I'm a competitor. No matter what I'm doing, whether I'm golfing, whether I'm playing indoor soccer with my fiancé - he's not going to get by me. I'm going to try to do whatever I can to win.

When I first met him [James Galanis], he just said, "Look, if you want to be a professional soccer player, if you want to make the national team, you have to do everything possible to work hard. You’ve got to put it number one."

I kind of play like a guy. I don't hold grudges. I don't get dramatic with things. If somebody slide tackles me in training and we leave the field, I'm still talking to them. I think that there's very few of us out there that can just take confrontation, and if you've got an issue with something, you can go to that person and say it.

Every time I step onto the field, whether people like it or not, I'm not trying to play dirty - I'm just playing tough. And I'm trying to earn my spot on the team. I'm trying to earn a starting spot. I'm trying to become a complete midfielder who attacks, who defends. So that's the mindset.

You can be angry and pissed off at the coach and put your head down and pout. Or you can rise above it, respect the decision, but also know that you're going to go and work that much harder and prove everybody wrong. And that's the road that I chose.

The harder you work and the more prepared you are for something, you're going to be able to persevere through anything.

I'm hearing in youth sports where you're not allowed to post scores of games online; everybody's gotta get a trophy. I mean, that's ridiculous. If you're a winner, you're a winner and you get a trophy. If you got second place, you don't get anything.