Counterpunch

Kamler's MLS success confirms rebound from scary injury

Brian Kamler has a name for the five metal plates that remain embedded in his skull.

"Souvenirs," he says, smiling.

These are good times for Kamler, the New England Revolution midfielder who has scored five goals in 10 games this season -- after managing only six in the previous 136 games of his eight-year MLS career.

Yet Kamler's unexpected output is even more remarkable when you consider the bad times he endured six years ago, when soccer's version of The Punch shattered seven bones in his face, putting Kamler's promising career -- to say nothing of his eyesight -- in jeopardy.

It seemed like an ordinary preseason exhibition on Feb. 23, 1997, when Kamler's D.C. United met the U.S. under-20 national team in Los Angeles. The game was more chippy than expected, though, with both teams committing several hard fouls. In the final minutes, as United was finishing off a 3-0 win, U-20 defender Jake Dancy dropped Kamler with a tackle. Kamler popped up and advanced toward Dancy, whose fists, witnesses said, were already clenched.

Kamler ran straight into the punch.

When doctors first examined Kamler, according to a 1998 Washington Post account, they compared his injuries to those of a head-on car accident. The left side of his face had exploded in the manner of a pumpkin struck by a baseball bat. Blood was everywhere. One bone fragment threatened the sight in his left eye, while others were lodged inside his skull.

Four days later, Kamler underwent a four-and-a-half hour operation, in which surgeons removed a piece of bone from the back of his head to reconstruct his left cheekbone. They also installed those five metal plates for support.

Understandably, Kamler -- one of MLS' most upbeat players -- is reluctant to rehash the details of his ordeal. "It was six years ago, and Jake and I have tried to put it behind us and continue on with our lives," he says. "I don't want to sidestep it, but right after it happened it got blown up [in the local papers], and I just don't want it to blow up again."

Clearly, though, The Punch changed the lives of both men.

For his part, Dancy pleaded no contest to a felony assault charge and was sentenced to five years probation and 350 hours of community service along with a $500 fine. He played for the Kansas City Wizards from 1997 to '99 and has spent the past three seasons with the MISL's Kansas City Comets. Dancy, 25, hasn't played a minute for a USSF-sponsored team since the Kamler incident.

In 2000, Kamler was awarded more than $550,000 after filing a $7.3 million civil suit against Dancy and the USSF. It was among the largest civil judgments in U.S. sports history, which include the $3.2 million awarded to the NBA's Rudy Tomjanovich (later reduced to $2 million in a settlement) after the notorious 1977 punch thrown by Kermit Washington, and the $650,000 awarded to the NHL's Dennis Polonich after Wilf Paiement hit him in the face with his hockey stick in a 1978 game.

Three years later, though, Kamler hasn't seen a dime of the six-figure award. (Kamler's representative, Ken Neal, said the USSF was not held liable for the incident, while Dancy has not had the sufficient funds.)

Kamler has never read The Punch, John Feinstein's book about the Tomjanovich incident, but "from what someone told me it was a similar thing," he says. Not entirely, though. While Rudy T.'s playing days were effectively ended by his injuries, Kamler, 31, is currently enjoying the best stretch of his MLS career.

Part of it goes back to his four-month-long convalescence in '97, which he spent watching then coach Bruce Arena run United's practices from the sidelines. "Things just started clicking in my head," Kamler says. "It was like, 'Now I see why he wants that. I see what he's doing with this.' It was an eye-opener." Wearing a Hannibal Lecter-like mask, Kamler returned to the field that season and scored his first MLS goal.

Kamler's five strikes this year aren't nearly as surprising when you realize he played an attacking role during his college years at Creighton, where he remains the program's No. 3 all-time leading goal scorer. Arena converted Kamler into a left back, where he stayed through stints with the Miami Fusion and MetroStars before Revs coach Steve Nicol moved him to left midfield last year.

"It just took me a while to find my scoring touch again," Kamler says. "This year the coaches have been harping on me to get forward and use my shot more so that it might take some pressure off Steve Ralston on the other side. And there have been some unbelievable balls served in to me. My teammates have done the hard stuff."

Occasionally, Kamler still feels shoots of pain on the left side of his reconstructed face. "It's like any other injury," he says. "If you have surgery on your knee, it's going to stiffen up when the weather changes." As for the metal plates, he'll probably leave those in. They're too much trouble to take out, and anyway, he jokes, it's not like they set off airport metal detectors.

Nobody will write a book about Kamler's comeback, which is just fine with him. Yet his breakout scoring binge certainly qualifies as one of MLS' most inspiring tales -- and provides ample evidence that supplying an "unexpected punch" can be a good thing, too.

Confed Cup: The stock report

I'm not about to join the Moron Minority claiming the U.S.'s 0-2-1 showing in France proved last year's World Cup success to be a fluke. But let's be honest: Diehard Yank fans were subjected to some bad soccer last week, with a few stretches of mediocrity and even fewer genuinely positive sparks.

The U.S. laid an egg, folks. Don't read too much into it, but don't dress it up, either. Here's our postmortem, with an emphasis on the mortem:

RAISED HIS STOCK

DaMarcus Beasley. Ready for Europe. Not only scored Americans' only goal, but responded well to physical defenders and tracked back expertly on defense. A potential demon at left back?

Carlos Bocanegra. Solid, even fearsome at times. Defended well in one-on-one situations. Has learned the little tug-and-pull moves that don't get called.

Tim Howard. Could have done better on Turkey's second goal, but was sparkling the rest of the way. Did more than anyone to prevent uglier scorelines.

LOWERED HIS STOCK

Chris Armas. Not yet ready for serious international play. Needs more MLS games to see if he can return to Armas of old.

Gregg Berhalter. At least he was up-front in taking blame for the blunder against Brazil. So we'll be up-front too: GB doesn't have the speed to play at the highest level.

Dan Califf. A setback. Had issues with speed and lack of communication, particularly against Turkey.

Frankie Hejduk. Wore captain's armband vs. Turkey, killed a half-dozen buildups and then vanished, never to be seen again. Not as dangerous on the ball as Cherundolo, which was a surprise.

Jovan Kirovski. To say he's an enigma would be to suggest that international potential still remains. It doesn't.

Chris Klein. Invisible against Brazil, except when he lost the ball. Should still be useful in World Cup qualifying against CONCACAF foes.

Clint Mathis. Two shots cleared off the line, but zero goals and many giveaways. Nor was he dangerous on free kicks. (Which reminds us, why didn't he take the late free kick against Turkey from Clint-vs.-Honduras range?)

Greg Vanney. Aside from Hejduk, the U.S. back line against Turkey could not have been any slower.

MIXED BAG

Steve Cherundolo. Concerns remain about lack of height against taller teams, but didn't get victimized against Brazil or Cameroon and did send the occasional nice ball out of the back.

Bobby Convey. Blah in crucial opener against Turkey, then recovered to make some nice runs against Cameroon.

Landon Donovan. Consistent effort was missing. Nice assist against Turkey, though.

Cory Gibbs. Shook off early nerves against Brazil to defend well one-on-one. Needs more confidence on ball, but definitely worth more looks.

Eddie Lewis. Some decent moves on the left side, but didn't live up to rising expectations after Wales and New Zealand games.

Kyle Martino. Appears to have cojones necessary for this level, but no American central mid gets honors in this tourney. More chances await.

Pablo Mastroeni. Clearly the better option right now over sub-100 percent Armas, but can do more on offensive side.

Earnie Stewart. Still has some zip in those legs. Needs to earn his callups in MLS, though. And what was up with that yellow-card dive?

NOT ENOUGH INFORMATION

Joe Cannon
Jeff Cunningham
Marcus Hahnemann
Taylor Twellman

Opening the 'Bag

Got a raft of correspondence, mostly in response to last week's David Beckham extravaganza. Thanks for all your kind words and sensible comments/questions. Let's dig in:

Marcelo Guevara of Austin, Texas, wants my take on Bruce Arena's recent comments in an Associated Press story urging Landon Donovan to toughen up and quit complaining about being tired. Just as Arena did with Mathis last year, he's clearly trying to send Donovan a message through the media. I don't think it's cause for much alarm. Contrary to what the AP reporter wrote, Donovan is having a pretty good year in MLS. He may not be scoring in bunches, but he has been active and consistently dangerous, as anyone who watches MLS regularly would know.

A red flag did come up, however, when Donovan told Paul Oberjuerge of the San Bernardino County Sun before the Confed Cup that he was dead tired and wished he hadn't done so much publicity following last year's World Cup. While I sympathize with players and their too-crowded schedules, Arena was correct in pointing out that Donovan's challenges aren't nearly the ones faced by top Europeans and South Americans who play far more games every year. If and when Donovan moves to Europe, the demands will only increase, and he needs to get used to it.

Robert Scripter of Waterford, Mich., wonders if I agree with Nick Hornby's comment that club soccer has surpassed international soccer in importance. Depends on where you live, Robert. If you're an Arsenal nutjob (as Hornby is), then the constant thrum at the top of the Premier League probably does provide a bigger overall thrill. If you're an American, chances are that you get more geeked up for the national team. All that said, if you tell a player he can choose between being: 1) World Cup champion, 2) Champions League holder, or 3) EPL titleist, I think I know which one he'll choose.

Could European champ AC Milan beat a full-strength Brazil? Doubtful.

Tom Knapp of New York City wants to know what will happen "when the hype catches up to [Beckham's] very limited footballing ability" at Real Madrid next season. Tom's view represented those of several readers who complained that Beckham is overrated. If you consider overrated to mean "someone who earns the most money but isn't the best player," then, well, it probably fits. Granted, Beckham wasn't the best player on Manchester United last year. (I would have given the nod to Ruud van Nistelrooy or Paul Scholes.) But to suggest that Beckham is possessed of "very limited footballing ability" is just wrong, ignoring a vast store of evidence to the contrary.

At the same time, talented players -- particularly talented British players -- haven't always thrived overseas, and the pressure on Beckham in Madrid will be tremendous. New Real coach Carlos Queiroz (the former MetroStars bench boss) will have the most decorated club team in history (individually, at least) at his disposal. Whether that translates into enchanting, winning soccer will be another matter altogether. I, for one, am eager to find out.

Michael Binnicker of Athens, Ga., wants to know how SI got the Beckham interview. Pretty basic: I called his "people." Beckham has lots of "people," but those "people" all got together with David, and they decided to do the interview. The whole process, request to interview, took about two months.

Doug Day of Atlanta writes to ask about the Vincennes University T-shirt Beckham was wearing during our interview. As a native of Vincennes, Ind., Day finds it odd that Becks would be wearing a red-and-white T-shirt featuring the name of a school whose traditional colors are blue and gold. Good question, Doug, and one to which I have no answer. Beckham's T-shirts are an intriguing subject unto themselves. Once, England's Hero made the mistake of wearing a T-shirt he received from a "fan," neglecting to realize that the figure on the front was Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. As loyal reader Albert Lin of New York City pointed out this week, University of Michigan followers were stunned when they saw a photo of Becks wearing a UM T-shirt in Japan. (Beckham acolytes no doubt saw it as a sign of support for this week's Supreme Court ruling in favor of affirmative action.)

Kevin Locke of Martinsville, N.J., complains that I must not be much of a soccer follower if I believe that this summer's Man United tour of America has "a lot less buzz" without Beckham. Not so, my friend. I still think the tour will get plenty of attention from U.S.-based soccer fans, as it should, but the simple fact is that Beckham would have drawn far more attention from the great majority of Americans who aren't soccer fans. For example, Roy Keane visited Seattle last week, and nobody really noticed.

Lastly, Jon Greenberg of Chicago wonders if my use of the word "trainers" to describe tennis shoes means I have turned into a hardcore Anglophone in the mold of Brad Friedel. To which I say, "Yes. Now sod off." (Is that correct usage? I'm not completely fluent yet.)

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