The next great American star

NorthJersey - Alecko Eskandarian never needed the Saturday morning cartoon fix. He needed soccer. Telecasts from any country in any language were fine, so long as he could spoon in his cereal with a soccer ball at his feet and a soccer game in his sights.

Little Alecko's favorite matches came right from the family's video collection, those tapes where his father Andranik came to life on the field, a standout defender for the New York Cosmos repeatedly sealing off the goal to the game's legendary offensive stars.

Today in Kansas City, it is Alecko's turn to start his career as the next great American soccer star. A virtual lock to be the first selection in the Major League Soccer draft, the former University of Virginia and Bergen Catholic High School goal-scoring machine has spun his parents' genes into soccer gold. He is the embodiment of what this nation's soccer fans have for so long insisted their game needs to thrive on American soil: a homegrown star staying at home to play.

"It's a challenge for all of us, all the young players, to establish the league," Alecko said Wednesday from a hotel room in Portugal, where he is playing with the United States Under-23 national team. "Down the line we're going to be the veterans."

Where his father fueled America's first love affair with soccer, the NASL popularity boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s, Alecko is feeding the game's resurgence, the creation of MLS in 1996 and a shock-the-world run to the World Cup quarterfinals last summer. Where the NASL marketed imported international stars whose expiring careers spelled the end of the league, MLS knows its needs Alecko, the second-generation Eskandarian soccer star and first-generation American wonder, to join Landon Donovan as an icon of the "SportsCenter'' generation.

"It's a whole different landscape now and the greatest difference is the American players," says Ray Hudson, the coach of D.C. United, which holds the draft's top pick. Hudson, a former midfielder for the NASL's Fort Lauderdale Strikers, played against Andranik. Now he is likely to be coaching Andranik's son.

"That's part of the romance of this story. That's the legacy," Hudson says. "Because of the NASL and the tremendous league it was - the gods of the game played in that league and we were privileged to play in it - truly the next generation is assuming the mantle. It's American talent that's carrying this league."

Andranik and his wife Anahid emigrated to the United States from Iran in 1978, the same year Andranik competed for the Iranian World Cup team. They raised their family here, establishing thriving sporting goods stores in Hackensack (Birkenmeier Sports) and Ramsey (Eski Sports) while watching sons Ara and Alecko dribble and shoot their way to soccer prowess.

Alecko was ready for soccer by the time he took his first steps, which included a kick of the ball. By 3 years old, he could weave his way through 8- and 9-year olds to the goal, a forward progress that never ceased. At Bergen Catholic, he scored 154 career goals, second best in State history. At Virginia, he scored 50 more, including 25 in this, his junior season. He signed with MLS after winning the Hermann Award, college soccer's equivalent to the Heisman Trophy, putting it on a mantle that already held the Gatorade national High School player of the year.

"He's a rare player in that he has that little sprinkle of magic in his game," Hudson says. "He scores in the most hurtful way: He can kill teams off with that one strike. That is a rare kick. Games are decided on players like Eskandarian, his menace, his ruthlessness."

With the cannon-strength in his left leg and the chess-player machinations in his brain, the 5-foot-9, 160-pound Alecko is a supreme finisher. "With every play I try to envision how it can end up in a goal," he says. "It's always building. It's all a mind game. You try to be in the right spot. It goes the way you plan it only about 5 percent of the time. You can't stop, though. You have to anticipate other people's mistakes and be ready all the time."

Alecko seems ready to make his transition to professional soccer, a choice he could have made out of high school but eschewed for college. Contemporaries, friends with whom he routinely speaks, chose their paths, and those who went overseas never seemed as happy as those who stayed home. Alecko takes the latter course now, a choice his parents only dreamed he might someday have.

"What amazes us since we came here is how much soccer has grown. We used to not be able to find a field," Anahid says. "Now we see kids playing on every corner."

Andranick

They were always playing in their Montvale backyard - Andranick, Ara, and Alecko battling only the darkness to work on one more diving headball. Out of this comes an Olympian - Alecko is slated to compete for the United States in the 2004 Olympics - and if all stays on course, a World Cup. Anahid calls it Alecko's "dream" to represent the United States in Germany in 2006.

Father and son are linked by sport, forever connected like the many pentagons and hexagons that make up a soccer ball. The first is a defender who silenced the scorers, the second, a scorer who ignores the defenders. What a one-on-one game they could play.

"I could beat him now, because he's old," Alecko says, laughing, "But then? I don't know if I could get around him."

MLS would like nothing better.