Friday, April 25, 2003 ESPNsoccernet: May 21, 12:32 AM UK
Kicking It with ... Chris Carrieri
Marc Connolly
Editor's note: In Part I of Marc Connolly's interview with Chris Carrieri, the no-nonsense Colorado striker shared his thoughts on his playing situation with the Rapids for the 2003 season. Today in Part II, Carrieri talks about his on-field attitude, his favorite goal-scorer and where he'll be five years down the road.
Through hard work, Chris Carrieri hopes to get a crack at the U.S. National Team. (Andy Lyons/GettyImages)
Connolly: Who are some other players you enjoy watching?Carrieri: I like watching the young guys because I like to see young guys succeed instead of all the big-time veterans. I just love watching the games. Some guys in our league are like, 'Aw, I don't like watching MLS game,' and that's ridiculous. I love it. That D.C.-Chicago game was sometimes like watching grass grow, but it was fun to watch because there's guys that I know and want to watch, and guys that I want to see succeed. It's just fun. I don't know why more people don't watch the games.Connolly: Being from UNC where so many players went to school before playing in MLS, do you keep tabs on those players in particular?Carrieri: Yeah, of course. I'm not very closely tied with UNC anymore because, you know, you have to move on and start my life in Colorado. But I watch the guys coming into the league. A year or two before I came to Chapel Hill, a couple of guys started breaking into the league. My whole recruiting class was basically the start of North Carolina becoming an all-around great program. Unfortunately, when I left early they won a national championship. I always get beefed for that.But through the last few years (head coach) Elmar (Bolowich) has created many good professionals that can play in the league. We just picked up Matt Crawford, who is our right back and a starter. He had a little bit of a welcoming against San Jose, but he's going to learn and he just needs a little experience. But any UNC player in the league I keep tabs on and hope they do well. I watched Logan Pause (Chicago Fire) a little bit. They didn't mention him too much and he wasn't in the action a lot, but he's just a solid player that's going to play simple.Connolly: He was excellent down in Florida last month.Carrieri: Yeah, I didn't get to see many of those games. Logan is a very good technical player and just keeps it real simple. I think that's to his advantage in his position.Connolly: You've made some strong statements throughout this interview, which is great if that's how you really feel. You have an attitude that some people say is needed to be a striker. Others don't think that way, though. Do you think you need to have attitude to be a goal scorer?Carrieri: Of course. You look at guys like Alan Smith (Leeds). I mean, the guy is a huge fireball who looks like he needs to go to anger management class. But he's phenomenal. He's worked his way onto the English team now. Also guys like Craig Bellamy (Newcastle). Guys who have an attitude.I'm not going to say that I have a blunt, forward-confidence attitude, but if you're going to score goals, you can't be a sassy out there. You can't be hitting guys with your purse. I'm five-six, so I'm at a disadvantage already, going at guys like (Alexi) Lalas and (Danny) Califf and Mike Petke. You have to have a little bit of fight in you.It's not about going out there and talking smack or getting into people's heads with words, it's just hard-nosed soccer. To be honest with you, that's where coach has tried to say I'm not one hundred percent right now. He thinks I'm too soft. But if you give me ninety minutes with my defender and I'll break him down.If anyone thinks a goal scorer can go out there and be all nonchalant and do it all with skill, they're wrong. I think half the battle of scoring goals as a striker is the total attitude. Look at Taylor Twellman last year. Half of his goals were all about getting his nose in front of the keeper, whether he was going to take a punch or not, and from slide-tackling into defenders. That's his game. He's an opportunist. And he's proven himself.Connolly: Do you have a favorite goal-scorer?Carrieri: I like (Eric) Cantona. He had that attitude. I remember watching him score a goal on just a cheeky little chip, and he just stood there and stares at the crowd. I think it was even shown in a commercial. It just gives me goose bumps. That's basically where I come from. I mean, do you know how hard it is to score a goal?To be honest with you, I think I'd rather play in some other leagues around the world than MLS because MLS defenders are so hard and they hit so hard. Other teams, like L.A., are so organized in the back, too. I think it's very hard to score a goal, so when you do it's very emotional. Whether you're running around the corner flag or just standing there and give the (expletive) to the other team's fans, I think it's brilliant. If people look at that and think that you are arrogant or think that you should just go back to your position, that's crap.Connolly: I think people like the celebrations, though. Around New York City, the average person still knows Clint Mathis from when he revealed the "I Love New York" shirt after scoring when he first got to the Metros. Do you have any dream scenarios like that or a celebration you might be saving for someday when you score a stoppage-time goal?Carrieri: If I scored a game-winner in stoppage time at home, I'd like to interact with the fans. The last couple of goals last year, I tried to get with the fans and get in the stands and get a pat on the back - kind of do the Lambeau (Leap) thing. I don't really have anything in mind. At this point, when I score goals, I just want to look over to Tim. That's basically what I want to do. I think he needs to get the message that I need to be playing.It's up to me if I get the chance. If I'm the starting player this Saturday and am top with either Spenny or Zizi or Casey then I have to do my job. If I don't, I can only look at myself. I'm the first person that will say that I had a crappy game and I need to be on the bench. But right now I'm nowhere near that.Connolly: The question surrounding the Rapids has been whether you're a better team with or without Valderrama. What do you think?Carrieri: I think it's funny that you ask that because sometimes during the San Jose game a couple of runs made by a few different players would definitely been picked out by Carlos. On the flip side, guys like Pablo (Mastroeni) and Chung were fighting in the middle and running around for ninety minutes. That's something we didn't have last year. It's a black and white situation. I think there's a flip side.On offense, when I'm running around, I'd love to take balls from Carlos until the day my career ends. From the defensive side, as part of a unit, I think we're better as a team without him. His game was more one-dimensional. He was unbelievable as a passer, but we need an all-around guy for the situation. Right now, I think we're going to have Kyle (Beckerman) and Pablo in the middle and Chung back on the left. Kyle is a ball-winner and he can play those balls through. And we all know what Pablo is about. So I think defensively we are a better team, but offensively we need to find who the guy is to go through and who are our target men because last year everything went through Pibe.Connolly: Lastly, you're still only 22. If you look ahead five years, where do you think you'll be? Will you be on the National Team by then? Are you over in Europe?Carrieri: Definitely, in five or six years, I think I'll be a mentally stronger person because of all the crap I've had to put up with. I hope to be in and out of National team camps before I get too old to prove whether I can play with the jersey on or not. Although we have many good forwards, I think I can hang just as much or better than the players he's brought in so far. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't sent to a little five-day camp before sending me home early just so I could get a sniff, but that's why you keep working.Five or six years from now, either I'm going to be at the top of this league or I'm not going to be in the league, to be totally honest with you. I'm going to have my degree in the next year-and-a-half or two years. I start school next week trying to get my online degree. It's not a UNC degree, but it's something I need to get.When I'm twenty-six or twenty-seven or twenty-eight, I'll have a family and a nice home, whether I'm in Major League Soccer or not. If I am in Major League Soccer, and I get my chances to play thirty games a season, I will be on top of the league or I won't be in the league. It's either one of those two.Marc Connolly covers soccer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at: shaketiller10@yahoo.com.
