WASHINGTON -- In the locker room, he butchers the lyrics to
pop songs. On the field, he has the league's first 20-goal season
in five years.
Much of the fawning this MLS season has been over David Beckham,
who has helped sell a lot of tickets but has barely been on the
field. In Washington, the preferred choice for favorite newcomer is
Luciano Emilio, who is making a strong case to be the league's MVP.
"He came in and had the same locker-room humor as the guys, and
now he's probably one of the big class clowns in there,"
midfielder Ben Olsen said. "And that's for a guy who really
doesn't speak English. He's got a great personality. When you score
20 goals, it's pretty hard not to like the guy."
At his introductory news conference in January, the Brazilian
forward acknowledged he didn't arrive with the hoopla that
surrounded Beckham, but he went on to state two ambitious goals:
"No. 1, to win a championship. Second, I want to win the
goal-scoring title."
As it turns out, both are very realistic. United is riding a
13-game unbeaten streak and will enter the playoffs with the best
record in the league, and Emilio's 20 goals put him one ahead of
New York's Juan Pablo Angel going into the final days of the
regular season.
"We're close to realizing those goals," Emilio said this week
through an interpreter. "But we still have this last game to
play."
Therein lies some intrigue. Emilio has scored all his goals
without the benefit of a penalty kick -- Jaime Moreno handles those
for United.
So what happens if Angel scores Thursday night when New York
finishes its regular season at Los Angeles? That creates a tie at
20 apiece. If United is awarded a penalty kick in the team's finale
Saturday night against Columbus, would Emilio go to Moreno and
request to take the kick to win the title outright?
Before Emilio could answer, coach Tom Soehn, having overheard
the question, rounded the corner of the hallway and announced: "He
will take the PK."
Added Emilio: "I hope that it wouldn't get to that extreme,
that it happens naturally."
In a sports era that demands instant results and has little time
for patience, Emilio's story breaks the mold. General manager Dave
Kasper spotted the 28-year-old forward playing in Honduras in 2004
and returned in 2005 and 2006 to try to talk him into coming to
MLS.
This year, the persistence paid off. Emilio finally said yes. It
was time for a change. Plus, he had a newborn daughter.
"That was also a consideration," Emilio said. "Because of the
lifestyle here for her, she can study and live in the U.S."
Emilio had also played in Mexico, Germany and his native Brazil,
so he was used to adjusting to new teammates and cultures. He
meshed in the locker room immediately, and he now does parts of his
interviews in English. Stick around long enough and he just might
sing James Blunt's "You're Beautiful."
"He tries to speak English with the confidence of someone who's
been speaking English for a long time, but he really knows
nothing," Olsen said with a laugh. "He sings American pop songs
all the time, and he's way off on the lyrics, but he sings them
with confidence. 'You're Beautiful' -- he has the 'you're beautiful'
part down, but then everything else, I've never heard whatever he's
trying to speak."
Emilio said that's a just of sign how much he's enjoying his new
life.
"We play around a lot in the locker room," Emilio said. "We
always listen to music, so that's one thing that keeps us happy.
When you're happy, and you're comfortable, it's an expression of
joy. I like to express my feelings, and that's the way I do it."
Emilio said his least favorite place to play was Germany because
of the "nine months of winter." He prefers the food in Brazil
and, like everyone else, can't stand the traffic in the Washington
area. Overall, though, he likes America best in part because
everything is so well organized.
"Everything's on time," he said in English. "Very good."
The United record for goals in a season is 23 by Raul Diaz Arce
in 1996, but four of those were penalty kicks. If MLS kept a
statistic for goals other than penalty kicks, Emilio would have the
franchise mark.
Of course, an MVP award would be even better.
"Yes, I've thought about that, but right now my focus is on
helping the team win," Emilio said. "Because if that happens, it
obviously helps you in consideration for the award."