Home Grown midfielder Victor Ulloa recently returned home from his first national team camp with the U.S. U-20 team in Vichy, France. FCDallas.com caught up with the 19-year-old professional to get his thoughts on his first experience representing his country.
FCDallas.com: How was France?
Ulloa: It was great. It was a good trip for me. I really liked it. The country was really nice, very beautiful.
FCDallas.com: This was your second time to travel to Europe, the first time being with the FC Dallas Academy teams when they went to Madrid in March. How did that trip with the Academy help prepare you for this call-up?
Ulloa: Going to Madrid definitely helped me. I got that European experience. It made this trip less tough on me, especially when it came to the time change, it wasn’t as shocking for me because I’d already been through it with the Academy team. That trip definitely helped me out.
FCDallas.com: This was your first National Team call-up and it was also the first U-20 camp run by new coach Tab Ramos. Do you think it made things easier on you with the whole team being in something of a rebuilding phase and getting a fresh start?
Ulloa: Yea, you know Tab was a really good coach. I think it was good for me that it was a new coach, so I got the call-up. Thankfully, I did well and hopefully things go right.
FCDallas.com: You’ve been teammates for a long time with Bryan Leyva, Ruben Luna and Moises Hernandez. They’ve all had experience with U-20 National Team camps – Leyva and Luna with Mexico and Hernandez with the U.S. Did any of those guys give you any advice to help prepare you for the trip?
Ulloa: They all did, but especially Moises. He told me how some of the guys (on the team) were and he gave me some tips on how to do little things, little details that helped me out. I didn’t know what I needed to wear, what I needed to take and stuff like that, so Moises helped me out with stuff like that. All three of them helped me though.
FCDallas.com: How do you think this call-up will impact your confidence and how do you think that will translate to your role with the FC Dallas Reserves?
Ulloa: It definitely helps me. It motivates me because I was representing the USA and that was a big thing for me. I’ve always wanted to do that, I’m sure any player would want that chance. I’m just grateful that they called me up and I got the opportunity and I’m ready to work. I come back to FC Dallas having learned some new things and hopefully will do a better job with the Reserve team so we can keep it up. We won our first two games and I’m motivated to keep working hard to keep that going.
Five questions with Victor Ulloa
