The City That Raised Me | How St. Louis' rich soccer history shaped a Revolution legend

you can ask any one of the revs players that grew up in St Louis Brian camer Steve Rolston Pat Nan and they're all going to tell you the same thing we all knew a pro team at the highest level in the United States would work in St Louis but you have to have a stadium and you have to have a local owner and the owner got to believe in building that downtown Stadium it took us a while to get here but we got here and the fact is whenever you walk into City Park whenever it's a game day in downtown St Louis whether it's season tickets deposits Sports Talk Radio it's City it's the city soccer team we all knew that would happen but you needed to build a place to get everyone there and I think Major League Soccer is better for it because if you are going to expand to these markets that are really thriving St Louis just kicks it up a notch because there is a 60-year history with the sport and yet now you can use Major League Soccer to Showcase that oo my blood's as red as it can get both Mom and Dad grew up in St Louis my father obviously played in the nasl which is why I was born in Minneapolis and honestly if the kicks didn't fold this story may be a little different but because they folded and he moved on to Chicago Tulsa Kansas City ultimately when it's all said and done I I was uh the city that raised me was St Louis Missouri and whether it's the Cardinals the blues I'm still 44 I've been in Boston longer than St Louis by almost four years at this point I still root for the St Louis teams and I'll always be St Louis my name is Tim Twan um I work with the community program here with the St Louis city and plus I'm Taylor's dad you know I just have been involved with St Louis ever since the beginning I did leave and come back because I was playing professionally but this is our home yeah I started playing right after college went to SIU Edwardsville you know I played soccer and baseball there so after my junior year of baseball I left to go play soccer in Minnesota I played there for 6 years okay so which was really home for my wife and I we really loved it cuz that's you know the first place and plus I had success there then then I moved on to Tulsa and then to the Chicago sting and then finally with the Kansas City comments at the end of my career around 3 or 4 I started to go to the locker room every day and my father was the guy the teammate that brought his son to training every single day so I'm sure his teammates were like dude what are you doing so I remember that now do I remember it in detail no but I remember the energy the process going to practice with my dad all the way till I was in school fulltime so you're talking you know roughly two three years of my dad's career I was with him three 4 days a week so it almost was like part of my upbringing that this is what you do looking back at it he's you know I don't know how you say it but he had great manners he respected his his coaches his teachers his parents and he just loved to play sports okay so he was always tagging along with me when I went the training okay he was always with me when I could take him and that just had a big influence on what he chose to do I'm like any other kid you want to be like your dad especially when your dad is so positive in influencing you into loving the sport I never had pressure on me to succeed I had pressure on me to love what I did and it didn't matter what I did but the point was when you have the DNA and the genes that I had if I wasn't going to play a sport then I would have been a complete idiot so um I wanted to be like my dad it's real simple and part of that was being happy and what I do and I think I succeeded at that professional sports was a way of life was a way to make a living that was always there was never anything different in my family but the first taste of the game I think is where not necessarily it was the pros it was when I started playing in St Louis and I didn't realize the magnitude of that until I got older but it was in the heartbeat and the fabric of the city you got real expert coaching at a young age because so many players resided there after they were done it just felt like it was always part of my life and I think a big part of that is cu St Louis Missouri it was part of St Louis Missouri's life you know he could have played professional baseball you know going into the minor leagues as well at the same time he could have went to Maryland so he chose to go to Maryland and play two sports he never saw the baseball field because Maryland when he was playing at Maryland in under 20 national team asked him if he wanted to come and so that pretty much eliminate the baseball scene I think everybody in the family you like professional sports is something that's been there forever okay we don't really talk about it we just play okay and that keep kept it simple for the kids especially Taylor cuz he just kept moving from one sport to the other wherever he liked the amount of people that told him he'll never play soccer if he plays baseball the amount of baseball coaches that said he'll never play baseball if he plays soccer yet I was in what fourth grade fifth grade soccer was always no matter who you talk to they're like well Taylor's going to play soccer yet they didn't realize baseball was my true love baseball was my passion and I thought baseball was what I wanted to do but every single time in my upbringing it came to making a decision between baseball and soccer I chose the middle and that didn't happen until my senior year of high school when the Kansas City Royals offered me a contract out of high school and I my first question to the Kansas City Royals Scout was do I have to give up soccer and he goes well yes you're going to turn pro right now and I was like well no I answered him right there no that was the first time in my life where I felt the push and pull because I went to University of Maryland on a baseball scholarship I thought I was going to try and do it as long as I could and yet I knew at some point it was going to have to come to its head I just didn't realize baseball was going to force me to make the decision and I'm glad I made the decision I did that day in July of what it was 1998 because who knows what would have happened but that day in and of itself I'll always remember that was the day innately I chose soccer the one thing St Louis always gave me was understanding that the moment you think you're bigger than the game The Game's always going to bite you in the in in the ass and you always got to have this sense of humility in understanding when the timing's right whether it's decisions on the field or decisions off the field and it was very difficult for me my freshman year at University of Maryland and because a lot came to me fast I was okay with that but I didn't think my freshman year of Maryland would turn into me having to red shirt my baseball season to go play in the under 20 World Cup I didn't want to do that but the world was telling me I needed to and I had to and I did I don't regret that decision but I wasn't prepared for that mentally physically uh emotionally I wasn't prepared for that I go to the under 20 World Cup I'm the first American to win a Browns boot I was not emotionally prepared to then have to say oh no I'm leaving Maryland after one season I've got these four offers from teams in Europe what what are you talking about I don't even have a cell phone yet I'm still using a calling card to call home to St Louis what what are you talking about I have to do this a lot came to me fast I made a decision to go back to Maryland but Maryland wasn't the right decision in that moment because you can't come from the high of the under 20 World Cup bronze Boot and having this free agent Chase of what whatever it is whether it's major league soccer Germany Denmark wherever it may be to then go back to school sit there and you say whoa what is this and I knew once I red shirted baseball I got to take this thing to the to the next level and the under 20 World Cup convinced me that soccer is the path I should take and then I decided to go to Germany the reason why I went to Germany is that organization made me feel important versus other organizations that said we like you but we're not in love with you when you go to a Bundesliga team playing in your wafer cup in the moment in Munich the ugly stepchild to Bayern Munich the chip on the shoulder it was the perfect place for me to go I learned how to become a man but more importantly I grew up very quickly cuz I was just a number no one gave a rat's ass that I won the bronze Boot six months earlier they said you're going to shine those shoes and you're going to do three a days until you proved o you're capable of playing it was the perfect move for me I would say to humble me in an in an odd way but you have to think he was 18 19 years old so it was very difficult for him to go to Germany he didn't speak the language he was on his own and he did it he did it on his own he learned the language he he just learned how to fit in and play and it coming back to the US and playing for the MLS was great because we get to see him play you know and he had some he had great success here but we would have loved if he were able to just stay a little longer and see what he could do but it just wasn't meant to be it was a long process to get back here and initially it never looked like I was coming to Boston it never looked like I was going to New England it was first La it was first Kansas City then it was Tampa and then Tampa and Miami fold so then it goes in then the league was mad that I went to Germany so I go into the draft I had no idea that I was going to end up here and yet I've been here for what 23 24 years so because I made a decision from the heart everything after that rewarded me because I did it out of the love I have for the country for my family and it was meant for me to be in Boston