And this is where we bring in Michael Parkers. So are they scoring goals?
Cap negative? What we got shut out last week to zero?
No?
Puano?
I mean come on now, uh, if you were, if you were uh.
In that in that locker room, I mean, what would you would you be discussing with them? I And this is you know, outside of Kano. This is not any kind of Kano discussion. But it's like, what would you be talking to those players about. It's like, you know, you know, put the biscuit in the basket kind of a thing. I mean, so what kind of conversations do you have when you have an offensive drought like that?
Yeah, I'm just trying to give them confidence.
Maybe let them score a little bit in training, just let them know that, hey, it'll happen type thing. I'm not going to give him any advice because the last thing a struker wants is a defender to tell him.
How to put the ball in the back and then right true.
So yeah, just try and give him a little pick up like, hey man, yeah, we'll get there. We'll get there, and just try and do our part in the back of you know, try and keep a zero because it's easy to say, well, just keep it zero zero.
But.
A lot of pressure on a defense, yeah, because then you know, hey, you know, you put the pressure on the defense, and if you end up with no goals scored, then at the end of the day, at least you get out of there with a point. But I mean, right now, the Eastern Conference is a street fight, no shock. Right now. If the season ended today, which it is not, Rhode Island would be in the playoffs in the postseason
as the eight seed in the East. But you've got what you have, six teams separated by six points north of the playoff bar, south of the playoff bar. So everybody knows what you were getting into in USL Championship with Rhode Island. And it's a different kind of bulls eye considering that the run you that reminds me, man, I've got to get the gear from last season. I've
got I've got to add that to my stacks. But I mean, everybody knows what Rhode Island is bringing to the table now, So you're kind of working with a bit of a bullseye on your chest at the same time, and everybody's kind of gunning for you. The year after you made the run that you did in twenty four.
Totally, and that's the that's what you have to deal with with success.
Everybody's after you, especially when you knock three teams out of the playoffs as a first year team, those teams especially have a target on you. So yeah, that's that's part of playing as the as the favorite. But like we tell all of our mentees, right that pressure is a privilege. Right, we earned that and so now you've got to deal with it and step up. So I think we will.
And you mentioned the whole idea of pressure is a privilege, and I mean if you are not, if you're not being pressured, and if you're just kind of going out there and you're either being underestimated or overestimated and there doesn't seem to be any pressure, how do you tell your mentees not to rest on their laurels if the external factors aren't there, where the pressure isn't coming from the outside, how do you tell your mentees to like, look,
you've still got to be one hundred percent. You can't just sit there and don't focus on the outside. Focus on what's going on in here so you can continue to grow and improve even if the noise isn't there There still should be stuff that you have to respond to on a daily basis.
Oh yeah, definitely.
It's just not being complacent, right, Complacency is a killer, and so being in that situation can be great for confidence, and that's important. But understanding that there's always a next level, there's always a higher goal, there's always something better that we can become at a tougher environment and tougher opponents
and bigger goals. So yeah, it's constantly just challenging yourself and understanding, hey, I'm not there yet, I'm not a finished product, and that's difficult, but yeah, that's what the best players are constantly doing. They're constantly challenging themselves and they're constantly trying to prove.
Someone or people in general wrong.
How hard is it to challenge yourself when you don't feel like either you're a being challenged or you know you're not being challenged yourself, or that there's something wrong where the challenges aren't challenging.
Does that make any sense?
You know, when you don't feel like the level of the challenges there, how do you maintain your own quest and try to become better If the external stuff you don't think is mad levels.
Yeah, we talked to younger players a lot about how there's always going to be players, teams, maybe even coaches that you come across and you either can be infectious on them or they can be infectious on you.
And so players that.
Aren't taking practice seriously and kind of goofing around and they can have an effect on players that initially had good intentions for that day, or the opposite can happen, right of course, And so we talked to them a lot about, hey, making sure that you are having the
infectious behavior and not being the one affected, and that's difficult. So, yeah, constantly just trying to improve your own play, and I get when the challenge isn't quite what you want it to be, you need to create those internal challenges and have those goals set for yourself to keep pushing or to work on your leadership skills or something a little bit out of your comfort zone. And then obviously at some point you're gonna need to get into a different environment.
If if a game is a blowout and it's a team that you're completely and totally overblowing, it's I mean you're overmatched, they're overmatched.
You're taking care of business.
How how difficult is it in those challenges.
Two, I don't wanna I don't want to sit here.
And say, you know, take mercy on the other guy and make it look like you're being you know, a honk. You know, when a situation, you know, it's there's a comfortable win in a blowout, and then there's something that can get completely and totally out of control where you could be demoralizing the other the other guy. Where where is that balance of working on yourself in a game that's a blowout that you know that you're blowing the other guy out to where you're still.
Working on your own game, but at the same time.
You don't look like the rest of the world doesn't think you're a jackass because it's a you know, like a seven to two thing. It's like, I'm working on me and I'm doing my best, and you know this is what's happening.
To try not to take blame in a situation.
Yeah, I think there's a difference between really stepping on the gas and trying to embarrass an opponent versus hey, you're playing the game the right way. And I think that's the biggest thing in the opponent in a blowout is to still.
Have the respect for the opponent.
I see it all the time on baseball field when it gets to be a blowout and kids start chirping and just goofing around in the outfield. They're goofing around on the infield, and just that that is disrespecting the opponent, disrespecting the game. So and the same thing can happen
in soccer. So that's that's the biggest thing for me, because there will be a day when you're on the other side of a of a butt kicking and you'll see how it feels, and when the other team maybe unnecessarily scoring goals, but they're still doing the things that made them successful as far as you know, being organized and communicating and passing the ball.
Well, you can do a lot of things and still not run up the score. That's part of it.
You mentioned respect and chirping and disrespecting those kinds of things. I know that we have generational disconnects, and I'm seven hundred and two years old and I probably look at things a little differently than a lot of folks. But how much respect do you see out there with your your mentees and respect and understanding of what they need to work on and how much correcting has to be done with those of the ages of your mentees where they have to be steered back and not be disrespectful
and chirping. And because I know chirping can have its positivity at point, but how do you sit there and steer them away from the negative aspects of chirping and showing disrespect. Is it something that you have to work on at all in address here and there?
But it's rare for us, and maybe that's just the players that are coming to us, but we've found.
It pretty rare.
There there is an occasion where a parent is honest and says, hey, my kid's got this going on and I can't get through to them and need some help in that regard. So there has been the instance where we're trying to let them know how to have respect on the field and why it's important to have that respect, and but it's not too too often. So I will say that in general, most of most of the kids have pretty good respect out there.
Yeah, well, and so what is it what is it like for for you and for Greg and your your other mentors that I'm imagine are still closer and closer to signing their contracts. Are you going to have the picture, by the way when you're when your new mentor signs and you're going.
To have the whole, the whole.
Are you going to have like the contract and the the b GM background and the look and the smile and the I'm look I look like I'm signing the contract and I'm smiling at the camera.
Are you going to have that signing by the way when you have your new mentor.
No, we've talked about this. We actually talked about this with her last week because.
We don't and she's a little bit naive because she's a younger pro. As far as I don't want to put her in a place where I've seen people do a lot of things off the field as a professional athlete, and when things are going well, that's great, and when things aren't going well, all of a sudden, coaches, GMS, teammates, fans can be like, h, this person should do less of that and more focusing on soccer, even though there's plenty of time in the day to do these things
away from job number one. And so just being respectful of her, I don't want to make this a huge, huge deal because this is very secondary to her career, which is just getting underway. So she's been really busy with national team stuff along with NWSL schedules. So yeah, we haven't really locked down when we can announce yet, but hopefully I think she's with national team stuff this week and maybe back next week, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks we'll be able to get something.
But yeah, nothing crazy to try and keep it low key for her.
Okay, So when you have younger players, you know, trying to be supportive in a team environment, and you know, and we saw this and the reason I kind of steered this way. We saw this in the matchup with it Lane United in Columbus. Were you there by the way, I was? Okay, So I don't know if you saw what was going on at the beginning of the second half where Noah Cobb is trying to be there and be supportive and and you know, address the energy of
everybody out there on the field. And Noah wasn't part of the eleven that was out there playing at the beginning of the of the second forty five, but he was out there, you know, dapping players up and things
like that. When it comes to that kind of behavior, what's it like for you to see someone who isn't regardless of age and level and experience, to see someone who's not a part of the starting eleven sitting there and trying to raise the energy level up of the of your teammates in a situation like that, What's what's it like for you to see a younger player take that mantle and address that issue and sit there and it's like, okay, guys, you know, beginning the second half,
let's rock and roll. What's it like for you to see that kind of activity from a younger player?
Yeah, it's nice. It shows maturity, it shows a level of care.
Right.
So many players are just in it for themselves, So it's easy when you're on the bench to be like, well, in a blowout like that, poof thank god I'm not on the.
Field, yeah, or.
Or obviously the other way is to be upset that you're not on the field and upset at the coach and upset at the other players that I'm not getting my chance, and you kind of stick to yourself, and you know, that's.
Definitely what I see from at least.
One player on the Atlantian at a bench. But yeah, that's that's just the type of person. No, it is, So I'm not surprised, But yeah, that's great. It's great for the team because, yeah, they needed some energy and he obviously saw that and was trying to do whatever he could.
Yeah. Well, and I mean, and that can be taken one.
Of two ways, and you hope that it's taken in the most positively possible where I and I know that in some circles, and I'm gonna, you know, step away from it, Landy Knight, And I'm fairly certain that there are veterans in some situations regardless of where you're talking, it's like, well, you know, what is he? You know, what is he doing? It's like he's not out here, what is he doing? I'm gonna focus on me? And then that negativity, you know, continues to fester in those moments.
But and I would imagine it would take a true professional to understand where that player is coming from, regardless of level of experience, about trying to make sure that the messaging is best and that the effort is the best heading into that situation where you can improve your lot in that second forty five.
Set, Yeah, for sure.
And I think that a lot of it is timing, a lot of it is personality.
Right, Who is it that's saying it their energy level?
You can tell a lot as a player of where where this is coming from. Is it genuine, is it real for the team the energy wise, or is selfish somehow? And it's one thing if he's trying to from the side of the field get somebody going right after you give up a goal and kind of like pick somebody up or something like, then the guy on the field might be like, you know, f off right now. But if you're you're coming off of halftime, you know it's
purely just to get the energy going type thing. And I think that players know that Noah, by the way he carries himself, is a genuine person and wants the team to do well.
So I think those little things make a difference.
Right if it was a player that you know has a bad attitude generally and is doing it, you kind of shrug it off.
And be like, dude, go back to the bench, I don't need it right now.
But yeah, So, and that's why character and holding yourself well is important, because the only in moments like these, you're viewed differently based off of your character and how things have been portrayed over time.
How many discussions do you have with mentees about their character, whether it's an adjustment or a reinforcement.
How much?
How many conversations do you have about characters specifically with your mentees?
An a ton because when I asked a college assistant coach, what's the number one red flag when you're watching a player? He said, body language and body language is such a big component of character. And you can have a great character and terrible body language, don't get me wrong, but in general they go together, and characters such a huge piece.
And I think that sometimes younger athletes don't realize how important character and the way you hold yourself and the way you conduct yourself is versus how well you pass.
The ball, kick a ball, score all these other things.
Right, of course those things are important, but you can do those well and have terrible character terrible body language, and you will not have the opportunities that you would if those.
Things were different.
How many, and I'll go back to the great character poor body language thing in a second, how many coaches reach out to you and to Greg to get intel on mentees. How much of a conversation piece is that in that two way street with you got?
Yeah, we we always for our mentees, tell us, tell them to put us down as references. So there have been some, not not a ton, honestly, but you know we do have small checkings every now and then or you know, tell us about the dis guy, or how's the family or little things like that.
It's never anything to do with.
Soccer and it's always just off the field stuff and you know that.
But that's important.
Okay, So great character, poor body language? How how does that look? I mean, you know, is it self? Well, it's yeah, break break that down for me.
How do that? How does that? How does that look to the eye?
So we know what we're we're staring at because we can all we can all see great character, great body language. But you could have somebody who's great character in poor body language. How does that look?
It looks either selfish or it looks deflated. In my opinion, right where you can have you know, a great character who's got poor body language right at Lanta United right now, or I'll take Atlanta United twenty seventeen eighteen Miguel great character in the locker room, great human being, terrible body language out on the field and right constantly getting upset with guys about making mistakes and you know, not playing the right past at the right time and these little
things like that which can drag on guys. And you know, that was addressed and he got much much much better about it, and now I think his body language is way way better in general. So that's one example. But you can also have in these instances a great character that's just sick and tired of the way things are going.
And that's that's kind of normal in this regard. But I can see, like, you know, even Brad's body language on Wednesday was good, even if he's constantly like he knows he's got two homegruns in front of him, right, it's not going to be perfect. Things have not been good.
So anytime he had the opportunity to pat a guy on the back, you know, say a good job, or he was doing it right, even after he makes a big save, like hey man, whatever whatever he's saying, but it looks positively he's trying to bring positive energy instead of just.
Another one.
I got to dig out of the back of the net right, And that's difficult. It's really difficult, especially when times are like they are right now.
I was going to ask, how hard is that to continue you to I'm not I was about to use the word spin, But that's not right to lean into the notion of finding a positive, finding encouragement, making sure that those younger players are the inexperienced players that are out there having to perform in a situation so they don't get dragged down and get dragged down into a
negative in a situation that's already negative. How hard is that to try and be positive, find a positive, and be encouraging in a situation.
Yeah, it's difficult, but I mean that's where it's important to have some veteran guys in the field as well, because you know, these these homegrowns, it's not their fault.
At Atlanta Night is not doing well right now.
It's not expected that these guys are going to lead the team and these these players are going to be the ones that are going to turn things around or whatnot. Right They're they're taking a brunch of it, especially being on the back line where they mistake free of course, not do you expect them to be mistake free. No, you know, and anyone can go to Columbus and get embarrassed.
That's a pretty easy place to go in and get embarrassed.
And so, you know, I think Brad understood that and knew that. Okay, it's not on these guys. It starts a little higher up the field. Maybe it starts with the approach from the team and the energy and things. There's a lot going on there. So yeah, that's why it's important to have, you know, some veteran guys that can pick these young guys up and the them know, hey, keep going, man, keep going.
This is a learning experience.
It's not on you learn from it, you know, and try and find those small little.
Positive adam at Parkhurst on the two hundred and eighty character app at beg Menoring and the two hundred eighty character app beyond Goals menoring dot com and the Friday Free Kick with her buddy Michael Parkers. How frustrating was it for you to go to lower dot com and see what you saw out of Atlanta United in the midweek.
Yeah, it's pretty crazy. I was thinking about it.
You were you mumbling words?
You know that you shouldn't be saying publicly under your breath at points.
No, it's just no, because it wasn't.
All that unexpected to be honest, right, I think that the way things have gone and should I see Columbus play pretty often.
They're a very good team. And but that being said, that was.
Every bit of a three zero score line at halftime, right, it could have been five.
Yeah, it really could have been, and you know, maybe Atlanta had a chance. So yeah, it was it was tough to watch. Yeah, and I know that.
I know that they're trying to fix things and trying to have the red attitudes and I was at the hotel and got to catch up with a few guys and energy seems pretty good and all those things. So yeah, it's just it's tough. It's tough to see stuff to watch, and that's never good. I mean, the response in the second half was good. They could have easily made it through to to get back in it, so that was.
Good to see.
How how hard is it to be patient with what is to what you see the younger guys out there there learning and all this kind of stuff, And I know that expectations are one thing, and especially coming into the season, expectations.
Being what they were.
But you know when when you kind of see things, you see younger guys as an alum, how hard is it to be patient and it's like, okay, let's turn this around.
You know, does that? Does that make any sense?
How hard is it to see what you see, be patient with the young guys and hope that things turn around. How hard is that?
It's it's easy to be patient with the young guys. It's the older guys.
It's some of the other players that you have less patience for because you know what, to be honest, the fans have had patient for the last five years, so you know, it's it's running out and there's been moments for sure in between there, but not enough. And you know, I think that the club realized that and that's why they spent a ton of money in the off season. And you know, when that doesn't turn to results, obviously, people get frustrated and guys start pressing and everything.
So, yeah, it's not good.
It's easy to have patience with the homegrowns on the field because it's it's based off expectations, and to be fair, I think a lot of the homegrowns are a lot of our best players in some of the games, right Will Will's energy seems to really turn things around.
In the second half, so you know, he was a bright spot.
And it seems like that happens a lot these games where it's like you come out of it and say, oh, this homegrown or that homegrown was our best player the energy, and that's not good, not good when you've got guys that are you've paid ten plus million four out on the field. And to be fair, thought, Miguel was very good against Columbus, one of his better games, and uh,
you know, obviously lat is really struggling right now. I thought he was terrible, to be honest, and should have had a couple of goals or at least more opportunities and things. So yeah, it's the patient. The patients is tough in general for the team, but not for the home grounds.
And you mentioned pressing, and you know it's I think that press and this is just me who has covered sports and not played it professionally, but I would imagine that pressing is a delicate dance where you're you're pressing and you don't want to turn it into something where you're pressing too much and too much and too much. You want to press to improve, but in the desire to improve, sometimes you press too much and you go past that point of improving it and it goes the
other way. It almost it almost seems like it's it's not a straight one, it's a curve.
Almost totally totally.
And the easy example of that is like a striker when they get a big opportunity and they should pass the ball for an easy assist, but because they haven't scored in a while, they're trying and shoot and it's not the right option and things like that, so just clouds your judgment a little bit, where it's all you can think about is is scoring the goal versus hey have a good performance and you know the goals will come. But for every player it's a little bit different of
how they want to get out of it. You know, some guys need to get away from the game just a little bit. You know, some guys need to really work extra out on the field. Right it's just a comfort thing. So it's different for each player. And yeah, I think a Latte for sure needs to figure it out for himself.
Did how much did you press at times when you were trying to help correct a situation in any of your professional professional actors.
Did you press a lot? Did you press? Did you press any?
Yeah, there were there were times I pressed where it was like, Okay, hey, I really need to be better. I really need to be more reliable today. I can't have turnovers, you know, building out of the back, specifically thinking back to Columbus my last year of you know, my center back partner was always changing and the season wasn't going that well. And it's like, in those moments, you want to be someone the team can rely on and you you know, Okay, I.
Got to be good today.
And and sometimes when you press that much, you get a little bit more nervous and things just don't seem to go your way when you're pressing. You know, if we've talked about it before, when things aren't going your way and you give up penalty kicks or they're not called for you, or the ball bounce about the post and goes in said it goes out. It's the same thing individually, when you're pressing and you're putting too much on every little moment, those moments don't go your way as.
Often, and you know, it's.
I would imagine it is probably one of the biggest things to tackle as a professional athlete is correction, whether you know, not necessarily from yourself, but a team correction and being in your part of it, to try and be a part of a larger picture and not be saddled or not put too much of the pressure on yourself to be a part of that correction to where Okay, we can all do this together instead of being an individual,
Yeah I can fix this. And that turns into more and more and more of a problem because you put too much of that responsibility on yourself trying to fix some m M for sure.
Yeah, And.
It's depressing stuff, and it's difficult and there's no easy answer. And that's that will always be the challenge for players, right And that's that's honestly, what separates the great players from the good players is their ability to get out of those situations quicker and to bounce back quick and to to not get into the position where you need to press or understanding for themselves.
Okay, I am pressing.
How do I get out of this and get back to a good flow state?
Okay?
All right, so what is your what is your flow state currently with the beyond goals as we prepare for that day where we get the signing I want, I want the signing picture where you know, looking up and signing and I'm nowhere close to the signature line.
But what's what's the latest with you?
Other than mentoring?
Just working on the college programming so that we can help guide players that want to play in college at each stage of high school. So that's a big, big thing that I got going on right now.
Okay, all right, it's that time where we welcome someone else into the stacks and going on. So let me let me bring in, let me bring in the new team here. Uh three way dance? Do you recommend this?
Gentleman?
What is what is going on here?
Look?
What do you steal my thunder? What's going on? I'm stealing your thunder?
Well, Dak's traditionally at nine thirty on Friday mornings, when they're not conquering the planet, we usually have Greg Garza and Michael Parkhurst on just to talk about mendoring and you know, what's going on in their world in Rhode Island FC, and and you know, lack of offense and things like that and so and so. Basically I was filibustering until hopefully you would come in at ten o'clock so Michael Parkhurst could ask you a.
Question, oh god, about what's going on in the world of Dax McCarty, because he's done this with with I want to say, he's done it with Ozzie Alonzo already this season coming into this ten o'clock slot. So so Michael Parkhurst co host here on the Freestyle Friday, your question for Dax McCarty.
Dax and I we're on an event the other night.
I'll ask you the same question I asked Brad Okay.
Toughest part of the new gig, oh.
God, easily easily the Yeah, the biggest challenge is the preparation. For sure. It's funny because when you play an MLS for as long as I did, or as long as Parky did, there's maybe this preconceived notion that your knowledge of the league and what you already know about it, it's just going to be like riding a bike. You just step off the field and it's like the conversations that we had Parky, like in the meal room at breakfast or at lunch, where we're just talking shop. Right,
we're talking about the opponent and tactics. That's so easy just to do it with with your your teammates because you're unfiltered. You give, you give your strongest opinions, and you you exchange ideas and it's so easy. So you think, oh, I'll just do that same thing on TV, and it's like, no,
it does not work like that at all. You want to still give your strong opinions, you want to be as unfiltered as you can be, but you also have to prep and you have to prep significantly more than I think what my initial anticipation was, because talking with no pressure, with face to face with someone who you're close with is a lot easier than just going on TV cold and being like, all right, here's why Columbus is so good, here's why the New York Red Bulls
are so good. You actually need to be able to back that up with your the eyeballs and then also with some data that you intertwine in there. So the preparation is definitely something that threw me for a loop.
Yeah.
So yeah, So Michael, as always, thanks again for dropping in and fixing the world's problems as you and Greg do. At nine point thirty on Friday, mornings. Be well, my friend, and we will catch up with you next time. And thank you for taking the co host duties as you always do, and we bring in the new guys when it comes.
To Always a pleasure and happy belated birthday John by the.
Way, Oh thank you, Yes, seven hundred and two.
You guys have a good park, your legend.
I would like to keep seeing you at least once a week. This is a nice This is a nice moment for me.
This is nice