Gooooaaalll!!!

One of my favorite U.S. soccer stars is Alexi Lalas, he played with the U.S. National team from 1991-1998 making 96 appearances including the 1992 & 1996 Olympics and the 1994 World Cup. He was on the 1998 World Cup roster but did not appear in a game. He wasn’t a scoring machine like Landon Donovan or Clint Dempsey, he scored 9 goals total for the USMNT, but he was a shutdown defender.

In addition to his time with the U.S. National Team his career took him around the world including time with Arsenal's reserve team, 2 seasons with Italy Serie A club Padova, 6 seasons with four teams in the MLS and a season on loan to Ecuador First Division club Emelec. During that time he won the CONCACAF Cup, the U.S. Open Cup and the MLS Cup plus for his personal display case he won the Fútbol de Primera Player of the Year and the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year in 1995 and selected to the MLS Best XI in 2002.

During his playing days he was known for his full mane of red hair and his long goatee, he is much more reserved now working as an analyst and commentator for ESPN and ABC. He has an autograph in the 2014 Panini Prizm World Cup set but the price is still above my comfort zone so I went with this card from the 1994 Upper Deck World Cup release. The seller tossed in an autographed 8x10 picture from the 1994 World Cup too so this was definitely a win for my soccer collection.