Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #574: Paul McGlynn joins, talks Jack, Tim Weah as a 9-yr-old, MLS academy chaos

Episode Date: March 10, 2025

Paul McGlynn, the father of Jack McGlynn, has been developing soccer talent in New York City (and now western Connecticut) since the beginning of the century. Not only does he have the perspective of a parent of a pro player, he coached Tim Weah from ages 9 to 12, he's in the trenches of the ongoing chaos between MLS academies and youth clubs, and he watches soccer all the time. Great conversation. Highly recommend.MORE DETAIL ON THE ROME TRIP: https://earthlydelights.notion.site/Italia-25-with-Scuffed-1a3f3f1e0145804793e8e83e982168fdThere are still a few slots on the roster: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfp2O1bIr5KNSymt3ayP3ctERCooDo3ADM5Kf_kSHpmr6ITMg/viewform Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Okay, quick note from me, Bells, the Monday review is behind the paywall this week. It should come out later today. Dest is back and getting serenated by the crowd in Einhoven. Pulisic got a brace and a game winner at Leche. Sergeant continues to perform for Norwich. Join the Patreon to guarantee that you get every Monday review with Waki, Vince, and me. The links in the show notes. For the public Monday episode today, we have an interview, and I think it's fantastic.

It's with Jack McGlynn's dad, Paul McGlynn, who, in addition to bringing the candid perspective of a parent of a high-level pro player is a veteran of youth soccer development at the legendary New York City Club BW. Gatchi. We talked about what it was like coaching Tim Wea when he was a child. The time Eric Cantona overstepped his bounds on the sideline of a youth soccer game.

The hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to NYCFC and New York Red Bulls for the McGlynn transferred to Houston, even though he never played a minute in either of those academies. How to engage a disengaged five-year-old in practice? and much, much more.

We really got rolling and went long. Enjoy. Welcome to the Scuff podcast, where we talk about U.S. soccer. Our guest today is a soccer coach who played a part in the development of at least two players with national team caps in the past year. He used to be the academy director at BW. Gatchi, an iconic club in New York. Now he's the technical director at Beechside, an MLS Next Club in Connecticut, and he's also the father of two professional soccer players,

one of them being USMNT goal scorer Jack McGlynn. Paul McGlynn, welcome to scuff. Thank you for your time, sir. Thank you. Glad to be here. Are you left footed? No, I have two left feet. On the dance floor?

Oh, both. No, but my left foot works, but just obviously not at the same level as Jack is known for. Right. Conner's right footed as well, so he has a good left foot, but it's just unusual that when he started playing soccer that everything gravitated over to his left foot. And even at really young age, you could see that, you know, he was just left foot dominant. When did you realize Jack,

when did you realize Jack could strike the ball the way he can strike the ball? It's pretty early, probably around six or seven, because he was always in the park and stuff like that with Connor. So wherever Connor was, Jack was. Connor's five years older. So it became pretty evident pretty quickly that he'd be running around with a ball playing that when Connor's team would be training over in the park. But I mean, even among outstanding professional players,

there aren't very many people who strike the ball the way he does. I mean, there are players much more accomplished in the global game who can't strike a ball like that. It's a very rare ability to the cleanness and the... First of all, I guess, do you agree with that? The rareness of his ball-striking ability? It seems to me exceedingly rare. I don't disagree, but I just...

I think it's at a high level for a left foot of player. But, I mean, if you turn it around and we're looking at a left foot of player, wouldn't you say the same thing about a right-foot-up player? there's many players that can strike the ball at the same level. It's more aesthetically pleased than when you see a left foot of player doing something with the ball as opposed to it's common for a right foot of player. That's kind of the way that I look at it as well. I mean, to me, it's, you know, I've always seen Jack with what he could do with the ball

and stuff like that. I know he's, I still think that there's room for improvement in regards to, you know, it needs to get to the right side as opposed to the ref side as well, because then you become pretty predictable. So like I says, yeah, it's unique, but I just think it's more the fact that it's left footed as opposed to anything else. Yeah, maybe I'm just mesmerized by the aesthetics of it.

That could be it. So about you, you grew up in Ireland, right? Where did you grow up? I grew up on Meath, which is about 30 miles away from Dublin. I know everybody in the United States would know what Dublin is. So, yeah, I mean, Ireland's a little bit different because you have multiple sports over there. And, you know, everybody asks that question about you players. Should you play multiple sports?

Is that any other? What age should you do it up to and all that stuff? Because especially you've been in Connecticut now, you know, where I'm up here now, there's a lot of the kids play multiple sports. And some of them have mispractice. And I'm like, well, you know, that's not. how becoming a higher level player works, especially when you're 15 and 16. So I played a lot of multiple sports.

I played Gaelic football. I played handball. I played soccer. There wasn't anything that I didn't play. I was never in school because every time you had a game, you were dragged out of school. So most of the multiple sports I played up to was about 13, 14, which is kind of, I think that's important.

And then after that, it was more of focus on Gaelic football and soccer. And so then I came over to the United States when I was 18. So I'm a lot longer in the United States than I'm in Ireland. So that tells you how old I am. And my sister was living over here. And I latched on, the first thing was not youth soccer. The first thing I latched on to was obviously an Irish football team and then

a men's team called the New York Irish Ropes. So this was a team that was a very good team that, um, a very good team. there was a lot of ex-pro players, pro players, college players, the team that won the 96th National Championship from St. John's, there was a number of them guys on there. So there was a lot of guys that were offered MLS contracts, but turn them down because back then it was like 25,000 or something, so they decided to go into workforce. So that's the team that I played on. We were very good with regards to what we did, but we are also socially excellent as well. So you came and lived with your sister.

Were you like paid to play soccer and Gaelic football? No, no. We weren't paid, but we were, Gaelic football was kind of paid a little bit, but that kind of was like an under the table kind of a thing. You know what I mean? Sure, yeah. I'm all for it. The soccer wasn't.

The soccer then became into the PDL where you were getting expenses and things like that. So it was a different world back then compared to what it is. A lot of the guys were playing in. the in the Greek leagues, ethnic leagues there. And these were guys that were playing with New York Cosmos, teams like that. And they were getting paid.

So basically you were getting expenses and the players were getting taken care of. But it wasn't, you weren't going to make a living out of it. I see. Okay. And then after a while, I moved to Middle Village in Queens.

And that was directly across the street from where B.W. got you trained. Just by chance? Just by chance. and so what happened is I was over with Connor and Connor was about three or four whatever he was and I was just

kicking the ball around with him and I ran into a gentleman his name is Ben Bowm and anybody in New York knows who Ben is Ben is probably I think he could be about 87 88 right now but one of the sharpest minds you will ever meet

any player that's come through to the club he can tell you their Bertier he's just he is so sharp he became really a mentor to me over the years with regards to soccer development and all that sort of stuff. He's the one that pushed you.

He's the one that always asked you to do more. And he was a guy you could never say no to because of the way that he handled himself and what he did for kids. So yeah, that's when the youth stocker piece started. So he got me involved and then I started obviously doing all my coaching licenses and I coached every group in there

from probably four years of age, up to the under 19 academy team when it was a development academy back then. So, I mean, it's, it's, when you talk about Gatchy, it's kind of, people ask me, well, why did it work? Why was, why were you guys successful, I guess, from a player development and a result perspective? And I'll say it till I'm blue in the face. It's the people, the people that were there, the likes of Ben. And now you've got people like Timon and Miguel and guys that I brought in as Rusty,

and Kevin Daly, all guys I played with. So it's really the people, the people actually care. And it's a lot different in this mess of a youth soccer environment we have today where people are relying this for a job. All of the people at Gatchee, most of them, back then were volunteers. And a lot of them still are. So their motivation obviously is a little bit different than anybody else in, let's say, the youth market today.

So it's a unique close. and I'm still on the board there so I still keep in contact with everybody but it's also when you're there I was there for people always said well you only did it because you're kids no I was there for like four years after my kids were gone and

you know it wears on you a little bit because it's the same thing day and day out you know dealing with the other clubs the parents the expectations things like that and you know been there at the city doing the same thing for over 20 years was a long time.

Yeah. Well, you know, specifically about your kids. I read about, you know, Jack and Connor and maybe you going out on the field and working on skills when they were little kids and getting better. How did they become so motivated to do that, you know? Because a lot of kids don't do that these days. I don't want to sound like an old man, but they don't play for fun outside on their own. And I guess, relatedly, how did you keep them from burning out?

Because I'm thinking soccer is, was, is the family vocation. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny because over in the park, it's called Juniper Park, there was always games going on. I mean, even sometimes in the dark at midnight, you had like taxi drivers that would come and have their own game. You know, yeah, Queens and New York to get infrastructure fields and stuff like that, it's very, very difficult. So, you know, people would get there at all weird times to play. So they would just go over when they were old enough to cross the road, just go over and play on their own.

They always had a ball with them. So to me, my type of player is a player that's comfortable on the ball. And when you look around you today, I'm not too sure that's something that you can say within the youth soccer landscape or even to the national team at this point is every single player secure. and what they do with the ball. So that's the type of player that I like to see. And I always said to him, when you go into the park,

just do it. I wasn't putting down coldens or doing this type of stuff where there's no decision making our stuff. They were just going over doing what they wanted with the ball most of the time. How did, I mean,

was that just natural for them to be interested in it enough to do that? Yeah, I mean, what I mean, I, every day, every weekend. The funny thing is about the United States,

and I don't think we know how lucky we are. There is so much soccer on TV. It's, I mean, every day you have a game, every day. So soccer was always on in the house. So these guys would be sitting down watching it, whatever it is. And then, of course, when you see that and you see players and are aspirational, first thing you want to do is you want to go out as a young kid and mimic what this player done or something like that.

So the good thing is social media, and Instagram and all these silly TikTok videos, whatever was, weren't as prevalent back then as they are now. So it was more that the kids had a park across the street. That was their backyard. And they would just go over and play. And obviously they'd meet their friends or there to be other guys over there. And that's where all the younger teams had got you trained as well.

So it was kind of like an easy transition. And I would run the intermural program over there as well, which is like our youngest youngest players, about four or five to, before they start going into age groups. So that's another thing that I think gosh, years renowned from. It's from the bottom to the top, not the top to the bottom. They call it intramural. Yeah.

So it's like kids that are starting for the first time, kind of, or they're not advanced enough to get onto a travel team at that age, whatever it was. So I started that program, and we got another guy that took it over for me that's doing a great job now. But basically from that intramural program, I would start to understand. seven or under eight teams every year. So the club was always growing from the bottom, as opposed to the opposite way around, where you're allowing on outside players

to come from other clubs to recruit, like what happens in the rest of the country. And those intramural, those four to four, five, six-year-olds, they'd be playing against each other on the weekends. Yeah, everything was a couple of basic skills and free play. Uh-huh. Not rocket science.

Not like the complicated, coaching language where we have today. You weren't running out, running them out there in a 7V7 Christmas tree formation. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. 2.3, 3V3. Yeah. Largest number would be a 4v4. Right.

Beautiful. Simple, stupid. Okay, quick break. We're down to the sharp end of the planning for the trip to Rome in May. Lato Yuva, Roma, Milan, and maybe the Copa Italia final are on the schedule. We're trying to visit an Ultras Clubhouse. for either Roma or Lazio. We'll play pickup around the city and eat well.

We do these trips right. The last one was amazing. If, like Sergenio, you are suddenly available and want to be on the roster, you still can. There was no preliminary roster for this trip. So hit the link in the show notes, or hit me up at scuffpod at gmail.com,

S-C-U-F-F-E-D-P-O-D at gmail.com. And let's get this sorted. We'll be right back with a fascinating discussion of Tim Wea as a youth soccer. player and why he has succeeded. You also coached Tim Wea. Maybe not everybody knows that. What do you remember about a nine-year-old, or I guess you coached him when he was 10, 11?

I think it was 9 to, I think it was about 13 or 14. Then he went to Red Bulls for a couple of months before he made. And they claimed him forever. Oh, yeah. Well, that's what happens. And even in when you go to the showcase events, they have the U.S. national team players and they put. the logo of the team in front.

They put Red Bulls first and got you second. And, you know, I, of course, being me, I reached out to you a soccer and I says, you guys can't be serious. So, but that's, that's the world that we live in today. We can discuss that. We will get into that. But what do you remember about nine-year-old Tim Weyer?

Tim, it was like every other nine-year-olds. He was clumsy, awkward, fall down. you could see the glitticism that he had he was just a kid that came in and fitted in right away now he played I started him off with the 98-99 group Tim's the 2000

so I think Tim was lucky that he played with these groups for the simple reason is they were quite talented there was a lot of good players within these groups that really I think helped him as a player accelerate his development because they were capable of finding him with the ball and stuff like that. So I think that really helped him. When Tim Kipp became like 12-13-ish, he began to struggle a bit with regards to the physicality.

I know everybody thinks that a US national team player does play at Juventus that everything was linear, but no, he had a bumpy road as well and actually moved him down. group to play with the 99, 2000 group. And obviously he, you know, he did really well there. But it wasn't all where okay, because you're George Way of son come in. And in fact, it was everything for Timmy was, it was earned. You know, you could obviously see that he had ability and all that sort of stuff. He used to go to, in the summers, I think he used to go over to Chelsea and Arsenal with his,

with his dad, because obviously I think he had connections, quite good connection. or Chelsea and stuff like that. And I used to always say to his mom, when you get the opportunity, just get him to Europe. That's because, you know, obviously, if you can get into clubs like that, I think that's where he should be at.

And, you know, the rest is history. He's doing really well at Juventus right now. What did you, what could, you know, looking back, what could you see in his game back then? That sort of translates to, well, he, He had pace. He had one ability.

He's not the most technical player of the world. He had a drive. He had a, you know, he had a really good mentality for a young player. We were doing a shooting exercise at one time, and I just remember the ball coming across. And he did this kind of like scissor volley, and he just hit the ball so flush that it zoomed in. And he was about 11 or 12.

And I'm like, you know, you could just see the little stages of his progression that, you know, the ability he was there. But, but he had, like every other player, he had his,

his struggles as well. It's, it's just, you could see that he had a little bit more than everybody else with regards to separation and getting off a shot. And the power from his shot was just different from every other 12 and 13 year olds. Yeah. I mean,

there's times where he would score two goals, three goals. and his times when he wouldn't score. So it was, you know, he just had little factors. And I think I've mentioned this before. Everybody asked me, well, you probably knew he was going to be a pro. I'm like, no. And what about other players that came from your club?

I use the same thing over and over. Alex Ferguson, I go to a lot of parents and say, you know who Alex Ferguson is? And I would say 50% though. Yeah. But then I says, okay, well, I explain who he is. And then I say, he made a comment. that he gave up on predicting who is going to be professional below you 15.

And I kind of lived that mantra myself and that's what I tell parents. But if this guy is good enough to say something like that, you know, me or anybody else certainly is, you know, so that's what I. So when people go, oh, you must have known. And I'm like, no, I mean, listen, there's so many stages. Youth soccer is not senior football. And there's a massive, massive difference. and it usually doesn't translate for a lot of players

as what's the number, 99 point, whatever it is. But like my thing was, you know, Timothy had the opportunity to go overseas. They took the opportunity and, you know, I can't think of too niceer parents that, you know, kind of a sap back and allowed you to do what you do without, because there's times when Timothy was on the bench,

there's times when he didn't play a lot of minutes. So these were the things that were, happening. I mean, you know, we're... You didn't get a phone call from the Liberians Department of State, you know? Never. Never. Okay. In fact, when George came to training, when he was doing all the political stuff,

you know, I would put him in gold sometimes for the kids to shoot the ball on them. You know, kids don't know that, George, they didn't care George Way. I was the 1995 best player in the world. Because they were so fixated on Namar, MSE, the current crop of players that are out there now. Yeah.

that's interesting. Yeah, but like I says, I mean, you know, it's great to see a young player that, you know, and explain to others, it's a bumpy road. You know, becoming a professional soccer player is not as great as everybody thinks it is. There's a lot of things that go with it, like everything else in life.

You know, it's not just straight up and, hey, you've arrived. And, you know, there's levels to everything. The same way as we talk about USL, MLS, then go into Europe, There's stages and levels. And, you know, it's not, it's not an easy track. You just have to have a really, really strong mentality. And I think he has it. Hitting that volley flush like you just described, does, you know, he does hit, like your son, Jack, he hits the ball real clean.

Tim does. Tim Wayne does. Right. Right. But then he gets a red card for the US, you know, kind of like gets scapegoated and then comes back and has a really good performance and a good season. And so that's part of it. You know, a lot of people can't handle that type of stuff. But Demo's got a good mentality, and it also comes from a good upbringing.

Yeah, that's great to hear. So I coach, I coach rec basketball and rec soccer. When I see a kid I used to coach do something, you know, later, like a couple years later, that's good. It's pretty exciting. Like a month ago, a kid that I used to coach in basketball named Connor, coincidentally. I saw him, I was getting ready for to coach my team. next game as he was playing. I saw him make a steal,

fast break, perfect layup, you know, in stride. And I was totally stoked. And I wonder, what's it like for you when you see a player you used to coach? I'm sure you've seen players you used to coach do lots of things. But in one case, with Tim Wea,

he's like scoring a banger in Champions League for Juventus. Right. What's that like? No, no, it's really cool. And that's why, you know, I still keep in contact with his mom. In fact, she sent me a message last week because it was his 25th birthday,

and she just says, thank you. That's good people, the people that don't forget. But remember, Timothy started at Rosdale. People that affected him there. When he came to Gotchi, yes, the people that affected him there. When I moved him down, he had a really good coaching Tommy Flood that really didn't let him, you know, because now you've moved down and you're playing with players the same age,

you know what and you do this that and the other he he kept him disciplined all the time and then when he moved on obviously there's people that so it's nice to play a small part in you know obviously his development and continues and stuff like that and i remember been down at the under set we had a showcase and timothy was playing at the under 17 national team and he he was he was in europe at the time and i sat beside his mom and Timothy come over, whatever it was. And Timothy wasn't starting. There was another player starting ahead of him.

And I won't say the player. But I turn around, I said to her, his mentality is different. Long term, you'll see that he's going to outlast this particular player. Can I guess who the player was? Go ahead. Andrew Carlton? Wow. Pretty good.

And so then. a couple of years later when obviously their pathways are going in a different direction the mother came and she says to me, how did you know that? I just says mentality is different.

Because when I was doing the Academy Directors course, this was a course that we did with all these MLS Academy Directors. One of the modules was a visit to the under 17 residency program. And we were there for a week. I actually went back a second time because I

enjoyed it. Not sure why he ever got rid of that program, but you just could see certain things. And to me, that was just kind of one of the things. And the mom always jokes about that with me, about, you know, how could you see it? And I mean, it's just, this is, it's not rocket science. I didn't tell her that he spent, you know, a week to 10 days at there, they're watching the team and just seeing these little things. So seeing how everybody behaved on. It's, it's behaved, but it's also some people reach plateau. physically and things like that and you're very good when you're young

and again I'm going to say it you players are not professional players and we've got to stop treating him like that when an 18 or 17 year old scores a goal in the MLS once or twice whatever it is that's not longevity that's just a moment and stop all these

social media Twitter academics going that oh he should be playing this guy should be playing oh my god oh my god he's had a couple of good moments, relax. That's the way I look at things. I just felt Timothy long term is the way he was going was just different. All right.

I do want to get into that, the way they ordered the logos next to Timway's name. But before we do that, Jack going to Philadelphia, what was that, what went into that decision back when he ended up at the first? in the Philadelphia system. Right. We'll go through that. I don't really like talking about Jack because I feel it's their journey.

You know what I mean? But I'll kind of tell you a little bit how it's transpired. Jack was over in Liverpool and we went to the Mick Cup and he got an injury. He probably would have went and signed for a Liverpool youth team

when he was 16, but he was out for a couple of months and then I was talking with John Shear, who's the Academy Director now, great guy at Philadelphia Union. And I says, listen, the team jack's on right now. It's the last year. And it's going to plateau.

So he goes, oh, we'd love to happen. So that's basically how it transpired. And there wasn't anything there. As I said again, he was 15. No, he was 15. And there wasn't anything that was, oh, he's going there to be a pro. It's just that I can't get him to this club and that club. and I'm more focused now with certain age groups.

I'm not, you know, I'm all over the place. And my wife is the one that actually makes real money. So, you know, this is this. I can relate. Yeah, this is obviously a passion, but, you know, she's the one with the health insurance and all that other stuff that's kind of important. So that's how it transpired.

So he went down and loved it. And he moved into the residency play. with a woman that takes care of him. She was great. And then he signed pro the next year with the second team, but it was an MLS homegrown contract. And we all know what happened with that recently, with regards to NYCFC and Red Bull getting paid for having absolutely no input in his development. But that's MLS. You can talk about that in a minute. So that's kind of how the whole thing with the union transpired. And it went pretty quick.

It was a pretty quick progression from going from the academy into the second team and then obviously into the first team. So it wasn't like some big galaxy brain scheme of yours. Like we got to send him to Philadelphia. It was just available close by. Well, well, to me, if he was going to go to an MLS club, see, here's what people don't understand. Probably about five, six, seven years ago, Gatchy was as a competitor.

with the MLS clubs as anybody. We were in fact probably better to them at times. Obviously that's changed. The landscape is completely changed. We've been able to bring in players and stuff like that. So now it's clear that the best players

should go there. It's not even a choice. I'll touch on that for second. So, you know, to me, he just kind of needed to move on because he was playing up a year or two and he was doing well there.

and the next age group what I don't think would have helped his development. So that's kind of the way. I mean, I was also, he also could have potentially went to Atlanta. Tony Annen was down there. I was talking to him about it. And John Parry was at Kansas City and he was

wanted to bring him in as well. So Philadelphia to me was, okay, you had an injury, you're two hours away. It's not the end of the world. Whereas somewhere else, you know, it might have been a little bit more difficult. So that was the reason. And to be honest,

would you? One of the visits on that course that we took as well back in the day was the Philadelphia Union. And the infrastructure, the school, and everything that they did for the kids was top-notch. The only thing that I disagreed with was the soccer, the way they played. And obviously a lot of people that know me know that, you know, that's not what I like to see. So to me, it was also a good learning curve for Jack that he had to adapt to a different playing. style as opposed to a more possession-based been on the ball all the time type of a type of a game yeah talk more about that please because he you know jack had to play jack had to run around a lot in philadelphia and right so i mean listen i'm only the first person to say i'm grateful

there's really good people there still good people there and i'm grateful that they gave him the opportunity uh yes the way that they play is obviously it's been well documented that it doesn't fit him stylistically. But, you know, when you have to learn how to work hard off the ball, it adds another component to your game, whether you're physically capable or not, but it at least tells you that outside of possession, you also have to work. So back when Jack was playing with, let's say, Agaachi or the US-Ust national team, we usually had the ball.

So it wasn't something that was a huge component apart from, you know, in transition. So it, you know, obviously it was a difficult transition for him, but I think it was a good one. But the problem with then is that if you have two or three players that don't work because they got big price tags on them and you're the scapegoat and stuff like that with a couple of other players, you're the one that gets exposed. And so it became, it became, listen, it became difficult

and I understand his frustrations at time, but he also helped him grow as a player. So then what happened was everybody asked me, well, what was the deal? Why is he not in Europe and things like that? And I'm going to say the opportunities were there. He wanted to go to Europe. He still wants to go to Europe.

They turned down an offer in the summer and they turned down two offers because the MLS offer from Houston was higher because of the big sell-on that's there. And that's the reality. So they wanted over $3 million for them outright. The European market, currently not worth 3 million, which

I kind of agree with it. But that's just me. But like I says, is that the opportunity was there and Philadelphia Union did a business. It was a business decision. And I don't hold any grudges against him. Of course, I would like him

there. But listen, he's going to have to learn in Houston as well. They're going to have a learning curve after losing quite a few of their top players. So now he's got show some leadership quality. So these are all the things that I mentioned in the beginning that it's a bumpy road.

And the same thing happens for Connor, it's the same thing. He's at a new club now. So it's not all roses and all that kind of stuff, roses and chocolates or whatever you want to say. It's more about, you know, can you adapt to what you're given? Yeah.

And that's coaching too. Yeah, I'm sure. So the early returns for Houston are that, I mean, they did lose both of their first two games, but he's touching the ball a lot more. I noticed that. The first game I thought he was very good. I probably thought he was the best player on the field. The second game, he was crap. That seems a little harsh, dad.

Yeah, I know. But that's the reality of the situation. I believe in crap as in the standard of the first game. Okay. You understand what I mean? Yeah. So if I'm not honest with him, who is going to be honest with him? His coach?

No, his coach will put him on the bench. That's honesty. But if I don't, if I'm not the one that's still engaged, and I mean, he'll tell me, you know, he'll give me this happen, that happened, that happened. Because we talk primarily every day, but I'm going to tell him straight to him. And I do this with every single player from five or six, I'll tell them the truth. and I just think that it's very, very important. I'd rather tell people the truth than these people that tell them what they want to hear.

And it's the same thing with parents. So I'm talking about you play this way this first time, then your level's drop. Why? Okay, so it has to be the same standard. So it's not to be, he'll tell me to go run and jump as well. You know, he's 21 now. He's not like 14 or 15 anymore where you could actually, you know, he'd listen. to you, you know what I mean?

But it's, it's, there's evidence there. That's what, that's what I tell. Yeah. I mean, he did have the giveaway for the first goal, which I think probably factors into your assessment of his performance against. Well, he should never have been there in the first place and he should never have gotten that ball. So there's all these little details.

It's kind of like the time when Philadelphia Union, when Bales scored a goal, you remember in the 100 and whatever it was. Yeah. They blamed all the wrong players. they blame Paxton for missing and they blame Beizzo but they didn't blame the three defenders that should have been in the box that if one guy was a little deeper the other guy sees bail and the other guy marks I mean this is what I'm talking about so

that doesn't bother me because that's going to happen you know what I mean but like I says is it's the circumstances around it his fault was why are you coming back so deep to get that ball Yeah, I see. Right. I mean, but he is, I mean, it's at least a 20, maybe 30%, 40% increase in touches. Right.

But the flip, the flip side to what, this is the good part. He always wanted the ball after that. The point I'm trying to make is a lot of people will shy away. And I mean, especially are you players today, they make a mistake. And I don't think the mistake is so much on him as somebody else, but they make a mistake. They just don't want the ball on you. more. And that's the players that you kind of have to work with and develop. So I'm proud of the fact that he continued to demand the ball, want the ball, and try and do things to help the team.

How do you tell a five-year-old the truth about their performance? What would you say to a five-year-old? I mean, what is even the type of thing he would say? It's more about getting there. When I coach five-year-olds, I'm a clown. Yeah. But they, and all the games you play revolve around them having the ball. If there's somewhere else without having the ball, then you just kind of have to remind them in a funny kind of way. You can't be like, you know, discipline to a five-year-olds. Right.

So it all revolves around them, been on the ball all the time. If there's somewhere else, then it's different. There's things you can do, like having their drinks with you as opposed to with their parents. You know, there's little nuances that you can do. them always having because they're looking at their parents all the time. Yeah. Especially a five-year-old.

Putting in an environment where they can only be focused has in 1B-1s, 2-2s. You know, I do little games where like a truck and a tray and a one-fought, you make it down to their level. If you can't get down to your level, it's going to be very difficult and frustrating for you as a coach. But then you come to a pro team and you have these guys that are brands now, you know,

it's all Instagram and, advertising and I'm this, that, and the other, if, if you can't understand them as people, well, then you're going to struggle with them also. Yeah. So there's a spectrum. But I'm going to say this, and I look at it is, I've been coaching for, what, 25 years now? I made so many mistakes. And that's the thing.

And you're coaching an under-rate rec team. You know how it is to keep their attention. So, but guess what? In a couple of years' time, you'll be like, okay, I got this now. So to me, it was times where I'm like, what am I doing? I'm messing up so much. But the more time you spend on the grass or on the court, the easier it will be calm. And that's the way I look at things.

So for me, like right now, I've got there's two new coaches in the club and I'm letting him do my sessions or whatever it is. And they're trying to impress as coaches. And I'm like, no, don't worry about that. Do the players understand? you understand. I get that. You've gone through your coaching licenses and all that sort of stuff. You understand how to put on a session. What do your players understand? So that's the thing. So that five year old you mentioned is, is that kid coming back for the next training session? Are they having fun? Are they touching the ball? All of them things. I don't talk about other people and what they do wrong and stuff like that because everybody's giving up the time and everybody's trying or whatever it is. And everybody goes, oh, I go around and they watch all these coach is going and they're doing this wrong and they're doing that wrong. Okay, you go do it.

You know? Coaching, coaching is not easy. Stride into the arena, you know. Exactly. Just jump in there and see how you do. I'm coaching a U6 and a U8 team right now and just started first practice last night. And I'm going to, this is kind of self-indulgent of me, but I'm going to ask you some advice.

So there's one boy, a new kid on our U-6 team. Most of the kids are returning players from last fall, but one of the kids, one of the new kids, we play a lot of sharks and minnows, you know, sharks and he's at the point, he's very early in the season, first practice, where he just kicks his ball out of bounds because he wants to be a shark, you know? How do I get him to want to be a minnow, you know? Get him to stay on the ball. So what I tell players at that age, it says, you know, a lot of them don't even.

know who, but they have all heard of Messi. So I talk to him, I says, well, how does Messi touch the ball? Does he take big steps or does he take little touches with the ball and keeps it close to his feet? And then you could talk to them about, well, do you have a best friend or whatever it is? Your best friend is your ball. Why? Because you want to keep it close to you. You don't want to, you know, kick it away or whatever you want to do. There's little nuances

that you have to do. And then things like, you know, having them follow somebody for a ball at their feet, or if it's basketball, bouncing the ball. There's all of these little things, but guess what? It comes with trial and error. You know what I mean? Of course they want to get the ball and boot it as far as they can and things like that. But, you know, make him the guy that just wants to keep the ball out of his feet all the time.

Your best friend, Messi does this. You want to play like Messi, don't you? Yeah. You know, but Messi doesn't kick the ball over there. He keeps it at his feet and then he gets close to the goal and then he kills everybody and scores. You know, there's little nuances that you can do. with regards to this. And it's also the kids' first session,

so you're going to have them. It's going to be, you know, a lot of trial and error. Yeah. We'll be all right. But at this point, he's like, he doesn't even want the ball. He wants to be the one chasing the other people with the ball. But we'll figure it out.

So, hey, let's talk about this thing with MLS because they're, they're creating some chaos. They're claiming credit for developing players. They don't develop. And then they're creating chaos. right now. Can you kind of describe the landscape? I'll just touch in Jack's situation and I'll let it go.

Both Red Bulls and NYCFC have received money in the past because of homegrown rights and they also received a staggering amount of money for this recent transfer. Jack has never played a minute or trained a minute for NYCFC. They've maintained that they've reached out, whatever it is, who cares? BW. Gachi has gotten nothing. Zero. zero. How many years did he spend at BW. Gatchi? 12, 13? From 4 to 15. So are there also in the, I mean, obviously, Gatchi King will probably now go through the FIFA training compensation laws and see what they can do. But, you know, I reached out to both clubs and I says, you know, maybe we'd be nice to do the right thing, but they are protecting themselves with the MLS rules. So, I mean, there's no. Where's the outrage over this?

There is none. But it is what it is and you move on. And my thing is like, you know, who the hell am I to be saying something like this? I'm just Jack Stad. But I've also been involved a lot in the youth developing in the Northeast for the last 20 years. And when the Development Academy folded, we were forming our own league of all the Northeast clubs. But then MLS came flying in and says, hey, we're going to save you. and they come in

and I gotta be honest with you I don't blame MLS because it's smart business they're protected by rules but there's nobody out there to compete with them there's nobody out there to say anything there's nobody else that has any cajones to go against them

because guess what you will get scapegoated I mean I don't have a job in the US soccer at the national teams even though I'm probably more qualified or I know a lot of people that are more qualified than a lot of people because you know I will

say what's on my mind. I will tell the truth. I don't know, I don't know any other way. So that's what's going on there. They're taking money from clubs that actually need it for doing nothing. Yeah. So, so just so people don't have to Google it, like what's the ballpark figures for what they're getting for that from for Jack's. I think I believe the last, the last transfer, I think they both got $400,000 each. Something like that. And something in and before. and stuff like that. And listen, they're well within the rights to do this

because it is the rules. Yeah. Okay, so I'm not complaining about that. I'm just complaining about, hey, what about this? What about this club? What about that club? I only know most of the clubs in the Northeast.

Like, we have clubs like, let's say Cedar Stars, FC Westchester, beachside, or whatever they are, they all are feeding all of these players to these clubs. Yeah, talk more about,

that? There is nothing in return. Nothing. They have a new rule now if a kid signs a homegrown contract, you'll get 10 grand and something on future appearances. So that's their way of saying, hey, be quiet, we're giving you something. But at the end of the day, what's the likelihood of a kid signing a homegrown contract? Seriously, NYCFC and Red Bulls both each got 400 grand. Something like that, yeah. Something like it. 20% each. And by the way, that it's not 2.1 million. and there's more in there that they're going to be getting a part of as well. Yeah, and I'd be honest,

I wish I didn't know this stuff, but I was, you know, it's just, again, I'd rather be a dad that watches this kid play and just the coach, the coaches, instead of having to, I mean, I was involved in the whole thing. Yeah, but you're a participant in the ecosystem. I mean, you're not just the dad. Right, well, well, think about this for a second.

So here's the thing. We're talking about how MLS is this and whatever it is. or bring promotion and relegation. Everybody's talking about that, but they're not talking about the real problems, which is the whole bottom. The whole youth landscape is that it's the Wild Wild West. I'll give you an example.

Since I came to Beechside, there's been requests for 12 players to go train with one club. There's been an request from another club for six and another club for two. When you say club, you mean MLS franchise. MLS and actually a club that's going to be common. supposedly becoming an MLS Next Pro club

as requesting players as well. They talk about their scouting apartment. This one club asked for a player that has a torn ACL and hasn't even played in six months. So what kind of scouting are you doing? But again, so the crux of the problem is, I'm going to say it again, there's two major issues. One is there is no need for MLS academies below U-15.

All of the clubs I mentioned and everywhere around the country, is feeding all the players to these clubs. What is, at U12, U13, U14, do you know what to turnover rate when these kids become a U-15 player in MLS Academy? You know what the turnover rate is? I don't know what you mean by turnover rate. So you know how many kids that started under 12

will be there at under 15. I don't know. What is it? I would say it would be in the region of around 40%, 50%, 50% tops. Okay. So what are we doing? We're miss scouting these kids because they're pretty dominant at 12 and 13. And like, it's mind-blowing to me.

So now we have this landscape where all of these clubs are getting contacted by these scouting departments to bring in players during their competitive season. And then the parents always want this, right? Of course they do. And I don't blame the parents because they're looking, my son's going to become a pro. Right. Okay.

And I don't blame the parents, but, well, I don't blame the clubs because it's the rules. So what I'm trying to say is that is they go on these trips, like let's say, U-13, they go over to Europe or wherever it is. And they spend $50,000, $100,000. Don't you think that money could be used for a club like a Gatchie or a Westchester or a beachside to help them cut down the costs they have within their club? Yes. Because they have passed on the players.

So my thing is that at, wait, what's the $50 or $100,000 for? So let's say they go on a trip at under 13 to England. Like we had a player just went with NYCFC to a U15 trip to or U14 trip to England at cost at least $50,000, let's say. Yeah. All right, imagine using that money and giving to it a club that now we've passed on that player to you, okay, help us do something to improve. the club. Whatever that is, whatever it is, that would be up to the club. So what I'm trying to say

is that at U-15, if everybody knows as a country that the best players are going to the MLS Academy at 15, everybody knows where they stand. But if you're getting emails during the season, every club is getting this, that I want this 13-year-old and 14-year-old because we got a curriculum and we got this garbage, whatever it is, nonsense that they come up with, and we want them in now, it's completely counterproductive. It creates resentment and nobody wants to work with each other. And you have people that sit behind a desk that's not on the field dictating these rules. So at least if there's something where it says at U-15, all the best players are in the MLS academies,

don't you think that the development in this country will be so much. much better. The best will be playing with the best at 15, okay, and against each other. And then don't you think that's going to have a trickle on effect to the, to the second team, the first team, eventually, hopefully to the U.S. national team. Because really it's, because really it's not in MLS's interest to spend a lot of money on players who aren't. It's ridiculous. That good, yeah. So what's the lowest? But guess what? They are all their players.

you understand they own the rights to all of these players. Because of the territorial rules? Well, the territorial rules kind of going away now. It's more this protected list that they have. They can protect nine players outside of whatever it is. So nobody else can take them. Like, for example, the two best players, I coach the under 13 and under 14 team here.

They're good teams, nothing exceptional. But the two best players have a ready sign to go to, MLS Academies next season. And I'm completely fine with that because they want them in the spring and I said, no, I says let them finish house their season. But it will be so much better if that happened a year later. And everybody, everybody was on the same page.

Yeah, we can work within our club. We don't have to worry about four players gone at 13 and four players gone at 14 and five players gone at 12. at 15, if these kids are still good, you know what, maybe they'll select two because they're just looking at the best players now. The other missing link is training compensation. So if I'm going to pass on to players to you, okay,

how do you help me replace that player? So if, let's say my two best players, okay, I pass them on at you 15, great. So maybe between 15 and 17, you pay each club a nominal fee, whatever it is, 5,000, whatever it is, like they do in the rest of the world. The rest of the world. Do you know what that's going to do then? What?

If people are actually going to have to scout correctly and they're going to have to do the right thing. Because if you have to pay a club money, you're going to have to justify why you're doing it. Now it's the Wild Wall West. I can just invite players whenever I want. invite in six players here, two players here, nobody cares. But if you have to get your scouting right, you're going to be less selective in who you invite in, and you're going to do better work. Would training competition kick in even if a player just... It should be between 12 and 16. I believe that's, it's 11 and 15 or 12 and 16, I believe anywhere else in the world. So like in England,

for example, a cat one player, I think it's something in the region of around 30,000. Just to sign a player from another club. And that doesn't mean they're going to become a pro. I see. But even if it was a nominal gesture of, let's say, 5,000 a year or 10,000, whatever it was, these clubs can afford it because that player is going to be on a pro pathway that they believe. Right. They're not just going to take in a player to fill a roster spot.

I mean, isn't there some like a legal case to be made in the international, I don't know, FIFA court, whatever that is? that for this you know I believe there is now I mean there wasn't in the past but I believe there's grounds for it now I don't want to say something I'm not not aware of because

I tell the club you have to find somebody that deals with this and that's what I told Gatchi to do so let's let's see what happens with that I have I can't be involved in that so it's completely up to them so the in the lowest age group for the MLS Academy's

is what U12 right now yeah Okay. But if you had your druthers, if you had your druthers, it'd be U15 is the lowest that the MLS academies go and then they just treat the clubs in a more respectful and sort of. And here's the thing. It would be reciprocation because the club would want the players to go. Yeah.

You understand what I mean? Because now they've identified that, hey, and I'll give you an example, NYCFC did a really good job when they started their academy first. they spent almost two years putting that team together. It started at 14. And on that team was Justin Hock, James Sands, and Gio Rainer. I remember that team. Right.

So what I'm saying is they're now at U12 and U11, which is, you know, again, counterproductive. But that's how they started their academy. So again, isn't the goal to get these players to the first team? That's what MLS Academy is supposed to be, not to win on the 13 and on the 14 games. So that's the way. These two things, and nobody speaks out again, and the clubs are afraid as well,

because if they lose playing against the MLS clubs, they lose a little bit of their credibility, and they'll lose some of their customer base. I see. If they lose games to the MLS Academy? Oh, no, no. What I'm saying is if, let's say everybody, I asked a long time ago,

don't we just do our own league? Okay? And you can fill in games with the MLS teams when you want. Almost everybody but two clubs agreed. They were afraid that if they pulled away from the MLS, that what happened was, is that they would lose a lot of their customer base, their players. Oh, the parents wouldn't think it's as good.

Correct. Correct. Well, meanwhile, only so many players can play in the MLS teams. they need a place to play. And if the level was still as good with regards to the teams that were in the Northeast, I'm talking about the clubs I just mentioned, it would make no difference.

The only thing is you wouldn't be playing all the time, the MLS. And they're doing it anyway in two age groups. So they have their own pro-pathway age groups where they don't play the non-MLS clubs. So, yeah, I mean, to me, the youth soccer environment is, it's insane and nobody is challenging it. And like I says, you know, I know a couple of people that would, but when it comes down to it,

a lot of people simply don't have the cagones to speak out against it. Well, the sad truth is U.S. soccer doesn't have the, um, correct. To do it. Correct. Which, uh, or maybe they just don't even pay attention. Like, I don't know. Well, they,

they folded the development academy like it was no big deal. And then it was like, you know, what next, you know? So obviously it was kind of. kind of like, all right, we know MLS will come in here, even though they've never said it, because they're going to capture all the players. Yeah. But my thing is, the player development, I think, would be a lot more accelerated if you allowed clubs to do what they do, because at the end of day, they're the ones that's feeding these MLS academies with players.

Of course. Yeah. So if you allow them to do what they do, and everybody was on the same page, everybody. So, again, not just filling roster spots, not just fill them. filling kids hopes at 12 that, you know, you're going to be in the club when you're 18 and sign a pro contract, I would rather the kids have some struggles, you know, and things like that at these younger age groups, so they're more equipped when they get a little bit older. Well, I mean, if you're not, I mean, that is where all of the actual development happens or much of the most important development happens before 12.

Yeah, because here's the thing. So we have to reward those clubs who are doing that. Yeah, but they're not. That's the thing. So where's the motivation? I mean, I've come back here into the soccer space again. I was with a pro team for a year and a half. And the pro team, despite the league, been a bit of a mess.

It was so much, I don't know, it's just different. Now I'm like, I'm dealing with, you know, having to leave kids at home, parents upset, things like that, you know, kids upset. So some of the wrong things are done that you have to try and fix all the time. That if there was a set way of doing things, I'm not saying a structured way because what I like about a club like Beachside and Gatchy and things like that, when the kids are younger, they're not just playing there.

They're playing everywhere else. They're playing in the park. They're playing whatever. It's not so much in the park. But they're playing in other teams. They're playing futsal. They're doing all of these things that, you know, we kind of allow the freedom for them to do.

And that's part of the development as well, because at 15 or 14, they're a completely different player than they wear at 9, 10 and 11. So it's frustrating that nobody can, I don't know, I could be 100% wrong and I'm sure many people will disagree with me because they think that you've got to get in early and you've got to specialize early. I just feel that if some people would come out

and speak out against this and do the right thing that things may change. And I think that trickles all the way up to the national team. Look at our national team right now. We talked about this briefly last. Really, really good players. Really good players. But no special players.

I mean, Christian is Pulisich is probably as close to, you know, what everybody's talking about as a world-class player. Our midfielders are all the same. ball winners ground covers very very good but there's no there's no

Zavi in there when you look at a country like Uruguay there's no Suarez you know there's no I mean well we probably have more players playing

anywhere in the world youth soccer why is this why is it we don't have the culture we don't have the culture that's my answer why

not enough people love the sport right What do you think? What do you think is the reason? I think a lot of our ethnicities come over here and they become Americanized. So if you go to, let's say, a Club America game, I remember going to Club America playing Philadelphia Union in the Conquer Calf thing that they play in.

And it was 80% Club America fans. There were people were selling Club America shirts. outside of Philadelphia Union game. I'm like, see, that's culture. Yeah. That's culture. But what I'm also trying to say is that when you get to an MLS Academy at 12-13,

are you programmed, do you become robotic? Are you just running the same patterns all the time? You're a good player. But if you go watch a lot of Academy games today, the one thing I think is missing is there's a lack of game awareness, a lack of decision making by the player. It's go 100 miles an hour. And I know everybody goes,

oh, America's just builds on big, fast and strong. I don't necessarily, I think it's part of it. But I also think is that we don't teach kids body shape, decision making. Things like that are really important in Spain and these other countries. We don't have our own identity because 10 years ago we brought in Dutch educators. so let's play like the Dutch. Five years ago we brought in some guys from France. Now MLS is all doing their French courts and all that.

So let's play like these guys. But where is our own identity? Look at our coaches where they come from. You know, you have an accent you can coach. You know, that type of thing. And I'm making fun of myself when I say that. But what I'm trying to say is when I go, I'll watch any type of soccer game.

to say I'm obsessed might be you know a little bit yeah no it's probably correct no when I go and I watch and I watch game video and things like that I watch the same things over and over again where is that special player that from 12 that's now at 15 that's now whatever it is and you know I talk about you know people go and they talk about jack's deficiencies as a player with regards to this I think it's getting better but I don't think you've anybody that passes the ball like him in the pool, even though that he's on the outside looking in. You've got guys that are really good,

like Tyler and Al-Kadoza that's playing really well and things like that. But they're not guys that's going to unlock the fences with line-splitting passes and things like that. You know, our number nines are not a crazy person like Suarez that's just going to pounce on everything. We don't have a guy that can, I mean, obviously, Gio's a very good player and he gets a lot of flack for what's going on right now. But you know what? If you can't get him the ball to do whatever. So there's a lot of things that kind of as a player pool, the national team, you know, I think that we could and should be better.

Does that mean getting kids to Europe earlier at 15 and 16? I don't know because I know probably 100 kids that's gone to Europe and they've just fallen by the wayside. We only talk about the Christians and the GOs and these guys, but we don't talk about the ones that have failed that weren't ready. Yeah, there's no quick fix for this. We're talking to generation. I just, I don't, I don't, I don't agree with people that say that we haven't improved. We have, I think are you players are a lot better.

I just think that they can be a lot better. And that goes with fixing the stuff at the bottom that I think will try. translate further up the up the pyramid. Right, right. Yeah, I think, I think just to answer your question about who's special, I don't know that anybody is on,

their imagination is on fire the way Jacks is, when you, I mean, at least appears to be when he's playing soccer. But Wes, Wes, McKenny will hit a line-breaking pass, you know,

he's a, he's an underrated passer, I think. And, you know, Gio, like you mentioned. For Weston,

I think he's more a mentality guy. a workhorse, yes, he'll make a pass, but I just don't think he's consistent in it. He's a little inconsistent, yeah,

but he's pretty imaginative. And that's not enough. Because, listen, he's proved everybody wrong, right? People keep knocking him down and he just comes back.

I mean, people don't even understand how specially he is in the air. So there's, there's a lot of things. I'm just talking about that guy that keeps the flow going of the game

that settles it down when you need to. Because, and I get it. it, listen, we know what Jack's deficiencies are, can he play at that speed of game against an Argentine or something like that?

I don't know, but you're never going to know until he get thrown into the fire, are you? You know, criticize it when it actually happens. Not something that you're looking at, that you have no clue what you're talking about. I hope it gets called up in a couple weeks. I don't know. I don't know if he

is or not, but... No, I don't know. I wouldn't expect it because you have a lot of the guys in Europe that's doing well, but if it happens, it's good. If it doesn't, he just got to keep working, right? It's just the way that it is. But, you know, we talk about, you know, Timothy and we talk about all these other guys, but we have, we have smaller countries that are, like a Croatia that has a moderate and things like that. And I know we can go and say it's culture, but I still think that if we change the bottom, you will see a lot of amazing young players coming through. Yeah. I really feel that way.

you know, stop with the complicated language and make it about them. I always say this. It says players make debuts, coaches don't. You know? And that's important because there is enough players playing here. I'm just wondering, are they in the right environments? I do look for the day when soccer really takes hold, you know, throughout like the heartland of America, where it's a sport that fathers and mothers pass down to their children in places like Oklahoma.

Because you look at all the great athletes or a lot of them in American history. Michael Jordan from Wilmington, North Carolina, you know, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, the baseball grades. They're all from small towns until it reaches the hinterland. Right. Where's Serena Williams from? Where is she from? New York. I think it's Compton, no?

Oh, is she from L.A.? Yeah. I thought she was from Compton. I'm pretty sure I've seen that in the movie. Okay. So like I says, there's, you know, I feel there's, we start at the bottom, you know, let's see what happens from there. But I really feel that there's a lot of talent out there and everybody goes, well, if basketball players were playing soccer and vice fair and all this other stuff, you know. Okay, so how do we get these people?

players into the game. And I know the next thing is going to be pay to play, right? You know, that's killing. People can't afford it and stuff like that. Well, how do you pay for fields? How do you pay for insurance? How do you pay for coaches? How do you pay for all these stuff?

There has to be some sort of a passed-on cost. But I will tell you this. I don't think a club like Gatchie or these other clubs, I've never seen anybody turn away anybody because of finances. So I think that that, That myth has got to go away. I just think that we have to do a better job at the younger levels in working together and make it stop putting kids on a pedestal at 12 and 13 and allow them to be uncomfortable

with being uncomfortable. Well, if I'm hearing you right, MLS needs to be a good faith participant in the, in like the larger project of... Right, but as I says, who am I to be coming out talking about? it's not me it needs to be me plus all of the other clubs that are upset with the way that they do things

coming out and saying something are actually doing something about it and I gave two solutions the other solution is because we can all complain and bitch and moan they're doing what they want and they're well within the rights to do it it's a business model and you got to

it it's working for them you know what if you created your own environment where hey we don't need you, we'll get to you when we need you, you know, then I think that that's the direction people should go, but that's just a personal opinion. I think it's the opinion of a lot of people that just don't have the balls to come out and say it. Well, hope that changes. No, I will love it because it. And that also helps, like your, your coaching rec right now, that also helps the rec programs because let's say a club benefits from helping MLS. That

club then should help the rec program by whatever coaching education and whatever it is even you know feels things like that so it has a trickle-on effect that people don't realize and just it can't just be a money grab for one and everybody else is like oh okay there's nothing we can do about it yeah there's some people doing the right things out there i mean like chat i'm in the chattanooga area chattanooga tnc right chattanooga fc the which is i'm I guess now an MLS Next Pro Club. They kind of capitulated and joined that structure. But anyway, they do help.

They help the rec associations around here. I just, out of the goodness of their hearts, you know. It's funny. I went when I was coaching the Nisa team, the pro team, we played Chattanooga. We went there. Fans were great. Yeah, it's a pretty nice atmosphere. It was hilarious.

They were ripping on us the whole game. That's cool. Well, that's, I mean, they've created their own little culture. Yeah. You know, and it's one club in that league that's, I imagine having tons of them clubs. I know. So now they have to start an academy, right? I think they're starting an academy or maybe they have one.

They definitely have an academy. Right. It's kind of expensive, you know, and it's expensive. It's difficult. But like I says, you know what? Starting at rec and intramural and stuff like that, it's not that expensive. And then you see the situation from there because. Look, everybody goes, all the problems are paid to play.

The problem is everybody wants to win. I mean, there are two problems that I think are a cop-out. Okay, of course you want to win. Who doesn't want to win a game? When you coach, you're on the rate team, you tell them to go out and lose? I know, but it's about development. No, it's about having standards within winning the game.

That's what it's about. If you're a coach at 12 and 10, and I see it all the time where you take off a striker and put on the defender where you're winning the game won nothing, then that's not development. That's trying to win the game. But if you stick within what you wanted to do and continue to play,

and as you says, we have a lot of really good people. A lot of really good people in this industry. It's just that, you know, some of us, some of it gets tarnished by just silly stuff. You know what I mean? That's somewhat avoidable.

Yeah. A lot of really good people. Unfortunately, Don Garber and his goons aren't among that group. I'm saying that, not you. No, no, no, we're part of the problem for allowing that to happen. That's the way I look at it. You know, and as you says, they control you a soccer, things like that.

You're more privy to that. You know, that's your kind of forte. I mean, I'm just reading the, I'm just reading the, you know, of publicly available information. And it doesn't seem that complicated, you know. Right. But as you know, you're speaking again. Where is the rest of the guys like you? You know, you've all these MLS beatwriters that write that they can do nothing wrong.

There's nobody comes out and speaks about how archaic the rules is. Like, listen, Jack's happy in Houston. He had no choice to go there. He found out basically, and he was on a plane 24 hours later. So they don't care about the player. you understand what I'm saying so well it's the same thing that happens to the basketball player in Dallas

he didn't have a say in that and who's the person's affected the player because monetarily he's affected but both both players aware things like that that's a whole other story but again there's no there's nobody especially the guys that write for MLS

and the people to do this type of stuff they don't come out and criticize well you know this maybe would have been a better way or this not in the other. This rule is archaic or whatever it is. They don't really care about the person. They just care about the business, you know?

I think there's a certain element of like donkey hoity about it, you know, where you just, how much do you just keep yelling about MLS, you know, at least from the beat writer. I'm just to defend the beat writers a little bit, you know, and they got to keep it interesting. Right. It's not all just fear of losing. Retribution. Whatever.

Yeah. Right. Right. No, I get it. Listen, people are trying to protect their jobs. It's the same as we talk about guys that play soccer. Well, why do you play that way? Well, you know, because, you know, we don't play from the back because I want the team, the other teams have because we want to win the game so I can keep my job.

You know, but if anybody went to that guy and says, well, that's not the style of play we want to play. You know, this is the world that we live in today. like when Agachi, it's weird because I talked about the people. I never ever said anything to anybody for losing a game. Okay, I says if you lose a game and you're just booting the ball up the field and you're not helping the kids develop, then it's a conversation. But the thing about Gatchie was, and you talk about all these good players that come out where they're, you know, people don't realize you had, you know, six or seven guys playing in the MLS right now

that came true there. Weren't always there, but they were there for more. equate a player that if you're at a club more than two years, okay, you can at least say that the player was at your club. If you were only there for 60 minutes, don't mention them. That's kind of the way that I look at a player.

Two years is a lifetime for a kid. It is. But if you're doing the right thing, you know, kids are going to stay at your club. If you're not, they're going to leave. That's just the way that it is. I mean, you have kids that are notorious for going from one club to the other.

And you know the way when you're now, in tryout season, well, it's coming up and you're going to get information from players and they list like eight clubs. That's like at 14. That's a red flag. You know what I mean? Yeah, why? But that's huge soccer for you.

So it's interesting and I don't want to go off on a tangent here. But when I went to Gank, they had a young academy director. He was about 38. So that's young for an academy director. And most of the people were volunteers. He had an under 12 coach, and I watched this session. The guy was there for 25 years coaching the same age group. The session was excellent.

It was excellent. He was a school teacher, a volunteer. I'm like, so how would you keep a guy motivated? He's a guy that can turn around. Well, I'm a volunteer. You know what? If I get there, I get there. I'm kind of given my time.

That's the mentality of a lot of volunteers today. Whereas this guy was like, no, this is my passion. Where do you find people like that? So he said one thing. it kind of stuck to me. He says, I have to go out of my way to make sure

that the coaches in my club are happy and that I show them that I'm leading by example and I will go pick up this, I will get this goal here, I will have equipment here, I will do whatever it is

to make sure that they're happy. And that's kind of the way that I look at a club like Archie and Biteside and these other clubs. That's what you have to do. That's where Ben Baum came in. It's the weirdest thing You just mentioned that

Because you play an under-eight game And your game is over five minutes You got a phone call To ask how did everything go He'd ask you the result It wasn't about the result It was only years later It came to my mind

Because back then you're going Why does he keep calling me at the end of the game Because you could have been, you know frustrated, you could have been happy You could have been whatever it was It was just to show that he cared that was massive to me massive to me

and by the way when I came into Gochi I increased the teams from probably about 10, 12 up to about 30 including girls

so that was 30 phone calls every weekend it might be 15 over Saturday 15 over Sunday but it always happened just to show that he cared yeah that's cool yeah it's it's really cool

And he wasn't a guy that was talking about playing at half spaces. He wasn't a guy that was talking about make play predictable or all of this coaching jargon that goes on today. He was a guy that was simple. Blue shirt to blue shirt, close the field. Very, very simple. Very simple stuff. It was up to the player kind of from them to do what he had to do on the field. So when you go back and you've gone through all of this stuff and you watch all of the soccer that's going on.

on today and the various systems, the way the guy is struggling at Man United today that's setting his way, the way the Tottenham guy is set in his way. Sometimes it's, you've got to look at the players that you have and, you know, swallow the ego a little bit as well.

Are they capable of doing that? Same thing with your six-year-old. You know what? Sometimes you've got to say, well, how am I going to keep this kid on the ball? Yeah. Yeah, keeping them engaged. Yeah.

Oh, that's the key. Yeah. That's the key. Remember, it's about them. Yeah. Hey, I got to go line some, I got to go line some more fields. There you go. Seriously.

Got to put the circles in the boxes, the goal boxes on. I believe you. I have a, I have a 1230 call, and then I'm going to look at a building two new futsal courts up here. So I'm going to look them there. I might invest in the business. Nice. So, yeah, so again, I believe in futsal very much.

So Mickey Cadiz, who's the founder of Beachside, a guy that convinced me to come here for the time I'm going to be here. he hates football. So it's kind of like this is what I love. It was the same thing with Gatchy. The way I'm having a conversation with you now is like the coaches there were guys I played with

and they would have no problem telling me to go run and jump if they didn't agree with it. That's the difference. It's not you're up here and they're there. It's about what actually works for the club and the players. And that's, it's not the same way at Beachside. because it's more Mickey,

but I mean, the guys that I brought in to Gotchi, still there, all have not full-time coaches, players I played with, but really, really, how would you say,

dominant personalities that, you know, you have to know how to manage it. You can't get in an argument with them because you won't win, that type of way. You have to kind of structure it a different way.

So that's a big part of, that's the big part of dealing with Jack and Connor too and players like that, professional players. Like, a funny, quick story I'll give you and then I know we got to go because when we affiliated with the New York Cosmos, Eric Cantona came to my game. So I was coaching a U-12 team,

which was the 98th, which was Timothy's team. Timothy was playing. And we were playing another 13, it was the first time we were playing 11 v-11. So we were on the big field, 12 we're playing 9b-9. So we're playing against a team that was a pretty good team that was much stronger in us physically.

But we were better with the ball. So Eric comes over, whatever it was, Gio was introducing Gio Savarez. He brought him over and, you know, for the kids, this was great, you know, whatever it was. So he comes over anyway and we start playing. Kids are doing well. We go up one another. Instead he comes over whenever he was, he starts, hey, he starts telling the players to move. Yeah, well, I'm like, what the hell is this?

guy doing. So he's asking the number nine to come in as a false nine like he did set the ball, play the ball to the wingers and try and go to go. It's all right. So like we had a good player. Timothy was playing on the wing, I think, and number

nine, whatever it was. So he comes in, sets the ball, kicks the ball, lose the ball, they go down and transition and they score. The kids weren't capable of coveing the ground. You know, it's 11 v. And the distance between the wingers and the fullbacks was really, really big.

So they were going at us 2V1 the other way. They go and they score again. So it's 2-1. So halftime comes, whatever it was. I'm like, hey, Eric, we ain't playing this way. Ain't happening. Thanks. No thanks.

So we went back and we played the way that we were playing and we won the game 4-3. But it's not that. But what I'm trying to say is that, you know, we're getting involved by celebrities and all this stuff. they're human beings. Just because you were a great player doesn't mean that you can coach you players.

That's why I have a lot of admiration for people, especially to get into the weeds with the grassroots kids. You know, like yourself, now that's with six and eight-year-old wreck players. So it's another funny story of kind of like the history of things that have gone on through the years at the club.

And I just found it like, you know, that he wanted the team to play the way he played as a professional, which doesn't work like that. Right. Well, if you talk to any educator and like the guy in Gink, the volunteer who had been there 25 years, I mean, it's a totally different skill set, right?

I mean, coaching is, it's its own thing. And probably different. But you know, the thing about the session, the thing about the session was that he did, it was, it was simplistic, but it was engaged, it was demanding. It was all the things that I talk about

when we do some coaching education stuff, is it was really a, high level session. And they were very good 12 year olds. So, you know, but I'm just saying is, it just amazed me that he's doing this for 25 years in the same age room. That's a volunteer. Yeah, the discipline and passion. But what I mean by volunteered, he probably wasn't getting the wage, but he was probably getting other expenses or whatever it was. Like he probably gets the tickets to the pro team. Things like that. Only fair. Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, the perks. But,

You know, I was just really impressed with the way that they dealt with the, and the parents, you know, I mean, it's funny because when Jack was 12, I took him and Paxton Erinson to Mondolito in Spain. And it was great. I mean, we had, you know, there was a big disparity between the level of the kids back then. And we did really well. But what was interesting was, I went and I watched a Gladico Madrid play, you 14, you 15.

I watched Barcelona to play. Liverpool play. We play Liverpool. I watched Vasco de Gamma to play. And the one thing that stood out was how passionate they were. And they did all of the little things really well. What I mean by that is their first touch, our game awareness. And I think that's what's lacking here that we don't do enough of this.

Their body shape was always in a position to play forward. So when people say to me, so what are we missing? and well, you know, we're all about the physical and stuff like that. Yeah, but are you showing these kids the right things on the field when you train them? You know, there's all these rules about, you know, you shouldn't interrupt training and stuff like that. But what if the kid is making the same mistake over and over? You're impeding his development by not at least identifying that and showing him.

You can pull him aside. You don't have to stop the whole team training. So, you know, there's a difference between the kids. that are 12, 13, and 40. Yes, we can compete with them. And you know the national teams do really, really well. And they, you know, they beat a lot of the national teams. But I think it all seems to catch up when you have to make decision-making on the pressure

with regards to their first touch and things like that, the weight of the pass. It just seems effortless. And it's not rainbows or doing bicycle kicks or anything that you kind of think that you would expect from the reality. Madrid's and the Barcelona's, it's the basics that they do really, really well. Yeah, receiving across the body. Yeah, that was eye-opening for me with regards to these teams. Like, at the Metcop, I went off my own and I watched, I think it was a Galatigo,

Madrid's U-6 teams play a team from, top team from Norway. I don't know what the name of the go, but it was the top academy there. And just, there was just two kids in the midfield. And they just ran the show. For Norway? For the Norwegian? No, for the... It was just...

It was just different. You know what I mean? They just ran the game. It doesn't mean you're going to win, but to me that's what's pleasing on the eye. Of course, yeah. Hey, we better go. Yeah.

Paul, thank you so much for doing this. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.