Did you have any doubts about that when you took over, that they were ready? Were you and the organization both pretty confident that July 2026 was the time to give the younger players more responsibility?

I mean, from the organization to me, there was no pressure on, on putting these guys in.

It was, you know, we have to turn this season around and we have to change the energy.

Um, and there, there was no expectations put on from the beginning of like, we have to make playoffs or this guy has to play that, like that, that was not at all the conversation.

It was, we have to change energy and we're a better team than what we've shown in the first half of the year.

And just when I made my analysis of the first half of the season, um, Yeah.

With Gavin coming in, I thought he was someone who could make a difference at the MOS level.

It sounds like maybe no,

We've talked a lot about the success this team is having currently, but can you give us your perspective of your personal pathway through the pros at the Philadelphia Union becoming a head coach in this role?

Yeah, I mean, I always wanted to get involved with coaching.

Even throughout my playing career in the off seasons, I would help out working at YSC with some of the Union Junior programs and some of the different programming they had going on.

And I loved it.

And the people that I worked with were amazing.

The people that gave me that first opportunity with Richie Graham, Ian Monroe, Charlie Dodds, Phil Karn, Kevin Coleman.

They introduced me to the coaching thing.

I wonder what that looks like for you and if there's anyone you've been leaning on to help you grow into this role you now have.

This will be the first home game, first game period for interim head coach Ryan Richter.

It hasn't been a game for two months, but we've had five solid weeks of training and four preseason games that we've had to prepare for the way that we want to attack the second half of the season.

And some of the different ideas and some of the ideas that myself and the staff has brought, I think the guys have taken on board, and now it's about executing them in actual MLS play.