‘A little guy from Indiana’ and life in soccer
After a two-decade career, American soccer great DaMarcus Beasley had felt the end coming for some time.
“This wasn’t a spur of the moment decision,” he said Wednesday of his decision to retire at the end of the Dynamo’s MLS season. “I felt that I was ready to try something new, to put my effort and time and heart and sweat into something else. And I think that after this year, I’m 100 percent ready to do that.”
As the only American to compete in four World Cups, Beasley has seen his career span some of the national team’s greatest triumphs — and failures.
He helped the United States advance to the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup — the country’s best finish in over half a century—where it lost to eventual runner-up Germany. In the 2006 World Cup, the Americans finished at the bottom of their group, although Beasley set up Clint Dempsey for the team’s only goal against Ghana and nearly scored the game-winner against group winner Italy. Beasley also captained the 2013 American Gold Cup squad, winning the competition for his fourth and final time that year.
After a European career that took him to some of that continent’s top clubs (including Manchester City, PSV Eindhoven, and Rangers F.C.), Beasley joined the Dynamo from Mexican side Puebla in 2014. Here, he continued to win trophies, helping lead the Dynamo to their first U.S. Open Cup title last season.
“I never thought I would get this kind of reception,” Beasley said of the reaction from former teams, coaches, and players after his initial retirement announcement Monday. “I never thought a little guy from Indiana would have this kind of impact on the game, so that part is very humbling.”
Entering his 2019 campaign, Beasley informed Dynamo coaches that this could be his final year. By the time the U.S. men’s team played its March friendly against Chile, the defender’s mind was made up.
But he delayed the announcement, hoping to avoid the perception that his retirement was health-related as he recovered from a knee injury suffered that month.
With Beasley approaching his 37th birthday Friday, he thought the time was right. Why?
“Because I’m old,” he said. “When you get older, you talk to different guys about how their retirement went, when they knew, what happened, how’d it go, life after soccer. The one thing I always heard is ‘when you know, you know.’ ”
Beasley has no inclination to coach. Instead, the part-time jeweler is interested in trying to stay in the game in a front-office capacity.
As he begins to reflect on his legacy on the field, he can’t help but notice how much the game has changed in America since his MLS debut with the Chicago Fire in 2000.
“It’s night and day,” he said, pointing to differences in team facilities and media attention. “The league when I started was only 12 teams, 13 teams. (MLS is up to 24 teams and plans to expand to 30 in the 2020s). The stadiums weren’t as full. There wasn’t a lot of (soccer) stadiums — they were football stadiums.”
How does Beasley want to be remembered?
For his reliability, he said, and for helping facilitate camaraderie in the locker room.
“For me, off the top of my head, being a good teammate, being a guy you could count on in big games,” he said. “I think that’s some of the reason I was selected for those World Cups, those games in Champions League. In big games under the lights, the coach knew what he was getting from me.”
But in the remaining months of the season, he has unfinished business before he hangs up his cleats.
“That would be a dream to win the championship with the Dynamo,” he said. “Obviously, we have to defend the Open Cup title.
“You don’t play this game to win individual awards, because it’s not an individual sport. The ultimate goal is to win.”