Quotes: Soccer

I went to professional men’s soccer games, the old North American soccer league at that time, and I used to be a ticket holder with my family and family friends. We would go every weekend and I thought it was great, but I just thought of it as recreation, as family fun.

But I think it’s also hard to get into soccer here. I think purely on a time level on television as well because of the ad breaks. It’s something to do with that as well. You can’t show a complete soccer match here. Which I kind of find a bit of an odd thing.

I get asked this a lot: Why has soccer not succeeded? My answer is, soccer has succeeded. It is already the fastest growing youth participation sport in the U.S. It has already succeeded at the youth level, no question.

Sure we have skilled players, but the biggest thing might just be that we are so well conditioned and how we can play for 90 minutes at a high tempo which is needed in soccer at an international level.

The more people who come from abroad who played soccer and are brought up playing it and watching it, then come over to America and bring what they know and what they play, that’s how the sport will grow.

After all these years, I’m finally into soccer. The World Cup is on, and my band is an international group – they’re all around me, cheering in the hotel bars.

I think foosball is a combination of soccer and shish kabobs.

If my soccer career were over, I would still come here because of the people. And despite the fact I’ve had to skip some school for National Team purposes, I am looking forward to holding that Carolina degree as soon as I can get my hands on it.

My father was a soccer player. All my friends played basketball though, so I stuck with basketball.

To be honest with you, I never looked at soccer as a sacrifice.