It's a fast learning process if you want to be successful at the highest level.
If you want to be at the highest level, then you have to really work hard every day.
Why is it that E.U. players are allowed to move country once they turn 16... but non-Europeans can only do so at 18? Why aren't we campaigning for a level playing field, where our best 16 year olds - who may not have an E.U. passport like I had - are free to move when they turn 16, like the best young players in Europe can?
As a kid, I just always learned that if you want to be the best, you have to play against the best.
I just try to show no fear when I go on the field every time.
It's definitely one of my biggest passions - I played every day after school with all my friends from high school in Pennsylvania. They weren't really soccer players, so we would play basketball all the time.
I just try to do the best I can for myself and the people around me.
Sometimes you have to take a risk if you want great things to happen.
I've always expected a lot out of myself, and it can be a good quality. But it can be bad at times, too.
My coaches taught me a lot is about taking the first touch positive, and I think that's what I've tried to base my game off of. A big part of it is being aggressive.
The biggest thing my dad taught me was to play without fear.
I set my own personal goals; I'm not playing to satisfy fans.
I'm trying to become just more clinical in every situation, whether it's the final pass, the final shot, or whatever it is.
I can jump high; I can dunk - nobody really believes that I can.
I'm not saying the U.S. system is poor at all, because I learned a lot from it. There's a lot of great coaches and good things I did there as well.
My family, and just the people around me in my life - you know, my friends - they take care of me, and whenever I'm too high, they bring me right down, and when I'm too low, they pick me up.
Of course I always dream big, but I don't put a plan out for myself.
I was very young, but I just remember going to school every day in England, which I didn't enjoy. Every day, as soon as the bell would ring, we would go out and be on this little - it looked like a basketball court, but it was a soccer court with goals and a hard floor.
It really does frustrate me when I watch MLS, and I see our best U-17 players - who, again, are so talented and so capable - being rostered... but then not being put on the field much to actually play. I watch that, and I just think about how I was given a chance... a real chance... and it changed my life.
Being able to play at club level at a high level and then getting called into the national team, it's amazing.
