This week I’ve been following the schedule of the visiting lacrosse teams, boys and girls, from England who are here as guests of our local lacrosse programs. They have played several games against local and regional teams at fields across the state, been to Roundtop resort to participate in outdoor activities like zip lining, made trips to the Inner Harbor, and even tried their hand at picking apart a Maryland Blue Crab.
Mostly what I witnessed with the pictures and the stories that are being shared on the Timperley Lacrosse/Maryland Express facebook page is kids and families from countries thousands of miles away sharing fun times and experiences that they will have for the rest of their lives.
For about 15 years I worked with some of my friends in England, coincidentally in an area not too far from where these lacrosse players are from, on an exchange program that brought English adolescents to Carroll County where we put together a similar itinerary with social events mixed in with soccer events. We even made a few trips back to the Manchester area to visit them and have them return the favor.
Following them this week reminded me of just one of those life experiences that I certainly will never forget and hopefully the lads remember with fondness. That was the year that we were able to witness in person the professional debut of the “next best thing," actually I believe he was even considered the “next Pele," Freddy Adu, as he made his appearance for D.C. United at RFK Stadium.
We had a relationship with D.C. united through the Westminster Wolves that allowed us the opportunity to get group tickets to some of the more important games, as in the next best thing’s professional debut. So when I knew the boys would be here during the same time as such a historical event, I couldn’t resist but to get tickets.
Adu set several records that year. First, he became the youngest to ever sign a professional sports contract in the United States, he was the youngest player to play in a game for Major League Soccer, and then when he scored his first goal became the youngest player to score a goal in the MLS. He even appeared in a commercial for Sprite with the legendary Pele.
But that was about it for Adu. After his few years with D.C. United didn’t measure up to the hype, Adu spent the rest of his professional career playing for 14 clubs in eight different countries. To his credit, he now is working with youth players in Anne Arundel County to share his knowledge of the process.
Americans are always so quick to crown the next best thing coming down the pipe in practically every sport imaginable and it makes it worse with the television coverage of sports ad nauseum and the players trying to outdo one another through their social media hype accounts. Freddy was a good player (played 14 years as a professional) and by all accounts is a good guy, but the appetite in this country to find the American male soccer player that will pull us out of the gutter that we are currently in and lead us to greatness on the pitch, dumped mountains of pressure on the young Adu that few would have been able to handle.
With all that being said, keep your eye on this Christian Pulisic kid.
He has had a bit of coverage in the national news and the soccer world knows who he is, but he doesn’t get near the recognition that I think he deserves. I’m really not one to crown the next great thing and could really care less, as long as SOMEONE brings us to international competitiveness in the sport I love so much, but I believe this kid is truly the next best thing in American soccer. He’s not alone as our true talent pool is in the kids that are roughly his age or only slightly older, but there is just something special about this kid that warrants more attention.
Pulisic has scored 13 goals in 30 games for the U.S. Men’s National Team, played a couple of years in the German Bundesliga with Borussia Dortmund, and was recently transferred to perennial English powerhouse Chelsea for a record $64 million pounds sterling making him the most expensive U.S. player of all time. So, at 20 years old (able to purchase his first legal drink in September) he has accomplished already far more than Adu ever could imagine.
I have no specific allegiance to an EPL team, my heart still belongs to Brazil’s Flamengo, but I am very much looking forward to watching this year to see how Pulisic fares against truly the best club players in the world.
Even my favorite current player, Eden Hazard, who passed Pulisic in the hallway on his way to Real Madrid for his new contract, is a big believer. “He can be one of the best in the future for sure, “Now he’s at one of the best clubs in the world."
Pretty high praise from one of the best in the business.