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The importance of being Earnie Stewart brings Dutch courage to U.S. national team
Updated: Saturday October 20, 2001 7:54 AM
By Will Kuhns, Soccer America Using Dutch persistence and American spirit, Earnie Stewart has cemented his place as a keystone of the U.S. national team after more than a decade of service. In the Netherlands, where he is playing his 14th season of professional soccer, Earnie Stewart is known for bringing an optimistic, encouraging mindset to the field that observers there consider a reflection of his American heritage. With the U.S. national team, where he has been a continuous member longer than anyone, teammates and coaches laud Stewart's professionalism, competitive drive and blunt honesty - traits they often label Dutch. The origin of Stewart's intangibles is probably a matter of perspective, but their quality is unanimous. The son of a U.S. Air Force veteran from Texas and a Dutch mother who ran track, Stewart has fused pieces of his parents' respective cultures with his own desire to win. "Earnie brings to training what he brings to every game," says U.S. assistant Dave Sarachan. "His competitive instinct and his competitive spirit come out whether its five versus two, a fun game of handball or a full-on scrimmage." Stewart's daily dedication has allowed him to have his best years with the national team now, when at age 32, some might be expecting him to fade. His three goals, two assists in the semifinal round and five goals in the first eight games of the final round make it no stretch to call Stewart the most important U.S. player in this World Cup qualifying campaign. Along with Chris Armas and Tony Sanneh, he started all but one of the U.S. team's first 14 qualifiers. His goal against Trinidad & Tobago June 20 put him first on the U.S. list in career qualifying goals with seven and he added two more against Honduras Sept. 1. After scoring just six goals in his first 56 appearances for the United States dating back to December 1990, Stewart has exploded for nine tallies in his 14 matches since the start of 2000. MOVE TO THE MIDDLE. The increased production has a lot to do with the evolution of his role under Coach Bruce Arena. Long regarded a flank player, Stewart began pinching in more frequently during 1999 and developed a relationship with Armas and Claudio Reyna that allowed the midfield to remain balanced as he did so. Now, though listed at left midfield at times on paper, Stewart has no resemblance to a wide player.
He is much happier, much more confident roaming behind the forwards than he was on the outside right wing, a position in which he felt pigeonholed early in his career. "I like to run around over the pitch a lot," Stewart says. "I know if I can do a lot of running on the field, I'm going to get open almost whenever I want. Especially in Holland, if you're on the flank, you have to play on the touchline, and I find that restricting. I find it very hard to deal with that sometimes." So hard, in fact, that a few years ago Stewart demanded that his club coach play him anywhere except the wing. "Playing somewhere you don't feel comfortable, you go to practice every day and you don't feel good about yourself," Stewart says. "It was almost at a point where I'd rather sit on the bench than to go to that right outside wing again and feel miserable the whole week." Fortunately, changing the definition of Earnie Stewart with the national team never came to an ultimatum. It happened naturally over time. DUTCH LIFE Stewart and his wife, Yvonne, recently purchased a multi-acre, grassy farm in the Netherlands where they operate a kennel for cats and dogs whose owners are on vacation. The home business allows Yvonne to work without sending their daughter, Quinty, who is two-and-a-half, to day care. "We love dogs, so it makes it a good fit for us," Stewart says. In his sixth season with NAC Breda of the Dutch Honor Division, he is known as a team leader with a knack for scoring decisive goals. "He always has a smile on his face," says Dutch journalist Jaap de Groot. "He is always picking up his teammates' spirits and helping the younger players along." This type of behavior is sometimes viewed as American, even though Stewart only lived in California from the ages of 2 to 7, and did not play soccer during that time. "I think you can get farther with a positive attitude in general," Stewart says. "I don't care if it's in soccer, in life or whatever. Sometimes, in Holland, everything can be so negative. But I'm so sure that if you come along and pat someone on the back and say, 'Head up -- next time' that he'll do better than if you cuss at him." As a fixture at NAC Breda and his family content, it seems unlikely Stewart will live and play in the country he represents internationally, but he hasn't ruled out a stint in Major League Soccer. "For a change in lifestyle, I'd love to come back to the U.S., play there, live there and hopefully help the MLS, but that's not for me to decide," he says. BIGGEST OPPONENT When Honduran goalkeeper Noel Valladares saved his penalty kick on Sept. 1, Stewart stomped the right goal post with his cleat. As supportive as he can be of his teammates, Stewart can be extraordinarily harsh in criticizing himself. "Eight years ago, my coach in Holland told me that my biggest opponent is myself," Stewart says. "I can get very down on myself. It's more that I don't want to let my teammates down. If I miss a chance, I can get over it for myself, but because I'm playing with 10 other people, I don't want to let them down." Wearing the captain's armband, Stewart recovered from the missed penalty kick to score his second goal of the game, then showed the media his professionalism and honesty despite the bitter loss. "I missed it," Stewart said, facing the postgame spotlights. "If I would have hit it the way I wanted to it would have gone in. I made a change at the last moment to hit it to the other corner. It was stupid." Stewart said before the Honduras game that he tends not to sleep well after he's had a bad performance or missed opportunities, but that he has a new outlook about on-field disappointment since losing his teammate at NAC Breda, Ferry Van Vliet, to a car accident at the end of last season. At Stewart's suggestion, the team played the first minute of its last match of the season with 10 players before the 11th took the field. "He was one of my good friends," Stewart said. "He was 20 years old and I was 32. That age difference means you have different interests, but I'm still young and childish in a lot of things. We had a lot of the same type of humor... I have his picture up on my locker and [after a 5-0 loss to Heerenven] I looked at that and everything was gone. I still slept badly, but..." 'EIGHT FEET TALL' Stewart still is energized by every chance he gets to represent the United States. "Being with the national team, for me and for my father, is something that keeps us in touch with our roots," Stewart says. "If I play badly in Holland and I come and play for this team, I go back feeling eight feet tall." Another side effect Stewart noticed from Van Vliet's death was the effect it had on his team's cohesiveness. Until that experience, he had always felt a greater sense of camaraderie with the U.S. team. "[NAC Breda] has become such a core of friends now," Stewart says. "Anything can happen to us right now and we'll survive. We hang together so well... If you've cried all together before, there is some sort of male bond there. You never cry in front of another man, it seems like. And we cried our eyes out, all together." Given the scope of the Sept. 11 tragedy, the bond between the U.S. players may be strengthened in similar fashion, but according to Stewart, an impressive foundation was already in place. "That's something about being an American," he says. "On the practice grounds, everything can go wrong, but once the flag is raised, we're a group. We have our goal and everybody realizes we're in it together. Not a lot of countries have that." Will Kuhns is Associate Editor at Soccer America magazine.
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