“When I was a kid, my dad was dreaming of me going to MIT, and that was a topic in my house all the time. When I would come to Boston, I was always coming here in Foxboro [Gillette Stadium, as the Chicago Fire assistant coach]. I never came to the city. I do remember we had two games here, one in New York and one here, and we stayed somewhere in the city. I don’t remember where. Then I took an Uber, went to MIT and called my dad, and just like that, ‘I’m here’. Not the way that he wanted me to go to MIT but now I’m here, I’m in Boston, so there is something in the universe there.”

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Paul Kennedy is the Editor in Chief & General Manager of Soccer America.