After serving the U.S. national team program for almost a decade, Mike Burns now also has a club — Viborg IF in the Danish Super League.
Only Mike Burns has been on a U.S. roster for every world championship.
It started in 1987, at the U-17 World Cup in Canada. In 1989, he helped the U.S. finish fourth among the best U-20 teams. In 1992, he played every minute of the Olympic tournament, a U-23 competition. Last year, he made the World Cup squad.
Yet 1995 may be the defining year for the versatile defensive player.
First, he signed for Major League Soccer. Then, he won a starting job with the U.S. under new coach Steve Sampson.
And finally, he saw his first action with a professional club.
He joined Denmark’s Viborg IF the day after the U.S. 1-0 loss in Sweden on Aug. 16. The newly promoted top division team is loaning him from MLS.
“I was basically just happy to have a team,” he said. “I knew nothing about Denmark or Viborg. I got there on a Thursday, registered on Friday, got to train with the team for about 20 minutes and played Sunday. I went right into the fire, which is fine with me.”
He’s playing the right back — the position that he has settled into in Sampson’s system — and he’s helping turn Viborg around.
Without Burns, the team started the season with four straight losses, scoring four goals and conceding 16. It was dead last in the standings. Since his arrival, it has moved out of the relegation zone by winning 15 points while improving its goal ratio to 22-34.
Viborg was one of the four teams promoted last year to expand the Super League from 8 to 12 teams. It’s a young team.
“It’s because of that youth,” Burns said, “that one week we can play with anyone in the league and the next we lose one we should easily win.
“On [Oct. 6], we beat Aalborg 4-0, and two weeks ago we tied Broendby, the biggest team in Denmark. We were down 2-0 and tied it up 2-2 — incredible, you know. Those teams are in the Champions League and the UEFA Cup. But in between we lost to Lyngby 4-0.”
Inspiring the Danes
Burns doesn’t create goals, but he does bring one thing the team sorely lacked — the American never-say-die attitude.
“It’s like we go up a goal against a team and we’re playing full of confidence,” he said, “but all of a sudden we go down a goal. It’s like, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to lose.’ That’s just the mentality there.”
Burns’ mentality doesn’t allow him to give up. And in early October, he took part in two big turnarounds. The first came the U.S. game against Saudi Arabia that saw the U.S. overcome a three-goal deficit to win 4-3.
In his next Viborg game, Burns helped it to a 3-3 comeback draw at Vejle.
Burns didn’t see action at the 1994 World Cup, but says his teammates “treat me like I did.”
Real respect, however, came on the field.
“There was that respect when I came in,” he said. “[But] I think obviously I gained more respect after they had seen me play. I was thrown right into the lineup, but there was really no resentment on any of their parts, at least not that I have seen. They didn’t say, ‘Hey, who’s this guy stepping in and starting?’ because I think they respect me as a player and a person, at least I hope they do.”
Burns also feels that he’s also keeping up with his U.S. teammates who now play in Europe’s top leagues.
“It’s not a Germany,” he said. “It’s not an Italy, but I think on the whole the league is decent.”
Burns is committed to Viborg through December. He’s looking forward to January’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, and then the MLS season.
“This year has been a great year for me,'” Burns said. “After I didn’t play in the World Cup, who knew what would happen? But playing in the U.S. Cup every game and all the games of Copa America and to still be playing now [on the national team] while playing in Denmark [with a club team] and then to come back and play in the MLS — I have no complaints.”
Neither does Steve Sampson, who moved Burns out of defensive midfield into the right back position.
“Now, not only is he a very good defender, but he’s attacking from that side,” Sampson said. “That’s something we need in today’s game.”
Burns said, “I’m one of the few guys that had never been in another country to play. I’m glad I’m getting this experience.”
by Soccer America correspondent Jerry Hawkins