Brad the Goalie

As a beat writer for Chivas USA, the only goalkeeper named Brad that I usually deal with is Brad Guzan. Today, though, I interviewed Brad Friedel of Blackburn and formerly of the USMNT. I talked to Brad Friedel for about 15 minutes on a wide variety of topics. I'm sure I'll link to the stories when I publish them and that will only happen until after I write them, of course.

Brad's a cool guy. Any guy that can take time out to talk to me from across the pond while holding a 10-week-old in his arms is a cool guy. We chatted about the Premiership, Becks and the MLS, the US and his Youth Academy. That was actually the reason behind the interview. He's been trying to get publicity for the academy and I wanted to talk about that and all the other stuff as well.

I gained a lot of respect for Brad Friedel in the short amount of time we talked over the phone. I've always had respect for him as a player because of his accomplishments for the US and helping the US reach the quarterfinals in 02 and for becoming a top-flight keeper in the English Premiership. In some ways, guys like Clint Dempsey and Bobby Convey owe a lot to guys like Brad Friedel for going over to England and having success and giving Premiership clubs reasons to look at MLS for players.

Anyway, Brad is very serious about the academy and developing soccer players. He called the current system here "farcical" and said that about 70 percent of youth soccer coaches are only in it for the money. He said that lately MLS and US Soccer have gotten better about their own youth development programs. He also said... wait, I don't want to scoop myself. You'll have to wait for the story to be written to find out all of the interesting stuff he said about youth development.

At the end of the interview, I was down to my final question and he asked me if he could call me back. He'd been going back and forth between a pesky reporter (me), his 10-week-old and another older child in the background and a roofer that showed up to do work on his home. It didn't bother me because I was trying to hide from my own children. It went something like this:

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Me: Okay, final question Brad. In my opinion, there haven't been enough minority players represented on the youth and senior national teams over the years. It's gotten better recently with the inclusion of several African-American players on the 2006 World Cup team but the level of Mexican-American players is, in my opinion, short of what it could be. Are you going to target minority players and go into inner cities to try and get players that might choose a different sport or choose a different path altogether?

Brad: Hey Luis (he pronounced it Lewis), can I call you back later today and answer that question? I've got a roofer waiting outside and I'm trying to hold a 10-week-old.

Me: (Laughing) Sure, no problem.

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I just thought it was kind of funny how I asked this intense thought-provoking question and he had to go. I didn't care, really. He called me back and I totally understand having to deal with kids and life in general. So when he called me back I started to ask him the same question and he said "Oh yeah, minorities. We intend to target..."

Oh yeah, you'll have to wait for that response.