TAYOUS' NEW HOME

Uzi Tayou is ready to partake in his 11th Major Arena Soccer League opener with his seventh club.

It's always exciting to begin a new season, especially with a new team.

This year, however, it will be a little different.

He and his brother Franck will kick off the season in what has become a tradition – with the St. Louis Ambush tussling with the Kansas City Comets. The Ambush will host the Comets at The Family Arena on Friday, Nov. 29 at 6:05 p.m. ET. Then the teams will turn around and play at the Cable Dahmer Arena on Sunday, Dec. 1 at 6:05 p.m. ET.

"We're looking forward to it. It’s exciting," said Uzi, who also has played with the Las Vegas Legends, Baltimore Blast, Soles de Sonora, Monterrey Flash, Empire Strykers (Ontario Fury) and Texas Outlaws last year.

As a veteran, Uzi understood that there is a yin and yang to season openers.

"Everybody goes into the first game, super confident because you work really hard, but you don't know what you really have until you play that first game," he said. "It doesn't matter how good you look at practice. It doesn't matter what you put in  practices. Until you get on that field you play that first game, that you know exactly what you have and what you need to work on.

"Everybody here is pretty excited, and the guys work really hard. This is probably one of the hardest preseasons we've ever had. The intensity picked up double and triple ... from what they've had before. It's been a lot for them. But the guys are soaking it in. They're happy. They can't wait to know that this is a challenge that they needed to know to get over the hump."

Unfortunately, Franck declined to talk for this interview, citing personal reasons.

But older brother Uzi did.

"He's enjoying it. He loves it," he said about Franck. "He says every day, 'I'm enjoying myself. I'm having a great time.' He wants to compete. He wants to be the best. He wants to win, but he doesn't feel the pressure of winning the championship. What he's done. He feels like, 'I'm free of almost everything I've gone through the past [few] years. And now it's a fresh start.’ It's a very welcoming environment. He's extremely excited."

Franck, 34, who signed with the Ambush on Oct. 11, brings an impressive resume to the club. He is a four-time MASL MVP and the league leader in goals, points, game-winning goals in a season and career games.

“Franck Tayou is an elite player who we feel, when combined with the rest of our roster, will propel the Ambush to the next level,” Ambush co-owner, general manager and head coach Jeff Locker said at the time.

Uzi, 35, followed suit on Oct. 11. In contrast to Franck, the Cameroonian native has forged his own path as one of the league's best backline players. The 6-1, 200-lb. defender has won an MASL title (with Baltimore in 2015-16), has played in three Ron Newman Cup finals with as many teams, has competed in the All-Star Game, was named the Defensive Player of the Year and has led the circuit in blocked shots.

While playing for Monterrey during the 2018-19 season, the Tayou brothers were named winners of the Ed Tepper Humanitarians of the Year Award for the team the work they did with a Monterrey orphanage.

“We are fortunate to be able to add an experienced and accomplished defender like Uzi Tayou to our roster," Locker said then. "We believe he will be an important part of our success in the upcoming season.”

Uzi has liked what he has seen with the Ambush, which has designs of qualifying for the MASL playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 season.

"I'm impressed by the standards that this team has, because perhaps the results in the past … became a reflection of what the franchise was," he said, adding that his teammates were "very professional, probably more professional" than some of the teams he has played for.

"The guys are really, really genuinely good human beings,” Uzi added. “I've never been around a team where the vibe was this good. In Ontario, for example, it was exactly like this. The vibe was like that because we knew we had an opportunity to do something special because of the players. It didn't translate immediately, but we stayed together. It's basically that same thing that I'm seeing here.

"Everybody's bought in. Guys are working hard. You don't expect to win a championship. I don't think the championship is even a conversation here. We want to do better. The guys understand that they've done the past few years, and they just want to do much, much better. They're excited that they have help."

For the fifth time in their professional careers, the Tayou brothers are playing for the same side. They did so at West Virginia University, then with Sonora and Monterrey and Empire.

Uzi said that he was enjoying his time with Franck.

"It's amazing," he said. "I had so much stuff going on off the field. This could be my last year. We've had a really, really good run. It's funny because my college coach said that this will never happen again. … And it was basically the story of our life. I'm extremely grateful. I'm just soaking in every second that I can."

For a good portion of his career, Uzi has played in the Western Division. With St. Louis this campaign, it will be in the East.

"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "I was talking to someone the other day, and I was saying, the only arena I haven't played in is probably Milwaukee in my 12 years of playing soccer."

Uzi will get his wish, although he will have to wait a bit. The Ambush will visit the Milwaukee Wave on March 30, the last day of the regular season.

After partaking in rivalries in Mexico and Southern California, Uzi was looking forward to the ones in the Midwest.

"When I was in Baltimore, we had the [Harrisburg] Heat, then we had Syracuse [Silver Knights]," he said. "San Diego and Ontario are archrivals. We had Monterey when I was in Sonora. In Monterrey, we had San Diego. So, this is something different. The pressure of each game is different. The intensity, the meaning, of each game is different."

Uzi has realized that he has more of his playing career behind him than in front of him. So, he has wanted to make the most of his time left. He has gone the extra mile by keeping in prime shape, particularly during the offseason.

"Personally, I think I could put another good four years," Uzi said. "I'm the first when we do fitness, it doesn't matter if I'm 100 years old. I'll be playing the following year. I'm looking at the next four years, because I'm thinking there's no way my body will keep going this way. But the minute I see the drop, I'll be the first one out. I won't push it. I won't try to do it for to get another year."

For the next five or six months, Uzi Tayou will be focusing on helping the St. Louis Ambush improve and return to the postseason.

Michael Lewis, who has covered the indoor game since 1975, can be found and followed at @Soccerwriter on BlueSky and X (formerly Twitter).