Alex Bamford - Marshall Soccer 2024 NCAA College Cup Season Review! A Bittersweet Ending To A Great College Career - E12

Jamil & Dom welcome Alex Bamford, captain of the Marshall University Men's Soccer team into the Back Stick Studio this week. We discuss Alex's journey from London to playing college soccer in the US, the challenges and triumphs of the NCAA tournament, and the unique culture of soccer at Marshall. We reflect on the impact of Head Coach Chris Grassie, and some of the things that make him such a special coach. We discuss the importance of timing in sports especially in football, the camaraderie among players, and the passionate support of the incredible Marshall University fan base. Alex shares personal anecdotes about his teammates and reflects on the significance of his college career, culminating in a bittersweet run to the college cup.

00:00 Is Alex Really From London?

07:03 UK School Football Bragging Rights

10:50 Recruitment & Early Marshall Soccer Days

20:10 2024 Marshall College Cup Run

29:43 Playing 'The Marshall Way'

32:01 Video Session Nightmares

37:54 Extra Time

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Transcript

Jamil Roberts (00:00)
Hello everyone and welcome to the backstick podcast. I'm Jamil Roberts and I'm joined here as usual by Dom Ocas. Dom, how you doing, pal?

Dom Okus (00:10)
Good bro, good bro. Honestly, I'm in Texas right now for the listeners in Austin and it's freezing. Like, it's so cold. I'm talking like minus five degrees Celsius. And I'm not happy about it, to be honest. Yeah, it's freezing. It's actually freezing. It's not meant to be this cold in Austin. But apart from that, it's all good and obviously really looking forward to this episode.

Jamil Roberts (00:19)
you

Alex Bamford (00:23)
Yeah?

Nah.

Jamil Roberts (00:35)
Yeah, and before we get into it, before I introduce the guest, I think it's important that we get across that if you're here, it's because you've been here for a while, you've listened to a few of our episodes by now, you know what we're about and you know that you're a fan of the show. So if you haven't already, go click subscribe on the YouTube at the backstick pod, at the backstick pod on all socials, follow, drop a like and drop a subscribe because this sort of content...

coming out every week. not going anywhere. We're here to stay. anyway, let's get into this one. And this one's a good one. It's close to the heart. We've got three English boys on the pod today. And it's my pleasure to introduce the captain of the Marshall University men's soccer team.

Dom Okus (01:21)
Yes, sir.

Jamil Roberts (01:31)
Mr. Alex Bamford? Bamford, how are you mate?

Alex Bamford (01:35)
having me boys yeah feeling good you know stressful time being a free agent now after graduating but no nice to hop on and speak to the guys for a bit.

Jamil Roberts (01:45)
Yeah mate, pleasure, pleasure. It's good to have you on, mate. I know we sort of, spoke about it when I popped up to Huntington back in, when was that? think that was back in November.

Alex Bamford (01:58)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (01:59)
obviously you're coming off, you know, you and the boys are coming off an impressive run. And I'll be the first to admit, mate, I honestly didn't expect you boys to make it as far as you did, but we'll get onto that later in the show.

But just a little bit about you, mate. So obviously, we're gonna take it back to pre-marshall here and just kind of talk about where you're from and what got you there. So I know Dom's got a few words to say about this. So obviously you've got London listed as

where you're from on all the profiles. I'll pass it over.

Alex Bamford (02:29)
Yeah, yeah, go on. Let's hear it then, let's hear it then.

Dom Okus (02:34)
Let's talk about

it. Let's talk about it.

Alex Bamford (02:37)
Okay.

Dom Okus (02:38)
obviously I was seeing, you know, reading up on you, you went to school in Tombridge.

That's where went

Alex Bamford (02:43)
Yeah, yeah,

Dom Okus (02:44)
school and stuff. And then you played for a few like Kent based teams.

Alex Bamford (02:48)
Okay.

Dom Okus (02:48)
But we're seeing that it says you're from London. So I just wanted to know that, you know, Tombridge is not necessarily London. So, you know, I wanted to know kind of where you were born and where you grew

Alex Bamford (02:58)
Nah, I didn't expect that to be the first question, you know? Getting checked about where I'm from. It's funny, man. Nah, I'm from London, I promise,

Dom Okus (03:05)
you

Hahaha!

Is it one of those

Jamil Roberts (03:16)
You

Dom Okus (03:19)
where it's like close to London so we just say London or are actually

London? I've got him here, I've got him here, I've got him here.

Alex Bamford (03:24)
No, I swear I've lived in... Why am I defending myself here?

Jamil Roberts (03:25)
You

He's so caught

Dom Okus (03:36)
You know, I talk...

Jamil Roberts (03:37)
off guard right now, isn't

Alex Bamford (03:42)
Straight off the bat.

Dom Okus (03:43)
I've

not even warmed him in, I'm just on him. I'm on him. Where? Tell me your postcode was...

Alex Bamford (03:47)
Yeah, straight away.

Jamil Roberts (03:49)
You

Alex Bamford (03:51)
No, no, SW15, I've lived in London all my life, but Seven Oaks Kent, it was close to my school and my friends were playing there, so it just made sense and it was like 45 minute drive. So yeah, I swear I am from London. It's not just for the socials. But yeah.

Dom Okus (03:56)
Okay, okay, okay.

Nah, for context, for anyone

who's

obviously there's a big debate about what's considered London. People who

from the fringes of London get very touchy when you say they're not from London.

Alex Bamford (04:19)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (04:23)
So I thought I'd just give Alex a bit of banter there.

said SW15, so I'll give it to him. fine.

Alex Bamford (04:25)
SW15. yeah,

yeah. Jamil, I've got a question for you, Jamil. When you're speaking to new people in America, London's easy to say, but did you say London just to make it easy for them or what? Because you're not trying to describe down south to them. They don't know what that is.

Jamil Roberts (04:35)
Mm-hmm.

You

Listen,

if girls asked if I was from London, the answer was yes

time.

Alex Bamford (04:54)
Yeah, I knew you'd say that.

Dom Okus (04:56)
E?

Alex Bamford (04:59)
How do you say that,

Jamil Roberts (05:01)
Nah, to be honest

Dom Okus (05:03)
Brilliant.

Jamil Roberts (05:04)
you, the general shout for me is Bristol. Bristol

Alex Bamford (05:08)
Okay.

Jamil Roberts (05:09)
is about 45 minutes from home, from

and dad's, most of my

Alex Bamford (05:12)
Yeah, sweet.

Jamil Roberts (05:14)
are from there. A of the lads are living there now. that's, if I was to be in the city, it would be in Bristol Bath as well. That's the same distance away.

But if I'm telling anyone I'm from Somerset, then they're looking at me

I've just spoken a foreign language, so.

Alex Bamford (05:28)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Dom Okus (05:31)
But

did they even know Bristol or Bluff though, to be fair?

Jamil Roberts (05:35)
No.

Alex Bamford (05:36)
You say it's outside of London, you say it's like 45 outside of London, right?

Dom Okus (05:37)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (05:39)
literally,

that's the classic one there, isn't it? They go, so how far is that from London? I don't know, two hours? And then they go, so close!

Dom Okus (05:39)
for.

Alex Bamford (05:42)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (05:43)
Yep. Yep. Yeah! What?

Alex Bamford (05:48)
Was

it close? Oh man. Oh, it's crazy.

Dom Okus (05:51)
No, not at all.

Jamil Roberts (05:54)
fucking opposite side of the country.

Dom Okus (05:56)
This

Jamil Roberts (06:00)
Do

know it's so funny because all of us have got the same stories, isn't we?

Dom Okus (06:00)
Amazing.

Jamil Roberts (06:05)
Especially being English everyone's had the

Dom Okus (06:05)
Yeah, from college, literally.

Alex Bamford (06:05)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (06:07)
conversation So many times whether it be with professors where we be with like just people on campus whoever it be with girls like everyone's had the same conversation the way you from is it from London I've been to London or I've got a friend who his uncle lives in London and it's

you just sort of sit there and you're like, yeah

Alex Bamford (06:24)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, do you know

my friend, my friend he went on a gap year there for six months in London and they just name drop a random friend and you're supposed to know who that is.

Jamil Roberts (06:32)
Yeah, yeah. yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Dom Okus (06:35)
Yeah,

Jamil Roberts (06:38)
Yeah,

Dom Okus (06:38)
madness. Yes!

Jamil Roberts (06:38)
Terry. Yeah, that's my boy,

Alex Bamford (06:40)
Yeah, it's serious.

Jamil Roberts (06:46)
You're never gonna meet a Terry in America by the way.

Dom Okus (06:48)
Yeah, never. Never. It's so

Alex Bamford (06:49)
Nah, never.

Hahaha

Jamil Roberts (06:54)
well I'm glad we got that straight. He is from London everyone.

Okay

Dom Okus (06:58)
okay there we go.

Alex Bamford (06:58)
Thank you.

Jamil Roberts (07:03)
what you said you played in Kent and whatnot so is that... so you didn't play for an academy or anything growing up I assume you weren't involved in any clubs in London then?

Alex Bamford (07:13)
No, my parents wanted me to stay in school and really want me going down the academy route and then getting chucked out at 18, 17 with no kind of thing to fall back on, which at the time is like the cool kids played academy, you you wanted to play academy and go on trips and leave school and go out lessons early and that, but my parents went, no, you stay in school and I think looking back on it, it's kind of, it's probably the right decision, you know?

You see a lot of boys play, Louis Instruld played Marshall, you probably play with Like, ledge man, and he played at Chelsea for what, 10 years, really, really good player. And he just told me like, after he got dumped out of the academy, like, just lose the love and he's, what like, 19, 20 should be going towards his prime years and he just, the academy system just sucked the life out of him. So I'm kind of happy in hindsight that I didn't go down that route.

Jamil Roberts (07:48)
Yeah, yeah, Louie's ledge man. Yeah, I like him.

Mm-hmm.

Alex Bamford (08:13)
Thanks to them.

Jamil Roberts (08:15)
Yeah, for sure. Do know when you were just saying that then the only thing and you mentioned obviously like, know leaving lessons early

It just it reminded me

Alex Bamford (08:22)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (08:24)
of the meme of like, you

you know And it's like, you know the feeling of when you get called up for school football and you've got like Ronaldo Suiting up at Ballon d'Or and you're like how you feel leaving class

Alex Bamford (08:26)
Yeah, yeah. Walking out of class.

Yeah,

Dom Okus (08:33)
You

Alex Bamford (08:34)
it's the best, isn't it? The best. Yeah, man. The best.

Jamil Roberts (08:38)
Feel like a boss Yeah, cuz

Dom Okus (08:38)
amazing times amazing times i miss it honestly

i miss it

Jamil Roberts (08:45)
I May under percent man like they they were

Alex Bamford (08:46)
Hmm.

Jamil Roberts (08:47)
I was an I that was the one thing that I missed out on and it wasn't because I played for an Academy or anything in England But I don't know don't I don't know if you did either we've never actually covered this but my school didn't do school football and Like my school year was full of like lads that were up

Like, Yeovil Academy at the time. I was down at Plymouth. There was boys that played for Bristol City. Like, in the past, like, good players. And like, we still speak about it now, like, me and my boys. That like, if we had a school football team, we would have

up in the South West.

Alex Bamford (09:18)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (09:20)
That's mad. They just didn't

have a team.

crazy. Now my school definitely had a team, like school football in London, especially like year seven to like nine, when academy is not as serious. So all the academy boys are still playing school football, it's like a big thing. So in East London, the big team was a school called St. Bonds, which is basically like an all boy's school in Newham, where like Ledley King went, Jermaine Defoe went. So you can imagine the type of boys. like they've got like two boys that play for Arsenal, two boys that play for Palace, boy that plays for Barnet, whatever.

Alex Bamford (09:34)
Mm.

Dom Okus (09:50)
remember playing them in year eight and we got bopped 9-1 Absolute spanking. Someone got chipped from the, a keeper got chipped from the edge of the box. They're just flying past all our players. Madness. So yeah, like school football was big in London, like big business and my school wasn't very good, to be honest.

Alex Bamford (09:54)
you

Oof.

big.

Yeah, it's a big deal, Like, there's bragging rights and that, so...

Dom Okus (10:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, literally.

Jamil Roberts (10:11)
Yeah, bragging rights is the perfect way because I

you what, even

imagine, I can imagine it obviously being from London, like you boys, sorry, being from London, there might be on like another school team, one of your teammates from like the academy. So then like, you're not only like bantering them like on the pitch, then when you go in training, say like there's two palace lads, for example, then you're giving them shit before training or whatever,

Alex Bamford (10:28)
Mm.

Jamil Roberts (10:37)
blah, blah. Like you can't escape it.

Dom Okus (10:37)
Yep,

Alex Bamford (10:37)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Nah, you can't escape it, Yeah, man, those were the days,

Dom Okus (10:39)
yep. Exactly, literally. Yeah, man.

Jamil Roberts (10:44)
Yeah, so what was the just

to kind

click into that a little deeper like and just Related back to obviously getting recruited to America So was that something pushed by the school or was that pushed by your parents or just an avenue that you knew you could go down? to obviously Go down like, know doing what I in America would call high school In in the UK was that sort of put who was that pushed by for you to play football in the US?

Alex Bamford (11:07)
Yeah.

So I don't know if you know ISFA. I played ISFA for a bit and they had a lot of... Yeah,

Jamil Roberts (11:17)
Yeah, yeah, I played this for a couple of years as well. Yeah, nice.

Alex Bamford (11:21)
used to have these American guys coming down and doing little talks about it. And you kind of turn your nose up at it because you're like, oh, America, football doesn't quite go. And then I knew a couple of guys that went over and played and they gave me good reviews and then...

I was thinking about the uni route in England and it just wasn't for me. You can play at good level but it's not really... I mean, you guys know how it is in America. It's the big thing, It's football and you kind of got academics on the side but it's so professional, the environment. Whereas I think in England, if you go there, you play, more like a social thing and it just wasn't for me. So I was kind of... I was going to and fro for a bit and thinking...

I haven't got an academy background, so it's going to be tough to go to a top place, but I knew how good I was. So I thought if I go in there to a good place and I work my way up, I'll be just fine. And I went through a company called ASM and they were good to me. again, like they've got every every kid going to them saying I want to play D1, want to play Clemson, all these schools, you know. And they were giving me some some schools. was like, hmm, probably just better to stay in to stay in England. And then Marshall came along.

Jamil Roberts (12:23)
you

Alex Bamford (12:33)
Petsa, you know, you played under Petsa. Petsa phoned me up and shout out Petsa legend for sure. And he phoned me up and we had a good conversation and the program at the time was doing really well. I think you guys went back to back conference champions and you were in the Sweet 16 or you were early rounds of the Nationals. And I was like, I'm just going to go for it. They said to me, you know,

Jamil Roberts (12:37)
Petsa man, legend, Petsa Ravanovic.

Alex Bamford (13:01)
Well, I had the impression at least I wasn't going to be a big name when I go there, but that was fine with me. Like how hard can it be going to America playing with guys that they'll soon realize that I'm a good player, you know? And I took the gamble and I signed and then you guys went and f***ing won the national championship and looking back on it, there's no way that there's no way they would pick me up if I signed three months, four months later because the program was on a different level and they're only looking at Academy boys now and the best of the best. So my CV wasn't there.

Jamil Roberts (13:17)
Ha ha.

Alex Bamford (13:31)
But I'm happy, the timing was perfect and worked out okay. So yeah, again, shout out to Petsa because I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him.

Jamil Roberts (13:39)
Mate, that's mad, you know, because we talk about like timing is everything,

Dom Okus (13:40)
Yeah, unreal. Unreal.

Alex Bamford (13:42)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (13:45)
in football, like in life in general, but in football is crazy. And so I

Alex Bamford (13:45)
everything.

Jamil Roberts (13:51)
know that. So you committed before like the Nationals was even won.

Alex Bamford (13:57)
for the Nationals that even won. And I was like, okay, let's go. Like, this is the best team that want me to, let's do it. But for sure, I know I just said it, but there's no way they would look to my CV, because I didn't have anything, I just had my word. And there was no way they would taken me if I signed three, four months later. So as you said, timing's everything in football in it. It worked out well, so yeah.

Dom Okus (14:19)
It's man. It's crazy you can just say to your friends and family, they're like, you're going off to America? What's the team like? It's like, yeah, they just won the national championship.

Jamil Roberts (14:31)
Literally man, literally. Yeah, you're welcome.

Dom Okus (14:32)
Yeah, sick.

Alex Bamford (14:39)
Perfect timing man.

Jamil Roberts (14:42)
Yeah, that's me that's

Dom Okus (14:43)
Yeah, sick.

Jamil Roberts (14:43)
that's that's so cool

I say like and that's to be honest with you that's that's nice for me to hear as well because you know, I like it when English boys go to Marshall because like I keep like I keep an eye on the program all the time I watch whenever I can but you know, you keep half an eye on you know, the people that have kind of taken the same route as you and obviously my

story with the program was one of like growth in general and I left the program in a better place than when I went there. So obviously then to give off like off the back of maybe our success, you know, giving opportunities to players like yourself, you know, that's nice for me to hear as well to be honest, mate.

Alex Bamford (15:30)
Yeah, no for sure. And even after most games where I was playing and my time at Marshall, English boys would come up and you know you have that chat with the English boys after the game and they'd say, where'd you play academy? Like, I was at United or I was at City and I was like, I played non-league for a bit, bro, and just happened at the right time. And they're like, no way, because now you know how it is in these top schools. If they're going to recruit players from England, they're taking the best kids.

Jamil Roberts (15:48)
you

Ahem.

Alex Bamford (15:59)
As you said man, timing was just perfect.

Jamil Roberts (16:03)
Yeah, mate.

Dom Okus (16:03)
So

just to double click into that quickly, did Petsos say to you, kind of, know, you're going to have to come in and your place and you might not play for the first couple of years, that was that the conversation or was you expected to go in? Because I know again, when they recruit these international players, you're expected to come in and kind of make an impact instantly. So what was your situation given you didn't have that like massive sexy background, you know?

Alex Bamford (16:25)
No, was, I mean, all the coaches say the same stuff to you really, but you can tell by the way they say it. They will say, yeah, you're going to play if you work hard, all this stuff, but you can tell by the way they say it, if they really mean it or not. I mean, credit to him, he sold the program to me, but when I got there, didn't feel, I knew I was going to go and be a small fish in a big pond. And it felt like that, like Chris probably didn't know who I was. Like I probably had to introduce myself and Chris was like, who's this English kid? You know, whatever.

Jamil Roberts (16:54)
you

Alex Bamford (16:54)
And that was fine with me.

Dom Okus (16:56)
Hahaha!

Alex Bamford (16:57)
But it was like that, bro. I came in, I was like, okay, it's fine. After a couple of weeks, I'll be, honestly in my mind, I was like, I'm gonna be the best player there. And I go there, I look around at training. I swear the first session, it was some transition game. And I had Max Schneider swearing at me in German. I'm like, fuck this, mate, this is different level. If you do a bad pass, he's shouting some German stuff.

in your ear and then you've got Oli Semmler like everything's perfect and you're like yeah damn the standards are top here it's not easy so it kind of changed pretty quickly

Jamil Roberts (17:30)
Yeah. Yeah,

some of the some of the characters obviously we didn't we didn't play together because I was the only player from that team that left right after the championship. But I can attest as well and back up what you're saying. The standards were high. There was no room for

Alex Bamford (17:51)
Mm-mm.

Jamil Roberts (17:52)
And I think to be honest with you, I think that's why we had success because you had people like Max, Oli.

Pedro, even going back to the team, like Nate DeSantos, Jan Erik,

and then you've got the magic men like Vinnie and Vitor.

Alex Bamford (18:06)
Vinny was good.

VTOL bro,

VTOL next level bro. I mean, I don't know if you've talked about him much on the show, but he was the one guy when I came in and I was like, fuck, I don't want to go anywhere near that kid because I know he was skinning me. He was skinning me. You know those ones as a defender. Yeah, yeah, like this is my zone. Like I'll just shadow him onto the next man. But I wasn't going anywhere near him bro. No chance.

Jamil Roberts (18:16)
Yeah, ridiculous innit?

you

Dom Okus (18:24)
Hahaha!

Jamil Roberts (18:29)
Literally, keep your legs...

Nah, maybe Vitor's

next level,

mate. I remember when he came in in, when did he come in? I think he came in in 2020. And it was, no, 2019 he come in. And it was like, like he's just different. Like immediately, first couple of sessions, you're like, who is this freak who's just been released from Sao Paulo and why is he not playing in the Prem?

Alex Bamford (19:05)
Yeah, for sure. You know he had those like bandy legs, know the footballer legs, like the bandy legs. Yeah, and he was small but he was also strong and it was just like, this guy should be...

Dom Okus (19:05)
Flippin' on.

Jamil Roberts (19:10)
yeah, yeah.

Yeah, he was

like that skinny strong Dom. Like, had absolutely nothing to him.

Alex Bamford (19:19)
Yeah, yeah,

Dom Okus (19:19)
Uhhhh

Jamil Roberts (19:21)
But, you go shoulder to shoulder with him, or he's like putting his body between him and the ball, and he's just like a rock.

Alex Bamford (19:32)
bouncing off

Dom Okus (19:32)
Yeah, it reminds me

Jamil Roberts (19:32)
Bye.

Dom Okus (19:33)
like a, like a Kante frame or like a Ramirez. But like, they're skinny, but every time you see them getting about in the picture just bouncing off people, you're like, what? How? Yeah, man. Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (19:41)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah,

Alex Bamford (19:43)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (19:44)
and then

I mean Vitor as well. You just got lads chopping his ankles as well because that's the only way that you can stop him

Alex Bamford (19:53)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was good. I didn't get that close to him, mate.

Jamil Roberts (19:55)
I'm sure he's got a few scars from you as well,

Shadows

Dom Okus (20:07)
Brilliant. Brilliant.

Alex Bamford (20:08)
Shadows,

Jamil Roberts (20:10)
All right, well I guess we'll we'll get into sort of the meat and gravy of it What especially I know the Marshall fans out there will want to hear from sort of more of an insider perspective. So obviously Just coming off the 2024 season You boys had one hell of a run I think it was you know, I think you're unlucky not to win the whole thing but even to

to get to the position you did. I think every alumni, first and foremost, and every Marshall fan out there couldn't be prouder of the run that you had. I guess, I think it'd be better if we kind of chime in every now and then, but kind of just talk us through game by game, obviously. You come off the WVU game, and then you go on after that into the tournament. And then...

What so remind me who was the first game in I'm talking NCAA tournament not the conference tournament But remind me who is the first team that you played against there?

Alex Bamford (21:12)
Furman. Furman.

Jamil Roberts (21:14)
so you had you had quite you had a seed and how many home games did you end up getting was it the first two?

Alex Bamford (21:20)
First two. But was Furman or UNC. So we were like, shit, we're going to play UNC in the first round. I mean, that in itself is like, there's no way I'm going to end my college career in the first round of national tournament. So that was like, I can't lie, that was in the back of my mind. And then we went Furman. Then we beat NC State, who beat Georgetown to get there. And we thought we were going to go away to Georgetown, which I kind of wanted because they're a good seed.

Dom Okus (21:36)
Thanks.

Alex Bamford (21:50)
They were a lot better when you played Jamil, but the last two years they haven't been too good and I thought they were quite generous with the high seeding so I wanted to go there and beat them. Because I know you guys went there, right, and it was tough, no?

Jamil Roberts (22:03)
Yeah, that was in our day. That was the

game of our run. That Georgetown team had a lot of talent and they won the whole thing the year before. So they had a lot of returners. So

Alex Bamford (22:07)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mm.

Jamil Roberts (22:16)
but I know the coach down there historically has played good football as well. So I think he very similar to Chris in that they look to play football as opposed to college ball.

Alex Bamford (22:27)
Yeah, so it was those all NC State, NC State won. Really good team, good physical team and we managed to get through them. And then you kind of started to map your way through the tournament. know, everyone's saying a game at time, game at time, but I mean, everyone's mapping their route and seeing who we're to play next. And then we had SMU away, which was, that was something, man. I don't know if you watch the game, but it got postponed that

the before and then we had it the next day. Probably the scrap that reminded me of back home playing like Sunday football like just stoppage every couple couple minutes people dive on the floor like fouls everything the game I swear the game felt like it was 200 minutes because it got stopped every other minute and managed to get through them and then then we're in the college cup and I think Ohio State

Jamil Roberts (22:56)
Yep.

Alex Bamford (23:24)
smashed it this year, credit to them, number one seed, did really well. The left winger they got is a proper player, won them at Carmen. But we played them every spring in my four years and they never got near us, never gave us a problem. And their team was exactly the same. So we're thinking, I'm telling the boys, look, number one seed, but we played them before and it's the same kind of team. So let's not give them too much respect. We know how good we are. So let's go match it. And then, yeah, man, the college cup special, it's like a whole different tournament.

And you know credit to to the guys at NCAA they they do they do the things well and the the college cup was Was definitely special and I always knew we were gonna be at higher state You know as I said we beat them a couple times in the spring and I felt like if we got a goal they wouldn't score and I don't know if you've seen the goal straight from a goal kick pretty direct not really what Chris is known for but you know

Jamil Roberts (24:18)
Yeah, yeah Tarek finally getting on this

finally getting on the score sheet

Alex Bamford (24:24)
Finally man. We always tell him like save your goals for the end of season that's okay you know. And credit to him, he took it on the chin.

Jamil Roberts (24:30)
mate, just to kind of

interject

Dom, so I kind of like alluded to earlier on that, so I went back and I visited the boys like towards the back end of the season and I actually trained the day before they played WU and after training, like me and like four or five of the lads, we just stayed behind and we just did some shooting after and Tarek was one of them.

Dom Okus (24:51)
Okay.

Jamil Roberts (24:57)
and and i obviously i i don't know this is the first time i've met most of the boys but yeah they the lads were just bantering the kid like because he kept

in the shooting

Alex Bamford (25:09)
you

Jamil Roberts (25:12)
and they were saying like tarik why can't you just do this on a saturday

Dom Okus (25:10)
Thanks.

Fucking hell. Brutal. Brutal.

Alex Bamford (25:16)
Poor guy,

Jamil Roberts (25:20)
And then that's why

That's why I was actually so buzzing when I saw that he scored because like I'd seen it firsthand

lads absolutely hammering him

Alex Bamford (25:28)
Yeah.

Mate, he deserved it, mate. He deserved it. Yeah.

Dom Okus (25:34)
Good, good, good,

Jamil Roberts (25:35)
Yeah, he's good player man, he works

his arse off as well.

Dom Okus (25:36)
good, good.

Alex Bamford (25:39)
He does. And he came from ETSU and got top goalscorer the last two years. we all knew he could score goals. It was just getting the first one in and then you knew the rest were going to come. So, and he, mean, the guy got assists for us for days. So he gave us something. So credit to him. He kept working hard and he got the goal when it really mattered. We beat a high estate and then Vermont is unseeded. So you go into that game thinking we weren't complacent at all.

There's not one part of me that thinks we were complacent, but we were confident. We knew it was our time now and we don't really talk too much about the regular season, but that was all forgotten about. Like the post-season, we hadn't lost to a team since September. We lost on penalties, we on pens and that was it. We hadn't lost since September. So we kind of had this invincibility about us, you could say.

We knew that we have Lineker up top, have Tariq there, we have Haruhi who was coming in and this guy is special, watch out for him the next couple of years, I'm sure he'll tear it up. We knew if we scored then we would be just fine because we've been holding on to leads really well. The difference between this team and Marshall and maybe years before is we probably didn't have the quality to play exactly how Chris wanted last year because we lost some really good players, but we were okay with that.

and we were okay with mixing it up and playing a bit direct when we had to and a bit low risk. And I mean, that was a problem in regular season. We were trying to play martial football and we didn't really have the martial players, if that makes sense, not to dig anyone out, but it just wasn't clicking. Like we were trying to bounce off the six from the keeper and do all this fancy stuff and teams were pounced on the errors and we were conceding way too many goals. And then there was a shift where we went more direct. We played...

more in the opposition half and we cut down the errors and it was a different team, bro. I probably had more possession in every single game in my martial career up until the last four five games of the season when it really mattered. And that kind of shows how we just changed, adapted. There's nothing wrong with going long and playing like that. We just adapted to the players we had and it worked, bro.

Jamil Roberts (27:51)
Wow.

Mm-mm.

Alex Bamford (28:05)
It's bittersweet talking about the final and everything that happened because we did do really well, but finals are there to be won. So definitely bittersweet, proud of the boys because honestly that team in September and October, I was like, there's no way my college career is going to finish like this. And you know how it is as an international, your last year, you've got to kill it. And I know all the boys are thinking the same. If we just bomb out like this, no one's talking about us, our names aren't.

aren't out there, it's going to be tough to find a team. So credit to the boys. We stuck together and we went through some tough patches. The Georgia State game, I don't know if you know what happened in the Georgia State game, but that was a low point in the season. We were two goals up with five minutes to play away at Georgia State. We shipped two goals in three, four minutes. That can't happen. And that's a low point, but sometimes you need those low points to...

Jamil Roberts (28:49)
Mm-hmm

Alex Bamford (29:03)
to learn some more about the team and it helped us in the long run. So, it all happened for a reason.

Jamil Roberts (29:10)
Yeah,

I think you've talked us through it perfectly there, to be honest, because I think you were very, very real about it as well, if I'm being truthful, because I you I alluded to at the beginning there that, you know, I personally never expected this from the group, not that I didn't think it was a talented group, just from what I'd seen throughout the year.

Alex Bamford (29:27)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (29:31)
There was just errors, there were unforced, there were uncharacteristic of the players that were in the team. I knew what these players were capable of. I've watched you all play, but it was, it was like uncharacteristic. So, you know, one thing that you said there, which, you know, for the listeners that aren't familiar, or maybe for lads that want to go to college or just fans of college soccer, you talk about playing the martial way. So what is that? What is that?

Dom Okus (29:43)
you

Jamil Roberts (29:59)
that style, that sort of thing that's become what Marshall's known for now that Chris has embedded. just talk about that a little bit.

Alex Bamford (30:11)
Yeah, Chris and Josh have done a great job with really implementing the style and Marshall is known for this. know, even some of the coaches I've spoken to in the championship and everything they know Marshall and they know what we're about. I would describe it as high possession. He wants a lot of control. And I think a good line that I always take from Chris is 95-5. If you can play 95 % of the time, let's play. If it's 5%, let's not play.

I mean, that's kind of how he, how much he valued playing with the ball and everything that comes with it. Counter pressing, that counter pressing was, was a big thing for me because you think as a centre back when you, when you're out the field, you've got them in, in their own half, you can kind of relax. But bro Chris wanted you on the striker. So you'll, as soon as the ball's turned over, you're there and we can win the ball back again. And then small things like that waiting. mean, my girlfriend watches the games and she was pulling her hair out, watching us play.

last season because we would stand on the ball and wait for the team to come to us. And it's just like, it's almost insulting, you know, with three, four nil up and we're not going to pass the ball until you come, you come get the ball. So last season, especially was, was Marshall football, you know, the way we played, we had 60, 70 % of possession all the time. He compared it to Brighton. Like he did a lot of stuff on De Zerbi and how De Zerbi wanted to play. It was like a four, four, two box midfield. And

The patterns were all very planned out. Everything we had was a pattern from the training ground. There wasn't any freestyle stuff until maybe you got into the final third and it was Winger 1v1. But everything to get to that moment is a pattern that you've done. If the winger closes you from this side, you're going to bounce through the six. Everything was a pattern. And it was hard because you had to really pay attention in video. And video is long, man. Video is long. I'm not going to miss that, bro. That was one hour.

Jamil Roberts (32:06)
mate, don't worry, I've been there.

Dom Okus (32:08)
I'm

Alex Bamford (32:09)
Yeah, one hour and half every morning

Jamil Roberts (32:11)
Chris grassy visit video sessions

man. Get your cup of tea, get comfortable and sit there and listen.

Alex Bamford (32:15)
No, Josh is actually the biggest culprit, yeah.

I don't know if you had any in your day, but we had a couple snoozers bro and when Chris catches you out sleeping bro You didn't have any in your day. bro. We had a couple

Jamil Roberts (32:27)
No!

I mean,

must have at some point, other than

I don't know.

Alex Bamford (32:35)
Yeah, yeah.

I remember Milo used to come and put his hood really high up and kind of like put his head like this so couldn't really see his eyes or not. And I know he was definitely sleeping after me. But yeah, but that was the worst when you look to your left and you see someone snoozing off because you know if Chris catches him, it's like, it's awkward. Yeah, yeah. And even some of the new boys.

Jamil Roberts (32:43)
You

That's the one thing,

Dom Okus (33:02)
What would he do?

Jamil Roberts (33:04)
yeah, that's what I was going to say.

Alex Bamford (33:07)
you know Chris man, like Chris won't get angry unless he needs to be angry and if you're sleeping in video Like cast you out. Yeah. Yeah, he's got a switch and that switch is scary

Jamil Roberts (33:14)
Yeah, he's got a switch. Yeah, and I think, yeah. I mean, he's

Newcastle born and bred. Yeah, he's been

the States

Alex Bamford (33:25)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (33:25)
around Canada for a long time, but he

Alex Bamford (33:29)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (33:29)
through and through. And when he loses it, he's gone. There's

Dom Okus (33:31)
Well.

Jamil Roberts (33:34)
coming

Alex Bamford (33:34)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts (33:34)
There's no coming back to Earth. No, until he's got everything out.

Because like

said,

Alex Bamford (33:39)
Yeah, yeah.

Jamil Roberts (33:40)
very mellow most of the time. He's very chilled. He

in what he does and who he's brought in to do the job.

Alex Bamford (33:42)
Mm-mm-mm.

Jamil Roberts (33:47)
But it's like he suppresses all this pent up aggression sometimes so when it comes out it's like a dragon breathing fire.

Alex Bamford (33:56)
crazy.

Dom Okus (33:56)
Ha ha

ha.

Alex Bamford (33:58)
And sometimes you can see it coming as well. In video there's a couple small things that you know that get on his nerves you can kind of see him like talking through it and he's kind of like like why did this happen and then it would just explode and sometimes as a defender he'll be watching the clips and you're like fuck I hope he doesn't have that one clip where I get skinned or I'm not running back because this would be the worst time. And I swear a couple times if you ever

Jamil Roberts (34:22)
Mate, that's everyone mate,

you know, and you know in the game itself as well you go, mate, I'm gonna get called out for that 100 %

Alex Bamford (34:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

or a set piece, like he's big on his set pieces. And if you lose your man on set pieces, you're praying that they skim over it. The worst is when Carl, wait, know, Jamil, Carl was on set pieces this year and he used to love reloading the clips. And if I missed ahead or lost my man, I'll be like, please just skim over it Carl. And he's there like replaying it, replaying it, replaying it like the third time. And Chris is like, can tell he's about to explode. So Carl's the worst for that.

Jamil Roberts (34:51)
You

Okay.

Dom Okus (35:03)
It's always funny when you're going through film

Alex Bamford (35:05)
This is the worst.

Dom Okus (35:07)
you've done, you know you've done something wrong. I remember when I was in college, I think it was my junior year, so it's the year we won the conference and we played against Lockhaven, who's in the conference next to us. And obviously I played centre half, like used to be a centre midfielder, I got converted into a centre half. So I'm not on this, like, if the ball's coming, I'm trying to bring it

I had this clip, I'm trying to bring it down.

Alex Bamford (35:29)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (35:31)
Like everything I'm trying

to play with feet, like I've got a bit of flow, I'm driving up from the back, whatever.

I remember the voice come, he's bounced and I've tried to just like bounce and volley it basically. Skanked it, got onto their team and now it's basically like 2v2. One of my players has been skinned, they've scored and we've lost 1-0. Now the team, I think we had probably 22 shots, 14 on target, something like that.

Alex Bamford (35:45)
I love you.

Dom Okus (35:59)
So like we just couldn't score. We're all over them. But obviously we ended up losing 1-0. Then we've had to film the next, like three days later. my God. He's played the clip about seven times.

He's made me play it twice. Not said anything, just played it and not said anything. You know that one where he just played it, standing there and playing it again. Then he's analysing it, like saying all the things I feel like I'm going to start. The whole session was just digging me out basically. I'm like, we've hit the post from five yards out.

Jamil Roberts (36:12)
my god.

Alex Bamford (36:16)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

man.

E?

Dom Okus (36:29)
We've missed three one-on-ones,

I'm getting digged up. And it's like, most of the time it works, right? Most of the time we was known from

Alex Bamford (36:31)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (36:36)
we're in trouble and I'll just drive like through the team and get us out of trouble. So it works most of the time when it doesn't work that shocking. So I think we can all attest

a time in video where we've just been absolutely dug up long. Absolutely dug up. know what I mean? Yeah, mate.

Alex Bamford (36:44)
Mm-hmm. Oh, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I'll sleep this night, bro. I swear, sleep this night after games, because you know what's coming next. Mm.

Jamil Roberts (36:52)
Yeah, it's happened to the best of us.

That's so funny

I think I think we said at the beginning right like everyone's got the same stories and that was about English players in the UK But football is in general have all got the same stories in they like you know You're gonna get dug out by the manager or if this manager is crazy or this managers can lose his head blah blah blah We've all got the same stories. We could go on about this for hours. Come with

Dom Okus (37:12)
100%.

Alex Bamford (37:13)
sure.

Mm, for sure man. Yeah.

Dom Okus (37:23)
Yeah, literally. Literally,

Jamil Roberts (37:27)
But I think that's a good time to sort of round us off and move on. Now, I don't know how familiar you are with this, but this has become the famous and a very popular segment of the pod. But this is where I pass it over to Dom, where he's gonna take Alex Bamford through extra time on the Backstic podcast.

Alex Bamford (37:53)
Let's go.

Dom Okus (37:54)
starting to love this section, know? Like, jam, I feel like I'm really starting to get into my groove. Like, on the Instagram, on the YouTube.

Jamil Roberts (38:00)
You're owning it, mate. That's- that's- I might

as well mute myself now, mate. It's yours.

Alex Bamford (38:05)
Haha.

Dom Okus (38:07)
on the Instagram and the YouTube they're starting to call me Steve Harvey with a skin fade. They're starting to call me

the Black Note Edmonds, Black Patti McGuinness. Like the way that I'm hosting is mad. So here's what we do. Every time on Extra Time

Alex Bamford (38:13)
You

Dom Okus (38:21)
take our players through four questions. The

question I have for you is who is the best player you've played with?

Alex Bamford (38:25)
So, yeah.

Easy, easy, bro. Matthew Bell. I don't want to say it because it will go straight to his head and he'll probably clip it on Instagram and post it somewhere. But that kid, that kid is different gravy, bro. He is different gravy, bro. And I remember he had this little, you know, on Instagram, how you can have your story highlights. He had a whole one. He had a whole one just for training clips where he's rinsing players. And I featured, bro, and I swear.

Jamil Roberts (38:36)
Hehehehehe

Dom Okus (38:52)
Mm-hmm.

Alex Bamford (39:00)
After training I was like, Matthew, I swear to God, if you post that, you're dead tomorrow. I swear you're dead tomorrow. And then it gets to like, it gets to like eight or nine o'clock that day. And I'm just chilling on that, thank fuck. That prick didn't post it. And then I get a notification on my phone, Matthew Bell tagged you in his story. I swear to God, I knew exactly what it was.

Dom Okus (39:11)
if

You

Jamil Roberts (39:22)
you

Dom Okus (39:26)
So funny.

So tell us a little bit about him. Why is he the best player you picked? Why was it such an easy choice?

Jamil Roberts (39:29)
you

Alex Bamford (39:35)
This kid is naturally so gifted at football. It's a joke. And it's frustrating at same time. I told him this a million times because off the field, he's a menace. Milo had his time and did his shit, but he was way worse than Milo, way worse than Milo. This guy would, I remember we had a pre-season game and this guy was in Sharkeys until 4 5 a.m. in Sharkeys, bro. Sharkeys, for you, if you don't know Dom, is like...

the club in Huntington, you know? And day before a game, 5, 6 a.m., we report at like 7:30/8 So this guy probably didn't sleep. He rolls up to the game, he has a hot dog in his hand, and everyone's having their like, everyone's having granola and bananas and that. He's got a hot dog in his hand. He's probably still bopping to the music last night. And he goes and scores six goals, bro. He scores six goals in the friendly, bro.

Dom Okus (40:05)
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamil Roberts (40:30)
No way

Alex Bamford (40:32)
I swear

bro, I'll never forget it Never forget it bro. I looked at him and I was like, I swear like if I had your ability bro, like I wish I had your ability because off the field Menace, I think he's doing a lot better now. But this guy, he was on Australian body clock. He was playing football manager until 7am, turning up to training at 8. Like he just wouldn't sleep doing crazy stuff bro. And uh...

Fair enough. He's a good kid though. Like got a lot of love for him, but ability wise Rapid like the quickest player I've ever played against and he's small and he has the same kind of thing as VTOL like he was strong you couldn't Get him off the ball, you know those players where they can run they can dribble the same speed they can run at and the balls he was never out of control of the ball and he just used to spin players so easily bro and like following him in in training is just like

What do you do? Because if you get too tight, he's going to turn you. But if you stand off, he's going to turn and then just fucking run around you. So it was a tough one. So a couple of times left one on him. But yeah, no, that kid. That kid is is a. Yeah, bro, I swear he rocked up to training. I was eating my granola and yogurt and stuff. I turned to my right. This guy looks like he hasn't slept. He's got a hot dog in his hand. man.

Jamil Roberts (41:38)
Mate.

Dom Okus (41:43)
The hot dog story is rattling me.

you

man,

that's so good.

Jamil Roberts (42:00)
That's unbelievable. I've never heard

that story. That is so good.

Alex Bamford (42:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, bro. This guy is different.

Dom Okus (42:06)
That's funny.

Right, we'll keep going then. Who's the best player you've played against?

Jamil Roberts (42:11)
Okay.

Alex Bamford (42:14)
Ooh, best player I've played against.

Joe Haig, Joe Haig back home. He was a good player. I remember that was schoolboy days and he was playing at Chelsea at the time. And we're like three nil down at half time. It's a cup game, like two evenly matched teams and we're three nil down at half time, but we're playing well, like we can get back in it. And I'm giving some team talk and I'm like, boys, we can get back in it. Don't worry, we're playing well. I looked to my left and our centre-backs crying because the guys just scored a hat-trick against him and he's tears. He doesn't want to play anymore. And that kid was...

That kid was special. Yeah, striker from Chelsea. I don't know where he's playing now, but that stuck with me. He made our centre back cry at half time, so pretty bad. Yeah.

Dom Okus (43:02)
flipping out. Jeez.

Jamil Roberts (43:02)
Wow,

reduced a player to tears.

Dom Okus (43:04)
Jesus.

Alex Bamford (43:07)
to

tears at half time you know, there's 45 left.

Dom Okus (43:09)
That's

mad.

Jamil Roberts (43:10)
I actually feel sorry for him. I don't know his name, but I really feel sorry for you, mate.

Dom Okus (43:15)
That's.

Alex Bamford (43:17)
Marcus if you're watching this that was a bad one for you I'll call him out as well you know

Dom Okus (43:17)
man

out, looping out. Alright, this will be a good one because I feel like, you know, from what I've heard from Jemma about the Marshall team, there's some characters in there. So if you could pick three players, three teammates, sorry, or present to go on a night out with, who would you choose and why?

Alex Bamford (43:44)
good one that. Gavrilo Parota. I think you got to meet him, Jam, when you came. The board goalkeeper, he loves the night out.

Jamil Roberts (43:51)
I've actually never met him,

he's down at Riverhounds now, isn't

Alex Bamford (43:55)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's top. He's one of those guys. He loves a would you rather. He's stupid like that. It would be dead quiet and he'll be like, he'll tap me and say, would you rather some outrageous stuff or do this? And he's always pulling those out his ass, but he's good fun on the night out. And I think that's why Pittsburgh released him to be honest. Too many fucking would you rathers. And anyway.

Dom Okus (44:19)
hahahahah

Alex Bamford (44:24)
Him for sure. A Jetty. You know a Jetty bro. A Jetty is life of a party bro. Yeah man.

Jamil Roberts (44:29)
any night

out at Jetty's welcome.

Alex Bamford (44:33)
for sure bro, this guy always dancing, always smiling, everything. Gunn and guy, he's top. And then, Matthew bro, cause Matthew's funny. And Matthew would do some stupid stuff that I can rinse him for the day after. So I think that would be a good three. But there's a couple good contenders in and around, know, it depends what you want. Like there's some guys who know people and can get you in good places, which is good, but I want to go.

Jamil Roberts (44:36)
Gunnay in dumb.

Dom Okus (44:54)
elected.

Alex Bamford (45:02)
down the avenue with three crazy guys who would have a good night, so I thought it was three for sure.

Dom Okus (45:08)
I like it. I like it. I like it. And just to wrap us up on a more wholesome one, what would you say is your biggest achievement so far in football?

Jamil Roberts (45:17)
you

Alex Bamford (45:19)
Biggest achievement, as I said, bittersweet, but going to the college cup, probably the semi-final. The semi-final was nice. My girlfriend was there, her family was there, playing in front of 10,000 people. Captainly marshal, it's been a long journey, I said, as a nobody coming in and working my way up and wearing that arm-band was special and playing under Chris, who helped me so much along the way.

You've probably spoken a lot about Marshall boys and the Marshall fans on the episodes because they are really special and they do really live and breathe the program. Huntington is not the best area so I think we give them that hope and that release from any stuff that's going on outside of it. We didn't know Huntington before we went but I feel like after you're there for three, four years you know the story and you understand why the fans love it so much.

Dom Okus (46:09)
Yeah, 100%, man. 100%, 100%. So yeah, I think that kind of wraps us up. Oh.

But yeah, definitely agree from what I see on all the socials, even the support for this podcast from the Marshall

has been sick and obviously that's all due to

Alex Bamford (46:23)
Yeah.

Dom Okus (46:26)
So on that note, I'll pass you back to Jam.

Jamil Roberts (46:30)
Yeah, mate, I'm really happy you sort of rounded it off with that, mate, because it's one thing that I will never forget from my time, and I know you won't forget from your time, and every single player that goes through the program won't forget. The Marshall fan base is something special, like in whatever sport, but I think, especially for men's soccer, it's felt more than ever because we are a team.

by and large of people not from America first and foremost, and certainly not from

West Virginia.

to find a home from home and really feel like you've got a family and let's be honest, at the vet, you've got at least 3000 people screaming your name every single time you take to the pitch. So, you know, they are special. They are special and you're right. But yeah, on that wholesome note, I think...

with, that's a good time to wrap us up there.

A Marshall Heavy episode,

Alex Bamford (47:33)
for sure.

Jamil Roberts (47:35)
anyone that knows me, I don't mind talking about that place for as long as possible. I've got the old

McConaughey hat on here.

Alex Bamford (47:41)
Class that.

Jamil Roberts (47:45)
But no, think Dom, I think you'll echo. We've enjoyed this one, haven't we?

Dom Okus (47:52)
a ton man, good banter, started off on fire, giving him banter about London, got deep into Canada journey into Maastricht, and now listen, this is the good one, this is the good one.

Jamil Roberts (47:57)
You

I like that

Alex Bamford (48:02)
Appreciate it fellas.

Jamil Roberts (48:04)
I'll tell you what I'm liking how guests are coming on in now, right? And I don't know if they're watching what's come before or not But they're just a little bit happier just to dig their mates out a bit more and I love it

Dom Okus (48:15)
Yeah.

Agree.

Let's keep that up. Let's keep that up.

Alex Bamford (48:21)
For sure, for sure.

Jamil Roberts (48:22)
For sure, for

But anyway, it's about that time where once again, myself and Dom, Bamford, thanks for coming on, mate. We've very much enjoyed it. And from the three of us, if you've made it this far, thanks ever so much for listening. You know we appreciate every single one of you. And as I said at the beginning, if you've enjoyed what you've heard, or if you're on the YouTube and what you've watched, why haven't you subscribed? Why haven't you followed?

Why haven't you liked every single piece of content that we've got out right now? There's plenty there. If you want to catch any previous episode, you can catch us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Amazon. You can watch us on YouTube, at the Batstick pod on all social media platforms. I know TikTok's going through a little thing right now, but I'm sure we'll get that one sorted. But without further ado, once again, from the three of us, thanks ever so much for listening. And yeah.

Alex Bamford (49:12)
you

Jamil Roberts (49:19)
We'll see you next week.

Dom Okus (49:21)
Thank you so much. Peace.