Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 149: Interview with Chris Clark, Caden's dad

Episode Date: November 20, 2020

Chris Clark, the father of 17-year-old prospect Caden Clark, joins the pod. Caden, an attacking midfielder for New York Red Bulls, probably made as much noise as any young player in MLS this season when he came on and scored two goals in his first two appearances. The Clark family lives in Minnesota. 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.

Welcome to the Scuffed podcast. I'm Adam Bells in Minneapolis. With me is Greg Velasquez in Des Moines. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Thanks for downloading this episode of Scuffed. Our guest today is Chris Clark, the father of 17-year-old prospect, Caden Clark, who probably made as much noise as any young player in Major League Soccer this season when he came on and scored two goals in his first two appearances for New York Red Bulls.

The Clark family lives in Minnesota, suburban Minneapolis. Chris, thanks for joining the podcast. Oh, thanks for having me. I look forward to speaking to you and sharing our experience with Caden. Yeah, I appreciate it. So when you saw Caden wriggle loose at the top of the box and uncork that left-footed cracker to equalize against Toronto, walk me through what you were feeling that night?

Well, I wasn't even for sure that he couldn't believe he hit it and then saw it bounce in and hit with such a hard strike and get here at strike because there's no one in the crowd. I was just in awe that he was. able to move so freely and just make that little adjustment over to the left. And then he was able to one touch hit it with the shape of his foot and that he was in a correct athletic position to really absorb the force of that ball and to put it back into his foot and then back into the net.

So we were just elated and excited and just couldn't believe he hit that in his first game. It was just a joy to see. Yeah, I bet. I bet. I mean, there are goals, young players score goals. almost every weekend in Major League Soccer, but there are not often goals like that. That's a big-time goal, you know?

Yeah, it really was in the way that he hit it and under the pressure that they were under. It was such a nice thing to see, and his composure and ability to hit it was just reaffirming all the hard work that he has put in and the confidence he's built up in a few years that he's been playing at a higher level It was just a joy.

Just couldn't be more excited. So what's your and your wife's soccer background? Did either of you play when you were younger or now? No, we never played soccer. I never played soccer as an athlete, nor did my wife. We are both athletes and I was a professional athlete. I grew up in Indiana, and they are primarily a basketball player and a football player, but had a very big cardiovascular engine and was also a very good runner,

but really never pursued that in high school. And then for whatever reasons, I had a college scholarship to go play at Bill andova, but that just did not work out for me. And so then I set out for a couple of years and didn't go to school. And then I started running just to stay fit and stay healthy. And then I started doing really, really well as a runner and got myself at the most salineal level. And then I walked on at Indiana University and a cross-country and track and field team end up getting a scholarship there and doing quite well with that. And I pursued a degree in physiology and biochemistry. and really enjoyed movement and I grew up on a farm and really, you know, felt value in

physical work and felt the well-being of that and enjoyed that aspect of movement and getting to share that with others. So that's why I got into a degree in physiology. But for Kaden and his sister Addison, who is just two years older, we picked soccer at an early age because it could really build on coordination, teamwork, and the big gross motor movements. And any other sport at that young age was really hard to allow kids to have success like that. So we picked that sport for them, even though we did not play that sport. So what age did Caden start playing soccer? Caden started playing at three with his sister on her team,

just for fun. And then we quickly noticed right away his coordination and his ability to run and his ability to lift his head. And from there, it just took off. And then at age five, he started playing some rec league. And then immediately after that, after an interview, Caden just shared with somebody out in New York, he got moved right up into a competitive league about at U-9 level, even though he was like five years old. And he just took off from there in Minnesota.

Yeah, he ended up playing at the Minnesota Thunder Academy for several years, right? Yeah, so we started out in Minnesota Thunder Academy just from a rec standpoint. and then moved up into the competitive market there for a while. And then we moved him around a little bit in Minnesota, just because we needed to get him with the right coach in the right environment. But they ended up back at MTA with Mark Ewell, Jackson Yule's dad. And then Ralph Aucale, who was McQuelae and Monsongo's dad, and then also Rob Zoll.

And all those guys were just great for Caden. MTA plays a really fluid game, and it's really good for center mids, and it's good for learning the game of soccer and creativity. and more of expression of the game and touch and control. And what I loved about MTA was they were never worried about the win. They were worried about the development of the player and of their soccer IQ. So they took a lot of heat from parents and from the local area because oftentimes they got beat rather severely,

but they were more interested in letting the kids learn the game and solve problems. And I think you can see that in Caden to this day. Yeah. Yeah, you can kind of, you can see it in Jackson too. He's, oh, for sure, Jackson. Yeah. Jackson does a grade at the 6th and really does disperse the ball well. And he looks so calm, doesn't even look like he's working.

And Mark Ewell and Ralph always talked about to Caden and to all the players who are at that level. The importance of you be more mentally tired than you are physically tired. When did you realize that maybe Caden could be a professional soccer player? I mean, when did that thought kind of come into your mind? Well, we discovered that at age 13. Caden had the opportunity. He went and tried out at U.S. soccer club at the ID2 program that goes over and plays in the Mediterranean International Club called the Mick.

And so I had Caden try out for that when he was at Minnesota Thunder Academy. And immediately, when he went over to Europe, he really soared there and took off. And we wanted to go there because we always heard, you know, we always heard that Caden was really a talented player. but we really had no really exposure into it in Minnesota because you just don't have that exposure. So for him to go over and play in the Mediterranean International Cup against Barsa, German teams, Italian teams, French teams, and that he did so well. Then we suddenly realized that not only was Cadying competitive, but he was actually one of the better players there.

And Barsa, LaMessia, approached me there and asked me if Caden had a European passport. And we said, well, his mother, Stacey, his family is from Europe, but we don't know that for his fact. And I said, well, if he does, we would like to have Caden come to LaMessia. And then they said, but we're starting an academy in Casa Grande, Arizona, and we would like for Caden to go for trial. So in that summer when we got back in the spring, he finished out his MTA season. And then July 5th, actually, we went down for trial. and it was just a great scenario. And we could see that Caden could really excel there

because of possession style game just like MTA and the fact that they would be playing on the West Coast and a higher level division in the DA at that time and to get more exposure and with the opportunity to get to go to La Masia every year and play with that academy was just reaffirming that we should make that move. It took us a while to make that move, to be honest with you. It was really hard for me to like that.

go because I still train Caden. I would supplement Caden's training on a daily basis because of my background. And I wanted to make sure that that could continue. And selfishly, I was struggling because, you know, Caden and I were best friends and still our best friends to this day. And, you know, it was hard for me to let him go, but I knew it was the right thing. And then when Caden went, it was just nothing but a positive experience. I got to go down there once to twice a week or month and it continued to train with Caden.

And then Caden just got more exposure. get to play against really strong academy teams on the West Coast, plus get to play against Galaxy, San Josequakes, Vancouver, Toronto, all those teams as well. And he did really well there. So we noticed at 13, he had the potential to become a professional player. And we really try to call it more. We want Caden to be an accomplished player.

We really talk a lot about that. And that's why we talk about his vision and soccer IQ and not just his physical aspects. We really haven't, you know, he just had a big growth as of recently. After his goal in Atlanta, I scored that, you know, that one touch hit with his right foot.

We came to New York to visit Caden because my wife and I also do fitness videos and we had to leave the country to go film. We got back two weeks later and I'm walking with Caden side by side and he grew. I'm like, oh my gosh, Katie, and you just grew again. And so we really worked,

have been working mainly on his soccer IQ, his touch, his rhythm of the game, his balancing coordination, trying to get his center of mass because he continues to grow low. And then also his mental speed. We oftentimes work with him mentally as well as I do with all my athletes that you have to slow your mind down but maintain pace. And then oftentimes we talk about to be fast, you have to have control. And when you have control, you just naturally get faster.

So we work on all those pieces with C8, on a continuous basis. We also try to work a lot on his mobility, and particularly every hips. And with this recent growth spurt, he's really lacking a little bit of mobility. So when his off-season comes, we'll come back and work on a lot of hip mobility. And then his ability to de-accelerate and then have that ability to then accelerate as well. So we have some work to do for sure because of his age and really spend these next few months preparing his body for that next big push of a long full season which is going to be coming up for kane next year i want to get into some of that stuff about the training but but first did you ever

have to move did your family ever have to move to accommodate his his career like you it sounds like you guys did not move to arizona he just went by himself yeah that was that was a blessing so we did not have to relocate our family because i own a fitness facility here in minnesota and we have a big reputation here. So Caden, that's it. That is a residency. And that's what really, really also made us really keen on that experience is the residency there at Barsat, Casa Grande. That facility is amazing. He used to be the San Francisco Giant Spring Training Center. And for a while, Real Salt Lake had their academy there. So it's really tucked about 20, 30 minutes south of Phoenix in an area called Casa Grande, which is just nothing but that soccer,

complex. So that's all there is there to do. And they have the dormitories. They have a restaurant. And they also have a hotel on site. So we could just fly in, take a 30-minute drive. We would stay on campus and we would get all those extra sessions in. So we never had to move. The education was really good. They use ASU prep, which is the Cambridge curriculum out of Cambridge, England, and it was quite demanding. And it was really a dream of a very fortunate. to have found that because my daughter, Addy, had his same chances to go and do something great like that, but there was no residency for her to go. The women's national coach called the club that she was at and asked to have Addy moved up and they were unwilling to do it because they didn't

want to upset the parents. So to have this opportunity to have a residency for Kaden and for us to remain here in Minneapolis and continue our business. Yet with a chance for us to come in and still train Kaden was just a dream come true. And so we were lucky. and very blessed at the same time to have found Barsa there at Casa Grande. What's Caden's reaction when you give him a list of things to work on? Is he like, oh, come on, dad, or is he like, yeah, let's get after it. We got to do this. Like, how do you, how does he respond to that kind of stuff?

Yeah, well, all of that, because he's been around it and his entire life. And I train so many professional athletes and those guys talk to Caden a lot as well and talk to them about, you know, really to survive it because it's a long season. You have to be mentally crisp. You have to be healthy. And you have to do that extra supplemental work to maintain your career. So he's been good with it. However, I have to pick and choose my battles because of all the stresses he has on his body,

physically and mentally, and stresses, stress and accumulates. So he does have those moments when he really doesn't want to do some of the things for sure. because he's physically and mentally tired. So, you know, we have to be careful as to what we load him with and what that expectation is. But Caden still today, even though he's playing on first-team soccer with New York Red Bulls, will still supplement his training. He gets stretched twice a week.

He's a physical therapist once a week. He goes out and touches the ball and works on turning with the half-turn, works on his speed, works on getting his head up. We work on all those things. change the direction and all those things. So he's good with it. He does good. He gets it.

How do you train him on like mental, I forget the exact words he used, but like mental acuity, mental sharpness? Yeah, mental speed. So what we do is we put him, you know, what we do is you put him in situations, he has to solve problems. And the more he has to solve those problems

and deal with them. And we talk a lot about not being, not being afraid to lose the ball, being willing to play on the edge and almost lose it, but with the knowledge that you can get, back. We have many, many conversations about that. And we also, also, a lot of times when you think about someone like me, for a lack of a better word, they call a strength coach is which I

absolutely hate. I'm not into making my player as big as they can or as fast as they can. My responsibility to the player and to the team is to make them players who can actually play the style of play that they're looking to play. And that is also physical and mental. So what we work on there is we really try to say, sometimes I have you go really slow. and with control comes speed. And so sometimes when a player goes through a drill like that, they want to do it a thousand miles and I have to prove how fast they are. And that's not what we're about with what we do.

To be able to accelerate, you have to be able to de-accelerate. De-acceleration is when you absorb force. And so when I can teach Caden how to de-accelerate and then have what we call the first step, and we work on the one, which is first step, the three-step, the five-step, and the seven-step acceleration, Now, and you put it into a soccer and scenario I also do is for hockey and basketball and football. Now you're starting to really be a comprehensive performance coach for that player and then for that team.

So it doesn't do any, me, any good to make Caden the fastest, strongest player out there if he can't play the game and play it in the style that they're asking him to play. So that's why I try to go watch and we do a lot of film with Caden and I watch a lot of Caden and have a lot of conversations with Caden about decision making in that moment. And we call a hundredth of a second an opportunity and a tenth a lifetime. And I know it sounds crazy when you talk these things, but with repetition and conversation and repeating these process, it becomes second nature. Like we call it a golden touch. So what we work on a lot is when Kaden, like when he received that ball, that left foot shot, he was scanning. He was checking his shoulder and his vision. And he got that ball in a half turn and he turned, right?

And then that player almost got him on top and it looked like he almost fell, but that's athleticism, mobility and hip stability and strength because that guy jumped on his back. He's still bent his knees, stayed in a game ready position, took that one more touch and hit it. So that's all preface off of one luck. And then two, having that resolve to know that you can almost lose the ball, but you can get it back and you can stay in athletic position and still make that hit. And we encourage Caden to lose the ball. We encourage Caden to take shots. We encourage Caden to take chances because we know that you're going to fail more times than you'll succeed.

And we really are looking for Caden not to have that fear in him when he plays. plays the game, but rather that he has the joy in him, that he was willing to try and make something happen for the team. Speaking of joy. Yeah, it totally makes sense. Let me ask a question from a listener. Steve Copera asks, how do you keep, how did you keep soccer fun for Kaden? I mean, I guess particularly when he was younger, because he says games are already super

intense for my kid at age 10. Burnout is a concern. So how did you keep it fun for him? well we kept a fun because we had i always had him playing with a lot of his friends and then i would train a lot of his friends together so he is always in that environment with his friends and his buddies and that's how we kept it fun and um we that's that's what we did and we never worry really worried about burnout um because we really that's what we did it for a living and we love it and it just came across with our passion.

But when you could see when they really didn't want to get out on the pitch and go and do the drills and do the work, we would not do that. We would just let them have that time for rest and allow that body to recover. So I'm not probably answering it in the way that he wants me to answer it, but it's observing and seeing how they respond to the stimulus of the training and can they handle that load. So that's the hard piece and that's really the difficult piece. I also use long-term athletic development model, L-T-A-D. And so even with Caden at 17 versus a 10-year-old,

Caden still doesn't have frontal low development. Now, he should be very, very consistent in his play. But he'll still have inconsistent moments and really make bad choices because of his cognitive ability at 17. So when I look at that, when I follow that L-C-ID model, it's kind of a guide for me. and now allows me to have that leeway to have discretion and what I'm going to choose to talk about and criticize, reinforce, support, correct, and then move forward off of.

Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. So at a 10-year-old, what you want to do there is now they're at 10 for them. Now they're less about the ball than they're now learning a little bit about more movement. Up to the age of 10, a player identifies himself as a ball. and the ball is them. And that's why you see that hurting of Kat's ability. So that's why it's really good to work on technical touch at that time a lot

because they can identify with that. Between the ages of 9-11, now they're starting to play to space, can I get the space? And when you start to add that vocabulary and experience into it, I think that's what keeps it engaging and reinforcing that behavior. And then we also had Caden play a lot of positions. Is he still playing? He's really playing on the right wing.

And his true position, I would say, would be an eight or a ten. You know, I think Caden is best there. So we also encouraged him to play a lot of different positions in growing up. Okay. I hope that helps. Yeah, it does. So after Barsa, after the Barsa Academy, if I'm not mistaken, his next stop was the Red Bulls, right? Is that correct?

Well, not quite. Yeah. So Cade had to, Sean McAfee, who is now. out Red Bulls and the Academy Director was when Caden was 15, when he's first year there, Sean was the U-17 coach as well as the Academy Director. And Sean really took a liking to Caden and moved Caden up and let Caden play and the playoffs and really contributes to that team. And then when Caden was 16, 15, they moved him up to the Uniting team.

And Sean again moved him up. And then he went to San Diego playing a D.A. And he scored three goals and three games. and that's when every European scout in the world came up to me and said, oh my gosh, your son is a European player. He's not an American player. You can see his movement, his turn, his vision, where he wants to be on the pitch, how he gets the ball to the proper space.

He can chip. He can do a through ball. He can check his shoulder. He knows a half turn. And so from there, Wolfsburg offered, wanted us to come on trial that summer. So we went there, but we also went to Philadelphia Union. We went to Portland Timbers and a bunch of other MLS academies because they were recruiting Caden. And they called Sean and said, hey, we would like to maybe sign Caden to a contract.

And so Sean goes, I think you guys need to go out. I think Caden is ready. I think he needs to explore his options, even though he had two more years at Barsa. And that's what I liked about Sean so much. So then Kaden went to Wolfsburg on trial, which was a really great experience to see what that was like and how Kaden did. And that was a great experience. And everybody that liked Kaden would like to have signed Kaden. But at that same time, Sean took the Academy Director position at New York Red Bulls.

And Sean called me and says, listen, I think you need to go to LifeSake since you're there and go and see the facility and go on trial. I've already talked to them about you and that you're there. And so we all went to Leipzig and went to trial. And the sporting director and the head of player development were there. And it just went great. This would have been like the summer of 2018, fall of 2018? Yeah. And that's when it just took off.

And so Tyler was there. And so we spent about a week there. And Caden showed very well. and they were very excited for Caden. So they sat down with us and talked to us further about what they thought would be a good pathway, just like Wolfsburg did, what would be a good pathway for Caden. And we think that Caden has the ability to play in Europe. And we would like to, you know, show you how we would go about that for Caden.

Wolfsburg did the same thing. And while we were there, there was so many scouts because Caden played in a bunch of friendlies at Wolfburg that next thing I know I'm getting, and we didn't have an agent at that time I'm getting all these phone calls. Caden come on trial. Well, we were so, we had already been there almost four weeks, and so we had to get back for work,

so we couldn't get to every one of those clubs for trial. So that really, really, we really liked what both those clubs had to say, but in particular we liked what Bread Bowl offer had because there was a pathway from the United States to Europe without a big transfer fee. And we thought that was probably the best move.

Philadelphia Union, you know, Ernst Tanner, also liked Caden a lot. And we really liked Philadelphia Union with what they do and how they go about it. And the Residence Academy was second to none, in my opinion. And the owners, we met with the owners, and they were so positive about, you know, Caden's pathway and what Caden could do for them. and what they could do for Caden. And I also really, really liked Philadelphia Union because of the way they spoke in that regard and treated Caden as a human being, not just a transfer fee or winning games.

And I also liked Red Bull Leipzig and New York Red Bulls because of that same conversation. So from there, Caden went back to Barsa and played. And at the same time, we were still going to Portland Timbers, Minnesota United, and then we, Caden got an official offer at LaMessia and Barcelona. And Caden was their first player ever out of the United States to be, to be given an offer from their academy. And it was really quite an honor and quite thrilling because they were, they were very excited for Caden. And, you know, Barsa, LaMessia is more about tradition and of their tradition. And they're very, when you go there, it's all about their tradition.

not only possession and all the things that the way they go about how they develop players, which is just to me more important than anything, but what I took away from that is about their tradition. And they're kind of like the grandfather of clubs, the best club in the world, of course, but they were honoring their tradition. And it was great. It was a great experience.

And Caden had already been there four times, so he knew what to expect. They just wanted Caden to go back for another year at Barsick. Casa Grande and Caden really felt stifled by that decision

and then after that year which would be this year now he would be at Barso now they would make a decision to bring him to Europe because he would be 18

and it would actually have to be in July June of next year because Caden 17 June of next year they would bring him over because they don't have a mechanism

for him to play first team soccer in the United States so you know and they gave a really nice offer and so you know we're letting Caden talk us through it and that's the good thing about his you know

getting to do this at a young age is that he's really grown up to be a young man and he's really discerning his decision of course Stacey and myself were sitting there in Barcelona thinking oh my gosh they just gave you an offer and Cade goes I don't want to take it dad and I'm like what and Stacy and I're looking

and he's like like Caden this is Barcelona I mean like what and he goes dad they don't they don't bring players up from the academy at that time. They buy players. And I maybe would like to go there later in my life if I'm good enough and I can be acquired by them.

But I want to go to a club that develops players. And I was like so blown away by his maturity on that. Even though my gut didn't want him to do that. I was like really, really excited for Caden that he was that discerning and really could talk to us at that level at 16. So we, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so he went back to Barsa. Yeah, very smart kid.

And so it's good. And so we went back to Barsa. And by that time now, Portland had called and we really liked Portland as well. Rob Zoll from MTA was there. And we got to meet the owners and they were very supportive of Caden and Caden maturity. And then also Minnesota United called. And so we came here in Minnesota. And Caden spent about seven days here.

And I really like Adrian a lot. And they were very great to Caden. And I really liked Bill the owner. We met several times. and they were very disappointed that, of course, that they didn't see and find out about Caden at an earlier age. And they took that upon themselves to say, you know, that's our fault. And we'd like to sign Caden as well.

And I said, well, you know, is this a first team offer? And he said, well, we'd like to send him to Madison and play for a little bit to see where he's made of. And I said, well, guys, I think Caden's already got offers to go to Europe now. And for you guys, and then how would you get him to Europe? I said, so if you're going to do this, if we're going to do this here in Minnesota, which would be good for Minnesota and it could be good for Caden. I need to understand how you're going to get Caden to Europe.

And Caden said, yes, I would like to come here too because of my hometown, but how can you help me get to Europe? And that was a fair question. And they did necessarily have the right answer at that time. And I think, and I don't fall to Minnesota United at all, because Adrian had a lot on his plate and he's done great with getting his first team to where it's at today and even last year, and that he's still building his system of academy,

his system of development. They don't have a second team on facility. So a lot of players play here during the week, and then they drive over to Madison. And we just didn't think that was a solution for Caden at this time. And we didn't want to have Caden be the experiment where we needed to see a proven track record, which in our opinion was New York Red Bulls.

And with Sean McAfee being there, and with Chessie Marshall, what he's doing at Salisburg, and then what Red Bull Leveseague is doing. We really felt that was the best place for Caden to go, even though it's not necessarily a possession-style game. But they did tell Caden, you know, a kid like you will let Caden break the rules because Caden could be as a creative, soft touch,

can move the ball, has vision, and me are looking for players like that. So that really resonated with myself and then also Caden. And then with Sean being there as kind of a sounding board, and Sean looking after Caden was good. And then the other fact the matter is that he signed a second team contract because Minnesota United is still owned his rights.

And Minnesota United was unwilling to relinquish his rights when we first signed, when Caden first signed in February. So what was Minnesota United's response when you guys asked how they were going to help him get to Europe? Yeah. So, you know, Adrian, of course, played at Spain, at Español, and then they also played, I think, at Everton is where he played out. And he goes, well, I know some people there. I can make those contacts there for you, Chris.

And we would certainly love to have a kid transfer to Europe and for us to be recognized as that. But they didn't have a really definitive pathway in answer. And that was their answer. And I'm not saying it was a bad answer. It's just they haven't had a kid like that. Because they're still just trying to build a solid core of first team players. I see. And I think that was an unfortunate thing on everyone's part. It just happened too quickly for here in Minnesota. But thank goodness that we didn't have any opportunity to play here at the academy

because when Caden was at that age, they decided to have the 04s, not 03s play at the academy. So there was no opportunity here whatsoever. But they still own Caden's territorial rights from the MLS legal system. standpoint from their rules. So Caden, to play in MLS, they had to sell his rights to New York Red Bulls. And the idea behind it was Caden was going to play some time here for the second team and see how it goes. And from there, there was other avenues that approach.

It could be New York Red Bulls. It could be Leipzig. It could be Salzburg and I also have Brazil. So Caden had a lot of options from that standpoint. So we felt that was the best decision possible because of their global network and their global reach for soccer. Is it part of the understanding that he will end up at R.B. Leipzig? I mean, is that it's not guaranteed or how does that work?

Really, you really can't speak to that just because they've asked us not to speak to that. Okay. And so right now what we're trying to do is have Caden really focus. focusing on become an accomplished player here and to get to play first team soccer in the United States, which was just an awesome experience for Caden from the moment he was brought up to that team. They've been open and welcoming and the veterans there and the coaches have been just so supportive of Caden and excited for Caden that we as a family have just really talked to Caden and just

really wanting Caden to really impact that team at any level he can, whether it be in practice you know, scoring those goals. And he's really, you know, he's a playmaker more than he's a goal score. Right. So that was really crazy for him to really come out there and hit a bang like that. So we're hoping that he can really contribute

in the playoffs here for them and then also have a full season next year with them and really, you know, dive in and have a full, full strong year of contributing to the final third of the game for New York Red Bulls. our home. Okay. How do you, you know, I've talked to other parents in not exactly your same situation, but in, you know, sort of in the same ballpark. And it, it, it has occurred to me how stressful it can be to be, you know, feeling all these calls from all these different clubs and

trying to figure out the right decision to make for your, for your child and your family. How do you manage all that? And how, like, who do you trust? Who do you talk to? Yeah. So, what I do and I'm fortunate because I train so I've been on so many professional teams as a coach and watching players how they respond to it as I go and I watch the style of play. I watch how they behave, how the coaches behave on the pitch. I watch how the physials work in the locker room. I look at the nutrition. I watch all those behaviors to see how that environment is for a player.

and how it is an environment for the coaches and what are they trying to do there. So my approach is I have that experience to know not to get just look at the fancy buildings and the fancy record is how are they developing these players and how are they making them survive that season. So I look at all those pieces, film, nutrition, training, recovery, you know, how they, what's the locker room look like? In all in Europe, the locker rooms are really sparse.

Lockeruns are really fancy in the United States. I thought that was kind of interesting. And I look at the culture. And does Caden fit into that culture? So the New York Red Bulls locker room first team is one of the best locker rooms Caden has ever experienced. And he's so excited because of that locker room. And he has so much fun in that locker room

because those players are so supportive of each other, even though they're fighting for those 11 positions. So I look for that experience as much as I look for the pathway. How are you going to develop that player? Does that help you? Yes. Yeah. I guess I wonder how, you know, somebody who isn't, you said you deal with a lot of

pro athletes and other sports. Which sports do you deal? Yes, I've worked. I've worked in Minnesota of the Vikings, Minnesota, the Timberwolves. I've worked for a bunch of different NBA teams as well. Okay. So when you go into the locker rooms and you see this, this behavior and how how the players interact within that culture and how the coaches are

interacting with the players and then how the trainers are interacting together you can get a vibe of what's really taking place there and I think that is really important for the success of the player and then the and then the willingness to allow a player to grow and you know have have conversation and dialogue I think is also important so as a parent you know when you're going to these facilities, you know, we had the same thing with Addy, our daughter. We probably went to 20, top division one schools, and they all have the same amenities, right? So then you need to really be looking at, does Caden or does Addie or the kid fit the coach, or does the coach fit the kid? And then what is, I think, it's just as important. What is the style of play? Can your son or daughter

fit into that style of play. I train a kid who's really, really a talented player here from Minnesota that didn't fit into a style play at one university and he barely got any minutes. And so finally after a year or two, we talked and said, you know, I just think you need to make a different move because the style of play just isn't who you are and you need to make a move.

And once he made that move, he was so much happier. So as a parent, I would be looking at those things as importantly as the name on the wall. Okay. I think is very important to me. Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah. Well, I don't want to take too much of your time, but let me ask you one more thing.

On a personal level, what's it like to have your kid finished growing up so far away? Because he's in New York now, New Jersey, I guess. You're in Minnesota. Yeah, it's hard. It's hard because you want to keep those same mores and principles that you have in your family and you want to be able to relate those back to your son or daughter. and so it's a hard thing to do. But I talk to Caden probably 10 times per day,

and I fly out there probably once to twice a month. So I make sure that we stay in contact. And I think it's actually made us closer because we don't take each other for granted. Does that make sense to you? But it is hard. I'm happy that he's staying here another year before he heads to Europe. I would think I would have been a little bit more nervous at 18 if he would have gone to Europe at 18,

knowing that he's still so young in a foreign country and a foreign language, even though he's going to have to speak a language. I am happy that we get one more year here in the United States and that we can really continue to work on him growing up. And, you know, he has an apartment. He's still 17, so he's a minor. So his godmother lives within. she is living with him now instead of living at a host family and he's too young to live in the

housing that they provide for you know kids who are 18 so you know it is concerning and yet you have to let him make mistakes quite a bit and you know like make decisions about budgets and you know girlfriends and you know all those behaviors but you know for the most part you know he's hunkered down and goes to practice and rest and recovers and eats well and gets up and goes and repeats that process. So we're fortunate enough that he's mature enough to really want it that way. So he doesn't have too many distractions. And the COVID has helped us a bit as well. Kate got to come home for probably like 10 or 12 weeks here during the COVID time.

And we got to do a lot of training, but we didn't get to do a lot of shooting. They locked up all the nets here in Lisetta. And so we didn't get any shooting. And it's so rough. And so Caden went back to the USL and he goes, oh my gosh, Daddy. He goes, I can't even hit the frame. I go, I know Caden.

But listen, buddy, we had 10 weeks of just touching control. We didn't have any time to work on shooting because we just couldn't shoot. They locked them up. It's just not nowhere to do it at. So you just kind of have to laugh and do the best you can and keep working and realize that there's a lot of other variables that go into being an accomplished player, you know what I'm saying? Yeah.

Well, it seems like his shooting touch recovered somewhat nicely over the subsequent months. During that 10-day quarantine process, I was out there that 10 days, and so we worked on shooting quite a bit. And the funny thing is that when we're working on it, you know, and we're just working like crazy on putting and turning it on a half turn and, you know, anticipation of that golden touch and then hitting the ball. I go, Katie, your left foot strike is so good compared to your right foot strike and he's a righty. Because I know, Dad, in that crazy? I go, yeah, it's just nuts. So then when he took that shot in the game, I was like, oh, my gosh. Like, you know, I was like, it's like, and he didn't even hesitate.

So it was kind of fun to see that, him do that after we spent all those 10 days working on that in particular. It was really, really, really fun to see him turn and hit a ball like that at that. age, I thought. Yeah, it was a hell of a goal. I'm proud of my five-year-old son when he's reasonably polite to strangers, so I can hardly imagine the pride of your feeling. Anything else? Anything else I should be asking you? Anything else you want to say? Well, I just think it's as a parent. I think you just need to embrace the joy and the love of the game and let them love it and never be afraid to criticize, but we'll have to know that they're always going to fail more times than not. And it's okay to fail and it's okay to make mistakes and make them as much as you can, but be willing to work

on it to get better at it. Once we talk about all the time to parents. Yeah. Well, congratulations, Chris. Thanks for making time for us. Yeah, thank you. And I love your podcast. And I really enjoy listening to all the conversations about soccer in general.

And it's neat to hear other people's perspectives. So keep doing what you're doing. All right. Thanks. Thanks a lot. Take care. All right. Bye-bye.