Speaker 1: Talk about a dude who is all over the planet. Man,
Speaker 1: we actually caught you in one place. Welcome back to
Speaker 1: my friend.
Speaker 2: I'm home just for a little bit.
Speaker 1: Oh well, so all right, so recap you so last
Speaker 1: time since the last time you were here, and I
Speaker 1: know that you need that cafe to get you get
Speaker 1: gashed up.
Speaker 3: This early in the morning on a Friday.
Speaker 2: Second one.
Speaker 3: Man, Uh, so what have you been? What have you
Speaker 3: been doing?
Speaker 4: Where?
Speaker 3: Where have you been?
Speaker 2: Sir?
Speaker 3: We have missed you. What have you been up to?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: Did uh?
Speaker 2: Did Orlando with the family a couple of weeks ago? Uh?
Speaker 2: For spring break for the kids. So that was Universal
Speaker 2: Studios and all that kind of stuff. We got home
Speaker 2: and then from there the next week, I had a
Speaker 2: trip with my girlfriend to Chicago that we do every year.
Speaker 2: And after that, man, after that, probably just running around
Speaker 2: like crazy. Man.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, and uh, you know it's it's that time
Speaker 1: where when we caught up with party last time. He
Speaker 1: said that things have now expanded into the state of
Speaker 1: Ohio and that's because out of calendars and things and
Speaker 1: how calendars are different. This is turning into the fourteen
Speaker 1: month a year thing for you and Greg, which for
Speaker 1: you in cap which I know that you had wanted
Speaker 1: to do. What's it like having to do this now
Speaker 1: fourteen months out of the year, in three hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty days a year?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Man, I thought a nineteen hour workday, person, So I
Speaker 2: get my you know, five six hours of sleep every
Speaker 2: day and then yeah, back to it started early this morning.
Speaker 1: All right, so run me through a nineteen hour day.
Speaker 1: How are you getting twenty six hours of work into
Speaker 1: a nineteen hour day?
Speaker 2: Man? It is waking up extremely early, having some time
Speaker 2: to myself, getting everything I need to do to help
Speaker 2: myself feel good about myself, kind of that sense of accomplishment.
Speaker 2: So it's running every day, working out every day. I'll
Speaker 2: do that for the first you know, hour or hour
Speaker 2: and a half of my day. That's it sucks waking
Speaker 2: up and doing it. But once I'm finished and I
Speaker 2: feel kind of, you know, ready to tackle the whole
Speaker 2: entire day. And it just depends. Sometimes you have kids
Speaker 2: who want to do a mentoring session right before school.
Speaker 2: Sometimes you have kids who are homeschooled and can do
Speaker 2: a mentoring session like right after this. You know, it's
Speaker 2: it's it's kind of sporadic throughout the day, and then
Speaker 2: usually I kind of have like a lunch break where
Speaker 2: I'll kind of wet. I'll meal prep or procrastinate in
Speaker 2: a positive way around the house and doing laundry and
Speaker 2: getting all the kids stuff cleaned and all that kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. And then uh, if I have a little
Speaker 2: bit of time, then I might go back to the
Speaker 2: gym and do like a core circuit or whatever, dude.
Speaker 2: And then and then after that, uh, my kids usually
Speaker 2: have training every single day, so it's my day through
Speaker 2: Friday training, whether it's from six pm to seven thirty
Speaker 2: or finishing at eight, and Mom will do me a
Speaker 2: favorite to pick them up from training. I'll take them too,
Speaker 2: and then my days really start at like seven thirty
Speaker 2: eight every single day and they go until about eleven thirty,
Speaker 2: So eleven thirty sometimes eleven forty five, just depending on
Speaker 2: where that kid is in the world. I mean, we
Speaker 2: have we have a new MINTI from that's in Singapore
Speaker 2: right now. Whoa twenty four? Was it? No twelve hour difference?
Speaker 2: So you know, sometimes like yesterday I mentored him at
Speaker 2: a thirty am, it's a thirty pm on his end.
Speaker 2: So it's it's interesting, it's it's we were We're able
Speaker 2: to fill so many spaces within the states. I think
Speaker 2: I think I just did this a couple of weeks
Speaker 2: ago for our marketing team. I think we have about
Speaker 2: forty one states of kids that we mentor so you know,
Speaker 2: it's it's pretty cool man.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 1: The last time we talked, I think it was up
Speaker 1: to her in and around two hundred and fifty different mentees.
Speaker 3: Does that sound anywhere close?
Speaker 2: We're probably passing a thousand here in a little bit.
Speaker 4: Wow, how do you keep it all straight?
Speaker 2: I have a much better memory than Parky. Let's just
Speaker 2: say that I'm the Parky. I always help you. Parky
Speaker 2: is like the outside of the box, you know, idea
Speaker 2: and also like the logistical like or sorrys the logical thinker, right,
Speaker 2: just like very you know, well spoken and and and
Speaker 2: it has different ideas and kind of myself. I'm like
Speaker 2: the motivator and the go getter, and you know, I'm
Speaker 2: the I'm the people's the people's person. I'm I am
Speaker 2: definitely the salesman of our of our crew, and Parky
Speaker 2: is the one that that that is the idea behind everything?
Speaker 1: Were you always that kind of personality when it came
Speaker 1: to even.
Speaker 2: Even in the locker room. Yeah, even in the locker room,
Speaker 2: I was the goofball. I was the one making fun
Speaker 2: of everybody, making people laugh doing stupid stuff. That's always
Speaker 2: that's always been me to to just kind of always
Speaker 2: have small you know. It's I think it's especially for
Speaker 2: those guys, and that's I think that's where a lot
Speaker 2: of people they always see me and they're like, man,
Speaker 2: we thought you were such a big agle. They really
Speaker 2: don't get to know me, uh what they see in
Speaker 2: the game. In the game, I completely transformed, right, you know.
Speaker 2: I had that kind of chip on my shoulder and
Speaker 2: kind of lunatic mentality and so many other things that
Speaker 2: that kind of defined me as a player. But but
Speaker 2: in the communities anyway, anyway, and where I can be,
Speaker 2: I'll always be that motivator and you know, goofball. I mean,
Speaker 2: I see miss Abs. I was at silver Backs doing
Speaker 2: and event for the Hispanic community for about one hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty kids. It was funny soccer in the streets.
Speaker 2: Was right across from us, and I've done that event
Speaker 2: a couple of years ago as well, or visited as well,
Speaker 2: but that this one was by a group called Alianza.
Speaker 2: They do Hispanic tournaments all around the United States, and
Speaker 2: they invited me to be a part of it here
Speaker 2: in Atlanta, and I think it was a success. So
Speaker 2: now I might be wearing another hat and having the
Speaker 2: opportunity to travel with them and go. I mean, like
Speaker 2: I think, after them meeting me and you know, seeing
Speaker 2: that I am a Mexican American player who played in
Speaker 2: both countries and had success in both countries, I think
Speaker 2: it's it's cool to kind of be that, you know,
Speaker 2: bridge for them as well, especially within the Hispanic communities.
Speaker 2: There's so many, so many around the States and just
Speaker 2: providing them the opportunity, and so they do a really
Speaker 2: good job in getting partnerships and sponsorships from all different companies.
Speaker 2: That one was sponsored by Kings Hawaiian Kings Hawaiian Bread,
Speaker 2: and I had about one hundred and fifty kids from
Speaker 2: ages four to fourteen, So it was it was really
Speaker 2: cool to be a part of that. And once again
Speaker 2: I'm the guy that's like when I got there, they
Speaker 2: were like, you know, we don't know what you can
Speaker 2: do if you just want to hop in and be
Speaker 2: with the kids. And then about three hours later they
Speaker 2: were like, wow, you're amazing with kids, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 2: that's what I do. That's what I do for a
Speaker 2: living man. So I gotta be got to I gotta
Speaker 2: be something with what I'm good at. So but I'm
Speaker 2: like the type of person that I mean if I
Speaker 2: see a kid walking by and they have you know
Speaker 2: today in today's world, shoes never have laces or anything,
Speaker 2: and I'll walk by and I'll be like, dude, your
Speaker 2: shoes are in tight and no, They'll look down, and
Speaker 2: that's I'm always I'm always doing something that's you know,
Speaker 2: making one of their friends laugh or you know, whatever
Speaker 2: it is, tapping them on the shoulder and looking the
Speaker 2: other way, you know, all those little little things.
Speaker 1: When it comes to a locker room that needs that.
Speaker 1: I would imagine, though, that's a fine line, especially if
Speaker 1: you're not doing well or is doing as well as
Speaker 1: you would like. How do you navigate keep maintaining your personality,
Speaker 1: knowing everybody in the locker room, knowing that you're serious,
Speaker 1: and navigating those rough patches with all of the different
Speaker 1: personalities that are there in the locker room like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's uh, it's a it's a fine line, and
Speaker 2: it's a balance, right, you have to know. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: obviously you get to know personalities and know who you
Speaker 2: can mess with and and joke around with. You know,
Speaker 2: it's you pick, you pick and choose, you pick and choose.
Speaker 2: There's always going to be that one guy that might be,
Speaker 2: uh a goofy punching bag that you might need in
Speaker 2: the locker room. And and our time there was it
Speaker 2: was mister Mikey Ambrose. Mikey Ambrose was the punching bag
Speaker 2: for all of us and and and in the in
Speaker 2: the like most loving way, but just the banter was
Speaker 2: always through Mikey or Chris McCann, Harrison Heath when he
Speaker 2: was there as well. You know, you need those guys
Speaker 2: that are going to just lighten your day if you're
Speaker 2: having the crappiest day and you go into the locker
Speaker 2: room and you just have those guys. And I was
Speaker 2: definitely one of those guys that bridge of different languages
Speaker 2: as well, where I got joking all sorts of different languages. Right.
Speaker 2: So I mean, if Elena and Ida wants to pay
Speaker 2: me right now and just be in locker room for
Speaker 2: for banter and try and turn things around, I would
Speaker 2: definitely say yes, I'm not going on the field. I
Speaker 2: don't think I would survive, but just to be in
Speaker 2: locker room and kind of be with those guys and
Speaker 2: get a get the morale up and and and change
Speaker 2: the change the error a little bit. Uh. That's it's
Speaker 2: so it's so needed, especially in times like these, because
Speaker 2: you still you still need that that managing role of
Speaker 2: guys that are gonna be you know, there's gonna be
Speaker 2: guys that are ticked off and pissed off all day
Speaker 2: with what's going on right now, and you gotta you
Speaker 2: gotta find a way to kind of get them back
Speaker 2: into the mix of what they're doing. For me, it
Speaker 2: was almost like a message of you know, you get
Speaker 2: to do what you love every single day. You know,
Speaker 2: like that happiness and that joy of stepping on the field,
Speaker 2: there is no there's no better escape. And so I
Speaker 2: think that that for me was something that I always
Speaker 2: lived by. But yes, the fine line for me was, hey,
Speaker 2: when when it was serious and it had to be serious,
Speaker 2: I was probably one of the most serious. So you know,
Speaker 2: I was willing to put willing to put my life
Speaker 2: on the line for whatever play.
Speaker 1: But then when you have, say, like what's going on
Speaker 1: right now, and you are almost afraid to be yourself.
Speaker 1: How do you push past that to regain who you
Speaker 1: are toward the successes that you know, that the that
Speaker 1: your club whomever you were talking about here, but yes
Speaker 1: we're talking somewhat about Atlanta United. How do you get
Speaker 1: out of that quicksand how do you push all that
Speaker 1: stuff away? How do you push through being afraid to
Speaker 1: make a mistake? I imagine these are conversations that you
Speaker 1: have with mentees too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's once again, I think you still have to
Speaker 2: find kind of that why, that why and who. I
Speaker 2: think that's that's always important, especially for pros. Those guys
Speaker 2: they have to realize their why every single day, who
Speaker 2: they're doing it for, Why, why are they doing it?
Speaker 2: Even if they're in rough patches, because that's that's that's
Speaker 2: the whole reason that they're there. It doesn't matter if
Speaker 2: you're a fifteen million dollar player, if you're a you know,
Speaker 2: sixty seven thousand dollars player, it doesn't matter. You're you're
Speaker 2: you're you're still a guy who needs to needs to
Speaker 2: understand the opportunity at hand and and just to be
Speaker 2: where you are. You know, I have I have a
Speaker 2: young boy, I have a young boy that we actually
Speaker 2: kind of created an exercise together about two months ago,
Speaker 2: and he has been he's been on Real Monarchs for
Speaker 2: the past two years and he's played two games. And
Speaker 2: this is coming from a kid who was captain on
Speaker 2: was captain on every single Realitalt Lake age group from
Speaker 2: like you four teens all the way up. Was the
Speaker 2: captain on every team. And it's been a pro for
Speaker 2: two years and has played two games. That's it. And
Speaker 2: so you know, it's it's interesting to like even try
Speaker 2: and find a way to motivate players like that. You know,
Speaker 2: it's you have to find a way to where they
Speaker 2: can be put in a good mindset and being patient
Speaker 2: and still going to practice and enjoying themselves and not
Speaker 2: being doubtful of why why am I doing this?
Speaker 4: Why?
Speaker 2: Like you know, just getting them always back to home
Speaker 2: base and understanding I think their why and who they're
Speaker 2: doing it for. That's that's the most important thing for
Speaker 2: all the guys that are even at AU right now.
Speaker 2: It's that chemistry is going to click at one point.
Speaker 2: You just got to have to continue to be patient
Speaker 2: and you know, see see I see if it will
Speaker 2: work out.
Speaker 1: But god, that's got to be one of the most
Speaker 1: anticipation I would think of. Result has to be one
Speaker 1: of the most frustrating things for an athlete at any level.
Speaker 1: You know it's there, it's not there now, but you know,
Speaker 1: if you if everybody says, okay, stay the course, be
Speaker 1: you shake off you know all the negatives, what happened,
Speaker 1: you can flush it, learn from it, and move on.
Speaker 3: That's got to be one of the most frustrating.
Speaker 1: Things to know that it's there and then balance the
Speaker 1: idea of I know it's there, but I don't want
Speaker 1: to mess up and make things worse for everybody around
Speaker 1: me because of the situation. It just it seems like
Speaker 1: that there's almost like a vicious cycle there that you're
Speaker 1: trying to avoid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's the mentality as well. I think in the league,
Speaker 2: just from personal experience, is it's such a different standpoint
Speaker 2: than playing in Mexico at that time right now, not
Speaker 2: now because pro Rail doesn't exist anymore, right but like,
Speaker 2: the mentality I think for most people who plan the
Speaker 2: league is that Okay, if things aren't working out, then
Speaker 2: you know, we have this whole year to build on
Speaker 2: what might be next. And I think that that's a
Speaker 2: mentality that yes, there's there's that pressure there, but there's
Speaker 2: not that pressure of like there's no tomorrow right and
Speaker 2: and I think that's that sometimes is something that I
Speaker 2: think I would say hinder performance but just doesn't give
Speaker 2: that extra boost I think, or that extra sprint back
Speaker 2: or that extra I don't care if I'm hurting right
Speaker 2: now or injured. I'm going to get through it. And
Speaker 2: I think playing in other places, you know, playing in
Speaker 2: those hostile like situations, even individually and collectively of fighting
Speaker 2: fighting for relegation or fighting to stay up in the
Speaker 2: first division, those I think that also has a huge,
Speaker 2: huge component to how the guys carry themselves each and
Speaker 2: every day, how they carry themselves in the games, their
Speaker 2: type of mentality in terms of getting through these tough moments.
Speaker 1: Greg Garza a second cup of coffee, hanging out with
Speaker 1: us here on the Friday free kick at BG mendoring
Speaker 1: on the two hundred and eighty character app that beyond goals,
Speaker 1: mentoring on all the other medias that are social. So
Speaker 1: all right, here here's my challenge for you. As you
Speaker 1: take your sip of coffee. So because you have to
Speaker 1: be hydrated for this particular so there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1: My challenge for you if you were to walk into
Speaker 1: that locker room right now and someone tapped you on
Speaker 1: the shoulder and it's like, okay, I need you to
Speaker 1: talk to them before the match, before they go out there,
Speaker 1: before the fans, you know, you know they that Mercedes
Speaker 1: Been Stadium this weekend. If you had to go into
Speaker 1: that locker room and wanted to talk to the UH
Speaker 1: the new wave of Atlanta United, what would what would
Speaker 1: you say? I'm not going to say it's a speech,
Speaker 1: but what would you what would your talking points be
Speaker 1: in trying to address that locker room to try and
Speaker 1: get them off of the schneid they're currently on.
Speaker 2: So many different ways you can handle it, right. You know,
Speaker 2: I'm a I'm a I'm a person that I like
Speaker 2: to apply apply the pressure. I don't like to take
Speaker 2: it away. And I think that's I think that's what's needed.
Speaker 2: I think that's what's needed. It's you know, you you
Speaker 2: think about what they're going through, that they're they're underperforming
Speaker 2: in terms of results, but are they underperforming in terms
Speaker 2: of like are they just crapping the bed?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: You like, I don't, I don't. It's it's a hard
Speaker 2: one too. It's a hard one to kind of really
Speaker 2: dissect because they're doing they're doing great things. There's not
Speaker 2: there's not things on the field that they're doing and
Speaker 2: just like it's shambolically bad, you know, there's there's really
Speaker 2: good moments that you see and they give you good glimpses. Uh,
Speaker 2: And then I think sometimes it's just moments of you know,
Speaker 2: focus and concentration or whatever it is that that will
Speaker 2: turn the game upside down. And then you know, I
Speaker 2: think there's just a might be like a mental block
Speaker 2: of getting getting it back. So trying to trying to
Speaker 2: get them on the right, you know track. I honestly,
Speaker 2: I honestly don't know which way I would go in
Speaker 2: terms of applying more pressure and making them understand the
Speaker 2: the you know, the the level that they have to
Speaker 2: lift up to or that's where you have to be
Speaker 2: in a locker room and you have to get a
Speaker 2: feel for how these guys are. Every every every coach
Speaker 2: that I played for was you know, the best coaches
Speaker 2: that I played for. I would always say, we're not
Speaker 2: we're not coaches. They were good, they were good managers,
Speaker 2: They understood the personalities they understood the emotions of everyone,
Speaker 2: they understood how to get the best out of everyone.
Speaker 2: And so I think when you are not when you're
Speaker 2: not in the locker room, you're not in that sacred
Speaker 2: you know, it's it's a sacred place. A locker room
Speaker 2: is a sacred place. It's you don't you don't know
Speaker 2: what thems are, you don't know what the you know.
Speaker 2: I've talked about this with with with Jason as well,
Speaker 2: is you don't know what the competitive stress of these
Speaker 2: guys are going through right now. And there's there's so
Speaker 2: many different things that we don't see from the outside,
Speaker 2: and so you know, hopefully, hopefully that's something that you
Speaker 2: that you can hope and pray that the manager can
Speaker 2: can really transform and and and help them get out
Speaker 2: of get out of whatever they're they're going through. Because
Speaker 2: like I said, there's from a from a fan standpoint,
Speaker 2: there aren't there aren't like you can't look at some
Speaker 2: of their games and yes, maybe one or two of
Speaker 2: them out of the season, but that's always going to
Speaker 2: happen in a season. You can't look at most of
Speaker 2: their games and be like they're playing bad, you know,
Speaker 2: creed chances or they're not playing that flare and fire,
Speaker 2: because there are a lot of glimpses that they do
Speaker 2: have that spark, they do have something there, and then
Speaker 2: whether it be just sometimes the bad luck that they
Speaker 2: have and then just not being able to turn it
Speaker 2: around in those in those key moments, but you know,
Speaker 2: I think it's still still a minute of them figuring
Speaker 2: themselves out and figuring their chemistry out. I don't I
Speaker 2: don't fans. I don't think how lucky we are to
Speaker 2: have had the chemistry that we had from the very
Speaker 2: beginning and our success in our tenor that we had
Speaker 2: with Atlanta United in those very first couple or few years.
Speaker 2: That is something like unheard of. You don't bring guys
Speaker 2: that are from all around the world, never played with
Speaker 2: each other, speak all those sorts of different languages, and
Speaker 2: something just clicks. It happens one team out of how
Speaker 2: many teams, there's a whole brand new team this year.
Speaker 2: Look at San Diego, right, San Diego is another team
Speaker 2: that you can kind of look at and you're like, wow,
Speaker 2: like they played some really really good soccer at times,
Speaker 2: but they're still getting to know each other and and
Speaker 2: so I think, you know, you look back at our
Speaker 2: success that we had. We were even in chock as
Speaker 2: players on the field that we had such good chemistry.
Speaker 2: So it's definitely you know, there's so many different angles
Speaker 2: that you can look at it well.
Speaker 1: And you know, you talking to someone who is nineteen
Speaker 1: versus talking to someone who is thirty two versus talking
Speaker 1: to someone who's in their late thirties.
Speaker 3: It literally it's going.
Speaker 1: I would imagine it's like going up to each particular
Speaker 1: seat in that locker room like you do with your mentees,
Speaker 1: like you with you and Cap, and it's like messaging
Speaker 1: probably has a commonality of theme to it on some levels,
Speaker 1: but each individual conversation is probably different. Taking that messaging
Speaker 1: and taking that message and turning it a little bit
Speaker 1: and having it applied to each individual person. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, if someone knows what it's like to sit
Speaker 1: here and go like this and they get it, then
Speaker 1: you might not have to do as much much to
Speaker 1: an individual that might be a little older that has
Speaker 1: other things going on in their lives that you talk about.
Speaker 1: The competitive stress and the stuff off the field that
Speaker 1: compounds a lot to how sometimes you act on the field.
Speaker 1: So I would imagine it's almost a seat by seat
Speaker 1: basis in that locker room.
Speaker 2: Yeah, my, my, My biggest point will always come down
Speaker 2: to the manager. It will always come down to the
Speaker 2: manager and getting the best out of your players. That's
Speaker 2: that's if your players are bought in, If your players
Speaker 2: are truly bought in with what you bring, with what
Speaker 2: you want to do with them, with with him knowing
Speaker 2: he can get the best out of each and every
Speaker 2: one of them, them knowing their role. That's that's a
Speaker 2: successful team there. I can recall numerous times, even being
Speaker 2: a Lani United and let's use Tata for example. Tata
Speaker 2: would pull me. We'd be doing a training session, you know,
Speaker 2: whether it be a transition training session or whatever, and
Speaker 2: tats I would pull me aside and say, I need you,
Speaker 2: I need you to keep doing exactly what you're doing.
Speaker 2: I need you to continue to be the person you
Speaker 2: are off the field on the field, just continue to
Speaker 2: be doing what you're doing. You are playing with an
Speaker 2: immense amount of confidence. That right there, like stepping into
Speaker 2: the next game where it's like you know before I
Speaker 2: think it was like before San Jose, you know, like
Speaker 2: at Home a Body God, where we started losing and
Speaker 2: we got that like that amazing comeback where Joseph almost
Speaker 2: burned himself with the fire, but like that was probably
Speaker 2: one of my one of my favorite games I played in.
Speaker 2: But that was that was stuck in my mind from
Speaker 2: a managing standpoint, that even when crap hit the fan
Speaker 2: in that game, I was still instilled with that confidence
Speaker 2: of Okay, this is a moment to where coach told
Speaker 2: me a few days ago he needs me, he needs
Speaker 2: me to do the exact same thing of what I'm doing,
Speaker 2: and and and that's that's that's the mindset. That's the
Speaker 2: mindset that you can get out of players. Tata knew
Speaker 2: that he could tell me that whereas he might be
Speaker 2: telling Miggy you know something else, he might be telling
Speaker 2: Joseph understanding Joseph's personality and saying, hey, dude, this last
Speaker 2: game that you play was an absolutely embarrassment. But he
Speaker 2: knows he might be able to get something out of
Speaker 2: that with with him because of who he is, So
Speaker 2: that individual, you know, understanding of For me, it comes
Speaker 2: down to the manager where where I've played in teams
Speaker 2: as well and Tijuana to where we had, you know,
Speaker 2: the highest paid coach at one time in Mexico and
Speaker 2: probably in the probably close in the world. Right we
Speaker 2: had we had just brought over Venezuelan, you know, head
Speaker 2: coach that got them to like the semi finals of
Speaker 2: Copa America and and like, you know, this is you know,
Speaker 2: hopefully he doesn't get out there in the public, but
Speaker 2: he was probably one of the you know, worst coaches
Speaker 2: I had in my career, you know, but because of
Speaker 2: how psychological damaging he was to each and every individual.
Speaker 2: He treated everyone exactly the same and just such a
Speaker 2: real mentality of just banging on everyone at all times.
Speaker 2: And not everyone is like that, you know. So I
Speaker 2: will always say it comes down to the manager and
Speaker 2: understanding your players and how to get the best out
Speaker 2: of them. That's where that's where the leadership starts. That's
Speaker 2: where that those those pregame talks or those talks during
Speaker 2: the week of pulling players aside, having those individual meetings
Speaker 2: with them and and and inclusive and being inclusive of
Speaker 2: of everyone as well.
Speaker 1: How much of that and all of those experiences have
Speaker 1: impacted you as a mentor now where you understand messaging
Speaker 1: for each individual mentee and you're you're touching base and
Speaker 1: everything's might be different here, different here, and different here.
Speaker 1: Even if there are some things that are similar.
Speaker 2: Massively, because you know, this kid who's a pro at monogues,
Speaker 2: I will speak so much differently to a young boy
Speaker 2: who's eleven years old and you know, trying to get
Speaker 2: up to another team, right, it's it's there's there's a
Speaker 2: different The messaging is similar, but in the way that
Speaker 2: I'm saying it is going to be much much different.
Speaker 2: You know, helping them understand the importances of life, or
Speaker 2: the importance of why they do what they do, the
Speaker 2: type of personality that they need. I will use different
Speaker 2: avenues and angles how to approach it with each and
Speaker 2: every one of them. But but you know that that messaging, ultimately,
Speaker 2: what I'm through to them is the same.
Speaker 1: How long did it take for you to hit that
Speaker 1: rhythm as a mentor and what you're doing it beyond goals?
Speaker 2: No, I think I think that stems back from what
Speaker 2: you and L talked about in the very beginning of
Speaker 2: of being who you were in the locker room. That
Speaker 2: was that was who I was in the locker room.
Speaker 2: I was. I was that glue to bring everybody together
Speaker 2: and in a goofy in a goofy way, but also
Speaker 2: leading by action way. You know, if we look back
Speaker 2: to every if we look back to every warm up
Speaker 2: of Atlanta United, and we were to go back and
Speaker 2: we were to look at film and the Mercedes Benz.
Speaker 2: I was the first one in warm up every single time,
Speaker 2: first one. And I wasn't the guy that was gonna
Speaker 2: be like raw, raw, let's go, guys, let's do this.
Speaker 2: But I was the first one in warm up every
Speaker 2: single time, and our lines of two whatever it was,
Speaker 2: I was the first one. I was the first one
Speaker 2: to step out on the field and run everybody out.
Speaker 2: That was That was who I was. That was the
Speaker 2: serious in me. But at the same time, during those ups,
Speaker 2: I might you know, spring a little joy or sprinkle
Speaker 2: a little you know, happiness or goof goofballs to kind
Speaker 2: of get everybody in the right mood and and and
Speaker 2: understand we're about to do what we love. So I
Speaker 2: I trans trans you know, transcended, I guess you could
Speaker 2: say into into that as a as a as a
Speaker 2: mentor as well.
Speaker 1: I just had this vision of you trying to have
Speaker 1: a big red crack a smile during a pregame warm up.
Speaker 2: Me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you trying to get Big Red to crack a smile.
Speaker 1: I don't know if Lorena WIT's in a pregame warm
Speaker 1: up would sit there and go bruh.
Speaker 2: No, oh for for sure. How many people know that
Speaker 2: Big Red is Napoleon Dynamite? All right? Yeah, he is
Speaker 2: the true Napoleon Dynamite, the most sarcastic, the most sarcastic comedian.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I've ever seen like he made people laugh.
Speaker 2: He made people laugh just for yeah fun.
Speaker 1: And he'll come in with a sledgehammer and you won't
Speaker 1: realize that he just came in with. He'll drop a
Speaker 1: sledgehammer on and you get a laugh, and you sit
Speaker 1: there and go, well.
Speaker 2: That's that's because every single one of us are about,
Speaker 2: you know, six thousand times less intelligent he is.
Speaker 4: So wow, all right, so what's the latest? Will be
Speaker 4: on goals? Before you get out of here?
Speaker 2: Man, same old, same old man, just continued growing the game, uh,
Speaker 2: wearing a lot of different hats. I just got the
Speaker 2: opportunity to be hopefully the FIFA Club World Cup Ambassador
Speaker 2: for Atlanta. So that's that's something that I'm pretty excited
Speaker 2: about and hopefully it goes through. So so pray for me.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm I'm like hoping. I uh, I'm I'm hoping
Speaker 2: i'd do a good job. And I guess ambassading Atlanta
Speaker 2: behavior ambassadoring Atlanta. Uh, not just for the Club World Cup,
Speaker 2: because I don't really want to watch Chelsea play in
Speaker 2: the Club World Cup. I'm just hoping I can kind
Speaker 2: of plan my eggs, you know, or plant plan my
Speaker 2: seeds and all over with with uh with put my
Speaker 2: eggs in different baskets with FIFA, because I'm excited about
Speaker 2: something else, not just the Club World Cup. I want
Speaker 2: to I kind of want to plant that seed so
Speaker 2: I can be ready for hey. Uh, instead of paying
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars for a nosebleed ticket in the World Cup.
Speaker 4: Can I ambassador for like a cut rate there?
Speaker 3: Like zero?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Exactly?
Speaker 3: I know?
Speaker 4: Uh, as always my friend.
Speaker 1: It's great to see you, Glad we can catch up
Speaker 1: with you here on the Friday free kick and find
Speaker 1: as as man beyond goals entering.
Speaker 3: You know, you got the garage door opener and you
Speaker 3: can hit it anytime.
Speaker 4: Sounds good, but all right, be good