Well, we didn't have a Valderrama (laughs) and I rarely ever played when Claudio (Reyna) played. I really don't know. I had so much confidence when I got to the National Team. I could have been much more. There were times I would start some but other times I would play 45, 30, 20 minutes at most. On the club team, they made me feel like I was huge, but on the National Team it was like, "You aren't a top guy." I was a player of emotion, a player of passion, a player that liked to be known as one of the go to guys. But when you get to the National Team, of course, you got all 20 of them who are go to guys or should be. There were very good players and everyone liked to do what they liked to do.

The US National Team wasn't what it is today: Fast thinkers, fast movers always going forward. We were real defensive back then. We didn't blow out a lot of teams so that's probably it. You put myself, when I played with DC, on the National Team now, it would be a different story. You have players that are more offensive minded & faster. I thought of myself as being a fast, fast thinker but on the US National Team we weren't too fast going foward. We weren't fast minded about dumping the ball over the top and getting behind defenders. We weren't playing that style of play. We were playing totally different; real defensive becasuse at that time we didn't have the youth coming through so fast like we do now. We didn't have the (Landon) Donovans and the Beasleys. We didn't have players like that on the National Team and I figured myself as such. I mean, Brian McBride, he's not fast. He'll get the ball in the air and he'll put it in the goal for you but other than that he's on the ground. "Let's get it out wide, let's cross it, let's get a goal." I liked to penetrate through the middle. I like crosses, I think it's very effective but I guess that's my excuse (laughs).

13) Steve Sampson's decision to leave you off the 1998 World Cup roster and bring a 3rd goal keeper instead certainly raised some eyebrows, especially in light of the fact that the US scored one goal, a meaningless one late in the match against Iran. I know it's been about seven years now but does that decision, along with Sampson's subsequent mea culpa still bother you?

That was shocking! Shocking! He called me in DC. At that time I was very hot with DC United. I think I had scored six goals in six games after being traded from Tampa. He called me and said "Roy, I'm seriously thinking about taking you to the World Cup but right now, I'm putting you on my alternate team and you'll be the first one to go if anything happens to anyone." I think I was expecting him to say "Roy I'm taking you" when he called but he didn't. That conversation was like, "Oh, you're not taking me? Ok Whatever. I'll see you later." I didn't understand. I was hoping he would get it when he got to the World Cup and well, he did. They weren't producing on the field, they weren't getting along off the field.

I goto Costa Rica every year and he saw my wife because that particular year I didn't go. He apologized to my wife and said, "You know I feel really bad. I should have taken Roy." So, you know, he apologized and he was a good man to do that. It's all over with, no problem. Plus I didn't want to just go and sit. I wanted to play. I mean, I think I would have gotten off the bench considering our results. I think everybody played at the World Cup. Eric Wynalda had gotten hurt, Wegerle was not at his fullest either. So I think I would have gotten in and played and been able to contribute to our team.

14) Which US National Team goal was sweeter, the one against Saudi Arabia in DC in that 4-3 comeback win or the the one in San Jose, Costa Rica that tied the score at 2-2 and silenced the crowd at Estadio Saprissa on your return to Costa Rica back in March of 1997?

I would have to say the one against Saudi Arabia. Not only the goal but the game itself. It was a huge comeback, a good team. Saudi Arabia was an excellent team, the moved the ball very well. I felt like the game was moving at a 120 MPH. But I had played with Tab (Ramos) a lot. I really liked playing with Tab. His style of play was more of what I was looking for as a midfielder, a guy who got the ball in the middle and immediately looked for the foward, instead of playing it to a wing and trying to cross it in and all that stuff. That was the sweetest, the most memorable goal with the US National Team although I remember the other one.

15) Speaking of the National Team, you mentioned some of the younger players coming through such as DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan. How excited are you about Eddie Johnson's start to his international career?

He's a good friend of mine. I think he's a very humble player who's definitely going to make it. I saw him a couple of months ago in Dallas and was saying, "Hey Roy, I just want to be like you, man." I was like, "Hey, you're going to be better than me. You need to be better than me." So, just those comments, like that, from a kid like that, he's going to go very, very far. I hope he does. I tried to jump in and be his agent, but it didn't happen (chuckles). But he's definitely going to go far. He's a very exciting player to watch on TV and in person.

16) If you don't want to answer this, I understand. The story has been often told regarding your run in with the law. How did that experience change you as a person and what effect did it have your career, if any?

Why wouldn't I want to answer that? This is something that happend when I was very young. It actually helped me a whole lot. It was a blessing to me actually. Nike still stayed with me, Nike paid my restitution. They said all these kind of things about me and really, I only did about half of what they said but they blamed it on me becaus I wasn't even in the US at the time and had NO idea what was going on.

It helped me, it was a young man's mistake and I've gotten well over it, have grown up since then and it's a story for me, a story to tell to kids to let them know, hey, I'm not perfect. I had no mentors back then, none whatsoever. I was living with my Mom, my Dad had already moved out, my brother was already in school and I was sitting in the house with a cast on my leg. Then I go out with some friends and they go crazy and they want to go to this other house and I told them I'd drive. I'm sitting with crutches and a cast on my leg. All of a sudden they go into this duplex. They went into this house and I was just there (in the car) and they took this stuff to these guys place and that was it. They got caught and said I was with them and I wasn't around because I was in Costa Rica.

So people say, "You did this" and "You did that". If you could see what actually happened, you would say, Man, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I shouldn't have been there but I was stupid and didn't know any better. You ask me today and I'd be like, man, I don't even goto parties. I don't even drink.

But it happened, probably was good for me. It made me realize what was really important, made me realize how to act & accelerated my ability to grow up so I think it was really good for me. I do Christian Crusades and I tell stories to the youth and sometimes when I get very comfortable with a group, I like to tell them the things that happened to me before which really helps them in their growth as a person and helps them grow as a player as well.

17) You've stated that you want to be a professional coach and to that end you are now the Director of Coaching at the Dripping Springs Youth Soccer Club in Texas having previously been the director of the Chesapeake Youth Soccer Academy. We're starting to see a recycling of coaches in MLS like your former coach Thomas Rongen at Chivas USA and Fernando Clavijo now with Colorado. In light of the controversy we see in other sports regarding Black coaches, when do you think we'll begin to have similar discussions about Black coaches in MLS?

Man, I am trying to be one of the first. I'm going for my A License in July. I have the 88 ODP team and have been in contact with the US National Team & with Bruce (Arena) and they wanted to put me on the regional team. I've spoken with Bob Jenkins of the U-17 National Team and they've brought me in to help coach and see how they do things. Bruce has told me that he would like me to be in the US National Team youth staff and to take it slowly and learn all that I need to learn. I take it as seriously as I did when I was a player. Sometimes I lose sleep and my wife is wondering what's going on, thinking that part was over. I run a good organziation here at Dripping Springs it's very professional. I'm on top of things and I almost get no sleep because of it.

As you say, we do have a lot of recycling of the same coaches and we don't have enough to choose from. But now you've got Peter Vermes, you've got John Harkes working with the US Youth National Teams and that's where I want to funnel my career as well.

18) What current Black player or personality do you believe would be a solid coach in MLS?

I've noticed they're aren't a lot of professionals, Black, White Latin American, that are directors of coaching.

See, professionals have a problem. We go from being a professional player to thinking we can be a professional coach. I think this is not the correct route. I think the correct route is coaching the yourh first and coaching up through the youth ranks and then coaching at the professional level. A lot of professionals don't want to deal with the youth. They want to go right to the pros because that's something they can relate to but it limits their experience. I think having gone from getting the D License all the way to going for the A License, it makes me well rounded. I have a base, having coached all the way from the youth to the professional level. When I get my A (license) it will be at the international level.

I think we want to go straight to the pros because we can't handle the administrative part of being a director. We can't handle (dealing) with the kids and the parents, etc.

Who do I think could be a pro coach that's African-American? I don't know. I think Eddie could do well in that aspect, very well actually, and I know myself, I could do that with no problem. I don't know too many out there right now that have that affirmative voice, posture & look of being a coach. In the United States, you gotta have your foot in some kind of organization to be able to get to that next level. A lot of networking needs to be done, a lot of communication and that's what I do with Bruce, calling him, letting him know where I am, what my ideas are for the future so that he can count on me and have my name in the back of his mind, thinking "He's doing this, he's doing that, he's educating himself, let's bring him in and see how it goes" That's how I want it to start because from there, I WILL take it.

19) American soccer players often talk about the responsibility to help the sport grow in the US. As one of the more high profile Black players while in MLS did you feel an extra responsibility to help the league grow in the Black American community?

Oh, I sure did. I sure did. Living in DC, hey it's Chocolate City, man!!! It was up to myself, up to Eddie Pope for us to get out there and give that kind of recognition to our African-American players, give them that type of hope that there is a possibility they can grow & do well in this sport.

They see basketball on TV all the time, baseball, football, they see this all the time, so that's mentally, what they want to do. They say, hey, we have a lot to offer in this sport, a lot to offer African-Americans in this sport, I want to stick to this because there's more opportunity here. They don't think there is opportunity in soccer, the community doesn't even play soccer.

Then again, they think soccer is very expensive because at the club level it is expensive; 6,7,800 dollars, all the way up to 1000 a year to play. Some parents can't afford to do that, especially in some of those neighborhoods in Washington where I was going around doing guest speaking and stuff like that.

I think if we get out there and educate them we'll have them going on the right track as well.

20) To that end, you filmed a commercial in MLS' inaugural year in both spanish and english in which you said "I was an All-American but because I wasn't playing basketball, nobody knows who I am... My name's Roy, nice to meet you." Does that lack of recognition and knowledge of your career in the Black-American community frustrate you?

Probably so. But that's how it was at the time, though and that's what that commercial was for. It was because of lack of recognition, a lack of knowledge as to who I was, a lack of knowledge as to whether there were any African-Americans playing at all. I think Nike did the commercial for several reason, yes I was the leading goal scorer, yes I was African-American, yes I was on the National Team and now an icon in the Black community and being able to speak both English and Spanish, it was inevitably something Nike wanted to take advantage of. It helped not only the African-American players but the Latin players as well. This sport is here in America and it is for everyone.

21) The crack research staff at GolNoir has named you to the MLS All-time Best Black 11. Of Eddie Pope, Ezra Hendrickson, Uche Okafor or Robin Fraser, who of those four (also on the team) was the toughest defender for you and why?

I would have to say Eddie. Eddie is long legged, fast, strong...we played against each other when I was with Tampa Bay, Miami and Kansas City and he knew how I was. He never marked me to do harm. We've always been best of friends, always in communication. Actually I have a Roy Lassiter camp here in Austin in June and he's one of my guest speakers. I think he was my toughest defender to try and get by and outmanuever.

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Roy, thanks for playing 21 Questions and good luck with your coaching endeavors!

Thanks, man I appreciate it.

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