Features

RICHMOND, Va. – (Tuesday, August 21, 2018) – Life can be like a roller coaster ride. There will be ups and downs. Sometimes you’re sitting there enjoying the ride, while other times you cannot get off that ride soon enough.

Kickers defender Alex Lee has undoubtedly seen both aspects of the ride at this point in his life.

Like most soccer players who go on to be college stars, Lee excelled in his high school career, being named a 2007 NSCAA High School All-American back when he was a forward. Lee arrived at the University of Maryland his freshman year and was immediately blown away by the talent he was facing in practice.

“I was very lucky to play with a lot of good players that year,” Lee said. “Our team was stacked. It was a huge learning experience for me. I was playing against A.J. DeLaGarza and Omar Gonzalez every day. That definitely opened my eyes up to a whole different level of soccer.”

The Terrapins also had three players on the roster of Lee’s freshman year who went on to play in the World Cup (Gonzalez and Graham Zusi – USA, Rodney Wallace – Costa Rica). Maryland won the National Championship and Lee made huge strides, appearing in 13 games as a freshman.

“It doesn’t get much better than that to come in and win your freshman year,” Lee said. “They really set the precedent for the rest of my career.”

Lee returned his sophomore year and leaped into a larger role, starting 11 of the first 13 games of the season. The 5-foot-10, 160 pound defender was beginning to gel into his new position on the back line. That was until it all came crashing down.

“We had just beat Virginia Tech the night before,” Lee said. “That Sunday I went into D.C. and I was hanging with some of my teammates. I just wasn’t paying attention and got hit by a car going 40 miles per hour. I jumped at the last second and hit the windshield. My head hit the ground. I had a skull fracture and had to be rushed to the hospital. I had a subdural hematoma where it’s basically bleeding between the brain and the skull. They cut open my skull and released that pressure of blood.”

Following the operation, Lee was lucky enough to make a full recovery. It’s a moment that still sticks with Lee as he retells the story that occurred nearly nine years ago with a wince in his face. The Rockville, Maryland native went from his friends and family wondering if he would survive the accident to returning to physical activity in six months. It was truly remarkable.

“Because I didn’t have any injuries and it was just my head, I couldn’t play soccer but I could still run,” Lee said. “When I came back that was probably the fittest I had ever been in my life. I was able to use it as a positive. I’ve had a lot of great experiences since. I’m just lucky to be alive.”

Perhaps paramount of those great experiences since the accident is his time playing for the Guam national team. Lee’s grandmother on his father’s side of the family was born in Guam which allowed him to play for the small United States territory.

Lee made his debut for the Guam national team in a 2015 friendly against Hong Kong. It doesn’t end there. The defender was joined by his twin brother Justin and younger brother Nate in the starting XI.

“That was definitely one of the coolest moments of my life,” Lee said. “Walking out onto the field behind both of my brothers. The FIFA theme song was playing. It was a surreal experience.”

The Lee clan helped further cement themselves in Guamanian history when Guam defeated Turkmenistan 1-0 to earn its first ever World Cup Qualifying win on June 11, 2015. The Mateo, as the team is known in the area, had the island buzzing. Guam’s last World Cup qualifying match came back in 2000 and saw them lose 16-0 to Tajikistan. The turnaround and the excitement didn’t end there. Lee and Guam beat India, a country with approximately 6,000 times the population of Guam, by a score of 2-1 in the next match.

“It was such a proud moment,” Lee said. “All the people in Guam who were at the game were really cheering for us. They were just so proud. It was such a fulfilling moment after that game against Turkmenistan. Then we beat India on the same trip to win two games in a row at home.”

Eventually, Iran ended up winning the group and qualified for the World Cup this year. In the midst of the ongoing World Cup, Lee got a taste of what it feels like to have the support of an entire country.

“When you’re playing for your country, you’re playing for every single person in that country,” Lee said. “It’s really meaningful not only for the players, but for everyone in that country.”

Lee has now spent the last six years in Richmond playing for the Kickers, but that run ended Saturday night. Following the Kickers 3-2 win over Penn FC, Lee announced that it would be his last game in front of the Red Army. The right back is returning to College Park to study at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, the world’s first dental college.

“The Richmond Kickers will always hold a special place in my heart,” Lee said. “I have met many great friends throughout my time here and what I will miss most is competing with them game in and game out. It was an honor to see the club grow over the past six years, and while the club grew, I also grew as a player and a person.”

Beloved for his tenacity on the pitch, Lee concludes his Kickers’ career with 124 appearances while amassing 9,762 minutes. 

“I am really going to miss Richmond and everyone in the Kickers organization from my teammates, my coaches, and everyone else I interacted with on a daily basis,” Lee said. “With that being said, I am excited for the next chapter of my life at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry.”

Ever since that nearly tragic day, Lee played with an irresistible passion that spreads to others as he sprinted up and down the field. That passion will now be seen in a new capacity as he continues the ups and downs of the roller coaster ride of his own life.

Oh, the places you’ll go as a soccer player. It’s the reason why a 27-year-old from Tokyo, Japan and a 21-year-old from São Paulo, Brazil both ended up in Richmond, Virginia.

Richmond Kickers midfielder Yudai Imura and forward Luiz Fernando both traveled thousands upon thousands of miles to the United States for a shot at playing soccer in America. Just a couple years later Imura and Fernando, two guys from completely different parts of the world, found themselves together because of the simple sport.

Imura first came to the United States in January of 2015 for a tryout with the Kickers after playing one season with Yokogawa Musashino in Tokyo. Meanwhile, just over a year later, Fernando made his trip to the United States in March of 2016 once Richmond signed him as a promising 18-year-old talent at the time. 

Right away there were cultural nuances that both Imura and Fernando had to adjust to. For Imura, the main thing that he noticed was that sometimes people didn’t immediately take off their shoes when they enter a house as is custom in Japan. Fernando instantly remembers wondering why there weren’t kids playing soccer outside like they do in Brazil.

“The biggest difference between Brazil and United States is that children in Brazil play soccer on the street without shoes every day and here in the United States I did not see it,” Fernando said.

Despite some of these cultural differences that might have existed, both Imura and Fernando pointed to the language as the toughest adjustment. Neither one had spoken any English before coming to the United States.

“The most difficult part about the transition was the language,” Fernando said. “I never studied English before so it was the hardest part.”

It was during this time that Imura and Fernando both relied on their new Kickers teammates to learn at first the basics and then some intricacies of the English language. Instead of feeling like an outsider in a foreign country, Imura and Fernando have both been accepted and assisted on and off the field by their teammates.

“They always tried to talk to me and it made me learn the language because it forced me to try to talk,” Fernando said. “They took me to meet some places and it helped me a lot to know more about American culture. Especially Giussi [Gentile] because he loves to talk. Just being forced to listen to him all day really helps my English.”

“I think that teammates influence is huge,” Imura said.

Specifically, Conor Shanosky and Braeden Troyer have gone above and beyond in helping Imura learn the language. Imura jokes that he’s wonders if he’s learning from the right sources considering Troyer doesn’t even know what Shanosky is talking about sometimes.

“Everybody teaches me English. Everybody helps me kindly when I don’t understand something. Conor and Braeden are my good English teachers, but I’ve been doubting whether Conor is a real American or not. Braeden sometimes doesn’t even understand what he says.”

Shanosky is the guy who gets to spend the most time Imura and Fernando, as the three of them are roommates in an apartment. The Pittsburgh native sees them up close and personal in the serious moments when the trio talks about the Kickers gameplan and in the more light-hearted moments like the dance battles in the kitchen.

“I think all three of us have personalities that really mesh and really fit in terms of just being outgoing young guys,” Shanosky said. “We’re kids at heart. They always get the opportunity to express themselves and kind of pick up on the language and cultural traits that I have.”

The three of them arrive at every training session together and walk into the locker room as a pack, representing the unity that soccer can create. 

“I’m so happy that we live together,” Imura said. “Luiz is one of the funniest guys I’ve ever seen. I really appreciate my roommates.”

“Yudai and Conor are two amazing people who are always willing to help me, teach me, and do everything to make me feel good,” Fernando said. “That makes us brothers, so thank God for living with them because they are my family. They are my best friends here.”

While Imura and Fernando needed to adapt to the lifestyle in the United States, soccer always stayed constant in their lives. The Richmond Kickers awarded both of them their first opportunity to play professional soccer. Imura and Fernando took the chance and never looked back.

Imura is now in his fourth season, appearing in 88 games while tallying 16 goals. The midfielder’s 11 goals and two assists in 2016 earned him a spot on the USL All-League Second Team. Fernando is in the midst of his third season, notching six goals in 66 games. The forward also added a brace in the U.S. Open Cup Third Round victory over Penn FC this year.

Soccer brought them together, but Imura and Fernando’s time with the Kickers has meant so much more.

“It’s hard to put into words I’ll say. They’re a circus I think is the best way I could describe it,” Shanosky said with a wide grin. “Two of the funniest and happiest kids you’ll ever meet in that regard. They’re a blast and it gives you a little bit of perspective off the pitch.”