U.S. defensive midfielder’s approach to the game wins fans among his fellow players and coaches Chris Armas never expected this. He hoped for it, dreamed about it, but how does one expect what the gritty midfielder from Long Island has experienced the last few years? How does one map the path that has taken him from virtual anonymity to key figure with the U.S. team that will try to regain the Gold Cup title? Armas wouldn’t think to try. “I don’t set goals that way,” he says. “Some things you can’t control, so I don’t make it a goal of mine. … When I wasn’t on the national team, if you’d asked, ‘Do you think you can play for the national team?’ … ‘I don’t know. I’d give it a shot, but I don’t know how I’d do.’ I don’t really take it for granted that way.” That’s just part of the 27-year-old Chicago Fire standout’s charm. He’s a modest, blue-collar guy who knows what he can do, what he can’t, and works hard doing whatever needs to be done to help his team win. It may seem a simple approach, but nobody follows through like Armas, whose blend of anticipation and finesse – with no hint of thuggery – has raised the standard for the defensive midfielder position in American soccer. The rewards: an impressive stint with the national team, a tenure that coincides with Coach Bruce Arena’s, and a wide legion of devotees, many of them fellow players and coaches. “It’s great to see – the perfect story,” says Robin Fraser, reunited on the U.S. squad with his former Los Angeles Galaxy teammate. “Here’s somebody who does everything he needs to do to put himself in position to have an opportunity to play for the national team – and once there showcases what he can do.” “He’s a coach’s dream,” praises Arena. “And he’s a great player to play with on the field. He makes the players around him better, makes their jobs easier.” “That’s the sign of a good player,” adds Jeff Agoos, “to make other guys look good around him, and he does.” “I’m very happy [for Chris],” says Alfonso Mondelo, who coached Armas during his youth and with the Long Island Rough Riders before MLS, “because he’s a fine young man and a great player.” And so on.

Staying tuned in

Ask Armas and he’ll tell you it’s all about hard work, but there’s got to be more to it than that. “Even when people talk about him being a hard worker,” Chicago Fire coach Bob Bradley says, “they make it out like anyone who works hard in midfield can do what he does. His special quality is the way he stays tuned in, the way he can anticipate, the way he can take the ball off good players. “Not everyone can do that. The game goes on around him, and he seems to piece it together faster than most players, as far as where balls are going to go and how to get [there] first. Those are special qualities.” He’s exhibited them for four MLS seasons, and his performance in helping the Fire to the 1998 MLS title earned him his shot at international soccer. He and playmaker Claudio Reyna have, in about a half-dozen games, developed an understanding in midfield that could pay off in the Gold Cup – and once World Cup qualifying begins next September. Reyna calls their partnership “an ideal situation.” “They’re good, alert players,” Arena says. “They tend to feed off each other … play well together. The challenge is to find [a third central midfielder] to complement those two.”

Fortunate to get chance

Armas certainly doesn’t take any of this for granted. Ask him about the recognition he’s received. “I’m fortunate to get this chance,” he says. “If other guys in the country got the chance, maybe they’d be doing just as well.” Armas had previously represented Puerto Rico in the Shell Caribbean Cup, but FIFA ruled he could play for the United States since the tournament did not involve qualifying for a world championship. “I’ve been lucky, you know?” says Armas “It’s just hard work. You hope you work hard and good things happen. I believe in that. I’ve known no other way. It’s what I’ve been taught. Soccer’s fun, you know, but for me it doesn’t come so easy.” And: “I like to think no one’s working harder than me. Then I got here [with the national team] and I think, ‘Wow – I thought I worked hard. Look at Joe-Max [Moore] over there.'” Fraser, who offers that he “loves talking about Chris,” knew nothing of Armas when the Galaxy got together for its first practice four years ago. He quickly learned: “I told Chris’ dad about halfway through that first season that [Chris] was definitely going to be a mainstay on the national team. He looked at me like, ‘That’s really nice of you to say about my son,’ but I’m not sure he believed me … [and] I really believed what I was saying. “You play one game with the guy, and you appreciate his value, appreciate what he can do for a team.” What he does is pester opponents – remember Germany’s Andreas Moeller lashing out in frustration during the 3-0 U.S. rout a year ago. He prevents them from starting their attack or halts it before it reaches his side’s box. He pokes balls away, intercepts passes, finds teammates with the ball. He gets forward on occasion. “He knows how to play within his own limitations, which I think is one of the most difficult things for an athlete to do …,” Mondelo says. “And he’s very content doing his role and letting other people do theirs.” Bradley so appreciated these abilities that he made Armas’ acquisition a primary aim as he began to build the first Fire squad. A protracted deal with the Galaxy that – in the public’s eye, at least – seemed to deal expressly with Jorge Campos was all about Armas. “Everyone appreciates the skills of a [Marco] Etcheverry or a [Mauricio] Cienfuegos – they’re obvious,” Bradley noted prior to the Fire’s MLS Cup triumph over D.C. United, a victory made possible largely by Armas’ work against Etcheverry. “I think sometimes people miss the more subtle skills that Chris has.” Teammates and opposing players don’t. Armas’ plan is make sure they never do. “I just try to bring the same intensity every single game,” he says. “I’m hoping the guy in front of me, whether it’s Claudio [Reyna with the national team], Peter Nowak [with the Fire] or Cienfuegos in L.A., enjoys playing with me and appreciates it – they usually do. And the guys on the other team, maybe they look at the schedule and say, ‘Oh, we play Chicago next week,’ and maybe think twice: ‘Chris is on that team.'” by Soccer America senior editor Scott French