The advantage doesn't come because you can run more than someone over 90 minutes. The advantage comes when, in the tenth minute, I'm sprinting back and making another guy chase me. By the end of the game, that guy's worn down, but I can still keep going at the same pace.
You got me: I do Pilates. I love Pilates because we do very specific training in soccer for the same six or seven muscles, but we neglect so many other muscles. So when I do Pilates, it helps get all the rest of the muscles in shape and gets them working together.
I've never met anybody who says they don't like the World Cup. If you're a soccer fan or not, everybody loves watching it, and I think it could be the same for other sports.
I've never asked a player if they would sign my shoe.
My guess is that if David Beckham wants Ronaldo's jersey, he's going to get it.
As athletes, most of the time we deal with fans cussing at us, saying how much we suck.
As athletes, we all have egos, we all think we can help, and when you're not given that chance, it's hard to watch.
I think where we're still a little bit behind some other countries is just our pure soccer knowledge and our savvy on the field. That takes time and generations that have watched soccer growing up, played the game growing up.
I got to say 'Hi' to Dolly Parton, which my mom thought was kind of cool.
I'm a little skeptical of foreign coaches in our league and in U.S. Soccer just because of how different our league is and our players are than other players around the world.
When you're with your club team, every week you have a performance to judge. But when you're with the national team, it's a little different because you might not play for three or four months at a time. Things change constantly.
I think all players reach a point in their career where it's natural to lose some of that hunger, that desire, to sort of break out or be a star.
I want to be a positive influence. I want to be someone who they want to call in and want here consistently, regardless of my role.
I miss driving to Goodison Park. I miss just the positive energy of the fans walking into the stadium and how much they care about that club and the team. And I miss the players a lot.
I know conventional wisdom has always been to go to Europe, and I did that early on, and I tried it, but I realised pretty quickly if I wasn't playing, nothing else mattered - I wasn't going to be happy.
A lot of times I watch sporting events, and there are things I want to say and things I see that don't get said or talked about.
I have to be able to be honest and be credible, and I think I can say, 'This guy did not have his best game today' rather than, 'He is awful and I cannot believe he did that.'
That's a part that's always a challenge for athletes: trying to keep the passion alive while knowing it's still your job. There's no question that at some point, probably sooner rather than later, I'll be pretty burned out. And when that time comes, then I'll take a step back and take a look at it and see if I want to keep going.
There was this old soccer game called 'Goal' for the old Nintendo, and ever since then, I've played everything from the old school games to the 360.
I think it's probably a good lesson for other people to follow - to not always make the decision that's popular for others, but to do what you feel like is the right thing to do.
