I recently had the opportunity to sit down and have a chat with a former U-17 international and former member of Real Salt Lake, Jamie Watson. Jamie is currently with Austin in USSF D-2. Here is the transcript of our conversation:


Keith Hickey, Match Fit USA: I was covering the press conference following the Philadelphia/Salt Lake game, and one question kept coming back to me: Is there any soccer coach with better hair than Jason Kreis?

Jamie Watson, Austin Aztex: None. Nor calves. The dude looks like he's got calf implants. I got called tree trunk legs in school and he put mine to shame. He led the best ever rookie initiation I've ever seen or heard of when first year in Portugal. Still one of my favorite nights as a pro to this day.

KH: Go on.

JW: We had like 10 rookies doing rookie trivia he led one night out in Portugal and the stuff he said and came up with, it was hilarious. Or maybe I was really drunk, I don't know. All I know is, a lot of older guys were getting called out in front of everyone and the rookies had to write down who they thought did the embarrassing stuff and say it out loud in front of everyone who they picked did what and it was AWESOME!

KH: According to a recent article by Yanks Abroad, you’re currently with USL-1 side Austin Aztex. Are they aware that Texas isn’t actually abroad?

JW: Hahaha, it must have been a slow day at Yanks Abroad! Arch Bell is a good friend who knew my story so he wanted to tell it and I gave him alot of insight I hadn't given out yet, so I think I got a pass on it with the conidtion when I do go abroad one day, he gets the first article!

KH: In that same article, it says you were living with four other Aztex players. How bad did that place smell?

JW: 2 Scousers from Liverpool, a Geordie from Newcastle and a hispanic guy from Laredo which is the Mexican-American border, basically. Mexico and England would definitely be in the final if there was a Bad Breath World Cup.

KH: Not to mention 5 pro athletes sharing a bathroom. You guys must have gone through Febreeze by the gallon.

JW: The bad part is, none of them knew what that was! And when I'm left to be the house mom doing chores and cleaning responsibility, that's when you know the house is in trouble! I hate that stuff and quit after 5 minutes. It only got clean if a girl was coming over.

KH: Which was a stupider sequel, Boondock Saints 2, or Green Street Hooligans 2?

JW: GSH... Just leave it alone and let the first one be good by itself. Plus, I can't take Elijah Woods seriously as a soccer fan, he looks like his voice would crack the first time he tried cheering!

KH: Favorite soccer video game?

JW: Pro evolution. Don't even try challenging me at that. It's just stupid to do that.

KH: Of all the players you’ve played with professionally, who had the worst taste in music?

JW: I might have to embarrassingly admit it's me. My iPod is full of guilty pleasures and top 40 for days. I am legit terrified to leave my iPod on shuffle in the locker room since I'm the team DJ, because I'm afraid of walking back into the locker room and something awful is playing.

KH: Did you take it personally that RSL took Nik Besagno before you?

JW: No, I knew they were going to. It wasn't a shock to anyone really, everyone knew. I knew I was going #13 at the latest. When I was at the draft and certain teams were up, I was like "please don't take me, please don't take me, I don't wanna live there."

KH: How often do you edit your own Wikipedia entry?

JW: Never. I should edit that picture they have of me on there, it looks ridiculous! I need to go get a few glamor shots done and put one up there.

KH: No offense, you look like Tintin.

JW: That's funny, I was just about to say Tintin is a strinkingly handsome fellow. I've embraced it. Euan holden tagged me with it back in '08 and it's stuck with the fans and I can't shake it now.

KH: When living in Utah, how many people tried to convert you to Mormonism?

JW: I never figured out which older guy sent the missionaries out to my house over and over again but everytime I offered them a beer and said thanks but no thanks and sent them along their way on the bikes!

KH: Your Twitter handle is @JamieWatson22, and yet your squad number is 77. Do you blame Generation Adidas for pulling you of college early and ruining your basic math skills?

JW: I guess they taught basic math second semester second year and I missed out on that! Real answer is I didn't think I was going to even like twitter when I joined in, and so I used my email address as my tag. If I could change it now I would definitely change it to @imnottintinyoujerks

KH: You can change it, you know.

JW: You can?

KH: Yeah. Settings > Account > Username

JW: Wait, let me write that down. I'm an idiot.

KH: Thanks for your time.