Alexi Lalas

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Alexi Lalas
Alexi Lalas.jpg
Personnel
Surname Panayotis Alexander Lalas
birthday June 1, 1970
place of birth Birmingham (Michigan) ,  USA
size 191 cm
position Defense
Juniors
Years station
1988-1991 Rutgers Scarlet Knights
Men's
Years station Games (goals) 1
1994-1996 Calcio Padova 44 (2)
1996-1997 New England Revolution 57 (3)
1997 →  Club Sport Emelec  (loan) 10 (0)
1998 MetroStars 27 (4)
1999 Kansas City Wizards 30 (9)
2001-2003 Los Angeles Galaxy 69 (7)
National team
Years selection Games (goals)
1991-1998 United States 96 (9)
1 Only league games are given.

Panayotis Alexander "Alexi" Lalas (born June 1, 1970 in Birmingham , Michigan ) is a former American football player of Greek descent. Lalas was active as a defender . With 96 appearances for the US national soccer team , he was a key player in the selection in the 1990s. After stints in Italy and with various US franchises , he ended his active career in 2004 and was active as a manager of various franchises.

Player career

Lalas studied at Rutgers University after graduating from Cranbrook Kingswood School . For the Cranbrook Kingswood School he was active both as a football and ice hockey player. As a hockey player, he played in the Ontario Hockey League . At the university he played between 1988 and 1991 for the university's selection team, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights . In both soccer and ice hockey he was above average successful: While Lalas received several awards and all-star team nominations as a soccer player, in 1988 he led the ice hockey goalscorer list.

1991 Lalas was nominated for the first time for the US national soccer team . He dropped out of Rutgers University to focus on his footballing career. He was part of the national team squad during the 1992 Summer Olympics . Despite breaking his toe a week earlier, he played one half against Poland's selection .

Lalas drew particular attention for his performance against England's national team when he scored a header in a surprising 2-0 win .

Lalas took part in 1994 with the US national team at the World Cup in the USA , where he was used in every game of his team over the full season. He drew attention to himself through good performances as a defender, whereupon several European club teams showed interest in a commitment. Lalas finally opted for a change for Calcio Padova in the Italian Serie A . He was the first US player to appear in Serie A. There he was active in the seasons 1994/95 and 1995/96 . He was used in 44 league games and scored two goals.

In the summer of 1996 Lalas took part in the US selection at the Summer Olympics. He was used in three games.

In 1996 Lalas left Italy and returned to the USA after major league soccer , the highest professional soccer league, adjusted some regulations regarding the signing of players from abroad. Lalas joined the New England Revolution where he was active in the 1996 and 1997 seasons . He was used in a total of 55 league games; he was able to score three goals. He was also used in two play-off games . Following the 1997 season, he was loaned out to the Ecuadorian first division club CS Emelec for a month in November .

In the 1998 season Lalas played for the MetroStars , which are now active under the name New York Red Bulls . He has been used 25 times and scored two goals. Here, too, he then played two play-off games.

On May 30, 1998, Lalas played his last game for the US national team when he was substituted on for Earnie Stewart in the game against the Scottish national team for the second half . Overall, Lalas was used in 96 games for the national team, in which he was able to score nine goals and prepare eleven more.

For the 1999 season Lalas was given to the Kansas City Wizards along with Tony Meola ; in return, Mark Chung and Mike Ammann moved to New York. Lalas played 30 league games for Kansas City in 1999. His contract was not renewed at his own request and he announced his retirement at the end of the season.

After a year break, Lalas signed another professional contract in Major League Soccer at Los Angeles Galaxy in early 2001 . In the 2001 season, however, he was unable to assert himself as a regular player and only made 11 appearances. That changed in the 2002 season when he played a role as a key defender for Los Angeles and made 26 league appearances. He was on the starting grid in all 26 missions. There were also five appearances during the play-off games. At the end of the season, Lalas won the MLS Cup with the Los Angeles Galaxy by beating his former club New England Revolution 1-0 in the final - Lalas' first and only one of his career.

During the 2003 season, Lalas played 22 games for Galaxy. In early 2004, Lalas announced his retirement again.

Activity as a manager

After his active career, he became a manager at the San José Earthquakes , from 2005 to April 2006 he was a manager at MetroStars , and from April 2006 to August 2008 he was the manager of Los Angeles Galaxy .

Musician career and book publications

Even before Lalas started doing sports, making music with his guitar was a hobby of his. Ratt was his favorite band back then. Later he preferred to join The Cult for football matches . In college he was head of a band called The Gypsies, which independently released the albums Woodland and Jet Lag . Woodland was published in early 1994, before the start of the soccer World Cup in your own country. However, the album, on which Lalas plays and sings acoustic guitar, received just as little attention as its successor.

In 1996 Lalas recorded the first album under his own name in Italy with the guitarist Mel Previte and his companion band The Gangsters of Love. Far From Close appeared in the short-lived label Totem Records and was in Germany from the record company WEA sold. His autobiography Kickin Balls was published in the same year . The Alexi Lalas Story . He signed the contract for his first solo album for the US market, Ginger , with CMC International in Paris during the 1998 World Cup . He recorded it almost all by himself in the output studio. It was released in September 1998 and contains reminiscences of Soul Asylum and Goo Goo Dolls . To promote the album, Lalas toured Europe with his old bandmates from the Gypsies as opening act for Hootie and the Blowfish . In 1999 the band Lalas performed with was called Nectar Drop. She was involved in three rock events over Memorial Day weekend. In addition Lalas sang this year the national anthem at a baseball game of the Kansas City Royals . In 2000 he contributed a foreword to the Soccer for Dummies introductory manual . The European 1996 album Far from Close was finally released in the USA in 2008. The newly created albums from 2010 appeared only as a download .

The Internet platform Allmusic assigns Lala's music to pop and rock . Enzyclopedia.com speaks of "classic rock". A detailed overview is the Italian website orrorea33giri.com that at Ginger two divisions, rock song and ballad looks operated while later, the college rock or pop rock prevails, overall, this was, however, nothing of lasting memories.

In 2012, Alexi Lalas gave an interview to beatsandrhymesfc, a website combining football and music , in which he emphasized that music has always been just as important to him as football. The widespread skepticism about music-making athletes did not prevent him from going this way. Today, since active football is a thing of the past, he owns a home studio and writes pieces of music for himself and others without the time running out.

Discography

  • 1994: Woodland (own publication)
  • 1995 (?): Jet Lag (own publication)
  • 1996: Far from Close (Totem Records / WEA)
  • 1998: Ginger (CMC International)
  • 2010: So It Goes (self-published / download)
  • 2014: Infinity Spaces (self-published / download)
  • 2016: Shots (self-published / download)

Works

  • Alexi Lalas, Thomas Lee Wright: Kickin Balls. The Alexi Lalas Story. Simon & Schuster, New York 1996, ISBN 0-684-80387-9 .
  • Alexi Lalas: Foreword. In: Michael Lewis: Soccer for Dummies. (= For Dummies ). Wiley, New York 2000, ISBN 0-7645-5229-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Alexi Lalas in the database of MLSSoccer.com (English)
  2. ↑ Alexi Lala's Biography. In: jrank.org. sports.jrank.org, accessed February 28, 2016 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g Alexi Lalas. (No longer available online.) In: soccertimes.com. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016 ; accessed on February 28, 2016 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.soccertimes.com
  4. ↑ Alexi Lalas: Biography. In: ussoccerplayers.com. US Soccer Players, accessed February 28, 2016 .
  5. ↑ a b CMM Music Promotion (Ed.): Alexi Lalas. Ginger . Hanover 1998 ( washing slip ).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Vittorio "Vikk" Papa: Alexi Lalas - Discografia. In: orrorea33giri.com. June 16, 2008, accessed on March 14, 2018 (in Italian, the date of the original version is given, this is the updated version from June 2016).
  7. ↑ a b Alexi Lalas' New Rock Album Proves He's Also a Musical Hero. In: fusion.tv. June 21, 2014, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b c Christian Brookes: Alexi Lalas interview: Solace in sound springs eternal for former US international. In: beatsandrhymesfc.com. May 17, 2012, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Mike Penner: World Cup '94 / 25 Days and Counting: A Soccer Rocker: Lalas Plays to Own Beat: US Defender Is a Hit With Fans but Hits Sour Note With Game's Purists. In: latimes.com. May 23, 1994, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  10. ^ A b c Robert Pollock: Lalas, Alexi. In: encyclopedia.com. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: Sports Figures / The Gale Group, accessed March 14, 2018 .
  11. ↑ a b Jason Ankeny: Alexi Lalas. Artist Biography. In: allmusic.com. Accessed March 14, 2018 (English).
  12. ↑ Alexi Lalas - Far from Close. In: discogs.com. Retrieved March 14, 2018 .
predecessor Office successor
Marcelo Balboa Footballer of the Year in the USA
1995 		Eric Wynalda
personal data
SURNAME Lalas, Alexi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lalas, Panayotis Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American soccer player
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham , Michigan , USA