The captain scores a winner.
Neil W. Blackmon
I’ve no idea if there’s a moment in life where you begin to feel old. I’m not referencing a “Murtaugh List” of things you can’t do at a certain age. That’s too easy and less about mortality than it is about humor. I’m talking about seachange. About the genuine end of childhood and the purgatory of your 20’s and if your fortunate, a few years after it. Perhaps it is too melodramatic to suggest there is one moment. Perhaps instead we recognize our own mortality through an accumulation of markers: the birth of a child, the day after the wedding when more friends are married than aren’t, a college or (gasp) high-school reunion.
Whichever it is, however it happens, the announcement yesterday that Carlos Bocanegra, he of 110 caps and 105 starts for the United States of America, will retire at the end of the 2014 season. If the waning influence turned retirement of Landon Donovan was, as The Shin Guardian put it, a sunsetting, “But I loved that Band” moment, filled with sadness, a tinge of regret but ultimately smiles and rich memory, Bocanegra’s retirement was somber seachange.
Maybe it shouldn’t have been. It’s been two years since Carlos Bocanegra appeared for the US Men’s National Team, and my first thought, without reflection, on reading the news, was “Yeah, that figures.” He wasn’t even in the US Soccer Media Guide in 2014., and the return to MLS had only enhanced the sense that the end was inevitable. And yet, gut punch.
In a magisterial column on ESPN FC, Jason Davis, who loves a qualifying phrase about as much as I do, writes that it’s unfair Bocanegra retires in the shadow of another kid from just down the road in California. In a way, that’s right. It is unfair. In another way, it’s altogether fitting. For as great as Carlos Bocanegra has been and was for the US, it seems that even with the armband he labored in the shadow of Landon Donovan. That he accepted that with such grace is another measure of his greatness.
Carlos Bocanegra and Landon Donovan, along with Steve Cherundolo, Clint Dempsey and yes, DaMarcus Beasley, were the revelatory field players who guided the United States men’s soccer program through the last decade. That Bocanegra, who captained the US in one World Cup and played for his country in another, was the first of this group “phased” out (and not “phased back in”, alla Beasley) is another fact that’s unfair. That Bocanegra’s non-selection by Jurgen Klinsmann, despite his being healthy, early in the Hex, preceded the earth-moving Brian Straus piece about the early stages of the Klinsmann tenure, is no coincidence. That Bocanegra handled that with grace and aplomb as well should surprise no one.
The happiest day. US 2, Spain 0.
Donovan was the unlikely hero, the closest thing US Soccer has to a “Dark Knight”, never the hero American fans wanted him to be, ever present, often the hero the US needed. Bocanegra was never the household name, unless your household loved soccer, or had teenage girls who flipped religiously through the “Most Beautiful People in the World” section. And yet Bocanegra was ever present, steady, nose to the grindstone. Two US managers selected eight players to start most of their tenure: it was settled law that Bocanegra, Howard/Keller/Friedel and Donovan would start. The only question was about role. And Bocanegra was the only field player (even Cherundolo was inverted, on occasion), whose role was (almost, more in a moment) constant. Be the rock in front of the elite goalkeeper. Marshall the defense. He’d play with over thirty different defensive combinations. It’s a testament to his smarts and leadership that he never seemed too rattled by the changes.
If Donovan’s wild success is often overshadowed by his perceived failures abroad, Bocanegra’s success is often filtered through the lens of his genuine limitations.
He wasn’t tall enough to be a world class centerback. He wasn’t fast enough to play fullback consistently. He didn’t handle or pass well enough to ever be considered a six. But there was more to Bocanegra than being really, really, really good looking. He was a devastating aerial threat despite his height (14 national team goals with his head). And he was, according to Bob Bradley, the “smartest” player he’d ever coached. It’s what made him a versatile player despite a physique and skill set that didn’t suggest he ought to be. And he had wild success. He won MLS Defender of the Year twice, where he was simply the best defender on the field. He moved, and quickly started, in England, where he beat Tottenham with his head in the 90th minute, a goal Fulham’s Twitter account recalled today while wishing him well. As Davis notes, his success at Fulham, along with Brian McBride’s, paved the way for the Americans who still follow in England. He started in France too, and shared an armband in Scotland, where he played for storied Rangers. Finally, when money and comfort awaited at home, he moved to Racing Santander of the Spanish second division instead, perhaps because in the end, he was smart enough to know if he came home Klinsmann would count him out for sure.
Perhaps more than Landon Donovan, Carlos Bocanegra deserved better from Jurgen Klinsmann. An explanation. A testimonial match. He was captain in a qualifier and gone in the next one. He never said a word. He wasn’t about “rah rah”. He was about leadership by example. It was splendid leadership. The Yanks went 34-17-13 in the 64 matches where “Los” wore the armband.
Bocanegra was one of the first interviews I did of a US player. It came during the 2010 World Cup cycle, shortly after we received credentials. I asked him a terrible question: whether it was a challenge incorporating the new faces on Bob Bradley’s defense, or something along those lines. He smiled. He could have given me one word. The question probably deserved it. He didn’t. He gave me five minutes. The takeaway line: “Whatever I’m asked to do…If I play hard, if I give instructions on the field, if I am on my line, if I am where I’m supposed to be, I think people notice. No one who puts this shirt on wants to do anything to mess it up.” That was Bocanegra leadership. More than anything, one game defined Bocanegra the captain.
We tweeted the following last night:
Rarely does one match say all you need to know about a player. I think "Boca, play LB" vs. Spain 2009 does. An immaculate performance #USMNT
— The Yanks Are Coming (@YanksAreComing) September 4, 2014
The match ages like fine wine. The magnitude of the achievement merits that. Spain lost two international matches in four years. That was one of them. Bocanegra, by that point in his US career almost exclusively a CB, played LB, on his off foot, against one of the greatest right flanks in the universe. He hardly lost a battle. His ability to drift central and demand that Spain play from width frustrated the Red Fury early and often. His help defense was exquisite. Note in the video highlights below that late in the match– the Spanish team essentially abandoned that flank to work Spector’s flank. That’s a mighty thing to accomplish.
With Bocanegra’s retirement, three of the starters from that epic U.S. victory will be gone after 2014 (Donovan, DeMerit). Steve Cherundolo was hurt, or it would be four. The times, they are a-changing, and you don’t need a bunch of kids to win in Prague to figure that out.
In the end, Carlos Bocanegra has more caps than all but six American field players (Agoos, Balboa, Donovan, Reyna, Run DMB, Cobi Jones). Clint Dempsey will pass him the next match he plays, which is fitting, since he’s the most likely to be the last of another era of US Soccer standing. And he, maybe more than any US player, benefited from Bocanegra’s Barclay’s Premier League trailblazing. Boca remains, of course, the only US captain to win a World Cup group.
As for me, I weathered the retirement of Chipper Jones. I hoped for understanding with Landon Donovan, who I admired for taking time off to deal with his mental health. I noted the moment in the Natal rain, when the US had vanquished Ghana and the future, a bright, we can beat anyone any day and any time future, seemed possible. But part of me will long for the US Men’s National Teams led by Carlos Bocanegra, who among the star power of Landon Donovan and the unbridled joy of Clint Dempsey, remained, as ever, the stoic captain. Our captain. My captain.
Neil W. Blackmon is Co-Founder of The Yanks Are Coming. He can be reached at nwblackmon@gmail.com and you can follow him on Twitter at @nwb_usmnt.