I always get excited when I interview somebody one-on-one for the first time and it’s a terrific conversation. That’s what happened when I spoke at length with Walker Zimmerman, the USMNT and Nashville defender who has been on a good run of form for club and country. The 28-year-old brought the goods for a solid half-hour, and I think you’ll really enjoy the following Q&A, which has been lightly edited for clarity.
Grant Wahl:
Our guest now is the reigning MLS Defender of the Year. Walker Zimmerman's Nashville SC is in second place in the MLS East, and he captained the U.S. men's national team for one game of their recent World Cup qualifiers. Walker, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming on the show.
Walker Zimmerman:
Yeah, thanks for having me. Super excited.
Grant Wahl:
This is the first interview I've ever done with an interviewee who is holding a baby. Fill me in. What's the story here?
Walker Zimmerman:
That's it, man. Sometimes duty calls and naps go a little bit unscheduled when they wake up, so here we are.
Grant Wahl:
Fantastic. It is great to have an additional audience here. Thanks for doing double duty on this as well. There's a lot to talk about here, but let's start with Nashville. This team is in just its second year in MLS, got to the final eight of the playoffs last season, and as of right now you have the fifth-best record in the league this season. And it seems to me like you've flown under the radar a little bit. What are the main reasons in your mind that you think Nashville has performed at such a high level the last two seasons?
Walker Zimmerman:
I think they did a great job first and foremost of building the roster and taking a look at expansion teams in the past and the importance of having a good spine. It's a cliche, but when you look at the pieces that they went and acquired throughout the middle of the field and the experience, not only as a professional but MLS experience. You know, I think that it's invaluable, and the club does a good job of allowing a lot of player leadership to dictate to the other guys who might be from abroad, Hey, this is kind of how this team sets up. These are the players that you need to watch out for. This guy's all left-footed.
You just have all these experiences that you can pass on that knowledge to your teammates. I think Nashville did a good job of mixing both MLS experience with international experience, youth with veterans, and they nailed it on the draft as well. So that's a big part of it, and then certainly this second season I think we have taken a leap becoming more than just this team that sits back and defends and knows how to have few goals conceded, but now we're starting to produce more, be a little bit more dangerous, especially in transition. That's kind of made us a little bit more balanced.
“You get to go a little bit deeper with the [USMNT] pod squads. We also have Travis, our mental coach, who does trivia. And so, we have our pod squad challenges that add up points throughout the duration of camp. So, I know me as a competitor, I look at Matt Turner's team, he always is a trivia nerd and he always wins. So anytime I go to camp, the first meal I'm looking at my nametags at the table and I'm like, nope, we don't have a chance, or I'm like, hey, we’ve got a good group this time. Like we might have a go at this thing, but so far no luck. [Turner’s] running the table.” — Walker Zimmerman
Grant Wahl:
So I still remember the day in February of 2020 when you were traded from LAFC to Nashville for a lot in exchange, up to I think it was $1.25 million in general allocation money and then an international roster slot, and that was a blockbuster deal. What were the circumstances of you being informed of that trade and what was your first reaction?
Walker Zimmerman:
It was completely blindsided by it. I understand that teams are always trying to move pieces around and find value in different ways, so there's no hard feelings, but at the time it was a complete bomb. I got a text from [LAFC GM] John Thorrington, it said, "Hey, do you have a minute to chat?." And I'm thinking, you know, oh, he wants to know about this team barbecue that we're having this next weekend about like, you know the details on that with families,and just wants to get my opinion on it. And so, I call him back, you know it's a Monday night, we just started The Bachelor, so it was probably 8 pm.
And so, my wife right before I called him, was like, "Oh my gosh what if you're getting traded?" Kind of jokingly. And I was like, Sally, there's literally a 0% chance that I'm getting traded right now. So, I call him and he is like, "Hey, this news is never going to be easy to hear." And I started snapping at my wife. I mouthed to her. I'm like, "I'm getting traded." She's like, you know immediately turns off the TV, looks at me, and is like, "To where?" And at that time he's like, "You know, we received an offer that we felt like we couldn't pass up and we're trade you to Nashville." And then I mouthed to my wife and I was like, "Nashville?"
Like, you know we were kind of like, okay. That's actually not bad. Like, okay. We can do that. And so first reaction was, thank goodness. This is a city that we had talked about. We knew that they were coming into the league, and we were like, oh, that'd be cool for Nashville to have a team, and then I obviously got traded there. We immediately started researching all about it and got to the city a couple days later, immediately knew it was a place that we'd be able to call home, and you know, got traded on a Monday, got to Nashville Wednesday night, and we were under contract on a house on Saturday. And so, it was a complete blur and an absolute whirlwind of an experience.
Fútbol with Grant Wahl is a reader-supported soccer newsletter. Both free and paid subscriptions are available. The best way to support my work is by taking out a paid subscription.
Grant Wahl:
That's an amazing story. And it's interesting because it's a very U.S. type of story because if this were a soccer league outside the United States, they would just say, "Well, the player can refuse the transfer." And a lot of people outside the U.S. don't understand how it works here.
Walker Zimmerman:
Right.
Grant Wahl:
That you just kind of get in and suddenly on a Monday night your life totally changes, which is kind of wild. I'm glad that you liked the place where you were traded to.
Walker Zimmerman:
Yes, that makes it a lot easier to stomach when you get that kind of news.
Grant Wahl:
Would you have expected back then that Nashville would be a better team than LAFC these past two seasons?
Walker Zimmerman:
I would not have expected it back then, just solely off of LA we're coming off of the record-breaking year, which New England looks like they're going to squeak by that with all their one-goal victories that they've had this season, but they've had a great year. But coming off the heels of that Supporters Shield, I thought we were primed to make a run in Champions League in LA. The core of the team was still there, so I would've never guessed it just with knowing how difficult it is for expansion teams to be successful. But again, it's a huge testament to all the pieces that have kind of gotten involved with Nashville and all those things.
Grant Wahl:
In terms of your coach, Gary Smith, I find him kind of fascinating. He won an MLS Cup with Colorado yet has sort of been underrated I would say over the years as a coach in this league. What have you learned about Gary Smith as a coach?
Walker Zimmerman:
I think he's very clear with how he wants his teams to play, and it really is starting with a defensive mindset,, and being solid and difficult to play against. And so, a lot of teams will find that frustrating and maybe start trying to do things outside their comfort zones. Then that's where you can hurt them, whether it's transition, whether it's set pieces, but either way, you know that if you're going against a Gary Smith-coached side, it's going to be tough to beat them. It's going to be tough to break them down. And so he has kind of instilled that mentality in us as, hey, we're going to be very difficult to beat, and if they're going to try and beat us that's maybe when they become exposed, and we can take advantage of them. So it's just been very solid. Definitely a different style of play than what I was used to at LAFC. A little bit more defensive, a little bit more structured and the way that we defend, but ultimately it's a formula that's been really successful for us.
Grant Wahl:
I feel like I've got to ask. What are the best parts of living in Nashville?
Walker Zimmerman:
Oh, wow. The people have been awesome, hospitality, Southern hospitality it's a real thing. Everyone is so friendly, so I would say the people first and foremost. I would say the variation you can get between if you want to go out and listen to music and have that kind of entertainment experience, there's that, but then there's also the piece of the suburbs. The ease of getting around the city. Everything seems to be 10, 15 minutes away, and it's just very manageable. And so, quality of life is high. The mood is high here around Nashville as we're flying, and it's been an awesome fit for me and the fam.
Grant Wahl:
I have to say, when I was there for the World Cup qualifier, I hadn't been in several years and I was not totally prepared for the vehicles with women on them.
Walker Zimmerman:
Yes.
Grant Wahl:
Dancing downtown. What's that about? I never got that.
Walker Zimmerman:
Yeah, this is the bachelorette capital of the world, man. That's just your regular Tuesday afternoon these days. I think we're just through the busy season of the bachelorette parties, but certainly you will have plenty of whether it's tractors, whether it's open buses, whether it's trucks with pools in the back of them, you'll see all sorts of things kind of carting these bachelor parties around.