In 1996, a 22-year-old from High Point, North Carolina enjoyed a sensational year that would be considered fodder for an inspirational fictional movie about a rising young American soccer star.

Within a span of 251 head-spinning days, this defender went from being an untested rookie in a league’s inaugural season to a starter in the Olympics to scoring the game-winning goal in extra time to making his national team debut – and acquitting himself well in the process.

And Eddie Pope still found time to attend college with all this going on.

The future National Soccer Hall of Famer certainly lived that meteoritic rise to the top of American soccer. No US player prior or since road since has enjoyed such a rapid ascension.

Pope, who played with three Major League Soccer clubs and made 82 appearances with the US national team, had no grand illusions on what he wanted to accomplished two decades ago.

“It was a year that just one thing after another,” he said in a recent interview. “Things kept coming so quickly. Fortunately, I didn’t have time to worry about whether I was going to perform up to a certain level or any of those things.”

Pope was an All-American at the University of North Carolina, having also kicked field goals and extra points for his high school and college football teams. So, it had been established he could do two things at once, a skill he would need to demonstrate several times that year.

“I was almost thrown into the fire,” he said. “That was a probably a blessing in disguise. It was just so fast and furious. After that year, I sort of looked back on it. You think a lot could have gone wrong. I just didn’t have time to sit and worry and overthink things. It was just more of the next thing comes and you do it. Because it was a whirlwind, because it was sink or swim, that was likely an advantage.”

He was tabbed as the second overall pick of the very first MLS college draft by DC United that March. He admitted he did not grow up with aspirations of becoming a pro player, only visions of becoming an Olympian.

“While I was in school there was no league,” he said. “There were rumors starting to be out there that there was going to be a professional league in the US. My goal was to be an Olympian. I didn’t really focus on anything else. Ever since a young age, I wanted to be an Olympian. All of a sudden there was a league. It worked out well for me.”

The 6ft 1in, 180lb defender could not have asked for better environment to transition from college to pro. Bruce Arena, who decided to take the plunge into pro soccer after directing the University of Virginia to five NCAA division championships, was the Olympic and DC coach. And it certainly didn’t hurt that his assistants were Bob Bradley and Glenn “Mooch” Myernick.

“It definitely was a trial by fire,” said Pope, adding that Arena “had the opportunity of watching me day-in and day-out. All the kids that were there at the time had the advantage of the coach being an MLS coach. I was just trying to make that Olympic team. That was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. Every single day you’re competing trying not to get cut.”

The axe never fell for Pope, whose every step seemed to be a learning experience on a club team with established players and internationals. Training sessions were challenging.

“It was just a team that I was on that ended up being a blessing,” Pope said. “I ended on a team that had a lot of seasoned professionals, whether it was Marco [Etcheverry] or [John] Harkes or [Jeff] Agoos or Raul Diaz Arce, or players on their national teams. So the learning curve was really steep, especially the training. You’re thrown in there and you were expected to just to try to keep up. I remember just the practices were being quite difficult. Forget the games. The training sessions were so fast and everyone was so good and technical and smart.”Pope was forced to raise his game several levels just to keep up with his teammates.”

Everything is faster, your decision making has to be faster,” he said. “You pull the play off. If you don’t pull it off, it was more than likely you would get punished for it. In college you would get away with it. It was a bit slower and you use your athleticism more than you could use your brain. Once you become a professional all that goes out the window. You have to think really fast and have the technical ability to pull off a play and not make a mistake.”

Complicating matters, Pope wasn’t only juggling two teams. He also attended UNC on a weekly basis, trying to secure his political science degree. United allowed him to fly back and forth between the nation’s capital and Chapel Hill.

“I would play the game, and then I would get up the next morning and I would have a little shuttle flight to Chapel Hill, tend to classes, stay for a handful of days and they I would fly back,” he said. “DC United was great. I couldn’t have been in a better environment. It was never an issue.”

So, Pope was spinning three plates at once, trying to excel at all three.

“It definitely was not easy, that’s for sure,” he said. “I always felt like school kept my grades sharp for soccer. It might sound silly, but I embraced it. I also realized too I was extremely blessed to have that opportunity. It was something that I didn’t want to squander.”

Pope realized his Olympic dream at the Atlanta Games.

He started all three games for the USA, which was eliminated after three games and five days in the most difficult men’s group. The Americans opened with a 3-1 loss to eventual silver-medalist Argentina, a team that boasted the likes of Hernan Crespo, Ariel Ortega and Diego Simeone. They rebounded with a 2-0 victory over Tunisia two days later but fell short two days after that in a 1-1 draw with eventual fourth-place finishers Portugal. The USA needed a win to advance.

“It clearly didn’t go the way we wanted it to,” Pope said. “We needed a little bit of help from Argentina and they lost an odd game which sort of did us in as well. It was fulfilling to represent my country. It was something that I wanted to do since a young age. Just having the ability to play in an Olympics was unbelievably satisfying – and playing at an international level. If you go back and look at that Argentinean team and look at the players on the field it was gratifying in that way. It was my first taste in playing against some of the best players in the world.



“Every time you get into those games you try to think, ‘How do I grow from this game? I have now seen something I haven’t seen before and how do I grow from that?’ And that’s what I always tried to take from that.”

Pope, right, helped DC get back to the MLS Cup final a year later – and they beat the Colorado Rapids 2-1. Photograph: Al Bello/Getty Images

Then it was back to the reality of United. After stumbling to a 2-8 start, DC went 19-9 the rest of the way. The team was virtually unbeatable in the playoffs, eliminating the NY/NY MetroStars in three games in the Eastern Conference semi-finals and sweeping the regular-season conference champions Tampa Bay Munity in the Eastern final to set up an MLS Cup confrontation with the LA Galaxy at Foxborough Stadium on 20 October 1996.

You probably know about the unsavory conditions the legendary first MLS Cup was played in.



Some 34,643 hearty souls stood for nearly three hours in the rain and wind to watch history in the making between. There were 7,725 no-shows.

“With all this rain and puddles all over the place, it easily could have become something that was unwatchable,” Pope said. “Both teams stuck to the way that they played during the season. Obviously the ball won’t move as well. Everyone certainly was trying to play the game instead of playing the conditions. It made the game extremely exciting, easy to watch. There were some really good goals that were scored and the qualify was high. In spite of the conditions, it was a well-played match.”

United played its part, overcoming a 2-0 deficit with 17 minutes remaining.Barely five minutes in, Ecuadorian international striker Eduardo Hurtado taught Pope a hard lesson, taking advantage of a defensive lapse by the rookie, heading home a right-wing cross from El Salvadoran midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos past goalkeeper Mark Simpson.

“He’s a national team player, a great player,” Pope said at the time. “He taught me a lesson. It was my fault. I lost sight of him. I was trying to redeem myself the rest of the game.”

It was a while before Pope could accomplish that.Galaxy midfielder Chris Armas, who played 66 times for the USA, scored off a 16-yard shot for a seemingly safe two-goal advantage in the 56th minute.Closely marked by Armas, Etcheverry took advantage of some breathing room on two free kicks. First, he sent a left-wing cross to second-half sub Tony Sanneh, who beat defender Robin Fraser with a header goal in the 73rd minute.

“Once you get the first one, then there’s just blood in the water and the other team tightens up and you’re pushing and pushing and pushing,” Pope said. “Everyone gets that shot of adrenaline. Now you’re saying, ‘We don’t have the opportunity to tie it up, we have the opportunity to win it.’ Things were rolling our way. We still had a lot of resolve.”

On another Etcheverry free kick, second-half sub Shawn Medved fired a shot that Mexican international keeper Jorge Campos punched back to the midfielder. Medved right-footed the equalizer home from six yards in the 81st minute, forcing extratime.

Some 3:25 into the extra period, Pope’s time came. Etcheverry sent a corner kick into the penalty area. The rookie eluded defender Curt Onalfo, jumped and headed the ball in from six yards to end the first MLS championship in dramatic fashion.

“When we got the corner kick, that was going to be a good opportunity to score,” he said. “In the last training session that we had the week before we left Bob Bradley made Marco and me practice corner kicks. We were about to stop to finish training. So we did some extra ones.

“That was sort of in my mind. True to form, Marco just hung it up for me. We practiced it a gazillion times. And that’s all I had to do, go up and get it. I was able to put a lot of power on it without worrying about missing because it was floated so perfectly.”

Pope and his teammates celebrated with a long, belly slide on the slick, wet field. No problem, they were drenched already.

“It was a culmination of a really difficult, yet fun season,” he said. “To be able to finish it off that way was a surreal feeling. It wasn’t like we won 3-0. The game ended in an extremely exciting way – heartbreaking obviously for the other team.”

Pope had little time to bask in the glory. Two days later he returned to UNC to take three exams.”At that time, it was better going back to school a winner rather than having lost,” he said. “It wasn’t that big of a deal. I got to see my old coach and teammates. It was a really an enjoyable time.”

He thought he could kick back for a while until US Soccer summoned Pope to join the national team to take some more kicks for World Cup qualifying for France 98.

“I was done with the season, relaxing,” he said. “This is a new experience and opportunity on the horizon. It was exciting.”

Not only did he make the team, Pope started USA’s match against Trinidad & Tobago in Richmond, Virginia. on 10 November. He acquitted himself well, shutting down the speedy Jerren Nixon, who was playing in Switzerland with FC Zurich.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” Pope said. “I was happy to be there and played. They would throw you right to the fire to see how you would do. I didn’t have time to think about it to be nervous or anything. I was getting used to that.”

Pope, currently a player agent for Octagon, started in the USA’s final five qualifiers of the Concacaf semi-final round for the 1998 World Cup.

For most mortals on this planet, 1996 just might have been the best year ever. For Pope, not necessarily.

He had a few major milestones still ahead. He participated in three World Cups, was named MLS defender of the year in 1997 and was chosen to the MLS Best XI in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004.

“After the first year with the national team, this really sets in. If I can stay on the team, I can be playing in a World Cup,” Pope said with a laugh.

“So, there’s a moment when reality does set it and you take a minute to step to think about it. I can possibly end up playing in a World Cup. People would say the 1998 was an absolute disaster. It wasn’t for me. I got to play in a World Cup. I couldn’t believe it. This is something that I could never have thought of or imagined. It wasn’t there were people just like me who were doing it. It wasn’t on TV as much. We learned to really appreciate it. I was fortunate to be in a World Cup. So as the other ones came along it seemed to get better and better. So, it was hard to kind of say that was the best year.”

Regardless, 1996 was one remarkable year for one Eddie Pope, the most memorable year ever for an MLS rookie.