I've always been motivated more by negative comments than by positive ones. I know what I do well. Tell me what I don't do well.

I always wanted to be more validated as a human being, as a person, than I was as a player. I think that was a really hard balance for me.

This might sound masochistic or narcissistic, I don't know, but when I'm not playing the game, the validations I feel about life are always through the hardships. I relate more to sadness, in a lot of ways, when I'm not playing.

Only in the world of mathematics do two negatives multiply into a positive.

I don't know if I found soccer or if soccer found me. Especially because when I was younger, I was doing it, in a lot of ways, because I wanted the attention of my mom and dad.

From a pretty early age, my mother realized that I was a little bit more gifted and talented than my own age group. So, she moved me over to play with the boys' travel soccer team when I was about 11 years old.