WEBVTT - Landon Donovan 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.680 What I saw over and over and over in my 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:06.240 career is we would go into a stadium against play 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:10.119 against Mexico. It's called it Soldier Field in Chicago, and 0:00:10.160 --> 0:00:11.960 by the beginning of the game, it would there'd be 0:00:12.160 --> 0:00:14.880 you would say, like seventy five percent of fans were Mexican. 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:18.439 And then as we would the end of the game 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:21.320 we were winning to zero, you'd look around and somehow 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:23.520 and we figured out later what it was, but all 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:25.280 of a sudden, it was flipped. There were seventy five 0:00:25.320 --> 0:00:27.640 percent American fans. And what you realize is that they 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:30.920 would walk in with a Mexican jersey over a USA jersey. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:34.200 Once the US started winning, they'd pull off the Mexican 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:45.040 jersey be American fans the epitome of fairweather fans. Right there. Hi, 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:48.720 I'm Landon Donovan and I consistently kicked Brian's ass and golf. 0:00:54.800 --> 0:01:00.880 Hi everybody, and welcome to a patriotic episode of Off 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.280 the Beat. This is your host, Brian Baumgartner, and that's right. 0:01:04.920 --> 0:01:07.759 Today is the fourth of July. 0:01:08.360 --> 0:01:11.120 You s A, you s A. 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:13.679 Now you know I'm a big sports guy. Have I 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:15.720 mentioned that I like golf or football? 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:17.120 Maybe once? Or twice. 0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:20.640 But today I have not just a sports icon, but 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:27.360 a true American icon. That's right, the actual greatest US 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:31.840 soccer player of all time, Landon Donovan is with me 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:36.160 today and I'm not even exaggerating about that. The Major 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:40.080 League Soccer Organization itself has called him that, not to 0:01:40.120 --> 0:01:44.160 mention ESPN, The Guardian, his millions of fans, and most 0:01:44.200 --> 0:01:49.480 importantly me, He has won six MLS Cups and holds 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.600 so many records in the sport of soccer, like all 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:57.360 time assists, tied for all time and scoring, highest scoring 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.200 player in World Cup history for the US, and the 0:02:01.200 --> 0:02:03.920 list goes on and on. Let me put it this way, 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.640 Landon is such an MVP they literally named the award 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:12.960 after him. Seriously, MLS players now don't just get the 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:18.840 MVP Award, they receive the Landon Donovan MVP Award, which 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:23.640 I mean that is insane. Lucky for me, Landon is 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:27.240 as awesome of a guy off the pitch as he 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.720 is on it, and so he was willing to come 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:34.360 chat with little old me about his career, growing the 0:02:34.440 --> 0:02:37.919 audience for soccer in the US and his more recent 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:42.000 roles in broadcasting, coaching, and even owning his own team 0:02:42.320 --> 0:02:46.120 here in San Diego. Also, lucky for me, his golf 0:02:46.160 --> 0:02:48.760 game isn't quite as good as his soccer game, so 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:51.560 I can still give him a run for his money 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:55.200 there as long as there's no actual running. Let's get 0:02:55.240 --> 0:03:00.560 to it here. He is the living legend Donovan. 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:05.639 Bubble and Squeak. 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:10.240 I love it, Bubble and Squeakna. 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:12.720 Bubble and squeak. 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:17.160 I cook get every mole lift over from the nine before. 0:03:27.120 --> 0:03:27.960 What's up, buddy? 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:33.239 Hey man? Thanks for your patience. Oh please, oh please? 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:34.920 How's it going? 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:35.880 I appreciate it. 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:39.840 I'm in La man, You're in La Co Dodgers, just 0:03:40.000 --> 0:03:42.560 like my hat says, go Dodger exactly. 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:43.800 Uh? 0:03:43.840 --> 0:03:44.840 Are you working up there? 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:46.080 Yeah? Broadcasting? 0:03:46.840 --> 0:03:48.680 Are you broadcasting this weekend? 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:49.800 All weekend? 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:54.680 All right? Well that is very exciting. Are you? Are 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:54.960 you now? 0:03:54.960 --> 0:03:59.080 Are you live in person? Are you going from studio there? 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:03.160 No studio right, one of the important people. 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:09.280 You want to travel? Do these live shots. I'm so 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:13.960 excited to talk to you. Spoiler alert. Just was at 0:04:14.000 --> 0:04:20.479 a very very prestigious dinner hosted here in our hometown 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:26.080 honoring Landon and his Hall of Fame induction. We'll talk 0:04:26.120 --> 0:04:28.760 about that. But I wanted to start back with you 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.360 a little bit. I will tell you I just caught 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:37.600 up on the documentary Good Rivals that you were involved 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:42.279 with about the rivalry between Mexico and the United States. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:48.960 But I understand you early on Mexico and the Mexican 0:04:49.000 --> 0:04:53.360 players really influenced your game. Talk to me a little 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.799 bit about starting out and your interest in soccer. 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:00.440 Yeah, so growing up in southern California, you know, there 0:05:00.480 --> 0:05:06.640 are many ethnicities, but lots and lots of Latinos, Mexicans, 0:05:06.880 --> 0:05:10.480 Central Americans, et cetera. So where I grew up in Ontario, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.280 probably eighty miles east of la it was predominantly Mexican. 0:05:15.440 --> 0:05:18.359 My neighborhood. So when I started playing, my older brother 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:20.240 got me into playing when I was really young. But 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:24.039 when I started playing competitively or even rex soccer, ninety 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:26.279 percent of the kids were Mexican. And at that time, 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.720 even less people cared about soccer played soccer, so it 0:05:31.800 --> 0:05:34.359 was all the Latin kids who played. So my influence 0:05:34.440 --> 0:05:38.919 came heavily, heavily from Mexican players, and most of my 0:05:39.000 --> 0:05:41.479 friends and it were Mexican because of that, because I 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:42.600 was around them all the time. 0:05:44.839 --> 0:05:48.960 Why do you think that the United States has struggled. 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:52.880 Now it's definitely changing. Now, why do you think that 0:05:52.920 --> 0:05:58.080 they struggled so much by finding soccer as sort of 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:01.560 a national sporting to do? I mean I played soccer 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.640 as a kid myself, but for a very brief period 0:06:04.680 --> 0:06:08.640 of time, and it never felt like it sort of 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:12.120 established itself in the culture like it did in many 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:13.600 other countries, including Mexico. 0:06:14.800 --> 0:06:19.440 I think the biggest reason, Brian is just time. Other 0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:22.719 countries have had, at a minimum a half century of 0:06:22.760 --> 0:06:26.280 this being the number one sport, and in a lot 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.520 of cases over a century, and this sport is still 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.240 relatively new for US. I mean, I remember growing up. 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:36.279 I'm forty one, so I remember growing up five, eight, ten, 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.640 twelve years old. There was no soccer on TV zero. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:43.960 You could not watch soccer. And now every day you 0:06:44.000 --> 0:06:47.200 can turn on you know, fifteen games a day at 0:06:47.200 --> 0:06:49.799 a minimum from around the world, and people watch and care. 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.400 So it does just take time. It's like, you know, 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.279 why isn't the NFL bigger in Europe? Well, the NFL 0:06:56.320 --> 0:06:58.320 has had a huge head start here, right, Why isn't 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:01.640 baseball bigger in Europe? It's had a big head start here, 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.359 so I think over time people are starting to appreciate 0:07:04.400 --> 0:07:07.000 the game more. Obviously, we have lots of options in 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:09.400 this country sporting wise, and I'm glad. I'm a huge 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.880 sports fan, but for soccer, it has taken time and 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.000 it will continue to take time, but we're getting there. 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:20.200 You have said that your dad, who played hockey ice hockey, 0:07:20.440 --> 0:07:25.120 influenced you as well the way that he moved specifically 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:27.559 yes on the ice or yeah. 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.000 So my dad grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. Hockey 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:35.760 was his first love. And when he moved to La 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.480 and met my mom and had my sister and I, 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.960 we would go to hockey games and Van Eyes. He 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:46.080 would go to this little rink and play with all 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.440 his old, sweaty, smelly friends, and we would end up 0:07:50.000 --> 0:07:52.760 sitting there in the stands watching. My sister would inevitably 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:54.600 have a book with her and just read because she 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:56.800 was bored out of her mind. But I would sit 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.320 and watch him. And I see this now, Brian, with 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:03.400 my kids we have you know, there is a genetic 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:06.960 component where you can you learn visually. And I would 0:08:07.040 --> 0:08:09.120 watch him and watch him and watch him, and there 0:08:09.120 --> 0:08:11.280 were a lot of parallels to soccer with just how 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:13.200 he moved and how he played and how he saw 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.520 the ice, and I tried to whether it was conscious 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.240 or not, I tried to emulate that, and it very 0:08:20.360 --> 0:08:23.160 much looked like how I play now, how I played 0:08:23.200 --> 0:08:25.560 soccer as a pro. And I see that with my 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.679 kids a little bit too. So there's a cool genetic 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.440 component there that's fun to watch get passed down. 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:36.720 Yeah, Like we all as kids participate in various activities 0:08:36.760 --> 0:08:41.120 and you know, you have dreams of accomplishing greatness in 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:45.280 sports or in entertainment, music, whatever, or you want to 0:08:45.280 --> 0:08:46.400 be a fireman. 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:48.320 One way or the other. 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:53.920 But there's there becomes a moment where it changes between 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.800 sort of a hobby that you're doing, this sort of 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:02.240 dream that you have to this sort of decision of 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:04.920 this is what I want to do, Like this is 0:09:05.240 --> 0:09:08.960 you know for you, how early did that did that come? 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.440 And like when did you decide that you were going 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.439 to pursue this, because I know how much work that 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:17.920 takes that the club, soccer leagues and stuff. 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.920 Yeah, so it happens a lot earlier now because there's 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:25.640 more attention and you know, human nature than is to 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:28.440 accelerate everything and want to start sooner, and you know, 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:30.320 the parents of the five year old think he's going 0:09:30.400 --> 0:09:34.880 to be the next Christiana Ronaldo. Right, So everything's accelerated now. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.640 But for me, I was always a good player with 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.320 the ball. Technically, I was pretty far advanced compared to 0:09:42.360 --> 0:09:44.640 most kids because I started at two years old with 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.880 my brother kicking a ball around. Now a lot of 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:48.800 kids do that now, but at that time that was 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:52.640 very unique, and so in that way I was. I was, 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:55.679 you know, pretty far ahead of my peers. But physically 0:09:55.760 --> 0:10:00.880 I was really skinny. I hadn't developed. And then when 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:05.640 I went through puberty about fourteen, my body within like 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.600 three months completely changed. My body became like a man's body. 0:10:09.679 --> 0:10:12.160 And then I and not only did it did I 0:10:12.240 --> 0:10:15.400 catch up to everybody physically, but then I have very 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.880 good athletic genes too, so then I became an elite athlete. 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.280 And so that time, when that those two married and 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.400 tied together, then I became a real soccer player. And 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:27.679 then I started thinking, oh, wow, this is maybe something 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:29.160 I can really do. 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:34.960 You attended Redlands East Valley. Redlands East Valley what a school, 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:43.560 very specific in there in California, and at the age 0:10:43.600 --> 0:10:49.960 of seventeen, one of the youngest American players ever to 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.480 sign with a European professional team. You signed with a 0:10:53.640 --> 0:10:58.000 German club. I mean you're gonna I mean, I'm German, 0:10:58.040 --> 0:11:03.679 I guess, but you're gonna tell me Buyer Levinkusen Leverkusen. 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.440 That guy was gonna say, you're German, aren't you. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.400 I know, how was that? 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:11.880 Yeah, you're a high school kid and now you're going 0:11:11.920 --> 0:11:14.920 to Germany. Did your parents go like what? Like, how 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:15.680 does this happen? 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:20.560 So? I was playing with the under seventeen national team, 0:11:20.679 --> 0:11:22.440 so the full national team that you watch in the 0:11:22.480 --> 0:11:24.680 World Cups, they're a youth version. So there's an under 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:27.760 twenty and an under seventeen. I remember, I'll never forget 0:11:27.760 --> 0:11:30.400 this day. I was playing in Europe with the team 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:32.439 and the tournament and we had just played a game 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:34.839 and I was walking off the field and this would 0:11:34.880 --> 0:11:38.360 never happen. Now, there's so many like elaborate scouting networks 0:11:38.360 --> 0:11:40.400 and they know every player by the time they're twelve 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:42.440 and all this. But I was walking off the field 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.400 and this guy walked up to me and he said, hello, Landon. 0:11:45.840 --> 0:11:48.120 I said yeah, and he said I am Michael Rishka. 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:53.000 From bio Levokuzen and we're interested in signing you. I 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:55.520 was like, what are you talking about, Bride. I didn't 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:56.240 know anything. 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:59.920 About soccer outside of my little world. I didn't watch 0:12:00.280 --> 0:12:02.120 I didn't know anything about it. I was like, what is 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:05.079 going on here? So I went home told my parents 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.320 and that kind of started the process of like, oh, 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:12.640 maybe this is a profession. Maybe this is more than 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.480 just a hobby. Maybe it's a profession. So in the end, 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.920 there were other potential suitors. But my agent, who I 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:22.680 met at fifteen, who's still my agent today, said to 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.199 me early on something that stuck with me forever. He said, Lennon, 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:28.160 you always want to go where you're wanted. And they 0:12:28.160 --> 0:12:31.800 were the first people to show interest and make an 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.000 effort to come after me. So it took a lot 0:12:35.000 --> 0:12:37.840 of convincing. My mom's a teacher. My dad obviously was 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:40.880 more excited about it because he played semi professional hockey 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.559 and he understands the sporting landscape. But my mom was 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:46.120 a school teacher and all she was hoping at this 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:47.960 point was that I'd get a scholarship to go to 0:12:48.000 --> 0:12:50.120 school so we didn't have to grow up very poor, 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:51.640 so that we didn't have to pay for it, so 0:12:52.400 --> 0:12:54.200 it took a lot of convincing. And the only way 0:12:54.240 --> 0:12:55.960 my mom would sign off on it is if the 0:12:56.040 --> 0:13:00.760 contract was enough money so that if I decided to 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.040 go to college, it would cover what a scholarship was. 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.319 And at that time the agreement was fifty grand a 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.559 year for four years, so that if it all went haywire, 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:10.400 I would save every penny and I can still go 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:12.440 to school. And so she allowed me to do that. 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:16.079 But moving to Germany, I went by myself. I was 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:20.360 a very independent seventeen year old, and I was excited 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.679 about that. But that is a different world. That's not 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.200 like moving across the state. That is that is a 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:27.000 whole different. 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.160 World, right, And so at seventeen you're playing professional soccer. 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.040 I mean the other thing about your story that is 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:38.520 insane to me because there's you know, obviously clubs in 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:43.000 Europe and in England then independently in Germany and Italy 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.480 and everything that there can't be a draft, but just 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:47.520 the idea that you could be you know, that I 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:50.240 could get a phone call tomorrow on a will you 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:51.600 want to come play soccer for us. 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.800 Or whatever like that. I don't know it's crazy to me. 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:56.960 Yeah, it's just the way. That's the way the soccer 0:13:57.000 --> 0:14:00.560 world works. So the system is not set up where 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:02.800 you go to college and then you move on. It's 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:06.880 just not so. What happens now is kids at you know, 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.800 fourteen fifteen in some cases sign professional contracts just based 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:15.360 on their talent and their ability. Now, as you can imagine, 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:17.880 a lot of those kids don't pan out. But that is, 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.640 you know, that's the world that that's the soccer world 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:22.160 that we live in. 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.240 Eighteen years of age in two thousand, you had been 0:14:27.320 --> 0:14:31.360 participating in the under seventeen US team. You get called 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:36.400 up to the national team's camp and then end up 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:42.120 playing a pivotal role, scoring a goal, having an assist 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:47.920 in the US defeating Mexico there in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.320 Talk to me a little bit about first getting called 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:55.240 up on the national team, like is this it for you? 0:14:55.280 --> 0:14:59.400 Like is this as big or bigger than signing this 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:03.240 professional contract before? Or oh, where does this rank for you? 0:15:03.480 --> 0:15:04.320 Yeah? Way bigger. 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:06.320 I mean playing for your national team is the ultimate 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.640 goal for any player. So this was the value of 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.360 having a really good agent at that time. My agent 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:16.960 also represented the national team coach, which was maybe a 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:23.560 conflict of interest, but you know, but you I would 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:25.520 just have to earn it. No national team coach is 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:27.320 just going to bring in a player because he likes 0:15:27.360 --> 0:15:30.960 the agent. So I was playing pretty well in Germany 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.480 and I had become a professional. I'd played well for 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.680 the under seventeen team, and my agent pushed hard to 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:39.040 convince Bruce Arena, the coach at the time, to bring 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.000 me into camp and just you know, just see me, 0:15:41.280 --> 0:15:44.200 see me for the first time in person. So I 0:15:44.240 --> 0:15:47.320 went into camp in LA. I was not starting the game. 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:53.000 We go into the Colisseum and I think, you're a 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.200 smart guy. You can guess that the Colisseum in downtown 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.640 LA was not filled with many Americans. Quite a few 0:15:59.680 --> 0:16:02.280 Mexicans there. I think it was a sixty five thousand 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.640 was the crowd, and at least sixty four thousand were Mexican. 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.200 So we go into this game. I imagine I'm an 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:11.360 eighteen year old sitting on the bench. So in the 0:16:11.400 --> 0:16:16.760 thirtieth minute, Chris Henderson, a player on our team, gets injured. 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.480 And at this time, this was my first camp with 0:16:20.520 --> 0:16:22.760 the national team, so I wasn't expecting to play at all. 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:24.640 I had no ie. I mean, I was just a 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.760 naive kid. So I had my shoes weren't tied, shint 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:31.440 guards weren't on, and Bruce came down the bench quickly 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:33.080 and he said, land and get ready, you're going in. 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:37.880 And I was like, oh shit. So I had to 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.440 get ready quickly, warm up quickly, and it was it 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:42.920 was a blessing because I didn't have any time to 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:44.760 think about it. I didn't know the night before that 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:46.560 I was starting and have to think about it. I 0:16:46.640 --> 0:16:48.400 just had to get my stuff on and go play. 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.160 And in the end it worked out well. We won 0:16:51.200 --> 0:16:53.680 the game. I had a goal and assist and that 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.000 was really the start of my that propelled me pretty quickly. 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:15.480 Into the national team. 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:18.000 Talk to me a little bit about what you just 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.520 talked about about the fans. I mean, we are obviously 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:27.719 in close proximity to Mexico. But this documentary Good Rivals 0:17:27.760 --> 0:17:30.480 Now it is if you haven't checked it out, came 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:35.520 out last year or earlier this year on Netflix. It 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:38.880 is about the rivalry between Mexico and the United States, 0:17:39.480 --> 0:17:46.080 greatest soccer rivalry in the world, which is incredible because 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:50.160 of how new or young soccer is in the United 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:53.400 States compared to so much of the world. A lot 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:57.399 is made about two thousand, two thousand and two and 0:17:58.000 --> 0:18:02.920 beginning to change the pendulum, beginning to switch from Mexico 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.439 to the US. But how difficult was it at the 0:18:06.520 --> 0:18:12.520 time to find fans and support here that cared about 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:13.520 what you guys were doing. 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:18.640 Yeah, incredibly it was. It's it's hard to compare the 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:22.119 fandom of the Mexican people with the fandom of the 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:25.720 American people at that time. Now it's it's pretty level now, 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.200 but at that time it just it was non existent. 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:30.479 And so I think the analogy, I mean, obviously you're 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:34.280 a baseball fan, is if not all of a sudden, 0:18:34.320 --> 0:18:36.840 but relatively quickly, in the next five years or so, 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:41.919 Mexican Mexican baseball was way better than Major League Baseball 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:45.000 and way better than our players, American players. It's our 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:48.200 national pastime, right, So that would flip things on its head, 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.040 and that would cause some problems. So what happened in 0:18:51.040 --> 0:18:54.600 the early two thousands is a rivalry that was completely 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.159 one sided for a long time, with Mexico always winning 0:18:58.160 --> 0:19:01.720 and them just dominating us, started to change and we 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:03.760 beat them in that game. That two thousand game. We 0:19:03.840 --> 0:19:06.200 beat them a number of times over the next decade, 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:11.240 and that started to change the mentality of everybody involved. 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:14.199 Everybody looked at the rivalry differently. And then what's happened 0:19:14.200 --> 0:19:17.560 in the last we'll call it seven years, is there 0:19:17.560 --> 0:19:20.520 are a lot of great rivalries around the world. What 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.159 makes this one unique? And why good rivals? Is I 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:28.600 think so important that that film to watch and I'm 0:19:28.600 --> 0:19:30.200 glad you watched it. We didn't even talk about that, 0:19:30.240 --> 0:19:33.080 but I'm glad you watched it. Is there's also the 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.760 political component, right that's been exacerbated over the last seven years. 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:39.920 And there are so many Mexicans in our country, and 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.600 especially in southern California and where we live in San Diego. 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:48.200 There's a lot of Mexican Americans, a lot of American Mexicans, 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:50.920 and we coexist in a really harmonious way. But in 0:19:50.960 --> 0:19:52.879 a lot of places in our country it doesn't happen. 0:19:53.119 --> 0:19:56.800 And so it's this rivalry is just it's heated up 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.000 over the last seven years. And on the soccer field, 0:20:00.080 --> 0:20:02.000 that's been a good thing because it makes it that 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:03.840 much more interesting for everyone involved. 0:20:04.359 --> 0:20:08.919 Do you feel like there are fans of the American 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.919 team in Mexico or is that one sided. 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:16.280 That's a good question. I wouldn't say in Mexico. But 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:19.000 what I saw over and over and over in my 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:22.560 career is we would go into a stadium against play 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:26.280 against Mexico. It's called it Soldier Field in Chicago, right, 0:20:26.320 --> 0:20:27.879 And by the beginning of the game, it would there 0:20:28.000 --> 0:20:30.560 be you would say, like seventy five percent of fans 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.440 were Mexican. And then as we would the end of 0:20:34.480 --> 0:20:36.560 the game we were winning two zero, you'd look around 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:39.320 and somehow and we figured out later what it was, 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:41.080 but all of a sudden it was flipped. There were 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.760 seventy five percent American fans. And what you realize is 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:46.240 they would walk in with a Mexican jersey over a 0:20:46.359 --> 0:20:50.000 USA jersey. Once the US started winning, they'd pull off 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.359 the Mexican jersey be American fans. So's the epitome of 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:55.680 fairweather fans right there. 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.000 Yeah, you do something that takes balls. 0:20:59.359 --> 0:21:03.879 But you know, you'd talk about England and Europe, obviously 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:06.960 Central America, where soccer is so big. You're playing in 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:10.560 Germany already, you get offered a contract at seventeen, but 0:21:10.640 --> 0:21:15.600 in two thousand and one, Shortly after you begin playing 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:20.320 for the US national team, you return to the United States, 0:21:20.600 --> 0:21:25.960 and essentially, with some brief exceptions, you play out your 0:21:26.119 --> 0:21:30.639 entire career at in the MLS in the United States. 0:21:31.000 --> 0:21:33.439 Talk to me a little bit about that decision for you. 0:21:33.560 --> 0:21:35.520 Was that difficult for you to make? 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:36.359 Okay? 0:21:36.440 --> 0:21:40.919 No, No, So what happens is in our sport, what 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:44.439 happens a lot is Europe is the holy Grail of 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:48.919 places to play. It's for the longest time, the most money, 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:53.639 most prestige, best competition, most eyeballs watching, et cetera. And 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:58.800 so for almost every player, that's where they want to play. 0:21:58.880 --> 0:22:02.320 Whether you come from Argentina or Africa or California, everybody 0:22:02.359 --> 0:22:05.560 wants to be in Europe, somewhere France, England and Spain whatever. 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:10.600 I never subscribe to that theory. I agree with all that, 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:15.199 but the most important thing to me was playing was 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:19.280 actually playing games. It'd be like, they're like Brian, for 0:22:19.359 --> 0:22:21.440 the next decade, you're gonna you know, you're going to 0:22:21.520 --> 0:22:23.280 go to acting class and you're going to practice, but 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:25.000 you're never going to be on a show. You'd say, well, 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:27.040 that's not right, that's not why I do it. I 0:22:27.080 --> 0:22:30.040 don't want to do that, right, And so I always 0:22:30.080 --> 0:22:31.960 wanted to play. And what the mistake a lot of 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:34.919 players make is they'll go to Europe and I'm using quotes, 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:37.080 they go to Europe. So you go to a team 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:38.800 in Europe and then you sit on the bench and 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:40.360 you never play a game, and then you get three 0:22:40.440 --> 0:22:42.160 years into your career and you go, shoot, what am 0:22:42.160 --> 0:22:44.840 I really doing here? Like the paycheck's great, but this 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:47.000 is my this is my life. So I always say 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:50.240 to people, you're not a soccer practicer. You're a soccer player, right. 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:51.960 Do you want to play or do you want to practice? 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:55.639