ON HIS FAMILY...
"My sister, my brother, my parents, everyone always played soccer so I did. My sister played for the National team in the US so I always played soccer with her, my family has always been athletic and soccer was just the sport I chose. "My dad was an All-American basketball player, he was going to play in the NBA but then my mum and dad had my sister! "So he ended up getting a job in Philadelphia. My mum always played sport and now she plays soccer in her little old lady league! My whole family has always played sports. "I wasn't big enough to play American football or baseball. In the US, my generation was the first generation to play soccer, all my friends did so I did. We had local teams and that's really when it all started, when I was four or five. "I think our generation is the one that's really pushed it in America and younger children are playing now. "Where I grew up it was like England - always cold and snowing! In Philadelphia I didn't grow up in a rich area, we just played in the local playing fields whenever we could get the chance. There were just two fields so you had to wait your turn and play at 7am which my parents probably weren't too happy about!
"That's just what it was like, a lot of people would come out, your friends, and it was a good sport to play. "My parents are happy that I'm doing well, they're excited for me, they like watching the games and looking on the internet." ON HIS CAREER... "I moved with the National team when I was 11, I'd finished with all other sports and was full-time with soccer. When I was 14 I moved to Florida with the National team and that's when I knew that I was always going to go because there were teams then that wanted me to play...I knew I wanted to play but I also wanted a life for a little bit longer! "It was then, when I went to Florida and I was training every day that I saw that I was doing well against the best young players in the country at my age and then in the World Cup. "I was home a lot just because I was so young...I would travel with the team back and forth. "Signing with DC United was a big deal. I was 16, no one had ever signed so young in America in soccer and they didn't think I could make it.
"It ended up working out, it was good because it gave the league a little boost with people wanting to come out and see this 16-year-old kid...I ended up playing right away and haven't really stopped since." ON LIFE IN THE UK... "It's good, I enjoy it, I have a bunch of friends in the team and it's just very, very professional. I really enjoy everything. We have a great owner, obviously a great manager and the team is doing well, a great training facility. "I was obviously disappointed not going to Spurs as I watched them when I was growing up, but it was a blessing in a way because I did well in the Youth Cup and got back in with the National team and played games, got my head down and then got a chance to come back and signed here. "Having Marcus here helped at lot, at first definitely because it's tough. There is a transition period whatever people say. It's not that you're homesick but it's just completely different, I tell everyone that. "We all speak English but it's just different! English people and Americans are just different and it takes a little while to know what's going on over here and to get in the groove with things. "It's great to have Marcus here because you're not just the new guy sitting there not knowing anyone and waiting for someone to say something to you, he was always helpful. "And now I get on better with the younger English guys, just as me and Marcus are 10 years apart, but I still go over to his house and play with his kids! It was definitely good to have him here from the start. "I think I've shown everyone I deserve to be here, and I deserve to play, and that I justified the transfer fee they paid for me.
"I knew I signed for three years and I wanted to be here for three years, if it didn't work out I could always go home in three years. I wasn't just going to give up and leave after six months, especially last year how bad it was not playing." ON THE WORLD CUP... "We are growing as a soccer nation and we are doing really, really well. We have good players in the United States, the country is too big to not have good athletes. There HAS to be some good players, and I think that's what's showing now is we have the facilities and a good manager. "We want to get out of our group and we'll hopefully progress form there. "If we won I really don't think people in America would care that much! I think a lot of people would care but I don't think it would be as big as basketball or baseball. "Let's just say if The Yankees win the World Series they would have a few more people out than if we won the World Cup! "It's growing, but obviously the better we do the more people will come out and I think the soccer community is huge and hopefully it would just get even bigger IF we did win the World Cup!"
YOU CAN LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW ON BBC RADIO BERKSHIRE 104.4FM ON SATURDAY 21ST JANUARY 2006 AT 5PM, OR CLICK THE LINKS ABOVE. | 
