. So
53:04
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with France because they can. They can
53:06
Speaker 1: get two injuries and still have ten good players. So
53:10
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna go with France because of their depth.
53:13
Speaker 1: They're they're the deepest team by far in the World Cup,
53:17
Speaker 1: and I don't think it's close either their second team.
53:20
Speaker 1: I was watching their second team in the last window
53:23
Speaker 1: and I was like, this looks like better than ninety
53:27
Speaker 1: nine percent of other national teams, and I was like,
53:29
Speaker 1: how how is this possible? And so I think you
53:33
Speaker 1: can argue this is one of the deepest national team
53:35
Speaker 1: rosters we've ever seen. Uh So I'm gonna just say
53:38
Speaker 1: France because of that reason. They've had the same coach
53:41
Speaker 1: throughout that's another big deal. And this is his last cycle,
53:47
Speaker 1: so I think that's gonna be exciting to see if
53:49
Speaker 1: he can end on a win and then dark horse.
53:55
Speaker 1: I would say Senegal would be a dark horse for me.
53:57
Speaker 1: I think I think that there's someone that that can
54:00
Speaker 1: do some damage. And even though they may not be
54:04
Speaker 1: a dark horse because of their performances in the last
54:06
Speaker 1: World Cup, I think if Morocco has has their team healthy,
54:09
Speaker 1: they can make another solid run as.
54:11
Speaker 4: Well last one. Looking at the United States, what is
54:16
Speaker 4: your projection prediction feeling going into the World Cup? How
54:20
Speaker 4: far does this team last?
54:23
Speaker 1: So if I look at just the players that we
54:26
Speaker 1: have straight up can compare them to the other national teams,
54:30
Speaker 1: I think that there's no reason why we can't get
54:33
Speaker 1: two rounds into the knockout phase. I think the energy
54:37
Speaker 1: and the aura around the team right now is making
54:39
Speaker 1: me feel like we're going to have a much earlier exit.
54:43
Speaker 1: I haven't been pleased with what I've seen. I think
54:45
Speaker 1: the sense of pride and you know energy being put
54:50
Speaker 1: forth towards winning games is no more there now than
54:55
Speaker 1: it's ever been, and so I'm not feeling optimistic. But
54:59
Speaker 1: having said that, with the players we have, I would
55:03
Speaker 1: not be surprised if we make it. If we make
55:05
Speaker 1: a run, it's really just you know, these games, they
55:08
Speaker 1: have a different sentiment. I do think that these players
55:11
Speaker 1: will step up and rise to the occasion, but all
55:15
Speaker 1: you can go off off of is what you see,
55:17
Speaker 1: and what I've seen in the games leading up have
55:20
Speaker 1: not been inspiring enough for me to just say, Wow,
55:23
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch this team, you know, knock a couple
55:25
Speaker 1: teams out and make it deep run. So my prediction
55:28
Speaker 1: would be we get out of the group stage in
55:30
Speaker 1: the second place and we lose first round.
55:34
Speaker 4: In the knockouts. Second place. I think a few people
55:37
Speaker 4: might take that right now rather than risking it for
55:40
Speaker 4: first Listen, Alex, we've taken up enough of your time.
55:43
Speaker 4: I know that you have a strict and long schedule
55:46
Speaker 4: and a lot of people waiting for your instructions outside
55:49
Speaker 4: on the grass. Thank you very much for joining at
55:51
Speaker 4: Alex Rama's training. On social media, you'll find him. You
55:55
Speaker 4: probably don't need me to tell you where he is,
55:56
Speaker 4: and he's the owner of Art Soccer Training.
55:58
Speaker 1: Alex, thank you for joining us so much that I'll
56:01
Speaker 1: see you later.
56:03
Speaker 4: Take care of guys, jeers, and thank you all for
56:06
Speaker 4: listening in South American Soccer. Please rate, review, and subscribe
56:09
Speaker 4: wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back next week,