Bussin' With The Boys - Best of the Bus: Soccer Clubs Are Selling Kids? Walker Zimmerman & CJ Sapong Talk MLS, Ted Lasso, and Nashville SC

Episode Date: June 13, 2026

Welcome to the best of the bus. With the World Cup starting in the U.S. this week, no better way to start than with professional soccer players Walker Zimmerman and CJ Sapong. Enjoys fellas and happy Saturday. Will welcomes a couple of first-time guests on the bus, Nashville Soccer Club studs Walker Zimmerman and CJ Sapong. Comp gets out in front of himself and quickly tells the boys he knows nothing about soccer except for what he has learned from Ted Lasso. After everyone gets acclimated we find out that Walker might be one of the top fantasy football GM's in the country and is trying to get any kind of inside scoop he can out of Comp.  Next, CJ explains how the youth system in the US works and how the goal of it is to identify young talent and then sell them to a team preferably overseas. As far as Will is concerned, the US is selling kids and that's that.  Walker tells us about the full circle moment he put the captains arm band for the national team, and what it's like balancing playing for the national team and Nashville SC. Towards the end CJ opens up about how is lowest moments led him to meditation and the changes he has seen in himself as a person and a player. Another solid pod in the books for the boys and as the NFL season goes on and Will remains a free agent... could he be the next Ted Lasso??See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? And it's beautiful. The guys are young and cute and fit. It's not just a game. It's your culture.

I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everyone sees me as a football player, but before anything else, I'm human. Every single day I'm still learning how to live with problems, mistakes, relationships, emotions, ever since I was born.

This isn't a normal podcast. Everything here is spontaneous, real and genuine, just honest conversations about what it means to be alive. I'm Javier El Chichariot-O-Rand-Eas. And listen to Learning to Be Human on IHard Radio, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast. Well, I appreciate you guys coming on. This is my first time, honestly, talking with soccer players, and you guys will have to teach me as we go. I got to know a little bit about you guys, but like, I've watched Ted Lasso, and that's about it. You know what I mean?

That's a good starting point. It's a good start. It is. You guys watched Ted Lasso? Yeah, yeah. How much to this? Now, obviously, all the writing involved. But as far as like the life around the locker room and everything like that,

like how does that relate to you guys? Is there similarities? I think they pick up on like the really small things that actually do happen and then blow them up to like make it a real storyline. So it's like even guys getting like rookie haircuts or like doing little the types of pranks and the types of jokes they make are pretty similar to what goes on. Yeah, I think the inside of like the different cultures is really on point because you got. So many different walks of life in the locker room. And like the cultural diffusion is in Ted Lassau. They really hit the nail on the head.

Yeah. When like as far as the way Ted Lassau as a coach seems not, I don't know, it's not disconnected, but like I guess removed from the coaching side of things to where it seems a lot more player ownership than it would be in like a football locker room. Like in football, you know, you're sitting up there.

It seems like when you're coaching soccer as a soccer team, you're kind of like asking your guys like what's the best route to go or the soccer guys kind of know a little bit more about what to do than like what not saying football guys don't know what to do but you're really leaning on your coaching and what plans they're going to make what adjustments they're going to make like is that is that a is that a okay oh is that a topic let's go you know the thing about soccer like once you get on the field players have to navigate you know the game and the adversity and for the most part our team, I think, does very well at managing that. But I would say in Ted Lassow, that's maybe exaggerated because a lot of coaches want to have, you know, complete control over what they're trying to do. And you got to be careful. If you veer too far off, like the path that coach is trying to set,

then, you know, it might be tough for you to stay in the lineup and to perform, you know, to the exact specification. of what the coach wants, you know? It's different for every coach, too. Like, some coaches want to have, like, it's more of a dictatorship. And it's like they have their way, they have the way that their ship wants to sail,

and that's it. And there's no communication with players. Then you have other coaches who may be, like, completely player-driven to where, like, they don't want as much responsibility. Like, the players have it a little bit more. So then there's a fine balance, you've got to find. Are there guys like, like, what's his name,

Jamie Tart? Are there dudes like the Jamie Tart? Like her, I know those are like, like as an athlete, you know those, that role in the show is a little exaggerated. But is that, does that happen in soccer? Because I see, I can see soccer being a little similar to like basketball in the way that like one player can kind of like be a stud. And maybe you guys can correct me if I'm wrong on that. Again, I'm very new in the soccer world. I don't even play FIFA.

I mean, they definitely get that stereotype from. But they, yeah, they give the stereotype that he can like, we're going to let him do whatever he wants. Like I know in football like there's not a dude who can just completely. act like that. Like maybe the only example that might be close that we would have had in recent years is probably like when A.B was on the Raiders, right? When he goes in and he's like got camera guys around him. He's doing his own thing. He kind of doesn't give a shit. Like I've heard stories about all that stuff. But is there is there characters like that in the soccer world? I think so. I'm trying to think of MLS guys though. I don't know if there's like that many.

I think the difference is like in MLS you don't have like these superstars of the world. Whereas like NFL is like the best league in the world for the sport. So I don't think you can have guys in MLS who can have like that big like Jamie Tart type egos because they haven't really made it to the very top of their sport. Gotcha. So yes, you'll have like the arrogant players, but it's not, it's not going to be like Jamie Tart. Okay. Yeah.

I mean, in Europe, I'm sure every team has a guy like that. But in this country, this league, a league that's really been built by like domestic players anyway. Got a bunch of grinders. Yeah, grinders, like guys that are willing to just run. Let's fucking go. They get some blue collar. You know, it's going to be hard for somebody to come from outside of the league onto a team, have an ego and still succeed. You know?

Yeah. A lot of guys, they'll come and maybe in the first couple, you know, kicks, they're like, oh, this is easy. Like, I'm about to run shit over here. But after a while, like, just the culture of soccer guys start getting against you. And then once coaches see that, you could be. be out of the mix pretty quick. Damn, okay, I got you. Where is the MLS compared to, like, getting to, is Europe the biggest league?

This is how dumb I am. Like, there's probably soccer fans on. You're like, God damn it. People listen, like, God damn it, comp. This is how you learn, though. There's so many leagues in Europe. Yeah. Italy, Spain, England.

Those are all leagues? All their own leagues. And then they got divisions within the leagues. Yeah. You got, like, the Bundesliga, one, two, three. What? So where's the MLS? Where's the MLS?

Well, if you ask MLS, they'll say, they'll say like probably, I don't know, man. It's the number one league here. And I know MLS, the goal is to be like a top 10 league. They want to be a top five league. I think they said 2024 was like their whole campaign like maybe five, 10 years ago. Yeah. I would say we're definitely. probably a top 10 league at this point.

You got to think EPL, so Spain, Italy, Germany. I mean, you can argue some, maybe a South American or Argentinian. The problem is, like, some of these leagues have such good top teams. The top four or five teams are, like, better than MLS teams would be. But then their lower half are trash. But it's like, you know, is that league really better if they have four or five teams that are probably better than MLS teams, but their lower half is not? It's hard to say, but is that, I mean, the quality is improved.

When did you come to the league? 2011. Yeah. So, I mean, like, since 2011, I came 2013, it's night and day different. Like, the quality, the types of players they're bringing in. It's gotten a lot better. How do you think they get to where they, they reach the spot to where they're a top five league? Yeah, I keep paying.

I keep paying the players. Is that pretty much what it is? It's just all the money. It's got to be the commitment from, from ownerships in the league to keep increasing salary cap, keep increasing the money that they're spending because that's going to attract other bigger players. And they're doing it, but if they want the rapid

growth that they're talking about, then got to dish out. Yeah. And I guess to generate the revenue, you kind of just need the popularity of the sport to grow. Do you feel like America's doing a good job of growing the sport or the popularity in the sport? Yeah. From, again, from when we started until now, I mean, social

media has definitely helped a lot to MLS, importing players from different countries, very popular players. The quality on the field is elevating. So it's getting to the point where now, like, a typical fan who's used to watching, you know, football where there's big hits, touchdowns, basketball, slam dunks, like there's crunching tackles. There's, like, close shots, like almost goal scoring opportunities. So it's a lot more exciting.

Yeah. That's what the league needs to continue. continue to propel itself forward. It's a good time for us to be in the league. You know, we've been able to see it grow. And I think me and Walker are similar. And we're guys that like to just grind it out and battle. So it's, it's cool to be a year.

Yeah. Shevys. It's really cool. Shevados. Chevy, baby. Yeah, so it's cool to be a part of that. It's interesting to see how far it goes. But, I mean, shit, stuff like this, you know,

helping you understand a little bit more, getting it out to more people. I think it'll, it'll just organically continue to grow. Yeah. Just to give perspective, like when I was growing up, like my high school didn't even have like a soccer team until I was like a senior in high school. That's crazy. And you guys know the whole stereotype too, like football players growing up. What state?

What's it? Missouri. Okay. Yeah, Missouri. And like, you know, growing up the whole stereotype of like, oh, why would you play soccer when you can play football type of thing? And I don't feel like I got rid of that myself until I was probably like in college and realize, like, damn, at the time it seemed like,

closet soccer fans right because they would have the jersey some of my teammates would just be all about it when the world cup and stuff would come on yeah yeah and i beg how are you so into soccer like bro you're not into soccer and it just seemed like it was huge to some of these guys i'm like where did they even grow up or learn that soccer's like you know soccer is life and now i feel like now i feel like we're at now in like uh in 2021 especially with like shows like ted lasso coming out and i feel like just the notoriety you guys get a little more how much more it's publicized I feel like it's trending the right direction. Because again, coming from my ignorance self growing up in Missouri,

it's just like, oh, damn, I didn't even know this was like extremely popular like this. And then the, I mean, World Cup, 2026 is going to be massive when it comes to the U.S. I think that's going to be like a huge turning point where everything so far in MLS is kind of building to 2026, like when the World Cup comes to the United States. And then I think you're going to see an explosion of like even more interest, even more publicity. Even you look at like Nashville, you know, becoming a franchise, becoming a club, getting the soccer specific stadium. It'll be 30,000, which is going to be perfect. You know, it's going to be homey, the biggest soccer specific stadium in the country.

And, you know, our fans, yes, it's great. It's awesome having, you know, 20, 25,000 fans at Nissan Stadium. But, you know, then you have 50,000 empty seats. Like when you pack all those people into one place, I think we're going to have a pretty cool environment. So you're seeing a lot more of those kinds of environments where, you know, they're getting, specific stadiums and they're selling them out. And so that's what's just going to keep going after the World Cup, I think. How do you guys feel about like Nashville, like the expansion team coming to Nashville?

Because you guys got, did you guys get traded here? Did you kind of move with the team? Well, you traded. Yeah, you got traded. I signed as a free agent. So I guess, yeah, for me at the time, I just wanted a team. I wanted a team that would fit my playing style, but also I got a fit. fam so wanted them to be comfortable and you know kind of like what walkers talking about was it

being a new franchise new organization they're building the right way you know and it's cool to be a part of something that's getting built where the team itself we're a very cohesive group i'm very excited about that there's definitely an opportunity for Nashville to become a bit of a dynasty in mLS it just takes a little time and you know we're pushing for the playoffs right now we're in playoffs we're trying to get some silverware yeah that's the number one way you can really propel your your franchise to where you you wanted to get to um but yeah i love nashville uh it's different i was in chicago before it's not as big of a city but oh no especially from chicago chicago is a great city shout out to chicago um but nashville definitely i like it good for family

and like i said when the experience for us as players when the experience on the field in the locker room. It's top notch. It makes it a little easier to, you know, get up every day and do it. Yeah. Yeah. Feel the same way? Yeah, for sure.

You like Nashville? Love it. It's been a great fit. And I think when you look at kind of your life and the transitions that come along, like the timing of Nashville for me and getting traded, it was like an absolute bomb dropped on me and my wife. We were out in L.A. Yeah, I was going to say you came from L.A.

We felt super secure, like with where we were. I thought we were going to be there for a long time. Random call one night. out of the blue, and you traded to Nashville. And we were just like, what? Like, we thought I was going to be there for a long time. So thankfully, it was Nashville. We got here, fell in love with the city, even amidst COVID,

like not being able to do a lot of stuff. When was that? When did you get the call? So I got the call on, like, basically mid-February. So it was, like, pretty late in terms of trades. Because we were, like, in the middle of preseason at that point. And we were preparing in L.A. for, you know, the first match in 10 days, I think it was.

Yeah. And then I got traded. Call was on a Monday night, got to Nashville on a Wednesday night. I was on a contract on a house Saturday. It was with the team Saturday afternoon in Tampa for preseason, like the second half of preseason. That's what I'm. It was insane. And then we got back.

We closed on our house the day that everything shut down in Nashville. It was like March 16th or something like that. Yeah. So it was a crazy experience. But now especially, you know, everything's opened up again. We're love our neighbor. love our neighborhood. We're in Green Hills.

I mean, it's sweet. I love how convenient it is, too. Right. It's like the 20-minute city. Yeah, yeah. We're in 20 minutes. Every single place. And whereas L.A.,

it's like we couldn't even drive to a stadium on a weekday game. So you have to take the metro. Were you pretty pissed off when you got traded? I was, dude, honestly, I was like, I felt every emotion within like a two-day span. It was like anger, frustration, sadness, confusion.

like I mean me and my wife were just like bawling leaving the apartment I'm like it was just I didn't even know what was going on it's hard it's hard for MLS players too because when we get traded like we have to take control of so many of the logistics like I've heard really so like yeah I've heard from like NFL players NBA players like when they get traded like everything is sorted you get to your you get people calling yeah maybe you get to the hotel everything's already set up you're just worrying about playing Whereas, like, we, you got to figure out the moving. Like, yeah, a lot of the expenses get taken care of, but you really have to, like, take control of that. And you explaining that, I'm like, oh, I'm just imagining, like, right before season started to, you know, not only, like, are the colors of your jersey changing, but you got to go get a whole other house. And then mainly you're, like, leaving, like, Sally basically got to take care of the whole move and stuff because I go straight into preseason. So it's like, now I'm in Florida for two weeks. She's still in LA. She has to do all the stuff.

And like, she's had to do a lot of that. Yeah. You know, it's just like, I can't imagine. Was that kind of the first big thing, pivotal thing that happened in your career? I had gotten traded from Dallas to L.A., but that was more of like a mutual thing. Kind of knew it was coming in the off season. So we had time to kind of prep it. Then, yeah, I mean, that was really the first.

Yeah. That's the first, like, big surprise that was just like. Where you just see the teeth of the business for like, yeah. Yeah. Like, damn, I'm just. You have the desire to help? You have the desire to help you do with a real difference? The College of the City

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National of Formation in Safety Souttened by Sante Canada. I love the sounds. The buzzing from the stadium, the chanting from the fans, the announcers calling the place soccer, football, at home.

Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari,

and this is American football. show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull. It is an American game. The Brazilians don't like hearing that, though. Are they the only ones that don't like that? Nobody likes that.

As we get ready for the Men's World Cup this summer, listen to American football as part of of the MyCultura Podcast Network, available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Together, we're going to have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer, and that was more difficult.

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Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast. Go on the next day and the whole team, like, obviously they're all surprised too, and you're just like never really seeing them again. Right. Just like, hey, it was real. I'll see you guys next year. And then it's like, with COVID,

we didn't end up playing L.A. So, like, I haven't even seen that team in, like, two years. It's crazy. Bro, you'll, like, dad people up and you'll be like, you know, you'll just kind of say the comfortable thing, too, like, as players. Like, yeah, like, we'll stay in touch, man, or, you know, we'll get up in the off season. But nobody knows. Yeah. And honestly, like, you might not see those dudes in L.A. ever again.

I was in Dallas. I went to the movies with Kyle Becker. We wouldn't see a movie on, like, a Wednesday night. Thursday morning, he comes in. He gets called in the coach's office. everyone's already out training so i hadn't seen him yet come in that morning and he left because he got traded that morning i haven't seen him since

we went to the movies and i show up at training and he's gone like he leaves i haven't seen him since like it's crazy i was like six years ago seven years ago the business is great i mean hell at the end of the day they're playing fantasy just like us yeah yeah yeah someone gets hurt on our our fantasy rosters you're you know You're dropping them

You're going a different round Yeah I had to let Derek Kimberly go Dude I already put my claim in for McNichols Is that the right move? I think so I mean they got Adrian Peterson

Coming But McNickles will still Are you in a PPR league? Half PPR Yeah, yeah That's your using four leagues But I mean if you're in some kind of PPR league Like McNichols is never a bad play

Because he gets all the third down stuff Like the thing I don't want to third down back. I need the guy. I need the workhorse. I think that, you know, that could shift a little bit toward AP. I mean, at the end of the day, the dude's 37. He can't be the workhorse. I need to cancel my name right now. I put like 31 waiver bucks on this guy. Really? Yeah. Because I, I mean, thankfully my team's kind of stacked in this league, so I don't, I don't really need him, but I want him if he's going to be the guy. He could, though. It could be somebody you get and you see for a couple

weeks. Because he should get a good. He's thinking. He's thinking. He's terrible. I'm going to my light up in my head. I'm like, okay, well, do I play Gaskin over like a AP or, I don't know. I mean, AP, I just don't think he'll be AP coming right out of the gate. Yeah. You know what I mean? You never know. I hope he is. I'm like, I'm talking business with my man right now. I want the boys to win. Like, I'm pro-tyons. I need, I need Michael Thomas coming back. I just had him sitting on the bench for all season. He's going to be out at least another week, but then maybe week 10.

I got Montgomery, bro, who I'm waiting on him to return from Chicago. I've been waiting on him to come back, dude. Sheesh All this extra stress It actually makes it so fun Now like thinking about like If we were to play MLS fantasy Like the fact that you get to like Play with all your boys

Like you can draft your friends Like that's fucking funny Or like just bro it's so funny So because I had heard Drop them and like Send them a screenshot You like Right bro

Bro hey we're not doing it from me Yeah yeah You like I remember when I was playing at Washington I'd go up to Jordan Reed Because I'd have Jordan Reed On my fantasy team as a tight end I'd go up to Jay Reid

Like in the middle of the game like, hey man, I'm going to need a little bit more out of you. I'm going to need a little bit more out of it. Or when he was hurt. Yeah, yeah. When he was hurt, I bet, hey, so I'm playing this. Yeah, I got to make some decisions now. We need you.

We want you on the team. But when I heard about Derek last night, like immediately went to our group chat. I said, hey, Derek's on the block. And I said, I said he's only got me 22 points these last couple weeks. So, you know, I'll take, I'm looking for a top 10 running back and a top 10 wide receiver. Got a, got a request trade for Austin, and Mike Williams and he wanted Derek Henry

and A.J. Green and immediately hit Accept. Of course. So the trade's going through, but right now it's getting veto because everybody's finding out about Derek now. And, you know,

they think it's slimy to me. But I'm like, yo, shame on you for thinking I'm a high integrity player in this business. Like, we got to make moves. You know, talking to Derek,

like, yeah, man, let me know if you need anything. Get out of the phone. Like, hey, man, Derek's on the blog. Shit. Send him packing. Oh, man. What else we got?

Hey, Alex, can you make sure and let Peggy know that we won't do Mercedes? Bontair Biscuits. No, I know. We know yours. I'm like fired up Bontar Biscuits, bro. It's a good day to be a biscuit, man, because we're winning right now. I'm actually interested to hear this, too. I'm 4 and 4 right now.

But our league is built around 4 and 4. We got a lot of teams in the middle. We got one team that's 7 and 1. The rest are like four and four, and then you have a couple there, like two win teams or a one-win team. So I'm going to go to five and three in two leagues. I'm going to go to hopefully six and two and one. That's the Nashville league that right now the projections is within a point. That's the one where Boswell's hurt, and it's Mahomes-Butker.

The other one I'm going to go to six and two if Mahomes and Butker put up 25. So you're saying nice. I'm in a really good spot. Henry will hurt in this Nashville league. I have some depth, but like that means Gaskins the everyday starter, and I don't know if that's what I need. Because Josh Jacobs, like, he's,

he's always questionable, right? Like, he's like the Julio Jones are running backs, you know? Like, you're basically, I don't even know if I want to play him as a questionable tag. If Julio Jones is questionable, I'm not playing him. I mean, I love that.

I love him, but. How many? I love seeing the GM come out of him, dude. I mean. How many hours a day would you say you're spending on your... Not a lot. Not a lot. No.

No. No. Sunday. Not a lot. Sunday. I am like this. Yeah. Just refreshing it all time. Going from team to team.

I'm not even looking at the TV. Like, the Red Zone can be on and it's just this. And it's in the charger because it lasts like 20 minutes. Yeah. It's so funny how different you watch the game. Like just mad. Like yesterday, I was telling Taylor, like I was playing, the dude who I was playing against had AJ Brown.

And obviously, I won the Titans win. every game. But when he was going on that long run, I'm like, you just fucking push that motherfucker out of bounds, dude. Like, you want him like, all right,

now give Derek the ball. The good thing about Derek going down is I also have Jonathan Taylor and he's been playing well recently. You know, or the Titans fans listening, like, again,

it's just business. It's just, like it is. It's just the name of the game. Everybody else knows it. Titans fans probably have Jonathan Taylor on their team anyway. There's no loyalties to actual teams

when you're in fantasy football. Right. The loyalties to the biscuits. Yeah. 100%. What are your team's names? So my Dallas League, team name is Koi's daddy. Coi's daddy?

Coi was basically a rookie when I was there and took him on my wing and just kind of, yeah. Yeah. So, beating him this week. Hold the pocket. Hold my pocket. I'm playing him this week. So taking care of that.

Next league injected into my veins. Okay. I got, ha, yeah, is another name. Oh, yeah. And then Nashville league is milk me. that's great the milk meat wow well doing yeah what do we go from here hey we're all a little tight like man is there water back there oh yeah it's been nuts man it's been nuts man it's been nuts that we've

how many how long how long how many uh since mid 2019 since like june of 2019 we do like one a week taylor and i when we first did it the bus was sitting on this gravel parking lot everybody's heard the story uh that's like listening here was like all right we got to hit the story again. And we backlogged like probably five to eight episodes. We ran them and we were only going to do the podcast for the summer. Like we were just going to like, because again, we were like the first pod where active players are sitting here and you're kind of letting it fly like the way we do. Like we're obviously super nervous and had anxiety about it. But we're like, all right, we'll do this in the summer. And then when it's football, like we'll just play football. We won't do the pod because,

you know, you don't want like the distractions, like all that stuff. Yeah, you guys don't want to talking about. And I remember getting on the phone with McAfee, Pat McAfee, who does the Pat McAfee show. And, what's up? Well, I'm just saying, they, he brought, do you know who Pat is? No. See?

You're like, damn, Will, Will's over here flex and will's over here, name drop. Oh, you know, he's got his name on the show. But, he was like, if you're going to do it, be consistent. Like, if you're going to do one a week, try to get as many as you can to be consistent all your loan, because the name of the game. as like being consistent about it and since that conversation with him taylor and i was like

yo we need to start getting start getting pods in the library to last throughout the season and so that first year i remember one week we did like 12 pods in one week like say you guys would come on then we'd have somebody else come on after we would do like three we would do like three in a day bro and you know how it is like you can only say so many jokes there's only so much humor and jokes on your mind in the day toward by the third one you're kind of just like right what are we laughing about and uh so yeah we did that and then once we got into the off season We're able to do a lot in the offseason, then COVID hit. So then we did start to do Zoom.

But yeah, it's been wild. And then it's a weird thing because Taylor Tours ACL last year. And I was on the Titans as well. And two guys couldn't be on the bus at the same time. Like you couldn't have two players. You couldn't be seen outside the facility with a teammate because they had all those COVID regulations. You guys know what I mean? Like we couldn't give a guy right home.

Like if you were tier one in the best, building, you couldn't be with him after the facility. So Taylor was the only one that could do the podcast. And honestly, like, as far as speaking from bussing with the boys, it was almost like a blessing that he was able to do some pods until I was able to start doing them again. But we just, like, kept it rolling, dude. That's crazy. You guys thought about doing a pod?

I've thought about it before. I just don't know that I have the ability to stay consistent, you know? Yeah. Especially with a fan. You'll be hearing kids. screaming in the background. If I could get like a spot that's off-site, you know, like this would be dope. Like, I would definitely look forward to to coming here and just like shooting the shit. But it's a commitment.

Bro, it really is. That's something like you definitely sleep on. I slept on like coming into. Like you think you're just going to like do a show, like talk on mics. How hard could it be? Like let's take our conversations in the locker room and just have them on the show. And then like when you're first starting, I remember Taylor and I had to redo our first episode like so much. We're like, what are we doing? Like, what are we talking about? Like, we're forcing our conversations. And then it's really hit or miss.

I did a couple in L.A. They had me do a couple of different pods. Yeah. And it's like pretty hit or miss with like guests too. Yeah. Because then if like, if it's not flowing pretty well, you're kind of stressing yourself. And you're like, okay, let me just go to the next question. And it just becomes like.

Yeah. And then it becomes at that point, it's like, yeah. Exactly. And it's no good. And then you still have to put it out there because you're like, uh, right. You're going to be consistent with it. Exactly. And then you're putting out stuff to where it.

does, it seems like scripted are like, now we're actually sitting in an interview, and you kind of just feel weird. We hit a block, and I was like, real anxious about, like, oh, man, what was my next question? Instead of just being like, where do we go from here? Exactly. Or how about Ted Lassow? Oh, man. This is perfect right here.

This is great. Yeah, yeah, this is probably his suit. He's got Peteylight for all of us. too, though. That's nice. Yeah, you guys can pour that at Revitalite. Revitalite. Best drink, man. It's the adult version of the other stuff in the store that we don't talk about. Not like that. Not like that, but it's like instead of saying the other, instead of saying the competitor, the idolite competitor, we just use revitalite, which is like the adult version of the kid stuff you see in the grocery store. You know what I mean? Do we have a revitalite ad? Well, there you go, revitalite. No free shoutouts.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you think guys. Way to put us back on track. Yeah. Okay. I'll start. Start. Yeah, youth academies, when it comes to soccer in this country, I mean, anywhere, honestly, that's how teams develop their talent. And, you know, the game, that's where a lot of the profit comes from. You develop players from a young age. They get to an age where they're becoming successful or have a lot of potential. You sell them to another team. Rinse. Yeah. It sounds kind of wild. You get to where, oh, they have potential, sell them. Yeah. 10, 11, 12. You have 12-year-olds getting paid by academies, you know.

They're doing their schooling on site. They aren't getting paid. Everything is paid for. Everything is getting paid for. On site, you know, they're getting the best of the best in terms of coaching, training, stuff like that. in our in this country the academy system is definitely developing to to another level the MLS has already had a quite a few players get sold overseas um and i mean the return on

investment there is outrageous for them um so uh i'll let walker you can follow up on that one but um you get sold overseas the profits are astronomical yeah it's the business no no it's true so it's like it's basically like 10 years old, maybe 10, 12 years old, the modern, like, academy system because it was completely different when we were growing up playing youth soccer. Now you have MLS teams that have their own academies. Right now, I'm, you know, helping out the U-17 academy team coach them on the side. So I'm hopeful that, you know, when we sell them, maybe a little bit of that comes back. But I don't know exactly how it works, but maybe I'll put that plug in now.

You got rights, bro. Yeah. Honestly, though, that happens a lot, though. But if a MLS Teams Academy develops a player and they sell him, if that player gets sold again, they can get kickback from that next sale too. So it's like an NFT. Yeah. It's like it's coming back to the coaches, which honestly they should put something in their contract.

Like for every kid they get sold to Europe. Because they're the ones that actually develop it. Yeah, they're the ones doing all the coaching. So something to think about. Did you guys get sold? No. Like I said, the assistant. was different for us.

We're talking about selling kids. We're talking about developing kids and then selling them overseas. You're learning a lot about soccer. Yeah. This is great. Wow. Yeah. So the system, probably 10, 12 years old. So I was kind of borderline my age group of, it was the first year kids were starting to go

to academy, like at U-17. I stayed on the team that I was with, like, my club team. And then I was already committed to college. I was like, I don't need to go now to this new academy system. and because I was already committed. But basically all the years after kind of my age group, 1993s, you started seeing the top talents go to these academy teams. And then now it's like MLS Academy teams.

So you have Atlanta United, for example, you have Atlanta United too, which a lot of their academy kids can then go play for Atlanta United too. Same thing, sporting KC, Red Bulls, D.C., Philly. Now Nashville, like all the teams basically have academy teams starting at U-13. You 15, you 17, you 19, whatever it is. And then at some point, if they're, like, developed really well in those age groups, like, if they get to where they're good at, they could sell them early. You can either sell them, but majority of the time, you're probably signing him to a homegrown contract. And so that means the incentive, this.

See, we can get, we're going to get real wacky because you're going to learn a lot about MLS rules if we go down this road. So, I think about it. I think it's interesting. So if you see, like, say you guys are beasts, right? and I'm like head of the academy or this team. And I'm like, yo, these two are savages. What's the youngest age? 16, usually.

15, 16 would be the youngest. 15, 16 would be the youngest to get into an academy. Would be the youngest to get where you sign a homegrown contract. Okay, but if summer is on at base 31, the drill hall, RBC stage is packed with big shows, live music, and electric summer nights. Featuring acts like USS, Dallas Smith, and the crew. glorious sons.

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I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game.

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We are here to connect. The Chicharito. And together with IHA Radio, we're going to make the ordinary, extraordinary, stay close. It is a carac. Wow. Listen to learning to be human on IHard Radio, Apple Podcasts, or whatever you get your podcast. You would do a homegrown if you realize like, hey, these dudes are going to be mine.

Like get them under contract now for cheap and then we got them locked up. And the perk of the homegrown contract. And then the kid doesn't kind of, you know, the kid and the family doesn't know because they're finally like, oh, we're going to finally start saying a little bit of. So now you get the mechanisms of how MLS works. So now it's like you look at the salary cat. So the incentives for MLS teams is if you sign a homegrown player, their contract doesn't count against the salary cap. So it's the incentive to then have a rostered player that you aren't actually hitting against the cat. You still have to pay them, but it doesn't count.

Yeah. So how would the other team benefit from getting it? Why wouldn't the homegrown team just keep the kid? They would. Like, if you sign a homegrown contract, then you're staying with the academy team. Like, they get your first rights. Okay. So if there's a Nashville kid, he's a baller, they signed a homegrown deal.

He has to stay with Nashville. He couldn't even sign with another MLS team because Nashville owns the rights of all academy kids. Okay. So you can't, like, have a Nashville player be like, oh, I can go pro. I'm going to go play for L-AFC and then just leave. It's like, no, he is owned by Nashville. So they have the first rights to sign him and basically make money on it. What if like another league, like what a Europe league wanted to sign him?

Then they could leave, but Nashville would have rights to get a percentage of the transfer fee and all that. And MLS. And then MLS on top of that just takes their transfer fee. Because MLS is single entity, right? So MLS owns basically, well, MLS pays all the contracts. So when there's a transfer I'm not sure what the rule is now But just in the last CBA

MLS gets two thirds of the transfer fee And the team gets one third In Europe if you get transferred The player gets 10% of the transfer fee Here No you get nothing So Do you wish there was some

Like Rules applied that are over in Europe Over here in the U.S? I mean, for me. Like are there some rules you guys look at it? Like, damn, that, you know, I wish we had some of the offense in that league. There's quite a few, honestly. It's just all we want to see is for a kid that is going to essentially forego their whole upbringing to put the effort into soccer.

Perhaps they're trying to, you know, feed the fam. I think every dollar counts. and if a kid is able to play their way to a position of having potential to succeed outside of MLS and gets transferred, they should get a little bite of that. Oh, yeah. And then when you're looking at the fact that MLS is getting two-thirds of the fee, and then the teams are only getting one-third, that starts messing with the fee they're willing to accept. So imagine paying a kid 60,000 and a team wants to pay $2 million for him.

But now everybody's like, well, my two-thirds is only this much. We want three million, you know. So that's where it can get real messy. But ultimately at the end of the day, these players are in this country, are getting an opportunity to maximize their potential overseas, which helps our country develop soccer. And as we're seeing with the men's national team, we're starting to have more and more younger talent,

develop their way into that squad. and by 2026, we're looking pretty good. And, you know, we'll see when that time comes around, it'll be easier to kind of measure where we've gone, you know, from the start of these homegrown wheelings and dealings. Yeah, no, that's great. You covered it all. Is it kind of like, like would you say kids grow up playing soccer in America,

they're wanting to play in the MLS? Or are you trying to go over to Europe? When I was growing up, it was wanting to go to Europe. But I think now MLS is definitely a good destination. I think the stigma is like you can't be the best unless you go to Europe. But I'm not sure that that's true anymore, honestly. Yeah, narrative is probably shifting a little bit. Like, I think if you're a kid and you're always dreaming of like, I want to play in the World Cup or I want to play in Champions League.

If that's still like the dream and it's true, like, then yeah, you're going to want to go to Europe. But like at the same time, you know, the quality in MLS has gotten so much better that it's going to be pretty hard for most kids, even if they're going to become professionals to just go straight over. Like there have to be really, really talented players to succeed right away in Europe. So I could see a lot of, especially when you look at homegrown, like guys getting a chance to join a great league in MLS, get a lot of minutes under their belt, and a, professional environment and then make the jump. Because I think it is a pretty big jump if you're going from just 15, 16 year old going overseas. It could be a little bit.

Just because the competition is higher. And then the other factors are like, okay, now you're just moving away from home. Like you're still a young kid. Like you don't know how that's going to affect different kids in certain ways. So there are obviously success stories of kids who do it. But it's pretty rare. Yeah. Are there many like American?

that are over in Europe right now? Yeah, there's a lot of young guys. So within our national team, we probably have, of the last couple qualifiers, say we have 25 people on the roster, probably 12, 13 are guys who are playing in top good leagues overseas. It's probably pretty split in terms of the roster. Got you a little bit more European than MLS.

Now, when it's worlds, like when you do the big, the international or the world tournament or whatever, do you got to play for the the country in which you like grew up in? Is it kind of like the Olympics? Well, you can have, it's just what, I mean, you can have different passports, right? Just the don't go player asking questions. No, their reaction.

Yeah, no, it's because, again, you have some, some guys will have a grandmother that is from a certain country. Like, what you'll see a lot for like a Spain, Italy, England, teams that are always high in terms of global rankings. be harder to get on that roster. But hey, my grandmother's Jamaican. Oh, so we'll try and manipulate her kind of. So then, even though I grew up in England, my grandmother's Jamaican and I want to play on the world stage. So I'm just going to get a Jamaican passport and I'll pay, I'll play for Jamaica.

You see, like that kind of stuff happens a lot. I mean, even with the U.S., you have guys that grow up on base in Germany and spent maybe a year in this country in their whole life but they're most likely not going to you know make the german national team so then it's like oh well i'll play for the u.s yeah i mean a lot of the white dudes in america are like german anyway it's like hey i'm german i'm going to play for the german team i can say that because yeah i got some german in you know what i mean you might too you're blonde yeah you might have some german linds Zimmerman's a german name i mean i don't know how far back it goes all i know is

I do not qualify for a passport. So that's also a little frustrating. You know, sometimes you, if you don't have passports, it's harder for you to go over and play in Europe. So based on their work visas and things like that. So it's easier if you have, so I'm like, man, maybe we should go have our next kid over in Europe and then give him the opportunity if he wants it to be able to have a more flexibility in that career. Yeah. How does college fit into everything? You say you went to college.

Did you go to college too? You went that route. Yeah. So how does... James Madison. James Mew. Oh, yeah. Yeah, let's go.

Went to a Halloween party there once. Oh, yeah. You guys get down now. You had a great time. Yeah. Yeah. Jam you. It's a fun little party school.

Great school. But yeah, how does college fit in all this? Okay. Let's just say, how did college fit into it when you guys were coming up and how does college kind of fitting into it now? Yeah. So, again, when I was coming up, academies weren't that big of a thing. whereas today

you're most like these 16, 17 year olds that are in an academy. They have chances to go to college, but there's usually somebody above telling them, nah, you don't want to do that, just stay here. You're going to get everything you need. You can develop. Whereas for me, I think that was the best thing that I could have done was go to college because kind of what Walker was saying,

for these young kids to go up through these systems and then all of a sudden be on their own, having to manage themselves as a professional, like the daily things, not having your mom, you know, cooking clean for you. Those are things that I learned in college. And like sometimes, you know, I really have to rough it, like learning budgeting, like, $40 a week. Like, am I going to get subway or am I going to get a beer?

Like, you know, those are the experiences in college that I really, really enjoyed. And I think looking back, I'm very thankful to have had that experience. I think the kids that are coming up these days, college isn't always the number one. You know, for them, if they can sign a homegrown deal at 16, 17, they would rather do that. Got you. Got you. Yeah, I think that's what some of the problem is, is like, some kids, yeah, they're probably talented enough to become professionals. But the problem is, like, the top 1% should probably go academy and try and,

maybe for go college if they like really have the potential to make it because it's going to be better training it's going to be better for their development as a as a pro athlete or a future pro athlete because the you know with the academy system like that's the goal is to develop guys who are going to probably not even go to college but guys who go straight from the academy to the first team the problem is when you start signing a bunch of homeroom guys and some of them aren't necessarily that good now they're risking their college education to go pro for a minimum contract on 70,000 bucks. Yeah. And they're going to get cut after two years. And now they're like, oh, gosh, I got

to find a college, but now they can't play college because you're already been a pro. So I think it really depends on if you're the absolute like cream of the crop, I think you got to develop Academy Pro. But for the guys that, you know, maybe they'll make it one day, it's like it's a big risk if you're trying to sign a small deal to become a pro and you forgo college. So college soccer, I think. the quality overall is probably dropping a little bit because you're losing some of the very top talent to the academies. To the academies. But it is still relevant in the sense of like, you know, even Nashville, for example, we got some great draft picks that are really big contributors. So two years ago, we drafted Alasher Johnston. He's become a mainstay on the Canadian national team. Been a starter for us for two years. Jack Mayer from Indiana played, you know, two years of college and didn't play a lot last year. But now he's played.

like 20 games this year. So it's like you can still find talent in college that can contribute to you, you know, whether they graduate early or leave college early. But it's just I'm scared for the guys that are chasing this dream of being a pro athlete. And then they choose to, you know, they're a little by disillusion with their capabilities. And they become kind of washed up, lost in the system a little bit. You feel like the disillusion comes from like you were saying that people, telling them they're better than they might be, their parents or maybe coaches or trainers that

maybe aren't necessarily with the team, but they're trying to make their money as well, saying, hey, you need to come being my sister. Or like, imagine being 16 and you're like, oh my gosh, I can make like a real salary. I can get money. I can get money for my family or like, you know, myself. It seems like $6 or $70,000 is kind of like a... That's like the minimum. All right. And the league. So it's like they're pretty much unless, again, unless they're like, you know, really, really top... You're thinking, yeah. can make 70,000 as a 16, 17. And live that pro-life, not have to do school, you're going to, that's like super tempting.

Yeah. But the problem is it's not thinking ahead. Yeah. Not thinking ahead. And there's not enough resources available to them that project their, whether, even if we're just looking at career, right? Yeah. Are they being spoken to about, okay, let's just say you pay for 15 years. Like, you should be saving this much every year.

You know, these kids are right on Stock X, Icebox, NFTs now, you know, like, which, hey, whatever. Like, at some level there has to be a little bit of risk. And, you know, you're in a position where you can take that kind of risk. But ultimately, like he's saying, 16 years old, you sign a homegrown deal. You basically, some guys, they'll just train, right? They don't play in games. They're just training every day, every day, two seasons, three seasons, never playing a game. And then boom, you're cut.

You haven't gone to college. You have no degree. You haven't even thought about what you would do besides soccer because you always thought that soccer was the only thing that was... You're not like going to like a routine day, throughout a routine day of like class or balancing this. It's hard to go back to that after that. You're literally just training thinking you're going to do something and then you're... Then you're done.

And then you're like, oh, damn, that would be... Yeah. What was I thinking? Yeah. What am I going to do now? You know, and again, a lot of the teams they're not sitting there like yeah you know you're not with us anymore but here's some resources for you like hope everything not peace thanks for your time you ain't lying

you're not lying bro you know like that's wild yeah who's fault is that you know I don't even know yeah it's like how do you even how do you even try and like is that like a is that a big thing that happens like there there's a lot of kids and do that route there's plenty of cases of guys who probably should have gone to college and then either played a couple years and then they probably got cut from the MLS team and they're like well I don't know what else to do I'm going to drop down to the USL which is like the league below MLS now they're probably making closer like I don't know 25 30 like something that's just like yeah you're right right yeah having to juggle two different things to get by but you're kind of like in the minors of baseball at that yeah exactly then they just become and there's always like the glimmer of hope and there's always like the glimmer of hope that's that they hold on to of like making it back up and it's just so rare to have guys who drop from MLS, USL and then get back up. Yeah. Like very rare.

Shit. Yeah. To go pro. Yeah, you can go pro at any time from college. So you could be a freshman and be like, be a freshman, play your freshman season and you're out. So did you go? I went, I went all, well, I left after three and a half years, but I played four seasons. Right.

College. I had an opportunity to. to maybe go pro after my junior year, but I was still like, well, hey, I still want to get this degree. You know, I put in all this time and effort, and I still ended up not getting it, but. You didn't get your degree?

Nope, but you have three and a half years? But I had three and a half years. I have two, well, it always comes down and somebody's like, I got two or three classes left. I'm going to do them online. That's crazy. And fulfill my promise to my grandma back in the day. Basically, right?

My dad was like, will they honor, like, if you get it from, like, S&HU, would Jim you get it? No, because my major switched to a different major in my last year. So kinesiology switched to sports management. If I was to go to another school, I would have had to, like, redo, like, two years worth of credit. Yeah. Which is just awful. But, I mean, we'll see, you know. Maybe I'll go back and get that piece of paper.

That's definitely going to get me a job. You know. That's definitely going to get me a job. Well, it's got to feel good. How long you've been playing since, what, 2011? So you're over a, you're like over a decade. Yeah. Yeah.

This is my 11th season. What is, like, the average lifespan of a soccer player? I got out of football. It's like 2.8 years playing in the NFL. Damn. Is that long? That's pretty bad. Yeah.

I'd say around like 10, 11 years. It depends on the position you're playing to. Goalkeepers can play for 15, you know? Um, forwards, midfielders, defenders. Yeah. No, we'll do that. 3.2 to 3.5 is your guy. But that's like, I mean, that's not like they're playing career, but that's like staying in MLS, or like, st.

MLS, right? Wow. Congrats, bro. Thank you, man. You're raising that. Triple the career length. I feel good. Damn.

How about you? Did you, how long did you go to college? Did you go all? I left that to my sophomore year. Oh, big dog. Hey, come on. Hey. Come on.

Hey. Big dog. You guys are both drafted in the first round, right? Yeah. Big dogs. So, I mean, it's a little different than like NFL first round pick. Is it? How many rounds are there in MLS?

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I inherited that fandom from my mom. my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull. It is an American game. The Brazilians don't like hearing that, though. Are they the only ones that don't like that?

Nobody likes that. As we get ready for the Men's World Cup this summer, listen to American Football as part of the My Coutura Podcast Network, available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Together, we're going to have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer.

And that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And there's a part of the surprise to me because their new star is Javier T. Torito Hernandez. Everyone is from Mexico. Everyone sees me as a football player, but before anything else, I'm human. Every single day, I'm still learning how to live with problems, mistakes, relationships,

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stay close. It is a carac. Wow. Listen to learning to be human on IHard Radio, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Third and fourth are like supplemental draft picks And like a lot of those picks probably don't make the roster Wait, wait, wait, so there's only two rounds in the MLS draft?

Yeah, and then there they're there how many picks per round? How many teams? 28, 27. Well, fuck, you guys are big dogs. What do you mean? True. I mean, if you look at it that way, relatively, it is. It's kind of like the NBA, dude.

Yeah. It's a, yeah, they had. So, yeah. So the process of like the college stuff, there's like a thing called generation to do this. LeBron and D. Wade, right? Yeah. Kobe.

So there was a thing called Generation Adidas. It's still going on. And that's like an incentive for another MLS mechanism that they use to help teams draft these players. But every year in college, they usually pick like seven, eight guys that they identify as like freshmen to juniors who can qualify for like a generation Adidas, basically salary or pick whatever. And so the perk of that is if you draft a player that's Generation Adidas, that MLS will basically, again, it doesn't count against the salary cap. So it's incentive for the team to draft those players. I was one of those generations.

You just sound like you're just trying to have a reason why you're drafting them. So would you not? That's why I was drafted a higher is because, you know, they don't have to pay for me. And same what years is for you? Yeah, you're on year nine? Nine. Yeah. Same. Yeah?

Yeah. It's my ninth year. We have this running joke because I'm currently a free agent. Don't know if I'll play the rest of the year. But I always just hashtag. year nine like I'm in year nine. No problem. No problem. You know what I mean?

The U.S. national team. How do you make it? Walker can tell you about, well, you got to be a beast like Walker, first of all. So when does it happen? When does like worlds and all that stuff happen to where the U.S. national team, you know, I guess shows themselves. Is it like every four years? We need to start saying World Cup. Yeah, please.

What am I saying? Do you know what the World Cup is? I know what the World Cup is. My brother is obsessed with FIFA, bro. That dude loves soccer. Yeah, but he loves soccer. Like, he gets some little jerseys and stuff like that. And like, he's all about it.

But yeah, okay, World Cup, my fault. When does the World Cup happen? Every like four years. Okay. So we got it coming up in 2022. Right now we're in qualifying. So the big thing was last cycle for the 2018 World Cup, we didn't qualify. And that process this year looks like there's eight teams.

And you play home and away against every team. Top three will automatically. qualify the fourth will have a playoff against another like region that's the thing the tricky part about it so the region concacalf is north america which is canada the u.s central america which is many different countries yeah no it's paladoor panama Honduras Honduras so Costa rico it is hard to understand yeah for sure So we have eight teams right now that have made the final round of qualifying. We've played six games so far within that.

So we have two more next week, really. We play Mexico and Jamaica. So that'll be eight games in. But right now we're in second in the table for the qualifying process. But yeah, you have 14 games because you have seven home, seven away. We played six already. And you guys are sitting in second place. So right now you're looking to qualify.

Yeah, looking to qualify. So two big games in a week and a half. And then we have basically three at the end of January, early February, and three in March. And then it's done if you're in the top three you're in. You feel good about it? Yeah, feel good about it. It's a real young team. We have a lot of inexperienced in terms of like World Cup qualifiers or even like, you know, World Cup since they missed the last cycle.

Were you part of that? So I was on the bench. You guys missed the last cycle? I'd gotten called into some camps, was on the bench for some qualifiers. but didn't play in any and then you got to play in some of these this cycle

but some of them or all of them some of them played in three out of the six all right captained yeah the captain band

Boston oh you got the captain band so you break down the huddle and everything like that like a Ted Lashow yeah a little speech little stuff just a little speech

believe sign hang the belief sign up hit it boys whatever motivation it takes but we lost one zero so I guess I don't know I guess it wasn't a good night thought. Was that like a cool feeling though?

Like was you like kind of dream of being like captain? Yeah. Yeah. No, it's for sure. Obviously being a part of the national team in general has been a dream come true. Being the captain, another dream come true. I think I told this story like a little while ago on something, some interview. And I like vividly remember a time I was training probably before.

It's probably I was in college in the off season, just training to go back to college. or either before my first year in MLS. And I was like working out the YMCA, local YMCA back home, Snowville, Georgia, Lawrenceville, Georgia. And I was on like the bike. I was doing like little triathlon type training for myself just to stay like really fit.

Yeah. So I was on the last thing. I was on the bike and I was like basically just doing some positive self-talk, you know, like like, like, like, grind. I'm like, I don't even want to just be a part of the national team or the U-20 national team. I want to be on the full national team. I was like, I don't want to be on the full national team.

And remember like that moment of saying like that is, that's the standard that I want to set for myself. It's like not just being there or being a part of it, but like being a key player, being a captain. And so like when I was the captain of that game, it was, it really was like full circle.

I went right back to that place and was like, man, all of the hard work, all of that suffering, like that's how you get to accomplish these kinds of dreams. And so again, we lost the game, which was a bummer,

but I got to keep the band and, I'm going to have that. Less than visualization right there. Yeah. For all the youth, speaking into existence. That's that law of attraction. man so gonna have that band up in the room in the house uh man cave yeah the man cave one day

and uh that'll be a good no i dude i love that bro because it is it always feels corny to talk about yeah because it's really just like you and yourself and you're just coming up with all this shit but no that's that's that's dope that it's cool that it kind of came full circle yeah yeah um it's definitely you know it's not corny you feel that way you're sitting in front of a couple dudes you're like oh this is like i'm vulnerability yeah i know vulnerability dude it's like in real we're I like it. I'm revitalized, by the way. Nice.

How do you balance MLS play with international play? That's, yeah, it's difficult. I would say normally, if it's not World Cup qualifying, if it's just a friendly, it's, I don't really think twice about it. Like, you just come back from the camp. You're with all of one team, but you're excited to be back with your club team

and vice versa. These qualifiers, though, have been different for me, like mentally, like, The first window, we had three games, two were on the road, one was it in home. And I remember I didn't even play a minute. I came back to the team and I was exhausted in Nashville. Like mentally, I think you're so, the importance of the games and like the responsibility that you feel of having to get results. Like it does weigh on you a little bit and you don't realize it until like you finally get back and you're out of it.

And then it's like you finally breathe and you're like, whoa, I'm like, I'm exhausted. Like mentally that was a lot. And so I felt that And then the second time around Obviously played So then you're like physically tired I know at least in our case Nashville we got five days off

During the international break But like if you were on an international break Like with the national team You didn't get any of the days off So like everyone was at the beach Like in New York like in Miami It's just like We enjoy those five days

Yeah it's like CJ's saying you photos I hope you're doing well man No you're looking on Instagram All your boys are like all over the country Like just freaking lounging. Margarita's in hand, poolside, and you're like just on a bus to training, you know, like a normal day.

So that's where like you don't get that mental kind of tune up that after a long MLS season, like you need a couple of breaks here and there to just like really, like it was probably great for everyone to get ready for like the last final push before playoffs. Yeah. Whereas if you're involved with national team, don't get that. But never trade it for the world. Yeah.

You wouldn't want to be anywhere else. What do you guys cling to talking about when you were talking about the lesson that he was given with the vulnerability and stuff like that? What do you guys cling to mentally? Because obviously athletes were training all the time physically. But what do you guys cling to mentally to help kind of keep you from whether you're in a tough mental spot or like overcoming something or just anything in general being a professional soccer player? That's Mr. Namaste. Oh, yeah. For sure.

Me, meditation. Meditation. in yoga yoga obviously also for the mind but just physical keeping the body

elastic obviously playing for 11 years like I got to do everything I can to keep giving me an edge over these younger cats

coming in but the biggest thing is the meditation and I think that comes in many different forms it comes you know

when you're training and you need that extra push you know to get the most out of your workout the ability

to do that on a consistent basis is not easy. It's something that has to be practiced. And I think you see with professional athletes, they're usually guys that mentally are strong. But I think if we can move to vulnerability in that space, then you're, one, going to make sure that you're in the right mindset because we all know it doesn't last forever. You know, I've definitely heard of guys after soccer or any sport.

definitely struggle with, you know, whether it's not, you know, having value to the world or, you know, not having something to take their mind off of, you know, the dark, the deep, dark shit that we all have in our heads because we're human. So for me, yeah, meditation, just kind of increasing my own self-awareness, taking moments to just breathe, you know, and be in silence has definitely helped me a lot. no that's good man i think you know for me a lot of it comes i think for a big faith background so i think when i think about that and the impact it's had on my life and my career it's like wanting to be the best version of yourself and utilize those gifts that you've been blessed with like on and off the field and so i think that kind of framework is a big part of like you know doing every rep in the gym doing every rep outside on the field like not cutting corners because one like you want to be

responsible with what you've been given, but then two, you want to be like, you know, encouraging for your teammates to get the best out of them as well. And so I think we have a really good group in that regard of like guys are trying not to cut corners for the most part. You always have a, you know, a couple cases here and there that you got to get on a little bit. But it's, it's good. It's a really good group. And I think that's kind of what has been a key to our success is guys who take it seriously, like on an individual level to do their work. But then you also have the guys CJ included who will like hold guys accountable

to you know even you know for example the other game like we started out in Cincinnati we're playing the team it's one of the bottom teams in the league and we go down you know to zero and guys are kind of yelling each other on the pitch and CJ's like boy he's like just positive vibes

you know like it would be young each other like for a team here come on a sudden like two goals or however many goals he had later and we went six to three and it's just like you need to need guys who can understand situations and find the right balance of like, you know, feeling

a good pulse of the team. When's the right time to push? When's the right time to bring them together? And so I think, you know, we do a really good job of that. That's awesome. That's really good, especially like when you're talking about awareness and everything else because guys identify with what they do so much. And especially like, you know, guys retire or they get cut when they're not ready to be cut.

They're so, you know, wrapped up and, oh, what do I do now? I've been this my whole life. I'm letting my family down. I'm letting people down around me. And they kind of like lose their own self. Defined by stats, man. That's what led me to meditation, honestly, because I've always been a good teammate, right?

That was placed on me. And like, I always tried to fulfill that. But I was giving aspects of myself to everybody else. And then again, like, ultimately, if I didn't perform, I wasn't on the stat sheet being a four, like, you want to score. So, like, the more games you're not on that score sheet, you're like, oh my gosh, like, I'm the lowest person on this earth. It's crazy that how powerful the human mind is, right?

Because I found myself in that position. I mean, my first three years in the league, I had an Open Cup, which is a domestic tournament that all American professional teams are able to participate in an MLS Cup. So, you know, in the first three years, some guys play a whole career in their don't get that right and yet i found myself the next season like getting down to myself because i didn't score you know enough goals and it was from that dark place for me that i was i literally just went in google and was like how to deal with like depression and it's interesting because meditation always shows up i was scrolling past it bro i'm like meditation what want me to close my

eyes and sit quietly for for what you know i want the quick fix the instant grab which I think that's our problem as people. We don't want the slow and steady route. But all I know is I saw hella Buddha's and people making little stances. The namestay, this is literally my celebration now. You know, and it's an opportunity for me to bring awareness into the sport. And also gratitude. Every time I get a goal, namaste to the fans.

You know, it's definitely, it allows me to tap into a different, different field for sure. I fuck with that. That's awesome. That's awesome. Like the fact that soccer doesn't get as much recognition here, you guys don't get as much recognition here, respect maybe as soccer players as you would in other countries? I don't. I like being able to just go get some ice cream and my sweatpants, no shape up, you know,

and not worry about it because other guys come from other places and then they're telling us like, wait, you guys go out like after you lose a game? We're like, yeah? Why? Like, nah, like we can't do that.

You know, in other countries, I remember Kakah, he's a famous soccer player. I don't know if you know. He's a Brazilian soccer player played in World Cups, won a World Cup. He was talking about in Italy after he lost a game.

he went out with his fan to go get some dinner and like he just happened to look outside and there's fans outside literally burning his jersey and like yelling obscenities at him just out to dinner you know so I don't want none of that I'm fine I'm fine with it and the sport I think eventually we'll get there but by then I'll probably be just chilling watching everybody else You'll probably be a mental leader for a lot of guys. You never know. Hopefully.

You know, is that something you want to do when you get done with it? For sure. For sure. I'm already building towards that. Doing my life coach, I'm getting my life coaching certification. I'm building a digital marketing representation company that focuses on aligning

endorsements with guys' life goals. You know, I think a lot of times, you know, hey, if you're getting paid well, you'll smile for pretty much anything but i just want to get in there with uh players and like again let's project outward what are your interests do you have any financial interest do you want to start a business okay boom get all that understood and then now when we're looking for deals

uh we're coming from that vantage point right we're going to get you deals that are uh tied to you know your life goals so yeah nice dude There you go. Shout out. Shout out social sports. Sorry. No, go ahead. Plug.

Plug. Look, what's that line about? Yeah, no free shoutouts. We just say, like, since you guys are one of the boys, like, if it's a boy, you shout them out, they get free shots. But if it's a brand, you just say no free shoutouts. You're not trying to shout out the brand. But it's coming from him, so he can, you can promote whatever you want to promote, dude.

What is it again? It's all clear now. Social sports. Is there a website? Is there something that people can go check out? Team social sports. com. You got anything?

I'm just going to go check it out. I didn't look at that. I knew it was working on, but I haven't seen the website yet. I appreciate you guys coming on, man. You got to one of you guys got to be somewhere too, right? Yeah, so I'm getting my coaching license through U.S. soccer because you're trying to sell some kids. I don't know if I would be associated with that. But, you know, if we can work out some kickback, no.

Get in the contract, you've got to pave the new way for coaches. So I have a mandatory coaching call at 2 o'clock, and that's just one of those things you've got to do. Yeah, no doubt. It'll allow me to coach college and then hopefully work up and get my A license, but I think college coaching is kind of what I want to end up doing. Nice, man. Well, I appreciate you guys coming on.

Hey, I'm a fan. I need to get to a game. You guys are about to be in the playoffs. Look at me, dude. You're running out of time. I know. That's all right, though. We show up for the playoffs now.

We have one home game left, one regular season game left, one home game, and then we should have a home playoff game as well. So you got like for sure, for sure won 99%, well, strong chance, strong, strong, strong chance that you got a home playoff game to come to as well. Okay, that's where we're focused on. We got to get on board. We'll bring the boys to the game. Hey, that's all saying.

We're bringing the boys, baby. Oh, that's dope. For sure. So our last regular season game is the seventh next Sunday. And then we're thinking. I'm thinking it will be the 23rd of November. It will be the home playoff game if we... Bring your family's Thanksgiving week, dude.

Dude, it's also kind of why I have to get back. I'm doing a Friendsgiving right now, or a Na'besgiving. Got my neighbors over there, and I was like, I'm hosting Thanksgiving for the first time for my family in Nashville. So my grandmother passed away this summer. We always went to Birmingham, my whole mom's side of the family. So this year, new traditions, Zerman household in Nashville. So I got turkey right now on the Trigger that's being smoked.

Oh, wow. Wait, what? A month early? Yeah, because I'm, today is the Navesgiving. It's the trial for me. So I was like, oh, I was going to say, what kind of shit? We got a shit. We're smoking that thing for a week.

I never heard that. No, so I'm trying out. The turkey. Sitting at 80 degrees right now. We've got a few weeks. I got a sweet day to casserole that's in the fridge, squash casserole as well, peanut pot. I made this morning.

So, like, I got my things. Peanut Butter Pie? Yeah. Hey, I need to check that out. I haven't ever heard of that. I love peanut butter. He's looking for an invite. Dude.

I might have to check that out, man. Wow. Good for you, man. Yeah, so I got a lot of work in the kitchen this afternoon as well. All right. I got to love that. I got to follow the boys, man. And then also, you post a picture of that peanut butter pie.

Yeah, of course. Drop it on your story or something. So, you know, we can do it. We can exchange a little bit. Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? Get the recipe? I don't think.

The recipe is so easy, by the way. Don't give it. Don't give it away. Come on. It's a secret. The recipe is a secret recipe. Passed down from generation. My family.

All right. Well, I appreciate you guys, man. This is a lot of fun. This is a lot of fun. This is a lot of fun. Yeah. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence.

Joy, It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Open your free IHeart Radio app. Search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby is presented by CVS. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag,

whoever you root for. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? And it's beautiful. The guys are young and cute and fit. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I like watching it with my dad.

It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernando Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Everyone sees me as a football player, but before anything else, I'm human. Every single day I'm still learning how to live with problems, mistakes, relationships, emotions, ever since I was born.

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