By Andrew Rogers

AR: You made your impact at the MNT Under - 20 level, tell us about the importance to your development at that World Championship?

Feilhaber: I think not solely the tournament but the preparation that goes into playing at a different level. I mean your playing at college, it’s a higher level than you’ve played at before but the difference between college and the youth national team level is huge, I mean the organization, the understanding of the game and it’s really a more professional attitude and environment that you’re in.

So it was really important for me, I was playing football everyday, and football that was at a different rhythm to that of college so it was very important for me and through that experience I was able to learn some things that help me out professionally now. I’m really thankful for that opportunity that I had.

CLICK HERE for Part 1 of the Benny Feilhaber interview.

AR: Ok so you do well at that level, people can see that you can play. Now at that point your career really starts to pick up in that there is an interest from MLS, there’s interest from Europe, you decided to go to Europe. What about the MLS wasn’t right for you? What determined the decision for you to go to Europe?

Feilhaber: When you’re growing up, at least for me, I always thought Europe was where you wanted to be ultimately as a football player. You know, you’ve got the best leagues out here, the best players so you want to get over here and the opportunity I had to get here was a special one and, you know, I think MLS is a growing league but I don’t think it has caught up to most of the European leagues yet. It was a tough decision for me especially going away from my family and my friends as well but I think that the opportunity that I had in Europe was one that I couldn’t turn down.

I always had in the back of my head that if something did eventually go wrong and that I didn’t well in Europe or that I couldn’t adapt to the life there then I could come back to MLS and play there. The other way around is really tough you know you go to MLS, they sign five year contracts there, you can’t come to Europe and even if you play well its tough because of the transfer fee so to me even though it was tough the decision was something that made sense for me. I think Europe was just a much better fit for me at that time.

AR: Ok so you settled in but were you ever frustrated, once you settled in, at the lack of first team opportunities or did you anticipate that it was going to take a long time to get that chance?

Feilhaber: Yeah you know you always get frustrated as a football player because you want to be playing at the highest level that you can and I wasn’t really given that chance in the first year. At that time we had four non-European players on the roster and that was the rule in Germany two years ago, I know it changed now. So I wasn’t able to be available for the first team in the first year really, so that was tough I was kind of up and down playing for the reserves training with the first team but, obviously, I got my opportunity in the second year with the first team.

It was nice, it was a really good experience to finally be playing with the first team in Bundesliga matches and Champions League matches, it was something that I had never experienced before but I think football is always up and down in somebody’s career so you can never get too satisfied where you’re at because you never know what’s coming next.

But after the winter break my second year our coach got fired and our new coach came in and sent me straight to the reserves, like you know how new coaches come in and try to change things and use their own ideas, mix up the time so I was straight to the reserves and I didn’t play a game for the next four months of the season. So it was really frustrating after a good first six months of the second year, but yeah it’s always a bit up and down so you kind of get used to it as a football player.

AR: In your time at Hamburg you got to experience the whole thing, Champions League, Bundesliga, League Cup and so on and so forth what did you gain from that? What did you learn from that as a footballer?

Feilhaber: Well number one I think the mentality, living away from your family, far away from anyone you know and having to deal with new situations on and off the football field is something I think you learn and you grow with and I think it definitely helps you with the football aspect. Obviously the different style of play, the professional lifestyle that you have to live playing in such competition so you took a lot of things and obviously just from the football on the field you learn how to play quicker you take certain things from certain players, you know, that you can do better. I think the thing that most improved in me was my mentality of the game, how to take it on, how to approach it. I think it was something I was lacking before but I think its something I have now.

AR: We mentioned earlier your international career, it really has lit up. Bruce Arena gave you your first chance in the squad, how did he compare to Bob Bradley?

Feilhaber: Well Bruce is not too talkative, he is a quiet guy. He will tell you what he is thinking individually but he is not a guy who is going to be coming up to you too much letting you know what he wants from you and that kind of stuff. Bob, I think he is a guy that really likes to talk to his players, he is someone who approaches you a lot and whether its about football or not he likes to come up to you and have a good conversation with his players. Tactically, I can’t really speak to you too much about what Bruce did only from what I’ve seen because I never actually played when he was the coach, but he did a great job with the national team and I think he was a little unfortunate at this last World Cup, if you see what we did in 2002 I think it was huge and the team was playing the right way.

AR: And of course the summer, Gold Cup, I don’t think they could have written a better script for what happened to you at the Gold Cup. Take us through that, it was an amazing tournament for you.

Feilhaber: Yeah, you know, it was the first tournament that I got to play in as an international and it was great. The first two games were in California so all my friends and buddies got to come to the game which was good for me and I was able to play against Guatemala for 80 minutes and then against Trinidad I think I played a half.

I think I did reasonably well in both games so my confidence just grew a little bit and actually to add to that, going into the Gold Cup we had played a friendly game against China a week before and I had scored my first international goal and I had had a good game so the confidence was there going into the tournament. It was something that was helpful having that game before the tournament started and I felt really good in the team, I felt the style of play helped me. I was able to get the ball and give it out to the players who can really cause some trouble up top so I felt good.

Going into the semis I was brought in as a sub and we barely able to hold out against Canada, it was a tough game for us, but I was raring to go in the finals when I was given the opportunity to start. In the first half I didn’t have such a good game which kind of upset me because I had so much energy going into the game that it overtook me a little bit but the funny thing was that Ricardo Clark was on the bench and he started warming up at half time so in my mind I was thinking ‘its either me or Mastroeni’ and since I hadn’t been playing well I thought it was me that was coming out and Bob was talking to us at half-time and he said ‘ok listen guys we are going to make one change’ and I was like ‘Oh my God I’m coming off’ but he said Pablo’s coming off I guess he thought he was a little bit tired or something like that, and I thought to myself that I had been given a second chance. So I had to go out there and do well and turn the game around and in that second half, besides the goal, I thought I played well and I was able to get involved.