0:13

Hello sunshine, I'm Alexey Lawless and welcome to

0:15

the State of the Union podcast. We look

0:17

at the beautiful game on and off the

0:20

field through the lens of red, white and

0:22

blue colored glasses. As I mentioned the previous

0:24

show, I am on the road, but a

0:26

few days ago I sat down with Tom

0:28

Byer, an American who has had an incredible

0:30

adventure over in Japan. And it

0:33

was really interesting to talk to him about

0:35

what he has learned, especially when it comes

0:37

to development, the compare and contrast between these

0:39

two countries, between these two soccer cultures. And

0:42

I just thought it was really interesting

0:44

to hear how he sees development, especially

0:47

when it comes to America. So without

0:49

further ado, my interview with Tom Byer.

0:52

Okay, as promised, the great Tom Byer

0:54

is joining us here on

0:57

the State of the Union. He told

0:59

me to call him a technical specialist

1:01

when it comes to the game. It

1:03

sounds very, very important. Welcome. He's getting

1:05

up early in Japan to be with

1:07

us here. You have certainly taken

1:09

the road less traveled, Tom. You grew up in New

1:12

York in the 70s. You

1:14

played college soccer. You went over to

1:16

Japan to play professional soccer. And after

1:18

that, you really just immersed yourself in

1:21

the country and culture and the youth

1:23

development when it comes to coaching. You

1:25

became a star on

1:27

television on the most popular kids

1:29

show in Japan. You

1:32

worked in Japan incredibly long,

1:34

but also China all over

1:36

Asia and in the

1:38

US camps, clinics, academies, schools,

1:41

MLS teams, US soccer, youth

1:43

soccer clubs, federations, governments, state

1:45

associations. If there is a

1:47

ball to be kicked, you are there to tell people

1:49

how to kick it and when to kick it. All

1:52

right, so listen, we're going to top line this thing

1:54

because I could talk to you for hours and hours.

1:56

We don't get too much in the weeds. But when you think about

1:58

it, you're going to be a star. think of American

2:00

soccer, and I know it's a little

2:03

apples and oranges, but when you think

2:05

of American soccer right now, tell the

2:07

people that are listening and watching right

2:09

now what America is doing well and

2:11

what America is doing poorly with regards

2:13

to making better soccer

2:15

players. Well, Alexei,

2:17

that was some introduction, I got to say.

2:20

It's a pleasure being on your show finally,

2:23

after so many years of watching you in action,

2:26

so to speak, both on the pitch and off the

2:28

pitch. I

2:30

guess I would consider myself a culture warrior.

2:33

I have very strong beliefs that culture

2:36

is at the root of

2:38

football or soccer development. I

2:41

think that we could classify

2:43

the US as a non-traditional

2:45

football cultured country, if you

2:48

compare it to Europe and the South

2:50

American countries, which are very, very strong.

2:52

I believe that what I really

2:55

challenge most about development is this

2:57

common belief that in order to

2:59

develop really top players in the

3:01

world, that that battle is at

3:03

the elite level. What

3:05

I argue is that that battle is

3:07

really at the entry level before

3:09

a child crosses over that line

3:11

into organized play, where in a

3:13

lot of Latin countries and European

3:15

countries that are football cultures, parents

3:18

and in particular fathers, and of course

3:20

mothers as well, but primarily fathers, will

3:23

use football as a tool to bond

3:25

with their children. Now Japan

3:28

hasn't necessarily been so much of

3:30

a football traditional culture as well,

3:32

but through a lot of the

3:34

work that I've been involved in, which I'm coming up

3:36

here on nearly four decades, we have

3:39

been able to convince this country

3:41

that at the forefront of

3:44

development, at the very beginning,

3:46

the foundational phase, that

3:48

football development should be centered

3:51

around ball mastery. When

3:54

I really research a lot of the countries

3:56

that do develop the top players in the

3:58

world, they win that battle. at

4:00

the entry level before a child

4:02

ever crosses over that line into

4:04

organized play, they're very comfortable, they're

4:07

very competent with a ball at

4:09

their feet and even then paired

4:11

with the kind of inexperienced volunteer

4:13

mom or dad coach, those kids

4:16

tend to develop quite well. But

4:18

how does that manifest? So when we're looking at

4:21

young kids and what age are we talking about

4:23

here and is it simply a matter of putting

4:25

a ball in front of them and letting them

4:27

do it? So what do you

4:29

suggest? And I would just add this question

4:31

too. What we are talking about

4:33

here is it's

4:36

kind of making elite soccer players too, but

4:38

I want to make sure that people understand

4:40

that this isn't just about creating better professional

4:42

soccer players and great World Cup players and

4:44

winning World Cups and doing all that. It's

4:47

ultimately about making a better nation and to

4:49

your point a better culture when it comes

4:51

to developing young talent, right? Yeah,

4:53

it is. And it's a great question.

4:56

So first of all, let's clarify what

4:58

this ball mastery is. Ball mastery is

5:00

basically one player, one ball.

5:02

They're not chasing a ball with five

5:04

or six other kids of vastly different

5:06

abilities. It's them and their ball. And

5:09

it can happen anywhere. It could happen

5:11

inside the home. It could happen outside

5:14

the home, but it's usually happening with

5:16

a parent figure. And

5:18

it can happen as early as a child starts

5:20

walking. So this is what I

5:22

actually do. I travel around the world. I'm

5:24

invited into the biggest clubs and federations in

5:26

the world to show them this kind of

5:29

football starts at home presentation because many people

5:31

have never seen visually what a two

5:33

or three or four year old could

5:35

be able to do with a ball.

5:38

And what ball mastery is really doing

5:40

is it's teaching a child how to

5:42

pay attention, how to focus their attention.

5:45

So imagine this, a child trying

5:47

to control an object with their

5:49

feet, which is the ball. That

5:52

becomes a mental task, but

5:54

the actual movement makes it a physical test. So

5:56

when you marry a mental test

5:58

with a physical test, you've got mind. and

6:00

body, thinking and feeling, working as

6:02

one, that allows the

6:04

brain, there's a little bit of neuroscience

6:06

involved here, that allows the brain to

6:09

create what we call a chemical signature

6:11

of that experience, which is emotions. So

6:14

you're creating an emotionally charged

6:16

environment that's shared between a child

6:18

and a parent, which is

6:21

very conducive to developing players

6:23

because that's when deep

6:25

learning and long-term memory

6:27

takes place. So children

6:29

are doing specific deliberate

6:31

deep practice, but it's

6:34

disguised as playtime. So you'll find

6:36

that that happens much more often

6:38

in these Latin countries, these European

6:40

countries, again, where children are becoming

6:42

exposed to a ball at a

6:44

much earlier age than everybody exposed

6:46

to. And here's the other thing,

6:49

football has not caught up to

6:51

what science already knows, and that

6:53

is that skill acquisition happens

6:55

much earlier than everybody's supposed to. And

6:57

it happens that these very formidable young

6:59

age, so here's kind of the elevator

7:01

pitch. If you can get a child

7:03

comfortable and competent with a ball at

7:06

their feet before they cross over the

7:08

line into organized play, you're gonna mitigate

7:10

about 75% of problems

7:12

that cease to become problems because a

7:14

child is competent with a ball at

7:17

their feet. And there's a

7:19

bias that manifests in a very positive

7:21

way. These kids, like a six-year-old or

7:23

seven-year-old, when anybody ever sees a kid

7:26

that's really good with a ball at

7:28

that young age, they believe that lightning

7:30

struck in a bottle because they've never

7:32

seen the silent quiet practice that's happened

7:35

in the backyard or at home with

7:37

the mom or the dad. So they

7:39

think lightning struck, but there's always that

7:42

start, that beginning, that usually, again, it's

7:44

apparent or could be a sibling. So

7:46

when you study the best players in

7:48

the world, which I've done, whether it's the Messes,

7:51

Ronaldo's, Neymar's, Iniesta, all

7:53

these generational players, the

7:56

common thread is they all started between the ages

7:58

of two and five in a row. around the

8:00

homes and the fathers, and sometimes the

8:02

moms are the facilitators. And I've looked

8:04

at this even with American players, past

8:06

generations, whether it's a This

8:20

is a culture when a community or a club

8:22

or a nation shares the same

8:24

common beliefs and values. And those common

8:27

beliefs and values are, is that ball

8:29

mastery should be at the center of development.

8:31

So when you look at those great players that

8:34

are very good technically, they don't

8:36

fall in love with playing football. They

8:39

fall in love with the ball first. And

8:41

that facilitates a love for it. So that's

8:43

a culture piece. And I can't help but

8:45

think sometimes that we try to force American

8:47

kids to fall in love with soccer and

8:49

the ball gets in the way. Yeah, so-

8:51

But when you're talking about culture now, let's

8:53

spread it out now, because whatever those kids

8:56

are that do get better from a young

8:58

age and doing the things that you're talking

9:00

about, they're still growing up in a very

9:02

unique culture. And I know because you're a

9:05

smart guy, you're not just

9:07

gonna say, well, just because it works in this

9:09

country, automatically it works here. Obviously we are a

9:11

unique culture to the world.

9:13

Maybe there's some comps around in certain instances, but

9:15

now that kid that has grown up and has

9:18

a better touch of the ball

9:20

and has made him a better soccer player

9:22

from an early age, that boy or girl

9:24

is still growing up in a country and

9:26

culture where soccer isn't king. So how does

9:29

the culture ultimately change? Or does it ever

9:31

change? Are we always going to be a

9:33

culture with all of these other sports with

9:35

that history and soccer is just going to

9:37

kind of fit into it? Or does it

9:39

become some of the culture that you are

9:42

talking about where soccer is king and everybody

9:44

is talking about it, everybody is thinking about

9:46

it? Yeah, that's a good

9:48

question, of course. I mean, that is the challenge

9:50

with the US soccer is that without this mammoth,

9:52

I mean, we're like a continent, the United States,

9:54

right? So it's where do you start? But

9:57

what I say is that you got to kind of go

9:59

in and hit the resources. that button, we've

10:01

got approximately 24 million

10:03

children in the United States under

10:05

the age of six. The problem

10:08

is nobody's really talking to that

10:10

group because they haven't crossed

10:12

over the line into organized play yet.

10:14

So they don't exist in the eyes

10:16

of a federation or state association or

10:19

professionals. So what I'm saying

10:21

is that we need to have a

10:23

rethink. First of all, people have to

10:25

understand how development takes place. And there's

10:27

very few that really do understand. And

10:29

why I say that is because I'm

10:32

invited around the world. I give talks

10:34

for FIFA, for UAFS, for some of

10:36

the biggest federations and clubs and organizations

10:39

in the world. And the biggest

10:41

shock that has come to me is that most

10:43

of the groups, organizations that are entrusted

10:46

with development, many of them do not

10:48

understand early child development.

10:50

It's a specialty. And

10:52

so it's not on the radar screen. They

10:55

don't really. And so when I started studying,

10:57

there's a lot of national curriculums. Most countries

10:59

in the world have national curriculums. You will

11:01

very rarely, I don't think ever, I haven't

11:03

to this date. And I just read one recently

11:05

that was put out by a big European country.

11:07

You'll never see either the word

11:09

family or parenting in it.

11:11

So they take a different approach. So

11:14

this is happening organically. It doesn't fit

11:16

in the context of teams. It fits

11:18

in the context of families. So what

11:20

I'm saying is we need a

11:23

paradigm shift in American We

11:25

have to first identify what the

11:27

problems are because the problem actually

11:30

becomes the biggest problem. So everybody's

11:32

misdiagnosing what the symptoms are and

11:34

prescribing the wrong medicine because most

11:36

believe that the challenge is always

11:39

at the elite level. So they

11:41

focus all the money, all the research at the

11:43

top end. But here's here's what it is. The

11:46

only way to really make the best

11:48

players better in any country is by

11:50

making the worst players better. They're the

11:52

ones that are going to push the

11:54

best players to become better. So

11:56

I'm not saying it's an easy fix, but

11:59

it can happen. if you

12:01

can get the federations, the state

12:03

associations, and it's exactly a project that

12:05

I'm working on right now in

12:07

North Carolina, with the North Carolina Youth

12:09

Soccer Association, that is hopefully going to

12:12

become a pilot program for other

12:14

state associations to follow in the future.

12:16

I like what you're talking about when

12:18

you talk about culture because I

12:20

mentioned earlier that the holistic

12:23

approach of not just making better soccer players,

12:25

but making better young people. In my case,

12:27

and in our case, when it comes to

12:29

America, that are going to lead America and other countries

12:32

around the world, and I want them to

12:34

use the sport in a way. And it's almost

12:36

like a tool in the way that you're talking

12:38

about it in terms of the relationships and the

12:40

communication and the experiences that they have through soccer

12:43

with their family, whether it's their mom, their dad,

12:46

and others, and the socialization that comes with that. And

12:48

I think that's important because we all know a very,

12:50

very small percent are ever going to be the ones

12:52

that we end up watching on television and certainly make

12:54

a living out, but it doesn't mean that it can't

12:57

be beneficial. I want to kind of push it forward

12:59

a little bit to the

13:01

specialization that we have in our country right

13:03

now. Is that a good thing?

13:05

Because I know you were talking about six-year-olds, but

13:08

at a very young age, there are kids now

13:10

that are very different than our generation where we

13:12

played multiple sports and would go from season to

13:14

season to season that are focused at a very,

13:16

very early age, specifically on one

13:18

sport, in this case, we're talking about

13:21

soccer. Is that, do you think, beneficial

13:23

to the development of a young soccer

13:25

player? Yeah, it's

13:27

a highly debated topic specialization.

13:29

So I have to be

13:31

careful what I say here

13:33

because there, it's so divided.

13:36

But all I can tell you is that,

13:38

unfortunately, soccer is a sport

13:41

that takes a ridiculous amount of time of

13:43

practice to become good at it. But you

13:45

hit on a very important point. And

13:48

this is at the heart and soul of this

13:50

kind of what I try to call a movement

13:52

that I'm trying to create in different countries that

13:54

football or soccer starts at home, is

13:57

that ball mastery. First of all, you have to

13:59

understand the... the feet of the furthest distance

14:01

from the brain and we rarely have any

14:03

opportunities to build neural pathways. What

14:06

ball mastery is really teaching a child

14:09

is the ability to pay attention,

14:11

to focus and pay attention. Now

14:14

when that happens, a child is

14:16

literally learning how to learn and

14:19

this spills into other disciplines. So regardless

14:21

whether you're playing soccer or you're in

14:23

the classroom doing math or you're riding

14:25

a bicycle or what you're doing, you

14:27

don't have a different brain for all

14:29

those separate disciplines. It's the same brain.

14:32

So our program and what we found is,

14:34

and I'm speaking because I've

14:37

been working with a couple of big institutions, Harvard

14:40

University, Stanford University, the

14:42

University of Houston and

14:44

we've actually conducted research around this

14:46

and what the research is focused

14:48

on is what are

14:50

the benefits of ball mastery and the

14:53

benefits of ball mastery are that it

14:55

also helps to develop cognitive skills, emotional

14:58

skills, social skills

15:00

and physical skills. So

15:03

what we're trying to do is really

15:05

position this is not so much it's

15:07

specializing in playing soccer at that early

15:09

age because remember it's one player,

15:11

it's one ball, but the other

15:13

benefits, the byproduct, bonding with a

15:15

parent at a young age,

15:18

three, four, five years old. We

15:20

have globally a problem now

15:22

with child obesity, child diabetes,

15:26

child coronary disease. This

15:28

gets a child physically active from

15:30

these early years and I would

15:32

argue that our sport, football or

15:34

soccer is probably the only

15:36

sport that you can actually start

15:38

early, but there's benefits for everybody

15:40

that participates in this program. But

15:43

again, if you can actually get a

15:46

mass... So when I work with countries around

15:49

the world, I literally work with ministries of

15:51

education with federations around the globe. I say,

15:53

okay, here's your national curriculum,

15:56

develop a little army of boys and

15:58

girls that are skilled at ball mastery

16:00

by the age of five or six.

16:02

And then this mantra, which is a

16:04

very Eurocentric approach, just let

16:07

him play. The game is the teacher.

16:09

It actually works, but it doesn't work

16:11

when you just throw kids out on

16:13

a pitch to have absolutely no command

16:16

of the ball or ability and expect

16:18

that these kids are gonna start playing

16:20

like, you know, a Messi or Ronaldo.

16:22

It's fundamental. It's basic. It works. It

16:25

works in everything. And here's one

16:27

other thing. One last one, and I'll

16:29

land the plane here. When a

16:31

child masters the basic building blocks from

16:33

a very young age, that's when and

16:35

only when they can do what we

16:38

call scaffolding. They can start experimenting and

16:40

playing and trying the more complex, difficult

16:42

movements in the game. But the problem

16:44

is most kids don't master the basic

16:47

building blocks and they hit a wall.

16:49

And you see that with the large

16:52

alarming numbers of kids who actually drop

16:54

out of soccer, but other sports in

16:56

America, which I think the statistic is

16:59

about 70% of most kids drop

17:01

out of sports by the age of 13 or

17:03

14 years of age. Wow. So what I hear

17:05

you saying is if you start playing

17:07

soccer at an early age, it makes

17:09

you smart in a lot of

17:12

things and can make you successful in life. Alright, listen, let's go

17:14

quick to the J

17:16

League versus MLS. And there are a lot

17:18

of similarities, certainly a lot of differences right

17:20

now. When you see leagues, and by the

17:23

way, this could apply to Saudi Arabia and

17:25

China and Russia and all these leagues that

17:27

have kind of come up at different times

17:29

and poke their head out and said, hey,

17:32

we want to be involved in that conversation

17:34

here. What have you learned with

17:36

your J League experience that possibly

17:39

could help MLS? Or what do you say, you

17:41

know what, while it might have worked with the

17:43

J League or it might work in Japan, that's

17:45

not something that necessarily works with MLS. Sure,

17:48

J League, which was born in 1993,

17:51

so we're in our 31st year, not too far

17:53

off from MLS. But I think where the difference

17:55

was is that when the J League was born

17:57

in 1993, the

18:00

requirement to become a member of the J League

18:02

or an associate member trying to get into the

18:04

J League is you had to have a fully

18:09

phased out pyramid of player

18:11

development. So all J League

18:13

clubs start organizing their academies

18:15

from the age of 10

18:17

and then they go all

18:19

the way up the scale and most of them also

18:23

are involved in football schools.

18:25

They'll have anywhere from a

18:27

couple of hundred to a couple of thousand kids

18:29

in their actual commercial school. But

18:31

from what I've seen here in Japan, first

18:34

of all again the cultures are

18:36

difficult to to compare

18:38

because here in Japan below the J

18:41

League as well at the under 12,

18:43

under 15, under 18 age groups

18:46

the biggest difference between the U.S. and

18:48

Japan is is that here

18:50

in Japan we do specialize.

18:53

You don't have a choice. Once you

18:55

join a soccer team at the age

18:57

of six the culture expects

18:59

that a child is going to train

19:01

on average four times a week for

19:03

two to three hours a session

19:06

and there's no on off season.

19:08

It runs 52 weeks

19:11

a year so that's a stark difference between

19:13

what's happening in the MLS. Now not

19:15

to beat up on the MLS because I've worked with MLS

19:17

and I'm a fan of MLS and I've just got done

19:19

working with the Houston Dynamo for a couple of years. So

19:22

I do have I see a

19:24

lot of hope in what's happening in

19:26

the MLS because we have

19:28

finally understood the importance

19:31

of investing heavily into

19:33

professional academies and I visited you know

19:35

lots of them around the U.S. So

19:37

I think that we're finally coming around

19:40

where we're seeing the advantage of

19:43

basically bringing players in and giving

19:45

them the the best facilities, the

19:47

best coaching, the best curriculums, everything.

19:51

So I think there's a lot of reason for hope

19:53

with what's happening but I think that and then of

19:55

course the big difference is we have

19:57

a three-tiered professional league J1, J2, and J2.

20:00

J2, J3, and even below that, it's

20:02

a very healthy ecosystem. And we have

20:04

promotion and relegation as well. We have,

20:06

I believe there's 60 J-League

20:09

clubs amongst the three. So it's very,

20:11

very competitive. And here's one other one

20:13

I think that we could kind of

20:15

compare is that in America,

20:18

we have again, you know, of course, this whole

20:20

kind of alphabet soup of organizations that literally

20:22

I can never really kind of understand and keep

20:24

track of them all. In Japan,

20:26

it's very streamlined. You have the JFA

20:28

in the J-League and then below the

20:30

JFA, you have the state associations. They

20:33

rule everything, they govern everything. There's no side,

20:35

you don't go sideways, it goes up and

20:38

down. But in the US, as we know,

20:40

we've got so many different organizations and they're

20:42

all competing against each other. So here in

20:45

Japan, it's very easy to get everybody on

20:47

the same page, moving in the same direction.

20:50

Whereas I can't help to think that in

20:52

America, we're just always going up, down, sideways

20:54

and backwards and forwards. And it's very difficult

20:56

to get a consensus when it comes to

20:59

what are the best practices when it

21:01

comes to youth development. So I'm not sure if I've

21:03

explained it well, but that's kind of the way that

21:05

I see. No, no, listen, you do. Two different countries.

21:07

It's, you know, these are some of the challenges and

21:10

some, I mean, some would call them problems. There are

21:12

certainly challenges on and off the field that the US

21:15

has. Let me talk to you

21:17

a little bit because I know you concentrate

21:19

on youth development. But, you know, when

21:22

we're looking at it, it's hopefully leading to good

21:25

things when it comes to national teams.

21:27

You've seen this US national team now

21:29

grow. And speaking of youth development, this

21:31

is a generation that a lot of people

21:33

have high hopes for. And we've also seen

21:35

this generation kind of grow some very, very

21:37

young players that are now kind of coming

21:39

into their own. How bullish

21:41

are you about this version of the

21:44

national team as it heads into this

21:46

summer with COPA America? And then obviously

21:48

in 2026, how good do you

21:50

think that they ultimately can be? That's

21:53

a great question. Again, dating myself

21:55

here, I did grow up in the 70s around the old

21:58

North American Soccer League, where People have

22:00

to remember that during that era, I

22:03

believe the quota was we had to have three

22:06

Americans on the pitch at the same

22:08

time, where usually traditionally it

22:10

was the right and left back and a goalkeeper.

22:13

I mean, we've got tremendously talented players now that

22:15

are playing on the US national team, and a

22:17

lot of them are playing over in

22:19

Europe. And I think that's such an important

22:21

part of the developmental phase

22:24

as Japan is as well,

22:26

because now these young players

22:28

aren't growing up watching

22:31

these stars and club teams

22:33

and leagues play

22:35

on television. They're actually playing alongside of them.

22:37

They're playing in the Premier League. They're playing

22:40

in some of the biggest leagues in the

22:42

world, the Germany, they're playing Champions League football.

22:45

So I mean, it's progressing. I know that

22:47

there's a lot of people out there that

22:49

are very criticizing of what's happening in the

22:51

United States. But again, I think

22:53

that the reference has to be, well, what was

22:55

in the past? Where are we today and

22:58

where are we going in the future? But

23:00

I'm very optimistic about what's happening. And I

23:02

think that with this national team that I

23:04

watch, at least the US and surely it

23:06

was exciting to watch from my living room

23:08

here in Tokyo, beating

23:10

Mexico at that level of

23:14

play. And of course,

23:16

I mean, Mexico is obviously a

23:18

very strong force, but we need

23:20

to have a very healthy ecosystem.

23:22

Here's something really interesting. When I

23:24

started studying the countries, we have

23:26

211 member associations to make up FIFA. Out

23:28

of that 211, only eight have ever won a

23:32

World Cup tournament. And out of that element

23:34

of time, and out of that eight, there's

23:36

only a couple of serial repeat winners. But

23:38

here's the interesting thing again, and it's the

23:40

reason I'm such a culture warrior. No

23:43

country has ever won a World Cup tournament

23:45

with a foreign coach ever. And

23:47

out of that eight World Cup champions,

23:49

no country has ever experimented with a

23:51

foreign coach except England, when Sven Ericsson

23:53

and Capello, that did not go well.

23:55

And one more, no country

23:57

in the modern day has won a World Cup

23:59

tournament. doesn't border another country that's won

24:01

a World Cup tournament but if you take

24:03

England as an exception with the English Channel

24:06

it borders it as well. Oh my god.

24:08

So there's a connection there. So the joke

24:10

is well maybe we have to have the

24:12

Mexicans to win so that we

24:14

win but I think hopefully it's going to be the

24:16

opposite effect. Hopefully that doesn't happen. All right two more

24:19

questions and I'm going to let you go. First one

24:21

is you're over there in Japan

24:23

if I could make you the the emperor of

24:25

the United States if we had something like that the

24:28

emperor of soccer over here and you could just wave

24:30

your magic wand and things would change.

24:32

Give me one or two things that

24:34

you would do immediately that would have

24:36

the most dramatic and immediate effect on

24:39

in a positive way on American soccer.

24:42

I would convince US soccer the

24:45

MLS that every single time there's

24:47

a game played that there's a

24:49

branded board on the pitch that

24:52

says soccer starts at home and

24:54

we would be driving millions of

24:56

eyeballs to some online

24:58

platform that would be engaging

25:00

these millions and millions of

25:03

parents of kids that are aged

25:05

between zero and six and that's about

25:08

the biggest contribution that I could imagine

25:10

because I think that once we get

25:13

to that age group and

25:15

start creating a new culture of development

25:17

that does understand how you can use

25:19

soccer as a tool to

25:21

develop young children America

25:24

is going to be a much better place. I

25:26

love it I love it last question I asked

25:28

this to everybody that comes on the show give

25:30

me the best thing about American soccer and the

25:32

worst thing about American soccer. I

25:35

think the best thing is is that

25:37

first of all we've got an enormous

25:40

the United States is a sports culture

25:44

and we have perhaps the best facilities

25:46

in the world and the best best

25:48

athletes in the world so

25:50

maybe the worst is maybe that is

25:52

our that is our our

25:55

Achilles heel is that we just we

25:57

always think that we're the best at everything We've

26:00

got more than we can that we

26:02

probably deserve. So I think that we

26:04

need to have a bit of more

26:06

appreciation and humbleness when it

26:08

comes to being an American. Love it. I love it.

26:10

Tom buyer. Tell the people where they can find you.

26:14

Yeah, you can go to my Twitter handle

26:16

probably is the best where I engage, which

26:18

is Tomson106 on Twitter. And

26:22

believe it or not, I actually do reply

26:24

to people, but whatever. I wake up, I

26:27

got to be honest. I go to Alexi

26:29

Lawless' page because that's where my day starts

26:31

when I see the, the,

26:33

the, the back and forth that you provide everybody. So

26:35

I love it, my brother and keep it going. All

26:38

right, Tom son. What do I got to my friend?

26:41

Okay. Take care guys. Thank you. All right. Thanks

26:43

again to Tom buyer. I thought that was

26:45

a really interesting in the terms of how

26:47

he sees soccer around the world. And in

26:50

particular, how he sees soccer in the United

26:52

States. I hope you enjoyed it. I will

26:54

be back again next week with my good

26:56

friend, David Mossy, with some more shows. But

26:59

until then, my friends, and as always, size

27:03

the step.