Davis Sees His Dream Slip Away : Soccer: He was once America’s finest player. Now, at the age of 31, he’s recovering from a knee injury, hoping to make the World Cup team.

When Rick Davis was 6, he got his first look at soccer--a closed-circuit showing of the 1966 World Cup final.

From that moment on, Davis dreamed of the United States playing in the World Cup--with him leading the way.

Now with half of his dream completed, Davis may never get to see the second part of his vision fulfilled.

At 31, Davis is trying to return from a knee injury which at first seemed minor but has required three operations in less than nine months. It has kept him out of soccer for more than a year and likely will keep him out of the one thing he has dedicated his life to--the World Cup.

“I look at Ricky and the guy’s done everything in the game in America,” said teammate and friend Brent Goulet. “And it would be a shame if someone like him couldn’t play in the World Cup. But that’s the reality of it, you never know what’s going to happen.”

Davis played on the U.S. youth national teams and by 18 was playing in the North American Soccer League with the Cosmos next to international superstars Pele, Franz Beckenbauer and Giorgio Chinaglia.

Not much later he was named captain of the U.S. national team and kept that title for 10 years.

Davis has scored more goals (nine) and played in more full internationals (43) than any player in U.S. history.

But all that means is he’s been around a long time and now he’s getting old.

Davis’ last appearance with the U.S. team was in September 1988, at the Olympics in South Korea, where he captained the squad to a respectable 0-1-2 showing.

Three months later at his daughter’s grammar school near their home in the Seattle area, Davis was teaching a gym class. During a stretching exercise he felt a pinch in his right knee.

Two days before Christmas he had arthroscopic surgery to repair a slight cartilage tear. He missed the United States’ appearance at the first FIFA indoor tournament in January but was expected to make the U.S. team’s training camp in late January.

But the knee kept swelling. On March 1, he had more surgery, but still the knee wouldn’t heal. On August 21, he had to have a third operation, all the while missing eight crucial World Cup qualifying games.

Now, after captaining the United States for 10 years, he is fighting for one of 22 spots to go to Italy in June for the World Cup.

“What Rick is trying to do is going to be extremely difficult,” said U.S. Coach Bob Gansler, who will make the roster decision. “You just can’t put the game aside for a year and half and now in a couple of months get it back to a level where you can play on the national team.

“As I told him, certainly my heart says, ‘Go for it, and pursue your dream.’ But my mind says, ‘This is going to be extremely, extremely difficult.’ It is possible? Yes. Is it probable? No.”

Davis had been training on his own and wasn’t invited to the team’s early January or current training camps, the first since the qualifying victory over Trinidad and Tobago in November that put the United States in the World Cup.

“He (Gansler) explained that he needs me to be training in a regular training environment and playing some games before he wants to bring me in to work out with the team and see about the possibility of me rejoining the team,” Davis said.

Having not played with a club since the 1987-88 season, when he played with the Tacoma Stars of the Major Indoor Soccer League, Davis had to find a new team.

An outdoor club would have been best, but the U.S. outdoor leagues don’t start training until March.

He had several offers to train with teams abroad, but with three small children and his wife expecting a fourth, Davis had no interest in leaving the United States.

On Jan. 10, he signed a contract with the Stars to play indoors.

“I realize that the MISL, as told to me by Bob Gansler, is not the ideal solution,” Davis said. “It’s not outdoor soccer and it’s not the ideal preparation.”

Still Davis plays with Tacoma hoping to get an invitation to one of the four remaining U.S. team training camps scheduled between now and April.

Davis’ dream may not only be frustrating, it will be costly. Sources have said that because of the MISL’s salary cap, Davis’ contract from Jan. 10 to Jan. 25 was for $1. From Jan. 25 to Feb. 25 it will be for another $1. And for the two to three months the season continues, he will make the league minimum $2,500 per month.

Since joining Tacoma, the knee has done “pretty well,” Davis said. “Better than I thought it was going to. At this point I feel like I’m, I guess about as recovered as I’m going to be. I feel great.

“I’m not getting any reactions at all. It doesn’t swell. It doesn’t bother me. I get up in the morning on cold days and it aches a little, but so does just about every other joint in my body.”

But nothing matches the ache inside when he thinks of missing the World Cup. He couldn’t bear to watch the team play during qualifying.

“There isn’t anything verbally that I could say that I think anybody would understand,” Davis said. “The emotions were so powerful and so strong within me and yet so opposite of one another. It’s the epitome of being pulled in opposite directions.”

Davis still believes he can help the U.S. team, but a spot for old times’ sake will not be forthcoming.

“I cannot choose this squad using sentimentality as a criterion,” Ganlser said. “It’s got to be who can produce. Who can augment the squad we already have. Who can make us a better team.”

Davis may know if it’s time to step back by spring.

“I don’t have a timetable, but he (Ganlser) must,” Davis said. “I would say as a deadline I would look at April as being about the last time that I might be willing as a coach to bring in people.”

Despite his competitive urge, Davis realizes after 13 years as a professional, the end is near.