March 1, 2023 • 25 mins
We chat with FC Dallas defender, Nkosi Tafari to discuss his journey to Major League Soccer and his early seasons with the Dallas squad.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:22):
All right, welcome back to AFP. I am very excited to bring on
someone outside of our usual suspects.Center back for FC Dallas and Cosey Tafari
playing phenomenal so far over the courseof the season. And Cosey, thanks
for joining us. Yeah, noproblem, Thank you for having me.
(00:43):
I love the opportunity and getting achance to meet some new people talk about
some different things. So let's startwith this weekend. We've heard this build
up for this Texas rivalry for aboutthree to four years now as Austin's come
online. Obviously the Houston Dallas rivalhe has a ton of history now,
but this was your first I guesswe're calling it COPA Tejas. You can
(01:04):
correct me if I'm wrong, becauseI'm not a Texas guy. But what
was What was the buildup like?What was the experience like? The build
up was? It was interesting.It was the first of anything, so
as it was unfolding. It wasjust new for everybody. But the experience
was pretty good. Austin had adecent bit of fans there. Obviously they
(01:26):
wanted to show out to a certainextent within the first game of I guess
this air quotes rivalry I'm not surehow it is the rivalry since it is
the very first game, I don'treally know how that makes sense. But
you know, if the fans aresaying it's arrivably sure, go ahead.
I try and win every game regardless, but if they want some extra bragging
rights, I'm all for it.Did anyone try and explain is their rivalry
(01:51):
between Dallas and Austin s Cities?Did anyone try and fill you in?
You are for people that don't know, a New York native got drafted by
see Dallas last year, so you'restill dipping your toes into Texas culture in
general. Yeah, I think theyjust wanted a little bit extra, to
some extra to go after there's anotherteam in Texas, and that seemed to
(02:14):
just be it. They were justlike, well, where we're going to
be the best team in Texas.We want to better than FU Dallas,
we want to better than Houston,and since we're another team and win the
MLS, then it's a rivalry,which is what seemed to be the case.
But I feel like since there's threeof us, it's more of like
a round robin rivalry type of thething. It's like, I feel you
(02:34):
got to win the entirety of thegames to crown yourself as the king of
Texas. Okay, so we're notthere yet, which means you're leaving.
You're leaving some pressure out there forDallas in general. You mentioned those fans
that came for Austin. You've obviouslynot been able to play in a normal
atmosphere most of your two years becauseof COVID and what's been going on.
(02:55):
But what did you make of theenergy in the stadium this game compared to
the other ones you've experienced. Itwas good, It was definitely good.
I think we've had a good showingin terms of a fan standpoint for most
of the season since we've been back, playing about two games a week since
around June nineteenth. Most of thegames we had a game earlier against Houston
(03:20):
this year as well, and Istill think the atmosphere has gotten better,
even against teams that aren't our rivals. I think the fans have just had
a little bit more energy, andsince we're performing better, it's something that
they want to come out to.They want to watch, they want to
cheer, and our supporter section isbig time. They always they always show
up. So you mentioned that turnaround. Undefeated in the last four three of
(03:40):
those are wins. You've moved frombasically the bottom of the Western Conference to
striking distance of the playoffs. Whatdo you make of what this turnaround?
What's caused this turnaround? I thinkwhen we were at just the bottom,
like strictly rocked them and I thinkwe were genuinely thirteenth into the conference.
(04:03):
There's a lot of things that youcan pick on this many many tiny,
tiny details because it's not necessarily thenorm for all of us. A lot
of guys have come from different backgroundswinning championships, maybe different experiences. As
you know, we have players likeMatt Hedges, Jimmy Mauer, Bryan Hollingshead,
guys that have been in America andplaying an MLS for close to ten
(04:23):
years. First, some guys whohave been playing in Spain and have won
things and lost things. So itwas kind of communicating seeing what the issues
are within the team and being honestwith ourselves and then just tackling them one
by one. Like for a greatstretch of games, we had a huge
lack of energy in terms of justdefending set pieces, and I think we
(04:44):
were letting up maybe like five goalsin like six games. That's something you
have to look at considering it's notthe norm. And then yeah, just
communicating with ourselves and being honest interms of like we have to change something
up, apply more energy, allthe above. So then we started doing
a lot of these things and gettingfirst road win um in Kansas City,
albeit not a pretty game to whereit was six hundred passes, three balls
(05:06):
played down the line, cross itin whatever, most beautiful goals even though
they were actually beautiful goals. Wehad to sit in a low block for
a lot of that game and endurea lot of pressure. But I mean,
yeah, you're going into SKC,the Cauldron, the Blue Hill,
um, whatever they're calling it.They got a lot of energy. They
hadn't lost eleven in a row athome, so I was huge to get
(05:29):
a win certainly. And then wecarried that momentum over into Seattle the same
this past weekend. And also we'rehoping to just keep doing the same again
and against Sky and Seattle, they'redefinitely gonna be looking to steal some points
back. You mentioned those two biggames, the road victory and draw with
with Casey and Seattle for you asa young player. I mean, those
are as big of environments as existsright now in American soccer, North American
(05:54):
soccer, whatever you want to callit. What's the what's the experience,
what's the preparation like going into thosebig moments? Yeah, I can I
can say I've been actually thinking aboutthis a lot more recently. In college,
I never really knew if I likedhome games or away games more.
I always like home games more incollege only for the fact that we had
(06:15):
we had the best fans. WhenI was in Connecticut, we had the
most fans. It was around likefour thousand and four hundreds. So I
always want to play in front ofa lot of people. But some other
stadiums just have larger stadiums, sothey have bigger crowds, like thirty thousand
and forty thousand. Seattle Stadium canhold I think like sixty or something.
So I love playing on the awaygames and feeling it did different atmosphere than
our own. But coming home,it's like, even to this point right
(06:38):
now, we are undefeated at home. We want to keep that record.
I think it was coming in froma few games last season. We have
a bunch of ties of course,but we don't want to lose at home.
That's that's our fortress. But theaway games, for me, I
really get up for it, likeit's all odds stacked against you. I
love the crowd, I love peoplescreaming in my face, the Adfirs city,
it's it's actually just a beautiful thing, like I love it. Um.
(07:00):
So I really do enjoy way games. That's why if ye like an
SKC of Seattle, of Portland andLAFC, I think maybe like those four
were my favorite atmospheres this year.To play an LAFC was actually very intense.
Their fans section does very well.I've told people this, but I've
been at LAFC games with people whoare from overseas. Who you see that
(07:25):
fan section just bouncing on its own. Yeah. Yeah, this isn't like
emulating Europe. This is like unique. This in itself it's pretty special.
Yeah. That that was like oneof my favorite parts. We were It
was first half we're like building outof a low block, um and you
just you just see the crowd jumping, moving and just like intertwining in lines
(07:48):
and how they do it. It'sso cool. Um it definitely catches your
eye. If you're not paying attentionand they're they're so loud, sold out
and it's almost built inwards to wherethey keep the sounding very well too.
It's a great stadium. Yeah,it's pretty impressive what they've done. Um,
obviously your play has been huge tothis team's turnaround. Queen Jone as
well has been key defensively in midfield. But people like talking about attackers,
(08:13):
So I gotta ask you the youngfront four that we've seen the last few
games, with Peppi leading the pointand shown in Paxxton and Jeseus behind them,
what's it like to watch them workand how has it maybe changed your
team with those four running up top. Yeah? I think with the youth,
it's not in terms of an attack, it's it's okay to have the
(08:37):
youth. It's sometimes even better becausethey're more exciting, They're more willing to
take risks and just go for somethingcrazy. I say the youth as if
I'm virtually ancient, but in termsof it an attacking perspective, somebody kid,
Peppi's eighteen, so it makes mefeel old sometimes back in your day.
Yeah, yeah, you know whatI'm saying. So, but yeah,
playing with these kids. It's um, it's great. I love playing
(09:00):
with Paxiston. Not to even puta favorite on anything, but he might
be my favorite. The way heruns with the ball. I'm like,
yeah, I don't know, Idon't know if this guy's about to get
out of this. I'm getting readyto get in prevention because he might lose
it. And then he's somehow wiggleswith three guys and plays a perfect pass
like the line splitting pass to likeshoot or something crazy. I'm like,
wow, this guy does it again. But yeah, shoon, he's bringing
a different type of energy. He'sbeen playing out of his mind recently.
(09:22):
And normally you'll see left footed likeout and out wingers play just on the
right side, but he's doing verywell and doing it on the left side.
And same for Paxiston. He normallyplays as an eight normally just kind
of us see him in the middleof the field and maybe he drifts wide,
but he's not normally staying wide.But he's doing a great job with
handling that. And then his suson, Peppie, they're just a natural duo.
(09:46):
They know how to find each otherwell, they feed off of each
other. Well, you know,I'm there great friends off the field,
so it definitely helps what goes onon the field, and then the further
you track back, we just gottado our business, keep the shutouts and
hopefully get some. I gotta askyou you, I assume go up against
Peppie every once in a while inpractice. There's a lot of excitement around
(10:07):
this guy. I've seen him playfor four years now, which shows you
how young he was when he starteddoing great things. What makes him tough,
what makes him successful? I sayone of his biggest things he has
a very good eye for goal.His ability to finish in and around the
box is it's very It's clean andsharp, and if you're not aware,
(10:31):
like you will get punished, likeany good nine. That's normally what you
hear about a good nine that theyhave a great eye for goal, and
if you fall asleep for a second, they'll punish you. And even he'll
like he'll get his shots off towhere you might not think he's going to
score. Like his third goal aGalaxy, he's like half turned facing the
sideline, but just gets a shotoff, swings go, ball, goes
(10:52):
through the center backs legs and thengoalie just gets a hand on it,
but still goes in goals like that. It's like, is it the prettiest
thing? No, but he justgoed a third goal of the game and
he's eighteen years old and it wentover the line. It's a goal.
There's nothing else to it. Sohe's not scoring the absolute screamers like a
Stephen Gerrard, but they all countjust the same as one. So he's
very good in that that aspect.My Coho is a Liverpool fancy. He'll
(11:16):
appreciate the Jari reference adamic course onthat one. I wanted to ask for
you. You know, I've seeninterviews with you talking to you now,
your level headed, you don't seemto panic. But have you had like
an AHA moment or like a welcometo the show type moment of just realizing
(11:37):
over the last eighteen months what's happeningand where you've come? Uh? Yeah,
I remember where I was when Ifirst got here and what I what
I wanted at the time. Itwas I flew out here January seventeenth.
He started on the twenty first,and I remember it took a while for
me, even after I had signed, to get up to speed. But
I remember in preseason a lot ofthings are moving too fast, and I
(12:00):
was trying to add up some ofmy college concepts, but only the good
tendencies, while also trying to cutout the bad ones. Things that like
maybe like not picking up your headuntil you get the ball, or not
assessing your options until afterwards, certainthe case, but a lot of things
were just moving way too fast.And then I remember getting up to speed
(12:20):
probably about maybe three months in whenthe summer hit, but I wasn't like
ready to start. I was justlike up to the speed of play while
still making mistakes, just not likeOkay, this guy's just not ready for
the level. You're like, okay, now he just needs to refine his
talent. And then once I startedgetting better of that, it was like,
all right, just improve my craftfrom here on out, do the
(12:45):
small things. I don't have todo anything crazy. They would actually prefer
I don't doing stepovers at the backis certainly not my expertise, but yeah,
just doing my due diligence. There'sa really good staff around us that
wants to see just the team succeedand all of us as a whole.
So they put me in a goodposition and I kind of just listen to
them. There's a lot of goodknowledge and older guys that are there.
(13:07):
With Matt Hedges. I mean,he's got ten years experience in the league.
He's the most kept player in ourteam in club history. And then
even our assistant coach Peter Lusine,who has quite the track record of winning
La Liga or captaining different clubs oryeah, so's He's been a huge help
in my kind of ascension over thelast year. So I would say for
(13:39):
you, now you've established yourself youare a starter in justin year two,
your first year of playing in MLS, which is a huge step for a
draft pick. If we were tocome into your apartment and look at the
list, do you have goals,do you have milestones? Do you have
a big picture goal of where thisall wants to and like how do you
(14:01):
look at the future as as youknow as a player still finding your feet
in the pro game. Yeah,I definitely have goals. I set I
have like one major long term goal. I had two. It was one
was become a professional soccer player,another was playing a World Cup. I
couldn't obviously achieve the second without thefirst, so that was like kind of
my first goal and then I havethis like goals and steps along the way
(14:26):
to help me get to where Ineed to along in maybe five years,
six years, whatever down the line. So I eventually doing to play in
Europe and certainly in one of thetop five divisions across the world, just
to just to know that I cannot for anybody else, just to prove
to myself. It's like, howgood can I be? Can I okay?
There's always a saying of like,well, just an American soccer of
(14:48):
like, okay, anyone can getdrafted, but can you run the contract
and can you play? Can you'rein a spot? Can you be a
stronghold name in the league. It'slike, okay, I've like to do
that equivalent, but not okay,not just get bought by a team in
Europe and then end up coming backto America because I couldn't make it.
I want to actually establish my nameacross different countries and leagues and eventually play
(15:13):
in a World Cup. But whileI'm here in the MLS, I'd love
to actually win in MLS Cup forsure, and that would be one of
my goals for myself and some ofthe older guys that hadn't had the chance
to Yeah, I know, itwould mean a lot to that franchise and
a lot to the fan base there. You talked about those goals, getting
to the national team, all ofthat. You're in Dallas where you're kind
of at the center of this newmovement of academy players, of young players
(15:37):
getting pushed, getting opportunities, andnow we see getting sold as well over
to some of these big leagues.But you came through a different style.
You came through the draft. Idon't believe you played in an MLS academy
of any sort or you know,the DA coming through as a young player.
What do you make of your pathand how players like you and John
Nelson and Ima Tumwassi and Jimmy maare you know guys who are getting it
(16:02):
done in a different way than thePeppies and the Paxton's and the Justin Chase.
Yeah, I really And it's great. Yeah, even all the guys,
the draft guys that you compared,we all have different paths within the
draft too, which is crazy howwidespread it is. But um, yeah,
I never played academy and even throughoutcollege and then a little bit afterwards,
(16:26):
like after Connecticut, even into Seattle. I was always like, I
don't love my story that much.It's okay. I've just been kind of
grinding most of the time. I'venever had like super good connections. My
parents weren't incredibly adept in the soccerworld and knowing what's the right teams or
they could never really actually even takeme to training. So it was most
of the time was my coaches.So I played a lot for local teams.
(16:49):
I couldn't make the hour and ahalf draft to sort of a Jersey
Queens to play with the Red Bullsor any other academy like that. So
yeah, I just went to theusual route. I think it's it's whatever's
whatever's best, or whatever situation you'rein. Actually it might not even be
what's best. It's very likely thatan academy situation could be what's best for
(17:11):
the person, but it's not thesituation that you're in. See stuff to
make it work another way, Yeah, I think if everyone were to be
put into Lama Sia Academy and we'rebrought up that way with that coaching,
I think it'd be quite beneficial foreveryone, of course, but that's just
not how it is. So sometimes, yeah, guys, you end up
(17:33):
playing club soccer and high school soccer, and then you go to college and
then you just kind of grind yourway into the pros and then if you
can go from there, you gofrom there. And that's kind of what
I'm trying to do. And Ilike the idea now of my story because
it's different, it's not the usual. Other people like hearing it. For
(17:53):
me, it's just what I've beenliving, so it's cool. But other
people actually do like hearing the storyand talking about it. So I'm glad
other people younger or older can getcan get a good message out of it
and actually do like hearing it becauseit's it's something different that's not exactly the
norm. So there are outliers outthere that can make it. I'll tell
you. As a broadcast there usedto be exciting when someone was a young
(18:15):
academy signing. It was unique.Now it's like, ah, well,
they're twenty two, they've been atthe same club for six, seven,
eight years and this, and theneveryone else does it as well, and
so now you are the story.You're you're the interesting one. Yeah,
okay, I guess that doesn't makesense. I've never even thought about like
that. Yeah, uh, youmentioned your family back in New York,
where I'm from as well, soshout out in New York. It's unfortunately
(18:37):
the greatest city in the world,which you can debate me on, but
it's a losing debate. So yeah, that's fair. That's fair. You.
Well, I'll tell you when youcome back. It's changed, but
I think it's it's changed some insome ways for the good, as I
guess the whole world has over thelast two years. But right, a
lot of negative, a lot ofshit, a lot of bad stuff.
(19:00):
But you can sit outside now,so that's always a positive. I want
to ask you about your family becausefor a lot of people that have maybe
seen you in passing so far inthis first season of you playing, you
step out on the field and youhave the name too far Eye on the
back of your jersey, but sometimesin lineups and stats and graphics it says
(19:22):
a different name. I wanted youto maybe take people through your experience of
this decision you made, of why, and maybe for some people that are
also juggling with this same type ofdecision, what your process was. Yeah,
it was a name that I've beenquite very well aware of. It's
just the name that was my father'sand then maybe his grandfather's are prior.
(19:45):
But essentially, if we do tracethe history back, it is the reason
why I don't want to use thename, because it is a slave name
from however long or from ever whereI don't actually know. But it's not
a name that is necessarily positively associatedwith myself or my family. It is
what is on my bills and mygovernment I d and other things of that
(20:10):
nature. But in terms of representingmyself and having my career, I built
this all off my own back,my own two feet. It wasn't and
if since I am allowed to weara name on my jersey, I never
had done so in club soccer,or high school or even in college.
It was never an actual issue.But now that I can wear a name
on my jersey, and I hadn'tdecided if I wanted to be my first
(20:34):
or my middle at the time.But as I was going through it,
and I knew I was coming tomy second season, I hadn't played in
my first, but I was anticipatingand certainly striving to play. I wanted
to get the name right. Iget a new number and get everything to
how I wanted and felt comfortable intowhere it was. At least my choosing
(20:56):
it was similar to my number,not as historically significant, but my number
was just given to me, andI was like, I don't really want
this number. I'd rather have somethingelse. So I mean, yeah,
someone else is thinking about it orwanting to do the same thing. It's
just do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Everyone has that notion of look good,
(21:17):
play good or feel good, playgood, whatever it is, whatever
can help you perform that you're highestin any field that you're in sports or
not, or in the office,in the workplace, whatever it is,
you do whatever makes you feel comfortable. I think you do have to strive
for that option so you can perform. It's interesting we've talked a lot about
identity and feeling comfortable over the lastfew years in a lot of different ways.
(21:41):
When you talk about gender and nameand career and whatever you want to
do, it's interesting to hear foryou how that affects your everyday life and
the way you play. Yeah.It's yeah, just something that if I
if I had the choice and thepreference that I wanted to kind of how
(22:02):
I wanted it and that's nothing againstanyone else or but if I'm going to
be the one carrying out the task, I'd rather do it with the name
of my choosing and certainly so Icould carry it out the best of my
abilities. Then that makes just everybodyhappy. And I believe Tafari is one
who inspires all? Is that correct? Yes? He who inspires all?
(22:26):
Not a bad name to go with, not too bad, Yeah, I
can. I can thank my momand dad for that. One's got some
power to it. Nice. Well, you've had some power to your game.
It's been really fun to watch youdo your thing in Cosey. I
appreciate you taking the time to joinus. I wanted to close you out
on one interesting story. Weird story. You save someone's life last year.
(22:49):
That's not something you see on aon a soccer roster notes every once in
a while. Yeah I did.I was in the mall and there was
there was a lady choking man inthe food court area, kind of sorted
she was outside of where she wasworking, and then I had seen him
(23:10):
choking. I thought there was onegentleman going up to I thought he was
gonna give it the hamack. Iwas like Okay, fair enough, he's
gonna give it the ham like heknows what he's about, news, what
should be happening. We're all right. But then I think he just started
asking her questions, but she certainlycouldn't talk at the time, and I
was like, all right, thisguy's really not doing anything. I have
to I have to. I haveto give us woman the hammock right now.
So yeah, I got up whileI walked on over and like didn't
(23:33):
even take that many for us,actually just just one. And then like
the food had come out and itwas pretty good. I was pretty crazy.
It was definitely a lot of crazyfor her. I was just in
there like, wow, this womanneeds the hammock. Someone please give her
the hammock right now. But noone else did, so then I did,
and she was very obviously, veryvery fortunate to her of it,
and I still keep in touch withher to this day. Actually, I
(23:56):
was gonna say, that's sort ofa relationship. Where do you go from
there? Yeah, yeah, shewas. She was very very thankful.
Um, and then like, yeah, we exchange numbers and we text every
so often. I've invited her outto a couple of games and such,
and she's invited me back to themall to just kind of visit at where
she was working. So but yeah, it's super cool. She was very
(24:18):
very kind, very gracious about it. Well, you want him on your
back line, you want him onthe ball, building out of the back,
and you definitely wanted him around incase something bad happens because he's a
lot colmer than everyone else and Coseytoo far. I center back for FC
Dallas. Thanks for taking the timein Cosey and joining us. Yeah,
thank you for having me. Itwas a wonderful conversation. M always enjoyable.
(24:41):
Always thank you. Well, we'llhave to have you back when you
win MLS Cup, how about that? Oh, gladly, gladly
All right, welcome back to AFP. I am very excited to bring on
someone outside of our usual suspects.Center back for FC Dallas and Cosey Tafari
playing phenomenal so far over the courseof the season. And Cosey, thanks
for joining us. Yeah, noproblem, Thank you for having me.
(00:43):
I love the opportunity and getting achance to meet some new people talk about
some different things. So let's startwith this weekend. We've heard this build
up for this Texas rivalry for aboutthree to four years now as Austin's come
online. Obviously the Houston Dallas rivalhe has a ton of history now,
but this was your first I guesswe're calling it COPA Tejas. You can
(01:04):
correct me if I'm wrong, becauseI'm not a Texas guy. But what
was What was the buildup like?What was the experience like? The build
up was? It was interesting.It was the first of anything, so
as it was unfolding. It wasjust new for everybody. But the experience
was pretty good. Austin had adecent bit of fans there. Obviously they
(01:26):
wanted to show out to a certainextent within the first game of I guess
this air quotes rivalry I'm not surehow it is the rivalry since it is
the very first game, I don'treally know how that makes sense. But
you know, if the fans aresaying it's arrivably sure, go ahead.
I try and win every game regardless, but if they want some extra bragging
rights, I'm all for it.Did anyone try and explain is their rivalry
(01:51):
between Dallas and Austin s Cities?Did anyone try and fill you in?
You are for people that don't know, a New York native got drafted by
see Dallas last year, so you'restill dipping your toes into Texas culture in
general. Yeah, I think theyjust wanted a little bit extra, to
some extra to go after there's anotherteam in Texas, and that seemed to
(02:14):
just be it. They were justlike, well, where we're going to
be the best team in Texas.We want to better than FU Dallas,
we want to better than Houston,and since we're another team and win the
MLS, then it's a rivalry,which is what seemed to be the case.
But I feel like since there's threeof us, it's more of like
a round robin rivalry type of thething. It's like, I feel you
(02:34):
got to win the entirety of thegames to crown yourself as the king of
Texas. Okay, so we're notthere yet, which means you're leaving.
You're leaving some pressure out there forDallas in general. You mentioned those fans
that came for Austin. You've obviouslynot been able to play in a normal
atmosphere most of your two years becauseof COVID and what's been going on.
(02:55):
But what did you make of theenergy in the stadium this game compared to
the other ones you've experienced. Itwas good, It was definitely good.
I think we've had a good showingin terms of a fan standpoint for most
of the season since we've been back, playing about two games a week since
around June nineteenth. Most of thegames we had a game earlier against Houston
(03:20):
this year as well, and Istill think the atmosphere has gotten better,
even against teams that aren't our rivals. I think the fans have just had
a little bit more energy, andsince we're performing better, it's something that
they want to come out to.They want to watch, they want to
cheer, and our supporter section isbig time. They always they always show
up. So you mentioned that turnaround. Undefeated in the last four three of
(03:40):
those are wins. You've moved frombasically the bottom of the Western Conference to
striking distance of the playoffs. Whatdo you make of what this turnaround?
What's caused this turnaround? I thinkwhen we were at just the bottom,
like strictly rocked them and I thinkwe were genuinely thirteenth into the conference.
(04:03):
There's a lot of things that youcan pick on this many many tiny,
tiny details because it's not necessarily thenorm for all of us. A lot
of guys have come from different backgroundswinning championships, maybe different experiences. As
you know, we have players likeMatt Hedges, Jimmy Mauer, Bryan Hollingshead,
guys that have been in America andplaying an MLS for close to ten
(04:23):
years. First, some guys whohave been playing in Spain and have won
things and lost things. So itwas kind of communicating seeing what the issues
are within the team and being honestwith ourselves and then just tackling them one
by one. Like for a greatstretch of games, we had a huge
lack of energy in terms of justdefending set pieces, and I think we
(04:44):
were letting up maybe like five goalsin like six games. That's something you
have to look at considering it's notthe norm. And then yeah, just
communicating with ourselves and being honest interms of like we have to change something
up, apply more energy, allthe above. So then we started doing
a lot of these things and gettingfirst road win um in Kansas City,
albeit not a pretty game to whereit was six hundred passes, three balls
(05:06):
played down the line, cross itin whatever, most beautiful goals even though
they were actually beautiful goals. Wehad to sit in a low block for
a lot of that game and endurea lot of pressure. But I mean,
yeah, you're going into SKC,the Cauldron, the Blue Hill,
um, whatever they're calling it.They got a lot of energy. They
hadn't lost eleven in a row athome, so I was huge to get
(05:29):
a win certainly. And then wecarried that momentum over into Seattle the same
this past weekend. And also we'rehoping to just keep doing the same again
and against Sky and Seattle, they'redefinitely gonna be looking to steal some points
back. You mentioned those two biggames, the road victory and draw with
with Casey and Seattle for you asa young player. I mean, those
are as big of environments as existsright now in American soccer, North American
(05:54):
soccer, whatever you want to callit. What's the what's the experience,
what's the preparation like going into thosebig moments? Yeah, I can I
can say I've been actually thinking aboutthis a lot more recently. In college,
I never really knew if I likedhome games or away games more.
I always like home games more incollege only for the fact that we had
(06:15):
we had the best fans. WhenI was in Connecticut, we had the
most fans. It was around likefour thousand and four hundreds. So I
always want to play in front ofa lot of people. But some other
stadiums just have larger stadiums, sothey have bigger crowds, like thirty thousand
and forty thousand. Seattle Stadium canhold I think like sixty or something.
So I love playing on the awaygames and feeling it did different atmosphere than
our own. But coming home,it's like, even to this point right
(06:38):
now, we are undefeated at home. We want to keep that record.
I think it was coming in froma few games last season. We have
a bunch of ties of course,but we don't want to lose at home.
That's that's our fortress. But theaway games, for me, I
really get up for it, likeit's all odds stacked against you. I
love the crowd, I love peoplescreaming in my face, the Adfirs city,
it's it's actually just a beautiful thing, like I love it. Um.
(07:00):
So I really do enjoy way games. That's why if ye like an
SKC of Seattle, of Portland andLAFC, I think maybe like those four
were my favorite atmospheres this year.To play an LAFC was actually very intense.
Their fans section does very well.I've told people this, but I've
been at LAFC games with people whoare from overseas. Who you see that
(07:25):
fan section just bouncing on its own. Yeah. Yeah, this isn't like
emulating Europe. This is like unique. This in itself it's pretty special.
Yeah. That that was like oneof my favorite parts. We were It
was first half we're like building outof a low block, um and you
just you just see the crowd jumping, moving and just like intertwining in lines
(07:48):
and how they do it. It'sso cool. Um it definitely catches your
eye. If you're not paying attentionand they're they're so loud, sold out
and it's almost built inwards to wherethey keep the sounding very well too.
It's a great stadium. Yeah,it's pretty impressive what they've done. Um,
obviously your play has been huge tothis team's turnaround. Queen Jone as
well has been key defensively in midfield. But people like talking about attackers,
(08:13):
So I gotta ask you the youngfront four that we've seen the last few
games, with Peppi leading the pointand shown in Paxxton and Jeseus behind them,
what's it like to watch them workand how has it maybe changed your
team with those four running up top. Yeah? I think with the youth,
it's not in terms of an attack, it's it's okay to have the
(08:37):
youth. It's sometimes even better becausethey're more exciting, They're more willing to
take risks and just go for somethingcrazy. I say the youth as if
I'm virtually ancient, but in termsof it an attacking perspective, somebody kid,
Peppi's eighteen, so it makes mefeel old sometimes back in your day.
Yeah, yeah, you know whatI'm saying. So, but yeah,
playing with these kids. It's um, it's great. I love playing
(09:00):
with Paxiston. Not to even puta favorite on anything, but he might
be my favorite. The way heruns with the ball. I'm like,
yeah, I don't know, Idon't know if this guy's about to get
out of this. I'm getting readyto get in prevention because he might lose
it. And then he's somehow wiggleswith three guys and plays a perfect pass
like the line splitting pass to likeshoot or something crazy. I'm like,
wow, this guy does it again. But yeah, shoon, he's bringing
a different type of energy. He'sbeen playing out of his mind recently.
(09:22):
And normally you'll see left footed likeout and out wingers play just on the
right side, but he's doing verywell and doing it on the left side.
And same for Paxiston. He normallyplays as an eight normally just kind
of us see him in the middleof the field and maybe he drifts wide,
but he's not normally staying wide.But he's doing a great job with
handling that. And then his suson, Peppie, they're just a natural duo.
(09:46):
They know how to find each otherwell, they feed off of each
other. Well, you know,I'm there great friends off the field,
so it definitely helps what goes onon the field, and then the further
you track back, we just gottado our business, keep the shutouts and
hopefully get some. I gotta askyou you, I assume go up against
Peppie every once in a while inpractice. There's a lot of excitement around
(10:07):
this guy. I've seen him playfor four years now, which shows you
how young he was when he starteddoing great things. What makes him tough,
what makes him successful? I sayone of his biggest things he has
a very good eye for goal.His ability to finish in and around the
box is it's very It's clean andsharp, and if you're not aware,
(10:31):
like you will get punished, likeany good nine. That's normally what you
hear about a good nine that theyhave a great eye for goal, and
if you fall asleep for a second, they'll punish you. And even he'll
like he'll get his shots off towhere you might not think he's going to
score. Like his third goal aGalaxy, he's like half turned facing the
sideline, but just gets a shotoff, swings go, ball, goes
(10:52):
through the center backs legs and thengoalie just gets a hand on it,
but still goes in goals like that. It's like, is it the prettiest
thing? No, but he justgoed a third goal of the game and
he's eighteen years old and it wentover the line. It's a goal.
There's nothing else to it. Sohe's not scoring the absolute screamers like a
Stephen Gerrard, but they all countjust the same as one. So he's
very good in that that aspect.My Coho is a Liverpool fancy. He'll
(11:16):
appreciate the Jari reference adamic course onthat one. I wanted to ask for
you. You know, I've seeninterviews with you talking to you now,
your level headed, you don't seemto panic. But have you had like
an AHA moment or like a welcometo the show type moment of just realizing
(11:37):
over the last eighteen months what's happeningand where you've come? Uh? Yeah,
I remember where I was when Ifirst got here and what I what
I wanted at the time. Itwas I flew out here January seventeenth.
He started on the twenty first,and I remember it took a while for
me, even after I had signed, to get up to speed. But
I remember in preseason a lot ofthings are moving too fast, and I
(12:00):
was trying to add up some ofmy college concepts, but only the good
tendencies, while also trying to cutout the bad ones. Things that like
maybe like not picking up your headuntil you get the ball, or not
assessing your options until afterwards, certainthe case, but a lot of things
were just moving way too fast.And then I remember getting up to speed
(12:20):
probably about maybe three months in whenthe summer hit, but I wasn't like
ready to start. I was justlike up to the speed of play while
still making mistakes, just not likeOkay, this guy's just not ready for
the level. You're like, okay, now he just needs to refine his
talent. And then once I startedgetting better of that, it was like,
all right, just improve my craftfrom here on out, do the
(12:45):
small things. I don't have todo anything crazy. They would actually prefer
I don't doing stepovers at the backis certainly not my expertise, but yeah,
just doing my due diligence. There'sa really good staff around us that
wants to see just the team succeedand all of us as a whole.
So they put me in a goodposition and I kind of just listen to
them. There's a lot of goodknowledge and older guys that are there.
(13:07):
With Matt Hedges. I mean,he's got ten years experience in the league.
He's the most kept player in ourteam in club history. And then
even our assistant coach Peter Lusine,who has quite the track record of winning
La Liga or captaining different clubs oryeah, so's He's been a huge help
in my kind of ascension over thelast year. So I would say for
(13:39):
you, now you've established yourself youare a starter in justin year two,
your first year of playing in MLS, which is a huge step for a
draft pick. If we were tocome into your apartment and look at the
list, do you have goals,do you have milestones? Do you have
a big picture goal of where thisall wants to and like how do you
(14:01):
look at the future as as youknow as a player still finding your feet
in the pro game. Yeah,I definitely have goals. I set I
have like one major long term goal. I had two. It was one
was become a professional soccer player,another was playing a World Cup. I
couldn't obviously achieve the second without thefirst, so that was like kind of
my first goal and then I havethis like goals and steps along the way
(14:26):
to help me get to where Ineed to along in maybe five years,
six years, whatever down the line. So I eventually doing to play in
Europe and certainly in one of thetop five divisions across the world, just
to just to know that I cannot for anybody else, just to prove
to myself. It's like, howgood can I be? Can I okay?
There's always a saying of like,well, just an American soccer of
(14:48):
like, okay, anyone can getdrafted, but can you run the contract
and can you play? Can you'rein a spot? Can you be a
stronghold name in the league. It'slike, okay, I've like to do
that equivalent, but not okay,not just get bought by a team in
Europe and then end up coming backto America because I couldn't make it.
I want to actually establish my nameacross different countries and leagues and eventually play
(15:13):
in a World Cup. But whileI'm here in the MLS, I'd love
to actually win in MLS Cup forsure, and that would be one of
my goals for myself and some ofthe older guys that hadn't had the chance
to Yeah, I know, itwould mean a lot to that franchise and
a lot to the fan base there. You talked about those goals, getting
to the national team, all ofthat. You're in Dallas where you're kind
of at the center of this newmovement of academy players, of young players
(15:37):
getting pushed, getting opportunities, andnow we see getting sold as well over
to some of these big leagues.But you came through a different style.
You came through the draft. Idon't believe you played in an MLS academy
of any sort or you know,the DA coming through as a young player.
What do you make of your pathand how players like you and John
Nelson and Ima Tumwassi and Jimmy maare you know guys who are getting it
(16:02):
done in a different way than thePeppies and the Paxton's and the Justin Chase.
Yeah, I really And it's great. Yeah, even all the guys,
the draft guys that you compared,we all have different paths within the
draft too, which is crazy howwidespread it is. But um, yeah,
I never played academy and even throughoutcollege and then a little bit afterwards,
(16:26):
like after Connecticut, even into Seattle. I was always like, I
don't love my story that much.It's okay. I've just been kind of
grinding most of the time. I'venever had like super good connections. My
parents weren't incredibly adept in the soccerworld and knowing what's the right teams or
they could never really actually even takeme to training. So it was most
of the time was my coaches.So I played a lot for local teams.
(16:49):
I couldn't make the hour and ahalf draft to sort of a Jersey
Queens to play with the Red Bullsor any other academy like that. So
yeah, I just went to theusual route. I think it's it's whatever's
whatever's best, or whatever situation you'rein. Actually it might not even be
what's best. It's very likely thatan academy situation could be what's best for
(17:11):
the person, but it's not thesituation that you're in. See stuff to
make it work another way, Yeah, I think if everyone were to be
put into Lama Sia Academy and we'rebrought up that way with that coaching,
I think it'd be quite beneficial foreveryone, of course, but that's just
not how it is. So sometimes, yeah, guys, you end up
(17:33):
playing club soccer and high school soccer, and then you go to college and
then you just kind of grind yourway into the pros and then if you
can go from there, you gofrom there. And that's kind of what
I'm trying to do. And Ilike the idea now of my story because
it's different, it's not the usual. Other people like hearing it. For
(17:53):
me, it's just what I've beenliving, so it's cool. But other
people actually do like hearing the storyand talking about it. So I'm glad
other people younger or older can getcan get a good message out of it
and actually do like hearing it becauseit's it's something different that's not exactly the
norm. So there are outliers outthere that can make it. I'll tell
you. As a broadcast there usedto be exciting when someone was a young
(18:15):
academy signing. It was unique.Now it's like, ah, well,
they're twenty two, they've been atthe same club for six, seven,
eight years and this, and theneveryone else does it as well, and
so now you are the story.You're you're the interesting one. Yeah,
okay, I guess that doesn't makesense. I've never even thought about like
that. Yeah, uh, youmentioned your family back in New York,
where I'm from as well, soshout out in New York. It's unfortunately
(18:37):
the greatest city in the world,which you can debate me on, but
it's a losing debate. So yeah, that's fair. That's fair. You.
Well, I'll tell you when youcome back. It's changed, but
I think it's it's changed some insome ways for the good, as I
guess the whole world has over thelast two years. But right, a
lot of negative, a lot ofshit, a lot of bad stuff.
(19:00):
But you can sit outside now,so that's always a positive. I want
to ask you about your family becausefor a lot of people that have maybe
seen you in passing so far inthis first season of you playing, you
step out on the field and youhave the name too far Eye on the
back of your jersey, but sometimesin lineups and stats and graphics it says
(19:22):
a different name. I wanted youto maybe take people through your experience of
this decision you made, of why, and maybe for some people that are
also juggling with this same type ofdecision, what your process was. Yeah,
it was a name that I've beenquite very well aware of. It's
just the name that was my father'sand then maybe his grandfather's are prior.
(19:45):
But essentially, if we do tracethe history back, it is the reason
why I don't want to use thename, because it is a slave name
from however long or from ever whereI don't actually know. But it's not
a name that is necessarily positively associatedwith myself or my family. It is
what is on my bills and mygovernment I d and other things of that
(20:10):
nature. But in terms of representingmyself and having my career, I built
this all off my own back,my own two feet. It wasn't and
if since I am allowed to weara name on my jersey, I never
had done so in club soccer,or high school or even in college.
It was never an actual issue.But now that I can wear a name
on my jersey, and I hadn'tdecided if I wanted to be my first
(20:34):
or my middle at the time.But as I was going through it,
and I knew I was coming tomy second season, I hadn't played in
my first, but I was anticipatingand certainly striving to play. I wanted
to get the name right. Iget a new number and get everything to
how I wanted and felt comfortable intowhere it was. At least my choosing
(20:56):
it was similar to my number,not as historically significant, but my number
was just given to me, andI was like, I don't really want
this number. I'd rather have somethingelse. So I mean, yeah,
someone else is thinking about it orwanting to do the same thing. It's
just do whatever makes you feel comfortable. Everyone has that notion of look good,
(21:17):
play good or feel good, playgood, whatever it is, whatever
can help you perform that you're highestin any field that you're in sports or
not, or in the office,in the workplace, whatever it is,
you do whatever makes you feel comfortable. I think you do have to strive
for that option so you can perform. It's interesting we've talked a lot about
identity and feeling comfortable over the lastfew years in a lot of different ways.
(21:41):
When you talk about gender and nameand career and whatever you want to
do, it's interesting to hear foryou how that affects your everyday life and
the way you play. Yeah.It's yeah, just something that if I
if I had the choice and thepreference that I wanted to kind of how
(22:02):
I wanted it and that's nothing againstanyone else or but if I'm going to
be the one carrying out the task, I'd rather do it with the name
of my choosing and certainly so Icould carry it out the best of my
abilities. Then that makes just everybodyhappy. And I believe Tafari is one
who inspires all? Is that correct? Yes? He who inspires all?
(22:26):
Not a bad name to go with, not too bad, Yeah, I
can. I can thank my momand dad for that. One's got some
power to it. Nice. Well, you've had some power to your game.
It's been really fun to watch youdo your thing in Cosey. I
appreciate you taking the time to joinus. I wanted to close you out
on one interesting story. Weird story. You save someone's life last year.
(22:49):
That's not something you see on aon a soccer roster notes every once in
a while. Yeah I did.I was in the mall and there was
there was a lady choking man inthe food court area, kind of sorted
she was outside of where she wasworking, and then I had seen him
(23:10):
choking. I thought there was onegentleman going up to I thought he was
gonna give it the hamack. Iwas like Okay, fair enough, he's
gonna give it the ham like heknows what he's about, news, what
should be happening. We're all right. But then I think he just started
asking her questions, but she certainlycouldn't talk at the time, and I
was like, all right, thisguy's really not doing anything. I have
to I have to. I haveto give us woman the hammock right now.
So yeah, I got up whileI walked on over and like didn't
(23:33):
even take that many for us,actually just just one. And then like
the food had come out and itwas pretty good. I was pretty crazy.
It was definitely a lot of crazyfor her. I was just in
there like, wow, this womanneeds the hammock. Someone please give her
the hammock right now. But noone else did, so then I did,
and she was very obviously, veryvery fortunate to her of it,
and I still keep in touch withher to this day. Actually, I
(23:56):
was gonna say, that's sort ofa relationship. Where do you go from
there? Yeah, yeah, shewas. She was very very thankful.
Um, and then like, yeah, we exchange numbers and we text every
so often. I've invited her outto a couple of games and such,
and she's invited me back to themall to just kind of visit at where
she was working. So but yeah, it's super cool. She was very
(24:18):
very kind, very gracious about it. Well, you want him on your
back line, you want him onthe ball, building out of the back,
and you definitely wanted him around incase something bad happens because he's a
lot colmer than everyone else and Coseytoo far. I center back for FC
Dallas. Thanks for taking the timein Cosey and joining us. Yeah,
thank you for having me. Itwas a wonderful conversation. M always enjoyable.
(24:41):
Always thank you. Well, we'llhave to have you back when you
win MLS Cup, how about that? Oh, gladly, gladly
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