Pope relishes role of defensive stopper

BEAVERTON, Ore. — At this advanced stage of his soccer career, Eddie Pope could be a household name in almost any other part of the world.

But Pope is the kind of guy who is fine just being a household name in his own home. Such is the life of an American playing for his national team, because soccer still has yet to take hold among the majority of U.S. sports fans.

Pope's position on the pitch is one of little glamour and a lot of dirty work. He plays professionally in small-market Salt Lake City for one of the newest Major League Soccer franchises, Real Salt Lake. He is quiet and soft-spoken, who for nine years has anchored the backline of the U.S. national team with nary a trace of self-promotion.

Along the way, Pope has turned into perhaps the finest and most accomplished defender in the history of U.S. soccer. It's a legacy he'll leave behind when his days with the national team are over. And to hear him say it, those days are numbered.

"The more places you get to see, the more experiences you get to have, the more friends you make, the more World Cup teams you try and make, it's such a small window," Pope said last week after a practice with the U.S. team. "Once it's gone, it's gone. That's it. This is the tip of the iceberg. You dream about it for so long. ... For me, it's tough to kind of settle with the fact that it's going to end soon. I'm just trying to enjoy every moment."

Pope, 31, has played in two World Cups (1998 and 2002) and one Olympics (1996) and won three MLS championships with D.C. United. He has been voted to nine straight MLS All-Star Games, and is far and away the top online vote-getter among defenders in the most recent update for this year's game.

Pope was a first-team All-American at North Carolina, and his Eddie Pope Soccer leagues in Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, N.C., introduce hundreds of disadvantaged children to the game he loves.

Today, Pope is a key to the 23-man national-team Gold Cup roster, which plays Thursday at Qwest Field against Cuba in its first match toward the goal of winning the CONCACAF (North American) championship.

Injuries kept Pope out of the 2003 and 2002 tournaments, the latter which the U.S. won. This year, he enters with 70 international appearances, second only to goalkeeper Kasey Keller of Lacey on the roster.

Being a defender is indeed a labor of love. Pope said he lives for the moments when he can push up on corner kicks and leap for a header toward the net.

"My job is to defend first, and win the ball and give it to the guys who can create," he said. "I try to rely on my speed sometimes, but as I've gotten older, I rely on my positioning a little bit more.

"When I first started playing defender, I loved it. I like the challenge of matching up with a forward and being better than him and trying to beat him all day long."

Pope is to the U.S. soccer team what Bruce Bowen is to the San Antonio Spurs or a shutdown cornerback is to his NFL team — a defensive stopper. He has shadowed the opposing team's best forwards, big and small, fast or physical. And he has excelled at a position once held by other prominent names in U.S. men's soccer history — Alexi Lalas and Thomas Dooley.

Those two played in four World Cups between them. Pope figures to make his third World Cup team, but is realistic that if he is named to the 2006 squad, he expects it to be his swan song as far playing with the national team.

"If I make this World Cup team, this will be my last World Cup for sure, which is the way it should be," he said. "Because if I'm still playing in another World Cup after this, there's a problem. But it won't be, because there's so many good, young guys coming up now. And it just shows how much our nation is progressing with soccer."

Exposure is increasing because of MLS and the growing curiosity about the sport, especially during the World Cup. Pope never even saw the national team on television until he was a teenager, and now many games are shown on cable television throughout the year.

And yet Pope, a fixture at the national level, goes about his business, refuting talk about being reserved by saying he is vocal once people get to know him. To think he went to North Carolina to be a kicker for the football team, but decided to go with soccer after redshirting his freshman season.

"Eddie throws his punches," fellow national-team veteran Tony Sanneh said. "He's quiet, but he speaks his mind. He's pretty unassuming, a lot like how he plays. Once in a while, he can make a big statement, be it with a goal or a hard tackle."

Pope has been around for so long that even his Gold Cup teammates, namely 23-year-old midfielder Brad Davis, looked up to Pope when they were young players dreaming about the national team.

"He's been here for how long now?" Davis said. "He's like that big, quiet guy, but he's such a leader. It's like he looks at you and you know what to do. It's kind of weird. He's so solid, and everybody respects him."

With respectability and a history of achievement comes the talk of being the best among all defenders in the history of the national team.

"For me it's always been about trying to make the best that I could out of my career, and at the end of it, whatever comes of it is great," Pope said. "As long as I feel I've done the best that I can do over the years ... so that I don't have any regrets once I'm done playing. Then I'm fine with whatever label I get, positive or negative."

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409 or jromero@seattletimes.com