As cliché as it may sound, Carlos Bocanegra is the epitome of ?California Cool.? When he arrives, fashionably late and with a driver in tow for our interview, he looks mildly surprised as he walks into the photo studio on this unusually hot ...Southern California summer afternoon and is immediately welcomed by a handful of strangers. He scans the room, seemingly desperate to figure out what all the fuss is about, when in reality, the fuss is all about him. He?s dressed of course, California casual, in shorts, a T-shirt and sandals, a duffle bag hanging off his squared shoulders. As he?s filled-in on the details for the rest of the afternoon (including the photo shoot for the cover), he seems to take it all in stride, neither loathing it nor loving it, just nodding, ready for whatever comes his way.
It?s a demeanor that has and will continue to serve him well, as he prepares in ten short days, to return to England and start preseason training for what will be his first full European season. The 25-year-old out of UCLA has the look; a quiet confidence and the talent to make his mark in Europe while keeping his feet firmly planted on the ground and not letting it all go to his head. He?s plying his trade in the English Premier League for top-ten finisher Fulham and rubbing elbows with some of the biggest names in the game on a weekly basis in what is arguably the most glamorous League in the world.
There?s nothing in-your-face about him off the field, at least not when we first meet. He doesn?t speak with his hands, or in purposefully loud tones, and he doesn?t try to call attention to himself in public. He?s a grinder?a hard-nosed, hard-working defender who makes his living trying to play his game?by not letting the opposition play theirs. But this kid (who calls Fontana home in the off-season), didn?t just come out of nowhere. He was a Parade All-American at Alta Loma High School and an All-American at UCLA before leaving college early to enter the MLS Draft. He?s been an MLS Rookie of the Year, as well as an MLS Defender of the Year and he was also a stabilizing force in the Chicago Fire backline for four seasons before his MLS contract ran out and Europe came calling. He?s also earned over two-dozen caps for the United States National Team and is earning a reputation as a defender who can come forward and score timely goals off of set pieces as evidenced with his game-tying goal against Poland just days earlier in his former MLS city.
As we walk down to a restaurant a couple of blocks away from the photo studio for our chat, I feel a certain level of discomfort in the air. But I can?t figure out from whom it?s coming from?or if it?s just because it?s too damn hot to be walking anywhere?no matter how short the jaunt. Maybe he?s nervous about the photo shoot? Or maybe he?s got something to hide? Or maybe? just maybe? he?s really not that comfortable talking about himself. But then, after he offers to call his brother and ask him to bring a much-needed suit for the photo shoot later, I start thinking that maybe I?m totally off base.
He could just be tired (he played two days ago, and traveled back from Chicago yesterday), or weary from playing well over a year of continuous soccer or a little bit cynical after getting torn up by the English press not too long after his arrival.
Only a handful of games into his EPL career, Bocanegra was sent off for a reckless challenge on Aston Villa?s Mark Delaney. The English press had a field day with the young American, and Bocanegra got a rude introduction to European journalism. ?The papers hammered me and Sky Sports hammered me,? he says while sipping an iced tea at the Yard House in Newport Beach. ?But the guys on my team and my coaches knew I didn?t mean to hurt him. I went onto the bus and apologized to him and he was cool with it. For the papers, it was just something to talk about and I was an American in England, they just blew it up and ran with it.?
As talk turns to life on the field, Bocanegra admits there were definitely some things that took some getting used to. ?The speed of play is faster. Also, dealing with the wet pitch game in and game out, your legs get a little heavy towards the end of the game. The fields are always wet and if it?s not raining, they water the field ten minutes before we go on the field,? he says. When I ask him if he finds it odd that they actually water the fields on days that aren?t actually wet, he laughs at the irony. ?I?ve heard about it, but you never really see it. You?re hitting long balls before the game with another back and you have to walk over the water hose, it?s pretty cool.?
It seems like the biggest adjustment for a back would be getting used to the abundance of offensive talent playing in England, but when I ask him to talk about the players in England he hopes not to face this season or had a hard time with last season, it?s not the names you?d expect to hear. Names like Henry, Mutu and Shearer come up, but a certain one sticks out, one that Bocanegra will not soon forget. ?I have problems with this guy from West Ham, Marlon Harewood. He?s this big dude, like 6?2 and 190 pounds; he?s just a horse. He was thick, strong and fast. Usually, I can get a hand on players, get an arm on them, but he was running right through me and I was like, ?oh my god,? I can?t handle this guy. He was probably my biggest nightmare on the field. He was just fast as hell. I couldn?t grab him, so I had to foul him, then when I tried to foul him sometimes he just knocked me off and I was like? alright? this isn?t working too well,? he adds with a self-depreciating laugh.
As he picks at his seared Ahi and downs a couple of more iced teas, I can?t help but wonder how this southern California kid is adapting to life off the field and in a land far away from home. ?My refrigerator is the size of those little travel refrigerators for your garage. My washing machine is tiny?it?s like this big (makes his hands into the shape of a size 5 soccer ball)?seriously, you can fit like five pairs of underwear in there and maybe a couple of pairs of socks,? he says. ?I just take my stuff to the cleaners now. I don?t even deal with it. It?s really cool living in someone else?s culture and living it day in and day out?I like it. I just sit at Starbucks everyday and chill out and mind my own business and don?t get bothered.?
He feels that the people in England and at his club have warmed-up to him as much as he?s warmed-up to them. ?I think they like Americans. They always ask us what?s going on with the hip-hop and the gangs in L.A. They think that everyone lives in Compton. It?s funny?their perceptions of the United States?they?re really interested in what goes on over here.?
His transition to life in England seems to have gone too smoothly, something that makes me wonder if he?ll be talking with a thick, adapted English accent by the time the holidays roll around. ?When I first came back I didn?t have an English accent, but I brought back a couple of words. They say ?straight away? a lot and I said that in front of my friends here and they were like? ?What are you doing? where did that come from?? But it?s definitely not an accent.?
He loosens up as things move on and the day cools off, so much so that he admits to getting a little confused when it came to another big transition for an American in England?driving. Oddly, his episode didn?t take place over there; it was here! ?One time, when I first came back (to the U.S.) I got confused. There was some construction by my house and I just like stopped the car. (I felt like a fifteen-year-old girl.) I was like? (mimics a girl?s voice) oh my god! I just stopped and I was like? what side of the road do I have to go on right now? But after that, I was all right.?
What does he do to loosen up over there? The scene in London can be pretty wild and with a handful of other pro clubs in the immediate area, one gets the impression that things can get ?off the hook? a lot of the time. ?Every once in a while I like to get out and party a bit, but you definitely can?t do it as much, or at least I can?t. For me?those days aren?t over?you just have to pick and choose when to do it. It?s just cool, you know, partying in Europe.?
The conversation turns back towards life on the field, and he admits that he does feel the pressure of playing soccer in a country that lives and breathes the world?s game. ?It was definitely a dream move for me. I don?t know if I take it more seriously, but I do look upon it as more of a real career now, because it is such a big thing over there. I didn?t really know what to expect when I got over there, but after I played, I realized how it was going to be and that I would have to raise my game to that level week in and week out. And I think that was a challenge that was pretty tough.?
At Fulham, Bocanegra is coached by Chris Coleman, a man he has nothing but praise for and that has stuck with his American outside back ever since he made the move over to the West London club. ?My coach is cool, he?s young and he?s played with a few of the guys on the team. He knows the players; he?s definitely a player?s coach,? says Bocanegra, who made 19 appearances for the club in 2004. When I ask if he was ever in the doghouse with his coach (especially after the red card suspension), he adamantly discounts it all together. ?No, I wasn?t in the doghouse with that tackle either. He told me he didn?t want that tackle to change the way I play. He told me not to change anything and to keep playing the way I was. It was actually pretty nice. It was a meeting between just he and I, and I was a little down? it gave me a vote of confidence.?
I study his face while he talks, intently searching for that bead of sweat to come trickling down his forehead that will show me that he?s hiding his true feelings, that the overbearing stress of being an outside back in the most offensive league in the world is taking its toll. But it never happens. He seems to be playing it almost too cool for his own good. Isn?t life in the EPL?on and off the field?suppose to be harder? It may be, but Bocanegra acts as if he was cut out to do this his whole life. ?I?m having a great time playing in London. It?s a great city, so I?m happy with what?s going on. But I would like to play for a big club. I think that would be awesome,? he says very matter-of-fact.
Later (when we get back to the air-cooled photo studio), his brother Diego arrives with the requested threads. The Fulham defender is a couple hundred pictures into his shoot, and his brother starts giving him some stick, as Carlos seems to be getting too comfortable and maybe too familiar with the camera lens. He?s smiling more, but always aware of who and where he is, even disagreeing with a proposed shot when he considers it ?not him.?
After the shoot wraps, he and his brother query us about places to go out. The same people he walked into hours earlier, the same people he knew nothing about, were now giving he and his brother tips on the local nightlife. I couldn?t help but admire his trust in us, or at least, his politeness in asking. But when I talked with him over the phone a week later (just two days before his departure to England), and asked him about that night, he lets out a devious laugh, self-censors probably almost everything that went on, and innocently tells me that it was simply ?a good time?just partying, you know!? Unfortunately, I don?t know. But sometimes not knowing is a good thing. In the same way that Bocanegra not knowing how much people are paying attention to him, will allow him to just play his game and continue to tackle any challeng
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