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 Chico
Chacurian may be
80 years old, but he feels thirty
years younger. One of the most valuable contributors to
the sport of soccer over the past century, Chacurian still works
in youth soccer development today. As a regional head
coach for U.S. Soccer’s Olympic Development Program, Chacurian
scouts and evaluates players year-round.
Chacurian says that he has had a “beautiful” life, and that he
has been lucky to be able to see so much of the world and learn
so much through the sport of soccer. He took time to share
some of his positive energy and thoughts with www.ussoccerplayers.com …
Where are you living now? Are
you still involved in soccer?
I live in Stratford, Connecticut. It’s
right next to ocean. I’m with the National Youth program. I’m a
regional coach, the kids come into Virginia and we process them.
We’ve got 15 states, and we process all the best players of that
age. We have 50 kids in two tryouts. We choose 50 to come
that first month, and then we cut down to 28. The
best players go to the full team. That’s one of my jobs. Second,
I have a field named after me here in town, and I play every
Tuesday night. I’m eighty years old and I feel like a million
dollars. I feel great. Everyone says, how can you do it? It’s
good.
Can you talk about moving to the
States in 1947? What were the biggest differences in the
sport of soccer between Argentina and the U.S.?
I was 23. I will tell you about
that first game. For the very first game, I played for the New
York Armenians. I signed with
 them, and they picked me up one
Sunday afternoon to go to the game, and we’re driving in the
car, going and going, and we stop at an empty place. I said,
‘What are we doing here?’ I had been playing in front of 40, 50,
60 thousand people in Argentina. They said, ‘You’ll see.’ They
made two holes in the ground, parked the goalposts into the
holes, and we played. I felt like taking the first plane back
home (laughs). I played for them for six months, and then the
pro team from the Hispano club got in touch with me, and asked
me to play for them. They paid me
well and treated me very nicely. I had my first appearance on
the National Team in 1953. We played against Scotland and
Ireland, and I did well. I played for ten years for the
National Team. We played Mexico and Haiti in 1954, we lost to
Mexico, but beat Haiti, and I scored two goals in that game.
In 1949, I felt very homesick. I was only
24 years old. I bought a ticket to go home and visit. It took 18
days sailing one-way to Argentina. I saw my mother, and I played
professional soccer down there again. Everything was successful,
but I realized, I can’t live here anymore. America is pulling me
back. Then, in February, almost March, I came back, and I found
out that the National Team had already been selected in Brazil,
and we beat England 1-0. I say ‘we’ because my heart was
with them. That was the saddest part of my life, not being a
part of that team. The rest of my life has been beautiful.
I’m the luckiest man there is.
How was the transition into coaching
after your retirement?
 In 1965 I coached for the University of
Southern Connecticut. I had coached the head coach there when he
was young, and he called me and said, ‘I need help.’ I said,
‘Sure.’ He was like a son to me. He could have become the
best coach in the country, but he didn’t fly on airplanes. I
think otherwise he would have been a national coach. He and I
worked together for ten years. Then I coached at Yale University
after Southern Connecticut, I was the men and women’s coach. I
was the freshman coach in 1972, and we won every game of the
season. We only
won by 3-2 against Harvard, that was the biggest scare. But we
were champions that year. I still meet up with those kids every
year. We have a beautiful trophy in a restaurant over here.
Do you have a favorite memory from
your playing days?
There were a few games. We played in
Germany once in the German-American League. The best
stadium I ever played in was the 1936 Olympic stadium in Berlin.
We played against a team from Bordeaux, France in that stadium.
Those were beautiful teams. Some of them were after me, but I
said no. I was just getting married, so I said, ‘No thank you.
I’m going to live my life in America.’ I loved this place.
As an ODP coach, what important
developments have you seen over the years in youth soccer?
I want to say first, Claudio Reyna came
from our group, and so did Tony Meola and others. These kids
played for us when they were 13, 14 years old. They were from
Jersey. We had 16,000 kids, all 13 years old. What we do is sit
and assess them. They play with no coaches, no referees. They
get no help. They have to create for themselves. They’re getting
better at it every year, I tell you. I would pay to watch those
games. I was so amazed and happy about it. I love those kids.
- July 2004 -
Where
Are They Now
Jill Beauchesne of the the U.S.
National Soccer Team Player Association and the on-line journal
Round Not Oval reports her conversation with Hall of Famers in
our newest feature.
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