The Interview: Mikey Varas

The U.S. men's Under-20 coach goes 1-on-1 with me the day after leading the U.S. to its first Olympic men's soccer berth since 2008

Courtesy U.S. Soccer

The U.S. men’s Under-20 team made history on Friday night, clinching the U.S.’s first berth in the men’s Olympic tournament since 2008 with a 3-0 win at Honduras. I had a one-on-one interview Saturday with U.S. coach Mikey Varas. It’s available below for paid subscribers below. You can listen to the audio version for free starting Monday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you like to go for your pods.

---

GrantWahl.com is a reader-supported soccer newsletter. Quality journalism requires resources. The best way to support me and my work is by taking out a paid subscription now. Free 7-day trials are available.

---

Grant Wahl:

Our guest now is Mikey Varas, the head coach of the U.S. men's Under-20 national team, which has just qualified for two tournaments, the Under-20 World Cup and for the first time since 2008 the Olympic men's soccer tournament. Congratulations, Mikey, and thanks for coming on the show.

Mikey Varas:

I appreciate it, Grant. Thank you for having me.

Grant Wahl:

So we're recording this on Saturday, coming out Monday [with the audio podcast]. You do have the CONCACAF final on Sunday against the Dominican Republic, but we do know you're in the Olympics after your 3-0 win at Honduras on Friday. Terrific performance, especially the passing dominance to build this 3-0 lead in the first half. What did you ask from your guys when it came to controlling the game like that?

Mikey Varas:

Yeah, we knew that Honduras was a team that thrived in the direct game. So we wanted to make sure that we controlled as many moments with the ball as possible. And then also once they did start going direct to make sure that we control the final line with aerial duals and winning second balls. And that was that from the tactical sense. But at the end of the day, the most important thing was confronting the moment of 15, 16,000 fans that were going to be hostile towards us, and making sure that the boys were brave in that moment, relentless in that moment and together in all of those moments. And they did an amazing job.

Grant Wahl:

How hostile was it down there? What did you experience?

Mikey Varas:

Yeah, the Honduran national anthem was something I will never forget, 18,000 people singing it at the top of their lungs. Obviously, the normal whistles and the jeers, but things were being thrown on the field. A laser was being pointed into our goalkeeper's eyes. It was a full-on high-level CONCACAF moment for the boys.

Grant Wahl:

That's hard enough when you're talking about professionals in their 20s and 30s, but you have a really young team. These are young guys. How did they deal with this? Did you work with them at all on how to deal with these types of CONCACAF moments?

Mikey Varas:

More than anything, what we've strived to do is make a training environment and a camp environment that's as competitive as possible, and that tries to generate a culture where the team is super-united. And at the end of the day, I think we say they're young players, but young players often surprise us when we give them autonomy. And sometimes it's us with more experience in years that actually get more nervous in those moments or think more pessimistically, and young people are really inspirational. And they're able to really be brave in a lot of these moments because they're willing to take risk, you know. And that's really inspiring.

Grant Wahl:

You've done something by qualifying for the Olympics that three name coaches, Jason Kreis, Andi Herzog and Caleb Porter could not achieve in the three previous Olympic qualifying cycles. Those are all very good coaches. What has your overall plan been in building toward this tournament since you took over last year?

Mikey Varas:

Well, I think it's a little unfair to compare me with those groups because those groups, they fought a whole different type of qualifying process. And the amount of time they had with their team, what players were able to come to their qualifying tournament when the tournament was held, there's no guarantee that me doing the exact same process in their shoes back then would've had the success we had today. So I want to make that really clear. Those are really, really top coaches, and nothing about what we've done here has any indication of what they've done in the past.

But our overall thought process with this group was they hadn't played together for two years due to the pandemic. We knew that in November. And so, first and foremost, we wanted to really make sure that we developed a culture of unity, of competitiveness, of having a growth mindset, and of having good people. The next stage was to really implement a clear style of play that is federation-wide, starting with the senior team all the way down to our youngest teams. And then the third thing was to find a way to have the players take ownership over the process and take control of the team. Because at the end of the day, they're the ones who play the game, and they're the main actors in this story.

Grant Wahl:

You had four Philadelphia Union players on the field in the semifinal. You have come from the FC Dallas organization in your experience. It seems like there's a few MLS teams that are really getting youth development right. Dallas and Philadelphia are right near the top. What's happening these days with some of these MLS development academies and the talent they're producing that maybe we didn't see five, 10 years ago?

Mikey Varas:

Well, I think across the board all the MLS academies have been doing a tremendous job compared to where we were at 15 years ago. The investment that's going into the academies, the investment that's going into coaching education facilities, it's pretty incredible. That's been happening for a little bit. I think you're right in Philadelphia and FC Dallas, I would say Red Bull, and I'm probably missing someone else, that have done a really good job in terms of volume of players.

But if you look at the league right now, Caleb Wiley's not on this trip with us, he's starting games with Atlanta United in the first division, Brian Gutiérrez is starting games with Chicago Fire. So is Gaga Slonina. So, across the board, I feel like the MLS as the league has a lot to be proud of, because not only have they created a good infrastructure in terms of educating the coaches, providing the players with facilities and a good training environment, recruiting players, but now the final step is really starting to blossom, which is first-team coaches are giving young players opportunity when they're not quite ready yet. And that's not so easy to do when your job depends on results.

Grant Wahl:

I know there's some fans out there and now as U.S. Soccer has grown and grown in recent years, there's a section of the fanbase and even the media that's developed that follows the Under-20 national team closely. But there's also another section of fans that maybe aren't fully engaged until you do something like qualify for the Olympics, or have a chance to win the CONCACAF title, and may be asking right now who is Mikey Varas? And when you get that question, what do you answer about your story? I know you've been with FC Dallas. You've been with Sacramento Republic. What's your story as a coach?

Mikey Varas:

I mean, I'm just a regular guy, to be honest. Pretty boring. And at the end of the day, I coached youth soccer my whole life, and I didn't have a professional playing career. I got into coaching very young. I was lucky enough to be surrounded by top coaches that I learned a ton from. My first 10 years, I was probably not even the sixth-best coach in Northern California, where I grew up. And I would say what defines me most are probably my core values, which is every day I wake up, I wake up with the intentions of being a good person, having a growth mindset to learn and to embrace competition. And in the pressure moments really enjoy that.

Grant Wahl:

Is it somewhat easier now to break in as a coach and get experience even if you didn't play professionally, than maybe it was in the past?

Mikey Varas:

I haven't thought about that question because I've never really thought about having... My main goal wasn't like, I'm going to coach the U-20s, or I'm going to coach professionally. My main goal was just to be the best coach wherever I was at that moment. And whether that was coaching a U-12 team, or that was coaching the FC Dallas U-17 team, or being promoted to the first team. What I do know is, I've worked hard in my life, but at the end of the day opportunity and luck has a lot to do with it. And finding people who believe in you is something that's completely out of your control. And I've been very fortunate in that way.

Grant Wahl:

We talk a lot about dual nationals, especially in the United States, because so many countries have connections to the United States. You're a dual national. Could you explain that?

Mikey Varas:

Yeah, my father's from Chile. My mother is American, and I definitely sympathize and have a soft spot for dual nationals and the difficulty that that presents, because it's impossible to say, "I love this country over this country," because both those countries are coursing through our DNA, and you love them most. And when the U.S. is playing, I know all of those guys, they want the U.S. to do incredible. And it's not an easy situation, but it's also one that provides a lot of opportunity.

Grant Wahl:

Do you think being a dual national yourself has helped you in any way to connect with players who are dual nationals who may have a decision to make at some point?

Mikey Varas:

Yeah. I think anytime you can empathize with a player and put yourself in their shoes, it always helps. And so this has been a great learning lesson for me about actually how important the component of empathy is. I naturally had empathy for them because I actually know exactly what it feels like. But I think it's a good lesson for me as a coach to make sure that I find other situations that maybe I don't have exactly the same experience as them, but to make sure that you always demonstrate that empathy with them. Because I think it is really important.

Grant Wahl:

There was a good interview done by my friend, Adam Belz, with you on Scuffed we talked about yoga and mindfulness. What's your experience with that? What's your stance on it?

Mikey Varas:

Well, yeah, I want to clarify, yoga for me as a person, from a personal perspective is really important. But it's not something that I push on anybody, because these are personal choices of what you do that helps you live a better life from a coaching perspective. What we do work on is performance breath, controlling our breath, and making sure that we're able to calm our nerves and calm our thoughts and be present in the moment.

Grant Wahl:

Winding down here with Mikey Varas, appreciate the time at a busy time for you. The Under-20 World Cup isn't until next May in Indonesia. What's going to happen with your team in the months ahead, the many months now between this tournament and the Under-20 World Cup?

Mikey Varas:

Well, as you stated earlier, tomorrow we're going to play a final, and we're fully focused on that. And then the second that final is done, we'll start preparing another competition platform for the entire pool. What players do with their clubs between now and the final roster being selected is going to matter, and it's going to be competitive. And that's how it was getting into this camp. And again, because we have good people, because we have guys who have a growth mindset, and because we have guys most importantly who embrace competition, we know that we'll end up with the right roster.

Grant Wahl:

And the Olympics obviously isn't until 2024. Are you expecting to coach this team at the Olympics?

Mikey Varas:

I have no expectations. We went into that game not thinking about ourselves but thinking about our country. And we knew that what we were doing was from a selfless motivation, purely. And I mean that with all my heart. Whatever happens with that happens, and all we're focused on right now is doing the best we can with our U-20s.

Grant Wahl:

And I just want to wrap up just with a question about how the federation has approached hiring you, and how you go about your process and how you think the federation might approach the actual 2024 Olympics roster-wise and all that. Or is that just too far off?

Mikey Varas:

Yeah, I think that those are conversations that we'll start having with leadership, but from my experience with the federation so far, this is going to be a group collaborative process. And Gregg [Berhalter] is going to definitely have influence, Earnie [Stewart], Brian [McBride], Barry [Pauwels], Tony [Lepore], myself. I think it's going to be a group collaboration because at the end of the day it's about the crest and it's about our country. And it's not about any one person. It's about doing what's right for our nation.

Grant Wahl:

Mikey Varas is the head coach of the U.S. Men's Under-20 national team, which has just qualified for the Under-20 World Cup and the Olympic men's soccer tournament. Congratulations again, Mikey. And thanks so much for coming on the show.

Mikey Varas:

I appreciate it, Grant. Thank you.