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Local product Thompson ready to step up in Dallas

28 Mar, 2008

By: Charles Boehm - PSW Staff Writer

The term “underrated” is a popular label for professional athletes who perform well regardless of their reputation or proximity to the limelight – and while the term has become all too commonplace of late, few players in Major League Soccer are more deserving of the tag than Abe Thompson, the Fairfax Station, Va. native now entering his fourth year with FC Dallas.
 
Despite a sterling career at the University of Maryland, the big striker was lightly regarded upon graduation – he admits to having been “a little insulted” when passed over in the MLS SuperDraft, before being picked with the 16th selection of the supplemental round – and has often been overlooked in favor of more illustrious names on the FCD roster.
 
“You just get picked by a team and you go to camp and show your skills and prove that you belong,” said the unassuming 26-year-old, describing the mentality that has served him so well as a pro. “That’s what I’ve done and that’s what I’ll continue to do all throughout my career – whenever they give me an opportunity I try to make the most of it and I think I’ve taken my chances well.”
 
Indeed, Thompson has produced impressive results in the top flight with 11 goals and 10 assists in only 28 career starts. His five-goal output last season made him the club’s third-leading scorer behind Carlos Ruiz and Juan Toja, despite the fact that he saw significantly less playing time and drew fewer headlines than the two Latin American imports. He’ll look to consolidate that progress in the 2008 MLS campaign, which Dallas kicks off with a visit from defending Western Conference champions Chivas USA this Sunday.
 
The departure of star striker Ruiz has opened new opportunities on the Hoops forward line and with his contract expiring at the end of the year, Thompson is eager to make himself a central cog in head coach Steve Morrow’s attack.
 
“We got rid of Carlos and as of yet we haven’t filled a replacement for him, and as of right now it looks like they might be considering going with what we have right now,” said Thompson, “which is exciting because it’ll give myself and some of the other guys who have been role players a chance to compete for that spot.”
 
After three seasons in Dallas, Ruiz was traded back to the Los Angeles Galaxy – where he is expected to be the prime target for David Beckham’s world-famous crosses and free kicks – for allocation money and a 2009 SuperDraft pick. The controversial Guatemalan notched 31 goals in his stint with the Hoops, but drew negative attention for occasional, and often unauthorized, jaunts back to his home country. Yet while the trade was good news for Thompson’s own prospects for playing time, he is quick to praise “El Pescadito” and dismiss the rumors of locker room discontent that have swirled around him at times.
 
“He was great for us on the field, scoring goals, and that’s a player you want on your team, because he battles,” said Thompson of Ruiz. “As far as off the field, I’d say he was one of the most well-liked players on the team. Here and there he’d slip up, as far as if he had some time off he’d go down to Guatemala or wherever it is that he goes, and he’d miss a session coming back because he was late. But that was really the only problem – he’s an interesting guy to be around, a lot of fun, nice to everybody and never caused any sort of disruption among the team.”
 
Thompson’s own soccer journey began with a scintillating youth career at local club Braddock Road Warhawks, winning three consecutive Virginia state titles and an under-17 national championship from 1997-99. He also excelled at W.T. Woodson High School in Fairfax, racking up a jaw-dropping 84 goals and 18 assists in four years and earning a state championship along with a raft of individual honors that made him a blue-chip prospect for the nation’s top college programs.
 
Thompson pays glowing tribute to Gene Mishalow, his Warhawks coach of nine years, as well as the rest of the club’s staff for placing technical and tactical development before winning in the early years, fostering a stable squad that grew up together and later reaped big rewards as a result. The club has produced a long list of NCAA division 1 players and several professionals, including Thompson and his childhood friend Clarence Goodson, a former Maryland and FC Dallas standout now plying his trade in Europe with Norwegian side IK Start.
 
“We essentially had the same core group of guys. So we were all great friends growing up, and we just happened to also be a good team. And we had a great coach,” explained Thompson. “From the beginning we didn’t really focus on winning, just keeping the ball, keeping possession, working on ball control, technical ability, that sort of thing. That’s definitely one of the main factors that helped us develop into such a good team.”
 
His education in the game was furthered by a strong college career at Maryland where he prospered under the tutelage of head coach Sasho Cirovski, who has built the Terrapins program into a veritable talent factory for MLS with more than a dozen alumni now scattered around the league.
 
“I had a great relationship with Sash, and still do,” said Thompson. “As far as helping me turn pro, he helped me find an agent and helped me get into the combine. Every review that he gave to the [pro] coaches that would ask him about me was a glowing review – some of it he probably over-exaggerated! If it’s your time to go [pro] and it makes sense, he won’t hesitate to tell the coaches that.”
 
This year is a crucial one for Thompson, and his club as well. With a beautiful soccer-specific facility (Frisco’s Pizza Hut Park), a talent-laden roster and an increasingly perceptive fan base, FC Dallas faces growing pressure to climb into the MLS elite. But the club has failed to win a playoff series in eight years and needs to bring home major honors in order for the 2008 season to be viewed as a success.
 
If he is able to continue his own rate of progress, Thompson could play a major role in fulfilling those ambitions – and a more lucrative new contract would surely follow. So far he’s been compensated at a bargain-basement price that puts him in contention for one of the top values in MLS: He spent his first two seasons on a penny-pinching developmental salary, and his present wages are exceedingly modest relative to his production level.
 
And in the Beckham-era MLS, where money and attention are increasingly geared towards high-profile foreigners, Thompson’s arrival would represent a victory for the home-grown players who remain the league’s true workhorses.
 
“I keep my mouth shut, go about my business and when they put me out there, I look to contribute,” said Thompson. “I can certainly understand why there’s interest in bringing the big-name guys over, but I’m also one of the many guys not only on my team but in the league that are trying to change that perception that you always need a big name. There’s some talent here coming out of the college ranks or wherever it may be here in America that can be looked to, to contribute.”
 
Check out Charles Boehm’s Caught in Possession blog for additional outtakes and excerpts from his interview with Abe Thompson.


Charles Boehm has covered D.C. United and the rest of the Washington-area soccer world for more than three years. A native of Dallas, Texas, Charlie made D.C. his home following a hard-working -- but hardly spectacular -- NCAA Division III college career and subsequent Peace Corps stint in the small, soccer-crazed, island nation of Grenada, where he also coached and played in the Grenadian Premier League (such as it is). He and welcomes feedback at cboehm@potomacsoccerwire.com. You can also interact with Charles throuh his "Caught in Possession" blog right here on Potomac Soccer Wire.

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