Advice for Athletes Facing Criticism

I believe I am uniquely

qualified the only person probably who's been in

his shoes The level of which he is dealing with this is much greater than the level

I dealt with because this was 2006 for me not

many people were paying attention It was not a home World Cup social media didn't

exist So this is exacerbated by a ton I have been in his shoes I had

a horrible World Cup completely let the team down was getting criticized for the

first time Not to the extent he is I know the feeling

The feeling is identical And I

would just say this It led me to therapy It led me to take a look

at my life and my career honestly for the first time It allowed

me to have massive important conversations with people I love in my life about

all things not just soccer And it changed my life forever for in a positive way I

don't know if Christian will cares about that wants to do all that We don't have a

great relationship now I'm sure he doesn't like me doesn't respect me I'm

saying this to you Christian You probably don't listen This is an opportunity

to help and to change your life forever One of the biggest problems I

speak to people who are at US Soccer I speak to his

sponsors I speak to his teammates I speak to the staff and the coaches

People are fed up with the way things are handled around him And it's

not necessarily him But it's his agents his family his hangers on that people

are influencing People are fed up with it They treat people poorly They do things

poorly It's always a no Whenever you want to ask can we do an interview Can we It's

always a no You can't get near him He doesn't say hi to the commentators who do

all the games all the time when they walk by All the other guys come over and shake

hands and say hello There's just this sense about him that you can't get near him

It's too big And I actually don't think it's from him I think it's from the people

around him They need to stop And he needs to man up and have a conversation with

them and say look guys this is not helping me He needs to get some training on

media I did too I said a

lot of dumb shit And people are like hey Landon you don't want to come off this way

do you And I still make mistakes all the time All of these things can be a positive

I have to say though he has a big challenge ahead Because Tim I'm thinking ahead to

the next game And JR if we happen to be at this game the next US game

in this country what do you think that's going to look like Think about that Is

he going to get booed when they announce him Maybe People are livid So anyway it's

a long winded way of saying this can be a good moment in your life A lot of things

need to change And I actually think it's not him I think it's the people around him