Loose Cannon : Eric Wynalda Always Has Been Able to Score Goals, but Not Points for Popularity. He Tries to Do Both Playing in Germany.

The future of American soccer has arrived and it is Eric Wynalda.

Why does that cause so many in this country’s soccer Establishment to wince?

Could it be because Wynalda, a 23-year-old forward from Westlake Village, has been kicked off virtually every team he has been a part of? Could his ejection from the first World Cup game in which he played have lingering repercussions? Have his brashness and self-confidence irritated coaches to the extent that they have been blinded to his talent?

These questions and more are on the minds of soccer coaches and officials as Wynalda continues to pile up goals in the German Bundesliga--one of the world’s strongest professional soccer leagues. Wynalda, playing for FC Saarbrucken, has been on a scoring tear with six goals in 11 games, placing him third in league goal scoring.

An American playing in the German first division, the first American to do so, and a player who is fast becoming a phenomenon with German fans: That happy news has provoked a mixed reaction in U.S. soccer circles.

Most say they hope Wynalda’s success portends a future where more Americans will be playing overseas. But others are a little surprised that a player with Wynalda’s bad reputation would be the one to spearhead the breakthrough.

“Eric has always had a lot of confidence, but it may be a little misplaced,” said Bob Gansler, who coached the 1990 U.S. World Cup team and is the director of coaching and player development for the U.S. Soccer Federation. “He doesn’t quite have the reins on it that people would like to see.”

Gansler gave Wynalda his first break by inviting the young player to a tryout for the World Cup team. Gansler saw Wynalda and his San Diego State team play in the NCAA soccer final against Clemson. The Aztecs lost, but Wynalda made an impression on Gansler.

Gansler’s impression was not altogether

positive--flashes of brilliance surrounded by long periods of inattention.

“He tore it up one day, and the next day he was pedestrian, at best,” Gansler said.

Foremost, however, Gansler recognized Wynalda’s uncanny knack for scoring, a component missing from the U.S. national team as it tried to qualify for the 1990 World Cup. The U.S. team was held scoreless through 238 minutes in qualifying, and a potential scorer looked good to Gansler. The discipline would come later, he thought.

“The tag on him was that he was definitely high maintenance,” Gansler said of Wynalda. “But he didn’t seem that way to me to me at first. Obviously, under the ultimate pressure of the World Cup, something surfaced.”

The United States qualified for the World Cup in Italy, for the first time in 40 years. But Gansler and his teammates heard nothing but tittering from European journalists, who predicted disaster for the young U.S. team.

The United States played its opening game against a physical Czech team. In the first half, Wynalda received a referee’s warning for elbowing an opposing player in the head. Then, early in the second half, Jozef Chovanec of Czechoslovakia backed into Wynalda and stomped on his foot. Wynalda said he threw up his arm to keep the player at bay, but the referee saw only a flagrant foul and red-carded Wynalda.

Wynalda’s ejection meant the U.S. team had to play the rest of the game one player short. Czechoslovakia won, 5-1.

The next day his teammates and the coaching staff were critical of Wynalda. They believed that the Czechs, knowing of Wynalda’s temper, made him a target. A more disciplined player would not have reacted, they said.

It did little to alleviate the criticism when, a few days later, the president of the international soccer federation said he believed the penalty against Wynalda was uncalled-for. Wynalda still had to sit out the biggest game for the United States, against Italy.

Reputations are often made in an instant. It takes much longer to lose them. Wynalda never did lose his. His image as the California surfer dude was reinforced in February of this year. The United States was to play Brazil for the first time in 62 years. Wynalda showed up at the airport in Miami without his passport, was sent home and fined $1,000.

In May, Bora Milutinovic, coach of the U.S. national team, sent Wynalda home after he elbowed a teammate in the face. A month later, Wynalda was released by the San Francisco Blackhawks of the the American Professional Soccer League, reportedly after contract problems and disputes with teammates.

Wynalda has his supporters. His family is tired of hearing about Eric’s bad-boy reputation. Speaking from the soccer specialty store that she and her husband own in Westlake Village, Sue Wynalda acknowledged that her son is outspoken, but said that’s not always a bad thing.

“I think some of the criticism is deserved,” she said. “If people get in his face, he’s going to tell them what he thinks. I admire that. But this other stuff is all so vague. I’d like for someone to tell me what he’s done wrong. On the field, Eric is competitive. And he’s successful.”

It has always been so. Wynalda was a star when he was 8, scoring 56 goals in leading his youth team to a state championship. At Westlake High, Wynalda scored 88 goals in three varsity seasons.

Even now, with limited playing time on the national team, Wynalda has scored five goals in seven games this year. Consider that some players are with the team full time and have played in 30 games and still don’t come close to his goal production.

This has not been overlooked in Europe, where skepticism about American players is rampant. Still, Peter Neururer, Saarbrucken’s coach, saw in Wynalda something he liked. Neururer has a reputation of working well with “problem” players and he has assembled a team that is a kind of the L.A. Raiders of the Bundesliga. For many players, this would be their last chance.

Added to that, Saarbrucken was only this year promoted to the first division, and Wynalda was walking into a pressure-filled situation when he joined the team this fall.

Neururer was happy to have him. And, by international soccer standards, Saarbrucken got a bargain. The German team bought Wynalda’s rights from the USSF for a $405,000 transfer fee and signed him to a two-year contract that pays him a $200,000 yearly salary as well as free use of an apartment and car.

The investment paid immediate dividends. Wynalda scored a hat trick in his first German Cup match, then scored two goals to help Saarbrucken defeat the league champion. Whatever dubious curiosity German fans had about an American player was suddenly transformed into that peculiarly European soccer madness.

“It’s amazing and it’s a little scary,” Wynalda said from his apartment in Saarbrucken, a city of 250,000 near the French border. “I think they are surprised that I’m an American and doing so well.”

Wynalda’s success, and the German reaction to it, can be seen as a kind of backhanded compliment. Because expectations are so low for American soccer players, practically any ability evidenced by an American would result in astonished praise.

“The Germans like to think that they are the best,” Wynalda said. “The Italians like to think they are the best and so do the French. Because there haven’t been many Americans playing in Europe, they think none of us are as good as they are. I guess I’m carrying the flag.”

Actually, the flag has been carried for decades in European soccer. Most recently Tab Ramos and John Harkes, both members of the 1990 World Cup team, have had success in European professional leagues. Harkes is playing in the English first division and Ramos for a second-division team in Spain. In all, there are 28 Americans playing professional soccer in Europe.

“Tab and then John Harkes showed the way,” Gansler said. “The perception now is that all of a sudden Americans are in Europe. We’ve been there. But European coaches are starting to see that Americans can play well. Eric put an exclamation point on it.”

Wynalda’s pop-star fame certainly exceeds anything lavished on an American soccer player. He has been inundated with endorsement offers and currently appears in an ad where he smiles and holds up a sausage. Germans are fascinated with Wynalda’s California image. He has been nicknamed “Sunny Boy” and “Beach Boy” and, despite the autumn chill is frequently photographed standing next to a pool.

“It’s almost too much,” Wynalda said. “This California thing--they think I still have sand between my toes. It’s not something I’m seeking, but I do want to do some commercial things. I’ve never seen anything like these fans. You’ll actually see a swing in the local economy when the team does well.”

Wynalda’s older brother, Brandt, has moved to Saarbrucken to help Eric handle his business opportunities.

“He’s become something of a pop icon,” Brandt said. “He’s got the blond hair, the blue eyes, he’s from California. Their eyes light up when you say Los Angeles. It’s a phenomenon. Heads turn when we go in to restaurants. He’s mobbed. In Europe, soccer is akin to a religion. Our plan is to market Eric in the long term, so that he has something after soccer.”

News of Wynalda’s fame has been slow to cross the Atlantic. To most Americans, soccer is a hobby, not a religion, and getting domestic contracts is still difficult.

Shelli Azoff, who represents many soccer players and is trying to find endorsements for Wynalda here, is candid about sponsor interest in the sport.

Asked what kind of interest she has found in Wynalda, Azoff said: “None. But you have to realize that there’s no interest in anyone domestically.”

Wynalda might be on the cutting edge for Americans in Europe, but his success has apparently done little to boost the game at home. Alan Rothenberg, president of the USSF and organizer of the 1994 World Cup to be held in the United States, sees a trend.

“I think two things are happening,” Rothenberg said. “The various games the U.S. team has had along the way have opened a lot of eyes. Then the success of other players, like Ramos and Harkes, has helped open doors. I think it’s an absolute trend. It’s inevitable that with the number of players coming out of our program, we will be sending more young players to Europe.”

If more are like Wynalda, the Europeans will be happy, even if the Americans are blase.