Jozy Altidore Talks about MLS Return, Red Card, and More with 120 Sports (VIDEO)
By Phil Naegely
120 Sports, one of FanSided’s partners, sat down exclusively with USMNT forward Jozy Altidore last week. Among the many topics brought up, Altidore talked about his MLS return in 2015 as he plays with USMNT midfielder with Toronto FC, his red card against Switzerland, and USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann among other topics.
While there are reports that USMNT players have lost their trust in Klinsmann, Altidore’s comments about him show no hint of that. Now Altidore could have decided to pick out the coach’s strengths and not highlight any negative issues going on as to not risk his blessing of Klinsmann.
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As stated in the video above from 120 Sports, “He’s incredibly upbeat, he’s positive, he’s more of a motivator to the individual. That’s his biggest strength. a lot of the times it’s a huge plus for us. He’s a guy who is always stressing the positive side of things. He is a calm guy, he never shows really his frustration. I can count on one hand the times that I’ve seen him frustrated. That part he’s great at, in terms of instilling confidence in everybody and making sure he’s calm.”
Klinsmann shows frustration on television often when he either doesn’t agree with a referees call or the team does something bad. Yet, more of the times Klinsmann is reacting to something positive like Clint Dempsey’s goal against Ghana during the 2014 World Cup.
Another topic that has been part of many discussions about US Soccer’s development is whether it’s best for players to play in the US or go across the pond to Europe. Altidore believes that younger players should experience Europe and then decide where they want to play.
“I would say go. Experience that. It’s great to play in Europe. Europe, soccer is No. 1 there. You need to understand that, you need to feel that. You need to understand what it takes at the highest level. Before you come to Major League Soccer, you should go to Europe, understand what it takes, and then if that’s your choice to come back here, and then pass along to other younger players what you learned, I’m totally for it.”
Lastly, Altidore hopes he can learn from his red card during the Switzerland friendly and not make that same decision moving forward. At the end of the day, we are all humans and make mistakes.
“A lot of times as athletes in a lot of tough moments sometimes, we’re not perfect and there will be times when we lose our cool a bit … I’m not saying it’s an excuse, but we’re not perfect. In the end, everybody can learn from it, including myself, so hopefully it doesn’t happen again and it’s something I can learn from and move forward on.”
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