Hello Sunshine, I'm Lexi Lollis and welcome to the State of the Union Podcast.

We look at the beautiful game on and off the field through the lens of red white and blue colored glasses.

As I mentioned the previous show, am on the road but a few days

ago I sat down with Tom Byer an American who has had an incredible adventure

over in Japan and it was really interesting to talk to him about what he has learned,

especially when it comes to development, the compare and contrast between these two countries,

between these two soccer cultures. And I just thought it was really interesting

to hear how he sees development,

especially when it comes to America.

So without further ado, my interview with Tom Byer. Okay, as promised, the great Tom Byer is joining us here on the State of the Union.

He told me to call him a technical specialist when it comes to the game.

It sounds very, very important. Welcome, he's

getting up early in Japan to be with us here. You have certainly taken the road

less travel, Tom. You grew up in New York in the 70s. You played college soccer,

you went over to Japan to play professional soccer, and after that you really just immersed

yourself in the country and culture and the youth development when it comes to

coaching.

You became a star on television on the most popular kids show in Japan.

You worked in Japan. You've worked in Japan incredibly long but also China all over Asia and in the

US, camps, clinics, academy, schools, MLS, and mels teams, US soccer, U soccer clubs, federations, governments, state associations.

If there is a ball to be kicked, you are there to tell people how to kick it and when to kick it. All right, so listen, we're gonna top line this thing

because I could talk to you for hours and hours.

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