Alexi Lalas

Panayotis Alexander "Alexi" Lalas (born June 1, 1970, Birmingham, Michigan) is a retired American soccer player who played mostly as a defender for the United States National Soccer Team in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He became the first modern-era American soccer player to play in the Italian Serie A.^[1]

Following his playing career, Lalas served as the president and general manager of both the New York Red Bulls and Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. He was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2006. He currently works as an analyst with ESPN and ABC Sports

Personal life

Lalas was born on June 1, 1970, in Birmingham, Michigan, to a Greek father, Demetrius Lalas, and an American mother, Anne Harding Woodworth. His father was a professor who later became the director of Greece's national observatory, while his mother is a writer and poet. His brother, Greg Lalas, played in MLS with the Tampa Bay Mutiny and currently works as an analyst and commentator for the New England Revolution.

Playing career

High school

Lalas attended Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. While he did not begin playing soccer until he was eleven, he had honed his skills enough to be named the 1987 Michigan High School Player of the Year his senior year. In addition to playing soccer, he was a member and a captain of his state's high school state championship hockey team.^[2]

College

Lalas attended Rutgers University where he played on the men’s soccer team from 1988 to 1991. During his four seasons at Rutgers, he led the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA Final Four in 1989 and the National Championship Game in 1990.^[3] Lalas was named a third team All-American in 1989 and 1990. In 1991, he gained first team All American recognition and was selected as both the Hermann Trophy and Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year awards. As in high school, Lalas also played hockey in college, leading the team in scoring in 1989.^[4]

Arsenal

After college and the 1992 Olympics, Lalas trained with former Arsenal player Bob McNab in California. This led to a trial with Arsenal during the winter of 1992. Lalas trained with and played for the Reserve team.^[5]

Padova

Following the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Lalas signed with Italian Serie A club Padova. While Lalas anchored the team’s defense and scored three goals off set pieces (including against AC Milan & Internazionale), Padova finished the 1994-1995 season at the bottom of the standings. Only after winning a relegation play off on June 10, 1995, did the team ensure its survival in the top ranks for the next season. On June 25, 1995, Major League Soccer (MLS) signed Lalas to a play for one of the new league’s teams. While MLS had intended to begin playing in 1995, it had run into difficulties and so delayed the first season until 1996. In order to allow Lalas to maintain his match fitness, MLS loaned him back to Padova for the 1995-1996 season. Lalas last played for Padova in a home game against Lazio on February 25, 1996.

MLS

Prior to the inaugural Major League Soccer (MLS) draft in February 1996, the league allocated high profile players throughout the league’s ten teams. As part of this process, MLS placed Lalas with the New England Revolution. Lalas was a regular on the Revs backline during the 1996 and 1997 seasons. In November 1997, the Revs loaned Lalas to Ecuadorian First Division Club Emelec for a month. He returned to New England at the end of December only to find himself traded to the MetroStars on February 4, 1998. He spent the 1998 season with the MetroStars before being traded, along with Tony Meola, to the Kansas City Wizards for Mark Chung and Mike Ammann on January 28, 1999. Lalas spent one season with the Wizards before announcing his retirement on October 10, 1999. Just over a year later, he returned to playing when he signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy as a discovery player on January 14, 2001. Nearly three years later, he retired again, this time permanently, on January 12, 2004.^[6]

National team

Lalas earned 96 caps, scoring nine goals, with the U.S. National Team between 1991 and 1998. His first cap came in a 2-2 tie with Mexico on March 12, 1991 in the 1991 NAFC Championship.^[7] He gained his second cap four days later in a 2-0 win over Canada. While he started both games, he did not gain another cap until he came on for Fernando Clavijo in a 2-2 tie with Denmark on January 30, 1993. His next game, a start, came on March 23, 1993 in a 2-2 tie with El Salvador. While he became a fixture on the team through the rest of 1993, he did not cement his position as a starter in the U.S. central defense until the beginning of 1994. He went on to start and play all ninety minutes in the four U.S. games of the 1994 FIFA World Cup and was named an honorable mention All-Star. On June 11, 1995, Lalas flew directly from a relegation playoff game with his club team, Padova, in order to appear in the second half of a 1995 U.S. Cup victory over Nigeria.^[8] His contributions to the national team led to his selection as the 1995 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year. While Lalas was on the roster for the U.S. at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he never entered a game.^[9] His last cap had come in the final U.S. tuneup for the finals, a May 30, 1998 scoreless tie with Scotland where he was a second half substitute for Ernie Stewart.

Alexi Lalas international goals
#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	May 8, 1993	Miami, United States	Colombia	1–2	Loss	Friendly
2.	June 9, 1993	Foxboro, United States	England	2–0	Win	US Cup
3.	July 17, 1993	Dallas, United States	Honduras	1–0	Win	1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup
4.	November 7, 1993	Fullerton, United States	Jamaica	1–0	Win	Friendly
5.	January 29, 1994	Seattle, United States	Russia	1–1	Draw	Friendly
6.	July 14, 1995	Paysandú, Uruguay	Argentina	3–0	Win	1995 Copa América
7.	October 8, 1995	Washington, United States	Saudi Arabia	4–3	Win	Friendly
8.	February 1, 1997	Guangzhou, PR China	China PR	1–1	Draw	Friendly
9.	June 17, 1997	Jacksonville, United States	Israel	2–1	Win	Friendly

Amateur

Lalas is currently a part-time player for Hollywood United F.C., an American soccer club based in Southern California, primarily made up of celebrities and former pro players.

Lalas was selected as one of three overage players on the U.S. Olympic teams at both the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Post-playing career

Broadcaster

During his sabbatical from soccer in 2000, he announced soccer matches on NBC for the 2000 Summer Olympics and co-hosted ESPN2's MLS Extratime. He also performed in-studio analysis for ESPN and ABC Sports coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, and 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup. In addition, he provided color commentary for San Jose Earthquakes television broadcasts. His opinion about the U.S National team in 2006 was biased, amateur, and laughable calling players like Kasey Keller, "the best goalkeeper in the world" despite top keepers in Europe like Buffon, Cech, and Van de Sar were also present in the competition. When Keller allowed 3 goals in their first round game vs. Czech Republic, Lalas went on to blame Keller for not performing well despite being called his best goalkeeper in the world. The U.S performance in the world cup in Germany was terrible and pathetic just like Lalas' predictions and knowledge of the beautiful game as they lost 2 games and tied one (due to an own goal by Italian Zaccardo), allowing 6 goals in all three games.

General manager

After his retirement from MLS, Lalas took a job as the general manager of the San Jose Earthquakes. In 2005, he was transferred within the Anschutz Entertainment Group organization as a reward for trading the rights to Landon Donovan's contract. He become the president and GM of the MetroStars and oversaw their transition to Red Bull New York, as AEG sold the club to Red Bull. In April 2006, he resigned from that position to take over the Galaxy, also owned by AEG. On August 11, 2008 Lalas was fired as Galaxy GM.

Musical career

Lalas was a member (guitars, vocals) of the Gypsies, releasing two albums Woodland and Jet Lag, and opening eight shows for Hootie & the Blowfish on their 1998 European tour. He released a solo album Ginger and single Goodnight Moon in 1998 on CMC International records.

"The Sitter with Alexi Lalas"

Debuting in the 2009 season, Lalas has a weekly video segment in which he gives color commentary on the happenings around MLS. The segments are brief (2–3 minutes) and discuss all matter of content from league officiating to Lalas' musings of "if he ruled the game". All episodes are streamed directly from the league's website, MLSnet.com, and can be found in the "Exclusives" section. Episodes include:

• Episode 1: "Seattle"
• Episode 2: "Rapid-fire first impressions"
• Episode 3: "Lacking quality in defenders"
• Episode 4: "The lure of playing abroad"
• Episode 5: "Where have all the cowboys gone?"
• Episode 6: "Diving"
• Episode 7: "Coach's challenge"
• Episode 8: "If I ruled the game"
• Episode 9: "Go wide, young men"

Honors

Los Angeles Galaxy

• Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: 2001
• MLS Cup: 2002
• MLS Supporter's Shield: 2002

Rutgers

• Hermann Trophy: 1991
• Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year: 1991

Individual

• Honda Player of the Year: 1995
• U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year: 1995
• MLS Best XI: 2002

Career statistics

^[10]

References

External links

• Profile on UsSoccerPlayers.com
• Soccer times profile
• Alexi Lalas Myspace
• Rutgers soccer history
• Padova stats
• MLS stats
• Alexi Lalas at Allmusic

v • d • e United States squad – 1992 Summer Olympics 1 Friedel • 2 Rast • 3 Lalas • 4 Burns • 5 Imler • 6 Brose • 7 Washington • 8 Lapper • 9 Snow • 10 Reyna • 11 Allnutt • 12 Dayak • 13 Moore • 14 Jones • 15 Ibsen • 16 Lagos • 17 Huwiler • 18 Feuer • 19 Henderson • 20 Onalfo • Coach: Osiander

v • d • e United States squad – 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 Meola • 2 Lapper • 3 Burns • 4 Kooiman • 5 Dooley • 6 Harkes • 7 Pérez • 8 Stewart • 9 Ramos • 10 Wegerle • 11 Wynalda • 12 Sommer • 13 Jones • 14 Klopas • 15 Moore • 16 Sorber • 17 Balboa • 18 Friedel • 19 Reyna • 20 Caligiuri • 21 Clavijo • 22 Lalas • Coach: Milutinović

v • d • e United States squad – 1995 Copa América 1 Friedel • 2 Lapper • 3 Berhalter • 4 Burns • 5 Dooley • 6 Harkes • 7 Moore • 8 Stewart • 9 Ramos • 10 Sorber • 11 Wynalda • 12 Sommer • 13 Jones • 14 Klopas • 15 Bliss • 16 Kirovski • 17 Balboa • 18 Keller • 19 Kerr • 20 Caligiuri • 21 Reyna • 22 Lalas • Coach: Sampson

v • d • e United States squad – 1996 Summer Olympics 1 Keller • 2 McKeon • 3 Walsh • 4 Pope • 5 Peay • 6 Lalas • 7 Baba • 8 Kirovski • 9 Wood • 10 Reyna • 11 Joseph • 12 Pollard • 13 Hejduk • 14 Maisonneuve • 15 Vargas • 16 Smith • 17 Silvera • 18 Snitko • Coach: Arena

v • d • e United States squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 Friedel • 2 Hejduk • 3 Pope • 4 Burns • 5 Dooley • 6 Regis • 7 Wegerle • 8 Stewart • 9 Moore • 10 Ramos • 11 Wynalda • 12 Agoos • 13 Jones • 14 Preki • 15 Deering • 16 Sommer • 17 Balboa • 18 Keller • 19 Maisonneuve • 20 McBride • 21 Reyna • 22 Lalas • Coach: Sampson