Disclosure – this is simply personal thoughts that I open to
my family and friends and anyone else who has interest.
Some years ago my son, Chris Wondolowski, scored his 100th
goal in Major League Soccer regular season play. The goal itself was unremarkable as it was a
penalty kick and the field was Levi Stadium in Santa Clara. Nonetheless, surprising to me, it moved me to
tears.
We are now 44 goals later in Chris’ career and the next goal
(if it comes) would tie him with Landon Donovan. I never believed that Chris would score 100
goals and I never believed that he would score 144 goals and I never believed
that he would be mentioned in comparisons to the best American Soccer Player of
this generation – probably all time.
Let me qualify “I never believed” … I actually always believed. In fact, I always knew. I just put up my guards against what I
believed and knew and real life. Chris
took real life and bent it into a reality that matched his skills, passion,
desire, and attitude. As a father, witnessing
this for the past dozen-plus years is something that I am thankful for every
day. Actually thankful may not be the right word – more accurately I am
amazingly impressed by him every day. Real life meets my son and my son tells real life: "try to stay up with me".
The biggest thing against my nature is to write about an
accomplishment that has not yet occurred.
So I will try to not do that. Actually
I don’t have to because there are 144 other goals, championships, and awards
that Chris has earned and countless friendships that individually Chris and I
have been able to build over those years.
Chris’ accomplishments have allowed me to spend a couple of
amazing weeks in Brazil rooming with his brother Stephen and watching World Cup
Games in person. His accomplishments
have allowed me to travel to virtually every city that MLS plays in and watch
those games in person. I’m thinking of
writing a MLS Travel Guide.
One of my favorite stories (that can probably be told now)
is when Chris (with Houston) was playing in Denver. We went to dinner on 16th Street
at a Sports Bar and the Hockey Playoffs were going on so the place was all
about the Avalanche. They had a sports
trivia contest and Chris and I won a huge Coors-Avalanche Mirror (don’t mess
with us on sports trivia). We decided to
carry it back to his team’s hotel (the mirror was huge) and put it in the room
that Chris was sharing with Brad Davis. All
statute of limitations have expired by now so this is the first time this news
has come out (I’m guessing Dominic never found out) … I miss that mirror.
Chris has been blessed to be able to spend most of his
career with San Jose. The fans are
amazing, Avaya Stadium is great, while the results have been up and down – the ride
has been wonderful. Selfishly I have
been blessed to be able to drive 45 minutes to watch my son play soccer (like
many of you I’ve driven a lot longer than that early Saturday mornings over the
years). I have also been blessed to fly
halfway around the world to watch him play soccer and all the way across the
country (and all points in between).
While his soccer career has been amazing – it may be hard for
outsiders to see that it has always been and is – a family thing first. His wife and daughters watch (sometimes his
daughters take an ice cream break during the game) and cheer for him, his
extended family is in the stands, friends from his childhood come to home games,
high school teammates and college teammates are at every game. We’ve been incredibly lucky to attach our
family to the San Jose Earthquakes family.
We’ve been incredibly lucky to be able to witness Chris chasing this
milestone.
If 145 happens – and you happen to be by me …. I hope you
can handle some tears. If 145 never happens ... the other 144 are pretty awesome.
