‘Gooch’ Is Loose
Just as Landon Donovan has become the creator for the U.S. national soccer team, so Oguchi Onyewu could become the destroyer.
For Donovan, the now-you-see-him, now-you-don’t attacking midfielder and sometime forward, it is all about speed, trickery and vision. He is action and reaction, all in an instant. His being only 5 feet 8 and 148 pounds means nothing.
Onyewu, on the other hand, is a central defender, and physique means a great deal. Apart from the obvious attributes, what U.S. Coach Bruce Arena wants in the position is presence, the more intimidating the better, and at 6-4 and 210 pounds, Onyewu provides it.
Small by NBA standards, Onyewu is huge by U.S. soccer’s traditional measuring sticks.
The tallest and heftiest starting defender for the U.S. in the last four World Cups was Alexi Lalas in 1994, at 6-3 and 195 pounds.
Onyewu has one inch and 15 pounds on Lalas.
“He’s been in the weight room a lot, apparently; he’s like a middle linebacker,” Donovan said the other day at the Seattle Seahawks’ training facility in Kirkland, Wash., where the U.S. players were working out in the rain.
After Onyewu had gone 90 minutes in a 2-0 victory over Canada on Saturday, U.S. goalkeeper Kasey Keller put it another way.
“I don’t think he lost a ball all day,” Keller said. “That’s a great advantage, especially when you start playing against the big strikers out there who are going to make it difficult for you.
“When you have some big, strong center backs back there, it’s a big advantage. When teams get a little bit frustrated and maybe start having to play the ball long over the top, good luck.”
Onyewu looks the part. Spot him strolling through an airport and he is immediately recognizable as an athlete. Basketball or football come quickly to mind. His being a soccer player catches some by surprise.
But that path had been laid out for him ever since his birth, in Washington, D.C., 23 years ago.
His father came from Nigeria and was a soccer player long before attending Howard University. Son followed father, and Onyewu played for two seasons at Clemson before turning professional -- not in Major League Soccer but in Europe, where he starts for Standard Liege in Belgium.
But that is getting ahead of the tale. First, the name.
To help the tongue-tied, U.S. Soccer provides a pronunciation guide: It’s “Oh-GOOCH-ee Own-YAY-woo.”
To help the still-mystified, the U.S. provides some interpretation: Oguchi means “God fights for me.”
The players have made it easier still. They simply call him “Gooch.”
Onyewu is a newcomer on the national team. Saturday’s game against Canada in Seattle was only his fifth appearance. But he has been on the radar for six years.
He was a starter for the U.S. at the FIFA Under-17 World Championship in New Zealand in 1999 -- the same team that produced Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley -- and was a starter at the FIFA World Youth Championship in Argentina in 2001.
He made his national-team debut nine months ago, against Panama in October, but is still only 167 minutes into his international career.
By the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he should be a dominant force. Whether he can progress fast enough to be included in Arena’s Germany 2006 plans is the big question.
That’s where the Gold Cup comes in. The 12-nation tournament, in which the U.S. plays Costa Rica at Foxboro, Mass., today, is giving Onyewu the opportunity to show that he belongs on next summer’s World Cup roster.
The competition will be keen. Eddie Pope, Gregg Berhalter and Pablo Mastroeni are World Cup veterans. Carlos Bocanegra and Cory Gibbs are playing at a high level in Europe. Greg Vanney, Danny Califf, Nat Borchers and Chad Marshall give Arena other options.
Onyewu’s task is to show that he is as capable as or better than any of them.
“I think his experiences with Liege have been good for him,” Arena said. “He’s getting a lot of games. I think if we looked at it statistically, he probably played about 35 quality matches last year, which is good.
“[By] getting in games with the U.S. team over the next year, I think he can position himself to be a starter in the World Cup. It remains to be seen, but he’s certainly capable of that.
“He’s obviously got a very dominating physical presence. He needs a little bit more experience and [needs] to get a little bit better on the ball and just a little better reading the game, but he’s done well in just the short time I’ve seen him.”
*
Donovan remembers what Onyewu was like in 1999, when the U.S. reached the quarterfinals of the Under-17 World Championship in New Zealand.
“He used to play at center back, right back sometimes, but he was just so raw,” Donovan said. “I mean, you’d look at him and say, ‘How is he playing soccer?’ But he’s gotten a lot better. His feet are a lot better, and he’s smarter.
“He’s learned the position, and he’s a good player.”
Veteran Canadian striker Dwayne DeRosario, who was shadowed and shut out by Onyewu on Saturday, concurs.
“He’s a solid defender,” DeRosario said. “He reads the game very well. He knows when to step. He knows when to hold his balance. We tried to get around him. Ideally, you want the balls to the left or right side of him instead of over the top because he’s definitely big and he reads the game well.”
Onyewu is learning his craft in Belgium, but his potential was spotted by French scouts at the World Youth Championship in Argentina in 2001. By the next March, he had signed a four-year contract with FC Metz of the French league.
“MLS was definitely an option; I did talk to them for a little bit,” Onyewu said. “But all the other soccer players in America, their dream is to play in Europe, so why pass up that opportunity when it was in front of me?”
Metz signed him and then lent him first to Louviere in the Belgian league and later to Standard Liege, which thought so highly of him that it acquired his contract.
Now established as a starter at his club, Onyewu is looking ahead. Can he make Arena’s World Cup squad?
“Oh man, I don’t know,” he said. “I’m just happy to be here right now.... Hopefully, we’ll qualify and I’ll be in the pool.
“I think if I want to be the best I can, I have to work on every aspect. You have to be that much better than everybody else if you want to be on the pitch.
“Take Landon, for instance. Being a young player in the last World Cup, he had to do that much extra work. So that’s what I’m trying to do, being one of the youngest central defenders. Just bring that much more to every training session.”
Having had to defend against Donovan and Beasley in training has helped Onyewu become soccer-savvy.
“I was with them since we were 16,” he said. “It’s fun to grow up together and watch them progress. It puts a smile on my face to see how far we’ve all come.
“A lot of people think because of my size I’m slow, but long strides cover a lot of ground. It’s fun to defend small guys like that.
“I’m just trying to bring all my strengths to the game. I know my size is a big factor. There are not too many 6-4, 210 defenders out there. So I’m trying to use my presence as well as anything else I can contribute to the team.”
Making the World Cup roster will be a sizable challenge, but Onyewu looks capable of meeting it.
