To an Old Friend, Hail and Farewell

United to Face Ex-Teammate Pope, Who Is Retiring

SALT LAKE CITY, June 22 -- D.C. United's players will gaze across the artificial turf at Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday night and see an opposing lineup that includes Alecko Eskandarian, most valuable player of the club's 2004 MLS Cup victory. They will be sure to notice Nick Rimando, United's all-time leader in shutouts, and perhaps spot on the bench midfielder Carey Talley, who spent four years in Washington. And if not for Freddy Adu's youth national team commitments, they would have seen their one-time teenage celebrity teammate as well.

But of all the ex-United players who have resurfaced with Real Salt Lake, no one had a more profound impact on D.C.'s success than Eddie Pope, a graceful and gentlemanly central defender who helped secure three league championships the first four years of MLS and scored two of the most important goals in club history.

Pope, 33, was traded 4 1/2 years ago, the casualty of a salary cap squeeze and a third straight losing season, yet his legacy endures.

"It is wrenching to see him in another uniform," said United President Kevin Payne, who has run the organization since MLS's inaugural season in 1996, Pope's rookie year. "He will always be a big part of our family."

Last week Pope announced he will retire from MLS after this season, citing the physical demands on a body slowed by numerous injuries over the years. He had already said goodbye to international soccer last year following his third World Cup.

Pope began pondering retirement late last season because "my body just didn't recover as quickly as it used to. It's such a quick turnaround, by the time I recovered we had another game. With all the aches and pains and looking to the future, I wasn't sure I could go into another season 100 percent. I just felt it was time."

Pope's 143 appearances over seven years with United are fifth most in club history. He played two seasons with New York and is in his third with Real Salt Lake, which won a combined 15 games its first two years and is 0-5-6 in 2007. He was named to MLS's all-time Best XI after the league's 10th season in 2005 and twice won the league's humanitarian award.

He is remembered by United fans for his athletic yet seemingly effortless approach to defending. He had the physique to muscle strikers, the speed to track down wingers and the cunning to anticipate passes into the channels.

Despite averaging less than a goal per regular season over his career, Pope sealed United's 1996 title with an overtime header against Los Angeles and, two years later, scored the series clincher against Brazilian club Vasco da Gama in the Interamerican Cup.

Pope's career was nearly derailed before he even joined MLS in early 1996, when he struggled to make an impression at U.S. Olympic training camp.

"We told him to shape up or ship out," said Bruce Arena, who ran the Olympic team and, after observing Pope's progress, decided to draft him from North Carolina with the second overall pick. "First impressions were not great, but obviously he got a lot better. . . . His athleticism and instincts as a defender, his confidence on the ball, that was all part of it."

As his career took off, Pope had opportunities to sign with a big club overseas, but each time decided to stay home. "I really have no regrets," he said. "I was pretty lucky because I was able to quench that thirst for international soccer through my national team experiences. Maybe if I wasn't part of those World Cups, maybe I would've regretted it."

Asked if he thought Pope should have gone abroad, Arena said: "From purely a soccer perspective, yeah, maybe, but there's more to it. It's about your life, not just soccer."

Pope's national team career spanned 10 years, beginning with a World Cup qualifier against Trinidad and Tobago in November 1996 in Richmond and ending with a red card against eventual champion Italy last summer in Germany. His 82 U.S. matches are 16th all-time and fifth among defenders.

With his international career over and his MLS stay nearing an end, Pope said he would like to work in soccer management, perhaps in an MLS front office.

After Saturday's match against United, he will face his old team one final time, in September at RFK Stadium.

"It's very strange, almost eerie -- it just feels like it went by so quickly," he said. "I remember games [in 1996], I remember conversations with teammates, I remember goals we scored, I remember all of it.

"All of the championships were special but as whole, my time in D.C., I couldn't ask for more. They were incredible years. Those are the things I will remember forever."

United Notes: Midfielder Ben Olsen and defender Bobby Boswell were named to the U.S. national team roster for Copa America -- the prestigious South American championship in which the American and Mexican teams are guests -- and will miss at least two MLS matches. They will travel with the U.S. squad to Venezuela on Monday to begin preparing for the Group C opener against tournament favorite Argentina on Thursday.