{"id":115,"date":"2026-05-16T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.cultursmag.com\/?p=115"},"modified":"2026-05-29T01:28:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T01:28:31","slug":"how-chris-armas-boricua-upbringing-helped-him-become-a-better-soccer-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.cultursmag.com\/?p=115","title":{"rendered":"HOW CHRIS ARMAS\u2019 BORICUA UPBRINGING HELPED HIM BECOME A BETTER SOCCER COACH"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chris Armas, the head coach of the Kansas City Current in the U.S. National Women\u2019s Soccer League, had a distinctly cross-cultural<\/a> upbringing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armas was born in the Bronx borough of New York City, N.Y., U.S.A. to a Puerto Rican-born mother and a first-generation Cuban\/Italian American father. He describes his upbringing as \u201chumble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe always have worked hard,\u201d he says. \u201cBoth my parents grew up in the Bronx and brought up a family of three boys. From then on \u2019till now, it was always work as hard as we can, fight for everything we could get and just take every opportunity that would come our way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018BORICUA\u2019 HOLIDAYS<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In Armas\u2019s family, the holidays always had more of a Boricua feel to them, featuring foods like Pernil, the slow-roasted pork shoulder his uncle would marinate for 24\u201348 hours with a garlic-herb mixture, and cook until the meat was falling-apart tender.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chris
Chris Armas coaching Kansas City Current players (Photo credit: Kansas City Current)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cArroz con pollo, the rice and beans, the pastel, these delicacies that were Puerto Rican,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salsa and merengue dancing and music were also prevalent. His parents met when they were 13 years old in school in the Bronx.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy mom\u2019s family really took in my dad and my dad\u2019s family was in our life but the holidays were largely spent \u2014 my father almost it felt you would think he was Puerto Rican,\u201d Armas says. \u201cHe would go to the Puerto Rican Day parade in New York City and totally rocked the Puerto Rican feel, because he loved that culture. He was brought up kind of in that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, while Armas might be Cuban-Puerto Rican, \u201ca lot of the feel was from the Boricua side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HAVING AN ACCENT<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Born in 1972, Armas also remembers \u201ca lot of discrimination for Spanish people and if you had an accent, you were considered lesser and my parents experienced that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, his parents only spoke English in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey spoke Spanish to each other when they didn\u2019t want us to understand something or they\u2019re having an argument or something,\u201d he says, adding that his parents \u201cdidn\u2019t want us to be held back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If you had an accent, you were considered lesser and my parents experienced that.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Armas and his siblings \u201cexperienced a little bit of that. And we got called certain things in school. Even my my brother and I. My brother was a fighter. He was a wrestler, so he\u2019d get into fist fights over this stuff. I would just stay away from it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018CHIP ON YOUR SHOULDER\u2019<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Armas says \u201cthere was always this sense of a chip on our shoulder and my parents had that and we ended up having that that you have to work harder for everything, that nothing\u2019s going to be given to you nor should it be. You have to earn everything, fight for it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chris
Chris Armas (Photo credit: Kansas City Current)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Armas was named head coach of the Kansas City Current on Jan. 7, 2026. Inducted into the U.S. National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2025, he brings with him over three decades of playing and coaching experience at the highest level of the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarded as the best U.S. defensive midfielder of his generation, Armas had a successful 12-year playing career in Major League Soccer<\/a> with LA Galaxy in 1996-97 and Chicago Fire FC from 1998 until his retirement in 2007. He amassed 12 goals and 48 assists across 264 MLS matches and won the 1998 MLS Cup, 2003 Supporters\u2019 Shield (highest regular-season points total) and four Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cups (1998, 2000, 2003, 2006). He is one of only five players in league history to have been named to the MLS Best XI five times (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003) and he is a six-time MLS All-Star (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2004). In 2003, he was named the MLS Comeback Player of the Year after recovering from a season-ending injury sustained in 2002. He was also chosen as Chicago Fire FC\u2019s MVP during their Shield-winning season that same year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nothing\u2019s going to be given to you nor should it be. You have to earn everything, fight for it.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, there was always another step,\u201d he says. \u201cThere was always a door waiting for me to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he got older as a player, Armas became one of the leaders of the team, eventually being named team captain. He found himself starting to think and talk \u201cmore like a coach, and you\u2019re playing and talking like a coach out on the field. You\u2019re an extension of the coaching staff.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chris
Chris Armas (Photo credit: Kansas City Current)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

COACHING CAREER<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Armas\u2019 coaching career began in 2008 as an assistant for Chicago Fire FC before spending four years as the head women\u2019s soccer coach at Adelphi University, his alma mater, from 2011-14. Under his direction, Adelphi had back-to-back Northeast 10 (NE10) Tournament final appearances in 2012 and 2013, earned its first NCAA Tournament berth in six years in 2013 and rose as high as ninth in the national rankings in 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, Armas joined the New York Red Bulls in MLS as an assistant coach and the team won the Supporters\u2019 Shield that year. Armas was appointed the Red Bulls\u2019 head coach in July 2018, finishing the regular season with a 12-3-3 record as the club won the 2018 Supporters\u2019 Shield and advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals. He was then an assistant coach for Manchester United (2021-22) and Leeds United (2023) in the English Premier League, even serving as co-interim head coach of Leeds United.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most recently, Armas was the head coach of MLS\u2019s Colorado Rapids during the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He led the Rapids back to the Audi MLS Cup Playoffs in 2024 and earned a third-place finish in the 2025 Leagues Cup while capturing back-to-back Rocky Mountain Cup titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armas admits that soccer \u201chas taken me a long way. But there\u2019s a lot to it in terms of the foundation that my parents and their parents set that enabled us to open the doors and it was always about hard work, no excuses: Put your head down and just every single day to be the best you can be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his 12-year professional playing career, \u201cthere was really no offseason,\u201d in that for eight of those years, Armas was on the U.S. Men\u2019s National Team (USMNT), getting to experience international football and playing in a variety of different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chris
Chris Armas in pre-season training (Photo credit: Kansas City Current)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was a whole \u2018nother experience \u2014 experiencing different cultures,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Armas earned 66 caps and scored two goals for the USMNT between 1998 and 2005, and he was tabbed the U.S. Soccer Male Player of the Year in 2000. He was a key member of the USMNT squads that qualified for the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups \u2014 captaining the team on four occasions during those cycles \u2014 but untimely injuries kept him out of both World Cups as well as the 2000 Olympic Games. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he grew up playing soccer \u2014  from a little kid to college to professional \u2014 \u201cI loved my coaches,\u201d Arms says. \u201cThey had such an impact on me. I revered them. I watched how they spoke, what they said at halftime, when they were up in front of the tactics board. They always impressed me so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Armas, every player has a unique \u201csuperpower.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome are really fast,\u201d he says. \u201cSome can score goals. Some can run longer. Some are just more technical. Figure out with your coaches, your parents, yourself: What is your superpower in the sport?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check out Culturs\u2019 interview with Armas below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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