On Sunday, 16-year-old Freddy Adu came on as an 81st minute sub in a 0-0 tie with Canada to become the youngest player to represent the USA at the full national team level.

Interview by Ridge Mahoney
in San Diego

SOCCER AMERICA: Your first cap came as the youngest player ever to play for the national team. How did it go?
FREDDY ADU: Great. I felt like, aside from the fact we didn't win the game, personally I felt I came in and made something happen. I tried to get the guys going, on that PK call at the end I tried to make something happen for the team. It didn't work to my liking, but hey, it was worth a shot. I worked hard and hopefully I can build on this.

When you're about to get your first cap in anything, even when I was getting ready to play my first game for D.C. United, man, it was like, ''Oh, my God. I just can't wait to get that first game out of the way.'' You can just concentrate on getting better day-in and day-out. Same thing here.

One game doesn't make or break you, man. You've got to be consistent. You've got to bring it every day. Sometimes coaches look at if you have a bad game, how you do respond in practice? Little things like that. You've just got to build on it, every time, and keep getting better and keep being positive.

SA: Did the defender foul you when you went down in the box and got a caution instead of a penalty kick?
FA: I had contact, I was off-balance, and I fell down. If that was any [other] part of the field, that's a foul. But if it's in the box, the ref is in a tough spot. Either he calls a penalty kick or he calls it against you and gives you a yellow card, and he called it against me and gave me a yellow card. But you know what? At that point in the game, with two minutes left, why not?

SA: How much advance notice did you get that you were coming into the game?
FA: I was actually warming up for 15, 20 minutes. I don't even think I was supposed to go into the game before Eddie [Johnson] went down. You always got to stay ready just in case somebody gets hurt and sure enough, that was the scenario.

SA: Who gets the first phone call after your first cap?
FA: My mom, of course!