The ruler's back: the king of New York soccer returns in 2002 with the opportunity to become a national hero and an international star - Clint Mathis - Interview

Soccer Digest, Feb-March, 2002 by Ashley Jude Collie

WHEN CLINT MATHIS suffered a torn ACL last June, it was a triple downer. Affected by the injury were the MetroStars, for which he had scored a then league-high seven goals; the U.S. national team, for which he had scored three goals and four assists in his five most recent games; and U.S. Soccer, who had hoped Mathis' dynamism and skill could capture the public's attention.

"I think it's unrealistic to expect that you could replace a player who impacts the league in the way Clint has this year," MLS's Ivan Gazidis said at the time of the injury.

U.S. coach Bruce Arena was beginning to bank on Mathis' goal-scoring and playmaking in the national team's final qualification round. Instead, thanks in part to Mathis' absence, the national team went into an immediate funk after his injury--as did the MetroStars.

Six months later, the Georgia-born Mathis was back in training with the U.S. and looking forward to the World Cup and MIS season. An exciting, versatile player who can play both attacking midfielder or forward, Mathis' verve will be a key to the success of both the U.S. and Metros in 2002.

SOCCER DIGEST caught up with Mathis to talk about his controversial move from the Los Angeles Galaxy to the MetroStars, his amazing run of form in early 2001, and how he expects to come back stronger, faster, and better after his jolting injury.

SOCCER DIGEST: What are your plans for the new year--do you expect to play in the Gold Cup?

CLINT MATHIS: Yes, I'm going to start playing in January. Bruce Arena brought me into camp before the final qualifying game in Trinidad and we spoke about the next few months. He didn't want me to go to Korea but he selected me for the mini-camp in December and I was able to scrimmage a little bit.

U.S. Soccer trainer Jim Hashimoto told me to wait six months before playing--which was be mid-December--but since then I've been full go.

SD: What will be your goals?

CM: My main focus is getting ready for the World Cup. That's very important, not only for me as a player but for our country, our league, U.S. soccer, everything. If we go to the World Cup and everyone's prepared and we play well, that will open a lot of doors for a lot of people--just look at what happened with the 1999 Women's World Cup. That's what it takes. We have to try to do our best to bring more interest to our game.

We Americans are so spoiled. We win at everything, we have to be the best at everything and that means winning. In soccer, we want to bring excitement but it's also about winning.

Personally, it's exciting to work hard, get back into the groove, and play with the national team guys again.

SD: When the injury happened, others were bemoaning your loss but you kept a very positive outlook. What's in your make up that allowed you to handle it so well?

CM: I had done this before, which definitely helped. Six years ago, in college, I blew out my left knee. It was sort of the same experience, too. Everything was going well for me on my college team, I was the leading scorer in the nation, and then all of a sudden I blew out my knee.

I'm a big believer that everything happens for a reason--in life, not just in soccer-and that helped me get through the June injury rather easily.

SD: Has this recovery been different?

CM: Oh, yes. I came back twice as fast this time. The state-of-the-art surgery is incredible. I started running about two months after the surgery. In fact, the day I got out of surgery, the national team's Dr. Mandebaum had me on this little bicycle and I continued doing strengthening ever since. It was amazing, I could walk a little bit without crutches just four days after the surgery. I completely lost the crutches after about two weeks.

SD: Let's backtrack and talk about that great run in MLS and on the national team which started with a goal against Barbados in World Cup Qualifying.

CM: That goal gave me confidence but the streak sort of started when I came over to New York from LA. After that, I had immediate success. Things just kept going from there and Bruce gave me the chance to be on the national team squad. Even though I wasn't playing, I was training with them. He gave me a shot to start in that Barbados game and as a forward it definitely gives you confidence any time you can help your team by putting one in the back of the net.

SD: That carried on into the winter when you came on as a sub in the Mexico game and you and Josh Wolff made an immediate impact.

CM: Mexico is a different caliber team than Barbados. To be able to step into that game and have an immediate impact, to play an important role with two of our key players going down [Claudio Reyna, who Mathis replaced, and Brian McBride--Ed.] and give the team some energy was another confidence booster. At that time, I really didn't know how much I could contribute to the national team.

SD: You and Josh Wolff clicked well and you guys seem to have an understanding.

CM: We played for three years at South Carolina and I knew him before that as well. We grew up not too far from each other and played against each other in high school in Georgia. We played on state select teams together and a little bit in national team training. When we get the chance to practice together before a game, we're able to pick up an understanding pretty quickly.