July 17, 2025 • 32 mins
What does it take to build a soccer development system that truly serves American players? Bob Montgomery, the architect behind Red Bull New York's academy that produced stars like Tyler Adams and Christian Pulisic, reveals the blueprint on American Soccer Club Zone.
Montgomery brings decades of wisdom from coaching US National Team captains Mike Windischman and Chris Armas at Adelphi University to establishing one of America's most productive youth academies. Now, as sporting committee member for American Soccer Club New York, he's helping create new pathways for local talent.
The conversation unpacks why American youth soccer often misses talented players through exclusive club affiliations and prohibitive costs. "It's about building bridges," Montgomery explains, describing ASC's open-door approach that contrasts with typical MLS academy models. He challenges common development myths, particularly around playing up age groups, explaining players should only advance "when they're ready."
Most compelling is ASC's proof-of-concept: giving 16-year-old Dylan Lopez first-team minutes during their inaugural NPSL season. This bold move demonstrates their commitment to development over immediate results. As Montgomery reflects on his experiences grooming future stars, he emphasizes that technical ability and decision-making—not size or strength—ultimately determine which young players succeed professionally.
Ready to see American soccer development reimagined? Join the conversation about creating accessible pathways for talented players regardless of background or club affiliation. The future of American soccer depends on it.
Thank you for listening! Visit us at ASCNewYork.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Good morning everybody and welcome to the
American Soccer Club Zone.
This radio show is brought toyou on KJOY 98.3 in Farmingdale,
new York Great station.
Here in beautiful Farmingdale,with the airport just around the
corner, we have a great showfor you today and we're going to
be bringing in a guest.
His name is Bob Montgomery, alegendary US soccer figure and
(00:32):
specifically a New Yorkmetropolitan Long Island soccer
figure, and we'll talk about theAmerican Soccer Club Zone and
the American Soccer Club whichBob is part of in the sporting
capacity.
Before we get into any of that,we've had a real crazy end of
the season and we'll talk aboutthat and where we've been for
the last two weeks.
It's exactly 14 days since theAmerican Soccer Club's NPSL
(00:53):
inaugural season ended with akind of a very difficult great
game to watch, tough game tolose 3-2 lost to New Haven, who
became the eventual NorthAtlantic Conference champions.
So a little bit of consolationthere.
But before we get anywhere, youknow the American Soft Club
started in 2025, and we arereally all about our partners,
our investors and specificallyour sponsors, who are more like
(01:16):
partners and investors than theyare commercial partners, and so
we're going to go right throughthe three major sponsors here
and give a little acknowledgmentthat the show is brought to you
by.
You know LIFAC, our JerseyFront partners.
Lifac have saved over 4,000lives to date 4,400, I believe.
Ceo and founder Artie Lee andhis LIFACers around the country
are on a mission.
Save lives in.
(01:37):
American Soccer Club New Yorkare now partners in that noble
endeavor.
We're going to save livestogether.
And we have Our medicalpartners are probably our most
critical partners on theday-to-day existence of a
professional soccer team OrlinCo.
An orthopedic group Division ofNorthwell Health.
They're on the jersey back.
They are incredible day-to-daypartners.
The incredible Orlin Co, anorthopedic group division has
the state-of-the-art facilitiesall across Long Island and they
(02:00):
help our athletes get back inthe game.
They have been just incredible.
Our uniform, how people know us.
We share a great uniformapparel partner with Wrexham,
the incredibly, nowinternationally known Welsh team
, 100 plus years old.
It is now on an unprecedentedascent up to the Premier League,
hopefully if they get one morepromotion.
(02:20):
And we have mutual partners inMacron.
Macron is our apparel partner.
Us headquarters in Bridgeportout of Bologna, italy.
They've been phenomenal.
So we thank LifeVac, orlandCohen and Macron, of course.
And then we have the Bargino LawFirm in Garden City Long
Island's best personal lawinjury firm and A-Turf it's
America's top synthetic turfmanufacturer.
A-turf fields last, an industryleading, 14.5 years and they
(02:44):
are the, from the Buffalo BillsStadium, the longest-lasting NFL
stadium at eight and a halfyears, to the Sousa FC Orland
and Cohen Complex in CentralIslip, new York.
A-turf provides a playingsurface most like natural grass
in pristine condition, and BQESoccer Partners is the
architects of the soccer club,the American Soccer Club New
York, and we would not besitting here in these beautiful
(03:04):
Farmedale KJoy Studios if notfor Todd Shapiro and Associates,
the top PR agency in thecountry in my mind.
And you can learn more aboutthe American Soccer Club New
York at ASCNewYorkcom and on allsocial media.
We're pretty good on that.
We're pretty active andalthough we're technically in
the offseason, our nextconversation here with Bob
Montgomery will tell you a lotmore about the club.
(03:25):
There is no offseason, but thisis technically our first time
to regroup, so we've had twoweeks to do it, but we didn't
spend a lot of time relaxing.
We did a feature.
We were fortunate enough to beidentified through some great
coverage in the New York Post byCBS Sports, cbs Sports.
(03:48):
We did two features last week onDylan Lopez, our 16-year-old
phenom that we've signed out ofRonkonkoma and the Atlantic FC
club.
He actually got on the fieldtwice this year.
Bob and I will talk about him.
And also Stalin Acosta, anincredible story of perseverance
and dedication Stalin's beenthrough.
He's one of our players fromBrentwood, brentwood High School
, cortland College, cortlandUniversity who's been through a.
He's one of our players fromBrentwood, brentwood High School
, cortland College, cortlandUniversity who's been through a
bout of cancer.
(04:09):
Come back stronger than ever.
He's one of the fittest guys onthe team.
So CBS was incredible toidentify these two guys and do
two stories on them.
And, last but not least, reallya banner week leading up to our
show this morning and my brotherBrian and I my famous brother
Brian and I, who's on Fox NewsChannel and hosts about five
different shows a day and aradio show we were brought on to
(04:31):
Fox 5 New York to do aninterview, a good five, six
minute interview about the club.
Brian's an investor and asoccer advocate, just like we
are, and we had a greatinterview with some great hosts
and we're very grateful for that.
What we're even more gratefulfor, our guest here right now is
a guy that when I was growingup he's a few years more mature
than I am, I'll say that, bobbut he was an iconic coach that
(04:55):
if he did recognize you as aplayer, you really felt like you
had arrived.
He's the coach of AdelphiUniversity.
He was a great player himselfin East Meadow and Nassau
Community College and at AdelphiUniversity and then in the
senior leagues of the LISFL andbeyond with Lindbrook Steuben
for years.
So Bob is, you know, he's aLong Island soccer player Hall
of Famer.
He is an iconic coach.
(05:17):
He was Red Bull United excuse me, red Bull, new York.
Red Bull really launched theiracademy system, which is one of
was one of the best in thecountry and still is.
Eric, red Bull really launchedtheir academy system, which was
one of the best in the countryand still is Over 13 years gave
birth to players like TylerAdams, matt Miosga and so many
others.
So I'd like to welcome thelegendary Bob Montgomery to the
radio show today.
Bob, how are you?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I'm doing well.
Thank you very much, Jim.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Great.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I know you're excited for being part of the ASC and
seeing how we can really helpplayers on Long Island and
create some great players forprofessional ranks down the road
.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, one of the best things that Kevin Reardon and I
my managing partner fromHicksville, a Fordham guy is one
of the first things we say wehave to do is we have to get the
smartest people we can to beinvolved with us to help us
maximize what we're trying to dohere, which is launch a club
that can identify and launchplayers into not only the US
national team but into Europe.
(06:11):
And one of the first people wecontacted and you greatly
accepted was you, Bob, withregard to the sporting committee
, to become one of our boardmembers and to help us direct
things going forward, not onlywith the professional team on
the field, but probably the mostimportant thing we're going to
be doing is identifying playersand helping launch their careers
, and I will say this because Iknow you're not a big bragger at
(06:34):
all.
One of the things I said on theFox interview that I was glad I
got it out, the way it shouldcome out, is that at one point
in time, we were producingnational team captains, us
national team captains, worldCup players from Long Island,
mike Windischman, chris Armis,mike Windischman from Queens and
Chris Armis from Brentwood, andthey have one thing in common
they both played for BobMontgomery at Adelphi University
(06:56):
and they were US national teamcaptains.
There's been a bit of awasteland in between all that,
but we've got a lot of goodplayers.
Bob Did.
And in between all that, we'vegot a lot of good players.
Bob Did.
You know that those two guyswere guys that had that kind of
ability when you were firstrecruiting them as high school
players?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, that's such an unbelievable achievement.
I would never say that.
Yeah, I foresaw that that wouldbe kidding a lot of people,
including myself.
I knew they were very talentedplayers.
I knew they could go a long way.
It's a difficult thing.
There are many roads that youknow in the future that cross
over, and they made good choicesand they were surrounded by
(07:30):
good people as well, and theywere very, very hard workers.
The two of them loved the game.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
They were passionate and they practiced so much on
their own time.
Yeah, so you just saw tworeally you know plays with great
potential.
And then they obviously gotinto a great environment with a
good culture at Adelphi, whichyou know had some of the better
players around the country for along time and also just had a
very good program.
You had built a really goodprogram.
You had great assistant coachesthat all went on to coaches,
including Tommy Lying, a coachthat actually went on to coach
with for me, my senior year atHofstra University across town
(08:02):
and then went on to an amazingcareer at Southern Connecticut
University as well.
You know, one of the things thatwe always talk about is the
state of the national team.
We're going to pull this back tohow American Soccer Club may or
may not play a role in that,because victory for Kevin and I
in the buildup to this clubbeing launched was that if one
day we're sitting here andthere's one of our former
(08:23):
players, academy or otherwise,is on the US national team, and
the other way to look at it isif we launched our players into
careers like Joe Scali and wealways talk about Joe Scali and
we're never going to be sick oftalking about him.
We had Joe actually come visitus and spoke to the team.
You know he's a 22-year-old guyfrom Lake Grove and played for
the Sachem Soccer Club in theLong Island Junior Soccer League
(08:44):
.
And you know, joe got into theNew York City FC Academy, of
course, down from Bob's Red BullAcademy, and he was one of
those few kids that he was whenscouted to go to Germany and
play for BorussiaMönchengladbach.
He not only had the physicalability to do it but he had the
mental ability to deal with thatadversity and a new culture and
the whole thing.
But we've gone to the pointwhere there has to be more than
(09:07):
one Joe Scali, or one ChrisArmas, one Mike Windisch and now
Bob.
Do you think that's a littlefar-fetched or do you believe
that there's players beingmissed out here, that if we got
them early enough that we couldhave the next Joe Scali
potentially?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Oh yeah, there's talent there and they need to be
put in a good environment, likeyou said before, playing with
and against the best players,with good coaches surrounding
them and pushing them in theright direction.
And yeah, unfortunately toomany clubs are focused on
winning trophies at 8, 9, 10years of age that really, at the
end of the day, are meaningless, and development has to be the
(09:40):
key.
You've got to have good parentssurrounding them that
understand that and that helpsgive you an opportunity to help
players become successful.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
You know how did you look at it when you actually had
a chance to have to create aculture and an academy with Red
Bull.
I mean it may be one of thebiggest challenges of your life,
you know having how much 30years at Adelphi one of the
longest tenured coaches in thecountry but 13 years at Red Bull
starting from nothing when MLSwas really not that committed to
their academy but kind of feltyouth academies but felt like
(10:12):
they kind of had to do it.
I know you went through somedealing with the first team and
then not really looking at yourkids and then ultimately you
became one of the best academiesfor launching professional
players in the United States.
Was that the toughest or mostchallenging position you ever
had in soccer?
You?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
know, I really don't think of it as being that
challenging.
I think we had a good plan.
Again, we surrounded ourselveswith good people, coaches that
really cared about kids andwanted to help them and develop
them and had no ego.
The people above me MarkDeGrandpre was fabulous.
He interviewed me, gave me thejob and our sporting directors
(10:51):
over the years mostly were verysupportive of the academy.
I mean, at the end of the day,I had conversations on a daily
basis with jesse marsh and chrisarmis and some of the other
coaches of the first team, andjesse marsh knew the names of
half the kids in our academy.
(11:11):
Every weekend I'd send a reportout.
Generally, we, we won games,which wasn't important.
Jesse would say to me how's thelittle redheaded kid, what's
his name?
You know on the U14 team and Iliked him and did he play and
I'd say, well, he played up withthe 15s this week, held his own
and, you know, set up a goaland he's going.
Yeah, I think that kid's gottalent and that makes a huge
(11:33):
difference in a club when you'vegot the big men.
You know from the big team.
Knowing the players, we wouldhave training sessions on a
Saturday.
They would have a practice forprobably the day before a game,
a light kind of session, and hewould send the players over and
they'd stop at our bench andthey'd go up to the
12--year-olds and they'd, youknow, shake their hands and ask
(11:56):
them how they're doing.
And great motivating factordoing something like that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Because I know you didn't have that from day one,
when you had a couple of coachesfrom Europe that were not
necessarily looking at this thesame way.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
No, bruce Arena was, you know, the guy who called me
and said, bob, this is a perfectjob, we want you to come
interview.
And and said, bob, this is aperfect job, we want you to come
interview.
And Bruce was not convincedthat they were ready.
And he was right.
The group of players we hadwhen I took over we didn't
really have a guy.
But in the second year, jeffAgus, the technical director.
He said I think we need to signa guy and let people know that
we're serious about this and whois the best guy?
(12:30):
George Tugazi became the guyand he was on the team for two
years, but he was the first oneto get signed.
And then, after that, more andmore, we finished with about 150
kids in the academy and we hadabout 150 kids in those 13 years
that played for different youthnational teams and we were by
(12:52):
far.
We had twice as many.
The number two and three teamin the country at one point was
Dallas and PDA from New Jerseyand we had about 125 guys and
they had like 52 each.
So but the reason New York cityis just such a great pool of
(13:13):
players to tap into.
So you know, I always don'twant to take all the credit.
At the beginning we were theonly cost-free academy in the
country which, when Iinterviewed that was one of the
first questions I asked and theysaid of course, we're a
European club, we don't charge.
All the kids had to do was getto the training facility and
(13:34):
that's the way I believe theUSASC has to be as well.
If the parent can get themthere, we can take care of them.
We can help with shoes and wecan help with equipment and
those things.
So they were fully funded.
We flew, we took buses, we tookany transportation, meals, we
picked up, we stayed as a teamwith all the age groups, except,
(13:55):
you know, the u12s were firstyear just a domestic team, but
we founded ourselves.
Number two, there was no newyork city fc academy.
There was no philadelphiaacademy.
We drew players from the tri,not the tri-state area, but we
drew it from five differentareas.
We we had Long Island and NewYork City, we had Connecticut,
(14:15):
we had North-South Jersey, wehad Eastern PA.
So everybody wanted to come andbe a part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Once they realized that it was the truth, that it
was going to be cost-free, andthey saw the players we had and
they saw the way we played onthe field and we played really
good soccer, yeah, and you wentthrough all the hiccups of the
MLS not being fully committed toit, the organization not being
fully committed to it, to all ofa sudden having this success
(14:42):
and then becoming the model.
So now, flash forward to 2025,you're sitting at the top of
advising this new club calledAmerican Soccer Club, which is
our club, meaning you, me, kevin, and a lot of other people that
are involved in this.
Some great people like JimmyRooney, former great player that
came out of this area adifferent generation Perry
(15:03):
Vanderbeek, former national teamplayer, farouk Qureshi and Mark
Lugris, who's still active inthe game today, as you are in
the youth game.
I think everybody shares.
One thing that I think thateverybody shares that I've just
mentioned is that the way itshould be done.
And then also now we have tofigure out how we can break
through this absolute cluster ofyouth soccer that is not
(15:26):
getting better, it's getting, insome ways, getting worse and
it's becoming bigger money grabthan ever, and which I don't
begrudge anybody.
It's given a lot of people insoccer jobs, and I think that's
great.
They didn't exist years ago,but right now it just seems to
be more money, more money, moremoney.
We have to somehow come up witha way to break through that,
and I don't think it's just onething we have to do.
(15:46):
But we're going to be gettingin a room soon, off-site, out of
state, and putting our headstogether to find out the best
way of launching.
I think up to now, we can sharewith the world that we've talked
about maybe launching somethingin a supplementary form.
It starts out with getting ourname out there in the youth
community, using the fact thatwe in some ways I give John
(16:07):
Fitzgerald and his staff a lotof credit, because you know, as
you know, bob is that you couldrecommend players to Red Bull
head coach, whoever it was,bruce Arena or all the other
guys you had to work with, butthey still have to win games or
they get fired, and so theydon't necessarily want to take
too many chances.
And I give John and Juan andeverybody and Vic that we gave.
(16:27):
We put a 16-year-old intotraining.
He did well enough.
You saw him come to trainingtoo, bob, I believe at Burns
Park in Massapequa.
And they, you know, due toinjury.
They took a chance and got himinto two games 15, 20 minutes
and he held his own and did acouple of good things and gained
that experience.
And so you know, if you don'thave the whole organization on
(16:48):
the same page, we can't havethis.
So we actually have a littlebit of a proof of concept.
What is your thoughts of it?
Did you think we would be thisfar ahead?
Do you think we're behind?
What's your feeling?
Because you're a little closerto this than some of our other
sporting committee people,because you're here and you just
show up at field sometimes andwatch our practices.
And I mean I came down totraining one night and, by the
way, this team is not, it's notglamorous.
(17:08):
You train nine to 11 o'clock atnight, three nights a week and
you train hard.
And we brought a 16-year-old inthere whose mom had a drive-in
out there and he actually had amiss for a CBS interview.
He had a miss driver's ed.
But when we do all this, it'sone thing to say.
This is what we want to do.
It's not easy to do.
What's your thoughts on what wewere able to do this year as
far as bringing in at least oneyoung player to give him a
chance.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I thought it was great.
And, Dylan, I was over at theField of Dreams in Massapeco
watching a practice and I enjoyit.
It's important to watchpractice, not just games, and to
really see the guys indifferent environments and
different setups.
And I'm watching the game andscrimmaging at the end and I
went over to one of the coachesand I said who's this kid?
(17:50):
here, playing in the back.
I don't recognize him.
They said, oh, that's a new kid, he's from out in Suffolk
County and he's a young16-year-old.
Whatever I said, you know, andhe did well.
He held his own and managed tohave a chance.
The next time I went topractice to pull him aside and
we chatted a little.
But great kid, he's got greatcharacter, which is important
(18:12):
because we build teams with goodpeople and good players.
That's got to be a startingpoint.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, I think you're right, because we've and once
again there's a big pressure onus.
I don't know if the world knowsthis, but the soccer people,
some people that will belistening to this show, that
will be bringing the show tothem, will understand that right
now, the MLS that you startedwith a real Academy which was
fully funded in Red Bull and setthe standard for the United
(18:38):
States, which now has a lot ofother great academies out there,
including Philadelphia, but inDallas and others.
But the MLS has now reacheddown with an MLS next one which
is a fully, which you pay forjust like any other club.
You pay and you pay a decentamount of money.
And now there's an MLS next too.
So people come to me sometimes,bob, and they say, jim, how are
(18:59):
you?
Where are you going to fit?
Are you going to affiliate withMLS?
Are you going to affiliate withUSL?
Are you going to do something,try to do something with ECNL?
Do you affiliate with SUSE, abig club facility?
And I tell them, guys, we'retaking it day by day, we're
talking to everybody, we'resupportive of everybody, we're
not against anybody.
We don't see ourselvesnecessarily affiliating with
anybody right now, but we have alot of clubs reaching out to us
(19:21):
as you know, Bob, that's howDylan came to us is that we were
approached by some clubs inSuffolk County who were about
affiliating so that we could bea pathway, but they wanted
exclusivity and I said no, we'renot going to do that because we
believe there's a kid in asmall club in Amityville or
Copaig or, you know, eastHampton that may not be
affiliated with a big club likeSUSA or some of the other clubs
(19:44):
that are MLS now or ECNL, thatthis player's there too, so we
can't exclude anybody.
So I don't know what's yourthoughts on this philosophy, bob
, having been at the beginningbefore it got this complicated,
and also how would you?
How do we adapt to now?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, open door policy.
You want the best players.
They can't be restrictionsfinancial, that all of a sudden
cuts kids out of the picture andways to support the family in
assisting with travel, settingup carpools.
But I'll tell you from thebeginning, the biggest part of
my job at Red Bull becausefinancially we had the support,
(20:17):
we had full backing from a majormajor company and the owner and
our club here in New York.
So we had all that.
But the big thing was buildingbridges with the local clubs and
how do you go about that andreally letting them know that
you know, when you're in Europe,if you're a little, if you're a
young kid and you're playing inSeaforth out in Lancashire
(20:41):
County, which is in Liverpool,right, a good player.
And Liverpool Everton call upand say we like this guy, we
want to bring him in to trainwith us.
We, you know, we might want tofind him.
They are ecstatic about that,as opposed to here.
They're like you're notstealing my player.
Of course, my answer was alwayshe's not your player, he's got
(21:06):
parents, they're the ones incharge, they make the decision,
but you know, and then we justtry to create a good rapport
with them and help them out also.
So that'll be a key issue againas we start this up again.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
So I think our instincts are right at this
moment.
I wrote this down open doorpolicy and building bridges,
which means you can't excludepeople.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So, basically, what struck me and I don't know if it
struck you or if you're so busydoing what you were doing on
the other side of the river inJersey when NYC came in and we
have great respect for whatthey're doing and building a
stadium, it's just incrediblewhat's happening in our country.
So with and I say this withadmiration, but I remember they
aligned with like 12 or 15 or 10clubs, I'm not sure how many,
(21:48):
it was Gachi and Med Oval and FCWestchester and some of the
really top clubs that wereproducing a lot of good players
in this area and for me.
It struck me, though, that,although I understood what they
were doing, what they thoughtthey were doing, but you're
excluding 100 other clubs thatare not part of your ecosystem,
which means that they don't feellike they want to come to your
game, buy your scarf, buy yourhat, buy your replica jersey.
(22:09):
They're not going to feel partof what you did.
I always thought that, becauseI'm more of a marketing guy, and
I thought that was a littleexclusionary to me.
I know we're not going to makethat mistake.
Did you see that as the way Isaw it, or do you know why they
did that?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, those were development academy clubs a lot
of them and they wanted to tapinto that.
They were a startup.
They had nothing.
See, when I went to Red Bull,they had already had an academy
team beforehand.
They did it as a summer program.
They had a training programwhich was extensive.
They worked with 150 clubs.
So I had eyes out there lookingat young 8-, 9-, 10-year
(22:49):
players and they would helprecommend players to the club.
So New York City didn't haveanything in place.
They started from scratch and Iguess they thought this was the
best approach and in hindsight,you know, by eliminating, by
adding people and in thisspecial way you do eliminate
(23:10):
people.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And, by the way, if you're just tuning in, my name
is Jim Kilmeade.
I'm your host of the AmericanSoccer Club Zone.
Our guest is Bob Montgomery,who we're so fortunate to have
on our leadership position inour sporting committee.
He's got a bunch of greatpeople.
We're talking today abouteverything ASC New York, but
also everything US soccer andhow Bob began in MLS Academy
when they first made theircommitment.
Bob began in MLS Academy whenthey first made their commitment
(23:34):
.
Now you've been around the teama little bit, bob.
I also know you're somebody thatnow that is supposed to be
retired but not really.
You're still at a soccer fieldtoday taking a break to speak
with me, which we appreciate,and you watch young games, you
watch high school games, youshow up, you really just love
the sport and you're reallylearning.
This is probably a questionthat deserves its own show show,
but we only have probably aboutfive minutes left, so we're not
(23:54):
going to discuss today how webreak through, because I think
we're going to keep an open doorpolicy and take every
relationship one by one, as youhave advised.
What are the differences, ifany, between the players you
recruited to play at Adelphi inthe 70s and the 80s and the
regional teams in the nationalprograms that you were involved
with everything, and you andBruce Arena are at the forefront
of the US national team puttingguys on those teams and those
(24:15):
are the teams that we kind ofyou know the Tony Miolas and the
John Harkses and those and theBrian McBrides.
What do you see the biggestdifference between the mentality
, having coached them and nowwatched them also from your
position, with experience,between the 70s, 80s, 90s and
the current kid?
Obviously they're living in adifferent world with phones and
ADD personified.
(24:36):
Do you still feel kids?
Do you think there's a?
Is it really that much morechallenging to coach and develop
a youth player today, based ontwo things their makeup and
their background, because of theworld we live in today and the
options that they have?
What's the biggest challengesand do you think the kids are
still?
Let me just narrow it down Arekids that much different, bob,
(24:58):
or is it just?
Is that overspaded?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I don't think kids are.
I think parents might beeducated improperly and that
might be a difference.
You know the parents of a lotof the great players that I had.
They came from great parentingParents that cared for them,
loved them, tried to help them,but didn't try to run the show
(25:23):
and didn't get caught up in alot of falsehoods that are out
there.
There's a lot of myths aboutdevelopment and if we look at
teams, I do go out.
I watch a lot of youth and Isee some really good young
players and I see some niceteams, but they're in the
minority.
This focus on winning meanslet's get the biggest, strongest
guys, whatever, and we're goingto have them and we can outrun
(25:44):
and we can knock other peopledown and we can win.
But winning at 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 doesn't necessarily help,
or the best players at that agethat physically dominate are not
the best players at the end ofthe day.
I was fortunate to be involvedwith the U-14 US national team.
We had Christian Pulisic on itfrom the time he was 11, 12, and
(26:08):
13.
He played three years.
He'd come to five camps a yearwith us until the third year.
The U15 took him, so he wentand jumped and played up with
them.
Christian was a tiny little guybut because of it and he's
playing three years up the firstyear he had to develop
technique and he had to havegreat decision-making to survive
(26:30):
in those games.
And through his parents his dadfrom Long Island, mark, is a
former professional player,played at George Mason, and his
mom was an All-American collegeplayer Through their guidance
and making good decisions, thiskid thrived along the way and he
was a great player at 11 and 12, with the best under-14 players
(26:53):
in the way and he was a greatplayer at 11 and 12 with the
best 14 under 14 players in thecountry.
So that's really what we haveto look for is not just picking
big guys, and I know the guysthat are in the club.
They feel the same way.
So I think that's a key.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
So listen, with three minutes left.
You mentioned one thing that isdefinitely we have to touch on
playing up.
I'm a firm believer personally.
I'll defer to your opinion.
I think we're going to agree,but I think you're going to add
a little more nuance than I amable to.
Christian Blisick was playingup even then, because his dad
obviously knew that was a goodthing to do.
A lot of players, even when Igrew up on Long Island in the
(27:28):
70s and the 80s, we played upand played sometimes with the
men.
I remember playing in the LASFLwhen I was 17, 18 years old as
a freshman at Hofstra.
It made me a much better playerthan I would have been
otherwise and helped me maximizewhatever ability I had, and by
playing with 30-year-old men.
And that's what we're trying togive for this kid, dylan Lopez.
How critical is that for playerdevelopment?
(27:51):
Do you think it's just anabsolute necessity or do you
think it's just something thatwe should add on to I'd say no,
that I find out when I go aroundthat it's over-exaggerated.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Players should play up when they're ready.
To when they're ready, there'sno problem.
Throw them in, the challenge isgood.
If they're not ready, it candestroy their confidence and
their belief in themselves.
So we had and that's one of thethings that people profess is
oh, you've got to play up,you've got to play up.
Parents would come to the RedBull and to their coach and say
(28:24):
can he go play up?
How come he's not playing up?
We don't think he's ready yet.
At the right time he should goplay up.
And kids have to find the rightplace to play and it's not the
big name club necessarily.
Maybe they need to be in theirlocal club so that they can
dominate.
You know, get to a point wherethey can dominate and maybe they
physically develop and thenthey're ready, you know, and
(28:47):
good coaches will see and putthem in the right place and
they're doing the favor.
Some parents will say, well, ifhe can't play up here, we're
going to go to club XYZ andwe'll say well, good luck to you
and Bob.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
That's the nuanced answer that I'm glad I asked you
just the way I asked you,because that's it's not.
There's not a yes or no, it'sas you said.
Your words are when they'reready, and you have to, and then
whoever's deciding when they'reready, that's, that's that
hopefully is the right personthat knows what they're looking
(29:19):
at.
And, as I say, you can't teachthis on off paper or in a
coaching course.
You just have to have thatintuition and that experience.
I think so and clearly you doso.
I mean I know you're excited todo it.
I mean we'll be sitting inpersonally off air and making
decisions of how we start thisAcademy, but I'm as excited to
start the academy as I was tostart the pro team.
And, bob, with the coupleminutes we have left, you've
(29:39):
been around teams forever.
You've been around teams thatwon everything, with teams that
had bad seasons,middle-of-the-road seasons.
Looking at where we started,where we ended and the team, the
coaching staff, the playersthat we had, which are 90% all
local, born and Bred guys howwould you look at the season
right now?
I don't mean with ratings, butwhat's your viewpoint from your
(30:01):
experience level, to see what wemay have learned this year and
where we are set for next year.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
You know, I had a chance to talk to the players
and the coaches a little bit andI don't make a lot of judgments
because I did not see themoften enough.
You really have to be immerseda lot more than I was, but in
general, on the outside I canoffer opinion.
We had to get started somewhere.
You have to start somewhere andyou just can't wait until you
(30:28):
have the perfect scenario.
So, yeah, the players weregreat.
You watch them train, you watchthem in games.
The effort was great.
Okay, we didn't have very muchof a long enough preseason to
really prepare them.
So you know, we look at thosesome different things, but I
think it went very well.
John and his staff did a greatjob in terms of their effort and
(30:49):
whatever we didn't get all thebetter the players.
Maybe we wanted through tryoutsbecause we're the new guy on
the block and some kids want tobe with a more established name
at the moment, but it's movingin the right direction.
Players themselves again I'llsay it, they were great people.
We had a good bunch that reallycared for each other, worked
hard for each other, listenedand respected everybody in our
(31:12):
club and you've seen that whenwe have them doing different
appearances and things, andthat's important Can we mold
good young people?
It's important.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well, you know what You're right.
We don't have control over theresult, but we do have control
over the kind of people we bringinto the organization.
I thought that was a greatpoint.
I agree with that, and the moreyou get away from the last game
of the season, the more you canactually get a more accurate
assessment.
Bob, I really appreciate youcoming on the show today.
I think a lot of people take alot of this.
I know I personally have.
So thank you very much.
(31:42):
Thank you, jim.
Always a pleasure and we'll beseeing you soon.
That was the great BobMontgomery, legendary American
soccer figure.
We're proud to have him on theshow.
The American Soccer Club Zone.
We thank Mike Hogan.
Great job producer.
We had to make some quick movesat the end.
A fantastic job.
Thank you again to producersStephen Coffey and Sylvia King,
(32:03):
todd Shapiro and Associates andonce again, on behalf of the
American Soccer Club, kjoy 98.3,proud to bring you the American
Soccer Club Zone.
We'll see you next week.
Good morning everybody and welcome to the
American Soccer Club Zone.
This radio show is brought toyou on KJOY 98.3 in Farmingdale,
new York Great station.
Here in beautiful Farmingdale,with the airport just around the
corner, we have a great showfor you today and we're going to
be bringing in a guest.
His name is Bob Montgomery, alegendary US soccer figure and
(00:32):
specifically a New Yorkmetropolitan Long Island soccer
figure, and we'll talk about theAmerican Soccer Club Zone and
the American Soccer Club whichBob is part of in the sporting
capacity.
Before we get into any of that,we've had a real crazy end of
the season and we'll talk aboutthat and where we've been for
the last two weeks.
It's exactly 14 days since theAmerican Soccer Club's NPSL
(00:53):
inaugural season ended with akind of a very difficult great
game to watch, tough game tolose 3-2 lost to New Haven, who
became the eventual NorthAtlantic Conference champions.
So a little bit of consolationthere.
But before we get anywhere, youknow the American Soft Club
started in 2025, and we arereally all about our partners,
our investors and specificallyour sponsors, who are more like
(01:16):
partners and investors than theyare commercial partners, and so
we're going to go right throughthe three major sponsors here
and give a little acknowledgmentthat the show is brought to you
by.
You know LIFAC, our JerseyFront partners.
Lifac have saved over 4,000lives to date 4,400, I believe.
Ceo and founder Artie Lee andhis LIFACers around the country
are on a mission.
Save lives in.
(01:37):
American Soccer Club New Yorkare now partners in that noble
endeavor.
We're going to save livestogether.
And we have Our medicalpartners are probably our most
critical partners on theday-to-day existence of a
professional soccer team OrlinCo.
An orthopedic group Division ofNorthwell Health.
They're on the jersey back.
They are incredible day-to-daypartners.
The incredible Orlin Co, anorthopedic group division has
the state-of-the-art facilitiesall across Long Island and they
(02:00):
help our athletes get back inthe game.
They have been just incredible.
Our uniform, how people know us.
We share a great uniformapparel partner with Wrexham,
the incredibly, nowinternationally known Welsh team
, 100 plus years old.
It is now on an unprecedentedascent up to the Premier League,
hopefully if they get one morepromotion.
(02:20):
And we have mutual partners inMacron.
Macron is our apparel partner.
Us headquarters in Bridgeportout of Bologna, italy.
They've been phenomenal.
So we thank LifeVac, orlandCohen and Macron, of course.
And then we have the Bargino LawFirm in Garden City Long
Island's best personal lawinjury firm and A-Turf it's
America's top synthetic turfmanufacturer.
A-turf fields last, an industryleading, 14.5 years and they
(02:44):
are the, from the Buffalo BillsStadium, the longest-lasting NFL
stadium at eight and a halfyears, to the Sousa FC Orland
and Cohen Complex in CentralIslip, new York.
A-turf provides a playingsurface most like natural grass
in pristine condition, and BQESoccer Partners is the
architects of the soccer club,the American Soccer Club New
York, and we would not besitting here in these beautiful
(03:04):
Farmedale KJoy Studios if notfor Todd Shapiro and Associates,
the top PR agency in thecountry in my mind.
And you can learn more aboutthe American Soccer Club New
York at ASCNewYorkcom and on allsocial media.
We're pretty good on that.
We're pretty active andalthough we're technically in
the offseason, our nextconversation here with Bob
Montgomery will tell you a lotmore about the club.
(03:25):
There is no offseason, but thisis technically our first time
to regroup, so we've had twoweeks to do it, but we didn't
spend a lot of time relaxing.
We did a feature.
We were fortunate enough to beidentified through some great
coverage in the New York Post byCBS Sports, cbs Sports.
(03:48):
We did two features last week onDylan Lopez, our 16-year-old
phenom that we've signed out ofRonkonkoma and the Atlantic FC
club.
He actually got on the fieldtwice this year.
Bob and I will talk about him.
And also Stalin Acosta, anincredible story of perseverance
and dedication Stalin's beenthrough.
He's one of our players fromBrentwood, brentwood High School
, cortland College, cortlandUniversity who's been through a.
He's one of our players fromBrentwood, brentwood High School
, cortland College, cortlandUniversity who's been through a
bout of cancer.
(04:09):
Come back stronger than ever.
He's one of the fittest guys onthe team.
So CBS was incredible toidentify these two guys and do
two stories on them.
And, last but not least, reallya banner week leading up to our
show this morning and my brotherBrian and I my famous brother
Brian and I, who's on Fox NewsChannel and hosts about five
different shows a day and aradio show we were brought on to
(04:31):
Fox 5 New York to do aninterview, a good five, six
minute interview about the club.
Brian's an investor and asoccer advocate, just like we
are, and we had a greatinterview with some great hosts
and we're very grateful for that.
What we're even more gratefulfor, our guest here right now is
a guy that when I was growingup he's a few years more mature
than I am, I'll say that, bobbut he was an iconic coach that
(04:55):
if he did recognize you as aplayer, you really felt like you
had arrived.
He's the coach of AdelphiUniversity.
He was a great player himselfin East Meadow and Nassau
Community College and at AdelphiUniversity and then in the
senior leagues of the LISFL andbeyond with Lindbrook Steuben
for years.
So Bob is, you know, he's aLong Island soccer player Hall
of Famer.
He is an iconic coach.
(05:17):
He was Red Bull United excuse me, red Bull, new York.
Red Bull really launched theiracademy system, which is one of
was one of the best in thecountry and still is.
Eric, red Bull really launchedtheir academy system, which was
one of the best in the countryand still is Over 13 years gave
birth to players like TylerAdams, matt Miosga and so many
others.
So I'd like to welcome thelegendary Bob Montgomery to the
radio show today.
Bob, how are you?
Speaker 2 (05:36):
I'm doing well.
Thank you very much, Jim.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
Great.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I know you're excited for being part of the ASC and
seeing how we can really helpplayers on Long Island and
create some great players forprofessional ranks down the road
.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, one of the best things that Kevin Reardon and I
my managing partner fromHicksville, a Fordham guy is one
of the first things we say wehave to do is we have to get the
smartest people we can to beinvolved with us to help us
maximize what we're trying to dohere, which is launch a club
that can identify and launchplayers into not only the US
national team but into Europe.
(06:11):
And one of the first people wecontacted and you greatly
accepted was you, Bob, withregard to the sporting committee
, to become one of our boardmembers and to help us direct
things going forward, not onlywith the professional team on
the field, but probably the mostimportant thing we're going to
be doing is identifying playersand helping launch their careers
, and I will say this because Iknow you're not a big bragger at
(06:34):
all.
One of the things I said on theFox interview that I was glad I
got it out, the way it shouldcome out, is that at one point
in time, we were producingnational team captains, us
national team captains, worldCup players from Long Island,
mike Windischman, chris Armis,mike Windischman from Queens and
Chris Armis from Brentwood, andthey have one thing in common
they both played for BobMontgomery at Adelphi University
(06:56):
and they were US national teamcaptains.
There's been a bit of awasteland in between all that,
but we've got a lot of goodplayers.
Bob Did.
And in between all that, we'vegot a lot of good players.
Bob Did.
You know that those two guyswere guys that had that kind of
ability when you were firstrecruiting them as high school
players?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, that's such an unbelievable achievement.
I would never say that.
Yeah, I foresaw that that wouldbe kidding a lot of people,
including myself.
I knew they were very talentedplayers.
I knew they could go a long way.
It's a difficult thing.
There are many roads that youknow in the future that cross
over, and they made good choicesand they were surrounded by
(07:30):
good people as well, and theywere very, very hard workers.
The two of them loved the game.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
They were passionate and they practiced so much on
their own time.
Yeah, so you just saw tworeally you know plays with great
potential.
And then they obviously gotinto a great environment with a
good culture at Adelphi, whichyou know had some of the better
players around the country for along time and also just had a
very good program.
You had built a really goodprogram.
You had great assistant coachesthat all went on to coaches,
including Tommy Lying, a coachthat actually went on to coach
with for me, my senior year atHofstra University across town
(08:02):
and then went on to an amazingcareer at Southern Connecticut
University as well.
You know, one of the things thatwe always talk about is the
state of the national team.
We're going to pull this back tohow American Soccer Club may or
may not play a role in that,because victory for Kevin and I
in the buildup to this clubbeing launched was that if one
day we're sitting here andthere's one of our former
(08:23):
players, academy or otherwise,is on the US national team, and
the other way to look at it isif we launched our players into
careers like Joe Scali and wealways talk about Joe Scali and
we're never going to be sick oftalking about him.
We had Joe actually come visitus and spoke to the team.
You know he's a 22-year-old guyfrom Lake Grove and played for
the Sachem Soccer Club in theLong Island Junior Soccer League
(08:44):
.
And you know, joe got into theNew York City FC Academy, of
course, down from Bob's Red BullAcademy, and he was one of
those few kids that he was whenscouted to go to Germany and
play for BorussiaMönchengladbach.
He not only had the physicalability to do it but he had the
mental ability to deal with thatadversity and a new culture and
the whole thing.
But we've gone to the pointwhere there has to be more than
(09:07):
one Joe Scali, or one ChrisArmas, one Mike Windisch and now
Bob.
Do you think that's a littlefar-fetched or do you believe
that there's players beingmissed out here, that if we got
them early enough that we couldhave the next Joe Scali
potentially?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Oh yeah, there's talent there and they need to be
put in a good environment, likeyou said before, playing with
and against the best players,with good coaches surrounding
them and pushing them in theright direction.
And yeah, unfortunately toomany clubs are focused on
winning trophies at 8, 9, 10years of age that really, at the
end of the day, are meaningless, and development has to be the
(09:40):
key.
You've got to have good parentssurrounding them that
understand that and that helpsgive you an opportunity to help
players become successful.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
You know how did you look at it when you actually had
a chance to have to create aculture and an academy with Red
Bull.
I mean it may be one of thebiggest challenges of your life,
you know having how much 30years at Adelphi one of the
longest tenured coaches in thecountry but 13 years at Red Bull
starting from nothing when MLSwas really not that committed to
their academy but kind of feltyouth academies but felt like
(10:12):
they kind of had to do it.
I know you went through somedealing with the first team and
then not really looking at yourkids and then ultimately you
became one of the best academiesfor launching professional
players in the United States.
Was that the toughest or mostchallenging position you ever
had in soccer?
You?
Speaker 2 (10:26):
know, I really don't think of it as being that
challenging.
I think we had a good plan.
Again, we surrounded ourselveswith good people, coaches that
really cared about kids andwanted to help them and develop
them and had no ego.
The people above me MarkDeGrandpre was fabulous.
He interviewed me, gave me thejob and our sporting directors
(10:51):
over the years mostly were verysupportive of the academy.
I mean, at the end of the day,I had conversations on a daily
basis with jesse marsh and chrisarmis and some of the other
coaches of the first team, andjesse marsh knew the names of
half the kids in our academy.
(11:11):
Every weekend I'd send a reportout.
Generally, we, we won games,which wasn't important.
Jesse would say to me how's thelittle redheaded kid, what's
his name?
You know on the U14 team and Iliked him and did he play and
I'd say, well, he played up withthe 15s this week, held his own
and, you know, set up a goaland he's going.
Yeah, I think that kid's gottalent and that makes a huge
(11:33):
difference in a club when you'vegot the big men.
You know from the big team.
Knowing the players, we wouldhave training sessions on a
Saturday.
They would have a practice forprobably the day before a game,
a light kind of session, and hewould send the players over and
they'd stop at our bench andthey'd go up to the
12--year-olds and they'd, youknow, shake their hands and ask
(11:56):
them how they're doing.
And great motivating factordoing something like that.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Because I know you didn't have that from day one,
when you had a couple of coachesfrom Europe that were not
necessarily looking at this thesame way.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
No, bruce Arena was, you know, the guy who called me
and said, bob, this is a perfectjob, we want you to come
interview.
And and said, bob, this is aperfect job, we want you to come
interview.
And Bruce was not convincedthat they were ready.
And he was right.
The group of players we hadwhen I took over we didn't
really have a guy.
But in the second year, jeffAgus, the technical director.
He said I think we need to signa guy and let people know that
we're serious about this and whois the best guy?
(12:30):
George Tugazi became the guyand he was on the team for two
years, but he was the first oneto get signed.
And then, after that, more andmore, we finished with about 150
kids in the academy and we hadabout 150 kids in those 13 years
that played for different youthnational teams and we were by
(12:52):
far.
We had twice as many.
The number two and three teamin the country at one point was
Dallas and PDA from New Jerseyand we had about 125 guys and
they had like 52 each.
So but the reason New York cityis just such a great pool of
(13:13):
players to tap into.
So you know, I always don'twant to take all the credit.
At the beginning we were theonly cost-free academy in the
country which, when Iinterviewed that was one of the
first questions I asked and theysaid of course, we're a
European club, we don't charge.
All the kids had to do was getto the training facility and
(13:34):
that's the way I believe theUSASC has to be as well.
If the parent can get themthere, we can take care of them.
We can help with shoes and wecan help with equipment and
those things.
So they were fully funded.
We flew, we took buses, we tookany transportation, meals, we
picked up, we stayed as a teamwith all the age groups, except,
(13:55):
you know, the u12s were firstyear just a domestic team, but
we founded ourselves.
Number two, there was no newyork city fc academy.
There was no philadelphiaacademy.
We drew players from the tri,not the tri-state area, but we
drew it from five differentareas.
We we had Long Island and NewYork City, we had Connecticut,
(14:15):
we had North-South Jersey, wehad Eastern PA.
So everybody wanted to come andbe a part of it.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Once they realized that it was the truth, that it
was going to be cost-free, andthey saw the players we had and
they saw the way we played onthe field and we played really
good soccer, yeah, and you wentthrough all the hiccups of the
MLS not being fully committed toit, the organization not being
fully committed to it, to all ofa sudden having this success
(14:42):
and then becoming the model.
So now, flash forward to 2025,you're sitting at the top of
advising this new club calledAmerican Soccer Club, which is
our club, meaning you, me, kevin, and a lot of other people that
are involved in this.
Some great people like JimmyRooney, former great player that
came out of this area adifferent generation Perry
(15:03):
Vanderbeek, former national teamplayer, farouk Qureshi and Mark
Lugris, who's still active inthe game today, as you are in
the youth game.
I think everybody shares.
One thing that I think thateverybody shares that I've just
mentioned is that the way itshould be done.
And then also now we have tofigure out how we can break
through this absolute cluster ofyouth soccer that is not
(15:26):
getting better, it's getting, insome ways, getting worse and
it's becoming bigger money grabthan ever, and which I don't
begrudge anybody.
It's given a lot of people insoccer jobs, and I think that's
great.
They didn't exist years ago,but right now it just seems to
be more money, more money, moremoney.
We have to somehow come up witha way to break through that,
and I don't think it's just onething we have to do.
(15:46):
But we're going to be gettingin a room soon, off-site, out of
state, and putting our headstogether to find out the best
way of launching.
I think up to now, we can sharewith the world that we've talked
about maybe launching somethingin a supplementary form.
It starts out with getting ourname out there in the youth
community, using the fact thatwe in some ways I give John
(16:07):
Fitzgerald and his staff a lotof credit, because you know, as
you know, bob is that you couldrecommend players to Red Bull
head coach, whoever it was,bruce Arena or all the other
guys you had to work with, butthey still have to win games or
they get fired, and so theydon't necessarily want to take
too many chances.
And I give John and Juan andeverybody and Vic that we gave.
(16:27):
We put a 16-year-old intotraining.
He did well enough.
You saw him come to trainingtoo, bob, I believe at Burns
Park in Massapequa.
And they, you know, due toinjury.
They took a chance and got himinto two games 15, 20 minutes
and he held his own and did acouple of good things and gained
that experience.
And so you know, if you don'thave the whole organization on
(16:48):
the same page, we can't havethis.
So we actually have a littlebit of a proof of concept.
What is your thoughts of it?
Did you think we would be thisfar ahead?
Do you think we're behind?
What's your feeling?
Because you're a little closerto this than some of our other
sporting committee people,because you're here and you just
show up at field sometimes andwatch our practices.
And I mean I came down totraining one night and, by the
way, this team is not, it's notglamorous.
(17:08):
You train nine to 11 o'clock atnight, three nights a week and
you train hard.
And we brought a 16-year-old inthere whose mom had a drive-in
out there and he actually had amiss for a CBS interview.
He had a miss driver's ed.
But when we do all this, it'sone thing to say.
This is what we want to do.
It's not easy to do.
What's your thoughts on what wewere able to do this year as
far as bringing in at least oneyoung player to give him a
chance.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
I thought it was great.
And, Dylan, I was over at theField of Dreams in Massapeco
watching a practice and I enjoyit.
It's important to watchpractice, not just games, and to
really see the guys indifferent environments and
different setups.
And I'm watching the game andscrimmaging at the end and I
went over to one of the coachesand I said who's this kid?
(17:50):
here, playing in the back.
I don't recognize him.
They said, oh, that's a new kid, he's from out in Suffolk
County and he's a young16-year-old.
Whatever I said, you know, andhe did well.
He held his own and managed tohave a chance.
The next time I went topractice to pull him aside and
we chatted a little.
But great kid, he's got greatcharacter, which is important
(18:12):
because we build teams with goodpeople and good players.
That's got to be a startingpoint.
Speaker 1 (18:17):
Well, I think you're right, because we've and once
again there's a big pressure onus.
I don't know if the world knowsthis, but the soccer people,
some people that will belistening to this show, that
will be bringing the show tothem, will understand that right
now, the MLS that you startedwith a real Academy which was
fully funded in Red Bull and setthe standard for the United
(18:38):
States, which now has a lot ofother great academies out there,
including Philadelphia, but inDallas and others.
But the MLS has now reacheddown with an MLS next one which
is a fully, which you pay forjust like any other club.
You pay and you pay a decentamount of money.
And now there's an MLS next too.
So people come to me sometimes,bob, and they say, jim, how are
(18:59):
you?
Where are you going to fit?
Are you going to affiliate withMLS?
Are you going to affiliate withUSL?
Are you going to do something,try to do something with ECNL?
Do you affiliate with SUSE, abig club facility?
And I tell them, guys, we'retaking it day by day, we're
talking to everybody, we'resupportive of everybody, we're
not against anybody.
We don't see ourselvesnecessarily affiliating with
anybody right now, but we have alot of clubs reaching out to us
(19:21):
as you know, Bob, that's howDylan came to us is that we were
approached by some clubs inSuffolk County who were about
affiliating so that we could bea pathway, but they wanted
exclusivity and I said no, we'renot going to do that because we
believe there's a kid in asmall club in Amityville or
Copaig or, you know, eastHampton that may not be
affiliated with a big club likeSUSA or some of the other clubs
(19:44):
that are MLS now or ECNL, thatthis player's there too, so we
can't exclude anybody.
So I don't know what's yourthoughts on this philosophy, bob
, having been at the beginningbefore it got this complicated,
and also how would you?
How do we adapt to now?
Speaker 2 (19:57):
Yeah, yeah, open door policy.
You want the best players.
They can't be restrictionsfinancial, that all of a sudden
cuts kids out of the picture andways to support the family in
assisting with travel, settingup carpools.
But I'll tell you from thebeginning, the biggest part of
my job at Red Bull becausefinancially we had the support,
(20:17):
we had full backing from a majormajor company and the owner and
our club here in New York.
So we had all that.
But the big thing was buildingbridges with the local clubs and
how do you go about that andreally letting them know that
you know, when you're in Europe,if you're a little, if you're a
young kid and you're playing inSeaforth out in Lancashire
(20:41):
County, which is in Liverpool,right, a good player.
And Liverpool Everton call upand say we like this guy, we
want to bring him in to trainwith us.
We, you know, we might want tofind him.
They are ecstatic about that,as opposed to here.
They're like you're notstealing my player.
Of course, my answer was alwayshe's not your player, he's got
(21:06):
parents, they're the ones incharge, they make the decision,
but you know, and then we justtry to create a good rapport
with them and help them out also.
So that'll be a key issue againas we start this up again.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
So I think our instincts are right at this
moment.
I wrote this down open doorpolicy and building bridges,
which means you can't excludepeople.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
So, basically, what struck me and I don't know if it
struck you or if you're so busydoing what you were doing on
the other side of the river inJersey when NYC came in and we
have great respect for whatthey're doing and building a
stadium, it's just incrediblewhat's happening in our country.
So with and I say this withadmiration, but I remember they
aligned with like 12 or 15 or 10clubs, I'm not sure how many,
(21:48):
it was Gachi and Med Oval and FCWestchester and some of the
really top clubs that wereproducing a lot of good players
in this area and for me.
It struck me, though, that,although I understood what they
were doing, what they thoughtthey were doing, but you're
excluding 100 other clubs thatare not part of your ecosystem,
which means that they don't feellike they want to come to your
game, buy your scarf, buy yourhat, buy your replica jersey.
(22:09):
They're not going to feel partof what you did.
I always thought that, becauseI'm more of a marketing guy, and
I thought that was a littleexclusionary to me.
I know we're not going to makethat mistake.
Did you see that as the way Isaw it, or do you know why they
did that?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Well, those were development academy clubs a lot
of them and they wanted to tapinto that.
They were a startup.
They had nothing.
See, when I went to Red Bull,they had already had an academy
team beforehand.
They did it as a summer program.
They had a training programwhich was extensive.
They worked with 150 clubs.
So I had eyes out there lookingat young 8-, 9-, 10-year
(22:49):
players and they would helprecommend players to the club.
So New York City didn't haveanything in place.
They started from scratch and Iguess they thought this was the
best approach and in hindsight,you know, by eliminating, by
adding people and in thisspecial way you do eliminate
(23:10):
people.
Speaker 1 (23:12):
And, by the way, if you're just tuning in, my name
is Jim Kilmeade.
I'm your host of the AmericanSoccer Club Zone.
Our guest is Bob Montgomery,who we're so fortunate to have
on our leadership position inour sporting committee.
He's got a bunch of greatpeople.
We're talking today abouteverything ASC New York, but
also everything US soccer andhow Bob began in MLS Academy
when they first made theircommitment.
Bob began in MLS Academy whenthey first made their commitment
(23:34):
.
Now you've been around the teama little bit, bob.
I also know you're somebody thatnow that is supposed to be
retired but not really.
You're still at a soccer fieldtoday taking a break to speak
with me, which we appreciate,and you watch young games, you
watch high school games, youshow up, you really just love
the sport and you're reallylearning.
This is probably a questionthat deserves its own show show,
but we only have probably aboutfive minutes left, so we're not
(23:54):
going to discuss today how webreak through, because I think
we're going to keep an open doorpolicy and take every
relationship one by one, as youhave advised.
What are the differences, ifany, between the players you
recruited to play at Adelphi inthe 70s and the 80s and the
regional teams in the nationalprograms that you were involved
with everything, and you andBruce Arena are at the forefront
of the US national team puttingguys on those teams and those
(24:15):
are the teams that we kind ofyou know the Tony Miolas and the
John Harkses and those and theBrian McBrides.
What do you see the biggestdifference between the mentality
, having coached them and nowwatched them also from your
position, with experience,between the 70s, 80s, 90s and
the current kid?
Obviously they're living in adifferent world with phones and
ADD personified.
(24:36):
Do you still feel kids?
Do you think there's a?
Is it really that much morechallenging to coach and develop
a youth player today, based ontwo things their makeup and
their background, because of theworld we live in today and the
options that they have?
What's the biggest challengesand do you think the kids are
still?
Let me just narrow it down Arekids that much different, bob,
(24:58):
or is it just?
Is that overspaded?
Speaker 2 (25:00):
I don't think kids are.
I think parents might beeducated improperly and that
might be a difference.
You know the parents of a lotof the great players that I had.
They came from great parentingParents that cared for them,
loved them, tried to help them,but didn't try to run the show
(25:23):
and didn't get caught up in alot of falsehoods that are out
there.
There's a lot of myths aboutdevelopment and if we look at
teams, I do go out.
I watch a lot of youth and Isee some really good young
players and I see some niceteams, but they're in the
minority.
This focus on winning meanslet's get the biggest, strongest
guys, whatever, and we're goingto have them and we can outrun
(25:44):
and we can knock other peopledown and we can win.
But winning at 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 doesn't necessarily help,
or the best players at that agethat physically dominate are not
the best players at the end ofthe day.
I was fortunate to be involvedwith the U-14 US national team.
We had Christian Pulisic on itfrom the time he was 11, 12, and
(26:08):
13.
He played three years.
He'd come to five camps a yearwith us until the third year.
The U15 took him, so he wentand jumped and played up with
them.
Christian was a tiny little guybut because of it and he's
playing three years up the firstyear he had to develop
technique and he had to havegreat decision-making to survive
(26:30):
in those games.
And through his parents his dadfrom Long Island, mark, is a
former professional player,played at George Mason, and his
mom was an All-American collegeplayer Through their guidance
and making good decisions, thiskid thrived along the way and he
was a great player at 11 and 12, with the best under-14 players
(26:53):
in the way and he was a greatplayer at 11 and 12 with the
best 14 under 14 players in thecountry.
So that's really what we haveto look for is not just picking
big guys, and I know the guysthat are in the club.
They feel the same way.
So I think that's a key.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
So listen, with three minutes left.
You mentioned one thing that isdefinitely we have to touch on
playing up.
I'm a firm believer personally.
I'll defer to your opinion.
I think we're going to agree,but I think you're going to add
a little more nuance than I amable to.
Christian Blisick was playingup even then, because his dad
obviously knew that was a goodthing to do.
A lot of players, even when Igrew up on Long Island in the
(27:28):
70s and the 80s, we played upand played sometimes with the
men.
I remember playing in the LASFLwhen I was 17, 18 years old as
a freshman at Hofstra.
It made me a much better playerthan I would have been
otherwise and helped me maximizewhatever ability I had, and by
playing with 30-year-old men.
And that's what we're trying togive for this kid, dylan Lopez.
How critical is that for playerdevelopment?
(27:51):
Do you think it's just anabsolute necessity or do you
think it's just something thatwe should add on to I'd say no,
that I find out when I go aroundthat it's over-exaggerated.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
Players should play up when they're ready.
To when they're ready, there'sno problem.
Throw them in, the challenge isgood.
If they're not ready, it candestroy their confidence and
their belief in themselves.
So we had and that's one of thethings that people profess is
oh, you've got to play up,you've got to play up.
Parents would come to the RedBull and to their coach and say
(28:24):
can he go play up?
How come he's not playing up?
We don't think he's ready yet.
At the right time he should goplay up.
And kids have to find the rightplace to play and it's not the
big name club necessarily.
Maybe they need to be in theirlocal club so that they can
dominate.
You know, get to a point wherethey can dominate and maybe they
physically develop and thenthey're ready, you know, and
(28:47):
good coaches will see and putthem in the right place and
they're doing the favor.
Some parents will say, well, ifhe can't play up here, we're
going to go to club XYZ andwe'll say well, good luck to you
and Bob.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
That's the nuanced answer that I'm glad I asked you
just the way I asked you,because that's it's not.
There's not a yes or no, it'sas you said.
Your words are when they'reready, and you have to, and then
whoever's deciding when they'reready, that's, that's that
hopefully is the right personthat knows what they're looking
(29:19):
at.
And, as I say, you can't teachthis on off paper or in a
coaching course.
You just have to have thatintuition and that experience.
I think so and clearly you doso.
I mean I know you're excited todo it.
I mean we'll be sitting inpersonally off air and making
decisions of how we start thisAcademy, but I'm as excited to
start the academy as I was tostart the pro team.
And, bob, with the coupleminutes we have left, you've
(29:39):
been around teams forever.
You've been around teams thatwon everything, with teams that
had bad seasons,middle-of-the-road seasons.
Looking at where we started,where we ended and the team, the
coaching staff, the playersthat we had, which are 90% all
local, born and Bred guys howwould you look at the season
right now?
I don't mean with ratings, butwhat's your viewpoint from your
(30:01):
experience level, to see what wemay have learned this year and
where we are set for next year.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
You know, I had a chance to talk to the players
and the coaches a little bit andI don't make a lot of judgments
because I did not see themoften enough.
You really have to be immerseda lot more than I was, but in
general, on the outside I canoffer opinion.
We had to get started somewhere.
You have to start somewhere andyou just can't wait until you
(30:28):
have the perfect scenario.
So, yeah, the players weregreat.
You watch them train, you watchthem in games.
The effort was great.
Okay, we didn't have very muchof a long enough preseason to
really prepare them.
So you know, we look at thosesome different things, but I
think it went very well.
John and his staff did a greatjob in terms of their effort and
(30:49):
whatever we didn't get all thebetter the players.
Maybe we wanted through tryoutsbecause we're the new guy on
the block and some kids want tobe with a more established name
at the moment, but it's movingin the right direction.
Players themselves again I'llsay it, they were great people.
We had a good bunch that reallycared for each other, worked
hard for each other, listenedand respected everybody in our
(31:12):
club and you've seen that whenwe have them doing different
appearances and things, andthat's important Can we mold
good young people?
It's important.
Speaker 1 (31:22):
Well, you know what You're right.
We don't have control over theresult, but we do have control
over the kind of people we bringinto the organization.
I thought that was a greatpoint.
I agree with that, and the moreyou get away from the last game
of the season, the more you canactually get a more accurate
assessment.
Bob, I really appreciate youcoming on the show today.
I think a lot of people take alot of this.
I know I personally have.
So thank you very much.
(31:42):
Thank you, jim.
Always a pleasure and we'll beseeing you soon.
That was the great BobMontgomery, legendary American
soccer figure.
We're proud to have him on theshow.
The American Soccer Club Zone.
We thank Mike Hogan.
Great job producer.
We had to make some quick movesat the end.
A fantastic job.
Thank you again to producersStephen Coffey and Sylvia King,
(32:03):
todd Shapiro and Associates andonce again, on behalf of the
American Soccer Club, kjoy 98.3,proud to bring you the American
Soccer Club Zone.
We'll see you next week.
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