When the U.S. National Team kicks off today’s CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinal match against Cuba at Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium, it will be just 25 miles from Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman’s hometown of Crofton, Maryland.
Beckerman remembers watching U.S. National Team matches as a kid and looking up to the stars wearing the U.S. kits. Now getting his third start in four Gold Cup matches, he knows that there will be kids looking at him in the same way on Saturday when the quarterfinal match kicks off at a 3 p.m. MT (FOX, Univision).
“There are going to be kids in the stadium this weekend that are thinking the same way I did when I was young,” Beckerman told ussoccer.com. “When the U.S. National Team came in town, I’d go watch the game and they were my heroes. That’s where it all started from, getting the idea of what a professional player was and seeing the highest level that we had at the time. It’s a responsibility that we have to represent our country and our soccer team to the highest level. It took a lot of hard work but these kinds of games start dreams for kids at a really young age, so it’s cool to be a part of it.”
Beckerman started the match and was subbed out at halftime with the U.S. touting a 4-0 lead.
For more from Beckerman ahead of today’s match, click here.
