Alexi Lalas

Alexi Lalas

Personal information
Full name	Panayotis Alexander Lalas
Date of birth	(1970-06-01) June 1, 1970
Place of birth	Birmingham, Michigan, United States
Height	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Playing position	Defender
Youth career
1988–1991	Rutgers
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1994–1995	Padova	33	(3)
1995–1996	→ Padova (loan from MLS)	11	(0)
1996–1997	New England Revolution	57	(3)
1997	→ Emelec (loan)
1998	MetroStars	25	(2)
1999	Kansas City Wizards	30	(4)
2001–2003	Los Angeles Galaxy	69	(7)
National team
1991–1998	United States	96	(9)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

Panayotis Alexander ("Alexi") Lalas (born June 1, 1970) is a retired American soccer player who played mostly as a defender for the United States national team in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He was known for his "physical ability and endurance" which allowed him to become an important part of the United States national team during his career.

Following his playing career, Lalas served as President and General Manager of the San Jose Earthquakes, New York Red Bulls and Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. He was elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2006.

He currently works as an analyst with ESPN and ABC Sports.

Personal life

Lalas was born in Birmingham, Michigan, United States, to a Greek father and an American mother. His father was a professor who later became the director of Greece's national observatory, while his mother is a writer and poet. His brother, Greg Lalas, played in MLS with the Tampa Bay Mutiny and is currently the editor-in-chief of MLSsoccer.com. Lalas is fluent in Spanish.

Playing career

High school

Lalas attended Cranbrook Kingswood School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. While he did not begin playing soccer until he was eleven, he had honed his skills enough to be named the 1987 Michigan High School Player of the Year his senior year. In addition to playing soccer, he was a member and a captain of his state's high school state championship hockey team. Lalas was rated for the Ontario Hockey League Midget draft in 1987, however, was not selected.

College

Lalas attended Rutgers University where he played on the men’s soccer team from 1988 to 1991. During his four seasons at Rutgers, he led the Scarlet Knights to the NCAA Final Four in 1989 and the National Championship Game in 1990. Lalas was named a third team All-American in 1989 and 1990. In 1991, he gained first team All American recognition and was selected for both the Hermann Trophy and the Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year award. As in high school, Lalas also played hockey in college, leading the team in scoring in 1989.

Arsenal

After college and the 1992 Olympics, Lalas trained with former Arsenal player Bob McNab in California. This led to a trial with Arsenal during the winter of 1992. It was quickly determined that Lalas did not have the quality for a first team spot. As a result, Lalas only had a few training sessions with the Reserve team before being cut shortly after his arrival in North London.

Padova

Following the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Lalas signed with Italian Serie A club Padova. While Lalas anchored the team’s defense and scored three goals off set pieces (including against AC Milan & Internazionale), Padova finished the 1994-1995 season at the bottom of the standings. Only after winning a relegation play off on June 10, 1995, did the team ensure its survival in the top ranks for the next season. On June 25, 1995, Major League Soccer (MLS) signed Lalas to play for one of the new league’s teams. While MLS had intended to begin playing in 1995, it had run into difficulties and so delayed the first season until 1996. In order to allow Lalas to maintain his match fitness, MLS loaned him back to Padova for the 1995-1996 season. Lalas last played for Padova in a home game against Lazio on February 25, 1996.

MLS

Prior to the inaugural Major League Soccer (MLS) draft in February 1996, the league allocated high profile players throughout the league’s ten teams (except for the Dallas Burn, which alone amongst all MLS sides never received a US National Team allocation from the 1994 World Cup era). As part of this process, MLS placed Lalas with the New England Revolution. Lalas was a regular on the Revs backline during the 1996 and 1997 seasons. In November 1997, the Revolution loaned Lalas to Ecuadorian First Division Club Emelec for a month. He returned to New England at the end of December only to find himself traded to the MetroStars on February 4, 1998. He spent the 1998 season with the MetroStars before being traded, along with Tony Meola, to the Kansas City Wizards for Mark Chung and Mike Ammann on January 28, 1999. Lalas spent one season with the Wizards before announcing his retirement on October 10, 1999. Just over a year later, he returned to playing when he signed with the Los Angeles Galaxy as a discovery player on January 14, 2001. Nearly three years later, he retired again, this time permanently, on January 12, 2004.

National team

Lalas earned 96 caps, scoring nine goals, with the U.S. National Team between 1991 and 1998. His first cap came in a 2-2 tie with Mexico on March 12, 1991 in the 1991 NAFC Championship. He gained his second cap four days later in a 2-0 win over Canada. While he started both games, he did not gain another cap until he came on for Fernando Clavijo in a 2-2 tie with Denmark on January 30, 1993. His next game, a start, came on March 23, 1993 in a 2-2 tie with El Salvador. While he became a fixture on the team through the rest of 1993, he did not cement his position as a starter in the U.S. central defense until the beginning of 1994. He went on to start and play all ninety minutes in the four U.S. games of the 1994 FIFA World Cup and was named an honorable mention All-Star. On June 11, 1995, Lalas flew directly from a relegation playoff game with his club team, Padova, in order to appear in the second half of a 1995 U.S. Cup victory over Nigeria. His contributions to the national team led to his selection as the 1995 U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year. While Lalas was on the roster for the U.S. at the 1998 FIFA World Cup, he never entered a game. His last cap had come in the final U.S. tuneup for the finals, a May 30, 1998 scoreless tie with Scotland where he was a second half substitute for Earnie Stewart.

Alexi Lalas international goals
#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	May 8, 1993	Miami, United States	Colombia	1–2	Loss	Friendly
2.	June 9, 1993	Foxboro, United States	England	2–0	Win	US Cup
3.	July 17, 1993	Dallas, United States	Honduras	1–0	Win	1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup
4.	November 7, 1993	Fullerton, United States	Jamaica	1–0	Win	Friendly
5.	January 29, 1994	Seattle, United States	Russia	1–1	Draw	Friendly
6.	July 14, 1995	Paysandú, Uruguay	Argentina	3–0	Win	1995 Copa América
7.	October 8, 1995	Washington, United States	Saudi Arabia	4–3	Win	Friendly
8.	February 1, 1997	Guangzhou, PR China	China PR	1–1	Draw	Friendly
9.	June 17, 1997	Jacksonville, United States	Israel	2–1	Win	Friendly

Amateur

Lalas is currently a part-time player for Hollywood United F.C., an American soccer club based in Southern California, primarily made up of celebrities and former pro players.

Lalas was selected as one of three overage players on the U.S. Olympic teams at both the 1992 and 1996 Summer Olympics.

Non-soccer playing careers

Broadcaster

During his sabbatical from soccer in 2000, he was a commentator for soccer matches on NBC during the 2000 Summer Olympics and co-hosted ESPN2's MLS Extratime. He also performed in-studio analysis for ESPN and ABC Sports coverage of the 2006 FIFA World Cup, 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup, and for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. In addition, he provided color commentary for San Jose Earthquakes television broadcasts. He also provided in-studio analysis for ESPN coverage of UEFA Euro 2012.

Major League Soccer general manager

After his retirement from playing soccer in 2003, Lalas took a job as the general manager of the San Jose Earthquakes, franchise owned at the time by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG). In 2005, he got transferred within the AEG organization as a reward for trading the rights to Landon Donovan's contract, becoming the president and GM of the MetroStars. Lalas oversaw the club's transition to Red Bull New York, as AEG sold the club to the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH.

In April 2006, he resigned from that position to take over the Galaxy, also owned by AEG. During his Galaxy GM tenure, Lalas was one of the individuals who was given credit for bringing soccer superstar David Beckham to the Galaxy's roster. On August 11, 2008 Lalas was fired as Galaxy GM.

Musical career

Lalas was a lead member (guitars, vocals) for the rock band Gypsies, releasing two albums Woodland and Jet Lag. "Woodland" featured the single "Kicking Balls"—which was used in the soundtrack for the movie "The Big Green". The Gypsies were the opening act for eight performances of Hootie & the Blowfish during their 1998 European tour. Also in 1998, Lalas released his solo album Ginger and his single Goodnight Moon on the CMC International records label. Since the release of Ginger, Lalas has released three solo albums—the most recent, a downloadable only album called So It Goes in September 2010.

Podcasts and other media

Lalas hosted a weekly video segment from 2009 to 2011, titled "The Sitter with Alexi Lalas", in which he gave color commentary on the happenings around MLS. The segments were brief (2–3 minutes) and discussed all matter of content from league officiating to Lalas' musings of "if he ruled the game". The videos were available through the official Major League Soccer website, www.mlsnet.com, which has since been changed to www.mlssoccer.com.

Beginning in December 2011, Lalas began hosting a frequently published podcast titled "The Shot", sponsored by El Jimador Tequila. The tagline is "A quick shot of soccer & music. Listen responsibly." The podcast is published at varying frequencies, from 7 days a week to occasionally only once a week. Each podcast is about 2 minutes in length, and typically features two stories or comments from current events in the world of global soccer, and one mention of events in the music industry.

Lalas is a featured member of ESPN's "Big Head Red Head" podcast, with former US national player Taylor Twellman and ESPN researcher and consultant Marc Connolly. This podcast is published as frequently as once a week and as rarely as once a month. The focus of this podcast is on soccer in the United States, either with regards to MLS or to the US Men's National team.

Both podcasts are published in iTunes.

Honors

Los Angeles Galaxy

• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 2000
• Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup: 2001
• MLS Cup: 2002
• MLS Supporters' Shield: 2002

Rutgers

• Hermann Trophy: 1991
• Missouri Athletic Club Player of the Year: 1991

Individual

• Honda Player of the Year: 1995
• U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year: 1995
• MLS Best XI: 2002

Career statistics

Club performance			League		Cup		League Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
USA			League		Open Cup		League Cup		North America		Total
1996	New England Revolution	Major League Soccer	25	1
1997			30	2
1998	MetroStars	Major League Soccer	25	2
1999	Kansas City Wizards	Major League Soccer	30	4
2001	Los Angeles Galaxy	Major League Soccer	11	2
2002			26	4
2003			22	1
Total	USA		169	16
Career total			169	16

External links

• Profile at UsSoccerPlayers.com
• Profile at SoccerTimes.com
• Alexi Lalas on Myspace
• Rutgers soccer history
• Alexi Lalas at National-Football-Teams.com
• MLS stats
• Alexi Lalas at Allmusic
• Alexi Lalas at ESPN