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During much of the 1990s, no American in the game was bigger, though better players abounded. An all-American at Rutgers, he played for the U.S. at the 1992 Olympics, and in two more years he was on sports pages and TV screens throughout the country. David Letterman brought him onto his late-night TV show and snipped off a piece of his goatee with a pair of scissors. Yet during his career he scored goals in famous American wins over England and Argentina, although jaded foreign journalists often regarded him as a lumbering lunk with little talent. Even they couldn't help quoting him. His 1994 World Cup exploits led to a contract with modest Italian club Padova, and he became the first American-born U.S. international to play in Serie A. MLS stints with New England, the MetroStars, Kansas City and Los Angeles followed before he signed off. "I lived the power of what a World Cup can do to an individual, on and off the field, and it opened up so many doors for me," says Lalas, who has moved into the executive ranks and is president and GM of the defending champion Los Angeles Galaxy. "I had a blast doing it, but for years there I burned it at both ends. I would go to training in the morning, to an appearance in the afternoon, to a concert at night to the after-party and all that entails. "There was no playbook, no one I could turn to for advice. I was making it all up as I went along."  A triumphant Alexi Lalas. Overbeck debuted for the women's team in 1988. She anchored the 1991 world championship team and the 1996 Olympic gold medalists. In the latter competition, the first women's soccer competition in Olympic history, she fulfilled a childhood dream. "World Cups, you know about it because of the men's," she says, a reference to her childhood in Dallas, "but I didn't watch the men's World Cup when I was growing up. But I was glued to the TV during the Olympic Games and would just sit there and dream one day about being a part of it. I thought I was going to be a downhill skier. "As a kid, I remember loving the Olympics and so badly wishing I could be a part of it." The following year, 1997, she played just five national team games. She gave birth to her first child, a son named Jackson, and was diagnosed with Graves' disease, a thyroid condition that is treatable, but can cause exhaustion and sleeplessness. "When she wasn't on the field, when she was injured and went through the Graves' Disease and all these different things, there was a noticeable absence, a real void because of her presence and voice," says Foudy. Overbeck recovered to play every minute in the 1999 tournament and slammed home the first penalty-kick in the shootout that decided the championship game. Chastain whipped off her jersey in celebration, but it was Overbeck, as captain, who first hoisted the trophy. "I was surrounded by greatness," says Overbeck, an all-American at North Carolina and a member of the school's Sports HOF. "The players I played with for so long, they make you better. I don't know if I was that great, but the people I played with were certainly exceptional athletes and players." Several of Lalas' former U.S. teammates have been inducted in recent years, so for him, Oneonta is an annual trip. The pilgrimage is one he relishes, regardless of the reason. "One of the wonderful things with these induction ceremonies and how they grow bigger and bigger, is not only the celebration of the players, but also an incredible advertisement for what is a wonderful, wonderful utopia for soccer people," he says. "Not enough people recognize what exists there and hopefully we can change that." Ridge Mahoney is a senior editor at Soccer America Magazine, where he has worked for the past two decades. He also contributes regularly to USA Today and other publications. He has covered soccer in America and around the world since the early 1970s, once he realized his goalkeeping fell short of international standards. You can contact him at
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