The youngest starting defender by almost a decade, Steve Cherundolo has carved out a spot for himself in the U.S. back line.
If Steve Cherundolo was the type of player to crumble under pressure, his prospects – and those of his country -wouldn’t be nearly so bright.
That his knees haven’t buckled and his psyche hasn’t snapped is a primary reason the United States is 3-0 in the Hexagonal and poised atop the group with a five-point lead.
Squaring up with predators such as Milton “Tyson” Nunez of Honduras and Hernan Medford of Costa Rica is a tough way to earn your second and third caps, but Cherundolo, only 22 and almost 10 years younger than any other starting defender, fit neatly into a back four that conceded just one goal, an unstoppable screamer by Julio De Leon.
“In the first half against Honduras, he was certainly a little nervous,” says assistant coach Dave Sarachan, “but he hung in there and settled in and had a good second half. Against Costa Rica, he did a very good job against Medford and was a little more comfortable trying to get forward after we talked at halftime.”
He’s apparently solved a puzzling, daunting question of how can a nation of more than a quarter-billion people not be able to produce a true right back – the search for which caused Coach Bruce Arena a few headaches in 2000.
“I felt more comfortable, more relaxed,” Cherundolo said after the Costa Rica game in comparison to his performance in Honduras. “I found it easier to play. The tempo of the game I thought we controlled very well. At no point in the game did I feel it was out of our hands, know what I mean?”
Steve Cherundolo’s apparently solved a puzzling, daunting question of how can a nation of more than a quarter-billion people not be able to produce a true right back.
He so frustrated Medford that the Costa Rican winger whacked a ball into the stands rather than be snuffed again by the young American. In the second half, Cherundolo did get beaten in the air several times as Costa Rica tried to take advantage of his 5-foot-6 stature, but nothing got past Kasey Keller.
“There’s going to be situations on the back post with his height,” said Sarachan. “But he’s shown he’s got the composure and the technical ability.”
Perhaps the key to Cherundolo being a good right back is his versatility, as incongruous as it sounds. He played central defender for the University of Portland, swept for the U.S. under-20s and plays several positions for his current club, Hannover 96 of the German Second Division.
“I told him that if he was going to make it in the pros and on the national team, it was going to be at right back,” says Clive Charles, who coached Cherundolo at Portland and on the U.S. Olympic team. “He has everything you need to deal with those wingers coming at you. He’s quick, he’s good getting forward, he’s got great 1-v-1 skills.”
Most discussions about 1-v-1 abilities focus on the offensive end, yet Cherundolo is that rare player capable of sticking with an attacker on the flanks as well as in the middle.
NO OLYMPICS. “He’s a great man-marker,” says U.S. striker Clint Mathis, who has embarrassed more than a few defenders in his time. “You have to be patient and smart and have physical aptitude. That’s hard to find in a young player.”
Cherundolo would have started at the Olympic Games – at right back – but a knee injury he suffered in Germany shortly after playing in the Olympic qualifiers in April 2000 ended that dream and clouded his national team prospects.
“It was the first serious injury I ever had,” he says, “and it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to deal with. Somebody caught me behind with a bad tackle. I was planted on my left leg and it ripped my knee up. You don’t see improvement on a day-to-day basis. It takes a while and I’m kind of impatient.”
Six months of rehabilitation got him back on the field. He needed another four months of training and games to earn a call from Arena. His only previous cap had been in September 1999 for a friendly against Jamaica.
“The first day of training, I was a little surprised,” Cherundolo says of his return to the national team. “You have to adjust. This is a good team. It has a lot of potential.”
Charles spotted that potential when he saw Cherundolo playing for his club team, the San Diego Nomads.
“He’d play center mid, center back,” says Charles. “He just looked like a soccer player. I knew he was too good, that we couldn’t keep him for four years.”
Cherundolo left in January 1999 after his sophomore season. He’d been spotted the previous summer during a U.S. under-20 tour by Hannover general manager Hans Gerber.
Gerber, who had actually been in attendance to scout Dortmund players, recommended Cherundolo to Hannover coach Reinhold Fanz, and the team signed him after a 10-day trial.
He was co-captain of the under-20 team at the World Youth Championship in Nigeria and then settled into the German system.
“It was a gut feeling,” he says of his decision to leave college. “I looked at the other players who went there, and look where they are now. They’re in the national team, they’re making more money, and I think they’re better players. There has to be some reason for that.
“It’s not like I’m a big star. I’d rather not be. If I had a choice to live in America or Germany, I’d choose America. But football and what I’m learning are more important now than lifestyle.”
He left behind supportive parents. Ann and Richard Cherundolo flew from San Diego to Portland for most of their son’s college home games. Richard died after his son joined Hannover.
“They’re great parents, a great family,” says Charles. “The kind of kid he is, he just deals with whatever comes at him.”
Cherundolo has signed an extension to his contract that binds him to Hannover until 2003. Coach Horst Ehrmanntraut was fired while Cherundolo was with the U.S. team for the Costa Rica game – the third coaching switch at Hannover in less than three years.
Cherundolo has played 17 of 20 games for Hannover since coming back from his injury. He usually plays defensive midfielder or on the flanks. Skill on the ball is rarely displayed.
“The Bundesliga 2 is a battle zone,” he says. “It’s not pretty soccer at all. For a typical player, first comes fighting, then running and heading, then football.”
PLAYING SIMPLE. He’s had to endure the typical prejudices and misconceptions about the United States and its soccer as well as the consequences of leaving his club. That first cap in Kingston put him on the bench at Hannover for months.
“When the U.S. beat Germany twice in 1999, they said, ‘It was our ‘B’ team, you guys were lucky, it was just a friendly, we weren’t ready,'” says Cherundolo. “They were making excuses. They don’t respect American soccer, not one bit. But for individual players, it’s different. If you do your business and show you can play, they respect you. It’s that simple.”
And simple is how he plays.
“There’s a concept of watching ball and watching man, and he does both,” says Sarachan. “He’s constantly alert as to where his man is and where the ball is and where his teammates are. He’s sharp enough to understand what the position entails and he’ll do it.”
by Soccer America senior editor Ridge Mahoney