I’ve always looked at being a professional athlete as something that one just has to try. In reality you’re part of only a select few people in the world that has the ability to go that far and while I’m a huge advocate for education, I think the inverse is true of “get an educational foundation”. If anything, school will always be there and true learning and growth occurs at a rapid rate the minute you leave the lush protected environment of post-secondary schooling. Do you think there are any particular lessons you’ve learned from being in a professional sporting environment that you probably can’t see a regular person having the chance to learn from? From my experience, perfection and quality are necessary characteristics to success that don’t seem to be pushed enough outside the sporting world.

You gotta have love for at least 3 semesters!!! I would think it’d be hard for anybody to turn down a chance to be a professional athlete, but I think there are levels that go along with that opportunity. For example, if I had been at UCLA or say a Virginia, then my decision might have been different considering the money I’d be making would be less than what a years tuition would be. That being said, because I was attending a State school that cost around three thousand a semester (plus books and parking) it was really a no brainer for me.

And while I agree that getting a higher education is important for 99.9% of the kids out there (even those partying their asses off), the life lessons I learned being across the country by myself and being fully responsible for every aspect of my life was more “street” than anything. While my friends were worrying about papers, finals and what party was on the weekend, I was around teammates that were on average around 26-ish (kids / mortgage / veterans), figuring out how to pay bills and where I would put my retirement wages.

The difficulty with any professional athlete, regardless of the sport is that there WILL come a day where all the hard work and experience comes to and end. Quite the opposite of going to school and training for years to become a lawyer or doctor where the payoff is huge and serves for a lifetime, when it’s over, it’s over. And it’s up to each individual to figure out what the next step is in their lives because for most, they’ll be starting from scratch in the mid 20’s or early 30’s and the life they’ve been accustomed to is no longer available. Obviously if you’re NBA, NFL or one of the other major sports in America, it might be a little different with the money being seriously deep. For soccer players in America, not too many are going to have the same life.

And I wouldn’t be shocked if some study came out saying the 75% of professional athletes have some type of OCD due to the perfectionist disorder we all seem to have. I personally had to do everything with my left foot that I did with my right foot during training, hitting long balls out of the back would be the perfect example.

From a playing standpoint, what was your proudest moment on the pitch?

The proudest moment has to be leading the United States U-23 team out in the Bronze Medal match against Chile in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. I’d had an adductor injury that I suffered days before we left and was forced to pull myself out of the starting lineup heading into our first group play match against the Czech Republic. I was hoping that I’d be ready for the match against Cameroon (the eventual Gold Medalists after beating Spain in the Finals), but our team was playing well and I was still afraid that if I broke down and couldn’t go, I’d force our head coach (and one of the best human beings I’ve ever met) Clive Charles to use a valuable sub. It wasn’t until one of our centerbacks (and my starting partner) picked up back to back yellows and was suspended, that I told Clive I could go. Ended up marking Ivan “Bam Bam” Zamorano, who at that time was scoring ridiculous goals for Inter Milan and would end up taking the Golden Boot. In a perfect example of how quickly the game can change, I hit the crossbar and post with a left footed shot and on the counter attack, Chile earned a penalty. Unfortunately we’d go down 0 – 2 after giving up a late goal while committing numbers forward to get back into the match, but I’ll still go with that 90 minutes teaching me a lot about myself.

Looking back at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the players at that tournament ain’t no joke and they’ve all gone on to be extremely influential players. Even depth throughout that particular US Olympic team has a handful of great names that will resonate in American soccer for years to come. I can’t imaging training with these guys let alone lining up alongside the various players as you hear your national anthem? Of course from a keepers standpoint based on my background, what are some of the qualities that have made Tim Howard and Brad Friedel among the few Americans to be successful overseas?

There will be no larger sporting honor than being the Captain of that team. And I definitely agree with you that there were some very, very influential players in that specific team that have shaped American Soccer in general over the past 10 years. We were very fortunate to be together for the better part of four years as a team and I believe throughout that tournament that understanding was apparent.

Brad Friedel and Timmy Howard are obviously two of the best keepers that have ever come out of the US. The interesting thing with Brad was that he wasn’t even supposed to be there. Our starting goalkeeper Adin Brown did his knee about a month before the tournament started and Clive was planning on taking Chris Armas. Armas, who had missed out on the World Cup and was the starting defensive midfielder did his knee (and would do it again before the ’02 World Cup) right before the tournament as well. Because the Olympics is an age specific event for soccer, you’re only allowed three players over 23 years old. So Clive’s move was to switch the over-age player from Chris to Brad, who at that time was searching for a new club after finding out Liverpool’s new coach wasn’t interested in keeping him. Brad used the Olympics to showcase himself (as we all did) and Graham Souness (his former coach at Galatasary ) was now the head coach at Blackburn Rovers took notice. At the time, Rovers were looking for promotion to the Premiership and offered him a deal.

Timmy was incredibly close to being the starter on that team, but like an 18 year old Landon Donovan, he just needed more games. Timmy would get his run of games after being named the starter in New York and the rest (being bought by Manchester United and being named keeper of the year in his first season) is history.

As far as qualities for both Brad and Timmy, their athleticism (both are incredible athletes in general and can play in the field no problem) and their dedication to learning the position day in and day out separates them from the pack. Plus, they aren’t assholes. And I think that is one of the main qualities that is the difference in a lot of pros.

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