TOMMY VANCAEYEZEELE (DEFENDER) HARTFORD ATHLETIC

The French Defensemen chats with the guys about his soccer journey from France to Hartford, CT!

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The rob Double Show with Ben Darnellin Your Afternoon Drive. Joining us now
on the Bobby Be's Hotline Thomas vanKinziel. He is a defender that plays
for the Hartford Athletic and he isfrom France. And Thomas, let's go
back to when you were a kid. What are some of the main reasons
why you wanted to play soccer andultimately end up playing professional soccer. He

(00:24):
studied really young. My mom wouldgo to the stage job. It was
called lanz so S. They wentin the Champions League this season and she
would she would bring me to thestage job and the fans were crazy.
I always love the atmosphere, soyeah, it's so great. And after

(00:46):
that I was like, yeah,I want that to be my job too.
So I started from there talking todefender of the Hartford Athletic. Another
one of our new mates is justjoining the team here in the twenty twenty
four season, Thomas van k zAs. Thomas is coming from France.
In your first indoctrination into American soccer, slash football was at the College of

(01:08):
Charleston, home of the Golden Eagles, a place that I drive by when
I'm going down South all the wayback to Connecticut and it's a beautiful campus.
But man, I would think aguy from France dropping in in West
Virginia is a fish out of water. That's probably an understatement. What was
that like for you going from Franceto West Virginia? At first, it

(01:30):
was a shock, to be honest, I bet I wanted to come over
to the US, to New York, La, Miami, and then I
ended up being in West Virginia.I was like, what is that?
I was really surprised, to behonest, but he ended up being great.
It was actually a great experience.We had people from all over in

(01:56):
West Virginia doing any type of sports, yeah, track and seeing. We
had some volleyball players and everyone wasfrom everywhere, and it was a great
experience. To be honest, Iloved it. I mean I think my
whole life, everybody loves the Frenchaccent. You know, I played Major
League Baseball Thomas and so the ladyyou go up to Montreal and every guy

(02:19):
on my team, I don't careif they were Latin or African American.
They wanted to try to speak Frenchdoes just But when you start talking at
a restaurant or something like that.Do people want to be around you more
knowing that you're from France? No, No, not really. They just
want to know about the country,about how is it to live over there.

(02:42):
They always asked me if I cook, and I don't really cook,
so that's the funny pub But yeah, tell us about how you got here.
I mean, you were at TampaBay Rowdy for the last couple of
years. You have so many startswith the Rowdy's kind of one of our
rivals here for the Heart for DeathAletic while you were at College of Charleston
D two player of the Year bythe way, D two Player of the

(03:05):
Year. But how did you makeyour road all the way to Hartford?
And what do you think of theexperience so far? Yeah, it was
a bumpy road. I was injuredafter temper for a year. I did
my achilles, so I was Iwas struggling a little bit for a year.
I didn't have a team, andthen I got in contact with David

(03:30):
Golds in the new the new ownershipof Hartford Athletic, and they wanted to
build something new with experienced players.So they saw that I played a lot
and I had a lot of experiencein the USL Championship. So they called
me in. They made sure myinjured was what's his and I was good

(03:51):
to go and I was, Soit was a no brainer for me as
playing right away and then so farit's been good. I loved the area.
Me and my wife, we livein New Heaven. We love it
there. So that's perfect, souwe love it. Tom talking to Thomas
van ke Ziel and he is amember of the Harford Athletic he's a defender.

(04:14):
Talk about that, how you guysmeshed so well though, because we,
like you said, they started over, revamped the roster. You guys
are coming from all over professional soccerto play on Harford's team, but then
you gotta you gotta mesh well,you gotta gel you know, talk about
what it's like when you have newteammates and stuff like that that you've either
played against or with on other clubsand now trying to make it work with

(04:35):
one club. Yeah, it's alwayshard when everyone comes from all over to
make it work right away. Butwe have a group of experienced players.
So everyone played a lot in USL, so we all play against each other
before, sometimes with each other before, so so Soka is what wage you

(05:00):
know, like you just need tounderstand each other and then you make it
work. And I think especially thepast game, we show that we can
play together, we can win games, and we can make hard for that.
Letty successful two to one win lastweek that was against Monterey Bay going
up against Rhode Island FC, anew franchise in USL. They're right across

(05:23):
the border. This is a rivalrygame. Hopefully it's going to be a
big time rivalry throughout the years forthe USL and for Hartford Athletic. You
had a couple of nice touches inthat two to one victory against Monterey Bay.
Speak on that and just speak onthat team because man, they had
a couple of chances, I know, you know the one that like that
heel kick they had to hit thecrossbar was super scary. But just talk

(05:46):
about that game and what it meantto get that win. Yeah, we
were on the butt streak, sowe definitely needed that win and everyone was
up for it as fans of SoGood. The stadium was full, so
we were like, we need towin that game to get out of that
hole, and we did. So, yeah, we're going to try to

(06:10):
keep going from this game. Sowe're going to play Rhode Island a little
bit similar to us, where obviouslythe franchise is new. They recruited a
lot of experience player and because it'snew, they don't necessarily win games,
but they have a really good roster. So that's going to be a really

(06:30):
interesting matchup and I think the fundsare for it, but I can tell
you that all localom is up forit too, so really looking forward to
it. Connor McGlenn ol mcglenn's apart of Rhode Island FC these days,
one of the former hard Ford athleticshere. I think you took his job,
Thomas. Honestly, that's wegos andpro sports. But we what we

(06:57):
love to get to know all ofthe new mates on the raws is there's
so many of you guys. Nowwe always like to play this game and
you have no choice. Your coachhas done it and the rest of the
team has done it, so youhave to do it. To Thomas the
five questions, we ask everyone toget to know you a little bit better.
We're gonna pump in some game showmusic here as well, just to
make this fun for the crowd.But the first question is very simple.

(07:19):
We've had very a lot of differentanswers on this, and I can't wait
to hear from the Frenchman. Whatwould a drink be that the supporters like.
Let's say you're out and about NewHaven with the wife and the supporters
sections all down at the same pubyou are. It's like a man's Tommy
V. We got to buy hima drink? What drink should they buy
you, sir? I don't know. I'd love to say that, but

(07:46):
oh yeah, absolutely, drumb andpineapple. A lot of these guys have
been saying Hennessy and something. Yeah. All the Jamaicans love their Tennessee.
You love their for sure, rumand pineapple. Write that down there,
nice time we see Tommy V.All right, foods now, you say
you're not a cook, but I'msure you love your French cuisine. I
don't know if we could help out. Maybe there's a food in Connecticut that

(08:07):
you haven't tried or you want totry, or maybe there's a spot that
you have found. What food aroundhere are you fond of or maybe you're
fond of it in France but youdon't have it here. I missed you
some friends, to be honest,but here in you event of your pity
little pizza. So I went toit. But the look is put across
the big places. It's called andit's amazing, so I recommend it.

(08:33):
All right, excellent, he's gettinginto the place. If you want any
Italian joints. There's a lot ofgood Italian restaurants down in New Haven too.
Yeah, I grew up around there, definitely. All right, sir.
Now you're talking about how the supportergroup is one of the best in
the world, and you are correct, and one reason is is we are
so loud and proud. I ama tambourine player in that band. Others

(08:54):
just bring their own drum. Whatwould you have in your hand? What
would be the instrument Tommy v hasin the supporter group to make some noise?
I wish I could play the trumpet. I think the trumpets amazing in
the fensic gym. Yeah, totally. We do need more horns. I
think that's one thing where listen,Yes, we need more horns. I

(09:16):
think the team has told us thatover and over again, so we got
to make that happen. All right. You're talking about your mom bringing you
to professional soccer in France, andthat's what really got the bug in your
system. But where were you playinggames like with your friends? What was
like the sandlot area to get startedin soccer, not like you know,
your mom taking it as some reallynice facility. I'm just saying, like

(09:37):
trying to make it happen somehow,some way, fashioning up a goal with
whatever ball just to play a littlebackyard football. Yeah. So are used
to live in an area where Idon't know, in friends to sup up
the big buildings, you know,and so you to go down there and
there is a playground and that's whereeveryone would meet and we would play a

(10:01):
holiday until the mom call you backup club when it's nighttime to get dinner.
Yeah. Do you have like thingsyou would put together to make the
goal, like with the swing setbe the goal? Yeah, that would
be usually the truck put two biggrowth to find it the biggest and it
would make it be would work.I found you a French restaurant in New

(10:24):
Haven, no way, It's calledShope Crape a Cafe. It's going to
give you the address. It's twentyfour Whitney, twenty four Whitney Avenue in
New Have there you go, andit's there we go. Yeah, French
cuisine and coffee. We're here tohelp a little bestro. So you might
want to like lunch, No problem. Let me ask you this. I

(10:46):
was just in Montreal and I've toldthe boys all about my travels in the
last couple of weeks. Dude,I've never had better coffee. What's up
with French people making coffee? Like, what is the difference with your guys's
coffee that we don't do around here? I think we could it from the
Italian expresso. I'm married Italian,so yeah, all right, Final question,

(11:07):
sir. In your childhood, doyou have a movie or a cartoon?
What did you grow up with it? Like? Maybe people don't know
about Thomas Vinka zio on what youkind of like we're obsessed with as a
kid. My favorite movie of onetime? Say with Michael Johnes, what's

(11:28):
that? Over and over and over? That is awesome? Was that like
a thing amongst you and your friends? Did space Jam hit like the French
market pretty hard when you were akid. I don't know if you did,
but hit my plateful shore like mybrother love it, my sister love
it too. Oh yeah, wewere watching that. Fum yeah, awes,
well, Thomas, that's fantastic,dude. Good luck and you know,

(11:52):
thanks for coming on. It's oneof the best interviews we've had from
you, guys. Thank you,sir, thank you, thank you guys.
Thank you.