Eric Wynalda

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Personal information
Eric Wynalda
Image from the National Soccer Hall of Fame
Full name	Eric Wynalda
Date of birth	June 9, 1969 (age 37)
Place of birth	Fullerton, CA, United States
Height	6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Nickname	Waldo
Playing position	Forward
Youth clubs
1987–89	San Diego State
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1988-1989 1990–92 1992–94 1994–96 1996–98 1999 1999–2000 2000–01 2001	San Diego Nomads San Francisco Bay Blackhawks Saarbrücken VfL Bochum San Jose Clash → León (loan) Miami Fusion New England Revolution Chicago Fire	06 0(0) 17 0(5) 61 (21) 29 0(4) 57 (21) 05 0(3) 12 0(3) 08 0(0) 21 (10)
National team
1990–2000	United States	107 (34)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Eric Wynalda (born June 9, 1969 in Fullerton, California) is a former American soccer forward, the all-time leading scorer for the U.S. National Team. Wynalda scored the first goal ever in Major League Soccer in 1996 and was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2004.

Wynalda grew up in Westlake Village, California, where he attended Westlake High School. He was a three time All State selection with the school's boys soccer team and a youth club team mate of fellow national team player Cobi Jones.

He attended San Diego State University from 1987 to 1989 where he played for the Aztecs men's soccer team, scoring 34 goals and assisting on 25 others during his three seasons. His freshman year, SDSU went to the NCAA Men's Soccer Championship game where it lost to the Bruce Murray led Clemson Tigers. While at SDSU, he also played two seasons with the local semi-pro San Diego Nomads of the Western Soccer Alliance. In 1988, he played a single game and in 1989, he played 5 games with the Nomads.

Wynalda earned his first cap against Costa Rica on February 2, 1990. On March 14, 1990, he signed a contract with the United States Soccer Federation which made him a full time national team player. Later that year, Wynalda played in his first World Cup gaining the honor of becoming the first U.S. player to be ejected from a World Cup game. That came when Czechoslovakian midfielder Lubomir Moravcik baited Wynalda in front of a referee. Wynalda, showing his immaturity, retaliated and was shown red.^[1] After the World Cup, Wynalda signed with the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League where he quickly gained a reputation as a loose cannon. He played only a handful of games with the Blackhawks, devoting most of his time to the national team. In 1992, he was kicked off the team for being disruptive and constantly bickering with the coach. When no other U.S. teams expressed an interest in picking him up, Wynalda announced that he planned to move to Europe. Despite widespread skepticism at the time, he did just that and became the first American-born player to play for a Bundesliga club. Wynalda began with Saarbrücken where he played from 1992 to 1994. He had an immediate impact on the club, scoring eight goals in the first half of the season. However, his output dropped after the winter break and he only scored once in the second half. Saarbrücken finished the 1992-1993 at the bottom of the Bundesliga standings and was relegated to the Second Division. Wynalda scored twelve goals in the 1993-1994 season and was transfered to fellow Second Division club VfL Bochum at the end of the season for $850,000. Wynalda failed to equal his scoring exploits with Bochum, and experienced a falling out with the club. He had a hernia operation on August 30th which put him out of action. While convalesing, he criticized the club and its coach, leading to the coach suspending Wynalda.^[2] In early 1996, he returned to the U.S.

In the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Eric scored on a free kick as the United States tied Switzerland. He also played in Copa America 1995, where he was named to the all-tournament team after scoring against Chile and Argentina.

Wynalda came back to the States in 1996, signing with Major League Soccer (MLS). As part of the process of creating the new league, known players were distributed throughout the league's new teams. The league allocated Wynalda to the San Jose Clash, taking him back to the city he had left in disgrace four years earlier. On April 6, 1996 Wynalda scored the first goal in league history in its inaugural game as the Clash beat D.C. United 1-0. He was named U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year.

However, Wynalda's MLS career never lived up to expectations, as he only matched the ten goals he scored in his first season once, in his last. Furthermore, he continued his tradition of creating not getting along with his team mates, coaches and club management. In 1997, he traded punches with team mate John Doyle in a locker room brawl.^[3] His disagreements with coach Laurie Calloway led to his hiring an airplane to tow a banner demanding the team fire Calloway. In 1998, Wynalda participated in his third World Cup, one of four U.S. players (Tab Ramos, Tony Meola and Marcelo Balboa) to earn that honor. Claudio Reyna and Kasey Keller have since gone on to be named to a record four World Cup rosters. After the World Cup, Wynalda began seeking a move back to Europe. While he had publically declared that he would never return to Germany, he now began putting out feelers there. When no German teams expressed an interest in Wynalda, he then sought a move to England. In December, he had a trial with Charlton Athletic, but the team failed to offer Wynalda a contract and Wynalda returned to the Clash.

Wynalda was loaned out to Club León in Mexico in 1999, and was traded by the Clash to the Miami Fusion later that year. On July 8, 2000, the Fusion traded Wynalda to the New England Revolution for Ivan McKinley. On May 3, 2001, the Revs sent him to the Chicago Fire for John Wolyniec, where he finished his MLS career, ending up with a total of 34 MLS goals (plus two in the playoffs). In 2002, Wynalda joined the Los Angeles Galaxy, announcing that he planned to retire with the team. However, he left the Galaxy during the team's pre-season tour of Chile in order to pursue an offer to play professionally in China. When that offer fell through, he returned to the Galaxy only to leave it for the Charleston Battery of the USL First Division after feuding with the MLS front office about his salary. MLS was offering to pay Wynalda $43,000 for the 2002 season which Wynalda considered much too low. As the Battery had offered him $75,000, Wynalda joined that team only to tear his anterier cruciate ligament in a pre-season match. He elected to retire from professional soccer and became a broadcast announcer.

Wynalda retired from the US National Team as its all-time leading scorer with 34 goals in 106 appearances. He was named the Honda US Player of the Decade for the 1990s and elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2004.

In 2005, the Bakersfield Brigade (USL) hired Wynalda as its technical director.^[4]

He has also continued to play with an Over-30 amateur team, Hollywood United, with former U.S. internationals Alexi Lalas and John Harkes, as well as French international Frank Leboeuf and British national team player Vinnie Jones.^[5] United plays in the Los Angeles Olympic Soccer League.^[6]

[edit] Broadcast Career

Wynalda is currently a soccer analyst for ESPN. He was also the in-studio analyst for 2006 FIFA World Cup on United States, English-language broadcasts. He was one of the most vocal critics of USA's head coach, Bruce Arena, in the 2006 World Cup. However, after the World Cup, he was amicably paired in-studio with Arena as co-analysts for some 2006 MLS Cup playoff games, a successful arrangement which has continued with ESPN's coverage of the US National Team in 2007. During a discussion with the soccer blog Fulham USA on April 4, 2007 he made some disparaging remarks aimed at fellow ESPN broadcaster Jim Rome. Wynalda was quoted as saying "Jim Rome can suck my d---! And he should be very afraid, because I'm the kind of guy, if I get too many drinks in me, I will club his a--." [7] He later apologized. Despite the apology, Wynalda is becoming one of the biggest and most interesting critics to arrive in the American game. Wynalda will be one of the main analysts for ESPN and ABC during the 2007 Major League Soccer season.

[edit] External links

Preceded by Alexi Lalas	U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year 1996	Succeeded by Kasey Keller

	United States squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup
1 Meola \| 2 Trittschuh \| 3 Doyle \| 4 Banks \| 5 Windischmann \| 6 Harkes \| 7 Ramos \| 8 Bliss \| 9 Sullivan \| 10 Vermes \| 11 Wynalda \| 12 Krumpe \| 13 Eichmann \| 14 Stollmeyer \| 15 Armstrong \| 16 Murray \| 17 Balboa \| 18 Keller \| 19 Henderson \| 20 Caligiuri \| 21 Covone \| 22 Vanole \| Coach: Gansler

	United States squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup
1 Meola \| 2 Lapper \| 3 Burns \| 4 Kooiman \| 5 Dooley \| 6 Harkes \| 7 Perez \| 8 Stewart \| 9 Ramos \| 10 Wegerle \| 11 Wynalda \| 12 Sommer \| 13 Jones \| 14 Klopas \| 15 Moore \| 16 Sorber \| 17 Balboa \| 18 Friedel \| 19 Reyna \| 20 Caligiuri \| 21 Clavijo \| 22 Lalas \| Coach: Milutinović

	United States squad - 1998 FIFA World Cup
1 Friedel \| 2 Hejduk \| 3 Pope \| 4 Burns \| 5 Dooley \| 6 Regis \| 7 Wegerle \| 8 Stewart \| 9 Moore \| 10 Ramos \| 11 Wynalda \| 12 Agoos \| 13 Jones \| 14 Preki \| 15 Deering \| 16 Sommer \| 17 Balboa \| 18 Keller \| 19 Maisonneuve \| 20 McBride \| 21 Reyna \| 22 Lalas \| Coach: Sampson