Nicole Hack

Former USMNT midfielder Kellyn Acosta now plays for Polish side Pogoń Szczecin. Speaking to Hérculez Gómez for Vamos podcast, Acosta explains how it feels like to play in a promotion relegation system, where every game matters. He also speaks about historic rivalries. “Games are difficult. I had to adapt right away because of the different aspect of the game that I wasn't experiencing in the MLS,” Acosta said. “In terms of promotion or relegation. I know that's a big talk of the town in MLS and whatnot, but having that feeling of survival in every game matters and every little detail and every home game and away game. “You also got to think of, you know, there's real-time rivalries that stem from years and years ago that's deep rooted. “I mean, every game is a game of importance. And having that feeling, obviously maybe if you're an outsider looking into the league, maybe it's not the prettiest of games, but as a player, I mean you're fighting and scratching and it's like similar to like playing in CONCACAF. “It's not the prettiest game. It's a hard game. You got to roll up the sleeves sometimes. And it's little details that go a long way. “But that was me when I first arrived. And now that I've kind of seen what the league is like and now I'm coming for the first half of the league, there's a lot of quality in the league, a lot of great players, some tough opponents, a very physically demanding game. “You know, whether it's set pieces, long balls, second balls, transition moments. “So it's not so easy. I would say MLS was in a sense more individualistic, if you will, in comparison. “I mean, I wouldn't say every team is that way, but in MLS there's a lot of individual players that make the difference for a lot of the teams there. “I think here it's more of a collective effort in terms of how you're going to beat teams and how you're going to break them down and how you're going to win games. “And I've seen so many crazy things that happen. You're talking about like 98th minute goals and, and I mean MLS does the same, but I mean I'm just like in awe of just how often games are decided in 90 plus minutes. “If you win one game, you could be fighting for Europe. You lose one game, you're in relegation. So it's like a constant rollercoaster up and down, elevator up and down. “And you're just like, man, and you could feel it, right? I think we tied and lost early on and I think it was like in February. And people were going crazy, saying, ‘Oh, we're going to get relegated even though we had 12 games left or whatever it was.’ “And you feel like if you don't win a game, you almost have a feeling of like, maybe today's not the best day for me to go walk around the city. Maybe I should just kind of just lay low. “I'm not saying that people actually are thinking that of you, but you just have that feeling of like, man, we really let the city down at this moment and we need to make things right. “You just have that feeling of like self-guilt because you didn't perform or win on the weekend. “So it was a talk of the town. Everyone knows. Everyone's saying, ‘Oh, we have to win, we have to win, we have to win. We have to win at any cost.’ “And you hear it and you feel it and you see it. So that was something that I wasn't used to. And I had to adapt and learn quickly. “It was kind of like an unspoken thing. Like kind of everyone kind of knew, you know, if we get relegated, it's big trouble for this club. “You're not even talking from our standpoint, you're talking about from all the workers that are there. You're talking about 300 staff members that will potentially lose their jobs if you go to the second division, right? “It's a lot of weight to carry.” Acosta played in MLS with FC Dallas, Colorado Rapids, LAFC, and Chicago Fire before moving to Europe.