00:00You've been in a World Cup. How's that experience? When you're there and you're representing your country, how does it break down?
00:10So the dream starts when you're first born. They tell you, this is your pathway, please. No.
00:17So it starts as a child. You're a fan of the game and you breathe it, you love it.
00:25It's Sundays to turn on TV Saturday. You're watching every game possible. In between games, you're going outside to play with your friends.
00:34For me personally, it wasn't about I needed to make it pro. I didn't need to make it pro. I enjoyed being Harul Wallace.
00:42Now as I got older, I moved to the United States at 10 to Maryland. I needed to find a team.
00:48So then my mom sees an ad in the newspaper. Boom. Find a team. Great group of kids.
00:53Then my little club career takes off. And again, it was never like, if I don't practice at 6 in the morning, no, no way.
01:04You got to, I said professional. It wasn't like that. It was just playing, just playing, which is different than the kids now.
01:10We can talk about that later. But then we go into the collegiate stage.
01:15And then now it's, okay, you have the opportunity to go to college.
01:21There were talks about me potentially going pro at 17 or something.
01:26Stay in high school. My parents stay in school. Stay in school.
01:29Went to college. Had two great seasons. National championship in Maryland. ACC.
01:35Then it's draft time. Get picked 6 by DC United, which is the hometown team.
01:40This is a dream. I mean, I couldn't, I still, to this day, sometimes I look at my wife and I'm like,
01:45can you believe that I was really the hometown kid? You know, you need to take pride in it now.
01:50Before you're trying to be home of it, it's the hometown kid story.
01:54Get traded to Portland. Five years later, we win an MLS Cup.
01:58Before that, in 2012, I had gotten to my first cap with Costa Rica.
02:03Jorge Luis Pinto as my coach.
02:05My first call-up was with Alvaro Saburillo. He was my roommate.
02:10So I was very blessed to be in those situations where I learned the game at a higher level with the national team.
02:20And then I came back to really understanding, like, how to play.
02:25Instead of just being on the field and being fast and crossing and connecting, it was like, no.
02:30Like, now you have to think how to play the game.
02:32So I credit a lot of the things that I've done in my career to Costa Rica and to the national team and for what that did to me.
Comments