Conteh: ‘It’s good to be back’

Abdul Thompson Conteh registered his first MLS goals with two spectacular strikes in a 5-0 rout of Dallas. The native of Sierra Leone attended the University of the District of Columbia before playing pro ball in El Salvador, Mexico and Guatemala.

SOCCER AMERICA: You have a home in Virginia, but you’ve never lived in California. Are you enjoying it?

ABDUL THOMPSON CONTEH: I like being here. This is where I grew up, so it’s good to be back. But everything in California is so different. Even the cable – I just got it – it has A and B [systems], whereas in Virginia we have only one feed and that’s it.

I’ve been living in foreign places all my life, and so it’s just another new thing for me to do.

SA: Your first pro club was Atletico Marte in El Salvador. What was that like?

ATC: It’s very, very difficult to play in those countries where the economic situations and the laws are not very well upheld.

Somebody tells you they will pay you on the 15th, and that means the 15th of maybe three months later. Finally, they owe you too much money and they fire you.

SA: You played in Mexico with Toluca and Monterrey. How different is it here?

ATC: I’m noticing a lot of different things, the way the game is played, the speed. In Mexico, they have many skillful players, but we play slow there, maybe because the players have so much technical ability they take a lot of time. Here, the game is very, very fast, and that’s one thing I’m trying to catch up with.

SA: What other differences have you noticed?

ATC: The first game I play, against Columbus, I dribbled the defender, I dribbled the goalie and knocked the ball in the goal, but the defender I had dribbled came and kicked the ball off the [goal]line.

In Mexico, I had a lot of goals like that. The defenders give up. I just touch it, and it rolls in. Not here.

SA: Were you frustrated at not scoring in the first four games?

ATC: I really wasn’t. I was just concentrating on changing some aspects of my game.

I know I’m fast enough, but my mechanism was not programmed to be fast any more. All I had to do was change my mechanics and play faster. Get the ball, load up and release the trigger.

by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney