American Trailblazer

Forty years and two days after Neil Armstrong made one giant leap for mankind on the moon, Oguchi Onyewu will make one giant step for American soccer. While the comparison between Armstrong and Onyewu is a little bit of a stretch, I hope you get my meaning. Most of the world laughed at President John F. Kennedy in 1962 when he declared: “We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” The rest, as they say, is history. Seven years later, on July 21, 1969 UTC. Armstrong planted the Stars and Stripes into the moon dust.

Now, if someone had told you ten years ago, or even seven (even though the US had made the quarterfinals of the World Cup in 2002), that a field player from the United States of America would be playing for a top four team in one of the top three soccer leagues in Europe… you would laugh in their face. But today, Onyewu has achieved the unthinkable. Tonight, “Gooch” will take the field as a member of the back line for his new squad, AC Milan of Italy’s Serie A. Although the match is an exhibition, the significance should not be taken lightly. Gooch will have a lot of pressure on him coming from many directions, but there is no doubt he and American goalkeeper Tim Howard have become the trailblazers for future American soccer stars.

If Onyewu is able to crack the starting XI regularly for AC Milan when their season begins, there is no doubt in my mind the world will take notice.

Good luck Gooch.