USATODAY.com - Bocanegra points Chicago in right direction

Unlike many soccer players, Carlos Bocanegra boasts high school football experience not limited to kicking. He made Alta Loma (Calif.) High's varsity as a sophomore, playing wide receiver and defensive back for a team that won sectional titles twice in his three-year career. The school's athletics director, Brett Proctor, says Bocanegra could have played Division I-A college football had he pursued it.

"He wasn't just a football player," says Proctor, an assistant coach at the time. "He was a standout."

Today Bocanegra deflects talk of that portion of his past. "It was so long ago," he says.

Besides, the soccer part of his past, present and future places him among that sport's American elite. He's been a college star at UCLA and a U.S. youth team player at the 1999 world championships in Nigeria. During the last year he has become a rising talent on the national team, which begins qualification matches for the 2006 World Cup in January. He also soon might be playing for a European club.

For the moment, though, he's focused on winning the Major League Soccer title with the Chicago Fire. Despite losing three of their top five scorers from last year, as well as their coach, the Fire had the best regular-season record. The team also returned to renovated Soldier Field and averaged nearly 30,000 fans for its final two home games. But everything resets Saturday, when Chicago plays D.C. United in Game 1 of a two-game quarterfinal series. The team with the most goals over the two games advances to the single-game semifinals.

An MLS title would constitute a new level of achievement for Bocanegra, a well-decorated 24-year-old defender. He has won team championships — the 1997 NCAA title, the 2000 and 2003 U.S. Open Cups with the Fire and the 2002 Gold Cup with the national team. He has claimed individual honors, too — MLS rookie of the year in 2000, MLS defender of the year in 2002 and frequent starts for the national team in 2003.

So why hasn't Bocanegra joined fellow MLS star and national teamer Landon Donovan on the late-night talk show circuit and celebrity scene?

Bocanegra wasn't on the U.S. team for the 2002 World Cup, where Donovan and others gained worldwide renown while advancing to the quarterfinals. An ankle injury sidetracked Bocanegra in 2001, when qualifying games would have given him a chance to claim a roster spot.

"We knew that whether it was this time around or next time around, he'd be an important part of things," says Dave Sarachan, a 2002 U.S. World Cup assistant who became the Fire's head coach before this season after Bob Bradley moved to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars.

As a defender, Bocanegra has few chances for a Donovan-style shirtless goal celebration. He doesn't have a highlight reel of saves like goalkeepers Brad Friedel, Kasey Keller and Tim Howard do. Bocanegra can score (he has four goals for the national team in 2003, second on the squad to Donovan), but he lives in his half of the field, where defenders tend to get noticed only for failure.

Bocanegra's breakout year with the national team made him a finalist for the Honda Player of the Year award, given annually to the U.S. national team's best player as chosen by U.S. sports journalists. He placed third in the voting to Donovan, who won, and forward Brian McBride. That prompted former Fire teammate Eric Wynalda, who played for the U.S. team from 1990 to 2000, to criticize the media in his column on MLS' Web site for failing to vote Bocanegra the winner. Yet even as he made the case, Wynalda conceded it's hard to quantify the value of steady defenders such as Bocanegra.

"Defenders are overlooked in many ways by the masses," Sarachan says. "Those of us that are around (Bocanegra) every day appreciate the fact that he's strong, he's competitive, he reads the game well, he's got a little bite — meaning he can get in hard on tackles — he's improved in his distribution (of the ball) ... all those components that make up good soccer players."

"Carlos knows what he can do and what he can't do," says D.C. United's Earnie Stewart, also a member of the national team. "He might not be the quickest player in the league, but he sees everything a lot quicker than a whole bunch of players."

Whether others noticed or not, Bocanegra was thrilled with his national team experience this year. He credits games against top foes such as Brazil and Argentina with developing his mental toughness. "They're going to have the ball a bit more than us. As a defender, you've got to keep your concentration the whole game."

Bocanegra's experience has made him a steadying force on a team that wasn't expected to be so successful this year. In the offseason, in addition to Bradley, the Fire lost skilled forward Josh Wolff (traded to the Kansas City Wizards), playmaker Peter Nowak (retired after being traded to the New England Revolution), fiery midfielder Dema Kovalenko and international superstar-turned-super sub Hristo Stoitchkov (both traded to D.C. United).

"Lots of people kind of counted us out and said it's a rebuilding year," Bocanegra says. "We were out to prove people wrong. We still have the core of our team here."

Bocanegra's value to the team was apparent in its record. He missed 11 games, mostly through national team duty. The Fire lost five of those games, including two to D.C. United. With Bocanegra in the lineup, the Fire lost only twice in 19 games.

The Fire have another edge: dedicated fans who saw the team lose only once at home this season. Hardened by almost two years of commuting to a temporary home at an artificial-turf field in the suburb of Naperville, Ill., fans responded for the team's move back to Soldier Field — 30,845 for the first game Oct. 10 and 28,154 for a wild 4-3 win Oct. 18 against the Colorado Rapids.

"I think we've got the best crowd," says Fire forward Damani Ralph, a second-round 2003 draft pick who emerged as a scoring threat with veteran Ante Razov. "They come out in numbers. We feel like we can win just as much as when we were in Naperville."

Ralph, a Jamaican who played college soccer at Connecticut and Meridian (Miss.) Community College, gave the Fire a taste of championship success Oct. 15 with the lone goal in a U.S. Open Cup final victory on the road against the MetroStars.

"The two championships that we've won already are great accomplishments, but I don't think they mean as much as MLS Cup does to all of us," Bocanegra says, also referring to the MLS regular-season title.

The Fire, and Bocanegra especially, may face a few more changes after the season. Like teammate DaMarcus Beasley, Bocanegra has attracted rumors concerning a possible move to Europe. Stewart, who spent the bulk of his career in the Netherlands, says, "For sure, if (Bocanegra) goes overseas, he'll do well. He knows what it is to be a professional ... and that makes him so good."

Bocanegra's MLS contract expires this year. But if he is going elsewhere, he first wants to erase the memory of a 1-0 loss to the Wizards in MLS Cup 2000. "That puts a sour taste in my mouth."