Growing up, Carlos Bocanegra never saw an NASL game – he was only 5 when it folded. He never considered professional soccer an option. Soccer was his tertiary sport, and he focused on getting a college football scholarship. Then, in his junior year of high school, that all changed. He was selected to the U.S. under-18 national team, and MLS kicked off.
''I actually went to one of the Galaxy's first games, but it really wasn't huge for me because I was really into football,'' Bocanegra said. ''When I got pulled into the national team at the end of my junior year in high school, I realized, 'Whoa, maybe I can go further with soccer.' I knew I wouldn't go pro with football.''
A host of American-born players around Bocanegra's age now form the nucleus of MLS. At ages 22-25, they are not only starters with their respective teams, but also are expected to be leaders for an even younger generation coming in. Many are entering their third or fourth pro season after leaving school early to join Project-40. Most were not on the World Cup team last summer but will be key components of the 2006 qualifying campaign.
Some examples: Dan Califf, Nick Garcia, Tim Howard, Ben Olsen, Taylor Twellman, Sasha Victorine and, of course, Bocanegra. Others such as Adin Brown, Brian Dunseth, Francisco Gomez, Rusty Pierce, Nick Rimando, Pete Vagenas and Jim Curtin are eligible for the national team and can raise their standing within the pool by having a strong season in MLS.
As the original centerpieces of MLS move on, a wave of players born between 1977 and 1980 has risen quietly to prominence. The league is at their feet. They are its new stars.
For these players, a quick ascension up the pecking order has come with its surprises.
''Just today [D.C. United] had a scrimmage of older guys versus younger guys and I was on the older guys team,'' said Rimando, 23. ''I was like, 'What's going on?'''
The league's average age has dropped each of the past two years to a its current 25 years, 267 days, according to Elias Sports Bureau, which MLS recently contracted to handle its statistical data. Approximately 40 percent of this year's players were born in 1977-80. And the old guard has moved on (see Page 20). A mere 25 players remain who played in 1996.
''These guys have done well and established themselves in the league, and the flip side is that the salary cap has forced teams to make some tough decisions,'' MetroStars coach Bob Bradley said. ''Now, a guy like [Bocanegra] is at a point where he's being judged within the top category of players. He's one of the leaders in your team and he is held to the highest standard.''
The Young leading the Young
Bocanegra and Garcia, the Wizards defender, are both shifting to a permanent central role this season, one that requires more communication. Bocanegra has noticed that while there are still at least 10 players on the Fire older than him, he is a resource.
''I'm kind of an intermediary between the younger players and the coaching staff and older players'' Bocanegra said. ''They talk to me if they have a question or a problem.''
Garcia faces a similar responsibility because he no longer has the guidance of his mentor, Peter Vermes.
''Peter was someone who knew how to manage people, how to push different people's buttons in a way that would help the team,'' Garcia said. ''Off the field, he took care of his body, and he helped me with conversations about how to save your money, the state of the league and issues that a young player might not be privy to.''
Vagenas says that he, Califf and Victorine were fortunate to join a team as successful as the Galaxy. He tries to pass on the lessons of professionalism he has learned from Alexi Lalas, Cobi Jones and Mauricio Cienfuegos.
''Initially, all three of us were knocked on our butts, so to speak, in terms of what we expected,'' Vagenas said. ''But being around such good veterans, veterans willing to help … They've showed me how to not only enjoy myself but that this is my trade and to take pride in that. This is a fun sport, but there's a sense of urgency. There is a sense of business. That's good because it keeps you on your toes. If not, you'd be out there joking around like you were with your high school team.''
Carrot and Water
Eleven members of the 1999 U.S. Under-20 team that finished 11th at the World Youth Championship in Nigeria are in MLS and three others are with European clubs (see ''U-20 Influence''). Sigi Schmid, who coached that team before taking over as Galaxy coach, attributes that high success rate to the timing of MLS's inaugural season.
''For the players that came earlier, there was that limbo of no pro league,'' Schmid said. Those who were high school sophomores and juniors in 1996, ''had more opportunities to play and get experience, and that carrot was there of, 'I can be a pro player in my own country. I don't have to take the hard road and go overseas and make it there.' That additional motivation certainly drove a lot of those guys.''
Schmid also saw a collective, competitive attitude within his U-20 team.
''They fought and bit you and scratched for everything,'' he said.
Howard, the MetroStars goalkeeper, remembers a contagious professional mentality, even though only himself, Steve Cherundolo and Jamar Beasley, now in the A-League, were under contract.
''Those guys weren't rabble-rousers,'' Howard said. ''They acted like professionals, even at that young age. … Guys were interested, kind of wide-eyed that I was wearing MetroStars shorts. You could tell that this was something these guys really wanted to do. For guys who were teetering about whether to stay in school, when they saw guys like myself and Cherundolo, they said, 'You know what, these guys are making it.'''
Still, there are plenty of starters this season born in 1978-79 who did not play in the tournament in Nigeria. Another anomaly is the 2000 SuperDraft, from which 14 players are projected starters, compared to just four from the 1999 draft. Is it coincidence?
''I don't know what it is, but growing up in Southern California, the '78 and the '79 age brackets were always better than the '77's and the '76's – at least where I was from,'' Vagenas said. ''Who knows? Must have been something in the water those couple years and what not.''
Stardom up for grabs
Fame has almost skipped this group of players thus far. The spotlight in the first five years of MLS was on the senior internationals and veterans of the 1994 and 1998 U.S. World Cup teams. In the past two seasons, much of the attention shifted to a younger group of prodigies: Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley and Bobby Convey.
Since 2000, the league's new foreign signings generally have gotten younger and less well-known. Most of the 1994 World Cup team members have retired or remain unsigned.
''There hasn't been the influx of high-profile international players, but there is more quality coming through from within,'' Chicago coach Dave Sarachan said. ''The league is building around its own home-grown base, but I still think the quality is there.''
Presumably, the top-drawing players this year will be the 12 who played key roles in the United States' memorable run to the World Cup quarterfinals. Of those, six developed professionally almost exclusively in MLS: Beasley, Donovan, Pablo Mastroeni, Clint Mathis, Eddie Pope and Josh Wolff.
The rest of the hype will go to whoever seizes it, like Twellman and Carlos Ruiz did last season. Mark Noonan, executive vice president of marketing for MLS, says the league plans to highlight its players' diversity in age and nationality in its ''New Soccer Nation'' campaign. He said the generation pushing for spots on the national team also will vie for MLS's Best XI and, in turn, rise to the fore.
''Because they haven't had the platform of playing and winning in the World Cup, they don't have quite the profile nationally yet that some of those other guys do,'' Noonan said. ''As they break out, obviously it's going to create some opportunities to market them.''
Howard noted that having spent six years in the MetroStars, New York fans feel a sense of ownership for him.
''I'm not a guy who has been to any World Cups, let alone two or three, yet [MetroStars fans] feel like I'm one of theirs,'' he said. ''If there's a national team roster, they want to see my name on it.''
U.S. coach Bruce Arena has repeatedly rewarded teams that have done well in MLS by calling more of its players into camps. Edson Buddle and Kyle Martino, two 2001 U-20s, have been called up since taking on key roles last season at Columbus.
''Especially for us younger guys,'' Vagenas said, ''We know that if our team stays at the top of this league, then we're going to get first crack [at the national team].''
Chosen ones
One peculiar tendency of the media is that it periodically tries to identify one player as ''the future of American soccer.'' Thirteen-year-old Freddy Adu is the latest to wear this tag, but it's hard to imagine that Donovan has relinquished it, either.
Looking back, Tab Ramos wore the ''chosen one'' label and lived up to the expectations of ushering the U.S. team to new heights, but he hardly did it alone. Marcelo Balboa, Paul Caligiuri, John Harkes, Eric Wynalda, etc., were just as crucial.
Claudio Reyna inherited the moniker around 1991 and sure enough he, too, reached uncharted territory, but not without Chris Armas, Brad Friedel, Eddie Pope, Earnie Stewart and Co.
Arena has said that MLS itself is the future of American soccer, not any one player.
So while Donovan probably will continue to be viewed as the leading man through the 2006 World Cup, his success will depend more on his supporting cast. That group begins to take shape this season, and some will be from the late 70s crew.
''There are definitely still some players who are older than us who are still incredibly talented,'' Bocanegra said. ''But the core seems to be around our age. Hopefully, young American players will keep coming in and improving the league.''
by Soccer America Senior Editor Will Kuhns