Soccer Guru
By Leslie Gibson McCarthy
Photograph courtesy of Saint Louis University
Pat McBride has excelled at every level of soccer: as an All-American at SLU, internationally with the U.S. Olympic team and U.S. national team, professionally with the St. Louis Stars and behind the bench as coach of the St. Louis Steamers and at St. Louis Community College–Forest Park. That made him a natural to talk about the World Cup, which opens this month in Germany. But McBride, who grew up playing CYC soccer at Holy Rosary Parish in North St. Louis, also let us in on a little-known fact: He was cut from the freshman soccer team at St. Louis University High.
You got cut? Really? It’s not as bad as it sounds. I got cut after tryouts—but a couple of the players went up to the coach and said, “Hey, we played against this guy in grade school; maybe you should give him another look.” And he did, and a few days later I was on the team.
How has soccer changed in the last 30 years? When I played, defenders were defenders, midfielders were midfielders and forwards were forwards. Now it’s interchangeable. There’s been a trend toward players’ being very good two-way players.
Are young players developed differently in the United States than in Europe or South America? We’re still catching up, and that’s why so many of our quality players are going to Europe and playing over there. [Former SLU player] Brian McBride is playing in Fulham now, which is a first division team in the English league.
What was it like to play internationally? That’s the one thing that’s so difficult to describe. I remember one game I played in Warsaw against the Polish national team. It was 1975, Easter Sunday; I’ll never forget that. We were playing in a stadium that sat 50,000, and they had 55,000 jammed in. Everybody was waving a Polish flag; you could just feel the emotion. We got beat 7-0, but the unique thing was just to have the opportunity to play and feel the atmosphere and the emotion.
How did playing internationally affect you? It really changed me. The first year I played professionally, we had nine different nationalities on our team; seven couldn’t speak English, but you didn’t really need to to play soccer. The game was the teacher— and the unifier, in terms of accepting different personalities and styles.
Why isn't St. Louis the soccer hotbed it was 30 years ago? The lack of a soccer stadium is a big issue. You have to find a guy like [former Anheuser-Busch executive] Denny Long, who had an unbelievable influence on soccer here. It’s going to take someone like him to come forward, promote the game and give it financial backing. I have no doubt that Major League Soccer would be successful here.
What do you expect from the U.S. team this month? We’ve got great players. St. Louisans Chris Klein and Taylor Twellman are in the mix, of course, but the good thing for soccer is that it’s as popular on the East Coast and in Florida as it is in St. Louis. The talent pool is so much broader now, and sometimes we think our players get overlooked, but it has really leveled. What really helped was when the women won the World Cup in 1999. That opened so many doors, and it put pressure on the men to succeed. That group, so far, has done more for soccer in this country than the men.
get your kicks
Want to throw a World Cup party? Better plan three, because the United States (with local stars Taylor Twellman, Chris Klein, Steve Ralston and Pat Noonan as alternates) is guaranteed at least a triple dose of international saves and slide tackles. The first game gets under way at 10:55 a.m., June 12, against the Czech Republic, followed by games on June 17 and June 22.
Whether it's your boss, your kids or your party guests you want to impress, you can watch the World Cup like an expert. Here, compliments of Pat McBride, are four things to look for:
Root, root, root for the underdog. "The pressure on the favorites is tremendous," McBride says. "It makes teams conservative. Germany, Brazil, England—they've got great teams, but they're going to play it tight. The U.S. team should be able to play a lot looser."
There's beauty in a 1-0 game. "The emphasis on scoring in sports has always irked me," McBride says. "You watch—some goalkeepers are going to be making some unbelievable saves."
Respect the skills. Zero in on any player on the field and see how active he is, McBride says, "then multiply that by 20 field players. Fitness is taken for granted. These guys are running hard for 90 minutes."
Defense is crucial. "It's not good enough anymore for defenders to just get goalside," McBride says. "You got to get in a guy's face."
And if all that technical knowledge doesn't help, just switch the broadcast to cable's Univision and listen to the enthusiastic play-by-play in Spanish. Goooaaaaallllllllll!
