USMNT Concerns + Alex Ramos on Elite Training & Growing Up with Tab

Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos open the show by checking in on the latest USMNT performances, including Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie facing off in Serie A, Alex Freeman earning his first start in La Liga, and Gio Reyna finding minutes in the Bundesliga.

They’re then joined by elite skills trainer Alex Ramos, who also happens to be Tab’s son. Alex shares the moment he realized his dad wasn’t just a regular parent, what it was like being coached by him, and the best advice Tab ever gave him. He also dives into his rise as one of the top trainers in the game, the coolest experience he’s had on the field, and the biggest thing young players need to improve to reach the next level.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I played in a charity match where Ronald Dino actually
assisted me for a goal, and I think that that
was by far the coolest thing that I've ever done,
And that was.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Something that I never thought I could even say.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Wait, better than than my assist in the basement.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
That's uh, definitely definitely a little bit.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
More exciting for me.

Speaker 4 (00:24):
Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. I am us MNT
insider Tom Bogan. I am joined, as always by one
of the greatest players in US soccer history, vetter than
the three World Cups, my good friend tab Ramos. Tab
You're not the only Ramos that's gonna be on the
show today. Your son Alex will be joining us very
very soon. Are you worried that there's gonna be any
embarrassing family stories to come out of this?

Speaker 3 (00:44):
That's what I'm hearing.

Speaker 5 (00:45):
And I mean, I have to tell you, I lost
a little sleep last night thinking about this one.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
No, I think it's gonna be great.

Speaker 5 (00:53):
I'm really looking forward to this because I think, you know,
Alex will have a lot of good things to talk about,
you know, and I think it'll be a fun show.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
Yeah, Alex is here to talk about training. He is
a renowned individual trainer in particular, and with a very
large social media following his own his own business, all
this stuff. I can't wait to dive into it with
Alex in a bit. But first we are going to
discuss the player performances from the US national team over
the weekend, including a goal is draw between Christian Pulisik

(01:23):
and Weston McKinney in Syria. Alex Freeman gets his first
start with Villa Real Giorna, got some minutes off the bench,
and I think we're gonna have some thoughts about that.
So let's get right into it with that AC Milan
versus Juventus game. Christian pools like for Weston McKinney, no,
no draw, which sounds about right for what AC Milan
has been doing, particularly over the second half of the season.
And unfortunately tab this continues the theme of Christian Polisk

(01:47):
completely going dry. He's got zero goals, one assist since
December twenty eighth for a CM Milan. That's sixteen games
and of course we've mentioned it before, but that's zero
goals for the US national team since twenty twenty four.
I know he can't change that while he's at AC Milan,
but it is a drought for both club and country.
For politic yeah, I mean I think.

Speaker 5 (02:05):
A little bit of the concern there, and you know,
I continue to not worry so much. I think that
the main concern if you had an opportunity to watch it.
For those people who had an opportunity to watch the game,
I think the main concern is that in this game
he didn't get on.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
The ball that much. And by the way, it's not
that physically he wasn't ready.

Speaker 5 (02:24):
He made a lot of right runs, he got into
the box a lot, he was at times in good
places to receive a good pass and he just didn't
get it.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
So I'm not as concerned because I.

Speaker 5 (02:33):
See that he's still he's still in the game, and
I think he's still doing the right things. Unfortunately, on
the scoreboard is not We're not seeing his name there.
Goal contributions continue to not be there. But I continue
to think that Christian politics is still in good enough
form to be able to give us a lot this summer.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
So I would disagree with good enough form, but I
firmly agree with and I don't think it dissuades him
or precludes him from showing up the first game of
the World Cup group site. Hell, even the two friendlies
before the World Cup. I'd feel better if he was
at least performing well with the national team in recent windows. Again,
at eight games, it's not a huge, huge sample size,

(03:17):
though it does go back to twenty twenty four. On
the other side of that, Wes McKinney a key player
for Juventus again and again the Neio no draw. There's
unfortunately not a ton to talk about here, but both
of these clubs are on course to make the Champions League.
Milan has sixty seven points, Juve has sixty four and
fits and six. Roma and Como on sixty one, so
that's three points behind Juve and six points behind Milan

(03:38):
just four matches left in Syria. Both of these clubs
are on track to make the Champions League next year.
Wes McKinney will be at Juventus. We don't know if
Christian Polisik will be at a Similani. He's got one
year left on his contract.

Speaker 5 (03:49):
Another performance from Weston where he ate up the field.
I think during the game at one point he was
he had the most, he had run the most of anyone,
he had the most distanced of anyone. And I continue
to feel like I'm not even sure where he plays
because he was sort of he was sort of listed
to be starting on the right side, but most of

(04:10):
the time I saw him in the middle right, he
was behind the forwards. He's making runs into the box,
he was going to the left side to receive balls.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
I mean, he was all over the fields.

Speaker 5 (04:21):
Is at a very good moment, I feel now to
really help our national team.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Honestly, I think this is the best six months of
his career. And he's had a lot of highs too,
so that's no small feat for Western McKinney. And yeah,
it's funny this time last year, or maybe even in
September last year, we would be asking questions of ah,
does he make sense in this team? And how quickly
you go from a few questions crucial starter a few
questions to I don't care where he plays, he has

(04:49):
to be a starter for this team. I think we
all know that we're going to talk much more about mcginney.
To get close to the World Cup. We got another
player making a big stride to Europe, Alex Freeman. His
first start for VA, he looked impressive, town.

Speaker 5 (05:02):
Very I would say very and and and actually I'm
you know, I'm a big fan of Alex Freeman. I
think he's gonna be a great player. I'm actually surprised
at how well he played because he hadn't been playing.
Uh and he stepped into a v Oreel team and
by the way, against Celta that was Celta is a
pretty good team. Celta is fighting for European positions and

(05:23):
this was a big game for vi Oreel to keep
the third place in the in the Spanish League. And
uh and I'll tell you what he was. He had
a great performance. Had you seen for those people who
didn't get an opportunity to watch the game. For for
someone who saw the game, would never know that Freeman
was not the everyday starter for Viareal, because that's how

(05:45):
well he played, how well he connected in this game.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
I think that's a brilliant way for the high praise
because he did not look out of place. He did
not look like a kid who just arrived in January
from Orlando City. He had one year as a starter
for Orlando City and he played all ninety minutes. For
really reality, you can again. I think that they've posted
some highlights as well, like he made a few last
ditch challenges. He just was super super comfortable as they

(06:11):
won two to one over South of the Vego. Like,
I'm just every time that this kid gets a new level,
he smashes it and it's really impressive and that.

Speaker 3 (06:19):
Will only make our national team better.

Speaker 5 (06:21):
Because after seeing what I saw this weekend, now I'm
a little bit more comfortable in terms of Okay, you know,
if Pochettino wants to play way out of that white
position or plays desk in that white position, I feel
a little bit more comfortable with Freeman now being that
bright sided center back, you know, with Richards and someone else.
But I feel a lot more comfortable after seeing what

(06:44):
I saw this weekend.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
And what's interesting is his his what he was best
at Orlando City was playing like a wingback role, like
it would be you put a center back in the
wide spot behind him to let him go attack and
be great. Yet with the national team, like he said, tab,
it took me a little while just because of like
I think he's at his best when he's attacking, but
over the last half year, it's like, oh no, if

(07:08):
you need him to be a stay at home right back,
slash right center back. He can do that too, And
I don't know, man, Usually, particularly for young wing backs, fullbacks,
like the defensive side of your game comes least right,
Like there are a lot of times wingers turn into
to fullbacks if they're not gonna make it as a
winger pro. So usually you need all the reps to
be this good defensively and this intelligent defensively. And he's

(07:29):
again like probably has what fifty games for the first
team in his career, give or take, Like that's that's
wild that he looks like this already, and particularly on
the defensive side.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Yeah, I mean, I can't wait to see what he's
going to turn into.

Speaker 5 (07:42):
Because on top of it, you know, as you know him,
you probably know him personally better than I do, very
focused type person. You can tell that he's he's picking
up information, he's learning, he gets better smart, seems to
be a smart kid.

Speaker 3 (07:58):
You know. I think sky's the limit at this point
for him.

Speaker 5 (08:01):
Hopefully he continues to play, you know, in terms of
the way he played this week, and I can't imagine
he's out of the lineup for the next game for
Rio Real because honestly, so so hopefully he can have
some continuation between now and the World Cup, and that
will be tremendous because that's a great gain for us.

Speaker 4 (08:19):
I couldn't agree more. And yeah, he's he's a good
kid too on top of everything else. And even before
he was getting minutes at Orlando, I heard, you know,
really good things about his professionalism, is work and all
that stuff. So these are the kind of people that
you're happiest for to see them get their chances and
take every moment of it. Elsewhere, we have Gio Urina
fifteen minutes for Brucio Much and Glodbark came off the

(08:40):
bench in a nil nil game and the game ended
nil nil. Much and Glidback did not create a ton,
while Joe Scali became the fastest to reach one hundred
and fifty appearances in the Bundesliga for a non German player.
So that was very impressive and a nice achievement for
Joe Scalley. But I want to talk about Gioranna. What
did you make of his performance?

Speaker 5 (09:00):
Yeah, first I'll say, you know, it's I'm very happy
for Scally because he's been a very consistent player, you know,
and that you know, playing one hundred and fifty games.
Obviously that that shows it shows it and that's not easy,
by the way, not no, you know, so a lot
of credit to him for that because he's fought his
way through that.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
As far as.

Speaker 5 (09:19):
Geo is concerned, you know, at least he had a header, right,
he had a header that hit the you know, hit
the post you know you'd want to see. I'll say
this because I have been a little bit negative with him,
and I should be, by the way, because he's not
playing right. And in this game, I saw his body
a little bit different than in the past.

Speaker 3 (09:39):
I saw that although.

Speaker 5 (09:41):
He didn't connect any significant good passes, that that had
any effect in the game. I saw him moving better, quicker,
he pressure the ball a little bit better. I saw
a little bit of a different Geo arena. That gives
me a little bit of hope for for a roster selection.

Speaker 4 (09:59):
I've think that's all positive. And I again, I think
for Geo it's about continuing to get minutes. Hopefully the
performances will come. But for him, we're never gonna question
his technique. We're never gonna question I guess the hypothetical
of what he could show in the attack. It's more
about his legs, his explosiveness, his ability to get into duels,
his ability to drive the ball in wild dribbling as

(10:21):
well as passing. So that's encouraging to hear. And we'll
see how the Bundesliga season wraps up for him a
few more here. Staying in Germany, American winger Mattie Albert
debuted for Bruisia Dortmund sixteen years old, breaking Giorana's record
as the youngest American to play in the Bundesliga. This
is a highly highly rated US youth international talent. He

(10:42):
is One scout describes him as on the level like
the same tier or similar tier as Cavin Sullivan, who
I think is more known to the average fan. So
Mattie Albert gets his debut and his first foots in
his first feet in first team soccer.

Speaker 5 (10:59):
Well, you know what I and you know he played
five minutes, so not much we can say about, you know,
the actual play. But I think we all know how
much it means to play at a big club like that,
and I think the most encouraging thing in this case
is that he's the right he's at the right club
to develop right because you know, Dortmann is one of
those clubs that gives young players opportunities. We saw it

(11:21):
with both Polistic and ge Arena. They gave plenty of
opportunities over a period of two or three years where
they started building them from playing just a couple of
minutes in a few games to then the following season
playing twenty thirty minutes in a game, to then potentially
becoming a starter for the team.

Speaker 3 (11:38):
And so I'm.

Speaker 5 (11:40):
Projecting that this is going to be a nice sort
of ascension for him into the Bundesliga. I'm happy that
he's at the right club to get the opportunity, because
he will get the opportunities.

Speaker 4 (11:53):
Yeah, I saw a joke on social media from somebody
in Germany where like Welles, how does Briscy Dortman every
few years just had another really talented sixteen year old
American player making a debut. It comes from Polistic first,
then Rena Cole Campbell and now mets Cie Albert. So
that's a nice that's a nice little American tradition at
Dortmund and I'm excited for Albert. Albert came from the

(12:14):
La Galaxy academy. His father is French, so he has
an EU passport. That's why, like Pulisik has a creation passport,
he was able to go to Europe at sixteen rather
than eighteen, or at least be debuting at sixteen rather
than eighteen because of registration. The Galaxy wanted to design
to the first team, but same thing with Gioreina. N
YCFC wanted to design him too. It's a little bit
more tricky there because Claudia Arena's father was a sporting

(12:36):
director of NYCFC in that moment, but still the Galaxy
really wanted to keep him and have him start his
career with that club. But look, the Dortmund was the
right path for him because of his talent, and I
think you're seeing that. Like you said in the five minutes,
you can't have a big breakdown on how he performed.
This is we are happy with your development. We are

(12:57):
proud of you. This is your reward for what you're
doing on the training pitch rather than oh my god,
we need you to impact this game.

Speaker 5 (13:03):
No doubt that Dortmun is doing a great job in
terms of scouting, right because all the obviously all the
players you just mentioned, also Junior floor Is at one
time was our best wo under you, under seventeen player,
and he also ended up at Dortmund, so.

Speaker 3 (13:20):
They really were able.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
They have been able over the last I would say
over the last decade. They have been able to pick
off some of our best talent at the right time.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
So they're doing things right and and by the way.

Speaker 5 (13:33):
It's it's for the most part, it's working out for
our players as well.

Speaker 3 (13:36):
So I really like this.

Speaker 4 (13:38):
I would certainly agree tab. I'm going to round up
some of the news from MLS. You pick whichever you're
interested in, go whatever direction, but I'm just gonna throw
a lot of bullet points at you. Smashin Burholts Are
ninety minutes and another Vancouver white Caps win. Brian White
also scored two goals. Diego Luna Xavier Gozo were an
action for RSL in their loss at a Galaxy. Both
looked good, very good, i'd say for both. Joint Hall

(13:59):
ninety minutes as the Red Bulls lose to Cincy. No
Miles Robinson for Cincinnati, no Tim Raim for Charlotte. He's
missed the last two games of a growing issue. Christian
Rodin did not play for the Seattle Sounders. He is fine, though,
eight and more is ninety minutes in a Burrow win
and then going to goalkeepers. Matt Turner I think has
slightly outplayed Matt Freeze in MLS this season. I don't

(14:20):
think it's a huge huge margin, but Matt Turner is
vying to try to take back that starting job from
free So anything in there where do you want to.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
Go, Well, you're gonna be surprised by what I'm gonna pick,
because I'm actually gonna pick Brian White on this one.
And I know that you've been You've been sort of
pushing Brian White a little bit more than me. I've
kind of left him aside, not because he's undeserving, but
because I felt like, which man just are the other
guys are just so much better.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
I'll tell you what you know.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
For those people who had an opportunity to watch Vancouver
this weekend, Brian White is just making all the right
runs at the right time. He's always in the right place.
I mean, I mean, Tom, I'm gonna have to agree
with you on this. Brian White is a great.

Speaker 3 (15:04):
Number nine who potentially should.

Speaker 5 (15:07):
Be on the I know he's on the outside looking in,
but I think someone definitely to look on to potentially
come off the bench for our national team.

Speaker 3 (15:17):
You know, I'm really impressed with the way he played.
I will go on to the next one.

Speaker 5 (15:22):
The next one, I would say, I'm a little bit
concerned about the Tim Reems situation because of his age.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
And now not playing games on top of it. That's
a concern.

Speaker 5 (15:31):
Not so much that he's going to be on the roster,
because I think certainly Fortino would like to have him
on the roster, but I'm I'm a lot more concerned
now about the potential of having Tim Reim be a
starter on the left side and coming into the World
Cup not playing consistent games.

Speaker 4 (15:48):
So I don't know what time you were listening to this,
dear listener, Searlotte devec are playing Tuesday night against Atlanta United.
I don't have word on if he's playing tonight or not,
but maybe this could be all for not Maybe he'll
be back after tonight. They have five more matches in
MLS before the World Cup break, so he still has
a little bit of time. But like you said, tabs
as the absences, if the absences pile up, that'll become

(16:11):
more and more concerning for a player of his age
and just I can particularly for him with the starting lineup,
and hey, if he misses a few weeks, how long
will it take him to get back to full gear?
What will he look like in those pre World Cup friendlies?
So those are a lot of questions, and and Tab
you said that I might be surprised by which traction
you go. I would have been surprised if you wanted
to talk about Matt Turner and Matt Freeze and the

(16:32):
ins and out of the goalkeeping.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
That's true, that's true.

Speaker 5 (16:35):
You're You're absolutely right that that would have been the
biggest surprise.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
Maybe this was the second.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
That sounds good? All right, that is the week that
was for us A players in soccer. We're gonna take
a very quick break, but up next we are very
very excited to have Alex Ramos join the show, So
please rate, review and subscribed Inside American Soccer, Tom Bogert,
Tab Ramos wherever you get your podcast. We'll be right
back with Alex. Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We

(17:12):
are now joined by one of the top soccer trainers
in the world. He has worked with players like Marcelo
and Jack Grealish. He was a pro player in Mexico
for Pachuca and Leon and oh yeah, it happens to
be the son of tab Ramos. We welcome in Alex
Ramos to the show. Alex. I am delighted for you
to be here. I think that this can go in
a number of different directions, even if it's a family argument.

(17:34):
I'm here for anything that's on the table. Yeah, well,
thank you for having me. I'm really excited.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Obviously, to be on the show with my dad is
a special opportunity, so couldn't pass that up.

Speaker 2 (17:45):
But yeah, excited to talk to you guys, talk to
you a little bit more about what I do on
the day to day, and talk soccer.

Speaker 4 (17:52):
Alex. I thought that the biggest honor here might be
talking to me. We've played I don't know, maybe three
games forever together. I thought that might be the highlight
of yours because I wasn't good enough to hold your boots.
So you know, it's okay, We're just gonna keep moving.
You're gonna focus on your dad and not not one
of the You were pretty people you played with.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
You were pretty good on those friendship fields down at ODP.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
So let's let's get into it. I want to start
with the family stuff before getting into your your really
awesome career. So when did you realize that your dad
maybe wasn't just a regular dad.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, So I would say the clearest memory I have
is we were leaving Giants Stadium, because I think a
good amount of his career was when I was really young,
so I don't remember a lot of that stuff, nor
was I really aware of what was going on. But
I have a clear memory of being in the car
leaving Giant Stadium and fans being like crowding around our

(18:50):
car where he couldn't actually pull out, like, and I
just remember being in the back seat like looking out
the window, and guys are like, he's like coming out,
going out the windows sign autographs, and I was like,
I don't think this is normal, but but I also
I also thought it was amazing, just like you know

(19:12):
that that all these people wanted just to him to
sign their jersey or an autograph, and and so like
that's really where the dream for me to become a
soccer player started.

Speaker 5 (19:23):
So let me let me backtrack on that, because obviously
that's that's as far back as he can remember.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
Uh, but I can tell you how it started, right.

Speaker 5 (19:31):
So Alex was born in Monterey, in Mexico, and uh,
obviously I was playing for Tigris at the time. So
the day that Alex is going to be born, obviously
we have to go to the hospital and we have
to go through the birth, the whole thing. And of
course me like every dad in the world, because I
do think that having children is the greatest gift that
you can have. And I've told you that Tom about

(19:54):
you know, being a dad is the greatest title you
can have.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
And so I remember going to the hospital with my
little camp quarter.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
Right because back then the phones we had cell phones already,
but they really you couldn't count on the you know,
on the video. So but I do remember going to
the hospital and I, you know, I walk into the
delivery room and I have my little camp quarter and
there's like three or four doctors there. And the three
or four doctors happened to be Ti Grits fans, so
they're like, oh no, no, we'll film.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
It for you.

Speaker 5 (20:24):
So they actually one of the doctors, I didn't even
have to hold the camera.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
One of the doctors filmed like obviously.

Speaker 5 (20:30):
From the side Alex's birth, and another doctor when Alex
came out.

Speaker 3 (20:34):
They go we have a new t grade.

Speaker 5 (20:36):
So before Alex even had a name, he was already
like in the soccer world.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
I mean, in the first second, before he could breathe,
he was already in the soccer world.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
So obviously won't remember that moment, but at that moment,
it was already a little bit different.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
Tom. Really quickly, they're like Daniel Radcliffe, the actor who
played Harry Potter. He has kids and he hasn't told
them about him, like his career success and all that
his kids are watching Harry Potter with him without knowing
that that's their dad. What was it like parenting if
sessly like in the soccer world of like he'll figure

(21:14):
it out one day on his own, like all my
dad guades. But I just kind of just want to
be dad for a bit without him knowing anything other
than I'm just dad.

Speaker 5 (21:21):
Well, I mean I don't really ever think that. I
sat Alex on the couch and said, Alex, look, these
are all the things I did.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Well.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
When he told the story of like figuring it out himself,
it's like kind of before that, yeah, of how how
do you naviget?

Speaker 5 (21:38):
Yeah, So it's you know, sometimes it's not easy because
of what you can hear from your friends, you know,
depending on what your dad does.

Speaker 3 (21:44):
In my case, you know, is a fun thing being
a soccer player.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
And I recall, you know, I always took advice from
good people, and I recall people telling me, hey, you know,
when you have kids, really take time to enjoy them
because it goes by so fast, and it really does
go by really fast. But I but I did take
that advice and I did enjoy it. So like I'm sure,
as Alex will explain from his memories, I hope obviously,

(22:08):
but but that was no but that was the biggest
part for me. Like, you know, I would leave the
Metro Stars training right or whatever, and I would drive
home and I don't say Tigres before that because he
was just a baby at the time, but you know,
I you know, my dad, My dad had already drilled
goals into our basement walls, so we had like drill goals.

(22:29):
Like Alex as soon as he could walk, he had
goals to shoot at.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
And so that's that was our life.

Speaker 5 (22:34):
I would come home, you know, from training, and as
soon as I walked through the door, it would be
Alex saying, Dad, let's go to the basement, so I
couldn't even have lunch at home before I had to
be downstairs and we were already playing.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
So that was kind of, you know, my recollection of
a lot of his youth.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
But obviously, you know, Alex, you know, I don't know
how much he remembers of all of it, but you
know that I know that that was a big part.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
And Alex, you said that you dreamed of being a
soccer bay so that all came naturals just in your
blood and things that you just gravitated towards.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yeah, I think what obviously, there's there's many kids that
dream of being a professional soccer player just from watching
on TV, and I think I just had a little
bit of a deeper look of what that actually looks like.

Speaker 2 (23:19):
And yeah, it looked great to me.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
I mean, he was he was home in the middle
of the day and he was he was relaxing at home,
got to spend a lot of time with me. But
it's also like, you know, when it's your dad and
that's what you see them as in how they earn
their living, you feel like it's a lot more achievable
and attainable than maybe even someone whose dad just works

(23:42):
a regular nine to five job and they're you know,
watching La Minya mal on TV. It seemed a lot
more attainable for me, even though you know, I found
out as I went on. It's it's it's pretty hard
to do.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
What was the dynamic like when because I'm sure he
I know he coached a lot with the same his club,
at the club that we both played at growing up.
What was that dynamic like for both of you of
son and dad coach, but particularly was he a good coach?
Did you enjoy those times or was it like there
are some kids that no matter who their dad is,

(24:15):
I got, God, I don't want my dad to be
the coach. But then those others who are excited about it.

Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, there was never that. There was never that I
didn't want my dad to be my coach. I think
a lot of it was because I knew he knew
what he was talking about.

Speaker 2 (24:30):
It's kind of hard to argue with that.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
We had kids that would drive two and a half
hours each way to training just to train with him,
So I always knew that he was the best coach
for our team regardless. So it's a little bit different
than like your typical dad is my coach situation, and
I really enjoyed the constructive criticism that I would get
from him, you know, in the car after the games.

(24:55):
I looked forward to that, even if it was negative.
Sure was a fair amount of time I look forward
to it. I think it made me better and like
I always wanted the truth, you know, I never wanted
my games to be sugarcoated or my performances to be sugarcoated,
and it really helped me become an elite athlete to

(25:18):
constantly get that feedback. When I got older, I was
able to evaluate myself on a much higher level from that.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
You see, there seemed to be a little hesitation when
he said constructive criticism. I don't know if you were
if you were going to be looking for a different
word there, but no, that sounded genuine, no.

Speaker 1 (25:36):
And and it was constructed because I liked it and
I wanted that. I know not every kid responds well
to that, but but for me, I did. So I think,
you know, every kid is so different and you can't
you couldn't possibly treat each kid the same. And so
I'm not saying that that that style would work for everyone,
but for me, he didn't even have to start talking.

(25:57):
There were a lot of times that he didn't start
talking that I would be like, I would score a goal,
but I would know that it didn't really work too hard.
I'd be like, how do you think I played? And
then and then you know, I'd always get to the honesty.

Speaker 5 (26:10):
You know, I wanted to say that because it wasn't
just you know, so I would I would coach Alex
in this team, and by the way, I think I
was a fair coach. I never put Alex in a
situation where he could only succeed. And maybe you know,
sometimes as a dad, you know, a lot of dad
seemed to do that.

Speaker 3 (26:25):
I just don't think that helps, and so I never
did it. Really.

Speaker 5 (26:29):
I try to treat Alex like every other player always,
and and a lot of the times that we got
in the car, yeah, of course, sometimes I started the conversation.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
But you know, Alex is very much he communicates.

Speaker 5 (26:42):
Really well, and as you can tell by all the
things that he does now, he's a good communicator.

Speaker 3 (26:47):
And a lot of the times he would he would
start the conversation, Dad, what do you think of this? Dad,
what do you think of that?

Speaker 5 (26:52):
And so it was a little bit easier for me,
to be honest, because he would recognize that he would
need feedback and he would ask for it.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Alex, what was the best advice your dad ever gave you,
whether that's life or soccer.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
It's tough to say, because, you know, as we were
talking about with with every time I left the field,
I would get advice after every after pretty much every training,
every game. So it's it's hard to pinpoint one thing.
But I think the best advice that my dad ever
gave me was to stop playing professionally in Mexico and
and to come home start a career and really, you know,

(27:29):
look out for my future. That obviously came a lot
later in life, has nothing to do with youth soccer.
But again, he's given me advice throughout my life. So
but but that's what comes to mind because I was
going through a really hard time when I was playing
pro and I feel like, you know, I needed guidance

(27:49):
and he was at the time the you twenty national
team coach, and he just gave me the reality of
where players are and he's like, I have guys in
my twenties that can't get a contract. He's like, it's
really difficult to make substantial amounts of money in this game.
And he's like, obviously, I'm always here to support your

(28:10):
dreams and your passion, and if you want to keep going,
by all means you should. But he's like, you know,
I think it may be the best decision for you
to come home, you know, and and start working with
kids and see if you like that. And that was
the best advice I've ever.

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Received, Alex. So I want to go more into that.
You played, I believe one year in college and you
played for the reserves at Leona Bajuca, which is again
it's very very high level. Just to be abundantly clear,
you were again, if someone growing up in the same area,
I think you would be fair to say one of
the best in your age group in New Jersey, right, Like,

(28:47):
so you were somebody who had the ability to play pro.
Maybe not the multimillion multimillion transfer to Madrid or something
like that. So in your mind, how is it different
and something that you're training for every day your whole life?
This was your dream as a child. What was those
moments like in Mexico before you came home and that again,

(29:08):
that conversation with your dad about okay, like wow, like
maybe this is over.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:13):
So I was in the position that I would say
the majority of people who leave college are in I
have a lot of friends that are still playing, whether
it's USL, USL two local leagues that you know, are
still trying to fulfill that dream. And I think for me,
I always like I started to realize that that's kind

(29:34):
of the pathway I'm going down, and I'm going to
be twenty nine years old. You know, maybe in the
USL two, which there's nothing wrong with, but for myself
and my goals, that just wasn't in the cards for me.
Like I wanted to build a business, build a career,
and like that was something that I had always known.

(29:55):
Whether my pro career went parabolic or if it went
complet downhill, I still wanted to build a business one day.
And I know that the older you get, the harder
it is to build a business, because you want, you
inevitably are going to make mistakes, You're inevitably going to
go through challenges, and so the younger you are, obviously
the easier it is. I didn't have kids, I was,

(30:18):
you know, still dating my wife at the time, and
and so like, you know, I didn't have much responsibilities
outside of working hard and figured it out. So I
think the timing was really good. But yeah, I think
that the decision when I came home became very easy
because of how much I loved working with with kids.

Speaker 5 (30:40):
Let me let me dig into that a little bit more, Tom,
because I think it's a really good point that Alex
makes about me being involved with the obviously U twenty
national team at the time and me seeing some of
the you know, of course, the top you know, four
or five players on the U twenty national team are
on their way, usually at you know, to a very

(31:01):
long career into making let's say, a good living out
of the game, some great and some average, but the
rest of them normally end up bouncing around places right,
and they end up, if not at the bottom of
an MLS roster, they end up in the USL somewhere.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
And I kind of was seeing that picture and I
just want to.

Speaker 5 (31:20):
Make sure that Alex saw that that was that could
have been in the card. So by the way, I'll
say this, Alex is one of the most skillful coach
players that I coached. He has an incredible ability to
hit a ball perfectly. And that's why I think he
can teach, because he can actually demonstrate things that only

(31:41):
professional players can do. So could Alex have been a
ten year USL player or an eight year USL player
and a two year MLS player where he got signed,
you know, to maybe a minimum contract and play there
for a little while and then back. And I just
thought exactly what Alex is saying, which is, you know,
do you I want to find yourself at thirty thirty

(32:01):
two years old?

Speaker 3 (32:02):
Then trying to figure out what you're gonna do next.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
And because I saw the level of skill that he
had and the ability that he has to communicate, I
thought that he would love doing that.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
And I think when he, you know, when he.

Speaker 5 (32:14):
Took on the responsibility of coaching, which a big responsibility
to teach kids, you know, I thought it was a
great idea and now the results are obviously amazing.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Yeah, that that is so fascinating to me. And I
didn't know the exact backstory, but we're gonna dive a
whole lot more into it. Because I was Ramos, the
professional soccer trainer, the owner of Art Soccer Training, I
know that social media following doesn't equal everything in life,
but more than three million on social media. I think
is a good way to demonstrate how serious and how
successful this guy is. So we're gonna take a quick

(32:46):
break and we're gonna dive in with Alex about all
of that. So please rate, review and subscribe to Inside
American Soccer with Tom Bogan Tabramas wherever you get your podcast.
Welcome back to Inside American Soccer. We're back with Alex

(33:07):
Ramos again. Alex, you started your own training company. What
what was that like? What were the challenges early and
how do you even get that ball rolling?

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (33:18):
So I started out working for my dad's company, which
which was basically goes into local clubs and runs their
travel programs. And so I got a taste of every
age group from U seven, which is the intro to
travel soccer all the way to I coached a high
school team, so right away I got to see the

(33:41):
different levels, the different cognitive levels, and really experienced how
to train different ages because that I think that's something
that until you train each age group, you don't really know,
Like you just think I know soccer, so I'll be
able to teach these kids, and you don't realize that,

(34:03):
like it's more than that, and you have to understand
how each age responds to a coach. And so at
the U seven level, they're just looking to have fun,
they're looking to follow the ball around, and you have
to find a way to teach them within that environment,
whereas a high school team is looking to you to

(34:23):
really explain things in depth and tell them where to
go and where to be and how to do it.
And so obviously you have different priorities at different ages,
but that really helped me in the beginning learning kind
of how the team environments went. Then I went to
a higher level where I was coaching at a what
is now an MLS next club, and so I was

(34:44):
training really high level younger boys team. So one was
twelve years old, the other was ten, and I would
say we were one of the better teams in the state,
and so it was a high level environment. I got
to feel a lot more pressure for and parents in
a good way where like, you know, every minute matters,
every play matters, and so you know, especially twelve years old,

(35:07):
like that's the thick of it. That's when when you're
really like all in on the sport, regardless of if
you're going to become a professional or not, and so
I got to experience that. But I had always had
this passion to work with players on an individual level
because I always felt like I'm the answer for that. Obviously,
there's many coaches that have walked the walk that I

(35:29):
have and are are just as qualified, if not more.
But for me myself, when I would have players their
parents come up to me and say, well, we want
to do more. What else can we do? Is there
anything you can recommend? I would always feel like I
kind of feel like I'm that guy, you know. And
so obviously, when they're your players, you can't It's a

(35:52):
conflict of interest, so you don't really want to say, hey,
come train with me on the side, and you know, also,
I'm going to start you this weekend.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
But that's kind of how I got started.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
Was I through those the players that I've trained and
worked with, anyone who was on a past team of mine,
I reached out to to say, Hey, I just want
to leave the door open. I'm doing some private training.
If you ever want to get some extra work in,
let's do it. And once I got a couple clients,
I thought, you know, if I could get three clients
why couldn't I get twenty You know, if there's three

(36:25):
people that are interested in this, why wouldn't twenty people
be interested? And so that thought alone kind of had
me speculating, like, could this be something that I can
turn into a career. And so when COVID hit was
a perfect time to try it because everything was shut
down anyway, And so I found myself on people's front lawn,

(36:46):
in their backyard, you know, keeping the social distance. But
that's really where I found some momentum and decided to
take the leap of faith to really go all in
on private training alone. So that's where it all started,
was just me, just me doing private training, posting videos
to kind of promote that, and also posting just inspirational

(37:10):
videos that didn't necessarily have to do with my private
training but were under the same umbrella as just.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
Soccer and youth soccer in general.

Speaker 4 (37:20):
Yeah, follow at Alex Ramo's training. That was where I
was going to go next, because I want to make
it clear that you were a trainer first, but you're
also really adept at social media, and some of those
videos are really instructional and intuitive. It isn't like trick
shots or something to watch me hit this ball in
the upper ninety a few times because I'm really good

(37:41):
and I have a good technique. It's like, no, this
is the part of the foot you use. This is
the way that the art of dribbling and stuff, and
I think that's why it's resonated so well. So what
was the I guess one, the thought process behind like, oh,
like this will be good for my business, will be
good for me, this will be just good to do.
And two, could you ever have imagined that you're up
to a point again, one point two million on Instagram

(38:03):
and you're going to Real Madrid, You're working with some
of the top players in the world for some of
these opportunities. Could you imagine when you were starting to
put videos out that anything like this was possible?

Speaker 5 (38:14):
And by the way, before Alex answers that question, which
is a very long question full of different questions within
the question, I will say this, you know I've had Obviously,
I'm around Alex all the time, or at least as
much as I can, and I think a lot of
people come up to me at different times and say, hey,
you know, Alex's doing so well with social media, and

(38:35):
they just think the extent of being on social media,
it's just you record yourself and you post it and
that's the end of it, and then you get lucky
that people watch it. And I'd like for Alex to
get into a little bit more into the specifics of
the requirements of just posting one video, because I've been
with Alex on trips where he has to post a
video and it's five, six seven hours of work of

(38:59):
actual work between the editing and getting it online. So
I think that a lot of people don't realize how
much work goes into doing this sort of thing full time.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, so first I would say yes, I always felt
like that social media would be able to propel me
to a place where I can work with the top
clubs and the top players. I think, as in anything,
you have to believe it yourself in order for it
to happen. And I always was lucky because when I
was back in Mexico, there's a guy called mo Ali

(39:32):
that is still very prevalent in the space and one
of the larger accounts, and I would say he was
the guy that I really looked up to because he
was already paving the way. And if I had to
name one guy that paved the way for soccer training
and social media. Not that he's a super serious trainer

(39:52):
that trains youth players, but he made it fun to
train and made it fun to watch training. And I
think that that's something that I took from him and
really thought, well, I love training players. How can I
maybe do some more game realistic drills but still make

(40:13):
them fun and fun to watch. And so because he
had already been paving the way, I already knew that
there was a space. How big the space was going
to get, I did not know, but I knew there
was a space, and so that's what really motivated me.
And you can ask my dad. From day one, I
always believed. I always thought that this would be something
that could be huge, and this is where it's taken me.

(40:39):
And I think this is still very early on. I
think there's a lot more to come, especially with the
World Cup coming this summer. There's a lot to do there,
and people are just becoming used to watching soccer content
online that wasn't a thing ten years ago, where like
that was one of the things on your feed where
I think there are a lot of young players that

(41:00):
they want that in their feed. Because your feed is
what really inspires you throughout the day. Obviously, not everything
you watch is inspiring, but I think having that mix
of the things that you like and your interests is important,
and especially like for myself, I like to watch other
soccer creators content, and so I always saw the vision.

(41:23):
I always knew that it would get somewhere, but it
was the main reason I posted was to inspire players
like myself. When I was a kid, I would have
loved to be able to scroll through a tablet or
a device and see guys like myself doing different things.
I think the earliest stuff that I watched was probably
the f two Freestylers, and I really remember those days,

(41:48):
like going on seeing them do something and then trying
to go like replicated myself. So I wanted to be
that guy in other players' lives. And that's all I
try to do on the day to day is create
content that kids can say like, oh, yes, I watched
Alex Ramos do that, and now I'm going to go
do it in my backyard.

Speaker 4 (42:09):
I really liked the dynamic of that what's a typical
day look like for you?

Speaker 1 (42:15):
So a typical day for me would be to start
out with trainings in the morning. I have quite a
few homeschooled players that are youth national team players or
just players that are really serious about their game. So
they feel that high school is for their goals and
their lifestyle, not a waste of time, but they think
that they can optimize their schedules a little bit better,

(42:35):
so they homeschool. They come here in the morning, and
then they train with their teams in the afternoon. So
I do private trainings anywhere from six thirty to nine
thirty ten o'clock.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Then I immediately come.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
Inside to my office and I work on social media,
so that could be anywhere from like ten to three
o'clock to thirty three o'clock. I do everything from strategizing
and ideas. I'll do edits for this week next week.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
I plan.

Speaker 1 (43:10):
Sites that I want to go to, whether it's New
York City, I go into Pennsylvania. Sometimes I plan my
brand deals, so I have a lot of project management
with timelines. Right now, I'm working with four brands at
the moment that all have different timelines, different posting schedules,
and so there's a lot of that and really just

(43:32):
treating that like a company because it is making sure
that all areas are covered, from film dates to production dates,
to editing, to planning the next posts different ideas, and
also going through my numbers seeing how these posts performed,
what I can change, what I can tweak. So every

(43:55):
day I have a different theme, but I try to
between Monday and Friday make sure that I tackle each
area as if I had somebody.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
For each area.

Speaker 1 (44:04):
The only thing that I outsource is a is a videographer,
but everything else I do I do myself, from the
edits to the production to.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
Going live.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Is your videographer on this call with us?

Speaker 2 (44:19):
No, he's not on this he's not on this car
with us. It's not my dad.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
And then I and then I close out my day
with more training. So between three point thirty and a PM,
I'm training. And I also have a club that I
run with about three hundred and fifty players. We just
had four hundred and fifty at tryouts last week. So
keeping myself busy and uh and regimented because that's that's

(44:44):
really the only.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Way to tackle everything that I'm doing.

Speaker 4 (44:47):
TAB going back to your career as well, what does
that sound like as as as a schedule for you?

Speaker 5 (44:52):
No, yeah, yeah, no, pretty back well, and that's that's
what that was what I was referring to before that.
You know that going into this social media you know,
obviously it's a world that I don't understand as well.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
Because I could.

Speaker 5 (45:04):
I could barely post something on Instagram, like sometimes I
have to give Alex my phone to say, Okay, what
do I have to do?

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Oh I have to contribute to this. I don't even
know what that means, but I do it anyway.

Speaker 5 (45:14):
Okay, So so I don't know, but I have to
tell you I have learned a lot through Alex about
about the social media aspect of it because I know
that he you know, he puts, he puts in all
that time, and he you know, I like, I didn't
know that there were even certain times of the day
when it's better to post and other times, and so,
you know, regardless of all of these things, I think

(45:38):
it's important that you know, no matter what career path
you're going to take, that you have to be serious
about it. You have to be honest with yourself as
to how far you can go. And I have to
tell you, what I've seen from Alex always has been
that he he has been as he said, because he knows.
I believe that he has been a believer of his projects,

(46:00):
and when he gets involved in something, he really goes
after it and leaves no like, no leaves unturned. He
goes he goes after it hard, and that's why he's
having success.

Speaker 4 (46:11):
You've done again with Jack Greuis with Barcelo, You've gone
Real Madrid, You've done again. I'm sure there's ten other things.
Off the top of your head. What do you think
has been your coolest experience thanks to your training career.

Speaker 1 (46:23):
So this jersey behind me right here is a kid
Super jersey. And so I played in a charity match
where Kid Super was the captain and the first player
that he chose for the team was Ronaldinho. And so
when I when I got news that I'm I was
going to be playing on the same team as Ronaldinho,
I was extremely excited. And I also found out that

(46:45):
Kaka was going to be on the other team. And
so I played in a charity match where Ronaldinho actually
assisted me for a goal. And I think that that
was by far the coolest thing that I've ever done.
And that was something that I never thought I could
even say, you know, obviously it's it's.

Speaker 3 (47:03):
Its way better than my assist in the basement.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
That's uh, definitely, definitely a little bit more exciting for
me and something that that's only gonna happen once.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
But that was the coolest thing.

Speaker 4 (47:18):
Now it's Cocott tried to meg you in that game, right,
but you yeah, you close the door.

Speaker 1 (47:22):
Well, I think I think anytime that you're anytime that
you're near a legend like Hakai, you just need to
make sure you don't get humiliated and you don't get meggs.

Speaker 4 (47:32):
Another cool thing that you got to experience with your dad.
So tab, how is it going to a Champions League
game at Real Madrid with.

Speaker 5 (47:39):
Alex Well, you know, it's uh, let me start with
a little bit deeper where they started. So my dad
sort of made me a real Madrid fan when I
was little, you know, the times of one Eto and
and uh and the you know, early you know, late
seventies around that time.

Speaker 3 (47:56):
And I you know, because I follow Real Madrid.

Speaker 5 (47:59):
You know, I'm not an avid fan with like, you know,
everything's important because I realized what football's about. But I
am a little bit of a fan and I followed
him and I've made Alex a fan, and uh I
got lucky this year that Alex was working with one
of his brands and he came up to He came
up to me and he said, he asked me, if
you know, to go to the real Madrid game on

(48:20):
you know, the Champions League game against Men City. And
so it was it was a lot of fun because
we both we both you know, like the team and
enjoyed going to the stadium and and seeing that stadium.
Neither one of us had been at a game there. Uh,
so it was, uh, it was amazing. And also he
made a video that I don't know if you saw
about going to the Champions League.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
It was really funny. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (48:41):
But but anyway, yeah, you were not it was a
lot of Yeah, I was not a good actor in
the in the video.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
Let's just say that.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Well you weren't acting because that was all that was
pure genuine excitement.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Well it was, it was exciting actually, but it was.
It was really a great experience that we had.

Speaker 5 (48:57):
We were in Madrid four or five days and you
got to work with Marcello and we got to meet
you know, Roberto Carlos and we and we were in
the Madrid locker room right before the game, and we
were meeting the players on the way into the stadium,
so we we you know, we were able to get
some really nice treatment at Real Madrid ALEX.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
When you are training kids who are hoping to make
the jump from academy to professional soccer, what's the most
underrated and most overrated skills to be working on.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
I would say that the most underrated skill that you
should be working on is shooting the ball when the
ball is moving, because I think a lot of players
work on free kicks, especially when when they're training on
their own, and I think that it is just so
much different when you're going in different directions and trying

(49:50):
to get that shot off. It's really not the same
thing hitting a free kick. You have measured steps, you know,
obviously you in one space, so you can just stare
right at the ball and being able to hit it
that way while the ball is spinning while you're running
in a different direction. That's something that I feel like

(50:11):
not enough kids train that. And so even though shooting
itself is not an underrated skill, I would say that
training finishing with a moving ball while you're running with
speed in a direction is something that kids don't train enough.
And I would say the most overrated skill, I don't
think that there is one, because when you look at

(50:33):
the most entertaining players in the world, like the Lamina Mals,
the Doku's, they just they have such an array of
skills that they can pull out at any time that
that's what makes them unpredictable. I think the only thing
that I would say that's overrated is maybe static ball mastery.

(50:53):
Doing things in a single place where you're not really
going anywhere. It's the least realist, sick style of training.
Having said that, when you're six seven years old, static
ball mastery is perfectly fine, and so I would say
for an academy player that that's what I would say
is the most overrated would be static ball mastery. But

(51:16):
it's better than nothing. So I'm not you know, I
don't really feel if you're touching the ball, I think
you're you're that's already.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Half the battle.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
If you're training a future number ten attacking midfielder for
the US men's national team, what would be I guess,
your most important skills or traits that you'd beat looking
to drill home.

Speaker 1 (51:37):
So I would be looking at their ability to get
shots on goal. I would look at their first step
out of a dribble, like when you're you're going at
a player, how quickly can you create a shot. I
would look at their their long balls. They're different techniques,
making sure that they can they can hit a ball
in each different way. And I would also want to

(51:57):
watch their games. I would want to see how active
they are. I would want to see all the pockets
that they find, how often that they're getting on the ball.
A lot of what I do with my higher level
players is breakdown game film, and so what I like
to look at is off the ball movements because ninety
nine percent of the game you're going to spend without
the ball your feet, and so how can you make
a difference within that time to impress a coach or

(52:21):
to show a coach that you're able to make an impact?
And so I would say we would spend some time
watching their game and we would really find what they're
doing well off the ball and where they can be
a little bit more proactive and how they can find
the ball more often.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
Two more, looking at the World Cup, do you have
your World Cup favorite or maybe a World Cup dark horse?
This summer.

Speaker 1 (52:46):
Yeah, So I would say the only difficult part about
this question is that you don't know who's going to
get hurt within the next month. Of course, that is
something that could really change my opinion, Like Leminn Yamal
right now is hurt. So where a Spain may be
a favorite, you know, that may affect a lot. So
I'm gonna go with France because they can. They can
get two injuries and still have ten good players. So

(53:10):
you know, I'm gonna go with France because of their depth.
They're they're the deepest team by far in the World Cup,
and I don't think it's close either their second team.
I was watching their second team in the last window
and I was like, this looks like better than ninety
nine percent of other national teams, and I was like,
how how is this possible? And so I think you

(53:33):
can argue this is one of the deepest national team
rosters we've ever seen. Uh So I'm gonna just say
France because of that reason. They've had the same coach
throughout that's another big deal. And this is his last cycle,
so I think that's gonna be exciting to see if
he can end on a win and then dark horse.

(53:55):
I would say Senegal would be a dark horse for me.
I think I think that there's someone that that can
do some damage. And even though they may not be
a dark horse because of their performances in the last
World Cup, I think if Morocco has has their team healthy,
they can make another solid run as.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
Well last one. Looking at the United States, what is
your projection prediction feeling going into the World Cup? How
far does this team last?

Speaker 1 (54:23):
So if I look at just the players that we
have straight up can compare them to the other national teams,
I think that there's no reason why we can't get
two rounds into the knockout phase. I think the energy
and the aura around the team right now is making
me feel like we're going to have a much earlier exit.

(54:43):
I haven't been pleased with what I've seen. I think
the sense of pride and you know energy being put
forth towards winning games is no more there now than
it's ever been, and so I'm not feeling optimistic. But
having said that, with the players we have, I would
not be surprised if we make it. If we make

(55:05):
a run, it's really just you know, these games, they
have a different sentiment. I do think that these players
will step up and rise to the occasion, but all
you can go off off of is what you see,
and what I've seen in the games leading up have
not been inspiring enough for me to just say, Wow,
I'm gonna watch this team, you know, knock a couple

(55:25):
teams out and make it deep run. So my prediction
would be we get out of the group stage in
the second place and we lose first round.

Speaker 4 (55:34):
In the knockouts. Second place. I think a few people
might take that right now rather than risking it for
first Listen, Alex, we've taken up enough of your time.
I know that you have a strict and long schedule
and a lot of people waiting for your instructions outside
on the grass. Thank you very much for joining at
Alex Rama's training. On social media, you'll find him. You

(55:55):
probably don't need me to tell you where he is,
and he's the owner of Art Soccer Training.

Speaker 1 (55:58):
Alex, thank you for joining us so much that I'll
see you later.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
Take care of guys, jeers, and thank you all for
listening in South American Soccer. Please rate, review, and subscribe
wherever you get your podcast. We'll be back next week,