You have to fight harder, dig deeper, and prove all the doubters wrongs.

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'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.

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.

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

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.

I think that I'm just on such a mission with my career that you don't really get to stop and think about your jersey number too often.