As the convesation continued onto the experience of Javier as a coach, he explained how he likes to teach, possibly due to his father having been a professor and that young people are eager to learn to learn, likening them to a white (blank) sheet of paper as they like to gain knowledge. He told that decision making in soccer is helped by coaching as it is addressed in pre training, how to read and understand the game better as one seeks to "train only soccer situations". Doing so leads to better decisions. Coaching to the sports physical / tactical skills isolated by no instruction then all is done as is in the game. The USA in that it has some 15 million players, it is vital to train your players due to the potential for good facilities here in the US and to achive the great potential here, this he states based on his experience as the previous coach at the U-18, 20, 23 & full national national teams of Colombia.
When queried as to his thoughts on the "American player", which in the past meant fit, hard working yet not as skilled his opined, it is important that you know where you play, the conditions there, adjust to the enviroment. A poor pitch and poor conditions are not so unusual so both new and old players of each team played at the same pitch, a reference to the TNT field conditions. The Panama "phantom goal", these instances are not a regular occurance.
One of the worst things to happen and one I hope I never experience was the 2001 car bombing in Colombia. This occured outside of a high end hotel with one of the top local gyms in Cali, while in town to play against America Cali as he was with Once Caldas. As the team was checking, in the bomb went off not killing any of his party thank goodness but it was very hard to describe, one of the delegates with the team suffered cuts to the face and ear because they were in the lobby and the bomb went off in the street.
Please see #SoccerLongIslandMagazine for video of Javier.