Hérculez Gómez and Jeff Baicher: How To Successfully Navigate American Soccer In Uncertainty I #AskASoccerPro Show Ep 068

11-year MLS veteran Quincy Amarikwa is back for a very special two-part episode of the #AskASoccerPro Show with retired professional player and current professional coach, Jeff Baicher, and former pro player and current ESPN commentator, Hérculez Gómez.

Check out what Quincy, Jeff, and Hérculez cover:

Part I

00:00 – 02:15: Welcome to the #AskASoccerPro Show

02:16 - 07:29 Jeff Baicher Joins The #AskASoccerPro Show

07:29 - 09:58 Is Jeff Baicher A Journeyman?

09:59 - 13:36 What Jeff Baicher Really Thinks Of Paul Bravo And Marc Pelosi

13:37 - 18:20 US Soccer Dismantling The Development Academy And What It Will Mean

18:21 - 21: 59 Jeff Baicher On Ryan Masch And The BE PRO Program For Youth Development

22:00 - 29:25 The One Skill You Need To Have To Be The Best On The Field

29:26 – 33:54: The Advantage Young Players Have

33:55 – 37:58: What’s Next For The Thorns

37:58 - 39:15 Hérculez Gómez Joins The #AskASoccerPro Show

39:16 - 43:36: How To Not Get Down During Times Like These

43:36 - 46:06: How To See Opportunities On And Off The Field

46:07 - 49:34: How Getting Better Actually Works

49:35 – 54:51: What Did Sebastian Salazar Miss with Wayne Rooney?

54:52 - 58:52: The Mistake ESPN Commentators Make

Part II

00:00 – 06:38: American Soccer Culture Is Insecure

06:39 – 10:19: Why Pundits Don’t Admit They Are Wrong

10:20 – 15:02: Making A Point Without Understanding

15:07 – 17:02: Quincy On ESPN?

17:04 – 22:45: Invest In Yourself

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If you would like to read the interview:

*Transcript is unedited and machine-generated. There will be errors. For further clarity please refer to the audio or video.

Part I

Quincy Amarikwa (00:10):

Jay pro skills. What's happening, brother? Welcome. [inaudible] Oh six D Potter, three three three soccer, ham and this. Welcome. Happy to see you again Rian. I don't think I've seen you before. Football. What's happening in Matt 59 Casa Philadelphia union memes. H Velasquez, 16 Zander. What's happening? Earl Edwards joining in. Let's go home. Joe Jackson. What's up? What's up? His bro. A Quincy. What's up Ryan? Mash. E-Pro. General managers in here. Oh man. The crew is growing. I'm loving it. I'm loving seeing everybody joining in. Miguel, what's happening, brother Romo? What's up? Oh, let's see what we've got here. Tina. Tina Tay for Hyatts. Layla from California Thrones. Oh nine Academy with coach Ryan. What's going on Omar? What's happening? Coach Danny? What's popping? Matt. Dan bros. What's going on? Everybody loving this loving scene. Everybody. Quincy, that first case is better than the shield or the letter P.

Quincy Amarikwa (01:24):

What a, I don't even know what you're talking about right now. Well, mine said, okay. I'm already seeing the questions coming in. I'm seeing with I'm in your head. Emojis. Johnny, what's what's going on tier? What's happening? Everyone spam that heart button. If you're excited for today, drop your, I'm in your head emojis if you know what it is and you know what it means because today is going to be an Epic as is every other episode of the hashtag ask a soccer pro show. I'd like to walk everybody, welcome everybody. What's going on this weekend? MLS, Eli, lessor. I think we are episode 68 or 69. I think we're episode 69. Yo, shout out everybody who's been here since the beginning who joined in, in the beat in the middle and who's just joining with us here right now. A shout out to Ryan Ryan's team, coach mash and everybody else who's been going through the B pro program.

Quincy Amarikwa (02:15):

And welcome to everybody who's joining in today live. And those of you are listening in on the replay today is an awesome double-header episode of the house, the first guest who will be joining us here in the couple of minutes. Jeff Baicher and Jeff, I might be saying your name incorrectly, but when you join in you can happily, and hopefully correct me on your last name as well as, so Jeff who will be joining in as the head of the doc for the thorns and force. He'll be joining us, talking to you guys about, for those of you who may be running into some issues with what's been going on with the dismantling of the da, we'll be discussing that a little bit as well as his mentality, how he got to where he's at. And you know, his mentality cause you know what we talked about here, the MSL or the mental strength league.

Quincy Amarikwa (03:06):

It's a game where you're an active or passive participant, but the games being played and you need to be playing the game or you're steady getting played. Welcome. [inaudible] welcome, welcome, welcome. Happy to see you. Zo. Welcome in M C B R for joined in as well to the boys from forest. Want Jeff, get on here. It's Jeff time. I'm loving that everybody's, everyone's shouting out, Jeff and Lee. But like I said, today's a doubleheader episode cause not only do we have Jeff joining in, we also have former us men's national team player, Herculez Gomez who'll be joining in as well too. I know he's a, I think he's a broadcaster for ESPN now and he had a, a fun interaction with Sebastian Salazar, I believe is his name. Going over my interview with Wayne Rooney from the previous week we'll be discussing that as well as breaking down his mentality as well here too.

Quincy Amarikwa (04:00):

So today is a great double episode. So let's see once Jeff, so I'm going to give a while. We're waiting on Jeff to join in and Jeff, when you join in, if you could give me a don't know some Jesus' hands or something. So I know from the account, I know that you're calling in from one of the accounts and we'll get you on here. But while I'm waiting to see Jeff and everybody else is spamming out hard button and putting in them emojis and everything and raising the roof and hands so we can get Jeff in here. I will give a little bit of a background on Jeff for all of you who are unaware. Yo shout out O'Neil Fisher. My alt, my teammate at DC United dropping in as well too. Jeff is currently the director of coaching. So the doc of the DNS of forest boys and the California thorns girls. He is ranked or they are ranked number one non MLS club in Northern California and number 20, nationally in the annual act, the soccer wire, top 100 boys soccer clubs. So coming in with, let's see so Jeff, so here. Okay. The ends of force account. Oh, let's see, we got Jeff, let me call you in here.

Quincy Amarikwa (05:22):

Deanza I'm assuming you come from the

Quincy Amarikwa (05:30):

Let's see. Force. Okay. It's not popping up.

Quincy Amarikwa (05:40):

People are trying to understand what Quincy is trying to stand under football unit. Oh, what it is. DNS yeah, at the ends of forest. I'm seeing that there. So I'm going to try to call you in here cause it's not your, Colin's not coming in there we go. DNS a for soccer add you in here. You can accept that. We'll get you in on the live. Jeff is on. Jeff is on and we're ready. Everybody welcome Jeff with the am in your head. Emojis spam at heart button and welcome to him into our virtual. Oh look how excited I would just drop in all the technology. Welcome him into the live as his, as the DNS, a force account gets connected.

Jeff Baicher (06:23):

We should be good brother.

Quincy Amarikwa (06:25):

Oh, they're a little, a little bit of a delay, but right on time.

Jeff Baicher (06:31):

We got ya. Got ya.

Quincy Amarikwa (06:33):

What's going on man?

Jeff Baicher (06:35):

Well, I mean, considering what's happening, I think, you know, we're doing the best, the best we can do. Right. And for us that had family, I mean, some may look at it as a somewhat of a curse, but the spend all day for a few months with your family locked in home was pretty cool. So that's, that's the blessing from there.

Quincy Amarikwa (06:53):

Yeah. I love that. Starting out, starting out immediately with an MSL mindset, you know, we, we, that's what we talked about here. Looking at what most would consider a difficult situation and finding the positives, the silver lining in it, and figuring out ways to get better and move forward. So I, I'm loving, I'm loving how the conversation has already started.

Jeff Baicher (07:10):

There you go.

Quincy Amarikwa (07:11):

Um so that I'm pronouncing your last name correctly. How do I pronounce your last name?

Jeff Baicher (07:16):

Yeah, Baicher. You were close, but yeah. You were giving it a little French twist by Sharon, which is okay.

Quincy Amarikwa (07:24):

I thought it was, I thought it had a little bit of a, you know, a little flare to it.

Jeff Baicher (07:28):

There you go.

Quincy Amarikwa (07:29):

Awesome. so I was given a little bit of a background on you so I can get everybody up to speed on that and then we can jump straight into breaking down the mentality. And I know there's some things that you wanted to share with everybody on the da side, the dismantling that, and we'll jump right into that. So for a little bit of background for everybody on Jeff. His playing experience started with Santa Clara university where he won an NCAA championship in 1989 and not, not gonna date. You there too much. I was two years old when that was happening.

Jeff Baicher (07:59):

All right.

Quincy Amarikwa (08:00):

I'm sure I would have enjoyed it. I'm sure I'd enjoyed it if I was old enough to you. But in the minor leagues, you had a trial with man United in 91. You were in the WSL U S ISL, the CIS L and joined the MLS in 96 through 99. You're with the San Jose clash with Paul Bravo. Fun fact for everybody. Paul Bravo was general manager of the Colorado Rapids when I was there in 2010 when we won an MLS cup. A, you're with new England revolution. Another fun fact, I was with Ralston Steve Ralston as the assistant coach for me at San Jose. And then Kansas city wizards is where you ultimately retired. Kansas city wizards are now sporting Kansas city. For the younger ones on the audience who might not be aware of that, you have to capsule the United States men's national team. And that is the quick update as to your would you consider yourself a journeymen?

Jeff Baicher (08:53):

Uh I don't, I don't think so. I mean, I think, you know, in the end of the day, I mean, I, I stayed here in California. I know you're, you're a little bit South, right? But I stayed here in California for the most part and you know, had an opportunity to go over in England for a bit. And you know, I think if the MLS would have started a lot earlier, I would have stayed in San Jose. But you know, how to, Lee goes with a single entity. So, you know, sometimes a big club can pick and choose who they want and, and move around. And so you know, it was a great time, but I'm pretty loyal to, you know, the Bay area for sure.

Quincy Amarikwa (09:28):

Got you. I love that. Seen a bunch of people here in the comments saying, we love Jeff. Let me see what we got. A ghost, you said? Emily said we love Jeff will. Thanks. Welcome. Go clash. Everyone in the comments is love and senior. So far it sounds like you've got a lot of Bay area a large Bay area fan base that's happy to see you here on the live and I'm looking forward to getting rocking and rolling with it. So kind of a few things to kind of get, get going into it before we get into the heavier stuff. The, I know you're working with Paul Bravo now, so kind of, what's your connection with Paul Bravo what you guys' relationship, how's that going on right now?

Jeff Baicher (10:10):

Yeah, so I mean, I think first needs to be said right is, is, I mean, you're a, you're a pro, right? And, and what you're doing here is incredible. I just want to give you kudos because as a, as a pro, people think, you know, you, you train in the morning and then you go out and play 18 holes of golf, right? And we may do that, but, but the reality is between training and lifting and therapy and meetings and video analysis and everything that comes with it, your days are pretty full as a pro athlete, not to mention the travel. And I think, you know, for you to put these types of things on for the, you know, for the players, it's amazing. So thank you for that. Relative to Paul. Yeah. I mean, Paul and I played at Santa Clara together and you know, he was an amazing player and we played off and on together through all those years of all those leagues starting and stopping and you know, then we played with the first year of the clash and Paul was an all star that year, scored a million goals and, you know, the best player in the team that year ended up getting traded.

Jeff Baicher (11:06):

And, you know, that's kind of how things go in, you know, back then in the MLS for sure. Paul went to Colorado and then spent the rest of his time there. And so you had a chance to play under Paul for sure. I think when Paul's time in Colorado kind of wound down and I had an opportunity to, to grab him and it was at the same time as my current Academy director who was Albert Pook from Spain contract ran out. I, I grabbed Paul and hadn't come back home. He's from the Bay area and he's, he's been amazing these last couple of years. So really glad to have him here.

Quincy Amarikwa (11:38):

That's awesome to hear that kind of come full circle cause how big the soccer world is, but how small it is at the same time. And, but no, thank you for that. I appreciate that. I think when I first started out that definitely building this company, the other side projects that I had going on, a social media wasn't as positively looked upon when it getting going. So it's, it's definitely been a journey, but I'm happy we're finally here and able to put stuff on like this. Cause I think it's great for the community. The kids get the kids, family, parents get a lot out of it. And I've just seen Mark Pelosi joined in on the live his world. He gave you a little shout out.

Jeff Baicher (12:17):

I loved that Mark was a, you know, Mark was one of my first players. You know, I didn't want to get into coaching, but it just kind of fell into my lap, you know, and Mark Mark was one of my, you know, one of my, one of my cool studs at the beginning. And a great story about Mark is you know, Mark was all over the place on the field, right. And discipline was a little bit of a question. He was playing, holding mid tagging mid, you know, you're scoring goals. He was all over the shop. He was a good player and he was being taught the right way to play. And then, you know, he got an opportunity to go to the national team and the coach called me and said, Hey, we think Mark to left back. Can you teach him to play left back? Because that was before he didn't go to residency. So for the next six months to a year, Mark played left back and he hated it. And you know, come to find out, he ends up being a captain in a world cup and everything else. So March, March, an amazing kid. He's awesome. So that's great.

Quincy Amarikwa (13:06):

Awesome. Yeah, Mark and I got connected at San Jose. We were locker mates and since that time we were basically were business partners in everything and have been for awhile. We're actually closing in on our first seven figure deal in real estate out in the Kansas city market and that should close here. Fingers crossed in the next week or so. But yeah, it's been speaking to his discipline, lack of discipline. Definitely. Or he was all over the place. Well it wasn't just on the field, it was also off the field, but it's, it's been a good time in a lot of fun. But yeah, so I wanted to definitely make sure we were covering the topic cause I know a lot of kids, a lot of parents are kind of in a state of uncertainty. They're not sure what's going on.

Quincy Amarikwa (13:47):

How things are going to play out, just only, not only with this current situation that's going on on the pandemic side, but the resulting dismantlement of the da. Right. So I know your organization was under that umbrella. I think there was just a little bit of news on on the girl's side that just got released as to what the plan is with that. But for, for people who are kind of still in that state of not sure of what's going on or what's going to happen, where, where do you see it, how do you see it playing out and kind of where are we at in the process?

Jeff Baicher (14:19):

It's a tricky one. You know, it's a tricky one. There's a lot of bad press for us soccer right now. And and the reality is it was hard because it was a bandaid, you know, they took it off overnight and left a lot of clubs who were all in, you know, with us soccer to kind of fend for themselves. And you know, at the same time there's leagues popping up. You know, on the girl's side, DDL ECN is a great option, right? And I'm a boy. The boy side, you see multiple leagues kind of popping up, including MLS. So, you know, it's, it's a difficult situation and trying to figure out what is best for every club is a little bit different, you know jumping into a big league like that may not be the best for a small Academy clubs.

Jeff Baicher (15:00):

So, you know, really it's about taking time and making sure that you're doing the best for your players and trying to hopefully predict the best you can. You know, what's going to be the best for your players in three years or in four years, not what's going to be best for the next three months when everybody's looking at you and what you're going to do, what, where are you going to go? Right. you know, in, in our club we've been fortunate to have some real talented people like Brandy chestain and Paul Bravo and Eric Yamamoto and these guys. And I think, you know, the, the breadth of our coaches, education, you know, we, we decided to get back into ACNL on the girls side and they were, they were really, we are so thankful because we left and came back and so we were so thankful for ECA now to give us a, a chance, you know, to join a national platform like that. And that was just announced today. So I think it's, it's unknown territory right now and just trying to weigh the best options for each club is a little bit different.

Quincy Amarikwa (16:04):

Gotcha. And I think, no, I appreciate you sharing that because I'm now processing it and thinking about that. So what we really discuss here is the MSL mentality and adapter dive mentality. It's a, it's a dealing with chaos and uncertainty and building a plan that that prepares you for an unpredictable future. Right? So what we're looking for here is win win situations. I heard you say it's important that you're looking for what's in the best interest of the players three years and five years from now as opposed to being focused on just three months from now. That can be something that can be very difficult for most people who might not have as much experience to wrap their head around. Mainly, I mean for multiple reasons. Right. But for those who might not have the experience or the access to all the information that you do, what is something you can share with them that they could focus on or commit to you that helps them get through that maybe three months, six months of it not looking like it's going to be in their best interest three years, five years from now?

Jeff Baicher (17:07):

Great question. Great question. You know, we had a parent call me and really upset about the fact that we are no longer in the development Academy and he kept saying league league, league over and over. The league is folding the league. The world's coming to an end. And, you know, I took her back 20 years and talked about on the boys side, there's been, I think I counted six leagues stopping and starting from CYS to USY to super wildly give. We have some people that date, you know, the important thing.

Jeff Baicher (17:40):

I think it's focusing on what's going to improve you as a soccer player. Right? I mean, look at this pandemic right now. Everybody is so they're almost sad about, but what we've tried to turn around a little, the club is, Hey, when we get out of this, I want you to be better. Technically I want to be better in a, in a, in a way that is strength, maybe in conditioning or agility or balance. Like how can you improve or move the needle a little bit instead of, you know, being on the couch and being sad and depressed. And so, you know, I think focusing on the club, focusing with the club can perform and deliver and how you can improve right now. Versus, you know, what league I'm going to play in. And I think if those things are done right over time and they'll work themselves out.

Quincy Amarikwa (18:22):

Gotcha. No, I, that's a great, that's a great point. And inc ties in very much with what Ryan mash has been working on over on the be pro by perfect soccer side and I know that your daughter is under him and coaching and be going through his system and process for the online coaching and how to bridge that gap between maybe not having that in person interaction at work. We're typically used to, especially with the game and very much speaking to the focus that you're saying that this time can be best served to improve as a player on your own and come back better and stronger. From, from what you've seen through what Ryan's been working on and putting together kind of what are your thoughts on what you, what you're seeing him doing, his progression and how that's come together. Okay.

Jeff Baicher (19:10):

Yeah, I mean, Ryan's amazing. I mean, Ryan, again, another one of my protegee player, you know, and when when gotten rid of the national team and he was amazing and got to Santa Clara, but he, he's a great coach for us in the club and kind of full circle for sure. But I think, you know, keeping the kids engaged is so critical. And so Ryan is constantly sending the players trainings to do, constantly giving them a full workout to do. It's not just going in the backyard, Hey juggle for 20 minutes, be with the ball. Like it is an actual training session that they can do in a tight space. And then following up with a video and following up with things like this where the player can improve that is the key to the player coming back and wanting to play soccer because there's a lot of players that are, could come back. So I don't want to play soccer anymore. Like this is going to be so depressing for them. They're not gonna want to come back. But my daughter and the players in the club with obviously Ryan's help, you know, are looking at it like, like I can't wait to get back. I can't wait to show him what I've been working in. And, and we're so thankful and blessed for Ryan and what he's doing and the other coaches. So

Quincy Amarikwa (20:17):

Yeah, no, Brian's a superstar. We've got a couple of people in there saying, Heather said, yeah, coach Ryan who else? Ghostie said, Ryan's my coach and he's watching Zuri said, yay Ryan. Dropping nine in your head emojis. Spam that heart button for coach Ryan. Coach Ryan has been a part of I'm not sure how much of the background, you know, and the history of what Ryan and mine's relationship. So I was connected with Ryan through Mark Pelosi. I know the two of them played, especially coming up together through your, through organization and club. Ryan came on board with us and helped us build out our R B pro by perfect soccer arm of the company, which is for everyone who's not understanding the reference and context for that is Ryan's been helping create those weekly programs that you can do at home.

Quincy Amarikwa (21:03):

And if so, those of you are interested in that so you can maintain that enthusiasm so you can come back when this is over and we're past it, a better player head over to perfect soccer skills.com/create account. Ryan put in a full free week of the program that he's been putting the the players for the organization through as well too and what Jeff is referencing. But Ryan said appreciate the love Jeff. So she's got gotta rise in the comments everyone, if you love in the insights so far and the MSL mentality that Jeff is sharing with you guys, especially get through this spam, that heart button cause we're loving that. Drop your name and your head emojis and maybe share a little bit what you've learned from coach Jeff over the time that you've been working with him. And he's been the head of the doc saying deserve a raise. Jordan said what? Okay, so let's talk it over to a couple of questions in from the audience as well to you. So I'm not bull gardening cause I can always get take on on that side. Jordan had asked, what mindset do you have when you play against teams that are better than yours?

Jeff Baicher (22:11):

I don't think I've ever had that problem.

Quincy Amarikwa (22:14):

I love that. That's your confidence.

Jeff Baicher (22:18):

No, you know, it's you know, I think I, I think I heard Wayne Rooney say this, but I, I, but it's a great comment last week on your show where he said, you know, you play within yourself, right? You have a job to do as a teammate and you play within yourself. And when you start to kind of go outside of your, I can't remember the word he used, but kind of what tools you have, right? I mean, you're not going to be doing Rinaldo moves if, if you're, you know, a center back like Richard Gough, right? So in the end of the day, staying within yourself gives you the best chance to be successful. And there's a lot of teams that beat teams just by balance and discipline and staying within yourself. And I think that is huge. And I really was really inspired by Wayne's comments last week for sure.

Quincy Amarikwa (23:05):

That's, you know, and for those of you who aren't aware, Wayne Rooney was on the show about the, what was it, episode 67 and asked the soccer pro show. Obviously we did not have a good relationship. We played together last year and had many conversations. He was very open to understanding how it works here in America. The advantages and disadvantages, the potential that we have. And Jeff, I'm sure you see massive potential for soccer here in America, but that does not, that does not excuse the shortcomings from different aspects and angles for all the potential. There's plenty of things that we can do and work together to get better at. Kind of tying to what you're discussing and what Wayne was alluding to on the show, he definitely made a point to say, now's the time to kind of protect the American player and the, the advantages the, the ownership in the sense that they single entity of MLS, which I'm sure you've had some personal experience with the difficulties of that there's positives and negatives at, on the pot on the negative side.

Quincy Amarikwa (24:05):

It does take advantage of the American player, but it has been necessary to kind of establish the league to get it to where it is today. So you could argue both sides of it. But what Wayne was seeing and talking about and what we can kind of see now is it's time for kind of an evolution from the old ways of thinking, the old ways of doing stuff. And from where you're sitting and you're seeing the, the opportunity that lies in front of us with the da da being dismantled and the league having to shut down and players like Wayne who are recognized and seeing those issues. What do you think is that, that, that gap, that chasm that needs to be understood so that we can make, we can make that transition and it can include people, a lot more people than exclude kind of how, with how the system's been so far.

Jeff Baicher (24:52):

Yeah, I mean the, you know, the da was just whatever it was, 78 80 teams, I don't know. But you know, if, if you can create a national league and if the, and if the local communities can work together I think somehow in that process we're going to be able to push the, you know, the American player further along. Right. But, but to be fair, I mean, back in 2007 when the Academy started, and we'll talk boys, not girls, but you know, they, it was, it was good. I mean, you saw within 10 years the player development like increase a thousand percent. Right. Whether it's a coach education or the methodology or the accountability from us soccer about how we train. But I mean, if you look at my staff now versus what it was 15 years ago, I mean it's, it's incredibly different. And, but that's, that's the expectation. So, you know, putting the, you know, putting the development back onto the clubs I think is, is, is a good thing. But somehow the, you know, the, the United States, that's to get a little bit more connected club to club club to pro club and that, that, that will help us.

Quincy Amarikwa (26:02):

Got you. So kind of from, from your perspective and where you're sitting and you see it what do you think that folks, so if, if we're not looking, if we look at the short term as an opportunity, right? In the first couple months, maybe three to six months, like we're talking about, it's going to not look pleasant. It's not going to be great. There's going to be some sacrifices, some cutbacks and needed to be made. But if we can find that thing that we can focus on to get better. So, for instance, I would tell a kid, Hey, if the only thing you can focus on right now, you work on your first touch. If you work on your first touch, six months, three years, five years from now, that will benefit you. That will be the crux that works in this system, a new system, the system doesn't matter what would be, what do you think that the, that version of that would be core for where the overall state of coaching in America is? And I know that's a big, it's a big question, right? But, but like, if we can only pick something, one thing to singularly focusing on, what do you think would be best for us?

Jeff Baicher (27:07):

That's a, that's a great question. I think the, I think we have a lot of athletes. You know, especially in the MLS, you have a lot of athletes. But if you look at like the teams that were so successful take some of the Spanish teams, you know, they weren't filled with a bunch of athletes to be fair, right? They were filled with players that can think four or five, six steps ahead. Right? Their head was never in the ground. Their head was, was always up. Head was always up. And so, you know, when we, when we talk in our club, we always say to parents and players, what's the number one thing, the best thing a player can have by the time they leave our club. And it's pretty incredible. They'll go through speed, technical, tactical, all these different things, right? And the one thing we always say is decision making.

Jeff Baicher (27:54):

If you can be a good decision maker, it hides all your faults. And so, you know, a curriculum or methodology that yes, it's first touch all the things that we need. But also there's a focus also in decision making so that the players can be self-motivating it can and can make changes in the games on their own. Right? It's like the most difficult phase of the game for me is probably the possession phase, right? Because now you have players that have, they make a decision, do we go attack or do we keep the ball in the possession phase? And that's a decision, no doubt, we've got to get out of the buildup. Right? So I don't know the answer to that, but I think we need to be, I think we need to find a way to make better decision makers for our youth and then let them kind of advance them there.

Quincy Amarikwa (28:36):

I love that. I like that a lot. And the reason why I liked that a lot is because a lot of what we discuss here as you can tell MSL the, I mean your head, the mental strength league is focusing in on the mentality aspect of just life in the game. Cause if we can understand how to process situations of uncertainty like this and we can figure it out and create plans to take action and make good decisions to be better off in the future, that's going to translate well on the field as well as off. So I, I you're hearing me on praise on that everybody, if you're, if you're liking what Jeff's been dropping, dropped down those, there you go. Everyone's already spending that heart button dropping them on me or hit the movies. You're hearing it full circle. It's mentality is a huge aspect. And not having a good mentality. It means you're not making good decisions. So,

Jeff Baicher (29:26):

Well I think one of the, one of the points too I'll comment on is like when you talk about the social media, you brought it up at the beginning. I mean how amazing our players, what they have at their fingertips. Youtube, what you're doing. I mean just, I mean I have parent coaches went when it was just luck, God that I ended up being a player that I was, but it wasn't because of coaching. Right. So what is the difference in the player? How does the player improve? And it's self motivation. Yep. Right? And I don't know if you all got to see the opening MLS game a couple of weeks ago. They say they put it live on ESPN and Eric, when all that was doing the commentators, a good friend of mine, but my seven year old boy watching the game and Eric does that cut back in score, right? And, and my seven year old boy runs into the backyard. He dribbles down the left side, cuts it in and shoots and he's running around like this going Eric Wynalda. Right. But, but that is where our players, they have to look imitate. They have to try and, and I think you know that self motivation is really what puts some players above other players. Yeah.

Quincy Amarikwa (30:26):

Yeah. And well we, I think I discussed that here. I think it was on last week's episode where I said the advantage of being the younger generation and having access to literally watching and listening to our conversation here right now with the historical context and experience we have and them is they've never experienced anything different. So it's a different type of difficulty for you listening and watching at home because you know what to do. It sometimes makes it harder to do because you'll be, I'll get to it later. It's always going to be there. Oh, I got plenty of time. And the one thing we read today, we definitely talked about a lot here and why we made the free time management sheet to keep track of your time. Is that because of access to this information in this technology, you let time slip by and we talk here, time is your most valuable asset.

Quincy Amarikwa (31:18):

Once it's gone, it's gone. You can't re spend it, you can't reuse it. So you need to invest it wisely and for all the advantages you guys have with technology and access to us. And this, your disadvantage is that you take it for granted and you're not doing as much work as you need to to get to this level and beyond cause it's a whole lot more work than what you see. You see. So you're having this conversation, it seems casual. It's fun, but we're here cause Jeff put in a whole lot of work time and effort to get to his position, enroll where he's at and I have as well too. And that's the stuff that you guys aren't seeing and we're hopefully getting you to understand what the MSL mentality with the ongoing training, with the show, the training courses and all of that.

Quincy Amarikwa (32:02):

So Jeff, I'm loving what you're sharing man. And kind of your philosophy, your outlook on the game. And, and I think it's not a, I don't think it's a quaint, I know you said by some stroke of luck, but I, for me, I don't think it's a coincidence that you got to where you're at. I think it's a result of a lot of hard work and effort and learning from, from making many, many mistakes. I'm sure you made a lot of mistakes along the way. That's true. That is true. So was there, was there anything that you were wanting to make sure that, you know, those listening in understood it took away that you were wanting to promote or share or, or kind of pass on that we did not cover?

Jeff Baicher (32:47):

No, I don't think, you know, I think right now, big topic is, you know, sheltered home, right? And so everyone's talking about that. And I think for us in the club and everywhere, I'm sure it's like just helping the players not be depressed, you know, and not sit in the house. I mean, just getting outside and understanding that they can move the needle, you know, they can move the needle technically, like you talked about, right? And if they work hard enough and spend time doing it they're going to come back better and maybe more mentally refreshed as well. Right? And so you know, I remember we were at Santa Clara, Paul and I and others, obviously there was a lot of great players in there, but there used to be racquetball courts underneath the gym and we used to go finish training and then go into the racquetball courts. You know, and it's just that you wonder why those players that did that ended up being pros for 12 years or 10 years or whatever. Right? And so what extra work are you going to put in if you want it, right. If you want it. And so I think that's for me in this message is you have the world at your fingertips. You just got to go out and put in the work, you know?

Quincy Amarikwa (33:55):

Yup. I've doubled that. So that's a, that's an MSL mentality if I've ever heard one man. And I I love having you. I love having you on. Let's see what we got here. Everyone spam that heart button. Make sure I'm staying. I'm seeing everybody engaged. Still drop in some comments. What are your takeaways so far? What you've heard from Jeff and let's see. We'll take one more question from the audience if it's, if it's coming in here before, I know you got plenty that you're working on Jeff, and, and got to get to I'm happy that you, that you were able to come in and, and fit, fit the show into your schedule, man. Let's see what we got here as everyone's coming in.

Quincy Amarikwa (34:41):

Yes, sir. Nothing but soccer said. That's great advice. Thanks so much. Canine. K 23 Hampton gave you the, the, I'm in your head. Emoji. Shout out. There's a lot of the mentality that's bendy said Gucci gang. I'm a, I'm assuming that's a, that's a vote of approval. Zurich Zuri said I got to work hard and use your time wisely. Yes, yes. Zo. Zoe chug tan, said great knowledge bombs, dropping them knowledge bombs. Dan's a boys and girls going to ECN now. Okay. So there we go. That would, I think that'd be a good one for the last one coming in. Cause I know we didn't directly say it, but I think you had just released the news for the girls side on the boys side. So maybe wanted to give a little bit of background on that and we could wrap it up from there.

Jeff Baicher (35:34):

Yeah, I mean we, this is a you Paul Bravo, Eric. I'm a Modo and you know, Brandy chestain, some big names obviously have been grinding the pavement this last two weeks. Trying to just, you know, work with everybody and try to find out, again, not maybe what is the shiny coin right now, but where, where, where does the ans and thorns fit in, in five years. Right. And that's a really hard one to, to plan out. And so you know what, what we've done so far for sure is that we've taken the girls into ECL and at the moment that's, that's all that we have been able to commit to. And we're excited. We're excited. We, we were any sent out, we won a national championship in ACNL and, and it's a great league, so we're really excited to be back.

Quincy Amarikwa (36:22):

Awesome. Alright man. Well Jeff, thank you very much for, for your time and sharing that wisdom and knowledge. We will maybe we'll hopefully do a, an update asset soccer pro show episode in a couple of months here once, once there's a bit more understanding of where, where the club is, where your guys' direction is or even even sooner if some news comes out. But yeah, man, I want to thank you again for joining in everybody. Give a shout out to Jeff showing him some love and appreciation. I know he doesn't have any personal social media accounts. Hopefully. Maybe we'll, we'll, we'll pressure you into making some so we can get some people to follow you, but if not, make sure to follow the, the force of the thorns account. Stay up to date on what's going on on that side. And yeah. Was there

Jeff Baicher (37:09):

Nope. Just Hey, thank you for everything you do for the players. It's, it's it's great. Thanks a lot.

Quincy Amarikwa (37:17):

Awesome man. Thanks again.

Jeff Baicher (37:19):

Okay.

Quincy Amarikwa (37:19):

Thank you brother. Later.

Quincy Amarikwa (37:23):

Alright, big shout out to Jeff. Thank you very much Jeff for joining in. Everybody tell Jeff thank you. Make sure once we're done with the show you guys head over there and say thank you on the accounts. And for those of you who were wondering about the program that Jeff was referencing for his daughter, head over to perfect soccer skills.com/create accounts. You can get access to the weekly program that that they're going through over there that coach Ryan has been working on. Everybody shout out coach Ryan and the double header. Second man at the hour has just joined in. We got Hérculez Gómez. So I'm juiced to continue this live, this episode that's suck per show while he's jumping in here. Yo, what's going on man?

Hérculez Gómez (38:13):

How you doing man?

Quincy Amarikwa (38:14):

You know steady staying productive and, and taking advantage of all the extra time that this unfortunate pandemic has afforded us.

Hérculez Gómez (38:24):

Yes. There. Yes sir. Stay safe out there. My people is.

Quincy Amarikwa (38:27):

How about how about you? What's been going on in your end? Fortunately enough, I've been working I've had the

Hérculez Gómez (38:36):

Capability, this is actually the studio. I'm in my home studio so I record out of here and people won't believe this, but when you guys watch like sports center or anything like that, majority of the time we can do this from an iPad

Quincy Amarikwa (38:50):

Showing, showing people how it, how it really works.

Hérculez Gómez (38:52):

Yeah. And see we just put on the back and that's it. But I've been I've been working, I had a, I do a lot of Spanish stuff or ESPN deported this. I had a few English things today as well, but they keep us busy man, where it's getting tough trying to be creative and find content, but it's it's fun.

Quincy Amarikwa (39:10):

That's okay. That's good. We'll, before you even get into other stuff. That's interesting. What have you found to be uniquely difficult about finding content when there is no game being played?

Hérculez Gómez (39:21):

Exactly. That there are, there are no games being played. So you can't really react. You have to create and the like in football, I can soccer, the hardest thing to do is create the most easy, the simplest thing to do is destroy, you know and I was making fun of the defenders and my boys were, all my boys are defenders of goalkeepers, but it's very simple to destroy. It's very easy to destroy, but to create, that's difficult. And it's the same thing on our side. We've got to try to find a way to, because everybody's going to talk about the same content. How can we give it a different twist? How can we captivate your attention? How can we do something different? I'm in a time where I think we all need it. I mean, I listen man, we, we all have family, we all have people. We are responsible. We're worried for, we need escapes. So soccer for a lot of us is exactly that. The sport is exactly that. So it's good to find avenues and different ways to get away from it. And so what we try to do,

Quincy Amarikwa (40:18):

No, I love that. So I know you might have become recently aware of the Assa soccer pro show. What we've been doing here. We're already, I think we're on episodes. I see. I have to think about it. I think we're on episode 69 today. I've been doing the live show around the Instagram for over a year, almost a year and a half now. So love having you join in on the show, but a big philosophy idea that we talk about is the MSL or the mental strength leak an adapter diamond tality and create out of chaos. And how to thrive during chaos. And obviously the pandemic is not something that everybody is thrilled about, but based on the mentality you take during this time, you can create something for yourself that wouldn't otherwise be available, you know, in the weeks or months ahead.

Hérculez Gómez (41:03):

Absolutely. Uh my mentality has always been sink or swim. You know, it's, it's you can complain about what's going wrong, what you don't have what others have, what's not going your way. But that's not gonna really do anything for you, especially in this life. And when this pandemic kit, you know I can give you various examples and the most glaring is there was nothing on TV, you know but I host a, a daily show, five days a week on ESPN. Deportes is, and it's all like, all of a sudden we're not on there. What do we do? So we had to find ways of getting creative. And we started doing interviews via zoom and we started editing those interviews with templates of our show. And then we started, you know, packaging them out to different, you know, shows within the company at ESPN.

Hérculez Gómez (41:46):

And ESPN Deportes and doing things like that. And on the English side it was like, all right, well, what can I do to be useful? What can I do? Stay relevant in a way. I started doing these interviews and just like you're doing, I started hitting up my friends, my boys, my, you know, people within the game. And as a DeMarcus Beasley, I said, I got this idea. I've been trying to get this podcast off the ground for, since max and Herc, you know perished maximum rentals. You know, he's, he ended up leaving the company. So that was the end of max and Eric and, and I had the itch to get back in the podcast world. And I want to do this series of interviews where I kind of go, Joe Rogan ask on it. You know, we can talk about the sport, but it could take us anywhere.

Hérculez Gómez (42:25):

You know, if you want to talk about whatever you want to talk about, if it's movies, if it's like books, whatever you want to talk about, whatever your interest is. We'll go there. And I said, BS, I want to do this interview with you. He's like, yeah, no problem. Like I need at least 45 minutes of your time. He said, damn, 45 minutes. I was like, yeah man, I want to cover your career. I think you're pretty cool guy to profile. You know, I know you very well, but most people don't really know you like I know you. I think it'd be cool. So sure, no problem. We did an hour and 40 minutes. You know, you just, you get, you get in there and you go down the rabbit hole and it was a lot of fun. And because of that it just one snowballed into the other.

Hérculez Gómez (43:00):

And I ended up getting [inaudible] coach. It was the Mexican national team coach. I got him in English and you know, he spoke about being coached at Guna WeDo Athletico he spoke about the OT world cup and then, and again, gluten again, you know, man city player and it keeps kind of snowballing. And before you know it in this time of need, I'm doing something I didn't do before because I didn't lay down. You know, I didn't, I didn't say, well we can't do anything. I was being proactive and, and you know this Quincy, more often than not, you're going to have the doors slammed in your face.

Quincy Amarikwa (43:31):

Yeah. Most of the time. Most of the time the door's always slammed in your face. What do you do when that happens? So, okay. I would say, and this is an assumption on my side, so I'd like a little bit of your feedback on that. Especially for context for the audience, right? You were a striker and that was your main position. That is how you put food on the table and that is a very competent position that there's a lot of people trying to come after you and tear you down. Right? You got to have a certain, you got to develop a certain type of mentality to thrive at that level, especially for multiple years. Yeah. So what do you believe you learned on the field that allows you to translate that skill off the field during a time like this?

Hérculez Gómez (44:10):

Adapt if you want to eat brother, you know how this is I think you and I understand each other very well and this sometimes I'm sure you came on the field not being that night, not being the lone striker, not being the go to guy. If you want to get on the fields, you'd have to play in the midfield on the rights on left underneath that striker, you'd have to do the dirty work because there was already that Stryker in place, you have to do whatever you can to get on the field. And that was the same, same case for me, you know, I mean, I was a forward my majority of my life, majority my career. But now that I'm looking back on the years, I had a 17 year career, maybe more often than not, I didn't play poleward more often than not.

Hérculez Gómez (44:47):

I played as a, I mean with the national team, my prime years that actually got to play and I was a big part of the national team with Bob or with Juergen. I ended up playing in the midfield, kind of outside on the left and it was the same thing. Work hard, be a good teammate. And when the ball gets on the other side, pinching, become that second forward, be creative because you're going to have ways where you're going to find gold scoring opportunities. And I, you know, for better or worse, I had that about me growing up where I had that sixth sense in and around the box, you know, can always strike a ball. But then I started being a little craftier and the way I found opportunities and you know, when you, when you want to play and you realize it's getting your results, you keep doing the same thing, the same formula regardless of the position.

Hérculez Gómez (45:30):

And that's kind of been my mantra regardless of whether it's the sport or you know, or out of the sport. It's not about talent. You know, for me it's been, my work ethic has been about sometimes quantity over quality. Being honest. Cause if you pound that door long enough it's about to happen. And listen, I played for 17 years and I played with players that were a hell of a lot better than me, but they played maybe two years. They had maybe a six year career. They had maybe a handful of years where they were productive and for whatever reason, as long as I kept getting a little better and just kept going, you know, I keep eating.

Quincy Amarikwa (46:07):

I love that one. So Paul and they're set adaptor dime mentalities or he said love strikers. AOL K O V a R said. What'd he say? Suave. Stop shape. Oh, shame hurts, man.

Hérculez Gómez (46:21):

It's getting, it's getting big. It's getting a quarantine beard.

Quincy Amarikwa (46:23):

Uh it's all good. It's all good. But what was my point with that was we talk a lot here about small improvements over time, yield, big results, right? We're here to develop a longterm winners mindset and we look at it as the the penny a day compounding effect. And if you haven't heard or understood that, we'd like to pose to the audience here. If there's between two options, I'll pay you. I'll cut you a $50,000 check here today. Cash. Or I'll give you one penny today and I'll double it every day for 30 days. Which do you choose?

Hérculez Gómez (46:58):

Penny and David. I was like the lottery man. Don't take the lump sum.

Quincy Amarikwa (47:01):

Okay. So then if you might already know this, but how much, how much more, if obviously you're picking it because it's more than 50,000. How much more than 50,000 do you think it is?

Hérculez Gómez (47:11):

For? How long did you say?

Hérculez Gómez (47:13):

So 30 days. So one penny today. Two payments tomorrow for pennies day three, eight pennies day for 16 pennies day five 32 pennies. Day six. Oh man, you're making me break out the map. This is, wow.

Quincy Amarikwa (47:26):

We're going ballpark here. Just top of the head. And just off the top of your head, you think it's more than 50. So how much more than 50 do you think it is?

Speaker 1 (47:37):

I don't know. Maybe not that much. More than 50 if I've gone top of the head, let's say 60 65 okay.

Quincy Amarikwa (47:44):

I appreciate you saying that. I appreciate you saying that cause this will set context more context for everybody here on the live. There's other people who've been on, they've heard this from me before. K 23 I know you're in here, you've heard this also this weekend molesters joined in. What's up? It's over $2 million almost. I think it's over $4 million.

Hérculez Gómez (48:03):

Oh there you go. Good thing I took it.

Quincy Amarikwa (48:05):

Correct. And the main, the reason why I want to say that, cause I definitely want to tie it into what you're, what you're saying here, if I get a little bit better, right? Everybody, most people, even when you hear that and you know it's more than 50 most of the time you, you go conservative and you think close to 50 you're not thinking three, 4 million.

Quincy Amarikwa (48:26):

And that's the power of getting a little bit better every day and consistent. And how you ended up getting a 17 year career and there's little things that you see with guys you know are better than you. Right? But they're not better than you five years from now. And that's what you're focusing on.

Hérculez Gómez (48:41):

This is where I wish I was a little bit more like Matthew staffer. Get that break out the mathematician really quick.

Quincy Amarikwa (48:45):

There you go. I love it, but it's, it's good. I like that example because, because the answer is exponential and we think in linear fashion, one, not two, four, six, eight, 12, immediately it goes outside of our realm of understanding and what we talk about, all of our thing here as a philosophy of mentality as you have, as you can tell and mindset and understanding the limitations of our own self belief.

Hérculez Gómez (49:10):

I think that's, that's a good point as well as understanding your own limitations. I mean, this is the same reason why people have financial advisors, why they have they go in and they seek counsel and certain fields that they're not aware of. Lebron James, where if his buddies, all his friends were going to be in his grip. Well make them study. Make them be the people who decide to make them educated. You know, it's the same kind of thing.

Quincy Amarikwa (49:34):

Yep. A hundred percent. No, I'm loving it. Cause a core value here is teamwork makes the dream work. And here at perfect soccer, everyone's on the team. We're all invested in ourselves and investment in perfect soccer's an investment in yourself and we're longterm winner mindset out here. So I'm loving that. I want to transition over a little bit, especially the reason why we ended up getting connected.

Quincy Amarikwa (49:54):

We ended up getting connected here because of my interview with Wayne. On episode 66 of the ASA soccer pro show. For those of you, if you haven't listened, go ahead and make sure you have listen. But Wayne and I developed a really good relationship while I was here. I respected his willingness to understand the issues of the union, the issues of the player pool, the American player when he definitely did not have to write. He genuinely was interested. He wanted to learn. He spent hours and hours having conversations with me to learn and a big reason why he felt compelled to come back and share his perspective kind of on the fly just on the

Quincy Amarikwa (50:28):

Show when we're having a conversation and I believe you in special Ash, Sebastian salads, Hondo Moreno happened to pick up that and had a conversation on ESPN FC.

Hérculez Gómez (50:41):

Correct.

Quincy Amarikwa (50:42):

Okay. I was quite ente. What I saw and how, how it played out and for me the perspective that I can have watching it, I have a lot more of the historical perspective and understanding. I also saw your reaction to Sebastian's reaction. So I kind of want to, I'll give you the floor so you can kind of share your initial thoughts, what you thought he was missing, what, what is going on there and then kind of a few more for you after that.

Hérculez Gómez (51:12):

Well, see, my initial reaction wasn't really on, on what is Wayne Rooney or his reaction was more Sebastian styles are and Sevi Salazar trying to go after Wayne of why is Wayne talking now?

Hérculez Gómez (51:22):

Why didn't he use this platform when he was in major league soccer white and he speak up then, which I think Sebastian is going for assert, I mean savvy, I don't know if you know the story, but the seventies one of the guys who was Gungko against Wayne Rooney going to DC United, it didn't fit the market. It didn't speak to the relevance of the community there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And we just sent him through the ringer at FC and it ended up being the right move for DC United and up being the right move at the time for Wayne Rooney, he gave us some unbelievable moments. So for him it was more of us reacting savvy, still kind of beating that drum and not letting it go. Gotcha. But in a way, maybe savvy does have a point. There are certain times when a player has both the clouds and the platform and they're perfect examples of when you can use them.

Hérculez Gómez (52:10):

Maybe Wayne did, maybe he just didn't voice it externally. Maybe he didn't voice it to the world like he did on your podcast. And I'll give you an example right now, you guys are in this crazy situation where you're being asked by ownership to take a salary cut. And from what I understand from the owners is it's a prorated salary cut and depending dependent on the amount of games that you ended up playing in major league soccer, it's the amounts that you will be reduced, yada, yada, yada, all these technical things. And there was a call between the players and the ownership group and it was something like a hundred something players that were involved. And [inaudible] is one of the guys who actually spoke up, this was recently and a lot of this isn't public, but he spoke out and players were very happy with the way he used his platform with the way player of his background, his cloud at the moment, his stock used his platform within the ownership group to not voice displeasure but to say like, Hey, this may be hurting you more than just financially if you end up doing this.

Hérculez Gómez (53:12):

And I'm sure, I think it was, he voiced it. Like other players from beyond will think twice about coming if we handle this the wrong way, so let's all come to terms and handle it the right way. So that's one way of doing it. I don't really know if Wayne Rooney did that when he was here, if not. But our reaction was more going on that because listen, you know what? It's like you've been traded from teams. I don't know if you've been waived. I've been weighed from teams, but it doesn't necessarily leave you in the most protected position. And when you get traded from a market, like let's just say Colorado, which is a very affordable housing market compared to California, you're going to go to California, you're going to make the same amount of money to live in a more expensive housing market and they're only going to give you, I believe back then when I was in the league and my salary was $3,500 to do your move.

Hérculez Gómez (54:04):

Now I was a single guy. I was 25, 26 years old. So it didn't really impact me that much, but to be a guy with a family and have to make that move, uproot your family, your kids out of school, your wife had or her position because I'm sure she's going to be working as well to go to a more expensive housing markets without really any say because you've signed over your feet pro rights, which is what major league soccer players do. That's a lot to handle. And I've played abroad, I've played in Mexico and I've played. And if type of football, that's first world I would say in the way they give attention to the game and the way that they spend money on players, the amount of money within that's not the case of major league soccer and it's getting a lot better, but it's very disheartening. It's very hard to swallow if you're major league soccer player and that happens to you.

Quincy Amarikwa (54:52):

No, I agree. And maybe to give a little more context for you as well too, in terms of, I think a big mistake that a lot of people make, especially those who are on platforms like ESPN and, and others who are commenting on the game, on the outside looking in. A lot of times when they're making comments, it's, it's, it's always saying he hasn't used his platform. So in the case of Wayne, he hasn't used the platform for this. When it's not, he hasn't used this platform. It's, you weren't paying attention when he did and now you're choosing to pay attention. But he's been saying this all along. So if looking at his tweets back last year, what do you put? You know, this is a trap. Yeah, this is unacceptable. MSL. This is, you know, these are things he's seeing and he's pointing out and he's reading

Hérculez Gómez (55:38):

When I told them about MSL, because that's, that's, that's the thing from back in the day that we used to always say about major league soccer, not doing things right.

Quincy Amarikwa (55:45):

So the mental strength league man is mindset is not,

Hérculez Gómez (55:49):

But you know what I'm talking about.

Quincy Amarikwa (55:50):

I understand, but MSL, the mental strength league and the mindset and mentality is what you need to get through. How ridiculously unfair the system is for American players. Right? Most people, most people do not have the firsthand experience and they're not listening to American players because guys like Salazar will sit here and crap all over American players, all they're not good. Oh, they're not this. And I'm going like, you don't know how to play the game. You would get killed by any of us on the field. You wouldn't say any of this to any of our faces, but you'll talk from the top of your little mountain in your green screen and you're never being held accountable for what you're saying. But you have a huge influence on individuals who are coming into the league for the first time, who have no frame of reference, who don't understand the history and everything that's out of your mouth is American players or crap American players or this American players aren't good enough. And you want,

Hérculez Gómez (56:49):

Yeah, but Quincy, Quincy, Quincy, and I understand where you're coming from. And I by no means of going to defend Sebastian. He's a big boy. But I can't tell you he will say it to set person's face because that's his job. And also, and I found this out very quickly working now on this side, and I work in two different cultures. I'll be on TV in the States and on TV in Mexico. And listen, I've gotten crushed in multiple languages and multiple countries have been trending topic, you know, whatever you want, whether it's good or bad. I've been there, sometimes us as athletes, we were very quick to pull the trigger and say, you've never played. You don't know. But then what we're telling the audiences you've never played, you don't know. So that's, that can't really be,

Quincy Amarikwa (57:33):

I hear you, but that's not, but that's not my point that I'm, I'm making, right. That's not my point that I'm making. I'm saying you don't understand the experience of being an American player in this American system to sit here and say that one we aren't, we're compensated good enough and we should just shut up and dribble and play when he has no context for what he is asking players to do. Minimum salary is 80,000 right? When I'm in DC this year, I have a family and kids. I'm 11 year veteran. In my perspective sport, I have a lot of value to provide not only on the field but off the field as well too. And you're, you're explaining and telling guys who've helped to build the league to a level that you can speak about and make money talking about you're not paying any homage or recognizing the fact that their hard work and effort is a big reason why you can crap on them and to just dismiss them is this is unfair. I believe you may be right about it being unfair to an extent. And I don't want to cut, I don't want to totally cut you off. We can jump back on cause Oh no, no problem. No problem. Instagram, Instagram limits you to an hour. So Instagram is going to cut me off here in a minute. I want to save this, so let me end it and then we'll come back in,

Hérculez Gómez (58:48):

Okay. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Part II



Quincy Amarikwa (00:11):

[Inaudible]

Quincy Amarikwa (00:11):

Tony, what's going on? Yeah, I'm having a great conversation with with Herc. Joe Jackson. Welcome back. 23 teapot this weekend. MLS. Justin, welcome. Welcome. Welcome. Yeah. Having a great conversation with with Herc and you guys know the show goes for an hour, but I'm loving this with Herc and,

Quincy Amarikwa (00:31):

Okay. We don't want it with the show doesn't end. The show goes on. Hey mama. What up brother? Alright. John. Yeah, my brother welcome. Welcome. Yet, John, everyone's saying they're loving the combo, so we gotta keep it going, man. And I, I liked this, so I didn't, I didn't want to cut you off.

Hérculez Gómez (00:50):

No, you're fine. Here's what I will say. I don't disagree with what you're saying because I feel where you've been. Trust me, I was making $1,200, 250, $1,250 a month to live in California the year that we want to double in Los Angeles with the galaxy. And I was voted the team MVP as a developmental player. So I feel the struggle, I know what it's about, but this just adds fuel to those fires where the American soccer player is weak. Where the American soccer player is insecure, where the, just in general and listen, I will harp on our soccer culture in general is very insecure.

Hérculez Gómez (01:24):

We constantly compare each other to European leagues or European fans or whatever. What we're always, we feel we have a sense of inadequacy that I don't really understand. What I will say about what you're saying right now is Sebastian Salazar. It doesn't have to play Amish to anybody, to any major league soccer player. He's got to play homage to the guys where, who are in his position where this league started out. You know what I mean? Not the player. He has his reasons for not believing Wayne or to contradict Wayne, but all that is essential to the growth of the sport in this country because when we're in a sense, and that's what I'm there, that's why I was there. That's why I believe it was all a hundred Merino could have been correct Burley. I'm not too sure who was there with us, but that's what the other guys were there for, to the perspective.

Hérculez Gómez (02:12):

Cause I believe the way that segment played out was both of us who were there, whether it was all a hundred percent ROI or Burley and I completely going against what Sebastian Salazar was going with and more of a different perspective. So that's essential because it can't always be the same train of thought. Rather whether you think it's right or wrong. Now does he have a certain sense of spice or is this certain different brand when he, when he brings it out, of course, of course. But that's very, that's very, how can I say? It's non traditional in our landscape and a lot of people actually enjoy that. Oh and here's what, here's where I understand. I'm not saying his ignorance doesn't help the league get exposure.

Quincy Amarikwa (02:59):

When he spews what he's spewing, it creates conversation because of his ignorance. We're connected now and having a conversation and educating the audience on what it actually is so they can see when guys like that speak, they're speaking on things they don't know what they're talking about. For me, I, I'm not going to say that I am better at what he does than him when I haven't been in his world and doing it. There are plenty of things that he probably is much better than me at and I will pay homage or pay respect or acknowledge those things, but his his arrogance in an unwillingness to think that he could be wrong in what he's saying about players without even considering it as a potential potentiality, especially after you're giving me more context on the fact that he thought Wayne was a terrible move and a terrible this and a terrible debt and you're telling me he can't even acknowledge that he was wrong about that, which is why he's dug himself even to an even deeper hole in his argument with you at that time. For me, and I'm just saying outside looking in and that's where I'm going. Like, Oh, when you're giving me context, it makes more sense to me now because he doesn't want to let, he doesn't want to admit that he's wrong. And that's a problem with culture here in America. Soccer culture. We do not reward anybody who admits to making a mistake or shows that they're wrong because you get crucified, you're better off denying you're wrong about everything.

Hérculez Gómez (04:34):

I think always cause that's how you make your way up the ranks. But you just said it Quincy and we're sitting here having a conversation because what he said struck a nerve with you and it probably struck a nerve with a lot of different other people, right? That's cause and effect. A lot of these, and this is not just here in the States, they're out like a lot of pundits out there and we've seen them in different sports all the time. The Stephen A's, the skip Bayless is the conch hours we've seen him and I work in Mexico as well. Latin America, I see them there all the time. There are times at 100 over there, I've got to deal with maybe 50 of those guys at a time. We see them in England, which seem different. That's what this culture is around the world.

Hérculez Gómez (05:13):

Football, soccer. It's not at the stage right now where you're going to turn on the TV and it's gonna be talking about 24, seven, at least on American soccer. Do you know what I mean? But that doesn't mean we can't cover it in our FC world the way it would be covered in other countries. And that's what I do in dress. What I do like, and listen, it took me a while. Once I went to Mexico and I started getting really hammered, really, really good and just my name just slandered in the papers and the press or just on TB as a player. And now as a pundit where at any given day, major league soccer plays a concave champions league game and they may lose whatever team. It could be a team. I've never even heard about first year and major league soccer they lose to a Mexican team.

Hérculez Gómez (05:57):

My mentor is going to be flooded in Twitter. It's going to be a bunch of people in Mexico and Latin America saying, there goes your league, this and that, and the same thing on this side. If whatever happens, the Mexican team was to major league soccer teams. There you go. You met MLS haters, this and that. It, this is par for the course in other countries and I think a lot of this is good. It's good. Thick skinned is good. It's good to have different perspectives. It's good that you get fired up because some guy was talking about an interview you did about one of the world's biggest superstars in his moments. I'm not using this platform. This is the dialogue discourse that we've been needing to have quite some time. I welcome more of this.

Quincy Amarikwa (06:39):

Correct here too. To your point, the one thing that you had mentioned was other countries, and what I'm saying is that's the root of the insecurity here in America. We don't have to. Just because they do it in another country doesn't mean that's how it needs to be done here. And just because Sebastian says that Wayne has never used his platform for the positive or the group. Where was he? When? Where was he when he was playing? Well, he was speaking up, but you weren't listening and he's still speaking up now. And the way in which you've rationalized it in your mind is that it's propaganda and he's, what does he stand to gain by coming back to a minimum salary veteran 11 year pro who everyone thinks is crashed while.

Hérculez Gómez (07:25):

You're preaching to the choir

Quincy Amarikwa (07:27):

But hear me out here. Who is all the people in the, who are you?

Quincy Amarikwa (07:32):

You're just some random guy. You look at your stats, your scrap, you're this. I understand it. I don't mind MSL. We turn the negativity and we build our bread. Please hate on me, please get on me. But what we talk about here is facts in truth, and if I'm wrong, I'll admit and say that I'm wrong. But in the MSL, if you don't admit to your mistakes, it only makes you look worse over time. And for me, what made got me fired up and what made me tune in was the fact that this guy is lying and I need to know if he knows he's lying and which means he's trying to be manipulative or he just doesn't know because no one's let him be aware, which is me making him aware of his ignorance.

Hérculez Gómez (08:16):

Tell you, I will tell you this about him. He's one of the smarter individuals I've come across in the game and especially in what he wants to get out there. But I honestly think he feels this way about Wayne Rooney. I honestly think his initial gut told them Wayne Rooney was a bad idea and he's still holding clinging on to it. It can be hardheadedness, it can be whatever you want. And I think it was a mistake. I mean, I think the, the numbers talk to themselves, but he'll turn around and say, Oh yeah, you want to send out the numbers. Tell me how many sellers DC United hat. Tell me how many championships they won. Tell me how many games they won. You know? So there's a different, and.

Quincy Amarikwa (08:55):

I'm okay with that because I'll have that conversation with him as well too, because this is what I'm saying, like when somebody, especially in the the pundit world and the, the online world is wrong, they try to point to other stats to validate rather than just admit or concede that they lost from that point and move forward and build, rebuild their argument. I think by denying your mistakes. Right. And we talked about this, knowing yourself, knowing your mistakes, being honest with yourself. For me, I look at it the same way that I look at it on the soccer field. You're not, you're not going to win every argument and you're not going to be right about everything. You're going to learn and grow, but you won't learn and grow if you don't, if you're not open to the idea that you could be wrong and that there's better data out there, better perspectives, better experience, just like I'm willing to have that conversation with him. But for me, if you're pivoting over to, Oh, well, what about stats and wins and stuff, I would then question him right in asking, okay, how about before something happens? You set the context for what determines success or failure. So we could discuss that first and then we won't have to argue about whether you are right or not because you, you, you wrote it down in the beginning instead of, instead of all these deflection tactics that,

Hérculez Gómez (10:19):

Yeah, but you know what he's going to tell you. And listen, I would love to watch this interaction. He's going to tell you, people will tune out by the time he actually got to the point. Do you know what I mean? So then get better at your job. That's, that's, that's not really what it's about. And any sport, any sport, you can't, and this is why it's very difficult to have an X's and O's conversation on TV. This is what I mean. Trust me, I've been there I've been on national TV live and they say, get your point across out in 30 seconds. Go, you know, and you're like, it's a very difficult thing and you want to give it context. You want to give it actual meat, but more often than not, you're painting with very broad strokes.

Hérculez Gómez (10:58):

Correct. But her, this is what I'm, I'm of the belief of, right. I think you're dead on with wanting to do the Joe Rogan S type podcast. You can delve into it because, because I think the audience at large is sick of hot takes from guys like Sebastian with no context or understanding. I think people are going to, as time goes on, want longer, deeper, thoughtful conversations, just like the one that we're having to get a better true representation of what's going on.

Hérculez Gómez (11:30):

That's why there's different platforms, you know?

Quincy Amarikwa (11:32):

Correct. And I, and I think, I think as time goes on, the audience will become more educated over time, which now means the average viewer is more educated. They want to, they maybe they don't want to stay in that state of, you're right, you're wrong, you're right, you're wrong. Okay. Hey, let's enjoy the game. Let's learn about it. Let's not, let's not assume that American players are crap just because there's American in front of their name and then assume that they're the best player in the world because there's an international symbol in front of it. And I'm going like, that is, that's so superficial. That's so discriminative. It's so ignorant that I don't see how people can't see, but the hypocrisy in it yet for 2020s about the vision, man, I'm a sales here to help people see.

Hérculez Gómez (12:20):

I'm ready for this 2020 to end my man.

Quincy Amarikwa (12:24):

I appreciate, I appreciate you joining in, man. I love the fact that you were quick to respond and to interact and engage. I mean, that's, that's huge. That's huge to me. I think it shows a lot about your character. It shows a lot that you're willing to learn, you want to grow, you want to understand, you want to be better and you know, you want to connect and, and help people understand the game better and just, you know, understand you just like you're saying, you see, I guess we're very similar to the sets. You see DeMarcus Beasley, you know him. You understand it, you want people to know him too. Cause it's the same with me when I was in San Jose, I'm like, I'm just going to start this blog because there's so many characters in here that people need to just see what it's like. These are humans. They're stupid. They're smart, they're funny. They're not, which makes them. Yeah. And I think when more people understand and learn that that pro guy across the table from you is literally just like you, aside from the fact that maybe he can do something with the soccer ball, that you can't, the game will be enjoyed so much more. You know, and we can, we can,

Quincy Amarikwa (13:36):

We can argue, but we can know that we're still all human. At the end of the day, we're all struggling with different things for different reasons. We're all out of it or on a different part of the journey. But I want, I'm happy to ride this MSL wave and journey with you, brother.

Hérculez Gómez (13:51):

I appreciate it. I'm a man and if you ever get Sebastian Salazar on here, let me know. I would love to moderate.

Quincy Amarikwa (13:58):

Absolutely. If you reach out to him so we can have a conversation. Let's set it up. We just actually launched our perfect soccer game or Twitch account. I know we could all connect through Skype and you could be the moderator while we have a conversation and I could let Sebastian educate me on all the ways in which I'm wrong and he can just make me look, look bad and I will happily it, I'll happily enjoy the free education.

Hérculez Gómez (14:23):

Oh, those are pay-per-view numbers. I would love to say

Quincy Amarikwa (14:27):

I love that. Well, is there any initiatives or anything that you're working on or, or you you'd like people to be aware of or share or

Hérculez Gómez (14:34):

Man, honestly, just a, be safe, stay in doors, social distancing. We're not as smart as we think. This isn't going away anytime soon. Yup. I understand. We're all struggling. Take a breath, do your parts and before you know it, this will all be over. But

Quincy Amarikwa (14:52):

Just stay safe, my man. Tell us people out there also, brother. Hey, thanks so much. I appreciate it man. Look to connect. Follow up again in the future.

Hérculez Gómez (14:59):

Let's jump right up against them.

Quincy Amarikwa (15:01):

Yeah, thanks brother.

Hérculez Gómez (15:02):

All right. Later.

Quincy Amarikwa (15:07):

Awesome. that was really great. Hurricane. You're still in. Thanks so much for joining me, man. I appreciate the conversation and the knowledge. Eli said this was the best episode yet. Yes, I'm loving that lot dropped in Quincy versus savvy a. Let's do it. Paul said, I'm in your head. I'm in your head. Emojis bur brim, ham teeth. What's going on, brother Justin said loved the episode. Yes, this was a good one. Joe Jackson said, great conversation, Ryan. Mash Ryan one step at a time. Brother. Everybody knows longterm winner's mindset here. This, this started in the trenches. You guys have been with me from the beginning and we're going to keep rocking and riding this MSL wave together. Paul said Quincy on ESPN. You guys can make it happen or what, you know, the, you got to let you guys gotta let them know if that's what the people want to see.

Quincy Amarikwa (16:02):

But yeah, yeah, no, I'm loving it. It was a great episode. Jeff came in and drop some knowledge and help, hopefully will help a lot of the youth players out there who are wanting to improve and understand how to navigate this time during the dismantlement of the da hurricane man as well, to shared a bit on the American experience and just being a veteran with over 17 years of experience, which is awesome. I, I'm only at year 11, he made year 17, so that, that takes a high level, high level of discipline and understanding. So that doesn't happen by mistake guys. So listen up Quincy to ESPN Disney. Hey, why not a live zoom on PSU tube was savvy and Herc. I'm, look, you gotta start putting it out there. People need, need some content. They need something to talk about and they need, they need that MSL knowledge. So if you guys keep preaching and sharing it, I'm happy to continue to, to speak on it.

Quincy Amarikwa (17:06):

Brim ham, rim ham said I created an account, bro. And we're supposed to, we're supposed to talk today, Birmingham Colin next week. But Sen send over the what you had filled out. What did I ask you? I've talked to a lot of people since up to this point. What did I ask you that you needed to make sure you filled out before you hop back on and we could talk about it. And then we can go there. But everybody, thanks so much for joining in. If there was any questions, maybe drop a question if you've got one. If not, we'll wrap it up for today's episode. I think we, we shared a lot. You guys know I can end up just keep on going cause I'm loving it. For those of you who are still tuning in and you haven't already, make sure you create your perfect soccer skills.com/create accounts.

Quincy Amarikwa (17:52):

Like I the new match balls are in, so you can go check that out and get yourself a match ball. The two, Oh, there we go. The two Oh one portable upgraded soccer goal. Look at that. How beautiful is that? Is back in with the, with the all of that. You guys, that's their skills Academy has been upgraded. We're also creating the beat pro, the pre-pro pro weekly program. You get a special discount if you have your perfect soccer team membership. Joe Jackson. Thanks Gucci. Of course. Thanks for joining. Nan. Justin penny said thanks you. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you guys for joining and thanks for being loyal followers and tuning in and just soaking up that knowledge and more importantly, applying what we share on this account. I'm loving seeing your guys's videos when you're shooting your ball skill in the house with the perfect soccer ball to the portable goal when you guys are tagging and sharing our account and shouting us out. We reshare and love giving, shown love to the community. So Tony said, perfect soccer, three fire emojis. So everybody, as we wind down here and we're going to T we're going to tune out. Can everyone spam that hard button drop in those? I'm in your head emojis so I can see him one last time. Yeah.

Quincy Amarikwa (19:11):

Joe said, Oh, he's absorbing the knowledge in your head. Who movie guys? Mental space is as cheap as it's ever going to be in human history. We're out here claiming lots of it and we're giving it out away. Rent three, so make sure you continue to tune in to the MSL. Claim your free mental space, mental rent, and three years, five years from now, when everybody realizes that this is where they learned about claiming mental real estate and we just created a brand new market, you guys ran on the ground floor when you went on the ground floor. That's when you profit the most. So invest in yourselves. Keep dropping the mind in your head. Emoji is loving that spam.

Quincy Amarikwa (20:00):

Yeah.

Quincy Amarikwa (20:02):

Tell her I'm going to edit this. Make a funny commercial that doesn't even give context so people will have to watch the show to understand what this is about.

Quincy Amarikwa (20:13):

Yeah, yeah.

Quincy Amarikwa (20:17):

Avery said, love the account so much. Keep it up. Good work. Thank you. Joe Jackson. Thank you. England. 2130 I know it's like 400,000 am in the morning out there. Thank you very much. An SES. My singing is high level, just with time in your head. The, the cool, the cool sunglasses, you know thanks for the, I'm in your head. Emoji. Love everybody's spam. That heart stuff. Oh, last thing, and I always say it, but this time, I mean it make sure you guys tune the season goes on. Just because the MLS season is shutdown doesn't mean the MSL didn't turn it back on. Earl goes live every Saturday, 4:30 PM PST, 7:30 PM EST over on the perfect soccer game or Twitch account.

Quincy Amarikwa (21:02):

Perfect. Super skills.com/the season goes on. He's going to be going weekly, challenging an MLS player across the league every single week from here til however long we want to do this for. So joining on the stream this weekend, MLS Eli helps me to commentate on it. We're gonna try to set things up through maybe Twitch as well as the the Instagram accounts. So we can get your guys' questions here. There are prizes over a thousand dollars in prizes up for grabs every week. For those of you who predict the appropriate score, aggregate score of the first round, you get all that information over. Perfect. Cyber skills.com/so the season goes on. So if you're listening to the replay or in the future, go to that, that link and submit your scores over on Twitter so that you can enter to him. That's right.

Quincy Amarikwa (21:51):

Joe said, hash of the season goes on baby. Joe Jackson said, I swear these are like a second ASCA soccer pro show. They basically are you guys get, you know, you know, I'm missing you guys. I like making sure we keep it going. So yeah, great episode today. Again, thank you to Hercules' for joining and thank you to Jeff for joining in. The replay will be up over on the website here tomorrow. You can get access to it in the membership area, so make sure you guys go and create your free accounts. If you haven't. I love seeing the fact that you guys don't stop spamming that heart button. It's awesome. But yeah, loving, loving the sport, loving everybody hanging on and sticking around the entire time. You know what it is the after party was, it was a good one. I'll see everybody here next Thursday, 6:00 PM PST, 9:00 PM EST. And as always, I mean, you had.