Unprecedented 1985 American University soccer team meets up for 30-year reunion

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2015/10/04/77568c06-68a0-11e5-9ef3-fde182507eac_story.html

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For Mr. Bond the Science Guy and the aspiring FIFA president, for the associate head soccer coach at Duke and the executive at Spain’s oldest club, for their retired coach, the former athletic trainer and older alumni, it felt like 1985 again.

They gathered first in the rain Saturday at American University’s Reeves Field and later for a night of story-telling and toasts, marking 30 years since one of the great feats in college soccer history: An unknown program on a shoe-string budget with a brew of players from here and abroad earned a place in the NCAA championship match against UCLA.

“It’s amazing how quickly,” defender Keith Trehy said at the evening reception, “we become the same personalities we were back then.”

Every few years, portions of the team reconnect and reminisce about the seminal moment in AU athletics, a cold, bright December afternoon when 5,300 spectators — 10 times the common attendance — ringed Reeves Field and watched the Eagles defeat Hartwick, 1-0, in the national semifinals.

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The men’s basketball team has reached the NCAA tournament three times since 2008, twice winning the Patriot League title at Bender Arena, but no single sporting event galvanized the football-free campus like the ’85 soccer team.

At the end of the semifinal, Bruce Springsteen’s “Glory Days” poured from a temporary sound system. Alumni stood on temporary bleachers rented from the University of Maryland. Students stormed past temporary barriers and over an ankle-unfriendly concrete curb separating the brick-hard field from a gravel track.

“You can’t erase that kind of memory,” said former coach Pete Mehlert, 67, who this year retired after a 43-year association with the university through coaching and teaching.

Less is spoken about the next match: a 1-0 defeat in Seattle to a UCLA team featuring future U.S. national team players and a coach who is still active, the Seattle Sounders’ Sigi Schmid.

In many ways, it was a ludicrous matchup: a small school with scant athletic history against one of the great — and well-funded — names in college sports.

Midfielder Henry Wagner (Severna Park) recounted the host committee welcoming the team at the airport with gifts. This was all new to the Eagles. Among the items: large Washington-state apples. “Three-quarters of the team circled back in line for another one,” Wagner said.

On a sleepless night inside the Kingdome — the public address announcer warned AU fans they were going to miss their red-eye flight home — the outcome was not decided until the 167th minute (eighth overtime).

Because of the longevity of that game, the NCAA changed the rules multiple times over the years and eventually chose to settle tournament ties with penalty kicks.

The AU-UCLA record, then, will never be broken. Nor will the memories of an extraordinary season.

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To connect the ’85 team to the current squad, current Eagles Coach Todd West invited the former players to meet his young charges at the team meal before Saturday’s match against Boston University. Together, two generations of AU soccer watched a video compilation of the 1985 season.

“They set the bar,” West said, “for what we are trying to do.”

Since 1985, AU has qualified for the NCAA tournament four times. The deepest run was to the quarterfinals, in ’97.

“For a school like American, it’s going to be difficult for any sports teams to repeat,” Mehlert said. “It was a combination of luck that these guys came to AU. I worked hard, but it was mainly their personality, their skill set, their selflessness. The job was easy. They were fantastic, brilliant.”

The Eagles went 19-3-2 in the regular season and, postseason included, posted 12 shutouts, scored four or more goals five times and conceded multiple goals once. They defeated George Mason at home and South Carolina on the road in the early stage of the NCAA tournament.

“The ’85 team put fear in you,” said Keith Tabatznik, an AU grad who, as a young Georgetown coach, suffered a 4-0 defeat to the Eagles that season. “It was the only team that you had to mark the center back.”

English forward Michael Brady headlined the squad. He set single-season and career scoring records and was named national player of the year by multiple outlets. After a brief pro career, he guided the AU women’s program for many years before joining the Duke men’s staff.

In the Hartwick match, Brady was the provider, not the scorer, flicking the ball to Fernando Iturbe for a second-half header.

“There is some debate whether I saw him coming,” Brady said, grinning while standing next to his former teammate Saturday. “If you look closely at the video, I take a quick little look then I clearly, purposely headed it right into his path. It was all planned. If anyone tells you I didn’t know what I was doing, don’t listen to them.”

Said Iturbe: “I know he flicked the ball. The rest of it …”

They burst into laughter.

“I know I scored the goal.”

Mehlert interjected: “Predatory instincts.”

Iturbe played semipro and, in recent years, served in the front office at Recreativo de Huelva, a third-division club founded in 1889 in his native Spain. He flew to Washington specifically for the 30th reunion, his first visit in 28 years.

David Nakhid, the sleek central midfielder, arrived this weekend from Beirut, where he runs a soccer academy. Nakhid, who was among four ’85 players from Trinidad and Tobago, has greater ambitions: He wants to succeed Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA, soccer’s scandal-torn governing body. Despite long odds, he is nonetheless building a campaign and traveling around the world soliciting support.

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“Why not?” Nakhid said. “Every day, when you see what is going on, there is no leadership. There is an imbalance in the development in the football world, and it’s getting wider. Europe is getting stronger and wealthier. We have to adjust things.”

Nakhid’s ties to AU go beyond his personal experience: His son, Panos, is a junior midfielder for the Eagles. Because his parents are overseas, Panos often turns for local support to Barry Henderson, a swift winger on the ’85 squad who settled in Ashburn and now coaches youth soccer.

And then there is Trehy, a London native who worked at the Environmental Protection Agency, taught English around the world, earned a master’s degree in international management and settled in Nashville. In 2008, he created Mr. Bond and the Science Guys, which performs at schools and other events to inspire children to embrace science.

On this weekend, though, the primary topic of conversation was soccer and, in particular, one special season.

“Frankly, I think this might be the last time this group gets together for a while,” Nakhid said. “Schedules, age and bad knees.”