|
 Hugo
Perez was a playmaking midfielder who starred in the
U.S. national team for 10 years and for pro teams in
North America, Central America, Europe and Asia. Between
1984 and 1994, Perez was capped 73 times by the United
States and scored 13 goals in those games, a total that
at the time he retired ranked him second of all-time
in the national team. Two of those goals came against
El Salvador, making him one of only a few men who have
scored goals for the United States against the country
in which they were born. He also scored twice in an important
Olympic qualifier against El Salvador in 1987.
|
Personal
Information |
| Class
of 2008 |
| Born: November
8, 1963 |
| Position: Midfielder |
| Int'l
Caps: 73 |
Int'l
Goals: 13 |
|
Perez, who actually was known less for goalscoring than for
his deft ball skills and for being one of the most talented playmakers
in national-team history, was a major part of coach Bora Milutinovic's
efforts to change the national team's playing style to a possesion
game in the early '90s.
He began playing in the North American Soccer
League, for the Tampa Bay Rowdies, in 1982, when he was 18. He
was traded
to the San Diego Sockers the following
season and played for San Diego both in the NASL and for several seasons in
the MISL after the NASL folded. In all, he played three seasons
in the NASL, covering
51 games, and four seasons in the MISL, covering 168 games. He was chosen as
the most valuable player of San Diego's victory in the 1988 MISL championship
series.
Perez made his national-team debut against Italy in 1984 and
scored his first national-team goal against Canada in 1985. He
quickly became a fixture in the
national team, playing in five of the United States' six World Cup qualifiers
in 1984 and '85, and scoring a crucial goal in a World Cup qualifier against
Jamaica in August 1988.
Perez moved to Europe in 1988 and played two seasons in the
second division in France. He scored the only goal of a 1-0 United
States victory in a World
Cup
qualifer against El Salvador in September 1989, but an injury kept him
out of the U.S. squad for the 1990 World Cup.
Milutinovic brought Perez back into the national team in the
spring of 1991, after he had played a season in the first division
in Sweden, and
the midfielder
once again became a U.S. regular until signing with a Saudi Arabian club
in late 1992. He was one of the stars of the United States team that
won the first
CONCACAF
Gold Cup in 1991, with his free kick leading to the first goal of a 2-0
upset over Mexico in the semifinals. In 1991, he was named the first
winner of
the Honda Award as the outstanding player in the U.S. national team,
and also won
the U.S. Soccer Federation's male athlete of the year award.
Perez played one season in Saudi Arabia and came back to the
United States in 1993 to play for the Los Angeles Salsa of the
American Professional
Soccer League.
He never regained his regular first-team place with the national team,
although he did start against Brazil in the World Cup in 1994.
Perez played his last game for the United States against England
in September 1994. He was with FAS of the first division in El
Salvador for two seasons
before retiring from playing in 1996. In recent years, he has been
an assistant coach
at the Univeristy of San Francisco and with the California Victory
of the USL First Division. |
