Speaker 1: What I saw over and over and over in my
Speaker 1: career is we would go into a stadium against play
Speaker 1: against Mexico. It's called it Soldier Field in Chicago, and
Speaker 1: by the beginning of the game, it would there'd be
Speaker 1: you would say, like seventy five percent of fans were Mexican.
Speaker 1: And then as we would the end of the game
Speaker 1: we were winning to zero, you'd look around and somehow
Speaker 1: and we figured out later what it was, but all
Speaker 1: of a sudden, it was flipped. There were seventy five
Speaker 1: percent American fans. And what you realize is that they
Speaker 1: would walk in with a Mexican jersey over a USA jersey.
Speaker 1: Once the US started winning, they'd pull off the Mexican
Speaker 1: jersey be American fans the epitome of fairweather fans. Right there. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Landon Donovan and I consistently kicked Brian's ass and golf.
Speaker 2: Hi everybody, and welcome to a patriotic episode of Off
Speaker 2: the Beat. This is your host, Brian Baumgartner, and that's right.
Speaker 2: Today is the fourth of July.
Speaker 3: You s A, you s A.
Speaker 2: Now you know I'm a big sports guy. Have I
Speaker 2: mentioned that I like golf or football?
Speaker 3: Maybe once? Or twice.
Speaker 2: But today I have not just a sports icon, but
Speaker 2: a true American icon. That's right, the actual greatest US
Speaker 2: soccer player of all time, Landon Donovan is with me
Speaker 2: today and I'm not even exaggerating about that. The Major
Speaker 2: League Soccer Organization itself has called him that, not to
Speaker 2: mention ESPN, The Guardian, his millions of fans, and most
Speaker 2: importantly me, He has won six MLS Cups and holds
Speaker 2: so many records in the sport of soccer, like all
Speaker 2: time assists, tied for all time and scoring, highest scoring
Speaker 2: player in World Cup history for the US, and the
Speaker 2: list goes on and on. Let me put it this way,
Speaker 2: Landon is such an MVP they literally named the award
Speaker 2: after him. Seriously, MLS players now don't just get the
Speaker 2: MVP Award, they receive the Landon Donovan MVP Award, which
Speaker 2: I mean that is insane. Lucky for me, Landon is
Speaker 2: as awesome of a guy off the pitch as he
Speaker 2: is on it, and so he was willing to come
Speaker 2: chat with little old me about his career, growing the
Speaker 2: audience for soccer in the US and his more recent
Speaker 2: roles in broadcasting, coaching, and even owning his own team
Speaker 2: here in San Diego. Also, lucky for me, his golf
Speaker 2: game isn't quite as good as his soccer game, so
Speaker 2: I can still give him a run for his money
Speaker 2: there as long as there's no actual running. Let's get
Speaker 2: to it here. He is the living legend Donovan.
Speaker 3: Bubble and Squeak.
Speaker 2: I love it, Bubble and Squeakna.
Speaker 3: Bubble and squeak.
Speaker 2: I cook get every mole lift over from the nine before.
Speaker 3: What's up, buddy?
Speaker 1: Hey man? Thanks for your patience. Oh please, oh please?
Speaker 3: How's it going?
Speaker 1: I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: I'm in La man, You're in La Co Dodgers, just
Speaker 2: like my hat says, go Dodger exactly.
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 3: Are you working up there?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Broadcasting?
Speaker 3: Are you broadcasting this weekend?
Speaker 1: All weekend?
Speaker 3: All right? Well that is very exciting. Are you? Are
Speaker 3: you now?
Speaker 2: Are you live in person? Are you going from studio there?
Speaker 1: No studio right, one of the important people.
Speaker 2: You want to travel? Do these live shots. I'm so
Speaker 2: excited to talk to you. Spoiler alert. Just was at
Speaker 2: a very very prestigious dinner hosted here in our hometown
Speaker 2: honoring Landon and his Hall of Fame induction. We'll talk
Speaker 2: about that. But I wanted to start back with you
Speaker 2: a little bit. I will tell you I just caught
Speaker 2: up on the documentary Good Rivals that you were involved
Speaker 2: with about the rivalry between Mexico and the United States.
Speaker 2: But I understand you early on Mexico and the Mexican
Speaker 2: players really influenced your game. Talk to me a little
Speaker 2: bit about starting out and your interest in soccer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so growing up in southern California, you know, there
Speaker 1: are many ethnicities, but lots and lots of Latinos, Mexicans,
Speaker 1: Central Americans, et cetera. So where I grew up in Ontario,
Speaker 1: probably eighty miles east of la it was predominantly Mexican.
Speaker 1: My neighborhood. So when I started playing, my older brother
Speaker 1: got me into playing when I was really young. But
Speaker 1: when I started playing competitively or even rex soccer, ninety
Speaker 1: percent of the kids were Mexican. And at that time,
Speaker 1: even less people cared about soccer played soccer, so it
Speaker 1: was all the Latin kids who played. So my influence
Speaker 1: came heavily, heavily from Mexican players, and most of my
Speaker 1: friends and it were Mexican because of that, because I
Speaker 1: was around them all the time.
Speaker 2: Why do you think that the United States has struggled.
Speaker 2: Now it's definitely changing. Now, why do you think that
Speaker 2: they struggled so much by finding soccer as sort of
Speaker 2: a national sporting to do? I mean I played soccer
Speaker 2: as a kid myself, but for a very brief period
Speaker 2: of time, and it never felt like it sort of
Speaker 2: established itself in the culture like it did in many
Speaker 2: other countries, including Mexico.
Speaker 1: I think the biggest reason, Brian is just time. Other
Speaker 1: countries have had, at a minimum a half century of
Speaker 1: this being the number one sport, and in a lot
Speaker 1: of cases over a century, and this sport is still
Speaker 1: relatively new for US. I mean, I remember growing up.
Speaker 1: I'm forty one, so I remember growing up five, eight, ten,
Speaker 1: twelve years old. There was no soccer on TV zero.
Speaker 1: You could not watch soccer. And now every day you
Speaker 1: can turn on you know, fifteen games a day at
Speaker 1: a minimum from around the world, and people watch and care.
Speaker 1: So it does just take time. It's like, you know,
Speaker 1: why isn't the NFL bigger in Europe? Well, the NFL
Speaker 1: has had a huge head start here, right, Why isn't
Speaker 1: baseball bigger in Europe? It's had a big head start here,
Speaker 1: so I think over time people are starting to appreciate
Speaker 1: the game more. Obviously, we have lots of options in
Speaker 1: this country sporting wise, and I'm glad. I'm a huge
Speaker 1: sports fan, but for soccer, it has taken time and
Speaker 1: it will continue to take time, but we're getting there.
Speaker 2: You have said that your dad, who played hockey ice hockey,
Speaker 2: influenced you as well the way that he moved specifically
Speaker 2: yes on the ice or yeah.
Speaker 1: So my dad grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada. Hockey
Speaker 1: was his first love. And when he moved to La
Speaker 1: and met my mom and had my sister and I,
Speaker 1: we would go to hockey games and Van Eyes. He
Speaker 1: would go to this little rink and play with all
Speaker 1: his old, sweaty, smelly friends, and we would end up
Speaker 1: sitting there in the stands watching. My sister would inevitably
Speaker 1: have a book with her and just read because she
Speaker 1: was bored out of her mind. But I would sit
Speaker 1: and watch him. And I see this now, Brian, with
Speaker 1: my kids we have you know, there is a genetic
Speaker 1: component where you can you learn visually. And I would
Speaker 1: watch him and watch him and watch him, and there
Speaker 1: were a lot of parallels to soccer with just how
Speaker 1: he moved and how he played and how he saw
Speaker 1: the ice, and I tried to whether it was conscious
Speaker 1: or not, I tried to emulate that, and it very
Speaker 1: much looked like how I play now, how I played
Speaker 1: soccer as a pro. And I see that with my
Speaker 1: kids a little bit too. So there's a cool genetic
Speaker 1: component there that's fun to watch get passed down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like we all as kids participate in various activities
Speaker 2: and you know, you have dreams of accomplishing greatness in
Speaker 2: sports or in entertainment, music, whatever, or you want to
Speaker 2: be a fireman.
Speaker 3: One way or the other.
Speaker 2: But there's there becomes a moment where it changes between
Speaker 2: sort of a hobby that you're doing, this sort of
Speaker 2: dream that you have to this sort of decision of
Speaker 2: this is what I want to do, Like this is
Speaker 2: you know for you, how early did that did that come?
Speaker 2: And like when did you decide that you were going
Speaker 2: to pursue this, because I know how much work that
Speaker 2: takes that the club, soccer leagues and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it happens a lot earlier now because there's
Speaker 1: more attention and you know, human nature than is to
Speaker 1: accelerate everything and want to start sooner, and you know,
Speaker 1: the parents of the five year old think he's going
Speaker 1: to be the next Christiana Ronaldo. Right, So everything's accelerated now.
Speaker 1: But for me, I was always a good player with
Speaker 1: the ball. Technically, I was pretty far advanced compared to
Speaker 1: most kids because I started at two years old with
Speaker 1: my brother kicking a ball around. Now a lot of
Speaker 1: kids do that now, but at that time that was
Speaker 1: very unique, and so in that way I was. I was,
Speaker 1: you know, pretty far ahead of my peers. But physically
Speaker 1: I was really skinny. I hadn't developed. And then when
Speaker 1: I went through puberty about fourteen, my body within like
Speaker 1: three months completely changed. My body became like a man's body.
Speaker 1: And then I and not only did it did I
Speaker 1: catch up to everybody physically, but then I have very
Speaker 1: good athletic genes too, so then I became an elite athlete.
Speaker 1: And so that time, when that those two married and
Speaker 1: tied together, then I became a real soccer player. And
Speaker 1: then I started thinking, oh, wow, this is maybe something
Speaker 1: I can really do.
Speaker 2: You attended Redlands East Valley. Redlands East Valley what a school,
Speaker 2: very specific in there in California, and at the age
Speaker 2: of seventeen, one of the youngest American players ever to
Speaker 2: sign with a European professional team. You signed with a
Speaker 2: German club. I mean you're gonna I mean, I'm German,
Speaker 2: I guess, but you're gonna tell me Buyer Levinkusen Leverkusen.
Speaker 1: That guy was gonna say, you're German, aren't you.
Speaker 3: I know, how was that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're a high school kid and now you're going
Speaker 2: to Germany. Did your parents go like what? Like, how
Speaker 2: does this happen?
Speaker 1: So? I was playing with the under seventeen national team,
Speaker 1: so the full national team that you watch in the
Speaker 1: World Cups, they're a youth version. So there's an under
Speaker 1: twenty and an under seventeen. I remember, I'll never forget
Speaker 1: this day. I was playing in Europe with the team
Speaker 1: and the tournament and we had just played a game
Speaker 1: and I was walking off the field and this would
Speaker 1: never happen. Now, there's so many like elaborate scouting networks
Speaker 1: and they know every player by the time they're twelve
Speaker 1: and all this. But I was walking off the field
Speaker 1: and this guy walked up to me and he said, hello, Landon.
Speaker 5: I said yeah, and he said I am Michael Rishka.
Speaker 5: From bio Levokuzen and we're interested in signing you. I
Speaker 5: was like, what are you talking about, Bride. I didn't
Speaker 5: know anything.
Speaker 1: About soccer outside of my little world. I didn't watch
Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about it. I was like, what is
Speaker 1: going on here? So I went home told my parents
Speaker 1: and that kind of started the process of like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe this is a profession. Maybe this is more than
Speaker 1: just a hobby. Maybe it's a profession. So in the end,
Speaker 1: there were other potential suitors. But my agent, who I
Speaker 1: met at fifteen, who's still my agent today, said to
Speaker 1: me early on something that stuck with me forever. He said, Lennon,
Speaker 1: you always want to go where you're wanted. And they
Speaker 1: were the first people to show interest and make an
Speaker 1: effort to come after me. So it took a lot
Speaker 1: of convincing. My mom's a teacher. My dad obviously was
Speaker 1: more excited about it because he played semi professional hockey
Speaker 1: and he understands the sporting landscape. But my mom was
Speaker 1: a school teacher and all she was hoping at this
Speaker 1: point was that I'd get a scholarship to go to
Speaker 1: school so we didn't have to grow up very poor,
Speaker 1: so that we didn't have to pay for it, so
Speaker 1: it took a lot of convincing. And the only way
Speaker 1: my mom would sign off on it is if the
Speaker 1: contract was enough money so that if I decided to
Speaker 1: go to college, it would cover what a scholarship was.
Speaker 1: And at that time the agreement was fifty grand a
Speaker 1: year for four years, so that if it all went haywire,
Speaker 1: I would save every penny and I can still go
Speaker 1: to school. And so she allowed me to do that.
Speaker 1: But moving to Germany, I went by myself. I was
Speaker 1: a very independent seventeen year old, and I was excited
Speaker 1: about that. But that is a different world. That's not
Speaker 1: like moving across the state. That is that is a
Speaker 1: whole different.
Speaker 2: World, right, And so at seventeen you're playing professional soccer.
Speaker 2: I mean the other thing about your story that is
Speaker 2: insane to me because there's you know, obviously clubs in
Speaker 2: Europe and in England then independently in Germany and Italy
Speaker 2: and everything that there can't be a draft, but just
Speaker 2: the idea that you could be you know, that I
Speaker 2: could get a phone call tomorrow on a will you
Speaker 2: want to come play soccer for us.
Speaker 3: Or whatever like that. I don't know it's crazy to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's just the way. That's the way the soccer
Speaker 1: world works. So the system is not set up where
Speaker 1: you go to college and then you move on. It's
Speaker 1: just not so. What happens now is kids at you know,
Speaker 1: fourteen fifteen in some cases sign professional contracts just based
Speaker 1: on their talent and their ability. Now, as you can imagine,
Speaker 1: a lot of those kids don't pan out. But that is,
Speaker 1: you know, that's the world that that's the soccer world
Speaker 1: that we live in.
Speaker 2: Eighteen years of age in two thousand, you had been
Speaker 2: participating in the under seventeen US team. You get called
Speaker 2: up to the national team's camp and then end up
Speaker 2: playing a pivotal role, scoring a goal, having an assist
Speaker 2: in the US defeating Mexico there in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about first getting called
Speaker 2: up on the national team, like is this it for you?
Speaker 2: Like is this as big or bigger than signing this
Speaker 2: professional contract before? Or oh, where does this rank for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Way bigger.
Speaker 1: I mean playing for your national team is the ultimate
Speaker 1: goal for any player. So this was the value of
Speaker 1: having a really good agent at that time. My agent
Speaker 1: also represented the national team coach, which was maybe a
Speaker 1: conflict of interest, but you know, but you I would
Speaker 1: just have to earn it. No national team coach is
Speaker 1: just going to bring in a player because he likes
Speaker 1: the agent. So I was playing pretty well in Germany
Speaker 1: and I had become a professional. I'd played well for
Speaker 1: the under seventeen team, and my agent pushed hard to
Speaker 1: convince Bruce Arena, the coach at the time, to bring
Speaker 1: me into camp and just you know, just see me,
Speaker 1: see me for the first time in person. So I
Speaker 1: went into camp in LA. I was not starting the game.
Speaker 1: We go into the Colisseum and I think, you're a
Speaker 1: smart guy. You can guess that the Colisseum in downtown
Speaker 1: LA was not filled with many Americans. Quite a few
Speaker 1: Mexicans there. I think it was a sixty five thousand
Speaker 1: was the crowd, and at least sixty four thousand were Mexican.
Speaker 1: So we go into this game. I imagine I'm an
Speaker 1: eighteen year old sitting on the bench. So in the
Speaker 1: thirtieth minute, Chris Henderson, a player on our team, gets injured.
Speaker 1: And at this time, this was my first camp with
Speaker 1: the national team, so I wasn't expecting to play at all.
Speaker 1: I had no ie. I mean, I was just a
Speaker 1: naive kid. So I had my shoes weren't tied, shint
Speaker 1: guards weren't on, and Bruce came down the bench quickly
Speaker 1: and he said, land and get ready, you're going in.
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh shit. So I had to
Speaker 1: get ready quickly, warm up quickly, and it was it
Speaker 1: was a blessing because I didn't have any time to
Speaker 1: think about it. I didn't know the night before that
Speaker 1: I was starting and have to think about it. I
Speaker 1: just had to get my stuff on and go play.
Speaker 1: And in the end it worked out well. We won
Speaker 1: the game. I had a goal and assist and that
Speaker 1: was really the start of my that propelled me pretty quickly.
Speaker 6: Into the national team.
Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about what you just
Speaker 2: talked about about the fans. I mean, we are obviously
Speaker 2: in close proximity to Mexico. But this documentary Good Rivals
Speaker 2: Now it is if you haven't checked it out, came
Speaker 2: out last year or earlier this year on Netflix. It
Speaker 2: is about the rivalry between Mexico and the United States,
Speaker 2: greatest soccer rivalry in the world, which is incredible because
Speaker 2: of how new or young soccer is in the United
Speaker 2: States compared to so much of the world. A lot
Speaker 2: is made about two thousand, two thousand and two and
Speaker 2: beginning to change the pendulum, beginning to switch from Mexico
Speaker 2: to the US. But how difficult was it at the
Speaker 2: time to find fans and support here that cared about
Speaker 2: what you guys were doing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, incredibly it was. It's it's hard to compare the
Speaker 1: fandom of the Mexican people with the fandom of the
Speaker 1: American people at that time. Now it's it's pretty level now,
Speaker 1: but at that time it just it was non existent.
Speaker 1: And so I think the analogy, I mean, obviously you're
Speaker 1: a baseball fan, is if not all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: but relatively quickly, in the next five years or so,
Speaker 1: Mexican Mexican baseball was way better than Major League Baseball
Speaker 1: and way better than our players, American players. It's our
Speaker 1: national pastime, right, So that would flip things on its head,
Speaker 1: and that would cause some problems. So what happened in
Speaker 1: the early two thousands is a rivalry that was completely
Speaker 1: one sided for a long time, with Mexico always winning
Speaker 1: and them just dominating us, started to change and we
Speaker 1: beat them in that game. That two thousand game. We
Speaker 1: beat them a number of times over the next decade,
Speaker 1: and that started to change the mentality of everybody involved.
Speaker 1: Everybody looked at the rivalry differently. And then what's happened
Speaker 1: in the last we'll call it seven years, is there
Speaker 1: are a lot of great rivalries around the world. What
Speaker 1: makes this one unique? And why good rivals? Is I
Speaker 1: think so important that that film to watch and I'm
Speaker 1: glad you watched it. We didn't even talk about that,
Speaker 1: but I'm glad you watched it. Is there's also the
Speaker 1: political component, right that's been exacerbated over the last seven years.
Speaker 1: And there are so many Mexicans in our country, and
Speaker 1: especially in southern California and where we live in San Diego.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of Mexican Americans, a lot of American Mexicans,
Speaker 1: and we coexist in a really harmonious way. But in
Speaker 1: a lot of places in our country it doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: And so it's this rivalry is just it's heated up
Speaker 1: over the last seven years. And on the soccer field,
Speaker 1: that's been a good thing because it makes it that
Speaker 1: much more interesting for everyone involved.
Speaker 2: Do you feel like there are fans of the American
Speaker 2: team in Mexico or is that one sided.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. I wouldn't say in Mexico. But
Speaker 1: what I saw over and over and over in my
Speaker 1: career is we would go into a stadium against play
Speaker 1: against Mexico. It's called it Soldier Field in Chicago, right,
Speaker 1: And by the beginning of the game, it would there
Speaker 1: be you would say, like seventy five percent of fans
Speaker 1: were Mexican. And then as we would the end of
Speaker 1: the game we were winning two zero, you'd look around
Speaker 1: and somehow and we figured out later what it was,
Speaker 1: but all of a sudden it was flipped. There were
Speaker 1: seventy five percent American fans. And what you realize is
Speaker 1: they would walk in with a Mexican jersey over a
Speaker 1: USA jersey. Once the US started winning, they'd pull off
Speaker 1: the Mexican jersey be American fans. So's the epitome of
Speaker 1: fairweather fans right there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you do something that takes balls.
Speaker 2: But you know, you'd talk about England and Europe, obviously
Speaker 2: Central America, where soccer is so big. You're playing in
Speaker 2: Germany already, you get offered a contract at seventeen, but
Speaker 2: in two thousand and one, Shortly after you begin playing
Speaker 2: for the US national team, you return to the United States,
Speaker 2: and essentially, with some brief exceptions, you play out your
Speaker 2: entire career at in the MLS in the United States.
Speaker 2: Talk to me a little bit about that decision for you.
Speaker 2: Was that difficult for you to make?
Speaker 3: Okay?
Speaker 1: No, No, So what happens is in our sport, what
Speaker 1: happens a lot is Europe is the holy Grail of
Speaker 1: places to play. It's for the longest time, the most money,
Speaker 1: most prestige, best competition, most eyeballs watching, et cetera. And
Speaker 1: so for almost every player, that's where they want to play.
Speaker 1: Whether you come from Argentina or Africa or California, everybody
Speaker 1: wants to be in Europe, somewhere France, England and Spain whatever.
Speaker 1: I never subscribe to that theory. I agree with all that,
Speaker 1: but the most important thing to me was playing was
Speaker 1: actually playing games. It'd be like, they're like Brian, for
Speaker 1: the next decade, you're gonna you know, you're going to
Speaker 1: go to acting class and you're going to practice, but
Speaker 1: you're never going to be on a show. You'd say, well,
Speaker 1: that's not right, that's not why I do it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to do that, right, And so I always
Speaker 1: wanted to play. And what the mistake a lot of
Speaker 1: players make is they'll go to Europe and I'm using quotes,
Speaker 1: they go to Europe. So you go to a team
Speaker 1: in Europe and then you sit on the bench and
Speaker 1: you never play a game, and then you get three
Speaker 1: years into your career and you go, shoot, what am
Speaker 1: I really doing here? Like the paycheck's great, but this
Speaker 1: is my this is my life. So I always say
Speaker 1: to people, you're not a soccer practicer. You're a soccer player, right.
Speaker 1: Do you want to play or do you want to practice?
Speaker 1: So my decision was I just wanted to play, and
Speaker 1: we had this young league at home that I think
Speaker 1: needed all of us to uplift it, and it was
Speaker 1: it made sense for me. And then I also got
Speaker 1: to play at home in front of my friends and
Speaker 1: family in LA and to me that was a no brainer.
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people disagree with that and thought,
Speaker 1: I I left some stuff on the table and I
Speaker 1: could have, you know, played at a higher level in
Speaker 1: other places. But I wanted to play, and that that's
Speaker 1: where I got.
Speaker 2: My joint right. The MJ Michael Jordan the goat of
Speaker 2: US soccer, six time MLS Cup winner, fourteen consecutive All Star.
Speaker 2: I mean the list goes on and on. Two time
Speaker 2: MLS MVP, two time MLS Cup MVP, Golden Boot, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah. Clearly, you had opportunities to go
Speaker 2: other places once you had established yourself. By the way,
Speaker 2: what you say makes so much sense, like go where
Speaker 2: you can play. Clearly you could have played anywhere at
Speaker 2: a certain point.
Speaker 3: But did you feel a loyalty?
Speaker 2: Did you feel like you were starting something that was
Speaker 2: important with the MLA. I mean not that you started it,
Speaker 2: but you know what, being a part of growing something
Speaker 2: that was important here because you you know, you essentially
Speaker 2: decide never to leave.
Speaker 1: I did. I felt like it was I don't know
Speaker 1: if responsibility is the right word. But we grew up
Speaker 1: in a time where we were all ambassadors for the game.
Speaker 1: So it's not like in San Diego when Manny Machado
Speaker 1: and Fernando Tatis show up to the baseball park play,
Speaker 1: they go home and you know, they do their thing.
Speaker 1: For us, it was like go to practice, go to
Speaker 1: an appearance afterwards, go talk to the media, go meet kids,
Speaker 1: to help sell tickets. I mean, we were constantly my
Speaker 1: whole career trying to sell the sport, and it was
Speaker 1: just part of it. Not complaining, it's just that's what
Speaker 1: it was for us, and so I enjoyed that. It
Speaker 1: was exhausting, but I enjoyed that. And when I look
Speaker 1: at Major League Soccer today and the national team today,
Speaker 1: knowing that I had a small part in that, you know,
Speaker 1: makes me prideful because we worked hard to help build that.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and two, you guys make a run at
Speaker 2: the World Cup, and you know, for me, maybe I'm wrong,
Speaker 2: Tell me if I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: For me, I remember that run, and for me.
Speaker 2: That is where we saw the first glimmours of real
Speaker 2: sort of intense fanaticism about the US soccer team here,
Speaker 2: And it feels like that's that's where we started from
Speaker 2: and started growing from. Is that do you think that's
Speaker 2: an accurate assessment? Twand and two.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's when it I think really started
Speaker 1: to hit mainstream. In ninety four, we hosted the World
Speaker 1: Cup here, but yes, we weren't really ready. You know,
Speaker 1: there was the majority of the people in the stadiums
Speaker 1: were foreigners. You know, well, foreigners slash foreign Americans and
Speaker 1: that was the majority of people. But oh two felt
Speaker 1: to me, especially because we made a deep run in
Speaker 1: the tournament, like that was the tipping point where people
Speaker 1: were like, Oh, this is interesting, I can kind of
Speaker 1: get into this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, twenty twenty six, for the first time, three countries
Speaker 2: are going to be co hosting the World Cup and
Speaker 2: it's expanding at the same time.
Speaker 3: Mexico, what I.
Speaker 1: Said, what could go wrong?
Speaker 3: Look? Look could go wrong Mexico?
Speaker 2: Can I know, by the way, if you read what's
Speaker 2: going on in the airline industry in the last few days, Yeah,
Speaker 2: what could go wrong?
Speaker 3: Flying for Mexico to Canada?
Speaker 2: Canada for the first time, you asked for the second
Speaker 2: time in Mexico for a record third time hosting the
Speaker 2: World Cup all together? What do you think the opportunity
Speaker 2: is there for soccer in this country and this beyond.
Speaker 1: This will be the biggest sporting event in the history
Speaker 1: of the planet, right, because the World Cup already is
Speaker 1: the biggest. You know, maybe not in America doesn't feel
Speaker 1: that way, but around the globe, I mean, millions of
Speaker 1: people watch the World Cup. So this is the biggest
Speaker 1: sporting event anyway, And then having it in North America
Speaker 1: is going to be insane. So my challenge personally is
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know what to do and
Speaker 1: where to go. I don't know if I just be
Speaker 1: a fan and travel every game. I don't know if
Speaker 1: I should, you know, hope to broadcast it and work
Speaker 1: that way. I don't know what to do because there's
Speaker 1: the options are endless, and it's going to be a
Speaker 1: phenomenal party, the biggest party on the planet for thirty days.
Speaker 2: So it's going to be well, you're going to try
Speaker 2: to make the team.
Speaker 1: Right at forty one, I could barely walk. You see
Speaker 1: me walk the golf course. I could barely walk.
Speaker 2: No, I mean there's got to be I mean, you
Speaker 2: say it's all about playing, but at this point, right this,
Speaker 2: woant don't you just take a seat on the bench,
Speaker 2: just be just be there for the experience.
Speaker 1: Hey, I would love to.
Speaker 3: You've got to have the cloud to do that, right, No.
Speaker 1: Not quite not, it doesn't work that way.
Speaker 3: Oh all right, well.
Speaker 2: You you just mentioned golf. Talk to me about what golf.
Speaker 2: By the way, he's sambager. Let's just be really clear
Speaker 2: about something here publicly and across the world.
Speaker 1: That's not true.
Speaker 2: What does golf give you that you don't don't get
Speaker 2: now that you've retired from soccer.
Speaker 1: That's a great question. It's just the challenge of it.
Speaker 1: It's so hard to be good at and I have
Speaker 1: so much respect. I went to the US Open La
Speaker 1: Country Club last week, and watching those guys live is crazy.
Speaker 1: I have so much respect for people who do things
Speaker 1: at a high level, at the highest level, and watching
Speaker 1: that is so fun and it's brought me brought my
Speaker 1: ego down, So it's good for my ego. It's brought
Speaker 1: me a lot of joy just being around like minded people,
Speaker 1: you know. When we play on Fridays, it's so much fun,
Speaker 1: and it's a group of guys that are just really
Speaker 1: good human beings. So I've gotten a lot of joy
Speaker 1: out of it, and now I'm a lifelong fan like you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting when I talk to guys about golf
Speaker 2: who excelled in other sports. I mean, to me, there
Speaker 2: is a really distinct difference which you would think would
Speaker 2: act against each other. I mean in soccer, and in
Speaker 2: some ways especially soccer, right like in basketball or something
Speaker 2: you're racing to try to score a thousand points right.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's just your It's always about go, go
Speaker 2: go and scoring. Football somewhat the same way because baseball
Speaker 2: is so individualized at the plate, nobody's giving up theoretically,
Speaker 2: like every at bat they're going to grind because it's
Speaker 2: individual as well as the team. You know, Soccer is
Speaker 2: interesting because it is just about beating your opponent, whatever
Speaker 2: that takes, and the competition comes from that, like we
Speaker 2: want to beat you and whatever that takes, to what
Speaker 2: degree of defensive you know, play after you've scored a
Speaker 2: couple of times or whatever. Golf is the opposite, right,
Speaker 2: because it is only about yourself ultimately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it is.
Speaker 3: I was.
Speaker 1: I was talking to someone about that last week at
Speaker 1: the at the US Open. It is so unique in
Speaker 1: that you can play basically as well as you can
Speaker 1: and still lose. Right in golf. In soccer, if I'm terrible,
Speaker 1: I mean terrible on a given day, we can still
Speaker 1: win the game, right and I and I can find
Speaker 1: out I can find ways to help my team even
Speaker 1: if I'm terrible on the given day. But in golf,
Speaker 1: it's just not that, it's it's and you can also
Speaker 1: you know, it's weird. You can be on the sixteenth
Speaker 1: hole on the fourth day of a major tournament and
Speaker 1: be playing for quote unquote not to win the tournament,
Speaker 1: but still be playing for tons of money, endpoints and
Speaker 1: prestige and the ability to stay on the tour the
Speaker 1: next year. You know, you could have a putt on
Speaker 1: eighteen when you're in nineteenth place. That means a lot.
Speaker 1: And that's you know, if we're down four zero in
Speaker 1: a soccer game, scoring for to one in the ninety
Speaker 1: first minute doesn't matter, right, the game's over, right. But
Speaker 1: in golf, it's just it's such a unique sport in
Speaker 1: so many ways.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: The thing that I always talk about is, and I
Speaker 2: guess this is true in soccer or other things, there's
Speaker 2: no such thing as a as a perfect round, so
Speaker 2: there's you're always working to do something better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2: But I think that for me, it's what makes it
Speaker 2: so wholly unique is that that individual fight with yourself.
Speaker 2: I mean, if you're playing match play, but most tournaments
Speaker 2: aren't match play. I mean you're literally just trying to
Speaker 2: play as well as you can individually, and where you
Speaker 2: end up is where you wind up. I mean, there's
Speaker 2: nothing you can do about what McElroy is doing, you know.
Speaker 1: For right exactly. It doesn't matter, and that's why it's
Speaker 1: just such an It's so weird for me because my
Speaker 1: whole life in sports has been completely opposite. It's about
Speaker 1: how you help everyone else to get over the finish line,
Speaker 1: you know. But it's just it's good.
Speaker 2: I love it. Yeah, you spoke about our Friday golf group.
Speaker 2: Landon was well, you were inducted into the Soccer Hall
Speaker 2: of Fame a couple of weeks slash months ago. We
Speaker 2: had a dinner hosting and roasting you for that. Talk
Speaker 2: to me a little bit about what that meant for you.
Speaker 2: I mean, the freaking MVP Award is now called the
Speaker 2: Landon Donovan MLS MVP Award. But to be recognized as
Speaker 2: being a Hall of Famer, what did that mean to you?
Speaker 1: Well, being a Hall of Famer is obviously it's an
Speaker 1: incredible feeling. But talking about the Friday golf I mean,
Speaker 1: you guys all have busy lives. You took a Wednesday
Speaker 1: night to celebrate with me. And what I've always said
Speaker 1: to people is sports in that way are challenging because
Speaker 1: it's really hard to make true, meaningful friendships. You're around
Speaker 1: guys all the time, but inevitably someone gets traded. Guys retire,
Speaker 1: guys go to different teams, and so you don't keep
Speaker 1: that connection for a long time. But we all live
Speaker 1: in an amazing community in San Diego where presumably most
Speaker 1: of us are going to be the rest of our lives.
Speaker 1: And now we have this group of guys who genuinely
Speaker 1: care about each other, treat each other well, celebrate each
Speaker 1: other or positive. It's really unat I haven't had that.
Speaker 1: I've been around guys my age my whole life, but
Speaker 1: I haven't had that sort of community. And so it's
Speaker 1: a really special group of guys. We're lucky to be
Speaker 1: part of it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree, and you know, if any of them
Speaker 2: are listening, I don't want to go too far in
Speaker 2: this for obvious reasons, but I think what's unique about
Speaker 2: it is, you know, one having the opportunity to get
Speaker 2: to know you a little bit, and also professional golfers
Speaker 2: and also guys from such a wide range of experience
Speaker 2: and business knowledge and life experience, and that I think
Speaker 2: is really unique and special. So I will I will
Speaker 2: begrudgingly back you up and say we have found a
Speaker 2: very unique little group that offers me something I've never
Speaker 2: had as well, and also just really fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to talk about something that I was like,
Speaker 2: my mind was blown when I start doing this research,
Speaker 2: and I.
Speaker 3: Never thought about it before.
Speaker 2: But because of all of your work with a national
Speaker 2: team competing on an international basis and also MLS, you
Speaker 2: had thirteen years in a row where you're playing January
Speaker 2: through December with no off season and no breaks, and
Speaker 2: none of the other major sports have do that in
Speaker 2: the same way. And there's more running, I mean in
Speaker 2: your sport. How do you keep your body healthy enough
Speaker 2: to take on this schedule for so much time?
Speaker 1: Well, there's clearly a genetic component right to stay out, yes,
Speaker 1: for most of my career. But I spent you know,
Speaker 1: I spent lots of time, energy, and money taking care
Speaker 1: of my body. I mean, in some years, hundreds of
Speaker 1: thousands of dollars to take care of just to take
Speaker 1: care of my body. So I did. I did a
Speaker 1: variety of things. I did pilates, I worked with someone
Speaker 1: who was a structural alignment person who just got your
Speaker 1: body structurally organized so that you could stay healthy. All
Speaker 1: of the normal things you would do before and after training,
Speaker 1: all the treatment, stretching, massage, just took care of my
Speaker 1: body at a high level, always eating well, hydrating well,
Speaker 1: and all that all allowed me to sleeping well. That
Speaker 1: allowed me to play for a long time. Otherwise it's impossible.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can't. We're not robots, right. At some
Speaker 1: point your body breaks down. And so it took all
Speaker 1: of those things to allow me to stay healthy.
Speaker 3: Clearly that helped.
Speaker 2: But you talked about in twenty twelve needed to take
Speaker 2: a break because you had for thirteen years, and you
Speaker 2: describe yourself as being mentally exhausted as well and just
Speaker 2: needing a break.
Speaker 3: Do you was that help?
Speaker 2: Was that a helpful time for you or was that
Speaker 2: just you just had to do it?
Speaker 1: It was almost mandatory. I mean I was. I was like,
Speaker 1: we have a lot of mental health in my family,
Speaker 1: a lot of mental health issues, and I was getting
Speaker 1: to a point where I was not enjoying it. I
Speaker 1: was depressed. I was exhausted, I mean just physically emotionally exhausted,
Speaker 1: and I needed to get away. I just needed the
Speaker 1: opportunity to get away. And I didn't know if I
Speaker 1: would come back in a month, three months, six months,
Speaker 1: or just be done. But I couldn't. I couldn't keep
Speaker 1: going or I was gonna literally just go crazy. So
Speaker 1: I took a break. Fortunately, the Galaxy were supportive of it,
Speaker 1: and in the end, I believe it was three or
Speaker 1: four months where I got to just get away and
Speaker 1: just let my mind and body recover and heal before
Speaker 1: I went for another couple of years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm glad that one that they were they
Speaker 2: were supportive. I mean, you came back and by the way,
Speaker 2: one One won the Cup another time as well in
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, so I'm sure they were appreciative of that.
Speaker 2: Your decision to finally retire in twenty eighteen was that difficult?
Speaker 3: No, I was.
Speaker 1: I was ready, And of course there are things you miss, right,
Speaker 1: I mean that mostly the game days, the energy in
Speaker 1: the building is so fun and going to compete. But
Speaker 1: it got to a point where, you know, when I
Speaker 1: was the first probably eight years of my career, it
Speaker 1: wasn't if we started playing in January. It wasn't until
Speaker 1: like September October, I was like, it's getting Cal'm getting
Speaker 1: kind of tired. By the end of my career. It
Speaker 1: was like in May, I was like, we still have
Speaker 1: six months to go, you know, and so I just
Speaker 1: knew that it was it was enough. My body had
Speaker 1: taken enough, my mind had taken enough. Now it was
Speaker 1: time to stop.
Speaker 3: You've gotten to broadcasting. Is that fun for you? Is
Speaker 3: that just another job?
Speaker 1: No? No, No, I wouldn't. I mean I wouldn't do it.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't have to do it. I take the time
Speaker 1: to do it. So I'm I love doing it. It's
Speaker 1: fun to stay a part of it. And I've also
Speaker 1: I was a coach for three years here in San Diego,
Speaker 1: so I had the ability to really see the game differently.
Speaker 1: And most broadcasters haven't been coaches, so they don't see
Speaker 1: the game that way. And so I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: able to provide some insight that that's pretty unique.
Speaker 2: Talking about San Diego's USL club, Loyal, which Landon is
Speaker 2: also an owner of, in May, MLS, your your your mothership,
Speaker 2: as it were, well, they grant San Diego an MLS team.
Speaker 2: How was that for you already being here in San Diego?
Speaker 2: Was that difficult for you or do you think that's
Speaker 2: good for San Diego?
Speaker 1: Well? Both, I mean it's hard for or Loyal because
Speaker 1: we've built something that I'm really proud of and that's special.
Speaker 1: But having MLS in San Diego is great for the city.
Speaker 1: And I've grown to know a lot of the people
Speaker 1: who care most about soccer in our city. Over the
Speaker 1: last seven years that I've been in San Diego, I've met,
Speaker 1: you know, almost every diehard soccer fan, you know, thousands
Speaker 1: and thousands of them.
Speaker 3: And.
Speaker 1: They have waited so long for this. You know, I've
Speaker 1: been waiting a long time, but they've been waiting a
Speaker 1: really long time. And so this is a moment that's
Speaker 1: long overdue for San Diego. And you know, when I
Speaker 1: go to the Padres games at Peco, it is so
Speaker 1: good for the city. It's so uplifting for the city.
Speaker 1: And this is going to be the same.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Good.
Speaker 2: So what is what is Loyal's future? What do you
Speaker 2: see as Loyal's future?
Speaker 1: It's not my decision, it's our our owner is Andrew Vasiliadis. Ultimately,
Speaker 1: it's his choice how he wants to proceed. He's, you know, understandably,
Speaker 1: it's been hard for him because he's built this amazing thing.
Speaker 1: And I'm maybe I'm too idealistic, but I think there's
Speaker 1: a scenario where everybody joins together in some way to
Speaker 1: move forward together. I think that would be the best
Speaker 1: thing to bring all the soccer fans in the city together.
Speaker 1: But ultimately it's his choice, so that's you know, that's
Speaker 1: only a decision he can make.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I wish you luck with that. I agree
Speaker 2: with you. I think having the MLS one way or
Speaker 2: another here in San Diego is is great. I mean, yeah,
Speaker 2: people forget San Diego is like the eighth most populous city.
Speaker 2: I mean, we think of ourselves as being this small
Speaker 2: little thing next to Los Angeles. But in point of fact,
Speaker 2: now with everybody else leaving, you know, the Padres are
Speaker 2: sort of the only the only game in town, no
Speaker 2: pun intended. So I think having the MLS here is
Speaker 2: going to be really huge for the area.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's going to be great.
Speaker 2: Proudest moment for you on the soccer field, on the pitch, sorry,
Speaker 2: on the pitch.
Speaker 1: I think playing in my first World Cup, a kid
Speaker 1: from a small town in Ontario, grew up, you know,
Speaker 1: in a nine hundred square foot home with nothing to
Speaker 1: make it there was that defied all the odds and
Speaker 1: so being there was really proud moment for me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, even as a young kid, I mean, I'm doing
Speaker 2: the math quickly in my head right now, I'm putting
Speaker 2: you at eight nineteen ish years of age. Are you
Speaker 2: able to feel the impact that you're having on a
Speaker 2: nation when you're like, do you feel it?
Speaker 1: No? But later in my career I was more aware
Speaker 1: of that. But when you're eighteen, you're just playing. You know,
Speaker 1: you're just in, You're just in every moment, You're at
Speaker 1: the next trip, the next stadium, the next and you know,
Speaker 1: and plus the world was different then. There wasn't the
Speaker 1: social media component. There wasn't you know, people weren't as
Speaker 1: aware of things like that. So you just you just
Speaker 1: did your job and moved on.
Speaker 2: You know, Yeah, I guess so, but I feel like
Speaker 2: I don't know, you see, And maybe this is not
Speaker 2: even an appropriate comparison, but I remember early on when
Speaker 2: the NBA, when the players started going to China, and
Speaker 2: I'm talking about this is back in like the Jordan
Speaker 2: days or whatever, and they went to China and suddenly
Speaker 2: it was as though they were all realizing how big
Speaker 2: they were over there, Like it was sort of like
Speaker 2: not a part of the consciousness, you know, coming home
Speaker 2: and realizing now, like I mean, you had to know, like, oh,
Speaker 2: I'm now being asked for interviews or I'm seeing myself
Speaker 2: in the newspaper or on the you know, the lead
Speaker 2: story on the news, both national and local. You know, like, yeah,
Speaker 2: it was being talked about like it never had been before.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that happens twice, that happened, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 1: In O two when we came home from the World Cup,
Speaker 1: that was the first time I was like, oh, people
Speaker 1: know who I am. And then in twenty ten when
Speaker 1: we came home from South Africa after the World Cup,
Speaker 1: it was the same. It was like, but on a
Speaker 1: like exponentially greater level.
Speaker 2: So yeah, the con Celtic grow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you could there. It was tangible. I mean even
Speaker 1: just like walking through the airport when you got home,
Speaker 1: people staring and recognizing you, and then it was tangibly different.
Speaker 2: You could feel it, right, dude, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for coming to talk to me. I you know, truly,
Speaker 2: in terms of American soccer, we we debated it after
Speaker 2: your Hall of Fame induction. I think it was unanimously
Speaker 2: decided the greatest American.
Speaker 3: Sorry of all time.
Speaker 2: And yeah, to have accomplished so much and to mean
Speaker 2: so much because it's personal with the MLS, but it
Speaker 2: is also as a country. I don't think it's overstating
Speaker 2: at how much you have meant to the country and
Speaker 2: the growth of this sport and in nationalism in sports.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's the World Cup, it's the US national team,
Speaker 2: and it's the Olympics, and other than that, nothing else
Speaker 2: comes close. So congratulations on that. I appreciate you coming
Speaker 2: on and congratulations again and on the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: And now I just look forward to kicking your assing golf.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me on, Betty.
Speaker 4: I appreciate it, all right, Thanks man, all right, Landon,
Speaker 4: thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 3: That was awesome.
Speaker 2: It was so awesome in fact that I hereby award
Speaker 2: you the Brian Bomgartner Best Podcast Interview Award. What do
Speaker 2: you think could that be a thing, or the Brian
Speaker 2: Bombgartner Coolest Golf Buddy Award? Maybe you could win that anyway, Listeners,
Speaker 2: if you think of a good award for my name,
Speaker 2: then send it over to me at Off the Beat
Speaker 2: on Instagram or who knows, maybe you'll receive the award
Speaker 2: for best award name named after you. This could be
Speaker 2: a thing, but for now, in the words of a
Speaker 2: very wise.
Speaker 3: Pig that that's all, folks, until next time, have a
Speaker 3: great week Off.
Speaker 2: The Beat is hosted and executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner,
Speaker 2: alongside our executive producer Lang Lee. Our senior producer is
Speaker 2: Diego Tapia. Our producers are Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Speaker 2: Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
Speaker 2: our intern is Thomas Olsen. Our theme song Bubble and Squeak,
Speaker 2: performed by the one and Only Creed Brandon