00:00What is the important thing that the U.S. needs to do now to capitalize on all the attention,
00:04to capitalize on everything that we can harvest from this unique tournament that for many was a
00:10success? Many, you know, with the political climate that we are living in, many were hoping for a
00:16disaster. They were hoping for the World Cup not to go sweet, you know, nicely. What is it that we
00:22need to do to harvest all these good vibes and make them something good for the development of
00:28U.S. soccer? I mean, I think we need to focus at U.S. as a whole as more of
00:35a team sport. Yes. I think
00:36we see Pulisic and we see these big leader, big names, and it doesn't work for U.S. There's a
00:42lot
00:42of ego, and I think that's why they weren't able to survive the whole tournament. They started off
00:47very strong, and they lost it, I think, because they don't have that fire. The commitment to the
00:54group? Mm-hmm. We see teams like Argentina, you know, they have England, they have this pack,
01:01Mexico, they have this fire, because they're fighting for something more than just football.
01:06And U.S., I didn't see it. I really didn't see that fire. I didn't. It is true. It's very
01:11true. I
01:11think that we need to harvest that identity, that full identity, because we still have that problem
01:19where there is the saying, if our best athletes will play soccer, we'll be world champions. But I
01:24don't think that it's a lack of athletes. I think there's a lack of access. I think, like, if you
01:27give
01:28access to the right people, they will play. You don't need to have six, four tall, muscular athletes
01:35to win the World Cup. Definitely not. That's not the type of sport. You need kids that play
01:41one-on-one. You know, kids that know how to have, you know, a good relationship with the ball.
01:46Mm-hmm. And I like what you are doing with your development of players. I love what Uprising is
01:51doing with the development of players, along with many, many other clubs that are actually working
01:54on providing access and getting the kids to grow holistically. Not only as a great skilled player,
02:01but also as a human and as a person that allows you to actually survive this environment,
02:05because it's not an easy journey for the football players. It's not an easy journey for
02:09players who want to play in the U.S., players who want to go professional. Even to the MLS,
02:14it's so difficult. Players who are playing for UCLA and the top D1 schools don't even get a chance to
02:20play at MLS. So it's very, like, 0.001% if you want to go professional. It's a tough journey,
02:26my friends, and we are supporting and celebrating every single player that has been able to fulfill
02:32their dream of becoming a professional, representing their nation, and finally getting to play in a World Cup.
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