Wegerle Leads Return From Europe : Soccer: The South African-born player leaves England to play for United States against Peru.

Whether they are viewed as reinforcements or saviors, the return of the European-based players to the U.S. national soccer team has begun, and their addition is expected to have a profound impact.

The first to arrive is Roy Wegerle, who will start tonight when the United States plays host to Peru at Trabuco Hills High in Mission Viejo at 7:30.

Wegerle, who plays in England, will be joined by seven other U.S. national team members who play in Europe as they assemble to prepare for next month’s U.S. Cup tournament against Brazil, England and Germany.

Expected to play in the U.S. Cup are John Harkes, who also plays in England; Ernie Stewart, Eric Wynalda, Thomas Dooley and Peter Woodring, who all play in the German Bundesliga; Tab Ramos, who plays in Spain, and Frank Klopas, who plays in the Greek first division.

Wegerle, 29, has joined the national team at its training center in Mission Viejo and has been training again after a two-week layoff. He is expected to help solve the U.S. team’s goal-scoring drought.

Born in Pretoria, South Africa, Wegerle was one of that country’s brightest schoolboy players. But because of the international bans in place at the time against South Africa, Wegerle’s dream to be a professional player appeared bleak.

His older brother, Steve, provided the opportunity to move on when--while playing for the Tampa Bay Rowdies of the old North American Soccer League--he brought Roy to America, and the younger Wegerle caught the attention of the coach at the University of South Florida.

In 1982, Wegerle was an All-American as a freshman. He played only one more year at South Florida, then turned pro. He was was the Rowdies’ first pick in the 1984 draft and was named the NASL’s rookie of the year.

However, as his career began to bloom, soccer’s status in the United States withered. The NASL folded and Wegerle joined the displaced outdoor players who found an uncomfortable home playing indoor soccer--briefly.

His dream was to play in England, and that happened when he joined the first-division team of Chelsea. From there he moved to Luton Town and scored 23 goals. In 1989 he was named the club’s player of the year.

“When you go to a new country as a foreigner, you have to earn respect,” Wegerle said. “Any foreigner going to England--you’re going to take a local fellow’s job. Then, in my case, they saw me as being an ‘American’ player because I had been in the NASL. I had to prove myself.”

Wegerle did that by scoring goals. He also proved the tag of American to be accurate when, in 1991, he became a U.S. citizen.

He has returned to the national team as it prepares for the U.S. Cup, the team’s most important tournament in a busy summer the year before the World Cup.

“We need to prove to ourselves that we are capable of playing with the best teams in the world,” Wegerle said. “But we also want to prove to the American public that we are a team that’s worthy of their support. If we lose, that will be difficult.”